"SURVIVAL"
I watched this twice to be sure, plus it's a very entertaining one.
Wish I watched this season in production order as there is a running theme, but they work in aired order too.
As always, Sophie and Sylvester mesh perfectly and, indeed, Sylvester's "anger acting" is never better than here.
This posits a new type of danger to Doctor and companion. Not quite the same thing as spectrox toxemia, but once you're infected it's stuck with you and have to fight it. Forever. Almost like a drug addiction and/or herpes, innit?
The Master was never this subtle before- almost to counter the times he had to be over the top and near-caricature (his best stories are in the middle), but Antony Ainley steals the show and delivers an impeccable sense of menace.
Ange's asking Ace "Is he...?" about the Doctor is refreshingly open-ended; the most obvious and boring inference regarding that question followed with a phrase like "a nutter", rather than "gay" or "your love interest" or "the local encyclopedia salesman" as they were a thingy back then. But people can think into it any way they want. Or even multiple choice, complete with the option of "other" at the end of the list of choices.
The incidental music continues the award-winning streak.
Ace's friends - it's nice to see Ace's family, the more you think about it, and especially considering this was originally going to air just before "Ghost Light", it's actually nice that Ace gets a reprieve from all the nastiness bestowed by the Doctor in previous stories and now he's helping her. This new airing order seems to be a bit better. It's a very 80s thing, along with "counselors" in every school, to force someone to
re-live the past trauma, and so on.
Midge in particular is wearing an earring that's another little secret and his brusqueness also hides a secret, but Ace and her pals probably all have similar emotional undercurrents. Ditto for the Karra/Ace scenes were hinting at lesbian subtext. It's metaphor, but it's smartly and tactfully done and not the dilettante "in yer face" sort that accomplishes nothing.
Apparently, they taped this in 100-degree weather. How the actors could withstand those outfits... the documentary reveals one person had not...
The story's recursive theme woven throughout involving "the law of the jungle" is rather astute, with many sharp moments both supporting the idea... and mocking it as well and that's when the story truly shines. Now look up nature shows and read how some animals help each other. This story loosely hints at a greater complexity, or I'm reading into it too much. It's all good.
The story has some (unintentionally) camp moments, but the production taking itself seriously loosens the blow just enough to not be drawn out of the story and what it is is telling.
The novelization goes to town on how vicious the Kitlings truly were.
On the other hand, at least we get to see Midge, now contaminated by the planet and slowly becoming one of them, be brutal...
What's more brutal is the pathetic reuse of the already-dumb shtick where Midge is mouthing what the Master tells him and nobody around him wonders why this stranger is talking to himself like that.
Apparently, the Doctor can just about knock people out by pressing his index finger against the middle of their forehead. Okey dokey then.
"A rising tide lifts all boats" prevailing, the Doctor and Ace are stuck in a bad situation, arguably worse than on Androzani. Part two's cliffhanger is especially poignant. Part three has the Doctor doing his best to help and remind Ace not to succumb.
Karra turns out to be a former human, turned into a Cheetah, but reverts upon death in a way that most Cheetahs had not when they died... The Karra/Ace scenes were probably the best in the story, one loaded with lots of great moments.
The making-of documentary shows the playground and buildings now covered in graffiti. Remember kids, Yellow Kangs aren't the best. Or they were. It depends on your point of view.
The Doctor also uses his newly acquired power to bring himself home when defending himself from the Master's attack as well. As with Ace, he's got it. Emphasis was given to her in how she shouldn't use it or else it would get worse and be permanent, but apparently the Doctor was able to fend it off for good - due to comparatively limited exposure. This power in general is allegorical, of course, in many ways, and the theme of surviving with it would probably have been stronger had this story had a fourth episode.
I'm amazed Midge's group of newly-made followers didn't trample over his corpse. Might have been too gruesome... in a story where Midge uses a former giant mammal's talon to murder a Cheetah in the chest with.
I could go on all day with all the little set-pieces and permutations... this story impressively handles a lot.
The "Cheetah People" (not the best name but McCoy's era is loaded with such uncreative terminology that led to complaints by many at the time, but I digress) aren't really explained. They just vanish to go meow on some other planet after the one they were on. What is explained is that these beings are a direct part of the planet in a symbiotic relationship. The planet was destroying itself due to their violence they commit, as stated per characters' dialogue in the story, since without that any old theory could be chucked at, and there seemed to be a point for making this connection to begin with, until the end whimsically flings it away - any point being flung out with it. Just so we can go "awwwww" because they cheetah folk, some of whom were transmogrified from former prey and others naturally that way, are able to play and continue kidnapping beings from across the cosmos to use as dinner... It's all arguably too open-ended and woolly in the end, but they're stuck with only three episodes to play with. Most of McCoy-era stories needed 5 or 6 episodes to smooth out the edges.
An easy 8/10 from me, maybe 9.
