Day 628: Attack of the Cybermen Part 2

As of this moment in time, there are five Doctor Who stories that have garnered an M rating in Australia, advising that the content should be suitable for audiences aged 15 or older. In most of these instances, it's easy to see why this has occurred. The Waters of Mars is an incredibly violent and frightening story, and isn't the most child-friendly of Doctor Who episodes. Another story that gets this classification is Attack of the Cybermen, and it does most certainly deserve it.

This story, as well as having a sizeable contribution from Ian Levine, also wears its contribution from Eric Saward on its sleeve. It's a thoroughly violent episode with guns being fired, Cybermen having their heads blown off, massive explosions occurring at various points, and characters feeling the true power of the Cybermen's hands by having them crush various objects such as Lytton's hands in the scene depicted above. Now, a portion of the credit of this should go to Matthew Robinson, the director, who makes the scene feel truly gruesome with blood coming from Lytton's hands, showing the true pain that he's going through and adding to Maurice Colbourne's excellent performance. But I can't help but feel that there's something not quite right about it.

Maybe it's the fact that Doctor Who, in my opinion, needs to have a feeling of the fantastical about it that differentiates it from other series in the genre. The Waters of Mars, another story that is intended for mature audiences, certainly has a lot of violence and horror in it, but that all comes from water zombies. Yes, it's frightening, but it's also a little bit weird and worth watching anyway. But that argument doesn't exactly work, because there are other stories that are more realistic and violent that I absolutely love, like The Robots of Death or The Caves of Androzani that don't necessarily have that element of the fantastic about it but still engage me as an audience member. Adding to the counter-point against that argument, this story does actually have elements of the fantastic within it, like a race of creatures that had their home invaded by the Cybermen because they wished to use the cryogenic tombs that they had developed because they can't survive above around 0 degrees. This is a wonderful little concept, and shows that there are good ideas that Saward can bring to the series.

Perhaps it's not the violence, then, but who is dishing it out. There's a scene where the Doctor, after being suddenly attacked by the Cyber-Controller, picks up a gun and shoots the Cyber-Controller several times before it dies. It feels odd and not like the Doctor, in my opinion, with such violence occurring and, more to the point, it being glorified so much. Contrast with Deep Breath, where even the possibility that the Doctor killed the Half-Face Man was dealt with very seriously and became an underlying emotional crux of the rest of the series. But this is what we now have to deal with with the era of Doctor Who that is the Eric Saward era. An awful lot of violence, coming from the Doctor, that leaves an uneasy feeling in one's stomach.

Day 627: Attack of the Cybermen Part 1

There is some dispute about who wrote Attack of the Cybermen. Although the story is credited to Paula Moore, it is clear that this is a pseudonym for either Eric Saward, the script editor of the programme, Paula Woolsey, an ex-girlfriend of Saward's, Ian Levine, the 'continuity advisor' for the series, or some combination of the three of these. There is no denying, however, that both Saward and Levine must have had some contribution to this story, for either better or worse.

Levine's contribution is clearly that of continuity. There is a moment in this story where Peri, in a scene that shows that the Doctor is suffering from some memory issues after his recent regeneration, rattles off a list of names that the Doctor has called her over the past couple of days, being names of former companions of the Doctor. This exists purely to please fans of the series, and give them a little thrill as they hear the history of the show being referenced. Indeed, this story is littered with continuity references. It begins on Totter's Lane, which is where An Unearthly Child was set. A large portion of it is set on Telos, previously seen in The Tomb of the Cybermen. It's all aimed squarely to please fans, and that's a bit of a problem, to be honest.

The story feels as if it were created with continuity in mind, and not storytelling. The entire reason that a portion of the story is set on Telos, for instance, is not because the plot specifically demands it, but instead because it wants desperately to be a sequel to The Tomb of the Cybermen, an apparent classic according to a certain portion of Doctor Who fandom. The only problem is that this story therefore comes across as excluding the viewers who never saw The Tomb of the Cybermen, and it feels as if it only really cares about the 'true' fans. Contrast this with (to pick to stories at random) Remembrance of the Daleks, where the continuity references are hidden away, so fans who notice them can enjoy them, but the majority of the viewing audience can still enjoy the story regardless, or The Name of the Doctor, where the opening sequence chooses imagery that is instantly recognisable, and so the wider audience can recognise it for what it is and join in on the fun as well, instead of picking something as needlessly obscure as a Doctor Who story that was only aired once in 1967.

It's things like this that are driving the viewing public away from Doctor Who. But, there's also Saward's influence on the programme, which has its own little problems, as we shall discuss tomorrow.

Day 614: Resurrection of the Daleks Part 2

There are a lot of things that I'm not keen about in Resurrection of the Daleks. One such thing is something that I had never realised until I watched it again tonight. There's a character called Mercer who acts as one of the main characters. He helps lead a group of people on the prison ship that the Daleks have attacked to try and destroy it with Davros still on it, and in the process meets Turlough and works with him as they attempt to figure out the best course of action to take. He's also killed towards the end of the story, when some Dalek troopers encounter him by surprise. The fact that I had never noticed that his character, one which has actually played a large role in the story and is one that I cared about, dies, makes me feel that perhaps the director, Matthew Robinson, could have drawn a little bit more attention to this fact.

But this is not that kind of story. Resurrection of the Daleks is an action story, pure and simple. It's actually quite a good action story, filled with violence and explosions and plenty of adrenaline. The Daleks are used as an assault force, destroying everything in their wake and leaving no survivors, reminding the audience of why they are powerful foes and creatures to be feared. Similarly, the use of humans working for the Daleks as troopers adds a cheaper way to have larger action scenes, as humans cost less money to hire than full Dalek props. It's all written well too, with enough going on such that the audience never loses interest (as I alluded to yesterday), and the direction keeps everything at a cracking pace as well.

But that's all to the story's detriment, in the end. There are so many scenes that I look at and shake my head at. The Doctor picking up a handgun and using it to kill a Dalek mutant. The fact that so many characters die needlessly. The fact that a major scene is the Doctor picking up a gun and holding it directly at Davros's head. That last point is a particular bugbear for me because it's given no build-up and seems completely out of character for the Doctor. We should never see him consider killing someone, holding a gun before their face and contemplating pulling the trigger. All of this could be excused by having the doctor turn away and take the non-violent option, and yet he doesn't. Instead, he goes outside to check something and gets locked out. It feels completely out of character for the Doctor and is the major reason why I find it hard to really like this story.

Perhaps this is the reason that Tegan leaves at the end of the adventure. Fed up with the violence that she's encountered, as well as all the death and destruction, she proclaims that none of this is fun any more and runs off. I should mention that Tegan, for all her faults, did eventually mature into a strong companion. Add to this stories like Kinda and Snakedance, which took her character to new horizons that no companion had ever been to before, as well as strong performances in episodes like Enlightenment, and we can see a good character leaving the series, after a distinguished time in the TARDIS. But perhaps her departure is a little prophetic, as from this point onwards, things are going to be a lot more violent and a lot darker.

Day 613: Resurrection of the Daleks Part 1

I'm very sorry, but this entry won't be as long as it should be, mainly because I've just had a 10 hour day at Uni as well as various other places and I'm slowly falling asleep, hence I want to get this done quickly.

But this episode is not one that can be done quickly. Due to a quirk of scheduling, it went from being a four part story to a two part story with double length episodes, inadvertently predicting the future of Doctor Who, both in the short term for Colin Baker's first full series as the Doctor and in the long term with how the series is broadcast since the revival in 2005. Oddly enough, it works quite well in this instance, most likely due to the fact that both Eric Saward (writer) and Matthew Robinson (director) keep a good pace up and ensure that things are always happening on screen, preventing boredom from setting in too much.

Another note that I'd be remiss to mention is Malcolm Clarke's music. It's not the best score for the series, but it is memorable. I know this because, 7 years ago, I had to do a speech on music and how it relates to visual images in TV and film. I originally chose Resurrection of the Daleks, and briefly analysed a certain scene before changing my mind and doing The Curse of Fenric instead. But, despite the fact that I only really watched that scene in detail once or twice 7 years ago, when it came up again, I was struck by the music and how familiar it sounded. So, at the very least, this story has a rather nice score behind it.