Review of State of Decay (#113) DVD Release Date: 03 Oct 16 Original Air Date: 03 – 24 Jan 1981 Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II, Adric, K9 Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse, John Leeson Preceding Story: Full Circle (Four, Romana II, Adric, K9) Succeeding Story: Warriors’ Gate (Four, Romana II, Adric, K9)
I have to say I was utterly unsurprised to find State of Decay among the titles here at the bottom of the “Everything Else” barrel. As the middle installment of the E-Space Trilogy that sees the introduction of Adric and the departure of Romana (and K9), it doesn’t seem to stand out in any particular way except one: vampires.
Given the recent popularity of the Dracula Daily email list for reading Bram Stoker’s classic in chronological (not chapter) order, it’s a fairly timely coincidence that I have the opportunity now to talk about Doctor Who‘s own take on vampiric myths. Sadly, unlike the Stoker novel, State of Decay doesn’t really give the viewer anything truly gripping or unique to hand onto.
We begin with the Doctor and Romana still looking for a way out of E-Space, initially unaware that they now have an additional crew member in the form of stowaway Adric. When they find themselves on a planet with nothing but a single village and an imposing tower, and the peasants all apparently willing to continue serving their three Lords unquestioningly, of course they need to look deeper. Nominally that’s so they can get a lead on how to get themselves back out of E-Space, but in practice it’s because the Doctor just can’t help himself.
Review of Full Circle (#111) DVD Release Date: 03 Oct 16 Original Air Date: 25 Oct – 15 Nov 1980 Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II, Adric, K9 Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse, John Leeson Preceding Story: Meglos (Four, Romana II, K9) Succeeding Story: State of Decay (Four, Romana II, Adric, K9)
I have to say I wasn’t surprised to find Full Circle among the ranks of Everything Else when I looked over all the stories I hadn’t yet reviewed. It’s one of those stories that flies easily under the radar, certainly not a “really good” story, nor an entirely awful one. And as Adric has never been one of my favorite Companions (though I don’t think I dislike him as thoroughly as some fans do), his introduction story has also not really been one I think on often.
As such, my impressions of Full Circle have been pretty minimal. I’m pleased to say, though, that I did at least remember the main conceit of the story, and knew what the big twist at the end was going to be. Being able to watch things unfold with that kind of foreknowledge is one of the fun parts of re-watching a show for me, so I appreciated being able to take advantage of that small bit of familiarity with the plot this time.
Right off the bat, we get a major plot point that will follow the Doctor and Romana through this trilogy of stories, known collectively as “the E-Space Trilogy”: the TARDIS has been pulled off course into Exo-Space, a dimension outside of “real” space where our own universe exists. Instead of having landed on Gallifrey, then, they are on a planet called Alzarius, right when an every-fifty-years event called Mistfall is beginning.
Review of City of Death (#105) DVD Release Date: 08 Nov 05 Original Air Date: 29 Sep – 20 Oct 1979 Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward Preceding Story: Destiny of the Daleks (Four, Romana II) Succeeding Story: The Creature from the Pit (Four, Romana II)
When my husband walked past where I was watching City of Death and taking notes for this post, he stopped and said, “Haven’t you already reviewed this?” Even he, who doesn’t watch the show (though he’s seen some, now and again), knows that CoD is one of “the best” stories out there in the eyes of fandom at large.
In fact, the famous i09 article from which I take my rankings for classification purposes has listed CoD at #3 of 254, which is one of the reasons it qualified for the Highs & Lows theme this year. It may therefore seem a little strange that I haven’t ever reviewed it.
This very popularity is exactly the reason I’ve avoided it in the past. After all, what fan of Classic Doctor Who—or even of the modern era—hasn’t at least heard of City of Death, by name or otherwise? A single glance at the Doctor and Romana traipsing through Paris told not only my husband but my kids which story it was. (“Isn’t this the one with all the Mona Lisas?”) I’ve never needed to write a review to convince anyone it was worth watching.
But now that it’s come around on the guitar, so to speak, I’m happy to take my turn. Besides, some readers may still be wondering what all the fuss is about. For example, if you’re one of those fans still just dipping a toe into Classic Who, you may be put off by all the hype about this story (like Deb from Verity! initially was) or simply not be enamored of this particular Doctor, who’s “all teeth and curls” (like me). If you find yourself in one of those camps, then hopefully some of the things I outline below will convince you that City of Death is worth your time.
First let me address the issue of Tom Baker’s Doctor. For viewers who find the Fourth Doctor to be too over-the-top goofy, too frenetic, too slapstick, I have good news: this is one of his more restrained performances. Here Baker manages to retain the comedic timing and dry wit that make him so beloved without taking his performance into pantomime territory.
Further, the script—famously pseudonymously co-written by script editor Douglas Adams—is delightful. The following exchange, one of my favorites, is but one example:
“Can I ask you where you got these?”
“No.”
“Or how you knew they were here?”
“No.”
“They’ve been bricked up a long time.”
“Yes.”
“I like concise answers.”
“Good.”
The storyline is just crazy enough—timey wimey hijinks with inhuman motives—to be fun without being off-putting, the dialog is sharp and witty, the characters (like Duggan!) are unforgettable, and they even wedge in a cameo by well-known comedians John Cleese and Eleanor Bron.
Julian Glover, who had previously appeared as King Richard the Lionheart in the First Doctor adventure The Crusade, chews up the scenery as Count Scarlioni, giving one of my favorite guest performances of all time. (And I can’t help but wonder if someone on the production team took a bet on how many times they could get the word “Count” into the script, given how often the character is addressed by his title…)
Basically, City of Death is the epitome of a Doctor Who “romp.” It’s lighthearted, with stakes that are high without ever feeling oppressive, and while it never takes itself too seriously, nor does it fall off the other end of that scale (like, ahem, the following adventure). In short, it’s perfect escapist viewing for tense times, its own little vacation in Paris.
Review of Warriors’ Gate (#113) DVD Release Date: 05 May 09 Original Air Date: 03 – 24 Jan 1981 Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II, K-9, Adric Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Matthew Waterhouse Preceding Story: State of Decay (Four, Romana II, K-9, Adric) Succeeding Story: The Keeper of Traken (Four, Adric, Nyssa)
One of the things about Classic Who that’s become more obvious in retrospect is how the multi-part serial format allowed for extensive story set-up, leading to a slow build. So begins the final installment in The E-Space Trilogy, the spacetime-bending Warriors’ Gate.
Effectively all of Part One is background, laying the scene for what comes after in the manner that a modern audience expects more to see in a novel than in a TV show. We meet the human crew of a cargo ship stranded in some strange void, reminiscent of The Mind Robber (which I’m set to review in October); the Doctor and his friends soon find themselves there, too. The humans’ navigator is a leonine being, apparently enslaved, who breaks free, enters the TARDIS out of phase with their timeline, and then retreats via a door in a stone arch through an ancient, cobwebby great hall. The Doctor follows.
One could be forgiven for thinking, at this stage, that there’s not much to this story, and that one’s time could be better spent elsewhere. But there are several mysterious situations established here that develop in interesting ways through the rest of the serial. What’s the relationship between the Tharils—those leonine beings valued for being “time sensitive”—and the humans? What’s up with the microcosmic void? Is it really near the boundary of E-Space and N-Space, and why does it seem unstable? And is that ancient hall really as abandoned as it looks?
Review of Meglos (#110) DVD Release Date: 11 Jan 11 Original Air Date: 27 Sep – 18 Oct 1980 Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II, K-9 Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson Preceding Story: The Leisure Hive (Four, Romana II, K-9) Succeeding Story: Full Circle (Four, Romana II, K-9, Adric)
Who doesn’t love a talking cactus? Or, better yet, a Doctor-shaped talking cactus with spine-covered skin? (If you guessed me, you’d be right.)
As with so many of the stories we’ve explored in this Bad Reputations series, there are some good ideas lurking at the heart of Meglos, but somehow they never come to fruition. The weirdly realized antagonist, its incoherent plan, and the heavy-handed religion-v-science subplot all contribute to an underwhelming product that lands at #200 of 254 on io9’s Best-to-Worst list.
Sometimes a rewatch helps me find something in a story that I hadn’t appreciated before. Usually, I find that my vague recollections only cover the surface of the plot or setting or characterization. To a certain extent that’s again true for Meglos, where Tom Baker’s cactus-y mien overshadowed all other memories such that even the identity of his Companion(s) had been lost to me. Realizing I got not only Jacqueline Hill (though not as Barbara) but also Lalla Ward’s Romana II was thus a delightful re-discovery.
Review of The Horns of Nimon (#108) DVD Release Date: 06 Jul 10 Original Air Date: 22 Dec 1979 – 12 Jan 1980 Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II, K-9 Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson Preceding Story: Nightmare of Eden (Four, Romana II, K-9) Succeeding Story: The Leisure Hive (Four, Romana II, K-9)
I tell ya, I really took one for the team this time. On that io9 list I’ve been using for reference, only six stories (out of 254) ranked worse than The Horns of Nimon. It did not earn that ranking for nothing.
On its surface, Nimon is another retelling of a Greek myth (which may or may not be clear to the viewer; more on that below). When you drill down further, it’s… erm… a mess.
Several of the hallmarks of this era of Who are present: the TARDIS unexpectedly arriving on or near a lonely spaceship, K9 being sidelined for most of the adventure, and Romana swanning about in a fabulous outfit. And while the sets, creature design, and even costuming (though is this throw-away character in Part Four wearing the Black Guardian’s feathers?!) are pretty good for 1979, head-bad-guy Soldeed’s overacting is truly epic.
Review of The Creature from the Pit (#106) DVD Release Date: 07 Sep 10 Original Air Date: 22 Oct – 17 Nov 1979 Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward Preceding Story: City of Death (Four, Romana II) Succeeding Story: Nightmare of Eden (Four, Romana II)
Looking over my spreadsheet of Classic stories I have yet to review, I can see that I’ve made some progress over the last seven-plus years. However, there are still a couple of Doctors whose runs are, proportionately speaking, underrepresented. So how do I choose which stories from those eras to review in the coming months?
I decided to go with a theme of Bad Reputations.
It was surprisingly easy to make suitable selections. You see, a person naturally gravitates towards the stories she likes when she has a choice of which ones to talk about. After all, if you have to watch something again to refresh your memory, it’s no surprise the enjoyable ones rise to the top of the list. This far into the game, then, there are going to be a fair number of clunkers left. And since Verity! podcast last week released their interview with Lalla Ward from last November’s LI Who, one of the stories discussed therein—Lalla’s first one on set—seemed a perfect place to start.
The Creature from the Pit (TCftP) has a well-deserved reputation. It is, hard as it tries, a hot mess from start to finish. K-9’s voice is wrong (David Brierley voiced him for this single season instead of John Leeson); the folks on Chloris, the planet where the story is set, have precious little imagination (“We call it ‘the Pit'” and “We call it ‘the Creature'” are among the more scintillating lines of dialog…); and the plot ranges from poorly considered to straight up non-sensical. And all that says nothing of the Creature itself.
Review of The Five Doctors (#129) DVD Release Date: 05 Aug 08 Original Air Date: 25 Nov 1983 Doctors/Companions: Five, One, Two, Three, Four (cameo), Tegan, Turlough, Susan, the Brigadier, Sarah Jane, Romana II (cameo) Stars: Peter Davison, Richard Hurndall, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, (Tom Baker), Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Carole Ann Ford, Nicholas Courtney, Elisabeth Sladen, (Lalla Ward) Preceding Story: The King’s Demons (Five, Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion) Succeeding Story: Warriors of the Deep (Five, Tegan, Turlough)
With tomorrow’s anniversary of the show’s beginnings, I felt now would be an appropriate time to look back at a different celebration of its history. Though this year we mark fifty-four years since the show’s inception, 1983 was merely twenty, and the Powers That Beeb decided they couldn’t let such a large, round number go unnoticed.
Here in the post-fiftieth-anniversary era, we think of that celebration as having pulled out all the stops, but really, it was The Five Doctors that set the standard. And while, like Moffat, JNT didn’t get everyone he wanted to participate, he nonetheless pulled together a remarkable cast, including—in a way—all five incarnations of the Doctor who had appeared up to that point.
While First Doctor William Hartnell had (just barely) managed perform a part in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors, he was already eight years dead by the time this next milestone rolled around. Rather than exclude his Doctor entirely, though, JNT simply recast Richard Hurndall in the role, much like David Bradley has taken over the same in the modern era. But much like Eccleston for the fiftieth, Tom Baker could not be convinced to reprise his own Fourth Doctor (reportedly because he thought it was too soon).
Review of The Leisure Hive (#109) DVD Release Date: 07 Jun 05 (Out of Print) Original Air Date: 30 Aug – 20 Sep 1980 Doctor/Companion: Four, Romana II, K-9 Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson Preceding Story: The Horns of Nimon (Four, Romana I, K-9) Succeeding Story: Meglos (Four, Romana II)
It’s the beginning of the end for the Fourth Doctor, as he takes one final victory lap around the universe before handing over the keys of the TARDIS to a younger, blonder version of himself. By this point the Four/Romana II team functions like a well-serviced TARDIS, comfortable with each others’ foibles and confident in each others’ roles in the partnership as much as their own.
As usual, I find Romana’s quiet competence to be one of the highlights of the story. The Doctor is mostly watchable as well, since Baker has yet to decide he’s So Done With the role, though the spring is certainly gone from his step. The guest cast also performs well—only as campy as the script requires.
The script, though… Well, it could be worse. In fact, I remembered it as being worse before I re-watched it for this review. But it’s certainly not a shining star in the oeuvre, either. Remembering that this is the season opener makes the director’s choice of spending nearly a full minute on an establishing shot panning across an Earth beach scene (Brighton) feel even more questionable; why would you think that would entice your audience to stick around for more?
Review of Destiny of the Daleks (#104) DVD Release Date: 04 Mar 08 Original Air Date: 01 – 22 Sep 1979 Doctor/Companion: Four, Romana II Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward Preceding Story: The Armageddon Factor (Four, Romana I, K-9) Succeeding Story: City of Death (Four, Romana II)
By the time Season 17 rolled around in late 1979, Tom Baker had been in the role of the Doctor for nearly five years and was beginning his sixth and penultimate season. His Companion Romana, having been shunted back into the more traditional “either scream or listen attentively as the Doctor talks” role from the “intellectual equal and foil to the Doctor” originally advertised, lost her appeal for actress Mary Tamm. The production team apparently felt there was still plenty of story left in the character, though, as they decided to make use of the fact that Romana is a Time Lord (or Time Lady, depending on who is speaking and when) to allow her to stay on with a different actress in the role.
Thus we open the season with one of the most famous scenes in Lalla Ward’s on-screen stint as Romana (usually referred to as Romana II, to distinguish her from Tamm’s depiction, Romana I): her regeneration. Contrary to the way we have always seen the Doctor regenerate—only under duress/when his current body gives up, and with no choice in the outcome—Romana has apparently decided to regenerate for kicks and grins, trying on new bodies much as the Doctor tried out harlequin or Viking outfits. Thus the writers lampshade the fact that yes, we just saw Lalla Ward as a different character at the end of last season; she’s Romana now.
