Started 14-Aug-2018Series 3 has been rocky. An ugly start, a Dalek powered soar in the air, some historical dullness, weird (bizarre?) forays into the experimental and (as of next serial) a genuine revolution in DW storytelling.
But in the meantime...
The Savages is a delightful surprise. And Bill is fantastic as the Doctor in this.
The first serial with numbered episodes....
We watched a LC recon. This has genuine telesnaps unlike recent missing eps serials which are recreated from publicity photos and other studio images. Reason is the new production team started ordering John Cura telesnaps once again from The Gunfighters onwards and these were discovered in the BBC Written Archives by Marcus Hearn (now DWM editor again) in the early 90's...
Two eps in this seems a much more sophisticated SF story than anything this series so far.
The characters are genuinely 'shades of grey' duplicitous and have stealthy motives. Dramatically it is intriguing and the political themes (supremacism, eugenics, bio-engineering) mark a fresh dawn of sophisticated SF for DW. Is this Davis and Pedler at work? I wonder...
The music in this is by Raymond Jones (whose only other credit is The Romans). It seems ambitious and insistent and noticeable. It's good but maybe it seems that way after the 'Ballad...'.
This is a story I had not previously appreciated. Poor quality soundtracks and tedious telesnaps are a barrier even for rolled gold fans I guess.
Easy no 2 for series 3.
ABM Rating 3.15/4.00
LJM Rating 3.75/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.00/10.00
No. 5 (out of 26)
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