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.
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