Monday, October 29, 2012

The Daemons

Dear Gary—

“It really is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.” And The Daemons really is the perfect story for this time of year. “That means the occult . . . well, you know . . . the supernatural and all that magic bit.”
The Doctor, however, will have none of it. The Age of Aquarius, the occult, the supernatural, witches, the devil, magic . . . “Everything that happens in life must have a scientific explanation . . . if you know how to look for it that is.”

“How infuriating can you get,” Jo says of the debunking Doctor.
But it’s all great fun, debunking myths and while doing so creating new ones. And it’s all rather paradoxical, a science fiction show, a show full of gods and monsters, a show of the fantastic and unreal refuting the fiction with faux facts.

It’s rather like the Doctor scoffing, “A rationalist existentialist priest indeed.”
Doctor Who embraces this irony, and never more so than in The Daemons.

We start with an archaeological dig excavating an ancient burial mound called the Devil’s Hump near a village called Devil’s End on the eve of Beltane. Professor Horner derides the local white witch’s warnings as mere superstition, but the Doctor rushes in with warnings of his own. He is too late, however, and as the mound is opened an icy blast of wind kills the professor and freezes the Doctor.
It is not the devil that is unleashed, however, and this is not Hell freezing over. This is the Master, posing as the local vicar, calling forth an alien being who has been using the Earth as a laboratory. This alien being, a Daemon named Azal, has been aiding and influencing Mankind down through the ages as a scientific experiment.

The Daemons, the thawed out Doctor (who apparently has “the constitution of an ox”) explains, are an amoral race of beings, and “all the magical traditions are just remnants of their advanced science.”
This is where I have to agree with Jo—how infuriating can you get? The entirety of Human history trivialized as an alien science project.

“I sometimes wish I worked in a bank.” Leave it to the Brigadier to interject a much needed dose of reality into the proceedings. Whether it is the devil or a Daemon, black magic or science, just take care of business . . . “five rounds rapid.”
Azal is nearing the end of his experiment and ready to decide if it has been worthwhile or if Earth is a failure ready for the rubbish bin.

“This planet smells to me of failure.” Doesn’t sound very promising for Earth’s future.
But a giant Azal and his gargoyle minion Bok, aided by the Master and his troop of mesmerized villagers, is no match for the Doctor, Jo, the Brigadier, Captain Yates, Sergeant Benton, and the white witch Olive Hawthorne.

Everyone gets in the game on this one, even Bessie, and it is all quite fun. What with the wind whipping, living gargoyles, costumed revelers, great horned beasts, satanic rituals, maypole dances, human sacrifices, traditional folk music, and a burning at the stake, who wouldn’t get caught up in the magic? (Or “psychokinetic energy” as the Doctor would term it.)
The Brigadier is briefly locked out of the action by a heat barrier that has been placed around the village, but some tense motorcycle chases and equipment rigging moments with the Doctor effectively breaks through in a typical Doctor Who conjuring trick, and the Brigadier advances on this enchanting circle of Hell with nonplussed bravado.

And I have to give a great deal of credit to the Doctor on this one, Gary. For all of his insolence, when Jo unexpectedly lays into the Brigadier the Doctor comes to his defense: “Jo, the Brigadier is doing his best to cope with an almost impossible situation, and since he is your superior officer you might at least show him a little respect.” Amen. Now if the Doctor would only take a little of his own advice once in a while . . .
Let’s not forget the Master in all of this. The Master is trying to convince Azal to transfer his daemonic power to him so that he can take over control of the planet. Azal briefly considers the Doctor for this role but in the end rejects him in favor of the Master and marks the Doctor for death.

In steps Jo. Jo stands in the way of Azal’s bolt of electricity; Azal is dazed by this baffling display of self-sacrifice, and his confused rage literally consumes him.
Love has saved the day. “It really is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius,” as Jo says.

“Science, not sorcery,” says the Doctor. But is it science or is it fiction? Is it magic or is it psychokinetic energy? Is it the devil or is it a Daemon?
All I know, Gary, is that The Daemons is Doctor Who magic; both science and sorcery.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Colony in Space

Dear Gary—

At last Doctor Who is getting back to the TARDIS; back to traveling in time and space; back to its roots; back to Time and Relative Dimension in Space.
The Doctor has been working on the TARDIS to bypass the Time Lords’ homing control (he hopes) at the same time that the Time Lords are deciding, “We must restore his freedom—as long as it serves our purpose.”

The result is that the Doctor and Jo take off in the TARDIS, but the Time Lords determine the destination. The destination turns out to be the planet Uxarieus in the year 2472. The Doctor is excited just to be able to once again explore “the wonders of the universe,” whereas Jo disappoints the Doctor by lamenting, “I don’t want to think of it; I want to go back to Earth.”

Thankfully the Doctor doesn't oblige and return to Earth immediately. Parenthetically, Gary, I find it rather amusing that the show holds rather a dim view of the Earth's future. As we are told, in 2472 there is "no room to move; polluted air; not a blade of grass left on the planet; and a government that locks you up if you think for yourself."
But back to Colony in Space; back to time and space; back to a story that I can finally get behind. Like The Mind of Evil there are multiple storylines in Colony in Space, but unlike The Mind of Evil they are not thrown into a bag and jumbled up together; rather the events occur as a natural progression of the plot. We are also treated to some strong supporting characters appropriate to the narrative.

To begin our tale, the Doctor and Jo meet up with a group of farmers unsuccessfully trying to colonize. Not only are their crops dying inexplicably but now they have giant lizards that have started to attack and a mining company that is claiming prior rights to the planet. To top it off, the leader of the colony, Ashe, is plagued by disgruntled settlers questioning their choice of planets.
The Doctor is consumed with “scientific curiosity” and begins to seek explanations for the crop failures and lizard attacks. This leads him to the IMC mining ship captained by the dastardly Dent who will stoop to most anything, including murder, to gain control of the rich mineral deposits on Uxarieus. However he has his own dissenting voice to contend with in the person of Caldwell.

The first few episodes of Colony in Space are well paced with conflicts and conflicts within conflicts. With pitched battles, kidnappings, arguments, sabotage, and even psychological turmoil. All of the skillfully scripted drama we come to expect from a good Doctor Who serial.
Only after this discord has sufficiently simmered do we get a dash of the Master to spice things up before we get an all-out boil.

The Master has become the de facto villain in this eighth season of Doctor Who. He has appeared in every serial. We come to expect him. To my mind, Gary, Colony in Space is the most effective use of him to date.
The Master arrives in disguise as the Adjudicator come to settle the dispute between the colonists and the mining company. He clearly has his own agenda, but he cleverly plays the two sides against the middle, biding his time until he can achieve his own purpose. He has complete control of the situation, including the Doctor who is unable to discredit the Master, lacking his own credentials as he is.

The Master’s purpose is to find a supposed doomsday weapon that is concealed somewhere on the planet. This links in the primitives of Uxarieos who up until this point have had a peripheral part to play in the waging campaign for the planet.
The primitives have been helping the colonists, however it has been established that they can turn violent if crossed. The Doctor and Jo have also discovered the primitive under-city presided over by a Guardian and have determined that this was once a thriving and advanced society.

The Master now provides the linking piece. This is why the Doctor has been sent by the Time Lords. This is why the Master has descended. The colonists and the miners, as it turns out, are peripheral; they are the straight edges and the filler. The primitives are the centerpiece. They hold the last and final portion of the puzzle. They are the creators of the super weapon the Master seeks and the Time Lords wish to conceal.
The primitives have long since forgotten the significance of this weapon; only the Guardian knows of its devastating power, which during its testing phase created the Crab Nebula. The Guardian and the Master.

The Master once again tries to sway the Doctor to his side: “We’re both Time Lords; we’re both renegades; we could be masters of the galaxy.”
“Absolute power is evil,” the Doctor counters.

“One must rule or survive; that’s a basic law of life,” the Master argues.
“I want to see the universe, not rule it,” the Doctor concludes as he engages the self destruct mechanism on the weapon (why do all evil devices of this sort have such an easily accessible self destruct mechanism and why hasn’t anyone hit it either accidentally or deliberately long before?).

As the weapon explodes, however, we need to wind up the plot. For even if the miners and colonists turned out to be peripheral to the puzzle, they are central to the action and we care what happens to them.
Ashe has sacrificed himself to save his people; Caldwell ‘s conscience has overcome his greed and he has decided to join the colonists; radiation emanating from the super weapon has been eliminated so that crops will now grow; a real Adjudicator is on his way from Earth to settle the dispute over the planet’s future. 

And the Doctor and Jo are sent back to the waiting Brigadier only moments after they left him. Back on Earth, back with UNIT, but back with a semi-working TARDIS.
“I want to see the universe, not rule it;” that is the essence of the Doctor, and I am so glad that Doctor Who has finally gotten back to its essence.

I hope, Gary, that somewhere out there you too are seeing the universe and will someday see this.

Monday, October 22, 2012

The Claws of Axos

Dear Gary—

“The claws of Axos are already deeply embedded in the Earth’s carcass.”
It is the imagery of Axos that really brings The Claws of Axos to life. As the Doctor says, “Before you start annihilating the thing why don’t we just take a look at it?”

Axos is an organically grown ship that has landed on Earth, and it looks rather remarkable given the budget constraints of Doctor Who at the time. From the outside it looks vaguely like a sea anemone sticking up out of the land; inside is a psychedelic world of soft membranes, dripping ganglia, and lobster claws grabbing out at you from the walls (the only cheap looking aspect of Axos). At times the inside of Axos is rather like being in a fun house while on an acid trip.
In fact there are several hallucinogenic type moments inside Axos that are simply stunning. The kaleidoscope of colors and the disembodied revolving heads create some dizzying visuals. And then the talking eye stalk that hangs down from the ceiling is a trip in itself.

The Axons, too, are impressive in their humanoid form with their golden skin, masses of molded curls, and smooth pupil less eyes.  (The one flaw is the obvious zipper down the back.) The true Axon form is also striking as hulking blobs of deadly tentacles, although they are more effective in close up rather than shown lumbering along from a distance. I am a bit confused by the one rather bizarre mummenshanz like globule that appears inexplicably on the lab floor, but then we do learn that everything Axos is all a singular organism so I guess it’s just a pimple that erupts.
But beware Axons bearing Axonite. All that glitters is not gold. Axonite “can absorb, convert, transmit, and program all forms of energy.” This might seem like manna from heaven, but as the Doctor points out, “I doubt if even Axonite can increase the growth of human common sense.”

There seems to be a worldwide shortage of common sense in The Claws of Axos; so much so that I find it rather implausible.  Call me naïve, but I just don’t believe a person like Chinn could exist, and if he did exist I just don’t believe he would ever be put in such a position of power. This type of hard headed stupidity makes me mad—not the stupidity itself but the use of this as a character device to advance a plot when it is so astonishingly far-fetched that anyone would really act this way.
And then there is the rest of the world. If alien beings landed with some sort of miracle substance it would not immediately be shipped to every major city and government. It would be quarantined; it would be studied; it would be debated; it would be held up in red tape.

But then our story would be held up and we wouldn’t have this cancerous growth enveloping the world and we wouldn’t have the Doctor teaming up with the Master yet again to defeat the enemy.
It is an interesting plot twist, Gary, when the Doctor seemingly turns on his beloved Earth and decides to abandon it to its fate; and then in a double twist he apparently cooperates with the Axons to give them time travel so that they can feed on the entirety of time and space in return for exacting revenge on the Time Lords. If this were not Doctor Who I could almost believe this third Doctor of such betrayal; but not quite. Although I think it would have made a most entertaining show having the Doctor and the Master traveling about together as a dynamic cosmic duo.

Instead the Doctor seizes the opportunity to trick the Master into fixing his TARDIS and to trap Axos (and he hopes the Master) in a time loop from which they can never escape. Of course the Doctor can escape simply by boosting his power, so I wonder why the Master who has his own TARDIS available to him, or Axos with its thinking molecule, can’t escape just as easily.
The Doctor himself rather amusingly stumbles a bit over his explanations once back in the company of the Brigadier and Jo as he tries to illustrate the concept of a time loop. And then he admits that he is 90% certain . . . “well pretty certain” that the Master remains locked in that loop of time.

The Doctor also remains trapped. Despite the Master having fixed his TARDIS, the Time Lords have programmed it to always return to Earth. “It seems that I’m some kind of a galactic yoyo,” the Doctor exclaims.
And so I end on that inspired imagery courtesy of The Claws of Axos and hope that somewhere in that galactic yoyo of a time swirl these echoes will be heard.

Friday, October 19, 2012

The Mind of Evil


Dear Gary—
The Mind of Evil has some intriguing ideas that would have been bettered served if they had their own story rather than all being crammed into this one resulting in a haphazard and chaotic plot.

I’ll start with the evil mind of our title. “Interfering with the mind,” as the Doctor says, “it’s a dangerous business.” Especially when the minds being messed with are hardened criminals. The Keller Machine is being used at Stangmoor prison to extract all of the negative impulses from select criminals. However, as the Doctor points out, all of those evil urges have to go somewhere, and as it turns out they are being stored in the machine where an alien parasite has taken up residence and is growing stronger as it feeds on the convicts’ compulsions.
In and of itself this would make for an exciting story. The alien being has the power to affect a person’s psyche, causing one’s greatest fear to overcome and even kill one. “We believe what our minds tell us to Jo,” says the Doctor, and he himself almost succumbs to the raging inferno his brain has conjured.

Set in a prison, this scenario is rich with possibilities. Add a convict uprising and the Master and what more do you need?
Apparently an international peace conference and a hijacked missile.

Now we have threads of story scattered about with the Doctor and the Master crisscrossing back and forth between the prison and the conference site; the Keller Machine conveniently being put out of action momentarily only to burst free of its confines when expedient; one uprising being quashed only to be followed by yet another takeover; Jo being captured, released, and captured again; and just when we’ve had about enough of all of this running around we get a missile seized by the Master and aimed at the peace conference.
Meanwhile we have the poor Chinese delegate Chin Lee acting under the control of the Master and/or the Keller Machine to wreak havoc at the conference and make life miserable for the Brigadier. Throw in a murder and attempted murder and we have the makings for two or three fine stories if they could only be disentangled from this jumble of a narrative.

“The trouble with this game,” the Doctor says in a fit of pique over a game of checkers, “is that it is too simple.” Our story could use some of the simplicity of a straightforward game of checkers rather than the convolution of “three dimensional chess” that the Doctor is more used to.
As I have already mentioned, Gary, The Mind of Evil brings back the Master to face off against the Doctor.  And it is interesting to find out that the Master’s greatest fear is that of the Doctor standing over him and laughing. Perhaps this explains his vendetta against the Earth. “One day I will destroy this miserable planet and you along with it,” he tells the Doctor.

That day will not come in The Mind of Evil, however. As in our previous story, the Doctor and the Master briefly team up to defeat the alien menace that the Master thought he could control only to find out otherwise; and ultimately the Doctor blows up the commandeered missile, hoping it will take the Master out as well. It doesn’t, of course, and the Master now has his TARDIS dimensional circuit back courtesy of the Doctor.
The Master, as the Doctor complains, is “free to come and go when he pleases while I’m stuck here on Earth . . . with you Brigadier.”

The Brigadier, it seems to me Gary, is the one stuck with the Doctor.
“Thank you, Brigadier,” the Doctor says after being saved from being shot, “but do you think for once in your life you could manage to arrive before the nick of time?” “I’m glad to see you, too, Doctor,” the Brigadier responds good naturedly.

And then, after having his hands full with keeping peace at the peace conference, investigating a murder and attempted murder, arranging for the transference and disposal of a deadly missile, and infiltrating Stangmoor to overpower the rebelling prisoners, not to mention saving the Doctor and Jo, the Doctor has the nerve to tell the Brigadier, “Apart from losing the Master and the missile you’re doing very well, Brigadier.”
Of course the Doctor loses the Master himself, and to top it off he gets the saint like Barnham (who had all the bad processed out of him by the Keller Machine) killed. Jo laments the loss of Barnham, saying, “We never should have left him there,” to which the Doctor replies, “Well how do you think I feel?” He can’t take as well as he gives it seems.

One last note, Gary. The Doctor mentions sharing a cell with Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower of London. This doesn’t quite correlate with the first Doctor’s tale of being sent to the Tower of London by Henry VIII back in The Sensorites, but perhaps he had two stays in that illustrious tower.  Or it could have something to do with the disorientation and memory block he has been suffering since the Time Lords exiled him. Or it could be that old standby—“Time is relative.” Time and age, apparently, as he again claims to be several thousands of years old in this story.
Time is relative, Gary. I send this out with a saddened heart and hope that somewhere out there in your shimmering shards of the Doctor’s time swirl you are reuniting with the gentle soul of you mother.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Terror of the Autons

Dear Gary—

Well, there’s no getting around it; the third Doctor is just plain ill tempered. Guess I’ll have to accept that and move on.  I should learn a lesson from the Brigadier, who so patiently puts up with the Doctor’s snits; who sees through him and yet respects and likes him all the same.
Terror of the Autons introduces a new companion for the Doctor in Jo Grant. Liz Shaw is afforded one brief line by way of dismissal—she has returned to Cambridge. Enter Josephine Grant, or Jo, who specializes in cryptology, safe breaking, explosives, and escapology. Hardly the PhD quality of Liz Shaw, but as the Brigadier so pointedly says, “What you need, Doctor, as Miss Shaw herself so often remarked, is someone to pass you your test tubes and tell you how brilliant you are.”

And we get a new arch enemy for the Doctor—the Master. Apparently this is an old foe of the Doctor’s, but this is his first appearance in Doctor Who. Upon learning of his arrival on Earth, the Doctor says of him, “That jackanapes; all he ever does is cause trouble.”
This description could be used for the Doctor himself, and the Time Lord who is delivering the news of the Master’s presence says of the Doctor, “You are incorrigibly meddlesome, Doctor, but we always felt that your hearts are in the right places.” In other words, a jackanapes who only ever causes trouble. And the Doctor even says of himself later, “What’s wrong with being childish; I like being childish.”

No, jackanapes hardly describes the Master and is more apt of the Doctor.
But then there are additional descriptions of the Master that could equally apply to the Doctor: “Vanity is his weakness.” He’ll never give up; “he’s too conceited.”

Two Time Lords, both vain, both conceited, both jackanapes. But it is a fine line the two are walking, and the Doctor has fallen on the one side and the Master on the other. And so the Doctor can say in a moment of reflection, “You’re quite right, Jo, I’ll apologize . . . if I have the time;” whereas the Master would never even consider the possibility of contrition.
The Master is utterly evil, and yet it is somewhat amusing that he can always be bested, despite having a “degree in cosmic science of higher class” than the Doctor’s.

I’m glad the Master has arisen at this particular moment, Gary. He serves to remind me who the Doctor truly is. He isn’t a force for pure good. Grant him his vanity, his conceit, his childishness.  Doctors one and two had these same characteristics to varying degrees. The third Doctor displays them to a greater degree, but so far he has not crossed the line into the Master’s realm.
And he displays one characteristic which the Master does not. To use the Master’s own words, “Curiosity is his weakness.” And yet, disagreeing with the Master, I would say that curiosity is the Doctor’s strength; it is his saving grace. His curiosity has always led him to knowledge, to understanding.

The Master, on the other hand, is an “unimaginative plodder.”
His unimaginative plodding leads the Master to the Nestenes. There was one surviving Nestene energy unit left over from the third Doctor’s first story, Spearhead From Space. The Doctor acknowledges that he should have destroyed it, “but somehow it would have felt like murder.” This leaves it vulnerable to the Master who steals it and uses it for his own malevolent ends.

And I’m sorry Gary, but I’m glad that this is only a four part story, because despite the new companion in Jo and the new enemy in the Master I find Terror of the Autons to fall rather flat. I think the conceit of the Doctor confined to Earth and consultant to UNIT is wearing a bit thin after only five stories; thus leading to yet another plastics factory and yet another Nestene threat.
Although, parenthetically, Gary, I have to say that I wouldn’t mind a replica of the killer doll in the story. It was really rather creepy, and yet not quite Chucky creepy; it had a certain charm and cuddlesome creepiness to it.  The big-head disguises of the Autons, too, are rather striking and would make good Halloween decorations apropos of the season.

Back to the Nestenes and the Master, though. I’m really rather confused as to the motivations of either in this story. Both are obviously using the other for their own ends, which I guess is to kill off Mankind and take over the Earth. But then Doctor Who usually is short on answers, and as long as the story, action, and characters are compelling enough it usually doesn’t matter.
I’m not sure what it is about this story that falls short. The Doctor and the Master are formidable foes, Jo provides some amusing moments with the Doctor in her naïve and oh so earnest way, the Brigadier and company are always solid, and the killer doll and disguised Autons passing out killer daffodils are intriguing.

Terror of the Autons, however, is rather light on supporting characters and plot details. These seem to be thrown in just to give the Doctor and the Master something to work with. And I think, Gary, that what really bothers me is that the Master doesn’t quite come off as the evil mastermind that is intended.
Yes he is evil. His ability to completely control the human mind and his use of the Tissue Compression Eliminator (not yet named in this story but gruesomely deadly all the same) to kill by shrinking are frighteningly wicked. His callous disregard for human life is chilling. And yet he tends to come off as a bumbling fool, easily frustrated and thwarted.

And why exactly does he need the Nestenes? Why does he send the killer doll after Farrel rather than shrinking him? Why doesn’t he use his mind control more effectively and extensively? And if he thinks he can control the Nestene, how is he so easily convinced otherwise? He has plotted and schemed all along to bring the Nestene to Earth, but all it takes is for the Doctor to say sorry old chap but the Nestene will turn on you and he does the proverbial slap on the forehead and says by golly you’re right and suddenly the Doctor and the Master are working hand in hand to drive the Nestene back into space.
“I have so few worthy opponents,” the Master says, “when they’re gone I always miss them.” But we know that the Master will be back and he and the Doctor will be at it again. The Doctor has stolen the Dematerialization Circuit from the Master’s TARDIS (a Mark II whereas the Doctor’s is a Mark I and therefore the circuit won’t work for him—interestingly, the Meddling Monk had a Mark IV TARDIS) and he is therefore trapped on Earth the same as the Doctor.

The Doctor knows the stranded Master will rear his ugly head once again, and I find it rather irresponsible of him, knowing the murderous nature of the Master, to cavalierly say, “I’m rather looking forward to it.”

“What’s wrong with being childish; I like being childish.” Yes Doctor, but don’t use the Earth as your deadly playground.
Sorry, Gary. I’m sending this off, hoping more than ever to get some echo of a reply. I truly would like to get your perspective on this third Doctor.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Inferno


Dear Gary—
“Without the TARDIS I feel rather lost; a stranger in a foreign land; a shipwrecked mariner.”

Not only is the Doctor adapting to a new persona, he is also struggling with these unfamiliar emotions of alienation and isolation. No wonder he has been a touch acerbic lately. Inferno is just the medicine he needs.
“Trouble seems to follow you, doesn’t it Doctor?” That’s what he needs, a little bit of trouble. Something that is familiar (“I’ve got a friend that specializes in trouble;” “If there’s trouble to be found the Doctor and Jamie can’t miss it;” trouble—the “spice of life” to the Doctor).

“Miss Shaw may have the misfortune to work for you, Brigadier; I am a free agent.” Still a bit prickly but toned down.
“Don’t you start asking me questions; just keep your eyes open and follow me.” Shades of Doctors past.

Slowly the Doctor is shaking off the sharp and bitter shackles that have been plaguing him and settling down into this fresh yet familiar character.
And what better way to do this than to run up against the thoroughly unlikeable Professor Stahlman. Anything the Doctor says or does is almost genial when compared to Stahlman; and we can’t help but wish to see Stahlman bested by the Doctor. Stahlman is over the top unpleasant; it kind of makes me wonder how he ever got government backing for his scheme of drilling down past the Earth’s crust for some hoped for but unproven new energy source.

The Doctor is not only reining in his condescension, but he is tempering his habitual dislike of computers: “Mind you, I’m not wild about computers myself, but they are a tool and if you have a tool it’s stupid not to use it.”
Trouble; Stahlman; these are the counterpoints the Doctor needs to play against to restore his balance.

Liz: “Supposing it doesn’t work?”
Doctor: “I’ll think of something . . . I hope.”

Smug arrogance is starting to melt away into more typical self confidence . . . with a dash of hesitancy.
And then, Gary . . . what genius. In tinkering with the TARDIS console to get it working again the Doctor slips “sideways in time” into a parallel space time continuum. Now he not only has the disagreeable Stahlman, but in this alternate universe he is face to face with a gun wielding Liz Shaw, a Mussolini like Brigadier (Brigade Leader), and a sadistic Benton. Just the right slap in the face the Doctor needs to finally snap him out of his foul temper.

He is no longer merely a shipwrecked mariner; he is marooned in a fascist nightmare without the comfort of TARDIS or friends and with no identity of his own.
“I don’t exist in your world,” he tells the Brigade Leader.

“Then you won’t feel the bullets when we shoot you.”
How cleverly cruel of the Brigade Leader. And I want to take this opportunity, Gary, to say how inspired this parallel world is. The actors are clearly having fun playing their evil twins; none more so than Nicholas Courtney. This blowhard braggart with flashes of temper and broad streaks of cowardice that Nicholas Courtney has created is brilliant; and then we see nuggets of the Brigadier shine through in the simple sly wit of, “Then you won’t feel the bullets when we shoot you.” This is the same man as the Brigadier after all, merely shaped by contrasting worlds and contrasting choices.

And the Doctor is the same Doctor, merely shaped by contrasting facades.
When the Doctor finally does return to his own reality he is comforted with the thought that free will exists after all; that there are infinity of worlds with infinity of choices. The TARDISless world into which he has been exiled is the direct result of his own choices. I hope, Gary, that this realization will put an end once and for all to the disturbing callousness I have noticed in the third Doctor.

That is not to say that the Doctor needs be always kind and gentle and understanding. He never has been just that and I hope never will. There has always been a touch of arrogance, of impertinence, of brusqueness to him regardless the generation; regardless the universe, alternate or otherwise.
And so when he says of the TARDIS console, “What did you expect—some kind of space rocket with batman at the controls?” I breathe a sigh of relief. And when he calls the Brigadier a “pompous, self opinionated idiot,” I can laugh along with the Brigadier and say, “The man’s so infernally touchy.” And when the Doctor’s hurried exit in a huff lands him in a garbage dump I know that the Doctor truly is the Doctor.

I’m sorry, Gary, that I haven’t said more about the story of Inferno itself.  As the Brigadier says, “Professor Stahlman seems determined to blow us all to kingdom come; the Doctor has vanished into thin air; and I have a number of unsolved murders on my hands; I promise you Miss Shaw I’m worried.” This neatly sums up the plot, but there are so many embellishments along the way and I’m worried that I’m running out of time and space to mention them all.
I can’t go, however, without mentioning the Doctor’s first use of Venusian karate (or aikido) in this story. He also mentions that his pulse is normal at 170. And finally we get the mention of the fact that a person cannot cross from one universe into his own parallel universe without causing a dimensional paradox resulting in a cosmic disaster.

The Doctor was able to get around this cosmic disaster because the alternate world he entered was not one in which he had any part (he didn’t exist in that world). But he could not bring alternate Liz or alternate Brigadier, or alternate Petra, or alternate Greg Sutton back with him to his own reality. He had to leave them to die as that world exploded around them. He could only go back to save his own world (and in the nick of time, too).
And so I take my leave, Gary, here in my own reality. I wonder if any reply will ever echo back from you own . . .

Monday, October 8, 2012

The Ambassadors of Death


Dear Gary—
“My dear fellow, I simply don’t happen to have a pass . . . . Because I don’t believe in them, that’s why.”

The smug self-righteousness of Doctor Who and the Silurians has mellowed into brusque rudeness here in The Ambassadors of Death.
“The man’s a fool,” the Doctor says of the extremely bright, capable, and professional Professor Ralph Cornish (not to mention extremely patient and tolerant), and he goes on, “Let me explain this to you in very simple terms.”

Later he crashes in demanding, “If I’m to help you people I need full cooperation.” This new Doctor needs to learn a little tact and understanding before he can expect such full and complete cooperation.
Luckily the Brigadier is on hand to temper the Doctor’s disrespect. “He is trying to help you know,” the Brigadier explains to Cornish, and to the Doctor of Cornish he says, “He is in charge here.”

So far Jon Pertwee as the Doctor has been more caustic than William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. The first and second Doctors certainly had their gruff moments, but they never lashed out unprovoked.
Once the action takes over, however, and the Doctor gets down to business he calms down; perhaps he is just settling into this new persona of his and I will afford him the benefit of the doubt.

 I have to say that The Ambassadors of Death has a certain urgency and relevancy to the times. These first three stories of the Earth-bound Doctor Who have dealt with the new constricted format quite cleverly and diversely so that I don’t feel the claustrophobic air outside of the TARDIS doors as much as I thought I would.
The TARDIS does make a brief appearance in our story, or at least the TARDIS console does, as the Doctor works to reactivate the time generator vector. He only succeeds in so far as to transport first Liz and then himself a few seconds into the future, allowing for a brief and much needed humorous interlude to soften the harsh edges this new Doctor has been exhibiting.

But it is the space probe; the tense moments of lost contact and attempted reentry; the mysterious disappearance of the astronauts and their equally mysterious reappearance as something not quite themselves; and the preparations, takeoff, and journey of yet another space probe that provide the taut, nervous energy of the script.
And then we get Reegan as the thug of the piece, Lennox and Taltalian as the traitorous scientists, and Carrington as the unbalanced General to propel the action.

The stories have gone to seven episodes in length here in the early going of the third Doctor. This demands quite a few twists and turns before we come to our finale. In Doctor Who and the Silurians this resulted in the fast acting virus that was infecting the world; in The Ambassadors of Death this results in the kidnapping of Liz Shaw and Reegan’s attempts to communicate more fully with the three aliens so he can coerce them to his own murderous ends.
We are also treated to several escape attempts, raids on bases and isotope factories, rigging up of mechanisms and devices with multiple switches and gauges, gun fights and chases, not to mention political red tape, murders, and a worldwide television hookup.

And in the midst of all this chaos we have the Doctor getting to the calm center of it all. The Doctor (who can withstand considerably more G Force than humans) mans a probe to hook up with the missing capsule only to discover an alien space ship where the three missing astronauts are genially passing the time in a peaceful little lounge as they wait out what they believe to be a period of quarantine back on Earth.
It is here that the Doctor amiably discusses the situation over with the alien being, getting to the heart of the matter. The three human astronauts, the Doctor learns, are being held awaiting the return of the three alien ambassadors who had been sent down to Earth in peace.

It is on Earth where chaos is reigning: kidnappings, raids, murders, battles, panic. All engineered by Reegan and Carrington who have co-opted the alien ambassadors for their own ends.
“There is only one hope left to us—that the Doctor is still alive.”

Of course the Doctor is still alive and returns in triumph; Reegan and the crazy general are dealt with; the astronaut for ambassador switch takes place; and we have our successful, if a bit hasty, end to the bedlam.
The Doctor has come through, Gary. Despite his brash beginning, Jon Pertwee is becoming acclimated to the role. And the TARDIS may be lost to him, but at least he has Bessie to tinker with (outfitted with a handy force field of an anti theft device in this story) and who takes him where he wants to go in this constrained new world of his.

Yes, “there is only one hope left to us,” and that hope is the Doctor. The Doctor will always come through. No matter William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, or Jon Pertwee, “the Doctor is still alive.”

Friday, October 5, 2012

The Silurians


Dear Gary—
“As an associate of UNIT I think you will find that I have the authority to do precisely as I please.” Ah, yes; I remember now, Gary. Doctor Who and the Silurians begins a dangerous trend of smug self-righteousness in the Doctor that I never cared for. Perhaps that is why I have been putting off writing this.

“My dear Miss Shaw,” the Doctor harrumphs when told that the Brigadier would like to see him, “I never report myself anywhere, particularly not forthwith.”
On the one hand he is using his position with UNIT and the Brigadier as an excuse to do as he pleases, and on the other he disdains them. “Typical military mind, isn’t it? Present them with a new problem and they start shooting at it.”

Yet, I like this story, Gary. Watching it, I enjoy it. But trying to think about it, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It’s not the story’s fault in and of itself. No, it is knowing what is to come. It is knowing that this smug self-righteousness that is in its infancy here will rear its ugly head again to much greater degree in the future of the show.
But I am on the slow path, Gary, and I must set aside future knowledge and concentrate on this one story in the long road of the Doctor Who chronology.

The Silurians of our title are a new monster for the Doctor, and it is an interesting concept that these are the true inheritors of the Earth; the indigenous population hibernating beneath the surface waiting for the perfect moment to take their rightful place in the sun.
But I don’t know, Gary. How is it that this brilliant reptilian race from millions of years ago had found the time to evolve much beyond that of Mankind, yet they were fooled into thinking that the advent of the moon would wreak such havoc that they had to burrow themselves deep within the bowels of the Earth, and how is it that these geniuses didn’t take into account the possibility of a fault in their system so that they would oversleep by millions of years?

OK; it is Doctor Who after all; we suspend our disbelief.
I can suspend my disbelief; I really can. I do it all the time. What I find hard to suspend is my foreknowledge. And when I see the germination here in this story I can’t seem to get past it.

And so when the Doctor first meets the wounded Silurian that the mean man shot and says, “Hello. Are you a Silurian? What do your people want; how can we help you?” And goes on, “Unless you Silurians tell us what you want the humans will destroy you,” I know I should side with the Doctor, but I just keep thinking how pretentious it all is.
And I hear the Doctor saying, “I’ve got no time to chat to Undersecretaries, permanent or otherwise,” and think, who is he to decide that a Silurian is worth chatting up but an Undersecretary is not? This new incarnation of the Doctor is very judgmental.

This exchange with the Brigadier is especially revealing:
Doctor: “Spoken like a true soldier.”

Brigadier: “It is my job, Doctor.”
This exchange is also the saving grace of The Silurians. Because the Brigadier stands up for himself; he stands up to the Doctor; he does his job; he makes no excuses.

That is not to say, Gary, that I don’t sympathize with the Doctor and say along with him, “But that’s murder” as the entrance to the Silurian caves are exploded. But what I can say is that the Doctor has to take his share of the blame. The Doctor did not show the same courtesy to the Undersecretary as he did to the Silurians.
“These creatures aren’t just animals," the Doctor explains, “they’re an alien life form as intelligent as we are.” However the “we” he prefers to dismiss as “big booted soldiers” and sabotages his own argument.

The Doctor, who so wanted to bring about peace, did not act as a true peace maker. He offered an olive branch to one side and the back of his hand to the other.
The Doctor fails in The Silurians because he loses sight of his objectivity.

For now, Gary, I will chalk this up to the imbalance of his recent regeneration and latent rage against the Time Lord’s punishment. Or perhaps he was just too distracted by the loss of his sonic screwdriver. I will reserve my judgment for future Pertwee storylines.
I don’t want to leave on this note, Gary. I did like Doctor Who and the Silurians, I really did. It had, per usual, a strong script and a strong cast.

I haven’t even said anything about the introduction of Bessie, the third Doctor’s antique car that he has throughout his Earthbound run, or the fact that he claims to have lived for “several thousand years.” But I guess you can chalk that claim up to the disorientation of a new generation, or to the second Doctor’s refrain: “Time is relative.”
No, Gary, I just can’t shake this bad feeling.

And so I say, along with the Brigadier:
“There are times, Doctor, when you sorely try my patience.”

Monday, October 1, 2012

Spearhead From Space


Dear Gary—
“That’s not me at all,”and yet, “oh, I don’t know, I think it’s rather distinctive actually.”And so the Doctor stumbles out of the TARDIS not as Patrick Troughton but as Jon Pertwee.

And he stumbles out not in black and white but in color. Doctor Who is truly shaking off the old and putting on the new, including a new format of an Earth bound, TARDISless Doctor.
The show does this quite well, though. It doesn’t overwhelm us with the changes. It starts with the familiar sight of the TARDIS landing in a well-frequented location (Earth); and before even revealing the face of the new Doctor we are met with an old friend in the Brigadier. This is still Doctor Who, despite the radical departures from the past.

“We deal with the odd; the unexplained; anything on earth—or even beyond.” Leave it to the Brigadier to sum up not only UNIT but Doctor Who. And leave it to the unflappable Brigadier to sum up the new Doctor: “Extraordinary business.”
The Brigadier is all business, extraordinary or otherwise, and he’s not going to let a little thing like a completely altered appearance keep him from enlisting the Doctor’s help, whether he is or isn’t the Doctor. And it is no surprise that he introduces an equally unflappable scientist as the new female companion to the Doctor (Liz Shaw).

“I deal with facts not science fiction ideas,” Liz tells the Brigadier.
“I’m not a fool; I don’t chase shadows,” the Brigadier responds, and he goes on to explain that there is “a remote possibility” that “outside your cozy little world other things could exist.”

This presence of three adult, strong minded individuals takes us all the way back to the beginning. It hasn’t been since William Hartnell’s Doctor with Ian and Barbara along for the ride that we have seen such a powerful combination.
Miss Shaw and the Brigadier both deal with facts, and the Doctor is a fact. He exists; he may well have a new face, but he exists. He may well be extraordinary, but he is a reality. Liz Shaw and the Brigadier in essence see eye to eye; but they don’t see it that way. They are at odds from the start; two strong personalities butting heads. It takes the Doctor to intercede. What she won’t accept coming from the Brigadier Liz takes at face value from the Doctor.

But let me back up a moment, Gary. Because we do have a new Doctor. And not only does he have a new face, but we get some new details about him as well. To begin with, for the first time we learn that the Doctor has two hearts. The concept of a race with more than one heart was first floated back in The Dominators, but this is the first that this has been attributed to the Doctor. We also discover that his blood is not the same as human blood, and that his heartbeat (beats?) can go as low as 10 per minute. Additionally, he is capable of putting himself into a self-induced coma.
We learn all of this before he ever wakes up.

When he does wake up we are allowed several minutes of introduction. With Patrick Troughton we were off and running immediately and hardly had time to digest the new personality. With Jon Pertwee we get some moments of self discovery as he critiques his new face in the mirror; next we are treated to some silent and surreptitious scrambling to evade hospital personnel as he endeavors to escape; and finally we are witness to his wardrobe selection. This is not some quick ten second run in the cupboard and grab something out. No, we have a leisurely paced foray into a lounge (Doctors only) where he takes a relaxed shower (and we get just the merest glimpse of Doctor butt) complete with song and in a fabulously antique tub, and then he thoughtfully chooses his new outfit from the clothes left hanging in the room. A wordlessly wonderful overture.
Of course the action does eventually take over, but how delightful that we are able to first get to know this new Doctor in this brief but intimate portrait.

William Hartnell was a grandfather who usually left the manual work to Ian; Patrick Troughton was a ball of unfocused energy who did lots of running; from our first encounter with Jon Pertwee we get the idea that he is a man of studied action, physical and athletic. Even the cobra tattoo on his arm states: this is not your father’s Doctor.
The story also introduces a new alien monster for the Doctor to fight—the Nestene Consciousness. (It hadn’t struck me until watching this again, Gary; this, too, is the alien chosen for the introductory Eccleston story to usher in the modern era of Doctor Who.) And as I have come to expect, Spearhead From Space has both an excellent script and an excellent supporting cast.

Some have lamented the fact that the show loses something by going to color, and there is a lot to be said for the shadows and subtleties of black and white. However this new era of Doctor Who being ushered in with a new Doctor lends itself well to color. True, the cheap sets look even cheaper and the cheesy monsters look even cheesier, but the color clearly tells us that this is a Doctor Who for the modern world.
My only complaint with this excellent story is the ending. It was sufficiently tense, creepy, and gripping up until the end.  The store mannequins crashing through windows, the wax museum at night with dummies coming to life, the farm wife loading a shotgun to face off against an Auton, all deliver. Then we get a giant fake octopus in a tank and the Doctor mugging for the camera as he wraps the octopi arms about himself and we are in for a letdown of a denouement.

The end notwithstanding, Spearhead From Space is a strong entry in the Doctor Who canon and bodes well for the Pertwee era. The Doctor is stranded on Earth—the Time Lords have changed the dematerialization code of the TARDIS and he has a limited memory loss—but he is stranded in good company between the Brigadier, Liz Shaw, and UNIT.
He dismisses the Brigadier’s offer of money, but the Doctor will stay on as UNIT’s scientific advisor as long as he is provided with a lab, equipment, facilities to help him repair the TARDIS, and the assistance of Liz Shaw. And he resurrects the pseudonym of John Smith for this earthly sojourn.

Yes, Gary, I am looking forward to this freshly re-invented Doctor Who era. I know I ranked Jon Pertwee in the middle of the pack initially. Judging from this first entry, I’m open to moving him up a notch or two.  He isn’t the Doctor at all . . . and yet, he is rather distinctive actually. Perhaps he is the Doctor after all; a new Doctor; a Doctor for a new age. Yes, Jon Pertwee is the Doctor.
And I will leave you with that, Gary. Jon Pertwee is the Doctor .