November 17: Vengeance on Varos Part One

Standard and special edition DVDs

Hey, it's Sean Connery's son Jason, shirtless and being tortured, apparently for the pleasure of a captive audience.  No, not us at home (although that too), but instead for the inhabitants of Varos.  We get a look at one viewing couple as they calmly watch this while commenting on the quality of the food and their patriotic duties.  Interestingly, some fifteen years before the genre really took off, Doctor Who is tackling reality television.  Well, it's actually tackling the idea of a population increasingly inured to violence, but even if no one was consciously thinking about it at the time, the reality TV parallels are hard to avoid.

It's also interesting how long it takes the Doctor and Peri to get involved in the action -- it's halfway through part one before they arrive on Varos.  Before that they're stuck in the TARDIS (with Peri in a blue version of her Attack of the Cybermen outfit), right as the power fails -- the TARDIS is out of zeiton-7, a very rare element that the TARDIS needs to work properly.  Interestingly, though, the Doctor chooses to deal with this problem by giving in to it, rather than trying to come up with a solution -- he seems resigned to spending the rest of his life adrift in the TARDIS.  "It's all right for you," he tells Peri.  "You've only got one life.  You'll age here in the TARDIS and then die.  Me, I shall go on regenerating until all my lives are spent."  It's an attitude that you can't imagine any other Doctor adopting, but it doesn't seem out of character for the sixth Doctor.

Peri and the Doctor arrive on Varos. (Vengeance on Varos
Part One) ©BBC

But yes, it takes half the episode for the Doctor and Peri to arrive, and while they're floating around in the TARDIS we're learning about conditions on Varos.  It's not a pleasant planet, to put it mildly, and the populace is ruled with an iron fist.  But the bright spot (for the viewers, if not for the Varosians) is the character of Sil -- easily one of the standout characters of the Colin Baker era.  The idea of a profit-obsessed character hasn't really shown up on the show yet, but the fact that it does in the form of a green reptilian slug is rather wonderful -- and Nabil Shaban does a knock-out job of playing this character to the hilt.  (And I really like Sil's laugh.)  Even though Sil is the villain of the piece (well, the most obvious villain in a story that seems to be filled with them), his presence really does light up the screen.  And they've got Martin Jarvis in as the Governor, to act as Sil's foil while submitting himself to repeated referendums regarding his decisions (with deadly rays if the "No"s have it), which leads to a dignified actor constantly on the verge of death thanks to the people, but still able to try and negotiate with Sil over the price of zeiton-7.

The second half is less interesting, just because there's a lot of running around the Punishment Dome corridors (to the tune of higher audience appreciation figures, though -- a somewhat pointed joke), but the cliffhanger is excellent, as the Doctor appears to die from imagined dehydration.  But that's not the actual cliffhanger: instead, we cut to the gallery, directing the Doctor's death.  "Close-up on death throes, please. ... And cut it... now."  It's a really nice twist on the cliffhanger, showing how these things are cynically provided for entertainment.

November 16: Attack of the Cybermen Part Two

Ah.  I guess it can be.

Well, no, that's not fair.  Part two isn't particularly good, and the problems start early, but it's not a train wreck -- certainly nowhere near how The Twin Dilemma turned out.  The main concern with Attack of the Cybermen essentially boils down to two points: 1) is this a story that requires people to know about twenty-year-old Cyberman stories that no one's seen since their initial broadcast, or are those just added details? and 2) does it matter that nothing we see physically resembles those early stories?  (There's also the related point of, "Should we care that part one appears to have had little bearing on anything we see in part two beyond moving characters into the right places?", but this ultimately has less of a bearing on the story's success than you might think.)

That first point is probably the main sticking one.  Attack of the Cybermen is explicitly a sequel to both The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Tenth Planet, but the more you think about it the less important it is that you have a detailed knowledge of those stories -- all the important points are covered in the (admittedly excruciating) info-dump speech in the TARDIS, as Lytton watches the Doctor explain those stories to Peri and Griffiths (the Brian Glover henchman) -- Russell (the Terry Molloy one) having apparently actually been killed by a Cyber-blow to the shoulder at the end of part one (um...), and thus not around to be explained at.  And really, other than establishing that Telos has tombs left over from The Tomb of the Cybermen, all you really need to know is that Mondas swanned in to Earth's neighborhood and got itself destroyed for its troubles in 1986 (so next year, since this is 1985), and that the Cybermen want their newly-acquired time ship to change history by sending Halley's Comet into Earth before Mondas gets there.  (Er, which denies Mondas a place to get the energy it desperately needs in the first place... if you do remember The Tenth Planet, you'll note that Mondas blew up because it really needed energy but ended up absorbing too much from Earth, not because of anything Earth did.)  So even if you do recall those stories (either because you saw them the first time around or maybe you read the Target novelizations), that doesn't give you an advantage over anyone else.

The Doctor and Flast are locked in a storeroom. (Attack of
the Cybermen Part Two) ©BBC

In fact, because of the second point, it might even make things worse.  No effort is made to make the tombs look remotely like they did in the last appearance (not even a token effort like putting that distinctive Cyberman stencil up anywhere) and all the Cybermen we see are obviously Earthshock-style ones rather than Tomb-style -- even those explicitly emerging from the tombs for the first time in forever.  Not only that, but Attack of the Cybermen retcons the origin of the tombs themselves, turning them into a refrigerated city (by a race called the Cryons) that the Cybermen subsequently co-opted.  Anyone watching because of their love of the earlier stories might therefore be understandably underwhelmed by this.

But this is all essentially fan complaining, rather than addressing the central point: is the story itself any good?  The answer is somewhat mixed.  The worst problem with this story is that it seems very generic; there's no real reason for this to have been set up as a sequel in the first place, and the potentially interesting plotline of diverting Halley's Comet into Earth is brought up briefly and then discarded in favor of watching Cybermen and Cryons run around the tombs -- we certainly don't see any evidence of the Cybermen putting this plan into motion.  There's also the wasted inclusion of Bates and Stratton, a storyline which looks like it might be going somewhere (for most of this tale, in fact) but then patently doesn't, leaving the audience wondering what the point was.  The Cryons are probably the best part, and while it was a good move to cast women in all the roles, they don't end up being the most dynamic of characters.  The Lytton subplot about how he was really working for them also feels tacked on, and while seeing Lytton half-cybernized is a very good move, ultimately little is done with this, other than to make the Doctor feel bad about things.  ("Didn't go very well, did it?" he notes at the end).

Let's be fair; trying to make a sequel to an old story isn't the worst of sins, and you can see, sort of, why the author(s?)¹³⁷ thought it was worth doing.  However, they've tried to also come up with a more general action story that more casual viewers can enjoy, and the result falls between two stools; too many things changed to please the old-school fans, too generic to interest the new ones.  It doesn't help that Attack of the Cybermen too often feels like it's just spinning its wheels.  If they'd maintained the atmosphere of part one they might have gotten away with it, but while it's not the disaster you may have heard, there's not ultimately any real reason to care about anything that happens here.







¹³⁷ The authorship of Attack of the Cybermen is the most contested credit of any Doctor Who story -- to the point where I'm not sure anyone genuinely knows for sure who did what.  What seems to be clear is that while Eric Saward was originally going to write this story, John Nathan-Turner told him he couldn't write this as well as Revelation of the Daleks (as that would be a third of the entire season -- something the BBC frowned upon script editors doing at that time), so Saward got an old former girlfriend, Paula Woolsey, to do it up for him (under the pen name Paula Moore).  This is where things get confused, however; Saward suggests that Woolsey did a decent amount, rewritten by him as script editor, while then-continuity advisor Ian Levine says that he and Saward wrote it up and that Woolsey didn't contribute anything more than her name.  (What is known is that Woolsey subsequently submitted two more story lines to the production office, so it seems unlikely that her name was her only contribution.)  The truth is likely somewhere in between, but it seems we'll never know for certain.

November 15: Attack of the Cybermen Part One

A new season, with a new Doctor (basically), new length (all the episodes this season are going to be 45 minutes long -- partly because the BBC doesn't really make 30 minute dramas anymore), and the name of the story in all capital letters (for, as it turns out, the only story from 1980-1986 (aka the Sid Sutton "star field" titles)).  Such thrills!

Attack of the Cybermen takes a lot of flak from fandom, but from this episode it's honestly hard to see why, as there are a lot of good moments throughout this first episode.  Although Colin Baker still seems much more brusque than Peter Davison was, his portrayal has been moderated with more subtle moments and a more even temperament.  Or maybe it's just that there's less squabbling between him and Peri.  Either way, it's a positive change, and watching him try to repair the TARDIS is also rather fun.  This also leads to a running gag regarding the TARDIS's appearance, as it first changes into an ornamental cabinet of some sort and then a pipe organ.  It's a fun little bit, particularly as the Doctor is increasingly exasperated at these failed attempts to blend into the surroundings.  There's also a little in-joke as the TARDIS materializes in 76 Totter's Lane -- the location of the very first episode of Doctor Who -- and since this isn't dwelt on in any manner it's considerably more effective than some of the other, more labored continuity references we've gotten recently.  I also rather like the (unseen) fight between the Doctor and the fake policeman, which suggests that this Doctor is willing to get his hands dirty but isn't too overtly violent.  It's another nice way of distancing Colin Baker's Doctor from Peter Davison's without taking things too far.

And while the Doctor and Peri are investigating a distress signal somewhere on 1985 Earth, we get another returning character in the form of Lytton, the Dalek Task Force commander who survived Resurrection of the Daleks.  It seems he's turned to robbing banks and has put together a gang to help him with the next heist -- a gang that includes Brian Glover and Terry Molloy (the former a well-known actor -- you may have seen him in Alien³ -- and the latter the man who played Davros in Resurrection of the Daleks).  Except what Lytton's actually doing is meeting up with the Cybermen, who have a secret base in the sewers of London.  And (chinplates painted silver instead of being clear aside), this might be the first time the Cybermen have remained the same between stories.¹³⁶  Well, except for the "stealth" Cybermen who are painted matte black, roaming the sewers and killing off trespassers.  Interestingly, though, we get some nice shots of people being converted into Cybermen (as well as a few on Telos (which is officially the whole planet now) who appear to be half-converted -- Bates and Stratton look like they have Cyber-arms) -- an idea that hasn't really been explored since The Tomb of the Cybermen.  Rather less successful, though, is the appearance of the Cyber Controller on Telos (also last seen in The Tomb of the Cybermen), the helmet of which looks frankly stupid (yes, I know they were trying to imitate the Tomb design, but with the addition of the Cyber-earmuffs the end result is terrible) and (sorry to get personal here, but) the body of whom is noticeably, ah, larger than last time.  And if we're discussing outfits, why on Earth, as About Time points out, has Peri decided to wear a tight pink Lycra (spandex) top?

Really, this episode has been quite entertaining the whole way through, with some really nice moments (including our first occurrence of Nicola Bryant's running joke, "These _____ all look the same to me" ("tunnels" in this case)) and a decent storyline (what we know of it).  It's got some solid acting and some fine direction.  So why is everyone so down on this story?  Part two can't be that bad, can it?







¹³⁶ Earthshock and Five Doctors Cybermen differ in the boots they're wearing, so if you want to count that as being the same (or the painted chinplates here as being different), then fair enough.

November 14: The Twin Dilemma Parts Three & Four

I really, really don't understand the thought processes behind this story.  There are so many things going wrong, both in conception and in execution, that it's tough to believe that anyone thought this would come off without a hitch.  (Actually, it seems that many of the production team (including director Peter Moffatt and script editor Eric Saward) had misgivings about this serial, but they had to go along with it anyway.)

These two episodes are terribly uninvolving, and Azmael's lab set is competent enough to not even be a disaster worth looking at.  There are some decent moments from Colin Baker (the part where he proclaims Jaconda¹³⁴ to be a paradise without actually looking around him is rather nice, and Azmael's death scene is played with a deft touch and a quietly understated delivery -- an encouraging sign if you were worried that Baker could only play the character large), and Kevin McNally is a lot better in these two episodes than he was in part one.  But the twins aren't any better, Maurice Denham seems to be sliding into a sort of confused matter-of-fact-ness (as if he's hoping that if he just delivers the lines as written, that will be sufficient), and Mestor...  Edwin Richfield (who, you may be surprised to learn/remember, was Captain Hart in The Sea Devils) is really trying, but he's been saddled under a rather immobile costume (although they've done a good job of making the Gastropods look repulsive) and has to rely almost entirely on his voice.

Azmael, Peri, and the Doctor in Azmael's lab. (The Twin
Dilemma Part Four) ©BBC

But more problematically, the story stalls out in part three and only gets going again in part four.  We don't learn about Mestor's intentions until the Doctor examines the eggs in the incubator in part four, and even then the basic idea is strange.  (There also appear to be some weird ideas about time -- both in Mestor's official plan of moving planets into the same place as Jaconda but a day apart, and in the Doctor's appearance in the TARDIS ten seconds in the future at the start of part three only to find no one else there for some reason.)  So, just enough time to learn about the plan and then stop it with some handy slug-killing liquid.  (That said, Mestor's death is suitably impressive in its execution -- very grotesque.)  And, perhaps even more inexcusably, no chance for this new unpleasant Doctor to do something unusual, to prove that he really is different.  Attempting to kill Peri aside, it's all "sound and fury,/Signifying nothing."¹³⁵  It might be designed to reassure the viewing audience that this is still the same Doctor underneath, but it just means we're going to get a disagreeable main character, with no real reason to think that his unpredictability might lead him to make different decisions.  Defiantly though, the programme is at least aware of this: "I am the Doctor, whether you like it or not," the last line of this story, looks almost like a dare to the audience.

But more to the point, if you're going to spend all this time introducing an unlikable and unstable Doctor (and if you want him to be unlikable, why make him grin like an idiot in the title sequence?), why bother putting him in the most straightforward adventure possible, where all he can do is generic Doctor-ish things?  Why make his debut the last story of a season, when all the money's run out?  (See, among others, Time-Flight and The Armageddon Factor.)  Why make his debut the last story of the season at all, if you're going to make him unpleasant?  I understand you want to make a contrast from Peter Davison's portrayal, but is this really the impression you want to leave viewers with for nine months?

Rather infamously, The Twin Dilemma is generally regarded as the worst Doctor Who story ever televised, and it's not too hard to see why.  It's a poor script (by veteran writer Anthony Steven -- who had no other SF credits to his name -- with a lot of work from Eric Saward), with some awful moments and hideous design elements, as if everyone had chosen that moment to go blind.  It's not completely without merit -- there are a handful of decent performances and a few well-executed moments, like Mestor's death -- but in general it's misjudged on almost every level and a lot further off the mark than any other story we've seen yet.

It's somewhat unfortunate, then, that this is the story that ends season 21.  This has been an uneven season with its ups and downs, with some missteps next to some real triumphs.  The worrying trend (not just this season, but for the last couple) has been an increased reliance on the show's past to base stories on, with increasingly limited success.  When they want to make original stories they can do so with impressive results -- Frontios and The Caves of Androzani are proof of that -- but when they want to draw on the past they're getting fewer and fewer returns.  Fortunately, the regular cast of Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, and Mark Strickson were able to make a lot of this work (or at least be watchable), and so even some of the least interesting stories were elevated by their presence.  But now they're gone, and we don't know enough about their replacements to be comfortable with the show's future.

In 2009 Doctor Who Magazine held a poll ("The Mighty 200") which ranked every Doctor Who TV story up to that point.  The Caves of Androzani was voted the best story ever.  The Twin Dilemma, the very next story broadcast, was voted the worst.  Somehow, that sums up season 21 better than anything else.







¹³⁴ Incidentally, there's confusion in the script as to whether it's Jaconda or Joconda, as both spellings appear.
¹³⁵ Macbeth, Act V, Scene V.

November 13: The Twin Dilemma Parts One & Two

So, new Doctor, new look title sequence.  It's still a lot like the old one (same logo and general starfield), but they've put it through a sort of prism filter to create a riot of colors, while the sixth Doctor grins inanely at the camera (thank heavens they didn't follow through with the "winking" idea).  The effect is like the 70s tunnel sequence.  A bit.

And then the thing actually starts...

It's really, really hard to believe that this is the story that follows The Caves of Androzani.  It barely looks like the same series, let alone the following week.  It's astonishingly lurid, and the introduction of twin geniuses Womulus and Wemus (well, that's how they pronounce it) makes the heart sink.  Every moment not in the TARDIS in part one manages the dual feat of being both uninvolving and hideous to look at.  Almost none of the guest cast come out unscathed -- Maurice Denham, as Professor Edgeworth/Azmael, almost manages it, but he has to deliver great swathes of plot and have mental conversations with the giant slug Mestor.  Oh, and, surprisingly, Oliver Smith as Noma, the main Jacondan, feels very naturalistic despite looking like a bird/man hybrid.  Everyone else wavers from barely acceptable (Kevin McNally, who gets better once he's away from the space police office set -- what is up with that set, by the way?  It's a really awkward mishmash of props --- everyone seems to be doing their work on late '70s desk calculators, for instance -- that looks like a rush job more than anything else¹³³) to almost unwatchable (Helen Blatch as Fabian, sad to say), and the fact that the plot is revolving around the twins does this story no favors whatsoever.

The only redeeming qualities of part one are the TARDIS scenes.  Colin Baker doesn't give us a particularly likeable performance as the sixth Doctor, but then he's not supposed to, and you can tell he's not taking anything for granted.  The moment in the wardrobe room where he hides in the clothing racks and laughs in an unhinged fashion is strikingly good.  In general, though, Baker chooses to play the part with a more artificial, theatrical bent, and he spends lots of time declaiming and standing proudly.  You can tell this is deliberate though (as Peri comments on it), and besides, it's about the only way an actor can survive inside that coat.  Now, truth be told (and it's possibly because 30 years' worth of familiarity has lessened its effect), I actually kind of like the colorful patchwork quilt coat, but it's not an outfit for small performances.  Fortunately Baker delivers.  Where things get less successful are the mood swings -- not so much that they're there at all (you can tell what they're going for), but that some of them are genuinely frightening (the attack on Peri) and others seem designed just so that Peri and the Doctor can bicker, which isn't very entertaining to watch.  Still, at least they're keeping things unsettled and therefore not safe.

I wish I could say it gets better in part two, but it doesn't.  The main plot might be quite good, but it's frankly hard to tell under such an awful veneer.  And while there are some more interesting Doctor moments (such as cowering in fear behind Peri), the moment he's introduced to that main storyline the fun gets sucked out of his performance too.  Now that he has to pretend to know people and actually act generically heroic, it's just less interesting to watch.  Baker still does his best (and the rubbing of the cat badge for (presumably) luck is a nice touch), but it's frankly hard to care by this point, so much has the rest of the proceedings drained the audience's good will.

It can only get better from here, right?  Right?







¹³³ And special mention for how the BASIC program that makes the screen display X.V.773 LAST LOCATION etc., complete with the word RUN ready for the actor to hit RETURN and execute the code, is clearly visible for a second or two before the program actually runs.

November 12: The Caves of Androzani Parts Three & Four

The Doctor is determined to save Peri. (The Caves of
Androzani Part Three) ©BBC

These final two episodes deliver just as much as the first two did, but this time you start to really see the wheels turning: Morgus spots the Doctor in Stotz's ship via video screen and makes a series of wrong assumptions that help lead to everyone's downfall.  The Doctor is the catalyst, even though he's barely done anything.  All he wants to do is save Peri.  And to do so he goes to great lengths -- even, as we see, the cost of his own life.

Yet because of the Doctor's presence, the entire balance of power on Androzani Minor is upset.  He helps rescue Salateen, which leads to him returning to Chellak with information about Jek's base.  He ends up captured by Stotz, which leads to Morgus's precipitous actions (murdering the President and heading to Androzani Minor), which themselves lead to both his death and the death of Sharaz Jek, as Jek wants nothing more than to take his revenge on Morgus.  "Do you think bullets could stop me now?" Jek cries, tearing off his mask.  "You stinking offal, Morgus, look at me!"  And it's the Doctor and Peri's presence that leads to Jek capturing them in the first place, as he wants someone of great beauty and someone intelligent to talk to.  Just by being there, the Doctor changes everything.

These last two episodes also continue the brutality on display; these are not nice people, but they almost all are dead by the end (as has been noted elsewhere, Krau Timmin and Peri (and possibly that guy in episode one who's taking care of the copper mine) are the only ones to escape the bloodbath).  But here it never feels like Robert Holmes is just getting rid of characters (the way Resurrection of the Daleks felt at times) because they've outlived their usefulness; Holmes is instead deft at maneuvering them into positions that not only lead to their deaths but feel proper and fitting -- Salateen is killed by hubris (assuming the robot beltplate "passes" still work), Krelper and the other mercenary are killed to reinforce a character point about Stotz (that he's completely ruthless), and Chellak dies in a mudburst because he couldn't handle Jek's true appearance.  It's violent, but there's a purpose behind it.

Peter Davison regenerates into Colin Baker. (The Caves of
Androzani Part Four) ©BBC

However, while this story is really well-plotted and gorgeously directed (and I forgot to mention the lighting last time, with lots of dark shadows and unusual colored lights for the characters to move around in), it's ultimately building to the final moment of the Doctor's death.  Holmes's script (the only regeneration story he ever wrote, curiously enough) is also structured so things feel more and more desperate, with increasing tension and pressure as events continue.  Things are building to a fever pitch -- even the music gets in on the action.  The desperation and determination that the Doctor displays (starting with his capture of Stotz's ship), even as his body is increasingly wracked by spectrox toxaemia, also contribute to this build-up -- and I like the way the Doctor starts to see the regeneration effect near the end of part three before shaking it off.  But he's able to beat almost impossible odds to save Peri -- though he dies in the process.¹³²  The regeneration itself continues to build, with a strange light effect as the Doctor sees his old companions -- even Kamelion -- as he dies (and, touchingly, his final word is "Adric?" as he sees the companion he couldn't save).  It all builds to a crescendo (Graeme Harper likened it to the end of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life", which is an apt comparison) of noise and light, and then with a climactic boom (the same sound that ends the credits), the newly-regenerated sixth Doctor snaps to a sitting position -- and he even gets a couple lines (unusual at the time, although now it's standard practice).  "Doctor?" Peri asks tentatively.  "You were expecting someone else?" the new Doctor responds, somewhat imperiously.  "I- I- I-" Peri stutters.  "That's three I's in one breath," the Doctor interrupts.  "Makes you sound a rather egotistical young lady."  "What's happened?" Peri wonders.  "Change, my dear," the Doctor says, now looking into the camera.  "And it seems not a moment too soon."  The fifth Doctor has regenerated into the sixth.

It's a violent story -- an old-fashioned revenge drama in many ways -- though there's a narrative purpose to the violence, and everyone willing to use violence ends up paying the price by the end.  But at its heart, The Caves of Androzani is about the Doctor trying to save the life of a girl he barely knows, and he's willing to move heaven and earth to do so.  Season 21 has shown us a Doctor increasingly steeped in violence (the events of Warriors of the Deep and Resurrection of the Daleks, the willingness to personally kill Kamelion (even if it is a mercy killing), and the inaction while the Master burned to death), but saving Peri redeems him.  The Doctor sacrifices himself for the life of one person, and that is what this story is all about.  The fact that everything around this helps create one of the finest stories in the entire history of the series is a bonus.

So farewell to Peter Davison, who had some incredibly large shoes to fill, following after Tom Baker.  But Peter Davison didn't make the role his own, the way Baker did, so much as he inhabited the character of the Doctor.  We were treated to a Doctor full of energy and charm who, while occasionally looking like he was out of depth and not in control, nevertheless was able to navigate the situations he was presented with intelligence and a sense of delight.  But it felt like these were the fifth Doctor's traits, rather than Peter Davison's, so well did Davison inhabit the character -- a lot like Patrick Troughton in this respect.  It's debatable whether Davison succeeded in completely escaping Tom Baker's long shadow in the public's eyes (but then, it's also not a feat that any subsequent actor would manage until David Tennant -- and arguably not even then), but the fact that he succeeded as well as he did is a tribute to him.

However, we're not quite done yet -- in a very unusual move, John Nathan-Turner has elected to use the last story of season 21 as Colin Baker's debut (a decision that to date has never been replicated).  The Twin Dilemma awaits...







¹³² Although this is the one real flaw in the entire story -- why doesn't the Doctor take some of the queen bat's milk (aka the antidote) right away while he's still there and able to get more if needed?  If nothing else it would make rescuing Peri a hell of a lot easier if he wasn't having to fight off increasing paralysis and "thermal death point" at the same time.   Maybe he was just under so much stress that he didn't think about it that way.

November 11: The Caves of Androzani Parts One & Two

Standard and special edition DVDs

So here we are: Peter Davison's final story as the Doctor.  And after a six-year absence, Robert Holmes has returned to the Doctor Who world to give the fifth Doctor his sendoff.

But while Holmes's script is well-written and tightly plotted, the star of this production is Graeme Harper for his directorial debut on Doctor Who.¹³¹  His direction gives a real sense of energy to everything -- there are handheld shots, lots of camera movement, tight closeups, slow fades between scenes (rather than the usual cuts)... even direct addresses to camera, as Morgus delivers his asides directly to the audience (this was a misunderstanding by John Normington of what Harper was asking for, apparently, but Harper loved the effect so much he kept it).  This isn't to say that the other directors working on Who have been bad, but Harper is a revelation -- this is his triumph more than anyone else's.

However, where these two episodes excel is that they've been given a script that almost matches the work Harper is putting into things, and everyone involved seems to be rising to the occasion.  We get more flashes of the sarcastic, facetious Doctor that's been cropping up periodically throughout season 21, but here he's repeatedly put in completely powerless situations, which makes these verbal jabs feel much more dangerous.  Both General Chellak and Sharaz Jek warn the Doctor about his comments, but they're really the only weapons the Doctor has.  Nevertheless, you get a distinct feeling that the Doctor could get himself killed this way.  It doesn't help that everyone in this story is rather ruthless and amoral -- even General Chellak, who's the closest this story comes to a moral person, is willing to have the Doctor executed on orders and to sacrifice troopers just to maintain his reputation.  It gets to the point where Sharaz Jek is just about the most reasonable person here, and he's clearly mad.

Sharaz Jek with the Doctor and Peri. (The Caves of Androzani
Part Two) ©BBC

But what works for these two episodes, what sets them apart from stories like Warriors of the Deep or Resurrection of the Daleks, is that the Doctor and Peri aren't drawn into the violence and brutality that surrounds them.  Those earlier stories had the Doctor getting his hands dirty, but here all he wants to do is get Peri out of there -- and then later to cure her of the spectrox toxaemia she's contracted.  He has no interest in the power struggles going on over the spectrox (other than a mild curiosity as to what spectrox is, such that it's causing these problems -- it's a drug that extends the lifespan, apparently) and would much rather be somewhere else.  "I'm sorry I got you into this, Peri," the Doctor says.  "...I should have never followed those tracks.  Curiosity's always been my downfall."  Keeping the Doctor and Peri out of the violence but nevertheless still a catalyst for the events that are occurring is a good move on Robert Holmes's part: it essentially lets them have their war movie cake and eat it too.

So we get some fabulous direction (another gem: watch the way Morgus walks around the video projection of Chellak, and the way Chellak watches him move around the room), a cracking script, and a cast who are more than willing to rise to the occasion -- Peter Davison feels like he's playing with fire, Nicola Bryant acts genuinely terrified around Sharaz Jek, John Normington underplays the ruthless Morgus with a cold detachment while Christopher Gable gives a performance of barely controlled rage, ready to go off at the slightest provocation...  The only real complaints are that Nicola Bryant outs herself as not American in the first episode (no American would pronounce "glass" the way she does, with an ah ([a]) sound), and the Magma Beast, with its too-big head and always open mouth, isn't the most convincing monster ever -- although it's still leaps and bounds ahead of almost any other monster the Davison era has given us.  The final story of the fifth Doctor is off to an excellent start.







¹³¹ Officially, at least; apparently Harper directed a chunk of Warriors' Gate when the production took its toll on Paul Joyce.