Once again a sort of character piece. The historical stuff has not gone out of style. Back when this was made Tale of Two Cities as a movie and a book was well known. Now Les Miserables and Black Adder 3 make this no less well known.
The studio bound farmhouse fire which ends ep1 is acceptable in context.
The 18h century 'sewerage' horror is hinted at darkly and effectively. Lily made a joke about the prison conditions faced by Barb, Ian and Susan in ep2 being much worse than on Skaro... which is quite true. Say what you like about Daleks but they keep a city clean!
The action is very Dennis Spooner. He'll be back of course when we get to the Romans and the Time Meddler. The drama is presented as little set pieces often with a 'comedic' character e.g. the road gang supervisor in ep3.
The last episode is the nearest to spectacular for two reasons. The Napoleon cameo: several bits of dialogue earlier in the series hinted at meeting historical figures. Indeed the Tardis travellers had met Kublai Khan and Marco Polo but here's one that everyone recognises.
Also the 'our destiny is in the stars' ending. This is a series finale after all. This might have only made any sense on original transmission in the UK since overseas viewers saw DW serials in different blocks (with repeats too(!)) to the UK (until the mid 70's anyway).
According to the doco on the DVD the production was somewhat troubled with the Hungarian director Henric Hirsch having a breakdown and struggling to complete his work. Also this is the serial (from ep5 I think) where the production moved from Lime Grove to Television Centre Wood Lane. (They'll be back..... but not for a year or two.)
Overall this is a vignette. It's not like a complete story but many little things sticky taped together.
ABM Rating 2.75/4.00
LJM Rating 3.50/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.50/10.00
Peak Ranking No. 2 (out of 8)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Link to Rankings Scoreboard
When I (Lil) first watched this (goodness knows how long ago!), my impression of it was dull, tedious, slow, boring, uninteresting. Although, it should be noted, we watched the entire thing in one sitting that time. But watching it back, being much older, its a lot better (probably helps watching it progressively!).
ReplyDeleteMy Rating: 3-4/5
(I intend to come back and re-rate it in a few months, just out of curiosity to see my opinion changes as we re-watch more DW)
I like this story more than I realised. I am fond of French revolution type stories. I was moved by Ian seeing Barbara and Susan take off for execution and I would have liked this to be played up more. I give this story a 7.5 out of 10.
ReplyDelete