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)
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ReplyDeleteDoctor Who - Arch of Infinity
That's *** ARC *** (as in a segment of a curve) of Infinity!!!! Neither of these are DW's greatest moments but the real life Concorde airliner as a prop is quite an achievement in Time-Flight and the Amsterdam locations in Arc of Infinity are a pleasant distraction.