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Tag: Dodo

A Not-Worth-the-Time Machine

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Review of The War Machines (#27)
DVD Release Date: 06 Jan 09
Original Air Date: 25 Jun – 16 Jul 1966
Doctors/Companions: One, Dodo Chaplet, Ben Jackson, Polly
Stars: William Hartnell, Jackie Lane, Michael Craze, Anneke Wills
Preceding Story: The Savages (One, Steven, Dodo)
Succeeding Story: The Smugglers (One, Ben, Polly)

The First Doctor is always going to be a hard sell for some fans. Even his stories of the objectively best quality would land near the bottom of the rankings for those who just can’t get past the peculiarities of the black-and-white era.

So when we come to The War Machines, which is one of the poorer options (coming in at #199 or 254 in io9’s Best-to-Worst ranking), I would be unsurprised if it was unfamiliar to First-Doctor agnostics (or outright haters). And while I can’t disagree that it probably belongs in that bottom ~20%, I don’t think it’s so much bad as pedestrian.

The plot is typical SF fare: a sentient computer wants to “help” by taking over for mankind, and sets out to subjugate humanity with a few ~ahem~ well-crafted war machines. There’s brainwashing and blatant disregard for human life and a creator turned into the tool/stooge of his creation. Classic stuff. But especially by today’s visual storytelling standards, the plot moves so slowly one wishes for a TARDIS to skip over all the middle bits.

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The Should’ve Been Better Corral

Review of The Gunfighters (#25)

DVD Release Date:  12 Jul 11
Original Air Date:  30 Apr – 21 May 1966
Doctor/Companion:  One, Steven Taylor, Dodo Chaplet
Stars:  William Hartnell, Peter Purves, Jackie Lane
Preceding Story:  The Celestial Toymaker (One, Steven, Dodo)
Succeeding Story:  The Savages (One, Steven, Dodo)

During Doctor Who‘s third series – the last for William Hartnell (One) – there came one of the last pseudo-historicals for a long while. Why was it among the last? Because audiences stayed away in droves. Although The Gunfighters is perhaps better than the viewing numbers at the time indicated, I can’t altogether blame the public for shying away, either. An otherwise decent storyline is utterly ruined by the ubiquitous presence of a horrific saloon-style song created just for this episode: “The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon.”

A line or two (or eight) of this horrific tinkly little tune is sung over every single scene change in the entire story. The first one or two, OK, I can tolerate that – setting the tone, giving some “local color” by having the bar floozy sing her song. But every time? By the end of the first episode, I had such an ear worm I was longing for the strains of “Copacabana,” “Hotel California,” or even “The Brady Bunch” to get the damn thing out of my head! I was somewhat gratified to learn, when watching the extras, that I was not alone. The production staff and cast were also put off by the song, and still embarrassed by it years later (as well they should be).

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An Eye to the Future

Review of The Ark (#23)

DVD Release Date: 08 Mar 11
Original Air Date: 05 – 26 Mar 1966
Doctor/Companion:   One, Steven Taylor, Dorothea “Dodo” Chaplet
Stars:  William Hartnell, Peter Purves, Jackie Lane
Preceding Story:  The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Eve (One, Steven)
Succeeding Story:  The Celestial Toymaker (One, Steven, Dodo)

Although we don’t really figure it out until halfway through, The Ark is sort of two stories wrapped into one. Beginning with a rather typical “outsiders bring harmless-to-them germs into a closed population, threatening to wipe out said population” plot, the story soon takes a turn toward more socio-political themes.  Groups are set against each other and make plans of varying degrees of stupidity and brutality.  Obviously, this being Doctor Who, there’s also a time-travel twist to the tale (which I won’t completely spoil here), but that is primarily clever storytelling rather than a necessary element for plot advancement.

Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the story, at least on the surface, is the abysmal quality of the monster-of-the-week, which is poor even by Doctor Who‘s standards (and that’s saying quite a lot!).  The actors playing the Monoids could not have been comfortable with body-length rubber sheaths that included huge (clearly visible) zippers up the back, mangy wigs draping down over half their faces, and ping pong balls painted as eyeballs in their mouths.  Every time one of these pathetic critters waddles on set, you can’t help but snicker and think about the mechanics of wearing the costume (particularly the moutheyeball – nor does it help to learn that it actually was ping pong balls they used).  Yet somehow, the Monoids manage to fulfill their literary roles in (both parts of) the story relatively well.  Clearly that’s a testament to the quality of the tale the writers had to tell.

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