Plot is unlike the norm. No alien invasion/mad scientist sh*t here.
Dialogue is written well.
FX are bumbling along but effective enough.
Resolution is satisfying.
This is a pretty good DW story.
ABM Rating 3.76/4.00
LJM Rating 4.25/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.80/10
No. 2 (out of 66)
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This one is pretty close to television perfection as it gets. It is NOT a movie. It is NOT theatre. It is a television presentation.
ReplyDeleteThis story takes place in the customs entry area of a space-port on a distant planet. Yep, the whole thing: in a waiting room....
The characters and the action spring from this innocuous premise in a very imaginative way. Technically, there are several fairly flat and cheap sets (the customs area, a couple of parts of a 1920's steam ship, the giant oversized insides of the Miniscope (a sort of electronic zoo that miniaturized characters and monsters escape into) and some location filming on a misty moorland somewhere standing in for the monster's planet).
There are no space battles or laser effects. To tell the story they are not needed.
Vorg and Shirna are travelling show-folk shown in turn arguing amongst themselves and bowing and scraping to the local officials. The local officials (Plectrac, Kalik, Orum) are insular and corrupt or just hidebound. The local workers ('Functionaries') are shown with glimpses of dissatisfaction with their lives and put down ruthlessly by the ruling class.
The Doctor is as usual a force for moral outrage and also as usual the source of the technical fix to the problems that arise. Jo, the companion, is shown as practical and independent instead of just along for the ride. The crew and passengers of the ship are cyphers, perhaps to provide a reality grounding for the distinctly odd events on board the ship.
This is a sophisticated tale, told in a serious, dramatic fashion by characters wearing green makeup or 1920's flapper outfits. Sometimes the chroma-key effects are little primitive but the story is the important thing.
The alien world is not a glamorous, flashy, perfect world of technology and rocket cars flying in the sky. This Doctor Who is like the 'future' we now actually live in: complicated not working and complicated amazing, ugly and beautiful, rich and poor, a struggle for some and easy for others. This is one of the Doctor Who's that should be on DVD (and it is.....)
A