DOCTOR WHO STORY GUIDE
Regular site contributor Chad Moore has begun his own personal journey through the entire series of Doctor Who, starting at the very beginning. Alan Siler watches shows sporadically and reviews in no particular order. Together they will chronicle the entire run of Doctor Who. Use the menu at the left to select a particular story, and the menu to the right to jump to a different page.
COMING SOON!
"Snakedance" 4 episodes (18 Jan 83 - 26 Jan 83)
Written by Christopher Bailey
Directed by Fiona Cumming
Peter Davison - The Doctor
Sarah Sutton - Nyssa
Janet Fielding - Tegan Jovanka
Review by Alan Siler
"Snakedance" hasn't always been at the top of my list of Davison favourites. I've always like it a great deal, but only recently have I come to truly appreciate it for all its depth and originality. As a sequel to Season 19's "Kinda" (another gem), "Snakedance" fulfills the spurious mandate of Season 20 to feature something from the Doctor's past in every story as a way of commemorating the show's anniversary. I guess this one represents the Doctor's 'recent past'.
"Snakedance" works on almost every level. Let's deal with the negatives first, just to get them out of the way. The story does feel a bit constrained by being studio-bound and this in spite of some extraordinarily beautiful sets. The only sets here that seem to let the production down are the caves, and while not at all realistic or convincing, they're still evocative and moody. Similarly, while the carnival scenes are very well designed and Fiona Cumming arranges shots from more angles than you could ever imagine possible so as to make the sets look bigger than they are, they still look like they were constructed inside a big room. Which they were. And then of course there's all the plastic snakes. The less said about those the better.
Otherwise, the production is nigh flawless. The script is intelligent; it takes a recently-introduced threat (the Mara) and fleshes it out for the audience not by giving a more detailed look at the threat in question, but at the civilization in which it was born, and how it influenced that civilization's culture and mythology. Rarely does Doctor Who paint such a thorough picture of a people and their beliefs (and variations on those beliefs amongst individuals) as we see here of the citizens of Manussa (Planet G 139901 KB, just in case you were wondering). The story takes place at the time of a festival held every ten years to celebrate the 'destruction' of the Mara, and we see how much the Mara's influence and its supposed destruction has impacted Manussan society. We get an almost unprecedented look at the planet's history through Ambril, the Director of Historical Research, and his collection of facts and artefacts. This is a man who dearly loves his world and his work, who is consumed by a passion for scholarly history, but who doesn't buy into the superstitions and "mumbo jumbo" of the average citizen. In addition to Ambril, we get viewpoints on the Mara mythology from many angles: a cult of zealots who live in the desert, the Federator's wife and son, Ambril's assistant Chela, who believes in the Mara and the legends of its return, street vendors, etc. What we have here is an actual society, made up of differing backgrounds and opinions, all being presented to the Doctor more or less equally for him to sort through and determine the truth.
Speaking of the Doctor....this is without a doubt one of Peter Davison's best performances in the role. Have a friend who wants to be introduced to Doctor Who? Show them "Snakedance" as a prime example of who the Fifth Doctor is and what his era is about. We also get a nice performance from Sarah Sutton, and indeed this is one of the rare stories that shows us the rapport between the Doctor and Nyssa, and what a different era it would be if the Doctor were traveling only with Nyssa rather than the 'full house' he has through most of his time onscreen. Which brings us to Tegan....
Tegan is effectly removed from this story, possessed once again as she is by the Mara. Janet Fielding turns in an interesting performance. She's called upon to do so many things here that I'm sure she never expected when she first signed onto the show. She carries her scenes with skill, and in some is downright scary.
The guest cast is superb, so much so that its hard to pick standouts. All of the major players invest their characters with individuality and believability. Colette O'Neill as Tahna, Martin Clunes as Lon, John Carson as Ambril, Johnathon Morris as Chela and Brian Miller as Dugdale all shine in their roles.
Equally shiny is the costume design (never mind that silly costume Lon has to wear at the end), which is rich and varied and extravagant. Aside from the caves, the set design is magnificent, and all the interior sets are absolutely gorgeous.
Aside from great costumes and sets, an accomplshed director, and a script that exudes intelligence and respect, "Snakedance" could have slid downslope into pantomime very easily if it weren't for its cast and the believably honest performances it delivers.
"Terminus" 4 episodes (15 Feb 83 - 23 Feb 83)
Written by Steve Gallagher
Directed by Mary Ridge
Peter Davison - The Doctor
Sarah Sutton - Nyssa
Janet Fielding - Tegan Jovanka
Mark Strickson - Vislor Turlough
Review by Alan Siler
"Terminus" is sort of an odd duck. Its not a 'traditional' Who story. There's no typical villain. There's no real monster. The threat? Leprosy. That's a kicker, ain't it?
The TARDIS crew find themselves in the very scary predicament of being trapped on a leper ship, where sufferers of Lazar's disease go (or are sent) in hopes of finding a cure. The ship is staffed by guards called the Vanir who are basically slave labor and who are sustained by a drug called hydromel on which they are dependnant, and which keeps them subservient to the Company for which they work (sounds suspiciously like the Jem'Hadar and Ketricel White, doesn't it?). The infected passengers are treated as non-entities, diseased cattle to be herded, nameless and faceless. And to make matters worse...Nyssa becomes infected by the disease.
This is very much Sarah Sutton's story. Appropriate, as it is her last one, but sad in the sense that it shows what a great character Nyssa could have been if given more scripts of this nature (Similarly "Arc of Infinity" and "Snakedance". This has been a good year for Nyssa). As she contracts the disease, Nyssa is put in a holding pen with all the other Lazars. One of the directoral moments that really shines here is, after a cutaway, the attention returns to the holding cell, and the camera pans leisurely across this sea of scared and downtrodden people. One of them in Nyssa, but the camera doesn't pause or focus in on her....effectively for one shot the director treats Nyssa the same way the Vanir do: as just another Lazar, nameless and faceless. Its a very powerful moment.
But its one of few. While the premise is a very intriguing one, and while Sarah Sutton is given a decent script for a change, most of the rest of the story falls rather flat. The costume design is just awful and even laughable in a few cases. On the one hand the sets, grey and cold, reflect the depressing and hopeless nature of the place and the people in it. But at the same time, they're drab and uninteresting, rather two dimensional (not a good thing for sets). And it seems difficult to stretch this story out to four episodes (as evidenced by the fact that Tegan and Turlough spend the majority of it locked in an underground passage; though to be fair there is some nice character interactions in these scenes).
But still, Nyssa is given a moving and entirely appropriate send-off, staying behind to help the Lazars. And while its sad to see her go, still you know that she's leaving to fulfill a purpose, and that her travels with the Doctor helped shape her into a courageous, caring selfless woman. Beautiful.
"Warriors of the Deep" 4 episodes (05 Jan 84 - 13 Jan 84)
Written by Johnny Byrne
Directed by Pennant Roberts
Peter Davison - The Doctor
Janet Fielding - Tegan Jovanka
Mark Strickson - Vislor Turlough
Review by Alan Siler
At long last, two of my favourite Doctor Who threats return to the screens! But, um...what happened to them? Why aren't they the same as when we last saw them?
"Warriors of the Deep" has SO much going for it. The basic premise is a compelling one, and many of the elements (the potential war between the powe blocks, the underwater menaces (pardon the pun) taking advantage of that situation, the Doctor trying for a third time to mediate a dispute) could have been dealt with in more detail fairly easily, making them more 'real' and more gripping. Instead, we have a bad case of "show, don't tell".
The positives first: The sets are absolutely amazing. Really. Put this one on again, turn down the sound if you have to, and simply watch the backgrounds. Look at all the details in the walls, the personnel stations, the medicl bay. Watch all the little things that the sets and props can do. This is one of the most detailed, realistic, and convincing sets Doctor Who ever accomplished (but then, by this point we've already seen designer Tony Burrough's extraordinary work in "Keeper of Traken", "Four to Doomsday" and "Black Orchid"; he'll be back for one more on "The Two Doctors"). This is truly an accomplishment. You really get the feel of being on a huge base rather than a series of collapsable sets. This helps to establish the mood of the piece and gives the cast an amazing stage on which to play. Likewise, the "underwater" model shots are very well done, so much so that they look as if they're underwater. They aren't. How's that?
The costuming...well, its not the best work ever done, but its not dreadful, either.
But let's look to the reason we should be watching this story: The Silurians and the Sea Devils. Two massively powerful races, former rulers of Earth, resurfacing once again to try and reclaim they're lost homeland. As Pertwee said many seasons ago, to these beings "Man is just an ape who got above himself". They were scary, they were imposing, and in spite of being native to Earth, they were terribly alien. Completely outside of human experience, which is why the Doctor was so desperate to help the two sides find middle ground: he knew human nature only too well, and left to ourselves, the Silurians and Sea Devils would have been wiped out with no chance for understanding.
The beings we see here are drasticlly different than those we met in the '70s. In the old days, the monsters could do things like run. Move their heads. Sometimes even their mouths. You just know watching this that these Silurians and Sea Devils could never run. And to look at the Sea Devils, you suspect its because the actors inside the costume ware afraid of their costume heads falling off.
These Sea Devils just don't look as cool as the originals. Okay, Terrence Dicks thought the 'little net dresses' on the originals looked silly, but the rest of the costume is superb. Not so these. Just speaking aesthetically, I miss the big head fins of the original costumes. Also, here the Sea Devils are retooled to be Samarai warriors, and the look just doesn't fit. The Silurians, on the other hand, look excellent. The new masks are gorgeous and really work. But why does the 'third eye' do nothing now but indicate which Silurian is speaking? And come to think of it, why do they continuously refer to themselves and each other as 'Sea Devils' and 'Silurians'? Those are nicknames that humans came up with.
The biggest let-down of the entire production, though, is the Myrkka. The poor thing. Its not its fault! In the script, there was supposed to be a power outage during which the Myrkka would be sent in to attack. Which means that we were never meant to see the Myrkka so clearly or brightly lit. It was supposed to be a huge, hulking monster, a shadowy threat moving relentlessly in the darkness. In such a setting, these scenes could have been remarkably effective. As it is, we get the worst monster costume ever created. Well, except for the Ms. Paul's Jumbo Shrimp in "The Invisible Enemy".
All the elements are in place to make a classic Doctor Who tale. Unfortunately the script simply isn't strong enough to bear up under the weight of everything its trying to do. Or under the weight of history. Or the weight of the Myrkka. The Poor thing.
