Mawdryn Undead

The Brig is back!

A story which plays a lot with time, Peter Grimwade was given a second chance and despite the story being complicated, he makes a much better fist of his second tale than his first. We see the return of the Brigadier after it seems like forever, which is nice, even though he was originally supposed to be in UNIT in the early 1980s (Sarah Jane once said she was from the 1980s) and yet in 1977 he looks a good 10-15 years older than when we last saw him. So if I was only interested in Doctor Who cannon I would have to give this story a big fail, but I’m kinder than that.

It is another loopy story with some nice touches in the scenes mirroring each other in 1983 and 1977. The idea of two Brigadiers, the way when they touch the day is saved, the build up is excellent. We have a new companion too in Turlough, the return of the Black Guardian, we have a lot in this one, and for the most part it works.

Strange that they wanted to go back to three companions, or indeed a male companion. Turlough seems very old for school, but is perfectly pitched by Mark Strickson and is clearly no Adric-replacement. Then we have the great David Collings (previously appeared in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ and ‘Robots of Death’, another great piece of casting, as Mawdryn, a member of a race who cannot die stuck on a space ship going nowhere. I really like most of the elements, and for the most part they come together pretty well.

David Collings must have felt he was still on the Sandminer from ‘Robots of Death’, the space ship was decked out in Art-Deco and didn’t look too bad. Ok, the exterior was very poor and unbelievable but you can forgive that by choosing the new CGI effects on the DVD menu. They are a good idea because the 80s effects used are seriously distracting and garish, especially the pattern behind the Black Guardian, played by the returning Valentine Dyall. Apparently he didn’t know what was going on for much of the production, and I can see that but he is perfectly cast in a sadly two-dimensional villain. They might as well have used the Master, but I’m glad they didn’t. Does the Black Guardian storyline add a lot to the rest of the story? I don’t think so to be fair, it would have worked just as well without him.

David Collings as Mawdryn.

Mark Strickson, Valentine Dyall and those 80s special effects!

It is a little slow in places, there does seem to be an awful lot of shots of people wandering around the space ship watching the automatic lights pop on and off. I think a trick was missed too. Nyssa and Tegan find a man they think is the Doctor (it’s Mawdryn) burned in the capsule, and take him back on board the TARDIS. He says he is the Doctor and is regenerating. But then we see the Doctor in a different time zone conversing with the Brigadier. A great scene by the way – flashbacks to earlier adventures featured, which is rare. BUT what if the audience DIDN’T know either? Maybe we have a new Doctor? With spaghetti on his head….

Probably wouldn’t have worked but I think it’s a nice idea. This story is not perfect, but it is a nice idea. The aliens move around brilliantly in there strange foam costumes like Daleks – they don’t appear to have feet. I liked that. The design was pretty good too even with the spaghetti. It’s very timey-wimey, but in a good way, and if you over look the cannon-stuff, the plot holds together very well.

The original plan was to bring back Ian Chesterton, which I would have loved to see (instead of the Brigadier), but when he proved unavailable the script was altered to suit Nicholas Courtney returning as the Brigadier, and it worked very well. The Brig is a classic Who character after all.

All in all, it’s fun but could do with a bit of a snip here and there. And definitely opt for the new CGI effects on your DVD.

7/10

Robots of Death

It's the robots in control!

Not since Ian Stuart Black’s ‘The Savages’ was followed by Ian Stuart Black’s ‘The War Machines’, I THINK I am right on saying, has a writer delivered back-to-back stories in a season. Chris Boucher though does here, with ‘Robots of Death’ closely following on from ‘Face of Evil’. It’s a character-based whodunit in space, and a great murder-mystery it turns out to be. This might also be the first all-out murder-mystery style story that Doctor Who has done.

The Doctor and Leela look out the sandminder

And it’s pretty creepy, clever and for the most part well designed. The Sandminer is not a space ship perse, but it is a futuristic machine for mining planets, and it is where the entirety of the story, bar a TARDIS scene at the start, is set. Inside it is decked out in Art Dec o designs, and looks like a luxury liner of some description. It’s a great idea, considering a sleek space ship is hard to do on a budget and they really stretched this budget well.

On top of the murder-mystery elements, the other influence is Asimov’s ‘I, Robot’, with some of the directives being used, in  particular that robots can’t harm humans. Of course that also appeared in Tom Baker’s first story, ‘Robot’. Holmes and Hinchliffe spent the previous season using tried-and true horror stories to underpin the stories. Season 14 has seen them use other famous stories, some science fiction and others, like ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ for ‘The Deadly Assassin’, falling under a wider net of genres.

D84 sneaks up on Leela

At least they know they have a solid basis for the story, and here the story is about characters mostly. The robots themselves have a great ‘art-deco’  head, although the rest of the body is basically a costume and I’m not sure how believable that was. The idea was to make the robots look as human as possible. The humans on the sandminer are really living in the lap of luxury, hoping for the ‘big one’ – to find enough minerals to make them rich.

Superbly cast by Michael E. Briant, now one of my favourite ‘Who’ directors, the guest cast is led by Russel Hunter as Commander Uvanov. There are many sub-plots going on and he is at the centre

Uvanov and Toos in action.

of most of them, including the one involving Zilda’s (played by Gangster’s Tania Roberts) brother. It’s a classic case of someone looking guilty as hell, and then it turns out he had nothing to do with. The part works perfectly for that.

Dask goes a little crazy.

On top of Uvanov, David Collings returns to the Who-fold and Poul, a great performance as he has robophobia, and also some sort of agent. Interesting he is one of three human characters to survive the story. Yes it was another one with lots of death. Well, they were the robots of death! Pamela Salem plays Toos, the only other character to make it through, and the villain of the piece is Dask, played by David Bailie. It’s all a bit strange, his motivations, and the part isn’t very big – needed more exposition in my humble opinion. The rest of the cast are smaller characters, but strong characters and well played characters, the real strength of this story.

Leela (Louise Jameson) is showing a real aptitude for the space/time travelling, enthusiastic and willing to learn. Her character worked well again, and Tom Baker was solid as always. A good, solid, interesting story well told.

8/10

Revenge of the Cybermen

We're back and we have accents!

The Cybermen are now back! It was a bit of a safety call by outgoing producer Barry Letts to include the Daleks and the Cybermen in this first season of a new Doctor, not being sure how Tom Baker would be received. Clearly, there was nothing to worry about on that account though – Tom Baker was instantly ‘THE Doctor’ for so many fans, but it didn’t mean the Daleks and Cybermen wouldn’t be a success in their own right. This had been my favourite Cybermen story thus far for so many reasons.

Robbie as the Cyber-Leader

David Collings as Vorus.

It really is a lot of fun, and that’s the biggest one. Gerry Davis, after many years absence, was called to write the four-part tale, a big departure from previous stories. The Cyber-Leader, Christopher Robbie, is very different from previous leaders/controllers, such as in ‘Tomb of the Cybermen’. He receives a bit of flak as being somewhat camp curiously with an American accent, and the dialogue is a lot more coloured and emotional than previous Cybermen dialogue, but that didn’t detract from the story for this viewer, in fact it made it all the more amusing. Tom Baker bounces very well off the Cyber-Leader too, with lines like ‘How nice, a Cybermen with a touch of irony. I thought for a moment he was going to cry.’ The fact that the Cyberleader needs to rest with hand on hips is also curious. I know this annoys some fans, but I rather liked it.

They reused Nerva beacon, from ‘The Ark in Space’ too, which was just clever really, limiting the number of new sets needed. The location work took place in Wookie Hole, a cave system in England perfect for this story. It doubled as the planet Voga, the planet of gold. Producer Philip Hinchcliff bemoaned the use of gold as a weapon against the Cybermen, as it had already been ‘done’ (on the DVD). Interesting call, because it’s the first time gold is mentioned as a weapon against the Cybermen.

Vorus talks to Tyrum (Kevin Stoney)

It's Commander Radnor! No, wait, Steven!

Great use of the location, and wonderful moments throughout the story that are slightly comedic, offset the sadness of a people forced to live underground to save themselves from the threat of the Cybermen. The Vogans themselves are done reasonably well considering the limited budget, at the lest the main talking Vogans are with decent masks and an interesting design. Michael Wisher appears as one, fresh after his most famous mask in the previous story (Davros). He plays Magrik, second to Vorus, Leader of the Guardians, played by the wonderful David Collings. Add to that Kevin Stoney as Tyrum, the leader of the Voguns, and already we have a wonderful cast with Doctor Who experience (although this is Collings first foray into Doctor Who). Kevin Stoney gets to both be on the side of good and survive a whole story this time, which was nice for him after playing Mavic Chen and Tobias Vaughn in previous black and white adventures.

Also returning to the ‘Who-fold’ we have Ronald Leigh-Hunt who played Commander Radnor in ‘The Seeds of Death’ and William Marlowe, who was Mailer in ‘The Mind of Evil’. They represent authority on the beacon as Commander Steven and Lester respectively. It’s a Who-reunion! Supplemented by Jeremy Wilkin as the double-double crossing Kellman, who has a video device in a hair brush and does curious things like electrify his sleeping quarters!

Harry Sullivan is an imbecile! (classic moment!)

The regulars are superb, but special kudos to Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan. His heart’s in the right place as he tries to disconnect the bomb strapped around the Doctor, but of course that would have set the thing off. As Tom Baker remarks afterwards ‘Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!’ Wonderful moment in the story.

The final episode is very fast paced, as the beacon heads towards Voga with a cargo of Cyber-bombs, and the rocket heads from Voga to beacon as the Doctor and Sarah desperately try to right everything. Wonderful moments between Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen in part four, it’s just a shame the ending was so rushed. Harry reappears, we see a lot of tape inside the TARDIS (a blemish on behalf of the director, Michael Briant, who otherwise does a great job as always), and they bugger off. Like that, the 12^th season of Doctor Who is done and dusted.  ‘Terror of the Zygons’ was filmed for this season, but instead held over to kick off the next. I presumed that ‘Robot’ was filmed at the end of the Pertwee’s final season, but it seems it wasn’t. (“The Time Warrior” was shot directly after ‘The Green Death’, and held over, it was normal policy). I can only figure the changeover of lead actor had something to do with it, which is why season 12 was abnormally short.

On the way to Voga and the biggest explosion in history!

Nevertheless, it was a somewhat different, experimental season with the return of three old foes, and highly successful, and ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ is in fact my favourite of the season.

9.5/10