The Sun Makers - Episode 4

This is the final episode to have Robert Holmes as script editor. This is a position he has held since the first episode of Robot. So Holmes is the last person from Tom Baker’s first episode to leave (apart from Baker himself). This is the 88^th episode that Holmes was script editor for (though not credited) and its his 44^th as a writer and he is second longest serving script editor and at present he’s the third longest serving writer behind Malcolm Hulke (47) and Terry Nation (52).

The episode starts off with Leela about to be steamed to death or staying in a sauna too long as its known nowadays. There was a tiny sense of urgency in getting her out of there but there wasn’t as much as they could have been. The focus is on dealing with the Collector. The Collector does seem to be more involved in the story and Hade’s comedic role becomes more noticeable. Hade exit from the story was quite shocking really because he is thrown off the roof and his death/murder is cheered.

The Collector and the Doctor is quite a good scene because there is a bit where the Collector seems to envy the Doctors’ full head of curly hair. It’s a subtle scene despite how well it’s performed by Baker and Woolf.  The way that the Doctor defeats the Collector is quite interesting. He doesn’t raise a hand or a weapon. The Collector just gets a bit stressed and is reduced to his natural state. Some might think that this was a bit of a cop out but it’s one of those rare instances where the Doctor’s actions don’t end a villains role. Although technically he did change something which led to the Collector’s hysterics.

It’s revealed that Leela was due to being killed in this episode. I think that this would have been a mistake because whilst she’s not my favourite companion ever, it would have been a waste to get rid of her in this manner. The way that she was effectively hidden out of our sight until she was required to throw a knife at the guard was a clever little thing to do. Louise Jameson has been good in this episode and I think that this has been a good story for her.

Cordo seems to have gone a bit giddy between episodes three and four. He was just acting like a child which is quite a transformation considering how glum he was in the opening moments of the first episode. Considering that this is suppose to take place over a couple of hours (a day maybe), he has become a lot more confident. It’s not something that I have a problem with but I just think four episodes is a short amount of time for such a change.

As an episode it was a good one, it did what it needed to do without feeling rushed or like there was padding to fill out the time. Whilst I might not have been wild about the satirical tone in the story I think that it’s worked reasonably well and the final two episodes are better than the first two. Ok I have been quite positive over the last three stories and I have been genuinely surprised about how my opinion has changed over four days when it’s been different for years. However I about to approach a story that will severely test that theory.