Grab Bag Reviews: "The Ghosts of N-Space"

Doctor Who "died" in 1989 when the show was officially put on hiatus but for all practical purposes cancelled. Like a monster in a horror movie though it kept rising from its grave.... Only without all the gore. Or the slaughtering of sexually active teenagers. And with the Doctor not being a monster. Or evil.... Okay, so it isn't the best metaphor but you get the drift.

In 1993 Barry Letts, who had been producer for most of Jon Pertwee's tenure, was tapped to write a whole new audio adventure. Here in America audio dramas had died out in the late 1940's to early 1950's as TV began to supplant radio. In Great Britain, however, the tradition held on and in fact is alive and very well still today. These are generally high-quality productions with full casts and audio effects which air on radio stations. For this 1993 story Letts adapted an idea he had for a Third Doctor script which was never produced in the 1970's. The finished audio drama was title "Paradise of Death" and featured Jon Pertwee, Elizabeth Sladen, and Nicholas Courtney all reprising their roles as the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart respectively.

The story proved popular enough that Letts ended up writing a second audio drama, "The Ghosts of N-Space" which was broadcast in 1995. Again Pertwee, Sladen and Courtney reprised their roles. It would be the last time Pertwee played the Doctor as he would pass away several months later.

Both of these audio stories were supposed to be set during Pertwee's original run in the 1970's -- somewhere between the TV stories "The Time Warrior" and "Planet of the Spiders". "The Ghosts of N-Space" can be further pinpointed as taking place somewhere between "Death to the Daleks" and "Planet of the Spiders" since Sarah Jane mentions recently running up against the Daleks here.

The Plot: The Brigadier takes some personal time when he is summoned to Italy by a distantly related uncle. Upon arrival he learns that the uncle, owner of a small island off the coast of Sicily and the Castillo on the island, is having trouble from an American mob boss, Max Vilmio, who wants the island and everything on it and will stop at nothing to get it. The Brig also discovers that the Castillo is haunted by a ghost and now plagued by demonic creatures! Concerned, the Brig calls the Doctor to come and investigate.

Meanwhile, Sarah Jane Smith, deciding to give up journalism and write a novel, has traveled to Italy with her friend and former co-worker Jeremy Fitzoliver. When she spies the Brig she and Jeremy decide to follow him and soon become embroiled in the events at the Castillo.

The Doctor discovers that sometime in the past someone opened a rift between our dimension and a limbo dimension known as N-Space. N-Space is populated by demonic creatures and the spirits of the dead who do not "cross over". He reveals that they need to uncover when the rift was first opened and seal it otherwise it will soon open wide and unleash the demonic denizens of N-Space into the world.

As the Doctor and Sarah Jane travel back and forth in time they uncover tragic events in the Castillo's past and learn that Vilmio is more than what he seems and far more dangerous than could ever be imagined. Simultaneously, in the present, the Brig, his uncle, Jeremy, and a rag-tag group of defenders try to prepare for an attack by Vilmio and his men. If they fail the consequences will be catastrophic.

My Take: I really do hate to say something bad about a Doctor Who story. I'm no Precious Pollyanna but I usually try to offer constructive criticisms or at least find some good amidst something bad but THIS story... Oh, this is one of the worst stories ever written. Where do I start?!

As an audio drama there are no sets, costumes, camera work or visual effects to critique. On the flip side, though, voices are key to a good audio production. And the voices here are not great.

Pertwee does a good job and, surprisingly, age has not taken a really noticeable toll on his voice. There are a few places where one can tell his voice is not quite what it was but those moments are few and far between. Sladen, likewise, does a solid job although a few times she really over-plays a scene. Courtney, like Pertwee, does not seem to suffer too badly from age and he turns in a very even performance.

That, however, is the last of the good that can be said about the voices. The actor playing the Brig's uncle puts on the most broad, over-the-top, stereotypical Italian accent I've heard outside of Chico Marx.... only Chico was funny.

Also, I had actually thought it was impossible to create a really offensive American accent... I no longer think that. This story doesn't just produce one it produces TWO! Max Vilmio is a children's cartoon villain -- a caricature of a 1930's mobster and as such he cannot be taken seriously and never becomes much of a real threat. He's certainly not the calibre of the usual Doctor Who villains. The second bad accent award goes to the actress playing Vilmio's girlfriend, Maggie. Her also cartoonish, stereotypical, Brooklyn accent just grates on your nerves after 5 seconds. The other voice actors are not bad, just either really too earnest or too bland.

And then there is the script. Urg. The script... First of all, the characters just don't work as a whole. Vilmio, as I stated, never really becomes the menace he's supposed to be. Most of the 'tragic' characters in the past are either fluff-brained idiots or cardboard cut-outs so it is impossible to feel anything for their fate even though we are obviously supposed to. Fitzoliver, who Letts introduced in "Paradise of Death" is a perfect little idiot who is obviously meant to provide some comic relief... but of course he isn't funny and the script itself is so unintentionally funny it doesn't NEED comic relief. Most of the characters are as thin as paper dolls and the little depth we get is more like a 'drive by shooting' characterization. For example, there is a moment between Maggie and Jeremy after Maggie saves his life and we learn about her tragic, abusive childhood and the fact that she has long lived with the uncertain guilt that she might have caused the death of her abusive father. And then very quickly the moment is over, nothing more is said about the incident and Maggie's characterization doesn't change at all.

Even the regular cast does not fare too well as the independent-minded Sarah Jane Smith becomes a bit too much of an old-fashioned female companion with quite a bit of screaming, overemotionalism, and a ridiculous amount of reliance on the Doctor for everything. The Doctor spouts nonsense that is too much like spiritualism for the scientific Doctor. The Brigadier, someone who was usually skeptical of the Doctor's scientific theories, here swallows a load of guff that more like magic than science.

And that brings us to another problem. As I've said before, Doctor Who has long played more in the realm of science-fantasy than science-fiction but this story throws out the 'science' part of the science-fantasy and gives us pure fantasy. Oh, Letts makes some half-hearted attempt to dress things up in a little technobabble but it is thin and doesn't work at all. No matter what the whole story is filled with ghosts, poltergeists, alchemists, demons, hell, purgatory, and astral projection. I've got nothing against such subject matter in fiction... but it doesn't belong in Doctor Who plain and simple and it especially doesn't belong in a Third Doctor story.

The Italian setting serves no real purpose as it does not seem to add anything to the story and, aside from the Brig's Uncle Mario and a couple of supporting characters everyone else is either a terrible American or sounds a proper Brit. Plus, the script has to jump through hoops to give the Brig, a proud Scotsman, an Italian uncle.

There are also entirely too many coincidences. Huge points of the plot revolve around coincidences and Letts even tries to cover for these by introducing the ideas of serendipity and synchronicity to the story but it doesn't work. The amount of conveniences and coincidences required to make everything work stretch credulity until it snaps like a 20 year-old rubber band and on top of that it smacks of lazy or uninspired writing.

And, as a personal nitpick, there is a little swearing here which is just disconcerting because it doesn't feel like it suits the rest of the story. There is also a point where Vilmio calls Maggie a "dumb polack" in an ethnic slur which really goes beyond the pale.

Audio drama should have been a perfect fit for something like Doctor Who since it allows a script to be unfettered by the limitations of budget and special effects. A simple basic description and the listener can let their own imagination create the costumes and the sets and the special effects -- it's the cheapest type of production imaginable, the human mind is. And this, in particular, should have been a treat by bringing together Pertwee, Courtney and Sladen twenty years after they left the roles and giving fans an extra dose of the Third Doctor. Instead it all falls apart and dissolves into a mess. There is an extra layer of disappointment here as well since it was Pertwee's last turn as the Doctor. One can't help but wish he had gone out on a triumphant note.

Unless you are an ultra-fan or a completist it is best to just skip this story. Since the story has never officially been recognized as Doctor Who canon it's safe to just pretend like "The Ghosts of N-Space" never existed.

Grab Bag Reviews: "Inferno"

And now we go to the Third Doctor's era.

Surprising everyone, Jon Pertwee, who had been known as more of a comedy/musical actor, chose to play the role of the Doctor as a kind of cross between Errol Flynn and James Bond. Simultaneously, there was a push by the production team to make the stories more adult in tone to appeal to a wider audience. As such the stories featured quite a bit more action and adventure as we well as a darker tone... and you don't get much darker than "Inferno".

The decision was made to end Pertwee's first season with a bang... a seven part story. This made it the fourth longest story in the history of the program -- behind "The Daleks Master Plan" at 12 installments, "The War Games" with 10, and "The Invasion" with 8. The story was also given a unique title card -- something rarely done in the show.

The episode would also mark the last for actress Caroline John playing companion Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw. Script editor Terrance Dicks and producer Barry Letts had done their work too well; they had crafted an intelligent, independent, modern woman for a companion and then didn't know what to do with her. Up to that point the role of the companion was to ask the questions the audience was asking -- giving the Doctor a chance to explain things. Liz Shaw, created as a Cambridge University scientist with several Ph.D's to her name, was too much a scientist in her own right to ask the basic questions and Dicks and Letts felt that they were doing the character a disservice and so decided to write her out and write in a new companion. It turned out for the best as John was secretly four months pregnant and had not yet told any of the cast or crew. Her impending bundle of joy would have made it difficult for her to continue on in the role.

The Plot: The Doctor, stranded on Earth by the Time Lords, manages, through his connection with UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Task Force) to wrangle permission to tap an atomic reactor built to power a project to drill deep into the Earth's crust in search of a new energy source. The Doctor hopes to use the nuclear energy to try to get the TARDIS console working again. Along the way he tries to advise caution in the drilling project but runs afoul of Dr. Stahlman -- the arrogant head of the project.



Unknown to all of them, the project has started to bring a strange green goo to the surface. Anyone coming into contact with the liquid slowly begins to transform into a violent creature radiating intese heat and intent of getting more heat... by any means possible... and Stahlman in infected!



The Doctor is determined to continue his experiments but when Stahlman cuts the power at a crucial juncture the Doctor and the TARDIS console vanish right before the eyes of his assistant, Dr. Liz Shaw, and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT. The accident sends the Doctor to a parallel world where the government is a cruel, repressive, dictatorship and he finds dark copies of all of his friends and acquaintances. He also finds that this world is running slightly ahead of his own. When Stahlman's project finally succeeds the result is catastrophic. A chain reaction is set off, dooming this Earth and it's inhabitants. The Doctor may still escape, though, and warn his Earth... that is if he can survive.



My Take: There are many who consider this story a masterpiece.... and it really is darn close to it! The director on this one was Douglas Camfield who directed many Doctor Who stories from the 1960's through the 1970's. He was known for his excellent work with action sequences and a great knowledge of military subjects -- giving most military sequences a dash of realism. Not only is the camera work here noticably good but the cuts made in editing are first rate and give the story a visual style all it's own.



The Pertwee era was marked by rather topical stories -- dealing obliquely with issues such as war and peace, authority and protest, and environmentalism. While there is a sly political message here with themes of protest and rebellion much more of the focus is on the environmental overtones -- of those who would damage the Earth in search of more and cheaper energy instead of conserving what they have or searching for more renewable sources.



The sub-plot of the alternate universe was added in oder to pad out the episodes as the story was falling short but the result works surprisingly seamlessly. It gives the cast a chance to examd their range and in particular it gives the regular cast a chance to play against type -- and they do so with relish. In particular it is fun to see the usually upright, strong, Brigadier become the brutal and then cowardly brigade leader and it is obvious that actor Nicholas Courtney is having a ball as well. The alternate universe also adds to the story's deeply pervasive sense of doom and nail-biting tension. There is a streak of darkness as the audience realizes that this world is doomed. It really gave the writers a chance to show how high the stakes were by destroying the Earth without destroying the Earth. Sure, this is a darker Earth but it is still close enough to our own to be uncomfortably familiar and it is populated with some good people. There is a bit of a cheesy sense of "a Christmas Carol" here, though, as the Doctor realizes that fate can be changed.



The rest of the characters also really fill their space in the story... for the most part. Stahlman's assistant, Petra, is a bit of a cypher in both worlds and the stalwart Sutton is likewise a a paint-by-numbers square jawed hero. Stahlman however, suffers from the classic Greek Hubris -- that overweening pride and desire to set oneself up above the gods -- and viewers know he is heading for his fall. Although his arrogance is annoying there is still a sense of tragedy at his fate -- an idea that no person deserves THAT.

Kudos also have to go out to regular composer Dudley Simpson. Simpson was the composer for the series from 1964 until 1980. While he didn't always hit the ball out of the park with every episode his work his is notable for he plays against type. In action sequences he actually goes with minimalistic music instead of the usual bombast modern viewers are used to and he allows some sequences to go completely unscored to great effect.

As good as the story is it is not perfect. There are several scenes and sequences which show the padding, the faces Pertwee makes to indicate the Doctor's pain and fear while crossing between dimensions are laughable instead of dramatic and the green screen work is really very obvious to modern eyes.

"Inferno" stands up to the test of time and remains gripping, dramatic, and a dark ride but, as the Doctor himself says: "Nothing like a nice, happy ending, is there?"

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Five Doctors"

The thing about the "grab bag" review format is that it does produce some weird results. I've reviewed one First Doctor story and one Fourth Doctor story and suddenly I've got to review a special, anniversary episode from 1983!



Oh well, I obey the rules of the "bag" and so.....

THE FIVE DOCTORS

I have to say that this story had such a long, involved incubation that I could actually write a Master's Thesis length document just on what went wrong (and right) about the genesis of the episode. I will, however, spare whoever is reading this that and try to keep things simple while still giving some idea of the scope involved.

A little background: 1973 marked the 10th anniversary of Doctor Who and the event was commemorated then by gathering the (then) three actors who had played the Doctor into an adventure called "The Three Doctors". The story seemed to "have it all" -- Time Lords, three incarnations of the Doctor, and even a Time Lord villain.... who was NOT the Master.

Even before 1983 rolled around, producer Jonathan Nathan-Turner was planning for the show's 20th anniversary and he wanted it to be bigger and better than the previous one. To that end he set about securing a script writer and lining up casts. He wanted to get every single surviving actor who had played the Doctor (William Hartnell, the First Doctor, having passed away in 1975) and several of the more popular companions who had been associated with the various Doctors.

Almost immediately there were problems. The original writer was having trouble with the story and eventually bowed out. He was replaced by show staple writer Terrance Dicks. Also, a great many of the original proposed cast members ended up either being unable to participate or else were forced to bow out before filming. Almost fatally, there was, apparently, a miscommunication between Nathan-Turner and actor Tom Baker in which Nathan-Turner believed that Baker was a lock for reprising his role as the Fourth Doctor while Baker has claimed that he had initially responded that he wanted time to think it over and eventually decided to opt out. Baker had, after all, only left the role about three years earlier and in those intervening years had found himself typecast.

With the Fourth Doctor out this put a strain on the script. One of the original ideas for the script was that the main villains would be the Cybermen and that they would create an android duplicate of the First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan and this would explain away the changed appearance as they hired a different actor to play Hartnell's role. They also felt that since this First Doctor would, in essence, be an impostor, it would still honor the memory of Hartnell by NOT actually recasting the role. With the Fourth Doctor out, however, the story was now shaping up to be more like "The Three Doctors and the Android Impostor Doctor". Nathan-Turner had discussed matters with Hartnell's widow and, to his surprise and delight, she actually gave permission for him to go ahead and recast the role. As such actor Richard Hurnall was approached to play the First Doctor. As for Tom Baker's part Nathan-Turner was still set on having all five Doctors appear in the story and as such he used a few clips from the unfinished and unaired Fourth Doctor story "Shada" to represent the Fourth Doctor in the story.

Finally, there was the matter of scheduling. With the way Doctor Who seasons were running at that time the previous series ended in March of 1983 with Fifth Doctor Peter Davison filming a sitcom during the off season before coming back to Doctor Who. In order to fit everything in Nathan-Turner received permission to film "The Five Doctors" as a movie-length episode and push back the start of the next season to fit it in. As a final flourish, he decided to have the movie debut during the BBC's annual telethon "Children in Need" -- a telethon to raise money for various children's services and charities.

As time approached for the story to air the episode was heavily advertised. Nathan-Turner planned a series of publicity photographs for the story and wanted all of the Doctors to appear in them. Tom Baker's refusal to participate left something of a noticeable gap so, rather infamously, Nathan-Turner arranged to borrow Baker's wax figure from Madame Tussuad's wax museum in London and the rest of the cast members posed with this.

Five years after the story originally aired the decision was made to "remaster" the story, adding some cut scenes and "improving" some of the special effects. Some fans, however, were not pleased with the "improvements" and as a result a special edition of the DVD was eventually produced which contained BOTH the original 1983 transmission as well as the longer, and improved later version. This review will actually consider both versions.

MY TAKE:

Well. There is something to be said for the fact that, until the abysmal "Dimensions in Time" special in the 1990's (I'll get to that one later) this was the last multi-Doctor story featuring as many of the Doctors as possible. With the passage of time Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee have joined William Hartnell in the Great Beyond and Tom Baker, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy no longer look so well, nor is their health always so great. I'm NOT saying they're going to pop off the mortal coil anytime soon, I'm just saying they aren't the Doctors they were. There was "Time Crash" but that's another thing I'll get around to later. Let's just leave it at "The Five Doctors" was pretty much the Last Great Multi-Doctor Story.

It does indeed seem to have everything fans could want -- iconic companions like Susan, Sarah Jane, Jamie, Zoe, K-9 and the Brigadier, iconic enemies like the Master, Daleks, Cybermen, and Yeti, and iconic places like Gallifrey and it's culture and history. The story is drenched in nostalgia both old and new -- everything from the Second Doctor's fur coat to the Third Doctor's yellow roadster Bessie, to the Doctor's friend and mentor Borusa -- not seen too long before. Upon the first airing in November 1983 it must have been like a fans' early Christmas and even for subsequent generations there is a magic in the first viewing -- it feels like everything fans love about Doctor Who.

Unfortunately, subsequent viewings over time seem to rub the shine off. Once one gets past all the bright, shiny, fan-y stuff it is too easy to start seeing all the plot holes left in a script that was sadly written and re-written. Things such as the First Doctor referring to his age and implying he is old when he is, in fact, the youngest of them and the Fifth Doctor being called a "young man" by his other selves when they know good and well that he's older than each of them. There is also the fact that we know the Doctors are being taken out of their relative places in the timeline yet the Third Doctor greets the Brigadier as if he hadn't seen him in a long time. This makes no sense since, by the Third Doctor's timeline he had probably seen the Brig not that long ago. And I could go on... but that would get nitpicky. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of things that don't add up. And then the [fill in the blank] of Rassilon gets a little laughable after a while... Black Scrolls of Rassilon, Coronet of Rassilon, Harp of Rassilon for goodness sake! It's all a bit too much.

Also, after "The Deadly Assassin" the show increasingly went to Gallifrey so what was once a mysterious and seemingly cold, hidebound society became something more familiar... and govenmentally bureaucratic. With "The Five Doctors" it feels almost as if all the alienness has been worn off of Time Lord society and the whole thing bears the stamp of modern, human politics.

As for the rest of the story -- most of the performances are delightful. Carol Ann Ford (Susan) is not given very much to do, really, but in her cries of "Grandfather!" viewers can hear the young Time Lady she once was. Although throwing in her twisting her ankle JUST to have her do a ankle twisting scene as a tribute to the past is eye-rollingly bad. Likewise, Mark Strickson, who played the Fifth Doctor's companion Vislor Turlough, gets sidelined throughout most of the story and given some of the most inane and pointless lines of dialog. This is doubly sad since his character had only recently polished off a big character arc. Janet Fielding as Tegan manages to hold her own, Elizabeth Sladen recaptures the different relationship she had with Jon Pertwee's Doctor and it works well and warmly, and Nicholas Courtney is a Brigadier-y as he ever was.

In regards to the Doctors... Richard Hurndall turns in a decent performance but he is simply not William Hartnell and seeing him just seems like a poor copy of the original... something that is a disservice to both Hurndall AND Hartnell. Peter Davison holds his own amongst such a famous and talented bunch of actors and really projects a sense of his version of the Doctor as the 'peacemaker', trying to keep the more fractious among his past selves from starting fires. Too bad he never gets to interact that much with the other Doctors -- it would have been delightful to see him get to do whole scenes with Pertwee and Troughton as he does with Hurndall. Troughton... Troughton just slips back into being the Doctor with the same ease as he slips into the fur coat. He bickers humorously with the Brigadier and with a genuine warmth and ease and yet there is also the dark side to him. It is Troughton's Doctor who admits that Rassilon may not have been the lauded hero Time Lord history has made him out to be... and he implies that he seems inclined to believe these darker tales. Jon Pertwee is ever the man of action and it is fun seeing him face off against the Master... even is it isn't the version of the Master he once knew.

The story also falls down a bit on the villain. It is supposed to be a shocking twist to fans but really it feels more like a sudden and inexplicable heel turn for the character. There is also the fact that viewers are being so obviously led to think this might be the Master that it does the opposite... viewers know it CAN'T be the Master because it's so obvious.

There is also the sequence where the Cybermen are decimated by the Raston Warrior Robot. Okay, so the robot costume hasn't aged well -- it looks like what it is -- a dancer in a silver bodysuit with a zipper up the back. But the robot itself is still a really good idea and the scenes of it slicing through the Cybermen like a hot knife through butter are chilling. It's made even more chilling by the rather graphic violence of it. Cybermen get arms snapped off, heads lopped off, chests blown open... one even actually looks like he vomits before expiring... it's all a bit terribly disturbing even today.

For the story itself, it must really be viewed on two levels. One level, as a fan in which critical thinking flies out the window. The performances are spot-on and it is a delight to see the past Doctors having a romp again. It also puts a smile on your face to see and hear some old familiar favorites such as Bessie and "You've redecorated.... I don't like it." The other level, as a logical, more critical viewer in which it must be admitted that the story is thin and filled with more plot holes than a piece of swiss cheese and in which several characters which deserve to be treated better basically get benched.

I did say as well that I was going to look at BOTH versions... Well, all things considered, the later version doesn't differ all that much from the original transmission. The extended scenes really don't add all that much to the story and, in most cases, the improved special effects are not so great. In the 1983 version each Doctor and companion are pursued by a black, trapezoidal shape and, when captured, their faces appear inside the trapezoid, frozen in expressions of fear and/or panic. It is actually a scary moment because, not only do we not know what is going on, it looks as though the act of taking the Doctors and their friends might actually be painful to them... this is hurting them. The later version replaced these black trapezoids with swirling, spiral cone shapes in which the images can vaguely be seen inside but not with any degree of clarity. On the one hand, they look better but on the other hand they do not convey the menace of the original.

Likewise, the original ending in which all the Doctors and their respective companions seem to enter the same TARDIS to go home only to see TARDISes split off and fly away was sweet even if the special effects for it look a little clunky today. Having the spiral cones take them all back home in the remastered edition does not seem to have the same charm.

The DVD is also absolutely packed with extras. The also interestingly split up the commentary tracks with the actors who played the companions providing an often irreverent commentary on the 1983 edition while Peter Davison and script writer Terrance Dicks provide a more technical commentary on the remastered version. There is also a lovely, lovely Easter Egg (and no, I can't tell you how to find it) of Tenth Doctor David Tennant, new series producer Phil Collinson and

new series script writer Helen Raynor providing commentary on the episode from the viewpoint of having been fans and actually watched the story when it first aired. There are also the other goody bag extras like outtakes, bloopers, a documentary on how the story came about (really interesting stuff there), publicity interviews and much more.

Overall, if you're a real fan then the 25th Anniversary Edition of "The Five Doctors" is a must have. Just make sure you turn off the critical and logical portions of your brain before you sit down to watch it. Put yourself in fan mode and enjoy the ride as this would be the last time we would see some of these actors working together as their wise, weird, and wonderful versions of the Doctor.