"It feels different this time..." - The new Doctor Who Thread

[Kazin]

It's funny, I feel almost the exact opposite about The Mind Robber - I feel like it gets weaker as it goes along, as it settles into a traditional Doctor Who narrative. The first episode is the best in the serial for me. It might just be that the black and white presentation going for avant garde creepiness just works for me in a way color serials with higher production value just can't, but it doesn't feel like stalling for time at all, in my opinion. It's scarier and feels more dangerous than anything the story can come up with later on.

I do think the Doctor screwing up Jamie's face makes him more fallible, as you say, but also more alien. How does he screw up the face of someone he's travelled with for so long? Is it because he's alien and cannot quite read faces the way us humans do? I mean, sure, production wise, it's to explain Frazier's absence, but I like to think it's because the Doctor is not quite human, despite how he presents. In no way was it intended to feed into The War Games's eventual revelation about the Doctor's origins, but it does fit, I think.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

It might just be that the black and white presentation going for avant garde creepiness just works for me in a way color serials with higher production value just can't

This is definitely an aspect I like about it. There's an eeriness to it. I would LOVE a cheeky episode that recaptures that artificiality (though usually when I think that it's more in the 70s black box theatre vein). But I also found it a little lacking in substance and I feel like "characters are tempted/tricked by illusion" is old hat. I think as much as I like eeriness, I like the creating and playing with story mechanics element more and though it falters (again, I think "let's overload the thing" is kind of lazy storytelling and if you are going to do it in an episode about fiction, it feels like that it is literally something the Doctor could have "written into" the story) in some parts, I feel like it's one of the more creative "Doctor vs. reality-warping villain" story with actual methodology to it.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I love how for the Invasion, Britbox's subtitles describe the theme as "Dissonant Funky Music"

 

[Kazin]

Uh, wow, they're colorizing and editing The War Games down into a 90 minute movie, similar to The Daleks last year.

That is going to be a fascinating watch. It'll be interesting to see what they cut out... Probably a lot of the American Civil War barn stuff, I'd imagine, though the cuts are going to hurt more here than in The Daleks, I'd think, since so much more of The War Games is actually watchable and entertaining compared to that often dull mess.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Invasion

"I hate computers and refuse to be bullied by them!"

In this serial, the Doctor lands on 20th Century Earth in need of repair for the TARDIS and in looking for help, stumbles on a strange conspiracy involving the company International Electromatics. After a meeting with the company's suspicious director, Vaughn, they are found by Lethbridge-Stewart, now a Brigadier. It seems something suspicious is happening at the company that he is investigating with the international organization UNIT. The Doctor. Jamie and Zoe agree to help and investigate. Part of their investigation also involves saving Professor Watkins, an electronics genius, who reveals Vaughn is working with a mysterious ally. The ally, to the Doctor's horror, turns out to be the Cybermen.

Vaughn is plotting to dominate the world with the Cybermen and also schemes to make sure they don't betray him by having several back up plans include a machine that damages Cybermen by messing with their emotion circuits. Vaughn, realizing the Doctor and UNIT are close to uncovering the invasion plans, moves his time table with a smaller but nonetheless lethal Cyberman army. The Doctor decides the best strategy is to appeal to the human element that is Vaughn. When Zoe and UNIT help undermine the invasion, the Cybermen cut Vaughn loose. Vaughn, bitter at the betrayal, agrees to help the Doctor and the two raid a radio tower where the Cybermen are communicating. The Doctor, UNIT and Vaughn succeed but Vaughn dies. With the help from the Russians, a missile is used to blow up the Cyber-ship. With the TARDIS repaired, the Doctor and friends return to wandering the universe.

The Invasion is both a VERY strong outing but also one with a lot of notable weaknesses. To an extent, that can be the charm. So many of these first two Doctor stories involve going back and forth to certain locations, giving a repetitive vibe. At least when the show completely yada yadas over the rescue of Professor Watkins (they literally start to make the plan and the next scene is "thanks for rescuing me!"), it saves us a lot of needless legwork. There's also Jamie just disappearing for the last two episodes. I don't quite think it justifies the length, either. But at the same time, it never becomes a slog despite having three locations.

I think a large part of the success is the villain. No, not the Cybermen. Fact is, I like the Cybermen but up to now there's never been a uniformly successful Cyberman story to me. Oh, there's "not bad" with caveats. This should be it because I like the story and the two big Cyberman reveals are great. Thing is though... this is a Vaughn story. Vaughn is the big bad, taking up a lot more screen time. His schemes are big factors and the Cybermen almost feel like they could be interchanged with any vague alien and/or robot menace. Kevin Stoney, who was Mavic Chen in the Daleks' Master Plan is given a very solid villain. Not deep, per se, but very... crunchy. A big broad villain with lots to do. He's cool and slick until things go wrong and he rages. It's a successful villain turn and while not too different than many of the "invasion collaborator" villains in Doctor Who, it's just a role that stands out.

The episode does have stuff that peters out a bit, sadly. I feel like Vaughn's death lacked poetry or elegance. Since we've spent more time with him as an antagonist, I'd rather something ironic or something where he does something surprising either as a better man than expected or even more of a shitheel. But he's... just shot. Also, they introduce that he's bionic or something and that's completely dropped in terms of relevance. His right hand man just straight up disappears despite putting in the hours of being chewed out. And yet, despite it's flaws and the risk of running a story into a ground with it's limited settings, it does keep things energetic. I do wish it was open to more humour like in the last episode, with the Doctor hopping away from lethal blasts and posing for a picture. I will say the opening episode is strong and moody (though that might be the animated version) and I do with it kept with that. But it does feel forward thinking; the introduction of UNIT helps make the entire story feel like the warm up to the Pertwee run, where many of the stories felt quite similar to this. Troughton gets fun stuff in the last two episodes as he blows up at Vaughn and gets some sillies in the last episode.

The Invasion is far from perfect but perfection isn't the same thing as enjoyment. And the Invasion is a consistently enjoyable yarn with a surprisingly engaging plainclothes villain and an iconic cliffhanger...

Best Cliffhanger; The reveal this is a Cyberman story at the midpoint is pretty good but the Cybermen in modern day (or near future? It feels like time is a little fudged on this) is an image that is pretty striking. There haven't been a lot of Invasion stories that weren't in the future or far away from familiar locales up to this point so putting iconic villains in the here and now is a good idea that would become a staple of the series.

Next time:

 

[Kazin]

Yeah, I'm with you pretty much all the way here. The Invasion is a fun watch primarily because of Troughton (as always) and Stoney as Vaughn. The Cybermen outside in London, for real in front of St Paul's Cathedral (called back to during the Capaldi era, which was great) was pretty cool, but yeah, they were forgettable in this story otherwise, it's all the Doctor and Vaughn imo. Shoutout to Zoe blowing up the computer with logic.

Very interested to hear what you think of The Krotons...

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Shoutout to Zoe blowing up the computer with logic.

I think the series is much more willing to let Zoe do stuff than a lot of the other female companions. I maintain Susan got done dirty.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Krotons

"Great jumping gobstoppers!"

In this serial, The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves on a desolate planet. They find a city but on the way they see a stunned and confused man completely vaporized. Entering the city, they discover that the people of the planet, the Gonds, are at the mercy of their "benelovent" leaders the Krotons and have been for thousands of years. It seems they select the smartest of them to join them. The Doctor works out the person they saw die was among the smartest and a young woman, Vana, is next. They manage to save Vana and warn the Gonds that they've been duped. The Doctor and Zoe decide to enter the Krotons machine to learn about them The Krotons try to take their minds but the Doctor and Zoe manage to escape. Jamie goes in after them only to be captured.

Meanwhile, the Gonds are disagreeing on how to rebel with one faction choosing to fight head on and the others trying sabotage. The Doctor has his own idea and teaches the Gonds to produce sulfuric acid. One faction of Gonds betrays the Doctor in exchange for their own safety but the Doctor and Zoe use the opportunity to poison the Krotons nutrient supply with sulfuric acid, though the endeavor comes at the cost of the deposed Gond leader. The other gonds help Jamie produce more acid to destroy the Kroton's evil machine and the Doctor and the rest go home.

I apologize if the description of the story isn't clear. I just... didn't care at a certain point. This one starts... promising is strong but it starts competant. It's pretty generic "one alien race must learn to overthrow their evil oppressors" tale. And with the fact that there's a deal made that we never see the Krotons, I assumed either there were no Krotons or that basically a mindless computer was continuing the dystopia on autopilot and that whatever the threat was, it wasn't conventional aliens.

Nope, it was just some dumb aliens. Very dumb. I'm not clear about what their deal was. I guess they've been around thousands of years trying to get their ship of the ground but no one was smart enough to brain steal. It's all very thin soup and the Krotons themselves are among the series most ineffectual villains. They sound like someone who should be denying Oliver Twist more food but through a machine. They just kind of stand around and go on but it's clear the story has too little going on for them to have definite goals. It feels like a mishmash of other Doctor Who stuff, like brain-stealing, getting off the planet and enslaving people. As soon as the Krotons show up, the series makes it clear how poorly thought out this is.

Like, there's a part where the Gonds mentioned they weren't allowed to learn chemistry. Then why even teach them what chemistry IS? The bad guys need to make the Gonds smarter but not too smart but also making them not too smart meant their plan would never work. And they make a show about how they hypnotize by almost brainwashing Zoe and the Doctor by getting euphoria and desire to please the Krotons on the machines but the Gonds are VERY quick to turn on the Krotons. Then there's a debate on how to fight the Krotons and the show's only argument about one method over the other is that one guy sucks and is willing to sell out the good guys. And then the episode ends with him still in power and one Gond saying "We'll deal with him." How? There's no reason for him to instantly lose that power. It would be better to have a slightly more cynical ending where the Doctor beats the aliens but he can't save the Gonds from themselves.

It's a story that gets more and more sloppy as it goes on until it just feels like a hodgepodge of the weakest Doctor stories. The interesting thing is this is written by Robert Holmes who would become the series most prolific writer and would not only create some beloved episodes but also create some of the most important elements of the mythos like the Master, Rassilon, the naming of Gallifrey and the Eye of Harmony. I guess you got to start somewhere.

Best Cliffhanger: I guess the worm camera thing attacking the Doctor, if I need to choose.

Next Time:

 

[Kazin]

The Krotons is fairly generic as monster stories go, yes, but I appreciate it for some small things, like the scene where the Doctor and Zoe take that test and we see Troughton do his best Matt Smith impression 50 years early. And I always enjoy seeing Phillip Madoc, even in a small part.

 

[SpoonyBard]

I'm seeing double!

Four Gatwas!

 

[Kirin]

Do we have a release date? Is it always actual Xmas for these things? I forget.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Do we have a release date? Is it always actual Xmas for these things? I forget.

Yeah, the special is cone out XMas day. New programs and specials on that day are a British thing

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Seeds of Death

"Well, you know, questions, explanations. It's very difficult. Come on."

In this serial, the Doctor and his friends wind up in a space museum in 21st century Earth when conventional vehicles have been replaced with a teleportation system nicknamed T-Mat. However, T-Mat's controls on the moon have been hi-jacked by the Ice Warriors. Though Earth doesn't know the danger, they do know T-Mat is offline and will result in worldwide chaos the long people don't have access to it. The Doctor and company are enlisted to pilot a rocket to the moon to deal with it. While there they find the Ice Warriors as a couple survivors, including Fewsham, forced into service and not realizing the true depth of the Ice Warriors plan. It seems the main goal is to use T-Mat to spread mysterious seeds which destroy oxygen.

Jamie and a survivor manage to use guerilla tactics to defeat some Ice Warriors and Fewsham helps the humans escape to Earth via T-Mat. The doctor studies the seeds and learns they can be destroyed with common water. The Doctor and friends use the Earth's weather control system to create deluges all over the Earth to defeat the fungus. Finally, the Doctor uses a plan involving a false signal to trick the Ice Warrior fleet heading to Earth. As Earth's scientists bicker over the future of T-Mat, the Doctor and his friends leave for their next adventure.

I remember renting Seeds of Death back in the day and finding it OKish. I'm a little less friendly too it now. The story is better than the Krotons but the Ice Warriors remain very thin villains. Really, it feels like it could have been any alien threat. This could have been a Dalek plot or a Cyberman scheme. Also, I never want to hear the word T-Mat again. Overall, fitting with the title, there's a seed of a good idea. What is the future of our world with teleportation and what happens when something we are so dependent on disappears. The first could episodes seem to promise a story of convenience vs adventure as the Doctor uses a rocket to the moon. But it's also telling for the pacing that episode two the Doctor STILL hasn't gotten to the moon. This did not need to be a six-episode story.

Really, as good as the Doctor is in this, Fewsham is the character with an arc. He sucks, to be sure, a cowardly dummy who is trying to rationalize his decisions tell the truth stares him in the face. He stands apart from the usual "collaborator" villain in the invasion arcs. But the story neither is strong enough to make us really hate him or pity him or cheer when he listens to his better angels. It's all a bit hollow. Meanwhile, I feel the Doctor is pretty ready to kill in this one. I think we are used to the Doctor trying to give his enemies a chance (well, except Daleks and Cybermen but those are races that themselves have removed humanity from within themselves) but he's pretty quick on the death trigger here. I do like his final confrontation with Slaar a bit. I feel like the Doctor stories have been missing the moment that happens in nearly every new Who story where the Doctor allows him to reveal his victory to his enemy. It would probably be better if I cared about Slaar in any capacity.

I will say I also liked the climax of episode five. I think Troughton is not afraid to play the Doctor as someone who can be a bit silly and this whole climax leans into it, even before the Doctor is slopped with foam. I love him jogging in place on a black background. I wish it was a silliness that pervaded most of the story line but alas, it was not.

Best Cliffhanger: FOAM

Next Time:

 

[Kazin]

Yeah, the Ice Warriors only have on good story imo and you haven't seen it yet. I do prefer The Seeds of Death to the first Ice Warriors story, though, at least.

Gonna be interested to see what you think of the next one... It gets quite a rough ride in fandom (mostly unfairly, imo).