Day 251: The War Games Episode 8

Time Lord. Two simple words that will grow to mean so much, and they're finally uttered here. It's a chilling moment because we get glimpses of the Doctor's past. We realise that the War Chief recognises him as a fellow member of his race. And most importantly of all, the series acknowledges his past. We find out that the Doctor is a fugitive, and that he ran away from his people. This may have been mentioned in earlier stories, but we have to remember the number at the top of this post: 251. That's how long it's been for the series to finally get around to acknowledge the history and begin to explain what happened before we met the Doctor. And this isn't the hints that we'v received in previous stories, this is full on explanations of the sort of things that happened. Clearly, Doctor Who has now crossed a threshold. There is now no going back, and the series will never be the same again.

Day 250: The War Games Episode 7

Day 250. "How are you going to spend your post for Day 250?", I hear you ask. Will you do a retrospective on how far we've come? A piece about how you are now beginning to associate moments of your life over the past 3/4 of a year with 1960s Doctor Who episodes? Or are you just going to talk about Philip Madoc?

Well, Madoc is a wonderful actor. Remember when I did The Invasion, and every other entry was about how brilliant Kevin Stoney is as Tobias Vaughn? Well Madoc is possibly better than Stoney, because of the menace with which he operates. Madoc stays still, relying on his ability to stare down anything that comes in his way. He exudes menace, as the audience is left in his complete power. Whereas Stoney was a joy to watch because he was an incredibly enjoyable villain, here we don't so much get enjoyment as we get fear. Pure unadulterated fear from a man staring at you.

Day 249: The War Games Episode 6

There's a remarkably nice scene that features Troughton in this episode. Not that one though, his son, David Troughton. He is holding one of the aliens hostage, and performs his role well. He exists to be used, to be hypnotised and forced to fight his fellow resistance members. It's a well directed and written scene, in particular the end which features him shooting his captive just as his captive has taken control. It shows how tense the story is when the viewer is fully left with the impression that the story will go in a new direction after this point, and the sight of seeing the officer straighten up as he is shot comes as such a relief to the viewer that, even though the plot hasn't moved forward, we still feel just as invested in the story.

Day 248: The War Games Episode 5

This is the episode wherein not much should happen. We're now too far away from the beginning of the story for us to receive set-up and we're too far away from the end to receive much conclusion, meaning that we are instead left with the plot continuing to move along without introducing too much. And yet, whilst the above is true, there is still stuff happening. We get hints of how the villains are carrying out their scheme, about how they are using time travel with the help of someone who apparently knows the Doctor. And most importantly of all, we get to see the War Chief (who has provided them with the time travel technology) and the Security Chief (one of the aliens who has presumably been in this from the beginning) fight it out. Their tension is spellbinding, and it provides the ultimate contrast to The Dominators, where the tension between villains there bordered on the ridiculous. Here, we see these two villains get cross at each other, whilst the audience recognises that they are both powerful. We are so drawn to their fighting that we have to tune in the following week, to just see how their relationship will develop.

Day 247: The War Games Episode 4

We settle, as an audience, into how this is all going to play out. The Doctor and Zoe are undercover listening to a lecture delivered by one of the alien scientists. Lieutenant Carstairs, an ally of the Doctor's, is brought out and re-programmed, essentially being hypnotised again. He recognises the Doctor and Zoe, but not as friends, instead as the enemy, in line with the way in which they were treated when he first encountered them in Episode 1. And as an audience, we expect that this will lead to them being captured and incarcerated for much of the next episode. Instead, it's dismissed. It's a surprising turn in this story and refreshing to see that the villains have enough sense to require sufficient evidence before jumping to conclusions. Hats off again to Hulke and Dicks for taking a plot mechanism and subverting it, keeping The War Games completely fresh.

But something goes wrong. A man, who we've seen previously to appear to be in charge, looks at the Doctor. Recognition goes across his face. Fear goes across the Doctor's face. The true cliff-hanger to this story is not Carstairs holding a gun to Zoe, instead it is this moment. Suddenly, the audience gets a sense that everything is about to change impossibly.

Day 246: The War Games Episode 3

One of the best things about The War Games comes about because of the circumstances under which it was written. Doctor Who's previous producer, Peter Bryant, did not have the best of luck when it came to producing Doctor Who, meaning that several stories fell through and other stories would have to be lengthened to conpensate. Which meant that the new script editor, Terrance Dicks, was left with the commission of a four part serial that was quickly extended to a ten part serial. How does he, along with the other writer of this serial Malcolm Hulke, write such a piece? By eking out the plot such that we are drip fed each new bit of information which changes the entire way in which the story is moving along. Take, for instance, the plot as it stands. We have the Doctor and co. arriving in World War One, then discovering that a General is hypnotising the troops, then we discover that the General has futuristic technlogies, then we discover that there's more than one war occurring in this place ie there's also the American Civil War and a Roman battallion amongst others. And finally in this episode we meet the people who appear to be in charge of the whole thing, but we still don't know their motives or their true powers. This could have all been told in one episode, but by stretching it out to three all of these revelations are allowed to be brought to their true size and we get a strong sense of the scale of the events. It's a strong benefit of the longer form of storytelling and one that puts The War Games in good stead.

Day 245: The War Games Episode 2

I'm a great believer in the proverb that states that when you embark on a great journey, you do not look ahead to what you are yet to complete, instead look at what you have already achieved. It's something along this lines that we'll be dealing with here. The character of Jamie has certainly developed since we encountered him for the first time all the way back in The Highlanders Episode 1 He's become a far more well rounded character. Previously, he would jump into fights and that's it. He was a simpler character, essentially bound within the confines of the four episode story in which he was introduced. and yet he is able to break free of these bonds and join the TARDIS. In doing so, he becomes far more likeable, as well as clever. When he meets a Redcoat in this episode, his primary function is not to fight him but to interrogate him to discover more about his predicament. Similarly, he doesn't get out of his gaol cell by just fighting the guards, he uses cunning to escape. All in all, it's a remarkable development for this McCrimmon, showing that as far as Highlanders go, there can be only one.

Day 243: The Space Pirates Episode 6

"No bug-eyed monsters!" I am grateful and no not just because Facebook has recently undergone the spam email plague that I though would have passed by 2005 and hence suggests that I should (mini rant over), but because this command, these mere three words has dramatically augmented my life.

This instruction by Sydney Newman ordered that "Doctor Who" move from sludgy cesspit of 50's pulp sci-fi into what we genre nerds refer to as "The Golden Age". But how, you ask, has this changed my life?  Whilst this rule was quickly transgressed with the introduction of the Daleks, the tone set here was for the writers to write sophisticated and mature stories; essentially minus femme fatales, strong male heros and minority inspired villains; and this is why the Space Pirates exists and yes, despite the fact I've attempted to drag it through a lot of mud and faeces (I'll leave it up to you to figure out what faeces I'm referring to) I am truly grateful it exists.

In this, the last episode we see a far more engaging side of the story in which real characterisation shines through and the characters such as Clancey, Madeleine and our beloved Doctor begin being people and not rigid, bumbling, expositionals that have been set up so far (mind the neologism). Watching (well mostly listening) Madeleine performing a functional role other than the previously discussed standard 'I will do anything for X, but I won't do that' morality crisis changes the dynamic and evokes some genuine emotion from both the other characters and the responder. Yes Milo remained a bumbling idiot but the man performs under pressure, he is capable of shifting the tone of the story into action and forces the Doctor back his continually innovative, deus ex machina-y self, having to fix a spaceship, and defuse a nuclear war head all in under an hour (yeah I'm pretty sure that's more than the sum total of the previous 5 episodes) . I seriously believed the writers didn't want to write this or felt that a shorter format may have been  better with such and adventurous tale.

Now back to being grateful. The dialogue we see here is of the calibre that make a decent Doctor Who episode, the suspense is held well in the music and the characterisations are comparitive to other more modern narratives of the same thread such as the previously mentioned "Firefly". For I feel this episode may have been the inspiration, well the base inspiration came from some absolute tripe pulp sci-fi but this story told in this much more mature format is, as far as I can find, the earliest big example of a space western. The Space Pirates sets the tropes of the subgenre, it has taken trash and made it gold, so I can now go and read "Neuromancer" whilst watching  the Serenity blast across one screen and a Zurg rush occur across the other all because of the critical foundations set by this story, in part inspired by those three words.

Some of the greatest (and my favourite) exemplars of science fictions are at least in part space westerns, the genre as it is today and my love for it (including Doctor Who) would not have congealed in this way had it not been for the development of this particular subgenre, which is why this story annoyed me so much at the beginning, but as it progressed and it's strengths appeared I could see the importance of this story. It's kind of funny how Doctor Who inspired me to watch Doctor Who, how very fitting.

Unfortunately all this must be disregarded for I was wrong, I was terribly, terribly wrong...

 ...For Clancy is a far better analogue to Jar Jar Binks.

With love and it's been great, Mitch.

Day 244: The War Games Episode 1

Well, I'm back. I'd like to begin this entry by thanking Mitch for all that he did over the course of the couple of days. Readers of this blog will not be aware that for reasons that I won't go into, Mitch was called into the same Robogals trip that I was at short notice, meaning that he was watching The Space Pirates in hotel rooms with poor internet (hence why he wasn't able to post episode 5 on the right day and is still yet to post something about episode 6). So once again, thanks Mitch, although The Phantom Menace is still a criminally underrated film.

So, The War Games. There is so much in here that I feel that any attempt to speak about how excellent episode 1 is will pale in comparison to the sheer brilliance of the actual product. Scene setting is done through actions, not through words. We know that there's some mystery occurring but we've got too little of it to actually know what it is exactly, meaning that the viewer has to tune in next week to find out what's going on, especially given the shocking cliffhanger at the end of the episode.

But there's one thing that caught my eye in this. Written on a wall, barely noticeable, is the phrase "Roll on death, demobs too far away", roughly meaning that the soldiers in the WW1 trenches in which this story takes place are ready to die, because of the fact that no help is going to come and they're never going to get out of this mess. It perfectly illustrates the climate in which this story is set and serves as a premonition of the story that is to come...

Day 242: The Space Pirates Episode 5

I open this evening with two apologies. The first is my failure to post last night which occurred due to some extenuating circumstances that have transpired over the past few day. The second is an apology to Thomas for what you're about to read.

To my amazement today's instalment reminded me more of an episode of a favoured TV show and less like observing the paint on a freshly painted blue locomotive dry. We are plunged into immediate and thrilling action of murder, that's right murder, I speak nonchalantly merely as a matter of perspective. Here we have what now is a third party post murder morality crisis cliché whereby character A entrusts character B for personal gain only to later regret said decision with something along the lines of "No, I can't let you do this." There is a certain juxtaposition I can make within a certain children's television programme, but I'll get to this later.

Here I feel much more comfortable, the Doctor, when imprisoned, leaps into the usual Macgyver-esque solution whilst supplying us with that old-timey Brit wit and humour. I say this is comforting because it is the one part of the episode that whilst being samey is different. The quirkiness of the doctor actually forced a smile and made the dwindling fire flicker a little brighter and seeing that superconducting brain strategies is close to pure beauty, let's be honest. Unfortunately this does not correct the problem at hand, this continue to build on the aforementioned correlative where a Mr Hatt supplements the story with cute British quirks, more on this in a moment.

The final point I'd like to raise is the villains scheme, which sees the Doctor once again being placed in mortal cliffhanging danger, yep sounds like we have all the pieces in place for an episode... another generic episode. The train of progression is stunted by the box car of the expected, which I feel is the key here, as stated this may be a matter of perspective but alas I feel this may not be the case. Again this simile to tank engines inspires a further comparison in regards to the generic, a how to in the creation of standard and repetitive fictions.

So now on my the big moment, my concluding comparison, as whilst this episode present a change from the set standard of "Not a lot" (self quote boom!), the resounding ehh that results draws me to analogue with  Thomas the Tank Engine. For the severe lack of repeatability and lack of any emotion makes me feel like the writer just didn't care and this trickles down the production line. Which is, OF COURSE, the antithesis of Thomas the Tank Engine. Perhaps in my last guest appearance I'll get down to proper analysis, though alas I feel the un-inspiration of this narrative is somewhat contagious and the continued lack of innovation is infectious that may continue to plague me, but hey, I'm trying here!

With love, Mitch.

Day 241: The Space Pirates Episode 4

Hi everyone!

Having to write on a story from part way through is much like... So on that note I shall try and avoid comparison to Firefly, so instead I shall rely on somewhat of a stretch comparison to a wonderful piece of extended, albeit unnecessary, exposition that some would like to call a refer to as a movie (It's at this point that Thomas has let out a large sigh, followed by the phrase "here we go") "The Phantom Menace". This episode featured probably 3 comparisons of merit, so shall we?

1. When we have Troughton offering some needless comic relief with the playful line "I like drawing pins" I cannot help but think "Mesa caused mabbe one, two-y lettle bitty axadentes, huh?" Uhhmmm... Sorry was just clearing my throat.

2. The story continues along the now established path of not a lot. I counted at least 5 scenes that were essentially useless; providing us with everything from some of the slowest dialogue progression I've seen in my life to a set of scenes spanning nearly a third of the piece depicting the pursuit of one of the pirate craft only to have it end in a simple re skinning dupe on the pirates behalf. Now surely this sort of wasteful use of screen time and hiding in a terrible disguise past intelligent beings  would never make it into a Lucas film? Oh, that's right it did, three times, in one movie... Oh well, moving on.

3. Here we have a story which sees the Doctor and companions take on a bit of a minor part in the narrative, now I am not opposed to this, "Blink" for example is a truly exemplary piece of television and this  feature is used effectively. Here however, much like The Phantom Menace, we have characters which are otherwise strong and well establish plot pieces of the extended arc just loosely tossed aside to the betterment of no one and who are more or less there to nibble at the ankles of the protagonist. Yes that's right I just compared the Doctor to a piranha, well time to go have a nice cold shower...

Overall I feel like I am being harsh as this is as Thomas has address quite a dull narrative but is not nearly as bad as The Phantom Menace (I think the sledging is out of my system now, well the next 3 days) and alas I feel this narrative can be better analysed through comparison to the now well establish character archetypes, tropes and motives of Sci-Fi Westerns most notable firefly and perhaps I'll reach something of this tomorrow. But as implied earlier this comparison appears like something, that at this stage is rather superfluous, kinda like writing this entire post in the HTML composer.

With love, your temporary blogger Mitch.

Introducing Mitch

I can't explicitly recall whether I've mentioned this before, but I'm involved with a group known as Robogals. We go around to schools and teach young girls about science and engineering, in an effort to combat the lack of women in Science and Engineering. Several months ago, it was raised that we would go around Australia for a couple of days to travel to schools that we wouldn't necessarily get to visit from our normal base of operations. I put my hand up to be part of this trip, meaning that I made the decision to put the blog on hiatus for a couple of days, as We've Got Work To Do (title drop!). Until I had an idea. You're all probably bored of reading my thoughts and my thoughts alone, so for the remainder of The Space Pirates, a friend of mine will take over the blog, whilst I go away on work. His name's Mitch, and I'll let him introduce himself:

Hi everyone I am Thomas’ temp for a few days as he endeavours to starve himself or this consistent stream of data that we’ve come to call home, whilst he gallivants around spreading the gospel of Robogals.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I am Mitchell McLeod and I tend to focus most of my time on living, lets be honest it’s something we all focus on, a lot! But aside from a terrible sense of humour I study Computer Engineering and Physics at UON first and foremost.

2. When did you first become aware of Doctor Who?

I became aware of the existence of Doctor Who around the age of 12, alas I didn’t take to it until much much later.

3. First episode?

I believe my first full episode was “The God Complex”, which in my opinion is somewhat of a masterpiece by Toby Whithouse and would love to write a piece on it sometime in the future (nudge nudge Tom).

4. Favourite Doctor?

Ahhhhhhhh, man, well as has been made apparent this is somewhat biased by my late adoption of the series. Buuutttt I have taken some time to review some classic episodes as well as the entire AV anthology of modern series… twice… in a year… yeah…

...So at the risk of presenting myself as tumblr incarnate I have to say Smith, being my first, holds a special place as I relate particularly to his eccentricity and vigor for life, or so I like to think. Having said that,Tennant is the doctor, end of story.  

5. Favourite companion?

Yeah I just can’t answer this, and I don’t know why.

6. Favourite writer?

Moffat. I am quietly convinced that Moffat is not human, but that’s a different story.

7. Favourite episode?

Hmmm…. tough one. I could (and have) go on about this for hours (no QM was done that day) but in the interest of brevity I’ll say either “The Girl in the Fireplace” or “A Good Man Goes to War”.

8. What else do you do with your time when you aren't wasting your life in front of TV/computer screens.

Ahh… what do you mean, I don’t understand the question?! I was not aware of alternative to staring at a screen.

However if you mean in my spare, un-uni and un-robogals time then I game and read and watch TV shows, at the moment I am working on launching an online entertainment venture called The ShadyMuffins with some of my friends which will include let’s play style gaming, a machinima called “Its Time” (bit of Who influence in there) and a weekly podcast, our website will go live soon and we will start releasing content thereafter.

Thank you everyone for having me, I really hope I can uphold the quality and conscience of Thomas during this experience!

Day 240: The Space Pirates Episode 3

So, where does Firefly succeed where The Space Pirates fails? It's clearly in the dynamic that makes up the series. Firefly has inside of it a rag-tag bunch of people, all of whom are instantly likeable. They feel like a family aboard the ship, and Joss Whedon has created it such that the viewer feels as if they are part of their family as well. There's a strong sense of belonging associated with the series that makes it what it is. This isn't present in The Space Pirates, which decides to leave people on their own for the most part. Milo Clancy, the product of a one night stand between Mal Reynolds and Foghorn Leghorn, is on his own in his little ship, which means that we don't really have the warmth that exists with Firefly, only awkwardness as we see a man wander about complaining about his solar powered toaster. The funny thing is that Doctor Who clearly knows the secret of Firefly. Think of all the base under siege stories that we've seen over the Troughton era. All of them featured an ensemble group of characters that we grew to enjoy the time of. The power of the ensemble is not to be underestimated, which makes me think that maybe even this blog needs a bit of ensemble in it...

Day 239: The Space Pirates Episode 2

Dullness continues as the viewer comes to a sudden realisation. Not the viewer at the time, but the viewer in the present. It's because this story concerns a society where some people went out into space to find wealth, only for the Space Corps to come out and introduce law and order. These people who went out in the first place remain untrusting of the Space Corps, but continue on their business in their ramshackle ships. It's essentially the same plot as Joss Whedon's Firefly. Seriously, Robert Holmes created Firefly before Joss Whedon! It's not the same as Firefly though because it's unsufferably dull. So tomorrow, I'm going to look at why Firefly succeeds where The Space Pirates fails, as well as introduce a new element to this little blog.

Day 238: The Space Pirates Episode 1

You want to know why Troughton is so good? Why Jamie and Zoe are some of the best companions that we've ever had, and will ever have? Because they can make things interesting. The Space Pirates takes an interesting way of starting the adventure, by waiting 15 minutes for the TARDIS to arrive. Those 15 minutes rank as some of the dullest in the history of Doctor Who. It doesn't help that this epsode no longer exists in the BBC archives and I'm watching a reconstruction to compensate for this fact, but it just draws to attention how unexciting this episode is. Things happen but there's a lack of emotion that can engage the audience making it dull. So very, very dull. When Troughton and co. turn up, they're able to inject some life into this story, but it's too little too late as we realise just how dull this is going to be.

And now, the drinking game! I don't like to talk about episodes before I've watched them, however reputation states that The Space Pirates is going to not get more interesting. So take a drink every time you read the word 'dull' over the next six days. I'm sorry in advance for your liver.

Day 237: The Seeds of Death Episode 6

Unfortunately the series finale of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is not as strong as the Ultron two parter meaning that I have to talk about The Seeds of Death once more. But it's not actually that bad an episode. I mentioned very briefly about Michael Ferguson's direction being quite effective in the last entry, but that was a large understatement. Whereas I will praise other directors for their use of camera angles, or the performances that they get out of their cast members, Ferguson is a master of cutting from one camera to another. Take, for instance, in the last episode, where we transition from a scene on Earth to a scene on the Moon. Ferguson achieves this by having a monitor on Earth showing the events on the Moon, then zooming in to the monitor. It then near seamlessly transitions from Earth to the Moon giving a sense that the events are concurrent and making the story feel more complete. You can also see Ferguson's work when the Ice Warriors are attacked, as he cuts violently from various camera angles, creating a disconcerting effect for the viewer and showing the effect that the attack is having, something that could not just be achieved through just turning the picture negative. All in all, it's a good story, mostly due to Ferguson's direction.

Day 236: The Seeds of Death Episode 5/Ultron-5/The Ultron Imperative

Michael Ferguson had a particularly good scene in this where we only see the characters in shilouette. It's quite effective.

Yes, I know that the above was terrible. However, there's a reason for that. A few weeks ago, I got a craving to re-watch a wonderful television program called The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I've been binging on episodes on and off for the past couple of days, and today I reached my two favourite episodes of the series: Ultron-5 and The Ultron Imperative. They are both incredibly strong and draining episodes, and they are all that is going through my mind, hence I'm going to babble on about them for a bit here. I don't think that this will become a regular feature, but we'll see how well the series continues and whether I'm able to prepare myself for what's coming ahead.

To begin, some background. The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (EMH) was a cartoon series that I happened upon one day when I was about 16 or 17. With the Avengers fresh in my mind after their very successful films, I watched it with interest. It was unlike most other shows that were around of the same genre at that time. Plot arcs developed, and characters did as well. The characters presented weren't just stereotypical heroes to save the day, they also had other facets to them, in particular Hank Pym AKA Ant-Man/Giant-Man.

Hank's portrayed as a pacifist with a keen eye for science. When fighting Wonder Man in Everything Is Wonderful (another excellent episode), he both tries to talk Wonder Man down instead of fighting him directly and at the same time geeks out over Wonder Man's powers, intrigued by their capabilities. His character was one that instantly related to the 17 year old me. Everything about him seemed to mirror my life, and I grew to have the character as a hero.

Things change when the episode Ultron-5 comes along. The story begins with the Avengers fighting the Serpent Society. Hank tries to reason with them, but everyone else just wants to fight. Hank's attempt to solve things peacefully ends with the Serpent Society getting away and Hawkeye being injured as a result of Hank's actions. Hank, therefore, realises that he has no place in this world and so he quits the Avengers. Already I admired this character for their morals and their belief in what is right for the world. He's someone who hates the idea of punching people to solve problems and so when he is forced into this eventuality, he realises that his life needs a change. He talks this over with Ultron, a robot that he created. Ultron is a peacekeeping robot that Hank developed to try and rehabilitate criminals. So far in the series, Hank has had to reluctantly teach Ultron the concept of violence, in order to help fight a time travelling conqueror known as Kang. Ultron then knocks out Pym and proceeds to attempt to destroy the Avengers.

What follows is some incredibly intense action. It's shocking to see our heroes fail at almost every opportunity when attempting to attack Ultron, Eventually, Ultron is defeated by Pym teaming up with the Hulk to destroy Ultron's body. Once again forced into solving problems by punching people, Pym is depressed. But not just that, because he's had to fight the thing that he created to create peace and a peaceful society. All of his attempts at peace have ended in failure, and it's all his fault.

Ultron survives the encounter as The Ultron Imperative begins. The action again is incredible as we see Ultron effortlessly take over the world's nuclear missiles and simultaneously launch them at Earth, aiming to destroy the planet. The efficiency of Ultron is terrifying, showing how hopeless everyone is in this scenario. And at the heart of it all, Hank Pym lies. He solves the problem by using logic, telling Ultron that, as he is based on humanity, he cannot destroy all humanity as that would involve destroying himself. Ultron shuts down, in a mirror to the beginning of the two-part episode. Whilst before Pym was unable to save the world by talking things through and coming to an agreement, here he has finally achieved his goal. It's not enough though as he is now constantly reminded of how it's his fault. Not just from his peers, but from himself as well. The episode ends with him walking away from the Avengers, and although the character does return in future episodes, Hank Pym never rejoins The Avengers.

It's a draining episode. It's intense at every angle and brings to a head tension that has been bubbling away between the characters over the past series. And at the heart of it all, a 17 year old who had finally found a character that was exactly like him on TV had his heart broken as he saw his favourite character get destroyed over the course of 45 minutes. It's my favourite episode of The Avengers: EMH, and I wholeheartedly recommend that you watch the whole series. Meanwhile, I've got Work to Do!

Day 235: The Seeds of Death Episode 4

One of the most exciting scenes to occur in this serial is when the Doctor is being transmatted into space, thus killing him. Tension is high and it is increased by Michael Ferguson's directing, which is able to kick this story up a notch and make it somewhat memorable. What's really noteworthy, though, is that Troughton doesn't actually appear in this scene. Instead, a body double is used for him as he was on holiday. This shows how well the story has been edited, given that Troughton's disappearance, in the hands of another script editor, could stick out like a sore thumb, however Terrance Dicks is able to allow for the character of the Doctor to still be central to the plot, just less active than the other characters in the story

Day 234: The Seeds of Death Episode 3

One of the interesting threads in this story is the fact that Brian Hayles, the writer, seems to be encouraging people to not forget the past. This is seen in the fact that Earth is stated as being completely reliant on the system known as T-Mat, a transmat system. It's so reliant on this that it has abandoned all other forms of travel, meaning that once the T-Mat is down, then Earth's only hope is some old rocket-ship that they've got lying around. Logical problems with the story aside, the sentiment is sound. Perhaps we as a society do throw away the past too often, failing to realise the fact that sometimes the old ways can co-exist with the new ways. It's a nice idea, but to be honest, it could have been put a lot better as we delve into the halfway point for The Seeds of Death.

Day 233: The Seeds of Death Episode 2

One must consider why the Ice Warriors were brought back. Because when they first appeared, in The Ice Warriors, they didn't come across as one of the more innovative villains that had appeared in Doctor Who so far. They were essentially just another alien species that we've encountered on our wandering through the fourth dimension. They haven't yet had anything to make them stand out amongst other villains, unlike the Cybermen, which represent a twisted view of humanity's future, or the Great Intelligence, which has a being that is unlike anything else encountered before. The Ice Warriors' titular story wasn't even interesting because of them, it was instead interesting because of the scientists working on the station. So why were they brought back? Clearly, it's because either the writer, Brian Hayles, had a soft spot for his creations, or the production office happened to have the costumes and they wanted to get their money's worth out of them. But there's also the opportunity for the characters to be expanded upon, and plus the audience already knows them so there's already a connection that has been made to exploit for dramatic purposes. So perhaps anything that I've got against the Ice Warriors is just me being cynical, and there could end up being something there that I'm just not seeing.

Day 232: The Seeds of Death Episode 1

The major thing that I took away from this episode was in the way in which the villains were revealed. As has been mentioned several times on this blog, the tradition is to keep the monster hidden for the majority of episode 1, with the episode 1 cliffhanger being the revelation of the monster, sending children scurrying down behind their sofas. This episode finds an interesting spin on that scenario. It chooses to keep the monster hidden, not by keeping them behind a door, but instead through carefully choosing the camera angle at which the action is shot. Suddenly, all we have to associate the monster with is its voice, which hisses orders at its captives. It's an entertaining spin on the concept as it allows for enough action to occur for the story to continue, whilst simultaneously building tension about what is going to happen due to the monsters attacking. It also means that when the monsters are revealed, in this case the Ice Warriors, it means that the cliffhanger is not relying on the memories of the children watching to recall a monster that last appeared over a year ago.

Day 231: The Krotons Episode 4

There's honestly not too much to say about this serial. I mean, there probably are some interesting points to be made, but my two themes that I can draw upon are either the fact that there's some people involved with this who are going to become incredibly influential in the future of Doctor Who, and that this will officially be the last Doctor Who story that I see as a teenager. And the teenage idea will mostly be full of me talking about how much influence Doctor Who has had on my life, which can fit into any story, so I might just leave that for the future and focus on the future careers of the writer, director and script editor of this story.

Robert Holmes wrote this piece. He will, in future, become a stalwart writer for Doctor Who, writing some honest classics that really show how amazing this series is, one of which contains what is probably my favourite Doctor Who moment of all time (we'll deal with that when we come to it). Watching this, his first story for Doctor Who, it is difficult to see what we will see in him in the future. It's nothing particularly special, but it has some interesting ideas. Creatures who use mental power to travel, for instance, and they subjugate lesser beings not by force, but by education. It's stuff like this that shows that there might be something in this writer.

Also of note is David Maloney, the director. This is his second impression on the series, after handling The Mind Robber. This doesn't give him a lot to work with, but he's still able to make it watchable. Take for instance, his scene where the Krotons are destroyed. This is symbolised by having them fall on their backs, helpless. A lesser director would have just shown them flailing about, and yet Maloney is able to instead take a shot from their perspective, showing them helpless and lessening the inadvertent comedic value that would have been created by shooting them from another angle.

And finally, we come to the script editor, Terrance Dicks. He's technically the assistant script editor, yet this story is basically his baby. He's the person who brought this story to the production office as a good idea, and he is also willing to take good ideas and make them work. One of the problems that apparently persisted with the current production team is that they would often nurture one idea, then realise that it wasn't working for them and chuck it out, leaving them with no ideas. Dicks is able to take ideas and help them along, making them work in the process. He is able to take ideas and make them into functional pieces of fiction, meaning that under his guidance, Doctor Who will go from having a more variable quality, to being more stable and more productive in the future.

Day 230: The Krotons Episode 3

Let's make a comment about the titular Krotons, shall we? They're an interesting foe because of the way in which they represent society, or to be more specific, colonial society. They're obviously the ruling classes in colonial areas, as witnessed by their strong South African accents and their willingness to educate the masses. As they do this, however, they tend to avoid areas that might cause problems in the future, such as Chemistry which would teach the Gonds knowledge of how to produce the chemicals necessary to destroy them. It's an exercise in censorship, and draws attention to the ideas that people instill in future generations, where they avoid contentious issues because people cannot be trusted with this information.

Also of note is a comment made by one of the Gonds where they state that they would prefer to discover this information for themselves, and that they are tired of being spoon-fed information by their oppressors. What this draws attention to is the way in which we teach people. Some people like to just spoon-feed information, and they believe that the only way to learn is by rote. However others prefer learning through discovery, through using previous knowledge to build pathways to new knowledge. These two methods have their attractors, however it quickly becomes clear which one serves a society better as a whole, and which one should be used in education.

Day 229: The Krotons Episode 2

I have to be honest, I was worried after finishing The Invasion. I remarked afterwards that I has been essentially on holiday with the blog, as if nothing interesting happened then I could always fall back on Kevin Stoney playing Tobias Vaughn as a point of interest, as every scene that he was on screen was virtually perfect. But I needn't have worried, as I'd forgotten that the Doctor is played by Patrick Troughton, who easily makes the Doctor so absolutely wonderful. Take, for instance, his encounter with a Teaching Machine. In a single scene, he is able to be confident and then turn on a coin and become hopeless. It should feel annoying, seeing this old comedic idea of the confident man being hopeless, and yet in the hands of Troughton, he makes it into a masterpiece, playing the fool so very well. I'd recommend watching the Krotons just for this scene, as it just goes to show what a wonderful actor Patrick Troughton is.

Day 228: The Krotons Episode 1

This story marks a return for what we've come to know as 'normal' for Doctor Who after 13 episodes of something different. Already, it feels somewhat disappointing. We've landed in another quarry, we've got an oppressed society and the Doctor is about to go and solve everything. There is, however, enough to keep us interested in the story. For a start, it's using the interesting premise whereby it appears that the smarter of the oppressed people, the Gonds, are being killed by their oppressors. This is coupled with the fact that the oppressors, the Krotons, control all information that the Gonds receive and teach them a deep fear of disobeying their oppressors and we are able to see how this society functions. And not much else happens in this episode beyond this society being set up. It's nice to receive this time for things to be set up, but I prefer the method of The Invasion or The Mind Robber, where we suddenly get thrust into action. It makes for far more interesting viewing and shows through comparison the problems inherent within Doctor Who at the moment.

Day 227: The Invasion Episode 8

It's worth mentioning how different this serial has been to previous serials. It stands out amongst everything that it is surrounded by, with the introduction of a military presence and an action packed finale, as well as gratuitous amounts of action thrown in throughout the past eight episodes. This means that we have to talk about the future (read: I've decided to not talk about Tobias Vaughn for the umpteenth time this serial). This is unquestionably a pilot. In a television sense, we normally think of pilots as ways for spin-offs to occur, and a widening of the brand of the particular series. This, however, is not a pilot for a spin-off, rather a pilot for Series 7. Doctor Who has been steadily decreasing in viewers, and so a radically different approach has been suggested for the series. There will be less stories like The Dominators, where we fight aliens on alien worlds, and more like The Invasion, where the Doctor and his UNIT friends fight alien menaces on Earth. It's a new direction for the series, and this serial has certainly been incredibly enjoyable. We'll just have to see how things pan out. And let's not forget, Series 7 is still a little while away, which means that We've Got Work To Do!

Day 226: The Invasion Episode 7

The inevitable happens and the Cybermen turn on Tobias Vaughn, proclaiming that he is not required for the invasion and that they will proceed without him. This is positioned at the end of the episode, forming the cliffhanger as we deal with the fallout of this plot development. What's important in this plot development is how little it affects our heroes. We already expect the Doctor to save the day, with or without Vaughn in his way. Jamie's gone off sick (read gone on holidays) and Zoe is busy defeating the Cyber-fleet with the Brigadier. The major person who this affects is Vaughn himself, which indicates that the audience is now expected to care for him and his motives. And despite the fact that he's the villain, we overwhelmingly do. He's charismatic and interesting enough such that when he's on screen, we pay attention. Compare him to the villains for The Dominators, for instance. For a start, I can't actually name them, so that's an indication of how much they've stuck in my mind. When they fight, we instead find it an annoyance, whereas when Vaughn fights with his lackeys, we can sympathise with the lackeys easily because we know that Vaughn is the stronger man. And when we see terrible things happen to the Dominators, we feel glad because the bad guys have been defeated. But with Vaughn, we feel the same sympathy as we have grown to respect him as a character and so we want to see him succeed, despite the fact that he is evil. In short, we are invested enough in the character of Tobias Vaughn that when the cliffhanger rests on him, we overwhelmingly want to discover what will happen to him.

Day 225: The Invasion Episode 6

And it would be foolish of me to ignore one of the most iconic moments in the history of Doctor Who that occurs in this single episode. But which one? Firstly, there's an extraordinary scene where Tobias Vaughn goads his captive into shooting him, only to reveal that he has been partially cyber-converted, and the bullets have no effect on him. It stands out in the episode as a wonderful scene as it shows the extent of control that Vaughn has over the situation. It begins with the audience realising the fear that he can instil in everyone, such that even if they have a gun in their hand, they still are unable to shoot him, due to his power over them. It means that when the gun is fired, we're shocked because it represents a new direction in the story, we as an audience know that the villain cannot die this early and this inconspicuously, so when it is revealed that he is part machine, we're left with realising that this was all a ploy, and we appreciate Vaughn's power afterwards. It's the most definitive villain moment in the history of Doctor Who so far, and possibly of all time.

Another all time great moment occurs as the Cybermen's plan is put into action. We see them burst out of manholes in London, and advance through the streets, most memorably walking down the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. It is the epitome of the idea of the ordinary becoming extraordinary as we see alien monsters walk down an iconic landscape in the public consciousness. These are steps that are well known, and so the audience already has some sort of connection to the place in which the action is happening. This represents the epitome of the idea of 'Yeti on the loo in Tooting-Bec', where suddenly monsters can be hiding in everyday areas, probably causing children to be terrified of the mundane as well as the not-mundane.

Day 224: The Invasion Episode 5

A cynic would say that the only reason that the Cybermen are in this story is because they're known quantities to the audience, and it saves having to explain to an audience who the monsters are, as well as getting a boost of publicity from having some 'celebrity' monsters. The logic follows that any monster could be substituted in for the Cybermen, and that they exist purely as lackeys for Tobias Vaughn. However, the Cybermen are used well in this, with elements to their system that can only truly be found with the Cybermen. For example, Vaughn has decided that, in order to ensure that his alien allies do not double cross him, he needs a back-up plan to fully exert his power over them. He does this by introducing emotions to the Cybermen, filling them with fear and taking advantage of their emotionless state, sending them into a panic. This fully takes advantage of the background that the Cybermen have, and it seems clear that either Derrick Sherwin or Kit Pedler sat down and looked at what the Cybermen had in their arsenal and tried to figure out which would suit the story best. It means that the villains are actually being used to their full advantage, unlike in, say, The Wheel in Space, where they were just another monster thrown into the mixing pot

Day 223: The Invasion Episode 4

This story is eight parts long, which is a bit cumbersome when you expect audiences to keep attention for eight solid weeks without getting bored. Nevertheless, writers have come up with ways in which to make the longer serials work. We'll be dealing with one such scenario later on in this series, but let's focus instead on what we've got here. The basic plot so far is that a mysterious man has taken the world by storm with his electronics company. There's some nice James Bond action as we see a daring escape in a helicopter, and there's hints of an alien intervention, but beyond that, this serial should be quite a basic four part serial, with the end of this only having a few loose ends to tie up. But the genius of this serial is to hide a key element from the plot and bring it out when things threaten to get stale, thus giving the plot a constant movement. It's akin to a magic trick, where a magician will draw back some curtains that you didn't know were there in the first place (and is that an actual magic trick? It sounds like quite a dull one in my opinion. File that one away in reasons why this blog author should not do magic). So what have the curtains revealed? What has been so immense as to change the course of the story completely? Well, it can only really be the revelation of a returning monster, which we have in this instance as we discover the Cybermen returning to our screens, after a painstakingly long 14 episode absence.

Day 222: The Invasion Episode 3

Or, we could look at the character of Tobias Vaughn, the villain of the piece. He works because he's played by Kevin Stoney, the actor who formerly played Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan. This is an absolutely wonderful actor because he is able to clearly show two radically different states of mind: calmness and rage. When he is calm, we appreciate him, being completely unflappable and perhaps the coolest character in the history of Doctor Who. He doesn't care about whether the Doctor escapes, because his plan doesn't entirely need that, it's all worked out. It would be nice if his henchman in chief, Packer, could capture the Doctor, but there's no real need for him to do so. But hiding underneath that calm exterior is a raging bull. His anger is palpable as he shouts and tears down everyone in his way. He is a terrifying figure when he is angry because we have seen the calm contrast beforehand. If all we had was the anger, then it would not be as effective due to it just coming across as a very angry man, but by having the contrast then we are able to realise the ruthlessness of this villain and feel true fear of his power.