Day 647: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 8 - Mindwarp Part 4

The general conceit of Mindwarp is that, at the end of Part 1, the Doctor undergoes a sudden brain trauma that leaves him on the side of evil rather than good. It's distressing to watch, particularly as events proceed in such a manner to suggest that we may have passed the point of no return, and that all might be lost. Fortunately, however, halfway through Part 3, the Doctor regains his full mental faculties and begins to create a resistance movement. He also has to now save Peri, who is now facing the prospect of having her entire mind wiped and replaced with that of Kiv, Sil's boss.

And, 10 minutes from the end of Part 4, it would appear that all is proceeding as planned. But then the Time Lords capture the Doctor, and take him away to be put on trial. And, after that, everything goes wrong. Peri dies. The transplant between Kiv's mind and her mind was successful, and her entire consciousness ceases to be. There are rare moments when the series gets as dark as this, where the Doctor's companion and friend dies as a result of the Doctor's negligence and inability to save them.

But this moment had to happen, to show the impact of the Doctor's actions, and how it could perhaps lead to moments such as this. And, for a brief second, we understand fully why the Doctor is on trial, and leads us to the conclusion that perhaps he should be found guilty, because if he caused this, then maybe he should be punished.

Day 646: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 7 - Mindwarp Part 3

A small thing grabbed my attention when I first watched this episode, and is, in my opinion, one of the most absolutely lovely parts of the story. Now, there exists a character called Crozier, who is currently trying to perform a brain transplant for Kiv, an alien creature who acts as Sil's boss. Now, at one point in the story, Crozier is standing around in his lab, having a cup of tea, whilst observing Kiv. His assistant then notices something odd and asks for Crozier's opinion. Crozier, remaining spookily calm, begins to say what the problem is, finishes his cup of tea, and then completes his sentence, saying that Kiv is going into cardiac arrest.

It's a small moment in the story, but it's an example of why I'm so fond of the character of Crozier. He's clearly a mad scientist, but he underplays his insane side so much that one could see him as perfectly normal. The only problem is, the work that he is doing is so abnormal that it reveals his true madness. It's all thanks to the performance by Patrick Ryecart, who underplays everything so well that it creates a truly believable mad scientist (unlike, say, Professor Zaroff in The Underwater Menace), which greatly improves the quality of this story and helps me to enjoy it again once more.

Day 645: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 6 - Mindwarp Part 2

Yesterday, I mentioned how unnerving this story is, and how I struggled to find much fun in it. For the most part, this continued for this episode, as I was frequently unnerved, and on one occasion thoroughly frightened by what was on screen in front of me. But, there was one thing which I'd somehow neglected to think about when considering whether this story had much fun within it. That thing is, of course, BRIAN BLESSED.

BRIAN BLESSED is one of those actors who instantly improves anything that he appears in, through his charismatic and loud portrayals of various characters such as Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon, Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace (a thoroughly underrated film, in my opinion) and of course King Yrcanos in Mindwarp. Every scene that he is in involves him shouting his dialogue before threatening violence on someone. And whilst this may not be a fully fleshed out 3-dimensional character, it is still something that you can't quite draw your eyes away from. It vastly improves this story, and helps to remind me of why I fell in love with it in the first place.

Day 644: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 5 - Mindwarp Part 1

There's a large part of me that finds the process of watching Mindwarp rather odd. Because, after watching it for the first time at the age of 18, I believe that this was my favourite Doctor Who story of all time. Now, this isn't the case at the moment (I'd give that honour to either Kinda, The Ribos Operation or Frontier in Space), so I'm watching this story being fully aware that I once loved it, and I'm struggling to see why.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that this story is bad. I actually think it's rather good, it's just that I can't really see the parts of this story that made me love it a couple of years ago, compared to now. For a start, everything is remarkably dark in tone, with everything feeling just that bit more serious and slightly unnerving, such as Peri's reaction to meeting Sil again where she gets noticeably more worried and frightened of this creature. And whilst this is well played, it doesn't quite make me love this story, instead it leaves me rather distressed. But I'm still curious to see more of this adventure, and I'll see whether I can rediscover the point where I fell in love with this story.

Day 643: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 4 - The Mysterious Planet Part 4

The dichotomy at the heart of the climax of The Mysterious Planet is one which reflects the nature of Doctor Who at the moment. Around five minutes in, Queen Katryca gets horrifically killed, with the end result being that her entire body gets covered in blood in a rather nasty experience. This is contrasted later on in the story when Balazar, another ally of the Doctor's gets covered in a green gunge, as if he's just won the Kids' Choice Award on Nickelodeon. The dichotomy present is that between the two ways in which Doctor Who is produced at the moment: a world of blood and a world of gunge.

You see, the world of blood is often violent, serious and gritty, while the world of gunge is far lighter, with more fun and happiness thrown into the mix. Both of these methods can produce good stories, but it's apparent that these two methods cannot co-exist, in particular because a portion of the audience wants more stories like The Caves of Androzani, while others want more stories like City of Death, and there isn't that much crossover between those two adventures. So the production team has to decide on the style of programme that they wish to make, one that's serious and gritty or one that's light-hearted and fun. On the basis of The Mysterious Planet, I'd say that they're leaning towards the gunge option, although the next adventure, if memory serves me right, is really very bloody indeed.

Day 642: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 3 - The Mysterious Planet Part 3

One of the major criticisms levelled at The Trial of a Time Lord is its trial. The general conceit of the story is that the Doctor has been placed on trial by his own people for breaking various laws. As part of this trial, evidence is being shown from some of the Doctor's adventures, as claims are made as to his conduct. Criticism is levelled at this idea for generally intruding on the adventures, as every five minutes a scene where the Doctor is forced to explain himself is added into the story, which doesn't improve the 'flow' of the story.

And yet, I actually really like it. I like it because the writers have the sense to use this concept and play with some aspect of it. Holmes, for instance, chooses to have certain parts of this story removed, as they are not deemed safe enough to be put on the public record and thus are censored for the purposes of the trial. This introduces a small mystery to the events, and makes for a slightly more intriguing adventure. It's a nice introduction of a story arc and gives a sense of continuity across the whole story, which improves the story immensely, in my opinion.

Day 641: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 2 - The Mysterious Planet Part 2

One of the things that I really love about The Mysterious Planet is the above screen grab. This story was made in 1986, and thus things like computer graphics weren't that great. But, they were better than nothing, and people would jump at the chance to use them, even in situations where a practical effect would work just as well and give a better result. In this instance, computer effects have been used in order to add a wooden stick into the frame, giving the impression that you are looking out from the window of a hut. But this effect doesn't entirely work as intended, unfortunately.

It looks like someone has taken a picture, imported it into MS Paint, and then gotten their 5 year old child to draw a stick on top of it. It looks unrealistic, cheap, and completely fails to achieve this relatively simple effect (indeed, on first viewing, I was perplexed as to what it was meant to be representing). And yet, I love it for all of those reasons. These are people who aren't afraid to try new things, and who don't shy away from their failures. Sure, it's not the best effect in the world, but it has a fair amount of charm behind it, and at the very least, it gives me a lot of nostalgia for when I was 5 years old and mucking about on MS Paint, creating alien vistas, majestic buildings, and unrealistic sticks.

Day 640: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 1 - The Mysterious Planet Part 1

I love The Trial of a Time Lord. It's actually one of the stories that I was most looking forward to covering in this blog, as I really enjoyed the experience of watching it the last time I saw it, which was just after finishing my final exams in high school. I needed something to get my mind away from all of the doom and gloom that's associated with waiting for results. Thankfully, 'Trial' delivered that in spades, providing stories that were about having fun, as well as more complex stories that grab the audience's attention with some interesting character moments.

Of these two story types, The Mysterious Planet is chiefly in the 'fun' section, in my opinion. It's written by Robert Holmes, but it's not the serious Holmes that wrote The Caves of Androzani, instead it's a lighter tale, akin to The Ribos Operation. The distinction can be best shown in the way in which the characters are drawn. For Caves, all of the characters were written with a slightly evil streak to them, and whilst this made them more complex, it also meant that you could never find yourself to really like any of them, which, given the tone of Caves, works to the story's advantage. For The Mysterious Planet, on the other hand, all of the characters are given a wit and warmth that, even if they appear to be antagonists, you can still clearly enjoy their company. Two examples of this are Glitz and Dibber, where they are rogueish characters who may have tried to kill the Doctor, but we're also allowed to make jokes with them about prison psychologists or the phrase "Take me to your leader".

It all creates a nice atmosphere, that I actually really appreciate. And whilst it may not be the best thing for the series at the moment, I still utterly love it.

Day 639: Revelation of the Daleks Part 2

There's a lot to talk about with regards to Revelation of the Daleks. There's the brilliant idea behind Davros' plan to save the Universe, where he solves the problem of food shortage in the Universe by selling human bodies as food. There's the questionable acting of Jenny Tomasin, who portrays what could have been the slightly worrying character of Tasambeker too over the top, making her scenes less tragic and more laughable. There's also the implication of a Dalek Civil War, which will be elaborated upon in the next Dalek story, which we'll cover in around a month or so. But in the end, the main thing that draws attention is the ending.

The Doctor and Peri are having a discussion of where they'll go next. He suggests somewhere peaceful, she wants somewhere fun. He's about to suggest a location for the next story, when the camera suddenly freeze-frames and we cut to the credits. There was, it turns out, going to be an ending to that sentence but the audience was destined never to hear it as this was to be the last Doctor Who episode broadcast for eighteen months. This is the first break that the series will undergo, before another one four years later, effectively killing the series. This is the beginning of the end for Doctor Who.

And it's a shame to see it go. Over the past few stories, there have been some misfires of great magnitude (Timelash, The Twin Dilemma) but there have also been some stories that I personally adore, such as The Two Doctors, Vengeance on Varos, The Caves of Androzani, or even this very story, Revelation of the Daleks. There have been some great ideas that have been well executed, but the only problem is that sometimes thing can slip through the cracks, leaving stories that are less than desired. And it's hard to watch Warriors of the Deep and say that this is a television series that deserved to be made.

But the important thing to remember is that this is a break, and maybe it will allow for the production team to come back, refreshed and ready to take on new challenges with a new desire to do well. And even is the show is doomed, I'd much rather see it go out in a blaze of glory with some truly fantastic and ground-breaking stories, than let it fester with some less than desired adventures. We can but hope.

Day 638: Revelation of the Daleks Part 1

Revelation of the Daleks is a story that feels like it should be something else. It's a Dalek story written by Eric Saward (Resurrection of the Daleks, Earthshock), so you get the idea that it's going to be a simple action story, without too much plot but with enough going on to prevent the audience from getting bored. But it subverts those expectations massively, and proves to be something quite different.

What we get is Eric Saward trying to write a Robert Holmes story, and actually succeeding. It's filled with witty dialogue and memorable characters such as the assassin Orcini, who states of his squire, Bostock, that "the only philosophy practised by Bostock is to do as little about his personal hygiene as possible". It shows that Saward is showing an interest in changing what he does as a writer, and also the real influence of The Caves of Androzani, that allows for him to realise that perhaps what the audience wants is a well written story through characters, plot and dialogue, and not through action scenes, special effects and returning monsters.

I mention that last point because, even though this story does feature the Daleks, it really doesn't at all. The focus of the story is clearly on Davros and his plans, and not on the work of the Daleks. Indeed, I can't recall them even firing their guns at anyone in this episode, least of all the Doctor, who hasn't even met them yet. It all comes across as the Daleks being somewhat of an obligation to have in this story, and that what Saward really wants to do is focus on the character of Davros and his motivations. And, you know what, all power to him. Because I'm actually rather enjoying the direction that this story is taking and it's making me look forward to the future work by Saward in Series 23. But we've still got one more episode to go, so we'll wait a little bit to see what happens in tomorrow as Revelation of the Daleks comes to a conclusion.

Day 637: Timelash Part 2

Meanwhile in this story, there
is an actual sock puppet acting as
an antagonist.

20 minutes into Timelash Part 2, Paul Darrow gets killed. Given that he is the only good thing about this story, it is clear that the rest of this episode isn't going to be that great.

25 minutes into Timelash Part 2, the Borad gets killed. Given that he is the main villain of the story, you could be forgiven for thinking that the story ends there. But unfortunately, it doesn't. Instead, there's around 20 minutes left of Timelash to go. 20 minutes of padding and waiting for the credits.

There's also the Timelash, which is
made out of tin foil. Clearly a lot of
effort went into this story.

I'm not going to say that these are the worst 20 minutes of Doctor Who ever produced. But I will say that I was shouting at the TV throughout it and begging for it to end. Every single fault in the story becomes so much larger when it becomes apparent that there's no story to base anything on. The Doctor becomes even less likeable, at one point picking Peri up and almost throwing her out of the TARDIS control room. That said, he's nothing compared to Herbert, who brings a sense of irritation to Doctor Who that hasn't really been felt since Matthew Waterhouse's performance as Adric in The Visitation.

Once entering the Timelash. we
discover that it's made of
styrofoam and tinsel. You can almost
taste the effort that went into the story.

And there's even worse yet to come. There's a thoroughly unconvincing explosion that makes you wonder whether any thought was given to the very notion of special effects in this story, but you believe that the Doctor is dead. Then the Borad shows up, where he reveals that the one that was killed earlier was just a clone. This plot development is given virtually no prior warning and is never expanded upon, making it even more painfully clear that this scene has been shoehorned in at the last moment because there are still 5 minutes left to fill. Then the Doctor shows up, where he reveals that he survived the explosion. He doesn't bother elaborating on why this is the case, which acts as a further example of how lazy the writing is in this story. But he saves the day, and reveals to the audience that Herbert was actually HG Wells. This, in turn, reminds me of how much of a missed opportunity this was, and how there could have been a really good story where the Doctor meets HG Wells. But instead we get Timelash, a sorry excuse for a story that I'm thoroughly glad is over.

Day 636: Timelash Part 1

There's not much to like about Timelash. The script is uninspiring, the acting is generally non-existent (with the exception of Paul Darrow, who makes it reasonably watchable), and the direction is somewhat flat. More to the point, it fails to engage the audience with any sort of hook, instead it just has events happen and it expects the audience to be interested in them.

An example of a lack of any sort of hook for the story is how they attempt to bludgeon in some continuity by saying that the Third Doctor and Jo have previously visited here. But it fails to do anything interesting for the plot, aside from providing the villain with a motivation for revenge. There is potential in the idea, if the script decided to have a far greater showing of the Doctor's influence. But as for now, it feels like a 'fun fact' about the planet, which whilst somewhat diverting, fails to be of any substance whatsoever.

Still, at least it's not offensively bad like The Twin Dilemma. Although, at least The Twin Dilemma was interesting in its awfulness, whereas this is just completely uninspiring.

Day 635: The Two Doctors Part 3

Whilst I do rather enjoy The Two Doctors, I will admit that it does have a few issues with it that prevent it from being a truly great story. Looking at the issues in detail, however, it's clear that one of them is oddly one of the story's highlights, whilst the other represents a low point for the series.

The first thing that I wish to talk about is the Sontarans. Their role in this story is to generally act as another party with respect to the work being done by Dastari and Chessene, with a keen interest in their work with time-ships. However, they don't really make that much of an impact on the plot. Aside from an attack on the space station at the beginning, the vast majority of work that the Sontarans do in this story is stand around and plan to double cross their allies, until they find that they themselves have been double crossed. It's kind of a waste of a good race of aliens, and leaves me with the impression that the story might have been better without them.

Which is a bit of a shame as it's actually one of the best depictions that we've had of the Sontarans. This is to be expected, given that they are being written by their creator, Robert Holmes, who brings them a return to their militaristic roots. It feels like all of their discussions are of battle plans, fighting and war. This is carried through to the production, with Peter Moffatt directing the Sontarans to be full military caricatures, having them march into scenes and continue to stand up straight like the officers that they are. It's also present in the music by Peter Howell, as can be heard above, which is a nice effective march, getting across the general notion of the Sontarans in around 30 seconds of music. So what we end up with is a story that doesn't need the Sontarans, but ends up having them as one of the highlights.

The same cannot be said, however, for the other major downfall of this story. Towards the climax, Shockeye, the villain desperate to taste human flesh, begins a hunt for the Doctor. This culminates in the Doctor putting a cloth that has been doused with cyanide over Shockeye's mouth, causing him to convulse, before dying. The Doctor then delivers a quip about the death and moves on. This is another awful moment for the Doctor, as he kills another being in cold blood, and although Shockeye was unrelentingly evil, it still doesn't excuse the fact that he killed him. It leaves a sour taste in the mouth after a rather good story, and serves as a constant reminder of why I can't really look upon this era of Doctor Who and say that it's one of my favourites.

Still, at the very least, at least there's been nothing too bad so far this series. The Two Doctors has certainly been very fun, Vengeance on Varos had a good concept and at least Attack of the Cybermen and The Mark of the Rani were watchable. What could possible go wrong?

Day 634: The Two Doctors Part 2

I think that the writing of The Two Doctors is easily the strong point, and that's thanks to Robert Holmes, a returning writer for Doctor Who, who has worked for the series off and on since The Krotons, and previously wrote the acclaimed story The Caves of Androzani. Here, he's given a challenge, where he has to shoehorn in two Doctors, two companions, a returning enemy, a new enemy, a foreign location and make it all into a palatable piece of television. He succeeds, in part thanks to the return of an old friend to the series, or what could be seen as an old enemy, the longer story.

Longer stories have been part of Doctor Who since the second serial, which was 7 parts long in duration. That said, they aren't perfect, and they can occasionally grow boring as it becomes apparent that there's only enough plot to fill an episode for four episodes and now it is being stretched out to six or more (e.g. The Daleks, The Monster of Peladon). However, they tend to allow for a story of more depth, allowing more time for character development or more complex plots (e.g. Doctor Who and the Silurians, The War Games). In this case, it is quite apparent that it is needed for a story of this scale, in order to make it worth watching and not a large mess, but there's also the underlying issue of keeping the audience interested throughout the adventure.

Holmes manages this with aplomb, through various methods. For a start, he ensures that the characters are all worth watching and have their own motivations that are interesting enough to hold the story in their own right. There's Chessene, a genetically modified being with delusions of grandeur, or Dastari, the person who augmented her and wishes for her to be made into a godlike creature. There's also Oscar Botcherby, an actor who has a dramatic turn of phrase but a wish to not really get into trouble, or Shockeye, the alien cook who wishes to taste human flesh.

The villains are also given enough menace to make them believable and somewhat frightening as well, such as can be seen in the cliffhanger to this episode where Shockeye's hands move towards Peri in a point of view shot, giving a truly creepy and disturbing feeling to the cliffhanger and making him feel like a tangible threat. This is clearly one-up to The Mark of the Rani, which felt that you could make a good villain by just giving them good dialogue. That's not to say that there's any shortage of good dialogue here, with plenty of witty exchanges between the characters, that are given just the right turn of phrase by the actors playing them that they can turn from a slightly odd thing to discuss to something weirdly hilarious, such as Shockeye's desire to eat human flesh. It all keeps the story interesting, which is something that is certainly needed as this is an awfully long story.

But, I'm rather happy to spend all of this time with this story, as it's clear that it's being written by a master of his craft, in the form of Robert Holmes. I'm actually quite glad that he's now seemingly returned to the programme for the long term, and I look forward to future work from him, as it seems like he's never been away.

Day 633: The Two Doctors Part 1

The Two Doctors is an interesting story. It represents a weird mix of both the old and new of Doctor Who, with various elements of the past returning for no specific reason other than it should make for a fun story. These returning elements are all quite different, but they're all quite interesting, and show just how much Doctor Who has changed over the past 22 series.

The most obvious returning element is Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, alongside Frazer Hines as Jamie. The reason for their return is because the production team enjoyed working with Troughton so much during The Five Doctors that they decided to invite him back for a return story, and to be honest I can hardly blame them. Amongst the many wonderful things about The Five Doctors (and indeed The Three Doctors), Patrick Troughton's performance as the Doctor is easily one of the highlights. As can be seen in this episode, he steps into the role as if he were never away, playing at equal parts the clownish figure who wanders throughout the universe, or the deadly serious man who fights to protect the Universe from all sorts of horrors. This is best seen in the scene where he encounters Dastari where he goes from joking with him in an attempt to show that he is a friend to be trusted, whilst also telling him that he wants his work to be shut down, to getting progressively angrier with him as he realises the short-sightedness of Dastari and that he doesn't realise the implications of his work and how dangerous it could be.

There is, however, the question of continuity. This story has the Second Doctor working for the Time Lords, alongside Jamie, as they sort out the issues with Dastari. But the only problem with this is that the Second Doctor never really worked with the Time Lords, indeed he spent much of his time as the Doctor running away from them. No explanation is given in this story as to why this is happening, although fans have developed a theory revolving around the Doctor being taken away after his trial to work as a rogue agent for the Time Lords. But all of this brings forth a tiny little issue that I have with this, that this isn't the sort of thing that the Second Doctor did during his tenure, and so we're not really getting a true representation of his wonderful time as the Doctor.

But maybe that's just the point, that we can't really return to things just as they used to be. Instead, we return and find that they've developed and changed whilst we've been away, and we're not entirely sure about how to deal with that. But I suppose that that's just the very nature of life itself.

Day 632: The Mark of the Rani Part 2

The Mark of the Rani, as I said yesterday, is a story that i don't really think is great. But that doesn't mean that I think it's terrible either, and there are certainly strong things to find within the episode.

For a start, there's the concept behind the villainous Rani. The Rani is a renegade Time Lord, much like the Doctor or the Master, but her defining feature is that she is a scientist. And, as a scientist, she therefore disregards all human life as worthless and so uses it as part of grand experiments to further her own scientific knowledge. It's an interesting motivation, and certainly one which is true (I know of several friends studying science who would very easily take over the world because of a general hatred for all human life), and it also leads to a way for some cool concepts to be shown on screen. For instance, there are some landmines that The Rani has created that turn whoever steps on them into a tree. It makes for a nice and memorable effect, and helps to give a sense of menace to this villain.

The only problem is, however, that The Rani doesn't really get that much menace to her. Instead, much of the episode is spent with her, The Doctor and The Master (and occasionally Peri) delivering witty dialogue to each other as they insult and constantly one-up one another. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, and the dialogue is one of this story's strong points. The major problem, however, is that so much focus is put on the dialogue that there's no real sense of danger when dealing with either The Master or The Rani. Instead, we just accept that these characters are in opposition and move on with out lives. The climax to this story, for instance, is just The Master destroying a pillar in an old mine shaft, causing it to slightly collapse. There's no need to be worried about what will happen to our heroes, which crucially means that there's no reason to feel triumphant at the end of the stlry that the protagonists have defeated the villains. Because of this, the story just feels like it ends with a whimper, which doesn't help the overall quality of the story.

And with all of these good points and bad points, it just feels like they all cancel each other out in my mind and leave me completely apathetic to this story. Which is a shame, as there's plenty to be opinionated about here, it's just that I can't quite allow myself to point one way or the other with regards to this story's quality. That is, of course, except for the final scene, which features a beautiful pun and is almost enough to make me want to like this story. But, sadly, not quite enough.

Day 631: The Mark of the Rani Part 1

I've got an odd relationship with The Mark of the Rani. It's a story that seems to be completely average for me, and yet there is so much within it and within my relationship with it that I either want to get an appreciation for it or dislike it intensely, but I can't find it in my heart to do either.

I suppose I should begin with my personal relationship with this episode. It was the second Doctor Who story I ever watched, however, unlike the other Doctor Who stories that I watched in that first wave of discovery, I don't have any real emotional connection to it. There isn't the fear that I experienced with Inferno, the reappraisal that I found with Frontier in Space, or the joy that I got from either The Curse of Peladon or The Five Doctors. The Mark of the Rani is instead, for me, a story that I just watched and kind of enjoyed.

And that, for me, is the heart of the problem, in that I want to have an emotional connection about watching it, and yet it doesn't provide it for me. Any memories that I have of this episode are rather mundane, such as a scene with the Doctor and Peri in the TARDIS, or a scene where the Doctor disguises himself by throwing dirt all over his face. I want to remember laughing at the surprisingly witty dialogue or getting thrilled at the rather exciting cliffhanger, and yet these things didn't have that much impact on me as a child, so the episode leaves me feeling cold instead of feeling the warmth that I really want to receive from it.

In the end, I suppose that that is why I kind of dislike this episode, and yet, by watching it, I'm surprised too find little things that make me rather pleased, as we'll discuss tomorrow.

Day 630: Vengeance on Varos Part 2

The best part of Vengeance on Varos is clearly the enemies which it uses, in particular the work of one nasty little creature from Thoros Beta, known as Sil. Sil is at first an odd accompaniment to the rest of the cast, appearing as the other villains discuss the executions and getting rather excited at the prospect of death and torture. This excitement is actually rather disturbing, rubbing himself all over in such a fashion that it looks like he's getting an almost orgasmic thrill from all the events that are taking place.

But the real reason why Sil is so good is the motivation behind his actiions. He's actually a businessman, pure and simple. His role on Varos is to find a stock of Zeiton-7 and buy it from them, at a price that suits Sil but not the people of Varos. His comeuppance comes at the end of the episode when Thoros Beta informs him that they are running low on Zeiton-7 and they are to accept it at any price, something which the Governor of the colony relishes in informing Sil about, as he more than doubles Sil's original price for the Zeiton-7.

But what's immediately clear about Sil is that, even though he looks like a fantastical alien from some distant planet, he is one of the most realistic threats that is dealt with in this episode. Sil's interest is not conquest by force, but instead conquest through business and making deals with other planets. One can easily imagine certain aspects of Sil's persona being desirable traits for a high reaching businessman, seeking to make as much profit as they can possibly muster. It's also quite pertinent for the time, given that this was written in the 1980's, an era of "Greed is good" and seeking to make money at all costs. It's little wonder, then, that Sil was successful enough to be one of only two enemies in the Colin Baker era of the programme to return for another appearance. The second is one that we shall deal with tomorrow, as this odyssey continues.

Day 629: Vengeance on Varos Part 1

After the heavy action violence of Attack of the Cybermen, we get a different sort of violence in Vengeance on Varos. This violence has thoughts and ideas behind it, instead of just happening mindlessly and to please the average punter. But in a way, it's meant to be pleasing to the average punter.

The story is about a society where they have developed an interesting way of keeping the public under control. They are forced to watch television every single day, which mainly consists of torture of the rebels who dare to fight against the system, with occasional executions if they are lucky. They are, however, granted the right to vote. This happens when the planet's governor presents policies to them. If they like them, then the governor gets a chance to implement them. If not, then the governor is himself tortured for their failings, and it is quite clear that if they don't please the public enough then the torture will become too much to handle and the governor will die.

It's all very obviously a commentary on modern society. This story puts forward the notion that all that people really want is senseless violence, and that this is the ideal method to keep the populace under control. This is easily reflected in the viewing habits of audiences at the time, and indeed today, where mindless violence will nearly always triumph over sensitive dramas. Indeed, this is a truth that can be seen all the way back in ancient times, where Romans would have sacrifices and gladiator battles to entertain the masses, the only difference between then and now is that there is somewhat less death that occurs now, and it's all confined to screens, be they television, cinema or on mobile.

 It's an interesting theme for the story to have, in particular at a time when Doctor Who could easily be accused of going down the same route, with action stories like Earthshock or Resurrection of the Daleks being key highlights of the past couple of series. Still, this sort of writing from Philip Martin (a new writer to the series) shows great promise and makes me somewhat keen to watch the conclusion to Vengeance on Varos.

Day 628: Attack of the Cybermen Part 2

As of this moment in time, there are five Doctor Who stories that have garnered an M rating in Australia, advising that the content should be suitable for audiences aged 15 or older. In most of these instances, it's easy to see why this has occurred. The Waters of Mars is an incredibly violent and frightening story, and isn't the most child-friendly of Doctor Who episodes. Another story that gets this classification is Attack of the Cybermen, and it does most certainly deserve it.

This story, as well as having a sizeable contribution from Ian Levine, also wears its contribution from Eric Saward on its sleeve. It's a thoroughly violent episode with guns being fired, Cybermen having their heads blown off, massive explosions occurring at various points, and characters feeling the true power of the Cybermen's hands by having them crush various objects such as Lytton's hands in the scene depicted above. Now, a portion of the credit of this should go to Matthew Robinson, the director, who makes the scene feel truly gruesome with blood coming from Lytton's hands, showing the true pain that he's going through and adding to Maurice Colbourne's excellent performance. But I can't help but feel that there's something not quite right about it.

Maybe it's the fact that Doctor Who, in my opinion, needs to have a feeling of the fantastical about it that differentiates it from other series in the genre. The Waters of Mars, another story that is intended for mature audiences, certainly has a lot of violence and horror in it, but that all comes from water zombies. Yes, it's frightening, but it's also a little bit weird and worth watching anyway. But that argument doesn't exactly work, because there are other stories that are more realistic and violent that I absolutely love, like The Robots of Death or The Caves of Androzani that don't necessarily have that element of the fantastic about it but still engage me as an audience member. Adding to the counter-point against that argument, this story does actually have elements of the fantastic within it, like a race of creatures that had their home invaded by the Cybermen because they wished to use the cryogenic tombs that they had developed because they can't survive above around 0 degrees. This is a wonderful little concept, and shows that there are good ideas that Saward can bring to the series.

Perhaps it's not the violence, then, but who is dishing it out. There's a scene where the Doctor, after being suddenly attacked by the Cyber-Controller, picks up a gun and shoots the Cyber-Controller several times before it dies. It feels odd and not like the Doctor, in my opinion, with such violence occurring and, more to the point, it being glorified so much. Contrast with Deep Breath, where even the possibility that the Doctor killed the Half-Face Man was dealt with very seriously and became an underlying emotional crux of the rest of the series. But this is what we now have to deal with with the era of Doctor Who that is the Eric Saward era. An awful lot of violence, coming from the Doctor, that leaves an uneasy feeling in one's stomach.

Day 627: Attack of the Cybermen Part 1

There is some dispute about who wrote Attack of the Cybermen. Although the story is credited to Paula Moore, it is clear that this is a pseudonym for either Eric Saward, the script editor of the programme, Paula Woolsey, an ex-girlfriend of Saward's, Ian Levine, the 'continuity advisor' for the series, or some combination of the three of these. There is no denying, however, that both Saward and Levine must have had some contribution to this story, for either better or worse.

Levine's contribution is clearly that of continuity. There is a moment in this story where Peri, in a scene that shows that the Doctor is suffering from some memory issues after his recent regeneration, rattles off a list of names that the Doctor has called her over the past couple of days, being names of former companions of the Doctor. This exists purely to please fans of the series, and give them a little thrill as they hear the history of the show being referenced. Indeed, this story is littered with continuity references. It begins on Totter's Lane, which is where An Unearthly Child was set. A large portion of it is set on Telos, previously seen in The Tomb of the Cybermen. It's all aimed squarely to please fans, and that's a bit of a problem, to be honest.

The story feels as if it were created with continuity in mind, and not storytelling. The entire reason that a portion of the story is set on Telos, for instance, is not because the plot specifically demands it, but instead because it wants desperately to be a sequel to The Tomb of the Cybermen, an apparent classic according to a certain portion of Doctor Who fandom. The only problem is that this story therefore comes across as excluding the viewers who never saw The Tomb of the Cybermen, and it feels as if it only really cares about the 'true' fans. Contrast this with (to pick to stories at random) Remembrance of the Daleks, where the continuity references are hidden away, so fans who notice them can enjoy them, but the majority of the viewing audience can still enjoy the story regardless, or The Name of the Doctor, where the opening sequence chooses imagery that is instantly recognisable, and so the wider audience can recognise it for what it is and join in on the fun as well, instead of picking something as needlessly obscure as a Doctor Who story that was only aired once in 1967.

It's things like this that are driving the viewing public away from Doctor Who. But, there's also Saward's influence on the programme, which has its own little problems, as we shall discuss tomorrow.

Day 626: The Twin Dilemma Part 4

Around a year and a half ago, I watched Jurassic Park for the first time in a lecture theatre with friends. At a certain part of the film, a velociraptor bursts through a wall suddenly, and I screamed incredibly loudly. This incident revealed to most of my friends that I am terrible with jump scares, a fact which was confirmed this past weekend when I watched two of the other films in the Jurassic Park saga, Jurassic Park: The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3. In those films, I screamed quite a bit with major moments being: a baby stegosaurus roaring, a vending machine being broken, and my personal favourite: the title for Jurassic Park 3 appearing on screen. And I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I were given a choice between watching the Jurassic Park films again or The Twin Dilemma again, I would willingly put myself through the pain of watching those films again than watch this sorry excuse for a story one more time.

It's not just the bad story, although that does provide the root of many of the serial's problems, leading to poor and uninspired acting, that certainly doesn't help the work of Peter Moffatt, who has never been the best director when it comes to innovative work, but is certainly very good at helping actors work through the story and give their best performance. Here, that's not as feasible, because there's just nothing to inspire anyone. There's also a severe lack of budget, which affects things like design and costume badly, making everything feel cheap and not worth watching.

But the absolute worst part of this is the scheduling. This story was scheduled at the end of Series 21, before the programme went on a break. Thus, viewers were left, not with the image of Peter Davison dying on their screens, but with Colin Baker's smug and unlikable portrayal of the Doctor for however long it took between Series 21 and 22. It does nothing but leave people with a bad tadte in the mouth for the upcoming stories. If I were a viewer at the time, I would be very unlikely to be at all excited for what was to come ahead. Because if the quality of anything in the future is going to be based on this, then I have to say that things need a desperate improvement, otherwise the show will be going on a bit of a break, possibly never to return.

Day 625: The Twin Dilemma Part 3

There are severe problems with the characters within The Twin Dilemma as well. The Doctor, as mentioned previously, is horrible, mainly due to the poor way in which the script was written. Similarly, the character of Peri is poorly treated, although she at least gets the bonus of getting to be the audience's mouthpiece and shout at the Doctor half of the time for being an unsufferable git. Hugo Lang, played by Kevin McNally (an actor who is far too good to appear in this) is so one-note and uninteresting that the most impressive thing about him is his jacket, which tries to out-rainbow the Doctor's own colourful coat. Worst of all are the eponymous twins, who act as constant reminders of how talented the current casting directors are on Doctor Who as, whilst in the new series I can't really recall any truly bad performances from children, these two young actors consistently fail to be believable. For example, a scene where they are asked to make some planetary adjustments on a large scale never truly feels as massive as it should be, because these two young boys completely fail to get across the emotional consequences of what they are being asked to do.

But in all of this darkness, there is hope. Maurice Denham plays Azmael, the Doctor's old Time Lord drinking buddy. He's the only character to be given any kind of depth, having had his planet be taken away from him and his people enslaved. Thus, he is forced to do terrible things, but all in the name of the planet which he calls home. It's an nice character motivation, and is played well by Maurice Denham, who is one of the few highlights of this story. But it's certainly not enough to make me recommend it, it's only enough to make the pain a little more bearable. Still, there's only one episode left of this horrible little story.

Day 624: The Twin Dilemma Part 2

I could perhaps partially forgive this episode if it were at least a half-decent story. Yet it fails completely at that as well. The plot revolves around two young twin boys who are captured by some evil aliens for nefarious purposes, as these two young twin boys are mathematical geniuses. It's the sort of thing that I'd expect to read in a book purely intended for 8 year olds, not this series which is intended to appeal to a wider audience. And bear in mind the context as well. So far this series we have had a dark and serious drama in Caves of Androzani, a piece that examined religion in Planet of Fire, and even Warriors of the Deep at least attempted to be a Cold War analogue. But instead of all of these stories with underlying depths, this just chooses to ignore things like that and instead be something that's overly simplistic and not worth watching.

But even then it completely fails. Take, for instance, the cliffhanger to Part 2. It features a building blowing up, with the Doctor purportedly being inside. This could be an effective cliffhanger, if we had not literally just seen the Doctor teleport away from the building 20 seconds before it blew up. It fails at introducing any sense of doubt in the safety of the main character because we've already seen that he has escaped and indeed how he has escaped. This all goes as yet more evidence that this story is clearly the worst Doctor Who story of all time.

Day 623: The Twin Dilemma Part 1

When I talk about Doctor Who with my friends, I will occasionally remark upon the quality of the episode that I'm currently watching. In particular, if the story is bad, I will go for the hyperbolic reaction of stating "It's the worst Doctor Who story that doesn't feature spousal abuse". In other words, I am referring to the fact that The Twin Dilemma is easily the worst Doctor Who story of all time.

Post regeneration crises occasionally feature the Doctor acting somewhat erratically. Tom Baker's Doctor was a little more zany than usual, while Davison's Doctor became rather unwell and needed rest to recover from the ordeal. And then we reach Colin Baker's Doctor. Here, the decision has been made to make the Doctor completely unlikeable. This is achieved by making him a pompous and arrogant character who occasionally strangles Peri. This is a terrible decision to make, as it immediately starts you off disliking the current Doctor, with no real intention of ever wanting to watch the series again. What makes it worse is that there is virtually no sign that the Doctor will go back to being the normal hero that we're used to, instead he's downright abusive to Peri throughout, who, lest we remind ourselves, this character died to save last episode.

It immediately starts the programme off on the wrong foot, and far worse than that, destroys any of the good reputation that the series has built up over the past 21 years. It is for this reason and so many others that this is the worst Doctor Who story of all time.

Day 622: The Caves of Androzani Part 4

"It feels different this time"

The Doctor saves Peri, but at the cost of his own life. He lies on the floor and begins to die.

Regenerations in the past have been treated in various ways. The First Doctor's was treated as something strange and alien, almost psychedelic. The Second Doctor's was more of a punishment, and something to be frightened of, while the Third Doctor's was a little bit more relaxed, focusing more on the fact that he will renew himself. More recently, the Fourth Doctor's was a little bit more mysterious, but brought with it feelings of finality and the end of an era, before finally transitioning into the start of a new one. The Fifth Doctor's builds on much of the feelings of finality associated with Logopolis, but takes it just a little bit further.

It legitimately feels like the Doctor is dying. We see him fall onto the floor, and remark that he's not that sure whether he'll regenerate or not. He then enters into a strange mental state, as various friends and companions flash before his eyes, encouraging him to stay alive. Adric's appearance at this point reminds us of why the Doctor has been fighting for Peri all of this story, as he's still living with the guilt of Adric's death, and so he wants to make sure that Peri's safe because he may not be able to live with the consequences. The Master's appearance inadvertently solidifies the Doctor's regeneration, as it reminds him that evil is out there, and that he must fight it when he encounters it. The screen slowly fills with more strange patterns until eventually, with an almighty and triumphant noise, we have a new Doctor.

Thus ends one of the truly great Doctor Who stories. Looking back on the Davison era as a whole, it's been somewhat inconsistent, with some truly great things (Kinda, Snakedance), as well as some truly terrible things (Time-Flight, Arc of Infinity). Still, it seems to have found its feet with the last series (Warriors of the Deep notwithstanding) so hopefully Colin Baker will get a more consistent time as the Doctor.

Day 621: The Caves of Androzani Part 3

The Caves of Androzani is the last story to feature the Fifth Doctor. The exact moment when this becomes the inevitable conclusion of this story occurs five or so minutes into the story, when he and Peri fall into a nest of unrefined spectrox, giving them an illness that will end in death, unless a very specific cure can be found. So the story becomes about a man trying to fight for a good, simple thing, by finding a cure to help someone because he feels guilty about putting her into a life or death situation.

But the Doctor's dying, and we get glimpses of this at the start of the clip above. The screen distorts, as strange patterns appear and then dissipate. At first, it's unclear what they are, but by story's end, it will become clear that this is the oncoming regeneration. The Doctor realises this, and now knows that he will die, one way or another. Suddenly, he becomes a full-on action hero, and moves into a mental position somewhat akin to an action hero, making jokes in the face of adversity and doing more rash actions like crashing into a planet with a spaceship.

But Davison plays this slightly afraid. He's legitimately worried that this plan won't work, and that he will die without saving Peri. We hear his voice crack slightly at one point, and he's a little bit more breathless than usual. Even the ending close-up is of his face wearing a fearful expression. But the expression is also determined. It's this determination that will drive the rest of the story, and keep the Doctor alive. Indeed, lest we forget one of the few good moments from Planet of the Daleks, where the Doctor says that courage is "being afraid but doing what you have to do anyway". Here, Davison's Doctor embodies this perfectly, and acts as an excellent lead-in to the final and throughly intense part of the story.

"So you see, I'm not going to let you stop me now!"

Day 620: The Caves of Androzani Part 2

Sharaz Jek is one of the best characters in Doctor Who, ever. Everything about the character draws you towards him, as we learn more about this character and get drawn ever closer into his life.

For a start, it must be mentioned that his costume, as designed by Andrew Rose, is amazingly eye-catching. The mask is beautifully designed with an intriguing black and white design, hinting at the morally complex nature of the character by the way in which the colours interact with each other, never allowing one colour to fully take control of any particular segment of the mask. It's eye catching, and certainly makes up for the fact that, by having the mask, we are deprived of the full performance of Christopher Gable.

And yet, without the benefit of having full facial expressions, Gable creates a character that is instantly memorable. Through use of voice, movement, body posture, and his eyes, Gable creates a thoroughly interesting character. He can go from being a creepy creature who lusts after Peri to a more confident king, who controls all the spectrox on Androzani Minor (spectrox is highly sought after by much of the universe) and is fully in control of his situation, before turning into a frightening monster of a man, shouting suddenly and moving with more threat and violence than before, making him a truly menacing figure. All of these layers give the character depth, and make you want to continue watching the performance, as we need to see where the character will go, not least because he's also got a degree of magnetism in all of these personas, never letting you take your eyes off him completely.

But that's perhaps because of his story. He used to work with Morgus as a young, successful and handsome scientist, until Morgus betrayed him and left him for dead. Jek survived, but all of his natural beauty had been taken away from him. He therefore swore revenge on Morgus, taking control of the spectrox and only saying that he will accept surrender when Morgus is dead. It's a tragic story, but it reveals the inner madness of his character, that he seeks revenge because he has lost his beauty, and that his two purposes in life are to find beauty and kill Morgus. And yet, we're still drawn to him, and so we need to keep watching The Caves of Androzani to see how this character develops.

Day 619: The Caves of Androzani Part 1

In 2009, Doctor Who Magazine published a poll ranking all Doctor Who stories. In the number one spot was The Caves of Androzani, Peter Davison's final Doctor Who story. I looked on it with a bit of interest. I'd never really seen Androzani before, and so I wondered how it could possibly be good enough to be considered the best Doctor Who episode ever. Wary of my expectations being too high, I watched it a couple of years later, and I realised why it can be considered so good.

You see, almost every single aspect of this episode works perfectly, and stands out amongst everything around it as something worth watching. Take, for instance, the direction by Graeme Harper. Harper, unlike almost every other director working for the program, goes for an approach that's more realistic than one would normally expect on the series. The camera feels far freer under Harper's direction, as can be seen, for instance, in a scene where we observe the Doctor and Peri from the point of view of some gun-runners, with the camera almost resting on one of their shoulders, putting us in the position of the gun-runners for this portion of the scene. Another great example is where Morgus has a conversation with General Chellak over a futuristic monitor. At first, we see both Morgus and Chellak in shot, but then Morgus gets up and wanders around the room. The camera then switches angles, and we only see the back of Chellak's head, with Morgus in full view. This exerts his dominance over the story and the plot, showing him to be a powerful man, with only the camera telling this.

But the main point of why the direction is so good, as I mentioned earlier, is that it stands out. Whilst the direction so far on this series has been rather good (Warriors of the Deep notwithstanding) Harper goes that extra step to make his story more memorable, and better all around. Matthew Robinson went for realistic action in Resurrection of the Daleks, but Harper has more of this, providing his team with machine guns, giving a stronger sense of power and realism than what a simple laser pistol can give. Fiona Cumming has a rocky wasteland in the form of Lanzarote, and yet it never feels quite as strong as the conventional quarry that is found here, feeling just that bit more barren and lifeless. And whilst Pennant Roberts may have made the best he could out of the rather poor Myrka costume, Harper shows that there could certainly have been more that he could have done, taking the unimpressive Magma Beast and shooting it in a darkened studio, making it feel far more dangerous than the costume would have you believe.

These are all just some of the reasons why this story is so fantastic, and why I am really quite looking forward to the next four days as we watch The Caves of Androzani.

Day 618: Planet of Fire Part 4

So Planet of Fire has come to an end, and so too have some companion's trips in the TARDIS, namely Turlough and Kamelion.

Turlough's leaving comes as we learn more about his history. We discover that he had been exiled to Earth on the grounds that he was a political prisoner. But, through this story, where he encounters other people from his home planet of Trion, he learns that he has been granted a pardon, and that he is allowed to return home. It's one of the quieter companion departures we've had (and can easily be overlooked after the heart-wrenching departure of Tegan in the previous story and the departure of another character in the next story), but is a little sad nonetheless, not least because Turlough isn't leaving because he wants to, but instead out of some feeling of duty. It's a shame to lose the character, as he's actually been rather good to have on the TARDIS, and has been consistently written as well, something that you can't say for all those who have travelled in time and space.

Kamelion's departure, on the other hand, is altogether different. After spending almost the entire story under the control of the Master, he lies on the floor and begs to be killed by the Doctor. The Doctor then picks up the Tissue Compression Eliminator and shoots him, killing this weird robotic companion. It's a moment that's actually rather shocking, not least because it actually happened. Whilst Kamelion may have been a bit of a mistake, and he never really appeared much beyond a few scenes, he was still someone who travelled aboard the TARDIS, and still someone who worked to help the Doctor. To see the Doctor pick up a gun and kill this creature is shocking, and completely out of character for the Doctor, in my opinion.

Still, the new companion, Peri, promises to be a breath of fresh air. She's the first companion in a while to actually want to travel aboard the TARDIS, and she's filled with youthful energy and excitement. How long she keeps that view, however, will be found out over the course of the next couple of stories.

Day 617: Planet of Fire Part 3

The Master is in this story, playing a duel role. He takes control of Kamelion, for unknown reasons, and projects his likeness on Kamelion as a show of dominance over him. We then get two slightly different portrayals of the Master from Anthony Ainley, reflecting his current form.

When being the Master, he is forceful, and occasionally angry. We get a sense of a man who is driven to do something, of someone who is projecting all of their power into this one task. It can be contrasted with Kamelion, portraying the Master. Here, the character is far more jovial, laughing away as he exerts dominance over the Doctor at various times. As a side note, his costume is actually rather good as well, being a simple business suit that reminds the viewer of the suave nature of the Master, making him one of the cooler enemies that the Doctor faces. But getting back to the performance, it' hard to tell why there is such a difference between the two, until the cliffhanger at the end of Part 3.

At this point, it is revealed that the Master has been shrunk, and is currently living inside a small box, attempting to use Kamelion as a way of helping him escape his torment. And suddenly, the performance makes sense. We see a man who is trapped in a prison, yearning for freedom and driven by his urge to get out, then when he is granted the small freedom through Kamelion, he relishes it, laughing away as he is able to enjoy the ability to be a normal size. It's not a large part of Planet of Fire, but I think that it's certainly one of the story's main highlights, and I thought I'd mention it as we reach the conclusion of this story.