051 Spearhead from Space

Started 30-Dec

Colour, film, new Doctor... mouth open.

We watched the 2013 Bluray edition.

The radical change is obvious. But the elements of Sherwin's UNIT are all still here. These parallels with Web and Invasion are present.

• Liz Shaw is like Anne Travers (sarcastic, sceptical and modern)
• Sam Seeley is like Driver Evans. (Everyday old fashioned eccentric...)
• Munro is like Knight. (cynical and duty worn)
• Ransome is like Gregory. (not evil hearted, technically focussed but exploited by the baddies)
• Lethbridge Stewart is Lethbridge Stewart. (and UNIT is like UNIT)
• Hibbert and Channing are revised versions of Packer and Vaughn.  (Alien boss with conniving yet sympathetic 2IC who gets his comeuppance in the end, Vaughn is more aggressive, Channing is more quietly threatening but they're both psychotic)
• Scobie is like Rutledge. (establishment military authority who blocks attempts to take action against the baddies)
• The auton killers are a little like redesigned Invasion Cybermen. (they hide, they stalk, they shoot rays from some part of their body, they are immune to bullets (mostly), they have silver boots)
• In ep4 Liz and the Doctor build a Cerebration Mentor (sorta) (a maguffin that somehow ends the alien soldiers threat).

The budget looks cheap (compared to modern standards not 60's DW).  The props and the sets are lacking in complexity. The furniture in the factory office looks sparse and cheap. The scenes in the hospital look empty and hollow.

I suspect the BluRay reveals little problems which were likely never meant to be obvious. The science equipment in the Doctor's makeshift lab (eps2,3) looks sparse. The Nestene in the glass tank looks like a plastic bag attached to the inside of a fish tank with vaseline. Note the total lack of broken glass in the famous window shop dummies scene in ep4. The 'plastic squid' climax in the factory is not the best.

The pacing is weird. Ep1 is kinda slow and ep3&4 are rapid. Ep4 seems a trifle rushed. It's as if the story starts properly about 5 minutes from teh end of ep2. There are several characters who seem to disappear without explanation (Seeley, Munro).

Apart from that the film looks good. What's very different is the level of visual exposition. In ep3 Channing calls off the Auton killer from chasing Ransome at the factory and the actors mime it; the communication is all silent. There are numerous other examples of this. The film camera gives us fast intercut editing and dolly shots and crash zooms. None of this seems gimmicky.

This is a very new thing in DW at this point.


The story of how it came to be all film is legendary. It's never been asked if Sherwin's tenure as Producer was affected by this cheeky decision.



Another important element in this is the incidental music. Like the all-film production, the music in Spearhead is almost unique in DW history. It is realised conventionally by flutes, drums, brass and piano but it is very modern and in some parts modern and experimental.

Like the atonal Malcolm Clarke Sea Devils or Carey Blyton Silurians it squawks and flaps (think of the opening and arrival of the meteorites in ep1) but the conventional instrumentation makes it sound very different. I like to think it's like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in that sense. There is tempo change. key change and dramatic pulsating parts but it's all in keeping with the action.

Importantly it really sells the scary parts. Think what the sound adds to the end of ep2 where Ransome is exploring the plastic factory. Dudley has progressed from Ice W's, Fury (essentially playing with the very new analogue synthesisers) and Seeds (where he rediscovered real instruments) to this.

Next series he will be back to pumping at the analogue synth like in the piano player in a silent movie theatre (Autons, Claws, Daemons) but it will settle eventually.
When Geoff Burgon follows this approach for Zygons and Seeds of Doom in 75/76 it works again, even though the style is more spooky and moody.

Spearhead from Space was and still is the most enormous shock in DW history. It is not particularly innovative as a DW story. The characters and plot elements  are derived from The Invasion and Seeds of Death and the Robert Holmes scripted film "Invasion" (1966) (specifically the stuff about the alien at the cottage hospital) but the look is amazingly good.

Almost as big a shock is the inevitable crash back to studio/film next story.


ABM Rating 3.70/4.00 
LJM Rating 4.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.40/10.00

No. 5 (out of 51)


Link to Cumulative Rankings

Rankings Scoreboard

 

Missing Episodes analysis

UPDATED 8 Apr 2024

Well, there's fan telesnaps recons of all of them and 16mm telecines of some of them.
These days there's Animated eps on DVD and fan animations. Some are better than others.
For reference, here's the scoreboard


A  BBC DVD Animation
A   Fan animation with full motion and basically watchable with narrative integrity (incomplete ep animations not counted.)

R  BBC DVD reconstruction using telesnaps (not necessarily perfect, fan recons are often better)

 -   It's missing

No.	TITLE
001	1A An Unearthly Child	1	2	3	4
002	1B The Dead Planet	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
003	1C Beyond the Sun	1	2	3	4
004	1D Marco Polo	A	-	-	-	-	-	-
005	1E The Keys of Marinus	1	2	3	4	5	6
006	1F The Aztecs	1	2	3	4
007	1G The Sensorites	1	2	3	4	5	6
008	1H The French Revolution	1	2	3	A	A	6
009	1J Planet of Giants	1	2	3
010	1K The World's End	1	2	3	4	5	6
011	1L The Powerful Enemy	1	2
012	1M The Romans	1	2	3	4
013	1N The Web Planet	1	2	3	4	5	6
014	1P The Lion	1	R	3	R
015	1Q The Space Museum	1	2	3	4
016	1R The Executioners	1	2	3	4	5	6
017	1S The Time Meddler	1	2	3	4
018	1T Galaxy Four	A	A	3 A	A
019	1T/A Mission to the Unknown	A
020	1U The Mythmakers	-	-	-	-
021	1V The Daleks Masterplan	-	2	-	-	5	-	-
		A	-	-	-	10	-	-
022	1W The Massacre	-	-	-	-
023	1X The Ark	1	2	3	4
024	1Y The Celestial Toymaker	A	A	A	4 A
025	1Z The Gunfighters	1	2	3	4
026	2A The Savages	-	-	-	-
027	2B The War Machines	1	2	3	4
028	2C The Smugglers	-	-	-	-
029	2D The Tenth Planet	1	2	3	A
030	2E The Power of the Daleks	A	A	A	A	A	A
031	2F The Highlanders	-	-	-	-
032	2G The Underwater Menace	A	2 A	3 A	A
033	2H The Moonbase	A	2	A	4
034	2J The Macra Terror	A	A	A	A
035	2K The Faceless Ones	1 A	A	3 A	A	A	A
036	2L The Evil of the Daleks	A	2 A	A	A	A	A	A
037	2M The Tomb of the Cybermen	1	2	3	4
038	2N The Abominable Snowmen	A	2 A	A	A	A	A
039	2O The Ice Warriors	1	A	A	4	5	6
040	2P The Enemy of the World	1	2	3	4	5	6
041	2Q The Web of Fear	1	2	A	4	5	6
042	2R Fury from the Deep	A	A	A	A	A	A
043	2S The Wheel in Space	-	-	3	-	-	6
044	2T The Dominators	1	2	3	4	5
045	2U The Mind Robber	1	2	3	4	5
046	2V The Invasion	A	2	3	A
		5	6	7	8
047	2W The Krotons	1	2	3	4
048	2X The Seeds of Death	1	2	3	4	5	6
049	2Y The Space Pirates	-	2	-	-	-	-
050	2Z The War Games	1	2	3	4	5
		6	7	8	9	10

	Eps	Complete Serials
TOTAL	253	50
OK	- 156	- 24
MISSING	= 97	= 26
BBC ANIMATED	- 50	- 15
Fan animated	- 3	-1
Really missing	= 44	= 10

050 The War Games

Started 25-Dec

We watched the DVD version with info text by Martin Wiggins.

The War Games is epic and classic and familiar. Groundbreaking DW storytelling and an earthquake in the mythos of the history of the show are actually hand in hand here.

It is not a runaround and then the Time Lords turn up in ep10 and then Doctor regenerates.

The characters are well written and the acting is genuine and believable without being earthy and ultra-real.

The situations are full of recognisable (mostly military) tropes and often historical ones with which people are familiar. The stakes are high: the welfare of 1000's of unfortunate, unknowing soldiers being cheated of their lives and liberty is in play.

The loop plots and twists abound in this story. The contrast of familiar with anachronistic is used here in a way that becomes influential throughout the 3rd and 4th Doctor eras.

Every time I've watched this since the wobbly videos of the 80's this has seemed raw and strangely overacted. In this marathon blog context it has seemed to me for the first time since 1973 that it is actually sophisticated and exciting.

The final ep is amazing TV. The performance by Troughton goes from "runaway" to acceptance yet does not miss a beat. He stays in character and does not gurn or make daft jokes that disrespect the story. He owns the screen and eyes are drawn to him in every scene.


MORE TO COME
 
There is a sense with Patrick Troughton that the timing was slightly wrong. He was an accomplished performer who would have been better in a modern show but was capable in any age.

He left the show with the job not finished. The last year of Doctor Who was a wild ride in the production office. In an interview in the latest DWM Sherwin tells the story about Troughton and Bryant rowing. He does not tell whether he and Troughton saw eye to eye.
It seems as if the idea was put forward in Series 5 to reduce the ep count and go to colour but while those plans were in formulation the basic work of script writing fell over somewhat.

The record of rejected scripts and late submissions between mid 1968 and mid 1969 was little short of alarming. It would not have given relaxed and comfortable people much reassurance let alone insecure and nervy types like Pat Troughton. Series 6 has 3 top 5 serials (two directed by David Maloney, the other by Camfield) and 3 bottom 10 serials (out of 7 candidates!!!)
The viewing figures were tanking fast from solid 7 million the year before to 4 million, even a couple of 3 somethings. But scheduling, weather and competition from Irwin Allen shows on the other channel were factors. In the 2010's DW is still going. None of these other TV shows are.

Why do new Doctors fifty years later cite him as the model for Doctor Who rather than Hartnell?

Is it because of the flexibility he showed? Maybe the notion that slavishly copying the previous incumbent was to be avoided? Certainly it was the idea that the role of Doctor Who is not really acting in that the character is essentially unchanging and unchangeable yet is simultaneously anything you want it to be.

Maybe it's time to read the Michael Troughton biography again....?

Troughton was fond of saying (in the 80's, Fraser Hines still says it) that he loved working on DW and would have stayed there for good if he could have. But I think this may be lazy fantasy. He was a hard bitten pro who knew that his next job depended on not outstaying his welcome or not being shackled to a corpse (at least potentially).

And DW clearly needed to keep changing. In 6 years it had gone from talky, slow moving historicals to anti-war SF fantasy. The pace of change was not about to let up.

After the remarkable ep10 Wendy, Fraser and Pat were gone. So was Peter Bryant. David Maloney would be back but not immediately. Robert Holmes, Terrance Dicks, Derrick Sherwin are all staying... and new boy Barry Letts is about to get a phone call.


ABM Rating 3.82/4.00 
LJM Rating 4.55/5.00
SPJ Rating 8.30/10

Link to Cumulative Rankings
No. 4 (out of 50)

Rankings Scoreboard