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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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Confession #142: I Miss Gally

It’s February! Usually right about now I’d be spamming my readers with all the thoughts about how I’m looking forward to my annual visit to Los Angeles for Gallifrey One and letting you all know when to expect my upcoming daily recaps. However, thanks to the US’s dismal response to the COVID pandemic so far, Gallifrey One has long since made the responsible decision to cancel this year’s con, postponing Thirty-Second to Midnight until 2022.

So instead of being on a plane (or at least at an airport) when this posts, I’ll be at home—like all of my Gally friends—thinking about all the things I love about going to that con, and keeping my fingers crossed that things will go to plan next year. Since I won’t have that Gally content to share this year, I’ll just share a short list of the things that make Gally so special to me. Maybe some of you will see familiar themes, too. (Feel free to share some of your favorite parts of attending your favorite con in the comments.)

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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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Theme of the Year 2021: Highs and Lows

Welcome to another year of the blog!

Ten years ago this week, I published my first post ever, and somehow—although less frequently these past few years—I have managed to continue posting regularly for an entire decade. Although I know it’s not widely read, I truly appreciate everyone who stops by to read, comment, and/or vote in my reader polls. Thank you for joining me on this ride!

This year I will continue my recent tradition of reviewing Classic stories using a loose, overarching theme. For the first couple of years I used a theme, it was Bad Reputation. Last year I switched to Hidden Gems. To decide what to do this time around, I looked over the thirty-or-so unreviewed stories remaining in my spreadsheet, and started where I always do: which Doctors have the largest proportion of stories left?

Interestingly, the release of animated reconstructions for two more Troughton stories (The Faceless Ones and The Macra Terror) has changed the results of that calculation a fair bit from my previous pass. The resulting distribution is much more even than I’d anticipated; rather than five Fourth Doctor stories, I only have three, and none of the seven Classic Doctors is left out.

Once I’d determined how many stories from which Doctors I needed, I looked at the available stories’ ranking on that good ol’ six-year-old list from io9. That’s when I realized I still had several both highly-ranked and poorly-ranked stories yet to review. So this year, I’ll be exploring the extremes: the best and the worst, the highs and the lows. The sequence goes per Doctor, rather than per ranking, so there’s some back-and-forth, and come clustering, but hopefully we’ll still end up with an interesting mix.

Without further ado, then, here is the schedule for 2021. As ever, reviews will post on the fourth Wednesday of each month. I look forward to sharing the Highs and Lows of Classic Who with you all!

Highs and Lows
January: The Faceless Ones (io9 #244) Second Doctor
February: City of Death (io9 #3) Fourth Doctor
March: The Dominators (io9 #242) Second Doctor
April: Doctor Who and the Silurians (io9 #24) Third Doctor
May: Snakedance (io9 #57) Fifth Doctor
June: Pyramids of Mars (io9 #7) Fourth Doctor
July: The Twin Dilemma (io9 #222) Sixth Doctor
August: The Time Monster (io9 #238) Third Doctor
September: Delta and the Bannermen (io9 #246) Seventh Doctor
October: The Deadly Assassin (io9 #13) Fourth Doctor
November: The Edge of Destruction (io9 #30) First Doctor
December: Arc of Infinity (io9 #205) Fifth Doctor
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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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Confession #141: I’m Psyched for the New Year’s Special

No matter what part of the world one lives in, 2020 has been rough. Many of us are simply fighting for survival, whether our struggles are medical, financial, psychological, of some combination thereof. It’s easy to push things like art (however one defines that) to the background—it’s not important now; how could I waste my time on that; I’ve got to save my energy…

At the same time, though, art is what keeps us alive. Streaming services have been doing booming business as lockdowns and quarantines continue to stretch into an unknown future. People turn to various forms of art to help keep us sane—to films and television, tabletop and video games, books and comics and fanfics.

That’s why I’ve made room in my heart to get psyched for the upcoming Doctor Who holiday special. Perhaps you are, like me, well and truly sick of Daleks already (thanks so much to Terry Nation’s estate for making them a “use them at least once a year or lose the license” entity), but they’re not the only returning characters. When the official trailer for Revolution of the Daleks was released about a week and a half ago, we all learned that Captain Jack Harkness would be returning to our screens, and for more than a single scene.

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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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Confession #140: I Want More Asian Style Storytelling

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As a U.S. citizen, I feel compelled to acknowledge that this past week has been a helluva ride. Both the political landscape and the unchecked spread of COVID in my state (as many others) and across the country have contributed to perhaps the most stressful period of my life.

My primary method of coping has been watching streaming video. There has been the occasional dip into Doctor Who, with my regular reviews or catching up on the last series with the Ladies of WhoFest, but for the most part, I’ve been streaming dramas from Korea, China, or (occasionally) Japan. Not only do these stories distract me from the dumpster fire of the world around me, but they stimulate my mind in new ways.

One thing that has fascinated me so much about them is that these stories from Asian cultures have very different storytelling conventions than the ones I’m used to. As a fiction writer myself, I’ve learned that the art of making a story satisfying to the reader (or viewer) hinges on delivering on implicit promises. Those promises vary from genre to genre.

For example, in romance, it is expected that every story will have an HEA—Happily Ever After—and if it doesn’t, it’s not romance. If you present a story as romance but fail to resolve the protagonists’ storyline with them getting together and building a sweet life together, your audience will riot because it goes against the accepted genre norms. Even in other genres, we’ve come to expect that Good will triumph over Evil and even if not everything is peachy at the end, things are headed in a more positive direction than at the beginning of the story.

At least, that’s how it works in Western storytelling.

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The Most Meta Meta That Ever Meta’ed

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Review of The Mind Robber (#45)

DVD Release Date: 06 Sep 05
Original Air Date: 14 Sep – 12 Oct 1968
Doctors/Companions: Two, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot
Stars: Patrick Troughton, Fraser Hines, Wendy Padbury
Preceding Story: The Dominators (Two, Jamie, Zoe)
Succeeding Story: The Invasion (Two, Jamie, Zoe)

When I drew up my schedule for this year’s series of review posts and settled on Hidden Gems as a theme, I was delighted when it rolled back around to the Second Doctor’s turn. Although The Mind Robber may be considered mid-list, I have often used it as one of the better adventures for introducing new viewers to Troughton. There are enough bizarre twists and story conceits to keep it fresh. It also doesn’t hurt that even though there are five episodes, they only total about 99 minutes.

As the Doctor, Jaime, and Zoe watch lava begin to surround the TARDIS (the cliffhanger from the end of The Dominators), the fluid link malfunctions, forcing the Doctor to make a risky flight decision. The crew ends up somewhere outside of time and space, a featureless void that really saves on set costs leaves them wandering lost when someone lures them outside the TARDIS.

Soon our heroes encounter all sorts of odd creatures and people, in surroundings that seem to operate primarily on puzzles and words. Poor Jaime gets turned into a cardboard cutout of himself, his face missing, and the Doctor has to put his face back from puzzle pieces. Of course, he flubs the job, giving Jaime a new face (and conveniently giving an on-screen excuse for replacing Fraser Hines with Hamish Wilson for the episode, while Fraser recovered from chicken pox).

The Doctor soon deduces that they are in some sort of Land of Fiction, which is why one of their new friends (who turns out to be Lemuel Gulliver of Gulliver’s Travels) speaks so oddly: he can only use the words his author has given him. Worse, their foe is trying either to get the Doctor to replace him as the creative force behind the scenes or to trap the TARDIS crew in the words, turning them into characters themselves.

The sheer metatextual irony of fictional characters within a TV show bemoaning the fact that they’re about to be turned into fictional characters in a(n in-universe) written story is simply mind-boggling. It wouldn’t take many more fractal layers of story-within-a-story’ing to really give one a headache.

But it’s also delightful because if you’re a Doctor Who fan (or at least a fan of Troughton’s era), it actually takes a while for it all to sink in. The viewers have immersed ourselves so thoroughly in the show that at first we simply share the Doctor’s horror that he, Jaime, and Zoe might soon lose their free will—their very existence—and become nothing more than ideas in someone else’s story. Only when we pause for a moment does it dawn on us how meta that actually is.

And that, of course, is the beauty of a good story. Blurring the line between the imagination and reality is what keeps us coming back for more. Even when it gets weird.

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