PLOT
The TARDIS bumps into one of the last ships of the Minyans, a race whose destruction directly inspired the Time Lord laws of non-interference. There, the Doctor helps them finally track down their sister ship, that contains the race banks that could help the Minyan race flourish once more.
Unfortunately, the sister ship has become trapped under a mass of garbage as the center of a newly formed planet and the descendants of its passengers have become slaves to mysterious aliens serving the ship's megalomaniac computer. It's up to the Doctor to correct the Time Lords' ancient mistake and save the Minyans.
ANALYSIS
That all sounds good on paper, doesn't it? Unfortunately, like a classic Bob Baker and Dave Martin story, the execution is cringeworthy, another case of "how on Earth did they expect to get away with this?"
And I'm not just talking about the CSO caves. It's the writing that truly upsets me. They set up this amazing world - spaceship in the middle, megalomaniac computer protecting the race banks and strange aliens controlling the populace. It sounds very interesting, but unlike other Doctor Who stories where the Doctor meets people, learns things from them and joins them to defeat the big evil, they never actually explore this.
Most of the story is spent on running around those awful CSO caves for minor tasks or running away from guards or whatnot. We never find out who the aliens are(they're related to the Minyans, but are somehow also ascended to a higher intelligence or something), we never find out why the computer went crazy and the culture of their society is only referenced in lines about the sky and their sacrifices to the computer.
We never even find out how the Doctor is able to free ALL of the Minyan slaves despite only having minutes and one work force free.
I can understand that the lack of available sets, time and money were a huge part of what made this story what it is, but the scripts are only restrained by imagination. And I really resent the lack of involvement that the writers had in this society because the whole story was ABOUT this society! And yet all it ended up being was a pointless runaround until everyone's safe and they take off again, at which point the evil computer's bombs blow the planet apart.
How imaginative.
CHARACTERS
This is extra annoying, since these two writers invented him, but K-9 is really used poorly in this story. For the majority of it, he's restrained on the Minyans' ship as they need him as a power source. The rest of the time, he's a glorified messenger("Hey Doc, come back to the ship, we're blasting off in twenty minutes!!"). It wouldn't hurt so bad except that I don't think we've had a really good K-9 story yet, where he's actually part of the team instead of set decoration and occasional oneliner dispenser.
Yet another discount actor! This time around, James Maxwell does a near-perfect impersonation of our favourite Zen master, Bernard Horsfall. As such, he is easily my favourite part of this story.
Alan Lake's Herrick is... extremely macho, but also somehow likable. He's constantly fuming and yelling and acting like a moron, but in a funny sort of way.
I sort of like the slave Leela bonds with, but he's no Cordo for sure.
The rest are all meh. Even the mad computer made little impact. Her realising her failure before her death was cool.
NOTES
*The Doctor trying to wave the "gas"(CG effect) away with his scarf looks hilarious.
*The CSO really is bad. At least in the Pertwee era, they made sure not to show people's legs so the background was somewhat plausible. Here, though... wow. It's bad.
*I love how in the no-gravity elevator, the Doctor's scarf just limply falls off Tom Baker's shoulder. He tries putting it back again, but we all saw it.
*What the hell is the Episode 3 cliffhanger? The Doctor and Leela hide in a mine cart, the old man pushing them falls over and suddenly they're dumped into the machine??
*I like that Jackson didn't turn against the Doctor in the end, when he delayed and then brought the Minyans aboard. It's a refreshing change to see a guy not be too obsessed.
*What exactly does the Fourth Doctor paint? Roundels? Leela? Clocks? An abstract representation of his scaredy cat feelings underneath all that bluster and bravado? Davros?
*I adore the sofa the Minyans have on the main deck of their ship.
*Nice to see Leela appreciate K-9 more.
BEST QUOTE
"You're just another machine with megalomania, hah, another insane object! Another self-aggrandizing artifact! You're nothing! Nothing but a mass of superheated junk with delusions of grandeur!"
CONCLUSION
The review is the review.
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