Old Who: Three audios and a tv episode
May. 15th, 2008 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakA couple of short reviews from recent weeks, three audios and a tv episode.
Audios first.
The Spectre of Lanyon Moor, or, the one where the Doctor and Evelyn team up with the Brigadier. Which is the main attraction - the villains are standard DW, and there is no character examination of the Doctor himself through the guest characters, as in The Marian Conspiracy. Plus the script by Nicholas Pegg gets a minus point for the Doctor having to tell Evelyn about the Celts. Evelyn is a historian. Granted, one specializing in Tudor history (which comes in useful again in this story), but still - even with a general interest in history, she should know the exposition info the Doctor tells her. Since the audience might not, I can see the necessity, but why not let Evelyn fill in the Doctor instead? He can be forgiven for not knowing every single detail of Earth history, he might like the planet but he's an alien. Ah, well. That nitpick aside, it's impossible not to love a story showcasing the Brig as well as this one does, plus the way he immediately identifies the Doctor (whom he hasn't seen in this regeneration before) - outrageous wardrobe, makes a dramatic entrance, female companion, is all over me and calls me "Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, my dear fellow" = Doctor - is win. The script unfortunately forgets the scene in Battlefield where the Brig informs Seven of his marriage to Doris by letting him give Six the same information, but never mind, the Doctor reacting to the Brig's marriage is always good. As the Brig saving the day. All in all, a good audio adventure, though not extraordinary.
Invaders from Mars was written by Mark Gatiss and is probably a love or hate thing. As in, if you know 30s and 40s movies and radio shows and some of the history, you appreciate what Gatiss is doing her and are mightily amused by it, but I can imagine listeners without the background feel somewhat overwhelmed, since Gatiss uses every trope of the period ever - gangsters, Communists, Nazis, theatre, Orson Welles and aliens. Yes, it's set during that famous Halloween 1938 when young Orson W. scared the nation with his War of the Worlds broadcast. Which seems to be a minor subplot pottering along somewhat disconnected to the other plots until it all comes together in the final twist as the Doctor teams up with the Mercury theatre on the air in an ingenious twist. The characters are all lovingly used period stereotypes, from the Italo-American gangsters to the spy who for no reason switches from her American accent to a Russian one once she is discovered (both are over the top, but again, you don't mind in the context) to the actual aliens who are obviously the Flash Gordon serial type. At the same time, Gatiss brings in some sly actual background knowledge (the Italian gangster working together with the CIA, for example), and if you know your Wellesiana, the Doctor going fanboy on him and calling, as a goodbye, "I shouldn't do this, the timeline - never mind the timeline. Orson, don't let them cut Amersons! Don't let them cut Ambersons!" is absolutely priceless. Paul McGann has fun as the Doctor (especially when the Doctor tries impersonating a private detective mid-story), India Fisher is good as audio companion Charley, and Jessica Stevenson (Nurse Joan Redfern as Miss Glory Bee) is sadly missed when she drops out of the story. I could complain David Benson doesn't sound much like Orson Welles - who had one of the most distinctive voices in the business ever - but then again, who does?
The Chimes of Midnight is written by Rob Shearman, who went on to contribute Dalek to New Who. It's a wonderfully creepy ghost story, while at the same time showing the first serious consequences of Charley's survival. (The Doctor saved Charley in Storm Warning, when she was supposed to have died, and the repercussions are an ongoing arc in in the audios and incidentally a good exploration of why this really isn't something he could or should do all the time.) I think if you know your Who lore, you can guess the two twists - i.e. the culprit of the situation, and what Charley's connection to it all is - before the Doctor does, but that doesn't take away from the tension, and in true DW fashion, it's a firmly left wing and socially critical story to boot, using the Upstairs, Downstairs parallels to great effect. Shearman wrote this years before Gosford Park, otherwise I'd wonder whether that was an inspiration, too.
And now for one of the few short serials Old Who produced. Your average Old Who adventure has four to six parts, sometimes even eight, each around 20 minutes. This one has only two.
The King's Demons is pure twisty fluff of the Doctor/Master type. The plot doesn't bear thinking about (err, the Magna Charta as a foundation of democracy?!?), though as someone interested in history I was amused the Doctor, in addition to being a Ricardian, is also a defender of the much maligned John Lackland. And while Tegan at least gets to through a knife at the Master - which he catches without effort - Turlough spends most of his time captured and useless. (I really must watch the rest of the Black Guardian trilogy to get an impression of Turlough when he's not out of commission for plot reasons or incompetent...) But who cares? We get a totally gratitious Master/Doctor sword fight again, and while Davison and Ainley aren't quite up to the legendary Pertwee/Delgado duel, they're still having fun. Then we get mental arm wrestling. Which, given that the Master makes Kamelion appear as the Doctor and the Doctor makes him appear as the Master, offers some obvious scenarios. We get the Master, while controlling Kamelion-posing-as-John, playing more mind games of the following type:
John: *orders the Master to be locked in anachronistic torture device, as the Iron Maiden won't be invented for 300 more years*
Doctor: *protests and begs for mercy for the Master*
John: So you do you want me to torture this completely innocent redshirt instead? It's either him or your evil ex boyfriend.
Doctor: *stops protesting, looks miserable*
Master: * gets locked in Iron Maiden and then reveals Iron Maiden is really his TARDIS in disguise, and he's been controlling "John" all the time*
Together with "you've always been my greatest stimulation", three "my dear Doctor"s in a row and the aforementioned total idiocy of the preventing-the-Magna-Charta plot (which the script even has the Doctor commenting on as being way too small scale for the Master), one really has to use the slash explanation because otherwise this episode makes no sense at all.
Other offering swordfighting andmind sex a willpower/mind duel with the Master, The King's Demons has one good character bit near the end when it comes to the Doctor/Companion interaction, between the Doctor and Tegan, as we get the Five variation of "don't leave me, I can show you the stars". It's more passive-aggressive and sneaky than the Three variation (as seen in The Green Death with Jo, and in Invasion of the Dinosaurs with Sarah Jane - Three just launches in his wonders-of-the-galaxies seducto speech directly), and less blatantly needy than when Ten gives the speech to Donna in The Sontaran Strategem, but it's the same principle, only Five tries reverse psychology, i.e. "right, I'm bringing you home right now, and you're totally missing our nifty trip to the Eye of Orion, so there". If you compare companion reactions, it's interesting that it works on Sarah Jane and Tegan, two of the companions famous for being strong-willed, but not on Jo, who basically responds with "that's all very well, Doctor, but I want to save the environment of my own planet now, see you later!". Again, Jo's weakling rep is so massively unfair.
Lastly: it occurs to me that the Eye of Orion trip is of course what starts The Five Doctors, wherein Tegan gets to walk through the Death Zone on Gallifrey on stiletto boots. One really shouldn't trust the Doctor's vacation trip promises...
Audios first.
The Spectre of Lanyon Moor, or, the one where the Doctor and Evelyn team up with the Brigadier. Which is the main attraction - the villains are standard DW, and there is no character examination of the Doctor himself through the guest characters, as in The Marian Conspiracy. Plus the script by Nicholas Pegg gets a minus point for the Doctor having to tell Evelyn about the Celts. Evelyn is a historian. Granted, one specializing in Tudor history (which comes in useful again in this story), but still - even with a general interest in history, she should know the exposition info the Doctor tells her. Since the audience might not, I can see the necessity, but why not let Evelyn fill in the Doctor instead? He can be forgiven for not knowing every single detail of Earth history, he might like the planet but he's an alien. Ah, well. That nitpick aside, it's impossible not to love a story showcasing the Brig as well as this one does, plus the way he immediately identifies the Doctor (whom he hasn't seen in this regeneration before) - outrageous wardrobe, makes a dramatic entrance, female companion, is all over me and calls me "Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, my dear fellow" = Doctor - is win. The script unfortunately forgets the scene in Battlefield where the Brig informs Seven of his marriage to Doris by letting him give Six the same information, but never mind, the Doctor reacting to the Brig's marriage is always good. As the Brig saving the day. All in all, a good audio adventure, though not extraordinary.
Invaders from Mars was written by Mark Gatiss and is probably a love or hate thing. As in, if you know 30s and 40s movies and radio shows and some of the history, you appreciate what Gatiss is doing her and are mightily amused by it, but I can imagine listeners without the background feel somewhat overwhelmed, since Gatiss uses every trope of the period ever - gangsters, Communists, Nazis, theatre, Orson Welles and aliens. Yes, it's set during that famous Halloween 1938 when young Orson W. scared the nation with his War of the Worlds broadcast. Which seems to be a minor subplot pottering along somewhat disconnected to the other plots until it all comes together in the final twist as the Doctor teams up with the Mercury theatre on the air in an ingenious twist. The characters are all lovingly used period stereotypes, from the Italo-American gangsters to the spy who for no reason switches from her American accent to a Russian one once she is discovered (both are over the top, but again, you don't mind in the context) to the actual aliens who are obviously the Flash Gordon serial type. At the same time, Gatiss brings in some sly actual background knowledge (the Italian gangster working together with the CIA, for example), and if you know your Wellesiana, the Doctor going fanboy on him and calling, as a goodbye, "I shouldn't do this, the timeline - never mind the timeline. Orson, don't let them cut Amersons! Don't let them cut Ambersons!" is absolutely priceless. Paul McGann has fun as the Doctor (especially when the Doctor tries impersonating a private detective mid-story), India Fisher is good as audio companion Charley, and Jessica Stevenson (Nurse Joan Redfern as Miss Glory Bee) is sadly missed when she drops out of the story. I could complain David Benson doesn't sound much like Orson Welles - who had one of the most distinctive voices in the business ever - but then again, who does?
The Chimes of Midnight is written by Rob Shearman, who went on to contribute Dalek to New Who. It's a wonderfully creepy ghost story, while at the same time showing the first serious consequences of Charley's survival. (The Doctor saved Charley in Storm Warning, when she was supposed to have died, and the repercussions are an ongoing arc in in the audios and incidentally a good exploration of why this really isn't something he could or should do all the time.) I think if you know your Who lore, you can guess the two twists - i.e. the culprit of the situation, and what Charley's connection to it all is - before the Doctor does, but that doesn't take away from the tension, and in true DW fashion, it's a firmly left wing and socially critical story to boot, using the Upstairs, Downstairs parallels to great effect. Shearman wrote this years before Gosford Park, otherwise I'd wonder whether that was an inspiration, too.
And now for one of the few short serials Old Who produced. Your average Old Who adventure has four to six parts, sometimes even eight, each around 20 minutes. This one has only two.
The King's Demons is pure twisty fluff of the Doctor/Master type. The plot doesn't bear thinking about (err, the Magna Charta as a foundation of democracy?!?), though as someone interested in history I was amused the Doctor, in addition to being a Ricardian, is also a defender of the much maligned John Lackland. And while Tegan at least gets to through a knife at the Master - which he catches without effort - Turlough spends most of his time captured and useless. (I really must watch the rest of the Black Guardian trilogy to get an impression of Turlough when he's not out of commission for plot reasons or incompetent...) But who cares? We get a totally gratitious Master/Doctor sword fight again, and while Davison and Ainley aren't quite up to the legendary Pertwee/Delgado duel, they're still having fun. Then we get mental arm wrestling. Which, given that the Master makes Kamelion appear as the Doctor and the Doctor makes him appear as the Master, offers some obvious scenarios. We get the Master, while controlling Kamelion-posing-as-John, playing more mind games of the following type:
John: *orders the Master to be locked in anachronistic torture device, as the Iron Maiden won't be invented for 300 more years*
Doctor: *protests and begs for mercy for the Master*
John: So you do you want me to torture this completely innocent redshirt instead? It's either him or your evil ex boyfriend.
Doctor: *stops protesting, looks miserable*
Master: * gets locked in Iron Maiden and then reveals Iron Maiden is really his TARDIS in disguise, and he's been controlling "John" all the time*
Together with "you've always been my greatest stimulation", three "my dear Doctor"s in a row and the aforementioned total idiocy of the preventing-the-Magna-Charta plot (which the script even has the Doctor commenting on as being way too small scale for the Master), one really has to use the slash explanation because otherwise this episode makes no sense at all.
Other offering swordfighting and
Lastly: it occurs to me that the Eye of Orion trip is of course what starts The Five Doctors, wherein Tegan gets to walk through the Death Zone on Gallifrey on stiletto boots. One really shouldn't trust the Doctor's vacation trip promises...
