The Masters of Luxor continues, and can I say how much I've been
enjoying the episode titles so far? All very lyrical and evocative, much
more so than the corresponding names for the actual Serial B: The Dead Planet, The Survivors, The Escape.
This episode opens with one heck of a metaphor: for anyone who knows
anything about the theological aspects of the Catholic-Protestant split,
the issue of transubstantiation must surely spring to mind. According
to Catholic doctrine, the wafers of bread and wine (often mixed with
water) that are given to the congregation during the sacrament of the
Eucharist are literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
So here we have the Perfect One - a robot who desires to transform
himself into a living being - wanting to share wine, water and wafers
with the people whose life force he wishes to take in order to achieve
that transformation. This casts the Doctor and his friends in the role
of the Protestants, declaring that such a transformation is impossible.
In 1963 we were, fundamentally, a Protestant country, and it would have
been natural to align the program with the Protestant perspective; but
equally, the show was made by a bunch of "wishy-washy-liberals" who
wouldn't want to offend anybody's religion, so it is made clear that the
religion in question is a mockery of Catholicism, just as the Perfect
One is a "mockery of a man". But then again, one of the more barbed
criticisms of transubstantiation is that it means the congregation are
literally eating their god; and if I am to use one episode title in
defence, then surely the fact that the building (and by extension, the
robots' society) is cannibalistic must count on the other side? Plenty
of food for thought.
What, then, of the contaminated communion comestibles? The Perfect One
being immune to the poison is a symbol of how far away he (it?) is from
his goal; he could not receive the sacrament even if it were genuine.
But I am not sure of the meaning of the travellers being put to sleep.
The significance of this moment to me, though, was that the pleasure I
took in the episode moved from the intellectual to the emotional,
putting me right back in the area I usually occupy when being
entertained by the show; and now, this entry gets back to being a more
bog-standard review.
There is more "he said", "she said" in this episode. It had to happen,
really, because the team splits up into girl and boy pairings, leaving
each of the principal performers to talk to themselves for much of the
time. Unfortunate, and it does have an impact on my enjoyment, but it's
unavoidable unless you get other people in to do imitations of the
Doctor and Barbara; so I'll say no more about it.
The script is solid, and gives Susan a strong role for once. Earlier
episodes showed her teenage side; here she uses her scientific
background and figures out what to do about her and Barbara's captivity.
This always earns bonus marks from me for stories from a period which
didn't generally treat her with much respect.
Anthony Coburn doesn't respect the design teams' hopes for a quiet life,
though, with the way Ian and the Doctor leave the building. Still, it
looked impressive in my mind! This thread of the plot provides a very
nice twist, too. I'd been mildly interested in the robots' insistence
that there was no signal, figuring they hadn't been given the capacity
to perceive it by their makers; but the truth was not something I
expected. It got me excited about the plot again, rather than just the
ideas. I do hope it's something interesting.
Hm, I'm falling a little behind and I've written plenty, so I think I'll
save the next instalment of the history of the serial for next time.
Rating:
5/10.
Next Time:
Tabon of Luxor.
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