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Episodes three and four then. Less than impressed, if I'm honest. I think this is one of those six-parters that could quite easily have been a four or a five part adventure, without any great loss to anybody.
I was bored in several places watching these episodes. Some bits were jolly good, though, I have to admit; daft, but certainly entertaining. Way too much padding, though, and with an annoying guest cast, as well. The feminist scientist needs a good punch - why can Who writers never write well for characters who are in to Women's Lib?! It's always a complete disaster. Beyond that we also acquire a "comedy" yokel in episode four, who's possibly one of the worst examples of his breed ever - and there's a lot of competition for that title in seventies Who. Not only does he make the "hilarious" mistake of counting "One! Two! Six!", but he then goes and makes it again. Twice the hilarity. Oh my aching sides. He's so pointless, too, as he's there simply to lift up the fallen-over TARDIS. Why?! The inside is always the right way up. And then when the TARDIS disappears, he shakes his head in amusement, and mutters about Londoners. The humour just keeps on coming. It's not even that the character is so bad, and his lines so awful - hell, I've known people just like him. But the whole thing is over-egged, each line spoken like it's a joke. I can't decide if the fault is mostly with the script, the actor or the director, but at any rate, it's awful. And it's not the only thing. Great chunks of these two episodes are filled up with people standing around talking, and frequently talking nonsense. The Doctor explains technical gobbledegook to Jo, the Master spouts more of the same; annoying feminist woman spouts more. There's lots more bits where people reverse electrical components in order to solve technical difficulties - reversing the polarity by another name. Silly, silly, silly. Yack, yack, yack. The Doctor then builds a machine out of bits and pieces in order to muck up the Master's plans, confessing that they used to sabotage each other's school work in the same way, once upon a time. Lovely scene - or should be. Rather ruined by yet more heavy-handed humour, though. In this case the Doctor realises that the missing component of his lash-up is tea, and incorporates a half-drunk mug into his machine in a scene so clunky with the sound of "Look at us, we're being wacky", that it looks like it's fallen straight out of the Tom Baker era. Yeuch.
( More follows... )
I was bored in several places watching these episodes. Some bits were jolly good, though, I have to admit; daft, but certainly entertaining. Way too much padding, though, and with an annoying guest cast, as well. The feminist scientist needs a good punch - why can Who writers never write well for characters who are in to Women's Lib?! It's always a complete disaster. Beyond that we also acquire a "comedy" yokel in episode four, who's possibly one of the worst examples of his breed ever - and there's a lot of competition for that title in seventies Who. Not only does he make the "hilarious" mistake of counting "One! Two! Six!", but he then goes and makes it again. Twice the hilarity. Oh my aching sides. He's so pointless, too, as he's there simply to lift up the fallen-over TARDIS. Why?! The inside is always the right way up. And then when the TARDIS disappears, he shakes his head in amusement, and mutters about Londoners. The humour just keeps on coming. It's not even that the character is so bad, and his lines so awful - hell, I've known people just like him. But the whole thing is over-egged, each line spoken like it's a joke. I can't decide if the fault is mostly with the script, the actor or the director, but at any rate, it's awful. And it's not the only thing. Great chunks of these two episodes are filled up with people standing around talking, and frequently talking nonsense. The Doctor explains technical gobbledegook to Jo, the Master spouts more of the same; annoying feminist woman spouts more. There's lots more bits where people reverse electrical components in order to solve technical difficulties - reversing the polarity by another name. Silly, silly, silly. Yack, yack, yack. The Doctor then builds a machine out of bits and pieces in order to muck up the Master's plans, confessing that they used to sabotage each other's school work in the same way, once upon a time. Lovely scene - or should be. Rather ruined by yet more heavy-handed humour, though. In this case the Doctor realises that the missing component of his lash-up is tea, and incorporates a half-drunk mug into his machine in a scene so clunky with the sound of "Look at us, we're being wacky", that it looks like it's fallen straight out of the Tom Baker era. Yeuch.
( More follows... )
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