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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.
It's not all bad, though. In one glorious scene, the Master decides to play games at the expense of Mike Yates, sending a daft series of obstacles his way, as he attempts to bring the Doctor his TARDIS. First a knight on horseback, then a bunch of roundhead soldiers complete with cannon. The Master is clearly having a whale of time, and Mike is endearingly baffled. I don't entirely see the point. After all, if the Master really wanted to stop Mike, I'm sure he could think of something more effective than a knight on horseback. Eventually he sends a Doodlebug, which rather bizarrely almost the entire cast fails to recognise. It goes boom, in a nice cliffhanger ending to episode three, leaving the Brig thinking that Mike has exploded. Hardly, Brig. The Master is constitutionally incapable of killing Mike Yates. Haven't you noticed this already?!
Episode four's boring, though. Pretty much nothing at all happens in episode four bar annoying feminist woman being even more annoying, and the Doctor being eaten by a giant pigeon. Oh, and some "His TARDIS is inside my TARDIS is inside his TARDIS" shenanigans, which doesn't seem to amount to anything other than filling in a bit more screentime. And there's lots and lots and lots of talking. One thing that does strike me, though - the void that they're describing in this is so clearly the one that the Doctor sends the Daleks and the Cybermen into in "Doomsday", that I'm left wondering just how much else RTD has nicked wholesale from old Who. Maybe he's not as good at thinking up new ideas as I thought.
A bloke from Atlantis, summoned to help the Master do... I don't know. Something.
The Master tells The Man From Atlantis (no, not that one) who's boss.
Right before summoning a giant pigeon to do his bidding.
Rather humbled, the Master considers that giant pigeons are more dangerous than he'd first thought.
The Doctor builds a piece of techno-nonsense to fill a bit of airtime.
The somewhat baffling Trials Of Mike Yates.
The Doctor and the Brigadier wonder why nobody but them knows what a Doodlebug is.
Then watch as it apparently obliterates Mike Yates.
And no, I don't know why there's a large, mechanical hand next to Jo's head, either.
Mike plays the wounded hero, rather endearingly.
And ignores the severe head injuries in order to apologise for the TARDIS having been knocked over.
Aw, bless.
The TARDIS, in mid-dematerialisation.
A "comedy" yokel. Woo.
And an annoying feminist woman. Woo again.
The Doctor and Jo play at "Whose TARDIS Is Inside Whose?", a popular Gallifreyan pastime.
Whilst Benton gets the drop on the Master. Again. Only to lose him two seconds later. Again.
And then the Doctor gets eaten by the giant pigeon, but I couldn't get a clear shot of that. Ah well. More later. And hopefully a bit more will happen in episodes five and six.
Oh yeah:
Included for the sole reason that it's one of the few moments when the writers remembered that Jo and Mike were meant to be sort of an item!
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.
It's not all bad, though. In one glorious scene, the Master decides to play games at the expense of Mike Yates, sending a daft series of obstacles his way, as he attempts to bring the Doctor his TARDIS. First a knight on horseback, then a bunch of roundhead soldiers complete with cannon. The Master is clearly having a whale of time, and Mike is endearingly baffled. I don't entirely see the point. After all, if the Master really wanted to stop Mike, I'm sure he could think of something more effective than a knight on horseback. Eventually he sends a Doodlebug, which rather bizarrely almost the entire cast fails to recognise. It goes boom, in a nice cliffhanger ending to episode three, leaving the Brig thinking that Mike has exploded. Hardly, Brig. The Master is constitutionally incapable of killing Mike Yates. Haven't you noticed this already?!
Episode four's boring, though. Pretty much nothing at all happens in episode four bar annoying feminist woman being even more annoying, and the Doctor being eaten by a giant pigeon. Oh, and some "His TARDIS is inside my TARDIS is inside his TARDIS" shenanigans, which doesn't seem to amount to anything other than filling in a bit more screentime. And there's lots and lots and lots of talking. One thing that does strike me, though - the void that they're describing in this is so clearly the one that the Doctor sends the Daleks and the Cybermen into in "Doomsday", that I'm left wondering just how much else RTD has nicked wholesale from old Who. Maybe he's not as good at thinking up new ideas as I thought.
A bloke from Atlantis, summoned to help the Master do... I don't know. Something.
The Master tells The Man From Atlantis (no, not that one) who's boss.
Right before summoning a giant pigeon to do his bidding.
Rather humbled, the Master considers that giant pigeons are more dangerous than he'd first thought.
The Doctor builds a piece of techno-nonsense to fill a bit of airtime.
The somewhat baffling Trials Of Mike Yates.
The Doctor and the Brigadier wonder why nobody but them knows what a Doodlebug is.
Then watch as it apparently obliterates Mike Yates.
And no, I don't know why there's a large, mechanical hand next to Jo's head, either.
Mike plays the wounded hero, rather endearingly.
And ignores the severe head injuries in order to apologise for the TARDIS having been knocked over.
Aw, bless.
The TARDIS, in mid-dematerialisation.
A "comedy" yokel. Woo.
And an annoying feminist woman. Woo again.
The Doctor and Jo play at "Whose TARDIS Is Inside Whose?", a popular Gallifreyan pastime.
Whilst Benton gets the drop on the Master. Again. Only to lose him two seconds later. Again.
And then the Doctor gets eaten by the giant pigeon, but I couldn't get a clear shot of that. Ah well. More later. And hopefully a bit more will happen in episodes five and six.
Oh yeah:
Included for the sole reason that it's one of the few moments when the writers remembered that Jo and Mike were meant to be sort of an item!
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