They Seek Him Here, They Seek Him There.....

Time to get your swashbuckle on, we're talking about The Scarlet Pimpernel today!

As I mentioned before, I consider the character of Sir Percy Blakeney to be one of the earliest models for a superhero -- particularly Batman. He has something of a tragic past -- his mother went "mad" and his father spent all his time and attention taking care of his beloved wife and so largely ignored the boy. He "trained abroad", he was an expert fighter, a master of disguise, a brilliant strategist and a keen student of human nature. And he 'disguises' himself as a bored, wealthy playboy. Sink me, if that ain't Batman!

Of course, most people know the basic plot of the story -- 1792, The Reign of Terror is in full swing, the French Revolution has taken a bloody turn and French aristocrats are being rounded up under the thin pretext of being "enemies of the revolution" and beheaded. Of course, Orczy's story does not at all match up with history but, then again, when has history ever stood in the way of telling a good story? On with the plot! Into this comes the mysterious figure of the Scarlet Pimpernel -- a code name used by an unknown British man who has been sneaking aristocrats out of Paris, helping them escape from the guillotine. The Scarlet Pimpernel does not act alone, he has a band of young men who also help him pull off his daring escapades -- the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

In England the Scarlet Pimpernel is all the rage -- except, perhaps, to the slow-witted, fashionable fop Percy Blakeney. But Sir Percy has money, a title, and most of all a new wife from France who is considered one of the most beautiful and intelligent creatures to ever grace court. Marguerite had actually found much to love in Percy but after he discovered that she unintentionally supplied information which sent an entire aristocratic family to the guillotine he has turned cold to her.

When Marguerite's brother is captured in France as a spy for the Scarlet Pimpernel Marguerite turns to the Pimpernel for help and along the way discovers that her husband is not at all the man she thought he was! But is it too late? For Marguerite has unwittingly betrayed her husband to the man who wants to kill him -- Armand Chauvelin. Marguerite will risk everything to save the man she loves... or die with him.

Many people who just know the story might be surprised to learn that the original story (1903) by Baroness Orczy actually reads more like a romance than an action-adventure novel. The story mostly reflects Marguerite's viewpoint and as such many of the iconic things that people remember do not actually occur in 'real time' but rather are recounted later by members of Percy's band. Orczy does her best to keep the audience guessing at the true identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel for at least the first part of the book. Of course to modern readers it is obvious that Percy is the Pimpernel but Orczy routinely stages scenes where it is not obvious who the Pimpernel is or at least leave readers to wonder "is he or isn't he?" It isn't until much farther along that the truth is revealed.

Of course this element of mystery in the book fits considering Orczy's other semi-famous character creation -- "the old man in the corner" Bill Owen. The character appeared in a series of short stories once sold to magazines and was reasonably popular for a time. His detecting schtick was that he simply sat in his chair in the corner of a tea shop tying complicated knots in a piece of string and would solve mysteries based on getting the facts from either the accounts of other people or newspaper stories. In the 100 years or so since the character first appeared, however, he has largely been forgotten. Agatha Christie played tribute to the character in her 1929 collection of short stories Partners in Crime. In the book young Tuppence and Tommy Beresford agree to take over running a detective agency which has been a front for a spy ring. Not knowing anything about being detective per se Tuppence and Tommy decide to take on different fictional detective personas for their cases. One of the personas Tommy adopts for one case is that of the Old Man in the Corner.

But I am getting off-track. Back to the book. Most people also may not realize that the book does NOT actually end with a big sword fight/showdown between Percy and his foil Chauvelin (see what I did there -- sword fight - foil? Because another name for a rapier is foil? Oh, whatever) but much of the media based on the book usually adds such for dramatic tension. They also usually add a few extra daring escapes cobbled together from the sequel books Orczy penned following the success of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

There have been a number of adaptations of the story over the years. There are three, however, which tend to stand out the most -- the 1934 movie with Leslie Howard as Sir Percy, Merle Oberon as Marguerite and Raymond Massey as Chauvelin, the 1982 BBC production with Jayne Seymour as Marguerite, Anthony Andrews as Percy and Ian McKellen as Chauvelin, and the 1999 BBC series with Richard E. Grant as Percy, Elizabeth McGovern as Marguerite and Martin Shaw as Chauvelin. There was also a 1998 musical with Douglas Sills as Percy, Rachel York as Marguerite and Terrance Mann as Chauvelin in the original Broadway cast.

Of these the 1934 movie is the most faithful to the book. There are scenes and lines of dialogue lifted straight out of the book and the costuming and sets were gorgeous. The whole production is top notch and Leslie Howard turned in a great performance as Percy. Raymond Massey was also wonderful as Chauvelin and the sequence where he believes he has succeeded in seeing Percy killed is a very model for villain gloating.

The 1982 production is.... well, from what I've seen online, seems to be a favorite for a number of people. I found it sorely lacking. It strays from the book in a number of ways -- not all of them for the better. There is a plot with Percy and his men trying to save the Dauphin -- the young son of King Louis and Queen Marie Antoinette -- that really feels tacked on. The movie also spends quite a bit of time seeing Percy courting Marguerite which then gives short shrift to their later estrangement -- and it was the estrangement and the healing of that rift which was the romance at the heart of the original book. There is also the now traditional sword fight between Percy and Chauvelin. I will give this production one thing, it was beautifully filmed and had excellent locations. There is one sequence in which we see the Prince's Ball in England with everyone dressed in pastel finery and right in the midst of all of this is the black clad Chauvelin -- looking like a dark, inky blot. The performances are fine but there is something about Andrews which is off-putting although I will give him an A+ for the make-up and accents he uses when Percy is disguised. These are all top rate. Ian McKellen, fine actor as he is though, just never manages to be a menacing enough villain and I find Jane Seymour's Marguerite to be too slight.

The 1999 BBC/A & E series is the most recent and also the one that takes the most liberties with the books. Characters die who never died in the books, characterizations for many of the supporting characters are completely off, and Percy is no master of disguise here and often relies on brute force rather than cunning. Despite all of that, Richard E. Grant injects an infectious kind of charm into the role and Martin Shaw's Chauvelin is just coated in craftiness and double dealing -- one gets the feeling from him that he is quite intelligent and possibly Percy's match. Elizabeth McGovern's Marguerite is also quite intelligent and in this departure from the books she is given several stirring, dramatic speeches.

Then there is the musical. I got to see this live when it was in it's first nation-wide tour and loved it. It wasn't until I recently saw the 1982 production for the first time, however, that I realized just how much the musical seemed to have taken it's inspiration from it. In point of fact, it seems a bit of a mixture of the original book and the 1982 movie.... only with songs. It may seem an odd subject for a musical but then again, Orczy began by writing The Scarlet Pimpernel as a play and then turned it into a book so turning the book into a musical was not so much of a stretch. The musical enjoyed a modest success and is still produced by regional professional and amateur groups across the world. There have even been some high schools to tackle the production despite the fact that the staging, sets and costumes would not be easy to pull off. In the original Broadway production Douglas Sills not only did a wonderful job acting as Percy he had a tremendous singing voice. Terrance Mann, also a great singer, brought a new level of sensuality to Chauvelin. In his scenes with Marguerite are probably the most seductive of any version of the story. Rachel York, however, Too. Much. Vibrato. One of my friends had the original cast album when it was released and it was actually my first exposure to the musical. Upon listening to it my friend and I quickly dubbed York "goat girl" since her heavy vibrato made it sound more like she was bleating than singing. But if you ever get the chance check the musical out it's a lot of fun and has some great songs in it.

For over 100 years the Scarlet Pimpernel has captured hearts and imaginations. The character has been parodied (see the Warner Brothers, Daffy Duck cartoon "The Scarlet Pumpernickel"), tributed and used as the inspiration for any number of other characters. When she set out to pen a swashbuckling romance novel Baroness Emma Orczy could have no idea of just how far her character would go and, with it having lasted this long, it's only a matter of time before good Sir Percy pops his foppish head up again somewhere. Demme me if it ain't so!

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Ice Warriors"

And now we have yet another audio story. Unlike "The Daleks Master Plan" where most of the story is missing, "The Ice Warriors" is only missing two episodes out of six. In the 1990's the story was released on VHS with shortened reconstructions in place of the missing episodes. In the 2000's though the BBC chose to release the story to audio rather than DVD... so far (there have been rumors that the BBC may be going to try replacing the missing the installments with animation but only time will tell). Also as with "Master Plan" "The Ice Warriors" uses descriptive narration to fill in the action which is not visible. In this case, though, the narration is provided by actor Fraser Hines, who played companion Jamie McCrimmon.

There was never much trouble or controversy with this story. By and large the time of Patrick Troughton's run as the Doctor went fairly smoothly. The casts and crews meshed well and in interviews most usually speak highly of Troughton's professionalism which was tempered with a sense of humor and a genuine liking for his co-workers. "The Ice Warriors" fell pretty much bang in the middle of Troughton's second season with the show and so everyone was settled and working together like a well-oiled machine.

The Martian Ice Warriors themselves were, as with the Cybermen, introduced in hopes of creating alien baddies with as much popularity as the Daleks. The producer at that time was eager to get past using the Daleks since creator Terry Nation had been guarded of their use as he was trying to convince American TV and/or film to pick up the rights for a Dalek based TV show or movie. The Warriors actually did become minor fan favorites. They would be used in one other Second Doctor story and would appear in a Third Doctor story before being retired. They got a bit of a mention in the Tenth Doctor special "The Waters of Mars" but so far they have not reappeared although fans of the older series continually hold out hope...

The Plot: In the distant future the Earth has fallen prey to a new ice age. The world's governments have come up with a plan to destroy the advancing glaciers by hitting them with a device, powerful enough to melt rock, called an ionizer. The Doctor and his companions Jamie and Victoria arrive at the Brittanicus Base in time for the Doctor to prevent an accident with the ionizer. They are also in time to witness the arrival of a strange, prehistoric figure found in the ice.

When the ice melts, however, the figure proves to be an alien who crashed on Earth millenia ago. Now reawakened he intends to thaw out his shipmates and conquer the planet!

The humans of the base are caught in a squeeze between the implacable Ice Warriors and the crushing, advancing glacier. The Doctor will need to use all of his cunning and cleverness to prevent wholesale destruction.

My Take: Yet another variation on the 'base under siege' motif. And while the writer ended up going the wrong way on the results of environmental catastrophe (global warming instead of the global cooling here) it is yet another sign of the topicality which had been creeping into the show for years. There is also elements of that good, old, stalwart Doctor Who theme of humanity vs. computers.

In point of fact, there's actually quite a lot going on here; the Ice Warriors are villainous villains not least because they are repeatedly offered peaceful solution but their stubborn mistrust and devotion to conquest ultimately doom them. Then there are the issues of naivete.

The scavenger, Storr, believes the enemies of his enemies will be his friends. He learns to his detriment that this is not the case. His naive view of the situation is a lesson to always consider all the facts instead of just one.

Of course Storr also fills a role in one of two extreme viewpoints presented throughout the story. Storr represents the "natural man" -- a hunter-gatherer with no use for science. Opposite him on the scale is Clent and the members of the the base -- men and women who have given up their own free thinking to computers. People who believe is science above their own ability to reason. Standing in the middle is Penley, who represents the blending of the two -- a man who knows how to use science as a tool without turning it into a god. The Doctor, as agent of change, tries to help Penley's model become the dominant one but at the same time he does not tell the people what to do -- the ultimate decision must be their own.

All of these themes and ideas are fun to explore, even now, over 40 years later. The problem is that they're presented in such a heavy-handed way it is a little hard not to giggle at the obviousness of it all. Of course, it must be remembered that at this time Doctor Who still thought of itself as "children's programming". And despite the diversity of themes running throughout they all manage to fit together well and nothing feels necessarily packed in or tacked on at the edges.

The Ice Warriors are, as I mentioned before, lovely villains. More than just their attitude, the decision to give them hissing, whispery voices adds to their menace and makes them work well in the audio format when you cannot see their lumbering, reptilian bulk. That reptilian nature, though, was wonderfully realized by the special effects team considering the limitations of the time. Their obvious intelligence and cunning teamed with their intimidating appearance and sinister voices make for truly impressive alien villains.

The guest cast does a nice job as well with the arrogant and superior Clent being one of those kind of "annoying allies" which tend to show up in Doctor Who while Penley comes off as actually good-natured at heart and there is just a tiny little hint of romance between himself and base technician Miss Garrett which humanizes both of them and keeps them from being such stock characters.

The real star here, though, is Patrick Troughton's Doctor. There are a wealth of great lines of dialogue all delivered with Troughton's usual panache. His insults ring with humor and a dash of snark, his moments of determination come across strongly and of course, as always, there are those moments where he walks right into the enemy's teeth without fear and gives them a chance to surrender. Once they ignore that offer all bets are off the table.

Fraser Hines's Jamie is also full of humor but his character lacks some of the good lines and good moments he has in other stories. There are a few moments, though, where he gets in a few digs at the Doctor and one endearing bit where he flirts shamelessly with Victoria.

And that brings us to Victoria. Ugh. This is NOT her shining hour. Deborah Watling would eventually leave the series feeling that she had done all that she would be allowed to do with the character and, like many women before her, tired of scripts where all she was allowed to do was scream and be helpless. While there is some small justification for the characterization considering that Victoria was supposed to be just that -- a sheltered, wealthy girl from the Victorian era -- she is at her worst here. Victoria does little except get captured, escape and get recaptured and to scream annoyingly. The. Entire. Time. It reaches the point where you would like to slap the character and tell her to knock it off she's being an embarrassment to women. It gets so bothersome that it actually ruins some scenes.

Victoria aside, the story as a whole is wonderfully entertaining and, as with "The Daleks Master Plan" one finds that visuals are not necessarily needed as imagination paints the scenes. The story really works even in it's audio format and there are still some lessons to be taken away from the whole affair. And even if all of that were not true this is Patrick Troughton at some of the top of his came -- whimsical, mercurial, and magical.

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Daleks Master Plan"

As I've said before, since it's inception Doctor Who has had problems with scripts and schedules... they can never quite get them balanced. And it was scheduling problems which led to the production team coming up with the bright idea of creating a massive, epic story... and said epic was to create precedents and controversy.

Perhaps the first thing that needs to be said is that, for all intents and purposes, "The Daleks Master Plan" is actually a 13 part story rather than a 12 part one. A single-episode story was created as a kind of prologue to "The Daleks Master Plan" -- making it the first and only stand alone story in the show's history until the program was relaunched in 2005. It also still stands today as the only episode in which neither the Doctor nor any of his companions appear. The prologue was originally created under the working title "The Dalek Cutaway" but when it aired it went out with the official title "Mission to the Unknown". There are some fans and sources out there who still refer to it under the "Cutaway" title.

Interestingly, the prologue aired only to be followed by the four part comedy-adventure-historical "The Myth Makers" instead of having "The Daleks Master Plan" air directly afterwards. "The Myth Makers" marked the departure of Maureen O'Hara who played companion Vicki and the introduction of Adrienne Hill as the new companion, handmaiden of Troy Katarina.

When the BBC released "The Daleks Master Plan" as an audio drama, however, they included "Mission to the Unknown" as the opening -- further proving that, for all intents and purposes, "The Daleks Master Plan" is a 13 part serial and "Mission to the Unknown" is really the first episode.

As "The Daleks Master Plan" started so would the precedent and controversy. Although Hill was chosen and written into the role the producer soon came to think better of the decision. Worried that a character who came from an archaic time would not fit in he told Terry Nation, who was writing "The Daleks Master Plan" to write the character out and insert a temporary female companion who would accompany the Doctor through the rest of the story. There is, therefore, some question of whether or not Katarina counts as a companion. Many fans and official sources from the BBC Doctor Who office tend not to include the character on official companion lists since she did not continue to travel with the Doctor and, in fact, did not even finish out one adventure. Other fans, however, usually claim that anyone who assists the Doctor and travels in the TARDIS is a companion. It is certainly true that the way in which Katarina was introduced to viewers put her clearly in the "companion" category. Had Katarina continued the character would have been the first companion to come from the past rather than the present or the future. As it stood, the first companion to come from the past would be the Second Doctor's stalwart Jamie McCrimmon and the Second Doctor would become the first and only Doctor to travel with two companions who were both from the past. But I digress...

Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks, had been up to that point the one who had written all of the Dalek stories. Having seen the popularity of his creations he had hopes of developing a spin-off series featuring the Daleks. He soon saw this story as a chance to develop some of his ideas and see how they worked. His original concept for the Dalek series was that there would be agents of a "Space Security Service" who would be the protagonists and oppose the Daleks nefarious schemes. These Space Security Service Agents would be like futuristic James Bonds (in "Mission to the Unknown" Agent Mark Cory even says "Licensed to kill"). To that end Nation introduced three SSS Agents over the course of the story -- Mark Cory, Brett Vyon and Sarah Kingdom. Interestingly, Brett Vyon would be played by Nicholas Courtney in his first Doctor Who role but certainly not his last. Sarah Kingdom was Nation's idea for a 'replacement' female companion and he took his inspiration from the butt-kicking character of Cathy Gale from The Avengers TV series. Nation wanted to introduce a more modern, tougher model for female companions and he had hoped that she would become an ongoing companion but the producer did not take the bait.

Sarah Kingdom, like Katarina, would become one of those characters who are questionably companions. Kingdom (mostly) finished out an adventure with the Doctor and did get to travel in the TARDIS but she did not get to go on traveling with the Doctor. As a result some people claim her others do not.

The final bit of controversy surrounding the story comes from the 7th episode. With the 12 part story it was quickly realized that the seventh installment would actually air on Christmas Day. In Great Britain, unlike here in the United States, it was quite common for TV shows to have new episodes on Christmas Day (here we get re-runs and specials. Bleh.) so it was decided to make the Christmas Day episode a comedy romp befitting the season. There were some, at the time, who apparently felt the jar in tone but really it has been the years after which has seen the single episode take such a hit. Many people really, actively hate this installment for it's light-hearted silliness and feel that it ruins the tone of the rest of the story as a whole. I don't agree but we'll get to that in a minute.

Because of the BBC's policy of wiping tapes when no longer seen as useful (a subject I covered in my review of "The Moonbase") out of all 13 episodes on three full installments and a few clips exist anymore today. Thankfully, however, the audio was saved by fans and the BBC cleaned it up, remastered it, and then released the story as an audio drama with actor Peter Purves, who played companion Steven, providing descriptive narration; which is what I've used for this review.

Now, on with the plot!

The Plot: The Doctor and his companions stumble into the middle of a plot by the Daleks to conquer all of space -- starting with Earth's solar system. Forming an alliance of power-hungry aliens, the Daleks have solidified their position and are ready to attack. Among this alliance is even the Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen, willing to sell out his own human race in the quest for more power.

The Doctor and his friends and allies race through space and time, pursued by many enemies, hoping all the time to find a way of putting an end to the Daleks' plot. If the Doctor does not succeed humanity will fall first and then other alien planets will follow. Even if the Doctor does succeed what will the cost be to himself and those who fight beside him?

My Take: The new series, since the relaunch in 2005, has tried to give each series finale an epic feel and/or scope -- battles with the Daleks, rounding up all the Doctor's companions to fight together, facing down the Master, facing down the Time Lords, etc. But in a way it could never quite reach the kind of epic this story did simply because of the constraints of time.

The length of this story means that we as the audience really get to know these characters well. The villains become more and more villainous and we can trace Mavic Chen's descent into madness and delusion and we become closer to our heroes as well to the point where the deaths of characters make impact. In the end, when Steven mournfully names off their dead friends and allies it really tugs at the heartstrings.

It is true that there is a LOT of padding here. With this many episodes how could there not be? There is a detour to the planet Desperus that serves no purpose except to set up for the death of Katarina and there is another detour to ancient Egypt that serves no purpose period. The TARDIS team travels by spaceship and TARDIS all over the galaxy and through time until the viewer (or in this case listener) gets lost and dizzy.

The padding, though, is at least entertaining padding for the most part. The Doctor's old enemy from "The Time Meddler", the Time Lord known as 'the Monk' (played by comedy actor Peter Butterworth), makes an appearance here and, just as with "The Time Meddler" he and the Doctor play against each other beautifully -- conning and conniving around one another -- setting up plots and traps and then reversing them on one another. Even the notorious 7th episode is actually a lot of fun. It's played for comedy and all of the actors involved seem to have a blast -- particularly when they land in 1920's Hollywood and run rampant on a movie studio. Yes, the tone change is a bit jarring but after six episodes of desperation, dirty dealing and death the 7th comes as a needed breath of fresh air to relieve some of the unrelenting darkness of the story.

and then there is that darkness... While Doctor Who stories have had and continue to have their share of character deaths this story gives us some of the most deaths of what are really main characters... and most of those deaths are not really through enemy action either which adds an extra layer of tragedy Katarina and Sarah sacrifice themselves for the Doctor and Brett is the victim of Sarah's devotion to duty which causes her to never question her orders. As I mentioned earlier, Katarina was introduced to the audience in such a way as it was logical to assume that she was going to be the replacement companion for Vicki. I can only imagine how shocking it was, then, to viewers at the time to see her die. It was, probably, the first real time a 'companion' of the Doctor's died and it brought home this idea that traveling with the Doctor could be fatally dangerous.

There is also a slight theme of anarchy here. Mavic Chen gets away with murder because everyone is conditioned to follow the authority figure and never question anything. Rules and regulations throughout the story cause turmoil and troubles and are shown to be useless and even in many cases favoring the villains. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Steven are agents of chaos. They do not follow orders, they disobey rules and conventions, they do not kowtow to authority figures, and they pass these attitudes on to others such as Brett and Sarah.

The cast on the whole does an excellent job. Admittedly, Hill's Katarina is somewhat weak sauce. It is understandable that she would be somewhat wide-eyed and innocent but there is a vocal quality she throws into it that makes her sound like a four year-old instead of as a bewildred and awestruck adult. Jean Marsh's Sarah Kingdom is perfectly pitched as she deals with the impossibilites of the Doctor's life and moves from there -- driven all the while by her detrmination to save her home planet and see Chen punished for his trechery. Nicholas Courtney is... well, his Brett Vyon is a bit like his Brigadier only shorter on charm and humor. One does have to love the scene where he tells the Doctor to shut-up much to the Doctor's surprise. Kevin Stoney also makes a lovely bad guy. As far as Doctor Who was concerned, though, he got a little typecast. He appeared in the series a total of three times (the last of those times almost unrecognizable under heavy make-up and prthestics as an alien) with the second appearance being in the Second Doctor story "The Invasion" playing a VERY similar character to Mavic Chen. This, being his first outing, though, has the benefit of originality as he schemes and tries to spin his failures into victories and eventually descends to delusion and madness. For the regular cast William Hartnell is at the top of his game. There are a few blown lines but overall, Hartnell dashes through the script making his Doctor determined, arrogant, funny, witty, defeated, clever, and more by turns. When delivering his dramatic lines his voice rolls like thunder with authority and you are again reminded why, no matter which incarnation, the Doctor is not one to be triffled with. Peter Purves as Steven also gets a chance to really sink his teeth into this story. Purves character of Steven has always been a bit of a departure. Despite being on the series to handle the action sequences the Doctor could not the character has never been depicted as much of a fighter. Instead, Steven was a more sensitive soul. It may have been an odd tack to take but it worked surprisingly well with the character making the more emotional appeals and feeling rather protective of his fellow travelers. It is Steven as the emotional compass who suffers the most of the survivors and provides the sobering conclusion to the adventure.

While the extreme length of the story and some of the back and forth through time and space and oh-so-convenient plot points work against it "The Daleks Master Plan" really does deserve the title "epic". Even the fact that it is in audio format does not hurt it that much as the descriptive narration works with the surviving audio and lets the listener paint the action in their head... a place where there are no wobbly sets or poor special effects. If you're someone who has a long commute or takes driving trips or likes to listen to things at work then "The Daleks Master Plan" is well worth checking out. You can be entertained for hours immersing yourself into a Doctor Who adventure that engages your imagination instead of just your eyes.

Comic Book Awwwwww....

Background on this:

Last weekend was "Nerd Prom" -- A.K.A., the San Diego Comic Con, the BIGGEST comic book and pop culture expo in the country. As was usual, the mix of Hollywood and comic books was on hand to shill the latest upcoming comic book movies.

This clip, however, comes from a Q & A panel about the upcoming Green Lantern movie starring actor Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, A.K.A. Green Lantern.

According to reports, Reynolds had indicated backstage that he didn't want to say the famous Green Lantern Oath (which has been part of the character for decades) on stage.

All that, however, went out the window when a little boy stepped up to the microphone and asked "What was it like to say the Green Lantern Oath?"

THIS was Reynolds response....




LOOK at the expression on that kid's face. Reynolds just made his week with that. And I have to agree with the actor -- that kid is just the cutest...

It was a classy thing to do and really, the youngest comic book fans out there are the treasure... and I can say this as someone who put comic books into the hands of a kid before they were even technically able to read and as a result they're still reading comics.

Grab Bag Reviews: Update

It may take a little time before the next Grab Bag review. Usually, I don't reveal the titles in advance but this time the story I pulled from the grab bag was "The Daleks Master Plan".

This one is a massive, 12 part story and it exists basically only in audio format. So it will probably take me a little time before I work my way through all of it.

Grab Bag Reviews: "Timelash"

The episode that everybody loves to hate. If there were ever a contest for the 'Worst Doctor Who Story' it would probably come down to this one or "The Twin Dilemma"... another Sixth Doctor story.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, Colin Baker's tenure as the Doctor was part of a very turbulent time in the show's history. There were conflicts and controversies and much of the time the scripts were often running later due to last-minute re-writes. "Timelash" was no exception.

The story underwent numerous re-writes before the final product went before the cameras. Sadly, the story suffers greatly and is not helped by the attempts to make it a 'budget saving' episode.

The Plot: On the planet Karfel some of the population have grown increasingly disturbed by the actions of their leader, known as the Borad. The Borad seems to be heading them down the path of a police state -- with the population constantly under surveillance. He is also pushing them closer to war with their planetary neighbor, home of the Bandrils.

One young council member, Vena, acts to try to stop the Borad and for her troubles is sent down an unstable time corridor called the Timelash. Along the way she passes the TARDIS, which has gotten caught up in the Timelash's path and thrown to Karfel.

The Sixth Doctor and his companion, Peri, arrive and the Doctor startlingly reveals that he's been to Karfel once before in his Third incarnation. He finds the planet much changed and does not like what he sees. The Borad, however, is delighted since Vena took with her an important amulet and now he intends to use the Doctor to go after Vena and get the amulet back. In order to force the Doctor's hand the Borad orders Peri captured.

With no choice, the Doctor tracks Vena to Earth in the 19th century and also ends up picking up a stowaway -- the young dreamer, Herbert. The Doctor intends to return to Karfel and put things right but little does he realize the true nature of the Borad... and just what the Borad's twisted aims are for Karfel...

My Take: *Takes a deep breath* Okay, here goes... This story isn't all as bad as it's painted. *Waits for someone to start throwing rotten fruit*

As someone who often doesn't like the characterization of the arrogant, argumentative Sixth Doctor the script here actually manages to favor Colin Baker -- shaving off some of the worst of the sharp edges and actually allowing him to show a bit of charm and genuine humor. There are also several sequences where (gasp) the Doctor actually is allowed to show some genuine concern and liking for Peri instead of the usual constant bickering.

Unfortunately, Baker is the one who gets off the best here and the rest of the cast suffers. Well, okay, maybe not completely suffers but it ranges from mediocre to bad. Companion Peri screams a lot gets captured, gets rescued, gets captured, gets rescued, etc., etc., etc. and generally doesn't actually have anything to DO in the plot except be a Damsel in Distress. Ugh. Vena is simply yet another stock character. She acts as an exposition unit at times and provides the 'noble stance in the face of overwhelming odds' schtick which really turns her into more of an object than a character. Herbert is written as an eager puppy dog and the actor playing him pushes it a little too far... to the point where it would be fair to compare him to one of those small, hyperactive puppies which quickly go from being "cute" to "annoying". Most of the rest of the cast follows suit with rebel forces who are suitably... rebellious... again, without ever becoming actual characters rather than archetypes, and craven cowards who are simply craven. It's all very predictable... and therefore dull.

And then there is actor Paul Darrow. The thing which gets mentioned the most about this story. Darrow was and remains famous in cult science fiction circles for playing the duplicitous character Avon on the heralded British sci-fi series Blake's 7. Although I will admit to you all that I've never actually gotten around to watching the series myself. They're probably going to take away my cult sci-fi geek membership card for that admission.

Many viewers at the time would have likely recognized and known Darrow from his previous role when this story aired but surprisingly Darrow is not the true villain here. He is an over-the-top, slimy, bootlicker to the main villain instead. I'll give Darrow this -- he's obviously having a good time playing the role of Tekker since he gives each one of his lines a dramatic delivery -- but the result is a character that is actually amusing rather than threatening. Darrow nails the slimy tone perfectly. Too bad the slime trail is all that one remembers of the character on screen.
Then there is the Borad... There is a pretty good hook here -- the idea of a scientist mutated by his experimentations and gone mad. It's the stuff of comic book supervillains but here it just never quite works. It's hard for me to put my finger on... perhaps it is because the ending to the episode makes the whole thing fall apart and turns the Borad into something boring. The make-up designs for the character are really not that bad for the time period ,and considering that everything else in this story got scrimped on, but the character never quite reaches the heights (or depths as the case may be) for memorable villainy. He isn't crazy enough, he isn't rant-y enough, he isn't evil enough, he isn't sinister enough, he just never makes you... intimidated by himself. He never even really makes the Doctor intimidated by him... and that's a kiss of death. Viewers often take their cues from the Doctor and/or his companion and when the Doctor isn't afraid of a situation the audience isn't afraid either.

"Timelash" also suffers from it's mediocre to bad script. The story itself would not have been too bad if it had had the good grace to end with the defeat of the main villain. But no, it adds a second ending and then it adds a THIRD ending on. And by that third ending things are getting really, really silly and pushing credulity past the breaking point. I mean, one word here: clones. Seriously, ANY time clones are involved it's a bad sign. There have been a few shows and movies to pull off clone stories well but by and large it's bad and here, where it's all thrown into a mash in the last five minutes of the story?! No.

Then there are the budgetary constraints. Trying to save money on "Timelash" ultimately hurt the story greatly. Many of the costumes are simply ugly, some are laughable -- like the Guardoliers whose uniforms seem to consist of canvas coveralls and a beekeeper's hat with netting.

Making the whole story studio bound shows badly since the overlit sets look fakey and there are long scenes which just take place in rooms to keep the sets down. There is also a bit of corridor running and it was amusing and perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek when Peri tells one of officials touring her around that "All these corridors look the same to me."

And then there is the Christmas tinsel. It's everywhere. It's used in everything. Most noticeably the "entrance" to the Timelash is basically a curtain of silver Christmas tinsel with some strobe lights flashing on it. It's ridiculous and it ruins the story. Wobbly sets are one thing but THIS is a whole other level... down.

And we wont even mention the fact that the one Bandril which appears is so obviously a hand puppet it isn't even funny and the one Morlox monster we see is equally puppety.

In the end, eehhhh... I can't really say I can recommend "Timelash" but I don't like NOT recommending it because there are some really good bits here. Colin Baker gets some nice lines, such as when he tells Vena "I show little mercy to tyrants" (What, you thought it started with the Tenth Doctor and his "No second chances"?), and the script has the Doctor REALLY acting like the Doctor for a change.

In the end I would say that if you can be tolerant of some crap it's worth seeing "Timelash" at least once to hit some of the high points.

Don't Piss Geeks Off.

Seriously.

The so-called Westboro Baptist Church (read: Fred Phelps's crazy little cult/con artist ring) announced earlier this month that they would be doing their little picketing spiel not at a funeral for a change -- tormenting the grieving -- but at the San Diego Comic Con. The biggest comic book and pop culture show in the country. Their accusation was that we comic book geeks "worship" superheroes so of course we're going to hell. Oh, and some comic books "support" homosexuality by having homosexual and bi-sexual characters in them.... so we're all going to hell for THAT too.

So the well-known idiots and hate mongers made a fatal mistake. They let the geeks know they were coming. Geeks are like Batman... given enough time to prepare they can come up with a plan to take down anyone. And the Westboro Baptist Church? C'mon, that's a pushover.

And they proved it.

The small group of Phelps adherents were FAR outnumbered by the geeks dressed as superheroes, Storm Troopers, Darth Vaders, Buddy Christ (from Kevin Smith's Dogma, look it up), Starfleet Officers, Anime Girls, and even a Bender from Futurama who supposedly chanted "Bite my shiny metal @$$". They were outmanned and outgunned with signs that ranged from "Satan's Cake is a Lie" to "Kill All Humans" and the Westboro bunch conceeded the field in defeat after only about 45 minutes of "protesting".

And this is why you don't mess with geeks. We can out-creative you and we can out-snark you.

More details to be found here:http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/22/super-heroes-vs-the-westboro-baptist-church/