Monday 18 March 2024

What's Wrong With... The Horns of Nimon


For many, it's the worst story of the worst season. In a number of polls, it has been the lowest rated story of the Tom Baker era.
Something has to hold that dubious distinction - so why The Horns of Nimon..?

Arriving just before Christmas, and looking like a pantomime (sets, costumes and performances) certainly didn't help.
The usually reliable Graham Crowden (the Fourth Doctor in an alternate universe - he turned the part down due to the publicity side of things) hams things up really badly. 
He later claimed that he didn't realise that his death scene was the take that was going to be used, thinking it would get a retake.
Another problem which isn't the story's fault is its placement as the series conclusion. It ought to have been the cheap and disposable filler story - the one where whatever money's left in the kitty has been reserved for the six-part one.
That was indeed the case - except that Shada then got cancelled due to industrial action.

The story itself is perfectly fine. It's simply the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in an outer space setting after all.
After Robert Holmes' obsession with horror movies, Anthony Read had looked to literature for his inspirations, and he'd already commissioned a version of Jason and the Argonauts (another cheap penultimate story).
The realisation of the VFX is mixed. The explosion of the Power Complex is good, but the model spaceships are once again video-taped in the studio instead of being filmed properly on the model stage.
The ships are so flatly lit that the Classical Studies joke about painting Seth's white at the end fails to work.
According to Read, the Complex was supposed to look more like a huge circuit board from above, and the walls were supposed to move like switches. This couldn't be realised in the available time in studio - so we simply have stagehands moving flats about off-screen.

The young Anethan hostages somehow mange to pull off doing nothing at all, and overacting badly, simultaneously.
Like the Krotons before them the Nimon have fantastic voices, but naff costumes. Dancers were hired - but couldn't do very much thanks to their stacked platform-soled boots. It was made in the 1970's after all  - if only just.
The Co-Pilot (another usually reliable actor who thinks he's doing pre-school children's television this week) has the most famous wardrobe malfunction in the history of the programme. Not only does he split his trousers at the bum in Part Two, but we get to see him do it all over again in Part Three because it happens at the cliff-hanger.
The first episode provides us with the dreadfully unfunny "Bloodnok's Stomach" sound effects in the TARDIS - except it isn't actually the iconic Goons sound effect at all, just similar.
The whole cricket ball / asteroid business is just silly.

It's really obvious that Tom Baker is being indulged throughout, and Graham Williams has given up on trying to rein him in. His resignation is already accepted, and he's coasting towards his departure.
The biggest tragedy of all is that this was the final story of Williams' tenure to be broadcast, and it's the last time we got to enjoy a distinctive Dudley Simpson incidental score.
The final outing for the 1967 arrangement of Delia Derbyshire's theme, and the 1975 "tunnel" opening sequence. The diamond logo will be back, but not until 2023.

Sunday 17 March 2024

Episode 109: The Return


Synopsis:
The Doctor and his companions have found themselves back on the Ark - but it is clear that they have travelled 700 years into the future as Dodo points out how the statue is now finished. Intended as an image of a human being, it now has the head of a Monoid...
The space vessel is now fully automated. Examining the controls the Doctor accesses the internal security cameras and they witness a human being working as a servant to a Monoid, with others labouring in a kitchen area.
A trio of the reptilian creatures approaches and they are taken to see their leader - Monoid One. The aliens are now able to talk, making use of artificial voice-boxes attached to numbered bands around their shoulders. They are also armed with lethal heat weapons, which can also be used to injure.
The Doctor is horrified to hear that, after they had left the Ark 700 years ago, the after-effects of Dodo's cold had a long-term impact. The Monoids became stronger, whilst the Guardians weakened.
Providing them with technological help to develop their speech devices, the humans were unaware that this was also being used to create the heat weapons.
The complacent Guardians were unprepared when the Monoids staged a revolt against what they saw as their oppressors, and took over.
The Ark is now entering the orbit of its final destination - Refusis II. 
The TARDIS crew are despatched to the kitchens, which are a maximum security area. They learn from Dassuk and Venussa that some despised humans have privileged positions as servants to the Monoids.
Monoid One and his deputies, Two and Three, discuss their plan to make Refusis a Monoid world only. The humans are to be wiped out.
Concerned about what may face them on the planet, they decide to send down a scout party, led by Monoid Two. This will comprise the Doctor and Dodo, and one of their subservient humans - a man named Yendom.
The group arrives on the surface of Refusis using one of the Ark's launcher pods. They discover the new world to be forested, and soon spot a large palatial building.
There is no other sign of life, however. Suspecting that the Refusians are hiding from them, the arrogant Monoid Two starts making threats. 
They then discover that the natives of this planet are really immensely powerful disembodied beings who have lost their physical forms.
Back on the Ark, Monoid One informs Three that a bomb has been planted, which will be detonated as soon as their people have evacuated to Refusis. This conversation is overheard by One's personal servant Maharis. He goes to the kitchen and informs Dassuk and Venussa. They and Steven begin plotting a means of escape.
The invisible Refusian does not like what he hears about the situation on the Ark, and of the aggression of the Monoids. The exodus must be halted, at least for the present.
When Yendom learns that no human is to be allowed to settle on the planet, he rebels and is killed by Two. The creature then enters the launcher to radio a report to his superior.
Before he can do so, the Refusian obliterates the craft, killing its occupant.
Observing the wreckage, Dodo fears that they may now be stranded on this planet, and the Doctor is forced to agree...
Next episode: The Bomb

Data:
Written by: Paul Erickson & Lesley Scott
Recorded: Friday 4th March 1966 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 19th March 1966
Ratings: 6.2 million / AI 51
Designer: Barry Newbery
Director: Michael Imison
Additional cast: Brian Wright (Dassuk), Eileen Helsby (Venussa), Terence Woodfield (Maharis),  Terence Bayler (Yendom), Edmund Coulter (Monoid One), Ralph Carrigan (Monoid Two), Frank George (Monoid Three), Richard Beale (Refusian Voice), Roy Skelton, John Halstead (Monoid Voices)


Critique:
The Ark can, if you wish, be viewed as a linked pair of two-part stories, utilising the same sets and costumes to tell two quite different stories. The narrative thread which hold these two stories together is simply that one of the events in the first half has inadvertently led to the set-up of the second.
It's better, however, to regard it in its four-part entirety - a story which spans hundreds of years and illustrates the consequences of the Doctor's travels through time.
It's something the series had never done before - and has rarely ever tried again since.
The best analogy from the modern iteration of the series would be Steven Moffat's decision to play about with the nature of two-parters in Series 9, such as The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived.

The filming for this episode took place at the beginning of production, with the Refusis surface scenes going before the cameras at Ealing between Monday 31st Jan - Wednesday 2nd February.
Barry Newbery opted to make the forest more open than the dense jungles seen recently in The Daleks' Master Plan, with a cyclorama showing the sky and a distant horizon, and strips of fibreglass were hung from the trees and bushes to make them look more exotic.
False perspective was used to show the launcher landing, using both a model and a full-scale prop.
This prop was open on one side to allow the cameras to show the interior. 
The heat prods were working props, emitting a puff of white powder when operated.
Naturally, the replacement of the flowers in the vase was achieved by simply running the film backwards after they had been pulled out using thin twine.

Joining the cast on this episode is the actor Roy Skelton - the beginning of a lengthy association with the programme that would continue until the 1999 Comic Relief adventure The Curse of Fatal Death.
Having developed many funny voices during his time in rep, Skelton had contributed to several children's TV series, often working alongside Peter Hawkins, who would recommend him to the Doctor Who team. Skelton would join Hawkins in providing Dalek vocals during the Troughton era before superseding him in the 1970's, as well as helping develop the very first Cyberman voice.
As well as vocal input on many occasions, Skelton would get to appear on screen and in person during the Pertwee era, in Colony in SpacePlanet of the Daleks and The Green Death.
Skelton voiced Monoid One, whilst John Halstead provided vocals for Two and Three.


Like Skelton, Richard Beale would also provide vocals as well as making in person appearances in the series. He also appears in The Green Death, as the Ecology Minister, and will be seen later in 1966 as Bat Masterson in The Gunfighters.
Terence Woodfield had only just been seen, under heavy make-up, as alien delegate Celation in the second half of The Daleks' Master Plan (as well as a guest appearance, in character as the alien, on Junior Points of View).
Michael Imison had worked with most of his cast before on the soap Compact.

On the day before recording, Jackie Lane was released from rehearsals to film a sequence for the forthcoming The Celestial Toyroom. This was the sequence of her attending her mother's funeral, as seen by her in the Toymaker's "Memory Window". 
The Commander's room had now been taken over by Monoid One. On the TV monitor a clip was seen from the previous episode, of the travellers' return to the TARDIS. (Oddly, the Monoids describe the TARDIS as a black box, and no-one challenges this).
The Monoid costumes had white sashes added with an identity numeral and the small voice box. The actor had to manually operate this, sliding a coloured disc to indicate that the device was in use.
The implication is that the Monoids have their mouth in the centre of their chests, which is where the voice box hangs. We also see Monoid One appear to remove an apple core from this area, though he has his back to us at the time.

The large screen on the command deck had been replaced with one covered in white co-ordinate lines, across which lights played. These were actually torches, wielded by stage hands.
A small corner of the Refusis forest set was seen in studio with the launcher prop. The inlay technique was employed to show characters in the launcher being shown on the command deck screen - very noticeable as their heads remain in exactly the same place between shots.
Newbery reused the gates of El Akir's palace from The Crusade for the Refusian dwelling.
There were four recording breaks - three for moving cast from one set to another, with the fourth used to replace the launcher with the heap of smoking wreckage.

There is little doubt that the second half of The Ark is the weaker one. The new set of human characters are a fairly colourless bunch, and don't actually contribute very much to any of the events of the final two episodes. The subservient men are the more interesting, but we never get any insight into their motivations. Once the invisible Refusian arrives, they come to dominate the action, with the humans simply tagging along in their wake.
The Monoids are simply presented now as a generic crowd of stereotypical villains. Monoid Two's bullying nature is particularly over-played. They develop an annoying habit of blurting out their plans to anyone who happens to be listening. There's something childlike about the way they behave, but this is never picked up on or developed.
The nature of their escape from servitude, to become enslavers themselves, is the more interesting story - but the writer fails to go into this.
Concepts such as a "Security Kitchen" really don't help the production. The idea of confining potentially hostile prisoners - mostly unsupervised - in an area containing sharp implements and sources of heat is, quite frankly, a stupid one.
The least said about how the Refusians came to lose their physical forms - "a galaxy accident" - the better...
Interestingly, Zentos had been concerned about the Refusians spying on them, but it would appear that they may have been doing just that - as they seem to know that the approaching spacecraft contains people who wish to settle on their planet, and that they are humanoid in form.

Trivia:
  • The audience falls by half a million on the previous episode, meaning half of the bounce-back of the previous instalment has been lost again. The appreciation figure drops by five points.
  • The Monoid costumes were the work of father and son freelance effects makers Jack and John Lovell. They worked to designs by BBC costume designer Daphne Dare, which included some input from the director.
  • We haven't mentioned the Guardian costumes so far. Dare wanted to use pastel colours and went down the 'blue for boys and pink for girls' route. The Commander in the first two instalments had worn a red version of the outfit. These were worn over bathing costumes.
  • Terence Bayler is well-known to comedy fans as 'Leggy' Mountbatten of The Rutles - the Pythonesque Beatles spoof - and for a notable role in The Life of Brian. He's the man who claims "I'm Brian - and so's my wife!". He also featured in the Harry Potter franchise as one of the Hogwarts ghosts. Born in New Zealand in 1930, he died in 2016.
  • Eileen Helsby was the sister of the director's assistant.
  • For several years this was thought to be the only surviving episode from this story, held as a 16mm film print in the BBC Film and Television Archives. In 1978, BBC Enterprises announced that they had copies of all four instalments.

Friday 15 March 2024

Doctor Who returns on 11th May, but with a difference...


Series 14 arrives on Saturday May 11th, with not one but two episodes - and they're making their debut on BBC i-player first, in the early hours of that morning.
If streaming isn't your thing, the episodes will be broadcast on BBC One immediately before the Eurovision Song Contest.
Subsequent episodes will be shown in the same way - i-player first, then TV later that evening.
For those outside the UK, episodes will stream on Disney+ simultaneously with the i-player.

The first episode is untitled so far (though rumours have claimed it's "The Space Babies") but the second instalment is - appropriately enough for Eurovision night - the musical themed episode The Devil's Chord, which features the Beatles / Abbey Road and guest stars Jinkx Monsoon.
With two episodes on the 11th, the new shorter run will last only seven weeks, unless there are any breaks for sporting events.

NB:As far as this Blog goes, I won't be posting any reviews in the middle of the night (and may just be waiting for the TV broadcast episodes anyway), so won't be putting anything up until the Saturday night or Sunday lunchtime.

Thursday 14 March 2024

The Art of... The Ark


A couple of years ago I nominated my top ten Target Book covers - and my ten least favourite. For the latter category it was either the case of bad likenesses, or misleading and / or irrelevant imagery.
The above cover made it into the bottom ten due to the prominence of the animals on either side of the Hartnell portrait (which is derived from a photograph from The Celestial Toymaker).
Yes, the TARDIS arrives in a biodome at the start of the story, and some of the animals do contribute towards the cure for Dodo's cold - but they really don't symbolise this story at all. 
We do get a little Monoid portrait, but the aliens really ought to have been more prominent.
Maybe one of those images of Dodo posing with a Monoid might have provided a better inspiration.
The novel, by its original writer, was released in March 1987, and the cover is the work of artist David McAllister.


A reissue followed in 1992 with a minimalist cover by Alister Pearson. For a time Target were using this "unfinished sketch" look for their covers - not unlike a Renaissance cartoon. Not my favourite phase of Target artwork.
Pearson includes Dodo on his cover, with a full length Monoid in the central position.


A trio of purple-wigged Monoids appeared on the cover of the BBC Radio Collection soundtrack CD. The Hartnell image originates from this story - for a change. It's taken from a publicity shot of him, Jackie Lane and Peter Purves with Monica the elephant.
This was released in 2006 - the story's 40th anniversary - with linking narration by Purves. He also contributes to a bonus interview.


The Ark came to VHS late in the run of releases, when they were using photomontage covers.
The year was 1998.


The DVD release arrived 13 years later, in February 2011 (or March in the US and Australia).
The artist is Lee Binding, who pretty much took over from Clayton Hickman's photomontage covers around this time.


As is often the case, the Region 1 cover allowed the image space (no pun intended), and works a lot better than the UK cover.


Finally, Pearson's Target Books reissue cover graced the audiobook release, issued in 2018.

Tuesday 12 March 2024

M is for... Mr Sin


Ostensibly the grotesque ventriloquist dummy of the Chinese magician Li H'sen Chang, Mr Sin was in actual fact the "Peking Homunculus". This cyborg had been created as a toy for the children of the Icelandic Alliance Commissioner in the 51st Century. It contained a complex of magnetic fields on a printed circuit, but had the cerebral cortex of a pig.
The swinish personality soon came to dominate and it became a ruthless killer, almost causing a fourth world war. It later came into the possession of Magnus Greel, the infamous Minister of Justice known as the "Butcher of Brisbane" for his horrific genetic experiments.
He invented a rudimentary form of time travel capsule and escaped justice of his own by fleeing back to the 19th Century - arriving horribly mutilated in Imperial China. Losing his time cabinet, he brought a local man under his mental control - Chang - and began a hunt across the globe in search of it.
Mr Sin became part of Chang's magic act - the audience little realising that it had a life of its own.
Chang and Greel used it to assassinate their enemies. Its small size enabled it to be easily smuggled into the home of the pathologist Professor Litefoot, after Greel learned that he held the cabinet.
Eventually Greel discovered that even he could not control it due to its homicidal personality.
The Doctor managed to deactivate it when he tore out and destroyed its cortex.

Played by: Deep Roy. Appearances: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977).
  • Roy returned to the series (uncredited) to portray the Posicarian Delegate in Mindwarp, wearing an adapted Terileptil mask.
  • He is the only actor to have featured in Doctor Who, Blake's 7Star Trek, Star Wars and The X-Files.
  • He doubled for the Yoda puppet for some walking shots in The Empire Strikes Back.
  • A lot of his film appearances have been in the role of stunt performer.
  • He played all of the Oompa-Loompas in Tim Burton's 2005 film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

M is for... Mr Dread


Leader of a group of Men in Black - cyborgs who were tasked with guarding a trans-dimensional vault in which various alien artefacts were secured. These had arrived on Earth over the years, and the Men in Black gathered them up and concealed them to prevent advanced technology and knowledge of aliens becoming widely known.
Mr Dread had been active for decades, having once been involved in covering up UFO activity in the USA in the 1950's. 
The vault was hidden in an abandoned hospital in West London, and Sarah Jane Smith learned of it when the alien Androvax escaped from the Judoon and returned to Earth. He sought the vault as it contained the last of his race, inhabiting a spaceship in suspended animation. He was dying, and wanted to free the ship so that his people could re-establish themselves on a new home.
Mr Dread and his two underlings defended the vault. However, he eventually used up his power to enable the ship to escape before the vault was permanently sealed.
Rani Chandra's mother Gita had witnessed the alien activity, having been possessed by Androvax at one point. Mr Dread used the last of his energy to wipe her memories. With his mission now at an end, he deactivated himself.

Played by: Angus Wright. Appearances: SJA 4.2 The Vault of Secrets (2010).
  • Mr Dread also featured in the animated story Dreamland, voiced by Peter Guinness.
  • Angus Wright has voiced Magnus Greel for Big Finish.

M is for... Mr Clever


The personification of the partially converted Doctor when the Cybermen attempted to turn him into their Cyber-Planner on Hedgewick's World. The Doctor had thought himself immune to conversion, being a Time Lord, but the Cybermen had adapted over time. 
As "Mr Clever" - his own ironic name for his Cyber-converted self - he had insight into the Cyberiad, the Cyberman central intelligence. It sought the Doctor's experience to add to its own.
Whilst Mr Clever dominated half of the Doctor's mind, he was able to retain control over the other half.
A battle of wills ensued, and the pair decided to play a game of chess to determine overall control. The Doctor could briefly overcome Mr Clever by using a piece of gold paper applied to his facial implants, and he was eventually able to divert his Cyber-converted half with a chess problem which caused it to direct its full resources away from the attacking Cyberman army to resolve it.
An electric shock was finally used to free him of Mr Clever, and the Cyberman army was destroyed when the planet was blown up.

Played by: Matt Smith. Appearances: Nightmare in Silver (2013).