014 The Lion

aka The Crusaders

Started 28-Jun-2018

Back to missing episodes. We watched the dvd copies of ep 1 and 3 and a telesnap recon of 2 and 4.

There are some horrible, dark, nasty elements to this. Thievery and its casual justification (the Doctor in the bazaar), murder (in every episode), suicide (Haroun,  Barbara, Safiya in ep3) , prisoner torture (Ibrahim and Ian ep4), medieval war crimes (it's called the "Crusa-ade" FFS)... and some male black-face performance (mainly Bernard Kay as Saladin, Roger Avon as Saphadin, Walter Randall as El Akir but lots more in minor roles.)
All these have undermined or dated the production horribly.

Strangely the female cast members are more genuine. Safiya, Maimuna, Sheyrah, Fatima and Hafsa (there's a uber level DW trivia question for you....) all looked like middle eastern ladies even though the actors' names seem very Anglo. Perhaps there was a bit of 'stage name' stuff going on there for some of these girls? Maybe not for Petra Markham... Maybe her sister Sonia is a make up genius? (Hint: she is.)

Buried in this production apparently is the seeds of the Dudley Simpson/Douglas Camfield rivalry. They worked together (according to the credits) But this is the last time. They spent the next 20 years hating each others' undies and refusing to work together. Curious result: the only episode of Blakes 7 (1978-1981) to be directed by Douglas and not scored by Dudley is "Duel". I'm don't know what the fight is about.

Julian "big balls" Glover as Richard Couer De Lion is a romantic, imagined portrayal that is likely far removed from the real life person but this is a fantasy so I can ride with it. The scene late in ep 4 where the Doctor lets slip about 'seeing Jerusalem', 'yes you will' is likely the reason why BBC Enterprises thought better of offering this serial for sale in Arabic countries. Does anyone realise what Richard and his crusaders did when they got there?

The two episodes that exist are studio bound and seem 'talky': long scenes with brief stagey action sequences.

The action in ep4 when Ian confronts El Akir is a blink and you'll miss it thing. I seem to remember that in the book it seemed to go on for about a chapter.

This has a great reputation but is actually uneven. Some studied and formal stagey drama scenes, weak action, a split plot featuring court intrigue versus basic kidnap and some dark, nasty themes.

Good but not the classic its reputation suggests.

ABM Rating 3.25/4.00
LJM Rating 3.25/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.00/10.00 

Peak Ranking No. 3 (out of 14)

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013 The Web Planet

Started 24-Jun

The concept is fantastic. The ambition is heroic.

The budget is inadequate. The result is curious and, to 21st century eyes, looks strange.

Apart from that the success here is that the presentation of aliens by costume and effect is greatly improved... (last effort was the rubber head sock Sensorites remember..)

The UK TV ratings were the highest for the 1960's (avg 12.5 million)

The last half is actually better than the first half.

Prapilius (Jolyon Booth) as the wise, old Menoptra is my fave. He rabbits on with poetic nostalgia at the drop of a hat and adds greatly to the show.

Catherine Fleming as the Voice of the Animus is the first in a long DW tradition of booming disembodied voice baddies (the Great Intelligence, The B.O.S.S., Xoanon, House) and sets the standard.

Watching in order benefits the viewing. In the first episode, the gold bracelet Barbara wears is a leftover from the previous story.

The music is very effective. Les Structures Sonores was an experimental French group that devised their own instruments and was one of Verity Lambert's initial ideas for asking about the DW theme music. The music is not atonal and has some catchiness when you listen to it over a few times. It certainly suits the material: larking about on the weird web planet.

Watching in modern vidfired DVD with restored, less noisy sound makes it much easier to follow. But it's still hard work for a modern viewer.

It is a great mistake to dismiss Web Planet as kooky nonsense. It has a solid plot and spooky atmosphere. The whole cast and crew work hard to create an unsettling and alien experience with only the crew of the TARDIS in actual human like roles.

As SF this is pure SF. There's no pseudo science (UFO's, ghosts, mind reading etc), no magical fantasy (Daemons psience, Fendahl rock salt, Unquiet Dead's seance etc) and no ahistorical fantasy (Richard the Lionheart as merely a scheming rogue, Nero as a cuddly old 'lech', Robospierre as sympathetic etc)

As a Doctor Who serial from 1965 this is actually a disregarded classic. There can be no question that this was the peak for Hartnell, Lambert, Russell and Hill.

ABM Rating 3.75/4.00
LJM Rating 1.25/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.00/10.00 

Peak Ranking No. 6 (out of 13)

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012 The Romans

Started 19-Jun

A harmless jink about. Supposedly a comic approach to the 'glory that was Rome'. But I'm not getting it really.

Barry Jackson in an early role, doesn't have much to say.
Derek Francis as Nero... seems a bit old.
The Tavius' secret Christian thing is unfortunate... and apparently the cross is wrong. If it's 1st century A.D. he should have an icthus (a fish symbol).

The tables and chairs are a bit of a mistake.

The fridge joke is almost vaudeville.

All said there's not much to write about.

ABM Rating 2.50/4.00
LJM Rating 3.75/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.00/10.00 

Peak Ranking No. 5 (out of 12)

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011 The Powerful Enemy

AKA The Rescue

Started Th 14- Jun

Maureen O'Brien is a *much* better actor than dear old Carol Ann. It's this marathon, watch 'em in order exercise that makes this look rather obvious in a way I hadn't noticed before. All that's needed is to write her lines a bit better...

The Rescue is a funny little nothing story that fills a gap. The Sand Beast is a Mire beast in a Slyther costume. (I mean the concept is getting familiar.)


There's some notable model work. A very way-out Didonian costume. And about half an episode of plot.

This is promising. But that's all. What this has is confidence. 
This is the first produced story in the new production block. The team is back after a short break after a year long run.
The ratings are up, the show's just been sold overseas (Canada, Australia, New Zealand), the Television centre studio is much less depressing,  we've just gone past 50 episodes, Bill's on the front cover of the Doctor Who Annual that was just in the shops for Xmas, and the cast is working well.

It's London 1965 and the vibe is very up. It shows.

ABM Rating 2.75/4.00
LJM Rating 3.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 5.00/10.00 

Peak Ranking No. 8 (out of 11)

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010 The World's End

AKA The Daleks Invasion of Earth

Started Sat 9-Jun

Lily made a comment that was that Series 2 seemed more ambitious than Series 1. Last year the series was often filmed against a flat studio set with dry dialogue. But with this serial especially the scene seems so much more daring and 'big'.

Sharlene made a comment that the theme in the first couple of episodes was palpably doom laden.

Anthony made a comment that the show starts off great and then falls over when the budget runs out.

The show was now regularly being being made in the Television Centre in a big studio with better lighting and cameras. Daleks Invasion has quite a bit of location filming.
The British ratings were climbing even higher than year 1. Regular 9 millions, frequent 10's and by mid series 13's. Those numbers meant DW was making executives take notice.
But the budget was the same...

The location filming is very obviously silent (with stock music overdubbed for what seems like minutes at a time) and looks kind of avant garde compared to the studio work.

Often the studio scenes in this are a bit sloppy: lots of wobbly sets, Daleks with ill controlled movement and under rehearsed dialogue, fight scenes with unconvincing hits and falls, obvious painted backdrops.

We watched episode 1 with the 2002 CGI replacement shots, namely the Battersea Power Station and the Dalek Saucer. These are considerably less ridiculous than the originals.

Despite these drawbacks, overall this story is epic in scope and serves as a worthy return of the Daleks.

ABM Rating 3.25/4.00
LJM Rating 4.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 8.50/10.00 

Peak Ranking No. 1 (out of 10)

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009 Planet of Giants

Started Sun 3-Jun

Over the top ambition on a DW budget. This looks like an obvious idea.... and the execution is not great, either then or 54 years later.

This had a troubled production history. Originally conceived as a series 1 opener then made as a 4 parter for the start of series 2, the interfering executives forced the DW Office to cut down ep 3 and 4 to a single episode. This lead to a spare episode in the budget which appeared at the start of series 3 (even though it was made at the end of series 2). We now know that as Mission to the Unknown.

The surviving episode 3 is Douglas Camfield's first director credit. That guy will be back...

The acting from the main characters is somewhat stilted I think.
The script has a weird dual tracked structure. And both strands are talkie-talkie-talkie.
Forester, Farrow and Smithers conduct the dumbest, slowest murder ever (and get caught by the village telephonist and her boyfriend the country bumpkin PC). Fascinating.
The Tardis crew walk around a garden, up a water pipe and amongst several items scattered on a lab bench and achieve rather little except escaping a few giant insects and a cat, and then setting fire to the place before getting a dose of the pesticide and escaping. Rivetting.

Notably the themes and the SF are obviously inspired by Silent Spring by Rachel Carson https://tinyurl.com/hwt6d2g which was an important early work in environmental science, regularly cited by Carl Sagan, David Suzuki and Paul Erlich among many others.

It's worth remembering that all that "deadly pesticides killing everything shock/horror" idea was actually radical in 1964. In the 50's and 60's chemicals that you would be shocked to hear about were used in quantities that would stun you, casually and for purposes you wouldn't dream of. And most people would have neither known nor cared.

These days the themes of Planet of Giants including commercial/corporate denialism just seem at once both tame and naive, even cliched. And still too many people neither know or care.


ABM Rating 2.50/4.00
LJM Rating 3.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 6.50/10.00 

Peak Ranking No. 4 (out of 9)

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