Day 463: Image of the Fendahl Part 2/Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The resolution to last episode's heavily analysed cliffhanger is quite disappointing, revealing that much of the effectiveness has been achieved through clever editing and that the Doctor and Leela weren't in too much danger after all. It's a bit of a cop-out, yes, but it doesn't detract from what was originally an excellently put together piece of television.

Meanwhile, you have no doubt noticed, the title of today's entry states that we will not be discussing just Image of the Fendahl today. Indeed this entry is in the style of Day 236, where an attempt was made to talk about The Seeds of Death, however I ended up talking about The Avengers, Hank Pym, and Ultron instead. This time, the subject that is on my mind is that of Star Trek, for obvious reasons.

Leonard Nimoy sadly passed away today. He left behind him a fantastic career, with his best known role being that of Mr Spock in the television series Star Trek, a series that was a television phenomenon, in no small part due to Nimoy's performance as the emotionless Vulcan. His character became a pop culture icon, representing so many things to so many people. To some, he represented difficulties with emotions, to others he represented a minority view, being the only alien on a human spaceship. He was the voice of logic and reason on the Enterprise, and represented a trusted figure to all who watched the series, a guiding voice as we explored the universe.

To commemorate his life, I made the decision to watch The Wrath of Khan for the first time last night. It's a fantastic film, being a film about aging. We look at Kirk, now an older man and struggling with this fact. He wants to be running about the universe, but he is constantly faced with the fact that he isn't a young man any more. The film then becomes about him trying desperately to prove to himself that he is still a capable man, however he is still let down and faced with failure at various points, culminating in the loss of Spock.

Nimoy plays the scene perfectly, being stoic and logical to the last, pointing out that it was the only solution to the problem that had been placed in front of them. It affects Kirk strongly, because it's a personal loss, one which takes away a firm part of his life. But it's not just Kirk that it affects. It strongly affects the audience because we all lose Spock together. We all loved him as a character and are saddened to see him go. But we know that he lives on. Not just in the mind of Dr McCoy as explored in Star Trek III, but also in our minds, as we know to be logical and reasonable thanks to him. We also see his compassion, that he would give his life such that others may live. We'll never forget Mr Spock, or Mr Nimoy, and they'll both live on in our memories. Indeed, you could say that they'll Live Long and Prosper.

Day 462: Image of the Fendahl Part 1

This episode has a fantastic cliffhanger, which works through a variety of factors. On paper, it consists of Leela walking into a room and a gun being fired, whilst an unknown force advances on the Doctor. This reasonably ordinary cliffhanger is able to be massively intensified on screen. For a start, the episode is shot at night, so the scenes where the Doctor is advanced upon by the unseen force have a new degree of menace through the darkness and shadows that surround the area, whilst a heavy fog plays up the unsettling nature of the countryside location. This is edited back and forth between the Leela scenes, meaning that we are in constant peril with no room for breath, and in addition the scenes never seem to stay on one shot for more than a handful of seconds, creating tension as the climax is reached. Tension is also created through the soundscape, as there is no music, only a steadily rising pitch of some unknown force creating more tension as you get a sensation that it is slowly approaching some form of climax. The only break from this steadily rising noise is a simple gunshot, which is sudden, giving a brief sense of shock to the audience and leaving them more unnerved for the true cliffhanger as the camera approaches the Doctor and we realise that there may be no escape from the horrifying and unknowable force.

Day 461: The Invisible Enemy Part 4

There's no getting around the uncomfortable fact about The Invisible Enemy. The titular enemy looks like a prawn. It's one of those cases where you desperately wish that the title were more accurate, such that we never saw what was cooked up for us on screen and we can live in blissful ignorance of the shrimp-like creature that attempts to take over the universe. It's one of several things that don't quite hit the mark with this story, mainly based around special effects although the direction, design and writing could have certainly been improved.

And yet, there's still a part of me that kind of likes this story. As I mentioned yesterday, there's the fantastic idea of the Doctor going inside his own mind. And there are a vast array of fantastic ideas here, from robot dogs to viruses that want to take over the universe, this story feels like it really wants to push the boundaries of what can be achieved on screen. It's commendable that the production team at least gave it a shot then. And even if it may not have worked as well on screen, at least we got something that was memorable and had some elements that were enjoyable within it.

Finally, today we learnt of the passing of Barry Newbery, designer for Doctor Who and coincidentally this story. His work has generally been fantastic, bringing forth wonderful worlds such as Renaissance Italy, Aztec temples and my personal favourite, the mysterious planet Karn. He will be sorely missed as a man who brought brilliant worlds to our screens, captivating our imaginations to truly allow us to be wanderers in the fourth dimension.

Day 460: The Invisible Enemy Part 3

"Where are we going Doctor?"

"Into the land of dreams and fantasy, Leela"

Through a convoluted procedure, the Doctor and Leela are currently inside the Doctor's brain trying to find the Nucleus of the Swarm, the viral creature that is causing all of the problems that are currently afflicting everyone. What this means is that the script gets to go a bit more surreal, as we walk through a truly alien landscape, full of strange backgrounds and dark areas, making the brain feel like an unexplored planet, full of mysteries to be uncovered. It's a plot line that verges on the surreal, but is also grounded in scientific reality. They are attacked by strange beasts, but these are antibodies aiming to remove the inteuders. Similarly, when we see strange signals and flashes in the background, we know that these are electrical impulses sending signals from the brain to the rest of the body. This all comes together to represent a merging of both the scientific side of the series and the fantastical, creating something that, as written, is truly awe inspiring.

Day 459: The Invisible Enemy Part 2

The Invisible Enemy features one incredibly major thing that occurs within the story. It is something that changes the landscape of Doctor Who forever and will go on to define Graham Williams' era as producer. It is in this story that K9 first appears in. He instantly stands out in the story as a really cool idea, being a robot dog that can give information whenever required. The way in which he is written and portrayed is fun as well, with K9 having some sense of humour, which lends a sense of fun to the proceedings as we get to laugh with a robot dog, and not be as terrified by the monsters in this story. The character certainly worked well for the audience, where the reaction to him was so good that they decided to make him a companion at the end of the story, instead of leaving him to be a one-off like was originally planned. On top of that, he is still a character that is fondly remembered to this day, and able to be enjoyed by a modern audience thanks to the fact that we can all sit back and have fun with a robot dog.

Day 458: The Invisible Enemy Part 1

This story takes an interesting tack in that the Doctor is possessed relatively early on, about halfway into Part 1. This makes the Doctor have more of an edge, as he tries to kill Leela and other people who do not give into the Swarm, the force that is currently trying to possess much of humanity. However, it doesn't quite work. For a start, Bob Baker and Dave Martin, the story's writers, have made the decision to let Leela have extra senses to know that something is going wrong, thus meaning that she clearly knows that the Doctor is possessed, removing much of the tension that could surround the story. There's also the fact that everyone who is possessed goes into the typical 'possessed' acting, speaking slowly and making no effort to hide their true nature and you get an episode that doesn't entirely work. Hopefully the rest of the story shall improve as The Invisible Enemy continues.

Day 457: Horror of Fang Rock Part 4

The conclusion of this story features a couple of things. One of them is the revelation of the villains behind the piece: The Rutans. The Rutans are the enemies of the Sontarans, and yet they couldn't be more dissimilar. While the Sontarans are short, stocky, and look like typical alien soldiers, the Rutans are more blob like in nature. This gives some insight into their conflict: a dislike for the unlike, as it is fairly obvious that there is no point of similarity between the two species. Even their mides of attack are different, with the Sontarans preferring all out attacks and strong weaponry while the Rutans take a stealthier approach, knocking out their enemies one by one. However, their love of war is the one thing that they do have in common, with dire consequences for bystanders.

This is evident when you look at the amount of death that surrounds this story. Every single character save for the Doctor and Leela gets killed over the course of this story, it's fairly depressing stuff although it's worth noting the way in which the Doctor and Leela take this in, as they accept it and move on to their nect adventure with barely a look back. They won and there's no time to dwell on the loss. It's interesting to note this because back in the Hartnell era this sort of destruction would be recognised by the TARDIS crew, and we shall certainly see much more mourning in the future, but for now we move on to face new foes, off on another adventure.