Your leader will be angry with you if you kill me. I can be of use to you. I'm a genius.
The Seeds of Death is one of those stories that doesn't really get talked about much. I think my only knowledge of it is that the title can sometimes be confused with the Fourth Doctor story, The Seeds of Doom, and a scene of the Second Doctor being attacked by foam is taken from this story. Other than that, I'm coming in pretty much a blank slate, which is good I think since it'll give me a fairly open viewpoint on it.
Plot Summary
In Earth's future, transport of people and equipment is done by a transport system called T-Mat. People who are working for T-Mat arrive at the beginning of their shift and set about to work. On the moonbase, as the shift begins, the base is overrun by an alien race. They kill one worker and threaten the shift commander to engage the system. The commander sabotages it instead and the aliens kill him.
On the T-Mat control station, the shift controller, Gia Kelly, observes the fault and sets the workers to determine it's nature. The overall commander, Radnor, gets after her but she is only able to tell him that the fault has occurred on the moon and they have no way to getting to the moon to help them. Radnor decides to ask the help of an old associate, Professor Eldred.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe land in a museum devoted to space travel and begin to explore. They are caught by the museum owner, Professor Eldred. Eldred initially believes them troublemakers but he get swept up in the Doctor's interest in his latest rocket design. The two talk excitedly about it until they are interrupted by Radnor and Kelly.
Radnor tells Eldred of the trouble they have with the moon and appeals to him to help them with his latest rocket design. Eldred refuses but the argument between the two is interrupted by a signal from the moon. One of the technicians has repaired the video link and sends a signal for help. But before he can complete the message, the transmission is cut off. The link is damaged by the alien commander, revealed to be an Ice Warrior, who then has the technician killed.
The other technician, Phipps, manages to run for it and hides out in a spare parts room. He manages to hide from the searching Ice Warrior and then begins to build a transmitter and an energy device to act as a booby trap. Meanwhile, the Ice Warrior commander, Slaar, forces the remaining officer, Fewsham, to repair the back-up T-Mat but only to receive.
Back on Earth, Radnor implores Eldred to finish his rocket and fly it to the Moon. Eldred refuses due to his age and the lack of time. The Doctor steps in and offers to help with the repairs and also offers to fly it to the Moon with Jamie and Zoe. Eldred reluctantly agrees and they begin work. Kelly appeals to Radnor to go in place of Jamie, but Radnor refuses as she is the only one qualified to get the T-Mat working again.
The rocket successfully launches with the Doctor and his two companions on board. However, their communications with Earth short out shortly after lift-off leaving Radnor and his team in the dark.
Fewsham finishes the repair and sends a signal received by Radnor. This time he agrees to Kelly's request and she is sent with two technicians to the Moon. The Ice Warriors hide and Fewsham claims that it was damaged by the base commander after suffering a bout of space madness. Kelly is suspicious but sets about repairing the T-Mat anyway.
Phipps finishes his radio and begins to broadcast for help just as the Doctor's rocket enters Moon orbit. They lock onto a radio guide beam to lead them down. However, Phipps is forced to switch over the power to his booby trap when an Ice Warrior enters the room. Phipps device kills the Ice Warrior but it also knocks out the homing beam. Zoe pulls the rocket back into orbit and as they do they pick up Phipps renewed signal. From him they learn of the Ice Warrior invasion and after returning from the dark side of the moon, follow the signal from his radio down to the surface.
The Doctor leaves to find Phipps and has Zoe prepare the rocket for a return flight to Earth. Zoe however discovers the engine was damaged in the landing and unfit for take off. The Doctor finds Phipps and radios back to Jamie that he intends to destroy the T-Mat and then use the rocket to return to Earth. He cuts off before Zoe can tell him of the damage and they leave the rocket to find him.
Kelly finishes the repairs and the Ice Warriors emerge to take them prisoner. The two technicians try to run and are gunned down. Fewsham finishes bringing all the cities back on-line and Slaar prepares a cargo for T-Mat. He orders Kelly taken away and kept under guard. She however manages to escape just as the Doctor and Philips enter the same corridor. The group breaks up and Ice Warriors pursue them. They corner the Doctor who convinces them to keep him alive and take him to their commander.
Jamie and Zoe meet up with Kelly and Phipps and the group decide to try and get into the station core and raise the overall heat to disable the Ice Warriors. Jame and Phipps begin to work a grate to allow them to go through the access ducts and avoid patrols. However, an Ice Warrior enters and they are forced to kill that one with the same booby trap device as before.
Back in the control room, the Doctor uses Fewsham to investigate the cargo that the Ice Warriors are preparing to T-Mat. Slaar sees the Doctor and forces him to examine the cargo. He picks up a pod within and it expands at his touch, bursts and then knocks him out with the vapor inside. Slaar then T-Mats pods to various stations, including where Radnor is preparing a technical crew to head to the Moon and assist Kelly. They are surprised when the pods arrive and it expands at their touch. The pod explodes, killing the technician and choking the others. They vent the smoke into the outside to clear the air.
Jamie and Phipps crawl through the access ducts and see the pods being loaded into the T-Mat. They also see the Doctor passed out. Slaar orders Fewsham to drag the Doctor into the T-Mat and transport him into space. Fewsham objects but cowers into agreement. He resets the controls to do so and as he does, Jamie and Phipps drag the Doctor into the vents. Jamie takes him back to the supply room while Phipps tries to get to the temperature controls, but can't as he is too large to fit through the access duct.
Slaar sends one of his warriors through the T-Mat to Earth to monitor the progress of the pods, which have released fungus spores that are now germinating outside. The warrior kills the guards and ignores Radnor as he tries to attack before heading outside.
Zoe convinces Phipps to take her back through the ducts as she is small enough to pass through. They are slowed by Phipps having an attack of claustrophobia and the delay causes Jamie to start worrying about their safety. Zoe pushes Phipps on and passes through the duct exit. Fewsham sees Zoe and distracts the guard while she increases the temperature. The guard however does see Phipps and shoots him before spying Zoe as well. Fewsham jumps on the warrior and distracts him before he passes out from the heat.
Another Ice Warrior enters the supply room. Jamie and Kelly try to kill it with the booby trap but find the power has failed. It hears the Doctor waking up and tries to grab him but both Jamie and Kelly attack him. The Ice Warrior is stronger than both of them but he too passes out from the heat as the Doctor come fully to.
Zoe returns to the supply room and the group heads to the control room where Fewsham has brought T-Mat back on-line. He offers to transport the group back and then follow using a time delay. Kelly is skeptical as she was under the impression that the time delay was broken. Fewsham claims to have repaired it. He ends up sending back the four of them but does not bother to try himself and Kelly confirms back on Earth that the time delay is still broken.
On Earth, the Ice Warrior who had been sent down enters a weather control station. He kills the technician on duty and then locks and destroys the controls to ensure that rain cannot be artificially produced.
The Doctor brings Radnor, Eldred and Radnor's superior, Sir James Gregson, up to speed. He collects a sample of the fungus to examine it. It absorbs oxygen, leading the Doctor to figure that the fungus will reduce the oxygen content on Earth, killing all humans and leaving it more like Mars, perfect for Ice Warrior colonization. During his experiments, he also discovers that the fungus is vulnerable to water.
The Doctor relays this information to Zoe and to have her tell Radnor. However Radnor is in a meeting so she and Jamie head over to the weather control center to tell them about needing rain as they are not answering their communicators. They discover the dead technician and the damaged controls and are forced to hide from the patrolling Ice Warrior.
Slaar manages to get to the control room and reduce the temperature of the base before he passes out. Fewsham pretends to have been knocked out and offers to continue to help the Ice Warriors. Slaar has Fewsham connect a homing signal to T-Mat while he communicates with the fleet commander. After doing so, Fewsham turns on the video link, allowing the Doctor, Radnor and Kelly to overhear the Ice Warrior plans. Slaar discovers this too late and kills Fewsham.
The Doctor has Radnor stop a satellite launch they had planned to redirect control of T-Mat to reconfigure it so they can misdirect the Ice Warrior fleet and have them crash into the sun. The Doctor also discovers that Zoe never gave Radnor the information about the rain and assumes that she and Jamie went to the weather station themselves. He heads over but cannot get in as Zoe had locked the door. He is nearly overcome by the encroaching fungus and bangs on the door. This attracts the attention of the Ice Warrior, Zoe and Jamie. Jamie runs in front of the Ice Warrior, distracting him and allowing Zoe to open the door before the Doctor is overcome.
They reunite with Jamie and barricade themselves in a power room. Inside, the Doctor builds a portable version of the solar trap used on the Moon base. The Ice Warrior is distracted by a group of guards sent by Radnor, but they are beaten back. Instead the Doctor emerges and kills the Ice Warrior with his weapon. He then hot wires the weather controls to allow the formation of rain clouds.
The trio heads back to the T-Mat station just as the rocket carrying the satellite with the mimicking homing signal is launched. Once in orbit, the Doctor is sent to the Moon base to kill the signal on the Moon. Upon arriving at the Moon, the Doctor kills one guard and cuts the power to the signaler so that it only broadcasts to the base. With the signal gone, the satellite signal is activated.
Slaar enters and captures the Doctor. He is tricked by the fact that he can see the machine still sending the signal and orders the Doctor to operate the T-Mat for invasion once the fleet has arrived. However, the Grand Marshall soon signals that they are off course and are being destroyed by the sun's heat.
On Earth, Jamie, concerned that the Doctor hasn't returned, has Zoe T-Mat him to the Moon. He arrives just as Slaar, in a fit of rage, orders the Doctor killed. Jamie's arrival distracts the guard just enough for the Doctor to grab his arm and aim the gun at Slaar who is killed. Jamie then attacks the guard allowing the Doctor to grab his portable solar device and kill that guard as well.
The two return to Earth and with Zoe sneak back to the TARDIS just as Radnor and Eldred begin to argue over whether a backup fleet of rockets should be built.
Analysis
I think overall this story gets a middling rating. At it's core, it has an interesting idea. It is reasonably well acted, the settings are interesting and most of the characters, especially the villain are at least somewhat engaging. But it also is very heavily padded and the drawing out of the story slows the action down badly. Worse, the padding points are almost painfully obvious with Phipps' random attack of claustrophobia being the most painfully obvious. They don't kill the story, but there are moments where you can find yourself distracted by something else, look up and realize that while several minutes have passed, the story has gone nowhere and you've missed nothing.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a Second Doctor story where I didn't like him so I again will say that I liked the Doctor, even though he is clearly on hiatus in Episode Four. One of the more enjoyable things about the Second Doctor is how much joy he takes in little things, such as getting into the rockets with Professor Eldred (who must live). It makes his disappointed reaction to the lack of flash with the T-Mat process rather comical. I also appreciate how he doesn't apologize for the necessity of using violence. Fans get up in arms about the idea of the Doctor using a gun or killing randomly, but here, the Doctor kills Ice Warriors with very little compunction. He doesn't even both with the idea of negotiating with Slaar and instead simply sets about destroying the fleet and killing the base invaders. Granted, Slaar had made all the aggressive moves by this point, but it's still nice to see a Doctor recognize that both negotiation and remorse are pointless and simply get on with it. In fact, the Doctor is arguably at his coldest when he delivers a point by point summation as to how Slaar has been defeated at the end, almost taking pleasure in dashing his hope as Slaar grasps at each individual straw.
Jamie and Zoe were okay in the story but they weren't used particularly well. I thought they were nearly pointless and given rather poor dialogue at the end. Zoe especially got better as she was actually utilized in the later episodes, although she had a really bad moment with the Episode Four cliffhanger. The Ice Warrior is distracted by Fewsham and still she just stands there and holds position as though frozen in place. She should have been directed to run a little further and least look like she was trying to hide from him. I also think she would have been well within her right to slap Phipps across the face to get him to snap out of his fear after having already been in the ducts once with Jamie. But it was an obvious time-killing moment so I tried to let it go as best I could.
Jamie was close to useless in this story. He had a couple of moments of lunging bravery where he would attack an Ice Warrior long enough for someone else to finish it off, but his overall performance was very limited other than expressing concern for the Doctor and Zoe. Probably his deepest moments were his scenes of exposition with Zoe where he brought her up to speed on the Ice Warriors, but even there he had to share explanation time with the Doctor. With as many characters as there were, it's not surprising that someone was going to get the short end of the stick and Jamie clearly drew that one here.
The supporting human cast was alright but not much to write home about. Both Radnor and Eldred started as though they might be a bit more developed in the later action, but their involvement died off to not much more than commentary after Episode Two so they didn't really register much. Kelly was a bit better, at least being used through the whole of the story, but she could have done with a bit more personality. She was strangely robotic through most of the story, even when people were dying around her, she had this detached quality that just made her seem out of place. Her closest moment of real emotion seemed to come when she was modifying the satellite to recreate the homing signal for the Ice Warrior fleet. That was when she actually seemed to show concern and strain at trying to beat the Ice Warriors.
The one human who did stand out was Fewsham but even his arc was a bit oddly done. In the first two episodes, he is shown to be someone not quite qualified for his job and then someone who values his life more than anything else. That's not a bad thing since many a quisling have done so out of fear of death or torture so to see that is more realistic. I wish he didn't whine quite so much and I'm a little surprised the Ice Warriors didn't kill him out of annoyance at one point. But by the middle episodes, Fewsham changes so that while he is still afraid, he seems to become more accepting of the possibility of death. To the point that he opts to sacrifice himself by not leaving the Moonbase when the others do because he knows the Ice Warriors have something else prepared that Earth needs to be warned about. That's a very sharp contrast from the Fewsham that starts the story and I think this change should have been a bit more developed. As it was, I didn't really buy his sacrifice. I bought his fear of death and going along to stay alive. I didn't see enough in the course of the story that made me think that he wouldn't be the first one to jump into the T-Mat when they prepare to evacuate the base, even if it meant spending decades in prison.
I did like the Ice Warriors in this story. Slaar especially made for a good villain. He was ruthless and actually seemed to have a fairly well developed plan for getting his objectives accomplished. I also liked that he actually had legitimate reasons for keeping certain humans alive, rather than just the standard "I'll kill you later" motivation that comes so often with entertainment villains. There were shortcomings though as I didn't really understand why Slaar didn't stay in the control room the whole time. I'm assuming he went back to the Ice Warrior ship when he wasn't in the control room, but you would think that he would want to stay at the nerve center most of the time to ensure things got done. I also don't understand why he didn't seen more warriors down to Earth to guard the weather controls. If a single warrior was strong enough to hold off the human forces, why not invade conventionally since they are so outmatched? But if they knew that the fungus must avoid rain, then why not send three or four warriors down? Multiple warriors would make the bunker unassailable and ensure plenty of time for the fungus to expand to the point of human suffocation.
Something also must be said for the peripheral vision of the Ice Warriors. Obviously this is a kids show filmed in tight sets so a certain amount of disbelief has to be suspended when it comes to hiding spots. But you help that out with good direction to make it look like the hiding spot is a bit more obscure. This story did not do that and there was more than one occasion where the Ice Warrior was practically looking at someone and yet had to pretend they didn't see them. Of all the little problems that cropped up here and there, I think it was those moments that took me out of the story the most. I will say that other than that, I thought the direction seemed pretty good for the most part. There were a couple of other scenes that did look bad (the Doctor running to the weather station was particularly janky) and there were also a couple of points where he should have reigned in the performances as they started going over-the-top, but these were more exceptions and by-products of someone trying to get more than the story was able to deliver on the surface.
But the thing that must be noted is just how slow this story can be. I learned after watching it that although Brian Hayles is credited with the story, Terrance Dicks had to do major rewrites from Episode Three onward. Given that Terrance was also desperately trying to finish The War Games with Malcolm Hulke and looking for anything to fill the episode shortfall they were experiencing, it's not surprising that this story was a drawn out as it was. It didn't help that Patrick Troughton had a vacation in Episode Four. Any time the Doctor goes on holiday, the action always stops and the wheels spin and that didn't help matters either. I think in an ideal world, this story could have been cut to four episodes with a lot tighter action. It possibly could have been stretched to five, but I think each episode would have needed to be trimmed down to closer to twenty minutes to keep the same decent pacing. But that obviously wasn't going to happen.
In the end, I think this is a decent story but it's flaws do drag it down a bit. Those flaws aren't killers but this story can easily slip away from you if not fully invested. When I was watching it, I had to take a couple of days off in the middle due to other obligations and I recall not being overly bothered. The story was entertaining but not grabbing me in a way that made me want to pop the next episode in right away to see how it progressed. Not every story can be like that, but you always wish it could be. This one is a decent exposure to the Second Doctor and a story to have in the background, but it's nowhere near the best offerings of the Second Doctor era, though it is a step up for the Ice Warriors in general.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
Showing posts with label Zoe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zoe. Show all posts
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017
The Mind Robber
Oh no, I got it all wrong!
The Mind Robber was the first Second Doctor story I ever saw and I'm not sure I could have picked an odder story to expose myself to Second Doctor. It's completely unlike any of the standard "base under siege" or monster-type stories that litter the era. In fact, the story is more reminiscent of something from either The Twilight Zone or a significant drug trip. I actually would not discount the idea that Peter Ling might have been tripping when he wrote this one, although the most out there stuff (Episode One) was actually written by script editor Derrick Sherwin. Of course, he could have been spaced out then as well.
Plot Summary
With the Dominator's bomb having just set off the volcano, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe rush back to the TARDIS to escape the lava flow. They attempt to take off but the fluid link malfunctions and the Doctor is forced to shut down to ensure the TARDIS isn't flooded with mercury vapor. Worried about the lava destroying the TARDIS, Jamie and Zoe urge the Doctor to activate the emergency relay which will displace the TARDIS out of all time and space. Reluctantly, the Doctor agrees.
The TARDIS dematerializes and then reemerges in a void of nothingness. The Doctor sets about repairing the TARDIS but Jamie and Zoe are mesmerized by images of their respective homes on the scanner. Curiosity gets the better of Zoe and she opens the doors, despite the Doctor's warnings not to and wanders into the mist. Concerned for her, Jamie runs out after her. The Doctor calls out for them to stop but is forced to focus himself on resisting a powerful mind coming against him.
In the mist, Jamie and Zoe are reunited. They wander about looking for the TARDIS but are again distracted by images of their homes. They each manage to snap the other one out of their trances and continue their search. As they do so, they are surrounded by robots who use hypnotic beams against them, forcing them to see themselves disappearing into the mist.
The Doctor manages to fight off the force and leaves the TARDIS just enough to summon Jamie and Zoe through the mist. Though they are partially under the alien force's control, the Doctor wills them along and back into the TARDIS where they snap back to their normal selves.
The Doctor tries to take off again but the alien force attacks again, forcing the Doctor to focus his mind once again. Power is drained from the TARDIS and it appears to burst apart. Jamie and Zoe cling to the console while the Doctor remains in his chair and both drift away into the misty void.
Jamie stumbles out of the mist where he runs into a redcoat. He attacks the soldier who fires at him,turning him into a paper figure. Zoe also wanders through the mist, getting hemmed in by thorn bushes. She walks through a door and falls forward into a pit.
The Doctor wakes to the sound of Jamie and Zoe's cries for help. He walks through a forest and finds Lemuel Gulliver. Gulliver briefly threatens the Doctor but walks away upon finding him of a sharp mind. The Doctor is then met with a group of children who pepper him with riddles. When he successfully solves them, they run off, leaving him with a dictionary.
The Doctor turns a corner to find the paper Jamie and several objects. The Doctor solves the message and finds Jamie's face missing. He replaces Jamie's face but gets the details wrong. Jamie returns but with a different face. He is still Jamie though and together they find Zoe trapped in a jar disguised as a door in a wall. The quickly free her and set off into the forest to find their way out.
Getting tired, they stop to rest. Jamie climbs to the top of the tree to find a way out of the forest and discovers that the tress are in fact letters. They make up common proverbs. He does spot what he thinks is the way out and climbs down. They continue their walk but run into Gulliver again. He is confused by their description of robots attacking them and cannot see a squad of tin soldiers who come and herd the trio into a cave. In the cave they see a unicorn about to charge them, much like in a dream Jamie had while they were back in the TARDIS. The Doctor urges Jamie and Zoe to declare that it doesn't exist and when they do, the unicorn freezes into a paper cutout.
They exit the cave and come across a cottage with the redcoat Jamie had met earlier. Jamie again charges him and again is turned into a paper cutout. This time, with Zoe's help, the Doctor reconstructs his face properly and Jamie is returned to normal.
They pass through the door and find themselves in another cave with a ball of twine nearby. The Doctor recognizes it as a maze and order Jamie to tie one end to the door so they can find their way out again. They continue along until the string runs out. Leaving Jamie with the string, the Doctor and Zoe walk forward into the center of the maze. In the center, the Doctor and Zoe find the Minotaur where they again stop it by denying its existence.
A tin soldier tries to capture the waiting Jamie but he escapes. He exits the maze, chased by the soldiers. He climbs partway up and reaches a ledge where a coil of hair extends down. He climbs up to meet Rapunzel on the other end. Although he is not a prince, she reluctantly agrees to let him into the palace where she promptly disappears. Jamie discovers the palace is instead a futuristic building. He discovers a ticker-tape machine printing out words describing the Doctor and Zoe's adventure.
Finding Jamie gone, the Doctor and Zoe turn back into the main part of the cave where a stone statue of Medusa appears. The statue begins to come to life and advances on them. The Doctor again tries to get Zoe to deny it's existence but she cannot. A sword appears at the Doctor's feet but rather than fighting Medusa, he pulls out a mirror. Zoe looks at Medusa in the mirror and Medusa reverts to her statue form.
They walk out and into the same valley Jamie was in earlier. There, they are confronted by the Karkus, a character from comic strips of Zoe's youth. He engages them but Zoe is able to fight him off. Beaten, the Karkus submits to their will and Zoe orders him to take them to the citadel on the hill. There, they dismiss the Karkus and the Doctor disguises his voice as the Karkus to gain entry into the castle.
Inside, they find Jamie, who had been forced to hide due to accidentally setting off an internal alarm. The Doctor notes that they will have to see the ruler of this land of fiction, whom Gulliver had referred to as the Master, in order to reclaim the TARDIS. Zoe sets off the alarm and the Doctor surrenders to the robots who take the group to see the Master.
In the control room, they find a man who had been a writer of boy's adventure stories hooked up to a central computer. The human side of the writer is friendly and jovial, inviting the Doctor to take his place as he is getting old, having been taken by the alien power in 1926. Every once in a while, the computer interposes its will and the writer becomes dark and threatening. The Doctor distracts him, though constantly refusing his offer while Jamie and Zoe try to find an escape. The writer however is aware of their escape attempt and sends several robots who encase Jamie and Zoe in a book, rendering them into works of fiction.
Unable to help Jamie and Zoe at the moment, the Doctor dashes up bookcase and up on to the roof as the robots return for him. On the roof, he spots a typewriter through a skylight, controlling the master tape. He summons the Karkus who, with the help of Rapunzel, lowers him down into the room. The Doctor starts to write a different ending but stops, realizing that it's a trap as writing anything about himself will turn him into a work of fiction. He returns to the roof where he is met by Gulliver and the children from earlier.
The writer gives Jamie and Zoe new feelings toward the Doctor and they set a trap for him. He makes what appears to be the TARDIS reappear and Jamie and Zoe step out. Happy at it's return, the Doctor steps inside, only to discover himself trapped in a glass box. The box disappears and the Doctor finds himself back in the control room, this time fully integrated with the computer.
Due to his full integration, the Doctor realizes he can now make fiction reality as well and he summons forth Jamie and Zoe, urging them to escape their book. Jamie and Zoe then manage to extricate themselves from the book and cease to be works of fiction. The writer attempts to stop the Doctor by summoning the toy soldiers to seize Jamie and Zoe as they cross the roof. The Doctor counters by summoning the Karkus to shoot them down the soldiers. The writer attempts to step in and have the Karkus shoot them but the Doctor depletes his gun, rendering him useless. The writer calls forth Cyrano de Bergerac to attack them with a sword but the Doctor counters with D'Artagnan and the two characters fight on the roof, allowing Jamie and Zoe to run past. The writer changes Cyrano to Blackbeard and the Doctor changes D'Artagnan to Lancelot, each countering the other.
Fearing that the central brain will be overloaded, the writer ceases his attacks and instead summons the robots. The Doctor realizes he can't counter about himself as it would again turn him into a work of fiction. The robots pull the Doctor out of the machine and prepare to kill him. Jamie and Zoe rush in and activate every switch on the control board. The surge of power and information begins to overwhelm the computer and the robots are momentarily distracted. The Doctor rushes to the writer and pulls his harness off, freeing him of the control of the computer. With no new input, the robots obey their final instruction and begin to destroy everything in the control room, including the central brain of the computer.
The group flees just outside the castle where the TARDIS then reforms around the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. The writer also disappears back into his own time.
Analysis
I really like this story, but I can also easily see how others would not. If The Macra Terror was a toe dip and lifting of ideas from The Prisoner, this story is a full on plunge into the world of surrealism. Of course, for all its surrealism, it still maintains a grounding in the form of a recognizable plotline and well written dialogue.
Granted you don't have a lot of choices with the Second Doctor, but I think this story could be one of the best ones to demonstrate what the Second Doctor is like. He is his usual blustery, slightly over-the-top self who is a bit back on his heels most of the time. But he is also the thinking and conniving Doctor. He understands a bit more that he ever lets on, especially after he really starts to guess the rules of the game in Episode Two. At no point when you are with the Doctor do you feel like nothing interesting is going on. He's just fun to be with on multiple levels in this story.
Jamie and Zoe are also good in this story, although I feel like Jamie stands out a bit more. This story is rather famous for having a replacement Jamie for Episode Two due to Frazer Hines contracting chicken pox from his nephews. But Hamish Wilson does a fine job as a stand-in Jamie and what's more, the mechanics of how the replacement Jamie came about is very creative and adds to the surrealistic atmosphere of the story. Jamie goes one further by getting a portion of the story to himself, climbing up Rapunzel's hair and having a few moments with Gulliver in avoiding the robots. It develops Jamie nicely in the story.
Zoe does well but does not get a stand out moment in this story like she does in say The Krotons. This sort of makes sense as Zoe is highly conditioned with logic and logic is probably the absolute last thing that is going to help in a story like this. So she ends up being more of either a comic foil or the Doctor's sounding board to explain the particulars of the plot. She also gets to scream a lot at the various traps she falls in to. She does at least get to defeat the Karkus with some nice judo moves which played nicely on screen, despite Wendy Padbury being unhappy with that take.
Of course, she also gets the take away point of the whole story as the other thing besides the replacement Jamie that people remember from this story is Zoe laying on the TARDIS console in a sparkling cat-suit with her derriere framed nicely for viewing. Apparently the zipper had busted on the front of her suit as well so she's leaning forward to make sure she didn't expose herself in the front and ruin the take.
All the various secondary characters did well but I think special attention to be played to the writer (or Master as he is credited). I personally try to avoid using "the Master" as it has a very different connotation now. Anyway, this part was played and written very well. You could see the glee and enthusiasm for writing that the writer had and how he was fundamentally a good person. But you could also see the dark, sinister side when the computer mind took over and the contrast portrayed between the two was quite impressive. I also loved the fact that the villain never got up but acted through surrogates to the point that it became a literal battle of the minds. It was a villain that emphasized that the Doctor had to think his way out of the problem rather than rely on some aspect of force to solve the problem.
Before going into the set and direction of the rest of the story, I think special attention must be paid to Episode One. This came about because the powers that be decided to cut down The Dominators from six to five episodes (with good reason). However, The Mind Robber as written did not lend itself to the kind of padding normally used (which is partially why the flow of the narrative is so good in my opinion). So they lifted the barest bit of the introduction and set about to expand that, while having no additional budget for sets. That forced the action to be confined to the TARDIS and a white soundstage with robots they had intended to use later in the story. It is very weird but it works in its offputting way. In many ways, it reminds me a bit of Episode One of The Edge of Destruction where you have stuff happening that makes no sense whatsoever but has a bit of an edge that is both creepy and enjoyable. It does stick out a bit because there is such a contrast of style between Episode One and the rest but at the same time, it also works within the context. It really is an excellent bit of improvisation.
If there is a complaint to be made about this story other than the "out there"-ness of the storyline, it is the limitations to the set and costumes. If you're used to that sixties, trying but still looks fake effect, this story won't bother you. But it would be remiss not to mention it. The forest of letters does look like a sound stage, Medusa is clearly a stop-motion effect and the Karkus is clearing wearing a rubber muscle suit. The robots and tin soldiers are also of the large, clunky costumed men-in-suits that are hallmarks of the Second Doctor era. Still, for me, I don't see anything that I'm not used to and some of the effects are actually pretty good with what was available at the time. I also find that for whatever reason, I have a higher tolerance and more forgiveness for these type of practical effects attempts than I do for things in the Eighties. I think that has to do with the quality of the cameras which make things too obvious in their fakery whereas the Sixties cameras hid the limitations better.
I am not an overwhelming literary personality, but I do love the intricacy of puzzles and "what is reality" stories. This storyline, whether fueled by "additional substances" or not, hits all the right spots for my enjoyment. It is weird but not so weird as to be unintelligible. It is well acted and fairly well directed. The sets and costumes, while limited, do their job well enough not to detract from the overall story. I can understand that some people wouldn't like this story and it might go over the head of younger viewers, but this is just a grand bit of entertainment for me and I'd happily pull this off the shelf to watch a third or fourth time if given the chance.
Overall personal score: 5 out of 5
The Mind Robber was the first Second Doctor story I ever saw and I'm not sure I could have picked an odder story to expose myself to Second Doctor. It's completely unlike any of the standard "base under siege" or monster-type stories that litter the era. In fact, the story is more reminiscent of something from either The Twilight Zone or a significant drug trip. I actually would not discount the idea that Peter Ling might have been tripping when he wrote this one, although the most out there stuff (Episode One) was actually written by script editor Derrick Sherwin. Of course, he could have been spaced out then as well.
Plot Summary
With the Dominator's bomb having just set off the volcano, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe rush back to the TARDIS to escape the lava flow. They attempt to take off but the fluid link malfunctions and the Doctor is forced to shut down to ensure the TARDIS isn't flooded with mercury vapor. Worried about the lava destroying the TARDIS, Jamie and Zoe urge the Doctor to activate the emergency relay which will displace the TARDIS out of all time and space. Reluctantly, the Doctor agrees.
The TARDIS dematerializes and then reemerges in a void of nothingness. The Doctor sets about repairing the TARDIS but Jamie and Zoe are mesmerized by images of their respective homes on the scanner. Curiosity gets the better of Zoe and she opens the doors, despite the Doctor's warnings not to and wanders into the mist. Concerned for her, Jamie runs out after her. The Doctor calls out for them to stop but is forced to focus himself on resisting a powerful mind coming against him.
In the mist, Jamie and Zoe are reunited. They wander about looking for the TARDIS but are again distracted by images of their homes. They each manage to snap the other one out of their trances and continue their search. As they do so, they are surrounded by robots who use hypnotic beams against them, forcing them to see themselves disappearing into the mist.
The Doctor manages to fight off the force and leaves the TARDIS just enough to summon Jamie and Zoe through the mist. Though they are partially under the alien force's control, the Doctor wills them along and back into the TARDIS where they snap back to their normal selves.
The Doctor tries to take off again but the alien force attacks again, forcing the Doctor to focus his mind once again. Power is drained from the TARDIS and it appears to burst apart. Jamie and Zoe cling to the console while the Doctor remains in his chair and both drift away into the misty void.
Jamie stumbles out of the mist where he runs into a redcoat. He attacks the soldier who fires at him,turning him into a paper figure. Zoe also wanders through the mist, getting hemmed in by thorn bushes. She walks through a door and falls forward into a pit.
The Doctor wakes to the sound of Jamie and Zoe's cries for help. He walks through a forest and finds Lemuel Gulliver. Gulliver briefly threatens the Doctor but walks away upon finding him of a sharp mind. The Doctor is then met with a group of children who pepper him with riddles. When he successfully solves them, they run off, leaving him with a dictionary.
The Doctor turns a corner to find the paper Jamie and several objects. The Doctor solves the message and finds Jamie's face missing. He replaces Jamie's face but gets the details wrong. Jamie returns but with a different face. He is still Jamie though and together they find Zoe trapped in a jar disguised as a door in a wall. The quickly free her and set off into the forest to find their way out.
Getting tired, they stop to rest. Jamie climbs to the top of the tree to find a way out of the forest and discovers that the tress are in fact letters. They make up common proverbs. He does spot what he thinks is the way out and climbs down. They continue their walk but run into Gulliver again. He is confused by their description of robots attacking them and cannot see a squad of tin soldiers who come and herd the trio into a cave. In the cave they see a unicorn about to charge them, much like in a dream Jamie had while they were back in the TARDIS. The Doctor urges Jamie and Zoe to declare that it doesn't exist and when they do, the unicorn freezes into a paper cutout.
They exit the cave and come across a cottage with the redcoat Jamie had met earlier. Jamie again charges him and again is turned into a paper cutout. This time, with Zoe's help, the Doctor reconstructs his face properly and Jamie is returned to normal.
They pass through the door and find themselves in another cave with a ball of twine nearby. The Doctor recognizes it as a maze and order Jamie to tie one end to the door so they can find their way out again. They continue along until the string runs out. Leaving Jamie with the string, the Doctor and Zoe walk forward into the center of the maze. In the center, the Doctor and Zoe find the Minotaur where they again stop it by denying its existence.
A tin soldier tries to capture the waiting Jamie but he escapes. He exits the maze, chased by the soldiers. He climbs partway up and reaches a ledge where a coil of hair extends down. He climbs up to meet Rapunzel on the other end. Although he is not a prince, she reluctantly agrees to let him into the palace where she promptly disappears. Jamie discovers the palace is instead a futuristic building. He discovers a ticker-tape machine printing out words describing the Doctor and Zoe's adventure.
Finding Jamie gone, the Doctor and Zoe turn back into the main part of the cave where a stone statue of Medusa appears. The statue begins to come to life and advances on them. The Doctor again tries to get Zoe to deny it's existence but she cannot. A sword appears at the Doctor's feet but rather than fighting Medusa, he pulls out a mirror. Zoe looks at Medusa in the mirror and Medusa reverts to her statue form.
They walk out and into the same valley Jamie was in earlier. There, they are confronted by the Karkus, a character from comic strips of Zoe's youth. He engages them but Zoe is able to fight him off. Beaten, the Karkus submits to their will and Zoe orders him to take them to the citadel on the hill. There, they dismiss the Karkus and the Doctor disguises his voice as the Karkus to gain entry into the castle.
Inside, they find Jamie, who had been forced to hide due to accidentally setting off an internal alarm. The Doctor notes that they will have to see the ruler of this land of fiction, whom Gulliver had referred to as the Master, in order to reclaim the TARDIS. Zoe sets off the alarm and the Doctor surrenders to the robots who take the group to see the Master.
In the control room, they find a man who had been a writer of boy's adventure stories hooked up to a central computer. The human side of the writer is friendly and jovial, inviting the Doctor to take his place as he is getting old, having been taken by the alien power in 1926. Every once in a while, the computer interposes its will and the writer becomes dark and threatening. The Doctor distracts him, though constantly refusing his offer while Jamie and Zoe try to find an escape. The writer however is aware of their escape attempt and sends several robots who encase Jamie and Zoe in a book, rendering them into works of fiction.
Unable to help Jamie and Zoe at the moment, the Doctor dashes up bookcase and up on to the roof as the robots return for him. On the roof, he spots a typewriter through a skylight, controlling the master tape. He summons the Karkus who, with the help of Rapunzel, lowers him down into the room. The Doctor starts to write a different ending but stops, realizing that it's a trap as writing anything about himself will turn him into a work of fiction. He returns to the roof where he is met by Gulliver and the children from earlier.
The writer gives Jamie and Zoe new feelings toward the Doctor and they set a trap for him. He makes what appears to be the TARDIS reappear and Jamie and Zoe step out. Happy at it's return, the Doctor steps inside, only to discover himself trapped in a glass box. The box disappears and the Doctor finds himself back in the control room, this time fully integrated with the computer.
Due to his full integration, the Doctor realizes he can now make fiction reality as well and he summons forth Jamie and Zoe, urging them to escape their book. Jamie and Zoe then manage to extricate themselves from the book and cease to be works of fiction. The writer attempts to stop the Doctor by summoning the toy soldiers to seize Jamie and Zoe as they cross the roof. The Doctor counters by summoning the Karkus to shoot them down the soldiers. The writer attempts to step in and have the Karkus shoot them but the Doctor depletes his gun, rendering him useless. The writer calls forth Cyrano de Bergerac to attack them with a sword but the Doctor counters with D'Artagnan and the two characters fight on the roof, allowing Jamie and Zoe to run past. The writer changes Cyrano to Blackbeard and the Doctor changes D'Artagnan to Lancelot, each countering the other.
Fearing that the central brain will be overloaded, the writer ceases his attacks and instead summons the robots. The Doctor realizes he can't counter about himself as it would again turn him into a work of fiction. The robots pull the Doctor out of the machine and prepare to kill him. Jamie and Zoe rush in and activate every switch on the control board. The surge of power and information begins to overwhelm the computer and the robots are momentarily distracted. The Doctor rushes to the writer and pulls his harness off, freeing him of the control of the computer. With no new input, the robots obey their final instruction and begin to destroy everything in the control room, including the central brain of the computer.
The group flees just outside the castle where the TARDIS then reforms around the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. The writer also disappears back into his own time.
Analysis
I really like this story, but I can also easily see how others would not. If The Macra Terror was a toe dip and lifting of ideas from The Prisoner, this story is a full on plunge into the world of surrealism. Of course, for all its surrealism, it still maintains a grounding in the form of a recognizable plotline and well written dialogue.
Granted you don't have a lot of choices with the Second Doctor, but I think this story could be one of the best ones to demonstrate what the Second Doctor is like. He is his usual blustery, slightly over-the-top self who is a bit back on his heels most of the time. But he is also the thinking and conniving Doctor. He understands a bit more that he ever lets on, especially after he really starts to guess the rules of the game in Episode Two. At no point when you are with the Doctor do you feel like nothing interesting is going on. He's just fun to be with on multiple levels in this story.
Jamie and Zoe are also good in this story, although I feel like Jamie stands out a bit more. This story is rather famous for having a replacement Jamie for Episode Two due to Frazer Hines contracting chicken pox from his nephews. But Hamish Wilson does a fine job as a stand-in Jamie and what's more, the mechanics of how the replacement Jamie came about is very creative and adds to the surrealistic atmosphere of the story. Jamie goes one further by getting a portion of the story to himself, climbing up Rapunzel's hair and having a few moments with Gulliver in avoiding the robots. It develops Jamie nicely in the story.
Zoe does well but does not get a stand out moment in this story like she does in say The Krotons. This sort of makes sense as Zoe is highly conditioned with logic and logic is probably the absolute last thing that is going to help in a story like this. So she ends up being more of either a comic foil or the Doctor's sounding board to explain the particulars of the plot. She also gets to scream a lot at the various traps she falls in to. She does at least get to defeat the Karkus with some nice judo moves which played nicely on screen, despite Wendy Padbury being unhappy with that take.
Of course, she also gets the take away point of the whole story as the other thing besides the replacement Jamie that people remember from this story is Zoe laying on the TARDIS console in a sparkling cat-suit with her derriere framed nicely for viewing. Apparently the zipper had busted on the front of her suit as well so she's leaning forward to make sure she didn't expose herself in the front and ruin the take.
All the various secondary characters did well but I think special attention to be played to the writer (or Master as he is credited). I personally try to avoid using "the Master" as it has a very different connotation now. Anyway, this part was played and written very well. You could see the glee and enthusiasm for writing that the writer had and how he was fundamentally a good person. But you could also see the dark, sinister side when the computer mind took over and the contrast portrayed between the two was quite impressive. I also loved the fact that the villain never got up but acted through surrogates to the point that it became a literal battle of the minds. It was a villain that emphasized that the Doctor had to think his way out of the problem rather than rely on some aspect of force to solve the problem.
Before going into the set and direction of the rest of the story, I think special attention must be paid to Episode One. This came about because the powers that be decided to cut down The Dominators from six to five episodes (with good reason). However, The Mind Robber as written did not lend itself to the kind of padding normally used (which is partially why the flow of the narrative is so good in my opinion). So they lifted the barest bit of the introduction and set about to expand that, while having no additional budget for sets. That forced the action to be confined to the TARDIS and a white soundstage with robots they had intended to use later in the story. It is very weird but it works in its offputting way. In many ways, it reminds me a bit of Episode One of The Edge of Destruction where you have stuff happening that makes no sense whatsoever but has a bit of an edge that is both creepy and enjoyable. It does stick out a bit because there is such a contrast of style between Episode One and the rest but at the same time, it also works within the context. It really is an excellent bit of improvisation.
If there is a complaint to be made about this story other than the "out there"-ness of the storyline, it is the limitations to the set and costumes. If you're used to that sixties, trying but still looks fake effect, this story won't bother you. But it would be remiss not to mention it. The forest of letters does look like a sound stage, Medusa is clearly a stop-motion effect and the Karkus is clearing wearing a rubber muscle suit. The robots and tin soldiers are also of the large, clunky costumed men-in-suits that are hallmarks of the Second Doctor era. Still, for me, I don't see anything that I'm not used to and some of the effects are actually pretty good with what was available at the time. I also find that for whatever reason, I have a higher tolerance and more forgiveness for these type of practical effects attempts than I do for things in the Eighties. I think that has to do with the quality of the cameras which make things too obvious in their fakery whereas the Sixties cameras hid the limitations better.
I am not an overwhelming literary personality, but I do love the intricacy of puzzles and "what is reality" stories. This storyline, whether fueled by "additional substances" or not, hits all the right spots for my enjoyment. It is weird but not so weird as to be unintelligible. It is well acted and fairly well directed. The sets and costumes, while limited, do their job well enough not to detract from the overall story. I can understand that some people wouldn't like this story and it might go over the head of younger viewers, but this is just a grand bit of entertainment for me and I'd happily pull this off the shelf to watch a third or fourth time if given the chance.
Overall personal score: 5 out of 5
Thursday, January 21, 2016
The Wheel In Space
Logic, my dear Zoe, meerly enables one to be wrong with authority.
I was a bit worried about The Wheel in Space when it first started. It was very slow going at first. But things picked up as it moved along.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Jamie land the TARDIS on a seemingly abandoned rocket. The TARDIS senses danger and tries to get them to take off but when the Doctor fights it, the fluid link fails and all the mercury atomizes into the atmosphere. They leave the TARDIS to explore the rocket. A robot patrols the halls and prepares to send the rocket on a different course. The Doctor hits his head in the speed jump, suffering a concussion. They arrive outside a space station and the robot releases probe spheres containing cybermats. Jamie destroys the robot when it attacks them and then signals the station for help. The crew rescue the two and the Doctor recuperates in the infirmary while Jamie is shown around the station by the librarian, Zoe. Overhearing the station commander's plan to destroy the rocket, Jamie sabotages the laser in fear that the TARDIS will be destroyed. He is arrested and confined to the infirmary with the Doctor.
The cybermats destroy the mineral stocks that power the laser and a team is dispatched to the rocket to gather more. Inside the rocket, the two crew are brainwashed by two Cybermen who are then smuggled into the same box as the minerals and carried back into the station. They brainwash the engineer in charge of the mineral and repairing the laser. The Cybermen take over rebuilding the laser and send the brainwashed engineer to destroy the radio, which he does although he is killed in the process. The Doctor rallies the station crew against the Cybermen while the station commander descends deeper into denial about the situation.
The Doctor and the crew manage to disable the cybermats and discover that the Cybermen intend to take over the base rather than have it destroyed. The Doctor needs the time vector generator from the TARDIS that he gave to Jamie but Jamie discovers it has been lost. He and Zoe spacewalk back to the rocket to discover it. Meanwhile the base second-in-command discovers the Cybermen intend to poison the air supply but is killed when she radios this to the Doctor.
Zoe and Jamie manage to make it over to the rocket and retrieve the time vector generator and learn that the Cyberplanner has learned of the Doctor and instructed the two Cybermen on board to eliminate him. The Doctor sneaks into the laser control room to gather parts to repair the radio while Jamie and Zoe make it back to the station. They capture one of the brainwashed crew who takes Jamie to see the Doctor. The Doctor manages to kill one of the Cybermen through a jury rigged force field and then installs the time vector generator into the laser. Jamie and the recovered crewman go down to the landing bay and kill the remaining Cyberman, rescuing another brainwashed crewman in the process. They seal the landing bay and eject a Cyberman boarding party into space. The crew then fire the Doctor's upgraded laser and destroy the approaching Cyberman invasion ship. The Doctor refills the mercury in the TARDIS but Zoe sneaks aboard asking go with them. The Doctor agrees but only if she understands the danger and proceeds to show her a previous adventure (The Evil of the Daleks specifically).
Analysis
Like a number of six-part stories in 1960's Doctor Who, this story was heavily padded and was two episodes too long. Patrick Troughton was absent in episode two so there is a holding pattern there. On top of that, episode one does very little to get the story going. The first half is spent setting up the problems with the TARDIS and lamenting the loss of Victoria. There is a bit more action in the second part of the episode but again, it is more set up before the actual plot gets going. The fact that the Cybermen don't even appear until the very end of episode two bears out how much padding is going on.
This is a real shame because the remaining four episodes are pretty good. The acting is done pretty well, especially by Gemma, the second in command. She is a strong presence and has an excellent rapport with the Doctor and Jamie. The rest of the cast isn't too bad despite indulging in easy stereotypes to portray an international crew as had been done several times before.
Episode Five drags a little as you feel you are just waiting for the final face off between the Doctor and the Cybermen but it pays off pretty well in Episode Six. It's only fault is that it is too short. It is a wonderful example of the Second Doctor looking like he is cornered and prepared to give himself up but then turns the tables. It is also an excellent example of his ability to out-think the enemy and keep control of the situation, even when he is at an apparent disadvantage.
The development of Zoe is done quite well. She is shown to be amiable although a bit cold in her devotion to logic. A lot of time is poured into her character so that it does become somewhat obvious that she is going to become a companion. However, that is appreciated as it forms a good substantive reason for her becoming a companion rather than just a quick tack on like others (such as the aforementioned Victoria).
Because of the padding, I don't think I would ever rate this story as highly as others. But the stuff that is good in this story is pretty good. The padding might be a bit better if all the episodes existed. Only Episodes Three and Six exist and they move well even if they also have slower points. I would give this story a reevaluation if it was found or fully animated, but I still think it would have been better if made in to a tight four-parter.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
I was a bit worried about The Wheel in Space when it first started. It was very slow going at first. But things picked up as it moved along.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Jamie land the TARDIS on a seemingly abandoned rocket. The TARDIS senses danger and tries to get them to take off but when the Doctor fights it, the fluid link fails and all the mercury atomizes into the atmosphere. They leave the TARDIS to explore the rocket. A robot patrols the halls and prepares to send the rocket on a different course. The Doctor hits his head in the speed jump, suffering a concussion. They arrive outside a space station and the robot releases probe spheres containing cybermats. Jamie destroys the robot when it attacks them and then signals the station for help. The crew rescue the two and the Doctor recuperates in the infirmary while Jamie is shown around the station by the librarian, Zoe. Overhearing the station commander's plan to destroy the rocket, Jamie sabotages the laser in fear that the TARDIS will be destroyed. He is arrested and confined to the infirmary with the Doctor.
The cybermats destroy the mineral stocks that power the laser and a team is dispatched to the rocket to gather more. Inside the rocket, the two crew are brainwashed by two Cybermen who are then smuggled into the same box as the minerals and carried back into the station. They brainwash the engineer in charge of the mineral and repairing the laser. The Cybermen take over rebuilding the laser and send the brainwashed engineer to destroy the radio, which he does although he is killed in the process. The Doctor rallies the station crew against the Cybermen while the station commander descends deeper into denial about the situation.
The Doctor and the crew manage to disable the cybermats and discover that the Cybermen intend to take over the base rather than have it destroyed. The Doctor needs the time vector generator from the TARDIS that he gave to Jamie but Jamie discovers it has been lost. He and Zoe spacewalk back to the rocket to discover it. Meanwhile the base second-in-command discovers the Cybermen intend to poison the air supply but is killed when she radios this to the Doctor.
Zoe and Jamie manage to make it over to the rocket and retrieve the time vector generator and learn that the Cyberplanner has learned of the Doctor and instructed the two Cybermen on board to eliminate him. The Doctor sneaks into the laser control room to gather parts to repair the radio while Jamie and Zoe make it back to the station. They capture one of the brainwashed crew who takes Jamie to see the Doctor. The Doctor manages to kill one of the Cybermen through a jury rigged force field and then installs the time vector generator into the laser. Jamie and the recovered crewman go down to the landing bay and kill the remaining Cyberman, rescuing another brainwashed crewman in the process. They seal the landing bay and eject a Cyberman boarding party into space. The crew then fire the Doctor's upgraded laser and destroy the approaching Cyberman invasion ship. The Doctor refills the mercury in the TARDIS but Zoe sneaks aboard asking go with them. The Doctor agrees but only if she understands the danger and proceeds to show her a previous adventure (The Evil of the Daleks specifically).
Analysis
Like a number of six-part stories in 1960's Doctor Who, this story was heavily padded and was two episodes too long. Patrick Troughton was absent in episode two so there is a holding pattern there. On top of that, episode one does very little to get the story going. The first half is spent setting up the problems with the TARDIS and lamenting the loss of Victoria. There is a bit more action in the second part of the episode but again, it is more set up before the actual plot gets going. The fact that the Cybermen don't even appear until the very end of episode two bears out how much padding is going on.
This is a real shame because the remaining four episodes are pretty good. The acting is done pretty well, especially by Gemma, the second in command. She is a strong presence and has an excellent rapport with the Doctor and Jamie. The rest of the cast isn't too bad despite indulging in easy stereotypes to portray an international crew as had been done several times before.
Episode Five drags a little as you feel you are just waiting for the final face off between the Doctor and the Cybermen but it pays off pretty well in Episode Six. It's only fault is that it is too short. It is a wonderful example of the Second Doctor looking like he is cornered and prepared to give himself up but then turns the tables. It is also an excellent example of his ability to out-think the enemy and keep control of the situation, even when he is at an apparent disadvantage.
The development of Zoe is done quite well. She is shown to be amiable although a bit cold in her devotion to logic. A lot of time is poured into her character so that it does become somewhat obvious that she is going to become a companion. However, that is appreciated as it forms a good substantive reason for her becoming a companion rather than just a quick tack on like others (such as the aforementioned Victoria).
Because of the padding, I don't think I would ever rate this story as highly as others. But the stuff that is good in this story is pretty good. The padding might be a bit better if all the episodes existed. Only Episodes Three and Six exist and they move well even if they also have slower points. I would give this story a reevaluation if it was found or fully animated, but I still think it would have been better if made in to a tight four-parter.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
The Space Pirates
Jamie, sometimes I think you don't appreciate all I do for you.
I'm not sure I understand why this story is reviled. It is a bit slow at the start and Milo Clancy's accent is a bit of a stretch to understand, but I didn't think it was that bad.
Plot Summary
The story opens with a band of pirates attacking a series of space beacons. The beacons are made of a precious mineral and the pirates are blowing them up to collect the mineral. The Doctor and his friends land on one of these beacons that has also been landed on by a military team. The military thinks the Doctor and his party are the pirates but the real pirates arrive and slaughter the military team save one. They then blow the beacon with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe trapped in one section that is running out of air. The Doctor attempts to drive the section back towards the others so they can get back to the TARDIS but only launch it further into space. They are boarded and rescued by a space prospector named Milo Clancy.
Clancy is suspected of being the leader of the pirates by the military and his ship is attacked by a fighter ship. He evades the fighter and then lands on the principle mineral mining planet, run by the daughter of his old partner. Clancy repairs his ship while the Doctor and his companions wander off thinking Clancy might be part of the pirates. They run into the real pirates and fall into a holding cell where the captured army officer is being held. Clancy finds them and they flee through the tunnels away from the pirates who discovered them. They run into Clancy's partner's daughter (Madeline) who turns them over to the pirates. She began the gang as a salvage operation but the pirate leader (Caven) has expanded his control and is now blackmailing her.
They are put into the old study where Clancy's partner (Dom) has been held for years. Caven plans to put them aboard Clancy's old ship and kill them in an apparent "accident" just as the military arrives. That will allow the pirates some time to lie low before resuming their activities. The Doctor's group manages to escape the study and heads for Clancy's ship. The pirates launch Clancy's ship remotely with only Clancy and Dom aboard. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe realize what has happened and return to the control room. They knock out the guard and Madeline signals the military as to what is happening. The Doctor returns oxygen to Clancy's ship and walks Clancy through how to regain control. Caven, realizing what has happened, rigs the power plant to explode via remote detonation as they fly away. Clancy manages to land his ship back on the planet and frees the Doctor and his friends. The Doctor races to the power plant and disables the remote detonator. The military attacks the pirates and when the pirates attempt to detonate the bomb, nothing happens. The pirate ship is destroyed and Clancy gives the Doctor and his companions a lift back to the section of the beacon that has the TARDIS.
Analysis
I liked this story a lot better than I thought I might based on it's reputation. I think the fan gripes about it are the result of three issues. The first is the fact that it is a recon and an action-y recon at that. This story reminds me not so much of pirate tales but of tales of the cattle barons and outlaws. Good stories but very action oriented and when you can't see that action, things begin to bog down in the mind. It is well written but there is less dialogue than might be expected in a Robert Holmes script and given that this is the only Holmes story missing the video, it is interesting to see how the witty word play is hamstrung by the lack of visuals.
The second gripe I imagine many fans have is Milo Clancy's accent. It's like a bad imitation of Dana Carvey doing Jimmy Stewart. It will grate on you after a while but there was enough break that it never got to me. Also, unlike others, I didn't have any problem understanding what he was saying. I had worse problems understanding Caven due to audio fading at times.
The third thing that I think gets to fans is how little the Doctor is involved until the end. The Doctor and his friends are not even part of the action until Episode Three and even then they are more tag-a-longs as it is Clancy that still drives the action. It is not until Episode Five and the break out from Dom's study/prison that the Doctor begins to assert himself fully. That the Doctor controls nearly all the action and problem solving in Episode Six may not make up for it in some fan's eyes. I, on the other hand, didn't have a problem with it. I thought the story interesting enough that the Doctor's stance on the outside wasn't an issue. Episode One was a bit of a slog without the Doctor and some rather obvious padding, but things tightened up in Episode Two and went fine from there as far as I'm concerned.
As I said, the story was well written with Robert Holmes honing his skills. There were a couple of small instances of the traditional two-person sparing that Holmes would later do so well. I think if Clancy's voice had been done in a less odd fashion, the dialogue would be a bit more well received with this story.
My own faults lie in the same vein as those mentioned above, except that they didn't bother me quite as much as others. Tightening this to a five-parter, dropping Clancy's voice into a more normal range, and having actual action footage would shoot this story pretty high for me. But I have to say that despite these, I still really enjoyed this one on the whole. I'd happily sit down and watch it again if it were found.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
I'm not sure I understand why this story is reviled. It is a bit slow at the start and Milo Clancy's accent is a bit of a stretch to understand, but I didn't think it was that bad.
Plot Summary
The story opens with a band of pirates attacking a series of space beacons. The beacons are made of a precious mineral and the pirates are blowing them up to collect the mineral. The Doctor and his friends land on one of these beacons that has also been landed on by a military team. The military thinks the Doctor and his party are the pirates but the real pirates arrive and slaughter the military team save one. They then blow the beacon with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe trapped in one section that is running out of air. The Doctor attempts to drive the section back towards the others so they can get back to the TARDIS but only launch it further into space. They are boarded and rescued by a space prospector named Milo Clancy.
Clancy is suspected of being the leader of the pirates by the military and his ship is attacked by a fighter ship. He evades the fighter and then lands on the principle mineral mining planet, run by the daughter of his old partner. Clancy repairs his ship while the Doctor and his companions wander off thinking Clancy might be part of the pirates. They run into the real pirates and fall into a holding cell where the captured army officer is being held. Clancy finds them and they flee through the tunnels away from the pirates who discovered them. They run into Clancy's partner's daughter (Madeline) who turns them over to the pirates. She began the gang as a salvage operation but the pirate leader (Caven) has expanded his control and is now blackmailing her.
They are put into the old study where Clancy's partner (Dom) has been held for years. Caven plans to put them aboard Clancy's old ship and kill them in an apparent "accident" just as the military arrives. That will allow the pirates some time to lie low before resuming their activities. The Doctor's group manages to escape the study and heads for Clancy's ship. The pirates launch Clancy's ship remotely with only Clancy and Dom aboard. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe realize what has happened and return to the control room. They knock out the guard and Madeline signals the military as to what is happening. The Doctor returns oxygen to Clancy's ship and walks Clancy through how to regain control. Caven, realizing what has happened, rigs the power plant to explode via remote detonation as they fly away. Clancy manages to land his ship back on the planet and frees the Doctor and his friends. The Doctor races to the power plant and disables the remote detonator. The military attacks the pirates and when the pirates attempt to detonate the bomb, nothing happens. The pirate ship is destroyed and Clancy gives the Doctor and his companions a lift back to the section of the beacon that has the TARDIS.
Analysis
I liked this story a lot better than I thought I might based on it's reputation. I think the fan gripes about it are the result of three issues. The first is the fact that it is a recon and an action-y recon at that. This story reminds me not so much of pirate tales but of tales of the cattle barons and outlaws. Good stories but very action oriented and when you can't see that action, things begin to bog down in the mind. It is well written but there is less dialogue than might be expected in a Robert Holmes script and given that this is the only Holmes story missing the video, it is interesting to see how the witty word play is hamstrung by the lack of visuals.
The second gripe I imagine many fans have is Milo Clancy's accent. It's like a bad imitation of Dana Carvey doing Jimmy Stewart. It will grate on you after a while but there was enough break that it never got to me. Also, unlike others, I didn't have any problem understanding what he was saying. I had worse problems understanding Caven due to audio fading at times.
The third thing that I think gets to fans is how little the Doctor is involved until the end. The Doctor and his friends are not even part of the action until Episode Three and even then they are more tag-a-longs as it is Clancy that still drives the action. It is not until Episode Five and the break out from Dom's study/prison that the Doctor begins to assert himself fully. That the Doctor controls nearly all the action and problem solving in Episode Six may not make up for it in some fan's eyes. I, on the other hand, didn't have a problem with it. I thought the story interesting enough that the Doctor's stance on the outside wasn't an issue. Episode One was a bit of a slog without the Doctor and some rather obvious padding, but things tightened up in Episode Two and went fine from there as far as I'm concerned.
As I said, the story was well written with Robert Holmes honing his skills. There were a couple of small instances of the traditional two-person sparing that Holmes would later do so well. I think if Clancy's voice had been done in a less odd fashion, the dialogue would be a bit more well received with this story.
My own faults lie in the same vein as those mentioned above, except that they didn't bother me quite as much as others. Tightening this to a five-parter, dropping Clancy's voice into a more normal range, and having actual action footage would shoot this story pretty high for me. But I have to say that despite these, I still really enjoyed this one on the whole. I'd happily sit down and watch it again if it were found.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
Friday, January 8, 2016
The War Games
You can't just change what I look like without consulting me!
You would think that when faced with a ten-part story, a feeling of dread would come over as you anticipate mounds of filler. But in fact, The War Games is one of the best Second Doctor stories out there.
Plot Summary
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe land in what appears to be WWI France. They are caught in cross-fire but are rescued by a passing ambulance driver who gives them a lift back to the sector HQ. They are treated well until the commanding general sees them and their out of place look. They are sentenced as spies and prepared to be shot. But the base comes under attack before that can happen and the Doctor and his companions flee with another soldier. The find evidence that the British general is working with a German general. They then stumble through a fog and find themselves being attacked by Roman legions. They flee back through the fog and back in to WWI France.
At this point the Doctor suspects that something is amiss. They investigate further and discover the general has a machine that takes them to a central control room where a series of different battles are taking place. The Doctor disrupts things as best he can while Jamie and Zoe help to unite soldiers who have broken the alien conditioning and been operating as small rebel bands. Together they unify into a large fighting force.
The Doctor also discovers that the aliens are led by a man called the War Lord and have been aided with TARDIS technology supplied by a rogue Time Lord called the War Chief. However, the War Chief's machines are inferior to the Doctor's own TARDIS and begin to break down. Knowing that his usefulness will run out, the War Chief attempts to ally with the Doctor to overthrow the War Lord. He is exposed and seemingly killed by the War Lord. The united rebels soon arrive and take control of the central command but things are at a stalemate so the Doctor summons the Time Lords to aid him.
The Time Lords arrive and return the soldiers to their proper times. They also dispatch the War Lord and his people when they attempt to escape. The Doctor is put on trial for his violation of his people's law of non-interference, he is found guilty but given a mitigated sentence of exile with a forced regeneration. Jamie and Zoe are returned to their respective times with their memories wiped of all but their first adventure with the Doctor. The episode ends with the Doctor beginning to transform into his third iteration.
Analysis
Again, you would think that a long running story with several back and forth trips from war zone to war zone and from the central command to the war zones would get tedious. But at no point is there ever a real feel of padding. There are a couple of moments where I can guess that they lengthened events to push something that might have taken one episode into two, but the quality of both the writing and the acting really carries things.
The escalation of the villains is also interesting. The first villain is the alien posing as the British general. This upgrades to the alien overseeing the German and Confederate armies. We then face off against the War Chief, and then things reach a head with the War Lord, who looks and acts a bit like Steve Jobs. Each villain is more controlled and thus more menacing. The War Lord commands presence despite his diminutive stature, especially relative to the War Chief. It keeps raising the stakes and doesn't give time for the conflict to go stale.
The Doctor is at his best in this story as well. He schemes but also is forced to improvise. He is serious but also gives moments of levity. He cares for his companions but also trusts them enough to get certain tasks done in dangerous environments. Given that this story ends with a regeneration, it is interesting to note that the Second Doctor is the only Doctor to have regeneration forced upon him. Two Doctors (the first and eleventh) regenerated due to old age but all the rest were fatally injured in some fashion. It adds a little prestige in my opinion that despite his appearance as a kindly little bumbler, the Second Doctor was the best survivor of all the Doctors.
The War Games is not without some flaws but they are hard to isolate. As I mentioned earlier, there are a few points where you can guess that the scene was extended or split off to be used later. This gives you the niggling feeling that with a little extra work, the story could have been cut to nine episodes. But it's much better than in some stories where there are whole episodes that are complete filler. Whatever other flaws there were, they did not register with me other than anachronisms of the era (and I would include the War Chief's hair style in that).
I would definitely recommend this one to watch again. Given that it is ten parts, I probably wouldn't recommend trying to get through the whole thing in one go, but that's only because general fatigue might set in over the course of the four hours it would take to watch it rather than for any section that drags. Besides, a good story like this should be savored rather than binged.
Overall personal score: 5 out of 5
You would think that when faced with a ten-part story, a feeling of dread would come over as you anticipate mounds of filler. But in fact, The War Games is one of the best Second Doctor stories out there.
Plot Summary
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe land in what appears to be WWI France. They are caught in cross-fire but are rescued by a passing ambulance driver who gives them a lift back to the sector HQ. They are treated well until the commanding general sees them and their out of place look. They are sentenced as spies and prepared to be shot. But the base comes under attack before that can happen and the Doctor and his companions flee with another soldier. The find evidence that the British general is working with a German general. They then stumble through a fog and find themselves being attacked by Roman legions. They flee back through the fog and back in to WWI France.
At this point the Doctor suspects that something is amiss. They investigate further and discover the general has a machine that takes them to a central control room where a series of different battles are taking place. The Doctor disrupts things as best he can while Jamie and Zoe help to unite soldiers who have broken the alien conditioning and been operating as small rebel bands. Together they unify into a large fighting force.
The Doctor also discovers that the aliens are led by a man called the War Lord and have been aided with TARDIS technology supplied by a rogue Time Lord called the War Chief. However, the War Chief's machines are inferior to the Doctor's own TARDIS and begin to break down. Knowing that his usefulness will run out, the War Chief attempts to ally with the Doctor to overthrow the War Lord. He is exposed and seemingly killed by the War Lord. The united rebels soon arrive and take control of the central command but things are at a stalemate so the Doctor summons the Time Lords to aid him.
The Time Lords arrive and return the soldiers to their proper times. They also dispatch the War Lord and his people when they attempt to escape. The Doctor is put on trial for his violation of his people's law of non-interference, he is found guilty but given a mitigated sentence of exile with a forced regeneration. Jamie and Zoe are returned to their respective times with their memories wiped of all but their first adventure with the Doctor. The episode ends with the Doctor beginning to transform into his third iteration.
Analysis
Again, you would think that a long running story with several back and forth trips from war zone to war zone and from the central command to the war zones would get tedious. But at no point is there ever a real feel of padding. There are a couple of moments where I can guess that they lengthened events to push something that might have taken one episode into two, but the quality of both the writing and the acting really carries things.
The escalation of the villains is also interesting. The first villain is the alien posing as the British general. This upgrades to the alien overseeing the German and Confederate armies. We then face off against the War Chief, and then things reach a head with the War Lord, who looks and acts a bit like Steve Jobs. Each villain is more controlled and thus more menacing. The War Lord commands presence despite his diminutive stature, especially relative to the War Chief. It keeps raising the stakes and doesn't give time for the conflict to go stale.
The Doctor is at his best in this story as well. He schemes but also is forced to improvise. He is serious but also gives moments of levity. He cares for his companions but also trusts them enough to get certain tasks done in dangerous environments. Given that this story ends with a regeneration, it is interesting to note that the Second Doctor is the only Doctor to have regeneration forced upon him. Two Doctors (the first and eleventh) regenerated due to old age but all the rest were fatally injured in some fashion. It adds a little prestige in my opinion that despite his appearance as a kindly little bumbler, the Second Doctor was the best survivor of all the Doctors.
The War Games is not without some flaws but they are hard to isolate. As I mentioned earlier, there are a few points where you can guess that the scene was extended or split off to be used later. This gives you the niggling feeling that with a little extra work, the story could have been cut to nine episodes. But it's much better than in some stories where there are whole episodes that are complete filler. Whatever other flaws there were, they did not register with me other than anachronisms of the era (and I would include the War Chief's hair style in that).
I would definitely recommend this one to watch again. Given that it is ten parts, I probably wouldn't recommend trying to get through the whole thing in one go, but that's only because general fatigue might set in over the course of the four hours it would take to watch it rather than for any section that drags. Besides, a good story like this should be savored rather than binged.
Overall personal score: 5 out of 5
Thursday, November 19, 2015
The Dominators
Quarks! Attack!
I'm not entirely sure why The Dominators is regarded with such low regard. There are flaws of course, but the overall story is not worth the slag it gets in my opinion.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on the planet Dulkis where another group of aliens called the Dominators have arrived. The Dominators use robots called Quarks to destroy a watch base and a pleasure tour party, although some survive. The Dominators plan to destroy the planet and convert the minerals into fuel for their own fleet. There is some adventuring where the Doctor and Jamie are captured but manage to trick the Dominators to let them go. They also travel to the capital city but the government refuses to help due to their pacifist nature. The Doctor and Jamie return to the island and organize the survivors into a resistance such that they are able to steal the bomb the Dominators are planning to use. The Doctor plants the bomb on the Dominator's ship where it blows up and he and his companions leave in the TARDIS as the island is buried in a volcanic eruption.
This story does have it's slow moments. It is easily an episode too long and some of the capture and recapture scenes between the Dulkans are a bit too repetitive. I would also argue that nearly all the scenes with the ruling council are unnecessary and are more for a cynical poke at the pacifist culture.
That being said, the Doctor himself is quite good and the bickering between the two Dominators is somewhat (and probably unintentionally) funny. There is an air of two people who have been together for too long, especially since one is a hot head interested only in filling blood lust while the other is trying to actually fulfill his mission.
The Quarks are also a bit undervalued. This might be due to a backlash as the BBC was convinced they would be a new craze like the Daleks were and were pushed a bit too hard. But the Quarks are a reasonable enemy as tools of the Dominators. They worked well in the action scenes, which also were an enjoyable part of the story.
Is this a classic story? No. It's entertaining in a bit of a silly way that just seems to work for me. I would take a number of Second Doctor stories over this one, but I think it works well enough and would watch it over again if in the right mood.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
I'm not entirely sure why The Dominators is regarded with such low regard. There are flaws of course, but the overall story is not worth the slag it gets in my opinion.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on the planet Dulkis where another group of aliens called the Dominators have arrived. The Dominators use robots called Quarks to destroy a watch base and a pleasure tour party, although some survive. The Dominators plan to destroy the planet and convert the minerals into fuel for their own fleet. There is some adventuring where the Doctor and Jamie are captured but manage to trick the Dominators to let them go. They also travel to the capital city but the government refuses to help due to their pacifist nature. The Doctor and Jamie return to the island and organize the survivors into a resistance such that they are able to steal the bomb the Dominators are planning to use. The Doctor plants the bomb on the Dominator's ship where it blows up and he and his companions leave in the TARDIS as the island is buried in a volcanic eruption.
This story does have it's slow moments. It is easily an episode too long and some of the capture and recapture scenes between the Dulkans are a bit too repetitive. I would also argue that nearly all the scenes with the ruling council are unnecessary and are more for a cynical poke at the pacifist culture.
That being said, the Doctor himself is quite good and the bickering between the two Dominators is somewhat (and probably unintentionally) funny. There is an air of two people who have been together for too long, especially since one is a hot head interested only in filling blood lust while the other is trying to actually fulfill his mission.
The Quarks are also a bit undervalued. This might be due to a backlash as the BBC was convinced they would be a new craze like the Daleks were and were pushed a bit too hard. But the Quarks are a reasonable enemy as tools of the Dominators. They worked well in the action scenes, which also were an enjoyable part of the story.
Is this a classic story? No. It's entertaining in a bit of a silly way that just seems to work for me. I would take a number of Second Doctor stories over this one, but I think it works well enough and would watch it over again if in the right mood.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Thursday, October 29, 2015
The Krotons
Oh my giddy aunt!
If you had to pick one story that was representative of the Second Doctor era, and to a lesser degree Doctor Who as a whole, The Krotons would be a pretty good pick for that.
The story is fairly straight forward. The Doctor and his companions land on a new planet (represented by a quarry) and go to meet the natives. They are captured by the natives (Gonds) and learn that they are being oppressed by an outside force (The Krotons). The Doctor is drawn in to help the natives against the oppressors. He or his companions are captured but spared due to either a need (more brain power) or a previously unknown weakness (only two Krotons and low power) that can be exploited. The Doctor escapes and crafts a solution based on this weakness (sulfuric acid). Hijinx ensue where the Doctor and/or his companions are captured and he uses the weakness to destroy or drive away the oppressors (melt them with the acid). He then leaves shortly afterwards, avoiding the local politics that are implied to step in.
You would think that in following such a basic formula, the story would be boring. If it had been stretched beyond four episodes, it probably would have. But it kept the story tight and Robert Holmes kept the script peppered with fairly interesting dialogue. We are even treated to the Doctor saying "Oh, my giddy aunt" in episode 3. This story also introduced the actor Philip Madoc, who appeared in several more Doctor Who stories, probably best known as the War Lord in The War Games.
So, while this story is fairly paint by the numbers, it is still entertaining. Not one that I would feel a strong urge to go back and watch again, but still enjoyable.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
If you had to pick one story that was representative of the Second Doctor era, and to a lesser degree Doctor Who as a whole, The Krotons would be a pretty good pick for that.
The story is fairly straight forward. The Doctor and his companions land on a new planet (represented by a quarry) and go to meet the natives. They are captured by the natives (Gonds) and learn that they are being oppressed by an outside force (The Krotons). The Doctor is drawn in to help the natives against the oppressors. He or his companions are captured but spared due to either a need (more brain power) or a previously unknown weakness (only two Krotons and low power) that can be exploited. The Doctor escapes and crafts a solution based on this weakness (sulfuric acid). Hijinx ensue where the Doctor and/or his companions are captured and he uses the weakness to destroy or drive away the oppressors (melt them with the acid). He then leaves shortly afterwards, avoiding the local politics that are implied to step in.
You would think that in following such a basic formula, the story would be boring. If it had been stretched beyond four episodes, it probably would have. But it kept the story tight and Robert Holmes kept the script peppered with fairly interesting dialogue. We are even treated to the Doctor saying "Oh, my giddy aunt" in episode 3. This story also introduced the actor Philip Madoc, who appeared in several more Doctor Who stories, probably best known as the War Lord in The War Games.
So, while this story is fairly paint by the numbers, it is still entertaining. Not one that I would feel a strong urge to go back and watch again, but still enjoyable.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
Friday, October 23, 2015
The Invasion
Packer!
I don't think it's possible to watch this episode and not try to talk like Vaughn at least once.
Anyway, the episode. I like this one. But I'm finding that A, I like many of the Second Doctor stories and B, I have a certain affinity for ideas derived from Kit Pedler. That probably causes me to overlook a few flaws that might be jarring in other stories.
Attempting to look at this one objectively, I can see three specific flaws with it. The first is more of a preference is that I don't care for the character of Isobel Watkins. I'm sure she was intended to be something of a hip girl of the time, but she comes across as vacuous to me and see contributes almost nothing of substance to the overall story. It's just a portrayal that rubs me the wrong way.
The second nit to pick is the cyber control that Vaughn interacts with. Maybe it's just my ears, but I had a very hard time understanding it. I could get the gist, but given that some of the principle plot points hung around those conversations, it was a bit aggravating to not fully understand it. Subtitles would have helped, but it's a point against the story in my book to have a crutch needed in the first place.
The third flaw is one that most folks will readily admit to in that the story is too long. Apparently the story was submitted as a six-part story and that would have probably been a better length. Part of the problem with the length was that Wendy Padbury went on vacation in episode three (Zoe spends the episode in a transport pod on a train) and Frazer Hines got episode eight off (he recovers in the hospital after being shot). Still, the bloat is a little less noticeable than when the Doctor has been written out for an episode (such as Web of Fear). It's not a major problem, but it does create a drag in the middle.
Still, compared to other stories, these flaws are pretty small. This story also gives us some rather iconic images of the show. Everyone knows about the Cybermen marching from St. Paul's, but we also get some of the most used sample shots of Cybermen on the attack. We also get the memorable and highly amusing scene of the Doctor running away from a Cyberman while the gun shoots around him. It makes for a rather stunning contrast to the First Doctor staring down the war machines at the end of episode three of that story, but no less enjoyable or character defining.
This story also sets up some of the show's best assets in bringing back newly promoted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and introducing UNIT. In fact, the framework established in this episode would be used multiple times in the Third Doctor era. It also gives us Vaughn and Packer also make up one of the best villain/henchman combos in the show; second probably only to Harrison Chase and Scorby in Seeds of Doom.
This is probably not a story for a simple or casual watch, but it has great charm and is a major building block for the show as a whole.
Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5
I don't think it's possible to watch this episode and not try to talk like Vaughn at least once.
Anyway, the episode. I like this one. But I'm finding that A, I like many of the Second Doctor stories and B, I have a certain affinity for ideas derived from Kit Pedler. That probably causes me to overlook a few flaws that might be jarring in other stories.
Attempting to look at this one objectively, I can see three specific flaws with it. The first is more of a preference is that I don't care for the character of Isobel Watkins. I'm sure she was intended to be something of a hip girl of the time, but she comes across as vacuous to me and see contributes almost nothing of substance to the overall story. It's just a portrayal that rubs me the wrong way.
The second nit to pick is the cyber control that Vaughn interacts with. Maybe it's just my ears, but I had a very hard time understanding it. I could get the gist, but given that some of the principle plot points hung around those conversations, it was a bit aggravating to not fully understand it. Subtitles would have helped, but it's a point against the story in my book to have a crutch needed in the first place.
The third flaw is one that most folks will readily admit to in that the story is too long. Apparently the story was submitted as a six-part story and that would have probably been a better length. Part of the problem with the length was that Wendy Padbury went on vacation in episode three (Zoe spends the episode in a transport pod on a train) and Frazer Hines got episode eight off (he recovers in the hospital after being shot). Still, the bloat is a little less noticeable than when the Doctor has been written out for an episode (such as Web of Fear). It's not a major problem, but it does create a drag in the middle.
Still, compared to other stories, these flaws are pretty small. This story also gives us some rather iconic images of the show. Everyone knows about the Cybermen marching from St. Paul's, but we also get some of the most used sample shots of Cybermen on the attack. We also get the memorable and highly amusing scene of the Doctor running away from a Cyberman while the gun shoots around him. It makes for a rather stunning contrast to the First Doctor staring down the war machines at the end of episode three of that story, but no less enjoyable or character defining.
This story also sets up some of the show's best assets in bringing back newly promoted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and introducing UNIT. In fact, the framework established in this episode would be used multiple times in the Third Doctor era. It also gives us Vaughn and Packer also make up one of the best villain/henchman combos in the show; second probably only to Harrison Chase and Scorby in Seeds of Doom.
This is probably not a story for a simple or casual watch, but it has great charm and is a major building block for the show as a whole.
Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5
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