Century Falls: Episode 6

 "Before disaster came, when things were perfect still."

This script is beautiful; consider the quote above with its perfect iambs. And this is a beautiful finale, satisgying thematically as much as in terms of plot, with every character getting perfect focus and development.

I've been ambivalent about Century Falls. It's been fun getting the Doctor Who Easter Eggs- characters called Ashe and Josiah, a mysterious Watcher, the whole vibe. And I'm aware there's a lot more subtext here- about hope, about indivoiduality vs comformity on several layers- that I've been slow to realise. But it has, at times, been hard going.

That is not at all the case for this perfect final episode. Even Julia gets redemption and closure, and only Josiah unambiguously dies. It took a while to get here but this finale makes me glad that, like Tess, I kept the faith.

Century Falls: Episode 4

 "Being alone is the easiest escape there is."

This episode is the turning point, full of revelations. Tess and her mother are reconciled, both with each other and with the truth: Elizabeth was adopted, but was born in Century Falls. We also hear a fuller account of what happened in 1953, and who Century is... although we get only hints of who Century is.

We learn who it is that Richard Naismith has been keping prisoner, though; his own father, Dr Josiah Naismith. We Doctor Who fans find all this very Ghost Light, no doubt very deliberate from RTD. There are lots of nice little character touches, too- Julia's manipulation of Ben, and her interesting longing for oblivion. Who is she?

And yet... somehow the brilliance of the poetic, beautiful script is not conveyed well by the visuals and, perhaps, the acting. Nevertheless, this is getting interesting.

Century Falls: Episode 3

 "I'm aware only that three spinster women have nothing better to do than gossip."

This is, it has to be said, a slow episode, but I don't think the failt is that of RTD's script, which feels very classic kids' TV stuff and, I noticed today, has twin sisters named "Harkness", a link between Agatha and Captain Jack.

Of course, the big character thing is that Tess's mother wants to keep her away from the Harkness sisters, bitter at what Esme said and understandably so. But the way she speaks to her poor daughter for believing the story is horrifying.

We see a little more, though not much, of what happened at the temple in 1953, and a gold masked woman called "Century". It's a nice drip, drip, drip for the third episode of six.

And then the big revelation... Julia, the "maid", is really in charge. I didn't see that coming, but it makes sense in hindsight. Is she Century? I'm dsure there's much to come.

And yet, despite the script, I think the direction and the cast aren't quite selling this as well as they could.

Century Falls: Episode 2

 "All the past of Century Falls- and it's coming back."

The plot thickens. So Richard has powers too, as do many in the village; Ben is merely particularly powerful.Then there's the "Gathering", where those villagers with a "birthright"do this psychic seance type thing. Oh, and no pregnancy in the village has been carried successfully to term for forty years, which is not good news for Tess' mum.

However, good though the script is, and good though much of the adult cast are, this suffers a bit from an abundance of child actors, all three of which are adequate but little more. There's an intriguing and effective atmosphere, though, in spite of this clearly not being an expensive programme to make. 

The village's attitude towards outsiders is clearer now, with Tess and her mum in a rather worrying position. Richard is all the more sinister. And what is this creepy, gold-masked figure? This is a very different series to Dark Season, and the characters, while well written, are less charismatic; there's no one to compare with Marcie.

Still, I'm enjoying this.

Century Falls: Episode 1

 "If you were born outside Century Falls, you're always an outsider!"

Yes indeed, this is a local village for local people.

I've been wishing to watch this early kids' drama by Russell T. Davies for years. It's very different from Dark Season, but feels very much in the lineage of a certain type of childrens' telefantasy. We have the Falls themselves, a mysterios temple that burned down forty years ago despite being made of stone- are these suspicious villagers pagan? Have Tess and her pregnant mother stumbled into The Wicker Man?

The characterisation, and the dialogue, are brilliantly RTD. Tess and her mum seem very real in comparison to the otherworldly villagers and those strange kids, Carey and the disturbingly odd Ben, a complex figure, with bullying tendencies and hidden depths, seemingly feared even my hos despairing father.

So many secrets and subplots are developing already, yet it's all very easy to follow. This is all rather intriguing.

Doctor Who: The Creature From the Pit

Part One

“What are you doing in the Place of Death?"

“Oh, just pottering around. I have this insatiable curiosity, you see… why do you call it the Place of Death?”

“Because anyone found here is automatically condemned to death.”

“Ah.”

This is a story I’d been looking forward to immensely, as I remember finding this story an utter delight back when it was released on video- silly in a good, Season Seventeeny way, with lots of Douglas Adams-esque witty dialogue which often did extyreme violence to the fourth wall. Plus, it’s written by David Fisher, who penned two great stories last season. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, K9’s new voice, for a start. Perhaps it’ll grow on me, but David Brierley’s vocal style lacks the prissiness of John Leeson’s, and doesn’t deliver the lines the same way. K9 suddenly seems to have lost a large chunk of his personality.

The TARDISeers land on an alien planet where the our heroes attacked by silly yet convincing looking “Wolfweeds” and threatened with death by Eileen Way, a real face from the past. Some of the dialogue sparkles a bit, but it all seems a little formulaic, however much this is acknowledged in the dialogue. And then we get our hirsute cockney bandits, who all seem to be played like Fagin and out to pick a pocket or two. This is a little unfortunate, especially as they’re portrayed as grasping and greedy. Still, I love Romana’s attitude to being captured, and the cool way she contrives her escape.

It’s quite surprising to see Morris Barry turning up in an acting role here, executed for his unfortunate lack of “a teaspoon and an open mind”. But the main baddy is played in a suitably pantomimish fashion by Myra Frances- it’s not a particularly subtle performance but Lady Adastra is such a fun character, and there’s no other way her lines could have been delivered. She’s a pure cipher, but this is of course quite deliberate. This story knows exactly the sort of thing it is, as clearly shown by the dialogue’s frequently wrecking ball-like relationship with the fourth wall: “We call it… the pit!” / “Ah, you have such a way with words…”. It’s just that, for the first time in the Graham Williams era, this is all starting to sound a slightly troubling note. This story may know it’s a formulaic runaround crammed with stock characters, but that doesn’t stop it being a formulaic runaround crammed with stock characters.

Oh, and why on Earth does the Doctor just chuck himself into the pit at the end?

Part Two

“We call it… the creature!”

“Ah. That’s original.”

There’s a justly famous scene at the beginning of the episode, with the Doctor, hanging off a ledge halfway down the pit, consulting a climbing manual called Everest in Easy Stages. It’s in Tibetan, so the Doctor pulls out another tome from his bottomless pockets, this time titled Teach Yourself Tibetan. It’s a terrific gag, and I wouldn’t dream of being so churlish as the bring up any linguistic skills the Doctor may or not have displayed in Planet of the Spiders.

We get introduced to the fab Geoffrey Bayldon as Organon in this episode, and he gets by far the best line: “The future foretold, the past explained, the present… apologised for.” We’re also introduced to the eponymous creature, which looks almost exactly like a massive green… words fail me.

We’re introduced fully to the underlying concept behind the story here too- metal is rare and Adastra has the monopoly. It’s fundamentally a sound basis for a story, but never explored in any depth. In fact, much about this society is left vague- what’s the tech level? What about those other communities without a metal mine? How come a single mine produces so many different kinds of metals?

Part Three

“I thought you were dead! Why haven’t you died?”

“I’m sorry, my lady. It was… an oversight.”

It’s becoming increasingly clear that this isn’t going to be as good as I remembered it. It has lots of good one-liners and a fun camp villain, both of which protect it from falling too low in my affections, but I must admit the plot itself is very much by the numbers. Plus, I don’t like the way an astrologer is allowed to be a major character in here without astrology being seriously questioned at any point. That’s not the way Doctor Who has traditionally dealt with the subject.

The most eye-popping moment in this episode (and perhaps in all of Doctor Who thus far!) is a certain moment involving the Doctor and the creature’s, er, protuberance. I suspect it’s this more than the story’s perceived shortcoming that led to this story being one of the last out on video and is delaying its DVD release.

Part Four

“Have a care, Doctor!”

“Have a care yourself. Have a care for your people for a change.”

We finally get the big revelation- the creature, or Erato, is in fact an ambassador from Tythonius, who rather conveniently comes from a world with loads of metal and a deficit in chlorophyll, and arrived on this world to arrange a trade. Adrasta, wishing to retain her monopoly, kidnapped him, shoved him into a pit, and proceeded to drop engineers and astrologers on him. Instead of, say, just killing him. Once the secret is out, both Erato and her own people have a bone to pick with Adrasta and she is quickly killed. End of story. Except we’ve still got most of the episode to fill.

And there lies the problem- with the plot wrapped up, the episode just feels like padding to fill up the time until the end of the episode. Which is exactly what it is. And I’m not entirely sure the science is accurate!

Well, I’ve not exactly been complimentary about this story, but in spite of everything it has enough wit and charm about it to protect it from a seriously low rating. This is an odd one, the first genuine guilty pleasure because the fact is, despite its faults, I can’t help being fond of The Creature From the Pit. 3/5.

Doctor Who: An Unearthly 100,000BC of Gum

And so it properly begins...

An Unearthly Child

"This doesn't roll along on wheels, you know!"

There are many small differences from the pilot episode here, but I feel by far the most significant is the Kenneth Williams impression at the start*. Doctor Who just wouldn't have turned out quite as good without this, I feel...

The direction shows the same brilliance we saw in the pilot, although downsides include the contents of the junkyard (not as visually impressive) and Susan's dancing (marginally less funky this time round, I feel). But the real big change here is the character of the Doctor. Yes, a lot of the lines are different, but it's largely the subtly different way that William Hartnell pitches his performance that makes him crucially that much more likeable. The chuckle is less sinister, and the absent-mindedness is played up so as to soften the edges of the character.

The Doctor's line about the "savage mind" of the "Red Indian" raised an eyebrow. Appropriate in a series from 1963 that we get such a Mad Men moment...

One connection I've never made before is the scene in the classroom when Susan insists to Ian that she can't just use A, B and C to represent the three dimensions. Apparently D (time) and E ("space!") are also needed. Could this be foreshadowing the dimensions of the TARDIS interior, with the bigger inside being evidence of an extra dimension, "E"?

Feel free to give me a virtual slap if that was overly pretentious.

A brilliant episode, probably one of my favourite pieces of drama ever.

The Cave of Skulls

"Just open the doors, Dr Foreman!"

"Eh? Doctor Who? What are you talking about?"


The cavemen we see here are very stereotypical, with no attempt at accurately depicting the palaeolithic. But then again this is allegory, not history as such, so perhaps we shouldn't judge it on those terms. This isn't really a historical, but a socio-political allegorical play (this is very theatre-influenced telly, more Armchair Theatre than Forbidden Planet) with the tribe as a very simplified microcosm of society. No doubt there'll be some political overtones along later! The language used by the cavemen is very interesting- very heightened and stylised, with a definite rhythm and everyone articulating their thoughts very directly. All the Stone Age figures are very childlike- Za is particular seems to be basically all id.

Incidentally, are they eating their meat raw without fire? Is this safe?

The scene where Ian and Barbara leave the TARDIS and step into an unknown environment for the first time is wonderfully written and performed. Some great dialogue: "If you could touch the alien sands and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?"

The exterior scenes are cleverly shot, with the angles not making it too obvious what a small studio this was all being filmed in! Although that obvious polystyrene rock in the cave is a bit unfortunate.

The Doctor smokes the coolest pipe I have ever seen. But unfortunate consequences follow, leading to Susan going hysterical. This is the point where she starts to really annoy me for the first time...

Oh, and "Fire will kill us all in the end!" Bit of a nuclear weapons subtext here, methinks!

Overall, great drama, and in my opinion totally undeserving of its reputation as a boring runaround so far- the story's on course for a 5/5. But we shall see...






*As pointed out in the Discontinuity Guide. It's particularly hard to review this story without unknowingly plagiarising other people, I've read so many reviews over the years...

The Forest of Fear

"Fear makes companions of all of us, Miss Wright."

Ian says "split right open", not "split open!" They obviously redid the reprise! This manages to look impressive in spite of clearly not being overburdened with cash, and lot of that is down to Waris Hussein's direction. By avoiding wide shots and being clever with his camera angles he even manages to make tiny Lime Grove not look absurd when supposed to be a forest.

Barbara's been the most level-headed character, so it's genuinely shocking when she becomes hysterical, really bringing home the situation they're all in. It must be said, Jacqueline Hill does hysterical acting slightly better than Carole Ann Ford.

We now have a power struggle between Ian and the Doctor (the males, I notice!) over leadership of their "tribe"; by now it's clear that the TARDIS "tribe" and Za's tribe are being written to parallel each other in some rather interesting ways.

Interesting how Hur is shown to be both brighter and more courageous than Za; she manipulates him into following the escaped prisoners.

The Doctor is much more than the antihero of legend here; he's seriously nasty to a degree not often acknowledged, and hard to accept as the Doctor we would get to know- this is more reminiscent of the Doctor of the pilot. He shows no empathy for the injured Za, is impatient with the others when they tend to him and, most noticeably, seems to almost give up in despair in the Cave of Skulls. Babs gets a great line: "You treat everybody and everything as something less important than yourself!" It's Ian and Barbara who are the heroes of this programme.

Hur does not understand the concept of altruism, and is genuinely confused as to why they are helping Za. But the Doctor's attitude is not far removed. Whether or not he means to kill Za, it's certainly performed that way. the look Ian gives the Doctor afterwards seems to leave little room for doubt. This is a very different Doctor, and it's genuinely hard to imagine it can be the same character. These unpleasant aspects won't so much be developed as quietly dropped later.

A character called "Old woman", eh? Could Anthony Coburn not think of a name?

The Firemaker

"Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe".

Suddenly, the Doctor starts being useful- his trick with the knife is very clever. Kal's a bit thick really, whereas Za is shown as capable of learning things.

Oh look- it's a fight, and the first of many rather obvious film sequences. It's also patently obvious that Ka and Za are not interacting with any of the others. But of course Za comes out on top- he has learned the value of community while Kal is still stuck in the selfish individualism of the tribe. There's a definite theme of community versus individualism going on here and we can see it in the dynamics of the TARDIS tribe as much as Za's- both tribes gradually learn these lessons throughout the story. It's often said that the plot of this story is basically escape, get recaptured, escape, get recaptured. But that's missing the point- the real story is both the TARDIS crew and the tribe learning to depend on each other rather than just themselves. I don't know why, but I somehow suspect Anthony Coburn was not exactly an ardent Thatcherite.

Hee hee. They're just running on the spot while being brushed with twigs. An oddly unnecessary embarrassing moment.

An historic moment- the very first TARDIS dematerialisation as seen from outside! Although it's unfortunate that most of the following TARDIS interior scene takes place in front of what is clearly a cardboard photographic blow-up of the TARDIS roundels! You can get away with so much in black and white...

Tsk... bloody Susan and her radiation gauge! Bet she was the one in charge at Chernobyl...




Overall, a fantastic start. It's often said that the last three episodes are a dull runaround, but I found them gripping throughout with excellent writing, direction and performances. Perhaps the tone was a bit off for a family show at times, and the characterisation of the Doctor seriously misguided, but I won't argue with the quality of the drama. Easily a 5/5.