Day 630: Vengeance on Varos Part 2

The best part of Vengeance on Varos is clearly the enemies which it uses, in particular the work of one nasty little creature from Thoros Beta, known as Sil. Sil is at first an odd accompaniment to the rest of the cast, appearing as the other villains discuss the executions and getting rather excited at the prospect of death and torture. This excitement is actually rather disturbing, rubbing himself all over in such a fashion that it looks like he's getting an almost orgasmic thrill from all the events that are taking place.

But the real reason why Sil is so good is the motivation behind his actiions. He's actually a businessman, pure and simple. His role on Varos is to find a stock of Zeiton-7 and buy it from them, at a price that suits Sil but not the people of Varos. His comeuppance comes at the end of the episode when Thoros Beta informs him that they are running low on Zeiton-7 and they are to accept it at any price, something which the Governor of the colony relishes in informing Sil about, as he more than doubles Sil's original price for the Zeiton-7.

But what's immediately clear about Sil is that, even though he looks like a fantastical alien from some distant planet, he is one of the most realistic threats that is dealt with in this episode. Sil's interest is not conquest by force, but instead conquest through business and making deals with other planets. One can easily imagine certain aspects of Sil's persona being desirable traits for a high reaching businessman, seeking to make as much profit as they can possibly muster. It's also quite pertinent for the time, given that this was written in the 1980's, an era of "Greed is good" and seeking to make money at all costs. It's little wonder, then, that Sil was successful enough to be one of only two enemies in the Colin Baker era of the programme to return for another appearance. The second is one that we shall deal with tomorrow, as this odyssey continues.

Day 629: Vengeance on Varos Part 1

After the heavy action violence of Attack of the Cybermen, we get a different sort of violence in Vengeance on Varos. This violence has thoughts and ideas behind it, instead of just happening mindlessly and to please the average punter. But in a way, it's meant to be pleasing to the average punter.

The story is about a society where they have developed an interesting way of keeping the public under control. They are forced to watch television every single day, which mainly consists of torture of the rebels who dare to fight against the system, with occasional executions if they are lucky. They are, however, granted the right to vote. This happens when the planet's governor presents policies to them. If they like them, then the governor gets a chance to implement them. If not, then the governor is himself tortured for their failings, and it is quite clear that if they don't please the public enough then the torture will become too much to handle and the governor will die.

It's all very obviously a commentary on modern society. This story puts forward the notion that all that people really want is senseless violence, and that this is the ideal method to keep the populace under control. This is easily reflected in the viewing habits of audiences at the time, and indeed today, where mindless violence will nearly always triumph over sensitive dramas. Indeed, this is a truth that can be seen all the way back in ancient times, where Romans would have sacrifices and gladiator battles to entertain the masses, the only difference between then and now is that there is somewhat less death that occurs now, and it's all confined to screens, be they television, cinema or on mobile.

 It's an interesting theme for the story to have, in particular at a time when Doctor Who could easily be accused of going down the same route, with action stories like Earthshock or Resurrection of the Daleks being key highlights of the past couple of series. Still, this sort of writing from Philip Martin (a new writer to the series) shows great promise and makes me somewhat keen to watch the conclusion to Vengeance on Varos.

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 626: The Twin Dilemma Part 4

Around a year and a half ago, I watched Jurassic Park for the first time in a lecture theatre with friends. At a certain part of the film, a velociraptor bursts through a wall suddenly, and I screamed incredibly loudly. This incident revealed to most of my friends that I am terrible with jump scares, a fact which was confirmed this past weekend when I watched two of the other films in the Jurassic Park saga, Jurassic Park: The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3. In those films, I screamed quite a bit with major moments being: a baby stegosaurus roaring, a vending machine being broken, and my personal favourite: the title for Jurassic Park 3 appearing on screen. And I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I were given a choice between watching the Jurassic Park films again or The Twin Dilemma again, I would willingly put myself through the pain of watching those films again than watch this sorry excuse for a story one more time.

It's not just the bad story, although that does provide the root of many of the serial's problems, leading to poor and uninspired acting, that certainly doesn't help the work of Peter Moffatt, who has never been the best director when it comes to innovative work, but is certainly very good at helping actors work through the story and give their best performance. Here, that's not as feasible, because there's just nothing to inspire anyone. There's also a severe lack of budget, which affects things like design and costume badly, making everything feel cheap and not worth watching.

But the absolute worst part of this is the scheduling. This story was scheduled at the end of Series 21, before the programme went on a break. Thus, viewers were left, not with the image of Peter Davison dying on their screens, but with Colin Baker's smug and unlikable portrayal of the Doctor for however long it took between Series 21 and 22. It does nothing but leave people with a bad tadte in the mouth for the upcoming stories. If I were a viewer at the time, I would be very unlikely to be at all excited for what was to come ahead. Because if the quality of anything in the future is going to be based on this, then I have to say that things need a desperate improvement, otherwise the show will be going on a bit of a break, possibly never to return.

Day 625: The Twin Dilemma Part 3

There are severe problems with the characters within The Twin Dilemma as well. The Doctor, as mentioned previously, is horrible, mainly due to the poor way in which the script was written. Similarly, the character of Peri is poorly treated, although she at least gets the bonus of getting to be the audience's mouthpiece and shout at the Doctor half of the time for being an unsufferable git. Hugo Lang, played by Kevin McNally (an actor who is far too good to appear in this) is so one-note and uninteresting that the most impressive thing about him is his jacket, which tries to out-rainbow the Doctor's own colourful coat. Worst of all are the eponymous twins, who act as constant reminders of how talented the current casting directors are on Doctor Who as, whilst in the new series I can't really recall any truly bad performances from children, these two young actors consistently fail to be believable. For example, a scene where they are asked to make some planetary adjustments on a large scale never truly feels as massive as it should be, because these two young boys completely fail to get across the emotional consequences of what they are being asked to do.

But in all of this darkness, there is hope. Maurice Denham plays Azmael, the Doctor's old Time Lord drinking buddy. He's the only character to be given any kind of depth, having had his planet be taken away from him and his people enslaved. Thus, he is forced to do terrible things, but all in the name of the planet which he calls home. It's an nice character motivation, and is played well by Maurice Denham, who is one of the few highlights of this story. But it's certainly not enough to make me recommend it, it's only enough to make the pain a little more bearable. Still, there's only one episode left of this horrible little story.

Day 624: The Twin Dilemma Part 2

I could perhaps partially forgive this episode if it were at least a half-decent story. Yet it fails completely at that as well. The plot revolves around two young twin boys who are captured by some evil aliens for nefarious purposes, as these two young twin boys are mathematical geniuses. It's the sort of thing that I'd expect to read in a book purely intended for 8 year olds, not this series which is intended to appeal to a wider audience. And bear in mind the context as well. So far this series we have had a dark and serious drama in Caves of Androzani, a piece that examined religion in Planet of Fire, and even Warriors of the Deep at least attempted to be a Cold War analogue. But instead of all of these stories with underlying depths, this just chooses to ignore things like that and instead be something that's overly simplistic and not worth watching.

But even then it completely fails. Take, for instance, the cliffhanger to Part 2. It features a building blowing up, with the Doctor purportedly being inside. This could be an effective cliffhanger, if we had not literally just seen the Doctor teleport away from the building 20 seconds before it blew up. It fails at introducing any sense of doubt in the safety of the main character because we've already seen that he has escaped and indeed how he has escaped. This all goes as yet more evidence that this story is clearly the worst Doctor Who story of all time.