Day 517: The Creature from the Pit Part 4

The fantastic thing about this story is the way in which it deals with our preconceived notions of villains. When the story begins, we can easily see that Lady Adrasta is the designated villain, shouting her way through scenes and ordering her minions about. When she throws the Doctor into the Pit to be eaten by the Creature, we therefore assume that the Creature is also on the side of evil as well. But throughout the rest of the story, we slowly come to realise that the Creature, otherwise known as Erato, may not be as evil as first thought, just a misunderstood beast that was taken advantage of by Lady Adrasta, who actually came to help the planet that the story is situated on. So when Lady Adrasta is killed at the beginning of Part 4, we're left with a vacancy for the position of villain within the story. For a moment, we suspect Erato of being up to no good, but we then realise that this is another misunderstanding, and that it is quite a decent creature when it comes down to it. This is all fantastic because the story is about slowly figuring out the motivation of Erato, and it's not afraid to avoid the cliché of having Erato be evil all along, and the Doctor to join forces with the humans to stop Erato's scheme, and instead go out and form its own story. There's actually quite a good story here, provided that you can look past the giant phallus that is Erato.

Day 516: The Creature from the Pit Part 3

When I look back on the stories that I've watched over the course of this blog, one frequently comes to mind: The Smugglers. It is perhaps the only story that I can remember virtually nothing about, due to a combination of factors including doing Uni work at the time, it being a reconstruction, and the fact that it's actually not a very engaging story.

So why do I bring this up when I'm talking about The Creature from the Pit? It's because when I look at the blog entries that I wrote for The Smugglers, it becomes obvious that not only do I not remember anything about The Smugglers now, it would appear that I did not remember anything about The Smugglers five minutes after I'd watched it as I started to write its blog entry. So there's not really any personal record of me watching The Smugglers, and any number of interesting things could have happened in it that I missed because of some overarching factor.

All of this is build-up to say that we've got a similar scenario with The Creature from the Pit. Unlike The Smugglers, I can enjoy this story, and several things stick out, such as a few side characters, the unique position that the 'monster' is put in, and the cliffhanger which will deserve a strong mention in my eventual cliffhanger analysis piece due to its framing of whether we are looking at someone in peril or a major plot development.

But all of that falls by the wayside. Because all that will be remembered about this episode is the fact that Tom Baker grabbed the 'monster' by the phallus and, in an attempt to communicate with it, blew into it.

Tomorrow, when I raise what I did over the storm-induced break with my friends, this will probably be the first thing that I shall mention. In a months time, when I complete the Tom Baker era and am looking back on highlights from each of his stories, this will be the major moment that springs to mind when thinking about The Creature from the Pit. In a year, when I look back on Doctor Who as a whole, my mind will only remember The Creature from the Pit's phallus and not the intricate story that has been woven around it.

And there is good stuff in this story. It just so happens that the Creature from the Pit has a large object that distracts our attention. Hopefully things will improve tomorrow though, as this story reaches its climax.

Day 515: The Creature from the Pit Part 2

This wasn't going to be like this. Yesterday was my first day back at Uni, after two weeks of holidays. There was a fair amount of rainfall that accompanied the entire day, but I thought nothing of it. This morning, however, I awoke to radio announcements that the storm had increased to a cyclone, being the biggest storm in at least eight or so years. So my day was increasingly spent listening to emergency forecasts, occasionally doing bits and pieces of Uni work on the home computer, and watching the destruction unfold via images on social media.

So when I watched The Creature from the Pit, my mind wasn't exactly in the right mood to engage with the story itself. I was left wondering about what would happen if we lost power, if the Uni remained closed for the week, if the tree in our backyard fell down onto the house. It's a testament to the writing of the story that I was able to vaguely focus on what was happening, with the combination of Fisher and Adams providing some incredibly witty dialogue. But there's still an overarching sense of something else distracting me.

And then this happened. I was half tempted to just post this image without any explanation as my entry for today. Because it stands firm and upright amongst everything else that's around it. It erects a position for itself in the middle of the story, being a member of the cast to come into the story with a strong amount of spunk, blowing an air of life and energy into its surrounds. It's a beast that just wanders into shot, phallus first, provoking so much fun and laughter that it provided a little bit of escapism from the storm raging outside. It's a nice moment of happiness, and is clearly enough to arouse a little bit of joy in this blogger's heart.

Day 514: The Creature from the Pit Part 1

There are a few things that immediately strike me about this story. One such thing is the fact that this is the first story of the series to be produced, something which normally wouldn't be worth mentioning, except that in this case it means that we are watching Lalla Ward's first performance as the new incarnation of Romana. It's not the performance that we normally associate with this version of the character, being aloof and looking down on everyone that she comes across, as opposed to the slightly more fun version that we're more used to. It's particularly odd because she gets a much firmer grip on the character in stories that were produced later, but shown earlier, meaning that we're getting a bit of character inconsistency that doesn't entirely work well for the story.

Another thing that strikes me about the story is the fact that it's the first story since The Robots of Death that I haven't seen before. It's odd to come to a story and have everything be unfamiliar again, with no prior impressions guiding my thoughts. That said, there is a certain 'reputation' about theis story that makes me a little bit nervous as we continue on to meet the Creature from The Pit.

Day 421: The Brain of Morbius Part 4

This story is critically lauded, and for good reason. The direction from Christopher Barry, as mentioned before, is fantastic, as is the acting with masterful performances from Tom Baker as the Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane and Philip Madoc as the villainous Doctor Solon. The story is engaging, the design of the serial is beautifully atmospheric, all of this goes towards making one of the absolute highlights of the series.

All of that said, there is a slight issue. The last part has the Doctor engage in a mindbending contest with Morbius. The scene involves images of the Doctor's past incarnations popping up on the screen in reverse order, but we go past William Hartnell to some unfamiliar faces (in reality members of the production team as an in-joke). This implies that Hartnell is not really the first incarnation of the Doctor, and that there were others before him. Of course, this is not the case, as this would require the Doctor to have broken the '12 regenerations' as early as when Peter Davison regenerates, although admittedly this rule has not yet been established. It therefore sits as a blemish, one that is ignored because of other things that came along after it, a moment when the series refuses to follow the rules.

But I like the scene. I like it because it acknowledges time before the series, and gives us brief glimpses at what the Doctor was like before he became William Hartnell. It uses the assumptions that have been made about the series (that Hartnell was the First Doctor) and refutes them, revealing something new, something that will remain untouched but can be quietly speculated about. It also fits in well with one of the themes of the story, being one of learning this unknown history as we discussed yesterday. So whilst some might choose to ignore the scene, I choose to celebrate it as a way to see something truly unknown and for us to enjoy the untold mythology of the series.

Day 420: The Brain of Morbius Part 3

The story of The Brain of Morbius is wonderful, as it delves into the past mythology of Doctor Who to produce something weird and new. There exists, on the planet Karn, a Sisterhood who have discovered the secret to eternal life. They only share this information with the Time Lords, who in return keep their secret from the rest of the Universe. That is, until Morbius, a renegade Time Lord, comes along and tells his followers about it. As they attempt to take over the Universe, the Sisterhood capture and execute him for his countless crimes. However, a surgeon, Solon, finds his brain and keeps it to resurrect the great Time Lord Morbius.

This backstory provides new insights into the pre-history of Doctor Who, something which is relatively rare for this time in the series. Previously Time Lords have been restricted to either putting the Doctor on trial and giving him odd jobs (with the obvious exceptions of the Master, Omega and K'anpo Rimpoche). Now we learn of the forces that once were, how they know the secrets of eternal life as well as some of the darker parts of their history. This all provides colour to the series, as well as rewarding the faithful viewer by beginning to answer some lingering questions about the society of the Time Lords. But this is only the beginning, and in a few weeks' time we'll encounter something far far more important. But for now, the important thing is dealing with trying to stop the Brain of Morbius...

Day 419: The Brain of Morbius Part 2

It's worth mentioning one key feature of Doctor Who that I haven't mentioned for a while, and that is the Doctor, or to be more specific, the Fourth Doctor. This Doctor is well and truly into the swing of things, making himself stand out from his predecessors through several factors. One of these is the writing of Robert Holmes, the script editor for the series and occasional writer of serials, such as this one where he rewrote Terrance Dicks' original script so much that Dicks refused to have his name placed on it as he didn't want to take any of the credit. Holmes is able to inject humour into the proceedings, but also a large swath of darkness, making the Doctor seem like a beacon of light in dark places, but one is all to aware of how to become serious when the situation demands it.

This is helped by the wonder that is Tom Baker. He is a tremendous actor in the role of the Doctor, bringing equal quantities of lightness (such as in the scene where he is to be sacrificed to the Sacred Flame of the Sisterhood of Karn) and darkness (such as the scene where he bargains with Solon to help Sarah Jane regain her sight). The juxtaposition of both of these factors increase their impact and make the character far more enticing to watch. It's also worth mentioning the fact that Baker was known to improvise a lot on the set, and thus it is difficult to know where the writer ends and the actor begins, but one thing is perfectly clear: The Doctor is always there and always good.

Day 418: The Brain of Morbius Part 1

This is one of those stories that I feel incredibly guilty about. It's generally held up as a great classic of Doctor Who, dealing with Time Lord mythology in a fantastic script that's been brilliantly brought to life. It's also one that I've never seen before. Much of what I know of this story comes from reading synopses, watching clips, chatting about it with friends and listening to the audiobook version a few years ago, yet this is something that I have never gotten around to watching until today. There's part of me that could feel disappointed, because much of the story has been spoiled for me, and yet there's also a large part of me that's still just as excited to watch this, mainly because the visual component adds an awful lot to the piece.

An example of this is to be found in a scene where The Sisterhood of Karn (more on them later) transports the TARDIS to them through a mystical ceremony. Two things make this scene memorable, one being the choreography of the Sisterhood from Geraldine Stephenson, which injects a mystical air to the proceedings by feeling like an ancient ritual, passed down from generation to generation. The mystical air is helped by the direction from Christopher Barry, which takes full advantage of the multi-camera set-up prevalent at the BBC at the time by taking several angles of the ceremony and fading between them, never allowing one image to dominate the screen at any one time. This adds to the air of mysticism as well as creating a disconcerting air for the viewer, letting them know that things are going to be different this time.

Day 385: Robot Part 4

This episode marks the end of an era. It is the last story produced by Barry Letts, and is written by his long time script editor Terrance Dicks. Both will make contributions to Doctor Who in the future, but now is as good a time as any to reflect on what they brought to the series.

Both brought a sense of consistency to their respective fields, for a start. Stories up until they took over could wildly vary in tone, as well as quality. Both were able to ensure that what was put out adhered to a certain tone, and that it was of some quality. Granted, this did not always occur, but the overarching effects can be seen throughout the series.

Terrance Dicks as well brought with him an ability to write stories, or at the very least improve them. He can add necessary action, reign in unachievable ideas and enhance themes of various stories. This can be seen in Robot, as we get a reasonably action packed climax that also has at the heart of it a Robot struggling with a crisis over its function as orginally programmed, due to it harming various humans, not least its creator. This crisis is able to engage viewers who are looking for something more substantial than just a Robot attacking humans, as we can see that this Robot has thoughts and struggles with its life.

Letts as well brings new technologies such as CSO, or Green Screen as it is commonly known. This allows for new effects to be produced, occasionally enhancing what can be achieved in the environs of a TV studio, but also occasionally bringing with it yet more effects that age particularly poorly. And yet this sort of thing is to be commended, as it broadens the scope of what Doctor Who can do, as can be seen by the Giant Robot in this story.

But as the TARDIS dematerialises at the end of this story we can look forward to a new team, and see what ideas they will bring to the infinite table that is Doctor Who...

Day 384: Robot Part 3

Taking a look at the story of Robot reveals some interesting ideas. Once again, we have an invasion of Earth not from aliens, but instead from political radicals. This time, they wish to replace all politicians with scientists, who will then choose what is best for humanity in all aspects of life. This is an interesting concept, as it is a cause that is not too hard to sympathise with until you realise that in effect you are taking away the freedom of humanity. But then again, you would achieve the best for humanity, even if this is at the cost of freedom. Much like with Invasion of the Dinosaurs, I am somewhat swayed by the villains argument and I'm pleased that it got at least some airing, even if it were in the context of evildoers plotting to take over the world.

Day 383: Robot Part 2

Tom Baker is the Doctor. It's actually shocking to see how both how quickly he is able to settle into the character of the Doctor and how quickly his characterisation of the Fourth Doctor forms. He is a bit erratic, a bit wild, and instantly more fun than the more stoic Pertwee. And we can see all of this within his first episode. This is in part due to the way in which Terrance Dicks, the writer, has written him. But it's also in part due to the performance of Tom Baker, who is able to instantly prove to audiences that he is the Doctor, and the series will never be the same again.

Day 382: Robot Part 1

The new Doctor has arrived. Much like Spearhead from Space before it, the decision has been made to surround the Doctor with familiar faces (in this case Sarah Jane and UNIT) in order to ease the transition. This certainly helps, because it allows for an immediate acceptance of the new Doctor, to help audiences accept him as well. It also helps that Sarah Jane has been built up as a character in her own right, as we can follow her adventures whilst the Doctor comes to terms with his new body, and we come to terms with the new Doctor. Although that said, we don't really need that long to come to get used to the Fourth Doctor, as we'll discuss tomorrow.

Day 323: The Mutants Episode 6

The major theme of The Mutants is race. It's a story that quite clearly looks at the way in which racism occurs and what is done because of this fact. The racism is between that of the humans and the Solonians, the Solonians being maltreated because they are less civilised than the humans, but also because they are different. These differences are something that the humans fear, and so they torture and attack the Solonians, segregating them from the rest of their civilised society and keeping them at arm's length.

The racism is generally perpetuated by the Marshall, who keeps everything in check with his climate of fear and anger against everything that comes in his wake. He is a man with a narrow-minded view of the universe. A universe fit for humanity and not much else. The important thing, however, is that there are two sets of people with repect to his orders. Those that obey them without question and those that consider the consequences of the actions and realise what is being done, that this must not perpetuate. The former of these two is a regrettable fact of life. There will always exist people who do not question their way of life and these people deserve to be educated to receive opinions about what they do and believe to get a fuller understanding of life in the universe. The latter of the two represents the hope that we have. That people will rise up against their superiors and realise that sometimes what is being passed on to you may not be right and that sometimes it is best to let go of inhibitions of fear and to see what is out there in the universe.

It's worth noting as well that this sentiment of race is something that is clearly shown in the production as well. People of colour populate the background of this story in a way that we've never really seen before, showing that diversity can exist and also allowing for the humans to be shown as hypocites, given that they show diversity in their crew and yet they can't show diversity with respect to the Solonians. We must therefore realise that issues such as race will always continue and we will need to work hard in order to help overcome this problem.

Day 322: The Mutants Episode 5

It's worth talking about another character within The Mutants: Cotton. Cotton is an unremarkable character, the friendly soldier who we've met tonnes of times before in various guises across fiction. There is one thing, however, that differentiates Cotton from his peers. He is portrayed by one of the most appalling actors in the world. Every line that comes forth from his mouth is completely unbelievable. Every time he is in a scene your eyes are drawn to him, not because he's got anything interesting to say, but instead because he defies all human acting abaility and you desire to see more of him to see just how badly he will perform.

And in a way, Cotton sums up The Mutants. Because there's nothign wrong with the idea of Cotton. We've seen characters like him before and they've worked somewhat well. It's just that somewhere between the ideas stage and the transmission of the programme something went horribly wrong and we end up with something that could have been better. The ideas of The Mutants are sound, it's just that thye get lost in a sea of things not turning out the way that they should have. And there's one very important idea that we've yet to touch on, that we'll look at as we approach the conclusion of The Mutants.

Day 321: The Mutants Episode 4

The contents of the package that the Doctor delivers to the Solonians is a collection of stone tablets. Ky, the Solonian for whom the package was intended, sees little point in these tablets as there is no way to fight with them, they are not weapons which can be used to defeat the Overlords. But in a way, they are weapons. They represent knowledge, one of the greatest weapons imaginable. One can underestimate the power of knowledge and fail to realise its true potential. It can be used to realise what people can be capable of, as it reveals secrets of the entirety of the universe's history to whomsoever happens to learn it.

In this case, the knowledge refers to the life cycle of the Solonians, revealing that they are the titular mutants and that they will mutate into new beings, coinciding with the seasons on Solos. This is an immensely powerful piece of knowledge as it not only shows to the Solonians that they have the capabilities to be something more than what they are currently (whether that by represented through a cockroach type creature or something else entirely), but it also reveals that the Mutations that the Solonians have been experiencing are in fact normal (much like puberty) and that perhaps the humans aren't to blame for this (as was conjectured by the Solonians) thus opening the door to some form of peace between the two races.

Day 320: The Mutants Episode 3

In this time of the series, the Doctor has been exiled to Earth. This was deemed to be not a very good idea by the production team as it meant that the potential for variety in storytelling was reduced, as there were only so many stories that you could tell about attempted invasions of Earth. So therefore, the proposal was given that the Doctor would fulfil errands for the Time Lords, in order to give the show a chance to utilise the idea set forth in the premise: of a box that can go anywhere in time and space as opposed to being stuck in 20th century Earth.

The mission that the Doctor is fulfilling in The Mutants is the delivery of a package to one of the residents of Solos. Pleasingly, Baker and Martin cholse not to stretch out the package delivery process, which would stretch the credibility of the story, instead they restrict this to half of the story, leaving the other half to discover what the contents of the package means, which means that the story is able to have room to breathe and develop ideas over the course of the 6 episodes that it takes up. Tomorrow, we'll have a look at what the contents of the package mean, and how they relate to the world as we know it.

Day 319: The Mutants Episode 2

Jaeger is a very interesting character when we look at The Mutants. He's a scientist, who works for the benefit of humanity, trying to figure out how to save the humans who inhabit Solos from the atmosphere which requires them to wear Oxymasks to prevent themselves from dying of asphyxiation. Indeed any scientific knowledge that he sees the Doctor utilise, he realises can be used for humanities benefit. The only problem is that it is quite clear that Jaeger only sees benefits for humanity, and not for the wider populace of Solos. Jaeger represents a scientist with a closed mind, one who has been influenced by Empire at little too much and does not realise the wider concerns of his actions. This shows to the audience that perhaps their scientists too are affected by closed-mindedness, only focussed on the solutions for the people within their immediate vicinity and with little concern for the people who just don't matter in their world-view.

Day 318: The Mutants Episode 1

This story is clearly about Empire. It concerns a planet where Earth has occupied and looked after it for several years, degrading the natives in the process. However, as their Empire is waning, they must consider which colonies are worth keeping and which could stand to have humanity removed from them. Thus the story begins with the humans being informed that they will be ordered to leave this plan and to reposition themselves on some other world. It's obviously comparable to the way in which England was in her heyday, keeping control of vast quantities of the Earth only to realise that this power is not going to last forever. The only problem is that this is a theme that we've seen countless times in Doctor Who before and that Bob Baker and Dave Martin are going to have to do something special to differentiate themselves from what surrounds them.

Day 303: The Dæmons Episode 5

There are a couple of moments within this one episode that have transcended everything around it to become part of the Doctor Who mythos entirely, and it would be foolish of me to ignore them, so we'll cover a fair bit today as we look at the concluding part of The Dæmons.

Firstly, we should take a look at the destruction of the church which has been used to summon Azal. It's a fantastic explosion as we see the church get demolished, but most importantly of all, it's realistic. The audience complained to the production team at the time stating that they were very annoyed that a church was destroyed for the benefit of a television program, ignoring the fact that it was in fact a model shot. Credit must be given to the model makers behind the scenes, who are able to create these landscapes in a fairly simple manner, with a remarkably strong effect. It shows that sometimes we don't need computers to create effects, and that simple practicality will sometimes do.

We must also have a look at the very concluding moments of this story, as the Master gets captured once and for all and the Doctor and Jo engage in the May Pole Dance, finally having fun and getting a breath of fresh air after the high stakes adventuring that they've had for the past series. It's a lovely moment, and a knock-on effect from having Letts and co. deciding to make Doctor Who more of a family TV series on screen, thus making the relations between the characters more noticable. It means that we're also able to feel a sense of belonging to this 'UNIT family' and join in their celebration as all is well in their lives.

And there's one thing that I certainly have to mention about this episode. There's a gargoyle who has been brought to life by the Master called Bok. He's soon discovered to be indestructible, but not before the Brigadier has a go at fighting him. He calls over a UNIT squaddie and proclaims unflappably: "Chap with wings there, five rounds rapid". It's a famous moment because of how wonderful it is. It's taking fighting alien menaces in your stride and treating them as just another moment in your life, in much the way someone might regard catching a train or having a piece of toast. It's also a moment that sums up the military answer to problems: shooting it. And whilst we may have problems with this fact, it still remains part of the Brigadier's character and we like him for this fact. He's part of the family, and we can't really imagine the series without him. It says something that out of all the characters within Doctor Who, he is the only one who is frequently brought back to the series as the character who brings with him the strongest sense of familiarity. The strongest sense of family to the show.

Day 302: The Dæmons Episode 4

The Master appears once again in this story, so let's have a look at how the character works within this story. He's decided that he's going to summon one of the titular Dæmons, Azal, in order to gain supreme power as these Dæmons are essentially Gods, occuring throughout human myth as creatures of power throughout history as horned beasts, akin to Satan. This is in line with much of what the Master has done throughout the series so far: enter into a story and use another creature's powers to hopefully take over the universe. It works because it means that we don't get tired of this one character and their nefarious schemes as we areninstead able to associate all of his episodes with other villains. However, it also means that the character comes across as a little bit weaker, unable to put their own plans into fruition without outside help.

That said, the character's still nice to have around and they help to make the story a little bit more bearable such that we aren't just stuck with a story focussed on Satanism and Morris Dancing.