Day 355: The Green Death Episode 6

The end of an era is nigh. Jo Grant, companion since the first time that we met the Master, is leaving. She hasn't been mortally injured, nor has she been forced to forget all of her memories by the Time Lords. Instead, she has fallen in love. In love with Professor Jones, a man with enthusiasm and knowledge, a man with courage and care. A man who is a younger version of the Doctor, essentially. And so they go off together, ready to start their new happy life. But, in one of the most bitter-sweet moments for the series, the camera decides not to focus on their happiness. Whilst everyone is dancing and singing and celebrating the happy couple, we instead look at the Doctor. He's heartbroken because he's lost a friend, someone with whom he has shared adventures from invasions of plastic people to an invasion from the Devil. From Peladon to Solos. The person with whom he helped to prevent a war between Earth and Draconia. She's gone now, gone to find someone else. And so he walks away, silently into the sunset, leaving them to their fun. He's got work to do, I suppose. But it'll be different without Jo Grant around.

Day 354: The Green Death Episode 5

The villain in this story has been hidden, a voice coming from up high giving directives to its subo-ordinates. We can easily assume that this is some alien menace, perhaps the Master, and that their aim is to conquer the Earth. However, the cliffhanger to the previous episode reveals that it is instead a computer. Not just any computer though, a computer that has become self aware. It's a common trope when dealing with megalomaniacal computers that they lack any sort of humanity, and that humans will always win in the end with our creativity and inefficiency. This computer, BOSS, has realised this and thus decided to have itself programmed to be more like humans, more inefficient to become more efficient at what it does. We are thus confronted with an enemy that is impossible to beat. Life has been built up as something which, to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum, will "find a way", always surviving when the chips are down. So what happens when we create life and it turns against us?

Day 353: The Green Death Episode 4

This episode is embedded in the public consciousness as 'the one with the giant maggots'. It's easy to see why this has happened: giant maggots are a memorable image and one that sticks in the mind of the audience as maggots are fairly commonplace. Thus, by making the ordinary extraordinary through simply increasing the size, we can play off common fears and make the audience more attracted to the programme itself. It's also worth noting that most audiences will remember things this way, choosing not to remember the minutae, instead the general themes and images of the story. Thus, by finding a hook such as giant maggots, the makers of the series have been able to ensure that Doctor Who remains memorable not just for Daleks or for police boxes, but also for weird ideas and cool ideas for monsters, making the series one that will last for a remarkably long time in the memories of the viewer.

Day 352: The Green Death Episode 3

We see in this episode something that I wanted in Planet of the Daleks: grief. A quiet moment takes place halfway through this episode where Jo and Professor Jones mourn the death of one of the miners who looked after Jo in the first half of the episode. It's nice because we're allowed tok feel for the characters. The miner wasn't in the largest of roles, but he was still important and once in a while it's important to remind ourselves of the impact that deaths can have in the series. It certainly takes its toll on Jo, who needs to find a shoulder to cry on. That shoulder doesn't belong to the Doctor, what would be expected in such scenarios, instead it is that of Professor Jones. These two clearly have a strong connection, one which is more romantic than we've seen before in the series. Things are looking different for this serial, and we'll see how much different things become as The Green Death continues.

Day 351: The Green Death Episode 2

This story marks another step for Doctor Who into the political environment. This time, we focus on environmentalism, a subject that is still relevant today. The key point is about pollution, that companies come into the world and ravage the land, causing much devastation and destroying the ecosystem, including the lives of the people around the area. This could be similar to other stories that we've covered previously, such as Colony in Space or The Mutants. However, what makes this different is that it is firmly set in the modern day. This makes the issues more relevant, drawing our attention to the horrors that take place every day of our lives as we realise what these corporations do to us. These issues also deserve to be relevant, as they are destroying the planet and causing wide-spread destruction to our ecosystem, to the point where it may not end up being viable for us to continue living. So props to Robert Sloman and Barry Letts for making the decision to show the world these effects (even if it isn't as effective as you could have hoped) because it might just help open people's eyes to the horrors that lie in front of us every single day.

Day 350: The Green Death Episode 1

The Doctor finally gets to visit Metebelis 3 in this episode. Metebelis 3 has been a bit of a running joke throughout the Pertwee era, as the Doctor has been attempting to reach this destination for quite some time. However, things are not as we've been promised. Metebelis 3, although it has a beautiful landscape, also has a vast array of deadly obstacles and comes across as one of the more frightening planets in the cosmos. The joke, of course, is that the Doctor considers this place a holiday destination despite the fact that it's one of the least relaxing places in the universe.

But there's a hidden meaning to this. As the Doctor encounters these dangers, Jo, his assistant, is busy with her own agenda, attempting to save Earth through environmentalism. But this means that we get to witness an adventure of the Doctor's without a companion. It's suddenly more dangerous, and we as an audience aren't able to relate as much to the events occurring to the Doctor. But this is all foreshadowing for the events that are going to happen over the course of this story...

Day 349: Planet of the Daleks Episode 6

Two things about this episode make me quite cross. One is the way in which the plot has been wasted. The Episode 1 cliffhanger features an invisible Dalek. This is promising. We can now expect a story with invisible Daleks rampaging through the jungle, ready to attack when we least expect it. It is, however, never dealt with again. This is such a waste of what could have been a fantastic concept, and brings further to light how poorly this story has been written.

But that's not the episode's worst sin. The end of it has the Doctor telling Taron, the Thal leader, not to glamourise the events of this story and not to treat it as if it's some sort of exciting and thrilling game. However, the past story has been all about having fun and excitement with the Daleks. Yes, there's been death and destruction, however this is par for the course for a Doctor Who story, and in addition to this the deaths that occurred were never fully dwelt upon to make us feel anything and realise the consequences of the actions that have taken place, thus meaning that this ham-fisted attempt at a moral is too little, too late for this story.

Day 348: Planet of the Daleks Episode 5

This episode features a scene in a quarry. It's one of the great jokes about Classic Doctor Who, that it's all set in quarries with wobbly sets. Normally, I would reject these claims and say that there are plenty of Doctor Who stories that aren't set in quarries. However, this is the third episode this series that has a quarry doubling for an alien landscape (fourth if you count the next story, which is actually set in a quarry). And it's not as if the story was looking to set itself in a quarry either, it is instead set on a jungle planet. What we are left with then is Doctor Who living up to the clichés associated with it. I understand why, locations are tricky to find, this scene explicitly called for a Dalek to be sent into a pool of molten ice which could be tricky to recreate in a studio and also quarries can be cheap to film in, however the point still stands that we are beginning to notice some minor problems with Doctor Who as broadcast.

Day 347: Planet of the Daleks Episode 4

One of my problems with this serial is something that I've only noticed on this watch-through. Codal, my favourite of the Thals, is an interesting character. He has strong doubts about whether he should be on the expedition, and spends most of his time being mildly frightened, yet continuing on with the mission at hand. This is all wasted by Terry Nation, the writer. After the Doctor gives Codal a quick speech about courage, Codal becomes horribly generic, wandering around with the rest of the team. It's disappointing as Nation clearly decided to flesh out the other characters, introducing romantic sub-plots, concerns about the mission going ahead and explosions, but Codal is left by the wayside. An interesting character left to rot in their own story. It's not that this decision is bad, but it is incredibly disappointing and does not bode well for the rest of the serial.

Day 346: Planet of the Daleks Episode 3

The Doctor has allied himself with some soldiers who have arrived on the planet to fight the Daleks. These soldiers are Thals, making a return appearance after ten years away from our screens. This shows that Nation is keen to revisit the past, even if the past is too far away for the normal viewers. A child of nine years old watching the first Dalek serial would be 18 now. How much do you remember from 10 years ago? It's clear to me at this point that the only people who would know who the Thals were would be those who would go on to be obsessed with the minutiae of the series, and continue loving it for years and years hence.

But for those who weren't around when the first serial was broadcast, there's a helpful reminder of who the Thals are. Alongside this, Nation mentions that that first Dalek serial has now become a legend of the Thal people. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan are now mythical creatures, who only exist in fairytales and the like. Doctor Who is playing with its own mythos here, and it's quite fun to see the result.

And as I wrote this entry, I suddenly realised something. When the repeat series of Doctor Who began on the ABC, I watched the first Dalek serial. I would have been 9 at the time, easily impressionable. By the time that I reached the age of 18 and watching Planet of the Daleks, I knew who the Thals were because I had spent all that time loving and discovering about the minutiae of one of my favourite programmes. In the first paragraph I asked a question. My answer is that nine years ago I was watching a weird TV series. There were these creatures called the Daleks (everyone knows who they are), but there are also these kindly aliens called the Thals. And, of course, the Thals would stay with me across those nine years until I saw their return in Planet of the Daleks.

Day 345: Planet of the Daleks Episode 2

There's a supremely beautiful moment in this episode concerning a conversation that the Doctor has with a fellow scientist after they have both been captured by the Daleks. The scientist, Codal, seems annoyed at himself. He isn't brave like the other members of the expedition. Instead, he spends his time in fear of everything that surrounds him, too afraid to do anything. But the Doctor points out that he does do things, and that this is courageous. Courage, the Doctor explains, is being frightened but doing the right thing anyway. This is what Doctor Who does. It frightens children, but it also teaches them that it's OK to be frightened, and that being brave is OK as well. It's a simple message but one that's effective and works well within the episode.

Day 344: Planet of the Daleks Episode 1

It was a long time until I got around to watching Planet of the Daleks. By the time that I watched it, I was no longer the bright faced young boy who was able to look forward to everything. Instead, I was a somewhat cynical teenager watching this story with an apparently poor reputation. It's somewhat depressing, watching this again, because the faults become more pronounced. The problem isn't with the direction though, nor the design, both of which are reasonably strong. Instead, the writing is somewhat lacking, as we come off a highly political story with themes to satisfy older viewers to a simple space adventure story written by Terry Nation. As a child, I would have been pleased and excited to see this story (indeed I remember reading the novelisation when I was 11 and being impressed by what was unfolding before me), but as a teenager there was little to excite me, so I just sat down and hoped that this story would somehow get better.

Day 343: Frontier In Space Episode 6

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...

Day 342: Frontier In Space Episode 5

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 Book that formed much of my childhood,
as Old

The Book that formed much of my childhood,
as New

Day 341: Frontier In Space Episode 4

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.

Day 340: Frontier In Space Episode 3

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.

Day 339: Frontier In Space Episode 2

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.)

Day 338: Frontier In Space Episode 1

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.

Day 337: Carnival of Monsters Episode 4

We have three of my favourite characters in all of Doctor Who in this episode: Pletrac, Orum and Kalik. All three are functionaries, and are able to play off each other in beautifully constructed ways to make the entire story one to truly enjoy. Kalik is a conniving character, who is trying to overthrow the President of Inter Minor through exposing the supposed weaknesses in his regime. He does this by attempting to set the Drashigs free to wander through, and then reveal that their weapons are useless. He is joined in this venture by Orum, a lesser character who is incredibly worried about how everything will turn out. Orum's easily frightened nature plays off Kalik's quiet confidence well, allowing the two characters to become incredibly memorable and so we as an audience can grow to like these little villains. They can also be easily contrasted with Pletrac, the man who is ostensibly in charge of the operation. Pletrac is quite thick, unable to see what is being done right under his nose, instead focussing on the bureaucracy of the situation. These three characters are all funny, enjoyable and memorable, and show that Robert Holmes, their writer, is clearly one of the best writers working for the series at the moment.

Day 336: Carnival of Monsters Episode 3

The major idea behind this story is that of a Miniscope. A Miniscope, as the Doctor puts it, is a peep show, an ability to put lesser species into a box and have them parade about for the amusement of the greater species that created this device. It can easily be seen as a barbaric invention, one which demeans these creatures on the grounds that they are less intelligent than what surrounds them. This is also a ploy on the part of the writer, Robert Holmes. Holmes has clearly decided here that he shall use this to comment on the way in which our society gets its entertainment. Humanity, as a race, tends to take its entertainment from looking at what is less than us, reminding us of how superior we are. It's a less than charitable habit, and one which reveals the inner problems that humanity has, as a whole. Thus, Holmes can show us this by placing humanity in an oppressed situation, forcing them to realise the ways in which they act and hoping to show that maybe we, as a species, can be better than what we currently are, through using Doctor Who as a somewhat revolutionary piece of television.