The Two Doctors

The Colin Baker era was showing signs of recovering from its inauspicious start and the return of Robert Holmes should have confirmed this. Holmes's last offering, The Caves of Androzani is still a strong contender for the title of best Doctor Who story ever made, a wonderfully stylish distillation of the best of both 80s and 70s Doctor Who. What we have with The Two Doctors is more of a clash. There are signs of Holmes's brilliance- the Androgums are an alien race with a sense of culture and history, prime examples of Holmes creating worlds through words alone. There is some excellent dialogue and (when it is given a chance) good characterisation. However, the plot is poorly thought out and the pacing is a mess. The story is 'about' vegetarianism or, more precisely, in the cruelty to animals that carnivorousness engenders. Holmes was clearly happy writing a tale about Androgums coming to Earth to sample the local cuisine and it is here that his writing shines. However, he was lumbered with the longest story since 1978 and the inclusion of the Sontarans in the plot. The Sontarans serve virtually no story function other than to die messily, perhaps to punctuate the story with some action. The central plot thread of isolating a Time Lord's 'symbiotic nuclei' wouldn't be very compelling were it not for the fact that the Time Lord in question is the Second Doctor and the story itself discards this for a while (albeit with a rather entertaining tangent). Entertaining though some of these bits are, they are jumbled together with little grace.

Visually, the studio scenes have that infamous 'Sixth Doctor Look' and, unfortunately, we have Peter Moffat behind the camera. Moffat never understood the storytelling possibilities of the camera itself- apart from the oft-cited revelation of the Sontarans, he gives Shockeye a similarly uninspired introduction and totally fumbles the cucumber gag in episode one. Moffat's direction lacks any vision beyond 'point and shoot'- the best that I can say is that he is marginally better on film than on video. Despite some of the studio gaudiness, the production values are generally good. A notable failure is, unfortunately, the realisation of the Sontarans. The masks are much less effective than the ones used for The Invasion of Time and don't hold a candle to the Kevin Lindsay versions. The script makes the Sontarans look ridiculous anyway, but the (in)effect is further compounded by giving Stike a swagger stick.

As said, there are some good characters and they are brought to life by some fine performances. John Stratton attacks the role of Shockeye with relish and the scenes of him palling around with the Androgummed Second Doctor are wonderful. Oscar Botcherby is very entertaining, thanks to James Saxon's game performance. Dastari is, on the page, underwritten, but Lawrence Payne's performance is very appealing. In fact, if there's one performance I have a problem with it's Jacqueline Pearce as Chessene. It is a perfectly good performance, but she does not at any point convince us that she is an Androgum, something that John Stratton does, despite his skinny physique and ridiculous costume.

However, despite the Sontarans, Androgums and symbiotic nuclei, the main attraction of the story is still the final appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, accompanied by Frazer Hines. From the instant they appear on screen for the first time, Troughton and Hines are utterly mesmerising, their rapport undiminished from their heyday. It is a pity that Troughton is then missing for a large part of the story, but it is truly joyful to see him again. Frazer Hines had aged shockingly little since 1969 and he makes Jamie as appealing as he ever was- I love his repeated attempts to be kissed by all the ladies he meets. In addition, Colin Baker continues to be more likeable and skilful as the Doctor- his 'boiingg!' moment is both archetypally Doctorish and very Colin Baker. Nicola Bryant supports ably, as usual.

There is a problem with this story that has to be dealt with separately- the question of tone. This can be addressed by looking at one sequence. The very entertaining interplay between Shockeye and the Androgummed Second Doctor have led them to the restaurant where Oscar works. There is comic dialogue between Oscar and Shockeye, and the Androgummed Second Doctor and Shockeye eat a comically large portion. In response to a request for payment, Shockeye gives Oscar some alien currency ('nargs'). This is also reasonably amusing. Even later, Oscar (comically holding several narg notes) asks for proper payment- whereupon Shockeye stabs him in the guts. Not only is this unnecessary in story terms, it is totally undermined by giving Oscar a bitter-sweet comic death scene. Despite him having been stabbed in a place that would leave him in excruciating pain. Of all the complaints of violence in this era, in the whole programme, this is the most justified. There are other very nasty bits- Shockeye snapping a rat's neck and biting into it, Shockeye waving the severed leg of Stike around. In skilled hands, such playing around with moods could be interesting. But we are not in skilled hands.

Despite the plot and production problems, this is a reasonably entertaining story- but beware the aftertaste.

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