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Tag: Seven

The Only Show in Town

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Review of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (#155)
DVD Release Date: 14 Aug 12
Original Air Date: 14 Dec 1988 – 04 Jan 1989
Doctor/Companion: Seven, Dorothy “Ace” McShane
Stars: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred
Preceding Story: Silver Nemesis (Seven, Ace)
Succeeding Story: Battlefield (Seven, Ace, the Brigadier)

Having just come from a killer performance by Circus Juventas, watching Greatest Show was … a tad jarring. I’ve really come to love seeing all the ridiculously amazing things skilled folks can do with flexibility, balance, and trust in their partners, and having that utterly backgrounded for sleight of hand and (oh, dear god) the 1989 version of “rap” patter from the Ringmaster (what does it say about the British view of my country that this particular character had an “American” accent?) threw me off a bit. Once I got past wanting to see a circus and got back to seeing Doctor Who, it went a little better.

Sadly, I wanted to like it more than I did. Perhaps it will grow on me with further viewings (one can hope). Aside from the aforementioned circus angle, I’m not entirely sure why that’s the case, either. I mean it’s got plenty of mystery and suspense – “The Plot Thickens” was practically written across the screen every other scene – and anyone who follows the blog regularly will know I’m a sucker for Seven and Ace.

Ace, of course, is – as always – pitch perfect for me. Her bravado in the face of clowns that clearly creep her out (honestly can’t blame her – ick!) is an endearing part of her character. We know she’s really a tender, mixed-up teen under it all (which is, I believe, a great deal of what the Doctor loves about her), and trying her damnedest to put a brave tough face on it all. Throughout, she’s more obviously attuned to the bad vibes than the Doctor, but that’s part of his schtick at this point, too (as evidenced by one of the closing lines) – Intergalactic Man of Mystery, if you will. His personality in this Regeneration feels quite solid here, as if McCoy really knew by now where he wanted to take the character, and was ready to sink his teeth into that darker persona. Heaven knows I’ve got no complaints about these two leads.

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The Kandy Man Can’t

Review of The Happiness Patrol (#153)
DVD Release Date: 08 May 12
Original Air Date: 02-16 Nov 1988
Doctor/Companion: Seven, Dorothy “Ace” McShane
Stars: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred
Preceding Story: Remembrance of the Daleks (Seven, Ace)
Succeeding Story: Silver Nemesis (Seven, Ace)

On the one hand, Seven and Ace always make me happy. On the other, Happiness Patrol is, umm… not the best executed story of all time. I’ll admit the premise is interesting enough (a planet where it’s illegal to be unhappy), but wow…

It’s disappointing not least because it actually starts out quite well, with a scene that completely creeped me out, as someone who has herself struggled with clinical depression. There’s enough of a stigma associated with mental illness in our society as it is, but to have even the slightest hints at one of the most common of them (depression) lead to one’s “disappearance”… It’s truly chilling.

Even the poor TARDIS isn’t immune. She ends up painted a “cheerful” shade of pink which actually prevented me from noticing her presence in the background of any of the scenes until I was watching the extras. It’s a nice little touch, though, reminding us that the TARDIS somehow does blend in, even when she doesn’t.

Sadly, the rest of the execution on this one, like so many before, is fettered by its budget. The effects are all-around rather poor, including the bizarre form of the Kandy Man and the pathetic excuse for a go-cart (even a child could have outpaced that thing on foot). And the lighting was atrocious. It’s like they decided that if it wasn’t going to be film noir (reputedly once the intention, or at least hope), then at least they could light it like crap to make it “dark.”

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Nu-View #8: Lucky Number Seven

The Curse of Fenric  (Story #158, 1989)
Viewed 15 May 2012

Doctor/Companion:   Seven, Ace
Stars:  Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred
Preceding Story:  Ghost Light (Seven, Ace)
Succeeding Story:  Survival (Seven, Ace)

The masses have small number of regular readers has spoken! The lucky winner of our who-do-the-Ladies-watch-next contest is Seven. Since we’ve already seen my favorite (Remembrance of the Daleks, Nu-View #6), I decided to go with another one that seems to be generally well-regarded by “the fans” (whatever that means).

Even more exciting than having let the readers decide our viewing material, we’ve got a new addition to the team! Please welcome the newest of the Ladies of WhoFest, L! L is a more recent acquaintance (now friend) of mine, and always acted a bit jealous when I’d talk about WhoFest. Finally, she asked, “how do I get in on this thing?” and here we are.

I’ve known for a while that L is a Whovian, because I could tell her things like the fact that Louise Jameson was a guest at Gally (though I did have to clarify with a “Leela”) and she knew enough to be jealous. It turns out she, much like jE, grew up watching Who, though not religiously. So there’s a lot she’s already seen, and plenty she’s missed. Sadly, jO was unable to join us again, but the rest of us had fun anyway.

After we’d made introductions all ’round, and L was settling in, jE took it upon herself to explain the format: “we make snarky comments while we watch.” What’s not to love? And L seemed to fit right in with the gang. As the story opened, jA noted that even the font used to subtitle the Russian was evocative of the ’80s; jE wondered how, with the boats all of 2 feet apart, the soldiers didn’t notice their “comrades getting eaten”; and L said she liked how they make them Russian by adding eyeliner. I just loved the way that Seven and Ace bluff their way onto the base: “About time, too!” huffs Seven, as the British soldiers finally get around to pointing guns at them to question their presence. It was very “Hounds of Baskerville“- or, y’know… vice versa.

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Fire and Ace

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Review of Dragonfire (#151)
DVD Release Date:  08 May 12
Original Air Date:  23 Nov – 07 Dec 1987
Doctor/Companion:  Seven, Melanie Bush, Dorothy “Ace” McShane
Stars:  Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Sophie Aldred
Preceding Story:  Delta and the Bannermen (Seven, Mel)
Succeeding Story:  Remembrance of the Daleks (Seven, Ace)

Since this month’s R1 releases included two Seven stories and a Four story, I was going to start with Nightmare of Eden and keep it chronological. After Simon Guerrier (a fellow panelist with me at Gally, and Whovian content creator in his own right) responded to one of my tweets essentially telling me I was slacking, I decided I had to start with Dragonfire.

To be honest, I was sort of looking for an excuse. I adore Ace, and have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to see her introduction. Coming at it from the future, so to speak, was actually a tad unsettling. While the original audience was still reveling in a recognition-of-returning-character moment (Glitz!), I’d cut that moment short to squee that I’d just noticed Ace(!) quietly serving him a drink in the background. Almost from that point on, I have a hard time paying any attention to Mel. Maybe it’s that Ace is my all-time favorite Companion (yes, lately Rory’s been giving her a run for her money, but stepping back from the swirl of new episodes for a while, the cream rises, and Ace comes back out on top), maybe it’s that I know it’s Ace’s turn next, or maybe it’s just that the script seems to have more for Ace to do than for Mel. Whatever the case, it already feels like a Seven-and-Ace story to me instead of a Seven-and-Mel one.

And the script doesn’t waste any time developing her character, either. I mean, I love that our first proper look at Ace involves her chafing against authority. We get the whole sense of where she’s come from (though, seriously – how does a kid from Perivale know it was a “time storm” that swept her off to Iceworld?) and what her life on Earth was like, too. On the other hand, I was a tad taken aback that there’s never any explanation for why she chose to call the Doctor “Professor.” Oh well. I suppose that’s part of its charm.

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Sly and Enigmatic

Review of the Seventh Doctor’s era

1987 – 1989
Time and the Rani
Paradise Towers
Delta and the Bannermen
Dragonfire		 Remembrance of the Daleks
The Happiness Patrol
Silver Nemesis
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy		 Battlefield
Ghost Light
The Curse of Fenric
Survival

For fans who liked the way Series Six wrapped up and the hints of where the show is going next (all that business with The First Question), Seven ought to be right up your alley. Part of the production team’s new vision during Seven’s tenure was to bring back a bit of the character’s innate mystery and make the show a little darker and more engaging thereby.

It really starts up during the 25th anniversary season’s opening story, Remembrance of the Daleks. Some of the Doctor’s word choices are suggestive of his presence in the time of Rassilon and Omega (possibly as The Other: “…and didn’t we have trouble with the prototpye”). In the following story (Silver Nemesis), he again elaborates on Gallifreyan history, mentioning Rassilon and Omega in the same breath once more. More tellingly, though, antagonist Lady Peinforte has learned the Doctor’s secret, taunting Ace with, “Doctor Who? Have you never wondered where he came from? Who he is?” before talking of the Old Time and the Time of Chaos on Gallifrey. Seven seems apprehensive until the moment passes, his secret safe. In yet a later story, he’s asked if he has any family. His quiet “I don’t know” makes the certainty of the upcoming Last Great Time War almost seem like a relief.

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Nu-View #6: An Auspicious Introduction

Remembrance of the Daleks  (Story #152, 1988)
Viewed 07 Dec 2011

Doctor/Companion:   Seven, Dorothy “Ace” McShane
Stars:  Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred
Preceding Story:  Dragonfire (Seven, Mel, Ace)
Succeeding Story:  The Happiness Patrol (Seven, Ace)
Notable Aspects:

  • Returns to the scene of The Unearthly Child
  • Dispels the myth that Daleks can’t handle stairs

Seven often gets a bad rap. I’ve never understood that, but perhaps it’s because this is the first of his stories I ever saw. Not only does it have some interesting plot points (a few that never quite get explained), but it also includes a bit of fan service in the sense of bringing everything back to 76 Totter’s Lane, where it all started (this was, after all, the beginning of the 25th series; there needed to be some nod to The History). Further, this regeneration comes across as genuinely fond of his young Companion, which is a nice change of pace after Six and Peri (though the Ladies didn’t react as poorly to Six as I initially did).

All three Ladies were sitting down with Seven for the first time – a situation I don’t believe we’ve had since The Movie (our first ever WhoFest viewing). You may recall from their introductions that though jA and jO came to Who as I did, through the post-Hiatus stories, jE grew up with it. However, she had such a negative reaction to Six that she stopped watching. That makes this story, and Seven in general, a more even field than ever before.

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A Viewer’s Purgatory

Review of Paradise Towers (#149)

DVD Release Date:  09 Aug 11
Original Air Date:  05 – 26 Oct 1987
Doctor/Companion:  Seven, Mel
Stars:  Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford
Preceding Story:  Time and the Rani (Seven, Mel)
Succeeding Story:  Delta and the Bannermen (Seven, Mel)

While I wouldn’t call Paradise Towers “awful,” it certainly wasn’t a scintillating piece of work, either. It suffers from a strong story concept poorly realized. Not all of that is due to the special effects (though they certainly contribute), but one wonders what could have been if there had been a bigger budget.

In the manner of a disclaimer, I suppose I should start by saying that Mel is among my least favorite Companions. Therefore, anything that starts with the Doctor pandering to Mel’s desire to go for a swim (because he’d jettisoned the pool from the TARDIS – something she’s obviously regrown since) and includes dialog with even a passing reference to one of her typically tragic outfits (as if we hadn’t been trying really hard to ignore it) is unlikely to yield an unequivocal thumbs-up from me.

The pool serves as a plot device to bring our heroes to Paradise Towers (a supposedly utopian high-rise presumably located on Earth, somewhen post-21st Century), though it’s a pretty thin one. I mean, when the pool appears inaccessible, Mel is ready to abandon the plan as well as the whole damn planet (“You don’t happen to know another planet with a swimming pool, do you?”). What – there’s only one pool left on the entire Earth? Get real…

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Pearls Before Time

Review of Time and the Rani (#145)

DVD Release Date:  14 Jun 11
Original Air Date:  07 – 28 Sep 1987
Doctor/Companion:  Seven, Melanie Bush
Stars:  Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford
Preceding Story:  The Ultimate Foe (Trial of a Timelord) (Six, Mel)
Succeeding Story:  Paradise Towers (Seven, Mel)

It was with mixed trepidation and excitement that I awaited the release of this particular title. As a regeneration story, it ranked high in my want-to-see list, but knowing the history behind this particular change of Doctors (Colin Baker, who played Six, was canned – the scapegoat for falling ratings; unsurprisingly, he was none too keen to return to do a regeneration scene), I was wary of the event itself. Sadly, this is the one instance in which a YouTube viewing does not detract from the in-context regeneration. We get no more explanation than the TARDIS hurtling through space, with Companion Mel and the Doctor both unconscious on the floor of the control room. Upon landing, the Doctor is rolled over by a Tetrap minion, triggering the regeneration process. Even the magic of television can’t hide the fact that Six is just Seven in a bad wig and old costume. In that sense, this story starts out extremely disappointingly.

The rest of it, though, is surprisingly entertaining. I say “surprisingly” because, knowing ahead of time that the Rani (one of my all-time favorite foils for the Doctor) would be impersonating Mel, I was ready to cringe. However, even those sections came across relatively well. They were saved, of course, by the brilliance of Kate O’Mara (the Rani) and the perfect tone she kept while being simultaneously ingratiating and condescending (the unintentionally one-sided snarking between the Rani and the Doctor is great fun). Once she got out of Mel’s atrocious outfit (and the equally atrocious ginger wig), I was able to enjoy her performance fully.

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