Competent and engaging. Actors and characters playing well, supplemented by some interesting location footage.
ABM Rating 3.15/4.00
LJM Rating 3.70/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.50/10
No. 58 (out of 131)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
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Friday, 31 January 2020
131 The Awakening
Started 31-Jan-2020
Competent and engaging. Actors and characters playing well, supplemented by some interesting location footage.
ABM Rating 3.15/4.00
LJM Rating 3.70/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.50/10
No. 58 (out of 131)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Competent and engaging. Actors and characters playing well, supplemented by some interesting location footage.
ABM Rating 3.15/4.00
LJM Rating 3.70/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.50/10
No. 58 (out of 131)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Tuesday, 28 January 2020
130 Warriors of the Deep
Started 28-Jan-2020
A new low...
Consider the plot for a moment. An isolated seabase in the year 2084 is the bulwark of a nuclear missile defence (honestly, what's wrong with submarines?), whose operation depends on the faculties of a modified human sync operator. The original guy has become unavailable due to some injury (not depicted in the story). His replacement is breaking down under stress while some enemy agents try to sabotage the base. So far, so cliched.
Meanwhile some Silurians troll by a nearby undersea cave to awaken some Sea Devils who then proceed with some vague plan (and they take take 3 whole episodes to do this) to assault the base, break in and try to take over the place to fire the missiles using their own 'technology'. ie. the plot of the first half of ep 7 of the Silurians spread out over 4 eps.
The end of p2 is just silly. (a cardboard door, a pantomime sea monster and guards who pretend to die like 7yo boys...)
Add the absolute disaster that is the Myrka (costume, performance, filming, concept), some of the most excreable dialogue ever filmed and players who fail to act convincingly and some very confused ideas about "biohazardous" hexachromite, drowning, the game show lighting and the silly fight scenes and you get a near complete disaster.
According to the making of doco that hot mess was rushed into studio quickly without sufficient time for rehearsal, effects work and costume building or proper script development.
This is a shower of brown, sticky crap.
The sets are quite good to look at... This is 1983/84 so the threat of nuclear war was well known and understood by the audience. The threat is much less front of mind in 2020.
ABM Rating 0.74/4.00
LJM Rating 1.80/5.00
SPJ Rating 1.40/10
No. 130 (out of 130)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
A new low...
Consider the plot for a moment. An isolated seabase in the year 2084 is the bulwark of a nuclear missile defence (honestly, what's wrong with submarines?), whose operation depends on the faculties of a modified human sync operator. The original guy has become unavailable due to some injury (not depicted in the story). His replacement is breaking down under stress while some enemy agents try to sabotage the base. So far, so cliched.
Meanwhile some Silurians troll by a nearby undersea cave to awaken some Sea Devils who then proceed with some vague plan (and they take take 3 whole episodes to do this) to assault the base, break in and try to take over the place to fire the missiles using their own 'technology'. ie. the plot of the first half of ep 7 of the Silurians spread out over 4 eps.
The end of p2 is just silly. (a cardboard door, a pantomime sea monster and guards who pretend to die like 7yo boys...)
Add the absolute disaster that is the Myrka (costume, performance, filming, concept), some of the most excreable dialogue ever filmed and players who fail to act convincingly and some very confused ideas about "biohazardous" hexachromite, drowning, the game show lighting and the silly fight scenes and you get a near complete disaster.
According to the making of doco that hot mess was rushed into studio quickly without sufficient time for rehearsal, effects work and costume building or proper script development.
This is a shower of brown, sticky crap.
The sets are quite good to look at... This is 1983/84 so the threat of nuclear war was well known and understood by the audience. The threat is much less front of mind in 2020.
ABM Rating 0.74/4.00
LJM Rating 1.80/5.00
SPJ Rating 1.40/10
No. 130 (out of 130)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Sunday, 26 January 2020
129 The Five Doctors
We watched the Paul Vanezis 1995 enhanced edit.
Terrance Dicks script is a masterpiece of structure (split 'em up into two handers and have 'em all meet up at the end) overlaid by the JNT Saward touch of crappy production.
Burdened with 5 Doctors (the most popular of which refuses to join in and one of whom is dead), 19 companions (I think), Bessie, the Timelords, the Master and every DW monster you can remember the fact that there's any plot at all and it makes any sense is a goddamn miracle.
You can criticize the continuity all you want but the story as presented is a watchable tour of the tropes of DW's first 20 years. Crucially it ends with an acknowledgement of the history but a nod to the fact that the present and the future are the focus.
ABM Rating 3.30/4.00
LJM Rating 4.27/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.05/10
No. 30 (out of 129)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Saturday, 25 January 2020
128 The King's Demons
Dull rubbish.
Isla Blair gets two whole lines in the serial....
As a vehicle for Kamelion it's very slight indeed.
ABM Rating 2.25/4.00
LJM Rating 2.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 2.80/10
No. 111 (out of 128)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Thursday, 23 January 2020
127 Enlightenment
Started 23-Jan
Enlightenment is an impressive serial with a startling, original premise.
It makes an all time legendary end of p1 reveal.
Of course it's very implausible but it's quirky and successfully combines the ahistorical with aliens.
This serial was recast due to strike action.
Enjoyable perfomances, reasonable effects and a script which portrays Tegan's feelings in a plausible way. Christopher Brown as Marriner is the sleeper for best sci-fi character of a season with some strong contenders, Mawdryn (6F) and Ambril, Tanha and Lon (6D). He manages to combine a simple human (ish) curiosity with some sci-fi complexity. This is most welcome in a quality DW serial.
The climax is a bit overblown. The Black/White Guardian confrontation is difficult to realise credibly. In 1978/79 it was squibbed/avoided. Here, there is, thankfully, some resolution, however awkward.
I think it's a great shame that no one asked Barbara Clegg to write for DW again.
ABM Rating 3.50/4.00
LJM Rating 4.18/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.40/10
No. 22 (out of 127)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Tuesday, 21 January 2020
126 Terminus
Ooo this is not very good.
An almost routine space story is ruined by a very silly universe ending subplot which seems to just evaporate halfway through ep4 via an illogically written deux ex machina (bending the lever? Srsly?). Clip out ep3 about 18m onwards to ep4 about 13m and see how it affects the story.(Hint: it would be an improvement...)The Lazars disease and it's sufferers are poorly defined and their fate seems ignored. The ugly compromised Vanir are gladly handed both control, the upper hand in Terminus society and the services of the lovely Nyssa despite being a bunch of pirates at the start. Are they gonna turn into good citizen managers of the Lazars' treatment facility or will they quickly descend to exploiting them after another 6 months (or what)?
This production was hit by BBC studio industrial action and some careless technical errors. The set was built three inches too big and led to a scenery shifters' strike about encroachment on to safe area fire zones...which in turn resulted in a remount which also affected Enlightenment and then the cancellation of the 7th serial of Series 20 and then Peter Grimwade's career as a director. Tiny ripple to major tsunami there....
First time on Who director Mary Ridge seemed out to sea on this. Like Fiona Cumming she had a few good eps of Blakes 7 (Terminal, Rescue, Blake) in her recent work. She had a long history since the mid 60's of directing drama, cop shows, medical drama, and some soapies. It is difficult to decide what is due to studio troubles or poor direction. Either way the narrative presented on screen is annoying, disjointed and does not make sense.
The Vanir costumes are disastrous. They sound silly and are rankly unsuitable for fight scenes. The way the face cover on the mask swings up is like Sir Bedevere in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (Oh Terry...)
The Garm is ridiculous. Steve Gallagher claims it NOT what he scripted ("glowing red eyes in the dark shadows which we never actually see became a comedy giant dog-man.)
Why did anyone think reusing the Zygon signalling sound effect for the Garm would be ok? (It's not.)
Liza Goddard and Dominic Guard as Kari and Olvir needed to be played for laughs (or something). They are particularly dull and lacking in interest.
Peter as the Doctor and Sarah as Nyssa are fine. Mark as Turlough and Janet as Tegan noticeably spend 4 eps crawling around tunnels and trotting up and down corridors achieving nothing but a giant loop sub plot.
Andrew Burt makes something of a fairly crummy part as Valguard. Martin Potter as Eirak is like diarrhoea: painful and stressful. Peter Benson is wasted as Bor.
Apparently BAFTA award winning actress, writer and director Kathy Burke plays one of the Lazars in episode 1 and 3. Rightly she claims this on her very impressive CV. See https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0121755/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
ABM Rating 2.05/4.00
LJM Rating 1.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 6.90/10
No. 102 (out of 126)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Sunday, 19 January 2020
125 Mawdryn Undead
This surprised us. Some were expecting another 4 eps of crap and were happily surprised by the pace , intensity and characterisation.
We yummed up all 4 eps in one go without planning to.
Key to the action is a stunning debut by new actor Mark Strickson. As Peter Davison wryly observes in his DVD extra... "he knows how to find the
lens"... meaning he has an awareness of how to perform to the camera.
It is a surprise to learn that in the 38 years since this was made Mark has not yet appeared in any proper films...
Equally significantly this is neither a base under siege nor another alien invasion.
Mawdryn Undead has a clear plot with a good, original (for DW anyway) idea.
It is a story about a group of aliens with an odd ambition... (the desire for self destruction following an accident with a metamorphic symbiosis regenerator (oh yes, one of those)), all mixed in with a spaceship orbiting in time as well as space and involving the return of a old time character with a MAJOR bout of forgetfulness.
Definitely Peter Moffat's best effort on DW. State of Decay is a close second. (Visitation, 5 Docs, Twin D, and 2 Docs are his others.) Also Peter Grimwade's best work on the show.
Top 5 from the 80's (just). (Warriors', Caves, Kinda just shade it...)
ABM Rating 3.70/4.00
LJM Rating 4.15/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.30/10
No. 17 (out of 125)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Monday, 13 January 2020
124 Snakedance
Started 13-Jan-2020
Adult and serious, with actual symbolism and acting and performances with some subtlety.
Fielding, Carson, Clunes, O'Neill, Miller, Morris all playing well....
A slightly unsatisfying ending maybe?
Otherwise a dead set classic.
Controversial opinions time.
If Fiona Cumming had been promoted to producer and JNT sidelined to marketing manager, DW would be still running and up to Series 57, ep 1438 by January of 2020.
And Chris Bailey as Script Editor? No that's a bridge too far. He should have been writing novels like Steve Gallagher.
ABM Rating 3.70/4.00
LJM Rating 4.24/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.00/10
No. 17 (out of 124)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Sunday, 5 January 2020
123 Arc of Infinity
Started 5-Jan
This is awful.
It has a reasonable first episode and a good last episode which saves it a bit. But there are large chunks of p2 and p3 which are painful to engage with. The dialogue is baffling and makes little reasoned sense but it is delivered with an invariably strident, urgent tone which ends up sounding desperate.
The dialogue is terrible, the acting largely inadequate, and the plot and exposition are laughable. Costuming is dreary, the Ergon is ridiculous, the sets are flat, the lighting is "game show",
In p1 Omega describes Hedin's choice of target for transfer from anti-matter to real matter as if there are several or many possibilities. But the course of the next two parts **depends** on the Doctor being the ONLY possible target and therefore his elimination is a 'safe' way to prevent any transfer.
The whole of part 2 could have been avoided if Omega and Hedin simply went "the Doctor's been put on ice on Gallifery, Oh, ok. Who else can we try?". Lame plotting and abominable script editing.
The filming is Amsterdam is dull and unimaginative. There's nothing wrong with it but it's not anything special.
The best sequences are with Peter Davison as Omega fleeing through the streets, he encounters a musical organ and interacts limply with citizens and kids. The poignancy of the cheesy old song "Tulips from Amsterdam" (about enjoying the fleeting moments you have rather than regret for those which may never come) juxtaposed with Omega's situation (incomplete and unstable antimatter transfer) but he's stuck in the extremely quaint exotic Netherlandish streetscape is potentially profound but seems to have escaped the makers of this serial completely.
There are some faintly ridiculous technical gaffes which age the story badly in 2020. e.g. when the Doctor is at large on Gallifrey early in p3 the President is way to pleased to announce that the Doctor using an entry code to open a door has revealed him to be active on Gallifrey. This comes across as just unsophisticated in 2020.
The insipid direction is by Ron 'flat' Jones.
Sarah Sutton as Nyssa seems to have developed a gun fetish. She steals two guns, shoots three Chancellery Guards and threatens plenty more. Rumours are that several of her scenes were written for Louise Jameson as Leela but wisely she decided she was "busy, sorry."
One positive is the extent to which Peter Davison as The Doctor has found his feet. He seems to work better with just 2 companions.
Janet Fielding as Tegan has had a character reboot. She's gone from uptight "you were supposed to be getting me back to Heathrow.... bitch bitch" to "what job, I got the sack!". She's unwound a LOT!!!!
Coming as it does straight after Time-Flight, the only reason Arc of Infinity seems a reprieve is solely on account that ANYTHING is up from Time-Flight.
ABM Rating 1.25/4.00
LJM Rating 1.10/5.00
SPJ Rating 2.30/10
No. 119 (out of 123)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
This is awful.
It has a reasonable first episode and a good last episode which saves it a bit. But there are large chunks of p2 and p3 which are painful to engage with. The dialogue is baffling and makes little reasoned sense but it is delivered with an invariably strident, urgent tone which ends up sounding desperate.
The dialogue is terrible, the acting largely inadequate, and the plot and exposition are laughable. Costuming is dreary, the Ergon is ridiculous, the sets are flat, the lighting is "game show",
In p1 Omega describes Hedin's choice of target for transfer from anti-matter to real matter as if there are several or many possibilities. But the course of the next two parts **depends** on the Doctor being the ONLY possible target and therefore his elimination is a 'safe' way to prevent any transfer.
The whole of part 2 could have been avoided if Omega and Hedin simply went "the Doctor's been put on ice on Gallifery, Oh, ok. Who else can we try?". Lame plotting and abominable script editing.
The filming is Amsterdam is dull and unimaginative. There's nothing wrong with it but it's not anything special.
The best sequences are with Peter Davison as Omega fleeing through the streets, he encounters a musical organ and interacts limply with citizens and kids. The poignancy of the cheesy old song "Tulips from Amsterdam" (about enjoying the fleeting moments you have rather than regret for those which may never come) juxtaposed with Omega's situation (incomplete and unstable antimatter transfer) but he's stuck in the extremely quaint exotic Netherlandish streetscape is potentially profound but seems to have escaped the makers of this serial completely.
There are some faintly ridiculous technical gaffes which age the story badly in 2020. e.g. when the Doctor is at large on Gallifrey early in p3 the President is way to pleased to announce that the Doctor using an entry code to open a door has revealed him to be active on Gallifrey. This comes across as just unsophisticated in 2020.
The insipid direction is by Ron 'flat' Jones.
Sarah Sutton as Nyssa seems to have developed a gun fetish. She steals two guns, shoots three Chancellery Guards and threatens plenty more. Rumours are that several of her scenes were written for Louise Jameson as Leela but wisely she decided she was "busy, sorry."
One positive is the extent to which Peter Davison as The Doctor has found his feet. He seems to work better with just 2 companions.
Janet Fielding as Tegan has had a character reboot. She's gone from uptight "you were supposed to be getting me back to Heathrow.... bitch bitch" to "what job, I got the sack!". She's unwound a LOT!!!!
Coming as it does straight after Time-Flight, the only reason Arc of Infinity seems a reprieve is solely on account that ANYTHING is up from Time-Flight.
ABM Rating 1.25/4.00
LJM Rating 1.10/5.00
SPJ Rating 2.30/10
No. 119 (out of 123)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
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