The Seeds of Death

Will Earth ever learn that the moon is not a secure place to operate from? Nope. First it was putting world weather control on the moon and leaving it wide open to the evil plans of the Cybermen back in The Moonbase, but now the moon is the central relay point for the world's newest form of travel - the T-Mat. When operating properly, T-Mat can function as a matter transmitter and "beam" anything across the planet instantaneously, thereby getting food to areas that need it, and transporting people as well. Which is the perfect way for the Ice Warriors to invade after taking over the moonbase. Landing on Earth just after T-Mat breaks down, the Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie become involved in the efforts to save the planet from destruction, even crewing a rocket to make a journey to the moon to investigate the system breakdown. But the goals of the Ice Warriors do not end with occupying the moon, they intend to use T-Mat to send seed pods to Earth that will release spores into the atmosphere and create a fungus that will render Earth's atmosphere more like that of Mars, and make it perfect for invasion.

For a 6 part story, The Seeds of Death is very simple and thus the pace feels a bit slower at times than it does on shorter stories. There are a lot of hysterical sequences with the Doctor literally running about either being chased by the Ice Warriors or trying to evade the encroaching foam fungus, which are in effect just visual filler, but somehow can be forgiven when one sees Patrick Troughton's performance. The outer space effects that mark the opening of each episode with dramatic music and pans across the lunar surface are good as well for the time, continuing the theme of good model work that was seen in The Dominators and The Invasion. The added bonus with this story is the extra work that was put in by the restoration team to clean it up for its DVD release. The first time I saw it, the story was split up into two smaller "movies" on Channel 17 many years ago, and I noticed how the picture would change in degrees of fuzziness from episode to episode, but that is no longer an issue with the amount of work that was done to it.

Ah the Ice Warriors. Good to have them back, even if they're not exactly of the same calibre of Varga and his marooned crew from their debut story. The Ice Warrior commander, Slaar, is a different design from the rest, his body being more flexible and not as armoured as his warriors. He still has the characteristic hissing speech of the Martians, and roughly the same helmet design too. The rest of the Martians are of the same design as Varga and Zondal from The Ice Warriors, without any of the oversized bobble-head helmets used this time around (thankfully). Where Slaar is different as a leader than Varga is his detachment from his fellow Martians, being even colder (no pun) and ordering them to do his bidding while he bullies and terrorizes the staff of the moonbase. Varga, on the other hand, was a warrior class himself and probably felt more of a responsibility to his crew to get them back to Mars, and thus addressed them as equals, or as comrades, not just as grunts. Slaar's only equal would be the Grand Marshal, leader of the doomed invasion fleet, who looks almost the same aside from some disco glitter on his helmet. Overall I wouldn't say these are inferior Ice Warriors, just different; the nobility that was hinted at in their previous encounter is left on the side this time, seeing as they are not fighting for survival this time, but out for conquest. We see instead an alien hoarde lacking feelings, stoically going about their plans to take the planet for themselves. The disappointing thing there is they didn't necessarily need to be Ice Warriors for that; any group of galactic thugs would have worked.

With only two more stories left for the season, time for another short break from the televised adventures to look at some more stories in print, starting with the return of another alien hoarde last seen terrorizing a space station full of mystery fans...

NEXT EPISODE : THE FINAL SANCTION

The Krotons

The TARDIS lands on a barren planet that stinks of sulphur. And on this nameless planet live the Gonds, a simple people content to go about their days in their grey jumpsuit uniforms and obey the will of the Krotons; which is to go to school every day until they are smart enough to become companions of the Krotons and enter their "home". And never be seen again. The Krotons never come out of their home, which is a machine called the Dynatrope, but the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe discover that they do indeed come out the other side but as midless zombies, and then get blown away by gas jets as soon as they stumble outside. The truth of the Krotons' ambitions is made public and the Gonds revolt, but the Doctor and Zoe infiltrate the machine by passing a series of tests that proves they are smart enough to be useful, and they inadvertantly reactive the two crystalline Krotons who have been hibernating on board. It seems that only mental energy can help the Krotons but the Gonds are not smart enough to toast bread, so they have been patiently letting their machines teach them and accelerate their brains to a level that will be useful. And to keep them from getting dangerous, they are not told much of science, particularly of the effect that sulfuric acid has on crystalline forms. But then Doctor knows.

Not exactly a gem of it's time, but still entertaining, The Krotons has survived intact - all 4 episodes - and can be enjoyed on VHS. The quality between episodes is vast though, with episode 1 being almost broadcast quality and episode 2 looking like it's being watched through a foggy window, but when DVD time comes it's a forgone conclusion that the Restoration Team wizards will even things out and make it sparkle like new.

Are the Krotons scary? Not really. Okay they're big crytal chunks with claw hands and weapons that can blow things up, but they are not very mobile and once outside their Dynatrope need to be fed contstant instructions to see where they are going. They do have cool voices though. What is scary is the Gonds' total lack of willpower to question the Krotons and their demands to have their two brightest pupils join them in their machine. No, they're not the brightest of people and are even ready to attack the Doctor and company as soon as they arrive, fearing stranger like they do. Jamie gets a chance to scrap with one of the Gonds, but spends a lot more time in the adventure as a prisoner of the Krotons or being left behind by the Doctor and Zoe as they carry on. Fair dues, though, Jamie got a lot more to do in The Invasion than Zoe did.

How's about one more adventure, this time on DVD, then a few more books to extend the season? Oh good I knew you wouldn't object.

NEXT EPISODE : THE SEEDS OF DEATH

The Invasion

The TARDIS comes back together in space after the Land of Fiction is detroyed; the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves flung back into their own universe, orbiting Earth. Within seconds of their arrival the find a missile has been fired at the TARDIS from the dark side of the moon, and they make an emergency landing on Earth. In an attempt to get help to repair some damage to the TARDIS, the Doctor journeys to contact Professor Travers but finds instead that he has moved to America and left his home in the hands of Professor Watkins and his photographer neice Isobel. Watkins works for a company called International Electromatics, which is in turn run by Tobias Vaugham, a powerful businessman. IE are the Microsoft of their day, with their printed circuits in absolutely every piece of computer equipment in the world, and they are also being investigated by the newly formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) and it's new commander, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart. But there is more to IE than meets the eye, and Vaughan is revealed to be an ambitious traitor allied with the Cybermen in their newest attempt to invade Earth.

This is the fourth time the Doctor has confronted the Cybermen in this incarnation. And once more they have changed their appearance to look less like they were assembled in a hurry, and their voices are different as well. The CyberPlanner from the previous Cyberman story makes an appearance as well, as does the entire Cyberman invasion fleet. The Doctor does not have much in the way of direct confrontation with the Cybermen, just with Vaughan, who has been partially altered by the Cybermen and has a mechanised body like them, but his brain is still very much human, complete with greed and arrogance. Vaughan was played to incredible perfection by Kevin Stoney, who was last seen selling out the Solar System to the Daleks in the form of Mavic Chen in The Dalek Masterplan.

I can't say enough good things about this story. It was made as an 8 episode adventure but of course, some got lost, and we're missing episodes 1 and 4. The VHS release of the adventure has the missing episodes bridged by narration from Nicholas Courtney himself, the man who played the Brigadier and went on to be a fan favourite. The missing episode soundtracks are on CD as well, but as the bulk of the story is available to watch it's not like it suffers too much from their absence. The Cybermen do not actually appear until the end of episode 4, which makes for a lot of amospheric build-up in the meantime with creepy music and a lot of location work outside the imposing IE headquarters building in London. When the Cybermen finally do launch their invasion there are some amazing shots of the fleet in space, as well as the UNIT rocket attack to fend it off. And let's not forget the incredible location work, with the Cybermen throwing the covers off manholes and emerging from the sewers to march down the streets of London, and the steps of St Paul's cathedral. Fantastic stuff - oh to have been a child in 1969 to have seen this on televsion and be blown away by it.

The Invasion served extra purpose in establishing UNIT in the show's lore. After the Yeti invasion UNIT was put together with the specific aim to protect Earth from invasion from other worlds, and who better to run it than the Colonel who was on hand for the Yeti. Only promote him to Brigadier. So now the Doctor has an ally on Earth in modern times, and in a few more adventures he's going to need one.

But in the meantime...

NEXT EPISODE : THE KROTONS

The Mind Robber

To avoid the volcanic eruption on Dulkis, the Doctor makes a dangerous move and hops the TARDIS outside of time and space. It is just supposed to be a temporary measure until he can get the ship to work properly; he is edgy about the white void the TARDIS has materialized in as he knows well enough the powers of the beings who live outside time and space (remember the Toymaker?). But the powers outside the ship manage to lure Jamie and Zoe out, and eventually the ship itself is attacked and all three are stranded in the Land of Fiction. The Land is overseen by the Master of Fiction, and in their efforts to escape and not be turned into fictional characters themselves, the travellers encounter other characters from Earth literature and mythology. The Master of Fiction himself is from Earth and is to be replaced as the creative force behind the Land itself and the replacement he has in mind is none other than the Doctor himself.

In a break from tradition, Jay was on hand for this one and it wasn't the Cybermen for a change. I gave him the option for a Cyber story but no. *sigh* The joy of having a professional person watch this stuff is to see things from another end, while still suspending ones disbelief enough to talk about the story itself and other events that led to it. In episode 1, there is some odd mixing of the faces of Jamie and Zoe as they watch scenery roll by on the TARDIS scanner, which is something new for Doctor Who. "Where's the block of cheddar cheese to go with this?" Jay asked from his chair. Okay, not a techincal analysis, but still valid. Episode 1 itself is set in just the TARDIS and the white void outside; there are 5 episodes in all in The Mind Robber, all of which exist in their entirety on VHS (and in September they'll be on DVD) but episode 1 is merely 17 minutes long. The journey through the Land of Fiction takes up the remaining episodes, all of it studio bound except for Jamie escaping from a vicious wind up toy soldier up a rock face by using Rapunzel's hair. Perfect way for the camera to almost look up his kilt. "Ahhh come to Papa," Jay said again. Okay, he's right, Jamie is kinda hot. There are some other interesting effects in the show, most notably being the stop-motion animation of the snakes on the head of Medusa the Gorgon. After seeing the new series though with all its computer generated everything something like this looks like child's play, but for a television series in 1969, this would have been a lot more impressive than we would credit. And Medusa's attempts to make Zoe look at her and turn her to stone are actually quite chilling. Earlier in the story Jamie is attacked and turned into a statue, and a different actor, Hamish Wilson, plays him for an episode rather than Frazer Hines who reportedly had chicken pox. Or something. Clever way to work around it though; Jay and I had to give them credit for how it was engineered. I'm not going to tell you how, though.

Once the Doctor gets a handle on what is going on he sets about to battle against the Master of Fiction in a fight that will tear the Land apart, but when the Toymaker's realm was destroyed everyone was in danger of going down with it. How will everyone escape? (You know they do though).

NEXT EPISODE : THE INVASION

The Dominators

The TARDIS comes to the planet Dulkis, which as the name implies, is very dull. War and agression have been left by the wayside by the people of the planet, and a musuem on a radioactive test island serves as a warning to all of the dangers associated with weapons of mass destruction. These are all noble gains, but the planet is ripe for plundering by an advance party of Dominators and their small army of Quark robots; they intend to turn the entire world into a source of radioactive fuel for their war fleet, and the Dulcians are not willing to raise a hand against them to defend themselves. Luckily, though, the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are, and their influence ignites a dissident named Cully and a group of prisoners to fend for themselves, even if their leaders will not.

This is the start of season 6, and lo all 5 episodes of the story exist and are on a VHS release, even if the efforts of the Restoration Team have made this look muddy by comparison to their DVDs. The production crew go on location to a remote sandy area, or maybe it's a quarry, and blow a lot of things up in a big way, including a travel capsule, a building, and several Quarks Jamie gets to run around a lot being shot at and trying to keep his kilt from flying up as he goes, and Zoe becomes a fashion victim, forced to wear the nasty tutu-like clothing that the Dulcians wear. The Doctor's tendancy to clown around are played on fully as he attempts to convince the Dominators that he is not very smart and not a threat to them, which allows him to escape their notice and work against them in secret. The Dominators themselves are mean men, their outfits made to give them high shoulders and no real neck. Ruthless though they may be they do not get along, and the navigator, Rago, is always reigning in his probationer, Toba, for needlessly destroying everything in sight. The irony of course is that had Toba killed everyone he wanted to outright, their plan would be secure, but with the Doctor running free because Rago thinks he's harmless, things do not go their way at all.

The 5 episode format for this adventure leaves it feeling a bit slow in the pacing area, but it's hard to say exactly what could have stood to be edited to tighten it up. This season will be rife with new episode formats as the next story will also be 5 episodes, there will be one that is 8 episodes long, and the season finale is 10. I hear this and that when I discuss the show with people, and there is some talk that Patrick Troughton did not want to stay for a third season but he was convinced to by the BBC brass, and that this season was the show's first close call with cancellation. As the majority of Troughton's work in the show has been lost this is also the season where one finally gets to know the second Doctor, right before he is about to leave (shades of what just happened in the 2005 season).

The Dominators also brings back the direct link to the next story, something we hadn't seen since the Hartnell days. As the island on Dulkis erupts, the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe run for the TARDIS, where their problems are only just beginning...

NEXT EPISODE : THE MIND ROBBER

The Wheel in Space

After leaving Victoria, the Doctor and Jamie find themselves in trouble as the TARDIS breaks down in space. The Doctor averts disaster by removing the time vector generator from the ship while it repairs itself, and he and Jamie find themselves on a rocket in deep space. The rocket has drifted towards one of Earth's outer defence stations, where a crew of scientists are constantly on guard against meteor showers that threaten the solar system. Once on board, though, the Doctor and Jamie discover Cybermats have infested the Wheel, and the Cybermen are not too far behind in another attempt to invade the Earth.

Again, another 6 part adventure but with a very simple plot. And not that many Cybermen, really; an advance party of two is all it takes to get the Cybermats into action and begin the subversion of order on the Wheel by taking control of the minds of the technicians. The advance party are in contact with their new leader, the Cyber Planner, which is not even a Cyberman but a brain in the middle of a mechanical apparatus - another example of the evolution of the Cybermen. The Cybermen themselves have changed again since their last appearance in Tomb of the Cybermen, their heads are redesigned and their hands still have only three fingers but they are more mechanical looking. A new sort of Cyberman war cruiser is seen in episode 6 as well. This makes the third time the second Doctor encounters them, and the fourth in the series as a whole; their appearance rate is something like twice a season now, which is something even the Daleks never had. Perhaps with Terry Nation having taken away his creations the big push was on to create a new menace in their place, and they do quite well.

A new companion named Zoe Herriot joins the TARDIS crew at the end of the adventure after helping deal with the Cybermen. Zoe is a computer programmer and analyst but somewhere in her training a bit of her humanity has been repressed. She is not completely without emotions like the Cybermen themselves, but she does have a tendancy to spit out the facts regardless of how disturbing the people around her may find them. By her own admission she does want to feel things and experience emotions, and attempting to stow away on board the TARDIS seems like just the ticket. Jamie immediately forms a bond with her based on teasing her when her knowledge does not cover everything she encounters, and she in turn is condescending towards him when his own lack of smarts gets him in trouble. The Doctor is patient with Zoe when she rambles about logic, teling her that logic is just a way to be wrong with authority, but he takes her along willingly at the end, perhaps seeing the real person within trying to get out. And to brace her for what is to come, he re-tells the events of The Evil of the Daleks, which would be the first ever rerun on BBC 1 of Doctor Who.

The Wheel in Space is another of the incomplete stories, with episodes 3 and 6 restored on the Lost in Time DVD collection. The rest makes for entertaining audio on a BBC Radio Collection CD, but this time the narration is provided by Wendy Padbury, who played Zoe herself.

With the TARDIS crew back up to capacity, season five closes, and mere weeks away would be the start of season six, and a series of events that would drag a lot of the Doctor's past out into the open...

NEXT EPISODE : THE DOMINATORS

Fury from the Deep

The place is somewhere along the coast of England. The TARDIS makes an unusual arrival and materializes over the sea, then lands on top of it and stays afloat, and the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria row themselves ashore to find a natural gas processing station in some peril. Production suffering, there are unexplained pressure issues, and the Doctor detects a rhythmic sound within the pipelines. A malignant creature made of seaweed has started to infiltrate the base and take over the minds and bodies of the staff, with the apparant intention of spreading across the world eventually. Victoria finds herself questioning why she is always subjected to such terrors as she has been since she met the Doctor and Jamie, and finds herself faced with a wrenching decision to make: to continue on as she is, or to try and make herself a new home in a strange time.

There's not much to really say about the plot of the story even if it is a 6 part adventure (none of which exists intact, just a few clips including a REALLY scary bit) but the tension and horror keeps it going the whole way. The seaweed is identified as the bad guy relatively early, and it is next to impossible to stop as it floods through the base with creeping tendrils and masses of sea foam. There are the usual detractors in the cast who refuse to believe that seaweed is the cause of the trouble, even after it attacks them, but everyone is convinced soon enough. I enjoyed this adventure while travelling home on the VIA train from Windsor a few days ago, and caught a few bemused looks from the guy sitting next to me as Victoria's screams leaked out through the earphones.

Yes, Victoria screams. A lot. She screams in almost every episode of her career. I've not made a big deal of it before seeing as she's a sheltered Earth girl from the Victorian age and of course she is going to scream whern something monsterous makes a garb for her. It makes sense. It's not the same as having dear Susan with her "I'm an alien and I'm so much smarter than you" demeanour caving in and screaming her fool head off every few minutes. And shrill as they are, it's her screams that eventually save the day, as the weed creature cannot handle loud soundwaves.

Her departure is a huge choice for her as I said already. She can't go on being frightened every day; the strain is getting to her, proving that space and time travel are not for everyone the Doctor chooses to come along with him. Jamie is still content to enjoy the spirit of adventure, but he has alrady seen two other companions before him simply grow tired of the constant barrage of aliens and the exhaustion that comes with travelling in the TARDIS. Victoria's final choice to stay on Earth in a contemporary time (I'm going to just assume Fury from the Deep is actually set in 1968) is what's best for her for now, and it tears Jamie right up, perhaps showing that he had some kind of affection for her that went beyond simply teasing her like he would a kid sister. The Doctor has seen this sort of thing before and does give Victoria time to think it over properly and maybe reconsider, but when her stand is firm, he wishes her well and lets her go. Jamie sulks, and the Doctor almost indignantly shouts at him that he was fond of her too, perhaps a bit of the ache of seeing another friend leave him starting to show through.

Jamie and the Doctor leave in the TARDIS, their destiny somewhere in the stars. On Earth Victoria will live her life and grow as a person, but her time with the Doctor has changed her and shown her a darkness that will haunt her for years until she is faced with an old danger and no Doctor to help her this time. But that is in the future. For now, the Doctor and Jamie have their own problems to worry about...

NEXT EPISODE : THE WHEEL IN SPACE

Combat Rock

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria to a distant planet with a ghoulish past based on tribal warfare and cannibalism. Such days are long gone, though, and the planet has been conquered by the equivalent of Christian missionaries to raise the savages and make them better people. And then there are the tourists, come to take pictures of the indiginous tribes and partake of the local customs, and the local prostitutes. Rumour of a resurgance of the cannibal ways prompts the Doctor to investigate, dragging Jamie and Victoria and a couple of local whores along with him to an island steeped in evil. Somewhere else nearby, a group of elite troops (called the Dogs) are methodically moving through the jungles killing everyone they encounter, from tribesmen, lost tourists, and the occasional hooker, at the behest of the non-elected president of the planet.

Jamie cavorting with hookers. Victoria being scared and bullied again. The hookers fighting with each other like it's an episode of COPS. And the Dogs all characteriszed to be such individuals that they become mere charicatures of crazed mercenary killers, especially the nasty leader, Pan, and his misogynistic ways. Oh and what would it be without one of the killers being a haughty bisexual named Pretty Boy, who wears leather and lace and is consumed with his own appearance. The Doctor is portrayed at the extremes of his character, spending more time cowering and acting afraid than thinking and acting. And why oh why does author Mick Lewis figure he will be one of the special writers to tackles Jamie's Scottish accent and actually hook himself on phonetics for the novel? Granted it is not as overwhelming as the novelization for Trainspotting (parts of which I had to read three times before I got the gist of what was being said) but why bother? Jamie's accent in the series is not as gutteral as Lewis presents it on page, and there are few other authors who attempt to use it to distinguish Jamie from otehr characters.

The big problem with this book is excessiveness. Excessive gore. Excessive use of the minor shades of our regular characters, with Victoria throwing her dignity all over the place in a manner she rarely does on screen. And once we add the whole cannibal aspect and the brutal slayings... it's just too much. Even the parallels between the Indoni people and the British conquest of India back in the days of the Empire are just too blatant to miss, but no, we have to have Victoria herself, a product of that age, remind us again and again about it. Overkill, Mr Lewis, just like his first effort into the series, Rags. Which also suffered from the same problems.

Let's return to the televised series now. And pray Mick Lewis doesn't write another book, or, worse, write a script for the next season of the televised series.

NEXT EPISODE : FURY FROM THE DEEP