Harry -
Welcome to the (late) 1980s!
Sarah -
What a time to be alive!
Harry -
After the turmoil of the Colin Baker era, JN-T launched a total renewal of Doctor Who: new opening, new theme music, new script editor, new Doctor, new everything!
Sarah -
I have such fond memories of the Sylvester McCoy era. I was in college at the time and Doctor Who was comfort viewing when my class schedule was overwhelming.
Harry -
On the flipside, these were my turbulent high school years, filled with all the thrills, dramas and meltdowns of the average teenager. That left little time for Doctor Who, and it wasn't until the 90s before I caught up with the Sylvester McCoy era.
But here we are now, watching it together again. And we kick off this exciting new age with... a story by Pip and Jane Baker?
Sarah -
Good old Pip and Jane. They're on the commentary track and spend a lot of time explaining how they wanted things to go and who changed what in their script.
Harry -
They never come off as bitter or angry at anyone, which is very nice of them.
Sarah -
It really is. Fandom needs to cut them some slack.
We leap straight into the regeneration with a cold open. Colin Baker, not unreasonably, was not keen on coming back to the series that had kicked him to the curb, which leads to the most anti-climactic regeneration in Doctor Who history. The Doctor (McCoy in a blond wig) and Mel are tossed about the TARDIS, which is being assaulted and caught in a tractor beam. They both are knocked out and the regeneration begins. By the time our old pal the Rani enters the TARDIS, the regeneration is complete and the Seventh Doctor Era has begun.
Harry -
Worst regeneration ever, but forced by circumstances. What can you do?
Sarah -
Make the best of what you've got and move along...
Harry -
The Rani, cold and steely as ever, has plotted to kidnap the Doctor, not out of sentimental reasons but because she needs his mind. She has been snatching geniuses out of history and storing them in her new base on the planet Lakertya. There, she has been busy at work building a time manipulator with which she could rule huge swathes of time and space. She also has a gigantic pet brain helping her along, and it's hungry for knowledge, but that's her secret for now.
Sarah -
The Rani didn't count on the Doctor being in a regeneration crisis when she kidnapped him. His confusion both aids and inhibits her cunning plan. She disguises herself as Mel and leads the Doctor to help her with her scheme. I love Kate O'Mara's Bonnie Langford impression -- she looks like she's having so much fun! She also ends up looking a lot like Lucille Ball and is about three feet taller than Bonnie, so that regeneration crisis comes in handy. Unfortunately, it also means she has keep redirecting him through the process.
Harry -
The Rani's impersonation of Mel was hilarious! She captured her energetic walk and bouncy movements perfectly. Hopefully Bonnie took it in stride.
Sarah -
In the commentary, Langford talked about how much she loved it.
What do you think of Sylvester McCoy's post-regeneration scenes?
Harry -
He's so out of it at first, then he spots the Rani and goes almost manic as he leaps-into- action-to-stop-her-doing-whatever-she's-doing-because-they-go-way-back-and-he-knows- her-so-well... and then she plunks him with an amnesia drug. He spends the next little while in a state of befuddlement. Aided by "Mel's" guidance, he helps the Rani get her project back on track while spouting out garbled sayings. I was worried that "garbled sayings" was going to be one of this new Doctor's character traits, but they fell away shortly after the amnesia drug wore off.
I liked the scene where he was reunited with the real Mel and they felt each other's pulses to verify their identities.
Sarah -
I love when they meet and neither believes who the other says they are! Checking their pulses is brilliant -- as Mel flipping the Doctor!
I wrote this exchange in my notes because it struck me as a bit of a dig at the previous occupant:
RANI: Yes, you've changed outwardly. But I'm sure you must still have the same sweet nature.
DOCTOR: Perhaps this is my new persona. Sulky, bad-tempered. I mean, think how I spoke to you earlier.
Harry -
Doctor Who is all about digs at the past, haha!
Before we jump too far ahead, we see that the Rani has also suppressed and exploited the stereotypically stoic natives of Lakertya. For all their colourful appearance, they are a generally subdued people, terrorized and kept in line by the Tetraps, the Rani's giant anthropoid bat monsters. Early in the story, we see one of the Lakertians -- Sarn -- fall victim to one of the land mine/air bubble booby traps that the Rani has hidden seemingly everywhere. It's quite an elaborate thing, a step up from just converting the victim into a tree. After her air bubble explodes against a rocky outcrop, Sarn's skeletal remains fall to the ground, where several characters observe them sadly. That had to be the saddest skeleton in all of Doctor Who.
Sarah -
The moment when Sarn's mother learns of her death is heartbreaking.
Harry -
Sarn was the sister of Ikona, one of the other Lakertians who informs Mel about what's been happening on their planet. It was a bit morbid that we had to keep seeing the skeleton lying there. So sad.
Sarah -
I like the Lakertians look, but they seem quite out of place in a quarry setting.
Harry -
Ikona is one of Doctor Who's most handsome aliens. Just saying.
The Doctor, still under the Rani's influence, returns to the TARDIS to ditch his old costume. "The new Doctor tries on new clothes" is always a fun moment in the show. Sylvester goes through a run of Napoleon, 4th Doctor, 3rd Doctor and 5th Doctor outfits before emerging from beneath Patrick Troughton's fur coat in his new, professorial kit. After the Colin Baker debacle, anything would have been an improvement. I like this look. It's toned down, but there are still plenty of eccentricities throughout to make it unmistakeably Doctory.
Sarah -
You are far too modest to mention how well you rocked that look at Chicago TARDIS a few years ago, so I'll take care of that for you! I always love the TARDIS wardrobe scenes. The image of Syl in Tom Baker's coat is a particular favorite. And then another dig: "Ah, thank goodness in this regeneration I've regained my impeccable sense of haute couture." Poor Colin.
Harry -
Syl was practically drowning in Tom Baker's clothes. And thank you by the way! I'll have to get more mileage out of my 7th Doctor costume at a future Chicago TARDIS.
Back outside (that was a fantastic quarry set by the way), Mel is spotted and pursued by one of the Tetraps. She trips up one of the Rani's traps and is captured in an air bubble. Oh my goodness, the screaming. So much screaming.
Sarah -
On the commentary, Bonnie Langford mentions that she went on a carnival ride with JN-T on which she screamed and screamed. Apparently, that inspired him to get her to scream as much as possible. Really, the scream is the biggest strike against Mel's character. She's so wonderful, but all anyone seems to remember is the screaming. Poor Mel.
Harry -
I hadn't heard the carnival ride story before. It is unfortunate that JN-T seized upon that and told Bonnie to run with it. Mel's extreme reactions when frightened harken back to the melodramatic, back-of-the-hand-on-the-forehead swooning maidens of early cinema.
Sarah -
She's so level-headed when not screaming. It's jarring.
Harry -
Luckily, Mel's air bubble lands in a pool of water and Ikona is able to dismantle it and free her. Just in time for the Tetrap to dive at her again. And cue the screaming!
Sarah -
Oy!
Harry -
The Doctor finally gets back to his new-old self and recognizes the true Rani again. He steals her microthermistor, flees her lair, and escapes a close encounter in the Tetrap hive before meeting up with Ikona.
One of the things that I marvel at in this story is how, despite all the running around a quarry, crawling in and out of hiding places and being menaced, captured and carried around by a tetrap, Mel's clothing remains immaculate. Even the soles of her white sneakers are spotless in every take!
Sarah -
I'm pretty sure the TARDIS takes care of that.
Harry -
The Rani uses a holographic Mel to swindle the microthermistor back from the Doctor, who has to do a lot of running around in that quarry as well. During these running scenes, the music by newly-hired composer Keff McCulloch was really in your face. A lot of the scores in the Seventh Doctor era will include this kind of quick tempo chase music that almost sounds like it's being played on fast forward.
Sarah -
I'm not a huge fan of the the music in this story, which I found extremely distracting.
Harry -
The next three seasons of Doctor Who may try your patience.
Sarah -
Believe me, I'm counting on it!
Harry -
By the time we get to part four, the Bakers have settled into a comfortable Who-by-Numbers approach. The Doctor repeatedly escapes and throws some spanners into the works before being captured again. He stirs up rebellion amongst the locals. The Rani betrays her Tetrap henchmen, who overhear of the betrayal and eventually relish in a spot of revenge. Mel screams. The sombre locals recapture the purity of their ways. The Doctor spits out a few last garbled sayings before going on his way.
Sarah -
It's definitely a template Doctor Who story, but I don't think that's a bad thing -- especially in this situation. The series and its fans have just been horribly abused by the BBC and we need a bit of reassurance that this is the Doctor Who we know and love.
Harry -
I do like the Rani's utterly unrepentant nature. After her plans have been foiled by the Doctor, she storms back to her TARDIS and flies off to start again somewhere. Cold and steely as always, she couldn't be arsed with hunting him for revenge. She has bigger aims to achieve.
Sarah -
I really love the Rani's two appearances in Doctor Who. It's a pity we won't see her again. (I'm not counting "Dimensions in Time".) Kate O'Mara will always have a special place in Doctor Who history.
Harry -
This was JN-T's third crack at a post-regeneration story. It was nowhere near as good as "Castrovalva", but definitely better than "The Twin Dilemma". I found there were maybe too many flashy new things thrown into it all at once. We still haven't been given any inkling about how or when the Doctor met up with Mel (and we won't, not on telly anyway).
Sarah -
Maybe the story is telling us it's time to look to the future and move along to our next story. Shall we?
Harry -
Yeah. I don't like being too hard on post-regeneration stories because everyone is still feeling their way around.
Sarah -
Best Line:
Mel: "Well, they kidnapped the Doctor, and no one would do that unless they were desperate for his help. He's not exactly predictable."
Favorite Moment: Mel and the Doctor checking each other's pulses.
Lasting Image: The Rani disguised as Mel.
6/10
Harry -
Best Line: "You don't understand regeneration, Mel. It's a lottery, and I've drawn the short plank."
Favourite Moment: the Rani bouncing around as Mel.
Lasting Image: Ikona the handsome Lakertian.
5/10
Our marathon continues with Story #145: Paradise Towers...
