Day 494: The Androids of Tara Part 3

A fun part of this story is the character of Count Grendel. Played by Peter Jeffrey, he is the villain of this story. The character is clearly evil, making no attempts to hide this fact. He wanders around the story, making attempts to become the King by killing various people and acting like a villain straight out of children's cartoon. This can be seen, for instance, in the ending to this episode which features him wandering into the Doctor's hideout under a flag of truce, in an attempt to get the Doctor to change sides, then leaping over a bench to capture Romana and ride away on horseback. In other stories, this character would be a little disappointing, as we might want a little more nuance in the role of villain, such as those found in the stories of Malcolm Hulke. But in this story, we can excuse this, because we've already bought into the idea of this being a simpler, lighter story. In this case, the Count falls perfectly into the role for which we expect him to, being your typical cartoon villain. Essentially, we allow the villains to have fun in their role because we're allowed to have fun watching it. And what's a fun adventure serial without a clearly evil villain to face?

Day 493: The Androids of Tara Part 2

So this episode revolves around doppelgängers. We have the fact that Romana is the spitting image of the Princess Strella of Tara, hence she is captured for nefarious purposes. We also have the titular androids, who are constructed to be living doubles of various people to perform various tasks when their original is otherwise indisposed (read: incarcerated). This is something that should be nothing new to the audience, this sort of story is relatively common (indeed much of this plot is lifted directly from the novel The Prisoner of Zenda), and it's nice to see Doctor Who take a science-fiction spin on the tale.

It's also important to note that The Prisoner of Zenda is hardly a dark piece. But the series realises that, and so we get a lighter, simpler adventure story, instead of the terrifying Hammer Horror style tale that we got with The Stones of Blood. This can be seen on location, for instance, as the sun brightly shines through the countryside portraying a far happier story than what we've previously had.

This brings me to the major point that I want to make about Graham Williams and to an extent his current script editor, Anthony Read. Both bring stories to Doctor Who. They don't necessarily have to be dark stories, or stories to send the kids scurrying off behind the sofa, instead, they just have to be well crafted stories. More often than not, these stories are fun as well, being filled with great characters, razor sharp dialogue, and can easily be remembered by the young children watching. For these reasons, I count the Graham Williams era as one of my personal favourites throughout Doctor Who and you can find no better reason to enjoy it than in The Androids of Tara.

Day 492: The Androids of Tara Part 1

So a new story starts today. I could write about the design work, the search for the Key to Time, the costumes, the acting or all manner of things. But this opportunity will only come around once in this entire voyage, and I need to talk about it. So today, we're going to look at the Taran Wood Beast.

The Taran Wood Beast only appears once in Doctor Who, in the opening section of The Androids of Tara. Its role in the story is small: menace the Doctor's assistant, Romana, and then be shooed off by the evil Count Grendel. So, for an appearance that small, why do I want to dedicate an entire entry to it?

The reason is simple: the design is one of the most unintentionally funny monster designs in the history of Doctor Who. It straddles the line between cute, and vaguely terrifying, whilst remaining somewhat unconvincing throughout. The fact that it only appears once in the story seems to reinforce the fact that the production staff realised that they had a bit of a failure on their hands and so they had to shoo it away as quickly as possible.

And yet I love it. It's something that makes me smile, mainly because it comes out of nowhere and fails to completely menace the audience, instead making them burst ought into unintentional laughter. It's for that reason that my twitter profile (@ComeOnAce) is an image of the beast, as is my iPad's wallpaper and various other bits and bobs. I even fondly remember waking up and realising that I'd had a nightmare about the Beast a couple of years ago, and smiling to myself that my subconscious chose one of the least frightening Doctor Who monsters to terrify me. And above all else, I'm fairly certain that it appears in the music video for Always by Erasure. Why not see for yourself?

Day 491: The Stones of Blood Part 4

This episode sees the story take an interesting turn. Previously it had been a conventional horror tale with monsters attacking the Doctor and co., whilst they try and figure out their grand plan and a means to stop them. But then, at some point in the story we visit a prison ship trapped in hyperspace and the story begins to change tack, instead becoming a legal drama. Now, it's not so much about the Doctor having to fight the terrors of the Universe using only his wit, he instead is forced to clear his name and forgo an execution through using his wit. It's a change in the direction of the story that I don't really enjoy, in part because it entirely sidelines Professor Rumford and K9 who have easily been two of the best characters in the story. It also doesn't really build on what has been done before, with the monstrous Ogri and the druidic influences all falling by the wayside in favour of some legal computers. The story is still good though, despite the sudden change in direction, but you can't help but shake the feeling that things might have been better without the change in tack.

Day 490: The Stones of Blood Part 3

There's a strong variance in tone throughout this episode. On the one hand, there are some absolutely hilarious scenes (this is, incidentally, the second story in a row to feature some truly laugh out loud Physics jokes, The Pirate Planet chose to make a gag about the law of conservation of momentum, here we get a joke about Einstein's theory of Special Relativity). You've also got a villain who appears to be covered in silver paint, Tin Man style, hamming up every scene that she's in and the monsters are some fairly unthreatening rocks. But this is contrasted very easily with some moments of absolute horror that occur throughout the episode. The aforementioned rocks may be unthreatening, but this is only a half truth. In actual fact, they can be quite threatening, such as in the scene where they advance on some campers and drain their blood, meaning that we hear their screams as the life-force is sucked out of them, see their previously flesh hands replaced with that of a skeleton and recoil as the screen fades not to black but the altogether more discomforting red. It's an interesting juxtaposition to view in the story, as it quite clearly wants to be horrific but it wants to have fun whilst doing it and make it fun for the audience. This is a fine balancing act to manage, and I give them props for trying, but there's obviously room for improvement as the series continues.

Day 489: The Stones of Blood Part 2

Continuing the trend of lovely characters in this series, this story brings us Professor Amelia Rumford. She's a professor interested in studying the titular stones, not because they are made of blood, but because there exist several discrepancies in surveys done of the area regarding the stones, particularly concerning things such as their positions and how many stones are in the area at any given time.

But that's not the reason why I wanted to talk about her. Instead, I wanted to talk about how gleeful a character she is. She's clearly into her senior years, and yet she approaches every situation that she encounters herself in with a strong amount of adventure, as she rides along on her bicycle ready for work. She takes everything that they do in her stride, whether it be the fact that her assistant has turned out to have lived for well over 500 years, or that this mysterious Doctor person has turned up with a robotic dog. It's this enthusiasm that makes her so likeable as a character, and it certainly makes me feel a little bit happier every time that she's on screen.

Day 488: The Stones of Blood Part 1

This episode surprised me, and in more ways than one. I've only seen it once before, around four or five years ago, and my memories of it are fairly hazy. I remember the basic story structure, one or two stand-out scenes and a couple of supporting characters but aside from that I remember virtually noting about this story. I realised this when one of the 'monsters' is revealed towards the end of Part 1 of this story. Not only had I not recalled that this 'monster' was revealed at the end of Part 1, I had also entirely forgotten that this existed. So when it was revealed, I was at first incredibly confused. I stared at the screen for what felt like an age, trying to figure out what was happening. Then, the design of the 'monster' slowly began to sink in. The mask in particular came across as quite frightening, and I began to feel a little bit scared. It's nice to know then that Doctor Who can still surprise and scare the viewer, even on second viewing. So I'm kind of looking forward to the rest of The Stones of Blood. Because if it can surprise me this way, then I eagerly await to see what other surprises lay dormant within this story.

Day 487: The Pirate Planet Part 4

The main villain of the piece is, oddly enough, not the Pirate Captain. For all the shouting, bluster and generally acting like a Doctor Who villain, he is not in fact the person in charge. Instead, he acts as a front for his nurse, secretly the evil Queen Xanxia, a woman who is generally kept to the background in scenes, but slowly throughout the story moves to the foreground until the audience begins to realise that she may have more power than she seems. Again, this shows that Adams is familiar with the way in which the series works in that we know how to spot villains in stories, and thus by adding this small plot development, the story becomes massively more interesting.

Indeed, it also makes the Pirate Captain more interesting as well. It is slowly revealed through this part that he is not an entirely willing sub-ordinate to Queen Xanxia, and indeed the reason why he has been collecting the planets and storing them is to form a massive trap for the Queen. It's disappointing that much of this is revealed in exposition between the Doctor and Romana though, as it feels like it needs a scene where the Captain reveals his true colours to our heroes and we can feel more sympathy for him.

But that doesn't mean that the story doesn't do this in other ways. The Captain has had, throughout the story, one man at his side, his assistant Mr Fibuli. The Captain appears to dislike Mr Fibuli throughout the story for various reasons, such as things not running as efficiently as they could have been. But when Mr Fibuli dies halfway through this part, we see a moment of sadness on the Captain's face. He acknowledges him as a good man, and then proceeds to attempt to take down Queen Xanxia single handedly. It's a simple quiet moment that reveals much about this previously one-dimensional character.

And this is really only scratching the surface when we come to The Pirate Planet. Through various time constraints I haven't been able to talk about things like the Mentiads, the Polyphase Avatron or the vast array of Physics jokes throughout the story that made me laugh far too much. This is actually a fantastic story, and thankfully it won't be the last work we'll see from Douglas Adams in Doctor Who.

Day 486: The Pirate Planet Part 3

There's a scene in the centre of this episode that sticks out completely as the highlight of the story. The Doctor has been kidnapped by the evil cyborg pirate Captain and is led around his domain. The key stopping area is his collection of planets, planets which he has mined by de-materialising his own planet from where it currently is and re-materialising it around another, slightly smaller, planet, then crushing it for all that it is worth. A fantastic idea, both on the part of Adams and on the part of the Captain, but the Doctor is perplexed. A fair chunk of these planets were inhabited, and the Captain destroys them, it would appear, without thought. The Doctor asks the Captain in a rage "What's it for?!". This works on different levels. For a start, it shows that the Captain is clearly a maniac, conquering worlds if only to look at and appreciate them, not realising the lives that have been destroyed in order to get his small amount of appreciation. It also works because Adams is playing with the notion of the Doctor Who villain. The Captain is so one-dimensional in his approach that he doesn't even have a fully fleshed out motive, and Adams sees fit to play with that idea, revealing his inadequacy to the full audience. On top of all that as well, it's a scene with a fantastic performance from Tom Baker, showing that his performance is very easily one to be appreciated.

Day 485: The Pirate Planet Part 2

The Pirate Planet does succeed in certain areas. One such area is the way in which it uses the Doctor Who mythos. You can easily tell that Adams has seen the show before, because he is able to play with some of the common tropes of the series. For instance, the story plays around with jellybabies an awful lot. Famed for being the sweet of choice for the Fourth Doctor, previous appearances in the series have been generally put at brief one-liners. In this case, Adams is able to use them in such instances as a distraction for a guard, by having the Doctor throw the bag in such a way that the guard goes to investigate, only for the Doctor to sneak past. By including things such as this, it shows that Adams knows how the series works, and put a bit of effort into making what happens on screen to be recognisably part of the series.

Day 484: The Pirate Planet Part 1

We begin this new story with a new writer: Douglas Adams. A name which is known to millions of people worldwide, famous for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dirk Gently, and a vast array of other projects, it would appear that at one point he wrote a bit of Doctor Who on the side. It's interesting to watch this episode then, seeing how this fantastic writer started out. To be honest though, this episode has a fairly normal beginning. We've got a bit of a mystery with a planet that's disappeared, there's a cyborg pirate, a group of psychics, and the streets have precious gems lying about the place, but aside from these things, the great ideas that characterise Adams's later work aren't present, instead we get ideas that for any other writer would be rather good. Perhaps it's just that we've been spoilt by having experienced better things from Adams such that we don't fully appreciate what has been laid out in front of us. Still, it's only Part 1 and I'm sure that there will be bigger and better things to come as The Pirate Planet continues.

Day 483: The Ribos Operation Part 4

When you look at the final part of this story, things become quite sad. Binro the Heretic is brutally shot down by the villainous Graff Vynda-K. Later, the catacombs where the major character are hiding collapses, causing the right hand man of the Graff to die, making us sympathise with the Graff for the first time in the story. This, in turn, makes his coming insanity as he goes forth, attempting to kill his guards and anyone else in his way, more tragic, and so we feel quite sorry for him as he comes to his inevitable downfall.

This all makes this story feel so much better though. We come to realise just how much we've cone to appreciate these characters when bad things happen to them, as we realise that our time on the planet Ribos is coming to an end. But we've had a very good time though, with this story easily being one of the very best stories we've ever covered on the blog. And it leaves the following story with a very tough act to follow...

Day 482: The Ribos Operation Part 3

"One day, even here, in the future, people will turn to each other and say Binro was right"

Binro the Heretic is a man who we meet in this episode. He believes that the stars in the sky are not ice crystals, but they are Suns, just like Ribos' own Sun. He also believes that there can be a scientific explanation for how the seasons change, because of the way in which the planet rotates around the Sun. He backs this up with measurements that he has made, of the movement of the stars. These views prove to be unpopular, and so he is cast out from society and left to live as a cripple in a dirty room.

He meets Unstoffe, one of the secondary protagonists, though, and offers him a small kindness. He explains his story to Unstoffe, and is pleased when he discovers that Unstoffe has an open mind, welcoming the idea that these scientific developments could be true. And then Unstoffe reveals that, not only does he believe that Binro is right, he knows that he is right. And more than that, he comes from another world, just like Binro hypothesised about. And that in the future, the world shall realise that Binro was right. And it makes Binro immeasurably happy.

This is, for my money, the greatest scene in the history of Doctor Who, as we see a face of true happiness created from a simple act of kindness. It's not a large moment in the story, but that doesn't matter as it's a beautifully heart-warming moment, and sticks out in an already spectacular story as the absolute highlight.

Day 481: The Ribos Operation Part 2

When I last watched this story, I was still somewhat adjusting to my surroundings. We'd moved house at the start of the year, and my room now lacked the necessary space for my much enjoyed digital alarm clock. Instead, I was content with my mobile phone to act as an alarm clock, meaning that each morning I was greeted with a sickeningly chirpy selection of beeps to let me know that it was time to get up. Around the time of re-watching Ribos, it was beginning to get on my nerves and I was in desperate need of a change.

I rarely talk about the music of the series in this blog. It's largely due to the fact that this blog is written, rather than audio, meaning that unlike dialogue, or to an extent direction, it's difficult to effectively describe what is heard on screen, although there is also the fact that it rarely jumps out to the audience as something really special. The Ribos Operation is different though. We have a simple leitmotif that comes throughout the episode, reflecting the time of day as the story passes. At night, where the story begins, the leitmotif is quiet and subdued. On screen as well, the lighting is dark, giving the impression of a civilisation that's about to go to bed. Come morning in Part 2, however, and we get a ritual where the lights are turned on. The music reflects this by being loud and majestic, with horn instruments and a pipe organ playing, making you feel as if an entire civilisation and all its wonders have awoken ready to start the new day. Kudos to Dudley Simpson, the composer, for this then, it's one of my favourite pieces of music in the entire series.

Indeed, I loved it so much when I rewatched it, that I pulled my phone out of my pocket and recorded it. A few adjustments on the settings and my new alarm clock was set. As Ribos awoke, so would I. Gone were the chirping noises that got me out of bed, if only to turn them off. Instead, I had a majestic piece to wake me up, steadfastly encouraging me to go out and seize the day. It's another fantastic part of The Ribos Operation that makes me happy every time I experience it. And this isn't even the best part of the story...

Day 480: The Ribos Operation Part 1

Around five hundred days ago, I was quietly figuring out how this journey would take place. I'd created spreadsheets that would tell me when I would be watching each episode, casually thought of what I would write for certain episodes when I came to them, and created a set of rules to keep me on track for this odyssey. One such rule was simple: no skipping ahead. I am not allowed, aside from brand new episodes and under special circumstances, to skip ahead and watch an episode until it comes around on the blog. With that rule in mind, in late 2013, as the blog was about to begin, I watched the last Doctor Who story I would watch before the blog would begin: The Ribos Operation.

This is, to be perfectly blunt, one of my all time favourite Doctor Who stories. It's a a story built on a fantastic idea: the guardians of chaos and order are at war and the White Guardian, in charge of order, has employed the Doctor to seek out The Key To Time, an all powerful object that can control the entire Universe. But we choose not to focus on that completely this story. Instead, we look at a simple tale of an intergalactic con-man trying to trick the powerful Graff Vynda-K on the planet Ribos. You could view this as a disappointment, but that would ignore the very simple fact that this story is relentlessly fun. Every other line is a joke, and when it isn't a joke, it's being played so well by the actors that you just want to spend more time with them. From the Doctor's new assistant, Romana, who for the first time is someone better than the Doctor in terms of intelligence, but lacking the Doctor's experience, to Garron and Unstoffe, one being a larger than life con-man, the other his constantly put-upon assistant, every single character in this story is one that I enjoy, making me want to truly live in this world and meet these characters. And we've barely begun with this fantastic and beautiful story.

Day 479: The Invasion of Time Part 6

There's several things to dislike about The Invasion of Time. This episode spends much of its time in TARDIS corridors, which look suspiciously like disused hospital corridors and not the futuristic setting that we could only previously imagine about. The Sontarans aren't that good as villains, generally wandering through the corridors and not doing much to threaten our protagonists. And that's to say nothing of the infamous scene where a Sontaran attempts to engage in pursuit, but ends up tripping over a chair and almost falling into a pool. There's also the fact that Leela leafes at the end of this story. There's virtually no build-up to this event, and there's virtually no time spent on it as she leaves. Oen second the Doctor's leaving, the next we discover that Leela's staying. It's hardly the heartfelt goodbyes that we've experience for Jo Grant or Sarah Jane Smith. All in all, this story isn't that great.

And yet I absolutely love this story. The scope is impressive, dealing with two separate invasions of Gallifrey. We discover more history of the Time Lords, and their inner workings, making the story feel like a peep behind the curtain of the series' history. Take, for instance, the De-Mat gun at the end of the story, where we discover one of the greatest weapons in the history of Gallifrey, something so dangerous that it is kept hidden from every single member of the Gallifreyan race, even the President. This depiction of Borusa is fantastic as well, being a wry member of Gallifreyan society who respects the Doctor but still thinks that he's a bit of an idiot. And above everything else, this story is fun. It's an incredibly easy story to enjoy, and actually makes me look forward to the next couple of stories, because Doctor Who is going to be a relentlessly fun series from now on. And tomorrow, we reach a moment that I've been waiting for for around 500 days...

Day 478: The Invasion of Time Part 5

The Castellan's a fun character in this story. In The Deadly Assassin, the role of Castellan was given to Spandrell, as played by Geroge Pravda, and provided a good sense of justice to the piece, being able to let go of any prejudice if the evidence suggested another outcome. The new Castellan is Kelner, who is remarkably different. He's a man who instantly seeks authority and sucks up to it, at first following the Doctor and his every move, then following the Vardans and their every move and now the Sontarans and their every move. It's fun to watch this character try and remain in some degree of good stead, no matter who his ruler is, thanks in no small part to Milton Johns, the man who portrays him.

Now Milton Johns is an excellent actor. We've encountered him twice before on the blog, once in The Enemy of the World, and another time in The Android Invasion. He plays good villains, consistently making characters that you just constantly detest. Now, when I first watched The Invasion of Time, four or five years ago, I didn't really know about Milton Johns the actor, only seeing the Castellan as an intriguing character. But then I watched the behind the scenes documentary and my jaw instantly dropped. I rushed to the DVD cabinet, pulled out a disc and quickly put on an old TV show I used to watch. I paused the credits, in some degree of shock. Milton Johns, it turned out, also appeared in a recurring role in the series The Basil Brush Show. His role was much the same as his Doctor Who roles, being the villainous landlord, a slimy creature that is instantly detested by all who watch him. To me as a child, I enjoyed watching the character, and I was overjoyed when I realised that he appeared in Doctor Who. So hats off to Milton Johns, one of my favourite supporting artists in the history of Doctor Who.

Day 477: The Invasion of Time Part 4

The true nature of the Vardans are revealed in this episode. Instead of being the malevolent and admittedly powerful pueces of tin foil that they purported themselves to be, they are instead a geoup of slightly weedy looking men. It's actually kind of a funny idea, because it shows that even though these creatures may have the power to take over Gallifrey, they don't really look all that terrifying. That said, the reveal of their appearance as something that isn't that menacing is somewhat ruined by the fact that their first appearance is in all the glory that tin foil brinngs.

But the Vardans are defeated, thanks to the work of the Doctor, Leela, a few Time Lord allies, and of course K9. Thus ends a fairly enjoyable adventure on Gallifrey in The Invasion of Time. Except of course, it doesn't. The cliffhanger to this episode rightly stands as one of the great shock cliffhangers in Doctor Who history. Just when we suspect that all is right with the world, we discover that the Sontarans have invaded Gallifrey. It comes completely out of nowhere, and kicks the story into a higher gear ensuring that the viewing audience is keen to tune in for the real conclusion to The Invasion of Time.

Day 476: The Invasion of Time Part 3

So the tin-foil Vardans are actually more dangerous than they look. They have telepathic powers, which effectively means that any form of resistance that can be summoned up can immediately be stopped. It's a great idea behind these villains, as it gives them an aura of menace and fear, just through looking at the responses from various characters such as the Doctor, where he will just blindly be forced to follow them without putting up any sort of resistance. By virtue of the fact that we learn the true nature of the Vardans, we also learn that the Doctor isn't really evil after all, which allows for the story to go on a different tack. Where once before we were in a fairly interesting story as we didn't know what the Doctor's plan was at all, now the secret has been revealed (that he was forced to play along by the Vardans) it removes some of the interestingness of the original story, turning it back into a fairly standard Doctor Who story. Still, at the very least, it's got some good ideas in it, and we'll get to see the conclusion of this story tomorrow as this Invasion of Time comes to a climax.

Day 475: The Invasion of Time Part 2

The cliffhanger to this episode reveals two things. One is that the Doctor has become well and truly evil, with no explanation, as he personally spearheads an invasion on Gallifrey by the Vardans, after banishing Leela to outside Gallifrey. It's a nice idea, well played by Baker, and introduces an element of uncertainty into the character of the Doctor that can hopefully engage the audience to continue watching to see whether the Doctor has truly been evil all this time.

The other thing the cliffhanger introduces unfortunately overshadows much of the rest of the episode. And indeed, much of the rest of the story. The Vardans have spent much of the story so far being voices, adding mystery and a touch of menace. When we finally see them, however, it's revealed that they are tin foil. Actual tin foil. I'm not entirely in a position to show a picture of them at this moment, so you'll have to take my word for it, but the monsters are literally tin foil. There are often complaints that Doctor Who appears cheap, and this is certainly true when you look at the Vardans. Fortunately, the ideas that the series has are generally excellent, and tomorrow when we begin to look at the modus operandi of the Vardans, we'll be able to see that maybe they're more than just tin foil.

Day 474: The Invasion of Time Part 1

This episode features a rather nice novelty: at no point in the story are we fully aware of what the Doctor is intending to do. He hides information from Leela, wandering about Gallifrey and being incredibly odd about what he's doing. We've never really seen the Doctor like this, so it makes for interesting, and occasionally disconcerting viewing, to see him act so strongly out of character. Nowhere is this more apparent than the scene where he meets with Borusa, where he will occasionally scream his lines out, as if in pure rage, and then return to a softer voice. A lesser actor would not have been able to make this scene work, however Baker makes us feel unsettled, as we see the Doctor doing things that we never really expect him to do. It's a strong opening for this episode, and gives me hope for the rest of this serial.

Day 473: Underworld Part 4

Today I occasionally felt as if the world was conspiring against me. Between having a long day at University, facing the wrath of an oncoming cold and having some minor computer issues, today hasn't been that good. To top it all off, I had significant problems whilst watching Underworld today, meaning that I ended up having to stop and restart it around four or five times. It doesn't help that Underworld is, to be perfectly frank, completely awful.

The blue screen sets occasionally cause logic to be defied as we see K9 float in mid air. The direction is poor, such as in one scene where we hold on the Doctor and Leela for five seconds more than we needed to, presumably to pad the story out a bit more. The writing is poor as well, where Baker and Martin succeed in ideas, they fail in other aspects. Orfe has a pacifying ability that I honestly don't recall him using beyond the first episode, wasting a perfectly good and useful concept. Jackson, when preparing to leave, promptly forgets about the Doctor and Leela, then when K9 reminds him, he suddenly cares deeply about their plight, showing a lack of character consistency within the same scene. The villains all look identical, meaning that it is completely impossible to tell which one is talking at any point in time. The above wouldn't matter so much, were it not for the fact that the villains decide to have conversations amongst themselves at various intervals throughout the program. And this is just the start of a long list of problems that I have with this story.

But my major problem is slightly different. When I first watched Underworld, I was 15 or 16. For some reason, I actually enjoyed the story a great deal. And so when I watched this story again, I was hoping every single day that today would be the day that it would get better. I already planned out in my head that today's blog entry would be about how I still liked Underworld, despite all its problems. And there are things to like in it, there's a cracking scene in the middle of this episode as the Doctor faces off against the Oracle. But this is not enough to get around the fact that Underworld is just a very poor Doctor Who story.

Day 472: Underworld Part 3

There's no getting around it, on screen Underworld is a failure. Granted, that's not entirely it's fault. The series has suffered a bit of a lack of budget, which means that it's difficult to afford things such as sets. Thus, the decision was made to have half of the sets replaced with blue-screen, or Colour Separation Overlay, which means that everything looks incredibly fake. It also restricts the camera, meaning that much of what is seen on screen is static, making the story feel remarkably dull.

And it's not just that, the cliffhanger to this story ranks in my mind as the worst cliffhanger that we've ever encountered. To summarise: the Doctor and Leela are hiding in a mine-cart, someone pushing a mine-cart falls over (incredibly unconvincingly) and a mine-cart (that almost certainly doesn't contain the Doctor and Leela) is emptied in a crusher. It doesn't give any sense of peril, instead it just feels like the episode just ends. This isn't helped by the limited direction from Norman Stewart, most likely due to the issues mentioned in the first paragraph. But by watching this story, it's becoming increasingly apparent that this story really is very poor indeed.

Day 471: Underworld Part 2

This story is an adaptation of the old myth of Jason and the Argonauts. It concerns, as did the original tale, of a group of heroes on a quest to find a lost object. The tale is littered with references to the original story, with characters called things like Herrick (as in Heracles) and Orfe (as in Orpheus), which acts as a nice touch, and rewards the vigilant and well-read viewer. It's also a good idea to use this story as a basis, as the original story has survived for so long due to being a good story. Thus, if you're going to steal plot ideas, it makes sense to steal from the best.

You can also add to this that young kids will tend to enjoy these tales of Greek heroes, and may thus be interested in watching stories that act as adaptations of some of their favourite legends. I can testify to this, as I was one of those kids. I loved Greek mythology as a kid, and to some extent I still do, but as a kid looking through Doctor Who The Television Companion I saw the story Underworld, clearly recognised the names and I got excited for the story. I have a suspicion that I saw the episode on VHS from our local library, however I have virtually no recollection of it. But the fact that I was keen to see it is testament enough to this story, that it should grab a young 10 year old's imagination, showing that this story has certainly got something in its favour.

Day 470: Underworld Part 1

As first episodes go, this isn't that bad. Bob Baker and Dave Martin, writers of this serial, are always keen to bring ideas to the series and here they provide them in spades. Take, for instance, the cliffhanger. We have a spaceship's mass, as it is too large, attracting small pieces of debris, causing the ship to quickly become buried alive as various rocks and asteroids form a surface around it. It's a fantastically cool idea, and one that is particularly well realised by the visual effects crew for the series. 

Indeed, it's not often that we praise the work of the visual effects department on this blog, but it's something that should really happen more often, because they consistently provide fantastic models or special effects that are instantly believable. There's often talks about the wobbly models made of egg cartons that feature in Doctor Who, but these are rarities, as we have had consistently good models for the past 450-odd episodes and I am sure that we will have even more as the series continues.

Day 469: The Sun Makers Part 4

The Sun Makers is an interesting story, as it appears to directly advocate for a revolution. We get an oppressed society that is encouraged to rise up againt their oppressors by the Doctor, which they do with aplomb. One of the highlights of the story, for instance, is watching the development of the character Cordo go from a mild mannered character to a ravolutionary fanatic, joyously proclaiming the need for revolt.

There's another interesting scene where a group of civilians, after Gatherer Hade (the secondary villain for this story) tells them off for being on top of a building. They respond to this by picking him up and throwing him off the building. They follow this by some gleeful cheering and laughter. What's interesting about this is it has an underlying question: 'is this too far?'. Hade was a minor character, relatively inneffectual. Did he deserve to be punished? Yes, but to be killed is another matter entirely. And it's more than just killing him, we are supposed to rejoice in this death, which seems to me to be a step too far. This is coupled with the fact that only moments later we see the Doctor cheerily saying goodbye to the rebels, and wishing them well, even though it's blatantly obvious that they have been killing people left, right and centre.

All of this encourages discussion of whether these actions were justified or not, making the story more interesting as it allows for a conversation to be set up amongst viewers, directly engaging with the audience and showing that Doctor Who is still a strong piece of television.

Day 468: The Sun Makers Part 3

It's interesting to look at the role of Leela within this story. In previous adventures, she has been fairly attached to the Doctor, i.e. they both tend to be together throughout the story. This is different here, where a series of events causes them to be separated for much of the story. What this means is that we can appreciate her character more as she is on her own, instead of appreciating her chracter in relation to the Doctor's. Take, for instance, the scene where she meets the villainous Collector. Instead of getting a scene where the Doctor is able to be witty towards the villain (perhaps with a number of supporting characters in the background) we get one that is just Leela against the villain. This scene shows Leela at her best, being combative against the Collector, stating that his time will come in no uncertain terms. It's in part due to the writing from Robert Holmes that the character works so well in this scene, however I would put a lot of it down to Louise Jameson, the actress playing Leela, who brings true strength to the part and never makes us doubt that Leela is fully capable of killing most of what can be thrown at her. In short, Leela is a wonderful character, and The Sun Makers is an excellent demonstration of why this is the case.

Day 467: The Sun Makers Part 2

The Doctor Who production team is quite clearly faced with a dilemma. K9 is an incredibly popular character, and is appealing to children massively. However, his introduction wasn't completely planned, which means that scripts don't necessarily need K9 within them to work. In Image of the Fendahl, for instance, he only appeared in the opening and closing scenes, thus meaning that no rewrite would be necessary for the story. This story, on the other hand, has had the advantage of time, and can thus work K9 almost seamlessly into the plot. Thus, he spends much of Part 1 waiting for the Doctor, and much of Part 2 wandering around with Leela and occasionally attacking guards. Whilst this may very well appeal to children, because of the sheer novelty of seeing a robot dog on TV, it doesn't necessarily appeal to a wider audience, particularly as K9 had a fair bit more character within his opening story. All of that said though, the opening scene in Part 1 featuring K9 is incredibly fun, as he plays chess against the Doctor, and gives hints that the writers haven't forgotten of why we love this tin dog so much. So whilst K9 might not entirely succeed at the moment, I think it's fair to say that we wait and see whether he'll turn out to be a good dog.

Day 466: The Sun Makers Part 1

Instantly, this story is different from what preceded it. Instead of being in the gothic surrounds of Image of the Fendahl, we find ourselves in the future, with vast cityscapes and intruiging designs. As we proceed further into the story, we realise that the contrast between the two episodes is far deeper than just design. Whereas Image of the Fendahl was a dark and frightening piece, this story comes across as funnier, and more satirical. We have entered a world where tax and bureaucracy reign, reflecting the real world as these are common parts of our society. Robert Holmes, the writer, then uses satire and comedy in the story to make a point, given that he has grown to be fed up with the taxation system for a wide variety of reasons. We thus get a series of great exchanges of dialogue such as this:

"These taxes, are the like sacrifices to tribal gods?"

"Well, roughly speaking, only paying taxes is more painful"

The above dialogue both makes fun with the situation whilst revealing the honest point behind the joke. It's nice to see comedy being used in Doctor Who in such a way, to both make a point, and make laughter at the same time.

Day 465: Image of the Fendahl Part 4

There's a ridiculously dark moment in this episode. Maximilian Stael, one of the scientists, has been instrumental in summoning the Fendahl to Earth. Too late, he realises his error as the Fendhal begins to destroy his cohort, turning them into Fendahleen monsters. The Doctor runs to Stael and attempts to help him, at which point Stael asks for a gun. The gun is not for the Fendahl, he explains, but rather himself. The Doctor gives him the gun and as he runs off we hear a gunshot. The next we see of the room has Stael's lifeless body on the ground.

It's a shocking moment, and one that reflects the serious nature of the story. We don't see the character get eaten by a monster or zapped with a death ray. Instead, it's a simple gunshot, something that is far more commonplace in society, and thus making the event feel more real than we'd normally expect for the series. It's darker as well, I can't recall any moment prior to this story that we've had suicide before in the series, because it's such a dark and serious issue. All of that said, it does improve the story. We now have a greater appreciation for the threat that the Doctor and co. are facing, and we also are able to see Stael redeemed in his death, that he realises the error of his ways, even if it is a little too late for him.

There is a complaint to be had though. It makes the ending of the story feel slightly more 'off'. Instead of seeing the Doctor and Leela dealing with the aftershock of the events, or even the surviving supporting cast reflecting on what has happened, everyone seems to just move along with their lives. It's a by-product of the fact that at this point in time, each story is self-contained, meaning that we don't get much of a chance to see the ramifications of the stories as they unfold. But that's only a small complaint in an otherwise excellent and frightening episode of Doctor Who

Day 464: Image of the Fendahl Part 3

It was odd to re-watch this episode. It's one that I've seen three or four times before, so I was already familiar with much of how the story would play out. This story was, in my opinion, an above average Doctor Who story with some nice horror elements, and would probably scare thousands of children, but wouldn't do much to me, having come to it first when I was a teenager and am currently re-watching it as a young adult. And yet, the ending to this episode left me feeling a bit, for want of a better word, scared.

It wasn't the occult sacrifice nor the killing of Dr Fendelman that made me feel a bit uneasy, it was instead the reveal of the monster. Again, a lot of this is due to the way in which the cliffhanger was composed. For instance, the camera at the end chooses to hang on the monster for as long as possible, making the audience feel slightly uncomfortable as you see this horrific beast lurch towards you. Similiarly, the writing includes the small fact that the characters's legs cannot move from the monster, a slightly unnerving idea that festers in the back of the mind. But these things, whilst unsettling in their own right, weren't the thing that really scared me. For that, we have to go to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and look at the sound produced for the episode. As we see the rear of the monster approach, we hear a horrific squelching sound in crystal clarity, as if it's right in front of you and coming towards you. It unnerved me enough that I was left somewhat frightened by the cliffhanger, and the experience leaves me with a new found appreciation for this story, and as we approach the conclusion, I hope that it will continue to deliver at the high quality that it has done previously.