Four To Doomsday (1982) Review

Everybody was kung fu fighting...

Four To Doomsday gives a great first impression as a new, refreshing take on an old formula, but sadly peters out into lame nonsense.

WRITTEN BY

Terence Dudley, who directed Meglos last season. I hope he can improve on future scripts.

PLOT

On its way to Heathrow airpot, the TARDIS goes off course and lands on a spaceship approaching Earth, where the crew encounter a race of people who benevolently wish to "help" humanity by turning them into robots.

ANALYSIS

What sucked me into the episode was the politeness of the bad guys. Instead of the usual corridor sprinting and action sequences, the crew are welcomed aboard the ship and treated as guests, slowly uncovering Monarch's evil plan through deduction and exploration. And even after that, they're not really his enemies, but more like nuisances that he is considering whether or not to swat away.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS crew deal with their own inner conflicts. Whilst it's true that their arguments give the show a soap opera aspect, and that Davison is really the only notable actor amongst the regulars, it's an interesting new development for me and somehow, I feel far more excited to see the next Davison stories(and learning about the rocky behind the scenes melodrama) than I ever was to see another cosy, safe Tom Baker adventure. 

Besides, I've never minded the soap opera thing. Fans often complain that RTD's era feels like a soap opera... well, if that means character drama, then why not? It adds depth to the show. 

Where Four To Doomsday went wrong, however, was that it made no sense. The only answer we get for any of the bizarre things we see on the ship is that "Monarch is crazy". Hence, androids built out of various representatives of human history, some of whom have conscious thought, and daily repetitive dances based on their cultures played out in some kind of cargo hold. 
It's just... weird. 

And as a result, it became more and more absurd as time went on. By the time the crew overthrew Monarch by having all the androids dance at the same time, I had completely given up taking this seriously. What a shame.

CHARACTERS

Peter Davison's proper debut as the Fifth Doctor is pretty great! He has a somewhat timid, innocent nature that hides the inner fire("Now listen to me, you young idiot...") that makes for a truly different kind of approach for playing the character. Previous incarnations of the Doctor have all been outspoken, self-absorbed and somewhat melancholy in their own unique ways, but Davison redefines him with the mindset of an uncertain young man trying to do his best with his insecurities. 
(Which is probably because Davison was an uncertain young man trying to do his best)

The problem is that he's burdened with three increasingly crap companions. Adric has randomly turned a misogynistic, cynical arse. Although, I can actually explain why I'm not bothered by his betrayal of the Doctor in this story. 
You see, the guy comes from an isolated community where everyone knows everyone, so he's never really been lied to. In his adventures with the Doctor, the only true villain he's encountered is the Master. So, you can't really blame him for finding the Monarch a genuine good guy. 
So yes, whilst Adric does make us slap our heads, you can't really blame him for his choices. What you CAN blame him for is how unlikable he is about it, even going so far as to wrestle Tegan for the TARDIS key!! Not to mention that his sexism is truly legendary.

Speaking of Tegan, once again, she makes sense in concept, but is awfully executed: unlike most companions, she is happy to be down-to-Earth and it's not like the Doctor provides her with a constant, what with him switching into a completely different person overnight. 
However, Tegan seemed pretty swell with all of that in the previous story. As I pointed out, she had a perfect oppurtunity at the beginning of Castrovalva to ditch the crew, but did not. So her breakdown in this story and her attempt to take the TARDIS away herself seem like an enormous overreaction. 

The only good thing about Tegan in this story is the Doctor's priceless reaction when he learns of what she did. 

And finally, we have Nyssa. Nyssa is still boring as hell, but I'm very slightly warming up to her as she and the Fifth Doctor seem to be building a nice, gentle rapport. 

Of the guest cast, the standout is Stratford Johns as the Monarch, a fine villain with a cordial, egotistical personality, forcing the crew to tread carefully around him. In some ways, he reminded me of Colonel von Strom from the classic "Allo Allo" sitcom.

There's not much to say about his ministers, Persuasion and Enlightenment(except that their names are a bit silly), though I like Persuasion's cool, refined attitude.

As for the androids, I was quite fond of Philip Locke's wise Greek philosopher Bigon and Burt Kwouk's dignified Lin Futu was quite fun once he sided with the Doctor(which happened a bit too fast for my liking), but the other two representatives were mostly ignored. I get that it would've been hard to involve Kurkutji, since he didn't speak English, but the princess Villagra(insert your own joke here) never even got a word in!

NOTES

*The CSO in the outer space scenes looks surprisingly bad for a production that aimed to look better than the show's past. 

*The Doctor fangirling over the technical equipment was hilarious. 

*Why does Adric say that the Doctor can't go very far from the equipment room, when there's a staircase to the right...? Did the TARDIS scanner miss it?

*And soon, Tegan is complaining that the Doctor "might be in trouble!" even though he's wandering outside the box in full sight of the scanner! What's going on here?!?

*Has nobody explained to Tegan that the TARDIS is a time machine, so she wouldn't whine about losing her job because she's late? 

*I think Adric was meant to come across innocent here, but he sounds hilariously sarcastic as he suggests Tegan read a math book to pass the time.

*One thing that slightly bothers me about Davison is that he frequently sounds like he's incredibly nervous, even in scenes where he's meant to come across as a confident lead.

*The Doctor suggests that the magnetic density of Monarch's ship caused the TARDIS to go off course. Now, this does sort of have a precedent... in a story made almost twenty years earlier, The Web Planet... but that story has an excuse for magnets affecting the time and space ship: it was made before proper rules were established. Now, it just seems ridiculous. 

*The Monarch's spaceship looks like it was built by NASA. 

*Continuing with the vegetarian theme, the crew are offered lunch based purely on plantlife. And worse, they're not even allowed to finish it! 

*What's up with the TARDIS not translating the Australian aborigine language and what's up with Tegan talking Australian aborigine?

*I find it VERY unlikely that none of the companions even question the Doctor's decision to accept Monarch's invitation aboard the spaceship until much later. Even Jo or Sarah Jane would have, and they're legitimately the Doctor's friends(something that I can't really say about any of the people he's ended up travelling with these days). And even worse, later Nyssa just agrees to be sedated by the Urbankans without any argument!

*Why does Tegan not accept the Urbankans' ability to change appereances whatsoever to the point of calling it insane, when she just saw the Doctor regenerate recently?

*A constant in this story is all sorts of lessons about cybernetics and photosynthesis etc, harkening back to the very first season where Ian and Barbara would often explain basic concepts to the kids.

*Speaking of which, how does Adric not know what photosynthesis is?? He grew up amongst scientists in an outdoors community!

*Persuasion's green velvet suit(based on Tegan's drawings of 1980s fashion) looks FABULOUS. 

*If the Urbankans have no culture, why do they wear so intricate costumes?

*When Bigon reveals his android nature, the CSO effect on his chest looks really nice actually. However, it's awful when used on the face as well(because unlike the chest, which is a costume, he can't just remove his face so it looks like it just disappears when he takes the mask off. The Android Invasion did the same thing much better.

*I'm not sure, but I think this might be the first time we've actually seen the Doctor give someone a TARDIS key, in this case to Tegan.

*Why would the Monarch think that using the TARDIS crew as his ambassadors would actually work? He's been on Earth like five times already and still doesn't guess how people would react to four strangers claiming that aliens are coming(three of whom actually ARE aliens)?

*If Bigon knows that Lin Futu supports the Monarch, why on Earth does he talk about betraying him with the Doctor out loud in Futu's laboratory when he's present?!

*At one point, Bigon reveals that as punishment for attempting to overcome Monarch, he was locked in one of the drawers with the other Urbankans for 100 years. My question is: was he even awake all this time? If his neural circuit was merely removed, it's not much of a punishment, since he couldn't think and if it was, well... does that mean the Urbankans have also been awake and alone all this time?

*I love how the Doctor sweetly compliments Nyssa for her escape attempt. "It was quite brilliant, Nyssa." Aww.

*How daft are the Urbankans that they don't listen in on what the crew are discussing in private during the dancing sequences, especially after they've already tried to disrupt the Monarch's work??

*If the Monarch notices that something is wrong with the camera footage when they use the magnifying glass on the monopticons, what's the point?

*Tegan's entire story arc is one big bag of filler. It would've been a two-parter without her taking the TARDIS outside the spaceship.

*The Monarch doesn't question the androids leaving the cargo room and dancing all the way to the robotisation room(full of expensive equipment, I would presume)?

*Adric's victory dance after the Doctor gets into the TARDIS is amazing.

*Why doesn't the Doctor need a spacesuit for his helmet to work?? Doesn't all the air fly out from the gaps?

*Why do the androids not want to go and explore 20th century Earth?? What are the four sentient ones going to do on another planet, take control of the Urbankans?? Also, their grinning at each other at the end is super creepy.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) The Doctor describes the equipment in the Monarch's ship as "amazing work, worthy of Gallifrey".

2) Tegan's desire to return home as soon as possible was established in Logopolis.

3) Tegan and Nyssa mention how the Master killed their relatives.

4) Adric describes an avocado as a small "river fruit", a reference to what he had to steal in Full Circle.

5) When meeting the Monarch, the Doctor mentions each of his crew's species by name.

6) Adric describes the Master to the Monarch as the Doctor's arch enemy(all this talk of the Master goes nowhere, by the way).

7) Monarch, Persuasion and Enlightenment discuss the "galactic legend of Rassilon, he who founded the Eye Of Harmony". Both were established in The Deadly Assassin.

8) Adric tells the Monarch how the Doctor has two hearts and can go into a trance that suspends life functions, something he's done before in Terror Of The Zygons and Castrovalva and possibly other stories too.

9) For the first time in a long while, we hear that the TARDIS stands for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space".

BEST QUOTE

MONARCH: "You interfered with my monopticons!"
DOCTOR: *deadpan* "I wouldn't dream of interfering with your monopticons."

CONSLUSION

Certainly an interesting story with a lot going for it, but it toppled.