The Mark of the Rani, as I said yesterday, is a story that i don't really think is great. But that doesn't mean that I think it's terrible either, and there are certainly strong things to find within the episode.
For a start, there's the concept behind the villainous Rani. The Rani is a renegade Time Lord, much like the Doctor or the Master, but her defining feature is that she is a scientist. And, as a scientist, she therefore disregards all human life as worthless and so uses it as part of grand experiments to further her own scientific knowledge. It's an interesting motivation, and certainly one which is true (I know of several friends studying science who would very easily take over the world because of a general hatred for all human life), and it also leads to a way for some cool concepts to be shown on screen. For instance, there are some landmines that The Rani has created that turn whoever steps on them into a tree. It makes for a nice and memorable effect, and helps to give a sense of menace to this villain.
The only problem is, however, that The Rani doesn't really get that much menace to her. Instead, much of the episode is spent with her, The Doctor and The Master (and occasionally Peri) delivering witty dialogue to each other as they insult and constantly one-up one another. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, and the dialogue is one of this story's strong points. The major problem, however, is that so much focus is put on the dialogue that there's no real sense of danger when dealing with either The Master or The Rani. Instead, we just accept that these characters are in opposition and move on with out lives. The climax to this story, for instance, is just The Master destroying a pillar in an old mine shaft, causing it to slightly collapse. There's no need to be worried about what will happen to our heroes, which crucially means that there's no reason to feel triumphant at the end of the stlry that the protagonists have defeated the villains. Because of this, the story just feels like it ends with a whimper, which doesn't help the overall quality of the story.
And with all of these good points and bad points, it just feels like they all cancel each other out in my mind and leave me completely apathetic to this story. Which is a shame, as there's plenty to be opinionated about here, it's just that I can't quite allow myself to point one way or the other with regards to this story's quality. That is, of course, except for the final scene, which features a beautiful pun and is almost enough to make me want to like this story. But, sadly, not quite enough.
I've got an odd relationship with The Mark of the Rani. It's a story that seems to be completely average for me, and yet there is so much within it and within my relationship with it that I either want to get an appreciation for it or dislike it intensely, but I can't find it in my heart to do either.
I suppose I should begin with my personal relationship with this episode. It was the second Doctor Who story I ever watched, however, unlike the other Doctor Who stories that I watched in that first wave of discovery, I don't have any real emotional connection to it. There isn't the fear that I experienced with Inferno, the reappraisal that I found with Frontier in Space, or the joy that I got from either The Curse of Peladon or The Five Doctors. The Mark of the Rani is instead, for me, a story that I just watched and kind of enjoyed.
And that, for me, is the heart of the problem, in that I want to have an emotional connection about watching it, and yet it doesn't provide it for me. Any memories that I have of this episode are rather mundane, such as a scene with the Doctor and Peri in the TARDIS, or a scene where the Doctor disguises himself by throwing dirt all over his face. I want to remember laughing at the surprisingly witty dialogue or getting thrilled at the rather exciting cliffhanger, and yet these things didn't have that much impact on me as a child, so the episode leaves me feeling cold instead of feeling the warmth that I really want to receive from it.
In the end, I suppose that that is why I kind of dislike this episode, and yet, by watching it, I'm surprised too find little things that make me rather pleased, as we'll discuss tomorrow.
The Five Doctors is special. A 90 minute extravaganza where all five Doctors appear to fight various monsters whilst seeking a great and mystical Time Lord secret to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Doctor Who. It's remarkable because it's fun, the sort of story where you can just relax and watch the characters that you've seen over the past 20 years, back for one last adventure. It's also special personally for me, as it was the third Doctor Who story that I ever watched, and it will always have that place in my heart.
My parents had already shown me Frontier in Space and one other story that we're yet to cover on this blog, and I was keen to watch some more. I looked downstairs in the video cupboard and found, nestled between Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and some old cooking show, The Five Doctors. It looked cool, so I went back upstairs and put it into the video player. Settling in, I was greeted with words that stick with me to this day.
It's the First Doctor, saying his farewell speech to Susan from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It's a beautiful little speech, and works in the context here of seeing the Doctors return. We've seen them all go and regenerate (and in the case of the First Doctor, have the actor who played them sadly die), so it's nice to have the idea that they're still alive, working away, which indeed they are. But for now, we go straight from that into the 1980's.
We see the TARDIS team, as it is right now. The Fifth Doctor's full of enthusiasm and energy, and yet there's a calmness about him that works well when contrasted with the other, slightly more rambunctious Doctors. Tegan, who will fulfil the role of the main companion for this story, is actually written rather well here, being a companion with a mind of her own, who will complain if she's not happy, but within reason. It's a far contrast from her first appearance, where she was the reluctant companion, quick to complain and always at the Doctor's throat. Now that she's mellowed, she's a far more likeable character. Turlough has calmed down too, free from the influence of the Black Guardian, he's just keen to help the Doctor without getting into too much trouble.
But strange forces are working, as we see a black hand manipulate events. The First Doctor is taken from wandering through a rose garden into some weird maze with mirrored walls. It's perhaps now that I should mention the fact that we have a new actor for the First Doctor, by the name of Richard Hurndall. He's an adequate replacement for Hartnell, but he's not perfect. Hartnell had far more of an edge to him, and his grumpiness helped to define the character (and also, through contrast, made his lighter moments seem all the sweeter. Hurndall, on the other hand, goes mainly for an impression, playing a grandfather-esque figure, missing out on the hidden details that Hartnell put into his performance. But you can't have everything, and at least we have most of the rest of the surviving Doctors.
Troughton, for instance, drops back into the role like he was never away. He plays around, making jokes, and being a foil for the Brigadier (who he is partnered with in this story). There's part of me that's a little bit disappointed, as I kind of feel that his Doctor would be better suited to working with a companion that he worked with more frequently (such as Jamie or Victoria) but Troughton plays it brilliantly, playing a looser character than the Brigadier's straight man, making for a great double act and an excellent time with the story.
Speaking of good double acts, we get a brief clip of the Fourth Doctor and the Second Romana (Tom Baker declined to appear, hence we only get his Doctor through stock footage) from the aborted story Shada. It's a frightfully witty scene, written by Douglas Adams, and acts as a pleasant reminder of his time as the Doctor, frightfully witty and full of fun.
Pertwee's introduced with an action sequence, as befits his Doctor. There's also a brief sequence once he reaches Gallifrey where he rescues Sarah Jane after she's had a nasty fall. And in other stories, I might criticise this moment, on the basis that Sarah Jane's fall is down a very slight slope, which I refer to as The Mild Incline of Moderate Doom. But this story's fun enough and light enough that I can forgive it and just have fun with it, despite its flaws.
That said, there are several strong flaws. Susan, for one, is poorly treated as a character, where she's reduced to just screaming, spraining her ankle and calling for her grandfather. There's not even a moment where we get a heartfelt reunion, particularly after the little speech that we had at the beginning. But, then again, Susan's character was always treated this badly in the series (save for a few exceptions, e.g. The Sensorites), and so I can hardly blame it for being accurate.
The Master's back as well, playing the role of a vague ally to the Doctor. He's been employed by the High Council to find the Doctor and rescue him, in one of their more curious employment strategies. This leads to what is, in my opinion, Ainley's best performance as the Master yet. He's someone who genuinely wants to help the Doctor, only to be squandered at every opportunity because they don;t trust him. This is something that could perhaps only work with Ainley as the Master, as he is so much of a pantomime villain that it's easy to mistrust him, hence every one of the Doctors that he encounters knows better than to accept his help (contrast with Delgado, where there's enough respect between his Master and the Doctor that they would help each other if circumstances demanded it). This, naturally, makes him give up on everything and attempt to go fully evil, eventually being thwarted by being punched by the Brigadier. Which is nice.
One of the other legitimate highlights of the story is the Raston Warrior Robot. In a remarkably well directed sequence done by both Peter Moffatt and John Nathan-Turner (the producer of the series at the time). It's pacy, action packed, and has, at its heart, a neat concept of a robot that moves as fast as lightning and can take out anything that comes in its way. It also serves as a reminder of the good things that Doctor Who can do now, and that it can be a show filled with action and the like, making it one of the best shows on TV.
It can also deal with fairly big ideas as well, such as the prize for winning the Game of Rassilon: immortality. Borusa, President of the Time Lords, has manipulated these events such that he may win the prize, and so he meets with Rassilon to collect it. However, immortality is not that great, and Borusa is given it in the form of becoming a statue, frozen in time forevermore. It's another cool idea, and one which actually works well with memory of the previous series. If Mawdryn Undead, and to a certain extent Enlightenment, are recalled, it can be seen that immortality has not been seen as a blessing, but rather a curse. Sometimes it's best to die with dignity intact, or you risk being a walking zombie for the rest of time. That's why the series has changed so much, a way of cheating death without immortality, allowing for constant rebirth and renewal, so that we can have five Doctors, all of them different, and all of them part of the same fantastic programme.
And coming back to the beginning of the blog entry, I mentioned that this was the third Doctor Who story that I ever saw. I loved it, as it had everything that I could want. Multiple Doctors, action, a Dalek, great jokes, an intriguing story, I would watch it regularly from that point onwards. In fact, when watching it today, I was struck by how much of the dialogue I remembered, as I quoted various bits and pieces along with the characters, having fun with them on their adventure.
And, oddly enough, this story ended up helping me out one day. I was doing my end of school examination for Physics, and there was a question about calculating orbital velocity, or something along those lines. My mind panicked, this was something that I knew how to do in theory, but I couldn't quite remember how to calculate it. Suddenly, I remembered a scene from The Five Doctors. The First Doctor and Tegan are discussing, in order to cross a minefield, how the solution is as easy as Pi. The Greek Letter Pi, it turns out. Tegan says "The ratio of a circumference of a circle, to its diameter, is equal to the Greek letter Pi". Using this relation, I answered the question. So I have to thank The Five Doctors, for helping me with my Physics exam.
And, so, to close this entry, there can only be one way to end it.
As we reach the conclusion of this story a few things begin to become clear. Firstly, the major theme behind this story shows itself, being one of fear. Fear is a theme that we have seen throughout the Jon Pertwee era, whether through the Keller Machine using fear as a weapon in The Mind of Evil or the fear of the mutants in The Mutants drawing the worst out of people, several stories have built on the idea of fear being used as a dangerous thing. Frontier In Space continues that trend by showing the two alien races: Humans and Draconians, at war with each other because they both fear the other. The Master capitalises on this by using a machine to imitate their greatest fear and using this to convince each side that the other is attacking them, thus strengthening the fear that each side has over the other, with the intention of leading to all out war.
Of course, this fails because both sides are able to see reason. Both decide to overcome their fears and to engage in conversation with the other, as they learn from their mistakes and try to be better as a result of this. The outgoing message of Frontier in Space one of peace. That whilst fear might instigate hostility and could cause war, it could all be based on misunderstandings, and that we must truly understand the situation at hand before engaging in any rash decisions such as all out war.
Not that my nine year old self paid attention to any of that. Instead, I was far more concerned with the fact that the story suddenly goes off in a new direction at the end. The Master stands at the top of an alien mountain and proclaims to the Doctor that he has some old friends that would like to see him again. Three Daleks suddenly appear out of nowhere and begin to attack them. When I was a kid, I sort of knew what the Daleks were. And by sort of, I mean that my parents had mentioned them in passing when they were telling me about this strange television series. But this took me completely left of field, as these evil metal creatures came forth and began to attack. Instantly, they became the coolest things that I had ever seen before in my life, and laying the kindling for my obsession with Doctor Who.
And this, I should add, really was a surprise. I am possibly the only person to see the VHS cover for Frontier in Space, observe the Dalek, and then be surprised when they turned up at the end, mainly because I assumed that they were just on there for no reason whatsoever aside from they looked kind of cool. There was one more surprise though waiting for me. The conclusion of Frontier In Space features the Master cornering the Doctor, before shooting him and escaping off into the distance. The Doctor gets up, and with the help of Jo goes into the TARDIS and activates the TARDIS's telepathic circuits to send a message to the Time Lords. And then the story ends. I waited to see what would happen next. I waited for a good five minutes until the VHS finished, and then I admitted that it was quite probable that this story would end on a cliffhanger. I didn't know why though. I didn't know how it would be resolved. I needed to get some form of closure to how it would all end. So I looked up what would happen next, resolving that I would watch the conclusion to Frontier In Space as soon as I possibly could. It was a wait that would last another nine years...
The Draconians are a race who appear in this story, and sadly this story alone. They are probably my outright favourite alien race to appear in Doctor Who for so many reasons. For a start, their design is spectacular, being recognisably alien and at the same time able to show the facial expressions of the actors behind them, meaning that they can fully emote and express opinions instead of lumber about the place and shout. Although, they are created by Malcolm Hulke, aren't they, and so we don't really expect them to be lumbering alien menaces, instead we know that they are going to be treated as equally as the humans in the narrative, full of Hulke's shades of grey that he puts into the stories to introduce a sense of morality to the audience watching it. We can see this through their society, built up in a few brief scenes and yet it tells so much about them and what they think. We can see the high respect that they have for the ruling class, as well as their respect for tradition. But we also see that they are willing to listen, and to learn from the actions of the past. It is for these reasons and so much more that I love the Draconians, and every series that I sadly discover that they aren't returning is a tiny bit of disappointment that I have when I look at the excitement that lays ahead for what is to come.
I don't remember much about the Draconians on first viewing. Instead, I was focussed on how weird everything had suddenly become. The VHS copy that we had of this story had decided to forgo the usual theme tune for Episode 5 and instead use the 'Delaware' version of the theme, only heard in a few foreign markets due to a mistake made when creating the overseas print for the story. It was so weird and different to what I was expecting to happen that I was curious to find out more. To find out why this had occurred and what was behind it. This led me to have a hunt through the shelves of Doctor Who books downstairs to discover Doctor Who The Television Companion, a book that went through the history of every episode of Doctor Who up to The TV Movie. I would devour this book for information, to discover more about this strange series that I had been introduced to. And I still do to this day, as can be seen by the incredibly well read copy that sits beside the computer, for when I can't be bothered to use Google to look up something.
The Master appears in this story, as played by Roger Delgado, sadly for the final time before his unfortunate death. Delgado brings a suave charm to the Master with an ability to walk into a scene and instantly make himself the most attractive character. By this, I mean that the audience is drawn to him and his character. We may not necessarily agree with him or his ideals and yet there is the attraction there that makes us want to watch him. Add to this a wonderful chemistry that he has with Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo, the Doctor's companion, and we get a character that is truly memorable and it's fairly safe to say that we will miss him greatly.
Not that I was aware of who the Master was at the time of first viewing, of course. Instead, this character was someone else in the story, someone who I had no prior connection to and as far as I was aware, neither did the Doctor. But through the way in which the story dealt with him, and the way in which Manning, Pertwee and Delgado played off of each other. There was the indication that there was a greater mythology behind all of this. Something which would be explored throughout my life as I sought to learn more about the programme.
There's a sequence that I have little recollection of noticing the first time that I saw this episode. Indeed, it was only when I was around 17 or 18 that I fully noticed and began to appreciate this sub-plot within the story. Essentially, the Doctor is sent to a Lunar penal colony to spend the rest of his days, as he is accused of being a spy for the alien Draconians and the evidence seems to back this claim up. Whilst on the colony, he meets like-minded people who have been placed on the colony for political crimes. These crimes are crimes of peace, attempting to prevent war from occurring. It's a revolutionary moment because it inspires in the audience a sense of realisation as to how society truly treats those that search for peace, and hopefully encourages them to join in the fight against war.
As I say, I was around 17 or 18 when I re-watched this story. I'd seen it a couple of times before, most recently about a year or two prior, although that was mainly spent realising that this story was actually quite good, and not noticing the subtleties present in Malcolm Hulke's writing. Watching it as a young adult made me fully realise how political Doctor Who could be, showing themes that reveal and reflect the time in which they were written. It helped to show me how awesome Doctor Who could be, and reinvigorated a love for the programme in my mind.
Frontier in Space is, on first glances, not the best story to introduce a kid to Doctor Who with. There's none of the fast paced action that hooks younger viewers nowadays, instead it is an altogether slower and more thoughtful affair. There is action, but there's also political intrigue and discussions on prejudice and fear, points that I shall delve into later. Ideally, I would talk about how this didn't matter to my nine year old self. That he was still intrigued by this piece of television that looked at the way in which we treat each other. But to tell the truth, I can't remember. I remember that I watched and liked the story, but it wasn't one that I revisited too often so I don't know how much of an impact it made on me.
But hiding in the back of my memory is something. A giant rabbit, a pink elephant, and a purple horse with yellow spots. The Doctor mentions them in an anecdote to Jo about how you shouldn't be afraid of people interrogating you with truth telling machines as long as you tell the truth, even if they don't believe you the first time*. I love this moment, it's a charming moment from the Doctor and endears him to the audience. I can't recall whether he endeared himself to me at nine years old though. But the memory stuck with me for eleven years as I grew older, and began to forget occasional memories from my childhood. The fact that that stuck says something to me about how maybe this magical little moment let me see the inner beauty of the series, and made me think that I should perhaps check out some of the other videos in the cupboard downstairs. But that's another story, as we still need to finish Frontier In Space.
*(I could lie and say that this one moment inspired me to tell the truth always for the rest of my life. However, the truth is that a traumatising moment with Christian vegetables left me petrified of lying. This is a legitimate problem that I have in my life.)
One day, I was watching television. I was nine years old at the time, and easily impressionable. My TV diet consisted almost entirely of the ABC, the Australian public broadcaster. Every day I would wake up to their morning cartoons, and in the afternoons I would return home and watch their afternoon programming, confident in the knowledge that everything went to some sort of order. If a new show were to be broadcast I would see the trailers for it, get from these trailers a feeling of what the show was and whether I would like it, and then decide on whether it would be worth checking out.
Then, one day, there was a trailer that didn't describe the series that was going to be on. All it said was that "It is returning" as weird patterns filled the screen and a wheezing groaning sound came forth from the TV set. I asked my parents about it, they'd seen it too and were talking about what it really was. They said that Doctor Who was coming back. Not new episodes though, the old ones from before I was born. They explained what the show was and took me downstairs. There, I was shown their Doctor Who collection. Books that I had run past rushing through the house were actually novelisations of these stories. A cassette tape that hadn't been played since a revolutionary time travelling nativity production a couple of years prior was actually the theme to this strange programme. And the video cupboard that only held Mum and Dad's videos was opened, revealing a handful of VHS copies of Doctor Who episodes for me to discover. That weekend, I sat down with my family and watched one of them. That episode was Frontier In Space, and it would be the gateway for me to a whole new world of discovery.
There are some serials which I watch and I realise that I've got nothing that I really want to say about them. There are others that I look forward to, because they have so much within them that I can talk about the merits of these serials for weeks on end. The Curse of Peladon is one of these serials. In ordinary circumstances, I'd stretch these ideas out across the serial, to ration my sanity and prevent myself from running out of things to talk about. But these aren't ordinary circumstances. I'm going away for the weekend and thus will only be covering the first episode of The Curse of Peladon. So shall begin this rambling entry about everything that I love about The Curse of Peladon.
Let's begin with the incredibly obvious point: Alpha Centauri. A hermaphrodite hexapod, it has been created as a new and unique alien monster. Unlike others that have appeared in the series which have borne some resemblance to humans, this one is completely unlike humans at all. It's using the ability to make itself alien and weird to make itself utterly memorable. And not only that, but it is also absolutely hilarious. A high pitched and trembling voice spews forth from its head, as it panics about every possible thing imaginable. There's also a fantastic and hilarious scene later on in the serial where Jo and some Ice Warriors intimidate it into following their orders. It's funny because we see this character in some degree of terror, but also because this terror is being subjected by Jo Grant, the lovable assistant of the Doctor who couldn't hurt a fly. And to top it all off, it looks incredibly rude.
We've also got the plot, which is fantastic as well. It concerns fears about joining politically with a galactic federation, something which could either increase Peladons's standing in the galaxy, or destroy everything that Peladon holds dear. There's a reason for this story as well, as the UK was, at the time, in great debate about whether they wanted to become part of the EEC, or the European Economic Community. It's a decision which holds great fear for those that wish to uphold the status quo, and much is done by that end to prevent this from happening. This is done by creating a climate of fear, one which will force people to remain afraid of the new developments, instead of being excited for the prospects that they will have in the future. It's a political tactic that has been used throughout history, and one which is clearly demonstrating to the audience of the ways in which politics works, introducing young minds to this premise as well as showing older viewers that Doctor Who is smarter than you would think.
And above all of that, this story is one of the first stories that I saw. I don't remember too much about it on first viewing, aside from one brief moment. I remember talking excitedly with my mother about one of the plot developments in the story, namely that the Ice Warriors were not actually the villains, despite the fact that I had read through various sources that the Ice Warriors were some of the Doctor's worst enemies. When I look back on this memory, I am struck by how well I engaged with the mythos of the programme, as I absorbed all of the information to do with this strange series that my parents used to watch, showing that this was clearly going to be something that I would stick with for quite some time.
And as this entry comes to a close, I should mention that I haven't even gotten started on everything that I love about The Curse of Peladon. I'm legitimately disappointed that I'm going to be missing the remainder of this serial, but I've now got to go and do some business with my friends as We've Got Work To Do!
The Dæmons is a story that I should have been more familiar with as a child. We had a copy of it on VHS and I could have theoretically watched it when I was a kid. However, I was encouraged not to as a child, as my mother had watched it recently and found it terrifying, so she assumed that it would be altogether worse for a 9 year old boy who has just been severely traumatised by Inferno. So I never really watched the Dæmons until I was 16. Which is a shame, as it lost something for me because of this. I had had The Dæmons built up as a terrifying piece of television, something that would chill me to the bone. But it isn't really. It's got undertones of darkness and a few moments that are mildly chilling but aside from that, it's just another Doctor Who story.
But when I was looking at the day on which this episode would fall for me, I thought that I might save this anecdote for Day 300. Because although the anecdote is somewhat depressing as a young man realises that the myths of his childhood aren't all that they're cracked up to be, it still has the fact of the mythic quantity that this story had held in my heart for so many years. That one story can be so terrifying and so important to put an impact on my life without me having even seen it. In some ways, I'm disappointed that I never saw the Dæmons as a child, as it meant that I never got to have that experience of terror for myself.
And yet, I'm also pleased as it means that the myth of The Dæmons was able to be built up around my mind and help make Doctor Who a series to remember, however many years after I first saw it. Which leads up to the fact that I have spent almost 300 days straight watching one Doctor Who episode a day (except for that one time when Mitch took over for me (thanks Mitch, by the way)) and each new moment adds more to my personal mythos around Doctor Who. Sometimes it can make me realise how misplaced my expectations were, other times it reveals the wonders and beauties of this wonderful television programme. And as I look at the 500-odd days left of discovery for me left, I realise that We've Got Work To Do!
As mentioned before, this story features a trip to an alternate universe. Also as mentioned before, the story is about a scientist going possibly too far, and engaging in forces that man was perhaps not meant to meddle with. At the start of Episode 5, things come to a head. By which I mean, in the alternate universe the forces that man was perhaps not meant to meddle with come through in full power and begin to cause widespread destruction. And the cliffhanger to Episode 6 is the Doctor hurriedly trying to get his TARDIS working as lava begins to flow towards him, along with his new friends from the alternate universe. The next we see of the Doctor is him in his normal universe. But without his friends. Everyone else from that Earth died in flames. We got to know and care for some of these characters and now we suddenly realise that they all died horrifically. And to make matters worse, the Doctor, the man who is meant to make things better, was unable to save them.
There's comfort in the fact that the Doctor is able to save the normal Earth from the destruction that occurred in the other universe, but it's not strong enough. This one moment is the most dark and terrifying moment in all of Doctor Who. Because it reveals to us that sometimes not even the Doctor can save us, and that everything might come to an end because the people who are trying to save the day aren't able to make things better.
When I was about 15, I began to rewatch a bunch of Doctor Who episodes that I had lying around. I then made the decision that the time had come. I was finally going to rewatch Inferno after 6 or 7 years. I was impressed by the quailty of it, the tenseness of the story, the fact that it still remained somewhat frightening to a teenager and for so many other reasons. But there was a part of me that was disappointed. Because there was something missing from when I watched Inferno for the first time.
There was a scene that was in balck and white, probably due to the varying picture quality of the VHS tape that I watched it on, which featured a giant Primord attacking the research complex. Granted, it was a model of the research complex, but the sentiment reamined the same. These things were not to be messed with and they were terrifying.
But people who have watched Inferno will have noticed that this scene is not present in the story. I'd made it up. Or rather, my subconscious had made it up. The night after I finished watching Inferno, I had a nightmare about Primords. My first nightmare about Doctor Who. It's one of the earliest memories that I have of seeing the programme, being terrified of it. So terrified that I wouldn't watch it for years because it was such a traumatising experience. But the fact that my memory had failed me was a little disappointing, showing me that it wasn't as terrifying as I had first thought. Until I saw the ending of this episode. And then I realised why Inferno is one of the most terrifying episodes of Doctor Who ever made.
When I was 5, I went to the cinema with my Dad. Before the film that we were going to watch, there were three trailers that would change my life. One was for a film called Chicken Run, which I would later come to adore as one of my favourite movies of all time. Another was for a film called The Magic Pudding, which I would also adore, and come to see as one of my favourite movies of all time. And one was for a film called How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I did not adore this trailer. I was not left with any particular desire to see the film. Or any film for that matter. Because that one trailer left me with a several year long fear of movie cinemas, movie trailer, Dr Seuss, and hairy, green faced creatures.
When I was watching Inferno for the first time, I don't particularly recall being aware that Doctor Who could be scary sometimes. Nothing that I'd seen so far had indicated to me that this series was amongst one of the most terrifying for children to watch. So I watched Inferno and I was terrified to the bone. Because there were Grinches. Tonnes of them. They were terrifying in every possible way, from their design to their way of movement to the sounds that they made as they fought the Doctor. I was invested enough in the story to watch the rest of it, but I was still to frightened to watch it again. Doctor Who had scared me for the first time. And it would be a while until I watched this particular episode again...
It's quite tense on the set of this episode. The director of this story, Douglas Camfield, has suffered a minor heart attack, putting him out of action for the rest of this serial. Camfield likes to cast people that he likes, meaning that the cast has some degree of personal connection to him, thus leaving them all in a constant state of worry over the fate of their director, or in the case of Sheila Dunn, the actress who plays Petra, her husband.
Fortunately, however, the producer has stepped in to take over. Barry Letts is already making a name for himself as an incredibly active producer, production wise. We'll see stories written and directed by him in the future, and it's because he's not afraid to get involved with the actual making of the programme. Instantly, we can see that this era is going to be interesting, with a new Doctor, a new producer and a whole new outlook on the series, we're going to be in for some nice stuff. But tomorrow (in an incredibly rare amount of pre-planning), we'll be looking at some of the not nice stuff in this serial, and how it would affect me in so many ways...
The major reason why this serial is so well remembered is not due to overconfident scientists, or terrifying monsters, but instead due to the fact that the Brigadier wears an eye-patch for a portion of the serial. It's because the Doctor finds himself sent to a parallel universe, where everyone is evil because England is now run by a fascist regime. Which is nice. But the major point of this is that there exists a new feeling of discomfort because we're seeing characters that we know and love twisted beyond all recognition into something completely wrong.
But we have to consider context. This serial comes at the end of series 7, Jon Pertwee's first. The audience will have only known Liz for approximately 5 months, which isn't quite enough time for us to build up a strong enough relationship with her to be uncomfortable with her being evil (although the sentiment still stands). We then get Sergeant Benton, and whilst we will get to know him as a regular UNIT character in the future and it is uncomfortable to see him be ruthless, all of this is retrospectively added as we've barely got a chance to know the character aside from him being in the background a couple of times. It's only the Brigadier who we can claim that the audience has enough of a prior relationship with to be fully made uneasy by, but even then, it's still not been that long that we've known him and we've been uneasy with the character since the Silurians incident. So my hypothesis is that although this twist is rather nice, all of the impact has been retrospectively added by viewers coming to the serial later after already encountering the characters and knowing them for some time, instead of the viewers at the time who would have just seen it as a world where people occasionally wore eye-patches.
Unfortunately, I can't remember what impact this twist had on me when I was a kid. Through cultural symbiosis/Doctor Who: The Television Companion I was already familiar with UNIT and things, and I knew that they were a big deal, so perhaps I wasn't an ideal control to see what impact it would make. Or perhaps my hypothesis was wrong. But one thing that I do know is that this entire concept wasn't the big thing to make an impact on me. And in 2 days, we'll find out what that was...
When I was in high school one of my courses required me to read Frankenstein, watch Blade Runner and then write countless essays on the unchecked nature of science. In some ways, it was a horrible experience (I will certainly delve into why at later points), but in others it was good, because it gave me a topic for today's blog entry.
There's a character in here called Sir Keith Gold. He's the director of the Inferno Project, and he is concerned with how things are proceeding. There are numerous safety issues that have taken place and the nature of the work that is being done (drilling into the centre of the Earth) is too risky to just let things slide. as such, he is trying to put up barriers of red tape in order to keep the world safe. He comes into conflict with Professor Stahlman, who will not accept any delay to his project, to the detriment of his fellow scientists. Whilst the character here is one that we've encountered before, we've never quite encountered this stubborn a scientist, nor someone who is opposed to the discoveries made here that is so easy to sympathise with.
So perhaps instead of watching Blade Runner and reading Frankenstein I should have watched Inferno. Because Inferno is easily able to show that, although science is all about discovery and seeking the future, when unchecked, it can lead to horrible things that can put the entire human race into danger.
This serial begins a new series for We've Got Work to Do called First Experiences. It relates to the first episodes of Doctor Who that I ever saw, watching them on VHS as a 9 year old. There will be 5 entries in this series, and we'll get to them as we come to them. But first: Inferno!
Inferno was either the fourth or fifth serial that I saw. After strongly enjoying some episodes of Doctor Who, I quickly went to the VHS cupboard and went searching for more. Inferno was one of those found, and I want to say that I watched it all over the course of an afternoon or two. Like each of the five stories that I saw on VHS it made a very strong impression on me, for reasons that we'll cover later.
But as a young adult, rewatching this story for the fourth or fifth time, it would appear that the first episode doesn't make as strong an impression. It is remarkably well put together, and very enjoyable, but there doesn't appear to be much that sets it apart from other stories of its ilk. We have an obsessive scientist, the Doctor and UNIT setting up shop in a research base, it all seems intrinsically familiar. But there's hints of something greater. The Doctor travels to a weird limbo area in a nightmarish sequence that shows that this story is hiding something that will make this story unforgettable
