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selenakOr, my New Beginnings dvds have arrived.
No question about it, The Keeper of Traken is awesome. They really put a lot of effort into world-building here - from the set design - especially Tremas' study and the seat of the Keeper - to the costumes and hair styles to individualizing the characters, making their society all the more believable. I especially appreciate that Kassia isn't presented as a villainess but as a tragic character. (Actually, she was my favourite character in this story.) Acting-wise, I must also apologize to Anthony Ainley, whom I had seen solely as the Master before (and there he's not bad but suffering by comparison); I had no trouble at all seeing him as Tremas here, and he showed quite a greater range than I had suspected. Tremas being a believable sympathetic character meant I felt genuinenly sad and horrified when the body-snatch twist at the end came, as I knew it would.
Speaking of acting: Geoffrey Beevers does some great voice acting here for the Master. Again, I was pleasantly surprised, because while he's good in the audio Master, he's not outstanding (and also suffers by comparison to Derek Jacobi, which really isn't his fault). And also, clever script for making the Master a voice through most of the story with only a view glimpses at the rotten corpse; this way, we don't get distracted by bad BBC make-up, and he's a far more impressive opponent. Though I must say, the script also has the Doctor being incredibly slow in figuring out he's dealing with the Master - I mean, a TARDIS plus the fact that "Melkor" wants to see him on his knees just because = who else? I'm going with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
londonkds' theory that the Fourth Doctor deliberately distanced himself from all emotional ties his previous regenerations formed/had for an explanation for that kind of obtuseness, methinks.
(Ah, for the Mind of Evil days when Three, utterly unsurprised, said "Yeeeees, I thought as much" and had a seat when the Master revealed himself.)
As for new emotional ties: Adric I had seen in Fifth Doctor episodes before, but I had the impression Four is actually being a bit paternal here in a way Five is not. Age factor, I guess. Also, the Doctor hitting it off with Tremas is suitably ironic, and that he's pilfering Nyssa's neat stunner is just typical. Otherwise, I still have my can't-emotionally-connect-to-Tom-Baker problem, but the episode is so good it doesn't matter.
Speaking of Nyssa: nice introduction. Given events here and in Logopolis, I'm surprised that the tv show didn't more with the incredible angst potential the Master having her father's body offers (that I know of; I might be wrong, of course, since I haven't watched that many Five era stories). Blaming the era doesn't work, because the simultanous Blake's 7 definitely did remember that Servalan killed Dayna's father and used it in s3 and s4 episodes when the Liberator and later Scorpius crew met Servalan again.
State of the Master's crazy: surprisingly enough, not as much as in the earlier Deadly Assassin, although he was stuck on Traken in his Melkor-shaped TARDIS for years. Wanting to use the power of the system the Keeper can access actually makes sense for a supervillain, except for the part where one wonders what he would have done if everything had gone according to plan; I can't help but suspect he'd have tired and become bored of the Keeper's power after a while.
Methinks they should have kept that Johnny Byrne fellow instead of hiring Christopher Bidmead, because Logopolis is something of a come-down after the heights of Keeper of Traken. Which isn't to say it doesn't have its plusses, but when with Keeper, every scene is interesting, here we get a lot of filler stuff, and unforgivably in one case using the new companion. Which you shouldn't do to a new companion. I'm referring to Tegan endlessly walking through the TARDIS. Mind you, there is a bit of a pay-off for it in the next one, both with Tegan using her lipstick and with the Doctor unravelling his scarf, but still. Also, as a world Logopolis isn't nearly as convincing as Traken. And really, you can't just use "oops, a quarter of the galaxy is gone!" as a plot point and then never have it any effect whatsoever (other than making Nyssa homeless) in future stories.
On the plus side: Tegan insisting on changing the wheel herself, on the other hand, worked as an introduction demonstrating her energy and stubbornness, and the way she started to bond with Nyssa later was also believable. On the other hand, it was hard to see why she insisted on going after the Doctor when the TARDIS was going to take her and Adric back to Earth; he wasn't her ride home, the blue box was, and she had had nearly no interaction with the Doctor before, thus making a personal attachment at this stage unlikely.
The Watcher: I wasn't spoiled but had guessed it had to be the Doctor in some form early on. I'm a bit baffled, though, as how this was supposed to work. Astral projection? But he was physical enough to steer the TARDIS and to talk. What's the fanon on this?
Ainley!Master, in action for the first time: uses a line that RTD lets Simm!Master reuse in Sound of Drums, slightly altered: "People of the universe, please attend carefully". Which is such a Master thing to say and made me smile. (In the Audio AU Doctor Who Unbound: Sympathy for the Devil, Alt!Master's way of parting the crowd is the line "Stand aside or I will lay your souls to waste! Thank you very much.") Also, we get a return to the "temporary alliance in between scheming and fighting" tradition between the Master and the Doctor, and these scenes are an interesting variation: while the Doctor relents enough to admit to TARDIs envy in lieu of a social conversation, I'd say even here, Four is unquestionably the Doctor with the most disdain and hostility towards the Master. (At least going by the Five episodes I know.) Six while entirely prepared to use that weapon on him slips into the mutual bickering and school reunion mode pretty much from the get go, Seven has the "certain attraction" admission (and goes out of his way not to kill the guy), and of course Three while being able to be catty like no one's business ("he put on weight!") radiates fondness along with the varying degrees of anger and annoyance suitable to the occasion whenever they meet. But Four? Really sees nothing but the mass murdering supervillain (which the Master also is, of course).
And finally, the death and regeneration scene. Four preparing for his death throughout the story was obvious, and Baker's emotional distance worked for this. The enemies and friends montage was a bit clumsy, but mostly worked for me. With one caveat - the flashback to the Three-to-Four regeneration scene with Sarah Jane and the Brig inevitably reminded me that I found that one far more touching. Though I will admit to bias in favour of the Third Doctor in general. And of course the emotional effect this must have had on an audience that had watched Tom Baker as the Doctor for seven years is something that unfortunately eludes me.
And then there was Five. You know, companions really should get together and swap regeneration stories, and how dealing with the Doctor then was. Peri would probably win for sheer horror factor (I mean, none of the others had the Doctor attempting to strangle them), but Nyssa, Tegan and Rose would be on the same level. I was wondering where the whole zero room thing from fanfic came from, and now I know. Also, do we ever see that much of the other rooms in the TARDIS in other episodes? (Save the corridors and courtyard from Logopolis.) One great touch was Peter Davison doing first a William Hartnell and then a Patrick Throughton impression, and good ones, too, while the regeneration was still settling. And after Time Crash, the scene where he puts on glasses also causes fuzzy feelings of pre-empted nostalgia. "Must dash" as a Five catchphrase: it's one of those things you can't imagine the others saying, which is good, as each Doctor should in addition to the shared traits have their own idioysyncricies. And I must say I felt some gleeful Schadenfreude at the demise of the scarf.
I was wondering whether the Master wanting Adric around should count as a symptom of insanity, but then it all made sense. Castrovalva and the concept of it strikes me as an echo of Traken, which would confirmdeborah_judge's hypothesis that the Master is influenced by his non-Gallifreyan bodies to some degree. Mind you, the Master's actions in this particular story are an instance where one wonders "how did they explain this without slash goggles"? Because in addition to the more routine:
Master: *traps Doctor in complicated dastardly scheme*
Doctor: *seems to be defeated*
Master: *goes from glee to feeling annoyed Doctor is not around for another round anymore*
Doctor: *makes come-back*
Master: *is gleeful*
We get the grand climactic scene where the Master ignores everything else because he just has to look at the Doctor once more before getting around to killing him. (Clearly, he likes this new regenerations' aesthetics.) I don't know what the poor Castrovalvians and the companions were thinking when the Master had his "I WILL LOOK AT HIM ONCE MORE!!!!!" freakout, but...
The Nyssa and Tegan bonding is for the win, though Nyssa really should have insisted on Tegan changing before they set off on their trip. If there is any more impractical wardrobe for mountain climbing than high heels and a tight skirt, I can't imagine it. Tsskk. Also, I felt for Tegan - she was so proud of having landed the TARDIS, and then she was toldWesley Crusher Adric had pre-programmed it.
Acting: Davison gets high marks for the One and Two impressions, as I said, in addition to giving some ideas of what his Doctor is going to be like, Ainley uses the chuckle a bit too often, Janet Fielding is great in those TARDIS steering (or not) scenes and her crestfallen reaction later, and somehow the repeated walks through the courtyard don't annoy me here the way the endless walks through the TARDIS in Logopolis do. Possibly because they're a better plot point, and we get splintered mirror imagery. Oh, and that moment where Nyssa and Tegan find out the women have been using the Doctor's regeneration closet as a box to put their washing in is priceless.
No question about it, The Keeper of Traken is awesome. They really put a lot of effort into world-building here - from the set design - especially Tremas' study and the seat of the Keeper - to the costumes and hair styles to individualizing the characters, making their society all the more believable. I especially appreciate that Kassia isn't presented as a villainess but as a tragic character. (Actually, she was my favourite character in this story.) Acting-wise, I must also apologize to Anthony Ainley, whom I had seen solely as the Master before (and there he's not bad but suffering by comparison); I had no trouble at all seeing him as Tremas here, and he showed quite a greater range than I had suspected. Tremas being a believable sympathetic character meant I felt genuinenly sad and horrified when the body-snatch twist at the end came, as I knew it would.
Speaking of acting: Geoffrey Beevers does some great voice acting here for the Master. Again, I was pleasantly surprised, because while he's good in the audio Master, he's not outstanding (and also suffers by comparison to Derek Jacobi, which really isn't his fault). And also, clever script for making the Master a voice through most of the story with only a view glimpses at the rotten corpse; this way, we don't get distracted by bad BBC make-up, and he's a far more impressive opponent. Though I must say, the script also has the Doctor being incredibly slow in figuring out he's dealing with the Master - I mean, a TARDIS plus the fact that "Melkor" wants to see him on his knees just because = who else? I'm going with
londonkds' theory that the Fourth Doctor deliberately distanced himself from all emotional ties his previous regenerations formed/had for an explanation for that kind of obtuseness, methinks. (Ah, for the Mind of Evil days when Three, utterly unsurprised, said "Yeeeees, I thought as much" and had a seat when the Master revealed himself.)
As for new emotional ties: Adric I had seen in Fifth Doctor episodes before, but I had the impression Four is actually being a bit paternal here in a way Five is not. Age factor, I guess. Also, the Doctor hitting it off with Tremas is suitably ironic, and that he's pilfering Nyssa's neat stunner is just typical. Otherwise, I still have my can't-emotionally-connect-to-Tom-Baker problem, but the episode is so good it doesn't matter.
Speaking of Nyssa: nice introduction. Given events here and in Logopolis, I'm surprised that the tv show didn't more with the incredible angst potential the Master having her father's body offers (that I know of; I might be wrong, of course, since I haven't watched that many Five era stories). Blaming the era doesn't work, because the simultanous Blake's 7 definitely did remember that Servalan killed Dayna's father and used it in s3 and s4 episodes when the Liberator and later Scorpius crew met Servalan again.
State of the Master's crazy: surprisingly enough, not as much as in the earlier Deadly Assassin, although he was stuck on Traken in his Melkor-shaped TARDIS for years. Wanting to use the power of the system the Keeper can access actually makes sense for a supervillain, except for the part where one wonders what he would have done if everything had gone according to plan; I can't help but suspect he'd have tired and become bored of the Keeper's power after a while.
Methinks they should have kept that Johnny Byrne fellow instead of hiring Christopher Bidmead, because Logopolis is something of a come-down after the heights of Keeper of Traken. Which isn't to say it doesn't have its plusses, but when with Keeper, every scene is interesting, here we get a lot of filler stuff, and unforgivably in one case using the new companion. Which you shouldn't do to a new companion. I'm referring to Tegan endlessly walking through the TARDIS. Mind you, there is a bit of a pay-off for it in the next one, both with Tegan using her lipstick and with the Doctor unravelling his scarf, but still. Also, as a world Logopolis isn't nearly as convincing as Traken. And really, you can't just use "oops, a quarter of the galaxy is gone!" as a plot point and then never have it any effect whatsoever (other than making Nyssa homeless) in future stories.
On the plus side: Tegan insisting on changing the wheel herself, on the other hand, worked as an introduction demonstrating her energy and stubbornness, and the way she started to bond with Nyssa later was also believable. On the other hand, it was hard to see why she insisted on going after the Doctor when the TARDIS was going to take her and Adric back to Earth; he wasn't her ride home, the blue box was, and she had had nearly no interaction with the Doctor before, thus making a personal attachment at this stage unlikely.
The Watcher: I wasn't spoiled but had guessed it had to be the Doctor in some form early on. I'm a bit baffled, though, as how this was supposed to work. Astral projection? But he was physical enough to steer the TARDIS and to talk. What's the fanon on this?
Ainley!Master, in action for the first time: uses a line that RTD lets Simm!Master reuse in Sound of Drums, slightly altered: "People of the universe, please attend carefully". Which is such a Master thing to say and made me smile. (In the Audio AU Doctor Who Unbound: Sympathy for the Devil, Alt!Master's way of parting the crowd is the line "Stand aside or I will lay your souls to waste! Thank you very much.") Also, we get a return to the "temporary alliance in between scheming and fighting" tradition between the Master and the Doctor, and these scenes are an interesting variation: while the Doctor relents enough to admit to TARDIs envy in lieu of a social conversation, I'd say even here, Four is unquestionably the Doctor with the most disdain and hostility towards the Master. (At least going by the Five episodes I know.) Six while entirely prepared to use that weapon on him slips into the mutual bickering and school reunion mode pretty much from the get go, Seven has the "certain attraction" admission (and goes out of his way not to kill the guy), and of course Three while being able to be catty like no one's business ("he put on weight!") radiates fondness along with the varying degrees of anger and annoyance suitable to the occasion whenever they meet. But Four? Really sees nothing but the mass murdering supervillain (which the Master also is, of course).
And finally, the death and regeneration scene. Four preparing for his death throughout the story was obvious, and Baker's emotional distance worked for this. The enemies and friends montage was a bit clumsy, but mostly worked for me. With one caveat - the flashback to the Three-to-Four regeneration scene with Sarah Jane and the Brig inevitably reminded me that I found that one far more touching. Though I will admit to bias in favour of the Third Doctor in general. And of course the emotional effect this must have had on an audience that had watched Tom Baker as the Doctor for seven years is something that unfortunately eludes me.
And then there was Five. You know, companions really should get together and swap regeneration stories, and how dealing with the Doctor then was. Peri would probably win for sheer horror factor (I mean, none of the others had the Doctor attempting to strangle them), but Nyssa, Tegan and Rose would be on the same level. I was wondering where the whole zero room thing from fanfic came from, and now I know. Also, do we ever see that much of the other rooms in the TARDIS in other episodes? (Save the corridors and courtyard from Logopolis.) One great touch was Peter Davison doing first a William Hartnell and then a Patrick Throughton impression, and good ones, too, while the regeneration was still settling. And after Time Crash, the scene where he puts on glasses also causes fuzzy feelings of pre-empted nostalgia. "Must dash" as a Five catchphrase: it's one of those things you can't imagine the others saying, which is good, as each Doctor should in addition to the shared traits have their own idioysyncricies. And I must say I felt some gleeful Schadenfreude at the demise of the scarf.
I was wondering whether the Master wanting Adric around should count as a symptom of insanity, but then it all made sense. Castrovalva and the concept of it strikes me as an echo of Traken, which would confirm
deborah_judge's hypothesis that the Master is influenced by his non-Gallifreyan bodies to some degree. Mind you, the Master's actions in this particular story are an instance where one wonders "how did they explain this without slash goggles"? Because in addition to the more routine: Master: *traps Doctor in complicated dastardly scheme*
Doctor: *seems to be defeated*
Master: *goes from glee to feeling annoyed Doctor is not around for another round anymore*
Doctor: *makes come-back*
Master: *is gleeful*
We get the grand climactic scene where the Master ignores everything else because he just has to look at the Doctor once more before getting around to killing him. (Clearly, he likes this new regenerations' aesthetics.) I don't know what the poor Castrovalvians and the companions were thinking when the Master had his "I WILL LOOK AT HIM ONCE MORE!!!!!" freakout, but...
The Nyssa and Tegan bonding is for the win, though Nyssa really should have insisted on Tegan changing before they set off on their trip. If there is any more impractical wardrobe for mountain climbing than high heels and a tight skirt, I can't imagine it. Tsskk. Also, I felt for Tegan - she was so proud of having landed the TARDIS, and then she was told
Acting: Davison gets high marks for the One and Two impressions, as I said, in addition to giving some ideas of what his Doctor is going to be like, Ainley uses the chuckle a bit too often, Janet Fielding is great in those TARDIS steering (or not) scenes and her crestfallen reaction later, and somehow the repeated walks through the courtyard don't annoy me here the way the endless walks through the TARDIS in Logopolis do. Possibly because they're a better plot point, and we get splintered mirror imagery. Oh, and that moment where Nyssa and Tegan find out the women have been using the Doctor's regeneration closet as a box to put their washing in is priceless.
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Date: 2008-04-23 09:10 pm (UTC)Obviously, nobody who counts hypnotism as his chief party trick can exactly be fond of free will,
Yes...he certainly doesn't have any moral qualms about taking away people's free will. Or about much else, really. My hunch right now is that maybe he wants to be defeated, that for whatever his purposes are they are better served by being overthrown by the people he's subjugating. The Jones family are a great example - he never makes any attempt to use them as hostages, but having them close by ensures that he'll be surrounded by people who want to kill him. So maybe he just likes a challenge, or maybe he doesn't want (or doesn't completely want) to succeed. Hm.