Day 524: The Horns of Nimon Part 3

It turns out that, due to some poor planning, I've got work to do tonigt and so I can't really afford to write that long of a blog post. But that's not to say that there aren't interesting ideas within this part of the story. For isntance, there's the idea of the labyrinth. The labyrinth is the crux of the story of the Minotaur, being the lair in which the Minotaur lurks and from which none may return. The Horns of Nimon takes an interesting spin on this, by having it be a massive circuit, the walls of which change as various sections of the circuit open and close. This makes the labyrinth feel more dangerous and unknowable as a result. That said, the direction from Kenny McBain doesn't really help the way in which it is written. Much is made of the fact that the characters can't find their way around, but because the director is restricted to a BBC studio with not much time for recording, we rarely get to see much change in the walls, as this would require extra time to record, which they don't really have. It's a shame, as it's still a fantastic concept and could certainly be very well realised on screen at some point by something or other.

Day 523: The Horns of Nimon Part 2

One of the most joyous parts about The Horns of Nimon is the co-pilot. He only appears in the first half of the story, but he's easily one of the best parts. For a start, he makes a clear decision to shout every single line that he's given. This includes a line which he whispers, which you may not have thought was possible and yet the actor portraying him, Malcolm Terris, finds a way. This is compounded with the fact that the character feels a need to shout "Weakling Scum!" every time he encounters the sacrifices sent to appease the Nimon from Aneth, as if he's inviting the audience to say it along with him. There's also the fact that, infamously, when he's killed at the end of this episode, he falls down and rips his trousers visibly. In other stories, we would look on this as an embarrassment, but here we look on it as just another thing to laugh at in this story.

But there's one thing that sets the co-pilot apart from any other character in this story for me. In Part One, he wears a helmet, as shown below:

This makes him feel authoritative, and a bit of a menace to the various characters. But then, once he removes the helmet, it reveals a man who is quite clearly balding, with white hair. No longer is it the imposing co-pilot that we once saw, instead just a lightly wet character who is trying desperately to survive, through shouting and shouting alone. It's just another reason to outright adore The Horns of Nimon.

Day 522: The Horns of Nimon Part 1

I love The Horns of Nimon. It's perhaps the ultimate comfort Doctor Who story, one that you can just sit back and laugh with/at. We'll get into the unintentional humour in the next couple of days, but for now we'll have a look at a particular reason why I love it.

As has been mentioned previously, as a child I became mildly addicted to the Real Time Strategy game Age of Mythology, which sparked an interest in Greek myths and legends. Now, The Horns of Nimon is loosely based on the legend of the Minotaur, a beast that hid in a labyrinth to kill all prey that came forth, namely sacrifices given to the people living on the island Crete. It's an engaging story, and was good enough to make me want to see this story. So I watched it when I was about eleven or twelve, on a video borrowed from my local library. I don't remember much about watching it for the first time (which given later events in the story feels like a massive disservice to my memory), but I do recall watching Soldeed, the villain of the story who brings a whole new meaning to the idea of an over-acting Doctor Who villain, meets with a man who we shall refer to as Sydney Opera House man.

As I watched this, I laughed at the ridiculous costumes, made fun of the dialogue, and began to slowly see that Graham Crowden's performance as Soldeed was something special. And that sums up my first memories of The Horns of Nimon: having a lot of fun whilst watching it and getting the sense that this is something special.

Day 521: Nightmare of Eden Part 4

The third point about the Mandrels is the crux of the whole story. When they decompose, they decompose into the drug vraxoin. Now, vraxoin is one of the most dangerously addictive drugs in the Universe, and its appearance in this story marks a slightly different direction for the series. We're used to the series dealing with simple adventure stories, with occasional high concept ideas. The most politically charged stories have been fairly common issues, like war or the environment. But now, Doctor Who is looking at drugs. It's a remarkably adult issue, and the series should be commended for not being afraid to use it as a plot device. Its appearance means that the audience is allowed to be educated about the dangers of such drugs, in particular younger viewers, as they witness the horrifying effects of it, driving people either insane or to suicide. And more than that, the main villains are drug smugglers, taking advantage of these creatures for monetary gain.; It's all surprisingly dark stuff, that's hidden behind the jokes and bright lighting that epitomise Doctor Who of this era. But that's one of the benefits of doing this blog, that we're able to look at Doctor Who episodes and occasionally see them for what they truly are, instead of what they appear to be on the surface.

Day 520: Nightmare of Eden Part 3

So we get to know the Mandrels in this story, in particular this episode. They're fairly mindless beasts, wandering about and trying to kill various people. There are three main points to be made about the Mandrels, one of which we'll look at tomorrow, but the rest are fair game for today. The first is their design. They're not the most menacing of beasts, with far too large eyes, and bell-bottom legs that make them appear vaguely endearing. This is combined with the fact that they grapple their opponents, and almost hug them to death makes them some of the less monstrous monsters that we've seen on the series.

But this is at odds with the way in which they're directed. Frequent jump scares are apparent with the Mandrels, and we often see their destruction, such as a particularly harrowing scene where they're let loose into the passenger cabin and begin to kill various innocent people. There's clearly an attempt to make them a threat, and yet the design holds things up, making things worse for the story as a whole. But, we can still appreciate what they try to do with them, and the third point, which we look at tomorrow, will certainly change things completely.

Day 519: Nightmare of Eden Part 2

It's interesting to note how this story plays out as well. Consider the character of Captain Rigg. He's one of the first characters that we encounter on the ship, plays himself as an authority figure, and although he is not exactly trusting of the Doctor, he still acknowledges that he is someone who will be able to get the job done. He comes across as the secondary protagonist for the story, the sort of character that we'll wave goodbye to once the story is conpleted, never to see again. It's odd, then, that he is rendered indisposed halfway through Part 2 of this story. He accidentally ingests a drug, causing him to be 'high' for the rest of the episode, and if memory serves, will finally be completely disposed of later in Part 3. It shows once again that this story is evolving over time, and that we can never fully expect how the conclusion shall fully manifest itself in this Nightmare of Eden.

Day 518: Nightmare of Eden Part 1

From the outset, this story appears somewhat mundane. Two ships have collided with each other, albeit in extraordinary circumstances, and now that the Doctor has arrived on the scene it is his job to find a solution to their problem. It's an interesting start to the story then as it chooses to start with a small accident, but this is used as a springboard to other plot elements. Soon we see that a futuristic zoo has been set up on the ship, keeping animals not in cages but in crystals, and we also discover that a highly illegal drug can be found on the ship, with criminal implications for anyone who has it on board. So slowly but surely we begin to become more invested into the plot thanks to the ideas inserted by Bob Baker, the writer, and Douglas Adams, the script editor. So whilst Nightmare of Eden may seem mundane, it is soon clear that it is anything but.

Day 517: The Creature from the Pit Part 4

The fantastic thing about this story is the way in which it deals with our preconceived notions of villains. When the story begins, we can easily see that Lady Adrasta is the designated villain, shouting her way through scenes and ordering her minions about. When she throws the Doctor into the Pit to be eaten by the Creature, we therefore assume that the Creature is also on the side of evil as well. But throughout the rest of the story, we slowly come to realise that the Creature, otherwise known as Erato, may not be as evil as first thought, just a misunderstood beast that was taken advantage of by Lady Adrasta, who actually came to help the planet that the story is situated on. So when Lady Adrasta is killed at the beginning of Part 4, we're left with a vacancy for the position of villain within the story. For a moment, we suspect Erato of being up to no good, but we then realise that this is another misunderstanding, and that it is quite a decent creature when it comes down to it. This is all fantastic because the story is about slowly figuring out the motivation of Erato, and it's not afraid to avoid the cliché of having Erato be evil all along, and the Doctor to join forces with the humans to stop Erato's scheme, and instead go out and form its own story. There's actually quite a good story here, provided that you can look past the giant phallus that is Erato.

Day 516: The Creature from the Pit Part 3

When I look back on the stories that I've watched over the course of this blog, one frequently comes to mind: The Smugglers. It is perhaps the only story that I can remember virtually nothing about, due to a combination of factors including doing Uni work at the time, it being a reconstruction, and the fact that it's actually not a very engaging story.

So why do I bring this up when I'm talking about The Creature from the Pit? It's because when I look at the blog entries that I wrote for The Smugglers, it becomes obvious that not only do I not remember anything about The Smugglers now, it would appear that I did not remember anything about The Smugglers five minutes after I'd watched it as I started to write its blog entry. So there's not really any personal record of me watching The Smugglers, and any number of interesting things could have happened in it that I missed because of some overarching factor.

All of this is build-up to say that we've got a similar scenario with The Creature from the Pit. Unlike The Smugglers, I can enjoy this story, and several things stick out, such as a few side characters, the unique position that the 'monster' is put in, and the cliffhanger which will deserve a strong mention in my eventual cliffhanger analysis piece due to its framing of whether we are looking at someone in peril or a major plot development.

But all of that falls by the wayside. Because all that will be remembered about this episode is the fact that Tom Baker grabbed the 'monster' by the phallus and, in an attempt to communicate with it, blew into it.

Tomorrow, when I raise what I did over the storm-induced break with my friends, this will probably be the first thing that I shall mention. In a months time, when I complete the Tom Baker era and am looking back on highlights from each of his stories, this will be the major moment that springs to mind when thinking about The Creature from the Pit. In a year, when I look back on Doctor Who as a whole, my mind will only remember The Creature from the Pit's phallus and not the intricate story that has been woven around it.

And there is good stuff in this story. It just so happens that the Creature from the Pit has a large object that distracts our attention. Hopefully things will improve tomorrow though, as this story reaches its climax.

Day 515: The Creature from the Pit Part 2

This wasn't going to be like this. Yesterday was my first day back at Uni, after two weeks of holidays. There was a fair amount of rainfall that accompanied the entire day, but I thought nothing of it. This morning, however, I awoke to radio announcements that the storm had increased to a cyclone, being the biggest storm in at least eight or so years. So my day was increasingly spent listening to emergency forecasts, occasionally doing bits and pieces of Uni work on the home computer, and watching the destruction unfold via images on social media.

So when I watched The Creature from the Pit, my mind wasn't exactly in the right mood to engage with the story itself. I was left wondering about what would happen if we lost power, if the Uni remained closed for the week, if the tree in our backyard fell down onto the house. It's a testament to the writing of the story that I was able to vaguely focus on what was happening, with the combination of Fisher and Adams providing some incredibly witty dialogue. But there's still an overarching sense of something else distracting me.

And then this happened. I was half tempted to just post this image without any explanation as my entry for today. Because it stands firm and upright amongst everything else that's around it. It erects a position for itself in the middle of the story, being a member of the cast to come into the story with a strong amount of spunk, blowing an air of life and energy into its surrounds. It's a beast that just wanders into shot, phallus first, provoking so much fun and laughter that it provided a little bit of escapism from the storm raging outside. It's a nice moment of happiness, and is clearly enough to arouse a little bit of joy in this blogger's heart.

Day 514: The Creature from the Pit Part 1

There are a few things that immediately strike me about this story. One such thing is the fact that this is the first story of the series to be produced, something which normally wouldn't be worth mentioning, except that in this case it means that we are watching Lalla Ward's first performance as the new incarnation of Romana. It's not the performance that we normally associate with this version of the character, being aloof and looking down on everyone that she comes across, as opposed to the slightly more fun version that we're more used to. It's particularly odd because she gets a much firmer grip on the character in stories that were produced later, but shown earlier, meaning that we're getting a bit of character inconsistency that doesn't entirely work well for the story.

Another thing that strikes me about the story is the fact that it's the first story since The Robots of Death that I haven't seen before. It's odd to come to a story and have everything be unfamiliar again, with no prior impressions guiding my thoughts. That said, there is a certain 'reputation' about theis story that makes me a little bit nervous as we continue on to meet the Creature from The Pit.

Day 513: City of Death Part 4

The story comes to its natural conclusion here. It's worth mentioning that beneath all of the banter, there is a story here, and one that is actually quite interesting. It revolves around an alien creature that, whilst trying to take off in their spacecraft from Earth 400 million years ago, accidentally exploded, giving both the primordial ooze on Earth the spark to create life (and thus creating all human life), and splintering the alien creature through time. Naturally, he's a but miffed about this and spends much of the story trying to return back to that point through using a time machine of his own devising to save both himself and his species.

This is all a fantastic idea, and reveals much of why City of Death is so good. Yes, the direction, music, performances and dialogue are all fantastic, but they're useless without a good story at the heart of things. Adams succeeds in ideas as well as dialogue, providing something that's fun, unique and interesting, and then constructing a story around it. And it just so happens that everything that was constructed around this story worked perfectly well for the story that Adams had written, giving us something that was truly exquisite.

Day 512: City of Death Part 3

I mentioned before about the way in which the story is presented. The location is Paris, a beautiful city which the director Michael Hayes is able to clearly make the most out of, choosing shots that have a busy city within them, but also a city with style. Take for instance, one of the scenes in this episode where the Doctor runs through the streets trying to reach his destination. It's shot from a distance, with just the Doctor running, allowing us to soak up the beauty of the location. This is why Hayes is perfect for this story, he is a director who is content to just let the location speak for itself, making the story feel nicer as a result.

A similar way in which this is done is through the music, as composed by Dudley Simpson. It's mainly a relaxed piece, with occasional bursts of excitement as we hear car horns and the sound of movement, only for us to return to the original melody, and feel relaxed again. It reinforces the lightness of the story, accentuating the mood of the story perfectly. It's certainly one of Simpson's best scores for Doctor Who, and remains a highlight of the story.

Day 511: City of Death Part 2

Hopefully, the above clip should start at around 1:20. It runs for about 4 minutes, and is probably the single funniest scene ever to be produced in Doctor Who. Each line of dialogue is superbly witty, and is helped supremely by the performances of the actors. Baker chooses to play the Fool, wandering around and being a little bit silly throughout, choosing for the character of the Doctor to have some fun in this situation. The others play things relatively straight, allowing for the humour of the situation to be magnified.

But the scene also plays an important role in the plot as well. It shows the Doctor meeting the villains, and reveals that he is actually quite keen to be captured by them such that he can learn more of their plot. Adams makes this worth watching by adding banter, which also has the benefit of us growing to enjoy the company of the characters more and more. This sort of thing is a common thread throughout the story, such as in a scene towards the end of this episode, wherein the Doctor and co. are found by the villainous Count Scarlioni, which features an absolutely beautiful pun about throwing light onto the situation. It's all just another reason to adore City of Death.

Day 510: City of Death Part 1

The last story had three somewhat opposing views as to how the story should be produced. The same cannot be said for City of Death, which stands out as one of the most lovely Doctor Who stories of all time. It's written by Douglas Adams, working from a script by David Fisher. Both writers are some of the lighter writers that we have encountered on the series, with Fisher writing the adventurous romp that was 'The Androids of Tara' and Adams the joke filled 'The Pirate Planet'. The script is filled with wit which we shall definitely look at in more detail tomorrow. The script is also edited by Graham Williams, who provides a guiding hand to Adams, ensuring that it doesn't get too carried away with itself and that it keeps track of the story that is trying to be told. And there's more too. The direction and music, which we shall look at in further detail over the next few days, is well done, and there are other little moments that will shine throughout the story. But for now, it's sometimes best to appreciate the bouquet of this story.

Day 509: Destiny of the Daleks Episode 4

We last left our look at Destiny of the Daleks contemplating how the three main voices, being Douglas Adams, Ken Grieve and Terry Nation, the script editor, director and writer respectively, could work together considering that they have such differing things that they bring to the table. The answer, I suppose, can be found by dividing them into pairs. By doing this, each voice is able to come together with the other, using their respective strengths to create something worth engaging with.

So, first let's look at the combination of Adams and Grieve. Adams brings comedy, and Grieve is able to use his eye for a more interesting looking programme to make the jokes work in a way that wouldn't necessarily be expected from other directors. Take, for instance, the botched escape from the Movellans halfway through this episode. Essentially, the Doctor gets up, feels a Movellan gun on his shoulder and immediately sits back down again. Grieve shoots all of this in close-up, both giving the set-up to the escape attempt a tension that makes the end-game more rewarding as a joke, and also adding the new joke that we, as an audience, are only focussed on the Doctor's face and not necessarily on the Movellan behind him, thus making the sudden appearance of the gun an unanticipated event and creating a joke out of that as well.

Adams and Nation work surprisingly well together as well. Nation has provided the bare bones of a simple adventure plot-line, leaving Adams to fill in the rest. Adams takes the simple adventure and, by adding jokes and the like to keep the audience interested, is able to make up for the fact that the adventure plot-line is fairly basic. But the plot-line is still fun, and has some interesting ideas within it, so it can provide flesh to Adams' simple little jokes throughout. Take for instance, the fact that we have two computers fighting each other, and they can't defeat each other because each is able to accurately predict the others' move. The way in which this is illustrated is through a simple game of scissors-paper-rock, which the robotic Movellans are hopeless at, whereas the more intuitive Doctor is able to win at the game fairly regularly. It's a simple and fun way to look at the larger idea, and is one step of allowing us to see past the flaws of the story and have some fun with it.

Grieve and Nation are also a strong pairing. Nation is writing a 1960's adventure story, and Grieve is able to at least make it look interesting.

Take, for instance, the above shot. The use of Daleks in foreground, middle and background helps give the impression that there is a far larger Dalek fleet, much as Nation would have wanted. The sole Dalek in the foreground makes the shot feel imposing, and injects an amount of menace into the shot, making the Daleks something to be feared. This is a director who is able to take Nation's work and modernise it, making it feel more exciting as a result. Another example can be found in the deactivation of the Nova device, shot with a handheld camera, and with a particularly shocking shot of a dismembered Movellan arm at one point, which is a very exciting sequence.

At the end of the day then, Destiny of the Daleks isn't that bad. It's well directed, and the plot is able to have its weaknesses accounted for by the script editing. It is interesting to note though, that we have a story where the voices involved with making it are seemingly in opposition. One wonders what it would be like if everyone were on completely the same page...

Day 508: Destiny of the Daleks Episode 3

The final major voice in this production is that of the writer, Terry Nation. Nation, is of course, a familiar writer to Doctor Who, and has been writing for the series since it began. His stories tend to be generic science fiction adventure stories, and Destiny of the Daleks is no exception. The story features the Doctor and Romana landing on an alien planet, meeting the local slave workers, and fighting the Daleks. There's some engagement to make this story different from the others, such as the robotic race of Movellans, but on the whole the story, as conceived, feels like something that we could have easily seen in William Hartnell or Jon Pertwee's tenure as the Doctor.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Nation's treatment of the companions, in particular Romana. 2 of the 3 cliffhangers that this story has focus directly on Romana being placed into direct danger. Now, by my count, in the previous series, 5.5 cliffhangers focus on Romana being placed into direct danger out of 20, giving a percentage of around 25%, compared to Nation's percentage of Romana in danger of 66%.

So what does this tell us? It indicates that the way in which Nation is writing the companion is as a character to be rescued by the Doctor. In normal circumstances, we wouldn't bat an eyelid about this, however the companion in question is Romana. Romana is a Time Lady, someone who is just as competent as the Doctor, if not moreso. Nation is doing her character a great disservice by reducing her to a character to be rescued.

So we're left with an editor inserting jokes, a director who makes things feel modern and realistic and a writer who comes direct from the 1960's. Tomorrow, then, we'll look at how the story concludes and whether these three distinct voices can come together as a whole.

Day 507: Destiny of the Daleks Episode 2

The second voice that I want to look at is that of the director, Ken Grieve. He too is new to the series, but he quickly makes an impression, through his innovative use of cameras. For instance, there's a scene partway through this episode where a Dalek advances down a corridor. He makes the decision to have this be a tracking shot, but shot directly from the ground, looking up. It makes the Daleks feel far more oppressive, and the fact that this is a tracking shot gives the sensation that the Daleks are constantly advancing to overpower you. It's a far cry from the normal shots of cutting back and forth between characters speaking.

Similarly, he uses the new technique of Steadicam. This allows for a film camera to used in a handheld fashion, giving the camera operator more freedom of movement. It also means that the film sections of the story gain a somewhat more realistic feeling to them. The slightly shaky nature of the handheld combined with the already rough ground of the quarry that they are filming in makes us feel like we're on the planet Skaro with the Doctor and Romana. This realistic feeling can also be attributed to the soundscape, which is minimal, focussing mainly on background sound effects and having little to no music.

So we have a story that's got jokes and gags in it, and is filmed in an innovative and realistic fashion. Tomorrow, we'll look at the third voice, and see what he brings to the table of Destiny of the Daleks.

Day 506: Destiny of the Daleks Episode 1

When viewing an episode of Doctor Who, you can see the influence of four key voices: the producer, the script editor, the writer and the director. In the case of viewing Destiny of the Daleks I suddenly realised that three of those key voices (writer, director, script editor) were slightly at odds with one another, and that each one of these voices is interesting in their own way. So, for the next three days, I'll look at these three voices and see what they bring to the table in Destiny of the Daleks.

Let's begin with the script editor, Douglas Adams. One of the most recognisable names in science fiction, he is world famous for his work on such series as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He's also written for Doctor Who before with last series' The Pirate Planet and he contributed some minor editing work to The Armageddon Factor as well. This is his first full story as script editor though, so it's nice to see what a fresh faced young writer will bring to the table as he looks over this script.

The answer is jokes. This story is filled with small jokes, such as the Doctor openly criticising a book on The Origins of the Universe whilst being crushed by a large pillar, or the two minute scene at the start of the story where Romana decides to regenerate and goes through a charade of trying on different bodies in much the same way as someone would choose some clothes. It certainly makes the story feel more fun, and it helps to magnify the on-screen chemistry between the Doctor and Romana, thus relieving any tensions that new viewers might not accept the new Romana but it also raises questions about whether these jokes are right for this type of story...

Day 505: The Armageddon Factor Part 6

So the Shadow has been defeated, and the Key to Time assembled. It is then promptly disassembled when the Doctor realises that this has all been a ploy by the Black Guardian in order to create everlasting chaos in the Universe. The story then ends with the Doctor and Romana going on the run to escape the Black Guardian, thus ending this series long story arc.

So perhaps we should look back at this story arc, now that all has been said and done. It's got a nice variety of stories within it, and each one in their own way is enjoyable, from the rollicking adventure that is The Androids of Tara to the Hammer Horror of The Stones of Blood. The characters too are all generally memorable and enjoyable, such as Drax, the cheeky Time Lord, or the overacting Pirate Captain from The Pirate Planet. And above all else, the series has a vast amount of fun behind it, with little jokes and gags throughout the series that keep things light, which makes for a much happier time as a viewer.

And for the past four or five years I have sadly viewed The Armageddon Factor as the mark on the otherwise spotless jewel that is this series. A mixture of bad padding, poor acting and poor special effects led me to dismiss this story. But looking at it for its ideas, and the way in which the story is told, I'm able to see that this story has its merits, and I can enjoy it for what it is, meaning that this series, Series 16 of Doctor Who, is now in my opinion the greatest series of Doctor Who we've covered as of this moment, and possibly of all time. But we shall see whether this holds up, as we start a new series tomorrow, and it's got high standards to live up to.

Day 504: The Armageddon Factor Part 5

Looking at The Armageddon Factor, the character of Drax, introduced in Part 5, strikes the audience as one of the more interesting characters that we have encountered in this story. He's another Time Lord like the Doctor, but he represents a different slant on Gallifreyan society compared to what we have seen before. The Time Lords have previously been all powerful beings, and a little bit stuffy and pompus. Drax, on the other hand, would appear to have rejected these views after failing his examinations and going off to explore the Universe, much like the Doctor. Unlike the Doctor, however, he is fairly loose when it comes to criminal activity and has at one point had an extended stay in a London prison. Personality wise, he's a bit silly, and whilst he is technically gifted he is liable to make mistakes fairly often. So we have an imperfect Time Lord introduced within the series. Sadly this is his only appearance, which is a shame as the character works well with the Doctor, providing a voice that both has the intellectual capacity to discuss various concepts with the Doctor, but also the looseness that makes his scenes feel lighter and more enjoyable. That said though, we already have a character who somewhat fulfils those criteria in the form of Romana. Romana, however, still feels a little bit too 'straight' compared to the Doctor's looseness, and perhaps a change may be seen in the future with regards to Romana's character to inject a little bit more fun into the series.

Day 503: The Armageddon Factor Part 4

The titular Armageddon Factor refers to one proposed ending of the war going on in the background of this story. Essentially, the two warring planets consist of one planet with humanoids fighting and desperately trying to win, and the other consisting of a computer that has been programmed to win at all costs, even if the race that created it has died out ages ago. The computer thus decides that if it cannot win then no planet can win, setting off an explosion big enough to destroy both planets if it looks as if it is going to be destroyed. This idea of Mutually Assured Destruction is clearly prevalent in society at the time, being broadcast in the 1970's as the Cold War rages on, which means that the story is able to play on the audience's fears and create a more compelling story as a result.

Meanwhile, in my ongoing quest to approach The Armageddon Factor from a nicer viewpoint, I am a little worried. The major flaw in the story is beginning to show and I'm not looking forward to experiencing it, not least because I've actually been enjoying this story up until this point and am looking forward to seeing how it will continue as we further seek the final segment of The Key to Time.

Day 502: The Armageddon Factor Part 3

There's really not much to say about this episode. Quality wise it is remaining on a level pegging with the previous parts of this story (even if Ian Saynor, the actor playing the young male lead known as Merak, is beginning to become a little annoying), and the story, whilst introducing new characters and new settings, only scratches the surface as far as the true depth of these concepts is concerned, making me somewhat reluctant to talk about them at this present moment. What's interesting then is the fact that we've reached Part 3 of a 6 part story and we're still presented with new questions. this is partly because the writing team have decided to experiment with a new format for 6 part episodes, consisting now of interconnected 2 part episodes. We've had the set-up on Atrios, more set-up and some discovery of the true nature of the plot on Zeos and a final conclusion on an unnamed planet that we will get to in a couple of episodes time. At this moment, this set-up actually seems to be working rather well. For 6 part stories there always seem to be sagging sections where nothing really seems to be happening. This isn't the case here, where new parts of the story can be easily introduced throughout the adventure, ensuring that the audience will never get bored. Or at least, hoping that the audience will never get bored...

Day 501: The Armageddon Factor Part 2

Edit: So whilst watching some special features on The Armageddon Factor DVD, I noticed that they were mentioning the fact that Part 1 of this story was the 500th broadcast episode of Doctor Who. This perplexed me, mainly because I had this down as the 500th episode. I then consulted my backlog and discovered that I had made a mistake when noting down episode numbers around the time of The Deadly Assassin. So whilst I fix the episode numbers so that this won't happen again, I'll leave this entry standing as is except with the relevant numbers changed. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

501 episodes. On this blog we've covered 501 individual episodes of Doctor Who. We've visited junkyards, ancient Egypt, oil refineries, small English villages and distant alien worlds. And through all of that time the series still produces some truly great moments.

Take, for instance, this episode. The Armageddon Factor concerns two warring planets: Atrios and Zeos. For the first section of the story we are stranded on Atrios, and we see the destruction and damage that the war has brought. But then we reach the point that the episode has been building up to: the battle between the two planets' respective fleets of spaceships. We view this battle from afar, looking only at a monitor screen revealing the ships and their movements. We wait and see the battle to take place, only to see Atrios' fleet be utterly demolished by their enemies.

Looking at the scene from a production point of view, it's incredibly low budget. We're confined strictly to one set, which is used to have the main characters commentating on the events. There's also not enough money to afford spaceship models either, meaning that our only representation of the warring fleets is by a series of dots on a screen, which flash brightly and then disappear when they get hit. But despite the lack of production values, it still comes across well. This is mainly due to the performances of the people watching the events, in particular that of John Woodvine as the Marshal, a man who desperately hopes that his fleet will survive. He pleasingly remarks on every hit with a quiet glee, only to be continually reminded of how the ships being hit are his own, and that he is losing badly. It helps the situation come across as a desperate one, and makes us empathise with their hopeless cause.

And this scene is just another great scene that we've covered over the past 501 days. It makes up for a lack in budget with strong acting, some excellent direction and some very well made sets, thus making for some incredibly good television. But there are still 300 or so episodes left, which can only mean that We've Got Work to Do!

Day 500: The Armageddon Factor Part 1

Before we begin this story, I should probably talk about the context with which I'm currently viewing this story. I first saw the Key to Time series four or five years ago. The Ribos Operation stunned me, The Pirate Planet enthralled me, The Stones of Blood provided much enjoyment, The Androids of Tara was a lovely surprise and I even admired the underrated The Power of Kroll. Then I came to The Armageddon Factor. I didn't enjoy this story. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I hated it. That opinion has been stuck within my mind for several years. So, whilst I try to come to each story with a relatively open mind, I'm not sure whether that will be possible in this situation.

That said, the first part of this is actually pretty good. It begins with a post-modern piece where we look at two hammy actors in front of some dodgy blue-screen effects, only for the camera to pan out and reveal that this is just a drama, and our real set is revealed, looking far more realistic as a nuclear bunker is bombarded and we see the destruction that past attacks have wrought on the populace, lying on the floor moaning for help as nurses hurriedly rush to their aid.

Indeed, the entire episode feels rather dark, with death destruction and the constant barrage of explosions being a constant presence as events continue. But, thanks in part to Tom Baker's performance as the Doctor, and also a romantic sub-plot from Bob Baker and Dave Martin (the writers), it never feels overtly dark, and we can grow to enjoy the story. So maybe I was wrong about it the first time around, and The Armageddon Factor is just another underrated gem that we've encountered on this voyage through time and space.

Day 499: The Power of Kroll Part 4

So let's change tack and talk about one of the supporting characters in this story. Fenner is a relatively small role, existing as the person who at first goes along with the plans of the refinery workers but then when he realises that they are all in danger he quickly becomes one of the sole sane voices, but is constantly pushed into each situation by his less than nice boss, Thawn. Eventually, once Thawn is dealt with, Fenner is left to help the Doctor and Romana save the day, and thus all is well.

But not all is well with Fenner. As the Doctor leaves, proclaiming that Fenner can adopt a more natural lifestyle with the Swampies, the inhabitants of the moon on which the story is set, Fenner has a less than pleased look on his face. He has persecuted the Swampies for much of his time working for the refinery and now he is expected to live with them. He knows that this is not going to be a good ending for him, that he may end up dead because of his past actions. But the Doctor wanders away, thinking the best and not realising that the worst is about to happen.

A lot of this is due to Philip Madoc's performance as Fenner, giving the role a sustenance that, if present in the original script, would certainly be lost on a lesser actor who would be more inclined to go for the obvious route of making the character obviously likeable. But Madoc never does this, and he always seems to be on the darker shade of grey, making his final fate all the more interesting to see, and it makes this story all the more interesting as a whole.

Day 498: The Power of Kroll Part 3

The Doctor, Romana and the treacherous gun-runner Rohm-Dutt have been put to death. The method of their death is to be tied up to some vines, which will slowly move and stretch their bodies, meaning that their spines will slowly be broken. This is reasonably uncomfortable to watch. bringing to mind medieval tortures such as the rack and, at least in my case, I felt like I wanted to curl up into a ball when I heard such descriptions as Romana describing her vertebrae as "they feel like beads on a piece of elastic". It's all thanks to Robert Holmes, erstwhile script editor for the series, for whom this story will be his last for the series for a good couple of years. It's uncomfortable and horrifying, but it's done with a certain glee that reflects that he is clearly having fun writing this section of the story. It represents another stand-out scene in Series 16, which for my money is one of the best series of Doctor Who of all time.

Day 497: The Power of Kroll Part 2

This episode is bookended by two noteworthy cliffhangers. The first is the resolution to the previous episode's cliffhanger, which was Romana being menaced by a fairly unconvincing monster. She is saved by the Doctor, who unmasks the monster as just someone dressed in a fairly unconvincing costume. This is fantastic, as it plays on the fact that the audience would not completely expect the monster to be convincing in the first place, by virtue of this being a 1970's Doctor Who story. Thus, we are surprised to learn that our initial suspicions are correct from when we first saw the monster, and that it really is just a man in a suit.

The same can't be said of the episode's ending however, which features a fairly unconvincing tentacle grabbing a refinery worker and dragging him into a fairly unconvincing pipe. It's built up to well with some excellent acting from the supporting cast, and there's a somewhat effective jump scare that signals the beginning of the cliffhanger but it just doesn't work, because the effects simply aren't up to scratch. It's not the best thing to see in the story, but that doesn't really matter at the end of the day, as there are more important things like script and character to distract us from the fairly shoddy effects.

Day 496: The Power of Kroll Part 1

There's a seriousness at the heart of this story. Instead of us being greeted with a swashbuckling adventure or a Hammer Horror style story about vampiric stones, this story instead appears to concern itself with a refinery where the staff are enslaving the native people as well as setting up refineries all over their land. This is something that they object to, but they don't respond to this in the normal way that we'd expect for a Doctor Who story, that is wait for the Doctor to come along and then have some form of revolution. Instead, we see them ordering guns and ammunition from a gun-runner, planning to take back their land by force. Granted, this isn't an idea that is new to Doctor Who, but I feel that it gains an extra seriousness because of the fact that they are using real guns. These aren't laser pistols or the like, these are real machine guns, thus driving home the point that these guns will be used to outright kill people. This seriousness is something that we haven't really seen in Doctor Who for a while, and it's something that we'll see a bit more of as the series continues. But for now, let's just see where The Power of Kroll will take us as the serial continues...

Day 495: The Androids of Tara Part 4

Towards the climax of this story we get a swordfight. We sort of expect this to happen, given that the story has been exactly the rip-roaring adventure that requires a swordfight to top it all off. What's interesting though is how the swordfight is directed. When it begins, the fight is entirely in studio, meaning a cramped area to fight in that somewhat increases tension. Tom Baker as the Doctor diffuses some of this tension by making a few jokes throughout the fight, but the tension still remains, in part due to the fact that there is no music, leaving us to purely focus on the action and become sucked in by it. It is only when it becomes clear that the Doctor has the upper hand that we can allow ourselves to relax, and to know that the Doctor will win in the end. The music is restored, we go onto location with film, meaning that the fighting gains a bit more space, and all is generally well. But the direction in the first half of the fight remains good and tense, standing out in the story as a highlight. Much kudos must then go to Michael Hayes, the director of this story, and I look forward greatly to his next story in Doctor Who. But that's for another day as we've still got 2 more segments of The Key to Time to find as the ongoing adventure continues...