I like that one, the one in the funny coat.
Nearly every science-fiction series does some variant on the Roman bread and circuses routine. Vengeance on Varos is that for Doctor Who, although it seems a bit odd that it took them that long to do one. Also, this one is long on the circuses but a bit short on the bread, giving it a stronger tie-in to the modern reality television market.
Plot Summary
On the planet Varos, a couple are watching a rebel leader named Jondar being tortured. They are awaiting a message and vote from the planetary governor. The Governor is negotiating a contract with the off-planet mining company representative named Sil over the planet's chief export, the mineral Zeiton-7. At a stand-off, the Governor goes before the people to ask for greater rations to expand mining operations. The people vote immediately and directly through their screens and when he loses the vote, the Governor is tortured with a cellular decay field, nearly killing him.
In the TARDIS, the Doctor is attempting to repair the damage done by the Cybermen in the previous adventure. The TARDIS suddenly stops dead and the Doctor begins to mope that they are stuck in the middle of space. Peri grabs the manual and when she notices the time-rotor still moving slightly, the Doctor is reanimated knowing they can make at least one more landing. Investigating, he figures the TARDIS needs an infusion of Zeiton-7 for renewed power and the two decide to head for Varos.
After the failed vote, Sil attempts to gain ground on the Governor in his weakened state. The Governor, needing time to recover, takes the suggestion of one of the guards to execute Jondar in a random fashion as a means of entertainment and driving up the Governor's ratings. Sil concedes the time as he is also fond of watching the executions but sends word to the company that more militant action may be necessary.
As the means is prepared, the Doctor and Peri land. The TARDIS is attacked by a guard and the Doctor disarms him. He then releases Jondar. The act brings the guards in and the trio flee into the tunnels. The Doctor sets up some distractions but the only lose the guards when pulled into an access tunnel by Jondar's wife Areta, aided by a sympathetic guard. The guard is gunned down as they flee but the rest escape deeper into the tunnels.
The Doctor tries to get back to the TARDIS and learns the only way is through a series of tunnels and rooms designed to terrify and torture people for entertainment. The group is unaware that they are still being broadcast and the public is enjoying their attempts at escape. They navigate through two rooms designed to paralyze them with fear but emerge unscathed. However, upon reaching the original room, they find the TARDIS has been taken by the authorities.
Continuing to look for the TARDIS, the group is separated by guards. Peri, Jondar and Areta are captured with Peri being taken to the control room for questioning. The Doctor is trapped in a hallway where hypnotic suggestion impresses on him that he is dying of thirst in the desert. He collapses, apparently dead. However, when the guards take him to the acid bath disposal room, he comes alert and gets up. The shock sends a guard back, knocking his companion into the bath. The remaining guard attacks the Doctor, but he is forced back and then dragged into the acid bath by the first guard trying to get out.
The Doctor leaves but is quickly recaptured. He and Jondar are sentenced to execution by hanging while the women will be cellularly reconstructed into some other creature. After the women are lead away, the Doctor accuses Sil of underpricing the Zeiton-7 ore, detailing how valuable it is and what the demand for it should be. Enraged, Sil sends his men in and one triggers the trap door. However, the nooses were not secured to anything and the Doctor and Jondar fall harmlessly below. The whole thing had been a ruse by the Governor to get the truth out of both the Doctor and Sil.
The Doctor states he will only help if Peri and Areta are released unharmed. Sil encourages the Chief Officer to not comply, allowing the transmogrification to continue. Peri begins to assume the form of a bird while Areta takes a more reptilian appearance. Realizing what has happened, the Doctor grabs a gun and orders them to stop the process. When they refuse, he destroys the equipment. With the process incomplete, Peri and Areta revert back to their normal states.
An alarm is sounded and the group make a run for it, although Peri and Areta are very weak. Seeking to help them, the Doctor and Jondar steal a guard car, but while doing so, Peri wanders off in a semi-delusional state and is captured. She is brought back to the control room and the Chief Controller orders a populace vote as the Governor has outstepped his mandate.
While the stream is being set up, the Governor appeals to guard captain Maldak to help them. He refuses, waiting for the vote results. Both the Chief Officer and the Governor state their cases and the vote goes against the Governor. As the cellular decay beam is activated, he condemns the Varosian society for what is has become. This moves Maldak and he destroys the cellular decay machine. Maldak, the Governor and Peri then flee into the tunnels.
Meanwhile, the Doctor, Jondar and Areta elude death traps in the corridors as they approach the exit of the dome. They enter an area with deadly vines and when a patrol car approaches, the Doctor has Jondar pull a group of the vines away with a string. The Chief Officer and Quilliam the torturer arrive and attempt to gather them for torture display when Jondar releases the vines, running into their pursuers and killing them.
The Doctor's group meets the Governor's group as they emerge from the vines and return to the control room. There they find Sil communicating with his own people about an invasion force. The invasion fleet is called off as another source of Zeiton-7 has been discovered although the immediate need requires them to pay any price. The Governor then creates a new contract that will bring great wealth to Varos.
The Governor gives the Doctor and Peri the Zeiton-7 they need and then addresses the people. As they will now getting greater wealth, he is calling off all rationing and cancelling the broadcast tortures. The couple who had been watching events all this time reflect that although they have now been grated freedom, they are unsure of what to do next.
Analysis
There are a number of stories in Doctor Who that have not aged well, whether due to a change in civic outlook, production values, or just an appreciation of acting performance. Vengeance on Varos seems to be one of those rare productions that actually increases in appreciation the older it gets. The effects and overall production of the story are still mediocre at best and reek of the cheap stylishness of the 1980's, but the story quality itself is so forward looking (while also being rear facing) that it seems to be appreciated more and more as time goes by.
Obviously the first reference is to the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome and how that kept the people sedated. However, the fact that it extends into the political arena where the Governor himself may be tortured and killed as a means of pacifying the people is very forward thinking. Our own elections of today have become as much a reality television show as anything else on. We shouldn't be surprised that one candidate is effectively a reality show star in and of himself.
Probably one of the most interesting things about this story is that as good at is as a straight narrative, you constantly have quick cuts to the couple of Arak and Etta who offer commentary just as was probably being done to the show at the time and indeed as we do now. Arak takes great relish in being contrary to anything the Governor states and proposes (much like a modern political system) and is almost gleeful when he votes to kill the Governor, stealing Etta's vote in the process. His indignence at having the Governor's death thwarted to the point of double voting a second time is almost like the petulance seen in modern internet reaction where people scream and rage over the pettiest garbage simply because they do not get their way.
I must praise the acting in this as well. The Governor and the Chief Officer are wonderfully deadpan and understated in their performances, giving a nicer contrast to the emotional and reactionary Sil. Sil gets a little mustache twirl-y at times, but it comes across mostly in a comedic fashion, adding a nice bit of levity to the story.
The Doctor was quite good in this story as well. He whiney petulance at the beginning where the TARDIS stalls out was a little annoying but once they landed on Varos, he really picked up, both with wit and enthusiasm. He also began to show a nice report with Peri. His comments to her were more interactive and informative rather than belittling or condescending. He goes so far to actually express great concern for her, something notably lacking in other stories.
Peri, on the other hand, does not really keep up her end. Nothing is wrong with her in the way she is written, but I'm getting the feeling that the desire for Peri to be expressed as an American, really hampered Nicola Bryant's acting ability. She effectively only has two tones: a lower, more conversational tone (like when she is with the Doctor in the TARDIS) and a higher pitched, whinier tone expressed whenever they get into trouble. It reduces her to the damsel in distress role and she is never really seen to do anything of benefit to what the Doctor is doing. Her only contribution here is to get out the TARDIS manual and kick the Doctor in the butt to land on Varos. Once there, it is run, get captured, escape; wash, rinse, repeat. Granted, the Doctor does much the same, but he is interacting and aiding in the formant of rebellion. Peri is a complete tag-a-long, existing solely as something to be rescued.
My only other complaint about this story is the rather cheap look to the story. The story does a decent job of disguising things with dark, moody lighting, but it can't disguise sets like the gallows, which are back-lit like an 80's episode of Lawrence Welk. The vine scene also has a fake look to it that is hard to ignore. Obviously the show was hampered by budget concerns and studio space limitations, but there is something about the way the show was filmed in the 1980's just seems to draw your eye to the limitations where it was more easily ignored in the 1970's.
Overall, this story was quite good. Enjoyable story, enjoyable characters, witty script and very interesting premise. I think I would go so far as to say that this is my favorite Sixth Doctor story to date. I only have three left to see and the reputation of two of them is less than stellar so it'll be interesting to see how that final story stacks up against this one to claim the title of my favorite of the era.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Monday, August 22, 2016
Image of the Fendahl
...and some fruitcake. I love fruitcake.
Image of the Fendahl has been referred to as one of the darkest of all the classic Doctor Who stories and I can't disagree with that sentiment. The modern series has fully embraced the dark nature so that some of the darkness of this story is mitigated by that, but in context, this story is pretty grim.
Plot Summary
In the priory of a small village, a group of scientists are investigating a skull dug out of a fossilized lava bed. The chief scientist, Dr. Fendalman, and his assistant, Max Stael, power up a computer which energizes the skull in the next room. As it does, a third scientist, Thea Ransome, is hypnotized by the skull. At the same time outside the priory, a local hiker collapses in pain and dies.
The next morning the fourth scientist, Adam Colby, discovers the body, which is already beginning to deteriorate. Colby suggests they call the police but Fendalman demures not wanting to attract attention. He tells Stael to call the London office and have them send a security team to take care of things.
The Doctor and Leela are making repairs to K-9 in the TARDIS when it is rocked. The Doctor detects a hole in the time continuum and lands to investigate it. The two land outside the village and get information from a local caretaker named Ted Moss about the scientists. They go up to the priory to investigate.
Leela approaches a cottage from the rear and is nearly shot by Moss who has broken in to the house of the priory washer woman, Mrs. Tyler. Leela disarms him but is in turn threatened by Mrs. Tyler's son Jack. Jack shoves off Moss who had been looking for something Mrs. Tyler had promised him. Leela then tells Jack why she and the Doctor arrived.
At the same time the Doctor is set upon by an unknown creature who partially paralyzes him. The Doctor is able to reinvigorate himself before the creature attacks and he runs into the mist. The creature then goes back to the priory and kills the security guard Mitchell. He is almost immediately discovered by Colby and Ransome. Ransome passes out and as Colby goes to check on her, the Doctor walks in and orders him not to touch her. Her skin begins to glow and two embryonic Fendaleen appear briefly on her body before disappearing.
Fendalman appears in the kitchen and accuses the Doctor of killing Mitchell. He has the Doctor locked in a closet and sets Stahl off on an errand. Ransome goes to lie down and Fendalman begins to explain to Colby about the skull and it's properties. He believes that the skull is from a human ancestor who arrived on Earth millions of years in the past. He shows Colby an X-ray of the skull with a pentagram crack in it. He believes that the crack is a neural relay that has stored energy in the skull and he has been working to release it.
Back at the cottage as Leela finishes her tale, Mrs. Tyler returns in a state of fear and shock. She says that she encountered something hungering for her soul. Jack gets her to a chair to rest while Leela heads for the priory to find the Doctor.
Someone releases the Doctor from the closet and in wandering around the priory, he discovers Stahl talking with Moss about an occultist ceremony they are preparing for. Shortly after, Ransome comes around looking for the Doctor but finds the X-ray. She starts to go into a trance staring at it but is roused by Stahl. Stahl however chloroforms her and drags her out.
The Doctor enters the room with the skull and finds himself drawn towards it. When it begins to glow with energy, he is compelled to touch it. Locked in to a hold of the skull, Leela enters and helps free him. She takes him back to see Mrs. Tyler and he helps bring her out of her trance. In thanks, Mrs. Tyler gives each of them a rock salt charm she had prepared originally for Moss.
The Doctor and Leela use the TARDIS to go back twelve million years to find out what happened to the fifth planet and where the Fendaleen came from. The Doctor discovers that the planet had been destroyed by the Time Lords and then placed in a time loop to hide the fact. Indignant at his own people's criminality, the Doctor flies the TARDIS back to the priory.
While Dr. Fendalman demonstrates to Colby how his experiments had been proceeding, Stahl walks in and pull a gun on them. He takes them downstairs and ties them to two pillars. Ransome is also there, tied to the floor in the middle of a pentagram. Fendalman implores Stahl to stop, going so far as to note that he is of the bloodline called to search out the Fendahl. Stahl becomes annoyed at his rantings and shoots Fendalman in the head, warning Colby to be quiet or he will shoot him as well.
The ceremony begins as the Doctor and Leela return to the priory, meeting Mrs. Tyler and Jack. Mrs. Tyler, still fearful of the powers they face, ordered Jack to load the shotgun shells with rock salt instead of the regular lead shot. As they emerge from the scanner room, the group is frozen and see a Fendaleen approaching them. Only the Doctor is able to free himself and he takes the gun and shoots the Fendaleen. The rock salt kills it and the group is freed and able to retreat.
The Doctor instructs Jack and Mrs. Tyler to reload the gun with more rock salt shells while he and Leela head to the ceremony below. Ransome has been transformed into a goddess-like woman, the Fendahl core, and upon looking at the people around the circle transforms them into Fendahleen. Leela frees Colby and takes him upstairs. The Doctor tries to help Stahl but he is already infected, his plans for power having gone completely awry. He asks the Doctor for his gun and he shoots himself as the Doctor heads back upstairs.
With two of the planned thirteen manifestations gone, the Doctor realizes they have bought some time. He orders Mrs. Tyler to run back to her cottage and bring as much salt as she has. Leela and Jack head back into the corridor to fend off any attacks and buy the Doctor time. The Doctor and Colby then set up an implosion device to destroy the priory, the Doctor expounding as they work that the skull must have landed when the fifth planet exploded. It leached information into the human race as it developed but gained the power to manifest itself through altering Ransome via Fendalman's experiments.
The Fendahl Core attacks with one of the Fendahleen. Jack is paralyzed again but Leela, squinting to avoid looking at the core, shoots the Fendahleen and drives the attack back. Mrs. Tyler returns with the salt and the Doctor instructs her and Jack to go take cover in the cottage. He orders Colby to turn on the scanner to distract the Fendahleen for two minutes and then run to the cottage as the imploder will go off three minutes after that.
Using the salt to drive off Fendahleen in their way, the Doctor and Leela head back to the basement and the Doctor collects the skull into a radiation box. Colby turns off the scanner and runs. The Doctor and Leela do the same, fighting off the Core with salt as they flee the building. In the woods, they faceplant as the priory is consumed in flames and pulled back to nothing. They return to the TARDIS where the Doctor plans to throw the skull into a supernova to destroy it. He also sets about finishing the repairs to K-9, Leela amused that he referred to K-9 as a he for the first time.
Analysis
This story was a bit disappointing as it had good potential both in a baseline story and some truly excellent cinematography. This is one of the few stories that had actual night shooting and it works very well, adding a solid element of creepiness. Many of the horror elements were played well in this, both in set up and shot execution so I would say that whatever faults this story has, direction is not one of them.
I would also not fault the acting. All the guest cast do fairly well, although there are one or two moments where someone (usually Stahl) goes a bit over the top. But it is usually reigned in quickly. Leela is quite good in this and she has a strong measure of wit and humor in her dialogue, especially in her interaction with the Doctor. Whatever faults Chris Boucher may have as a writer, he does know how to make Leela a worth companion of the Doctor.
Where the story does fall flat is predominantly in it's structure. I have often criticized Seventh Doctor stories for the impression that story elements were left on the cutting room floor, giving the story a very disjointed feel. This story is much the same. There are abrupt cuts and a distinct lack of flow throughout the story. The nature of the Fendahleen is never really explained and the back story we do get in crammed tightly into two expositional scenes, one in Episode Two between Fendalman and Colby and the second in Episode Four between the Doctor and Colby. What few other expositional scenes are given feel rushed or underdeveloped. There is no reason for the Doctor and Leela to take the whole day to go back and see the fifth planet. If you did want to keep them out, structure the scene better so it has a better flow and explains the plot more. A quick scene on the legend of the Fendahleen from the Gallifreian point of view would have inserted very nicely here.
I also have to say that I'm not feeling the Fourth Doctor as well here. I can't help but contrast this story with The Pyramids of Mars where the Doctor is very serious about the threat to Earth immediately. He comes across as callous about those that have died because he is concerned for Earth as a whole. In this story, he is almost flippant. Some flippancy is to be expected, but once he has seen the Fendahleen on Ransome's body, his demeanor should have taken a more serious tone. Little jokes would have still worked, such as requesting fruitcake with Jack's tea or offering the skull a jellybaby, but it would have helped the story if there was a more serious tone underlying those jokes in-between.
Speaking of Ransome, she is actually what I feel makes this one of the darkest stories. Most people point to the Doctor helping Stahl kill himself, but the Doctor pointed out that he was dead already and killing himself actually aided the cause of stopping the Fendahleen. Perhaps I've seen too many Tenth Doctor stories where a similar style was used. However, there is a scene in Episode Two where Ransome opens the closet where the Doctor had been held and looks for him. She whispers, pleading for help from him. That is truly the darkest moment. There are many stories where the Doctor cannot save someone but he nearly always is able to infuse some measure of hope in them or at least make an attempt to aid them. Here, she is alone. She is afraid and alone and the Doctor doesn't come to help her. She instead stumbles out, gets entranced again and then finally subdued by Stahl. It is an incredibly bleak moment in the story.
I generally give this a pass but I feel I should point out that the Fendahleen look pretty bad too. If you are going to do a snake-like slug, there should be some undulation in it. They tried to keep them in the shadows to hide the flaws, but they were forced to show enough of the monster that you couldn't help but immediately notice that it was a man standing in a constricted suit. I know there are technological limitations but if the seaweed could be made to look like it was thrashing about and menacing in Fury From the Deep, I don't see why something could be done to make the Fendahleen look somewhat more menacing. I also don't know why the Fendahl Core looked like a Greek goddess but at least that was done well.
Overall, I can't say that I would pull this one out for a rewatch. There were good moments and the acting and atmosphere were nice, but overall it was just too disjointed. I don't mind being somewhat confused by the story if it is engaging and pulls together at the end, but this didn't do either. Worth a single watch to say that you've seen it but not much beyond that.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Image of the Fendahl has been referred to as one of the darkest of all the classic Doctor Who stories and I can't disagree with that sentiment. The modern series has fully embraced the dark nature so that some of the darkness of this story is mitigated by that, but in context, this story is pretty grim.
Plot Summary
In the priory of a small village, a group of scientists are investigating a skull dug out of a fossilized lava bed. The chief scientist, Dr. Fendalman, and his assistant, Max Stael, power up a computer which energizes the skull in the next room. As it does, a third scientist, Thea Ransome, is hypnotized by the skull. At the same time outside the priory, a local hiker collapses in pain and dies.
The next morning the fourth scientist, Adam Colby, discovers the body, which is already beginning to deteriorate. Colby suggests they call the police but Fendalman demures not wanting to attract attention. He tells Stael to call the London office and have them send a security team to take care of things.
The Doctor and Leela are making repairs to K-9 in the TARDIS when it is rocked. The Doctor detects a hole in the time continuum and lands to investigate it. The two land outside the village and get information from a local caretaker named Ted Moss about the scientists. They go up to the priory to investigate.
Leela approaches a cottage from the rear and is nearly shot by Moss who has broken in to the house of the priory washer woman, Mrs. Tyler. Leela disarms him but is in turn threatened by Mrs. Tyler's son Jack. Jack shoves off Moss who had been looking for something Mrs. Tyler had promised him. Leela then tells Jack why she and the Doctor arrived.
At the same time the Doctor is set upon by an unknown creature who partially paralyzes him. The Doctor is able to reinvigorate himself before the creature attacks and he runs into the mist. The creature then goes back to the priory and kills the security guard Mitchell. He is almost immediately discovered by Colby and Ransome. Ransome passes out and as Colby goes to check on her, the Doctor walks in and orders him not to touch her. Her skin begins to glow and two embryonic Fendaleen appear briefly on her body before disappearing.
Fendalman appears in the kitchen and accuses the Doctor of killing Mitchell. He has the Doctor locked in a closet and sets Stahl off on an errand. Ransome goes to lie down and Fendalman begins to explain to Colby about the skull and it's properties. He believes that the skull is from a human ancestor who arrived on Earth millions of years in the past. He shows Colby an X-ray of the skull with a pentagram crack in it. He believes that the crack is a neural relay that has stored energy in the skull and he has been working to release it.
Back at the cottage as Leela finishes her tale, Mrs. Tyler returns in a state of fear and shock. She says that she encountered something hungering for her soul. Jack gets her to a chair to rest while Leela heads for the priory to find the Doctor.
Someone releases the Doctor from the closet and in wandering around the priory, he discovers Stahl talking with Moss about an occultist ceremony they are preparing for. Shortly after, Ransome comes around looking for the Doctor but finds the X-ray. She starts to go into a trance staring at it but is roused by Stahl. Stahl however chloroforms her and drags her out.
The Doctor enters the room with the skull and finds himself drawn towards it. When it begins to glow with energy, he is compelled to touch it. Locked in to a hold of the skull, Leela enters and helps free him. She takes him back to see Mrs. Tyler and he helps bring her out of her trance. In thanks, Mrs. Tyler gives each of them a rock salt charm she had prepared originally for Moss.
The Doctor and Leela use the TARDIS to go back twelve million years to find out what happened to the fifth planet and where the Fendaleen came from. The Doctor discovers that the planet had been destroyed by the Time Lords and then placed in a time loop to hide the fact. Indignant at his own people's criminality, the Doctor flies the TARDIS back to the priory.
While Dr. Fendalman demonstrates to Colby how his experiments had been proceeding, Stahl walks in and pull a gun on them. He takes them downstairs and ties them to two pillars. Ransome is also there, tied to the floor in the middle of a pentagram. Fendalman implores Stahl to stop, going so far as to note that he is of the bloodline called to search out the Fendahl. Stahl becomes annoyed at his rantings and shoots Fendalman in the head, warning Colby to be quiet or he will shoot him as well.
The ceremony begins as the Doctor and Leela return to the priory, meeting Mrs. Tyler and Jack. Mrs. Tyler, still fearful of the powers they face, ordered Jack to load the shotgun shells with rock salt instead of the regular lead shot. As they emerge from the scanner room, the group is frozen and see a Fendaleen approaching them. Only the Doctor is able to free himself and he takes the gun and shoots the Fendaleen. The rock salt kills it and the group is freed and able to retreat.
The Doctor instructs Jack and Mrs. Tyler to reload the gun with more rock salt shells while he and Leela head to the ceremony below. Ransome has been transformed into a goddess-like woman, the Fendahl core, and upon looking at the people around the circle transforms them into Fendahleen. Leela frees Colby and takes him upstairs. The Doctor tries to help Stahl but he is already infected, his plans for power having gone completely awry. He asks the Doctor for his gun and he shoots himself as the Doctor heads back upstairs.
With two of the planned thirteen manifestations gone, the Doctor realizes they have bought some time. He orders Mrs. Tyler to run back to her cottage and bring as much salt as she has. Leela and Jack head back into the corridor to fend off any attacks and buy the Doctor time. The Doctor and Colby then set up an implosion device to destroy the priory, the Doctor expounding as they work that the skull must have landed when the fifth planet exploded. It leached information into the human race as it developed but gained the power to manifest itself through altering Ransome via Fendalman's experiments.
The Fendahl Core attacks with one of the Fendahleen. Jack is paralyzed again but Leela, squinting to avoid looking at the core, shoots the Fendahleen and drives the attack back. Mrs. Tyler returns with the salt and the Doctor instructs her and Jack to go take cover in the cottage. He orders Colby to turn on the scanner to distract the Fendahleen for two minutes and then run to the cottage as the imploder will go off three minutes after that.
Using the salt to drive off Fendahleen in their way, the Doctor and Leela head back to the basement and the Doctor collects the skull into a radiation box. Colby turns off the scanner and runs. The Doctor and Leela do the same, fighting off the Core with salt as they flee the building. In the woods, they faceplant as the priory is consumed in flames and pulled back to nothing. They return to the TARDIS where the Doctor plans to throw the skull into a supernova to destroy it. He also sets about finishing the repairs to K-9, Leela amused that he referred to K-9 as a he for the first time.
Analysis
This story was a bit disappointing as it had good potential both in a baseline story and some truly excellent cinematography. This is one of the few stories that had actual night shooting and it works very well, adding a solid element of creepiness. Many of the horror elements were played well in this, both in set up and shot execution so I would say that whatever faults this story has, direction is not one of them.
I would also not fault the acting. All the guest cast do fairly well, although there are one or two moments where someone (usually Stahl) goes a bit over the top. But it is usually reigned in quickly. Leela is quite good in this and she has a strong measure of wit and humor in her dialogue, especially in her interaction with the Doctor. Whatever faults Chris Boucher may have as a writer, he does know how to make Leela a worth companion of the Doctor.
Where the story does fall flat is predominantly in it's structure. I have often criticized Seventh Doctor stories for the impression that story elements were left on the cutting room floor, giving the story a very disjointed feel. This story is much the same. There are abrupt cuts and a distinct lack of flow throughout the story. The nature of the Fendahleen is never really explained and the back story we do get in crammed tightly into two expositional scenes, one in Episode Two between Fendalman and Colby and the second in Episode Four between the Doctor and Colby. What few other expositional scenes are given feel rushed or underdeveloped. There is no reason for the Doctor and Leela to take the whole day to go back and see the fifth planet. If you did want to keep them out, structure the scene better so it has a better flow and explains the plot more. A quick scene on the legend of the Fendahleen from the Gallifreian point of view would have inserted very nicely here.
I also have to say that I'm not feeling the Fourth Doctor as well here. I can't help but contrast this story with The Pyramids of Mars where the Doctor is very serious about the threat to Earth immediately. He comes across as callous about those that have died because he is concerned for Earth as a whole. In this story, he is almost flippant. Some flippancy is to be expected, but once he has seen the Fendahleen on Ransome's body, his demeanor should have taken a more serious tone. Little jokes would have still worked, such as requesting fruitcake with Jack's tea or offering the skull a jellybaby, but it would have helped the story if there was a more serious tone underlying those jokes in-between.
Speaking of Ransome, she is actually what I feel makes this one of the darkest stories. Most people point to the Doctor helping Stahl kill himself, but the Doctor pointed out that he was dead already and killing himself actually aided the cause of stopping the Fendahleen. Perhaps I've seen too many Tenth Doctor stories where a similar style was used. However, there is a scene in Episode Two where Ransome opens the closet where the Doctor had been held and looks for him. She whispers, pleading for help from him. That is truly the darkest moment. There are many stories where the Doctor cannot save someone but he nearly always is able to infuse some measure of hope in them or at least make an attempt to aid them. Here, she is alone. She is afraid and alone and the Doctor doesn't come to help her. She instead stumbles out, gets entranced again and then finally subdued by Stahl. It is an incredibly bleak moment in the story.
I generally give this a pass but I feel I should point out that the Fendahleen look pretty bad too. If you are going to do a snake-like slug, there should be some undulation in it. They tried to keep them in the shadows to hide the flaws, but they were forced to show enough of the monster that you couldn't help but immediately notice that it was a man standing in a constricted suit. I know there are technological limitations but if the seaweed could be made to look like it was thrashing about and menacing in Fury From the Deep, I don't see why something could be done to make the Fendahleen look somewhat more menacing. I also don't know why the Fendahl Core looked like a Greek goddess but at least that was done well.
Overall, I can't say that I would pull this one out for a rewatch. There were good moments and the acting and atmosphere were nice, but overall it was just too disjointed. I don't mind being somewhat confused by the story if it is engaging and pulls together at the end, but this didn't do either. Worth a single watch to say that you've seen it but not much beyond that.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Earthshock
Now I'll never know if I was right.
The great Adric death story. As so few of the Doctor's companions actually die as a means of departure, this was bound to be impactful (no pun intended) but the fact that Adric seems to be so universally loathed as a character has given his death story an added bit of ironic pleasure to fans. Of course, how does it hold up as an overall story is the primary question I'm concerned with.
Plot Summary
On Earth in the mid-26th century, a group of soldiers is investigating an attack on a scientific expedition in an underground cave system. After setting up sensors on the surface, the soldiers head down with the sole escapee, Professor Kyle.
On the TARDIS, Adric argues with the Doctor as he wants to return home. The Doctor argues against him as he doesn't know if he can return to E-space. The TARDIS materializes in the cave system being explored by the soldiers and the Doctor storms out of the TARDIS to cool off. Nyssa encourages Adric to do the calculations while she and Tegan talk to the Doctor. If Adric has the formulae, it will be easier to persuade him.
The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are picked up by the surface scanners and the soldiers head towards them. However, one soldier falls and dislocates her shoulder she is sent back and one soldier from the surface heads down to assist them. All three are waylaid by two androids and killed, which show up on the surface scanner as momentary flashes, although the androids themselves are not visible.
In the caves, the Doctor cools down a bit and Nyssa and Tegan further distract him by examining a group of dinosaur fossils embedded in the cave wall. The three wander into the central cavern where the excavations were taking place. The soldiers come and arrest them while also sending a second squad to look for the missing soldiers. That squad is also killed by the androids. Lieutenant Scott forces the Doctor to dig through a rock pile where a small, metal door is uncovered. This activity attracts the androids who attack the soldiers. The soldiers take cover and fire back. The Doctor directs the soldiers fire and the androids withdraw as they're self-preservation instinct kicks in.
Adric, noting some commotion outside the TARDIS goes to investigate and sees the androids. The Doctor also sees him and directs the soldiers to fire at the door. The androids, controlled by the Cybermen, are ordered to defend the door. Adric distracts one with a thrown rock and the soldiers destroy it. The second one is also gunned down. With their defense compromised, the Cybermen activate the bomb behind the door. Discovering it, the Doctor orders Nyssa and Tegan to get everyone into the TARDIS. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to temporarily block the signal to the bomb. The Cybermen are able to override the block but it buys the Doctor enough time to defuse the bomb.
The Doctor traces the signal to a cargo ship approaching Earth, having just left a space docking station. He lands the TARDIS in the hold and looks for the crew. At the same time, a security patrol is wandering around as three crew members have recently disappeared. Also wandering around is Lt. Ringway, investigating a broken security camera. The Doctor and Adric hear screams and find the two security members dead. Ringway find them and takes them to the bridge to be interrogated by the Captain.
On the bridge, Captain Briggs interrogates the Doctor and Adric who maintain their innocence and tell the captain about the bomb. Before she can make up her mind about hauling them off to the brig, the Cybermen awaken a group of dormant Cybermen and proceed towards the bridge. The bridge is alerted to the power drain and they see the Cybermen on the monitors. The crew set up defensive positions to hold the Cybermen back.
Nyssa also registers the power surge. Lt. Scott opts to lead his men out of the TARDIS to investigate. Tegan takes Professor Kyle's overalls and heads out with them. The Cybermen overrun the crew's positions, taking no casualties as the crew's guns have minimal effect. Ridgeway turns on the Captain as he is a Cyberman agent. He is disarmed though when distracted by Adric and the Doctor seals the bridge.
Lt. Scott's squad find two Cybermen and concentrate their fire. Both are wounded with one escaping. Tegan rushes up, seizes the other wounded Cyberman's gun and kills him. The Doctor sets up a defense that kills one Cyberman but the others break through. Observing the Cyberman wounded by the soldiers, the Cyberleader concludes Ridgeway lied to them about the number of people on board and kills him. The Cyberleader then orders the activation of more Cybermen as they approach Earth.
Separated from Tegan, Lt. Scott orders his men back to the TARDIS. As they enter, one is killed by two attacking Cybermen. Scott and his men kill the two Cybermen but not before they fire a shot that kills Professor Kyle. Tegan meanwhile is captured and taken to the bridge.
On the bridge, the Cybermen install controls to ensure the cargo ship will crash with Earth and warp velocity. There is currently a conference between multiple planets to ally against the Cybermen taking place. The original plan had been to detonate the bomb but with the Doctor's defusing of the bomb, the devastation wrought be the crashing ship would be enough to destroy the delegation. With the device installed, the Cyberleader orders his men to evacuate the ship where they will be picked up the Cyberfleet. Two guards and a small squad are left to ensure no complications and to observe the human response to death. He then takes Tegan as hostage and forces her and the Doctor back to the TARDIS along with his second-in-command. Adric is left with the Captain and Lt. Berger.
Observing the Cybermen evacuating the ship, Lt. Scott and his remaining men storm the bridge, killing the two guards. Adric and Berger immediately start working to override the circuits to prevent the ship from crashing into Earth. Scott's men set up a defense against the remaining Cyberman patrols. On the TARDIS, the Cyberleader orders his second to search to ensure there is no other crew. He then orders take-off to observe the crash.
Scott's men hold off the attacking Cybermen, although several are killed doing so. Adric and Berger's efforts begin to succeed and the interference at warp causes a time jump. The ship pulsates towards 65 million years ago. However, it is unstable and the Doctor cannot land the TARDIS on the ship. Unaware of the full extent of the time jump, Captain Briggs order the evacuation of the ship. With two locks down and one to go, Adric leaps off the escape pod at the last minute to try and save the ship.
Angry at the failure of the plan, the Cyberleader prepares to shoot the Doctor but the Doctor crushes the gold fragments of Adric's mathematical badge (that he had given him earlier) into the intake of the Cyberleader. The gold fragments interfere with his system and he shoots wildly, damaging the TARDIS console. The Doctor grabs his gun and shoots him in the chest, killing him.
Having been radioed by Lt. Scott that Adric is still on board, the Doctor tries to manipulate the TARDIS to get on board. However, the console is damaged and the other Cyberman appears, attracted by the shooting. Nyssa guns him down but it is a further loss of time.
On the cargo ship, Adric has nearly deactivated the last lock when a wounded Cyberman appears. It shoots the console and then collapses. Now, unable to steer the ship Adric can only watch the viewscreen as Earth approaches.
On the TARDIS, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa can only watch as the ship enters the atmosphere and explodes, killing Adric and wiping out the dinosaurs. Nyssa and Tegan hug each other crying as the Doctor looks down to Adric's crushed badge.
Analysis
It's actually a shame that Adric dies at the end of this story; not that I miss Adric as I've always felt the Fifth Doctor had too many companions and Matthew Waterhouse is not that best actor. But the big shock ending of Adric's death overshadows a really good story involving the Cybermen. It's even worse when you consider that Adric is ultimately killed by his own stupidity. Granted, he may not have been aware of how far back in time they had gone, but his insistence on continuing to try and save the ship got him killed.
But, leaving aside Adric's death, this is an excellent story. It is probably the most competent and terrorizing the Cybermen have ever actually been. Yes, they were probably a bit scarier at the end of Episode Two of The Tomb of the Cybermen but they are far more cunning and ruthless here. The Cyberleader makes an excellent adversary as he is not entirely devoid of emotions. He is coldly logical, but there is a sadistic relish in him to see not only the plan succeed but also to see the Doctor fail. The Cyberleader even has a valid reason to keep the Doctor alive while on the cargo ship as he would lack the time and expertise to fly the TARDIS off the cargo ship. Once off, he would have presumably killed the Doctor and his companions on the mission was successful, rendering him even with a further degree of maliciousness.
The pacing, direction, and lighting of this story was also excellent. Each episode built on the previous one with a good amount of tension and the constant use of darkness built on that tension. It also hid any deficiencies that might have been otherwise found. That is actually a significant change as one of the principle complaints about the Fifth Doctor era is how poorly lit many of the stories are, rendering the monsters ridiculous looking.
The acting was stellar in this. Sad to say, it was because again the companions were minimized. Adric of course got screen time and he did fairly well. Tegan was actually quite good in her few scenes; the lesson there being to give her more action oriented moments rather than just standing and reacting. I enjoyed the cargo ship crew, especially the Captain, who was a real salty, ball-crushing bitch. She was both believable and enjoyable in her interactions with the crew and Doctor. She took a backseat as the Cybermen took over, but she still had a good line or two towards the end.
The only acting weak links were Nyssa and Professor Kyle. Kyle wasn't bad at the beginning but she didn't say or do much. However, when paired with Nyssa in observation on the TARDIS, Nyssa's blandness seemed to rub off on her. Nyssa also didn't register much, even in tense scenes where the Cybermen are trying to break into the TARDIS and Kyle is killed. She keeps the dead-eyed look and fails to modulate her voice in any significant way that would register much emotion. It was just the same level only modulated in volume here and there.
Evaluating the Cyberman story on it's own, the first 3.75 episodes merit a 5 easily. But the whole story must be looked at and that includes the last five minutes which are almost completely given over to Adric's death. Here is where the problems crop up and they are multiple.
I've already mentioned how Adric more or less killed himself by not getting on the escape ship and that is a mild annoyance to begin with. I can imagine that in his first treatment of the story, Eric Saward either kept Adric on the escape pod or he himself crushed his badge into the Cyberleader, allowing the Doctor to grab the gun and shoot him. However, when word came down that Adric was being killed off, a quick rewrite put him here. It's not bad writing, but it emphasizes some of Adric's flaws, undoing some of the more noble and soft moments he had in the earlier part of the story.
The second problem is that with escape of all the secondary characters, tension and reaction are being driven by the Doctor and his three companions. The Doctor is fine and Adric isn't too bad either, but Nyssa and Tegan are terrible. Tegan goes way over the top and Nyssa tries but still comes across as somewhat uninterested, even when shouting Adric's name as the freighter explodes. It gets worse when Nyssa and Tegan hug for comfort and Sarah Sutton hides her face because she is actually laughing, yet you can still sort of see it. The acting chops required are insufficient to carry off the emotional depth required of the scene. The Doctor's stunned silence is about the only believable reaction in the bunch.
Not quite tied to Adric's death, but necessary to ensure it is the action scene just before where the Cyberleader and his lieutenant are taken out. The Cyberleader scene is pretty good, with Tegan assisting the Doctor in attacking the Cyberleader before the Doctor shoots him down. However, when the lieutenant comes back in, he walks slowly up behind the Doctor, gun poised, but still waits for Nyssa to see him, let her grab the gun and shoot him before he does anything. The fault there lies in the direction but it is so clumsy and unbelievable that it just ruins the tension they are trying to build. If he had gotten a shot off at the Doctor, leaving Nyssa free to grab the gun because she was a lower priority, that would have made sense. But the scene as is is just clumsy.
Despite my disappointment with the wrap up, it doesn't hurt the overall story in a significant way. The base story is still very good and I wouldn't hesitate to watch this one a second time around. I just wish it could be enjoyed without taking on all the baggage of being the death story for Adric.
One final aside. If you get a chance to view the version with the updated effects for the crash, I'd watch that. The original has the viewscreen of the cargo ship staring at a globe and then the ship exploding amidst a star field. The updated effects show a cleaner Earth and the ship actually entering the atmosphere as it blows up and it is much less dependent on the viewer using their imagination to understand what happened. It's not overly significant but it does up the appreciation of the final scene.
Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5
The great Adric death story. As so few of the Doctor's companions actually die as a means of departure, this was bound to be impactful (no pun intended) but the fact that Adric seems to be so universally loathed as a character has given his death story an added bit of ironic pleasure to fans. Of course, how does it hold up as an overall story is the primary question I'm concerned with.
Plot Summary
On Earth in the mid-26th century, a group of soldiers is investigating an attack on a scientific expedition in an underground cave system. After setting up sensors on the surface, the soldiers head down with the sole escapee, Professor Kyle.
On the TARDIS, Adric argues with the Doctor as he wants to return home. The Doctor argues against him as he doesn't know if he can return to E-space. The TARDIS materializes in the cave system being explored by the soldiers and the Doctor storms out of the TARDIS to cool off. Nyssa encourages Adric to do the calculations while she and Tegan talk to the Doctor. If Adric has the formulae, it will be easier to persuade him.
The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are picked up by the surface scanners and the soldiers head towards them. However, one soldier falls and dislocates her shoulder she is sent back and one soldier from the surface heads down to assist them. All three are waylaid by two androids and killed, which show up on the surface scanner as momentary flashes, although the androids themselves are not visible.
In the caves, the Doctor cools down a bit and Nyssa and Tegan further distract him by examining a group of dinosaur fossils embedded in the cave wall. The three wander into the central cavern where the excavations were taking place. The soldiers come and arrest them while also sending a second squad to look for the missing soldiers. That squad is also killed by the androids. Lieutenant Scott forces the Doctor to dig through a rock pile where a small, metal door is uncovered. This activity attracts the androids who attack the soldiers. The soldiers take cover and fire back. The Doctor directs the soldiers fire and the androids withdraw as they're self-preservation instinct kicks in.
Adric, noting some commotion outside the TARDIS goes to investigate and sees the androids. The Doctor also sees him and directs the soldiers to fire at the door. The androids, controlled by the Cybermen, are ordered to defend the door. Adric distracts one with a thrown rock and the soldiers destroy it. The second one is also gunned down. With their defense compromised, the Cybermen activate the bomb behind the door. Discovering it, the Doctor orders Nyssa and Tegan to get everyone into the TARDIS. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to temporarily block the signal to the bomb. The Cybermen are able to override the block but it buys the Doctor enough time to defuse the bomb.
The Doctor traces the signal to a cargo ship approaching Earth, having just left a space docking station. He lands the TARDIS in the hold and looks for the crew. At the same time, a security patrol is wandering around as three crew members have recently disappeared. Also wandering around is Lt. Ringway, investigating a broken security camera. The Doctor and Adric hear screams and find the two security members dead. Ringway find them and takes them to the bridge to be interrogated by the Captain.
On the bridge, Captain Briggs interrogates the Doctor and Adric who maintain their innocence and tell the captain about the bomb. Before she can make up her mind about hauling them off to the brig, the Cybermen awaken a group of dormant Cybermen and proceed towards the bridge. The bridge is alerted to the power drain and they see the Cybermen on the monitors. The crew set up defensive positions to hold the Cybermen back.
Nyssa also registers the power surge. Lt. Scott opts to lead his men out of the TARDIS to investigate. Tegan takes Professor Kyle's overalls and heads out with them. The Cybermen overrun the crew's positions, taking no casualties as the crew's guns have minimal effect. Ridgeway turns on the Captain as he is a Cyberman agent. He is disarmed though when distracted by Adric and the Doctor seals the bridge.
Lt. Scott's squad find two Cybermen and concentrate their fire. Both are wounded with one escaping. Tegan rushes up, seizes the other wounded Cyberman's gun and kills him. The Doctor sets up a defense that kills one Cyberman but the others break through. Observing the Cyberman wounded by the soldiers, the Cyberleader concludes Ridgeway lied to them about the number of people on board and kills him. The Cyberleader then orders the activation of more Cybermen as they approach Earth.
Separated from Tegan, Lt. Scott orders his men back to the TARDIS. As they enter, one is killed by two attacking Cybermen. Scott and his men kill the two Cybermen but not before they fire a shot that kills Professor Kyle. Tegan meanwhile is captured and taken to the bridge.
On the bridge, the Cybermen install controls to ensure the cargo ship will crash with Earth and warp velocity. There is currently a conference between multiple planets to ally against the Cybermen taking place. The original plan had been to detonate the bomb but with the Doctor's defusing of the bomb, the devastation wrought be the crashing ship would be enough to destroy the delegation. With the device installed, the Cyberleader orders his men to evacuate the ship where they will be picked up the Cyberfleet. Two guards and a small squad are left to ensure no complications and to observe the human response to death. He then takes Tegan as hostage and forces her and the Doctor back to the TARDIS along with his second-in-command. Adric is left with the Captain and Lt. Berger.
Observing the Cybermen evacuating the ship, Lt. Scott and his remaining men storm the bridge, killing the two guards. Adric and Berger immediately start working to override the circuits to prevent the ship from crashing into Earth. Scott's men set up a defense against the remaining Cyberman patrols. On the TARDIS, the Cyberleader orders his second to search to ensure there is no other crew. He then orders take-off to observe the crash.
Scott's men hold off the attacking Cybermen, although several are killed doing so. Adric and Berger's efforts begin to succeed and the interference at warp causes a time jump. The ship pulsates towards 65 million years ago. However, it is unstable and the Doctor cannot land the TARDIS on the ship. Unaware of the full extent of the time jump, Captain Briggs order the evacuation of the ship. With two locks down and one to go, Adric leaps off the escape pod at the last minute to try and save the ship.
Angry at the failure of the plan, the Cyberleader prepares to shoot the Doctor but the Doctor crushes the gold fragments of Adric's mathematical badge (that he had given him earlier) into the intake of the Cyberleader. The gold fragments interfere with his system and he shoots wildly, damaging the TARDIS console. The Doctor grabs his gun and shoots him in the chest, killing him.
Having been radioed by Lt. Scott that Adric is still on board, the Doctor tries to manipulate the TARDIS to get on board. However, the console is damaged and the other Cyberman appears, attracted by the shooting. Nyssa guns him down but it is a further loss of time.
On the cargo ship, Adric has nearly deactivated the last lock when a wounded Cyberman appears. It shoots the console and then collapses. Now, unable to steer the ship Adric can only watch the viewscreen as Earth approaches.
On the TARDIS, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa can only watch as the ship enters the atmosphere and explodes, killing Adric and wiping out the dinosaurs. Nyssa and Tegan hug each other crying as the Doctor looks down to Adric's crushed badge.
Analysis
It's actually a shame that Adric dies at the end of this story; not that I miss Adric as I've always felt the Fifth Doctor had too many companions and Matthew Waterhouse is not that best actor. But the big shock ending of Adric's death overshadows a really good story involving the Cybermen. It's even worse when you consider that Adric is ultimately killed by his own stupidity. Granted, he may not have been aware of how far back in time they had gone, but his insistence on continuing to try and save the ship got him killed.
But, leaving aside Adric's death, this is an excellent story. It is probably the most competent and terrorizing the Cybermen have ever actually been. Yes, they were probably a bit scarier at the end of Episode Two of The Tomb of the Cybermen but they are far more cunning and ruthless here. The Cyberleader makes an excellent adversary as he is not entirely devoid of emotions. He is coldly logical, but there is a sadistic relish in him to see not only the plan succeed but also to see the Doctor fail. The Cyberleader even has a valid reason to keep the Doctor alive while on the cargo ship as he would lack the time and expertise to fly the TARDIS off the cargo ship. Once off, he would have presumably killed the Doctor and his companions on the mission was successful, rendering him even with a further degree of maliciousness.
The pacing, direction, and lighting of this story was also excellent. Each episode built on the previous one with a good amount of tension and the constant use of darkness built on that tension. It also hid any deficiencies that might have been otherwise found. That is actually a significant change as one of the principle complaints about the Fifth Doctor era is how poorly lit many of the stories are, rendering the monsters ridiculous looking.
The acting was stellar in this. Sad to say, it was because again the companions were minimized. Adric of course got screen time and he did fairly well. Tegan was actually quite good in her few scenes; the lesson there being to give her more action oriented moments rather than just standing and reacting. I enjoyed the cargo ship crew, especially the Captain, who was a real salty, ball-crushing bitch. She was both believable and enjoyable in her interactions with the crew and Doctor. She took a backseat as the Cybermen took over, but she still had a good line or two towards the end.
The only acting weak links were Nyssa and Professor Kyle. Kyle wasn't bad at the beginning but she didn't say or do much. However, when paired with Nyssa in observation on the TARDIS, Nyssa's blandness seemed to rub off on her. Nyssa also didn't register much, even in tense scenes where the Cybermen are trying to break into the TARDIS and Kyle is killed. She keeps the dead-eyed look and fails to modulate her voice in any significant way that would register much emotion. It was just the same level only modulated in volume here and there.
Evaluating the Cyberman story on it's own, the first 3.75 episodes merit a 5 easily. But the whole story must be looked at and that includes the last five minutes which are almost completely given over to Adric's death. Here is where the problems crop up and they are multiple.
I've already mentioned how Adric more or less killed himself by not getting on the escape ship and that is a mild annoyance to begin with. I can imagine that in his first treatment of the story, Eric Saward either kept Adric on the escape pod or he himself crushed his badge into the Cyberleader, allowing the Doctor to grab the gun and shoot him. However, when word came down that Adric was being killed off, a quick rewrite put him here. It's not bad writing, but it emphasizes some of Adric's flaws, undoing some of the more noble and soft moments he had in the earlier part of the story.
The second problem is that with escape of all the secondary characters, tension and reaction are being driven by the Doctor and his three companions. The Doctor is fine and Adric isn't too bad either, but Nyssa and Tegan are terrible. Tegan goes way over the top and Nyssa tries but still comes across as somewhat uninterested, even when shouting Adric's name as the freighter explodes. It gets worse when Nyssa and Tegan hug for comfort and Sarah Sutton hides her face because she is actually laughing, yet you can still sort of see it. The acting chops required are insufficient to carry off the emotional depth required of the scene. The Doctor's stunned silence is about the only believable reaction in the bunch.
Not quite tied to Adric's death, but necessary to ensure it is the action scene just before where the Cyberleader and his lieutenant are taken out. The Cyberleader scene is pretty good, with Tegan assisting the Doctor in attacking the Cyberleader before the Doctor shoots him down. However, when the lieutenant comes back in, he walks slowly up behind the Doctor, gun poised, but still waits for Nyssa to see him, let her grab the gun and shoot him before he does anything. The fault there lies in the direction but it is so clumsy and unbelievable that it just ruins the tension they are trying to build. If he had gotten a shot off at the Doctor, leaving Nyssa free to grab the gun because she was a lower priority, that would have made sense. But the scene as is is just clumsy.
Despite my disappointment with the wrap up, it doesn't hurt the overall story in a significant way. The base story is still very good and I wouldn't hesitate to watch this one a second time around. I just wish it could be enjoyed without taking on all the baggage of being the death story for Adric.
One final aside. If you get a chance to view the version with the updated effects for the crash, I'd watch that. The original has the viewscreen of the cargo ship staring at a globe and then the ship exploding amidst a star field. The updated effects show a cleaner Earth and the ship actually entering the atmosphere as it blows up and it is much less dependent on the viewer using their imagination to understand what happened. It's not overly significant but it does up the appreciation of the final scene.
Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Let's Kill Hitler
Welcome. You will feel a tingling sensation; then death.
An advantage to being somewhat late to the party of Doctor Who fandom is to have avoided some of the frustrations of the past. Let's Kill Hitler brought Series Six back from a summer hiatus and for many folks it was a bit of a disappointment. The episode is an out and out, slightly bawdy comedy that tries to get a little poignancy in the end. If it had aired immediately after A Good Man Goes to War, it might have been received a bit better as it's lighter tone does provide a bit of a lift after the darker ending in the prior story.
Plot Summary
The Doctor arrives at a crop circle created by Amy and Rory to summon him. They are hoping to get an update on the Doctor's quest for Melody when their old friend Mels arrives in a stolen car. Mels had grown up as Amy's best friend and was privy to all the tales about the Doctor. She then pulls a gun on the Doctor and demands a getaway in the TARDIS.
Mels fires the gun, whilst taking off causing the TARDIS to spin out of control. They crash land into Adolf Hitler's office in 1938, inadvertently saving his life from the Teselecta, a justice machine run by a miniaturized crew. The Teselecta had been commissioned to kill Hitler shortly before his death in 1945 but had gotten the year wrong. Emerging from the TARDIS, the Doctor, Amy, Rory and Mels realize where they are when Hitler thanks them for saving his life.
Seeing the Teselecta, still disguised as a German officer, rise, Hitler pulls a gun and shoot at it. The Doctor disarms him and has Rory lock him in the closet. The Teselecta is undamaged but pretends to faint to go into observation mode. Mels on the other hand is hit. Knowing that she is dying, she reveals that she is actually Melody Pond, having escaped and regenerated in 1970. She then regenerates into River Song, although she is unaware of that name yet. Her regeneration confirms her identity to the Teselecta crew who shift priorities to capture and kill River for the murder of the Doctor.
River's conditioning by the Silence kicks in and she makes several attempts to shoot the Doctor before kissing him with a poisoned lipstick. Realizing the problem, he sends Rory and Amy after her while he crawls into the TARDIS. River steals a motorcycle and several guns and heads into downtown Berlin to grab some new clothing. Amy and Rory follow her as does the Teselecta. They catch up to River in a restaurant where she has stolen the cloths of all the patrons and is now trying them on. The Teselecta transforms into Amy and then miniaturizes Amy and Rory, placing them inside the machine.
In the TARDIS, the Doctor activates the visual interface in the form of Amelia Pond. He gains enough pain relief to be able to transport the TARDIS to River's location. Upon arriving, he finds the Teselecta having frozen River and preparing to execute her. He tries to stop them but the poison saps his strength. He urges Amy to stop them as they begin to kill River though maximum application of pain.
Amy uses the sonic screwdriver, which the Doctor had given her before chasing River to begin with, to deactivate the safety devices for the crew. The Teselecta's antibody probes then move to attack the crew, forcing the captain to order the immediate beam out of the crew to the mother ship in orbit. However, this leaves Amy and Rory at the antibodies mercy.
Amy calls out for the Doctor's help but he is too weak to do anything. He begs River to help them and moved by his compassion to keep helping others as he dies, she takes the TARDIS and the TARDIS walks her through how to fly it. She materializes the TARDIS around Amy and Rory in the Teselecta and then back outside.
As the Doctor's life ebbs away, he calls for River and asks her to deliver a message to River Song. She is moved by his words and asks Amy who River is. Amy orders the Teselecta to show River Song and River sees her own face mirrored by the machine. Realizing what she means to the Doctor and vice versa, River uses her remaining regenerations to heal the Doctor from the poison.
The Doctor delivers a weakened River to a hospital in the future, leaving her an empty diary. He, Amy and Rory then leave knowing that it is too dangerous to have her come with them as they know too much about her future. They set off for new adventures while the Doctor buries the fact that he accessed the Teselecta database to learn of his own death at Lake Silencio. River meanwhile, recovers and enrolls in a university program to become an archeologist.
Analysis
In addition to the overall tone of the story, I think a lot of people's animosity towards this story stemmed from the retconing of Mel as a friend so significant that Melody was named after her and yet had never been seen or mentioned before. The retconing is a bit ham handed and given the way Steven Moffat had fairly deftly included references to future events in past stories, it seemed even more hackneyed.
There is also the small matter of discontinuity in that Melody is last shown regenerating in 1970 New York, yet is shown growing up in Leadworth in the mid-90's, nearly unaged. This is rather sloppy writing and requires the use of individual head cannon (such as an older River transporting her younger self across time and space using the vortex manipulator) to solve such a major plot hole.
But, aside from that, it's not a bad episode. It's funny in it's casual undercutting of Adolf Hitler and reducing him to an ineffective clown that is dispensed with in the first ten minutes. There is also nice bit-play between the Doctor and the psychotic River as she tries to kill him.
I also enjoyed the Teselecta and the concept of dispensing vengeance just before the natural end of a person. The somewhat sloppy controls of the Teselecta and the problems the crew seem to have with piloting the machine give an extra semblance of realism to it.
All that being said, the episode also pours on the treacle at the end. It's a little hard to believe that the somewhat psychotic River would be moved enough by the Doctor's words and attempts at action to use regeneration energy to save him. It's moving, but it clashes somewhat with the tone established by the beginning of the episode of a comedy romp. It doesn't bother me in the same way that The Romans' attempt to do it did, but I could see how this could irritate a person.
On the whole, I have no major objections to this story. Is it great? No. Is it a colossal raging disappointment? Also no. It's a good little story, it just doesn't have the depth that people wanted for what should have been such a large payoff. But if you can get past that, it works well as an overall story and I have no problem revisiting it now and again.
Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5
An advantage to being somewhat late to the party of Doctor Who fandom is to have avoided some of the frustrations of the past. Let's Kill Hitler brought Series Six back from a summer hiatus and for many folks it was a bit of a disappointment. The episode is an out and out, slightly bawdy comedy that tries to get a little poignancy in the end. If it had aired immediately after A Good Man Goes to War, it might have been received a bit better as it's lighter tone does provide a bit of a lift after the darker ending in the prior story.
Plot Summary
The Doctor arrives at a crop circle created by Amy and Rory to summon him. They are hoping to get an update on the Doctor's quest for Melody when their old friend Mels arrives in a stolen car. Mels had grown up as Amy's best friend and was privy to all the tales about the Doctor. She then pulls a gun on the Doctor and demands a getaway in the TARDIS.
Mels fires the gun, whilst taking off causing the TARDIS to spin out of control. They crash land into Adolf Hitler's office in 1938, inadvertently saving his life from the Teselecta, a justice machine run by a miniaturized crew. The Teselecta had been commissioned to kill Hitler shortly before his death in 1945 but had gotten the year wrong. Emerging from the TARDIS, the Doctor, Amy, Rory and Mels realize where they are when Hitler thanks them for saving his life.
Seeing the Teselecta, still disguised as a German officer, rise, Hitler pulls a gun and shoot at it. The Doctor disarms him and has Rory lock him in the closet. The Teselecta is undamaged but pretends to faint to go into observation mode. Mels on the other hand is hit. Knowing that she is dying, she reveals that she is actually Melody Pond, having escaped and regenerated in 1970. She then regenerates into River Song, although she is unaware of that name yet. Her regeneration confirms her identity to the Teselecta crew who shift priorities to capture and kill River for the murder of the Doctor.
River's conditioning by the Silence kicks in and she makes several attempts to shoot the Doctor before kissing him with a poisoned lipstick. Realizing the problem, he sends Rory and Amy after her while he crawls into the TARDIS. River steals a motorcycle and several guns and heads into downtown Berlin to grab some new clothing. Amy and Rory follow her as does the Teselecta. They catch up to River in a restaurant where she has stolen the cloths of all the patrons and is now trying them on. The Teselecta transforms into Amy and then miniaturizes Amy and Rory, placing them inside the machine.
In the TARDIS, the Doctor activates the visual interface in the form of Amelia Pond. He gains enough pain relief to be able to transport the TARDIS to River's location. Upon arriving, he finds the Teselecta having frozen River and preparing to execute her. He tries to stop them but the poison saps his strength. He urges Amy to stop them as they begin to kill River though maximum application of pain.
Amy uses the sonic screwdriver, which the Doctor had given her before chasing River to begin with, to deactivate the safety devices for the crew. The Teselecta's antibody probes then move to attack the crew, forcing the captain to order the immediate beam out of the crew to the mother ship in orbit. However, this leaves Amy and Rory at the antibodies mercy.
Amy calls out for the Doctor's help but he is too weak to do anything. He begs River to help them and moved by his compassion to keep helping others as he dies, she takes the TARDIS and the TARDIS walks her through how to fly it. She materializes the TARDIS around Amy and Rory in the Teselecta and then back outside.
As the Doctor's life ebbs away, he calls for River and asks her to deliver a message to River Song. She is moved by his words and asks Amy who River is. Amy orders the Teselecta to show River Song and River sees her own face mirrored by the machine. Realizing what she means to the Doctor and vice versa, River uses her remaining regenerations to heal the Doctor from the poison.
The Doctor delivers a weakened River to a hospital in the future, leaving her an empty diary. He, Amy and Rory then leave knowing that it is too dangerous to have her come with them as they know too much about her future. They set off for new adventures while the Doctor buries the fact that he accessed the Teselecta database to learn of his own death at Lake Silencio. River meanwhile, recovers and enrolls in a university program to become an archeologist.
Analysis
In addition to the overall tone of the story, I think a lot of people's animosity towards this story stemmed from the retconing of Mel as a friend so significant that Melody was named after her and yet had never been seen or mentioned before. The retconing is a bit ham handed and given the way Steven Moffat had fairly deftly included references to future events in past stories, it seemed even more hackneyed.
There is also the small matter of discontinuity in that Melody is last shown regenerating in 1970 New York, yet is shown growing up in Leadworth in the mid-90's, nearly unaged. This is rather sloppy writing and requires the use of individual head cannon (such as an older River transporting her younger self across time and space using the vortex manipulator) to solve such a major plot hole.
But, aside from that, it's not a bad episode. It's funny in it's casual undercutting of Adolf Hitler and reducing him to an ineffective clown that is dispensed with in the first ten minutes. There is also nice bit-play between the Doctor and the psychotic River as she tries to kill him.
I also enjoyed the Teselecta and the concept of dispensing vengeance just before the natural end of a person. The somewhat sloppy controls of the Teselecta and the problems the crew seem to have with piloting the machine give an extra semblance of realism to it.
All that being said, the episode also pours on the treacle at the end. It's a little hard to believe that the somewhat psychotic River would be moved enough by the Doctor's words and attempts at action to use regeneration energy to save him. It's moving, but it clashes somewhat with the tone established by the beginning of the episode of a comedy romp. It doesn't bother me in the same way that The Romans' attempt to do it did, but I could see how this could irritate a person.
On the whole, I have no major objections to this story. Is it great? No. Is it a colossal raging disappointment? Also no. It's a good little story, it just doesn't have the depth that people wanted for what should have been such a large payoff. But if you can get past that, it works well as an overall story and I have no problem revisiting it now and again.
Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5
Frontier in Space
Good grief. You know you are first person to believe me.
Frontier in Space may not be the best title for this story. The Doctor in Prison would be a more apt title. If you totaled all the time the Doctor and Jo spend outside of a cell or other prison facility, I'm not sure you could total enough time to get a full episode and this story is six episodes. With a rap like that you might think this would be a dull story. However, you would be mistaken.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Jo materialize on a cargo ship in the 26th century where the galaxy is divided between the human and Draconian empires. As the Doctor tries to figure out where and when they are, the ship is hit with a sonic pulse from another ship. The second ship moves to attack the cargo ship, appearing to the two-man crew to be a Draconian warship.
As the second officer goes below to secure the hold, the Doctor tries to introduce himself, but the crewman is convinced he is a Draconian soldier. Jo coming up behind him, sees the officer as a Drashig. The officer tosses the two in the brig while they prepare to be boarded. Meanwhile the Captain sends a distress signal to Earth who in turn dispatch a warship to assist.
In the brig, the Doctor suspects that the sonic pulse is stimulating the fear portion of the brain, causing people to see the thing they fear most. He then sets to use his sonic screwdriver to unbolt the door. He succeeds but the second officer returns and places the Doctor and Jo in front of them to act as human shields. When the ship is boarded, it is Ogrons and not Draconians who stun the crew and the Doctor. Jo is tossed back into the cell as they steal the cargo and the TARDIS.
On Earth, tensions run high as the President confronts the Draconian ambassador about this latest attack. The Draconian denies involvement and points out that humans have been attacking Draconian ships as well. Word of the attacks are leaking out and anti-Draconian sentiment is running high all over the Earth.
The Doctor wakes from being stunned just as the Earth warship arrives. He signals them and lets Jo out of her cell. As the soldiers board, they interrogate the crew. As the crew can't remember, they accuse the Doctor and Jo of being stowaways and agents of the Draconians. The soldiers then arrest the Doctor and Jo.
The Doctor and Jo are transported back to Earth but no one believes their tale. General Williams firmly believes they are spies and his paranoia convinces the President as well. The Doctor and Jo are brought before the President and the Draconian ambassador but the Doctor maintains his innocence causing the Draconian ambassador to sneer at their story.
The ambassador is worried though of a greater plot. He agrees to let one of his aides arrange an escape for the Doctor and Jo, although only the Doctor is retrieved and brought back to the embassy. The Draconians are convinced that the Doctor is a plant by General Williams to start a war. The Doctor maintains his story that a third party is behind this. When the Draconians threaten to probe his mind, the Doctor escapes but is immediately captured by the humans.
Arriving back at the prison, Jo greets the Doctor but is distracted by a sonic pulse similar to the one on the cargo ship. A squad of Ogrons attack the prison, appearing to the guards as Draconians. They get the Doctor and Jo out of their cell but are gunned down as they try to leave the prison.
Believing the attack to be the work of the Draconians, the ambassador is expelled from Earth and the Doctor is subjected to a mind probe by General Williams. The Doctor continues to tell the truth although the General refuses to believe it. In the face of this failure, the Doctor is sent to the penal colony on the moon which is a home for political prisoners, while Jo is left on Earth.
Shortly after the Doctor is dispatched, the President receives an extradition request from the representative of the Earth colony on Sirius 4, which has dominion status. The representative, which turns out to be the Master, arrives and informs her that the Doctor and Jo are Sirius 4 criminals and are to be sent back to stand trial. The President agrees, over the objections of General Williams, so long as the prisoners are available to be sent back to Earth if needed for information following their conviction. The Master agrees and collects Jo, slyly confirming her accusation that he is behind the Ogron attacks and that he became aware of the Doctor's involvement when the Ogrons brought back the TARDIS in their last raid.
On the lunar prison, the Doctor falls in with a political prisoner named Professor Dale. Professor Dale is planning an escape and elects to take the Doctor with him upon hearing his story. Professor Dale has bribed the shift lackey and the two enter an airlock with two stolen suits. However, the lackey has double-crossed them and the air tanks are empty. He then depressurizes the room. The Doctor bangs on the door trying to get out when they are discovered by the Master who repressurizes the room.
The Master takes custody of the Doctor and places him in a holding cell on his ship with Jo. The Master then prepares to take them back to the Ogron home world. Unbeknownst to the Master, the Doctor has a file chain hidden in his shoe. He uses Jo to distract the Master with banter while he cuts through the door hinge.
Once out, the Doctor puts on a space suit and leaves the ship via an airlock. Shortly after doing so, the Master course corrects the ship, jolting the Doctor off the side. He manages to recover himself and climb through a hatch to the flight deck. The Master checking in on Jo and the Doctor, becomes suspicious when the Doctor doesn't answer despite Jo's cover. He discovers the Doctor's escape and places Jo in the airlock, threatening to blow her into space if the Doctor does not return. The Doctor attacks the Master, briefly disarming him but he is forced to surrender due to the threat to Jo.
Before he can return them to the cage, the ship is boarded by Draconians as they have accidentally flown into Draconian space. The Master tries to have them released but given the icy relations between the two empires, the captain of the battle cruiser elects to take them back to Draconia to stand trial. All three are placed in the holding cell but the Master activates a beacon, signaling their location to his Ogron mercenaries.
The ship lands on Draconia and the Doctor presents his case, also arguing that he is the same Doctor who aided the Draconians five hundred years previously. The Draconians receive a transmission that an Earth ship is asking to land and the Emperor agrees to hear the peace commission. Jo however hears the fear sound wave and alerts the Doctor. Ogrons burst in and rescue the Master but one of their number is knocked out and left behind. As the ship leaves and the sound disappears, the Emperor sees the Ogron as he is and not as the human commandos they all thought they were.
Seeing that the Doctor is telling the truth, the Emperor orders the Ogron be taken to Earth along with the Doctor, Jo and his son as representative of Draconia. As they fly towards Earth, the Ogron ship discovers them and attacks. The attacks allow the captive Ogron to escape and he attacks the Doctor on the bridge, causing the ship to stall in space. The Master elects to send a boarding party to take the Doctor alive. The party takes Jo captive but the Doctor and the Draconian prince hold the Ogrons off.
An Earth battle cruiser approaches and the Master orders retreat back to the Ogron homeworld, taking Jo with them. The Earth battle cruiser takes the Doctor and the Draconian prince back to Earth. The President authorizes an expedition of a single ship to the Ogron homeworld to verify the story. General Williams objects but the Draconian prince exposes him as the cause of the previous war when he fired on an unarmed Draconian battle cruiser twenty years ago. Shamed, General Williams offers to lead the expedition himself.
On the Ogron homeworld, the Master prepares for the Doctor. He attempts to hypnotize Jo but when that fails, he activates his fear device. Jo manages to beat that as well so the Master has her taken to a cell to wait for the Doctor. In the cell, Jo discovers the earth to be soft and uses a soup spoon to begin to dig her way under the bars.
The Doctor, General Williams and the Draconian prince leave Earth and fly towards the Ogron homeworld. They are attacked by a Draconian cruiser but they manage to escape using hyperdrive. The attack forces the Doctor to EVA to make some repairs which are successful and they end up in orbit around the Ogron planet.
Having escaped the cell, Jo finds the Master's fear inducer and pockets it. She then finds a transmitter and calls for help. Her transmission is received by the Doctor who descend to the planet. The Master discovers her and thanks her for participating as he hoped Jo would escape and signal the Doctor. He plants a homing beacon to lure the Doctor further while Jo is taken back to a new cell.
After landing, the Doctor, General Williams, the Draconian prince and a squad of soldiers make their way towards the homing signal. They are ambushed by an Ogron patrol but the patrol is scared off by fearsome creature the Ogrons worship. The party continues until they are captured by the Master, supported by his employers, the Daleks. The Daleks intend the humans and the Draconians to destroy each other in war and they would move in to the vacuum and take over.
The Daleks intend to kill the Doctor but the Master persuades them to keep him alive until after the war is finished so that he can see the loss of all that he loves and then kill him. The Daleks agree and place him in the Master's charge and prepare to leave the Ogron homeworld. The Master intends to double-cross the Daleks at a later opportunity and begins to make his own plans.
In the cell, Jo gives the Doctor the fear inducer she stole. The Doctor modifies it and tricks the Ogron guard into thinking he is a Dalek and unlocks the cell before running off. General Williams and the Draconian prince return to their ship to head back and tell their respective governments what is happening. The Doctor and Jo head to the TARDIS where they are surrounded by the Master and Ogrons. The Doctor activates the fear inducer and the Ogrons flee while he attacks the Master. The Master gets a shot off which wounds the Doctor in the head before running himself. Jo helps the Doctor into the TARDIS and they take off with the Doctor sending a telepathic message to the Time Lords as they do.
Analysis
This is a fairly good story which would have been even more poignant in the Cold War era. Malcolm Hulke was well known for his very left wing political leanings and those come across in this story, although not in a bad way. There is nuance and a lot of character depth especially as this story is allowed to breathe. Yet the breathing does not make the story feel slow in any appreciable manner.
The best parts of the story are the four episodes in the middle. The story starts slow and the acting of the two cargo crew members is less than stellar. Jo's initial reaction to the fear inducer is also a bit over the top and that is a bit grating. However, once they are on Earth and they are fully enmeshed in the political schemes between the humans and the Draconians, things pick up nicely.
The Draconians are quite impressive both in costume and style. They come across better than the humans and given Hulke's leanings, it is easy to see the Russian allusions in the them. Never-the-less, they are not perfect and are shown to be as arrogant and belligerent as the humans.
The military, by contrast, comes across badly in this one. The Earth President starts as somewhat sympathetic to the Doctor but is worn down by political threats to her position by the military in the form of General Williams. But whatever sympathy you might have with her goes away when the Doctor is sent to the lunar colony. It is a bit of a twist as the lunar political prison is akin to the Siberian camps Stalin sent his prisoners off to but the humans are operating in the role of the Western governments, riddled with political corruption and cowed by the military.
It is also interesting to note that even the political prisoners are not given a complete pass. They are the most sympathetic (outside of the Doctor and Jo) but even there one prisoner admits to using violent means of expressing their beliefs. The irony gets laid on thicker in that they are referred to as the "Peace Party."
The Master is at his most charming and surprisingly competent in this story. He comes in as a complete surprise in the middle of Episode Three with no fanfare at all. He just shows up as the representative of Sirius IV and it is only the audience's familiarity with him that lets anyone know that something is up; at least until he collects Jo. He also does very little to screw things up unlike some of his other schemes. He is only thwarted in taking the Doctor back to the Daleks by their capture by the Draconians and then later by the arrival of an Earth warship, neither of which he was in a position to do anything about. Even at the end, he fails because of the Ogrons and not anything he did in particular (although he should have noticed the fear inducer being missing).
As Roger Delgado's last story (he was killed in a car accident three months after filming wrapped), this was an excellent performance on his part. Obviously the team didn't know that it would be his last story or he would have had a more poignant exit that simply fleeing with the Ogrons after shooting at the Doctor. But it does sum up his character in the series: he gets the drop on the Doctor but cannot kill him, mostly due to his own ego, and is then forced to disappear until striking once again.
Aside from the weak opening, the only other significant problem of this story is the very rushed ending. Rushed endings are notable in Doctor Who as I have ranted about before, but this may be the first one that I've heard a proper explanation for. The story goes that Malcolm Hulke came up with the idea of the Daleks being behind the plan to start the Earth-Draconia war and wrote his story accordingly. Terry Nation, who owned the rights to the Daleks, agreed to let Hulke use them in Episode Six but that he would take over the story afterwards. Nation then proceeded to tweak the last five minutes of the story, dismissing most of the characters and allowing him to start on a totally independent Dalek story (Planet of the Daleks), effectively ignoring the previous story.
Still, even if you know the circumstances surrounding it, it doesn't change the disappointment of having such a rushed ending, especially after enjoying the amount of breathing room given to the characters in other stories. Fortunately, the ending is not bad and all the characters continue to act in a manner that is consistent with their earlier characterizations. What probably would have helped would have been to scrap the EVA scene earlier in the story in favor of more detail in the final escape. At the very least, it would have nice to see General Williams and the Draconian prince get back to their ship rather than just see them run out the door. But that is a relatively small quibble on my part.
The production values for this story were pretty good. Everything looks very 70's futuristic but you can't help that. The model work was not bad on the ships and the make-up on the Draconians was excellent. It is a bit of a shame that the Draconians never made a come back in a later story as they were an interesting race. There were a few janky moments, especially with the EVAs as the wires holding the Doctor up were pretty visible. A change in the lighting might have helped there. The recycled footage of the Drashig and the Sea Devil looked a bit off as well, but there you are dealing with the limitations of previous stories so it's somewhat understandable.
I will drop an aside that if you have a thing for opera gloves, this is your story. All the women are wearing them, including the mind probe technician. I can understand the Earth President and members of her staff wearing nice gowns and wearing gloves but why the technician. I would have expected her to be in more of a coveralls type of uniform. There is also a naughty poster on the control room of the cargo ship. A topless woman is lying on her backside with a laser glow where her nipples are. It's the sort of thing you might expect in an actual cargo ship, but I'm very surprised that no one at the BBC busted the show for it given the focus on children.
All-in-all, I liked this one and would watch it readily watch it again. It has it's slow moments and a few other flaws, but nothing that genuinely diminishes my enjoyment. A good story, good acting, and even pretty good effects for the time. It is well worth the watch.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Frontier in Space may not be the best title for this story. The Doctor in Prison would be a more apt title. If you totaled all the time the Doctor and Jo spend outside of a cell or other prison facility, I'm not sure you could total enough time to get a full episode and this story is six episodes. With a rap like that you might think this would be a dull story. However, you would be mistaken.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Jo materialize on a cargo ship in the 26th century where the galaxy is divided between the human and Draconian empires. As the Doctor tries to figure out where and when they are, the ship is hit with a sonic pulse from another ship. The second ship moves to attack the cargo ship, appearing to the two-man crew to be a Draconian warship.
As the second officer goes below to secure the hold, the Doctor tries to introduce himself, but the crewman is convinced he is a Draconian soldier. Jo coming up behind him, sees the officer as a Drashig. The officer tosses the two in the brig while they prepare to be boarded. Meanwhile the Captain sends a distress signal to Earth who in turn dispatch a warship to assist.
In the brig, the Doctor suspects that the sonic pulse is stimulating the fear portion of the brain, causing people to see the thing they fear most. He then sets to use his sonic screwdriver to unbolt the door. He succeeds but the second officer returns and places the Doctor and Jo in front of them to act as human shields. When the ship is boarded, it is Ogrons and not Draconians who stun the crew and the Doctor. Jo is tossed back into the cell as they steal the cargo and the TARDIS.
On Earth, tensions run high as the President confronts the Draconian ambassador about this latest attack. The Draconian denies involvement and points out that humans have been attacking Draconian ships as well. Word of the attacks are leaking out and anti-Draconian sentiment is running high all over the Earth.
The Doctor wakes from being stunned just as the Earth warship arrives. He signals them and lets Jo out of her cell. As the soldiers board, they interrogate the crew. As the crew can't remember, they accuse the Doctor and Jo of being stowaways and agents of the Draconians. The soldiers then arrest the Doctor and Jo.
The Doctor and Jo are transported back to Earth but no one believes their tale. General Williams firmly believes they are spies and his paranoia convinces the President as well. The Doctor and Jo are brought before the President and the Draconian ambassador but the Doctor maintains his innocence causing the Draconian ambassador to sneer at their story.
The ambassador is worried though of a greater plot. He agrees to let one of his aides arrange an escape for the Doctor and Jo, although only the Doctor is retrieved and brought back to the embassy. The Draconians are convinced that the Doctor is a plant by General Williams to start a war. The Doctor maintains his story that a third party is behind this. When the Draconians threaten to probe his mind, the Doctor escapes but is immediately captured by the humans.
Arriving back at the prison, Jo greets the Doctor but is distracted by a sonic pulse similar to the one on the cargo ship. A squad of Ogrons attack the prison, appearing to the guards as Draconians. They get the Doctor and Jo out of their cell but are gunned down as they try to leave the prison.
Believing the attack to be the work of the Draconians, the ambassador is expelled from Earth and the Doctor is subjected to a mind probe by General Williams. The Doctor continues to tell the truth although the General refuses to believe it. In the face of this failure, the Doctor is sent to the penal colony on the moon which is a home for political prisoners, while Jo is left on Earth.
Shortly after the Doctor is dispatched, the President receives an extradition request from the representative of the Earth colony on Sirius 4, which has dominion status. The representative, which turns out to be the Master, arrives and informs her that the Doctor and Jo are Sirius 4 criminals and are to be sent back to stand trial. The President agrees, over the objections of General Williams, so long as the prisoners are available to be sent back to Earth if needed for information following their conviction. The Master agrees and collects Jo, slyly confirming her accusation that he is behind the Ogron attacks and that he became aware of the Doctor's involvement when the Ogrons brought back the TARDIS in their last raid.
On the lunar prison, the Doctor falls in with a political prisoner named Professor Dale. Professor Dale is planning an escape and elects to take the Doctor with him upon hearing his story. Professor Dale has bribed the shift lackey and the two enter an airlock with two stolen suits. However, the lackey has double-crossed them and the air tanks are empty. He then depressurizes the room. The Doctor bangs on the door trying to get out when they are discovered by the Master who repressurizes the room.
The Master takes custody of the Doctor and places him in a holding cell on his ship with Jo. The Master then prepares to take them back to the Ogron home world. Unbeknownst to the Master, the Doctor has a file chain hidden in his shoe. He uses Jo to distract the Master with banter while he cuts through the door hinge.
Once out, the Doctor puts on a space suit and leaves the ship via an airlock. Shortly after doing so, the Master course corrects the ship, jolting the Doctor off the side. He manages to recover himself and climb through a hatch to the flight deck. The Master checking in on Jo and the Doctor, becomes suspicious when the Doctor doesn't answer despite Jo's cover. He discovers the Doctor's escape and places Jo in the airlock, threatening to blow her into space if the Doctor does not return. The Doctor attacks the Master, briefly disarming him but he is forced to surrender due to the threat to Jo.
Before he can return them to the cage, the ship is boarded by Draconians as they have accidentally flown into Draconian space. The Master tries to have them released but given the icy relations between the two empires, the captain of the battle cruiser elects to take them back to Draconia to stand trial. All three are placed in the holding cell but the Master activates a beacon, signaling their location to his Ogron mercenaries.
The ship lands on Draconia and the Doctor presents his case, also arguing that he is the same Doctor who aided the Draconians five hundred years previously. The Draconians receive a transmission that an Earth ship is asking to land and the Emperor agrees to hear the peace commission. Jo however hears the fear sound wave and alerts the Doctor. Ogrons burst in and rescue the Master but one of their number is knocked out and left behind. As the ship leaves and the sound disappears, the Emperor sees the Ogron as he is and not as the human commandos they all thought they were.
Seeing that the Doctor is telling the truth, the Emperor orders the Ogron be taken to Earth along with the Doctor, Jo and his son as representative of Draconia. As they fly towards Earth, the Ogron ship discovers them and attacks. The attacks allow the captive Ogron to escape and he attacks the Doctor on the bridge, causing the ship to stall in space. The Master elects to send a boarding party to take the Doctor alive. The party takes Jo captive but the Doctor and the Draconian prince hold the Ogrons off.
An Earth battle cruiser approaches and the Master orders retreat back to the Ogron homeworld, taking Jo with them. The Earth battle cruiser takes the Doctor and the Draconian prince back to Earth. The President authorizes an expedition of a single ship to the Ogron homeworld to verify the story. General Williams objects but the Draconian prince exposes him as the cause of the previous war when he fired on an unarmed Draconian battle cruiser twenty years ago. Shamed, General Williams offers to lead the expedition himself.
On the Ogron homeworld, the Master prepares for the Doctor. He attempts to hypnotize Jo but when that fails, he activates his fear device. Jo manages to beat that as well so the Master has her taken to a cell to wait for the Doctor. In the cell, Jo discovers the earth to be soft and uses a soup spoon to begin to dig her way under the bars.
The Doctor, General Williams and the Draconian prince leave Earth and fly towards the Ogron homeworld. They are attacked by a Draconian cruiser but they manage to escape using hyperdrive. The attack forces the Doctor to EVA to make some repairs which are successful and they end up in orbit around the Ogron planet.
Having escaped the cell, Jo finds the Master's fear inducer and pockets it. She then finds a transmitter and calls for help. Her transmission is received by the Doctor who descend to the planet. The Master discovers her and thanks her for participating as he hoped Jo would escape and signal the Doctor. He plants a homing beacon to lure the Doctor further while Jo is taken back to a new cell.
After landing, the Doctor, General Williams, the Draconian prince and a squad of soldiers make their way towards the homing signal. They are ambushed by an Ogron patrol but the patrol is scared off by fearsome creature the Ogrons worship. The party continues until they are captured by the Master, supported by his employers, the Daleks. The Daleks intend the humans and the Draconians to destroy each other in war and they would move in to the vacuum and take over.
The Daleks intend to kill the Doctor but the Master persuades them to keep him alive until after the war is finished so that he can see the loss of all that he loves and then kill him. The Daleks agree and place him in the Master's charge and prepare to leave the Ogron homeworld. The Master intends to double-cross the Daleks at a later opportunity and begins to make his own plans.
In the cell, Jo gives the Doctor the fear inducer she stole. The Doctor modifies it and tricks the Ogron guard into thinking he is a Dalek and unlocks the cell before running off. General Williams and the Draconian prince return to their ship to head back and tell their respective governments what is happening. The Doctor and Jo head to the TARDIS where they are surrounded by the Master and Ogrons. The Doctor activates the fear inducer and the Ogrons flee while he attacks the Master. The Master gets a shot off which wounds the Doctor in the head before running himself. Jo helps the Doctor into the TARDIS and they take off with the Doctor sending a telepathic message to the Time Lords as they do.
Analysis
This is a fairly good story which would have been even more poignant in the Cold War era. Malcolm Hulke was well known for his very left wing political leanings and those come across in this story, although not in a bad way. There is nuance and a lot of character depth especially as this story is allowed to breathe. Yet the breathing does not make the story feel slow in any appreciable manner.
The best parts of the story are the four episodes in the middle. The story starts slow and the acting of the two cargo crew members is less than stellar. Jo's initial reaction to the fear inducer is also a bit over the top and that is a bit grating. However, once they are on Earth and they are fully enmeshed in the political schemes between the humans and the Draconians, things pick up nicely.
The Draconians are quite impressive both in costume and style. They come across better than the humans and given Hulke's leanings, it is easy to see the Russian allusions in the them. Never-the-less, they are not perfect and are shown to be as arrogant and belligerent as the humans.
The military, by contrast, comes across badly in this one. The Earth President starts as somewhat sympathetic to the Doctor but is worn down by political threats to her position by the military in the form of General Williams. But whatever sympathy you might have with her goes away when the Doctor is sent to the lunar colony. It is a bit of a twist as the lunar political prison is akin to the Siberian camps Stalin sent his prisoners off to but the humans are operating in the role of the Western governments, riddled with political corruption and cowed by the military.
It is also interesting to note that even the political prisoners are not given a complete pass. They are the most sympathetic (outside of the Doctor and Jo) but even there one prisoner admits to using violent means of expressing their beliefs. The irony gets laid on thicker in that they are referred to as the "Peace Party."
The Master is at his most charming and surprisingly competent in this story. He comes in as a complete surprise in the middle of Episode Three with no fanfare at all. He just shows up as the representative of Sirius IV and it is only the audience's familiarity with him that lets anyone know that something is up; at least until he collects Jo. He also does very little to screw things up unlike some of his other schemes. He is only thwarted in taking the Doctor back to the Daleks by their capture by the Draconians and then later by the arrival of an Earth warship, neither of which he was in a position to do anything about. Even at the end, he fails because of the Ogrons and not anything he did in particular (although he should have noticed the fear inducer being missing).
As Roger Delgado's last story (he was killed in a car accident three months after filming wrapped), this was an excellent performance on his part. Obviously the team didn't know that it would be his last story or he would have had a more poignant exit that simply fleeing with the Ogrons after shooting at the Doctor. But it does sum up his character in the series: he gets the drop on the Doctor but cannot kill him, mostly due to his own ego, and is then forced to disappear until striking once again.
Aside from the weak opening, the only other significant problem of this story is the very rushed ending. Rushed endings are notable in Doctor Who as I have ranted about before, but this may be the first one that I've heard a proper explanation for. The story goes that Malcolm Hulke came up with the idea of the Daleks being behind the plan to start the Earth-Draconia war and wrote his story accordingly. Terry Nation, who owned the rights to the Daleks, agreed to let Hulke use them in Episode Six but that he would take over the story afterwards. Nation then proceeded to tweak the last five minutes of the story, dismissing most of the characters and allowing him to start on a totally independent Dalek story (Planet of the Daleks), effectively ignoring the previous story.
Still, even if you know the circumstances surrounding it, it doesn't change the disappointment of having such a rushed ending, especially after enjoying the amount of breathing room given to the characters in other stories. Fortunately, the ending is not bad and all the characters continue to act in a manner that is consistent with their earlier characterizations. What probably would have helped would have been to scrap the EVA scene earlier in the story in favor of more detail in the final escape. At the very least, it would have nice to see General Williams and the Draconian prince get back to their ship rather than just see them run out the door. But that is a relatively small quibble on my part.
The production values for this story were pretty good. Everything looks very 70's futuristic but you can't help that. The model work was not bad on the ships and the make-up on the Draconians was excellent. It is a bit of a shame that the Draconians never made a come back in a later story as they were an interesting race. There were a few janky moments, especially with the EVAs as the wires holding the Doctor up were pretty visible. A change in the lighting might have helped there. The recycled footage of the Drashig and the Sea Devil looked a bit off as well, but there you are dealing with the limitations of previous stories so it's somewhat understandable.
I will drop an aside that if you have a thing for opera gloves, this is your story. All the women are wearing them, including the mind probe technician. I can understand the Earth President and members of her staff wearing nice gowns and wearing gloves but why the technician. I would have expected her to be in more of a coveralls type of uniform. There is also a naughty poster on the control room of the cargo ship. A topless woman is lying on her backside with a laser glow where her nipples are. It's the sort of thing you might expect in an actual cargo ship, but I'm very surprised that no one at the BBC busted the show for it given the focus on children.
All-in-all, I liked this one and would watch it readily watch it again. It has it's slow moments and a few other flaws, but nothing that genuinely diminishes my enjoyment. A good story, good acting, and even pretty good effects for the time. It is well worth the watch.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Fury From the Deep
I was fond of her too you know Jamie
A grand bit of thanks must be given to the Australian censors regarding Fury From the Deep. For whatever reason, the censors in that country cut a number of action bits involving the seaweed attacks, giving a surprising amount of recovered material for six episodes of recons. What's more, they added a nice spice to a story that would have worked fairly well as a radio play, given the amount of interactive dialogue.
Plot Summary
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria land off the coast of England in the North Sea. They paddle to the shore and play for a moment in a large amount of foam on the shore. Jamie notices the foam appearing to come from a pipe nearby. The Doctor investigates, noticing a rather odd noise coming from the pipe. After investigating, the three are gunned down by a stun beam.
The three wake in the control room of a gas pumping station. The commander of the station, Robson, believes they were trying to sabotage the pipe, which has seen a drop in efficiency. They have also lost contact with an offshore crew, putting Robson in an even fouler mood. The three are taken to a spare room and locked in. However, they managed to escape when Victoria picks the lock.
The chief scientist, Harris, is concerned with what the Doctor told him about the noise coming from the pipe. He asks his wife Maggie, who is living on station, to recover a file for him from his office. She does so but is accidentally stung by a bit of seaweed in the file.
The Doctor and his companions overhear Robson speaking to a serviceman about a noise in the pipes. The Doctor and Jamie go to investigate but they tell Victoria to head back to the bunkroom. Victoria leaves but goes in another direction. Seeing someone in the corridor, Victoria ducks into a room and sees a man in a gas mask sabotaging the equipment. The man ducks past her and locks her in. He then opens the flow valve, causing foam to begin to seep in through the duct.
In the impeller room, the Doctor and Jamie listen to sounds in the pipe similar to what they heard earlier. They then hear Victoria screaming and rush off to free her. Her screaming also attracts Robson and others. Upon being released, Victoria tells them that she saw a creature draped in seaweed in the foam but that it swam away when the door was opened.
Jamie and Victoria are sent to the control room to be watched while the Doctor stays with Robson. Harris however comes in and asks for the Doctor as his wife has become ill and foam has appeared around the seaweed that stung her. Robson reluctantly agrees and the Doctor heads off with Harris.
In the apartment, Maggie has recovered slightly and lets in two odd maintenance workers named Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill. The two workers feed the seaweed and the foam begins to expand. The two men then release gas from their mouths, knocking Maggie unconscious. Fortunately, the Doctor, his companions and Harris arrive in time to ventilate the room before the gas kills her. Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill have already left.
Back in the control room, a spike in pipe pressure is observed and Robson orders the pipe vented while still refusing to stop the flow of gas. The pressure drops back to normal but the rate of inflow continues to decrease. Robson argues with the Dutch observer Mr. Van Lutyens but they are cut off when the impeller stops and a beating sounds is heard.
Back in the apartment, the Doctor, Jamie, Victoria and Harris observe watch over Maggie. They find the piece of seaweed from before although the foam has gone away leaving it still wet. The Doctor and Harris determine that the seaweed had been planted in the file when it was stolen from his briefcase. The seaweed trap was meant for Harris. Jamie also recalls that seaweed was covering the pipe they investigated at the start.
Van Lutyen and the chief engineer speculate on the source of the blockage and Van Lutyen wants to send a team to check. Robson still refuses to check when they hear a noise like a heartbeat coming from the pipes again. The impeller briefly starts again but once again fails.
The Doctor bags the seaweed carefully without touching it. He sends Harris off to get medical help for his wife. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria then head back to the TARDIS to do experiments in his lab. In the TARDIS, they discover the seaweed is alive. It is feeding off natural gas and expelling toxic gas. It also displays a level of sentience as it attempts to get out of the tank the Doctor has placed it in and retreats when Victoria screams in recognition of it. The Doctor and Jamie seal it in it's tank and head back to the base to tell the staff.
Harris sends for a medical team but Van Lutyens forces him to stay in the control room to take charge. They and the chief engineer try to convince Robson to allow them to check the pipes for blockage but Robson again refuses, growing increasingly hostile to the threat of his authority. He storms off to his quarters to rest.
Outside his quarters, Mr. Oak locks Robson in and engages the gas. Foam seeps in and a creature like Victoria saw tries to worm it's way in through the vent. Robson flees in terror as Harris responds to his screams and sees the creature retreating back into the vents.
The Doctor and his companions return to the Harris quarters to find it filled with foam. A creature reaches out through the foam and they retreat. The Doctor and Victoria flee to another room but Jamie is trapped in the kitchen. The Doctor and Victoria climb outside and open a skylight to pull Jamie out and away from the foam.
They return to the control room where Harris and Van Lutyens have taken over with Robson's disappearance. They informed their various governments of the situation and are anticipating inspectors to arrive. The Doctor informs them that the seaweed is sentient and attacking. The also learn that Maggie hadn't been taken by the medical staff meaning that she has disappeared as well. Maggie later appears giving instructions to Robson. She then walks into and disappears under the sea.
The control staff continues to try and reach the crews on the off-shore rigs but with no success. Harris meanwhile discovers Robson on the beach but he walks away in a dazed state. Victoria also is growing increasingly panicked over the situation and travels with the Doctor in general.
Van Lutyens decides to head down and inspect the base of the impeller against the warnings of the Doctor. At the base, the seaweed reaches out of the foam and pulls him in. Hearing his screams, the Doctor and Jamie head down after him. Harris returns and is informed of what they have done. The Doctor and Jamie find Van Lutyens' flashlight and keep exploring.
The director, Megan Jones arrives and Harris and the chief engineer go to explain the situation to her leaving control of the elevator to Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill. Ms. Jones doesn't believe Harris about the situation and orders him to send the company helicopter to the off-sea rigs to check on the men there. She is also informed of Robson's disappearance.
At the base of the shaft, the foam bubbles up and the Doctor and Jamie desperately call for the elevator but it doesn't come as Quill and Oak ignore the signal and leave the room. Hurriedly, the Doctor and Jamie climb the emergency ladder and find the impeller room empty with even Victoria gone.
The helicopter radios back that all the lost contact rigs are covered in seaweed and foam with no signs of the crews. Harris urges Ms. Jones to evacuate and destroy the rigs. Robson then bursts in, refusing to let them destroy what is his. He runs out again and the Doctor comes in, informing them that Robson is being controlled by the seaweed. He then fills in Ms. Jones with all the information he has. As he does, the control rig radios in as it is taken over by the seaweed.
Jamie searches the station for Victoria. He finds her knocked out in the pump room. As she wakes, she tells Jamie that Quill and Oak knocked her out. They then hear the weed and see it coming through the pipes. They call the Doctor who realizes that the weed is making it's move to form a full independent colony. It continues to spread, taking over all the offshore rigs.
Working through how the attacks have happened, the Doctor comes to the conclusion that pure oxygen might be fatal to the weed. This alerts Oak and Quill, who head down to the oxygen supply room to destroy the supply.
Word also is sent that Robson has been found and put into his quarters under guard. Ms. Jones heads down to speak with him, hoping to break through his control. Robson has a brief moment of lucidity but then goes catatonic. Ms. Jones leaves him and returns to the control room. Robson wakes and receives instructions from the weed. He knocks out the guard and leaves him room.
Discovering the oxygen supply destroyed, the crew realizes that there is another agent of the weed in the facility. Quill and Oak leave but are spotted by Jamie and Victoria. Oak escapes but Jamie knocks Quill down as Victoria screams.
Before they can investigate further, the weed expands and blows out the containment pipe. In the confusion, Robson grabs Victoria and drags her away. He also locks the impeller room doors but the Doctor manages to force one door open for a short time allowing himself and Jamie to escape. They run looking for Victoria.
Robson takes Victoria away in a waiting car. He drives her out to the company helicopter and places her inside. He then takes off and flies out to the control rig. The Doctor tries to talk to him but Robson sends back that Victoria will be killed unless the Doctor comes out as well. The Doctor agrees thinking that this will lead him to the nerve center of the weed.
The Doctor and Jamie follow Robson in another company helicopter. Tracking Robson on radar, the Doctor's helicopter heads to the control rig complex. They spy one tower covered in foam and realize that it is the nerve center of the weed. He and Jamie leave the helicopter via rope ladder and enter the foam covered tower.
The Doctor and Jamie hear Victoria but suspect a trap. They enter a room filled with foam to find Robson taken over and waiting for them. Robson attacks the Doctor and Jamie finds Victoria. Seeing Robson attack, she screams which drives back Robson. Recalling Victoria's scream causing the weed to recoil in the TARDIS. He tells Victoria to keep screaming. Robson retreats into the foam away from the Doctor and his companions.
The three return to the roof but their helicopter doesn't see them. They instead head to the helicopter that Robson took and take off from the rig with the Doctor flying. Their original helicopter sees them and walks the Doctor through the procedure on how to fly back to the base.
The Doctor returns with a plan. Upon arriving, the Doctor checks in on Quill and finds him nearly cured due to Victoria's screaming. He informs Harris and Ms. Jones of this and makes a plan. He has Victoria scream into a tape recorder and they create a loop of this sound. He then sets up speakers along the various pipes to transmit the sound. The foam and weed push through trying to take over the base.
The Doctor sets up a machine that will focus the sound into a beam for transmission through the base and the pipes back to the nerve center on the rig. The crew uses sound speakers to hold back the weed while the Doctor activates his machine. The beam passes through the pipes and the weed flops around and falls over dead.
They radio the rigs and find the weed dead and the crews (including Robson and Maggie) alive and safe. As they celebrate, the Doctor concludes that Victoria wants to stay behind as she has become overwrought with travelling from danger to danger. He arranges that she can stay with Mr. and Mrs. Harris. Victoria has a quiet goodbye with Jamie that night. She waves the Doctor off from the beach the following morning as he and Jamie head back to the TARDIS.
Analysis
I was a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. When you see a six-episode story and it's all recon, you tend to roll your eyes and figure that you'll have to power through. But the story was fairly well developed and had a pretty good progressive flow. I don't even recall too many moments where there was clear back and forth padding, which there often is in a six-parter.
Having now seen all of Victoria's stories, I can't say that I was unhappy to see the back of her. She worked fairly well for the roll she was asked to play, but she was often written as a shriek-y, timid, damsel-in-distress. Granted, if you took a 17-year old girl from Victorian London and plopped her in the situations seen, that would be a pretty realistic development. But it doesn't make for the most enjoyable experience with a companion. She wasn't too bad in this one as she was certainly less hysterical than in The Ice Warriors and her screaming actually served a plot purpose. But it was still quite a contrast to the wit and smarm that will come with Zoe.
I don't mind that they broadcast heavily that she was leaving as it was far different than the short shrift most companions (Ben and Polly being the most recent examples) got in leaving the show. It was a little drawn out with several repeats of it. The scene Jamie had with Victoria early in Episode Four was probably all the foreshadowing that was really needed rather than the constant whimpering that she did. But, I really did like the quiet scene she had with Jamie at the end of Episode Six. It gave a nice poinency to her time and Jamie's feelings towards her, which seem tinged with a slight romance as opposed to the very brother/sister dynamic he has with Zoe.
The Doctor was quite good in this story as he took a very understated role. I got the impression that he cottoned on to the seaweed as the source of the problem very early but didn't reveal his cards until he had more evidence and it was necessary to show the full problem. Even after the problem had been diagnosed, the Doctor remained understated until the very end when the actual fight came. I like the Doctor, especially the Second Doctor, when he is more observational and only steps in to solve the problem when people are ready to listen.
The secondary cast was all pretty good to. You had a nice good cop/bad cop dynamic with Harris and Robson and some good support work from the Chief Engineer and Van Lutyens. Even the later arriving Ms. Jones was quite good. It was nice to see a professional woman who both listened to the Doctor and also stood her ground.
Going further along this, it was interesting to see how Harris and Jones each replaced the other as the voice of reason with listening to the Doctor. Harris stood up for the Doctor against Robson. However, once Robson's blustering antagonism was gone, Harris wilted into someone a bit more fearful and concerned for the crew. That's not a bad thing but his fear nearly overwhelmed him in Episode Six. Jones however steps in and becomes the rational voice, still adhering to the Doctor. Although Harris had been the Doctor's ally in the beginning, it is Jones who backs the Doctor in the final battle against the weed while Harris is all for retreat in the face of danger. It is a nice change in the dynamic and it adds an extra depth to Robson's character as well since it was his bluster that gave Harris what little spine he had.
The one principle thing I would have liked clarification on was just exactly when Robson had been taken over. After known possession, Robson becomes quite docile, even catatonic at points, suggesting that there is a part of him that is fighting the weed's control. This suggests that he is not under the weed's control until the end of Episode Three. I can only guess that he was actually stung by the weed when it burst into his room and before he was able to break the door open and flee.
This actually disappoints me a bit. A very big deal was made of how Robson worked and lived for four years out on the offshore rigs. I think it would have been a bit more interesting if he had become infected by the weed while working out there and slowly building up the weed as he gained power over the whole system. A bit of a mole used to grow the enemy, which would have explained his irrational action of refusing to shut down the flow of gas, being used to both feed and hide the weed.
Instead, the implication we get is that Oak and Quill were the first ones infected and they were assisting the weed the whole time. It still works from an overall plot, but Robson being the focal point of the weed's control would have been a touch more interesting given his screen time and presence. You can almost imagine that an infected Robson comes back and dispatches Quill and Oak to his old station to infect them while he works to feed the weed. Once they are back, he works though them to ensure the growth of the weed, to destroy any weaknesses and to infect others. Again, it still works with Oak and Quill as the quiet drones, but it's a little less satisfying given their limited screen time in the beginning.
One other little thing that is a bit odd is the casual dismissal of Mrs. Harris. She's a rather important point through the first half of this story as she is infected rather than her husband. Quill and Oak attempt to kill her and when that fails, the weed fully takes over. But at the end of Episode Three, she is unceremoniously dropped by swimming into the sea. It is even odder in the fact that she seems to be further engrained into the hive mind than Robson, giving him instructions before she swims off. Granted there was little to be done with her character at that point, especially with the more commanding Ms. Jones entering, but it still seemed like a very odd dismissal of a character who then randomly shows up at the end to give the happy ending.
As mentioned above, this story is not overly hurt by only being available as a recon as much of the story is driven though interactive dialogue like a radio play. However, the limited footage that does exist due to the Australian censors and enthusiastic fans is very helpful. It is especially nice in that portions of the battle with the weed in Episode Six can be seen. In addition to this being the action portion of the story, making it nice to see, it shows that the work they did with the special effects regarding the weed worked fairly well. The foam can look a bit silly, especially when they land on the platform at the beginning of Episode Six but the end confrontation with the weed lashing out like the squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea looked pretty good.
Another thing that would have been good to see was the full effect of the slow build. Like Jaws, the seaweed benefits from being more implied rather than seen. A small glimpse through the ductwork in Episodes One and Three work fairly well and the use of the foam to hide the weed until it lashes out like a snake makes it all the more scary. In many ways, this story borrows heavily from suspense/horror work for a nice slow building tension. The recon does a decent job of portraying that, but it would have been nice to see the full effect given that facial reaction/body language sells a good portion of that. Still, it is a format that does not suffer as greatly from being consigned to recon status.
On the whole, I'd recommend this story. It's not bad as a recon and I think it would only improve if it were ever found. It was a nice goodbye for Victoria and gave her character some dignity that it was occasionally lacking during her tenure. Being able to savor her goodbye with the quiet scene between her and Jamie in the garden was also very nice and added a nice cap to the story. Even as a recon I think I would pull this out again and watch it. Obviously I would all for seeing it again if it were ever found.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
A grand bit of thanks must be given to the Australian censors regarding Fury From the Deep. For whatever reason, the censors in that country cut a number of action bits involving the seaweed attacks, giving a surprising amount of recovered material for six episodes of recons. What's more, they added a nice spice to a story that would have worked fairly well as a radio play, given the amount of interactive dialogue.
Plot Summary
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria land off the coast of England in the North Sea. They paddle to the shore and play for a moment in a large amount of foam on the shore. Jamie notices the foam appearing to come from a pipe nearby. The Doctor investigates, noticing a rather odd noise coming from the pipe. After investigating, the three are gunned down by a stun beam.
The three wake in the control room of a gas pumping station. The commander of the station, Robson, believes they were trying to sabotage the pipe, which has seen a drop in efficiency. They have also lost contact with an offshore crew, putting Robson in an even fouler mood. The three are taken to a spare room and locked in. However, they managed to escape when Victoria picks the lock.
The chief scientist, Harris, is concerned with what the Doctor told him about the noise coming from the pipe. He asks his wife Maggie, who is living on station, to recover a file for him from his office. She does so but is accidentally stung by a bit of seaweed in the file.
The Doctor and his companions overhear Robson speaking to a serviceman about a noise in the pipes. The Doctor and Jamie go to investigate but they tell Victoria to head back to the bunkroom. Victoria leaves but goes in another direction. Seeing someone in the corridor, Victoria ducks into a room and sees a man in a gas mask sabotaging the equipment. The man ducks past her and locks her in. He then opens the flow valve, causing foam to begin to seep in through the duct.
In the impeller room, the Doctor and Jamie listen to sounds in the pipe similar to what they heard earlier. They then hear Victoria screaming and rush off to free her. Her screaming also attracts Robson and others. Upon being released, Victoria tells them that she saw a creature draped in seaweed in the foam but that it swam away when the door was opened.
Jamie and Victoria are sent to the control room to be watched while the Doctor stays with Robson. Harris however comes in and asks for the Doctor as his wife has become ill and foam has appeared around the seaweed that stung her. Robson reluctantly agrees and the Doctor heads off with Harris.
In the apartment, Maggie has recovered slightly and lets in two odd maintenance workers named Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill. The two workers feed the seaweed and the foam begins to expand. The two men then release gas from their mouths, knocking Maggie unconscious. Fortunately, the Doctor, his companions and Harris arrive in time to ventilate the room before the gas kills her. Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill have already left.
Back in the control room, a spike in pipe pressure is observed and Robson orders the pipe vented while still refusing to stop the flow of gas. The pressure drops back to normal but the rate of inflow continues to decrease. Robson argues with the Dutch observer Mr. Van Lutyens but they are cut off when the impeller stops and a beating sounds is heard.
Back in the apartment, the Doctor, Jamie, Victoria and Harris observe watch over Maggie. They find the piece of seaweed from before although the foam has gone away leaving it still wet. The Doctor and Harris determine that the seaweed had been planted in the file when it was stolen from his briefcase. The seaweed trap was meant for Harris. Jamie also recalls that seaweed was covering the pipe they investigated at the start.
Van Lutyen and the chief engineer speculate on the source of the blockage and Van Lutyen wants to send a team to check. Robson still refuses to check when they hear a noise like a heartbeat coming from the pipes again. The impeller briefly starts again but once again fails.
The Doctor bags the seaweed carefully without touching it. He sends Harris off to get medical help for his wife. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria then head back to the TARDIS to do experiments in his lab. In the TARDIS, they discover the seaweed is alive. It is feeding off natural gas and expelling toxic gas. It also displays a level of sentience as it attempts to get out of the tank the Doctor has placed it in and retreats when Victoria screams in recognition of it. The Doctor and Jamie seal it in it's tank and head back to the base to tell the staff.
Harris sends for a medical team but Van Lutyens forces him to stay in the control room to take charge. They and the chief engineer try to convince Robson to allow them to check the pipes for blockage but Robson again refuses, growing increasingly hostile to the threat of his authority. He storms off to his quarters to rest.
Outside his quarters, Mr. Oak locks Robson in and engages the gas. Foam seeps in and a creature like Victoria saw tries to worm it's way in through the vent. Robson flees in terror as Harris responds to his screams and sees the creature retreating back into the vents.
The Doctor and his companions return to the Harris quarters to find it filled with foam. A creature reaches out through the foam and they retreat. The Doctor and Victoria flee to another room but Jamie is trapped in the kitchen. The Doctor and Victoria climb outside and open a skylight to pull Jamie out and away from the foam.
They return to the control room where Harris and Van Lutyens have taken over with Robson's disappearance. They informed their various governments of the situation and are anticipating inspectors to arrive. The Doctor informs them that the seaweed is sentient and attacking. The also learn that Maggie hadn't been taken by the medical staff meaning that she has disappeared as well. Maggie later appears giving instructions to Robson. She then walks into and disappears under the sea.
The control staff continues to try and reach the crews on the off-shore rigs but with no success. Harris meanwhile discovers Robson on the beach but he walks away in a dazed state. Victoria also is growing increasingly panicked over the situation and travels with the Doctor in general.
Van Lutyens decides to head down and inspect the base of the impeller against the warnings of the Doctor. At the base, the seaweed reaches out of the foam and pulls him in. Hearing his screams, the Doctor and Jamie head down after him. Harris returns and is informed of what they have done. The Doctor and Jamie find Van Lutyens' flashlight and keep exploring.
The director, Megan Jones arrives and Harris and the chief engineer go to explain the situation to her leaving control of the elevator to Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill. Ms. Jones doesn't believe Harris about the situation and orders him to send the company helicopter to the off-sea rigs to check on the men there. She is also informed of Robson's disappearance.
At the base of the shaft, the foam bubbles up and the Doctor and Jamie desperately call for the elevator but it doesn't come as Quill and Oak ignore the signal and leave the room. Hurriedly, the Doctor and Jamie climb the emergency ladder and find the impeller room empty with even Victoria gone.
The helicopter radios back that all the lost contact rigs are covered in seaweed and foam with no signs of the crews. Harris urges Ms. Jones to evacuate and destroy the rigs. Robson then bursts in, refusing to let them destroy what is his. He runs out again and the Doctor comes in, informing them that Robson is being controlled by the seaweed. He then fills in Ms. Jones with all the information he has. As he does, the control rig radios in as it is taken over by the seaweed.
Jamie searches the station for Victoria. He finds her knocked out in the pump room. As she wakes, she tells Jamie that Quill and Oak knocked her out. They then hear the weed and see it coming through the pipes. They call the Doctor who realizes that the weed is making it's move to form a full independent colony. It continues to spread, taking over all the offshore rigs.
Working through how the attacks have happened, the Doctor comes to the conclusion that pure oxygen might be fatal to the weed. This alerts Oak and Quill, who head down to the oxygen supply room to destroy the supply.
Word also is sent that Robson has been found and put into his quarters under guard. Ms. Jones heads down to speak with him, hoping to break through his control. Robson has a brief moment of lucidity but then goes catatonic. Ms. Jones leaves him and returns to the control room. Robson wakes and receives instructions from the weed. He knocks out the guard and leaves him room.
Discovering the oxygen supply destroyed, the crew realizes that there is another agent of the weed in the facility. Quill and Oak leave but are spotted by Jamie and Victoria. Oak escapes but Jamie knocks Quill down as Victoria screams.
Before they can investigate further, the weed expands and blows out the containment pipe. In the confusion, Robson grabs Victoria and drags her away. He also locks the impeller room doors but the Doctor manages to force one door open for a short time allowing himself and Jamie to escape. They run looking for Victoria.
Robson takes Victoria away in a waiting car. He drives her out to the company helicopter and places her inside. He then takes off and flies out to the control rig. The Doctor tries to talk to him but Robson sends back that Victoria will be killed unless the Doctor comes out as well. The Doctor agrees thinking that this will lead him to the nerve center of the weed.
The Doctor and Jamie follow Robson in another company helicopter. Tracking Robson on radar, the Doctor's helicopter heads to the control rig complex. They spy one tower covered in foam and realize that it is the nerve center of the weed. He and Jamie leave the helicopter via rope ladder and enter the foam covered tower.
The Doctor and Jamie hear Victoria but suspect a trap. They enter a room filled with foam to find Robson taken over and waiting for them. Robson attacks the Doctor and Jamie finds Victoria. Seeing Robson attack, she screams which drives back Robson. Recalling Victoria's scream causing the weed to recoil in the TARDIS. He tells Victoria to keep screaming. Robson retreats into the foam away from the Doctor and his companions.
The three return to the roof but their helicopter doesn't see them. They instead head to the helicopter that Robson took and take off from the rig with the Doctor flying. Their original helicopter sees them and walks the Doctor through the procedure on how to fly back to the base.
The Doctor returns with a plan. Upon arriving, the Doctor checks in on Quill and finds him nearly cured due to Victoria's screaming. He informs Harris and Ms. Jones of this and makes a plan. He has Victoria scream into a tape recorder and they create a loop of this sound. He then sets up speakers along the various pipes to transmit the sound. The foam and weed push through trying to take over the base.
The Doctor sets up a machine that will focus the sound into a beam for transmission through the base and the pipes back to the nerve center on the rig. The crew uses sound speakers to hold back the weed while the Doctor activates his machine. The beam passes through the pipes and the weed flops around and falls over dead.
They radio the rigs and find the weed dead and the crews (including Robson and Maggie) alive and safe. As they celebrate, the Doctor concludes that Victoria wants to stay behind as she has become overwrought with travelling from danger to danger. He arranges that she can stay with Mr. and Mrs. Harris. Victoria has a quiet goodbye with Jamie that night. She waves the Doctor off from the beach the following morning as he and Jamie head back to the TARDIS.
Analysis
I was a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. When you see a six-episode story and it's all recon, you tend to roll your eyes and figure that you'll have to power through. But the story was fairly well developed and had a pretty good progressive flow. I don't even recall too many moments where there was clear back and forth padding, which there often is in a six-parter.
Having now seen all of Victoria's stories, I can't say that I was unhappy to see the back of her. She worked fairly well for the roll she was asked to play, but she was often written as a shriek-y, timid, damsel-in-distress. Granted, if you took a 17-year old girl from Victorian London and plopped her in the situations seen, that would be a pretty realistic development. But it doesn't make for the most enjoyable experience with a companion. She wasn't too bad in this one as she was certainly less hysterical than in The Ice Warriors and her screaming actually served a plot purpose. But it was still quite a contrast to the wit and smarm that will come with Zoe.
I don't mind that they broadcast heavily that she was leaving as it was far different than the short shrift most companions (Ben and Polly being the most recent examples) got in leaving the show. It was a little drawn out with several repeats of it. The scene Jamie had with Victoria early in Episode Four was probably all the foreshadowing that was really needed rather than the constant whimpering that she did. But, I really did like the quiet scene she had with Jamie at the end of Episode Six. It gave a nice poinency to her time and Jamie's feelings towards her, which seem tinged with a slight romance as opposed to the very brother/sister dynamic he has with Zoe.
The Doctor was quite good in this story as he took a very understated role. I got the impression that he cottoned on to the seaweed as the source of the problem very early but didn't reveal his cards until he had more evidence and it was necessary to show the full problem. Even after the problem had been diagnosed, the Doctor remained understated until the very end when the actual fight came. I like the Doctor, especially the Second Doctor, when he is more observational and only steps in to solve the problem when people are ready to listen.
The secondary cast was all pretty good to. You had a nice good cop/bad cop dynamic with Harris and Robson and some good support work from the Chief Engineer and Van Lutyens. Even the later arriving Ms. Jones was quite good. It was nice to see a professional woman who both listened to the Doctor and also stood her ground.
Going further along this, it was interesting to see how Harris and Jones each replaced the other as the voice of reason with listening to the Doctor. Harris stood up for the Doctor against Robson. However, once Robson's blustering antagonism was gone, Harris wilted into someone a bit more fearful and concerned for the crew. That's not a bad thing but his fear nearly overwhelmed him in Episode Six. Jones however steps in and becomes the rational voice, still adhering to the Doctor. Although Harris had been the Doctor's ally in the beginning, it is Jones who backs the Doctor in the final battle against the weed while Harris is all for retreat in the face of danger. It is a nice change in the dynamic and it adds an extra depth to Robson's character as well since it was his bluster that gave Harris what little spine he had.
The one principle thing I would have liked clarification on was just exactly when Robson had been taken over. After known possession, Robson becomes quite docile, even catatonic at points, suggesting that there is a part of him that is fighting the weed's control. This suggests that he is not under the weed's control until the end of Episode Three. I can only guess that he was actually stung by the weed when it burst into his room and before he was able to break the door open and flee.
This actually disappoints me a bit. A very big deal was made of how Robson worked and lived for four years out on the offshore rigs. I think it would have been a bit more interesting if he had become infected by the weed while working out there and slowly building up the weed as he gained power over the whole system. A bit of a mole used to grow the enemy, which would have explained his irrational action of refusing to shut down the flow of gas, being used to both feed and hide the weed.
Instead, the implication we get is that Oak and Quill were the first ones infected and they were assisting the weed the whole time. It still works from an overall plot, but Robson being the focal point of the weed's control would have been a touch more interesting given his screen time and presence. You can almost imagine that an infected Robson comes back and dispatches Quill and Oak to his old station to infect them while he works to feed the weed. Once they are back, he works though them to ensure the growth of the weed, to destroy any weaknesses and to infect others. Again, it still works with Oak and Quill as the quiet drones, but it's a little less satisfying given their limited screen time in the beginning.
One other little thing that is a bit odd is the casual dismissal of Mrs. Harris. She's a rather important point through the first half of this story as she is infected rather than her husband. Quill and Oak attempt to kill her and when that fails, the weed fully takes over. But at the end of Episode Three, she is unceremoniously dropped by swimming into the sea. It is even odder in the fact that she seems to be further engrained into the hive mind than Robson, giving him instructions before she swims off. Granted there was little to be done with her character at that point, especially with the more commanding Ms. Jones entering, but it still seemed like a very odd dismissal of a character who then randomly shows up at the end to give the happy ending.
As mentioned above, this story is not overly hurt by only being available as a recon as much of the story is driven though interactive dialogue like a radio play. However, the limited footage that does exist due to the Australian censors and enthusiastic fans is very helpful. It is especially nice in that portions of the battle with the weed in Episode Six can be seen. In addition to this being the action portion of the story, making it nice to see, it shows that the work they did with the special effects regarding the weed worked fairly well. The foam can look a bit silly, especially when they land on the platform at the beginning of Episode Six but the end confrontation with the weed lashing out like the squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea looked pretty good.
Another thing that would have been good to see was the full effect of the slow build. Like Jaws, the seaweed benefits from being more implied rather than seen. A small glimpse through the ductwork in Episodes One and Three work fairly well and the use of the foam to hide the weed until it lashes out like a snake makes it all the more scary. In many ways, this story borrows heavily from suspense/horror work for a nice slow building tension. The recon does a decent job of portraying that, but it would have been nice to see the full effect given that facial reaction/body language sells a good portion of that. Still, it is a format that does not suffer as greatly from being consigned to recon status.
On the whole, I'd recommend this story. It's not bad as a recon and I think it would only improve if it were ever found. It was a nice goodbye for Victoria and gave her character some dignity that it was occasionally lacking during her tenure. Being able to savor her goodbye with the quiet scene between her and Jamie in the garden was also very nice and added a nice cap to the story. Even as a recon I think I would pull this out again and watch it. Obviously I would all for seeing it again if it were ever found.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Meglos
Having lived in the future, it's impossible for me to die in the present.
I went in to Meglos thinking that I might have to rant about the science vs. religion aspect of it. It turns out that that was a complete red herring. I was actually somewhat surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Granted there are a lot of flaws, especially in Episode Four, but it was not the pile of garbage I was expecting.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Romana are in the TARDIS fixing K-9. They are passing a system with two planets, Zolfa-Thura and Tigella, which the Doctor has visited. Tigella is divided into two factions: the scientifically minded Savants and the religious Deons. The leader of Tigella, Zastor has received the message from the Doctor, sent as they passed the planet, and has invited him to help them. The planet is currently losing power from their source, the crystalline Dodecahedron, which the Deons worship. Both sides are squabbling as to how to fix the problem and are openly contemptuous of the other.
Meanwhile, a band of rogues land on Zolfa-Thura where they have been sent for by Meglos, a cactus entity who is the last survivor of a planetary war. The rogues have brought a captive from Earth whom Meglos uses to transfer his essence. Using the body of the Earthling, he sets a repeating loop of time and traps the TARDIS within it. He then takes on the image of the Doctor and has the band of pirates take him to Tigella.
Upon landing on Tigella, Meglos goes to see Zastor and agrees to help repair the dodecahedron. In reality, Meglos is planning on stealing it to power Zolfa-Thura. The high priestess Lexa insists that before the Doctor can see the dodecahedron he must swear an oath to Ti, the god who gave the Tigellans the dodecahedron. Meglos agrees.
Back in the TARDIS, the real Doctor and Romana have become aware of the time loop they are trapped in. The Doctor suggests they perform the actions from the beginning of the time loop at the end. This throws the time loop out of phase and they escape, setting course to land on Tigella.
After Meglos takes the oath to Ti, he insists on being left alone to repair the dodecahedron. Lexa reluctantly agrees but quietly waits in the adjoining chamber. Meglos uses his matter converter to shrink the dodecahedron and steals it. Lexa and a Savant named Caris observe him leaving and then find the dodecahedron missing. Lexa sounds the alarm and orders the guards to arrest the Doctor.
The Doctor and Romana land on Tigella with K-9 in tow. The Doctor makes it to the city entrance but notices that Romana has lagged behind, distracted by burn patterns on the vegetation. He sends K-9 after her and enters the city. Meglos, having heard the alarm and beginning to lose control over his projection as the Doctor, hides from the guards. The real Doctor is found by Lexa and Zastor and arrested.
While looking at the plants, Romana is attacked by an aggressive plant. She escapes but is turned around and finds the pirate ship. K-9, having tracked her to the carnivorous plant, gives off the search to return to the TARDIS for a battery recharge. Romana is confronted by the pirates who capture her. She offers to take them to her ship and they agree, thinking to plunder it.
In the control room, the Doctor determines that there must be a doppelganger about. He has Zastor show him the dodecahedron chamber. Lexa meanwhile has become convinced that Ti is angry with them and must be appeased. She motivates her followers and institutes a coup. Zastor is arrested and the Doctor taken away to be offered as a sacrifice to Ti.
Meglos struggles to maintain his form as the human is trying to break free of his control. He captures Caris who had come down to check on some equipment to help him escape, informing her of his true identity. He loses control for a moment and Caris arms herself and leads him away as prisoner.
Romana leads the pirates to the aggressive plant who attacks them. Romana sees K-9, grabs him and runs into the city just before the doors shut due to Lexa's declaration of lockdown. The pirates break free and begin to smash down the outer doors. The guards open the inner door due to the noise and Romana flees into the city. The guards engage in a gun battle with the pirates smashing through but are overrun.
Romana sees Caris with Meglos and thinking he is the Doctor, knocks her down. Meglos meets up with the pirates and the whole party returns to the pirate ship. Caris recovers and explains to Romana what is going on. The two go to search for the Doctor who is tied down on a stone slab about to be crushed by a suspended boulder. They reunite with Zastor and stop the sacrifice by informing Lexa that she has the wrong Doctor.
Informed of who Meglos is, the Doctor decides to travel to Zolfa-Thura to stop him. Before they leave, one of the pirates who was felled but not killed, fires his gun at Romana. Lexa steps in front of the shot and is killed. The Doctor, Romana, K-9 and two Savants travel in the TARDIS to Zolfa-Thura.
On Zolfa-Thura, Meglos places the dodecahedron on top of his bunker and returns it to normal size. The array around it will focus the energy of the dodecahedron into a planet destroying beam. The head of the pirates, General Grugger, suggests they destroy Tigella and Meglos happily obliges. He programs the weapon and heads out to check the array alignment.
The Doctor slips in, posing as Meglos and reprograms the array alignment. However, Grugger becomes suspicious and greedy and orders his men to imprison the Doctor. His men grab both the Doctor and Meglos and place them in the ship's brig.
Romana and the Savants observe the Doctor's capture and go to rescue him. K-9 stuns the guard and the Doctor is freed. They grab Meglos to keep him contained but Meglos releases himself from the human body and his cactus form wriggles back to the base. The Doctor informed him before their rescue of his altering of the array, which would destroy the base if fired.
The Doctor, his friends and the released human head back to the TARDIS as Grugger has started the countdown to fire. Meglos gets back to the base but does not reach them in time to stop the countdown and the entire facility (including the dodecahedron) is destroyed as the TARDIS dematerializes.
Back on Tigella, the society makes preparations to clear and colonize the surface of Tigella as their underground city will have to be abandoned. The Doctor says his goodbyes and he and Romana makes plans to return the human to Earth before heading to Gallifrey where they have been summoned.
Analysis
While I enjoyed the story of Meglos for the most part, there are a lot of flaws in the story development. One would think that if you have your actor playing both the Doctor and the villain, it would be an excellent story as with The Enemy of the World. While Tom Baker does very well in his role as Meglos, it is so underutilized that it just seems like a waste. On top of that, there is all this extra stuff that ends up going nowhere.
I'm not entirely sure why it was decided to make Meglos a cactus. I get the idea of making it necessary to meld him with a humanoid as that was used as a plot point, but again why a cactus? I'm guessing that someone thought seeing the makeup spines on both Tom Baker and the other guy would be interesting and it flowed from there. But the use of a cactus did make Meglos' inching back to the base in Episode Four look rather silly. It also makes me wonder how the base was built given that Meglos would have been unable to do anything himself without transmogrifying into a creature with digits and mobility.
Still, Tom Baker as Meglos was enjoyable. There is a brooding, eerie quality that he uses, especially in his eyes. It reminds me a bit of his performance as Rasputin in Nicholas and Alexandra which also was heavily dependent on the use of his eyes to encourage discomfort. I only wish there had been more time with the Doctor confronting Meglos. They are locked in a cell together at the end but still have very little interaction with each other. It just feels like a waste of an opportunity. I'm sure budget considerations had a lot to do with it as well.
On the subject of waste, let us discuss Lexa, played by Jacqueline Hill (aka Barbara). First, there was no real reason to have the society divided in the science vs. religion camp. It offered nothing and was barely played with except as a pretense for Zastor asking the Doctor to help them and providing a cliffhanger at the end of Episode Three. The story sides heavily on the science side (as I would expect a Doctor Who story to) but the divide is never really used except to portray the Deons as obstructions that allow Meglos to get away.
Jacqueline Hill does very well in her limited use as Lexa but there is almost no depth allowed to her character. She is just a stereotype of an obstinate priestess who has a quick revelation at the beginning of Episode Four to resolve the cliffhanger. Her sacrifice for Romana is not set up at all and is shot so poorly that Romana has to explain what happened after it's over. It just feels like a waste. To my knowledge, no actor who has played a Doctor or a companion has ever come back as a single story role player. Role players actors have been promoted to the Doctor or companion but this is the only instance of the reverse. While her portrayal was fine, it would have been so much nicer to make use of the reverse progression. If she had been tricked or brainwashed by Meglos into helping him, you could have had a set up that would have drawn on her previous companion role in an ironic way that could have been so much more impressive.
I would have also liked the pacing to work a bit better. Episode One is entirely set up with the Doctor and Romana not even leaving the TARDIS. In fact, we're halfway into Episode Two before they even enter the story properly. That doesn't overly bother me as that happened in Second Doctor stories too but even so, Episode One feels a little rushed with Meglos' plan not explained particularly well. Worse, the replay from the previous episode in each subsequent episode is quite long into what are already short episodes. It would have been so easy to cut down on this and perhaps even add a minute or so on the back end which would have given the story another one and a half to two minutes to play with and that could have helped the pacing out quite a bit.
As mentioned before, there is no build up to Lexa's sacrifice in Episode Four and little context around it. It's a casual dismissal of a character who was not needed any more. Similarly in Episode Two there is a long drawn out sequence of Romana getting attacked by a carnivorous plant to separate her and the Doctor. It is overly long and somewhat poorly shot, although that might have more to do with the obvious space limitations. Still, you get a sense that when the authors of the script broke down their story into episodic form, they found the cliffhangers and then found they had to pad their way between each of them and that led to the unevenness where something was slow here and rushed there.
All that being said, Episodes Two and Three are fairly engaging. Meglos doesn't dilly-dally and if it hadn't been for his being watched, he probably would have gotten away without too much effort. The interplay that Meglos is given in these two episodes are enjoyable, especially in his creep factor contrasted to the Doctor's jovial triviality. The principle problems lie in the slow development with a crammed backstory in Episode One and the rushed and poorly developed climax in Episode Four.
One other quick note. A lot of folks probably have problems with the poor green screening effects used whenever the story was on Zolfa-Thura. Admittedly, these are not great especially looking back at it 35 years later. However, I have a soft spot for these type of cheesy effects as they remind me of the similar type of cheesy effects seen in Faerie Tale Theater which I grew up on. I would also point out that unless you had a movie level budget (and sometimes even not then) these type of effects were about the best you could do. So while others might dislike them, I found them nostalgically charming.
Overall, I think Meglos is a story that would have benefited from a couple more rewrites. There is a strong kernel of a good story there and some decent casting to work with. I would imagine that if the writers knew they were going to get Jacqueline Hill for Lexa, they would have changed the dynamic of her character so I'm not going to put my disappointment regarding that on them. But there were some writing flaws as well as some directing miscues. Still, the kernel is enough that I would go back to this story a second time. It did convince me that my initial impression of it through hearsay was wrong but it would also be wrong to say that it didn't manifest different flaws in my eyes. Not overly poor but way too much potential left on the table.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
I went in to Meglos thinking that I might have to rant about the science vs. religion aspect of it. It turns out that that was a complete red herring. I was actually somewhat surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Granted there are a lot of flaws, especially in Episode Four, but it was not the pile of garbage I was expecting.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Romana are in the TARDIS fixing K-9. They are passing a system with two planets, Zolfa-Thura and Tigella, which the Doctor has visited. Tigella is divided into two factions: the scientifically minded Savants and the religious Deons. The leader of Tigella, Zastor has received the message from the Doctor, sent as they passed the planet, and has invited him to help them. The planet is currently losing power from their source, the crystalline Dodecahedron, which the Deons worship. Both sides are squabbling as to how to fix the problem and are openly contemptuous of the other.
Meanwhile, a band of rogues land on Zolfa-Thura where they have been sent for by Meglos, a cactus entity who is the last survivor of a planetary war. The rogues have brought a captive from Earth whom Meglos uses to transfer his essence. Using the body of the Earthling, he sets a repeating loop of time and traps the TARDIS within it. He then takes on the image of the Doctor and has the band of pirates take him to Tigella.
Upon landing on Tigella, Meglos goes to see Zastor and agrees to help repair the dodecahedron. In reality, Meglos is planning on stealing it to power Zolfa-Thura. The high priestess Lexa insists that before the Doctor can see the dodecahedron he must swear an oath to Ti, the god who gave the Tigellans the dodecahedron. Meglos agrees.
Back in the TARDIS, the real Doctor and Romana have become aware of the time loop they are trapped in. The Doctor suggests they perform the actions from the beginning of the time loop at the end. This throws the time loop out of phase and they escape, setting course to land on Tigella.
After Meglos takes the oath to Ti, he insists on being left alone to repair the dodecahedron. Lexa reluctantly agrees but quietly waits in the adjoining chamber. Meglos uses his matter converter to shrink the dodecahedron and steals it. Lexa and a Savant named Caris observe him leaving and then find the dodecahedron missing. Lexa sounds the alarm and orders the guards to arrest the Doctor.
The Doctor and Romana land on Tigella with K-9 in tow. The Doctor makes it to the city entrance but notices that Romana has lagged behind, distracted by burn patterns on the vegetation. He sends K-9 after her and enters the city. Meglos, having heard the alarm and beginning to lose control over his projection as the Doctor, hides from the guards. The real Doctor is found by Lexa and Zastor and arrested.
While looking at the plants, Romana is attacked by an aggressive plant. She escapes but is turned around and finds the pirate ship. K-9, having tracked her to the carnivorous plant, gives off the search to return to the TARDIS for a battery recharge. Romana is confronted by the pirates who capture her. She offers to take them to her ship and they agree, thinking to plunder it.
In the control room, the Doctor determines that there must be a doppelganger about. He has Zastor show him the dodecahedron chamber. Lexa meanwhile has become convinced that Ti is angry with them and must be appeased. She motivates her followers and institutes a coup. Zastor is arrested and the Doctor taken away to be offered as a sacrifice to Ti.
Meglos struggles to maintain his form as the human is trying to break free of his control. He captures Caris who had come down to check on some equipment to help him escape, informing her of his true identity. He loses control for a moment and Caris arms herself and leads him away as prisoner.
Romana leads the pirates to the aggressive plant who attacks them. Romana sees K-9, grabs him and runs into the city just before the doors shut due to Lexa's declaration of lockdown. The pirates break free and begin to smash down the outer doors. The guards open the inner door due to the noise and Romana flees into the city. The guards engage in a gun battle with the pirates smashing through but are overrun.
Romana sees Caris with Meglos and thinking he is the Doctor, knocks her down. Meglos meets up with the pirates and the whole party returns to the pirate ship. Caris recovers and explains to Romana what is going on. The two go to search for the Doctor who is tied down on a stone slab about to be crushed by a suspended boulder. They reunite with Zastor and stop the sacrifice by informing Lexa that she has the wrong Doctor.
Informed of who Meglos is, the Doctor decides to travel to Zolfa-Thura to stop him. Before they leave, one of the pirates who was felled but not killed, fires his gun at Romana. Lexa steps in front of the shot and is killed. The Doctor, Romana, K-9 and two Savants travel in the TARDIS to Zolfa-Thura.
On Zolfa-Thura, Meglos places the dodecahedron on top of his bunker and returns it to normal size. The array around it will focus the energy of the dodecahedron into a planet destroying beam. The head of the pirates, General Grugger, suggests they destroy Tigella and Meglos happily obliges. He programs the weapon and heads out to check the array alignment.
The Doctor slips in, posing as Meglos and reprograms the array alignment. However, Grugger becomes suspicious and greedy and orders his men to imprison the Doctor. His men grab both the Doctor and Meglos and place them in the ship's brig.
Romana and the Savants observe the Doctor's capture and go to rescue him. K-9 stuns the guard and the Doctor is freed. They grab Meglos to keep him contained but Meglos releases himself from the human body and his cactus form wriggles back to the base. The Doctor informed him before their rescue of his altering of the array, which would destroy the base if fired.
The Doctor, his friends and the released human head back to the TARDIS as Grugger has started the countdown to fire. Meglos gets back to the base but does not reach them in time to stop the countdown and the entire facility (including the dodecahedron) is destroyed as the TARDIS dematerializes.
Back on Tigella, the society makes preparations to clear and colonize the surface of Tigella as their underground city will have to be abandoned. The Doctor says his goodbyes and he and Romana makes plans to return the human to Earth before heading to Gallifrey where they have been summoned.
Analysis
While I enjoyed the story of Meglos for the most part, there are a lot of flaws in the story development. One would think that if you have your actor playing both the Doctor and the villain, it would be an excellent story as with The Enemy of the World. While Tom Baker does very well in his role as Meglos, it is so underutilized that it just seems like a waste. On top of that, there is all this extra stuff that ends up going nowhere.
I'm not entirely sure why it was decided to make Meglos a cactus. I get the idea of making it necessary to meld him with a humanoid as that was used as a plot point, but again why a cactus? I'm guessing that someone thought seeing the makeup spines on both Tom Baker and the other guy would be interesting and it flowed from there. But the use of a cactus did make Meglos' inching back to the base in Episode Four look rather silly. It also makes me wonder how the base was built given that Meglos would have been unable to do anything himself without transmogrifying into a creature with digits and mobility.
Still, Tom Baker as Meglos was enjoyable. There is a brooding, eerie quality that he uses, especially in his eyes. It reminds me a bit of his performance as Rasputin in Nicholas and Alexandra which also was heavily dependent on the use of his eyes to encourage discomfort. I only wish there had been more time with the Doctor confronting Meglos. They are locked in a cell together at the end but still have very little interaction with each other. It just feels like a waste of an opportunity. I'm sure budget considerations had a lot to do with it as well.
On the subject of waste, let us discuss Lexa, played by Jacqueline Hill (aka Barbara). First, there was no real reason to have the society divided in the science vs. religion camp. It offered nothing and was barely played with except as a pretense for Zastor asking the Doctor to help them and providing a cliffhanger at the end of Episode Three. The story sides heavily on the science side (as I would expect a Doctor Who story to) but the divide is never really used except to portray the Deons as obstructions that allow Meglos to get away.
Jacqueline Hill does very well in her limited use as Lexa but there is almost no depth allowed to her character. She is just a stereotype of an obstinate priestess who has a quick revelation at the beginning of Episode Four to resolve the cliffhanger. Her sacrifice for Romana is not set up at all and is shot so poorly that Romana has to explain what happened after it's over. It just feels like a waste. To my knowledge, no actor who has played a Doctor or a companion has ever come back as a single story role player. Role players actors have been promoted to the Doctor or companion but this is the only instance of the reverse. While her portrayal was fine, it would have been so much nicer to make use of the reverse progression. If she had been tricked or brainwashed by Meglos into helping him, you could have had a set up that would have drawn on her previous companion role in an ironic way that could have been so much more impressive.
I would have also liked the pacing to work a bit better. Episode One is entirely set up with the Doctor and Romana not even leaving the TARDIS. In fact, we're halfway into Episode Two before they even enter the story properly. That doesn't overly bother me as that happened in Second Doctor stories too but even so, Episode One feels a little rushed with Meglos' plan not explained particularly well. Worse, the replay from the previous episode in each subsequent episode is quite long into what are already short episodes. It would have been so easy to cut down on this and perhaps even add a minute or so on the back end which would have given the story another one and a half to two minutes to play with and that could have helped the pacing out quite a bit.
As mentioned before, there is no build up to Lexa's sacrifice in Episode Four and little context around it. It's a casual dismissal of a character who was not needed any more. Similarly in Episode Two there is a long drawn out sequence of Romana getting attacked by a carnivorous plant to separate her and the Doctor. It is overly long and somewhat poorly shot, although that might have more to do with the obvious space limitations. Still, you get a sense that when the authors of the script broke down their story into episodic form, they found the cliffhangers and then found they had to pad their way between each of them and that led to the unevenness where something was slow here and rushed there.
All that being said, Episodes Two and Three are fairly engaging. Meglos doesn't dilly-dally and if it hadn't been for his being watched, he probably would have gotten away without too much effort. The interplay that Meglos is given in these two episodes are enjoyable, especially in his creep factor contrasted to the Doctor's jovial triviality. The principle problems lie in the slow development with a crammed backstory in Episode One and the rushed and poorly developed climax in Episode Four.
One other quick note. A lot of folks probably have problems with the poor green screening effects used whenever the story was on Zolfa-Thura. Admittedly, these are not great especially looking back at it 35 years later. However, I have a soft spot for these type of cheesy effects as they remind me of the similar type of cheesy effects seen in Faerie Tale Theater which I grew up on. I would also point out that unless you had a movie level budget (and sometimes even not then) these type of effects were about the best you could do. So while others might dislike them, I found them nostalgically charming.
Overall, I think Meglos is a story that would have benefited from a couple more rewrites. There is a strong kernel of a good story there and some decent casting to work with. I would imagine that if the writers knew they were going to get Jacqueline Hill for Lexa, they would have changed the dynamic of her character so I'm not going to put my disappointment regarding that on them. But there were some writing flaws as well as some directing miscues. Still, the kernel is enough that I would go back to this story a second time. It did convince me that my initial impression of it through hearsay was wrong but it would also be wrong to say that it didn't manifest different flaws in my eyes. Not overly poor but way too much potential left on the table.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
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