Hmmm, didn't we bid adieu to the silly seventies at the start of Season 18? "The Leisure Hive" was serious to the point of being sombre -- nobody so much as cracked a smile through the whole thing. Now we move on to "Meglos" to find... a dodecahedron-worshipping cult, a band of imbecilic hirsutes, and a megalomaniacal cactus. It's all gone Douglas Adamsy again.
Sarah -
I was just thinking the same thing. You know, this is one of those stories that I vividly remember watching for the first time. In my memory, the dodecahedron was larger --but isn't that always the case?
Speaking of the dodecahedron, who should be the leader of its cult but our beloved Jacqueline Hill! How wonderful to see her again, lo these many years on.
Harry -
Our Barbara! Only, she wasn't Barbara here. In a twist of casting, Hill ended up playing a role quite similar to Tlotoxl in "The Aztecs". How's that for having one's career come full circle? With this appearance, Hill became part of a very small group of actors to play both a companion and another character in the Whoniverse.
Sarah -
Did you watch the lovely tribute to Jacqueline Hill in the DVD extras?
Harry -
Alas, I was stuck watching it by other means. How was it?
Sarah -
It was sweet to hear so many friends and colleagues praise her -- including her Canadian husband, director Alvin Rakoff. She had taken time off after leaving Doctor Who to raise her children and found it challenging to get work in the 70s. It makes me happy that Doctor Who found a place once again for one of my favorite companions.
Harry -
Hill -- or rather Lexa -- leads the Deons, a cult that believes the dodecahedron is a gift from Ti, the local unseen omnipresent god being on the planet Tigella. Her cult shares an underground city with the Savants, who believe in science and technology. Both groups share a problem in that the dodecahedron - power source for their planet - is acting up and neither side can figure out why. Well, both sides have their own explanations but neither will hear the other one out. So Zastor, the planet's elder, decides to call the Doctor to Tigella to mediate the dispute.
Unfortunately, the Doctor and Romana are occupied with fixing K-9 again. Again! Can you believe it?
Sarah -
If we didn't know better, we might think someone was out to get him -- or at lease remove him from the series.
Harry -
Now that we are watching the show in order, this constant shabby treatment of K-9 is starting to piss me off. If they wanted to do away with him, they should have just done it, not carry on this endless cycle of breakdowns and TARDIS repair scenes.
Sarah -
Right? K-9 deserved better. It's insulting to have him constantly breaking down and left behind. I'm shaking my fist in irritation, which is quite impeding my ability to type.
Harry -
Part One was the longest buildup to start a story that we've ever seen. It's more like a prologue to a three parter. The Doctor and Romana are in the console room with K-9 the entire time. Meanwhile down on Tigella we see a number of scenes showing the Deons in dispute with the Savants, as they wait for the Doctor's eventual arrival. The best part was the introduction of Meglos and his band of hirsute mercenaries, the Gaztaks. I'm not entirely sure how a cactus became the last sentient being on the planet Zolfa-Thura, but its transference into the kidnapped Earthling's body was freaky cool. Shortly after that, Meglos was able to shape-shift into the Doctor's form, and headed down to Tigella in his place. At that point, the story finally got under way.
Sarah -
The story never explained why he need a kidnapped Earthling. Was that supposed to make us care more as viewers?
Naming a character Meglos is quite handy and should be done more often in reality. I mean, wouldn't it be helpful if you could meet someone named Meglos and immediately know that he's a megalomaniac? You'd save so much time and energy by just avoiding him from the beginning.
Harry -
Trapping the TARDIS in a time loop, Meglos gets to Tigella first, is welcomed by the locals and gains admittance into the Dodecahedron room alone. There, it compresses the energy source to fit in the palm of a hand, and starts sneaking its way back out of the underground city...
...just in time for the real Doctor and friends to arrive and face the now-irate locals. Woops!
Sarah -
Which brings us to my favorite line: when the Doctor introduces himself to Lexa, who responds with, "I know who you are." I know she's already met the Meglos-Doctor, but in my fanninsh little mind it was Barbara recognizing HER Doctor.
Harry -
That moment was very "meta" before meta was a thing.
Sarah -
Can you tell my interest was waning a bit around this point? Still, I have to say that Tom Baker delivers a wonderful performance as Meglos. You always knew which was the Doctor and which was Meglos -- even without the cactus face. Baker managed a menacing gleam in his eye whenever he was Meglos. It was brilliant!
Harry -
Meglos-Doctor had that silent, staring, Rasputiny kind of menace that lent itself perfectly to the role. I wonder how Tom felt, having spent half of the previous production weighted down by mounds of burgundy and "old man" makeup, to be done up with cactus thorns all over his face and hands this time. Was JN-T trying his patience deliberately?
As for Romana and K-9, they got shafted by the new writing team of John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch. We've already noted K-9's umpteenth breakdown. Once everyone got to Tigella, the first thing that happened was K-9's batteries ran down and he removed himself from the action. I mean honestly. And Romana, well, her choice of a 17th century cavalier's costume was odd. Blame the costume department for that one, but the writers stuck her in the familiar runaround of being accosted by a band of threat-making hirsutes, forcing her to be dragged around for a while before talking her way to freedom. We've seen it before. Neither of the Doctor's companions got very good treatment in this story.
Sarah -
"How to unload a Time Lord, Time Lady and mechanical dog in just one season" by John Nathan-Turner. I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories, but it's hard not to see a pattern here. That said, Lalla Ward more than rises to the challenge of putting hirsutes in their place. Speaking of the pirates, Frederick Treves performance as Brotodac (an anagram of "bad actor" -- did Flanagan and McCulloch find themselves clever, or what?) is quite lovely. He's a simple man as space pirates go and really wants nothing more than the Doctor's coat. And who can blame him, it's quite a nice coat.
Harry -
He got to enjoy the coat, however briefly.
One positive to this story was the set design. By using several smaller sets they made it look like the underground city was a vast complex. The one time use of Scene-Sync technology made the scenes on the surface of Zolfa-Thura look more genuine than the usual CSO efforts of the seventies. I wonder why it was a one time thing, never used again.
Sarah -
I'm sure it's to do with budgets, or lack thereof.
Harry -
Probably lack thereof.
Sarah -
Overall, Meglos is a story with great ideas, but shoddy execution. While I want to savor every moment of our Doctor's final season, I was just bored with this story.
Harry -
Jacqueline Hill's appearance was a highlight, but her sudden, clumsy death was a lowlight. It felt like an editorial throw-in for drama's sake, but it added nothing to the story other than forcing the other characters to step awkwardly around Lexa's body. Yuck.
Well, at least the "Earthling" will be headed home safe and sound. After the Doctor and Romana drop him off, you know where we are headed next, right?
Sarah -
I'm so excited! Next Stop -- E-Space!
Harry -
Best Line: "I am Meglos!" (I liked the megalohaha delivery of that line.)
Favourite Moment: The Doctor watches his Meglos-doppelganger get punched in the stomach, then he gets punched in the stomach.
Lasting Image: The Scene-Sync'd group scene on the surface of Zolfa-Thura.
7/10
Sarah -
Best Line: "I know who you are!"
Favorite Moment: The time loop in the TARDIS
Lasting Image: Cactus-Doctor
6/10
Our marathon continues with Story #111: Full Circle...
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