Day 601: The King's Demons Part 2

A new companion is introduced in this episode: Kamelion. A shape shifting robot that once was under the control of the Master as part of an evil ploy to prevent Magna Carta, it has regained its free will and now travels aboard the TARDIS. It's actually a really cool thing to see, first of all because the shape-shifting aspect of the companion is a neat idea. Aside from the plot related instances in which it can be applied, it can also allow for a range of guest actors to play the role of the companion, which can lead to a bit of variety within the TARDIS team.

The second cool thing to see is the prop itself. It's actually a fully functioning machine, which, although it clearly isn't brilliant, by virtue of the fact that this is the 1980's, I actually have to admire it. Unfortunately, the nature of Kamelion proved to be its downfall, as it's controller sadly died almost immediately after production completed on The King's Demons, and as he never left any notes about the operation of this machine, it never really appeared again until some time in the next series. It's a shame, as this is something that does have a lot of potential, but sadly, this potential was never realised on screen.

Day 600: The King's Demons Part 1

600 days. That's an awfully long time to be watching Doctor Who episodes for. In that time, there's been Aztec priests, disused yetis, Metebelis crystals, imbeciles called Harry Sullivan, a Romana who was one of the noblest of her name, and a companion plagued with an impossibly difficult task. It's been a fun ride (and there's only around 200 days left to go!), and so to celebrate, I'm watching a mediocre Doctor Who story.

I'm perhaps being a bit unfair to The King's Demons, as there are some good things in it. The only problem is that it is a story featuring the Master, where the Master is again disguised. This time, his disguise consists of wearing a beard and speaking in a French accent. It is, perhaps, the worst disguise the Master has ever used. Aside from the eternal question of "Why has the Master disguised himself this time", it is at least something that we can have fun with as an audience. Doctor Who, in all of its history, has occasionally delved into the joy of being enjoyably bad (c.f. The Horns of Nimon, The Underwater Menace), and that at least makes the story somewhat enjoyable (contrast with Arc of Infinity earlier in this series, which was just bad for bad's sake).

Speaking of history, this episode seeks to get in some real world history as well. We learn about King John, and his role in signing the Magna Carta. Similarly, we also get a picture of what it was like living in a medieval castle (very cold, it turns out). This is a nice call-back to the early days of Doctor Who, whereby the series was intended to be educational and, as such, dropped in little history lessons here and there. That said, the history stories were generally either grand epics (e.g. Marco Polo) or bright comedies (e.g. The Gunfighters), but here we have just a light adventure, lacking in the scope of the epic or the humour of the comedy. But it's nice to be reminded of these things, as we have more fun with The King's Demons.

Day 571: Black Orchid Part 2

You know how yesterday, I was somewhat optimistic about Black Orchid? How I described it as a harmless bit of fluff that's good for a nice unwinding at the end of a stressful day? Well, as the story develops, I may have to change my opinion of this story after the initial impressions. There is just so much that's wrong with this story. For a start, the major conflict becomes that the Doctor is wearing a costume that is exactly the same of that of the murderer. This causes the two to be confused, and the Doctor to be arrested. Now, in the right hands, a plot based around the idea of people being confused for one another can be quite good. This is not the case here, providing us with a predictable series of events as the Doctor quickly clears his name.

But that's not the only issue. There's also the fact that this is a two part story, which means that the entire plot has to be wrapped up in this episode. So we're taken on a series of vast leaps as characters are quickly introduced, while we learn of secret motivations and one character who basically has an entire development sub-plot where she comes to terms with the fact that her presumed dead fiancé has in actual fact been hiding in the attic after being driven insane, and his only help comes from a Brazilian tribesman and a solitary butler. Which is quite a bit to go through in life, and I don't necessarily feel comfortable with the fact that we're just expected to take her sudden acceptance of this at face value.

So we end up with rather a poor story at the end of the day, but that still can't take away the fact that the first episode is still rather lovely. Maybe when I rewatch this story, I'll fast-forward through the plot, because sometimes it's nice to just relax in front of something where not much happens and everything is relatively calm.

Day 570: Black Orchid Part 1

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago when looking at Terence Dudley's previous story for Doctor Who, Four to Doomsday, that everything seemed to be relatively peaceful in its first episode. This is clearly a trend, as his next story, Black Orchid, features relatively little conflict as well, with the major plot points being Nyssa discovering her doppelgänger, the Doctor playing a game of cricket, Tegan wanting to do the Charleston, and Adric wanting to eat. There is also the small issue of some stranglings and the Doctor getting lost, but this is surprisingly minor compared to the time the plot spends focussing on Tegan's dance moves. It's actually not that bad though, as it provides a simple little piece of relaxing television, and is perfectly content to just have a little bit of fun in 1920's England. And at the end of a stressful day, there's not much else that you could want but just a bit of harmless fluff.

Day 561: Four to Doomsday Part 4

This is an odd story to look at, quality-wise. The first few episodes are, in my opinion, not very good. They take too long to get to the heart of the plot, and they deal with some of the characters in appallingly bad ways. But the last half of this story is so fantastically bonkers that it almost makes up for the first half.

We learn that Monarch, the villain of the piece, is going to invade Earth for its silicon resources, as well as colonising it so that he can help to enslave the human race so that he can discover the secret of faster than light travel. He wishes to travel faster than light because he hypothesises that this will allow him to go backwards in time such that he can witness the creation of the Universe. Once he reaches the creation of the Universe, he expects to meet himself, as he is also operating under the belief that he is God. That's a really weird evil plan to have, and you have to admire Terence Dudley, the writer, for developing this plan as it certainly adds a lot more creativity than a simple "we wish to be all powerful" plot, instead going for a "I am God and I wish to meet me and rewitness the creation of the Universe" ploy.

What follows after that point is an oddly action packed couple of episodes as the Doctor rushes about trying to formulate some way of stopping Monarch, culminating in an impressive sequence as the Doctor leaps into space to reach the TARDIS. It's all surprisingly good, and makes the entire story feel a lot better. So whilst this story may have some problems, for the sheer scope of the concept that it tries to pull off, you have to admire it for what it achieves.

Day 560: Four to Doomsday Part 3

Adric is rather annoying in this story. And by rather annoying, I mean that when he was knocked unconscious halfway through this episode, I may have breathed a sigh of relief that he wouldn't be gracing the screen for another couple of minutes at least. There are several reasons as to why he's so annoying, but we can easily start with the fact that he begins the episode by being a chauvinist and proclaiming that Tegan is a horrible person because Tegan is a woman. As first impressions go, it's not terribly great. But how can he improve on this, I hear you ask? How about actually teaming up with the villain of the story who proclaims that he is going to control the human race to Adric. Adric agrees with him, and thinks that this is a wonderful idea, ignoring little concepts like love and free will, that will of course be removed once the villain gets his way. I suppose that this plot element has been introduced in order to introduce an amount of conflict between the regular characters, which makes the story more interesting as we have to ponder the moral dilemma of which one is right or not. However, because the dilemma is so blatantly one sided between good and evil, it's clear that Adric is in the wrong, and so we grow to detest him as an audience. Hopefully things will improve for the character though as the series continues, but for now we have to focus on the conclusion to Four to Doomsday.

Day 559: Four to Doomsday Part 2

This episode reminds me of Marco Polo. Watching Marco Polo for the first time around a year and a half ago, I remember being intrigued by the different way in which television was written in that time, mainly due to an extended dance sequence that took place at some point in the episode revolving around Aladdin and assassins. It spoke of a time in television that wasn't afraid to stop and show something different, and not need to revolve around little things like action, special effects, or advancing the plot. I got a similar feeling for this episode of Four to Doomsday. We get an extended sequence where the Doctor and Tegan view various representations of different cultures (albeit inter-cut with Nyssa and Adric exploring the surrounding area and trying to figure out what is happening here). The sequence features a traditional Mayan dance, followed by an exhibition of Chinese Dragons, a fight between two Greek soldiers, and as they leave a corroboree from the Aboriginal Australians begins. It's quite nice to sit back and enjoy these other cultures, but you can't help but wonder whether television has moved on from this point. We're no longer as accepting of sequences created to pad the episode out with no real intention of advancing the plot, and so it's a bit easier to get bored by what's taking place in front of you. Which is interesting, because if this had taken place in a William Hartnell story, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. I suppose that it's just an example of the changing way in which television programmes are written.

Day 558: Four to Doomsday Part 1

This is different. The first episode of Four to Doomsday concersn itself with the Doctor and co. exploring the spaceship that they find themselves on. They meet some aliens, discover some technology, and meet some humans who are from to some of the most ancient cultures on Earth (e.g. Greeks, Australian Aborigines, etc.). There's something about this episode that feels a little bit wrong though, that differentiates it from everything else.

In my opinion, it's due to a lack of conflict encountered in their surroundings. Everything that they come across is relatively peaceful, with no real cause for alarm (aside from one or two brief mentions ofslightly  worrisome things). Even the cliffhanger, which reveals that the aliens are, at least to some degree, shapeshifters, comes across less as a massive revelation and more of a small surprise. We don't know what the consequences are of this, and prior interaction with these aliens has shown them to be fairly nice so we don't see them as a threat. All of this lack of conflict means that the story lacks a driving force that is able to truly engage the audience.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. This first episode is clearly all about exploring the scenario that we find ourselves in, and it allows for us to have a slightly slower paced story than what we've been used to over the past couple of stories. And, as we've seen with this regeneration, change does not necessarily have to be a bad thing.

Day 533: Meglos Part 4

This episode comes in at around 19 minutes in length. The reason that I mention this is because it means that this story comes across as wanting to get the story done in as quick a time as possible without any need for depth of what the story is actually about or who the characters are. I'll give a quick example. Meglos has set up a scheme to destroy Tigella. The Doctor, Romana, K9 and two other characters from Tigella get in the TARDIS to pursue him. The reason I didn't name the other two characters is because I actually don't know their names. They have possibly been mentioned, but we aren't given any reason to remember them, because we don't remember them as characters. More than that, there is literally no reason for them to be with the Doctor and co. at the conclusion of the story. The Doctor, Romana and K9 are the only characters to make any discernable difference to the conclusion of the story, and all they do is stand around and watch. It's essentially the heart of why this story is not very good: we're given absolutely no reason to care for any of the characters, and so we forget them almost immediately. It's a disappointing note to end on, but hopefully things will pick up again tomorrow.

Day 532: Meglos Part 3

It's difficult to talk about this episode. Not because of anything controversial that happens within it, but more because nothing actually happens within it. Essentially, the villain retains his prize of the Tigellan energy source, and begins the final stage of his escape with it. Aside from that, the Doctor gets put to death (something that we had been suspecting since Part 2) and Romana begins an effort to try and rescue him. This sounds like a lot, but none of it really works, in part because we aren't given any opportunities to fully invest in the story which leaves us with no real ability to talk about the characters and what they feel, beyond being devices that allow the plot to continue. It's little wonder, then, that this is the sole script from the writing duo of John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch if they aren't able to take a story where Tom Baker dresses up as a cactus and make it feel utterly forgettable.

Day 531: Meglos Part 2

The most striking part of this story is the use of Tom Baker. He plays a dual role in this story, being both the Doctor and the villain, who is currently able to impersonate other people to near perfection. This villain also happens to be a cactus, and as the impersonation goes on, the image of the person being impersonated becomes more and more cactus-like. But that's not the key point that I want to mention. Instead, I want to touch briefly on the way in which Tom Baker plays the role of the villain. It's a very muted and underplayed performance, hinting that there's something not right with this character, but not pointing it out for the audience completely. It's not what we'd expect from Tom Baker, who we'd expect to overplay it dramatically and have a great deal of fun with the part (cf Soldeed in The Horns of Nimon). So this serves as an indicator that things are perhaps slowing down on the Tom Baker front, and that his departure from the serie may be imminent...

Day 530: Meglos Part 1

What's curious about this story is its beginning. When Part 1 comes to a conclusion, the Doctor, Romana and K9 have still not left the confines of the TARDIS control room. Events have still been occurring without them, as people argue and plot various schemes without the presence of the main characters. The plot also makes up for this by making the main thrust of Part 1 be about trying to get the Doctor to visit a certain planet, Tigella, but the story still feels conspicuous by the absence of the TARDIS crew, as we realise just how important the process of the Doctor and co. interacting with other characters in the story is to our level of engagement. But this little experiment does provide a nice change in the way we expect stories to run for the series, and some days we just need a little bit of change to spice things up in our lives.