Doctor Who Television Review: Pyramids of Mars

Episode: Pyramids of Mars
Story Number:  82
Season: 13
Screenwriter: “Stephen Harris” (Robert Holmes and Lewis Greifer)
Director: Paddy Russell

Thoughts:

The Doctor and Sarah Jane are returning to UNIT headquarters, something I find surprising when I watch this story because it seems like it’s been a couple of seasons (and a regeneration) since The Doctor was based at UNIT.  A time anomaly forces the TARDIS to land at an English estate in 1911 on the site where the UNIT headquarters will be built in the future.  The owner of the estate, archaeology professor Marcus Scarman (Bernard Archard) has been turned into an animated corpse and become the servant of Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf).

In the Doctor Who universe, Sutekh is a member of a powerful race of aliens called the Osirians, and is the influence for the God of Death, Set, in Egyptian mythology. Scarman is plotting to release Sutekh from under a pyramid on Mars where he was imprisoned by his brother Horus millennia ago. Naturally, he is aided by robots that look like mummies.  The Doctor and Sarah have to try to stop them with some limited assistance from Scarman’s brother Laurence (Michael Sheard).

Influenced by Hammer horror films, Pyramids of Mars is atmospheric and has a strong script.  There’s a lot about Sutekh and the plot that doesn’t make a lot of sense.  But that’s easy to set aside since Sutekh is a truly scary antagonist and a believable challenge for The Doctor.  The dialogue between The Doctor and Sutekh is particularly strong.  Plus, the chemistry between The Doctor and Sarah Jane is strong, with several good moments for the companion.

Score: 8 of 10

Audio Review: Doctor Who Fourth Doctor Adventures – The Renaissance Man

Title: The Renaissance Man
Director: Ken Bentley
Writer: Justin Richards
Doctor: Fourth
Companions/other cast: Leela
Release Date: February 2012
Thoughts:

The Doctor and Leela travel to a planet with the larges museum of Earth artifacts, but it seems that someone has been using people to store data.  The plot and structure of this story is reminiscent of The Chimes of Midnight as they keep meeting people who don’t remember them and take on different personas.  There’s some good humor and academic insider references, but not much of an adventure.

Rating: 6 of 10

Audio Review: Doctor Who Fourth Doctor Adventures –Destination Nerva

Title: Destination Nerva
Director: Nicholas Briggs
Writer: Nicholas Briggs
Doctor: Fourth
Companions/other cast: Leela
Release Date: January 2012
Thoughts:

This story picks up immediately after The Talons of Weng-Chiang, although Tom Baker’s voice is so noticeably aged it may not have been the best idea to emphasize that. They don’t go far as they receive a distress signal from 1895, and don’t even have to change out of their Victorian clothing.  Turns out that English troops are actually the aggressors and have taken control of the ship from the alien Drellerans.  A lot happens as the Doctor and Leela go to the future and there is some continuity-wanking about The Nerva Beacon.  Honestly, it was dull, and the story went in one ear and out the other, so I can’t even really remember what happened.

Rating: 4 of 10

Television Review: Genesis of the Daleks

Episode: Genesis of the Daleks
Story Number: 078
Season: 12
Screenwriter: Terry Nation
Director: David Maloney

Thoughts:

Heretical as it may be, I’m not a big fan of Dalek stories, and of Terry Nation’s work in general.  Genesis of the Daleks is a notable exception as it is undoubtedly deserving of it’s classic status.  Nation outdoes himself (or perhaps Robert Holmes rewriting Nation?) as he completely rewrites the history of the Daleks and with it the history of Doctor Who.

All the stops are pulled out as production values are high with excellent sets and locations.  Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, and Ian Marter are all at their best and their characters get to strut their stuff.  And the supporting cast is brilliant, despite their being so many of them.  Kaleds! Thals! Mutos! Davros, Nyder, and Battan are particularly meaty parts embraced by their respective actors.

Sure there are some flaws like the giant clam, one of the cheapest cliffhanger resolutions in Doctor Who history between episodes 2 and 3, and the mystery of why the Kaled and Thal cities are only a short walk apart (my theory is that the cities grew as the last survivors of each race gathered in opposing camps as the rest of Skaro was made uninhabitable).  But one cannot really dwell on the flaws of Genesis of the Daleks as there is so much that’s good here to discuss.

The titular monsters are actually not present for much of the story which I think is always a good way to tell a Dalek story.  Their few appearances are more pointedly scary as a result.  The allusions to real world historical events like the Nazi regime and WWI trench warfare is obvious, but at the same time lead to building a unique world. The plot and dialogue are complex with some unexpected twists.

This is yet another Classic Doctor Who story I would recommend unreservedly to new watchers, and one of the three great Dalek stories along with Remembrance of the Daleks and Dalek.

Score: 9 of 10

Television Review: Warriors’ Gate

Episode: Warriors’ Gate
Story Number: 113
Season: 18
Screenwriter: Stephen Gallagher
Director: Paul Joyce, Graeme Harper

Thoughts:

Warriors’ Gate is one of the strangest and most hard to follow stories, really a fantasy disguised as hard sci-fi.  But it has a lot going for it.  The cinematography is top notch, especially the opening tracking shot through a spaceship, past bored crewmen, as a booming voice counts down.  The production also makes excellent use of limited sets of the banquet hall and null space.

Lalla Ward stand out in her performance as Romana.  For a long-time she’s been acting as a Doctor surrogate, but by this point she’s out-doing Tom Baker.  When Romana leaves at the end of the story, it breaks my heart that there was never a spin-off series to follow her ongoing adventures.  It most certainly would’ve been more interesting than Keeper of the Traken.

Warriors’ Gate is a brain-puzzler and not the most approachable Doctor Who story, but I think it’s a great example of pushing the boundaries of what Doctor Who can do.  It’s too bad that this is one of the few flashes of brilliance in the terribly uneven John Nathan-Turner era.

Score: 8 of 10

Television Review: The Invasion of Time

Episode:  The Invasion of Time
Story Number:  097
Season: 15
Screenwriter:  “David Agnew” (Graham Williams and Anthony Read)
Director:  Gerald Blake

Thoughts:

This story has a bad reputation, and despite showing some promise in the first couple of episodes, the story lives down to that reputation.  The story borrows Robert Holmes’ Gallifrey from The Deadly Assassin and borrows Holmes’ Sontorans from The Time Warrior and mash them together in a way that shows that screenwriters have no good ideas of their own. It’s never a good sign when the screenwriters hide behind a pseudonym.

There are some good parts. I think John Arnatt as Chancellor Borusa and Milton Johns as Castellan Kelner do a good acting job despite the weak script.  I also thought that Hilary Ryan as Rodan, the only woman invited to the sausage fest in the Gallifrey Citadel, made a good foil for Leela.  If only they were given more to actually say and do.  The parts where they wander around the Tardis interior, filmed in some abandoned building somewhere, are a humorous attempt at working with a low budget and might’ve worked better in a story where my patience hadn’t already reached a breaking point.

Ultimately this story is cheap and rushed and it shows, but worst of all there’s a casual indifference to the show by most everyone involved (from Tom Baker on down) that demonstrates a lack of effort in even trying to make a good story. Good thing that they won’t try to make another Gallifrey story in the near future.  Oh, wait…

Rating:  2 of 10

Television Review: Horror of Fang Rock

Episode: Horror of Fang Rock
Story Number: 092
Season: 15
Screenwriter: Terrance Dicks
Director: Paddy Russell

Thoughts:

An all-time classic.  There are some flaws with the special effects (the weird, green jellyfish appearance of the Rutan) but most everything else is near-perfect.  The atmosphere of the fog-enshrouded lighthouse lends an eerie air to the proceedings.  The guest cast are excellent and themes of class and gender inequality are subtly worked into the story.  Of all the stories I’ve seen with Leela, I think she’s allowed to shine here the most as someone who works as a foil to the Doctor without being comic relief.  And I have to say I find the outfit she cobbles together from the lighthouse men’s clothing is sexier than the “primitive” leather cloths Louise Jameson usually had to wear.  Tom Baker is at his best as well, with his Doctor always a step ahead and a bit of bastard as well.  Who can forget him cheerfully proclaiming “I’ve got news for you, gentlemen. This lighthouse is under attack. By morning we could all be dead?“  In the end, The Doctor saves the world but doesn’t save anyone at the lighthouse, because he cannot compete with the vanity, greed, and superstition that consumes them.

This is an excellent story to show to someone who is new to Classic Doctor Who, although with the high body count, you may want to warn them it’s on the bleak side.

Score: 9 of 10

Television Review: Image of the Fendahl

Episode: Image of the Fendahl
Story Number: 094
Season: 15
Screenwriter: Chris Boucher
Director: George Spenton-Foster

Thoughts:

Like The Mutants, this is a story I’ve never watched before, and similarly I find to have some good ideas poorly executed.  The 15th season of Doctor Who saw a lot of turnover in production staff and rushed schedules that make it one of the weakest seasons of the first twenty years of the program, and it shows in Image of the Fendahl.

But lets start with the good things.  There’s a 70s aura to this show.  First, there’s the atmosphere of dark, foggy nights that oozes “slasher film” although the killing is more effectively done off-screen.  Then there’s that strange 70s-era trend of linking scientific advancement on earth to aliens or the supernatural (good for a story at least).  Apart from one atrocious accent, the guest cast is strong as well.

Unfortunately, the scientific ideas are never brought together into a coherent plot.  After building up the tension for the first two and a half episodes, the arrival of the Fendahleen is just silly.  It’s hard to decide what to make of Leela, so strong in Horror of Fang Rock (just two stories earlier), appearing in an skimpier-than-usual dress and strange hairdo, although she does get some good scenes with the superstitious villagers.  And how does the Doctor get out of that closet?  If only Moffat had shown Clara opening the door in The Name of the Doctor.

I’m going to put this one down as a good effort for the conditions, but not good enough.

Score: 4 of 10

Television Review: The Pirate Planet

Episode: The Pirate Planet
Story Number: 099
Season: 16
Screenwriter: Douglas Adams
Director: Pennant Roberts

Thoughts:

This story is the second part of the Key of Time, a season-long story arc that is mostly forgettable, but kicks off with two of the best stories of the late Tom Baker era.  This is due to two of the best writers in Doctor Who’s history working on these stories – Robert Holmes on The Ribos Operation and Douglass Adams on The Pirate Planet. The addition of Mary Tamm as the sassy but regal Romana also helps rejuvenate the series.

Like Adams’ more famous work in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, The Pirate Planet features a lot of humor and some great all-around weirdness that we don’t get to see enough on Doctor Who.  The story features two great twists that I didn’t expect at all the first time I watched this, but caught a lot of clues on this reviewing.  If you haven’t seen it the next paragraph is a big spoiler.

The first big twist is the nature of the planet Zanak in that it surrounds and devours other planets for it’s mineral resources.  The second big twist is that The Captain, the villain of the first three parts, is revealed to be the lackey of the tyrannical Queen Xanxia, who’d been disguised as his nurse.  Bruce Purchase’s over-the-top performance as the evil Captain turns out to be a performance for Xanxia as he’s secretly planning revenge.  All the humor masks that Xanxia is committing horrific genocide on a planetary scale leading to one of the great moments of outrage by Baker as the Doctor.  It all ties together for a very mature and intricate story.

I was surprised to read that this story is not well-received among the Doctor Who fandom.  While it’s not quite a classic, I certainly view it as a near-classic.  And I wish that more stories had gone out under Douglas Adams’ name (his next story City of Death went out under a pseudonym and his final story Shada was never completed).

Score: 8 of 10

Book Review: Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension

Author: George Mann, Carl Scott, and Nick Abadzis
Title: Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension Vol.1
Publication Info: London : Titan Comics, 2018.
Illustrator: Rachael Stott
Colourist: Rod Fernandes
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt
Summary/Review:

Another multi-Doctor story.  Unlike The Four Doctors, this one does a good job of having each Doctor’s story have a stand-alone aspect while adding to the overall story arc.  It also gives a good amount of time and agency to the supporting characters, the many companions and the Doctor’s Daughter, Jenny.  It also cleverly spins some history of  Galliferey and TARDISes without being overly fan-wankery.

Rating: ****

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Author: Gordon Rennie
Title: Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension Vol.2
Illustrator: Ivan Rodriguez
Colourist: Thiago Ribeiro
Publication Info: London : Titan Comics, 2018.
Summary/Review:

The second part is not as strong as the predecessor.  Once the Doctors get together the writing lazily relies on Doctors bickering with themselves and being brilliant together.  The conclusion is also highly derivative of The Day of the Doctor.  Still a fun romp though

Rating: ***