Well, there was another enormous gap before I got to this episode;
viewing so far has taken nearly six months. Still, I refuse to dwell on
the fact, since it's the 17th of July 1965, which means it's time to say
happy first birthday to me!
This is another episode that looks brilliant. Barry Newbery's sets are
fantastic, giving an enormous sense of space, both in the forest and in
the monastery. The use of projected sky and wind machine in the clifftop
scene makes it feel incredibly real - May commented on this (and the
first shot of the first episode, where the monk is at the top of the
cliff against a similar projected sky), asking "how come they could do
special effects like that in 1965 and yet with all our modern technology
they still can't make a car look real in Supernatural?". Indeed.
The direction certainly helps; as they point out in the commentary,
having a short tracking shot in the forest as the surviving vikings are
running away supports the illusion of space. There's also some lovely
framing, with cameras moving in for extreme closeups while characters
move into and out of shot. The actors must have been very careful about
hitting their marks for it to work!
Turning to the writing and acting, this episode is focused on the monk
to a much greater extent than the first two. This is certainly not a
problem, because he's a lovely character well played! His bumbling makes
him a great adversary, a complete contrast to the Daleks. The way he
mutters about miles and kilometres as he refines his schemes really made
us chuckle, and we all loved the progress chart ("atomic cannon?!", we
cried). Peter Butterworth also has great chemistry with William
Hartnell, and the two of them obviously enjoyed their confrontation.
The vikings are a little less successful, though not enough for me to
dock any marks. When Sven is threatening Ulf in the forest they are both
a bit too nice about it - May thought they looked more like they wanted
to kiss - and they still seem politer than I would expect in the
monastery. They are also rather puny if they can be knocked unconscious
with a bit of balsa - one of the less successful effects, though I love
the symmetry of them both getting whacked in the same way by fake monks.
Of course, I also have to mention that cliffhanger too. The
reveal that there is more than one TARDIS in the universe - and the
implication that the Doctor is not, therefore, a lone inventor like the
Doctor Who of the movies - is quite a mythological shift, and is still a
very cool moment even when we know what's happening. But I'll have more
to say about the consequences next time.
Sadly, this episode had the fewest viewers of any in season two,
although it still did better than the opposition on ITV (and only just
over a third as many watched the 1992 BBC2 repeat). Either it was a nice
sunny summer evening or people back then had no taste.
Violence Against Women, part 3: The Aftermath
In a recent discussion on Gallifrey Base I agreed with someone who said
that, basically, whether this topic was handled well depended largely on
whether or not there were shown to be consequences. This, then, is the
deciding episode, and the evidence is...ambiguous. The case for the
prosecution would likely be that there is no dialogue discussing the
matter at all. However, the way Alethea Charlton plays Edith has subtly
changed. She does not smile, and there is something about her manner
that is more closed, particularly in her scenes with the Doctor.
People don't always want to talk about traumatic experiences. I remember
visiting my old school shortly after I'd left - which was also shortly
after my dad died. One of the teachers said "I bet your dad was pleased
with your results", and I said "yes, he was". He'd never seen them, but I
didn't want to get into that, so I lied. Particularly in the English
Middle Class (and despite being the wife of the chief, Edith comes
across as being very Middle-Class), there is an attitude of showing the
world that everything is alright, even when it isn't. Observers have to
pick up and interpret some fairly subtle signals to work out what is
really going on, and as distance from the trauma increases the feelings
get pushed down further and the mask is perfected. Here some of her pain
is visible (and the Doctor being oblivious to it does not reflect well
on him); fairly soon she will approximate her old self better.
Because of this, and thanks to a nuanced performance from Charlton, I
think this is a well-handled case; but I can understand other people
coming to a different conclusion.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 17th July 1965
Viewers: 7.7 million
Chart Position: 28
Appreciation Index: 53
Rating:
10/10.
Next Time:
Checkmate.
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