Classic Who day by day

[OmahaStar]

Well, you wont find me defending this one.. though the Target novelisation is a bit better than the tv serial.

Such a shame that Leela's final story was a) a bit crap, and b) had her falling for a dork like Andred, who she had just met and had known for all of 5 minutes...

There is precedent, though ... Susan and Jo both left for someone they met in their final story. Beyond that ... *sigh* ... Seems like every time we visit Gallifrey, there's the Sash of Rassilon, and the Handbag of Rassilon, and the Nose Hairs of Rassilon, it's like they try to top themselves with just how silly it can get. If I remember right, sometime during the McCoy era, there's the Arm of Rassilon. When they get to body parts, it's weird.

 

[Bones2]

Let's not forget the Seal of Rassilon...

 

[OmahaStar]

^ Snort! lol




The Invasion of Time 3

Now that they have been introduced, the Doctor lets everyone leave. Leela and Rhodan argue briefly, til the guard - Andred - comes in and flirts with Leela.

The two women leave the city, hiding from the rest of the guards, where they encounter a "new" tribe.

The guard, Andred, stirs up resistance.

The Doctor goes to his Tardis, connects K9 to the Matrix. Andred follows him, points his gun, and tells him he's sentenced to death as a traitor.

* * *

First, the "new" tribe aren't really new. They are other Gallifreyans who have given up technology and decided to live off the land, simply.

Second, there was an absolutely hilarious line from an old guy ... "I'm sorry I'm so slow. I'm in my tenth regeneration." I don't know about you, but the current Doctor doesn't appear to be slow to me. And he's in his tenth regeneration.

And the Doctor is utterly off his rocker. He keeps talking to these tin-foil covered aliens, whatever the heck they are.

It's not a perfect story, not even close. But it has its tiny moments.

 

[Captain Pike]

If I remember right, sometime during the McCoy era, there's the Arm of Rassilon. When they get to body parts, it's weird.

The Hand of Omega?

 

[Starkers]

And the Doctor is utterly off his rocker. He keeps talking to these tin-foil covered aliens, whatever the heck they are.

It's not a perfect story, not even close. But it has its tiny moments.

The Vardens (I think) you can tell the tin foil stuff looked like a grrovy idea on paper...in reality however...

At least it is explained why they're a bit crap.

 

[OmahaStar]

If I remember right, sometime during the McCoy era, there's the Arm of Rassilon. When they get to body parts, it's weird.

The Hand of Omega?

Right, that.



The Invasion of Time 4

K9 stuns Andred. He leaves Andred inside while he goes out to find all of Andred's people have been shot by the other guards.

Castellon and the others have submitted to the aliens, and are following their every order.

Leela and her new tribe prepare to take on the city.

K9 tells the Doctor the aliens are Vardans. Together, they send them back to their planet using a time loop. Leela and her new friends, who have invaded the city, witness the whole thing. Everything is going well ... except the Sontarans have used the lowered shields as an excuse to invade Gallifrey.

* * *

War Games went on for a full 10 episodes. So why does THIS story seem to drag on for much longer? They both contain revelations about Gallifrey and have the Doctor on his homeworld.

The Vardans are gone now. Bye bye, tin foil.

 

[OmahaStar]

The Invasion of Time 5 & 6

The Sontaran - using his best "Christian Bale as Batman" voice skips around, bullying everyone in the room. Borusa helps them escape, but Castillon stays behind, sniveling and basically being an ass.

Lots of running. The Doctor, Leela, Andred, Borusa, and Rhodan go back to the Tardis.

They tie his Tardis into the planet's shields, but since Castillon has betrayed them, he's able to take the shields down. This sends the Tardis into a black star.

Batman-Sontaran enters the Tardis with Castillon. The others walk around inside, as Borusa hides in a comfortable lounge chair.

The Sontarans and Castillon get bored (just like the audience?) and start to chase the others, during which the Doctor channels Cousin Itt to mock and confuse one of the Sontarans.

The Doctor kills one Sontaran with a gun (yes, of Rassilon), then runs off and kills the other one too. As soon as he does, he forgets the whole adventure and is acting like himself again.

Leela and K9 stay behind with Andred. But it's ok. He already has K9 version 2 waiting in a box, hidden inside the Tardis, as we see.

* * *

I can't really describe how awful this production is. I'm sure they set out to make a great production, but what we got was a sorry excuse for Doctor Who, and that's saying something.

As with Susan and Jo, Leela takes off with a man she met in this story, and we never hear from her again (not counting the multi-Doctor reunions), which is too bad, because she was an interesting character.

Seeing the Doctor walking around with an enormous gun was just wrong on every level. He's not a pacifist, but he is anti-gun to the extreme, so this was yet another part that was completely out of character. Were Graham Williams and Anthony Reed familiar with the show when they wrote this story? I'm not sure.

Next up, I'm going back in time a bit ... They've now released Masque of Mandraga, and since it's from the same Doctor I'm currently watching, I'll sneak it in there, Monday through Thursday. I'm taking Friday off, and Saturday will be the K9 and Sarah Jane spin-off pilot "A Girl's Best Friend" ... Starting next Monday, The Key to Time begins.

 

[Captain Pike]

You have my condolences. Almost nothing can prepare you for the awfulness that is K9 & Company.

However, Masque of Mandragora is quite good (though a 6th Doctor fan's mileage may vary)..

 

[OmahaStar]

If I can handle Timelash, I can handle anything from this series.

 

[Captain Pike]

Timelash is redeemable - Paul Darrow's overacting puts me in stitches everytime I watch it.

 

[Bones2]

Yeah, I was gonna say, Timelash isn't absolutely awful. I watched it the other day.

 

[OmahaStar]

The Masque of Mandragora 1
Written by Louise Marks
Directed by Rodney Bennett

The Doctor takes Sarah on a tour of different places inside the Tardis. We finally get the introduction of the "secondary control room" which is all wood-paneled and sort of resembles what might be a room on a sailing ship of olden times. He turns on a scanner and sees something he calls the "Mandragora Helix."

Then we cut to some place that looks like it's the 1500s, where a not very old man has died. People gather so they can take pot-shots at one another. One of them has been making accurate predictions, including the exact time of the man's death.

The Tardis materializes and the pair go exploring. Hooded people kidnap Sarah and knock the Doctor out. Almost immediately, a big ball of red light exits the Tardis. Every time it touches something, whether grass or human or metal, it explodes.

Sarah is set to be a human sacrifice.

The Doctor is taken to another castle and interrogated by a fortune teller type guy, then sentenced to death. The next day, he's brought out to the executioner ...

* * *

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. Sarah Jane Smith is, by far, the most popular companion of the classic series, and the Fourth Doctor is the most popular of the original seven. It makes sense that 2 Entertain and the BBC would put out the good stuff first, and now that those stories are out, they'd put out ... well, the garbage.

I'd already been warned by a few people about how bad this story was. But I didn't think it was bad at all. Ok, cheesy ... and the scene where all the guys are standing around mocking one another could have come straight from a Desperate Housewives script, but once I look past that, it's a fun little episode. We do something here that they STILL haven't done in the modern series - explore inside the Tardis.

I've seen other stories set in this season (Hand of Fear, for example) and just took it for granted that they changed sets for the control room. Here, we finally see it happening.

Considering that this was the next-to-last story for the character, I wish they had done something other than having Sarah get kidnapped ... At times, she is a bit too much like Gabrielle in the first two seasons of Xena ... Something happens, she gets kidnapped, and our hero (and sometimes guest stars) rescue her and they all live happily ever after.

It's something they've grown out of in the modern series (and in her own spin-off series), thankfully.

The cliffhanger ending here was one heck of an ending. I can just imagine the kids hiding behind the sofa, knowing that the next part wouldn't come for another week, and the Doctor is in mortal peril under the executioner's blade.
​

 

[Captain Pike]

There is some nice acting in this one, particularly from the old seer and the evil Count.

There was a Sarah Jane Adventures I've seen recently which was about an astrologer hit by some kind of cosmic energy, who then wields all kind of powers.

Both the theme of the episode and the general 'look' of the energy ball made me think of this story. Does anyone know if the SJA story is meant to be some kind of sequel? Was that Mandragora energy in SJA ? Maybe I am just connecting dots that aren't there..

 

[Bones2]

From what I've heard, there was a SJA story that was intended to be a sequel, but was changed so it wasn't for some reason. I don't really know the details; I've not bothered watching most of SJA.

 

[Captain Pike]

From what I've heard, there was a SJA story that was intended to be a sequel, but was changed so it wasn't for some reason. I don't really know the details; I've not bothered watching most of SJA.

Ah yes, looking into it now I see that's the one. Just read this over at Doctor Who Wiki -

SJA: Secrets of the Stars was originally going to use the Mandragora Helix. However, it was decided that "Mandragora had to change too much, and was too easily defeated, in order to fit this plot" and the Ancient Lights were created instead. Russell T Davies has said he likes to think both entities are "distant cousins". (DWM: Special Edition - Sarah Jane Smith)

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Considering that this was the next-to-last story for the character, I wish they had done something other than having Sarah get kidnapped ... At times, she is a bit too much like Gabrielle in the first two seasons of Xena ... Something happens, she gets kidnapped, and our hero (and sometimes guest stars) rescue her and they all live happily ever after.

Ah, but that was a significant evolution for Doctor Who. As you've probably noticed, the third Doctor usually got kidnapped or imprisoned with his companion.

 

[OmahaStar]

Considering that this was the next-to-last story for the character, I wish they had done something other than having Sarah get kidnapped ... At times, she is a bit too much like Gabrielle in the first two seasons of Xena ... Something happens, she gets kidnapped, and our hero (and sometimes guest stars) rescue her and they all live happily ever after.

Ah, but that was a significant evolution for Doctor Who. As you've probably noticed, the third Doctor usually got kidnapped or imprisoned with his companion.

lmao ... you are so right.



The Masque of Mandragora 2

The Doctor runs away. And they just let him. Sarah Jane is brought to her sacrifice, but the Doctor grabs her and whisks her away, just as the Helix shows up.

The Helix talks to the fortune teller and he goes mad with power.

The Doctor and Sarah meet up with the Duke, Juliano (the son of the man who died in the first episode), who feeds them.

Soldiers attack Juliano, Sarah is re-captured, and the Doctor is nowhere to be found.

* * *

Don't ask me how a glowing red ball can talk. There isn't much going on here, it's sort of a place-holder, with the characters ending up basically right where they started.

 

[Captain Pike]

Renaissance Italy brought to life.. The BBC always do period plays particularly well, and this is no exception. Great location shooting and superb costumes help create the rich historical feel of this story.

A superficial lack of action may turn some off, but scratch the surface.. The superb performances and rich dialogue betray the true nature of this story as a character driven piece.

Gotta say, I love the Faustian parralell that Hieronymous was drawn with, and the Mysticism vs Science theme which yields perhaps my favourite piece of dialogue -

(immediately after the Doctor's manner turns from playful to deadly serious and he utters the very cool 'Because Count, you don't have a future unless you listen to me' or words to that effect)

Hieronymous: "What does it signify when Venus is in opposition to Saturn and a great shadow passes over the Moon?"
Doctor: "Well, it depends, doesn't it?"
Heironymous: "On what?"
Doctor: "On whether the moon is made of cheese, on whether the cock crows three times before dawn, and 12 hens lay addled eggs."
Heironymous: "What school of philosophy is this?"
Doctor: "I can easily teach him. All it requires is a colourful imagination and a glib tongue."

Robert Holmes could really turn a phrase. Hard to believe he was reluctant to do this (as he was with (pseudo) historicals).

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

"The Masque of Mandragora" is also notable for arguably introducing the first gay couple in the show's history.

 

[Captain Pike]

Sure, if you wanna interpret the "I will have sport with your body" line in that particular way...

ETA: About 10 min after I wrote that I realised you were probably referring to Prince Giuliano & Marco..

In which case, sure you could argue that. There is nothing explicitly stated though - you could make the same argument about many onscreen friendships.