The 80's begins not with JNT and the glittering makeover called The Leisure Hive.... but with this.
The first episode is appalling.
It starts with a boring info dump convo that goes on for about 4 minutes. Every bit of the plot is name-checked here. It sucks intrigue like a very sucky thing.
Then there's a long and silly padding scene in the Tardis (about 3m50s) that damages the plot. The shark jumping equipment is being dragged from the shed and set up in the water park when Tom starts giving K9 "EAR".
Most of the remainder of the ep is boring technobabble about jelly babies and gravitic anomalisers which don't work (or something, it's all made up garbage BTW). There is a gag about Romana's new sonic which is fun. What is the idea of the two scenes where the speed and voices are slowed? Next scene is back to normal. Is this meant to portray the effects of proximity to the high gavity black hole? No explanation given.
There's a short visit to Skonnos to meet Sorak, Soldeed and the Nimon (who comes on like a bored housewife with an undramatic line which seems to amount to "what are you bothering me about now?")
The Acheson triangle walls get a major workout. The noisy metal grate walkways are noticeable mainly because they ruin the soundtrack.
The ep ends with a madeup, arbitrary situation about a random asteroid impact. They could have done something with the battleship jeopardy or the appearance of the monster but the writer/editor/director chose this... K9 says the speed of the asteroid is Mach 9.3.. in the vacuum of space... what does this mean? It's nonsense.
Tom then proceeds to ham it up to the max.
This is a truly horrible 25m45s.
One thing Horns... has going for it is a good cast. But several famous actors are wasted and the better parts are often played by the less good performers.
Simon Gipps-Kent is wet as Seth. He was a former child actor, who (like Matthew Waterhouse) was in To Serve Them All My Days and was auditioned for Adric. He died tragically young from mysterious drug 'poisoning' in 1987.
Janet Ellis plays Teka. She went on to fame as a Blue Peter presenter and she is mum to pop star Sophie Ellis Bextor.
Malcolm Terris plays the Co-pilot in a shouty one note performance. He's kinda famous for When The Boat Comes In and has a long career of jobbing parts. Watch for his split trousers in the scene where the Nimon zaps him (p2 24m06s). It's a highlight... he survives into late p2 but the Helpmann Award winner Bob Hornery, playing the battlecruiser pilot is dead in the first scene of p1.
John Bailley appears as Sezom, last survivor of Crinoth. He was last in DW as Waterfield in Evil of the Daleks. Also a veteran of decades of quality dramatic films and TV (he's in the 1967 Forsyte Saga, The Avengers, High Treason (1951)) For some unknown reason he didn't ham it up in a panto fashion like the other members of the cast. If he had played any other role this serial would have been better.
Sorak's costume is mix of Italian policeman (the black feathers), Wagnerian opera (the helmets and the 'wings'), and incredible corrugated multiple shoulder pads. The role and the performance is otherwise unremarkable. Michael Osborne was an extra in The Ark and had a varied career in TV bit parts and was in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) and Force 10 From Navarone (1978)
In contrast Graham Crowden is OTT, memorable and impressive as Soldeed but his performance is pure panto... watch how he walks!!! Crowden has a long film and TV career, notably playing dodgy (medical) doctors in shows like Callan, Porridge and A Very Peculiar Practice. Allegedly he was up for DW in 1974 but they hired some guy called Tom Baker instead.
On TV that was the end for Series 17: cut short by the strike which banished Shada.
ABM Rating 1.05/4.00
LJM Rating 2.57/5.00
SPJ Rating 3.00/10
No. 100 (out of 108)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5l.html
As The Horns Of Nimon neared production, decisions were being made about the future of Doctor Who. Having confirmed his intent to leave the show after Season Seventeen, Williams suggested production unit manager John Nathan-Turner as a suitable replacement. Over the past year and a half, Williams had become very appreciative of Nathan-Turner's efforts on Doctor Who, and had unsuccessfully attempted to promote him to the post of associate producer at the start of the year. Head of Drama Graeme McDonald, on the other hand, was wary of putting a novice producer in charge of Doctor Who. Instead, he favoured former production unit manager George Gallaccio, who had recently served as producer on the supernatural thriller The Omega Factor. Gallaccio, however, was keen to move away from science-fiction, and instead accepted the producer's post on a period drama called Mackenzie.
As a result, McDonald consented to Nathan-Turner's appointment as producer of Doctor Who. This marked the end of a long rise up through the BBC hierarchy for Nathan-Turner. He had originally worked as an actor before breaking into the BBC as a floor assistant. In that capacity, Nathan-Turner had worked on Doctor Who as far back as The Space Pirates in 1969. He had gradually moved up the ranks, and had served as Doctor Who's production unit manager since Season Fifteen. It was agreed that Nathan-Turner would take over the helm of Doctor Who from December.
However, McDonald was still wary of Nathan-Turner's preparedness for such a demanding position -- especially since he himself was about to gain additional responsibilities as Head of a combined Drama Series and Serials department. This meant that he would not be able to spend as much time supervising individual programmes like Doctor Who as he had in the past. Consequently, McDonald turned to former Doctor Who producer Barry Letts. Since leaving Doctor Who in 1974, Letts had principally been working on classic serials such as Lorna Doone and Treasure Island, but had been keeping an informal eye on his old programme at McDonald's behest since the spring. Letts now agreed to formalise this arrangement, and accepted an appointment as Doctor Who's first-ever executive producer for Season Eighteen. This would be retroactively approved in mid-June 1980.
No comments:
Post a Comment