The Terror of the Tongs (1961)

 "Like all occidentals, you find it impossible to accept the inevitable."

This is one of those occasional non-horror films Hammer did in their glory days, a tale of a tong rather than a vampire and something a bit different for Jimmy Sangster to write and Christopher Lee to star in.

You can see from the pic that there's an unfortunate amount of yellowface here, prominently so with Lee; it appears that, aside from Burt Kwouk (who inevitably appears), there are no Chinese actors available for speaking roles so the Chinese characters all have to be played by white actors with various degrees of yellowface. Some attempt to sound Chinese; the likes of Lee and Roger Delgado sound English as ever- or, in the case of Yvonne Monlaur, French.

It's a fairly standard revenge plot, although with surprisingly little action overall, with Geoffrey Toone suitably square-jawed as the heroic and very British Jackson Sale.

It is, of course, all told from the perspective of the colonising British, with lots of unfortunate othering of Chinese ways and Chinese culture; it's not just the yellowface that means I'm hardly not exactly going to be able to deny the casual, unthinking racism and racist tropes that permeate this film, many of which no doubt have failed to catch my attention. There's a character called Confucius, after all. But it was 1961, and the past is a foreign country. It's also interesting to see Hong Kong as a place where cultures meet, and what that means for organised crime.

Lee is decent enough- he phones in his performance somewhat, but he's good enough to get away with it. Roger Delgado is also excellent- charismatic and commanding. The plot is standard stuff but decent enough. The direction, though, is sadly flat and uninspired, with unimaginative camerawork and lighting. But the script and performances raise the film to the level of an entertaining curiosity, from a time when no one batted an eyelid at portraying cultures in this way.

Doctor Who: Planet of Evil

Part One

“Can’t… breathe…”

So, this is set in the year 37,166 much further into the future than we’ve yet seen- and it’s implies this is indeed 37,166 C.E. as the Doctor tells Sarah they’ve overshot by 30,000 years and all other characters are clearly human by their names. In fact we’re on the edge of the known universe where things start to shade into anti-matter. Never mind the dodgy science- this is very creepy indeed, and there’s a real sense that the Doctor and Sarah are very far away in terms of both time and space.

On the other hand, for the first time since Planet of the Spiders we get to see the inside of the TARDIS. It’s looking very Spartan these days…

There’s a nice sense of mystery and creepiness with Professor Sorenson’s odd behaviour and the general weirdness of the planet, made very effective indeed by the jungle set and great lighting.

Prentis Hancock’s Salamar should be an irritating character, insisting the TARDISeers must be murderers on very little evidence, but while this sort of thing is usually intensely annoying, here it’s clear that Salamar is supposed to be a pillock.

Part Two

“It doesn’t live anywhere. It just is.”

The jungle is still looking great, incredibly so for an all-studio story. Even the “oculoid tracer” looks fab. Doctor Who suddenly seems incapable of not being great. The Forbidden Planet elements become particularly obvious this episode- although it’s a pity that the Doctor, having namedropped Shakespeare (“dreadful actor”) proceeds top quote from Romeo and Juliet instead of The Tempest.

The pool of nothingness is great, in both conception and realisation. This is the scariest story yet, achieving this by keeping us constantly unnerved about how the usual rules don’t work in this place. Here, there’s no need for monsters as such- it’s the planet itself that’s the threat. Perhaps this is the firs out-and-out horror story yet.

I love the Doctor’s speech to the Morestrans: “You call it nothing, a word to cover ignorance.” And of course it’s their meddling- Sorenson’s ambition and Salamar’s imbecility- which is the root of their problems.

Part Three

“If we don’t make it this time, they never will.”

Wow! I can’t believe the cliffhanger resolution wasn’t a cop-out. The Doctor really does plunge into the anti-matter pool, and stays there for some time.

This is the episode where Sorenson comes more to the foreground, and rather amusingly starts acting out all the tropes of cinematic representations of Jekyll and Hyde, even to the point of swigging from a bottle of bubbling liquid. Salamar continues to be an arse, but by now even his own crew are starting to realise what a liability he is, particularly Vishinsky. His decision to eject the Doctor and Sarah into space just makes him look paranoid, and caused Vishinsky to snap. It’s only this that makes me realise this is basically the quintessential base under siege, but done brilliantly.

Part Four

“You and I are scientists, professor. We buy our privilege to experiment only at the cost of total responsibility.”

Salamar, relieved of command, has nothing to do but go completely mad and die pointlessly, as this is the done thing in these circumstances. With Sorenson and his clones on the earth and the ship counting down to impact there’s a real sense of hopelessness- this is a gripping conclusion. All the same, considering the Doctor and Sarah are only here because the TARDIS has overshot, it seems rather implausible that the Doctor makes two short hops without trouble at the end of the episode.

It’s quite surprising that Sorenson actually survives- by all the normal rules of the programme he should be dead!

That was great, genuinely scary and atmospheric. 5/5.

Doctor Who: The Savages

Part One

"You don't have to do everything he tells you. You're a grown man. Or are you?"


For the first time the TARDISeers land somewhere the Doctor's known- he's famous! In fact, the city dwellers seem to be card-carrying Doctor Who fans and, initially, they seem very nice. But of course, there are sinister, authoritarian undercurrents from the moment the Doctor first meets the two guards- he "must" follow them to the city. We know they're the baddies pretty much from the start, that's not where the mystery lies- the very existence of "savages" excluded from their society reflects badly on them from the beginning. The question is how they are exploiting the "savages".

The central idea behind this story is an extremely powerful sci-fi concept, very reminiscent of Brave New World, and the development of this central idea throughout the story is very effective. There's a real sense of underplayed totalitarian horror throughout the story.

The bickering between the scientist and the security chief is a nice touch in a story which generally succeeds in fleshing out the guest characters. These people are quite normal, not evil- they've simply dehumanised the savages because they're the "other".

This is an excellent recon (I'm watching the new one, hence the delay in my watching this!), but unfortunately much of the story is very visual- there was a long stretch of this episode towards the end where I had to concentrate very hard on the text descriptions. But although visual this story is quite talky and light on action- I'm enjoying it but I suspect it wouldn't have much appeal to kids,


Part Two


"Oppose you? Indeed I'm going to oppose you! Just in the same way as I oppose the Daleks, or any other menace to common humanity."


This is actually a good story for Dodo, who does a lot of investigating early on. And the reactions of the city dwellers to their disappearance are quietly effective; the fate of the couple responsible for losing her is all the more horrible for being understated. This is no paradise even for the city dwellers, and the Doctor's eventual fate shows this society's stance towards dissent.

The Doctor's argument with Jano is a wonderful moment, one of the highlights of the crusading nature of Hartnell's Doctor in his later stories.

Part Three


"I'm afraid I'm- I'm not quite myself."


We get a brief moment of footage this episode, but it would have been nice to see what the cave looked like. The guest characters continue to be well-sketched- Nanina's kindness to Exorse is a nice touch.

One worry is that, although Hartnell seems to be on screen, he doesn't get much to do- is this another sign of Hartnell's failing health affecting things on screen?


Part Four


"I don't intend to leave these people in this oppressed state."

Lots of short, tantalising bits of off-air footage in this episode. It's a real shame this story is missing- more than any missing story so far I've been missing the visuals.

Once again the guest characters are well-written- Tor provides balance by showing the savages can be unsympathetic too. It's also nice that the baddies get a chance to redeem themselves; Jano's attack of conscience may be due to the Doctor's influence but Exorse changes his mind on his own.

Steven gets an excellent leaving scene, which fits his character very well, in a story which has shown him at his best. it's a shame that he never really caught fire as a companion after a promising start, but at least he ends well.



Overall, excellent; well structured in terms of plot, character and themes, and arguably rather more adult than any previous sci-fi story, which may well not have worked in its favour with younger viewers, a definite flaw, but I enjoyed this story hugely- 5/5.