(695) Survival - Part 3

Today is the final episode of the McCoy era and effectively the final episode of the classic era. I know technically the TV movie is the end of the classic era but this is the end of the original run. The show has changed a lot over the previous 694 episodes but it’s fair to say that its star has dimmed during the last decade despite showing signs of improvement in stories such as this one. There is something final about this episode. Ace being possessed by the cat people is something that wouldn’t have happened in previous stories.

Ace’s development is wonderfully done but its down to Sophie Aldred who continues to impress me and in her final episode she shows how underrated she has been. “This is the only home I know” is a wonderful line from Ace. It’s fair to say that Ace has been through the ringer in this season and it has been one of the successes of the season.

I like how the Master is trying to fight the possession attempt although its clearly only a matter of time. He is playing Midge to do his dirty work and this comes to ahead during a scene where Midge and the Doctor are playing chicken on bikes. Once Midge had failed he was killed pretty much by the Master. The Master seems to start off as the new more likeable Master but there is a moment where he chuckles to himself and it seemed like he was going to return back to his bad old self. When he kills Karra it seems like he is back and continues like this leading up to the big scene with the Doctor. This scene is one of my favourite in the McCoy era. It’s one that I think these two characters should have had years ago. The sword fight between Pertwee’s Doctor and Delgado’s Master in The Sea Devils lacks something compared to this one.

“If we fight like animals, we die like animals” is a wonderful line that Sylvester McCoy delivers brilliantly. It’s frustrating that the show ends just when McCoy is really starting to get into his stride. I have really changed my opinion of the McCoy era and episodes like this shows why.

Midge is rather amusing in this episode and I don’t find him very menacing at all. Things get even worse when he dons a suit and starts to act all macho in front of other guys at the training gym. The use of Midge is one of the things that doesn’t quite work but at least his involvement doesn’t disrupt the flow of the episode.

The final speech from Sylvester McCoy wasn’t how the show was due to end but when it became clear that it may not return this was added on and if the show hadn’t returned in 1996 or 2005 then this would have been a lovely way to end 26 years of superb storytelling.

I like on the production notes on the DVD that it ends with Doctor Who 1963-89, To Be Continued? There is just one more Doctor Who DVD with production titles on it so its going to be something else to get use to when the Christopher Eccleston era comes along in two days. This is a major moment in my marathon and I am really sad that I have left this era of the show. The show has had some really great stories but then again its had some really poor stories. Despite the fact that the budget wasn’t as big as it could have been and the narrow minded bosses at the BBC weren’t keen to spend some money on the show and wanted Doctor Who to achieve Star Wars type things on a miniscule budget, the show has shown that with the right kind of writing, directing and performances that Doctor Who can hold its own. Now comes the era of the show where its clear a bit more money has been spent on it and it’s the era of the big TARDIS. Roll on the one day McGann era.

To end sign off on this portion of the marathon I thought I would end with one of the greatest speeches in Doctor Who.

“There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace. We've got work to do.”

(694) Survival - Part 2

The Anthony Ainley version of the Master has always suffered a problem. Roger Delgado is always going to be the best Master and I think that the problem that Ainley has had has been the fact he was treated almost in a lighter vein than Delgado. He was never allowed to be as serious but in this story that completely changes. It is almost a completely different delivery of the character from Ainley. One such extreme example is that he has become like the Cheetah people with cat teeth and howling at the moon.

There is a fair bit of humour in this episode. There is the bit where the Doctor has been snared by Ace’s trap and is hanging upside down and then there is the dig that Ace delivers at the Doctor where she asks him if he knows any nice people. The humour in this episode is pitched just right because without it, this episode would be very different and perhaps not as strong.

The Doctor and the Master get a good face to face scene which serves to set up the plot for the rest of the story and that is the planet is breaking up and the Master needs the Doctor’s help. The scenes between the Doctor and the Master in recent serials have been mixed but never have they had the awesomeness that this one had. I would have to go back to Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado to find that sort of great face to face.

Ace has a nice/weird bonding moment with Karra (played by Lisa Bowerman). This leads to more great scenes from Sophie Aldred. The episode ends with her looking towards the Doctor and her eyes have changed. Sophie Aldred has continued to impress me with her performance not just in this story but since she joined in Dragonfire and its another reason why the decision to rest/axe is frustrating because I think that with a few more stories, Ace could have the same sort of fan reaction as Sarah Jane.

Despite the regulars impressing and Anthony Ainley holding his own, the supporting characters haven’t really made much of an impact in my opinion. The only one of the supporting characters that came even close is Midge. Midge is a character that is quite good in this episode because he becomes possessed by the cat people and the Master uses him to teleport back to Earth. I know what the character of Midge is going to do in the next episode so I find myself more impressed what the Midge in this episode as a result.

This has been another solid episode with an impressive cliffhanger. The penultimate episode of the McCoy era is another example of how good the show has been in the last year and a half. It also shows how for the first time in the 1980’s the show that it’s felt like a drama and not an enjoyable twenty-five minute bit of fantasy.

(693) Survival - Part 1

The moment has finally arrived. Survival marks the final story for Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred and the final story to be made in the UK by the BBC for 16 years. Today’s episode marks the 807^th day that Sylvester McCoy has been the Doctor and that’s five days longer than Peter Davison was Doctor. It’s rather good that the final story of the original era is on Earth in London which is the same as An Unearthly Child. I know that wasn’t intentional but if the show hadn’t returned in 2005 then there aren’t many stories better to end the era on.

One of the few things that doesn’t work in this episode is the cat that hisses. Unfortunately it just doesn’t look convincing and it would have been better to have not seen it at all. Maybe they could have got away with it just being on screen but the hissing totally ruins it. The crane shot used in this opening scene with the guy washing the car was impressive. There are some impressive scenes that have been directed well by Alan Wareing.

I cant make my mind up about Paterson. His first scene shows his a tough but firm individual. He starts off as stern but after being knocked out by the Doctor with just one finger, he loses that edge and becomes a rather more entertaining person. Hale and Pace is another example of stunt casting that people use to attack the JNT era of the show. I remember growing up watching them on a Sunday night but I think that their casting didn’t really suit the characters and just doesn’t let the episode flow. I know it’s a brief scene but apart from seeing the Doctor buy some cat food, it doesn’t really add anything to the episode. The Doctor spends most of the episode trying to hunt for the right cat. It’s almost like Perivale is so boring it has made the Doctor snap.

This story also marks the final appearance of the Master as played by Anthony Ainley. It’s the first time that the Master has been seen since 1986’s Trial of a Timelord. We don’t see him fully until the end where he is the cliffhanger. I don’t know whether people were suppose to know that its him with the extreme close up but a good attempt is made to at least hide this until it was suppose to be revealed.

The costume/mask for the Cheetah People doesn’t look too bad in this episode because we don’t see it too close or for too long a period of time. There will be more about that in future episodes but from an first glance look, its not the worst costume that has been in the show in recent years.

The planet that Ace finds herself on in the latter stages of the episode really does look like another world even though all they have done is paint the sky pink. It was clearly filmed during a warm period (a rarity in Britain) and this help in creating this new world.

This has been a very good episode with very few faults. I thought that the performances of the central characters has been one of the best things for the first time in quite sometime. I notice that I haven’t commented on the performances of the regulars recently as much as I did in the early days but they have both worked really well and I look forward to the final two episodes of this story. Wow, that’s a depressing thought that I only have two episodes of the McCoy era is over.

(688) Ghostlight - Part 3

This episode is the final episode of Doctor Who to be made in the classic era. I have got use to the three episode format because there are plenty of positives to take from them such as they are shorter and don’t have to accommodate as much padding. The problem that there has been with the narrative of this serial is that it seems that the plot has been crammed into this single episode. Only now do things start to happen but I am still at a loss to describe what the actual theme of the story was. I get that the Doctor was trying to do his Dr Phil thing on Ace and there was a thing about Josiah Smith but apart from that it’s still a bit of a mystery.  

Light appears at the very beginning of the episode and I am somewhat disappointed with him because he offers very little to the story despite this sort of god-like vibe. I get that he is the most superior being in this story but that’s only because he’s the one with some colour in his costume. I don’t see the point of Control. Control wants to become ‘lady-like’ for reasons that are total confusing and I found this aspect of the script to be totally dull.

There’s a great bit where Ace is tormented by her regret with what would happen in 100 years. It is perhaps my favourite part of the episode. Sophie Aldred really has been superb in this story because it’s explored more of her character and her mental state. I thought that this was a strong episode for Sylvester McCoy as well because he showed us why his Doctor is often underrated by using words to defeat situations as opposed to convoluted devices.

I knew it had to come sooner or later. Mrs Pritchard shows some emotion for the first time in this serial. She smiles for the first time when she shares a scene with Gwendoline when its revealed that they are actually mother and daughter. They end up being turned into stone which seemed like a nice end for the pair. It’s typical that we wait until the end before something good happens with Gwendoline. She actually shows some menace and I thought that she was plausible as a baddie (just).

Smith plans to assassinate Queen Victoria which is the first interesting thing about Smith for quite sometime. I don’t know why its taken so long for this to surface but at least it showed a reason why there was something dodgy about Smith. It has been a good performance from Ian Hogg because the character of Smith could have been sent up in a rather pantomime fashion but Hogg does a good job in towing the line.

This story hasn’t been as much of a grind as I thought it was going to be although I suspect watching it in one go isn’t the best way to watch this adventure. Halfway through this season and I think that the show was well on its way to getting its mojo back. It’s just a shame the plug was pulled two stories later. I have just over a week left of the classic era and as the episodes are progressing I am getting more annoyed that the decision was taken to rest the programme but then on the other hand excited about what is coming my way.

(687) Ghost Light - Part 2

I had forgotten to mention that this is a 100% studio based story with only a few shots of the house shown sporadically throughout the three episodes. It takes nearly five minutes for Ace to be rescued although it’s not clear whether she saved herself or the Doctor was the one that saved the day. In fact for the first 10 minutes or so I really didn’t understand what was going on. It all looked very nice but I couldn’t write down what happens in this episode.

Mrs Pritchard continues to be a laugh a minute character as she pretty much puts the boot into Gwendoline calling her a music hall trollop which I thought was a bit strong. That said she continues to be an impressive presence in the story. It difficult to know what to make of Smith because he seems like a villain but has troubles. There is a scene with Smith where he looks less than well and Matthews slowly becomes a chimp and whilst this happens he has a rather sinister chuckle.

Inspector Mackenzie is a character that appears to be a comedy character. He was sent to the house in 1881 and mothballed and is then woken up and proceeds to eat food. It seems like he has been created like this because at the moment there is zero humour and I think that the story needs something but not too much and McKenzie gives us that.

As this is Ace’s story its only right that I talk about her ventures in this episode. She starts off of course about to be attacked by the monster but its one scene in particular which always has the same effect on me. It when she is in bed having breakfast and talking to Mrs Grose. The line where she says she might take a walk around Perivale village and every time I hear that line I just wish that they had some money in the budget to do location filming and around 1880’s Perivale.

The biggest development is the introduction of Control. Control was heard (briefly) in the first episode and their involvement in the episode is greater in this episode. Although even by the end of the episode we haven’t seen a physical body. With this being a three part story it would have been wiser I think to include either Control or Light in this episode. I worry that the final episode is going to be a rush job.

Light appears at the end of the episode and its bright light on the Doctor’s face is what forms the cliffhanger. To be honest it’s not a terrible ending but it’s not the sort of smash grab feel ending that I think the story needed but I suppose that it suited the style of the episode. Overall though I think that this story is one of style over substance. There is very little going on but at least the sets look very impressive so there is something to keep me glued to the screen for the remaining episode.

(686) Ghostlight - Part 1

Even though this was the second of four stories in the season, it’s was the final story to be produced in the classic era. The next time a Doctor Who story would produce again would be in the US of A. The thing about this story is that it’s one that I have found very confusing and as a result its not one of those that ranks in my top ten. I do have hope hopes that over the next three days things will be made clearer. The opening scene is very eerie and things are made even eerier when the servants are pretty much tripping over themselves to leave.

This story is arguably a cruel lesson from the Doctor. Ace has a secret that we learn the house that this story is set is the one that she burnt to the ground a hundred years in the future. This is some nice development of the character of Ace and it shows that it was possible to develop characters in the classic era. It’s a good episode (and indeed story) for Sophie Aldred as she takes this rare opportunity given to her and runs with it. She even manages to make the character of Gwendoline seem a bit more animated because she does come across at the beginning as just a bit of nothing.

There is a funny routine in the first half of the episode where Ace’s clothing causes controversy. The fact that her shoulders are on display is something that shocks people. It’s hard to remember that this story takes place in 1883 when such things aren’t as informal as they are today. God knows what they would make of Clara of Amy Pond. The supporting characters are all in different ways. Ian Hogg plays Josiah Samuel Smith. The character is wonderful because he is very passive aggressive from start to finish. Mrs Pritchard (Sylvia Syms) is very creepy and doesn’t crack a smile at all. She does the dirty work for Smith and I struggle to decide who is the more evil. Michael Cochrane returns to Doctor Who after appearing in Black Orchid (1982) but this is arguably his strongest role. Here he plays Redvers Fenn-Cooper who is a little bit mad. Carl Forgione plays Nimrod and from the moment he appears on screen he is someone that the viewer is able to trust because he doesn’t talk down to the Doctor. Forgoine is impressive because he goes to the trouble of walking like a Neanderthal.

The cliffhanger is perhaps the only disappointing because its Ace being menaced by some weird creatures. There is something good about the fact that she doesn’t scream but apart from that I was left disappointed with the ending. I will be honest and say that despite enjoying what I see, I am still struggling to understand just what is going on. I get that the Doctor is trying to understand Ace a bit more but apart from that it seems like they have arrived in a low rent Upstairs Downstairs.

(681) The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - Part 4

Today’s episode is the final episode of the season but due to scheduling problems it is the first episode of 1989 which is the final year of the original run. Ratings wise, this was watched by 1.7 million more than had watched the previous episodes on December 28. There is more plot development in the first couple of minutes of this episode than there has been in the previous three episodes. The thing that has worked quite well is that director Alan Wearing has done a relatively good job in keeping me distracted from the fact that nothing substantial has been happening.

The family finally show us what they are really about. They are actually the Gods of Ragnarok who are visually very impressive and are made out of rock (obviously). All they want is to be entertained and the Doctor does several tricks to try and amuse them and it’s extraordinary that this is happening in the final episode. One thing I don’t like about this section is the incredible number of rolling r’s that the Doctor uses. I must say that I am slightly disappointed with what happened here. After waiting for a long time for this encounter, it seemed that this was just a bit of padding which again is odd considering that it’s the final episode.

Captain Cook has been the unexpected star of the episode because he is just superb from the very beginning. There was always something fun every time he was on screen. Even when he was being horrible to people there was something to enjoy about him and T.P. McKenna has been a very good piece of casting. That’s not to say that Jessica Martin (Mags) and Ian Reddington (Chief Clown) haven’t been just as good but in this episode I thought that the Captain was the stronger of this trio.

The performances from the regular have been quite good although neither have been particularly outstanding. That is probably harsh bearing in mind that Sylvester McCoy does do his magic trick routine well and if Britains Got Talent were around in 1988 then he wouldn’t get buzzed by Simon Cowell.

The explosion that happens as the Doctor leaves the tent is fantastic and its made even better when you take into consideration that McCoy doesn’t flinch. It kind of makes up for the disappointment of the Ragnarok/Doctor encounter. The ending is quite nice because it sees Kingpin and Mags going off to set up a new circus. All’s well that ends well and I haven’t hated the last four episodes as much as I was expected. I thought that there were good things but there is something in it that I find underwhelming. Despite my reservations it was a good ending to what has been a vastly improved series and I think that the show in back going in the right direction.

(680) The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - Part 3

Today is a very important day in Doctor Who fandom (not that you need reminding of course). 10 years ago today the show that seemed dead and buried returned. I remember going to my friend’s house somewhat nervous about what I was about to see. Little did anyone know that the show would go on the journey that it has done since then. I would watch Rose today to celebrate but I must stay strict and watch it in the correct order.

The episode doesn’t start in a particularly good way as it takes several minutes to get going. It seems slightly odd that in the penultimate episode of the story that things are moving a bit more quickly. The thing that does seem to happen early on in the episode is that the clowns seem to be more in the story than before. There is something quite good about these clowns and something that does back up the theory that clowns are creepy.

The writing hasn’t been particularly strong because there wasn’t anything that really stood out in terms of dialogue. The leading stars don’t really do anything that has been on the same level as has been seen during this season.

For the first time all of the supporting performances were quite good. Mags is starting to change into a werewolf. It hasn’t really been suggested up until this episode that she may be a werewolf. It’s alluded to at the beginning of the episode but doesn’t really get addressed until the very end of the episode where it forms part of the cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is rather good and it’s the strongest one so far. There are some good scenes between Ace and Bellboy which suggests that a romance could have possible. I have underrated Christopher Guard’s performance as Bellboy because he really showed me in this episode how good he is. The performance from Chris Jury as Deadbeat was another good one because there is something slightly unnerving. The Captain continues being totally unlikeable by letting the geek to go and perform before him. At least the geek go to explain how he came to be there. When he enters the ring to do his performance he walks in with a cocky attitude. I really couldn’t wait for him to be wiped out by the family. The family spend a long time sitting bored as no one is put in front of them. The three people that play the mother, father and the child are quite chilling and I think that they would have been quite an effective villain. Ian Reddington continues to impress so I won’t say much more cause I have spent two episodes praising him.

Things are building up nicely. I don’t know exactly what to but I think that the story is starting to get going. I still think that this is one of the stories that should have been put in the three episode slot because there isn’t enough to fil four episodes. There was a lot of not very much happening. It took a long time for the episode to get going and took even longer for someone to appear in the ring.

(679) The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - Part 2

This episode was broadcast just before Christmas 1988, its hardly the most christmassey episode that there has ever been but after not enjoying the previous episode a great deal it was nice to know that things improve greatly in this episode. I still maintain that the cliffhanger from the previous episode is appalling bad. However its all forgotten when the Chief Clown suddenly appears and convinces the Doctor and Ace to enter the Circus tent.

I like how there is a bit more information about the Psychic Circus when Morgana talks about how the Circus went from place to place but have made home on Segonax and is then stopped from saying by who. This means that they suddenly become good guys because they are being repressed by a mystical force and also by the Chief Clown. There is something odd about the family that are just sitting in the stands of the circus. Obviously I know their involvement in the story but there is a nice mystery about them.

The Doctor gets handpicked by the Ringmaster and it’s clear that it’s a trick. There are moment where the Doctor knows that something is going on and is letting himself been manipulated so that he can get to the centre of it. The manipulative Doctor starts to show more of itself in this serial and in this episode. He wants to meet the people but doesn’t say so although his face tells us this. McCoy really starts to own the role in this season and its this aspect of the character that he seems to thrive in.

The geek that was annoying in the previous episode is still annoying in this episode and it’s explained that he has come of his own choice but it’s not clear whether this is a known thing on earth and who told him about it. He gets to perform in the circus much to his shock. I am happy about this because that this means his time on the show is going to be shorter. Another character that bugged me in the previous episode Nord is also back in this episode but I didn’t find him annoying, it seems that the reigning in happened between episode although he doesn’t last long as he’s killed in the centre of the circus.

The tent set is very good and I think that lends something that wouldn’t have been achievable in a studio set. None of the interior sets are spacious and all of them mean that the characters are all up close and personal. I even like the exterior filming (although I didn’t mention in the previous episodes review), it helps that they were filming during lovely weather as this makes the quarry filming not seem like it was filmed in the endless number of quarries that the show has visited over the previous twenty-five years.

The cliffhanger is much better than the previous one and as a whole the episode is much better than the opening one. The writing is stronger and the performances are much better. It’s funny to think about the production problems that the show was having during this time and if you didn’t know this then you would be able to tell on screen because the whole thing works. The rating for this episode is back in the sevens and the average rating for the story is in the sevens although its still one of the lowest rated McCoy stories. Half way through and the story itself is still something that is puzzling me because again there are things that quite good but its still not a great story. I worry that the next two episodes wont really change anything but maybe I will be proved wrong.

(678) The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - Part 1

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is one of those stories that I cant make my mind up about. On the one hand there are things that are quite good but then there is something that bugs me about this story. This is a story that was mainly filmed in a carpark due to asbestos being found in a BBC studio. Stephen Wyatt returns to writing duties having penned the previous season’s Paradise Towers. There were interesting things about that story so its perfectly plausible that the same could happen in this adventure.

I think one of the first problems that I have is with Nord who from the moment he appears on screen is rather annoying. It’s largely down to Daniel Peacock’s performance because I think that it could have been reigned back. I have recently watched Peacock in an episode of Only Fools and Horses and he is playing pretty much the same character (minus the bat helmet) so I don’t find the character to be interesting. Another problem is the fanboy that appears to be a rip on Doctor Who fans. Even if there is an argument that it’s not a fan, I think that it’s just another annoying character. The character just doesn’t make any sense in the context of the story and there is no explanation as to where he has come from.

There are good things that work in this episode. One of the successes of this story is that of the Chief Clown who is played superbly by Ian Reddington. There is something very chilling from the moment that he appears on screen. He doesn’t say much with his mouth but his face and hands do all the talking and that is what makes the character so good. I like the idea that he is travelling around in a hearse because there is quite dark and sinister about that and the whole imagery works. I do like the Stallslady because I think there is something lovely about her. She seems to be the only one in the entire piece that it talking sense.

Captain Cook (T.P. McKenna) and Mags (Jessica Martin) are two interesting characters. There is something weird about the Captain but Mags is more normal and she is the one that I find less annoying. There is something interesting about Mags and she is one of those characters that could easily have found her way inside the TARDIS.

This is one of the final stories to feature the interior of the TARDIS. It still doesn’t seem right for some reason that the Seventh Doctor has any TARDIS interior scenes. The purpose of this scene is lure the Doctor and Ace to Segonax. Bearing in mind that Ace doesn’t like clowns it seems somewhat cruel of the Doctor to try and persuade Ace that it would be nice to visit the Psychic Circus.

The cliffhanger is terrible. I don’t think that I have seen a worse end to an episode. Even the cliffhanger where the Doctor is hanging off a cliff is better than this one. Ace’s reluctance to enter the Psychic Circus would not be enough to make me tune in the next week. I still have my reservations about this story but have the feeling that something may make me like the next three episodes. Sadly my rating for this episode is 6.97 which is the first time since episode three of Delta and the Bannermen but that’s only because the cliffhanger got 4/10.