Colony in Space

I have really enjoyed all Pertwee’s stories to this point, but faced with this one I wonder – is this the weakest Pertwee adventure to date? It’s a fair question. Malcolm Hulke presents us with very much a political story about colonists in the future on a quarry-like planet in a battle with miners would want to strip it clean. Still somewhat relevant today. It is a little slow in parts, and perhaps some aspects of design fall short of what was aimed for, nevertheless I still found this to be an interesting and engaging adventure.

A developed life form - a native.

Firstly – after eight stories on Earth, the Doctor is finally given a short leave of absence to fight the Master – oh yes he is back yet again! Four stories out of four in the eighth season. A peculiar choice by the production team I have to say. We have three types of aliens as well, the most common and mute group are called ‘Primitives’ by the colonists and miners alike – a comment on colonialism in various place for sure.

Sometimes you have to consider when something was written – the 1970s was a time when many African nations had just gained and were gaining their independence from Colonial rule. This story hints at that, but also paints mining companies as great evil beasts, which I think was Hulke’s central point.

The Master, meanwhile is after the ‘Doomsday Weapon’, hidden in the primitive city. His plans and tussle with the Doctor are a secondary storyline strangely to the one of the colonists and the miners duelling it out for the rights to a planet neither come from. Hulke could have chosen to go down the line of the rights of the locals, but curiously did not. Instead the audience roots for the colonists to overcome the nasty IMF (Interplanetary Mining Federation or something like that) which eventually they do. The Doctor plays almost no role in that in the end.

The Doctor about to KO a primitive.

Bernard Kay and the Doctor.

The characters are well written and well-rounded in this one, unlike some others in the past (such as ‘The Krotons’) where two dimensions seemed too many for the writer to use. Bernard Kay plays the mineralogist Caldwell, who is so disgusted by his own party he decides to become a colonist in the end. It’s Kay’s fourth appearance in Doctor Who, he is a very good actor. He plays a character with torn convictions and obligations. The leader of the Colonist is played by an actor in his third Doctor Who story, John Ringham who appeared in ‘The Aztecs’ and also ‘The Smugglers’, both with William Hartnell. His character is also torn – should he fight the company, or try to prevent the colonists going crazy? Hulke always writes good characters and there’s a host in this one.

I liked some of the design elements – the Primitives were ok, poor things running around in green tights, but I really liked the small strange creatures in the city, although Jo screams at one in horror when she first sees it, which I felt was a way over the top reaction and very unwarranted. The Primitive city was well realised, but again I struggled to understand where things were on the planet in relation to each other.

All in all, when Malcolm Hulke writes, he makes you think and question life, and that’s a good thing in my book. This story really stretched the production team I feel, but it still deserves a decent score.

7/10

The Faceless Ones

A strangely-titled beast, ‘The Faceless Ones’ returns us to a story in six parts after another string of four part adventures. After a story that was a bit ‘weird’ in ‘The Macra Terror’, we find the Doctor and his companions returned to Earth in present day England for this one. It’s played pretty straight, and involves a fair bit of filming at Gatwick airport, a departure (pun unintended I swear) from any sort of location shoot Doctor Who had enjoyed previously.

Doctor and Jamie behind the tyres of a 'flying beastie'.

I was impressed that Episode One in fact starts off with the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie running around the runway under planes. There’s a chilling and mysterious murder to kick start the saga, oh and the episode exists! However, four of the six episodes of ‘The Faceless Ones’ do not exist.

Polly, avec long hair. Compare please to her pic in 'The Macra Terror'

The strangest thing about this story is Polly’s hair. In episode one of the Macra Terror her hair is cut very short, but suddenly it’s back to full length in the opening episode of ‘The Faceless Ones’. The only guess I could make was that pre-filming for ‘The Faceless Ones’ took place before ‘The Macra Terror’, an entirely studio-bound story, began shooting. Anneke Wills had not had her hair cut yet, and then had it cut just before shooting started for ‘The Macra Terror’. Then they realised they had all this film shot with long-haired Anneke, and had to get her a wig for the studio scenes in ‘The Faceless Ones’. As conspiracy theories go, it’s not one of the most interesting, but it’s the best I could come up with.

This story features pens that freeze people, doppelgangers aplenty and the writing out of Ben and Polly. It is sad to see them go. Michael Craze had been told his contracted wouldn’t be renewed, and Anneke decided to leave with him. In all fairness, they had taken on Frazer Hines (the production team) back in ‘The Highlanders’ almost on a whim, and the three companions did appear to be one too many. It would have been nice if we’d had more adventures with Polly. As it stands for Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, only one story exists complete in the archives, and it’s their first – ‘The War Machines’.

They were apparently contracted for all six episodes plus two of the next story. It’s a bit odd then that they were written out of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’, as well as episodes four and five of ‘The Faceless Ones’. They just reappear at the hanger at the end of episode six to say goodbye! Bit unfair on both that they couldn’t have a decent send-off, but at least they go to say ‘goodbye’, which is more than poor Jackie Lane got with Dodo.

Pauline Collins guest stars are Samantha Briggs in this story, and they hoped she would agree to become the next companion. A lot of the action centres around her and Jamie, and that may be why Ben and Polly disappear for so long, however she decided not to sign a contract and only features in this story. Samantha and Jamie did make a nice pair doing their investigating, there was good chemistry between them and it would have been interesting to watch that relationship develop. Frazer Hines’ role as Jamie had been limited up to this point, and it’s the first time Jamie gets to hold a fair strand of the plotline.

Another notable cast member is Bernard Kay, back again for his third (I think) role in Doctor Who. This time he plays Police Inspector Crossland, who in the end becomes the director of the Chameleons, a faceless race of aliens wanting to replace young people and take over the Earth. He plays the two roles very differently and very well. And we have Donald Pickering, the perfect villain, cast in the role of Captain Blade.

 The plot, written by first-time Who writer Malcolm Hulke and David Ellis, struggles to hold up for six episodes – it was originally planned as a four part adventure. There is an awful lot of investigating going on through the middle of the story. The Doctor has trouble convincing anyone that he’s not a lunatic, people escape, get captured again, evidence disappears, classic stuff to pad things out.

Pauline Collins, Bernard Kay and Frazer Hines.

Donald Pickering

Speaking of Patrick Troughton, he is very strong in ‘The Faceless Ones’, and in this story the Doctor really takes the lead. He plays the straight and serious stuff – which he is getting more of now – brilliantly and his Doctor is warm and honest and basically fantastic! Troughton may have taken a little while to sort out what would be the main characteristics of his Doctor, but now that he has he has quickly overtaken Hartnell as ‘my favourite Doctor’. Well, he only had one Doctor to overtake as they’d only been one!

The final part and a bit sees some of the action taking place up in space. The cgi in the reconstruction may have been better than what was originally done – the satellite that the Chameleons are based apparently frustrated the director, Gerry Mill, a lot. A bit slow in places, poor treatment of Ben and Polly, but Troughton, Hines and Pauline Collins make this story quite good.

7/10

The Crusade

And we are back to the yo-yoing between Science Fiction and historical stories with David Whitaker’s ‘The Crusade’. Another hard story to judge really. The Crusades were a series of attacks from European powers, in particular England, to capture ‘the Holy Land’ in  the name of the Holy Catholic church. Brutal campaigns, they scarred the land and went a long way to destroying Christian/Muslim relations. Their affects are still felt today.

It is fair to say that this story could not be made in 2013, I think. It would certainly be very controversial. ‘The Crusade’ was made, however, in 1965, for a purely British (or at least Anglo-Saxon) audience. My good friend Andrew tells me that the first two seasons of Doctor Who were sold to many middle eastern countries, from where a lot of ‘missing’ episodes were returned. The exception is, naturally enough, this story. This is the only incomplete story from the second season, with episodes 2 and 4 missing. Less copies were made of it, so it was always less likely to still be in existence.

The Doctor, Ian and Vicki stumble into a battle!

Episode one, ‘The Lion’, was returned in around 2004 to the BBC archives. It has been the worst quality (picture-wise) episode I have seen. Good that it isn’t missing any longer, of course! They have recreated, rather well, a forest in the studio. The costumes and sets are very good in this story. I think it’s a well told tale as well, and especially well cast.

Julian Glover as Richard I.

The guest cast includes Julian Glover as Richard the Lionheart, and Jean Marsh as his sister. Then there is Bernard Kay returning as Saladin. Bernard Kay is one of the first actors to reappear in Doctor Who for a second helping (he was in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, only a few stories earlier), but in quite a different guise in this story.

The director clearly could not find any Arabic actors. Poor Bernard Kay has more dark makeup on his face than the makeup crew knew what to do with. They managed to engage several African extras for the story, but all the main Arab speaking parts are sadly white actors with makeup. Today a horrifying thought, and looking at it it does just seem plain wrong. But it was the standard thing of the day – in times when one of the most popular shows on British TV was the Black and White Minstrel Show. Any review of this story, as I have seen on your Earth interweb, makes mention of this.

Bernard Kay, with dark make up, as Saladin.

I watched a reconstruction of episodes two and four, and they were quite effective in telling the story. Again we have a situation where the Doctor and his companions arrive, are separated and all they want to do is get back to the TARDIS. However, this story has excellent pace. It moves along well and introduces many interesting characters along the way.

Walter Randall as El Akir.

The subject matter pushes the boundaries in ‘The Crusade’. I felt ‘The Web Planet’ was really a story for children, whereas ‘The Crusade’ has a much more adult feel. If you knew nothing of the Crusades beforehand, you probably would be wondering what it’s all about. Then the themes are very confronting. Slavery is portrayed, and again Barbara is thrown into a situation where she is an object of sexual desire for the evil El-Akir, chillingly portrayed by Walter Randall.

A little light humour - Vicki is to become a strutting peacock!

In fact she ends up in a Harem – imagine the kids all asking their parents what that’s all about. I dark story, it has little of the light and humour of ‘The Romans’, with the exception of the Doctor fooling the merchant tailor and dressing Vicki up as a boy.

The final episode sees the Doctor about to be executed as a battle is about to begin – one that will not go well for King Richard the first. The Doctor and Vicki are suddenly reunited in the forest where they began their adventure with Ian and Barbara, quite by chance. As the Doctor is sentenced to die, Ian, who was knighted in episode two, whisks him away to the TARDIS and they escape. It’s a rushed and not very satisfying ending in a story that feels cut short – and that is in ‘The Crusade’s favour – it moves well. However, sudden escapes with no real conclusion to the Doctor and Richard the Lionheart’s storyline is rather unsatisfying. Barbara has escaped the Harem which is nice before anything nasty could happen to her, and the most satisfying moment is the death of El-Akir.

A great performance from Jean Marsh.

But in reflection the audience needs to ask itself if the Muslim characters have been treated fairly? El-Akir, and not Saladin is the true villain of the piece. Saladin is portrayed more justly but has little to do after the second episode.

At the time of the Crusades, this one occurred a good thousand years ago, Richard and his ilk believed they were right because they were Christian and Muslims were considered the infidel – now a word some Islamic Extremists use to describe others. However the crusades were about invading far off countries that really they had no right to.

I have no direct point here, but it’s something to think about. Think about today, and how this time in the world’s history has affected the world so many years later.

As a story, it’s a brave topic, well paced and acted, but all rather un-PC.

As a piece of TV in 1965, it is well done though.

8/10

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

The Daleks have returned! Well I didn’t see that coming! And this time they invaded the Earth! The Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara must be wondering when they will land somewhere safe!

What to say about this story? It’s pretty good I guess, well done in parts and less so in others. The flying saucers were right out of Ed Wood for starters! The Slither wasn’t very good either. Some parts lacked sufficient background music. Never the less, on the flip side some great shots were achieved, and they got the show out of the TV studio.

‘World’s End’, the opening episode, is very well directed and paced. Another case of the Doctor and his band of merry women and one man exploring their surroundings and gradually becoming aware of where they are and what’s going on. Unfortunately Susan hurts her ankle in a piece of appallingly bad acting that is hard to ignore. She’s squealing again!

The Robomen. What can I say? I understand the need for them in Terry Nation’s story, but the polystyrene head-gear that they wear is a bit embarrassing from a design stand point. However, achieving the Dalek coming out of the Thames at the end of the first episode is something the production team should be very proud of. I have never seen an In grin come out of water. The stuff on film generally looks great.

The plotline is definitely, though, B-movie. I don’t know if B-movie is a step up or down for Doctor Who to be honest. The way the explanations are delivered is not so well written for example. It’s very plain and functionary. However, direction Richard Martin did a great job with cross fades and the like to spruce it up visually.

 

For this viewer, the saucers are the biggest point of embarrassment (for the production team), both in design and in being in the story in the first place, and the detonation device in the final two episodes that is supposed to break the Earth’s crust. The model shots may have a lot of detail, but sadly look like toys. Ian spends all this time phaffing around inside the device pulling out wires, and later he manages to stop it with a couple of thin logs. Meanwhile all that was needed to defeat the daleks was ordering the robomen to turn on them.

The scenes are rather good at the end though, with the humans destroying the Daleks. The shot with a Dalek lifted above their heads is particularly memorable.

The costume people did something interesting with the character Jenny, played by Ann Davies . Apparently her hair wasn’t prepared for the film shots, so she had to wear and extremely comical

balaclava for exterior shots (and some studio work too). Bernard Kay is rather good in this as Tyler – I wonder if he’s likely to reappear in another story? Probably not, they wouldn’t re-engage the same actor for different roles in this series I imagine.

Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) has a nice role to play in this story, her character is very strong and she seems to enjoy the role. She is split from the rest, and so is Ian who has his own story. Susan spends most of the story with the Doctor and David (Peter Fraser) – where she falls in love. She has her fair share of screaming and crying, but a very nice final scene. The Doctor leaves her on Earth to start a life with David.  The final scene is very moving indeed and well delivered from the two actors.

The story has a few ridiculous things in it, and at the same time it is rather harsh at times. We get to see more death at the hands of the Daleks than in the first instalment, a lot of it is quite brutal in as much as it was needless. Perhaps the most horrific scene is the one where the character       is strangled to death by his brother, now a roboman.

London is destroyed by firebombs, but we really don’t see any of the devastation. Only one bomb is diffused, and most of the city should be in ruins, yet Barbara and Jenny don’t even hear the bombs exploding and drive off through London in an ancient fire truck, a London showing no signs of the fire bombs. It’s a nice scene, but the Dalek’s appear to have the least effective bombs ever devised.

To summarise though, I think the production team were easily attempting the ‘biggest’ story they had ever done. They were raising the bar with props, locations, characters and the like. The story is well paced and well done on the whole, especially for what was possible at the time and keeping in mind the limited budget.

 

7/10