Started 28 OctThis is hokum. Glorious hokum. It is set in the future... well, specifically, about right now. And it is completely specious.
But that is beside the point of the story. It is an obvious attempt to get away from the 'monster of the week' concept and as such should be lauded.
This is a vehicle to show Patrick Troughton's range: as the Doctor, the dictator, and each of those characters pretending to be the other.
And he does not miss....
The budget is low... witness the destruction of the volcanoes in Hungary in ep2 (seen out the palace window on stock footage).
The narrative is outrageous... Rocket travel across the world in 2 hours and 200km road trips in 15 minutes... oh yeah!
The fashion victims are plentiful... nearly everyone... Jamie's rubber, Astrid's leather suit, Salamander's bullfighter costume, Benik's collar, the guards' stupid white helmets.
The acting is variable.... Helloo, Colin Douglas! And those wet under the earth people: Adam Verney as Colin, Margaret Hickey as Mary and Christopher Burgess as Swann in ep5...
The direction is occasionally a bit flat.... some of the episode endings aren't great and the budget doesn't permit... there's a few scenes which are "Look at that fleet of ships out the window (everyone reacts)" then don't even cut to stock footage....
But the pace is good and the story seems original. (No bases under siege here!) Griffin is a riot (completely side plot but worth it.).
Ep6 is a bit of a mess. It's only 21m46s running time and there's obviously some editing that has occurred between the scene of chaos under the Kanowa base (Kent has confronted Salamander, Astrid and Bruce are about to rescue the trapped under the earth people while the Doctor is still wearing his Salamander disguise) and cut to the next scene with staggering Salamander at night on the beach (200 miles away?) stumbles into the TARDIS.
Early in this serial 1968 arrived.... and Innes Lloyd departed as Producer. He was a revolutionary and effective producer. He saw off the historicals, saw in the idea of 'regeneration' and seemed to rescue the show from ratings decline.
The producer's role is very important to the state of the show. Clearly the show benefits or suffers according to the producer's effectiveness.
And Sydney Newman left the BBC around this time. In later life he was quoted as not caring too much about DW. He didn't look too happy with his life at that point.....
ABM Rating 3.00/4.00
LJM Rating 3.50/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.00/10.00
No. 12 (out of 40)
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