The Mysterious Planet

The trials beigins.

The Doctor and Peri arm in arm

After a hiatus of some eighteen months and a wonderful song urging the BBC to bring back Doctor Who, the 23^rd season saw the show’s return in 1986. This season would be one big story, cut to 14 25-minute episodes sadly. The Doctor is on trial for his life for meddling in the affairs of other planets, and we are shown 2 four-episode stories for the prosecution, led by the Valeyard (wonderfully played by Michael Jayston) who strangely is very keen for the Doctor to be found guilty. Then another four episode story follows as the Doctor’s ‘defence’, and finally 2 episodes to wrap everything up. Although I am reviewing the four separate stories within a story it is important to understand the context, and whilst the Doctor, Valeyard, Inquistor (Lynda Bellingham) watch the stories on the Matrix screen along with a bunch of Time Lords, we often cut back to them for comment.

I think the format and set up is where things went wrong. The idea of the trial is not in itself bad. I wonder if the stories needed to be shown on the matrix screen, if they couldn’t have been recounted (ok wouldn’t work for the third story) and we flash back to the action. There are other ways it could have been done, the first story could lead to the Doctor being taken out of time and then they could refer back to another story. However, we do get perhaps the most impressive and cinematic opening shot and model shot of the first 23 years of Doctor

Glitz and Dibber.

Who to open episode one and the camera sweeps over the space station and the TARDIS is drawn in.

‘The Mysterious Planet’ is Robert Holmes’ last full story for Doctor Who. It is a story which leaves a lot more questions than answers. It sees violence toned down considerably from the previous two years, which Eric Saward felt was the one big change that was expected from the powers that be of the BBC. The only issues I had with the violence was when the Doctor used it in situations where there was an alternative. There’s a couple of instances in ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ – not when he kills the Cyber-controller though, that seemed justified to me.

Drathro

‘The Mysterious Planet’ as a story, without the constant court-room interruptions which really interfered with the story, mostly for no good reason, is ok. It’s solid, but leaves you with more questions than answers. At times it seems that the purpose of the trial is to silence the Doctor for what happened on Ravolox – the Earth-like planet the story is set on. Oh wait, it IS Earth! But it’s not in the right place. What has happened to Earth?

Joan Simms.

The Doctor and Peri seem to be much more chummy now, which is nice. Peri experienced a bad feeling about Ravolox though. The assertion by the Valeyard that the Doctor is responsible for the deaths in this story appears to be very false though, as the chain of events that results in the deaths and destruction of Drathro is down to the black light

converter being destroyed, which was thanks to Dibber.

Again we have wonderful Holmesian characters in this story. Glitz (Tony Selby) and Dibber are somewhat roguish criminals after the secrets that are stored on Ravolox. We have Queen Katryca, played by the lovely Joan Simms. She certainly does not hold back! Then there is Balazar, the reader of the books. He has some of the best lines in the story and contributes to the humour. Finally we

have Tandrell and Humker, a blond double act who are very funny with good, fast lines, but I feel the direction didn’t capture them as well as it could have.

The direction is a bit lacklustre for this story, which I think is the main issue. It also lacks action. Nicholas Mallet directed this story, his first Doctor Who story, and perhaps he wasn’t perfectly suited to the show. The music is provided by Dominic Glynn who does a great job (although at times the mixing isn’t great and dialogue gets drowned out by it). Glynn also did the new version of the Doctor Who theme, which I immediately loved. It’s very spooky and moody.

‘The Mysterious Planet’ has its faults. The courtroom stuff certainly impinges on the flow of the tale. It sets up questions such as ‘what secrets was Dratho guarding’ and ‘what was Earth doing so far away from where it was supposed to be’? It was a fun if light start to the season.

6.5/10

Revelation of the Daleks

This is simply a superlative mix of black humour, horror, science fiction and Doctor Who. I cannot praise this story enough. It is a very different story from any other story thus far in Doctor Who’s history. It’s macabre and dark throughout, has a wonderfully measured performance by Terry Molloy as Davros, is expertly shot and directed, has a chilling atmosphere and a lot of very well written and played double acts.

It’s just about my favourite story of all, and is truly a polar-opposite to ‘Timelash’. The characters are rich and well considered, it fills out the two episodes very well, there are NO TARDIS SCENES. I can’t even think of a story recently with no TARDIS scenes, perhaps ‘The Power of Kroll’ is the most recent story some 5 years earlier. The locations chosen could not have been more perfect, and the snow – which was a surprise to the production team, actually really adds to the atmosphere of the tale. What can I say but ‘bravo’ to Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant (her best story easily to this point) Eric Sawar, Terry Molly and most of all, Graeme Harper. Roger Limb also gets a big tick for his score.

Davros tries to get ahead.

We have some utterly wonderful characters. Elenor Bron as Kara heads an all-star cast which includes William Gaunt and Alexi Sayle bringing the ‘DJ’ character to life with changing accents, changing costumes and his ‘rock n’ roll’ beam which destroys Daleks. The best character though is Jobel, played by Clive Swift who simply is perfect in the role of this self-aggrandising womaniser who despite being old and fat and wearing a dreadful toupee loves himself and is always checking his reflection in the mirror. His death scene is utterly wonderful and it fills the audience with a feeling of justice being served. He is pursued by Tasembeeker, played by Jenny Tomasin. I hear some people think she was dreadful in the

Speaking of heads - Stengos

part. I thought she was perfect. I thought that her portrayal of the character was true. Which is all you can ask for. Perhaps people are upset that she wasn’t six foot, blond and a model. She comes across as kind of simple. Eric Saward didn’t feel that she captured what he had planned, but, at the risk of being on the wrong side of the debate, I thought she did a fantastic job. It’s very difficult to play a character that is talked down, badly treated and degraded.

Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, despite a somewhat less role for both, have their best story both individually and as a team. They seem to get

Wonderful eerie scene at the beginning of the story.

on that goodness, there are some touching moments with the mutant in the snow in the first episode. There’s a little bickering, but toned right down. I enjoy being challenged by the Doctor, and have developed a strong liking for Colin Baker over this season despite moments which have gone a little far.

The story is NOT a Dalek story, despite the presence of plenty of Daleks. It is a story about Davros, which is nice because Molloy really does give a fine performance here, much more coloured and multi-dimensional than the one in ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’. It’s great to see a story where it hasn’t
But it’s not 100% perfect. There’s a dodgy statue that falls on the Doctor at the end of the first episode. There is also… ummm… there must have been something else I wasn’t happy with. Something? Anything?

Clive Swift (black apron) as Jobel

been about the Daleks finding him to help them out of a sticky situation, but to see what he gets up to when left to his own devices. The crux of the plot is that he has been selling a protein to starving planets, giving him the ironic tale of the ‘Great Healer’, which is in fact made from the remains of people who came to the planet Necros (not so subtly named) to be cryogenically frozen until a cure for their disease was found. It’s a very confronting and macabre tale, not really one for the kids. As I am not a kid, but in fact several hundred years old, I don’t really give a fig!

Maybe not.

10/10

Resurrection of the Daleks

Davros is back - Terry Molloy.

‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ is a rollicking, fast paced, stylish piece of Doctor Who. I am very torn after seeing it because for me it was both good and bad at the same time. Let’s start with Mathew Robinson who directed it then, because he did a mighty fine job and my hat is raised to him. On a Doctor Who budget he really made something that if shot on film in widescreen almost looked as if the production values were good enough for a movie.

The script, by Eric Saward, though, has massive holes in it and is very derivative to be honest. It’s not that it’s not well paced, plotted or that the characters are poor, in fact I think the character writing is excellent in this one, but the ideas are just a bit convoluted and pointless? I’m trying to find the right word but that’s all I’ve got right now – never good when you’re criticising writing.

Rodney Bewes guest stars.

So we have a time corridor from the Daleks’ space ship to Earth, 1983. Okay. Why? That seems pointless – the Dalek time ship is hundreds of years in the future. They are holding canisters of a virus that has been destroying them in an abandoned warehouse in London. But wait there is a point to this all, the Daleks are planning to trap the Doctor with the Time Corridor in said warehouse. Well that’s all a bit too much for me.

They have also taken to duplicating humans left right and centre, but employ an apparently non-duplicated human to run them (Lytton). Ok.

Why again? It’s a secret plot to duplicate the Doctor and his companions and send them to Gallifrey to defeat the Time Lords of course. Yet at the same time the main strand of the plot involves rescuing Davros from his cryogenic prison in space, so that he can stop a Movellan virus which has caused the Daleks to lose the fight with these enemies. So basically, exactly the same reason as in ‘Destiny of Daleks’, more or less.

Davros has a little thing he uses to inject people and Daleks with and they become his servants. Hmmmm that’s another wobbly plot device right there. As you can see the plot, at least in my eyes, is very weak. However, the story is enjoyable and exciting despite those issues.

The direction is noticeably snappier than usual, it’s very well cast with Maurice Colbourne from Gangsters as Lytton, Rodney Bewes as Stien, and the recasting of Davros this time to be played by Terry Molloy who really pushes the shouting and craziness. It’s strong performance, but I can’t help but feel that somewhere between this performance and the understated performance of David Gooderson would have been the way to go with Davros. Still, when you play a megalomaniac, you shouldn’t really hold back should you?

The Doctor can't quite kill Davros.

The sets and locations are perfect. The space prison is suitably dark and simple, it looks like it could easily be deconstructed and reconstructed to make different rooms. We see the Doctor’s past lives and companions as the Daleks take a print of his mind too which is good. The Doctor and his companions are at times quite secondary to the story, which I know a lot of people don’t like but I think it works well. Perhaps Peter Davison’s best performance thus far, a great moment when he could kill Davros, doesn’t, gets distracted, the door closes and he doesn’t get another opportunity. Would he have? We see Davros contracting the virus right at the end, but somehow I don’t think that will do him in.

Goodbye Tegan

Mark Strickson as Turlough gets a decent amount of action too, and although still a bit cowardly, he has one of his best stories to date. Which leaves Tegan. Sadly this is Janet Fielding’s last story, but I’m sure she was happy to leave. Even in her final story, she doesn’t get to do much and then just decides she’s had enough at the end, which to be honest doesn’t seem THAT out of the blue, but as it was her last story it would have been nice if it was a story where Tegan took a good chunk of the plot, like Adric and Nyssa before her. I like Tegan, but as is almost always the case with the companions, she was woefully under-utilised and that’s sad because Janet Fielding is an enormously talented actress. Brave heart Tegan, I will miss you!

So it’s a mixed bag this story, and a tough one to give a mark too. I’ve shaved off half a mark for the poor use of Tegan.

6.5/10

Earthshock

Trouble in paradise!

This one is regarded as a classic, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a very strongly written, strongly directed story. It’s very very ‘tight’ – I think that’s the best word. We have the surprise return of the Cybermen  (God bless them for not putting ‘Cybermen’ in the actual title of the show), it has androids, a very pacey plot, and the death of Adric. Not only that, but as it was his last story, Saward gave Waterhouse a few things to do!

It's Beryl Reid!

Again, it’s not perfect and the plot does not make a lot of sense really. The first two episodes are basically all underground (the best underground/tunnels set the show has ever seen by the way) with androids apparently guarding a bomb. If the Cybermen wanted to blow up Earth, why would you bother guarding the bomb? Why wouldn’t you just blow the thing up once you’d put it in the right position?

Ok, they wanted to blow up a conference where different worlds were going to pool their resources to fight the Cybermen. Which in itself is a bit weak. Then it has a timing device? It gets armed by the Cybermen, hiding somehow thanks to one traitor on board, a freighter ship. Hmmmm. But then there’s a countdown. Why not just go bang?

It does seem a bit silly all up. The Doctor transport a whole lot of army-style dudes to the freighter via TARDIS which is hardly his style and again

exposes the TARDIS to any-ol dude. The Cybermen have been redesigned, in the most part it’s a very good job apart from the Ug-boots painted silver and the dodgy gloves. Their dialogue though is even sillier than in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ and they have a leader who says ‘excellent’ a lot and who apparently has met the Doctor before. Which seems unlikely at best.

Redesigned Cybermen.

But. The first episode builds up beautifully, it’s full of fear and menace and anticipation plus a wonderful reveal. Peter Grimwade is an excellent director, even if the actors were driven nuts by him. We have a sad farewell to Mathew Waterhouse as Adric. Did I like Adric? Not really. But that wasn’t the actor’s fault. He was always written as a whiny kid who kept stuffing up. That’s sadly exactly how the story starts too. But through the story the Doctor chills a bit and shows a bit of faith in Adric. It’s sad that his death was pointless, and the final scene in the TARDIS is very moving, although I wasn’t totally convinced by Janet Fielding’s crying. The silent credits were a nice touch.

The plot has not got a lot to it, but it just goes to show that you don’t need a convoluted plot to make a great four episodes of TV. The Cybermen want to destroy Earth. Basically, that’s it, isn’t it? They have a 15,000 strong army hidden in silos in a big ol’ space ship. Beryl Reid plays the Captain of the space freighter and apparently she’s not what Saward had in mind at all. But come on! This is the BBC in the 80s! I think she’s awesome!

There’s not much more to say. It has faults, and may be a little over-rated, but ‘Earthshock’ is undoubtedly a very tight story!

Adric's last moments.

8/10

The Visitation

‘The Visitation’ was the second of Peter Davison’s stories to be recorded, behind ‘Four to Doomsday’. It’s a return to a more ‘traditional’ style of Doctor Who story, with an historical setting mixed with alien and science fiction elements. It’s a very solid story, enjoyable too, if not one without its issues as most stories have.

The Doctor and co spy a stranger in the tree

Eric Saward’s first Doctor Who script would see him very quickly become the script editor – Antony Root was script editor on a temporary basis only whilst JNT looked for a permanent person in the post. It’s a very solid four episodes, strongly directed by Peter Moffat, good pace and build up to the climax, a new and interesting villain, and a great setting.

The combination of history and science fiction is what Doctor Who does best, so it’s no surprise that ‘The Visitation’ is such a competent piece. By now, I have to be honest, it seems clear that the show’s biggest issue is the three companions. They have become caricatures and even over 100 minutes of story it seems very difficult to find something for them all to do. Naturally they get split up at points and have their own subplots, in ‘The Visitation’ though they inherit another pseudo-companion, Richard Mace (Michael Robbins) , who gets more of a supporting role than either Tegan, Adric or Nyssa. The sad thing is, he’s far more interesting than any of the three companions as well!

Android disguised as death.

Tegan meets the Tereleptil.

A highway man, an actor and a rogue, it might have been an interesting exercise to have a companion like that, but instead we get feisty, whiny and meek. No offence to any of the actorsn because they did their best with questionable material which rarely showed any interesting in using or developing their characters. Hey, in ‘Kinda’ they just wrote Nyssa out and barely used the other two. It goes to show that by now the best mix is just one companion with the Doctor. They can have a fair bit to do, whilst it allows for more colourful characters (like Mace) to also chime in with a sizeable role without diminishing that of the companion.

In ‘The Visitation’ Tegan spends half the story hypnotised, Nyssa spends nearly half in the TARDIS tinkering with a machine to destroy androids and Adric runs around looking for people, fighting badly and being pretty darned useless.

Saward starts the story well, with a group of humans attacked by androids and Tereleptils who have just arrived on Earth. They all die, so we don’t see any of the characters again,  but immediately the audience is drawn into this story.

Who you looking at?

The Doctor and his companions don’t take long to get drawn into local politics when a group of villagers immediately attack them after they arrive for very little reason other than ‘they’re strangers’. We see the android, the house, the Tereleptils. The main one has some great animatronics moving his mouth, although like the Marshmen in ‘Full Circle’ the joins in the costume betray poorly that there’s a man inside. Needed to be wet! Such a common issue with Who monsters!

Richard Mace helps out the Doctor.

It’s an interesting and pretty silly plot to be fair. Three Tereleptils on Earth plan to wipe out the population with a deadly virus. And then what? There’s just three of them. They can hardly populate the Earth now, can they? Still, it’s effective enough in my opinion. Most plots fall apart under real scrutiny, and I don’t just mean Doctor Who but Sci-fi plots in general.

The sets are a highlight, and the locations were perfectly chosen. The sets are pretty much faultless, easier to do when you don’t have to build a lot of futuristic stuff I know, but even the backdrop for London in the final scene is well done. The idea that this is the start of the fire of London is great too, the sort of thing which Doctor Who should have done more of by now – explain historical events. It’s paced well, moves along, has colourful characters. Far from perfect, but a very solid story!

7.5/10