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selenakThe mail brought several DVDs from England, which means more Old School Who, which means rogue Time Lords, awkward high school reunions and the introduction of UNIT in the Whoverse, which means reviews!
londonkds when commenting to my review of The War Games commented that the War Chief was, in fact, not the first evil Time Lord to grace the screen, and that this honor went to the Meddling Monk in the First Doctor story The Time Meddler, though the Monk was not referred to on screen as a Time Lord and also was less evil than simply completely irresponsible. So naturally, I aquired this story.
The Time Meddler is set just after the departure of Ian and Barbara in the preceding story, The Chase, and starts by demonstrating the cliché about Old Who that departed Companions were never referred to again is a blatant lie. Not only do the Doctor and Vicki talk about Ian and Barbara, but the Doctor also mentions Susan. Vicki is a good Companion of the "young enthusiast" type; Steven Taylor, who also got introduced in The Chase but got promoted to Companionhood here, is obviously there to take over with the physical heroics which young male Companions were there for until the Pertwee era which was when the Doctor started to do the action stuff himself. Can't say I was much impressed by Steven here, but then it took me a while to take to Ian.
The story itself is a whimsical adventure and still shows the "educational tv for children" origin; obviously, the big revelation moment - OMG the Monk has a TARDIS, there are other people like the Doctor about! - does not work as a shock today with 40 plus years of history. The Monk himself, however, plays nicely as a foil for the First Doctor. I think it was a clever choice not to make him a supervillain of the world dominating/destroying type; that way, he does work as a might-have-been for the Doctor at this stage, with the playful traipsing through time exaggarated into wanting to change timelines at a whim, just because he can and thinks he knows best, and the not-answering of questions, circumlocution and wordplay as a shared trait. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
londonkds promised, it comes across very much as a annoyed older brother/annoying younger brother thing, though the two never met before this story. With the awareness of DW history in mind, it's pretty ironic that the way the Doctor ultimately deals with the Monk is by disabling his TARDIS and thus leaving him stranded on Earth at one point in time. Which is of course exactly what the Time Lords will later do to the Doctor, giving the same reason - to prevent further indiscriminate meddling.
Other observations in regards with long term continuity: I really don't know how that "he's asexual!" claim every could be accepted. Here he's flirting again. Not as blatantly as in The Atztecs with Cameca, but then, Edith is a married woman. Though again, even when she's not around he exclaims, with a whistful expression, "what a charming woman!" Maybe the old physical shape prevented people of seeing it?
The Doctor refusing to say what model his TARDIS is after the Monk proudly declared his to be a Mark IV is a gag that will never get old, and certainly isn't in later eras. Having just watched and rewatched some of the Third Doctor's stuff, I know "our" TARDIS is a Mark II. (One big difference, though - later Doctors, Three and Ten especially, refer to the TARDIS as "she". One still says "it". ) And of course, EVERY other Time Lord on this show has a more advanced model than the Doctor, whether it's the War Chief, the Master or the Rani, so it was not surprising the Monk does. I bet the production team had fun.
The Monk wanting to prevent Harold the last Saxon king being defeated in the Battle of Hastings by an overcomplicated scheme has, err, interesting connotations in the light of New Who.
Firstly, the only other Sixth Doctor adventure I had seen before was "Time Lash", which, err, is pretty infamous for its badness, and justly so. I had seen the Rani before as well, but regrettably her only other outing on screen, Time and the Rani, isn't exactly a stellar hour for the show, either. However, I had heard a lot of good about The Mark of the Rani, though, and was not disappointed.
Complaints out of the way first: Peri. Good lord. That voice. That accent. I have an audio adventure with her and Five, and they did something about both there, so it's not the actress per se. But the writing for Peri is definitely the weak spot of this story, and not just because she gets virtually nothing useful to do and they keep her running after Six and complaining "but, Doctor..." . Most importantly, one has trouble buying that she and the Doctor like each other at all, and affection between Doctor and Companion is pretty much crucial. It's not the fact they squabble at the start - there are plenty of other examples of the Doctor and the Companion du jour teasing or bickering - it's the unpleasant tone. Which of course makes Six' later claim Peri means something to him not that convincing, but he's saving her life there, and the Doctor trying to keep humans alive is character definition, so that works. Otherwise, Six isn't half as unpleasant as he is in the obnoxious "Time Lash", so that's a relief, and instead of painfully unfunny jokes, we get a great deal of good lines, most of which are to be found in the various Time Lord bickering combinations, because the great attraction of this story is of course the fact we get, in addition to the introduction of the Rani herself - and she's simply magnificent here - Rani-Master, Rani-Doctor, Master-Doctor and Rani-Master-Doctor sparring.
If you've read the Harry Potter novels, the impression that the Rani was Hermione when they were all at school together is impossible to deny. Though the Doctor and the Master were assuredly not Harry and Ron. The Rani as a ruthless amoral scientist who isn't either into feuds or world/universe ruling but will stop at nothing to see her experiments continued and knowledge gained was a great idea on the part of the production team, and Kate O'Mara is splendid in the role. (And definitely Dark Side!Hermione. We all know Hermione is SCAARRY when she's set her mind on something. And that's Light Side!Hermione. ) Her pithy observations on the Master and the Doctor tend to be dead-on, and one really regrets that the only time they brought her back during the show proper, it was in such mediocre way (and without more great Time Lord sparring).
Choice dialogue highlights:
Master: But you don't know what I'm doing here!
Rani: You want to destroy the Doctor. When did you ever want anything else? You're utterly obsessed.
Master *sulking*: You underestimate me. *pause* Certainly I want to destroy the Doctor. I want to make him suffer. But this is just the exquisit first step on my plan to...
Rani: *rolls eyes and stops listening*
Doctor: ...but then you never had much style.
Master: *locks at Six' garish coat*: Your latest regeneration isn't exactly stylish, either.
Rani: Oh, do stop squabbling and get on with it.
Master: I'd feel better if I could see him.
Rani: I'm sure he reciprocates the feeling.
Doctor: *exploring the Rani's TARDIS, which is ever so much more high tech than his own*: The Rani really is a genius. I wonder, if I was very very nice to her... *remembers the whole evil thing which preventscopying school essays requesting an update* .... errr, no.
*Doctor and Master are watching the Rani walk across a minefield that she set earlier; the mines in question can change people into trees (don't ask), and the Doctor forced her to go back at gun point so she rescues Peri, who is stranded in the middle of said minefield*
Master: I think she just set them randomly.
Doctor: I don't think the Rani ever did something randomly. In any case, if she fails, you're nominated as understudy. I think you'd probably become a laburnum tree.
Master: Why laburnum?
Doctor: Because the pods are poisonous.
*at which the Master can't help a small grin*
This is one of Anthony Ainley's better performances as the Master - no muwahahaha laughter and just a few manic glances - but after all the indulging in Roger Delgado goodness recently, the difference is noticable, as is the (not new) fact there simply isn't the same chemistry between Ainley and either of the Bakers than there is between Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado, or later David Tennant and John Simm. Still, the script makes up for it, and we do get at least one moment where the Doctor contrives to stumble and fall into the Master in order to steal the flask that the Master previously stole from the Rani, and the Master instinctively reaches out to steady him. But The Mark of the Rani also contains one of the all time most humiliating moments for the Master ever. I don't mean the Rani kneeing him in the balls - that was funny, plus it fitted with the Time Lord bickering theme. No, I mean: he tries to hypnotize Peri. With a watch. And fails! A watch! And PERI! *facepalms*
Lastly: the negative depiction of the Luddites - yes, they were Rani-experimented on, but still - wouldn't have happened in either earlier or later eras, I think. Since it creates a situation where the Doctor appears to side with the rich lord against the working population, and that's usually simply not on in this show.
I remember the squeeing on lj when The Invasion came out on DVD, but I hadn't gotten around to aquiring it myself until now. As with a lot of Second Doctor adventures, only some episodes were preserved, but here someone came up with the ingenious solution to use the soundtrack of the episodes with lost visuals and create black and white animation for it. The result rocks. Oh, The Invasion isn't perfect - there are plotholes (for example: if it's contrived already that the Doctor would just hand the circuits from the TARDIS over to a human for repairs, it's even more annoying that the scripts forget about them at some point - when last seen, Vaughn still has them in his desk - and they're never reinstalled; also, the thing with Vaughn having an artificial body but is still completely human in his mind and emotions never has a pay-off, and save for the scene where he makes the professor shoot him, he could as well have been normally human) . But all in all, it's a great adventure, with the Doctor and Companions Jamie and Zoe in fine form, very likeable guest characters, and a good impressive villain. By which I don't mean the Cybermen - they're a reliably threatening plot device - but Vaughn, who is presented as smart, resourceful, and the fact he intends to control the Cybermen via inflicting emotions on them to torture them via them - and demonstrates this with one Cyberman - is oddly enough more chilling than the Cybermen intending their usual conversion thing with all of humanity. Swinging London of the late 1960s is presented via Isobel the photographer, and I was very happy that Isobel didn't end up the episode marrying the UNIT Captain she flirted with but instead embarking on her career, now that she had sold her pictures. Isobel and Zoe had fun interaction throughout the story, and I loved the moment mid-world saving when Isobel took pictures of the Doctor and he couldn't resist posing a bit. (One and Three both demonstrate vanity far more often, though in different ways, but this is the first time I've seen Two showing it.)
The Doctor talking Vaughn into helping once he saw he couldn't control the Cyberman instead of allowing Vaughn to sink into villanous nihilistic "If I can't rule, nobody should!" despair was a great example of the Doctor never giving up, while being pragmatic enough to realise Vaugh mostly helped out of spite in the end, but using that anyway.
This was the second story featuring Nicholas Courtney as Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart, but the first one with him as the Brigadier of the newly established UNIT, and he, too, is in fine form as the Doctor's ally. In many ways, the whole "alien invasion, and the Doctor battling it together with UNIT" is a preparation and a trial run for the Third Doctor era, and you can see some elements in place already - the Brigadier arguing with an immediate superior in London but pointing out UNIT is an international organizatin and ultimately not responsible to London but Geneva, for example. Also, you get the late 60s/early 70s optimism about international cooperation - the invasion is partly beat back by UNIT working together with the Russians and using one of their missiles against the ship of the Cybermen.
Lastly: Nicholas Courtney's fake moustache as the Brig looks faker here than it does in the Pertwee era. Even in the animated episodes!
londonkds when commenting to my review of The War Games commented that the War Chief was, in fact, not the first evil Time Lord to grace the screen, and that this honor went to the Meddling Monk in the First Doctor story The Time Meddler, though the Monk was not referred to on screen as a Time Lord and also was less evil than simply completely irresponsible. So naturally, I aquired this story.
The Time Meddler is set just after the departure of Ian and Barbara in the preceding story, The Chase, and starts by demonstrating the cliché about Old Who that departed Companions were never referred to again is a blatant lie. Not only do the Doctor and Vicki talk about Ian and Barbara, but the Doctor also mentions Susan. Vicki is a good Companion of the "young enthusiast" type; Steven Taylor, who also got introduced in The Chase but got promoted to Companionhood here, is obviously there to take over with the physical heroics which young male Companions were there for until the Pertwee era which was when the Doctor started to do the action stuff himself. Can't say I was much impressed by Steven here, but then it took me a while to take to Ian.
The story itself is a whimsical adventure and still shows the "educational tv for children" origin; obviously, the big revelation moment - OMG the Monk has a TARDIS, there are other people like the Doctor about! - does not work as a shock today with 40 plus years of history. The Monk himself, however, plays nicely as a foil for the First Doctor. I think it was a clever choice not to make him a supervillain of the world dominating/destroying type; that way, he does work as a might-have-been for the Doctor at this stage, with the playful traipsing through time exaggarated into wanting to change timelines at a whim, just because he can and thinks he knows best, and the not-answering of questions, circumlocution and wordplay as a shared trait. As
londonkds promised, it comes across very much as a annoyed older brother/annoying younger brother thing, though the two never met before this story. With the awareness of DW history in mind, it's pretty ironic that the way the Doctor ultimately deals with the Monk is by disabling his TARDIS and thus leaving him stranded on Earth at one point in time. Which is of course exactly what the Time Lords will later do to the Doctor, giving the same reason - to prevent further indiscriminate meddling. Other observations in regards with long term continuity: I really don't know how that "he's asexual!" claim every could be accepted. Here he's flirting again. Not as blatantly as in The Atztecs with Cameca, but then, Edith is a married woman. Though again, even when she's not around he exclaims, with a whistful expression, "what a charming woman!" Maybe the old physical shape prevented people of seeing it?
The Doctor refusing to say what model his TARDIS is after the Monk proudly declared his to be a Mark IV is a gag that will never get old, and certainly isn't in later eras. Having just watched and rewatched some of the Third Doctor's stuff, I know "our" TARDIS is a Mark II. (One big difference, though - later Doctors, Three and Ten especially, refer to the TARDIS as "she". One still says "it". ) And of course, EVERY other Time Lord on this show has a more advanced model than the Doctor, whether it's the War Chief, the Master or the Rani, so it was not surprising the Monk does. I bet the production team had fun.
The Monk wanting to prevent Harold the last Saxon king being defeated in the Battle of Hastings by an overcomplicated scheme has, err, interesting connotations in the light of New Who.
Firstly, the only other Sixth Doctor adventure I had seen before was "Time Lash", which, err, is pretty infamous for its badness, and justly so. I had seen the Rani before as well, but regrettably her only other outing on screen, Time and the Rani, isn't exactly a stellar hour for the show, either. However, I had heard a lot of good about The Mark of the Rani, though, and was not disappointed.
Complaints out of the way first: Peri. Good lord. That voice. That accent. I have an audio adventure with her and Five, and they did something about both there, so it's not the actress per se. But the writing for Peri is definitely the weak spot of this story, and not just because she gets virtually nothing useful to do and they keep her running after Six and complaining "but, Doctor..." . Most importantly, one has trouble buying that she and the Doctor like each other at all, and affection between Doctor and Companion is pretty much crucial. It's not the fact they squabble at the start - there are plenty of other examples of the Doctor and the Companion du jour teasing or bickering - it's the unpleasant tone. Which of course makes Six' later claim Peri means something to him not that convincing, but he's saving her life there, and the Doctor trying to keep humans alive is character definition, so that works. Otherwise, Six isn't half as unpleasant as he is in the obnoxious "Time Lash", so that's a relief, and instead of painfully unfunny jokes, we get a great deal of good lines, most of which are to be found in the various Time Lord bickering combinations, because the great attraction of this story is of course the fact we get, in addition to the introduction of the Rani herself - and she's simply magnificent here - Rani-Master, Rani-Doctor, Master-Doctor and Rani-Master-Doctor sparring.
If you've read the Harry Potter novels, the impression that the Rani was Hermione when they were all at school together is impossible to deny. Though the Doctor and the Master were assuredly not Harry and Ron. The Rani as a ruthless amoral scientist who isn't either into feuds or world/universe ruling but will stop at nothing to see her experiments continued and knowledge gained was a great idea on the part of the production team, and Kate O'Mara is splendid in the role. (And definitely Dark Side!Hermione. We all know Hermione is SCAARRY when she's set her mind on something. And that's Light Side!Hermione. ) Her pithy observations on the Master and the Doctor tend to be dead-on, and one really regrets that the only time they brought her back during the show proper, it was in such mediocre way (and without more great Time Lord sparring).
Choice dialogue highlights:
Master: But you don't know what I'm doing here!
Rani: You want to destroy the Doctor. When did you ever want anything else? You're utterly obsessed.
Master *sulking*: You underestimate me. *pause* Certainly I want to destroy the Doctor. I want to make him suffer. But this is just the exquisit first step on my plan to...
Rani: *rolls eyes and stops listening*
Doctor: ...but then you never had much style.
Master: *locks at Six' garish coat*: Your latest regeneration isn't exactly stylish, either.
Rani: Oh, do stop squabbling and get on with it.
Master: I'd feel better if I could see him.
Rani: I'm sure he reciprocates the feeling.
Doctor: *exploring the Rani's TARDIS, which is ever so much more high tech than his own*: The Rani really is a genius. I wonder, if I was very very nice to her... *remembers the whole evil thing which prevents
*Doctor and Master are watching the Rani walk across a minefield that she set earlier; the mines in question can change people into trees (don't ask), and the Doctor forced her to go back at gun point so she rescues Peri, who is stranded in the middle of said minefield*
Master: I think she just set them randomly.
Doctor: I don't think the Rani ever did something randomly. In any case, if she fails, you're nominated as understudy. I think you'd probably become a laburnum tree.
Master: Why laburnum?
Doctor: Because the pods are poisonous.
*at which the Master can't help a small grin*
This is one of Anthony Ainley's better performances as the Master - no muwahahaha laughter and just a few manic glances - but after all the indulging in Roger Delgado goodness recently, the difference is noticable, as is the (not new) fact there simply isn't the same chemistry between Ainley and either of the Bakers than there is between Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado, or later David Tennant and John Simm. Still, the script makes up for it, and we do get at least one moment where the Doctor contrives to stumble and fall into the Master in order to steal the flask that the Master previously stole from the Rani, and the Master instinctively reaches out to steady him. But The Mark of the Rani also contains one of the all time most humiliating moments for the Master ever. I don't mean the Rani kneeing him in the balls - that was funny, plus it fitted with the Time Lord bickering theme. No, I mean: he tries to hypnotize Peri. With a watch. And fails! A watch! And PERI! *facepalms*
Lastly: the negative depiction of the Luddites - yes, they were Rani-experimented on, but still - wouldn't have happened in either earlier or later eras, I think. Since it creates a situation where the Doctor appears to side with the rich lord against the working population, and that's usually simply not on in this show.
I remember the squeeing on lj when The Invasion came out on DVD, but I hadn't gotten around to aquiring it myself until now. As with a lot of Second Doctor adventures, only some episodes were preserved, but here someone came up with the ingenious solution to use the soundtrack of the episodes with lost visuals and create black and white animation for it. The result rocks. Oh, The Invasion isn't perfect - there are plotholes (for example: if it's contrived already that the Doctor would just hand the circuits from the TARDIS over to a human for repairs, it's even more annoying that the scripts forget about them at some point - when last seen, Vaughn still has them in his desk - and they're never reinstalled; also, the thing with Vaughn having an artificial body but is still completely human in his mind and emotions never has a pay-off, and save for the scene where he makes the professor shoot him, he could as well have been normally human) . But all in all, it's a great adventure, with the Doctor and Companions Jamie and Zoe in fine form, very likeable guest characters, and a good impressive villain. By which I don't mean the Cybermen - they're a reliably threatening plot device - but Vaughn, who is presented as smart, resourceful, and the fact he intends to control the Cybermen via inflicting emotions on them to torture them via them - and demonstrates this with one Cyberman - is oddly enough more chilling than the Cybermen intending their usual conversion thing with all of humanity. Swinging London of the late 1960s is presented via Isobel the photographer, and I was very happy that Isobel didn't end up the episode marrying the UNIT Captain she flirted with but instead embarking on her career, now that she had sold her pictures. Isobel and Zoe had fun interaction throughout the story, and I loved the moment mid-world saving when Isobel took pictures of the Doctor and he couldn't resist posing a bit. (One and Three both demonstrate vanity far more often, though in different ways, but this is the first time I've seen Two showing it.)
The Doctor talking Vaughn into helping once he saw he couldn't control the Cyberman instead of allowing Vaughn to sink into villanous nihilistic "If I can't rule, nobody should!" despair was a great example of the Doctor never giving up, while being pragmatic enough to realise Vaugh mostly helped out of spite in the end, but using that anyway.
This was the second story featuring Nicholas Courtney as Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart, but the first one with him as the Brigadier of the newly established UNIT, and he, too, is in fine form as the Doctor's ally. In many ways, the whole "alien invasion, and the Doctor battling it together with UNIT" is a preparation and a trial run for the Third Doctor era, and you can see some elements in place already - the Brigadier arguing with an immediate superior in London but pointing out UNIT is an international organizatin and ultimately not responsible to London but Geneva, for example. Also, you get the late 60s/early 70s optimism about international cooperation - the invasion is partly beat back by UNIT working together with the Russians and using one of their missiles against the ship of the Cybermen.
Lastly: Nicholas Courtney's fake moustache as the Brig looks faker here than it does in the Pertwee era. Even in the animated episodes!
