Blake's 7: Mission to Destiny

Personally, I don’t care if their whole planet turns into a mushroom. I’m staying because I don’t like an unsolved mystery.”

A whodunnit in Blake’s 7 seems rather odd, especially at this early stage. But it works, oddly enough, and lets us have a closer look at Avon. He may be cynical and self-centred (although less so than he likes to present himself), but he’s also intelligent and intellectually curious.

We begin with a ship flying through space in a scene rather reminiscent of a low budget version of the previous year’s Star Wars, and we meet a bloke who is instantly done in. With lead piping, apparently.

In no time at all the Liberator turns up, and Blake, Avon and Cally (the only regulars who get significant screen time) start investigating the mystery. Everyone has been rendered asleep by tranquillising gas, the controls and the communicators have been sabotaged, and the murdered man managed to write “54124” in his own blood before he carked it. Our heroes get well stuck into the mystery, with Blake and Avon even finding themselves on film as they investigate the filters.

Early on we get a typical whodunit scene in which the suspects tell us their names and alibis, and we establish the two obligatory red herrings, Mandrian and Solheim. One of the suspects is played by John “K-9” Leeson, and there’s a missing person, Dortmunn (a very Terry Nation name, that), who apparently has escaped on the life raft. Except he hasn’t, as Cally and the rather pervy Solheim later find his body.

It seems this ship is from Destiny, a frontier world settled a mere century ago and which remains, for the moment at least, outside the Federation. On board is a McGuffin, vital for the future survival of the planet, but also made of priceless unobtainium, and the perfect motive for any greedy person to resort to murder. All the pieces are in place. It’s agreed that Blake will take the McGuffin to Destiny as quickly as they can, while Cally and Avon stay behind. It’s fun seeing how Paul Darrow plays his role here: people may have died but Avon is rather enjoying himself!

Cally sees loads and loads of potentially important stuff happening, much of it on film, while the discovery of Dortmunn’s body leads Avon to call everyone together and do his best Hercule Poirot impersonation. He’s definitely enjoying this.

The Liberator, meanwhile, is faced by a whopping big meteor storm (what, they’re weather phenomena?), and has to choose between going round, which will take ages, and going right through. Blake, of course, chooses the more laddish of the two options.

Avon gets a particularly cool bit of dialogue where he says he thinks Mandrian probably did it, with Sonheim next on the list, but that he’s going by instinct and so is therefore probably wrong. Now there’s a man who understands the tropes of the genre he temporarily finds himself in. Rather less cool is Jenna’s claim, on board the Liberator, that “We’re having to use a lot of power to maintain our speed and heading”. Er, I think you’ll find that in a vacuum you require exactly no power to do that.

Meanwhile, Mandrian is dead, with Sonheim so obviously guilty that he can’t possibly have done it. Avon now realises whodunnit, and assumes the role of the fictional famous Belgian for one final time: it was Sara what done it. She seems to hold all the cards, including the McGuffin, which is not on the Liberator after all. But Blake has realised this, and the Liberator races back to get back to the ship before Sara’s mates do. We end with a budget-friendly, off-screen bang.

I rather enjoyed that, but it will be good to get back to the usual skulduggery surrounding the Federation…

Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor

Part One

“Don‘t say it, please! Don’t say ‘Another underground passage!’”

The beginning is fantastic- an ersatz Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in a spoof piece of propaganda which contains the line “Men out there, young men, are dying for it”. Unfortunately, as the camera pulls back to reveal the joke it also reveals a general cheapness of the kind which was so ubiquitous last season but which has been far less on obvious show recently. And, of course, this is a script by the Bristol Boys, and I fell out badly with them last season. This is not a story I’d been looking forward to, frankly, as the last time I watched it about four years ago I absolutely hated it.

But actually, some so-so acting and a bit of visual cheapness aside, there’s not a lot wrong with this first episode. The premise seems simple at first- Atrios is at war with its neighbour, Zeos although, naturally, this being a Baker and Martin script, we shouldn’t expect the “nuclear” part to in any way reflect scientific fact. The Marshal, who seems to be in charge, is a stereotypically trigger-happy military type who owes a fair bit to Jack D. Ripper and, surprise surprise, wants to carry on with the war. Princess Astra (the lovely Lalla Ward- yay!), meanwhile, wants the war stopped, and has been trying to negotiate with the Zeons, alongside her medic boyfriend Zerak. Except that Zeos doesn’t seem to be there. And, this being a sci-fi concepts heavy Bristol Boys script, we instantly know that’s important.

And then more mysteries pop up: the Marshal is talking to a mysterious mirror, and the Doctor and Romana can’t see Zeos from the TARDIS. But it’s not all big sci-fi ideas- there’s some great dialogue between the Doctor, Romana and K9 towards the end of this episode, which makes me suspect the hand of Anthony Read, who’s had an unexpectedly fantastic season as script editor. K9’s description of optimism as “Irrational, bordering on insane” is priceless.

Part Two

“I think one of us is being extremely stupid.”

“Affirmative.”

I love the Doctor’s dialogue when the Marshal unexpectedly becomes friendly towards him, claiming that his coming has been foretold. His mockery of the marshal’s cod-Shakespeare dialogue is great, and I love the way he spends much of this episode gently mocking the Marshal in ways that go over his head. In fact, the awesomeness in this episode pretty much centres on the dialogue; I love K9’s silly yet bathetic “Temperature unacceptable!” as he trundles to his fiery doom.

Oh, and the space invaders scene is brilliant, as is the very fact that Atrios has only six- er, three- ships. The mystery continues, too, with the suggestion of something between Atrios and Zeos. Once again, a surprisingly good episode.

Part Three

“I have watched you and your jackdaw meanderings!”

Suddenly things really start happening and we get some total changes of setting and situation which, rather unfortunately, strain the budget a little, but still show this to be a surprisingly great plot which tends to foreground the Big Ideas- the very things that Baker and Martin are good at.

Our heroes are transmatted to the mysterious third planet we get to meet the Shadow and his similarly hooded underlings. Things start getting rather epic as the Shadow demand the five segments of the Key to Time which are in the Doctor’s possession, and he has the TARDIS. He also has Astra. And, incidentally, if Astra is the only surviving member of Atrios’ royalty, why isn’t she queen? Presumably at some point the Marshal became military dictator and ended the monarchy.

The Doctor manages to talk his way out of trouble- and the Shadow simply walks away declaring he’s just going to wait for the Doctor to make a mistake! Bizarre though it may seem, this scene actually works through clever scripting.

The episode ends on a bombshell- there are no Zeons on Zeos as they’ve all been killed in the war, but their automated defence system, under the control of K9’s new computer friend Mentalis, have carried on prosecuting the war anyway- a brilliant concept. The next stop is “obliteration”. Of everything…

Oh, and I love Shapp’s description of Zeons as looking just like the Atreusians(?) aside from their clothing. The cheap depiction of alien races in this season extends even to verbal descriptions!

We end with the Marshal’s ship, clearly based on the Millennium Falcon- this is our first blatant influence from Star Wars. And, as another aside, it occurred to me while watching it that it’s probably the influence of the Bristol Boys who pretty much caused the word “transmat” to become a Doctor Who standard- they were using it back in The Sontaran Experiment and they’re still using it here in their swansong story as a team.

Part Four

“I’ve stopped the universe.”

So, the Marshal wants to blow up both worlds for some reason, but Mentalis won’t defend itself as it’s won the war- the clichéd military mind versus the clichéd machine mind- “the armageddon factor”. How very cold war. Why was all this not explained at the end of last episode? It certainly would have helped improve the cliffhanger.

After spending a comically long time panicking, the Doctor and Romana finally remember they can take shelter in the TARDIS. Rather cleverly, the Doctor knocks up an ersatz sixth segment so he can use the Key to Time to create a time loop, delaying Armageddon for a few hours.

Great cliffhanger here, as K9 calls the Shadow “Master”!

Part Five

“Your silliness is noted.”

The Doctor and the Shadow get a rather pleasing confrontation scene here, as the Shadow reveals, to no one’s surprise, that he’s an agent of the Black Guardian, and so the Doctor’s counterpart. Rather more of a surprise is the appearance of Drax, a technician coerced into helping the Shadow, who turns out to be not only a Time Lord but an old classmate of the Doctor’s.

We’re told that the Doctor and Drax were both in the “Class of ‘92”, and that the Doctor’s uni nickname was “Theta Sigma” or “Thete”! And all this was 450 years ago, 73 years after the Doctor first stole the TARDIS, if Romana’s comments in The Pirate Planet are to be believed! Drax spent five years in Brixton Prison, where he picked up not only a cockney accent but a complete set of cockney stereotypes, and is now trapped, with his TARDIS on Zeos. He’s a Time Lord, not just an ordinary Gallifreyan. And apparently the war’s been going on for five years, so they’re a lot more efficient at this nuclear war business than, say, the people of Skaro. 

The Shadow, dastardly fellow that he is, wants to do with the whole cosmos what he’s done with Atreus and Zeos, causing a nuclear war between the two sides of the cosmos like a proper Dr Strangelove. The fiend!

Part Six

“Any second now, beautiful mushrooms will blossom and burst!”

So, Astra is the sixth princess of the sixth dynasty of the sixth royal house of Atrios. Good job the Doctor and Romana happened to come across her sixth, then. But the idea of an actual person, with as much right to live as anyone, being a segment of the Key is pretty horrible, and I’m glad we get some dialogue in which Romana says so. It seems even the White Guardian is not necessarily very nice from the perspective of a mere mortal.

The Black Guardian is great. I care not that he’s just the White Guardian with the negative reversed, as we get to hear Valentine Dyall’s magnificent voice. I shall gloss over his silly attempts at disguise and move straight to the Doctor’s “absolute power” speech- another great piece of acting from Tom Baker. The ending doesn’t quite work, which is disappointing- after all this, the Doctor just scatters all the segments through space and time again? What happened to this great crisis we were told about in The Ribos Operation? Surely the White Guardian will be highly displeased? Still, Asdtra’s back, and after a season of the Doctor having absolute control of the TARDIS he’s now obliged to fit a “randomiser”. No doubt he won’t be landing anywhere we’ve heard of for a good while, then.

Surprisingly entertaining stuff, that. Not one of the greats but some great sci-fi concepts and lots of wit and humour make this a strong 4/5. And doing that comes as a shock to me, frankly- before the Marathon I’d have had this down as a dead cert for a 1/5.

And just as shockingly, after last season’s car crash, this season scores a solid 4.667/5, making it my favourite season so far! Now that I was not expecting.

Doctor Who: Dalek Cutaway. As opposed to "Mission to the Unknown", which is merely the title of the first episode.

Mission to the Unknown"There's something very big going on here. And if the Daleks are involved you can bet your life our whole galaxy is in danger."


A Terry Nation script, and it's got a jungle in it. It's weird that this features none of the regulars- personally I wasn't too perturbed as this was just one short episode and I'm aware it's just a prologue to the forthcoming epic. But I wonder if the contemporary viewers would have been aware of this.

The Loose Cannon recon is very nice indeed; as with Galaxy Four, there's been a lot of cleverness employed in enabling us to see as much moving footage as possible.

I love the Varga plants, very Terry Nation! As is the phrase "space security". I was also much amused by Marc Cory's statement that he hasn't told anyone he's coming to Kembel; we know he's doomed from this point on. The sense of doom is nicely fuelled further by Lowery's infection. The later sight of him as a Varga plant from the waist upwards is very effective, although I'm not sure whether I should be crediting Douglas Camfield or Loose Cannon!

The Daleks are great here- clever, scheming and implacable. We know that, for one episode only, nothing can stand in their way. The delegates are also a squee moment in themselves. I'm a bit hesitant on giving this a mark at all as it feels very much like part of a greater whole, but I'm going to give it 5/5.

I hope the Doctor's in it next week, mind!

Rankings

The Aztecs 5/5
Marco Polo 5/5
The Crusade 5/5
The Time Meddler 5/5
The Rescue 5/5
The Reign of Terror 5/5
An Unearthly Child 5/5
Mission to the Unknown 5/5
The Dalek Invasion of Earth 4/5
The Romans 4/5
Planet of Giants 4/5
The Daleks 3/5
Galaxy Four 3/5
The Space Museum 3/5
The Chase 3/5
The Sensorites 3/5
The Edge of Destruction 2/5
The Web Planet 1/5
The Keys of Marinus 1/5


The Terry Nation Cliché Count

Mysterious figure follows female companion but later turns out to be a goodie: 1
Anti-radiation drugs: 1
Countdown: 2
Daleks at the cliffhanger to part one: 3
Our heroes unable to return to the TARDIS: 3
Trek through hostile environment: 2
Cowardly character dies a heroic death: 1
Part 1 spent exploring: 4
Jungle: 4
Character displays a grave moral failing making their death inevitable: 2
Episode opens with the strange death of a mysterious figure: 1
Very big bomb: 2
Planets named from their predominant quality plus “us” on the end: 2
Alien city: 2
Deadly Plants: 1
Unnecessary use of “space” as a prefix: 1

Doctor Who: Galaxy Four

Four Hundred Dawns

"We have a small number of men, as many as we need, the rest we kill. They consume valuable food and fulfil no particular function."


The Loose Cannon recon for this story is great, with lots of creativity being used to give us as much moving footage as possible. This is the best done recon I've seen so far. Sadly, the quality of the original audio isn't as good, and what with my hearing being poor anyway I had trouble hearing much of this story. Still, an intriguing and entertaining episode one, as we've come to expect from the sci-fi stories. As always, we start with some nice character stuff, and it's nice to get the references to The Space Museum.

The Drahvins are clearly up to no good from the start, and I'm not just saying that because their doors make the same sounds as the ones in the Dalek city. They're very B-movie-esque alien Amazons, and if there's any serious comment about sexual politics here (I strongly doubt it) it's impossible to take it as such. Still, the Chumblies are great, and we get to see the Astral Map from The Web Planet again. Er, yay! Nice cliffhanger though- the TARDISeers are in more trouble than they'd realised...

Trap of Steel

"My Ship's not made of tin like this old trash!"


So far this story's quite good, dramatic and well-paced. I've often seen this story criticised because the Drahvins are so obviously the baddies, but although not judging by appearances is clearly a strong theme it's not this that's propelling the drama; it's the pressing need to escape from the imminent destruction of the planet that's the central fact here.

Hmm, so the Drahvins' doors have the sound of the Daleks', and the Rills' ship has the pulsating noise from Dalek ships. The Daleks are being most generous with their sound effects.

Air Lock

"We are not deaf, you know!"


It never fails to amuse me in these early stories how the episode starts with a cliffhanger reprise and then everything has to stop for the title and writer's credit to be displayed. Otherwise, not much to say about this episode. The first two episodes were quite engaging, but things are now beginning to flag. It doesn't really help that the script has no more surprises for us; we pretty much know what's going to happen from this point.

The Exploding Planet

"We respect you as we respect all life."


The speech to Steven by the rill is dull and patronising, as is much of this episode- the drama of how our heroes are going to escape the planet is largely gone, as no convincing obstacles are put in their way from this point. The moral of the story is all very good but the heavy-handed way it's conveyed- taking up much of this episode- is unnecessary and dull. Still, it's nice to see a full photo of a Rill.

Strange and interesting way of doing the cliffhanger, with Vicki making a random comment about a planet that happens to be on the scanner. Still, a Terry Nation episode next. oh look- it's set on a jungle planet.


This story actually works well and holds the attention for the first two episodes, but once the Doctor and Vicki start talking to the Rill the plot stops, as there are no more significant plot twists or threats to our heroes. Instead the time is filled with heavy-handed moralising. A shame, as there's still much to like about this story. 3/5.

Doctor Who: The Romans

The Slave Traders

"There's a great difference between resting and... being sort of bone idle."


So, falling off a cliff can be felt inside the Ship. No doubt this will be adhered to with absolute consistency from now on.

The early scenes are fun, and do the important job of establishing Vicki very quickly by having a whole month pass. One comment by Barbara to Vicki raises an eyebrow though- "Are you any good at dressmaking?". 1964 suddenly feels a long time ago- I'm reminded of the episode of Torchwood with the time travellers from the 1950s.

Hartnell mispronounces Ian's surname for the first time in ages, but generally spends the whole story being superb. If there's one thing he does really well, it's comedy. It's also noticeable how differently he acts towards Vicki than towards Susan- much more fond and indulgent, with none of the friction we're used to, continuing the process of the Doctor becoming ever more likeable.

Dennis Spooner seems to have officially founded Ian and Barbara shipping here; they're clearly a couple by now. I love the "fridge" line. It's very noticeable that Spooner has produced a much more overtly comedic script than with The Reign of Terror, using tragic elements to counterbalance the comedy rather than vice versa.

All Roads Lead to Rome

"You know, I'm so consistently outwitting the opposition, I tend to forget the delights and satisfactions of the art, the gentle art, of fisticuffs!"


The Doctor's fight with Ascaris is hilarious, played with perfect comic timing by Hartnell. With this episode it becomes clear that the story is to be a tightly plotted farce, with the TARDISeers forever just missing each other. The story is not without a sense of threat, but it never loses the sense of being a comedy, and ends up being fun and undemanding to watch.

Conspiracy

"Now, close your eyes and Nero will give you a big surprise!"

"Pardon?!"


Vicki's very innocent, isn't she? She's the only character forever protected from any threat or unpleasantness, able to walk around completely impervious, casually poisoning Nero along the way. Not only Maureen O'Brien but the entire cast plays it brilliantly- Hartnell, the actor playing Tigillinus with such brilliant physical comedy, and Derek Francis as Nero. The scene with Nero forcing Tigillinus to taste his poisoned drink is comedy gold, as is the entire scene with the Doctor's lyre playing.

Another namedrop from the Doctor here, this time Hans Christian Anderson.

Inferno

"I've got a friend who specialises in trouble. He dives in and usually finds a way."


I'm not sure the business about Nero setting fire to Rome is good history, but it's certainly good farce. The fun doesn't let up in the final episode- my favourite bit is the Doctor's punning to Nero on his imminent mauling in the arena. Of course, the Doctor, in changing history, seems to contradict what we were told in both The Aztecs and The Reign of Terror. But it's worth it for the moment when the Doctor starts chuckling insanely and the laughter then segues into Nero's.

The end is priceless, with the Doctor believing Ian and Barbara to have been carousing in the villa all this time. Once again Ian and Barbara seem very couply.


Overall, it may not have been big or clever but it was fun, and an admirably constructed farce. 4/5.