Dragonfire

You know, the really big problem I have with Dragonfire is that it is set on an ice planet, yet nobody gives the slightest indication that they are cold. This might seem like a small fault, yet it is glaring all the more for the fact that this story is so visually strong. Dragonfire is blessed with beautiful sets and pretty decent effects that have been achieved on a woefully low budget. Yet the failure of direction displayed in the lack of 'cold acting' lets them all go to waste. If ice does not feel cold, then it is just glass.

Dragonfire is most notable for its introduction of Ace. Ace is a refreshing in having much more depth of personality than other characters. The moment at which she is tempted to serve Kane as a mercenary is beautifully done. Yet Sophie Aldred never really convinces us in her portrayal of a rough teenage girl. Aldred was always at her best when she forgot about trying to sound like an aggressive working class girl and just played Ace as a slightly otherworldly middle-class girl. That was not how the character was supposed to be, but it suited Aldred far better. Aldred saying "I don't need no mum and dad" just sounds embarrassing.

As well as the arrival of Ace, we get the departure of Mel. Her decision to leave the TARDIS is as hurried and unprepared for as that of any companion. It is slightly disappointing because she has such a great rapport with Ace. Perhaps a few adventures featuring Ace and Mel together might have made the latter more fondly remembered. Note that Mel is wearing combat boots with red laces. Everybody in this era of Doctor Who seems to have a slightly Punky appearance, even Mel.

The return of Sabalom Glitz is a disappointment in a season remarkably free from past references. His transition to lovable rogue is rather jarring, even if he has a good chemistry with McCoy.

The plot leaves an awful lot to be desired. One might have thought that after over a thousand years, Kane would have found a way to escape or at least to find the secret of the key hidden in the dragon creature. It does not feel very well thought-out. We also get some appalling direction, such as the literal cliffhangar with the Doctor.

McCoy does quite a bit of clowning in this story. I think on the whole his performance was better in Delta and the Bannermen. However, I love the moment when he regretfully tells Belazs that she will never be free from Kane. This is very reminiscent of the dark Doctor of Cat's Cradle: Warhead who passes judgement on characters in that book. His intellectual discussion with the guard is also a nice touch.

The multitude of film references in Dragonfire is very clever and works well with the strong visual elements of this story. It is just unfortunate that this story does not quite lift itself above mediocrity as Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen do. Dragonfire lacks both the sinister and surreal atmosphere of Paradise Towers and the joyous magic of Delta and the Bannermen.

Paradise Towers

The first time I watched Paradise Towers, I found it extremely enjoyable. I was sucked into this surreal and fascinating world. Yet with each viewing of this serial, I am ever more conscious of it's faults.

Paradise Towers has a lot going for it. It offers a fascinating nightmare world based on the mundane reality of British housing blocks. It has a very clever and witty script that plays with language in a way not seen in any other Doctor Who story. It makes a fairly effective use of Mel and after the difficulties of Time and the Rani, we see Sylvester McCoy really settle into the role and make the Seventh Doctor his own. Watching him with the Kangs, we see a Doctor who is cool in a way the previous Doctors could never be.

Yet Paradise Towers is let down by a number of problems. The score is too loud and fails to fit the mood of the story. The sets are very well designed, but they are far too brightly lit, a common failing in 80s Doctor Who. While the Kangs are very enjoyable, they are quite obviously middle class drama school graduates.

The Chief Caretaker is a brilliantly conceived character. He is inspired by the very British phenomena of the overzealous council official who 'thinks he's Hitler.' Richard Briers performance does not quite do the character justice. While he has some glorious moments together with McCoy, most of the time he overplays the role and sends it up just a little too much.

One definite problem is that the world of Paradise Towers does not really make sense. The ages of the actors do not fit, we are given no explanation of why nobody ever leaves, we have no idea where the characters get their clothes or food or just generally how the whole society of the Towers works. This is not a problem in a story like Greatest Show in the Galaxy, where everything in the story is left mysterious. The problem with Paradise Towers is that we are given an awful lot of information about this society, but it still makes no sense.

Paradise Towers is not the highlight of the McCoy years and it is not even as good as Delta and the Bannermen, the story that followed it. Yet it was an important milestone in treading out a different path for the program. This serial was a bold experiment that offered a new and fresh avenue for Doctor Who.

Time and the Rani

"Drop the Mel-odramatics!"

Being a massive fan of Sylvester McCoy I desperately want to give this a positive review and find lots of redeeming features. I must admit, I find that practically impossible. I do think there are far worse stories (Time Flight, Colony in Space, The Mutants, etc) and it is reasonably fun to watch, but Time and the Rani is is undeniably naff.

The biggest problem is McCoy himself. McCoy went on to give us some great performances, but in his first serial he really is at sea. He simply has no idea how to play this role and ends up being an absurd clownish figure. It is unfair to blame the guy; the director probably had no idea, and writers Pip and Jane Baker are equally perplexed, having previously written for Colin Baker. Andrew Cartmel had only just taken over as script editor and would take time to formulate his vision of how the Seventh Doctor should be.

We can't let the director and writers off the hook though. This story is a frantic mess. All of the characters are rushing around like headless chickens. Worse still, they are given absolutely horrendous dialogue that nobody could imaginably say in real life. Pip and Jane Baker come across as such lovely people, but they really could not do natural sounding dialogue.

Sadly, we are denied a proper regeneration for the Sixth Doctor, as Colin Baker refused to return for this episode. I don't blame him at all after he was so horribly treated by the BBC.

The story is not without a few redeeming features though:

1. The Rani disguising herself as Mel

I can't believe so many fans hate this bit. It has me in stitches watching the Rani in her Mel outfit! Kate O'Mara captures not only Bonnie Langford's voice but the way she walks too.

It is just such an unusual scene. Even the Master, that Master of disguise never tried pretending to be the Brigadier, as fun as that would have been. Back in the more serious Saward era, the Rani would have had some holographic device to change her appearance and Bonnie Langford would have played the Rani in disguise. Here we get something much more fun.

2. Kate O'Mara's performance in general

She might have some awful lines to say, but she says them with style. She is so hilariously butch. Her new nose stud is cool too.

3. The Designs

The Tetraps are such a great looking monster. The Lakertyans also have good costumes, even if they are a bit pathetic. The Rani's castle is very well designed.

4. The ending

It's nice to see the Rani outwitted by her own minions and the writers sensibly avoid killing her off, thus allowing a return appearance that would never happen.

5. The new costume for the Seventh Doctor


This is something the story really gets right! This is in my opinion the best Doctor's costume in the history of the show. For once the Doctor no longer looks like he is going to a fancy dress party. He wears something that looks modern and stylish. Their is an eccentricity to the costume, but it is the eccentricity of a trendy academic, rather than some weirdo who wants to imagine he is living in the Edwardian era. The two-tone shoes are a particularly stylish touch. The Seventh Doctor has a real sense of cool. All he lacks is the paisley scarf that he would get for the next story.

Delta and the Bannermen

The Seventh Doctor and Mel help to protect an alien queen in an holiday camp in Wales, 1959.

The first thing to say about this story is that Delta and the Bannermen has the coolest title of all Doctor Who stories. Obviously, it takes off the Indie band Echo and the Bunnymen.

When I first watched this story, in the first fifteen minutes, I felt amazed at how awful it seemed, but strangely as I continued to watch, I started to enjoy it.

A lot of fans hate this story. Many fans grudgingly allow that it made a nice relief after the heaviness of the Colin Baker years, but regard it as rather weak. A small minority of us, including me, regard it as one of the greatest Doctor Who stories.

Why are the really dark and grim stories so popular? I think Doctor Who is often at its best when it is light and fun. Perhaps Delta and the Bannermen is a little deeper in fun than even City of Death, but it works.

Part of what makes it work is the summery atmosphere and the glorious south Wales countryside. This is a pastoral adventure with love in the air. This together with the 50s setting, I am slighted reminded of the comedy drama, The Darling Buds of May.

Delta and the Bannermen is a story about nice people outwitting and defeating a bland, dull and brutal bunch of bad guys, but it is more than this. The pastoral setting is used to create a celebration of love, sex, reproduction and family. It is celebration of life itself. This is brought out through the love story, through the birth of the Chimeron princess and through Goronwy's expositions on the life cycles of insects. It is beautiful.

As the Doctor points out in his confrontation of Gavrok, the Bannermen are totally opposed to life, they only seek to destroy:

"What do you know about life? You deal in lies, treachery, and death. Life? You promise life but in the end it will be life that defeats you."

Pertwee gave lots of pacifist speeches, but in the end he always ended up relying on UNIT and big explosions. Here the Doctor outwits the villains with honey and a little girl singing.

The nostalgia for the 1950s adds to the fun of the story. Perhaps it is regrettable that it is not quite true to life. While the story celebrates the tackiness of holiday camps, it turns a blind eye to some of the darker, more prejudicial aspects of the 1950s. In this, Remembrance of the Daleks handled nostalgia somewhat better, by portraying the racism of the 1960s.

There are other criticisms that can be levelled at the story; the continuity problems, some wooden acting from the guy playing Billy, the Doctor visibly wearing spectacles on the motorcycle, the baby's changing appearance and of course the deaths of the alien tourists which detracts from the lighter nature of the story.

Bonnie Langford's Mel has been much maligned and called the worst companion of all. Regardless of what you think of Mel (and I quite like her) she fits into this story perfectly, being nice, cute and fun.

While Sylvester McCoy does a lot of clowning, he gives us a much darker Doctor. He mysteriously knows about Goronwy, he shows menace in his confrontation of Gavrok and stands at a distance from the other characters by his comment about the 'irrationality of love.'

The alien queen, Delta is as wooden as her lover, Billy. But she is an alien and looks lovely. A pastoral story like this needs a beautiful mother figure.

Ray is a great character too, along with her cute exagerrated Welsh accent. Given that she loses Billy to Delta, the end of the story would have been the perfect moment for her to become a companion. But that would have of course meant no Ace and it would have altered the character of Seasons 25 and 26 enormously to have Ray in the TARDIS.

The two CIA agents don't contribute to the plot and seem to be padding, but it is delightful to meet CIA agents who are just unbelievably kind and jolly!

We must not, of course, forget the fantastic performance Don Henderson puts in as Gavrok. The sight of him eating raw meat is fantastic.

The script has got to be one of the best, with some hilarious lines:

"You are not the Happy Hearts Holiday Club from Bolton, but instead are spacemen in fear of an attack from some other spacemen?"

The music is great too!

I enjoy this story so much more than Pyramids of Mars.