The seventeenth season of Doctor Who is one
of change because out goes Anthony Read as the Script Editor and in comes
Douglas Adams. Considering that I wasn’t a huge fan of ‘The Pirate Planet’, I
am somewhat concerned that this season of Doctor Who isn’t going to be as good
as previous seasons. This episode also sees Lalla Ward debut as Romana. After
spending six episodes playing Princess Astra, its now time for Ward to try and
be a new version of Mary Tamm. I am surprised that Tamm didn’t get to do a regeneration
scene. This story also sees the Daleks and Davros return for the first time
since ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ which was way back in Tom Baker’s first season.
Terry Nation also returns to writing duties for the first time since ‘The
Android Invasion’ back in December 1975.
The DVD for this story allows me to watch
it with CGI effects which is always a good thing. The first bit of CGI comes
when the Movellans ship arrives and drills its way into the ground. Speaking of
the Movellans they look quite striking but I can’t make my mind up about them
and I am sure that something will stand out in future episodes but at the
moment my opinion is up in the air.
The opening scene is the regeneration scene
where we see several versions of Romana which leads to some people to whinge
that she’s wasted several regenerations which isn’t necessarily the truth but
it does show what the tone will be in future stories. I have always assumed
that Graham Williams’ tenure was more comedic than past producers but watching
this opening episode I realise that the fault for the humour should go to
Douglas Adams who didn’t seem too bothered that there was too much humour.
When the Doctor and Romana land on Skaro
(obviously they don’t know that they are on Skaro at this point) It’s quite
different to the one we saw in Genesis. There is a lot more green grass around
and its not as foggy as it was then. I am guessing that this story was filmed
during the summer because the sunny weather does make the quarry scenes seem a
lot nicer than perhaps was intended.
Lalla Ward doesn’t get one episode before
she is put in peril as she falls backwards. Here falling down leads us to what
I think is one of the best cliffhangers for a while. The sight of Daleks
breaking through a glass wall telling Romana
not to move. They repeat the phrase “Do Not Move” about half a dozen times yet
Ward stays firmly on the spot so its perhaps not the best opening return for
the greatest baddies in Doctor Who. That said I thought that this was quite a
good opening episode and despite the rather unnecessary comedy moments I
thought that things were set up nicely and the lack of supporting character
makes it seem like a claustrophobic episode (even though there is more than a
brief moment outside).
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