(626) The Twin Dilemma - Part 4

Today sees the final episode of the serial and of the season. It’s clear that I haven’t been overly positive about this serial. I was dreading this episode because I just thought that it would be another 25 minutes of boring stuff with a few good moments of Colin Baker scattered inbetween. So it is with great surprise that I report that this wasn’t the case. I think that there is a different vibe to this final episode It seems like the previous three were just padding. Quite why Anthony Steven was hiding all this material until part four is a mystery.

The twins aren’t as annoying in this story and perhaps I have been too hard on the people playing the characters. The writing doesn’t allow them to be anything other than irritating smartalecs. They don’t tend to feature as much in the episode due to the build up towards the Doctor and Mestor. The encounter between Mestor and the Doctor in this episode is good.

Edgeworth gives his life to enable the Doctor to defeat Mestor. He did it so the Doctor wouldn’t have to but he is at the end of his regeneration cycle (remember when they could only have 13 lives?). Azmael’s final scene is quite sad and part of me does wish that he would have survived or been able to regenerate.

The death of Mestor was quite gruesome and Peter Moffat doesn’t use that much which is perhaps the best thing he chose to do in this serial. I have commented on the grimness of deaths during the Peter Davison era and I was hoping that this would have changed but sadly this isn’t the case.

The very final scene with the Doctor and Peri and the twins is good but its slightly odd that the Doctor and Peri are hving their ‘discussion’ with the twins present. It ends with Colin Baker saying that he is the Doctor where Peri likes it or not and a slightly odd smile between the two of them. This episode manages to redeem this serial somewhat. It’s not a complete success and its not hard to see why this story was rated 200^th out of 200 in the 2009 Doctor Who Magazine survey. I think that more of an effort should have been made to try and make the previous three episodes stronger because I think that this story would have worked.

This is the final episode until The Trial of a Timelord that the episodes would be 25 minutes in length. The change in format I think will have a positive influence on the serial which is in desperate need of changing and more change than simply recasting the lead role.

 

(625) The Twin Dilemma - Part 3

I was hoping that the cliffhanger would change to get rid of the unfortunate shot of Peri upset at thinking that the Doctor was dead. The Doctor does turn up a few moments later although there is a slight continuity error during this moment. The Doctor seems shocked that Peri was sad when she thought that the Doctor had died. This is something that bothers me is that there is a lot of bickering. Just the thing that the story doesn’t need is what seems to be running through the episode. There is more bickering throughout the episode which is really starting to get on my nerves. To show how annoying this is let me state that I didn’t find the terrible twins.

The action moves to Jaconda where the stupidest looking creature for a long time Mestor is seen in the flesh. When he is punishing someone for stealing some food he does it in a rather stupid way. I just cant get past the weird way that it looks. The encounter between Mestor and Azmael is quite good because it shows that there isn’t much trust between the two. Azmael once ruled Jaconda which explains why he is trying to be treacherous against Mestor. Quite why its taken until half way through the third episode for this to happen.

The Doctor’s reaction when he discovers that Jaconda isn’t the lovely paradise he thought it would be is entertaining to watch. Colin Baker still does well in what is a rather poor written episode. This was the only story to be written by Anthony Steven and I have never seen anything else he’s done but I cant imagine that what he had done in the past was worst than this story. Peter Moffat has been an ok director for the show but he’s not allowed to do anything spectacular with the material that he’s been given.

When Lang is stuck in the gastropod’s slime it doesn’t seem to dawn on anyone that he should just take his feet out of the boots. This seems to just delay McNally’s involvement in the cliffhanger for just a couple of moments later.

The cliffhanger is ok because it’s like the opposite of the previous cliffhanger but we don’t have Peri’s unfortunate look. This is probably the best episode so far which isn’t a huge compliment. At least there is only one more episode left to endure.

(624) The Twin Dilemma - Part 2

I wondered whether the twins would improve in this episode. Sadly this like most things haven’t improved in this second episodes. The twins are just as annoying in this episode and I just a different version of this story existed where the twins don’t feature as much in it as they do or they could even have been recast. Again the stuff with the Doctor and Peri is the most entertaining aspect of this episode. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant seem to have struck up a very different but just as entertaining as the one that Nicola Bryant had with Peter Davison.

The episode sees the Doctor and Peri finally join the main action but that’s not really saying much. The only advantage is that there are some fun scenes for the Doctor. Perhaps the most interesting scene is where Edgeworth is also known as Azmael meets the Doctor and we learn that he has met the Doctor before but in a previous incarnation. There is a bit where Lang is changing in the Doctor’s costume room and finds the exact same costume that Peri hid his gun charger pack. To be honest, this is the least of the stories problems although its one of the few things that didn’t involve the Doctor or Peri that actually registered with me.

The cliffhanger has the Doctor is trying to escape with Peri but the device used isn’t reliable and yet only Peri ends up the TARDIS just as she sees the place blow up and she starts sobbing. To be fair it’s a good cliffhanger but I have been so put off by what I have been watching that it just didn’t affect me in the way what people were expecting. Despite being given a dud story to start his tenure off in, Colin Baker is showing how good he is even though he’s not being allowed to. Halfway through the episode and the story is just as bad as I remember and I cant see this about to change at any point in the next two episodes.

Before I end this review, at the moment the story. The rating for this story so far is 7.10 which currently places this story in 122^nd place. As is stands An Unearthly Child is the best new Doctor story with 7.79 in 5h place, Spearhead From Space is second with 7.72 in 8^th place overall, Castrovalva has 7.58 and is 34^th with Robot getting 7.56 in 40^th place. Patrick Troughton’s first story got 7.24 and is currently in 110^th place.

(623) The Twin Dilemma - Part 1

So the final story of the 21^st season is the first story for Colin Baker as the Doctor. It will also be the final time before the 23^rd season that the episodes are just twenty five minutes in length. With the previous story being everything that is right about Doctor Who and shows what can be achieved. Colin Baker’s debut story is the exact opposite. Romulus and Remus are two boys that appear at the beginning of the episode and shows the first problem with this serial. Unfortunately Gavin Conrad (Romulus) and Andrew Conrad (Remus) are not very good in the roles. They are instantly upstaged by Dennis Chinnery (playing their father Sylvest) and Maurice Denham (Edgeworth).

It’s weird that the new Doctor and Peri don’t appear first. First thing that stands out about the new Doctor is that this isn’t going to be a soft and cuddly Doctor. I like how the Doctor really dislikes being called sweet by Peri. The scene in the costume room is rather good because it shows how unbalanced the Doctor has become. The Fifth Doctor’s costume does suit Colin Baker’s Doctor. The costume that he chooses for himself is ugly. There is no polite way of putting it other than by saying its ugly.

The relationship between the Doctor and Peri is very different to anything that has come before this. There is very little in the way of niceness in this episode. This is highlighted by the fact that the Doctor strangles Peri. Moments later the Doctor decides that he and Peri are hermits. Colin Baker is superb in this episode. He goes for it from the very moment. The only downside come with the cliffhanger because Hugo Lang (Kevin McNally) is pointing a gun at him and Baker’s reaction isn’t the greatest. However for this first episode, I am willing to look to one side on this. Nicola Bryant does very well in this episode keeping up with the manic pace of Baker. Peri hasn’t really had the best of starts since she joined the TARDIS but Peri must be made of stronger stuff.

The business between the Doctor and Peri is easily the best stuff in the episode and actually in the story. I found the scenes between Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant  to be entertaining and maintained my enjoyment. When they aren’t on screen however I find myself being totally bored with what was going on. Things got worse when Mestor appears but there will be more about that later on. As opening episode go, this has some good stuff and some bad stuff. Thankfully the good stuff is so good it makes me feel slightly better about the bad stuff. Sadly this wont be the case but at least I can be comforted with the idea that the madness that is going to continue in the remainder of the episodes.