(545) Warriors Gate - Episode 4

Today is an episode of mixed emotions because on the one hand Lalla Ward is leaving the show after 46 episodes although technically the character of Romana has been in the show for 66 episodes which would work out as the fifth longest serving companion on the show. It’s crazy to think that this is Tom Baker’s 164^th episode and there are just eight episodes left. Anyway back to today’s episode and I was kind of hoping that something would jump out at me but I have to say that this is the case. The first several minutes of the episode are taken up with a lot of talking and a lot of technical scientific terms which quite frankly I didn’t understand. This confusion does carry on for most of the episode and then with about six or seven minutes left of the episode the whole thing bursts into life and there is suddenly a lot of panic and action.

The only thing that made any sense was that Biroc says that they are basically to blame for being in the situation. Apart from that there is very little in the way of a story from this side of the episode and this episode will be remembered for Romana’s departure. Sadly Romana’s exit is a bit rushed but I liked the Doctor’s line about her being “the noblest Romana of them all”. Part of me wishes that the Doctor would have tried a bit harder in persuading Romana to stay. Lalla Ward wasn’t exactly happy with her exit One advantage of Romana departing is that Adric moves up the rankings because he was treated rather badly in this episode. It was 17 minutes before he first appeared and once he, the Doctor and Romana were in the TARDIS he was ordered to stay by Romana. At the end of the episode where its just the Doctor and Adric in the TARDIS, I think that it’s a weird combination.

As a companion, Romana has been really strong in both incarnations. I think that Lalla Ward is slightly better than Mary Tamm but I think had Tamm been in the show for slightly longer then my decision might be different. Ward gave Romana a slightly more fun sense of arrogance compared to Tamm. As an episode this story is no worse or better than the previous three but as a story I don’t think that it will be one of the classics. The next story is the penultimate one for Tom Baker and the next step in the regeneration of the show is about to take place. Sadly the final part of the E-Space trilogy isn’t quite the story that it needed to be and its perhaps the most disappointing story of the season so far.

(544) Warriors Gate - Episode 3

After wondering what was going to happen to Romana at the end of the previous episode, it must have been somewhat disappointing to see the hand wander down to the cuffs to release Romana. Or at least attempt to release her because the thing that is revealed about the Tharils in this episode is that they aren’t quite as good as we have been led to believe. This comes after Boric leads the Doctor through some sort of Alice in Wonderland setting and comes across the same banquet hall as before but this time its alive with the sound of people and music. Here humans are the slaves and the Tharils are the rulers and don’t treat the humans with a great deal of respect.

I have to say that I don’t think that this story gets the credit that it deserves in terms of special effects. People are so quick to mock the show because of ‘crappy special effects’ and other stuff but when you look at this episode and in particular the CSO used with the Doctor and Biroc in the Alice in Wonderland setting, it shows how much the show pushed the boundaries of what was possibly. Even by 2014 standards, its hard not to be impressed with what I have seen on screen. There is very little in this story that doesn’t rely on special effects of some kind and its this stuff that I find most interesting. The problem with the story is still that it’s a triumph of style over substance because narratively the story is lacking anything and I feel like Paul Joyce is doing all the work really. Ultimately when Biroc starts talking about time winds then I start to lose interest because it feels like the real science is starting to get into the story and if I want real science then I’ll watch something on BBC 4.

Adric has a slightly more productive episode than the previous one and he feels slightly more part of the team. That said I think that this is largely Romana’s episode because she seems to be everywhere and that’s not a critiscm but just an observation. It’s good to see Tom Baker being more productive than he was in the previous episode. To be honest he’s just more mobile rather than actually progressive in narrative terms.

The episode only really gets going in the final few minutes when the truth of the Tharils is revealed and I think that this is an interesting development. Frustratingly though this happens too late and the episode ends with a visually impressive cliffhanger. I say visually impressive because the shot goes from nice banquet hall to cobweb banquet hall and yet it flows really well. The episode is another one where there are good things to enjoy about this story but its still not working on me and its definelty the weakest story of the season.

(543) Warriors Gate - Episode 2

I am going to get this out of the way from the very beginning and say that I don’t think I will like this story by the end of episode four. I base this on the fact that even after all the stuff that happened in this episode I still cant find anything to be wowed by. It’s definelty a stronger episode that yesterdays but I cant say that much has really improved overall after two episodes. This really is a story of two halves because the first half is with the Doctor and he spends most of his time in the banquet hall which whilst a very nice looking set does mean that the Doctor is restricted in what he does and spends most of it interacting with the robot guards and whilst he does well it does seem like a bit of a waste of his talents. There were glimpses of the old comedic aspect of the Doctor which I know I haven’t been a huge fan of in the past but in small doses, its very much enjoyed on my part.

Romana drives the narrative in this episode in my opinion because she is very much the leader between herself and Adric in the early stages of the episode and once she leaves the TARDIS, she becomes even more involved in the episode and she does become part of the cliffhanger because it ends with a close up of her face screaming in terror at a Tharil about to lay its hand on her face. Romana doesn’t scream very much in this show (in either incarnation) and so she must feel some danger to scream. Adric still feels like the spare part of the team and that’s a shame considering how well he was used in the previous story. He does get one great moment in the episode when he tells K9 that he is more useless than usual. Considering that Adric hasn’t had as much interaction with K9 as we have, its good that he has come to this conclusion so quickly.

There is a slight problem with the character of Rorvik because I can see that they are trying to make a sinister villain out of him but when you consider the villains that there has been in just this season alone then Rorvik doesn’t quite work and I just think that its someone trying to be more of a menace than he actually is and that is part of the problem because if you don’t believe in the threat in the story then there is no desire to be bothered about the Doctor coming in and saving the day. This was another episode which had some good moments but as I mentioned earlier, I still have bought what Stephen Gallagher is trying to sell and I don’t think that its terrible compared to stories like ‘Meglos’ and ‘The Horns of Nimon’ but out of the three stories that form this trilogy, this is definelty the weakest of the three. Note I say weakest and not worst because there is too much going on in this story and still to happen for me to consider this adventure as a rubbish contribution.

(542) Warriors Gate - Episode 1

I’ve never been a fan of this story and out of the three stories of the trilogy, I felt that this was the one that let the side down and on the evidence of the first episode there isn’t anything that would make me change my mind. This is the final story to feature Romana and K9 and whilst I am disappointed about the former, the latter is good news. To be fair to the story, the opening shot is quite good because it’s atmospheric and looks really fab. This is the second time in this season that the episode starts off with a long (ish) panning shot, the first being ‘The Leisure Hive’ but unlike that panning shot, this one isn’t as long and visually is better.

I think that one of the things that works in this stories favour is the special effects because there are many throughout the four episodes and there are a few that take place in this episode. One in particular is when Biroc is running and there is a ghost trail behind him. It might be the sort of thing that would feature in a 1980’s music video. Credit should go to Paul Joyce for doing a job and pushing the boundaries of what should be possible for 1980’s TV. Apparently his directing methods caused some problem but they don’t show on TV. It’s fair to say that this story isn’t like anything that the show has seen before.

It seems like Romana’s exit has been prepared for because there is a little scene where Romana talks about her and the Doctor going their separate ways. It wasn’t with the Doctor but it seems like they are actually taking the time to prepare for a companions exit which they haven’t done for quite sometime. It feels odd that this is the ninth episode for Adric and it’s the first time that he has a scene as a companion and gets a proper TARDIS scene with the Doctor and Romana. That said he does seem to be a bit of an outsider because the Doctor and Romana are talking to each other and Adric is standing to one side like a spare part.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one because it looks like the Doctor is about to get his head knocked off. I had trouble trying to get interested in this story. It’s wasn’t terrible by any means but I think that it’s a bit dry and I worry that the next three episodes is going to be a triumph of style over substance. Only time will tell I suppose but the omens aren’t good.

(541) State of Decay - Episode 4

This episode is the final episode to be transmitted in 1980. It starts with the reprise which still looks weird when Romana is backing away from Adric as he is about to be bitten. It must be said that there is a bit of Karma at play because later on Adric is prepared to sacrifice Romana to the Three Who Rule. I quite like Adric in this episode because he clearly trying to look out for his own interests but later on he tries to pretend that he was looking out for Romana. What makes this quite fun is the look on Romana’s face which clearly shows that she doesn’t believe him. Considering that this is the first time that all three regulars have appeared in the same scene.

The whole episode is building up towards the sacrifice and normally this would be either rushed or not really looked at but it takes up a nice amount of the episode and its dealt with in a good manner. I liked how the Doctor dealt with the situation and used the scout ship/tower as a weapon and used what energy it had left in shooting it up into the air and back down again. Tom Baker was on good form because he gives a good Henry IV speech and there were some classic fourth Doctor moments.

We finally get to see the great one twice. The first is a model mixed in with scanner graphic which works but had it been the model of the great one as it is then it wouldn’t have worked quite so well. The second is when its hand comes out of the ground. Visually it’s a strong image and one of the best shots in the entire serial. I think that overall this episode is the strongest in terms of directing out of the four. Peter Moffatt has done a great job in keeping the pace up and there are some great shots that he manages to achieve. Terrance Dicks has worked his magic again and has saved the best until last and tied things up nicely.

As the middle story it does a good job of being the middle story of being a trilogy it does what it needs to do but as a story in its own right its also very good. I think that its another good story in the JNT era and the next story is the final one for K9 and more importantly for Romana. The changing of the companion line up starts in the next story so there is still plenty to look forward to in this season.

(540) State of Decay - Episode 3

I watch these episodes at the moment on my Xbox and usually when I finish an episode I stop it straight away and come the next episode and it was whilst watching the closing credits Barry Letts’ name pops up and I forgot that during this time on the show we have the partnership of Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks in Doctor Who. Sadly this isn’t 1970 anymore and the heyday of Tom Baker’s tenure has gone so whilst it’s good to have a Doctor Who story with Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks credited it’s sad to think in a way that this isn’t their show anymore. The episode was watched by 4.4 million viewers which bearing in mind that just a year before episode three of ‘Nightmare of Eden’ which aired on December 8 got 9.6 million viewers it must have looked like they needed to hit the panic button but I can’t think why this episode got such low viewing figures. If I didn’t know I would have thought that the nightmare episode would have got 4.4 million viewers and this episode got 9.6 million.

The opening scene seems quite a long one compared to usual episodes and that’s not a critiscm because it’s a really well performed one with all the important characters (except Adric). Aukon is by far the best performer in the scene and the Doctor is a close second. It’s during this scene that the Doctor and Romana first hear Adric’s name. I still think that its impressive that Adric has been side-lined for so long. Really the Doctor and Romana should have seen this coming considering in a normal story with the pair they would have been separated at the earliest moment yet in episode three they have hardly been apart. Matthew Waterhouse has a pretty easy time of it in this episode as he doesn’t appear until the final few minutes of the episode. When he does appear his costume has improved dramatically and its just a shame that he doesn’t wear it past this story.

The episode features a scene where the Doctor is locked in a cell with his companion and he talks about a hermit on Gallifrey. This is very much a Terrance Dicks trait because it appeared in two Jon Pertwee stories (where he was script editor). I thought that it was a nice bit of continuity in a time when the show was looking towards the future its nice that they did this nostalgic moment.

This episode was one of those that was a collection of moments and that is why this episode is quite good because those moments are so good and another of those good moments include any scene with Zargo and Camilla because it has a Macbeth feel to it which when done right (as in this case) is a strong image to have on screen. The death of Tarak is very grim by Doctor Who standards and not because its gory or particularly violent (even though it is), its because its quite prolonged. Instead of a quick death which is over in a second or two, Tarak’s death takes considerably longer.

The last minute sees Camilla about to attack Adric and Romana leaving him to his fate which I thought was very strange and not really in the spirit of the show but then she got her comeuppance of sorts when she is facing Zargo and this is the cliffhanger which normally would make me groan with disappointment because people would know that she is going to appear in future stories but in the case of this particular cliffhanger it works well and I am looking forward to the final episode. At the moment this is falling just short of ‘Full Circle’ in terms of ratings but I wouldn’t be surprised if the final episode goes just ahead.

(538) State of Decay - Episode 2

The second episode of this story still sees Adric separated from the Doctor and Romana. I don’t know if this is deliberate but the unexpected bonus because it is making Adric a stronger companion. The episode starts off with something rather strange, the Doctor has blue blood. Now the last time that the Doctor bled was in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ his blood was red and this is apparently a Tom Baker idea which is silly really but something else which was quite strange was the fact that Aukon was entering a room and it was clearly daylight outside which does slightly confuse the whole vampire thing.

The Doctor and Romana spend the vast majority of the episode exploring the tower which has a control room which will become relevant in future episodes but I liked the interaction between the two which considering how much tension there was apparently during recording is a surprising fact. The reaction that the Doctor gives when he comes across a barrel with blood in it is the sort of reaction he would have given during the early days of his tenure.

As this is a Terrance Dicks, it is perhaps not surprising that the story has worked as well as it has. The characters are all well rounded and at no point have I found myself bored with the story and it shows that Terrance Dicks hasn’t lost any of his magic that he has shown in the past. Peter Moffatt has directed this story rather well but due to the fact that the story is written so well and the performances are so good, the directing doesn’t really stand out which is a shame really but my abiding memory of this story so far isn’t the directing.

The revelation that Aukon, Zargo & Camilla’s names are similar to names that the Doctor and Romana read in the previous episode along with the control room development is perhaps the big thing of this episode. I really like the bit at the end where we see the model shot in the Resting place where the floor is moving up and down like a massive heartbeat. The last shot is of a close up of Aukon’s eyes which is good cliffhanger but for perhaps different reasons to normal. On one hand it was perhaps drama light but bearing in mind what had just shown up on screen it was the right ending to the episode and apart from a few individual errors, this was another solid episode with some solid performances.

(538) State of Decay - Episode 1

The middle story of the trilogy on the face of it should be the strongest one because it was written by Terrance Dicks but after enjoying the previous story I have to admit that I am questioning whether this is still the case. It’s always nice when a familiar name returns to the show because its been a while since Terrance Dicks was involved in Doctor Who. His last offering ‘Horror of Fang Rock’ was a really solid story and that was about three years ago and the show has changed so the sort of story that Dicks wrote may not work in this new era. The signs are good pretty much from the beginning because there is the model shot of the tower which looks impressive and that is followed by the appearance of Zargo, Camilla and Aukon who are the three who rule and if you didn’t know what was coming then you could easily tell that something isn’t quite right about them.

It’s quite a while before Adric makes an appearance and he spends the entire episode pretty much on his own and only interacts with K9 and manages to outsmart him (which isn’t too difficult) but its quite good that he gets to investigate on his own and not be introduced to the Doctor and Romana show. His scene where he tries to steal some bread and ends up with some food and a coat that is by far better than what he usually wears. Whilst I am starting to change my opinion of Adric, the one thing that will never change is my opinion of his costume which does look like pyjamas.

As far as the Doctor and Romana are concerned. It takes them an awful long time to get involved in the story. Once they do its when the story gets interesting. I think that Kalmar is an interesting character and despite being the oldest, Arthur Hewlett doesn’t allow that to get in the way of coming across as a believable leader. His group are an odd mix of living primitive surroundings and yet having a BBC computer in the base. I think that in 1980, the use of a BBC computer would have seemed quite a cutting edge piece of kit but sadly it dates the story horribly.

If I had to pick a fault with this episode is that it doesn’t feature as much of Zargo, Camilla and Aukon. What there is of them is good but I think that they are so good (Aukon especially) that I wanted them more involved in the story. I know that this will be the case but I wanted them more in the story now. The cliffhanger is quite creepy and just days after Halloween and that is why it perhaps works better than if I were watching this in mid-March. It’s an interesting opening episode but I cant say that I have been wowed by it. There are elements that I have always liked which are on screen again and with the new appreciation of Adric means that the future episodes will be fun to watch.

(537) Full Circle - Episode 4

The final episode of the first story of the E-Space trilogy starts with the reprise of the Marshmen walking into the Starliner and I think that it’s a fantastic image that is again helped by the music. It’s weird that I always thought that the music of the JNT era was terrible and yet twelve episodes in and I have to say that my opinion has changed. I am sure that at some point the music will not work but at the moment I am impressed with how much I have enjoyed the music and its been used smartly during this story.

I’ve always been a fan of this story and nothing in the past four days has made me change my opinion of Andrew Smith’s writing. The writing has been strong and consistently engaging, its just a shame that Smith never got to write another DW story for the show but he’s written a few cracking stories for Big Finish which I highly recommend (especially The First Sontaran). I never felt like the story was plodding along and even though I haven’t been wild about the Outlers, I cant say that they have been detrimental to the story. I think that its given Adric a reason to exist and ultimately a reason to stowaway on board the TARDIS. The direction has been a revelation and I think watching this story in this manner means that the directing really stands out.

After telling the deciders that the starliner has been ready for centuries it seems that the main aim of this episode is to get them off Alzarius. It was never going to be that simple and during the course of the episode there are a few drops of information where it turns out that the Marshmen are the ancestors of the humans/deciders and I liked this because it bought back what Draith said in the first episode and was a good payoff for explaining the marshmen.

There is a bit where the Doctor is using K9’s head to scare off the marshmen, this is the most useful that K9 has been for quite sometime. The simplistic way that the Doctor tells the deciders how to take off is quite a fun way and I think that it was never going to be a scene that would go on for a while because quite frankly this would have taken too much time and required either another set or a more complex decider chamber. I liked how they went off in the starliner with no problems and thought that the deserved a nice exit.

The final scene with the Doctor and Romana in the TARDIS is quite a sad one and it seems like a surprisingly downbeat tone. They are travelling in E-Space which is still quite funny when its green but I like how they are feeling down about their current situation without realisation that things are about to get worse with Adric on board. I really must stop the hate for Adric.

This was a good final episode to what has been the best story of the season so far. I have rated this story overall at 7.56 with ‘The Leisure Hive’ at 7.51 and ‘Meglos’ at 7.46. In Tom Baker’s stories this is tied in 9^th place with Robot and overall it is the 30^th best story beating such strong stories as ‘City of Death’ (32), ‘The Talons of Weng Chiang’ (45) and ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ (65). I would be surprised if this story isn’t one of the highest rated stories of the season. On a slightly downbeat note, two weeks on Wednesday will see the last Tom Baker episode which seems to have come around really quickly. As the moment that has been prepared for gets closer I will be thinking about the state of the show and just what Tom Baker’s legacy will be.

(536) Full Circle - Episode 3

Something struck me as I started to watch this episode and that its weird to see Tom Baker’s face when the theme tune plays. It’s a title sequence that is more associated with Peter Davison and Colin Baker so its still weird even though this is the tenth time that this title sequence has played. Upon watching the reprise, I was hoping to see K9 get his head knocked off but sadly not. What is shown are the spiders which look worse than they did in the previous episode. It’s still a major problem that I have with the story and the only time that they look ok is when the Doctor is looking at one later on in the episode.

I have been thinking about the deciders and come to the conclusion that despite having the War Lord as one of their crew, I actually think that Login is the stronger of the trio. I think of Inspector Wexford rather than Login when I look at George Baker. Login is the nicest of the trio and the one that at least comes across as having any morals.

Tom Baker is perfect in this episode because he does seem to have gotten his mojo back and does both comedy and serious acting. His comedy comes with his reaction when the Outlers are coming out of the TARDIS instead of Romana. His serious side comes when he shows his anger at the deciders and also at Dexeter who shows his mean side when he is about to perform his experiments on the captured Marshman. I hadn’t noticed how good Tony Calvin was because he had really been in the background of all the characters that have been in the story so far. Lalla Ward doesn’t really give a bad performance but unfortunately doesn’t really

The story seems to progress quite quickly in the scene where the Doctor points out that the Starliner has been ready to take off for centuries and that people are replacing perfectly fine parts. This moment is added with the announcement by the deciders that no one knows how to pilot the starliner.

The cliffhanger is another good one and does slightly mirror the first cliffhanger in that it involves several Marshmen and the music adds to it. However this one is slightly better because it sees the Marshmen penetrate the starliner and this sets up the final episode perfectly. This was another solid episode and I think that over the past three episodes this serial has done what Doctor Who should do and that’s tell a fun story with some good characters and the E-Space Trilogy is a nice thing for the season to get involved in and keep peoples attention until the final few stories to see the departure of Tom Baker.

(535) Full Circle - Episode 2

I still like the sight of the marsh creatures coming out of the lake, the directing and the music help make it as effective as it is. The marsh creatures are quite good because not only are they visually impressive but there are little things included that make them seem quite good and most notably is that they can adapt to their surroundings. Such a simple thing can make a lot of difference in a creature that never actually utters a word.

The Doctor is very different in this episode and I mean that in a good way. The Doctor encounters a Marsh child and is surprised when it doesn’t react well to his welcome and he responds by saying something about usually being good with children. Throughout the entire episode Tom Baker doesn’t really take the roll up to 11, he spends most of it at 5 or 6 and he only really gets animated when he encounters the Deciders. The Doctor and Romana don’t meet during the episode and I feel slightly sorry for Romana because she is stuck with Adric and the rest of the Outlers who make Adric take them to the TARDIS. I like the bit where Romana hands the knife back to one of them after having it pointed at her. I have decided that Adric isn’t quite as annoying as I have previously thought (at the moment) but I am not so sure about his friends.

There is one truly fantastic moment and maybe one of the best moments of the entire season and that is when K9 gets beheaded and not in a going to be back to his normal self in the next episode kind of way.

If I had to pick one thing that was wrong in this episode then it would be that the spiders don’t look very scary. It would probably have been best to have them in low light or not much of them seen because they could have worked but in their current state they just look a little bit hokey and I don’t just mean by 2014 standards. Ok there might be another thing but its not necessarily a fault of the story but more of a shift in the rules of the TARDIS. I say rules but its more like guidelines. Despite only being in the TARDIS for mere minutes, he is able to pilot the TARDIS. Ok so he accidentally does this but I think that off all the buttons he presses he somehow manages to press the right one. This is a trend that occurs quite often during the JNT era where any bugger can operate the TARDIS. This in my opinion does weaken the magic of the TARDIS.

The cliffhanger was good but not quite on the same level as the previous episode. Romana being bitten by a spider and there being no sign of help is something that works really well and it’s the perfect way to end this episode. Two episodes in and this story is just as good as I have thought of it in the past. The writing, directing and performances have all been on good form and I cant really see how the next two episodes are going to see a change in this.   

(534) Full Circle - Episode 1

It’s quite fitting that with tonight being Halloween, that this is the debut episode for Adric. Adric is arguably one of the most disliked companions ever in Doctor Who. I wonder whether over the course of his run on the show, that my opinion might change. Part of this change has happened whilst listening to the recent Fifth Doctor Boxset released via Big Finish but I wonder what will happen over the course of the next couple of weeks. Full Circle is the first story of the E-Space Trilogy which sees the Doctor and Romana enter E-Space which is like normal space but green. Things start off with the Doctor and Romana about to return to Gallifrey but thanks to K9 meddling things go a bit wonky and they end up somewhere completely different despite the scanner suggesting they are on Gallifrey. I like the fact that there is a bit of mystery about this which doesn’t last too long but long enough to be interesting.

The story takes place on Alzarius and the first thing that strikes me about this story and episode is the location footage which looks fantastic and does look like a different world. People are getting ready to go on the Starliner and I like how it seems to be dividing people because there are those like the deciders which are leaving Alzarius on the starliner and a group on people (like Adric) who aren’t interested and they are called Outlers. Adric’s first scene is perfectly fine but its funny how the scene goes about two minutes before drawing attention to the star badge for Mathematical Excellence. The Outlers don’t exactly strike me as the wisest group of people and if I had to choose then I would have gone with the deciders.

Adric has only been in Doctor Who for one episode and his actions have led to the death of someone. Due to the fact he was trying to prove his brother’s friends wrong he tried to steal some fruit and got caught by Draith. Ok so maybe Draith shouldn’t have run after him but I don’t really buy that. It’s quite the debut for the character and he can hardly be accused of being dull and inactive.

The effect of Mistfall is one that is simple but works really well and the music helps to create a wonderfully atmospheric feel to it. Peter Grimwade has always been a better director than a writer in my opinion and this episode is proof of that. He directs the episode with a lot of enthusiasm and the writing works well and what we have is a pretty solid opening episode. Even Tom Baker was on good form and the look on the Doctor’s face when Adric enters the TARIDS is quite fun.

The cliffhanger is brilliant in my mind and one of the strongest for several episodes. The sight of these disgusting creatures out of the water and the music again helps with this and after being left slightly weary with ‘Meglos’ it good to get back to business and start enjoying Tom Baker’s final season and the next four episodes should work for me in exactly the same way as today’s episode. Good stuff indeed.

On a side note, this time last year I was watching episode seven of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’.

(533) Meglos - Episode 4

After being slightly disappointed with the lack of anything exciting happen, I was hoping that this story would end of a more positive note. This is one of the shortest episode of Doctor Who ever and it really shows as yet again the episode starts off with a few minutes of reprise. When the action does eventually get going it seems like there has been quite a development in things because all of a sudden the real Doctor is accepted and people are prepared to have a rational conversation with him.

I still think of Barbara not Lexa when I see Jacqueline Hill. It’s surprising that Lexa is one of the characters that won’t see the end of the episode. She gets killed and is dead without so much of a speech which considering that its Jacqueline Hill isn’t the best way for a character to end. This was the 78^th episode to feature Hill and she leapfrogs William Russell and Katy Manning and now becomes the fourth longest serving companion.

There are some good things in this episode such as the set designs which are very good. I hadn’t noticed that this was an entirely studio based story and whereas the story hasn’t been totally successful, what has been appearing on screen has been quite good. Another thing that works quite well is the CSO shots that are heavily used. There are a few shots that look quite good and that includes two Tom Baker’s appearing on screen at the same time. What’s also good about this scene is that it isn’t just one quite shot but it’s a very good scene which is shot very well by Terence Dudley. Dudley’s name will pop up in credits during the Peter Davison years but his first story is quite well because the whole episode is directed with a good amount of enthusiasm and any problems with the story shouldn’t be laid at his door.

Sadly K9 returns in this episode and I was just surprised that he didn’t need recharging after moving 10 feet. K9’s time in the show is coming to an end soon so I have to just keep that it mind. K9’s involvement is somewhat small and so I wonder what the point was in having him appear in the story. It’s not the only thing that doesn’t quite work in this episode. It’s odd that Meglos waits so long before changing out of looking like the Doctor. Once he had got what he wanted, he stays looking like the Doctor until about a minute before he gets killed. When the change does happen and he changes back to the cactus it doesn’t look as bad as it did in episode one. Another thing that doesn’t quite work is that there doesn’t seem to be anything after being separated from Meglos. Also he has been in this story with the credit of Earthling. I would have named him Mark or Stephen or something like that.

It was a much better episode than the previous one and I am surprised with how much more positively about this story than I did before I started this. It’s not a classic by any means and I think that the Cactus design is still a major problem and I think that casting someone else as Lexa instead of a former companion was a mistake. Those mistakes aside the new era of the show is still going strong and the next several stories are quite important and the lien up of the show is going to change with the first change occurring next with……there is no easy way of saying this……..Adric debuting. Oh dear!

Meglos - Episode 3

I didn’t realise that yesterdays episode was watched by 4.2 million people which is one of the lowest ratings that Doctor Who has had an shows that something needed changing. Half a million more people tuned in for this episode and they didn’t really miss anything and this is another episode where very little happens. I am really struggling to find anything wrong with the episode because there is very little to pick up.

Something I did pick up is how much I liked Tom Baker’s performance as the Meglos Doctor. There were a few moments which saw a certain amount of intensity which does show how much the characters has changed in such a short amount of time. Lalla Ward is stuck with Grugger as Romana has them walking around in circles for most of the episodes. When Romana does manage to make it to where the action is its quite late in the episode and doesn’t really lead to much.

The cliffhanger is much better than the last one with the Doctor about to be crushed by a big slab of stone and this is a much better way to end an episode and with the viewers knowing that he would be leaving the show, it was perfectly possible that he could have left at the end of this episode. Even though he’s the longest serving Doctor ever and this is his 147^th episode, he does show some glimpses of his old self and I think that that his costume has somehow put a different energy into the performance.

This is a very short episode because quite frankly if there is nothing to report then there isn’t much reason for me to write about nothing. I didn’t hate this episode as it wasn’t terrible but I think that this episode is perhaps going to be remembered as bland and inactive episode. Hopefully the final episode will make up for the lack of excitement and the performances may stand out because very little has. Not even Jacqueline Hill could make me interested in the story.

Meglos - Episode 2

This episode starts off with a very long reprise, it lasts close to two minutes but once that is over with the action starts to get going it kind of stutters throughout. The Cactus Doctor gets to Tigellan first and has to take an oath of allegiance at the insistence of Lexa which is fun to watch everyone around her go mad at her for this. I still have a slight problem with thinking of Jacqueline Hill as Lexa and not Barbara. Sometimes I still think that Ian or Susan would pop up and tell her that she cant change history or something like that. Ok so I am going to try and stop using the term Cactus Doctor and refer to the creature as Meglos. Meglos’ plan is to go to Tigellan and take the Dodecahedron which would explain why he goes to the trouble of looking like the Doctor. I like that the Doctor has been to Tigellan before and judging by some of the lines that are said that he has been during the Doctor’s current incarnation.

I think that the Doctor with cactus spikes on his face and hands is an interesting look and one that looks far better than the other guy I saw in the previous episode. The idea of their being two Doctor roaming around the same place at the same time is something has been done in Doctor Who before but here it seems to be more fun but there seems to be something odd about Tom Baker. I know that he wasn’t very well during this season but there seems something specific that is altering his performance. He does seem like a shell of his former self and almost makes me miss the days when he was very silly. It may be deliberate that his performance is subdued compared to previous stories but its definelty noticeable. The highlight for Meglos comes when he arrives and after going through the niceties (or not), he manages to be alone with the Dodecahedron and somehow take it which is suppose to be vast and probably unmoveable and I like how much worry this causes.

After spending the previous episode doing very little, its surprising (or not really) that K9 doesn’t go very far before his batteries run low and he requires recharging. The thing that comes to mind is knowing that he is due to leave quite soon so there aren’t many more episodes for K9 to take up air time.

The cliffhanger is rather disappointing and this sums up my feelings towards this episode. This is an episode where not a lot seems to happen and compared to the previous episode it seems to have lost a spring in its step and when it did get into life it was quite late in the episode and had to stop at the wrong moment. The cliffhanger used featured Romana whereas I would have finished with the Doctor or Meglos but that’s just me. At the half way point, I am still more positive about it than I was two episodes ago.

Meglos - Episode 1

Meglos is interesting for a few reasons. Firstly it’s one of the shortest titles for a Doctor Who story (Robot being the shortest), secondly its infamous for the villain being a cactus and third and perhaps most importantly, it sees the return of Jacqueline Hill who was last seen 453 episodes ago but in a different role than she is in today. I don’t quite know whether it was a good idea to bring Hill back but as someone else because whenever I see her I just think that its Barbara talking and not Lexa. That’s not to say that she doesn’t give a great performance because she does and manages to at least seem different to Barbara but its not hard to imagine Barbara saying the things that Lexa says.

As I mentioned this story is infamous for being the one with the cactus in it and sadly that is the one thing that lets this story down because from the moment that it appears on screen I find myself losing a little bit of interest. It could only happen in Doctor Who where someone thought “I know what Doctor Who hasn’t had before….a talking cactus!”. Quite why JNT let this through the production meeting baffles me. Actually forget that never mind JNT, what about Barry Letts? There is something that doesn’t quite make sense and it is to do with the cactus because it required a booth to transfer to the weird looking human but doesn’t quite such a thing when changing to look like the Doctor.

The CSO that appears in this episode is quite impressive and apart from some fraying around the edges of people’s hats the effects worked very well and its been a while since the effects have looked quite so good. In fact the production values for the episode looked quite good and its easy to see that this story was required relatively early in the season run.

It’s strange (in a good way) that the Doctor and Romana spend the entire episode in the TARDIS trying to fix K9. Now firstly I want to know why they would bother considering that he is of little value to the story but secondly its fun that they manage to find something to do while not actually achieving anything. Their episode only really starts once they start to go over the same events over and over again.

The cliffhanger is quite good because the Doctor appears saying that they mustn’t upset the tigellans and considering that it comes out of nowhere and I think that anything has to be better than a cactus or a human with cactus spikes all over his face and hands (cant quite understand why they don’t go through his clothes) and the next episode should be good. I think that I feel a lot more warmly about this episode than I did 24 hours ago. I don’t think that it will ever be a classic but I think that there is going to be something good that comes out of the story come the final episode.

The Leisure Hive - Episode 4

The final episode of this story is one that I was worried wouldn’t live up to my new expectations. The start of the JNT era is going better than I would have imagined when I started to watch these stories. The reprise is still good and I don’t know whether its changed slightly but it seems more harrowing as Brock’s mask has been pulled off. The revelation that Brock is a Fomasi comes with an explanation which works and that is the real Brock is still on Earth and the Fomasi that is pretending to be Brock is a traitor. This just seems to spur Pangol into action and this is definelty his episode because he becomes quite the dictator, not even waiting for Mena to die before installing his authority on Argolis. He is immediately the villain of the piece and this is proved by the fact that he is willing to shoot the Fomasi ship down even though he knows that it will start a war.

The whole episode is geared towards the new army of Pangol’s coming out of the generator. The effect of creating dozens of Pangols is something that we have to give credit to the Quantel 5000 machine. It’s another example of how the show has changed. Another thing that works in the stories favour is the incidental music. Whilst it’s a shame that Dudley Simpson’s music is no longer a part of the show its fair to say that his music wouldn’t have had the effect that Peter Howell’s did during the scene where the Pangol’s are marching out of the generator. The effects are the thing that stand out for me in this episode with the multiple Pangol’s is one such impressive one use but another is the shot of two Doctor’s appearing in the same shot. I am reminded of that shot in ‘Enemy of the World’ where Salamander and the Doctor appear on screen at the same time and thought how impressive that was and it was by 1968 standards and it shows how far the technology has come in 12 years.

Once the Doctor gets to be back to his old self he is running around like he usually does and whilst he doesn’t get going until quite late in the episode it means that it falls to Romana to be the one that again moving the action along. She has really been on fine form over the last four episodes and Lalla Ward has taken the role of Romana and made it her own.

If I had to find fault with the episode then it wouldn’t be the Fomasi costume which was actually quite good but it was the part where the Fomasi inform Mena that hadn’t taken off and that in fact it was the Fomasi Brock that was killed onboard. It does seem odd that they waited until Pangol was a baby and the danger had been averted that they decided to show themselves. This is something that doesn’t quite work for me but to be fair it’s the only thing that I could pick fault in. This has been another good solid episode and I think/hope that Meglos is going to be better than I had thought of in the past. But that’s in the future and this opening season story is a lot better than the previous one and one thing is for sure, the show is never going to be the same again.

The Leisure Hive - Episode 3

The sight of seeing a very old Tom Baker is something that might not seem such a shocking sight today but in the context of this episode, its quite a good way to end the previous episode and start todays episode. I think the fact that Mena wants the Doctor to rest shows that she is still someone that is going to be on the Doctor’s side but if Mena is the Doctor’s angel then Pangol is the devil on the Doctor’s shoulder as he reminds her that they are still on a murder charge and so are locked up. The neck braces that the Doctor and Romana are forced to wear look quite good and look very much of the time. With the Doctor looking old it means that he isn’t dashing around quite as much as he usually does but his inactivity doesn’t last long as he is gingerly dashing around.

There comes a moment when the Doctor mentions that Pangol looks quite young compared to the other argolans. This is something that has been on screen since the start of the story but its only know that it has become part of the story and towards the end of the episode its revealed that he is a child of the generator. That’s a wonderful line that sums up the new mentality of Doctor Who in the 80’s because it just sounds new and modern (even by 2014 standards) and I like it very much.

The Fomasi design is a curious one because on the one hand it sort of lets down all the visually good work that has taken place so far and on the other hand there is something retro about the design. It’s the sort of thing that would have looked quite good during the seventies Doctor Who stories but its unfair to judge a monster on the looks alone. I know I was a bit critical in ‘Nightmare of Eden’ but this is my review so I can be if I want. The cliffhanger for the episode involves the newly included Fomasi when it goes to Brock and pulls off his mask. I think it’s a great revelation and what makes it work is that the mask comes off quite smoothly which is more than could be said for when the Count took off his mask in ‘City of Death’.

It’s another solid episode to serial and the longer this continues the more likely I am to change my opinion of not just this series but of the John Nathan Turner regime. Now I know that I am only three episodes into his tenure but I think that watching the episodes in the manner that I am means that things might change and after witnessing how good the story flowed through this episode I am think this might happen.

The Leisure Hive - Episode 2

This is one of the shortest episodes of Doctor Who ever as it runs at just under 21 minutes. That means that there is no room for padding or taking things slowly. Unlike the previous episode there isn’t any 90 second panning shot but also sadly the entire episode is studio bound. The thing that stands out in this episode are the performances and the characters. Hardin (Nigel Lambert) is a likeable person but it would be boring if he was just likeable. As it turns out he has a bit of a secret and its that he has been lieing to his close friend (Mena) about the results of his experiments and spends a great amount of time working with Romana to try and fix it. This is where the main action is as it leads to the cliffhanger. Mena is another likeable character and it is sad to see her age so quickly.

There are two quite surprising deaths. Klout is the first death that we see although we don’t see the murder. What we do see is him standing in cupboard. The only thing that slightly undermines it is that the face looks like a dummy or a protesthic mask. I can’t quite figure out why they didn’t go and use Ian Talbot. The second death was a lot better because the whole scene was quite good. It was very atmospheric when Stimson is walking around a dimly lit room before being struck down.

There is a line that the Doctor gives when he says “Arrest the scarf” which would have been annoying in the previous season but the humour has been so reigned back that the few moments where there is some light relief it’s very welcome. Tom Baker yet again gives the sort of performance that he would have done three or four years ago. Its weird that when there was a close up of his fingers at the beginning of the episode that look old and it dawned on me that he has been playing the role for such a long time.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one like the previous episode but unlike the previous episode this cliffhanger isn’t as dark. The sight of Tom Baker with a big beard and white hair is how he looks today (minus the beard) and what makes it shocking isn’t the reaction of Romana (which is good) but actually Mena’s because it is one of sadness and this is another example of how nice the character is. This was another solid episode and that’s two episodes in a row where I have found myself enjoying the episode and I didn’t think that this would be the case after the recent run of stories.

The Leisure Hive - Episode 1

Todays episode is the beginning of the end but as we all know, the moment has been prepared for. There is a new producer in the form of John Nathan Turner who has been on the show since ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ in 1977 and was handpicked by Graham Williams. Barry Letts rejoined the show as Executive Producer who was there to watch over JNT. The opening panning shot last for 1 minute and 40 seconds. I can only assume that the episode was running short because there is no need for it. As much as its nice to see Brighton in 1980, I don’t think that starting the season with a arty style panning shot was perhaps the best idea.

This episode does feature the demise of K9. Sadly its only temporary. I don’t get why if the dog was so smart that it didn’t realise that it was approaching a substance that would cause it some damage. Then again it kind of proves my point about how stupid K9 is. At least that means that we wont have to see him for the rest of the serial.

There is a nice freshness to this season because whilst there is an 80’s feel to the whole thing, there is a renewed enthusiasm and that probably has something to do with JNT. Lovett Bickford has done a good job but I think could have cut the initial panning shot in half or completely. David Fisher’s last story wasn’t such a great one so its good that he has redeemed himself with this adventure.

I quite like the look of the argolans. I think the bits dropping off their heads is a bit of odd decision but apart from that they are pretty strong. Their story is quite a good one and I think that the whole planet looks impressive and there is a base under siege vibe running through the entire story.

Quantel 5000 is the technology that is used to achieve some of the effects and whilst by 2014 standards it might look ropey compared to the year before its fantastic. I am not so keen about the music. I miss Dudley Simpson’s music already. I think that the music change is a mistake and it will be one of the big problems for pretty much the rest of the classic run.

Morix’s death is surprisingly quick but it’s a death that has some relevance to it and it’s a shame because I think that Laurence Payne gave a solid performance and should have had more on screen time. The Doctor has a new costume which I quite like. After several years of the same costume, its good that he has a change. Tom Baker’s performance is quite subdued in this episode but thankfully the silliness that seemed to be the norm in the previous season has pretty much gone.

The cliffhanger is a rather good one because it shows the Doctor apparently being pulled apart. As opening episodes go, this is one of the best ones for quite sometime. Compared to the previous season’s opening episode, this is a million times better. The JNT era of the show has gotten off to a promising start.