Day 61: Crater of Needles

It's quite a poorly directed episode, this one. There are multiple ways that the direction of this just doesn't work, for instance the Zarbi themselves who, unlike the Daleks who were able to glide into rooms with a sense of menace, decide to dash about the place in a panicked mode, high pitched beeps frequently coming from them that completely fail to give any sort of menace to these creatures. Them there's the alien environment itself, which, whilst other episodes are content with just showing otherworldly sets, here vaseline is spread over the camera lens to create the impression of an alien atmosphere. Also, it fails to give an impression of what the hell is going on, making it difficult to distinguish characters from eachother, particularly when you have characters that are under strongy similar costumes. And I haven't even got started on the Menoptra!