The thing I didn’t point out in yesterday’s review and that
is this is the 150th story of Doctor Who. Technically its not,
technically it’s the 147th but I count the four parts of the Trial
season as separate stories so this is the 150th and that’s the end
of it. Today is the 666th episode of Doctor Who so this is the
episode where bad things should happen.
The way that the Doctor’s silly decision to go over the
railing to produce the shows first real cliffhanger takes about four minutes to
solve thus proving that it wasn’t quite as dramatic as it should have been. The
decision was made even more ridiculous when Ace comes along a few minutes later
with a far more practical roll up ladder.
Ace and Mel’s troubles come from trying to hide from the
zombie like mercenaries that follow them around everywhere. There is a nice
scene between Ace and Mel when we learn a bit more about Ace. I like it because
we have learnt more about Ace in these two episodes than we have ever learnt
about Mel. She also reveals that here real name is Dorothy which is why she
calls herself Ace. Nothing wrong with Dorothy in my opinion but everyone is
entitled to their own opinion. I am impressed with how good Sophie Aldred is
because her performance has a nice mixture of freshness yet familiarity.
Contrast that with the performance that Bonnie Langford which doesn’t seem to
have much life to it. I think back to her debut story and just how much energy
and vitality there was and how much has changed in such a short amount of time.
Belazs is a rather contradictory character because she wants
to be rid of Kane and away from Iceworld but then points a gun at Glitz and the
Doctor. Her death at the hands (literally) of Kane was a bit of a
disappointment. I think that it would have been good for her to be free in the
next episode or even sacrifice herself to help the Doctor. That is perhaps the
thing that doesn’t quite work in the episode.
The Dragon which turns out not to be a dragon is visually an
impressive design. The headpiece alone is impressive. It is more important to
the story that previous thought. It’s clear that a lot of time and money went
into it and it shows.
The production values have been rather impressive in this
serial which after being let free with the outdoor story of Delta and the
Bannermen. The sets are impressive because I believe that they are in a cold
environment although its not cold enough for it to show when they are breathing.
The cliffhanger obviously going to be better than episode
one’s but only just the episode ends with Kane announcing to no-one but himself
that “After 3000 years, the Dragonfire will be mine”. This was another episode
where the show took a step in the right direction. Two episodes in and my
ratings are the highest of the McCoy era and at the moment it’s the first McCoy
story get in the top 100. As a season it is tied with season 2 as worst so it
will be interesting to see how the final episode of this story will affect
that. 
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