Day 465: Image of the Fendahl Part 4

There's a ridiculously dark moment in this episode. Maximilian Stael, one of the scientists, has been instrumental in summoning the Fendahl to Earth. Too late, he realises his error as the Fendhal begins to destroy his cohort, turning them into Fendahleen monsters. The Doctor runs to Stael and attempts to help him, at which point Stael asks for a gun. The gun is not for the Fendahl, he explains, but rather himself. The Doctor gives him the gun and as he runs off we hear a gunshot. The next we see of the room has Stael's lifeless body on the ground.

It's a shocking moment, and one that reflects the serious nature of the story. We don't see the character get eaten by a monster or zapped with a death ray. Instead, it's a simple gunshot, something that is far more commonplace in society, and thus making the event feel more real than we'd normally expect for the series. It's darker as well, I can't recall any moment prior to this story that we've had suicide before in the series, because it's such a dark and serious issue. All of that said, it does improve the story. We now have a greater appreciation for the threat that the Doctor and co. are facing, and we also are able to see Stael redeemed in his death, that he realises the error of his ways, even if it is a little too late for him.

There is a complaint to be had though. It makes the ending of the story feel slightly more 'off'. Instead of seeing the Doctor and Leela dealing with the aftershock of the events, or even the surviving supporting cast reflecting on what has happened, everyone seems to just move along with their lives. It's a by-product of the fact that at this point in time, each story is self-contained, meaning that we don't get much of a chance to see the ramifications of the stories as they unfold. But that's only a small complaint in an otherwise excellent and frightening episode of Doctor Who

Day 464: Image of the Fendahl Part 3

It was odd to re-watch this episode. It's one that I've seen three or four times before, so I was already familiar with much of how the story would play out. This story was, in my opinion, an above average Doctor Who story with some nice horror elements, and would probably scare thousands of children, but wouldn't do much to me, having come to it first when I was a teenager and am currently re-watching it as a young adult. And yet, the ending to this episode left me feeling a bit, for want of a better word, scared.

It wasn't the occult sacrifice nor the killing of Dr Fendelman that made me feel a bit uneasy, it was instead the reveal of the monster. Again, a lot of this is due to the way in which the cliffhanger was composed. For instance, the camera at the end chooses to hang on the monster for as long as possible, making the audience feel slightly uncomfortable as you see this horrific beast lurch towards you. Similiarly, the writing includes the small fact that the characters's legs cannot move from the monster, a slightly unnerving idea that festers in the back of the mind. But these things, whilst unsettling in their own right, weren't the thing that really scared me. For that, we have to go to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and look at the sound produced for the episode. As we see the rear of the monster approach, we hear a horrific squelching sound in crystal clarity, as if it's right in front of you and coming towards you. It unnerved me enough that I was left somewhat frightened by the cliffhanger, and the experience leaves me with a new found appreciation for this story, and as we approach the conclusion, I hope that it will continue to deliver at the high quality that it has done previously.

Day 463: Image of the Fendahl Part 2/Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The resolution to last episode's heavily analysed cliffhanger is quite disappointing, revealing that much of the effectiveness has been achieved through clever editing and that the Doctor and Leela weren't in too much danger after all. It's a bit of a cop-out, yes, but it doesn't detract from what was originally an excellently put together piece of television.

Meanwhile, you have no doubt noticed, the title of today's entry states that we will not be discussing just Image of the Fendahl today. Indeed this entry is in the style of Day 236, where an attempt was made to talk about The Seeds of Death, however I ended up talking about The Avengers, Hank Pym, and Ultron instead. This time, the subject that is on my mind is that of Star Trek, for obvious reasons.

Leonard Nimoy sadly passed away today. He left behind him a fantastic career, with his best known role being that of Mr Spock in the television series Star Trek, a series that was a television phenomenon, in no small part due to Nimoy's performance as the emotionless Vulcan. His character became a pop culture icon, representing so many things to so many people. To some, he represented difficulties with emotions, to others he represented a minority view, being the only alien on a human spaceship. He was the voice of logic and reason on the Enterprise, and represented a trusted figure to all who watched the series, a guiding voice as we explored the universe.

To commemorate his life, I made the decision to watch The Wrath of Khan for the first time last night. It's a fantastic film, being a film about aging. We look at Kirk, now an older man and struggling with this fact. He wants to be running about the universe, but he is constantly faced with the fact that he isn't a young man any more. The film then becomes about him trying desperately to prove to himself that he is still a capable man, however he is still let down and faced with failure at various points, culminating in the loss of Spock.

Nimoy plays the scene perfectly, being stoic and logical to the last, pointing out that it was the only solution to the problem that had been placed in front of them. It affects Kirk strongly, because it's a personal loss, one which takes away a firm part of his life. But it's not just Kirk that it affects. It strongly affects the audience because we all lose Spock together. We all loved him as a character and are saddened to see him go. But we know that he lives on. Not just in the mind of Dr McCoy as explored in Star Trek III, but also in our minds, as we know to be logical and reasonable thanks to him. We also see his compassion, that he would give his life such that others may live. We'll never forget Mr Spock, or Mr Nimoy, and they'll both live on in our memories. Indeed, you could say that they'll Live Long and Prosper.

Day 462: Image of the Fendahl Part 1

This episode has a fantastic cliffhanger, which works through a variety of factors. On paper, it consists of Leela walking into a room and a gun being fired, whilst an unknown force advances on the Doctor. This reasonably ordinary cliffhanger is able to be massively intensified on screen. For a start, the episode is shot at night, so the scenes where the Doctor is advanced upon by the unseen force have a new degree of menace through the darkness and shadows that surround the area, whilst a heavy fog plays up the unsettling nature of the countryside location. This is edited back and forth between the Leela scenes, meaning that we are in constant peril with no room for breath, and in addition the scenes never seem to stay on one shot for more than a handful of seconds, creating tension as the climax is reached. Tension is also created through the soundscape, as there is no music, only a steadily rising pitch of some unknown force creating more tension as you get a sensation that it is slowly approaching some form of climax. The only break from this steadily rising noise is a simple gunshot, which is sudden, giving a brief sense of shock to the audience and leaving them more unnerved for the true cliffhanger as the camera approaches the Doctor and we realise that there may be no escape from the horrifying and unknowable force.

Day 447: The Robots of Death Part 4

After spending two of the past three entries discussing how terrifying this story is it is nice to get some recognition from the story itself as to its nature. Poul, an undercover investigator on the Sand Miner, has had a mental breakdown. The Doctor attributes this to Robophobia, or Grimwade's Syndrome, and there is some discussion of how this occurred. Grimwade theorised, that it occurs due to a lack of body language from the robots, the 'uncanny valley' effect that we looked at previously. This accounts for the feelings for the audience, but not for Poul himself.

Poul, you see, saw blood on a robot's hand. This directly implicated the robots in the murders, which went against their first principle being that they cannot harm humans. This development suddenly creates a vast amount of horror in Poul, as the robots are stronger, faster, and all around better than humans, and we would die if they were allowed to harm them. It's enough to send a man insane, which indeed it does as Poul cries in front of the silhouette of a robot to not kill him in a very good performance from David Collings.

It's another reminder of why this story is so frightening, and it's certainly one that I'll remember as one of the absolute best stories of all of Doctor Who.

Day 446: The Robots of Death Part 3

I can easily say that The Robots of Death Part 3 is easily one of the most frigthening Doctor Who episodes that I have ever watched. From Briant's direction which, as the terrorist Taren Capel gives orders to the robots to kill all humans, cuts back and forth between images at an alarming rate, creating a sense of discomfort for the viewer. You can add to this the fact that the robots gain frightening red eyes, which made me squirm in my seat a little as well as scenes which place you on edge by guessing that a robot will jump out of nowhere and kill people and scenes where the red eyed robots advance slowly to kill their screaming prey shot from the point of view of the prey, creating a sense of terror in the audience. All of this creates a terrifying atmosphere, and left me with a feeling of actual fear and has made me look forward even more to seeing the conclusion to this story. But maybe I'll watch it in the daytime instead of the pitch black darkness of midnight...

Day 445: The Robots of Death Part 2

The basic plot of the story is quite simple. People are dying on a mining ship and the Doctor, along with Leela, begin to investigate. What makes this different from other plots, however, is the way in which it is constructed. The antagonist who is performing the murders is on the ship, but their identity is concealed, meaning that it is one of the crew members, thus making it into an Agatha Christie style murder mystery. This decision to 'steal from the classics' from the writer, Chris Boucher, is a sane one, as the genre has been shown time and time again to work. The sense of mystery in turn creates suspense, as each crew member suspects the others of doing the murders. The constant stream of killings also creates suspense, particularly when there have been strong indications of the next character to die. This can be seen in the death of Zilda where we see her 'execution order', for want of a better term, and then watch the rest of her scenes with a greater deal of attention as we know that she is living on borrowed time. Overall then, The Robots of Death uses the genre to great advantage creating a nice mystery story for the audience to get their teeth into.

Day 444: The Robots of Death Part 1

The immediate thing that strikes you about The Robots of Death is the design of the robots themselves from Elizabeth Waller, the costume designer for this story. They are designed to look like humans, having recognisably human features in the face that help to make the audience and in turn the characters respond to them as if they were not automatons. However, this does not entirely work. The mask resembles that of a human, yes, but it is too chiselled to truly be human. The 'mouth' and 'hair' do not move either, creating a sense of discomfort in the audience and characters. This sense of the 'uncanny valley' makes for a memorable and unsettling design, sticking in the minds of the viewer and making for an engaging piece of television, encouraging the viewer to watch more of The Robots of Death.

Day 443: The Face of Evil Part 4

It's worth mentioning something, or rather someone, that we haven't touched upon yet in The Face of Evil. Leela is a tribe member of the Sevateem, and by the end of the episode she has become the Doctor's new companion. In her first story she easily sets herself apart from all companions who have come before her. For instance, she is more violent than her predecessors, actively fighting and occasionally killing various people that she comes up against. This is an interesting tack to go along for the new companion, particularly as it introduces an area of conflict between her philosophy and that of the Doctor, something which future episodes can play with to some extent.

However it wouldn't do to just have a violent savage aboard the TARDIS, so Leela must have some other side to her character that will help her fit into some mould of companion for the series. In this case, it is her curiosity and willingness to learn. The Doctor has begun to teach her about technology and the ways of the future, as can be witnessed when she knowingly refers to the place where they met with Xoanon as a computer complex. Her curiosity can also be seen at the very conclusion of the story where she sets the TARDIS into flight, pressing buttons without a care in the world.

And so it's for these reasons, amongst others, that I can be sure that Leela will be a companion to enjoy over the next little while, as the ongoing adventure that is Doctor Who continues...

Day 442: The Face of Evil Part 3

One of the working titles for this story was 'The Day God Went Mad'. It refers to the computer Xoanon, one which at some point received help from the Doctor who reprogrammed it but got something slightly wrong. He hadn't realised that the computer was actually alive, the first of a new species, and thus when he connected his brain to it (for reasons) the computer took the Doctor's personality along with it. Xoanon then developed its own personality, thus sending it mad. This is all exposed in the lead up to the Part 3 cliffhanger, as seen above. It's a fascinating idea because it explores the capabilities of computers, relatively new pieces of hardware for 1977, hypothesising on their intelligence and personality, whether they have minds and could be considered to be alive. It also allows us to build up to another fantastic cliffhanger, this time more on the psychedelic as voices from all around deny the existence of the Doctor, building up to a child's voice shouting "Who am I?" repeatedly. It's strange, and begins to convey the full amount of insanity that is going on inside of Xoanon, which we shall continue to explore as The Face of Evil reaches its conclusion.

Day 441: The Face of Evil Part 2

The next great idea to come out of The Face of Evil is one of the setting. We arrive on a planet that is a weird hybrid of both the future and the savage. The thrones where the chieftain of the Sevateem sits is adorned with wires and tubing, in one instance a gong is quite obviously a refined metal sheet, and the helmet that the shaman Neeva uses to communicate with Xoanon is clearly from a different age than the surrounding area of crossbows, hunting, and animal skins used as rudimentary clothing. What this represents is the way in which a society can easily devolve, when cut off from its surrounds. It also shows, by using the futuristic equipment, that this is a problem that transcends time, and that even the future will be affected by this issue. And aside from everything else, it is clear that the juxtaposition of technology with the wild ways of the Sevateem makes for an interesting image visually, and engages the viewer in the ongoing story. So as The Face of Evil continues, so too do the continuing mysteries of the serial.

Day 440: The Face of Evil Part 1

This story is one that introduces itself with some fascinating ideas, one such idea being the Face of Evil. The Doctor arrives on this unknown planet and is almost immediately taken away and sentenced to death. The odd thing about this is that they seem to recognise the Doctor as the 'Evil One', showing that they have possibly met the Doctor before, or someone who looks like him. This brings forth several questions for the audience, which continue as one of the natives of the planet suddenly hears Tom Baker's disembodied voice in the form of their God, Xoanon. This scene works because it draws up more questions as to the nature of this 'Evil One', representing to the audience yet more questions about the Doctor's true involvement with the story. This all comes to a head when we reach the cliffhanger, showing the face of the Doctor carved into the side of the mountain. This shows once and for all that the Doctor's prior involvement in this story will be paramount to how things will unfold, and giving a strong hook to get the audience to continue with this story. As has been shown the first part has thrown up enough questions for us to want to watch the next episode, balancing it with just enough evidence to make us feel like we have an idea of what might be going on with no real idea of the answer to the underlying questions in the story keeping the audience well and truly engaged.