The Sunmakers

The Doctor, Leela, and K9 arrive on Pluto and find that it is no longer a barren cold rock at the edge of the solar system, but it is warm and teeming with life. The entire human population of Earth has been moved and effectively enslaved to the all-powerful Company, and now they toil away under six articifial suns for mere pittance pay. To make it worse, the humans are suppressed with chemicals in the air to break their will, and they are taxed on everything imaginable as the Company attempts to recover its investment. The TARDIS crew fall in with the underground movement and set about starting a revolution against the Company and its evil paymaster, the Collector.

This one was fun. The satirical look at taxes and big business kept me giggling through the entire four episodes, especially the antics of the Collector's immediate underling, Gatherer Hade, as he attempts to get chummy with the Doctor and discover what his mission is on Pluto. The Doctor has no mission, of course, not until he discovers the scale of the oppression, and then he's right in there with the people to help them out. Leela gets off some good lines throughout, one of the best being her comment about seeing the place ankle deep in blood before she dies, but we get another glimpse into the reverence she holds for the Doctor when she proudly announces that he is a Time Lord.

The Collector is a new kind of alien villain for the show; cold and unfeeling, focussed only on his profit margins. His diminutative size coupled with his confinement to his wheelchair evokes thoughts of Davros, but without the megalomania. He just makes money. For the Company. And that is all. He doesn't even seem that content, putting some truth behind the saying that money can't buy happiness. The slightest dip in productivity upsets him, but not into a rage, more along the lines of a child who isn't getting his way.

Sunmakers has some interesting production values with a lot of gloomy dreary tunnels (I suspect it was the Underground in parts) and some very sterile white corridors on location. The studio sets for the Gatherer's and Collector's offices are interestingly realized with grand furniture in the foreground and simple black backdrops evoking a surrealist/minimalist.... thing. I liked it though.

I liked the whole thing. Where's this DVD? It would be a great addition to the 2006 release lineup.

NEXT EPISODE : UNDERWORLD