Knights of God: Episode 13

" The king had to be found within yourself.”

Sigh. This has been a pretty good series, but this final episode is profoundly disappointing.

I mean, it all falls into place so conveniently. The civil war, with Mordrin finally killing Hugo, is so convenient for the royalist rebels to take over. All the messy stuff of reestablishing power and democracy is just handwaved. And Mordrin is literally shot while crowning himself. Still, thd cliffhanger resolution, with Gervase and Julia both saved by their mutual love, is cute.

Not cute enough to save the episode, though. And there’s definitely a whiff of un-British flag shagging here. The national anthem is sung. The closing titles are changed to the Union Flag. None of these things are inherently bad, of course- national symbols do not and should not belong to the far right- but, within the world this series has so carefully built, this is just not realistic. Better to end with the Knights still in charge but with a sense of hope.

The episode is also rushed, leaving it all to the end, so it’s all plot with no focus on character. It’s sad that a series I was enjoying should end like this.

Knights of God: Episode 12

 "Noooo!"

Well, that’s certainly a twist. SPOILER alert.

It’s now clear why we have the contrast between Gervase and  Mordrin, with his crown and delusions of kingship, which he’s now finally shared with his close friend Brother Simon, seemingly the only knight who doesn’t think he’s a nutter… yet.

We have a lot of tension around Gervase and Julia travelling to a little island to be told by a monk whom the king is. There’s a mystery: Arthur knows. So why did Arthur not just tell them? And, of course, Gervase is still conditioned to kill Mordrin’s enemy.

I saw the twist coming halfway through: Gervase is the king, smuggled out as an infant. It makes sense, given the early hints about his destiny. This twist is quite ingenious, and very Arthurian. One episode to wrap up, though…

Knights of God: Episode 9

 "Let him be a fisherman..."

The plot gets thicker and thicker in this pivotal episode which, presumably, thrusts us into the final narrative. The cliffhanger is unexpected: Arthur is not the fated enemy of Mordrin whom Gervase is programmed to kill, despite his name, for there are hints that this person is the "rightful king", as per Arthurian myth. We learn that Hugo slaughtered all the royals for the Knights... yet is some rightful king alive? Perhaps someone we have unknowingly met?

It is interesting that Mordrin may be seeking to crown himself... is he a Cromwell or a Julius Caesar in that respect? The parallel plotting between him and Hugo is utterly gripping... and ends the only possible way it could have, with Hugo in a cell, stripped of all status.

Yet Gervase and Julia are no better off. All faith is lost; with the programming, Gervase is seemingly of no use for his long-planned purpose, although Julia has faith. And then, another bombshell: a kangaroo court is demanded by the militia of the South Yorkshire "Wastelands", and realpolitik forces Arthur to outlaw them both, perhaps fortunate to escape hanging, although of course capital punishment is the recourse of the tyrant, a practice that does not behoove those who claim to believe in freedom.

The status quo is changed. This episode is eventful, fast-paced and deeply shocking. I'm genuinely clueless as to what will happen next.

Knights of God: Episode 8

 "You can call me Arthur..."

There was me thinking this episode was going to be about Gervase and Julia in the "Wasteland" with Don Henderson and his rough Yorkshire "terrorists", and at first it seems that way. Instead, Arthur turns up almost immediately.

There arev revelations. Brigadier Clark, seen palling with Arthur last episode, is Julia's father. And Mordrin is Arthur's son! Everyone- Gervase's parents included, gets together to plan their next move as Gervase suffers the inner conflict caused by Mordrin's suggestion in his mind, a suggestion he doesn't want to carry out.

The parley between Arthur and Mordrin seems to happen too easily- a dictator allowing himself to be searched for weapons by rebels as Hugo plots a coup behind his back? Yet the cliffhanger is deeply effective, with Gervase seemingly about to kill Arthur.

This continues to be exciting, although parts of the plot are becoming a little shaky in places. Still, we get lots of Patrick Troughton so all is right with the world.

Knights of God: Episode 5

 "I find history rather boring..."

Sirprisingly, Gervase's gets relatively little screen time here. Plotlines elsewhere develop. Hugo's splendid;y arch scheming continues as he turns the senior Knights slowly against Mordrin. Edwards learns, and is devastated by, his son's apparent treachery... and is a little bitter at Arthur for setting things in motion. Again, we get vague references to Gervase's "true nature".

There's no longer quite the need for so much world building as the premise is by now established, but one again this vaguely Arthurian future Britain is fascinating, very V for Vendetta, a low tech, lived in near future. It has none of the corporate trappings of cyberpunk but the cynicism and lived-in look of Aliens and Blade Runner... on an ITV budget.

Of course, the point is that we (and Gervase) must think Julia dead, although we are allowed to see the truth. But Gervase, I suspect, will not turn against the Knights but follow them with deepening bitterness. The ending is heartbreaking, with Julia unable to go to him and declaring her love. This is good stuff.

Knights of God: Episode 4

 "All hail the knights of God!"

This episode isn't quite as intensely totalitarian as the last one, and that's sauying something, as the main focus is on Gervase's brainwashing, done through typical fascist techniques alongside a little light experimental use of drugs, courtest of Michael Sheard as a very British Dr Mengele.

The drectorial style, wisely, avoids trippiness here: it would not suit the bleak, fascist aesthetic as Gervase is initiated, via a creepy ceremony, into the Knights of God. His brainwashing is oddly believable, even to the point of subjugating Wales, pursuing the rebels' mysterious leader... and betraying his own father. But I suspect his loyalty would be tested were he to discover that Julia has escaped... and been shot while doing so. Is she dead?

Meanwhile we're intruducted to Nigel Stock as Brother Simon, Mordrin's right hand man, while Hugo continues to archly plot and be performatively resentful. This is certainly leading to conflict.

An eventful episode, then, for a mere twenty-fice minutes. This continues to be very, very good.

Knights of God: Episode 1

 "You've got to live. For all of us."

I have only the vaguest of memories of seeing bits of this in 1987 when I was young, and it's been unavailable since, so I know not what to expect. What's that, you ask? How am I seeing this? Oh look. A squirrel.

Anyway, this first episode is an outstanding piece of worldbuilding, a very 80s cross between Arthurian legend and a V for Vendetta type vaguely dystopian, Fascist future. John Woodnutt is dictator of the South and Midlands, he has recently conquered a defiant Wales, but the North remains free and lawless, called a "wasteland". The Knights of God rule a land called "Anglia" from Winchester, as London is ruined. There are direct parallels here with Anglo-Saxon England where the same was true.

This fits Arthurian myth perfectly: Arthur defeated the Saxons at Badon; presumably young Gervase, seemingly fated by legend, will pull some sort of sword from some sort of stone within these thirteen episodes.

Even more intriguingly, Gervase is watched over by an older, Welsh accented Gareth Thomas as Owen, and he is seen talking to a white-bearded Patrick Troughton, whose character seems to be called "Arthur". I'm loving this so far.

Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks

Part One



“Ace, give me some of that Nitro Nine you’re not carrying.”

As if the pre-titles sequence isn’t great enough, we begin just outside Coal Hill School. Wicked! Except that the kids seem to be wearing uniforms, an apparent continuity error.

The Doctor and Ace are walking by, Ace very much acting the teenager and hinting at a hinterland never possessed by Mel, while the Doctor ‘s new persona is now firmly and fully formed, as shown quite superbly as he just leaps straight into the van with Rachel and Allison and casually takes charge.

Then we’re off to Totters’ Lane. Which looks a lot more plausible than “it” did in Attack of the Cybermen. There’s a building which could be the one where it all started- except that right now there’s a Dalek in it!

I can’t remember any previous story as fast-paced as this. We’re introduced to the clipped but impotent Gilmore, the apparently friendly Mike and the frustrated Professor Rachel Jensen very very quickly, but they all have clear personality traits to remind us who they are. That’s good writing from newcomer Ben Aaronovitch.

I love the Doctor’s muttered “Humans!” as Gilmore insists on sending his men into the meat grinder. For different reasons, I also love the brick Mike uses as a phone! The story’s full of those nice touches to remind us that we’re in 1963- the Doctor having to remind Ace to use the choke in the van, for example.

The scene in the van is extremely nice for a number of reasons- the immense coolness of the Doctor and Ace switching places in the tunnel, the nice character stuff between them, the establishment of the Doctor’s grumpier, more manipulative yet still fluffy personality (or, in other words, a bit like early Troughton, which is definitely a good thing) and of course the exposition. We get an admirably concise potted history of the Daleks and a mention of the mysterious Hand of Omega. Naturally, much is left dangling.

We’re briefly introduced to Mike’s dodgy friend Ratcliffe, only for Mike to let him have the dead Dalek a couple of scenes later. Mr Bronson from Grange Hill turns up- not only Michael Sheard, but as a proper teacher with the glasses and everything! We discover that Rachel is Gilmore’s “Chief Scientific Adviser”- nice title!- and we see the inside of the school chemistry lab, which seems to have a book on the French Revolution left lying about. Hmm.

We finish with the revelation of a Dalek-like thing in Ratcliffe’s office- Davros?- and the doctor and Ace in a spot of trouble in the cellar. The cliffhanger is one of the all time greats as the Doctor is pursued up some stairs by a Dalek…



Part Two



“Frightening, isn’t it? To find others better versed in death than human beings.”

This episode is pretty much the reason I’m doing this Marathon, because one day in October 1988, at eleven years old and having just started secondary school, I happened to come across it. I’d watched Doctor Who before when I was younger, but drifted away from it after Colin Baker took over. This time, though, I was hooked. Looking it up, it seems that 12th October 1988 was the day I became a Doctor Who fan.

And I can see why- it’s bloody exciting. We start with a bit of action, and then we get the fabulous café scene which, bizarrely, seems to feature the butler from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. There’s some philosophical musings about choices and consequences, and also the unspoken implication that while everyone else sleeps through the night the Doctor remains awake drinking coffee and ruminating.

Early in the morning he retrieves a levitating coffin from an undertaker, having been “an old geezer with white hair” when he first dropped it off. Well, well, well. With the assistance of a blind vicar he buries the Hand of Omega- best not to think of how he actually handled all the organisational necessities- and we hear the grave has been ready for “a month”. So presumably the school has been without a history teacher and a science teacher for about that time.

More exposition, during which the Doctor is seen reading a copy of Richard Gordon’s Doctor in the House in what seems to be a recurring gag after The Doctor’s Dilemma showed up in Dragonfire. Will we see any more of this? Anyway, there are two Dalek factions, the Imperial and Renegade Daleks.

Ace is left behind at Mike’s mother’s guesthouse, where among other things she encounters the phenomenon of television sets needing to warm up and almost catching the start of a new Saturday teatime sci-fi show scheduled for 5.15, called “Doc-“ something. I wonder what it was? But most impressive is Ace’s reaction to discovering the “No Coloureds” sign. It’s a nice moment.

Ace goes to the school to find her tape deck, as she misses her uber-modern technology, and discovers that loads of white and gold, Revelation-style Imperial Daleks have transmatted in. She proceeds to kick no small quantity of arseage, attacking Daleks with her baseball bat and leaping through a window. And this leads to another brilliant cliffhanger.



Part Three



“Weapons- always useless in the end.”

This is the first episode I ever recorded on its original transmission- and I’ve done the same for every episode ever since. So for me there will be no more stories in this Marathon that are particularly unfamiliar- although of course there are loads I haven’t seen for years. This one, for example.

The Doctor gets strangled by a strange looking claw from inside an Imperial Dalek; apparently the blobs inside have mutated functional appendages and are cyborgs. Lovely. And then we get more great moments- Rachel and Allison’s faces after the Doctor smashes the Dalek transmat with the baseball bat; the Doctor’s discussion with Ace about how such unimaginably advanced tech as a tape deck is a glaring anachronism in the year when sexual intercourse began; and a casual mention of “Bernard” and “British Rocket Group”. I’m sure Nigel Kneale would have loved that…

We establish that Ratcliffe has possession of the Hand, and then, in a key scene, the Doctor finally explains to Ace what’s going on. And it’s important stuff. Simply by writing the line “[Omega] left behind him the basis upon which Rassilon founded Time Lord society,” Aaronovitch resolves an apparent continuity clash between The Three Doctors and all Time Lord stories from The Deadly Assassin onwards. It’s fanwank, yes, but dammit, it’s the acceptable face of fanwank. Another interesting line is “Didn’t we have trouble with the prototype?” Gosh, I wonder where this could be going? Could script editor Andrew Cartmel have some sort of, I dunno, master plan up his sleeve?

The Doctor certainly has a plan, and apparently it’s to ensure that one particular faction gets its, er, hands on the Hand while ensuring there’s as little human collateral damage as possible. But others have plans too; the Black Dalek turns up, and the Renegade Daleks finally turn the tables on their human pawn, Ratcliffe. We discover that the mysterious Dalek thing is in fact that sinister little girl, and also that these Daleks have a “Time Controller” which is so very late ‘80s.

The Doctor and Ace dodge some tatty Daleks to discover the room where all this has just taken place, and the Doctor explains how the Dalek battle computer works- by taking a child’s natural imagination and enslaving it to the Daleks’ will, thus relieving them of their dependence on logic. How they must wish they’d thought of that during their war with the Movellans.

Mike reveals he’s been betraying secrets to his dodgy fascist mates, leading to some slightly embarrassing ersatz swearing from Ace. But never mind that- an Imperial Dalek shuttlecraft is landing…



Part Four



“Daleks are such boring conversationalists.”

It’s good to hear that old familiar throb inside the Dalek shuttlecraft. It’s also nice to see a bit of innovation and coolness with the Special Weapons Dalek, although admittedly it impresses me rather less now than it did when I was eleven.

I’m increasingly noticing how many excellent little bits of physical acting McCoy is always integrating into his performance, such as his umbrella getting stuck in the shuttlecraft door and using his umbrella handle to close a gate. I’m particularly impressed by the way these little comic moments are used to counterpoint the Doctor’s more brooding side. Suddenly this new Doctor seems to have an awful lot of depth. Davison may have been a better actor, but this is arguably the best Doctor since Tom Baker.

The Doctor communicates with the Imperial Dalek mother ship, claiming to be “President Elect” of the High Council. Er, not when we last checked he wasn’t. Just how many untelevised stories did we miss out on between Trial of a Time Lord and Time and the Rani? But then, if he’s 953 that would imply a gap of fifty years. A lot can happen in that time. For example, the Doctor seems to be carrying out some kind of long term plan against the Dalek, and reels off a long list of fancy Time Lord titles. Davros (for it is he), on the other hand, seems hell-bent against the Time Lords. It’s almost as if there’s some kind of, I dunno, “Time War” of some kind under way.

Anyway, the Doctor essentially destroys Skaro, just like that. It’s a very new departure for the Doctor, which could end up either very good or very bad; it all depends on where all this is going in the long term. For now, though, this story is fab.



Brilliant, a strong 5/5. Fast paced, exciting, and just as good twenty-one years later.

Doctor Who: Time and the Rani

Part One
 

“Leave the girl. It’s the man I want.”

I think I recall being impressed with the opening scene of last season, with its proto-CGI opening. Well, this season starts with some proto-bad CGI. It’s all very confusing and poorly animated. And the regeneration, inevitably as Colin isn’t there, is embarrassingly awful. But it’s not just the unfortunate necessities forced upon the production team that lead to this story’s jaw-dropping awfulness- Pip n’ Jane’s dialogue is awful from the very first scene, and the whole thing’s obviously pitched at very young kids.

Admittedly the title sequence is great, but as soon as it’s over the nightmare continues. Sylvester McCoy was my Doctor, and it was when I started watching the show again with Remembrance of the Daleks back in 1988 that I stopped being an occasional viewer and started being a fan. So it’s a huge shock to see just how horrifyingly bad McCoy is in his first scene. This is extremely bad television, and I’m extremely glad I wasn’t watching the show at the time, as this episode could have put me off for ever.

The effects are great, though- the pink sky of Lakertya, and especially the bubbles- but when the Rani starts impersonating Mel things take a turn for the even worse.

Part Two

“Memory like a kangaroo…”

I’ll admit that was a great cliffhanger. This is still somewhat despair-inducing, though. Even the characterisation of the new Doctor seems to consist of little more than spoon playing, absent-mindedness and malapropisms. And he’s too easily fooled by the Rani. Still, McCoy’s performance has settled down.

We get our first proper look at the Tetrap costume, and it’s impressive. Mel, of course, proceeds to scream a lot. I still like her, mind. Sadly, though, these scenes feature particularly awful incidental music- Keff McCulloch has arrived.

Interestingly, the Doctor is 953 years old (as is the Rani, apparently) so the Sixth Doctor’s tenure seems to have lasted for a good fifty years or so in spite of how little of it we saw on screen. Not bad, considering both the Second and Fifth Doctors couldn’t possibly have lasted more than a few years. And there’s massive scope for untelevised adventures between this season and the last.

Another thing; we suddenly seem unmistakeably to be in the late ‘80s, what with the theme tune, title sequence, horribly dated incidental music and words like “biodegradable” appearing in the dialogue.

Part Three

“Haven’t I seen you hanging around somewhere?”

Mostly this episode is just captures, escapes, and other such padded dullness with no entertainment value whatsoever. Although it’s cool to see the Tetraps hanging upside down, like bats. But it’s striking how little substance there is to this; I’m finding very little to comment on.

Unfortunately the sight of the big brain is the most groan-inducing moment in the marathon so far…

Part Four

“I have the Loyhargil. Nothing can stop me now!”

More awfulness, with the Doctor’s arsing about in the brain being probably the worst moment, but by now I’m just waiting for the story to finish. This is worse even than Underworld, and that’s the ultimate put down.
And after a break from this sort of thing under Colin Baker, we again finish with a crowded TARDIS…

Well, I hated that. 1/5, rock bottom. With hindsight I know the era’s going to recover, but viewers at the time weren’t to know that. This is the least promising introduction to a season, an era ands a Doctor that we could possibly have imagined. Pip and Jane are the main problem; I’m sure the science is sound, but the whole thing is just pitched wrong. It’s not the fact it’s being pitched at children I object to- it is a children’s programme, after all. But this is a very lazy example of writing for children, with no depth to either the characters or the themes. There’s nothing here but the bare plot and some patronisingly “educational” science stuff, with even the new Doctor having barely any personality at this stage. Fortunately, from the next story onwards we’ll get an actual script editor, and some direction to the stories.