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 5

 "I've never tied anyone up before..."

I have, thus far, defended RTD's script for Century Falls while allowing criticism to fall upon the production. After all, the dialogue is rich and the characters convincing. And yet... this fifth episode is just running around to no good purpose.

Worse, the revelation of who Julia is falls flat. I expected more than some nebulous sense of her being some kind of gestalt entity for the whole village. There's some nice character stuff wiyth Carey and Ben, and the two Harkness sistors, and the cliffhanger is exciting, but tnis penultimate episiode has very little substance.

This is, perhaps, a fifth episode thing. RTD is, as we know, a bloody good writer, though rather young here. And Dark Season was a pair of linked three parters.

Hopefully the finale will impress.

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.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks (Revisited), Episodes Five and Six

Episode Five

"Why do human beings kill human beings?"

The Daleks have revealed their plans, and we know them to be duplicating: you'd expect this to be a water-treading fifth episode. And yet, in spite of the Doctor spending the episode in a cell, and Michael Craze being off for a week, a hell of a lot happens in David Whittaker's intelligent and gripping script.

For a start, the only person to have see the Daleks duplicating is Lesterson, the one character whom no one will believe. The scene where Janley subtly gaslights him in front of Bragen is chillingly effective, his plans to wipe out the Daleks doomed. He's hoist by his own hubris. But he won't be alone. Hubris is everywhere on Vulcan.

Well, perhaps not in production terms. Animation can show us hordes of Daleks, none of them cardboard. But a Daleks reminder that no more than three of them ought to be seen at one time sort of gives away how many props there were. But Janley? She oozes hubris, believing the Daleks can be controlled. Bragen is even worse, riding the revolution to power and then seeking to massacre those who helped him. And then the unexpectedly returned Governor, couped and murdered by Dalek gun in a tense and superb scene which ends with a positively megalomaniacal Bragen in firm control.

Polly only half-convinces Valmar of the plot, but all this plotting ends up being supremely relevant, as we end with the famously surviving scene of revived



Episode Six

"Daleks conquer and destroy!"

Everything looks bleak at the start, as it seems that everybody is going to be exterminating. And, well, things just carry on being bleak as the Daleks happily massacre away, all the human skulduggery being for nothing and utterly exploited by the Daleks.

It’s a bit of a fudge that Bragen, the Doctor, Polly and Quinn aren’t just killed by the Dalek at the time, mine. Letting them past and then weakly announcing that “they will be exterminated” doesn’t quite fulfill the Daleks’ promise. But apart from this it’s an episode of slaughter.

Even at this late stage there’s still a bit of plotting- Valmar overhears Bragen telling a reluctant Janley that he and his friends are all to be killed, now expendable after assisting his coup. But it’s all suddenly meaningless, and Bragen is now king of nothing. And the Daleks just keep on killing- it's just that some killings, like that of Lesterson, are laced with more irony than most.

The Doctor finally defeats the Daleks by destroying the (ahem) power of the Daleks- but, interestingly, it's very much lampshaded that the Doctor could have done this in a far less anarchistic way than to destroy the entire colony's electricity supply. Does he intend to help them unite through adversity? Whatever, it's a surprising manipulative act. Then there's the shockingly deliberate decision to use Bragen's arriving guards as bait. This Doctor may be charming, he may on the whole be a goodie, but he certainly has his dark side. That's brave.


And so, as a whole, being able to fully follow what's going on, the story stands revealed as a triumph, and a far better script than I'd even suspected. It also helps that we don't get those bloody carboard cut-out Daleks...

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks (Revisited), Episodes Three and Four

Episode Three

"A Dalek is bett... is not the same as a human."

Again, moving pictures make such a difference and mean, for once, that I can fully follow the plot both in ways I knew I wasn’t following before and in getting extra nuances. Who cares if the animation is a bit rubbish?

Anyway, the colony certainly starts the episode enthused about the potential of the Daleks to do labour tasks in mines and so forth that, er, would surely require much better mobility and actual hands, but never mind.

Quinn is clearly innocent, and telling the truth when saying he sent for the examiner, but is locked up anyway. Bragen is the new Deputy Governor- and is immediately revealed to be colluding with Janley and the rebels in a plot to exploit their grievances to launch a coup d’etat. Blimey.

Meanwhile, Lesterson is puzzlingly impressed by what he thinks of as the Dalek’s robotic “positronic brain (so Whitaker read Asimov?) as it recites chemical formulas by rote, and is easily manipulated into getting it materials to build a machine which will absolutely predict meteor impacts as the Dalek claims and in no way manufacture an army of Dalek casings so the Daleks can massacre everybody.

Two more Daleks emerge but, hey, Lesterson is in control, while the Doctor flits about learning things- and we get our first “When I say run, run”. And Bragen knows the Doctor is an impostor- but the Doctor knows he killed the real Examiner. Stalemate?

This is a much better episode, with all the skulduggery, when you can easily follow the plot.



Episode Four

"We understand the human mind."

Lesterson begins by asserting his authority in temporarily switching off the Daleks’, er, power to show his dominance, probably the last chance he will have. This is his last big moment before his nervous breakdown, a good bit of characterisation.

But, not forgetting the new Doctor, we get our first “I would like a hat like that”, Troughton’s early catchphrase. He’s alarmed to see Daleks everywhere as servants... and then there were somehow four Daleks, not three. This concern about the mysterious extra Dalek is a superb way of building tension. One odd thing, though, is that the Daleks suddenly operate by static electricity again, for the first and only time since The Daleks. Meanwhile Polly, kidnapped by Janley last episode, is absent so Anneke can have a week off.

Lesterson is now easily manipulated both by the Daleks and the calmly fanatical Janley, a superbly nuanced female character. The rebels want to use the Daleks, and it’s Janley who persuades then that it will be fine and in no way will the Daleks just massacre them all. Meanwhile Bragen, temporarily in charge, exposes and imprisons the Doctor, giving him a chance to compare notes with Quinn.

The ending is superb, and so much better than the frustration of watching these highly visual scenes via telesnaps, as an agog Lesterson sees a Dalek army being manufactured. I particularly love how the bubbling little lumps of hate are removed from water and placed into casings. The whole sequence is amazing, all the more so for the fact that animation doesn’t do cardboard cut out Daleks.

This story, which I already rated very highly, is rising rapidly in my estimation.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks (Revisited), Episodes One and Two

Episode One

"Life depends on change and renewal."

Been a while since I blogged any non-current Doctor Who, hasn't it? I blogged the actual The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear when Philip Morris found them, but otherwise I just blogged them all at the very beginning of this blog- which, indeed, didn't start as a blog at all but as a series of reviews, alongside a bunch of others, for The Great Nap Year Marathon of 2008 to 2010 on Outpost Gallifrey. This blog only existed at first so I could keep my own copies of the reviews... and then we all somehow finished marathoning all of Doctor Who, from 1963 to 2010. Only then did I start to turn this into a wider TV and film blog, having caught the habit- keeping up with current Doctor Who along the way, of course.

But I'm drawn back to The Power of the Daleks. My original review was of the Loose Cannon recon, and there are no episodes so frustrating as this one, where the Doctor is recast (I shouldn't yet say "regenerated") for the first time, and we see Patrick Troughton first attempting the role- or, that is, we don't.

So what of this animated version? Well, the animation itself is crude and basic, but it gives us something we lacked: moving pictures. It also helps enormously that we get a) much clearer sound and b) subtitles. It's such a relief to be able to watch one of the most pivotal episodes ever and be able to understand the narrative. Well, almost. It's pretty clear that the Doctor's movements as he wakes up, stands and has his dizzy little trippy experience are pretty much extrapolated from the telesnaps. Much of the movement we see see here is guesswork, inevitably.

It's good to have the brief recap at the start for context, reminding us of just how little the narrative was holding our hands- and in this first episode mercurial old David Whitaker reminds us of the necessity of change and renewal, throwing us a great big mercurial metaphor in the forms of those great big pools of..,. well  yes, remember who's writing this. One could even stretch a point and say that Polly and Ben being poisoned a bit by mercury fumes reflect difficulties in adapting to change. But it's a brave episode that doesn't patronise, lets Troughton be sinister and weird, and allows us to work out for ourselves whether we accept him as the Doctor. As Ben says of Polly and himself, where do they stand now? And where, indeed, do the viewers stand?

The plot of what's happening on Vulcan starts pretty sharpish, although not really foregrounded yet, but the Doctor havng the documents of the Examiner fall literally into his hand is a nice narrative shortcut tantamount to Psychic Paper, and the fiction between Quinn and Bragen shows us immediately that the colony may not be a happy place, Interesting, though, that they claim to have seen the TARDIS "overshoot" like any old spaceship.

It isn't long, though, until we briefly meet Lesterson and Janley, who is established sketchily as A Bit Political, and then our heroes are sneaking into the capsule. There we find THAT door opening sound, lots of incidental music which is not so much by Tristram Carey but simply reused from The Daleks and, well, Daleks...



Episode Two

"One Dalek?"

"Yes. All that is needed to wipe out this entire colony."

This episode foregrounds the Vulcan politics and the many mysteries (Who shot the real examiner? What's going on with the Examiner? Who really cut the communication cables to Earth as Quinn is an obvious red herring?) as we flesh out this colony where we hear of political discontent and, sinisterly "secret newspapers" suggesting this isn't exactly a free society. Everyone is brittle, suspicious and guarded around everyone else, whether the open mutual loathing of Quinn and Brazen or the political incompatibility of Lesterson's two assistants- Janley coming across as a proper Momentum cultist while Resno is your typical working class Tory. It feels as though a storm is about to start, ad establishing that mood is a brilliant piece of writing- and much clearer  with moving pictures.

We also, this time no longer in the foreground, examine this new Doctor and how he operates- acting the eccentric to seem harmless but always thinking, examining, trying to understand. And yes, when the Dalek recognises him at the end we can finally accept that this is the Doctor.

The cliffhanger is so very, very good anyway, with the Doctor's protestations of how dangerous the Daleks are constantly undercut by "I-AM-YOUR-SER-VANT". But the constant shots from the Dalek's POV make this so much more unnerving. So far this is televsion of the very first rank.

Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora

Part One

“You humans have such limited minds. Sometimes I wonder why I like you so much.”

Once again we get a tale by Louis Marks, author of a bizarrely spread out run of stories. But having seen this story for the first time (now there’s only Underworld and Meglos that I’ve never seen from all of Doctor Who!), I’d probably call it his best.

We start, rarely for this era, with an extended TARDIS scene, in which we get to see places other than the control room for what I think is the first time since Hartnell’s day, more than six years, er, months, ago. The point of this, of course, is to introduce the new and rather excellent looking control room. And it has a recorder in it, so apparently the Doctor used to spend a lot of time here when he was Patrick Troughton, but only when the camera wasn’t looking. I particularly like the new scanner.

All this is admirably rounded off before it can degenerate into fanwank, and we’re off into the plot, with the Mandragora Helix, a strange void, and a fantastic looking late mediaeval / early Renaissance Italy. I have to praise the costumes here, and also the excellent location- Portmeiron, I think.

We’re introduced to our guest characters with admirable economy, and at the same time it becomes clear that this story is about reason versus both superstition and tyranny, hence it being set at such an appropriate time and place. The pace is very fast indeed, with Sarah being captured almost as quickly as good old Babs was, way back in The Crusade. There’s definitely something about mediaeval settings and fast paced plots for some reason.

The Doctor gets a great scene putting an apple on the end of Count Federico’s sword and using a football rattle (what else?) to effect his escape.

Part Two

“They say there are places where the bat droppings are as high as a man.”

We get a case of escape by scarf for the first time in ages. A completely implausible method of escape from the executioner’s block, of course, but easily cool enough to get away with it.

There’s a lot of excitement this episode, but it’s also where the pieces start to be put into place- Heironymous is, rather unsurprisingly, revealed as the cult leader, the Doctor makes friends with Giuliano and his hot-headed boyfriend, and conflict is sown between Heironymous and Count Federico. It’s all rather neatly done, and it all looks so sumptuous too. It’s also worrying me a bit though- I’m loving this, it’s bringing back good memories of John Lucarotti and the like from long ago, but that’s because it practically is a pure historical; the sci-fi elements are thin, perfunctory, and a rather obvious metaphor to boot. What is there here to attract the kiddies? Is there enough buckling of swashes to do the job?

Part Three

“You can’t count, Count!”

Giuliano shows himself to be a damn good swordsman, and then along comes the Doctor to show us that he may have regenerated since The Sea Devils but he’s pretty handy with a sword. Perhaps there is enough swashbuckling after all.

I really like Heironymous’s beard. In fact, I think I want one. There’s nothing quite like a good villainous bit of high maintenance facial hair. He’s quite barmy, of course, but then as an astrologer he would be. But there’s one point in his favour- it must be quite nice for Sarah to be hypnotised by someone other than the Doctor for a change.

We get an important first- Sarah asks how come she can understand Italian as she can’t speak it, alluding to a problem which has been successfully brushed under the carpet by the programme for the last twelve and a half years. Apparently it a “Time Lord gift” which the Doctor “allows” Sarah to share. Well, that explains everything perfectly. And it seems it’s Sarah asking this that makes the Doctor realise she’s been hypnotised. Eh?

Meanwhile Marco gets tortured, and even though this actually happens offscreen it feels a bit nasty for a family show. And things are set up for the finale, with Heironymous foretelling Federico’s death, a “prophecy” fulfilled at the end of the episode; superstition has triumphed against the Machiavellian use of power, how will it prevail against the upcoming values of the Renaissance?

Part Four

“You know, the worse the situation, the worse your jokes get.”

It’s nice to see Giuliano’s authority being affirmed on the death of his uncle; this is the episode where he has to come of age. He’ already shown he’s intelligent and rational, but here he has to find the judgement to rule. The discussion with Marco on the need for the masque to go ahead to maintain appearances is important, and shows a rather subtler kind of Machiavellian thinking than Federico.

The ending works, being satisfying and twisty-turny enough to wrongfoot us at the end, plus everyone (including Sarah) looks great in their fancy dress costumes.

Magnificent, and not at all the sort of thing I was expecting at this stage of the marathon. Easily a 5/5. I’ll certainly be watching this again- it’s obvious there’s an awful lot going on in this script that calls for multiple viewings. I suspect it might have bored the kids, mind.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks

Part One

"It's not only his face that's changed- he doesn't even act like him!"

Surely back in 1966 there had never been so much anticipation before the first episode of a new story. I'm certainly feeling it.

Of course, we start with a reprise of Hartnell changing into Troughton, all in glorious footage. Interesting that his clothes, although not his cloak or ring, change as well. Also adding to the tension is that Ben and Polly only enter the TARDIS asfterwards and are unsure of this stranger- and I like the way the captions on the Loose Cannon recon refer to him as such!

Point of continuity: why is it no longer cold inside the TARDIS as it was at the end of The Smugglers? We haven't dematerialised yet.

The early scenes with the new Doctor are most frustrating- if only we could see Troughton's performance- these are visually perhaps the most important few minutes ever of Doctor Who! still, the mirror's a nice touch, as is the Doctor's ring falling off.

The Doctor's been "renewed" ( I must be careful not to use a certain other word whose time has not yet come!), and apparently it's "part of the TARDIS". The post-regeneration stuff is fascinating, but interestingly in doesn't outstay its welcome- during all this the Doctor's set the TARDIS in flight.

Once more we miss what was no doubt a great visual gag as the Doctor avoids the deadly mercury swamps without looking up from his 500 year diary. And given the extra job this episode has to do the story's actual plot gets started commendably quickly, and the Doctor being able to pose as the Examiner means there's no need for any tiresome scenes of suspicion.

We finish with Daleks, and that door sound. The first six-parter for ages is off to a great start...


Part Two

"Of course, the real Doctor was always going on about the Daleks."


Nice way of establishing the Dalek threat- one Dalek is "all that is needed to wipe out this whole colony". And early impressions of this Doctor, in spite of the recorder playing, are of an easy-going yet manipulative and Machiavellian character who keeps things to his chest. It's fascinating the way the characterisation of this new Doctor is being slowly fed to us.

Up to this point it's been hard to tell the guest characters apart without footage but in this episode things become clear- there are two political factions with the "apolitical" Lesterson in the middle.

Marco Polo gets a reference! And Ben still doesn't quite believe this stranger is the Doctor. It's clever the way Ben's being used as the audience identification figure here- much of the audience would have felt real resentment for this newcomer.

The Dalek recognises the Doctor! And very cleverly drowns out his warnings by creepily repeating "I am your servant...". Top stuff so far.

Part Three

"A Dalek is bet... is not the same as a human."



The Doctor is powerless to argue that the Daleks are dangerous, in a scene which uses the knowledge the audience has of the Daleks to great effect. But by this point Troughton is undoubtedly the Doctor- quite an achievement in such a short time and after such a magnificent predecessor.

So, Quinn sent for the Examiner. And Bragen becomes deputy governor with Quinn out of the way- in no way a suspect then!

It's quite chilling to see, or rather hear, how the Daleks manipulate Lesterson. It's this story, far more than The Daleks' Master Plan, which justifies the reputation of the Sixties Daleks for cunning.

The New Doctor's character continues to develop; his anarchistic streak shows itself in an extraordinary series of vandalisms, and we get our first "When I say run, run". And the conclusion works well; both the Doctor and Bragen have found each other out, and there's a position of stalemate. By this point it's clear how extremely clever the plotting is.



Part Four

"We understand the human mind."



"We will get our power" chant the Daleks- the title of this story is clearly more relevant than those of most "Of the Daleks" stories! Lesterson is by now uneasy around the Daleks and starting to have second thoughts, a stage in the character's gradual evolution which is brilliantly acted right through the story.

I wouldn't have paid any particular notice to the Doctor saying "I would like a hat like that" to Bragen, but I've already seen the first two parts of The Highlanders- it's a phrase 'll be listening out for in future!

The Dalek hovering around as a servant is extremely sinister; the tension is beginning to be ratcheted up. Interesting how they're still powered by static electricity.

Polly's not in this episode- it's been a while since a companion last had a week's holiday!

This story's about manipulation and power, not only in terms of the Daleks manipulating the humans and needing power to fulfil their aims, but also the power game played out between the humans, who are constantly manipulating and double crossing each other. The plot's actually really complicated, but not too hard to follow- the sign of a good script.

This is the most chilling cliffhanger yet, as Lesterson watches the Dalek assembly line with blobs being put into cases- oh, for more than a couple of seconds of footage here!



Part Five

"We are not yet ready to teach the human beings the law of the Daleks!"



Surely the longest reprise so far, and finally Lesterson cracks up- this is a fine piece of acting. Meanwhile, the imprisoned Doctor is seemingly arsing about with a glass of water, to Quinn's obvious frustration. But interestingly, so far the Doctor's apparent eccentricities come across either as devices to give him time to think (the recorder) or ways of deliberately hiding the fact that he's in control of the situation. The new Doctor is every bit as sharp as his predecessor, if not more, and not really the cosmic hobo figure of myth.

Lesterson is ignored and treated as though he's mad, the Daleks are in control, and the Doctor's facade is gone. The sense of doom and foreboding is building nicely. An interesting line from the Dalek who kills the Governor as Bragen's order (the story's first death); "Why do human beings kill human beings?"

The cliffhanger is brilliant, possibly the best yet, so good in fact that we're treated to some actual footage, and arguably good enough even to make us overlook the blatantly obvious use of cardboard cutout Daleks"



Part Six


"Exterminate all humans!"

"Exterminate all humans!"

"Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy! Daleks conquer and destroy! Daleks conquer and destroy! Daleks conquer and destroy! Daleks conquer and destroy! Daleks conquer and destroy! Daleks conquer and destroy!"


(Sorry, don't know what came over me.)


So, if there hasn't been enough skulduggery already, Bragen double crosses his fellow rebels. Blimey, this story ain't half complicated! And while this is happening hordes of Daleks are unleashed, and the killing starts. Lesterson's completelt lost it by now, insisting that the Daleks are going to replace the human race.

The Doctor's plan involves sacrificing the lives of Bragen's guards, so he's not only manipulative but ruthless with it when he has to be.

Lesterson's death scene is brilliant. From the spot-on intonation of "I am your servant" to the callous attitude of the Dalek. As soon as Lesterson says "But you wouldn't kill me- I gave you life" we know he's going to be shot, for such are the rules.

it's a little unclear whether the final moments of the Doctor's plan work partly by accident or in fact are planned all along- I suspect the latter. This new Doctor is actually quite a layered and interesting character.



Overall, a gripping and very clever script, easily a 5/5, and a great introduction to the new Doctor. The balance between introducing Pat Troughton and getting on with the story was perfectly judged.