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Tag: Ace

Fire and Ace

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Review of Dragonfire (#151)
DVD Release Date:  08 May 12
Original Air Date:  23 Nov – 07 Dec 1987
Doctor/Companion:  Seven, Melanie Bush, Dorothy “Ace” McShane
Stars:  Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Sophie Aldred
Preceding Story:  Delta and the Bannermen (Seven, Mel)
Succeeding Story:  Remembrance of the Daleks (Seven, Ace)

Since this month’s R1 releases included two Seven stories and a Four story, I was going to start with Nightmare of Eden and keep it chronological. After Simon Guerrier (a fellow panelist with me at Gally, and Whovian content creator in his own right) responded to one of my tweets essentially telling me I was slacking, I decided I had to start with Dragonfire.

To be honest, I was sort of looking for an excuse. I adore Ace, and have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to see her introduction. Coming at it from the future, so to speak, was actually a tad unsettling. While the original audience was still reveling in a recognition-of-returning-character moment (Glitz!), I’d cut that moment short to squee that I’d just noticed Ace(!) quietly serving him a drink in the background. Almost from that point on, I have a hard time paying any attention to Mel. Maybe it’s that Ace is my all-time favorite Companion (yes, lately Rory’s been giving her a run for her money, but stepping back from the swirl of new episodes for a while, the cream rises, and Ace comes back out on top), maybe it’s that I know it’s Ace’s turn next, or maybe it’s just that the script seems to have more for Ace to do than for Mel. Whatever the case, it already feels like a Seven-and-Ace story to me instead of a Seven-and-Mel one.

And the script doesn’t waste any time developing her character, either. I mean, I love that our first proper look at Ace involves her chafing against authority. We get the whole sense of where she’s come from (though, seriously – how does a kid from Perivale know it was a “time storm” that swept her off to Iceworld?) and what her life on Earth was like, too. On the other hand, I was a tad taken aback that there’s never any explanation for why she chose to call the Doctor “Professor.” Oh well. I suppose that’s part of its charm.

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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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