Day 606: Warriors of the Deep Part 4

Over the course of this blog, I've come across episodes that are pleasant surprises. They're the sorts of stories that I look forward to each night that I watch them, because I'm legitimately interested in what's happening. An example, for instance, is Doctor Who and the Sliurians, a story that was all about subterranean reptiles who previously inhabited this planet and now want to take it back from the humans. It was fantastic because it had a strong idea, excellent monsters, superb direction, and wonderful characters. Warriors of the Deep is a sequel to that story, and has virtually none of that.

The obvious way in which Warriors of the Deep fails, in my opinion, is through the characters. Doctor Who and the Silurians was filled with interesting and distinct characters. Take, for instance, the two main Silurians, a young one and an elder one. The elder was keen to make peace, and was open to discussion with the Doctor about their lives, however the younger one was more keen to attack, killing others in their wake and escalating events to an inevitable destructive conclusion. And those are just two of a fantastic cast of characters that made up the story.

Warriors of the Deep, on the other hand, is filled with cardboard cut-out characters. There's evil foreigner, evil alien, good natured human male, good natured human female, all of these characters are painfully generic. But it's not just that, it's the fact that we never really get to spend any time getting to know them, which was one of the clear benefits of Doctor Who and the Silurians. The closest we come is the Doctor and Icthar (the leader of the Silurians) having a conversation where Icthar says that he's not going to bother with peace and instead he's going to go for all out conflict. There's no sense of Icthar as a character though, we only see him as a plot device that is causing trouble for the humans on the Seabase because we never get any time to see him consider his actions.

In a way, this entire story can be summed up by the way in which the Silurian redesign is handled. They previously had a third eye, which was used as part of their technology, as well as to see and to cause pain to humans. Here, it's reduced to a light that flashes on to indicate which Silurian is talking. It's the essence of this story: something that was once weird and wonderful reduced to something entirely functional.

As the Doctor says at the end of this story, "There should have been another way".

Day 605: Warriors of the Deep Part 3

The Myrka is easily one of the most memorable monsters ever to feature in Doctor Who. It's the pet of the Silurians, and attacks the Seabase in this story as some sort of unstoppable force. A memorable scene featuring the Myrka is seen above, as Dr Solow attacks the Myrka with some impromptu karate moves, failing as all shall fall in the wake of the Myrka. It is easily memorable, mainly because it elicits a strong emotional response in the viewer. That strong emotional response, of course, is uncontrollable laughter.

It's completely awful. I understand that there were severe issues with the making of the story that prevented things from coming out the way that they might have hoped. However, that does not entirely excuse the fact that it looks like a pantomime horse that's being operated by two people who are clearly under the effect of the wet paint on the costume that they've been sniffing. And whilst I can laugh at it and think of it as just another bad Doctor Who monster, the brutal truth is that this marks a turning point in the franchise. From this point onwards, Doctor Who goes down a bit in people's estimations, and it leads to the series eventually being cancelled. Granted, there are other forces at work, and I'll have a look at one or two of them a little later on, but there's no denying that after looking at the Myrka, you have to think about whether Doctor Who is really worth watching any more.

Day 604: Warriors of the Deep Part 2

The purpose of this episode is clearly to increase the tension on the base as Silurian and Sea Devil forces threaten to attack. The last ten minutes or so, for instance, are spent staring at an air lock attempting to prepare for the attack, whilst spies on the base from the other global superpower are attempting to bring down the base from the inside as part of some nefarious scheme. It forces us to spend more time with the characters, in particular the regulars, and it's interesting to see how they're written in this story.

The Doctor is written as some sort of peacemaker, the person who clearly wants the solution with as little bloodshed as possible. An example can be seen, for instance, when he attempts to tell the commander of the Seabase that he is telling the truth, so he hands him a gun that he picked up as a sign of confidence and trust. This echoes the original story Doctor Who and the Silurians, where the Doctor's role was again to try and act as a peacemaker between humans and Silurians, to which he found varying degrees of success.

As for the companions, Turlough's role seems to be the sensible one. He'll help the Doctor, and do the right thing in most circumstances, but he knows when to retreat and move on, even if it's not the 'right' thing to do. The cliffhanger to the previous episode is a good example as it shows the Doctor falling into a vast pool of water. Turlough's immediate reaction is to keep running, as there are guards chasing him and Tegan. He says to Tegan that there's nothing they can do, and that it is likely that the Doctor has drowned. He wasn't right, obviously, and the right thing to do in that situation would be to try and help the Doctor, but Turlough makes the sensible decision to try and run away, because he knows that this way, he and Tegan at least have a better chance of staying alive.

Speaking of Tegan, she's badly treated in this story, in my opinion. The main things that happen to her are: she says a fart joke, hides in a corner, and has a wall fall on her. It's not a good Tegan story overall. Indeed, it's not a good story overall, as we'll see tomorrow with one of the story's major failings.

Day 603: Warriors of the Deep Part 1

We delve into Earth's future for this story, as it takes place on a Seabase on the bottom of the ocean around the year 2084. It's actually an area of time that we haven't visited for a long time, being humanity's future. It's a concept that's obviously keen on the hearts and minds of much of humanity, as we wonder where we'll end up, what technological advances have been made, etc. so Warriors of the Deep clearly has a setting that's worth giving a second look.

The future that it depicts, interestingly enough, is actually more of a reflection of the times that it was made. Two great power blocs are in conflict, each poised on buttons of mass destruction that they could fire at any moment. It's much like the Cold War in that respect, and given that this was made in the 1980's, the Cold War is clearly on everybody's minds. There are other parallels to be drawn as well, such as the introduction of spies on the Seabase as well as sleeper agents, and indeed the setting being an underwater base itself, given that submarines were key parts of the Cold War.

A submarine base is actually ideal as well, as it can easily be seen as some sort of high tech spaceship given the interior design of the vessels. It can also be a place for high technology, given the importance of the missions, such as the device that appears to give some sort of mental control over missiles. It's all a very interesting setting, and one that doesn't end up deviating from the general design of Doctor Who itself at the time as, after all, "Submarines are the spaceships of the ocean!"

Day 583: Arc of Infinity Part 4

So the villain of this story is Omega, the first Time Lord, a character last seen in The Three Doctors. His story is interesting, being that as he harnessed the power of time travel, he was sent through a black hole and arrived in a universe comprised entirely of anti-matter. In both stories, his plan revolves around returning to the normal matter universe and wreaking vengeance on Gallifrey. However, in my opinion, the way in which he is treated in Arc of Infinity comes across far worse than that of how he was treated in The Three Doctors.

My reasoning for this is that we never really get to spend much time with the character of Omega. Much of the time in Arc of Infinity is spent keeping him to the shadows, with his true identity only being revealed at the end of Part 3, which is an ill-advised move in my opinion. You see, in The Three Doctors, we spent time with the character, we learnt of his motivation, we felt his emotions, we accepted him as a character in his own right. For Arc of Infinity, on the other hand, we spend virtually no time with him and so we're just left with this nameless entity of ill intent to the entire universe, and we're expected to remember this character from 10 years ago so that we can have any sort of emotional bond with him. To be perfectly frank, it's a waste of a good character, and is yet another reason why this story is so bad.

Day 582: Arc of Infinity Part 3

A lot of Arc of Infinity is set on Gallifrey, and as such the Doctor spends some time meeting up with old acquaintances to get their help as he tries to stop some unknown creature with connections to the Time Lords enter into our universe from a universe of anti-matter. This is all handled terribly. When we meet old friends of the Doctor, we never get any sense that these two characters have kniwn each other for any period of time beyond the scenes that they share together. Take, for instance, Damon, a Time Lord working in the records room. All we get as an explanation as to how he knows the Doctor is that the two are friends. There's no explanation as to how they became friends, or why they trust each other, instead we are just expected to accept that these two characters know each other on the basis of trust, and trust alone. It doesn't help that Damon is also severely lacking in any form of character, meaning that we also don't really care for him whatsoever.

Similarly, there's Councillor Hedin, who is also introduced on the grounds that he and the Doctor are old friends. Now, at the end of this episode, it is revealed that Hedin is a traitor. This is meant to be a major plot point in the story, that one of the Doctor's oldest friends has betrayed him. But we never get any sense that these two are friends. They never talk with each other about old memories, of how much the Doctor looked up to Hedin, of any sort of history between the two characters. This means that when we see that Hedin is the traitor, all we see is not some hero of the Doctor's, revealed as a villain, instead just another character in a funny hat who just happens to be slightly more evil than the rest of the characters in this story. It all goes as just more criticisms to put on the ever growing list of problems with Arc of Infinity.

Day 581: Arc of Infinity Part 2

The Ergon is the henchman of the villain of this story, who is yet to be revealed narratively (I'll get more into discussion of the villain when he is fully revealed), and there are several problems that we can see with this character. Apparently, it was designed with the Xenomorphs from Alien in mind, which you can sort of see, if you squint. And pretend that the Xenomorphs in Alien were chicken-like in nature. Because that's what the Ergon looks like: a giant chicken. This is actually representative of a greater problem with the story, being the general design of everything. Take, for instance, Gallifrey as shown below:

It's not very impressive, lacking the style and darkness as seen with previous interpretations of Gallifrey, instead looking like something rather dull and beige. There's a certain lack of care put into the design work, making things look less impressive than they could be on paper. Part of this, though could be due to a lack of budget, although there was apparently enough money to go on a trip to Amsterdam to film this story, a fact that makes virtually no impact on the plot whatsoever and goes to show that the money could have been far better spent on getting better design work, or at the very least, a monster that doesn't look like a chicken.

Oh, and whilst I remember, two thoughts that passed me by whilst watching this episode were that the backpackers were so unmemorable that when one of them got kidnapped, I actually forgot which one was gone, and so I was surprised to see the one that I thought was kidnapped wandering around as if nothing had happened. This is not a good sign for the script, if it's that hard to differentiate between two characters. Oh, and Tegan's back.

Day 580: Arc of Infinity Part 1

I was all set to enjoy Arc of Infinity. After Time-Flight brought new lows to Doctor Who, I was hopeful. Nothing could be worse than Time-Flight, I thought. And then, three minutes in. We meet two young teenagers, Robin and Colin, going backpacking through Amsterdam. Neither of these young men are particularly good at acting. Every line that they say is so unnatural that you become convinced that the characters are actually aliens who have come to invade Earth via Amsterdam. This isn't helped by the dialogue, which is written as if Johnny Byrne, the writer, has completely forgotten how to write for human beings and instead writes soley for alien creatures or the like, with lines like "The Dutch are a very civilised race" coming across as, whilst perfectly grammatically correct and effectively communicating the point, unlike anything that any normal human being would say. And then, halfway trough this episode, just as I can't believe that it can get any worse, something truly abysmal happens. Something that demands an entry all of its own to talk about...

Day 549: The Keeper of Traken Part 4

The Melkur's true identity is revealed, showing him to be the Master. It's recognisably the Master, not so much from the look where he's a variation on the husk that we saw in The Deadly Assassin, but in the manner, as we see the more charming side of the character. He seeks power, and uses it for terrible things, yes, but he goes about it in such a way that you can't help but admire the man behind the actions. There's also a deperation at the heart of this Master, as he seeks a new body to replace his now cripplled one. It's an interesting motive for him to have, not to take over the Universe, but instead to just live. He fails in this venture though, as Adric somehow manages to save the day with the help of Nyssa and science. Left to die as his TARDIS burns around him, we are left wondering if the Master escapes.

But not for long. We get a small scene at the end where the Master kidnaps Tremas, one of the major characters in this story and a man who has shown himself to be generally kind and wise, and then takes over his body. Tremas is no more, killed by the Master such that he might live. It's uncomfortable to see, particularly as we have grown rather fond of Tremas over the past few episodes. But it's also uncomfortable as we see what he leaves behind. As the Master's TARDIS dematerialises, Nyssa wanders into shot, wondering where her father is. It's a moment that reminds the audience of how cruel the Master is, because he has now not only killed Tremas, he has deprived his daughter of ever seeing him as he truly is again, only his face with a new mind behind it.

Day 548: The Keeper of Traken Part 3

Another new companion is introduced in this story. Her name's Nyssa, and the incredibly obvious question that comes up as we look at her character is 'why does she become a companion?'. Her role in the story is relatively minor. She spends much of the time running around with the Doctor, Adric and and her father Tremas in order to prevent the plans of the Melkur from bearing fruit, with most of the story going towards the work of the Doctor and Tremas, with Adric fulfilling an assistant's role. Nyssa is worth pretty much nothing in this story, only existing to be nice and help everyone else.

And here's the interesting thing. Nyssa wasn't originally going to be a companion. She was brought back into the series, because the production team felt that she was a good enough character to work well enough to become a regular, even though she's had virtually nothing to do in the entire episode. It's like if Princess Astra from The Armageddon Factor became a companion. They may have worked well as a side character in their own story, but you wonder whether they'd be suited to run off with the Doctor at the end of the episode.

But still, we mustn't pre-judge, and maybe the character will work well in the future. Only time will tell though, as the serial draws to a close.

Day 547: The Keeper of Traken Part 2

The Melkur is the villain in this story, a statue of pure evil that has landed on Traken and has slowly been injecting impurities into their otherwise pure society. It's interesting to see this character, mainly because of the way in which it's portrayed between Part 1 and Part 2. In Part 1 it is a silent menace, remaining perfectly still and only moving towards the latter half of the episode. Up until that point, the only indication that life was inside it were some ominous red eyes that glowed at various intervals. Part 2, on the other hand, gives the creature voice through the actor Geoffrey Beevers. Beevers has a smooth, rich voice that gives the Melkur a slightly sinister quality, and one that adds an extra dimension to the character. And yet, the portrayal of it being silent works better in my opinion, as it makes it far more of an unknowable and worrying quantity, which creates a better villain. But, the Melkur may not be as it seems as we delve deeper into the story of The Keeper of Traken.

Day 546: The Keeper of Traken Part 1

There's a certain quality to this story as we begin it. It's set on a world that has transcended all forms of evil, a place were everyone "held together by...people being terribly nice to one another", to quote the Doctor at the beginning of the story. This transcends to the way in which the story plays itself out. Everything feels slightly more relaxed than what's come before, with the threats not being too imminent at the moment. This is done by slowing the pace of the story down, so that we're allowed to breathe and enjoy the story, by exploring the back stories of some of the supporting cast members or the planet itself. We also get a more natural set, filled with well maintained plant life that gives an air of serenity to the proceedings. All in all, it's just a lovely beginning to the story, but this is subject to change as the story slowly progresses. The Doctor has entered the story now, and brought with him a dangerous amount of chaos...