So, anyone for dodgems?
The two-part kickoff for Series Nine saw the return of Davros and the Daleks with Davros once again played by Julian Bleach, who played him in Series Four. While a stand alone story in it's own right, the story also set up the larger motifs for the series by introducing the hybrid and giving the first fake out of Clara's impending death.
Plot Summary
The Doctor arrives on the planet Skaro in a time prior to Genesis of the Daleks where he finds a young boy trapped in a mine field. He tosses the boy his sonic screwdriver to talk to him and finds out that the boy's name is Davros. The Doctor, stunned, then leaves in the TARDIS.
Centuries later, a creature called Colony Sarff searches the galaxy for the Doctor. The Doctor learns of the search on Karn and goes into hiding, leaving a confession dial with Ohila, head of the sisterhood of Karn. The confession dial comes to Missy, who travels to Earth and freezes all the in-air aircraft in time. This is noticed by Clara and UNIT, whom she contacts, and arranges a meeting with.
Clara meets Missy who notes that the Doctor has disappeared. Clara and UNIT agree to help Missy find the Doctor in exchange for releasing the planes. Searching through history, they discover a disturbance in the 12th century that appears to be a giant party. Missy grabs Clara and they travel to that point using a vortex manipulator.
The Doctor enters a great hall riding a tank and playing an electric guitar. He spies Missy and Clara and shows them off to the crowd. They are interrupted by Colony Sarff, who followed Missy and Clara. The Doctor agrees to go with him to see Davros in exchange for Sarff not hurting anyone as Sarff is actually a body made of venomous snakes. Missy and Clara insist on going with and the four teleport to Sarff's ship. Also during the event, a friend of the Doctor's named Bors becomes a Dalek puppet and reveals the location of the TARDIS to the Daleks, who take it with them.
Sarff takes the three prisoners to what appears to be a space station but is in fact the planet Skaro rebuilt. Missy and Clara are left in the ship while the Doctor is taken to Davros. Davros confesses that he is dying to the Doctor and plans to keep him with himself until the Doctor admits that mercy and compassion are weaknesses.
Missy and Clara break out of the ship and walk across Skaro. They are captured and taken to the Supreme Dalek who has them both vaporized while the Doctor watches. He then uses a special weapon to destroy the TARDIS. Incensed at this, the Doctor seizes a Dalek gun from a bench and pulls Davros out of his chair. He takes the chair to the room of the Supreme Dalek and demands that they return Clara to him or he will destroy them. Davros calls on Colony Sarff who sneaks into the chair and recaptures the Doctor.
Outside the Dalek City, Clara wakes to find Missy sharpening a stick. Missy relates a story of how the Doctor turned a group of android's weapons into energy allowing him to teleport to a safe location. Clara realizes that Missy used the same trick to teleport the two of them when the Daleks shot them. They then trek back towards the city.
Missy and Clara head into the Dalek sewers which are actually repositories for Daleks that have decayed beyond the ability to function in their casings but are still alive. Missy uses Clara as bait to lure a Dalek down into the sewers where she punches several small holes in the casing. The Dalek is attacked by the decayed mutants who seep in and kill the Dalek inside the machine. Missy then puts Clara inside the Dalek and uses her to pose as a prisoner.
The Doctor wakes back in Davros' lab where Davros and he talk. The Doctor slowly begins to realize that Davros is actually dying and begins to feel pity for him. Davros goes so far as to uses some of his waning strength to open his real eyes to look at the Doctor and even make a joke.
Missy and Clara meet another Dalek in the corridors who demands to know who Missy is. Missy orders the Dalek to scan her and realizing that she is a Time Lord, takes her to the Supreme Dalek. Clara follows, still disguised.
Moved by Davros' desire to see one last sunrise, the Doctor hooks up several tubes to Davros' chair from his life support system and prepares to release a small amount of regeneration energy to keep him alive. As he does so, Colony Sarff comes down and binds the Doctor. Davros comes to life once more, mocking the Doctor for his compassion. He funnels the Doctor's regeneration energy into himself and all the Daleks he had been drawing life from.
In the control room, Missy sees the Daleks infused with regeneration energy. She grabs a Dalek gun and runs to Davros' lab where she shoots Colony Sarff, releasing the Doctor. Davros mocks the Doctor once more but is interrupted by a sudden shaking of the floor. The Doctor in turn mocks Davros as he suspected what his plan was. His regeneration energy was distributed to all Daleks on the planet, including the ones in the sewers. Infused with new strength, they begin climbing out of the sewers to attack the regular Daleks and destroy the city.
The Doctor and Missy flee Davros' lab where they meet Clara, still in the Dalek. Missy tries to convince the Doctor that this Dalek killed Clara and Clara is unable to say her name. However, as she tries to convince the Doctor, the Dalek translator circuit speaks of mercy. The Doctor is stunned that the word is known to a Dalek and he realizes that Clara is in there. He lets her out and orders Missy off. Missy runs down a hall where she is cornered by several Daleks. She offers to make a deal with them.
The Doctor and Clara return to the control room where several Daleks have been killed by the old mutants. The Doctor recalls the TARDIS from it's HADS system using his new sonic sunglasses. They take the TARDIS outside the city and watch the city collapse on itself. The Doctor tries to figure out how the Dalek vocabulary knew mercy when he suddenly gets and idea. The Doctor takes the Dalek gun and then takes the TARDIS back to a few seconds after he left the boy Davros. He uses the gun to destroy the mines trapping the boy. He tells him that there must always be mercy and then takes him home.
Analysis
Both episodes are good and both have some parts that are very good, but both also have moments that drag them down just a bit. The real star of this story is actually Missy who is clearly having an absolute ball being both crazy and amazingly competent in her desire to rescue the Doctor. It's also fun to see Missy keep her evil streak as she open kills two UNIT men when Clara has the gall to suggest she has turned good. Her repeated instances of nearly killing Clara and threatening to do so are also highly amusing.
The Doctor is pretty good in this one. I love his introduction on the guitar. The tank is a bit much but he had to roll in on something so that's somewhat forgivable. But the rest of his performance is also enjoyable, especially with his dips into sarcasm and open derision. Even his moments of tenderness with Davros are well done, even if the overall scene itself is a bit strange.
Clara also pretty good in this and what helped was that she was constantly on the wrong foot. Clara's biggest weakness (and it came through hard this series) is her arrogance at thinking she can tackle a situation just as well as the Doctor can. Here, Missy is always keeping her off-kilter, making her more dependent and a much better companion. You even get a strong flashback with Clara in the Dalek to Oswin in The Asylum of the Daleks where Clara keeps insisting that she is Clara but the Dalek casing translates it to "I am a Dalek" and to Oswin insisting that she is not a Dalek as she is converted. It gave the scenes with Clara in the casing just that fun little twist and was just another way that Clara was on the wrong foot with Missy most of the time.
Davros was good but here we start to run into one of the problems with The Witch's Familiar. Davros is played quite well and his interactions with the Doctor are quite well done. But it takes it a step too far with the seeing the Doctor with his own eyes bit. First, Davros' eyes have never been open and it's always been assumed that they decayed or were destroyed at some point in the past, hence the need for the third eye. Second, as soon as you hear him say that he wants to look at the Doctor with his own eyes, the mind is instantly drawn to a dying Darth Vader saying the same to Luke and the sense of the scene is immediately lost. It also clangs false as there has never been a moment in the entire run of the series where Davros has shown any moments of tenderness or sympathy. He has always been cold, conniving and consumed with megalomania. Of course the Doctor doesn't really believe him but that he can put up a front of believing and had compassion for a man that he has tried to kill on more than one occasion is just a bit too much to swallow.
It is nice to see that the Daleks rebuilt Skaro in an old school sense. Everything about the city harkened back to the design of the city in The Daleks. It's also nice to see a mixture of all Daleks from the modern gold Daleks, the original silver and blue Daleks, to even a cameo by the special weapons Dalek. It was a well designed set and the only point of jankiness was supposed to look that way as the space around the ship that Missy and Clara and step on to is not actually there anyway.
The one quibble I have with The Magician's Apprentice is that it's a bit too slow a burn. Obviously you know it's a two-parter and you know that the plot won't resolve itself quickly, but it just feels like Colony Sarff's mission eats a lot of time, especially when you know that Davros is involved right from the start. It's about as close as you can get in the new series to padding like you had in the old show. As fun as Missy is, there are points where you just want to tell them to get on with it and that drags the pacing down.
The talk of the hybrid comes a bit out of left field as well. I don't particularly care for prophecy stories as they tend to muck things up a bit and this one had a really heavy-handed intro. I'd have preferred a more subtle take with Davros mentioning it quietly and perhaps even discussing it with the Doctor while he was still dying rather than in his gloating stage.
Overall, it was a good start to the series. Each episode was solid and had really enjoyable bits, but it also had slow points or scenes that just didn't work. This is actually one of the few times where I actually could have enjoyed less of the Doctor as the Clara and Missy road show was probably the best part of the whole story. Definitely worth watching again, but not quite the A-game that was expected.
Overall personal score: The Magician's Apprentice - 4.5 out of 5; The Witch's Familiar - 4.5 out of 5
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Destiny of the Daleks
If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us.
Growing up, I have fairly solid recollections of three Doctor Who stories: Masque of Mandragora, The Face of Evil, and The Invasion of Time. However, I have a vague recollection of another story and I think it might be Destiny of the Daleks so I'm curious to see if I was right. I'm also curious to see if this story is as bad as it's reputation suggests as it is generally regarded as the worst of all the classic Dalek stories.
Plot Summary
Romana regenerates into a form similar to Princess Astra, although she tries a couple of other styles before settling on it. The Doctor is meanwhile tinkering with K-9 and accidentally faults his voicebox, giving him a robotic version of laryngitis. Using the randomizer to avoid the Black Guardian, they land on an unknown planet in the middle of a rocky ruin.
Noting high levels of radiation, they take anti-radiation pills and leave to explore. While exploring the ruins, they observe a group of humanoids performing a quick burial, piling the body with stones. They also observe a space ship landing and then burying itself part way into the ground. They attempt to approach it, but it fires at them and drives them into one of the buildings for shelter.
In the building, an earthquake occurs and the Doctor ends up trapped under a column. Romana heads back to the TARDIS to get K-9 to help lift the beam but the same earthquake dislodged stones, blocking the entrance to the TARDIS. While she is gone, the Doctor is captured by a squad from the spaceship who are called Movellans. They take him back to their ship where they reveal that they are on the planet Skaro.
Romana returns to find the Doctor gone. She is startled by the appearance of a humanoid and backing away from him, she falls into the lower level. Her fall alerts the Daleks who break through a section and take her prisoner. The human who startled her observes this and is shortly afterward captured by the Movellans. His name is Tyssan and he was a prisoner of the Daleks who escaped. He tells the Doctor and the Movellans of the Daleks capture of Romana and that they are drilling for something, using captured humanoids to clear away the debris as they do.
Romana is interrogated by the Daleks and once she is found to not be an agent against the Daleks, she is sent into the tunnels to work. Feeling the effects of radiation exposure, she is weakened but informed by other prisoners that the only way out is death. Romana continues to work for a while and then stops her hearts, putting herself in suspended animation, simulating death. When the work cycle is finished, the Daleks order other prisoners to take her to the surface and bury her.
The Doctor, Tyssan, Commander Sharrel and two other Movellans enter the tunnel to find out what the Daleks are up to and to rescue Romana. Their presence alerts the Daleks who investigate. This clears the control room and the Doctor examines their plans, deducing that the Daleks are digging to find the old Kaled science bunker. The Doctor also realizes that the Daleks are unaware of an old service shaft leading to the level below the bunker. He and the Movellans leave to make for the shaft. The Daleks discover one of the Movellan guards left behind to guard and shoots him down, but the rest of the party escapes.
They discover Romana's grave on the surface but she has already emerged from it and rejoins the Doctor. The group heads down the service shaft and enters the fourth level where they find the preserved body of Davros, which the Doctor had suspected they were looking for. As the Daleks begin to drill in, a cave in buries one Movellan while leaving Commander Sharrel on the other side. Davros begins to reanimate and calls out for the Daleks, attracting the attention of the Doctor, Romana and Tyssan. With the Daleks about to drill in, the Doctor pushes Davros down the hallway to a room where a window to the surface has been exposed. He sends Romana and Tyssan out to the Movellan spacecraft while he stays with Davros.
Romana and Tyssan make their way through the country, trying to avoid Dalek patrols. They spot one Dalek and separate with Tyssan trying to attract the Dalek's attention. The Dalek fires towards him, but this action attracts the attention of the Movellans who destroy the Dalek with a long range cannon. Romana then makes her way to the ship. Inside, she informs the Movellans that the Doctor is in trouble but notices that they already have a feed of Davros and that the Movellan who was buried in the cave in is alive and working like normal. They stun Romana, knocking her out.
The Doctor sees the Daleks approaching but holds them off with a blasting explosive he picked up, saying that he will kill Davros. The Daleks leave but return with the humanoids they had used in the mines and begin killing them. The Doctor orders them to stop and agrees to turn over Davros if the people are allowed to go free and if he is given a one minute head start. Davros agrees and the prisoners are sent out. The Doctor attaches the bomb to Davros' chair, threatening to blow it up remotely and then leaves via the window. Davros orders the Daleks to remove the bomb and as he leaves the room the Doctor detonates it, destroying the two Daleks holding it but leaving Davros alive.
The Doctor is found by Tyssan who had just sent the released prisoners into hiding. They are captured by a Dalek patrol but the Dalek is destroyed by a Movellan guard. The guard tries to take the Doctor prisoner but he manages to short circuit it as he has realized the Movellans are androids.
With the failure to capture the Doctor, the Movellans place Romana in an isolation tube in the open with an incendiary device. The Doctor observes Romana in the tube and approaches it alone, telling Tyssan to stay in hiding. As he crouches near the tube, the Movellan's knock him out and take both him and Romana back into the ship, having elected not to waste the bomb on Romana with the Doctor captured. Tyssan then runs back to where the other prisoners are hiding.
The Doctor wakes on the Movellan ship where they explain that they are caught in a stalemate with the Dalek fleet. The Doctor demonstrates with Romana and a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors how their and the Dalek's slavery to logic has produced the stalemate. The Movellans decide to take the Doctor with them to reprogram their computers to fight the Daleks. The Doctor reasons this is why the Daleks have awakened Davros as well.
Commander Sharrel dispatches one of his men to set up the bomb that will ignite the Skaroan atmosphere and destroy the Daleks with the man to stay behind to ensure detonation manually. He goes and sets up the bomb but is disarmed and reprogrammed by Tyssan and the other prisoners who get the drop on him. They do the same for another Movellan sent to investigate. Using the two as cover, the prisoners storm the ship and deactivate all the Movellans except for Commander Sharrel who slips away.
The Doctor leaves the prisoners and Romana to rework the Movellan ship while he goes after Davros. On his way he observes a number of Daleks equipped with detonation charges heading towards the Movellan ship. He slips in to the Dalek base and confronts Davros who is planning to sacrifice those Daleks to destroy the Movellans as a Dalek transport ship is coming to pick him up. One Dalek is left behind to guard Davros and it takes the Doctor prisoner.
After finishing repairs to the ship, Romana notices that Commander Sharrel is missing just as the Daleks arrive. She races out of the ship while several other prisoners come out and hold back the Daleks using the Movellan weapons. Romana gets free but the prisoners are pushed back into the Movellan ship. Romana finds a damaged Sharrel and manages to stop him from detonating the bomb. She then pulls off his power pack and leaves the powerless body as she takes the bomb away.
The Doctor takes his hat and props in on the Dalek guard's eyestalk. The Dalek begins firing indiscriminately until it runs into a wall and explodes. The Doctor then wrestles with Davros but gives way deliberately, letting him fall forward on the button that sets off the explosives on the Daleks. The Daleks explode before they can circle the Movellan ship, leaving it undamaged.
The Doctor takes Davros to the Movellan ship and places him in cryogenic stasis while Tyssan programs the Movellan ship to rendezvous with an Earth transport to take Davros away for trial against all civilized races. Before the ship can take off, the Doctor and Romana dash out and return to the TARDIS where they depart Skaro.
Analysis
This wasn't as bad as I was expecting. In many ways, it's actually a decent story, one of the more engaging ones that Terry Nation put together. Admittedly, Douglas Adams rewrote a good portion of it and most of the stuff that I didn't care for was blatantly Douglas Adams' additions. But there were other problems that took this down from a good story to a more middling story.
The Doctor is good in this one but rather dark. He is witty and snappy and it works very well. But he also has a few quips that are rather needling and play up the Daleks as fools. He also goes so far as to detonate the bomb he set up, which could have easily killed Davros had he not removed it. Granted, the Doctor was probably assuming that the first thing Davros would do would be to remove the bomb, but it is still much closer to murder than we've seen the Doctor do in quite awhile. It just seems a bit out of character for him to go that far without an open provocation.
I like Romana in this too. I think from an overall perspective, I prefer the first Romana, but in this instance, the new Romana works well with the Doctor. She is not a damsel and her wearing a feminine version of the Doctor's outfit really suits her as she works very much as the Doctor's counterpart in this story. I especially like her taking the onus on herself to escape from the Dalek's mines by faking her own death. It didn't muck about in terms of time and she didn't spend any time pining about waiting for someone to rescue her. She saw how to do it and in a way that wouldn't cause anyone else to be harmed and just did it.
I did not really care for the joke generation. That and the scene with K-9 (a prep for introducing the new voice of K-9 in The Creature From the Pit) we're very obviously written by Douglas Adams and don't quite work for me. What bothers me is not the multiple bodies she goes through while regenerating (presumably as she has a measure of control over the changes before settling on a final form) but just in the fact that it wasn't that funny. Even if it had been funny, it would have been out of place given the dark and somewhat grim nature of this story. It's one thing to crack a joke to break tension in a dark story, but a scene like this belongs in an overt comedy story and it just doesn't work relative to the rest of the story.
One of the best things about this story is the camera work. Obviously anything on film look better than stuff on tape. But they also used a steady cam which gave such a smooth and sharp picture in the action scenes. On top of that, the director chose some excellent angles to film the Daleks, giving them the illusion of seeming to loom over the others. It made the Daleks seem much more menacing than you might have otherwise thought. It was really good work and enjoyable to watch, regardless of what was going on in the actual story.
Outside of the good points and the small flaws noted earlier, there are probably four points where the story falls short. First is Davros. Michael Wisher was not available so another actor was brought in. Unfortunately, the Davros mask from Genesis of the Daleks was the only one available and it was both falling apart and didn't fit the new actor very well. So it looks odd in any type of close up. He also sounds off. For people watching with four years separating the two appearances of Davros, they probably wouldn't have noticed, but when watched close you notice the voice changes and the total lack of subtlety. Davros is ranting from the start. Even in the moment between Davros and the Doctor in Episode Four where they try to talk as scientists, attempting to recreate the scene in Genesis, Davros is still going off half-cocked and sounds completely insane. It takes all the menace out of him that was there the first time around where his cold calculation was what really scared you.
Second is the production values. No way about it, the Daleks look bad. They are run down, their heads wobble when they spin and you could actually see the Dalek operators walking the Daleks toward the Movellan ship because they couldn't roll across the sand in the quarry. You can also see studio lights acting as the side lighting. There are also a couple of moments where the camera should have cut away but instead caught small mistakes like Davros bumping into the wall when driving away with the Daleks in Episode Three. The budget was being stretched and it unfortunately showed.
Third is the shift of the Daleks to robots. I'm sure any and all references to the Daleks being robots is a Douglas Adams change as Terry Nation would never have made that mistake. It is something impossible to reconcile and goes against everything ever known about the Daleks. Davros' whole point was to create the superior organic being. The idea of the Daleks being robots only would have insulted him. Having the Daleks be slaves to logic is fine but they were never nor should ever be considered as robots. It's a dumb change that could have easily been worked around.
Fourth is how the Movellans were done as androids. The design of the Movellans is very Seventies but that's fine. What doesn't quite work is how the Movellans were taken down. Rather than needing to fight them and blow parts of them off, they simply have belt clip power cells taken off and that seems overly weak. When they go down, it is also like they are in a slow motion dance which just looks weird. Half the time you don't even know what has happened, they just start dancing. The only instance where a fight seems real is when Romana breaks off Sharrel's arm and you see the wires coming out of it. Even then, Sharrel dances about until she rips off the power pack. It just looks silly and reduces what could have been a good idea in the Movellans to something ineffective.
There are other instances where the story gets a bit silly, most notably when the Doctor destroys a Dalek by putting his hat on the eyestalk. If there was anything that made the Daleks look pathetic, it was that. There is a story that Terry Nation deliberately didn't include K-9 (and Douglas Adams explained his absence) because he didn't want the robot dog to show up the Daleks. I'm not sure the Daleks could have been more shown up than they were at the end.
I think what makes all of this most frustrating is that there was so much good that was going for the story for about two and a half episodes. The production values and the problems with Davros were still minimal and the story ripped along and kept you engaged. But as soon as the Movellans' true motives came through and the Doctor and Romana had to work against them, all these other problems came to the fore and just dragged the story down.
That said, it is still an entertaining story and it keeps you engaged. At no point can I actively remember looking at the time and wondering when the story was going to be over because I was done with it. It worked fairly well, it just had a number of problems, many of which could have been fixed with a little more time, effort and focus on the heart of the story. But it does have those flaws and to give it anything better than a middling score would be asking to overlook too much.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Growing up, I have fairly solid recollections of three Doctor Who stories: Masque of Mandragora, The Face of Evil, and The Invasion of Time. However, I have a vague recollection of another story and I think it might be Destiny of the Daleks so I'm curious to see if I was right. I'm also curious to see if this story is as bad as it's reputation suggests as it is generally regarded as the worst of all the classic Dalek stories.
Plot Summary
Romana regenerates into a form similar to Princess Astra, although she tries a couple of other styles before settling on it. The Doctor is meanwhile tinkering with K-9 and accidentally faults his voicebox, giving him a robotic version of laryngitis. Using the randomizer to avoid the Black Guardian, they land on an unknown planet in the middle of a rocky ruin.
Noting high levels of radiation, they take anti-radiation pills and leave to explore. While exploring the ruins, they observe a group of humanoids performing a quick burial, piling the body with stones. They also observe a space ship landing and then burying itself part way into the ground. They attempt to approach it, but it fires at them and drives them into one of the buildings for shelter.
In the building, an earthquake occurs and the Doctor ends up trapped under a column. Romana heads back to the TARDIS to get K-9 to help lift the beam but the same earthquake dislodged stones, blocking the entrance to the TARDIS. While she is gone, the Doctor is captured by a squad from the spaceship who are called Movellans. They take him back to their ship where they reveal that they are on the planet Skaro.
Romana returns to find the Doctor gone. She is startled by the appearance of a humanoid and backing away from him, she falls into the lower level. Her fall alerts the Daleks who break through a section and take her prisoner. The human who startled her observes this and is shortly afterward captured by the Movellans. His name is Tyssan and he was a prisoner of the Daleks who escaped. He tells the Doctor and the Movellans of the Daleks capture of Romana and that they are drilling for something, using captured humanoids to clear away the debris as they do.
Romana is interrogated by the Daleks and once she is found to not be an agent against the Daleks, she is sent into the tunnels to work. Feeling the effects of radiation exposure, she is weakened but informed by other prisoners that the only way out is death. Romana continues to work for a while and then stops her hearts, putting herself in suspended animation, simulating death. When the work cycle is finished, the Daleks order other prisoners to take her to the surface and bury her.
The Doctor, Tyssan, Commander Sharrel and two other Movellans enter the tunnel to find out what the Daleks are up to and to rescue Romana. Their presence alerts the Daleks who investigate. This clears the control room and the Doctor examines their plans, deducing that the Daleks are digging to find the old Kaled science bunker. The Doctor also realizes that the Daleks are unaware of an old service shaft leading to the level below the bunker. He and the Movellans leave to make for the shaft. The Daleks discover one of the Movellan guards left behind to guard and shoots him down, but the rest of the party escapes.
They discover Romana's grave on the surface but she has already emerged from it and rejoins the Doctor. The group heads down the service shaft and enters the fourth level where they find the preserved body of Davros, which the Doctor had suspected they were looking for. As the Daleks begin to drill in, a cave in buries one Movellan while leaving Commander Sharrel on the other side. Davros begins to reanimate and calls out for the Daleks, attracting the attention of the Doctor, Romana and Tyssan. With the Daleks about to drill in, the Doctor pushes Davros down the hallway to a room where a window to the surface has been exposed. He sends Romana and Tyssan out to the Movellan spacecraft while he stays with Davros.
Romana and Tyssan make their way through the country, trying to avoid Dalek patrols. They spot one Dalek and separate with Tyssan trying to attract the Dalek's attention. The Dalek fires towards him, but this action attracts the attention of the Movellans who destroy the Dalek with a long range cannon. Romana then makes her way to the ship. Inside, she informs the Movellans that the Doctor is in trouble but notices that they already have a feed of Davros and that the Movellan who was buried in the cave in is alive and working like normal. They stun Romana, knocking her out.
The Doctor sees the Daleks approaching but holds them off with a blasting explosive he picked up, saying that he will kill Davros. The Daleks leave but return with the humanoids they had used in the mines and begin killing them. The Doctor orders them to stop and agrees to turn over Davros if the people are allowed to go free and if he is given a one minute head start. Davros agrees and the prisoners are sent out. The Doctor attaches the bomb to Davros' chair, threatening to blow it up remotely and then leaves via the window. Davros orders the Daleks to remove the bomb and as he leaves the room the Doctor detonates it, destroying the two Daleks holding it but leaving Davros alive.
The Doctor is found by Tyssan who had just sent the released prisoners into hiding. They are captured by a Dalek patrol but the Dalek is destroyed by a Movellan guard. The guard tries to take the Doctor prisoner but he manages to short circuit it as he has realized the Movellans are androids.
With the failure to capture the Doctor, the Movellans place Romana in an isolation tube in the open with an incendiary device. The Doctor observes Romana in the tube and approaches it alone, telling Tyssan to stay in hiding. As he crouches near the tube, the Movellan's knock him out and take both him and Romana back into the ship, having elected not to waste the bomb on Romana with the Doctor captured. Tyssan then runs back to where the other prisoners are hiding.
The Doctor wakes on the Movellan ship where they explain that they are caught in a stalemate with the Dalek fleet. The Doctor demonstrates with Romana and a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors how their and the Dalek's slavery to logic has produced the stalemate. The Movellans decide to take the Doctor with them to reprogram their computers to fight the Daleks. The Doctor reasons this is why the Daleks have awakened Davros as well.
Commander Sharrel dispatches one of his men to set up the bomb that will ignite the Skaroan atmosphere and destroy the Daleks with the man to stay behind to ensure detonation manually. He goes and sets up the bomb but is disarmed and reprogrammed by Tyssan and the other prisoners who get the drop on him. They do the same for another Movellan sent to investigate. Using the two as cover, the prisoners storm the ship and deactivate all the Movellans except for Commander Sharrel who slips away.
The Doctor leaves the prisoners and Romana to rework the Movellan ship while he goes after Davros. On his way he observes a number of Daleks equipped with detonation charges heading towards the Movellan ship. He slips in to the Dalek base and confronts Davros who is planning to sacrifice those Daleks to destroy the Movellans as a Dalek transport ship is coming to pick him up. One Dalek is left behind to guard Davros and it takes the Doctor prisoner.
After finishing repairs to the ship, Romana notices that Commander Sharrel is missing just as the Daleks arrive. She races out of the ship while several other prisoners come out and hold back the Daleks using the Movellan weapons. Romana gets free but the prisoners are pushed back into the Movellan ship. Romana finds a damaged Sharrel and manages to stop him from detonating the bomb. She then pulls off his power pack and leaves the powerless body as she takes the bomb away.
The Doctor takes his hat and props in on the Dalek guard's eyestalk. The Dalek begins firing indiscriminately until it runs into a wall and explodes. The Doctor then wrestles with Davros but gives way deliberately, letting him fall forward on the button that sets off the explosives on the Daleks. The Daleks explode before they can circle the Movellan ship, leaving it undamaged.
The Doctor takes Davros to the Movellan ship and places him in cryogenic stasis while Tyssan programs the Movellan ship to rendezvous with an Earth transport to take Davros away for trial against all civilized races. Before the ship can take off, the Doctor and Romana dash out and return to the TARDIS where they depart Skaro.
Analysis
This wasn't as bad as I was expecting. In many ways, it's actually a decent story, one of the more engaging ones that Terry Nation put together. Admittedly, Douglas Adams rewrote a good portion of it and most of the stuff that I didn't care for was blatantly Douglas Adams' additions. But there were other problems that took this down from a good story to a more middling story.
The Doctor is good in this one but rather dark. He is witty and snappy and it works very well. But he also has a few quips that are rather needling and play up the Daleks as fools. He also goes so far as to detonate the bomb he set up, which could have easily killed Davros had he not removed it. Granted, the Doctor was probably assuming that the first thing Davros would do would be to remove the bomb, but it is still much closer to murder than we've seen the Doctor do in quite awhile. It just seems a bit out of character for him to go that far without an open provocation.
I like Romana in this too. I think from an overall perspective, I prefer the first Romana, but in this instance, the new Romana works well with the Doctor. She is not a damsel and her wearing a feminine version of the Doctor's outfit really suits her as she works very much as the Doctor's counterpart in this story. I especially like her taking the onus on herself to escape from the Dalek's mines by faking her own death. It didn't muck about in terms of time and she didn't spend any time pining about waiting for someone to rescue her. She saw how to do it and in a way that wouldn't cause anyone else to be harmed and just did it.
I did not really care for the joke generation. That and the scene with K-9 (a prep for introducing the new voice of K-9 in The Creature From the Pit) we're very obviously written by Douglas Adams and don't quite work for me. What bothers me is not the multiple bodies she goes through while regenerating (presumably as she has a measure of control over the changes before settling on a final form) but just in the fact that it wasn't that funny. Even if it had been funny, it would have been out of place given the dark and somewhat grim nature of this story. It's one thing to crack a joke to break tension in a dark story, but a scene like this belongs in an overt comedy story and it just doesn't work relative to the rest of the story.
One of the best things about this story is the camera work. Obviously anything on film look better than stuff on tape. But they also used a steady cam which gave such a smooth and sharp picture in the action scenes. On top of that, the director chose some excellent angles to film the Daleks, giving them the illusion of seeming to loom over the others. It made the Daleks seem much more menacing than you might have otherwise thought. It was really good work and enjoyable to watch, regardless of what was going on in the actual story.
Outside of the good points and the small flaws noted earlier, there are probably four points where the story falls short. First is Davros. Michael Wisher was not available so another actor was brought in. Unfortunately, the Davros mask from Genesis of the Daleks was the only one available and it was both falling apart and didn't fit the new actor very well. So it looks odd in any type of close up. He also sounds off. For people watching with four years separating the two appearances of Davros, they probably wouldn't have noticed, but when watched close you notice the voice changes and the total lack of subtlety. Davros is ranting from the start. Even in the moment between Davros and the Doctor in Episode Four where they try to talk as scientists, attempting to recreate the scene in Genesis, Davros is still going off half-cocked and sounds completely insane. It takes all the menace out of him that was there the first time around where his cold calculation was what really scared you.
Second is the production values. No way about it, the Daleks look bad. They are run down, their heads wobble when they spin and you could actually see the Dalek operators walking the Daleks toward the Movellan ship because they couldn't roll across the sand in the quarry. You can also see studio lights acting as the side lighting. There are also a couple of moments where the camera should have cut away but instead caught small mistakes like Davros bumping into the wall when driving away with the Daleks in Episode Three. The budget was being stretched and it unfortunately showed.
Third is the shift of the Daleks to robots. I'm sure any and all references to the Daleks being robots is a Douglas Adams change as Terry Nation would never have made that mistake. It is something impossible to reconcile and goes against everything ever known about the Daleks. Davros' whole point was to create the superior organic being. The idea of the Daleks being robots only would have insulted him. Having the Daleks be slaves to logic is fine but they were never nor should ever be considered as robots. It's a dumb change that could have easily been worked around.
Fourth is how the Movellans were done as androids. The design of the Movellans is very Seventies but that's fine. What doesn't quite work is how the Movellans were taken down. Rather than needing to fight them and blow parts of them off, they simply have belt clip power cells taken off and that seems overly weak. When they go down, it is also like they are in a slow motion dance which just looks weird. Half the time you don't even know what has happened, they just start dancing. The only instance where a fight seems real is when Romana breaks off Sharrel's arm and you see the wires coming out of it. Even then, Sharrel dances about until she rips off the power pack. It just looks silly and reduces what could have been a good idea in the Movellans to something ineffective.
There are other instances where the story gets a bit silly, most notably when the Doctor destroys a Dalek by putting his hat on the eyestalk. If there was anything that made the Daleks look pathetic, it was that. There is a story that Terry Nation deliberately didn't include K-9 (and Douglas Adams explained his absence) because he didn't want the robot dog to show up the Daleks. I'm not sure the Daleks could have been more shown up than they were at the end.
I think what makes all of this most frustrating is that there was so much good that was going for the story for about two and a half episodes. The production values and the problems with Davros were still minimal and the story ripped along and kept you engaged. But as soon as the Movellans' true motives came through and the Doctor and Romana had to work against them, all these other problems came to the fore and just dragged the story down.
That said, it is still an entertaining story and it keeps you engaged. At no point can I actively remember looking at the time and wondering when the story was going to be over because I was done with it. It worked fairly well, it just had a number of problems, many of which could have been fixed with a little more time, effort and focus on the heart of the story. But it does have those flaws and to give it anything better than a middling score would be asking to overlook too much.
Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5
Monday, January 9, 2017
Tooth and Claw
We are not amused!
Tooth and Claw was the second episode of the Second Series and the second celebrity historical with Queen Victoria. Victoria is actually played by the same actress who nearly became a companion to the Second Doctor (Samantha in The Faceless Ones) except that she turned it down when offered, presumably due to other commitments, paving the way for Victoria Waterfield in The Evil of the Daleks. I remembered being not overly impressed by this story the first time around, in contrast to most fan reaction, so we'll see if it plays better a second time.
Plot Summary
A group of monks arrive at a country estate called Torchwood House in 1879 and take the household prisoner, locking them in the basement with a creature in a cage. Nearby, the Doctor and Rose land, undershooting their intended target of a 1979 concert. They run into the caravan of Queen Victoria who was forced to abandon the train due to a tree on the tracks. She is now making for Torchwood House to spend the night. The Doctor uses the psychic paper to convince the queen that he has been appointed as Lord Protector over her person and he is invited along.
The group arrives at the house where the monks are posing as staff and the master of the house, Sir Robert, is being forced to assist in their plan. The group is invited in and Sir Robert shows the Queen, the Doctor and Rose the house. The Doctor becomes fascinated by a telescope built by Sir Robert's father who was a close friend of Prince Albert prior to his death and would come up for visits. Sir Robert begins to tell the legend of the wolf but is interrupted by Father Angelo suggesting that everyone freshen up before dinner.
Each person heads to a different room to prepare. The Queen also has a special package locked away for safekeeping. The monks pass out mugs of drugged tea and knock out all the guards, leaving the Queen, Sir Robert, the Doctor, Rose and Captain Reynolds (commander of the Queen's guard) awake. While Rose is dressing for dinner, she discovers a maid named Flora who tells her of what happened. They go to warn the Doctor but are captured by the monks and chained with everyone else in the basement.
At dinner, Sir Robert continues with the story of the wolf, which parallel's the typical werewolf legend. He also notes that his father and Prince Albert indulged in the tales a great deal during his visits and Sir Robert suspects that his father actually believed the legend to be true. He notes that while most of the slaughter was against livestock, once a generation a child would disappear, usually a boy, as well. As they talk, Father Angelo, posing as the butler, moves to the window and begins chanting.
In the basement, a young man is enclosed in the cage but with dilated eyes. Rose recognizes a sign of alien life and communicates with it. It admits to being alien, infecting new bodies as the old ones deteriorate, but does not admit it's origin. The moon begins to break through the clouds and the man begins to change into a wolf. Rose urges everyone to ignore the change and pull on the chain binding them together. In the dining room, the Doctor becomes alarmed at the monk's change and he and Sir Robert leave the room, following the sound of the howls. They open the door just as Rose and the staff pull the chain loose and the werewolf breaks free from it's cage.
Father Angelo disarms Captain Reynolds but Queen Victoria pulls a gun from her purse and shoots him. The gamekeeping staff pull weapons from the cabinet and fire at the werewolf, driving it back. It regroups and kills the gamekeepers and the butler while the rest retreat. Sir Robert's wife and the maids head for the kitchen to escape but find the doors boarded shut and guarded by armed monks. Sir Robert also discovers this in another room and he is shot at while trying to open the windows for Victoria to escape.
The group retreats further in, the Queen retrieving her valuables from the safe and meet Captain Reynolds in the hall. He holds off the werewolf while Sir Robert, the Queen, the Doctor and Rose barricade themselves in the library. The wolf kills Reynolds but does not burst in to the room, instead looking for another way in. The Doctor discovers that the walls are varnished with the oil of mistletoe, something the women notice the monk guards wearing outside. He deduces that the wolf is allergic to mistletoe and that buys them time to look through the books for answers.
The Doctor pulls one book and discovers that the ship from which the wolf landed, crashed over three hundred years ago near the abbey of the monks. He theorizes that only a small sample of the cells survived the crash and took hundred of years to grow into the form it is now. Rose tells how the man, before transforming, spoke of wanting the Queen and to create the empire of the wolf. The Queen produces her hidden treasure, a great diamond that Prince Albert always brought with him to be cut down, suggesting that the wolf might want it. The Doctor realizes Sir Robert's father and Prince Albert had actually been collaborating, planning a trap in case the wolf ever attacked the house.
The werewolf bursts into the room through the skylight and the group runs to the observatory. Sir Robert's wife emerges and throws a bucket of mistletoe tea on the werewolf which causes the creature to retreat. The women return to the kitchen while Sir Robert stands guard outside the observatory room. The Doctor and Rose begin to align the telescope with the moon, the Doctor telling Rose that it is actually a light focusing machine, using the large diamond as the final focus for the moonlight.
The wolf recovers and kills Sir Robert before bursting into the room. It scratches the Queen as the Doctor finishes aligning the machine. A beam of moonlight comes out and hits the wolf, paralyzing it. He tightens the beam through the diamond and the wolf evaporates through overexposure to the light.
The Queen knights the Doctor and Rose for their services and then banishes them from the realm due to their cavalier and un-Godly attitude towards things of the planets and stars. She also takes the Torchwood House from Sir Robert's widow who doesn't want it anymore to establish the Torchwood Institute to defend against alien menaces, including the Doctor. The Doctor and Rose return to the TARDIS, speculating that the Queen has become infected with the werewolf DNA and that it is reaffirming itself in the Royal family.
Analysis
This story is a bit of a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it is a fast paced adventure story with an interesting and more energetic take on Queen Victoria. On the other hand, it breaks it's own tension in the wrong places, is rather poorly directed and retains too much flab on the end that could have been better served elsewhere.
The Doctor is pretty good in this one, although he is rather light-hearted through the whole adventure. It's an odd shift with the next story being School Reunion and the darker Doctor persona comes through. I also wish there had been a little more time and volume devoted to the Doctor explaining the werewolf. He passes it off very quickly, mostly mumbling and I couldn't even begin to tell you what he said other than light transference. But still, he was enjoyable especially in the direct adventure parts. I did also like the nod to Jamie, allowing David Tennant to use his natural Scottish accent for a time.
I did not like Rose in this one. In fact, this story may be one of the strongest examples of my dislike for Rose. She is cavalier in this story to the point of being just a brat. One of the best scenes is Queen Victoria telling off Rose for cracking a joke when their lives are at risk and a man has just died to save them. It shows a real detachment from Rose. She is confident that the Doctor will save her and the situation in general so minor deaths and the overall tension of the situation are flippancies to her.
She also instigates a moment I didn't like in the Doctor where he also breaks the mood by having a moment with Rose about how cool it is to be encountering a werewolf. Even Doctor's who had flippant attitudes, such as the Fourth Doctor, would have respect over people who were killed, especially in his defense. It's an unfortunate attitude to be seen in the Tenth Doctor and Rose only feeds into that.
I liked Queen Victoria, especially when she acted against type. She is often depicted in history as a stogy sourpuss and it was nice to see her portrayed as a robust and relatively independent woman, though still tenderhearted, especially where Prince Albert is concerned. I enjoyed that she went so far as to kill Father Angelo, although had hesitation and remorse about it. It's only at the end of the story where she reverts back into type that she gets boring. I especially disliked the heavy-handed bit of exposition regarding the establishment of Torchwood. I thought that section poorly written and not very well acted either.
Most of the rest of the cast was decent, although not memorable. That's not unusual, but I thought it a bit of a waste with Father Angelo. After showing such fortitude in the first half of the story, to simply stand there while Victoria shoots him seemed highly anti-climatic. It also would have solved the problem of adding a little color to the villain. The werewolf worked fine as the monster, and I thought the CGI pretty good for the time, but the werewolf also has no personality, meaning no depth from a villain standpoint. I think Doctor Who works better when the villain has more color and thought, which Father Angelo could have provided. Having a unkillable beastie makes for a one-note villain that gets a bit tired after a while. To be fair, this is a somewhat common complaint anytime a werewolf is used as a villain in any medium.
I did not like the camera work in this story. In the beginning, the monks enter and go very kung-fu on the people of the house, but the cutting is so disjointed that it is just a horrible mishmash of faces and people falling over. There is a similar overuse of close ups throughout the story and when a longshot is actually used, you feel almost a sense of relief, even if that longshot shows the wolf advancing up a hallway. Outside of these, there wasn't much else to note, as most of the shots were fairly static and didn't provide much else to draw you in, relying on the overall story to do that instead.
The story itself was fine with the fast pace of a running from a monster providing the bulk of the it. It indulged in the most common clichés of monster stories including having a strongman believing that he has killed the monster be instead killed by it and having it be vulnerable to a common thing, allowing the heroes the time they need to figure out how to defeat it. If you are in the mood for a simple run around, that works fine. If you want more depth (a la Midnight), this will disappoint you.
The ending also disappointed me. Victoria's reversion of personality I think was supposed to be funny, but it didn't really work for me, especially after having been through the adventure. I also didn't care for the casual dismissal of the Royal family being werewolves. Not that I care about them, but they just spent the whole story defeating an evil monster who reveled in death and destruction. To pass off that the entity survived and reestablish itself a hundred years later in a joke fashion undercut the whole theme of the story.
I also thought it rather silly about turning hemophilia into a joke about werewolves, both in its attitude and logic. Seven of Victoria's nine children were married by the time this would have happened so to suggest that a blood disease would have passed to them at the time when she already had a number of grandchildren makes no sense whatsoever. Given the tragic deaths of several of her descendants due to hemophilia and the implications of the disease, it's also in somewhat poor taste to pass it off as a lycanthropic affliction. It's a lame joke at the current royal's expense that does offer a genuine detraction to the overall story.
In the end, I'd have to say my reservation in going back to this was somewhat justified. It wasn't terrible and I generally enjoyed the chase part, but the rest of the story just didn't do it for me. That one of the main characters made herself somewhat painful to watch in the story didn't help in it's passing. This is a quick adventure story to put on the background if you're in a certain mood. Not horrible, but I'd say the bad outweighs the good in this case.
Overall personal score: 1.5 out of 5
Tooth and Claw was the second episode of the Second Series and the second celebrity historical with Queen Victoria. Victoria is actually played by the same actress who nearly became a companion to the Second Doctor (Samantha in The Faceless Ones) except that she turned it down when offered, presumably due to other commitments, paving the way for Victoria Waterfield in The Evil of the Daleks. I remembered being not overly impressed by this story the first time around, in contrast to most fan reaction, so we'll see if it plays better a second time.
Plot Summary
A group of monks arrive at a country estate called Torchwood House in 1879 and take the household prisoner, locking them in the basement with a creature in a cage. Nearby, the Doctor and Rose land, undershooting their intended target of a 1979 concert. They run into the caravan of Queen Victoria who was forced to abandon the train due to a tree on the tracks. She is now making for Torchwood House to spend the night. The Doctor uses the psychic paper to convince the queen that he has been appointed as Lord Protector over her person and he is invited along.
The group arrives at the house where the monks are posing as staff and the master of the house, Sir Robert, is being forced to assist in their plan. The group is invited in and Sir Robert shows the Queen, the Doctor and Rose the house. The Doctor becomes fascinated by a telescope built by Sir Robert's father who was a close friend of Prince Albert prior to his death and would come up for visits. Sir Robert begins to tell the legend of the wolf but is interrupted by Father Angelo suggesting that everyone freshen up before dinner.
Each person heads to a different room to prepare. The Queen also has a special package locked away for safekeeping. The monks pass out mugs of drugged tea and knock out all the guards, leaving the Queen, Sir Robert, the Doctor, Rose and Captain Reynolds (commander of the Queen's guard) awake. While Rose is dressing for dinner, she discovers a maid named Flora who tells her of what happened. They go to warn the Doctor but are captured by the monks and chained with everyone else in the basement.
At dinner, Sir Robert continues with the story of the wolf, which parallel's the typical werewolf legend. He also notes that his father and Prince Albert indulged in the tales a great deal during his visits and Sir Robert suspects that his father actually believed the legend to be true. He notes that while most of the slaughter was against livestock, once a generation a child would disappear, usually a boy, as well. As they talk, Father Angelo, posing as the butler, moves to the window and begins chanting.
In the basement, a young man is enclosed in the cage but with dilated eyes. Rose recognizes a sign of alien life and communicates with it. It admits to being alien, infecting new bodies as the old ones deteriorate, but does not admit it's origin. The moon begins to break through the clouds and the man begins to change into a wolf. Rose urges everyone to ignore the change and pull on the chain binding them together. In the dining room, the Doctor becomes alarmed at the monk's change and he and Sir Robert leave the room, following the sound of the howls. They open the door just as Rose and the staff pull the chain loose and the werewolf breaks free from it's cage.
Father Angelo disarms Captain Reynolds but Queen Victoria pulls a gun from her purse and shoots him. The gamekeeping staff pull weapons from the cabinet and fire at the werewolf, driving it back. It regroups and kills the gamekeepers and the butler while the rest retreat. Sir Robert's wife and the maids head for the kitchen to escape but find the doors boarded shut and guarded by armed monks. Sir Robert also discovers this in another room and he is shot at while trying to open the windows for Victoria to escape.
The group retreats further in, the Queen retrieving her valuables from the safe and meet Captain Reynolds in the hall. He holds off the werewolf while Sir Robert, the Queen, the Doctor and Rose barricade themselves in the library. The wolf kills Reynolds but does not burst in to the room, instead looking for another way in. The Doctor discovers that the walls are varnished with the oil of mistletoe, something the women notice the monk guards wearing outside. He deduces that the wolf is allergic to mistletoe and that buys them time to look through the books for answers.
The Doctor pulls one book and discovers that the ship from which the wolf landed, crashed over three hundred years ago near the abbey of the monks. He theorizes that only a small sample of the cells survived the crash and took hundred of years to grow into the form it is now. Rose tells how the man, before transforming, spoke of wanting the Queen and to create the empire of the wolf. The Queen produces her hidden treasure, a great diamond that Prince Albert always brought with him to be cut down, suggesting that the wolf might want it. The Doctor realizes Sir Robert's father and Prince Albert had actually been collaborating, planning a trap in case the wolf ever attacked the house.
The werewolf bursts into the room through the skylight and the group runs to the observatory. Sir Robert's wife emerges and throws a bucket of mistletoe tea on the werewolf which causes the creature to retreat. The women return to the kitchen while Sir Robert stands guard outside the observatory room. The Doctor and Rose begin to align the telescope with the moon, the Doctor telling Rose that it is actually a light focusing machine, using the large diamond as the final focus for the moonlight.
The wolf recovers and kills Sir Robert before bursting into the room. It scratches the Queen as the Doctor finishes aligning the machine. A beam of moonlight comes out and hits the wolf, paralyzing it. He tightens the beam through the diamond and the wolf evaporates through overexposure to the light.
The Queen knights the Doctor and Rose for their services and then banishes them from the realm due to their cavalier and un-Godly attitude towards things of the planets and stars. She also takes the Torchwood House from Sir Robert's widow who doesn't want it anymore to establish the Torchwood Institute to defend against alien menaces, including the Doctor. The Doctor and Rose return to the TARDIS, speculating that the Queen has become infected with the werewolf DNA and that it is reaffirming itself in the Royal family.
Analysis
This story is a bit of a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it is a fast paced adventure story with an interesting and more energetic take on Queen Victoria. On the other hand, it breaks it's own tension in the wrong places, is rather poorly directed and retains too much flab on the end that could have been better served elsewhere.
The Doctor is pretty good in this one, although he is rather light-hearted through the whole adventure. It's an odd shift with the next story being School Reunion and the darker Doctor persona comes through. I also wish there had been a little more time and volume devoted to the Doctor explaining the werewolf. He passes it off very quickly, mostly mumbling and I couldn't even begin to tell you what he said other than light transference. But still, he was enjoyable especially in the direct adventure parts. I did also like the nod to Jamie, allowing David Tennant to use his natural Scottish accent for a time.
I did not like Rose in this one. In fact, this story may be one of the strongest examples of my dislike for Rose. She is cavalier in this story to the point of being just a brat. One of the best scenes is Queen Victoria telling off Rose for cracking a joke when their lives are at risk and a man has just died to save them. It shows a real detachment from Rose. She is confident that the Doctor will save her and the situation in general so minor deaths and the overall tension of the situation are flippancies to her.
She also instigates a moment I didn't like in the Doctor where he also breaks the mood by having a moment with Rose about how cool it is to be encountering a werewolf. Even Doctor's who had flippant attitudes, such as the Fourth Doctor, would have respect over people who were killed, especially in his defense. It's an unfortunate attitude to be seen in the Tenth Doctor and Rose only feeds into that.
I liked Queen Victoria, especially when she acted against type. She is often depicted in history as a stogy sourpuss and it was nice to see her portrayed as a robust and relatively independent woman, though still tenderhearted, especially where Prince Albert is concerned. I enjoyed that she went so far as to kill Father Angelo, although had hesitation and remorse about it. It's only at the end of the story where she reverts back into type that she gets boring. I especially disliked the heavy-handed bit of exposition regarding the establishment of Torchwood. I thought that section poorly written and not very well acted either.
Most of the rest of the cast was decent, although not memorable. That's not unusual, but I thought it a bit of a waste with Father Angelo. After showing such fortitude in the first half of the story, to simply stand there while Victoria shoots him seemed highly anti-climatic. It also would have solved the problem of adding a little color to the villain. The werewolf worked fine as the monster, and I thought the CGI pretty good for the time, but the werewolf also has no personality, meaning no depth from a villain standpoint. I think Doctor Who works better when the villain has more color and thought, which Father Angelo could have provided. Having a unkillable beastie makes for a one-note villain that gets a bit tired after a while. To be fair, this is a somewhat common complaint anytime a werewolf is used as a villain in any medium.
I did not like the camera work in this story. In the beginning, the monks enter and go very kung-fu on the people of the house, but the cutting is so disjointed that it is just a horrible mishmash of faces and people falling over. There is a similar overuse of close ups throughout the story and when a longshot is actually used, you feel almost a sense of relief, even if that longshot shows the wolf advancing up a hallway. Outside of these, there wasn't much else to note, as most of the shots were fairly static and didn't provide much else to draw you in, relying on the overall story to do that instead.
The story itself was fine with the fast pace of a running from a monster providing the bulk of the it. It indulged in the most common clichés of monster stories including having a strongman believing that he has killed the monster be instead killed by it and having it be vulnerable to a common thing, allowing the heroes the time they need to figure out how to defeat it. If you are in the mood for a simple run around, that works fine. If you want more depth (a la Midnight), this will disappoint you.
The ending also disappointed me. Victoria's reversion of personality I think was supposed to be funny, but it didn't really work for me, especially after having been through the adventure. I also didn't care for the casual dismissal of the Royal family being werewolves. Not that I care about them, but they just spent the whole story defeating an evil monster who reveled in death and destruction. To pass off that the entity survived and reestablish itself a hundred years later in a joke fashion undercut the whole theme of the story.
I also thought it rather silly about turning hemophilia into a joke about werewolves, both in its attitude and logic. Seven of Victoria's nine children were married by the time this would have happened so to suggest that a blood disease would have passed to them at the time when she already had a number of grandchildren makes no sense whatsoever. Given the tragic deaths of several of her descendants due to hemophilia and the implications of the disease, it's also in somewhat poor taste to pass it off as a lycanthropic affliction. It's a lame joke at the current royal's expense that does offer a genuine detraction to the overall story.
In the end, I'd have to say my reservation in going back to this was somewhat justified. It wasn't terrible and I generally enjoyed the chase part, but the rest of the story just didn't do it for me. That one of the main characters made herself somewhat painful to watch in the story didn't help in it's passing. This is a quick adventure story to put on the background if you're in a certain mood. Not horrible, but I'd say the bad outweighs the good in this case.
Overall personal score: 1.5 out of 5
Friday, January 6, 2017
Time and the Rani
Time and tide wait for the snowman.
Time and the Rani might be considered the worst Doctor Who story ever. To be fair to it though, it was slapped together extremely quickly with no time for script editing nor any budget. They also did not get Colin Baker back to do a regeneration scene, not surprising given how insultingly he was dismissed. Still, it does exist as it's own thing and must stand on it's own merit.
Plot Summary
The TARDIS is pursued by the Rani and forced to crash on the planet Lakertya. An explosion on the TARDIS causes him to regenerate as the Rani forces her way in and takes him prisoner, leaving Mel behind. The Doctor wakes later in the Rani's lab and tries to fight his way out but he is knocked out by her Tetrap servant. She then injects him with a chemical to inflict short term amnesia.
One of the locals, Ikona, captures Mel believing her to be allied with the Rani. He intends a hostage swap with the Rani for the Lakertyan leader Beyus, who is being forced to assist her. One of the other Lakertyans attempt to escape the Rani but is killed in a bubble trap. Mel prevents Ikona from falling into a similar trap and he realizes that she is telling the truth about not being allied with the Rani. The two of them make their way into a disused pipe to hide from the Rani's guards.
The Rani disguises herself as Mel and as the Doctor comes to, she convinces him that he was working on a machine in the lab and injured in the explosion which caused him to regenerate. Confused by the memory loss, he assumes it's part of the regeneration crisis and begins to work on the machine. But he is easily distracted and eventually realizes he is lacking the proper equipment. The Rani, losing patience with the Doctor's antics, suggests they head back to the TARDIS to gather the equipment.
As they walk back, the Doctor begins to regain his memory and is also becoming more suspicious of "Mel". Entering the TARDIS, he picks a new outfit and then begins to hunt for the needed equipment. On the monitor, they spy the real Mel trying to get back to the TARDIS, although the Rani tries to convince the Doctor that she is the Rani. As Mel approaches, she stumbles and is caught in a bubble trap. She floats away and lands on the edge of a lake, the bubble being slightly trapped so that it doesn't roll on the detonator. Ikona follows Mel and frees her from the trap.
The Doctor and the Rani return to the lab where the Doctor discovers a flaw in the machine. The Rani leaves to get a replacement part while he continues to work. Mel and Ikona run into Faroon, Beyus' wife. They tell her what happened to her and Beyus' daughter and Faroon is determined to tell Beyus in person. She walks into the Rani's fortress. Mel is determined to follow and Ikona creates a distraction for the Tetrap guard, allowing her to get in.
Mel meets the Doctor but he initially believes her to be the Rani while she is confused about his new appearance. They check each other's pulses to see if they are telling the truth and realize the deception. They meet with Beyus and Faroon, discovering that the Rani has captured some of Earth's greatest scientific minds and is holding them in suspended animation. She has also reserved a space for the Doctor.
Outside, the distracted Tetrap guard captures the Rani, believing her to be Mel. He frees her upon realizing his mistake and escorts her to her TARDIS where she retrieves the needed materials. She heads back and Mel and Faroon hide. The Doctor pretends as though he still thinks she's Mel, but the Rani quickly guesses that he has discerned the truth.
The Doctor flees and tries to hide in the Tetrap lair where he is quickly surrounded by the creatures. But Beyus activates the feeding system and releases the Doctor. He sends the Doctor out but also tells him to go to the leisure center of his people to understand why he obeys the Rani. He tries to stop the Doctor when the Doctor takes a piece of equipment from the Rani's machine but the Doctor knocks him down and escapes. He meets Ikona outside who saves him from an attacking Tetrap and takes him to the Lakertyan city.
Outside, Faroon returns to the city and Mel tries to get back to the TARDIS but is captured by the Tetraps. She is brought back to the Rani and held as a hostage until the Doctor returns the stolen piece of equipment.
Inside the leisure center, which Ikona is disdainful of, the Doctor discovers a sphere installed by the Rani. The Rani, learning of the Doctor's arrival and warning against helping him, opens a panel in the sphere releasing several deadly insects. They sting and kill two Lakertyans while the rest flee. Outside, a Tetrap offers the Rani's deal to the Doctor, which he accepts.
Mel arrives with the Tetrap and the exchange is made but Mel then disappears and the Doctor learns he has been tricked by a hologram. He decides to reinfiltrate the Rani's lab. Iknoa again distracts the guards but additional guards show up and the Doctor is captured. Mel is released from the prison and ordered to assist Beyus with the computers while the Doctor is brought in and installed in the cabinet earmarked for him.
Once installed, the Rani activates the machine and the various minds are directed into a giant brain in a sealed chamber. She is transferring their minds to it to aid her in developing a means to detonate a passing asteroid made of a material called "strange matter", which normally can only be detonated by interacting with itself. The resulting explosion would create a supernova and interact with the Lakertyan atmosphere, creating time particles. Lakertya would then be transformed into a giant time engine, allowing the Rani to manipulate large swaths of time for her own purposes.
The Rani dispatches the Tetraps who enter the Lakertyan city and fit all the Lakertyans with ankle bands that will kill them if they are removed or if a master switch is activated. As the Tetraps leave the Rani's lab, Ikona sneaks into the lab.
The Rani, observing the brain, begins to notice that the Doctor is beginning to infuse the brain with his own discordant personality. Angered that he might override the calculations, she pulls him out of his cabinet but before she can attack him, she is grabbed from behind by Ikona and shoved into the cabinet herself and locked in. The Doctor studies the brain, deducing it's function and figuring a way to stop it.
The Rani threatens Beyus as he passes by and he releases her, fearing for his people's safety. The Rani confronts the Doctor and admits that her plan will destroy all life on Lakertya, a fact that is overheard by the lead Tetrap. The Doctor and Mel get past the Rani while she is distracted by the brain completing it's calculations and informing her of what material she must fill the nose of the missile with.
The Doctor, Mel and Ikona return to the Lakertyan city to raise the people to fight the Rani. The Doctor manages to free them from their detonation bracelets and collects them in his umbrella. He and Mel then race back to the Rani's lab.
While they are away, the Rani finishes loading the missile and prepares to leave for her TARDIS. The chief Tetrap, aware of the consequences, offers to go with her in the TARDIS but she orders him to stay and contain the Lakertyans. He then follows her at a distance as she leaves, leaving the lab abandoned.
The Doctor and Mel return and use the bracelets to surround the brain and create a field, delaying the countdown. Beyus offers to stay and activate the bracelets. The Doctor and Mel run out and confront the Rani as Beyus activates the devices, halting the countdown at four seconds. The Rani angrily overrides the system, blowing up the brain and Beyus but launching the missile. She then leaves in her TARDIS.
The missile launch destroys the Rani's lab and the Doctor reassures the Lakertyans as the delay in launch threw the missile off it's trajectory and it misses the asteroid. He and Mel then depart in his TARDIS, while in the Rani's TARDIS, the Tetraps have taken over and captured her, preparing to take her back to their home planet where he mind will be used to help their people.
Analysis
After watching the first episode, I saw two possibilities for this story. Either it was going to turn in to The Twin Dilemma where it plummeted into badness around Episodes Three or Four, or this story was not going to be as bad as I expected. In the end, I have to say that I don't think this one is that bad. It's not particularly good, but I don't see why it typically finishes so low in various polls.
The Seventh Doctor's regeneration crisis seems to be quirkiness. Early in the story, there is heavy dose of physical comedy that thankfully starts to go away and is banished when we get to Paradise Towers. Throughout the story he has a constant quirk of misstating common sayings, which could have gotten old, but I'm actually a little sorry didn't stick around as a gimmick of his. Once or twice in a story would have been sufficient. But other than those, the Seventh Doctor emerges mostly as himself, just a touch more manic than he will become and I can't fault that. Had the physical comedy continued, it would have grated, but I see no problem with the Seventh Doctor in this story.
Mel is not great but she's not overly annoying either. He worst trait is that she does a lot of screaming in this story and most of it unnecessarily. I understand a scream when first confronted by a Tetrap as it does a little jump scare and most people find bats somewhat repulsive. I can also justify screaming her head off when in the bubble trap, given it's design to kill you. But after that, he screaming should have been curtailed. There is no reason for Mel to scream her head off every time she sees a Tetrap, even if they are grabbing her. I would have liked to have seen a bit more backbone and fortitude from her.
That being said, Mel did not fall into a whimpering mess the way Peri usually did. When not screaming, Mel was offering comfort and planning to the Lakertyans. She was always trying to help them or get back to the Doctor so she did show some fire and independence. I would have liked for her to be given a chance at some subterfuge or sabotage when she was forced to work with Beyus on the computers and that might have developed if there had been time for a rewrite or two. Still, on the whole, Mel is passible in this one and doesn't go poorly as she does in later stories.
The Rani continues to be enjoyable in this story. If the whole story had been like Episode One and part of Episode Two where the Doctor and the Rani work together (even under deception), this would be a far more enjoyable story just because I don't think anyone can get tired of the Rani's constant frustration and asides with the Doctor. It's not quite as self aware as in The Mark of the Rani but she also doesn't have the Master to play off. Still, it is enjoyable, especially as she has to keep herself from throttling the Doctor.
Unfortunately, once the posing as Mel phase is over, the Rani becomes much more of a generic villain. Her witticisms dry up and it becomes all about ordering the henchmen about to ensure the success of the plan. Her performance is still decent, but it loses the thing that really makes her stand out. Plus I kept getting distracted by a spot on side of her nose that I never really noticed in prior Episodes.
Another reason I thought at first that maybe this story was derided so much was because of the performance of the Lakertyans but that is not the case. Beyus and Faroon are well acted and carry the gravitas of a cowed people trying to preserve themselves. Ikona started a little shaky but as the action continued, his performance improved greatly. Sarn wasn't very good but she dies halfway through Episode One so it is only a small blemish and they other Lakertyans don't get enough screen time or dialogue to make any kind of impact. I had no qualms about them and didn't see any particular problems with their makeup either.
There were some production shortfalls, but nothing that ruined the story for me. The Tetraps weren't great but as long as they stayed in shadow, they worked reasonably well. I think if the outdoor scenes had been filmed later, it would have helped make them work a bit better. Likewise a later time might have helped diminish the need for tinting the sky as much. It wasn't as jarring as in Mindwarp, but it was still a pretty obvious computer effect that stood out whenever seen.
But I can imagine that the point where most people throw up their hands is the giant brain. It makes no sense. Where did it come from or how it was made is completely ignored. Nor is why a brain is used rather than just a large computer. It's something thrown in to be weird and I think just a touch horrifying for young kids but ends up coming across as just dumb. It doesn't help that the brain looks very much like the fabric prop that it actually was. Dimming the lights in the room helped but it still doesn't look particularly good and the story starts to go off the rails.
In my own mind, I can imagine that Pip and Jane Baker probably had an outline of a story they were working on to submit later and had probably gone over a few scenes before they got the desperation call from JNT. This is how I imagine that Episodes One and Two have a bit more depth and are more memorable. Episodes Three and Four have a much more slapdash feel and I think this is the point where what is on screen was a first draft effort rather than having been massaged a bit like the earlier script. Still, for me, this isn't so bad that it ruins the whole experience. It is still fairly well acted and the worst parts don't go on for so long that it becomes a slog.
Probably more bothersome to me than the brain was the lazy plot device of the bracelet bombs. The Rani was already controlling the population with the threat of deadly insects so why the bracelets except as something for the Doctor to use? Again, in a second or third draft, the insects would have been excised and only the bracelets would have been used as a means of controlling the population. The Doctor freeing them would have had the liberating effect of prompting them to action and it would have given Beyus the freedom to rise up as the Rani now could not commit instant genocide against his people. The Tetraps could have easily fled the lab and invaded her TARDIS after overhearing the Rani as her betrayal of them was easily understood at that point.
I don't think story ever had the potential of being great, but it had the potential of being better than it is. But I also think that in that lost potential, it is not as bad as it is made out to be. It moves quickly and the characters are all pretty much enjoyable. The plot is not overly complex, even if the Rani's plan is. It hums along well enough and any failures in production value were going to be there anyway because of budget and just the fact that it was the 1980's. Is it good? No. Is it terrible and something I would never watch again? Also no. I would call it slightly below average in my book, which rates it above at least two other Seventh Doctor stories. Would I watch it again? Probably, although I think I would get bored with it a second time around, especially in the later episodes. So for me, Dragonfire stands easily as the worst of the Seventh Doctor stories rather than this one.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Time and the Rani might be considered the worst Doctor Who story ever. To be fair to it though, it was slapped together extremely quickly with no time for script editing nor any budget. They also did not get Colin Baker back to do a regeneration scene, not surprising given how insultingly he was dismissed. Still, it does exist as it's own thing and must stand on it's own merit.
Plot Summary
The TARDIS is pursued by the Rani and forced to crash on the planet Lakertya. An explosion on the TARDIS causes him to regenerate as the Rani forces her way in and takes him prisoner, leaving Mel behind. The Doctor wakes later in the Rani's lab and tries to fight his way out but he is knocked out by her Tetrap servant. She then injects him with a chemical to inflict short term amnesia.
One of the locals, Ikona, captures Mel believing her to be allied with the Rani. He intends a hostage swap with the Rani for the Lakertyan leader Beyus, who is being forced to assist her. One of the other Lakertyans attempt to escape the Rani but is killed in a bubble trap. Mel prevents Ikona from falling into a similar trap and he realizes that she is telling the truth about not being allied with the Rani. The two of them make their way into a disused pipe to hide from the Rani's guards.
The Rani disguises herself as Mel and as the Doctor comes to, she convinces him that he was working on a machine in the lab and injured in the explosion which caused him to regenerate. Confused by the memory loss, he assumes it's part of the regeneration crisis and begins to work on the machine. But he is easily distracted and eventually realizes he is lacking the proper equipment. The Rani, losing patience with the Doctor's antics, suggests they head back to the TARDIS to gather the equipment.
As they walk back, the Doctor begins to regain his memory and is also becoming more suspicious of "Mel". Entering the TARDIS, he picks a new outfit and then begins to hunt for the needed equipment. On the monitor, they spy the real Mel trying to get back to the TARDIS, although the Rani tries to convince the Doctor that she is the Rani. As Mel approaches, she stumbles and is caught in a bubble trap. She floats away and lands on the edge of a lake, the bubble being slightly trapped so that it doesn't roll on the detonator. Ikona follows Mel and frees her from the trap.
The Doctor and the Rani return to the lab where the Doctor discovers a flaw in the machine. The Rani leaves to get a replacement part while he continues to work. Mel and Ikona run into Faroon, Beyus' wife. They tell her what happened to her and Beyus' daughter and Faroon is determined to tell Beyus in person. She walks into the Rani's fortress. Mel is determined to follow and Ikona creates a distraction for the Tetrap guard, allowing her to get in.
Mel meets the Doctor but he initially believes her to be the Rani while she is confused about his new appearance. They check each other's pulses to see if they are telling the truth and realize the deception. They meet with Beyus and Faroon, discovering that the Rani has captured some of Earth's greatest scientific minds and is holding them in suspended animation. She has also reserved a space for the Doctor.
Outside, the distracted Tetrap guard captures the Rani, believing her to be Mel. He frees her upon realizing his mistake and escorts her to her TARDIS where she retrieves the needed materials. She heads back and Mel and Faroon hide. The Doctor pretends as though he still thinks she's Mel, but the Rani quickly guesses that he has discerned the truth.
The Doctor flees and tries to hide in the Tetrap lair where he is quickly surrounded by the creatures. But Beyus activates the feeding system and releases the Doctor. He sends the Doctor out but also tells him to go to the leisure center of his people to understand why he obeys the Rani. He tries to stop the Doctor when the Doctor takes a piece of equipment from the Rani's machine but the Doctor knocks him down and escapes. He meets Ikona outside who saves him from an attacking Tetrap and takes him to the Lakertyan city.
Outside, Faroon returns to the city and Mel tries to get back to the TARDIS but is captured by the Tetraps. She is brought back to the Rani and held as a hostage until the Doctor returns the stolen piece of equipment.
Inside the leisure center, which Ikona is disdainful of, the Doctor discovers a sphere installed by the Rani. The Rani, learning of the Doctor's arrival and warning against helping him, opens a panel in the sphere releasing several deadly insects. They sting and kill two Lakertyans while the rest flee. Outside, a Tetrap offers the Rani's deal to the Doctor, which he accepts.
Mel arrives with the Tetrap and the exchange is made but Mel then disappears and the Doctor learns he has been tricked by a hologram. He decides to reinfiltrate the Rani's lab. Iknoa again distracts the guards but additional guards show up and the Doctor is captured. Mel is released from the prison and ordered to assist Beyus with the computers while the Doctor is brought in and installed in the cabinet earmarked for him.
Once installed, the Rani activates the machine and the various minds are directed into a giant brain in a sealed chamber. She is transferring their minds to it to aid her in developing a means to detonate a passing asteroid made of a material called "strange matter", which normally can only be detonated by interacting with itself. The resulting explosion would create a supernova and interact with the Lakertyan atmosphere, creating time particles. Lakertya would then be transformed into a giant time engine, allowing the Rani to manipulate large swaths of time for her own purposes.
The Rani dispatches the Tetraps who enter the Lakertyan city and fit all the Lakertyans with ankle bands that will kill them if they are removed or if a master switch is activated. As the Tetraps leave the Rani's lab, Ikona sneaks into the lab.
The Rani, observing the brain, begins to notice that the Doctor is beginning to infuse the brain with his own discordant personality. Angered that he might override the calculations, she pulls him out of his cabinet but before she can attack him, she is grabbed from behind by Ikona and shoved into the cabinet herself and locked in. The Doctor studies the brain, deducing it's function and figuring a way to stop it.
The Rani threatens Beyus as he passes by and he releases her, fearing for his people's safety. The Rani confronts the Doctor and admits that her plan will destroy all life on Lakertya, a fact that is overheard by the lead Tetrap. The Doctor and Mel get past the Rani while she is distracted by the brain completing it's calculations and informing her of what material she must fill the nose of the missile with.
The Doctor, Mel and Ikona return to the Lakertyan city to raise the people to fight the Rani. The Doctor manages to free them from their detonation bracelets and collects them in his umbrella. He and Mel then race back to the Rani's lab.
While they are away, the Rani finishes loading the missile and prepares to leave for her TARDIS. The chief Tetrap, aware of the consequences, offers to go with her in the TARDIS but she orders him to stay and contain the Lakertyans. He then follows her at a distance as she leaves, leaving the lab abandoned.
The Doctor and Mel return and use the bracelets to surround the brain and create a field, delaying the countdown. Beyus offers to stay and activate the bracelets. The Doctor and Mel run out and confront the Rani as Beyus activates the devices, halting the countdown at four seconds. The Rani angrily overrides the system, blowing up the brain and Beyus but launching the missile. She then leaves in her TARDIS.
The missile launch destroys the Rani's lab and the Doctor reassures the Lakertyans as the delay in launch threw the missile off it's trajectory and it misses the asteroid. He and Mel then depart in his TARDIS, while in the Rani's TARDIS, the Tetraps have taken over and captured her, preparing to take her back to their home planet where he mind will be used to help their people.
Analysis
After watching the first episode, I saw two possibilities for this story. Either it was going to turn in to The Twin Dilemma where it plummeted into badness around Episodes Three or Four, or this story was not going to be as bad as I expected. In the end, I have to say that I don't think this one is that bad. It's not particularly good, but I don't see why it typically finishes so low in various polls.
The Seventh Doctor's regeneration crisis seems to be quirkiness. Early in the story, there is heavy dose of physical comedy that thankfully starts to go away and is banished when we get to Paradise Towers. Throughout the story he has a constant quirk of misstating common sayings, which could have gotten old, but I'm actually a little sorry didn't stick around as a gimmick of his. Once or twice in a story would have been sufficient. But other than those, the Seventh Doctor emerges mostly as himself, just a touch more manic than he will become and I can't fault that. Had the physical comedy continued, it would have grated, but I see no problem with the Seventh Doctor in this story.
Mel is not great but she's not overly annoying either. He worst trait is that she does a lot of screaming in this story and most of it unnecessarily. I understand a scream when first confronted by a Tetrap as it does a little jump scare and most people find bats somewhat repulsive. I can also justify screaming her head off when in the bubble trap, given it's design to kill you. But after that, he screaming should have been curtailed. There is no reason for Mel to scream her head off every time she sees a Tetrap, even if they are grabbing her. I would have liked to have seen a bit more backbone and fortitude from her.
That being said, Mel did not fall into a whimpering mess the way Peri usually did. When not screaming, Mel was offering comfort and planning to the Lakertyans. She was always trying to help them or get back to the Doctor so she did show some fire and independence. I would have liked for her to be given a chance at some subterfuge or sabotage when she was forced to work with Beyus on the computers and that might have developed if there had been time for a rewrite or two. Still, on the whole, Mel is passible in this one and doesn't go poorly as she does in later stories.
The Rani continues to be enjoyable in this story. If the whole story had been like Episode One and part of Episode Two where the Doctor and the Rani work together (even under deception), this would be a far more enjoyable story just because I don't think anyone can get tired of the Rani's constant frustration and asides with the Doctor. It's not quite as self aware as in The Mark of the Rani but she also doesn't have the Master to play off. Still, it is enjoyable, especially as she has to keep herself from throttling the Doctor.
Unfortunately, once the posing as Mel phase is over, the Rani becomes much more of a generic villain. Her witticisms dry up and it becomes all about ordering the henchmen about to ensure the success of the plan. Her performance is still decent, but it loses the thing that really makes her stand out. Plus I kept getting distracted by a spot on side of her nose that I never really noticed in prior Episodes.
Another reason I thought at first that maybe this story was derided so much was because of the performance of the Lakertyans but that is not the case. Beyus and Faroon are well acted and carry the gravitas of a cowed people trying to preserve themselves. Ikona started a little shaky but as the action continued, his performance improved greatly. Sarn wasn't very good but she dies halfway through Episode One so it is only a small blemish and they other Lakertyans don't get enough screen time or dialogue to make any kind of impact. I had no qualms about them and didn't see any particular problems with their makeup either.
There were some production shortfalls, but nothing that ruined the story for me. The Tetraps weren't great but as long as they stayed in shadow, they worked reasonably well. I think if the outdoor scenes had been filmed later, it would have helped make them work a bit better. Likewise a later time might have helped diminish the need for tinting the sky as much. It wasn't as jarring as in Mindwarp, but it was still a pretty obvious computer effect that stood out whenever seen.
But I can imagine that the point where most people throw up their hands is the giant brain. It makes no sense. Where did it come from or how it was made is completely ignored. Nor is why a brain is used rather than just a large computer. It's something thrown in to be weird and I think just a touch horrifying for young kids but ends up coming across as just dumb. It doesn't help that the brain looks very much like the fabric prop that it actually was. Dimming the lights in the room helped but it still doesn't look particularly good and the story starts to go off the rails.
In my own mind, I can imagine that Pip and Jane Baker probably had an outline of a story they were working on to submit later and had probably gone over a few scenes before they got the desperation call from JNT. This is how I imagine that Episodes One and Two have a bit more depth and are more memorable. Episodes Three and Four have a much more slapdash feel and I think this is the point where what is on screen was a first draft effort rather than having been massaged a bit like the earlier script. Still, for me, this isn't so bad that it ruins the whole experience. It is still fairly well acted and the worst parts don't go on for so long that it becomes a slog.
Probably more bothersome to me than the brain was the lazy plot device of the bracelet bombs. The Rani was already controlling the population with the threat of deadly insects so why the bracelets except as something for the Doctor to use? Again, in a second or third draft, the insects would have been excised and only the bracelets would have been used as a means of controlling the population. The Doctor freeing them would have had the liberating effect of prompting them to action and it would have given Beyus the freedom to rise up as the Rani now could not commit instant genocide against his people. The Tetraps could have easily fled the lab and invaded her TARDIS after overhearing the Rani as her betrayal of them was easily understood at that point.
I don't think story ever had the potential of being great, but it had the potential of being better than it is. But I also think that in that lost potential, it is not as bad as it is made out to be. It moves quickly and the characters are all pretty much enjoyable. The plot is not overly complex, even if the Rani's plan is. It hums along well enough and any failures in production value were going to be there anyway because of budget and just the fact that it was the 1980's. Is it good? No. Is it terrible and something I would never watch again? Also no. I would call it slightly below average in my book, which rates it above at least two other Seventh Doctor stories. Would I watch it again? Probably, although I think I would get bored with it a second time around, especially in the later episodes. So for me, Dragonfire stands easily as the worst of the Seventh Doctor stories rather than this one.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Thursday, January 5, 2017
The Power of the Daleks (Animated)
I reviewed this story last year but that was for the recon. With the release of the first fully animated story (given that there are no existing episodes) I thought I would revisit this one.
As I covered the plot back then, I won't focus on that or any major aspects of the story unless they have bearing on how things are presented with the new animation. At the very least, the animation does give a better focus on what is going on. In the recon, like most recons, you would get a jump cut between freeze frames to signify who was speaking and you would just have to remember. In the animation, you can actually see three or four different characters standing around and they can all just talk and you still get an easy bead on who is talking. That is a major plus, especially since you can also get extra direction, such as when the Doctor is talking with the governor but staring at Bragen.
The most important thing to note about the animation is that if you go in expecting the animation seen in Episode Four of The Tenth Planet or Episodes One and Three of The Moonbase, you will be disappointed. Those episodes used a very realistic animation style much more akin to anime. But those stories were only animating one or two episodes where this one is doing all six. They also had real video to watch and study movement and facial expressions. Power of the Daleks has none of those and I think that lack of reference is why the animation is more simple and a bit timid.
The animation is not South Park simple but it is not particularly fluid either. The movement of the individuals is akin to the paper puppets you can get with a brad at each joint to give it rotational movement. There is also some facial expression but most of it is focused on the eyes with their movement and dilation being the primary means of expression. That works very well with a character like Lesterson who did demonstrate a lot of emotion with his eyes, even visible in the telesnaps. It works a bit less with the Doctor who would be much more subtle with his whole face giving clues rather than just his eyes.
It still works but it takes a little getting used to. It doesn't help that Episode One has to resolve so much from the regeneration that you don't get settled into the story until you are in to Episode Two. At that point, the story begins to kick in and you start to loose yourself. This is where the animation works over a telesnap in that it draws you in easier. I watched this on BBC America which builds in commercials and I could tell I was really getting into the story because I was so irritated when it would suddenly break for ads. It was like losing the moment and then trying to find it again.
The sound of the story was a bit hit or miss. The large scale scenes involving multiple actors had inconsistent sound as you would expect from a stage. The animation doesn't quite do the depth of the stage justice as it allows the picture to focus tightly on a character which can be jarring if you hear them in a distant, echo-y manner. But the small scenes with one or more characters does fairly well and the tight animation works well, allowing you to focus on the emotion of the scene. I had also forgotten just how good the background noise/music is for providing atmosphere. The use of a musical saw to provide dark atmosphere when the Daleks are plotting and moving in the shadows works so well and when you don't have to focus on deciphering the pictures to get the mood of the scene, it makes the story flow so much better.
One additional experience that I had that enhanced the story for me was that this was the first time I watched a Doctor Who story with someone. My seven-year old son watched this with me and he seemed to really enjoy it. He's been tentative about watching Doctor Who with me because I make no bones about how many of the monsters are designed to be scary. I particularly enjoyed freaking both him and his ten-year old sister out a bit last year when I told them about the Vashta Nerada. That was fun in a twisted way but it also has made them significantly less interested in watching the show with me, despite their enjoyment of other science fiction. But my son did decide to watch this with me, especially when I told him it was animated, making in more like Batman (the excellent early 90's version). It also added a level of unreality for him that made it more manageable, despite the genuine fear that could come about from the Daleks.
The biggest improvement for me was that it much better defined the nature of the battle in Episode Six. The recon that was available to me when I watched it before did a very poor job of conveying the battle, who and how many people were being gunned down by the Daleks. It also gave a better definition of how the Doctor tricked the Daleks into effectively destroying themselves by getting them to destroy the electrical controls and surging power through their whole system. Episode Six alone was worth the animation.
In the end, the animation provided clarity and helped express the story easier for the uninitiated so it was definitely worth it for those aspects alone. However, the animation wasn't so fluid as to make you forget that this is a live action show. The animation is a marginal improvement on recons but not up to being a true substitute for the real episodes. As much as I enjoyed it, I would still keep my original score and I think only the discovery of the whole thing could bump it up to full marks.
Overall personal score (animated): 4.5 out of 5
As I covered the plot back then, I won't focus on that or any major aspects of the story unless they have bearing on how things are presented with the new animation. At the very least, the animation does give a better focus on what is going on. In the recon, like most recons, you would get a jump cut between freeze frames to signify who was speaking and you would just have to remember. In the animation, you can actually see three or four different characters standing around and they can all just talk and you still get an easy bead on who is talking. That is a major plus, especially since you can also get extra direction, such as when the Doctor is talking with the governor but staring at Bragen.
The most important thing to note about the animation is that if you go in expecting the animation seen in Episode Four of The Tenth Planet or Episodes One and Three of The Moonbase, you will be disappointed. Those episodes used a very realistic animation style much more akin to anime. But those stories were only animating one or two episodes where this one is doing all six. They also had real video to watch and study movement and facial expressions. Power of the Daleks has none of those and I think that lack of reference is why the animation is more simple and a bit timid.
The animation is not South Park simple but it is not particularly fluid either. The movement of the individuals is akin to the paper puppets you can get with a brad at each joint to give it rotational movement. There is also some facial expression but most of it is focused on the eyes with their movement and dilation being the primary means of expression. That works very well with a character like Lesterson who did demonstrate a lot of emotion with his eyes, even visible in the telesnaps. It works a bit less with the Doctor who would be much more subtle with his whole face giving clues rather than just his eyes.
It still works but it takes a little getting used to. It doesn't help that Episode One has to resolve so much from the regeneration that you don't get settled into the story until you are in to Episode Two. At that point, the story begins to kick in and you start to loose yourself. This is where the animation works over a telesnap in that it draws you in easier. I watched this on BBC America which builds in commercials and I could tell I was really getting into the story because I was so irritated when it would suddenly break for ads. It was like losing the moment and then trying to find it again.
The sound of the story was a bit hit or miss. The large scale scenes involving multiple actors had inconsistent sound as you would expect from a stage. The animation doesn't quite do the depth of the stage justice as it allows the picture to focus tightly on a character which can be jarring if you hear them in a distant, echo-y manner. But the small scenes with one or more characters does fairly well and the tight animation works well, allowing you to focus on the emotion of the scene. I had also forgotten just how good the background noise/music is for providing atmosphere. The use of a musical saw to provide dark atmosphere when the Daleks are plotting and moving in the shadows works so well and when you don't have to focus on deciphering the pictures to get the mood of the scene, it makes the story flow so much better.
One additional experience that I had that enhanced the story for me was that this was the first time I watched a Doctor Who story with someone. My seven-year old son watched this with me and he seemed to really enjoy it. He's been tentative about watching Doctor Who with me because I make no bones about how many of the monsters are designed to be scary. I particularly enjoyed freaking both him and his ten-year old sister out a bit last year when I told them about the Vashta Nerada. That was fun in a twisted way but it also has made them significantly less interested in watching the show with me, despite their enjoyment of other science fiction. But my son did decide to watch this with me, especially when I told him it was animated, making in more like Batman (the excellent early 90's version). It also added a level of unreality for him that made it more manageable, despite the genuine fear that could come about from the Daleks.
The biggest improvement for me was that it much better defined the nature of the battle in Episode Six. The recon that was available to me when I watched it before did a very poor job of conveying the battle, who and how many people were being gunned down by the Daleks. It also gave a better definition of how the Doctor tricked the Daleks into effectively destroying themselves by getting them to destroy the electrical controls and surging power through their whole system. Episode Six alone was worth the animation.
In the end, the animation provided clarity and helped express the story easier for the uninitiated so it was definitely worth it for those aspects alone. However, the animation wasn't so fluid as to make you forget that this is a live action show. The animation is a marginal improvement on recons but not up to being a true substitute for the real episodes. As much as I enjoyed it, I would still keep my original score and I think only the discovery of the whole thing could bump it up to full marks.
Overall personal score (animated): 4.5 out of 5
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
Guys, comedy gold. Where's a Silurian audience when you need one?
Plot Summary
After helping Queen Nefertiti of Egypt the Doctor receives a signal from 24th century Earth. A space ship has been detected heading towards Earth and they can't signal it. He volunteers to investigate it and change it's course. The head of the space agency tells him that if he does not, they will be forced to destroy it.
The Doctor gathers a team to go along with Queen Nefertiti. He collects a big game hunter named John Riddell as well as Rory and Amy. However, when materializing around Rory and Amy, he scoops up Rory's dad Brian as well. Together they materialize on the ship where two ankylosaurs run down a hall. Fascinated, the Doctor finds a control panel and when investigating, accidentally transports himself, Brian and Rory to the engine room, which utilizes tidal power. They are chased off the beach of the engine room by a flock of pterodactyls and take refuge in a nearby passageway.
Following the Doctor's disappearance, Amy, Nefertiti and Riddell walk through the ship until they find a control panel in a small arboretum. Accessing a database, Amy discovers that the ship is an ark launched by the Silurians when they believed the moon would impact Earth rather than be captured by it. She also discovers that while the dinosaur population has been maintained, the Silurians are all gone.
The Doctor, Rory and Brian are collected by two robots who take them down to a docking bay. On their way to the docking bay, the trio runs into a Triceratops who takes a liking to Brian and the golf balls he has stored in his pockets. They continue on and the Doctor is taken to see Solomon, a trader and pirate who boarded and killed the Silurian crew when they refused to sell some of their dinosaurs to him. Solomon threatens the life of Rory and Brian if he doesn't repair his artificial legs which were created by his robots after he was attacked by a group of raptors. The Doctor does repair the damage, but also learns that Solomon can't steer the ship and it's guidance system implemented a return to Earth program following the attempts to override the controls.
After finishing with Solomon, the Doctor, Rory and Brian flee while Solomon sends his robots after them. They climb aboard the triceratops they met earlier and escape the robots. Reaching another control panel, the Doctor discovers that Earth is launching the missiles to destroy the ship and they will impact in about fifteen minutes.
Solomon and the robots teleport near the Doctor, telling him that since missiles are approaching, he is leaving without the dinosaurs. But he also mentions that in his scans, he detected Queen Nefertiti and demands her. He kills the triceratops to demonstrate his seriousness and prepares to kill the others. Nefertiti, Amy and Riddell teleport to the Doctor's location and Nefertiti gives herself up to Solomon who then teleports with her back to his ship.
A warning signal pops up on screen of the missiles locking on and the Doctor gets an idea. He and the rest teleport to the control room and the Doctor activates a magnetic lock, preventing Solomon's ship from escaping. He also notices that the controls of the ship are tied to run with two people of the same genepool. He has Brian and Rory take the controls while Amy and Riddell keep watch and hold off a group of juvenile T-Rexes that are trying to enter with stun guns.
With the ship moving away from Earth, the Doctor dislodges the signal transponder that the missiles have locked on to. He then teleports to Solomon's ship and disables his robots. Nefertiti breaks loose, knocking down Solomon in the process, and she and the Doctor leave Solomon's ship with the Doctor leaving the transponder behind. He then demagnetizes the ship and Solomon's ship shoots away from the Silurian transport and into space. The missiles follow Solomon's ship and destroy it.
The Doctor returns Rory and Amy home and Nefertiti opts to stay with Riddell on his big game hunt. Brian however, travels with the Doctor to see the dinosaurs established on a new planet they christen Siluria.
Analysis
A lot of folks dismiss Dinosaurs on a Spaceship as overly silly but I disagree. I think it's a lot of fun and a lot darker than people give it credit for. In fact, it is one of the only instances we get of the dark and angry Eleventh Doctor.
I always like the Tenth Doctor when he would give up on negotiation and mercy and just extract vengeance and it was rare to see that in the Eleventh Doctor because he was so much of a negotiator. Here, he is finally confronted with a situation that is non-negotiable and he gives in to those dark tendencies that the Eleventh Doctor kept so well hidden, though even here he hides them behind a mask of cheerfulness. But when he turns as Solomon begs for mercy, he pointedly asks if the Silurians begged for mercy and then walks out. He doesn't show the anger or even much of the cold fury that the Tenth Doctor did, but there is a coldness in his voice, given an unsettling edge by his cheery demeanor in how he delivers the death sentence. It is quite enjoyable.
The gang is interesting although a bit underused as you might expect in a 45-minute story. Brian is obviously brought along for the plot device of being able to steer the ship but he at least is used well for comic relief and to get a touch of depth in with Rory. Rory also does well in bonding with his dad and the two of them function as the true companions in this story.
The other three are highly underused except for some light comic relief and the plot device of giving Solomon something to take and be rescued at the end in the form of Nefertiti. Riddell does even less as his only scene where he does something of value is to hold off some dinosaurs and even then he is with Amy. Amy at least gets some crack lines and functions as a mini-Doctor with two inexperienced companions. I suspect that Chris Chibnall had some extra ideas for Nefertiti and Riddell but was forced to cut them for time.
What I wish could have been cut instead were the two robots. Solomon is an excellent villain: cold, shrewd and merciless. He is a good foe and it is also quite satisfying when he dies. His robots though are just terrible. They were voiced by a comedy duo but their jokes were lame at best and their delivery was pretty poor as well. It needed to be much sharper as a harsher sarcasm would have improved things a bit. It also was a bit lame that when the Doctor, Rory and Brian are escaping on the triceratops, the robots develop stormtrooper aim and couldn't hit such a large and relatively slow moving target. So in either case of how the robots were to be portrayed (henchmen or comic relief), they didn't deliver and pulled down a pretty good villain.
One of the complaints I've heard regarding this story is that the plot is too simple but I didn't see anything wrong with that. There was problem that manifested itself, the Doctor worked at it, thwarted the villain and saved the ship. Contrast to other stories, I don't recall too many instances where I felt the story was padding itself. I think the biggest one was the stuff with the triceratops and that was a by-product of desperately wanting the visual of the Doctor riding a triceratops. It could have been cut but some dinosaurs other than the initial viewing and the juvenile T-Rexes needed to be in to help justify the title.
Regarding the dinosaurs, I thought they did a pretty good job as far as the CGI goes. There were one or two moments where it looked a little bit janky, but for the most part, I thought the integration went well. It helped that the ship was kept dark and that smoothed over what could have been some rough spots where they could fudge in the darkness. But overall, I thought it a pretty good effort and can't recall any significant instance where I was pulled out of the story due to the visual effects.
Overall, I think this is a far better story than it is generally given credit for. Remove the robots (or upgrade their personalities) and give the other companions a little more to do and I think this would be a grand adventure story with a dark twist. It's about as dark as you'll see the Eleventh Doctor get which is a rare sight indeed. At the very least, it is a fun adventure with a good amount of comedy to lighten the mood but not so much as to ruin the darker tone. I'd happily pop this one in at any time for a fun romp.
Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5
Plot Summary
After helping Queen Nefertiti of Egypt the Doctor receives a signal from 24th century Earth. A space ship has been detected heading towards Earth and they can't signal it. He volunteers to investigate it and change it's course. The head of the space agency tells him that if he does not, they will be forced to destroy it.
The Doctor gathers a team to go along with Queen Nefertiti. He collects a big game hunter named John Riddell as well as Rory and Amy. However, when materializing around Rory and Amy, he scoops up Rory's dad Brian as well. Together they materialize on the ship where two ankylosaurs run down a hall. Fascinated, the Doctor finds a control panel and when investigating, accidentally transports himself, Brian and Rory to the engine room, which utilizes tidal power. They are chased off the beach of the engine room by a flock of pterodactyls and take refuge in a nearby passageway.
Following the Doctor's disappearance, Amy, Nefertiti and Riddell walk through the ship until they find a control panel in a small arboretum. Accessing a database, Amy discovers that the ship is an ark launched by the Silurians when they believed the moon would impact Earth rather than be captured by it. She also discovers that while the dinosaur population has been maintained, the Silurians are all gone.
The Doctor, Rory and Brian are collected by two robots who take them down to a docking bay. On their way to the docking bay, the trio runs into a Triceratops who takes a liking to Brian and the golf balls he has stored in his pockets. They continue on and the Doctor is taken to see Solomon, a trader and pirate who boarded and killed the Silurian crew when they refused to sell some of their dinosaurs to him. Solomon threatens the life of Rory and Brian if he doesn't repair his artificial legs which were created by his robots after he was attacked by a group of raptors. The Doctor does repair the damage, but also learns that Solomon can't steer the ship and it's guidance system implemented a return to Earth program following the attempts to override the controls.
After finishing with Solomon, the Doctor, Rory and Brian flee while Solomon sends his robots after them. They climb aboard the triceratops they met earlier and escape the robots. Reaching another control panel, the Doctor discovers that Earth is launching the missiles to destroy the ship and they will impact in about fifteen minutes.
Solomon and the robots teleport near the Doctor, telling him that since missiles are approaching, he is leaving without the dinosaurs. But he also mentions that in his scans, he detected Queen Nefertiti and demands her. He kills the triceratops to demonstrate his seriousness and prepares to kill the others. Nefertiti, Amy and Riddell teleport to the Doctor's location and Nefertiti gives herself up to Solomon who then teleports with her back to his ship.
A warning signal pops up on screen of the missiles locking on and the Doctor gets an idea. He and the rest teleport to the control room and the Doctor activates a magnetic lock, preventing Solomon's ship from escaping. He also notices that the controls of the ship are tied to run with two people of the same genepool. He has Brian and Rory take the controls while Amy and Riddell keep watch and hold off a group of juvenile T-Rexes that are trying to enter with stun guns.
With the ship moving away from Earth, the Doctor dislodges the signal transponder that the missiles have locked on to. He then teleports to Solomon's ship and disables his robots. Nefertiti breaks loose, knocking down Solomon in the process, and she and the Doctor leave Solomon's ship with the Doctor leaving the transponder behind. He then demagnetizes the ship and Solomon's ship shoots away from the Silurian transport and into space. The missiles follow Solomon's ship and destroy it.
The Doctor returns Rory and Amy home and Nefertiti opts to stay with Riddell on his big game hunt. Brian however, travels with the Doctor to see the dinosaurs established on a new planet they christen Siluria.
Analysis
A lot of folks dismiss Dinosaurs on a Spaceship as overly silly but I disagree. I think it's a lot of fun and a lot darker than people give it credit for. In fact, it is one of the only instances we get of the dark and angry Eleventh Doctor.
I always like the Tenth Doctor when he would give up on negotiation and mercy and just extract vengeance and it was rare to see that in the Eleventh Doctor because he was so much of a negotiator. Here, he is finally confronted with a situation that is non-negotiable and he gives in to those dark tendencies that the Eleventh Doctor kept so well hidden, though even here he hides them behind a mask of cheerfulness. But when he turns as Solomon begs for mercy, he pointedly asks if the Silurians begged for mercy and then walks out. He doesn't show the anger or even much of the cold fury that the Tenth Doctor did, but there is a coldness in his voice, given an unsettling edge by his cheery demeanor in how he delivers the death sentence. It is quite enjoyable.
The gang is interesting although a bit underused as you might expect in a 45-minute story. Brian is obviously brought along for the plot device of being able to steer the ship but he at least is used well for comic relief and to get a touch of depth in with Rory. Rory also does well in bonding with his dad and the two of them function as the true companions in this story.
The other three are highly underused except for some light comic relief and the plot device of giving Solomon something to take and be rescued at the end in the form of Nefertiti. Riddell does even less as his only scene where he does something of value is to hold off some dinosaurs and even then he is with Amy. Amy at least gets some crack lines and functions as a mini-Doctor with two inexperienced companions. I suspect that Chris Chibnall had some extra ideas for Nefertiti and Riddell but was forced to cut them for time.
What I wish could have been cut instead were the two robots. Solomon is an excellent villain: cold, shrewd and merciless. He is a good foe and it is also quite satisfying when he dies. His robots though are just terrible. They were voiced by a comedy duo but their jokes were lame at best and their delivery was pretty poor as well. It needed to be much sharper as a harsher sarcasm would have improved things a bit. It also was a bit lame that when the Doctor, Rory and Brian are escaping on the triceratops, the robots develop stormtrooper aim and couldn't hit such a large and relatively slow moving target. So in either case of how the robots were to be portrayed (henchmen or comic relief), they didn't deliver and pulled down a pretty good villain.
One of the complaints I've heard regarding this story is that the plot is too simple but I didn't see anything wrong with that. There was problem that manifested itself, the Doctor worked at it, thwarted the villain and saved the ship. Contrast to other stories, I don't recall too many instances where I felt the story was padding itself. I think the biggest one was the stuff with the triceratops and that was a by-product of desperately wanting the visual of the Doctor riding a triceratops. It could have been cut but some dinosaurs other than the initial viewing and the juvenile T-Rexes needed to be in to help justify the title.
Regarding the dinosaurs, I thought they did a pretty good job as far as the CGI goes. There were one or two moments where it looked a little bit janky, but for the most part, I thought the integration went well. It helped that the ship was kept dark and that smoothed over what could have been some rough spots where they could fudge in the darkness. But overall, I thought it a pretty good effort and can't recall any significant instance where I was pulled out of the story due to the visual effects.
Overall, I think this is a far better story than it is generally given credit for. Remove the robots (or upgrade their personalities) and give the other companions a little more to do and I think this would be a grand adventure story with a dark twist. It's about as dark as you'll see the Eleventh Doctor get which is a rare sight indeed. At the very least, it is a fun adventure with a good amount of comedy to lighten the mood but not so much as to ruin the darker tone. I'd happily pop this one in at any time for a fun romp.
Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Sixth Doctor Summary
Unsurprisingly, the Sixth Doctor is the first classic Doctor I finish and I can't say that I'm sad to see the back of him. I've nothing against Colin Baker and in fairness, I actually kind of liked his brusque, arrogant style of Doctor. But his era had some real stinkers and I'm not sure I ever got on with Peri. Mel was better in the Sixth Doctor era, but with only six episodes to evaluate, I could say the same about Tom Baker's cabbage companion.
Unfortunately, there were no stories of the Sixth Doctor era that really stood out as great. I ended up with three stories that managed a 4 for me but even in those, I may have been generous. Of those three, I think The Mysterious Planet was probably the best just because the shift from arguing to teasing helped Peri's acting and you had Dibber and Glitz as a fun comedy bit. But the other stories either flailed around at the middling level or tanked and tanked hard. When you have three of eleven stories pulling a 1 or lower, that doesn't say much for the overall quality of the era.
Ultimately, I'd say the Sixth Doctor era is the unfortunate by-product of a lot of little failures. John Nathan-Turner was ready to move on but not allowed. He regained some footing when he finally grasped that the BBC intended him to see the show to it's death in the Seventh Doctor era and that liberated the storytelling. Similarly, you had a script editor in Eric Saward who was overworked, stressed and hated the actor playing the Doctor. He and the other writers tried and failed at taking a darker turn while still attempting to be entertaining. It was probably the height of the arrogance of the show where they legitimately thought they could get away with whatever they wanted and the fans would still come. This began to turn with the Trial season, but the damage was done and lesson not fully learned until the Seventh Doctor era.
There are good performances and good stories in the Sixth Doctor era but they are buried in a larger supply of garbage. I am happy that the Sixth Doctor has gotten a redemption in the form of the Big Finish audio dramas and that has helped his overall reputation. But, his era will probably go down as both my least favorite and lowest rated of the classic Doctor eras.
Highest Rated Story: The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet - 4.0
Lowest Rated Story: The Twin Dilemma - 0.5
Average overall rating: 2.75
The Twin Dilemma
Attack of the Cybermen
Vengeance on Varos
The Mark of the Rani
The Two Doctors
Timelash
Revelation of the Daleks
Trial of a Time Lord Pt. 1: The Mysterious Planet
Trial of a Time Lord Pt. 2: Mindwarp
Trial of a Time Lord Pt. 3: Terror of the Vervoids
Trial of a Time Lord Pt. 4: The Ultimate Foe
Unfortunately, there were no stories of the Sixth Doctor era that really stood out as great. I ended up with three stories that managed a 4 for me but even in those, I may have been generous. Of those three, I think The Mysterious Planet was probably the best just because the shift from arguing to teasing helped Peri's acting and you had Dibber and Glitz as a fun comedy bit. But the other stories either flailed around at the middling level or tanked and tanked hard. When you have three of eleven stories pulling a 1 or lower, that doesn't say much for the overall quality of the era.
Ultimately, I'd say the Sixth Doctor era is the unfortunate by-product of a lot of little failures. John Nathan-Turner was ready to move on but not allowed. He regained some footing when he finally grasped that the BBC intended him to see the show to it's death in the Seventh Doctor era and that liberated the storytelling. Similarly, you had a script editor in Eric Saward who was overworked, stressed and hated the actor playing the Doctor. He and the other writers tried and failed at taking a darker turn while still attempting to be entertaining. It was probably the height of the arrogance of the show where they legitimately thought they could get away with whatever they wanted and the fans would still come. This began to turn with the Trial season, but the damage was done and lesson not fully learned until the Seventh Doctor era.
There are good performances and good stories in the Sixth Doctor era but they are buried in a larger supply of garbage. I am happy that the Sixth Doctor has gotten a redemption in the form of the Big Finish audio dramas and that has helped his overall reputation. But, his era will probably go down as both my least favorite and lowest rated of the classic Doctor eras.
Highest Rated Story: The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet - 4.0
Lowest Rated Story: The Twin Dilemma - 0.5
Average overall rating: 2.75
The Twin Dilemma
Attack of the Cybermen
Vengeance on Varos
The Mark of the Rani
The Two Doctors
Timelash
Revelation of the Daleks
Trial of a Time Lord Pt. 1: The Mysterious Planet
Trial of a Time Lord Pt. 2: Mindwarp
Trial of a Time Lord Pt. 3: Terror of the Vervoids
Trial of a Time Lord Pt. 4: The Ultimate Foe
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