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Tag: Jo Grant

Retro-View #5: A Representative Sample

The Dæmons (Story #59, 1971)
Viewed 15 Oct 2012

Doctor/Companion: Three, Josephine “Jo” Grant, the Brigadier
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney
Preceding Story: Colony in Space (Three, Jo)
Succeeding Story: Day of the Daleks (Three, Jo, the Brigadier)

As per our scheme, this time we watched something representative of the middle of our current Doctor’s era, in this case meaning it needed to feature the Master and Jo.
Granted, G is an easy audience, but those who hearken to received “fan wisdom” about the quality of any given story will be glad to hear that she quite enjoyed this adventure. No need for name-calling here.

I’m not sure it’s the same things that such fans cite as reasons for The Dæmons‘ “classic” status that tickled G’s fancy, though. For one thing, she’s got no personal history with – and therefore no particular emotional attachment to – any of the regulars. She’s never seen Jo before (“She really is cute. Very pretty”), or the Master (“Isn’t he just the most evil thing you’ve ever seen? He looks like every caricature you’ve ever seen of Mephistopheles”). Even the Brigadier – not to mention the Doctor himself! – were only in one other story she’s seen. As for the rest of UNIT, she’s never seen Yates or Benton, either. So no “jolly romp in a pastoral English village with all our favorite characters larking about” for G. More just simply “this is a good one. I’m glad you picked this one.”

So in that sense, maybe this isn’t going to be everything The Fans had hoped for. Regardless, I think G’s enjoyment of The Dæmons will still be entertaining for others (as long as I can get it all across adequately). Let’s begin, then, at the beginning.

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Nu-View #10: Mastering the Situation

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Terror of the Autons (Story #55, 1971)
Viewed 28 Aug 2012

Doctor/Companion: Three, Jo Grant, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney
Preceding Story: Inferno (Three, Liz Shaw, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story: The Mind of Evil (Three, Jo, the Brigadier)

Summer has really wreaked havoc with our quasi-regular WhoFest schedule. We even watched the first episode of this story once already, at the end of our last WhoFest. Of course, that was so long ago that I didn’t expect anyone actually to remember it, so we watched it again anyway. (Also, I’d managed to lose my notes.) And it’s good that we did, because it had pretty much completely escaped everyone’s memory (except mine, of course; I’ve seen it more times in the last year and a half since its release on DVD than is perhaps entirely healthy).

In terms of pre-Hiatus Who, it’s an Auton-rich environment around here lately, what with the Special Edition of Spearhead from Space coming out on DVD earlier in August, too. However, the Autons were just a bonus; my main reason for screening this particular story was to give the Ladies a proper introduction to the Master.

Before that could happen, though, we’re introduced to another new, and in her own way iconic, character: Jo. “What terrible clothes!” Clearly jA is not hip to the 1971 fashion scene. Putting things in perspective, jE chastised, “think of the year – that’s not a terrible outfit!”

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Polari the Carny?

Review of Carnival of Monsters: SE (#66)
DVD Release Date:  13 Mar 12
Original Air Date:  27 Jan – 17 Feb 1973
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Jo Grant
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning
Preceding Story:  The Three Doctors (Three, Jo, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story:  Frontier in Space (Three, Jo)

I have to admit, I was not really looking forward to this one. It had only been a few months since I last watched it for the Marathon, and it’s never really struck me as a particularly engaging story.

Whether it was my mood on this day, my evolving tastes in pre-Hiatus Who, or something else, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it this time around. It seemed like there was just the right balance of random political intrigue and technobabble-based s.f.-hijinks in the interior and exterior plot lines.

On the down side, I have to wholeheartedly concur that “Doctor Who should be banned from using dinosaurs.” Both the plesiosaur and the Drashigs are utter rubbish (seriously – the Drashigs have six eyes, and they still can’t see worth beans?). Bless Katy Manning, she can look terrified at any non-existent horror you can dream up, but I’m afraid I can’t muster the same emotion here (unless it refers to the effects). I know, I know… The show is about so much more than the effects, but the Drashigs always make me want to giggle. Or cringe. Or giggle while cringing. Regardless, it’s not the impact they were intended to have on tots in the viewing audience, I’m sure.

Another thing that irritated me was the scaling for the miniscope. For example, since the scope itself is between waist and chest height, the “livestock” inside must necessarily be miniaturized to roughly a centimeter or less in height in order to fit (along with their habitats). Yet the TARDIS comes out roughly 8-10 cm tall (at a guess). Worse, the Doctor himself stumbles out of the machine at one point, clearly several inches tall (maybe 20 cm? – regardless, even larger than the TARDIS had been) before beginning to de-miniaturize.

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Neither Angel Nor Devil

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Review of The Dæmons (#59)
DVD Release Date:  10 Apr 12
Original Air Date:  22 May – 19 Jun 1971
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Jo Grant, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning
Preceding Story:  Colony in Space (Three, Jo)
Succeeding Story:  Day of the Daleks (Three, Jo, the Brigadier)

A lot of Long-Term Fans have a pretty high opinion of The Dæmons, from what I understand. That kind of reputation always makes me approach a story with caution. With a pedestal so high, can it possibly be as beautiful as those who put it there believe?

For me, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, it’s an enjoyable story. There’s a lot to recommend it, and I could probably watch it again relatively soon without complaint. But there are the standard silly bits, too, and it’s not quite engaging enough for me to ignore them all.

Based on conversations elsewhere, I think at least some of the story’s charm is lost in translation, as it were. An idyllic English village doesn’t trip all the cultural nostalgia triggers that it would for a Brit or that, say, a small rural town or farm would for me, as someone who was raised in the American Midwest. So while the village square surrounded by pub, chapel, and such may stir something deep in the soul of a native of the British Isles, I find it merely quaint.

So what is it I’m not ignoring? Let’s start with the Master’s whole plan. Why the hell (~ahem~) is the Master bent on dominating humanity? Doesn’t he hate this backward little planet? Hasn’t he already tried to wipe out our species several times over? Isn’t he sick of the place? For a while I thought maybe that last bit was part of the answer – he’s stuck here, but has decided to make the best of it, and live up to his name. But that can’t be right – it’s not till the end of The Dæmons that he’s locked up by UNIT (so he can later wreak havoc with The Sea Devils), and since we’ve just seen him in Colony in Space, we know he’s got full control of his TARDIS. So I’m back to square one: wtf?

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Three Has Company

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Review of The Three Doctors: SE (#65)

DVD Release Date:  13 Mar 12
Original Air Date:  30 Dec 1972 – 20 Jan 1973
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Jo Grant, the Brigadier
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney
Preceding Story:  The Time Monster (Three, Jo, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story:  Carnival of Monsters (Three, Jo)

Whoever first decided the crazy idea of having all three Doctors in one story wasn’t so crazy after all (I guess that’s either producer Barry Letts or script editor Terrance Dicks, then) deserves an award, in my opinion. This first multi-Doctor story was precursor to many others, both on- and off-screen and I, for one, love that.

The story serves multiple purposes, too. Not only did it provide the fan service of bringing back the previous Doctors, but by the end Three had also regained his ability to leave Earth (which made subsequent story arcs easier, after so many invasion-of-Earth stories already in the can). And those social-interaction pieces of the story, at least, are plausible.

The science, on the other hand… ~sigh~ An antimatter universe? Through a black hole? No. Just… no. I think that – more than any other Doctor Who story – the “science” here is painfully awful. Most of the time, I can gloss over it, suspend my disbelief and say, “yeah, that sounds almost plausible,” and roll with it. This bit, though, is egregious enough that it regularly jars me out of that mental story-space. I can get past it enough to enjoy the story, but I kind of have to work at it. I think Letts said it best when he pointed out in the commentary (see below) that “this is really science fantasy, rather than science fiction. It bears no relation really to what … scientists think goes on in the middle of a black hole.” Makes for a pretty good story, though. So let’s move on to those good bits.

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Still Raze-y After All These Years

Review of Colony in Space (#58)
DVD Release Date:  08 Nov 11
Original Air Date:  10 Apr – 15 May 1971
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Jo Grant
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katie Manning
Preceding Story:  The Claws of Axos (Three, Jo)
Succeeding Story:  The Dæmons (Three, Jo)

When the Doctor forcibly regenerated into Three, he was exiled to 20th Century Earth. While that made for some less expensive down-to-earth filming for about a series and a half, eventually he needed to get back out into the broadness of time and space to keep the show fresh and interesting. Thus begins the Time Lords’ co-option of the Doctor’s services for their own purposes.

Off the Doctor and Jo go, quite unwittingly, to just one more dystopian Earth-colony of the future where a mining company is prepared to raze the planet for its mineral wealth. Notably, despite having already had three adventures with Three, this is both the first time Jo has set foot inside the TARDIS and, resultantly, the first time she’s traveled with him away from her own planet or time. Unlike some Companions, she’s less than thrilled at first, though just like all of them, she’s thrown right into Yet Another Fine Mess.

This story is from Season 8 – the one in which every single story involved the Master – so the only surprise is that, barring passing mention by the Time Lords in episode 1, he doesn’t show up until episode 4 (of 6). When he does, though, it’s Delgado’s typical schmoov operator, complete with updated TARDIS defenses (and filing cabinets! what Time Lord would be without them?) and classic quotes (like “tried and true methods are best,” and “but of course that’s typical of the High Council of the Time Lords – know everything; do nothing”).

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Like Night and Day

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Review of Day of the Daleks (#60)
DVD Release Date:  13 Sep 11
Original Air Date:  01 – 22 Jan 1972
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Jo Grant
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning
Preceding Story:  The Dæmons (Three, Jo)
Succeeding Story:  The Curse of Peladon (Three, Jo)

To start Three’s third season, the production team was looking for some sort of hook to draw in viewers. The resulting story became the first of Three’s encounters with the Daleks, who returned after a nearly five-year absence (about half the show’s run, at that point). The viewing public loved it (more than 10 million people watched), and yet it’s often had a bad rap since for its less-than-stellar execution. Enter the DVD era.

If ever there was an embodiment of a fan’s obsessive love for this show, it’s the Special Edition of Day of the Daleks. Aside from a plethora of good extras, there’s an entirely separate version of the story to watch, with updated effects and even new footage spliced seamlessly into the original material (SE). Unless you’re the type of person who really enjoys the ambience and historical context of bad production values, I really recommend starting with the SE (disk 2). However, if you don’t watch any of the original (disk 1), you’ll never appreciate just how much it has been improved (I recommend episodes 2 and 4 for comparison, or just episode 4, if you want to whittle it down to the bare minimum).

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A Beautiful, Um, Friendship?

Review of Terror of the Autons (#55)

DVD Release Date: 10 May 11
Original Air Date: 02 – 23 Jan 1971
Doctor/Companion:   Three, Jo Grant, with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, with Nicholas Courtney
Preceding Story:  Inferno (Three, Liz Shaw, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story:  The Mind of Evil (Three, Jo, the Brigadier)

How can you not love stories that you know in retrospect to be The Start of Something?  At the beginning of Three’s second season, having been stranded on Earth sidekicking for UNIT for a year now, the Doctor needs a new “assistant” – and a new challenge.  Enter three new regulars:  Jo Grant, Capt. Mike Yates, and the Master.  I wonder if anyone at the time had any idea how big an impact their new villain would have…

This story is full of win. Not only do we get the aforementioned introductions (including the Master’s hypnotic control of others, and his Tissue Compression Eliminator), but we get some key “rare appearances,” too. For example, we have only seen another Time Lord or another TARDIS a couple of times before (in The Time Meddler and The War Games), and the Autons last appeared in Three’s first adventure (Spearhead from Space). There’s also lots more of the same things we’ve already come to love (e.g., the Brigadier and the Doctor snarking at each other with some glee).Aside from all these classic, eminently Whosome moments (running up and down exterior stairs! a twisted ankle!), there are also a few lovely flash-forwards to modern episodes. The fact that the Autons are controlled by a large, round radio telescope (“Danger: Keep Clear of Radio Telescopes,” reads one sign; Four obviously had forgotten that advice) immediately makes Nine’s search for a transmitter in Rose a more obvious task. Later, when Three and Jo discover their driver is actually an Auton, I couldn’t help but think of Runaway Bride.

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It’s All About Perspective

Review of The Mutants (#63)

DVD Release Date: 08 Feb 11
Original Air Date: 08 Apr – 13 May 1972
Doctor/Companion:   Three, Jo Grant
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning
Preceding Story:  The Sea Devils (Three, Jo)
Succeeding Story:  The Time Monster (Three, Jo)

When the Doctor is sent on yet another mission by the Time Lords, he and Jo find themselves on a skybase orbiting the planet Solos.  There, officials of imperial Earth are preparing to grant the natives independence after 500 years, but the Marshal has other ideas.  He wants to make Solos’ atmosphere breathable by humans (which it currently isn’t), rather than to Solonians (which it currently is).  Due to the experiments he has commissioned, some Solonians are mutating into strange, bug-like creatures – derogatorily nicknamed “Mutts” – which the Marshal believes should be purged from the planet.

I must admit that, from my 21st century American perspective, I saw this story as primarily a commentary on our stewardship of the environment, and to a lesser degree about the treatment of indigenous peoples by colonizing cultures.  However, at the time, especially to a British audience not yet completely out of imperial politics, it would have smacked rather heavily of the British withdrawal from India in 1947, not to mention South Africa or the then-current conflict in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).  It’s interesting to me that this story can play out on so many levels – standard Who story, allegory of imperialism, and allegory of environmental issues – over so many years.  Perhaps that’s why I was so surprised at the way a different theme came across.

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