Oh, Karma, you terrible, terrible thing. Here I go off ranting and raving about the Doctor not using lethal force against his enemies, and then you drop this in my lap. Byaaaahaarhrhrhghhghahghaaghaghghhrarhhrgha.
The plot: Ice Warriors take over the T-mat base on the moon (think a cheaper version, if such a thing is possible, of Star Trek's transporter) and use it to T-mat the titular seeds to Earth. Once there, the seeds create oxygen-eating foam that threatens to engulf the Earth, until the Doctor makes it rain and then goes on a rampage, slaughtering the Ice Warriors with powerful lamps.
Since the rest of the review is going to savage this story, let's get the good things out of the way now. There's no faulting the acting, because this is Patrick Troughton we're talking about, and Troughton putting in a bad performance is about as likely as the Earth suddenly deciding to shape itself like a banana instead of a sphere. The direction is largely competent, and the show's makers clearly had a lot of fun with their foam machine. None of the effects come across as horribly bad, though the "zoom in, lock off the camera while the actor leaves the T-mat alcove, zoom out" approach to the T-mat effect gets old the second time they use it. The script does a decent job of letting us know how much trouble the Doctor's going to be in once he finally gets to the moon. Um... it's refreshing, especially coming to this right after reviewing Genesis of the Daleks, to see the Doctor unfazed about killing his enemies (but see below...)
But, er, the pacing. Yes yes, each episode details a different phase of the operation, and yes, episode four is always going to suffer because Troughton's on vacation. The problem is, there's still some terrible padding. Are we supposed to feel sympathy for Fewsham, the technician who cooperates with the Ice Warriors out of fear for his life? Should we care about the interactions between Commander Radnor, Miss Kelly, and whats-his-face rocketman?
I said some stuff near the end of my Frontier in Space review about watchability, and the fact that this review is two days late should tell you just how watchable it is. The Ice Warriors are boring! They move slowly, they talk slowly, they kill slowly, and they conquer planets slowly. The pantomime music doesn't do the story any favors, either. One of the things that sold me on the Davison Renaissance was JN-T's opposition to the mindset of "It'll do because it's Doctor Who." Moreso than anything Graham Williams produced, I might hold up this serial as the best evidence of that mindset. It's got Troughton, it's got monsters, it's got corridors to run up and down. But that's about it. "Come for the Doctor, stay for the story" works when there's a story. But the seeds aren't even introduced until the 3rd cliffhanger.
And then there's the Doctor's actions at the end. There are only three serials between this one and Doctor Who and the Silurians, but the difference is striking. An alien virus-thing threatens to wipe out all life on Earth in both cases, but in one the Doctor is willing to negotiate and in the other he's not. Is it because the Silurians are indigenous to Earth? (Answer: yes. Duh.)
Prior to Eric Saward's stint as the script editor, this is probably the only time the Doctor shoots a sentient being! It's played so painfully straight, even though the Doctor says that Mars is a dead world and implies that these may be the very last Ice Warriors in the Universe. All right, I'm all for the Doctor making hard moral choices, but this just looks like an excuse for the Doctor to run up and down corridors with something that's as close to a gun as it ever gets before the 80s. If he's going to kill, he should use his superior intellect to do it. Hell, the "wires scene" from Genesis had less problems - I'd be the first person to protest if, after Sarah said he should kill the Daleks, the Doctor whipped out a pistol and charged in there. A childrens' hero holding a gun, zappy thing, ultrapowerful lamp, whatever... it just doesn't work.
Now let me be clear. I'm in no way suggesting that the Doctor shouldn't use lethal force when the situation demands it. If he wants to lure the Ice Warriors into a room where the UV lamps are set up, and zap them there, that works, and I'm fine with it. But taking up arms and going after the monsters is something he should really leave to the Brigadier. It's so out of character for him that they were recently able to craft an entire plot around the Doctor very reluctantly firing a gun, once.
Okay, enough of that. This more than any other story I've reviewed to date would probably be better if it were shorter. Yes, 4-parters weren't the norm until the 70s, blah blah blah... give the story a 4/10 and move on. It's too slow, and even worse, it starts the overused trend of the "alien invasion bridgehead" that will become all too common over the next 5 years.
...and the spellcheck doesn't recognize "show's." Uh-huh.
No comments:
Post a Comment