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...
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