Review of Nightmare of Eden (#107)
DVD Release Date:  08 May 12
Original Air Date:  24 Nov – 15 Dec 1979
Doctor/Companion:  Four, Romana II, K9 Mark II
Stars:  Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, David Brierley
Preceding Story:  The Creature from the Pit (Four, Romana II, K9)
Succeeding Story:  The Horns of Nimon (Four, Romana II, K9)

I’m not gonna lie; this was a bit of a slog. Four does nothing overly clever, funny, or inspiring. Romana’s boring window dressing. The Mandrels are crap. The effects are crap. And the plot is nothing to write home about.

As soon as I realized it was all about drug smuggling, I pretty much completely lost interest. I watch Doctor Who to escape, to be inspired, or to make me look at things with a fresh perspective, not for a futuristic spin on modern crime. Maybe I’m just not the target market for this one, but my one-word “note to self” at the end of this one was “weird.”

Having watched some of the extras, I can see where there might be some endearing parts to Nightmare, but for me, there was not much to love. I mean, it wasn’t even John Leeson voicing K9. But seriously, the plot itself was… OK, for being all about drugs – blatantly so, rather than metaphorically, as pointed out by Joe Lidster (see below). There are some interesting concepts, though I was at least twice put in mind of Carnival of Monsters (the CET machine itself is reminiscent of the miniscope, and the Mandrel crashing through the walls at the end of Episode 1 similarly made me think of the Drashigs). Much of it was executed so poorly, though (the bad guy has a Germanic accent? srsly?), that it was hard to look past the rubbish. I’m really not that interested in metaphorical truffle hunting…

On the up side, Romana continues to display an enjoyable personality (even if she has nothing to do), and her chemistry with Four is top notch. Their banter is one of the few highlights (along with David Daker’s performance as the drugged out Capt. Rigg). I loved, for example, the moment when the Doctor earnestly tells her she’s got less than three minutes to rebuild the CET. After clarifying that he’s quite serious, she simply says, “well… I’ll need a screwdriver.” If only the rest of the story were so easy to fix.

DVD Extras (highlights)

The Nightmare of Television Centre

Decades later, the visual effects designers still cringe at the results on this one. They, like many fans (from what I can tell), really seem to think Nightmare is aptly named. In fact, apparently it was rather a nightmare to film on all fronts – not just for the unfortunate effects folks, but for the whole cast and crew. They relay stories that explain to us why certain things turned out as they did, and give a flavor of the culture behind the scenes.

Going Solo

Every other time he wrote for Doctor Who, Bob Baker collaborated with Dave Martin (that’s eight other stories, beginning with The Claws of Axos and ending with The Armageddon Factor). Here he talks about why he wrote this, his last Who, alone and what he thought was good and bad about the final product.

The Doctor’s Strange Love

Continuing their series about what’s to love in “hated” stories, Simon Guerrier, Josie Long and Joe Lidster examine Nightmare. After listening to these three for a while (and I always enjoy their take on things; how can you not, when they’re clearly having so much fun together), I could appreciate a few more details from the story. I still laughed more at (and agreed more thoroughly with) their comments on the ridiculous bits. Good fun here; the best of the available extras.

This one would seriously be better with booze. Lots and lots of booze. But Four and Romana are a wonderful combination as ever, so if you’re a fan of them, and you can look past all the ways it didn’t meet its potential, give it a whirl. Otherwise, you can sleep easy knowing you haven’t missed much.