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...
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...
