Sarah -
One of the things I appreciate about this era of Doctor Who is that you can see the effort being put into the series. The production team may strike out a lot, but they're definitely swinging for the fences. "Battlefield" has its problems, but it's also got ambition and I have to admire that.
Harry -
Yes, this much is admirable about "Battlefield". For most of season 26, the crew will be pushing to instill a cinematic quality to the show.
It's too bad no one thought to tell the actors this. Everyone overplays their roles, taking panto acting to a whole new level. From Sylvester's face-pulling to Sophie's "BOOM!", from Mordred's panto laughter to the I-don't-know-what-she's-going-for-here inconsistency of Bambera, it's all so bad -- with one gleaming exception. On her third go-around on Doctor Who, Jean Marsh steals the show as Morgaine, playing it with just the right tone of cold fury.
Sarah -
Jean Marsh is AMAZING! She dominates every scene she's in and is a wonderfully complicated baddie. Yes, she's willing to unleash the Destroyer to devour the entire world, but she also pays her son's bar tab by restoring the sight of the inn owner.
Harry -
That was a thoughtful touch.
Sarah -
Marsh's Morgaine remains my second-favorite of her Doctor Who characters. The first, of course, being Sara Kingdom, who is finally reunited with her brother, Bret Vyon -- aka our beloved Brigadier.
Harry -
Funny how they ended up in another story together, two decades later.
Sarah -
I love that Nicholas Courtney returns for this story. The establishing scenes with Doris are lovely and they look so happy.
Harry -
That is one hell of an estate they have. It looks bigger than the old UNIT headquarters.
Sarah -
I think my house is bigger than the old UNIT HQ! The arrival of the Doctor, of course, means the Brig will be called back to action for King (King? How far in the future is this meant to be if Charles is on the throne?) and country.
Harry -
I wondered about that. The whole "when do UNIT stories take place?" debate has always baffled me. Even though it takes an entire episode for the Brig to join the action, it's great to see him again.
Sarah -
He's ready to get back in the saddle again, but perhaps not ready to meet his replacement: "The officer who requested the information on the Doctor, this Brigadier Bambera. Good man, is he?" Um, no so much, Brig.
Bambera. Oh, Winifred Bambera. What a missed opportunity. It's quite impressive that a woman of color was cast as the new head of UNIT, but the story undercuts her at every point. She's initially presented as a strong leader and it's all downhill from there. She gets into a fist fight with Ancelyn when she takes him into custody and ends up making googly eyes at him.
Harry -
That was ridiculous. When Lethbridge-Stewart arrives and reasserts the casual sexism of the 70s (or whenever!), she fumes at his chauvinism, but as the story goes on she becomes just one of "the girls".
Sarah -
I was enraged that the story ended with Bambera heading out with "the girls" (in her full UNIT kit) to do some shopping. WTF? The leader of UNIT heads off for a spot of shopping while the men folk stay home to tend to the housework? Bah!
Harry -
So, so ridiculous.
Sarah -
And then there's the worst line of all: "You're all under arrest. You and your freaky friends." Made my heart hurt.
In retrospect, "Battlefield" is an important story in the history of UNIT, as it forms a bridge from the homespun early days to the UNIT of the current series. We know that Bambera will turn out to be a trailblazer for those who come after her, but I still wish she had a better story.
Harry -
I hope that this case was the one that sparked a wholesale reorg of UNIT into a proper, professional outfit. As a covert military operation, they were utterly shambolic. Setting up camp with a nuclear missile in full view of the locals, letting a mysterious man and woman traipse straight into the Brigadier's mobile HQ, and getting their arses summarily kicked by a bunch of fantasy LARPers. What a debacle!
Sarah -
They should count themselves lucky for not ending up hanging upside down from a tree in their smalls!
Harry -
I can't even begin to explain what this story was about. So, in Ben Aaronovitch's view, King Arthur, Morgaine and Mordred were figures from another dimension, whose spaceship rested at the bottom of Lake Vortigern. They reappeared in contemporary Earth (or whenever!) to prepare to fight one more battle. I think? It's a common trope in Doctor Who that aliens or some sort of science fictiony business is what gave rise to popular myths as we know them. The mighty Sutekh being the source of Egyptian mythology and artwork, for example.
Sarah -
Exposing Earth mythologies as the product of alien encounters is always a reliable Doctor Who theme. It's surprising that they never got around to the Arthurian legends before this.
Harry -
Anyway, UNIT stumbles over the affair, as do the Doctor and Ace. They take possession of Excalibur, the prize that Morgaine is seeking. She dispatches her son and the LARPers to get it back. Repeated battles ensue. It was all very tiring. I would have taken it more seriously if they hadn't inserted awkward moments of comedy at random moments. Like Bambera hitting on Ancelyn, or the appearance of turbocharged Bessie. It felt like another "throw in everything but the kitchen sink" anniversary story, really.
Sarah -
It's all over the place, but there are some nice moments. I liked Ace's relationship with Shou Yuing, especially the scene in the chalk circle when they have to overcome anger and paranoid to work together. Ace seems to end of making local friends in so many of her stories -- a companion's companion, if you will.
Harry -
Yeah, so much of Ace's reputation is marked by her surly moments and her affection for explosives. I'd forgotten how often she bonded with other people throughout her adventures with the Doctor.
Sarah -
I would have liked to see Shou Yuing's character developed a bit more. Really, almost all of the characters could have used more development.
Harry -
Agreed. Shou Yuing just sort of breezed in and out of the story, we never found out her background.
Sarah -
We've seen many Doctor Who stories with large casts of well-developed characters, so it's not impossible. With the exception of Morgaine, they're all a bit one-dimensional.
Harry -
Even the monster got short-changed. The Destroyer shows up, rattles his chains and makes lots of menacing threats, but never does all that much. Nice makeup work by the costume department, but it seemed wasted here.
Sarah -
And then there's the music, which undercuts the story at every opportunity. I won't miss the backside of this era's awful, tinny, jarring music.
Harry -
Argh. Yes, the music was really getting to me here. I used to think more fondly of the music of Sylvester's era, probably because I sometimes listen to the soundtracks on their own. I thought I'd be a stronger defender of the scores of this era, but within the stories themselves, these are terrible.
Well, we made it through possibly the roughest patch of this era. Let's have some "Ghost Light"!
Sarah -
Best Line: "Exotic alien swords are easy to come by... Aces are rare."
Favorite Moment: Ace removing Excalibur from the stone when no one is paying attention.
Lasting Image: Ace emerging from the lake with Excalibur.
6/10
Harry -
Best Line:
ACE: "Doctor...?"
DOCTOR: "Don't worry, Ace. It's only a trap."
Favourite Moment: After single-handedly dispatching the Destroyer, the Brig tells Ace that the Doctor is all hers and he's going home to Doris.
Lasting Image: Morgaine.
4/10
Our marathon continues with Story #153: Ghost Light...
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