Doctor Who Series 24

Having exhausted all over tapes and DVDs in lockdown it was finally time to re-watch Doctor Who series 24 after 33 years.  Was it really as bad as I remembered?  Look I could review War and Peace but it’s often more interesting reviewing things that don’t work than do… so I thought I would get over my antipathy and get the DVDs and try to see it with fresh eyes.

Time and the Rani…

…is an odd one born out of political muddle that has been well documented elsewhere. 

Kate “Leave the girl it’s the man I want” O’Mara is very funny impersonating Mel. 

Melanie… oh dear ..sorry it has to be said … Bonnie Langford acts the whole thing as if she’s in panto.  Somebody said of Aubrey Woods performance in Day of the Daleks that he doesn’t work in that story because he’s giving a stage performance on television.  Maybe it’s unintentional but I think Mel suffers from similar problems.  Not that I’m an expert in acting method but I thought I’d talk out my posterior none the less. 

Perhaps one day I’ll graduate to a youtube channel where I rant about how bad everything is on TV while punctuating my rants with implausibly long clips under the delusion that this is fair use and not just a copyright theft but for today…

A greater problem with Mel is she’s a character with no history.  Originally in Trial of a Timelord the idea is that she’s a computer programmer with total recall – a bit of a know-all like Zoe – but we never see her meet the Doctor as these events are in her future.  Perhaps the idea was with Series 24 we’d go back in time and see Mel meet the Doctor in a River Song type way. 

However, since Colin Baker’s been unceremoniously sacked and Eric Saward has gone off in a huff and spouted off to the press how unsporting it was of John Nathan-Turner (JNT) not to leave the Doctor’s fate ambiguous at the end of the previous series (it’s for children, mate) we’ll never really know how that might have panned out.  So we don’t really know why Mel is there …and I don’t think Bonnie Langford knows why she’s there either.

On to the positives.  The bubbles which trap people and bounce around then explode were cutting edge at the time and still look great today.  I really liked the design of the Tetraps and the idea of mixing the vision of 3 cameras to simulate their 3 eyes is really good.  The problem is what do they do except drink blood and why?  Are they sort of Kate’s Ogrons…?  The plot about the giant brain doesn’t really gel with the plot about the native Lakertya people.  Oh dear that’s a negative…  Although I like the skeleton they keep passing which becomes almost a landmark.

Sylvester McCoy has grown on me.  When he sits down looking dejected or bemused or worried that’s when he’s at his best.  The trouble with the clowning is it’s not really funny a lot of the time …at least in this one… I understand why they wanted to inject more humour but it's a dangerous strategy because when drama fails it sags.  When a joke fails it dies.  There's literally nothing. 

Paradise Towers

I did enjoy this one quite a bit at the time but I’d forgotten that.  I like the idea of a society where all the young men have gone off to war and all that’s left is the young women (Kangs), the old men (Caretakers), the old folks (Ressies) and the deserter (Pex).  However, it reminded me of Verity Lambert’s criticism that the series had become “unbelievable”.  For example I like the Kangs …but I don’t know how plausible it is that they’d all be wearing exactly the same clothes given they’re meant to be feral teenagers.  Maybe The Great Architect controls them all in some odd way.  Moulds their society through some unseen mechanism.   Mel works better in this story as her enthusiasm and trusting nature are exploited by the Ressies and she gets to tell the Kangs not to bully Pex. 

On the downside from here on in all McCoy’s stories are either studio bound or location bound.  That doesn’t make them worse or better but … Even as a fourteen year old I was aware that the reasons for this must be largely pecuniary.  Corners are being cut everywhere.  And however skillfully they’re cut eventually it becomes obvious that they are being and it seeps into your subconscious.

For example the robotic cleaner looks as though it is made from parts of Merdeen’s trains in the Mysterious Planet which look like the buggies in Vengeance on Varos which look like the cars in Happiness Patrol … JNT seemed to have a thing for go-carts and buggies. 

Yes, top marks for saving money by reusing props but at the same time it also makes you feel slightly sad for the series…  On the plus side the robot crab is really well realised.   One doesn’t expect a Star Wars budget but while JNT was clearly a budgetary genius the downside of being good with money meant they expected him to do the same with less and less and it shows. 

“We’ve had a lot of problems with tentacles in the past” he told the writer and refused to have any.  Yes, but perhaps the solution to that isn’t not to try… who can forget Tom Baker vs Kroll?  It looks terrible today but I remember being really scared of Kroll.

Delta and the Bannermen

Okay, I hate the 50s let’s get that out the way.  If you like the 50s you’ll probably find more to like in this than I did.  Honestly, I think it’s just too silly.  Who wants to remember rationing?

After Ken Dodd tells the Doctor he’s the 1,000,000,000,000^th customer he and Mel go on a free trip with group of space tourists who are meant to be going to Disneyland with a stowaway alien Queen.

But the bus then hits a US satellite and they end up in a Maplins style holiday camp that’s about to be demolished (because that’s the only place that the BBC can afford to go).  I really think that if they were going to go down this road they should have gone the whole way and done a Hi-de-Hi crossover episode.  I can just see Spike Dixon handing Ted Bovis the satellite from the van fender “Call this science fiction?  It’s rubbish.  You’ve got to have reality, Spike!”

Anyway, … it appears sometimes to be comedy and sometimes to be taking its self seriously.  There’s some amusing performances.  Particularly Richard Davies as the camp controller.  It’s a nice touch when Sylvester McCoy offers to show him inside the Tardis in order to convince him to evacuate the camp and he does – a sort of reversal of the usual “There’s nothing wrong here – go away, Doctor!” authority figure confrontation.  Although, of course, there’s no money to see him actually inside the Tardis because this is a location episode and there’s no money left to book studio space as well.

The whole bee lifecycle thing is interesting but Delta looks suspiciously human for someone who hangs out with people who are all green.  I’m not a racist but… I suppose someone green would stand out a bit on earth in the 50s.  Then again the other aliens are purple blobs under their disguises.  The screaming child is really irritating.  I don’t like the motorbikes. Oddest of all is the blowing up of the bus... As Gavrok murders 30 tourists in cold blood.  One minute its a comedy the next a bloodbath.... 

Don Henderson does a brilliant turn as Gavrok but we don’t really get a picture of what drives Gavrok apart from greed.  Maybe that’s enough.  And the Bannermen – isn’t it hard enough being a mercenary without having a banner literally sticking out of you? – lose a bit of credibility by wearing the helmets that were in Mysterious Planet that were also in Earthshock… still viewers probably wouldn’t have worked this out in the era before videotape …except home video was becoming more common by now… you can see the BBC struggling with money.

The love triangle is a nice idea but I’ve no idea what Ray sees in Billie or what Billie sees in Delta when they appear to have only just met …but maybe I’m thinking it out too much.  Seems odd too that after Goronwy’s explanation of hive species Billie and Delta and the Chimeron girl go off together looking like a normal nuclear family but …okay I’ll give them break on this.  It’s a real oddity this one. As Kath and Kim might say “Nice, Different, Unusual”.  It’s interesting watching the contemporary interviews to discover Ken Dodd was a fan of Isaac Asimov.

Dragonfire

Okay, I never quite buy Sophie Aldred as a teenage delinquent.  There, I said it.  I remember someone describing her at the time to me as “some old granny’s idea of a teenager”.  Maybe these problems are down to the dialogue.  Ace is a juvenile delinquent who can’t swear and the attempts at pseudo swearing are difficult to pull off so its proper cringe sometimes , bogbreath. 

Actually Ace’s real name is Dorothy and the penny finally dropped for me after 33 years that this is a Wizard of Oz reference …Ace being scooped away from Perivale by a time storm instead of a tornado?  However, she does win a lot of marks for not being Melanie and at least having a back story.  The fake swearing is overdone here and things do get a lot better by series 26 …

We also have the return of Tony Selby as Sabalom Glitz.  Someone bring Glitz back.  The thing that Tony Selby does that I find interesting is that in contrast with other con men of the period such as Arthur Daley or Del Boy …Glitz talks very slowly and deliberately and has a wide vocabulary giving him an air of unusual sophistication. 

For example in his opening speech in Trial of a Timelord he has dialogue like “Where as yours is a simple case of sociopathy, Dibber, my malaise is much more complex. A deep-rooted maladjustment, my psychiatrist said. Brought on by an infantile inability to come to terms with the more pertinent, concrete aspects of life.”  Well, it is written by Robert Holmes...

Glitz always explains his plans in tremendous detail and with almost infinite patience giving him the air of a man who’s trying to educate you while rip you off at the same time.  He’s sort of Del Boy meets Raffles and acts as if every problem which usually he has created for himself is something that he really shouldn’t have to deal with.

Edward Peel is wonderful as the evil criminal Kane who has turned his prison into something resembling a galactic shopping centre.  Although entirely made from plastic and matte shots Iceworld looks nice.  Let’s not go into that cliffhanger… At last Mel leaves.  One suspects Bonnie Langford knew it wasn’t working out but for all one can complain if she hadn’t stayed the continuity would have been broken.  She reassures the audience that Sylvester is Colin Baker is Doctor Who. 

Again this is an all studio story but then it kind of would have to be so that isn’t as jarring here…

Not sure I quite understand what Kane’s up to or what he’s done or what his plan is but it’s a nice romp and I actually like the ice sculpture.  The melting of Kane’s head in a homage to Indiana Jones is a BBC special effects pinnacle which wouldn’t look out of place in today’s series…

As I bought Dragonfire it also comes with

The Happiness Patrol

I didn’t realise it’s all meant to be outside till I watched the DVD extras.  Again we are stuck in the studio for financial reasons.  The lack of money really screams out at you in this one. 

For example early on there’s the plot point that “There are three ways of disappearing on Terra Alpha. The Late Show at the Forum, a visit to the Kandy Kitchen, and something else.”  Then at the end of episode two Ace is going to perform at the Late Show at the Forum and a fantastically grumpy guard (Tim Scott) tells the Doctor that “Oh dear. Doesn't look like Daphne S went down too well, now does it?” as a Patrol member goes up to Daphne's poster and paints RIP on it.  

But come Episode 3 we can’t see Ace in the Forum for the same reason we hardly ever see inside the Tardis during McCoy’s era – money.

Sorry, I get what they were trying to do but I can’t believe in this world.  A world where people have to be happy perhaps but the Kandyman is a step too far.  Perhaps with different lighting it might be better.  Although it has its moments such as when the Kandyman does what he promised to do for the Doctor because he’s a “Kandyman of my word” then decides to kill him.  It kind of reminds us that once the Kandyman was a robot designed to serve humans in some way…?

John Normington (better known for his iconic turn as Morgus in Caves of Androzani) turns up in a different role as an ineffectual civil servant who has been sent to run a census on the planet because some larger authority is worried at the rate Helen A’s population disappears.  Always fun to see an actor who can play completely different characters so well.  He’s blessed with the kind of face that’s both distinctive and not memorable…?  His part (Trevor Sigma) is a clever idea because one imagines people from all sorts of governments, quangos and charities performing similar functions in societies all over the world.  He seems to be in with Helen A but we don’t know if it’s all a ruse to get the information to bring her down, if it’s that he’s pretending to like her because he’s scared of her or if he’s just a jobsworth civil servant doing his job. 

Richard D. Sharp gives a nice performance as Earl Sigma and the cast list reads like a Who’s Who of 80s TV so at least when Helen A’s marriage breaks down Rachel Bell is on hand to ask if there were any sexual problems…?

I could review Remembrance of the Daleks as well but it’s not as much fun reviewing things that worked.  As John Nathan-Turner would have said this is me looking back in time to see if the “memory cheats”. 

Was it as bad as I remembered?  I’ll answer that next time I’m locked in the house for 2 months.