Menu Close

Tag: Leela

Non-Invasive

2 Comments

Review of The Invasion of Time (#97)

DVD Release Date: 09 Jul 19
Original Air Date: 04 Feb – 11 Mar 1978
Doctors/Companions: Four, Leela, K9
Stars: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson
Preceding Story: Underworld (Four, Leela, K9)
Succeeding Story: The Ribos Operation (Four, Romana I, K9)

Every time I pick up one of my Classic DVDs and see that I’m in for a six-parter, especially now that I’m down to Everything Else, I cringe a little. Despite the fact that I can easily invest dozens of hours in a K-drama, somehow spending two and a half hours on Classic Who feels like an ordeal.

Usually.

When the sting sounded and the credits rolled on the first episode of The Invasion of Time, I was shocked. “That went so fast!” I thought. Then it happened again for the second episode. Maybe I was just in the right frame of mind this time, but this Invasion didn’t feel like as much of a slog as some have.

Then again, perhaps my poor memory worked in my favor. My pre-viewing notes show that I remembered precious little about the story: a trip through the TARDIS interior (including the swimming pool), Leela staying with Andred, and Sontarans on Gallifrey. I’d say that last point was a spoiler—none of these but the pool actually show up until the last two episodes—except for how prominently displayed the Sontaran is in the cover image.

Read more →

Image of Mediocrity

Review of Image of the Fendahl (#94)

DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20
Original Air Date: 29 Oct – 19 Nov 1977
Doctors/Companions: Four, Leela
Stars: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Preceding Story: The Invisible Enemy (Four, Leela, K9)
Succeeding Story: The Sun Makers (Four, Leela)

Something I’ve noticed consistently as I’ve made my way through this Everything Else series, is that the stories that ended up here at the end of the line all have one thing in common: mediocrity.

That’s not to say they’re bad. Quite the opposite, in fact. They are perfectly serviceable, fine examples of the sort of thing Doctor Who is. They’re the workhorses of the series, the stories that neither soar nor stink. They’re just middling.

Since they don’t grab my attention from either a “wow, that’s good!” or a “wow, that’s bad!” perspective, they easily escape my memory. And since I also never reach for one of these middle-of-the-road stories when I’m introducing someone new to the show or just passing the time, the details of them don’t get reinforced, either, and I end up having little or no impression of them.

Case in point: before beginning my re-watch for this post, aside from the iconic image of the possessed woman on the DVD cover, the only details I could remember about Image of the Fendahl were that there was something about a cult, an old house, and a time loop. No wonder I hadn’t thought to watch it in years.

Read more →

Underperformance

Review of Underworld (#96)
DVD Release Date: 06 Jul 10
Original Air Date: 07 – 28 Jan 1978
Doctors/Companions: Four, Leela, K-9
Stars: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson
Preceding Story: The Sun Makers (Four, Leela, K-9)
Succeeding Story: The Invasion of Time (Four, Leela, K-9)

As I went back to my list of un-reviewed stories to determine which ones to use for the rest of this year’s Bad Reputation entries, I couldn’t help but think of others’ comments about the suitability of some of my previous selections. Thus I went searching for a second opinion.

What I found was a Best-to-Worst list on io9 complied in September 2015 by Charlie Jane Anders. Charlie is someone I know of from other SFF circles, and while I don’t agree with all of her rankings (e.g., my previous choice of The Creature from the Pit, which I think is quite bad, only ranks at #162 of 254 entries on the io9 list), I think at least in terms of broad groupings we’re on approximately the same page.

Since it was time to whittle down my Fourth Doctor backlog again, I perused the options and landed immediately on Underworld. Checking against Charlie’s rankings, I was glad to see it near the bottom, at #236 of 254 (right after The Power of Kroll at #235). I was certain no one would challenge my choice of this one as a stinker, but it’s nice to have an external measure as confirmation.

So what makes Underworld so putrid? If I were being generous, I’d say that the story is simply overly ambitious for the technology (and budget) available to the production team. It was filmed during the early days of CSO (Colour Separation Overlay)—actors were filmed against a blue screen, and superimposed on model sets—and the technique has, to say the least, not aged well. But even if you look beyond this version of “wobbly sets syndrome,” the story itself doesn’t quite work for me.

Read more →

An Air of Casual Horror

2 Comments

Review of Horror of Fang Rock (#92)
DVD Release Date: 04 May 10
Original Air Date: 03 – 24 Sep 1977
Doctor/Companion: Four, Leela
Stars: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Preceding Story: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Four, Leela)
Succeeding Story: The Invisible Enemy (Four, Leela, K-9)

By the opening of his fourth season (Season 15), Tom Baker was well entrenched in his role as the Doctor. The Fourth Doctor’s first two Companions (Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan) had left him nearly one and two years before, respectively (The Hand of Fear, Sarah Jane’s final story, aired in October 1976; Harry left the TARDIS at the end of Terror of the Zygons in September 1975), and for the second half of Season 14 he had been traveling with his latest Companion Leela.

One could thus reasonably expect Horror of Fang Rock to be rather standard fare—par for the course, as it were. In some ways it is (it’s got some quintessential Who-y elements), but it others it is superior (especially compared to the rest of the season, which has several unfortunately weak stories). I have not watched Fang Rock as often as many other serials, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much more enjoyable I found it than I’d remembered.

Of particular note was the relationship between the Doctor and Leela. It is commonly known that Baker was rather nasty to his co-star Louise Jameson while they were working together (though they have since smoothed things over, and I’ve heard Jameson herself say that they are great friends now); however, whatever was going on behind the scenes doesn’t appear to have bled over onto the screen (at least not in a way that is out of character). Granted, there is still tension between the Doctor and Leela about her being a “savage,” but it has become somewhat more of an old saw or inside joke between them. The characters obviously respect and depend on each other as well as caring about each other a great deal.

Read more →

Retro-View #9: Return of the Fan

The Robots of Death (Story #90, 1977)
Viewed 07 Mar 2013

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)

Regular readers may recall that when I first saw Robots, I was not particularly enamored of it. Only after repeated viewings did I come to appreciate it, and now count it among my favorites. Thus, I was particularly interested to see how G would react.

Perhaps everything just clicked properly this day – no family members or pets in ill health, no project deadlines pending – but G was back on her usual upbeat form, appreciative of everything the show had to offer. It doesn’t hurt that she’s taken quite a shine to Four.

Her first impression of Robots is one of delighted nostalgia: “Look at that computer!” The visuals continued to impress her throughout, from costuming (“Ooh, I love the hats.” and “They’ve got great costumes, don’t you think?”) to some of the directorial decisions (“We get to see from the robot’s point of view. This is kinda cool.”)

As for the new Companion and general characterizations, she loves both Leela’s and the Doctor’s evasive answers when SV7 questions them. (I love that Leela’s already figured out that discretion is the better part of valor.) She also thinks Commander Uvanov is “a bit of a boor.” When he uses someone else’s argument against a third party, huffily demanding, “Ever heard of the double bluff?” she adds (as Uvanov), “I just learned about it thirty seconds ago!”

Read more →

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.

Read more →

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.

Read more →

Conceptual Gumbo – Just Add Salt

4 Comments

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.

Read more →

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.

Read more →

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.”

Read more →