Blake's 7: The Children of Auron

“The trouble with the people of Auron is that they all suffer from a superiority complex.”

Is it me, or does Servalan look particularly ravishing in this episode with that gorgeous make-up? Then again, I do have a bit of a predilection for evil women. She’s back, anyway, complete with mutoids and fractious underlings, and this time she’s more heinous than ever, planning to unleash a plague on Cally’s home planet of Auron.

Meanwhile, aboard the Liberator, Avon (who seems to be more or less top dog at this point) has decided they’re all going to Earth to “execute” Anna Grant’s killer. This is a far cry from Blake’s idealism (although this, as we’ve seen, carried its own big problems), and I think the sheer crudeness of this desire for revenge rather appals Cally, who spends this episode uncharacteristically at odds with him. But this stuff, of course, is only here to be contrasted with the motivations Cally is soon to acquire, which will cause Avon to be outvoted.

Servalan “rescues” an Auronar pilot (Michael Troughton) and infects him with a nasty pathogen before sending him on his way, and he duly infects the planet. This is the first time we’ve got to see Auron, a planet we’ve heard so much about, and it’s a crushing disappointment to behold; a control room staffed by people in dull space uniforms, an equally dull laboratory, and a bit of location footage shot in an industrial complex. That’s it. And, aside from the fact that for the last three decades they’ve reproduced by cloning (why?), they’re a bit telepathic (although we only actually see this with Cally and her sister, although it’s only the younger, cloned, generations that seem capable of this), and they’re strictly neutral, we get absolutely no impression of their having any kind of culture or hinterland. It’s a terrible waste of an opportunity.

Conveniently, Cally has a twin sister, Zelda, and Zelda’s telepathic abilities are apparently capable of traversing many light years instantaneously to reach Cally. So, er, telepathic vibes can travel faster than light then? Oooo-kaaay…

Avon is unable to persuade everyone that it’s a trap, so off they go. It is a trap, of course, but it’s more than that. Servalan wants to use their cloning technology to reproduce- asexually, with all the children being young copies of herself. It’s interesting to see Servalan showing a maternal instinct, but there’s something cold and sexless, not to mention genocidal, about how she intends to fulfil it.

I realise this is going to make be sound incredibly stupid, by the way, but it’s only when Avon suggests consulting Orac about what to do that I realised that Orac is transparently intended as a kind of “oracle”. How thick am I? Never mind. It’s also revealing to hear the Auronars refer to Servalan as merely the “president” of a “faction” of the “ex-Federation”. It seems her powers are not as great as her fancy title might imply.

Everyone, aside from Dayna, Vila and, if he counts, Orac, teleport down, and it’s not long before they and their rather wet hosts are taken prisoner by one of Servalan’s squabbling underlings. Servalan is now in a position to bargain with Vila for the Liberator by threatening to kill everyone. Unfortunately, her plan fails miserably because for some reason she forgets Dayna exists. It’s nice to see Dayna kicking some arse, incidentally. She’s being written with more personality than lately, and I like her- smart, loyal, fond of administering a good kicking but ultimately kind and caring. Plus Josette Simon is rather attractive, I have to say…

As usual, Servalan’s plans unravel, and the subplot between Servalan’s two underlings becomes interesting; Ginka, the junior underling, lies to Servalan, claiming that his superior officer destroyed her own offspring and replaced them with his. This means Servalan no longer has any reason to blow up the room out heroes are hiding in. They all manage, with Dayna’s help, to teleport away, complete with incubators containing the genetic material for five thousand babies. Inevitably, Cally and her sister (who inevitably meet, although only through glass; the budget won’t stretch to split screen!) can’t both be allowed to live due to the strains this would place on the special effects budget, so Zelda has to rather pointlessly sacrifice herself.

Servalan instinctively knows that her own “children” are blown up (er, quite), and is genuinely anguished by this, instantly killing both of this episode’s underlings.

It’s not clear how this ends for Auron- there’s to be a new Auronar colony with a disturbingly young median age, yes, but what happened to the survivors on Auron itself? This is a fairly rubbish script from Roger Parkes, really, and the Hanna Barbera ending is possibly the worst bit of all.

Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen

Part One

“I don’t want to lose my arm, I’m rather attached to it. It’s very handy.”

Another direct continuation, as with every story since Planet of the Spiders, and we’re back on Nerva. According to Sarah, the TARDISeers have just spent “weeks” on Earth and Skaro. But this is Nerva in a much earlier period (although the TARDIS is going to travel back to meet them) and it’s full of dead plague victims. Except this plague seems to show symptoms rather similar to those we saw in The Moonbase…

Nerva’s crew are using PCs which look hilariously dated to the modern viewer- although once again this could just be a retro design. Come to think of it, are these the first desktop computers seen in Doctor Who? Their operators are a rather dull bunch, if heroic, the sole survivors of the “plague” who are determined to keep Nerva running. Apparently it has a very important role as a “beacon” near Jupiter.

So, an asteroid, Voga, has drifted into Jupiter’s orbit? How completely unlike The Tenth Planet this script from Gerry Davis is. Already the story has a distinctly retro feel. There’s something very Wheel in Space about this first episode. It’s good to see more recent continuity being maintained though, with talk of “transmats”, but it’s even better, once we’re introduced to some Vogans, to hear mention of the Cybermen! It’s been so long!

Surprisingly early we discover that Kelman’s a traitor, and also that this 30^th century space station is using some very retro tape spools. Pleasingly, the TARDISeers aren’t treated with suspicion for very long (that sort of thing can get very tiresome), they get to work on the “plague”, and we cut to the Vogans for some exposition - the Cybermen died out centuries ago; there was a Cyber-war; Voga was attacked.

Finally we get to see some Cybermen! In colour! A bit more hydraulic in appearance, but not that much different from last time. But last time was ages ago- it’s good to see them again!

Part Two

“The beacon is ours!”

Amusingly, the Cybermat attacking Sarah is clearly being moved by Elisabeth Sladen. But there’s not much else to amuse in this episode, much of which is taken up with a dull Vogan power struggle. After a promising first part things are getting a bit dull. 

Still, we get our traditional end of part two reveal of the Cybermen, and they still seem pretty cool at this stage, with their immunity to gunfire and guns in their helmets.

Part Three

“You’ve no home planet, no influence, nothing. You’re just a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers scuttling about the galaxy in an ancient spaceship.”

So far there’s not much that’s fundamentally wrong with this story, but the guest characters just all seem dull. Unfortunately, from this point on things start getting worse. For a start, the Cybermen open their mouths; This is a problem: their voices are awful.

We discover the Cybermen have a weakness to asphyxiation by gold dust- not necessarily a problem at this stage as gold dust is rare and only effects them in a specific way for which you have to get close. 

Unfortunately the Cyberleader seems genuinely riled by the Doctor’s taunting, completely unlike the logic-driven, emotionless creatures we’ve seen before, as shown in dialogue such as “Only stupid Earth brains like yours would have been fooled” and “Clever, clever, clever”. Er, yes.

But what is a serious problem is that these Cybermen seem indeed to be “total machine creatures”; they have “parts” to “build” a Cyber army. Cybernisation and body horror is no longer an issue and the Cybermen are just robots. Oh dear. Still, not to justify it, but perhaps there could be an explanation? We’ve never had a Cybermen story set this far into the future before, so perhaps they did indeed die out centuries before, after or even before the events of Tomb, and these few “total machine creatures” are just the remnants?

The plot thickens- Kelman is really working for these dull Vogan chaps. And the Cybermen have bombs. Unfortunately there’s an embarrassing example of as-you-know-Bobbery here as two Cybermen explain their plans to a listening Sarah.

Part Four

“We’re still heading for the biggest bang in history.”

I love the “Harry Sullivan is an imbecile” scene at the start. The Doctor’s being a bit of a git, of course, but there’s no real nastiness. Tom Baker can get away with this sort of thing in a way Pertwee couldn’t.

There’s a bit of NASA stock footage as the Skystriker rocket is launched, and the Cybermen escape from the rocket. There’s an interesting comment here from the Doctor: “Nice sense of irony. I thought for a moment he was going to smile.”

We end with a summons from the Brigadier from the “space-time-telegraph”…

Something of a missed opportunity, this. The plot was actually ok but the characters were too dull to care about, both because of the writing and because of some workmanlike performances. And although we got lots of Cyber-tropes these “total machine creatures” just didn’t feel like Cybermen. 3/5.

Season 12 overall gets 3.8/5, giving it a surprisingly lowly eighth place. Still, I have reason to believe things might be about to pick up…

Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death

Part One


"Look at the size of this one, Doc!"


The last Troughton story on DVD. Blimey- we're getting very near the end. We start with one of those funky sequences based around the title that this era has been doing so well, and then we get eight full minutes (I checked) before the TARDISeers turn up- surely a record. Still, the characters are engaging, from the cold, efficient,, yet sexy and charismatic Miss Kelly to the sympathetic coward Fewsham. For the first time in a while all the guest characters are at least memorable, and there are some nice touches- I love the briefcase!

The way the identity of this story's returning foe is hidden from us is rather clever in terms of concept and its execution by Michael Briant. As usual in these circumstances it's suspense, not surprise, that's the real point, but it leads to an effective cliffhanger. These Ice Warriors are immediately sleeker (well, relatively!) and more deadly than they were before.

The scenes with Eldred are mainly plot filler, of course, but the world's backstory is being sketched out for us, and we get some interesting stuff- notably that mankind hasn't yet gone beyond the Moon, and it's arguably implied that this is after Zoe's time. There's a definite character to the futures of this era, from artificial food (here we get a "synthetic carbohydrates factory") to moonbases to rockets to an uber-planned utopian society which is vulnerable to elements from outside the plan. And here' of course, the Doctor's dislike of computers (big, centralised society-directing things) and championing of individualism comes forth. It's a fascinatingly dated idea of the future.



Part Two


"She's after your job, Julian!"



Eldred's refusal to allow his rocket to be used is pure padding ("It's nowhere near ready, woman!"), but it's quite an effective way of fleshing out some of the major characters so it gets away with it. There's a parallel with The Wheel in Space here in that the main plot won't really get started until next episode, but unlike in that story things may be slow but there's excitement and tension, and we're actually getting to know these people and their world.

Interesting admission from the Doctor: "I'm afraid the TARDIS is not suited to short range travel." We also get a very silly line from Eldred about how there's "only enough food and water for three days". Er, oxygen, anyone?



Part Three



"We've been invaded. Aliens have taken over!"



A rocket landing on the moon- how very 1969! And the cliffhanger ending to part three signifies the actual beginning of the plot- how very this era! but it's still chugging along nicely in spite of that. Mind you, isn't it convenient that the seed should be transported to, of all cities, London.

Otherwise it's more of the same: Miss Kelly is still efficient, kick-ass and oddly sexy, the Ice Warriors are still more of a threat than in their previous story, and the direction is still good. We get an interesting line from the computer about "primitive areas". It's political correctness gone mad...

Oh, and finally the Doctor gets to confront the baddies, after a rather fun chase scene and the rather magnificent "I'm a genius". And then gets knocked unconscious, no doubt for the whole of the coming episode. ho hum.

Part Four



"All these tunnels look the same!"


Foam? In a Patrick Troughton story? Well I never...!

Terry Scully continues to be excellent as ashamed coward Fewsham- his reaction when Slaar gloats he's just destroyed his own species is superbly done. Other great things are the Ice warrior wandering around London, seemingly impervious to all harm- these monsters really present a physical threat, something often forgotten.

We get a great cliffhanger, also a great Zoe moment...




Part Five


"You know, I find T-Mat travel rather disappointing."



Fewsham's arc can't help but be believable and genuinely affecting, no matter how entirely predictable it may be. He turns a corner when he saves Zoe, and we instantly knows he's going to a) redeem himself and b) die. Cos this is Doctor Who and them's the rules. But the moment, when it comes, with Fewsham being shot by Slaar after revealing vital information that will genuinely save the world, is suitably heroic.

40°? That's a bit warm, innit?

So, foam, a moonbase, weather control- this is Patrick Troughton's greatest hits! There's even a bit of traditional bad science as the Ice Warriors' Grand Marshal says that "If we overshoot the Moon, nothing will stop them going straight into an orbit around the Sun". Yeeees...



Part Six


"Oh, there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip."



The story ends satisfactorily with the Doctor getting a confrontation scene with Slaar and everything being nicely tied up. I can almost forgive the blatant re-editing of the cliffhanger. As is by now traditional our heroes slip off at the end as soon as the camera's off them. Interesting that there's still a Security Council of a United Nations at this point in the future, incidentally.




That was good fun overall, competently done if rather par for the course- 3/5. This is undoubtedly the story I'd pick as the most representative of the era to this point.


Incidentally, for the first time in the Marathon I've had to tamper with my pre-existing rankings by demoting The Dominators from 3/5 to 2/5- it was just too poor for the company it was keeping!