Sunday, July 13, 2014

Doctor Who Season 20: Hi, Pat, Jon, fake Bill and outtake-only Tom!

It’s another birthday year, which will end with The Five Doctors special (which happened to be the first time I saw William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton on the program; and a first for Jon Pertwee doing more than regenerating into Tom Baker). It’s also when Davison decided that three years would be enough – and considering some of what is to come, it’s hard to fault the decision.

Arc of Infinity

JNT wanted to film out of Britain again (following City of Death) and found that the BBC had a connection with Amsterdam. So… this adventure has plenty of shots letting us know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that we were in Holland. The story’s plot centers on Omega – the guy from the antimatter universe in The Three Doctors – attempting to break free again. This involves a complex plot to take over the Doctor’s essence. This leads to plenty of Time Lord politics (sound of paint drying) and corridor crawls that still manages to be more fun than it should. Some of that comes from an unexpected source: future Doctor Colin Baker, who plays an overbearing Time Lord officer (complete with highly plumed hat) who menaces Doctor and Nyssa to great effect.

Snakedance

It’s Kinda part two, as we get a return engagement with the Mara. This is quite a sophisticated adventure that leaves some work to be done by the audience (thought not as much as Kinda) and offers a really intriguing story that is full of interesting characters and generally solid performances. The special effects are a bit more special this time around as well.

Mawdryn Undead

If this episode was the length of a modern-day adventure (45 minutes) or even an hour, it would be a terrific adventure. At 90 minutes, it gets dragged down by some horrible BBC corridor padding that threatens a good idea for a story and some welcome returns. This includes the Black Guardian – now with a bird on his head – who has enlisted the aid of a youngish public school student, Turlough, in a plot to kill the Doctor. Turlough isn’t exactly as he seems (we learn about his origins later), and one of his teachers is the good ole Brigadier. As it turns out, we get two Nick Courtney’s here, one in 1977 and one in 1983. The Mawdryn of the title is one of eight people who, in ancient times, stole Time Lord technology in an attempt to find the secret of eternal life. They were doomed to constant mutations and forced to travel the universe like the Flying Dutchman. The Doctor and crew get ensnared, with the Brig and Turlough in tow. It all goes well until the two Nick’s spend most of the final episode wandering different parts of the alien ship, slowly dragging the action down.

Terminus

Mawdryn Undead was flawed. Terminus is a few good ideas (from Warriors’ Gate scribe Stephen Gallagher) wrapped around terrible execution. What’s good? There’s a faceless corporation exploiting the victims of a deadly disease on an ancient spaceship. There are some interesting performances and a mixture of interesting and unfortunate costume choices (a pair of space pirates look like they are extras in a Flock of Seagulls video). The rest is a disaster. Turlough still wants to kill the Doctor, so he and Tegan spend most of their time locked in a cupboard (really, like for almost the entire serial). Nyssa gets the disease and then meets up with a giant dog creature thing that looks like it rolled out of a space-age panto. And… really, the Black Guardian is around a bit, and then it all ends OK – and Nyssa decides to stay, mainly because they decided once again that there were two many companions.

Enlightenment

Thankfully, the Black Guardian episodes end with a bang in this intriguing adventure. The only dodgy element are some of the early 1980s special effects. The Doctor and crew land on what they think is an Edwardian racing ship. It is – sort of. The ship is actually a space-going vessel, as a group of “Eternals” are involved in a race. Their prize is “enlightenment.” The Eternals can’t feel emotions, so they use folks like us to live and experience emotions. As our crew is ensnared, Turlough goes through a final battle of wills as he works his way through the Black Guardian’s final plans to destroy the Doctor. A nice script, great guest cast and a terrific visual look carry the day here.

The King’s Demons

So, it’s months before the signing of the Magna Carta and…Ugh. I would rather watch Time-Flight on a loop for 12 hours than spend another 45 minutes with this… thing. Essentially a two-episode excuse to introduce a new companion, the story is dull, annoying and ultimately awful. Anthony Ainley is absolutely unconvincing in disguise, the historical setting is poorly realized (though we do get Ilsa Blair, which is nice) and then there is Kamelion. Apparently, JNT saw a demo of a prototype robot and decided he wanted one for the show. As it turned out, the robot never worked properly – it could move a little bit, but never in any convincing fashion. It certainly was unable to walk. After this, Kamelion spent most of his time in a cupboard in the Tardis until finally meeting an end in Peter Davison’s final episode. That, however, is still a year away…

The Five Doctors

This was filmed as part of the 20th season, but actually was a special 90-minute adventure. It was broadcast on Nov. 25, 1983, two days after the show’s 20th anniversary. While the term didn’t exist then, this is essentially fan service. All of the actors are represented, though William Hartnell was only seen in a clip from one of his episodes; while Tom Baker refused to take part, so footage from the unfinished Shada was used instead.

Along with Davison, Troughton and Pertwee (and Richard Hurndall, who nicely channels Hartnell as the First Doctor), we have favorite companions (Susan, the Brig and Sarah Jane), along with the Master, Cybermen, a Dalek and a few other cameos. Alas, we also have Time Lord politics again, this time centered on the Death Zone, the tomb of Rassilion, and more corruption. The story barely holds together (Terrance Dicks had to sub in at the last minute for Robert Holmes and assembled it on the fly) and the effects aren’t always all that special… but this was a favorite of the teenage me, especially for the peek into the then unseen early era of the program.

Up next, the Davison era ends with a stunning high – but not before a couple more terrible lows.



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