The Daily Drew

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

2012-01-28T11:00:00.116-05:00

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei
Kim Cattrall, David Warner and Christopher Plummer
Screenplay by Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flinn
Story by Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Kohner & Mark Rosenthal
Based Upon "Star Trek" Created by Gene Roddenberry
Produced by Ralph Winter and Steven Charles-Jaffe
Directed by Nicholas Meyer

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was not intended to be the final original cast "Star Trek" movie, but it almost was because it performed so poorly at the box office. This movie was intended to be the last one. That was made perfectly clear in the advertising and publicity for the movie. This would be the final voyage for the original cast. In an effort to recapture the earlier success of the franchise, Nicholas Meyer was brought back to direct. He directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and worked on the script of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and most importantly, had no role whatsoever in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

What Meyer brings to the franchise is the ability to mythologize the original series in the context of a modern and exciting space adventure movie. In some ways, the "even-numbered" original cast movies have replaced the original series itself as the primary representation of these characters, particularly the three central characters. I've often criticized these movies for largely abandoning what "Star Trek" was and giving us something quite different in its place, but this is in some ways even better than the original series. This movie represents the final word on "Star Trek", and it's a fitting end to a remarkable story.

I once remarked that this film represented a perfect blending of the "Star Trek" cast with the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" style. This remark set-off a big argument, because a friend of mine who overheard it mistakenly assumed I was referring to Star Trek: Generations. No, that movie is just crap. This movie takes the original series characters and locates them for the first time in the more sophisticated universe of "Star Trek: The Next Generation". This is a movie about Klingons, and as we've discussed, TNG has done far more with Klingon culture than had ever been done before. This film takes advantage of that development. The Klingons are basically the central villain of the original series films, but they're far more interesting here than in any previous installment.

This movie gives the Klingon homeworld a name for the first time, and it is Qo'noS (transliterated into English as "Kronos"). It also tells something of the backstory between the alliance that formed between the Klingon Empire and the Federation sometime prior to the start of TNG. Praxis, one of the moons of Qo'noS and a key energy production facility for the Empire, explodes. This is going to cause severe environmental damage to Qo'noS, requiring evacuation. In order to save their planet, the Klingons would have to divert resources away from their military, which they are reluctant to do. Kirk is volunteered by Spock to escort the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner, in a role unrelated to his character in the previous film) to a summit where a peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire is to be discussed.

The theme of the movie connects aging and the passage of history. Kirk is old. General Chang (Christopher Plummer) is old. They don't wish to put aside their former enmity to usher in a new age of peace. They are not prepared for such a radical change. The story is well-plotted, tense, and exciting, but it's this theme that makes the movie something special. Unfortunately, the theme of racism is rather compromised in a few different ways. The script deliberately gives Federation characters racist lines to show how difficult it will be to accept this new peace. But many of these lines were given to black characters, which is a little awkward, particularly for the black actors. Nichelle Nichols refused to deliver the lines "Yes, but would you want your daughter to marry one?" and "Guess who's coming to dinner", the latter of which was given to Chekov instead. Much of the militaristic racism on the Federation side was cut at Roddenberry's insistence (this was the last time Roddenberry's laudable idealism would compel him to fuck up his own franchise).

What's left is a very good movie with interesting themes and wonderful drama to ground its action sequences. It's frustrating that it could have been even better, but it's still very good. It's more action than science fiction, but it's done with intelligent and sophisticated use of character and theme to create a story that resonates with a Western audience struggling to face up to its own undiscovered country: the end of the Cold War.

"The Brain of Morbius" - Part Four

2012-01-27T08:00:00.025-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: January 24, 1976
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Robin Bland
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Christopher Barry

When I was watching "Doctor Who" as a kid, the fact that Time Lords could only regenerate twelve times was something that basically everyone knew. It was like Superman's vulnerability to Kryptonite. It was an intrinsic part of the mythology. But of course, the only mythology "Doctor Who" ever had was whatever happened to be cobbled together by various writers working independently of each other over a period of many years. When this episode originally aired, the regeneration limit had not yet been devised.

And that brings us to a hugely controversial scene in this episode. The Doctor and Morbius engage in a mindbending competition, which the Doctor describes as "Time Lord wrestling". Fortunately, this isn't taken quite so literally as the psychic battle between the Doctor and Omega in "The Three Doctors". Instead, the Doctor and Morbius stand at opposite ends of a strange-looking contraption and concentrate at one another. Images of faces appear between them, and it seems that when one of them is losing, his previous incarnations appear one after another. When a contestant runs out of prior incarnations, he dies.

This scene features the images of quite a lot of men we've never seen before. The clear intent of the scene is that these are previous Doctors. That is, previous to the William Hartnell Doctor. It's worth noting here that there are eight unfamiliar faces (including behind-the-scenes luminaries such as Robert Holmes, Philip Hinchcliffe, and Douglas Camfield). Those eight faces, plus the four Doctors we know, would make Tom Baker the twelfth Doctor. Of course, everyone now knows that Tom Baker was the fourth Doctor, so this scene has to be radically reinterpreted to deny the obvious implications of what is shown on screen.

"Unification II"

2012-01-26T13:00:00.013-05:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five

Airdate: November 11, 1991
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Teleplay by Michael Piller
Story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller
Directed by Cliff Bole

Come back Saturday for my discussion of Star Trek Vi: The Undiscovered Country, but first, let's notice how this episode ties into that movie. The only explicit connection is that Spock refers to the events of that movie, and uses it to justify his behavior now. In the movie, Spock maneuvered Kirk into undertaking a peace mission with the Klingons, and things didn't go well. For this reason, Spock insisted on handling this situation, a peace mission with the Romulans, on his own so as not to risk any other lives. That's very good. That's a really nice little connection.

But there's another, more subtle connection. The movie is about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. This story is about the reunification of Germany, which was completed a year before this episode aired. It's a facile comparison, as the story really doesn't draw much from actual events, but I thought it was worth mentioning how each of these stories was based on recent major world events.

It falls to this episode to tell almost the entire story of this two-parter, because the story really couldn't start until Spock was found. He's on Romulus dealing secretly with an associate of his hoping to make the initial steps towards reunification between Romulus and Vulcan. But that's not a story, that's just an explanation for Spock's apparent "defection". The story happens here, entirely in this episode. The only stuff we carry forward from the previous episode is that Sarek died, and that the Enterprise is investigating stuff. It turns out that Spock has been lured to Vulcan as part of a Romulan plot, and the stuff the Enterprise is investigating ties into this.

It's not a bad story, but it's nothing special. And a two-part story featuring the return of Spock should be something special. When the episode ends, I can't shake the feeling of disappointment. It's a complicated and rather hare-brained Romulan plot, and it's dealt with easily enough, making the whole thing seem largely inconsequential. The reappearance of Sela (the half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar played by Denise Crosby) is similarly unimpressive and largely pointless. It is also Denise Crosby's final appearance until the series finale.

But it is a nice little story about Spock facing the death of his father in his own typical way. Leonard Nimoy understood better than anyone the difference between not expressing emotion and not having emotion. Nimoy's performance makes it very clear that Spock is very emotional over the death of his father, and even more so at the end when Picard offers him a mind meld. Nimoy's performance suggests the roiling emotional undercurrents that remain unexpressed.

"The Brain of Morbius" - Part Three

2012-01-26T08:00:00.003-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: January 17, 1976
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Robin Bland
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Christopher Barry

It doesn't make a big deal out of it, but this story is giving us a rather different impression of the Time Lords than what we've seen before. Other than the Doctor and Morbius, no Time Lords appear in this story, but they're very much involved. Part One suggests that the Time Lords have deliberately interfered with the TARDIS to bring the Doctor to Karn, presumably to prevent Solon from resurrecting Morbius. But even without their direct involvement, the Time Lords are frequently discussed by almost all of the characters, and the view we get of them doesn't quite track with the all-powerful non-interventionists we've seen before.

Morbius was the "leader" of the High Council of Time Lords, but he was also a power mad dictator with dreams of war and glory. The Time Lords deposed him, but he amassed an army of followers, and many worlds (including Karn) were devastated in the ensuing war. After he was defeated, the Time Lords executed him. The Time Lords also maintain tense diplomatic relations with the Sisterhood of Karn, Keepers of the Sacred Flame, which produces the Elixir of Life, which bestows immortality when taken regularly. All of this paints a picture of Time Lords who are rather more worldly, so to speak, than the god-like beings we've seen before.

This story manages to get away with it by keeping the Time Lords off screen, handling all of this in exposition, and framing it in fantasy terms rather than science fiction terms. In retrospect, however, this can be seen as the beginning of a conscious effort to redefine the Time Lords, and we'll see next season where Holmes was going with all of this.

"Unification I"

2012-01-25T13:00:00.001-05:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five

Airdate: November 4, 1991
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Teleplay by Jeri Taylor
Story by Rick Berman and Michael Piller
Directed by Les Landau

This two-parter is the Spock episode. There's really no other way to put it. The whole point of this story, and the only reason it exists at all, was to do an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" with Spock in it. And the timing is no coincidence. When this episode originally aired, we were only a few weeks away from the premiere of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which was already understood to be the final film featuring the original cast. There was good reason to believe that this would be the final ever appearance of the franchise's most distinctive character.

In order to get the biggest impact out of this gimmick (and make no mistake, it is a gimmick), this is TNG's first mid-season two-parter. This decision also seems rather cynical to me. It means that Paramount could promote the hell out of this episode, making sure everyone knew that Spock was in it, but hold Spock back until the very end. So everyone tunes into this episode excited to see Spock again, and as soon as he appears, the episode ends. That meant we all had to tune in the following week to see what we thought we were going to see this week.

So if Spock doesn't appear until the very end of the episode, what is the episode actually doing? A lot of stuff. Some of it is very good, like the scene between Picard and Sarek. But the Enterprise is busy investigating a strangely undeveloped mystery. It seems that some debris recovered from a crashed Ferengi vessel was Vulcan in origin. This thin reed of a mystery takes Riker on a long, rambling quest for answers, while Picard and Data prepare to go to Romulus in search of Spock. Of course, this will all tie together in tomorrow's episode, but it's kind of maddening at this point.

But it isn't just the B-story that's rambling. The whole episode just slowly meanders it's way toward the reveal of Spock. The story can't really go anywhere until that happens, and that has to happen at the very end of this episode. So this episode is almost pure padding. That it's as good as it is says a lot for the cast, particularly Patrick Stewart and Mark Lenard as Sarek. But it's really just a long tease. Other than for promotional purposes, there's really no reason why this story needed to be a two-parter. This episode is almost entirely dispensable.

"The Brain of Morbius" - Part Two

2012-01-25T08:00:00.007-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: January 10, 1976
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Robin Bland
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Christopher Barry

The Hinchcliffe era seems to attract a certain type of critique, both at the time and to this day. People accuse the series of becoming too scary and too violent. This was very much the goal of the production team, and they took these criticisms as indications that their project was a success. The goal was to aim the series at a slightly older audience than the Pertwee era was designed to appeal to. The formula developed by Hinchcliffe and Holmes called for intelligently written gothic horror which deliberately pushed the envelope in terms of horror and violence. Of course, it's all relative. "Doctor Who" was still a tea time adventure serial for the whole family. That imposed very definite limits on violence and (especially) gore.

It's hard not to be reminded of "Spock's Brain", I suppose, not only because of the title, but because the literal brain of Morbius (residing, naturally, in a vat) is very much a character in this story, and there's certain unavoidable absurdity in this. Morbius's brain has dialogue, and not just any dialogue, but ranting self-pity pitched at the level of Shakespeare. Of course, nothing about this seemed in any way strange to me as a child. Morbius was a Time Lord, a tyrant, and a cult-leader. When he was executed by the Time Lords, his brain was saved by his disciple, Dr. Mehendri Solon, who has been working ever since to construct a new body for his master. What could be more sensible than that?

And, oddly enough, that's exactly how the story feels. It doesn't seem at all odd to have a talking brain. Scenes, lines, and events that should completely pierce the illusion somehow don't. Later in the story, a struggle in Solon's lab will result in Morbius's brain falling on the floor. It should be hilarious, but it isn't. It works, thanks in large part to the commitment of the cast, who are clearly having a lot of fun pretending to take all of this very seriously. Special notice must go to the always reliable Philip Madoc, who was last seen in "The War Games" way back from Season Six, and Colin Fay, who takes the thankless part of Condo the henchman and invests is with real humanity. Cynthia Grenville as Maren also does good work in a part that could so easily have gone wrong.

"The Game"

2012-01-24T13:00:00.001-05:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five

Airdate: October 28, 1991
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Teleplay by Brannon Braga
Story by Susan Sackett & Fred Bronson and Brannon Braga
Directed by Corey Allen

I referred to this episode previously as a pretty-crappy Wesley episode. But I should make clear that I only call it that because it's a pretty crappy episode that has Wesley in it. Wesley isn't actually what makes this episode crappy. In fact, if he had always been as good as he is here, I wouldn't have wanted him to leave. He seems to work better as a recurring character, which allows the writers to only use him when they actually have something worthwhile for him to do.

He's finally being written like a normal kid. Well, he's not really a kid anymore, but he's finally acting like a normal person, not a prodigy. He's still a nerd. but he's so much more relaxed than he used to be. This episode focuses on an awkward young romance between Wesley and the super cute Ensign Lefler (played once again by Ashley Judd), and it's awkward, but not unrealistically so. The script doesn't make a point of playing up the awkwardness. It's there, but Wesley overcomes it, which lets the episode get on with something a little more interesting.

Unfortunately, that's where the script lets us down. There really isn't anything more interesting to be found in here. The A-story is entirely derivative and predictable, but it's got a fairly decent hook. It's about this weird game that Riker picks up from a woman he picked up. You strap it on, and then you have to move a disc into a funnel by thinking about it. Not only is it really easy, but it stimulates your brain in a very pleasant way when you succeed.

I always think of this in terms of a drugs metaphor, but the script actually takes it in an even less interesting direction, if you can believe that. It turns out that the game isn't simply addictive, but it's actually taking over the mind of everyone who plays. This is less interesting because it makes the charaters victims without any responsibility at all for what happened. How much better would it have been if the characters had been tempted. I swear you can see the script wanting badly to go there, but no, all of these characters are perfect little angels. They've simply outgrown anything so base as direct chemical stimulation of the brain.

So it's just a hostile alien power taking over the ship by stealth, and no one can stop them except Wesley and his plucky girl sidekick. Unfortunately, that's the level of sophistication we're dealing with. It could have been so much better than this.

"The Brain of Morbius" - Part One

2012-01-24T08:00:00.004-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: January 3, 1976
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Robin Bland
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Christopher Barry

I'm obligated to tell the Robin Bland story, so let's get that out of the way first. The story that was originally planned for this slot was written by Terrance Dicks. It was a sci-fi version of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" in reverse, about a robot who builds a man. After submitting his four-part story, Terrance Dicks went on holiday, and the scripts ended up not being appropriate. That left Script Editor Robert Holmes to rewrite the story from scratch. Dicks was not at all happy with this, and demanded that Holmes give the story "some bland pseudonym". And thus was Robin Bland born.

If you've been paying attention, you'll remember that the script for "Pyramids of Mars" was also a complete rewrite by Holmes, credited to a pseudonym. That's two stories this season that Holmes had to write from scratch at the last minute. I mention this not because it was especially unusual. Terrance Dicks had to rewrite a lot of scripts when he was Script Editor too. I mention it because these two stories are among the best stories in a season that is among the best seasons. I think we've just found the magic formula for classic "Doctor Who": Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen starring in a story produced by Philip Hinchcliffe and written by Robert Holmes under tremendous time pressure.

I'm exaggerating, of course, but only a little. Every era of "Doctor Who" has its supporters and detractors, but the Hinchcliffe era is easily one of the most popular periods in the show's history. And this story, along with "Pyramids of Mars" and one or two others, represents the strongest and clearest expression of the Hichcliffe/Holmes vision of the series. We're in "best of the best" territory.

"Disaster"

2012-01-23T13:00:00.002-05:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five

Airdate: October 21, 1991
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore
Story by Ron Jarvis & Philip A. Scorza
Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont

This is a very unusual episode with a very unusual structure. It's based on disaster movies. It gets underway when the Enterprise collides with a "quantum filament". This knocks out communications throughout the ship, and traps all the characters in isolated vignettes. The characters have to work out how to cooperate without being able to communicate in order to prevent the ship from being destroyed. Meanwhile, Picard is trapped in a turbolift with the three winners of the school science fair, and Worf is assisting Keiko O'Brien give birth to her first child in Ten Forward. Basically, this episode consists of several small and distinct stories, almost like an anthology around a particular theme.

A want to focus on special attention on the bridge story. Trapped together on the bridge are Chief O'Brien, Ensign Ro, some random guy, and Counselor Troi. Despite the fact that she's useless, Troi is technically the highest ranking officer on deck, which means she's in charge. For the rest of the episode, Troi has to make decisions between the conflicting recommendations of O'Brien and Ro. Ro is forced to play the bad cop, advocating ruthless measures that seek to save some lives (including her own) by sacrificing the lives of others. It's unfortunate that such a new character was forced into such a position so soon. She clearly doesn't realize what kind of show this is.

But is she actually wrong? Obviously, that's what we're supposed to think. This is a heroic adventure series: taking a risk is always the right thing to do. Troi's character arc ends with her decision to take that risk, which of course pays off completely. But was that really the right thing to do? More to the point, was Troi really the best person to make this decision? We're supposed to be rooting for Troi, so we're supposed to want her to take charge, make good decisions, and save the day. That's natural enough when we're dealing with a TV show. But if this was real, I think I would want Troi to step back and leave someone else in charge. She just doesn't have the training or expertise to handle this situation.

I hate to spend so much time on that particular vignette, because the others are all better stories. Best of all is Picard trapped with the children. It's just wonderful. Not only is Picard uncomfortable with children, which we know, he's also unable to deal with them. Over the years, he's had countless opportunities to demonstrate his incredible leadership abilities. But they don't work on kids. He has to develop an entirely different approach. He has to take them into account, and he doesn't like to do that. But he does, and it's an utterly charming story. Worf playing midwife for Keiko is funny and sweet, and Worf ends up doing a very good job. The Riker and Data story is fairly weak, but not bad. The LaForge and Crusher story is pretty good. Unfortunately, it reminds me of a similar story in "Battlestar Galactica" which was about 10,000 times better. It's not a fair comparison at all, but still. Once you've seen BSG tackle this, the "Star Trek" version looks so safe in comparison.

But then, everything is relative. This episode wasn't exactly daring, but it was certainly stretching the format for its day. Obviously it's a bottle episode, but it seems that having that limitation forces writers to develop new and interesting ways to approach their stories. This is definitely one of the most successful of these experiments.

Finally, a sad note of trivia: this was the last episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to air prior to the death of Gene Roddenberry on October 28, 1991.

"The Android Invasion" - Part Four

2012-01-23T08:00:00.015-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: December 13, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Terry Nation
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Barry Letts

Nicholas Courtney was supposed to appear in this episode, joining John Levene and Ian Marter to turn this into a full-fledged UNIT story. But he wasn't available, so we get some fool Colonel as a replacement. That makes this the last time we see John Levene as Benton, and the last time we see Ian Marter as Harry. Neither one gets any kind of send off at all. Perhaps no one knew at the time that this would be their last appearance. I don't know. UNIT will be back, though. Sooner than you might expect.

Ok, this is the last time I'm going to make this point, but how awesome would this be for a little kid? This episode features the Doctor fighting an android replica of himself. Of course, when I originally saw this as a child, I had no idea that the same writer had used the same concept all the way back in 1965. I also didn't find anything at all strange about one of the worst plot holes in the history of the series. Allow me to explain.

The Kraals are working with a human dupe, astronaut Guy Crayford. His spacecraft disappeared two years ago, and he's been presumed dead. But the Kraals found him. They claimed that he was dying and that they saved him with their advanced science. He wore an eyepatch, though, because one of his eyes couldn't be recovered. In this episode, we learn that Guy Crayford actually has two eyes after all. This raises two questions which are difficult to answer. Why did the Kraals claim to have lost Crayford's eye? How did Crayford manage to live for two years without noticing that he does in fact have two eyes? The more you think about it, the more baffling it is. It sets up the moment where Crayford realizes he's been duped, right before he gets killed ruthlessly by Styggron, but even that seems pretty pointless to me.

I hate to keep beating up on Barry Letts, but what can I say? This really is the worst "Doctor Who" story since he stepped down as producer.

"The Android Invasion" - Part Three

2012-01-20T08:00:00.003-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: December 6, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Terry Nation
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Barry Letts

After the cliffhanger is resolved, this episode begins transitioning toward the final act. This involves getting rid of all the story elements which are no longer required. To that end, Styggron uses a bomb to destroy the fake village, and ties the Doctor to a column in the village square so that he'll be killed also. You can see the problem, right? This isn't just a ridiculously overcomplicated way of killing the Doctor, it's also under-motivated. After the village is destroyed, Styggron leaves for Earth, bursting with overconfidence that the Kraals will wipe out the humans and take over the planet in a matter of weeks. He's presumably leaving Oseidon for the last time. Why bother destroying the fake village at all ?

It's pretty exciting if you're too young to see how derivative it is. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth emphasizing. This is easily the most child-centric "Doctor Who" story since "Robot", which was the last story produced by Barry Letts, who is back directing this one. It's difficult to express how out of place this feels. It's a jarring shift coming on the heels of "Pyramids of Mars", the prototype for the new gothic horror style that Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes were developing.

The rest of this episode is taken up with padding. The Doctor is taken to the Disorientation Center where his brainwaves are copied so they can be programmed into another android. Once again, Styggron leaves the Doctor to die, and once again, Sarah comes and rescues him. The guy just doesn't learn. Anyway, the episode ends with the Doctor and Sarah arriving on Earth with the android invaders, in hopes of warning UNIT in time. That makes this entire episode one long transition. Between the destruction of the fake village and the stealth invasion of the real village, there is this episode, which consists of nothing but exposition and padding.

"Silicon Avatar"

2012-01-19T13:00:00.074-05:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five

Airdate: October 14, 1991
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Teleplay by Jeri Taylor
Story by Lawrence V. Conley
Directed by Cliff Bole

Take a very close look at how this episode opens, because it's doing something very, very unusual. There's nothing particularly strange about the teaser. It's actually very conventional. The Enterprise is giving assistance to colonists who are just beginning to get their colony underway. Riker's doing some pretty heavy flirting with an attractive female colonist, and everything seems quite pleasant. But then the crystalline entity arrives, and then we're into the opening titles. Everything is perfectly ordinary so far. But after the opening titles, we don't go immediately to the episode title, followed by captions for the guest cast, producers, writers, and director. Instead, we pick up the story right away. The crystalline entity attacks, Riker's girlfriend gets killed trying to save another colonist, and everyone else seeks shelter in a nearby cave. Then we get the episode title and the remaining credits.

It's a small shift, but significant. It gives the opening of this episode a real sense of urgency. The fact is, the story was just too busy right out of the titles to leave room for captions. This sort of flexibility with the format is something that you get much more often in more modern shows. Having captions appearing on screen can be distracting, so many TV shows (and movies, for that matter) will wait for a lull in the action before rolling them out. So the delay, if you will, in the appearances of the captions is a reflection of the unusual pacing of the opening of this story. The effect is that this story seems quite exciting, almost epic, but then it shifts after the first act into something much more typical of this show.

Indeed, as with several episodes of this series, this episode really comes down to exploring the ethical obligations we owe to radically different lifeforms. The crystalline entity is a lifeform, but it's obviously radically unlike most intelligent species in the galaxy. It isn't entirely clear whether the entity is intelligent or not, and that matters. Picard does his usual Picard thing, trying to avoid killing the entity unless it is absolutely necessary, and we have Dr. Marr, the standard guest character representing the view that the entity is not entitled to these sorts of moral considerations. This iteration of this basic story is stronger than others in part because the crystalline entity is capable of destruction on a vast scale. This raises the stakes. The script over eggs the pudding, I think, by giving the guest star a personal drive to destroy the entity. I understand why this was done, but I don't think it comes off very well.

And it takes the episode into unintentionally creepy territory. One of the little known things about Data is that he has been programmed with the memories of everyone who was living on Omicron Theta, the planet where he was created which was destroyed by the entity decades ago. That includes Dr. Marr's son, and at one point Data reads one of the boy's personal logs in the boy's own voice. It's really creepy.

The episode ends well. Instead of the usual triumph of Enlightenment values over the forces of unreason, Dr. Marr actually succeeds in destroying the entity, against Picard's express orders. It's a strong ending, and it serves to give the central conflict a bit of a kick. If Picard had succeeded in communicating with the entity, rendering it harmless, and resolving the situation without any further loss of life, that would have been an unambiguously good ending, and there wouldn't be anything else to say about it. But since Dr. Marr succeeded, that actually leaves the moral issue wide open. First of all, although we don't know that Picard would have succeeded, there were encouraging signs. Second of all, the crystalline entity really is incredibly destructive, perhaps so much so that a "live and let live" attitude is foolhardy at best.

I find this episode to be more fun to think about than to actually watch. But that's something, anyway.

"The Android Invasion" - Part Two

2012-01-19T08:00:00.075-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: November 29, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Terry Nation
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Barry Letts

This is only the second story that Terry Nation wrote for "Doctor Who" which did not feature the Daleks. The first was way back in 1964, "The Keys of Marinus". Even without the Daleks, you can still see a lot of Nation's usual obsessions popping up, including biological warfare. You can also see many of the same weaknesses as Terry Nation scripts often have, unfortunately, and it also lacks some of Nation's strengths. There's no moral at the heart of this story, for instance. Some might consider that a good thing, as Nation's morals tended to be a bit heavy-handed, but at least they drew the story together around some kind of theme. There's not really anything like that here, except an insipid warning about the dangers of nuclear war, which must have seemed pretty dated even in 1975.

Yesterday I talked about how cool and exciting this story was when I was a little kid, because it's all about an ordinary, mundane world hiding something extraordinary. But when you look at it through the eyes of an adult, it's hard to miss some quite extraordinary plot problems. The story is that the Kraals are planning to invade Earth. They don't want to use their warships, because their weapons would irradiate the planet just as the Kraals have irradiated their own planet, Oseidon. So they're going to use stealth. In the beginning of the story, the Doctor and Sarah stumble into a test or rehearsal for the androids. The Kraals have built a perfect replica of the village of Devesham (and the surrounding area) on Oseidon, they've created replicas of all the people, and they're running some kind of experiment. I'm not sure what they're trying to learn exactly. They aren't testing the verisimilitude of their creations, because they don't know that the Doctor and Sarah were going to arrive like convenient little guinea pigs.

But then, why did the Doctor and Sarah arrive? It's either an enormous coincidence, or else somehow the Kraals building a replica of an Earth village fooled the TARDIS into landing there by mistake, like the Roadrunner painting a tunnel on a wall. That doesn't make a lot of sense. While we're on the subject, why would it be necessary or useful for the Kraals to build an artificial forest good enough to pass close inspection? And presumably the dogs that the UNIT soldiers use to track the Doctor and Sarah are android dogs. Why bother creating android dogs? What makes this story so frustrating is that it's presenting what should be a very interesting premise, but the way it's developed and executed suggests that no one ever really put any thought into it at all.

"Ensign Ro"

2012-01-18T13:00:00.007-05:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five

Airdate: October 7, 1991
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Teleplay by Michael Piller
Story by Rick Berman and Michael Piler
Directed by Les Landau

This episode is much more significant than it may have appeared when it originally aired because it's introducing some concepts that would end up being very important to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". This episode marks the first introduction of the Bajorans, an ancient species whose home planet has been under Cardassian occupation for forty years. This episode lines up rather roughly with what we'll learn about Bajorans in later episodes, so it's helpful to forget everything you think you know about them and just take this episode as it comes.

For one thing, all of the Bajorans we see in this episode have been displaced from Bajor. The term "Bajora" is used frequently, and it seems to refer either to the Bajoran diaspora, or to the Bajoran terrorists who are resisting the Cardassians. It's just not clear. This episode also introduces Ensign Ro, a Bajoran, played by Michelle Forbes. You may recall that Forbes had a very small role in "Half a Life", and that she totally fucking nailed it. It was on the strength of that performance that she was brought back to play a new recurring character.

And she's got her work cut out for her. Ensign Ro is a fantastic character, but the way she was introduced makes her very, very hard to like. She's not like any other Star Fleet officer we've ever seen. That's why she's a fantastic character, but it's also why she's hard to like. She has a really bad attitude, and we're given some vague but serious hints about a court martial in her past. Let me put it like this: when Picard and Riker agree that she has no business wearing the uniform, let alone serving on the Enterprise, it makes for a powerfully negative first impression. That's a bold choice. I like it.

Remember when I said that Guinan is a better counselor than Counselor Troi? Watch this episode and try to tell me I'm wrong. It's Guinan who sees beneath Ro's defense mechanisms and spots her potential, and the importance of this is hard to overstate. Guinan is intrigued by Ro, wants to give her a chance, and believes that she's got something special to offer. This makes Picard soften his attitude and give her a chance, and that encourages us to do the same.

Based on previous viewings of this series, I feel that Ro was a promising character who never really lived up to her potential. Based on this episode alone, she's certainly promising. This is a character who has some rough edges. She doesn't have to be perfect, because she's not the sort of "best of the best" officer that typically gets posted to the Enterprise. That alone makes her a promising character. I'm looking forward to watching her development with an open mind.

"The Android Invasion" - Part One

2012-01-18T08:00:00.004-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: November 22, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Terry Nation
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Barry Letts

Yesterday I talked a lot about how I remember really loving stuff as a kid that I now see was actually terrible. This entire story fits into that category. As a kid, I loved it. It really was one of my favorites. It's got a great hook: aliens are using android duplicates of people in an attempt to take over the world. Yeah, I know, it's a total cliche, but imagine you're a little kid and you've never seen it before. It's mind-blowing.

I'm not explaining this very well. Look at it this way: the Doctor and Sarah think they have arrived back on Earth, but everything is really strange. A UNIT soldier throws himself over a ledge, falling to his death. His pockets contain all brand new coins dated the same year. The nearby town is deserted, even the pub, and the pub's cash register also contains all brand new coins dated the same year. Soon, we discover that this isn't Earth, but is a test-area where the alien Kraals are basically rehearsing their invasion of Earth. There's something about that which is quintessential "Doctor Who": something which looks ordinary but turns out to be anything but, like the TARDIS itself. If you think about it, wasn't that essentially the hook for "An Unearthly Child", the very first episode to air back in 1963?

And that's not the only thing that's reminiscent of the early days of the series. If you'll notice, the point-of-view follows the Doctor and Sarah throughout most of this episode. Following a brief prologue, the TARDIS arrives, and we don't cut away from Sarah and the Doctor until the episode is nearly over. That kind of approach for a first episode was standard back in the early years of this series. And look, this was written by Terry Nation. How about that!

"Darmok"

2012-01-17T13:00:00.011-05:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five

Airdate: September 30, 1991
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Teleplay by Joe Menosky
Story by Philip LaZebnik and Joe Menosky
Directed by Winrich Kolbe

Bear with my for a moment. Possibly I'm just crazy, but I've just had this nutty idea that everything there is to know about the difference between "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" can be seen by comparing just two episodes: "Arena" and this one. Both episodes involve the Captain of the Enterprise trapped on a planet with the Captain of an alien vessel. In "Arena", Kirk has to fight the Gorn captain to the death, but he refuses to kill him, thus winning not just a physical victory but a moral victory as well. It's a good episode, but it's a bit shallow, and it's largely just a vehicle for Shatner's action-hero routine. Naturally, he loses his shirt. "Darmok", on the other hand, is about Picard learning to communicate with the alien captain in order to work together to overcome a common foe. Doesn't that comparison tell you pretty much everything you need to know?

The alien species is known as the Children of Tama, and they are quite accurately described as "enigmatic". While the universal translator renders their speech recognizable, it doesn't make it comprehensible. They speak in strange phrases that do not obviously relate to the situation at hand. Over the course of the episode, Picard eventually works out that their language is based on metaphor. Captain Dathon tries to communicate with Picard by relating their present situation to some sort of historical (or possibly mythical) story in his own cultural background. Naturally, this is initially quite puzzling.

Let me say up front that I love this episode, and that a language based on metaphor is a fascinating concept, and this episode really uses it to good effect. But I must also say that it makes no god damned sense at all. The Children of Tama are a technologically advanced civilization with spaceships and everything. How do you write a technical manual for warp engines entirely in metaphor? How do children acquire this language? Picard only works it out because he already knows what the words mean in English. How do teach it to someone who doesn't know the stories or the vocabulary? The whole idea is utterly ludicrous.

But that doesn't matter at all. It's an awesome episode. It's clever, imaginative, and unique. I've never seen anything remotely like this. And believe me, that's refreshing. Much of the work I do on this blog comes down to evaluating how various sci-fi shows approach the same basic stories. I've never seen any other series do this story. Of course it's a great episode for Picard, and of course Patrick Stewart makes the most of it, as he always does. It's just wonderful. Even if I don't believe in the premise at all (and I don't), I still love this episode to bits and always will.

Oh yeah, that's Ashley Judd as Ensign Lefler. She'll be back, and in a much more prominent role. Unfortunately, that's the only time she'll be back, and it's in a pretty crappy Wesley-episode. What a terrible, terrible waste,

"Pyramids of Mars" - Part Four

2012-01-17T08:00:00.004-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: November 15, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Stephen Harris
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Paddy Russell

This is where the story goes rather dreadfully wrong. The action moves to Mars, where the Doctor and Sarah chase Scarman and the mummies through a series of strange puzzles inside a pyramid on Mars. The only connection we still have to the original 1911 setting is Marcus Scarman, but he's a brainwashed zombie acting entirely as a surrogate for the still imprisoned Sutekh, which means he's no longer really a part of that setting. This episode is almost completely cut off from the rest of the story. It looks different, it feels different, and it just doesn't match up very well. Perhaps I'm letting my behind-the-scenes knowledge influence my opinion, but this episode really looks like it was slapped together at the last minute without much of a plan.

But in fairness, this is the part of the story I loved best as a kid. The Mars stuff is cool to me. Looking at it today, it doesn't look cool, but I remember feeling that way about it as a child. Sarah compares the puzzles to the City of the Exxilons from "Death to the Daleks", and that's exactly right. I also loved that shit (and boy, is it ever shit!) as a kid. That matters. "Doctor Who" was and is a show aimed primarily at children. Pleasing the younger audience is not the same thing as quality (Jar-Jar Binks is an appalling character, no matter how appealing he may be to kids), but it is important. For a show like "Doctor Who", the best stories are going to be the ones that manage to appeal to children without putting off the adults, but appealing to children is a valid end in itself. This episode sucks, but kids love it. Credit where due.

As I said yesterday, the story is a bit overrated, all things considered. After a promising (but hardly extraordinary) start, it stretches itself out with lots of padding, and culminates in this shallow and arbitrary final installment, largely unconnected to what came before it. It manages to be quite entertaining for the first three episodes, and at least the kids can get a kick out of the conclusion. That doesn't really justify the near-legendary status of this story, or its inclusion into the canon of absolute classics. But it is a pretty good story, and that's pretty good.

"Redemption II"

2012-01-16T13:00:00.007-05:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five

Airdate: September 23, 1991
Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Written by Ronald D. Moore
Directed by David Carson

This episode has a tremendous amount of ground to cover, and that means we have a tremendous amount of ground to cover. Let's start with Sela, the Romulan Commander played by Denise Crosby. It was actually Crosby herself who wanted to find a way to return to the series after she so enjoyed appearing in "Yesterday's Enterprise", and she's the one who suggested that Tasha Yar survived that episode after all, and had a child with a Romulan. This is a ludicrous idea for all sorts of reasons, but it sort of fit with what the writers were planning, so they did it. Personally, I love that this idea came from Crosby, but that's all I love about it. Not only is it ludicrous, but it's also pointless. The script doesn't do anything interesting with the character at all¹. And since "Yesterday's Enterprise" involved an alternate timeline which no one remembers, the episode has to take up quite a lot of time explaining the connection.

So let's turn our attention to Worf. Surprisingly, he doesn't have a whole lot to do with bringing about a successful outcome in the Klingon Civil War. The Federation does that. Worf's story is much more personal, once again putting him in the middle of two cultures. He doesn't fit in any better serving under his brother, Kurn, than he did on the Enterprise. He's out of step with everyone around him, again. While everyone else, including Kurn, is getting off on battle for the sake of battle, Worf is the only one actually trying to win the war for the good of the Empire. Of course, he ends up rejoining Star Fleet at the end of the episode. That was bound to happen. I don't want to make too much of this, but Worf is definitely choosing Star Fleet. He's not obligated to return to the Enterprise, and now that his honor is restored and the new Chancellor of the Empire owes him a favor, he could set himself up quite nicely in whatever capacity he wanted. He chooses Star Fleet.

That leaves everyone else to basically win the war for Gowron. The Federation doesn't get directly involved, but at Picard's urging, they set up a blockade to prevent the Romulans from supplying the Duras faction. Without aid from the Romulans, there's nothing to stop Gowron's forces from decisively ending the war. In order to get more characters involved, the script comes up with a flimsy excuse to put Enterprise personnel on other Federation ships. Data even gets his first command, and while this is really just a subplot of a subplot, the script does a great job of exploring how Data deals with a subordinate who objects to taking orders from an android.

¹ The most unforgivable oversight in all of this: Worf sees Sela and doesn't react at all. What?! What's the point of Sela if you're not even going to do anything with a confrontation between her and Worf?

"Pyramids of Mars" - Part Three

2012-01-16T08:00:00.007-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: November 8, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Stephen Harris
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Paddy Russell

Let's take a look at what this story is doing. The basic idea is that Sutekh is a powerful, god-like alien imprisoned by his people beneath an Egyptian pyramid. After being discovered by archaeologist Marcus Scarman, Sutekh uses his mental powers to get himself a slave. Scarman returns to England under Sutekh's control and starts working on a way to free Sutekh by destroying some gizmo housed on Mars. It's an effective and straightforward story, but it's a little thin. The plot has been stretching it out as much as possible, and this episode in particular is all about keeping it going without it actually going anywhere at all.

You see, Sutekh is using Scarman and the mummy-robots to build a missile that will destroy the gizmo on Mars. The Doctor realizes he must prevent this, and manages to destroy the missile before it has the opportunity to launch. The Doctor succeeds at this, obviously, but he ends the episode as the victim of one of Sutekh's psychic attacks. So what's going to happen in tomorrow's episode? Sutekh will make another attempt to destroy the gizmo, and the Doctor will try to stop him. Part Four is just another iteration of the same basic story as Part Three. That's some pretty serious padding.

And that's not all. Yesterday's episode was stretched out with an unnecessary side-trip in the TARDIS. When Sarah suggests that Sutekh must inevitably fail because she's from the future and the world clearly wasn't destroyed in 1911, the Doctor takes her to 1980, and the world is indeed destroyed. This is kind of interesting, though it's best not to think about it too much. It explains something that doesn't really need to be explained, and is probably better left unaddressed. But if you need to eat up some screen time...

Despite all of this padding, this is still a pretty good story. I think it's a bit overrated, but only a bit. What saves it is the fact that there's always something interesting happening. the characters are very good, the mummies are cool, and the production has a nice sense of style. There's just not nearly enough story here to sustain four episodes, but that just means that something other than story will have to hold the audience's attention.

Announcement

2012-01-14T11:28:00.001-05:00

I'm posting this via the Blogger iPhone app as an experiment. I'm not sure I'm ever going to find much use for this. It doesn't seem to want to let me do what I want to do. But it was free, so I might as well give it a try.

The real announcement is that I'll be starting coverage of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season Five on Monday. New episodes will appear Mondays through Thursdays at 1:00pm my time.

Season Five was a significant one for TNG. A new recurring character was introduced: Ensign Ro Laren. Season Five also saw the release of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and this occasion was marked with a bit of a promotional tie-in on TNG. Sadly, Season Five also saw the passing of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry.

Speaking of the movie, my discussion of it will post two weeks from today, January 28, at 11:00am my time, and this will kick off another flurry of consecutive Saturday movie posts. So far I've prepared discussions of Fellini's Amarcord and the next Bond film in the series, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

After we finish up "Doctor Who" (1063) Season Thirteen, I'll be moving on to "Homicide: Life on the Street" Season Three, which I have never seen before, so that's exciting. Somewhere along the way I'll slip in a discussion of The X-Files (that is, the first movie) in preparation for picking up with Season Six. But that's still a ways off.

In retrospect, 2011 was a pretty bad year for The Daily Drew in terms of post count. It was a pretty bad year for me in general. It is my hope as well as my firm intention to make sure 2012 lives up to the standard I set for this blog. One area where 2011 was not a disappointment was traffic, and I hope the trend of gradually increasing traffic will continue. Thank you all for visiting. Please come back often!

"Pyramids of Mars" - Part Two

2012-01-13T08:00:00.009-05:00

Doctor Who (1963)

Airdate: November 1, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Stephen Harris
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Paddy Russell

Lewis Griefer was originally hired to write "the mummy story", but the first draft he submitted wasn't considered appropriate, and he wasn't available for rewrites. Script editor Robert Holmes stepped in and did a complete rewrite of the whole thing, leaving not so much as a single line from the original version. The pseudonym Stephen Harris was used in order to comply with BBC policy about individuals being credited in more than one capacity. This story is so engrained in my mind as a Robert Holmes story that I'm not sure I ever even noticed the pseudonym before.

The mummies are the big gimmick of the story, and they're a pretty memorable element even if they don't actually do much. They don't speak, and they don't quite look like proper mummies, but they lumber around killing people implacably, and that's always frightening. It was at this point, I think, that Philip Hinchcliffe started getting some pretty serious pushback about the level of violence in "Doctor Who", and it's something that will stay with him for the rest of his tenure as producer, and ultimately lead to his departure from that position.

As good as the mummies are, they couldn't hope to carry the story. This story relies heavily on its human characters, particularly Marcus Scarman, pictured above on the right. And then there's Sutekh, played with silky-voiced menace by Gabriel Woolf¹. Since Sutekh is paralyzed, trapped in a chair beneath a pyramid in Egypt, and he wears a big Egyptian mask over his face, his voice is all Woolf has to establish the character. But it was enough. His cool, quiet delivery works effectively to underplay the material, which prevents the character from tipping over into melodrama. I think Sutekh's popularity speaks for itself. It's pretty incredible when you think about it, that Woolf was able to make such an impression with nothing but his voice. He doesn't even stand up until the last few minutes of Part Four!

¹ Woolf also played the voice of the Beast in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" in 2006. That voice is unmistakeable, and plenty of fans thought (and hoped) that the Beast would turn out to be somehow connected to Sutekh.

"Pyramids of Mars" - Part One

2012-01-12T08:00:00.007-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: October 25, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Stephen Harris
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Paddy Russell

Without a doubt, this is one of the most fondly remembered stories from the Philip Hinchcliffe era, which is widely considered to be one of the greatest eras of the show. Somehow, it seems to perfectly encapsulate the style of the program at this point in its history. It functions by combining standard horror tropes with science fiction concepts letting it go from there. And when you've got leads like Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, that's just about all you need.

But not quite. This story works a great deal better than the last one, and that's largely because it has a few important advantages. First, it's (mostly) set in 1911, and the BBC can do period pieces like that with its eyes closed. Everyone knows what everything is supposed to look like, and everyone knows how all the characters are supposed to act. It's all so familiar and so assured that it gives the production an instant credibility that "Planet of Evil" (which took place on a wholly bizarre alien planet) just didn't have.

In recent years, there seems to have been something of a mild critical reappraisal of this story, and I think that's fair. I don't think the story quite lives up to its reputation, and as we'll see next week, Part Four goes completely haywire. But it's got Egyptology, mummies that are actually robots, a quick trip to Mars, and one of the most effective and memorable one-off villains ever. It also has an excellent supporting cast working off a strong script. It's definitely a gem, but it's far from perfect.

"Planet of Evil" - Part Four

2012-01-11T08:00:00.005-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: October 18, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Louis Marks
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by David Maloney

The story gives up any hope of coherency in this final episode and charges ahead toward a resolution. Salamar decides to use some sort of weapon on the rampaging Prof. Sorenson. This weapon wasn't previously introduced, and we're simply told that using it will kill Salamar. Oddly, he doesn't seem to mind this, because he's conveniently gone mad. But the Doctor knows (because he just does) that using this weapon on Sorenson will cause Sorenson to multiply into a whole bunch of those semi-invisible anti-matter creatures we saw in previous episodes. How he knows this, and why this happens, is never explained.

The frustrating thing about this story is that it contains several ideas that at least ought to work. Doing a sci-fi version of Jekyll and Hyde makes a lot of sense, and there's no reason why that shouldn't work. But it has to be developed logically within the context of the story, not simply shoved into Part Three and conveniently dropped for Part Four. A better story could also have made much better use of that remarkable jungle set (which would have been nice, if for no other reason than the Morestran spaceship sets are so dull). This story does present a different sort of threat from what we're used to. The aliens here are not nearly as prosaic as the Zygons, for examples. These are inscrutable and incorporeal anti-matter creatures, and they represent a different kind of threat. A coherent story wouldn't have squandered this interesting angle for the boring old runaround we get here.

Speaking of squandering things that could have been great, there's a scene here where the Doctor persuades Sorenson to kill himself. It's handled delicately in the dialogue, but there's no question that's what he's doing. Sorenson has somehow become infected with anti-matter, such that the ship won't be allowed to leave with him on board. The Doctor talks to him about how scientists must always take personal responsibility for the risks they take. The implication is clear. Sorenson must die, and it's his responsibility to make that happen. That should have been a powerful moment, but it falls completely flat. When each episode introduces several arbitrary new plot points, a scene like that gets lost in all the confusion.

"Planet of Evil" - Part Three

2012-01-10T08:00:00.053-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: October 11, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Louis Marks
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by David Maloney

Before I resume kicking seven different kinds of shite out of this dreadful story, let's pause for a moment and consider what's going on behind the scenes at this point. If you'll recall, "Terror of the Zygons" was originally intended to air as the end of Season Twelve, but it was held back. In a sense, this is the first story of Season Thirteen. For Season Twelve, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes were able to put a new spin on scripts that were originally commissioned by outgoing Producer Barry Letts. This is the first story developed entirely by the new regime.

This story begins a trend that will come to define the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era: the focus on horror. As we'll see throughout the rest of this season, most stories will have a pronounced horror component, and many will be quite explicit about drawing their influences from gothic horror novels and classic horror films. For instance, "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, as we see here.

But there was nothing in the previous episodes to indicate that this story would be an extended riff on that classic tale. It's just another arbitrary rules change, and it also doesn't get a proper explanation. Prof. Sorenson has somehow been afflicted such that he occasionally turns into a ferocious werewolf-like creature, and he has evidently invented some sort of potion to help him keep the problem under control. This comes into the story completely out of left field, as if the script simply ran out of steam and needed a new concept to propel it through another episode.

"Planet of Evil" - Part Two

2012-01-09T08:00:00.046-05:00

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Thirteen

Airdate: October 4, 1975
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Written by Louis Marks
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by David Maloney

Let's take a close look at the story so far. What we've got is a planet on the edge of the known universe where Prof. Sorenson has discovered some sort of mineral which will provide unlimited energy for the benefit of Morestran civilization. But this planet is inhabited, it seems, by creatures which are either invisible, or appear as a monstrous outline. When they kill people, which they do quite a lot, their victims briefly disappear before a skeletal corpse reappears.

As the story develops, little of what's happened so far is directly explained. Rather, the story suddenly changes every once in a while. In this episode, the Doctor spends most of his time wandering around the jungle and chatting obliquely with Sarah. Somehow, this allows him to work out exactly what's going on, which he helpfully explains to the Morestrans (and us) after he's captured. But he doesn't really explain anything that's happened so far. Instead, he establishes a new set of rules for the next phase of the story: the Morestran ship will be unable to leave Zeta Minor with the mineral samples on board.

This is going to keep happening for the rest of the story. One narrative line will be followed for a few scenes, and once that has run its course, entirely new plot elements will be arbitrarily introduced, and nothing is ever fully explained. In "About Time", the unauthorized guide to "Doctor Who" written by Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood, this story is compared to improv, and that's exactly what it feels like. Every time a new element is introduced, the rest of the story adapts itself to go along with it. That starts here with the Doctor's suddenly acquired knowledge about an anti-matter universe, but it will get much worse in the next two episodes.