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?