(695) Survival - Part 3

Today is the final episode of the McCoy era and effectively the final episode of the classic era. I know technically the TV movie is the end of the classic era but this is the end of the original run. The show has changed a lot over the previous 694 episodes but it’s fair to say that its star has dimmed during the last decade despite showing signs of improvement in stories such as this one. There is something final about this episode. Ace being possessed by the cat people is something that wouldn’t have happened in previous stories.

Ace’s development is wonderfully done but its down to Sophie Aldred who continues to impress me and in her final episode she shows how underrated she has been. “This is the only home I know” is a wonderful line from Ace. It’s fair to say that Ace has been through the ringer in this season and it has been one of the successes of the season.

I like how the Master is trying to fight the possession attempt although its clearly only a matter of time. He is playing Midge to do his dirty work and this comes to ahead during a scene where Midge and the Doctor are playing chicken on bikes. Once Midge had failed he was killed pretty much by the Master. The Master seems to start off as the new more likeable Master but there is a moment where he chuckles to himself and it seemed like he was going to return back to his bad old self. When he kills Karra it seems like he is back and continues like this leading up to the big scene with the Doctor. This scene is one of my favourite in the McCoy era. It’s one that I think these two characters should have had years ago. The sword fight between Pertwee’s Doctor and Delgado’s Master in The Sea Devils lacks something compared to this one.

“If we fight like animals, we die like animals” is a wonderful line that Sylvester McCoy delivers brilliantly. It’s frustrating that the show ends just when McCoy is really starting to get into his stride. I have really changed my opinion of the McCoy era and episodes like this shows why.

Midge is rather amusing in this episode and I don’t find him very menacing at all. Things get even worse when he dons a suit and starts to act all macho in front of other guys at the training gym. The use of Midge is one of the things that doesn’t quite work but at least his involvement doesn’t disrupt the flow of the episode.

The final speech from Sylvester McCoy wasn’t how the show was due to end but when it became clear that it may not return this was added on and if the show hadn’t returned in 1996 or 2005 then this would have been a lovely way to end 26 years of superb storytelling.

I like on the production notes on the DVD that it ends with Doctor Who 1963-89, To Be Continued? There is just one more Doctor Who DVD with production titles on it so its going to be something else to get use to when the Christopher Eccleston era comes along in two days. This is a major moment in my marathon and I am really sad that I have left this era of the show. The show has had some really great stories but then again its had some really poor stories. Despite the fact that the budget wasn’t as big as it could have been and the narrow minded bosses at the BBC weren’t keen to spend some money on the show and wanted Doctor Who to achieve Star Wars type things on a miniscule budget, the show has shown that with the right kind of writing, directing and performances that Doctor Who can hold its own. Now comes the era of the show where its clear a bit more money has been spent on it and it’s the era of the big TARDIS. Roll on the one day McGann era.

To end sign off on this portion of the marathon I thought I would end with one of the greatest speeches in Doctor Who.

“There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace. We've got work to do.”

(694) Survival - Part 2

The Anthony Ainley version of the Master has always suffered a problem. Roger Delgado is always going to be the best Master and I think that the problem that Ainley has had has been the fact he was treated almost in a lighter vein than Delgado. He was never allowed to be as serious but in this story that completely changes. It is almost a completely different delivery of the character from Ainley. One such extreme example is that he has become like the Cheetah people with cat teeth and howling at the moon.

There is a fair bit of humour in this episode. There is the bit where the Doctor has been snared by Ace’s trap and is hanging upside down and then there is the dig that Ace delivers at the Doctor where she asks him if he knows any nice people. The humour in this episode is pitched just right because without it, this episode would be very different and perhaps not as strong.

The Doctor and the Master get a good face to face scene which serves to set up the plot for the rest of the story and that is the planet is breaking up and the Master needs the Doctor’s help. The scenes between the Doctor and the Master in recent serials have been mixed but never have they had the awesomeness that this one had. I would have to go back to Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado to find that sort of great face to face.

Ace has a nice/weird bonding moment with Karra (played by Lisa Bowerman). This leads to more great scenes from Sophie Aldred. The episode ends with her looking towards the Doctor and her eyes have changed. Sophie Aldred has continued to impress me with her performance not just in this story but since she joined in Dragonfire and its another reason why the decision to rest/axe is frustrating because I think that with a few more stories, Ace could have the same sort of fan reaction as Sarah Jane.

Despite the regulars impressing and Anthony Ainley holding his own, the supporting characters haven’t really made much of an impact in my opinion. The only one of the supporting characters that came even close is Midge. Midge is a character that is quite good in this episode because he becomes possessed by the cat people and the Master uses him to teleport back to Earth. I know what the character of Midge is going to do in the next episode so I find myself more impressed what the Midge in this episode as a result.

This has been another solid episode with an impressive cliffhanger. The penultimate episode of the McCoy era is another example of how good the show has been in the last year and a half. It also shows how for the first time in the 1980’s the show that it’s felt like a drama and not an enjoyable twenty-five minute bit of fantasy.

(693) Survival - Part 1

The moment has finally arrived. Survival marks the final story for Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred and the final story to be made in the UK by the BBC for 16 years. Today’s episode marks the 807^th day that Sylvester McCoy has been the Doctor and that’s five days longer than Peter Davison was Doctor. It’s rather good that the final story of the original era is on Earth in London which is the same as An Unearthly Child. I know that wasn’t intentional but if the show hadn’t returned in 2005 then there aren’t many stories better to end the era on.

One of the few things that doesn’t work in this episode is the cat that hisses. Unfortunately it just doesn’t look convincing and it would have been better to have not seen it at all. Maybe they could have got away with it just being on screen but the hissing totally ruins it. The crane shot used in this opening scene with the guy washing the car was impressive. There are some impressive scenes that have been directed well by Alan Wareing.

I cant make my mind up about Paterson. His first scene shows his a tough but firm individual. He starts off as stern but after being knocked out by the Doctor with just one finger, he loses that edge and becomes a rather more entertaining person. Hale and Pace is another example of stunt casting that people use to attack the JNT era of the show. I remember growing up watching them on a Sunday night but I think that their casting didn’t really suit the characters and just doesn’t let the episode flow. I know it’s a brief scene but apart from seeing the Doctor buy some cat food, it doesn’t really add anything to the episode. The Doctor spends most of the episode trying to hunt for the right cat. It’s almost like Perivale is so boring it has made the Doctor snap.

This story also marks the final appearance of the Master as played by Anthony Ainley. It’s the first time that the Master has been seen since 1986’s Trial of a Timelord. We don’t see him fully until the end where he is the cliffhanger. I don’t know whether people were suppose to know that its him with the extreme close up but a good attempt is made to at least hide this until it was suppose to be revealed.

The costume/mask for the Cheetah People doesn’t look too bad in this episode because we don’t see it too close or for too long a period of time. There will be more about that in future episodes but from an first glance look, its not the worst costume that has been in the show in recent years.

The planet that Ace finds herself on in the latter stages of the episode really does look like another world even though all they have done is paint the sky pink. It was clearly filmed during a warm period (a rarity in Britain) and this help in creating this new world.

This has been a very good episode with very few faults. I thought that the performances of the central characters has been one of the best things for the first time in quite sometime. I notice that I haven’t commented on the performances of the regulars recently as much as I did in the early days but they have both worked really well and I look forward to the final two episodes of this story. Wow, that’s a depressing thought that I only have two episodes of the McCoy era is over.