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
Showing posts with label Omega. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Omega. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Monday, 26 January 2009
The Three Doctors
Doctor Who managed to overcome the problem of how to survive after the lead actor left with immense creativity. Yet there must have still been some who missed Patrick Troughton and some (many of whom were now adults) who still remembered William Hartnell fondly. Both groups wondered what ‘their’ Doctor would have made of their successors and the start of the tenth season gave these fans what they had been hoping for. It is this aspect of the story that must be looked at first. There is a plot, but the plot is not the point of this story. There is a guest cast, but only two of them really matter. This is about fondly looking at the past, about younger siblings bonding with their older ones, of parents watching a programme with their children for exactly the same reason.
From the second he materialises, Patrick Troughton plays the Doctor like he’d never been away. Whatever the quality of the story (and he was in quite a few stinkers) Troughton was never less than excellent as the Doctor. His interpretation of the Doctor as someone who acted the fool in order to get his enemies to underestimate him makes an interesting contrast with the more diplomatic, yet confrontational Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee. The interaction between the two of them is utterly fantastic and is enough to make this story worth watching on its own. Then, of course, there is William Hartnell. One thing I have come to realise in this little project of mine is that the Hartnell era was the best, one of the many reasons for which being Hartnell’s consistently outstanding performance. Unfortunately, Hartnell’s declining health led to him having a very restricted role in the story. The fact that his performance is still thoroughly convincing despite the fact that he was reading from cue cards is testament to the great skill of the actor. Even in such a limited capacity, it is truly joyous seeing William Hartnell as Doctor Who for the last time.
The script by Bob Baker and Dave Martin is very interesting. The Time Lords are having their power drained into a universe of anti-matter. The culprit is discovered to be Omega, a stellar engineer who created the immense power source needed to fuel time travel, but trapping himself in a black hole in the process. The only option for the Time Lords is to pit the three Doctors against Omega, and the denizens of the anti-matter universe that he has created. Baker/Martin scripts usually demand a great deal on the production side and one can imagine what Cardiff today could do with anti-matter creatures, black holes and singularities and the like. It is, therefore, remarkable that the visualisation of Omega and his world is (although far from ideal) capable of suspending our disbelief. The Gel-Guards are, of course, utterly rubbish, with their ridiculous appearance and the ridiculous ‘blobby-blobby’ noises they make. However, although the sets are a bit garish, they are reasonably effective. The realisation of the singularity as a column of smoke works well- we are in Omega’s world and can accept such figurative realisations better. The success of the visual side is also helped by the fact that Lennie Mayne directs. Mayne never let the fact that he was working on a tiny budget in a television studio stop him from creating interesting shots and compositions. The one creative decision I find fault with is that we only see Hartnell on a TV screen by shooting the screen itself and we never see the actual footage shot of Hartnell on its own.
The regulars are on good form. Katy Manning seems to mesh well with Mayne’s directorial style and Benton is given much more to do than usual, which John Levene takes full advantage of. There has been much criticism of the treatment of the Brigadier’s character, but I found that to mainly refer to the scene where UNIT HQ is transported to Omega’s world. In the rest of the story, the Brig is resourceful and shows great humanity in the scene where they have to part with the Doctors. Stephen Thorne brings a great deal of energy into the role of Omega, together with some amount of pathos. His shouting is sometimes ineffective, though.
This story is hugely enjoyable throughout, well worth investing 100 minutes in!
NEXT: Carnival of Monsters
From the second he materialises, Patrick Troughton plays the Doctor like he’d never been away. Whatever the quality of the story (and he was in quite a few stinkers) Troughton was never less than excellent as the Doctor. His interpretation of the Doctor as someone who acted the fool in order to get his enemies to underestimate him makes an interesting contrast with the more diplomatic, yet confrontational Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee. The interaction between the two of them is utterly fantastic and is enough to make this story worth watching on its own. Then, of course, there is William Hartnell. One thing I have come to realise in this little project of mine is that the Hartnell era was the best, one of the many reasons for which being Hartnell’s consistently outstanding performance. Unfortunately, Hartnell’s declining health led to him having a very restricted role in the story. The fact that his performance is still thoroughly convincing despite the fact that he was reading from cue cards is testament to the great skill of the actor. Even in such a limited capacity, it is truly joyous seeing William Hartnell as Doctor Who for the last time.
The script by Bob Baker and Dave Martin is very interesting. The Time Lords are having their power drained into a universe of anti-matter. The culprit is discovered to be Omega, a stellar engineer who created the immense power source needed to fuel time travel, but trapping himself in a black hole in the process. The only option for the Time Lords is to pit the three Doctors against Omega, and the denizens of the anti-matter universe that he has created. Baker/Martin scripts usually demand a great deal on the production side and one can imagine what Cardiff today could do with anti-matter creatures, black holes and singularities and the like. It is, therefore, remarkable that the visualisation of Omega and his world is (although far from ideal) capable of suspending our disbelief. The Gel-Guards are, of course, utterly rubbish, with their ridiculous appearance and the ridiculous ‘blobby-blobby’ noises they make. However, although the sets are a bit garish, they are reasonably effective. The realisation of the singularity as a column of smoke works well- we are in Omega’s world and can accept such figurative realisations better. The success of the visual side is also helped by the fact that Lennie Mayne directs. Mayne never let the fact that he was working on a tiny budget in a television studio stop him from creating interesting shots and compositions. The one creative decision I find fault with is that we only see Hartnell on a TV screen by shooting the screen itself and we never see the actual footage shot of Hartnell on its own.
The regulars are on good form. Katy Manning seems to mesh well with Mayne’s directorial style and Benton is given much more to do than usual, which John Levene takes full advantage of. There has been much criticism of the treatment of the Brigadier’s character, but I found that to mainly refer to the scene where UNIT HQ is transported to Omega’s world. In the rest of the story, the Brig is resourceful and shows great humanity in the scene where they have to part with the Doctors. Stephen Thorne brings a great deal of energy into the role of Omega, together with some amount of pathos. His shouting is sometimes ineffective, though.
This story is hugely enjoyable throughout, well worth investing 100 minutes in!
NEXT: Carnival of Monsters
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