The Ambassadors of Death
The world waits on pins and needles as Mars Probe 7 makes a silent return from its mission to survey the red planet that is our neighbour. The astronauts on board have made no contact with Earth, and the manned capsule Recovery 7 is sent to meet them. With UNIT handling security, the Doctor and Liz are soon involved in a conspiracy to abduct three radiation-dependent alien ambassadors sent to Earth on a supposed mission of goodwill, but soon the ambassadors are rampaging about on a killing spree. The Doctor and the Brigadier find their investigations hampered by an unco-operative minister and the devious General Carrington of Space Security, Liz is kidnapped and forced to work for the conspirators, and the aliens threaten to destroy Earth if their ambassadors are not returned.
7 episodes of this, with the emphasis being on intregue and deception for the bulk of it. I remember when I first saw this episode on Channel 17 back in 1985, my grade 9 math teacher, Mr John Westlake, commented that the older Pertwees seemed more like murder mysteries than the sci fi romps we had enjoyed before. Still, at that time I hadn't seen anything older than this, so I didn't have the evolutionary perspective of the previous 6 seasons to look back on. Now, it is quite a different matter. Okay, the sci fi alien adventures are being a bit toned down in response to the Doctor's exile, and there can't be a massive invasion attempt week after week; everything would be played out a bit quieter, especially with UNIT there to stop threats before they got out of control. Of course there is the question then of what Space Security is needed for if there is UNIT. Is England's space program in this continuity that big?
And when I found out the manned mission to Mars was threatened, my first instinct, even in 1985, was that there were Ice Warriors on the horizon. But no. They're not. For the most part the aliens stay in the suits of the abducted astronauts and we only see their faces once; they look like they are rotting before our eyes. But continuity is not threatened here; the ambassadors never claim to actually be from Mars themselves, and may have been there themselves to contact the Ice Wariors, and finding them extinct or hibernating, they made attempted contact with humans instead. In a novel called The Dying Days the events of this story will be referenced as the eighth Doctor tries to stave off a real Martian invasion.
The Ambassadors of Death comes across as a very stylish piece of work all told. Episode one immediately establishes the air of tension at space control with the nervousness of the staff on display, contrasted with the placid calm tones of a live reporter speaking to the public on television. Such reporting would probably be the sort of thing to cause panic and public hysteria in its day, but it would seem right at home in today's world with the scaremongering of CNN. The action picks up as the UNIT men take on an armed group of thugs in a warehouse and get their butts kicked in an embarassing way. Later on in the show, the action comes back in a high speed chase as Liz tries to outrun her kidnappers first in Bessie, and then on foot over a dam. And through this all there is the musical score, which is distinctive enough to be joked about amongst fans but still be effective. The chase/fight scores are punctuated by percussion, the sequences involving the alien ambassadors making their way across the countryside in their slow plodding way is almost the stuff of dream sequences. The only bit of music I am not keen on is the outer space score from Recovery 7's initial link up with Mars Probe 7; it feels like something one would heard standing on the entry ramp to Space Mountain at Disneyworld in Florida. The opening of each episode was changed slightly, with the Doctor Who logo shown, a recap of the previous episode, and then a quick cut back to the adventure's title and the episode number before resuming the action. The closing titles were done as a complete musical piece as opposed to the fading out of the music in episodes previous; the episode ended with the famous "sting" and the credits closed to what is now knows as the "space sound", both elements that are found in the current version of the theme arrangement by Murray Gold.
Again, the lack of complete colour episodes in the BBC archive makes this VHS release ground for some experimentation; episode 1 was retained in its complete colour format and where off-air colour copies existed segments of the other 6 episodes were merged and colourized as with the previous story. The result is the colour fades up and down from and to black and white, but not in a jarring way. I hardly noticed the colour had gone at some points as I was too busy following the action on the screen.
Perhaps I should have asked Mr Westlake to join me for this one. I would like to know what he thinks. But next time, it's Jay and I once more, and he's even reserved our regular table at the local McDonald's for our intermission ...
NEXT EPISODE : INFERNO
7 episodes of this, with the emphasis being on intregue and deception for the bulk of it. I remember when I first saw this episode on Channel 17 back in 1985, my grade 9 math teacher, Mr John Westlake, commented that the older Pertwees seemed more like murder mysteries than the sci fi romps we had enjoyed before. Still, at that time I hadn't seen anything older than this, so I didn't have the evolutionary perspective of the previous 6 seasons to look back on. Now, it is quite a different matter. Okay, the sci fi alien adventures are being a bit toned down in response to the Doctor's exile, and there can't be a massive invasion attempt week after week; everything would be played out a bit quieter, especially with UNIT there to stop threats before they got out of control. Of course there is the question then of what Space Security is needed for if there is UNIT. Is England's space program in this continuity that big?
And when I found out the manned mission to Mars was threatened, my first instinct, even in 1985, was that there were Ice Warriors on the horizon. But no. They're not. For the most part the aliens stay in the suits of the abducted astronauts and we only see their faces once; they look like they are rotting before our eyes. But continuity is not threatened here; the ambassadors never claim to actually be from Mars themselves, and may have been there themselves to contact the Ice Wariors, and finding them extinct or hibernating, they made attempted contact with humans instead. In a novel called The Dying Days the events of this story will be referenced as the eighth Doctor tries to stave off a real Martian invasion.
The Ambassadors of Death comes across as a very stylish piece of work all told. Episode one immediately establishes the air of tension at space control with the nervousness of the staff on display, contrasted with the placid calm tones of a live reporter speaking to the public on television. Such reporting would probably be the sort of thing to cause panic and public hysteria in its day, but it would seem right at home in today's world with the scaremongering of CNN. The action picks up as the UNIT men take on an armed group of thugs in a warehouse and get their butts kicked in an embarassing way. Later on in the show, the action comes back in a high speed chase as Liz tries to outrun her kidnappers first in Bessie, and then on foot over a dam. And through this all there is the musical score, which is distinctive enough to be joked about amongst fans but still be effective. The chase/fight scores are punctuated by percussion, the sequences involving the alien ambassadors making their way across the countryside in their slow plodding way is almost the stuff of dream sequences. The only bit of music I am not keen on is the outer space score from Recovery 7's initial link up with Mars Probe 7; it feels like something one would heard standing on the entry ramp to Space Mountain at Disneyworld in Florida. The opening of each episode was changed slightly, with the Doctor Who logo shown, a recap of the previous episode, and then a quick cut back to the adventure's title and the episode number before resuming the action. The closing titles were done as a complete musical piece as opposed to the fading out of the music in episodes previous; the episode ended with the famous "sting" and the credits closed to what is now knows as the "space sound", both elements that are found in the current version of the theme arrangement by Murray Gold.
Again, the lack of complete colour episodes in the BBC archive makes this VHS release ground for some experimentation; episode 1 was retained in its complete colour format and where off-air colour copies existed segments of the other 6 episodes were merged and colourized as with the previous story. The result is the colour fades up and down from and to black and white, but not in a jarring way. I hardly noticed the colour had gone at some points as I was too busy following the action on the screen.
Perhaps I should have asked Mr Westlake to join me for this one. I would like to know what he thinks. But next time, it's Jay and I once more, and he's even reserved our regular table at the local McDonald's for our intermission ...
NEXT EPISODE : INFERNO
Labels: Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, Liz Shaw, The 3rd Doctor, UNIT
posted by Sean Hoover @ 1:26 PM
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