It'll be the biggest explosion this part of the galaxy has ever seen.
John Nathan Turner took advantage of the precedent set by City of Death and finagled several trip stories with foreign shooting under the guise of cost savings. Arc of Infinity is probably the second most famous foreign shoot after City of Death, although the use of Amsterdam is entirely superfluous. This story could have been shot in London and it wouldn't have made any difference. But if it gave us some nice shots and JNT got a paid trip to Amsterdam out of it, who are we to complain?
Plot Summary
The story opens with a member of the High Council passing bio-information from the Matrix to mysterious figure. The transmission is detected and reported. As such, the transmission is not fully complete and the High Council member shoots the worker who reported the transmission.
On the TARDIS, the Doctor and Nyssa are seeing about minor repairs, including the scanner. Upon finishing, they detect a strange anomaly approaching them. It is strong and out of phase with regular space. It emerges in the TARDIS and attempts to take over the Doctor. He is knocked out.
Meanwhile in Amsterdam, two young men, Colin and Robin, are backpacking around the city. Looking for a cheap place to stay, Robin suggests an underground crypt he knows about. Colin is reluctant upon learning what it is, but Robin convinces him and the two men settle in their sleeping bags. Colin is later woken by a sound reminiscent of the TARDIS and goes to investigate. He sees a slab that wasn't there before. The slab opens and a strange creature, called an Ergon, emerges who shoots Colin.
The Doctor wakes and appears no worse. The entity was unable to take him over. While rousing, the TARDIS receives a recall notice from Gallifrey, issued by Commander Maxil of the Citadel guard. The Doctor suspects the two incidents are related and sets to follow the recall signal.
Robin wakes to find Colin gone. He too enters the room to see the slab and again the Ergon emerges. Robin runs before it can shoot him. He hides in another room and sneaks back into the room he was sleeping in to get his shoes. He sees Colin enter but when he tries to speak to him, Colin turns and appears hypnotized. Robin runs off to tell the police but they dismiss his story. Frustrated, he travels to a hostel where he and Colin were to stay. The clerk informs him that Colin's cousin had left a message saying that she would be flying in the next day.
Upon landing on Gallifrey, the Doctor finds himself in a locked room. He attempts to break out but before he can, an operator opens the door for him remotely. Running into guards, the Doctor and Nyssa try to run for it but the Doctor is stunned by Commander Maxil. They take him back to the TARDIS to recover. Maxil also removes the time circuit from the TARDIS to prevent it from leaving.
In Amsterdam, Robin meets Colin's cousin, Tegan who was recently laid off from her job. Robin explains what happened and Tegan is reminded of things with the Doctor. They go to the police but they wave it off as a tourist having gotten lost. Tegan then asks Robin to take her to the crypt where the two spent the night.
On Gallifrey, the Doctor is brought before the High Council where they opt to sentence him to death as the only means of stopping the incursion of the antimatter creature. This is observed by a friend of the Doctor's named Damon. Damon slips a record of the bio-data extract into the Doctor's hand as he is led back to the TARDIS to await execution. Damon and Nyssa arrange with Council Hedin (the lone decenter in the execution decision) to visit the Doctor.
The Doctor asks Damon to fit the TARDIS with a new time circuit, without a recall circuit if possible. Nyssa goes with him but when the order for the Doctor's execution is issued, she takes a gun and goes to rescue the Doctor. She shoots her way in but the Doctor convinces her to put the gun down and let the sentence be carried out. As the Doctor disappears, an imprint of the antimatter creature is seen before it too disappears.
The Doctor's body is hidden by a field and his mind is transported to the Matrix. The antimatter creature appears to convince the Doctor to give up but he continues to fight him. The execution did not go as expected to the Castellan so he dispatches Commander Maxil to the Matrix control room to figure out what happened. Maxil discovers the transport of the Doctor's mind. He also verifies that the Doctor's biometric data was sent out. They ask Damon about it and he verifies what they found out about the transmission, including how he felt he could not tell the Castellan as being on the High Council, was a suspect. Nyssa is simply pleased that the Doctor is alive.
Tegan and Robin sneak into the crypt. They meander their way to where Robin and Colin had slept but find the door to the room of the attack locked. They manage to get in another way where they see the Ergon. It shoots both of them and the disappear. They wake in a TARDIS-like room with the Ergon and the antimatter creature enters the room. He scans Tegan and learns that she is a friend of the Doctor.
The Castellan assembles the High Council and distributes the information Maxil discovered. The Castellan is convinced that the Doctor is working with President Borusa to bring the creature in. However, the actual traitor is Councilor Hedin. He alerts the creature to what is happening and they decide to release the Doctor to allow the creature to transfer his essence to the Matrix. The creature threatens the Doctor that he will not interfere or he will kill Tegan. The Doctor agrees and is released.
The Doctor unlocks Damon and Nyssa from the Matrix control room. He has Damon check a part on the TARDIS while he and Nyssa run to President Borusa's office. Councilor Hedin has come into Borusa's office and forced him to deactivate the Matrix protocols. The Doctor and Nyssa enter Borusa's office but are spotted by the guards. Hedin reveals that the antimatter creature is in fact Omega, exiled Time Lord founder, last seen in The Three Doctors. Hedin believes Omega will reform Gallifrey and was wrongly exiled. The Castellan enters and tries to shoot the Doctor but Hedin leaps in front of the blast, killing him. Borusa chides the Castellan revealing that Hedin, not the Doctor, was behind the plot. They turn to see that Omega has now fully taken control of the Matrix.
The Doctor reenters the Matrix and Tegan is able to give some hints as to where she is. The High Council sets up a distraction which allows the Doctor and Nyssa to leave Gallifrey undetected. The Doctor and Nyssa land in Amsterdam and using Tegan's clues, the first locate the hostel the group was staying at and then the crypt where Omega's TARDIS is.
In the crypt, Omega has begun to convert himself into being of regular matter. The Doctor and Nyssa find the equipment Colin had set up and the Doctor disables it. While he is doing so, the Ergon emerges and shoots at the Doctor but misses. The Doctor disarms him and Nyssa picks up the gun and shoots the Ergon. The then enter Omega's TARDIS.
Omega has nearly converted himself, but the Doctor's sabotage has prevented Omega from finalizing the process. The TARDIS equipment explodes but Omega survives. He removes his mask to show that he has taken on the form of the Doctor. Still weak, he leaves the Doctor in the crypt. The Doctor digs the gun out of the wreckage and he, Nyssa and Tegan pursue Omega.
Omega wanders through Amsterdam when he notices the transfer process failing. He realizes the Doctor is pursuing and runs away, only to be finally cornered on a pier. Dying and unable to escape, Omega begins to will his body to explode, forcing the Doctor to shoot him, dematerializing his body.
Tegan has Colin checked into a hospital where they keep him for a couple of days with plans to send him back to Australia once recovered. Tegan then reveals that she was laid off and is invited to rejoin the TARDIS crew.
Analysis
I don't think it'll be much of a surprise to anyone to say that there are some decent story ideas in the Fifth Doctor era, but much of the time, it is let down by execution. Arc of Infinity is like that in that there is an interesting story idea with a neat little twist in that the villain is revealed to be Omega near the end of Episode Three, but the execution is not particularly great, especially in the costume and lighting departments.
This was one of the first Fifth Doctor stories that did not bring in some third party to act as an extra companion and that was nice. While I have enjoyed these extra temporary companions, they all have put the regular companions to shame. While Nyssa's acting did not improve over past performances, the lack of an interesting character actor next to her made her more tolerable by comparison. Likewise, Tegan actually being concerned for someone else and not her own desire to leave made her more enjoyable as well. Colin and Robin were not particularly good, but they also disappeared from the plot fairly early in the story so there's no particular harm there.
The thing that I enjoyed probably most was the ambiguous nature of Omega as the villain. He never killed Colin, Robin or Tegan and his goal the entire time was simply to return to Gallifrey. He did not pepper his speeches with talk of making the Time Lord's suffer or exacting revenge. It was simply about getting home. Most of the villainy was predicated on remembering the insanity of Omega in The Three Doctors as well as the actions of Councilor Hedin at the beginning of Episode One. Even after Omega escaped and killed the grounds worker for his uniform, Omega could have gone on the murderous rampage that we would expect a villain to get up to. Instead, he blends into the crowd, stopping to enjoy the simple pleasure of listening to music and interacting with other people. An argument could be made that there is a bit of prejudice on the Doctor's part and that the Doctor should have made a better effort to see if there was a better way of giving Omega the peace he desired without allowing the past megalomaniacal tendencies to spring forth.
Continuing on with that theme, it is interesting to note that the more ruthless side was actually the Gallifreian High Council. They condemn the Doctor to death simply because Omega has chosen the Doctor's form. Even on studying the evidence, the Castellan simply jumps to the conclusion that the Doctor is the traitor and Hedin actually sacrifices himself to save the Doctor, something you would not normally expect the villain's associate to do, especially as Omega didn't really need the Doctor himself at that point. It creates additional contrast in which side is really the more evil.
On the flip side, the costuming and lighting was dreadful. While I'm sure the crew didn't want to make it obvious that the villain was Omega in the beginning, it would have been nice if his costume was closer to the original one seen in The Three Doctors. Instead, his costume and the Ergon look painfully obvious as rubber suits with almost no contrast to give them additional definition. Omega's costume wasn't that bad when shown as a holoprojection in Hedin's office. There you had an almost blacklight contract that gave it depth. The mask was still odd, but the overall effect gave it a regal and slightly menacing feel. In person though, it was well lit and just looked terrible. The same for the Ergon. There was already a problem when you are trying to make something looking like a giant chicken look menacing, but to then fully light it just makes it look even worse.
Pacing was also an issue. Throughout this story there was a lot of technobabble and much of it was in an abstract, offhand manner which did not help carry the plot along. Trying to remember these techno-points from episode to episode made fully understanding the plan a bit difficult at times and I say this as one who enjoys Star Trek and all it's technobabble goodness.
Contrasting the rushed technobabble scenes, there were periods where it just felt like the story was killing time. Worst was the chase at the end of Episode Four. I understood that the crew wanted to take full advantage of the location and shoot as much of Amsterdam as they could, but it just dragged on and on. For someone who's body is breaking down, Omega kept putting a lot of distance between himself and the Doctor. The outside scenes work in City of Death because they are simple jaunty bits in the light-hearted beginning or little cuts near the end to show some distance. The extended chase in Episode Four just felt like padding because there was no break in it and it went on for nearly ten minutes. Also because there was so much padding in the chase, the final resolution felt a bit cheap. The Doctor simply shoots Omega with a dematerialization gun and that's the end. No clever plan, just good old fashioned run 'em down and shoot 'em. I would have liked a bit better against a foe like Omega.
Weighing it all together, I'd say this story is decidedly middling. There is a good plot idea and some decent acting, especially from the villains. But there is poor production and pacing. Plus even without a contrast, the acting of Nyssa and a few of the other secondary characters is a bit below par. I think I would have weight it slightly in the negative column overall but I think I could be talked into watching it again to see if it improved any on second viewing.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Planet of the Ood
The circle must be broken
Planet of the Ood sees the return of the Ood, first introduced in The Impossible Planet. The story takes on an aspect that was hinted at in the first tale, but abandoned in the face of other story elements: the state of a simple race being exploited at slaves.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Donna arrive on the home planet of the Ood. They find an Ood in the snow who had been shot after he killed one of the senior management and ran off. Before dying, he urges them that "the circle must be broken," with his eyes going red. The Doctor is immediately concerned given the events of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit.
The two sneak into the Ood processing facility, posing as the owners of a company. Inside they observe the selling of Ood as servants, equipped with "upgrades" to meet a customer's need. They also hear an alarm go off, although they can't see for what. The alarm is due to another Ood breaking out and attacking other guards. He is taken with his eyes red and foaming at the mouth. The people running the facility have noted several Ood related deaths and are convinced that "red eye," as they call it, is a disease infecting the Ood.
Donna and the Doctor sneak away from the group and investigate the facility themselves. They observe the Ood being herded to storage containers for transport throughout the Human Empire. Donna likens it to slavery and the two of them head to the warehouse. The Ood do not attempt to escape upon the opening of one container, but they do repeat the mantra that "the circle must be broken" when asked.
They are discovered by the guards. They quickly capture Donna and toss her in a container with some of the Ood while the captain of the guards tries to crush the Doctor with the container crane. He is stopped however by the PR woman who tells him that the director wants them alive. Upon gathering them, all the Ood being prepared for shipment develop red eyes and move upon the guards. The guards drive them back with their guns but in the fracas, the Doctor and Donna escape.
The two flee to another building where Ood development is done. Inside, they find unprocessed Ood who are telepathically singing a song of captivity. The Doctor briefly shares this with Donna who is overwhelmed with the sorrow and asks the Doctor to take it away. The unprocessed Ood have a secondary brain which they hold in their hands and connects them in a telepathic hive mind. To process the Ood, this brain is surgically removed and replaced with the communication ball.
The guards arrive and rearrest the Doctor and Donna and take them to see the director. The director orders all the red eyed Ood in the warehouse to be gassed and a countdown timer is set up to do so. At the same time, the unprocessed Ood send out a signal and there is a mass rebellion by the Ood. The other clientele as well as many of the staff are killed and the guards are driven outside into small knots against the Ood. The director and head scientist abandon the Doctor and Donna and head to a special warehouse containing the source of the Ood hive mind.
The Ood outbreak frees the Ood trapped and scheduled to be gassed, brining more soldiers to the fray. The captain is instead trapped in and dies from the releasing gas. A group approach the Doctor and Donna, but the unprocessed Ood, remembering their kindness, send a signal to stop that group. The Doctor and Donna are freed by Ood Sigma, the director's personal Ood who he released when he left the building. Ood Sigma takes the Doctor and Donna to the same warehouse.
In the warehouse, the director has set up mines to destroy the hive brain which is surrounded by a telepathic inhibitor field (the circle). Confronted by the Doctor, the director learns that the head scientist is actually a member of the "Friend of the Ood" movement and had lowered the field to allow the Ood to begin communicating again. The director kills him by knocking him over and into the brain. The director prepares to shoot the Doctor, but is suddenly overcome. Ood Sigma, under the guise of hair tonic, had been feeding the director an Ood essence and it comes to fruition in the presence of the more active hive mind. The director transforms into an Ood, loosing his malevolence. The Doctor disarms the mines and then deactivates the inhibitor field. With the field down, the Ood stop their attack and gather together to sing. The few remaining guards also hear the song and lay down their weapons, retreating to the rocket which will take them away.
With the call sent out across the empire, the Ood prepare for their brothers to return and say goodbye to the Doctor. Ood Sigma, the nominal spokesperson, invites the Doctor to say for a bit but he declines. Ood Sigma also warns the Doctor that his song will be ending soon. The Doctor shrugs it off an leaves with Donna.
Analysis
When dealing with a story that involves clear lines of morality like slavery, it is easy to get overly melodramatic. It takes a deft hand to steer away from this and this story does not have that deft hand. It is not bad, but both the Doctor and Donna get rather morally righteous which also paints the villains in a strictly black hat, one-note light. Combined, story suffers a bit due to this lack of nuance which also allows the acting to get a bit histrionic as well.
Overall this isn't a bad story, but it very heavy handed. The closest you get to restraint is when the Doctor starts to go off and Donna slaps him down, reminding him that she never owned slaves. But other than that, it's very white hat/black hat. I don't mind a story like that, especially in settings like Westerns where they are fighting over law and order or land ownership and the like. When you introduce something that allows a moral high ground, like slavery, then it no longer becomes just two sides fighting, it becomes right vs. wrong and the right can get very prissy. Likewise, the wrong tend to lose any touches of grey and quirks that they might have had to make them more enjoyable also tend to fade into the background.
Director Halpen is a good example. He enters the story as a harassed CEO, struggling against the elements to keep the company profitable. You know he is going to be the titular bad guy but he is mildly sympathetic in the beginning and the quirk of constantly drinking hair tonic to deal with hair loss provides an amusing aside. By the end though, he loses all nuance and just becomes another megalomaniac preparing to kill anyone in his way. The loss of nuance in his character makes what should be a dramatic final confrontation scene somewhat boring.
Another example is Commander Kess, leader of the guards. He is your stereotypical sadistic overseer. He has no good in him and clearly takes pleasure in dealing out suffering. His attempts to crush the Doctor with the crane and his relish at gassing the Ood left no doubt that there was no nuance there. Granted, his malevolence made his death by the aforementioned gas more satisfying, but he was a standard trope in a story that was already pretty trope-y. Not bad, but not anything to keep you engaged either.
The graphics team was a bit overmatched in this story as well. Some things work, but other things just look off. Worst among the offenders is the giant Ood brain. Obviously something like that was going to be CGI, but it was rather poorly rendered CGI and at no point does it ever look believable that something is actually there. If they had put a matte painting of the brain, it would have probably looked just as believable. Normally I don't slag on the show for less than perfect graphics, but there was something particularly off about this one. I think the attempt to make it an action-adventure story at the end also caused a bit of a problem as obvious action cheats were exposed. It just made the story look cheap.
Now, those put aside, there are some good moments, mostly from Donna. Donna is a bit less stroppy in this episode and her evolution of mild disgust and fear at the Ood to openly sympathetic and advocating for them. Her emotional turn at listening to the song of captivity expresses more than just about any other moment in the episode.
It was also amusing to see the indulgence of a bit of fan service as well. Obviously there was going to be a call back to The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit but another one was slipped in as well. Apparently after those two went out, some comments were made about how the Ood design reminded fans of the Sensorites from that story. The writer indulged this idea by placing the Oodsphere in the same system and the Doctor made a comment about it, going so far as to even mention the Sensesphere in his muttering. It's a throw away line, but it is also entertaining that another bit of continuity string was thrown between the classic and new series.
Overall, I won't say this is a bad story, but I will say that I think the negative outweighs the positive here. People with a less demanding nature will probably not be bothered by the easy moral high ground the Doctor takes, nor by the easy slip into white and black hats. It can certainly be enjoyed and there are enough elements to be enjoyed over the course of the whole story, but it just didn't jive with me. I'd watch it again with someone but I doubt I would pick this one out for personal entertainment.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
Planet of the Ood sees the return of the Ood, first introduced in The Impossible Planet. The story takes on an aspect that was hinted at in the first tale, but abandoned in the face of other story elements: the state of a simple race being exploited at slaves.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Donna arrive on the home planet of the Ood. They find an Ood in the snow who had been shot after he killed one of the senior management and ran off. Before dying, he urges them that "the circle must be broken," with his eyes going red. The Doctor is immediately concerned given the events of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit.
The two sneak into the Ood processing facility, posing as the owners of a company. Inside they observe the selling of Ood as servants, equipped with "upgrades" to meet a customer's need. They also hear an alarm go off, although they can't see for what. The alarm is due to another Ood breaking out and attacking other guards. He is taken with his eyes red and foaming at the mouth. The people running the facility have noted several Ood related deaths and are convinced that "red eye," as they call it, is a disease infecting the Ood.
Donna and the Doctor sneak away from the group and investigate the facility themselves. They observe the Ood being herded to storage containers for transport throughout the Human Empire. Donna likens it to slavery and the two of them head to the warehouse. The Ood do not attempt to escape upon the opening of one container, but they do repeat the mantra that "the circle must be broken" when asked.
They are discovered by the guards. They quickly capture Donna and toss her in a container with some of the Ood while the captain of the guards tries to crush the Doctor with the container crane. He is stopped however by the PR woman who tells him that the director wants them alive. Upon gathering them, all the Ood being prepared for shipment develop red eyes and move upon the guards. The guards drive them back with their guns but in the fracas, the Doctor and Donna escape.
The two flee to another building where Ood development is done. Inside, they find unprocessed Ood who are telepathically singing a song of captivity. The Doctor briefly shares this with Donna who is overwhelmed with the sorrow and asks the Doctor to take it away. The unprocessed Ood have a secondary brain which they hold in their hands and connects them in a telepathic hive mind. To process the Ood, this brain is surgically removed and replaced with the communication ball.
The guards arrive and rearrest the Doctor and Donna and take them to see the director. The director orders all the red eyed Ood in the warehouse to be gassed and a countdown timer is set up to do so. At the same time, the unprocessed Ood send out a signal and there is a mass rebellion by the Ood. The other clientele as well as many of the staff are killed and the guards are driven outside into small knots against the Ood. The director and head scientist abandon the Doctor and Donna and head to a special warehouse containing the source of the Ood hive mind.
The Ood outbreak frees the Ood trapped and scheduled to be gassed, brining more soldiers to the fray. The captain is instead trapped in and dies from the releasing gas. A group approach the Doctor and Donna, but the unprocessed Ood, remembering their kindness, send a signal to stop that group. The Doctor and Donna are freed by Ood Sigma, the director's personal Ood who he released when he left the building. Ood Sigma takes the Doctor and Donna to the same warehouse.
In the warehouse, the director has set up mines to destroy the hive brain which is surrounded by a telepathic inhibitor field (the circle). Confronted by the Doctor, the director learns that the head scientist is actually a member of the "Friend of the Ood" movement and had lowered the field to allow the Ood to begin communicating again. The director kills him by knocking him over and into the brain. The director prepares to shoot the Doctor, but is suddenly overcome. Ood Sigma, under the guise of hair tonic, had been feeding the director an Ood essence and it comes to fruition in the presence of the more active hive mind. The director transforms into an Ood, loosing his malevolence. The Doctor disarms the mines and then deactivates the inhibitor field. With the field down, the Ood stop their attack and gather together to sing. The few remaining guards also hear the song and lay down their weapons, retreating to the rocket which will take them away.
With the call sent out across the empire, the Ood prepare for their brothers to return and say goodbye to the Doctor. Ood Sigma, the nominal spokesperson, invites the Doctor to say for a bit but he declines. Ood Sigma also warns the Doctor that his song will be ending soon. The Doctor shrugs it off an leaves with Donna.
Analysis
When dealing with a story that involves clear lines of morality like slavery, it is easy to get overly melodramatic. It takes a deft hand to steer away from this and this story does not have that deft hand. It is not bad, but both the Doctor and Donna get rather morally righteous which also paints the villains in a strictly black hat, one-note light. Combined, story suffers a bit due to this lack of nuance which also allows the acting to get a bit histrionic as well.
Overall this isn't a bad story, but it very heavy handed. The closest you get to restraint is when the Doctor starts to go off and Donna slaps him down, reminding him that she never owned slaves. But other than that, it's very white hat/black hat. I don't mind a story like that, especially in settings like Westerns where they are fighting over law and order or land ownership and the like. When you introduce something that allows a moral high ground, like slavery, then it no longer becomes just two sides fighting, it becomes right vs. wrong and the right can get very prissy. Likewise, the wrong tend to lose any touches of grey and quirks that they might have had to make them more enjoyable also tend to fade into the background.
Director Halpen is a good example. He enters the story as a harassed CEO, struggling against the elements to keep the company profitable. You know he is going to be the titular bad guy but he is mildly sympathetic in the beginning and the quirk of constantly drinking hair tonic to deal with hair loss provides an amusing aside. By the end though, he loses all nuance and just becomes another megalomaniac preparing to kill anyone in his way. The loss of nuance in his character makes what should be a dramatic final confrontation scene somewhat boring.
Another example is Commander Kess, leader of the guards. He is your stereotypical sadistic overseer. He has no good in him and clearly takes pleasure in dealing out suffering. His attempts to crush the Doctor with the crane and his relish at gassing the Ood left no doubt that there was no nuance there. Granted, his malevolence made his death by the aforementioned gas more satisfying, but he was a standard trope in a story that was already pretty trope-y. Not bad, but not anything to keep you engaged either.
The graphics team was a bit overmatched in this story as well. Some things work, but other things just look off. Worst among the offenders is the giant Ood brain. Obviously something like that was going to be CGI, but it was rather poorly rendered CGI and at no point does it ever look believable that something is actually there. If they had put a matte painting of the brain, it would have probably looked just as believable. Normally I don't slag on the show for less than perfect graphics, but there was something particularly off about this one. I think the attempt to make it an action-adventure story at the end also caused a bit of a problem as obvious action cheats were exposed. It just made the story look cheap.
Now, those put aside, there are some good moments, mostly from Donna. Donna is a bit less stroppy in this episode and her evolution of mild disgust and fear at the Ood to openly sympathetic and advocating for them. Her emotional turn at listening to the song of captivity expresses more than just about any other moment in the episode.
It was also amusing to see the indulgence of a bit of fan service as well. Obviously there was going to be a call back to The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit but another one was slipped in as well. Apparently after those two went out, some comments were made about how the Ood design reminded fans of the Sensorites from that story. The writer indulged this idea by placing the Oodsphere in the same system and the Doctor made a comment about it, going so far as to even mention the Sensesphere in his muttering. It's a throw away line, but it is also entertaining that another bit of continuity string was thrown between the classic and new series.
Overall, I won't say this is a bad story, but I will say that I think the negative outweighs the positive here. People with a less demanding nature will probably not be bothered by the easy moral high ground the Doctor takes, nor by the easy slip into white and black hats. It can certainly be enjoyed and there are enough elements to be enjoyed over the course of the whole story, but it just didn't jive with me. I'd watch it again with someone but I doubt I would pick this one out for personal entertainment.
Overall personal score: 2 out of 5
The Sun Makers
All you need is a wily accountant.
Certain Doctor Who stories are fairly well known for their source material or own back story. The Sun Makers is one of those stories as it became rather well known that Robert Holmes was embroiled with the British tax service at the time and took out his frustration in the form of this biting satire. In fact, some points were a bit too on the nose and Graham Williams had to step in and edit a few things to make sure the show didn't get in trouble as well.
Plot Summary
The story opens with a worker named Cordo checking in on his father's death. After receiving news that it went well, he is instructed to head to the Gatherer's office to pay the death taxes. He pays but Gatherer Hade informs him that the tax had been increased recently. The worker protests that he will be unable to pay and Gatherer Hade dismisses him with suggestions of working more to make up the difference.
On the TARDIS, the Doctor and K-9 are playing chess with Leela moving the pieces at K-9's direction. The time rotor stops and the Doctor dematerializes. He is confused as the instruments indicate they are on Pluto but it has an Earth-like environment. Heading out to investigate, the Doctor and Leela find themselves on a building in the middle of a major plant. Cordo arrives on the roof and prepares to jump off. Leela and the Doctor manage to get him away from the edge and find out what his troubles are.
Gatherer Hade is alerted to an illegal landing on the roof of one of the buildings and heads up with his assistant Marn to collect the fines. Cordo, seeing their approach, pulls the Doctor and Leela into the building while the Collector and Marn attempt to gain access to the TARDIS. Upon failing to do so, they plant a tracker on it.
With no prospects, Cordo decides to join the outlaws who live under the city. The Doctor and Leela accompany him. Entering the tunnels, they are captured by the outlaws and brought to the leader, Mandrel. Mandrel is convinced that the Doctor is a miner and he develops a plan to use the Doctor. He is to take a card to a distribution point and collect the money it pays out. If he does not, he will kill Leela.
Curious about the Doctor's lack of return, K-9 emerges from the TARDIS and scans for the Doctor. The tracker Gatherer Hade left on the TARDIS picks up K-9 and Gatherer Hade and Marn track him over the city cameras. K-9 meets up with the Doctor and Cordo emerging from the tunnels. K-9 offers to come with the Doctor but the Doctor shoos him off.
Gatherer Hade also believes that the Doctor is a miner based on his appearance and immediately assumes that an armed rebellion is being plotted. He leaves to consult with the Controller, the overall leader.
The Doctor and Cordo continue to the bank booth but when the Doctor attempts to withdraw money, the booth seals itself and fills with gas. Cordo runs to get help but observes a security detail come to the booth and take the now semi-conscious Doctor away to the correction facility.
At the office of the Controller, Gatherer Hade informs him of his belief that a rebellion is forming among the miners. He requests additional guards to put down the rebellion. The Controller is reluctant due to the offset in profit, but Gatherer Hade suggests offsetting the cost with additional taxes. He also points out how a full rebellion would be very damaging to the overall bottom line. The Controller agrees but also orders that control gas emissions be increased as additional compensation.
The Doctor wakes up in a straightjacket with another prisoner named Bisham who had been arrested for breaching top level security information and taking an antidote to the control gas, although he wasn't aware of the full effects, just that it made him feel clear-headed and more curious. The Doctor manages to get up and move around and booby traps the controls. He returns to his gurney when a guard enters. The guard hooks them up to control helmets and prepares to activate them. The Doctor warns him not to and the guard is electrocuted when he pulls the switch.
Back in the rebel lair, Mandrel's allotted time has run out and he orders his men to kill Leela. One comes at her but she flips him aside and draws her knife. No one else attacks and Mandrel steps in. She fends him off for a time when Cordo returns informing them that the Doctor was captured. Mandrel immediately forgets about Leela and rages at the woman who converted the stolen card. Leela asks for help to rescue the Doctor but all refuse except Cordo. He and Leela emerge from the lair to find K-9 waiting for the Doctor's return. Leela has K-9 come with them to rescue the Doctor.
The Doctor and Bisham observe technicians fixing the controls when Marn enters and releases the Doctor. She escorts him to see Gatherer Hade. Gatherer Hade gives the Doctor the money he tried to extract earlier and plants a tracker on him, all while pretending that this was a great mix up. The Doctor goes along with it and upon his release, heads back down to the under-city tunnels where he gives the money to Mandrel. He also learns that Leela and Cordo left to rescue him.
Leela, Cordo and K-9 break into the corrections facility. Leela notes that she feels fear and K-9 informs her that a gas has been released into the air to produce a fear response. They find Bisham with a bag of jelly babies who tells them that the Doctor was taken to Gatherer Hade's office. They leave together and Cordo suggests they use the subway tunnels to escape. Gatherer Hade however has used the Controller's men to set up check points at the various under-city entrances. The group runs into one and a patrol car spots them while trying to hide. K-9 moves to the side and stuns the guards as they try to arrest them. The group takes the car and smashes through the barrier but Leela is shot and falls out as they drive away. She is immediately arrested.
Mandrel believes that the Doctor has made a deal to sell them out to Gatherer Hade. The Doctor denies this but Mandrel doesn't believe him. He prepares to torture the Doctor, although the Doctor doesn't believe he has the stomach to do it. But before it can start, Cordo and Bisham enter and stop things. They inform the Doctor of what happened and Leela's arrest. The Doctor decides that to save her, they will formant a full rebellion.
Leela is examined by the Controller personally due to her lack of worker mark or scar indicating she removed it. She informs the Controller of her tribe and that she came with the Doctor in the TARDIS and that the Doctor is a Time Lord. With that information, the Controller dismisses her, ordering her execution for sometime later.
The Doctor, using information from Bisham and Mandrel, plans to destroy the gas containers that keep the populace under control. He has Cordo pull two cameras out of the wall which the Doctor then modifies and has Cordo place back. He then has Mandrel and Bisham come with him to destroy the gas distribution while the rest of the outlaws disperse through the city to inform the populace of what is going on.
The Controller informs Gatherer Hade that the man he released is not a rebel miner but instead a Time Lord. He orders Gatherer Hade to issue a reward to be paid by Hade personally for the capture of the Doctor, dead or alive. He also sets terms for Leela's execution, to take place at the start of the first shift.
The Doctor uses the modified cameras to fool the tracker as to his location. This distracts Gatherer Hade, who comes down personally to capture the Doctor so as to not pay out his own money. The group then breaks into the central boiler room. They convince the two workers to join their revolution and then shut down the gas distribution. As the air clears, pockets of resistance to the rules begin forming, fanned by the other outlaws spread throughout the city.
While waiting in the boiler room, the Doctor's group sees a broadcast of Leela's upcoming execution by steaming (roasting her alive). As the steam room is right above them, the Doctor has K-9 disable one of the pressure ducts. He then has Mandrel shut down the steam flow so he can crawl into the tube to rescue her. He does so but the pressure climbs high that Mandrel is forced to give the Doctor a warning over his communicator which is overheard by the Collector. The Collector orders the guards to put down the strikes that are being reported throughout the city. However, most of the guards are outnumbered and easily overpowered by the populace.
To fully push the rebellion, the Doctor and Leela leave the others in charge of the boiler room while they sneak into the palace to send a broadcast of revolt. With most of the guards spread through the city or guarding the Collector, they easily get in and send out the message. Hearing reports of workers out on the roof, Gatherer Hade goes to confront them. The populace grabs him and pitches him off the roof.
After sending the message, the Doctor and Leela open the Collector's safe. A secondary system knocks Leela unconscious. The Doctor attends to her and investigates the contents when the Collector arrives back into the control room. Talking with the Collector, the Doctor learns that he is also an alien whose race is exploiting the planets and humanity. Upon depleting Pluto, they will abandon humanity to their death.
The guard the Doctor had knocked out earlier comes to and seizes the Doctor while the Collector plans to release a deadly gas that will kill all humans in the city, leaving him alive. Leela awakes and throws her knife, wounding the guard and freeing the Doctor. They then pull the Collector away, preventing him from releasing the gas. Upon seeing economic changes the Doctor instituted, the Collector's humanoid appearance breaks down and he disappears into a hole in his chair. The unstability of the situation caused him to lose control and revert back to his normal form, now hidden in the well of his life support chair. The citizens, breaking in to the control room, seal him in.
Under the Doctor's encouragement, the people begin to make plans to return to Earth. The Doctor, Leela and K-9 depart in the TARDIS, although the Doctor introduces a jolt which overturns the chessboard, ruining the game that K-9 had announced he was going to win in six moves.
Analysis
This is a story that I'm pretty sure I would have like better if I were British. Granted, irritation with Byzantine tax codes and social revolution play pretty well across all cultures, but I get the strong feeling that there are nuances in this story that are lost on me as an American (not the first time I've felt that). One joke I know that is lost on me is the naming of corridors after various tax forms. I appreciate the joke, but it's full effect is lost on me.
As far as the story overall, I'd have to say it was fairly middling. The performances of the Doctor and Leela as well as some of the other characters was quite good. But others were not so good. Hade was enjoyable in his sycophantic style and I also liked the Controller, but I think the Controller would have been a bit better if he had not affected his voice quite so much. I think the actor's intent was to convey alien menace, but it lost something for me. I think a quieter and more deadpan approach would have seemed more sinister.
This story had a lot of location shooting mixed in with the normal set work and there was something odd about that. One part may have been the jump between film and tape but I've not had much of a problem with that before. I think the problem may have been that they did not alter the location shoots in any significant way. There was a bit of an otherworldliness in the sets with black backdrop and blinking lights of computers. The location shoots were standard clean corridors, a normal building roof and a utility basement that looked quite normal for the 1970's. For me, I think the jump created a disconnect that was hard to get around.
I'm also going to blame the format in which I watched, which interrupted the story every four minutes or so. It's hard to get invested in the plot when you get a break that often. That being said, there were points where an interruption would happen and I would be genuinely annoyed as I was getting invested in the story. So there was plenty in here to keep my attention and make me want more.
Being a Robert Holmes story, it was filled with plenty of witty dialogue that was very pleasant on the ears. A little bit is always lost because of the speed at which people seemed to be talking but there was more than enough left over to bring a good bit of amusement when it got going. I actually wish there had been more of that. Being a story about a revolution, there was a lot of moving to action rather than sit down word play as there might be in other stories. But the absence did make me appreciate the moments where the witty word play did come in that much more.
Overall, there is not much else to say about this story. It was fine and reasonably entertaining, but it did not jump up and grab me the way I was hoping it would based on what I had heard about it. Again, maybe that was somewhat due to the format in which I was watching but I couldn't help that. Still, it gives me enough pause and I enjoyed it well enough that I'd like to try and watch it again without all the interruptions and see if that makes a difference in my appreciation of it; and to say that you're willing to watch a story again is always a good sign that the positive elements outweigh the negative.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
Certain Doctor Who stories are fairly well known for their source material or own back story. The Sun Makers is one of those stories as it became rather well known that Robert Holmes was embroiled with the British tax service at the time and took out his frustration in the form of this biting satire. In fact, some points were a bit too on the nose and Graham Williams had to step in and edit a few things to make sure the show didn't get in trouble as well.
Plot Summary
The story opens with a worker named Cordo checking in on his father's death. After receiving news that it went well, he is instructed to head to the Gatherer's office to pay the death taxes. He pays but Gatherer Hade informs him that the tax had been increased recently. The worker protests that he will be unable to pay and Gatherer Hade dismisses him with suggestions of working more to make up the difference.
On the TARDIS, the Doctor and K-9 are playing chess with Leela moving the pieces at K-9's direction. The time rotor stops and the Doctor dematerializes. He is confused as the instruments indicate they are on Pluto but it has an Earth-like environment. Heading out to investigate, the Doctor and Leela find themselves on a building in the middle of a major plant. Cordo arrives on the roof and prepares to jump off. Leela and the Doctor manage to get him away from the edge and find out what his troubles are.
Gatherer Hade is alerted to an illegal landing on the roof of one of the buildings and heads up with his assistant Marn to collect the fines. Cordo, seeing their approach, pulls the Doctor and Leela into the building while the Collector and Marn attempt to gain access to the TARDIS. Upon failing to do so, they plant a tracker on it.
With no prospects, Cordo decides to join the outlaws who live under the city. The Doctor and Leela accompany him. Entering the tunnels, they are captured by the outlaws and brought to the leader, Mandrel. Mandrel is convinced that the Doctor is a miner and he develops a plan to use the Doctor. He is to take a card to a distribution point and collect the money it pays out. If he does not, he will kill Leela.
Curious about the Doctor's lack of return, K-9 emerges from the TARDIS and scans for the Doctor. The tracker Gatherer Hade left on the TARDIS picks up K-9 and Gatherer Hade and Marn track him over the city cameras. K-9 meets up with the Doctor and Cordo emerging from the tunnels. K-9 offers to come with the Doctor but the Doctor shoos him off.
Gatherer Hade also believes that the Doctor is a miner based on his appearance and immediately assumes that an armed rebellion is being plotted. He leaves to consult with the Controller, the overall leader.
The Doctor and Cordo continue to the bank booth but when the Doctor attempts to withdraw money, the booth seals itself and fills with gas. Cordo runs to get help but observes a security detail come to the booth and take the now semi-conscious Doctor away to the correction facility.
At the office of the Controller, Gatherer Hade informs him of his belief that a rebellion is forming among the miners. He requests additional guards to put down the rebellion. The Controller is reluctant due to the offset in profit, but Gatherer Hade suggests offsetting the cost with additional taxes. He also points out how a full rebellion would be very damaging to the overall bottom line. The Controller agrees but also orders that control gas emissions be increased as additional compensation.
The Doctor wakes up in a straightjacket with another prisoner named Bisham who had been arrested for breaching top level security information and taking an antidote to the control gas, although he wasn't aware of the full effects, just that it made him feel clear-headed and more curious. The Doctor manages to get up and move around and booby traps the controls. He returns to his gurney when a guard enters. The guard hooks them up to control helmets and prepares to activate them. The Doctor warns him not to and the guard is electrocuted when he pulls the switch.
Back in the rebel lair, Mandrel's allotted time has run out and he orders his men to kill Leela. One comes at her but she flips him aside and draws her knife. No one else attacks and Mandrel steps in. She fends him off for a time when Cordo returns informing them that the Doctor was captured. Mandrel immediately forgets about Leela and rages at the woman who converted the stolen card. Leela asks for help to rescue the Doctor but all refuse except Cordo. He and Leela emerge from the lair to find K-9 waiting for the Doctor's return. Leela has K-9 come with them to rescue the Doctor.
The Doctor and Bisham observe technicians fixing the controls when Marn enters and releases the Doctor. She escorts him to see Gatherer Hade. Gatherer Hade gives the Doctor the money he tried to extract earlier and plants a tracker on him, all while pretending that this was a great mix up. The Doctor goes along with it and upon his release, heads back down to the under-city tunnels where he gives the money to Mandrel. He also learns that Leela and Cordo left to rescue him.
Leela, Cordo and K-9 break into the corrections facility. Leela notes that she feels fear and K-9 informs her that a gas has been released into the air to produce a fear response. They find Bisham with a bag of jelly babies who tells them that the Doctor was taken to Gatherer Hade's office. They leave together and Cordo suggests they use the subway tunnels to escape. Gatherer Hade however has used the Controller's men to set up check points at the various under-city entrances. The group runs into one and a patrol car spots them while trying to hide. K-9 moves to the side and stuns the guards as they try to arrest them. The group takes the car and smashes through the barrier but Leela is shot and falls out as they drive away. She is immediately arrested.
Mandrel believes that the Doctor has made a deal to sell them out to Gatherer Hade. The Doctor denies this but Mandrel doesn't believe him. He prepares to torture the Doctor, although the Doctor doesn't believe he has the stomach to do it. But before it can start, Cordo and Bisham enter and stop things. They inform the Doctor of what happened and Leela's arrest. The Doctor decides that to save her, they will formant a full rebellion.
Leela is examined by the Controller personally due to her lack of worker mark or scar indicating she removed it. She informs the Controller of her tribe and that she came with the Doctor in the TARDIS and that the Doctor is a Time Lord. With that information, the Controller dismisses her, ordering her execution for sometime later.
The Doctor, using information from Bisham and Mandrel, plans to destroy the gas containers that keep the populace under control. He has Cordo pull two cameras out of the wall which the Doctor then modifies and has Cordo place back. He then has Mandrel and Bisham come with him to destroy the gas distribution while the rest of the outlaws disperse through the city to inform the populace of what is going on.
The Controller informs Gatherer Hade that the man he released is not a rebel miner but instead a Time Lord. He orders Gatherer Hade to issue a reward to be paid by Hade personally for the capture of the Doctor, dead or alive. He also sets terms for Leela's execution, to take place at the start of the first shift.
The Doctor uses the modified cameras to fool the tracker as to his location. This distracts Gatherer Hade, who comes down personally to capture the Doctor so as to not pay out his own money. The group then breaks into the central boiler room. They convince the two workers to join their revolution and then shut down the gas distribution. As the air clears, pockets of resistance to the rules begin forming, fanned by the other outlaws spread throughout the city.
While waiting in the boiler room, the Doctor's group sees a broadcast of Leela's upcoming execution by steaming (roasting her alive). As the steam room is right above them, the Doctor has K-9 disable one of the pressure ducts. He then has Mandrel shut down the steam flow so he can crawl into the tube to rescue her. He does so but the pressure climbs high that Mandrel is forced to give the Doctor a warning over his communicator which is overheard by the Collector. The Collector orders the guards to put down the strikes that are being reported throughout the city. However, most of the guards are outnumbered and easily overpowered by the populace.
To fully push the rebellion, the Doctor and Leela leave the others in charge of the boiler room while they sneak into the palace to send a broadcast of revolt. With most of the guards spread through the city or guarding the Collector, they easily get in and send out the message. Hearing reports of workers out on the roof, Gatherer Hade goes to confront them. The populace grabs him and pitches him off the roof.
After sending the message, the Doctor and Leela open the Collector's safe. A secondary system knocks Leela unconscious. The Doctor attends to her and investigates the contents when the Collector arrives back into the control room. Talking with the Collector, the Doctor learns that he is also an alien whose race is exploiting the planets and humanity. Upon depleting Pluto, they will abandon humanity to their death.
The guard the Doctor had knocked out earlier comes to and seizes the Doctor while the Collector plans to release a deadly gas that will kill all humans in the city, leaving him alive. Leela awakes and throws her knife, wounding the guard and freeing the Doctor. They then pull the Collector away, preventing him from releasing the gas. Upon seeing economic changes the Doctor instituted, the Collector's humanoid appearance breaks down and he disappears into a hole in his chair. The unstability of the situation caused him to lose control and revert back to his normal form, now hidden in the well of his life support chair. The citizens, breaking in to the control room, seal him in.
Under the Doctor's encouragement, the people begin to make plans to return to Earth. The Doctor, Leela and K-9 depart in the TARDIS, although the Doctor introduces a jolt which overturns the chessboard, ruining the game that K-9 had announced he was going to win in six moves.
Analysis
This is a story that I'm pretty sure I would have like better if I were British. Granted, irritation with Byzantine tax codes and social revolution play pretty well across all cultures, but I get the strong feeling that there are nuances in this story that are lost on me as an American (not the first time I've felt that). One joke I know that is lost on me is the naming of corridors after various tax forms. I appreciate the joke, but it's full effect is lost on me.
As far as the story overall, I'd have to say it was fairly middling. The performances of the Doctor and Leela as well as some of the other characters was quite good. But others were not so good. Hade was enjoyable in his sycophantic style and I also liked the Controller, but I think the Controller would have been a bit better if he had not affected his voice quite so much. I think the actor's intent was to convey alien menace, but it lost something for me. I think a quieter and more deadpan approach would have seemed more sinister.
This story had a lot of location shooting mixed in with the normal set work and there was something odd about that. One part may have been the jump between film and tape but I've not had much of a problem with that before. I think the problem may have been that they did not alter the location shoots in any significant way. There was a bit of an otherworldliness in the sets with black backdrop and blinking lights of computers. The location shoots were standard clean corridors, a normal building roof and a utility basement that looked quite normal for the 1970's. For me, I think the jump created a disconnect that was hard to get around.
I'm also going to blame the format in which I watched, which interrupted the story every four minutes or so. It's hard to get invested in the plot when you get a break that often. That being said, there were points where an interruption would happen and I would be genuinely annoyed as I was getting invested in the story. So there was plenty in here to keep my attention and make me want more.
Being a Robert Holmes story, it was filled with plenty of witty dialogue that was very pleasant on the ears. A little bit is always lost because of the speed at which people seemed to be talking but there was more than enough left over to bring a good bit of amusement when it got going. I actually wish there had been more of that. Being a story about a revolution, there was a lot of moving to action rather than sit down word play as there might be in other stories. But the absence did make me appreciate the moments where the witty word play did come in that much more.
Overall, there is not much else to say about this story. It was fine and reasonably entertaining, but it did not jump up and grab me the way I was hoping it would based on what I had heard about it. Again, maybe that was somewhat due to the format in which I was watching but I couldn't help that. Still, it gives me enough pause and I enjoyed it well enough that I'd like to try and watch it again without all the interruptions and see if that makes a difference in my appreciation of it; and to say that you're willing to watch a story again is always a good sign that the positive elements outweigh the negative.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Partners in Crime
Doctor: I just want a mate.
Donna: You just want to mate?! Doctor: No! I want a mate. Donna: Well you're not mating with me!
Unquestionably, Donna is my favorite companion. In addition to her being funny, it is a nice breath of fresh air to not have a companion who is pining for the Doctor. Donna could be a bit harsh in The Runaway Bride, but her debut in Partners in Crime already shows the softer side that begins to come through in Series Four.
Plot Summary
The story opens with Donna (last seen in The Runaway Bride) posing as a Health and Safety inspector and investigating the Adipose weight loss company. Unknown to her, the Doctor is also investigating, although they keep missing each other. Each views the same presentation and each grabs a customer list from a call center employee.
The Doctor meets one customer who notes that in addition to the weight loss, he has also had his burglar alarm go off at the same time each night. The Doctor asks if he has a cat flap and he does, allowing the Doctor to guess at what is going on.
Donna heads to a different customer and ask her some questions. She is getting ready to leave but speaks highly of the weight loss pill. While waiting for her to finish getting ready, Donna idly twists the pendant that comes as a free gift with each Adipose trial. The twisting action causes an Adipose child to generate from the customer. This also sends an alert signal to the head of Adipose Industries, Ms. Foster. To eliminate discovery of the plan, Ms. Foster accelerates the generation and sends a collection team. The woman breaks apart into tens of Adipose children who are collected by a recovery team as they climb out the window. Donna breaks into the bathroom to find it empty save for her clothes and is dumbfounded on what might have happened.
Donna returns to her mother's house, her father having died in the period between stories. Tired of her mother's nagging, she climbs the local hill to talk with her grandfather, Wilfred Mott (last seen in Voyage of the Damned), who is stargazing. She confides in him that she is looking hard for a man she met once in a blue box, regretting her decision not to travel with the Doctor.
Donna and the Doctor both return to Adipose Industries the next day and wait out until the end of the day. Donna is about to leave her hiding spot in the bathroom when Ms. Foster and two guards enter. They knock down the stall doors until they discover a reporter who had also been doing some snooping. She is taken to Ms. Foster's office while Donna follows discreetly from a distance.
The Doctor also emerges from his hiding spot and descends to Ms. Foster's office using a window washing carriage. He listens in as Ms. Foster explains how the pills collect fat from a human host and then germinate into a fat based life form called Adipose. While listening on either side of the office, Donna and the Doctor catch sight of each other. Excited at seeing him, Donna mimes how she had been looking for him. They are interrupted in their catch up when they are noticed by Ms. Foster.
The Doctor lifts back to the roof while Donna runs up the stairs. The two get back in the window washer carriage and head down. Ms. Foster arrives on the roof armed with a sonic pen. She disables the carriage and cuts one of the lines, sending Donna dangling. The Doctor knocks the sonic pen out of Ms. Foster's hand and uses the two sonics to open a window, descend to the next level and pull Donna into the building.
Back inside, they confront Ms. Foster who informs them she is also alien, hired by the Adipose to breed a new generation after the disappearance of their nursery planet. The Doctor creates a distraction and he and Donna run to the basement while Ms. Foster returns to her office and activates the generation signal, causing multiple Adipose to generate from their hosts. The Doctor is able to block the signal initially, but Ms. Foster reinforces the signal, leaving him helpless until Donna gives him the pendant she took. This reinforces the block, ending the generation.
The boost in signal also called the child delivery ship and the thousands of Adipose children are beamed aboard. Ms. Foster is also prepared to be beamed up. The Doctor and Donna see her in mid-transport on the roof and call out to her warning her that the Adipose, aware of the illegality of their actions, are prepared to ensure deniability. Ms. Foster doesn't believe them but her beam then cuts out and she falls to her death.
Donna then heads to the TARDIS, prepared to travel with the Doctor. He is hesitant and awkwardly makes it known that he only wants a friend to travel with. Donna, misunderstanding him that he wants a relationship, gets offended and yells back at him. With their status settled, Donna drops the car keys off for her mom and lets a woman know where she can find them. The woman turns out to be Rose who then walks away and disappears.
Donna and the Doctor fly off, passing by Wilfred's hill where Donna waves to him from the TARDIS door. Wilf excitedly waves back, yelling for her to enjoy herself.
Analysis
Partners in Crime is an interesting story to start with. It is more or less a straight-forward adventure with some comedy thrown in. In fact, the comedy doesn't really kick in until the second half as the first half feels more like a detective drama. There are moments as the Doctor and Donna barely missing each other is played for laughs but the stronger comedic overtones kick into high gear when Donna and the Doctor are miming to each other across Ms. Foster's office.
Unlike The Romans where the story bounced between drama and comedy, this story begins in drama and evolves into comedy, which is more enjoyable. I could see how it would annoy some people but I rather enjoyed it and the flow was at least consistent. It did go a bridge too far with Ms. Foster's death though. When her beam deactivates, she hangs in space for a couple of seconds and has an eye bulge reaction, straight out of a Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon. It's a wonder to me that she didn't hold up an "Uh-Oh" sign as she fell. I enjoy comedy in Doctor Who, but indulging in cartoon physics is a bit much for me.
Outside of that indulgence, the only other thing that rubbed me wrong was the caliber of acting of some of the secondary cast. Ms. Foster was fine, but the woman Donna sees before disintegrating was not the best. Likewise, some of the other actors in the scene where the Adipose are generating were a little under par. That's somewhat understandable as the limitations in body type probably caused the team to pull actors they might not normally take. But it was only for a couple small scenes and didn't hurt the story much overall.
I rather enjoyed Ms. Foster as a villain. She had that domineering way that made her both attractive and yet also slightly scary. I also enjoyed how she was shown to be rather competent in her operation. The only two places where she was shown to be restricted was in her tying up of the reporter rather than simply killing her outright and the hesitation in trying to kill the Doctor, allowing him to put the two sonics together which allowed him and Donna to escape. Those points are rather forgivable when you compare her to other show villains, many proclaimed to be much smarter and more diabolical, who are shown to make even poorer decisions.
I'm of a mixed mind about Rose reappearing in this episode. If there was one thing about Series Four that bugged me, it was that Donna wasn't given as much of a chance to stand on her own as previous companions. Martha came back for three episodes in the middle and the whole series is peppered with shots of Rose until we get the ball rolling in earnest in Turn Left. However, in my initial watch, not fully knowing what was coming, it was nice to see Rose again and know that there was some greater mystery to be had. So again, not great but not bad either.
One other scene in this one that I was mixed over was the Donna and Wilf scene. It is a nice scene and well played between the two. But the music was off on it. It was too loud and should have been more underplayed in my opinion to emphasize the emotion of the scene. It didn't help that that scene was spliced and used in the Series Four Trailer so it's very hard to watch that scene in retrospect and not hear All the Strange, Strange Creatures playing in your head. But it is a nice scene and I liked the inclusion and expansion of Wilf's character by it.
Overall, this is an entertaining episode. It is not without it's flaws, but as a fun way to reincorporate Donna into the mix, it works very well. This was actually only the second time I'd watched this one but I was surprised at how much I remembered and enjoyed the second time around. Some times I watch an episode again and it feels a bit slower since I know what is coming, but this was just good fun the whole way through. Definitely my favorite companion introduction story of the RTD era.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Donna: You just want to mate?! Doctor: No! I want a mate. Donna: Well you're not mating with me!
Unquestionably, Donna is my favorite companion. In addition to her being funny, it is a nice breath of fresh air to not have a companion who is pining for the Doctor. Donna could be a bit harsh in The Runaway Bride, but her debut in Partners in Crime already shows the softer side that begins to come through in Series Four.
Plot Summary
The story opens with Donna (last seen in The Runaway Bride) posing as a Health and Safety inspector and investigating the Adipose weight loss company. Unknown to her, the Doctor is also investigating, although they keep missing each other. Each views the same presentation and each grabs a customer list from a call center employee.
The Doctor meets one customer who notes that in addition to the weight loss, he has also had his burglar alarm go off at the same time each night. The Doctor asks if he has a cat flap and he does, allowing the Doctor to guess at what is going on.
Donna heads to a different customer and ask her some questions. She is getting ready to leave but speaks highly of the weight loss pill. While waiting for her to finish getting ready, Donna idly twists the pendant that comes as a free gift with each Adipose trial. The twisting action causes an Adipose child to generate from the customer. This also sends an alert signal to the head of Adipose Industries, Ms. Foster. To eliminate discovery of the plan, Ms. Foster accelerates the generation and sends a collection team. The woman breaks apart into tens of Adipose children who are collected by a recovery team as they climb out the window. Donna breaks into the bathroom to find it empty save for her clothes and is dumbfounded on what might have happened.
Donna returns to her mother's house, her father having died in the period between stories. Tired of her mother's nagging, she climbs the local hill to talk with her grandfather, Wilfred Mott (last seen in Voyage of the Damned), who is stargazing. She confides in him that she is looking hard for a man she met once in a blue box, regretting her decision not to travel with the Doctor.
Donna and the Doctor both return to Adipose Industries the next day and wait out until the end of the day. Donna is about to leave her hiding spot in the bathroom when Ms. Foster and two guards enter. They knock down the stall doors until they discover a reporter who had also been doing some snooping. She is taken to Ms. Foster's office while Donna follows discreetly from a distance.
The Doctor also emerges from his hiding spot and descends to Ms. Foster's office using a window washing carriage. He listens in as Ms. Foster explains how the pills collect fat from a human host and then germinate into a fat based life form called Adipose. While listening on either side of the office, Donna and the Doctor catch sight of each other. Excited at seeing him, Donna mimes how she had been looking for him. They are interrupted in their catch up when they are noticed by Ms. Foster.
The Doctor lifts back to the roof while Donna runs up the stairs. The two get back in the window washer carriage and head down. Ms. Foster arrives on the roof armed with a sonic pen. She disables the carriage and cuts one of the lines, sending Donna dangling. The Doctor knocks the sonic pen out of Ms. Foster's hand and uses the two sonics to open a window, descend to the next level and pull Donna into the building.
Back inside, they confront Ms. Foster who informs them she is also alien, hired by the Adipose to breed a new generation after the disappearance of their nursery planet. The Doctor creates a distraction and he and Donna run to the basement while Ms. Foster returns to her office and activates the generation signal, causing multiple Adipose to generate from their hosts. The Doctor is able to block the signal initially, but Ms. Foster reinforces the signal, leaving him helpless until Donna gives him the pendant she took. This reinforces the block, ending the generation.
The boost in signal also called the child delivery ship and the thousands of Adipose children are beamed aboard. Ms. Foster is also prepared to be beamed up. The Doctor and Donna see her in mid-transport on the roof and call out to her warning her that the Adipose, aware of the illegality of their actions, are prepared to ensure deniability. Ms. Foster doesn't believe them but her beam then cuts out and she falls to her death.
Donna then heads to the TARDIS, prepared to travel with the Doctor. He is hesitant and awkwardly makes it known that he only wants a friend to travel with. Donna, misunderstanding him that he wants a relationship, gets offended and yells back at him. With their status settled, Donna drops the car keys off for her mom and lets a woman know where she can find them. The woman turns out to be Rose who then walks away and disappears.
Donna and the Doctor fly off, passing by Wilfred's hill where Donna waves to him from the TARDIS door. Wilf excitedly waves back, yelling for her to enjoy herself.
Analysis
Partners in Crime is an interesting story to start with. It is more or less a straight-forward adventure with some comedy thrown in. In fact, the comedy doesn't really kick in until the second half as the first half feels more like a detective drama. There are moments as the Doctor and Donna barely missing each other is played for laughs but the stronger comedic overtones kick into high gear when Donna and the Doctor are miming to each other across Ms. Foster's office.
Unlike The Romans where the story bounced between drama and comedy, this story begins in drama and evolves into comedy, which is more enjoyable. I could see how it would annoy some people but I rather enjoyed it and the flow was at least consistent. It did go a bridge too far with Ms. Foster's death though. When her beam deactivates, she hangs in space for a couple of seconds and has an eye bulge reaction, straight out of a Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon. It's a wonder to me that she didn't hold up an "Uh-Oh" sign as she fell. I enjoy comedy in Doctor Who, but indulging in cartoon physics is a bit much for me.
Outside of that indulgence, the only other thing that rubbed me wrong was the caliber of acting of some of the secondary cast. Ms. Foster was fine, but the woman Donna sees before disintegrating was not the best. Likewise, some of the other actors in the scene where the Adipose are generating were a little under par. That's somewhat understandable as the limitations in body type probably caused the team to pull actors they might not normally take. But it was only for a couple small scenes and didn't hurt the story much overall.
I rather enjoyed Ms. Foster as a villain. She had that domineering way that made her both attractive and yet also slightly scary. I also enjoyed how she was shown to be rather competent in her operation. The only two places where she was shown to be restricted was in her tying up of the reporter rather than simply killing her outright and the hesitation in trying to kill the Doctor, allowing him to put the two sonics together which allowed him and Donna to escape. Those points are rather forgivable when you compare her to other show villains, many proclaimed to be much smarter and more diabolical, who are shown to make even poorer decisions.
I'm of a mixed mind about Rose reappearing in this episode. If there was one thing about Series Four that bugged me, it was that Donna wasn't given as much of a chance to stand on her own as previous companions. Martha came back for three episodes in the middle and the whole series is peppered with shots of Rose until we get the ball rolling in earnest in Turn Left. However, in my initial watch, not fully knowing what was coming, it was nice to see Rose again and know that there was some greater mystery to be had. So again, not great but not bad either.
One other scene in this one that I was mixed over was the Donna and Wilf scene. It is a nice scene and well played between the two. But the music was off on it. It was too loud and should have been more underplayed in my opinion to emphasize the emotion of the scene. It didn't help that that scene was spliced and used in the Series Four Trailer so it's very hard to watch that scene in retrospect and not hear All the Strange, Strange Creatures playing in your head. But it is a nice scene and I liked the inclusion and expansion of Wilf's character by it.
Overall, this is an entertaining episode. It is not without it's flaws, but as a fun way to reincorporate Donna into the mix, it works very well. This was actually only the second time I'd watched this one but I was surprised at how much I remembered and enjoyed the second time around. Some times I watch an episode again and it feels a bit slower since I know what is coming, but this was just good fun the whole way through. Definitely my favorite companion introduction story of the RTD era.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
Friday, April 15, 2016
Mawdryn Undead
That's Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of course.
If there is one thing Mawdryn Undead is memorable for, it is for creating the UNIT dating controversy. During the Second, Third, and Fourth Doctor eras, it was pretty clear that the UNIT stories were operating a little ahead of broadcast time, with Sarah Jane's reference to 1980 in The Pyramids of Mars being the most significant example. There were of course, little continuity errors as the production staff usually forgot to change calendars so they would be talking as though it were the late 70's but standing next to a calendar that said 1971. Still, the overt evidence was that the UNIT stories were to be about five years ahead of the current year.
Mawdryn Undead shot that all up with it's placing the retirement of the Brigadier in 1976 and then doubling down with references to the retirement of Benton in 1979 as well as the constant references back to 1977 and 1983. The crux of the problem was that the story was not written for the Brigadier at all. The story was supposed to center around Ian but William Russell was not available and so the Brig was brought in to replace him and the rest is a very muddled history. What is extra annoying is that there is no reason why those years had to be used other than the story was shot in 1983 and they just used that as a baseline and counted backwards as needed.
Plot Summary
At a boys school two students, Turlough and Ibbotson, are admiring a classic roadster. Turlough shoves Ibbotson in it and steals the car for a joyride. While driving, they swerve off the road to avoid a truck and crash. While Turlough is passed out, he is approached by the Black Guardian. Turlough is an alien and wants to leave Earth. The Black Guardian promises to send him home if he kills the Doctor. Turlough reluctantly agrees and then comes around. The car had been owned by Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, now retired from UNIT and a teacher at the school.
On the TARDIS, Tegan is recovering from her incident with the Mara as shown in Snakedance. She asks to return to Earth for some recovery time when the TARDIS is buffeted. It is on a collision course with a ship locked in a physical and temporal orbit. To avoid hitting it, the Doctor materializes the TARDIS on the ship.
Recovering in the infirmary, Turlough is contacted by the Black Guardian who gives him instructions. When Ibbotson enters to tell him about being threatened by the headmaster, Turlough implies that he will take the fall for him, when in fact, Turlough blamed Ibbotson when confronted by the headmaster. Having assuaged Ibbotson, Turlough leaves the infirmary with Ibbotson and heads to a monument on the school grounds.
The Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa explore the ship only to find it apparently designed for amusement and deserted. A teleport pod had been initialized when the ship first approached Earth in 1977. It is now 1983 and the ship is beginning to swing away from Earth. The Doctor leads the team back to the TARDIS.
At the monument, under instructions from the Black Guardian, Turlough deactivates a cloaking device and the teleport pod appears. He steps inside and is beamed to the ship. Ibbotson is so terrified by this that he runs off. Upon meeting the Brigadier, he tells him what happened and the two walk towards the monument.
Back on the ship, the activation of the pod has affected the ability of the TARDIS to dematerialize. Guessing what the problem is, the group heads back to the control room. Turlough then slips inside the TARDIS. The Doctor checks the ship's controls and realizes that he'll have to unlock the pod from Earth. He heads back to the TARDIS to get some equipment and meets Turlough. Turlough tells them how he found the pod and was beamed to the ship. The Doctor prepares to leave in the pod to go back to Earth and instructs Nyssa to bring the TARDIS down once he has deactivated the pod. Turlough asks to come with the Doctor and he agrees.
Once they are back on Earth, the Doctor begins to work on the pod control unit outside. Turlough, under urging from the Black Guardian, picks up a rock to smash the Doctor's head in with. But the Doctor successfully deactivates the unit in a small explosion which knocks him backwards into Turlough, who drops the rock. The TARDIS briefly materializes but then disappears. The Doctor and Turlough attempt to figure out what went wrong when the Brigadier arrives with Ibbotson. He does not recognize the Doctor and has no memory of the TARDIS. He only gets agitated when the Doctor mentions UNIT. He escorts Turlough and Ibbotson back to the school and then takes the Doctor to his cabin outside the school grounds.
The TARDIS materializes outside the monument but Tegan and Nyssa see no sign of the Doctor. While outside looking, they see the teleport pod appear and upon entering, they see a man, badly burned. They assume it is the Doctor and take him back to the TARDIS. In the TARDIS, Nyssa elects to stay with the man while Tegan goes down to the school to find a doctor.
Turlough, back in the infirmary, attempts to escape his deal with the Black Guardian, but the Guardian, visiting him in a dream, lets him know that he will never escape him. Waking, Turlough decides to flee the school and attempt to escape using the teleport pod and it's parent ship. He lashes together a sheet rope and escapes out the window.
At the Brigadier's cabin, the Doctor manages to trigger the Brigadier's memory and he recalls the Doctor at last. The Doctor surmises that he must have suffered a trauma in the past which blocked his memory of him and his companions. However, in discussing the companions, the Brigadier recalls meeting Tegan. The Doctor then realizes that the TARDIS must have overshot and arrived in 1977, when the transport pod first showed up on Earth.
In 1977 Tegan, looking for help, meets a younger Brigadier. He has one of the boys go for the doctor and upon hearing the word TARDIS, realizes that the Doctor is here. He heads out with Tegan to help. Tegan, upon learning of events (the Queen's silver jubilee) realizes that the TARDIS came back too early and the injured man they met is not the Doctor. They meet Nyssa outside the TARDIS and tell her what is going on. Nyssa is agitated as "the Doctor" had ordered her to take off without Tegan. The three enter the TARDIS to see the man, Mawdryn, in a state of decay but hunched over the TARDIS console. With all of them aboard, Nyssa takes the TARDIS back to the ship. Mawdryn exits, ordering the group to stay there. The Brigadier waits a minute and then follows him out, ordering Tegan to stay when she tries to go as well.
In 1983, the Brigadier misremembers events and believes he stayed behind. Knowing that they had gone back to the ship, the Doctor and the Brigadier head back to the transport pod and prevent Turlough from taking off without them. All together, they head back to the ship. The Doctor orders Turlough to find the TARDIS while he and the Brigadier explore a laboratory he discovered. The lab is filled with stolen Gallifrean equipment and the Doctor surmises that Mawdryn and some of his companions had tried to become Time Lords themselves.
Mawdryn attempts to open a passage to his fellow scientists but when he fails, he crawls to the lab. Turlough, prompted by the Black Guardian, does open the passage and revives the scientists. Tegan, having left the TARDIS, finds the lab and the Doctor, along with the 1983 Brigadier. The scientists enter and Mawdryn explains that they had stolen Gallifrean technology in an attempt to become Time Lords but their experiments had instead caused a mutation where they would continue to age but would not die. Now, they only longed for death. They ask the Doctor's help but he refuses as the energy to help each of them would cost all his remaining regenerations, rendering him mortal.
Also realizing that the 1977 Brigadier is aboard, the Doctor instructs Turlough, who met them outside the lab, to find the Brigadier and take him back to Earth in the transport capsule. He would take the 1983 version in the TARDIS. Turlough agrees and finds the 1977 Brigadier but instead of transporting him, locks him in the same room where the scientists were.
The Doctor and his party attempt to leave in the TARDIS, but as they leave, Tegan and Nyssa begin to show the same degenerating effects as Mawdryn and his companions. They return to the ship and the Doctor tries again with the polarity reversed. This doesn't work either as Nyssa and Tegan turn into little girls. He heads back again realizing they were infected when they carried Mawdryn from the capsule to the TARDIS.
While waiting for the Doctor to return, Mawdryn discovers the 1977 Brigadier, who had escaped the room and was wandering around again. Realizing the danger of the two Brigadier's meeting, Mawdryn puts the Brigadier in the capsule and tries to send him back to Earth. But with the TARDIS stuck on the ship, the capsule is also stuck, having been forced to use the TARDIS' homing beacon as it's navigational circuit. When it returns to the ship, Brigadier removes the TARDIS homing beacon and heads back out into the ship.
The Doctor emerges from the TARDIS and agrees to Mawdryn's plan, knowing that it is the only way to save Nyssa and Tegan. The three of them and the eight scientists are hooked up to an array while the Brigadier operates the control panel. Hearing the commotion, the 1977 Brigadier enters the lab. Turlough, on instructions from the Black Guardian, tries to stop him but the Brigadier casually shoves him aside. Entering the lab, he sees his future self and confused, offers him the TARDIS homing beacon. The older Brigadier takes it just as the energy is to take place. There is a huge release of energy as the two men touch.
The 1977 Brigadier passes out while the 1983 Brigadier comes back to his normal state of mind. The Doctor also discovers that his regenerations are still intact as the machine absorbed the time energy of the Brigadiers rather than himself. Mawdryn thanks him as he dies. In the hall, Turlough also discovers that the time energy release has cracked the crystal that the Black Guardian was using to communicate with him. Turlough then sneaks back and hides in the TARDIS.
The Doctor notes that the ship is now destabilizing and will self destruct. He orders Nyssa to take the 1983 Brigadier to the TARDIS and hide with him in another room. He and Tegan grab the 1977 Brigadier, who is still unconscious, and drag him back to the TARDIS control room. Landing in 1977, they drag the Brigadier out to the grass and then leave where he is discovered by the doctor whom he had sent for when Tegan first arrived. Returning to 1983, they drop off that version of the Brigadier as well before realizing that Turlough might still be on the ship. They quickly take off only to discover Turlough trying to figure out the console. He asks to come with them and the Doctor agrees, much to Tegan and Nyssa's annoyance. They depart as the prison ship explodes.
Analysis
This was an enjoyable story for the most part. It was nice to see a plot fully using time travel and the paradoxical dangers that exist with that. But it did fall down a bit in it's execution and there were moments that felt a bit padded, especially when it became very obvious as to how the solution was to come about.
Like The Visitation, there was a desire to supplant the usual companions with someone older and a better actor. Episode One dragged quite a bit for me as it was a lot of set up with Turlough and the discovery of the ship by the Doctor. But once the Brigadier came on the scene full time at the beginning of Episode Two, the quality shot up a lot. The quality of acting between the Doctor and the Brigadier ran rings around the others, and I would include the Black Guardian in that as well. The Black Guardian scenes were sometimes painful to watch as he was overacting to emphasize his evil nature. It didn't help that the crow hat he wore made him look like he had a very bad hair dye job and that he usually stood behind some very weird blue screen effects that looked badly fake. It just made him very hard to take seriously. A more subdued performance with a sinister background would have helped a lot.
Tegan wasn't bad although she still failed to have much depth outside of "overwrought." Given how she started the story, her performance could be dismissed as PTSD from the Mara. Turlough has some potential, but he overemotes a lot especially when confronted by the Black Guardian. In a calmer situation, he might do alright, but his hysteria began to grate on me as the story went on. His near absence in Episode Two was appreciated, despite another scene with the Black Guardian. On the opposite end of the scale, there is Nyssa, who wears a perpetual bored expression. In Episode Two, she is supposed to be concerned as Mawdryn has instructed her to take off and leave Tegan behind. As Tegan approaches, one would expect her to show relief and or concern. Instead she looks mildly annoyed that she is even here. There are other points where emotion would have been expected, but instead she just stands there like a block of wood. I honestly think the actress who played Nyssa as a little girl showed more emotion in one five second clip than Nyssa did the entire episode.
Mawdryn and his companions were pretty good and even a bit gross despite the low budget make up effects. It was nice to have the "antagonist" be someone who just requires a great sacrifice to help rather than some megalomaniacal loon or another rubber monster. That being said, a little more development might have made Mawdryn and his companions more sympathetic. They weren't unsympathetic, but given that they were being punished for a crime, it was hard to feel particularly bad for them. Some of that might have been due to Mawdryn's rather flat delivery. He was so consumed with sounding weak that he lost most of his emotional range in doing so and that would have helped I think. But it was still enjoyable.
Pacing was also a small problem with this story. Early in Episode Three it became rather obvious that the two Brigadiers were going to meet at some point and that the meeting was going to cause the "mental breakdown" the 1977 Brigadier suffered. Given this, it also became clear that the meeting was also going to be the source of the solution to killing Mawdryn and his companions. Once that was figured out, the rest of the story felt a bit slow in getting there. Part of that was due to the fact that the 1977 Brigadier and Turlough spent a lot of time just wandering down various corridors while the rest of the characters didn't seem to have too much problem getting from point A to B. It just felt like a killing time exercise. If the 1977 Brigadier had been locked up for longer or trapped in the capsule for an extended period of time, that might have felt more real and perhaps the delay in the resolution would have felt less forced.
Despite all my nitpicks, this really was an enjoyable story. The overall plot was well thought out and well developed. The sets and costuming were well done and the Doctor and the Brigadier were strongly on point. It was the rest of the execution, including the acting of the companions that let it down at points. On balance, I think I could watch this one again without too much complaint. I would not rate it as high as others have as it has too many flaws, but it still an enjoyable watch.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
If there is one thing Mawdryn Undead is memorable for, it is for creating the UNIT dating controversy. During the Second, Third, and Fourth Doctor eras, it was pretty clear that the UNIT stories were operating a little ahead of broadcast time, with Sarah Jane's reference to 1980 in The Pyramids of Mars being the most significant example. There were of course, little continuity errors as the production staff usually forgot to change calendars so they would be talking as though it were the late 70's but standing next to a calendar that said 1971. Still, the overt evidence was that the UNIT stories were to be about five years ahead of the current year.
Mawdryn Undead shot that all up with it's placing the retirement of the Brigadier in 1976 and then doubling down with references to the retirement of Benton in 1979 as well as the constant references back to 1977 and 1983. The crux of the problem was that the story was not written for the Brigadier at all. The story was supposed to center around Ian but William Russell was not available and so the Brig was brought in to replace him and the rest is a very muddled history. What is extra annoying is that there is no reason why those years had to be used other than the story was shot in 1983 and they just used that as a baseline and counted backwards as needed.
Plot Summary
At a boys school two students, Turlough and Ibbotson, are admiring a classic roadster. Turlough shoves Ibbotson in it and steals the car for a joyride. While driving, they swerve off the road to avoid a truck and crash. While Turlough is passed out, he is approached by the Black Guardian. Turlough is an alien and wants to leave Earth. The Black Guardian promises to send him home if he kills the Doctor. Turlough reluctantly agrees and then comes around. The car had been owned by Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, now retired from UNIT and a teacher at the school.
On the TARDIS, Tegan is recovering from her incident with the Mara as shown in Snakedance. She asks to return to Earth for some recovery time when the TARDIS is buffeted. It is on a collision course with a ship locked in a physical and temporal orbit. To avoid hitting it, the Doctor materializes the TARDIS on the ship.
Recovering in the infirmary, Turlough is contacted by the Black Guardian who gives him instructions. When Ibbotson enters to tell him about being threatened by the headmaster, Turlough implies that he will take the fall for him, when in fact, Turlough blamed Ibbotson when confronted by the headmaster. Having assuaged Ibbotson, Turlough leaves the infirmary with Ibbotson and heads to a monument on the school grounds.
The Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa explore the ship only to find it apparently designed for amusement and deserted. A teleport pod had been initialized when the ship first approached Earth in 1977. It is now 1983 and the ship is beginning to swing away from Earth. The Doctor leads the team back to the TARDIS.
At the monument, under instructions from the Black Guardian, Turlough deactivates a cloaking device and the teleport pod appears. He steps inside and is beamed to the ship. Ibbotson is so terrified by this that he runs off. Upon meeting the Brigadier, he tells him what happened and the two walk towards the monument.
Back on the ship, the activation of the pod has affected the ability of the TARDIS to dematerialize. Guessing what the problem is, the group heads back to the control room. Turlough then slips inside the TARDIS. The Doctor checks the ship's controls and realizes that he'll have to unlock the pod from Earth. He heads back to the TARDIS to get some equipment and meets Turlough. Turlough tells them how he found the pod and was beamed to the ship. The Doctor prepares to leave in the pod to go back to Earth and instructs Nyssa to bring the TARDIS down once he has deactivated the pod. Turlough asks to come with the Doctor and he agrees.
Once they are back on Earth, the Doctor begins to work on the pod control unit outside. Turlough, under urging from the Black Guardian, picks up a rock to smash the Doctor's head in with. But the Doctor successfully deactivates the unit in a small explosion which knocks him backwards into Turlough, who drops the rock. The TARDIS briefly materializes but then disappears. The Doctor and Turlough attempt to figure out what went wrong when the Brigadier arrives with Ibbotson. He does not recognize the Doctor and has no memory of the TARDIS. He only gets agitated when the Doctor mentions UNIT. He escorts Turlough and Ibbotson back to the school and then takes the Doctor to his cabin outside the school grounds.
The TARDIS materializes outside the monument but Tegan and Nyssa see no sign of the Doctor. While outside looking, they see the teleport pod appear and upon entering, they see a man, badly burned. They assume it is the Doctor and take him back to the TARDIS. In the TARDIS, Nyssa elects to stay with the man while Tegan goes down to the school to find a doctor.
Turlough, back in the infirmary, attempts to escape his deal with the Black Guardian, but the Guardian, visiting him in a dream, lets him know that he will never escape him. Waking, Turlough decides to flee the school and attempt to escape using the teleport pod and it's parent ship. He lashes together a sheet rope and escapes out the window.
At the Brigadier's cabin, the Doctor manages to trigger the Brigadier's memory and he recalls the Doctor at last. The Doctor surmises that he must have suffered a trauma in the past which blocked his memory of him and his companions. However, in discussing the companions, the Brigadier recalls meeting Tegan. The Doctor then realizes that the TARDIS must have overshot and arrived in 1977, when the transport pod first showed up on Earth.
In 1977 Tegan, looking for help, meets a younger Brigadier. He has one of the boys go for the doctor and upon hearing the word TARDIS, realizes that the Doctor is here. He heads out with Tegan to help. Tegan, upon learning of events (the Queen's silver jubilee) realizes that the TARDIS came back too early and the injured man they met is not the Doctor. They meet Nyssa outside the TARDIS and tell her what is going on. Nyssa is agitated as "the Doctor" had ordered her to take off without Tegan. The three enter the TARDIS to see the man, Mawdryn, in a state of decay but hunched over the TARDIS console. With all of them aboard, Nyssa takes the TARDIS back to the ship. Mawdryn exits, ordering the group to stay there. The Brigadier waits a minute and then follows him out, ordering Tegan to stay when she tries to go as well.
In 1983, the Brigadier misremembers events and believes he stayed behind. Knowing that they had gone back to the ship, the Doctor and the Brigadier head back to the transport pod and prevent Turlough from taking off without them. All together, they head back to the ship. The Doctor orders Turlough to find the TARDIS while he and the Brigadier explore a laboratory he discovered. The lab is filled with stolen Gallifrean equipment and the Doctor surmises that Mawdryn and some of his companions had tried to become Time Lords themselves.
Mawdryn attempts to open a passage to his fellow scientists but when he fails, he crawls to the lab. Turlough, prompted by the Black Guardian, does open the passage and revives the scientists. Tegan, having left the TARDIS, finds the lab and the Doctor, along with the 1983 Brigadier. The scientists enter and Mawdryn explains that they had stolen Gallifrean technology in an attempt to become Time Lords but their experiments had instead caused a mutation where they would continue to age but would not die. Now, they only longed for death. They ask the Doctor's help but he refuses as the energy to help each of them would cost all his remaining regenerations, rendering him mortal.
Also realizing that the 1977 Brigadier is aboard, the Doctor instructs Turlough, who met them outside the lab, to find the Brigadier and take him back to Earth in the transport capsule. He would take the 1983 version in the TARDIS. Turlough agrees and finds the 1977 Brigadier but instead of transporting him, locks him in the same room where the scientists were.
The Doctor and his party attempt to leave in the TARDIS, but as they leave, Tegan and Nyssa begin to show the same degenerating effects as Mawdryn and his companions. They return to the ship and the Doctor tries again with the polarity reversed. This doesn't work either as Nyssa and Tegan turn into little girls. He heads back again realizing they were infected when they carried Mawdryn from the capsule to the TARDIS.
While waiting for the Doctor to return, Mawdryn discovers the 1977 Brigadier, who had escaped the room and was wandering around again. Realizing the danger of the two Brigadier's meeting, Mawdryn puts the Brigadier in the capsule and tries to send him back to Earth. But with the TARDIS stuck on the ship, the capsule is also stuck, having been forced to use the TARDIS' homing beacon as it's navigational circuit. When it returns to the ship, Brigadier removes the TARDIS homing beacon and heads back out into the ship.
The Doctor emerges from the TARDIS and agrees to Mawdryn's plan, knowing that it is the only way to save Nyssa and Tegan. The three of them and the eight scientists are hooked up to an array while the Brigadier operates the control panel. Hearing the commotion, the 1977 Brigadier enters the lab. Turlough, on instructions from the Black Guardian, tries to stop him but the Brigadier casually shoves him aside. Entering the lab, he sees his future self and confused, offers him the TARDIS homing beacon. The older Brigadier takes it just as the energy is to take place. There is a huge release of energy as the two men touch.
The 1977 Brigadier passes out while the 1983 Brigadier comes back to his normal state of mind. The Doctor also discovers that his regenerations are still intact as the machine absorbed the time energy of the Brigadiers rather than himself. Mawdryn thanks him as he dies. In the hall, Turlough also discovers that the time energy release has cracked the crystal that the Black Guardian was using to communicate with him. Turlough then sneaks back and hides in the TARDIS.
The Doctor notes that the ship is now destabilizing and will self destruct. He orders Nyssa to take the 1983 Brigadier to the TARDIS and hide with him in another room. He and Tegan grab the 1977 Brigadier, who is still unconscious, and drag him back to the TARDIS control room. Landing in 1977, they drag the Brigadier out to the grass and then leave where he is discovered by the doctor whom he had sent for when Tegan first arrived. Returning to 1983, they drop off that version of the Brigadier as well before realizing that Turlough might still be on the ship. They quickly take off only to discover Turlough trying to figure out the console. He asks to come with them and the Doctor agrees, much to Tegan and Nyssa's annoyance. They depart as the prison ship explodes.
Analysis
This was an enjoyable story for the most part. It was nice to see a plot fully using time travel and the paradoxical dangers that exist with that. But it did fall down a bit in it's execution and there were moments that felt a bit padded, especially when it became very obvious as to how the solution was to come about.
Like The Visitation, there was a desire to supplant the usual companions with someone older and a better actor. Episode One dragged quite a bit for me as it was a lot of set up with Turlough and the discovery of the ship by the Doctor. But once the Brigadier came on the scene full time at the beginning of Episode Two, the quality shot up a lot. The quality of acting between the Doctor and the Brigadier ran rings around the others, and I would include the Black Guardian in that as well. The Black Guardian scenes were sometimes painful to watch as he was overacting to emphasize his evil nature. It didn't help that the crow hat he wore made him look like he had a very bad hair dye job and that he usually stood behind some very weird blue screen effects that looked badly fake. It just made him very hard to take seriously. A more subdued performance with a sinister background would have helped a lot.
Tegan wasn't bad although she still failed to have much depth outside of "overwrought." Given how she started the story, her performance could be dismissed as PTSD from the Mara. Turlough has some potential, but he overemotes a lot especially when confronted by the Black Guardian. In a calmer situation, he might do alright, but his hysteria began to grate on me as the story went on. His near absence in Episode Two was appreciated, despite another scene with the Black Guardian. On the opposite end of the scale, there is Nyssa, who wears a perpetual bored expression. In Episode Two, she is supposed to be concerned as Mawdryn has instructed her to take off and leave Tegan behind. As Tegan approaches, one would expect her to show relief and or concern. Instead she looks mildly annoyed that she is even here. There are other points where emotion would have been expected, but instead she just stands there like a block of wood. I honestly think the actress who played Nyssa as a little girl showed more emotion in one five second clip than Nyssa did the entire episode.
Mawdryn and his companions were pretty good and even a bit gross despite the low budget make up effects. It was nice to have the "antagonist" be someone who just requires a great sacrifice to help rather than some megalomaniacal loon or another rubber monster. That being said, a little more development might have made Mawdryn and his companions more sympathetic. They weren't unsympathetic, but given that they were being punished for a crime, it was hard to feel particularly bad for them. Some of that might have been due to Mawdryn's rather flat delivery. He was so consumed with sounding weak that he lost most of his emotional range in doing so and that would have helped I think. But it was still enjoyable.
Pacing was also a small problem with this story. Early in Episode Three it became rather obvious that the two Brigadiers were going to meet at some point and that the meeting was going to cause the "mental breakdown" the 1977 Brigadier suffered. Given this, it also became clear that the meeting was also going to be the source of the solution to killing Mawdryn and his companions. Once that was figured out, the rest of the story felt a bit slow in getting there. Part of that was due to the fact that the 1977 Brigadier and Turlough spent a lot of time just wandering down various corridors while the rest of the characters didn't seem to have too much problem getting from point A to B. It just felt like a killing time exercise. If the 1977 Brigadier had been locked up for longer or trapped in the capsule for an extended period of time, that might have felt more real and perhaps the delay in the resolution would have felt less forced.
Despite all my nitpicks, this really was an enjoyable story. The overall plot was well thought out and well developed. The sets and costuming were well done and the Doctor and the Brigadier were strongly on point. It was the rest of the execution, including the acting of the companions that let it down at points. On balance, I think I could watch this one again without too much complaint. I would not rate it as high as others have as it has too many flaws, but it still an enjoyable watch.
Overall personal score: 3 out of 5
Thursday, April 14, 2016
The Night of the Doctor
Physician, heal thyself
One of the often cited mistakes of The Doctor Who Movie is that spent too much time showing the transition from the Seventh Doctor to the Eight Doctor, for whom this was supposed to be about. Russell T. Davies did not repeat that mistake with Rose but it also meant that the end of the Eighth Doctor was left in shadow. With his playing of the timeline by adding the War Doctor, Steven Moffat finally gave fans what they had been speculating about for years.
Plot Summary
The Eighth Doctor materializes on a ship that has been damaged and preparing to crash into the planet Karn. He tries to save the pilot, Cass, but when she realizes that he is a Time Lord, she rejects him and refuses to leave the ship, declaring him to be just as evil as the Daleks. He also refuses to leave and the ship crashes into the planet, killing both of them.
The bodies are recovered by the Sisterhood of Karn and the Doctor is revived. Informed of his death, his only hope is to regenerate with the aid of the Elixir of Life brewed by the Sisterhood. He initially refuses as he cannot go on knowing what he must become if he is to stop the Time War. But the head of the Sisterhood, Ohila, points out how they need him and the Doctor, seeing Cass's body, recalls how she hated him as much as a Dalek. He then agrees, noting that a healer was no longer needed and that he must become a warrior.
The Doctor is brought a cup of Elixir and informed that it will make his next regeneration a warrior. He banishes everyone from the room and drinks the draught. He then regenerates and dons Cass's bandolier proclaiming himself the Doctor no more.
Summary
This was fairly nice send off for the Eighth Doctor who was always given something of a short shrift. Granted, there has been much success in the Big Finish audio dramas, but as far as the viewing public is concerned, the Eighth Doctor is an unknown. This short gave him a chance to have the send off he never really got.
Now, despite the sentimentality, it is not perfect by any stretch. To keep this secret, it was shot quickly and that is rather reflected in it. The CG is a little off and in a regular episode there would have probably been a mix of CG and model rather than all CG. Likewise, the crash site was a bit sparser than you might expect. It's just a lot of little things that remind you that this was done without the regular time that a full episode might have gotten.
Time is another small problem with this episode. The short is only about seven minutes long, but the material feels like it could have gone for anywhere between ten and fifteen minutes. Most of the characters seem to speak very quickly and there is a rushed cadence to nearly everyone's dialogue. Some of that is to be expected given the situations of either a crashing ship or a four minute race against death. But without any moments of breath, it gives it a rushed feeling. This rushed feeling extends to the actor's performances and a couple feel subpar as a result. Only the Doctor feels natural when acting in a rushed manner and I chalk that up to the Doctor's character and the quality of Paul McGann's acting.
However, this is a nice story and it's good to see how a good man could be converted into the War Doctor. It is also especially nice to see the Eighth Doctor get some proper respect. The inclusion of thanks to his Big Finish companions was another nice nod to the Eighth Doctor's body of work and the medium he perpetuated his adventures in. My overall wish is that this story could have been a little longer and a bit more drawn out. Nothing needed to be added to the story, I just think a lack of rushing would have given a bit more savoring time as well as improved the performances of the secondary characters. Series Nine demonstrated this when it brought back Ohila.
But given that I've now watched this mini-episode for the fourth time, I can't say that I don't enjoy watching it and wouldn't watch it for a fifth time.
Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5
One of the often cited mistakes of The Doctor Who Movie is that spent too much time showing the transition from the Seventh Doctor to the Eight Doctor, for whom this was supposed to be about. Russell T. Davies did not repeat that mistake with Rose but it also meant that the end of the Eighth Doctor was left in shadow. With his playing of the timeline by adding the War Doctor, Steven Moffat finally gave fans what they had been speculating about for years.
Plot Summary
The Eighth Doctor materializes on a ship that has been damaged and preparing to crash into the planet Karn. He tries to save the pilot, Cass, but when she realizes that he is a Time Lord, she rejects him and refuses to leave the ship, declaring him to be just as evil as the Daleks. He also refuses to leave and the ship crashes into the planet, killing both of them.
The bodies are recovered by the Sisterhood of Karn and the Doctor is revived. Informed of his death, his only hope is to regenerate with the aid of the Elixir of Life brewed by the Sisterhood. He initially refuses as he cannot go on knowing what he must become if he is to stop the Time War. But the head of the Sisterhood, Ohila, points out how they need him and the Doctor, seeing Cass's body, recalls how she hated him as much as a Dalek. He then agrees, noting that a healer was no longer needed and that he must become a warrior.
The Doctor is brought a cup of Elixir and informed that it will make his next regeneration a warrior. He banishes everyone from the room and drinks the draught. He then regenerates and dons Cass's bandolier proclaiming himself the Doctor no more.
Summary
This was fairly nice send off for the Eighth Doctor who was always given something of a short shrift. Granted, there has been much success in the Big Finish audio dramas, but as far as the viewing public is concerned, the Eighth Doctor is an unknown. This short gave him a chance to have the send off he never really got.
Now, despite the sentimentality, it is not perfect by any stretch. To keep this secret, it was shot quickly and that is rather reflected in it. The CG is a little off and in a regular episode there would have probably been a mix of CG and model rather than all CG. Likewise, the crash site was a bit sparser than you might expect. It's just a lot of little things that remind you that this was done without the regular time that a full episode might have gotten.
Time is another small problem with this episode. The short is only about seven minutes long, but the material feels like it could have gone for anywhere between ten and fifteen minutes. Most of the characters seem to speak very quickly and there is a rushed cadence to nearly everyone's dialogue. Some of that is to be expected given the situations of either a crashing ship or a four minute race against death. But without any moments of breath, it gives it a rushed feeling. This rushed feeling extends to the actor's performances and a couple feel subpar as a result. Only the Doctor feels natural when acting in a rushed manner and I chalk that up to the Doctor's character and the quality of Paul McGann's acting.
However, this is a nice story and it's good to see how a good man could be converted into the War Doctor. It is also especially nice to see the Eighth Doctor get some proper respect. The inclusion of thanks to his Big Finish companions was another nice nod to the Eighth Doctor's body of work and the medium he perpetuated his adventures in. My overall wish is that this story could have been a little longer and a bit more drawn out. Nothing needed to be added to the story, I just think a lack of rushing would have given a bit more savoring time as well as improved the performances of the secondary characters. Series Nine demonstrated this when it brought back Ohila.
But given that I've now watched this mini-episode for the fourth time, I can't say that I don't enjoy watching it and wouldn't watch it for a fifth time.
Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
The Curse of Peladon
He seemed to rather enjoy being scratched behind the ears.
The Curse of Peladon is a generally well regarded episode but it does have a few notable detractors. It's a pretty good barometer to one's level of acceptance of Doctor Who as the plot and acting are fairly interesting but if you get nit-picky about costuming and effects, you may not care for this one as much.
Plot Summary
On the planet Peladon, the king is preparing to host a peace conference where Peladon will be invited to join a Federation. His Prime Minister is in favor but the High Priest Hepesh opposes, fearing that it will bring the curse of Aggedor, a local deity. While on his way to welcome the latest delegate, the Prime Minister is killed in a corridor.
The Doctor and Jo arrive after taking the TARDIS on a test run. The Doctor believes he has returned to Earth, but the TARDIS becomes unbalanced. They leave the ship just as it tumbles down a cliff. With no way to go down, they see a castle above them and begin to climb the cliff face. On their way up, they find a cave with a tunnel in the back and proceed through it.
In the wake of the death of the Prime Minister, the king welcomes the arriving delegates and informs them of the PM's death. The delegates are worried but vow to continue the conference. They however cannot start until the delegation from Earth arrives. Hepesh again tries to dissuade the king but the king is set on moving the planet forward into the Federation.
The tunnels take the Doctor and Jo to a set of secret passages in the castle. They emerge and are rounded up by the guards. They are taken to the throne room where they are assumed to be the representatives from Earth. The Doctor goes along, requesting that the TARDIS be recovered from the bottom of the cliff. As non-royal women are not allowed at the Peladon court, Jo is assumed to be nobility and the Doctor presents her as Princess Josephine of Tardis. The group prepares to head to the council meeting chamber but as they leave, a statue of Aggedor falls down. The Doctor pushes the Martian delegate (an Ice Warrior) out of the way.
Hepesh proclaims it a sign and the delegates move to leave Peladon but the king begs them to stay. While he talks, Jo slips through a door and up to the ledge where the statue fell. She finds something and takes it back down. The delegates retire to their quarters and Jo shows what she found to the Doctor who notes it as Ice Warrior technology and immediately assumes they are behind the attack.
An alarm goes off and the Doctor and Jo investigate. The delegate of Arcturus has had his life support system tampered with. The Doctor is able to repair it, although the other delegates observe him doing it and are immediately suspicious. While they make sure the Arcturan is alright, Jo slips away and searches the Ice Warrior quarters where she finds the missing component of the Arcturan life support system. She is caught by one of the Ice Warrior guards who lock her in while the Ice Lord Izlyr is summoned.
The Arcturan cannot remember who sabotaged his system. Lord Izlyr is summoned and informed that Jo has be found in his quarters. The Doctor starts to go along, but is summoned by the king's mute champion Grun. Grun has been commissioned by Hepesh to kill the Doctor as he is convinced that membership in the Federation is against the will of Aggedor. Grun leads the Doctor into the secret tunnels but then runs off when a roaring is heard.
Jo escapes through a window but upon reentering a castle, sees a beast and runs back into the arms of Lord Izlyr. Izlyr refutes her accusations, noting that the removal of the device would not have killed the Arcturan delegate, only put him into a coma. Jo apologizes for suspecting them and suggests they talk with the Doctor to find out what is going on. Meanwhile the Doctor also has run into this creature and runs away. He emerges from the tunnels into the inner sanctum of Aggredor. Upon touching the statue, Hepesh swoops in a accuses him of defiling the temple. He is brought before the king who reluctantly sentences him to death.
The Doctor is allowed to appeal for trial by combat, which he does. Hepesh escorts him back to his quarters where he gives him a map of the tunnels and encourages him to flee. The Doctor puts together a little hypnotic device and proceeds into the tunnels. There he meets Aggedor, a bear like beast, and uses his device to calm the creature down and set him into a more docile state.
Jo attempts to appeal to the king, but he feels bound by the old laws and will not intervene. Lord Izlyr on the other hand, vows to help as he is indebted to the Doctor for saving him from the falling statue. When Izlyr discovers the Doctor is not in his room, Jo runs into the tunnels searching for him. Seeing Aggedor with the Doctor, she grabs a torch and chases it off. The Doctor is annoyed but heads back with Jo. They enter the throne room and tell the king of the nature of Aggedor. Hepesh accuses the Doctor of further blasphemy and requests the trial by combat begin immediately. The king buckles and agrees.
In the fighting pit, the Doctor disarms Grun once but Hepesh drops another weapon into the pit. When the Doctor manages to knock him out, the Arcturan delegate moves to fire his weapon. However, the Ice Warrior guard also draws and kills Arcturus. Hepesh and his guards flee.
After being pulled out of the pit, the Doctor explains that Hepesh had made a secret deal with Arcturus that they could mine Peladon if Peladon could be kept out of the Federation and allowed to be ruled through the old ways, effectively making Hepesh the ruler of the planet. He had captured one of the remaining Aggedor beasts in the mountains and brought it to live in the tunnels, releasing it every once in a while to reinforce the "Spirit of Aggedor" legend. The king vacillates and Grun motions for the Doctor to follow him.
Grun heads into the tunnels and tries to pull Hepesh away from his group of guards preparing to attack the citadel. Hepesh however knocks Grun out and marshals his men. The Doctor finds Grun and revives him. He then finds Aggedor and sets to calming him down again.
Jo and the Martian delegates meet and convince the Alpha Centauri to vote to have the Federation support King Peladon in the battle against Hepesh. They attempt to radio this to their governments but find their communications have been destroyed.
Hepesh and his men seize the throne room and take the king prisoner. They bring in the delegates whom they have also captured. Hepesh tells the delegates that he wants them to leave and decline membership of Peladon to the Federation. Before they can answer, the Doctor appears with Aggedor behind him. Seeing it as a beast, Hepesh's guards waver and Hepesh moves to control the beast through fear as he had done before, ordering it to kill the Doctor. Aggedor instead lashes out and kills Hepesh before the Doctor can calm him down and lead him away. With Hepesh dead, the rebellious guards lay down their arms and surrender.
King Peladon is officially crowned with acceptance of Peladon into the Federation. He has proposed to Jo and she has reluctantly declined. The Doctor suggests that they watch the coronation and then leave to spare both her and the king any more pain. However, as they walk to the coronation, they see the real Earth delegate and they immediately retreat back to the TARDIS, which had been hauled up from the cliff below. They disappear as the delegates enter the room to find out what is going on.
Analysis
I think story makes for a pretty barometer of how forgiving a person will be of classic Doctor Who as far as production values go. Granted some things are too ridiculous for believability but in other cases, such as this one, you can give points for trying at least. Alpha Centauri is a good example of that as it is somewhat phallic in appearance and wrapped in a shower curtain for a cape. But, if you can get past that and focus on the character rather than the immediate appearance, you can let that slip away and get lost in the story.
As a story, it's a pretty good political drama. There was probably an allegory intended with Britain looking to join the EU around the time of this story's initial release (the UK joined in 1973 while the story aired in 1972) but even without that, it has a pretty good political drama around it as well. The political drama would have probably been even better if King Peladon had stayed stronger through the story. He was pretty good initially but as the story continued, he seemed to grow weaker and move vacillating. This made him more malleable to Hepesh's will, but it also made the character boring.
Also of interest are the political machinations involving the Ice Warriors. The audience, like the Doctor, would have immediately jumped to the conclusion that they were the bad guys as they had only been villains through the Second Doctor era. To see them become not only allies, but the most intelligent and noble of all of the races displayed was a rather good development. Izlyr even gets a funny line when he comments how he preferred Arcturus' quiet cowardice to Alpha Centauri's hysterical whimpering.
The acting was fairly good as well in this. Perhaps it was the sets that helped it along, but this story had a bit of a Shakespearean feel to it with royal intrigue and all the players mixing well, with just about everyone being a suspect to conspiracy throughout. As mentioned before, some characteristics became annoying after a time, such as King Peladon's weakness or Alpha Centauri's simpering, but I would not cite those as faults of the actors. Those characters were developed in that way and they were played up to that level. Most of the others started well and only got more interesting as they developed such as Lord Izlyr and Hepesh himself, although I thought Hepesh's death whisperings were a bit overplayed. I think the character would have been better served if he had been either unable to speak or simply asked the king's forgiveness as he died. His speaking of the future didn't seem quite right to me, especially as he was dying.
As noted earlier, there are some down sides to this story. Some of the costuming does look a bit cheap, although they were at least trying. I think the worst offender is probably Aggedor himself. The head piece isn't bad, but it's fairly obvious that it's a man in a suit and his fur is also a bit too sleek. When you do see him close up, it would probably have looked better if there were some matted patches or tangles or something else that would have indicated that this beast had been living in the caves for a while and was a bit more wild. But at least the lighting of the creature is kept down so the worst of it is still not shown.
Another problem that other people have pointed out that I missed are the sets themselves. Apparently there is at least one point where a wall can be seen to move when struck. I myself didn't see that, but I don't doubt it happening and I can easily see how that would take someone out of the scene. On the other hand, the sets that didn't move look pretty good and the use of real torches adds a nice element of realism to the sets.
Overall, I enjoyed this one. It has it's flaws but I think those are flaws that are fairly common to the Third Doctor era. I enjoyed the political nature of it without too much emphasis on monsters. It starts a little slow with the introduction of the plot but it really ramps up to an enjoyable level in Episodes Three and Four. I wouldn't have any objection to watching this one a second time around, although I think I might turn down the volume whenever Alpha Centauri speaks. That does start to grate after a while.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
The Curse of Peladon is a generally well regarded episode but it does have a few notable detractors. It's a pretty good barometer to one's level of acceptance of Doctor Who as the plot and acting are fairly interesting but if you get nit-picky about costuming and effects, you may not care for this one as much.
Plot Summary
On the planet Peladon, the king is preparing to host a peace conference where Peladon will be invited to join a Federation. His Prime Minister is in favor but the High Priest Hepesh opposes, fearing that it will bring the curse of Aggedor, a local deity. While on his way to welcome the latest delegate, the Prime Minister is killed in a corridor.
The Doctor and Jo arrive after taking the TARDIS on a test run. The Doctor believes he has returned to Earth, but the TARDIS becomes unbalanced. They leave the ship just as it tumbles down a cliff. With no way to go down, they see a castle above them and begin to climb the cliff face. On their way up, they find a cave with a tunnel in the back and proceed through it.
In the wake of the death of the Prime Minister, the king welcomes the arriving delegates and informs them of the PM's death. The delegates are worried but vow to continue the conference. They however cannot start until the delegation from Earth arrives. Hepesh again tries to dissuade the king but the king is set on moving the planet forward into the Federation.
The tunnels take the Doctor and Jo to a set of secret passages in the castle. They emerge and are rounded up by the guards. They are taken to the throne room where they are assumed to be the representatives from Earth. The Doctor goes along, requesting that the TARDIS be recovered from the bottom of the cliff. As non-royal women are not allowed at the Peladon court, Jo is assumed to be nobility and the Doctor presents her as Princess Josephine of Tardis. The group prepares to head to the council meeting chamber but as they leave, a statue of Aggedor falls down. The Doctor pushes the Martian delegate (an Ice Warrior) out of the way.
Hepesh proclaims it a sign and the delegates move to leave Peladon but the king begs them to stay. While he talks, Jo slips through a door and up to the ledge where the statue fell. She finds something and takes it back down. The delegates retire to their quarters and Jo shows what she found to the Doctor who notes it as Ice Warrior technology and immediately assumes they are behind the attack.
An alarm goes off and the Doctor and Jo investigate. The delegate of Arcturus has had his life support system tampered with. The Doctor is able to repair it, although the other delegates observe him doing it and are immediately suspicious. While they make sure the Arcturan is alright, Jo slips away and searches the Ice Warrior quarters where she finds the missing component of the Arcturan life support system. She is caught by one of the Ice Warrior guards who lock her in while the Ice Lord Izlyr is summoned.
The Arcturan cannot remember who sabotaged his system. Lord Izlyr is summoned and informed that Jo has be found in his quarters. The Doctor starts to go along, but is summoned by the king's mute champion Grun. Grun has been commissioned by Hepesh to kill the Doctor as he is convinced that membership in the Federation is against the will of Aggedor. Grun leads the Doctor into the secret tunnels but then runs off when a roaring is heard.
Jo escapes through a window but upon reentering a castle, sees a beast and runs back into the arms of Lord Izlyr. Izlyr refutes her accusations, noting that the removal of the device would not have killed the Arcturan delegate, only put him into a coma. Jo apologizes for suspecting them and suggests they talk with the Doctor to find out what is going on. Meanwhile the Doctor also has run into this creature and runs away. He emerges from the tunnels into the inner sanctum of Aggredor. Upon touching the statue, Hepesh swoops in a accuses him of defiling the temple. He is brought before the king who reluctantly sentences him to death.
The Doctor is allowed to appeal for trial by combat, which he does. Hepesh escorts him back to his quarters where he gives him a map of the tunnels and encourages him to flee. The Doctor puts together a little hypnotic device and proceeds into the tunnels. There he meets Aggedor, a bear like beast, and uses his device to calm the creature down and set him into a more docile state.
Jo attempts to appeal to the king, but he feels bound by the old laws and will not intervene. Lord Izlyr on the other hand, vows to help as he is indebted to the Doctor for saving him from the falling statue. When Izlyr discovers the Doctor is not in his room, Jo runs into the tunnels searching for him. Seeing Aggedor with the Doctor, she grabs a torch and chases it off. The Doctor is annoyed but heads back with Jo. They enter the throne room and tell the king of the nature of Aggedor. Hepesh accuses the Doctor of further blasphemy and requests the trial by combat begin immediately. The king buckles and agrees.
In the fighting pit, the Doctor disarms Grun once but Hepesh drops another weapon into the pit. When the Doctor manages to knock him out, the Arcturan delegate moves to fire his weapon. However, the Ice Warrior guard also draws and kills Arcturus. Hepesh and his guards flee.
After being pulled out of the pit, the Doctor explains that Hepesh had made a secret deal with Arcturus that they could mine Peladon if Peladon could be kept out of the Federation and allowed to be ruled through the old ways, effectively making Hepesh the ruler of the planet. He had captured one of the remaining Aggedor beasts in the mountains and brought it to live in the tunnels, releasing it every once in a while to reinforce the "Spirit of Aggedor" legend. The king vacillates and Grun motions for the Doctor to follow him.
Grun heads into the tunnels and tries to pull Hepesh away from his group of guards preparing to attack the citadel. Hepesh however knocks Grun out and marshals his men. The Doctor finds Grun and revives him. He then finds Aggedor and sets to calming him down again.
Jo and the Martian delegates meet and convince the Alpha Centauri to vote to have the Federation support King Peladon in the battle against Hepesh. They attempt to radio this to their governments but find their communications have been destroyed.
Hepesh and his men seize the throne room and take the king prisoner. They bring in the delegates whom they have also captured. Hepesh tells the delegates that he wants them to leave and decline membership of Peladon to the Federation. Before they can answer, the Doctor appears with Aggedor behind him. Seeing it as a beast, Hepesh's guards waver and Hepesh moves to control the beast through fear as he had done before, ordering it to kill the Doctor. Aggedor instead lashes out and kills Hepesh before the Doctor can calm him down and lead him away. With Hepesh dead, the rebellious guards lay down their arms and surrender.
King Peladon is officially crowned with acceptance of Peladon into the Federation. He has proposed to Jo and she has reluctantly declined. The Doctor suggests that they watch the coronation and then leave to spare both her and the king any more pain. However, as they walk to the coronation, they see the real Earth delegate and they immediately retreat back to the TARDIS, which had been hauled up from the cliff below. They disappear as the delegates enter the room to find out what is going on.
Analysis
I think story makes for a pretty barometer of how forgiving a person will be of classic Doctor Who as far as production values go. Granted some things are too ridiculous for believability but in other cases, such as this one, you can give points for trying at least. Alpha Centauri is a good example of that as it is somewhat phallic in appearance and wrapped in a shower curtain for a cape. But, if you can get past that and focus on the character rather than the immediate appearance, you can let that slip away and get lost in the story.
As a story, it's a pretty good political drama. There was probably an allegory intended with Britain looking to join the EU around the time of this story's initial release (the UK joined in 1973 while the story aired in 1972) but even without that, it has a pretty good political drama around it as well. The political drama would have probably been even better if King Peladon had stayed stronger through the story. He was pretty good initially but as the story continued, he seemed to grow weaker and move vacillating. This made him more malleable to Hepesh's will, but it also made the character boring.
Also of interest are the political machinations involving the Ice Warriors. The audience, like the Doctor, would have immediately jumped to the conclusion that they were the bad guys as they had only been villains through the Second Doctor era. To see them become not only allies, but the most intelligent and noble of all of the races displayed was a rather good development. Izlyr even gets a funny line when he comments how he preferred Arcturus' quiet cowardice to Alpha Centauri's hysterical whimpering.
The acting was fairly good as well in this. Perhaps it was the sets that helped it along, but this story had a bit of a Shakespearean feel to it with royal intrigue and all the players mixing well, with just about everyone being a suspect to conspiracy throughout. As mentioned before, some characteristics became annoying after a time, such as King Peladon's weakness or Alpha Centauri's simpering, but I would not cite those as faults of the actors. Those characters were developed in that way and they were played up to that level. Most of the others started well and only got more interesting as they developed such as Lord Izlyr and Hepesh himself, although I thought Hepesh's death whisperings were a bit overplayed. I think the character would have been better served if he had been either unable to speak or simply asked the king's forgiveness as he died. His speaking of the future didn't seem quite right to me, especially as he was dying.
As noted earlier, there are some down sides to this story. Some of the costuming does look a bit cheap, although they were at least trying. I think the worst offender is probably Aggedor himself. The head piece isn't bad, but it's fairly obvious that it's a man in a suit and his fur is also a bit too sleek. When you do see him close up, it would probably have looked better if there were some matted patches or tangles or something else that would have indicated that this beast had been living in the caves for a while and was a bit more wild. But at least the lighting of the creature is kept down so the worst of it is still not shown.
Another problem that other people have pointed out that I missed are the sets themselves. Apparently there is at least one point where a wall can be seen to move when struck. I myself didn't see that, but I don't doubt it happening and I can easily see how that would take someone out of the scene. On the other hand, the sets that didn't move look pretty good and the use of real torches adds a nice element of realism to the sets.
Overall, I enjoyed this one. It has it's flaws but I think those are flaws that are fairly common to the Third Doctor era. I enjoyed the political nature of it without too much emphasis on monsters. It starts a little slow with the introduction of the plot but it really ramps up to an enjoyable level in Episodes Three and Four. I wouldn't have any objection to watching this one a second time around, although I think I might turn down the volume whenever Alpha Centauri speaks. That does start to grate after a while.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
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