Smarter writing, better story.
It's politically adroit. There's the deceptive big business. The two factions of poor: the exploited and the idealistic (who are set against each other by the big business who then cash in by spoiling tactics).
There's the mirroring of Jo's first scene with Professor Jones and the early scene in Terror of the Autons.
The setup of the Metebelis Three crystal has been prefigured in Carnival of Monsters and will be back in later eps of this story and some upcoming thing about Spiders.
The CSO use in some mine scenes is staggeringly sh*thouse. Why can't the Special Edition DVD do someting about this? Ah, who cares? It's never gonna happen....
The obvious painted balloon maggot eggs later in the show are more sh*t but. The actual maggots are amazing.
So FX are a bit mixed in this.
Characters and acting is a bit variable. There are some minor roles for women, not many but. Llanfairfach is a very white town.
The architectural plans and the tax returns for Global Chemicals Llanfairfach facility must look very strange. Secret lifts, high security prison cells, security monitoring everywhere.
The Jo Grant/Cliff Jones story arc is stretching credibility. There's a scene in ep6 where STewart Bevan goes from recovering from a deadly disease to dancing about getting engaged in about a minute. It's partly amazing, partly incredible.
Richard Franklin as Yates makes what he can of an underwritten role. And it falls a bit flat. The Doctor crossdressing subterfuge in ep4 is a lot of fun. Pertwee makes a terrible woman. Maybe that was the point?
This has aged better and better. I remember when I first saw this in 1978 as a messily plotted farago with a slushy kissing thing inserted boringly. I was 12. What can I say?
ABM Rating 3.20/4.00
LJM Rating 4.25/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.35/10
No. 10 (out of 69)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
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