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Malus Aforethought

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Review of The Awakening (#132)

DVD Release Date:  12 Jul 11
Original Air Date:  19 – 20 Jan 1984
Doctor/Companion:  Five, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough
Stars:  Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson
Preceding Story:  Warriors of the Deep (Five, Tegan, Turlough)
Succeeding Story:  Frontios (Five, Tegan, Turlough)

For various reasons explained in the extras, it was deemed that the story that eventually became The Awakening needed to be reduced to two episodes. I suppose that’s one reason that it didn’t grab me as a particularly inspiring installment. It starts out feeling very Doctor-y, with something going wrong with the TARDIS yet landing in the right time and place. Some villagers are “in on” the odd happenings and others aren’t, and we’re left wondering why.

However, after that, it gets a tad jumbled. It’s not that it’s a bad story, by any means. I never really understood the motivation of the Malus, though. It was all just a bit… foggy. What finally defeated it in the end was unclear, too, but aside from the Malus itself looking a bit rubbish once it began to animate (sorry – I know the production team did a fabulous job given the times and the budget, but…), I actually did enjoy several bits, even if they were oh-so-stereotypical.

For example, Tegan ends up as the target for some sort of nastiness (possessed, kidnapped, slated for ritual death… she seems to “get it” in nearly every story). Then there’s the part where the Doctor and his two Companions are all split up – big surprise. I also had to wonder, as the word extended seemingly forever, how many cliffhangers have ended on someone screaming, “Doctooooooooooooooor!” Even so, those just really give it the Who flavor, so I couldn’t complain.

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Nothing New Under the Earth

Review of Frontios (#133)

DVD Release Date: 14 Jun 11
Original Air Date: 26 Jan – 03 Feb 1984
Doctor/Companion:   Five, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough
Stars:  Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson
Preceding Story:  The Awakening (Five, Tegan, Turlough)
Succeeding Story:  Resurrection of the Daleks (Five, Tegan, Turlough)

Coming, as I always do, from the perspective of the post-Hiatus series, I often find elements I’ve seen in those more recent episodes when I watch ones from earlier eras. Such is the case with Frontios. I was so strongly reminded of The Hungry Earth I kept having to remind myself that that story was some 26 years away. (Coincidentally, two stories before Frontios, the Silurians made their last appearance before cropping up again in Hungry Earth.) On the surface, there’s very little connection between the two, but the common element of danger from below – that “the earth was hungry” (in so many words, even) – kept cropping up.

It’s also not the only story to involve the “last” colony of humanity trying to survive (see, for example, The Ark or Utopia for two examples from opposite ends of the new/old spectrum). Here they are, having been at war for decades (The Armageddon Factor), the TARDIS is apparently destroyed (Journey’s End), and the Doctor is mistaken as the culprit responsible for all their woes (take your pick). To top it all off, despite knowing better (The Waters of Mars), the Doctor knowingly and willingly breaks the Time Lord policy of non-interference, and entreats the people of Frontios not to tell the Time Lords (as it’s gotten him in hot water before; The War Games).

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