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Tag: Three

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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Necessity Is the Mother of Reinvention

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Review of Spearhead from Space: SE (#51)
DVD Release Date: 14 Aug 12
Original Air Date: 03 – 24 Jan 1970
Doctor/Companion: Three, Dr. Elizabeth “Liz” Shaw
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John
Preceding Story: The War Games (Two, Jamie, Zoë)
Succeeding Story: Doctor Who and the Silurians (Three, Liz)

When Pat Troughton left Doctor Who, the show was kind of in trouble. Ratings had fallen, and the BBC wasn’t sure it wanted to put any more into something that had such a lackluster performance. For various reasons, it continued nonetheless, but by necessity – both due to casting changes and other production pressures – it did so as quite a different program.

As a result, there are a lot of amazing firsts in this story. We get our first taste of a new Doctor, a new Companion, a new credits sequence, a new “monster” and a new era of television: color. Sitting through it again, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to multiple later stories, primarily Terror of the Autons and Rose, thanks to those pesky Nestene-controlled Autons, though the dual-hearted x-ray (another first – the mention of a Time Lord’s now-famous binary vascular system) had me flashing to The Movie for a moment.

Its opening episode is a lovely way to bring UNIT back into the mix – where it would stay, to one degree or another, throughout Three’s time in the TARDIS and beyond. I can’t help but smile at the Brigadier’s reaction to the news that an abandoned police box has been found in the middle of a field, or at the exchange between the Brigadier and the Doctor as both realize how much his face has changed.

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Apathy to the Viewer

Review of Death to the Daleks (#72)
DVD Release Date: 10 Jul 12
Original Air Date: 23 Feb – 16 Mar 1974
Doctor/Companion: Three, Sarah Jane Smith
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen
Preceding Story: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (Three, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story: The Monster of Peladon (Three, Sarah Jane)

Although based on some of the comments from the extras, Death to the Daleks has a rather special place in some fans’ hearts, I’m afraid it hasn’t acquired such a position for me. And reviews I’ve read elsewhere suggest I’m not alone.

It’s not that it’s a bad story – it certainly doesn’t rate a Stinker status – but it’s just kind of pedestrian. I simply couldn’t get excited about watching it. (Granted, the fact that Real Life has been rather stressing me out lately may have had something to do with it, but still – a good Who story can snap me out of most any funk.) Maybe there were too many bits I’d seen elsewhere before (like an electrified floor, which put me in mind of the yet-to-come Five Doctors; and how many times has poor Sarah Jane been sent up as a potential sacrifice?!), or maybe I couldn’t stand the “look out: Daleks” theme music.

On the other hand, I have to think the opening episode would’ve freaked out the kids at the time. It’s always ominous when the TARDIS goes dark, and the fact that every attempt at backup power failed would probably have seemed quite alarming. Better yet, we get to hear Sarah Jane refer to the Daleks as “those robot things”! I’ve been following her in random sequence for so long, having started from the other end of her timeline, that I was a bit stunned to realize that this is her first Dalek encounter: “wait, since when does Sarah Jane not know about Daleks?!”

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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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Ignore the Dinosaurs Behind the Curtain

Review of Invasion of the Dinosaurs (#71)
DVD Release Date:  10 Jan 12
Original Air Date:  12 Jan – 16 Feb 1974
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Sarah Jane Smith, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney
Preceding Story:  The Time Warrior (Three, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story:  Death to the Daleks (Three, Sarah Jane)

What can one really say about low-budget mid-70’s television dinosaurs? Certainly nothing flattering. I mean, I give them credit for trying – the script did rather present them with an impossible task, after all. Dinosaurs in Central London? Not something you can just “work around” and keep the story at all intact. That doesn’t disguise the fact that they’re rubber rubbish.

So if we are to take this story anything close to seriously, we need to get one thing straight right off the bat: the effects are heinously poor, but you have to pretend they’re good. Break out some mental steel cable to keep your disbelief willingly suspended if necessary, but make it work. Because behind those shoddy Cretaceous monstrosities is a pretty good science fiction plot.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane are just returning from her first, unintentional adventure with him. When they land, they find London deserted. Eventually, they learn a veritable plague of dinosaurs has descended on the city and prompted a mass evacuation. From there, intrigues abound and chronobabble flows freely while, as they say, the plot thickens.

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Authoritative and Genteel

Review of the Third Doctor’s era

1970 – 1974
Spearhead from Space
Doctor Who and the Silurians
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno		 Terror of the Autons
The Mind of Evil
The Claws of Axos
Colony in Space
The Dæmons		 Day of the Daleks
The Curse of Peladon
The Sea Devils
The Mutants
The Time Monster
The Three Doctors
Carnival of Monsters
Frontier in Space
Planet of the Daleks
The Green Death		 The Time Warrior
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Death to the Daleks
The Monster of Peladon
Planet of the Spiders

The switch to Three brought in some big changes. Most noticeably, the episodes were now in color! However, there was also a distinct change in the personality of Three when compared to One and Two. First off, he was the first example of the Doctor as Action Hero. With his Venusian aikido (or Venusian karate, depending on the story), he was not averse to getting into hand-to-hand combat. He was also a fairly good with a blade, prompting one adversary to comment that he’d never seen “a finer swordsman.”

Another change was that for a significant portion of his tenure, Three was stuck on Earth – exiled here by the Time Lords, with his knowledge of the relevant technology blocked. Thus began his real, long-term relationship with UNIT. Usually he only helped because he decided the problem the Brigadier brought to him was interesting, but of course we never saw the instances that didn’t result in an adventure. And somehow, Earth always seemed to be under threat of invasion from someone.

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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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