There are going to be somewhat shorter comments from me this time round, but I wanted to touch on something important first. Something changed with season 17. I don't mean with the show (the massive shakeup was still a year away), but with me. I started to enjoy the show even more than before. Why? I had always been a fan since a young age but now my interest stepped up a gear. Maybe it's because I was twelve years old when the show came back in September 1979. Maybe I was growing up (slowly)? Actually, I think I *can* pinpoint the exact reason and the exact date. Thursday 11th October 1979. Three words. Doctor Who Weekly.
Now I'm not going to wax lyrical here about what Doctor Who Weekly meant to me or the undiluted love I still have for those early issues - that will come in time I'm sure. But I will say this: apart from a couple of school acquaintances, I didn't know anyone else who liked the show. There was no internet. No forums. I never went to a convention or joined DWAS. It was just something I really liked in amongst all the SF and fantasy novels and the other genre TV and the comics (which were my real love to be fair). My prior exposure to the show was just the transmitted episodes and the Target novelisation's. But whether it was the comics strips, the articles or a combination of both, Doctor Who Weekly took the feelings I had for the TV series and multiplied them tenfold.
So, because of that, although season 17 may not be considered one of the best by a lot of people, it will always have an special place in my memory. This is where I began my second stage of fandom...
Now I'm not going to wax lyrical here about what Doctor Who Weekly meant to me or the undiluted love I still have for those early issues - that will come in time I'm sure. But I will say this: apart from a couple of school acquaintances, I didn't know anyone else who liked the show. There was no internet. No forums. I never went to a convention or joined DWAS. It was just something I really liked in amongst all the SF and fantasy novels and the other genre TV and the comics (which were my real love to be fair). My prior exposure to the show was just the transmitted episodes and the Target novelisation's. But whether it was the comics strips, the articles or a combination of both, Doctor Who Weekly took the feelings I had for the TV series and multiplied them tenfold.
So, because of that, although season 17 may not be considered one of the best by a lot of people, it will always have an special place in my memory. This is where I began my second stage of fandom...
Destiny Of The Daleks
A new season, a new Romana and the humour aspect of the Graham Williams era has never been more obvious. The regeneration at the start is clearly meant to parody the start of "Robot" when the Fourth Doctor goes through all those costume changes. It's a fun scene which luckily stops before it gets annoying. Having Romana's costume mirror the Doctor's is also a nice touch - reinforcing the concept of how much influence the Doctor has had on the once aloof Time Lady.
The idea of an impasse between two warring races who base all their decisions on pure logic is a fascinating one, although I'm not entirely sure the Daleks are that coldly computerised - they've always seemed to be extremely emotional beings to me, like any good fanatic. Terry Nation seems to have forgotten the origin he crafted for them just few short years ago. With a bit of hand waving you can forgive this though - a lot can happen in the years since "Genesis". The Daleks casings have seen better days though, with some of them looking like they belong in that scrap yard in Totter's Lane.
The Movellans are a funky bunch aren't they? Obviously they've been getting transmissions of Top Of The Pops and the film "10" in deepest outer space, because the android race have based their look on Bo Derek meets Boney M. Being on the zeitgeist of fashion doesn't mean they have the brains to match - somehow they overlooked the obvious design flaw of putting your power pack on your belt so that it can be knocked off all too easily.
A new season, a new Romana and the humour aspect of the Graham Williams era has never been more obvious. The regeneration at the start is clearly meant to parody the start of "Robot" when the Fourth Doctor goes through all those costume changes. It's a fun scene which luckily stops before it gets annoying. Having Romana's costume mirror the Doctor's is also a nice touch - reinforcing the concept of how much influence the Doctor has had on the once aloof Time Lady.
The idea of an impasse between two warring races who base all their decisions on pure logic is a fascinating one, although I'm not entirely sure the Daleks are that coldly computerised - they've always seemed to be extremely emotional beings to me, like any good fanatic. Terry Nation seems to have forgotten the origin he crafted for them just few short years ago. With a bit of hand waving you can forgive this though - a lot can happen in the years since "Genesis". The Daleks casings have seen better days though, with some of them looking like they belong in that scrap yard in Totter's Lane.
The Movellans are a funky bunch aren't they? Obviously they've been getting transmissions of Top Of The Pops and the film "10" in deepest outer space, because the android race have based their look on Bo Derek meets Boney M. Being on the zeitgeist of fashion doesn't mean they have the brains to match - somehow they overlooked the obvious design flaw of putting your power pack on your belt so that it can be knocked off all too easily.
The resurrected Davros doesn't quite have that same presence of the single minded scientist consumed by power and vitriol and hate. David Gooderson makes him sound too normal and sane, and the few rants he has are less powerful because of it. His confrontations with the Doctor are well done, but it's hardly the classic intellectual battle of wills from "Genesis".
I'm difficult to please when it comes to humour in Doctor Who. Although I love the clever wordplay and outright silliness of the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, I don't think Douglas Adams always managed to translate it well into the Doctor Who universe. Many of the stories in this season do get the balance between light and shade right, but this story is a prime example of where it doesn't work a lot of the time - Adams and Nation make strange bedfellows. The Daleks are treated as a bit of a joke really, with the Doctor memorably telling them to "Spack Off !". I much prefer it when they are scheming and manipulative. When the funniest scene is a scissors-paper-stone game, something is clearly out of kilter.
All that aside, there are some positives in this story. The quarry locations work well as the blasted surface of Skaro and the sets for the Movellan ship are not bad. The direction and the camera work are of a fairly high standard too - this was the first time they used a steadicam wasn't it? As the initial story of the season and the first appearance of the Daleks since "Genesis" it's overall....okay. There is nothing astoundingly original here but then Terry Nation did like a recycled plot....
City Of Death
So this is that moment that Graham Williams was searching for. The point where plot and characterisation and actors and locations and music score all come together to make something truly special. Dialogue where the one-liners come fast and furious and hit the mark just about every single time. ("You're a beautiful woman, probably", "Garçon, two glasses of water. Make them doubles!", "I say, what a wonderful butler. He's so violent"") Where the worst excesses of Tom Baker's ego were contained to make his portrayal of the Doctor an amalgam of all the good points of the last few seasons. It's almost perfect.
It's extremely difficult to find fault with this story, as so much of it works so well. But let's be honest, those Parisian chase scenes do go on a bit too long - seeming a bit gratuitous just to justify the expense of travelling to the French capital - and the resolution to defeating Scaroth, Last of the Jaggaroth (you have to use his full title every time you know) is just a teensy bit underwhelming. I'm being extremely picky though. Most of the time while watching this story I just had a big grin on my face.
All the supporting cast are good (even though I preferred Catherine Schell as the sexy alien Psychon Maya in Space:1999), but I have to give special mention to Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon. Scarlioni is a genuinely menacing presence - an ice cold alien mind hidden beneath a suave mannered exterior, much like his true face is hidden by that dimensionally transcendental mask. Glover also brings subtle differences to each of his splintered selves. It's a masterclass in brilliant acting. Duggan on the other hand is a man who knows he is completely out his depth, but uses his skills as a policeman and a talent for thumping people to fumble his way alongside this pair of apparent nutcases. He's utterly useless and yet still hugely lovable.
Look, there's not much point me waffling on about how fantastic this story is. You know it is. I know it is. Tom Baker knew it was when he made it (probably).
I'll never tire of watching it.
The Creature From The Pit
This is a story which I think is unfairly maligned amongst some areas of Doctor Who fandom. They seem to solely focus on the somewhat poor realisation of Erato and that infamous green phallus shaped appendage, missing what is actually a pretty good tale of exploitation and control of rare resources. When I first saw this story back in 1979 I didn't even really register the infamous scene where the Doctor communicates with the creature. Only later viewings have highlighted that it was perhaps ill-advised. Erato actually makes for a refreshing change from the usual gamut of humanoid-like monsters that speak English. When was the last time we had a truly 'alien' creature (one that is all brain in fact) that the Doctor couldn't communicate with? The bulbous looking ambassador to Chloris is not even the real threat anyway. The Doctor himself gives Erato the benefit of the doubt rather than assuming he / it is out to absorb everyone.
Incidentally I found it interesting that the name Erato comes from the Greek muse of romantic and erotic poetry and that his home planet Tythonus (possibly) derives from the multi-headed beast Typhon. I know Graham Williams liked his classics, but I hadn't appreciated that sometimes the delvings into mythology were more subtle - just a name rather than cribbing whole sagas.
Tom Baker gives a strong performance and again seems to be balancing the humourous and the serious more effectively. I love the little scene where the Doctor is hanging precariously onto the side of The Pit and pulls out "Everest In Easy Stages", only to find it is written in Tibetan - so he then produces a Teach Yourself Tibetan book! The change in K-9's voice to David Brierly is very noticeable (explained away in the previous story as "laryngitis"). Whereas before he was a lovable robotic pet keen to provide information, now he sounds like a stuck up head boy, exasperated at having to deal with the lower mortals and their nuisances. Come back John Leeson! Romana fairs poorly too. It's obvious that, as this was Lalla Ward's first filmed story, the script was written for Mary Tamm. Lalla seems very uncomfortable and unnatural and is back at her "Armageddon Factor" levels of acting skill (i.e. terrible in parts).
As for the guest actors, Adrasta is a great convincing villainess - completely ruthless in her desire to control all the metal on Chloris. She'll throw anyone into the pit for the slightest infraction. I also love the silver headpiece clamped to the sides of her face and the way she slaps Romana violently around the face. The hairy bandits however are utterly pointless to the story and are only there to get that communicator thing off the wall and into the pit in time for part four. Geoffrey Bayldon on the other hand is just wonderful as the astronomer Organon. True, his character doesn't have a lot to do and you don't feel empathy for him in the same way as say, Binro The Heretic, but he is nevertheless always charmingly diverting. I've always loved him as an actor and he would have made a fantastic Doctor (he turned the TV role down twice but did play the part in two Big Finish "Unbound" plays), His acting legacy in genre TV is secure anyway, in the three great roles of Catweazle, Organon and the Crowman from Worzel Gummidge.
Other positives? Well, the jungle sets are damn good, extremely well lit and very atmospheric. It helps that they are shot on film rather than video. The costumes are nice too, with a late medieval vibe. I even like the Wolfweeds. Negatives? The most obvious one is that strange double ending. Adrasta is defeated and the creature is released (even though I'm not quite sure how he is going to get that massive bulk out of the pit to "spin" a new ship. Come to think of it how on earth did Adrasta get Erato in there in the first place?). All is well. But - oh crap - we're running ten minutes short. Quick, concoct another threat using the Tythonian ship coming to rescue Erato and some technobabble about a neutron star. It makes little sense and totally undermines the original idea that Erato and his people are not hostile. I suppose you could argue that it shows that the Doctor never did trust Erato completely and maybe it was planned that way from the beginning, but in any case it it seemed a rush job.
Overall though this story is a thoroughly acceptable and enjoyable adventure and not the disaster the majority seem to think it is.
Nightmare Of Eden
Written by a solo Bob Baker, this is actually streets ahead of most of the scripts he did with Dave Martin. Partly I think it's because it doesn't try and cram in too many wacky ideas and concepts, but concentrates on telling a good solid adventure. There's a lot of novel things going on (drug smuggling, the ships crashing together in hyperspace, the CET machine, aliens turning into an addictive substance when they die), but it's never unclear, and it all fits together really well. The other major factor is that the characterisation of the Doctor is just superb. We get the cosmic wanderer who is "just having fun" to the moral crusader who is absolutely appalled by the treatment of the Mandrels and the manufacture of a drug as destructive as Vraxoin. He is rightly disgusted at what Tryst has done. The coldly delivered line "Just go away" as Tryst is taken into custody at the end is magnificent (its power only slightly diluted by the "My arms! My legs! My everything!" Tom-foolery).
A lot has been made by some fans of the troubled nature of the production, the poor costumes and the supposedly less than stellar performances of the supporting cast. Yes I guess Tryst does have a peculiar accent but, well, lots of planets have people who talk oddly. To be honest I didn't find his voice distracting at all and the fact that he's an all too human protagonist just out for profit (albeit at the expense of the suffering of millions of drug addicts) is a refreshing change from the megalomaniacs and blacker than black scoundrels. The two customs men in their spangly leather are less successful - the officious busybody being a terrible cliché.
The slice of Eden taken into the CET machine is an nice piece of design - dark, damp, claustrophobic and very eerie, especially when you know that a horde of hulking monsters is out there somewhere - not to mention shadowy glimpses of a more human set of eyes peering out of the gloom. I don't care what anyone else thinks - I like the Mandrels. I remember being quite spooked by those huge glowing eyes and that enormous clam shaped mouth. Okay so the bottom half looks it belong more on a 1970s cruise ship entertainer and the droopy arms are a mistake, but if I was going to quibble about every slightly dodgy looking creation in Doctor Who we'd be here all night (there are exceptions which will never ever get a pass, as we'll find out in a few months). Sadly they do work best in the dark, losing any menace once out in the light of the ship corridors. They're like over-enthusiastic giant puppies that just might hug you to death, galumphing along in the hope of a fleshy biscuit. Just me that finds them cute then?
The Horns of Nimon
This is the worst Doctor Who story ever. That's what "received wisdom" would have you believe. Most of the season 17 adventures have taken a critical drubbing in one way or another over the years and "Horns Of Nimon" has been on the sharp pointy end of that. It does contain many of the same trait's of the earlier stories, including a somewhat unconvincing monster. But, also like the other stories, there is a decent plot underneath. In fact there is a lot to love.
That this is a another chapter in Graham Williams's Big Book of Greek Myths is obvious. The parallels with the tale of Theseus are plain for all to see - but that's not where the interesting stuff really lies.The Nimon are apparently like locusts, but I think they can be compared to a virus, spreading from world to world rather than body to body, leaving nothing but a burnt out husk in their wake. I also like that they trick their way onto unsuspecting planets by promising great power - just what the Skonnon's need in their quest to build a glorious new empire and dominate their sector of space. They even get the unsuspecting locals to build their matter transmitter for them! They are utterly evil, with no redeeming features whatsoever. The budgetary limitations may be obvious, but I still like the design of the Nimon. The heads work better than the rest of them (let's not talk about the 'lioncloth') and their voices are very distinctive. Their lumbering platform shoe walk with arms outstretched is perhaps a bit odd and the roaring may be taking the bull analogy a bit far, but if you are hiding in the dark of their circuit board maze they are still pretty scary.
Soldeed, played by the always entertaining Graham Crowden, is a much-criticised element, but I won't hear a word said against him, his deluded fantasies of power beyond imagining and his fawning in the presence of "Lord Nimon". Yes he's chewing the scenery with relish, but he's not annoying like the terrible Pirate Captain from the previous season. Soldeed doesn't just steal every scene he is in, he bundles it up and runs away, eyes bulging out of their sockets and laughing madly about the "journey of life". He even gibbers like a maniac when he is about to die ("My dreams of conquest!!!"). He's just majestically wonderful and infinitely quotable. Perhaps he seems larger than life because much of the rest of the cast are so bland (especially the tediously dull Seth and Teka).
(Soldeed's so great he gets two pictures)
The only other character that makes a decent impression is the co-pilot (he doesn't even get a name). I genuinely love the way the blundering oaf opens the cargo doors to the Aneth tributes, bellows "Weakling scum!" and then closes the door again. It's his catchphrase for dealing with the "sacrifices", the Doctor - basically anyone he doesn't like or who tries to get him to actually do anything. "Weakling scum!" is the only comment the bully makes, because he just loves having someone to push around.
I've been quite critical of some previous stories for wishy-washy story lines, poor production values or hammy acting, so why does "Horns of Nimon" get away with it? The reality is that it doesn't care whether you like it or not. It takes itself very seriously but at the same time winks at you as if to say "Isn't this fun?". The plot devices may be a staple of Doctor Who, the sets might be cheaper than usual, the monster might have a papier mache head, but it has so much entertainment value that it's good enough to surpass the poorer parts and you can't help but like it. Amongst all of season 17, I think it vies with City of Death as being my favourite.
Next time, it's all change as JN-T takes charge...
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