[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.
Showing posts with label SF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SF. Show all posts
Monday, 16 November 2015
Thursday, 5 November 2015
Episode 86 (T/A): Mission to the Unknown
Yikes, a bit of a long break before this one! Never mind; here at last
is the first of two posts on this strangest of episodes - in which I
don't review the content at all.
There's a reason for this, which is that I found it impossible to come at the story with an open mind. There is just so much mythology and trivia flying around concerning Mission to the Unknown that it clutters up my ability to appreciate it simply for what it is, so I decided to get that out of the way first.
Let's start with the reason it exists, which is, basically, scheduling. Towards the end of the previous recording block the last two parts of serial J (Planet of Giants) were combined into one because there wasn't enough content to warrant a four-parter, but this meant that the team had effectively produced one week's worth of Doctor Who less than planned. Sydney Newman decided to tack an extra episode on the end of the second recording block to make up for it.
Of course this meant that the episode needed to be fairly cheap, and also ran into the problem of the regular cast having to work an extra week. Verity Lambert came up with a solution that solved both of these issues at once, and in the process produced something quite unique.
This, then, is the first ever Doctor-lite story. It's so lite, in fact, that the Doctor doesn't appear at all (which is not quite true of any others, not even the 1960s episodes when William Hartnell was on holiday). His companions don't appear, either. Nor the TARDIS.
It's impossible to imagine the impact this would have had on viewers at the time (though Elizabeth Sandifer gives it a go in her review) - it's almost as if the program had been invaded by another show altogether.
And, in a way, it had. Without the regular cast to hold people's attention, Lambert turned to that other great attraction of the program, the Daleks. (In fact, it could be argued that they were even more popular: the first Dalek film came out in the summer, the stageplay Curse of the Daleks was announced at the end of September, and the second Dalek annual was due to go on sale two days after broadcast. Dalekmania indeed!) Lambert asked Terry Nation to produce a 'teaser' episode for the forthcoming Dalek epic, and Nation decided to use the opportunity to test out the viability of an independent Dalek program.
So, how successful is the only single-episode story of the classic series? You'll have to tune in next time to find out what I thought...
Behind the Scenes: Verity Lambert
Before she disappears from the show I need to say something about Doctor Who's first producer. This was Lambert's final episode before following Sydney Newman out of the door to produce The Newcomers with him, followed by Adam Adamant Lives! (a show my mother remembered fondly). Lambert went on to have a glittering career, which is detailed in the usual places, so I won't reiterate it here. Other people have also said plenty about her contribution to Doctor Who - see Sandifer again for an eloquent example. I just want to add one thing.
When I got properly back into the show (after a long break) in 2006 I decided to investigate some highlights of the eras I had missed first time around, as well as revisit some old favourites. Being new to fandom I defined eras by the most obvious method (the actor playing the Doctor), and the highlights by fan consensus (since I hadn't had a chance to form my own opinions). It took me by surprise quite how off target my expectations were, and in particular quite how much I enjoyed the Sylvester McCoy and Hartnell eras, neither of which had been suggested as highlights.
As time passed and I grew more knowledgeable I could refine that a little more: what I loved was actually the Andrew Cartmel and Lambert eras. Oh, there are plenty of joys still to come before we reach the end of The Tenth Planet, and there have been a smattering of clunkers already; but this has been a real golden age. And it set up the show to run and run, for another fifty years so far. So I am very glad that she lived to see the show successful once again in a new millennium, under Russell T. Davies.
Next Time:
Dalek Cutaway.
There's a reason for this, which is that I found it impossible to come at the story with an open mind. There is just so much mythology and trivia flying around concerning Mission to the Unknown that it clutters up my ability to appreciate it simply for what it is, so I decided to get that out of the way first.
Let's start with the reason it exists, which is, basically, scheduling. Towards the end of the previous recording block the last two parts of serial J (Planet of Giants) were combined into one because there wasn't enough content to warrant a four-parter, but this meant that the team had effectively produced one week's worth of Doctor Who less than planned. Sydney Newman decided to tack an extra episode on the end of the second recording block to make up for it.
Of course this meant that the episode needed to be fairly cheap, and also ran into the problem of the regular cast having to work an extra week. Verity Lambert came up with a solution that solved both of these issues at once, and in the process produced something quite unique.
This, then, is the first ever Doctor-lite story. It's so lite, in fact, that the Doctor doesn't appear at all (which is not quite true of any others, not even the 1960s episodes when William Hartnell was on holiday). His companions don't appear, either. Nor the TARDIS.
It's impossible to imagine the impact this would have had on viewers at the time (though Elizabeth Sandifer gives it a go in her review) - it's almost as if the program had been invaded by another show altogether.
And, in a way, it had. Without the regular cast to hold people's attention, Lambert turned to that other great attraction of the program, the Daleks. (In fact, it could be argued that they were even more popular: the first Dalek film came out in the summer, the stageplay Curse of the Daleks was announced at the end of September, and the second Dalek annual was due to go on sale two days after broadcast. Dalekmania indeed!) Lambert asked Terry Nation to produce a 'teaser' episode for the forthcoming Dalek epic, and Nation decided to use the opportunity to test out the viability of an independent Dalek program.
So, how successful is the only single-episode story of the classic series? You'll have to tune in next time to find out what I thought...
Behind the Scenes: Verity Lambert
Before she disappears from the show I need to say something about Doctor Who's first producer. This was Lambert's final episode before following Sydney Newman out of the door to produce The Newcomers with him, followed by Adam Adamant Lives! (a show my mother remembered fondly). Lambert went on to have a glittering career, which is detailed in the usual places, so I won't reiterate it here. Other people have also said plenty about her contribution to Doctor Who - see Sandifer again for an eloquent example. I just want to add one thing.
When I got properly back into the show (after a long break) in 2006 I decided to investigate some highlights of the eras I had missed first time around, as well as revisit some old favourites. Being new to fandom I defined eras by the most obvious method (the actor playing the Doctor), and the highlights by fan consensus (since I hadn't had a chance to form my own opinions). It took me by surprise quite how off target my expectations were, and in particular quite how much I enjoyed the Sylvester McCoy and Hartnell eras, neither of which had been suggested as highlights.
As time passed and I grew more knowledgeable I could refine that a little more: what I loved was actually the Andrew Cartmel and Lambert eras. Oh, there are plenty of joys still to come before we reach the end of The Tenth Planet, and there have been a smattering of clunkers already; but this has been a real golden age. And it set up the show to run and run, for another fifty years so far. So I am very glad that she lived to see the show successful once again in a new millennium, under Russell T. Davies.
Next Time:
Dalek Cutaway.
Friday, 23 October 2015
Serial T: Galaxy 4 (The Chumblies)
What went wrong with Galaxy 4? Part of it is certainly down to
circumstance. Given that Airlock is by far my favourite episode mainly
due to the direction I suspect that the rest of the serial would benefit
similarly from not having been junked. This was John Wiles' first story
as producer (although Verity Lambert was still technically in charge,
her attention was elsewhere) and the first script-edited by Donald Tosh
that wasn't written by a former script editor who knew the ropes. Nobody
could have predicted director Mervyn Pinfield falling ill, creating
disruption (although the direction itself benefits), and writer William
Emms had to rework the script for a different TARDIS team at quite short
notice.
Nevertheless, there's also some blame to be apportioned. William Hartnell acted very childishly, taking out his genuine upset over Lambert's departure on the production team, and the inexperienced Wiles badly mishandled the conflict. Tosh should have done more to rescue the script (particularly The Exploding Planet, where boosting the Drahvins as a threat - for instance, by letting them find a way to neutralise the Chumblies - could have made all the difference and been a relatively easy change).
Because it's the script that is the biggest problem. There are some fascinating and worthwhile ideas here, not least the demolishing of the way that ugliness generally equals evil - a fallacy that Doctor Who has struggled with throughout its history, from The Daleks right through to the current Capaldi season. But these ideas needed a framework in which to flourish, and what we got barely worked as an adventure serial.
Of course, I am not the target audience. Back in 1965, this was better received than The Time Meddler, with a higher average AI and better viewing figures for every episode - in fact, Airlock reached more people than any episode since The Web Planet!
Let's talk about the DVD release. This was an odd one. A cut-down version of the Loose Cannon recon had been prepared for The Time Meddler DVD, appropriately, but in the end it wasn't used. The discovery of Airlock meant the BBC wanted to get the new episode out there, and it was spliced into the recon; but what DVD could it go on? The only sensible possibility was The Aztecs Special Edition. Because of the lateness of the decision, artwork had already been prepared; so the only indication that it also contained Galaxy 4 was a sticker.
Even ignoring the fact that we have an existing episode, this is a much better effort than the Marco Polo reconstruction in The Beginning box set. There is enough, here, to get a good feel for the story; and if I want to experience it again I'll certainly be happy with it.
Right, I should also say something about the tie-in to The Suffering. Ignoring real-world broadcast and release dates, it does seem odd that neither Steven nor Vicki note the likelihood that the Drahvins came about because of events recapped in the audio, especially since they were thinking about it (and recounting it) just before Steven's haircut. Still, it does fit well, and Jacqueline Rayner's story adds some depth to the villains of the TV serial.
It's Thingy, from That Other Program, Part 5: Angelo Muscat
One name jumped out at me from the credits: Angelo Muscat, playing one of the Chumblies. I didn't recognise him, of course; but I knew who he was, because I'm a fan of The Prisoner, where he played the butler. Galaxy 4 was his first TV credit and he was fairly successful for a few years thereafter, also appearing in Alice in Wonderland and The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour; but after The Prisoner work dried up. Maureen O'Brien said that she spent a lot of time with the actors who were inside the Chumblies, and that because of their height they were treated as youngsters, much as she herself was. Muscat's last role was as an Oompa-Loompa in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; he died poor, five years later.
Isaac's Corner
We've all been struggling with bugs this half term; and, although his most recent virus has now passed, Isaac has been left with limited breath. He needs to use an inhaler and spacer device for the moment, otherwise he has virtually no energy. I'm grateful the holidays are coming to give everyone a chance just to rest! Anyway, he wasn't feeling up to writing Isaac's corner this time, but told me a few thoughts which I shall try to get down faithfully (as always, he focused mainly on the positive, a trait I really like):
The different societies presented in Galaxy 4 were interesting, and it was particularly good to see differing points of view on the same situation. Having said that, the story wasn't clear enough in showing people's motivations - for instance, why did Maaga shoot one of her own soldiers? It came across as something she did just because she was EVIL. Overall it was a nice, simple story - I wasn't wowed by it, but I did like it. And the Chumblies were cute!
Rating:
Mine: 3/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 55.51%, 172nd.
DWM 50th Anniversary: 57.98%, 210th.
2012 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 5.15, 210th out of 234.
Next Time:
Mission to the Unknown.
Nevertheless, there's also some blame to be apportioned. William Hartnell acted very childishly, taking out his genuine upset over Lambert's departure on the production team, and the inexperienced Wiles badly mishandled the conflict. Tosh should have done more to rescue the script (particularly The Exploding Planet, where boosting the Drahvins as a threat - for instance, by letting them find a way to neutralise the Chumblies - could have made all the difference and been a relatively easy change).
Because it's the script that is the biggest problem. There are some fascinating and worthwhile ideas here, not least the demolishing of the way that ugliness generally equals evil - a fallacy that Doctor Who has struggled with throughout its history, from The Daleks right through to the current Capaldi season. But these ideas needed a framework in which to flourish, and what we got barely worked as an adventure serial.
Of course, I am not the target audience. Back in 1965, this was better received than The Time Meddler, with a higher average AI and better viewing figures for every episode - in fact, Airlock reached more people than any episode since The Web Planet!
Let's talk about the DVD release. This was an odd one. A cut-down version of the Loose Cannon recon had been prepared for The Time Meddler DVD, appropriately, but in the end it wasn't used. The discovery of Airlock meant the BBC wanted to get the new episode out there, and it was spliced into the recon; but what DVD could it go on? The only sensible possibility was The Aztecs Special Edition. Because of the lateness of the decision, artwork had already been prepared; so the only indication that it also contained Galaxy 4 was a sticker.
Even ignoring the fact that we have an existing episode, this is a much better effort than the Marco Polo reconstruction in The Beginning box set. There is enough, here, to get a good feel for the story; and if I want to experience it again I'll certainly be happy with it.
Right, I should also say something about the tie-in to The Suffering. Ignoring real-world broadcast and release dates, it does seem odd that neither Steven nor Vicki note the likelihood that the Drahvins came about because of events recapped in the audio, especially since they were thinking about it (and recounting it) just before Steven's haircut. Still, it does fit well, and Jacqueline Rayner's story adds some depth to the villains of the TV serial.
It's Thingy, from That Other Program, Part 5: Angelo Muscat
One name jumped out at me from the credits: Angelo Muscat, playing one of the Chumblies. I didn't recognise him, of course; but I knew who he was, because I'm a fan of The Prisoner, where he played the butler. Galaxy 4 was his first TV credit and he was fairly successful for a few years thereafter, also appearing in Alice in Wonderland and The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour; but after The Prisoner work dried up. Maureen O'Brien said that she spent a lot of time with the actors who were inside the Chumblies, and that because of their height they were treated as youngsters, much as she herself was. Muscat's last role was as an Oompa-Loompa in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; he died poor, five years later.
Isaac's Corner
We've all been struggling with bugs this half term; and, although his most recent virus has now passed, Isaac has been left with limited breath. He needs to use an inhaler and spacer device for the moment, otherwise he has virtually no energy. I'm grateful the holidays are coming to give everyone a chance just to rest! Anyway, he wasn't feeling up to writing Isaac's corner this time, but told me a few thoughts which I shall try to get down faithfully (as always, he focused mainly on the positive, a trait I really like):
The different societies presented in Galaxy 4 were interesting, and it was particularly good to see differing points of view on the same situation. Having said that, the story wasn't clear enough in showing people's motivations - for instance, why did Maaga shoot one of her own soldiers? It came across as something she did just because she was EVIL. Overall it was a nice, simple story - I wasn't wowed by it, but I did like it. And the Chumblies were cute!
Rating:
Mine: 3/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 55.51%, 172nd.
DWM 50th Anniversary: 57.98%, 210th.
2012 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 5.15, 210th out of 234.
Next Time:
Mission to the Unknown.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Episode 85 (T4): The Exploding Planet
Something bizarre and annoying happened during the writing of my
previous review. I had three issues of DWM out on the bed for reference,
but needed to go off and do some housework and cook supper. When I came
back they were gone, and nobody knew where they were. We have since
looked fairly thoroughly - I even checked that they hadn't been put in
the recycling by accident! - but they haven't turned up. One was the
issue about the return of Airlock, which is a fairly minor loss
now; one detailed the sale of 60s serials abroad and (I think) the
resultant recovery of some episodes, which is more annoying. Worst,
though, is my copy of The Complete First Doctor, which has been
my constant companion during the TV portions of this marathon and helps
set the scene in my mind, even when none of the info gets into the
review. That I will struggle to do without.
Speaking of struggles: as someone who is not comfortable watching recons, we are really entering a barren stretch. This is the first of an unbroken run of seven missing episodes, matching the earliest ever gap - Marco Polo. Worse than that, however, is the realisation that of the next 22 episodes, only three survive. There were only eleven missing in total over the previous two seasons, and two of those have been animated! Thank goodness for other media, is all I can say.
So, what of this episode? Unfortunately, the phrase that springs to mind is "a bit pants". I didn't bother watching the full recon this time, because (a) it wasn't based on stills from the episode anyway; (b) Peter Purves' narration on the audio release is enough to let me know what's going on when it's not obvious from the soundtrack; and (c) I couldn't be bothered.
There's so much wrong with the script here. Let's take the Drahvins first. OK, so they are a threat to the travellers when they catch our heroes on their own, but are so vastly outmatched by the Rills that they cannot pose a credible threat now that the Doctor-Rill alliance is in place. So that's one source of tension removed. Steven is rescued in the first couple of minutes, and after that nobody is ever really in immediate danger; which just leaves the countdown to destruction. Now, countdowns can work - even though we know they are going to make it, especially in the first serial of a new season - but the interest and tension comes not from the countdown itself but from figuring out how they are going to solve it, and/or watching them overcome obstacles. Here, the Doctor figured out what to do in the previous episode, the Rills make it plain that they want the travellers to abandon them and leave if time runs out, and there is no significant opposition. We are left simply watching them clock-watching, and only Steven's first encounter with the Rills even provides meaty dialogue.
Right, that's the script. Visually we know what most of it looks like, and my guess is that the destruction of the planet and departure of the Rill ship would not have been "oh wow" moments, even with the obviously competent direction of Derek Martinus. The Chumblies make their usual cute noises, so that only leaves the acting.
It's possible I'm projecting when I say this, but based on the soundtrack William Hartnell is really not on good form here. My guess is that his heart wasn't in it, and who can blame him? He's fluffing, and he's falling back on a set of stock Doctor mannerisms to an extent I've not noticed before. Meanwhile, Maureen O'Brien gets hardly anything to say; she's probably doing some interesting things with her facial expressions, but sadly we are now past our last view of her on-screen before her departure. Purves puts effort in, but then he's the new boy and it's likely he still has enough enthusiasm to carry him through a poor script. Stephanie Bidmead steals every scene she's in, but isn't as centre stage as before, while Robert Cartland provides a fairly nondescript booming voice for the Rills.
I normally complain about cut-down recons, but the twelve-minute version of this episode on the DVD is actually a much more appropriate length for this - and that includes the trailer for next time...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 2nd October 1965
Viewers: 9.9 million
Chart Position: 20
Appreciation Index: 53
Rating:
1/10.
Next Time:
Serial T as a whole.
Speaking of struggles: as someone who is not comfortable watching recons, we are really entering a barren stretch. This is the first of an unbroken run of seven missing episodes, matching the earliest ever gap - Marco Polo. Worse than that, however, is the realisation that of the next 22 episodes, only three survive. There were only eleven missing in total over the previous two seasons, and two of those have been animated! Thank goodness for other media, is all I can say.
So, what of this episode? Unfortunately, the phrase that springs to mind is "a bit pants". I didn't bother watching the full recon this time, because (a) it wasn't based on stills from the episode anyway; (b) Peter Purves' narration on the audio release is enough to let me know what's going on when it's not obvious from the soundtrack; and (c) I couldn't be bothered.
There's so much wrong with the script here. Let's take the Drahvins first. OK, so they are a threat to the travellers when they catch our heroes on their own, but are so vastly outmatched by the Rills that they cannot pose a credible threat now that the Doctor-Rill alliance is in place. So that's one source of tension removed. Steven is rescued in the first couple of minutes, and after that nobody is ever really in immediate danger; which just leaves the countdown to destruction. Now, countdowns can work - even though we know they are going to make it, especially in the first serial of a new season - but the interest and tension comes not from the countdown itself but from figuring out how they are going to solve it, and/or watching them overcome obstacles. Here, the Doctor figured out what to do in the previous episode, the Rills make it plain that they want the travellers to abandon them and leave if time runs out, and there is no significant opposition. We are left simply watching them clock-watching, and only Steven's first encounter with the Rills even provides meaty dialogue.
Right, that's the script. Visually we know what most of it looks like, and my guess is that the destruction of the planet and departure of the Rill ship would not have been "oh wow" moments, even with the obviously competent direction of Derek Martinus. The Chumblies make their usual cute noises, so that only leaves the acting.
It's possible I'm projecting when I say this, but based on the soundtrack William Hartnell is really not on good form here. My guess is that his heart wasn't in it, and who can blame him? He's fluffing, and he's falling back on a set of stock Doctor mannerisms to an extent I've not noticed before. Meanwhile, Maureen O'Brien gets hardly anything to say; she's probably doing some interesting things with her facial expressions, but sadly we are now past our last view of her on-screen before her departure. Purves puts effort in, but then he's the new boy and it's likely he still has enough enthusiasm to carry him through a poor script. Stephanie Bidmead steals every scene she's in, but isn't as centre stage as before, while Robert Cartland provides a fairly nondescript booming voice for the Rills.
I normally complain about cut-down recons, but the twelve-minute version of this episode on the DVD is actually a much more appropriate length for this - and that includes the trailer for next time...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 2nd October 1965
Viewers: 9.9 million
Chart Position: 20
Appreciation Index: 53
Rating:
1/10.
Next Time:
Serial T as a whole.
Thursday, 15 October 2015
Episode 84 (T3): Airlock
My regeneration into a 'proper' Doctor Who fan didn't begin until
2006. As a result the fact that some episodes of the show were missing
had passed me by, and when I finally learned of it I was saddened. I did
read with interest about the discoveries of the past, but it was all on
an intellectual level.
Until December 2011, when I heard about the return of two episodes, Airlock and an early Patrick Troughton. I literally shouted in glee, then rushed around the house telling everybody (including a 'not-we', who was somewhat bemused but glad I was happy). I would never have predicted the strength of my reaction - if it had been something iconic like The Power of the Daleks or The Myth Makers, sure; but for a couple of individual episodes from minor, relatively unloved serials?
So, what's it like? Well, the plot's no improvement: space pilot Steven tries to escape but fails due to being scared by a Chumbley and ends up trapped in an airlock, before forgetting how differences in air pressure work; the Doctor spends ages trying to figure out how to sabotage an atmospheric converter; and Vicki learns that (gasp!) the Rills are good and the Drahvins evil. Oh, what a surprise.
Fortunately, it's a lot of fun to watch. The moving lights in the Chumblies weren't visible in the clip from the first episode (and so weren't included when they were reconstructed); this adds to their weirdness. Similarly, the Rills had previously only been glimpsed in a couple of poor quality photos, and we finally have a chance to see what they were actually like. The results are mixed: they look impressively alien, but their only animation is to rock back and forth, which ironically would have made them a great subject for the limited sort of animation Loose Cannon uses elsewhere! Both these character designs add atmosphere.
Seeing more of the set design also helps. The expansive Rill ship set is fairly unique - and a genuinely wobbly set to add to Toby Hadoke's short list! The Doctor's cry of "I can't move it, it's immovable!" is particularly ironic. We also get a better view of the relatively cramped Drahvin spaceship - which looks like Maaga has set out her garden furniture on the decking to enjoy the limited British summer weather. OK, so I mock; but I would much rather this than something generic. Even the (fairly bare) planetary surface is more reminiscent of The Web Planet than The Chase.
Still, the biggest asset this episode has, visually, is Derek Martinus. This is his third ever episode directing anything, and already he seems more ambitious than he did during Four Hundred Dawns (though there are also certain aesthetic choices there that stand out more in retrospect). Would the Rill spaceship have made such an impression without the shot down through the top panels? Probably not. And I am confident that we wouldn't have got that with the serial's intended director, Mervyn Pinfield, who mainly shot television as if it were theatre. Similarly, the Drahvins making very little eye contact, and the movement and positioning of actors inside the Drahvins' ship being so carefully choreographed, produces some quite unsettling effects.
And speaking of unsettling, Stephanie Bidmead is the other key component of the visual team. She puts in a stellar performance here, full of little facial movements that are so understated she needs to stand very close to the camera so we can see them. The way she expresses her frustrations over the limitations of her troops almost made me feel slightly sympathetic towards her, before this is turned right around the next instant. Steven's look of horror at Maaga's speech says it all.
The Doctor Who Restoration Team have done their usual meticulous job of cleaning up the episode. When it was returned to the BBC, there were a number of problems including a break in the film near the end which meant that almost half a minute of action was missing (as well as the credits); and a large, vertical scratch across Maaga's face during some of her speeches to camera. I couldn't spot either.
If it weren't for a casual conversation between Ralph Montagu of the Radio Times and former TVS engineer Terry Burnett - who had no idea that the couple of Doctor Who episodes he had in his film collection were significant - we would never have seen this. And before that, if someone hadn't rescued the cans from a skip when they were being junked - technically illegal salvage - they would have been lost in the 1970s.
Fingers crossed for many more such unlikely chains of events!
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 25th September 1965
Viewers: 11.3 million
Chart Position: 13
Appreciation Index: 54
Rating:
5/10.
Next Time:
The Exploding Planet.
Until December 2011, when I heard about the return of two episodes, Airlock and an early Patrick Troughton. I literally shouted in glee, then rushed around the house telling everybody (including a 'not-we', who was somewhat bemused but glad I was happy). I would never have predicted the strength of my reaction - if it had been something iconic like The Power of the Daleks or The Myth Makers, sure; but for a couple of individual episodes from minor, relatively unloved serials?
So, what's it like? Well, the plot's no improvement: space pilot Steven tries to escape but fails due to being scared by a Chumbley and ends up trapped in an airlock, before forgetting how differences in air pressure work; the Doctor spends ages trying to figure out how to sabotage an atmospheric converter; and Vicki learns that (gasp!) the Rills are good and the Drahvins evil. Oh, what a surprise.
Fortunately, it's a lot of fun to watch. The moving lights in the Chumblies weren't visible in the clip from the first episode (and so weren't included when they were reconstructed); this adds to their weirdness. Similarly, the Rills had previously only been glimpsed in a couple of poor quality photos, and we finally have a chance to see what they were actually like. The results are mixed: they look impressively alien, but their only animation is to rock back and forth, which ironically would have made them a great subject for the limited sort of animation Loose Cannon uses elsewhere! Both these character designs add atmosphere.
Seeing more of the set design also helps. The expansive Rill ship set is fairly unique - and a genuinely wobbly set to add to Toby Hadoke's short list! The Doctor's cry of "I can't move it, it's immovable!" is particularly ironic. We also get a better view of the relatively cramped Drahvin spaceship - which looks like Maaga has set out her garden furniture on the decking to enjoy the limited British summer weather. OK, so I mock; but I would much rather this than something generic. Even the (fairly bare) planetary surface is more reminiscent of The Web Planet than The Chase.
Still, the biggest asset this episode has, visually, is Derek Martinus. This is his third ever episode directing anything, and already he seems more ambitious than he did during Four Hundred Dawns (though there are also certain aesthetic choices there that stand out more in retrospect). Would the Rill spaceship have made such an impression without the shot down through the top panels? Probably not. And I am confident that we wouldn't have got that with the serial's intended director, Mervyn Pinfield, who mainly shot television as if it were theatre. Similarly, the Drahvins making very little eye contact, and the movement and positioning of actors inside the Drahvins' ship being so carefully choreographed, produces some quite unsettling effects.
And speaking of unsettling, Stephanie Bidmead is the other key component of the visual team. She puts in a stellar performance here, full of little facial movements that are so understated she needs to stand very close to the camera so we can see them. The way she expresses her frustrations over the limitations of her troops almost made me feel slightly sympathetic towards her, before this is turned right around the next instant. Steven's look of horror at Maaga's speech says it all.
The Doctor Who Restoration Team have done their usual meticulous job of cleaning up the episode. When it was returned to the BBC, there were a number of problems including a break in the film near the end which meant that almost half a minute of action was missing (as well as the credits); and a large, vertical scratch across Maaga's face during some of her speeches to camera. I couldn't spot either.
If it weren't for a casual conversation between Ralph Montagu of the Radio Times and former TVS engineer Terry Burnett - who had no idea that the couple of Doctor Who episodes he had in his film collection were significant - we would never have seen this. And before that, if someone hadn't rescued the cans from a skip when they were being junked - technically illegal salvage - they would have been lost in the 1970s.
Fingers crossed for many more such unlikely chains of events!
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 25th September 1965
Viewers: 11.3 million
Chart Position: 13
Appreciation Index: 54
Rating:
5/10.
Next Time:
The Exploding Planet.
Friday, 9 October 2015
Episode 83 (T2): Trap of Steel
In late June, during rehearsals for A Battle of Wits, filming was also taking place for Galaxy 4
at Ealing Studios with Mervyn Pinfield, who was to direct the serial.
In the event Pinfield was taken ill, and never had another opportunity
to direct the show; drafted in to replace him was Derek Martinus, who
had just completed his directorial training. He probably had little idea
of the minefield into which he was being parachuted.
Writer William Emms has gone on record as being very happy with the way his script was accepted largely unchanged, in contrast to many he had submitted for other programs. William Hartnell and his co-stars were less happy. Maureen O'Brien complained that some of her dialogue did not sound like Vicki, while Peter Purves - stuck with many of Barbara's lines - considered his character to have been emasculated. Hartnell also wanted changes, and ended up in a loud argument with Emms. This was effectively the first serial produced by Verity Lambert's replacement, John Wiles, while Lambert concentrated on her final episode; Wiles stepped into the fracas, supporting Emms and telling the cast to perform it as written. When Hartnell still objected, Wiles threatened to sack him.
The fallout from all this is going to have consequences quite a way into the future of this marathon, but one immediate consequence is the decline in Hartnell's performance I noted last time. He's pulled himself together a little for this episode, but listening to it I realised that I have never heard him say "hm" so often!
Still, for me Hartnell is probably the highlight of an episode where the plot largely consists of people walking from place to place. The way he tells Maaga "I never kill anything" is great - he's such a liar! Tell that to the Daleks, Doctor.
Maureen O'Brien gets some time in the spotlight, but I do think what she's given is not quite Vicki-like. Her deduction that the Chumblies can only hear in front of them - and how does that work, exactly? - comes out of nowhere, much like the distrust of the Drahvins last time.
As for Peter Purves... well. This is where the fact that he's stuck with Barbara's lines starts to bite. Purves has said that he wishes they'd played up the sexism angle further, that Steven should have wanted to be captured because the Drahvins were attractive women; and you can hear him trying to put a little of that into his performance. It's not enough, though.
This is the first of two episodes which are entirely absent, and that definitely affects my enjoyment. Loose Cannon put a lot of effort into the reconstruction - they had to, because there are no telesnaps available for this serial. The landscapes and cast are composited from various photos (the recon having been completed long before the discovery of the third episode), and a loving recreation of the Chumblies provides much of the motion. This completely distorts the balance of shots, though; if you can create interesting images of cute robots chuttering, chumbling, and jinking about the place, of course you're going to use that instead of the umpteenth repeat of a still showing the actors in not quite the right pose! It's indisputably the right decision, as well as evidence of why I don't personally get on very well with recons. For such a visual story as this, though, I still find them superior to my (generally preferred) narrated soundtracks.
Ironically, Galaxy 4 is probably the last serial to be junked before the BBC changed their policy in 1978...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 18th September 1965
Viewers: 9.5 million
Chart Position: 22
Appreciation Index: 54
Rating:
3/10.
Next Time:
Airlock.
Writer William Emms has gone on record as being very happy with the way his script was accepted largely unchanged, in contrast to many he had submitted for other programs. William Hartnell and his co-stars were less happy. Maureen O'Brien complained that some of her dialogue did not sound like Vicki, while Peter Purves - stuck with many of Barbara's lines - considered his character to have been emasculated. Hartnell also wanted changes, and ended up in a loud argument with Emms. This was effectively the first serial produced by Verity Lambert's replacement, John Wiles, while Lambert concentrated on her final episode; Wiles stepped into the fracas, supporting Emms and telling the cast to perform it as written. When Hartnell still objected, Wiles threatened to sack him.
The fallout from all this is going to have consequences quite a way into the future of this marathon, but one immediate consequence is the decline in Hartnell's performance I noted last time. He's pulled himself together a little for this episode, but listening to it I realised that I have never heard him say "hm" so often!
Still, for me Hartnell is probably the highlight of an episode where the plot largely consists of people walking from place to place. The way he tells Maaga "I never kill anything" is great - he's such a liar! Tell that to the Daleks, Doctor.
Maureen O'Brien gets some time in the spotlight, but I do think what she's given is not quite Vicki-like. Her deduction that the Chumblies can only hear in front of them - and how does that work, exactly? - comes out of nowhere, much like the distrust of the Drahvins last time.
As for Peter Purves... well. This is where the fact that he's stuck with Barbara's lines starts to bite. Purves has said that he wishes they'd played up the sexism angle further, that Steven should have wanted to be captured because the Drahvins were attractive women; and you can hear him trying to put a little of that into his performance. It's not enough, though.
This is the first of two episodes which are entirely absent, and that definitely affects my enjoyment. Loose Cannon put a lot of effort into the reconstruction - they had to, because there are no telesnaps available for this serial. The landscapes and cast are composited from various photos (the recon having been completed long before the discovery of the third episode), and a loving recreation of the Chumblies provides much of the motion. This completely distorts the balance of shots, though; if you can create interesting images of cute robots chuttering, chumbling, and jinking about the place, of course you're going to use that instead of the umpteenth repeat of a still showing the actors in not quite the right pose! It's indisputably the right decision, as well as evidence of why I don't personally get on very well with recons. For such a visual story as this, though, I still find them superior to my (generally preferred) narrated soundtracks.
Ironically, Galaxy 4 is probably the last serial to be junked before the BBC changed their policy in 1978...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 18th September 1965
Viewers: 9.5 million
Chart Position: 22
Appreciation Index: 54
Rating:
3/10.
Next Time:
Airlock.
Monday, 5 October 2015
Episode 82 (T1): Four Hundred Dawns
[Apologies for the delay - it's been longer than I thought, mainly
because of trying to find a time to watch it with my son, added to which
the fact that the official recon combines the first two episodes meant
some untangling was required. Also, life.]
Back to television at last - albeit with the first ever non-historical episode to be missing from the archives. It's not quite missing, of course, as there's a six-minute stretch of actual footage. This exists thanks to its being requisitioned for Whose Doctor Who, a 1977 instalment of the documentary series Lively Arts (which ended up using about half a minute) and then being rescued by Jan Vincent-Rudzki, president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, who was acting as an advisor to the show. I'd still call this a "missing episode", though; but I'll postpone saying more about that until next time, as I've a lot of other topics to cover here.
Starting with the episode's status as the beginning of a new season. Last time - with Planet of Giants - the story carried on pretty much directly from the end of season one, making me wince slightly for all those stories shoehorned in between. This time it seems pretty obvious that there is a gap. Steven appears more settled, and the tense mood of the travellers doesn't quite match with the end of The Time Meddler; in addition, the Doctor's comment about 'past experience' adds to the sense that this team has been together for a while. As a polymedial (multimedial?) fan, I give this a thumb's up.
This is pure chance, really. When the script for Galaxy 4 was first written Iananbarbara were still on the team, and mostly for reasons of time (exacerbated by the ongoing change of production personnel) the rewrites made to accommodate Steven's presence were minimal. Of course it's written as if this team has been together for a long time! (Other aspects of this weren't so serendipitous, but we'll get to them later.)
There are a number of continuity references which seem to be included largely to remind viewers of the previous season: in particular, Vicki comparing this planet to Xeros (the setting for The Space Museum), and the return of the astral map. We also have the next instance of Vicki picking a cute name - the Chumblies, this time. (I think this is also the last occasion on TV, though I've only heard The Myth Makers once.) The Doctor also has a signature character moment when he is talking about the impenetrability of "his force barrier", in a lovely, low-key humourous exchange between him and Steven.
When we concentrate on William Hartnell's performance here, it is hard to remember that this is still part of the second production block and being recorded a week after Checkmate. He comes across as particularly prickly, and is getting far more lines wrong than he did last episode - the classic being their "long-deserved, undeserved" break. This has more than a little to do with the troubled recording history of this serial - which I'm also going to leave until next time, since I want to save a modicum of space to talk about the actual content of the episode.
Steven is pretty darn sexist here, referring to the Drahvins as a delightful surprise and commenting that their spaceship has "a few good features" - with the double meaning obviously intentional. As well as explaining what Jacqueline Rayner was drawing on for his characterisation in The Suffering, this is actually really appropriate because of his backstory as a space pilot. In the 1960s, US astronauts were drawn from the high flyers of the USAF, and came from an intensely macho culture. Many (though by no means all) bought into that culture wholeheartedly; and this is the real-life background to contemporary images of "space pilots", while Dan Dare's attitude to Peabody provides an example from popular fiction that is no better.
So, the characterisation is fine, which is actually a pleasant surprise. Less well handled is the central issue of the villains' identity. The TARDIS team are instantly suspicious of the Drahvins for no good reason that I can see (or rather hear), with Steven apparently the only one who is even prepared to consider that they might be telling the truth (Vicki's body language in the main clip is telling, here). Maaga is also presented as almost entirely unsympathetic, so where is the mystery?
On the plus side, there is a pleasing symmetry to the two sides in the conflict. Maaga's Drahvin soldiers being vat-grown and lacking initiative - "not what you would call human" - makes them excellent mirrors of the Rill-controlled Chumblies. And the cliffhanger is both effective and of a style I don't remember seeing so far in this marathon.
I've rattled on for a while. Hopefully the next review will be up in not four hundred dawns, not even fourteen dawns - but four dawns.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 11th September 1965
Viewers: 9.0 million
Chart Position: 23
Appreciation Index: 56
Rating:
4/10.
Next Time:
Trap of Steel.
Back to television at last - albeit with the first ever non-historical episode to be missing from the archives. It's not quite missing, of course, as there's a six-minute stretch of actual footage. This exists thanks to its being requisitioned for Whose Doctor Who, a 1977 instalment of the documentary series Lively Arts (which ended up using about half a minute) and then being rescued by Jan Vincent-Rudzki, president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, who was acting as an advisor to the show. I'd still call this a "missing episode", though; but I'll postpone saying more about that until next time, as I've a lot of other topics to cover here.
Starting with the episode's status as the beginning of a new season. Last time - with Planet of Giants - the story carried on pretty much directly from the end of season one, making me wince slightly for all those stories shoehorned in between. This time it seems pretty obvious that there is a gap. Steven appears more settled, and the tense mood of the travellers doesn't quite match with the end of The Time Meddler; in addition, the Doctor's comment about 'past experience' adds to the sense that this team has been together for a while. As a polymedial (multimedial?) fan, I give this a thumb's up.
This is pure chance, really. When the script for Galaxy 4 was first written Iananbarbara were still on the team, and mostly for reasons of time (exacerbated by the ongoing change of production personnel) the rewrites made to accommodate Steven's presence were minimal. Of course it's written as if this team has been together for a long time! (Other aspects of this weren't so serendipitous, but we'll get to them later.)
There are a number of continuity references which seem to be included largely to remind viewers of the previous season: in particular, Vicki comparing this planet to Xeros (the setting for The Space Museum), and the return of the astral map. We also have the next instance of Vicki picking a cute name - the Chumblies, this time. (I think this is also the last occasion on TV, though I've only heard The Myth Makers once.) The Doctor also has a signature character moment when he is talking about the impenetrability of "his force barrier", in a lovely, low-key humourous exchange between him and Steven.
When we concentrate on William Hartnell's performance here, it is hard to remember that this is still part of the second production block and being recorded a week after Checkmate. He comes across as particularly prickly, and is getting far more lines wrong than he did last episode - the classic being their "long-deserved, undeserved" break. This has more than a little to do with the troubled recording history of this serial - which I'm also going to leave until next time, since I want to save a modicum of space to talk about the actual content of the episode.
Steven is pretty darn sexist here, referring to the Drahvins as a delightful surprise and commenting that their spaceship has "a few good features" - with the double meaning obviously intentional. As well as explaining what Jacqueline Rayner was drawing on for his characterisation in The Suffering, this is actually really appropriate because of his backstory as a space pilot. In the 1960s, US astronauts were drawn from the high flyers of the USAF, and came from an intensely macho culture. Many (though by no means all) bought into that culture wholeheartedly; and this is the real-life background to contemporary images of "space pilots", while Dan Dare's attitude to Peabody provides an example from popular fiction that is no better.
So, the characterisation is fine, which is actually a pleasant surprise. Less well handled is the central issue of the villains' identity. The TARDIS team are instantly suspicious of the Drahvins for no good reason that I can see (or rather hear), with Steven apparently the only one who is even prepared to consider that they might be telling the truth (Vicki's body language in the main clip is telling, here). Maaga is also presented as almost entirely unsympathetic, so where is the mystery?
On the plus side, there is a pleasing symmetry to the two sides in the conflict. Maaga's Drahvin soldiers being vat-grown and lacking initiative - "not what you would call human" - makes them excellent mirrors of the Rill-controlled Chumblies. And the cliffhanger is both effective and of a style I don't remember seeing so far in this marathon.
I've rattled on for a while. Hopefully the next review will be up in not four hundred dawns, not even fourteen dawns - but four dawns.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 11th September 1965
Viewers: 9.0 million
Chart Position: 23
Appreciation Index: 56
Rating:
4/10.
Next Time:
Trap of Steel.
Tuesday, 22 September 2015
Short Trips, Indefinable Magic 31.02: The Power Supply, by Eddy Robson
I mostly know Eddy Robson from his audio scripts, where, like Jonathan
Morris, I associate him with a reliable base level of quality and a good
variety of styles. His strength there, for me, lies in his humour and
humanity: his most enjoyable stories have either been straight comedy (Grand Theft Cosmos), or ones where he has combined the humour with weirdness (Memory Lane, The Condemned) or with a strong focus on character (Urgent Calls, The Five Companions).
The Power Supply falls more into the weirdness camp. The premise - which I won't spoil - is fun, and a genre clash I don't think we've seen before in Who. Robson then twists it in an unexpected way, and, indeed, he packs a lot of ideas into a small number of words. There's not much action (though there is a medical emergency the Doctor has to deal with that reminded me of Room for Improvement), but then that's not what the story is about.
The short stories I've read in this inter-season gap have been quite varied (except for the lack of historicals, which has been more than made up for by other media), and another thing I enjoyed was that Robson employs a very different style of prose to the others. It's not quite as polished as I would ideally like - early on he massively overuses the word 'day' over the space of two paragraphs - but other than lacking a final edit it is an enjoyable read.
Even though it's been revisited rather too often in prose, Robson manages to find a new angle on the TARDIS translation circuits, which is impressive. He also discusses the TARDIS having agency, which I don't believe has come up since David Whitaker's time. On the other hand, the epilogue made me roll my eyes slightly - it would be fine taken as a single instance, but it's something I've just seen too much of now.
Overall this feels like a lot of good things packed into somewhat too small a space. More room to breathe would have upped my score, I think.
Published:
Date: March 2009
ISBN: 1-84435-384-2
Rating:
4.5/10.
Ordering Stories
Right, since this is the last story I'm covering before the start of season 3 (have I really only got that far in my marathon?), I'm going to lay out my stall for an order. As usual I'm going to try to break up the different kinds of story (forward, backward, sideways) and the different media (comic, novel, short stories, and audios) - and here it really matters that we have frames in the audios, so I'm going to include them separately.
Next Time:
Four Hundred Dawns.
The Power Supply falls more into the weirdness camp. The premise - which I won't spoil - is fun, and a genre clash I don't think we've seen before in Who. Robson then twists it in an unexpected way, and, indeed, he packs a lot of ideas into a small number of words. There's not much action (though there is a medical emergency the Doctor has to deal with that reminded me of Room for Improvement), but then that's not what the story is about.
The short stories I've read in this inter-season gap have been quite varied (except for the lack of historicals, which has been more than made up for by other media), and another thing I enjoyed was that Robson employs a very different style of prose to the others. It's not quite as polished as I would ideally like - early on he massively overuses the word 'day' over the space of two paragraphs - but other than lacking a final edit it is an enjoyable read.
Even though it's been revisited rather too often in prose, Robson manages to find a new angle on the TARDIS translation circuits, which is impressive. He also discusses the TARDIS having agency, which I don't believe has come up since David Whitaker's time. On the other hand, the epilogue made me roll my eyes slightly - it would be fine taken as a single instance, but it's something I've just seen too much of now.
Overall this feels like a lot of good things packed into somewhat too small a space. More room to breathe would have upped my score, I think.
Published:
Date: March 2009
ISBN: 1-84435-384-2
Rating:
4.5/10.
Ordering Stories
Right, since this is the last story I'm covering before the start of season 3 (have I really only got that far in my marathon?), I'm going to lay out my stall for an order. As usual I'm going to try to break up the different kinds of story (forward, backward, sideways) and the different media (comic, novel, short stories, and audios) - and here it really matters that we have frames in the audios, so I'm going to include them separately.
- Are You Listening?
- The Suffering
- The Power Supply
- The Three Doctors (first Doctor bit)
- The Empire of Glass
- Upstairs
- Mars
- Frostfire
- The Schoolboy's Story (ends Steven's time as a new traveller)
- Corridors of Power (has to be after they've landed on a spaceship)
- The Suffering frame
- (stories yet to come in this marathon)
- Frostfire frame (after Vicki's departure)
- Upstairs frame
Next Time:
Four Hundred Dawns.
Saturday, 8 August 2015
Short Trips, Solar System 17.04: Mars, by Trevor Baxendale
I've experienced maybe half a dozen stories by this author, and they have been a bit hit-or-miss. In audio, neither The Dark Flame nor Something Inside
have really hit the spot; but in text he has the benefit of a solidly
entertaining prose style which lifts his more mediocre plots, and when
the storyline sings too - as in Prisoner of the Daleks, for example - he is very, very good indeed.
The plot for Mars is exceedingly simple, and unoriginal to boot. That doesn't mean it's not a good one - in fact it's a classic, which is why it's been used so often - but it does mean that Baxendale has to work harder to make the tale enjoyable.
Structurally, the story is very sound, opening in the middle of the action and filling us in on the details of how we got to that point in a natural way as the plot progresses. It also stops in just the right place - as a writer I would have been tempted to drag it out a bit further, but this is definitely a case of "less is more".
As is common with this particular plot structure the peak of the action actually comes right at the beginning, and the rest of the drama concerns the consequences. This puts a lot of pressure on the character relationships - in this case, Steven with the alien he is trying to help on the surface of Mars, Vicki and the Doctor on Phobos Base with the crew (and an alien ambassador). None of the guest cast have much space to breathe, which is a problem, though the explicit focus on the thoughts of Steven and Vicki distracts from that.
Steven's part of the story - which is the primary plot, although similar wordcount is devoted to each - is definitely the better developed. There's some excellent visual imagery, and for once Steven actually gets to use his piloting skills! I can't remember this happening on TV, and certainly it hasn't happened in any of the audios I've heard so far in this marathon. Mars doesn't add anything particularly new to his characterisation, but it is solidly presented. The only exception is that he swears mildly, saying "damn you" more than once to his companion. This feels slightly off, since Steven comes from the clean-living Dan Dare school of space pilots; but it occurred to me that even if he was modelled on real air force pilots it would have seemed out of place, since they would use much stronger language! It's almost an 'uncanny valley' of swearing. Still, this is a nit, and otherwise this was a good use of Steven.
The scenes on Phobos Base, while not bad, are less successful. The Doctor's mannerisms are exaggerated - I lost count of the number of times he called someone "my boy" or "my child", he "hmm"s, grumps, and is generally something of a caricature. Vicki also comes across as slightly off. She keeps her childlike sense of wonder and hope, but displays less of her logical intelligence than usual, even going so far as to wonder out loud if, perhaps, they could get the TARDIS to work this time. It's made clear afterwards that she knows this is a vain hope, but I still can't see her saying that.
Still, I've nitpicked enough. The problems I've listed weren't sufficiently bad to stop me enjoying reading it, though they were noticeable enough that I got to thinking about what the point was of publishing the story: what does Mars add to this classic plotline, or indeed to Doctor Who?
The answer to the former is probably 'nothing', but the focus on Steven - and in particular his abilities as much as his good character - is something that was lacking from the latter.
And in any case, it was fun, and for me that's generally enough.
Published:
Date: September 2005
ISBN: 1-84435-148-3
Rating:
6/10.
Next Time:
In a change to our advertised programme, The First Doctor Tarot (Season One).
The plot for Mars is exceedingly simple, and unoriginal to boot. That doesn't mean it's not a good one - in fact it's a classic, which is why it's been used so often - but it does mean that Baxendale has to work harder to make the tale enjoyable.
Structurally, the story is very sound, opening in the middle of the action and filling us in on the details of how we got to that point in a natural way as the plot progresses. It also stops in just the right place - as a writer I would have been tempted to drag it out a bit further, but this is definitely a case of "less is more".
As is common with this particular plot structure the peak of the action actually comes right at the beginning, and the rest of the drama concerns the consequences. This puts a lot of pressure on the character relationships - in this case, Steven with the alien he is trying to help on the surface of Mars, Vicki and the Doctor on Phobos Base with the crew (and an alien ambassador). None of the guest cast have much space to breathe, which is a problem, though the explicit focus on the thoughts of Steven and Vicki distracts from that.
Steven's part of the story - which is the primary plot, although similar wordcount is devoted to each - is definitely the better developed. There's some excellent visual imagery, and for once Steven actually gets to use his piloting skills! I can't remember this happening on TV, and certainly it hasn't happened in any of the audios I've heard so far in this marathon. Mars doesn't add anything particularly new to his characterisation, but it is solidly presented. The only exception is that he swears mildly, saying "damn you" more than once to his companion. This feels slightly off, since Steven comes from the clean-living Dan Dare school of space pilots; but it occurred to me that even if he was modelled on real air force pilots it would have seemed out of place, since they would use much stronger language! It's almost an 'uncanny valley' of swearing. Still, this is a nit, and otherwise this was a good use of Steven.
The scenes on Phobos Base, while not bad, are less successful. The Doctor's mannerisms are exaggerated - I lost count of the number of times he called someone "my boy" or "my child", he "hmm"s, grumps, and is generally something of a caricature. Vicki also comes across as slightly off. She keeps her childlike sense of wonder and hope, but displays less of her logical intelligence than usual, even going so far as to wonder out loud if, perhaps, they could get the TARDIS to work this time. It's made clear afterwards that she knows this is a vain hope, but I still can't see her saying that.
Still, I've nitpicked enough. The problems I've listed weren't sufficiently bad to stop me enjoying reading it, though they were noticeable enough that I got to thinking about what the point was of publishing the story: what does Mars add to this classic plotline, or indeed to Doctor Who?
The answer to the former is probably 'nothing', but the focus on Steven - and in particular his abilities as much as his good character - is something that was lacking from the latter.
And in any case, it was fun, and for me that's generally enough.
Published:
Date: September 2005
ISBN: 1-84435-148-3
Rating:
6/10.
Next Time:
In a change to our advertised programme, The First Doctor Tarot (Season One).
Thursday, 16 July 2015
Short Trips, Steel Skies 8.01: Corridors of Power, by Matthew Griffiths
(Apologies: this failed to post last week, and I somehow didn't notice!)
Okay, I'm sorry to say this is my least favourite short story so far in this marathon, and as a result this will be a short review. I don't like to dwell on negatives.
My main problem was the prose, which I found a real effort to read. The initial setting and mystery were interesting, but I don't think the story managed to follow through. I admit I didn't even understand the ending: I picked up on the tone, but couldn't make sense of the actual events. The Doctor's explanation of the solution to the mystery was straightforward, but didn't seem to lead to the enforced decision the travellers had to take.
It's a shame because Griffiths obviously had a handle on the character of the TARDIS crew, and I think he might have had a good idea for a story; but here the execution let it down, to the point where I can't even tell if that feeling is correct or not.
You know what? I think I'm going to do short reviews for short stories, as a rule. Because I don't usually have so much to say about them anyway. Although, at a meagre 210 words including this paragraph, Corridors of Power will hopefully be the limit case.
Published:
Date: December 2003
ISBN: 1-84435-045-2
Rating:
1/10.
Next Time:
The Schoolboy's Story.
Okay, I'm sorry to say this is my least favourite short story so far in this marathon, and as a result this will be a short review. I don't like to dwell on negatives.
My main problem was the prose, which I found a real effort to read. The initial setting and mystery were interesting, but I don't think the story managed to follow through. I admit I didn't even understand the ending: I picked up on the tone, but couldn't make sense of the actual events. The Doctor's explanation of the solution to the mystery was straightforward, but didn't seem to lead to the enforced decision the travellers had to take.
It's a shame because Griffiths obviously had a handle on the character of the TARDIS crew, and I think he might have had a good idea for a story; but here the execution let it down, to the point where I can't even tell if that feeling is correct or not.
You know what? I think I'm going to do short reviews for short stories, as a rule. Because I don't usually have so much to say about them anyway. Although, at a meagre 210 words including this paragraph, Corridors of Power will hopefully be the limit case.
Published:
Date: December 2003
ISBN: 1-84435-045-2
Rating:
1/10.
Next Time:
The Schoolboy's Story.
Friday, 5 June 2015
DWM Summer Special 1994: Are You Listening?
[Real life - in the form of exams - has got in the way of May and
Isaac's reviewing, so rather than leave this without an update for a
week or two I'm going to carry on with my own reviews. Don't worry, I'm
sure I'll get back to theirs before we hit Galaxy Four!]
It's quite hard to judge this story on its own, because it is very deliberately set up as one half of a mirrored pair. The 1994 DWM Summer Special focused on the beginning and end of the (classic) TV series, and is divided into two parts. Read one way it is about William Hartnell's era, mostly his first serial and first season; read the other it is about Sylvester McCoy's, particularly Survival. Interestingly, the two comics were from elsewhere in their timelines: the seventh Doctor travelling with Benny Summerfield post Love and War, and the first Doctor with Vicki and Steven.
Beyond that, placement of this part is necessarily somewhat arbitrary since there is no dialogue to pinpoint it. However, the artwork gives us one big clue: Steven is drawn tense, alert in every panel and always examining things. This strikes me as how he started his journey, so I am inclined to place it early. Placing it straight after The Time Meddler has the added advantage of separating two historicals with an SF story, always a bonus.
I mentioned the dialogue, and the key here is that there is none. Not one line. This is written entirely from the perspective of Xenith, a city/computer intelligence that doesn't understand what the travellers are saying, and whose attempts to communicate do not meet with success. It reminded me somewhat of Planet Story, a rather excellent issue of Marvel Premiere featuring Starlord, which used the same idea - though in that case the two halves showed the same events from two different perspectives, whereas here the seventh Doctor story is a sequel to the first Doctor's.
This conceit puts a lot of pressure on the art and on Xenith's internal monologue. Fortunately both are up to the task. Writer Warwick Gray has a nice, consistent turn of phrase which tells us just what we need to know. There is one stumble, when Xenith worries that "They've arrived and I'm just sitting here like some stupid abacus!", an odd thought that doesn't quite fit the rest of the text; but this is balanced out by the rather wonderful description of the TARDIS as "a form of alter-sentient intelligence, dressed in delicate energy spirals."
I've been generally quite harsh when talking about the artwork of the comics in this marathon, but Colin Andrew's here is the best so far. A few of his shots of the main characters seem too stiffly posed; but Vicki and the Doctor are always recognisable, and while that's not quite true of Steven he never looks wrong, just generic. That's an impressive feat in itself, but it's not the artwork's most important asset, which lies in the variety and the dynamism of the layout. No pages are completely restricted to rectangular panels - the first comes closest, but the TARDIS breaks out in the panel with the description quoted above - and camera placement and lighting are creatively handled. Long shots, closeups, low and high angles, tilted shots, a panel where the main point of interest sits behind an extreme closeup of Vicki's profile, views from behind and in front of the characters, half-shadowed figures... it's an impressive roster, which meant that the time spent reading this flew by.
In fact, the short runtime is the only thing stopping me giving this a 9/10: four pages is just a little too short to get the most out of the concept. Still, when my biggest complaint about something is that I wanted more, you know you're onto something good. And if my marathon ever reaches the Virgin years, you'll find out if the second part of the story lives up to the same high standards...
Published:
Date: July 1994
Rating:
8.5/10.
Next Time:
An Unearthing.
It's quite hard to judge this story on its own, because it is very deliberately set up as one half of a mirrored pair. The 1994 DWM Summer Special focused on the beginning and end of the (classic) TV series, and is divided into two parts. Read one way it is about William Hartnell's era, mostly his first serial and first season; read the other it is about Sylvester McCoy's, particularly Survival. Interestingly, the two comics were from elsewhere in their timelines: the seventh Doctor travelling with Benny Summerfield post Love and War, and the first Doctor with Vicki and Steven.
Beyond that, placement of this part is necessarily somewhat arbitrary since there is no dialogue to pinpoint it. However, the artwork gives us one big clue: Steven is drawn tense, alert in every panel and always examining things. This strikes me as how he started his journey, so I am inclined to place it early. Placing it straight after The Time Meddler has the added advantage of separating two historicals with an SF story, always a bonus.
I mentioned the dialogue, and the key here is that there is none. Not one line. This is written entirely from the perspective of Xenith, a city/computer intelligence that doesn't understand what the travellers are saying, and whose attempts to communicate do not meet with success. It reminded me somewhat of Planet Story, a rather excellent issue of Marvel Premiere featuring Starlord, which used the same idea - though in that case the two halves showed the same events from two different perspectives, whereas here the seventh Doctor story is a sequel to the first Doctor's.
This conceit puts a lot of pressure on the art and on Xenith's internal monologue. Fortunately both are up to the task. Writer Warwick Gray has a nice, consistent turn of phrase which tells us just what we need to know. There is one stumble, when Xenith worries that "They've arrived and I'm just sitting here like some stupid abacus!", an odd thought that doesn't quite fit the rest of the text; but this is balanced out by the rather wonderful description of the TARDIS as "a form of alter-sentient intelligence, dressed in delicate energy spirals."
I've been generally quite harsh when talking about the artwork of the comics in this marathon, but Colin Andrew's here is the best so far. A few of his shots of the main characters seem too stiffly posed; but Vicki and the Doctor are always recognisable, and while that's not quite true of Steven he never looks wrong, just generic. That's an impressive feat in itself, but it's not the artwork's most important asset, which lies in the variety and the dynamism of the layout. No pages are completely restricted to rectangular panels - the first comes closest, but the TARDIS breaks out in the panel with the description quoted above - and camera placement and lighting are creatively handled. Long shots, closeups, low and high angles, tilted shots, a panel where the main point of interest sits behind an extreme closeup of Vicki's profile, views from behind and in front of the characters, half-shadowed figures... it's an impressive roster, which meant that the time spent reading this flew by.
In fact, the short runtime is the only thing stopping me giving this a 9/10: four pages is just a little too short to get the most out of the concept. Still, when my biggest complaint about something is that I wanted more, you know you're onto something good. And if my marathon ever reaches the Virgin years, you'll find out if the second part of the story lives up to the same high standards...
Published:
Date: July 1994
Rating:
8.5/10.
Next Time:
An Unearthing.
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