The Twin Dilemma

I am the Doctor, whether you like it or not.

In just about every episode list that Doctor Who fans put together, three stories consistently sit at the bottom: Time-Flight, The Twin Dilemma and Time and the Rani. The Twin Dilemma is additionally exacerbated given that it is the immediate follow up to The Caves of Androzani, a story that is usually put near the top of most lists. So, taking that all into account, is this story as bad as it's reputation suggests?

Plot Summary

The Doctor, having just regenerated, prepares for a new adventure. Peri, unfamiliar with regeneration is skeptical and is wary of the new version of the Doctor. As he decides on a new outfit, the Doctor begins to go through crisis. He has mental lapses where wild emotion takes control. This blows up in a fit of paranoia where, believing that she is an evil fairy, the Doctor attacks and tries to strangle Peri. She manages to throw him off and when he wakes up to what he has done, decides that he must live as a hermit for a while, setting course for the asteroid Titan 3.

Meanwhile two mathematically gifted twins, Romulus and Remus Sylveste, are attending to their lessons, having been left alone for the evening by their parents. They are visited by an old man named Professor Edgeworth who uses a patch to hypnotize them and transports them to an alien spacecraft. Edgeworth has the boys locked in a room and contacts his employer, Mestor a giant slug, who orders them to head to the base on Titan 3.

The boy's father, Professor Sylveste, returns early and finds the boys gone. He also discovers a trace element in the floor and alerts the authorities that the boys have been kidnapped. The authorities launch an immediate search and one patrol ship discovers the freighter the boys are on. They are immediately alerted as the freighter was reported destroyed earlier that year and then jumps into warp drive, despite not being equipped with that capability.

The fighter squadron follows the freighter. When the freighter lands on Titan 3, the boys are taken the base. Mestor contacts Edgeworth and orders the boys to work. He also orders Edgeworth to destroy the pursuing fighters. Edgeworth does so though the squad leader, Lt. Lang, survives the crash. Disturbed by the loss of the squadron, the ministry on Earth orders any further pursuit called off.

The Doctor and Peri find Lang and bring him into the TARDIS. The Doctor chastises Peri for wanting to leave before they found him. Peri angrily rebuffs the Doctor for his own posturing. The noise of the argument brings Lang to his senses and he pulls a gun on the Doctor, believing him to be reason his squadron was destroyed. Peri pleads with Lang, who then collapses again. The Doctor takes away his gun and orders Peri to hide the power cell. At her urging, he reluctantly begins to tend to the man to save his life.

Professor Edgeworth sets the twins to a new set of calculations while he also sets his crew about to inspect the ship and the base. He updates Mestor on their progress as well and is ordered to come back to Jocanda once the ship is repaired. The twins balk at their assignments, but Mestor, who is telepathic, enters their minds and threatens their lives if they do not work.

Having tended to Lt. Lang's life, the Doctor and Peri leave the TARDIS and proceed to the hidden base. They discover a service passage and enter. In the corridors, the Doctor has a regeneration fit and the noise and his subsequent inaction attracts the attention of the Jacondans sent to make repairs. They take the Doctor and Peri back to Edgeworth in the main control room, where Edgeworth has just finished a cycle of cellular reconstruction in a side machine.

The Doctor recognizes Edgeworth as Azmael, the former ruler of Jocanda whom he befriended as the Fourth Doctor. Edgeworth does not recognize the Doctor but believes him and elects to merely leave him prisoner on Titan 3. This angers Noma, Edgeworth's second-in-command and he silently triggers the self destruct system for the base. Edgeworth, the twins and the Jocandans teleport to their ship, having locked the Doctor in and scrambled the teleporter.

The Doctor begins to try and figure the combination for the lock when Peri discovers the self destruct mechanism. The Doctor then changes plans and reconfigures the cellular reconstructor to act as a time teleporter which will carry them back to the TARDIS. He sends Peri first and then attempts to time his own jump to arrive at the same time as her.

On the TARDIS, Lt. Lang wakes and finds his gun. He realizes the power pack is missing and goes to find it. He enters the wardrobe and selects a new shirt to replace his damaged one. In the pocket of this new shirt, he finds the power pack. Fully armed, he attempts to figure out how to leave the TARDIS when Peri materializes near the console. She ignores him and turns on the scanner to see the base explode. The Doctor materializes moments later, telling her that he mistimed his jump due to the watch he was using being broken.

The two finally notice Lt. Lang and they bring him up to speed on the situation. He reluctantly agrees to work with them to rescue the twins. The Doctor then takes the TARDIS to Jaconda and is shocked to find the once green world a wasteland. Seeing petrified slime trails, the Doctor realizes that the planet has been taken over by a race of humanoid slugs that were thought to only be part of Jacondan legend.

Reverting into a fit, the Doctor argues against going to the palace to rescue the twins but Lt. Lang forces the Doctor to go. He lands in the basement and the group begins to sneak about, the Doctor pointing out carvings that relay the legend of the slug invasion. The Doctor figures that one of the slug eggs must have survived the great purge many years ago and the slugs grew in force until they could take over. Confirming this theory, two slugs pass by. The group manages to avoid being seen but Lang accidently steps in the slime trail and is stuck, forcing him to try and cut himself out.

Edgeworth and his group land on Jaconda where he sets the twins to work on his plan to bring two outer planets into orbit around Jaconda to act as greenhouses to continuously supply food to Jaconda. Mestor comes down to check on them and attempt to show that his aims are benevolent. Mestor reluctantly agrees to give the twins a full day to work and will refrain from telepathically monitoring Edgeworth. Edgeworth is left alone with the boys and a Jacondan named Drak who is sympathetic to Edgeworth.

Lang manages to cut himself free, but the Doctor goes on ahead of them, still in his regeneration fit. Lang and Peri are discovered by Jacondan guards. Lang is knocked out but Peri is taken to Mestor. Meanwhile the Doctor discovers Edgeworth's lab and attacks him. Drak manages to pull him off and the fit passes. Edgeworth tells the Doctor his plan for moving the planets when a revived Lang burst in, telling the Doctor of Peri's capture. The Doctor, moves to go rescue her but is restrained by Lang and Edgeworth so as to not expose them.

Mestor elects not to kill Peri but does probe her mind and sends his guards to Edgeworth's lab. The guards arrest the Doctor and take him to Mestor, although they miss Lang. In the throne room, the Doctor offers his services to help move the planets based on his experience. Mestor is suspicious but agrees, sending the Doctor and Peri back to the lab.

In the lab, the twins finish their calculations but the Doctor points out a flaw in the plan. As the planets are of lower mass, moving them closer to the sun will eventually cause their orbits to degrade and plunge into the sun. Edgeworth agrees, kicking himself for not seeing this flaw. The Doctor asks to see the hatchery to try and determine what Mestor's real plan is. The eggs seem odd to him and they only respond when heat is applied. He realizes that Mestor's plan is to have the two outer planets plunge into the sun with the resulting plasma explosion destroying Jaconda and sending the now heat bathed eggs across the universe to hatch and infect other worlds.

The Doctor orders the twins to erase their calculations, keeping the knowledge in their heads alone. He orders Lang to take the twins and Peri back to the TARDIS while he and Edgeworth take on Mestor. The Doctor tells Drak to go with Lang but finds Drak dead, Mestor having burned out his mind using him to monitor them. The two groups head out in separate directions, the Doctor taking two vials of chemicals with him.

Lang's group wanders the tunnels looking for the TARDIS. As they approach, the run into Noma and two other guards, sent by Mestor. The twins jump in front, knowing that Mestor needs them alive. The Jacondan hesitation allows Lang to shoot the two guards. Noma gets a shot off and wounds Lang, but he is able to return fire and shoot the gun from Noma's hand. Peri and the twins pick up the dropped guns and hold Noma prisoner.

The Doctor and Edgeworth head to the throne room and the Doctor throws one of his vials at Mestor. Mestor activates a force field to protect himself. He then threatens to take over the Doctor's mind but the Doctor mocks him and invites him. However, instead of the Doctor, Mestor transfers his mind to Edgeworth. Edgeworth fights him and tells the Doctor to destroy Mestor's original body. The Doctor throws his second vial of chemicals, melting Mestor's body. Mestor and Edgeworth continue to fight mentally but the strain is too much and Edgeworth collapses. Unable to retreat to his own body, Mestor's consciousness is ejected from Edgeworth's body and he dissipates, causing all the controlled Jacondans to be released to their normal selves. Edgeworth dies in the Doctor's arms, having used all his regenerations prior to this body.

The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and offers to take the twins back to Earth. Lang elects to stay and become the new Master of Jaconda. Peri wishes him well but the Doctor dismisses him. As they leave in the TARDIS, Peri asks if the Doctor is having another fit to be so rude. The Doctor states that his mind has stabilized and that she is going to have to accept his new brusquer, alien personality.

Analysis

While The Twin Dilemma is not the horrible dreck it is occasionally made out to be, it is not by any means good. The story itself isn't too bad, and there is some potential both in the overall plan and the introduction of the Doctor, but it falls apart in so many other ways that those overwhelm the good aspects of the story.

The limited amount of good things in this story are pretty much the story concept, some of the language structure of the script and the performance of Edgeworth. I did enjoy him throughout the story as he begins with a quiet sinisterness; someone who does not want to harm but will if the situation is necessary. He evolves into a more sympathetic character, having compassion but also still understanding that hard choices must be made. I did enjoy his performance, although his death scene was a bit hokey.

That hokey-ness is just one of the myriad of flaws this story has. You would think that a story that has the Doctor attempting to strangle a companion could only improve from that point, but the story actually gets worse in later episodes. I thought the Doctor's fits were over the top acting but that he was somewhat restrained when operating in his "normal" mode in the beginning. His pomposity was actually somewhat amusing as you adjusted to it. But even his non-fit moments started to take on a silly over-the-top-ness as the story progressed. It then all came to a crashing end in the final scene.

There are certain stories that have been described by fans as moments where the show was overly arrogant in that fans would just accept anything put out by the producers. The final scene of the Doctor talking to Peri is probably one of the worst moments. The Doctor doesn't look directly at the camera like he does at the end of The Caves of Androzani but his telling of Peri that she has no choice and must just accept him is a jab in the eye at the people who watched the show. Even worse is that there is total tone confusion in the scene. As the Doctor speaks, the music goes full minor, giving a dark edge to the scene, almost like a villain making a threat to a hostage. But then he smiles slightly and Peri responds like she just got the joke and that throws further confusion in to the scene. Is she going Stockholm Syndrome? Is this some sort of private joke between them? The scene just doesn't make any sense in what it is trying to accomplish other than to tell people to shut up and not whine about the new Doctor. It is just highly off-putting.

The acting outside of the Doctor and Edgeworth is a real mixed bag. Mestor, although limited by his costume, does a fairly good job. He comes across as fairly sinister and has a real Jabba the Hut angle going, although I think he seems more competent than Jabba. Lang was okay, although not overly memorable. Noma, likewise, did a decent job as the lackey, although I wouldn't call anything about his performance overly distinguishing. The twins were not good, although I didn't think they were as bad as fans say. They seemed like prototypical child actors, limited in scope and emotion, thus coming across as fairly bland. I wouldn't call their performance bad, just boring. As children, that earns them a bit of a pass in my book where as you would be harder on a similar performance from an adult.

Unquestionably, the worst acting comes from Peri. She never, ever, loses the whiney wibble in her voice and she seems genuinely stunted in her emotional range while trying to maintain the American accent. The script takes her all over the place, going from confused, to defiant, to back to submissive. The worst moment is the cliffhanger to Episode Two where she thinks the Doctor has been blown up. She scrunches up her face like she is about to cry but it comes across as so fake looking. I think I have seen better acting in high school dramas for that emotion. It is just absolutely terrible. Her only good moments come when she is standing up and fighting with the Doctor, calling him out on his crap. But she then either retreats too quickly into diminutive status or presses too hard and maintains the anger when it is not required that the overall effect of that momentary good bit is lost in the overplaying of the whole.

The set design wasn't bad, albeit very 1980's and I actually thought the Jacondans didn't look too bad. They had a more real look that you might expect for painting the face of an actor silver. Not the best alien ever seen on the show but far from the worst. Mestor on the other hand was terrible. The slugs in general weren't very good as there should have been a better attempt at making them look like they are slithering rather than shuffling. But Mestor himself was so limited by the terribleness of his mask. The worst part was the large plastic eyes that never moved. So much acting happens in the eyes and to have a creature that is supposed to be this sinister and cunning just stare half cross-eyed whenever being addressed. The costume would have been better served to eliminate any traces of eyes in the front and pretend that his eyes were on the stalks protruding from his head like slugs actually do. That would have made him slightly more unnerving to look at and emphasized his alien-ness. It also doesn't help that after visiting with the twins in Episode Three, you can see several Jacondan extras helping Mestor up the stairs by grabbing his arms. It either is a breaking of the illusion by the acting needing help just to get off the set, or it weakens Mestor's credibility as a villain as he cannot even leave a room without help.

Overall, I can't say that I enjoyed this story. I was feeling open-minded about this story at first and thought that it might be able to overcome some of it's limitations in the beginning. In the first episode and a half, I thought that maybe that fans were a little harsh on this story and that something could be salvaged by it, perhaps able to shoot for something in the 2 to 2.5 range. But it just continued to decline and by the end, I was just glad to be done with it. A decent story attempt but bad acting, mediocre direction, and inconsistency in production drug it down to the depths. Again, I will say that it is not a total loss or that it is dreck of the caliber of Dimensions in Time, but I can't think of any good reason why someone would want to watch this story for a second time. Definitely a poor start for the Sixth Doctor and an awful chaser to the prior story.

Overall personal score: 0.5 out of 5