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Tag: Five

Nothing New Under the Earth

Review of Frontios (#133)

DVD Release Date: 14 Jun 11
Original Air Date: 26 Jan – 03 Feb 1984
Doctor/Companion:   Five, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough
Stars:  Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson
Preceding Story:  The Awakening (Five, Tegan, Turlough)
Succeeding Story:  Resurrection of the Daleks (Five, Tegan, Turlough)

Coming, as I always do, from the perspective of the post-Hiatus series, I often find elements I’ve seen in those more recent episodes when I watch ones from earlier eras. Such is the case with Frontios. I was so strongly reminded of The Hungry Earth I kept having to remind myself that that story was some 26 years away. (Coincidentally, two stories before Frontios, the Silurians made their last appearance before cropping up again in Hungry Earth.) On the surface, there’s very little connection between the two, but the common element of danger from below – that “the earth was hungry” (in so many words, even) – kept cropping up.

It’s also not the only story to involve the “last” colony of humanity trying to survive (see, for example, The Ark or Utopia for two examples from opposite ends of the new/old spectrum). Here they are, having been at war for decades (The Armageddon Factor), the TARDIS is apparently destroyed (Journey’s End), and the Doctor is mistaken as the culprit responsible for all their woes (take your pick). To top it all off, despite knowing better (The Waters of Mars), the Doctor knowingly and willingly breaks the Time Lord policy of non-interference, and entreats the people of Frontios not to tell the Time Lords (as it’s gotten him in hot water before; The War Games).

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When Religion Meets Who

Review of Kinda (#119) – Mara Tales, Part 1

DVD Release Date: 12 Apr 11
Original Air Date: 01 – 09 Feb 1982
Doctor/Companion:   Five, Adric, Tegan Jovanka
Stars:  Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story:  Four to Doomsday (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)
Succeeding Story:  The Visitation (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

In the UK, Kinda and Snakedance were released together (in March 2011) as a boxed set called Mara Tales.  Due to that fact, not to mention the fast-approaching premiere of Series Six, I’ve decided to post my reviews of both DVDs together.  It’s my hope that that will also allow me to provide a sense of continuity between the two, which comprise the only appearances of the antagonist/creature known as the Mara.

Kinda is all about Story.  There are grand ideas and deeper themes that actually kind of obscure the regular characters.  More than in most cases, the Doctor is swept up in events around him, and things just happen to, rather than because of, him; his presence (unlike Tegan’s) is really inconsequential.  That fact alone makes it a rather atypical story, even before considering the aforementioned themes.

Further, the Companion dynamics are a bit odd.  Although this is smack in the middle of Nyssa’s time in the TARDIS, she appears for a total of about 3 minutes in the entire story, at the very beginning and end.  The others get separated early in the first episode, leaving Tegan to play her key role in the unfolding drama, while Adric tags along with the Doctor.  When Tegan and Adric finally are reunited, they snark at each other so much you wonder how no blood has yet been shed in the TARDIS.  In fact, it was this exchange – which painted Adric in a particularly poor light, as a self-absorbed ass – that finally gave me a better sense of why so many fans dislike him so thoroughly.

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