Story #63 - The Mutants (1972)

Sarah -
As if military life weren’t hard enough, our heroes Cotton and Stubbs have found themselves under the command of a megalomaniacal Marshal on a skybase hovering over the planet Solos. What are two honest Earth soldiers to do in this unfortunate situation? Surely, the Solonians deserve independence, regardless of the desperate situation back on Earth. Surely, the Administrator will understand the desperation of the soldiers and depose the Marshal. Surely, the announcement of Earth’s withdrawal from Solos will calm the heated situation. Surely, the Marshal’s troops won’t be forced to resort to fracking. Or will they?


Harry -
Well Sarah, the answers to all those questions were sorted out within five minutes, leaving us to slog through six tedious episodes to the final denouement.

I hate to say it, but this story was boooooring! It started off as an intruiging take on imperialism, but quickly derailed into a cycle of capture-escape-capture for the Doctor and his friends at the hands of said megalomaniac Marshal.

Did you find this as tough a watch as I did?


Sarah -
I kept waiting for things to pick up a bit, but other than the dramatic blown airlock scene, it all stayed pretty dull.

I’m tired of the Doctor being stuck on Earth and used as an errand boy by the Time Lords.


Harry -
One of the revelations of this adventure of ours, Sarah, is how Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks kept getting themselves caught in ruts while producing the show. In their first season, they got into a rut with the Doctor stuck on Earth. In the second season, they got into a rut by putting the Master in every story. Now they've gotten themselves into a rut by turning the Doctor into a Time Lord errand boy. Stop the madness!


Sarah -
To be fair, it's got to be hard not to get in a rut when you're producing series after series of any show.


Harry -
I knew as I watched this story that I was going to be hard on it. The allegory of British imperialism is clear, but also uninteresting until the Marshal goes koo-koo, then it's more about the Doctor and friends stopping him from installing himself as tyrant.


Sarah -
In my notes, I wrote re: the Marshal, "Oh joy, another petty tyrant. Who cares?"


Harry -
The "interesting twist" about the seasons of Solos and how they affect the Solonians was interesting, but came at an awkward moment. There were still two episodes to go, and many more escape-capture-escape scenes to endure.


Sarah -
As revelations go, it wasn't that revelatory, was it?


Harry -
The Solonians were dull. Jaeger was an idiot. Crockett and Tubbs were amusing only for their accents. Even the Doctor and Jo seemed bored with it all. I was waiting for one of them to shake a fist towards Gallifrey and scream "Get me off this damn planet!" or "Get me off this damn skybase!"

Am I being too harsh?


Sarah -
No, you are not. Should we get ourselves off this damn planet and move on to (hopefully) greener pastures?


Harry -
Yeah, I don't have much else to say about this one, other than that it might have captured 70s sci fi better than any other Doctor Who story to this point. It's almost a template that we'll see echoed, not just in Who, but in other sci fi shows of the day.

Things like:

- the clean white interior of the skybase. It may have been done before, but it really jumped out in this story, along with some of the funky sciencey graphics on the walls.

- that font! You know the one I'm talking about. On the wall of the transporter room, there was signage segregating Overlords and Solonians between transporter capsules, and reminding Overlords to remember their breathing masks. All printed in that unmistakeable 70s sci fi font.

- more of that "Boards of Canada" soundtrack. It was way less blaring and experimental than what we heard in "The Sea Devils," but still very of its time.

- you mentioned the dramatic scene where the airlock is blown away by the Marshal. I loved that image of Varan floating away, overlaid atop a still image of space. Loved it!

- perhaps the most 70s moment of them all was Ky's transformation from folk artist to glam rocker.  Wow!

Okay, I think it might get nasty again if we hang around much longer.


Sarah -
Don't want to risk that. Let's move it along!

Best Line: "Genocide as a side effect! You ought to write a paper on that, Professor."

Favorite Moment: Geoffrey Palmer's brief appearance as the Administrator.

Lasting Image: Jo and Company forming a human chain to avoid being blown out of the airlock.

4/10


Harry -
Poor Geoffrey Palmer, all his Doctor Who appearances are brief.  Just a quick moment of Hadoke here: Paul Whitsun-Jones appeared previously as the Squire in "The Smugglers," while Garrick Hagon, who played Ky, also appeared in the recent story "A Town Called Mercy," as Abraham the undertaker.

Best Line: Didn't jot one down, such was my desire to get through it.

Favourite Moment: the airlock drama

Lasting Image: the Marshal with his talking stick

5/10

 



Our marathon continues with Story #64: The Time Monster...

Story #62 - The Sea Devils (1972)

Sarah -
Back in high school and college, I spent loads of time explaining to skeptical friends that even if they had problems with the effects on Doctor Who, they should watch it for the excellent writing. Yet, somehow, I hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about the actual writers. This little project of ours has turned this all around, which is to say, Mac is Back! Seeing Malcolm Hulke’s name on the opening credits is one of the highlights of this era of Doctor Who.


Harry -
Pleased to watch another Mac Hulke story, this time a sequel to Doctor Who and the Silurians. Jon Pertwee gets a second chance to broker peace between humans and the reptilian inhabitants beneath the planet's surface.


Sarah -
And it works out about as well as the first time!


Harry -
Naturally, Hulke provides another searing indictment of humanity, and the pompous buffoons who run its governments. Go Mac!


Sarah -
I would expect nothing less.


Harry -
Before we get to that, the story starts off innocently enough, in the Doctor Who sense of things. We see some murky goings on in the sea, with ships mysteriously being sunk, culminating in an attack on an abandoned sea fort by a new monster - the so-called Sea Devils.


Sarah -
What a coincidence that the Master happens to be jailed in the same waters. I mean, what are the chances of that happening? Surely, he can't have anything to do with the missing ship shenanigans, can he?


Harry -
It's uncanny!


Sarah -
Utterly. The Doctor and Jo arrive at the island prison to visit with the Master, who is as charming and delightful as ever -- the best frenemy a Time Lord could hope for.


Harry -
I wish the exchanges with my old frenemies were as witty and stylish. Was this the first time the Doctor admitted that he and the Master used to be friends? Yes, here's the quote: "He used to be a friend of mine once. A very good friend. In fact, you might almost say we were at school together."


Sarah -
Do you have many frenemies?


Harry -
No, none at all. Frenemies was a high school thing.  I have only mortal enemies now.


Sarah -
I’ll keep that in mind.

Though there have been many Doctor-Master combinations, Pertwee and Delgado will always be my favorite. Their chemistry is perfect and watching them is always a delight. The fencing scene is one of the highlights of this story for me. They’re both having a blast, and the Doctor can’t resist giving the Master another chance, just to keep things interesting.


Harry -
The Doctor clearly feels a bit of sentiment for the Master, for him to go to the trouble of paying a visit to his isolated prison. And to sit through prison governor Trenchard's ridiculous fussing over his and Jo's UNIT passes. I liked how Trenchard's obsession with passes became a running joke through the story.


Sarah -
Oh, Trenchard. Another in a line of petty bureaucrats in Doctor Who, but saved from mediocrity by Clive Morton’s performance. While Trenchard is in the Master’s power and something of a buffoon, Morton conveys the pathos in Trenchard’s character. As with so many other Doctor Who characters who have discovered they are not as in control as they thought they were, Trenchard believes that his actions will redeem his past failures. In the end, his actions are chalked up to patriotism, and not his own hubris -- but we viewers know better, having seen this all before.


Harry -
And he's not even the most loathsome bureaucrat in this story! But we'll get to him later.

Another running joke, for some, is the score. All experimental electronica. I love this kind of music, so for me this score is the electronic zenith of the 70s. The ultimate Pertwee soundtrack. It's forward-looking, but so of its time I can't see anything like this being used again. In fact, contemporary Who is the complete opposite: big, symphonic blockbuster music. And that's fine. I'll always have "The Sea Devils" to enjoy.


Sarah -
And you’re welcome to it! I don’t want to start a major row here, Dear Harry, but the soundtrack is perhaps my least favorite part of this spectacular story. Every tinny note set me on edge and even undermined the story at points. Still, it’s inextricably part of "The Sea Devils", so perhaps I should be less harsh in my judgment. I apologize for any hurt feelings I may have caused.


Harry -
Hah, we might get more readers if we had more rows!


Sarah -
We’ll have to work on generating a bit more drama.


Harry -
Another tip of the cap I want to give is for all of part two. This is one of the best single episodes of Doctor Who ever! It starts with the dazed crew man staggering along ranting about a "Sea Devil." The Doctor fiddles with a radio set, then goes to investigate. A frantic chase scene erupts, played out on stairwells and crazily-angled corridors. In the Sea Devil, we finally get a monster that can run, not shuffle, and it elevates the scariness of the scene. Trapped in the room where they started, the Doctor scares off the monster, then rigs up the radio set to send a message. The radio then blows up, just one of several quick comedic moments in the episode. Back at Trenchard's office, the Doctor gets in some office putting, some more quips, and that wild fencing duel with the Master, culminating in a knife-throwing cliffhanger. Holy wow, this episode is full of win!


Sarah -
You’ve done a spectacular job of summarizing episode two, Old Chap, but you’ve left out what is perhaps my favorite scene ever in any episode of Doctor Who! Near the end of the first episode, when the Doctor and Jo are climbing up the ladder to the sea fort and “Jo” is clearly a bloke wearing her pantsuit none-too-well and shaking what his mama gave him – because you know, that’s how ladies move.

What amuses me most is that, in my memory, which is no doubt how I want this scene to actually play, he’s wearing a miniskirt, go-go boots, and a full beard.

If only.


Harry -
There was something about the way the stuntman climbed that ladder, as if he was being electrocuted. It looked as if "Jo" would go flying into the sea at any moment. Obviously it made for lasting memories.

I agree that this story might be the best of the Doctor-Master conflicts. Pertwee and Delgado crackle just by being in the same room together. This might be Delgado's best turn in the role, and one of my favourite Delgado Master stories. Maybe we've become accustomed to his bonkers plots that this one didn't seem as jarring.


Sarah -
Seems entirely plausible to me!


Harry -
The titular monsters of the story end up being almost secondary characters, until that next fabulous scene on the beach when they emerge en masse ("en masse" in Doctor Who parlance meaning exactly six).


Sarah -
Six isn’t bad. There were only three Daleks in "Day of the Daleks". Six is positively a crowd!


Harry -
For all the repeated dashing to and fro from the prison to the naval base, the story never lags. Each episode brings a fresh angle, be it the Sea Devil and the minefield, the sunken submarine, or the arrival of Walker, the arrogant bureaucrat from the Ministry of Defence. His pompous bullying is something else, eh?


Sarah -
Parliamentary Private Secretary Walker was a complete douche. Sorry for assaulting your ears with such foul language, Old Chap, but that’s what I wrote in my notes when he appeared.


Harry -
He was a complete and total arse.


Sarah -
He made me pine for Trenchard! Like all bullies, he was also a coward when the chips were down. His only response to Jo’s heroic climb through the ventilation shaft is to think of himself: “What if you get caught? They might make reprisals against the innocent.” Utter douche.

And, then, a hovercraft! Can this story possibly get better?


Harry -
That hovercraft was majestic. I want one! Barring that, I want to ride in one!


Sarah -
Well, that sorts out your next birthday gift.


Harry -
Kudos to the Royal Navy for allowing the BBC to use so many of their toys in the making of this story.


Sarah -
I have to admit I found myself worrying about Jo – a civilian in the middle of a military assault – but she’s a lady who can handle a bit of mucking about with the best of them.


Harry -
She did more running, climbing and sneaking about than anyone else in the story.


Sarah -
She definitely held her own.

In the end, the Doctor reverses the polarity of the neutron flow and saves the day.


Harry -
Of course.


Sarah -
I couldn’t help but be disappointed when the Doctor justifies his actions by claiming he did what he had to do to prevent a war.


Harry -
He killed the Sea Devils to prevent more deaths. APPALLING.


Sarah -
I seem to recall him lecturing the Brig for doing the exact same thing to the Silurians, whom the Doctor believes should have been more properly called the Eocenes, for the record.


Harry -
The production team seem to have trouble identifying and naming the creatures on Earth, too often falling back on disparaging terms like "savages" and "sea devils". Yes, yes, times were different, but it bugs me now. And if the Doctor is resorting to minor acts of genocide, I say it's time he gets the heck off this planet for a change.

Shall we join him?


Sarah -
Yes, let’s.

Best Line: The iconic, “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”

Favorite Moment: The Doctor-Master joust

Lasting Image: Stuntman Jo on the ladder

9/10


Harry -
Best Line: "Your usual childish desire to gloat, perhaps?" The Doctor crackles with sarcasm during a face off with the Master.

Favourite Moment: anytime Pertwee and Delgado are in the same room together.

Lasting Image: The Doctor-Master joust, as Pertwee gets right into it, while Delgado tries to fend him off.

8/10

 



Our marathon continues with Story #63: The Mutants...