Story #218 - A Good Man Goes to War (2011)

Harry -

There's a line in this story that captures how I feel about this particular episode, and some of the New Who era in general. It's when River Song describes the Doctor's actions at the battle of Demon's Run:

"He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further."

First, the rising part. "A Good Man Goes to War" is Doctor Who if it was done as a Star Wars space opera. It is massive. The huge cast features multiple heroes, villains, a space militia, a mysterious dark order and a colourful assortment of aliens and robots. There are explosions in space. There is a battle in a Star Warsy hangar. Betrayals, revenge, loss and hope. At the centre of it all is the Doctor, who is so powerful that the mention of his name sends enemies to flight.

To me, this story is Doctor Who fallen so far from what it should be.

In a way, I get it. When Star Wars first appeared on the scene with its big budget effects, casting, music and universe-building, Doctor Who suddenly looked like a shabby small screen cousin. I wonder if part of the new era's aggrandization of the Doctor and his aura is a reflection of the first two showrunners wanting to show that, yes, Doctor Who can be just as big and overwhelmingly Hollywood as any movie franchise.

I'm sure a lot of people liked this story and this direction for the show, but I didn't. I prefer the wandering madman in a box, exploring the universe and righting wrongs on a smaller scale, with one or two companions along for the adventure. Doctor Who as overblown space opera doesn't turn my crank.

Sarah - 

I’m with you Harry. I was looking forward to rewatching "A Good Man Goes to War" for the first time since it aired in 2011. I remembered it being a very busy story that wasn’t very satisfying for me. The big reveal that River is Melody Pond wasn’t much of a surprise by the time it happened. 

This episode is too much like the Doctor as a Jesus figure in the Tennant Era. All three showrunners have dabbled with the Doctor being the most important person in the universe. It’s just not interesting. 

Harry -

It's not interesting no matter which showrunner wants it to be.

Sarah -

I don’t have much else to say. Let’s go kill Hitler, or whatever.

Harry -

I'm of the let's-get-it-over-with mind there.

Sarah - 

Best Line: “He's the last of his kind. He looks young, but he's lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. And wherever they take you, Melody, however scared you are, I promise you, you will never be alone. Because this man is your father.”

Favorite Moment: Amy and Rory discussing Melody’s naming.

Lasting Image: The Doctor bringing the wooden cot from the TARDIS.

5/10

Harry -

Best Line: "I speak baby."

Favourite Moment: the Doctor's silly reaction to River's reveal.

Lasting Image: the hangar battle.

2/10

Our marathon continues with Story #219: Let's Kill Hitler...

Story #212 - The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang (2010)

Harry -

Steven Moffat brings the Eleventh Doctor's first series to a close with a fantastic two-parter. Right on the heels of "The Lodger", the Doctor, Amy and River investigate another mystery that gets teased out all the way to the part one cliffhanger.

Sarah -

I love "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang" so much. I can’t think of any NuWho finale that is as fun as this one – and everyone lives!

Harry -

I can't remember a wilder pre-titles sequence than River escaping space prison and traversing time and space to summon the Doctor. It had almost nothing to do with the plot of the ensuring story, but it was quality River time. 

And off they go to Roman Britain.

From there, the story takes its time revealing the mystery at Stonehenge, or rather the Underhenge. Filming there must have been a blast for everyone except the anxious preservationists at English Heritage. Anyway, inside the Underhenge is the Pandorica -- a myth, a legend, a large black square that is slowly coming alive.

As the Pandorica prepares to reveal its secrets, so too does the TARDIS. It takes River back to Amy's house. There, she sees that the Roman Britain that she just left behind was peopled with centurions from a book. The whole scene, in fact, seems to have been assembled from Amy's memories.

Sarah -

Amy’s memories are fueling everything but she still can’t remember Rory. Amy staring at her ring in confusion is heartbreaking.

Harry -

I really liked the slow buildup in part one. Moff took his time peeling back the layers of mystery and yet the episode bounced along quickly. That is not easy to do.

Sarah -

"The Pandorica Opens" is a wild ride – and it’s just getting started. Vincent, Churchill and Bracewell, and Liz 10 all make appearances, but the story is focused on the core characters.

And that includes Rory, making one of the most spectacular returns in Doctor Who history! It’s not really a surprise, but it’s still surprising – if you know what I mean.

Harry -

Rory the Roman was a fantastic reveal. And then the twist: he's actually Rory the Auton. I still remember the moment of horror when his hand popped open. All hell broke loose at once, with the alliance of universal supervillians all ganging up on the Doctor, the TARDIS exploding with River inside, and Amy being shot. Moffat saved it all for the final moments.

Sarah - 

So much happens in such a short time. This is the story where Rory becomes a mythic hero, not just another Mickey. He's a full member of the team from here on out. 

Harry - 

After the Pandorica was sealed with the Doctor inside, it reopens 1,894 years later... with grown up Amy inside. And off we go again as part two gives us a Night at the Museum-style romp. This was so good. All the timey-wimey vortex manipulation that the Doctor did in order to be there for the end of the universe was classic Moffat. 

Normally these "end of the universe" dilemmas have an oversimplified, unsatisfactory resolution, but I was quite satisfied with the simple use of residue from the Pandorica to reboot everything. The Doctor even gives a nice little speech about the power of memory. Sure why not, this story was so much fun I don't dare criticize a thing.

Sarah - 

I could watch the romp over and over! It's so good to see Amelia Pond again. This is early enough in the Matt Smith era that we're not yet over the "I am the Doctor" speeches. 

And we get a wedding surprise when Raggedy Man turns up with his blue box. Amy and Rory spend their wedding night on the TARDIS, which leads to...SPOILERS!

Harry - 

Best Line - I didn't jot one down but honestly everything River says is quotable. She's amazing.

Favourite Moment - Rory revealed as an Auton, it was so mind-blowing.

Lasting Image - River zapping the Doctor's fez.

8/10

Sarah - 

Best Line: "Right then, I have questions, but number one is this. What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?"

Favorite Moment: The epic romp is more than a moment, but I love it so.

Lasting Image: River shooting the fez, for sure!

9/10

Our marathon continues with Story #213: A Christmas Carol...

Story #192: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky (2008)

Harry -
As we kicked off the DoctorDonna season, I was interested to see what my reaction would be when we got around to this two-parter.

"The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky" had an asterisk stuck to it virtually from the moment it was announced. Helen Raynor was the writer who gave us "Daleks in Manhattan" the season before -- a story that ranks very low among Whovians, us included. There were a lot of things that went wrong with that one, but Raynor bore the brunt of it. There's a section in The Writer's Tale where Russell T. Davies recounts the night when that story was first broadcast and received instant condemnation online. Really nasty stuff, as only a fandom could deliver. Raynor was shaken by the experience, but to his credit RTD backed her up and asked her back for another story. At the time I remember being wary of another story coming from this writer. When it first aired, I remember not being overly impressed, but not feeling as negative as I had over the Dalek story.

That's why I was looking forward to watching it again a decade later. Do you remember any of the buildup to this story?


Sarah -
I have to admit that don’t remember much about the anticipation of this story. While "Daleks in Manhattan" is my all-time, least-favorite Doctor Who story, "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky" is a solid story. It’s not the best of the season, but it’s far from the worst.

Perhaps the story’s biggest weakness is its lack of originality. There are few tropes left unturned in this two-parter, but I still enjoyed it because a good trope never bothers me!


Harry -
I seem to say this a lot, but this one felt like a Pertwee-era throwback. Once again, we see a collision of alien invaders and rogue technology, with an action-heavy TARDIS team coming to the rescue. And UNIT!


Sarah -
I think you’re right. It’s very Pertwee-ish and that’s probably what I like about it.

The story begins with journalist Jo Nakashima being thrown out of the Rattigan Academy. She drives away in her car, which is fitted with ATMOS (Atmospheric Omission System), a device that reduces carbon emissions and includes a GPS. Jo is suspicious of ATMOS, which has been developed at the Rattigan Academy, founded by Luke Rattigan. While she’s trying to contact UNIT, Jo’s car drives itself into a river, where it sinks with her inside.


Harry -
I wonder how many GPS-skeptics watched that and went "I knew it!"


Sarah -
Right? This is not the first Doctor Who story to take a common item and make it terrifying. This trope will reach its zenith in the Steven Moffat era, but RTD has a strong record of making us question technology. It’s hard to believe this story predates the smartphone era, but a GPS system was definitely a fancy thing to have in 2008. And who wouldn’t want a device that reduces carbon emissions? That said, I was really happy not to have a GPS after watching this story.


Harry -
I'll stick with paper maps and/or my uncanny sense of direction, and I don't care who knows it.


Sarah -
If we’re not already knee-deep in tropes, bring on Rattigan. (Some signaling going on with that name? I just referred to him as Ratt in my notes.) Oh, look, another stupid human who thinks he’s going to partner up with aliens and come out ahead. He’s Tobias Vaughn all over again -- but without the charisma.


Harry -
I remember HATING Rattigan the first time around. So obnoxious and condescending. The only redeeming thing about him were his cool Pumas.

But this time around, with the Doctor's helpful observations, I saw the struggling smart kid beneath the bratty exterior. Still, he was woefully over his head with the aliens and all-too-willing to sell out the planet to chase his own utopian visions. So yeah, I still hated him.


Sarah -
He’s one of those characters with whom you can almost empathize when they get their comeuppance, which is definitely on its way.


Harry -
Amid all of this scene-setting, RTD and Raynor treat us to a fantastic mid-season reunion. A phone rings inside the TARDIS, and it's Martha. She calls the Doctor back to contemporary Earth, and the TARDIS lands outside the ATMOS factory. No sooner have the Doctor and Martha welcomed each other, and Donna and the Martha immediately struck up a companions friendship, than the scene is interrupted by a UNIT raid.


Sarah -
Martha and Donna immediate becoming besties is flat out my favorite thing in this story. The Doctor almost looks disappointed that they’re not fighting over him. Big Finish should develop a Donna and Martha series. I would be all over that.


Harry -
How about UNIT! Oh, it was a thrill to see a 21st century UNIT roll into action. Very butch, with heavy vehicles and waves of troopers in black uniform swarming all over the facility and a mobile command centre overseeing the assault. Long gone are the days when Benton and three other grunts would charge an alien menace by themselves.


Sarah -
If they still had Benton, UNIT wouldn’t need all that gear to fight the aliens. There’s something to be said for homespun.


Harry -
With the Brigadier in Peru, the UNIT operation is headed by Colonel Mace, a very by-the-book officer who greets the Doctor with a salute. The Doctor cringes at this, but Donna happily requests a salute of her own. Throughout the story, the Doctor and Mace will keep up some back and forth heckling over each other's ideologies. One of the things that felt overdone in this story was the Doctor repeatedly whinging about salutes and guns. He's right of course, but his "OH DON'T SALUTE" and "WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT GUNS" lines were repetitive. Mace, meanwhile was unable to break from the military code ingrained in his own personality. The story bounced along at such a rapid pace that there was no room to explore his character more fully, nor for he and the Doctor to reach more than a superficial understanding of one another.


Sarah -
While the Doctor is faffing about with Mace, Donna puts her temp skills to work and discovers that there has never been a sick day at the ATMOS factory. Things are getting curiouser and curiouser.


Harry -
I love how Donna's HR knowledge comes in handy throughout this season. It turns out there's a lot of weird stuff going down at the ATMOS facility. The Doctor discovers that while ATMOS is carbon-friendly, it is also capable of turning 800 million cars into weapons at the disposal of whomever controls the ATMOS devices. We the viewers also discover -- through the explorations of two UNIT soldiers -- that there's some kind of homunculus being grown inside a bubbling tank down in the basement.

The soldiers' presence triggers an alarm. The aliens behind the scheme decide to show themselves. Their leader beams down to confront the soldiers, and we are given our first glimpse of RTD's 21st century Sontarans in the person of General Staal.


Sarah -
Christopher “Mike Thecoolperson” Ryan is back, UNIT b*tches! Twenty-two years after his triumph in Mindwarp, Lord Kiv is here to give us Sontaran realness. I wouldn’t call it pulling for the baddies, but this Trial of Time Lord fan girl will always have her biases.


Harry -
Ryan's Doctor Who resume spans the classic era to the Tennant years, but he's always been submerged under layers of alien makeup. Hopefully he'll get to play a human someday... unless he prefers wild aliens.


Sarah -
Still, Staal and I can never be friends because he’s used the UNIT soldiers to lure our dear Martha Jones to the basement where she’s cloned onto the creature in the tank!


Harry -
Sontarans doing Sontaran things. I did like how the New Who Sontarans were given fresh uniforms and the quickest of backstories without getting bogged down in details. One of the weaknesses of the Classic Who Sontarans was that, considering they are a clone race, their appearance and voices kept changing from story to story. And I'm almost positive that they were made to look like giants in one of the classic stories.

Here, they really play up their militaristic imperatives. Staal can barely contain his lust for war.


Sarah -
Meanwhile, after a chat with Martha in which she reveals that her family suffered because she didn’t tell them about her relationship with the Doctor, Donna decides she needs to check in on Wilf and Sylvia. When she tells the Doctor she’s going home, he goes into a long spiel thanking her for traveling with him and telling her how much their time together meant to him. Enjoying the moment, Donna lets him wind himself up before he realizes that she’s only planning to go home for a visit. Tennant and Tate play this scene perfectly.


Harry -
"You dumbo." That was brilliantly done.


Sarah -
While Donna pops off, the Doctor heads to the Rattigan Academy with Ross, a UNIT private.


Harry -
At this point in the RTD era, I'm not going to bother wondering why yet another companion mum got painted as a negative character. Wilf and Donna are thick as thieves and she tells him all about space, aliens, and her adventures with the Doctor, while Sylvia is a big ball of misery in the background. Whatever.


Sarah -
It’s one of my least-favorite aspects of his era.


Harry -
The Doctor's confrontation with the Ratt having gone nowhere, and having escaped a near-fatal act of vehicular death by ATMOS, he joins the Nobles just in time for the part one cliffhanger. Their cover blown, the Sontarans trigger poison gas to pour out of every ATMOS-equipped vehicle on Earth. Wilf is trapped inside the family car just as he was moving it out of the street. The episode ends with a nice shot of a frustrated Doctor silhouetted against a sunlit sky filling with poison gas.

Wilf begins to choke on the fumes and Donna pounds on the side window in futility, when Sylvia appears out of nowhere with a firefighter's axe (!) and smashes the windshield open. I feel like I really need a firefighter's axe in the home now.


Sarah -
Sylvia saves the day while everyone else is running around in circles! That’s the woman you want around in an emergency.


Harry -
Crisis averted for the moment, but the Sontarans have only just begun their war footing. With their never-before-heard "Sontar Ha!" chants ringing out, they snatch the TARDIS and beam it up to their mother ship as war booty. The Pertwee-era throwback is now complete: the Doctor is stranded on Earth and must work with UNIT to repel an alien invasion.


Sarah -
When Ratt starts chanting "Sontar Ha!" along with the Sontarans, he looks like the lonely kid tagging along at the edge of the popular group. Trying to fit in with the aliens after all of his students walked out on him felt so sad this time around.


Harry -
In the Doctor's absence, UNIT has ramped things up at a ludicrous rate and are preparing to launch nuclear missiles from all over the Earth (including North Korea, hmmm...).

Clone Martha is the Sontarans' eyes and ears at UNIT HQ, but the Doctor knows she's not real. He's barely holding things together during the nuclear countdown as UNIT soldiers get massacred in the ATMOS factory and it is Donna who is forced to take the bravest action ever. Having been teleported into the Sontaran ship while inside the TARDIS, Donna must sneak outside, slip past an assortment of Sontarans and teleport the TARDIS back to Earth.  I would crack for sure.


Sarah -
That’s our girl! She more than earned her TARDIS key in this story.


Harry -
UNIT counterpunches by bringing in the Valiant to clear the skies over London, setting up the final confrontation between the Doctor and Staal aboard the Sontaran ship.


Sarah -
The Valiant is quite the ship. UNIT really has come a long way.


Harry -
Normally, I'm not a fan of stories that are resolved by someone committing suicide to foil the enemy, but it kind of worked here. The character was Rattigan, whose utopian fantasy was shattered by Staal's revelation that they were all a pack of lies to enlist his cooperation in the betrayal of Earth. The Sontarans had no plans to aid him in creating a new human colony on a distant planet. Instead, they intended to purge the Earth of all life and turn it into a clone hatchery. Devastated beyond recovery, Rattigan rigged up a final teleport to switch places with the Doctor and blow himself up, taking all the aliens down with him.

Overall I'd say this two-parter has aged well over the years.


Sarah -
Who doesn’t love a redemption story? Heartstrings are pulled again when clone Martha dies, having met the real Martha, whose memories she has.


Harry -
That's another moment where I would have cracked.  Imagine watching yourself die.  How do you bounce back from that?


Sarah -
With order restored, Martha plans to head back to her life when the TARDIS door slams and she, Donna, and the Doctor are swept off to another adventure.


Harry -
This whirlwind season is really picking up now.  Let's see where they land next.


Sarah -
Best Line: "Yeah, long time ago. Back in the 70's. Or was it the 80's? But it was all a bit more homespun back then."

Favorite Moment: Donna and Martha’s meeting

Lasting Image: the new Sontaran look

6/10


Harry -
Best Line: I'll stick with "You Dumbo."  It captures that great kind of partnership where one person can insult the other but totally not mean it.

Favourite Moment: modern-day UNIT rolls into action

Lasting Image: pathetic Rattigan with the Sontarans

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #193: The Doctor's Daughter...

Sofa of Rassilon EXTRA: A Fix with Sontarans (1985)

Harry -
Wow. Just wow.

If there's anything that substantiates the Colin Baker era as the nadir of televised Doctor Who, it is this horrendous thing.

Sarah -
Poor Colin - and Poor Janet! OMG, that hair!

Harry -
Poor Janet indeed. That for her final televised appearance on Doctor Who, Tegan was inexplicably beamed aboard the TARDIS, wearing her air hostess uniform again (and OMG that hair!), and made to endure a bout of bickering with the Sixth Doctor during a Davison-era scene of console room pandemonium. The casual sexism that Eric Saward wrote into the script must have boiled her blood too.

Sarah -
There's something sweet about planning this skit in response to young Gareth Jenkins' letter. He's quite adorable in the Sixth Doctor coat his Nan made for him.

Harry -
The premise of the episode is charming. Not only did Gareth get to meet the Doctor, but they got to have an adventure on telly too -- it's every kid's dream come true! He seemed a bit overwhelmed by the experience, but what 8-year-old wouldn't be given pause after being barked at by Colin Baker?

Sarah -
Unfortunately, it was part of creepy pedophile Jimmy Savile's show. Still, Gareth has his own TARDIS wikia page, so there's something.

Harry -
Something to which we all aspire.

Still, "A Fix with Sontarans."  It's awful, awful, awful. The way Saville saunters onto the set, kisses Janet's hand and schmarms through the congratulations at the end. Knowing now what was going on, it's unpleasant to watch. Anyway, we agreed that as our marathon continues, we'll make the occasional stop to watch and review the many special episodes of Doctor Who that were produced over the years. I'm pretty confident this will be the worst, so it's good to get it out of the way.

Sarah -
Also from TARDIS.wikia:

- Colin Baker is seen to visibly wince when Jimmy Savile kisses Janet Fielding's hand.

- Colin Baker later told The Daily Mail that he found Savile "creepy and patronising", with "none of the professional respect that one would expect to be shared when two programmes combine for a special purpose". "I recall clearly the disappointment I felt for the young boy [Gareth] for whom I suspect the whole experience was daunting and overwhelming."

Harry -
When Saville's face appeared on the TARDIS scanner, Janet and Colin exclaimed -- very appropriately: "It's monstrous!  It's revolting!"

Saward's story itself was simple, but the production did underscore something for me that I mentioned in our review of "The Two Doctors". These Sontarans are giants!  The amusingly-named Group Marshall Nathan towers over the Doctor. Not for long, though. In murderous Saward style, the two Sontarans are hit with poison gas and they melt into pools of green and brown goo. Fun!

Sarah -
Good grief, but that was disgusting!

Harry -
I'm laughing as I write this because the whole thing is so awful. Did you have any positive takeaways from this one, Sarah?

Sarah -
I thought it was very game of Colin and Janet to do it in the first place. It's was a sweet thing to do for a little kid, which I appreciate.

And that's all I've got!

Harry -
Here's to you, Gareth Jenkins, participant in one of childhood Doctor Who fandom's most awkward experiences.

Our marathon resumes with Story #141: Timelash...

Story #140 - The Two Doctors (1985)

Harry -
Sarah, I think we should start by getting this out of the way:

SQUEEEE!


Sarah -
I will happily SQUEEEE for Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines!

Multi-Doctor stories can be tricky affairs, but it's always wonderful to see beloved friends again.


Harry -
What a charming opening scene. The chemistry between Patrick and Frazer is like they'd never been apart. With Victoria off on a side trip of her own, the boys are traveling to a research centre aboard a space station.


Sarah -
Further deepening the Season 6B fan theories!


Harry -
I love how Season 6B has taken on a life of its own in alternate Doctor Who media. Especially how it helps explain away the obviously older looking Doctor and Jamie.

As a 1985 three-parter, "The Two Doctors" is equivalent to a classic six-parter. If these two had spent the entire time talking in the console room, I would have been just fine with that.


Sarah -
I love the black and white opening, with its shift to color.


Harry -
In keeping with the notion of Season 6B, the Doctor is visiting Dastari -- head scientist at the research station -- as an unofficial emissary of the Time Lords.


Sarah -
Oh, the Time Lords and their meddling ways. So much for non-interference.


Harry -
The TARDIS lands in the station's kitchens, lair of the repulsive chef Shockeye, an Androgum savage who feasts his eyes on Jamie's flesh.


Sarah -
Shockeye has got to be the most disgusting character in Doctor Who history. There's really nothing to like about him, is there?


Harry -
As villains go, Shockeye is a triumph. I absolutely, positively loathe him. Bravo to John Stratton on a memorably repugnant performance.

Beating a hasty departure from the kitchens, the Doctor and Jamie find their way to Dastari's office. This is another eye-catching example of 80s future-design. Dark greys and light neons combine in the background, and a large collection of globes takes up almost an entire wall. With his grey combed-back hair, thick white sunglasses and metallic black bodysuit, Dastari looks like some kind of Italian fashion designer.


Sarah -
Doesn't he just? I'm sure I must have been quite impressed by the design back in the day.


Harry -
The Doctor presents him with a cease and desist request on behalf of Gallifrey. The Time Lords are concerned about time experiments being conducted at the station by Kartz and Reimer, who have assembled a nearly-functional time travel machine.

Dastari laughs the request off, suggesting that the Time Lords only concern about the experiments is that they threaten their monopoly on time. He then introduces his own subject of experimentation, another Androgum savage named Chessene, whose body and mind he has augmented to the level of super-genius. After a quick introduction, she departs and sets about her own business: arranging an attack on the research station. Unbeknownst to Dastari, she has been conspiring with an invasion force that suddenly makes its strike.


Sarah -
Sontaran battlecruisers on the scene! Dastari collapses! Jamie runs away at the Doctor's command! The Doctor finds himself facing the business end of a Sontaran gun! Feels like old times!


Harry -
Multiple-villain stories are my favourite. So many rivalries, double-crossings and double-double-crossings, as we'll see later on.


Sarah -
Meanwhile, the Sixth Doctor and Peri are fishing and sunbathing on the shore of a lake somewhere.


Harry -
Confession time: after the brilliant opening with the Second Doctor and Jamie, I was a bit disheartened when they cut to the fishing scene, where the JN-T era played out in microcosm. We see the smarty-pants Doctor in a horrendously over-thought costume, the bosomy companion bored and whiny, and not much else happening. Gah, what a letdown from the first scene.


Sarah -
I'm so glad you brought up the costuming. What the hell is with Peri's? I spent the entire story thinking her breasts should have gotten separate billing, given all their screen time.


Harry -
Not even Robert Holmes could pen a smooth transition between the eras. Of all the Doctors to set up side-by-side with the belovèd Patrick Troughton, it fell to poor old grumbly Colin Baker. His entire time as the Doctor plays out like a series of short straws.


Sarah -
Poor Colin -- how many times have we typed that so far? I think he makes the most of what he's been given in "The Two Doctors" and has some really good moments, even if he has to be cranky towards his former self.

When gumblejacks aren't biting, they pack it up and head into the TARDIS -- where the Doctor collapses. Meanwhile, the Second Doctor is trapped in a glass chamber, being tortured by a Sontaran.

One of the most interesting things about this story is seeing the impact of what is happening to the Second Doctor on the Sixth Doctor. This is the first example of many in this story and each time it happens, I find myself wondering how the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Doctors are reacting.


Harry -
Guessing that the Third Doctor might have felt temporarily woozy before resuming his Venusian aikido lesson. The Fifth Doctor would have collapsed into a coma for sure. As for the Fourth Doctor, maybe it was like those times where he'd go still and stare off into space for a moment, before someone snapped him out of it again.


Sarah -
All those moments are now a permanent part of my head canon!


Harry -
Sixie immediately identifies that a timeslip has occurred, and decides he needs to see a professional, setting course for the research station and his old friend Dastari. What a coincidence! Maybe Dastari's name flickered across the Doctor's mind as an echo of the encounter that the Second Doctor had just had.


Sarah -
Say what you will about Sixie, he's a man of action while those other three can't be arsed to lend a hand to their previous self!


Harry -
The TARDIS arrives, after the events in the Second Doctor's timestream. The station is darkened and cloaked with the scent of death. The Doctor finds Dastari's journal, which recorded the intervention of the Time Lords, but not what happened after.

While Peri and the Doctor set off into the station's infrastructure and deal with an aggressive onboard computer, we see that the Second Doctor has been kidnapped to Earth. The Sontarans, Chessene, Shockeye and Dastari set up in an isolated hacienda in Spain. There is where they will complete the Kartz-Reimer time machine, using the Doctor's DNA to stabilize the biometric thingamajiggy.


Sarah -
How convenient that they should select Spain as their destination -- just when JN-T was in need of a holiday! What were the chances of that?


Harry -
No kidding eh! This story was originally proposed for New Orleans, but the BBC wouldn't spring for the travel budget so they had to settle for Spain. Honestly, it's not until the final chase through the streets of Seville that the location ever really figures in the story. The villains could have holed up in a house in Croydon and it would have been the same story.


Sarah -
Holiday in Croydon? Perish the thought!


Harry -
Back on the research station, the Doctor and Peri spend an inordinate amount of time climbing through the infrastructure piping before Peri is attacked and the Doctor momentarily rendered unconscious by a spray of gas triggered by the computer. Cue extreme close up of the Doctor's unconscious face! When Peri slaps him awake again, they discover that Jamie has been hiding out in the same place. After Jamie gives them the rundown on his Doctor's argument with Dastari and the Sontaran attack, the Doctor forges a mind link with his previous incarnation. After hearing the bell of Seville cathedral, he knows where they must set off in pursuit. It was so easy to figure out!


Sarah -
That's quite the distinctive bell. Peri's initial run in with Jamie is just creepy. He attacks her under a tarp with some awkward rolling around before she knocks him out. It's icky.


Harry -
They did do a good job making Frazer look filthy and he played "disoriented" well, giving an indication of how long Jamie had been hiding out in there.

The TARDIS arrives in a field near the hacienda, where our friends encounter Oscar -- thespian, restauranteur and moth collector -- and his probably very patient friend Anita. Oscar relates that he saw a group matching the villains description carrying the Second Doctor into the hacienda. Our heroes draw up a plan of action. Anita is to guide the Doctor and Jamie to the back entrance, where they will sneak inside through the cellar; Peri is to distract the baddies by knocking on the front door; and Oscar will basically stay put.


Sarah -
Oh, Oscar. Poor, unfortunate Oscar. He's like a poor man's Henry Gordon Jago -- without the charm.


Harry -
Exactly.

So, when Dastari augmented Chessene, she was given the ability to read minds. This sets up the odd scene where the Second Doctor is hauled up from the cellar and wheeled around so that Chessene can observe Peri's reaction. Only, this isn't Peri's Doctor, and Peri decides to depart of her own accord. She had provided enough of a distraction for the Doctor to -- once again -- help himself to tinkering with someone else's time machine. It's like an addiction with him. Anyway, he and Jamie hang around too long, as the Sontaran Stike captures them.


Sarah -
Is it just me or do these Sontarans look a bit anemic? Someone should feed them a proper meal, not that we need to encourage Shockeye with that...


Harry -
I must have seen this story before any of the earlier Sontaran ones, because it was implanted in my mind early on that the Sontarans were tall, lean and wore black, as we see here. In the new series, the short Sontarans in blue armour blew my mind. I wouldn't mind a new non-Strax Sontaran story, especially during the Capaldi era.

Anyway, Peri doesn't get far before realizing that Shockeye is in pursuit, determined to make a meal of her flesh. She stumbles and he looms over her looking disgustingly lecherous. Cue extreme close up of Peri's frightened face! Part three continues the scene, as Shockeye knocks her unconscious and carries her back to the hacienda.


Sarah -
Shockeye is so vile and creepy, but I'm pretty sure he's the first alien who isn't trying to snog Peri. Just, you know, have her for dinner. Ick.


Harry -
He's so disgusting it's unreal. Back in the cellar, a quick stab of the knife by Jamie disables Stike long enough for he and the Doctor to escape the cellar, where they are reunited with the Second Doctor, still stuck in his wheelchair.


Sarah -
I love their first encounter:

Sixie: "I've come a long way for you."
Second Doctor: "Naturally. Don't expect any thanks."

Can you imagine having to have a conversation with yourself? The horror!


Harry -
Here is where the story becomes a runaround through the hacienda. It seems like everyone takes a turn chasing someone, or being chased, or being captured and escaping again while the plot sits there unfurthered. It harkened back to the Pertwee six-parters, where there was a lot of this kind of padding, and repeated cycles of capture-escape-capture. It almost felt like Patrick Troughton had been under-utilized since his kidnapping from the space station.


Sarah -
Despite all the running about, the third episode is by far my favorite episode of the story.


Harry -
But wait, a brain storm of Bob Holmesian proportions!

Chessene suddenly declares that she wants a consort, and demands that Dastari converts the Second Doctor into an Androgum hybrid.


Sarah -
Of course she does, while offering Shockeye as the donor of the Androgum DNA. Such a delightful lady she is.


Harry -
A quick couple of procedures and the transformation takes place. That Dastari is good. Did I mention under-utilized characters? The Sontarans finally get bored of all the standing around waiting for their time machine, so they plot to kill off everyone in the hacienda. Chessene of course hatches a counter-plot and attacks them with poison gas.


Sarah -
A double double-cross!


Harry -
Amid all that mayhem, Shockeye and his new Androgum cousin sneak off to town for a spot of lunch. And so begins one of the most bizarre chases in all of Doctor Who.


Sarah -
The restaurant scene is what I most remember about this story. Patrick Troughton is hysterical and looks like he's having the time of his life, chewing up the scenery.


Harry -
In his final performance as the Doctor, Troughton gives it his all and it's unforgettable. He pulls the maddest faces as an Androgum, marching arm-in-arm with Shockeye to Seville.


Sarah -
They end up in poor Oscar's restaurant, which features my favorite moment of "The Two Doctors":

SHOCKEYE: Do you serve humans here?
OSCAR: Most of the time, sir. Yes, I think I could venture to say that most of our customers are certainly human.
SHOCKEYE: I mean human meat, you fawning imbecile.
OSCAR: No, sir. I'm afraid the nouvelle cuisine has not yet penetrated this establishment.

I was dying over the last line. Only Bob Holmes could have written that!


Harry -
The restaurant scene is like a crazy-ass mashup of Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers and Are You Being Served?, quite literally. It was worth it for JN-T to finagle a vacation in Spain, just so we could get to watch the madness at Las Cadenas.


Sarah -
Alas, things don't go well when poor Oscar has to demand payment. Still, he performs the most over-the-top death scene in the entire history of Doctor Who, so that's something.


Harry -
Oscar's death scene is the best, no exaggeration. His self-absorbed pathos and flair for language leads to one of my favourite quotes, ever:

OSCAR: I'm afraid this is Botcherby's last curtain call.
ANITA: Oh, no!
OSCAR: No one will ever see my definitive Hamlet now.

Rolling on the floor laughing, every time.

Like I said, it was worth it for JN-T to go abroad if we were able to enjoy the death scene of all death scenes.


Sarah -
It's absolutely perfect.


Harry -
After all that, Shockeye leads everyone in beating a retreat to the hacienda for a final showdown. After trying -- and failing -- to slaughter Jamie, Shockeye finally meets his "just desserts" when the Doctor murders him with some of Oscar's bottled cyanide (another very convenient thing). In a last minute face-turn, Dastari declares regret for his attempts to put Chessene above the gods, and she responds by shooting him dead. She then dives into the Kartz-Reimer time machine to make a run for it, but thanks to Sixie's earlier tinkering it blows up and takes her with it.


Sarah -
Anyone who believes the Doctor can't be violent has clearly never seen "The Two Doctors". It's all in self-defense, but he's fairly ruthless about the whole thing.


Harry -
And ready with a quip of course.  The Doctor's capacity for murder is glossed over in this era, despite the particularly violent examples of it. 

So with all the baddies destroyed, the Doctors and companions make their farewells. I think this model is a better example of how to do a multiple-Doctors story. Instead of cramming every living Doctor into it, Robert Holmes crafted a fun adventure featuring the current 80s Doctor and a loveable favourite from the 60s. I wish we could have this kind of pairing in the new series. Smith and McCoy, Capaldi and McGann, Tennant and Davison... oh wait we did get that one, however brief!


Sarah -
I've love to see McGann get some more screen time -- especially with Capaldi!


Harry -
Padding and runarounds aside, I could watch this one over and over.


Sarah -
While I'm a huge fan of Bob Holmes' work, I think he worked best under a strong script editor. I imagine Eric Saward just telling him to have at it and Holmes feeling like a kid in a candy store. The script has a lot of problems that I can't get past, despite all the delightful moments with old friends.


Harry -
Best Line: "No one will ever see my definitive Hamlet now." Always!

Favourite Moment: the Second Doctor's ineffectual ranting while confined in the cellar. "Oh my giddy aunt. Oh crumbs."

Lasting Image: the Second Doctor and Shockeye at the restaurant.

8/10


Sarah -
Best Line: "No, sir. I'm afraid the nouvelle cuisine has not yet penetrated this establishment."
Oh, but imagine when it does!

Favorite Moment: The Second Doctor and Shockeye in the restaurant.

Lasting Imagine: The Second Doctor and Shockeye walking into town.

6/10

 



Our marathon continues with Story #141: Timelash...

Story #97 - The Invasion of Time (1978)

Harry -
After the awfulness of "Underworld", I was quite looking forward to "The Invasion of Time." There's so much on the surface to recommend it: it's a season-ending 6-parter, it's set on Gallifrey, it features a double alien threat, and there's also a double companion farewell. We also get to see much more of the inner TARDIS. So much win!

And yet when I watched it all in one go, it wasn't all that satisfying. Maybe I should have watched it in smaller portions?


Sarah -
I hear what you're saying, but I have a very different reaction to the story. Yes, it has its weaknesses. The story was written at the 11th hour and designed to be as inexpensive as possible, but I can't help loving the story. It's so much fun to watch -- as long as you don't think about the actual story too much.


Harry -
The most interesting thing here might be that we've finally found a story we don't completely agree on.


Sarah -
It had to happen eventually, I guess.


Harry -
I think this is one where the memories of it are better than the story itself. The opening scenes were intriguing, as we see the Doctor plotting an invasion of Gallifrey with some unseen cohorts. These are echoes of his erratic behavior in the opening of "The Deadly Assassin," but we know the Doctor too well to believe he'd get in league with anyone against his own people, doddering old fools they may be. And gosh there's a lot of doddering here.


Sarah -
We do agree on the doddering. The portrayal of the Time Lords in stories like "The Deadly Assassin" and "The Invasion of Time" is my preferred way to see them. In earlier stories, they're portrayed as god-like beings. Seeing the petty politicking of Gallifrey makes it easy to understand why the Doctor would choose to get the hell out of there.

Perhaps the story's greatest plot weakness is that we don't know why the Doctor is helping the Vardans in the first place. We don't know who they are, and neither does he. There's no indicating how or why they contacted him, we just sally forth into the story. I mostly chose to ignore the questions and enjoy the ride.

Fun fact: Mr. Smith has threatened for years to cover himself in plastic wrap and cosplay a Vardan at Chicago TARDIS. I should double-dog dare him to do it this year.


Harry -
That costume would be easy to make, and imagine how many people would ask him who he was!

When I started watching the story, it felt like we'd skipped an episode and walked into the middle of something already well underway. For a six-parter, the whole thing felt stitched together from odds and ends. There was the Doctor-betrays-Gallifrey angle, the Doctor-becomes-president angle, the Vardan invasion (which wasn't much of an invasion, as they got zapped away the moment they let their guard down) and finally the Sontaran runaround two-parter.


Sarah -
Yes, but: the TARDIS swimming pool, endless corridors, Storeroom 23A, Ancillary Power Station disguised as an art gallery!

Oh dear, I think I'm starting to talk myself down from my enthusiasm...


Harry -
Never curb your enthusiasm!

The TARDIS swimming pool was great, as was the art gallery. I wasn't as enthused by the corridors and staircases -- they seemed too grungy compared to the pristine white console room.


Sarah -
You're not the only one. There are plenty of disparaging comments about the Doctor's upkeep of the TARDIS from the visiting Time Lords.


Harry -
The show-runners also had to prepare a suitable exit angle for Leela. Now, I'm intrigued by a man in red tights as much as anyone, but was there enough in this story to make Leela's bonding with Andred believeable? I say nay!


Sarah -
It's one of the worst companion exits in the history of the series. Still, those were some tight tights.


Harry -
I wonder how much lead time "David Agnew" (hah!) got before he had to write Leela's departure. I know Louise had been clear about wanting to leave the show. Do you remember that video she played at our first Chicago TARDIS? It was a compilation of every time the Doctor had shushed Leela. And it went on and on! Who wouldn't have grown tired of that gig?


Sarah -
I do remember that. It was hysterical. Apparently, there was hope among the production team that Louise Jameson would stay on for another season, so they kept the ending open in case she changed her mind. She and Andred did manage to work in a few moments that at least hint at attraction, but they certainly don't lead the audience to expect her to stay with him.


Harry -
It would have been way more amazing had Leela chosen to stay and bond with Rodan. Their relationship was truly a case of opposites attract. I did like how Rodan evolved from being all haughty in her sheltered life inside the Citadel, to being shattered by the world outside, to donning animal skins and joining the Vikings as they stormed the Citadel.


Sarah -
I really like Rodan. She's more flexible in her thinking than the rest of the Time Lords. She should be the next president!


Harry -
Funny enough, we are about to meet another Gallifreyan character who does just that!


Sarah -
I did find myself wondering if Rodan was the inspiration for Romana. I believe she's the first Time Lady we've met, so why not introduce another?


Harry -
Back to the story, I can't think of those "outsiders" as anything but Vikings. There was a strong vibe of recycled costumes going on there.


Sarah -
I love that "dropping out" of Time Lord culture involves becoming shaggy warriors!

Can we at least agree that Milton Johns' performance as the obsequious Castellan Kelner is a delight? Such a toady collaborator -- Johns milks it for all it's worth!


Harry -
Oh, Milton Johns! That Castellan was so oily I wanted to wash my hands after each of his scenes. Epic toadying.


Sarah -
He had me giggling through the entire story.


Harry -
Equally reptilian was John Arnatt as Borusa. What a cold lizard he was, although his "running through corridors" moment with the Doctor was hilarious.


Sarah -
He was perfect. The caliber of the actors in this story often put me in the mind of Shakespearean drama -- minus the brilliant writing, of course.


Harry -
Something I have noticed cropping up -- especially in this story -- is Tom looking and acting directly into the camera. These moments create a kind of hammy self-reverence that I'm not wild about, because they make it seem like it's "The Tom Baker Show" and not Doctor Who.


Sarah -
Tom was very TOM in this story, wasn't he? The first one is amusing, but it gets tedious very quickly.


Harry -
Okay that's enough grumbling from me. Let's talk about the Sontarans!

...oh dear.


Sarah -
So disappointing. Could the costume department not manage to design a helmet that allowed the actor to look out both eye slots at the same time? At first it was awkward. Eventually, it became so distracting I couldn't look at anything else!


Harry -
The one eye through the helmet was creepy. I don't know what happened here. Was it really that hard to reuse or replicate the look of the original Sontarans? They are a race of clones after all. Stor, with his two black eyes, bad teeth and cockney lisp, was a pale imitation of Linx and Styre.

Let's not spend this entire review whingeing, Sarah. Surely there's some good in "The Invasion of Time." The title is cool. There's that. It's always fun to get a glimpse at Gallifrey, because it reinforces why the Doctor left it and never wanted to return. The show-runners obviously wanted to throw everything into this season finale. On paper it probably sounded great. For a six-parter it's one of the fastest-moving ones, even if the final product left me feeling a bit meh.


Sarah -
Considering some of the six-parters we've endured, there's a lot to be said for "The Invasion of Time". It really never drags.

Sadly, it's time to say goodbye to another companion. What do you make of the Leela Era?


Harry -
For the longest time I believed that Jo Grant spent her entire time with the Doctor as just a one-dimensional stock companion. As we saw earlier in our marathon, that was not the case. Instead, the one-dimensional stock companion mantle may fall upon Leela. She didn't really show much character development from her introduction in "The Face of Evil" to her departure here. It may have been a term of endearment, but the Doctor never rose above calling her "Savage" in most stories -- and that seemed to cement her status. She did a lot of heavy lifting and showed a lot of personal strength, but I wish we could have gone deeper into the character. In the end, she runs off unexpectedly with a man in red tights. Did I mention I was quite fond of those tights?


Sarah -
I can only agree that Andred knew how to rock those tights!

I disagree about Leela's character development, but only a bit. I would say that there was some growth in her character, but I suspect the bad feelings between Louise and Tom kept them from developing the rapport that he had with Elisabeth Sladen. I often found myself admiring Louise Jameson's performance when it was clear that she was doing all she could with subpar material. The writers often seemed unsure how to handle her character, but Jameson made the best of it and never allowed Leela to be anything other than a strong savage warrior.


Harry -
The fierce loyalty she had for the Doctor is what I will remember most about Leela.


Sarah -
She never lost faith in him -- even when he had her thrown out of the citadel!


Harry -
Best Line:
Vardan - "We have suspected the Doctor since we first made contact. We shall deal with him soon."
Doctor [elsewhere] - "Well at least they don't suspect me."

Favourite Moment: Castellan Kelner bowing and scraping before the Vardans.

Lasting Image: Stor's loony face.

6/10


Sarah -
Best Line:
Borusa : "You have access to the greatest source of knowledge in the universe."
The Doctor : "Well, I do talk to myself sometimes."

Favorite Moment: The Doctor's induction as President

Lasting Image: The Doctor, wearing the Sash of Rassilon, holding the Rod of Rassilon, and sitting on the Sofa of Rassilon! Wait, I think that last one was just my imagination...

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #98 - The Ribos Operation...