Watched 2-Mayhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakedown:_Return_of_the_Sontarans
We watched a VHS capture compressed to Xvid.
Is it really Doctor Who? It features several recurring characters from DW so yes it qualifies.
The budget is obviously low. The costumes are kinda cheap looking. The whole film is shot aboard the HMS Belfast, an old battleship moored in the Thames as a museum.
The spaceship modelwork is ok without being fantastic.
The plot is turgid (predictable and cliched) yet lively and exciting. performances are variable. Jan Chappell is quite good and solid as lead hero. Brian Croucher as token wise guy is less believable. Toby Aspin as the (slightly?) heroic Sontaran commander is good value but Tom Finnis as the 'thick' Sontaran Vorn is letting the side down. Carol Ann Ford and Sophie give effective notes to their characters. Michael Wisher seems a little underused here (Strangely his accent veers a bit wildly from American to Irish.)
Direction is a bit ropey from time to time (especially with stunt shots) but there are some good ideas and imaginative use of the location. I'm not sure the idea of the Solar Sailing 'yacht' ex-commercial cruiser quite matches the very heavy steel bulkheads of the inside of a WW2 battleship but.
Worst thing in it is the blatant recycling of classic DW dialogue ("The human female" "the cyberman line" and stuff about "glorious deaths".) It's like Terrance Dicks was making the dialogue out of shredded, remaindered copies of Target books.
The production is entertaining and better than I remembered it last time I saws it. Otherwise it's probably too unadventurous and a bit predictable. The Sontaran commander turned possible hero ending is pleasing but the crew are cliched.
I would have cast Sophie, Jan and Carol Ann as the Sontarans and have 'em write their own femmo dialogue. It would have been much more interesting and experimental.
ABM Rating 3.25/4.00
LJM Rating 3.39/5.00
SPJ Rating 6.50/10
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