Well, the family has been hit by something viral. It's nothing
life-threatening, but it was enough to prevent us doing normal
activities. On Wednesday nobody was fit enough to take the dog for a
walk at all; other days I've really had to force myself to do so, even
for a short one. The two hours he really needs is right out! It has also
affected my concentration (which is already limited by pain and/or the
medication I take to reduce it). As a result I have written nothing for a
week, other than a few short comments on message threads. And I haven't
even watched the episode I was intending today's post to be about!
So, instead, this. Chiefly it's an announcement that this blog is going
to be erratic for a while, but I thought I'd add a few other thoughts
(because it's easier to ramble on than be usefully critical).
One is that I'm going through audios at a far greater rate then I change
my Gallifrey Base sig, which rather defeats the point of having that
info there. I recently managed to get a copy of The Last, the
final Charley story missing from my collection, and I have embarked on a
(non-critical) Charley marathon. It has two parts, going along in
parallel: the eighth Doctor stories, most of which I've heard before
(only The Last, Scaredy Cat, Something Inside and Memory Lane
are first-time listenings); and the sixth Doctor ones (all of which are
new). I swap between them depending on mood and money (I still need to
save up for some!) and slot in the occasional story with other
companions, most recently some of the audio short trips; The Darkening Eye; and The Forbidden Time. Oh, and some non-Who audios, too, such as The Hound of the Baskervilles (bought in the Christmas sale for my wife Alison).
I'm not sure if I've said this before, but audio is my main way of
experiencing the show. I've now heard and rated more audios than I have
TV stories, if you count the soundtracks of serials with no surviving
episodes as audio. The tipping point was sometime last week, when I
finished The Doomwood Curse. I also relisten more than I rewatch.
From a purely entertainment perspective I would rather be blind than
deaf - though that is reversed for most things, and I'm very glad to be
neither!
Novels come a distant third (or fourth, if you count short stories
individually). I've been reading more of them recently, prompted by the
TARDIS Eruditorum, which is currently covering the wilderness years. In
the past month I've read The Blue Angel and Father Time, and am partway through Love and War;
Lance Parkin (a friend of a friend, actually) wins the 'easiest prose
to read' award, but the New Adventure is easiest to read overall because
of the print size. In general I read a lot less than I used to, mostly
because of the concentration it takes; but I am enjoying dipping into
the Who books outside of my marathon.
And that's all I've got to say for now. Take care of yourselves!
Next Time:
Really The Search. But no promises when...
Friday 15 February 2013
Monday 11 February 2013
Episode 69 (Q2): The Dimensions of Time
This serial has a particular reputation, and unfortunately I was aware
of that reputation when I first saw it. This meant I was viewing it
through a particular lens, regardless of whether I was pushing against
the prevailing opinion or going along with it; there was little
opportunity to consider it from a different angle. Which is one reason
I'm a bit of a spoilerphobe.
So I was pleasantly surprised to find that - even though this is my third viewing - there were several spontaneous laugh-out-loud moments during this episode. The wonderful bit with the Doctor and Lobos at the end, of course, but also the Doctor in the Dalek, Ian trying to unknit Barbara's cardy, and Vicki getting bored waiting for Iananbarbara to make up their mind (I've a feeling there was one more, but I can't think what it might have been). Watching it with an enthusiastic ten-year-old (who is actually the owner of the DVD, as it happens) certainly helps; but in any case this is a funny episode.
I should probably mention the script editing here. Writer Glyn Jones says repeatedly in the commentary that he was not happy with Dennis Spooner's changes, and his main complaint is that a lot of the humour was cut out. Well, that's probably true, and he gives examples of how the script was changed; but there's a lot left in, too!
It's fairly obvious where this episode's reputation for dullness comes from, though: the first scene after the recap. Which does bring your expectations down with quite a thud. This was one of the changes Jones mentioned specifically - he had opened with a scene containing more action. It's not even as if we then move on to the action, though, because there is more exposition from the Xerons straight after (though the youngsters are a bit more animated).
According to Maureen O'Brien, part of what makes it so bad is that the actors were given almost no direction, and so had to make all the creative decisions themselves (which may not sound that bad, but you really do need an outside viewpoint - it's as hard as writers proofreading their own work). That's not the worst of it, though; there's a general uncertainty of tone, as if the production doesn't quite know what it is supposed to be, which must be laid chiefly at Mervyn Pinfield's feet. Last week's blend of humour and suspense was very effective, but here we've lost that. The script is certainly providing the humour, but it's shot completely "flat", draining the life out of it. It's fortunate that events turn quite farcical in places, because this allows the fun to push its way through anyway, and those moments sometimes manage to cover for the dry periods in between.
To be fair to Pinfield, he does make occasional imaginative use of the sets in the camera direction, and there are other good moments such as the close-up of hands examining the thread; but it's not enough.
One final comment. Watching the Xerons - and knowing the Moroks' attitude to them - I was reminded of a card from the game Junta:
Says it all, really.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 1st May 1965
Viewers: 9.2 million
Chart Position: 23
Appreciation Index: 53
Rating:
5/10.
Next Time:
The Search.
So I was pleasantly surprised to find that - even though this is my third viewing - there were several spontaneous laugh-out-loud moments during this episode. The wonderful bit with the Doctor and Lobos at the end, of course, but also the Doctor in the Dalek, Ian trying to unknit Barbara's cardy, and Vicki getting bored waiting for Iananbarbara to make up their mind (I've a feeling there was one more, but I can't think what it might have been). Watching it with an enthusiastic ten-year-old (who is actually the owner of the DVD, as it happens) certainly helps; but in any case this is a funny episode.
I should probably mention the script editing here. Writer Glyn Jones says repeatedly in the commentary that he was not happy with Dennis Spooner's changes, and his main complaint is that a lot of the humour was cut out. Well, that's probably true, and he gives examples of how the script was changed; but there's a lot left in, too!
It's fairly obvious where this episode's reputation for dullness comes from, though: the first scene after the recap. Which does bring your expectations down with quite a thud. This was one of the changes Jones mentioned specifically - he had opened with a scene containing more action. It's not even as if we then move on to the action, though, because there is more exposition from the Xerons straight after (though the youngsters are a bit more animated).
According to Maureen O'Brien, part of what makes it so bad is that the actors were given almost no direction, and so had to make all the creative decisions themselves (which may not sound that bad, but you really do need an outside viewpoint - it's as hard as writers proofreading their own work). That's not the worst of it, though; there's a general uncertainty of tone, as if the production doesn't quite know what it is supposed to be, which must be laid chiefly at Mervyn Pinfield's feet. Last week's blend of humour and suspense was very effective, but here we've lost that. The script is certainly providing the humour, but it's shot completely "flat", draining the life out of it. It's fortunate that events turn quite farcical in places, because this allows the fun to push its way through anyway, and those moments sometimes manage to cover for the dry periods in between.
To be fair to Pinfield, he does make occasional imaginative use of the sets in the camera direction, and there are other good moments such as the close-up of hands examining the thread; but it's not enough.
One final comment. Watching the Xerons - and knowing the Moroks' attitude to them - I was reminded of a card from the game Junta:
Students Protest Oppression!
No Effect. |
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 1st May 1965
Viewers: 9.2 million
Chart Position: 23
Appreciation Index: 53
Rating:
5/10.
Next Time:
The Search.
Friday 8 February 2013
Episode 68 (Q1): The Space Museum, concluded
Let's just dive straight in where we left off, shall we?
Dalek?
It's only for a fraction of a second that we believe it might be an active Dalek - the huge plaque catches the eye almost immediately - but that is enough to shock. Instead, though, it is - as the ninth Doctor later said of a different foe - "the stuff of nightmares, reduced to an exhibit."
I've been to the Doctor Who Exhibition in Cardiff. I went to the Doctor Who Experience when it was in London. Heck, I've even visited a little museum that had one of the model dinos from Invasion of the Dinosaurs! So this sort of thing seems commonplace to me now. However, this was broadcast at a time when the Daleks - and the show - were still new; certainly not the subject of museum displays. Oh, there had been a few publicity outings where props were present, but nothing long-term.
So this is something that jars, just as much as all the lack-of-interaction stuff. And when Vicki says that it doesn't look scary, and Ian says it's unlikely she'll meet the Daleks, it becomes obvious that what this is doing is commenting on the TV show. Which fits with the asides about splitting up and (lack of) peripheral vision.
Then, of course, there's the concept of the space museum itself: somewhere you go to see Science Fiction Stuff. Kind of like the show, but without the action. And the whole episode so far is like a static museum exhibit, because our heroes have been unable to interact with the world at all, just observe. Totally bizarre, and quite fascinating.
So, having taken a break in the middle of the tour to point out what is going on behind the scenes, we need to make our way back to the exit - and I'll move faster, so I can still get out before the place closes.
Silence
What happens next is, of course, the appearance of, and animated discussion between, the black-garbed young Xerons. Having just made the connections above, their silence makes perfect sense.
We get some more wandering through featureless corridors (and although I forgot to mention it, at one point they discussed the lack of windows - so even this has become part of the meta-commentary). I was amused to spot that most future space equipment is built for rack-mounting! 4U, mainly, unless my eyes or memory deceive me.
Vicki's Hand
Still, this isn't really holding Vicki's attention; perhaps industrial design isn't one of her interests. So she decides to take advantage of the lack of guards and touch an odd-looking device of tubes and glass. I think she's made the right choice: it's certainly the most unusual of the displays we've seen (other than the Dalek).
And unlike most museum exhibits I've touched, her hand goes right through it. It's a great effect, and once again it shifts the ground under our feet - because it's not the way in which we were expecting the interaction to fail. Are they ghosts? Or... what? The Doctor expresses it well when he says that it's just a matter of putting 2 and 2 together to make 3.
Unseen
More Xerons, then, and the confirmation that our heroes really can't be seen. It's the Doctor who puts his finger on it again, when he says (in closeup) that "we're not really here" - though that's not really an explanation, of course.
Fade then to black, to show that time passes as our footsore travellers explore the museum, unseen by us. "How can we find the answer in here?" they moan.
Exhibits
But they do find something. The TARDIS. Now, this is the least successful effect of the episode, technically: it doesn't look as if the familiar blue box is there, in the world of the museum, when it should be. Still, I'm already invested in the mystery, so although it plays a wrong note - or rather, the wrong sort of wrong note - it's not too harmful.
And fortunately things are moving now, as the mists are beginning to clear slightly. We see the TARDIS crew, turned into exhibits themselves. This reveal is spot on in so many ways, but particularly the timing. The pacing of this episode has been slow even for 1965, but deliberately so; and things are speeding up as we approach the end.
Frozen
Even as the action has sped up, there is much stillness in evidence: the actors, camera and set as well as the frozen exhibits. Vicki - who grew up in the future - explains the nature of time, firmly taking over from the Doctor as the one who understands such things; while he still has more knowledge of the practical side, and figures out that the TARDIS has jumped a time track. Whatever that means. And we still have comedy here, in the Doctor's explanation to Barbara.
Then the actors freeze, in exactly the same position as they were at the beginning of the episode, in the ship - and then the director chooses to use a montage of still shots to represent time catching up. It's odd, and doesn't quite work, but fortunately it doesn't last long.
Footprints
The glass breaks, irrevocably. Morok guards find the travellers' footprints as they appear in the dust. The figures in the cases disappear. And the four wake, just as they did when we joined them. "They've gone!" declares Barbara.
"Yes, my dear," replies the Doctor; "and we've arrived."
The story has begun.
Introduction
The Space Museum is based on an awesomely brilliant idea; the phrase timey-wimey could have been invented for it. The audience thought so too: the AI is the highest since World's End, before Susan left. Aaand I would love to write more, but that's well over 2,000 words on one episode. Hopefully I'll find some space to add more thoughts as I tackle the next three...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 24th April 1965
Viewers: 10.5 million
Chart Position: 16
Appreciation Index: 61
Rating:
8.5/10.
Next Time:
The Dimensions of Time.
Dalek?
It's only for a fraction of a second that we believe it might be an active Dalek - the huge plaque catches the eye almost immediately - but that is enough to shock. Instead, though, it is - as the ninth Doctor later said of a different foe - "the stuff of nightmares, reduced to an exhibit."
I've been to the Doctor Who Exhibition in Cardiff. I went to the Doctor Who Experience when it was in London. Heck, I've even visited a little museum that had one of the model dinos from Invasion of the Dinosaurs! So this sort of thing seems commonplace to me now. However, this was broadcast at a time when the Daleks - and the show - were still new; certainly not the subject of museum displays. Oh, there had been a few publicity outings where props were present, but nothing long-term.
So this is something that jars, just as much as all the lack-of-interaction stuff. And when Vicki says that it doesn't look scary, and Ian says it's unlikely she'll meet the Daleks, it becomes obvious that what this is doing is commenting on the TV show. Which fits with the asides about splitting up and (lack of) peripheral vision.
Then, of course, there's the concept of the space museum itself: somewhere you go to see Science Fiction Stuff. Kind of like the show, but without the action. And the whole episode so far is like a static museum exhibit, because our heroes have been unable to interact with the world at all, just observe. Totally bizarre, and quite fascinating.
So, having taken a break in the middle of the tour to point out what is going on behind the scenes, we need to make our way back to the exit - and I'll move faster, so I can still get out before the place closes.
Silence
What happens next is, of course, the appearance of, and animated discussion between, the black-garbed young Xerons. Having just made the connections above, their silence makes perfect sense.
We get some more wandering through featureless corridors (and although I forgot to mention it, at one point they discussed the lack of windows - so even this has become part of the meta-commentary). I was amused to spot that most future space equipment is built for rack-mounting! 4U, mainly, unless my eyes or memory deceive me.
Vicki's Hand
Still, this isn't really holding Vicki's attention; perhaps industrial design isn't one of her interests. So she decides to take advantage of the lack of guards and touch an odd-looking device of tubes and glass. I think she's made the right choice: it's certainly the most unusual of the displays we've seen (other than the Dalek).
And unlike most museum exhibits I've touched, her hand goes right through it. It's a great effect, and once again it shifts the ground under our feet - because it's not the way in which we were expecting the interaction to fail. Are they ghosts? Or... what? The Doctor expresses it well when he says that it's just a matter of putting 2 and 2 together to make 3.
Unseen
More Xerons, then, and the confirmation that our heroes really can't be seen. It's the Doctor who puts his finger on it again, when he says (in closeup) that "we're not really here" - though that's not really an explanation, of course.
Fade then to black, to show that time passes as our footsore travellers explore the museum, unseen by us. "How can we find the answer in here?" they moan.
Exhibits
But they do find something. The TARDIS. Now, this is the least successful effect of the episode, technically: it doesn't look as if the familiar blue box is there, in the world of the museum, when it should be. Still, I'm already invested in the mystery, so although it plays a wrong note - or rather, the wrong sort of wrong note - it's not too harmful.
And fortunately things are moving now, as the mists are beginning to clear slightly. We see the TARDIS crew, turned into exhibits themselves. This reveal is spot on in so many ways, but particularly the timing. The pacing of this episode has been slow even for 1965, but deliberately so; and things are speeding up as we approach the end.
Frozen
Even as the action has sped up, there is much stillness in evidence: the actors, camera and set as well as the frozen exhibits. Vicki - who grew up in the future - explains the nature of time, firmly taking over from the Doctor as the one who understands such things; while he still has more knowledge of the practical side, and figures out that the TARDIS has jumped a time track. Whatever that means. And we still have comedy here, in the Doctor's explanation to Barbara.
Then the actors freeze, in exactly the same position as they were at the beginning of the episode, in the ship - and then the director chooses to use a montage of still shots to represent time catching up. It's odd, and doesn't quite work, but fortunately it doesn't last long.
Footprints
The glass breaks, irrevocably. Morok guards find the travellers' footprints as they appear in the dust. The figures in the cases disappear. And the four wake, just as they did when we joined them. "They've gone!" declares Barbara.
"Yes, my dear," replies the Doctor; "and we've arrived."
The story has begun.
Introduction
The Space Museum is based on an awesomely brilliant idea; the phrase timey-wimey could have been invented for it. The audience thought so too: the AI is the highest since World's End, before Susan left. Aaand I would love to write more, but that's well over 2,000 words on one episode. Hopefully I'll find some space to add more thoughts as I tackle the next three...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 24th April 1965
Viewers: 10.5 million
Chart Position: 16
Appreciation Index: 61
Rating:
8.5/10.
Next Time:
The Dimensions of Time.
Monday 4 February 2013
Episode 68 (Q1): The Space Museum
There's a lot to say about this serial that doesn't apply to just one
episode, but there's also a lot to say about this particular 23 minutes
38 seconds. As a result I'm going to spread the former out over the next
few entries (and hope they aren't as packed as this one).
Right, on with the review - and this is going to be full of spoilers. Please do try to watch it before reading on!
Conclusion
My verdict isn't going to be particularly controversial: this is a brilliant episode damaged by one key aspect of production, the direction. Mervyn Pinfield, who some of you with eidetic memory may recall came bottom of my directors' table at the end of the first season, is back. He improved very slightly during Planet of Giants, but here he gives us endless lack of imagination in the shots. There are some that work very well but they are few and far between; and to be honest I'm a little aggrieved that his average score for this season will be boosted by other aspects of a production that he almost succeeds in trashing. On the other hand I feel slightly bad criticising someone who died not much more than a year later, but it's not enough to stop me.
Anyway, I want to work slowly through this episode, scene by scene - something I haven't done since The Velvet Web. This time I'm going to focus on story rather than direction and follow in the (figurative) footsteps of the TARDIS crew, as this is a journey that they take - almost always together, and invariably alone...
Frozen
So, to begin the tour, we go from the (still quite freaky) title music to the reprise from the end of The Warlords - or rather, part of it, with the crew frozen in their medieval duds. Straight away we know something bizarre is happening. The light fades, and then we get a shot that wasn't there last time: a pan across a model shot of spacecraft, with futuristic music. Only then does the TARDIS materialise, before we fade back to the bridging sequence with the four standing around the console - and they're wearing more normal clothes.
Now, this is quite a famous scene in fandom - and I've seen it several times - so it's tricky to unpick its actual impact. But take a close look at William Hartnell, who is spot on in his portrayal of the Doctor throughout this episode. He looks worried for one brief moment, before deciding to make light of the situation. The joke about wearing clothes is funny, but it also serves to highlight the uncertainty they are facing.
The reactions of the crew, in some ways, take us back to the early days of the show. Ian is incredulous and argumentative; Barbara stays in the background except for making some reasonable, supportive comments; the Doctor is pretending to know more than he does while hiding what he does know; and the teenager - Vicki now - rushes off to get into trouble...
Vicki's Hand
...except we're in the TARDIS, and not racing back towards Event One, so what trouble can she get into? This is the more proactive Vicki that I tried to foreshadow in my fanfic. Anyway, we get to glimpse the TARDIS wardrobe, which at this stage is just what you would expect from any wardrobe (or maybe Vicki only knew about one part of it), before she goes to the food machine - now looking a bit more complex than it did last season. And what a clanking, grumbling fuss it makes, just to deliver some water! It's a good job Vicki didn't ask it for a cup of tea. <cough>Douglas Adams is currently 13 years old.</cough>
Then Maureen O'Brien has the unenviable task of accidentally releasing her grip on a glass when nothing else is happening. Couldn't she have tripped, or turned and bumped her elbow on the machine or something? O'Brien does her best with a lovely 'drifting off' expression, but nobody could make that realistic. And partly as a result, the reforming glass is the weakest of the 'weird things happening' moments. It screams "effects shot! Look how clever I am!" - which takes me, at least, out of the moment.
When she returns and explains, notice Hartnell again. There's obvious worry on his face - and for a much longer time - but he converts his concern into energetic curiosity.
Footprints
Of course, Iananbarbara tease him about wanting to go look at the mysterious building - perhaps with memories of Skaro and fluid links, though softened now by their time as travellers - but everyone happily goes outside. And in another nod to how the show used to work, Vicki wanders off and the Doctor calls her back, suggesting that they need to stay together. How many storylines could that advice have short-circuited?
There is a backdrop that is less successful than the ones in The Web Planet, and some nonsensical discussion of geology and extinction; but these minor gaffes are more than made up for by the main event - the discovery that they are not disturbing the dust of this world.
Wow.
We've not had anything quite that weird since we were Inside the Spaceship in serial C - and with Planet of Giants and the aforementioned The Web Planet earlier in this season, that's saying something. No wonder the Doctor is so worried.
Silence
We leave this scene via a seriously long zoom in on the model of the space museum itself. Seriously too long, in fact, because we get close enough to the doors to see the lack of detail - which wasn't obvious from a reasonable distance. In this case I'm not talking about detail visible only on modern screens, either; this is so blatant that I'm sure many original viewers would have noticed it.
Anyway, the key thing here is Barbara's observation about the silence. It's been noticeable ever since they left the TARDIS, but it takes her comment to bring it to the forefront of our attention. Anyway, our heroes don't have long to ponder this before the doors open...
Unseen
...and two figures in white march out, slowly and stiffly - rather like Robomen, in fact. We get another funny moment as the crew scramble to hide, all the while in full view. This looks like particularly bad timing in the production - or perhaps a joke about the poor peripheral vision of enemies - until Vicki sneezes, and it becomes obvious that they cannot interact at all with the locals.
The two Moroks are the first living things we've encountered on this new planet, and normally this would be the start of the action. But we're already a fair way into the episode, and while in one sense quite a lot has happened there has been no real action - nor does there seem to be much prospect of any soon.
And what does any nice middle-class family do when everyone is bored and nothing else is happening? Why, visit a museum of course! So in they go.
Exhibits
Let's face it, it's not the best museum in the cosmos. There are no informative plaques, no interactive exhibitions, just corridor after corridor of static stuff. Give me MOSI, or @Bristol, or Weston Park, or Magna, or the Natural History/Science Museums any day. Still, as Vicki observes, it does at least have a lack of annoying museum guards following you round (though personally I like to talk to them; they can usually tell you more than the plaques).
Surely the 'things to do on a rainy Wednesday afternoon in the summer hols' vibe can't go on forever, though? And indeed it doesn't. They turn a corner and go through a doorway from one bland hall to another - only this time they freeze in shock as the music screams danger!
Dalek!
Yes! It's a Dalek! We are face-to-face with the menace behind all the strange goings-on! To put this in perspective, filming has just wrapped on the Cushing movie: Dalekmania is going strong, and everyone is eagerly awaiting the Doctor's next encounter with his oldest (and only recurring) alien foe. Their return has been advertised, but surely this is too soon? Wouldn't the BBC have got more bums on seats for this episode if they'd said this was when they were arriving?
There's more that's not quite right: the reveal should be at the end of the episode, surely? And like the fast return switch Inside the Spaceship, the metal monstrosity seems to be the only thing that is labelled in this museum. What?!
Hmm. I didn't really want to split this one, but I'm going to have to. And this seems as good a point as any...
Next Time:
The Space Museum, concluded.
Right, on with the review - and this is going to be full of spoilers. Please do try to watch it before reading on!
Conclusion
My verdict isn't going to be particularly controversial: this is a brilliant episode damaged by one key aspect of production, the direction. Mervyn Pinfield, who some of you with eidetic memory may recall came bottom of my directors' table at the end of the first season, is back. He improved very slightly during Planet of Giants, but here he gives us endless lack of imagination in the shots. There are some that work very well but they are few and far between; and to be honest I'm a little aggrieved that his average score for this season will be boosted by other aspects of a production that he almost succeeds in trashing. On the other hand I feel slightly bad criticising someone who died not much more than a year later, but it's not enough to stop me.
Anyway, I want to work slowly through this episode, scene by scene - something I haven't done since The Velvet Web. This time I'm going to focus on story rather than direction and follow in the (figurative) footsteps of the TARDIS crew, as this is a journey that they take - almost always together, and invariably alone...
Frozen
So, to begin the tour, we go from the (still quite freaky) title music to the reprise from the end of The Warlords - or rather, part of it, with the crew frozen in their medieval duds. Straight away we know something bizarre is happening. The light fades, and then we get a shot that wasn't there last time: a pan across a model shot of spacecraft, with futuristic music. Only then does the TARDIS materialise, before we fade back to the bridging sequence with the four standing around the console - and they're wearing more normal clothes.
Now, this is quite a famous scene in fandom - and I've seen it several times - so it's tricky to unpick its actual impact. But take a close look at William Hartnell, who is spot on in his portrayal of the Doctor throughout this episode. He looks worried for one brief moment, before deciding to make light of the situation. The joke about wearing clothes is funny, but it also serves to highlight the uncertainty they are facing.
The reactions of the crew, in some ways, take us back to the early days of the show. Ian is incredulous and argumentative; Barbara stays in the background except for making some reasonable, supportive comments; the Doctor is pretending to know more than he does while hiding what he does know; and the teenager - Vicki now - rushes off to get into trouble...
Vicki's Hand
...except we're in the TARDIS, and not racing back towards Event One, so what trouble can she get into? This is the more proactive Vicki that I tried to foreshadow in my fanfic. Anyway, we get to glimpse the TARDIS wardrobe, which at this stage is just what you would expect from any wardrobe (or maybe Vicki only knew about one part of it), before she goes to the food machine - now looking a bit more complex than it did last season. And what a clanking, grumbling fuss it makes, just to deliver some water! It's a good job Vicki didn't ask it for a cup of tea. <cough>Douglas Adams is currently 13 years old.</cough>
Then Maureen O'Brien has the unenviable task of accidentally releasing her grip on a glass when nothing else is happening. Couldn't she have tripped, or turned and bumped her elbow on the machine or something? O'Brien does her best with a lovely 'drifting off' expression, but nobody could make that realistic. And partly as a result, the reforming glass is the weakest of the 'weird things happening' moments. It screams "effects shot! Look how clever I am!" - which takes me, at least, out of the moment.
When she returns and explains, notice Hartnell again. There's obvious worry on his face - and for a much longer time - but he converts his concern into energetic curiosity.
Footprints
Of course, Iananbarbara tease him about wanting to go look at the mysterious building - perhaps with memories of Skaro and fluid links, though softened now by their time as travellers - but everyone happily goes outside. And in another nod to how the show used to work, Vicki wanders off and the Doctor calls her back, suggesting that they need to stay together. How many storylines could that advice have short-circuited?
There is a backdrop that is less successful than the ones in The Web Planet, and some nonsensical discussion of geology and extinction; but these minor gaffes are more than made up for by the main event - the discovery that they are not disturbing the dust of this world.
Wow.
We've not had anything quite that weird since we were Inside the Spaceship in serial C - and with Planet of Giants and the aforementioned The Web Planet earlier in this season, that's saying something. No wonder the Doctor is so worried.
Silence
We leave this scene via a seriously long zoom in on the model of the space museum itself. Seriously too long, in fact, because we get close enough to the doors to see the lack of detail - which wasn't obvious from a reasonable distance. In this case I'm not talking about detail visible only on modern screens, either; this is so blatant that I'm sure many original viewers would have noticed it.
Anyway, the key thing here is Barbara's observation about the silence. It's been noticeable ever since they left the TARDIS, but it takes her comment to bring it to the forefront of our attention. Anyway, our heroes don't have long to ponder this before the doors open...
Unseen
...and two figures in white march out, slowly and stiffly - rather like Robomen, in fact. We get another funny moment as the crew scramble to hide, all the while in full view. This looks like particularly bad timing in the production - or perhaps a joke about the poor peripheral vision of enemies - until Vicki sneezes, and it becomes obvious that they cannot interact at all with the locals.
The two Moroks are the first living things we've encountered on this new planet, and normally this would be the start of the action. But we're already a fair way into the episode, and while in one sense quite a lot has happened there has been no real action - nor does there seem to be much prospect of any soon.
And what does any nice middle-class family do when everyone is bored and nothing else is happening? Why, visit a museum of course! So in they go.
Exhibits
Let's face it, it's not the best museum in the cosmos. There are no informative plaques, no interactive exhibitions, just corridor after corridor of static stuff. Give me MOSI, or @Bristol, or Weston Park, or Magna, or the Natural History/Science Museums any day. Still, as Vicki observes, it does at least have a lack of annoying museum guards following you round (though personally I like to talk to them; they can usually tell you more than the plaques).
Surely the 'things to do on a rainy Wednesday afternoon in the summer hols' vibe can't go on forever, though? And indeed it doesn't. They turn a corner and go through a doorway from one bland hall to another - only this time they freeze in shock as the music screams danger!
Dalek!
Yes! It's a Dalek! We are face-to-face with the menace behind all the strange goings-on! To put this in perspective, filming has just wrapped on the Cushing movie: Dalekmania is going strong, and everyone is eagerly awaiting the Doctor's next encounter with his oldest (and only recurring) alien foe. Their return has been advertised, but surely this is too soon? Wouldn't the BBC have got more bums on seats for this episode if they'd said this was when they were arriving?
There's more that's not quite right: the reveal should be at the end of the episode, surely? And like the fast return switch Inside the Spaceship, the metal monstrosity seems to be the only thing that is labelled in this museum. What?!
Hmm. I didn't really want to split this one, but I'm going to have to. And this seems as good a point as any...
Next Time:
The Space Museum, concluded.
Friday 1 February 2013
Serial P: The Crusade
This serial caused some friction between William Hartnell and David Whitaker, because elements of the script implied an incestuous relationship between King Richard and Joanna; appropriate changes were made. It was also at this time that both Verity Lambert and Dennis Spooner decided to leave, though I doubt this was to do with The Crusade!
You've heard my opinions of the episodes, but for once I still have quite a lot to say. First, though, my co-watcher:
Isaac's Corner
I thought this was a very well-written story (though it was a bit hard to follow because of the recons), and the acting was great! [insert smiley face here] I liked the scene where Joanna was angry with the king about him trying to marry her off for peace. The actress was really into playing a strong-minded character, and the actor playing Richard was just like I imagine a king to be in a stalemated war, while back in his own country someone else is vying for power. I also liked the way the Doctor and Vicki get into danger because a noble mistrusts them, and Barbara does because she makes one of Saladin's lords look a fool. I thought the scene with the older Ian on the DVD was a really nice little feature by the BBC, which made up a bit for the loss of two episodes. I really enjoyed this story, not only because of the writing but also because it was a pure historical - which us Doctor Who fans all like, don't we? I rate it 9.25/10.
A Pure Historical?
According to Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel), the plot was based on two real-life events: Richard attempting to arrange the marriage of his sister to Saphadin, and his being saved by William de Preux' deception. The two events - in real life a month or so apart - were merely conflated. Great! Sufficient historical accuracy to be educational, surely?
Except, it doesn't actually matter. Because this isn't a historical in the same way as Marco Polo or The Reign of Terror; like The Romans, this is a different sort of beast. Someone on Elizabeth Sandifer's blog recently observed that television is not the same as theatre, and that classic Doctor Who often fell into the trap of playing like theatre which just happens to be being recorded. Fair comment; but in this serial, of course, that's deliberate: we are talking Shakespeare here.
And that's the key. The Romans was a farce that happened to be set in history, like the later Up Pompeii! - and this is one of the Bard's history plays. But here, more than in the previous offering, the TARDIS crew are intruders. They have to learn that they are in a play, how the dialogue works and what actions are appropriate. The Doctor takes to it like the proverbial duck to water, but none of the others ever quite fit. And that clash of genre expectations is what raises this above a mere "filmed play".
(True confessions time: this genre clash is also a major thread of Dr. Sandifer's Eruditorum, and I have no doubt that - although I haven't read the specific entry on The Crusade in quite some time - I got the idea from there, and that it informed my viewing. Well, we all pick up stuff willy-nilly; hopefully I've added some thoughts of my own as well. Go read her blog anyway.)
There's a flip side to this business of playing with genre: you have to follow through for it to work. And the ending doesn't, really. It feels like a disjointed episode of Doctor Who rather than the final act of an invaded history play. And mainly for that reason - despite my loving the third episode (and really hoping for the second to be discovered) - the serial as a whole is, for me, below average.
Doctor Who and the Crusaders
The Crusade was the last story to be novelised before the Target era, and although I haven't read it a couple of points are worth mentioning.
First is David Whitaker's treatment of Barbara. At the time he was criticised for an allegedly salacious description of her getting whipped in El Akir's harem. This is something I can't judge, but I welcome comments from those who have read it.
Second is the prologue, which gets the name of Susan's husband wrong: she apparently married David Cameron! Samantha should be told. It also mentions the Talking Stones of Tyron. This inspired the comment in William Russell's linking sequence (filmed in Ian Levine's house, originally for the 1999 VHS release), which in turn inspired the fanfic that delayed these reviews.
DVD Release: Lost in Time
Finally, a little about the DVD. For budgetary reasons there are no production subtitles and only one commentary track - on The Wheel of Fortune - but it's quite a fun one. Oddly, I didn't expect Julian Glover to sound old; but since he was nearly eighty when it was recorded it's not really surprising! His memories were surprisingly clear given the distance from the serial, which helped a lot.
The first Who DVDs I watched were borrowed - some came from my brother-in-law, some from our next door neighbours. Once I started buying them, beginning with three I found in a charity shop for £2.50 each, it became a mutual trade. For some reason I initially focused quite heavily on the Hartnell era, whereas the neighbours had very few black and white releases. They found them quite hard going, and one also made it very clear that he couldn't understand why anybody would watch orphaned episodes. At the time I had just suggested Lost in Time to my family as a possible birthday present; they gave it to me, but unsurprisingly it was never lent next door.
I'm a completist. Of course I want every episode found; but failing that, I want to be able to listen to the soundtrack and have some idea of how the actors move, how the director frames the shots. So I want to see at least one episode of every story. If only ten more episodes were to be recovered, I would want one from each completely missing serial (though I wouldn't turn my nose up at something like the whole of The Power of the Daleks).
And who knows? We might discover more gems like The Wheel of Fortune...
Rating:
Mine: 4.5/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 70.06%, 100th.
2012 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 7.75, 63rd out of 234.
Next Time:
The Space Museum.
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