Episode #265 : Under The Lake / Before The Flood

"Listen to me. We all have to face death eventually, be it ours or someone else's."

Episode #265:      Under The Lake / Before The Flood.

Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:             3rd to 10th October 2015.

Arriving on an underwater base under attack, it's up to the Twelfth Doctor and Clara to save the frightened crew. But also onboard is an alien spaceship, and the base is being haunted by the most impossible of things. The Doctor's deepest beliefs are challenged when he encounters something he cannot explain. Can it really be possible? Can ghosts be real?

With this adventure we are back to having a cool new horror themed episode. I have said for a long time that although Doctor Who is a great science fiction show, it is the quality of it's horror stories specifically that really work for me. With Under The Lake we have a story of a crew of scientist types trapped by ghosts of their deceased co-workers. Stuck in the base with them, the Doctor and Clara must find out why the dead have risen, what they actually are and solve the problem without causing a paradox. 

This adventure is very well written and thought out. The writer, Toby Writhouse, did great here. There is a lot of information to relate to the viewer and he manages it perfectly without being boring or dragging it out. The suspenseful, dare I even say spooky, atmosphere is conveyed brilliantly as well.

The ultimate villain, the Fisher King, harkens back to the days of classic Who in my opinion. His look and scheme scream classic one off Doctor Who monster. Think of the Terrileptils for instance. They are monster suits that look the part of what we expect from the show's classic days. It gets a big thumbs up from me for this and shows that classic style stories and villainious types can have a part in the modern day of New Who.

Speaking of the classic days of Doctor Who, Under The Lake is the sort of story that would have worked great back then and could have done well as a four or five part serial. It is a shame that so much of New Who is one off stories with very few multi-part episodes. We get two parters and maybe three at most. I'd like a season to take the old format of four or five stories but with four of five parts again. I think it is all change because modern audiences don't have the staying power to watch something like that these days sadly.

Under The Lake is one of the great Capaldi episodes and I do recommend it as one to watch, if not as an introduction to new viewers. It doesn't bog you down with the background of the universe but does enthral the viewer and does a great job if introducing the characters. Well worth a watch.

Episode #225: The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People

"I've got to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose! ... I never thought I'd have to say that again!"

Episode #225:      The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              21st to 28th May 2011.

The Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams visit an acid-mining factory. A solar storm hits the factory, turning the workers' gangers into self-aware individuals. The Doctor must mediate between the original workers and their rebellious gangers.

The basic premise of the adventure is that the TARDIS lands on Earth in the 22nd century, some time before the Dalek invasion I would guess or maybe a few decades after. Humans now use a living material called the Flesh to work in hazardous conditions. When a solar storm and a few other calamities strike the Flesh come to life and decide that they will no longer be slaves. From there it takes on a nice horror feel with some unnatural flesh warping and form shifting.

When I first watched this two part story I was not all that impressed. It seemed like a very dull story that only had my interest because of a slight horror vibe. Watching them for the second time in preparation for this review I actually enjoyed the episodes a lot more. I still don't think they are that great but mainly because it feels like too much has been pushed into the story and it is padded out far too much.

Ultimately the story is simply one of differences and overcoming them. Nothing new to science fiction and I think is why the story doesn't really work for me. It is a troupe that has been done to death in almost every modern science fiction show since Star Trek first aired. I like something a little more well thought out and emotional. It is also another one that exists simply to set up the following adventure.

Episode #107 : Nightmare of Eden

Romana : "I don't think we should interfere."

The Doctor : "Interfere! Of course we should interfere. Always do what you're best at, that's what I say."

Episode 107:    Nightmare of Eden.
Companions:    4th Doctor, K9 and Romana.
Air Date:         Four episodes. 24th November to 17th December 1979.

The TARDIS arrives on the space liner Empress which has become locked together with a private ship, the Hecate, after colliding with it on emerging from hyperspace. The Doctor and Romana meet the scientist Tryst, who has with him a Continuous Event Transmuter (CET) machine containing crystals on which are stored supposed recordings of planets that he and his team have visited. Someone on board the liner is smuggling the dangerously addictive drug vraxoin, and to complicate matters the interface between the two ships allows some monstrous Mandrels from the mud-swamps of Eden to escape from the CET machine - which does not merely take recordings but actually displaces whole planetary areas into its crystals.

Nightmare of Eden is based on the concept of what drugs and drug trafficking may be like in the future. For that it gets bonus points as such a concept probably wasn't as common place on the televisions of the 1970's as it may be now. Quite a bold move really. In this instance the story starts of with an investigation of a space crash, the presence of a drug found and then that the drug runners have found a whole new source for the outlawed drug and they are smuggling it in a way that makes it impossible to be detected.

The alien Mandrels are very much men in suits. Not a lot of effort was out into them by the look of things. In the past the series has shown some excellent costumes and alien appearances so it is sad to see how badly production values have lowered since the days of Jon Pertwee.

Not a bad adventure for our time travellers and certainly a cleverly thought out plot. If the production values were better it could have been so much more.

Episode #60 : Day of the Daleks

"There are many sorts of ghosts, Jo. Ghosts from the past, and ghosts from the future."

Episode 60:    Day of the Daleks.
Companions: The 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 1st to 22nd January 1972.

Freedom fighters from the future attempt to thwart a Dalek invasion by coming back in time to assassinate a delegate at the second World Peace Conference.

After a lengthy absence, the Daleks have returned to the show. It's a shame that it isn't a great story. The concept is fine and it starts off well but bleeds out the further in you go. The story deals with a temporal paradox where the death of numerous world leaders in a single moment sparks the third world war, and leads to the Daleks being able to take over the weakened peoples of Earth. A group of freedom fighters accidentally cause the paradox by being the ones who come back to the kill one of the delegates before he can cause the war. Hence a paradox of their own making.

As for the Dalek element of the story, it isn't made too clear but it would appear that these events in the alternate future time line replace the Dalek invasion that the 1st Doctor stopped. Already it seems that time can be rewritten.

The story also introduces the Ogrons, a servant race who only make a couple further appearances. How and why they are working for the Daleks is not really explained. After all, we know that the Daleks want to eradicate any life that isn't Dalek so why have they enslaved (or hired) them as soldiers? Doesn't make much sense to me.

This story also features one of the very few times that we see the Doctor actively using a firearm to kill an adversary, as he shoots Ogrons when they try to stop him.

Sadly, this is one story that could easily be overlooked. Bringing the Daleks back is a good move, but the story works out weak and just not very good.

Episode #10 : The Dalek Invasion of Earth

"One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine."

 



Episode 10:    The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.
Air Date:        Six episodes. 21st November to 26th December 1964.

The TARDIS returns to London; however it's the 22nd century. With bodies in the river, and quiet in the docklands, the city is a very different place. The Daleks have invaded and it's up to the Doctor to thwart them once again.

Here we have the return of the Daleks and this time they have invaded and defeated the Earth. Their plan is to core out the planet, insert an engine of some kind and pilot it about the galaxy. Just where are they doing the nessecary mining for this? Bedfordshire. Since I live on the Bedfordshire border I find this rather amusing.

The story itself isn't a bad one and has enough pacing to keep the viewer interested. Since the characters get split up almost immediately you get a lot of scenes in different places across London, the countryside and at the mine site. All of which prevents the monotony of a lengthy story run.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth also sees the first time that we lose a companion. In this case, Susan. I would love to know the reasoning behind it at the BBC because I can't think of any reason for doing so. Shame too though because Susan is one of the characters I quite like from the early days of the show and now with Doctor Who in its modern incarnation I keep hoping that they will bring her back. She has reappeared once in The Five Doctors, but I would really like to see her make an appearence and perhaps be a companion again for a while.

This story was also turned into a cinematic movie as a sequal to Doctor Who and the Daleks, both films starring Peter Cushing. As with the first film adaptation I think the movie does a much better job of carrying the story than a six part serial manages.

On the DVD release of this story there is a rather cool option to either watch it with the original special effects or with new CGI that replaces the old style Dalek saucers with the design from the current series of the show.