August 13: The Talons of Weng-Chiang Parts One & Two

Standard and special edition DVDs

For a start, these two episodes look gorgeous.  Through a combination of great locations, impressive sets, and marvelous costuming, the first two parts of The Talons of Weng-Chiang boast some of the finest visuals ever seen on Doctor Who.  This, in many ways, is the most immersive story yet, making us almost believe the production crew simply went back to the end of the 19th century and filmed the story there.  (It probably didn't hurt that Philip Hinchcliffe, in his last story for the show, decided not to worry too much about going over budget.)

And into this environment Robert Holmes has inserted the Doctor and Leela, in a story about Chinese gangs in Victorian London and a strange masked figure lurking underneath the Palace Theatre.  It's a clear pastiché of the late 19th-/early 20th-century literature, with the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sax Rohmer, and Gaston Leroux all getting the treatment.  This is a world of fogs and alleys, and a world into which the Doctor has been inserted to distort everything around him.  Thus we get giant rats in the sewers, holograms masquerading as ghosts, and masked figures worrying about "time agents".  This last one is apparently the Chinese god Weng-Chiang (not a genuine god), who the magician Li H'Sen Chang is working for by kidnapping young women to serve as sustenance for his god.

And into this mix we also get the delightful characters of Henry Gordon Jago, the Palace Theatre owner, and Professor George Litefoot, the local coroner.   Each one has time interacting with the Doctor and Leela that is quite wonderful to behold.  Jago threatens to be a pompous, overbearing character (given to extravagant language use and turns of phrase that would make Pip & Jane Baker blush), but in the hands of Christopher Benjamin, the character is instead a likeable fellow with, it would seem, a heart of gold.  Meanwhile, Trevor Baxter's Litefoot is the soul of a gentleman, despite his profession -- watch how he mimics Leela's style of eating so as not to make her feel self-conscious (although, charmingly, he draws the line at letting her use the tablecloth as a napkin).  They're both wonderful characters, and their interactions with the Doctor snap both pairs of characters into sharp relief.

It's not perfect, of course; there is some racism on display which I don't feel qualified to comment on⁹⁸, other than to note that Chang (as played by non-Asian actor John Bennett) turns his r's into stereotypical l's only on stage, which is a nice touch.  And there's the frankly odd moment where the Doctor quells his own irritation at Leela's use of a janis thorn (as seen in The Face of Evil) after Leela informs him that "He was trying to kill you," which does feel rather off.  But small quibbles aside, these first two episodes, which seem primarily designed to build and populate the world of the story (Weng-Chiang isn't even introduced until part two), do an excellent job of building things up and making you want to see more.







⁹⁸ Interested parties might want to start by looking at Andrew Cartmel's "Weng-Chiang and the Yellow Peril (and Rats)" in Outside In.  Not that he's necessarily any more qualified to discuss it, but I think it works as a reasonable (albeit slightly facetious) starting point.

August 12: The Robots of Death Parts Three & Four

It's never made clear why the Sandminer is sabotaged; surely if the Sandminer explodes it takes the murderer with it?  But as the whole situation is resolved four minutes into the start of part three, it looks more like an excuse to provide a cliffhanger rather than a legitimate plan on Dask's part.

Oh, and sorry to give the game away so soon, but to be fair, director Michael Briant does the same thing fairly early on in part three -- he apparently had far too much faith in that video effect obscuring Dask's features.  This might honestly not be such a problem if it weren't for the fact that the script carries on as if the identity of the killer is still a mystery, with moments like the reprogrammed SV7 instructing his subordinate robots to kill Toos, the Doctor, and Leela, while he "will kill the others", showing two other corpse markers for the three remaining possible suspects (Uvanov, Dask, and Poul).  Except we know Dask is the culprit, so it doesn't exactly have the same air about it as it wants to.

The Doctor discusses the situation with D84. (The Robots of
Death Part Three) ©BBC

But this slip-up is made up for by the Doctor's interactions with D84, a robot which isn't what it seems to be, as it's actually working undercover for the unnamed Company that the Sandminer belongs to.  D84 is a wonderful character, acting as a great foil for Tom Baker's Doctor ("I heard a cry," D84 tells the Doctor after startling him.  "That was me," the Doctor says, misinterpreting what D84 is saying) as he bounces bits of the plot off D84, involving him in the investigation.  This is also where we first learn of Taren Capel, a brilliant scientist in the field of robotics who was apparently also raised by robots; he appears to have substituted himself for someone on board (so, Dask) and is behind the robot revolution that's happening.

There's also the matter of Poul's descent into madness as he can't cope with the idea that a robot killed someone -- "Grimwade's syndrome", the Doctor calls it, in a nod to production assistant Peter Grimwade.  This is expanded upon a bit later on, as the Doctor explains robophobia to Leela: "It's an unreasoning dread of robots.  You see, most living creatures use non-verbal signals.  Body movement, eye contact, facial expression, that sort of thing. ... While these robots are humanoid, presumably for aesthetic reasons, they give no signals.  It's rather like being surrounded by walking, talking, dead men."

Obviously things come to a head in part four (since it's the last episode of the story and all), with the robots no longer needing to lurk in the shadows -- and neither does Dask, who's now wearing outrageous robot-inspired facial makeup.  There are some great lines in this episode as well -- I've already mentioned the bit about robophobia, but there's also D84's calm declaration to Leela: "Please do not throw hands at me."  And I realize I never mentioned the calm, smooth voices that all the robots have, which are particularly creepy when they're saying things like, "All humans are to die."  It's only through some clever planning by the Doctor (involving using helium to change Dask's voice so that his voice print won't be recognized by the robots) that the robots are stopped -- even if D84 sacrifices itself in the process.

It's one of those rare stories where everything works.  The design, the script, the acting -- other than a moment here or there (again, the infamous early reveal of Dask) The Robots of Death is firing on all cylinders.  It's hard to find a more engaging story than this, and it's a tribute to everyone involved that the quality on this season is just getting better and better (no mean feat, given they already started at a reasonably high level).  How will they top this?

August 11: The Robots of Death Parts One & Two

Standard and special edition DVDs

It's one of those rare times during the 20th century run of Doctor Who where we get back-to-back stories by the same author, as Chris Boucher returns to write his second story.  In some ways it's different from The Face of Evil -- these two episodes feel significantly less like literary SF than The Face of Evil did -- but in other ways it's similar.  There's a sense of world-building here just as there was in the last story, which helps things along no end.

But the design!  My goodness, what an astonishingly good marriage of costume and set, as everyone involved appears to have gone for an art deco feel.  That means that the sets look nicely opulent while the costumes (albeit somewhat ostentatious) have an interesting look about them, with shapes and lines on the human crewmembers' tunics and headdresses that evoke a bygone sense of decadence.  This carries over to the robot costumes, with beautiful identical faces and wavy hair that adds to the sense of elegance.  And so, in this futuristic-yet-1930s environment, what better story than a murder mystery?

People occasionally comment on how the title rather gives the game away, but that's missing the point.  The question from the audience's point-of-view isn't whether it's the robots who are killing people but rather who's controlling the robots.  It's clear from the first murder that the robots are responsible, even if the crew doesn't know that.  The only other lingering possibility is that the robots are operating of their own accord, but that doesn't quite fit the murder mystery vibe, and the script is intent on focusing on one of the humans aboard the Sandminer as being ultimately responsible.

I mentioned earlier that there's not as much of an SF feeling from this story, but that doesn't mean it's gone altogether.  The Sandminer itself is an SF concept, as it appears to roam across a barren landscape sucking up minerals in its scoops as it passes through sandstorms, and the whole concept of a society dependent on robots is an SF one.  The difference is simply that they're not the focus of events.  The whodunnit aspect is instead, and it's a solid, entertaining decision -- with the added bonus that the Doctor and Leela are thrown into events in part two as red herrings for the crew.  There's also some great dialogue here: "You know, you're a classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of the mouth and the size of the brain," the Doctor remarks to Borg after Borg repeatedly dismisses everything the Doctor says.  The Doctor also has some interesting comments about robot-human relations:

DOCTOR: Yes.  You know, people never really lose that feeling of unease with robots.  The more of them there are, the greater the unease and of course the greater the dependence.  It's a vicious circle.  People can neither live with them nor exist without them.
LEELA: So what happens if the strangler is a robot?
DOCTOR: Oh, I should think it's the end of this civilisation.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - The Robots of Death)

And the second part also has some good complications from the mystery standpoint, as Zilda gets on the intercom and declares that Captain Uvanov is a "filthy murderer" after searching his quarters, only to be killed herself while she's accusing Uvanov.  And someone has sabotaged the "motive units" of the Sandminer, meaning that everyone is going to die in an explosion unless something can be done to prevent it...

August 10: The Face of Evil Parts Three & Four

The first two episodes focused on the Sevateem out in the jungle; these two focus more on the Tesh, the enemies of the Sevateem who are holding Xoanon captive inside the barrier, according to Sevateem legend.  The Tesh are less interesting -- probably partly because they're not really the main focus, and partly because they're dressed in silly-looking uniforms.  Still, it's clear what Chris Boucher is trying to do, having the Tesh be more intellectual than the Sevateem; it just doesn't quite work.

Leela admiring her handiwork in the Tesh ship. (The Face of
Evil Part Three) ©BBC

But that's okay for part three, because it's far more interesting learning about the Tesh's ship (even if it's not the most exciting-looking set ever; still, there are some nice angles and such) and hearing from the Doctor as he works out how he caused the problems in the first place, with a really nifty idea at the core.  "I didn't recognise a birth trauma and that was my mistake.  And when I connected my own brain to it, it didn't just take compatible information as a machine should have done.  It took everything. ... When it woke, it had a complete personality.  Mine.  It thought I was itself.  Then it began to develop another separate self, its own self.  And that's when it started to go mad."  The thought of a computer going mad because it has two separate, distinct personalities competing for supremacy is a wonderful idea, and I like how that schizophrenia is mirrored in the development of the Sevateem and the Tesh.  Plus this gives us one of the most wonderfully odd cliffhangers in the series' history, as Xoanon has trouble accepting the new information the Doctor provides and proceeds to psychically assault the Doctor, while a young voice cries out, "Who am I?"

After the superb last three episodes, part four is a bit of a letdown, since a large portion of it consists of Xoanon using the various means at his disposal to try and kill the Doctor while he tries to figure out how to "cure" Xoanon.  That's not to say there aren't some good moments and lines -- for instance, Xoanon's motivation for trying to kill the Doctor, which is that he simply doesn't fit in Xoanon's worldview: "You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common," the Doctor remarks, as he's looking for the things he'll need to help Xoanon.  "They don't alter their views to fit the facts.  They alter the facts to fit their views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering." However, this episode feels more like a typical Doctor Who story than the more literary feel the first three episodes had.  The resolution is great though, as the Doctor not only fixes Xoanon in the nick of time (as it's about to blow everything up in a nuclear-fueled explosion) but then has a very pleasant chat with the now Doctor-personality-free Xoanon -- and, as has been remarked elsewhere, it's nice to have a story that doesn't end with the computer being blown up.

And finally, we see Leela become the Doctor's latest companion, despite his reluctance: "You like me, don't you?" Leela asks, after being initially rebuffed by the Doctor to travel with him.  "Well, yes, I suppose I do like you.  But then, I like lots of people but I can't go carting them around the universe with me," the Doctor replies.  But it's too late -- Leela has dashed inside the TARDIS and started its flight.

The Face of Evil is a story that seems to be overshadowed by the surrounding stories, which have received a significant amount of praise.  This is a great shame, as this story is perhaps one of the best examples in Doctor Who of an author thinking his way through an SF conceit and exploring the result -- it's certainly the best example up to this point.  Yes, there are moments where things slip a little, but everything else is so good that the dips are easily forgivable; there's an intelligence at work here, a crisp sharpness that shines through everything else.  It's one of the best "villains" ever, and the ideas and thought involved are top-notch, giving us a production that's just as much at home playing with those ideas as they've been pastiching old horror stories and scaring us.  The Face of Evil is an undeservedly neglected gem.

August 9: The Face of Evil Parts One & Two

This story starts, enjoyably, in the middle of events, as a girl named Leela is being banished from her primitive-looking tribe, the Sevateem.  Yet there are bits and pieces of technology scattered around the tribal building, which suggests a far richer history than we might otherwise suspect.

And into this unusual jungle environment (which is a wonder of design -- both minimal in its suggestions (this isn't the same style as the overcrowded, lush jungle in Planet of Evil) and yet with curious details such as the tubing-like vines that make this place look satisfyingly alien), the TARDIS materializes and the Doctor steps out to break the fourth wall, turning the audience into his companion -- it's a really odd moment, to be honest, and is a much better argument for the Doctor needing a companion than The Deadly Assassin was -- as well as being the first really obvious moment of Tom Baker being indulgent with the role (something which will create issues down the line).

But this is the exception to this story rather than the rule; for the most part these two episodes are smart and engaging, and it's not long after this moment that the Doctor encounters Leela, who immediately identifies the Doctor as "the Evil One" -- which means that, for this tribe, the Doctor is the eponymous face of evil: a clever move.  There's also the matter of invisible monsters which the Doctor deduces must therefore be blind and will react to sound and vibrations: another smart decision from Chris Boucher's debut Who script.  There are lots of nice touches like this; the Doctor's examination of the abandoned technology and the conclusions he draws from both it and the Sevateem's ceremonial gestures ("That gesture you did. ... It's presumably to ward off evil.  It's interesting because it's also the sequence for checking the seals on a Starfall Seven spacesuit.  And what makes that particularly interesting is that you don't know what a Starfall Seven spacesuit is, do you?") are really nice, and there's clearly been a great deal of thought devoted to the set design and the costumes of the Sevateem.  The best part, though, is how the voice of the Sevateem's god, Xoanon -- who we can hear speaking to the Sevateem's shaman Neeva -- is recognizably Tom Baker's.  And then, not long after, we get the fabulous cliffhanger of the Doctor gazing at the giant carving of the Evil One's face in the cliffside, which is clearly the Doctor's face -- so there's another, more obvious face of evil as well.

The second part continues this trend, with more explorations of the Sevateem's culture and speculation on what's going on with Xoanon and the Sevateem -- the most striking aspect being the appearance of the invisible monsters, which are screaming Tom Baker faces.  There's a bit of plot advancement, but most of this episode is a fascinating exercise in world building, expanding on what we've already learned.  There's also a really nice moment where Leela proves her value to the Doctor after the Doctor realizes he can't get past the wall next to the Sevateem village, as it's separated by an impenetrable time barrier (yet another lovely concept): "You know you said nothing could get within that barrier? ... Not light or anything. ... But Xoanon is inside it. ... How do we hear his voice?"

The other part worth remarking on is the Doctor's undergoing the test of the Horda -- the Horda being vicious piranha-like creatures.  The Doctor proves his worth fairly easily, but what's curious is how he casually flicks a Horda onto the shoulder of the Sevateem who slaps Leela -- it's a surprisingly callous moment, even if it seems to be done out of a fit of pique.  Still, it only lands on his clothes rather than bare skin, and maybe we can be generous and acknowledge that the Doctor knew this would only scare him, rather than kill.

Odd cliffhanger, though, as one of the Sevateem, Tomas, is threatened by an invisible Tom Baker face.  Apparently we're supposed to care more about the Sevateem than we actually do...

August 8: The Deadly Assassin Parts Three & Four

Part three takes place almost entirely inside the Matrix, as the Doctor fights not only for his survival but also to unmask the other presence inside, the person who's working for the Master.  As such, this episode adds almost nothing to the plot -- yet the final result is so good that it's easy to forgive it.  Partly that's because it's filmed well, but it's also because this is the most desperate and vulnerable we've ever seen the Doctor, as he's trapped in the Matrix and forced to play by his unknown opponent's rules.  (All right, it's Chancellor Goth -- a fact we learn roughly five minutes before the Doctor, as his face is clearly visible in the scene where the Doctor shoots him with the poisoned thorn.)  It's a little curious that Goth would pick such Terran objects, though; does Gallifrey have a history filled with samurai, trains, biplanes, and big game hunters?  Or is Goth also fond of Earth culture?

It is a violent episode, to be sure, full of imagery of Goth hunting and shooting at the Doctor, the Doctor wounded and on the run, and lots of physical fighting (as opposed to the more fantastic shootings in the story up to this point).  That said, the set-up is such that it seems more in character than The Seeds of Doom did, and in general it seems intense rather than tawdry.  And, famously, the episode ends with another Maloney freeze frame, this time of the Doctor's head underwater -- an image so terrible, it seems, that Mary Whitehouse, the head of watchdog association the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (which tried to "clean up" TV), found it particularly objectionable, citing it as one of the scariest moments in Doctor Who and saying that small children would be left with that image for an entire week.  The BBC agreed, and cut the freeze frame from the master tape -- as if it were the freeze frame that was objectionable, rather than the Doctor's attempted drowning.  Nevertheless, the scene has been restored for the DVD.

Part four gets things moving again -- although, oddly, it seems to be wrapping up at only seven minutes in: Goth has been exposed as the traitor and the true Presidential assassin (it seems he wanted the Presidency and the outgoing President wasn't going to give it to Goth), and the Master appears to have died.  Cardinal Borusa gets some wonderfully cynical lines regarding the outcome of all this.  "We must adjust the truth," he states, deciding to make Goth into a posthumous hero rather than a traitor and pinning everything else on the deceased Master.  "If heroes don't exist, it is necessary to invent them.  Good for public morale," he adds.  The only thing left unexplained is what the Master's goal was in all of this.

The Doctor tries to prevent the Master from disconnecting the
Eye of Harmony. (The Deadly Assassin Part Four) ©BBC

Well, funny that.  The Master only faked his death; he wants the Sash of Rassilon and the Great Key, because he's worked out that the Sash is a powerful force field and that the Key will unlock the source of the Time Lords' power, the Eye of Harmony (which is described as both "Rassilon's star" and as an object from inside a black hole -- so it's perhaps not unreasonable to think it's a singularity).  The Master wants the power this will grant him, with the destruction of Gallifrey and "a hundred other worlds" as a bonus.⁹⁶  Fortunately the Doctor is able to stop him before he can finish disconnecting the Eye of Harmony, thus saving Gallifrey.  The Doctor departs with a full pardon -- but the Master, who was believed dead, is also seen to depart...

Part four is a pretty important episode in terms of fan lore: this is the first mention of Rassilon as the architect of Time Lord society (and no effort, it should be noted, is made to reconcile this with Omega's role as described in The Three Doctors -- fortunately both versions are vague enough for them to coexist relatively easily), the first mention of the Eye of Harmony as the source of the Time Lords' power, and the first time an explicit limit is given to the number of times a Time Lord can regenerate -- you only get twelve regenerations, it seems, and then you're done⁹⁷.  This last part is done to give the Master a more desperate motivation: he's reached his final incarnation and thus basically has no future left -- a fact enhanced by the decrepit look he has in this story.  These parts and all the other details that will endure in the mind of fandom (the Time Lord costumes, that fancy figure-eight design element from Revenge of the Cybermen that shows up everywhere on Gallifrey) means that The Deadly Assassin is an important story, at least in terms of adding to the mythos of the show.  But is it any good?

Fortunately the answer is a definite yes.  The confidence which filled much of season 13 is back in full force here, as Robert Holmes spins a tale that feels important and epic.  The Doctor is on his own and looks as self-assured as ever.  In addition, the sense of increasing desperation that David Maloney injects into this keeps everything moving at a quick pace, making it feel both desperate and urgent.  All the actors do a good job (even if George Pravda as Castellan Spandrell occasionally sounds like he doesn't understand what he's being asked to say) and the design work is fabulous, with lots of dark corners and long shadows mixed with that dark iridescent green creating a fascinating-looking world.  It all adds to an impressive package; The Deadly Assassin is definitely a classic of the show.

And I don't even mind the title that much.







⁹⁶ It's sometimes stated that the Master is screwing around with the Eye of Harmony in order to gain the energy to force another regeneration, but this is never actually stated on screen.
⁹⁷ Although see The Five Doctors for the first suggestion that this limit isn't as hard and fast as it's made to sound here.

August 7: The Deadly Assassin Parts One & Two

I like the opening text scroll -- it makes things seem even more important than they otherwise would, setting the events of this story in a (fake but important-sounding) historical context.  And there's admittedly something exciting about the thought of a whole story set on Gallifrey, which also gives things an extra bit of energy.

Intriguingly, Robert Holmes expends little time on doing elaborate set-ups and looks into Time Lord society, preferring instead to toss in details as they come up.  In one sense this can be a bit frustrating, as it sometimes looks like Holmes is just making it up as he goes along (e.g., Engin's comment in part two about how the Doctor appears to have survived being plugged into the APC because "his brain must have an unusually high level of artron energy" -- and yes, this is the first mention of that particular piece of lore), since no time has been taken to establish any of these things.  But ultimately moments like this are outweighed by the more successful application of the same techniques, such as Runcible's off-handed descriptions of the Time Lord chapters, which add a sense of history even if they're about as meaningful to the viewer as talk of "artron energy".  (Although there seems to be some confusion about which colors actually go with which chapters, as what we see doesn't line up with what we're told.)

The other interesting choice that Holmes makes is to make this first episode feel like a political thriller, as the Doctor races to stop the assassination of the outgoing Time Lord President even as the Chancery Guards try to apprehend him; meanwhile, in the shadows there lurks a shadowy, disfigured person who seems to have ensnared the Doctor in some sort of trap.  Still, the Doctor gets pretty far, making it into the main ceremonial chamber (which looks fantastic, by the way) and even up into the balcony, where he finds a convenient form of rifle.  And then, in what's really quite a shocking cliffhanger, we appear to see the Doctor shoot down the President.  Why would he do that?  What's going on?  And who's that mysterious figur–oh wait, the credits say it's the Master.  So, there's that answered, I guess.

The disfigured Master. (The Deadly Assassin Part Two) ©BBC

Part two cheats the cliffhanger reprise a bit by inserting a shot of someone pulling out an energy pistol; this is apparently who the Doctor was actually shooting at.  It takes about half the length of this episode before the Doctor works out that it's the Master behind things.  He's looking a lot worse for wear than the last time we saw the character in Frontier in Space, and it looks like he's motivated more by hatred than anything else -- though why his accomplice is helping him, we can only guess.  The Doctor, meanwhile, only escapes summary execution thanks to some legal trickery where he declares his candidacy for the recently vacated Presidency, which grants him immunity from execution until the election is over.  This gives him a chance to investigate and come to the aforementioned conclusion regarding the Master.  The political thriller aspect gives way to a murder mystery (complete, hilariously, with a chalk outline of the assassinated President), which then itself gives way to something more surreal, as the Doctor is plugged into an advanced sort of computer called both the APC and the Matrix in order to find out where the Master is -- only to find himself in a strange, desolate dreamscape (which looks an awful lot like a quarry), fighting for his life against a masked foe.  This episode's cliffhanger's rather strange, given what's gone before, but it makes sense in the context of what we've just seen, as the Doctor finds his foot trapped in a railroad switch track as his masked foe bears down on him...