Nightmare of Eden - Episode 4

The episode starts off with the nice tense reprise and nice effects shot which both look just as good the second time around. It’s just struck me where I had seen the actor playing Dymond before and he plays a Jeremy Paxman type interviewer in ‘House of Cards’. It’s not the most important thing to put in one of these reviews but I am the sort of person who gets bugged when I see someone on TV that I recognise. For instance I was watching tonight’s Doctor Who (Flatline) and the train driver is recognisable and at the time of writing I still don’t know. Anyway I like how once the ships are separated that he wants to get out of the area as quickly as possible and its because of Fisk that he stays. I haven’t really thought of Della as a particularly important character but thankfully she seems to be a stronger character. Della isn’t a very thankful task and Jennifer Lonsdale does well with the role.

I like the Doctor’s attitude towards those who are involved in drug smuggling and it’s nice to the see the Doctor take such a strong view on such a retched topic. The Doctor’s humour is toned down in this episode and its been a blessed relief. There are a few moments where there is humour and the most notable point comes when he’s behind a group of bushes fighting off the mandrels. Apart from that the humour is in proportion to the story.

The special effects look quite good in this episode and I think that overall the effects have been largely good. Ok there are a few moments where it looks a bit ropey but these moments don’t happen very often. I think that this is the era where the lighting becomes a problem and I think that they could have done a better job in lowering the light. Another thing that didn’t quite work in this episode were the effect used from the guns which looked rather poor even comparing them to previous stories at the time. I just haven’t warmed to the Mandrels. They don’t look particularly frightening and I think that had the lighting been lower then they would have been scarier. K9 only serves one purpose in this episode and that’s to provide some power and that pretty much serves my point about how useless K9 is. Considering that K9 was co-created by Bob Baker then its surprising that he didn’t make better use of his creation.

The way that Tryst and Dymond were captured was something that I don’t fully understand but it looks great on TV. This was by far the best episode of the serial and it was due to the fact that it has a lot of pace and enthusiasm in the performances. It was directed well (probably due to Graham Williams) and it also delivered the ending that it deserved. Over the four episodes it hasn’t been as bad as I feared. Without the Mandrels and K9 then this story would be more well regarded than it currently is. I dare say that maybe it could be in peoples top 10. Sadly I cant say that at the end of the next story I will be as positive. The Horns of Nimon is a story that I have held in lower regard than this story.

Nightmare of Eden - Episode 3

The episode starts with the Doctor and Romana entering Eden but its not an eden that they would have expected. The first coulpe of minutes were largely of the Doctor and Romana and it was a good couple of minutes. The eden sets are quite good but they do make me remember the sets used for ‘Planet of Evil’ but obviously money means that we wouldn’t get that sort of quality. I hadn’t got the name of the soft looking creatures until now when I realised they were called Mandrels. It doesn’t change my opinion of them but at least they have a name. There is one scene where one is attacking the Doctor and I am sure that I could see the zip on its back. Also it has some interesting feet.

The Doctor and Romana meet Stott (played by Barry Andrews) who has been inside the CET for 83 days. I do think that more could have been done in this part because even though the set isn’t as good as ‘Planet of Evil’ but its still a good set and well lit.

At the end of the previous episode Geoffrey Hinsliff returns after he last appeared in ‘Image of the Fendahl’. In this episode he seems to be the thug of the story but I cant take him seriously in that outfit that he is wearing. I don’t think we see that sort of hat is has on until Ken Dodd makes an appearance during Sylvester McCoy’s era.  The effect of the Mandrell disintegrating was quite well done. Another good effect was used at the cliffhanger when the Doctor is running towards the screen. It shows that despite the budget being a bit tight at this period in the show, certain things looked rather good.

Rigg’s performance is very good because he starts to go cold turkey and at one point wants Romana to give him some more drugs and even gets violent towards her. For all the problems that I have with the humour, sometimes Doctor Who does some top notch dramatic moments. This episode is not terrible by an means but when I can’t really think of anything significant that happens then I know that its not been a great episode. What I can say in a positive tone is that the humour has made way for some good scenes. I think that with one more episode to go I think that this story is better than I perhaps was expecting.

Nightmare of Eden - Episode 2

The Doctor is threated on all sides, but by whom is what the information text tells us the Radio Times said for this weeks episode but presumably it wouldn’t be by the woolly mammoth monster that appeared at the end of the previous episode. I will be honest and admit that for the first several minutes of this episode I didn’t really know what was going on. Apart from splitting the two ships up there isn’t a great deal going on. It does eventually find its feet and then the story continues and by this point I was quite bowled over with certain aspects of the story.

I was knocking the models in the previous episode but I think that the special effects are quite good in this episode and whilst they might look dated compared to todays Doctor Who but I still think that they look pretty good. The effect of the Doctor chasing the person who knocked him out in the previous episode looks good even by today’s standards.

Tryst is quite a pantomime character and if you don’t see that he is the villain then you are just not trying. Normally I am quite slow in picking up on this fact and I haven’t seen this story for many years but even if I hadn’t seen this story before I would have easily guessed that Tryst was up to no good. Sadly the monsters are still disappointing to look at I think the more interesting part of the story comes when the monster isn’t on screen. That is the only aspect really of the episode that doesn’t work for me. The story shifts tone in this episode when it goes into the CET and that forms the cliffhanger which I have to say is quite a good one because its like the Doctor and Romana are going into the unknown. 

I thought that the sets were also quite good in this episode because two simple things were done to make the area that this story is taking place on seem grander. The first is the Doctor running down several flights of stairs even though its just the one set. The second instance is when the Doctor is chasing after someone and running through room after room of passengers even though it’s the same room and probably the same passengers.

Daker’s character has been drugged at the beginning of the episode but spends the rest of the episode suffering the side effects and this is the first instance in Doctor Who where someone is treated in this way. Daker does give a good performance. The performances in general were quite good and I have to admit that Alan Bromly has done a good job in these two episodes of directing it well. It’s not the most ground breaking story ever but I think considering how badly he handled certain aspects of his previous story that he has managed (so far) not to mess things up although according to the information text he didn’t exactly get on with the cast and crew in the way that a director should.

I think that providing the monsters don’t have as much of an involvement as they have had in previous episodes then the final two episodes should be quite good and I think that this story wont be as bad as I have thought of it in recent years. I think at the moment that this story is better than ‘The Creature from the Pit’ for reasons that might seem odd to many as they both feature monsters that don’t work in the way that they were suppose to but I just think that there are more strong characters compared to the creature story and that is why I still have high hopes.

Nightmare of Eden - Episode 1

Thankfully its not just good things that have to come to an end, its also not so good things or in the case of this story things that are just boring. Thankfully this isn’t the last story that Fisher would right as it would have been terrible if this were his last offering. It’s unfair to blame some of the writing at Fisher’s door because Douglas Adams should have reigned back some of the humour and put more of an effort into telling a good story.

Erato gets to speak for the first time when he is speaking using the Doctor’s voice. In just a few moments we learn a lot about the creature. He was about to offer a trade agreement and he met Astrada who threw it straight into the pit. This suddenly makes the story worth all the silliness that we have had to be put through. This explanation makes Astrada seem a much better villain than she was perceived to be in the previous three episodes. If only this had been mentioned earlier then I might have reacted much more fondly. The death of Astrada would normally indicate that the story has ended but quite cleverly this isn’t the case in this story because there is still some more action and its that the planet is about to be blown up because Erato’s people took its silence as an act of war and retaliated. I like how Erato isn’t too keen to help the people that imprisoned her/it for 15 years. Though despite its imprisonment it does the right thing and by the end of the story that trade agreement is still on.

The humour is still misplaced in this episode with a moment where the Doctor is saying goodbye to Organon before he is killed. There is also a repetitive yes answer between the Doctor and Romana which does get a bit tiresome. This is about as much as I am prepared to go on about the humour for this story.

I think that this episode saved this story for me. There wasn’t much time really for any of the humour that has bogged down the previous episodes. Tom Baker was far more his old self rather than the new even lighter humoured Doctor that we have had during this season. I still think his line to Organon was a bit out of character and perhaps was the most obvious clue so far that Tom Baker’s influence in the show was starting to have a detrimental effect on the show. I am now half way through the two stories that I thought were going to cause me problems and it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be but I am still dreading the next story.

 

The Time Warrior - Episode 4

The final part of Elisabeth Sladen’s debut story seems to be over far too quickly. I know that I sound like I’m in favour of six part stories which im not, but I think that they could have extended this by an episode or two to give Sladen a bit more time to settle in and there are things in the story that could have been expanded on. We learn that the Sontarans do have a weakness and it’s a probic vent at the back of the neck. This is exploited by quite quickly by Rubeish. Another problem is that their muscles are restricted on earth.

I like the idea of the Doctor pretending to be the robot that has some silly restricted movement. Jon Pertwee gets around in this episode and the Doctor’s best moment is when swings on a chandelier. Obviously its not him but Terry Walsh but it’s an exciting moment in the episode.

There is a slight plot hole. If Linx was awake when Irongron freed him, wouldn’t Linx have heard Rubeish heard him talking and know that his other slaves have been taken out of hypnosis

Its funny how Sarah Jane is trying to introduce feminism some 500 years early. Sarah Jane is very active in this episode as she is the one that poisons Irongrons men. Over the course of the four episodes she has shown that she is very different to Katy Manning’s Jo Grant. This is the most feminist that Sarah would be really and its weird to think what she will become over the course of her time on the show. The supporting cast have been very good with Kevin Lindsay was and is the best actor to play a Sontaran and played the role with a nice amount of menace. David Daker was bordering pantomime from start to finish but never annoying. Jeremy “Bobba Fett” Bulloch was a solid piece of casting however Bulloch suffers from the problem he had when he was cast in ‘The Space Museum’ and that is he’s too nice.

In the first episode, I decided to watch the episode with the new CGI effects but I have decided against it for this episode because it shows up some of director Alan Bromly’s decisions because when the castle blows up instead of a model which would have olooked good, we instead got what appears to be a massive explosion in a quarry. This was rather a poor decision and ruined the effect of what they were trying to achieve. This minor issue doesn’t totally ruin the enjoyment that I have felt about this story over the four episodes. It’s been a solid start to Pertwee’s final season but it didn’t have quite the impact that other opening stories. However one thing is clear and that is the show is going to be very different to how it had been before and Pertwee’s final season is going to be a rollercoaster.

The Time Warrior - Episode 3

We have a fairly long reprise of the last cliffhanger but this time there are a few new shots thrown in. I don’t think that it added anything because if it were that relevant then it would have been included in the cliffhanger. That minor issue aside the story progresses at a decent pace which sees Linx’s plan take shape. Sarah Jane still thinks that the Doctor is working for Irongron though it doesn’t take long for her to change her opinion (sort of).  I like how there’s a bit of fiery dialogue between Sarah and the Doctor. There is a sense that the Doctor is trying to wind up Sarah which works. Jon Pertwee has had a couple of episodes to get over losing Katy Manning and seems to have adapted quite well. Elisabeth Sladen’s also settled into the role because she has got past the fact she’s not in 1974 and just dealing with things as they are. Once the Doctor and Sarah Jane seem to be on the same page it feels like Sarah is becoming more likeable and it happening whilst she’s still standing up for beliefs.

The battle scene where Irongron’s men try to storm the castle but are held back by ‘stink bombs’ is quite good and it’s the first time for some time that there has been a scene of this calibre in Doctor Who. It was fun to watch and it was good that the Doctor seemed to be treating it with a sort of enjoyment though was quick scene where the Doctor tells Edward of Wessex that it was more of delaying tactic as opposed to a definitive way of ending the problem. The ‘friendship’ between Irongron and Linx hasn’t exactly been the strongest in this story and it seems to go downhill even more after the aborted invasion. The reaction of Irongron is funny because he has ago at his men for fleeing whilst doing the same himself.

The Doctor and Linx have a great scene towards the end of the episode and always the Doctor gives Linx a chance to leave without causing more harm to the cause of earth’s history. This leads to a rather ordinary cliffhanger which is just of the Doctor being targeted by Linx’s ray. Its not terrible by any stretch of the imagination but considering how much of this story is working for me, its just a bit disappointing when the cliffhanger doesn’t have the desired effect. I think that the show is getting there as far as the transition from one companion to another but for me there is a strange feeling as far as this show is concerned and that strange feeling is that it’s like the wind has been taken out of its sail after Katy Manning’s departure but I am sure that it will return soon.

The Time Warrior - Episode 2

The previous episode ended with Linx taking off his helmet I still think that it’s the slipping in and out of the tongue that makes it look creepy. We learn about Linx and he is trying to get back to the war with the Rutans and this war has been going on for so long that people cant remember what started it. Considering we have just one Sontaran, its amazing just how easy he has found controlling everyone. He either uses promises of weapons or just hypnosis but considering he’s not the most mobile of creatures, he manages to get a lot done in such a short amount of time.

I think the scene where Sarah is trying to rationalise about Irongron’s castle is a comedy scene, partly because Irongron is the calm one and thinks that Sarah is crazy. It’s five minutes into her second episode before Sarah Jane succumbs to hypnosis. That’s one episode long than Katy Manning was able to achieve. Sarah Jane thinks that the Doctor is working with Irongron which is a differnet way of getting the viewers to warm to a character. On the subject of Irongron, in the previous episode I commented on how I preferred Irongron’s group instead of Wessex’s but in this episode I think the balance has shifted somewhat. I am still more Team Irongron but I think that Wessex is more interesting in this episode and also Dot Cotton is better written for here.

Despite how good some of the performances are, there are things that don’t work so well in this episode. The Robot Knight is rather poor if I am being harsh as all it does it swing its sword around in a rather half hearted manner. They could have done much better with this and just goes to make Linx look rather silly. Another thing that looks silly is the fight scene with the Doctor and some of Irongron’s guard because its clear that its not Pertwee doing that. It’s a trick they used in ‘The Green Death’ but just having the camera at a distance only serves to remind us that there is a stunt double doing all the work for Jon Pertwee.

On a stat note, this is the 100^th episode for Barry Letts are producer. He is very much now the longest serving producer in the show’s history. Letts’ tenure as producer has largely been a success and its only CSO that lets him down but this episode is very much like his entire run so far and that it has a good story, with solid performances. It’s a Robert Holmes story so its not going to be a dull story and I am looking forward to the final two episodes. This season is getting off to a promising start but not a strong one.

The Time Warrior - Episode 1

The first episode of the 11^th season sees a change in the line up and it’s the first since February 18^th. It’s weird to have got past the Jo Grant era of the show but things change. Elisabeth Sladen makes her debut in this episode and this is also the episode where the Sontarans make their first appearance in the show. The DVD of this story comes with a CGI Effects version which replaces the iffy ones that director Alan Bromly thought were good enough back in 1973. We also get a new title sequence for the first time since Jon Pertwee’s first episode.

We are introduced very early on to Irongron who is a bit down on his luck until they spot a shooting star. He joins forces with Linx where he will get weapons to take on Edward of Wessex (played by Alan Rowe) and Linx gets to repair his ship. The scene where the Sontaran makes his first appearance outside of the sphere is a great moment. When Linx speaks, he comes across as a very good villain, he’s soft talking yet talks with authority. It’s slightly undermined by the flag that he plonks into the ground. It’s quite good that Linx doesn’t take his helmet off until the very end. There is a nice sense of mystery about how he looks.

I will be honest that I find Irongron’s group to be far more interesting than Wessex’s. Even though Edward has Dot Cotton as his wife, I still find Irongron’s group to be more enthusiastic and entertaining and actually I want them to win in their upcoming battle which isn’t presumably what Robert Holmes was intending. Speaking of Robert Holmes, I think that he has written a large collection of interesting characters and the story is interesting considering it’s a historical story. The direction is something that will prove to be an issue later on but in this episode it’s perfectly fine, the action moves along at a good pace and things work out well enough.

The CGI effects are impressive and are well done. From the star falling in the early stages of the episode to the Doctor using his ghost hunter device to show a Sontaran ghost help make the story work much better than the original version did. The CGI stuff doesn’t detract from the story and I just felt that it complimented the scenes very well.

It’s six and a half minutes before Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney appear. This is Courtney’s 80^th episode in the show. The Doctor is at a research place and this is where we first meet Elisabeth Sladen who is pretending to be her aunt but is in fact a journalist. She is completely different to Jo Grant as her reaction when the Doctor says she could make some tea is met with anger. It’s quite something that she gets a historical adventure in her first episode. I quite like the character of Professor Rubeish (played by Donald Pelmear). He has some comedic value and works well in this episode.

The cliffhanger is really just us getting use to the look of Linx. It’s quite an effective mask and its made even creepier by Kevin Lindsay sticking his tounge out and back in again. As cliffhangers go its not the most exciting that there has ever been but if I were watching this on December 15 1973, then there would be enough to make me want to watch episode two. As I don’t really have much of a choice really I still think that there is some good stuff that is yet to come. It feels like a new era in the show has started and Jon Pertwee’s final season is going to be very different to the previous one.