The final part of this epic sees
the all the loose plot strands neatly tied up. The story has to tie things up
but also keep things going for 25 minutes. The Doctor has to play chess to win
the TARDIS. It seems really odd to see the Doctor willing to sit down and do
this. It’s probably only now that the show could we get the Doctor being so
calm and not so crotchety. William Hartnell really does seem to have settled
down in the role. It’s not something that I’ve really noticed before but over
the last 20 episodes, William Hartnell has gone from being the harsh and rude
person in An Unearthly Child to being the calm (ish) figure we got over the
course of these seven episodes.
As good as Mark Eden has been
over the last seven episodes. It’s been a tad bit frustrating with him not
really deciding whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy. One moment he’s refusing
to let the Doctor and anyone else inside
the TARDIS and then helping them escape at the very end. It’s a very conflicted
performance but at times I have quite liked Marco Polo. Martin Miller was very
good in this episode just as he had been in the little that he was on screen in
the previous episode. As the mighty Kublai Khan he was a character that at
first seems like a very superior person and very serious but when we meet him
he’s quite a humorous character. Derren Nesbitt goes out on a high as Tegana.
You could say in this episode he got the point of his character (bad joke).
However as I have mentioned in the previous episodes, I really liked the
character and thought that he was a good villain. He’s been the most consistant
character in the entire story. Zienia Merton is also worthy of a mention as she
has done well with what hasn’t been the greatest role in the story. This was a
good episode for her but it would have been nice to see the goodbye moment
between Susan and Ping-Cho.
One thing that I have been
impressed with over the course of the last seven episodes is the directing.
Judging by the telesnaps this was another superbly directed episode and Waris
Hussein has kept up his great track record. Some of the shots in this episode
are very impressive and its hard to believe that this was achieved on a BBC
budget. After seven weeks of what has at times been a pedestrian story, I’m
glad that it has ended in a rather good manner. It was a solid ending to what
was a really strong episode. It’s also going to be good to see something on DVD
now after spending the last week having to listen to this story and look at the
telesnaps which has helped but it can never replace the ability to enjoy a
story by looking at it.
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