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A Victim of Regeneration

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Review of The Twin Dilemma (#137)

DVD Release Date: 05 Jan 10
Original Air Date: 22 – 30 Mar 1984
Doctors/Companions: Six, Perpugilliam Brown
Stars: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: The Caves of Androzani (Five, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Attack of the Cybermen (Six, Peri)

We’ve rolled back around to a Low for this month’s entry in this year’s series of Highs and Lows, and it is definitely one you’ll see on a lot of fans’ s***-lists. Although the list I keep coming back to only ranks it at 222 of 254 (roughly at the bottom 1/8), list author Charlie Jane Anders mentions that it’s not really all that bad. I find I have to agree with her.

Note that I’m not saying it’s a good story, but it’s not as bad as I remembered. As I watched it again, I started to develop some hypotheses about why it has such a poor reputation in the fandom, and I think I’ve got some solid working ones.

Before I get into the details of that analysis, though, I want to talk about what I remembered about the story before I started my re-watch. It wasn’t a whole heck of a lot, to be honest. First and foremost, I remembered the closing line, because it so clearly breaks the fourth wall. Although nominally talking to Peri, the Doctor turns almost straight to camera and says, “I am the Doctor. Whether you like it or not.”

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Set for Adventure

Review of Pyramids of Mars (#82)

DVD Release Date: 07 Sep 04
Original Air Date: 25 Oct – 15 Nov 1975
Doctors/Companions: Four, Sarah Jane Smith
Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Preceding Story: Planet of Evil (Four, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story: The Android Invasion (Four, Sarah Jane)

When I checked my calendar to see what adventure I was slated to review this month, I have to admit I was pleased to discover I was in for another High and not a Low this month. Although it’s somehow never made onto my personal list of favorites, Pyramids of Mars ranks #7 on the i09 master list I’ve been following, and it’s a far sight better than a lot of the other stories I’ve selected for 2021.

I suspect it’s primarily because Tom Baker has never been a particular favorite that Pyramids doesn’t really ping my radar (or even my Marconiscope, as Laurence Scarman calls his nascent radio telescope). It’s still relatively early in his tenure (meaning he’s not too over-the-top in his characterization yet) and includes Sarah Jane (among my preferred Companions), so it’s certainly on the positive end of the Fourth Doctor spectrum for me, and yet it still only tends to come to the forefront of my mind when I think about what Classic stories other fans recommend.

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Slipping Subtly Onto a Soapbox

Review of Snakedance (#125)

DVD Release Date: 12 Apr 11
Original Air Date: 18 – 26 Jan 1983
Doctors/Companions: Five, Nyssa of Traken, Tegan Jovanka
Stars: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: Arc of Infinity (Five, Nyssa, Tegan)
Succeeding Story: Mawdryn Undead (Five, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough, the Brigadier)

I’m not sure if it’s because I didn’t grow up watching these stories, because I find the Fifth Doctor’s era nearly as beige as his costume, or because of something else, but I don’t really have a strong impression of many of the early-80s stories. So when I popped Snakedance into my machine to watch it again, I really didn’t know whether this month’s adventure was supposed to be a High or a Low.

Happily enough, it didn’t take much run-time for me to decide which end of the scale it occupied (it ranks #57 on io9’s list); I could relax into it and watch without keeping an eye on the clock the way I do with some of the Lows.

We discover early on that poor Tegan is not rid of the evil Mara that invaded her mind nearly a season beforehand (Kinda aired in February 1982). Instead, it is invading her dreams to begin to take control of her. Under its influence, she sets the TARDIS coordinates for Manussa, where the people are celebrating the banishment of the Mara some five hundred years ago. Almost no one believes in the prophecy of the Mara’s return, but thanks to Tegan and her serpentine mental parasite, prophetic events begin to unfold anyway.

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Who in the Time of COVID

Review of Doctor Who and the Silurians (#52)

DVD Release Date: 03 Jun 08
Original Air Date: 31 Jan – 14 Mar 1970
Doctors/Companions: Three, Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney
Preceding Story: Spearhead from Space (Three, Liz, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story: The Ambassadors of Death (Three, Liz, the Brigadier)

Silurians have never been one of my favorite species. Although I came to Doctor Who through the new series, it was still before they made their return in The Hungry Earth. Thus this story, as for earlier generations of fans, was my introduction to the erstwhile dominant species on Earth.

When my main memory of this story was the questionable rubber monster suits, then, perhaps I can be excused for not knowing off the top of my head which side of the Highs and Lows this month’s entry was meant to fall on. I was pleased to find, when I checked the i09 reference rankings, that it comes in at #24, and settled in to be reminded of a good story I’d forgotten about.

Little did I know how viewing the story in 2021 would color my experience.

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Slave to the Quarks

Review of The Dominators (#44)

DVD Release Date: 11 Jan 11
Original Air Date: 10 Aug – 07 Sep 1968
Doctors/Companions: Two, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoë Heriot
Stars: Patrick Troughton, Fraser Hines, Wendy Padbury
Preceding Story: The Wheel in Space (Two, Jamie, Zoë)
Succeeding Story: The Mind Robber (Two, Jamie, Zoë)

This month I am taking one for the team. I knew this was coming when I decided on this year’s “Highs and Lows” theme, but everything feels a bit different when I’m actually faced with viewing one of the Lows. At least I knew what I was getting into before I started.

Which is not to say that I remembered much of the plot of The Dominators before I began my rewatch. Mostly I remembered that the stumpy little robots called the Quarks were introduced here—reputedly with the ambition of becoming the next Daleks, a new robot to scare the kiddies and delight toy companies with sales. (Their obscurity fifty-odd years later is a testament to how well that went.)

Now that I have seen it again, I… primarily remember the Quarks.

Frankly, I think the root of the problem with this adventure is the same as the problem with the Quarks. The Quarks don’t work because unlike the Daleks, who serve as a fascist allegory, or the Cybermen, who sprang from body horror, they really serve no narrative purpose. They are mindless drones who do the bidding of the eponymous baddies, and unlike Daleks or Cybermen, could easily have been replaced with a simple weapon like some sort of laser borer.

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Vacation in Paris

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Review of City of Death (#105)
DVD Release Date: 08 Nov 05
Original Air Date: 29 Sep – 20 Oct 1979
Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II
Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward
Preceding Story: Destiny of the Daleks (Four, Romana II)
Succeeding Story: The Creature from the Pit (Four, Romana II)

When my husband walked past where I was watching City of Death and taking notes for this post, he stopped and said, “Haven’t you already reviewed this?” Even he, who doesn’t watch the show (though he’s seen some, now and again), knows that CoD is one of “the best” stories out there in the eyes of fandom at large.

In fact, the famous i09 article from which I take my rankings for classification purposes has listed CoD at #3 of 254, which is one of the reasons it qualified for the Highs & Lows theme this year. It may therefore seem a little strange that I haven’t ever reviewed it.

This very popularity is exactly the reason I’ve avoided it in the past. After all, what fan of Classic Doctor Who—or even of the modern era—hasn’t at least heard of City of Death, by name or otherwise? A single glance at the Doctor and Romana traipsing through Paris told not only my husband but my kids which story it was. (“Isn’t this the one with all the Mona Lisas?”) I’ve never needed to write a review to convince anyone it was worth watching.

But now that it’s come around on the guitar, so to speak, I’m happy to take my turn. Besides, some readers may still be wondering what all the fuss is about. For example, if you’re one of those fans still just dipping a toe into Classic Who, you may be put off by all the hype about this story (like Deb from Verity! initially was) or simply not be enamored of this particular Doctor, who’s “all teeth and curls” (like me). If you find yourself in one of those camps, then hopefully some of the things I outline below will convince you that City of Death is worth your time.

First let me address the issue of Tom Baker’s Doctor. For viewers who find the Fourth Doctor to be too over-the-top goofy, too frenetic, too slapstick, I have good news: this is one of his more restrained performances. Here Baker manages to retain the comedic timing and dry wit that make him so beloved without taking his performance into pantomime territory.

Further, the script—famously pseudonymously co-written by script editor Douglas Adams—is delightful. The following exchange, one of my favorites, is but one example:

“Can I ask you where you got these?”
“No.”
“Or how you knew they were here?”
“No.”
“They’ve been bricked up a long time.”
“Yes.”
“I like concise answers.”
“Good.”

The storyline is just crazy enough—timey wimey hijinks with inhuman motives—to be fun without being off-putting, the dialog is sharp and witty, the characters (like Duggan!) are unforgettable, and they even wedge in a cameo by well-known comedians John Cleese and Eleanor Bron.

Julian Glover, who had previously appeared as King Richard the Lionheart in the First Doctor adventure The Crusade, chews up the scenery as Count Scarlioni, giving one of my favorite guest performances of all time. (And I can’t help but wonder if someone on the production team took a bet on how many times they could get the word “Count” into the script, given how often the character is addressed by his title…)

Basically, City of Death is the epitome of a Doctor Who “romp.” It’s lighthearted, with stakes that are high without ever feeling oppressive, and while it never takes itself too seriously, nor does it fall off the other end of that scale (like, ahem, the following adventure). In short, it’s perfect escapist viewing for tense times, its own little vacation in Paris.

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Faces Old and New

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Review of The Faceless Ones (#35)

DVD Release Date: 20 Oct 20
Original Air Date: 08 Apr – 13 May 1967
Doctors/Companions: Two, Ben Jackson, Polly Wright, Jamie McCrimmon
Stars: Patrick Troughton, Michael Craze, Anneke Wills, Fraser Hines
Preceding Story: The Macra Terror (Two, Ben, Polly, Jamie)
Succeeding Story: The Evil of the Daleks (Two, Jamie, Victoria)

Welcome to the first installment of the new review series Highs & Lows! We’re starting off with a story only recently added to the DVD ranks with an animated reconstruction. The Faceless Ones is a six-part Second Doctor story with only two extant episodes, but the animation team has recreated all six episodes for this late-2020 release. One has the choice to watch the story with the existing episodes (1 and 3) interspersed, or as a fully animated version.

Although it is certainly not the first such reconstruction, the animation here is less to my taste than some of the others. The movement and detailing of the scenes is fine, and certainly didn’t bother me, but I don’t find the character design particularly flattering to the original actors. I kept getting distracted by Jamie’s or the Doctor’s oddly-shaped faces.

Looking beyond the mechanics of the reconstruction to the story itself, though, I find it surprising that its ranking on the io9 list is so low (#244 of 254). Charlie Jane Anders, the list’s author, says that the main premise of The Faceless Ones, in which young people’s forms are being copied as new identities for aliens “isn’t enough of a plot to sustain six episodes.” (She ranks Terror of the Zygons at #84. I guess those two extra episodes were too much.)

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Revolutionary Departure

Review of Revolution of the Daleks
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Maybe I’m just feeling traumatized by all that 2020 threw at us and am thereby in a headspace where I am only prepared to find joy and not fault, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the 2021 New Year’s special held up upon a second viewing.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2021 BBC

Usually I can really enjoy a new Doctor Who episode on first viewing, but when I stop to reflect, particularly when I’m watching again and preparing a review, I find aspects that bother me on levels anywhere from mild annoyance to outright ruining the episode for me. (This is especially true of those written by Moffat, who specializes in pacing his stories so fast that you don’t have time to notice its flaws that first time.) This time, however, nothing killed the buzz.

Not to say I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. I think I’m too numb these days to be that effusive. But since I didn’t go into the episode expecting great things—it was a holiday special; I wanted a romp, and that’s what I got—I didn’t come out disappointed. In fact, I came out feeling fairly impressed. Because the thing about Revolution of the Daleks is that its purpose, more than being a holiday special, was to be the farewell story for Ryan and Graham. And in that respect, it did a damn good job.

I think it’s fair to say at this point that the audience has become pretty inured to Daleks. (Terry Nation’s estate is doing no one any favors by insisting that Doctor Who use the damn things every calendar year in order to keep the usage rights.) Personally I kind of roll my eyes every time they show up again, so the entire Dalek storyline was very peripheral to my experience of this episode. What made the special special was the return of Captain Jack Harkness (as more than a teaser) and the ending of two Companions’ time in the TARDIS.

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Hidden in Plain Sight

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Review of The Time Meddler (#17)

DVD Release Date: 05 Aug 08
Original Air Date: 03 – 24 Jul 1965
Doctors/Companions: One, Vicki Pallister, Steven Tayler
Stars: William Hartnell, Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves
Preceding Story: The Chase (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Steven)
Succeeding Story: Galaxy 4 (One, Vicki, Steven)

When I looked at my calendar to see which story was slated as the last entry in my 2020 series of Hidden Gems, I was at first taken aback. “How could a gem like The Time Meddler be considered hidden?” I wondered. But my surprise turned quickly to satisfaction; I got to rewatch one of my favorite Hartnell stories.

You see, I’ve always had a particular soft spot for The Time Meddler. When I first started watching Classic Who, I went in chronological order as I could. Since only maybe half of the DVD range had been released at the time, that made The Time Meddler the seventh Classic story I had seen.

Aside from the boxset The Beginning (which included An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, and The Edge of Destruction), my other experiences with Hartnell’s Doctor were The Aztecs, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and The Web Planet. The version of the Doctor who landed in Northumbria in 1066 was thus the least crotchety I’d yet seen (and also the first without Ian and Barbara). He was practically bubbly by comparison, and the story quickly caught my attention.

While it’s clear that the show was still leaning heavily into its remit to teach children about science and history, the idea that someone would actively try to subvert the known timeline was still fresh. Even more significant, though, is the fact that this time meddler—this Monk—is one of the Doctor’s own people. How amazing the reveal at the end of the third episode must have been at the time!

The plot revolves around the Doctor and his Companions (Vicki, initially alone with the Doctor after Ian and Barbara’s departure, and Steven, the surprise stowaway still with them after the end of the previous adventure) stumbling upon a plot by the unscrupulous Monk to change Earth’s (specifically Europe’s) entire history by ensuring that King Harold wins the Battle of Hastings instead of William the Conqueror. Of course, first Steven has to be convinced of the reality of their whereabouts (whenabouts?), but once he buys into his new worldview, he is an asset to the team.

I’m particularly fond of how the story plays out. The various reveals feel natural and just surprising enough (at least one’s first time through) to be delightful. The stakes don’t feel super high as they often do in modern Who, even though Vicki and Steven have a discussion about how if the Monk succeeds, it would change human history as they know it. (I suppose that might have felt like pretty high stakes 55 years ago, when it hadn’t yet become a trope.)

Saying more than I have already would likely spoil any further surprises that might remain for someone who had not yet seen it, so I will just say that Vicki is a delight, Steven is a breath of fresh air, and the Monk is a fabulous foil who should totally come back in the modern show. If you have not yet had the pleasure of watching this Hidden Gem (likely “hidden” mostly because some fans ignore Hartnell; it came in at 79 of 254 on the io9 list), I highly recommend it as slow, mellow approach to a timey-wimey problem—just the sort of thing we could use in the chaos of 2020.

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The Brain of Neowhovian

Review of The Brain of Morbius (#84)

DVD Release Date: 07 Oct 08
Original Air Date: 03 – 24 Jan 1976
Doctors/Companions: Four, Sarah Jane Smith
Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Preceding Story: The Android Invasion (Four, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story: The Seeds of Doom (Four, Sarah Jane)

This week includes both the 57th anniversary of Doctor Who‘s first broadcast and the American Thanksgiving holiday, so it feels like an appropriate time to review a well-loved story, a Hidden Gem that barely fits the moniker. It’s pretty hard to argue that The Brain of Morbius is hidden from fandom in any meaningful way, as it is often cited as an iconic story from an era that many consider “golden,” but in the five-year-old io9 ranking of the 254 stories then extant, it placed at #110, solidly in the second quartile.

So how does a famous story end up in such an ignominious place? It’s a good question that dovetails nicely with my own experience of Morbius. Before sitting down to re-watch, I didn’t really remember much detail; the story as a whole had not made a big impression on me, despite my having seen it multiple times. My clearest sense of the story was its obvious allegorical similarities to Frankenstein. If I thought hard enough, I also remembered that this is where we saw all those mysterious faces that may well have been previously unknown incarnations of the Doctor (or, others would argue, might be Morbius’s other faces), but that was pretty much the extent of it.

Imagine my surprise when I heard that the Doctor and Sarah Jane had landed on Karn.

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