Some of you may know that on the 23rd November 2013, the science fiction phenomenon known as Doctor Who celebrates its 50th anniversary. So, I've decided that to celebrate this milestone and promote a show that I love dearly. My original intention with this post was to regale you with several lists, because we geeks love nothing better than a bunch of lists, in which I rhyme off my favourite things from the past 50 years of Doctor Who. However, something happened when I started writing about the Sylvester McCoy era, I started to regress, to get analytical and extend focus on season 24, 25 and 26. Please enjoy my ramblings which pass as insightful comment.
I was 7 in 1989 when the last full series of Doctor Who was shown before it was cancelled by the BBC. The 7 year old me would have chosen any of the 1988 series, or one of the ones that we'd rented from the video shop that is now a Bargain Booze... Or possibly a cafe... It closed down a long time ago anyhow and its true that for a child in the 80's the fact that the first Doctor was played by a different actor you didn't really care when watching The Five Doctors. But looking at the stories now, you can see the evolution of late 80's Doctor Who under Andrew Cartmel into a more, mature young adult fantasy and sci-fi market. Eric Saward's time as script editor saw an attempt to move Doctor Who into this demographic, but the stories were an immature child's view of maturity, plenty of violence and gore.
Season 24's, bright and fluffy opening episode
Time and the Rani is at one end of the spectrum and every other story in that season at the other. It's a misguided attempt to say to people, hey this show is hip and cool. It's bright, colourful and funny. The Tetraps are a nice monster, (I had the figure when I was a kid) showing no lack in creativity and actually when you write down, "evil scientist steals world's geniuses" it does sound like the plot of a hammer horror movie. There shows no sign of what was to come in the rest of the Cartmel era or in fact the rest of the season, it has its own interesting central idea but its let down by some appalling decisions. (Kate O'Mara's Bonnie Langford impression possibly the top of that list)
Paradise Towers is a bleak story of gang warfare in a tower block as performed by a youth drama group with black humour and dark tones offset by Bonnie Langford in a swimming costume with a gun. Yes you can knock Richard Briers for overplaying the role of Chief Caretaker, but look beyond that at the intent. Conflict between old and new is at the heart of the tale. Youth of the Kangs vs the carnivorous Old Ones in their apartments. The New shiny building that the Great Architect completed vs the old dilapidated one that we see. The old Caretakers with rule books vs the young Kangs with their "anarchy". Pex, left behind forever trying to prove himself the hero is the sadness in the tale, he is David Niven's Paper Tiger. We end like all the best stories, on sadness and melancholy because Happiness (as is demonstrated in season 25) is overrated.
Delta and the Bannermen is a story about genocide on one hand, the dangers of falling in love on the other all wrapped up in 1950's ribbon of chirpyness set in a holiday camp. It isn't very often that you'll find a story of love at the heart of "classic era" Who, but this story has it in spades. Unrequited love, lost love, found love are all here. Ray loves Billy, but Billy sees her as a mate. Billy loves Delta so much that he experiments with alien drugs to help him be more of that man she needs. Delta loves Billy and wants to try to repopulate her species which is all but wiped out. (Although when you look deeper only Delta and her daughter will be the last remaining Chimeron's as every subsequent generation will be Chimeron, Human hybrids) There's even some delicate moments where The Doctor can be melancholy about love and its place in the universe. "love has never been known for its rationality"
Dragonfire often falls foul as an example of nothing beneath the surface storytelling, but look deeper. It's a story about being lost. Ace is lost lightyears away from home, Glitz has lost his crew, Belaz has lost half her life serving Kane, Kane has lost his love, his home, his planet and eventually acknowledges that his hope is lost by looking out onto the sun that he knows his body can't survive. There's a map, to help the Doctor and Glitz from getting lost as they search for "lost" treasure. During the attack on the shake stand the little girl gets lost. The Doctor loses his mind to create a cliffhanger for no reason other than we're 25 minutes in.
Season 25 took the themes that were bubbling under the surface of season 24 and expanded them with more cohesive storytelling and production. Tone and themes started to move together.
Remembrance of the Daleks took the theme of racism and built it into a strong story with the right tone to match the subject matter. Kisses to the past are subtly placed so as not to alienate the casual viewer, but there's a new depth to the storytelling, instead of fleeting moments of pathos there's a clear intent that says we're going to ask some questions and be a bit thought provoking in what we do, the biggest ripple being that the people we thought were on our side and we're meant to like turn out to have beliefs that we can't agree with.
The Happiness Patrol took its direction from Paradise Towers, but with less youth theatre and more am dram its tale of smiling assassins and punishment for those who fail to be happy is deep and dark and is a tale that many who suffer from melancholic episodes can warm to. There's also the typical Doctor Who notion of the familiar twisted into the ugly, Sheila Hancock's Helen A based on Margaret Thatcher, the Kandyman like a Frankenstein's monster from former Bertie Bassett parts, the man eating Chihuahua that eventually leads to Helen A's moment of sadness.
Silver Nemesis while failing to have an undercurrent like many of the stories is still overflowing with ideas, probably too many for its own good. Time travel, ex-nazi's, living metal, jazz, Cybermen. But again, as a 7 year old it had explosions, gun fire, arrows, the Queen, Ace shooting Cybermen with a sling shot. (It took a full 23 years for me to understand why Ace shooting the Cybermen with Gold coins was a plot hole) Take the sequence with Ace on the gantry Cybermen either side of her, it still has a moment of tension and excitement that's missing from whole stories that appeared in the early 80's and moves along at a good pace.
The finale,
The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, is scary story telling. Like the X Factor 20 years early, innocent kids chewed up and sentenced to death because they had no talent, just a desire to be there. Korg, impressive weight lifter but terrible joke teller. Secrets and lies, behind the greasepaint its always rumoured that there's a dark heart to the circus and the psychic circus is no different. It is a grotesque collection of characters, even those who we thought were safe to be around turn out to have a darker side, the Greatest Show In The Galaxy is the ultimate story in scratch the surface and see the nasty substance underneath. The monster's aren't in the cupboard or under the bed, but could be inside anybody.
And so, the final season of Andrew Cartmel/Sylvester McCoy/Sophie Aldred Doctor Who. Season 26 has, when viewed from a new perspective as a 31 year old in 2013, more in common with the resurrected series in 2005 than its bedfellows in the late 80's. Out of the 4 stories in season 26, two are contemporary, two are set in the past. No strange alien planets (for an entire story) or alien architectures that the action takes place inside. The focus of the season also changes, no longer are we focusing on the Doctor and his adventures, but we're seeing the adventures and the impact on the companion.
Battlefield is the strange beast of the season apparently having a foot in both camps. It contains many references to the Doctor as a game player, manipulating events from across dimensions, but lacks the depth and focus of the stories that follow. Interesting parallels between this episode and The Curse of Fenric later on in its use of faith as a weapon of protection. It also has an ancient enemy from another dimension and a strong military presence. It also asks us to be critical, does the fact that we see Ace issue a racist outburst make us any less connected to her character, the flaws making her a more rounded character? A call back to Remembrance and Mrs Smith and her no coloureds sign. Battlefield as a standalone, has plenty to keep it interesting, the return of UNIT, the return of the Brigadier, the return of Jean Marsh, some exceptional interplay between Brigadier Bambera and Ancalin, the Doctor walking through the middle of a battle with a doff of his hat, but it is the exception to season 26 rather than the rule.
"Ok kid, this is where it gets complicated" I've seen
Ghost Light described as Doctor Who for the video generation. There's plenty to enjoy, the production values of seeing the BBC do a Victorian household is a beauty, the different layers of storytelling that all mirror the theme. The story of evolution at the heart of the story is also reflecting the changing nature of the series of Doctor Who at this point in its life. We are now being told Ace's story, her development from the tomboy to the young woman starts here. Why are we here? Because the Doctor wants to know about what drove Ace to burn down the house. He wants to know what evil lurks beneath the surface that drove Ace to those actions. In essence creating a paradox, the residual evil in the house leads Ace to burn it down as a child, so the Doctor takes her back into its history to confront the evil, defeats the evil so Ace doesn't feel scared and doesn't sense the evil so doesn't burn the house down.
Of course cause and effect are continued in
The Curse Of Fenric, my favourite episode of Doctor Who, (beating Girl In The Fireplace, Robots Of Death, Unicorn And The Wasp and Remembrance of the Daleks) which continues to show the growth of Ace as a companion and as a character. In the previous story we saw her confront her fears and start to grow up, to mature and face her fears. In Curse Of Fenric she continues on the same path, facing herself, everything that made her the rebel angry at the world and her place in it. At the start of the story, she won't hold a baby because it share's the same name as her mother, at the end of the story she's sending them both to safety, the home of her Grandmother. We see Ace's growing maturity that she'll listen to the Doctor when told not to go swimming, even though her young friends do go into the water. It appears again when she uses her sexuality to distract a guard. But in the recurring theme of misplaced trust she gifts the answer to the puzzle to Fenric. This wrong decision leads to a very dark moment where the Doctor, so often the moral incorruptible figure is revealed to have been using Ace all along to get Fenric to reveal himself for one final game.
Speaking of final games, that leads us onto
Survival, the last episode of the classic series (unless you count Dimensions In Time...) which is the perfect bridge to the 2005 series. Survival has a council estate, Rose has a council estate. Survival has a shop, Rose has a shop. Survival has a focus on the companion and an enemy from the past, the same as Rose. Several years have passed since Ace last visited Perivale and she returns older and wiser, we see her by comparisons to the friends she's left behind. An undercurrent of fighting for control runs through the story, the Master fighting to remain control of himself, his control of Mitch, the control the planet of the Cheetah people has over people. Sergeant Patterson has a certain amount of control over his students by using his power of authority to control their minds and make them do things they may not want to in his self defence class."If we fight like animals we die like animals" the anguished Doctor cries in frustration, attempting to save the Master. A cry to control their animal instincts for aggression. The Doctor keeps control, the Master doesn't and only one of them escapes the planet.
So there we have it, just a few thoughts, I know that there will be bits I've missed, such as the Lesbian subtext, the long game, clowns are creepy stuff. But that's not really the point, it's been about why I love the Cartmel/McCoy era, my era of the show.
Happy hunting, Sister :)
Hilary Swank won the ACADEMY AWARD (tm) for BEST ACTRESS in this film about a girl who pretends to be a boy.
