07/03

07/03/29 Doctor Who: Castrovalva
07/03/22 Doctor Who: Logopolis
07/03/19 Doctor Who: The keeper of Traken

07/03/29

I'm still taking a break from my usual subject matter to review the 'classic' Doctor Who serials that I have on DVD. Today: Castrovalva.

Doctor Who: Castrovalva

This is a four-part serial, first broadcast between 4th - 12th January 1982. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: the fifth Doctor's regeneration doesn't seem to be entirely successful, and he decides to travel to the town of Castrovalva in search of healing. But after his arrival, he finds his troubles have only just begun...

Though this was the first full story with Peter Davison as the Doctor to be aired, it was the fourth to be filmed as the makers wanted the fifth Doctor's tenure to start on a strong note. The script was written by Christopher H. Bidmead, but by the time this serial was made Eric Saward had taken over as script editor.

There's nothing really bad about this serial. A couple of things that aren't entirely great:

the scripts written by Christopher H. Bidmead tend to be plagued by empty techno-babble and the sense that he made the whole thing up as he went along without ever bothering to reread the first draft, let alone rewrite it. This serial does have some of these problems but the story starts to come together when we reach Castrovalva in part three, and there's still a great deal to enjoy in the Tardis-bound scenes in parts one and two
the Zero Room scene where the Doctor holds forth about the companions and their roles within the group, while floating in mid-air and appearing to be asleep, is a bit daft. It's not helped by the dated visual effects or by the Doctor's advice to make Adric the navigator since "he knows the way", as this statement doesn't seem to be grounded in reality. And what's the deal with those inverted question marks?
the scenes with Tegan and Nyssa carrying the Doctor around in a box look silly - especially since Nyssa is wearing a variation on her costume from Traken and Tegan is still in her air hostess's uniform
the Castrovalvans' town costumes look great except for the headgear, which is clearly made out of plastic. Their hunting costumes are decidedly over the top
a couple of visual effects haven't aged well but - spoiler ahead - the destruction of Castrovalva is quite, um, effective

And still I find myself being very fond of this serial. Some reasons why:

there's a great deal to enjoy in the first two episodes (I particularly like the cricket theme music, the resurfacing of the previous Doctors, and the unravelling of the scarf), but the part of the story that is set in Castrovalva gets it right in about every way. The script works, the sets and costumes look great (never mind the headgear), the studio lighting comes surprisingly close to natural light (and it's amazing how much difference that makes) and the performances from the guest cast are excellent
Peter Davison as the Doctor and - beware, spoiler ahead - Anthony Ainley as the Master-in-disguise are outstanding
after the later Tom Baker years, it's nice to see a Doctor who actually cares about what's happening around him. For instance, the Doctor's fear and distress when he's brought into Castrovalva and his relief when he finds that the Castrovalvans are civilised people are obvious and help the audience to get involved in the story
this is a good story for the companions. The script has them working together to solve a sequence of problems and we get good performances from Tegan and Nyssa, demonstrating that the former could actually be a rather likeable character when she wasn't emoting all the time. In the first two episodes even Adric has his moments

My verdict:

Nice!

Not flawless, but quite enchanting.

More Doctor Who reviews:
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The latest version of this review:
Castrovalva (1982)

07/03/22

I'm still taking a break from my usual subject matter to review the 'classic' Doctor Who serials that I have on DVD. Today: Logopolis.

Doctor Who: Logopolis

This is a four-part serial, first broadcast between 28th February 1981 - 21st March 1981. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: the Doctor's decision to finally fix the Tardis' chameleon circuit starts a chain of events that leads to the Doctor's final battle with his greatest enemy.

'Logopolis' is Tegan's first and Nyssa's second story, and by adding the two of them to the Tardis crew this serial saddles the Doctor with the worst set of companions in the history of the series. None of the three companions are played by great actors - with Matthew Waterhouse as Adric clearly the worst of the lot - and their characters remain ciphers, not helped by the fact that in most serials they're in there's simply not enough story to give all three of them something significant to do.

This serial - beware, spoilers ahead - is also the first full story with the new incarnation of the Doctor's arch-nemesis, the Master. The Master, then played by Roger Delgado, had been a recurring villain in the Jon Pertwee era. After Delgado's death Anthony Ainley eventually took over, first appearing in the part at the end of the previous serial 'The keeper of Traken'. The only serial with Roger Delgado that I have on DVD is 'The claws of Axos', where Delgado plays the Master as a villain from a 19th century novel complete with suave manner and the ability to hypnotise people. Ainley's Master is funnier, something between the Trickster and a comic book villain. Though his performance can be over the top, and would become more so over the years, Ainley is obviously a competent actor and always entertaining in the part.

The story of 'Logopolis' is a mess. The ideas - the recursive Tardis in the first two episodes and the whole concept of Logopolis - aren't bad at all and the first two episodes are pretty entertaining, but at the end of part two things start to come apart with part four making little sense at all.

The Doctor regenerates at the end of this story and, unfortunately, there are several problems with the regeneration scene. One problem is that two of the three people present, Nyssa and Tegan, hardly know the Doctor but still act like they're grief-stricken by his impending demise. The other problem is that it's unlikely that either of them knew in advance that the Doctor was going to regenerate rather than die, and yet neither shows any surprise when he merges with the Watcher and turns into the blond bloke.

My verdict:

Quite good, actually.

The serial is worth seeing for a couple of clever story ideas, for Tom Baker's final performance as the Doctor and for Anthony Ainley's first full story as the Master.

More Doctor Who reviews:
Doctor Who reviews

The latest version of this review:
Logopolis (1981)

07/03/19

I'm still taking a break from my usual subject matter to review the 'classic' Doctor Who serials that I have on DVD. Today: The keeper of Traken.

Doctor Who: The keeper of Traken

This is a four-part serial, first broadcast between 31st January - 21st February 1981. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: summoned by the Keeper the Doctor and Adric travel to Traken, where they discover an old enemy...

Potentially, there's a lot to like about this serial:

Tom Baker as the Doctor and Anthony Ainley as Tremas are excellent in this, showing us that the latter - spoiler ahead, though the cat's going to be already out of the bag for most people - may not have been entirely to blame for his over-the-top performance as the Master
the serial does a good bit of world-building, and manages to do it without resorting to an exposition overload
the art nouveau sets and the neo-Elizabethan costumes are beautiful
there are some witty bits of dialogue between the Doctor and Adric ("Don't guess. The universe is full of uncertainty as it is.")

Nevertheless, the serial leaves me mostly respectfully bored. The things that bother me - and beware, there are spoilers ahead:

the story doesn't make a great deal of sense. How has the Master been able to remain his evil self in a world where all evil is supposed to shrivel up and die? How is he able to corrupt Kassia, a prominent citizen of Traken, and how is she, in turn, able to trick her fellow citizens into performing arguably evil acts? Though the explanation might be that the Master's arrival caused Traken's defences against evil to break down, I guess that the real problem is that there's actually no such thing as a world without evil
apart from Tremas, who is a well-rounded character, we get little sense of who the people of Traken are or why they do the things they do. This is most apparent in Kassia's case. The reason given for her falling under the Master-disguised-as-Melkur's spell - she's afraid that her husband Tremas will become the next Keeper of Traken and thus be lost to her - makes no sense, since her fascination with the Melkur started long before her marriage to Tremas and she has no reason to believe that the Melkur will be able to stop Tremas from becoming Keeper. There are hints of other possible motivations, like compassion becoming obsession or fascination with evil in a world that knows only good, but the story doesn't explore them
the sets are beautiful but never feel like spaces that people live and work in, events that are supposed to take place outside are obviously filmed indoors, and a great deal of the story is being 'told' rather than 'shown'. All this gives the serial a static, theatrical feel that makes it difficult to suspend disbelief
suspense of disbelief also isn't helped by some extremely bad visual effects, most notably the 'eyes' painted on Kassia's eyelids and the beams emanating from the Melkur's eyes

My verdict:

Interesting.

It might have worked. It didn't.

More Doctor Who reviews:
Doctor Who reviews

The latest version of this review:
The keeper of Traken (1981)

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