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FishyFish

By FishyFish
in Film, TV & Radio

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Yartek

Yartek

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A thing to remember is that, unlike now where we know about every major change like theme tunes, TARDIS console rooms and title sequences in advance, the changes in Season 18 came right out of nowhere. I was eight at the time and had been watching Who since I was three, so all I knew was the classic theme and the time tunnel title sequence. The opening of Leisure Hive was something of a shock. The season as a whole is very interesting to watch as they try things out and while I don't agree with some of their choices, it'll be interesting to read what you think works and what doesn't.

I bloody love Peter Howell's take on the theme, I think it's the only one that comes close to the original.

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Yartek

Yartek

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Yeah, the only place you would hear anything about upcoming Who stories was The Sun, or on Pebble Mill or something.

Next season contains probably the most succesful surprise in the show's history, but I imagine there will be images all over wherever Sprite is getting these from that'll spoil that.

Oh yes, I'll certainly be making a post about that when Sprite gets to it.

I think Doctor Who Weekly maybe mentioned there was a new producer but that was about it.

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Yartek

Yartek

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I was the same rewatching the first episode of *that* story from next season last night, the direction really stands out and I remember half the music cues as it goes along. I used to have the Doctor Who:The Music album which had some stuff from Leisure Hive on it, must check if I still have that around in some form.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Meglos

(Blog has pictures)

An alien cactus on a desert planet disguises itself as the Doctor and tries to steal a dodecahedron from a neighbouring planet and blow it up. I mean, what?! It's the sort of 'out-there' idea that Doctor Who throws at you every now and again. It's great to watch Tom Baker play the role of the bad guy as well, particularly all made up with spikes sticking out of his face and hands, and there are some pretty good visuals too (including some impressive motion controlled 'bluescreen'), but beyond that the story is a let down.

[Picture: The Earthling struggles to break free from the CactusDoctor.]

It's not terrible or boring or anything, but there are a few too many clichés, like another crew of idiotic bandits, or K-9 blasting open another door with his laser, or the chanting religious cult performing a sacrificial ceremony (again!). The story plays with the idea of a culture that wants to study this great power source that it relies on, with a subset who wish to simply worship it as a god, and the tensions that spring up between the two, but there's little exploration of the themes of faith versus reasoning. In fact, very little is learned about the dodecahedron at all, other than it is very old, very powerful and can be used as a weapon of mass destruction. The priestess dies in an attack, so she never has to live in a world where her god does not exist.

[Picture: The time loop sequence in the Tardis was amusing for a while but went on for too long, and the solution makes basically no sense.]

Lots of little things like that are glossed over quickly. The jungle planet of Tigella is one minute lethal to its inhabitants, and in the last two minutes it's suddenly a rich source of all their needs and everything will be fine! And the time loop that Meglos was able to create in the Tardis... erm, how? Is he the last of a race of time-travelling cacti or his knowledge of temporal engineering specific to him? The poor Earthling whose body he inhabits, where the hell did he come from (well, Earth, obviously)? And so on, and so forth.

[Picture: The Doppledoctor takes an oath to the god Ti.]

A noteworthy bit of casting is Jacqueline Hill as the priestess Lexa, who previously played one of the first companions Barbara from way back in the beginning. Going from a rational teacher to a zealous cultist is certainly a change from one extreme to another, but it was nice to see her again.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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I agree with all that, and in many ways it's the worst story of the season, but for various reasons I still really love Meglos.

Firstly, it's yet another source of childhood nightmares for me. I mean, Tom Baker is scary enough for a 6 year old, but this?

meglos.jpg

Get it the fuck away from me! Do not, whatever you do, create a waxwork dummy of it for Madame Tussaud's, and have it on the telly as a news story:

2204499587_ce28b23765.jpg

Oh. ARGH!

So yeah, the Cactus monster is stupid in his true form, and a weird idea generally, but it's a memorable image of The Doctor which is bound to scare kids. Plus Tom Baker is brilliant at playing the baddy. Job done.

Secondly, the FX in this are pretty astounding. I mean, look at it! Especially 01:42 onwards in this clip, when they walk from left to right in the foreground:

I really think that's amazing work for the time, never mind for a supposedly low budget show like Dr Who. I also like the scenes where the Earthling is trying to break free from Meglos.

Finally, I really rather like Grugger and Brotadac. "I like his coat" says Brotadac at one point. Me too!

So yeah, it's not great, but I have a soft spot for it.

I'll be extremely interested to hear what you think of a new element to the show from the next story onwards Sprite.

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Fireproofradiator

Fireproofradiator

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Sorry dude!

When Sprite's finished I'm going to compile a list of my all time most nightmare-inducing images from Doctor Who.

Well I should have twigged from the Doomlord avatar.

Scaryest Who is a top idea tho. I'd include the reveal at the end of Ep 1 of City of Death, the big vegetable in The Seeds of Doom (only seen in photos Doctor Who Weekly - the story was just before my time), the Marsh People from Full Circle and some of the Unwell People at the start of Ep 1 of Terminus (which I'm pretty sure my Mum just went - 'This is going off' at). I thought the Almost People were reet good/unnerving too. Man that was an underrated story.

When you're older you forget that when you were a kid the fact half Who's monsters turn out to be misunderstood doesn't stop them being scary. THEY"RE STILL SWAMP MONSTERS.

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Yartek

Yartek

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I remember getting excited when the new Doctor would come on Blue Peter as a guest!

This led to me embarrassing myself at a Doctor Who convention in the US. They were showing episodes of Blue Peter with Doctor Who bits in them in one of the video rooms, not just the WHo bits, the whole episodes. A friend wanted to see what one of the shows I grew up watching was like, so we sat down. The episode was the one with Peter Davison and Richard Hurndall promoting The Five Doctors.

Which also happens to be the episode with the solemn, heartbreaking announcement that the Blue Peter garden had been vandalised. Which led me into a fit of giggles, which led to a bunch of Americans thinking I was a heartless bastard for laughing at tragedy.

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Harsin

Harsin

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I remember that show where they introduced Matt Smith, there was a pause and then suddenly this bloke with a weird Frankenstein face and floppy hair turned around and then his name popped and the the entire thread exclaimed 'Who?' in unison. Then the BBC released an official shot of him looking like he was trying to cosplay as a sexy vampire in front of the Tardis. Good times.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Full Circle

(Blog has pictures)

The silly humour of the past couple of seasons seems to have virtually disappeared now, as this next story goes full circle (as it were!) back to its darker sci-fi roots. Tom Baker is still a delight and still makes the odd witty quip, but it almost seems like he's a beacon of light in a story that features horrible marshmen killing people, spiders jumping onto people's faces and even K-9 being beheaded!

[Picture: The marshmen emerge from the misty swamp. Brrr!!]

Indeed, there is some imagery in Full Circle that would have scared the wits out of kids watching this back in the eighties, such as the sequence where those marshmen rise from the misty swamp waters at the end of part one, eerily reminiscent of a scene from 'The Sea Devils'. The marshmen are a somewhat more frightening prospect, however, with their pig-like grunts and stretched skin. Up close, however, they do just appear to be men in crude rubber suits.

[Picture: A lot of this serial was filmed outdoors, lending it a natural style.]

Some more things I liked about Full Circle. Firstly, the concept of descendents of a civilisation carrying out ongoing repairs of their ship, unaware of what they're really doing - that has definite hints of 'The Face of Evil' to it, only these people aren't savages, just epic procrastinators. Secondly, the holy books being called the System Files, it has a modern computing feel to it. Is it a coincidence that one of the characters is called "Login" (log in)? Was that even a known term back in 1980 or am I reading too much into it? Thirdly, there is some actual character development for Romana! Well, I say "development" - at best, she's sad for a little while as she expresses her desire to not return to Gallifrey, which gives us the first hints of her motivations. Fourthly, some of the music in this story is really nice; there's a flute like motif that plays every so often, with hints of the theme tune to it. It's sort of synthy but tranquil. Lastly, I suppose the twist about what the marshmen really are is kind of clever. It's always more interesting when monsters aren't just monsters.

[Picture: A possessed Romana opens the airlock to let the marshmen inside.]

But there are a few things I felt were a bit disappointing. At the start of the story, the Doctor and Romana are en route to Gallifrey. When the accident happens, I almost expected them to have arrived in the past, with the natives being pre-civilisation Gallifreyans, in some sort of Genesis of the Time Lords type story, and then I was let down when it wasn't. I also feel that the cycle of the spiders, marshmen and the natives could have been explored better. Why, for instance, would spider bites brainwash the natives (and Romana) into obeying them? The spiders were hidden inside the river fruit, which could have been a cool twist where they are routinely let inside the starliner and start turning all the people into marshmen, starting a new cycle that way or something. It didn't quite happen like that.

[Picture: Just what the Tardis needs, another know-it-all wunderkind!]

Finally, I really didn't take to any of the youngsters. Adric in particular is a bit of an annoying character who serves no real purpose, and it would appear that he's sticking around, while the Tardis is still trapped in the exo-space dimension. Still, anything that freshens up the dynamic of the show is fine with me.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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:lol:

Just as anyone could have predicted, the bowl-haired twat Adric makes yet another bad impression. I would have been amazed if you'd said you liked him. No-one does. He can't act, pure and simple. I can only assume, and no doubt others have, that the let's say "boy friendly" producer took a shine to him. I think this was about his only acting role.

He's the only truly bad thing to happen to season 18, and it gets worse before it gets better I'm afraid. Fortunately he doesn't completely de-rail any of the stories he's in, but he is absolutely appalling both as a character and as a performance.

As to Full Circle, it's not my favourite of the season, but once again the images and atmosphere made a big impression on me as a kid:

doctor-who-full-circle-marshmen.jpg

It's like something out of a Fulci zombie flick, albeit crossed with The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Less effective in the studio, as you rightly point out, but on film very effective.

You've got a couple of crackers up next IMO Sprite.

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