The Leisure Hive through to Logopolis
I'll admit I have a soft spot for the new Peter Howell / Sid Sutton opening titles and theme arrangement. It probably stems from having heard it so many times during my many re-watches of the Davison and Colin Baker era stories (and of course the DVD menus), but even so I think it still stands up as one of the best versions, with the 'middle eight' in the closing credits and that final "explosion" being particularly memorable. Of course as I revealed last time, I didn't actually see or hear the titles until eight weeks later than many other fans, having being seduced to the dark side by "Buck Rogers".
The Leisure Hive
Let's gloss over that stupidly long panning shot of Brighton beach shall we and move on to the core of the adventure - and boy is there a lot going on. A space leisure centre built on a planet devastated by nuclear war. A hostile takeover bid by the very enemies the Argolin's fought against - gangster lizards no less. Accelerated death cause by radiation poisoning. The Doctor accused of a murder he didn't commit. Foamasi agents disguised as humans. A xenophobic clone determined to raise a new empire. Multiple replication by tachyon manipulation. A little bit of basic computer science. Oh and a Doctor aged by 500 years into an old man.
It's an ambitious tale and to go along with that we have a grumpier and more serious Doctor - both in front of and behind the cameras. Much has been said about the difficult working relationships between the star of the show and his companion and his producer. It seems clear to me from this story that Tom wasn't happy at all about the changes. JN-T and Christopher HAMILTON Bidmead thought they could tame the wild beast and push Tom's excesses back into their box, but I think that in their ideological zeal to "remove the silliness" from the show they also removed some "spark" from their star, to the extent that he just comes across as being weary and bored with the whole thing.
Having said that, the costumes and sets are of a high quality and the model of the Hive is pretty impressive. The Pangolin are also a good attempt at creating an alien species with a convincing backstory, haunted by atrocities from a generation before. The Fomasi might be a somewhat generic reptilian monster, but by limiting their appearances in the early episode to occasional glimpses of a claw or an eye, director Lovett Bickford heightens the tension for their eventual reveal - and I actually like their design, even if we have the traditional Doctor Who problem of how they get those huge heads into the tiny human masks.
I think my one main problem with "The Leisure Hive" is that it isn't a terrible story - in fact it's core concept is quite unique - but it's not a great one either. It's just...okay. I have no strong reaction to it either way. There are also some fundamental questions left unanswered - Why did the Doctor not get torn to pieces by the Recreation Generator? Why did that Foamasi spacecraft explode? How does he return from being 1250 years old back down to 750 anyway, and without anyone noticing? Perhaps I'm being picky but these are the kind of cracks that normal 'hand waving' and fan acceptance can't paper over.
Meglos
Apparently Meglos is considered by many to be the "forgotten" story from season 18. Certainly the only thing I really knew about it in the years since it's original transmission (before I got to watch it) was that famous picture of Tom Baker's face covered in cactus spikes and that Jacqueline Hill was the guest star.
Tonally it does seem to somewhat of a throwback to the style of the previous season after the massive reinvention of "The Leisure Hive". Once you get past the batty idea of a sentient evil cactus wanting to take over the universe, Meglos himself is much more of a clichéd villain in a plot full of familiar themes (doppelgangers, religion versus science, an ineffective bunch of intergalactic space pirates...). Granted, there are few ideas thrown into the mix, including the time loop - sorry, "chronic hysteresis" - and an all-powerful macguffin with a great name, the Dodecahedron.
Speaking of the "chronal hysterectomy", being able to play the same piece of footage multiple times must have done wonders for the budget (a shame they didn't spend it on the sets as it's certainly the shoddiest looking story of the season). I'm still not totally sure how repeating your actions and words gets you out of the loop. Just ask Mr C. Hamilton Bidmead - he'll know. Ultimately all it means that the Doctor and Romana don't get to the main events until half way through episode two. Is that a bad thing? Well probably not, as the plot is so slow moving that by the time the Doctor gets to Tigella the various factions have probably only just decided who should make the coffee.
The guest cast is not up to much in this story either, but that is probably the fault of the script rather than the acting. Jacqueline Hill may be playing high priestess Lexa - a role far removed from Barbara - but to be honest the role is so one note and has nowhere to go that she is totally wasted. She does her absolute best with what little she is given but it's such a disappointment. Her death is also utterly pointless. Bill Fraser meanwhile manages to make General Grugger into a bit of an over the top buffoon, but that's okay as the pirates are really only there for comedy value anyway. You can hardly be fearful of a bunch of cut-throats who can't even figure out that a plant is impersonating a humanoid or where an extra burgundy coat came from. Having said that, Brotodac's constant obsession with it is very amusing.
At least Baker makes up for all this by turning in a great performance as Meglos. His mannerisms and facial expressions are all subtly different from those of the Doctor and you do believe that the anthropomorphic cactus is arrogant and insane. It's the only saving grace in an other wise lacklustre production though which soon degenerates into a standard run-around with the villain grabbing a powerful weapon. Part four last just 18 minutes, which can only be because everyone wanted to get this nonsense over with as quickly as possible.
Full Circle
It's incredible to think that Andrew Smith, was only nineteen when he wrote possible one of the most interesting and original stories of the JN-T era. It also deals with some complex themes of evolution and fear and how we as humans change as we learn from our past. This is the opposite of the residents of Alzarius, who seemed doomed to learn nothing because of the Deciders unwillingness to change and the huge effort they have taken to to hide the truth about their own origins - all while speaking in hushed tones about supposedly important things in capital letters. Mistfall. The System Files. The Embarkation. Maintenance. It's almost religious (the running theme through this season it seems). It's also a pretty unique story in that there is no behind-the scenes cackling manipulator, just misguided humanoids - with the scientist Dexter being the closest the serial has to a real villain with his attempts at the vivisection of the helpless Marshchild.
Speaking of which, as the rubber-suited "monsters" of the piece, the Marshmen are wonderful, especially in the part one cliffhanger as they rise in slow motion from the mist shrouded swamp. Director Peter Grimwade really makes the most of the moment and the creature design to heighten the fear factor. The thing is, the Marshmen are not evil either - just primal, instinctual creatures protecting themselves - and there is a lot more to them that meets the eye. It's another example of the shades of grey in Andrew Smith's script. He also takes care in drawing clear parallels between the behaviour of the humanoids and the Marshmen - Varsh is overwhelmed and killed by the swamp creatures yet the Marshchild is overwhelmed and killed by the humans. Who do you root for?
Elsewhere there is some really good guest casting. George Baker especially is excellent value as Login and James Bree gives a nice understated portrayal of the man at the top burdened with responsibility. Richard Willis is worthwhile as Varsh but the other Outlers are all a bit forgettable. This story is of course best remembered for introducing Adric the boy genius. Matthew Waterhouse's debut on screen is... not bad. Yes he's annoying, but then many teenagers are (I know I was). We're not yet at the point where poor characterisation and underdeveloped acting talent make the character more of a liability that an asset. Maybe it would have made more sense to leave Adric on Alzarius (perhaps assisting the Deciders) but that's not what we got...
State of Decay
This is a blend of the old and the new. Uncle Terrance writes a traditional script that wouldn't have been out of place in the Robert Homes era - evil tyrants, downtrodden peasant rebels and lashings of gothic horror ripped from the Hammer template with gay abandon. Yet it's also suffused with the patented Bidmead love of scientific explanations and made up jargon. Of course the Dicks spin on the vampire element is that the Three Who Rule are the lost crew of the spaceship Hydrax, given eternal life by the Great Vampire of Gallifreyan legend.
There is a classic example of the "power behind the throne" going on here. Zargo and Camilla may seem to be the King and Queen but they don't really do very much except float around and bare their fangs every once in a while (as creepy as that is). No it's Aukon who is really in charge, barking commands and oozing menace and very good he is at it too. Emrys James turns in an excellent performance as possibly the season's best villain, but all three actors portray the vampire creatures with a somewhat sensual subtext. Certainly Camilla and Aukon seem to be interested in Romana and Adric for more than just their blood. I also love the red eye makeup on all three - it works particularly well on Zargo and Camilla.
The story revels in the clichés and melodrama and atmosphere of its horror roots. A chase through dark woods by blood-sucking bats? Check. Creeping into a cobweb strewn chamber trying not to wake the sleeping monster? Check. A vampire being stabbed by a knife only to pull it out of its chest and toss it away? Check. A monstrous creature rising from the depths after an eon-long sleep? Triple check. It's all wonderful stuff. Add in some revealing nuggets of Time Lord history (does *everything* have to be named after Rassilon?) is the icing on the cake.
Tom puts in a wonderful performance as the Doctor with all traces of the flippancy of the previous season gone by this point. It's very clear that Baker and Lalla Ward were extremely close by this time and their chemistry shows on screen - most obviously in the scene where the Doctor and Romana are locked in a cell together. For Matthew Waterhouse this was the first story he recorded and although it isn't his worst performance, he's sadly not in the slightest bit convincing when he "betrays" the Doctor and Romana. I guess they were still trying to play up the (supposedly) morally dubious, "Artful Dodger" aspects of his character, with him changing sides dependant on who he saw as having the upper hand. Or it could all have been a big bluff. You just can't tell.
All in all "State of Decay" is probably one of my favourites of the season. I'm even willing to overlook the slightly dodgy ending with the rocket ship because the rest of the story is so much fun. One thing did puzzle me - and I'm willing to accept that this just might be me being unobservant - what exactly was "The
Wasting"? Is it ever explained?
Warriors Gate
Not only is this a story which boldly has nothing but a blank white space as one of its major sets, but for the second time this season it also throws every normal convention of what a Doctor Who villain should be out the window. Instead of a mad scientist or aliens attempting world domination, we have a ruthless space captain who is just frustrated and driven crazy at not being able to get home. I've worked with similar kinds of people - just one bad day away from going nuts and bashing their heads against the photocopier glass or attacking the receptionist with a stapler, because the simplest things irritate them to the point of mania. In complete contrast, Rorvik's crew are just a bunch of workmen who get on with the job with a resigned sigh and look forward to their next lunch break. Aldo and Royce remind me of the main characters from Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" - only tangentially involved in the main plot but commentating on events from the side-lines with a world weary and cynical attitude. "It'll all end in tears, mark my words...". What is also interesting about the Privateer crew is that - just this once, everybody dies (spoilers!) . While no one is fully good or evil, all of them are guilty of something, even if in Aldo and Royce's case it's just apathy, where they allow the Tharils to needlessly suffer as they revive them.
Despite there only being minimal sets, the costumes, make-up, design and direction is superb. The Gundan robots are a wonderful creation, the Privateer sets look suitable grungy (don't you just love that slow panning shot through the corridors at the start of episode one?) and the Tharil banqueting halls look both sumptuous and dilapidated dependant on the time period. Lovett Bickford really tried to bring a cinematic sensibility to a cash-strapped BBC studio production and despite the well documented behind the scenes problems, I personally think he succeeded admirably.
Of course the departure of Romana (and K-9) is a sad one, but it seems a natural progression of the character. She has seen too much to return to the stuffy corridors of Gallifrey, and wants to make a difference in the universe like the man who has influenced her so much. It's a wonderfully underplayed scene between Baker and Ward and like the departure of Leela, the Doctor seems genuinely upset to lose his companion.
Keeper of Traken
It's time for a story that mixes the Brother Grimm with the Old Testament (plus the return of an old foe), to great effect. Romana and K-9 are gone and the Doctor is left with just a precocious teenage boy to help him. The fairytale elements are there right from the start as the Keeper relates the backstory and history of Traken. All that is missing is a "Once upon a time...". His powers may be science based but he might as well be a wizard for all the sense they make. This mythic feel continues when we set foot on Traken itself, with beautiful princesses, wicked stepmothers and walking statues - and don't forget magical rings which have to be brought together in order to access the Source. It's all wrapped in a pseudo-Shakespearean society where despite the technological marvels at hand, everyone spends their time making friends and tending their rosebushes. It can't last of course. There is a veritable serpent of evil in the alien 'Garden of Eden'...
As the voice of Melkur / The Master, Geoffrey Beevers is having a wonderful time, his voice dripping with malevolence and insincerity. Inside the evil looking statue is....something even more evil. The reveal in part 3 is a genuine surprise. The charm of the old Master is still there as well. You can believe that his silky tones would convince Kassia to do his bidding even without the control collar. Hers is really a classic tragedy of a woman blinded by love into making a deal with the devil - resulting in her having to do evil things - so it's a shame that Sheila Ruskin is simply not good enough, with her performance being hugely uneven and bordering on cringeworthy at times. In contrast Anthony Ainley gives a lovely low key and sensitive performance as Tremas. I think that his acting skill gets lost somewhat in later years amongst the Master's machiavellian "heh-heh-heh's", but here he is very restrained. The Master's absorption of Tremas is still a wonderful shock to end the story on. It's also probably fair to say that this is Adric's best story. He has a few nice lines with the Doctor in the TARDIS at the start and actually has something constructive to do in the story. Sarah Sutton is also excellent as Nyssa despite the fact it's obvious she wasn't conceived as a companion. In fact she has more to do in this this story than in most of her other regular appearances.
As well as the primary plot of Melkur trying to gain control of the Source, there is an underlying theme of change - the old being replaced with the new and being uncertain about the possible outcome. The ancient Keeper (almost a god-like figure) is replaced by a new individual and the instability that will bring to the Traken Union. Kassia doesn't want her life to change and to lose Tremas. The Master finally succeeds in cheating death and gets "a new body at last". Nyssa's life will never be the same again. And of course in the show itself JN-T has brought in sweeping changes and the Doctor is about to be replaced by a different man...
Logopolis
This is of course a milestone in the history of Doctor Who. It's the end of an era and only fitting that the story is about a threat to the entire universe. There is a pervading funereal atmosphere and sense of impending doom as the Fourth Doctor realises that not only did he get things wrong in his previous adventure and allow the Master to escape, but now the consequences are huge and add to that he is running out of time. His own fate is unimportant and he must give his life to stop the destruction of everything. The idea of a bunch of strange haired old men sitting in caves and mumbling quadratic equations to themselves to hold back the end of the universe is a great one even if - despite all the attempts to "science it up" by chucking in mentions of entropy and heat death - it's total nonsense. The Monitor does look like Noel Edmonds though.
(Deal or No Deal ?)
Equally the concept of the TARDIS's inside each other ad infinitum, each one getting darker and darker, is very effective and creepy. Then we have The Watcher. Is it the Master? Rassilon? The White Guardian? It's kept deliberately vague until the very end and adds to the feeling of foreshadowing and predestination. The show will try this kind of thing again with the "four knocks" at the conclusion of David Tennant's run, but it's here that it works best.
To add to the Doctor's woes, this incarnation of the Master is not the debonair charmer from before - he's now a power crazy maniac and his actions directly affect the Doctor's companions. Tegan's aunt is shrunk to death and Traken is destroyed - plus several other innocent Earth people and Logopolitans lose their lives, not to mention the countless millions wiped out by the now unchecked forces of entropy. The Master has murdered before but it has never been this personal and never on such a scale. Creepily, the Master also impersonates Tremas to confuse and manipulate the distraught Nyssa. It would have been interesting to see more of Nyssa's horrified reaction to the loss of her planet and an evil alien walking around in her fathers body, but there was obviously limited screen time and we have the introduction and development of Tegan to deal with. Janet Fielding makes a reasonable début and her emotional shrieking is nowhere near the annoying decibel levels of the first Davison year. At least she is reacting with some reality to a terrible situation.
The new Master might be more ruthless but his plans are no better thought out. Did he not realise that if he destroys Logopolis that he'll not have a universe left to dominate? Plus if he is talking to the entire population of the universe to hold them to ransom using a 1980s tape recorder, how does he expect them to answer back? Look, there are lots of plot holes and odd things going on in "Logopolis" - Nyssa appearing from nowhere, Adric being reduced to reading out a bunch of sums, the strange plan to get rid of the Master by flushing him out with a large helping of Thames water. The thing is it doesn't matter. The reason? Tom Baker is simply magnificent. It's possibly the most solemn and intense performance of his long tenure on the show - that of a man who knows his fate and is still determined to see it through and stop his arch enemy no matter the cost.
Part of that cost is being forced by circumstance to team-up with his enemy.That cliffhanger at the end of part three is simply chilling. A simple handshake that must have made the viewers at the time really sit up and think "this time it *must* be serious". There has always been (intentionally) a touch of the Holmes / Moriarty relationship between the Doctor and the Master and it's never been more obvious than their final tussle on the top of the Pharos Project gantry with it's echoes of the fight at Reichenbach Falls. The difference is that in this case there is no miraculous escape for the Doctor, and his Fourth incarnation is no more.
Tom Baker was and always will be *my* Doctor. I grew up with him - starting as a innocent seven year old through to being almost fourteen by the time his end came. It's no wonder then that the Fourth Doctor's regeneration was the most emotional one I witnessed - and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat. Oh I was old enough and savvy enough to know that it was just a change in actor and that Peter Davison would be along soon enough, but even so it was like part of my childhood was leaving. Time to at least pretend to grow up I guess. That final scene, that music, those flashbacks, the ultimate realisation of who the Watcher really is as we hear those words "It's the end...but the moment has been prepared for", are all embedded so deep inside me now that I only have to hear the electronic notes as the camera pans down to the Doctor's prone body on the grass, and I'm back in 1981. It's truly one of the most spine tinglingly sensational moments in Doctor Who history and as far as regenerations go only one other has even come close to making me feel the same way.
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Hello Doctor.
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