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Abrasive and Melodramatic

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Review of the Sixth Doctor’s era

1984 – 1986
The Twin Dilemma* Attack of the Cybermen
Vengeance on Varos
The Mark of the Rani
The Two Doctors
Timelash
Revelation of the Daleks		 The Mysterious Planet
Mindwarp
Terror of the Vervoids
The Ultimate Foe**
  *This was the last story of Season 21. Nearly 10 months elapsed before his next appearance in Season 22.
**Collectively, Season 23 is known as Trial of a Timelord, and is sometimes counted as a single story.

As devotees (are there any?) of the blog will know, Six is ~ahem~ not my favorite Doctor. However, he has his own peculiar charms, as I’ve come to appreciate over time, and I have to give Colin Baker props for doing as good a job as he did whilst getting shafted simultaneously by writers and by higher-ups at the Beeb.

Among the more objectionable characteristics of the Regeneration in my mind are his brash tone – he tends to repeat comments made to him incredulously to show his disagreement (reminiscent of Four, actually) – and his tendency to talk down to his Companions, particularly Peri. The poor thing gets told things like, “Do use your brain, my girl. Small though it is, the human brain can be quite effective when used properly” on a fairly regular basis. Pompous much?

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Pub Kraal

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Review of The Android Invasion (#83)
DVD Release Date:  10 Jan 12
Original Air Date:  22 Nov – 13 Dec 1975
Doctor/Companion:  Four, Sarah Jane Smith
Stars:  Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Preceding Story:  Pyramids of Mars (Four, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story:  The Brain of Morbius (Four, Sarah Jane)

We don’t often get to see a non-Dalek Who story by Terry Nation, but this is one of those times. It’s clear he’s got a good sense of plotting, and loves a good action scene. He also does a lovely job with a rather unexpected twist (as well as a couple of obvious ones). So right off, there’s some pedigree to recommend The Android Invasion.

Then there are the androids themselves. Maybe because it’s one of those idyllic English villages at the center of things, but the creepy behavior of the “villagers” in the local pub can really get under your skin. I suppose there’s a bit of the Uncanny Valley at work. There is, of course, one very well-known doppelgänger to watch out for (if you aren’t familiar with the face-falls-off-the-android scene to which I refer, I won’t spoil it further for you), and the performances of the individuals who have to be androids are actually quite well done.

In contrast, the poor actors forced to play the Kraals (the aliens of the piece) have to put up with heavy rubber masks that had to have been nigh-impossible to move (let alone act) in. Their obvious artificiality scupper any credence the Kraals had as a force to be reckoned with, and stretch the believability of pieces of the larger plot thereby.

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Ignore the Dinosaurs Behind the Curtain

Review of Invasion of the Dinosaurs (#71)
DVD Release Date:  10 Jan 12
Original Air Date:  12 Jan – 16 Feb 1974
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Sarah Jane Smith, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney
Preceding Story:  The Time Warrior (Three, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story:  Death to the Daleks (Three, Sarah Jane)

What can one really say about low-budget mid-70’s television dinosaurs? Certainly nothing flattering. I mean, I give them credit for trying – the script did rather present them with an impossible task, after all. Dinosaurs in Central London? Not something you can just “work around” and keep the story at all intact. That doesn’t disguise the fact that they’re rubber rubbish.

So if we are to take this story anything close to seriously, we need to get one thing straight right off the bat: the effects are heinously poor, but you have to pretend they’re good. Break out some mental steel cable to keep your disbelief willingly suspended if necessary, but make it work. Because behind those shoddy Cretaceous monstrosities is a pretty good science fiction plot.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane are just returning from her first, unintentional adventure with him. When they land, they find London deserted. Eventually, they learn a veritable plague of dinosaurs has descended on the city and prompted a mass evacuation. From there, intrigues abound and chronobabble flows freely while, as they say, the plot thickens.

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Excitable and Exasperated

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Review of the Fifth Doctor’s era

1982 – 1984
Castrovalva
Four to Doomsday
Kinda
The Visitation
Black Orchid
Earthshock
Time-Flight		 Arc of Infinity
Snakedance
Mawdryn Undead
Terminus
Enlightenment
The King’s Demons
The Five Doctors (Special)		 Warriors of the Deep
The Awakening
Frontios
Resurrection of the Daleks
Planet of Fire
The Caves of Androzani

 

There’s a lot about Five that feels eminently Doctor-y to me. It could be that Ten is “my” Doctor, and Five was Tennant’s, so a lot of mannerisms and such carried over. But the way Five gets so excited about possible solutions to the problems he faces – almost frenetic at times – is very much part of what I consider “the Doctor.” He’s quick-witted yet fallible, and has great love for his Companions even as he gets irritated with them on a regular basis.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in his relationship with Tegan, one of the longest-running Companions. They constantly snark at each other, yet in threatening circumstances each strives to protect the other. When his off-kilter regeneration threatens his well-being, Tegan takes charge, keeping control of the situation with an “excuse me – I’m responsible for the Doctor!” Conversely, he often tries to bolster her courage with a “brave heart, Tegan!”

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The Caretaker, the Matriarch and the Disappointment

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Review of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Let me say right up front that this was my favorite Christmas Special to date. Despite being fully engaged and along for the ride almost the whole way through, though, I found myself ripped out of the moment and slammed back into my seat with my Critic’s Hat jammed tight on my head by the predictable and saccharine crowning plot twist. But I’ll get back to that later.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

TDtWatW got off to a strong start with a wonderfully irrelevant introduction sequence. It gave us yet another glimpse at what the Doctor gets up to when he’s not traveling with a Companion (or even just when we don’t see him on screen). Although it was patently ridiculous (as some of the best Who is), the Doctor’s “entrance” and our introduction to Madge give us a beautiful snapshot of her personality, and set us up to suspend our disbelief quite willingly through the rest of the hour.

Her eventual heartbreak at losing her husband (c’mon – that’s hardly a spoiler; the title says “Widow”!) and the way she choses to approach that with her children provide some of the most “real” and emotionally engaging television I’ve seen in a long time (again; more later). Thus we’re set up with another family separated by wartime, ready to walk into one of the Doctor’s good deeds gone wrong.

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Flippant and Compelled

Review of the Fourth Doctor’s era, Part 2

1978 – 1981
The Ribos Operation
The Pirate Planet
The Stones of Blood
The Androids of Tara
The Power of Kroll
The Armageddon Factor		 Destiny of the Daleks
City of Death
The Creature from the Pit
Nightmare of Eden
The Horns of Nimon
Shada*		 The Leisure Hive
Meglos
Full Circle
State of Decay
Warriors’ Gate
The Keeper of Traken
Logopolis
*Due to a labor strike, filming for this story was never completed.

 

During his later years, Four seemed to mellow a bit. There were no longer the angry outbursts that could occasionally surprise us with their vehemence; instead, he was jocular even to the point of flippancy. The silliness seemed especially rampant in his adventures with Romana II, perhaps because she seemed especially inclined to dish it back to him deadpan (after she gets past the residual helplessness that plagued her earlier Regeneration). As such, the second part of his run feels more light-hearted, up to the last season.

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Manic and Menacing

Review of the Fourth Doctor’s era, Part 1

1975* – 1978
Robot
The Ark in Space
The Sontaran Experiment
Genesis of the Daleks
Revenge of the Cybermen		 Terror of the Zygons
Planet of Evil
Pyramids of Mars
The Android Invasion
The Brain of Morbius
The Seeds of Doom		 The Masque of Mandragora
The Hand of Fear
The Deadly Assassin
The Face of Evil
The Robots of Death
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Horror of Fang Rock
The Invisible Enemy
Image of the Fendahl
The Sun Makers
Underworld
The Invasion of Time
*Only the first episode of Robot aired before 1975, on 28 Dec 1974.

After a brief pause for Eleven, I got right back in the marathon saddle with Four. Three had had the longest run yet (five seasons), and Tom Baker was relatively unknown when he came into the role. People weren’t too sure they were going to like this new guy. Of course, as you probably already know, he went on to become the most popular Doctor of all time (until Tennant became Ten, if you believe certain polls), as well as the  longest-running, with a total of seven series to his credit.

From the get-go, Four was a bit off-the-wall (witness the costumes he presented to the Brigadier as possibilities before settling on his well-known look). With his huge, toothy grin and unruly curls, he came across as an even bigger clown than the Cosmic Hobo (Two), but there was steel beneath that outer veneer. We get frequent glimpses of the deep-seated rage that bubbles out more frequently in his post-Hiatus personas – Four is not afraid to let his exasperation with intolerance and incompetence turn to anger. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and it can be a bit frightening.

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Nu-View #6: An Auspicious Introduction

Remembrance of the Daleks  (Story #152, 1988)
Viewed 07 Dec 2011

Doctor/Companion:   Seven, Dorothy “Ace” McShane
Stars:  Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred
Preceding Story:  Dragonfire (Seven, Mel, Ace)
Succeeding Story:  The Happiness Patrol (Seven, Ace)
Notable Aspects:

  • Returns to the scene of The Unearthly Child
  • Dispels the myth that Daleks can’t handle stairs

Seven often gets a bad rap. I’ve never understood that, but perhaps it’s because this is the first of his stories I ever saw. Not only does it have some interesting plot points (a few that never quite get explained), but it also includes a bit of fan service in the sense of bringing everything back to 76 Totter’s Lane, where it all started (this was, after all, the beginning of the 25th series; there needed to be some nod to The History). Further, this regeneration comes across as genuinely fond of his young Companion, which is a nice change of pace after Six and Peri (though the Ladies didn’t react as poorly to Six as I initially did).

All three Ladies were sitting down with Seven for the first time – a situation I don’t believe we’ve had since The Movie (our first ever WhoFest viewing). You may recall from their introductions that though jA and jO came to Who as I did, through the post-Hiatus stories, jE grew up with it. However, she had such a negative reaction to Six that she stopped watching. That makes this story, and Seven in general, a more even field than ever before.

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The Impossible Series Plot

Review of The Complete Sixth Series
DVD Release Date:  22 Nov 11
Original Air Date:  25 Dec 2010 – 01 Oct 2011
Doctor/Companion:  Eleven, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song
Stars:  Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston
Preceding Story:  The Big Bang (Eleven, Amy, Rory, River)
Succeeding Story:  The Doctor, the Widow & the Wardrobe (Eleven)

Since the blog began with a review of the first episode included in this boxed set (A Christmas Carol), I won’t go into details about my views on each one. As a reminder, though, I’ll list for you the thirteen regular episodes of the series here, with links to the associated reviews:

Look back over that list and take a moment to think about what this series was. There was some great stuff (as The Doctor’s Wife), some stinkers (I’m looking at you, Rebel Flesh/Almost People), and some mixed bags (Good Man gave us both the scintillating Mdme. Vastra and the regrettable “kitchen sink approach to cameos”). Mostly, though, it was about something “inevitable” (the Doctor’s death) that we all knew was never going to happen. I’m not sure why Moffat decided to go that route. As I’ve said before, no one over the age of eight ever believed the Doctor was really and truly dead – or at least that he would really and truly remain so. That takes a heck of a lot of suspense right out the window along with your credibility. So I suppose in the end, it was all a question of how he’d get out of it, rather than of whether.

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Authoritative and Genteel

Review of the Third Doctor’s era

1970 – 1974
Spearhead from Space
Doctor Who and the Silurians
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno		 Terror of the Autons
The Mind of Evil
The Claws of Axos
Colony in Space
The Dæmons		 Day of the Daleks
The Curse of Peladon
The Sea Devils
The Mutants
The Time Monster
The Three Doctors
Carnival of Monsters
Frontier in Space
Planet of the Daleks
The Green Death		 The Time Warrior
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Death to the Daleks
The Monster of Peladon
Planet of the Spiders

The switch to Three brought in some big changes. Most noticeably, the episodes were now in color! However, there was also a distinct change in the personality of Three when compared to One and Two. First off, he was the first example of the Doctor as Action Hero. With his Venusian aikido (or Venusian karate, depending on the story), he was not averse to getting into hand-to-hand combat. He was also a fairly good with a blade, prompting one adversary to comment that he’d never seen “a finer swordsman.”

Another change was that for a significant portion of his tenure, Three was stuck on Earth – exiled here by the Time Lords, with his knowledge of the relevant technology blocked. Thus began his real, long-term relationship with UNIT. Usually he only helped because he decided the problem the Brigadier brought to him was interesting, but of course we never saw the instances that didn’t result in an adventure. And somehow, Earth always seemed to be under threat of invasion from someone.

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