"Heroin Screws You Up": Nightmare of Eden

When I was at University, I showed two Doctor Who videos to my housemate and best mate, who had never watched Doctor Who in his life (he was a Trekkie). They were The War Machines and The Nightmare of Eden. These probably seem a weird choice of first stories to show a non-fan. They just happened to be the two VHS tapes I had bought from the Virgin Megastore (remember those?)that day. He laughed out loud when Nightmare of Eden opened with the model shot of the spacecraft. He suggested it looked like a washing up liquid bottle. Actually, that is one of the best model shots in Seventies Doctor Who. After watching the two serials, he concluded that Nightmare of Eden was the more interesting story, but he preferred the 'kindly grandfather' of William Hartnell's Doctor to Tom Baker (a shame he didn't watch An Unearthly Child). I think watching that VHS of Nightmare of Eden was a profoundly negative experience for me. I had loved the novelisation of Nightmare of Eden as a child and watching the actual serial just seemed so disappointing. Everything looked so depressingly cheap. After, that I never bought a Doctor Who VHS again.

The Eden jungle set looks good and it might have been a better story, had we spent more time there, but unfortunately, most of the time we are on a spaceship set that is very flat and dull looking, as well as far too brightly lit. The Mandrell costumes are no worse than most other Doctor Who monster costumes, but the way they filmed lets them down. We see so much of them and under such bright lights, they inevitably look hilarious. Equally hilarious are the uniforms of Officers Fisk and Costa. They look very... Village People.

It is not just the sets and the costumes that are bad, we also get some uninspiring acting. The worst offender is Lewis Fiander, playing Tryst. He completely sends up the character he is playing, refusing to take the story seriously. Even the regulars don't help much. The scene with Tom Baker getting roughed up by Mandrells is embarassing. Romana comes across as just a little too smug. If there is any story to give ammunition to JNT's argument that the TARDIS crew had become too clever, this is it.

A lot of fans praise Nightmare of Eden for offering an 'intelligent' story about drugs. As a professional drugs worker, I find it really annoying. It offers a very cliched Daily Mail idea of drug addiction. It follows the common assumption that you only need to try drugs once and you will be addicted forever. This really is not true. Heroin can be very addictive, but I have known users who only use heroin occasionally without becoming opiate dependent. It also offers the rather extreme scenario of a drug that is certain to kill you. Did the writers really imagine that people would actually use a drug that causes certain death? This is a horribly patronizing and insulting view of drug users. Drug users may make choices that are unwise, but they are not stupid. Maintaining an habit with inherent risks is a bit different from using a substance that kills you.




There are a few good lines in this story, but otherwise, there is not much to love here.

The Creature from the Pit

For me, the Graham Williams era seems very hit and mess. On the rare occasions when Graham Williams got things right, as in City of Death or Androids of Tara, the results are glorious. Sometimes there is a delightful sense of fun pervading some of the shoddier serials of the era, yet often the shoddiness is all that comes across. In the midst of all this era's problems is the unrestrained Tomfoolery of the show's lead actor. The Creature from the Pit is unfortunately one of those stories which particularly showcases the problems with the show in this period. It ably demonstrates just how necessary it was for John Nathan-Turner to come on board at bring the program into shape.

For a serial of this era, the production values in this are a little higher than usual. The jungle sequences filmed in Ealing studios are very impressive and the 'indoor' sets are not bad either. The costumes are also particularly lavish. Unfortunately, the alien monster Erato is rather less impressive and his resemblance to something else makes him a little embarrassing to watch.

Myra Frances is enjoyable in her camp performance as the evil Lady Adrasta. Unfortunately, her adversaries, the gang of bandits are a silly bunch, who offensively modeled on Fagin. They demonstrate the repeated failing of Season 17 to take the stories seriously. As Phil Sandifer argued in his recent book, they are the oppressed underclass of this planet. The viewer should be led to sympathize with them, not laugh at them.

Organon seems to be a creation of Douglas Adams; there is no character quite like him in any of David Fisher's other scripts. He serves no purpose in moving the plot, apart from a little exposition. He is there to deliver Douglas Adams style satire. If you like Douglas Adams' stuff you will love him, if you don't, then every minute of his presence on the screen will be annoyance.

This serial had Lalla Ward's first performance as Romana. With her haughtiness, she plays the role a little closer to Mary Tamm's style and she is dressed up in a dress that was rather more like what Romana no.1 would wear. This is not the Romana no.2 we see in other stories, yet I quite like the way she comes across as a sort of fairytale princess in The Creature from the Pit. It rather fits with the incredible earnestness and innocence with which Lalla Ward approached the role.

As usual for this period, Tom Baker spends his time wandering around the set delivering comics lines. The gag about Teach Yourself Tibetan is just daft.

There is probably a good story wrapped up in here, yet the failure of all involved to take it seriously means that it just ends up being a silly comic story in which any kind of social or political critique is lost.

On the positive side, it is a story about the Doctor exploring a strange alien world, something which happens very rarely in the BBC Wales series. For all that Graham Williams era ended up looking cheap, it did try it's best to give us exciting new worlds. With an exotic jungle planet with a peculiarly appropriate name and lavisly dressed natives, this feels like a story that might have been done and played straight in the Hartnell era. Erato would certainly have looked much more convincing in black and white.

"He speaks of many things. He speaks of the great journey of life" : The Horns of Nimon

I'm the original discriminating buffalo man
And I'll do what's wrong as long as I can
He'll do what's wrong as long as he can

I live in a labyrinth under the sea
Down in the dark as dark as can be
I like the dark as dark as can be
He likes the dark as dark as can be

I'll even attack you or eat you whole
Down in the dark my bone mills roll
Porridge for my porridge bowl
Porridge for his porridge bowl

The Minotaur's Song, The Incredible Strong Band



The cancellation of the ill-fated (but probably naff) Shada resulted in The Horns of Nimon effectively concluding the Graham Williams era of Doctor Who. This story is a perfect ending for that period, as it embodies many of the faults, yet also some of the strengths of the Graham Williams producership.

Like so many other Graham William stories, it all looks just a little bit cheap. There is the nagging sense that the BBC just can't be bothered to put that much effort into Doctor Who any more. One feels the same from the cast. Tom Baker can't be bothered to get into the story and just wanders about the set delivering comic lines, leaving Lalla Ward to do the Doctor's job. The guest cast are all pretty dull, apart from the co-pilot who is ridiculously hammed, and Graham Cowden who does not seem to be taking his role as Soldeed very seriously.

Yet like so many other Graham Williams stories, The Horns of Nimon does not fail to entertain. The script is witty enough to be funny and there is a tremendous spirit of fun, despite the sloppiness. Graham Cowden certainly should have played Soldeed much straighter, but he is still hilariously fun to watch. As much as he is hammed up, he is still quite an interesting character. I like the way he is convinced he has manipulated the Nimon when he has in fact been completely fooled. He speaks about the 'great journey of life' as though it is some deep philosophy, when actually it is an invasion plan.

While it is sad to watch Tom Baker giving such a lazy performance, it does give Romana the chance to be the main character for a change, confronting the villains and even acquiring some companions along the way. Lalla Ward was never a great actress, but there is a sincerity to her performance here that is quite lovely. She knew the children watching take it seriously, so she took her own role completely seriously. In that sense, Lalla understood the dynamics of children's television better than anybody else involved with the show at the time.




The Nimon looks pretty cheap and clumsy and it is difficult not to laugh at it much of the time. Yet clumsy monsters were not introduced into the show by Graham Williams. Even the Daleks looked a little bit silly. There is something remarkable about the way even the silliest of Doctor Who monsters can still come across as quite chilling. Despite their apparent silliness, the Nimon do have something of a menacing quality, particularly their voices.



Some of the Graham Williams' stories excel in world-building and we see this here. This story very much feels like a shapshot of a much larger history between these planets. Underworld tried to use mythology to create a sense of epic grandeur, but failed miserably at this. Oddly, The Horns of Nimon seems to actually be more successful at this. Perhaps it is the fact that it does not take itself so seriously, or perhaps it is the operatic look of the sets and costumes.

It is often pointed out that this story was broadcast at Christmas time. It certainly does have a pantomime feel that is appropriate to the festive season. Perhaps that is the best time to watch it on DVD. It's not one of the best stories of it's era, but I don't think it is a bad one either. It's not quite accurate to call it a failure as nobody was trying particularly hard in this period of Doctor Who. The Horns of Nimon is a story that should be enjoyed for just being fun and over the top.

Season 17

I really do like the Graham Williams era, but I don't think I can really put in much of a defence for Season 17. It really is poor in a number of ways.

This season saw the arrival of a new script writer, Douglas Adams, who had written The Pirate Planet. Adams' strength was in comedy. It is fair to say that he was not well attuned to writing serious science fiction. This is very obvious in the way that Season 17 allowed comedy to become too central to the show. Tom Baker seemed to cease being a protagonist in the stories and became a sort of comic host. At times it could be very funny, but at other times the excessive humour seemed to swamp any sense of atmosphere or menace. When in The Horns of Nimon, the Doctor is threatened with arrest, execution and torture, he jokes about it. We all laugh at that moment, but there is a sense in which there are too many moments like this. The Doctor had become invulnerable an almost uninvolved.

The other problem of this season was the woefully poor quality of the productions. Of course, the cheap sets and costumes could be explained away by the much reduced budget, but this is not an excuse for some of the terrible acting and direction. It seems like everybody at this stage had ceased to take the show seriously. Contrast this with An Unearthly Child, the very first serial of the show. Even people pretending to be grunting cavemen and women avoided the pitfall of sending it all up. This would be unimaginable in the 17th season. The program was desperately in need of a big shake-up. Thankfully, this was to come in the next season under new producer John Nathan-Turner.

Season 17 saw a new face of Romana in Lalla Ward. Lalla lacked the strong acting talent of Mary Tamm, but she seemed to take her role more seriously than her predecessor. She was also helped by the fact that writers made Romana into a much stronger character. The Horns of Nimon sees her become in every way a female Doctor.

For all the underwhelming efforts of this season, strangely it gave us one of the greatest ever Doctor Who stories, City of Death. This truly is a quite delightful story its glorious humour accompanied by the most delightful portrayal of a Doctor/ Companion relationship ever. City of Death seems to have everything that one could want in a Doctor Who story, plus an added touch of class.

I don't find this season at all impressive, but I would rather watch one of these stories than one of the more awful Pertwee stories or one of those frightfully grim Hinchcliffe efforts.


Destiny of the Daleks- 5/10

I frequently change my mind on the merits or demerits of this story. It is basically a Terry Nation space-romp revitalised with Douglas Adams' humour. It makes the worrying suggestion that the Daleks are robots.

City of Death- 10/10

A diamond in mud. How did such a brilliant story get into this season?

The Creature from the Pit- 3/10

A really unimpressive story. Those Fagin-wannabes were a really bad idea.

Nightmare of Eden- 4/10

A great story let down by atrocious acting and appalling production values. This has to be one of the cheapest looking stories ever.

The Horns of Nimon- 6/10

I do like this story, even if it is a bit silly. Best of all, I love how Romana is used so effectively in it.

Shada- ?/?

The great or not so great unfinished story. Fans like to imagine Shada would have been the redemption of Season 17. What is left of it looks like a load of rubbish to me.

Shada

The Doctor and Romana visit Cambridge and end up as stock footage in a later story.

Shada was never completed so we are left with a collection of disjointed sequences and some narration put together to join them up. We don't even have telesnaps to help us out. This makes it very difficult to review.

Shada seems to be regarded by fans as a great undmade classic. It is thought of as the story that would have redeemed the tragically silly Season 17. This assumption seems to be dependant on giving the missing scenes the benefit of the doubt.

Looking at what survives of Shada, I can't help thinking that it looks like a load of rubbish. The scene with the Doctor and Romana punting is quite lovely and Ward puts in a great performance in her surviving scenes. The revelation that the Professor's room is a TARDIS is well conceived, but other than this I see nothing to make this story stand out from the other stories of Season 17 or that makes it approach the quality of City of Death.

Like other Season 17 stories, Shada looks cheap. The Kraags look like typical Season 17 silly monsters. Skagra wears a hideous silver outfit that looks camp in a really bad way. The spaceship does not look terribly impressive either (of course on the outside it is invisible to save costs).

The script is deeply unimpressive when compared to Adams' other efforts, City of Death and Pirate Planet. A lot of the jokes are just not that funny. Professor Chronotis is yet another cliched bumbling scientist type. Hardly interesting as a Time Lord. The revelation that he is a wanted criminal mastermind not seem to add much to the story. We have seen enough renegade Time Lords to be interested in him. As for Christ and Claire, they are really boring supporting characters.

Tom Baker's linking narration on the BBC Video is really irritating. He plays it in character, which comes across as patronising. He is not dressed like the Doctor and has visibly aged. He is not the Doctor any more!

Maybe my judgement on what is left of Shada is harsh. Perhaps if only fragments were left of City of Death I might not be kind to that story either. I just don't feel like giving Shada the benefit of the doubt, especially given the rest of Season 17.

City of Death

The Fourth Doctor and the Second Romana enjoy the atmosphere of Paris.

I re-watched this story the other day and I can't help thinking it may be the best Doctor Who story ever. There is very little you can fault in this story, and brilliant acting, a witty and inspired script and a straightforward plot combine to create an stunningly pristine story.

The thing that most strikes one with this story is Tom and Lalla. They are so natural together. Holding hands and skipping giddily around Paris. Leaving aside Tom and Lalla's offscreen relationship, this is the closest the Doctor has come to a convincing romance in the classic series. It is so beautiful and heart-warming to see the Doctor and Romana taking such a sweet pleasure in each other's company.

The title of the story seems to have been chosen for the sake of irony. It seems like a cliched title from a Hinchliffe story. Yet instead of horror and darkness, we are treated to a story that is light-hearted and fun. This story reminds us that Doctor Who does not have to be full-on gothic horror or about grim violence in the far future. The light-hearted tone is supported by one of the best musical score's in the history of the show.

While the story may justifiably be described as comic, it is played absolutely straight without any attempt at send-up or parody. Guest performances from Julian Glover, Catherine Schell and Tom Chadborn. All three take their roles seriously and make us really believe in the characters. The cameo appearance of John Cleese and Eleanour Bron is not really necessary, but is a fun touch.

Scaroth is a brilliant villain. He is so suave and cool. The fact that he needs to put effort into his fun-raising by selling artwork makes him stand out from every other Doctor Who villain. Even as a rubber monster, he works very well.

The countess is an interesting character. She comes across as desperate to please her husband, who sees as just a dazzlingly romantic criminal mastermind. Obviously, with it being a childrens' show the story does not go into some of the more delicate aspects of their marriage. The adult viewer cannot help wondering what is, or perhaps what is not going on in their bedroom!

I love the sassiness of the second Romana. Seeing her work with Duggan brings out her haughtiness too; she is almost cruel in her teasing of Duggan. Romana's costumes are always a treat, this school girl outfit is one of her best. It is not in the slightest bit sexy or cheeky, but rather provides a clever contrast with the Fourth Doctor's Bohemian undergraduate look. I like the fact that the pair coordinate their outfit's by wearing colourful lapel badges; the Doctor's badge a paint pallet and Romana's appears to be some sweets.

The real tragedy is that the extraordinary quality of this story is absent from all of the other stories of season 17.

Destiny of the Daleks

This is a story much attacked by fans. It has some faults, but it is still a reasonably good series.



The story begins with Romana's regeneration. A lot of people dislike this scene, but it is funny to see the different possible incaarnations of the new Romana. If Romana's regeneration has not been brought on by a crisis, there seems no reason why she should not be able to select her new form. The costume selected by the new Romana is an excellent choice; a feminised version of trhe Fourth Doctor's garb, thus preparing us for a far more 'doctorish Time Lady.

The Daleks come across as pretty sinister in this story; a key test of a Dalek story's success. I am not sure whether this is helped or hindered by Romana's bursting into tears as she is interrogated. I have to say I found her blubbing hilarious. It seems like a throwback to her performance as the rather delicate Princess Astra. Despite this slip, for the rest of the story she is plucky and resourceful.

The return of Davros was an unfortunate development. His supposed 'death' at the end of Genesis of the Daleks was poignant and brining him back only meant he overshadowed the Daleks. But as he is a great character, it probably made sense at the time. Unfortunately, David Gooderson's performance does not measure up to Michael Wisher's, though he is not helped by a lack of great lines.

Tom Baker's performance is excellent. I particularly like the ruthlessness the Fourth Doctor displays, threatening Davros with a bomb and delaying freeing Davros until after two human slaves have been killed. We would never have seen the Third Doctor behave like this. The 'paper, stone, scissors' bit was a nice touch, if a bit perplexing.

The studio sets are reasonable and although a little wobbly looking at least have ceilings. The human slaves are completely lacking in character, but they at least wear interesting costumes.

Lastly, we can never forget those spangly disco babes, the Movellans! They are so badass! Just a shame they are so easily defeated.

I am a bit uncomfortable with the suggestion of the Daleks as 'robots.' They are not logical computers, they are beings filled with hate and anger.