Dragonfire

After the worst first three stories a season has ever had to endure, at least ‘Dragonfire’ was an improvement. It’s saying something about 1987 Doctor Who that this is clearly the best story of the four, especially as it still includes some pretty dodgy bits including the Doctor dangling over a cliff holding on to his umbrella for no reason at all apart from trying to make a joke on the term ‘cliff-hanger’.

Edward Peel as Kane

We have a great villain at least – Edward Peel’s Kane is chilling in more ways than one. The dragon, apart from the legs, looks pretty good too and some of the ice sets look very good. Sadly some look very plastic but we can’t expect perfection can we, especially not in this season, which is clearly the worst in the shows history – that I’ve viewed that is, I hope it doesn’t get worse than this! The death scene of Kane exposing himself to sunlight and melting is one of the most impressive effects seen in Doctor Who in the first 24 years, I have to tip my head to the production team for that. Very much like Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark).

The story is at least darker than the previous tale, and it is helped by the score provided by Dominic

Bonnie Langford, Tony Selby, Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy.

Glynn, who provided the music for much of the previous season and seemed to have a much better idea of what was required than Keff McCulloch. It’s very grand, a great use of organ sounds.

We have the return of one of the best characters from Season 23 in Glitz, played by Tony Selby. He slips right back into character very easily as the loveably rogue, and you can’t help but think he would have worked well as a companion, especially with Colin Baker’s Doctor. That would have worked very well. He works well with McCoy as well, but as a pair I think the Sixth Doctor and Glitz would have taken the show somewhere new and exciting.

Ace's room on Iceworld

We have a new writer on ‘Dragonfire’, Ian Briggs. He turns in three solid episodes which are paced very nicely. The move to three-part stories is a good one, and strange that it wasn’t trialled before. I suspect the way that the budget was drawn up is why – John Nathan Turner had a budget decreed by the BBC for three stories over 14 episodes. Two four-parters and a six parter. He split the budget into two-three parters by using the OB budget for one and the studio budget for the other, hence ‘Delta and the Bannerman’ was almost completely OB save one short TARDIS scene, and ‘Dragonfire’ was completely studio-bound. This pattern would continue for the following two years.

The dragon reveals the treasure.

A story like ‘Dragonfire’ could only have been done in studio. Although some parts of the frostly set are rather dodgy, generally the feel is conveyed even if you see polystyrene here there and everywhere.  This is the final story for Mel (Bonnie Langford) and the first story for Ace (Sophie Aldred).

Kane's face peels away :)

Unfortunately the writers and script editor never had a mind to do something with Mel. We hadn’t seen much of her before this series and they could have revealed more about the character, introduced a few twists, cut back on the screaming but it seems nobody wanted to sadly. In the end we get her screaming her lungs out at every opportunity and being rather generic for the rest of the time. Cartmel appears to have wanted as much of a clean slate as possible to work from, and so the introduction of Ace is the first big step in the changing of the series.

Sophie Aldred adds a great bouncy (but different) energy to the show, being somewhat aggressive and having a penchant for blowing things up. However, it’s very hard to buy that Ace is only 16 years old, even if Sophie Aldred does look youthful for her age. Which she does.

Ian Briggs does leave a few holes in the script. The mother of the little girl Stella, (Stella is a child that runs around and hides for much of the story, very incidental but a nice touch) seems to not care about the ship with all the others shoppers on it being destroyed or consider the possibility Stella might be on board. That was a bit odd I thought. Kane’s been waiting in Iceworld for 3000 years and couldn’t solve the puzzle of the Drogonfire? Pu – lease! But you know, this is Doctor Who, right?

Far from perfect, but far from a turkey too.

6.5/10

Paradise Towers

The Doctor and Mel meet the Red Kangs

Steve Wyatt’s first Doctor Who tale, the rather odd ‘Paradise Towers’, suffers from a number of issues especially where the production doesn’t really deliver on the concept the way it could have be realised. It seems to me a few alterations here and there and the story could have been quite good, almost watchable! But instead we have a director and guest villain who have not taken it as seriously as it should have been taken, corridors which are far too wide and these ridiculous ‘cleaners’ – robotic machines that are killing people where the actors all have to grab the claw and ram it against their neck to make it look like they are threatened. Very embarrassing stuff.

The Red Kangs

The direction is without pace or urgency at times. Nick Mallet’s second go as director has brought along with it some of the issues of his first outing, ‘The Mysterious Planet’, which lacked energy at time. It’s a very different story, and I think with a different director and perhaps designer on hand, it could have been a lot better. Some elements are good. The casting is a bit up and down. Richard Briers chose a way to play the Chief Caretaker which was amusing, but when he became a zombie-fied Kroagnon, the Great Architect, I’m afraid he lost me completely, and it seems everyone else. But the issue stretches beyond Richard Briers, who was after all a very good actor.

The Chief Caretaker meets.... what is that?

Actors continuously make the comic choice rather than the straight one. It becomes monotonous. The concept of the rule book was under-played mostly, except for the scene when the Doctor instructs the care takers to let him escape which was beyond silly, a weak piece of writing. Andrew Cartmel from the start wanted to make the show darker, but setting a story in some dark corridors does not maketh a story dark. There’s no real sense of menace conveyed. Down in the basement is where the mind of Kroagnon lives for three episodes. It’s represented by a lot of smoke and some colourful neon lights.

Tabby and Tilda are ready for dinner!

Then we have the great pool in the sky. It’s a pretty glum pool to be honest. Mel keeps talking it up even when she gets there and it clearly sucks. It’s just someone’s rooftop pool in London. I wanted to know more about the community, where they came from, who they were. I respect the choice of the writer not to reveal all, because I don’t think you always need to, but the fact that a whole community was living in Paradise Towers was interesting. It appeared they never left the towers – weren’t they able too. Where was this building? In the middle of nowhere, or in a city? These are the sort of questions I really wanted answered.
Whilst Richard Briers is best forgotten, and Howard Cooke who played Pex was pretty dreadful, I loved both Tabby and Tilda, the two old ladies who want to eat Mel (who again screamed at absolutely nothing) played by Elizabeth Spriggs and Brenda Bruce. They seemed to get the story, and it seems one of Wyatt’s complaints (see the DVD) is that actors and directors weren’t getting his vision – hence the miscasting of Pex who is neither funny nor convincing. I also really enjoyed Clive Merrison as the Deputy Chief Caretaker. Yes, he also camped it up but not in a way which made me think I was watching an actor camping it up, if that makes any sense.

A cleaner

Sylvester McCoy was certainly better and more assured this time around, however there were several awkward moments, especially in exchanges with the Red Kangs in episode one where everything looked very uncomfortable. Perhaps it’s the comic nature of the other performances, but he doesn’t seem to be pushing the comedy basket nearly as hard in ‘Paradise Towers’. Thank goodness for that!

Pex leads the possessed Chief Caretaker to his doom...

The Kangs are an interesting creation, girl gangs roaming the towers and playing games. The costumes are good, if extremely 1980s. The costumes for the whole story are very well done. However again I have to complain that they Kangs all look carefully  designed and constructed, they don’t look dirty at all, despite the towers being so filthy.
Finally, the music deserves special mention, because it is so hideous. Keff McCulloch, ye of a very strange name, has an 80s sound but not good 80s. It’s so loud and jarring throughout. It’s utterly dreadful and I think not since ‘The Leisure Hive’ has the music been so noticeable. In fact ‘Paradise Towers’ might be even worse, making it the all time worst! It’s an offence to anyone who has ears.
In summary, ‘Paradise Towers’ is a story which with more time and work put in, and much stronger and deliberate direction, could have been a lot better than what we got. BUT – far superior to ‘Time and the Rani’.
4/10

Time and the Rani

So, like it or not we get a new Doctor in a revamped series where things are quite different to the previous few years. Enter Andrew Cartmel, the new script editor who would bring a swag of new writers and ideas to the show. However, season 24 starts with ‘Time and the Rani’, a script commissioned for ‘safety’ reasons by John Nathan-Turner by Pip and Jane Baker which was originally planned for Colin Baker.

If I thought ‘The Twin Dilemma’ was bad, I was even more dismayed by this one. I don’t honestly know where to start. Pip and Jane Baker seem to get worse with every script they write.

The new Doctor wakes up.

In fairness there was a lot of pulling and prodding from Cartmel on this one and in the end it wasn’t the script or type of story the Bakers wanted to write. And it’s not the sort of I want to watch either. But I did.

Let’s start with our new Doctor, Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy. What’s the hell is he doing in this story? This has to be the least convincing performance by an actor playing the Doctor ever. He does do anything with conviction, and his performance is like a man desperately trying stuff in order to find what works. He plays the spoons on Kate O’Mara’s bust for god’s sake! What was that

Mel and a Lakertian

doing there? I liked the mis-remembered proverbs, but apart from that I found the rest of the performance very very unconvincing. Colin Baker started by being a jerk, a coward and strangling Peri. All principally three things that are instantly unlikeable. However – he did them all with conviction!

The Rani dresses up as Mel.

Pip and Jane Baker wrote a script full of pointlessness, gags and filler. We have five minutes wasted to the Doctor choosing his new costume, a giant brain behind a door trying to work out the formula with help from scientists, most from Earth strangely enough and stuck in booths, and then we are subjected to Kate O’Mara as the Rani pretending to be Mel by putting on a wig and flouncing around. What is this shite?

Mel. Bonnie Langford. For crying out loud she has a fantastic scream but the writers and directors don’t need to make her scream so much, it’s ridiculous. ‘Oh look, a rock!’

Donald Pickering and a Tetrap

‘AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh!’ it’s monotonous.

Why the need to see a regeneration? I mean, Colin didn’t want to come back to do the scene (or possibly the story) and who could possibly blame him, so why not reboot the series some time in the future after the regeneration. We get it, the Doctor can change bodies. The wig and the fall from the exercise bike (if that’s what is really supposed to have happened) thanks to some sort of meteorite storm it’s all cringe worthy.

The 'ball' speical effect.

Lakertia was supposed to be a green and verdant forest. Then first-time director to the series Andrew Morgan though yet another quarry would make a better location. And there are a whole lot of people living in this quarry. seriously. How do people imagine life on a planet which is just a quarry? No trees or animals to speak of? NOT ONE shown in the story. There were a couple of lakes though, maybe they are full of fish.

The Tetraps were never going to be well-realised. Human-sized bats with four eyes who were pretty much the comic relief from…. the comic relief. The movement of the mouths in no way coincides with the lines spoken. It’s dreadful, embarrassing stuff. The whole thing is embarrassing. One of the worst stories I can remember.

This is the brain. It's point? I dunno.

There is a great special effect of a spinning ball that captures people spins them around into the air and then comes down to Earth and explodes. It looks fantastic but again, it’s such a convoluted concept. Why wouldn’t you just set normal landmines?

The music is quite on the nose, although I don’t mind the new version of the theme music or the opening credits. The new logo however is awful – two pieces done in completely different styles which don’t go together. It doesn’t bode well for the next few stories.

1/10

The Ultimate Foe

To finish off the 12 episodes of ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ that had gone before it had ‘The Ultimate For’ set with a challenging task at the very least. Add to the mix the series of questions left unanswered from ‘The Mysterious Planet’, Robert Holmes was going to have a hard time tying it all up. Sadly, Robert Holmes passed away with only episode one (13) completed. Eric Saward had worked closely with him throughout the process, and despite his grief managed to finished the final episode to Robert Holmes’ plan.

Unfortunately, John Nathan-Turner wasn’t happy with the ending, which Eric Saward clearly felt was important to the memory of the departed Robert Holmes’. In the end, no resolution could be met. Eric had already left the series after script-editing ‘Mindwarp’, John Nathan-Turner was left to script edit the remaining episodes. He decided to keep episode 1 (13) of ultimate Foe and commissioned Pip and Jane Baker to write the final part of this epic tale.

They had something like 3-4 days to do the thing, and given the time restraints kudos to them for doing so, however the final part fails to deliver on the

Lynda Bellingham as the Inquistor.

promise of the first part of ‘The Ultimate Foe’. The idea that the Valeyard (Michael Jayston) is in fact the Doctor, the dark side of the Doctor, is brilliant. The Master (Anthony Ainley) is well used by Holmes. Tony Selby returns as Glitz, wonderful as ever, and Bonnie Langford also gets pulled through space and time to the trial.

Just one of the Doctor's oldest enemies - Anthony Ainley returns.

Revelations abound in the first 10 minutes of the story. The secrets Drathro was guarding (Mysterious Planet) were stolen from the matrix and so the Time Lords sent a fire bolt to Earth (where the sleepers who stole the secrets were operating from) which moved the planet to a different part of the Universe. The Valeyard wants the Doctor’s remaining lives, and the chief purpose of the trial appears to be to prevent anyone ever finding out what happened to Earth.

We head into the matrix, somewhat bizarrely via a door on the space station which flies in the face of the matrix as it’s been shown previously, and the Doctor hunts down the Valeyard. It’s wonderfully moody and well shot by director Chris Clough. Location filming had permanently shifted to OB (rather than film) this season and it’s a little

disappointing at times, but this was a night shoot in some pottery works and it looks and feels brilliant.

Episode 13 leaves us on the edge. The revelations appear to be complete, and the final episode will see the Doctor and the Valeyard do battle, to the death one presumes. Enter Pip and Jane Baker. Instead of following on from the set up, they chose to make it more complicated. They chose to place greater importance to the events of their story, ‘Terror of the Vervoids’, and the charge of genocide (which hadn’t even happened yet) than the

Tony Selby and Bonnie Langford.

events of Ravalox. Determined to add more twists and turns to the thing, suddenly the Valeyard wants to kill all the Time Lords in the trial room. Why? Ahhhh they provide the twists, not the explanations.

They throw in a lot of technical jargon which despite their beliefs as stated on the DVD, does not make sense. A megabyte modem? What? The Valeyard’s secret plan is to connect to the internet on the slowest connection available. ‘Would I be right in thinking the Doctor will soon be needing a Machonite Overcoat?’. Another classic, nonsensical line from the Bakers.

Geoffrey Hughes as Mr Popplewick

They do write well for Colin Baker and also Bonnie Langford, whose Mel they created, but stone the crows seriously, the language in this is beyond a joke and could only alienate an audience. All the stuff about what the Time Lords did to Earth is COMPLETELY forgotten. And then JNT added what Ian Levine calls, and quite rightly, a ‘pantomime’ ending, where the Valeyard has really escaped, Peri is not dead but alive MARRIED TO KING YCARNOS (oh why JNT, WHY? Destroy the biggest most memorable moment in Who-history by saying it never happened) and the Doctor and Mel leave in the TARDIS to the words ‘Carrot Juice!’.

Add to that that this is Colin Baker’s final story as the Doctor, shamelessly stabbed in the back by the BBC just when his Doctor was really taking shape, and it ends up going from what I thought was a brilliant episode 13 to a complete and utter shambles. It’s a somewhat tragic turn of events that Colin didn’t get the chance to build on his performances. He was bold and different and yes unlikeable at times, but I enjoyed every performance he gave.

Colin Baker rides to his doom.

Robert Holmes’ was to end the series on a cliffhanger. JNT thought that would leave the future of the show in the air and he wasn’t prepared to do that. It could be argued that a cliffhanger would have all the fans champing at the bit to see the next series. If you are interested, you can find a copy if the Saward script for episode 14. It’s much simpler, far less convoluted and I think it would have been a far more effective end to the season. But such is life, it was not to be.

The season probably wasn’t a success, but I enjoyed much of it. As a single episode, I thought episode 13 was one of the best episodes in Who history, counter-balanced by the very disappointing episode 14. It was a risky idea to mirror the trial of the show that had gone before season 23 in the series itself. Partially

Michael Jayston. 

successful, partially not I believe. I’m not the first person to be annoyed by the courtroom scenes getting in the way of the stories being shown. What if ‘The Mysterious Planet’ wasn’t shown as part of the trial. What if that episode did come first, but the trial only started at part 5? The Doctor is angry about the affairs of Ravalox and demands an answer, the trial begins though. This way we would lose 5-10 minutes of Mindwarp which would tighten the story up immensely. The third story would still be a problem however, keeping with the idea mirroring a Christmas Carol. ‘Terror of the Vervoids’ would benefit most from being a stand-alone story outside the trial setting.

Anyways, it is what it is. As for rating ‘The Ultimate Foe’,

6.5/10 

Terror of the Vervoids

Yes, it looks EXACTLY like that.

‘Terror of the Vervoids’ is a solid enough story with just two, rather significant, drawbacks. Firstly, the design of the Vervoid creatures themselves, especially the face which does indeed look like what many have joked it does over the years, and secondly, the dialogue. For example:

‘Can I have clarification of that extraction, sir?’

‘That is hardly a denial, simply a bromide.’

‘Is the vocabulary of all Time Lords so antideluviant?’

Boonie Langford as Mel.

Pip and Jane Baker’s first story was ‘Mark of the Rani’. It was a period piece, and perhaps that masked some of the dialogue which really in this story appeared geared towards a theatre performance rather than a science fiction television programme. There’s a strange overuse of ‘passive voice’ in this one too. The concept of a ‘murder-mystery in space’ was a solid one, and although this is not as good as ‘Mark of the Rani’, it’s not a bad story by any means.

Colin Baker and Honour Blackman.

Chris Clough takes the reins in his first stint as director. It was a technically very difficult story I think, and many of the video effects – specifically moving the Hyperion III through space, are somewhat poor. For the first episode or two we are thankfully not constantly interrupted by court room scenes thankfully. I find the idea of the defence coming from the Doctor’s future though a bit hard to swallow. You are tried for things you have done in the past. The future, in this case presumably a possibly future, is irrelevant. This is the Doctor’s defence though – that he improves. Again we have the accusations that the matrix is lying, or being deliberately manipulated. Scenes appear different to the Doctor than when he viewed them in preparation.

Michael Craig as Travers.

New companion Mel, played by Bonnie Langford. She seemed ok in this story, a little more positive and pro-active than Peri, no complaining which was nice. I think they should have made this her introductory story though, it would have been nice to get some back story to the companion instead we are presented with a companion that has already been travelling with the Doctor for some time. A good match for Colin.

We have veteran GP actor Michael Craig as Commodore Travers, which is nice. Very strong casting throughout with Honour Blackman as Professor Lasky as Denys Hawthorne as Security Chief Rudge. Some very clever moments when the Doctor does some deducing. Nice twists with the Mogarians hijacking the ship at one point, the Vervoids slowly killing everyone and the reveal of who is responsible in the final episode. It’s well paced and keeps the interest up throughout.

The Vervoids are a mix of good and bad. It’s not exactly clear if they are a mix of plant and human DNA which could account for their humanoid shape. Their faces though apart from the very dubious appearance are also very clearly material-based, making them a bit muppet-like for my liking. And some of the dialogue goes a bit hammy and over the top for my liking.

6.5/10