October 22: Arc of Infinity Parts Three & Four

I take back what I said last time about the Ergon; while it's not bad from a distance in poor lighting, up close in bright white lights it's really quite an appalling costume.  It looks really cheap, and the fact that you can see the holes in the neck where Malcolm Harvey is looking out does it no favors whatsoever.  Not that the other effects are that much better; the matter converter's beam and disappearing effect is quite nice, but the Matrix is rather disappointing with its shimmering black with odd white lines look -- we're a long way away from The Deadly Assassin's surreal landscape.  And I don't think much of Omega's costume either.

But anyway...  Part three is all about revelations.  The Doctor's not dead!  Hedin is the traitor!  The Renegade is Omega!  Er... bringing back a one-time villain from ten years ago doesn't seem like a great move (even allowing for the fact that The Three Doctors was repeated in November 1981 as part of BBC2's Five Faces of Doctor Who season), and Arc of Infinity makes few concessions to anyone who doesn't remember/know about Omega.  Not that it really matters, I suppose; all you need to know is that Omega really wants to take over the Doctor's form and enter our universe, and that This Is A Bad Thing, because Omega is made up of antimatter and thus will create a huge explosion when he interacts with matter.  Again, how has Omega not considered this problem?  Moreover, no one on Gallifrey seems willing to work with Omega, to come up with a safe way for him to transfer over; they'd much rather annihilate him and be done with it.

Omega's body begins to break down in Amsterdam. (Arc of
Infinity Part Four) ©BBC

It's a decent enough episode, but the story really becomes worthwhile in part four, due in no small part to Peter Davison's performance as Omega-in-the-Doctor's-form.  All the stuff leading up to that is suitably tense and dramatic, but once Omega achieves transfer and Peter Davison takes over, it's simply wonderful.  Davison plays the role like someone experiencing the world for the first time, taking in all the sights and wonders that he's been denied for so long.  The moment with the child in front of the calliope, where he looks at the child and smiles, somewhat uncertainly, is so magical that you find yourself rooting for Omega, even though he's ostensibly the villain of the piece (and he has just killed a groundskeeper).  And the scenery is quite gorgeous; the Amsterdam location (the second time Doctor Who has filmed abroad) is used quite effectively and adds a sense of scope to the proceedings.

But of course it can't last; the transfer is unstable, and the Doctor is forced to dispatch Omega with a matter converter so that a huge explosion doesn't take place.  The universe is saved, and Tegan is free to travel with the Doctor again.  Although I can't tell if that final shot, where the Doctor smiles and then his face falls, is because the camera didn't cut away soon enough, or if the Doctor is meant to be somewhat less than enthusiastic about the prospect of traveling with Tegan again...

I can't decide if Arc of Infinity ultimately works or not.  It's never less than entertaining, but there is a bit of a sense of the author's hand behind things; there's a good deal of technobabble floating around to make the story do whatever is necessary, and it's never really made clear what the main problem is.  There's some handwaving about antimatter, but that's treated as if that's enough, and the threat Omega (allegedly) poses is thus frustratingly vague.  It is, however, a story that works a bit better the second time around; if you already know that the Renegade is Omega, then you can have some fun with the motivations and the casual callbacks to facts we learned in The Three Doctors.  But taken in context, Arc of Infinity is something of an unmotivated adventure, and while it's enjoyable enough while it lasts (and again, Peter Davison really is impressive as Omega), it's hard to dispel the sense that this is all rather irrelevant.