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.
Showing posts with label Violence Against Women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Violence Against Women. Show all posts
Friday, 1 May 2015
Monday, 27 April 2015
Episode 79 (S2): The Meddling Monk
I've been trying to figure out a way for this blog to keep going in the
face of a number of factors - chiefly that it's not my top writing
priority, and that I am also having increasing difficulty watching
television. I decided to write all the reviews for this serial before I
posted the first, to give me a head start; this turned out to be a good
idea. There was such an enormous gap between writing the first episode
entry and watching this one that we all decided to rewatch The Watcher
first, to remind ourselves of where we'd got to. Because of this I
noticed the reprise was different, in that this time it was accompanied
by dramatic music.
This episode starts out really emphasising the anachronisms, presumably for the benefit of those who missed the previous week. There probably weren't many who needed it - the viewing figures are pretty consistent, down very slightly - but it's a sensible precaution. The modern kitchen stuff (added after the final revision of the script, and looking so old now!) makes a pretty bold statement. ("Nice dinner service", said May. "I'd stay at Hotel Monk.") It's not long before we get the Monk using binoculars, by which time the point is clearly made and the focus shifts away from "where are we?" to "where are we going?" - a nice balance to strike.
And speaking of balance, I'd like to praise Peter Butterworth for his facial expressions in particular - they are priceless. He gets just the right amount of comedy into the performance.
Peter Purves also does a fine job of showing off some more of Steven's character: the space pilot has relaxed a bit and seems more cheerful after a night's sleep away from Mechanus, but tenses up straight away when they hear an unexplained noise. It's a small note, but adds a lot. Later, Steven being suspicious of the monk's excuses in the same way he was suspicious when the Doctor and Vicki were telling him about the TARDIS reinforces this, even though he's right this time. Then he believes he's tricked the monk with a fairly transparent ruse, which shows us some of his naïvety while giving Maureen O'Brien a moment to show off Vicki's cleverness.
The writing is very finely judged. The two time travellers struggling with the manners of the time is another fine touch, as is the comedy moment when the pair enter the monastery and head in opposite directions, which helps to reduce the tension after a more horrific scene. I also love the way that the end looks like being a repeat of the previous episode's cliffhanger, this time with us seeing the monk setting his trap; but then he gets called away, and we are given a different cliffhanger instead.
(I may be wrong since I've now seen it so often, but I don't remember noticing William Hartnell's absence on first viewing until this moment. It's very cleverly done.)
The rest of the production is of a high standard as well. There's some great camera direction and effective use of stock footage, and the craggy vikings look good. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the fight scene is pretty much the only thing that lets the episode down. The era always had trouble with fight scenes, but unfortunately this is a particularly poor example.
Violence Against Women, part 2: The Rape of Edith
There is, of course, an elephant in the room with any discussion of this episode, and that is Edith's implied rape. Well, I say implied, but this is about as close to portraying the actual event as you are going to get in a pre-watershed program. We've had the threat of rape before - usually involving Barbara, and most obviously with Vasor in The Snows of Terror, when this series of sidebars started - but this is the first time the threat has been carried through.
I recently read an interview with a crime writer in an issue of the Radio Times in which he bemoans the way every new TV crime series has to start with an episode in which a woman is kidnapped and raped or otherwise tortured. I can see what he means: it does seem to have become the first port of call when a show wants to establish its credentials as edgy or hard-hitting, and unless handled very carefully it can become a form of mysogynistic 'torture porn'. And then there's the trope of 'fridging', where a character (almost always a woman) is mistreated just to give a more major character (almost always a man) some motivation, a drive for revenge or similar, with the emphasis on the latter's viewpoint rather than the former's.
At first glance, this certainly looks as if Edith has been fridged. We see her husband Wulnoth's pain and anger, and indeed he and the other men of the village go off and hunt down the vikings and kill them in revenge. A classic case. And yet, by any reckoning, Edith is a more prominent character than her husband - so it almost falls into this trap, but not quite. The event is also handled seriously, not treated lightly: we see the effect on Edith in multiple scenes. And before the attack she is shown to be a strong, resourceful character, hearing something wrong and reaching for her spear. The fact that she is overpowered by three warriors doesn't make her an ineffective damsel!
So, my response is generally positive thus far - but I'll have a little more to say next time...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 10th July 1965
Viewers: 8.8 million
Chart Position: 19
Appreciation Index: 49
Rating:
9.5/10.
Next Time:
A Battle of Wits.
This episode starts out really emphasising the anachronisms, presumably for the benefit of those who missed the previous week. There probably weren't many who needed it - the viewing figures are pretty consistent, down very slightly - but it's a sensible precaution. The modern kitchen stuff (added after the final revision of the script, and looking so old now!) makes a pretty bold statement. ("Nice dinner service", said May. "I'd stay at Hotel Monk.") It's not long before we get the Monk using binoculars, by which time the point is clearly made and the focus shifts away from "where are we?" to "where are we going?" - a nice balance to strike.
And speaking of balance, I'd like to praise Peter Butterworth for his facial expressions in particular - they are priceless. He gets just the right amount of comedy into the performance.
Peter Purves also does a fine job of showing off some more of Steven's character: the space pilot has relaxed a bit and seems more cheerful after a night's sleep away from Mechanus, but tenses up straight away when they hear an unexplained noise. It's a small note, but adds a lot. Later, Steven being suspicious of the monk's excuses in the same way he was suspicious when the Doctor and Vicki were telling him about the TARDIS reinforces this, even though he's right this time. Then he believes he's tricked the monk with a fairly transparent ruse, which shows us some of his naïvety while giving Maureen O'Brien a moment to show off Vicki's cleverness.
The writing is very finely judged. The two time travellers struggling with the manners of the time is another fine touch, as is the comedy moment when the pair enter the monastery and head in opposite directions, which helps to reduce the tension after a more horrific scene. I also love the way that the end looks like being a repeat of the previous episode's cliffhanger, this time with us seeing the monk setting his trap; but then he gets called away, and we are given a different cliffhanger instead.
(I may be wrong since I've now seen it so often, but I don't remember noticing William Hartnell's absence on first viewing until this moment. It's very cleverly done.)
The rest of the production is of a high standard as well. There's some great camera direction and effective use of stock footage, and the craggy vikings look good. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the fight scene is pretty much the only thing that lets the episode down. The era always had trouble with fight scenes, but unfortunately this is a particularly poor example.
Violence Against Women, part 2: The Rape of Edith
There is, of course, an elephant in the room with any discussion of this episode, and that is Edith's implied rape. Well, I say implied, but this is about as close to portraying the actual event as you are going to get in a pre-watershed program. We've had the threat of rape before - usually involving Barbara, and most obviously with Vasor in The Snows of Terror, when this series of sidebars started - but this is the first time the threat has been carried through.
I recently read an interview with a crime writer in an issue of the Radio Times in which he bemoans the way every new TV crime series has to start with an episode in which a woman is kidnapped and raped or otherwise tortured. I can see what he means: it does seem to have become the first port of call when a show wants to establish its credentials as edgy or hard-hitting, and unless handled very carefully it can become a form of mysogynistic 'torture porn'. And then there's the trope of 'fridging', where a character (almost always a woman) is mistreated just to give a more major character (almost always a man) some motivation, a drive for revenge or similar, with the emphasis on the latter's viewpoint rather than the former's.
At first glance, this certainly looks as if Edith has been fridged. We see her husband Wulnoth's pain and anger, and indeed he and the other men of the village go off and hunt down the vikings and kill them in revenge. A classic case. And yet, by any reckoning, Edith is a more prominent character than her husband - so it almost falls into this trap, but not quite. The event is also handled seriously, not treated lightly: we see the effect on Edith in multiple scenes. And before the attack she is shown to be a strong, resourceful character, hearing something wrong and reaching for her spear. The fact that she is overpowered by three warriors doesn't make her an ineffective damsel!
So, my response is generally positive thus far - but I'll have a little more to say next time...
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 10th July 1965
Viewers: 8.8 million
Chart Position: 19
Appreciation Index: 49
Rating:
9.5/10.
Next Time:
A Battle of Wits.
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