Doctor Who Grab Bag Reviews: "Genesis of the Daleks"

Indeed, it is the return of the Grab Bag Reviews. And this time around the grab bag has gifted us with a story which many fans consider to be one of the best of Tom Baker's tenure as the Fourth Doctor and also one of the best stories of the Classic Series.



Back in 1975 Tom Baker was only in his first year in the role. Baker was following the popular Jon Pertwee and was also facing the fact that Pertwee had lasted longer in the role than any other actor to date -- 5 years. This meant that for a certain generation of fans the only Doctor they had ever known was Pertwee.

Along with a new Doctor there was also a new production team. Script editor Terrance Dicks had formally handed over the baton to new script editor Robert Holmes and producer Berry Letts had yielded the field to Philip Hinchcliffe (who would go on to put his own unique stamp on the series).

Before leaving Dicks and Letts had asked writer Terry Nation to submit a new Dalek story. Nation, who had created the Daleks and had written nearly every one of their stories up to that point, submitted something which both Letts and Dicks rejected as being too much like all the other Dalek stories of the last few years. In counterpoint, they urged Nation to instead tell a real origin story for the Daleks for a change. Nation liked this suggestion and soon crafted the script for what would become known as "Genesis of the Daleks".

Both Hinchcliffe and Holmes, as the new leads on the production team, were eager to move the show in a new direction and start using all new monsters. Letts and Dicks though convinced then that the Dalek origin would be too interesting to pass up. And in the end, despite Hinchcliffe and Holmes' stated desire for all new monsters, Tom Baker's first season was filled with old, familiar faces -- the Sontarans, the Cybermen and the Daleks.

Hinchcliffe and Holmes also returned to the old tradition of linked stories -- each serial followed on the heels of the previous one. Hence, "Genesis of the Daleks" follows immediately from the preceding story -- "The Sontaran Experiment" -- and "Revenge of the Cybermen" follows immediately after "Genesis of the Daleks".

Now, on to the review!

The Plot: The Doctor and his companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are interrupted as they are trying to get back to the TARDIS after their last adventure. The interruption caused by a representative of the Time Lords who tells the Doctor that the High Council on Gallifrey has seen a potential future wherein the Daleks conquer all life in the known universe. This cannot be allowed to happen so the Doctor is ordered to see to it that the Daleks are never born or else that they made in a less vicious image.

Thus the Doctor and his friends find themselves dumped on Skaro without the TARDIS in the middle of a horrifying war that has been raging for over a thousand years between the Kaleds and the Thals. Can even the Doctor actually accomplish the task set out for him though? He knows what may happen if he fails but what cost might he have to pay if he succeeds? And throughout all of this he and his human companions must face terrible dangers, monsters, and even the shadow of death.

My Take: There is no getting around the fact that this story has been one of the most influential in Doctor Who history. To give you some idea just how influential... This story introduced the villain Davros and each incarnation of the Doctor with the exception of the Eighth and Ninth would have stories featuring Davros. Russell T. Davies, who relaunched the new series in 2005 has stated publicly that the roots for his idea behind the Time War came from the fact that the Time Lords tried to destroy the Daleks here. Davies would also return Davros to the new series with the epic-in-scope (if not in actual execution... but we'll deal with that much later) story "Journey's End". All of this brings baggage which can make it a little difficult to look at the story clearly -- but I'm going to try to strip all of that away and just look at the story itself.

Going straight to the writing, from the beginning, Terry Nation crafted the Daleks as a kind of way of hashing out World War II for a generation of children who were growing up with no memories of the war. With "Genesis" Nation increased those parallels even more strongly. This is actually kind of a bad thing because it was obvious enough in the original story; here it becomes something akin to being hit on the head with a brick. The Kaleds run around dressed in black with jackboots and jodhpurs; the character of Nyder even wears what appears to be an Iron Cross around his neck. There is also nothing subtle in their insistence that the Kaled race remain "genetically pure"; although here, instead of referring to people or Jewish or African descent it is used against Kaleds who have become mutated due to the biological, chemical and radiological weapons of the war.

One big difference is that, in the original Dalek story the Thals come across as pacifistic and rather nice people. In "Genesis" Nation throws that out the window and shows the Thals to be generally just as ruthless, uncaring and bloodthirsty as the Kaleds. The Thals use captured Kaled soldiers as slave labor as well as the genetically mutated victims of the war -- referred to derogatorily as "Mutos" and dehumanized even more by calling them "it" instead of "he" or "she".

This does lead to one of several interesting moral themes running through the story. Both the Kaleds and the Thals have ruined their planet and decimated their populations. They both talk about wanting peace and an end to the war but in every case they believe that peace can only be achieved through the total destruction of their enemies and they stubbornly refuse to see any other path to peace. The war has nearly destroyed them all and yet they war on.

The other moral theme is one explicitly stated by the Doctor -- does he have the right to destroy the Daleks? He is committing a form of genocide and no matter how evil the Daleks may be who is he to make such a decision? Is it evil to destroy utterly in order to prevent evil? How far is too far? There is some really meaty stuff here.

Nation's script also does a pretty good job with all of the characters. Tom Baker's Doctor is a tour de force as he gets to run from goofy lightness, to fear, to questioning, to righteous anger and all points in between. The script also lets the character of Harry Sullivan take a slightly more heroic turn giving him the start of a real character arc. When the season started Harry was largely the butt of jokes and his old-fashioned ways and wide-eyed disbelief didn't necessarily help matters any. "Genesis", however, shows Harry more and more coming to grips with the reality of traveling with the Doctor. The one regular character who doesn't fare as well in Nation's script is Sarah Jane Smith. While it's not quite as bad as some of the other female companions got Sarah comes of kind of uncharacteristically scream-y and wimpy here. She does little on her own initiative and most of what she does is react to situations instead of being more proactive.

The real standouts for this story, though, are with the villains. In Davros Nation created something truly chilling. The complete lack of compassion and empathy make Davros seem far more alien than the Doctor. His casual mania, god complex, and lack of appreciation for the value of life make him one of the stronger villains of the series. There is also the point that often the Doctor is facing off against a group of aliens. He faces Daleks and Cybermen in bunches and so there isn't always a sense of having a one-on-one relationship between hero and villain. There is a tendency among writers to give every good hero a good villain who is their equal and opposite -- For every Sherlock Holmes there is a Moriarty, for every Superman there is a Lex Luthor for every Batman there is a Joker and now for every Doctor there is Davros. One of my favorite scenes is one in which Davros tortures Harry and Sarah Jane to force the Doctor to reveal all of the future defeats the Daleks will suffer so that he can program them to win instead. After this display of callousness Davros turns and nicely invites the Doctor to sit down with him as two men of science. It is the equivalent of beating someone up and then asking them to join you for a cup of tea! It is the height of arrogance and madness and actor Michael Wisher portrays it all beautifully. Wisher manages to take his performance as Davros right up to the top but without going over it. Something that others who would play the character over the years were not always able to do.

And right up there with Davros is the slimy, equally evil Nyder. Davros's right hand man and yet with ideas all his own. He follows Davros not out of the desires of a bootlicker who hopes to ride coattails to the top but as an honest acolyte -- someone who truly believes in Davros's vision. Even when most of the other Kaleds realize what a monster Davros has become Nyder refuses to see it. One sociopath is chilling enough but having another character who is essentially just as sociopathic makes it doubly creepy.

But the script isn't all that perfect. As a six-part serial the story still drags quite a bit. There is far too much capturing and escaping and getting re-captured and re-escaping going on and it actually becomes dull after a while. There is also quite a bit of needless corridor running and the separation of the Doctor and companions in various combinations is a bit too forced and obvious.

There is also the aforementioned brick-to-the-head Nazi parallels (seriously, subtlety was not Terry Nation's strong suit) and a sad case of "Earth-alike" -- you know, that tendency in certain science fiction stories for alien races to develop weapons or societal ideas along lines remarkably similar to Earth's? Here while the idea of weaponry regressing in the face of a long war as resources are depleted is a very interesting idea it is stretching credulity to think that said alien races would develop weapons that look exactly like Earth rifles and land mines. I know the BBC props department was trying to save money but they could have done something to at least make them look a little more alien!

The filming for this episode, on the whole, worked quite well. There are all kinds of jokes about the show always filming in old rock quarries but for once it works. There is a kind of bleakness to it that puts the viewer in mind of a 'no man's land' -- of a land that has been abused by the fires of war to the point where little survives or grows or thrives. Everything is gray and cheerless -- even the sky. The real trouble comes in that, at that time period, the BBC used film for outdoor shooting and videotape for studio shooting. So the picture quality and overall look changes drastically from the location shoots to the studio sets and when they are put next to one another it is really jarring. The studio sets, on the whole, also look suitably militaristic and perfect for the Kaleds -- cold, sterile, scientific and unadorned.

There are some obvious prop problems though, the biggest one of which are the 'vicious, giant clams'. I wish I could say I was making that up. One of the elements of the story is that Davros experimented on other creatures -- mutating them -- before he created the Daleks. We hear the cried of some of these supposedly deadly creatures but we only see one in passing and one featured and the one chosen to provide that little bit of suspense and tension? A giant clam. First of all -- alien world -- what are they even doing having clams in the first place? Second of all -- a giant clam. A. Giant. Clam. They are not, on the whole, known for being very fast or very mobile (and here they're on dry land to boot) nor very vicious. And the fake-looking prop clams used here are no exception. No matter how much the actors try to sell it, it just doesn't work. It's obvious that most of the prop clams aren't moving and even the ones that do move just don't seem that threatening.

Stupid clams and padding aside, does this story live up to it's reputation? Does it deserve the high position it holds among fans as well as in the pantheon of Doctor Who stories? Well...... Yes. It may not be Emmy winning but considering the time period and considering the limitations of technology and budget the story was really reaching and stretching; expanding the boundaries once again of what the show could do and be. While some of the storytelling is simplistic and obvious there are also some weighty and meaty ideas raised and there is stuff here that even modern audiences can chew on and mull over. Tom Baker turns in an excellent performance and one can see that, within a very short time, he has already settled into his role as the Doctor, made the character his own, and would continue with a reassuring consistency of performance for most of the seven years he was on the show.

If you are a fan of the new series and if you're interested in RTD's idea of the Time War then this story is definitely worth a view. It's easy to see where he got the idea that this is where all the trouble really started. If you also want to see how Davros got his start well here it is. And, of course, for anyone interested in the Classic Series in general this is an excellent serial to view. Even with the problems the story still shows that Doctor Who had come a long way from the early days in terms of maturity of storytelling and serials like "Genesis of the Daleks" would only be the start of yet another step forward for the show.

Grab Bag Reviews: "Full Circle"

I'll admit, I've been putting this one off a bit. It is a bit of a difficult story to get a handle on.

For once there was not much going on in the background on this story. It was written by Andrew Smith who actually holds the place for being the first Doctor Who fan to get to write an episode. He was no fan-ficcer turned lucky though; he had grown up on the show and went into writing for TV, having episodes of several other TV shows under his belt before submitting his script to the Doctor Who office.

It was decided to do a series of linked stories. "Full Circle" would start what became known as "the E-Space Trilogy" with "State of Decay" (which I reviewed previously) as the second installment. Since Tom Baker had announced he would be leaving the program the idea was for the E-Space Trilogy to set the stage for the Doctor's death and regeneration. This meant introducing a new companion to prepare the way for an exiting one since Lalla Ward was not interested in staying on as Romana either.

As such a very novice actor named Matthew Waterhouse, who also happened to be working in the BBC offices, got the nod to become the new companion, Adric, introduced here. And hated for years. But that's for later; in the meantime, on with the plot!

The Plot: The Doctor and Romana have been summoned back to Gallifrey but on the way the TARDIS passes through a rare anomaly called a Charged Vacuum Emboitment (CVE) this places them in the smaller, negative universe of E-Space. They land on the planet Alzarius to get their bearings and discover a colony of humans from a crashed starliner who have been busily repairing their ship so that they might one day return home.

This also happens to be a time known as Mistfall, when dangerous mists rise and creatures known as Marshmen rise from the swamps and attack the colonists. The colonists retreat into their ship but one group of teenagers remain outside. The Doctor finds all of this very curious and the more he digs the more he comes to realize that there is something strange going on on Alzarius and things are not as they seem...

My Take: Doctor Who is at some of it's best when it pushes boundaries and plays with new ideas. The central concepts here of change, fear of change, fear of "the other", and the potentialities of evolution fly pretty high. There are a lot of ideas packed in here and if you don't watch carefully and pay attention you may not catch everything.

For example, there is the fact that the Alzarians see the Marshmen as mindless brutes, little more than cattle, but the Doctor sees something different -- a species capable of learning and adapting quickly. There are overtones here of the way colonial powers often used to perceive native populations. The discovery of the true connection between the colonists and the Marshmen is therefore quite a shock to the colonists.

There is also the irony of the Deciders. The Alzarian society appoints a triumvirate of leaders which they call "Deciders" and these Deciders then seem to decide what the people need to know or not. And yet time and time again we see them as too timid, too frozen by their own uncertainties to actually *make* a decision.

There are also a number of reversals and surprise twists which keep the audiences sympathies volleying back and forth. At the start we see the monstrous Marshmen as the villains of the piece. They are frightening looking, it is indicated that they are responsible for the death of one of the Deciders, the nice, peaceful, Alzarians are terrified of them and most damnable is the fact that they knock K-9's head off (although it does lead to an amusing bit where Romana remarks that they're always fixing K-9. Seriously, the little tin dog was like the Kenny of Doctor Who he was forever having his electronic innards pulled out, getting attacked by aliens, having his batteries drained, etc.). And yet later we see the Marshchild become fascinated with the Doctor and it makes no truly threatening moves. It's capture by the Alzarians suddenly turns the table. The scientist's crude and painful techniques of study and his callous disregard for the Marshchild's life in the name of "science" turn the audience's sympathies to the Marshchild. The Decider's support of what amounts to vivisection of the creature alive finishes the transformation of the Alzarians for victims to victimizers. But yet again the wheel spins when the painful truth of it all is revealed and when the Marshmen rampage through the ship killing indiscriminately we again feel pity for the Alzarians.

There is a pretty big cast here by Doctor Who standards, although not all of them are given a fullness to become anything but cyphers. Most of the teenage "Outlier" band are little more than stock, rebellious teenagers who get to show a bit of mettle when the chips are down. Adric is the only one of them who is allowed to show much of a range and unfortunately Waterhouse's inexperience robs this of a lot of impact. There's always something a little off about his performance. He tends to either underplay or overplay and in at least one scene comes damn near breaking the fourth wall and delivering his line directly to the camera (a no-no with something like this). Inflection on some of the words is also just a shade off. Nothing you can really point to directly but something that just gets on your nerves a bit as the story goes on. There is also a kind of earnestness which seems built into the character in the script which doesn't do the character any favors -- it just increases the annoying factor.

The story also isn't quite Romana's tour-de-force either. Lalla Ward does a lovely job with what she has to do but sadly for a number of episodes she basically plays a zombie in thrall to the Marshmen... sort-of... either way we don't get to see quite enough of the intelligent, problem-solving, witty Romana that fans know and love.

Tom Baker, on the other hand, has some really lovely lines of dialogue and some great sequences. His defense of the Marshchild and the Marshmen in general is filled with clever, back-handed insults but at the same time we see even the Doctor taken aback as he learns more of the truth about the Alzarians.

As for the filming, the location shots are really, really excellent. The forest and water are shot in such a way as to put one in mind of Earth and yet still seem alien. The sequence with the Marshmen rising out of the water is also really well done and creepy as all get-out... if only they had left the Marshmen in the forest. Right around 1979/1980 something started happening in the studios at the BBC. In the past the Doctor Who production teams were careful to light the sets to hide some of the cheapness and stageyness of the sets. As the 1980's dawned that changed and the sets started to be over-lit, leading to them looking more like the backdrop to a high school stage production. We see that starting to creep in here. The starliner interiors don't look bad under this lighting but the Marshmen costumes suddenly go from something freaky and intimidating to looking like nobbly rubber wetsuits. And then there are the spiders. The spiders which are supposed to be rather creepy and jump out of the river fruit... yeah, I've seen cheap rubber novelty spiders which looked better than these things. They are absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully they only appear in a couple of scenes and then vanish.

Getting past some of the crappier special effects the story itself is compelling and keeps you off balance as the situation shifts and changes. There are a lot of good ideas and a lot of things to leave you thinking after the credits roll on the final episode.

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Talons of Weng Chiang"

There is a saying: "Do one thing and do it right". Well, in a way, the era of producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes was about that. After the Third Doctor's era in which social and political issues were tackled under the guise of entertaining sci-fi stories Hinchcliffe had steered the show away from that model with his updating of old, classic, Gothic horror stories. There were few overt statements about class or environmentalism here -- instead playing up the frights and the atmosphere and the characters themselves.

Hinchcliffe had decided, though, to move on at the end of season 14 and Holmes was looking to leave as well. As such, these two long-time collaborators decided to pull out all the stops for their final story.

After the original writer had to pull out Hinchcliffe encouraged Holmes to write the story and also encouraged him to do what he wanted with it and spare no expense. If this was to be their swan song then they wanted it to be a good one....

The Plot: The Doctor and his companion, Leela, arrive in London in the late 1800's but are quickly embroiled in a police investigation. Young women are going missing and the Doctor soon finds clues which lead him to Chinese stage magician Li H'sen Chang. Li H'sen Chang, however, is a follower of a mythical, powerful and terrible Chinese god called Weng Chiang... and the Doctor begins to suspect that Weng Chiang may not be as mythical as he's been painted... at least in this time and this place.

My Take: "The Talons of Weng Chiang" is.... a troublesome episode. Not because it's bad but because it's good! Holmes pulled from a number of influences for this story -- including the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Fu Manchu stories of Sax Rohmer, and even a touch of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux and even a touch of My Fair Lady but it's the Sax Rohmer stuff that makes the story skate so close to the edge.

Rohmer is most commonly associated with "Yellow Peril" -- a kind of wave of Sinophobia that rolled through many Western nations -- in particular England and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was originally spawned by fears that Chinese immigrants would take away jobs from the white, native population and would increase in numbers until they outnumbered the white population. Sound familiar? Yeah, we've been through this old song and dance a number of times but people never seem to learn. But I'm digressing.

Political cartoons, comic strips, books, and short stories all took turns at representing Chinese as evil, cold-blooded killers or masterminds. One of the most famous representations which has come down to us today is Fu Manchu. Most people have never read a Sax Rohmer Fu Manchu story and yet the term is still bandied about -- most notably in the name for a type of mustache. Rohmer's Fu Manchu, however, was of the "great criminal mastermind" type who ruled London's Limehouse district and always had his plots foiled by the white hero but who also always escaped to menace the world another day. We see elements of Fu in the original version of Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless and the original version of the Iron Man villain the Mandarin.

To a modern audience, however, this sort of blatant racial stereotyping would be anathema. And that's part of where the problem comes in. Holmes wanted to re-create the feel of the Victorian era with as much authenticity as he could. This includes using some of the slang terms of the time as well as racial attitudes. And at the same time he was pulling from literature from the era and wanting to present a kind of snapshot of that too. What results is a story which depicts Chinese characters talking in a very stereotypical dialect and with some very stereotypical trappings but at the same time, it's a near perfect mimic of something from the Victorian period. So do we forgive it for being accurate? Do we make allowances for what Holmes was trying to do? Or do we think that he should, perhaps, have mitigated things more and presented a more cosmopolitan world view? Added to that is the fact that Li H'sen Chang was played by an Occidental actor in make-up. It's very good make-up but it doesn't change the fact that an Occidental is playing an Oriental... something that tends to quite understandably get people's hackles up. All of this would not be so bad if the rest of the story was just God-awful but it's not.

In defense of the story, though, Li H'sen Chang may begin as a stock character but he DOES become more nuanced as the story rolls on. He may be devoted to the being he believes to be Weng Chiang but he also has been entranced by his success on the stage. He takes pride in his magic act and the more acclaim and fame he receives the more he feels the pull between his place on the stage and his place by his master's side. In the end, his "god" punishes him for his failures in the worst way possible -- by ending his stage career. Chang also gets a rather moving death scene and, despite the fact that he has been a willing accomplice to multiple murders, the viewer feels sorry for him. In many ways he becomes yet another victim of Weng Chiang.

Putting aside the controversy of the story... there are some positive things about it. The companion of the time, Leela, was a "savage" from the future and was really the first ass-kicking female companion. Nearly fearless and a tough fighter, Leela often got herself out of any situations she got herself into. She also often was the one saving the Doctor's life. This story is no exception as, in one sequence, Leela throws a knife at the advancing living ventriloquist's dummy Mr. Sin and when that fails to stop him she jumps onto a table, runs across it and escapes from the room by doing a header out a window. And it is awesome. Leela also is untaught, not stupid, and that is clearly shown here as well as she quickly picks up on information from the time period. There is a also a touch of Eliza Doolittle as she transforms into an elegant lady for a night at the theatre.

In all of this actress Louise Jameson hits every not pitch perfect. Jameson makes all of Leela's various threats of violence absolutely believable and yet turns around and displays a shy side of the warrior as she prepares to embark on the unfamiliar world of polite society.

Tom Baker also puts in a much more subdued performance than usual. He even has a costume change, temporarily subsuming the bohemian look for a Holmesian inverness cape and deerstalker cap. While the Doctor's usual bits of whimsy are present they are not as overpowering as he takes the mystery seriously. It is something just enough out-of-usual to attract the attention of the audience and make the story something special.

And of course there are the characters of theatre owner Henry Gordon Jago and scientist Professor Litefoot. The two characters proved so popular that there were actually, for a time, rumors that the BBC was considering spinning them off into their own series. The bombastic Jago and the cautious Litefoot are such well-developed and charismatic characters that they really do steal the show. The two do not even meet until the very last episode but they are woven so well throughout the story that they seem a natural part of it all -- and perfect foils for one another. The actors in question -- Christopher Benjamin for Jago and Trevor Baxter for Litefoot -- inhabit the roles so fully it is impossible to imagine anyone else doing a better job. They manage to make the characters both larger-than-life and yet utterly human at the same time. In point of fact, there is a sequence in particular I love... Litefoot offers Leela some supper and is rather discombobulated when the young woman picks up a chunk of meat and just starts biting into it -- foregoing knife, fork and plate -- but rather then hurt her feelings or make her look foolish, Litefoot puts aside his own refinements and picks up another piece of meat and bites into it. It says volumes about Litefoot, his world view and yet at the same time his kind heart.

The story also really excells at the true villains. Weng Chiang is revealed as an impostor called Magnus Greel and Greel, like the Phantom of the Opera, is hideously disfigured. He's also mad as a hatter. At first his over-the-top ranting work well but after a little while they do go on too long and they start to become silly instead of threatening.

And then there is Mr. Sin. Holmes understood well that, in the hands of a talented comedian, a ventriloquist's dummy can be funny. The dummy itself, though, can be a creepy thing. The size of a small child and yet usually made to look like a human being there is always that faintly creepy feeling that the thing is watching you. Horror movies have long picked up on this and turned the dummy into a nightmare figure. Holmes, therefore gives us "Mr. Sin". At first an innocuous figure, it quickly moves into the realm of creepy and then goes on to full-on menacing. Mr. Sin was played here by Deep Roy, a well known and respected midget actor.

Tribute must also go to everything else about the story as well. There is some just absolutely gorgeous location shooting and the locations were chosen with care and add to the atmosphere and tone of the story. The costuming is also lovely -- in particular Li H'sen Chang's stage costumes -- ornately beaded affairs which are simply stunning. And even the special effects are pretty good here. The two exceptions are the "giant rats" in the sewers which are, alternately, real rats filmed on a miniature set and a hand puppet. Sadly the real rats look like rats on a miniature set and the hand puppet looks like a hand puppet. And neither is very threatening. Then there is a fight between the Doctor and Mr. Sin at the climax which is really sadly, embarrassingly, obviously Tom Baker wrestling with a large rag doll dressed as Mr. Sin.

One will not find deep commentary on class or environmentalism here but what one will find is a tightly woven story that seems to just fly by even at six episodes. There is mystery, danger, excitement, action, death, and near-death escapes but sadly there are also some elements which are uncomfortable to modern audiences and which do leave something of a blot on the story. I'll leave it to you, reader, to decide if this can be forgiven or whether it will be a deal-breaker.

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Brain of Morbius"

So I'm back from a trip to visit family over the Fourth of July. There was fireworks and cake and corn on the cob and other good things to eat so all was well.

Anyway, before I left I reached into the grab bag and... happy accident, pulled out "The Brain of Morbius". A few reviews back ("State of Decay" to be exact) readers will note that I mentioned producer Philip Hinchcliffe and his partner-in-crime script editor Robert Holmes and their penchant for adapting Gothic horror stories for Doctor Who. Well, it so happens that "Brain of Morbius" came at what was probably the height of the Hinchcliffe/Holmes Gothic era.



Again, as with "State of Decay" veteran writer Terrance Dicks had been tapped to write this story and he was given the mandate by Hinchcliffe and Holmes to adapt Mary Shelly's classic story Frankenstein: Or a Postmodern Prometheus. Dicks wrote the script, finishing it just before leaving on a scheduled two-week vacation. Holmes and Hinchcliffe, upon receiving the script, didn't think it was quite what they had in mind and besides that they worried that they would be unable to pull off some of the special effects Dicks' script called for with the show's meagre budget.

By the time Dicks returned from his trip time was growing short and he agreed to let Holmes and Hinchcliffe tweak his script. Upon receiving the changed script, however, he was unhappy with the amount of rewriting done. Eventually Hinchcliffe soothed his ruffled feathers and asked if Dicks would rather the story went out under one of the previously established pseudonyms Doctor Who had used over the years. Dicks replied for Hinchcliffe to pick some "bland pseudonym" so Hinchcliffe credited the writer as "Robin Bland" -- something that rather amused Dicks.

The Plot: The Doctor and companion Sarah Jane Smith arrive on a strange, storm-wracked world instead of their desired destination. The Doctor believes the Time Lords are manipulating him again in order to do some job they don't want to get involved with. Sarah is, however, skeptical.

The Doctor soon learns they have landed on the world of Karn where a group of women, who have ties to the Time Lords, still practice great mental feats. They also jealously guard an elixir which can extend life -- although lately the source of that elixir has been drying up. The Doctor also stumbles across Solon -- once one of the greatest doctors ever... and a follower of the renegade Time Lord Morbius. Of course Morbius was long ago executed for his crimes... or was he? The Doctor begins to suspect that Morbius may still be alive but his search is hampered by the Sisterhood's suspicion that he is there to steal the elixir for the Time Lords and Solon's secretiveness... and that begs the question... just WHY is Solon so interested in the Doctor's head anyway?

My Take: Ah, "The Brain of Morbius". It has to be said that this story is a mixture of the sublime and the silly and it works.... as long as you can stop yourself from asking too many questions and noticing the huge, gaping plot holes.

The story opens with a thunderstorm -- to draw even more parallels with Shelly's Frankenstein and it works beautifully. Sadly, this entire story was done on soundstage and while some of the alien landscape works some of it does not and it is entirely too obvious this is a stage set. Of course, this being Doctor Who that is part of the charm. There is great atmosphere and Solon's house is a delicious mix of alien-looking and yet also old-fashioned Gothic. Even Solon himself is this mix as his laboratory uses devices which look futuristic -- like the artificial vocal cords rigged up for Morbius -- and yet Solon himself wears an old-fashioned doctor's reflector when preforming surgery and actually uses an old-fashioned stethoscope at one point too. While these incongruities are meant to be charming, sadly, they do pull one out of the story and instead point up how ridiculous it is.

And speaking of Solon, Philip Madoc turns in a wonderful performance here. He goes right up to the top but without going over it and he gets some dramatic lines which he delivers with great relish. In particular his insults are erudite and so complete that when he insults someone they are well and truly insulted.

There is also some awesome costuming and make-up -- particularly when it comes to the Sisterhood of Karn. The face paint and robes are strange and lush and lend a lot of weight to the characters and their lives. There is a feeling of completeness with with Sisterhood -- they and their culture actually seem very fully realized and this adds a nice depth to the story.

The main actors are their usual, professional selves. Elisabeth "Lis" Sladen had by this time been on the show for several years and had been performing with Tom Baker for about a year and a half. Her comfort with him shows and transmits into a believable close friendship between the Doctor and Sarah Jane. Tom Baker, for his part, reciprocates and also colors his performance as the Doctor here with just a touch of Groucho Marx. It makes for a nice mix of the dramatic and genuinely funny.

Within the story itself there is, sadly, some signs of padding as each of the characters are required to do things which seem monumentally stupid in order to keep stringing the story along. For example, Solon has built Morbius a terrible patchwork body and needs only a head to complete it. Upon meeting the Doctor he gushes at how perfect it will be -- a Time Lord head for Morbius the former Time Lord but it begs the question... If Solon can transplant Morbius's brain into a new body why take off the Doctor's head, why not instead simply remove the Doctor's brain and plant Morbius's brain in the Doctor's body? Then there is the fact that the Doctor KNOWS Solon is a bad egg, he KNOWS he's up to no good and yet when Sarah is blinded the Doctor takes her to Solon to have her eyes examined and worth believes what Solon tells him!

On the good side, however, there is a really great monster reveal for the end of episode one which must have made kids at the time jump. Sadly, though, an almost exactly similar reveal is done at the end of episode two which just then feels repetitious. There is also a surprising level of violence here -- something which would end up getting the show in trouble with critics -- but the violence is bloody and shocking and really effective and well done within the story honestly.

"The Brain of Morbius" really is a wonderful, atmospheric story with a number of things to recommend it but at the same time it does have it's flaws and it is a bad idea to look too closely at things because otherwise you WILL see the man behind the curtain and you will find out he's just a charming flim-flam man.

Grab Bag Reviews: "State Of Decay"

What do you get when you mix Bram Stoker with Doctor Who?

"State of Decay"

As per usual, a little background to this story before we delve into the more review-like aspect of these posts...

Back in 1974 with new Doctor Tom Baker came a new script editor in Robert Holmes and a new producer in Philip Hinchcliffe. Holmes and Hinchcliffe shared a vision of proving just how far the format of Doctor Who could be stretched and so they began mixing the stories with elements of Gothic horror and mystery. In the process they pulled from some of the great stories of Victorian fiction... Mary Shelly's Frankenstein became "The Brain of Morbius", Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde became "Planet of Evil", and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories were given tribute with "The Talons of Weng Chiang". Yet throughout all the stories one of the iconic monsters Hinchcliffe and Holmes never got to was Count Dracula. There had actually been a vampire story planned, written by veteran Doctor Who writer and former script editor Terrance Dicks but the script was quashed when the BBC planned an expensive adaptation of Bram Stoker's original novel and feared Doctor Who doing a vampire story would lower the perception of the other production.

Fast forward to 1979. Producer Jonathan Nathan-Turner (hereafter J N-T because I'm not typing all that out over and over again) found himself in a not-at-all-unusual place for a Doctor Who producer -- short on scripts and short on time. Feeling pressure, J N-T delved into the unproduced script files for the show and found himself reasonably attracted to Dicks' vampire story. Because of the passage of time, Dicks was asked to re-write the script to suit a different set of companions. There was also a clash as script editor Christopher Bidmead had wanted the show to move out of the realm of science-fantasy and back into more traditional science-fiction and asked that Dicks include more science and pseudo-science in the story -- something that irritated Dicks. Eventually, however, differences were ironed out.

Besides the script problems there was trouble on the set. Baker and co-star Lalla Ward (Romana) had been in an often-turbulent relationship. Part of the filming for this episode coincided with a period in which the two had broken up. Baker had also been ill for quite some time unable to get the rest he needed to get better. On top of all of this new cast member Matthew Waterhouse was not working out well. He was an extremely novice actor and some on the set felt he was disrespectful of cast and crew.

"State of Decay" would be part of a three-serial story arc which became known as "The E-Space Trilogy". Bidmead and J N-T had envisioned these stories as setting the stage for Tom Baker leaving the show. The trilogy featured the Doctor and Romana being trapped in a kind of alternate universe known as "E-Space". Over the course of the series long-time companions Romana and K-9 would depart, a new character, Adric, would be introduced and the whole would emphasize a theme of entropy, decay, and death as the Fourth Doctor's own "death" approached.

And now... on with the show!

The Plot: The Doctor and Romana continue to search for a way out of E-Space and back to their own universe of N-Space. Finding signs of technology on a nearby planet they land only to discover the population is at a medieval level, gathered around a castle and reliant on the "Lords" for protection. These Lords, however, exact a heavy price -- they keep the populace ignorant, have forbidden the use of technology, and regularly send guards into the village to take away the youngest and strongest of them... people who are rarely seen again.

The Doctor and Romana investigate and soon discover that the people on the planet came from an Earth exploration ship which also ended up in E-Space. Disturbingly, the Doctor and Romana learn that all is not what it might be with the Lords. The Doctor is reminded of an old Time Lord legend... that once there was a race of Great Vampires which threatened all the universe and the Time Lords went to war to stop them...

When stowaway Adric goes looking for the Doctor and Romana he soon falls into the hands of the Lords and Romana ends up in their clutches while trying to rescue him. Now it's up to the Doctor to finish a war that was started milennia ago and he has to finish it before his friends and traveling companions suffer a fate worse than death!

My Take: Despite all of the tensions on-set, off-set, on-screen and behind the scenes this story stands tall. It is rather obviously a throwback to the Gothic horror themed stories of Hinchcliffe's era and, as such, it does sit uneasily amongst not only the rest of the E-Space Trilogy but among the rest of the season as a whole as well. Still, there is no denying the powerful horror imagery and the tips of the hat to the Hammer Horror tradition. Of course, the show took some lumps from critics for the amount of blood and the bloody overtones.

The backstage tensions aside, most of the actors turn in excellent performances. After years in the role, the Doctor comes to Tom Baker as naturally as breathing. Much of his trademark madcap humor is toned down this episode, though, which helps to bring home the horror. A particular short-cut trick the writers sometimes relied upon is employed -- making the audience fear the bad guy because the Doctor is afraid of them. In this case it comes in rather handy since the primary villains the audience sees are the Lords and the Great Vampire himself does not appear until near the end. Having the Doctor seem intimidated and at a loss on how to stop the Great Vampire increases the threat level without needing to see the villain.

Lalla Ward's Romana is a bit weaker here than she has been in previous stories. She is less snarky with the Doctor, less witty, and takes the lead less often as well. While this is a bit disappointing for fans of the character it can be chalked up to Terrance Dicks having to write for a character he was not very familiar with. Of course, in those scenes where Romana is given a chance to shine Ward gives it her all.

Matthew Waterhouse though... Adric. Bane of most Doctor Who fans' existence. He rather quickly became and remains the character most fans love to hate. It's sadly easy to see why. Adric is smug, naive to the point of stupidity at times, and annoying and Waterhouse's lack of experience as an actor did not help him make anything more of the role or endear him to the audience.

The special effects have, sadly, not all held up well. Scenes of outer space have a distinctly greenish hue and in at least one scene of the TARDIS flying the "stars" are overlayed on top of the TARDIS. Likewise, the first images of the Great Vampire are not so great -- looking like a rubber hand puppet... which, eventually becomes a rubber hand itself. On the flip side, the costuming here is gorgeous, the face-paint used for the Lords conjure up the idea of abstract "wings" but lend an air of 'alienness' to the proceedings, the interior of the "castle" is well-done and the sequence where the Lords age to death actually still looks pretty darn freaky even today.

Overall, a nice, creepy story that pays tribute to the vampire horror stories of the past and yet gives everything a fun sci-fi twist. If you're looking for something different to watch at Halloween grab "State of Decay" and turn out the lights... if you dare.

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.

Doctor Who Grab Bag Reviews

Yeah, yeah, I've been gone again. Combination of busy and a series of injuries keeping me away from my keyboard. Nothing too serious just enough to make typing uncomfortable.

So anyway, now that I'm back for a bit I thought I'd toss this out there. I have taken the titles to every Doctor Who episode I own (This includes DVD and audio stories), written them on slips of paper, put them in a grab bag and will, periodically, pull a title out at random in order to review.

The winner of the inaugural "Doctor Who Grab Bag Review" is.......

The Horror of Fang Rock

"The Horror of Fang Rock" opened up season 15 and marked actor Tom Baker's fourth season as the Fourth incarnation of the Doctor and the second season for actress Louise Jameson in the role of companion, Leela. In contrast, season 15 had a new producer, Graham Williams.

One season prior to this script editor Robert Holmes had wanted to introduce a new companion -- a young, Victorian woman from the lower class whom the Doctor would transform a la Henry Higgins did Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Producer at the time Philip Hinchcliffe, however, was more interested in having a tougher, more self-reliant companion. Holmes and Hinchcliffe came to agreement over the character of Leela -- a character meant to be a kind of "one off" companion for the Doctor in the story "The Face of Evil". In that story the Doctor lands on an alien world and discovers that the human survivors of a crashed Earth space ship have devolved into two warring societies, most of their knowledge of technology lost and eroded over the generations.

The savage huntress Leela would go on to travel with the Doctor and, for a time, the stories would include the Doctor teaching Leela knowledge, manners and dress. For her part Leela would prove to be one of the toughest and best remembered of the female companions. Partly because of her usual outfit of leather singlet and short skirt and partly due to the fact that she usually held her own in a fight and often rescued the Doctor!

Also, for those of you not in the know, the old series of Doctor Who used to consist of "serials". Each story was broken up into two, four, or six (usually, although there are a few outliers) half-hour installments. "The Horror of Fang Rock" is a four-parter.

But enough about the past... On with the review!

Plot: Vince, the youngest keeper at the Lighthouse on Fang Rock, sees a shooting star plunge into the sea. Shortly thereafter a strange, unnatural, thick fog comes up. In the midst of this the lighthouse's electric generator seems to start acting up -- leaving the main lamp dark! When another of the lighthouse keepers, Ben, goes down to fix the generator something attacks and kills him with electricity.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS goes wrong and lands on Fang Rock instead of landing at Brighton where the Doctor intended to take Leela. Noticing that the lighthouse is dark the Doctor decides to take a look and see if he can help. He and Leela find Ben's body but the Doctor knows the electric generator was not at fault. As he tries to help Vince and the senior lighthouse keeper, Rueben, keep the light going a pleasure craft smashes on the rocks! The survivors of the craft are brought into the lighthouse but soon end up complicating matters as the Doctor discovers that there is a hostile alien among the group disguised as one of them!

One by one the alien picks off members of the group as the Doctor struggles to figure out just who this enemy he is facing is and what they want. Will anyone survive the horror of Fang Rock?

My Take: Philip Hinchcliffe's tenure as producer on Doctor Who has become famous for mixing sci-fantasy with gothic horror and history. Although Hinchcliffe was gone by the time "The Horror of Fang Rock" was made his successor, Graham Williams, backed this story as almost a kind of fond farewell to that era of the show. "The Horror of Fang Rock" was based off of a poem which was, in turn, based off of a real-life event in 1900 in which an entire lighthouse crew on an island off the Hebrides disappeared sometime during a storm.

The set pieces here take center stage as the props crew must have knocked themselves out creating the claustrophobic, realistic interior of a turn of the last century lighthouse. Pay attention to the doors which are even curved to fit the walls! Even the set dressing, the prop pieces, and the background items are period realistic. It's some truly lovely work. On the flip side, though, the interior set used to try to depict the rocky landscape of the island itself is sometimes a bit fake looking. Also, much of the fog and the background in the lamp house were created using CSO -- Color Separation Overlay -- or "blue screen" as it was known back then... the preucrsor to modern "green screen" technology. As such it too sometimes looks a bit off and the CSO is often betrayed by a blue halo appearing around the actor's heads.

The story itself, however, really allows one to overlook most of the flaws. There is an immediate sense of creepy atmosphere. The setting immediately buts the viewer's hackles up as we have a lonely outpost, quickly cut off by the fog, a creepy, unnatural fog, and then an unknown and intitially poorly seen creature which is seemingly picking off victims one at at time with ease. Adding to that is the sudden realization that the creature is locked in WITH the victims and the threat level immediately hightens.

Writer Terrance Dicks has admitted that adding the crew and passengers from the pleasure craft was a way of helping pad out the story and provide a higher body count and, as such, he did not give much thought to the characters beyond cannon fodder and it is true that a couple of the characters are quite annoying and you aren't sorry when they die but there are a couple of nice additions in there. There are several characters who you feel quite sorry for when they fall victim to the alien antagonist.

While, in the commentary, Louise Jameson reveals that she had trouble working with Tom Baker up until this story (when they finally sorted things out) viewers really wouldn't be able to tell it. Jameson and Baker have a fascinating chemistry with Leela sometimes being the more pragmatic of the two and sometimes being the learner. The story also is another great example of how good Baker could be in the role of the Doctor when he gets to balance the Doctor's manic humor alongside some moments of true horror. Take, for instance, the moment when he quickly tells the assembled clutch of trapped humans that they are trapped on the island and there is an alien entity hunting them and they are all quite likely going to die and then grins as though he's told the most amusing joke. That contrasts beautifully with the moment at the end of the third part in which the Doctor turns to Leela and whispers in horror that he has made a terrible mistake and locked the creature in with them!

In the end, if you love atmosphere, gothic horror, quirky humor and lightning quick dialogue then "The Horror of Fang Rock" is a story for you.

Trivia: There is a bit of wildly unscientific science at the end of the story when an explosion seems to cause "pigment dispersion" in Leela's eyes and they change color from brown to blue. In reality this was part of Louise Jameson's agreement to return for another season as Leela. Originally, as her character was supposed to be a "savage" she had to be covered in body make-up to give her skin a sun-browned hue and she had to wear red-tinted contact lenses to turn her blue eyes brown. She eventually managed to talk producer Philip Hinchcliffe into dropping the body make-up which she found uncomfortable and time consuming to have have applied (one could argue that she would lose the 'tan' after traveling around for a while). She had intended to leave the series after only one turn as a companion but producer Graham Williams did not want to lose her and managed to talk her into staying for one more season. A condition of her agreement, however, was that she be allowed to ditch the uncomfortable contact lenses. As such Terrance Dicks was ordered to come up with something in the script to explain the change in Leela's eye color.

At one point Leela uses the word "Teshnician". Some have claimed this was a goof on actress Jameson's part but in actuality it was not. In Leela's savage society certain words had been corrupted over the years. The original "Survey Team" became "Sevateem" and "Technician" became "Teshnician". Terrance Dicks scripted the word to remind the audience of Leela's background.