Carnival of Monsters

Vorg: Our purpose is to amuse, simply to amuse… Nothing serious, nothing political.

Story Code: C10.2.
Production Code: PPP.
Story Number: 66.
Countdown week: 22…

Robert Holmes “Doctor Who’s greatest ever scriptwriter” (as he is usually described, probably accurately) – after a couple of interesting Troughton stories, his four Pertwee stories are when Holmes really began to shine. In between the duo of stories that introduced the iconic Autons and the story that introduced the iconic Sontarans is this gem.

Occuring after the Earth-bound Third Doctor has been given free reign of the TARDIS by the Time Lords (all of space, past and future), it’s curious that it’s a Hartnell-era-esque “sideways” step.

With a flannelling older gent and a glam assistant (as well as the TARDIS crew) it precedes Moffat’s fascination with postmodern winks to Doctor-Who-as-telly, and does it as cleverly as any of those Nu-Who scripts.

As I said, a gem.

Rating: 5/5

Review

The Three Doctors

Third Doctor: Jo, it’s all quite simple – I am he and he is me!
Jo Grant: And we are all together, goo goo g’joob?
Second and Third Doctors: What?

Story Code: C10.1.
Production Code: RRR.
Story Number: 65.
Countdown week: 23…

Well, this story is all a lot of fun isn’t it?

It’s sad that Hartnell didn’t get more of a look in, but great that all three actors could be brought together onscreen. The villain of the piece was intriguing enough to become part of the Who mythos for years to come. The Gel Guards and the CSO are slightly wobbly, but perhaps add to the charm.

It started a tradition of “The x Doctors” (where x is a varying number) and it’s one of the best of this tradition (with Nu-Who’s Time Crash being of the same tradition even if it doesn’t share the title format.)

Rating: 4/5

The Waters of Mars airdate was revealed by Tennant on GMTV this morning, with a new preview clip from the story…

7pm, Sunday, 15 November 2009 – The Waters of Mars.

Barry Letts (Doctor Who’s producer from 1969 to 1974 and executive producer for Season 18) passed away earlier this month.

As the blog is about to start reviewing Season 10, part of his era as producer, tomorrow, it seems an appropriate time today to acknowledge the many contributions of his era to the mythos of the show: the Master, UNIT, the word “regeneration”, the starting of the tradition of more-than-one Doctor stories, and much more.

Review

The repeat of The Evil of the Daleks

The Doctor: I am not a student of human nature. I am a professor of a far wider academy of which human nature is merely a part.

Story Code: C5.8. (The original broadcast is C4.9.)
Production Code: n/a (The original broadcast is LL.)
Story Number: n/a (The original broadcast is number 36.)
Countdown week: 24…

Okay, so as discussed The Web of Fear made the top 25 of the 2009 DWM survey of 200 stories, as did two other mainly-junked Troughton stories – Power of the Daleks, and this story The Evil of the Daleks (which of those three ranked highest at number 18.)

When I say “this story”, that isn’t quite correct, as this review will be of the repeat of The Evil of the Daleks, the subtle and very very small difference being there is some narration over the opening scene of Episode 1 to reflect the cliffhanger of the previously broadcast story, The Wheel in Space.

This is The Keys of Marinus done right.

What I mean by that is, that story is a sequence of different mini-stories each in a different setting, and is not-quite-but-almost-awful, while this one can be viewed as a sequence of three mini-stories, and it’s utterly brilliant. 6 or 7 part DW stories can often be a slog, but this one zips along from the Swinging Sixties (Ep 1) to Victorian Gothic (Eps 2 to 5) and alien planet Skaro (Eps 6 and 7), encapsulating the whole DW philosophy of present, past and future adventures in one story.

Going back to the idea of this being a review of the repeat of The Evil of the Daleks, the main significance of this repeat is if it is watched straight after The Wheel in Space (which ends with Zoe watching this story). Victoria is a guest star in this Dalek story really, and only becomes a companion proper at the end, and Zoe watching the adventure on the TARDIS telly provides a strange sort of feedback loop to the season (if Zoe was to continue she would eventually reach her own initial story, the one after Victoria leaves.)

Talking of companions, this story is remarkable for the paces that the Doctor puts Jamie through, in a foreshadowing of the companion manipulations of the “Dark Doctor” of Seasons 25 and 26. Most of the time, the Doctor seems to be one step ahead of everyone in this story, including the viewer. At various points, it feels like a run-through of other eras-to-come, including the Victorian Gothic of early Tom Baker. The Daleks and their “Human Factor” is certainly an influence on a particular Dalek story of the Nu-Who era (which doesn’t have the simple elegance of the original idea here.)

Like many stories of this era, not much exists in the BBC Archives – the telesnaps, the audio soundtrack of course (like all DW stories thanks to fans audiotaping their tellies), which is available as a BBC Audio CD, and there is Episode 2 on the Lost in Time BBC DVD. For Episodes 1 and 3 and 4 there exists this fascinating fan-recon on YouTube which I enjoyed (and which I feel okay about linking to as it will hopefully inspire people to buy Lost in Time and the BBC Audio CD for the rest of the story.)

Rating: 5/5

Review

The Wheel in Space

The Doctor: Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority.

Story Code: C5.7.
Production Code: SS.
Story Number: 43.
Countdown week: 25…

The Cybermen always have crap plans, don’t they?

Well, not always, just most of the time, and not so much crap plans as bizarrely convoluted schemes – maybe they are actually brilliant plans but often the viewer has trouble piecing together what exactly is going on. I’m thinking of the time the Cybes hid in a space freighter while remote-controlling an explosive device that had been inexplicably buried alongside Dino-bones (Earthshock) and the time they built a Steampunk version of some Manga (The Next Doctor), and of course this very story The Wheel in Space.

Leaving aside the floating egg-pods and the intent to deplete, using nibbling Cybermats, the Wheel-station of a certain material (thus tempting the Wheel-crew to, oh I dunno), there is a certain style to the whole thing, with more groovy Future-Sixties outfits like The Ice Warriors (a few stories ago) featured.

In a really great Doctor Who season, this is quite a good story (though one plus is that a couple of the six episodes exist in the BBC Archives which is more than the season’s norm.) The spacewalk with meteors is an enjoyable spectacle even if it too doesn’t make sense, and another notable feature is new-recruit Zoe being treated to a repeat of a Dalek story on the TARDIS telly…

Rating: 3/5

Review

Fury from the Deep

The Doctor: Oh, this wasn’t a mechanical sound.

Story Code: C5.6.
Production Code: RR.
Story Number: 42.
Countdown week: 26…

I was amused that the Doctor uses the Sonic Screwdriver for the very first time ever – and it is to unscrew some screws.

Watched a fan-recon: that Mr Oak and Mr Quill clip that still exists is terrifying! There also seems to be lots of telesnaps, which is a great thing, as this story has some superb images in it (and none of the six episodes are in the BBC Archive). Those images and the well-sketched characters combine for a chilling atmosphere.

From pulsating web-fungus to pulsating seaweed-foam: it’s no fun any more for Victoria! Unusually for a Doctor Who companion exit, there is some foreshadowing during the story. After a metatextual solution to the seaweed-foam problem (which involves the Doctor Who tradition of a companion screaming at the monsters) it’s goodbye to Victoria with a nice coda.

Rating: 5/5

Review

The Web of Fear

The Doctor: Shall we go out and have a look?
Victoria: Now? Is it safe?
The Doctor: Oh, I shouldn’t think so for a moment.

Story Code: C5.5.
Production Code: QQ.
Story Number: 41.
Countdown week: 27…

When the results of the 2009 DW Magazine Survey of all 200 stories were published recently, nestling among the Gothic Toms and Nu-Who modern classics, in the top 25 of the survey was The Web of Fear (at number 23.) Not bad for a story for which only one episode of six survives (you can imagine that it’s easier to impress voters when a story has at least most of its episodes.) This makes it the most popular mostly-junked story which is non-Dalek (e.g. the two Troughton Dalek stories are higher up the survey.) The one episode that is left – it’s BBC Four’s favourite Doctor Who episode! (They’ve used it as part of their Summer in the Sixties Season and their London Tube Season and their Fantasy Sixties Season.)

So, just why is this story revered by fans and BBC season schedulers alike? (Also, me?)

One reason – it is chock full of great images which resonate with the viewer (a lot of which feature in the initial episode.) For example, the imagery of the TARDIS within the web in space is superb. Likewise, the image of the Yeti coming to life, glowing from within. (It occurs to me that Yetis are the reverse-Daleks: a mechanical centre within a seemingly organic shell, rather than an organic centre within a mechanical shell.) More great images in Episode 2 – including the advancing Yetis in the tunnel – thankfully a clip survives of this sequence and the utterly brilliant fan-recon I watched made good use of it. The moody camerawork and the production design is superb. I’m glad Professor Travers kept some of the cool Yeti chess pieces from the previous Yeti story. Many telesnaps from the other episodes provide other impressive images.

Another reason this story is revered – the introduction of UNIT. Halfway through the story: the Brigadier! (Well, Colonel.) If this is a proto-UNIT story, is Ms Travers the proto-Liz Shaw? These two characters are well drawn by the script and actors, indeed the whole cast provide interesting characters – which is another reason the story is such an entertaining one. The battle of Covent Garden: Proto-UNIT vs The Yetis – brilliant. The fan-recon I watched made good use (again) of the existing clips of this sequence.

Another reason – the tension sustained across six episodes. A really tense serial, with a real sense of the base being slowly but surely sieged by encroaching web-foam and Yeti. At the end, the final flourish, a shout-out to the First Doctor from the Second Doctor – some petulance. Awesome story.

Rating: 5/5

More BBC7 Doctor Who drama next week…

Featuring the great Derek Griffiths – and a Zygon.

After the original broadcast of Season 2 (link), the the Season 1 repeat (link) of the last two weeks…

BBC7 continue with their repeat of Season 2 of Eighth Doctor & Lucie next week, there are episodes every day Monday (tommorow) to Thursday (Eps 3,4,5,6). Episodes 1 & 2 are on iPlayer. (BBC7 broadcasts, two each day, at 6pm and then midnight.)

Click here for link to “last on” eps (with iplayer links).

Links…

Dead London
Great episode written by Pat Mills.

Max Warp
A satire of Top Gear, though too fluffy a satire. Not very good.

Coming up, from Monday onwards…

Brave New Town
An intriguing, brilliant story. One of the best Eighth Doctor & Lucie stories. Can’t say much more than that without mentioning too many plot details. Featuring Derek Griffiths in one of the roles.

The Skull of Sobek
From the writer of Ghost Light – that ’80s TV story was complex and layered; this story is just unintelligible.

Grand Theft Cosmos
Nice return of some Season 1 characters.

The Zygon Who Fell to Earth
The last of the BBC7 season, I haven’t listened to it yet (saving it for later), should be good though – Paul Magrs writer.

Review

The Enemy of the World

Giles Kent: That’s what I’m trying to tell you about Salamander. He’s trying to destroy the world!

Story Code: C5.4.
Production Code: PP.
Story Number: 40.
Countdown week: 28…

Some 6-episode DW stories don’t have much plot, but this story does – as there are plenty of plot twists along the way. The cliffhanger to episode 1 is superb (”Why, hello Bruce” indeed. Troughton rocks.) I watched a superb fan-recon of the eps (which used the existing telesnaps) which meant I realised the Troughton eyebrows are a major part of the characterisation of Salamander and the Doctor.

This story features: Bond. Jamie Bond. Also, Fariah Neguib and Astrid Ferrier – excellent Bond Girls. Regarding Doctor Who Henchmen: is Benik even more unpleasant than Nyder? I don’t really understand why this story is, in general, not rated very highly by Doctor Who fandom. Possibly one reason is that for a lot of people the mixture of Doctor Who and James Bond films is a strange one, they perhaps are more used to the idea of Doctor Who mixing with the gothic horror of Hammer Film Productions. Another reason being, perhaps, that it doesn’t quite fit with the general feel of the rest of season, not featuring any monsters or bases under siege.

However, I rate it highly – which means, for me, the season continues in fine style.

Rating: 4/5