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Tag: Four

Retro-View #7: Here We Go Again

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Robot (Story #75, 1974-75)
Viewed 05 Nov 2012

Doctor/Companion: Four, Sarah Jane Smith, the Brigadier, Harry Sullivan
Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney, Ian Marter
Preceding Story: Planet of the Spiders (Three, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story: The Arc in Space (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry)

We’ve finally made it up to the era G saw bits of in college. “Yep. I remember him” is her first comment as Robot begins. It’s wonderful to see this post-regeneration transition period again through the eyes of someone who’s never seen it before. Granted, it’s only been about five years since I first saw it myself, but evidence suggests I’ve turned into a bit of a ming-mong since then.

So I take great joy in her delight over things like the Doctor’s erratic behavior, his mention of “the definite article,” his first sight of himself in a mirror, and the way he chooses his outfit. It is, perhaps, the main reason to recommend this particular serial. Not, of course, that G doesn’t enjoy it thoroughly while still pointing out the obvious and/or silly bits.

To wit, she realizes immediately when our intrepid Companion (Sarah Jane always did have a bit more gumption than sense of self-preservation) ends up at Think Tank that, “whatever it is is going to fall in love with Sarah.” She wasn’t taken in by the off-screen tinkering with K1’s inhibitor, either: “A little WD-40, and we’re on track to kill!” As Part Two progresses, she is particularly enamored of the way Sarah Jane is so proactive (she loves the Brig’s call to action, “or shall we leave it all to Miss Smith?”), and she believes she’s got it sussed when Kettlewell (whose hair is truly impressive) goes to answer a knock at the door: “Uh oh. It’ll be the silver dude. It’ll be like killing dad.”

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Waking Nightmare

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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…

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The Timelessness of Robots

Review of The Robots of Death: SE (#90)

DVD Release Date:  13 Mar 12
Original Air Date:  29 Jan – 19 Feb 1977
Doctor/Companion:  Four, Leela
Stars:  Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Preceding Story:  The Face of Evil (Four, Leela)
Succeeding Story:  The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Four, Leela)

I’m not sure why I didn’t really take to Robots when I first saw it a few years ago. I liked it better during the Marathon, and better yet this time. (This trend can’t continue…) I guess part of the reason I’m enjoying it so much these days is that I can see how well it stands the test of time, especially compared to some other stories. The plot is pretty timeless, and as pointed out in some of the extras, the more retro design keeps that from looking dated, too.

At its most basic level, Robots is a cross between an Agatha Christie-style locked room murder mystery and an Isaac Asimov-inspired future-of-robotics thriller. But there are both deeper and more superficial ways to look at it, too. Is it a commentary on our society’s attitudes towards class? Is it a just a great way to get Leela into the swing of traveling with the Doctor? It all depends on how the viewer chooses to approach it.

One thing that particularly struck me, as a Neowhovian, was how blatantly the Heavenly Host from Voyage of the Damned were modeled off the robots here. The tone of voice, the pleasant visages, the creepiness of it all when their programming is subverted all can be traced directly back to this Sandminer. It’s almost insultingly obvious, once you see it.

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Old Face, New Face

Review of The Face of Evil (#89)
DVD Release Date:  13 Mar 12
Original Air Date:  01 – 22 Jan 1977
Doctor/Companion:  Four, Leela
Stars:  Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Preceding Story:  The Deadly Assassin (Four)
Succeeding Story:  The Robots of Death (Four, Leela)

As the story opens, a young woman is being cast out of her tribe. The scene sets up the character of soon-to-be-Companion Leela perfectly: she’s strong and outspoken, not willing to suffer fools gladly, and yet willing to subvert her own position for those for whom she cares. Conveniently for future exposition, she is soon orphaned (a bit subtly, actually) and cut off socially from her home. Why wouldn’t she ask the Doctor to take her with him?

From that perspective, it was nice finally to get to see Leela’s “origin story.” But aside from that, there were several interesting plot points that make one think a bit more, and clearly demonstrate that the production team were trying to stretch their storytelling muscles. Perhaps most in-your-face (~ahem~) is the idea that the Doctor has clearly been here before, as evidenced by the likeness of his visage carved in stone. He’s done his usual number of sticking his proverbial finger in the pie of the planet, only to have it backfire (“I thought I was helping…”). It’s a rare situation when we clearly see how fallible the Doctor can be.

There’s also the pretty major idea of an insane computer. Obviously this is not the only time in science fiction history that a sentient computer has gone mad (it’s not even the first time in Doctor Who – think back to BOSS in The Green Death, or even further back to WOTAN in The War Machines). The results, though, which include eugenics, linguistic drift (Leela’s tribe the Sevateem derive their name from their antecedents on Survey Team 6), and sociocultural evolution (a habitual motion among spacefaring folk has become a sign to ward off evil). It’s a rather fascinating quasi-academic study, if one wants to approach it that way.

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Pub Kraal

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Review of The Android Invasion (#83)
DVD Release Date:  10 Jan 12
Original Air Date:  22 Nov – 13 Dec 1975
Doctor/Companion:  Four, Sarah Jane Smith
Stars:  Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Preceding Story:  Pyramids of Mars (Four, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story:  The Brain of Morbius (Four, Sarah Jane)

We don’t often get to see a non-Dalek Who story by Terry Nation, but this is one of those times. It’s clear he’s got a good sense of plotting, and loves a good action scene. He also does a lovely job with a rather unexpected twist (as well as a couple of obvious ones). So right off, there’s some pedigree to recommend The Android Invasion.

Then there are the androids themselves. Maybe because it’s one of those idyllic English villages at the center of things, but the creepy behavior of the “villagers” in the local pub can really get under your skin. I suppose there’s a bit of the Uncanny Valley at work. There is, of course, one very well-known doppelgänger to watch out for (if you aren’t familiar with the face-falls-off-the-android scene to which I refer, I won’t spoil it further for you), and the performances of the individuals who have to be androids are actually quite well done.

In contrast, the poor actors forced to play the Kraals (the aliens of the piece) have to put up with heavy rubber masks that had to have been nigh-impossible to move (let alone act) in. Their obvious artificiality scupper any credence the Kraals had as a force to be reckoned with, and stretch the believability of pieces of the larger plot thereby.

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Flippant and Compelled

Review of the Fourth Doctor’s era, Part 2

1978 – 1981
The Ribos Operation
The Pirate Planet
The Stones of Blood
The Androids of Tara
The Power of Kroll
The Armageddon Factor		 Destiny of the Daleks
City of Death
The Creature from the Pit
Nightmare of Eden
The Horns of Nimon
Shada*		 The Leisure Hive
Meglos
Full Circle
State of Decay
Warriors’ Gate
The Keeper of Traken
Logopolis
*Due to a labor strike, filming for this story was never completed.

 

During his later years, Four seemed to mellow a bit. There were no longer the angry outbursts that could occasionally surprise us with their vehemence; instead, he was jocular even to the point of flippancy. The silliness seemed especially rampant in his adventures with Romana II, perhaps because she seemed especially inclined to dish it back to him deadpan (after she gets past the residual helplessness that plagued her earlier Regeneration). As such, the second part of his run feels more light-hearted, up to the last season.

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Manic and Menacing

Review of the Fourth Doctor’s era, Part 1

1975* – 1978
Robot
The Ark in Space
The Sontaran Experiment
Genesis of the Daleks
Revenge of the Cybermen		 Terror of the Zygons
Planet of Evil
Pyramids of Mars
The Android Invasion
The Brain of Morbius
The Seeds of Doom		 The Masque of Mandragora
The Hand of Fear
The Deadly Assassin
The Face of Evil
The Robots of Death
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Horror of Fang Rock
The Invisible Enemy
Image of the Fendahl
The Sun Makers
Underworld
The Invasion of Time
*Only the first episode of Robot aired before 1975, on 28 Dec 1974.

After a brief pause for Eleven, I got right back in the marathon saddle with Four. Three had had the longest run yet (five seasons), and Tom Baker was relatively unknown when he came into the role. People weren’t too sure they were going to like this new guy. Of course, as you probably already know, he went on to become the most popular Doctor of all time (until Tennant became Ten, if you believe certain polls), as well as the  longest-running, with a total of seven series to his credit.

From the get-go, Four was a bit off-the-wall (witness the costumes he presented to the Brigadier as possibilities before settling on his well-known look). With his huge, toothy grin and unruly curls, he came across as an even bigger clown than the Cosmic Hobo (Two), but there was steel beneath that outer veneer. We get frequent glimpses of the deep-seated rage that bubbles out more frequently in his post-Hiatus personas – Four is not afraid to let his exasperation with intolerance and incompetence turn to anger. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and it can be a bit frightening.

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Conceptual Gumbo – Just Add Salt

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Review of The Talons of Weng-Chiang: SE (#91)

DVD Release Date:  11 Oct 11
Original Air Date:  26 Feb – 02 Apr 1977
Doctor/Companion:  Four, Leela
Stars:  Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Preceding Story:  The Robots of Death (Four, Leela)
Succeeding Story:  Horror of Fang Rock (Four, Leela)

This release is unusual for me in that it involves a story I’d already watched (albeit only once). It was interesting to go through it again with not only much more experience of the Whoniverse but also a memory of both the storyline and my initial reactions. With a bit more perspective, I came away with a new appreciation for Talons and an understanding of the fondness so many Long Term Fans have for it.

For anyone new to the story, let me just throw out the one thing that really bothered me on first viewing: the main Chinese character (Li H’sen Chang) is played by a (Caucasian) British actor (John Bennett). That and the fact that the titular deity (who was, by the by, actually a god of culture and literature) was pronounced “weng chai-ang” – like a coffeehouse drink – rather than a more nearly correct “wen ch[ah]ng” – with an [ah] as in “father” – very much rubbed me the wrong way when I first saw Talons three or so years ago. This time, I was able to take it all with a grain of salt, and let me tell you – it was much more palatable this time.

The story is pretty much a love letter to Victorian-era literature. It has elements of Sherlock Holmes, Pygmalion (or My Fair Lady, if you prefer the musical version), Phantom of the Opera, and various Fu Manchu stories that fed into the stereotype of the Limehouse (Chinatown) area of Victorian London, not to mention a bit of Jack the Ripper. Taken as a nod to all these rolled into one, it’s quite charming.

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Misleading Title Goes Here

Review of The Sun Makers (#95)

DVD Release Date:  09 Aug 11
Original Air Date:  26 Nov – 17 Dec 1977
Doctor/Companion:  Four, Leela, K-9
Stars:  Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson
Preceding Story:  Image of the Fendahl (Four, Leela)
Succeeding Story:  Underworld (Four, Leela, K-9)

Robert Holmes is widely regarded as one of the best writers in Who history, and he certainly contributed vastly to the franchise. In The Sun Makers, he takes a time of personal irritation and molds it into a weirdly engaging dystopian tale of excessive taxes and stagnating humanity. Having fled Old Earth, the human race now lives on distant Pluto, in constant daylight from its six artificial suns (the only mention of any “sun makers” we are ever to get).

It starts out wonderfully creepy with a Citizen apparently pleased to hear of his father’s death, and continues with lots of stereotypical tromping (not much running, really) through corridors from there. However, to my eye, it soon took a rather darker turn – something I feel was unintended, or at least reflects the change in times since its original broadcast. Things are quite violent on this future Pluto, as people threaten each other with all sorts of tortures (not just Leela, either, who seems actually to be on par with the locals for a change). Public torture and execution – viewable in person, for a small fee – also appear commonplace. Near the end of the story, there’s even a cheerful – not angry, mind you; cheerful – mob of revolutionaries who throw an official to his doom.

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Nu-View #2: First Thoughts on Four

The Invisible Enemy (Story #93, 1977)
Viewed 23 Feb 2011

Doctor/Companion:   Four, Leela
Stars:  Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Preceding Story:  Horror of Fang Rock (Four, Leela)
Succeeding Story:  Image of the Fendahl (Four, Leela)
Notable Aspects:

  • First appearance of K9

For some of the Ladies, this was their first experience with Four.  While jE watched him during his original run, and jA at least knew his look, jO got to be our complete n00b.  Initially, it was Leela (or “Barbarella,” as jO liked to call her) who got most of the attention – with that “leather bikini” of hers, it’s easy to see why she was jE’s dad’s favorite Companion.  But most of the Ladies agreed that she was a good, fearless Companion, taking it upon herself to take care of the poor, defenseless (as she saw him) Doctor.  I didn’t have the heart to tell them right then about her somewhat ignominious departure on Gallifrey.

Obviously, K9 was worth a few comments, too.  From the first little cheer when he first came on screen to the “no – not K9!” when the Nucleus made contact, The Tin Dog was another hit.  I know some fans hate him, but I’ve always found him cheerful and amusing, especially after having seen some DVD extras in which other actors talk about how John Leeson would crawl around on all fours on set during rehearsals.  How can you not love someone who gets so thoroughly into the role?

As for the Doctor himself, the reception was generally warm.  jA reminded me of my own initial reactions when she noted that he’s “got quite a voice.”  I remember being quite familiar with only his image, and having taken quite a while to get accustomed to the voice that went with it.  With the limited exposure to earlier Doctors, though, jO found Four the best of them so far (perhaps because he’s younger).  She found that though he comes across a bit more pompous, he’s overall quite likable.  I think he had such a huge effect on everyone who grew up watching him that it’s unsurprising to see elements of him in later Doctors – especially Ten, as jA pointed out.  For those thoroughly steeped in the RTD era, Four seems “more Doctor-ish.”

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