When summing up the number of stories, you might have thought that I would finish the 5th Doctor next. In fact, when doing something like this, unless going in order, I would think that the Second Doctor would be nearly the last one to finish just due to the volume of reconstructions that have to be tackled. Personally, I think it stands as a testament as to my enjoyment of the Second Doctor that he is the fourth Doctor for me to finish his stories.
Now, it should be pointed out that while I would rate the Second Doctor as my favorite, his stories can leave a lot to be desired. Obviously there is the whole issue with the fact that most of them have one or more missing episodes, but on top of that, you have a number of stories that are very heavily padded and can just drag things out to no end. I've lost count on the number of six-part or more stories that I admit that I would have rated higher if they had just been trimmed down a bit. The Abominable Snowmen is one that immediately comes to mind in that regard. So it is important to note that while I will consider the Second Doctor to be my favorite, at least of the classic era, there is a good chance that he will not have the highest average rating as far as his stories go.
So what is it about the Second Doctor that sets him above say the Fourth Doctor, who is the default favorite Doctor for many fans, certainly of the American persuasion? For me, I think it's the balance the Second Doctor has between being on his heels and also in control of the situation. The Second Doctor has a scene in nearly every story where he appears to be caught off guard or surprised or in some kind of trouble. But at the same time, he also almost always has a scene where he leans back and simply out-thinks his enemy. He maneuvers in such a way that he'll use their strength or an unknown weakness against them. It's a control such as we see with the Seventh Doctor, but not so much control as to make the plot seem completely irrelevant due to his ability to see so far forward.
Another aspect of the Second Doctor that I find appealing is that he is probably the warmest of the Doctors. If the First Doctor developed into a more kindly, grandfatherly type figure, the Second Doctor fully embraced the pleasure in just being with others and helping people. One of the Second Doctor's most famous moments is his little pep talk with Victoria about mourning her father in The Tomb of the Cybermen. It is nearly impossible to imagine any other Doctor giving that kind of warm reassurance just because of how alien and removed from humanity they become. While you want the Doctor to have a measure of alien-ness, it's nice to have that reassurance that he is looking out for those he cares about while battling the various "beasties" as Jamie would say.
The companions are another aspect of the Second Doctor era to think of. Jamie is great stand-out as he is the Second Doctor's companion for all but his first story. He also was a fine example of how a person from the past could make a great companion as he is forced to need a bit more explanation than a more modern companion would. He also was the staple man of action, both for good and for ill as he occasionally would wreck the Doctor's plans with his bull rushes.
Jamie's addition was to the detriment of Ben, who was not a bad companion but was short-changed by the loss of lines and action moments to Jamie. Polly got it a bit better at times but the temptation to due to the kettle joke kept her in an overly passive roll too often, although I think that would have happened to just about any female companion.
Then you have the contrasts with Victoria and Zoe. Victoria took over the Polly role with the damsel in distress but unfortunately didn't ever add much. While Polly had moments of dynamism and charm, Victoria was almost always demure and the first voice to suggest fleeing. Victoria never caught the spirit of adventure which did make her departure in Fury From the Deep feel that much more natural.
In contrast, you have Zoe, a sharp dynamic woman who wants nothing more than to go out, have adventures and grow as an overall person. Her personality also lent itself so well as she would often go toe-to-toe with the Doctor in intellectual sparring matches, adding more comedy as she bested him on occasion. Zoe could be the damsel in distress but she wouldn't go lying down and would at least put up a sharp fight. Unquestionably, the companion relationship was at it's height in Season Six with Jamie and Zoe.
Overall, the Second Doctor is just one that I enjoy and I'm rather sad that I've finished all of his stories. Obviously I can go back and watched them all again, but there's something special about seeing a story for a first time. Of course, perhaps we'll get lucky and someone will discover more missing episodes of his era. It's about as close as we could get to new classic episodes and I would imagine that it would only raise the Second Doctor's profile if more of his era could be seen. But for now, I'll just appreciate what we have and enjoy that.
Highest Rated Story: The War Games - 5.0
Lowest Rated Story: The Underwater Menace - 1.5
Average overall rating: 3.36
The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks (animated)
The Highlanders
The Underwater Menace
The Moonbase
The Macra Terror
The Faceless Ones
The Evil of the Daleks
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Abominable Snowmen
The Ice Warriors
The Enemy of the World
The Web of Fear
Fury From the Deep
The Wheel in Space
The Dominators
The Mind Robber
The Invasion
The Krotons
The Seeds of Death
The Space Pirates
The War Games
Monday, July 31, 2017
Friday, July 28, 2017
The Evil of the Daleks
Jamie, Doctor... friends.
This is the last of the Second Doctor stories for me to review and I was planning on holding off on it a bit longer, but with the news of Deborah Watling's passing, I couldn't think of a more apt time to revisit it. I say revisit as I have actually seen it once before. I recall it being interesting but a bit drug out, being seven parts. But perhaps that was also in how I watched it as I tend to watch recons in large chunks rather than spacing them out as I do with most classic stories. We'll see how it goes a second time around.
Plot Summary
At the airport following Ben and Polly's departure, the Doctor and Jamie see the TARDIS being hauled away on the back of a truck. They head to a hanger and talk to a man in maintenance coveralls called Hall. Hall notes the taking of the TARDIS but only comes alive when the Doctor mentions getting the police. He give them a fake delivery company name and they leave. Hall then contacts a fellow conspirator named Kennedy who was watching from a distance.
The Doctor and Jamie duck behind some pumps and watch Hall leave. The Doctor suspects something and follows Hall's car in a cab. Kennedy also leaves and meets with Hall at a prearranged meeting point. He pays Hall for his job of posing as a worker and tries to get him to knock the Doctor and Jamie out. Hall refuses so Kennedy knocks Hall out instead and then bolts out of the room when Jamie and the Doctor enter. They find a matchbook for a coffee bar with the name of The Tricolour on it. Hall wakes and runs out of the room. Jamie and the Doctor try to follow but lose him. With no other options, they head to the coffee bar. Kennedy, watching from the shadows, leaves by another route.
Kennedy reports to his employer, Professor Waterfield, who sells Victoriana. Waterfield is pleased that the Doctor is heading to the bar and opts not to worry about Hall's flight to the north of England. Waterfield calls in his shop manager, Perry, and asks him to go to the coffee bar and request that the Doctor and Jamie meet at his shop at 10pm that night, giving Perry pictures of the Doctor and Jamie. Perry agrees and sets off while Waterfield heads into a locked back room filled with futuristic equipment where he demands answers from an unseen entity.
The Doctor and Jamie arrive at the bar and ask about the man named Kennedy. They have no luck but are approached by Perry who delivers Waterfield's request. Jamie and the Doctor agree to come by that evening. Perry tells Waterfield who in turn orders Kennedy to prepare. Waterfield leaves to change his clothes as well but Kennedy slips into Waterfield's office after he leaves. Kennedy finds the key to the secret room and enters. He activates the machines before discovering the safe. While he cracks the safe, a Dalek materializes from the machine behind him and demands to know who he is.
Kennedy tries to run but the Dalek kills him just as he exits the room. Waterfield comes in and finds the body and the Dalek. He is appalled but the Dalek threatens him and orders him to continue. Waterfield then takes a picture of the Doctor and tears it in half. He puts one half in Kennedy's hand and the other sticking out of a box next to the machine with a glass vial inside.
The Doctor and Jamie sneak into Waterfield's shop at 9:30 to find extra information. They quickly deduce that Waterfield may actually be from the Victorian era as his antiques seem genuine but brand new. The hear a noise and hide as Perry enters to listen at the door. They surprise him and he tells them about taking the TARDIS. They are about to go and try to recover it when the study door opens.
Inside the study, they find Kennedy's body. Perry tries to call the police but the phone is giving off static. He heads out to find a policeman while the Doctor examines the body. He finds the picture and deduces that there must be a hidden room behind the bookcase. They search and find the keyhole. While searching for the key the door opens. They enter and Jamie sees the other half of the picture. When he pulls it, the lid of the box pops open and releases gas from the vial. The gas knocks out both of them. Waterfield emerges from his hiding spot and closes the box. He then activates the machine and all three of them disappear.
The Doctor wakes the next morning in the house of Theodore Maxtible, Waterfield's backer in his time experiments. After a maid revives the Doctor, Maxtible and Waterfield take the Doctor down to the lab where they explain that while they were experimenting, they accidently opened a doorway for the Daleks. The Daleks captured Waterfield's daughter Victoria and forced him to steal the TARDIS and kidnap the Doctor. A Dalek appears from the cabinet where Waterfield's machine is located and tells the Doctor that they will be putting Jamie through a test and extracting a human factor from the results.
Jamie wakes from the gas but before he is fully roused, a thug named Toby enters and knocks him back out. He also knocks out the maid and then takes Jamie out of the house. He takes him to a nearby barn where Toby is paid off by Arthur Terrall, fiancé to Ruth Maxtible. Arthur seems to be under some sort of mind control and has occasional fits where he is able to fight it off. Relapsing, he leaves as the Doctor enters and takes Jamie back to the house.
The Doctor allows Jamie to overhear him talking to Waterfield about the experiment the Daleks are setting up. Meanwhile, preparations are being made for the test. The Daleks move Victoria from her regular cell to a locked room in the south wing of the house. Maxtible also takes a mute strongman Turk named Kemel and sets him as a guard inside the first door of the passage, gives him a picture of Jamie and tells him to fight him off if he arrives.
Angry at what he feels is a trick by the Doctor, Jamie argues with the Doctor and Waterfield and storms off. The Doctor however, manipulated his words and is confident that Jamie will ultimately take the noble action and try to rescue Victoria. He is justified a while later when Maxtible informs the Daleks that Jamie has moved just outside the entrance to the south wing.
Jamie meets the maid, Mollie, outside the door and she gives him a plan of the house as he requested. They hear a scream (the Daleks just murdered Toby who had snuck back to the house to steal more money) and Jamie orders Molly back to her room. He opens the first door and eludes a booby trap of spikes falling from the doorway. He proceeds through where he meets Kemel at the end of the passage.
Kemel and Jamie fight but Jamie manages to stun Kemel and gets past him. Kemel follows Jamie but Jamie locks himself into a storage room looking for a weapon. Kemel rushes the door and Jamie sidesteps it, allowing Kemel to burst through. Kemel's momentum carries him out a window where he grabs the edge of a gutter. Jamie grabs a rope and hauls him back into the room. Once Kemel is safe, Jamie moves on to look for Victoria. He spies a handkerchief in Victoria's old cell and bends down to look at it. Kemel rushes in and pushes Jamie just as another booby trap falls on the spot.
The Doctor points out that Jamie's act of mercy saved his life to a skeptical Dalek. Meanwhile, Waterfield and Maxtible find Toby's body. Waterfield wants to tell the Doctor but the Daleks insist on disposing it. Waterfield admits he can't take it and will confess his crimes when Victoria is rescued. Maxtible takes a gun from a drawer and follows Waterfield. In the barn, Maxtible berates Waterfield for his weakness while Arthur listens in the shadows. As Waterfield heads back to the house, Maxtible turns to shoot him but Arthur grabs him and insists it not happen yet.
Jamie and Kemel become friendly and Kemel insists on helping Jamie to rescue her. They head down the corridors, following the occasional Dalek. Jamie sets off another booby trap, which they manage to avoid. The Doctor points out that instinct is also necessary rather than a cold reliance on logic.
A Dalek calls out and forces Victoria to state her name. Jamie and Kemel spot her and plan her rescue. While they do so, Arthur catches Mollie who had heard Victoria calling her name. Arthur angrily dismisses her when Ruth enters and stops his tirade. She tries to get him to leave but he rejects her.
Maxtible tries to get the Daleks to leave and hold up their end of the bargain. The Dalek dismisses Maxtible but does state that they will share a specific secret with him. As it leaves, Ruth enters and demands to know what is going on. Maxtible does not come clean but states that soon he will know the secret of transforming ordinary metal into gold. As he does so, he takes on the appearance of a man becoming unhinged.
A Dalek calls for Victoria to stand for inspection a second time. As that completes, Jamie and Kemel pull a rope across the room and crash it into the fireplace. They then throw the rope up to the banister allowing Jamie to climb the rope up to Jamie's room. Kemel follows him up the rope. Jamie knocks on the door but as he does so, a Dalek emerges with a second entering the area below. Jamie pulls the rope around and uses it to send the Dalek crashing to the floor below. He and Kemel then run into Victoria's room and bar themselves in.
In the kitchen, the Doctor gets himself something to drink and runs into Arthur. The Doctor talks with him but notes that he doesn't eat or drink. He also magnetizes metal objects when he holds them. The Doctor returns to the lab as Arthur struggles again with his natural mind and the programing the Daleks have placed on him. He heads into the hall where he finds Maxtible hypnotizing Mollie and urging her that all that happened was a dream. When she returns to her room, he tells Arthur to retrieve Victoria from her prison via a secret passage.
Having isolated Jamie's emotional responses, the Doctor sets about implanting them in the dormant Dalek brains brought to him. Waterfield fears that the new Daleks will become a superior race and will destroy all of humanity. He tries to stop the Doctor, but the Doctor restrains him, noting that the Daleks still have Victoria and Jamie.
The Daleks begin to melt their way through the door to Victoria's room. While Jamie and Kemel try to block the door with additional rubbish, Arthur opens a secret passage and grabs Victoria. She cries out in the passage just enough for Jamie to realize that there is a secret door. He manages to open it and he and Kemel run down the passage after her. Victoria manages to get loose from Arthur at a fork and runs down the other passage. Arthur, knowing he is pursued, runs the other way. At the fork, Jamie and Kemel split up.
Jamie emerges in the trophy room and is attacked by Arthur with a sword. He manages to duck and grabs a sword of his own. They fight in the room, their clashing blades attracting the attention of Ruth and Mollie. Ruth sends Mollie for the Doctor while imploring Arthur to stop. As the Doctor enters, Jamie catches Arthur in the back with his blade, loosening a small control box. Arthur immediately drops to the ground as the Dalek control over him is lost. The Doctor urges Ruth and Mollie to take Arthur in the carriage and get away from the house as fast as possible.
Kemel emerges in the lab and find Victoria unconscious. He bends over her as a Dalek emerges from the cabinet. The Dalek orders Kemel to take Victoria into the cabinet. He hesitates but finally does what they say. A few minutes later, Jamie, the Doctor and Maxtible enter the lab. Jamie is still angry at the Doctor and implies that he will leave due to the Doctor's callousness. The Doctor urges Jamie to have patience and see what has happened. He unveils three Daleks that have been implanted with the "human factor". They push their way towards the Doctor and take him for a ride around the lab, playing a game with him.
After finishing their games, the Daleks enter the cabinet to return to Skaro. The Doctor and Jamie leave to go find Victoria, unaware that she and Kemel have been taken to Skaro. Maxtible meanwhile tries to dismiss Waterfield's concerns about Victoria, implying that she has been freed by the Daleks and must be wandering about the house. He shoos Waterfield away but Waterfield stays near and overhears Maxtible insisting that the Daleks give him the formula to transmute metal into gold. The Daleks ignore him and insist he bring the Doctor to them while setting up a device in the lab.
After the Dalek leaves, Waterfield attacks Maxtible but Maxtible knocks him down. Realizing that the Daleks have planted a bomb, Maxtible rails against what the Daleks are doing and chases them through the cabinet. The Doctor and Jamie find Waterfield and the bomb. They grab Waterfield and the three of them also head into the cabinet to travel through the machine to Skaro, just before the bomb destroys the entire house.
The Daleks are angry with Maxtible for not bringing the Doctor with him and they imprison him with Victoria and Kemel. Shortly afterwards, an alarm is triggered when the Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield enter an access tunnel to try and sneak into the Dalek city. Discovering that the Doctor has named the three human factor Daleks, one of the Daleks attempts to pose as a human factor Dalek to trap the Doctor. The Doctor however realizes the deception and pushes it off a cliff.
The Daleks next force Maxtible to shock Victoria into screaming. The sound carries and the trio follows it to a passageway where they are intercepted by other Daleks. The Daleks take the trio into the main chamber where the Emperor Dalek is waiting. The Emperor informs the Doctor that they used his experiment to create a specific Dalek factor and they now insist that he spread it through humanity with the TARDIS, which they have also taken to Skaro.
The Doctor refuses but is told that he will and they are sent to the same prison cell as Victoria, Kemel and Maxtible. The Daleks later open the door and show a machine that appears to turn iron into gold. Maxtible runs through the door towards the machine but as he does so, he is hit with a wave across the door and infused with the Dalek factor. He becomes a mindless servant of the Daleks.
Maxtible returns to the cell and encourages the Doctor to come with him as the TARDIS has been taken out of the city. Steeling himself, the Doctor walks though the doorway and is also hit with the Dalek factor. He appears to be like Maxtible but stops to examine the machines the produce the Dalek factor and will be used to spread it to Earth. Maxtible leaves and the Doctor, now acting as his normal self, switches a pod in the control panel from the Dalek factor to the human factor he developed in Maxtible's lab. He whispers to Jamie to not be afraid to walk through when he returns. A Dalek enters and he is taken to see the Emperor.
In the main chamber, the Emperor is informed that the Daleks infused with the human factor have been questioning orders. The Doctor, pretending he is under Dalek control, suggest that the Daleks pass through the doorway to overwrite the human factor and reinfuse the Dalek factor. The Emperor orders it and several Daleks pass through the corridor, becoming infused with the human factor.
The newly infused Daleks begin to question orders from a regular Dalek and it shoots one of the new Daleks. The other human infused Daleks respond and destroy the initial Dalek. The Doctor returns to the room and orders Jamie, Waterfield, Victoria and Kemel out of the city to the TARDIS. He leaves but Waterfield follows him while the others leave the city. The Doctor points out another attack by a regular Dalek and tells the human-infused Daleks that they might fight to survive.
A regular Dalek sees the Doctor and shoots at him but Waterfield steps into the beam and is killed. The Dalek is then destroyed by the other faction. The human-infused Daleks push into the main chamber where the Emperor is destroyed in the crossfire.
Maxtible runs after Jamie, Victoria and Kemel where he attacks Kemel, screaming like a Dalek about killing. He pushes Kemel off the cliff, killing him and then runs back to the city to enter the fight. He slips past the Doctor, who is hiding behind a grate. After Maxtible goes past, the Doctor runs and catches up with Jamie and Victoria. They reach the TARDIS and observe the two factions of Daleks destroying each other.
Analysis
If The Evil of the Daleks kept the pacing and mystery of the first two episodes (and kept itself to four or five parts) I have no doubt that genuine debates would be had between fans as to whether it was the best Dalek story of all time. Unfortunately, it does not and starting in Episode Three, it begins to fall off from it's gripping beginning. It does start to pick itself back up but it does have a bit of a lull in the middle. I suspect the lull wouldn't be quite as pronounced if the episodes existed but it is there.
Now, to be fair, I think the effort to infuse the middle lull with action and plot development does succeed on some level. This is the Second Doctor in a state that I really enjoy: caught flat-footed initially, but now working on a plan to escape the situation. He manipulates Jamie into carrying out the task (which is also a testament to his faith in Jamie's ability to rescue Victoria) and he has an almost smug attitude towards the Daleks as Jamie advances. He's nearly mocking the Daleks for not seeing both the admirable traits in Jamie that are allowing him to succeed and the fact that he is going to create Daleks that will upend the order of the Daleks. This is the Second Doctor at his best, not all-seeing, but quick-thinking and with the ability to create plans that require patience and will result in the total destruction of the enemy.
Although Victoria is introduced in this story, she is a prisoner during the whole and does not function in a companion role. So this is the first story of the Second Doctor run where Jamie is the only companion (The Wheel in Space being the other). Frankly, he's good enough that I think they could have had a full season with just the two of them. Their dynamic might have gotten stale towards the end, but they play so well off each other that I think it would have worked. It certainly does here as Jamie goes the whole gambit of emotions with the Doctor: loyalty, feelings of betrayal, Watsonian assistant, and dashing hero. Jamie is constantly enjoyable in what he does.
Most of the other guest cast is pretty good as well. The person the most short-changed is Kemel as he is silent and that doesn't do much in a recon. Fortunately, there are some telesnaps so you can see that he was visually expressive. Arthur and Ruth were the most superfluous as I never really understood what was going on with Arthur. He was being controlled by the Daleks but for what purpose? Waterfield was controlled via the threat to Victoria and Maxtible was deep in a belief that the Daleks would give him the ability to make gold. So why have Arthur under spell? My guess would be that the Daleks wanted a mobile spy and Arthur was convenient, but that doesn't fully explain all his actions. Why send the thug Toby to kidnap Jamie? Why prevent Maxtible for killing Waterfield once the Doctor has arrived? I have a feeling that more was intended with Arthur but that subplot was dropped in favor of more action scenes with Jamie and Kemel and then Arthur, Ruth and Mollie are drop kicked out of the story just to ensure they don't die when the Daleks destroy the house.
Despite Arthur and Ruth being a bit of a dead end, the real weakest character is actually Victoria. Victoria is not a terrible companion but this story does foreshadow her primary function and that is to be the screaming damsel in distress for most of the run. She has almost no personality development aside from being generally kind-hearted in her feeding of the birds and her treatment of Kemel. She does fight Arthur when he tries to kidnap her so she must have some spirit, but nothing else is really done for her, unlike Samantha in The Faceless Ones, who was clearly being groomed to be a companion. If you didn't already know that Victoria was going to be a companion, the viewer would likely dismiss her out of hand.
The Daleks were quite good in this story. They were not as devious as in The Power of the Daleks but they didn't need to be. They held all the cards and could impose their will as they saw fit. Yet, it was not the mindless killing that we usually get from the Daleks. They had a plan and displayed cunning, both in their trap to lure the Doctor as well as the maze they led Jamie into. Even their final plan was a bit deeper than expected. So much time is spent on the idea of infusing the Daleks with a factor of humanity that it is a bit of shock to learn that it's really a means of honing the purity of a Dalek and then conquering humanity by making them more Dalek-like. I also like to think that this infusion of humanity and it's counter for genetic purity is what starts the factional fighting that first pops up in Resurrection of the Daleks, although since I haven't seen that one yet, I can't confirm that part of my head cannon.
It is a real shame that this doesn't exist as Episode Two is nicely framed and shows some interesting directorial ideas. I was completely surprised when one transition was made using a circle wipe as that seemed rather extravagant for Doctor Who. There's also so much of this story that is clearly done with visual media that you just can't capture with pictures, computer regenerations and replacement actors with their heads not showing. It's all a noble effort but it just makes you pine for the moving images that much more. The final battle in Episode Seven would be worth watching as you get enough from the behind the scenes footage available on the Lost in Time DVD to wet your appetite that much more.
As far as the overall story, you have three phases. There is the mystery in Episodes One and Two and that is the most engaging part to me. You have the testing of Jamie and his little adventures which cover Episodes Three, Four and Five. Then you have the final confrontation on Skaro which is set up in Episode Six and carried out in Seven. Jamie's test is the most padded and where the lull really kicks in. It's not boring (or at least not to me) but you can feel the padding going on. The testing of Jamie and the development of the human factor could easily have been cut down to one or one and a half episodes. In fact, I think this would have been a really tight five-part story, especially if you drop Arthur and Ruth wholesale. Still, the two extra episodes of padding are reasonably well rounded and I think they are only a serious problem if you are watching them all back-to-back with no break. Putting a day between each, eases out the padding and makes it a bit more interesting, in my opinion.
There are recon stories out there that can feel like a real slog. To me, this is not one of them. I enjoyed this story even more the second time around and I think my spacing of the padding in Episodes Three through Five had a lot to do with it. It's not perfect and being a recon does knock it down a peg in my book, but it is a good story and will appeal to most people if they can get past the recon aspect of it. If this were animated, I think it would draw a lot of folks in. It is slightly unfortunate that Victoria is introduced so quietly, but she does come around and has some good moments in Season Five. But I think it's fair to say that I rather enjoyed this one and would revisit it. That is more than doubly so if any part of it was recovered.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
This is the last of the Second Doctor stories for me to review and I was planning on holding off on it a bit longer, but with the news of Deborah Watling's passing, I couldn't think of a more apt time to revisit it. I say revisit as I have actually seen it once before. I recall it being interesting but a bit drug out, being seven parts. But perhaps that was also in how I watched it as I tend to watch recons in large chunks rather than spacing them out as I do with most classic stories. We'll see how it goes a second time around.
Plot Summary
At the airport following Ben and Polly's departure, the Doctor and Jamie see the TARDIS being hauled away on the back of a truck. They head to a hanger and talk to a man in maintenance coveralls called Hall. Hall notes the taking of the TARDIS but only comes alive when the Doctor mentions getting the police. He give them a fake delivery company name and they leave. Hall then contacts a fellow conspirator named Kennedy who was watching from a distance.
The Doctor and Jamie duck behind some pumps and watch Hall leave. The Doctor suspects something and follows Hall's car in a cab. Kennedy also leaves and meets with Hall at a prearranged meeting point. He pays Hall for his job of posing as a worker and tries to get him to knock the Doctor and Jamie out. Hall refuses so Kennedy knocks Hall out instead and then bolts out of the room when Jamie and the Doctor enter. They find a matchbook for a coffee bar with the name of The Tricolour on it. Hall wakes and runs out of the room. Jamie and the Doctor try to follow but lose him. With no other options, they head to the coffee bar. Kennedy, watching from the shadows, leaves by another route.
Kennedy reports to his employer, Professor Waterfield, who sells Victoriana. Waterfield is pleased that the Doctor is heading to the bar and opts not to worry about Hall's flight to the north of England. Waterfield calls in his shop manager, Perry, and asks him to go to the coffee bar and request that the Doctor and Jamie meet at his shop at 10pm that night, giving Perry pictures of the Doctor and Jamie. Perry agrees and sets off while Waterfield heads into a locked back room filled with futuristic equipment where he demands answers from an unseen entity.
The Doctor and Jamie arrive at the bar and ask about the man named Kennedy. They have no luck but are approached by Perry who delivers Waterfield's request. Jamie and the Doctor agree to come by that evening. Perry tells Waterfield who in turn orders Kennedy to prepare. Waterfield leaves to change his clothes as well but Kennedy slips into Waterfield's office after he leaves. Kennedy finds the key to the secret room and enters. He activates the machines before discovering the safe. While he cracks the safe, a Dalek materializes from the machine behind him and demands to know who he is.
Kennedy tries to run but the Dalek kills him just as he exits the room. Waterfield comes in and finds the body and the Dalek. He is appalled but the Dalek threatens him and orders him to continue. Waterfield then takes a picture of the Doctor and tears it in half. He puts one half in Kennedy's hand and the other sticking out of a box next to the machine with a glass vial inside.
The Doctor and Jamie sneak into Waterfield's shop at 9:30 to find extra information. They quickly deduce that Waterfield may actually be from the Victorian era as his antiques seem genuine but brand new. The hear a noise and hide as Perry enters to listen at the door. They surprise him and he tells them about taking the TARDIS. They are about to go and try to recover it when the study door opens.
Inside the study, they find Kennedy's body. Perry tries to call the police but the phone is giving off static. He heads out to find a policeman while the Doctor examines the body. He finds the picture and deduces that there must be a hidden room behind the bookcase. They search and find the keyhole. While searching for the key the door opens. They enter and Jamie sees the other half of the picture. When he pulls it, the lid of the box pops open and releases gas from the vial. The gas knocks out both of them. Waterfield emerges from his hiding spot and closes the box. He then activates the machine and all three of them disappear.
The Doctor wakes the next morning in the house of Theodore Maxtible, Waterfield's backer in his time experiments. After a maid revives the Doctor, Maxtible and Waterfield take the Doctor down to the lab where they explain that while they were experimenting, they accidently opened a doorway for the Daleks. The Daleks captured Waterfield's daughter Victoria and forced him to steal the TARDIS and kidnap the Doctor. A Dalek appears from the cabinet where Waterfield's machine is located and tells the Doctor that they will be putting Jamie through a test and extracting a human factor from the results.
Jamie wakes from the gas but before he is fully roused, a thug named Toby enters and knocks him back out. He also knocks out the maid and then takes Jamie out of the house. He takes him to a nearby barn where Toby is paid off by Arthur Terrall, fiancé to Ruth Maxtible. Arthur seems to be under some sort of mind control and has occasional fits where he is able to fight it off. Relapsing, he leaves as the Doctor enters and takes Jamie back to the house.
The Doctor allows Jamie to overhear him talking to Waterfield about the experiment the Daleks are setting up. Meanwhile, preparations are being made for the test. The Daleks move Victoria from her regular cell to a locked room in the south wing of the house. Maxtible also takes a mute strongman Turk named Kemel and sets him as a guard inside the first door of the passage, gives him a picture of Jamie and tells him to fight him off if he arrives.
Angry at what he feels is a trick by the Doctor, Jamie argues with the Doctor and Waterfield and storms off. The Doctor however, manipulated his words and is confident that Jamie will ultimately take the noble action and try to rescue Victoria. He is justified a while later when Maxtible informs the Daleks that Jamie has moved just outside the entrance to the south wing.
Jamie meets the maid, Mollie, outside the door and she gives him a plan of the house as he requested. They hear a scream (the Daleks just murdered Toby who had snuck back to the house to steal more money) and Jamie orders Molly back to her room. He opens the first door and eludes a booby trap of spikes falling from the doorway. He proceeds through where he meets Kemel at the end of the passage.
Kemel and Jamie fight but Jamie manages to stun Kemel and gets past him. Kemel follows Jamie but Jamie locks himself into a storage room looking for a weapon. Kemel rushes the door and Jamie sidesteps it, allowing Kemel to burst through. Kemel's momentum carries him out a window where he grabs the edge of a gutter. Jamie grabs a rope and hauls him back into the room. Once Kemel is safe, Jamie moves on to look for Victoria. He spies a handkerchief in Victoria's old cell and bends down to look at it. Kemel rushes in and pushes Jamie just as another booby trap falls on the spot.
The Doctor points out that Jamie's act of mercy saved his life to a skeptical Dalek. Meanwhile, Waterfield and Maxtible find Toby's body. Waterfield wants to tell the Doctor but the Daleks insist on disposing it. Waterfield admits he can't take it and will confess his crimes when Victoria is rescued. Maxtible takes a gun from a drawer and follows Waterfield. In the barn, Maxtible berates Waterfield for his weakness while Arthur listens in the shadows. As Waterfield heads back to the house, Maxtible turns to shoot him but Arthur grabs him and insists it not happen yet.
Jamie and Kemel become friendly and Kemel insists on helping Jamie to rescue her. They head down the corridors, following the occasional Dalek. Jamie sets off another booby trap, which they manage to avoid. The Doctor points out that instinct is also necessary rather than a cold reliance on logic.
A Dalek calls out and forces Victoria to state her name. Jamie and Kemel spot her and plan her rescue. While they do so, Arthur catches Mollie who had heard Victoria calling her name. Arthur angrily dismisses her when Ruth enters and stops his tirade. She tries to get him to leave but he rejects her.
Maxtible tries to get the Daleks to leave and hold up their end of the bargain. The Dalek dismisses Maxtible but does state that they will share a specific secret with him. As it leaves, Ruth enters and demands to know what is going on. Maxtible does not come clean but states that soon he will know the secret of transforming ordinary metal into gold. As he does so, he takes on the appearance of a man becoming unhinged.
A Dalek calls for Victoria to stand for inspection a second time. As that completes, Jamie and Kemel pull a rope across the room and crash it into the fireplace. They then throw the rope up to the banister allowing Jamie to climb the rope up to Jamie's room. Kemel follows him up the rope. Jamie knocks on the door but as he does so, a Dalek emerges with a second entering the area below. Jamie pulls the rope around and uses it to send the Dalek crashing to the floor below. He and Kemel then run into Victoria's room and bar themselves in.
In the kitchen, the Doctor gets himself something to drink and runs into Arthur. The Doctor talks with him but notes that he doesn't eat or drink. He also magnetizes metal objects when he holds them. The Doctor returns to the lab as Arthur struggles again with his natural mind and the programing the Daleks have placed on him. He heads into the hall where he finds Maxtible hypnotizing Mollie and urging her that all that happened was a dream. When she returns to her room, he tells Arthur to retrieve Victoria from her prison via a secret passage.
Having isolated Jamie's emotional responses, the Doctor sets about implanting them in the dormant Dalek brains brought to him. Waterfield fears that the new Daleks will become a superior race and will destroy all of humanity. He tries to stop the Doctor, but the Doctor restrains him, noting that the Daleks still have Victoria and Jamie.
The Daleks begin to melt their way through the door to Victoria's room. While Jamie and Kemel try to block the door with additional rubbish, Arthur opens a secret passage and grabs Victoria. She cries out in the passage just enough for Jamie to realize that there is a secret door. He manages to open it and he and Kemel run down the passage after her. Victoria manages to get loose from Arthur at a fork and runs down the other passage. Arthur, knowing he is pursued, runs the other way. At the fork, Jamie and Kemel split up.
Jamie emerges in the trophy room and is attacked by Arthur with a sword. He manages to duck and grabs a sword of his own. They fight in the room, their clashing blades attracting the attention of Ruth and Mollie. Ruth sends Mollie for the Doctor while imploring Arthur to stop. As the Doctor enters, Jamie catches Arthur in the back with his blade, loosening a small control box. Arthur immediately drops to the ground as the Dalek control over him is lost. The Doctor urges Ruth and Mollie to take Arthur in the carriage and get away from the house as fast as possible.
Kemel emerges in the lab and find Victoria unconscious. He bends over her as a Dalek emerges from the cabinet. The Dalek orders Kemel to take Victoria into the cabinet. He hesitates but finally does what they say. A few minutes later, Jamie, the Doctor and Maxtible enter the lab. Jamie is still angry at the Doctor and implies that he will leave due to the Doctor's callousness. The Doctor urges Jamie to have patience and see what has happened. He unveils three Daleks that have been implanted with the "human factor". They push their way towards the Doctor and take him for a ride around the lab, playing a game with him.
After finishing their games, the Daleks enter the cabinet to return to Skaro. The Doctor and Jamie leave to go find Victoria, unaware that she and Kemel have been taken to Skaro. Maxtible meanwhile tries to dismiss Waterfield's concerns about Victoria, implying that she has been freed by the Daleks and must be wandering about the house. He shoos Waterfield away but Waterfield stays near and overhears Maxtible insisting that the Daleks give him the formula to transmute metal into gold. The Daleks ignore him and insist he bring the Doctor to them while setting up a device in the lab.
After the Dalek leaves, Waterfield attacks Maxtible but Maxtible knocks him down. Realizing that the Daleks have planted a bomb, Maxtible rails against what the Daleks are doing and chases them through the cabinet. The Doctor and Jamie find Waterfield and the bomb. They grab Waterfield and the three of them also head into the cabinet to travel through the machine to Skaro, just before the bomb destroys the entire house.
The Daleks are angry with Maxtible for not bringing the Doctor with him and they imprison him with Victoria and Kemel. Shortly afterwards, an alarm is triggered when the Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield enter an access tunnel to try and sneak into the Dalek city. Discovering that the Doctor has named the three human factor Daleks, one of the Daleks attempts to pose as a human factor Dalek to trap the Doctor. The Doctor however realizes the deception and pushes it off a cliff.
The Daleks next force Maxtible to shock Victoria into screaming. The sound carries and the trio follows it to a passageway where they are intercepted by other Daleks. The Daleks take the trio into the main chamber where the Emperor Dalek is waiting. The Emperor informs the Doctor that they used his experiment to create a specific Dalek factor and they now insist that he spread it through humanity with the TARDIS, which they have also taken to Skaro.
The Doctor refuses but is told that he will and they are sent to the same prison cell as Victoria, Kemel and Maxtible. The Daleks later open the door and show a machine that appears to turn iron into gold. Maxtible runs through the door towards the machine but as he does so, he is hit with a wave across the door and infused with the Dalek factor. He becomes a mindless servant of the Daleks.
Maxtible returns to the cell and encourages the Doctor to come with him as the TARDIS has been taken out of the city. Steeling himself, the Doctor walks though the doorway and is also hit with the Dalek factor. He appears to be like Maxtible but stops to examine the machines the produce the Dalek factor and will be used to spread it to Earth. Maxtible leaves and the Doctor, now acting as his normal self, switches a pod in the control panel from the Dalek factor to the human factor he developed in Maxtible's lab. He whispers to Jamie to not be afraid to walk through when he returns. A Dalek enters and he is taken to see the Emperor.
In the main chamber, the Emperor is informed that the Daleks infused with the human factor have been questioning orders. The Doctor, pretending he is under Dalek control, suggest that the Daleks pass through the doorway to overwrite the human factor and reinfuse the Dalek factor. The Emperor orders it and several Daleks pass through the corridor, becoming infused with the human factor.
The newly infused Daleks begin to question orders from a regular Dalek and it shoots one of the new Daleks. The other human infused Daleks respond and destroy the initial Dalek. The Doctor returns to the room and orders Jamie, Waterfield, Victoria and Kemel out of the city to the TARDIS. He leaves but Waterfield follows him while the others leave the city. The Doctor points out another attack by a regular Dalek and tells the human-infused Daleks that they might fight to survive.
A regular Dalek sees the Doctor and shoots at him but Waterfield steps into the beam and is killed. The Dalek is then destroyed by the other faction. The human-infused Daleks push into the main chamber where the Emperor is destroyed in the crossfire.
Maxtible runs after Jamie, Victoria and Kemel where he attacks Kemel, screaming like a Dalek about killing. He pushes Kemel off the cliff, killing him and then runs back to the city to enter the fight. He slips past the Doctor, who is hiding behind a grate. After Maxtible goes past, the Doctor runs and catches up with Jamie and Victoria. They reach the TARDIS and observe the two factions of Daleks destroying each other.
Analysis
If The Evil of the Daleks kept the pacing and mystery of the first two episodes (and kept itself to four or five parts) I have no doubt that genuine debates would be had between fans as to whether it was the best Dalek story of all time. Unfortunately, it does not and starting in Episode Three, it begins to fall off from it's gripping beginning. It does start to pick itself back up but it does have a bit of a lull in the middle. I suspect the lull wouldn't be quite as pronounced if the episodes existed but it is there.
Now, to be fair, I think the effort to infuse the middle lull with action and plot development does succeed on some level. This is the Second Doctor in a state that I really enjoy: caught flat-footed initially, but now working on a plan to escape the situation. He manipulates Jamie into carrying out the task (which is also a testament to his faith in Jamie's ability to rescue Victoria) and he has an almost smug attitude towards the Daleks as Jamie advances. He's nearly mocking the Daleks for not seeing both the admirable traits in Jamie that are allowing him to succeed and the fact that he is going to create Daleks that will upend the order of the Daleks. This is the Second Doctor at his best, not all-seeing, but quick-thinking and with the ability to create plans that require patience and will result in the total destruction of the enemy.
Although Victoria is introduced in this story, she is a prisoner during the whole and does not function in a companion role. So this is the first story of the Second Doctor run where Jamie is the only companion (The Wheel in Space being the other). Frankly, he's good enough that I think they could have had a full season with just the two of them. Their dynamic might have gotten stale towards the end, but they play so well off each other that I think it would have worked. It certainly does here as Jamie goes the whole gambit of emotions with the Doctor: loyalty, feelings of betrayal, Watsonian assistant, and dashing hero. Jamie is constantly enjoyable in what he does.
Most of the other guest cast is pretty good as well. The person the most short-changed is Kemel as he is silent and that doesn't do much in a recon. Fortunately, there are some telesnaps so you can see that he was visually expressive. Arthur and Ruth were the most superfluous as I never really understood what was going on with Arthur. He was being controlled by the Daleks but for what purpose? Waterfield was controlled via the threat to Victoria and Maxtible was deep in a belief that the Daleks would give him the ability to make gold. So why have Arthur under spell? My guess would be that the Daleks wanted a mobile spy and Arthur was convenient, but that doesn't fully explain all his actions. Why send the thug Toby to kidnap Jamie? Why prevent Maxtible for killing Waterfield once the Doctor has arrived? I have a feeling that more was intended with Arthur but that subplot was dropped in favor of more action scenes with Jamie and Kemel and then Arthur, Ruth and Mollie are drop kicked out of the story just to ensure they don't die when the Daleks destroy the house.
Despite Arthur and Ruth being a bit of a dead end, the real weakest character is actually Victoria. Victoria is not a terrible companion but this story does foreshadow her primary function and that is to be the screaming damsel in distress for most of the run. She has almost no personality development aside from being generally kind-hearted in her feeding of the birds and her treatment of Kemel. She does fight Arthur when he tries to kidnap her so she must have some spirit, but nothing else is really done for her, unlike Samantha in The Faceless Ones, who was clearly being groomed to be a companion. If you didn't already know that Victoria was going to be a companion, the viewer would likely dismiss her out of hand.
The Daleks were quite good in this story. They were not as devious as in The Power of the Daleks but they didn't need to be. They held all the cards and could impose their will as they saw fit. Yet, it was not the mindless killing that we usually get from the Daleks. They had a plan and displayed cunning, both in their trap to lure the Doctor as well as the maze they led Jamie into. Even their final plan was a bit deeper than expected. So much time is spent on the idea of infusing the Daleks with a factor of humanity that it is a bit of shock to learn that it's really a means of honing the purity of a Dalek and then conquering humanity by making them more Dalek-like. I also like to think that this infusion of humanity and it's counter for genetic purity is what starts the factional fighting that first pops up in Resurrection of the Daleks, although since I haven't seen that one yet, I can't confirm that part of my head cannon.
It is a real shame that this doesn't exist as Episode Two is nicely framed and shows some interesting directorial ideas. I was completely surprised when one transition was made using a circle wipe as that seemed rather extravagant for Doctor Who. There's also so much of this story that is clearly done with visual media that you just can't capture with pictures, computer regenerations and replacement actors with their heads not showing. It's all a noble effort but it just makes you pine for the moving images that much more. The final battle in Episode Seven would be worth watching as you get enough from the behind the scenes footage available on the Lost in Time DVD to wet your appetite that much more.
As far as the overall story, you have three phases. There is the mystery in Episodes One and Two and that is the most engaging part to me. You have the testing of Jamie and his little adventures which cover Episodes Three, Four and Five. Then you have the final confrontation on Skaro which is set up in Episode Six and carried out in Seven. Jamie's test is the most padded and where the lull really kicks in. It's not boring (or at least not to me) but you can feel the padding going on. The testing of Jamie and the development of the human factor could easily have been cut down to one or one and a half episodes. In fact, I think this would have been a really tight five-part story, especially if you drop Arthur and Ruth wholesale. Still, the two extra episodes of padding are reasonably well rounded and I think they are only a serious problem if you are watching them all back-to-back with no break. Putting a day between each, eases out the padding and makes it a bit more interesting, in my opinion.
There are recon stories out there that can feel like a real slog. To me, this is not one of them. I enjoyed this story even more the second time around and I think my spacing of the padding in Episodes Three through Five had a lot to do with it. It's not perfect and being a recon does knock it down a peg in my book, but it is a good story and will appeal to most people if they can get past the recon aspect of it. If this were animated, I think it would draw a lot of folks in. It is slightly unfortunate that Victoria is introduced so quietly, but she does come around and has some good moments in Season Five. But I think it's fair to say that I rather enjoyed this one and would revisit it. That is more than doubly so if any part of it was recovered.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Friday, July 21, 2017
Warriors of the Deep
There should have been another way.
Warriors of the Deep is one of the stories that actually does create something of a deep divide in fandom. The majority of fandom derides it for shoddy special effects and bad lighting. In fact, the flood lighting in this story is supposedly one of the worst in all of the classic series and there were a number of stories, especially in the Fifth Doctor era, that were overlit. However, defenders of the story will cite good writing and performances which should override the effects. I expect to come down somewhere in the middle as I generally favor good writing and acting but when looking at a story as a whole, you can't just ignore the effects of what is put on the screen. We'll see if it's as bad as it's reputation would imply.
Plot Summary
In the year 2084, a cold war has developed between two major powers. One power has manned an underwater sea base and is in the process of going through a series of drills for combat readiness. They are unaware that at the same time a group of Silurians has woken up and is in the process of reviving a hive of Sea Devils in preparation to attack the base. They deploy their own defense in the form of an underwater creature called a Myrka, which destroys one of the sea base's probes.
On the sea base, the base communications officer, Maddox, is having trouble as he is only a student trainee who was forced to take over when his mentor was killed in an electrical accident. The base goes through a missile drill where Maddox is forced to sync with the computer and would be responsible for launching nuclear missiles. After it's revealed to be a drill, Maddox collapses and is taken to sick bay. In sick bay, Maddox is programmed using a data disk with subliminal suggestions by the base doctor, Solow, and the base second-in-command, Nilson, who are actually agents for the opposing side.
At the request of Tegan, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to Earth in her future. They materialize in orbit around Earth where a fault develops. They are spotted by a defense satellite and shot down. The Doctor is able to dematerialize the TARDIS before they crash and rematerializes within the sea base. They wander around to investigate where Turlough accidentally sets off the security alarms. They try to get back to the TARDIS but find their path blocked by patrols. The Doctor cuts into the nuclear reactor room and creates a fault in the system, hoping that it will drive the technicians towards it. However, they are interrupted by a patrol.
Tegan and Turlough run while the Doctor fights with the guards to give them time. He disarms one but the second knocks him over the side and into the water. Turlough and Tegan run into the corridor where Turlough booby traps the door to by them time. They run into another group of guards and get separated when Turlough is captured. The Doctor meanwhile swims out an access hatch and slips on the uniform of a guard who was knocked out by Turlough's trap.
The Doctor locates Tegan and they head to the bridge to find Turlough, who is being interrogated by Commander Vorshak. The Doctor turns over his weapon to demonstrate trust and shortly after, Security Chief Preston reports on finding the TARDIS and verifying Turlough's story. Preston finds Tegan hiding outside the bridge and brings her in as well.
While they debate on what to do with the Doctor, the base receives a warning signal. The Silurian leader, Icthar, and the Sea Devil captain, Sauvix, have launched their cruiser and are approaching the base. Vorshak orders an attack on the ship against the Doctor's orders but the Silurians use the energy of the weapon to destroy the base's outer defenses. They then send the Myrka to attack one entrance while Sauvix leads his soldiers through another entrance.
Vorshak, most of the guards and the Doctor's team head down to try and stop the Myrka's entrance. Upon learning of the Sea Devil's attack, Vorshak takes a group of guards to oppose them, leaving Lt. Bulic in charge. The Myrka breaks through, electrocuting several guards and resistant to the human weapons. Bulic retreats but Tegan is trapped under a part of the metal door. The Doctor manages to free her when the Myrka steps on another part of the debris but Bulic has already locked the door, trapping them in.
While the battle rages, Nilson and Dr. Solow take advantage of the chaos by activating Maddox's programing and having him start to sabotage both the missile launch system and the communications system. They also have him kill operator Karina when she tries to stop them. Into this comes Turlough who, having learned of the Doctor being trapped, ran to the bridge with a gun. He forces Nilson to open the door allowing the Doctor to escape. This also allows the Myrka to enter the base and Turlough runs off to help the Doctor, but he apprehended by Vorshak and sent back to fight off the Sea Devils.
The Doctor and Tegan reconnect with Vorshak and he sends them off with Preston as the Doctor has a plan to stop the Myrka. She gives them a large light projector which the Doctor reconfigures into the UV range. Knowing the Myrka is to head this way to attack the bridge, he sets in wait.
Dr. Solow, learning that Maddox has nearly finished the sabotage, takes the code disk and promises to meet Nilson in the escape pod, which she will get ready for them. She passes Preston, the Doctor and Tegan but runs into a group of guards retreating from the Myrka. She tries to fight the Myrka as it attacks her but is killed, dropping the disk. It is found by the soldiers who check her body after the Myrka passes.
Entering the same corridor as the Doctor, the Doctor fires the UV weapon, killing the Myrka. Icthar is alerted to the Myrka's death and tells Sauvix to divide his forces with one group continuing on their current attack and the other to circle around and take the bridge. He does so with most of his troops overrunning the station guards. Turlough and Bulic are forced to surrender and are locked in the crew quarters.
The guards take the code disk to Vorshak who is on his way to the bridge to signal the mainland for help. He confronts Nilson about it but though Nilson denies it, his control of Maddox and the sabotage are soon exposed. Maddox breaks his conditioning enough to try and attack Nilson, but Nilson kills him. Nilson takes Tegan hostage and retreats towards the escape pod. The Doctor follows him and activates the UV gun as Nilson passes it.
Nilson is blinded by the gun and stumbles down the corridor where he is killed by an advancing squad of Sea Devils. The same squad corners the Doctor and Tegan and take them to the bridge. The Doctor identifies himself to Icthar and Icthar permits him to stay, acknowledging his attempts at peace the last time. Tegan and Preston however are taken to be kept prisoner with Turlough and Bulic.
Icthar intends to launch the missiles of the sea base into the atmosphere where both sides will think the other has initiated a war and destroy each other, allowing the Silurians to take the planet back. They set about repairing the sabotage to the computer and keep Vorshak on the bridge to provide handprint authorization. The Doctor encourages him to not resist while the Doctor tries to dissuade Icthar from these plans.
In the quarters, Turlough manages to pull of the grate to the ventilation shaft and the four of them crawl out and into the hallway. Tegan and Bulic sneak to the bridge and signal the Doctor though a door. While the others are distracted, the Doctor slips out and they head towards the chemical storage room. They meet Preston and Turlough just outside, the latter two having secured weapons while trying to make their way back to the TARDIS. All five then enter the chemical storage area where the Doctor looks for something that will knock the Silurians out.
The Sea Devil guards discover that the prisoners have escaped. Icthar also notices that the Doctor has left the room. He orders Sauvix to kill the prisoners, including the Doctor on sight. One guard discovers the group in the chemical storage room and when he shoots at the Doctor he accidentally hits a bottle of compressed hexachromite. The gas sprays him in the face and he dies of chemical poisoning. The others suggest using the gas but the Doctor resists, not wanting to kill. Sauvix interrupts and prepares to kill the Doctor. Preston shoots at him and he turns around and kills her. As he does so, Bulic sprays him in the face with the gas and he falls dead.
While this is going on, the Silurians activate the missiles and they prepare for launch. With no time left, the Doctor has Bulic spray the hexachromite gas into the ventilators while he, Tegan and Turlough try to stop the missiles from launching. The gas seeps through the station and kills the guards on patrol. The trio bursts in to the bridge and order Icthar to stop or he and all his people will die. Icthar doesn't care and continues with the countdown even as he and his people are being felled by the gas.
The Doctor orders Tegan and Turlough to try and help them with a cylinder of oxygen and orders Bulic to stop pumping the gas into the system. Vorshak meanwhile tells the Doctor that the only way to stop the missiles is if someone can discharge it through the computer interface and Maddox was the only one equipped to do that. The Doctor hooks himself to the computer and has Vorshak walk him through on how to stop the missiles.
The Doctor overcomes the initial resistance and sets the charge to disarm the missiles. Tegan and Turlough manages to revive Icthar but he grabs a gun and shoots Vorshak in the side. Vorshak buckles but sticks with helping the Doctor disarm the missiles. Turlough knocks the gun out of Icthar's hand and then shoots him, killing him. The Doctor successfully disarms the missiles but Vorshak slumps over dies from his wounds. The trio survey the damage with nearly everyone around them dead.
Analysis
This is a very hard story to judge as both the supporters and detractors have very valid arguments. The writing and acting are pretty good and they can draw you in really easily. On the other hand, the lighting is bad, the action directing is terrible and the special effects are atrocious. So it's a matter of what you pay attention to and what matters to you from an overall perspective.
Let's start with the positives. First the story. This is a fairly tense story with a lot of drama and action in it. You have a cold war situation (very apt for the mid-80's), heightened by a couple of double agents who are successfully implementing a plan to allow their side to destroy or take over the sea base. This effort is interrupted by the invasion of the Silurians and Sea Devils, who steadily overwhelm the defenses and nearly launch an attack that will plunge the world into nuclear war. All that is a good storyline and at it's core, not that different from other good "base under siege" stories such as Cold War.
The writing and dialogue flow fairly well and there is a level of tension that all the actors do a pretty decent job of delivering. I think the only objection I have there is the Episode One cliffhanger as I can't even imagine Turlough simply proclaiming the Doctor drowned and they have to run. A better cliffhanger would have been Turlough grabbing Tegan as the guards take a shot at them and then focusing on the Doctor slipping below the surface of the water. In fact, all three cliffhangers were a bit weak with only the Episode Three one feeling halfway decent. But I'm trying to focus on positives here.
The acting, for the most part, is pretty good. I think the Fifth Doctor is at his best when he is under stress. Of course, it highlights his failings more than any other Doctor, but it makes for good tension and it seems to drive the Fifth Doctor in directions that force his best efforts. You can see the same level of moralism that you might get from the Third Doctor but those morals are pressed harder and he is forced between two bad options, including the fact that even if you try to do the right thing, you can force the parties to make the right choices.
Though she didn't actually contribute much, I liked Tegan in this story. She wasn't moping about getting back to the TARDIS (that was Turlough's job) but was instead sticking with the Doctor and determined to try and help, even if she never actually was. Turlough was decent but still had a tendency to go a bit over-the-top, especially when he would flip back to his coward side. He rush in and help the Doctor bits were very good but his lay back and just focus on escaping were where he would get overexcited and a bit shout-y. He was better more often than not, but still not good all the way around.
Most of the guest cast did reasonably well in their roles. They kept the stiff military manner which hid their shortcomings for the most part. I think the technician Karina was probably the weakest but they were also clearly hinting that she had feelings for Maddox and that might have pushed her beyond or she just wasn't given good enough direction. Everyone else was good more often than not although all of them had little slips where they were either too stiff, too emotionless or the way they played the scene didn't quite match the overall mood. But it still came together fairly well and a few rough acting patches here and there are entirely forgivable.
The Silurians and Sea Devils weren't bad, but neither were they great either. I wasn't a huge fan of either race back in their Third Doctor stories so their inclusion wasn't exactly a big deal to me. I did notice that the third eye of the Silurians now functioned like the dome lights of the Daleks and flashed whenever someone was speaking and while I found it distracting at first, I came to appreciate it since there wasn't much differentiation between the three Silurian voices. I rather wish they could have done something similar with the Sea Devils as their whispering was a little hard to hear at times.
I think my biggest frustration with both the Silurians and the Sea Devils is that in this story, the Doctor treats them as though they were completely altruistic in their original stories and that's just not true. In Doctor Who and the Silurians, he does make peace with the old leader, but the young upstart takes over and launches an attack, violating the terms the Doctor had laid down. Similarly, in The Sea Devils, the Doctor makes a plea for peace but the Sea Devils turn him down flat. Yes they had been manipulated by the Master, but they still made the conscious effort to continue with the war. So both races showed an open belligerence towards humanity, enough so that I don't think anyone should feel bad about the genocide that was used to stop them. In fact, the one act of compassion shown ends up getting someone else killed. Tegan and Turlough revived Icthar long enough for him to kill Vorshak. Had they just let him die, Vorshak would have survived. There is a point where you have to recognize that someone is going to remain your enemy and any act of mercy is only perceived as a sign of weakness and an opportunity to do more harm to you.
So let's go ahead and tackle the negatives. To give the story a little bit of leeway, pretty much all it's problems are tied to the fact that Mrs. Thatcher called for snap elections and the BBC was caught flatfooted. They told John Nathan-Turner that he could either cancel the story and they would be ok with him only delivering 22 episodes that season, or he could try and have the story made with two weeks less studio time. Turner opted for the later and it shows rather badly.
The first significant problem is the lighting. Apparently it was quicker to light from above and that meant that the whole set was bathed in flood lighting. Actually, from my point of view, this wasn't a problem for about the first episode and a half of the story. It highlighted the make-up a bit much (especially on Turlough) but the set was nice enough that flood lighting it actually wasn't a problem and there's no reason that a base wouldn't be well lit during normal operation. But during the crisis of the Silurian attack, the lights should have been brought down. That would have added to the atmosphere and would have had the added advantage of hiding other flaws that came about due to the compressed schedule. Even putting filters over the flood lighting would have helped. Submarines and other naval vessels go to red light during crisis and I think the atmosphere would have been well served if red filters were put on to give it that eerie quality.
The second problem was the action direction. Again, I'm guessing that if there had been a bit more time to plan and reshoot it might have looked better, but most of the action scenes, especially the initial invasion by the Sea Devils just looked terrible in their staging. With the way it was lit and their entrance, you couldn't help compare the Sea Devils' entrance with that of the Stormtrooper attack on the Tantive IV at the beginning of A New Hope. Had the attack gone down like that, it would have looked amazing. But instead we get two solid lines of firing and the implication that despite being less than ten feet from each other, neither side could hit each other. The Sea Devils do manage to hit one or two guards but most make it to the hallway and it's just so disorderly looking that you can't help but see it for the stage play that it is.
The third major problem is just the shoddy design of the props. The big standout is the Myrka but it should be noted that there are a lot of pedestals, consoles, doors and other props that are clearly polystyrene or some other light and malleable material that wobble all over the place. One or two is not uncommon in any story, but there is a wholesale shift of the lighter elements of the set throughout this story and they can't help but grab your attention; especially given the lighting.
But let's look at the Myrka. I don't think the Myrka is quite as bad as it's often made out to be. The top half especially is pretty good from your typical Doctor Who standpoint. However the lower half painfully looks like your typical "two guys in a horse" costume. Even with the two extra weeks, I'm not sure much could have been done to improve it's overall look. What should have been done was to work the shots better and lower the lighting. That would have put more of it in shadow and hidden some of it's more obvious flaws (such as the magma beast in The Caves of Androzani). Of course, a better idea would have been to scrap that Myrka and make it a second squad of Sea Devils but that would have required a wholesale rewriting of Episode Three and if they didn't have time to make the Myrka work, they certainly didn't have time to make huge rewrites.
On a more neutral level, you can definitely tell this story is part of the Eric Saward era. Saward's stories, especially after The Visitation, were heavily marked by a large level of violence and often a rather bleak ending. That the story ends with all the Silurians, Sea Devils and most of the humans lying dead at the Doctor's feet is not uncommon in his era. Bulic had survived but that would have ruined the bleakness of the visual. Contrast this to Pyramids of Mars or Horror at Fang Rock which also have all the guest cast dead at the end. The Doctor is a bit more cavalier in acknowledging all the deaths, to a point of coldness in Horror at Fang Rock in my opinion, but he doesn't let that bog him down. The Fourth Doctor's chastising of Sarah in dwelling on the death of one man, when five have already died and all the lives on Earth are at stake is a prime example of looking at the whole rather than getting bogged down in mourning the dead of the battle. Granted, I liked the ending with the Doctor looking beat all to hell, but his anger and depression should be targeted mostly at the Silurians who rejected his overtures on several occasions.
So back to the original question: how to judge this as an overall work. As much as I enjoyed the story, I don't believe you can separate it from the production. You judge by what's on screen and even if they were shortchanged on time, if what's on screen is bad, you have to view it as bad. That being said, I can overlook a number of things because I either have low expectations or know that the era was limited. I judge a bit harsher when I know there was a chance to fix things such as the action direction or the ability to alter the lighting, even just a little. So on an overall scale, I actually think this story is better than a number of earlier Fifth Doctor stories which had more time just because they didn't engage me like this one did. It may be harsh, but I think this is better than something like Four to Doomsday, which only looked a little better but was a real slog of a story. I wouldn't recommend introducing anyone to the Fifth Doctor to this story, but you could do far worse in terms of overall entertainment.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
Warriors of the Deep is one of the stories that actually does create something of a deep divide in fandom. The majority of fandom derides it for shoddy special effects and bad lighting. In fact, the flood lighting in this story is supposedly one of the worst in all of the classic series and there were a number of stories, especially in the Fifth Doctor era, that were overlit. However, defenders of the story will cite good writing and performances which should override the effects. I expect to come down somewhere in the middle as I generally favor good writing and acting but when looking at a story as a whole, you can't just ignore the effects of what is put on the screen. We'll see if it's as bad as it's reputation would imply.
Plot Summary
In the year 2084, a cold war has developed between two major powers. One power has manned an underwater sea base and is in the process of going through a series of drills for combat readiness. They are unaware that at the same time a group of Silurians has woken up and is in the process of reviving a hive of Sea Devils in preparation to attack the base. They deploy their own defense in the form of an underwater creature called a Myrka, which destroys one of the sea base's probes.
On the sea base, the base communications officer, Maddox, is having trouble as he is only a student trainee who was forced to take over when his mentor was killed in an electrical accident. The base goes through a missile drill where Maddox is forced to sync with the computer and would be responsible for launching nuclear missiles. After it's revealed to be a drill, Maddox collapses and is taken to sick bay. In sick bay, Maddox is programmed using a data disk with subliminal suggestions by the base doctor, Solow, and the base second-in-command, Nilson, who are actually agents for the opposing side.
At the request of Tegan, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to Earth in her future. They materialize in orbit around Earth where a fault develops. They are spotted by a defense satellite and shot down. The Doctor is able to dematerialize the TARDIS before they crash and rematerializes within the sea base. They wander around to investigate where Turlough accidentally sets off the security alarms. They try to get back to the TARDIS but find their path blocked by patrols. The Doctor cuts into the nuclear reactor room and creates a fault in the system, hoping that it will drive the technicians towards it. However, they are interrupted by a patrol.
Tegan and Turlough run while the Doctor fights with the guards to give them time. He disarms one but the second knocks him over the side and into the water. Turlough and Tegan run into the corridor where Turlough booby traps the door to by them time. They run into another group of guards and get separated when Turlough is captured. The Doctor meanwhile swims out an access hatch and slips on the uniform of a guard who was knocked out by Turlough's trap.
The Doctor locates Tegan and they head to the bridge to find Turlough, who is being interrogated by Commander Vorshak. The Doctor turns over his weapon to demonstrate trust and shortly after, Security Chief Preston reports on finding the TARDIS and verifying Turlough's story. Preston finds Tegan hiding outside the bridge and brings her in as well.
While they debate on what to do with the Doctor, the base receives a warning signal. The Silurian leader, Icthar, and the Sea Devil captain, Sauvix, have launched their cruiser and are approaching the base. Vorshak orders an attack on the ship against the Doctor's orders but the Silurians use the energy of the weapon to destroy the base's outer defenses. They then send the Myrka to attack one entrance while Sauvix leads his soldiers through another entrance.
Vorshak, most of the guards and the Doctor's team head down to try and stop the Myrka's entrance. Upon learning of the Sea Devil's attack, Vorshak takes a group of guards to oppose them, leaving Lt. Bulic in charge. The Myrka breaks through, electrocuting several guards and resistant to the human weapons. Bulic retreats but Tegan is trapped under a part of the metal door. The Doctor manages to free her when the Myrka steps on another part of the debris but Bulic has already locked the door, trapping them in.
While the battle rages, Nilson and Dr. Solow take advantage of the chaos by activating Maddox's programing and having him start to sabotage both the missile launch system and the communications system. They also have him kill operator Karina when she tries to stop them. Into this comes Turlough who, having learned of the Doctor being trapped, ran to the bridge with a gun. He forces Nilson to open the door allowing the Doctor to escape. This also allows the Myrka to enter the base and Turlough runs off to help the Doctor, but he apprehended by Vorshak and sent back to fight off the Sea Devils.
The Doctor and Tegan reconnect with Vorshak and he sends them off with Preston as the Doctor has a plan to stop the Myrka. She gives them a large light projector which the Doctor reconfigures into the UV range. Knowing the Myrka is to head this way to attack the bridge, he sets in wait.
Dr. Solow, learning that Maddox has nearly finished the sabotage, takes the code disk and promises to meet Nilson in the escape pod, which she will get ready for them. She passes Preston, the Doctor and Tegan but runs into a group of guards retreating from the Myrka. She tries to fight the Myrka as it attacks her but is killed, dropping the disk. It is found by the soldiers who check her body after the Myrka passes.
Entering the same corridor as the Doctor, the Doctor fires the UV weapon, killing the Myrka. Icthar is alerted to the Myrka's death and tells Sauvix to divide his forces with one group continuing on their current attack and the other to circle around and take the bridge. He does so with most of his troops overrunning the station guards. Turlough and Bulic are forced to surrender and are locked in the crew quarters.
The guards take the code disk to Vorshak who is on his way to the bridge to signal the mainland for help. He confronts Nilson about it but though Nilson denies it, his control of Maddox and the sabotage are soon exposed. Maddox breaks his conditioning enough to try and attack Nilson, but Nilson kills him. Nilson takes Tegan hostage and retreats towards the escape pod. The Doctor follows him and activates the UV gun as Nilson passes it.
Nilson is blinded by the gun and stumbles down the corridor where he is killed by an advancing squad of Sea Devils. The same squad corners the Doctor and Tegan and take them to the bridge. The Doctor identifies himself to Icthar and Icthar permits him to stay, acknowledging his attempts at peace the last time. Tegan and Preston however are taken to be kept prisoner with Turlough and Bulic.
Icthar intends to launch the missiles of the sea base into the atmosphere where both sides will think the other has initiated a war and destroy each other, allowing the Silurians to take the planet back. They set about repairing the sabotage to the computer and keep Vorshak on the bridge to provide handprint authorization. The Doctor encourages him to not resist while the Doctor tries to dissuade Icthar from these plans.
In the quarters, Turlough manages to pull of the grate to the ventilation shaft and the four of them crawl out and into the hallway. Tegan and Bulic sneak to the bridge and signal the Doctor though a door. While the others are distracted, the Doctor slips out and they head towards the chemical storage room. They meet Preston and Turlough just outside, the latter two having secured weapons while trying to make their way back to the TARDIS. All five then enter the chemical storage area where the Doctor looks for something that will knock the Silurians out.
The Sea Devil guards discover that the prisoners have escaped. Icthar also notices that the Doctor has left the room. He orders Sauvix to kill the prisoners, including the Doctor on sight. One guard discovers the group in the chemical storage room and when he shoots at the Doctor he accidentally hits a bottle of compressed hexachromite. The gas sprays him in the face and he dies of chemical poisoning. The others suggest using the gas but the Doctor resists, not wanting to kill. Sauvix interrupts and prepares to kill the Doctor. Preston shoots at him and he turns around and kills her. As he does so, Bulic sprays him in the face with the gas and he falls dead.
While this is going on, the Silurians activate the missiles and they prepare for launch. With no time left, the Doctor has Bulic spray the hexachromite gas into the ventilators while he, Tegan and Turlough try to stop the missiles from launching. The gas seeps through the station and kills the guards on patrol. The trio bursts in to the bridge and order Icthar to stop or he and all his people will die. Icthar doesn't care and continues with the countdown even as he and his people are being felled by the gas.
The Doctor orders Tegan and Turlough to try and help them with a cylinder of oxygen and orders Bulic to stop pumping the gas into the system. Vorshak meanwhile tells the Doctor that the only way to stop the missiles is if someone can discharge it through the computer interface and Maddox was the only one equipped to do that. The Doctor hooks himself to the computer and has Vorshak walk him through on how to stop the missiles.
The Doctor overcomes the initial resistance and sets the charge to disarm the missiles. Tegan and Turlough manages to revive Icthar but he grabs a gun and shoots Vorshak in the side. Vorshak buckles but sticks with helping the Doctor disarm the missiles. Turlough knocks the gun out of Icthar's hand and then shoots him, killing him. The Doctor successfully disarms the missiles but Vorshak slumps over dies from his wounds. The trio survey the damage with nearly everyone around them dead.
Analysis
This is a very hard story to judge as both the supporters and detractors have very valid arguments. The writing and acting are pretty good and they can draw you in really easily. On the other hand, the lighting is bad, the action directing is terrible and the special effects are atrocious. So it's a matter of what you pay attention to and what matters to you from an overall perspective.
Let's start with the positives. First the story. This is a fairly tense story with a lot of drama and action in it. You have a cold war situation (very apt for the mid-80's), heightened by a couple of double agents who are successfully implementing a plan to allow their side to destroy or take over the sea base. This effort is interrupted by the invasion of the Silurians and Sea Devils, who steadily overwhelm the defenses and nearly launch an attack that will plunge the world into nuclear war. All that is a good storyline and at it's core, not that different from other good "base under siege" stories such as Cold War.
The writing and dialogue flow fairly well and there is a level of tension that all the actors do a pretty decent job of delivering. I think the only objection I have there is the Episode One cliffhanger as I can't even imagine Turlough simply proclaiming the Doctor drowned and they have to run. A better cliffhanger would have been Turlough grabbing Tegan as the guards take a shot at them and then focusing on the Doctor slipping below the surface of the water. In fact, all three cliffhangers were a bit weak with only the Episode Three one feeling halfway decent. But I'm trying to focus on positives here.
The acting, for the most part, is pretty good. I think the Fifth Doctor is at his best when he is under stress. Of course, it highlights his failings more than any other Doctor, but it makes for good tension and it seems to drive the Fifth Doctor in directions that force his best efforts. You can see the same level of moralism that you might get from the Third Doctor but those morals are pressed harder and he is forced between two bad options, including the fact that even if you try to do the right thing, you can force the parties to make the right choices.
Though she didn't actually contribute much, I liked Tegan in this story. She wasn't moping about getting back to the TARDIS (that was Turlough's job) but was instead sticking with the Doctor and determined to try and help, even if she never actually was. Turlough was decent but still had a tendency to go a bit over-the-top, especially when he would flip back to his coward side. He rush in and help the Doctor bits were very good but his lay back and just focus on escaping were where he would get overexcited and a bit shout-y. He was better more often than not, but still not good all the way around.
Most of the guest cast did reasonably well in their roles. They kept the stiff military manner which hid their shortcomings for the most part. I think the technician Karina was probably the weakest but they were also clearly hinting that she had feelings for Maddox and that might have pushed her beyond or she just wasn't given good enough direction. Everyone else was good more often than not although all of them had little slips where they were either too stiff, too emotionless or the way they played the scene didn't quite match the overall mood. But it still came together fairly well and a few rough acting patches here and there are entirely forgivable.
The Silurians and Sea Devils weren't bad, but neither were they great either. I wasn't a huge fan of either race back in their Third Doctor stories so their inclusion wasn't exactly a big deal to me. I did notice that the third eye of the Silurians now functioned like the dome lights of the Daleks and flashed whenever someone was speaking and while I found it distracting at first, I came to appreciate it since there wasn't much differentiation between the three Silurian voices. I rather wish they could have done something similar with the Sea Devils as their whispering was a little hard to hear at times.
I think my biggest frustration with both the Silurians and the Sea Devils is that in this story, the Doctor treats them as though they were completely altruistic in their original stories and that's just not true. In Doctor Who and the Silurians, he does make peace with the old leader, but the young upstart takes over and launches an attack, violating the terms the Doctor had laid down. Similarly, in The Sea Devils, the Doctor makes a plea for peace but the Sea Devils turn him down flat. Yes they had been manipulated by the Master, but they still made the conscious effort to continue with the war. So both races showed an open belligerence towards humanity, enough so that I don't think anyone should feel bad about the genocide that was used to stop them. In fact, the one act of compassion shown ends up getting someone else killed. Tegan and Turlough revived Icthar long enough for him to kill Vorshak. Had they just let him die, Vorshak would have survived. There is a point where you have to recognize that someone is going to remain your enemy and any act of mercy is only perceived as a sign of weakness and an opportunity to do more harm to you.
So let's go ahead and tackle the negatives. To give the story a little bit of leeway, pretty much all it's problems are tied to the fact that Mrs. Thatcher called for snap elections and the BBC was caught flatfooted. They told John Nathan-Turner that he could either cancel the story and they would be ok with him only delivering 22 episodes that season, or he could try and have the story made with two weeks less studio time. Turner opted for the later and it shows rather badly.
The first significant problem is the lighting. Apparently it was quicker to light from above and that meant that the whole set was bathed in flood lighting. Actually, from my point of view, this wasn't a problem for about the first episode and a half of the story. It highlighted the make-up a bit much (especially on Turlough) but the set was nice enough that flood lighting it actually wasn't a problem and there's no reason that a base wouldn't be well lit during normal operation. But during the crisis of the Silurian attack, the lights should have been brought down. That would have added to the atmosphere and would have had the added advantage of hiding other flaws that came about due to the compressed schedule. Even putting filters over the flood lighting would have helped. Submarines and other naval vessels go to red light during crisis and I think the atmosphere would have been well served if red filters were put on to give it that eerie quality.
The second problem was the action direction. Again, I'm guessing that if there had been a bit more time to plan and reshoot it might have looked better, but most of the action scenes, especially the initial invasion by the Sea Devils just looked terrible in their staging. With the way it was lit and their entrance, you couldn't help compare the Sea Devils' entrance with that of the Stormtrooper attack on the Tantive IV at the beginning of A New Hope. Had the attack gone down like that, it would have looked amazing. But instead we get two solid lines of firing and the implication that despite being less than ten feet from each other, neither side could hit each other. The Sea Devils do manage to hit one or two guards but most make it to the hallway and it's just so disorderly looking that you can't help but see it for the stage play that it is.
The third major problem is just the shoddy design of the props. The big standout is the Myrka but it should be noted that there are a lot of pedestals, consoles, doors and other props that are clearly polystyrene or some other light and malleable material that wobble all over the place. One or two is not uncommon in any story, but there is a wholesale shift of the lighter elements of the set throughout this story and they can't help but grab your attention; especially given the lighting.
But let's look at the Myrka. I don't think the Myrka is quite as bad as it's often made out to be. The top half especially is pretty good from your typical Doctor Who standpoint. However the lower half painfully looks like your typical "two guys in a horse" costume. Even with the two extra weeks, I'm not sure much could have been done to improve it's overall look. What should have been done was to work the shots better and lower the lighting. That would have put more of it in shadow and hidden some of it's more obvious flaws (such as the magma beast in The Caves of Androzani). Of course, a better idea would have been to scrap that Myrka and make it a second squad of Sea Devils but that would have required a wholesale rewriting of Episode Three and if they didn't have time to make the Myrka work, they certainly didn't have time to make huge rewrites.
On a more neutral level, you can definitely tell this story is part of the Eric Saward era. Saward's stories, especially after The Visitation, were heavily marked by a large level of violence and often a rather bleak ending. That the story ends with all the Silurians, Sea Devils and most of the humans lying dead at the Doctor's feet is not uncommon in his era. Bulic had survived but that would have ruined the bleakness of the visual. Contrast this to Pyramids of Mars or Horror at Fang Rock which also have all the guest cast dead at the end. The Doctor is a bit more cavalier in acknowledging all the deaths, to a point of coldness in Horror at Fang Rock in my opinion, but he doesn't let that bog him down. The Fourth Doctor's chastising of Sarah in dwelling on the death of one man, when five have already died and all the lives on Earth are at stake is a prime example of looking at the whole rather than getting bogged down in mourning the dead of the battle. Granted, I liked the ending with the Doctor looking beat all to hell, but his anger and depression should be targeted mostly at the Silurians who rejected his overtures on several occasions.
So back to the original question: how to judge this as an overall work. As much as I enjoyed the story, I don't believe you can separate it from the production. You judge by what's on screen and even if they were shortchanged on time, if what's on screen is bad, you have to view it as bad. That being said, I can overlook a number of things because I either have low expectations or know that the era was limited. I judge a bit harsher when I know there was a chance to fix things such as the action direction or the ability to alter the lighting, even just a little. So on an overall scale, I actually think this story is better than a number of earlier Fifth Doctor stories which had more time just because they didn't engage me like this one did. It may be harsh, but I think this is better than something like Four to Doomsday, which only looked a little better but was a real slog of a story. I wouldn't recommend introducing anyone to the Fifth Doctor to this story, but you could do far worse in terms of overall entertainment.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
An Adventure in Space and Time
With the conclusion of The Doctor Falls revealing that David Bradley will be appearing as the First Doctor, I finally broke down and bought a copy of An Adventure in Space and Time so I could finally see it. Despite this story being out for over three years, I couldn't find a copy to rent or borrow in all that time. Even buying was a bit limited as copies formatted for North America were somewhat hard to find. But I got a blue-ray edition and finally enjoyed what everyone else had been enjoying for a much longer time.
The story covers the basic outline of the creation of the show by Sidney Newman, his giving the running of the show to Verity Lambert and it's progress as William Hartnell both grows in popularity as the Doctor and also suffers health effects from the rigors of the work. It is obviously a simplified version with several people coalesced into a single individual or other people just given the minimalist treatment.
The folding of several people is very common and rather understandable, although usually they stick with people who are alive the whole time. Towards the end of the movie, Mervin Pinfield is shown discussing the need to replace William Hartnell with Sidney Newman, despite the fact that Pinfield had died a year earlier, but odds are pretty good that not a lot of folks in the audience would have been aware of that.
Overall, it was quite enjoyable. I thought David Bradley did a good job showing the transformation that William Hartnell went through, both in an enjoyment of his popularity (and finally being given a role outside of his normal casting) and in the degradation he underwent as the overwork and unhealthy habits of the 60's consumed him. Much like the show, although it starts with the focus on Newman and Lambert, the major driver of the story is Hartnell. I enjoy the stuff without Hartnell, but he is the key driver in the whole thing, the constant while so much changes around him.
I was actually surprised that some of the other cast didn't get as much screen time. After Hartnell, the cast member who was shown the most was actually Carol Ann Ford, with an extra little nod given to the spat she had with Hartnell near the beginning of filming of Marco Polo. Although, I wonder if some of that was just so that Mark Gatiss could recreate a bit of the Marco Polo set, as that is rather famous for it's elaborateness and that it is lost. But very little attention is given to William Russell or Jacqueline Hill outside of the suggestion that Jacqueline Hill might have gotten the job as Barbara due to a friendship with Verity Lambert.
Almost nothing is said about companions after that. We are treated to a few brief scenes detailing the passage of time with the only notation of the latest companions being the exterior photo shoots. Once Maureen O'Brien is introduced as Carol Ann Ford's replacement, most of the in set shots are dropped save for a couple of Hartnell by himself. If you didn't know, you wouldn't realize that the next shot is Peter Purves and Jackie Lane (Stephen and Dodo) followed by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills (Ben and Polly).
I was also a little surprised that very little mention was made of Hartnell's not getting on with the production teams that followed Verity Lambert. You get a hint of it as he gets annoyed with people trying to get the scene going and he is correcting them about not getting the props or scene right but the period after Verity leaves is heavily condensed and jumps quickly towards the end, focusing mostly on Hartnell's failing health and especially his memory problems.
The one thing that I thought was rather odd from a continuity standpoint was when Mrs. Hartnell came to see Verity about scaling back Bill's workload and Verity noting that she would pass it on to her successor. What's odd is that in the background, you can see several folks in Menoptra costumes, indicating that they are working on The Web Planet. While I don't doubt that Verity might have gone ahead and submitted a resignation letter by this point (second half of Season Two), her goodbye party seems to have taken place shortly after this (again, Menoptra costumes). Verity Lambert rather famously left after filming Mission to the Unknown, which was at the end of the recording block, even though it and Galaxy 4 kicked off Season Three. I say famously because the goodbye photos of the actors in costume from the Dalek/alien council are the only known evidence of what those costumes looked like. I suspect that Mark Gatiss was limited on budget and couldn't recreate that scene with similar costumes and instead opted for the The Web Planet as it would also have been distinctive.
Despite these historical quibbles, it flows very well. The only thing I would change is something that I understand for the time but it dates the story and that is the appearance of Matt Smith at the end. It's a nice scene, especially as this went out just before the 50th anniversary special, but as we are now anticipating the Thirteenth (and first female) Doctor, seeing Hartnell look across the console to see the Eleventh Doctor just makes it feel a little dated instead of the complete time capsule that it should be. It's a small thing but it is still something that I would like to have gotten rid of.
Nevertheless, it's still very enjoyable and an excellent bit of reenactment. It's also an excellent way to expose a new person or perhaps someone who has only seen the new series, to the older stories, especially in the Hartnell era which can be difficult to get into if you're not aware of how both TV was made and how stories were told in those days. But a very good story overall and I can only give it the best compliment I can think of, which is that I wish I could have seen more backstory and watched it continue to see how things progressed in the Patrick Troughton era.
The story covers the basic outline of the creation of the show by Sidney Newman, his giving the running of the show to Verity Lambert and it's progress as William Hartnell both grows in popularity as the Doctor and also suffers health effects from the rigors of the work. It is obviously a simplified version with several people coalesced into a single individual or other people just given the minimalist treatment.
The folding of several people is very common and rather understandable, although usually they stick with people who are alive the whole time. Towards the end of the movie, Mervin Pinfield is shown discussing the need to replace William Hartnell with Sidney Newman, despite the fact that Pinfield had died a year earlier, but odds are pretty good that not a lot of folks in the audience would have been aware of that.
Overall, it was quite enjoyable. I thought David Bradley did a good job showing the transformation that William Hartnell went through, both in an enjoyment of his popularity (and finally being given a role outside of his normal casting) and in the degradation he underwent as the overwork and unhealthy habits of the 60's consumed him. Much like the show, although it starts with the focus on Newman and Lambert, the major driver of the story is Hartnell. I enjoy the stuff without Hartnell, but he is the key driver in the whole thing, the constant while so much changes around him.
I was actually surprised that some of the other cast didn't get as much screen time. After Hartnell, the cast member who was shown the most was actually Carol Ann Ford, with an extra little nod given to the spat she had with Hartnell near the beginning of filming of Marco Polo. Although, I wonder if some of that was just so that Mark Gatiss could recreate a bit of the Marco Polo set, as that is rather famous for it's elaborateness and that it is lost. But very little attention is given to William Russell or Jacqueline Hill outside of the suggestion that Jacqueline Hill might have gotten the job as Barbara due to a friendship with Verity Lambert.
Almost nothing is said about companions after that. We are treated to a few brief scenes detailing the passage of time with the only notation of the latest companions being the exterior photo shoots. Once Maureen O'Brien is introduced as Carol Ann Ford's replacement, most of the in set shots are dropped save for a couple of Hartnell by himself. If you didn't know, you wouldn't realize that the next shot is Peter Purves and Jackie Lane (Stephen and Dodo) followed by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills (Ben and Polly).
I was also a little surprised that very little mention was made of Hartnell's not getting on with the production teams that followed Verity Lambert. You get a hint of it as he gets annoyed with people trying to get the scene going and he is correcting them about not getting the props or scene right but the period after Verity leaves is heavily condensed and jumps quickly towards the end, focusing mostly on Hartnell's failing health and especially his memory problems.
The one thing that I thought was rather odd from a continuity standpoint was when Mrs. Hartnell came to see Verity about scaling back Bill's workload and Verity noting that she would pass it on to her successor. What's odd is that in the background, you can see several folks in Menoptra costumes, indicating that they are working on The Web Planet. While I don't doubt that Verity might have gone ahead and submitted a resignation letter by this point (second half of Season Two), her goodbye party seems to have taken place shortly after this (again, Menoptra costumes). Verity Lambert rather famously left after filming Mission to the Unknown, which was at the end of the recording block, even though it and Galaxy 4 kicked off Season Three. I say famously because the goodbye photos of the actors in costume from the Dalek/alien council are the only known evidence of what those costumes looked like. I suspect that Mark Gatiss was limited on budget and couldn't recreate that scene with similar costumes and instead opted for the The Web Planet as it would also have been distinctive.
Despite these historical quibbles, it flows very well. The only thing I would change is something that I understand for the time but it dates the story and that is the appearance of Matt Smith at the end. It's a nice scene, especially as this went out just before the 50th anniversary special, but as we are now anticipating the Thirteenth (and first female) Doctor, seeing Hartnell look across the console to see the Eleventh Doctor just makes it feel a little dated instead of the complete time capsule that it should be. It's a small thing but it is still something that I would like to have gotten rid of.
Nevertheless, it's still very enjoyable and an excellent bit of reenactment. It's also an excellent way to expose a new person or perhaps someone who has only seen the new series, to the older stories, especially in the Hartnell era which can be difficult to get into if you're not aware of how both TV was made and how stories were told in those days. But a very good story overall and I can only give it the best compliment I can think of, which is that I wish I could have seen more backstory and watched it continue to see how things progressed in the Patrick Troughton era.
Monday, July 17, 2017
The Keeper of Traken
Nyssa: How is it bigger on the inside?
Adric: The Doctor told me its because it's dimensionally transcendental.
Nyssa: What does that mean?
Adric: It means it's bigger on the inside.
The Keeper of Traken is one of those stories that seems to be near the top of tier two. No one ever lists it as a favorite nor does it make any kind of Top 10 list like The Ark in Space or Genesis of the Daleks. But it always seems to be well regarded as an interesting story and well performed. It's also a rather important story given that it introduces the Anthony Ainley Master and Nyssa, although she was not intended as a companion when Johnny Byrne wrote this story. So I'm highly curious about this one.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Adric bring the TARDIS into N-space and find themselves near the planet of Traken, a planet where evil is not permitted to flourish. The Doctor can't remember ever visiting there but consults his journals with Adric to refresh his memory. As they read, an old man in a chair appears in the control room.
The old man is the current Keeper of Traken. He requests the Doctor's help and shows images of evil creatures called Melkur which fly to the planet, become rooted in various areas and calcify as their evil is suppressed. He shows one Melkur being tended by a young woman named Kassia. She is later shown as a member of the council and recently married to another council member named Tremas. At their wedding, the Keeper shifted Kassia's attentive duties of the Melkur to Tremas' daughter Nyssa. Shortly after he names Tremas as Keeper designate, to succeed him after he dies. Kassia is upset by this and vents her fears to the Melkur. The Doctor agrees to help and the Keeper disappears.
On Traken, a man is found dead with a look of horror on his face. Tremas has readings which indicate that evil is growing on the planet. The council assembles to discuss the matter and they eventually vote to allow the citizenry to arm themselves as a means of protection.
The Doctor and Adric arrive shortly afterward and are arrested by the guards on suspicion of the murder and brought to the council. After they leave, the Melkur wakes and hits the TARDIS with a beam, causing it to disappear. The Doctor informs the council that he was summoned by the Keeper but when they go to find the TARDIS to verify his story, they cannot find it and grow more suspicious of him.
The Doctor appeals for them to ask the Keeper directly and they agree. As they go to summon him. The Melkur comes alive and walks to the doorway of the hall. The Keeper appears but is attacked by the Melkur's plasma beam while lingering in the back and cries out about the invasion of evil before he disappears again.
Assuming the Doctor was the evil spoken of, the guards advance and Kassia cries for their deaths but overdoes it and collapses. The Doctor appeals once more and his invoking of science intrigues Tremas. Tremas takes the Doctor and Adric under his protection while they investigate the energy readings. Kassia meanwhile comes to and slips out. She sees the body of a peasant killed by the Melkur and drags it into the brush, not wanting the Melkur to be discovered yet.
Tremas takes the Doctor and Adric to his home for rest and food while Kassia heads back to the Melkur, which has resumed it's former place. It begins speaking to her and assures her that Tremas will not assume the role of Keeper. The Melkur gives her a collar which allows him to use his powers through her.
After eating the Doctor and Tremas leave his house to investigate the energy readings while Adric stays with Nyssa. She shows him her father's equipment and Adric begins to take measurements of his own. He spots some unusual readings and drags Nyssa out to go show them to the Doctor. The Doctor and Tremas are meanwhile prevented from getting to the grove as the populace has crowded outside the gates based on the rumors of the Melkur coming to life. Tremas and the Doctor instead take an alternate route through the council room.
Nyssa slips Proctor Neman, the captain of the guards, some money and he disperses the crowd around the gate. Adric slips through but Nyssa is prevented from entering the grove by the rest of the council. They are assembling for Councilor Seron to stand examination before the Keeper due to his withholding of Tremas' energy findings. Nyssa is sent home while Adric is grabbed and shushed by the Doctor.
The Doctor discovers that the TARDIS is still there but has been shifted out of phase. The three of them head back to the cavern under the council chamber where the main power source is. There Adric shows the Doctor his readings which suggest a more powerful TARDIS than his arrived on Traken. The Doctor then perfects a small device to unphase the TARDIS.
Before they leave, they notice the power activating, indicating the Keeper is arriving. He examines Seron and finds him innocent but warns that they have been betrayed. Confused, Seron turns as the Keeper disappears to find Kassia now controlled by the Melkur. She fires bolts of plasma and kills Seron. The commotion attracts the Doctor and Tremas as well as the guards. She then claims Seron was found guilty by the Keeper and they move to arrest the Doctor.
They flee into the grove via the tunnel where the Melkur mocks the Doctor. The Doctor rematerializes the TARDIS but before they can enter, Kassia steps in front and stuns Tremas. Tremas, the Doctor and Adric are then captured via an electrified net from one of the guards. The group is placed in a holding cell with strict instructions to the guards to keep them under watch.
Kassia returns to the grove where she asks the Melkur to release her but the Melkur takes further control of her, insisting she become the new Keeper upon the death of the old one. They are interrupted by Nyssa, who had come to tend the statue. Kassia lashes out at her and orders her home, informing her that her father and the strangers have been arrested. Nyssa does go home but amplifies an ion bonder and heads for the prison.
Nyssa attempts to bribe Proctor Neman as she did before but he refuses. She then stuns him and another guard with the ion bonder, taking their key. She releases the Doctor, Adric and her father and stun two additional guards when cornered in a hall. With the alarms sounding of their escape, the group doubles back and takes refuge in Tremas' house, which had already been searched by the guards. The Doctor then convinces Tremas to let him see the plans for the source power supply. Looking over the blueprints, the Doctor and Adric make a contingency plan and then give them back to Tremas. They head back to the grove to get back to the TARDIS.
The remaining council members meet and agree that with the death of Seron and the arrest of Tremas, Kassia will become Keeper upon the death of the old one. Learning of the Doctor's escape, Kassia elects to reset the old trap and orders the guards away from the grove. This allows the Doctor's group to enter the grove where the Melkur warns off the Doctor once more. A view inside shows that the Melkur is actually the skeletal Master in his TARDIS.
A sudden lighting storm rises signaling the impending death of the old Keeper. The flames signaling his life go out and Kassia steps in to the empty throne. As she does so, the Melkur disappears. Realizing what is happening, the Doctor rushes to the council chamber to stop the council from giving Kassia access to the Source. They ignore him and finish her initiation. The Doctor orders Adric below as Kassia disappears and is replaced by the Melkur.
Adric and Nyssa run back to the TARDIS where Adric shares with Nyssa the Doctor's plan to short circuit the Source. Unfortunately, if taken to it's full conclusion, it would also destroy the Source. Nevertheless, they begin to work on the device.
The Melkur takes his place as the Keeper and begins to tap into the power of the source, aligning it with the bio-function of the body. He orders Neman in and has him confine the council members to their quarters, including the Doctor with Tremas. Once in Tremas' quarters, he and the Doctor pull out the plan for the source where the Doctor works out a code that will cause the Source to reject the Melkur as Keeper.
Aware of what the Doctor could do, the Melkur orders Neman to find the plans in Tremas' quarters. As he does so, the Melkur appears and destroys them, unaware that the Doctor has already crafted his plan. The Melkur disappears and the Doctor knocks Neman and the guards out, allowing Tremas and himself to escape. They stun two additional guards before making their way to the central chamber.
Within the chamber, the Doctor and Tremas are able to enter just over half the code before the Melkur reappears and freezes both of them. He overpowers Tremas' will and forces him to kill Neman and nearly kill himself. He then takes the Doctor into the inner sanctum of the Keeper where both disappear.
The Doctor reappears within the Melkur and finally realizes it's the Master. The Master intends to use the power of the Keeper to enhance his own and also take over the Doctor's body, using his regenerations to augment his own, which he has exhausted. Just before he does, Adric and Nyssa finish attaching their device to the Source and cause it to short circuit. The feedback causes the Melkur TARDIS to begin to fail and the Master loses control. The Doctor dashes out and the Master rushes towards his original TARDIS in the form of a grandfather clock.
Adric and Nyssa run upstairs as the Doctor reappears in the Keeper's sanctum. Tremas, aware of the plan, rushes downstairs to disconnect the device once the code is input. The Doctor shouts for Adric to input the last digits of the code. Adric is able to put in most of the code before the atmospheric instability blows him back. The Doctor is able to get out of the sanctum and enter the last digit of the code, restoring stability to the Source. He then urges the two remaining council members to become the new Keeper before the Master can put his TARDIS back in. Councilman Luvic rushes in and is accepted as the new Keeper.
With a new Keeper installed, the Doctor and Adric say their goodbyes and head back to the TARDIS. Though they intend to go to Gallifrey, the Doctor makes mention of trying to fix up the TARDIS a bit.
Tremas and Nyssa decide to head back to their home for some rest. He sends Nyssa ahead while he checks on something. Distracted by the incorrect time on a clock, Tremas reaches up to fix the hands. He becomes paralyzed as he touches the face and the Master steps out of the clock, which is his TARDIS in disguise. He merges his body with Tremas' and Tremas' body becomes younger but now with the Master's mind, effectively killing Tremas. He steps in to the TARDIS and disappears as Nyssa walks back in, confused by her father's disappearance.
Analysis
I can definitely understand why this story is considered second tier. There are elements that are well done and certainly the acting is fairly good. But it is very talk-y and not in a good way. After a pretty interesting set up, Episodes Two and Three become something of a slog before the story whips back into gear with almost a frenzied and mildly unsubstantiated pace. So it's a question of balance and what do you like and what do you not like.
The Doctor is enjoyable here but also rather restrained. Much of Season 18 reflects his advanced age (and Tom Baker's health problems made this easier to convey) but despite that, this was the first story where I felt that the Doctor really was marching to his own doom. I think it's because he lost the buoyancy of Romana and that lack of levity drags him further down, although he does get a small crack of humor here and there. I actually prefer the Fourth Doctor in a more restrained state as his sillier performances can result in loss of the plot for me.
I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed Adric in this story. There seems to be a strong level of respect between him and the Fourth Doctor and I think the age gap between them produces a strong mentor/mentee relationship. The Fourth Doctor played a with that a bit with both Leela and Romana but there was more bite back as neither were going to form a master/student relationship with the Doctor. Adric does seem to be on his way to. What's more, he doesn't argue or talk of going to the other side. The Doctor lands to investigate, Adric follows to learn, they develop plans and Adric follows. No whining, no arguing, no backbiting about how the Doctor is wrong. Adric is at his best when a heavy hand is on him I think.
I also thought Adric had a nice relationship with Nyssa. I suspect that the scene where Adric takes Nyssa into the TARDIS is probably the instigator to why Nyssa was brought along as a companion. She and Adric actually share a nice bit of chemistry and they function as near equals, although it's clear that Adric takes the more Doctor-y role due to his increased experience both with the Doctor and in overall scientific knowledge. But it plays well between both of them.
Nyssa herself does very well. Sarah Sutton is trying to be restrained but you also see more regular emotion with her, especially in her interaction with Adric. Now to be fair, I can also see the coldly logical and wooden Nyssa in her performance. Again, I'm not sure what direction she was given in her character bio, but as emotive as everyone else is, her attempt at passivity always seems to come across as emotionally distant and that in turn makes her look like a bad actor. But for the most part, she does well here.
I've been on record before stating that I actually really enjoy Anthony Ainley and I think he gets a bad wrap for as hammy as he plays the Master for most of his tenure. Many fans point back to Tremas to indicate that Ainley had good acting chops which is rather ironic for me because I thought Ainley was too understated as Tremas. Tremas is a scientist who's world is going through great upheaval, to the point that one of his good friends on the council is murdered. Yet he always seems strangely distant. He very much reminded me of what many of Nyssa's performances would be like in future stories. I don't think he was bad, but having gone through the high energy and emotion that you get both from the Master and his disguises, Tremas just didn't grab me in a way that I thought he should. I felt like I should have cared more about him when the Master takes over his body rather than just the meh I felt.
On the subject of the Master, I thought the Geoffrey Beavers did a pretty good job as the Master. He got a touch over the top just before he tried to take over the Doctor's body and when the Melkur TARDIS began to destroy itself, but his period of restraint before this was quite good and full of menace. In many ways, it reminded me of Sutekh, although I don't think anyone could live up to the vocal performance that Gabriel Woolf gave. But from an overall level, I thought it was pretty good; certainly within the acceptance level of the Master as done in The Deadly Assassin, and at least here you can understand what the Master is saying. The use of the Master's TARDIS as the Melkur is also pretty good as it puts and interesting twist on the capabilities of an advanced TARDIS.
The rest of the cast was fairly non-descript, suffering from the same lack of passion that seemed to plague Nyssa and Tremas. The exception to that was Kassia who went waaaaay over the top in many of her scenes. Her acceptance of evil to accomplish her own goal of not having Tremas be made Keeper was a rather large step given what we were shown initially. I would have liked to have seen some quiet and intimate moments between her and Tremas to flesh out that she cared about him so much as to risk the destruction of Traken just so that they would be together. But instead, she's so focused on the plan and the tasks she must do for the Melkur, that she barely spends any time with Tremas. That just gives the impression that she's more mad than anything else and her over-the-top performance just gets in the way of that. Overall, she's a less compelling and interesting villain than the Master/Melkur and many of her scenes feel like "just get on with it" so we can see what the real strategist is up to.
A common comment about this story is how stagey it feels. I can't disagree with that as the studio was never really given much of an attempt to feel atmospheric. I also think that the rigidity and formality of the performers outside of the Doctor and the Master added to the feeling of having stumbled on a play. That being said, the sets were nice and I thought the direction didn't hurt the performance in any way, even if it didn't add much either.
Ultimately, the primary flaw of this story is that the central portion of it is a bit of a dull slog. This comes from both the plodding dialogue and the almost impassive delivery of most of the players. If a character like Tremas or Nyssa started showing more passion (and there were moments where Tremas did come close to it) the story would have had more buoyancy throughout and it might be regarded higher than it is. I would say that it's not bad, but there's not a lot that would convince me to regard it as that good either. Middle of the road would be a good way to describe it.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Adric: The Doctor told me its because it's dimensionally transcendental.
Nyssa: What does that mean?
Adric: It means it's bigger on the inside.
The Keeper of Traken is one of those stories that seems to be near the top of tier two. No one ever lists it as a favorite nor does it make any kind of Top 10 list like The Ark in Space or Genesis of the Daleks. But it always seems to be well regarded as an interesting story and well performed. It's also a rather important story given that it introduces the Anthony Ainley Master and Nyssa, although she was not intended as a companion when Johnny Byrne wrote this story. So I'm highly curious about this one.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Adric bring the TARDIS into N-space and find themselves near the planet of Traken, a planet where evil is not permitted to flourish. The Doctor can't remember ever visiting there but consults his journals with Adric to refresh his memory. As they read, an old man in a chair appears in the control room.
The old man is the current Keeper of Traken. He requests the Doctor's help and shows images of evil creatures called Melkur which fly to the planet, become rooted in various areas and calcify as their evil is suppressed. He shows one Melkur being tended by a young woman named Kassia. She is later shown as a member of the council and recently married to another council member named Tremas. At their wedding, the Keeper shifted Kassia's attentive duties of the Melkur to Tremas' daughter Nyssa. Shortly after he names Tremas as Keeper designate, to succeed him after he dies. Kassia is upset by this and vents her fears to the Melkur. The Doctor agrees to help and the Keeper disappears.
On Traken, a man is found dead with a look of horror on his face. Tremas has readings which indicate that evil is growing on the planet. The council assembles to discuss the matter and they eventually vote to allow the citizenry to arm themselves as a means of protection.
The Doctor and Adric arrive shortly afterward and are arrested by the guards on suspicion of the murder and brought to the council. After they leave, the Melkur wakes and hits the TARDIS with a beam, causing it to disappear. The Doctor informs the council that he was summoned by the Keeper but when they go to find the TARDIS to verify his story, they cannot find it and grow more suspicious of him.
The Doctor appeals for them to ask the Keeper directly and they agree. As they go to summon him. The Melkur comes alive and walks to the doorway of the hall. The Keeper appears but is attacked by the Melkur's plasma beam while lingering in the back and cries out about the invasion of evil before he disappears again.
Assuming the Doctor was the evil spoken of, the guards advance and Kassia cries for their deaths but overdoes it and collapses. The Doctor appeals once more and his invoking of science intrigues Tremas. Tremas takes the Doctor and Adric under his protection while they investigate the energy readings. Kassia meanwhile comes to and slips out. She sees the body of a peasant killed by the Melkur and drags it into the brush, not wanting the Melkur to be discovered yet.
Tremas takes the Doctor and Adric to his home for rest and food while Kassia heads back to the Melkur, which has resumed it's former place. It begins speaking to her and assures her that Tremas will not assume the role of Keeper. The Melkur gives her a collar which allows him to use his powers through her.
After eating the Doctor and Tremas leave his house to investigate the energy readings while Adric stays with Nyssa. She shows him her father's equipment and Adric begins to take measurements of his own. He spots some unusual readings and drags Nyssa out to go show them to the Doctor. The Doctor and Tremas are meanwhile prevented from getting to the grove as the populace has crowded outside the gates based on the rumors of the Melkur coming to life. Tremas and the Doctor instead take an alternate route through the council room.
Nyssa slips Proctor Neman, the captain of the guards, some money and he disperses the crowd around the gate. Adric slips through but Nyssa is prevented from entering the grove by the rest of the council. They are assembling for Councilor Seron to stand examination before the Keeper due to his withholding of Tremas' energy findings. Nyssa is sent home while Adric is grabbed and shushed by the Doctor.
The Doctor discovers that the TARDIS is still there but has been shifted out of phase. The three of them head back to the cavern under the council chamber where the main power source is. There Adric shows the Doctor his readings which suggest a more powerful TARDIS than his arrived on Traken. The Doctor then perfects a small device to unphase the TARDIS.
Before they leave, they notice the power activating, indicating the Keeper is arriving. He examines Seron and finds him innocent but warns that they have been betrayed. Confused, Seron turns as the Keeper disappears to find Kassia now controlled by the Melkur. She fires bolts of plasma and kills Seron. The commotion attracts the Doctor and Tremas as well as the guards. She then claims Seron was found guilty by the Keeper and they move to arrest the Doctor.
They flee into the grove via the tunnel where the Melkur mocks the Doctor. The Doctor rematerializes the TARDIS but before they can enter, Kassia steps in front and stuns Tremas. Tremas, the Doctor and Adric are then captured via an electrified net from one of the guards. The group is placed in a holding cell with strict instructions to the guards to keep them under watch.
Kassia returns to the grove where she asks the Melkur to release her but the Melkur takes further control of her, insisting she become the new Keeper upon the death of the old one. They are interrupted by Nyssa, who had come to tend the statue. Kassia lashes out at her and orders her home, informing her that her father and the strangers have been arrested. Nyssa does go home but amplifies an ion bonder and heads for the prison.
Nyssa attempts to bribe Proctor Neman as she did before but he refuses. She then stuns him and another guard with the ion bonder, taking their key. She releases the Doctor, Adric and her father and stun two additional guards when cornered in a hall. With the alarms sounding of their escape, the group doubles back and takes refuge in Tremas' house, which had already been searched by the guards. The Doctor then convinces Tremas to let him see the plans for the source power supply. Looking over the blueprints, the Doctor and Adric make a contingency plan and then give them back to Tremas. They head back to the grove to get back to the TARDIS.
The remaining council members meet and agree that with the death of Seron and the arrest of Tremas, Kassia will become Keeper upon the death of the old one. Learning of the Doctor's escape, Kassia elects to reset the old trap and orders the guards away from the grove. This allows the Doctor's group to enter the grove where the Melkur warns off the Doctor once more. A view inside shows that the Melkur is actually the skeletal Master in his TARDIS.
A sudden lighting storm rises signaling the impending death of the old Keeper. The flames signaling his life go out and Kassia steps in to the empty throne. As she does so, the Melkur disappears. Realizing what is happening, the Doctor rushes to the council chamber to stop the council from giving Kassia access to the Source. They ignore him and finish her initiation. The Doctor orders Adric below as Kassia disappears and is replaced by the Melkur.
Adric and Nyssa run back to the TARDIS where Adric shares with Nyssa the Doctor's plan to short circuit the Source. Unfortunately, if taken to it's full conclusion, it would also destroy the Source. Nevertheless, they begin to work on the device.
The Melkur takes his place as the Keeper and begins to tap into the power of the source, aligning it with the bio-function of the body. He orders Neman in and has him confine the council members to their quarters, including the Doctor with Tremas. Once in Tremas' quarters, he and the Doctor pull out the plan for the source where the Doctor works out a code that will cause the Source to reject the Melkur as Keeper.
Aware of what the Doctor could do, the Melkur orders Neman to find the plans in Tremas' quarters. As he does so, the Melkur appears and destroys them, unaware that the Doctor has already crafted his plan. The Melkur disappears and the Doctor knocks Neman and the guards out, allowing Tremas and himself to escape. They stun two additional guards before making their way to the central chamber.
Within the chamber, the Doctor and Tremas are able to enter just over half the code before the Melkur reappears and freezes both of them. He overpowers Tremas' will and forces him to kill Neman and nearly kill himself. He then takes the Doctor into the inner sanctum of the Keeper where both disappear.
The Doctor reappears within the Melkur and finally realizes it's the Master. The Master intends to use the power of the Keeper to enhance his own and also take over the Doctor's body, using his regenerations to augment his own, which he has exhausted. Just before he does, Adric and Nyssa finish attaching their device to the Source and cause it to short circuit. The feedback causes the Melkur TARDIS to begin to fail and the Master loses control. The Doctor dashes out and the Master rushes towards his original TARDIS in the form of a grandfather clock.
Adric and Nyssa run upstairs as the Doctor reappears in the Keeper's sanctum. Tremas, aware of the plan, rushes downstairs to disconnect the device once the code is input. The Doctor shouts for Adric to input the last digits of the code. Adric is able to put in most of the code before the atmospheric instability blows him back. The Doctor is able to get out of the sanctum and enter the last digit of the code, restoring stability to the Source. He then urges the two remaining council members to become the new Keeper before the Master can put his TARDIS back in. Councilman Luvic rushes in and is accepted as the new Keeper.
With a new Keeper installed, the Doctor and Adric say their goodbyes and head back to the TARDIS. Though they intend to go to Gallifrey, the Doctor makes mention of trying to fix up the TARDIS a bit.
Tremas and Nyssa decide to head back to their home for some rest. He sends Nyssa ahead while he checks on something. Distracted by the incorrect time on a clock, Tremas reaches up to fix the hands. He becomes paralyzed as he touches the face and the Master steps out of the clock, which is his TARDIS in disguise. He merges his body with Tremas' and Tremas' body becomes younger but now with the Master's mind, effectively killing Tremas. He steps in to the TARDIS and disappears as Nyssa walks back in, confused by her father's disappearance.
Analysis
I can definitely understand why this story is considered second tier. There are elements that are well done and certainly the acting is fairly good. But it is very talk-y and not in a good way. After a pretty interesting set up, Episodes Two and Three become something of a slog before the story whips back into gear with almost a frenzied and mildly unsubstantiated pace. So it's a question of balance and what do you like and what do you not like.
The Doctor is enjoyable here but also rather restrained. Much of Season 18 reflects his advanced age (and Tom Baker's health problems made this easier to convey) but despite that, this was the first story where I felt that the Doctor really was marching to his own doom. I think it's because he lost the buoyancy of Romana and that lack of levity drags him further down, although he does get a small crack of humor here and there. I actually prefer the Fourth Doctor in a more restrained state as his sillier performances can result in loss of the plot for me.
I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed Adric in this story. There seems to be a strong level of respect between him and the Fourth Doctor and I think the age gap between them produces a strong mentor/mentee relationship. The Fourth Doctor played a with that a bit with both Leela and Romana but there was more bite back as neither were going to form a master/student relationship with the Doctor. Adric does seem to be on his way to. What's more, he doesn't argue or talk of going to the other side. The Doctor lands to investigate, Adric follows to learn, they develop plans and Adric follows. No whining, no arguing, no backbiting about how the Doctor is wrong. Adric is at his best when a heavy hand is on him I think.
I also thought Adric had a nice relationship with Nyssa. I suspect that the scene where Adric takes Nyssa into the TARDIS is probably the instigator to why Nyssa was brought along as a companion. She and Adric actually share a nice bit of chemistry and they function as near equals, although it's clear that Adric takes the more Doctor-y role due to his increased experience both with the Doctor and in overall scientific knowledge. But it plays well between both of them.
Nyssa herself does very well. Sarah Sutton is trying to be restrained but you also see more regular emotion with her, especially in her interaction with Adric. Now to be fair, I can also see the coldly logical and wooden Nyssa in her performance. Again, I'm not sure what direction she was given in her character bio, but as emotive as everyone else is, her attempt at passivity always seems to come across as emotionally distant and that in turn makes her look like a bad actor. But for the most part, she does well here.
I've been on record before stating that I actually really enjoy Anthony Ainley and I think he gets a bad wrap for as hammy as he plays the Master for most of his tenure. Many fans point back to Tremas to indicate that Ainley had good acting chops which is rather ironic for me because I thought Ainley was too understated as Tremas. Tremas is a scientist who's world is going through great upheaval, to the point that one of his good friends on the council is murdered. Yet he always seems strangely distant. He very much reminded me of what many of Nyssa's performances would be like in future stories. I don't think he was bad, but having gone through the high energy and emotion that you get both from the Master and his disguises, Tremas just didn't grab me in a way that I thought he should. I felt like I should have cared more about him when the Master takes over his body rather than just the meh I felt.
On the subject of the Master, I thought the Geoffrey Beavers did a pretty good job as the Master. He got a touch over the top just before he tried to take over the Doctor's body and when the Melkur TARDIS began to destroy itself, but his period of restraint before this was quite good and full of menace. In many ways, it reminded me of Sutekh, although I don't think anyone could live up to the vocal performance that Gabriel Woolf gave. But from an overall level, I thought it was pretty good; certainly within the acceptance level of the Master as done in The Deadly Assassin, and at least here you can understand what the Master is saying. The use of the Master's TARDIS as the Melkur is also pretty good as it puts and interesting twist on the capabilities of an advanced TARDIS.
The rest of the cast was fairly non-descript, suffering from the same lack of passion that seemed to plague Nyssa and Tremas. The exception to that was Kassia who went waaaaay over the top in many of her scenes. Her acceptance of evil to accomplish her own goal of not having Tremas be made Keeper was a rather large step given what we were shown initially. I would have liked to have seen some quiet and intimate moments between her and Tremas to flesh out that she cared about him so much as to risk the destruction of Traken just so that they would be together. But instead, she's so focused on the plan and the tasks she must do for the Melkur, that she barely spends any time with Tremas. That just gives the impression that she's more mad than anything else and her over-the-top performance just gets in the way of that. Overall, she's a less compelling and interesting villain than the Master/Melkur and many of her scenes feel like "just get on with it" so we can see what the real strategist is up to.
A common comment about this story is how stagey it feels. I can't disagree with that as the studio was never really given much of an attempt to feel atmospheric. I also think that the rigidity and formality of the performers outside of the Doctor and the Master added to the feeling of having stumbled on a play. That being said, the sets were nice and I thought the direction didn't hurt the performance in any way, even if it didn't add much either.
Ultimately, the primary flaw of this story is that the central portion of it is a bit of a dull slog. This comes from both the plodding dialogue and the almost impassive delivery of most of the players. If a character like Tremas or Nyssa started showing more passion (and there were moments where Tremas did come close to it) the story would have had more buoyancy throughout and it might be regarded higher than it is. I would say that it's not bad, but there's not a lot that would convince me to regard it as that good either. Middle of the road would be a good way to describe it.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Friday, July 14, 2017
The Name of the Doctor
Doctor, what is your name?
The Name of the Doctor was the big lead in for the 50th anniversary special. It also was looking to reveal the mystery behind Clara as well as start to peel back the onion on a number of mysteries that swirled through the Eleventh Doctor's tenure. This gave the story a fairly tall order to fill and it was debuted with much hype. It also was the first of four straight stories to go with the "... of the Doctor." naming convention. I remembered enjoying this one the first time through but does it stand when the hype has faded?
Plot Summary
Madame Vastra goes to see a condemned murder who offers information about the Doctor in exchange for his life. She evaluates his information and decides to hold a discussion with other parties about it. She puts herself and Jenny to sleep and sends notices to have Strax and Clara put to sleep as well (Clara by means of a sleeping agent in the paper of the letter she sent).
Clara wakes to see the three Paternosters around a table in a dream world where they are joined by the River Song impression from the Library, whom Clara has never met and had only occasional references by the Doctor. Vastra relays the information along with a set of space-time coordinates. River realizes something about the message but before she can relate it, Jenny is attacked in her real body by creatures called the Whisper-Men. River forces everyone to wake up but Jenny, Vastra and Strax are all captured.
Clara wakes to find the Doctor duped by her charges into playing blind-man's bluff while they slipped out to a movie. She tells him what happened and the Doctor rushes off to the TARDIS. He realizes that the message meant that his grave has been found on the planet Trenzalore. He takes the coordinates from Clara's memory and they head off there, though the TARDIS resists them the whole way. The Doctor is forced to forcibly land on the planet and they walk through a graveyard toward the dead Doctor's TARDIS, which has grown to enormous size.
As they walk, Clara sees and hears River, who kept the line open from their earlier chat. Clara and the Doctor find a tomb with River's name on it and she prompts Clara that it might be a passage to the Doctor's tomb. They open it as a group of Whisper-Men appear and rush at them. They are chased through the tunnel until they come to the TARDIS and lock the Whisper-Men out. As they walk through the TARDIS, Clara begins to remember what the Doctor revealed about her during Journey to the Center of the TARDIS.
The Doctor and Clara meet the Paternosters who are being held by the Whisper-Men and the Great Intelligence, taking the form of Dr. Simeon. The Great Intelligence threatens to kill the four friends unless the Doctor opens his tomb by stating his real name. The Doctor begs him not to but River, unseen to all, states his name and opens the doors. The Great Intelligence enters and they find a glowing rip in the fabric of space-time, which gives access to the entirety of the Doctor's timeline.
The Great Intelligence enters the timeline, destroying the Doctor's past and future. As he does, the Doctor loses strength and begins to die. Vastra notes stars going out as the Doctor's victories are reversed. Jenny disappears as she was saved by the Doctor. Strax also becomes hostile and Vastra is forced to kill him. Realizing that the only way to save the Doctor is to restore the Doctor's timeline, and knowing she has already done it before, Clara steps into the Doctor's timeline. Thousands of replicas of her are made across time and space (including those seen in Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen) but the prime version of Clara falls into a rocky space surrounded by echos of the Doctor's past.
Clara's entry saves the Doctor and restores his previous victories, including Jenny and Strax. He then elects to go after Clara. River appeals to him not to and he acknowledges that he was able to see her the whole time. They have a last kiss and finally say their goodbyes as he enters his time stream. He finds Clara confused and offers her a copy of her parents' leaf to ground her. He then grabs hold of her. Before they can leave though, a new figure emerges from the shadows. Clara faints from the stress and the Doctor backs out of his time stream as the War Doctor comes into focus.
Analysis
I think we can call this one a fairly good episode, although like a number of the Steven Moffat stories in this era, it loses a little bit when watched out of context of the rest of the series. I had actually forgotten that it makes a heavy reference to the events of Journey to the Center of the TARDIS since that is where the Doctor told Clara about her other iterations. But it still flows fairly well, although I noticed my appreciation of the Paternoster Gang was a bit diminished this time around.
The Doctor was enjoyable as always here but he was not the real driver of the plot. Nearly all the action was centered around the various companions so that the Doctor seemed fairly ineffectual up until the end. He also seemed a bit weak when directly confronting the Great Intelligence, needing River to give the Intelligence what it wanted and then having Clara do the actual saving. Of course, since they'd already run across evidence of what Clara had done, the whole thing was inevitable so his weakness could be somewhat excused. But it was still a little disappointing.
The Doctor's best scenes were actually with River and her performance in general was quite enjoyable. In many ways, her and Strax were the only source of levity and her humor always seems more witty and enjoyable than the slapstick that Strax indulges in. But when she goes for the more serious moment of actually giving him hope that Clara is alive and that he has to say goodbye, it works really well and has a poignancy to it. I also like it that they didn't expand on the cheap gag of showing the view from the Paternoster Gang and showing the Doctor holding air when he is holding River. That would have ruined the mood and I thought that scene in particular was quite well done.
I must also say that I actually like Clara in this story. Overall, I think my enjoyment of Clara is greater in Series 7B when she is still the Impossible Girl. Less of her personality is developed because the quest narrative takes precedence and that makes her more enjoyable overall, at least to me, as I find her regular personality somewhat annoying. But she did well here, being on her heels most of the time and acting as River's puppet for a short while. I can find no fault with her here.
The Paternoster Gang was okay but they were a bit disappointing to me. Strax was his normal self so that was par for the course, but both Jenny and Vastra seemed less than themselves here. That's less of a leap for Jenny given that she is often portrayed as the lesser of the two and it seems she was attacked first so a more diminished presence should be expected. But Vastra seems nearly helpless through most of the story and that just doesn't suit her. A mind as developed as she has should be always in motion and prepared to make plans. Having her stand and fret while waiting for someone else to figure out what to do just doesn't suit her and lessened the overall character. They were still enjoyable, but less than they should have been.
The villains were a bit wasted in this I thought. The Whisper-Men were quite scary in appearance and their existence as manifestations of thought made them particularly creepy. But they don't do much aside from menace and act as the slow-moving soldiers for the Great Intelligence. The Great Intelligence himself is also underutilized as doesn't even appear until nearly the halfway point of the episode and then is torn apart by the time winds after entering the Doctor's time stream. It also seems rather weak that he kills himself to destroy the Doctor and doesn't think of doing anything to the other people who might come in after him and thwart his plans.
To cover a point raised by HISHE, how exactly does Clara's thousands of fragments overcome the fragments of the Great Intelligence? Is she stronger than he and just overwrites him or does she actually have to fight him (and if necessary die) as her two previously shown iterations do? Also, why is the Great Intelligence destroyed but Clara not upon entering the time stream? Is it because he exists as thought while she still has a flesh and blood body that holds up better in the time winds? Of course, she would have died soon enough due to the mental damage done in the time stream, but it's still a bit of an unresolved point that bugs me.
The story also suffers a little bit from aging in the way that it introduces the War Doctor. The Doctor notes that the War persona is his secret and his actions were not in the name of the Doctor. He then leaves and the War Doctor turns around to then have words on the screen saying "Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor." At the time I'm sure this was a huge squee moment but with the 50th anniversary long over, it's a break in the narrative flow and upsets the mood. I think there was enough clarity from Clara and the Doctor's conversation to denote that John Hurt is a previous iteration of the Doctor and having the credits roll after he turns around with nothing more than a steel gaze would have been sufficient. The moment could have been done in the closing credits with a solo credit line saying the same thing on the closing credit background. I'ts a pretty small nit but it does bug me a bit.
The overall direction was pretty good and the effects weren't completely terrible either given how much old footage Clara had to be spliced into. Clearly the worst insert was with the Second Doctor. The green screen was painfully obvious and I can't understand why the Second Doctor was running around in his fur coat in Southern California. If it had been a scene on a mountain and they were clearly attempting to recreate The Abominable Snowmen, I would have understood and the green screen would have been easier to forgive, given the very limited amount of footage there. But the setting made no sense to me and that just stuck out. Clara falling into the time stream also looked pretty fake. Falling just seems to be something that television can't quite get right.
As for the story itself, it works fairly well, even if you need to rewatch other stories in the Series to get all the nuances. That's not abnormal for modern Doctor Who and even the classic series would have stories make notes to past stories so that doesn't bother me. I think the it would have been a little better served to have been longer as some of it seemed a bit rushed and underdeveloped. Yet there was no real point of padding so it's just a case of cramming so much into a show that other details get dropped. That feeds into the rushed feeling in certain scenes but I'd rather have a story where a little bit of trim was made than to have a story that has been padded up.
Overall, this was a pretty good lead in to the anniversary special. Was it perfect; no. But it had a good overall feel and pace and it was engaging the whole way through, even if it went overboard on the melodrama at times. It was a good story and an easy one to rewatch, but also clearly not a story to lead a new fan into. But that's not going to stop me from pulling out now and again to watch on it's own.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
The Name of the Doctor was the big lead in for the 50th anniversary special. It also was looking to reveal the mystery behind Clara as well as start to peel back the onion on a number of mysteries that swirled through the Eleventh Doctor's tenure. This gave the story a fairly tall order to fill and it was debuted with much hype. It also was the first of four straight stories to go with the "... of the Doctor." naming convention. I remembered enjoying this one the first time through but does it stand when the hype has faded?
Plot Summary
Madame Vastra goes to see a condemned murder who offers information about the Doctor in exchange for his life. She evaluates his information and decides to hold a discussion with other parties about it. She puts herself and Jenny to sleep and sends notices to have Strax and Clara put to sleep as well (Clara by means of a sleeping agent in the paper of the letter she sent).
Clara wakes to see the three Paternosters around a table in a dream world where they are joined by the River Song impression from the Library, whom Clara has never met and had only occasional references by the Doctor. Vastra relays the information along with a set of space-time coordinates. River realizes something about the message but before she can relate it, Jenny is attacked in her real body by creatures called the Whisper-Men. River forces everyone to wake up but Jenny, Vastra and Strax are all captured.
Clara wakes to find the Doctor duped by her charges into playing blind-man's bluff while they slipped out to a movie. She tells him what happened and the Doctor rushes off to the TARDIS. He realizes that the message meant that his grave has been found on the planet Trenzalore. He takes the coordinates from Clara's memory and they head off there, though the TARDIS resists them the whole way. The Doctor is forced to forcibly land on the planet and they walk through a graveyard toward the dead Doctor's TARDIS, which has grown to enormous size.
As they walk, Clara sees and hears River, who kept the line open from their earlier chat. Clara and the Doctor find a tomb with River's name on it and she prompts Clara that it might be a passage to the Doctor's tomb. They open it as a group of Whisper-Men appear and rush at them. They are chased through the tunnel until they come to the TARDIS and lock the Whisper-Men out. As they walk through the TARDIS, Clara begins to remember what the Doctor revealed about her during Journey to the Center of the TARDIS.
The Doctor and Clara meet the Paternosters who are being held by the Whisper-Men and the Great Intelligence, taking the form of Dr. Simeon. The Great Intelligence threatens to kill the four friends unless the Doctor opens his tomb by stating his real name. The Doctor begs him not to but River, unseen to all, states his name and opens the doors. The Great Intelligence enters and they find a glowing rip in the fabric of space-time, which gives access to the entirety of the Doctor's timeline.
The Great Intelligence enters the timeline, destroying the Doctor's past and future. As he does, the Doctor loses strength and begins to die. Vastra notes stars going out as the Doctor's victories are reversed. Jenny disappears as she was saved by the Doctor. Strax also becomes hostile and Vastra is forced to kill him. Realizing that the only way to save the Doctor is to restore the Doctor's timeline, and knowing she has already done it before, Clara steps into the Doctor's timeline. Thousands of replicas of her are made across time and space (including those seen in Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen) but the prime version of Clara falls into a rocky space surrounded by echos of the Doctor's past.
Clara's entry saves the Doctor and restores his previous victories, including Jenny and Strax. He then elects to go after Clara. River appeals to him not to and he acknowledges that he was able to see her the whole time. They have a last kiss and finally say their goodbyes as he enters his time stream. He finds Clara confused and offers her a copy of her parents' leaf to ground her. He then grabs hold of her. Before they can leave though, a new figure emerges from the shadows. Clara faints from the stress and the Doctor backs out of his time stream as the War Doctor comes into focus.
Analysis
I think we can call this one a fairly good episode, although like a number of the Steven Moffat stories in this era, it loses a little bit when watched out of context of the rest of the series. I had actually forgotten that it makes a heavy reference to the events of Journey to the Center of the TARDIS since that is where the Doctor told Clara about her other iterations. But it still flows fairly well, although I noticed my appreciation of the Paternoster Gang was a bit diminished this time around.
The Doctor was enjoyable as always here but he was not the real driver of the plot. Nearly all the action was centered around the various companions so that the Doctor seemed fairly ineffectual up until the end. He also seemed a bit weak when directly confronting the Great Intelligence, needing River to give the Intelligence what it wanted and then having Clara do the actual saving. Of course, since they'd already run across evidence of what Clara had done, the whole thing was inevitable so his weakness could be somewhat excused. But it was still a little disappointing.
The Doctor's best scenes were actually with River and her performance in general was quite enjoyable. In many ways, her and Strax were the only source of levity and her humor always seems more witty and enjoyable than the slapstick that Strax indulges in. But when she goes for the more serious moment of actually giving him hope that Clara is alive and that he has to say goodbye, it works really well and has a poignancy to it. I also like it that they didn't expand on the cheap gag of showing the view from the Paternoster Gang and showing the Doctor holding air when he is holding River. That would have ruined the mood and I thought that scene in particular was quite well done.
I must also say that I actually like Clara in this story. Overall, I think my enjoyment of Clara is greater in Series 7B when she is still the Impossible Girl. Less of her personality is developed because the quest narrative takes precedence and that makes her more enjoyable overall, at least to me, as I find her regular personality somewhat annoying. But she did well here, being on her heels most of the time and acting as River's puppet for a short while. I can find no fault with her here.
The Paternoster Gang was okay but they were a bit disappointing to me. Strax was his normal self so that was par for the course, but both Jenny and Vastra seemed less than themselves here. That's less of a leap for Jenny given that she is often portrayed as the lesser of the two and it seems she was attacked first so a more diminished presence should be expected. But Vastra seems nearly helpless through most of the story and that just doesn't suit her. A mind as developed as she has should be always in motion and prepared to make plans. Having her stand and fret while waiting for someone else to figure out what to do just doesn't suit her and lessened the overall character. They were still enjoyable, but less than they should have been.
The villains were a bit wasted in this I thought. The Whisper-Men were quite scary in appearance and their existence as manifestations of thought made them particularly creepy. But they don't do much aside from menace and act as the slow-moving soldiers for the Great Intelligence. The Great Intelligence himself is also underutilized as doesn't even appear until nearly the halfway point of the episode and then is torn apart by the time winds after entering the Doctor's time stream. It also seems rather weak that he kills himself to destroy the Doctor and doesn't think of doing anything to the other people who might come in after him and thwart his plans.
To cover a point raised by HISHE, how exactly does Clara's thousands of fragments overcome the fragments of the Great Intelligence? Is she stronger than he and just overwrites him or does she actually have to fight him (and if necessary die) as her two previously shown iterations do? Also, why is the Great Intelligence destroyed but Clara not upon entering the time stream? Is it because he exists as thought while she still has a flesh and blood body that holds up better in the time winds? Of course, she would have died soon enough due to the mental damage done in the time stream, but it's still a bit of an unresolved point that bugs me.
The story also suffers a little bit from aging in the way that it introduces the War Doctor. The Doctor notes that the War persona is his secret and his actions were not in the name of the Doctor. He then leaves and the War Doctor turns around to then have words on the screen saying "Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor." At the time I'm sure this was a huge squee moment but with the 50th anniversary long over, it's a break in the narrative flow and upsets the mood. I think there was enough clarity from Clara and the Doctor's conversation to denote that John Hurt is a previous iteration of the Doctor and having the credits roll after he turns around with nothing more than a steel gaze would have been sufficient. The moment could have been done in the closing credits with a solo credit line saying the same thing on the closing credit background. I'ts a pretty small nit but it does bug me a bit.
The overall direction was pretty good and the effects weren't completely terrible either given how much old footage Clara had to be spliced into. Clearly the worst insert was with the Second Doctor. The green screen was painfully obvious and I can't understand why the Second Doctor was running around in his fur coat in Southern California. If it had been a scene on a mountain and they were clearly attempting to recreate The Abominable Snowmen, I would have understood and the green screen would have been easier to forgive, given the very limited amount of footage there. But the setting made no sense to me and that just stuck out. Clara falling into the time stream also looked pretty fake. Falling just seems to be something that television can't quite get right.
As for the story itself, it works fairly well, even if you need to rewatch other stories in the Series to get all the nuances. That's not abnormal for modern Doctor Who and even the classic series would have stories make notes to past stories so that doesn't bother me. I think the it would have been a little better served to have been longer as some of it seemed a bit rushed and underdeveloped. Yet there was no real point of padding so it's just a case of cramming so much into a show that other details get dropped. That feeds into the rushed feeling in certain scenes but I'd rather have a story where a little bit of trim was made than to have a story that has been padded up.
Overall, this was a pretty good lead in to the anniversary special. Was it perfect; no. But it had a good overall feel and pace and it was engaging the whole way through, even if it went overboard on the melodrama at times. It was a good story and an easy one to rewatch, but also clearly not a story to lead a new fan into. But that's not going to stop me from pulling out now and again to watch on it's own.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
The Green Death
Serendipity
Environmentalism, action and Jo's departure. The Green Death is a highly regarded story amongst fans and one of the few Third Doctor stories that I've seen before. I recall enjoying the first time I watched it but am curious to see how it fares a second time around. I do know that it is generally agreed to be considered the best of the four stories authored by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts, who wrote the season finales for Seasons 8 thru 11. Of course, given the reputations of the other three (The Dæmons, The Time Monster, Planet of the Spiders) that doesn't seem to be too hard.
Plot Summary
At the headquarters of Global Chemicals in South Wales, the director, Stevens, returns from London with promises of government contracts that will provide jobs for a group of miners who were recently put out of work when the coal mine was closed. This is met with cheers by most of the crowd but also derision from the members of an environmentalist commune led by Professor Clifford Jones. He argues with Stevens but both men are interrupted by a whistle from the mine. One of the workers collapsed on the whistle after returning from an inspection and has now died, his skin glowing with green phosphorescence.
UNIT is called in to investigate but the Doctor has already made plans to visit Metebelis III. He wants Jo to come with but she has already decided to visit Professor Cliff Jones' community to help out. As they are near each other, the Brigadier offers Jo a ride while the Doctor takes off in the TARDIS. He manages to collect one of the large blue gems the planet is famous for but has a very rough time while on the planet.
The Brigadier drops off Jo who meets Professor Jones in his lab. She is impressed by the work he and his team are doing and becomes fascinated by his research into the pollution that Global Chemicals is likely dumping into the old coal mine. Curious, but also a little put off by Jones' patronizing tone, Jo leaves to go investigate the mine.
The Brigadier arrives at Global Chemicals and informs Stevens of his task to investigate the situation. Stevens agrees though he assures him that their process is safe. The Brigadier calls back to UNIT HQ and informs them to let him know when the Doctor has returned and to send him there. The Doctor arrives shortly after the call, relieved to be in a safe location again. He drives up to Global Chemicals in Bessie.
The Doctor arrives and he and the Brigadier decide to investigate the mine for themselves. Stevens gives them access but tells one of his henchmen named Hinks that no one should enter the mine and that he is to take care of it. Hinks agrees but is concerned over Stevens' odd manner. Stevens dismisses him but retrieves a set of heavy earphones and puts them on.
One of the old miners named Dai, concerned about the death of the co-worker, heads down to inspect the mind for himself. He calls up for help a while later just as Jo arrives to investigate. She goes with another miner named Bert who is heading down to get him due to her first aid training. As they are being lowered, the Brigadier and the Doctor arrive. The Doctor orders the workers to stop the tram and pull them back up. The worker tries to comply but the brake fails.
The Doctor and the Brigadier, working together, manage to jam the lift controls and stop the lift just before it crashes at the bottom of the shaft. At the bottom of the shaft, Jo and Bert find Dai infected with the same green glow that killed the first miner. They wait for the lift to be repaired but fearing for Dai's life, they decide to travel to another part of the mine that had been shut down to try and find a way out.
To get the lift working again, they need to cut the control cable but the mine lacks the equipment as it had been shut down. They call Professor Jones to ask him but he also does not have the equipment so they go to Global Chemicals. Stevens learns of the request, but receives orders from the director to not give the equipment in order to protect what is in the mine. Stevens orders one of his men, named Fell, brainwashed to ensure this. When the Brigadier comes by, Stevens claims the equipment was removed a couple days ago in preparation for the arrival of updated equipment.
Both the Doctor and Jones are sure that Stevens is lying and decide to find it. The Brigadier however decides to drive to the nearest town to try and find some. Jones and his people stage a protest to distract the guards while the Doctor sneaks into the plant. He is discovered and trapped in a pump room. Stevens comes and shows the Doctor the empty shed and then releases him, having been ordered by the director to let the Doctor go in order to learn of his purpose.
The Doctor and Jones return to the mine to find the Brigadier found cutting equipment at a local gas station and was able to borrow it. They cut through the line and the Doctor heads down with two miners as guides. They find Dai dead and a note on his body from Jo telling them where they went. The Doctor and one of the miners head after them.
They come upon Bert who is nearly passed out, infected with the same disease affecting the first two miners, having touched a trickle of green slime oozing down the side of the mine. The other miner takes Burt back while the Doctor continues to look for Jo. He finds her at the edge of a pool of the same green ooze which is swarming with enlarged maggots. They turn to head back but the tunnel suffers a cave in and several maggots crawl out of rocks, cutting off their escape route.
The Doctor and Jo turn over an abandoned mine cart and use it to ferry themselves across the pool of ooze. Once on the other side, they climb their way through the seam until they come across an access tunnel leading up to Global Chemicals. Near the entrance, they find an enlarged fly egg and the Doctor pockets it to examine later. They proceed to climb the ladder to the drain point.
After Bert and Dai are taken to the hospital and morgue respectively, the Brigadier heads to Global Chemicals to confront Stevens. He tries to impose a UNIT takeover of the investigation but Stevens calls up the Ecology Minister who involves the Prime Minister. Both men shut the Brigadier down and he is forced to leave.
Fell is sent to purge the tanks but another employee, Elgin, has become increasingly concerned over his and Stevens' odd behavior. He follows Fell and asks him what he is doing. Fell hypnotically responds that he is dumping into the mine. They are alerted to the Doctor and Jo climbing up and Fell completes the automatic dump process which will flood the tube in thirty seconds. Elgin appeals to Fell who fights off the control long enough to tell Elgin how to open the hatch. He does so and pulls the Doctor and Jo out just before the tube floods with the same green ooze seen below.
Fell returns to Stevens' office in a state of confusion. Stevens puts him under the headphones again but Fell does not respond and the director comes on to recommend self-disposal. Stevens is uncomfortable with this but the director insists and sends a signal through the headphones. Fell gets up and walks out of the office, passing Elgin, the Doctor and Jo in the hall and throws himself off a balcony, killing himself.
Elgin escorts the Doctor and Jo out the back entrance and they reunite with the Brigadier at Professor Jones' compound. Over dinner he introduces them to the other members of the commune and notes his plans to go up the Amazon river to do research in creating fungus that can be grown and used as a meat substitute. The Doctor gets along with Jones and they plan to dissect the fly egg in the morning. Their dinner is unfortunately cut short with the news that Bert has died.
Jo cries over Bert, comforted by Jones. The Brigadier and the Doctor decide to head back to the pub to spend the night but Jo decides to stay at the compound and look over a book Jones showed her. She doesn't respond much to a Metebelis III crystal the Doctor shows her and he somewhat jealously pulls Jones away from her for a chat. In the other room, the fly egg hatches and a large maggot crawls across the floor towards Jo.
Hinks heads back to Stevens office to report on the UNIT activities and includes the story about the fly egg. Alarmed, Stevens sends Hinks to steal the egg. He arrives just as the maggot is crawling towards Jo. The maggot, sensing his presence, changes direction and leaps at him and bites him before crawling off again. His and Jo's screams alert the Doctor and Jones who rush back in and take Hinks to the hospital.
The next morning, the Brigadier calls in his forces to patrol the area and blow up the mine entrance. The Doctor protests but the Brigadier is under orders. The Doctor goes to Global Chemicals to see if they will stop the mine sealing but Stevens refuses. He also shows him a representative from the Ministry who is on site to deal with UNIT directly. The representative turns out to be Mike Yates working for UNIT undercover. Yates also goes along with Stevens, not wanting to blow his cover, and they hear the sound of the explosion sealing the mine.
However, the maggots find new ways out. A large group of them burrow up a seam and infest a hillside where they are spotted by Sargent Benton on patrol. Another group come up the waste pipe where they are discovered by Elgin. Elgin tells Stevens that they need to shut down the project but Stevens has Elgin brainwashed to continue to go along with things.
UNIT keeps tabs on the maggots, though they are bullet resistant, while the Doctor and Jones try to find a cure for the ooze. The Doctor wants a sample of the ooze for them to experiment on but Stevens is keeping tabs on Yates and he is unable to get them a sample. The Doctor then disguises himself as the milkman and infiltrates Global Chemicals. Yates slips his watcher for a few minutes and fills the Doctor in on the goings on, including the fact that Stevens reports to someone only accessible through a secured elevator.
Jo assists Jones in his work but accidently knocks some of Jones' dried fungus on his sample slides. Irritated, Jones becomes engrossed in his work and begins to ignore Jo. Jo, wanting to redeem herself, leaves to capture a maggot for them to dissect. She gets up to the hillside where the maggots have manifested but is intercepted by Sargent Benton. Meanwhile, Jones notices that the fungus has neutralized the mutagen in the ooze. He tries to tell Jo but notices a note she has left and runs out after her.
Yates is reconnected with Stevens and his escort, leaving the Doctor alone. The Doctor uses his sonic to access the secured elevator and travels to the top floor. There he discovers that the director is actually a computer called BOSS that was structured after human brain patterns and gone mad with Nietzschean philosophy. The computer summons Stevens to brainwash the Doctor but he is able to resist the conditioning. BOSS initially tells Stevens to kill the Doctor but the Doctor convinces him to hold him as a hostage.
Jo convinces Benton that she's looking for the Doctor and slips away up the hillside, unaware that the Brigadier has called in an aerial grenade attack. Jones arrives, spies Jo on the hillside and runs after her. They meet but before Jones can pull her away, the helicopter arrives and starts dropping grenades. They duck into a cave but the blast of one of the grenades knocks Jones out and damages Jo's radio.
At Global Chemicals, Yates frees the Doctor from his cell and the two men try to escape. They are spotted an alarm is sounded. Yates is captured but the Doctor gets away. He drives up to the hillside to inform the Brigadier and to verify that the grenade strike had no effect on the maggots.
Shortly after the Doctor arrives, Jo manages to repair the radio and sends a weak signal for help. The Doctor and Benton drive up the hill to the cave. The Doctor uses his sonic to stun the maggots swarming outside the cave while Benton carries Jones to Bessie. The four then drive back to Jones' compound where he is diagnosed with a concussion and also a maggot bite. The Doctor gives him an aggressive dose of antibiotics which slows the infection but he heads back to the lab to work on a cure.
In the lab, the Doctor finds Yates who has been brainwashed by BOSS and sent to kill him. The Doctor uses the blue crystal he took from Metebelis III to undo Yates' hypnosis and sends him back to Global Chemicals to pretend he has killed the Doctor and free other employees from BOSS's control. Stevens however catches on to Yates and captures him.
Benton arrives at the compound with the chrysalis of one of the maggots, indicating that they are beginning to change into flies. As they examine it, one of the residents named Nancy discovers the maggot which hatched from the egg earlier. It is dead, having eaten some of the fungus she had prepared for lunch. The Doctor, Nancy and Benton quickly gather as much of the fungus as they can and toss it to the maggots on the hill from Bessie.
The maggots eat the fungus and begin to die. As they finish their rounds, the hatched fly attacks Bessie. The Doctor and Benton duck it's spewing of the green ooze before the Doctor manages to knock it down and kill it with his coat.
Back at Global Chemicals, two guards take Yates from his cell and prepare to take him upstairs for further processing. Yates however manages to get away from them and escape the facility. He runs to the hill where the Brigadier is supervising the lowering of the leftover fungus into the mine to feed to any remaining maggots. Yates warns the Brigadier that BOSS is planning to link up with other computers and move to the next stage of his plan at 4pm.
The Brigadier heads to Global Chemicals while Benton heads to the compound to warn the Doctor, who had gone back to try and find a cure for Jones. As he examines him, Jo relates how she had spilled fungus on some of his slides. The Doctor examines the slides and realizes that the same fungus before has killed the infection. He starts to prepare a paste to treat Jones but turns it over to Nancy when Benton tells him of the situation.
The guards refuse to let either the Brigadier or the Doctor in but the guard collapses when Stevens and BOSS activate the slave controls for pretreated employees. The Doctor rushes in and finds Stevens hooked up to BOSS, who is merging his mind with Stevens'. The Doctor pulls out the blue crystal recovered from Yates and cuts through BOSS's programing of Stevens. Stevens returns to his own mind enough to understand the horror of what BOSS is unleashing and cross wires the computer. The Doctor flees and the computer, along with most of the facility, explodes.
They all return to the compound where Jones has improved greatly. They get a telegram from Geneva proclaiming that Jones' facility will the official UN site for ecological research in the area. This provides funding and Jones makes plans to head to the Amazon to further his research. Jo wants to come along and Jones asks her to marry him. She agrees and an impromptu party breaks out. The Doctor, sad at losing Jo, gives her the Metebelis III crystal as a present, then quietly slips out and drives away in Bessie.
Analysis
One of the best markers of a higher quality six-part story is the fact that you forget that it is a six-part story and start to lose yourself in the overall plot. This story does that very well and even the sections that are clearly designed to string things along have a natural feel to them. Of all of them, I think only Episode Five runs the risk of feeling like padding and a good portion of that comes from the feeling that some of the action in Episode Six could have been spread a little more.
This is a well crafted story that could easily be attributed to one of the deeper writers of the Third Doctor era (such as Malcolm Hulke). The Doctor and Jo are given a great deal to do, there's a decent amount of action but not so much as to mistake this for a Danger Man story, UNIT is involved but not so much as to make it an all military story and you have an interesting and credible villain. All of these elements combine to draw the viewer in with an interesting and well paced plot that has a strong creep factor and even a couple of genuine scares.
The Doctor does very well in a nice balance of intellectualism, action and also comedy. His less than subtle cock-blocking of Cliff just after dinner is a bit amusing as well as seeing the Doctor pose as the cleaning lady. In fact, you almost think that the Doctor is talking to the audience when he warns off Yates from making a snide comment to his appearance. It's also nice to see that the "keep the Doctor away" trick of sending him to Metebelis III for most of Episode One actually has a payoff with the use of the blue crystal to break BOSS's control. If the Third Doctor were as balanced in other stories as he is here, I think I would enjoy him a bit more. Not that I don't like him, but for me he may be one of the least engaging Doctors and it is more the stories he's in that I like rather than him personally.
This is also one of the better companion send offs. Jo is given a lot to do and is genuinely engaging, even if she does indulge in most of her tropes. She is clumsy, she is proposed to and she finds herself as the damsel in distress due to her own folly. But she also pours her passion into things and she does have a nice rapport with Cliff. I'm not sure I buy the romance completely on his end but I believe that for this particular marriage proposal Jo would accept as she clearly has an established admiration for this man. That passion carries over to her performance, so much so that you actually cringe a bit when Cliff is dismissive, to the point of being mean at times when she tries to help. But it was a good send off for Jo and the Doctor's reaction at her leaving is fittingly poignant.
There was a nice balance in how UNIT was deployed in this story. I liked that the Brig was almost acting in an undercover role for the first couple of episodes given his civilian dress. I especially liked that Yates was given the useful role of being a mole, even if it wasn't a particularly good one. At the very least, it expanded their scope a bit. I did question why they kept trying bullets and explosions against the maggots. My first thought was flame throwers and it seemed odd that the Brigadier never thought of that.
The maggots made an excellent secondary villain. They were quite creepy and I think most people have had enough experience with flies and maggots to be thoroughly disgusted by them. On top of that, they are simple enough that the puppet work was quite believable, which made them more unsettling. The unfortunate contrast is the fly that the one maggot turns into to. That was not a believable puppet and the CSO work on it's attack looked particularly bad, especially when cut with the on location film work with the maggots.
Stevens and BOSS make for a good overall villain. A megalomaniacal computer is nothing new (see WOTAN) but there is the nice mystery of what BOSS is which draws the viewer in for the first four episodes. But unlike WOTAN, BOSS is given a large personality and his evoking Nazi-style buzzwords just makes him even more engaging. Stevens himself is slimy enough that you can see him as the villain until you get the slow reveal of BOSS. What's more, you get the seeds of Stevens' eventual repentance sown throughout as even he hesitates about what they are doing throughout the story. The fact that it takes the Doctor using the dehypnotizing crystal to bring that side of Stevens out long enough to destroy BOSS adds to the humanization of Stevens in his villain role.
It does make you wonder if Stevens created BOSS as a noble experiment and BOSS simply overwhelmed his mind or if there was actual malicious intent from the beginning. Of course, until the maggots actually appear, there is nothing that says that they are doing anything wrong so it's easy to see how BOSS could have gotten through Stevens' defenses and made him the coldly logical man we see through most of the story. His pitch to the miners seems heartfelt in that he is expanding his company and is promising them jobs. What person is going to say no to that or think that what he is doing is evil. It is only when a man dies and a deliberate cover up is made that you could even argue that Stevens is in proper villain territory and by this point he is clearly under BOSS's control.
One of the best scenes in the story is the final scene with the Doctor leaving Jo. It's somewhat obvious that Jo is going to be leaving in this story and the Doctor clearly makes attempts to thwart Cliff in the way you might expect an overprotective father to do. But the Doctor's sadness at the end is very touching. He knows he has to let Jo go but you still see the pain at losing a friend. But it is done in such a simple way. He keep focus in the foreground as everyone else mixes in the background party and he quietly leaves. He doesn't say a word and just drives off into the evening with that expression that shows that while he should be happy for her, he can't help but miss someone he cares about. It's quiet and an absolutely perfect bit of acting by Jon Pertwee. It's also an excellent bit of camera work to leave the Doctor in silhouetted shadow as he drives away, leaving that previously seen expression as the lasting memory as he drives away. It's just very well done.
A lot of the direction is very good in this story. Obviously there is a lot of straight camera work but the director clearly maximized his location opportunities with some nice improvised angles and different views when he actually had the chance to stretch the palate. Of course, this excellent work also drew further attention when things went off-kilter. I've already mentioned the fake fly work but there are some other scenes with the Doctor in Bessie where it's a stationary model against a green screen. There are a couple of other shots of the Brigadier or other UNIT members supposed to be at the base of the hill but are clearly done with CSO. I suspect these were pick up shots and they weren't able to go back to the location for them. Unfortunately they just stick out and look so much worse because of how good the other stuff worked. Some shoddy effects you expect and forgive, such as the mine cart ferry ride through the maggots and ooze. That would have to be a studio shot and it's fairly easy to let go. But seeing the same scene cut from location film to studio with CSO just clashes the eyes and is hard to forgive.
By my count, I've got four Third Doctor stories left but I think there's a very good chance this will end up as my favorite. It zips along, is acted well, has credible villains and is generally well shot, to say nothing of the fitting send off for Jo. It sags a touch around Episode Five and the effects of Episode Six drag it down a notch, but I'd easily call it the most entertaining of all the Third Doctor stories I've watched, though I could entertain an argument for Carnival of Monsters. In a way, this stands on much the same ground as Invasion of the Dinosaurs and I think my score should reflect that.
Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5
Environmentalism, action and Jo's departure. The Green Death is a highly regarded story amongst fans and one of the few Third Doctor stories that I've seen before. I recall enjoying the first time I watched it but am curious to see how it fares a second time around. I do know that it is generally agreed to be considered the best of the four stories authored by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts, who wrote the season finales for Seasons 8 thru 11. Of course, given the reputations of the other three (The Dæmons, The Time Monster, Planet of the Spiders) that doesn't seem to be too hard.
Plot Summary
At the headquarters of Global Chemicals in South Wales, the director, Stevens, returns from London with promises of government contracts that will provide jobs for a group of miners who were recently put out of work when the coal mine was closed. This is met with cheers by most of the crowd but also derision from the members of an environmentalist commune led by Professor Clifford Jones. He argues with Stevens but both men are interrupted by a whistle from the mine. One of the workers collapsed on the whistle after returning from an inspection and has now died, his skin glowing with green phosphorescence.
UNIT is called in to investigate but the Doctor has already made plans to visit Metebelis III. He wants Jo to come with but she has already decided to visit Professor Cliff Jones' community to help out. As they are near each other, the Brigadier offers Jo a ride while the Doctor takes off in the TARDIS. He manages to collect one of the large blue gems the planet is famous for but has a very rough time while on the planet.
The Brigadier drops off Jo who meets Professor Jones in his lab. She is impressed by the work he and his team are doing and becomes fascinated by his research into the pollution that Global Chemicals is likely dumping into the old coal mine. Curious, but also a little put off by Jones' patronizing tone, Jo leaves to go investigate the mine.
The Brigadier arrives at Global Chemicals and informs Stevens of his task to investigate the situation. Stevens agrees though he assures him that their process is safe. The Brigadier calls back to UNIT HQ and informs them to let him know when the Doctor has returned and to send him there. The Doctor arrives shortly after the call, relieved to be in a safe location again. He drives up to Global Chemicals in Bessie.
The Doctor arrives and he and the Brigadier decide to investigate the mine for themselves. Stevens gives them access but tells one of his henchmen named Hinks that no one should enter the mine and that he is to take care of it. Hinks agrees but is concerned over Stevens' odd manner. Stevens dismisses him but retrieves a set of heavy earphones and puts them on.
One of the old miners named Dai, concerned about the death of the co-worker, heads down to inspect the mind for himself. He calls up for help a while later just as Jo arrives to investigate. She goes with another miner named Bert who is heading down to get him due to her first aid training. As they are being lowered, the Brigadier and the Doctor arrive. The Doctor orders the workers to stop the tram and pull them back up. The worker tries to comply but the brake fails.
The Doctor and the Brigadier, working together, manage to jam the lift controls and stop the lift just before it crashes at the bottom of the shaft. At the bottom of the shaft, Jo and Bert find Dai infected with the same green glow that killed the first miner. They wait for the lift to be repaired but fearing for Dai's life, they decide to travel to another part of the mine that had been shut down to try and find a way out.
To get the lift working again, they need to cut the control cable but the mine lacks the equipment as it had been shut down. They call Professor Jones to ask him but he also does not have the equipment so they go to Global Chemicals. Stevens learns of the request, but receives orders from the director to not give the equipment in order to protect what is in the mine. Stevens orders one of his men, named Fell, brainwashed to ensure this. When the Brigadier comes by, Stevens claims the equipment was removed a couple days ago in preparation for the arrival of updated equipment.
Both the Doctor and Jones are sure that Stevens is lying and decide to find it. The Brigadier however decides to drive to the nearest town to try and find some. Jones and his people stage a protest to distract the guards while the Doctor sneaks into the plant. He is discovered and trapped in a pump room. Stevens comes and shows the Doctor the empty shed and then releases him, having been ordered by the director to let the Doctor go in order to learn of his purpose.
The Doctor and Jones return to the mine to find the Brigadier found cutting equipment at a local gas station and was able to borrow it. They cut through the line and the Doctor heads down with two miners as guides. They find Dai dead and a note on his body from Jo telling them where they went. The Doctor and one of the miners head after them.
They come upon Bert who is nearly passed out, infected with the same disease affecting the first two miners, having touched a trickle of green slime oozing down the side of the mine. The other miner takes Burt back while the Doctor continues to look for Jo. He finds her at the edge of a pool of the same green ooze which is swarming with enlarged maggots. They turn to head back but the tunnel suffers a cave in and several maggots crawl out of rocks, cutting off their escape route.
The Doctor and Jo turn over an abandoned mine cart and use it to ferry themselves across the pool of ooze. Once on the other side, they climb their way through the seam until they come across an access tunnel leading up to Global Chemicals. Near the entrance, they find an enlarged fly egg and the Doctor pockets it to examine later. They proceed to climb the ladder to the drain point.
After Bert and Dai are taken to the hospital and morgue respectively, the Brigadier heads to Global Chemicals to confront Stevens. He tries to impose a UNIT takeover of the investigation but Stevens calls up the Ecology Minister who involves the Prime Minister. Both men shut the Brigadier down and he is forced to leave.
Fell is sent to purge the tanks but another employee, Elgin, has become increasingly concerned over his and Stevens' odd behavior. He follows Fell and asks him what he is doing. Fell hypnotically responds that he is dumping into the mine. They are alerted to the Doctor and Jo climbing up and Fell completes the automatic dump process which will flood the tube in thirty seconds. Elgin appeals to Fell who fights off the control long enough to tell Elgin how to open the hatch. He does so and pulls the Doctor and Jo out just before the tube floods with the same green ooze seen below.
Fell returns to Stevens' office in a state of confusion. Stevens puts him under the headphones again but Fell does not respond and the director comes on to recommend self-disposal. Stevens is uncomfortable with this but the director insists and sends a signal through the headphones. Fell gets up and walks out of the office, passing Elgin, the Doctor and Jo in the hall and throws himself off a balcony, killing himself.
Elgin escorts the Doctor and Jo out the back entrance and they reunite with the Brigadier at Professor Jones' compound. Over dinner he introduces them to the other members of the commune and notes his plans to go up the Amazon river to do research in creating fungus that can be grown and used as a meat substitute. The Doctor gets along with Jones and they plan to dissect the fly egg in the morning. Their dinner is unfortunately cut short with the news that Bert has died.
Jo cries over Bert, comforted by Jones. The Brigadier and the Doctor decide to head back to the pub to spend the night but Jo decides to stay at the compound and look over a book Jones showed her. She doesn't respond much to a Metebelis III crystal the Doctor shows her and he somewhat jealously pulls Jones away from her for a chat. In the other room, the fly egg hatches and a large maggot crawls across the floor towards Jo.
Hinks heads back to Stevens office to report on the UNIT activities and includes the story about the fly egg. Alarmed, Stevens sends Hinks to steal the egg. He arrives just as the maggot is crawling towards Jo. The maggot, sensing his presence, changes direction and leaps at him and bites him before crawling off again. His and Jo's screams alert the Doctor and Jones who rush back in and take Hinks to the hospital.
The next morning, the Brigadier calls in his forces to patrol the area and blow up the mine entrance. The Doctor protests but the Brigadier is under orders. The Doctor goes to Global Chemicals to see if they will stop the mine sealing but Stevens refuses. He also shows him a representative from the Ministry who is on site to deal with UNIT directly. The representative turns out to be Mike Yates working for UNIT undercover. Yates also goes along with Stevens, not wanting to blow his cover, and they hear the sound of the explosion sealing the mine.
However, the maggots find new ways out. A large group of them burrow up a seam and infest a hillside where they are spotted by Sargent Benton on patrol. Another group come up the waste pipe where they are discovered by Elgin. Elgin tells Stevens that they need to shut down the project but Stevens has Elgin brainwashed to continue to go along with things.
UNIT keeps tabs on the maggots, though they are bullet resistant, while the Doctor and Jones try to find a cure for the ooze. The Doctor wants a sample of the ooze for them to experiment on but Stevens is keeping tabs on Yates and he is unable to get them a sample. The Doctor then disguises himself as the milkman and infiltrates Global Chemicals. Yates slips his watcher for a few minutes and fills the Doctor in on the goings on, including the fact that Stevens reports to someone only accessible through a secured elevator.
Jo assists Jones in his work but accidently knocks some of Jones' dried fungus on his sample slides. Irritated, Jones becomes engrossed in his work and begins to ignore Jo. Jo, wanting to redeem herself, leaves to capture a maggot for them to dissect. She gets up to the hillside where the maggots have manifested but is intercepted by Sargent Benton. Meanwhile, Jones notices that the fungus has neutralized the mutagen in the ooze. He tries to tell Jo but notices a note she has left and runs out after her.
Yates is reconnected with Stevens and his escort, leaving the Doctor alone. The Doctor uses his sonic to access the secured elevator and travels to the top floor. There he discovers that the director is actually a computer called BOSS that was structured after human brain patterns and gone mad with Nietzschean philosophy. The computer summons Stevens to brainwash the Doctor but he is able to resist the conditioning. BOSS initially tells Stevens to kill the Doctor but the Doctor convinces him to hold him as a hostage.
Jo convinces Benton that she's looking for the Doctor and slips away up the hillside, unaware that the Brigadier has called in an aerial grenade attack. Jones arrives, spies Jo on the hillside and runs after her. They meet but before Jones can pull her away, the helicopter arrives and starts dropping grenades. They duck into a cave but the blast of one of the grenades knocks Jones out and damages Jo's radio.
At Global Chemicals, Yates frees the Doctor from his cell and the two men try to escape. They are spotted an alarm is sounded. Yates is captured but the Doctor gets away. He drives up to the hillside to inform the Brigadier and to verify that the grenade strike had no effect on the maggots.
Shortly after the Doctor arrives, Jo manages to repair the radio and sends a weak signal for help. The Doctor and Benton drive up the hill to the cave. The Doctor uses his sonic to stun the maggots swarming outside the cave while Benton carries Jones to Bessie. The four then drive back to Jones' compound where he is diagnosed with a concussion and also a maggot bite. The Doctor gives him an aggressive dose of antibiotics which slows the infection but he heads back to the lab to work on a cure.
In the lab, the Doctor finds Yates who has been brainwashed by BOSS and sent to kill him. The Doctor uses the blue crystal he took from Metebelis III to undo Yates' hypnosis and sends him back to Global Chemicals to pretend he has killed the Doctor and free other employees from BOSS's control. Stevens however catches on to Yates and captures him.
Benton arrives at the compound with the chrysalis of one of the maggots, indicating that they are beginning to change into flies. As they examine it, one of the residents named Nancy discovers the maggot which hatched from the egg earlier. It is dead, having eaten some of the fungus she had prepared for lunch. The Doctor, Nancy and Benton quickly gather as much of the fungus as they can and toss it to the maggots on the hill from Bessie.
The maggots eat the fungus and begin to die. As they finish their rounds, the hatched fly attacks Bessie. The Doctor and Benton duck it's spewing of the green ooze before the Doctor manages to knock it down and kill it with his coat.
Back at Global Chemicals, two guards take Yates from his cell and prepare to take him upstairs for further processing. Yates however manages to get away from them and escape the facility. He runs to the hill where the Brigadier is supervising the lowering of the leftover fungus into the mine to feed to any remaining maggots. Yates warns the Brigadier that BOSS is planning to link up with other computers and move to the next stage of his plan at 4pm.
The Brigadier heads to Global Chemicals while Benton heads to the compound to warn the Doctor, who had gone back to try and find a cure for Jones. As he examines him, Jo relates how she had spilled fungus on some of his slides. The Doctor examines the slides and realizes that the same fungus before has killed the infection. He starts to prepare a paste to treat Jones but turns it over to Nancy when Benton tells him of the situation.
The guards refuse to let either the Brigadier or the Doctor in but the guard collapses when Stevens and BOSS activate the slave controls for pretreated employees. The Doctor rushes in and finds Stevens hooked up to BOSS, who is merging his mind with Stevens'. The Doctor pulls out the blue crystal recovered from Yates and cuts through BOSS's programing of Stevens. Stevens returns to his own mind enough to understand the horror of what BOSS is unleashing and cross wires the computer. The Doctor flees and the computer, along with most of the facility, explodes.
They all return to the compound where Jones has improved greatly. They get a telegram from Geneva proclaiming that Jones' facility will the official UN site for ecological research in the area. This provides funding and Jones makes plans to head to the Amazon to further his research. Jo wants to come along and Jones asks her to marry him. She agrees and an impromptu party breaks out. The Doctor, sad at losing Jo, gives her the Metebelis III crystal as a present, then quietly slips out and drives away in Bessie.
Analysis
One of the best markers of a higher quality six-part story is the fact that you forget that it is a six-part story and start to lose yourself in the overall plot. This story does that very well and even the sections that are clearly designed to string things along have a natural feel to them. Of all of them, I think only Episode Five runs the risk of feeling like padding and a good portion of that comes from the feeling that some of the action in Episode Six could have been spread a little more.
This is a well crafted story that could easily be attributed to one of the deeper writers of the Third Doctor era (such as Malcolm Hulke). The Doctor and Jo are given a great deal to do, there's a decent amount of action but not so much as to mistake this for a Danger Man story, UNIT is involved but not so much as to make it an all military story and you have an interesting and credible villain. All of these elements combine to draw the viewer in with an interesting and well paced plot that has a strong creep factor and even a couple of genuine scares.
The Doctor does very well in a nice balance of intellectualism, action and also comedy. His less than subtle cock-blocking of Cliff just after dinner is a bit amusing as well as seeing the Doctor pose as the cleaning lady. In fact, you almost think that the Doctor is talking to the audience when he warns off Yates from making a snide comment to his appearance. It's also nice to see that the "keep the Doctor away" trick of sending him to Metebelis III for most of Episode One actually has a payoff with the use of the blue crystal to break BOSS's control. If the Third Doctor were as balanced in other stories as he is here, I think I would enjoy him a bit more. Not that I don't like him, but for me he may be one of the least engaging Doctors and it is more the stories he's in that I like rather than him personally.
This is also one of the better companion send offs. Jo is given a lot to do and is genuinely engaging, even if she does indulge in most of her tropes. She is clumsy, she is proposed to and she finds herself as the damsel in distress due to her own folly. But she also pours her passion into things and she does have a nice rapport with Cliff. I'm not sure I buy the romance completely on his end but I believe that for this particular marriage proposal Jo would accept as she clearly has an established admiration for this man. That passion carries over to her performance, so much so that you actually cringe a bit when Cliff is dismissive, to the point of being mean at times when she tries to help. But it was a good send off for Jo and the Doctor's reaction at her leaving is fittingly poignant.
There was a nice balance in how UNIT was deployed in this story. I liked that the Brig was almost acting in an undercover role for the first couple of episodes given his civilian dress. I especially liked that Yates was given the useful role of being a mole, even if it wasn't a particularly good one. At the very least, it expanded their scope a bit. I did question why they kept trying bullets and explosions against the maggots. My first thought was flame throwers and it seemed odd that the Brigadier never thought of that.
The maggots made an excellent secondary villain. They were quite creepy and I think most people have had enough experience with flies and maggots to be thoroughly disgusted by them. On top of that, they are simple enough that the puppet work was quite believable, which made them more unsettling. The unfortunate contrast is the fly that the one maggot turns into to. That was not a believable puppet and the CSO work on it's attack looked particularly bad, especially when cut with the on location film work with the maggots.
Stevens and BOSS make for a good overall villain. A megalomaniacal computer is nothing new (see WOTAN) but there is the nice mystery of what BOSS is which draws the viewer in for the first four episodes. But unlike WOTAN, BOSS is given a large personality and his evoking Nazi-style buzzwords just makes him even more engaging. Stevens himself is slimy enough that you can see him as the villain until you get the slow reveal of BOSS. What's more, you get the seeds of Stevens' eventual repentance sown throughout as even he hesitates about what they are doing throughout the story. The fact that it takes the Doctor using the dehypnotizing crystal to bring that side of Stevens out long enough to destroy BOSS adds to the humanization of Stevens in his villain role.
It does make you wonder if Stevens created BOSS as a noble experiment and BOSS simply overwhelmed his mind or if there was actual malicious intent from the beginning. Of course, until the maggots actually appear, there is nothing that says that they are doing anything wrong so it's easy to see how BOSS could have gotten through Stevens' defenses and made him the coldly logical man we see through most of the story. His pitch to the miners seems heartfelt in that he is expanding his company and is promising them jobs. What person is going to say no to that or think that what he is doing is evil. It is only when a man dies and a deliberate cover up is made that you could even argue that Stevens is in proper villain territory and by this point he is clearly under BOSS's control.
One of the best scenes in the story is the final scene with the Doctor leaving Jo. It's somewhat obvious that Jo is going to be leaving in this story and the Doctor clearly makes attempts to thwart Cliff in the way you might expect an overprotective father to do. But the Doctor's sadness at the end is very touching. He knows he has to let Jo go but you still see the pain at losing a friend. But it is done in such a simple way. He keep focus in the foreground as everyone else mixes in the background party and he quietly leaves. He doesn't say a word and just drives off into the evening with that expression that shows that while he should be happy for her, he can't help but miss someone he cares about. It's quiet and an absolutely perfect bit of acting by Jon Pertwee. It's also an excellent bit of camera work to leave the Doctor in silhouetted shadow as he drives away, leaving that previously seen expression as the lasting memory as he drives away. It's just very well done.
A lot of the direction is very good in this story. Obviously there is a lot of straight camera work but the director clearly maximized his location opportunities with some nice improvised angles and different views when he actually had the chance to stretch the palate. Of course, this excellent work also drew further attention when things went off-kilter. I've already mentioned the fake fly work but there are some other scenes with the Doctor in Bessie where it's a stationary model against a green screen. There are a couple of other shots of the Brigadier or other UNIT members supposed to be at the base of the hill but are clearly done with CSO. I suspect these were pick up shots and they weren't able to go back to the location for them. Unfortunately they just stick out and look so much worse because of how good the other stuff worked. Some shoddy effects you expect and forgive, such as the mine cart ferry ride through the maggots and ooze. That would have to be a studio shot and it's fairly easy to let go. But seeing the same scene cut from location film to studio with CSO just clashes the eyes and is hard to forgive.
By my count, I've got four Third Doctor stories left but I think there's a very good chance this will end up as my favorite. It zips along, is acted well, has credible villains and is generally well shot, to say nothing of the fitting send off for Jo. It sags a touch around Episode Five and the effects of Episode Six drag it down a notch, but I'd easily call it the most entertaining of all the Third Doctor stories I've watched, though I could entertain an argument for Carnival of Monsters. In a way, this stands on much the same ground as Invasion of the Dinosaurs and I think my score should reflect that.
Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5
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