The Visitation

After three highly unusual stories, The Visitation looks like an oddity, simply because it is a straightforward ‘pseudo-historical’. The plot has a lot in common with The Time Warrior- an alien crashes in pre-industrial England and uses the local population as slave labour. The plot is very straightforward, but is half-baked in places- the Terileptils’ aims have clearly not been thought through by Eric Saward and there is a good deal of padding- a lot of it very entertaining, but blatant padding nonetheless. However, the script shows a quality not often associated with Saward: love. Saward clearly loved writing the character of Richard Mace and was clearly enjoying creating the Terileptils. Although their aims are unclear, Saward does a great job in giving the Terileptils a culture and a history, clearly because they existed as a fully formed race in Saward’s mind, rather than a stock alien menace. Saward portrays them as desperate criminals, rather than evil conquerors, which makes the interaction between the Terileptil leader and the Doctor interesting and the outcome unclear- will the Doctor talk them out of their plan? He doesn’t- in fact, the Doctor’s involvement in the outcome is not as great as it could have been.

The production is of a very high quality, with very effective period detail, as one expects from the BBC. The sets for the Terileptil ship are also very well done, although the ‘beautiful’ android is beautiful only in a gaudy 80s way, unfortunately. The Terileptils are very convincing, all things being considered. They are designed to be a cross between a man, a lizard and a fish which works very well. The fact that the voice is not treated in any way is startling and works well in this case, making the Terileptil a person as well as a monster. Even the gaffes in the Terileptil’s realisation work in its favour- occasionally Michael Melia’s chin can be seen inside the Terileptil’s mouth, but it actually looks like a tongue. Perhaps the biggest production drawback is the direction. Peter Moffat could make a scene visually interesting via editing- the wonderful opening scene is a great example- but he has no idea how to use the camera itself to tell a story- the first revelation of the Terileptil’s face is wrecked by Moffat’s shot choices and he is hopeless at directing fight scenes.

Of the guest performances, as said, there are only two real characters. Michael Melia gives the Terileptil leader dignity and menace and Michael Robbins is, predictably, wonderful as Mace. Of the regulars, Peter Davison continues to impress, as usual as does Janet Fielding. This is, unfortunately, not a story that plays to Matthew Waterhouse’s very few strengths- he is, frankly, bloody awful in parts. Happily, this is a good story for Sarah Sutton and Nyssa finally gets a bit of personality.

It won’t blow your mind or change your life, but The Visitation is great fun and well worth a punt.

NEXT: Black Orchid