by Dr Kain » Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:13 pm
Continuing our Tom Baker viewing, I picked up Image of Fendahl from the library and it was pretty good. Way better than The Invisible Enemy, the Doctor and Leela felt in character again, and it had a lot of atmospheric scenes. Unfortunately, the climax was kind of a let down as it felt like the writer couldn't figure out how to exactly end this story, so they just made some random nonsense up to do it, with another explosion no less. Also, the leeches were kind of dumb, but at least they weren't some green snot ball or a pile of poop with an arm sticking out of it. I did like the characters though, especially the old grandma lady as she had some really witty dialog.
We also watched episodes 6-8 of the latest season.
Demons of the Punjab - Yet again Yaz continues to get the most development of the three companions with this story. Of course, the problem here is that this episode was just so damn booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring. The last 10 minutes was the best part of the show, but everything else was absolutely uninteresting. They could have done so much more with the period they were in. The Assassins who aren't actually Assassins were cool looking though.
Kerblam! - Okay, here we go, FINALLY, a truly amazing episode! It was creepy, suspenseful, had an interesting mystery going on while making fun of retailers. At first i thought it was meant to be mocking Amazon, but then they showed the packages were being secured with bubble wrap to ensure the products aren't damaged during shipping, so I knew that couldn't be the case after all. I loved the plot twist on who was the one causing it. The only part of the episode I thought was a little dumb was the Polar Express-like conveyor belt scene. That aside, this is easily the best episode of the season so far.
The Witchfinder General - Another mostly solid episode, at least until the end. The mud creatures were kind of dumb, especially with how they were defeated, but whatever. Alan Cummings as James was interesting and this was another episode with some really great moments of suspense. I do wish they had actually done something with Graham after James had made him his general though. Graham is seriously like the Tegan of this season. He does absolutely nothing but acts like a know it all when he is on screen.
Um... so I've got two episodes of the season left and so far, there hasn't been one hint of who the main villain of the season is going to be. WTF? In fact, there doesn't seem to be any sort of over arching plot whatsoever unless white supremacist boy and the blue tooth fairy are going to return in the next two episodes.
EDIT:
We just watched both The Sun Makers and Underworld.
The Sun Makers was quite enjoyable, almost as good as Fang Rock. It was well paced, the entire civilization was interesting, and Leela was quite badass. Not to mention the entire social commentary on corporatism that seems to be just as relevant today as it must have been when this episode was made. Mini Me cosplaying as Professor X was also an intriguing change from your normal upper class tyrant. I loved the scene when he is just spinning around in his chair unsure as to what to do because things aren't going his way. Add on top that eyebrows. Great stuff all around.
On the other hand, Underworld makes The Invisible Enemy look like a masterpiece. Like oh my god, what the hell happened here? I get they had some budgetary issues, but when more than half of your story is clearly a green screened in background to the point where the actors body parts are disappearing during certain camera angles, there's a problem. Not just that, but the scene when the Doctor, Leela, and the cave dude were floating down the green tube thing was seriously missing some comedic floating music to go with it. All I wanted to put over the audio was the music when Charlie and his grandpa are floating up to the ceiling in Willy Wonka or something. It was just so damn bad.
Effects aside, even the writing was awful. For being a representation of Jason and the Argonauts, none of the characters were even remotely compelling. They were as lifeless as the backgrounds they were strolling through. This story could have easily been two episodes in length as even three would have been too much. No one did anything interesting. I pray to the gods known as the Time Lords that the next story is a vast improvement over this dreck.
EDIT 2:
We finished the fourth season with The Invasion of Time and kicked off the fifth season with The Ribos Operation.
The Invasion of Time was not bad, but like many other episodes not from Tom's era, it did not need to be 6 episodes long. It could have easily been the standard four. There was a lot of fluff going on, especially in the last episode when they kept walking in circles in the Tardis for like 10 minutes before something happened. It was funny, but pointless filler.
Also, the villains that the Doctor was dealing with for the first four parts were extremely lame. First, they look like garbage bags floating around, but then when their true form is actually revealed, they're just human soldiers in goofy outfits. WTF? A complete and total let down from that three episode build up. The whole time they made them sound like they were going to be interesting characters.
Where were all of the Time Lords from The Deadly Assassin? It seemed like everyone here was brand new except for Borusa, but he was played by a different dude. I guess he could have regenerated, but still. Hell, why wasn't the news anchor dude there to talk about the coronation?
It's sad that this was Leela's farewell, but it's better for her to leave in her prime than to be wavering about as a stale character. I loved how blood thirsty she was as she complimented the Doctor's passive nature quite well. The next companion has a lot to live up to. Though, how the hell she just managed to get that knife to go through Sontaran steel is quite vexing. Plot skills do her good. Finally, K9 is starting to grow on me as he is being used effectively. I expected him to be nothing more than a stupid gimmick.
Overall, the entire season was a mixed bag. There was a serious dip in quality from the first three. It wasn't a terrible season when compared to the entire franchise, as it was par for the course, but when you compare it to Baker's first three seasons, it was like an entirely different show outside of Horror of Fang Rock. Even Fang Rock though is inferior to the likes of Morbius, Weng-Chiang, Seeds, Genesis, and Robots of Death, but at least it felt like it belonged to its predecessors.
My rankings for this season are as follows:
1. Horror of Fang Rock
2. The Sun Makers
3. Image of Fendahl
4. The Invasion of Time
5. The Invisible Enemy
6. Underworld
Moving on to Season 5, The Ribos Operation was a decent kick-off to the Doctor's quest of finding the infinity stones. It had some interesting concepts, such as a planet that has winter for 32 years, characters who live in THE NORTH, and an army called The Watch. Wait a minute... why do I feel like I was watching an episode of Game of Thrones, just with dudes that wore Hershey Kisses for hats?
Seriously though, the story was pretty good. The stuff in the catacombs was cool and the younger thief dude was more interesting than half of the characters from the previous season. Hell, even the heretic dude was more interesting. On the other hand, I don't like Romana one bit. She is poorly acted and comes off as nothing more than a spoiled uneducated brat. How the hell is she supposed to be a Time Lord and know absolutely nothing?
That is all for now.