Story #64 - The Time Monster (1972)

Sarah -
Well, this is a bit more like it. After the tedium of "The Mutants", we get a snappy six-parter, featuring our old pal, the Master.


Harry -
You know Sarah, with all these DVDs and their extras - the "making ofs" and the "behind the scenes" bits - you know what I'd dearly love to see? A blooper reel.

It occurred to me while watching "The Time Monster" that everyone was having such a jolly time of it. Pertwee and Manning, Delgado and the UNIT crew, the two scientists, even the Atlantean guest stars, everyone was really relishing their roles. And amid all the seriousness, there were so many one-line zingers and moments of silliness (intended or not) that the actors must have been bursting with laughter during shooting. Imagine the hilarious outtakes!

I'd love to have been able to look in on the production of this one.


Sarah -
It’s obvious everyone is having a smashing good time – and it was so much fun to watch!

Having renamed himself Professor Thascales, the Master is ensconced at the Newton Institute, working on TOMTIT – a timey-wimey device he homes to use to control Kronos, a creature who will somehow make him all-powerful.

Working with Dr. Ruth Ingram and Stuart Hyde, the Master is ready for his first test of TOMTIT and some special guests have been invited to watch, including Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. This could get awkward!


Harry -
Especially when Thascales starts yelling "Come Kronos, come!"


Sarah -
Oh dear, that was a bit much, wasn’t it?


Harry -
Not what one would have expected from a prof.  Gosh, it was good to see the UNIT team again, though. I didn't realize how much I'd missed them in the past couple of stories.


Sarah -
Wasn’t it just? Everyone just seemed a bit more crisp and sparkly. The Brig had a twinkle in his eye for most of the story, Yates got to play the action hero, and Benton had some wonderful moments.

One of my favorite lines was when the Doctor asked Benton if there had been any trouble, and he responded with, “I’ve been a bit lonely, that’s all.” Oh, Benton – he was even a beautiful baby!


Harry -
Baby Benton was adorable.

I did want to mention that earlier in part one, I did like that silly bit when Ruth and Stuart celebrated their successful test of the device. They danced around the lab to a merrie tune, then spun into the Master glaring at them from the door. Awkward!

Ruth and Stuart were a fun pair of short term companions for this adventure. You could see old Barry and Terry's rudimentary attempts at writing a strong female character here. Do you think they succeeded?


Sarah -
I quite liked Ruth and Stuart. Unfortunately, Our Barry and Terry couldn’t quite get their heads around strong female characters. A tip, lads: to write a strong female character just make her strong – think Liz before you started making her wear short skirts. In hindsight, we know Ruth is massive foreshadowing for our next companion, but I don’t want to jump ahead of ourselves.


Harry -
Barry and Terry seemed to think all a female character needs to do is talk about women's lib all the time and presto! Strong female! Ruth could have skipped all those lines, honestly.


Sarah -
Exactly.

Stuart, being a young, hip bloke, is a better fit for Ruth than all the old men in charge. Poor Stuart, from his 20s to his 80s in just a few moments. While we, as viewers, could be pretty sure he would be back to his 20s before the story was over, it still felt a little heartless when Ruth told him to try not to be too bitter. Aging 60 years seems like a perfect opportunity to be bitter to me!


Harry -
Another interesting character was Krasis, who arrives on the scene at the end of part two. I liked how he delivered all his lines in that stilted BBC Shakespeare style of the day. Actually, all the Atlanteans spoke in their own idiosyncratic way. A fascinating culture, to contain so many accents.


Sarah -
The whole little Atlantis interlude was fun. I imagine the sets were already together for some Shakespearean drama and the Doctor Who crew was able to just move on in.


Harry -
All the extras were already in costume.

I wonder if the palace intrigues in Atlantis were tacked on to pad out the story. I liked it though, it added more depth. It was as if the previous story had ended and we were suddenly watching a new one. Jo certainly got into the spirit of the place.


Sarah -
That was quite the getup she adopted in Atlantis, wasn’t it? The scenes did feel a bit like padding out the six-parter, but they were more successful than some other stories had been. The characters were interesting and fairly well-developed for being not the focus of the story.


Harry -
One letdown, and Barry Letts spoke to this in the DVD featurette, was how Kronos was realized. An actor on wires, flapping around in an all-white bird costume did not exactly instill terror. Even the actors seemed to find it hard being frightened.


Sarah -
I don’t think I was meant to be laughing at Dr. Percival’s reaction to Kronos’ arrival, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m sure it’s not what the creators were going for, but it had that endearing, low-budget Doctor Who charm about it.

What did you think of the TARDIS within a TARDIS conundrum?


Harry -
I'd forgotten about this scene. Right away I thought of the TARDIS within a TARDIS scene in "Logopolis", but that hasn't happened yet.


Sarah -
It was certainly fun to step inside the Master’s TARDIS, but disappointing to see that the Doctor’s TARDIS had been “redecorated” to match the Master’s. The tight-fisted BBC budgetary overlords are at it again.


Harry -
But they did manage to hire a knight and horse, a squad of Roundheads and a B-1 bomber. The story briefly turned into a reprise of "The War Games."


Sarah -
My thoughts exactly!


Harry -
I liked the Master's blinged-out 3-D roundels, but yeah, it was a lame coincidence for the Doctor to have spontaneously redecorated the same way. It's been a while since we've had so much action in the TARDIS control room.


Sarah -
I imagine them getting the same issue of “Better Homes and TARDISes” and not being able to resist copying the groovy cover look!


Harry -
Later on, Barry Letts even found a way for the Doctor to tell his own version of the Buddhist Flower Sermon. So much going on in "The Time Monster," is this story a secret gem or a crazy hallucination?


Sarah -
That was one of my favorite moments of the story. I’m going with secret gem!


Harry -
I don't know what the prevailing opinion of this story is among fanhood, but it really is a wild one. It begins in that tiny lab, spills over into ancient Atlantis, and the final battle is played out somewhere outside of time itself. It was, as Jo put it repeatedly, "groovy!"


Sarah -
Super Groovy!

Best Line: Doctor to the Brig - “It’s not meant to be anything. It just is.”

Favorite Moment: The Doctor telling Jo the story from his youth.

Lasting Image: The bloke in the Kronos suit swinging around the lab.

9/10


Harry -
Best Line: "This is not a picnic. One moment you're talking about the entire universe blowing up, the next you're going on about tea." The Brigadier at his exasperated best.

Favourite Moment: The Master attempts to hypnotize King Dalios, who laughs it off and proceeds to mock him.

Lasting Image: Baby Benton. So cute!

8/10
 

 



Our marathon continues with Story #65 - The Three Doctors...

Story #63 - The Mutants (1972)

Sarah -
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...

Story #62 - The Sea Devils (1972)

Sarah -
Back in high school and college, I spent loads of time explaining to skeptical friends that even if they had problems with the effects on Doctor Who, they should watch it for the excellent writing. Yet, somehow, I hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about the actual writers. This little project of ours has turned this all around, which is to say, Mac is Back! Seeing Malcolm Hulke’s name on the opening credits is one of the highlights of this era of Doctor Who.


Harry -
Pleased to watch another Mac Hulke story, this time a sequel to Doctor Who and the Silurians. Jon Pertwee gets a second chance to broker peace between humans and the reptilian inhabitants beneath the planet's surface.


Sarah -
And it works out about as well as the first time!


Harry -
Naturally, Hulke provides another searing indictment of humanity, and the pompous buffoons who run its governments. Go Mac!


Sarah -
I would expect nothing less.


Harry -
Before we get to that, the story starts off innocently enough, in the Doctor Who sense of things. We see some murky goings on in the sea, with ships mysteriously being sunk, culminating in an attack on an abandoned sea fort by a new monster - the so-called Sea Devils.


Sarah -
What a coincidence that the Master happens to be jailed in the same waters. I mean, what are the chances of that happening? Surely, he can't have anything to do with the missing ship shenanigans, can he?


Harry -
It's uncanny!


Sarah -
Utterly. The Doctor and Jo arrive at the island prison to visit with the Master, who is as charming and delightful as ever -- the best frenemy a Time Lord could hope for.


Harry -
I wish the exchanges with my old frenemies were as witty and stylish. Was this the first time the Doctor admitted that he and the Master used to be friends? Yes, here's the quote: "He used to be a friend of mine once. A very good friend. In fact, you might almost say we were at school together."


Sarah -
Do you have many frenemies?


Harry -
No, none at all. Frenemies was a high school thing.  I have only mortal enemies now.


Sarah -
I’ll keep that in mind.

Though there have been many Doctor-Master combinations, Pertwee and Delgado will always be my favorite. Their chemistry is perfect and watching them is always a delight. The fencing scene is one of the highlights of this story for me. They’re both having a blast, and the Doctor can’t resist giving the Master another chance, just to keep things interesting.


Harry -
The Doctor clearly feels a bit of sentiment for the Master, for him to go to the trouble of paying a visit to his isolated prison. And to sit through prison governor Trenchard's ridiculous fussing over his and Jo's UNIT passes. I liked how Trenchard's obsession with passes became a running joke through the story.


Sarah -
Oh, Trenchard. Another in a line of petty bureaucrats in Doctor Who, but saved from mediocrity by Clive Morton’s performance. While Trenchard is in the Master’s power and something of a buffoon, Morton conveys the pathos in Trenchard’s character. As with so many other Doctor Who characters who have discovered they are not as in control as they thought they were, Trenchard believes that his actions will redeem his past failures. In the end, his actions are chalked up to patriotism, and not his own hubris -- but we viewers know better, having seen this all before.


Harry -
And he's not even the most loathsome bureaucrat in this story! But we'll get to him later.

Another running joke, for some, is the score. All experimental electronica. I love this kind of music, so for me this score is the electronic zenith of the 70s. The ultimate Pertwee soundtrack. It's forward-looking, but so of its time I can't see anything like this being used again. In fact, contemporary Who is the complete opposite: big, symphonic blockbuster music. And that's fine. I'll always have "The Sea Devils" to enjoy.


Sarah -
And you’re welcome to it! I don’t want to start a major row here, Dear Harry, but the soundtrack is perhaps my least favorite part of this spectacular story. Every tinny note set me on edge and even undermined the story at points. Still, it’s inextricably part of "The Sea Devils", so perhaps I should be less harsh in my judgment. I apologize for any hurt feelings I may have caused.


Harry -
Hah, we might get more readers if we had more rows!


Sarah -
We’ll have to work on generating a bit more drama.


Harry -
Another tip of the cap I want to give is for all of part two. This is one of the best single episodes of Doctor Who ever! It starts with the dazed crew man staggering along ranting about a "Sea Devil." The Doctor fiddles with a radio set, then goes to investigate. A frantic chase scene erupts, played out on stairwells and crazily-angled corridors. In the Sea Devil, we finally get a monster that can run, not shuffle, and it elevates the scariness of the scene. Trapped in the room where they started, the Doctor scares off the monster, then rigs up the radio set to send a message. The radio then blows up, just one of several quick comedic moments in the episode. Back at Trenchard's office, the Doctor gets in some office putting, some more quips, and that wild fencing duel with the Master, culminating in a knife-throwing cliffhanger. Holy wow, this episode is full of win!


Sarah -
You’ve done a spectacular job of summarizing episode two, Old Chap, but you’ve left out what is perhaps my favorite scene ever in any episode of Doctor Who! Near the end of the first episode, when the Doctor and Jo are climbing up the ladder to the sea fort and “Jo” is clearly a bloke wearing her pantsuit none-too-well and shaking what his mama gave him – because you know, that’s how ladies move.

What amuses me most is that, in my memory, which is no doubt how I want this scene to actually play, he’s wearing a miniskirt, go-go boots, and a full beard.

If only.


Harry -
There was something about the way the stuntman climbed that ladder, as if he was being electrocuted. It looked as if "Jo" would go flying into the sea at any moment. Obviously it made for lasting memories.

I agree that this story might be the best of the Doctor-Master conflicts. Pertwee and Delgado crackle just by being in the same room together. This might be Delgado's best turn in the role, and one of my favourite Delgado Master stories. Maybe we've become accustomed to his bonkers plots that this one didn't seem as jarring.


Sarah -
Seems entirely plausible to me!


Harry -
The titular monsters of the story end up being almost secondary characters, until that next fabulous scene on the beach when they emerge en masse ("en masse" in Doctor Who parlance meaning exactly six).


Sarah -
Six isn’t bad. There were only three Daleks in "Day of the Daleks". Six is positively a crowd!


Harry -
For all the repeated dashing to and fro from the prison to the naval base, the story never lags. Each episode brings a fresh angle, be it the Sea Devil and the minefield, the sunken submarine, or the arrival of Walker, the arrogant bureaucrat from the Ministry of Defence. His pompous bullying is something else, eh?


Sarah -
Parliamentary Private Secretary Walker was a complete douche. Sorry for assaulting your ears with such foul language, Old Chap, but that’s what I wrote in my notes when he appeared.


Harry -
He was a complete and total arse.


Sarah -
He made me pine for Trenchard! Like all bullies, he was also a coward when the chips were down. His only response to Jo’s heroic climb through the ventilation shaft is to think of himself: “What if you get caught? They might make reprisals against the innocent.” Utter douche.

And, then, a hovercraft! Can this story possibly get better?


Harry -
That hovercraft was majestic. I want one! Barring that, I want to ride in one!


Sarah -
Well, that sorts out your next birthday gift.


Harry -
Kudos to the Royal Navy for allowing the BBC to use so many of their toys in the making of this story.


Sarah -
I have to admit I found myself worrying about Jo – a civilian in the middle of a military assault – but she’s a lady who can handle a bit of mucking about with the best of them.


Harry -
She did more running, climbing and sneaking about than anyone else in the story.


Sarah -
She definitely held her own.

In the end, the Doctor reverses the polarity of the neutron flow and saves the day.


Harry -
Of course.


Sarah -
I couldn’t help but be disappointed when the Doctor justifies his actions by claiming he did what he had to do to prevent a war.


Harry -
He killed the Sea Devils to prevent more deaths. APPALLING.


Sarah -
I seem to recall him lecturing the Brig for doing the exact same thing to the Silurians, whom the Doctor believes should have been more properly called the Eocenes, for the record.


Harry -
The production team seem to have trouble identifying and naming the creatures on Earth, too often falling back on disparaging terms like "savages" and "sea devils". Yes, yes, times were different, but it bugs me now. And if the Doctor is resorting to minor acts of genocide, I say it's time he gets the heck off this planet for a change.

Shall we join him?


Sarah -
Yes, let’s.

Best Line: The iconic, “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”

Favorite Moment: The Doctor-Master joust

Lasting Image: Stuntman Jo on the ladder

9/10


Harry -
Best Line: "Your usual childish desire to gloat, perhaps?" The Doctor crackles with sarcasm during a face off with the Master.

Favourite Moment: anytime Pertwee and Delgado are in the same room together.

Lasting Image: The Doctor-Master joust, as Pertwee gets right into it, while Delgado tries to fend him off.

8/10

 



Our marathon continues with Story #63: The Mutants...

Story #61 - The Curse of Peladon (1972)

Harry -
It's a funny thing, "The Curse of Peladon." When I'm in the mood to watch some Pertwee, this is never a story that I reach for, even though having just watched it again I enjoyed it so much.

Maybe the gloomy sets leave a dim memory of the proceedings at the galactic conference. Yes, another conference. However, the Doctor seems to have got the TARDIS working again and we find ourselves on the planet Peladon. It is, conveniently, ruled by the Peladons, but also by customs and beliefs that harken back to medieval times. And the locals do love their customs.


Sarah -
Doctor Who returns to one of its recurring themes of superstition versus reason. The planet Peladon is being considered for admission to the Galactic Federation and is being assessed by a committee of dignitaries from member planets. Not everyone on Peladon is eager to join the Federation. The two advisors of the soon-to-be-crowned King Peladon disagree on the application – Chancellor Torbis is an advocate of joining the Federation, while High Priest Hepesh opposes the move, citing the disapproval of their god Aggedor.

As luck (or, perhaps the Time Lords) would have it, the Doctor and Jo find themselves diverted to Peladon while out for a spin in the TARDIS. Jo’s anxious to get back to UNIT headquarters for her night on the town with Mike Yates, and most definitely has not dressed for the mountain climbing they find themselves doing.


Harry -
One moment, Yates is taking Benton's food, now he's taking Jo on a date. Rank continues to have its privileges.


Sarah -
As a military organization, One would think UNIT had policies against this sort of fraternizing.


Harry -
It was a more innocent time, perhaps.

Jo mountaineering in heels was commendable, and it was she who found the entrance to the tunnels beneath the city (is the city called Peladon too?).


Sarah -
I’m pretty sure everyone and everything on the planet is called Peladon.


Harry -
Keeps things simple.  I liked how the Doctor and Jo immediately insinuated themselves into the conference proceedings, the Doctor claiming to be the Earth delegate, accompanied by Princess Josephine of TARDIS. The kid in me loved the wild assemblage of alien delegates too. Best assortment of characters since "The Daleks Master Plan."

But could the locals not have sprung for some more overhead lighting? It was terribly dim everywhere.


Sarah -
It did enhance the mood, giving everything a creepy, almost gothic look.

The Doctor didn’t miss a beat, did he? Good thing the Earth delegate was running late.

I loved the aliens! The moment when the Doctor and Jo make there way out of the tunnels and into the citadel, only to happen upon two Ice Warriors is wonderful.


Harry -
That was a wicked shock!


Sarah -
It’s been a long time since I last watched this story, which was likely the first time I ever saw the Ice Warriors. Having met then from the beginning, I forgot that they were allies in this story and shared the Doctor’s sense of concern upon seeing them. I loved the twist of finding out they were federation delegates.

And then we have the delegates from Alpha Centauri and Arcturus. Alpha Centauri, we soon learn, is a hermaphrodite hexapod – and a big scaredy pants. Arcturus is a head encased in a mobile life-support unit, and definitely wins the award for most tripped-out alien of the season.


Harry -
Against some fierce competition still to come.


Sarah -
One of my favorite things about this story is that the participants never know who is trustworthy and who is not. Everyone is under suspicion – especially the Doctor and Jo.


Harry -
It's great. Every episode bounds along from one scene to the next, and the delegates - being of the highest bureaucratic rank among their people, one assumes - love to do nothing more than spend the the whole time chatting away, keeping all of us apace as the story develops.


Sarah -
In the middle of this all is King Peladon, about to ascend to the throne and unsure of how to be a good ruler and decide what is best for his people. He trusts in High Priest Hepesh, who is completely playing him.


Harry -
Oh gosh, King Peladon was such a delicate thing, I wanted to bring him home and put him under glass.


Sarah -
I have to pause here a moment to say that David Troughton is perfect as Peladon. Last seen by us in an American Civil War era barn in "The War Games", it’s nice to have him back. (As we know, he won’t return to the series again until 2008.) He makes Peladon a sympathetic but naïve ruler, who finds himself falling for the lovely Princess Josephine of TARDIS.


Harry -
Their scenes alone together were very sweet, something we don't often see in Doctor Who.

Meanwhile, check out the Doctor: he's conning the delegates, battling the king's champion, and singing the mighty Aggedor to sleep with a Venusian lullaby. Another fantastic performance by Jon Pertwee. We really haven't given him enough credit for making his Doctor a great man of action. I think the fact that he's slipping the shackles of Earth has vastly improved his mood.


Sarah -
That it has. Pertwee is wonderful in this story – all charm and action. I’m happy to be off Earth again.


Harry -
I don't know if this story was meant to be a shorter three-parter, but it's as if the whole thing gets wrapped up right at the start of episode four. The nefarious Arcturus gets blown away by one of the Ice Warriors, and his plot with Hepesh is revealed to all. But there's still enough time for Hepesh to go old school, and lead a coup attempt with swords and shields.


Sarah -
Arcturus seemed shady from a beginning, but maybe I just can’t trust a being who needs green gel squeezed over his head all day long.


Harry -
By the time Hepesh launches his coup attempt, the Doctor is completely in control of the situation. He turns Aggedor against the man who abused him for so long, and Hepesh meets his demise. Hooray, I guess? It's hard to feel celebratory at the end of this story, because King Peladon has lost so much over the course of four episodes. His two trusted advisors are both dead, his planet's attempt to gain entry to the Galactic Federation is almost a shambles, and Princess Josephine shoots down his marriage proposal. Oh Peladon!


Sarah -
Poor Peladon – the king, the planet, the city … the guy who carts away the rubbish. If only we could go back again to see what happens to the planet a couple seasons down the road. Oh, well.


Harry -
Very subtle, there.


Sarah -
Thanks. I thought a bit of foreshadowing would be a nice touch.

The story ends on something of a high note with the coronation of King Peladon about to begin. The Doctor and Jo plan to stay, until the untimely arrival of the actual Earth Delegate to the conference. Time for another quick escape in the TARDIS!

Time to get back to Earth for some watery hijinks!

Best Line: Jo: "I don't understand you! One minute you're condemning the Doctor to death and the next you're proposing to me!" Ah, young love!

Favorite Moment: When the Doctor spots the Ice Warriors for the first time.

Lasting Image: Peladon’s royal ensemble. That’s quite a look!

7/10


Harry -
I would have called this one "The Thighs of Peladon."  Yes!

Best Line: an exchange between Arcturus and Ice Warrior Izlyr:

"The facts point to one thing: a unilateral blood alliance between Peladon and Earth."

"It is unusual to celebrate such an event with an execution."

Favourite Moment: I liked the sequence of moments at the end: Aggedor getting attached to the Doctor, Jo and Peladon's final moments together, the surprise arrival of the Earth delegate Amazonia, and everyone's shock when the TARDIS dematerializes.  Fantastic sequence!

Lasting image: Alpha Centauri and the other alien delegates.

7/10

 




Our marathon continues with Story #62 - The Sea Devils...

Story #60 - Day of the Daleks (1972)

Sarah -
They’re Baaaaaaaack! Has it really been five years? I’ve quite missed those pepperpot sociopaths. I mean, as much as one can miss pepperpot sociopaths...

I have to admit, I've been looking forward to this story since we began the Pertwee era. I have such fond memories of "Day of the Daleks", but haven't seen it in at least seven years.


Harry -
Was it everything you remembered it to be? I too saw it many moons ago and found myself liking it even more this time around.


Sarah -
Happily, it was! I made the entire family watch with me.


Harry -
It's always more fun with more people on the sofa. But you know who's missing? Our friends Rob & Toby. Can't believe we've almost gotten halfway through the Pertwee era without them as our guides. I'm missing Rob's savvy interpretations and Toby's encyclopedic asides. I've been keeping an eye on their publisher's website, but there's still no sign of when we'll see Volume II of the series that inspired our little adventure.


Sarah -
We are of one mind, Old Boy! I found myself really missing Toby and Rob while watching "Day of the Daleks". They were by our sides us for the first six seasons and I felt like we were getting by without them for the past two -- but now I've had enough! I want our pals back on the Sofa with us, already!


Harry -
Me too!  I hope the next volume arrives soon. Until then, let's continue to grope our way through this dimly lit corridor.

Yes, Season 9 kicks off with lots of guns and mayhem, new monsters and classic villains, and yet another international peace conference for UNIT to safeguard. Everything old is new again!


Sarah -
There’s so much packed into these four episodes. It begins so quietly, with the Doctor trying, once again, to get the TARDIS operating properly. When Jo points out that the TARDIS was operating when they went to the colony in space, the Doctor explains that the Time Lords were in charge then, and “No one’s going to turn me into an interplanetary puppet.” We even get a tidy little time paradox before the Brig charges in to order them off to Auderly House to protect Sir Reginald Styles from mysteriously disappearing freedom fighters!


Harry -
The good production and on-location filming really elevated this story. The interior and exteriors of Auderly House looked great. All those Ogrons, future guerrillas, and UNIT troops racing around the grounds gave the story a great spike of energy.


Sarah -
I know there are gripes about the Ogron and Dalek attack force not being terribly menacing, but I love the image of them stalking over the grounds.


Harry -
But there were the quirky little moments too, like Jo "feeding the troops." There was something so sweet about that.


Sarah -
I was slightly outraged by Yates' behavior towards Benton. "Rank has its privileges," indeed, Posh Jerk! Yeah, I just called Yates a posh jerk for showing up Benton -- got a problem with that?


Harry -
Jerky Yates!

Once the story kicks into gear, it really roars to life. Who are these mysterious guerrillas appearing out of thin air? Are they heroes or villains? They almost kill the Doctor and Jo before Jo ends up getting zapped into the 22nd century. And that's when it really gets groovy.


Sarah -
I was half wanting the War Chief to show up and sex up the grooviness a bit.


Harry -
Well I can understand that.

I loved - LOVED - the future sets. One room had the Controller in his white swivel chair, issuing commands to a team of identical looking assistants (especially loved the hand-waving action). The other room had the comfy cushions for everyone to lounge on, even though the actors seemed to have an awkward time of it. I love the 70s vision of the future. It's so funky!


Sarah -
The cushions gave me some ideas for a redesign of the Sofa, if you're up for a bit of lounging... of Rassilon.


Harry -
We could kick the cushions to the floor and sprawl out. I'll bring some grapes next time.

One curious point: there was so much interesting stuff going on, I barely noticed that the Daleks were barely seen for the first half of the story.


Sarah -
Oh yes, them. It does eventually become apparent that the Daleks were a late addition to the story. Also, if I can quibble just a wee bit, the blue Daleks didn't really have proper Dalek voices, did they? I can't even tell you how bothered I was by that.


Harry -
Yeah, the Dalek voices seemed a bit meek here. Same with the Ogrons. I remember seeing pictures of the Ogrons as a kid and thinking they were fantastic terrifying monsters... only to find them as subservient guard dogs in this story. Meh.


Sarah -
The Ogrons are definitely striking. It’s long past time for a return, would you say? They will have escaped their Dalek overlords by that point and found a way to bring their own havoc to the universe. Or, perhaps a prequel about how they became the slaves of the Daleks.


Harry -
What we lose in limited screen time for the Daleks, we more than make up for in action sequences. The Doctor gets to roar around in a Jeep, and his escape with Jo on the Randomly Placed Three Wheeler was awesome.


Sarah -
There’s little as exciting as a three-mile-per-hour chase!


Harry -
Health and Safety must have been going mad over that stunt. 

Everything finally converges back at Auderly House in the 20th century. It's going to kill me every time we see a TV announcer in the Pertwee era. Alex MacIntosh was an actual TV announcer at the time, but his brief role cried out for more Michael Wisher!


Sarah -
I’m starting to think that every story cries out for more Michael Wisher.


Harry -
Hear, hear!


Sarah -
Just a few more seasons, my friend.

With no Wisher to tide us over, I was happy to make due with Aubrey Woods’ brilliant performance as the controller. He started out a mere lackey of the Daleks, but managed to redeem himself in the end by helping the Doctor and Jo escape. Bureaucrats so rarely have that opportunity in the Third Doctor’s run.

While looking up information on Woods, I learned that he died earlier this month. He's perhaps best known for performing "Candy Man" in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.


Harry -
Very sad and untimely.  We've had a couple of untimely deaths happen during this marathon.  Aubrey Woods will certainly not be forgotten; he was fantastic in this role.

Back to the assault on the house. Would you call it an assault, or more like a slow procession of three Daleks and some Ogrons? The visuals failed there, unfortunately.


Sarah -
As I mentioned above, this little sequence, while disappointing, manages to warm my heart in only a way Doctor Who can. I spent so many hours defending the series against attack back in the 80s. This scene is exactly the sort of thing I had to defend and one of the things I love so much about the show.


Harry -
Overall though, this was a nice comeback story for the Daleks. They are still at their scheming, dominating, and exterminating, now in colour!


Sarah -
It’s a whole new Technicolor universe!


Harry -
"Day of the Daleks" is one of those stories that captures all of the Pertwee era. The action and stunts, the classic enemies, the bureaucrats and conferences, and some otherworldly time travel to sort out. For me, this one gets better with every viewing.


Sarah -
It absolutely does!

Best Line: “That’s a most good-humored wine. A touch sardonic perhaps, but not cynical.” It’s one of my favorite lines ever in Doctor Who and I was eagerly awaiting it from the first note of the opening theme!

Favorite Moment: When the Doctor and Jo are tied up in the cellar. The Doctor is trying to figure out what’s going on, and Jo responds with, “I’m the one who’s supposed to be asking the questions.” I laughed out loud – we can’t say Jo doesn’t know her place!

Lasting Image: The fast-paced ATV chase.

8/10


Harry -
Best Line: "A family of Quislings, eh?" - the Doctor deflates the Controller's pompous self-aggrandizement with one cutting quip.

Favourite moment: Had to be the "fast-paced" ATV chase.

Lasting image: Everyone lounging around on the 22nd century cushions.

8/10

 



Our marathon continues with Story #61: The Curse of Peladon...