After being slightly disappointed with the opening episode,
I was wondering that I was going to go back to the days of the Hartnell and
Troughton era where I would be going through several days of unwatchable but I
am happy to report that I don’t think this will be the case. The episode starts
off with the court scene reprise which is still good and doesn’t have the zoom
in. Like in the previous episode, the courtroom appears in the middle of the
episode which again disrupts the flow of the Ravolox story. There is another
courtroom seen scene a few moments later.
The Doctor in the Ravolox story was being stoned in the
previous cliffhanger and this is stopped by Merdeen via the Immortal. The
Immortal has two helpers who are blonde and quite intelligent. Sadly they are
slightly annoying. Whether they are as annoying as Balazar is still up for
question but I think that it’s a close call. Merdeen is played by Tom Chadbon
who last time we saw him in Doctor Who was throwing punches like Amir Khan. Chadbon
is different in this story. Merdeen starts off as a bit of a bossy boots but
soon shows his true colours by letting Balazar escape to the surface and he has
been doing this for a while.
This episode starts the joke about making fun of the
Valeyard. Boatyard and Graveyard are two insults that the Doctor hurls towards the
Valeyard. I like the childish behaviour between the Doctor and Valeyard. The
thing that is clear is that the Valeyard is trying to use what is seen onscreen
to use against the Doctor. The thing is that whilst he may have a point it is
also easy to argue that without his involvement then the people of Ravolox
would be still be repressed.
The immortal is a robot that is running the base like a dictatorship
and won’t allow people to go to the surface to get much needed water. This is
when the story is that of an overzealous robot that is taking his job role to
the letter.
The cliffhanger is much better but there is still the close up
of the Doctor which didn’t work the first time and it doesn’t work the second
time either. Two episodes in and I feel slightly more positive to this series.
It is one of those episodes that has more good things than bad things. It’s not
a classic Robert Holmes script by any means but I thought that the pacing of
the episode was far better than in episode one. I still have reservations about
this season but I am starting to think that the previous episode might have
been a blip but I will need to see a few more episodes to judge.
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