The Ambassadors of Death

I write this blog in the afterglow of the announcement that Jodie Whittaker will be playing the new Doctor. The first woman to play the part. I wasn't convinced the BBC would ever have the courage to do it. But they have. Good luck to Jodie. Welcome aboard. I'll probably write more about this later, which I'm sure will thrill my reader.

But what of The Ambassadors of Death I hear you cry. Well, I enjoyed this. Mostly. I have one quibble, which is how rubbish UNIT is at actual fighting and how easily they have rings run around them. This, though, is UNITs fate in most stories. They constantly face creatures that can't be killed by conventional weaponry. UNITs casualty rate must have been horrific? How did a soldier end up in UNIT? Was it voluntary? If so how did word not get around the British military that joining UNIT was effectively a suicide mission? Is the Brigadier actually a terrible officer? Sorry, all that was brought on by watching some pathetic soldiering in the final episode. Come on Brigadier get it sorted out.

Although to be fair to the Brigadier it is clear that he had his doubts about General Carrington (John Abineri) early on. And there's a lovely exchange between the Brigadier, who doesn't want to speak ill of a fellow officer, and Ralph Cornish (Ronald Allen):

Brigadier: I think the General is a little over-wrought.
Cornish: I think he's mad.

Which brings us to one of the best things about this story: the villains. That's not the Ambassadors themselves. It's General Carrington and his various associates. John Aibineri is superb as Carrington., who is a man acting in what he thinks is the best interests of his world. He's been mentally shaken by the death of a colleague at the hands of the Ambassadors* earlier and he blames them. He twists that into them being a threat to the entire world and tries to stir up events to create a war between Earth and these mysterious aliens. He's not a mustache-twirling, evil laughter black hat villain. He's a broken man. His final exchanges with the Brigadier and the Doctor in Episode Seven are actually quite moving.

One of Carrington's henchmen, Reegan (William Dysart), is also brilliantly played. A dry-witted, intelligent sadistic bastard he's one of the best henchmen in Doctor Who. The fact that he doesn't die at the end is great and part of me hopes that he survives another day. Perhaps UNIT use his skills in a poacher/gamekeeper way? Perhaps not.

Ronald Allen is Ralph Cornish. The problem I have with Ronald Allen is that I remember him most as David Hunter in Crossroads, which was a soap opera with a reputation so terrible that Victoria Wood was to create Acorn Antiques as a piss-take of it. That, combined with his semi-regular popping up in The Comic Strip Presents and the fact that he's in frankly awful The Dominators makes him a hard actor for me to take seriously. But he's suitably solid and serious in this story.

There are some great cliffhangers in this story too. (I miss cliffhangers) The Ambassadors are suitably creepy without being hugely memorable but I willing to think that they must have been in Steven Moffat's head when he wrote Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, although I could be wrong.

Yes, the story is too long but it doesn't particularly drag for me. However Liz Shaw's 'escape' is a tad annoying as I don't think Liz would be that stupid. The problem for Liz (and for Caroline John) is that the writer really doesn't know what to do with her as a character. She's too intelligent to be standing around asking stupid questions and, alas, that's what Pertwee seems to need. But Caroline John does fine work with what she's been given.

I should also pay tribute to appearances from two Doctor Who stalwarts: Michael Wisher as the journalist John Wakefield and Cyril Shapps as the scientist Lennox. Michael Wisher seems to be able to get exactly the right TV journalist tone as Wakefield who seems happy to broadcast the rantings of an insane General to the whole damn world whilst Cyril Shapps does the Shapps thing, which I love. His characters always seem to be in permanent danger of cringing to death. Oh, Lennox's death I put entirely down to bad work on behalf of the Brigadier btw who, instead of going to see him immediately, decides to faff around long enough to allow the bad guys to stick a radioactive isotope in his cell, which brings me back to my original quibble about UNIT's competence in this story.

So, to conclude The Ambassadors of Death is a reasonably enjoyable, slightly over-long story raised by some excellent performances. I also love the ambitions it has for a British Space programme that has taken us to Mars. More than once. It isn't perfect. It's probably the weakest story of Season 7 so far, but that still makes it an exceptional piece of Doctor Who.

Give it a watch. You never know you might like it.

Next up: Inferno





*They never get a proper name. They are on Mars when Carrington first meets them but there is never any explanation of who they are and why they are where they are.

Doctor Who and The Silurians

Doctor Who and The Silurians is as fine a Doctor Who story as you'll ever see. Yes, it is probably a tad long but then that gives us the space to see The Doctor actually doing science and some genuinely disturbing scenes in and around Marylebone Station as the Silurian plague starts to take its toll. It also allows some fine British character actors room to give their characters life.

The cast is superb: Fulton McKay as Dr. Quinn, Norman Jones as Major Baker, Peter Miles as Dr. Lawrence, and Geoffrey Palmer as Masters. All four of whom are doomed in their own ways. Doomed by greed for knowledge. Doomed by a desire to make up for a past mistake. Doomed by a failing career or the desire to protect his career.

Dr. Lawrence's final scene, when he goes berserk, is painful to watch (in the right sense) and hilariously English. He's dying, mad and the Brigadier and Liz are circling him nervously and trying not to look. It's as if he finally dies because he's caused so much of a fuss. Dr. Lawrence is almost an overhang from the Troughton era. The leader that can't lead. The difference perhaps is that Dr. Lawrence has a fine line is dry snark before things get too bad but eventually in his refusal to see the obvious truth pushes him over the edge.

But let's go back a bit. (Admire the technical brilliance of the writing in this blog. It's like a well-oiled machine.)

Season 7 consists of one four-part story & three seven-part stories. All set on Earth. This was a decision of the departing producer, Derrick Sherwin, but wasn't one that new producer, Barry Letts, liked. Nor did his script editor Terrance Dicks. What it meant was they had to come up with some cunning ways of doing 'Earth Invasions'. Malcolm Hulke's solution in Doctor Who and The Silurians was to have the aliens already here. Or that the enemy wasn't even an alien. The Earth had once been theirs and they'd quite like to take it back from the mammals with ideas above their stations.

The Silurians are a species in Doctor Who that seems to have a life beyond just being an enemy of the Doctor. Their history is hinted at here - and will be given more depth as the years go by in the various parts of the Whoniverse - but the minimum we know is that they were an advanced scientific species that went into hibernation in fear of an impending cosmological catastrophe that never came to pass. Their alarm clock then never went off so they over-slept and let us take over the world. When the British government builds a nuclear power station and Cyclotron* on top of their hibernation place it seems to trigger a handful of them to wake up. They start siphoning off energy, which causes problems for the base plus the base seems to have a weird effect on the minds of those who work in it. The Silurian also make contact with Dr. Quinn whilst he's caving. Dr. Quinn sees this as an opportunity to get Silurian scientific solutions. But some cave explorers die and UNIT get called in to review what's happening. Then etc until the end and the Brigadier blows up the Silurian base much to the disgust of the Doctor.

Two things to note here. Nicholas Courtney is fantastic as the Brigadier in this story. He feels like a proper military man and isn't any kind of uniformed buffoon. And in the end he's devious and ruthless. He knows The Doctor will try and stop him destroying the Silurian base so he deliberately lets him leave. He also willingly follows orders to kill the Silurians. If these were the only Silurians then our beloved Brigadier has just committed genocide. And the Doctor witnesses it. In a way that's the point at which Doctor Who as a television series is done. How can the Doctor and the Brigadier continue to work together after this?

Yes, the Silurians - or some of them - have tried to genocide humanity but the Doctor knows they're not all like that. The Brigadier would argue that this has to be done because humanity needs to be protected from that threat. A threat that they might not be able to defend themselves against. The only good Silurian is a dead one. It's pretty dark. This is murder. But we've got five more seasons of Jon Pertwee to go and the gradual unsoldiering of UNIT to come. I love the Brigadier and UNIT but at the end of this story, you have to ask yourself why.

Also, this is only Jon Pertwee's second story and yet he's already so settled in the part. It feels like he's been the Doctor forever. We talk about Tom Baker being meant to be the Doctor but watching this you have to say that Jon Pertwee was born to be the Doctor. He has the charisma to burn. Yes, his Doctor can be a tad patronizing - witness his tone with Miss Dawson (Thomasine Heiner) when talking to her about Dr. Quinn. But he's trying to do the right thing in the face of hostility from friends and enemies.

Poor Caroline John as Liz Shaw is left at a bit of a loose end though. She's reduced to answering phones and checking HR files, although in Episode 6 she does at least get to assist the Doctor in attempting to find a cure to the Silurian plague. John is clearly a good actress but I fear Liz Shaw is a tad unwritten.

A brief word on the design of the Silurians. They look slightly dated now but they look proper alien here. Whereas the modern Silurians have been humanized to a degree that you can have a marriage between one and a human being you can't imagine Jenny settling down with one of these Silurians. Also, their third eye**, which has some kind of sonic power so can be used as both a weapon and a way of digging through the rock to convenient locations close to the person you want to kidnap, is effective.

The director, Timothy Combe, gets some great shots from the Silurian point of view. In fact, Combe's direction is pretty damn solid throughout. The scenes of the Silurian out on the Moor are well done. He also does a fine job of keeping the Silurians hidden until their appearance actually has an impact. The first couple of episodes should be part of the instruction manual of anyone making Doctor Who, although I will politely skate over the dinosaur. Because I am a gentleman.

So, Doctor Who and the Silurians is a fine story. It's well-directed, well-written and well-acted. If you've not watched it you should do. And don't binge watch it. Classic Doctor Who thrives on breathing space between episodes.

Next up...The Ambassadors of Death.




*Which appears to be a particle accelerator aka a Large Hadron Collider.
**This use will be forgotten by the time The Silurians reappear in Warriors of the Deep when people think it is a signal to announce which of them is speaking. By the time we get around to New Doctor Who it will disappear altogether.

Spearhead From Space

Well, hello, everyone.

It has been a long time. Let us forget this long gap and carry on as if nothing has happened.

Spearhead From Space arrives like a brightly coloured meteor after all the black and white Hartnell and Troughton. There's a glorious new title sequence although, I suspect the majority of people watching this saw it in black and white. I had a black and white portable television well into the 1980s. I digress.

I'm going to suggest that Spearhead From Space is the best story to introduce a new Doctor - ignoring An Unearthly Child for sake of argument - until The Eleventh Hour. So good is it that RTD basically homages it to death in Rose, which is surely Spearhead From Space but without UNIT and with a shift in companion to the more 'ordinary' Rose Tyler.

Indeed, it is UNIT, not the companion that introduces us to the new Doctor. That's because they are also busy interviewing the new companion, Liz Shaw (Caroline John.) Liz Shaw is a proper scientist with multiple degrees, a fine line in dry wit and a dash of cynicism. She's being interviewed by the Brigadier for the role he really wants the Doctor to fill.

Meanwhile, mysterious things are falling from space, yokels are trying to be devious at risk to their own life and limb and all is not well at a plastics factory.

Our introduction to the new Doctor is slow by modern standards. We don't really get a clear idea of what he's like until the second episode. Indeed, the Brigadier - who knows nothing about regeneration - isn't even convinced it is the Doctor initially but the Doctor's escape from the hospital and blasé arrival at UNIT headquarters help convince him otherwise.

We start to find out more about what's going on. Ransome (Derek Smee) escapes from the plastics factory run by Hibbert (the ever-wonderful John Woodnutt) and his mysterious new colleague: the sinister Channing (Hugh Burden).  Those three put in marvelous performances. Smee doesn't last long but gives us one of the few genuinely realistic depictions of terror in the series history. Woodnutt, who will serve Doctor Who well over the years, is great as Hibbert. But I think the star of the show is Burden who gives a chillingly alien performance.

It turns out that the meteorites contain the energy required by the Nestene Consciousness to build themselves an ideal body with which to rule the Earth and use plastic to take over the world. The Autons are just a place to put that energy. They come in basic models - the shop window dummy - through to the increasingly sophisticated replicas and are rather brilliant in both forms, although we only really see one proper replica in action, which is General Scobie (Hamilton Dyce).

The Nestene's plan is quite clever too: sow fear in the streets via shop window dummies whilst the replicas of the important civil servants and military officials do their worst behind the scenes. The latter we don't really get to see - except General Scobie - but the Target novelization really brings this to life. (PS Read the novelization btw it is fabulous.)

The Doctor and Liz have put together something which might defeat the Autons, they go out and after testing it on General Scobie go on to take on the monster itself. Obviously, there are some issues with it in order to stretch out the tension. However, all comes good in the end. The Doctor kills the weird tentacled beast in the tank illustrating a) it is hard for Doctor Who to do good tentacle and b) some superb Pertwee gurning.

This is tightly plotted and rattles along at an almost modern pace, although we get more time to establish characters, such as Liz Shaw and the Doctor himself. Caroline John does a fine job of her first story. Staying with Pertwee and Courtney as they begin a wonderful partnership takes some doing and she never seems to be lost.

What of the new Doctor? Well, he seizes the part with both hands. He has the charisma to burn and his Doctor gives us a chance to see a bit of comedy, a bit of seriousness and a lot of energy pretty rapidly. This is a different Doctor to Patrick Troughton. He's less aimless. He's angry at being dumped on the Earth by the Time Lords and a little bit devious. He tries to trick Liz into giving him the TARDIS key so he can escape - but the Time Lords have foreseen that and blocked him there. To cut a long story short he's brilliant from the off and it makes you look forward to seeing more of this new Doctor.

However, this is the last four-parter for the rest of Season 7. The next three stories are all 7 parts long, which feels like a serious chunk of Doctor Who even for me. And I've seen them before. Indeed this blog started with my thoughts on Season Seven a long time ago.

So, next up Doctor Who and the Silurians. 

The War Games

So, that is the end of the Patrick Troughton era of Doctor Who and it's a magnificent way to end it. The War Games is ten episodes long but hardly drags for a moment. Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, who shared the writing on this, find a way to inject a new boost just when you think things might be slacking.

The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe arrive in what seems to be World War One but as things begin to roll along it becomes clear that something is not quite right. It turns out that they've landed on an alien world where an alien race - that never gets named - has swept up soldiers from various Earth conflicts and is having them fight on so that they can produce a galaxy-conquering army from the survivors. The whole thing is headed up by the nattily bearded War Chief (Edward Brayshaw) who has built a series almost TARDISes to help out. It turns out that the War Chief is another Time Lord (It is in this story that the Doctor's people get their name.) and that he knows the Doctor.

This is revealed in the lovely end to Part Four when the Doctor and the War Chief recognize each other. It's played superbly by both Troughton and Brayshaw. As are their later conversations. You can see why people think The War Chief is The Master before he gets better branding as their chats aren't dissimilar in tone. You can almost trace a line from The Monk to the War Chief to The Master as the Doctor's fellow Time Lords get increasingly menacing and mad. You can't see The Monk becoming The Master but you can see The War Chief going down that route. Indeed, the War Chief's plan is pretty much a classic Master plan:*link up with the alien race to take over the galaxy with the long-term objective of seizing power yourself but ending up relying on the Doctor to bail you out. Although in this case, it looks like The War Chief actually dies but just because we don't see the regeneration doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

The War Chief reports to The War Lord (Philip Madoc) and is supposed to work alongside the Security Chief (James Bree) but they appear neither to like or trust each other. The War Chief is utterly contemptuous of the Security Chief's abilities. The Security Chief is, basically, a racist who doesn't trust The War Chief. James Bree's performance is...odd. He seems to be channeling a Dalek vocally but does have a level of creepy about him that suits the part. But for genuinely terrifying take a bow Philip Madoc. The War Lord is fantastic. He almost never raises his voice but has a dark presence that makes him feel like Darth Vader but without the need for all the costume to back him up. This is one of the great Doctor Who villain performances.

The aliens have 'processed' the human soldiers but that process isn't perfect and some have thrown off that conditioning and formed a resistance. The aliens tend to control their doubting troops using some glasses - or in the case of the World War One German Officer - a monocle. It's rather odd but it works. I'm a particular fan of Noel Coleman's General Smythe who is a genuinely horrid creation. He's not far off being a character from Oh! What A Lovely War in that his ruthlessness and coldness doesn't fit the cliched version of the World War One British Officer.

I should pause here and say that also worthy of applause are Jane Sherwin as Lady Jennifer Buckingham (who is a sort of Vera Brittain figure) and David Savile as Lt Carstairs. These are two characters from 1917 that the team up with the TARDIS crew from pretty much the first episode and in my headcanon post-War Games they track each other down and live happily ever after, although in reality, Lt Carstairs odds of surviving through to the end of the war weren't long. 17% of British Officers died during World War One v 12% of ordinary soldiers. But I'm going to ignore the voice that reminds me that Wilfred Owen was to die on 4th November 1918 and paint a picture of Lady Buckingham and Lt. Carstairs living a long and happy life together. Carstairs perhaps going into politics in the 1920s and becoming one of those Tory MPs that did so much to fight against Chamberlain's appeasement policy like Ronald Carter**

The final two episodes are simply majestic. The Doctor realizes that he's going to have to call on his people, the Time Lords, to sort this situation out. The way he, the War Chief and the War Lord talk about the Time Lords makes them out to be genuinely terrifying. I love the little mental box that the Doctor creates to send a message to the Time Lords. I love the strange sound that heralds their arrival. I love the Doctor's futile attempt to escape. Twice. The second of which I think he only goes through to please Jamie and Zoe. He knows that he's not going to escape. He always knew.

Is there are sadder companion departure in all of Doctor Who than the farewell of the Second Doctor with Jamie and Zoe? It's not just that he's forced to say goodbye it is that the Time Lords are going to wipe their memories of all but their first adventure with him. All those stories lost. Like tears in the rain. All that love and friendship gone.

And when we see Zoe, standing back on the Wheel looking a little confused, and she says - to Tanya Lernov (Clare Jenkins re-hired for that purpose) - "Oh, yes. I thought I'd forgotten something important, but it's nothing" your heart actually breaks. Is there a sadder companion departure than Zoe's in all of Doctor Who? Jamie's is sad too. After all the Second Doctor and Jamie have been together for virtually the whole of the Second Doctor's era. But his final moment seems more positive somehow, although more dangerous.

The Doctor has been tried by the Time Lords. He defends himself by showing the kind of monsters he's been fighting - although why he thinks the Quarks will impress anyone I don't know - and the Time Lords agree. Or they do to a degree. He is to be sentenced to exile on Earth. And his appearance is to be changed.

Troughton who is magnificent to the end refuses to go quietly but go he must.

And then darkness.

[Theme Tune]

The Troughton era is over but it has been such a delight. It's not that a lot of the stories are that strong. There's a lot of repetition of the base under siege plot line but at no point is Patrick Troughton ever less than magnificent. He lifts the weakest material. He can drop his voice and hit you with something terrifying. He rarely shouts. I love Tom Baker. I think Peter Capaldi is amazing. But I think Troughton is the best actor to play the part. I'll miss the mop-haired little Hobbit.

But if you haven't watched The War Games go and watch it.

Actually, watch anything with the Second Doctor in it because you will find the world a better place for it.






*Apologies for the pun. Not really.
**I recommend Lynne Olsen's book Troublesome Young Men if you're interested in that topic.

The Space Pirates

Well, that was The Space Pirates that was.

It's far too long. It might be bearable at four episodes. At six it requires repetition and padding beyond the call of duty.

Then there are some of the performances. General Hermack (Jack May) and Major Warne (Donald Gee) appear to have decided that they're in Thunderbirds. They talk to each other in strangely not very human ways. My favorite moment being Hermack's mwahaha response to Milo Clancy (Gordon Gostelow). Jack May affects what Clive James calls the 'period laugh, which actors use when they're playing in period dramas. It's weird. Also, Hermack and Warne talk to each other in huge chunks of exposition. That happens a lot. In Part 2 The Doctor and Zoe do something similar. It is rather surprising for a writer like Robert Holmes. But everyone is allowed a bad day.

O. Then we have Milo Clancy (Gordon Gostelow). Milo is played like an old-time US prospector or at least the cliched version of one. He's a little like Walter Huston's Howard in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. He's a recognizable character but his performance is so at odds with everyone else in The Space Pirates that it seems like a joke. I actually quite like it. It takes a bit of getting used to but he is at least entertaining and by the final episode he's one of the best things in it.

Let me pause here a moment and make another admission. I'm not sure I have a lot to say about this story. I can't make a proper judgment with so much of it missing. How does one really judge Gostelow's performance without SEEING it? Hermack and Warne are irritating because you can only hear them, although when you see them in Part 2 they appear to be a little wooden. But that's one episode.

Normally, you'd be rescued at this point by a brilliant performance from Troughton but for once - with a couple of exceptional moments - this story makes it hard to judge. (I'm a particular fan of his 'O Zoe, don't be such a pessimist' and 'Jamie, I don't think you appreciate all the things I do for you.' lines.) So, I'm at a bit of a loss.

The really good thing here is Cavan (Dudley Foster). He's the villain of the piece. He's mad, bad and dangerous to know. He's possibly the most ruthless villain we've seen in the series so far. His treatment of Dom Issigri (Esmond Knight) has obviously been terrible. Then there's Caven's ugly, gloating cruelty when we're watching Clancy and Dom Issigri dying on the LIZ-79 whilst Issigri's daughter, Madeline (Lisa Daniely) looks on. It's a surprisingly dark moment in the series. It's unusual for a villain to be the best thing in a Doctor Who story but such is my lack of feelings about this one that I'm finding it hard to be positive.

People often comment on the fabulous space ships and they do look good but they also seem static, with a couple of exceptions and it is hard to visualize their scale but again this is another reason why it is a hard story to judge.

There's a lot of running about in caves. There is capture and escape. I'd love to see the escape from Dom Issigri's study, which is either going to be terrible or brilliant.

Truth is, I'm done. I can't recommend it but I can't slate it too much either because I can't see it. This is the first missing story where I'm having a complete failure of imagination, which implies that I don't care too much about it.

It's not the worst Troughton story. I'm giving that accolade to The Dominators, which I dislike quite a lot. Indeed The Dominators is vying with The Celestial Toymaker as the worst Doctor Who story of the 1960s. In comparison, The Space Pirates seems to commit one main crime: dullness.

But as I've already said this might be worth re-considering if - IF - it is ever rediscovered.

And that's all I have to say.

The Seeds of Death

The Seeds of Death is the Ice Warrior's tribute to The Cybermen as they attempt to invade the Earth via a Moonbase. This time though rather than a Gravitron we have T-Mat. T-Mat is the teleportation system that the world has come to rely on for all transport of all people and goods over long distances. This is, of course, barking mad. But let's just assume humanity loses its mind, which wouldn't surprise me on recent evidence.

The Ice Warriors have spotted the weakness and opportunity in T-Mat and thus begins their cunning plan. It does begin with murder. Murder and resistance. And then more murder, escape, and collaboration, which brings me to Fewsham (Terry Scully). Fewsham is unusual in Doctor Who - actually so is Phipps (Christopher Coll) - in that they react to the murder and horror around them in normal human ways: fear, shock, and nervous exhaustion. Fewsham doesn't want to die so he collaborates with the Ice Warriors until the point he can collaborate no more. Phipps escapes but the constant terror almost brings him to the point of a nervous breakdown, which Zoe isn't only mildly sympathetic about. Both Scully and Coll put in fine performances but whilst Fewsham's death is a kind of justification poor old Phipps dies almost unmourned. It's a classic example of what I've mentioned before the utter inability for Doctor Who to allow proper grief.

Also whilst I'm talking about dying a lot of people in this story die out of sheer stupidity. They stand still whilst an Ice Warrior lines up a shot and die. Even Zoe gets into this act when she's in the firing line of an Ice Warrior. She stands stock-still whilst watching Fewsham trying to prevent the Ice Warrior killing her rather than doing a runner. If she was a minor character she'd be dead. This links - slightly - to the Ice Warrior's apparent inability to see people hiding in plain sight. There's one occasion when Phipps is basically standing in front of an Ice Warrior and the Ice Warrior just looks straight through him. It's a mercy that humans often stand still right in front of the Ice Warriors so that they can make up for their bad vision by not having to try and hit a moving target.

There's also an architect out there somewhere who designed the T-Mat base on the Moon and then - I hope for sanity's sake - never worked again. The heating controller is the wheel from a small ship marked with big science-fiction television series labeling just in case you get a bit confused. The base has corridors within corridors. It has a room with mirrors. I mean who project managed this stuff? Who got bribed?

Then there's the Ice Warriors plan being dependent on a plant that is destroyed by water when invading the Earth. Now, to their credit, they're aware of this and try to stop weather control from turning on the rain by knocking out weather control but if you knock out weather control by shooting its control system wouldn't it just revert to natural weather? Perhaps the fungus, which breeds like rabbits, will do its job so quickly that humanity won't be able to save itself.

The fungus is, of course, a combination of foam and balloon seed pods. And, by Jove, there's a lot of foam in this story, which leads to one of my favorite moments as The Second Doctor falls through the door into Zoe's arms at the beginning of Part Six and Wendy Padbury starts giggling at the site of the stumbling foam covered Patrick Troughton. It's still there and it is rather lovely.

The Ice Warriors are still slow, hissing stumble-bums but Brian Hayles has got around this slightly by introducing Slaar (Alan Bennion) who is an Ice Lord. He's less tortoise, more lizard. He's in charge. He gets most of the dialogue and is easier to understand. The Ice Warriors are visually impressive, which the director, Michael Ferguson, takes the most advantage of when filming one of them out on Hampstead Heath.

I have left out my normal paragraph of praise for Troughton because it really I can't think of a time when he's not superb. There's some joyful stuff in this story probably capped off by his reaction to the foam and the famous: "Your leader will be angry if you kill me. I'm a genius."*

Hines and Padbury too are up to their usual standards, although I do think on occasion Zoe acts far more stupidly than her character's intelligence and training would make you assume she'd act.

There's some fine support work from Louise Pajo as Miss Kelly**, who the key T-Mat technician without whom no one would seem to be able to put the system back together, which is surely a case of putting a basket of eggs in one basket already full of eggs;  Ronald Leigh-Hunt as Commander Radnor and Philip Ray as Professor Eldred.

I'm particularly enamored of the fact that these futuristic men turn up in the PVC onesies carrying bog standard 60s briefcases as if, instead of getting off T-Mat, they've just stepped off the Bakerloo Line.

Anyway, I've kind of picked at the flaws of this story much more than it deserves. It is too long, it is pretty much a bog standard Troughton story. You could swap in the Cybermen with a couple of tweaks and you probably wouldn't notice but it is elevated I think by Fewsham, Phipps, Miss Kelly and Professor Eldrad: the ordinary people being extraordinary.




*Actually, I think this line gets additional oomph from the brilliantly timed reaction of the actors playing the Ice Warriors.
**Who, for me, is up there with Wendy Gifford as Miss Garrett in the Ice Warriors in terms of beautiful, technocratic women. It's almost as if Brian Hayles has a type.

The Krotons

I have developed something of a soft spot for The Krotons. The first time I watched it, which was a long time ago in a home county far, far away, I found it rather poor but each time since I've found more to enjoy in it. This time around I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yes, it does have problems.

The main one is the appearance of The Krotons. I'll applaud their spinning crystalline heads but their boxy bodies and stubby arms aren't the most impressive. Unfortunately, it is their lower half - often the curse of the Doctor Who monster, that gives away their man in a costume nature. That and the waddle. All these years of watching Doctor Who has led me to identify that waddle. It is the desperate attempt of an actor or stunt person in an unwieldy costume with minimal vision trying to walk without falling over. Alas, The Krotons are cursed with such a walk, which is a shame as it undoes their rather ingenious nature.

Then there is the 'intensity' of some of the acting, which is particularly noticeable because there are two brilliant actors doing their thing in this story so the clunkier performances stand out intensely. One of them is Troughton - of course - who is at his most mischievous and Pan-ish in this story. He's so good so often that this blog is turning into a series of reviews that might as well just say, 'fine story but made brilliant by Patrick Troughton.' The other is Philip Madoc as Eelek. Eelek is the politician among the Gonds. A man interested in power for himself and prepared for everyone else to pay a price for that power. He first overthrows Selris (James Copeland) and attempts to stir up a full-scale rebellion and then when he thinks he can get rid of the Krotons by selling out the Doctor and Zoe he does that. All with a delightful sneer. Philip Madoc's performance is good. It's mostly underplayed, which makes it so much more effective. Something Troughton himself realized. The Madoc is one of my favorite actors but he's (almost) the best thing in this, apart from Troughton himself.

Actually, I'm being a little unfair because I think this is the story where the chemistry* between Troughton, Hines, and Padbury finally comes together. It's been hinted at in previous stories but this time it bursts into its full glory. The scenes with Zoe, the Doctor, and Selris in the Teaching Hall after Zoe completes the Gond/Kroton test are delightful. The balance of seriousness and comedy balanced perfectly.

This story is notable for being the debut of Robert Holmes, a Doctor Who writer who will go on to be something of a legend. And despite its somewhat lackluster reputation parts of The Krotons sparkle. It's not all perfect. There's a lot of info-dumping in the final episode as The Doctor plays for time with The Krotons. The Krotons slow speech doesn't help here. And is it me or are they speaking with a South African accent? Is this story partly a parable about apartheid? Possibly but I think the moral is more about learning for ourselves and seeking the truth through ourselves rather than relying on others to feed it to us. Whether that be our 'Masters' like The Krotons or even our friends, like the Doctor. It's Thara (Gilbert Wynne) who says after Beta has lamented the Doctor's departure, that the Gonds will have to find their own answers. It's that which is the key to this story.

And in the current post-truth who needs experts kind of a world that's a damn good moral. The truth is out there but you won't get it without looking for it and you won't get it just from your friends nor from your enemies. You need to do your own digging and ask your own awkward questions even if that means having to tear up everything you thought to be true. Education is key. And not just education in the sense of the facts you're fed in the subjects you're taught but learning to question, to build an argument based not on anecdotes or wishful thinking but on facts. That means learning to argue - politely - and learning to accept that sometimes, just sometimes you might be wrong. Even if that wrongness feels comfortable. It's easy to accept what you're told. It's easy to deny everything you're told. It's hard to actually find out the truth.**

I think that's partly why I enjoyed this story so much. It is underneath all the science-fiction shiny silver stuff trying to actually say something, to present a point of view. And for that, it should be applauded.

Is it brilliant? No. Is it awful? Definitely not. It's a fair story with a good idea at its centre and a handful of fine performances. Watch it.

Decide for yourself.

Be seeing you.



*Ironic considering the story
**And there's isn't enough space here to talk about truth and subjectivity. Just let it be said that I believe that it is possible through discussion and debate to find something that can pass for objective truth. For a fact. Or at least one that will get us through this life, in this Universe.