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 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 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.