Warriors of the Deep

Warriors of the Deep saw the return of the Silurians and the Sea Devils to Doctor Who. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that Johnny Byrne wrote this story having never even seen the two Pertwee stories, but his script is reasonably good. The plot is reminiscent of the Troughton era monster stories, but Warriors of the Deep has the advantage of not having been broadcast between stories with exactly the same 'base-under-siege' plot. The very early introduction of the hexachromite gas makes the outcome extremely predictable and, indeed, the plot is a bit too straightforward. However, there are some nice concepts, such as the need to link to a human brain to launch nuclear missiles (Byrne is considerably more skilful in using technobabble than in the interminably dull Arc of Infinity) and there is some great dialogue for the regulars and, incidentally, the first fart gag in Doctor Who.

However, the story's visualisation is close to catastrophic. Pennant Roberts has never been the most skilful of directors, but his work here shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how to use visual images to tell a story. The Silurians are revealed by a simple cut, like they were a recurring adversary on Stingray. The camera work is incredibly lazy with any scene not requiring basic composition just being shot statically. This all comes to a head in the storming of the sea base. This takes up a good deal of the story, but, thanks to Roberts's ineptitude, what we get are lumbering Sea Devils moving against humans inching carefully backwards- not very exciting! The lighting has been criticised as being excessive, which is not quite the case- it is uniform and does not create atmosphere, as well as not conforming to expectations of what a sea base should look like. The realisation of the Silurians and Sea Devils are considerably less successful than the originals. They do not move their lips when speaking (which the originals did) and they move very slowly- a far cry from the fast moving Sea Devils of the Pertwee era. There is the nice touch of having blinking eyelids for Sauvix, but this is, incredibly, only utilised twice! Roberts has conversations between the reptiles take ages, with huge pauses between the speakers, almost as if it were a satellite link. Then there is the Myrka, one of the most pathetic looking monsters to ever appear in the programme. The sterile lighting only amplifies the problems in the realisation of the saurians. On the good side, although it is overlit, the set for the base is actually quite good and the music is wonderfully atmospheric. The production was rushed, by all accounts, but that does not excuse things like the Silurians' costumes not being fitted properly.

The guest performances are rather lacklustre, with some being downright dreadful. Ingrid Pitt has great screen presence, but she is not a very good actress, but Ian McCulloch as Nilson and Nitza Saul as Karina are far worse. Tom Adams is good as Vorshak, but he succumbs to Roberts's poor direction- Vorshak does not even react when he is shot. However, if there is one great thing about this story it is, again, Peter Davison. The Doctor is brilliantly characterised in the script, his handing over of his gun being a great touch and Davison attacks the part with gusto, giving one of his finest performances. Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson also work very well with the material they are given.

The end of the story is superlative- both the reptiles and the humans are dead and the Doctor, with a tremor in his voice, says 'There should have been another way'. This could easily be applied to the story as a whole, a story that could easily have been so much better.

NEXT: The Awakening

Arc of Infinity

For a Doctor Who story, or indeed any story, to succeed, it is essential to have a situation that the viewer will care about. If the Doctor is threatened, if a planet is in danger, we must feel that danger, understand the nature of the threat. I say this now because, while Arc of Infinity is, in every way, a better made piece of television than Time-Flight, it utterly fails to connect to me as a viewer. The threats to the Doctor are explained by using the most extreme barrage of technobabble that the programme has ever seen and it never ceases. This is a story that progresses entirely by constructing, deactivating or bypassing various contraptions, rather than anything involving actual ideas or characters. The adversary of the story is Omega, but his identity is revealed far too late in the story and only those who remembered The Three Doctors would be able to pick up on the mentions on anti-matter to guess the identity of the antagonist. The Amsterdam section of the story is very poorly integrated with the Gallifreyan section and shows a shocking lack of anything approaching invention or imagination.

Visually, the story is competent, but dull. The location filming in Amsterdam is so unimaginative that it could have been shot anywhere- Only Fools and Horses would shoot in the same location with far greater flair two years later. Gallifrey is realised as a kind of futuristic coffee shop. Ron Jones's direction is hardly memorable, but he can have hardly been galvanised by the material. The most disappointing thing of all is the Matrix, which is realised as a bunch of criss-crossed lines.

There are some excellent actors here, but most are wasted. Leonard Sachs makes a rather disappointing Borusa and Elspet Grey is given little to do. Michael Gough, however, refuses to be cowed by the blandness and plays his part with vigour. On Earth, the performances are less good, with Andrew Boxer coming off more as a talented amateur, rather than a professional. Peter Davison manages to be engaging throughout and Sarah Sutton fills the role of sole companion rather better than I would have expected- however it is good to see Janet Fielding back.

If the story has a success it is the eventual portrayal of Omega. He is not just a villain- he thanks Hedin for his help and is genuinely angry at his death. Ian Collier is pretty good in the role (a far cry from his previous appearance in The Time Monster). Omega's costume design is excellent and the Ergon, while it is hardly the best Doctor Who monster, is about a thousand times better than the Gel-Guards. The best thing of all is Davison's child-like performance as the reborn Omega, which gives the final 15 minutes of the story more drama, wonder and excitement than the rest of the story put together. It is far too little, far too late, though.

NEXT: Snakedance

The Keeper of Traken

It is fitting that Johnny Byrne, creator of the almost comically somniferous Heartbeat, should write this story, where the heady concepts of the rest of Season 18 are dialled back for a rather sedate tale. In fact, the pace is very different from any other Doctor Who story I have seen. The info-dumping about Traken and its main players is done rather beautifully by the Keeper using the TARDIS scanner to give a potted visual history. The story progresses naturally- indeed, if it wasn't for a major revelation, this would be a story with no surprises at all- the main plot is resolved a bit too simply for my liking. However, there is a great deal to commend this story. The plot is reasonably simple and Byrne's script is full of very stylised dialogue that never seems artificial and is often lyrical and contains good characterisation and makes Traken a believable world

This is helped by a gorgeous production- the sets and costumes are sublime and, while this is hardly the most dynamic story, it is directed with great style by John Black- indeed, the production most resembles the better of the BBC Complete Shakespeare plays that were broadcast in the 70s and 80s. There are also some truly great performances- however, it is a real pity that John Woodnut and Denis Carey disappear half-way through as they are two of the best performers. Sheila Ruskin is a bit odd as Kassia- her facial and vocal performance is fine, but her body language seems influenced by the worst excesses of silent movie acting. However, the best performance is that of Anthony Ainley. Even with the knowledge of Ainley's future in the programme, his performance as Tremas is thoroughly convincing.

This story, of course, is just as much about the return of an old adversary as it is about regime change on Traken. Geoffrey Beevers puts in a very entertaining performance as the Master that is eerily anticipatory of Ian McDiarmid's Emperor in Return of the Jedi (and beyond). The Master's scheme is foiled, but that just lulls us into a false sense of security that makes the shocking twist at the end all the more powerful. Tom Baker is excellent, being both light-hearted and contemptuous of overly legalistic behaviour. Matthew Waterhouse's performance is fine here- he seems to spark well off Tom Baker.

This is a very enjoyable story, a moment of balm to ease us into what is to come.

NEXT: Logopolis