[This review has been much delayed because Isaac wanted to keep up
Isaac's corner, but school has been a bit crazy lately. Still, I've
written the three following reviews while waiting for an opportunity, so
there shouldn't be any more delays for a little while.]
Every year, a friend who lives further down our street organises the
Cheap Thrills Zero Budget Film Festival. People submit videos they've
put together on a shoestring, these are edited into an evening of
entertainment, and the show premieres in the chapel of the cemetery that
lies beyond the bottom righthand corner of our garden. It's been very
successful: it started out local, went national, then international...
This year is the first time that there has been an entry from offworld;
specifically, a zero-gravity performance of David Bowie's Space Oddity,
courtesy of the International Space Station. I don't know about you,
but I think that's wonderful! Nevertheless, it points out quite
effectively what a different world we live in now, compared to the one
that existed when this episode was broadcast - a world where humans had
barely ventured into space at all, but where it was assumed that we
would keep on travelling further and further.
Of course, it was also a time when James Bond could be seen as an
unambiguous hero, fighting the good fight for Queen and Country
alongside his fellow (not-quite-so-) superspies. The character of Marc
Cory is, basically, James Bond in space, combining two of the nation's
fascinations. Ably played by Edward de Souza in a cut-glass accent, he's
cool, calm, and callous. Human life means little to him, compared to
his mission.
And, like Cory himself, this is an incredibly confident script. Not only
is the Doctor absent, Nation makes the canny choice of withholding the
Daleks from the screen for nearly a third of the runtime - which does a
lot to help build up their menace after the comedy of The Chase.
Meanwhile, there are the Varga. All we have, of course, are recons, so
it's hard to judge how effective they actually were; but the concept, at
least, is horrifying. I remember watching the transformation in The Ark in Space
as an eleven-year-old, and the image stayed with me: never mind the
bubble-wrap, that was true horror right there! Perhaps for those born a
decade earlier, the same would have been true of the Varga
transformations. We may never really know: Loose Cannon have once again
done a lot with very little, but without any surviving clips that
atmosphere is impossible to capture.
I said that all we have are recons, but thanks to Rick Lundeen that's no
longer quite true. In later posts I'll go into more of the background
to his graphic novel adaptation of The Daleks' Masterplan, but
for now I'll concentrate on just this first chapter. The first thing to
say is that it is very nicely done, the best-looking comic of this
marathon so far: interesting layouts, varied camera angles, consistently
recognisable characters, and a good use of colour to set the mood. His
adaptation of the script is pretty faithful; he takes some liberties in
order to make the story work as a comic, but if anything perhaps he
sticks too closely to the original, resulting in some very wordy pages
full of Nation's dialogue. That's a minor fault, mind you; it's a great
read, and sets the scene nicely for the story to come. And some of the
technology looks far more appropriately futuristic than would have been the case if he'd stuck with 1960s designs, such as Cory's recorder!
Getting back to the element that is common to both comic and recon - the
story - this builds very well, with the quieter scenes of the Great
Alliance (where the main interest would have been seeing all the aliens)
interspersed with the action sequences of Cory and Lowery fleeing from
the Daleks. There's a lot of exposition, but it doesn't feel
overwhelming because it's tied so well into the worldbuilding. I have no
hesitation in declaring this to be Nation's finest script for the show
to date.
But by golly, it's bleak! All the way through you get the impression
that something drastic will have to happen to save any of the humans, or
even allow them to complete the mission. It doesn't happen; the beacon
never gets activated, and everyone dies.
The Daleks have finally taken their place as the ultimate threat.
Isaac's Corner
Although the reconstruction was very clever, I still found it very hard
to follow and only got a fuzzy idea of the story. It was much clearer in
the comic. This episode really reminds me of the stories from the Dalek
annuals of the time, with its Doctorlessness, and with a lot more
action and extermination! The normal Doctor Who stories generally
focus on defeating the large-scale Dalek plans rather than the
small-scale battles. I didn't particularly like it but I didn't
particularly dislike it either. I think I might have been a bit more
decisive if we could get a proper idea of the acting, because the
soundtrack is fuzzy and that's all we have to go on for acting. The
illustration on the comic was good - he seemed to have put a lot of
effort into it. Overall I would give it a 6.5/10.
And now, because it seems like the most appropriate time, we're going to
be taking a break from the Doctor for a fairly extended period. The
next 52 posts (if I've counted right) belong to the early solo exploits
of the Doctor's arch-enemies: the Daleks...
Daleks conquer and destroy! Daleks conquer and destroy!
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 9th October 1965
Viewers: 8.3 million
Chart Position: 37
Appreciation Index: 54
Rating:
Mine (episode): 9.5/10.
Mine (comic): 9.5/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 64.54%, 133rd.
2012 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 6.67, 136th out of 234.
Next Time:
Genesis of Evil.
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