How inconvenient. Do you know how difficult it is to find good secretaries?
I've noticed that Eric Saward has a somewhat negative reputation as a writer among Doctor Who fans as he writes stories that are exceptionally violent and have very high body counts. One could also argue that he doesn't do the relationship between the Doctor and the companion particularly well either. However, Earthshock is highly regarded among the fans as is Resurrection of the Daleks, so perhaps it is only when he sticks his oar into other's work that he garners a bad reputation. I don't hear much about Revelation of the Daleks except about the cutoff joke at the end where the Doctor is going to say "Blackpool" so I went in to this story somewhat blindly.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Peri land on the planet Necros, where the Doctor has learned that an old friend of his, Arthur Stengos, has been interred in the suspended animation facility of Tranquil Repose. As this is unlike the personality of his friend, the Doctor is suspicious. He lands the TARDIS well away from the facility and he and Peri walk through the snow towards the facility. Along the way they are attacked by a man who has been mutated. He goes for the Doctor and Peri is able to knock him out with a blow to the head with a tree branch. The blow clears his mind and he dies telling them that his condition was brought about by one known as "The Great Healer."
In the facility, the chief embalmer, Mr. Jobel, is finishing the preparations on the President's wife who has just died and is expected shortly. As he dismisses his staff to prepare, two body snatchers, Natasha and Grigory, slip past. Natasha is the daughter of Arthur Stengos and is just as suspicious of his internment in the facility as the Doctor is. The two manage to make it to Arthur's registry but they find his cryogenics chamber empty. They are discovered by guards and they make their way to another chamber where they find brains held in jars. They also find Arthur, suspended in a clear Dalek casing, his head mutating into a Dalek. He appeals to his daughter as the Dalek thought processes begin to take over and she blows him and the casing up.
Monitoring events from a secret chamber is Davros as a head suspended in a jar, attached to a machine. He orders Daleks on patrol. He also orders the snatchers caught as well as one of the junior embalmers, Tasambeker, brought to him. Davros also contacts Kara, the owner of a protein processing factory that has been working with Davros. He supplies her with raw protein material and she in turn funnels money back to him for his research. He requests additional funds and she agrees. However, she is determined to be rid of Davros and shortly after finishing the call with Davros welcomes Orcini, a disgraced knight and highly skilled assassin, and his squire Bostock and hires them to kill Davros. Orcini readily accepts, forgoing payment as he sees killing Davros as a badge of honor.
Natasha and Grigory are apprehended by two workers, Takis and Lilt. They are locked into a dungeon and Lilt tortures Grigory, attempting to get the truth of who sent them and what their mission is out of him. Meanwhile, Tasambeker is brought to Davros where he has her observe Jobel, with whom she loves, though he despises her. Davros has notices a strong streak of anger in her and hopes to turn her love into a vein of hate and make her into a Dalek.
The Doctor and Peri arrive at the facility, having been forced to climb a wall to get in. The Doctor is unnerved when he observes a monument garden with his picture on it as he believes that it means that he will die there. The monument of him suddenly falls on him and he appears to be crushed. Peri rushes over but she is stopped by Jobel, who observed the event and has developed a lust for Peri. But the Doctor emerges, the monument not being made of stone after all. They dismiss Jobel and enter the facility.
Inside, the Doctor and Peri are greeted by Tasambeker and the Doctor inquires her about their facilities. Unable to get the full answers from her, he asks to see the Great Healer. He dissuades Peri from going with him and she instead goes to see the DJ who plays music and observes the facility. The DJ is flattered by Peri's appreciation of his aping 20th century Earth DJs and shows her around his studio. The Doctor meanwhile is captured by two Daleks and taken to the same dungeon as Natasha and Grigory. Davros, pleased with the Doctor's capture, dispatches a group of Daleks to the protein plant to arrest Kara. They also kill her secretary and accomplice, Vogel.
While the Daleks are gone, Orcini and Bostock sneak further into the facility. They release the three prisoners to create a diversion while the two of them enter Davros' lab. The Doctor radios Peri and orders her to get back to the TARDIS and radio the President's ship to leave off as the facility is under control of the Daleks. Davros is alerted to this and sends more Daleks to stop her. Unable to get out, Peri uses the DJ's radio to signal the ship. The President's ship breaks off it's approach and they also observe another ship heading towards Necros.
Tasameker, ordered by Davros to kill Jobel, instead tries to warn him of Davros' plan. He mocks her and laughs her off. Enraged at his condescension, she stabs him with a syringe of embalming fluid, killing him. She runs off and runs into the Daleks heading toward the DJ studio and they kill her.
The Doctor sends Natasha and Grigory to destroy the lab they found earlier while he tries to get to Davros. Natasha and Grigory succeed in getting to the lab but find their weapons depleted. They set the controls to overload but before they can get out, a new Dalek teleports in and kills them. It is destroyed with the lab when the controls explode.
Orcini and Bostock reach Davros' lab and succeed in destroying Davros' head at the control panel. However, this was just a mock up and the real Davros, in his chair, emerges. Both Orcini and Bostock are wounded by Dalek guards, though Bostock appears dead. Orcini is propped in a chair and Kara is brought in, confronted with her failed plan. She is forced to admit that she also supplied Orcini with a hidden bomb, intending for all parties to be destroyed by it. Orcini stabs her with his hidden knife for her treachery, killing her.
Peri and the DJ manage to hold off and destroy several Daleks before they break through and the DJ is killed. Peri is brought to Davros' lab where she is reunited with the Doctor, who was also captured by several patrolling Daleks. Davros expounds on his new facilities to create Daleks, even going so far to tell him about how unused parts are turned into raw protein which are then shipped throughout the galaxy as a food source. Davros prepares to activate his other facilities, replacing the one that was destroyed when Bostock rises and shoots off Davros' hand. He is then gunned down by a Dalek.
While distracted, the unidentified freighter lands, revealing a faction of Imperial Daleks, invited by Takis and Lilt. They take them through the corridors where they destroy the Daleks loyal to Davros. They enter the lab and arrest Davros and escort him out, preparing to take him to Skaro for trial. The Doctor, Takis and Lilt create a distraction and Orcini destroys the Dalek guard. Orcini, wounded, is unable to go with them and volunteers to stay behind and detonate the bomb given him by Kara, which will destroy all of Davros' facilities. The group runs out and reaches the ground level as Orcini detonates the bomb. This destroys the facilities but the Imperial Daleks and Davros lift off in their ship.
With the facility destroyed the Doctor offers to show them how they can process the native weed flower plant, which is similar to the soybean on Earth, to continue to meet their protein deliveries. He then promises to take Peri to a fun location, though the scene ends before he can reveal where.
Analysis
On one hand, I can understand why this story is looked down on and why Eric Saward is not highly regarded as a writer. But on the other hand, I can't help but admit that I really enjoyed this one. Looking at it squarely, I believe that this might actually be the Sixth Doctor story I enjoyed the most. The fact that it goes for several long stretches in Episode One without the Doctor might say something about my overall attitude towards the Sixth Doctor.
In his limited capacity, I did enjoy the Sixth Doctor. He was a bit less pompous in this story than in other stories and I thought there was a more introspective air about him. He also was a lot less condescending towards Peri in this story. There were still moments where he was rude and negative towards her, but there were also moments of compassion. He actually comforted her in a limited way after the mutant died that she did it in self defense. He also went so far as to show trust and care for her welfare in suggesting she go visit the DJ and then signalling to her to return to the TARDIS to radio the President's ship. That is a lot more confidence than he has ever shown her before and he did it without any form of backhanded insults.
Peri herself also wasn't too bad. She didn't have the wibbly whimper that she often has, even if she did spend a lot of time suggesting they run back to the TARDIS. But she did show herself useful in a couple of instances and there were even some moments where she showed compassion for the Doctor, even if she then spent just as much time whining about how she would be left on Necros.
The real assets of this story though were the secondary characters. Davros was entertaining in his megalomaniacal way and although you can miss the quieter and more cunning Davros, he still got the drop on just about everyone. Indeed, his only real flaw in this story is that he went James Bond villain and had to explain his plans to the Doctor, giving Bostock more time to recover and the Imperial Daleks time to arrive. I did enjoy the couple second fake out where you actually think Davros has been killed by Orcini. Of course, having seen later episodes, I knew that Davros would survive but I was at a moment of genuine curiosity when I saw the control panel blow up and Davros' head cave in as to how they would bring him back.
Unquestionably, the character I enjoyed the most was Orcini. There was a quiet confidence in both the character and in the actor portraying him. He had an excellent rapport with Bostock and a genuine quiet menace about him. There was no bluster or talk. He was deadly and you could feel that deadliness as he walked around. It was also nice to see the two of them actually take out Daleks and not just be overwhelmed and pray for a Deus Ex Machina at the end. They went in and they meant to see the job done and I appreciated that.
For the most part, I liked Kara as well. She was better in Episode One where she was more subtle in her motivations. You could tell that she was conspiring against Davros and she was a bit oily with Orcini and the transponder/bomb, but there was room in her interpretation that she wasn't as conniving as you might expect. However, she gave way to tropes in Episode Two, especially with the standard villain exposition of the plan to the henchman for the audience benefit. I actually liked the fact that Orcini straight up murders her for her betrayal of him and that Davros is completely unphased by his having a hidden dagger. She is a minor villain but done fairly well and dispatched readily when her part is over.
I thought the sets and camera work was pretty good for the 1980's. It is just an unfortunate by-product of the 80's that the sets generally look worse than the ones in the 70's, but I thought these were fairly well done. I did like the outdoor filmed scenes quite a bit, especially with the snow on the ground. It gave a harsher look to the environment and helped set the mood properly. Of course, most things look better on film so that's always an improvement.
There were a few things I didn't care for. Some of the secondary acting wasn't great. Tasambeker stood out for me particularly. She wasn't bad when doing the demur mouse, but her appeals to Jobel weren't done well and her jilted lover bit where she stabs Jobel was particularly poorly done. Jobel himself was also not the best. He was alright when doing the overbearing administrator or the plotter, but his attempts to be creepy infatuated were overdone and a bit too rape-y for my taste.
I also thought the DJ was way over the top and didn't really understand his commentary of things through the story. He didn't make much sense to have in the story to begin with other than as a place to keep Peri until the last bit. His fight was decent but his death was somewhat dumb as he just stood up to be shot rather than staying hunkered down. It was odd and felt rather pointless in a fairly dense story.
The Daleks were fairly well done but there were small problem with them as well. I liked that they were somewhat vulnerable to the weapons but in doing so, the models were revealed to be a bit cheap. When the Doctor shoots off the eyestalk of the guard Dalek near the end, you can see the top wobble as it spins. It's also a bit disappointing that the Imperial Daleks provide a Dalek Ex Machina ending rather than the Doctor figuring a way out of the dilemma.
This story is definitely not for everyone given that it is uber-violent and delves in some pretty dark humor for a family show. It also has some odd cutaways that border on silly at times. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story and would probably pick it over nearly every other Sixth Doctor story to watch. I think only Vengeance on Varos or Mysterious Planet would compete with it. So for me, this is quite a good one.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
The Return of Doctor Mysterio
Things end and it's sad. But things begin again and that's happy
Ok, first things first. New Doctor Who for the first time in a year: YAAAAAYYYYY!!!
It was fairly well broadcast that this story was going to be Doctor Who's take on comic book movies. What's more, even from the preview, there was a strong inkling towards the Richard Donner original Superman movie. It would be an interesting take to see how well they could integrate such a fantastical element into a show that relied on pseudo-science.
Plot Summary A young boy named Grant wakes up to find the Doctor hanging outside his window, having accidentally snagged himself in his own trap. Grant lets him in, initially mistaking him for Santa. The Doctor rewards him by taking him up to the roof and showing him the machine he was building to try and clear the time disturbances around New York. He hands Grant a power gem, which Grant mistakes for medicine for his cough after the Doctor mentioned he is called the Doctor. Ingesting the gem causes Grant's desire to become a superhero to become a reality and he develops the powers of Superman.
Twenty-four years later, shortly after the night of the Singing Towers of Darillium has ended, the Doctor returns to investigate an alien infestation in the guise of the Harmony Shoal corporation. He returns with Nardole, whom he has reassembled to his original body. Breaking in, he discovers an investigative reporter, Lucy Fletcher, also snooping around. They observe the PR director, Mr. Brock's, body being taken over by alien brains, who cut his head open and insert themselves in. The two flee but are discovered by Dr. Sim who prepares to kill them. They are rescued by a superhero called The Ghost, who knocks out Sim and flies Lucy back to her apartment.
The Doctor recognizes Grant and he and Nardole head over to the apartment where Grant works as a nanny. He works for Lucy and she comes up to find the Doctor. Grant ducks back with the Doctor promising to keep his secret for the moment. Lucy interrogates the Doctor and he admits that the brains are an alien invasion that he is investigating. Grant meanwhile flies out for more superhero deeds. Lucy observes these on the television and convinces the Doctor to set up a meeting with the Ghost. The Doctor informs Grant of this and he calls Lucy to set up a meeting with her the next day on the roof. Grant attempts to play it off with Lucy that he has a date, which arouses latent jealousy in her.
The Doctor meanwhile slips out and he and Nardole head back to the Harmony Shoal corporation. Brock and Sim are planning to capture Grant to take over his body when the Doctor shows up. He gives them a chance to depart but they refuse and he vows to stop them. Nardole picks him up in the TARDIS and they head over to the Tokyo office and hack into the main computer, discovering a transmission to a ship in low Earth orbit. The Doctor and Nardole board the nearly abandoned ship where they are trapped on the bridge by a couple of guards.
At the same time, Grant shows up to Lucy's rooftop as the Ghost where they have dinner and an interview. Sensing Lucy's conflicted feelings about the real him, Grant nearly reveals his identity but changes his mind when he worries that it might hurt her. Brock then turns up and threatens to kill Lucy if he doesn't go along with their plan. Grant hesitates but then breaks away and flies off. Brock debates on killing Lucy and keeping her daughter as hostage when Grant shows up in his regular form to put Brock off. Brock holds off killing them while he calls out for the Ghost to come back before he kills one of them.
Dr. Sim signals the ship and from him the Doctor deduces their plan to crash the ship into New York. It will seem as though aliens are attacking, causing the world leaders to come to the Harmony Shoal corporation for protection as the building is designed to withstand the impact blast. From their, they will take over the leader's bodies and prepare for total conquest. Deducing they are not ready yet, the Doctor directs the ship down and prepares to crash it into New York. He also modifies the radio to a signal only Grant can hear and informs him of what is happening.
The Doctor angles the ship at Lucy's building and Grant catches the falling ship, revealing his true identity to Lucy. She kisses him and the two take off where Grant will throw the ship into the sun. The Doctor comes down and disarms Brock. UNIT also arrives and purges Harmony Shoal, although the alien infesting Dr. Sim escapes into one of the soldiers.
The Doctor leaves with Grant promising to retire as he and Lucy settle into a relationship. Nardole tells them of River Song, which the Doctor had been recovering from, and the two take off for further adventures.
Analysis
I've seen mixed reviews of this on-line and I think I fall somewhere in the middle of everything. I generally liked it, but there was a lot that fell short for me and I'd have to call it mostly middling. I can imagine that many reactions will be more extreme as since it has been such a long wait, people are either inclined to love it no matter what because it's been so long, or hate it because they waited for something that didn't do it for them.
Unquestionably, the best thing about it was the Doctor. He was on point and very good. He was funny but also poignant when he needed to be. He had a lot of witty lines and some funny cracks as well. I also enjoyed his bit play both with young Grant and Nardole. Both had a simplicity about them that played off the Doctor's intellectualism and overlooking of the obvious.
I also really enjoyed Nardole. I didn't remember much about him in The Husbands of River Song but he played much as I expected him to. He was actually a bit better than I expected because he would interject with a simple pedantry in a way that reminds me a lot of my seven-year old son. But unlike a character who can give in to know-it-all-ism, Nardole has a simplicity about him that is refreshing and plays well against the deviousness and lying the Doctor often engages in.
As the Doctor and Nardole were my favorite parts of the story, they also represented a significant shortcoming in this story, in their somewhat limited use. It wasn't that I didn't like the characters of Grant and Lucy, but they seemed pale and boring when compared to the Doctor and Nardole and as a result, I got a bit bored when it was just them on screen. Grant and Lucy also suffered a bit by one other comparison and that was to Richard Donner's Superman.
Grant's powers are obviously Superman inspired, although there were a lot of other superhero references throughout. In that vein, many scenes other other tropes were taken from the first Superman movie, the dinner on the rooftop being the most obvious example. Homages are fine, but when they run so close and so long you start to compare them directly to the original and while the actors who played Grant and Lucy were good, they were not Christopher Reeve and Margo Kidder. It was another scene where the show seemed to slow down and I found myself wandering and not caring about these people and wondering what the Doctor was doing.
I must admit that I am also not much of a superhero movie person. I recognized a lot of little nods: Grant modulated his voice like Batman, the steam of the streets like the 1989 Batman or 1990 Dick Tracy movie, the accidental gain of superpowers like Spiderman, the use of several notable Spierman lines and the trials of having superpowers as a teenager as done in Man of Steel. However, I have not seen a superhero movie since Man of Steel and I've never seen any of the Marvel movies. So a tie in to superhero movies doesn't do much for me as I've somewhat checked out of that genre.
Looking at them objectively, I liked Grant a bit more than Lucy, although she had a better scene with the Doctor. Grant was more affable and did a pretty good job at being both a perfect guy and also the little man you never pay attention to. Lucy was a bit harsher as demanded by the role but suffering from Lois Lane syndrome in not recognizing Grant also made her seem a bit vapid at times. That said, her interrogation of the Doctor was very well done. You know it's a plastic squeeze toy but just her telling you it feels pain and the squeal it makes in addition to her intense stare, you could feel the Doctor's discomfort. She also portrayed an excellent knack for deduction that you could readily believe. It did clash with her non-recognition of Grant, but I still think it added well to her character.
The villains were a bit one-note even if they did have a nice creep factor. My wife, who is not a Doctor Who fan, happened to look up at that time and was unnerved by their appearance. I think I liked them better as the brains though without the apparent tie in to the folks in The Husbands of River Song as they seemed better when they were more original. There was also the small annoyance in that the longer the story went on, the easier I figured it would be for the Doctor to defeat them. They had a nice plan as the Doctor noted, but they were still so easily thwarted that it seemed something of an anti-climax.
There was one thing that stood out for me both in the episode and the trailer for Series Ten and that is a fear that Steven Moffat may run into RTD territory. Russell T. Davis spent some of the last episodes of his tenure indulging in a lot of look back and back slapping. While I appreciate the Doctor's speech about how things change at the end, it seemed a bit of breaking the fourth wall, as though he were trying to assure the watchers that it's okay that he is leaving. It is very similar to the way he had the Eleventh Doctor call Clara at the end of Deep Breath. It was like he didn't trust the audience to accept change unless he gives them permission and I don't care for that.
I'm interested to see what he is planning to do with Bill and how things will go in the tenth series but I got a bit of an Amy vibe and how the American versions were cut with her giving an intro after the cold open. I might have been more sensitive to that due to the flashback I was having regarding the Doctor's speech but it was just another thing that has me on a little bit of an edge regarding the ego of Steven Moffat.
Taken as a whole, it was a fun little romp and people who like superhero movies will probably enjoy this one a lot. I would have liked a lot more Doctor and a meatier villain but you understand that things are going to be a bit fluffier in a Christmas special. I would probably rate it as my least favorite of the Capaldi Christmas specials but still not bad. Middling was my descriptor earlier and I think that's probably the best way to keep it.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Ok, first things first. New Doctor Who for the first time in a year: YAAAAAYYYYY!!!
It was fairly well broadcast that this story was going to be Doctor Who's take on comic book movies. What's more, even from the preview, there was a strong inkling towards the Richard Donner original Superman movie. It would be an interesting take to see how well they could integrate such a fantastical element into a show that relied on pseudo-science.
Plot Summary A young boy named Grant wakes up to find the Doctor hanging outside his window, having accidentally snagged himself in his own trap. Grant lets him in, initially mistaking him for Santa. The Doctor rewards him by taking him up to the roof and showing him the machine he was building to try and clear the time disturbances around New York. He hands Grant a power gem, which Grant mistakes for medicine for his cough after the Doctor mentioned he is called the Doctor. Ingesting the gem causes Grant's desire to become a superhero to become a reality and he develops the powers of Superman.
Twenty-four years later, shortly after the night of the Singing Towers of Darillium has ended, the Doctor returns to investigate an alien infestation in the guise of the Harmony Shoal corporation. He returns with Nardole, whom he has reassembled to his original body. Breaking in, he discovers an investigative reporter, Lucy Fletcher, also snooping around. They observe the PR director, Mr. Brock's, body being taken over by alien brains, who cut his head open and insert themselves in. The two flee but are discovered by Dr. Sim who prepares to kill them. They are rescued by a superhero called The Ghost, who knocks out Sim and flies Lucy back to her apartment.
The Doctor recognizes Grant and he and Nardole head over to the apartment where Grant works as a nanny. He works for Lucy and she comes up to find the Doctor. Grant ducks back with the Doctor promising to keep his secret for the moment. Lucy interrogates the Doctor and he admits that the brains are an alien invasion that he is investigating. Grant meanwhile flies out for more superhero deeds. Lucy observes these on the television and convinces the Doctor to set up a meeting with the Ghost. The Doctor informs Grant of this and he calls Lucy to set up a meeting with her the next day on the roof. Grant attempts to play it off with Lucy that he has a date, which arouses latent jealousy in her.
The Doctor meanwhile slips out and he and Nardole head back to the Harmony Shoal corporation. Brock and Sim are planning to capture Grant to take over his body when the Doctor shows up. He gives them a chance to depart but they refuse and he vows to stop them. Nardole picks him up in the TARDIS and they head over to the Tokyo office and hack into the main computer, discovering a transmission to a ship in low Earth orbit. The Doctor and Nardole board the nearly abandoned ship where they are trapped on the bridge by a couple of guards.
At the same time, Grant shows up to Lucy's rooftop as the Ghost where they have dinner and an interview. Sensing Lucy's conflicted feelings about the real him, Grant nearly reveals his identity but changes his mind when he worries that it might hurt her. Brock then turns up and threatens to kill Lucy if he doesn't go along with their plan. Grant hesitates but then breaks away and flies off. Brock debates on killing Lucy and keeping her daughter as hostage when Grant shows up in his regular form to put Brock off. Brock holds off killing them while he calls out for the Ghost to come back before he kills one of them.
Dr. Sim signals the ship and from him the Doctor deduces their plan to crash the ship into New York. It will seem as though aliens are attacking, causing the world leaders to come to the Harmony Shoal corporation for protection as the building is designed to withstand the impact blast. From their, they will take over the leader's bodies and prepare for total conquest. Deducing they are not ready yet, the Doctor directs the ship down and prepares to crash it into New York. He also modifies the radio to a signal only Grant can hear and informs him of what is happening.
The Doctor angles the ship at Lucy's building and Grant catches the falling ship, revealing his true identity to Lucy. She kisses him and the two take off where Grant will throw the ship into the sun. The Doctor comes down and disarms Brock. UNIT also arrives and purges Harmony Shoal, although the alien infesting Dr. Sim escapes into one of the soldiers.
The Doctor leaves with Grant promising to retire as he and Lucy settle into a relationship. Nardole tells them of River Song, which the Doctor had been recovering from, and the two take off for further adventures.
Analysis
I've seen mixed reviews of this on-line and I think I fall somewhere in the middle of everything. I generally liked it, but there was a lot that fell short for me and I'd have to call it mostly middling. I can imagine that many reactions will be more extreme as since it has been such a long wait, people are either inclined to love it no matter what because it's been so long, or hate it because they waited for something that didn't do it for them.
Unquestionably, the best thing about it was the Doctor. He was on point and very good. He was funny but also poignant when he needed to be. He had a lot of witty lines and some funny cracks as well. I also enjoyed his bit play both with young Grant and Nardole. Both had a simplicity about them that played off the Doctor's intellectualism and overlooking of the obvious.
I also really enjoyed Nardole. I didn't remember much about him in The Husbands of River Song but he played much as I expected him to. He was actually a bit better than I expected because he would interject with a simple pedantry in a way that reminds me a lot of my seven-year old son. But unlike a character who can give in to know-it-all-ism, Nardole has a simplicity about him that is refreshing and plays well against the deviousness and lying the Doctor often engages in.
As the Doctor and Nardole were my favorite parts of the story, they also represented a significant shortcoming in this story, in their somewhat limited use. It wasn't that I didn't like the characters of Grant and Lucy, but they seemed pale and boring when compared to the Doctor and Nardole and as a result, I got a bit bored when it was just them on screen. Grant and Lucy also suffered a bit by one other comparison and that was to Richard Donner's Superman.
Grant's powers are obviously Superman inspired, although there were a lot of other superhero references throughout. In that vein, many scenes other other tropes were taken from the first Superman movie, the dinner on the rooftop being the most obvious example. Homages are fine, but when they run so close and so long you start to compare them directly to the original and while the actors who played Grant and Lucy were good, they were not Christopher Reeve and Margo Kidder. It was another scene where the show seemed to slow down and I found myself wandering and not caring about these people and wondering what the Doctor was doing.
I must admit that I am also not much of a superhero movie person. I recognized a lot of little nods: Grant modulated his voice like Batman, the steam of the streets like the 1989 Batman or 1990 Dick Tracy movie, the accidental gain of superpowers like Spiderman, the use of several notable Spierman lines and the trials of having superpowers as a teenager as done in Man of Steel. However, I have not seen a superhero movie since Man of Steel and I've never seen any of the Marvel movies. So a tie in to superhero movies doesn't do much for me as I've somewhat checked out of that genre.
Looking at them objectively, I liked Grant a bit more than Lucy, although she had a better scene with the Doctor. Grant was more affable and did a pretty good job at being both a perfect guy and also the little man you never pay attention to. Lucy was a bit harsher as demanded by the role but suffering from Lois Lane syndrome in not recognizing Grant also made her seem a bit vapid at times. That said, her interrogation of the Doctor was very well done. You know it's a plastic squeeze toy but just her telling you it feels pain and the squeal it makes in addition to her intense stare, you could feel the Doctor's discomfort. She also portrayed an excellent knack for deduction that you could readily believe. It did clash with her non-recognition of Grant, but I still think it added well to her character.
The villains were a bit one-note even if they did have a nice creep factor. My wife, who is not a Doctor Who fan, happened to look up at that time and was unnerved by their appearance. I think I liked them better as the brains though without the apparent tie in to the folks in The Husbands of River Song as they seemed better when they were more original. There was also the small annoyance in that the longer the story went on, the easier I figured it would be for the Doctor to defeat them. They had a nice plan as the Doctor noted, but they were still so easily thwarted that it seemed something of an anti-climax.
There was one thing that stood out for me both in the episode and the trailer for Series Ten and that is a fear that Steven Moffat may run into RTD territory. Russell T. Davis spent some of the last episodes of his tenure indulging in a lot of look back and back slapping. While I appreciate the Doctor's speech about how things change at the end, it seemed a bit of breaking the fourth wall, as though he were trying to assure the watchers that it's okay that he is leaving. It is very similar to the way he had the Eleventh Doctor call Clara at the end of Deep Breath. It was like he didn't trust the audience to accept change unless he gives them permission and I don't care for that.
I'm interested to see what he is planning to do with Bill and how things will go in the tenth series but I got a bit of an Amy vibe and how the American versions were cut with her giving an intro after the cold open. I might have been more sensitive to that due to the flashback I was having regarding the Doctor's speech but it was just another thing that has me on a little bit of an edge regarding the ego of Steven Moffat.
Taken as a whole, it was a fun little romp and people who like superhero movies will probably enjoy this one a lot. I would have liked a lot more Doctor and a meatier villain but you understand that things are going to be a bit fluffier in a Christmas special. I would probably rate it as my least favorite of the Capaldi Christmas specials but still not bad. Middling was my descriptor earlier and I think that's probably the best way to keep it.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
The Power of Three
Brian: What happens to the people who travel with you?
Doctor: Some leave, some get left behind and some, not very many, but some die.
The Power of Three is the foreshadowing bat slamming the viewer over the head. Originally this story was supposed to be called Cubed and I'm not sure why it was changed. But it strongly spells out that the end of the relationship between the Doctor and Amy and Rory is coming and what kind of end will truly be required to separate the group.
Plot Summary
Approximately ten years after their wedding (in Earth time), Amy and Rory have begun to settle down in to normal life with only the passing adventure with the Doctor. One night, billions of small black cubes appear all over the Earth. The cubes appear inert but also invulnerable. Suspicious of them, the Doctor enlists Amy, Rory and Rory's father Brian to study them.
Their studies are interrupted by the arrival of UNIT who noted an increase in Artron energy at Rory and Amy's house while studying the cubes themselves. UNIT is now led by Kate Stewart, daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The Doctor agrees to funnel all his findings to her to aid in the understanding of the cubes, which the Doctor and UNIT are convinced could be dangerous.
The Doctor becomes bored trying to study the cubes and leaves for several months. In the meantime, the cubes do not change and Amy and Rory settle in to a more stabilized life with Amy committing to be a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding months away and Rory being upgraded to full time employment at the hospital. Only Brian continues with his full study of the cubes, though they continue to do nothing.
The Doctor returns at the time of Amy's friend's wedding and he whisks Amy and Rory off for an anniversary present trip. That trip ends up lasting seven weeks though they arrive back at the reception as though they had only been gone for a few minutes. Brian confronts the Doctor about their adventuring and does force the Doctor to admit that there is danger, though he promises to keep the two of them safe.
The Doctor elects to stay for a bit and take up the study of the cubes again. It is during this stay that the cubes become active, each cube manifesting something different. Rory is called in to the hospital and takes his father with him to help. The Doctor and Amy head to the UNIT base under the Tower of London to continue to watch the cubes manifest their powers. The cubes suddenly revert back to their normal inert state and both the Doctor and Kate are confused at what is going on.
The Doctor heads out for some air and chats with Amy about her and Rory's plans to stop travelling with him. He reassures her that he understands but suddenly has an insight into what the cubes are doing. As he relates his theory of the cubes collecting human responses looking for their weakness, the cubes begin to countdown. The Doctor locks himself in a chamber with one as the countdown goes to zero but nothing happens. Confused, they checked monitors around the world. They are shocked to see that people in close proximity to cubes begin to go into cardiac arrest. The Doctor also has one of his heart's shut down, leaving him weakened.
Using the electrical signals being emanated by the cubes, they trace a power source back to the hospital that Rory works at. In the hospital, Brian runs into two orderlies who have been abducting people and taking them back to an alien spacecraft. They grab him and wheel him away. Rory sees them and chases after them, finding himself passing through a wormhole in the back of a service elevator and also on the spacecraft. The orderlies knock him out as well and place him with the others.
The Doctor and Amy arrive at the hospital where the Doctor discovers and shuts down the drone controlling the cubes from that location (posing as a little girl). Amy shocks the Doctor's inactive heart to get it going again and get him back to full strength. The Doctor follows the energy signature and discovers the wormhole. He and Amy pass through and end up on the alien ship.
On the ship, the Doctor wakes Rory and Brian and orders Amy and Rory to take Brian back to Earth. He then confronts a holographic image of a Shakri, an alien race who were related in Gallifrean fairy tales. The Shakri have deployed the cubes to destroy humanity before it can colonize space and displace other power factions. The Shakri begin to deploy the second wave attack and the interface disappears.
The Doctor takes over the controls of the cubes and sets a feedback look to create a electric pulse that will restart the hearts of all those affected on Earth. The feedback works but it also generates a large amount of energy in the ship. The Doctor, Amy and Rory (who had come back to help him) flee and jump through the wormhole just before the ship explodes.
With the Shakri neutralized, the Doctor prepares to head out. Brian encourages Amy and Rory to go with him as he can tell they want to continue to be with the Doctor. The Doctor offers to let him come too but Brian declines, stating that someone needs to stay behind and water the plants.
Analysis
This is a story that can be properly defined as unfocused. There are a lot of little scenes that are quite good but it is so disjointed and with so much missing information that it is hard to enjoy it as a whole product.
I enjoy Amy and Rory in this story. What's more, I like to see them passing on into normal life. We find Amy is a pretty good writer who writes on-line columns for magazines and that Rory is a good nurse and highly respected by his supervisors. There is no natural conflict between them and its nice to see them just enjoy each other's company like an average married couple does without any dramatic conflict coming in to upset the situation. It's also nice to see them assess their situation and decide that it is good enough to consider leaving the Doctor for.
The return of Brian is much appreciated as well. He is played for laughs a bit more in his steadfast dedication but his down-to-earth demeanor and common sense, including concern for Amy and Rory, remind me strongly of Wilfred Mott. He unfortunately is underutilized in this story but does shine well when he is around. I had been hoping that Brian's continued dedication to watching the cubes would be the source of the solution as the one person who stuck with what the Doctor told him. Instead it is played off as just another joke.
The Doctor is fairly good in this but his contrast is a bit much to take at times. Most of the story is a slow burn and the manic energy of the Doctor is a strong counterbalance to that. It plays well for laughs at the beginning, especially with his constant chores while Amy and Rory watch the cubes. But after things get serious, his manic energy starts to clash with the tone of the overall story. His best moment at that point is when he sits quietly, staring at the counting-down cube. It plays like a game of chicken with the Doctor almost daring the cube to get to zero and do something nasty. That moment gets upended with the shutting down of the Doctor's heart and his overplaying of his discomfort.
One of the best things about this story is the introduction of Kate Stewart. She is a bit raw in her characterization and obviously a little awed by the Doctor, but still a good character with a nice connection back to the past. Her continued development in further stories has rounded her out and smoothed the rough patches first seen here, but the fundamental basics of character are here and given a lot to build with.
There are a lot of unanswered questions in this story and I feel like there might have been extra material filmed that was then cut out. We are never given any information on what the orderlies are or why they abduct people to take back to the ship. Similarly, we are never told if they are dead or just beyond hope because no effort is made to save them, meaning they are incinerated when the ship explodes. The girl is removed from the situation very quickly by the Doctor with only a passing bit of dialogue given to note that she is some sort of directing drone that was somehow never noticed in the seven months between the cube's appearance and things happening.
We are also not given any real information on the plans of the Shakri. In the conversation between the hologram and the Doctor, there is a sense that the Shakri are agents who have been hired to destroy humanity by someone else rather than initiating the idea themselves. But there is no follow up to that, no further information on their race. They are just a legend confirmed and once a ship is destroyed, everything goes back to normal.
Even the attack is waved off in a simple manner with the Doctor shocking everyone back to normal. Except that after four minutes of an inactive heart, the brain will begin to die from lack of oxygen. It is possible to revive someone from beyond this point, but significant damage will have been done to their system. It is very hard to believe that the Doctor sees everyone suffer cardiac arrest, get to the hospital, get to the ship and restart everyone in a span of four minutes. While I know much of this story is played for comedy, little things like that are a bit too much unreality to swallow.
The direction in this story was pretty good with some nice camera work. However, the director does get caught up in the afflictions of J. J. Abrams as there are a few prominent lens flairs here and there which serve no purpose. They don't seem to add to the mood of the scene and I couldn't see a situation where they might designate a certain set of circumstances to follow. Instead, they simply seem to be there because they look cool to the director.
Overall, I'd have to call this one middling. Individual scenes are good and some of the comedy works very well. But there are threads that don't go anywhere and the whole resolution is rushed with a number of unresolved questions. It's an easy and fun ride, but it's not a story that is going to make anyone's preferred list.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Doctor: Some leave, some get left behind and some, not very many, but some die.
The Power of Three is the foreshadowing bat slamming the viewer over the head. Originally this story was supposed to be called Cubed and I'm not sure why it was changed. But it strongly spells out that the end of the relationship between the Doctor and Amy and Rory is coming and what kind of end will truly be required to separate the group.
Plot Summary
Approximately ten years after their wedding (in Earth time), Amy and Rory have begun to settle down in to normal life with only the passing adventure with the Doctor. One night, billions of small black cubes appear all over the Earth. The cubes appear inert but also invulnerable. Suspicious of them, the Doctor enlists Amy, Rory and Rory's father Brian to study them.
Their studies are interrupted by the arrival of UNIT who noted an increase in Artron energy at Rory and Amy's house while studying the cubes themselves. UNIT is now led by Kate Stewart, daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The Doctor agrees to funnel all his findings to her to aid in the understanding of the cubes, which the Doctor and UNIT are convinced could be dangerous.
The Doctor becomes bored trying to study the cubes and leaves for several months. In the meantime, the cubes do not change and Amy and Rory settle in to a more stabilized life with Amy committing to be a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding months away and Rory being upgraded to full time employment at the hospital. Only Brian continues with his full study of the cubes, though they continue to do nothing.
The Doctor returns at the time of Amy's friend's wedding and he whisks Amy and Rory off for an anniversary present trip. That trip ends up lasting seven weeks though they arrive back at the reception as though they had only been gone for a few minutes. Brian confronts the Doctor about their adventuring and does force the Doctor to admit that there is danger, though he promises to keep the two of them safe.
The Doctor elects to stay for a bit and take up the study of the cubes again. It is during this stay that the cubes become active, each cube manifesting something different. Rory is called in to the hospital and takes his father with him to help. The Doctor and Amy head to the UNIT base under the Tower of London to continue to watch the cubes manifest their powers. The cubes suddenly revert back to their normal inert state and both the Doctor and Kate are confused at what is going on.
The Doctor heads out for some air and chats with Amy about her and Rory's plans to stop travelling with him. He reassures her that he understands but suddenly has an insight into what the cubes are doing. As he relates his theory of the cubes collecting human responses looking for their weakness, the cubes begin to countdown. The Doctor locks himself in a chamber with one as the countdown goes to zero but nothing happens. Confused, they checked monitors around the world. They are shocked to see that people in close proximity to cubes begin to go into cardiac arrest. The Doctor also has one of his heart's shut down, leaving him weakened.
Using the electrical signals being emanated by the cubes, they trace a power source back to the hospital that Rory works at. In the hospital, Brian runs into two orderlies who have been abducting people and taking them back to an alien spacecraft. They grab him and wheel him away. Rory sees them and chases after them, finding himself passing through a wormhole in the back of a service elevator and also on the spacecraft. The orderlies knock him out as well and place him with the others.
The Doctor and Amy arrive at the hospital where the Doctor discovers and shuts down the drone controlling the cubes from that location (posing as a little girl). Amy shocks the Doctor's inactive heart to get it going again and get him back to full strength. The Doctor follows the energy signature and discovers the wormhole. He and Amy pass through and end up on the alien ship.
On the ship, the Doctor wakes Rory and Brian and orders Amy and Rory to take Brian back to Earth. He then confronts a holographic image of a Shakri, an alien race who were related in Gallifrean fairy tales. The Shakri have deployed the cubes to destroy humanity before it can colonize space and displace other power factions. The Shakri begin to deploy the second wave attack and the interface disappears.
The Doctor takes over the controls of the cubes and sets a feedback look to create a electric pulse that will restart the hearts of all those affected on Earth. The feedback works but it also generates a large amount of energy in the ship. The Doctor, Amy and Rory (who had come back to help him) flee and jump through the wormhole just before the ship explodes.
With the Shakri neutralized, the Doctor prepares to head out. Brian encourages Amy and Rory to go with him as he can tell they want to continue to be with the Doctor. The Doctor offers to let him come too but Brian declines, stating that someone needs to stay behind and water the plants.
Analysis
This is a story that can be properly defined as unfocused. There are a lot of little scenes that are quite good but it is so disjointed and with so much missing information that it is hard to enjoy it as a whole product.
I enjoy Amy and Rory in this story. What's more, I like to see them passing on into normal life. We find Amy is a pretty good writer who writes on-line columns for magazines and that Rory is a good nurse and highly respected by his supervisors. There is no natural conflict between them and its nice to see them just enjoy each other's company like an average married couple does without any dramatic conflict coming in to upset the situation. It's also nice to see them assess their situation and decide that it is good enough to consider leaving the Doctor for.
The return of Brian is much appreciated as well. He is played for laughs a bit more in his steadfast dedication but his down-to-earth demeanor and common sense, including concern for Amy and Rory, remind me strongly of Wilfred Mott. He unfortunately is underutilized in this story but does shine well when he is around. I had been hoping that Brian's continued dedication to watching the cubes would be the source of the solution as the one person who stuck with what the Doctor told him. Instead it is played off as just another joke.
The Doctor is fairly good in this but his contrast is a bit much to take at times. Most of the story is a slow burn and the manic energy of the Doctor is a strong counterbalance to that. It plays well for laughs at the beginning, especially with his constant chores while Amy and Rory watch the cubes. But after things get serious, his manic energy starts to clash with the tone of the overall story. His best moment at that point is when he sits quietly, staring at the counting-down cube. It plays like a game of chicken with the Doctor almost daring the cube to get to zero and do something nasty. That moment gets upended with the shutting down of the Doctor's heart and his overplaying of his discomfort.
One of the best things about this story is the introduction of Kate Stewart. She is a bit raw in her characterization and obviously a little awed by the Doctor, but still a good character with a nice connection back to the past. Her continued development in further stories has rounded her out and smoothed the rough patches first seen here, but the fundamental basics of character are here and given a lot to build with.
There are a lot of unanswered questions in this story and I feel like there might have been extra material filmed that was then cut out. We are never given any information on what the orderlies are or why they abduct people to take back to the ship. Similarly, we are never told if they are dead or just beyond hope because no effort is made to save them, meaning they are incinerated when the ship explodes. The girl is removed from the situation very quickly by the Doctor with only a passing bit of dialogue given to note that she is some sort of directing drone that was somehow never noticed in the seven months between the cube's appearance and things happening.
We are also not given any real information on the plans of the Shakri. In the conversation between the hologram and the Doctor, there is a sense that the Shakri are agents who have been hired to destroy humanity by someone else rather than initiating the idea themselves. But there is no follow up to that, no further information on their race. They are just a legend confirmed and once a ship is destroyed, everything goes back to normal.
Even the attack is waved off in a simple manner with the Doctor shocking everyone back to normal. Except that after four minutes of an inactive heart, the brain will begin to die from lack of oxygen. It is possible to revive someone from beyond this point, but significant damage will have been done to their system. It is very hard to believe that the Doctor sees everyone suffer cardiac arrest, get to the hospital, get to the ship and restart everyone in a span of four minutes. While I know much of this story is played for comedy, little things like that are a bit too much unreality to swallow.
The direction in this story was pretty good with some nice camera work. However, the director does get caught up in the afflictions of J. J. Abrams as there are a few prominent lens flairs here and there which serve no purpose. They don't seem to add to the mood of the scene and I couldn't see a situation where they might designate a certain set of circumstances to follow. Instead, they simply seem to be there because they look cool to the director.
Overall, I'd have to call this one middling. Individual scenes are good and some of the comedy works very well. But there are threads that don't go anywhere and the whole resolution is rushed with a number of unresolved questions. It's an easy and fun ride, but it's not a story that is going to make anyone's preferred list.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Snakedance
You must find the still point.
Snakedance is the sequel to Kinda and there is usually a sharp debate among fans as to which is better as the two stories follow different narrative lines. Kinda is heavily influenced by Eastern philosophy and mysticism while Snakedance follows a more traditional storyline. It is somewhat surprising that in John Nathan Turner's planned Season 20 of classic villains, he encouraged the return of the Mara. Perhaps he just had a thing about snakes.
Plot Summary
As the TARDIS approaches the planet Manussa, the Doctor senses something wrong as he did not set the coordinates for this planet. Interrogating Nyssa, the Doctor figures that Tegan set the coordinates different that what he had instructed her. He and Nyssa also learn from consulting a field guide that Manussa was the center of the Sumaran Empire. They are interrupted by Tegan screaming herself awake from a dream where she entered a cave through the mouth of a snake.
Concerned over her dreams, the Doctor sets Tegan into a hypnotic state, regressing her back until she is outside the cave of her dream. She walks through it but when she looks down, very reluctantly, a very different voice cries out for her not to look. The Doctor pulls her out of the hypnotic state and gives her a device that will suppress her dreams, though it blocks her ears, preventing her from hearing. They then land on the planet to look for this cave of her dreams.
On Manussa, the son of the Federation leader, Lon, is bored. Manussa is holding the annual festival celebrating the defeat of the Mara but Lon views it as silly mythology. His mother, Lady Tanha, encourages him to walk with her among the people. They are taken through the streets to the cave of the Mara by the director of antiquities, Ambril. They enter and Ambril begins to detail the history of the Mara, boring Lon further.
The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan make their way through the crowds and find the cave. Tegan refuses to go in, her fear becoming too strong. She waits outside with Nyssa while the Doctor goes inside. He finds the private tour and talks with Ambril about the legend of the Mara's return. Lon, finally interested in something, encourages the Doctor and wants to see Tegan whom they think they might be able to help.
Outside the cave, a seller of snake trinkets approaches Tegan and Nyssa. The image of the snake so frightens Tegan that she runs off into the crowd and passes out. The locals pull her into a fortune tellers tent to recover. Nyssa meets the Doctor as he returns to the entrance and tells him of Tegan's flight. The two run off to look for her, leaving a disappointed Lon to return to the lecture.
Tegan wakes in the tent of the fortune teller, who has removed the dream blocking device to allow her to talk to her. As Tegan wakes up, the Mara grows stronger and takes over Tegan's mind once again, manifesting a snake skull in the woman's crystal ball. It bursts from the ball and kills the fortune teller.
Nyssa and the Doctor try the TARDIS first but when Tegan isn't there, they split up. Tegan surprises Nyssa but resists coming with her to see the Doctor as her mind and the Mara fight for control. Tegan runs off and hides in a hall of mirrors, the Tegan part of her mind hoping to remove the Mara again. But with the mirrors only providing distortion and not in a circle, it manages to reassert itself over her mind. Nyssa meanwhile runs past but finds the discarded dream suppression device in the fortune teller's tent.
The Doctor heads to the palace to find Ambril who reluctantly tells the Doctor of the festival celebrating the banishment of the Mara and the Snakedancers who practice rituals to reinforce it's exile. The Doctor tries to convince him to call it off but Ambril dismisses him. His assistant, Chela, gives the Doctor a charm with a miniature crystal that the Snakedancers use in their ceremonies. Nyssa finds the Doctor, informing him that she found Tegan but lost her in the crowd.
The two head back to the cave to further examine a set of pictograms showing the Mara's defeat. They also notice that the large focusing crystal is missing. The Doctor determines that the crystal acts as a means of focusing mental energy and that was how the Mara was dispatched before. He heads back to the TARDIS to test his theory on the mini-crystal and successfully manages to focus his thoughts into energy manifested by the crystal. The Doctor attempts to crash a dinner party hosted by Ambril to discover where the primary crystal is but Ambril has him arrested, thinking it an elaborate hoax.
Tegan is found in the hall of mirrors by the man who runs it, Dugdale. Thinking her voice alterations and snake talk a trick, he offers her a chance to partner with him. Instead, she imposes her will on him and sends him to the palace to summon Lon. Lon is amused at the man's request and follows out of curiosity. When he meets Tegan, she extends her arm and the power of the Mara comes over him. The three walk to the caves where Tegan opens a hidden chamber, revealing ancient artifacts. Dugdale tries to collect the artifacts for sale but Tegan and Lon hypnotize him with the Mara's power.
Lon leaves and heads back to the palace where he shows Ambril an artifact taken from the cave. Impressed, Ambril follows Lon back to the cave and is overwhelmed by the other artifacts there. Tegan emerges and demands the original focusing crystal. Ambril initially refuses but gives in when Lon threatens to destroy all the artifacts. After they leave, Tegan begins to manifest the Mara in physical form, separating itself from the image on her arm.
Nyssa sneaks into the palace to discover the Doctor in a cell. Lacking the sonic screwdriver, she has no way of getting him out. She hides when Chela comes in to speak with the Doctor and show him the writings of the prior head of antiquities, Dojjen. Nyssa sneaks into Ambril's office to get the key but she is discovered by Tanha and placed in the cell with the Doctor.
As the Doctor reads over the journal, he and Nyssa determine that the Manussan people created the original crystal hundreds of years ago. The crystal focused powers within the mind but the dark elements also unleashed the Mara who took over and destroyed the technologically advanced Manussan civilization. The secret is still known to the Snakedancers and that was Dojjen's main discovery.
Lon and Ambril return and Ambril is sent to collect the crystal. Lon informs his mother that he will play the role of the Federation founder who defeats the Mara and that he will use the real crystal in the ceremony, breaking tradition. This news alarms Chela and he takes the key from Ambril's desk to let the Doctor out. However, he is observed by Lon who orders the guards after them. When the three are cornered, he orders the guards to kill them but Tanha intervenes and has them brought into chambers instead.
As Ambril brings the crystal to Lon, the Doctor realizes that Lon has been infected by the Mara as well. Lon accuses the Doctor and his friends of attempting to assassinate him and Tanha orders them locked up again. The Doctor, Nyssa and Chela make a break for it while the guards are distracted and escape the palace.
The group heads to the cave but does not go in. Instead they climb to the rocks above where the Doctor uses the mini-crystal to ask for the help of Dojjen, sending out a mental signal like a radio beacon. Dojjen arrives and infects the Doctor with a measure of snake venom. Under it's effects, he forces the Doctor to focus his thoughts, drive away fear and become a point of calmness that can defeat the Mara. Their ritual ended, the trio heads down to stop the ceremony with Dojjen staying behind.
In full costume, Lon acts the role of the hero in the ceremony in the cave. However, near the end, he varies, pulling the fake crystal out of the snake puppet's mouth and smashing it. He then pulls the real crystal from Ambril's box and places it within the rock crevice as Tegan emerges. The crystal focuses the fear and hate of the populace within the cave and they collapse as though subjected to a terrible noise. The snake that Tegan had manifested from her arm begins to grow and become more corporeal.
The Doctor enters as Lon places the crystal in and both Nyssa and Chela are felled. The Doctor however pulls his mini-crystal and focuses his own mind, becoming a calm point in the chaos. The Mara, through Tegan is upset by this calm point and begins to lose control. Tegan breaks through briefly, begging the Doctor for help. The Mara reestablishes control and sends Dugdale and Lon to try and take the mini-crystal but when attempting to grab it, their hands burn and they collapse.
With the Mara in a critical state and it's two minions disabled, the Doctor grabs the crystal. Lon makes a lunge at him but the Doctor knocks him down. He pulls the crystal from the crevice and the loss of focusing energy causes the people to recover. With it's energy source depleted, the Mara thrashes and then falls over dead. Tegan and Lon come back to themselves and the Doctor comforts Tegan, assuring her that the Mara has indeed gone.
Analysis
I must admit that I was disappointed by Snakedance. I knew the story would be radically different in tone from Kinda and I was prepared for that. But I had enjoyed Kinda enough that I thought that Snakedance would work as long as I was prepared for the tone change. It has a lot of elements that help it and set it on a good path, but in the end it is just kind of there and doesn't grab the viewer like a better story should.
First the positive aspects. The acting was all quite good in this story. This was a nice broadening for Tegan. She didn't get much of a chance to play the villain in Kinda as she passed the Mara on fairly quickly after succumbing so it was nice to see her in full possession mode for most of the story. I actually would have liked to have seen more of her but perhaps that amplified my enjoyment of her performance.
This was one of the better stories for Nyssa. She was engaged, keeping busy and her concern for Tegan forced her to show more emotion than she ever typically registers in a story. She also made a nice contrast to the Doctor who was in more of a manic mode. The Doctor's excitement was tempered a bit by Nyssa's natural calmness while his excitement pulled her into emotional ranges not usually seen by that character. Even when the Doctor calmed down a bit, they worked nicely together as when both are locked in the cell in Episode Three and the Doctor goes on his exposition speech. Nyssa interjects here and there and the two of them bounce nicely off each other in a way that you would expect two scientific minds to feed off of each other. It wasn't quite as good as the Third Doctor and Liz Shaw, but it gave that similar feel.
The Doctor was also good in this one. He was all energy in this story, reminding me very much of the Eleventh Doctor. It made the few quiet moments he had all the more impactful because we could see how on edge he is for most of the story. It did get a bit manic at a couple of points and it would have been nice to see the Doctor in a calm point figuring out what was going on a little more than we got, but it was still a good performance.
The guest cast was all pretty good. Chela was a good pseudo-companion, providing the local information needed to develop the story while not taking away from Nyssa's natural role. Lon's portrayal was done well perhaps even too well as I found myself getting annoyed with everyone's indulgence of his indolence. I understand he is the heir apparent but it would have been nice if someone would have put him in his place now and again. I guess that's a knock against his mother, who was still well acted. She was just a bit annoying as a character as I would have liked to have seen her drag Lon about by the ear at a couple of points just to show him some manners.
Ambril was quite good as the pompous academic, so conflated with his ideas about things that he dismissed other points of view. It was also an interesting take on the character that he was so obsessed with the archeological history of the Mara that he valued them over potentially greater hazards. Of course, his natural dismissal of the mystical made him a perfect pawn for that role and he played it well, although a bit of consequence at the end for him would have made for a nice payoff.
I thought the setting looked quite good. It never quite lost it's studio feel but it was much more expansive and you got a much more developed world sense than you did in other stories. It was also nice to see little cutaways in the festival where you could see how the battle between the Manussans and the Mara evolved into stories told through Punch and Judy shows or play ceremonies. It gave the culture more depth and made the society seem that more real.
As much as I liked the atmosphere of the story, that underscores one of the main problems of the story: it's pacing. There are several moments in this story where the story just comes to a dead stop. Those moments are filled with glimpses of the culture and world building or sometimes character development. I appreciate those but there should have been a way to incorporate them without killing the momentum of the overall story.
I also wouldn't have minded those stops as much if Episode Four didn't feel like such a rush job. Dojjen is the first person seen at the beginning of Episode One and his legend is built up throughout the story. However, instead of joining for the epic finale, he simply walks the Doctor through his own spiritual journey and then fades into the background again. Likewise, the battle with the Mara is over in three minutes with the Mara undone by such a simple thing as removing the crystal. Even after that, we are given no period of recovery. It's simply the Mara dies, everyone comes back to their senses and Tegan sits in shock next to the Doctor. I think even if Tegan had been shown a little while later coming back to her normal self with the Doctor reassuring her or someone else that the Mara had indeed gone, it would have given a better sense of balance to the ending.
The other significant problem with this story is one that it less control over and that is it's references back to Kinda. As a sequel, it doesn't have much choice in the matter, but the references back to the first story cause the viewer to remember that story and as a result, contrast the two. Because the style of the stories are radically different, it sets up the contrast between the two where if you like Kinda, Snakedance becomes diminished and vice versa. From my point of view, I really enjoyed Kinda and Snakedance just never seems to stand up to that. In a vacuum, I can handle that, but the story takes pains to remind me how much I liked Kinda and Snakedance suffers for it.
Even with the contrast and the pacing, I think this story could have been better if had developed itself a bit better and given a proper resolution. But it leaves a lot of things up in the air and unanswered. The Doctor actually states that he doesn't know why Dojjen didn't destroy the crystal, banishing the Mara forever and this is never answered. We are given no evidence at the end that the Doctor, Dojjen or anyone else took steps to destroy the crystal after the Mara was killed either.
Similarly, we are also never given resolution to what the purpose of the Snakedancers are apart from this one moment or why they are dismissed by the society. We are also never given proper resolution as to whether the Mara is a creature that existed and was unlocked by the Manussans or if was actually created by the hatred and fear of the Manussans and gained sentience. We are also never resolution as to whether the Kinda are related to the Manussans and if so, how did they get to Deva Loka since the Mara destroyed the technological achievements of the Manussans, yet the Kinda were aware of the Mara enough to lock it away in the darkness in their own way.
In the end, Snakedance was put in a very difficult position from the start. That being said, a few more rewrites and a proper ending would have gone a long way to elevating this story. I doubt it could have become as good as Kinda but it would have been much better in it's own right. It's a harmless little adventure story but it leaves so much in the air and ends on such a puzzling note that it is just hard to enjoy for it's own sake. Watch it again for the atmosphere and the acting but the nature of the story is such that I can't imagine myself being that interesting in digging it up for another viewing. I'd rather watch Kinda again and that is probably the most damning critique of any sequel.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Snakedance is the sequel to Kinda and there is usually a sharp debate among fans as to which is better as the two stories follow different narrative lines. Kinda is heavily influenced by Eastern philosophy and mysticism while Snakedance follows a more traditional storyline. It is somewhat surprising that in John Nathan Turner's planned Season 20 of classic villains, he encouraged the return of the Mara. Perhaps he just had a thing about snakes.
Plot Summary
As the TARDIS approaches the planet Manussa, the Doctor senses something wrong as he did not set the coordinates for this planet. Interrogating Nyssa, the Doctor figures that Tegan set the coordinates different that what he had instructed her. He and Nyssa also learn from consulting a field guide that Manussa was the center of the Sumaran Empire. They are interrupted by Tegan screaming herself awake from a dream where she entered a cave through the mouth of a snake.
Concerned over her dreams, the Doctor sets Tegan into a hypnotic state, regressing her back until she is outside the cave of her dream. She walks through it but when she looks down, very reluctantly, a very different voice cries out for her not to look. The Doctor pulls her out of the hypnotic state and gives her a device that will suppress her dreams, though it blocks her ears, preventing her from hearing. They then land on the planet to look for this cave of her dreams.
On Manussa, the son of the Federation leader, Lon, is bored. Manussa is holding the annual festival celebrating the defeat of the Mara but Lon views it as silly mythology. His mother, Lady Tanha, encourages him to walk with her among the people. They are taken through the streets to the cave of the Mara by the director of antiquities, Ambril. They enter and Ambril begins to detail the history of the Mara, boring Lon further.
The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan make their way through the crowds and find the cave. Tegan refuses to go in, her fear becoming too strong. She waits outside with Nyssa while the Doctor goes inside. He finds the private tour and talks with Ambril about the legend of the Mara's return. Lon, finally interested in something, encourages the Doctor and wants to see Tegan whom they think they might be able to help.
Outside the cave, a seller of snake trinkets approaches Tegan and Nyssa. The image of the snake so frightens Tegan that she runs off into the crowd and passes out. The locals pull her into a fortune tellers tent to recover. Nyssa meets the Doctor as he returns to the entrance and tells him of Tegan's flight. The two run off to look for her, leaving a disappointed Lon to return to the lecture.
Tegan wakes in the tent of the fortune teller, who has removed the dream blocking device to allow her to talk to her. As Tegan wakes up, the Mara grows stronger and takes over Tegan's mind once again, manifesting a snake skull in the woman's crystal ball. It bursts from the ball and kills the fortune teller.
Nyssa and the Doctor try the TARDIS first but when Tegan isn't there, they split up. Tegan surprises Nyssa but resists coming with her to see the Doctor as her mind and the Mara fight for control. Tegan runs off and hides in a hall of mirrors, the Tegan part of her mind hoping to remove the Mara again. But with the mirrors only providing distortion and not in a circle, it manages to reassert itself over her mind. Nyssa meanwhile runs past but finds the discarded dream suppression device in the fortune teller's tent.
The Doctor heads to the palace to find Ambril who reluctantly tells the Doctor of the festival celebrating the banishment of the Mara and the Snakedancers who practice rituals to reinforce it's exile. The Doctor tries to convince him to call it off but Ambril dismisses him. His assistant, Chela, gives the Doctor a charm with a miniature crystal that the Snakedancers use in their ceremonies. Nyssa finds the Doctor, informing him that she found Tegan but lost her in the crowd.
The two head back to the cave to further examine a set of pictograms showing the Mara's defeat. They also notice that the large focusing crystal is missing. The Doctor determines that the crystal acts as a means of focusing mental energy and that was how the Mara was dispatched before. He heads back to the TARDIS to test his theory on the mini-crystal and successfully manages to focus his thoughts into energy manifested by the crystal. The Doctor attempts to crash a dinner party hosted by Ambril to discover where the primary crystal is but Ambril has him arrested, thinking it an elaborate hoax.
Tegan is found in the hall of mirrors by the man who runs it, Dugdale. Thinking her voice alterations and snake talk a trick, he offers her a chance to partner with him. Instead, she imposes her will on him and sends him to the palace to summon Lon. Lon is amused at the man's request and follows out of curiosity. When he meets Tegan, she extends her arm and the power of the Mara comes over him. The three walk to the caves where Tegan opens a hidden chamber, revealing ancient artifacts. Dugdale tries to collect the artifacts for sale but Tegan and Lon hypnotize him with the Mara's power.
Lon leaves and heads back to the palace where he shows Ambril an artifact taken from the cave. Impressed, Ambril follows Lon back to the cave and is overwhelmed by the other artifacts there. Tegan emerges and demands the original focusing crystal. Ambril initially refuses but gives in when Lon threatens to destroy all the artifacts. After they leave, Tegan begins to manifest the Mara in physical form, separating itself from the image on her arm.
Nyssa sneaks into the palace to discover the Doctor in a cell. Lacking the sonic screwdriver, she has no way of getting him out. She hides when Chela comes in to speak with the Doctor and show him the writings of the prior head of antiquities, Dojjen. Nyssa sneaks into Ambril's office to get the key but she is discovered by Tanha and placed in the cell with the Doctor.
As the Doctor reads over the journal, he and Nyssa determine that the Manussan people created the original crystal hundreds of years ago. The crystal focused powers within the mind but the dark elements also unleashed the Mara who took over and destroyed the technologically advanced Manussan civilization. The secret is still known to the Snakedancers and that was Dojjen's main discovery.
Lon and Ambril return and Ambril is sent to collect the crystal. Lon informs his mother that he will play the role of the Federation founder who defeats the Mara and that he will use the real crystal in the ceremony, breaking tradition. This news alarms Chela and he takes the key from Ambril's desk to let the Doctor out. However, he is observed by Lon who orders the guards after them. When the three are cornered, he orders the guards to kill them but Tanha intervenes and has them brought into chambers instead.
As Ambril brings the crystal to Lon, the Doctor realizes that Lon has been infected by the Mara as well. Lon accuses the Doctor and his friends of attempting to assassinate him and Tanha orders them locked up again. The Doctor, Nyssa and Chela make a break for it while the guards are distracted and escape the palace.
The group heads to the cave but does not go in. Instead they climb to the rocks above where the Doctor uses the mini-crystal to ask for the help of Dojjen, sending out a mental signal like a radio beacon. Dojjen arrives and infects the Doctor with a measure of snake venom. Under it's effects, he forces the Doctor to focus his thoughts, drive away fear and become a point of calmness that can defeat the Mara. Their ritual ended, the trio heads down to stop the ceremony with Dojjen staying behind.
In full costume, Lon acts the role of the hero in the ceremony in the cave. However, near the end, he varies, pulling the fake crystal out of the snake puppet's mouth and smashing it. He then pulls the real crystal from Ambril's box and places it within the rock crevice as Tegan emerges. The crystal focuses the fear and hate of the populace within the cave and they collapse as though subjected to a terrible noise. The snake that Tegan had manifested from her arm begins to grow and become more corporeal.
The Doctor enters as Lon places the crystal in and both Nyssa and Chela are felled. The Doctor however pulls his mini-crystal and focuses his own mind, becoming a calm point in the chaos. The Mara, through Tegan is upset by this calm point and begins to lose control. Tegan breaks through briefly, begging the Doctor for help. The Mara reestablishes control and sends Dugdale and Lon to try and take the mini-crystal but when attempting to grab it, their hands burn and they collapse.
With the Mara in a critical state and it's two minions disabled, the Doctor grabs the crystal. Lon makes a lunge at him but the Doctor knocks him down. He pulls the crystal from the crevice and the loss of focusing energy causes the people to recover. With it's energy source depleted, the Mara thrashes and then falls over dead. Tegan and Lon come back to themselves and the Doctor comforts Tegan, assuring her that the Mara has indeed gone.
Analysis
I must admit that I was disappointed by Snakedance. I knew the story would be radically different in tone from Kinda and I was prepared for that. But I had enjoyed Kinda enough that I thought that Snakedance would work as long as I was prepared for the tone change. It has a lot of elements that help it and set it on a good path, but in the end it is just kind of there and doesn't grab the viewer like a better story should.
First the positive aspects. The acting was all quite good in this story. This was a nice broadening for Tegan. She didn't get much of a chance to play the villain in Kinda as she passed the Mara on fairly quickly after succumbing so it was nice to see her in full possession mode for most of the story. I actually would have liked to have seen more of her but perhaps that amplified my enjoyment of her performance.
This was one of the better stories for Nyssa. She was engaged, keeping busy and her concern for Tegan forced her to show more emotion than she ever typically registers in a story. She also made a nice contrast to the Doctor who was in more of a manic mode. The Doctor's excitement was tempered a bit by Nyssa's natural calmness while his excitement pulled her into emotional ranges not usually seen by that character. Even when the Doctor calmed down a bit, they worked nicely together as when both are locked in the cell in Episode Three and the Doctor goes on his exposition speech. Nyssa interjects here and there and the two of them bounce nicely off each other in a way that you would expect two scientific minds to feed off of each other. It wasn't quite as good as the Third Doctor and Liz Shaw, but it gave that similar feel.
The Doctor was also good in this one. He was all energy in this story, reminding me very much of the Eleventh Doctor. It made the few quiet moments he had all the more impactful because we could see how on edge he is for most of the story. It did get a bit manic at a couple of points and it would have been nice to see the Doctor in a calm point figuring out what was going on a little more than we got, but it was still a good performance.
The guest cast was all pretty good. Chela was a good pseudo-companion, providing the local information needed to develop the story while not taking away from Nyssa's natural role. Lon's portrayal was done well perhaps even too well as I found myself getting annoyed with everyone's indulgence of his indolence. I understand he is the heir apparent but it would have been nice if someone would have put him in his place now and again. I guess that's a knock against his mother, who was still well acted. She was just a bit annoying as a character as I would have liked to have seen her drag Lon about by the ear at a couple of points just to show him some manners.
Ambril was quite good as the pompous academic, so conflated with his ideas about things that he dismissed other points of view. It was also an interesting take on the character that he was so obsessed with the archeological history of the Mara that he valued them over potentially greater hazards. Of course, his natural dismissal of the mystical made him a perfect pawn for that role and he played it well, although a bit of consequence at the end for him would have made for a nice payoff.
I thought the setting looked quite good. It never quite lost it's studio feel but it was much more expansive and you got a much more developed world sense than you did in other stories. It was also nice to see little cutaways in the festival where you could see how the battle between the Manussans and the Mara evolved into stories told through Punch and Judy shows or play ceremonies. It gave the culture more depth and made the society seem that more real.
As much as I liked the atmosphere of the story, that underscores one of the main problems of the story: it's pacing. There are several moments in this story where the story just comes to a dead stop. Those moments are filled with glimpses of the culture and world building or sometimes character development. I appreciate those but there should have been a way to incorporate them without killing the momentum of the overall story.
I also wouldn't have minded those stops as much if Episode Four didn't feel like such a rush job. Dojjen is the first person seen at the beginning of Episode One and his legend is built up throughout the story. However, instead of joining for the epic finale, he simply walks the Doctor through his own spiritual journey and then fades into the background again. Likewise, the battle with the Mara is over in three minutes with the Mara undone by such a simple thing as removing the crystal. Even after that, we are given no period of recovery. It's simply the Mara dies, everyone comes back to their senses and Tegan sits in shock next to the Doctor. I think even if Tegan had been shown a little while later coming back to her normal self with the Doctor reassuring her or someone else that the Mara had indeed gone, it would have given a better sense of balance to the ending.
The other significant problem with this story is one that it less control over and that is it's references back to Kinda. As a sequel, it doesn't have much choice in the matter, but the references back to the first story cause the viewer to remember that story and as a result, contrast the two. Because the style of the stories are radically different, it sets up the contrast between the two where if you like Kinda, Snakedance becomes diminished and vice versa. From my point of view, I really enjoyed Kinda and Snakedance just never seems to stand up to that. In a vacuum, I can handle that, but the story takes pains to remind me how much I liked Kinda and Snakedance suffers for it.
Even with the contrast and the pacing, I think this story could have been better if had developed itself a bit better and given a proper resolution. But it leaves a lot of things up in the air and unanswered. The Doctor actually states that he doesn't know why Dojjen didn't destroy the crystal, banishing the Mara forever and this is never answered. We are given no evidence at the end that the Doctor, Dojjen or anyone else took steps to destroy the crystal after the Mara was killed either.
Similarly, we are also never given resolution to what the purpose of the Snakedancers are apart from this one moment or why they are dismissed by the society. We are also never given proper resolution as to whether the Mara is a creature that existed and was unlocked by the Manussans or if was actually created by the hatred and fear of the Manussans and gained sentience. We are also never resolution as to whether the Kinda are related to the Manussans and if so, how did they get to Deva Loka since the Mara destroyed the technological achievements of the Manussans, yet the Kinda were aware of the Mara enough to lock it away in the darkness in their own way.
In the end, Snakedance was put in a very difficult position from the start. That being said, a few more rewrites and a proper ending would have gone a long way to elevating this story. I doubt it could have become as good as Kinda but it would have been much better in it's own right. It's a harmless little adventure story but it leaves so much in the air and ends on such a puzzling note that it is just hard to enjoy for it's own sake. Watch it again for the atmosphere and the acting but the nature of the story is such that I can't imagine myself being that interesting in digging it up for another viewing. I'd rather watch Kinda again and that is probably the most damning critique of any sequel.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Thursday, December 15, 2016
The Robots of Death
Please do not throw hands at me.
Doctor Who does Agatha Christie. In some ways it's a bit anticlimactic since obviously it is the robots who are doing the killing; the title gives that away. But you at least have the question of who is ordering the robots to kill the crew. This one of the few times where a writer got to go back-to-back as this is Chris Boucher's second story, immediately following his introduction of Leela in The Face of Evil.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Leela land on a sand miner in the middle of a multi-year tour. The miner is manned by nine crew and a host of humanoid robots. As they land, one of the crew is murdered by a robot while the rest are busy extracting ore from a sand storm. The dead man is discovered by a crewman named Poul who reports it to the Captain Uvanov. Uvanov is forced to turn control of the miner over to the robots while the crew retires to the lounge to investigate.
The shutting down of the scoops helps the Doctor and Leela as the TARDIS was removed by the robots as an obstruction and the two were at risk of being enveloped by the high speed sand. They are removed from the scoop by a robot and taken to a cabin to wait.
Meanwhile the crew is already snipping at each other with paranoia beginning to set in. Another crewman is missing, adding to the tension. They are told that the body was decorated with a red disk usually used to mark deactivated robots, often called a corpse-marker by robot workers. One of the robots enters and informs the crew of the two stowaways. Tension eases a bit as the two are believed to be the murderers and Uvanov orders a search of the ship to ensure that it is only the two.
The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to open the cabin door to find the TARDIS with Leela following him. She breaks off and finds the body of the first dead crewman and watches as two robots come to take him away. The Doctor finds the TARDIS but doubles back when he notices Leela hadn't followed him. He passes by a process bin and discovers the body of the second crewman inside. As he checks on him, the door behind him seals and the room fills with ore. The Doctor pulls out a snorkel, allowing him to breathe while he is buried by the ore. The command robot, SV7, discovers the Doctor and pulls him out. The Doctor informs him of the second body and SV7 takes the Doctor to the lounge with the others.
Leela returns to the cabin they had originally come from and discovers the body of a third crewman who had gone to look for the second. The scene is investigated by a detective robot named D84, disguised as a silent worker robot. The two are discovered by Uvanov and to protect his cover, D84 grabs Leela as if capturing her. Uvanov tries to interrogate her but she batters him off. She is also taken to the lounge.
In the lounge the crew interrogate the Doctor and Leela, some believing they are the murderers while others are less sure, paranoia running higher now. Worried about losing profits from the recently discovered storm, Uvanov orders the Doctor and Leela locked in the robot repair bay while the rest of them return to their duty stations. The Doctor and Leela are bound in place with metal straps and forced to wait.
One of the crew, a woman named Zilda, leaves her duty station and breaks into Uvanov's quarters. She pulls his old logs and begins to break down crying. She screams over the intercom about how Uvanov is a murderer before she gives another scream. Uvanov runs to his cabin where he find her dead.
Meanwhile Poul visits the Doctor, intrigued by the Doctor's statements that a robot might have performed the murders. Poul releases the Doctor and Leela and the Doctor, using Poul and Leela's information about how the first body was discovered, demonstrates how it was likely a robot. Poul is signaled by second-in-command Toos about Zilda and he runs to Uvanov's cabin. He orders the Doctor and Leela to wait in a cabin and he finds Uvanov bent over Zilda's body. He accuses Uvanov and relieves him of command, knocking him out when he tries to escape. Poul informs SV7 of the change in command. SV7 also informs Poul that crewman Borg is also dead.
The miner suddenly lurches as it's drive motors have been sabotaged. Poul runs to the bridge, followed by Leela and the Doctor. Discovering what has happened, the Doctor orders the motivators shut down despite the fact that they'll sink into the sand. Dask tries to stop him at first but then does the shut down himself. As the miner begins to sink, Dask heads below to repair the engines.
Poul informs Toos of his theory regarding Uvanov. He also tells her that Uvanov was disciplined for leaving a crewman to die on a previous voyage and that crewman was Zilda's brother. Dask manages to get the engines going again, raising the miner out of the sand just before the hull begins to buckle. Safe, the miner holds position while the robots begin repairs.
Toos leaves to get some rest, having injured her arm in the accident. The Doctor instructs Leela to follow Poul while he speaks with D84. However, Poul slips away from Leela and locks her in the lounge. Poul heads to the robot repair facility where he finds the robot that killed Borg with blood on it's hands. Seeing the blood triggers a violent attack of robophobia in Poul and he collapses.
The murderer, an extremist named Taren Capel, overrides the commands of SV7 and orders him to act as agent. Kapel then overrides the command structures of several other robots in order to take over the miner.
The Doctor discovers D84 investigating Zilda's body and discovers that D84 and Poul are investigating agents sent by the mining company after receiving threats from Capel. The Doctor theorizes and convinces D84 that Capel is posing as one of the crew to instigate a robot revolution. The two of them head to a place where the Doctor believes Capel is conducting his modifications.
SV7 gives instructions to other robots to kill Toos, the Doctor and Leela while he kills the others. One robot attacks Leela but she manages to slip past him into the hallway. Leela hides in the robot repair bay and discovers Poul hiding. She tries to get him to come but he has mentally collapsed.
The Doctor signals Toos from Capel's lab and orders her to head to the command deck with all surviving crewmen. She tries but is trapped in her cabin by the robot sent to kill her. The Doctor sends D84 to help her. After he leaves, Uvanov discovers the Doctor in the lab and believes he is altering the robots. However, a robot enters and attacks the Doctor. Uvanov grabs a probe and plunges it into the robot skull, damaging it's control circuits. The two flee into the hallway, pursued by the damaged robot.
The robot outside Toos' cabin breaks in and attacks her but is called back by SV7 before he finishes the job to pursue the Doctor and Uvanov. Leela discovers D84 checking on Toos. D84 then heads to collect Poul and brings him to the command deck while Leela and Toos head back themselves. While going, Toos discovers that SV7 has been compromised as well when she tries to communicate with the Doctor.
The three groups assemble on the bridge with only Dask missing. The Doctor reveals Poul and D84's mission and Uvanov also reveals that Zilda's brother died as a result of the same robophobia that Poul is now suffering from. The Doctor, Leela and D84 leave the bridge and head to the robot repair room while Uvanov and Toos rig anti-robot bombs from magnetized blast charges stored on the bridge.
The robots begin to attack the bridge under the command of Dask, who is actually Taren Capel. Dask tries to trick his way in but the two refuse. They send a signal for rescue and warning from the bridge. Uvanov manages to destroy one robot who tries to get in from another door. After destroying it, Uvanov and Toos leave the bridge to act as a distraction.
In the repair bay, the Doctor rigs an anti-robot pulse weapon from a damaged robot and one of the communicator. As he does so he orders D84 to bring a canister of Helium to him. D84 returns as the Doctor finishes the weapon and the group returns to Capel's lab. He hides Leela in a storage area, ordering her to release the gas when Capel enters.
Dask breaks in and damages D84 with a probe. Another robot restrains the Doctor and Dask prepares to torture him to death. As he begins, D84 activates the Doctor's weapon, destroying the robot guard and himself in the process. Dask tries to finish the Doctor off but he manages to throw him back. SV7 enters, the bomb having reduced it to it's core command of killing humans. Dask tries to order it off but the helium has affected his voice so that SV7 does not recognize his command and kills him. SV7 turns on Uvanov and Toos as they enter but the Doctor plunges the probe into it's head and disables it.
With Capel dead and the robots deactivated, the Doctor and Leela return to the TARDIS as a rescue ship approaches and take off.
Analysis
I greatly enjoyed this story. I think I even liked it better the second time around than the first. It is easy to imagine that the story is going to have a more traditional Agatha Christie development with a lot more twists and blind alleys among the various crew but they are removed rather quickly so that the traditional Agatha Christie portion of the story is more or less over by the beginning of Episode Three. That can throw you the first time you watch it. A second time around with that level of awareness allows you to get into the story better and how it flows from one genre into the next.
The writing in this story is excellent with a lot of witty banter being thrown about. It is also nice to have Leela's creator behind this story as she is well defined in her warrior ways but also has compassion, intelligence and good instincts. She holds her own with the Doctor, being instructed by him but also not putting up with too much garbage from him. He has one instance where he is sharp with her and she takes it in stride but it plays fairly well for laughs and doesn't diminish Leela's character in the story.
The Doctor himself is quite enjoyable. He gets off a number of one-liners and does a pretty good job of working through the situation without appearing either too omnipotent in knowledge or ignorant to the point of unbelief. His alienness sticks out fairly well but not to the point of being a major distraction or to be off-putting.
The rest of the crew is pretty good. Dask and Uvonov especially are good in the way they both garner and deflect suspicion until the truth is revealed. Toos is also pretty good, although she does get a little stereotypical wibbly when the robots advance on her. I'd have liked to see her with a slightly harder edge at that point, although I suppose it would be understandable given the stress of the situation. Most of the other crew don't get enough screen time to form much of an opinion of them except that they seem to be portrayed well enough.
The one exception to this would be Zilda. For most of her scenes she isn't bad, although slightly flat. However it goes very wrong when she steals the log in Uvanov's quarters. Her attempts to cry and show anguish are downright painful to watch. It is absolutely terrible acting. It is somewhat unfortunate that this is also the last impression she makes as she gets killed moments afterward and whatever decent performance she had earlier is shoved out of my mind by her final moments.
The design of the robots and the set were quite nice. There are a couple of moments of obvious CSO but for a studio-bound story, this is done very well. The art deco design of both the environment and the robots is very nice and it gives the ship a very arty feel that becomes more timeless than if they had tried to something futuristic from a 70's point of view. The robots especially had an element of grace but also creepiness. There is a touch of the uncanny valley effect going on but it probably would have been worse if they had attempted to have more realistic faces rather than the stylized features they had.
If I had to come up with any negative points, it involves the mystery. Even though I knew it was coming, I still feel like the reduction of the crew and the leaving of the "whodunit" element of the story happened too quickly. I would have liked it a little more if we'd gotten a bit more with the non-core members of the crew and kept the paranoia level going for longer rather than it shifting to more of a thriller story in Episode Three.
My second criticism is when SV7 is reprogramed. Teran Capel's face is visible on the screen and even slightly scrambled and tinged, it was very obvious that it was Dask due to the lack of facial hair. He is shown with a mask in his next scene and if he had to appear on a screen, appearing in a mask would have kept up the illusion that Capel was either Dask or Uvanov. It would have added more tension to the cliffhanger in Episode Three when the robot attacks the Doctor and you might still be suspicious of Uvanov as the dialogue suggests you should be. I think that was a directorial mistake and one that spoils the surprise although not in a terrible way.
Overall, this is a very good story. Your enjoyment of it probably depends on how much you enjoy the murder myster/thriller genre and as someone who enjoys these, it puts this right in my wheelhouse. I also happen to be fan of art deco and enjoy the set and robot design that much more. It is not perfect, there are acting and a couple of production flaws. But it is good enough that I enjoyed it more on my second time through and even watched a couple of scenes a third time and enjoyed those as well. This would be an easy one to pull off the shelf and get lost in for an evening.
Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5
Doctor Who does Agatha Christie. In some ways it's a bit anticlimactic since obviously it is the robots who are doing the killing; the title gives that away. But you at least have the question of who is ordering the robots to kill the crew. This one of the few times where a writer got to go back-to-back as this is Chris Boucher's second story, immediately following his introduction of Leela in The Face of Evil.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Leela land on a sand miner in the middle of a multi-year tour. The miner is manned by nine crew and a host of humanoid robots. As they land, one of the crew is murdered by a robot while the rest are busy extracting ore from a sand storm. The dead man is discovered by a crewman named Poul who reports it to the Captain Uvanov. Uvanov is forced to turn control of the miner over to the robots while the crew retires to the lounge to investigate.
The shutting down of the scoops helps the Doctor and Leela as the TARDIS was removed by the robots as an obstruction and the two were at risk of being enveloped by the high speed sand. They are removed from the scoop by a robot and taken to a cabin to wait.
Meanwhile the crew is already snipping at each other with paranoia beginning to set in. Another crewman is missing, adding to the tension. They are told that the body was decorated with a red disk usually used to mark deactivated robots, often called a corpse-marker by robot workers. One of the robots enters and informs the crew of the two stowaways. Tension eases a bit as the two are believed to be the murderers and Uvanov orders a search of the ship to ensure that it is only the two.
The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to open the cabin door to find the TARDIS with Leela following him. She breaks off and finds the body of the first dead crewman and watches as two robots come to take him away. The Doctor finds the TARDIS but doubles back when he notices Leela hadn't followed him. He passes by a process bin and discovers the body of the second crewman inside. As he checks on him, the door behind him seals and the room fills with ore. The Doctor pulls out a snorkel, allowing him to breathe while he is buried by the ore. The command robot, SV7, discovers the Doctor and pulls him out. The Doctor informs him of the second body and SV7 takes the Doctor to the lounge with the others.
Leela returns to the cabin they had originally come from and discovers the body of a third crewman who had gone to look for the second. The scene is investigated by a detective robot named D84, disguised as a silent worker robot. The two are discovered by Uvanov and to protect his cover, D84 grabs Leela as if capturing her. Uvanov tries to interrogate her but she batters him off. She is also taken to the lounge.
In the lounge the crew interrogate the Doctor and Leela, some believing they are the murderers while others are less sure, paranoia running higher now. Worried about losing profits from the recently discovered storm, Uvanov orders the Doctor and Leela locked in the robot repair bay while the rest of them return to their duty stations. The Doctor and Leela are bound in place with metal straps and forced to wait.
One of the crew, a woman named Zilda, leaves her duty station and breaks into Uvanov's quarters. She pulls his old logs and begins to break down crying. She screams over the intercom about how Uvanov is a murderer before she gives another scream. Uvanov runs to his cabin where he find her dead.
Meanwhile Poul visits the Doctor, intrigued by the Doctor's statements that a robot might have performed the murders. Poul releases the Doctor and Leela and the Doctor, using Poul and Leela's information about how the first body was discovered, demonstrates how it was likely a robot. Poul is signaled by second-in-command Toos about Zilda and he runs to Uvanov's cabin. He orders the Doctor and Leela to wait in a cabin and he finds Uvanov bent over Zilda's body. He accuses Uvanov and relieves him of command, knocking him out when he tries to escape. Poul informs SV7 of the change in command. SV7 also informs Poul that crewman Borg is also dead.
The miner suddenly lurches as it's drive motors have been sabotaged. Poul runs to the bridge, followed by Leela and the Doctor. Discovering what has happened, the Doctor orders the motivators shut down despite the fact that they'll sink into the sand. Dask tries to stop him at first but then does the shut down himself. As the miner begins to sink, Dask heads below to repair the engines.
Poul informs Toos of his theory regarding Uvanov. He also tells her that Uvanov was disciplined for leaving a crewman to die on a previous voyage and that crewman was Zilda's brother. Dask manages to get the engines going again, raising the miner out of the sand just before the hull begins to buckle. Safe, the miner holds position while the robots begin repairs.
Toos leaves to get some rest, having injured her arm in the accident. The Doctor instructs Leela to follow Poul while he speaks with D84. However, Poul slips away from Leela and locks her in the lounge. Poul heads to the robot repair facility where he finds the robot that killed Borg with blood on it's hands. Seeing the blood triggers a violent attack of robophobia in Poul and he collapses.
The murderer, an extremist named Taren Capel, overrides the commands of SV7 and orders him to act as agent. Kapel then overrides the command structures of several other robots in order to take over the miner.
The Doctor discovers D84 investigating Zilda's body and discovers that D84 and Poul are investigating agents sent by the mining company after receiving threats from Capel. The Doctor theorizes and convinces D84 that Capel is posing as one of the crew to instigate a robot revolution. The two of them head to a place where the Doctor believes Capel is conducting his modifications.
SV7 gives instructions to other robots to kill Toos, the Doctor and Leela while he kills the others. One robot attacks Leela but she manages to slip past him into the hallway. Leela hides in the robot repair bay and discovers Poul hiding. She tries to get him to come but he has mentally collapsed.
The Doctor signals Toos from Capel's lab and orders her to head to the command deck with all surviving crewmen. She tries but is trapped in her cabin by the robot sent to kill her. The Doctor sends D84 to help her. After he leaves, Uvanov discovers the Doctor in the lab and believes he is altering the robots. However, a robot enters and attacks the Doctor. Uvanov grabs a probe and plunges it into the robot skull, damaging it's control circuits. The two flee into the hallway, pursued by the damaged robot.
The robot outside Toos' cabin breaks in and attacks her but is called back by SV7 before he finishes the job to pursue the Doctor and Uvanov. Leela discovers D84 checking on Toos. D84 then heads to collect Poul and brings him to the command deck while Leela and Toos head back themselves. While going, Toos discovers that SV7 has been compromised as well when she tries to communicate with the Doctor.
The three groups assemble on the bridge with only Dask missing. The Doctor reveals Poul and D84's mission and Uvanov also reveals that Zilda's brother died as a result of the same robophobia that Poul is now suffering from. The Doctor, Leela and D84 leave the bridge and head to the robot repair room while Uvanov and Toos rig anti-robot bombs from magnetized blast charges stored on the bridge.
The robots begin to attack the bridge under the command of Dask, who is actually Taren Capel. Dask tries to trick his way in but the two refuse. They send a signal for rescue and warning from the bridge. Uvanov manages to destroy one robot who tries to get in from another door. After destroying it, Uvanov and Toos leave the bridge to act as a distraction.
In the repair bay, the Doctor rigs an anti-robot pulse weapon from a damaged robot and one of the communicator. As he does so he orders D84 to bring a canister of Helium to him. D84 returns as the Doctor finishes the weapon and the group returns to Capel's lab. He hides Leela in a storage area, ordering her to release the gas when Capel enters.
Dask breaks in and damages D84 with a probe. Another robot restrains the Doctor and Dask prepares to torture him to death. As he begins, D84 activates the Doctor's weapon, destroying the robot guard and himself in the process. Dask tries to finish the Doctor off but he manages to throw him back. SV7 enters, the bomb having reduced it to it's core command of killing humans. Dask tries to order it off but the helium has affected his voice so that SV7 does not recognize his command and kills him. SV7 turns on Uvanov and Toos as they enter but the Doctor plunges the probe into it's head and disables it.
With Capel dead and the robots deactivated, the Doctor and Leela return to the TARDIS as a rescue ship approaches and take off.
Analysis
I greatly enjoyed this story. I think I even liked it better the second time around than the first. It is easy to imagine that the story is going to have a more traditional Agatha Christie development with a lot more twists and blind alleys among the various crew but they are removed rather quickly so that the traditional Agatha Christie portion of the story is more or less over by the beginning of Episode Three. That can throw you the first time you watch it. A second time around with that level of awareness allows you to get into the story better and how it flows from one genre into the next.
The writing in this story is excellent with a lot of witty banter being thrown about. It is also nice to have Leela's creator behind this story as she is well defined in her warrior ways but also has compassion, intelligence and good instincts. She holds her own with the Doctor, being instructed by him but also not putting up with too much garbage from him. He has one instance where he is sharp with her and she takes it in stride but it plays fairly well for laughs and doesn't diminish Leela's character in the story.
The Doctor himself is quite enjoyable. He gets off a number of one-liners and does a pretty good job of working through the situation without appearing either too omnipotent in knowledge or ignorant to the point of unbelief. His alienness sticks out fairly well but not to the point of being a major distraction or to be off-putting.
The rest of the crew is pretty good. Dask and Uvonov especially are good in the way they both garner and deflect suspicion until the truth is revealed. Toos is also pretty good, although she does get a little stereotypical wibbly when the robots advance on her. I'd have liked to see her with a slightly harder edge at that point, although I suppose it would be understandable given the stress of the situation. Most of the other crew don't get enough screen time to form much of an opinion of them except that they seem to be portrayed well enough.
The one exception to this would be Zilda. For most of her scenes she isn't bad, although slightly flat. However it goes very wrong when she steals the log in Uvanov's quarters. Her attempts to cry and show anguish are downright painful to watch. It is absolutely terrible acting. It is somewhat unfortunate that this is also the last impression she makes as she gets killed moments afterward and whatever decent performance she had earlier is shoved out of my mind by her final moments.
The design of the robots and the set were quite nice. There are a couple of moments of obvious CSO but for a studio-bound story, this is done very well. The art deco design of both the environment and the robots is very nice and it gives the ship a very arty feel that becomes more timeless than if they had tried to something futuristic from a 70's point of view. The robots especially had an element of grace but also creepiness. There is a touch of the uncanny valley effect going on but it probably would have been worse if they had attempted to have more realistic faces rather than the stylized features they had.
If I had to come up with any negative points, it involves the mystery. Even though I knew it was coming, I still feel like the reduction of the crew and the leaving of the "whodunit" element of the story happened too quickly. I would have liked it a little more if we'd gotten a bit more with the non-core members of the crew and kept the paranoia level going for longer rather than it shifting to more of a thriller story in Episode Three.
My second criticism is when SV7 is reprogramed. Teran Capel's face is visible on the screen and even slightly scrambled and tinged, it was very obvious that it was Dask due to the lack of facial hair. He is shown with a mask in his next scene and if he had to appear on a screen, appearing in a mask would have kept up the illusion that Capel was either Dask or Uvanov. It would have added more tension to the cliffhanger in Episode Three when the robot attacks the Doctor and you might still be suspicious of Uvanov as the dialogue suggests you should be. I think that was a directorial mistake and one that spoils the surprise although not in a terrible way.
Overall, this is a very good story. Your enjoyment of it probably depends on how much you enjoy the murder myster/thriller genre and as someone who enjoys these, it puts this right in my wheelhouse. I also happen to be fan of art deco and enjoy the set and robot design that much more. It is not perfect, there are acting and a couple of production flaws. But it is good enough that I enjoyed it more on my second time through and even watched a couple of scenes a third time and enjoyed those as well. This would be an easy one to pull off the shelf and get lost in for an evening.
Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
The Three Doctors
I can see you've been doing the TARDIS up a bit. I don't like it.
The Three Doctors was the first of the multi-Doctor anniversary specials. Of course, it lead off Season 10 rather than closing it, putting it a number of months away from the actual anniversary date of November 23, but that's a minor quibble. The big thing was that the show managed to get William Hartnell back which was rather significant given that he was in quite poor health at the time. The writers only found this out after he had accepted their offer and they were forced to do some very hasty rewriting and keep the First Doctor on a closed set while most of the story became the double act between the Second and Third Doctor. Still, given that Hartnell died only two years after the story aired, it was good to give him one last hurrah.
Plot Summary
A local gamekeeper stumbles across a cosmic ray detection device that has parachuted to Earth. The local scientific establishment is summoned to pick it up but before they arrive, the gamekeeper is teleported away. Suspicious of the disappearance, the scientist Doctor Tyler takes it to UNIT HQ and informs the Brigadier and the Doctor what happened.
Dr. Tyler shows the Doctor various readings which show a compressed light stream aimed towards Earth that is actually travelling faster than light. The Doctor and Jo head off to the sight of the landing while Dr. Tyler develops the latest plate. The Brigadier, put out at his lack of usefulness, leaves Tyler alone. Tyler develops the plate and sees the gamekeeper Ollis' face. He goes to check the collector but is teleported away as Ollis was, only this time a strange plasma emerges from the collector.
The Brigadier notices Tyler missing and sends Sergeant Benton to look for him. As the Doctor and Jo return from taking readings, the plasma emerges from the drain. They run off and the plasma covers Bessie, vanishing it before retreating back into the drain. Benton returns unable to find Tyler.
The Doctor informs the Brigadier of what happened to Bessie and order Benton to set a watch on the drains. The Doctor theorizes that the compressed light beam got the plasma creature to the collector and it is on a mission to take the Doctor. They hunker down to wait for the next attempt.
Shortly afterwards, creatures called Gelguards appear and advance on UNIT HQ. Benton leads the defense but conventional weapons have no effect on them. As the Brigadier organizes a retreat, the plasma creature emerges from the vents. The Doctor, Jo and Benton retreat into the TARDIS. The Doctor is unable to take off and sends an SOS to Gallifrey.
The Time Lords track the energy drain to a black hole and coming from a universe of anti-matter. With the drain affecting Gallifrey, the Time Lords are unable to send help to the Doctor. However, they decide to give the Doctor help from his earlier iterations.
The Second Doctor materializes in the TARDIS and explains the situation on Gallifrey. Benton recognizes the Second Doctor and welcomes him warmly. He also helps explain to Jo about the Doctor's earlier form. The Doctors observe the plasma creature attempting to get in but also fighting off the Brigadier. The two Doctors join telepathically to bring the Second up to speed. However, they being squabbling as their personalities clash.
Aware of the issue, the Time Lords pull in the First Doctor but lack sufficient energy to pull him in all the way. He instead appears from a limbo location on the monitor. He informs them that the plasma creature is a time bridge and orders them to get to work stopping it. The Third Doctor heads out to confront it and Jo runs after him. He tries to stop her but the plasma creature teleports both of them.
With the Third Doctor and Jo gone, the plasma reverts to a docile state, allowing the Second Doctor, the Brigadier and Benton to come out and examine it. The Second Doctor opts to feed it a steady stream of useless information to keep it occupied. The Second Doctor is called away by the Brigadier to talk to Geneva and he leaves Benton in charge of keeping the plasma at bay. It begins to react and overcome the Doctor's defenses. Benton calls the Doctor back with the Brigadier and the three of them retreat back into the TARDIS.
The Third Doctor and Jo wake to find themselves in a wasteland within a universe made of antimatter. They take a look around and find elements that had been teleported by the plasma earlier, including Bessie. They hop in and begin driving around. They find footprints and discover Dr. Tyler in the wasteland. They are also observed by Ollis.
The Third Doctor, Jo and Tyler are captured by the Gelguards and escorted to the palace of Omega, one of the founders of Time Lord society. While inside, Tyler runs away but is forced back to the group by the Gelguards. They are then taken towards Omega's throne room.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor manages to get the communicator working to allow the Brigadier to contact his men. He orders them to stand guard but not engage the Gelguards. As he does so, the First Doctor contacts them from his time eddy. He orders the Second Doctor to deactivate the force field around the TARDIS. The Second Doctor complies and the plasma causes the TARDIS, the Gelguards and the whole UNIT HQ building to disappear and be pulled into the antimatter universe within the black hole.
Omega meets the Third Doctor, Jo and Tyler. He has Jo and Tyler taken to a cell while he discusses taking vengeance on the Time Lords. Omega speaks of how he was abandoned when he created the black hole as a power source for the Time Lords. The Third Doctor counters speaking of how Omega is regarded as a great hero. Omega rebuffs this, believing he was sacrificed. Omega offers the Third Doctor a chance to help him and threatens Tyler and Jo if he does not.
The Second Doctor, the Brigadier and Benton arrive in the antimatter universe. The Brigadier refuses to believe that they have been transported to another universe and goes out to investigate. Benton and the Second Doctor go to follow him but are captured by the Gelguards. The Brigadier is greeted by Ollis and the two of them observe the Second Doctor and Benton being taken to Omega's palace.
The Second Doctor attempts to disguise himself as a human but Omega sees through the ruse. He is at first amused that the Time Lords have brought in an earlier iteration of the Doctor but he becomes angry with their subterfuge and has both of them and the Third Doctor locked in with Jo and Tyler.
After explaining how things work to them, Jo suggests the two Doctors work together and impose their own will on the universe. They create a door in the cell and the whole party spills out in to the palace. The two Doctors work their way to Omega's throne room, the source of the black hole's singularity while the three humans evade Gelguards in the corridors.
Benton, Jo and Tyler make their way towards the main doors. They manage to pry them open with the help of the Brigadier and Ollis trying to get in. The five humans flee the palace and the pursuing Gelguards. Meanwhile the Time Lords use their remaining energy resources to send the First Doctor into the black hole to assist the other two.
Omega confronts the two Doctors in the singularity chamber and engages his mind against the Third Doctor. The two enter a mental wrestling match with Omega seeming to prevail against him. The Second Doctor intervenes and Omega releases him. The Second Doctor needles Omega, exposing the limits of his control when angered.
The Second Doctor apologizes, bring Omega back into control. He reveals that he needs them to take over control of his world to allow him to escape as he cannot control the world and leave it at the same time. He orders them to remove his mask to allow him to step into the light stream. However, when they do so, they find that his body has already corroded away and that his shape is only held together by the force of his own will.
The realization of his unexistence unhinges Omega and he rants away, allowing the Doctors to escape. They are pursued by Gelguards and they meet up with the Brigadier and the others at UNIT HQ, taking shelter in the TARDIS. Inside, they are contacted by the First Doctor, still trapped in a time eddy. The three of them come up with a risky plan involving the TARDIS' force field generator and the First Doctor fades back to report to the Time Lords.
The Second and Third Doctor prepare to pull out the force field generator but discover that the Second Doctor's recorder has fallen in and as such, remains unconverted to antimatter. The two Doctors create a new plan and contact Omega, allowing them to transport the TARDIS to his palace. He agrees and they land in the throne room.
Omega, having reconciled himself to his state, declares that the Two Doctors will stay to keep him company in exile. They agree but only if he allows them to send their friends back. He agrees and the five people pass through the singularity into the light stream, Jo somewhat reluctantly. The two Doctors then offer Omega the force field generator with the recorder suspended in it. He becomes angry when he thinks they are trying to force him to take it and knocks it away. As it falls, the recorder falls out and it's matter interacts with the antimatter. The two Doctors flee into the TARDIS as Omega and his world is consumed by the resulting explosion.
Everything taken by Omega reverts back to the point it was taken from. The five humans reappear in their locations (Ollis outside his home) along with UNIT HQ and Bessie. The TARDIS appears a moment later and the two Doctors emerge to reveal what happened. From within the TARDIS, the First Doctor offers his goodbye as he is sent back to his own timestream. The Second Doctor likewise is sent back as well. The various people depart leaving Jo and the Doctor alone in the TARDIS. As they prepare to leave, the Time Lords send the Doctor a new dematerialization circuit and restore his knowledge of it's work, effectively ending his exile. He then prepares to install it as well as build a new force field generator before taking Jo off on a trip through the universe.
Analysis
As far as an anniversary special involving multiple Doctors, The Three Doctors isn't bad. However, judged as an independent story, it's fairly weak. It has good points and some good performances, but many of these are undercut by larger flaws.
First and foremost, I like the Doctors and their interaction. I would imagine that anyone who had watched the Second Doctor earlier would have been quite happy to see him again. I enjoyed him, although there were a couple of points where he played up the silliness a tad much. There was the nice reveal in Episode Four about how he was using his silliness to test Omega's control but it would have been nice to get a little more of the conniving Second Doctor.
The Third Doctor was his usual quality self and it was rather funny to see the fussy and formal Third Doctor let his earlier self get under his skin. Despite that, he was still competent, the clear leader of the team and enjoyable to follow around.
The First Doctor was both enjoyable and sad. He was given some nice cutting lines and the clear deference paid to him by the Second and Third Doctors seemed as representative of their feelings towards William Hartnell as that of the First Doctor. However, it is also very obvious as to how poorly William Hartnell is doing at that point. He is clearly reading his lines, though trying to put emotion into them. The timing of his interactions with the other two Doctors is off and it is clearly a recorded image they are just trying to time their responses to based off planned dialogue breaks. Its a nice thought but it is impossible to disguise the truth of what is actually happening. Had the technology been a little more advanced or time and budget been a bit more in their favor, the director might have been able to rework the scene so that it played a bit better but it at least gets what needed to be done.
Jo was nice in this story, although again not given that much to do. Her big moment is kicking the two fighting Doctors in the butt to get them to work together. Aside from that, she doesn't do much but tag along with the Third Doctor and ask the questions that allow one of the Doctors to explain to her (and the audience) what is going on. Still, she is fun and it is always nice to see her show the compassion she has for the Third Doctor as well as his compassion for her and that did come across in their interactions.
It is also almost impossible to not like Omega. For a villain, he is well spoken and articulate. It is also very easy to sympathize with his plight if not his methods. He looms large over the story that it is easy to forget in hindsight that he doesn't make an actual appearance until Episode Three, though he does get a line and a hint at towards the end of Episode Two. When he realizes what he has become, you feel real sympathy for him in his anguished scream as well as understanding at his denial of the reality of what has happened. In many ways, you can imagine that in the depths of his mind, he knew the truth but refused to confront it. Even when forced, he still forces that truth back into a box of denial. His secondary plan is even more tragic as when forced to confront the truth that he cannot escape, he simply wants a friend to talk to for the rest of his imprisonment. He is genuinely a tragic figure and someone more to be pitied, rather than hated or feared.
There is an odd mismatch in the writing with the Brigadier and Benton. In this story, Benton comes across as the rational, trusting stoic and the Brigadier comes across as a disbelieving oaf who only understands bureaucracy and blowing stuff up. It's a nice improvement for Benton but a terrible step down for the Brigadier. He actually comes across as a fairly unlikeable character with whom the audience has little patience. There are lines that Benton has that clearly should have been the Brigadier's, although I wouldn't wish to take away from Benton's improved standing. It is a nasty knock down for the character and it is only the likeability of Nicholas Courtney coming through that keeps the Brigadier from becoming a total object of derision.
The overall story itself does not work particularly well. It is very thin, even for a four-part story. I can imagine that a more complex plot was probably initially thought of that would involve the First Doctor but was scrapped due to William Hartnell's poor health. The story maintains a certain level of charm through the first three episodes but once it becomes clear that the First Doctor will not be heavily involved, the story seems to take a lazy backdoor route. The recorder retaining it's matter form is a lucky break rather than any properly contrived plan. The whole thing comes across as this random jumble of events that don't seem to properly connect. Even after two viewings, I'm hard pressed to imagine what the original plan was as it seems that everything sort of magically resolved itself.
There are also two moments where it is painfully obvious that the run time of the story is being padded. In fact, nearly every episode has at least one moment where things are obviously extended simply because there wasn't enough story to go around. This seems very strange to me as you would think that more care would be taken with an anniversary story. Instead it feels like once the plan for the First Doctor fell through, the rest of the story was hastily written on the back of an envelope. It probably could have gone through a few more rewrites and I wonder if the fall through was much more last minute than one might expect for a story that leads off a season.
The production values of the story are not great. The filmed stuff is always nice, even if it is in a quarry, but the effects desired are far beyond the capabilities of the time. The antimatter plasma is bad even for CSO effects of the time. The Gelguards are not well designed and come across as cheap "men in suits" props. Omega is pretty good and Stephen Thorne works well to make him imposing, although there are a couple of slip ups where you can see the outline of his jaw under the mask as he talks and that's at odds with his revealed form. The singularity point as a column of smoke is also rather underwhelming. Many aspects of this story come across as cheap and not up to the grand scale that you might have expected from an anniversary story.
Overall, I'd have to chalk this one up to a potentially fun idea but one that falls short. Many aspects can be swept aside as long as the story maintains it's line and keeps the fun aspect but even that falls apart in Episode Four when you get the very slapped together ending. The interactions are fun, especially between the Doctors and Omega is a very enjoyable character but aside from that, there's not a lot going for this story. It's not bad in a painful to watch way, but it doesn't draw you very well, nor does it retain your attention if it ever manages to get a hold of it. It's mildly fun to watch but it's definitely not a story to pull off and enjoy on anything resembling a regular basis.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
The Three Doctors was the first of the multi-Doctor anniversary specials. Of course, it lead off Season 10 rather than closing it, putting it a number of months away from the actual anniversary date of November 23, but that's a minor quibble. The big thing was that the show managed to get William Hartnell back which was rather significant given that he was in quite poor health at the time. The writers only found this out after he had accepted their offer and they were forced to do some very hasty rewriting and keep the First Doctor on a closed set while most of the story became the double act between the Second and Third Doctor. Still, given that Hartnell died only two years after the story aired, it was good to give him one last hurrah.
Plot Summary
A local gamekeeper stumbles across a cosmic ray detection device that has parachuted to Earth. The local scientific establishment is summoned to pick it up but before they arrive, the gamekeeper is teleported away. Suspicious of the disappearance, the scientist Doctor Tyler takes it to UNIT HQ and informs the Brigadier and the Doctor what happened.
Dr. Tyler shows the Doctor various readings which show a compressed light stream aimed towards Earth that is actually travelling faster than light. The Doctor and Jo head off to the sight of the landing while Dr. Tyler develops the latest plate. The Brigadier, put out at his lack of usefulness, leaves Tyler alone. Tyler develops the plate and sees the gamekeeper Ollis' face. He goes to check the collector but is teleported away as Ollis was, only this time a strange plasma emerges from the collector.
The Brigadier notices Tyler missing and sends Sergeant Benton to look for him. As the Doctor and Jo return from taking readings, the plasma emerges from the drain. They run off and the plasma covers Bessie, vanishing it before retreating back into the drain. Benton returns unable to find Tyler.
The Doctor informs the Brigadier of what happened to Bessie and order Benton to set a watch on the drains. The Doctor theorizes that the compressed light beam got the plasma creature to the collector and it is on a mission to take the Doctor. They hunker down to wait for the next attempt.
Shortly afterwards, creatures called Gelguards appear and advance on UNIT HQ. Benton leads the defense but conventional weapons have no effect on them. As the Brigadier organizes a retreat, the plasma creature emerges from the vents. The Doctor, Jo and Benton retreat into the TARDIS. The Doctor is unable to take off and sends an SOS to Gallifrey.
The Time Lords track the energy drain to a black hole and coming from a universe of anti-matter. With the drain affecting Gallifrey, the Time Lords are unable to send help to the Doctor. However, they decide to give the Doctor help from his earlier iterations.
The Second Doctor materializes in the TARDIS and explains the situation on Gallifrey. Benton recognizes the Second Doctor and welcomes him warmly. He also helps explain to Jo about the Doctor's earlier form. The Doctors observe the plasma creature attempting to get in but also fighting off the Brigadier. The two Doctors join telepathically to bring the Second up to speed. However, they being squabbling as their personalities clash.
Aware of the issue, the Time Lords pull in the First Doctor but lack sufficient energy to pull him in all the way. He instead appears from a limbo location on the monitor. He informs them that the plasma creature is a time bridge and orders them to get to work stopping it. The Third Doctor heads out to confront it and Jo runs after him. He tries to stop her but the plasma creature teleports both of them.
With the Third Doctor and Jo gone, the plasma reverts to a docile state, allowing the Second Doctor, the Brigadier and Benton to come out and examine it. The Second Doctor opts to feed it a steady stream of useless information to keep it occupied. The Second Doctor is called away by the Brigadier to talk to Geneva and he leaves Benton in charge of keeping the plasma at bay. It begins to react and overcome the Doctor's defenses. Benton calls the Doctor back with the Brigadier and the three of them retreat back into the TARDIS.
The Third Doctor and Jo wake to find themselves in a wasteland within a universe made of antimatter. They take a look around and find elements that had been teleported by the plasma earlier, including Bessie. They hop in and begin driving around. They find footprints and discover Dr. Tyler in the wasteland. They are also observed by Ollis.
The Third Doctor, Jo and Tyler are captured by the Gelguards and escorted to the palace of Omega, one of the founders of Time Lord society. While inside, Tyler runs away but is forced back to the group by the Gelguards. They are then taken towards Omega's throne room.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor manages to get the communicator working to allow the Brigadier to contact his men. He orders them to stand guard but not engage the Gelguards. As he does so, the First Doctor contacts them from his time eddy. He orders the Second Doctor to deactivate the force field around the TARDIS. The Second Doctor complies and the plasma causes the TARDIS, the Gelguards and the whole UNIT HQ building to disappear and be pulled into the antimatter universe within the black hole.
Omega meets the Third Doctor, Jo and Tyler. He has Jo and Tyler taken to a cell while he discusses taking vengeance on the Time Lords. Omega speaks of how he was abandoned when he created the black hole as a power source for the Time Lords. The Third Doctor counters speaking of how Omega is regarded as a great hero. Omega rebuffs this, believing he was sacrificed. Omega offers the Third Doctor a chance to help him and threatens Tyler and Jo if he does not.
The Second Doctor, the Brigadier and Benton arrive in the antimatter universe. The Brigadier refuses to believe that they have been transported to another universe and goes out to investigate. Benton and the Second Doctor go to follow him but are captured by the Gelguards. The Brigadier is greeted by Ollis and the two of them observe the Second Doctor and Benton being taken to Omega's palace.
The Second Doctor attempts to disguise himself as a human but Omega sees through the ruse. He is at first amused that the Time Lords have brought in an earlier iteration of the Doctor but he becomes angry with their subterfuge and has both of them and the Third Doctor locked in with Jo and Tyler.
After explaining how things work to them, Jo suggests the two Doctors work together and impose their own will on the universe. They create a door in the cell and the whole party spills out in to the palace. The two Doctors work their way to Omega's throne room, the source of the black hole's singularity while the three humans evade Gelguards in the corridors.
Benton, Jo and Tyler make their way towards the main doors. They manage to pry them open with the help of the Brigadier and Ollis trying to get in. The five humans flee the palace and the pursuing Gelguards. Meanwhile the Time Lords use their remaining energy resources to send the First Doctor into the black hole to assist the other two.
Omega confronts the two Doctors in the singularity chamber and engages his mind against the Third Doctor. The two enter a mental wrestling match with Omega seeming to prevail against him. The Second Doctor intervenes and Omega releases him. The Second Doctor needles Omega, exposing the limits of his control when angered.
The Second Doctor apologizes, bring Omega back into control. He reveals that he needs them to take over control of his world to allow him to escape as he cannot control the world and leave it at the same time. He orders them to remove his mask to allow him to step into the light stream. However, when they do so, they find that his body has already corroded away and that his shape is only held together by the force of his own will.
The realization of his unexistence unhinges Omega and he rants away, allowing the Doctors to escape. They are pursued by Gelguards and they meet up with the Brigadier and the others at UNIT HQ, taking shelter in the TARDIS. Inside, they are contacted by the First Doctor, still trapped in a time eddy. The three of them come up with a risky plan involving the TARDIS' force field generator and the First Doctor fades back to report to the Time Lords.
The Second and Third Doctor prepare to pull out the force field generator but discover that the Second Doctor's recorder has fallen in and as such, remains unconverted to antimatter. The two Doctors create a new plan and contact Omega, allowing them to transport the TARDIS to his palace. He agrees and they land in the throne room.
Omega, having reconciled himself to his state, declares that the Two Doctors will stay to keep him company in exile. They agree but only if he allows them to send their friends back. He agrees and the five people pass through the singularity into the light stream, Jo somewhat reluctantly. The two Doctors then offer Omega the force field generator with the recorder suspended in it. He becomes angry when he thinks they are trying to force him to take it and knocks it away. As it falls, the recorder falls out and it's matter interacts with the antimatter. The two Doctors flee into the TARDIS as Omega and his world is consumed by the resulting explosion.
Everything taken by Omega reverts back to the point it was taken from. The five humans reappear in their locations (Ollis outside his home) along with UNIT HQ and Bessie. The TARDIS appears a moment later and the two Doctors emerge to reveal what happened. From within the TARDIS, the First Doctor offers his goodbye as he is sent back to his own timestream. The Second Doctor likewise is sent back as well. The various people depart leaving Jo and the Doctor alone in the TARDIS. As they prepare to leave, the Time Lords send the Doctor a new dematerialization circuit and restore his knowledge of it's work, effectively ending his exile. He then prepares to install it as well as build a new force field generator before taking Jo off on a trip through the universe.
Analysis
As far as an anniversary special involving multiple Doctors, The Three Doctors isn't bad. However, judged as an independent story, it's fairly weak. It has good points and some good performances, but many of these are undercut by larger flaws.
First and foremost, I like the Doctors and their interaction. I would imagine that anyone who had watched the Second Doctor earlier would have been quite happy to see him again. I enjoyed him, although there were a couple of points where he played up the silliness a tad much. There was the nice reveal in Episode Four about how he was using his silliness to test Omega's control but it would have been nice to get a little more of the conniving Second Doctor.
The Third Doctor was his usual quality self and it was rather funny to see the fussy and formal Third Doctor let his earlier self get under his skin. Despite that, he was still competent, the clear leader of the team and enjoyable to follow around.
The First Doctor was both enjoyable and sad. He was given some nice cutting lines and the clear deference paid to him by the Second and Third Doctors seemed as representative of their feelings towards William Hartnell as that of the First Doctor. However, it is also very obvious as to how poorly William Hartnell is doing at that point. He is clearly reading his lines, though trying to put emotion into them. The timing of his interactions with the other two Doctors is off and it is clearly a recorded image they are just trying to time their responses to based off planned dialogue breaks. Its a nice thought but it is impossible to disguise the truth of what is actually happening. Had the technology been a little more advanced or time and budget been a bit more in their favor, the director might have been able to rework the scene so that it played a bit better but it at least gets what needed to be done.
Jo was nice in this story, although again not given that much to do. Her big moment is kicking the two fighting Doctors in the butt to get them to work together. Aside from that, she doesn't do much but tag along with the Third Doctor and ask the questions that allow one of the Doctors to explain to her (and the audience) what is going on. Still, she is fun and it is always nice to see her show the compassion she has for the Third Doctor as well as his compassion for her and that did come across in their interactions.
It is also almost impossible to not like Omega. For a villain, he is well spoken and articulate. It is also very easy to sympathize with his plight if not his methods. He looms large over the story that it is easy to forget in hindsight that he doesn't make an actual appearance until Episode Three, though he does get a line and a hint at towards the end of Episode Two. When he realizes what he has become, you feel real sympathy for him in his anguished scream as well as understanding at his denial of the reality of what has happened. In many ways, you can imagine that in the depths of his mind, he knew the truth but refused to confront it. Even when forced, he still forces that truth back into a box of denial. His secondary plan is even more tragic as when forced to confront the truth that he cannot escape, he simply wants a friend to talk to for the rest of his imprisonment. He is genuinely a tragic figure and someone more to be pitied, rather than hated or feared.
There is an odd mismatch in the writing with the Brigadier and Benton. In this story, Benton comes across as the rational, trusting stoic and the Brigadier comes across as a disbelieving oaf who only understands bureaucracy and blowing stuff up. It's a nice improvement for Benton but a terrible step down for the Brigadier. He actually comes across as a fairly unlikeable character with whom the audience has little patience. There are lines that Benton has that clearly should have been the Brigadier's, although I wouldn't wish to take away from Benton's improved standing. It is a nasty knock down for the character and it is only the likeability of Nicholas Courtney coming through that keeps the Brigadier from becoming a total object of derision.
The overall story itself does not work particularly well. It is very thin, even for a four-part story. I can imagine that a more complex plot was probably initially thought of that would involve the First Doctor but was scrapped due to William Hartnell's poor health. The story maintains a certain level of charm through the first three episodes but once it becomes clear that the First Doctor will not be heavily involved, the story seems to take a lazy backdoor route. The recorder retaining it's matter form is a lucky break rather than any properly contrived plan. The whole thing comes across as this random jumble of events that don't seem to properly connect. Even after two viewings, I'm hard pressed to imagine what the original plan was as it seems that everything sort of magically resolved itself.
There are also two moments where it is painfully obvious that the run time of the story is being padded. In fact, nearly every episode has at least one moment where things are obviously extended simply because there wasn't enough story to go around. This seems very strange to me as you would think that more care would be taken with an anniversary story. Instead it feels like once the plan for the First Doctor fell through, the rest of the story was hastily written on the back of an envelope. It probably could have gone through a few more rewrites and I wonder if the fall through was much more last minute than one might expect for a story that leads off a season.
The production values of the story are not great. The filmed stuff is always nice, even if it is in a quarry, but the effects desired are far beyond the capabilities of the time. The antimatter plasma is bad even for CSO effects of the time. The Gelguards are not well designed and come across as cheap "men in suits" props. Omega is pretty good and Stephen Thorne works well to make him imposing, although there are a couple of slip ups where you can see the outline of his jaw under the mask as he talks and that's at odds with his revealed form. The singularity point as a column of smoke is also rather underwhelming. Many aspects of this story come across as cheap and not up to the grand scale that you might have expected from an anniversary story.
Overall, I'd have to chalk this one up to a potentially fun idea but one that falls short. Many aspects can be swept aside as long as the story maintains it's line and keeps the fun aspect but even that falls apart in Episode Four when you get the very slapped together ending. The interactions are fun, especially between the Doctors and Omega is a very enjoyable character but aside from that, there's not a lot going for this story. It's not bad in a painful to watch way, but it doesn't draw you very well, nor does it retain your attention if it ever manages to get a hold of it. It's mildly fun to watch but it's definitely not a story to pull off and enjoy on anything resembling a regular basis.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
The Mutants
Doctor: Marshal, you are quite mad.
Marshal: Only if I lose.
I've heard mixed things about The Mutants. It is generally considered an anti-colonialist story and fairly well written and acted. However, it also has a reputation for somewhat shoddy effects. Unless they are blatantly bad, I generally like to give stories a bit of a pass there so we'll just have to see how this holds up story-wise. Not being British, colonial stories don't register with me they way they did with their intended audiences so I'll be curious to see how much that impacts my enjoyment of the story.
Plot Summary
After receiving a mysterious package to deliver from the Time Lords, the Doctor and Jo land on Skybase 1, a platform orbiting the planet Solos. Earth had been exploiting Solos as a resource colony but is now preparing to pull out. This decision is to be announced by the planetary administrator to a group of Solonian leaders. Disagreeing with this is the Marshal, whose men have been fighting native uprisings and a strange mutation among the natives.
The Marshal makes a deal with Varan, one of the Solonian leaders, to promote him as leader of all tribes during the conference in exchange for carrying out the Marshal's plan. Varan is dismayed to learn that Ky, a fellow chieftain and strong voice of the uprising, is also in attendance.
The Doctor and Jo pose as representatives from Earth and try to deliver the package to both the Administrator and the Marshal but it opens for neither. Suspicious of the Doctor, the Marshal has them detained during the conference. The Doctor however knocks the guard out and heads towards the meeting.
The Administrator opens the meeting but Ky heckles almost from the start. Despite the Administrator's acknowledgement that they are preparing for independence, Ky builds some of the natives into a frenzy, demanding independence now. He rushes the Administrator as the Administrator is shot, causing the Marshal to order Ky's immediate death. Ky runs out where he runs into the Doctor. The package begins to open, causing the Doctor to realize it's for Ky. Ky however grabs Jo as a hostage and runs into the transmat station, the Marshal's men firing their guns after them.
Ky and Jo manage to transmat down. Ky urges Jo to stay behind as the fog that covers the ground is toxic to people from Earth but she says she must stay with him since the package was meant for him. They flee into the mist where Jo eventually does collapse due to the mist. Ky manages to get the drop on one of the pursing guards and steals his mask. Placing it on Jo, he carries her into a cave where he and other rebels hide.
The Marshal agrees to continue the search for Jo if the Doctor reveals what is in the package The Doctor reluctantly agrees though he needs the use of the lab of Professor Jaeger, the principle scientist. Jaeger is astonished to see the Doctor put together a particle accelerator, though it burns out before the package can be opened. Jaeger goes to the Marshal and convinces the Marshal to have the Doctor use this same technology to terraform Solon to make it inhabitable for humans.
At the same time, the Marshal summons the son of Varan who actually killed the Administrator under the Marshal's orders. The Marshal kills him but is observed by Varan. The Marshal tries to kill Varan but he flees into the Herbarium to hide.
The Marshal summons the Doctor and lies to him about having found Jo, pretending that she is recuperating in a hospital on Solos. He then suggests the Doctor assist Jaeger in working the terraform project. Shortly after this, a soldier named Cotton gets the Doctor alone and informs him that the Marshal has not found Jo and that he escape with Varan to the surface where he can deliver his package. The Doctor hatches a plan to allow him to do so by overloading the main power grid of the base. Cotton's fellow soldier Stubbs informs Varan that he can get to the transmat when he hears the alarm about the power failure.
The Doctor manages to blow the power grid during one of his experiments, the explosion briefly knocking out Jaeger in the process. He heads to the transmat where he is attacked by Varan, thinking him a guard. They transmat down to Solos where the Doctor disarms Varan and forces him to take him to Ky's lair.
An atmospheric firestorm erupts driving several Mutts (the Solonian mutants) into the cave. Jo and Ky retreat further in to the cave where the normally docile Mutts start attacking them. Ky places Jo in a cleft while he fends off the Mutts with a torch. One gets behind him and tries to attack Jo who flees into a radioactive cavern. She collapses but is rescued by a mysterious figure in a silver suit.
Ky is overrun by the Mutts but the Doctor and Varan arrive with fresh torches and drive the Mutts back. The Doctor gives Ky the package which opens to reveal four stone tablets. Ky cannot read the writing as the actions of the Marshal have destroyed Solonian culture and their ability to read their ancient writing. Annoyed that no weapons were included, Varan leaves. He gets past the pursuing guards and heads for his own village.
With the Doctor gone, the Marshal orders Jaeger to continue with his plan to fire missiles and alter the atmosphere. He then takes guards down to pursue the Doctor. He learns they and a large number of Mutts have gone into the caves. The Marshal places guards at the various entrances and puts explosives on several key entrances. He then orders toxic gas to be fired into the caves to either flush them out or kill them. Stubbs and Cotton request permission to enter the caves to find the Doctor and the Marshal agrees although he suspects their role in the Doctor's escape.
Ky and the Doctor go to look for Jo and find her outside the radioactive cavern where she describes her rescuer. As she recovers, the group is found by Stubbs and Cotton who prepare to pull them out. Overhearing contact on the radio, the Marshal orders the gas fired in the caves and sets the charges at the entrance. Stubbs sees the gas coming in and the group flees deeper in the caves. They catch sight of the same silver suited figure that rescued Jo and he beckons them to follow him.
As the entrances blow up, they enter a radiation proof chamber where the figure reveals himself as Professor Sondergaard, a sympathetic scientist who has been researching Solonian culture. He also was driven to hiding by the Marshal's displeasure with him. The Doctor shows Sondergaard the tablets and the two of them begin work on translating them.
An earthquake dislodges bits of rock into the shelter and Stubbs notes that the explosions have destabilized the caverns. The Doctor orders Stubbs, Cotton, Jo and Ky to head out of the caves via a route that Sondergaard knows. They will exit near Varan's village. The Doctor and Sondergaard stay behind to work on the tablets.
The Doctor and Sondergaard manage to piece together that the tablets speak of a cycle and that the Mutts are a natural mutation that occurs as Solos enters it's summer season, seasons lasting 500 years on Solos. They also key in on the radioactive cave that Sondergaard rescued Jo from and the Mutts seem to be defending. The Doctor and Sondergaard head into that cave where the Doctor recovers a small crystal from a larger glowing structure. They head back to the lab but Sondergaard's equipment is insufficient to study it. They decide to head back to Skybase 1 to study it in Jaeger's lab.
Stubbs, Cotton, Jo and Ky emerge outside Varan's village where they are captured by Varan and his remaining warriors. All of them, including Varan, have begun to mutate and are preparing for a suicidal attack on Skybase 1. Using Stubbs and Cotton's weapons and Ky and Jo as shields, they penetrate the transmat station and subsequently Skybase 1.
The Marshal, having returned to base, receives word that an inspector is coming from Earth following the death of the Administrator. The Marshal, worried about loss of position, orders Jaeger to launch the missiles. At the same time, the alarm sounds as Varan's force is detected. The Marshal and his men attack the war party but the exchange of fire blows a hole in the base and Varan is sucked out into space.
Stubbs, Cotton, Jo and Ky manages to pull themselves out of the room and seal the door to the breach where they are arrested by the Marshal. He takes them to his office and prepares to have them shot but Jaeger stops him. Jaeger's missiles impacted rather than detonating in the atmosphere and Solos is now infected with ionizing radiation. He needs the Doctor to fix the problem. The Marshal orders his hostages held and leads a squad down to collect the Doctor.
The Doctor and Sondergaard observe the missile hits and the Doctor immediately figures out the danger. He observes Varan's abandoned village and assumes they went to Skybase 1. Weakened by the radiation exposure, Sondergaard urges the Doctor to go alone. He will rest and then return to the caves and meet him there. The Doctor agrees. He gets past the Marshal's men and transmats back up to the base, the guards in pursuit.
The Doctor eludes the guards and begins to loose Jo when the Marshal and his men catch him. The Marshal orders the Doctor to assist Jaeger in correcting the missile mistake or he will kill the hostages. The Doctor agrees and begins to help Jaeger. In doing so, he pulls needed equipment from the transmat device, rendering it inoperable and isolating Skybase 1 from the planet.
Her bonds nearly undone by the Doctor, Jo manages to free herself and gets the drop on the guard, stealing his weapon. She frees the others and they make an emergency transmission to the inspector's ship, informing him of what the Marshal has been doing. The transmission attracts the Marshal and a firefight erupts. The group flees the room but Stubbs is killed in the crossfire. The three remaining flee to the transmat station but are trapped due to the Doctor taking it offline. They are rearrested with Cotton and Ky being sent to the radiation collection room.
Back on Solos, Sondergaard makes it back to the caves where he is approached by the surviving Mutts. He manages to communicate to them that their mutation is part of a natural process but somewhat affected by the Marshal's experiments on them. He rallies them to help him get to the Doctor who he believes will help them.
The Doctor and Jaeger manage to remove the ionizing radiation and restore Solos to it's prior state with their device. The Marshal threatens to kill Jo unless the Doctor uses the device to continue the process and make it habitable for Earth colonization. The Doctor refuses but before the Marshal can carry out his threat, the inspector's ship arrives. Jo is locked in the radiation collection room with the others while the Doctor accompanies the Marshal to meet the Inspector.
The radiation collection room begins to fill with thaesium radiation as the Inspector's ship begins to refuel. Cotton leads the other two along the refueling tube to escape radiation poisoning, although Ky is showing effects from the radiation exposure. They burst in to the makeshift inquiry, allowing the Doctor to tell his side of the story about the Marshal's actions, refuting the Marshal's spin on events.
On Solos, Sondergaard transmats himself up to Skybase 1. He encourages the Mutts to follow him but only one does and that after he has already gone. Sondergaard enters the proceedings and accuses both the Marshal and Jaeger of prematurely initiating the mutation process. The Marshal refutes Sondergaard's claims that the Mutts are not dangerous. When the one Mutt who followed Sondergaard enters, the Marshal seizes a weapon and attacks it, killing it as it tries to flee back down the corridor. The Inspector, disturbed by the creature, gives control of his men over the Marshal.
Seeing things go against them, the Doctor, Sondergaard and Jo flee to Jaeger's lab where the Doctor analyzes the crystal taken from the radiation cave. He determines that the crystal is a catalytic agent for the mutation. He gives it to Sondergaard as the Marshal's forces burst in. Jo and Sondergaard are taken to the radiation collection room along with Ky and Cotton who were captured earlier while the Marshal forces the Doctor to work on the machine to transform the Solonian atmosphere.
In the radiation chamber, Sondergaard gives Ky the crystal as he is already being mutated by the thaesium radiation. He completes his transformation into a Mutt quickly with the help of the crystal. He continues to hold the crystal and absorb more radiation from the room. He transforms again into an ethereal being. He opens the door and disappears down the corridor.
In the lab, the Inspector is brought in outraged that the Marshal is keeping him and his men against their will. The Marshal informs him that they will be taken down to Solos once the Doctor has changed the atmosphere to become the first colonists for him to rule over. The Doctor takes advantage of the argument and sabotages the machine. He proclaims himself finished and the Marshal orders Jaeger to operate it. The Doctor's sabotage causes the machine to malfunction and explode, killing Jaeger. Enraged at his actions, the Marshal prepares to kill the Doctor but Ky enters the room and vaporizes the Marshal before he can fire. Ky then disappears back to Solos.
Afterwards, the Inspector appoints Cotton as the new Skybase 1 administrator and Solon volunteers to stay on Solos long enough to help guide the remaining Mutts to the radiation caves to complete their transformations. He and the Doctor theorize that they hadn't been able to do that on their own because Jaeger's experiments caused them to mutate before they were ready and they were confused like butterflies emerging on a frosty Spring day. The Inspector asks the Doctor to accompany him back to Earth but the Doctor makes excuses using Jo as a cover and the two of them slip back to the TARDIS and home.
Analysis
For the life of me, I can't figure out why this story has a middling to negative reputation. There are flaws and it does drag in a couple of points, but overall it is quite good. Most of the acting is good, the pacing is pretty well done, there is some nice location shooting, the atmosphere works and the special effects are no where near as bad as general consensus makes them out to be.
One of the best things about this story is the Marshal. He is megalomaniacal but not over-the-top about it. He is very direct about what he wants but at the same times, gives the impression of some subtlety and a reasonable amount of thought regarding his actions. He is also a competent villain. If carried out properly, his plans would have succeeded. He is only thwarted by things he could not predict, such as the arrival of the Doctor, the existence of Sondergaard and betrayal by his own men. Even after all these things, he continues to push on, never giving in to a hysterical fit as we might expect an overarching villain to do. Instead, it is cold and steady throughout except for a few points at the end where the Doctor's goading trick him into letting the mask slip on occasion. It was quite a good performance in my opinion.
Both the Doctor and Jo are also quite good in this. The Doctor gets a good bead on the situation but still operates just enough in the dark to force him to push forward. He is captured and persuaded all the time because he works for the benefit of Jo and the others. He is also a bit nicer to Jo in this story than he sometimes is when they work closer together. You see the friendship they have with the trace hints of the fatherly affection he has towards her.
Jo is also pretty good here. Yes, she plays the damsel quite a bit, but she only gives in to hysteria once and that is at the first appearance of the Mutts. At all other times she is actively trying to help either Ky or the Doctor. She finally gets a chance to be fully proactive in Episode Five where she disarms the guard and signals the Inspector. At no point does she ever become just an object to be rescued, even if that is all she is at various points. It is still a strong portrayal and enjoyable to watch.
The rest of the cast was fairly decent, although none stood overly out. The lone exception is Cotton. His acting was dreadful; very stiff and wooden. I was genuinely sad when Stubbs was killed, not for any affection for him, but because it meant that Cotton would be expressing grief and get a lot more dialogue. His attempt at describing the danger their party was in at the end of Episode Five to create the cliffhanger was just terrible. I'm not sure he could have acted worse if he had actually been reading off cue cards just off screen. But, one flawed portrayal does not ruin the whole.
Another thing I don't get is why there is a badmouthing of the effects in this story. The couple of points where CSO is heavily used (the radiation caves) do look pretty bad with significant fringing along the Doctor's outline. However, I'm not sure I've seen anything from the early 70's that didn't have the same flaws. These were also flaws that cropped up through the 80's so I can't say that this scene bothered me to any great detail.
I actually liked the design of the Mutts and thought those costumes fairly well done. Up until Episode Six, they were mostly shot only in the caves and that darkened atmosphere helped maintain their illusion. However, even when they were exposed to full light in Episode Six, I still thought it shot well enough to hide whatever flaws there were there.
The set of Skybase 1 looked very nice and even the reuse of corridor sets was nicely masked. Shooting on location for the planet was nicely done with the film shots in caves working well. I especially liked the exterior scenes using the foggy marshes to give an extra sense of creep to the various pursuit scenes that happened there.
If I had to pick out one significant thing I didn't like (other than Cotton's acting) it would be the near literal Deus Ex Machina ending. This ending was somewhat heavily broadcast throughout the story but even so, it felt a bit cheap at the end. I would have preferred that that final mutation for Ky would have been something a bit less god-like, forcing the Doctor to think of a way out or arrange some other method of dealing with the Marshal. I am glad that the Doctor did make the decision to sacrifice himself rather than let the Marshal destroy the atmosphere of Solos but Ky's quick fix rescue of him and his friends just seemed like the easy way out.
I can't say much about the colonialism aspect of the story. Being an American, I have a somewhat natural disdain for colonialism despite our own history in that regard. So there was never any question in my mind that I would sympathize with the Solonians. Of course, as a family show, things are portrayed in fairly stark black and white.
I think I would have enjoyed a bit more grey on the human's part regarding their actions. Apart from Stubbs and Cotton, there is no real indication of the humans having any inclination that what the Marshal is doing is wrong. Jaeger only objects to the timing with his experiments and his later objects are against killing humans, not Solonians. Stubbs suggests that there are others in the guards that object to the Marshal's actions but we never see them nor is there any indication that other guards are willing to oppose him other than Stubbs and Cotton. Even the Marshal himself is subject to this limited treatment. No one in authority objects to his actions for the most part. It is only because he has gone mad with power that there is any movement against him. It doesn't hurt the story in any significant way but some subtlety or nuance would have elevated the story a bit beyond itself and might have helped its reputation as a whole.
Overall, I liked this story. I think it's a bit too long and the characters lack depth but these are things that prevent it from being elevated to very good or great status rather than pulling it down into the mire. I think just about anyone could enjoy this story if it were pulled off the shelf but I would also say that I don't think it would be anyone's first choice. It is good but there is just not enough to make it stand out above some of the other classics of the Third Doctor era.
Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5
Marshal: Only if I lose.
I've heard mixed things about The Mutants. It is generally considered an anti-colonialist story and fairly well written and acted. However, it also has a reputation for somewhat shoddy effects. Unless they are blatantly bad, I generally like to give stories a bit of a pass there so we'll just have to see how this holds up story-wise. Not being British, colonial stories don't register with me they way they did with their intended audiences so I'll be curious to see how much that impacts my enjoyment of the story.
Plot Summary
After receiving a mysterious package to deliver from the Time Lords, the Doctor and Jo land on Skybase 1, a platform orbiting the planet Solos. Earth had been exploiting Solos as a resource colony but is now preparing to pull out. This decision is to be announced by the planetary administrator to a group of Solonian leaders. Disagreeing with this is the Marshal, whose men have been fighting native uprisings and a strange mutation among the natives.
The Marshal makes a deal with Varan, one of the Solonian leaders, to promote him as leader of all tribes during the conference in exchange for carrying out the Marshal's plan. Varan is dismayed to learn that Ky, a fellow chieftain and strong voice of the uprising, is also in attendance.
The Doctor and Jo pose as representatives from Earth and try to deliver the package to both the Administrator and the Marshal but it opens for neither. Suspicious of the Doctor, the Marshal has them detained during the conference. The Doctor however knocks the guard out and heads towards the meeting.
The Administrator opens the meeting but Ky heckles almost from the start. Despite the Administrator's acknowledgement that they are preparing for independence, Ky builds some of the natives into a frenzy, demanding independence now. He rushes the Administrator as the Administrator is shot, causing the Marshal to order Ky's immediate death. Ky runs out where he runs into the Doctor. The package begins to open, causing the Doctor to realize it's for Ky. Ky however grabs Jo as a hostage and runs into the transmat station, the Marshal's men firing their guns after them.
Ky and Jo manage to transmat down. Ky urges Jo to stay behind as the fog that covers the ground is toxic to people from Earth but she says she must stay with him since the package was meant for him. They flee into the mist where Jo eventually does collapse due to the mist. Ky manages to get the drop on one of the pursing guards and steals his mask. Placing it on Jo, he carries her into a cave where he and other rebels hide.
The Marshal agrees to continue the search for Jo if the Doctor reveals what is in the package The Doctor reluctantly agrees though he needs the use of the lab of Professor Jaeger, the principle scientist. Jaeger is astonished to see the Doctor put together a particle accelerator, though it burns out before the package can be opened. Jaeger goes to the Marshal and convinces the Marshal to have the Doctor use this same technology to terraform Solon to make it inhabitable for humans.
At the same time, the Marshal summons the son of Varan who actually killed the Administrator under the Marshal's orders. The Marshal kills him but is observed by Varan. The Marshal tries to kill Varan but he flees into the Herbarium to hide.
The Marshal summons the Doctor and lies to him about having found Jo, pretending that she is recuperating in a hospital on Solos. He then suggests the Doctor assist Jaeger in working the terraform project. Shortly after this, a soldier named Cotton gets the Doctor alone and informs him that the Marshal has not found Jo and that he escape with Varan to the surface where he can deliver his package. The Doctor hatches a plan to allow him to do so by overloading the main power grid of the base. Cotton's fellow soldier Stubbs informs Varan that he can get to the transmat when he hears the alarm about the power failure.
The Doctor manages to blow the power grid during one of his experiments, the explosion briefly knocking out Jaeger in the process. He heads to the transmat where he is attacked by Varan, thinking him a guard. They transmat down to Solos where the Doctor disarms Varan and forces him to take him to Ky's lair.
An atmospheric firestorm erupts driving several Mutts (the Solonian mutants) into the cave. Jo and Ky retreat further in to the cave where the normally docile Mutts start attacking them. Ky places Jo in a cleft while he fends off the Mutts with a torch. One gets behind him and tries to attack Jo who flees into a radioactive cavern. She collapses but is rescued by a mysterious figure in a silver suit.
Ky is overrun by the Mutts but the Doctor and Varan arrive with fresh torches and drive the Mutts back. The Doctor gives Ky the package which opens to reveal four stone tablets. Ky cannot read the writing as the actions of the Marshal have destroyed Solonian culture and their ability to read their ancient writing. Annoyed that no weapons were included, Varan leaves. He gets past the pursuing guards and heads for his own village.
With the Doctor gone, the Marshal orders Jaeger to continue with his plan to fire missiles and alter the atmosphere. He then takes guards down to pursue the Doctor. He learns they and a large number of Mutts have gone into the caves. The Marshal places guards at the various entrances and puts explosives on several key entrances. He then orders toxic gas to be fired into the caves to either flush them out or kill them. Stubbs and Cotton request permission to enter the caves to find the Doctor and the Marshal agrees although he suspects their role in the Doctor's escape.
Ky and the Doctor go to look for Jo and find her outside the radioactive cavern where she describes her rescuer. As she recovers, the group is found by Stubbs and Cotton who prepare to pull them out. Overhearing contact on the radio, the Marshal orders the gas fired in the caves and sets the charges at the entrance. Stubbs sees the gas coming in and the group flees deeper in the caves. They catch sight of the same silver suited figure that rescued Jo and he beckons them to follow him.
As the entrances blow up, they enter a radiation proof chamber where the figure reveals himself as Professor Sondergaard, a sympathetic scientist who has been researching Solonian culture. He also was driven to hiding by the Marshal's displeasure with him. The Doctor shows Sondergaard the tablets and the two of them begin work on translating them.
An earthquake dislodges bits of rock into the shelter and Stubbs notes that the explosions have destabilized the caverns. The Doctor orders Stubbs, Cotton, Jo and Ky to head out of the caves via a route that Sondergaard knows. They will exit near Varan's village. The Doctor and Sondergaard stay behind to work on the tablets.
The Doctor and Sondergaard manage to piece together that the tablets speak of a cycle and that the Mutts are a natural mutation that occurs as Solos enters it's summer season, seasons lasting 500 years on Solos. They also key in on the radioactive cave that Sondergaard rescued Jo from and the Mutts seem to be defending. The Doctor and Sondergaard head into that cave where the Doctor recovers a small crystal from a larger glowing structure. They head back to the lab but Sondergaard's equipment is insufficient to study it. They decide to head back to Skybase 1 to study it in Jaeger's lab.
Stubbs, Cotton, Jo and Ky emerge outside Varan's village where they are captured by Varan and his remaining warriors. All of them, including Varan, have begun to mutate and are preparing for a suicidal attack on Skybase 1. Using Stubbs and Cotton's weapons and Ky and Jo as shields, they penetrate the transmat station and subsequently Skybase 1.
The Marshal, having returned to base, receives word that an inspector is coming from Earth following the death of the Administrator. The Marshal, worried about loss of position, orders Jaeger to launch the missiles. At the same time, the alarm sounds as Varan's force is detected. The Marshal and his men attack the war party but the exchange of fire blows a hole in the base and Varan is sucked out into space.
Stubbs, Cotton, Jo and Ky manages to pull themselves out of the room and seal the door to the breach where they are arrested by the Marshal. He takes them to his office and prepares to have them shot but Jaeger stops him. Jaeger's missiles impacted rather than detonating in the atmosphere and Solos is now infected with ionizing radiation. He needs the Doctor to fix the problem. The Marshal orders his hostages held and leads a squad down to collect the Doctor.
The Doctor and Sondergaard observe the missile hits and the Doctor immediately figures out the danger. He observes Varan's abandoned village and assumes they went to Skybase 1. Weakened by the radiation exposure, Sondergaard urges the Doctor to go alone. He will rest and then return to the caves and meet him there. The Doctor agrees. He gets past the Marshal's men and transmats back up to the base, the guards in pursuit.
The Doctor eludes the guards and begins to loose Jo when the Marshal and his men catch him. The Marshal orders the Doctor to assist Jaeger in correcting the missile mistake or he will kill the hostages. The Doctor agrees and begins to help Jaeger. In doing so, he pulls needed equipment from the transmat device, rendering it inoperable and isolating Skybase 1 from the planet.
Her bonds nearly undone by the Doctor, Jo manages to free herself and gets the drop on the guard, stealing his weapon. She frees the others and they make an emergency transmission to the inspector's ship, informing him of what the Marshal has been doing. The transmission attracts the Marshal and a firefight erupts. The group flees the room but Stubbs is killed in the crossfire. The three remaining flee to the transmat station but are trapped due to the Doctor taking it offline. They are rearrested with Cotton and Ky being sent to the radiation collection room.
Back on Solos, Sondergaard makes it back to the caves where he is approached by the surviving Mutts. He manages to communicate to them that their mutation is part of a natural process but somewhat affected by the Marshal's experiments on them. He rallies them to help him get to the Doctor who he believes will help them.
The Doctor and Jaeger manage to remove the ionizing radiation and restore Solos to it's prior state with their device. The Marshal threatens to kill Jo unless the Doctor uses the device to continue the process and make it habitable for Earth colonization. The Doctor refuses but before the Marshal can carry out his threat, the inspector's ship arrives. Jo is locked in the radiation collection room with the others while the Doctor accompanies the Marshal to meet the Inspector.
The radiation collection room begins to fill with thaesium radiation as the Inspector's ship begins to refuel. Cotton leads the other two along the refueling tube to escape radiation poisoning, although Ky is showing effects from the radiation exposure. They burst in to the makeshift inquiry, allowing the Doctor to tell his side of the story about the Marshal's actions, refuting the Marshal's spin on events.
On Solos, Sondergaard transmats himself up to Skybase 1. He encourages the Mutts to follow him but only one does and that after he has already gone. Sondergaard enters the proceedings and accuses both the Marshal and Jaeger of prematurely initiating the mutation process. The Marshal refutes Sondergaard's claims that the Mutts are not dangerous. When the one Mutt who followed Sondergaard enters, the Marshal seizes a weapon and attacks it, killing it as it tries to flee back down the corridor. The Inspector, disturbed by the creature, gives control of his men over the Marshal.
Seeing things go against them, the Doctor, Sondergaard and Jo flee to Jaeger's lab where the Doctor analyzes the crystal taken from the radiation cave. He determines that the crystal is a catalytic agent for the mutation. He gives it to Sondergaard as the Marshal's forces burst in. Jo and Sondergaard are taken to the radiation collection room along with Ky and Cotton who were captured earlier while the Marshal forces the Doctor to work on the machine to transform the Solonian atmosphere.
In the radiation chamber, Sondergaard gives Ky the crystal as he is already being mutated by the thaesium radiation. He completes his transformation into a Mutt quickly with the help of the crystal. He continues to hold the crystal and absorb more radiation from the room. He transforms again into an ethereal being. He opens the door and disappears down the corridor.
In the lab, the Inspector is brought in outraged that the Marshal is keeping him and his men against their will. The Marshal informs him that they will be taken down to Solos once the Doctor has changed the atmosphere to become the first colonists for him to rule over. The Doctor takes advantage of the argument and sabotages the machine. He proclaims himself finished and the Marshal orders Jaeger to operate it. The Doctor's sabotage causes the machine to malfunction and explode, killing Jaeger. Enraged at his actions, the Marshal prepares to kill the Doctor but Ky enters the room and vaporizes the Marshal before he can fire. Ky then disappears back to Solos.
Afterwards, the Inspector appoints Cotton as the new Skybase 1 administrator and Solon volunteers to stay on Solos long enough to help guide the remaining Mutts to the radiation caves to complete their transformations. He and the Doctor theorize that they hadn't been able to do that on their own because Jaeger's experiments caused them to mutate before they were ready and they were confused like butterflies emerging on a frosty Spring day. The Inspector asks the Doctor to accompany him back to Earth but the Doctor makes excuses using Jo as a cover and the two of them slip back to the TARDIS and home.
Analysis
For the life of me, I can't figure out why this story has a middling to negative reputation. There are flaws and it does drag in a couple of points, but overall it is quite good. Most of the acting is good, the pacing is pretty well done, there is some nice location shooting, the atmosphere works and the special effects are no where near as bad as general consensus makes them out to be.
One of the best things about this story is the Marshal. He is megalomaniacal but not over-the-top about it. He is very direct about what he wants but at the same times, gives the impression of some subtlety and a reasonable amount of thought regarding his actions. He is also a competent villain. If carried out properly, his plans would have succeeded. He is only thwarted by things he could not predict, such as the arrival of the Doctor, the existence of Sondergaard and betrayal by his own men. Even after all these things, he continues to push on, never giving in to a hysterical fit as we might expect an overarching villain to do. Instead, it is cold and steady throughout except for a few points at the end where the Doctor's goading trick him into letting the mask slip on occasion. It was quite a good performance in my opinion.
Both the Doctor and Jo are also quite good in this. The Doctor gets a good bead on the situation but still operates just enough in the dark to force him to push forward. He is captured and persuaded all the time because he works for the benefit of Jo and the others. He is also a bit nicer to Jo in this story than he sometimes is when they work closer together. You see the friendship they have with the trace hints of the fatherly affection he has towards her.
Jo is also pretty good here. Yes, she plays the damsel quite a bit, but she only gives in to hysteria once and that is at the first appearance of the Mutts. At all other times she is actively trying to help either Ky or the Doctor. She finally gets a chance to be fully proactive in Episode Five where she disarms the guard and signals the Inspector. At no point does she ever become just an object to be rescued, even if that is all she is at various points. It is still a strong portrayal and enjoyable to watch.
The rest of the cast was fairly decent, although none stood overly out. The lone exception is Cotton. His acting was dreadful; very stiff and wooden. I was genuinely sad when Stubbs was killed, not for any affection for him, but because it meant that Cotton would be expressing grief and get a lot more dialogue. His attempt at describing the danger their party was in at the end of Episode Five to create the cliffhanger was just terrible. I'm not sure he could have acted worse if he had actually been reading off cue cards just off screen. But, one flawed portrayal does not ruin the whole.
Another thing I don't get is why there is a badmouthing of the effects in this story. The couple of points where CSO is heavily used (the radiation caves) do look pretty bad with significant fringing along the Doctor's outline. However, I'm not sure I've seen anything from the early 70's that didn't have the same flaws. These were also flaws that cropped up through the 80's so I can't say that this scene bothered me to any great detail.
I actually liked the design of the Mutts and thought those costumes fairly well done. Up until Episode Six, they were mostly shot only in the caves and that darkened atmosphere helped maintain their illusion. However, even when they were exposed to full light in Episode Six, I still thought it shot well enough to hide whatever flaws there were there.
The set of Skybase 1 looked very nice and even the reuse of corridor sets was nicely masked. Shooting on location for the planet was nicely done with the film shots in caves working well. I especially liked the exterior scenes using the foggy marshes to give an extra sense of creep to the various pursuit scenes that happened there.
If I had to pick out one significant thing I didn't like (other than Cotton's acting) it would be the near literal Deus Ex Machina ending. This ending was somewhat heavily broadcast throughout the story but even so, it felt a bit cheap at the end. I would have preferred that that final mutation for Ky would have been something a bit less god-like, forcing the Doctor to think of a way out or arrange some other method of dealing with the Marshal. I am glad that the Doctor did make the decision to sacrifice himself rather than let the Marshal destroy the atmosphere of Solos but Ky's quick fix rescue of him and his friends just seemed like the easy way out.
I can't say much about the colonialism aspect of the story. Being an American, I have a somewhat natural disdain for colonialism despite our own history in that regard. So there was never any question in my mind that I would sympathize with the Solonians. Of course, as a family show, things are portrayed in fairly stark black and white.
I think I would have enjoyed a bit more grey on the human's part regarding their actions. Apart from Stubbs and Cotton, there is no real indication of the humans having any inclination that what the Marshal is doing is wrong. Jaeger only objects to the timing with his experiments and his later objects are against killing humans, not Solonians. Stubbs suggests that there are others in the guards that object to the Marshal's actions but we never see them nor is there any indication that other guards are willing to oppose him other than Stubbs and Cotton. Even the Marshal himself is subject to this limited treatment. No one in authority objects to his actions for the most part. It is only because he has gone mad with power that there is any movement against him. It doesn't hurt the story in any significant way but some subtlety or nuance would have elevated the story a bit beyond itself and might have helped its reputation as a whole.
Overall, I liked this story. I think it's a bit too long and the characters lack depth but these are things that prevent it from being elevated to very good or great status rather than pulling it down into the mire. I think just about anyone could enjoy this story if it were pulled off the shelf but I would also say that I don't think it would be anyone's first choice. It is good but there is just not enough to make it stand out above some of the other classics of the Third Doctor era.
Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)