Meglos (1980) Review

"Doctor, we meet again at last. The circle is now complete..."

Meglos is an incoherent, poorly paced story that manages to rise above itself with some great gimmicks: namely doppelgangers, time loops and hilarious villains.

WRITTEN BY

John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch. This was their first script ever and also the only time they ever did work on Doctor Who. 

PLOT

Meglos, a sentient cactus-like lifeform, makes a deal with a band of pirates to steal the worshipped power source of the Tigellans, named the Dodecahedron. To do so, he takes on the appereance of their old friend the Doctor and traps the TARDIS inside an infinite time loop.

ANALYSIS

This story just gave me one constant feeling: that it has no idea what it's doing. Is it trying to be one of those age-old religion vs science stories? Is it a Robert Holmesian comedy with space pirates? Is it a doppelganger adventure? What's the point?

To its credit, Meglos does not sink under its confused premise and manages to be a pretty entertaining fare, at least when the Doctor and Romana are finally let out of the TARDIS(in the second half of Episode 2!!). Their whole time loop dilemma was the most blatant padding the show has ever done. It made no sense whatsoever. 
However, once they ARE out and tricking the pirates(Romana gets into a very similar situation as in The Creature From The Pit), it's a lot of fun, especially in the final episode. 

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker joins in on the ancient tradition of evil doppelgangers(see also: The Massacre and The Enemy Of The World) and of course, pulls it off marvellously. I wouldn't have minded a sitcom spin-off featuring Meglos and the pirates roaming the universe and getting up to all sorts of mischief. 

Lalla Ward doesn't have the best showing as Romana as the most that she does is again, lead pirates around in circles and carry K-9. 

Speaking of K-9, even though John Leeson's back(I already miss Brierley), it's clear that the character is in the process of being retired, with the poor tin dog now suffering from constant malfunctions. He hasn't really been involved in the story for a long time now. It's sadly becoming a bit of a cameo role. 

Jacqueline Hill's return to Doctor Who isn't anywhere near as good as it should've been. Like many have probably asked before me, why not just bring back Barbara? Still, at least she gets a religious leader role a la The Aztecs. Her death scene is just awful, though. It felt so unnecessary. A random Gaztak pirate gets up after being shot in battle and kills her. That's the whole scene. The other characters barely even bat an eyelid.

Meglos, the well-mannered cactus is pure genius. Not only does he have a wonderful double(triple?)-act with the pair of dumb pirates, but his plan to impersonate the Doctor, the most trusted hero of all is actually pretty impressive. Tom Baker plays him really well too(although he seems to become a bit bland when he meets the Doctor, maybe because Tom didn't have anyone to play against?)

The pirates were a fun pair, with one daft and one sort-of intelligent. I liked how the daft one was constantly after the Doctor's coat. I totally get you, bro!

NOTES

*How is Meglos able to trap the TARDIS in a time loop? And why does re-enacting the events in the loop(badly) break it?

*Considering that Lexa's people are opposed to treating their God from a scientific point of view, why do they call it the Dodecahedron? Does that sound mythological to you?? Oh well, alien planet I guess.

*The "Earthling" kind of reminded me of that monosyllabic hunter guy from The Three Doctors. Barely has any lines, but is somehow involved all the way through and ends by treating the whole thing as "whatever". At least they got a much better actor this time(he played Meglos too, during the scenes he wasn't played by Tom Baker). I didn't really understand why he was constantly able to break apart from Meglos-Doctor, though, as he was supposed to be Meglos' physical embodiment. Or something. 

*How did Meglos recreate the Doctor's outfit? He even gave it away later!

*The dafter pirate reminded me of Stephen Dillane(who famously portrays Stannis Baratheon on Game Of Thrones). 

*Apparently, Meglos was originally going to return in the Eleventh Doctor episode The Lodger. That would've been awesome.

*The scene where the Doctor is almost sacrificed was just weird. They want to crush him with a rock that is held up by three ropes that they burn in order. First of all, how often do they have to clean that rock from guts? Second of all, why burn perfectly alright ropes? Thirdly, how does the rock not hit him when two of the ropes have been burnt? And fourth, how does the Doctor survive for like a minute after they actually do begin to burn the third rope? There's no way that rock didn't hit him. 

*I just love hearing Jacqueline Hill say "Doctor" again.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

This is a new segment I specially waited until the 80s to use(but forgot to introduce in The Leisure Hive) in which we analyse how the story treats the show's lore and whether or not it feels shoehorned in.

In this case, the only notable continuity element is the return of Jacqueline Hill, who of course played the First Doctor's companion Barbara in the 60s. Since she doesn't play her old character, there's not much to say, but I REALLY wish they had put her to better use. 

BEST QUOTE

The Doctor: K-9, can you hear me?
K-9: Affirmative, mistress. 

CONCLUSION

A fun, throwaway adventure. Not exactly solid, but not too bad either.

Interestingly, the Doctor and Romana received a summons back to Gallifrey at the end of this story. Here we go again... it's been a while since we met the Time Lords.