This is a
classic Who mixed bag for me. On the one hand, the characterization is
pretty on-point throughout, with nice interactions and strong moments for
pretty much everyone. On the other, the
story is supremely silly and uses up more than its fair allotment of “hokey.”
The Third
Doctor and Jo visit Stangmoor Prison to see a demonstration of the Keller
Machine, a revolutionary invention that can purportedly change the mental state
of a convict and reform them completely.
However, the machine proves to be more than anyone bargained for, and
our heroes soon find themselves investigating mysterious deaths amid a prison
riot. Meanwhile, the Brigadier and UNIT
are facing strange goings-on running security for the World Peace Conference,
and despite what the Brigadier thinks, his problems may intertwine with what
the Doctor and Jo have found at Stangmoor.
We’ll get
this out of the way: the story is ridiculous. Know how I said the Keller Machine changes a
convict’s mental state (radically, by the way, effectively lobotomizing
them)? That’s not how the serial
describes it. The character playing an
actual expert in the story says that the machine “removes evil impulses” from
the criminals, and it turns out that he means that literally. Upon hearing this, the Doctor legit worries that they’ve now got a
machine full of “evil impulses,” and the expert (incorrectly) reassures him
that the machine is only half full of
evil. Seriously – that happens. What are farting aliens compared to that
goofiness?
There are
also some really silly hallucination sequences and some dubious Chinese
dialogue recitation from Jon Pertwee.
Plus, while I appreciate that the Master shows himself to be not quite
as smooth a criminal as he likes to think he is, series 8 on the whole goes
Master-crazy. I get the conceit – with
the Doctor stranded on Earth, the show either needs a different alien incursion
every serial or a reliable recurring villain who’s similary stuck – and Roger
Delgado is still my favorite Master, but the season just has too much of
him. So even though I think he’s used
reasonably well in this story, it doesn’t quite work in context of the whole
season.
But oh,
the characters, you guys. This might be Jo’s
best showing ever. She fakes out bad
guys, she wrestles away their guns, she hatches escape plans, she stays cool in
the face of danger, and she’s all-around lovely with the Doctor. I just love how tough and well-used she is
here, while still being entirely Jo. The Doctor has good interactions with
everyone; I like the frenemy angle he has going on with the Master, and he and
Jo are so sweet when they’re together.
Plus, dubious Chinese dialogue recitation aside, I love the scene where
he and the Brigadier visit the Chinese delegate. You can tell the Brigadier hates feeling so extraneous, just as you
can tell that the Doctor is totally aware of that fact and perfectly fine with
it. As a bonus, we get Captain Yates
being fairly cool and stalwart, and while Sergeant Benton’s appearance aligns a
bit with his “butt monkey of UNIT” characterization, he also goes out of his
way to make up for it by the end of the serial.
Way to go, Benton!
Overall,
it’s uneven, but as someone who pretty much always goes for character over
plot, it still mainly works for me. Jo
being awesome is enough to keep it squarely in my good graces, despite its
notable flaws.
No comments:
Post a Comment