Radio Free Skaro - The Chronic Hysteresis

4Q4 - The Face of Evil 4

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:29:00 +0000

Towards the end of this story, Xoanon sends out a distress signal to his servants, Tesh and Sevateem alike, to attack The Doctor before the Time Lord destroys the schizophrenic computer. All his servants obey and fall into a trance, returning to the control room to kill The Doctor. Even Leela, whose mind is becoming open to the world around her, thanks to The Doctor's influence, falls under Xoanon's trance.

The only person who is immune to Xoanon's power is Neeva, whose desire for revenge against Xoanon is so strong that destroying his god has become Neeva's single overriding thought. When the Tesh and the Sevateem are about to kill The Doctor, thanks to Xoanon's power over his servants, it is Neeva's individuality coming through in the form of an attempt to destroy the god that breaks Xoanon's hold over his servants long enough to allow The Doctor to wipe his memory print clear from the computer.

Neeva and Tomas had a notable exchange earlier in this episode while assailing the Tesh ship. At the time, Neeva had faith in his beliefs, and admonished the rest of the tribe that they were losing their belief in the search for proof. Tomas replies with one of the many, many great lines in this episode: "With proof, you don't have to believe." And once Xoanon was proven to be a false god to Neeva, only then could he be destroyed.

Often overshadowed by the leviathans that surround it in the Season 14 running order, The Face of Evil is one of the more densely layered Doctor Who stories ever made. it is also thoroughly enjoyable, and, at the time of writing this, quite overdue for a DVD release.

4Q3 - The Face of Evil 3

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:01:00 +0000

Episode Three ends with one of the most puzzling, disturbing, and intense cliffhangers ever seen on the show. I'm still not entirely sure what's happening, and that's what I love about it. The Doctor, standing in the middle of a room with images of himself (as Xoanon) on giant screens, then collapsing as the images zoom up to him, shouting "No!" - fantastic! The sound of a small child emanates out of Xoanon's mouth, crying "Who am I?", and the credits crashing in afterwards, are some of the more spine tingling moments.

Religion and superstition take a pretty fair sized hit in this story, as most of the relics and beliefs that the tribe of the Sevateem live their lives by are almost systematically explained and debunked by The Doctor throughout the course of this story. It is belief in such things, led by Neeva, that get a good chunk of Sevateem warriors killed on an ill advised raid on Xoanon's "temple". I'll speak more of Neeva later, but him recognizing Xoanon's voice as The Doctor's whilst in a trance is one of this episode's special little moments.

Opposite to the savage Sevateem tribe are the Tesh, who are calm and orderly to a fault. They're boring to watch and listen to because they're meant to be boring to watch and listen to. The Tesh are devoid of all the instinct and emotion that make up the Sevateem. Even when they are tracking Leela to try and kill her later in this episode, while they exhibit quickness and agility, it almost seems as if their hearts aren't in their actions. They're merely doing what's logical to try and rectify the situation.

Malcolm Hulke often wrote stories that presented both sides in a conflict as being right, in their own way. Chris Boucher, in this, his first script for Doctor Who, seems to be intent on showing how wrong both sides can be.

4Q2 - The Face of Evil 2

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:02:00 +0000

Terrance Dicks has a theory about when The Fourth Doctor's first visit to the homeworld of the Sevateem took place. According to Dicks, this apparently occurred sometime during the Season 12 story Robot. I find this notion fairly limiting, actually. Do we assume that everything that happens in The Doctor's life happen before our eyes? Does grass grow only when we're watching it?

We assume that The Doctor was traveling solo during this first visit, but he needn't have done. Sarah could have easily been with him at the time. And perhaps the reason The Doctor doesn't immediately remember the details of that first visit doesn't necessarily mean that it happened decades ago in The Doctor's personal timeline, either. Perhaps his memory of the event could have been wiped? Possibly even by Xoanon? Or perhaps, even, this adventure actually happened in The Doctor's future, which is why he doesn't remember it at first, but, mysteriously, does later? Or, in other words, wibbly wobbly, timey wimey? (Thanks, Steven Moffat, for writing one of the great escape lines ever. Never again will you have to describe the complexities of time travel on screen).

In keeping with the memory loss hypothesis, I'd almost put this story as happening directly before The Doctor materializes on the planet, a la The Ark, where two consecutive TARDIS trips are to the same planet, separated by hundreds of years. If Tom Baker actually did Big Finish audio dramas, you know that the prequel to The Face of Evil would be one of the first stories they'd write for him...

4Q1 - The Face of Evil 1

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:12:00 +0000

The Deadly Assassin already had a lot going for it, but another one of its strengths was leaving The Doctor companion-less for an adventure before introducing the next traveler we meet on The Doctor's travels. After seeing the departure of such a phenomenally popular companion like Sarah Jane Smith, it would almost seem insulting to her to have another companion step into her shoes in the very next story.

It would also be a disservice to the new companion, Leela, to have to fill those shoes so quickly. Leela's debut is a strong one. She's not given any clunky introductory dialogue, and she seems firmly in character from her very first scene. Speaking of that first scene, this is one of the rare occasions that the viewer is introduced to the new companion well before The Doctor is.

Speaking of The Doctor, a new companion to talk with and dispense the plot to comes along at just the right time. Really, when you look at it, The Doctor had another companion for about four minutes that never gets mentioned in any episode guide I've ever seen, and that companion is you, the viewer, as Baker declares his intentions directly to camera, only repairing the fourth wall slightly by adding "Doctor" in a couple times so it sounds like he's talking to himself. Seldom before has a Doctor looked so out of place than Tom Baker early in Episode One.

The cliffhanger of Episode One is absolutely superb because it asks more questions than it can possibly answer before Episode Two comes along. Chiefly, why in the world is there a giant stone bust of The Doctor chiseled into the side of a mountain?

4P4 - The Deadly Assassin 4

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:12:00 +0000

I often look at the history of Doctor Who as a visual flow chart. It looks like two rugby footballs side by side - almost an infinity symbol, but not sharing its meaning. Have a look at the expertly drawn diagram below:

The point in the middle (Serial A) where everything appears to meet is the start of the programme, 1963's An Unearthly Child. The line then curves up and to the right, eventually reaching point ZZ, The War Games. Between those two points, The Doctor's origins and motivations are a mystery until we are finally introduced to his home race in the final episode of The War Games. The line then curves back towards the starting point again, 4P, which is The Deadly Assassin. In between those two points, hints, notions, and names are gradually dropped in as the words "Time Lord", "regeneration", and "Gallifrey" become familiar parts of the Who lexicon.

And then we hit The Deadly Assassin, which really can be viewed as a turning point in the series, both onscreen and off. In dealing with so much of Gallifrey's history, The Deadly Assassin both expands the history of the Time Lords to almost infinite depths, and answers questions that probably should have remained unanswered. Don't get me wrong - The Deadly Assassin is stunning television. Even the smallest of lines spoken by its characters carry such weight (who would have thought that Engin's throwaway line about Time Lords having only 12 regenerations would still resonate so dominantly 30 years later?) and the story is required viewing for anyone who wants to learn all that there is to know about the Time Lords and Gallifrey (even though it blatantly contradicts much of the little Gallifreyan history we knew of before).

But the problem with The Deadly Assassin lies not what happened during the story, but what happened after it. The Doctor's home planet and race are never far from the mind of the viewer after this point. Once a wanderer in time and space, The Doctor now has a home: a home that he is estranged from, but a home nonetheless. Gallifrey is now a place that he can always return to (and frequently does). It's a place of instant comfort and conflict, and with each successive visit and mention, Gallifrey's mystical qualities would diminish that much more.

In terms of production, The Deadly Assassin would prove to be a turning point there, as well. Fitting, in a way, that this story falls at almost the exact halfway point in the run of the classic series. The Philip Hinchcliffe era came along at a time when creative boundaries were lax, as well as financial ones. A story as lavish as The Deadly Assassin would usually have to be offset by making a cheaper production elsewhere during the season. For every The Chase, there is a The Space Museum.

Not so with Season 14, the epitome of Hinchcliffe's flagrant desire to spend as much as he could to get the best possible product on television. The subsequent story, The Face of Evil, is probably the cheapest of the season, but it by no means looks it. All of the stories of Season 14 have a big budget feel to them (or bigger budget, given it is Doctor Who, after all). Hinchcliffe got out when the going was good, though, as crippling inflation rates would hamper the production of the programme for the next few years (about which more later).

The Deadly Assassin approaches epic heights in scale, size, drama, and story - heights that would rarely be seen again. It is one of the true jewels in Doctor Who's crown, and deserves every ounce of praise that it receives.

4P3 - The Deadly Assassin 3

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:51:00 +0000

Episode Three of The Deadly Assassin is one of the most famous, most surreal, most artfully crafted, and most controversial episodes in the entire history of Doctor Who. Shot almost entirely on film, it mainly features only two characters - The Doctor and his pursuer, Goth - and continues on from the end of Episode Two by putting our hero through a series of increasingly bizarre challenges within the Matrix.

The results are dazzling. This is Doctor Who like we've never known it before. Tom Baker proves himself to be just as reliable an "action Doctor" as Jon Pertwee ever did, running from airplane gunfire, sliding down hills, falling out of trees, and, in the episode's climax, engaging in a full-on vicious and brutal fight with Goth.

It's the fight, of course, or more specifically, the final few seconds of Goth holding The Doctor's head underwater that raised the heckles of Mary Whitehouse and the National Viewers Association enough to get Philip Hinchcliffe to personally excise the scene from the original master tape to prevent it being seen on any future repeats of the serial. Looking back at the scene, especially in context of where The Deadly Assassin occurs in the series as a whole, it really is just the straw that broke the camel's back. There are scenes containing a great deal more violence and brutality during Seasons 12 and 13, but since the reaction to Goth/Doctor fight actually resulted in the BBC capitulating and admitting it had crossed the line, The Deadly Assassin signaled a change in how Doctor Who would be produced henceforth.

In short, Doctor Who would never be as grim and gritty as this ever again...

4P2 - The Deadly Assassin 2

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:25:00 +0000

Let it be said of David Maloney that he is both a great director and a great cheat. Just like the hidden platform that Sarah falls on early in Episode Three of Genesis of the Daleks (thus negating the severity of her apparent freefall during the cliffhanger of Episode Two), Maloney inserts a quick closeup of someone pointing a staser at the President into the reprise of the Episode One cliffhanger. Alas, it wasn't The Doctor shooting the President, he was trying to shoot the man who was shooting the President. If only I had known this about 25 years ago...

The duo of Spandrell and Engin play two roles in this story - de facto companions to The Doctor, and a typical "Holmesian double act", both playing Watson to The Doctor's Sherlock Holmes as the latter pokes around in an attempt to find out who's framing him for murdering the President. George Pravda is his usual stilted, Czech-accented self as Spandrell, but Erik Chitty is so dotty and a perfect foil to Tom Baker's Doctor. Tom Baker's Doctor seemed to get along with older people so well, from Amelia Ducat to Engin to, as we'll see soon, Professor Rumford.

Towards the end of this episode, The Doctor gets a crazy notion that he can find out who beamed the mental projection of the Presidental assassination into his head by going into the Matrix and finding the perpetrator. Little does he know what a fantastical ride he's about to embark on, and neither does the viewer. Get ready from some mind blowing television...

4P1 - The Deadly Assassin 1

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Never before had The Doctor appeared in a story without a companion until The Deadly Assassin. Never before had a story been set entirely on The Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey until The Deadly Assassin, nor was there one that explored the machinations of Gallifreyan society. Never before in Doctor Who history has there been a story as grand in scale, scope, and drama, as The Deadly Assassin.

This story is so monumental that the opening, scrolling monologue, which would seem far too bombastic and overblown in any other story or even any other television series, fits here perfectly and prepares the audience for the spectacle that they are about to watch over the next four weeks.

But first thing's first - Episode One, in which the idea of a companion-less Doctor is immediately disproved as being effective once we see how much Tom Baker talks to himself in the first scene. Thankfully, Baker's Doctor is eccentric enough to get away with it, but it shows the necessity of the companion role in Doctor Who.

This is probably the best looking Doctor Who episode ever made. The sets by Roger Murray-Leach are massive, and they belie the comparatively small budget which was used to create them. It's no surprise that the costumes for the Time Lords created for this story have been used for every subsequent Gallifrey-based story since, as James Acheson's designs are ornate and colourful without being gaudy. And the direction by David Maloney is simply superb. His composite shot of the Panoptican full of Time Lords is beautiful. This episode is a glimpse at what Doctor Who would look like with a big budget.

As a kid, my first experience with The Deadly Assassin was the final few minutes of Episode One and it's staggering cliffhanger. I never saw the rest of the story until years later, leaving the idea in my head for the longest time that sometime, somewhere, The Doctor went rogue and shot the President of Gallifrey. Memorable then, memorable now.

4N4 - The Hand of Fear 4

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:31:00 +0000

This is where The Hand of Fear really flies off the rails. A large portion of the episode is spent putting The Doctor, Sarah, and an almost inert Eldrad through several different challenges and obstacle courses made of cheap, glittery scenery, before Stephen Thorne storms in as Eldrad 2.0, shouting virtually the same lines as he did as Omega in The Three Doctors before unconvincingly tripping over The Doctor's scarf and falling to his death in an abyss.

However, any faults that The Hand of Fear has displayed are completely forgotten once Sarah Jane Smith's farewell scene starts, as this is the real reason most people pine after this story. The scene, rewritten mostly by Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, is simply gorgeous, and played to utter perfection by the leads. Sarah's final goodbye is so sweetly understated, much like her relationship with The Doctor in general. Their mutual declaration of "I worry about you." in Episode Three is tantamount to them declaring their vows to each other.

For such a subtle scene, it is still emotional to watch. Each time I watch it, I think I'm going to get through it unscathed, but when Sarah stands at the door for one last time and says, "You know, travel really does broaden the mind.", the lower lip starts to wobble. Tom Baker's wistful "'Til we meet again, Sarah." gets me every time. Every. Single. Time. Even now, while I'm writing this.

Even though we've been lucky to get Elisabeth Sladen back several times over the years since her original departure, the Tom Baker era would never be the same. The Baker-Sladen team were, quite possibly, the best Doctor-companion matchup in the show's history, with perhaps one or two challengers to that title. Baker was at the height of his powers at this time in the show's history, and most of it was based on the onscreen relationship he had with Sladen. After this, Baker's performance changed with each successive companion. The moody, intense Doctor of The Seeds of Doom was long gone by even The Masque of Mandragora, the very next story. With Sarah no longer in the picture, the connection to that Doctor is a distant memory, but Tom Baker still has a few guns in his arsenal that he'll bring out for the latter half of his era as The Doctor.

4N3 - The Hand of Fear 3

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:36:00 +0000

Even though most people's presiding memory of the alien in The Hand of Fear is the female form of Eldrad, as played by Judith Paris, she actually only shows up a third of the way through Episode Three. Eldrad's a memorable character, if only because of the svelte figure that Paris cuts, which, couple with the supernatural powers that Eldrad has at her disposal, makes the Kastrian a marked departure from the usual hulking beasts of the show's past.

Despite Eldrad's strengths as an interesting character, my favourite thing about this episode is, again, Glyn Houston as Professor Watson. His lamenting to Miss Jackson once the dust has settled that no one will believe the fantastic events he has seen is just lovely. One has to think that many a person left in The Doctor's wake in the past could say the same thing, so it's nice to finally see someone wrestle with that dilemma. What a shame that Watson never returned to the series in some way (although, dramatically, it would have been difficult to find yet another reason to base a story at a nuclear power plant), as the Professor makes his mark on the show despite only appearing in two full episodes.

From the final third of this episode onwards, though, this story is essentially a three-hander, with The Doctor, Sarah, and Eldrad carrying the bulk of the action - a rarity at this point in the series' history.

4N2 - The Hand of Fear 2

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:12:00 +0000

The Hand of Fear is an unusual story in that the main setting and its characters keep changing from episode to episode. When watching Episode One, you get the impression that the hospital that Sarah is staying at and Dr. Carter will feature prominently throughout the story, especially with noted guest actor Rex Robinson (a common casting choice of director Lennie Mayne's) playing the role of Carter. But no - the hospital is dispensed with, and Carter tumbles over the side of a staircase in an impressive stunt sequence in Episode Two.

Episode Two introduces us properly to Professor Watson and the Nunton Power Complex that he's in charge of (what a shame they couldn't use Nuton as a name again, as it would have tied in nicely with the same power plant in The Claws of Axos). Watson is made a much bigger and better character than he ever could have been thanks to the talents of Glyn Houston. Watson's phone call to his wife at home, calmly letting her know that he'll be a little late coming home tonight, while in reality the power plant is likely to explode, is a scene that is completely unnecessary to the plot, but is essentially in making us care about Watson as a character.

It's a good thing that this approach was taken, as the cliffhanger to this episode is not of The Doctor or Sarah in peril, or of Eldrad being revealed in her true form, but it's of the control room in which Watson is working in exploding, sending the Professor flying across the room to land unconscious on the floor. Seldom before has the plight of a supporting character been given so much attention, but such is the sympathy we feel for Watson, thanks to Glyn Houston's performance, that this attention is justified.

4N1 - The Hand of Fear 1

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:37:00 +0000

The second story of Season 14 starts off as uninspiring as the first did with a confusing sequence set on the planet of Kastria. The scene involves two figures in cloaks, faces unseen, and a voiceover from a computer. All the voices sound the same, and it's never clear which figure is talking to which, which side each is on, and, ultimately, what any of them are doing. The ending of the scene (Eldrad's ship blowing up) is, at least, obvious to even the simplest viewer (or reviewer...).

I wish that the original gag for this episode was kept in (that of Sarah pointing out to The Doctor that they had landed in a quarry, while The Doctor insisted that they had actually landed on an alien planet), although it may have possibly undermined every single quarry-based alien planet in the show's history if they had (to say nothing of the entire four-year run of Blake's 7). Still, it seems odd that both Sarah and, especially, The Doctor are completely unable to grasp the simple and blatant warnings that the demolition crew are trying to tell them. Weren't the sirens their first clue?

We're treated to, however, one of the great bits of "possessed" acting ever seen in the series thanks to the terrific, twitchy performance of Elisabeth Sladen. Sladen is genuinely scary when possessed by Eldrad. It would have been simple for her to play Sarah as a catatonic zombie, but instead, Sarah is more of a mischievous child, which is all the more frightening. And the cliffhanger of the eponymous hand starting to move is genuinely creepy! And, more surprisingly, it looks impressive, too!

4M4 - The Masque of Mandragora 4

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:56:00 +0000

It's rare that we see The Doctor admit how dire the consequences are during any given story, but that's what we get in Episode Four when Sarah suggests to The Doctor that "the worse the situation, the worse your jokes get!" - an observation that The Doctor greets with stony silence. Sarah, realizing the change in mood, quietly asks The Doctor, "Things are bad, aren't they?". "Desperately bad.", replies The Doctor. A scene like this does its best to hammer home some drama to the proceedings.

However, most of this episode is spent waiting - people waiting for the masque to begin, others waiting for Mandragora to swallow the moon, and The Doctor waiting around for Heironymous to show up so he can unleash his plan to take over the Cult of Mandragora. The process in which The Doctor defeats the Cult is also underwhelming. We're meant to believe that there is a ball of fire behind Heironymous's mask, but it merely looks like what it is - a lamp in behind a mask on a stick. When Heironymous's power fades, so does the picture. And it doesn't help that Norman Jones, who played Heironymous, sounds not too dissimilar to Tom Baker when we see that The Doctor used his talents for mimicry to fool the brethren.

Overall, The Masque of Mandragora is not a strong story to start one of Doctor Who's more noteworthy seasons. And just one more question: Marco and Giuliano - were they gay?

4M3 - The Masque of Mandragora 3

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:37:00 +0000

For the only time in the history of the original series, the ability of the companions in The Doctor's care to hear and speak English whenever they encounter aliens or Italians is explained. And it is done poorly. "It's a Time Lord gift I allow you to share", says The Doctor to Sarah. And it's not even the normal Sarah that is asking The Doctor this. It's the hypnotized Sarah who, in asking The Doctor this question, is the reason why The Doctor is tipped off to her being hypnotized in the first place, because, apparently, no self respecting companion would even ask this question, despite the fact that viewers of the programme for the past fourteen years have probably been asking the same thing. How lazy.

I find it hard to think that no companion would have asked The Doctor about this before. If I was Ian or Barbara, after getting over the initial shock of being transported back in time several thousand years, I might have, in a quieter moment while killing time in the Cave of Skulls, posited to The Doctor about how, for a tribe that couldn't even start a fire to save their lives (literally), they still have a remarkable, if elementary, grasp of speaking and understanding a language some thousands of years before its actual creation.

This is one of the few times where contemporary non-canonical retroactive continuity (or CNCRC, for short) comes in handy and is made wholly believable. I can't remember where the idea of the TARDIS telepathic circuits playing Babel Fish and translating everything came from, but the fact that this concept was picked up fairly early on in the new series was a welcome relief.

Oh, and the Duke gets zapped and killed in this episode, which is good, because he was really getting on my nerves.

4M2 - The Masque of Mandragora 2

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:11:00 +0000

Two episodes into the Season 14 opener, and I can barely think of anything else to write about this story apart from how good it looks. The costumes are elegant, the sets by Barry Newbery are exquisite, and everyone seems to be doing a good job holding it all together.

There's just no oomph to the storyline, though, and The Doctor's involvement is minimal. A good chunk of the scenes are spent in those most boring of scenes - ceremonial rituals held by men in masks. Sure, their identity is supposed to be kept secret from...well, themselves, but Heironymous is identified as the leader of the Cult of Mandragora early on. The masks not only muffle the voices of the actors somewhat, but it's also tough sometimes to see which member of the cult is speaking. And since they're usually only just reciting passages used in their rituals, these scenes tend to seem very long indeed.

Plus, in keeping with the onset of the jelly baby offering Fourth Doctor of the seasons to come, The Doctor gets out of his supposedly precarious situation on the execution block by stopping the axeman, casually removing his scarf, then whipping said scarf around the axeman's legs to trip him and proceed with his escape. What self respecting 15th-century axeman would allow his doomed victim to stop him from chopping the victim's head off? If he did that to everyone on the block, he wouldn't get any work done at all. I get the feeling that this sequence, like the football rattle scene in Episode One, was worked out in rehearsal by Tom Baker and somehow managed to make it through the various stages of production to be included in the final broadcast episodes.

4M1 - The Masque of Mandragora 1

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:05:00 +0000

The Masque of Mandragora is an odd beast. My first experience with this story was with the novelization of this story by US distributor Pinnacle Books in the early 1980s, so, in fact, it is one of my first experiences with Doctor Who, in general. Oddly, though, it was one of the last Tom Baker stories I saw.

It's also never really caught on with me. I try every time I watch it to really dig in and get to grips with the story, but it never works, and my failure as a fan is that I can never determine why this so story registers so low in my memory. I am a fan, though, of the new TARDIS set, seen only in Season 14, apart from the actual console itself, which I find is too small and static to make any real sort of impact.

But a troubling development starts to occur in this episode, which was the first of this particular production block. The edgy and grumpy Doctor that Tom Baker excelled at in Season 13 is now gone. In his place is a calmer, gentler Doctor, and one who is prone to carry football rattles in his pocket to scare horses at precisely the right times in a sequence in Episode One. As innocent as this scene seems at the time, it's the start of a gradual slide for The Doctor in the way he treats supposedly terrifying situations, and how those around him are content to let him get away with it.

4L6 - The Seeds of Doom 6

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:43:00 +0000

Episode Six contains what is probably the most memorable death scene in Doctor Who history when Harrison Chase is seen off, getting ground up in his own compost machine to have his remains pumped out into the garden. Thankfully, the act of Chase being ground up like hamburger isn't seen, but his truly bloodcurdling scream is heard. In fact, the audio for the scene is one of the reasons why the sequence is so memorable. Geoffrey Burgon's score builds and builds during the preceding fight scene between The Doctor and Chase, but once Chase dies, the only sound heard for a few seconds afterward is the constant, grinding, mechanical sounds of the compost machine.

The sudden silence hammers home how ghastly and grisly Chase's fate was, but the whole scene is made as effective as it is because of the performances of Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. Both are mortified by what has just occurred. The Doctor tries to explain to a bound Sarah that he "tried to save him! He was trying to pull me in!". Sarah, clearly sickened and horrified by the experience, can only barely utter "Couldn't reach..." when trying to describe her vain attempts to hit the stop button on the compost machine. Powerful, powerful stuff.

The Seeds of Doom is probably as edgy as Doctor Who ever was without treading into the territory of gratuitous violence. The acting is superb, the direction is superb, the writing is superb, the general mood and feel is superb. It's also one of those rare stories that benefits, obviously, from The Doctor's presence, but is in no way affected by his role in the story. The Krynoid pod is found in the Antarctic without The Doctor's help; Scorby and Keeler steal the remaining pod, despite The Doctor's best intentions to stop them; Keeler is infected by the Krynoid, it grows to full size, and it, and Chase's mansion, are destroyed by a UNIT air strike at the end.

Looking ahead a bit, The Seeds of Doom could be compared to another classic story, The Caves of Androzani, in that Peter Davison's swansong in Doctor Who also saw the events of the story relatively oblivious to The Doctor's presence. And, like the esteemed praise that Caves often receives in Doctor Who fandom, The Seeds of Doom might just be the greatest Doctor Who story ever made.

4L5 - The Seeds of Doom 5

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:20:00 +0000

It's in this episode that sees Scorby and The Doctor form an uneasy alliance against the Krynoid, and, by extension, an increasingly mad Chase. The scenes between the two in the darkened cottage are completely gripping, and John Challis and Tom Baker raise their games even higher than the lofty acting heights they've achieved this far. They're equally matched by the wonderful Elisabeth Sladen.

Sladen's nearing the end of her time in Doctor Who, and it is tough to find a better performance by her in the series. The way she pushes Scorby's buttons later in this episode is brilliant, and her response to Scorby's chauvinistic remarks is just lovely as she quickly smiles, then blasts back before she bolts out the door to be heroic: "What was that you just said about women?"

And then there's Tony Beckley as Harrison Chase. His being taken over by the Krynoid beast in this episode is a truly haunting scene, made even more effective by Geoffrey Burgon's evocative score. His rallying speech to his plants is just as terrifying. This story has either lucked out by securing so many great actors in so many great performances, or been fortunate enough to have Douglas Camfield as director to choose the actors in the first place.

The UNIT years officially wane down to an anticlimax when the replacements for the Brigadier and Benton (Major Beresford and Sgt. Henderson, respectively) arrive on the scene. I'm glad that two fill-in characters were used, as it would have been sad to see the Brig so underused, and it would have been even sadder to see Benton be garden food.

4L4 - The Seeds of Doom 4

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Episode Four begins with just about the most heroic, violent act ever committed by a Doctor in order to save his companion from certain death, in one the most memorable scenes of the entire story. As we pick up the action from the Episode Three cliffhanger, Sarah is about to have her arm infected by the Krynoid pod, which is about to sprout. The Doctor, seeing this through the sky light, jumps through the glass, knocks over Scorby, breaks a chair over his back, then pulls a gun on Chase, who says dryly, "What do you do for an encore, Doctor?"

The Doctor's reply? "I win!", as he pushes aside another guard, grabs Sarah, and makes a dash out of the room. I have seen this scene thirty times and I punch the air harder each time I see it. The Doctor gets his own comeuppance, though, as Scorby catches him investigating the exploded pod, and, in an even more violent scene, really roughs The Doctor up by throwing him repeatedly into some garbage cans before showing him the massive composter that Chase has installed in his house.

And yet, as awesome that this story continues to be, the one thing I still notice every time I watch this episode, sometimes more than anything else, is the scene where Sarah rescues The Doctor in the nick of time before her friend is about to be ground up in the compost machine. Tom Baker turns over, tries vainly to wipe his nose, but fails utterly to stop the large dollop of snot that drops from his nose soon after. The sequence is so flawless up until that point, though, that I can see why Douglas Camfield didn't order a retake.

The final shot of this episode, that of a cheap rubber Krynoid costume bouncing towards the camera, has been mocked a few times, including on one notable 2|Entertain DVD documentary, but it doesn't look that bad, and the super rare night shoot is shot fantastically well on glorious videotape by director Camfield's team.

4L3 - The Seeds of Doom 3

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:43:00 +0000

I don't mean to keep harping on this, but each episode of this story gives me another reason to appreciate the sheer anger of Tom Baker's Doctor in this story. His berating of Dunbar and Thackery in order to get them to listen to him is full of fire, and to see this Doctor use brute force to knock out a limousine driver seems out of character.

But that's what The Doctor in The Seeds of Doom is like. He is almost an antihero - a role rarely seen since the very early William Hartnell days. This story is the last of Season 13, the last story of this particular production block, and the last to see a Doctor this edgy.

Elisabeth Sladen sees Baker raise his game, and so she does her best to match his growliness, especially in the afore-mentioned scene in Thackery's office. We're also briefly introduced to the dotty Amelia Ducat, and we finally see Harrison Chase strut around his mansion in full glory, conducting electronic symphonies, praising his plants, and being the best and closest facsimile to a James Bond villain that Doctor Who would ever see. In fact, while the Jon Pertwee's era was often (inaccurately) compared to Bond, The Seeds of Doom is probably the closest Who cousin to Ian Fleming's secret agent.

The Seeds of Doom is bloody brilliant thus far, driven by its actors who are helped along themselves by a smashing script.

4L2 - The Seeds of Doom 2

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:22:00 +0000

The Seeds of Doom is structured, essentially, as a four-part story set in England with a two-part prologue that takes place in the Antarctic. This approach works terribly well, as the pacing of these first two episodes is quickfire without having to worry about sustaining the same story thread for the next four episodes.

We've already seen brief glimpses of the main antagonist, Harrison Chase, and his minions, Scorby and Keeler. We're properly introduced to Scorby and Keeler in this episode. Remember when I reviewed The Ambassadors of Death and The Mind of Evil and mentioned how Reegan (William Dysart) and Mailer (William Marlowe) were two of the more well written and well acted "thugs" in Doctor Who, and how they were the first of a trio of well acted thugs in Who? Well, Scorby is the third, and possibly the best of them all. John Challis brings such a cold menace to the role, and he is simply magnetic in every scene he's in. Challis is one of many actors who give phenomenal performances in this story, and while his is one of the best, he may have to yield the title of top performance to Mark Jones as Keeler.

Jones's Keeler is a top notch bit of acting. Keeler is so paranoid and so edgy, and is in no way comfortable when forced to hold a gun on The Doctor and Sarah. He is a man out of his element throughout this entire episode. He's forced to pair up with the ultra-violent Scorby, he's not at all happy about being transported to the coldest place on Earth, and, especially, as noted before, holding a gun is totally alien to him. Look at the way Jones awkwardly holds the pistol to guard an already bound Doctor and Sarah. His arm is extended to its full length, holding the gun away from himself as much as he is keeping his prisoners under guard.

Tom Baker once again raises his game, showing a previously unseen side of The Doctor (that of pure rage) when screaming after Scorby when the thug takes Sarah hostage. Only two episodes in, and this might just be the best acted story ever in Doctor Who. And I haven't even started to mention Tony Beckley as Harrison Chase...

4L1 - The Seeds of Doom 1

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:02:00 +0000

Hubert Rees played a bit of a daft staff officer, Captain Ransom, in The War Games. It's a lovable performance, particularly when he excitedly tells Lady Jennifer the wonders of paperwork, thinking that she is as enthralled in the subject as he is. Rees's next role in Doctor Who was as Stevenson in The Seeds of Doom - a small performance, but one that is absolutely crucial to the success of this story.

Look how intently Rees as Stevenson examines the Krynoid pod that his fellow scientists pulled out of the ice at the Antarctic research base. He tries to put his finger on what is different about this frozen pod, and then decides: "It's alive. That's it. It's alive!" Look how Rees delivers that line. He doesn't shout it out as Archimedes would, but instead he almost mutters it under his breath with deadly seriousness. It's an acting decision that lends so much gravitas to what could have been a melodramatic moment, and it fittingly sets the scene for the rest of the story.

Speaking of fine performances (and I will be a few times over these next six episodes), Tom Baker continues his dark turn as The Doctor started in Pyramids of Mars, perfected in The Brain of Morbius, then, somehow, exceeding that perfection in this story. Never before has The Doctor appeared as churlish, almost downright rude, as Baker's Doctor in The Seeds of Doom. He balances his berating of the Antarctic base staff by being humorously eccentric in the scenes set in Dunbar's office, playing with his yo-yo, playfully plopping his golf shoe clad feet on his desk, and departing for Antarctica, toothbrush in hand, with the words "No touch pod. Could be dangerous.".

The transformation of Winlett from a normal human being to a grotesquely altered alien life form is done staggeringly well, with each revelation of how far his condition has deteriorated being even more shocking than the last. A fine set-up episode to what looks to be a monumental story.

4K4 - The Brain of Morbius 4

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Picture in your mind these three scenes in Doctor Who history: a shocking scene that contains blood, another which sees The Doctor callously mocking a disfigured rival, and a third scene that sees The Doctor killing his enemy with cyanide. You can find these three scenes in two separate instances in Doctor Who history. One, over the course of Season 22, Colin Baker's first full season as The Doctor. The second, throughout the four episodes of The Brain of Morbius.

What a difference nine years make. Such violence is seen as dark, edgy and brilliant in 1976's The Brain of Morbius. The same approach was one of the main reasons Doctor Who was nearly canceled for good in 1985. Why is there such a disparate reaction between the two eras in Doctor Who history? Is it because the Philip Hinchliffe era is perceived to actually good, a public perception not often granted to the Colin Baker era?

My opinions on the Sixth Doctor era will have to wait for another day, but the main reason why The Brain of Morbius is so good is because it pushes the boundaries of decency to their absolute limits, possibly at the risk of crossing the lines a few times (which it does in spades). There is no point in producing anything - be it television, film, radio, or even something as mundane as spreadsheets or gardening utensils - if the people responsible for its creation aren't going to give it their all, despite what possible limitations might stand in their way. The Brain of Morbius is the culmination of just such an attitude, with everyone turning it up to eleven to produce one of the most grim, shocking, and thoroughly entertaining stories in Doctor Who history.

That initial impression that was left on me when I was 12 years old is now shattered.

4K3 - The Brain of Morbius 3

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:22:00 +0000

Things take a shocking and gruesome turn late in this episode when Condo knocks the jar containing Morbius's brain over, sending Solon into a wild rage, pull out a gun, and shoot his trusty servant. As if the gloppy brain and its preserving fluid being spilled onto the floor wasn't enough, but the explosion of blood out of Condo's chest from Solon's gun shot. is still stunning today.

Very rarely has blood even been shown in Doctor Who up until this point, let alone spilled in such a violent and savage way. It's a testament to what was becoming allowable for most on television screens around the world by 1976, and, while Mary Whitehouse and the National Viewers Association were beginning to make a stink about such things, a similar sequence in the final episode of Blake's 7 in 1981, a show intended for older viewers, elicited an even stronger reaction at the time.

While I feel Doctor Who is at its best when it pushes the boundaries of normal television programmes, and I am wholeheartedly behind some of the more graphic and grisly aspects of mid-1970s Doctor Who, I can also see the Visigoths come over the hill, ready to sack the Roman Empire that is brilliant, edgy Doctor Who whenever I see scenes like the shooting of Condo. With each successive gruesome sequence, more attention was paid to it, which means more people were expecting to complain about the next time such a scene occurred.

On a completely different topic, joining the ranks of fine acting performances in this episode is Michael Spice, who is finally "seen" in this episode as a brain in a jar. Credit to Spice for making his dialogue so chilling and alive, and also for both he and Philip Madoc for raising a scene consisting of a man talking to a prop brain in a jar to something worthy of high art.

4K2 - The Brain of Morbius 2

noreply@blogger.com (Steven) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:23:00 +0000

Condo is often mocked and derided for being a quite silly character, but I find him rather sweet. His complete lack of intelligence, though, says a lot about the plight of Solon and the neuro-surgeon's attempt to resurrect Morbius in a new body. If Solon has had to rely on the help of an oaf like Condo as his only assistant for all this time, then the fact that he has managed to achieve anything at all in regards to fashioning a new body for Morbius is remarkable in itself.

Condo also receives a caring portrayal by Colin Fay, who manages to turn Condo's simplistic, guttural lines into actual dialogue (although those same lines do make Condo instantly quotable). It's a thankless job that Fay has taken on, especially since most of his scenes are opposite Philip Madoc as Solon.

There's a reason why Radio Free Skaro has a fascination with Madoc, and it's not just because of his name. Madoc was already fantastic as the War Lord in his last appearance in Who, 1969's The War Games, but Solon is Madoc's definitive role in Doctor Who. Operatic at times, yet equally as effective when quietly negotiating with the Maren in order to secure The Doctor's release from being burned at the stake.

Speaking of the burning scene, it's probably my favourite one of the whole episode. First off, Tom Baker is hilarious. When Solon interrupts the burning ceremony and is chastised by Maren, The Doctor speaks up, "Take no notice, Solon. I'm delighted to see you! The music's terrible!" (The Doctor seems to have a problem with music in Season 13, as we'll find out in the next story). Obviously, The Doctor realizes that being anywhere is better than being about to be burned at the stake, but both he and Solon know exactly why the scientist wants The Doctor released - so that Solon can kill The Doctor himself and take his head.

Solon's overriding desire to have The Doctor's head makes The Doctor and Sarah's return to Solon's castle all that more intriguing. The Doctor realizes that he needs Solon to properly diagnose Sarah's blindness, and, to my surprise, he trusts Solon's findings implicitly, even though Solon's solution of asking the Sisterhood for some elixir means The Doctor has to return to the very people who wanted him dead even more than Solon did.

A special mention, too, for Elisabeth Sladen's great performance as a blinded Sarah, as she manages to show just the right amount of fear, sadness, and self-pity that any normal person would feel in that same situation. She also just looks like she can't see, and stumbles around with incredible believability. We're nearing the end of Sladen's time in Doctor Who, but her talent is very much on display in this episode.