Two stories of the search for the Key To Time down, four to go. And after the disappointments of "The Pirate Planet", it looks like we are on an upswing in quality.
Mostly.
The Stones of Blood
For me this story appeared to be a return to the dark gothic feel typical of the Hinchcliffe years, not seen in the show since "Image Of The Fendahl". Stone circles that move and feed on blood. A secret cult in a sleepy English village. A bird-faced witch from the dawn of time. It's all so familiar yet so very welcome and uncharacteristic of most of the Williams years.
The opening episodes have tons of atmosphere and the director makes good use of the classic tropes of the genre. The druidic cult scenes with de Vries and his acolytes have a certain creepiness, and the ravens on the stones and the TARDIS are a nice touch. The climactic scene where Vivien Fay turns out to be the woman in all the paintings is a genuinely great cliffhanger.
The two main female supporting actors are uniformly excellent. The standout is obviously Beatrix Lehman as the engagingly eccentric Professor Amelia Rumford. I love how she readily befriends the Doctor and Romana, taking time lords, robot dogs and alien criminals from pre-history completely in her stride. Susan Engel has a unnerving and somewhat creepy air as the apparently helpful Vivien and then the sinister Cailleach. However once she slaps on the silver war paint, she becomes slightly more uneven - bordering on turning into a cackling pantomime villain. She gets away with it though, portraying an interesting and different foe for the Doctor.
The Ogri are fantastic original monsters, and definitely one of the scarier alien races we've seen, despite being quite basic in concept and execution. The sound design works perfectly - that eerie ominous heartbeat is very unsettling. It works better that the Ogri don't talk and that we don't see what the they do to humans every time they capture them - all we hear are the screams. Having said that, the scene where the two campers are consumed for their blood is just terrifying.
Then suddenly, after several episodes of small-screen Hammer Horror, we have a glaring shift in tone into a brightly lit spaceship for some courtroom drama. Don't get me wrong, I quite like the bio-mechanical Megara and their silly pedantic voices, buzzing around like two hi-tech bumble bees. Tom Baker in a barristers wig making a valiant effort to burst the bubble of the pompous Justice Machines is definitely worth a chuckle. He also seems to have curbed the worst excesses of his usual attempts to deviate from the script. It's the Doctor using his wits and being clever - and who doesn't like to watch that?
So if I enjoyed it so much, why do I have a minor problem with the last two episodes? Well it's because all of the effective atmosphere, gloom and mystery are lost as soon as the action switches to the ship in hyperspace. If they had only lit it differently - made the ship darker and scarier - it would have worked so much better. Imagine the Doctor and Romana creeping around a barely visible, apparently derelict, hulk, finding husks of dead creatures in locked rooms and the still disguised robed figure of Cessair of Diplos waiting for them in the shadows. You can still have the Megara and the battle of wills, just frame it differently. I guess that the big contrast is meant to be part of the twist. We begin the adventure with a "Holmes-ian" story about modern-day druids practicing blood rituals and praying to their ancient god, but end with a "Williams-ian" tale of alien war criminals and legal wordplay. The show, as ever, is continuing to change. Drawing on the themes of its past as much as forging a new path into the future. It's different, but still immensely enjoyable.
I still wouldn't want to meet an Ogri on a dark night though...
The Androids Of Tara
This is as different as it's possible to get from the SF / horror hybrid that was the previous story. It's a future tech fairytale of castles and dungeons, imprisoned princesses, dastardly deeds carried out by a boo-hiss villain and a swashbuckling hero riding in to save the day, with the fate on the entire planet in the balance. Not to mention multiple android doubles and mistaken identifies.The obvious influence is, of course, The Prisoner of Zenda, by way of the films of Errol Flynn or Douglas Fairbanks, but despite it's pilfered literary roots, it's a story that wins you over with it's sheer charm. Who cares about the search for the Key To Time when an adventure is this much fun?
The writer obviously thought so too, given the speedy way in which that element of the arc plot is wrapped up. We don't even need a monster to create a threat, but it seems to be the rule that Doctor Who has to have one anyway, so the Taran Wood Beast pops in and out with alarming rapidity. Just as well really as it's about as threatening as a puppy.
As far as the characters go, Peter Jeffrey is wonderful as the scheming Count Grendel. He reminds me of those cads and bounders played by the likes of the late great Terry Thomas.You know, the ones who are insufferably polite and genteel while planning to murder you to achieve their nefarious goals. He almost makes the story worth viewing just by himself and easily steals many of the scenes that he is in, with his wit and that magnificent nose. He's immense fun. It's almost a relief to see him get away at the end with one final acidic put down, and it's a shame that he only seems to have reappeared once since, in an anthology short story where he teams up with the Kandyman !
Elsewhere Lois Baxter gives a nice measured performance as Lamia, the robotics expert in love with the Count (unrequited of course, Grendel can only love one person - himself). She is a tragic figure really, knowing that what she is doing is wrong yet continuing anyway because at least it gets her noticed. Neville Jason manages to imbue Prince Reynart with all the expected qualities of the standard "tediously heroic" figure, although despite his well-intentioned hatred of the evil Count, he seems to be more of a figurehead, as everyone appears to come up with the ideas and fight his battles for him. Of course the key to the show is Mary Tamm, playing no less than four separate roles. It's just about possible to keep track of which one is which, and she makes Romana and Princess Strella distinct enough from each other to make it believable.
It seems to be the case that if Tom Baker likes the script, he'll stick to it or make some real effort with his comic "business". That's clearly what occurred here, because the force of Baker's personality shines through when the Doctor is mocking Grendel and the Taran's pretentiousness. He flings the one-liners around with abandon. It probably helps that in Count Grendel he got a villain that is as good at verbal swordplay as with a blade. It's one of Baker's best performances of the season.
Finally, it is of course worth mentioning the marvellous location work at Leeds Castle which add hugely to the atmosphere and the fabulously outrageous costume designs. As you can probably tell, I love this story. It's difficult to find much wrong with it at all. If the Williams era of the show was meant to be about toning down the violence and upping the humour quotient, then "The Androids Of Tara" is where they got that balance exactly right.
Things can only get better from hereon in. Right?........Right?
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