Doctor Who: The Macra Terror

Serial Title: The Macra Terror

Series: 4

Episodes: 4

Doctor: Patrick Troughton

Companions: Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Polly Wright (Anneke Wills), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines)

Synopsis:

On ‘an Earth colony’ on ‘an earth-like planet’ in ‘the future’ (bloody vague settings!), the TARDIS lands just in time to run into Medok, a crazed fugitive who attacks the crew and is subdued by Ben and Jamie. Guards hot on his trail arrive and take him away, and their leader, Ola, welcomes the TARDIS crew and takes them back to the Utopian colony. (Which must be either evil, or disaster-bound, as no Utopian place can survive long in sci-fi…)

The group are introduced to the Pilot, the colony’s leader. They are given a whirlwind tour of the colony’s luxuries- its happy workers and musical jingles... they also find out that Medok was considered mentally ill, having claimed to see “Macra,” giant crab-like aliens- in the colony at night. The Doctor and the group, rightly recognizing that any fugitive encountered by a traveling sci-fi or fantasy group as they first enter a new area is correct and destined to become an ally in overthrowing the status quo of his or her pursuers, are somewhat suspicious, and begin to investigate- the Doctor going down to speak with Medok… and accidentally releasing Medok from his cell in the process.

The Doctor pursues him, as the others learn about the colony's chief labor project- mining a gas which is poisonous to humans down in the pits. Though they insist that the gas is vital to the colony, no one will elaborate on what it is used for.

The Doctor catches up with Medok at a construction site- where Medok tells him that others have seen the Macra, too- but all who do are sent to a mental hospital for 'correction.' The Doctor sees one, too- the monstrous crustacean/insect emerging to roam the colony at night- but both are found by Ola's guards. Medok sacrifices his chance at corroboration (more likely to have the Doctor committed alongside him) by claiming that the Doctor was searching for him and trying to convince him to return to correct the earlier mistake of freeing him. The Controller, the ever-present Orwellian big-brother picture-with-a-voice projected on colony view-screens, urgently- almost fanatically- insists that "There are no such things as Macra!"

The Doctor is released to his sleeping chamber... where hypnotic brainwashing fields attempt to turn his companions into willing colony-members and Macra denialists. The Doctor frees Jamie and Polly in time... but Ben is turned, becoming one of 'them'- and reporting the Doctor for sabotaging the other hypnosis machines. Polly runs, and Ben gives chase- both stumbling into another Macra, which they barely escape from in the dark. After fighting it off, Ben denies having seen anything.

The Doctor demands to see the Controller himself, not just a picture of the man- and after a moment, a frail version of the man in the picture, decade older, appears live onscreen, captive in his own office. He begins to shout a warning, but is strangled by a Macra claw from off-screen... the Macra are the mind-controlling masters of the colony. The Pilot is ordered to forget, and the group is sent to the pit to mine. (What is it with Jamie and co. being sent to the mines?)

The pit is the source of the poisonous gas production, and a dangerous place. The group is assigned under Medok, who was deemed a hopeless mental case and banished to the pit as well. He arranges for the Doctor to stay behind as 'shift supervisor' as the others descend to mine. Ben, the traitor, monitors them distrustfully.

Jamie manages to slip away into a new, reinforced door by stealing the keys, but the others are unable to join him- as they labor away in the dangerous gas-filled mines, Jamie enters a strange tunnel leading gradually downward. Medok manages to slip away after him... and is attacked and killed by a Macra in the tunnel. Jamie finds his body, and the Macra- strangely motionless and inert. Under orders from the Controller, stored gas is pumped into the tunnel- suffocating Jamie and reviving the Macra. Jamie, choking, conceals himself, but won't be able to hide- or breathe- for long.

The Doctor tricks and outwits the Pit overseer, locking him in his office, and reverses the gas flow, pumping in oxygen which causes the Macra to slump listlessly and gives Jamie the advantage again. He escapes back into the colony via a vent grating- but is betrayed and given up by turncoat Ben, who is coming out of his trance, but not nearly enough yet.

The Doctor and Polly flee from the alerted guards and find themselves outside the Controller's chamber- in which an albino Macra controls the colony; the Doctor intuits that the Macra breathe the gas, and are using the humans as mind-controlled labor to prepare a takeover of their own colony. The Doctor and Polly risk going to the Pilot, rejoining the captured Jamie- but rather than taking them into custody, the Pilot, having witnessed the Macra killing the real Controller, and beginning to question 'Big Brother,' decides to aid them... while Ben is finally coming out of his temporary brainwashing. Confused and disoriented, he wanders off.

The pilot is led to see the Albino Macra for himself, as the Albino directs all guards in the colony, under the more obedient party-line Ola, to stop them. The guards, under orders, lock them in a pipe room just outside the Controller's room, and leave- while the Doctor, Jamie, Polly, and the Pilot, in full view of the Albino, begin to suffocate as it floods their room with the gas- intent on coming out and finishing them itself once levels are breathable.

However, rescue comes in the form of Ben, still outside, who is able, under the Doctor's verbal instructions, to reverse the flow, flooding the Macra with 'lethal' oxygen all throughout their tunnels and chambers in a terrific explosion.

In the aftermath, the Colony celebrates, the Pilot officially and publicly thanks the heroes, and announces their intention to make the Doctor the next Pilot... to which the Doctor and companions wave goodbye and close out a running gag of the serial by dancing their way through the crowd and out the door.

Review:

Did you know that the first ‘Big Brother/Mind Control’ sci-fi story was written by famed author Joel Ben-Micah- who decided to take up writing shortly after his corpse was tossed into Elisha’s tomb and re-animated by his bones- in 790 B.C.? True story. And the ‘Big Brother/brainwashing’ storyline has been an integral part of sci-fi ever since.

Yes, once again, Doctor Who tackles on a sci-fi cliché nearly as old as writing itself. So, how does it fair?

Pretty well, actually- owing in part to the fact that the Big-Brother/Mind-Control element is only half the story. That’s something that Old Who does best- taking a sci-fi cliché and turning it into a setting in which to play out a story rather than a story itself (the same thing, post-Highlanders, that they do with history, unfortunately- still, a worthwhile trade-off.)

This episode had some good humor, yet again- the Second Doctor’s reputation as a clown is not ill-deserved- as represented in the opening Emerald-City-esque montage of the group being treated to the amenities of the Colony- the Doctor is cleaned up too much for his liking, and ‘accidentally’ enters a muscle-toning machine to get himself properly re-rumpled. Even in stills (this is another reconstruction, folks- blah!) the humor comes through.

I was really looking forward to this one due to New Series 3’s “Gridlock,” in which the Macra return (40 years later- how cool is that?) ; I was looking forward to seeing their original story. Sadly, due to the dark, smudgy, non-Loose-Canon reconstruction… I couldn’t make out a single Macra clearly on-screen… half the time (like the apparently white Macra in the control room?) I couldn’t even tell what I was supposed to be seeing.

Interestingly, the Macra themselves were large, ungainly things, developed by Shawcraft, an outside contractor that had been doing Doctor Who effects work since The Daleks- and had been doing unacceptably poor work since the original city miniature for The Daleks. They delivered a single Macra prop, which was large, heavy, ponderous, and took a flatbed pickup truck to actually move- rendering them mostly immobile, and a pain to reposition for new shots- severely limiting what could be done with them (despite being extremely expensive). So perhaps there wasn’t much to see…

The Doctor is not particularly subtle in this one- as is the Doctor’s way- even though playing along for a bit could save him a good deal of trouble. Rather, Medok is surprisingly the clever one, thinking up the obvious and helpful explanation for the Doctor’s actions and leaving him in a position where he can do something good- something the Doctor himself doesn’t seem to have thought of. Meanwhile, the Doctor is a good deal more blood-thirsty than usual, seemingly having no problem annihilating the Macra- far from the “Come with me, I’ll take you to another planet where you can live in peace… No? Okay, NOW I’ll annihilate you!” attitude of the New series.

Polly is a screamer here, but also pretty proactive for the small story role she’s given. Not much to say either way.

Likewise for Jamie, who shows a great moral fortitude in resisting the brainwashing on his own, and gets a nice creepy showdown with in-the-flesh Macra, but not much else. His irritation at Ben mirrors the audience’s.

It’s also an aggravating episode due to this factor. Even though Ben is suffering from brainwashing, turncoat-Ben becomes of paramount annoyance very quickly, and only manages to redeem himself by saving the day in the oddly-truncated (but stylistically acceptable) ending. Too bad this was only in stills- it would have been funny to see everyone dance themselves out at the end.

Still, there are some nice creepy moments- the real controller, a puppet of an old man, being killed by the Macra claw, for instance. There are also some funny ones, such as the Doctor’s ‘equation’ bits, and his clever outmaneuvering of the pressure-pipes caretaker.

Also of note is the fact that, after the Celestial Toymaker, this serial is the second time in which the TARDIS crew dances themselves to safety.

This serial has some disappointments that keep it from its true potential- but I suspect it would reach much closer to it if the video were intact. This serial also debuted the new opening title sequence, incorporating the Doctor’s face (which would become a tradition for the remainder of the classic series).

The reconstruction was not Loose Canon, which, as this blog has ably demonstrated, means it sucks. This one was worse than usually- dark, muddy, exceedingly unclear, worse so than any before it… I wish we’d seen it as LC the first time, as I’m sure that would have been a far superior presentation that would have improved its standing immensely.

Great moments:

The ending with the explosion is nicely done. The dance-related humor. The Doctor disabling the mind-control for each companion… but reaching Ben too late.

Rating:

The Macra Terror registers a solid 3 out of 5 Deadman’s Keys, with the belief that a video version might have scored an additional .5 or even 1 on the scale. The recreation gets 0 out of 5 for fail-Fail-FAILING miserably!!!

Doctor Who: The Moonbase

Serial Title: The Moonbase

Series: 4

Episodes: 4

Doctor: Patrick Troughton

Companions: Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Polly Wright (Anneke Wills), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines)

Synopsis:

It’s one small step for the Doctor as he lands on Earth’s moon in 2070. The group fools about in spacesuits for a bit- and Jamie gets hurt. Fortuitously, there’s a nearby moonbase, a weather-control station beaming gravity rays, the Graviton, to climate control and condition Earth. However, Jamie is not the only under-the-weather man on the moon… the moonbase crew have been collapsing by a spreading virus- several members are already quarantined in the sickbay.

Suspicion falls on the Doctor as the first victims succumb to death, but it turns out that it is poison in the food supply- a location where a hole has been cut into the wall for something to get in… and that something is-

THE CYBERMEN????

(But…! BUT…!!!! This story isn’t called “Moonbase of the Cybermen!” They can’t use them unless they do that. …Can they? Are they allowed to do this? I don’t think they’re allowed to do this!)

After several “Oh, you’re only a woman, Polly- anything you saw must be a hysterical hallucination” ignored sightings, the Cybermen invade in force- their fleet on the way, and the dead-of-virus crewmen resurrected as cyber-slaves. The Cybermen- thought by the people of Earth as an extinct menace after the failed Mondas invasion of 1986 ("The Tenth Planet"), are back to take Earth- beginning by seizing the moonbase and sabotaging Earth’s weather.

Polly comes up with a chemical cocktail of acidic agents to dissolve the plastic breathing apparatus mounted on the Cybermen’s chest plates- using it, she, Ben, and the now-recovered Jamie are able to begin fighting back. (Note From Sarah: Not so bad for a HALLUCINATING WOMAN EH!?!?!) Meanwhile, the Cyberfleet lands, and an army of Cybermen begins an inexorable march across the moon…

The Cybermen destroy an Earth ship headed to rescue the moonbase crew- but are eliminated by Polly’s acid-spray. The Cybermen outside retaliate by firing on the base- but the gravitron is used to deflect the shots. The Doctor then brings the gravitron to bear on the surface, creating a repelling field that casts the Cybermen and their ships helplessly off into space.

As the TARDIS leaves, the Doctor consults his ‘unreliable’ future viewer and gets an image of a great and terrible claw…

Review:

Kinda cool, really! A base with a mysterious illness (and yes, that it was the coffee/sugar was telegraphed so far away, it could probably have been seen from Earth with the naked eye- and yes, it was both starkly similar and as clumsily obvious- so much so that you wonder how stupid the morons falling prey to it had to be to not have figured it out already- as the poisoned water in The Sensorites), the moon, moon-walks on wires with goofy sounds (cursed reconstructions- we can’t see it! Another 2-of-4-are-video story), mounting paranoia among the cast, and-

WHAT THE SACRED FIRE OF ORB!?!?! CYBERMEN!??!?!

Wow, I was NOT expecting that! It’s kind of hilarious, actually, the mindset that Doctor Who has put us in- that the appearance of a major villain is kept a shocking and unexpected surprise… merely by leaving their name out of the title. If it isn’t called “X of the Daleks” or “Y of the Cybermen,” we will be utterly and completely shocked if the Daleks or Cybermen appear. (Star Trek: The Next Generation clearly borrowed this concept and ran with it for its super-being Q.)

So, yeah- lots of cool stuff… Cybermen reveals (whipping aside that blanket- how scary/cool was that?!), (NFS: That was one of my most favorite moments! It was pretty amazing!) armies of Cybermen marching across the airless moon to lay siege, Polly coming up with an ingenious solution (albeit one requiring the Cybermen to have been constructed with radically inferior parts- no space-age super plastic? Then again, it apparently becomes traditional for the Cybermen to have an absurd Achilles-heel weakness in future…), the chilling scene in which the Cybermen hurl an approaching rescue ship into the sun… and an utterly absurd and hilarious ending in which the Cybermen are forcibly floated off of the surface of the moon. Talk about camp!

Okay, so… the Doctor. Some nice amusing physical comedy with his trying to unobtrusively obtain ‘samples’ from the crew. Some nice moments in the lab, from his ‘stalling’ to his realization that the Cyberman is present.

Polly is especially and unusually strong here. Yes, the femenists will note, she’s making coffee for the men again (shouldn’t the feminists be too busy with the jobs they’re always on about having instead of being at home, tied to a man, to be constantly on the internet harping about the portrayal of women in 1960s media?) (NFS: Not to sound 'harpy' but...you have to admit they did kind of make them look rather silly in the sixties.)- but that really seems to be her specialty, as, again, she volunteered to in the Tenth Planet, and again since. Having been a secretary, that’s probably a role she’s used to. And likewise, it’s a particularly ‘girly’- yet extremely scientifically-savvy- method that she devises to defeat the Cybermen. But even so, this fits with the character we knew- a secretary and a club-goer with a fancy for dressing up and looking good, so it is consistent (if not terribly feministic). And she does take a fairly center-stage; this is only fair- she was relatively passive and unhelpful in the Cybermen’s first appearance, so here she gets a chance to shine.

And, in fair trade-off, Ben, the action-hero of the previous Cyber-story, pretty much sits around in the background for this one.

Still, Ben fairs better than Jamie, out sick and raving in a fevered delirium for most of the serial- though surprisingly, his rantings are apparently enough to get the Cyberman to reconsider taking him… multiple times! …For some reason. In any event, his newcomer status and script-shoe-horning are still painfully evident. Thankfully, this won’t be in effect much longer, and soon we’ll hit stories written with Jamie in mind so that they don't have to find a gimmick to shunt him out of the way.

The special effects are good- miniatures, lightning bolts (that occasionally miss due to poor placement, but still…) wire-work, matte paintings- this one has it all, practically an extravaganza… with a pretty convincing moon environment!

This one is not as tight a thriller as Who has ever produced, for some reason- though all the elements- claustrophobic, isolated location, implacably marching enemies, mysterious disease- are there. Still, it’s fun, exciting, and has a few nice twists. I enjoyed it. (NFS: I liked this one a lot too, I thought it was definitely transporting and really fun.)

The reconstruction is… well, pretty same-old, same-old. We have far too many non-Loose-Cannons mixed into the 2^nd Doctor era, to the point that I’ve lost track… but too many of them are merely mediocre.

Great moments:

The Cybermen reveal and the march across the moon. Plus, you know- landing on the moon for the first time in Doctor Who.

Rating:

The Moonbase orbits high with 3.5 out of 5 Deadman’s Keys. It’s missing a little something that I can’t put my finger on, which prevents it from quite achieving the rank of the 4-of-5 classics… but it’s very solid and lots of fun! Reconstruction gets the usual (at this point) 2.5 out of 5.

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace

Serial Title: The Underwater Menace

Series: 4

Episodes: 4

Doctor: Patrick Troughton

Companions: Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Polly Wright (Anneke Wills), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines)

Synopsis:

In the early 1970s, an abandoned volcanic island somewhere in Earth’s Atlantic Ocean gains a new feature- a blue police box materializing on the far shore. The crew soon discovers a sort of hidden elevator, and are whisked away to the legendary lost city of Atlantis, submerged deep below. There, they are nearly sacrifices by High Priest Lolem to the Atlantean god, Amdo, by being fed to a pool of sharks… but they receive a last minute reprieve from the patron of the king, a scientist named Zaroff, a genius long-disappeared from the surface world whom the Doctor convinces that he has great value.

While Polly is sent to be converted into a genetically-altered fish person (the slave labor class of Atlantis) and Ben and Jamie sent off to toil in the mines, the Doctor is let in on Zaroff’s project, and the reason for his favor with the king- his plan to raise Atlantis from the sea… a mad plan involving cracking the Earth’s crust and pouring the ocean into it, creating an incredible steam burst beneath the crust that will split the planet and destroy the world- Zaroff is quite mad, and seeks global destruction simply for the accomplishment of being the first (and only) to achieve it (Note from Sarah: Talk about devoted to his cause, no one would even be alive to acknowledge he's the first, not even him!)- but has convinced the Atlanteans that draining away the ocean is harmless and will put them back on the ‘surface’ again- by bringing the surface to them. Yes, this is incredibly stupid, as the Atlanteans depend on the ocean for their life right now and making it go away is not a solution- but they are apparently very dumb people. (NFS: it's supposed to be poetic...they long so much to be people of the air again that they are stuck deep in self denial-the ocean is symbolic of the depth of their self-denial and how much they depend on it....yeah I was making that all up as I go.)

The horrified Doctor cuts the power, and a sympathetic servant girl, Ara, frees Polly before her operation can begin. Jamie and Ben also gain allies in Atlantis- Sean and Jacko, a pair of sailors shipwrecked on the island above and similarly shanghaied down to Atlantis. They escape the mines and join up with Polly and Ara. Lastly, the Doctor gains his own ally, Ramo, a priest of Amdo that believes Zaroff has sinister intent- the king does not agree, and the two are taken away to be executed in Amdo’s temple- but Ben, hiding within the hollow head of the statue of Amdo, speaks forth as its voice and commands them released. The whole group is together, and the Doctor plots to bring revolution to Atlantis- convincing the Fish People to revolt against their enslavement.

Using disguise and slapstick, the group manages to separate Zaroff and capture him, but he fakes a seizure and gets away- killing Ramo. Zaroff, madder than ever, attacks the king, overthrowing the royal gaurds with his own loyal men. The king survives and is taken to safety by the Doctor, who plans to flood the lower portion of Atlantis to destroy Zaroff’s lab, and the equipment with which he will destroy the world. While Sean and Jacko evacuate the populace to higher levels, The Doctor and Ben begin the flooding; the mad Zaroff tries to detonate his bombs early, but is trapped behind a grate by Ben to prevent his reaching the detonation controls. This also leaves him unable to not drown. With Zaroff dead, and the Atlanteans planning to rebuild, the TARDIS crew departs for dryer environs.

Review:
This was an interesting adventure story with an unusual tone… very Saturday morning kids-show. It has a hissable villain, an exotic location, death traps, captures and escapes… and Doctor Who’s first contact with that fable of fables, Atlantis. (Here’s an interesting educational note- did you know that, in Timaeus, the work by Plato in which Atlantis is described, he specifically clarifies it as a story he has created? In the very work Atlantis is sourced from, it clarifies that Atlantis isn’t real. That the myth has persisted doesn’t surprise me- it is, after all, in the hands of the same humans who take the Bible which explicitly states that Jesus is the Son of God and the only way to salvation and says “Well, I believe there was a Jesus, but He was just a good person and teacher.” We humans are experts at taking the piece we like out of a work and ignoring the important statements that clarify its nature within the same work.)

I don’t have much to say about this one, either for the story or for the usual breakdown of characters. Perhaps everything they did was simply overshadowed in my mind by the colorful villain.

So let’s talk about him…

Before Crazy: Notice the 'kempt" hair.

Professor Zaroff was not a particularly layered villain- not exactly 3-dimensional… heck, the only reason that I’d call him 
2-dimensional is that a 
1-dimensional being seems like an impossibility to exist in physical space, and I can’t conceptualize what such a life-form would be like. And I’m nothing if not pedantic about my offhand phrases. (NFS: You used a lot of big cool words in that paragraph)

Regardless, Zaroff does seem mad for madness’ sake, with little-to-no motivation, save for being the only one to accomplish such an incredible achievement (destroying the Earth)… though no one would remember him for it, as they’d all be dead. Besides… wouldn’t raising Atlantis for real be achievement enough? Maybe a desire for that acclaim, and constant failure to attain it, is what drove him to such insanity.  (An early draft of the script apparently had his wife and child killed in a car crash, and the grief driving him to madness... but the Zaroff as presented onscreen lacks even THAT amount of characterization.)

After Crazy: Notice the Unkempt hair and evil cape.

He does seem like an amiable and likable fellow at first, but the decent into insanity is quick and decisive- “Nosing in ze vorld can stop me now!” has become legendary among Who fans as a symbol of insane, cartoonish villains who are evil merely to be evil, and more than a little over-the-top… like a chibi anime Hitler whose head grows to three times as large with fangs when he’s shouting (ah, Japanese animated conventions- they make the 60s look positively sedate!), on caffeine, with a ray gun. Zaroff was (arguably) the first (as other villains, from the Voord to the Monk to the Celestial Toymaker have typically had at least some motivation or driving quirk that caused them to do what they did), and certainly the most memorably, scenery-chewingly over-the-top.

There were some funny bits in this serial. The ‘mini-heist’ capture scene is zany and funny, with kooky costumes and the Doctor’s clowning, and is great fun to watch in video. There’s also a very cool James-Bondian death trap at the beginning, the shark pool- it has a very nice, stylized, lethal design- very SPECTRE. (An organization that will soon become very relevant to the Second Doctor era in the forthcoming Evil of the Daleks serial…)

Hilarious for another reason is the scene of dissent spreading among the fish people, as they ‘swim’ by making flailing motions while hung by wires on an ‘underwater’ set. Okay, so it’s not ‘Zarbi’ bad, but it is bad. (NFS: I remember I was kind of impressed with the designs of the fish people actually, they looked kind of freaky and otherworldly-if they weren't flailing I think they could have been quite successful. As it was I still thought they were impressive.)

The Doctor does make use of a clever gambit to save all of their lives from an admittedly cool looking (in the stills) temple death trap. Ben gets a nice (if cliched) hide-behind-the-idol-and-pretend-to-be-its-voice moment, Polly gets a near-genuine bit of tension at nearly being turned into a fish person, and Jamie is… there? I think? (Of course, as someone not originally planned to be a companion, several of these early stories- up through the Macra Terror- don’t give him much to do, as he had to be shoe-horned into scripts written without him.)

There was some irritating “can’t-you-see-that-coming?” stupidity with Zaroff’s faking of illness and escape, which could be seen coming a mile off… and in the end, he is only defeated by his monumental ego and stupidity at stepping away from the controls. He’s Mavic Chen without the depth, more or less… though the Doctor’s nobly wanting to save him, despite everything, was a nice touch.

The reconstruction quality was decent, but very muddy- the shock of going to actual video and seeing how clear it was (3 out of 4 were reconstructed, while episode 3 was video) was incredible. Another tolerable-but-forgettable reconstruction.

All in all, this was a fun story that felt like it belonged to another show… say, the German Flash Gordon TV series (with ze thick accent, ze villain would haf been right at home, Gorrrr-don! Plus, you’d get Zaroff-meets-Zarkoff…), and, while large parts of it were meaningless meandering, it sure had a memorable foe.

Note: Late-breaking wonderful news! As of just before the posting of this blog (December 11^th, 2011), a new episode of this serial has been recovered! Where previously only episode 3 existed for this serial, with the other 3 being reconstructions, episode 2 has now been found as well (supplanting #3 as the earliest surviving Troughton episode)- making this serial half complete! Not only that, this missing episode recovery- the first in 7 years, since a 2004 recovery of a Daleks Master Plan episode- was a dual recovery, in tandem with episode 3 of Galaxy 4, the only known episode of that serial! 


…Well, you can’t win ‘em all. Even so, thrilling news! While these episodes have not yet been released to the public and I have yet to see them, I am psyched beyond measure, just to know they exist!

Great moments:

The shark pool sacrifice and the slapstick kidnapping.

Rating:

Overall, this serial gets 2 out of 5 Deadman’s Keys… I’d like to give it more, but I honestly can’t remember much more about it than the paltry descriptions from this review- I even had to look up Zaroff’s name- making this one of the most forgettable (if fun and silly) serials to date. That, combined with the ultra-kid-y tonal shift to Saturday morning cartoon plot, simply languishes this one to mediocrity… though a different flavor of mediocrity than the simply dull Smugglers or Savages… more of an “Its quality does not equal its premise” mediocrity. (NFS: It's a shame because most of them SOUND like they'd be phenomenal...but they really sometimes...aren't.)

Likewise for the relatively bland (a pattern seems to be forming) but serviceable reconstruction. Some excellent imagery bumps it up to a 2.5 out of 5, but there just doesn’t seem to be any extra effort here.

Doctor Who: The Highlanders

Serial Title: The Highlanders

Series: 4

Episodes: 4

Doctor: Patrick Troughton

Companions: Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Polly Wright (Anneke Wills), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines)

Synopsis:

Landing in Scotland during April of 1746, the exploring TARDIS crew are quickly caught up in the war between the Scotts and the British as they stumble into a Scottish hut with a wounded Laird inside, and after Ben accidentally alerts the British patrolling the area, they are taken captive by redcoats. The Doctor feigns being a German physician and claims neutrality, but the group is ultimately saved from hanging by British Solicitor Grey and his hapless clerk Perkins, who transfer them to nearby Inverness prison for slave labor purposes. The Doctor, Ben, Scotsman Jamie McCrimmon, and the Laird of his clan are taken away- but Polly and the native Kirsty (who had avoided capture) manage to draw Ffinch, the leader of the patrol that captured the others, into a pit trap. There, they take him prisoner, stealing his papers and money.

At Inverness, the Doctor discovers that the Laird bears the standard of Bonnie Prince Charley, concealing it- the Doctor takes it, then incites the prisoners to a rebellious state with his recorder and traditional Scottish tunes, then convinces the guard that he has information on an upcoming rebel insurgent attempt on the life of an English noble. Once taken to Solicitor Grey, he tricks his way into incapacitating both Grey (tying him up) and Perkins (playing on his hypochondriac fears) and escapes. Grey, meanwhile, has ordered Trask, a sea captain, to take the prisoners aboard his ship, the Annabelle- where they will be forced to sign a life-long labor contract and be shipped to the Indies as slave labor.

Hapless Ffinch is found and rescued by his men, who exploit him for cash- which has been stolen- and he is returned to the Sea Eagle Inn, where Grey and Perkins are staying, and next to which the Annabelle is docked. The Doctor, disguising himself as an old woman (Note from Sarah: You'd think with a scene like that I would remember this one better....), investigates the Annabelle, while aboard the ship, Ben, under the guise of reading the fine print, tears up the contracts and is clapped in irons. The Doctor reunites with Polly and Kirsty and they make their escape, lying low in a barn. Polly hatches a plan to use the stolen money to buy weapons and smuggle them aboard the Annabelle, to incite a prisoner revolt.

Ben escapes both the ship and death after he is bound and thrown overboard, escaping his bonds and swimming to shore, where the Doctor meets him in disguise. (Man, I really wish I could’ve seen this one as a video!!!) The Doctor later allows himself to be captured and uses a ring from Kirsty to perpetuate a con that Bonnie Prince Charley in disguise is actually one of the prisoners aboard the Annabelle. Solicitor Grey and Perkins are thus lured aboard the ship… just in time for the prisoners to rise up and fight off their captors. Trask attacks Ben in a grudge-based duel, but Jamie subdues him and saves Ben’s life.

Kirsty is reunited with her father, the Laird, while the once-captured Scotsmen take the ship (with Perkins joining them in sailing to France, and safety) and the TARDIS crew disembarks (along with Jamie, who joins the group with the stated goal of teaching the Doctor to play the bagpipes, rather than his beloved recorder) bearing Solicitor Grey as a hostage. Grey proves a particularly troublesome one- attracting attention of several redcoats and escaping in the ensuing fisticuffs. Instead, the group returns to the Inn and blackmails poor, hapless Ffinch into aiding them- who, along the route back to the TARDIS, is told the tale of Grey’s illegal slave trade and dishonorable conduct. Nearly to the TARDIS, the group is waylaid by redcoats, led by Grey- but Ffinch takes charge and orders Grey arrested. Grey tries to wriggle away by presenting the contracts (replacements drawn up for the ones Ben destroyed), claiming that since the captured men agreed to become slaves by legal contract, he had done nothing wrong in taking slaves… but the contracts have been pick-pocketed by the Doctor, and Grey, unable to produce them, is hauled off to Inverness prison.

Review:

The Highlanders is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is of note for numerous landmarks in the show- the introduction of Jamie, one of the longest-running companions of the early years (who, if what I've read is correct, will remain with the Second Doctor for the rest of his tenure) (NFS: It's weird reading this blog after we've already seen all of Jamie's adventures, he's definitely destined to be a favorite). It is also the last true 'historical,' in which the Doctor and company get involved in (sensationalized) actual historical events. Future stories take place in the past, but always with alien intervention or an alien twist, and seldom around specific historical events- history becomes a backdrop or setting, instead of a story focus.

Despite these landmarks, however, the story is dull and relatively simplistic- capture and escape, cut and dried- with not even that many twists to it. Add to that the fact that it's a recreation, and... well, there's not much to offer in the way of 'compelling', 'thrilling', 'engaging', or even 'not boring'.

On the other hand, though, the Doctor is fantastic in this serial- a master of gambits and disguises, funny, clever... a worthy successor now coming into his own! From his disguise as an old woman ("It'd be a shame to waste good broth...") to his insane bamboozling medical doctor routine ("That noise is all in your head. In your eyes!") he is fantastic and proactive all throughout- this Doctor being part secret agent, part comedian- he's a good sight less passive than the first Doctor was, and very entertaining to boot- even as the situation keeps going straight to heck, the Doctor instantly comes into mastery of whatever the new situation may be. He always has a plan, a way of working out of the danger, an idea, a plot... qualities that typically are ascribed to the Seventh Doctor... except done with great humor. I am officially a fan of the Second Doctor (I'd put him above the Ninth AND Tenth at this time, from my sampling of Doctors 1, 2, 9, 10, and 11... rising to 3rd on the second appearance? That's pretty impressive. That said... I haven't seen a Doctor I don't like yet! But then, I haven't seen the Sixth yet...) (NFS: The Second Doctor is my favorite, FOREVER!)

Ben is his usual headstrong, slightly-foolhardy-but-active self. He touches off a needless confrontation by taking charge at the beginning, and in a moment of careless idiocy, kicks off the whole capture by tossing the pistol. He later tears up the contracts, an impetuous and somewhat foolish move of defiance that is nonetheless courageous. All in all, his heart is in the right place, but his actions are... rather useless.

Polly comes off very strongly here, though- taking charge in the Doctor's absence and handling herself- and a hapless redcoat- quite effectively. One of her strongest outings, and proving herself to be more proactive than most female companions of the time. The humor subplot with Ffinch is a lot of fun, as she repeatedly takes advantage of and blackmails the helpless Captain.

Our Loose Canon productions reconstruction was neither anything to complain about, nor anything to write home about. It merely was. And, in what I suspect will soon become a pattern with Troughton stories, this one was a largely visual story (what with all the Doctor’s clowning around) of which I suspect much has been lost due to its slide-show format. The Second Doctor was hit the hardest in terms of episodes lost, folks… so it begins. :-( (NFS: It's a testament to how good Patrick Troughton is that he can be our favorite and...we mostly can only HEAR him!)

Not much to say about The Highlanders- historicals go out not with a bang, but a whimper- a necessary bridge story to get Jamie aboard, and some hilarious Doctor bits, save it from being useless like, say, the Savages or the Smugglers, which practically drown in their own mediocrity (The Savages being likewise saved by a great Doctor-performance… from another actor! :-) )- but for the last historical, it’s really just… not much.

Great moments:

The old woman, the soldier, the German Doctor (and his ‘treatment’ of Grey and Perkins)- every one of the Doctor’s impersonations.

Rating:

2 out of 5 Deadman’s Keys to the serial- which would have been worse had it not been for the Doctor’s broth-shilling old lady- and 2 as well for the lackluster but serviceable reconstruction. (Perhaps I’ve simply been spoiled!)

Doctor Who: Power of the Daleks

Serial Title: Power of the Daleks

Series: 4

Episodes: 6

Doctor: Patrick Troughton

Companions: Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Polly Wright (Anneke Wills)

Synopsis:

The TARDIS Lands on the Planet Vulcan (shall we get the jokes out of the way now?), an Earth colony in… the future. (BAH! Dates! Give me dates!!!). Inside, Ben and Polly are dealing with the appearance of a strange younger man in the place of their familiar Doctor, one awfully fond of playing the recorder. This man also claims to be the Doctor… Polly believes him, but Ben remains skeptical and suspicious. (Note from Sarah: YAYY!!! From that moment on...I knew I t'would love this mysterious Second Doctor.)

Exiting the TARDIS, the still somewhat-disoriented Doctor encounters an Earth Examiner… who is promptly shot by an unknown assailant in the distance. The Doctor takes his identification, intending to use the greater authority granted by the credentials to track down the murderer within the nearby colony.

When he, Ben, and Polly arrive there, they encounter Lesterson, a scientist studying a strange capsule from space found crashed in one of the mercury swamps, and his assistant Janley. Lesterson has not had much success in opening the capsule, (NFS: Make sure when you read that word you are reading it in the proper british way "Cap-see-ooull"..yes it's important.) but believes its technology and alloys may contain untold breakthroughs for mankind. They also meet Governor Hensell, his deputy Quinn, and Bragen, the head of security. The colony is in rough times, as a group of rebels is causing unrest.

The Doctor manages to open the capsule that night, in secret, and discovers even worse trouble for the colony- a pair of Daleks, currently inert and inactive. The Doctor immediately goes to the colony leaders and insists that the Daleks must be destroyed, that even a single one revived would surely spell doom for them all. Lesterson, however brings in a third Dalek, having secretly gained entry to the craft previously… the Dalek speaks, declaring itself to be humanity’s servant. The colonists, enthralled by the prospect of (to their eyes) robotic labor drones that can increase production and do their jobs for them, ignore the Doctor, who is terrified of the machines… but the Dalek lies and flatters smoothly, and the Doctor has no evidence. (Just like 'The Smugglers.' Evidence, always looking for evidence… the Doctor clearly just needs Batman as his next companion, so as to skip straight to the ‘taking the law into our own hands’ step.)

Quinn is implicated as the murderer of the Earth Examiner (which the Doctor claims as an unsuccessful attempt on his own life as part of the fiction, though the real murderer would, of course, know better)- but Polly believes that he is not the real culprit.

Quinn admits to having been the one that called Earth to dispatch an examiner, but his reasons are undermined by security-head Bragen, who spins his words and actions to look like an attempt to push aside and usurp the position of the governor. Bragen is made Deputy Governor in Quinn’s place. When the governor leaves on an inspection tour, Bragen… pushes aside and usurps the position of the governor. Huh. Didn’t see that one coming.

As the Doctor tries and fails repeatedly to warn people of the danger of the Daleks, he is further and further marginalized. Sabotaging the power transfer to revive the other two Daleks in an attempt to destroy them, he is caught and forbidden from the lab and the Daleks by Bragen, now wielding the governor’s authority. However, the Dalek weapons have been removed as a safety precaution… the reason for their subservient act, gaining trust until the weapons can be reinstalled.

Lesterson’s assistant, Janley, is sent by Bragen to the rebels to deliver them a powerful Dalek gun- she is a leader in the rebellion, and Bragen has been using the rebels to create a climate of fear which will allow him to reach this level of power. In other words, he’s Emperor Palpatine. Under orders, Janley also kidnaps Polly. She also blackmails Lesterson, who is becoming wary of the Daleks, seeing their true nature seep through their actions, into giving them all the building materials they want… which they promptly use in secret to construct more Dalek casings for the many Dalek-mutants still secreted aboard the capsule. (NFS: Wow...I can't remember what it looks like but this is obviously a rather large capsule.) The Daleks also order cables laid to convey static electricity power for them (as seen in The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth… and ignored ever since, until now) throughout the base so that they will no longer be dependent on the colony power-transfers that Lesterson doles out to keep them under his control.

While spying on the rebels, Ben is taken, and the Doctor is imprisoned by Bragen for interfering. He sees now that Quinn, also in jail, was falsely accused. He begins work on using a wet-finger-on-the-rim-of-a-drinking-glass instrument to simulate the sonic lock on their cells.

Within the laboratory, Lesterson sees dozens of completed and armed Daleks emerge from the capsule- ordering that no more than the three that are supposed to exist leave the lab at one time, lest the colonists discover their reproduction. Lesterson, horrified, runs to tell the Doctor, and then begins running through the colony, shouting hysterical warnings to everyone.

The governor returns, confronts Bragen, fails to play along, doesn’t recognize incredibly obvious threats (“I will give you one last chance…” says the man with all of your power, whom you have no authority over, are threatening to oppose, and who is holding a very powerful gun in a room with no witnesses…) and is promptly killed.

Quinn and the Doctor escape, and free Polly, but are captured by Bragen’s gaurds… just as the Daleks break lose in full force and numbers to begin their extermination. Ben likewise escapes, as do the Doctor, Polly, and Quinn, in the chaos. Humans are slaughtered all throughout the colony as the Daleks invade. Sheltering in the lab with the now-insane Lesterson, the Doctor sabotages the static-electricty power hub, destroying the Daleks… but not before they inflict a heavy death toll, killing Lesterson (who sacrifices himself to give the Doctor time to complete his task), Janley, Bragen, and nearly all of the rebels. 

Quinn is now in charge of what remains of the colony, and begins the monumental task of rebuilding, as the Doctor and his companions- now firmly convinced that he is the Doctor- sneak away, back to the TARDIS.

Review:

This is a very different Dalek story, to its benefit. Rather than the standard "They are unstoppable they will kill you you must run run away!!!!" story of fleeing unstoppable juggernauts, this is a more psychological tale- watching the near-helpless Daleks slowly growing in power until they reach their standard juggernaut levels... a story of greed and folly, and a story of desperation, as the one man who knows what's coming tries in vain to battle the lies of the Daleks- spoonfeeding their new 'masters' everything they want to hear- and warn people of the danger that's coming. 


The Daleks, proverbial serpents in a not-very-much-of-a paradise, spin their lies, gather power (gritting their teeth all the way- as exemplified in numerous near-slips, such as when a Dalek is compared unfavorably to a human being and the outraged exterminator responds with "DALEKS ARE-" *long pause* "-different from humans." (NFS: It's been interesting watching these earlier Doctor Who's when the Doctor is more or less out of control a lot of the time. I'd gotten used to the newer shows, and how it's kind of a rare situation when the Doctor is kind of helpless; this is something you experience quite often in the older shows and it makes for hard watching at first, but then it gets more and more interesting to see the lengths at which he has to go to prove himself half the time.) Quenching the use of the word 'superior' probably took more self-control than has been exercised by any Dalek in all of history. From the Dalek perspective, this is equivalent to a starving, weakened man being chained up by a colony of sewer cockroaches, and forced to cater to their every whim, until you've built up enough strength to escape and crush them like the vermin they are...) and pull the wool over everyone's 'eye-stalks'... until it's too late.

If you can't tell, I liked this one. Sure, the whole 'rebels/governor usurping' bit was a tad annoying to me- and superfluous- as was the 'false acusation' plot, but other than that, I greatly enjoyed the serial. The new Doctor was likable, but doesn't really come into his own (and really make me into a fan of his) until the next serial, The Highlanders.

Partly, this is because the Doctor is so low-key here. Suffering from (as yet unnamed and unconceptualized, but clearly present) post-regenerative madness, he is a little more of an amnesiac blank-slate, displaying few of the traits- save for a built-in silliness and a fondness for playing the recorder- that would eventually come to define him. (NFS: I still liked him. :-D )

The post-regeneration scene is vague and slow- befitting of post-regenerative madness, but otherwise just slightly aggravating. The mirror trick with Hartnell is clever, but other than that... it doesn't have much. Not such a great introduction for a new Doctor.

Ben and Polly are... well, let's put it this way. Ben disappeared somewhere around the 3rd Chapter. It took us until the 6th to realize he was gone and wonder what had happened to him, and when he re-appeared, we had no recollection of seeing anything that showed him leaving or being taken to where he was. Both companions get kidnapped as leverage. They are utterly superfluous- this is the Doctor's story. And as a psychological 3-way battle between the Doctor, the Daleks, and the played-for-fools colonists, there isn't really room for the companions anyhow. (NFS: Unfortunately Ben and Polly are not really interesting companions and feel kind of like stand ins with recycled lines.)

They do have a nice initial post-regeneration shtick, though- with Polly immediately accepting the new Doctor while Ben remains suspicious that it's a trick or impostor. It's a very nice touch. After the story gets going, though, they discreetly exit stage left to give the new Doctor a chance to prove himself.

The colony members are... well, they would seem at first blush to have the combined intelligence of a mud/dung brick... that's had a lobotomy... that was botched. In fact, I was, at one point, wondering out loud if Lesterson had actually achieved a level of idiocy to outdo our old friend Mavic Chen. However, as my wife wisely pointed out, Chen knew who the Daleks were and what he was getting himself into.

Seen from their perspective, while I believe the actions of the colonists in this episode are still slightly trusting and moronic... they are somewhat justified. The Daleks spin a web of very convenient, exactly-what-they-want-to-hear lies, while the Doctor, without any credentials as an extraterrestrial expert in his assumed disguise, merely seems to be an ignorant alarmist who fears the unknown and wants to destroy it... much like the kind of paranoid Luddite fool that the Doctor himself confronts on a regular basis, especially in the modern program; the standard it's-different-so-we-fear-it-and-want-to-destroy-it-(and-by-the-way-by-this-we-mean-ethnic-and-sexual-minorities-we-do-that-to-them-too,-see?) sci-fi message that's been driven into the ground in science fiction since the days of the Twilight Zone is here inverted- making an expert without proof of his expertise appear to the characters as just the kind of paranoid imbecile that must be opposed- which transforms it into another sci-fi cliche, the 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' story, in which one man knows the danger but can't find anyone who believes him, creating a quiet desperation in us, the audience, who likewise know the danger... funny how that role reverses the reason-ability of the positions depending on which one the protagonist holds at the moment, eh? 

However, in this case, it is not a fear of the unknown driving an individual to urge destruction of the alien visitors... but fear of the known. And an audience awareness of what the Daleks can do, building on past appearances, serves this story well- even though their power and capabilities are not demonstrated, we as the audience know what those capabilities are... and so it becomes a tense countdown, a feast of anticipation, as the Daleks move ever closer to what we know is coming- the cynic in us well aware that they won't be thwarted because then we won't get to see another display of power, and they wouldn't make a show that anticlimactic... even as the optimist in us, caught up in the story, is desperately rooting for someone to see the light and help the Doctor to stop them before it's too late! It's a fine psychological thriller, and while a cynic might find it predictable ("These people are petty, foolish, and expendable- the Daleks will clearly succeed and many colonists will die before they stop it... it would only be if the Daleks had a doomsday weapon that could destroy the planet or plans to blow up the TARDIS or something that they'd be stopped before they could reach full capabilities... since their capabilities are something they love showing and won't affect history drastically, they'll be loosed, no doubt about it."), the writing is of such quality that, even in still-picture-reconstruction version, with a weak Doctor character for this serial, a near-absence of companions, and an annoying supporting cast, it remains an engaging, attention-sustaining, and entertaining story that draws you in enough to block that cynicism (which only re-asserts itself in retrospect) and maintains suspense.

((((The Reconstruction we watched, meanwhile, was yet another NON-LOOSE CANNON reconstruction, which I want to clarify- NOT LOOSE CANNON, THEY DON'T SUCK.)))) This reconstruction, on the other hand, does. Badly. Muddy sound, incompetent framing (cutting off the bottom half- during the shots of the ring lying by the Doctor's foot, all we could see were apparent closeups of the Doctor's foot), no action captions- it was about the worst possible way to watch the story... fortunately, we were able to jump on youtube and enjoy the audio recreation with linking narration describing the action for a few of the middle chapters. Honestly, though... if we can still enjoy it after this utterly horrendous presentation, you KNOW it has to be good.

Overall, a strong opening for the Second Doctor... even if he is not very strong IN it.

Great moments:

Not so much a moment as a rising plot thread, as the menace of the Daleks is more and more fully revealed in each confrontation with the Doctor.

Rating:

I have to give this one 4.5 out of 5 Deadman's Keys- it wasn't perfect, despite my rave reviews- the start was slow and meandering- but save for that, it was flawless. I can't give it a perfect rating (and it seems there are few that I do...) but like Keys of Marinus, Myth Makers, and the Aztecs, a few flaws do only a little to tarnish an otherwise excellent tale.

0 out of 5 Deadman's Keys for whatever pathetic piece of tripe that supposed 'reconstruction' we were watching was... and to whatever dead animal carcass apparently vomited it up from the bowels of Heck to torment innocent Internet viewers with it's ubiquitous incompetence and rank shoddiness. Loose Cannon, come back, and wash the bad taste away...