April 15: The Wheel in Space Episodes 5 & 6

Episode 5 sounds so good that it's a real shame this one doesn't exist -- one suspects that if it did it would improve the reputation of this story (which isn't terribly high) no end.  There's a lot of action going on: Cybermats attacking the Doctor and Jamie, a brawl between crewman Finnegan and two Cyber-controlled men, a swarm of meteors threatening the station (but up close this time, rather than the somewhat abstract threat they've been up to this point), and finally, tragically, the death of Gemma Corwyn, who's shot down by a Cyberman at the end of the episode.  This is the episode where things move the way they should, where the Cybermen feel like a serious threat that the crew of the Wheel is helpless to defeat, as they plan to kill the crew of the Wheel and use it for their own purposes.  (Even if the Doctor's explanation of this is a bit strange: "They have an over-riding ambition to invade the Earth, plunder its mineral wealth," he says, which hasn't really been the Cybermen's priority in any previously-seen adventure (even allowing for a generous interpretation of The Tenth Planet).  But, to jump ahead, the next Cyberman story will refer to an unseen adventure with the Doctor and Jamie on Planet 14 -- was this the moment when they decided they wanted Earth's resources?)  It's a tense, gripping episode, even on audio.

The Cybermen confront the Doctor. (The Wheel in Space
Episode 6) ©BBC

Episode 6 does exist (hooray!), so we can see Jamie and Zoe threatened by meteors during their spacewalk to the Silver Carrier to get the time vector generator (a key component of the TARDIS that was removed during episode 1 and accidentally left on the Silver Carrier) in what's not a bad scene at all, even if it's clear Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury are simply suspended on wires that don't move at all.  And yes, this is the episode where Troughton tells Ryan to switch over to "sexual air supply" so that the Cybermen don't poison the air (he means "sectional"; entertainingly, Ryan's response is, "What are you talking about?").

But there are some nice touches that are only obvious on video; the giant lava lamps in the oxygen supply room are quite nifty, and the way that the Doctor's eyeline changes when he's looking out of a monitor to address different people is utterly wonderful.  Of course, we also have photographic inserts of Corwyn lying dead (presumably to avoid paying Anne Ridler for another episode), so it's not all great.  Similarly, the sight of Cybermen spaceprancing (there's no other word for it) toward the Wheel isn't the impressive shot one assumes they were going for.  And the death of Jarvis Bennett, as he sees Gemma dead and decides to go out and attack the Cybermen, comes across as a way of getting rid of the character rather than the tragedy it's presumably intended to be.  But this episode, while not as good as the last one, is still pretty good, even with these occasional misfires.  It does end a bit perfunctorily though, as the Cybermen's spaceship is blown up and the Cybermen are repelled by a forcefield.  But we still have a bit of time for Zoe to decide to stow away aboard the TARDIS -- the implication is that she feels she doesn't fit in with the Wheel anymore and she wants to see more of the universe and expand her horizons (and she's also more than a little curious about their craft).  But the Doctor wants to warn her before she decides to come aboard, so he prepares a mental projection of their most recent adventure with the Daleks -- in other words, a scripted lead-in to a repeat airing of The Evil of the Daleks.  It's a bit tempting to go back and listen to that story again, the way it was intended, but I'll resist the urge.⁴⁰

The Wheel in Space is rather better than its reputation would suggest.  Although it's not up to David Whitaker's usual standards, and its placement as a "base-under-siege" story at the end of a series of "base-under-siege" stories (which, The Enemy of the World aside, have made up the entirety of this season) does mean there's an unwelcome sense of familiarity, of "oh, this again?", there's still quite a bit to like about this serial.  If you can ignore the whacking great scientific errors, then there's more than a little enjoyment to be had here, and for once the Cybermen's plans actually make a sort of sense (again, allowing for the science and ignoring the fact that there's such an elaborate plan involved to capture a space station by a race that can apparently destroy stars).  It's a pleasingly average story; it's not perfect by any means, but it does enough right to be able to forgive its flaws.

And that brings us to the end of season 5, often referred to in fandom as the "monster season".  Although most of the stories this season are reasonably well executed, viewed as a whole there is a sense of repetition, of "this worked before, let's do it again in a different setting".  In this regard we're on the same path as season 4 was, with the same lack of ambition beyond entertaining the kiddies and making a show that they could sell more easily abroad (ironic, then, that there were far fewer sales of the Troughton stories overseas than there were of seasons 1 and 2) .  But even if they're repeating the same tricks, they've gotten good enough at it to make each story a success, with each story being sufficiently entertaining even as the same plot beats are repeated from serial to serial.  Still, it seems unlikely that the show could continue on this path indefinitely, but now that both Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis have left, the time is right for Doctor Who to head off in a new direction with Peter Bryant ready to take full control with freshly commissioned scripts, rather than just working with what his predecessor left him.

Of course, as they say, be careful what you wish for, lest you end up with The Dominators...







⁴⁰ I did listen to the first couple minutes of the repeat though, with a voiceover from the Doctor and Zoe at the beginning -- this can be found at the end of the Evil of the Daleks soundtrack, for those interested.