Day 585: Snakedance Part 2

The Doctor's role in Kinda was fairly basic. He ran around, being one of the few sane people on the planet, and tried to find out what was going on. He found help from various sources, such as Todd from the base, and Panna, the wise woman of the Kinda. It's actually fairly common as a Doctor Who story, in that regard, to have the Doctor meet a few allies in order to find out what is going on. Thisn't necessarily the case in Snakedance.

In Snakedance, the Doctor spends much of his time running about and trying to figure out how to stop the Mara. He learns from discussion with some of the historians that there is a legend on the planet that speaks of the Mara's return (for it had already been a strong presence on the planet centuries before this story took place). However, their minds are closed to the prospect of the Mara returning, caught up in the idea that it is just a legend, and failing to take in new evidence to suggest that their current theories are false.

This is epitomised in a scene towards the end of this episode, where the Doctor bursts into a dinner gathering and attempts to tell everyone that the Mara is going to return, only to be dragged away by the guards. It's an important scene, because not only does it tell of the blindness to the truth that everyone besides the Doctor has, with respect to the return of the Mara, but also of the fact that the Doctor is completely failing in his quest to be taken seriously. The Doctor has been, at least for his past couple of incarnations, a strong presence, the sort of person who walks into a room and is immediately able to take command. In his fifth incarnation, however, he's lost that commanding presence, and this means that he's even more alone as he tries to fight off the threat of the Mara. It's an interesting direction to take the character of the Doctor in, and one that we'll see again, albeit rarely (the most prominent example that personally comes to mind is Midnight, from 2008), and shows that the series isn't afraid to take the Doctor in some new directions, if only to liven up the general story structure for a little while.

Day 584: Snakedance Part 1

Series 20 of Doctor Who is all about the past. Each story features the return of some old villain from the series' past, such as seeing Omega again in Arc of Infinity, and in this story, the Mara makes a return, last seen in Kinda. It's great to see the Mara return again, as it made a strong impact in Kinda, and it deserves a return visit to the world of Doctor Who.

The way in which it comes back is really interesting as well. It turns out that, when at the end of Kinda, we believed that Tegan was free of the possessive influence of the Mara, we were wrong. A small part of the Mara remained in Tegan's mind, building up its strength such that it can possess Tegan completely. It's really interesting to see this concept, because it's a departure from normal stories where villains return, where we just bump into them, only this time in a slightly different context. Here, we learn that the story didn't end when we thought it did, making this feel like more of a continuation of the original story than just a sequel.

This continuation is echoed in some of the production of the story. Not so much in the design, which is completely different by virtue of being on a different world with a different culture than that of the Deva Lokans, nor is it found in the direction, but instead it is found through the audio cues, as developed by Dick Mills (special sound) and Peter Howell (composer) both of whom had previously worked on Kinda. This mainly presents itself with a particular screech, that occasionally comes around when looking at the Mara, or some representation of it, that formed much of the underlying tension of Kinda and returns in Snakedance to provide this tension again, as well as a continuity that helps the story feel like it's a true continuation of the original story.

Day 583: Arc of Infinity Part 4

So the villain of this story is Omega, the first Time Lord, a character last seen in The Three Doctors. His story is interesting, being that as he harnessed the power of time travel, he was sent through a black hole and arrived in a universe comprised entirely of anti-matter. In both stories, his plan revolves around returning to the normal matter universe and wreaking vengeance on Gallifrey. However, in my opinion, the way in which he is treated in Arc of Infinity comes across far worse than that of how he was treated in The Three Doctors.

My reasoning for this is that we never really get to spend much time with the character of Omega. Much of the time in Arc of Infinity is spent keeping him to the shadows, with his true identity only being revealed at the end of Part 3, which is an ill-advised move in my opinion. You see, in The Three Doctors, we spent time with the character, we learnt of his motivation, we felt his emotions, we accepted him as a character in his own right. For Arc of Infinity, on the other hand, we spend virtually no time with him and so we're just left with this nameless entity of ill intent to the entire universe, and we're expected to remember this character from 10 years ago so that we can have any sort of emotional bond with him. To be perfectly frank, it's a waste of a good character, and is yet another reason why this story is so bad.

Day 582: Arc of Infinity Part 3

A lot of Arc of Infinity is set on Gallifrey, and as such the Doctor spends some time meeting up with old acquaintances to get their help as he tries to stop some unknown creature with connections to the Time Lords enter into our universe from a universe of anti-matter. This is all handled terribly. When we meet old friends of the Doctor, we never get any sense that these two characters have kniwn each other for any period of time beyond the scenes that they share together. Take, for instance, Damon, a Time Lord working in the records room. All we get as an explanation as to how he knows the Doctor is that the two are friends. There's no explanation as to how they became friends, or why they trust each other, instead we are just expected to accept that these two characters know each other on the basis of trust, and trust alone. It doesn't help that Damon is also severely lacking in any form of character, meaning that we also don't really care for him whatsoever.

Similarly, there's Councillor Hedin, who is also introduced on the grounds that he and the Doctor are old friends. Now, at the end of this episode, it is revealed that Hedin is a traitor. This is meant to be a major plot point in the story, that one of the Doctor's oldest friends has betrayed him. But we never get any sense that these two are friends. They never talk with each other about old memories, of how much the Doctor looked up to Hedin, of any sort of history between the two characters. This means that when we see that Hedin is the traitor, all we see is not some hero of the Doctor's, revealed as a villain, instead just another character in a funny hat who just happens to be slightly more evil than the rest of the characters in this story. It all goes as just more criticisms to put on the ever growing list of problems with Arc of Infinity.

Day 581: Arc of Infinity Part 2

The Ergon is the henchman of the villain of this story, who is yet to be revealed narratively (I'll get more into discussion of the villain when he is fully revealed), and there are several problems that we can see with this character. Apparently, it was designed with the Xenomorphs from Alien in mind, which you can sort of see, if you squint. And pretend that the Xenomorphs in Alien were chicken-like in nature. Because that's what the Ergon looks like: a giant chicken. This is actually representative of a greater problem with the story, being the general design of everything. Take, for instance, Gallifrey as shown below:

It's not very impressive, lacking the style and darkness as seen with previous interpretations of Gallifrey, instead looking like something rather dull and beige. There's a certain lack of care put into the design work, making things look less impressive than they could be on paper. Part of this, though could be due to a lack of budget, although there was apparently enough money to go on a trip to Amsterdam to film this story, a fact that makes virtually no impact on the plot whatsoever and goes to show that the money could have been far better spent on getting better design work, or at the very least, a monster that doesn't look like a chicken.

Oh, and whilst I remember, two thoughts that passed me by whilst watching this episode were that the backpackers were so unmemorable that when one of them got kidnapped, I actually forgot which one was gone, and so I was surprised to see the one that I thought was kidnapped wandering around as if nothing had happened. This is not a good sign for the script, if it's that hard to differentiate between two characters. Oh, and Tegan's back.

Day 580: Arc of Infinity Part 1

I was all set to enjoy Arc of Infinity. After Time-Flight brought new lows to Doctor Who, I was hopeful. Nothing could be worse than Time-Flight, I thought. And then, three minutes in. We meet two young teenagers, Robin and Colin, going backpacking through Amsterdam. Neither of these young men are particularly good at acting. Every line that they say is so unnatural that you become convinced that the characters are actually aliens who have come to invade Earth via Amsterdam. This isn't helped by the dialogue, which is written as if Johnny Byrne, the writer, has completely forgotten how to write for human beings and instead writes soley for alien creatures or the like, with lines like "The Dutch are a very civilised race" coming across as, whilst perfectly grammatically correct and effectively communicating the point, unlike anything that any normal human being would say. And then, halfway trough this episode, just as I can't believe that it can get any worse, something truly abysmal happens. Something that demands an entry all of its own to talk about...

Day 579: Time-Flight Part 4

So eventually, the day gets saved by the Doctor. The plot, which I don't belive I've gone into in too much detail, involved the Master kidnapping Concorde so that he could fix his TARDIS (I'm actually not sure exactly how this occurs, I missed some important plot developments in Part 3 which were never touched upon again for the rest of the story), ends up reducing itself to scenes of pilots fixing aeroplanes as the Master and the Doctor come to some sort of arrangement. This turns out to be quite enjoyable, as there's a certain sense of comfort that you can get simply by watching people do their job, and do it well.

But the story comes to an end just as it was getting decent, and so too does something else. Tegan Jovanka came onto the TARDIS in order to get to Heathrow Airport. She's been an odd sort of TARDIS companion, in that she doesn't really want to be going on adventures, and she doesn't really like the people that she travels with. But now that the TARDIS has landed at Heathrow, we sort of assume that she's going to leave, and that she'll be happy about it. So when the TARDIS does leave without her, it's a bit surprising to see her so sad about this fact. Because even though she disliked everything at first, it's hard to deny that the prospect of all of time and space being at your fingertips would be a bad one, making this one of the sadder companion departures. But sometimes, an end isn't really the end, as we shall see tomorrow with the start of the 20th anniversary series of Doctor Who.

Day 578: Time-Flight Part 3

It's always interesting to note what happens with directors in Doctor Who. There are some, like Peter Grimwade or Douglas Camfield, that will be able to use the camera, lighting, or special effects in innovative ways that make stories a better experience. And then there are others like Ron Jones. There's nothing explicitly bad about the direction in Time Flight. But it's unimaginative. I never get a sense that anything special is happening, and everything just feels so mundane. Take, for instance, the cliffhnager shot of this episode. It simply concerns the Doctor saying words to the effect of "we're all going to die" as the camera slowly moves in on his face. It's pretty much the same as every other cliffhanger in Doctor Who, and adds no sense of suspense to the final proceedings, reinforcing the view that this is just a really poor Doctor Who story.

Day 577: Time-Flight Part 2

Before I begin this entry, I should perhaps put a disclaimer. I have never seen Time-Flight before, and if I have, I've forgotten most of what happened within it. So when I write this, I know that I could easily be proven wrong within the next episode.

All of that said, why the hell was the Master disguised as a weird Arabic alien soothsayer called Kalid? There is literally no reason in the plot for him to be disguised in this way. His plan revolves around working in prehistoric Earth, meaning that there is little chance of him encountering the Doctor, or indeed anyone else who knows him. What's more to the point, he keeps up with this disguise all of the time, even when nobody is actually paying him any attention.

It all comes across as the production side being more interested in the spectacle of having the Master as a literal master of disguise, and for him to reveal his disguise halfway through the story. This clearly doesn't entirely work with the plot, and means that we have a far less realistic and far more stupid story as a result.

Day 576: Time-Flight Part 1

This story begins with a brief mention of the fact that Adric is dead. The characters are allowed to grieve for two minutes, and then immediately get over it, moving onto their next exciting adventure. It feels a bit cheap, and doesn't really bode well for this story. I'm not saying that they shouldn't move on, I'm just saying that maybe a little more time is needed to deal with the fact that Adric is now dead. For a comparison, all the way back in series 3, when we saw the deaths of Sara Kingdom and Katarina in The Daleks Master Plan, this was followed with a relatively serious historical drama in The Massacre, which allowed for us as an audience to come to terms with the fact that the characters had died by virtue of it being slower and quieter than the previous adventure. This story, on the other hand, is a fun romp featuring Concorde, time travel and other bits and pieces of wacky hijinks. It's not a good follow-on story, and does not bode well for the next four episodes as we look at Time-Flight.

Day 575: Earthshock Part 4

The Cybermen enact their plan. They're going to use the spaceship that they're currently on as a bomb, crashing into the Earth and rendering it inhospitable. They take control of the Doctor's TARDIS, keeping him hostage to fly it whilst a number of humans are left on board to die. One of those humans is Adric.

We think that he'll be alright, that the worst that'll happen to him is that he'll decide to leave the TARDIS altogether. But whilst trying to regain control of the ship, he sends it back in time to the period when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. The Doctor realises that this means that the explosion is now a permanent fixed event in time, and that whilst the Cybermen's plot has failed, it means that Adric is now doomed. But he still works away, trying to get control back. But just as he's about to solve the final problem, the control panel explodes from a Cyberman's gun shot. And then the ship reaches Earth, and explodes. And Adric dies.

Tegan's in tears. Nyssa's still trying to process it all. The Doctor is quietly shocked. He tries to save them all, always tries to find a better way. But he's failed, and now someone is dead directly because of his actions. Adric could have had so much ahead of him. He was a character of strong potential that was wasted by poor writing from almost every writer that wrote for him. And yet, occasionally he would work as a character, and we would care about him deeply. His rebellious nature in Full Circle, the young scientist of The Keeper of Traken, the inquistive boy in Logopolis, or the cheeky rapscallion in Kinda. But now he's gone, and we can see that the TARDIS is no longer a safe place. Danger lurks when you travel in time, and people die. And so we have hope in the Doctor, that he will find the better way and prevent more deaths like Adric's. But we can never be too certain, and all we can do is hope.

Day 574: Earthshock Part 3

Somehow evading me mentioning this fact for the past couple of episodes, this story features the return of the Cybermen. They've changed a fair bit since we last saw them, but in a way, they haven't really changed at all. These Cybermen are just a little bit more threatening than we remember, marching through darkness to kill all that comes in their way. Their emotionless, robotic faces add to this feeling of threat, giving an impression of something that will kill without any sort of remorse. An example of this is in this episode, where the Cybermen's spy on the ship is immediately killed by them as he gave them some incorrect information. It doesn't matter that he didn't know the correct information, instead all that matters is that he inadvertently lied to them and he should pay the price for his actions.

But all of this should feel familiar. The Cybermen always worked best in darkness, skulking through the shadows, like in The Moonbase. Their dependence on logic is strong, as explored in The Tomb of the Cybermen, and there are certain aspects of the other Cybermen adventures taht get brought up again here. But they've never really been brought up in such a way that makes them relentlessly menacing, essentially reviving the Cybermen to fight the Doctor and send audiences scurrying behind the sofa.

Day 573: Earthshock Part 2

This story is written by Eric Saward, the man who has been occasional script editor since around Castrovalva, and will be the full-time script editor right up until the end of Colin Baker's time as the Doctor. Looking at this story, you can begin to get a sense of the stories that he wants to write for the programme. They're dark, grim and gritty, with death lurking everywhere (generally gruesome) and plenty of action sequences, as we see explosions, threats of explosions and so on. It all comes across as a generic sci-fi action movie done on Doctor Who, and whilst this may not necessarily be a bad thing, and could lead to some good stories, for the moment, it all feels a little too generic.

Day 572: Earthshock Part 1

So this story begins with something that's rather interesting to see. Adric, as a character, has been dealt with curiously over the past couple of stories, as we've seen him constantly go over to the side of the enemy, or get frustrated with the fact that no-one seems to be listening to him. All of this comes to a head in this episode, as he and the Doctor have a stand-up row about whether Adric can return home or not. Adric says that he has the mathematical skills to do it, while the Doctor says that he doesn't and that it's too dangerous for the TARDIS to attempt. It culminates in the Doctor going off for a walk, leaving Adric to do some calculations on the TARDIS computer. But what this shows is a new area of conflict between the characters that we haven't seen for a while. We have almost never seen the Doctor get this angry at a regular character before (the last occurrences I can think of are the First Doctor getting angry at Ian and Barbara in The Chase, and the Third Doctor, regarding the Brigadier's actions with the Silurians), and it's interesting to see that this new production team isn't afraid to allow for the characters to fully engage and argue with one another, making their interactions less generic and for a more interesting story.

Day 571: Black Orchid Part 2

You know how yesterday, I was somewhat optimistic about Black Orchid? How I described it as a harmless bit of fluff that's good for a nice unwinding at the end of a stressful day? Well, as the story develops, I may have to change my opinion of this story after the initial impressions. There is just so much that's wrong with this story. For a start, the major conflict becomes that the Doctor is wearing a costume that is exactly the same of that of the murderer. This causes the two to be confused, and the Doctor to be arrested. Now, in the right hands, a plot based around the idea of people being confused for one another can be quite good. This is not the case here, providing us with a predictable series of events as the Doctor quickly clears his name.

But that's not the only issue. There's also the fact that this is a two part story, which means that the entire plot has to be wrapped up in this episode. So we're taken on a series of vast leaps as characters are quickly introduced, while we learn of secret motivations and one character who basically has an entire development sub-plot where she comes to terms with the fact that her presumed dead fiancé has in actual fact been hiding in the attic after being driven insane, and his only help comes from a Brazilian tribesman and a solitary butler. Which is quite a bit to go through in life, and I don't necessarily feel comfortable with the fact that we're just expected to take her sudden acceptance of this at face value.

So we end up with rather a poor story at the end of the day, but that still can't take away the fact that the first episode is still rather lovely. Maybe when I rewatch this story, I'll fast-forward through the plot, because sometimes it's nice to just relax in front of something where not much happens and everything is relatively calm.

Day 570: Black Orchid Part 1

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago when looking at Terence Dudley's previous story for Doctor Who, Four to Doomsday, that everything seemed to be relatively peaceful in its first episode. This is clearly a trend, as his next story, Black Orchid, features relatively little conflict as well, with the major plot points being Nyssa discovering her doppelgänger, the Doctor playing a game of cricket, Tegan wanting to do the Charleston, and Adric wanting to eat. There is also the small issue of some stranglings and the Doctor getting lost, but this is surprisingly minor compared to the time the plot spends focussing on Tegan's dance moves. It's actually not that bad though, as it provides a simple little piece of relaxing television, and is perfectly content to just have a little bit of fun in 1920's England. And at the end of a stressful day, there's not much else that you could want but just a bit of harmless fluff.

Day 569: The Visitation Part 4

At the end of this story, the Doctor inadvertently starts a large fire in the centre of 1600's London. The implication being, given that it occurred on a street called Pudding Lane, that this is the Great Fire of London of 1666. It's a nice little thing to add to the story, and harkens back to the time where Doctor Who was used to both educate and entertain, giving facts about science and history whilst telling fun adventure stories. In addition to this, it's a fun joke to add, implying that this historical event was started by aliens and not by a mistake made by a baker, although it does have the unfortunate implication that the Doctor is responsible for all of the destruction that occurred due to the fire. At any rate, it's a nice little way to end this relatively simple little story.

Day 568: The Visitation Part 3

When people talk about this story, two things generally come to mind. One is the character of Richard Mace, an actor who has been forced into becoming a highwayman. He's a fun character, moving through each scene with a strong amount of charm, which makes a nice change from the fact that the Doctor's three companions spend much of their time at each other's throats.

But the other thing that people remember about this story is the fact that it is the story where the Sonic Screwdriver is destroyed, not to return until 1996. Whilst it's a bit disappointing to see it go, as it has been a part of the series since Fury from the Deep, it's worth remembering that it has to go for a reason. That reason is, of course, the fact that it acts as a get out of gaol free card for the Doctor and co, allowing writers to get them to escape various circumstances with very little effort. Without it, the writers are forced to think up of new ways for excapes to happen, allowing for more creativity in problem solving. However, at some point when it returns, we may look at how things have changed in its use, and whether it had become a tool for the better or a tool for the worse. Bit for now, let's just say goodbye to the Sonic Screwdriver, and it has been rather fun to know you.

Day 567: The Visitation Part 2

This story is directed by Peter Moffatt, one of the more prolific directors of Doctor Who in the first half of the 1980's. It's not his first story for Doctor Who (that would be State of Decay from the previous series), but it's interesting to note the way in which he directs things. There's a decision, for instance, in Part 1 to have the monster, and later the android, shot from their point of view, rendering their appearance hidden and upping the suspense. This is rendered pointless a minute later when we get a full shot of the android to little fanfare. The same thing happens again in this episode, except this time it occurs with a monstrous Terileptil. Once again, there's a bit of build up, then this is squandered as Moffatt fails to follow up on it. It marks him out as one of the poorer directors, at least dramatically, and does not bode well for future stories with him at the helm.

Day 566: The Visitation Part 1

I've got an odd history with this episode. You see, for a while my Doctor Who viewing experience was determined by Video Cassettes and DVDs that I borrowed from my local library. There were two Doctor Who DVDs that they had, and I borrowed them reasonably regularly, on the grounds that they were a bit fancier than Cassettes. One was Pyramids of Mars, a story that I perhaps watched far too much as a child and have a slight fondness for today. The other was The Visitation, which we begin watching today. But unlike Pyramids, I never really found the space in my heart for The Visitation. It's perhaps easy to see why when as the first episode unfolds. Aside from a lengthy scene at the beginning where some peasants are attacked by a robot and some unknown creature, there isn't really anything that stands out as an amazing sequence in this story. It's all relatively tame, particularly coming after the powerhouse that was Kinda. That said, there are still good things to talk about within this story as The Visitation continues.

Day 565: Kinda Part 4

Above is the Box of Jhana, a Kinda device that forms the crux of one of the plot lines in this story, in particular concerning the base of operations for the expedition leaders on this mission. But before we go into the detail of what the box is, first we must examine the crew members.

Sanders is the leader of the expedition, and comes across as perhaps the most stereotypical English captain you can think of. he wanders around, barking orders at his inferiors and generally not being trusting of the natives. He's the sort of character that has been moulded after years and years of training and discipline into the man that he is today, being a perfect army gentleman and not having any sort of remnant of his own true self.

Hindle, then, represents the person who tries to fit into that mould. When we first meet him, he's constantly on edge, afraid of the situation that he's found himself in and falling back into rulebooks to try and compensate for his fear. This doesn't entirely succeed, however, as he almost immediately has a complete mental breakdown. What follows is a masterful performance from Simon Rouse as he plays a man trying to remain in control of his own mental faculties, but failing and breaking down into tears, slowly revealing himself as just a child, trapped in this world and unable to cope. It's almost certainly the best part of this story, and probably one of the best performances we'll ever see in Doctor Who ever, as this one man has his mind utterly destroyed.

Todd acts as a contrast to both of them, being a calm and rational scientist. She does not fear the natives, and explicitly avoids following the rules as stated in the manual, given that they often fly in the face of common sense. She's teamed up with the Doctor for most of the episode, and acts as an excellent foil for him, revealing him to be quite stupid in some circumstances, however in others he succeeds because of his own particular wiseness. It's reminiscent of the relationship between the Fourth Doctor and the First Romana, whereby both were essentially equals, it's just that one would tend to have slightly more experience over the other in certain circumstances. It's a shame, then, that she never became a companion, although the TARDIS is crowded enough as it is.

But getting back to the original point, the Box of Jhana is a particular Kinda device that affects all three of them in a particular way. It's, in my opinion, a mind-opener, a device that opens the mind of those who come into contact with it. When Sanders discovers it, his completely closed off mind to anything but his own discipline completely disappears. He regresses back to a child-like state, joining in in games that are set up by Hindle as he goes slightly more and more mad. Todd, on the other hand, is unaffected by it. She already has an open mind and is willing to accept much of what occurs, provided that it all makes sense. Likewise, the Doctor has an open mind as well, and so he too is unaffected.

But Hindle's response to it is perhaps the most enlightening of all in this thesis. His madness has increased dramatically, to the point in Part 4 where he has formed a city of tiny cardboard people, all ready to be destroyed when he blows up the world, by setting off the explosive charges littered across the base.When one of them is accidentally broken, he refuses to accept any evidence that states that it can be fixed, shouting loudly "You can't mend people!". In saying this, he speaks of himself, of how he knows that he is broken but that nothing can 'fix' him. A man who has been born and bred from a manual that speaks nothing of how to deal with a person's mental state and is thus suffering an array of issues. But then, he opens the box and his mind is opened.

We later see them all relatively relaxed, and ready to experience life with a far more open mind. Sanders is even speaking of going native, and staying on the planet forever. That's the moral of that particular branch of the story, then. That one must open their mind in order to receive true enlightenment and paradise.

But that's only half the story. I've barely talked about the Mara in this story, or Panna, or Aris, or the turning of the wheel. There is just so much that's interesting in this story that you just want to watch it again and again, to pick up on various bits and pieces that you missed, and enjoy it more and more. That's why, in my opinion, this is perhaps the greatest Doctor Who story of all time, and one that I'm looking forward to watching again one day in the future.

Day 564: Kinda Part 3

I'll make a deal here. There is rather a lot to talk about regarding Part 3 of Kinda. However, there are two things that get in my way. One is that a lot of what I want to talk about for Part 3 is used in better ways in Part 4, and so I do want to leave a lot of that for Part 4. Another is that I begin my Uni exams tomorrow, and there's a large part of me that wants to study for Statistical Mechanics for the rest of the night. So today's entry will be a short one, but tomorrow's will be far longer, covering an awful lot of the themes and characters within Kinda.

So what to talk about then? Adric springs to mind, because he's intelligently written within this story. His interplay with the Doctor, for instance, is spent being a little bit of a cheeky young lad, getting them both into scrapes such as being captured by the expedition of Deva Loka. He's a little bit lighter than usual, spending their time locked in a cell to teach the Doctor a magic trick, just to pass the time as both he and the Doctor know that it's relatively worthless at that point to attempt an escape.

But this is all something that another writer could do, just from the brief character description. What Christopher Bailey does is put Adric into an interesting position. He feigns an alliance with the deranged leader of the expedition in order to gain his trust, and better help the Doctor. This, for a start, is already an improvement on what occurred with Four to Doomsday, whereby we saw Adric as the type of character who would go evil at the drop of a hat. This time, he analyses the situation and attempts to put himself in control of it, making for a far more interesting character movement and one that is far more beneficial to the plot.

This, of course, backfires. The leader of the base has passed the point of no return with respect to his derangement and Adric is forced to play along, knowing full well that he needs to escape at the earliest possible opportunity. So he's trapped by his own plan, stuck in a base where he is watched at every turn. Thus, it allows for the audience to be a bit more emotionally invested in what happens with this particular plot strand, because a character that we are growing to care about is trapped there. But that's not the whole reason why we're so engaged by that part of the plot. Tomorrow, we'll look at the characters on the base, as well as the Box of Jhana, and the Mara. But for now, I've Got Work To Do.

Day 563: Kinda Part 2

Adding to the fantastic nature of Kinda is the way in which it deals with companions, in particular Tegan. Tegan is left on her own a short while into Part 1, and she falls asleep in some remote part of the jungle. But it's a different sort of sleep, a trance state, where she's left completely vulnerable. The camera moves into her eyeball, into the darkness of her eye, and we see her mind get attacked by some unknown force.

The attack on her mind consists of some unknown force, which only wishes to be free, and to take over Tegan's body in order to gain its freedom. It does this by breaking Tegan's mind slowly, until she has no choice but to give up her freedom so that she can have some form of sanity left within her. One way in which this is done is by creating a perfect double of her, that thinks, feels and moves exactly like her. Thus the moral dilemma is created within both Tegans, as to which is the real one and which is the fake. The story does an interesting trick here, and chooses to leave this particular plot thread hanging for a little while, instead focussing on the work done by the Doctor and Adric. When we return to Tegan, we've lost all track of which one is the real one, and which one is the fake one. The fact that both of them claim equal stakes in being Tegan and acknowledge this fact, makes it hard to tell which is which, making it even more of a psychological dilemma as we try to distinguish between two identical minds. It's thoroughly disturbing stuff, and just one example of the horrific things that happen to Tegan within this episode. And around 10 minutes into Part 2, she breaks.

We've never really seen this sort of thing occur in Doctor Who before, or at least it's happened so long ago that we're liable to have forgotten about it. We've seen characters get hypnotised, yes, or be possessed by some alien entity, but this is something different. This is Doctor Who making this whole process scary again by trying a different tactic, actually breaking the mind of the person involved. It's torturing the characters, making it a far more intense experience and making the story more frightening as a whole.

So when we see Tegan possessed, we know that this is something that's put her under an intense amount of pain. And we don't just see her possessed in the normal 'possessed by a monster' acting, where the character will talk slowly and emotionless. This is a character full of emotion, seeking to do evil and take control. We see the creature taking control of Tegan smile, move and be free, making it more of a character, and more of a threat, as we see hat it has taken full control of Tegan. It then moves on, taking control of another character, Aris, in an incredibly painful sequence as the camera cuts quickly back and forth between Tegan reaching out at Aris and Aris holding back in a silent scream, before finally giving into the power of the creature. But what's done is done, and we've seen something truly traumatic.

This is a frightening episode of Doctor Who, as we see all sorts of psychological trauma affect the characters. It shows that scary things don't have to be monsters, they can sometimes be affecting you in the mind, in your dreams.

Day 562: Kinda Part 1

Some stories I watch and I can slowly remember when I watched it for the first time. I remember a particular type of soup that I had whilst watching State of Decay, or the fact that I was wearing my pyjamas whilst watching Logopolis. For Kinda, it's a memory of the time of day, and the time of year that I watched it. It was midday in an Australian winter, I think. I'd finished my first semester at Uni and I was celebrating by catching up on some Doctor Who DVDs that were lying around. I'd bought Kinda because of its reputation. Certain corners of fandom had called it the greatest Doctor Who story of all time, and out of curiosity, I checked it out. And what I watched was, to my surprise, perhaps the greatest Doctor Who story of all time.

The Jungle on the planet Deva Loka

There are so many reasons why Kinda is great that I will never be able to go into them all. But I can make a start, and I'll start with the setting. It's on an alien jungle planet, where a team of colonists are performing a survey. The colonists are straight out of colonial-era England, with upper class accents, pith helmets, and a belief in rule and regulation that puts them above the natives. One of the main settings is their base with some technology that is surrounded by greenery, remaining peacefully there in the background, but leaving the base with a feeling of being alien within its surroundings, the only non-natural thing in this jungle planet.

The Colonists' base on Deva Loka

Looking at this came across as rather personally evocative for me. I live in Australia, a country colonised by the British in the 18th century. It's a lovely little country, that whilst it does have a surprisingly large amount of things that want to kill you, also has some truly beautiful scenery. Various parts of the Australian landscape have been cut down to make way for structures like houses, but occasionally they've been blended together, to create buildings that feel more natural. I remember holidays in the bushland, staying in houses that are surrounded by wildlife. My year seven geography classrom looked directly out on a group of trees that occasionally felt as if they threatened to burst into each lesson. And around 4 months after watching Kinda, I had an exam in a building that was exactly like the sanctuary base, cream coloured insides with red metal pylons on the edges, surrounded by grass, and the sweltering Australian Sun.

The University of Newcastle Architecture Department
Place most memorable to me on the ground that I had a
rather easy Mathematics exam there, allowing a certain ability
to enjoy the view.

So when I watch Kinda, I feel an odd connection to it. Because when I watched it for the first time, it was at midday, in the bright Australian Sun with light coming into the room from all directions. So as I watched it, I thought to myself that it was just like where I live, the places where I grew up, and the places where I work every day. It's personal connections like that that make me grow to enjoy Kinda more and more with each passing day.

Day 561: Four to Doomsday Part 4

This is an odd story to look at, quality-wise. The first few episodes are, in my opinion, not very good. They take too long to get to the heart of the plot, and they deal with some of the characters in appallingly bad ways. But the last half of this story is so fantastically bonkers that it almost makes up for the first half.

We learn that Monarch, the villain of the piece, is going to invade Earth for its silicon resources, as well as colonising it so that he can help to enslave the human race so that he can discover the secret of faster than light travel. He wishes to travel faster than light because he hypothesises that this will allow him to go backwards in time such that he can witness the creation of the Universe. Once he reaches the creation of the Universe, he expects to meet himself, as he is also operating under the belief that he is God. That's a really weird evil plan to have, and you have to admire Terence Dudley, the writer, for developing this plan as it certainly adds a lot more creativity than a simple "we wish to be all powerful" plot, instead going for a "I am God and I wish to meet me and rewitness the creation of the Universe" ploy.

What follows after that point is an oddly action packed couple of episodes as the Doctor rushes about trying to formulate some way of stopping Monarch, culminating in an impressive sequence as the Doctor leaps into space to reach the TARDIS. It's all surprisingly good, and makes the entire story feel a lot better. So whilst this story may have some problems, for the sheer scope of the concept that it tries to pull off, you have to admire it for what it achieves.

Day 560: Four to Doomsday Part 3

Adric is rather annoying in this story. And by rather annoying, I mean that when he was knocked unconscious halfway through this episode, I may have breathed a sigh of relief that he wouldn't be gracing the screen for another couple of minutes at least. There are several reasons as to why he's so annoying, but we can easily start with the fact that he begins the episode by being a chauvinist and proclaiming that Tegan is a horrible person because Tegan is a woman. As first impressions go, it's not terribly great. But how can he improve on this, I hear you ask? How about actually teaming up with the villain of the story who proclaims that he is going to control the human race to Adric. Adric agrees with him, and thinks that this is a wonderful idea, ignoring little concepts like love and free will, that will of course be removed once the villain gets his way. I suppose that this plot element has been introduced in order to introduce an amount of conflict between the regular characters, which makes the story more interesting as we have to ponder the moral dilemma of which one is right or not. However, because the dilemma is so blatantly one sided between good and evil, it's clear that Adric is in the wrong, and so we grow to detest him as an audience. Hopefully things will improve for the character though as the series continues, but for now we have to focus on the conclusion to Four to Doomsday.

Day 559: Four to Doomsday Part 2

This episode reminds me of Marco Polo. Watching Marco Polo for the first time around a year and a half ago, I remember being intrigued by the different way in which television was written in that time, mainly due to an extended dance sequence that took place at some point in the episode revolving around Aladdin and assassins. It spoke of a time in television that wasn't afraid to stop and show something different, and not need to revolve around little things like action, special effects, or advancing the plot. I got a similar feeling for this episode of Four to Doomsday. We get an extended sequence where the Doctor and Tegan view various representations of different cultures (albeit inter-cut with Nyssa and Adric exploring the surrounding area and trying to figure out what is happening here). The sequence features a traditional Mayan dance, followed by an exhibition of Chinese Dragons, a fight between two Greek soldiers, and as they leave a corroboree from the Aboriginal Australians begins. It's quite nice to sit back and enjoy these other cultures, but you can't help but wonder whether television has moved on from this point. We're no longer as accepting of sequences created to pad the episode out with no real intention of advancing the plot, and so it's a bit easier to get bored by what's taking place in front of you. Which is interesting, because if this had taken place in a William Hartnell story, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. I suppose that it's just an example of the changing way in which television programmes are written.

Day 558: Four to Doomsday Part 1

This is different. The first episode of Four to Doomsday concersn itself with the Doctor and co. exploring the spaceship that they find themselves on. They meet some aliens, discover some technology, and meet some humans who are from to some of the most ancient cultures on Earth (e.g. Greeks, Australian Aborigines, etc.). There's something about this episode that feels a little bit wrong though, that differentiates it from everything else.

In my opinion, it's due to a lack of conflict encountered in their surroundings. Everything that they come across is relatively peaceful, with no real cause for alarm (aside from one or two brief mentions ofslightly  worrisome things). Even the cliffhanger, which reveals that the aliens are, at least to some degree, shapeshifters, comes across less as a massive revelation and more of a small surprise. We don't know what the consequences are of this, and prior interaction with these aliens has shown them to be fairly nice so we don't see them as a threat. All of this lack of conflict means that the story lacks a driving force that is able to truly engage the audience.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. This first episode is clearly all about exploring the scenario that we find ourselves in, and it allows for us to have a slightly slower paced story than what we've been used to over the past couple of stories. And, as we've seen with this regeneration, change does not necessarily have to be a bad thing.

Day 557: Castrovalva Part 4

So, now that he's had some time to settle into the role, it's worth discussing what the initial impressions of the Fifth Doctor are like. He's a lot less eccentric than his predecessor, which comes as a breath of fresh air, and helps to distinguish him in the role. He's also a lot calmer, taking various revelations in the plot in his stride, approaching them logically and without too much anger. Take, for instance, when he discovers that Adric has been missing for the entire serial, by virtue of being captured by the Master. He finds Nyssa and Tegan squabbling over this fact, and although he is still somewhat distressed by this news, he takes it calmly and attempts to be the voice of reason between the two, making the character more likeable and setting himself apart from Baker's Doctor, who would have been slightly more liable to emotion upon the discovery of the capture of one of his companions.

Another element that we can see in Davison's Doctor is in how energetic he is. He spends much of the last part of this story on his feet, running about from place to place. Even in conversations, he's still moving, rummaging his hands through his trouser pockets as he talks with various people. It complements itself well with his appearance, being full of youthful vigour that speaks of a young energy at the heart of this new and renewed Doctor.

The heart of this Doctor, though, is the fact that he's a hero, or perhaps to use a phrase used in the most recent series of Doctor Who, a good man. He's not the action hero that Pertwee was, nor the eccentric oddball of Baker, the grumpy but charming man of Hartnell or the cosmic hobo of Troughton. He's more of a romantic hero, existing to be a simple good man who goes out into the Universe to explore and go on an adventure. It's a more relaxed take on the Doctor than his predecessors, but it's one that I look forward to exploring, as the Fifth Doctor's era begins.

Day 556: Castrovalva Part 3

Castrovalva, as referred to in the title of this story, is a place of harmony, where the Doctor is sent in order to relax and fully get used to his new body following his post-regeneration crisis. The image above is an accurate representation of Castrovalva, as it's quite different from other places in the universe. It's a weird, fifth dimensional area where the corners of space are folding in on themselves, meaning that we have an Escher-like zone where you keep going down and down flights of stairs, but you never reach the bottom, always staying within an odd loop. It's an odd, but engaging idea, and is an excellent example of high concept scientific and mathematical ideas being utilised within a Doctor Who story to engage the viewing audience with something that is truly weird and out of this world.

It's also worth mentioning that we'll be seeing examples of this sort of thing more regularly across the next couple of series, as we get really high concept ideas in a Doctor Who context. It's not all we're going to be seeing though, as we'll come to discover over the next couple of weeks. But for now, let's just enjoy the geometrical nightmare that is Castrovalva.