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.