The Dominators - Episode 5

5.9 million people saw this final episode so it lost nearly 1 and a half million. I was impressed that the previous episode managed to get anywhere near seven million viewers. Plot wise we actually get something that looks like a plot and that hasn’t been the case before now. This story really is very dull. It was clear that they were struggling to make the story work in five episodes so what we have is four episodes of rather plodding dialogue and one episode where we get all the action. It’s a shame that we have had four episode of feeble Dulcians and squabbling Dominators.

I do like how this Doctor goes to the trouble of explaining things by drawing.  It’s done for the supporting characters but the viewer actually benefits (well I do anyway). It’s not something that William Hartnell would have done and it wont be the last time that Patrick Troughton would do this and it’s a nice way of explaining whats going on without baffling people with science. It’s not dumbing down but just including people in whats going on.

The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe reunite for the first time in a long time. It does feel like this is the episode where everything comes together and its where all the main action is shown. They manage to stop the Dominators from setting of their explosion. It’s the best episode for Patrick Troughton, Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines in this entire story. I think that it’s because there is something for them to do and everyone seems to be flying into action. There is a moment where the Doctor is running with the bomb it is clear that it isn’t Patrick Troughton doing the running as he wasn’t there during the location filming and the problem with this is that the actor doubling for Troughton is on screen long enough to see that it isn’t Troughton. A shame really.

The Sonic screwdriver makes a return after first appearing in ‘Fury from the Deep’. However this time it becomes a blowtorch. Quite the handy weapon isn’t it? Well I know that some people dislike the Sonic Screwdriver but it’s a good tool and does work in some cases.

This would be the last time that Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln would write for the show and it’s a shame that this is their final work. They did very well with ‘The Web of Fear’ and there were things to like about ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ (though it is one of the weakest Troughtons stories). I think that they could have done more stories of the calibre of Web. Morris Barry does a fairly good job. Nothing spectacular but it’s a perfectly fine story that is directed with the usual professionalism that you would expect from him.

As an episode it’s the best of the five, though that’s not a massive achievement. The problems that were happening behind the scenes (covered on the Dominators DVD) have a huge impact on the story. There is an awful lot of negativity about trying to create a replacement (a merchandisable replacement as its referred to in the documentary) a replacement for the Doctors. The Quarks were never going to be a success (easy to say in 2013 but its true) and no matter how many times I watch this story it still baffles me how anyone thought that they were going to be a success. The first story of the sixth season isn’t a very good one but its got to get better. Hasn’t it?

The Dominators - Episode 4

The information text help out again. Apparently this episode got an extra two million viewers after the last episode. Probably because people couldn’t quite believe that a science-fiction show could be this boring. It’s a shame that after the high quality of season five (yes even with Abominable Snowmen and Fury from the Deep), I am sitting through this. There is a huge tempatation to skip this story but I must stick to the path and realise that as well as the good stories we have to sit through this stuff.

From the very beginning of the episode the Dominators are bickering. However it does step up a gear providing a brief moment of tension and no sooner has it stated than it ends. It’s mentioned in the information text that director Morris Barry liked that this friction which until this episode I didn’t understand but I have to admit that Mr Barry has a point. On the subject of Morris Barry, I must say that the direction is quite good. He does his best to make the quarry shots look interesting but he does quite well here.

I’ve just noticed that Jamie and Zoe have swapped positions. Before it was Zoe with Cully and now its Jamie. I suppose its to give a bit of freshness. It means that Cully and Jamie can do the action stuff and the Doctor and Zoe can do the brainy stuff and that is the way it should have been from the very beginning.  The change of line-up means that Jamie gets to do something decent as he gets to throw some rocks at the Quarks and do a bit of running through the quarry (a bit like Peter Davison in ‘The Caves of Androzani’). Wendy Padbury’s role has been reduced since she was reunited with the Doctor and normally that would be a bad thing but I did enjoy the scenes between the two.

The story does seem to pick up the moment one of the Dominators finally appear in the Dulkin’s chamber. This is the first time that the Dominators have done anything other than bicker with each other and show why they are suppose to be the big force in the universe. Due to the fact that I find the Dulcians to be so wet and feeble, I actually find myself cheering for the Dominators. This is the first time that I have had felt any warmth towards this story which is a shame because it’s the final episode of the story tomorrow and it just seemed to be finding its feet.

The Dominators - Episode 3

The most interesting thing about this episode is that there is no caption to indicate the episode number. That’s it. I’m starting at the top of the tree and working my way down and the story is so lifeless that its downhill all the way. It’s not even going to be that long a review because nothing of any note happens and it would be slightly better if the characters were written better.

The Doctor and Jamie spend most of the time in the capsule going from one place to the next. Jamie does very little in the episode apart from prevent Cully from destroying the Quarks. This is the second story where his actions have caused problems. He does get to do a bit of shooting towards the end but that’s about as good as it gets for Frazer Hines.

Zoe spends her time moving rocks around trying to get people to rebel against the Quarks. I hate to turn this into a fashion report but quite what they were thinking when they put Zoe in that nightie. It is like Benny Hill has designed the costume and I know that there must be a thing about ‘something for the dads’ but I am finding it an irritating factor and it was at this point that I realised that the story had lost me. Despite the best efforts of Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton doing their comedy routine, there’s very little to enjoy.

The Dulcians are boring. They are so bad that I want some Daleks to come back from America and to exterminate everyone of the supporting cast. The Dulcians are wet and feeble and the Dominators are so useless that the Dulcians have nothing to worry about from the Dominators.

I’m beginning to lose interest in this story. The story was reduced to five episodes because there wasn’t enough plot for six episodes but actually there is barely enough for three. I really cant get that excited about a story that doesn’t allow the viewer/fan to pick a side and just wishes that the Doctor hadn’t landed on Dulkis in the first place. At the time of writing this, Episode 3 is currently in 199^th place out of 212. As a story its 40^th.



The Dominators - Episode 2

The bonus about watching the DVDs is that I can stick the information text and be a little bit more interesting when writing these reviews.  The first few minutes are given to who Norman Ashby was and how Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman came to write for the show. It also means that whenever things get a bit dull then you can entertain yourself with a bit of information. The Doctor and Jamie start the episode being held against a wall by the dreary Dominators and the mildly amusing Quarks. They are quite silly when the don’t notice that Jamie and the Doctor have come away from the wall and when they are seen by one of the Dominators they don’t really seem bothered. Apart from being a bit dull, another thing that is wrong with them that spend a lot of time bickering with each other. This is tiresome and does nothing to make them seem the villains they are suppose to be.

The Doctor and Jamie do their very best to make the Dominators think that they are stupid. They have some good scenes together and they work well together and its something that makes the second Doctor’s era what it is. It’s a simple relationship between an alien and a highlander from the 18^th Century. The only downside is that they are subjected to these stupid tests for the vast majority of the episode. Zoe is stuck with Cully who both go travelling and when they arrive at the city we are met with Bovern and his band of equally silly looking Dulkians. When Zoe does get into her new costume it does seem like Benny Hill has become costume designer for this story. Wendy Padbury has a good episode considering she’s stuck with Cully and its hard to believe that just six episodes it was hard to imagine that she could ever be likeable but Wendy Padbury has managed to pull this off and she has become part of the team.

The cliffhanger is quite good as it puts Zoe is danger with debris falling around her. It’s marginally better than the last cliffhanger but at least the cliffhangers were something to enjoy as opposed the other 99%. I am probably being too hard to this story but to be honest there’s nothing else to really take from this story as the good guys are a bit dull and the bad guys are being upstaged by a spikey fridge. That’s not a good combination.

The Dominators - Episode 1

This marks the opening episode of the sixth season and it’s the final for Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. It’s also the first for Wendy Padbury as a proper companion. There was a repeat of ‘Evil of the Daleks’ for viewers in 1968 so we get a bit of a reminder of this when we first see the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie. This season was the one that seemed to have lots of production problems.  The first seemed to be in this story as it was intended to be a six parter but got reduced to five at the last minute. This was originally written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln who had written the Yeti stories in the previous season and they weren’t told of this change and this was to be their last contribution to the series and also they had their names taken off. So Norman Ashby is given credit.

The story takes place of Dulkis which the Doctor has visited before and is suppose to be a planet of peace which is the same situation as the First Doctor had in ‘The Rescue’. The difference between the two stories is that this is filmed in a quarry (a classic cliché for Doctor Who) and the problem with this is that it doesn’t allow Morris Barry to do a great deal. Things don’t start well. The change between a ship landing from a glass painting to a model is rather unconvincing. It’s a shame that the first thing we see in this story is some rather lame effects even by 1960’s Doctor Who standards. Another thing that stands out was that Patrick Troughton doesn’t appear in the location filming.

The problems with this story start from the 1:35 minute mark. The two Dominators are charisma free who are boring from the very moment they are on screen. The only thing worse are the Dulcian. They should really be called Dull-cians because not only are they like a bunch of rich posh people who are trying to find something interesting to do, but they are wearing stupid ‘dresses’ and it looks like the costume budget was another thing that suffered during this season. The Quarks are probably the only thing good thing about this story and they aren’t the greatest creation. It’s like they were trying to find something that could rival the Daleks but this definitely wasn’t it.

It was something that I commented on during her debut story but it seems that Zoe has definitely developed and is the typical companion which isn’t a bad thing but she does a strange (but narratively obvious idea) where she separates herself from the Doctor and Jamie, thus allowing them to send Zoe on a different plot strand. Zoe was quite good in this and I have confidence that she will continue with this form for the rest of the season.

It’s not the best start to the sixth season and also to this story. I think that the fact that its only five episodes means that had it not being for the regulars and also the Quarks that prevent this story from being the worst that I have watched so far. In fact as I write this the first episode is currently placed in 180^th place out of 210. That puts it in the bottom 50 but as a story its currently in 40^th place (out of 44). Hopefully the next five episodes will do better but from memory I don’t think that this will be the case but at least I have got through the tough period and will be on mainly DVD’s for the next month.