By Roy Mathur, on 2021-09-19, at 15:12:05--15:53:11, for Captain Roy's Rocket Radio Show, Listen
See? Doctor Who Really Has Not Been Forgotten. The on-going revisit continues!
Welcome to Season 16!
I said I wasn't well recently, and I wasn't. The PPI withdrawal gave me hypersecretion. My reflux was out of control and even my balance was out of whack. So I'm on the drugs again and gradually weaning myself off. Cold turkey is a terrible mistake with some medications. As a by-product, I'm losing weight, though perhaps a little too rapidly. Short story: I feel much better today. Huzzah!
Also, buoying up my generally depressive personally, I saw a jaunty little Magpie working hard just to survive a few days ago. I was suddenly so very struck by gratitude for being a human, even a very slightly ailing one. Unbearable joie de vivre, I know, sorry.
Continuing in the self-reflective vein, let us again talk about how Doctor Who influenced me and how I was predisposed to such influence.
My perspective of time is that I don't feel distanced from the ancient past because of my family's interest in ancient history and my postgraduate study, but also because of the way time travel is such a feature of science fiction like Doctor Who.
As a child, I remember an extravagant amount of my parents very hard earned money spent on foreign holidays. This broadened my horizons considerably and shrank the world to the point where I think borders are a fiction and that the concerns of countries are parochial, provincial, and pathetic. For many years, I thought of how shows like Doctor Who only further this feeling that I should go wherever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want, and damn the consequences (safety permitting). Patronising and condescending yes, but who cares? Certainly not an anarchist like the Doctor with a machine that can literally go anywhere. He's a good influence!
In what way did, not just Doctor Who, but science fiction, fantasy, and horror influence your life? Let me know.
Finally, happy Talk Like a Pirate day from my annoyingly space piratey themed podcast. Argh, matey!
Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker
Companion(s): Romana: Mary Tamm, K9: John Leeson
Director: George Spenton-Foster
Writer: Robert Holmes
Producer: Graham Williams
Location: BBC Television Centre, Studio TC4, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7RJ 1978
Broadcast: Story 098/serial 1 of season 16, 4 x 25 minute episodes, 2--23 September 1978, following The Invasion of Time covered in pod 398.
No, not a thing of any significance. Not even cosmically.
The Doctor, planning a holiday with K-9 is diverted by the White Guardian and tasked to retrieve the Key of Time, whose pieces have been scattered and must be retrieved before the Black Guardian retrieves the device and puts it to evil use. The Doctor is assigned a young Time Lady Romana, by the White Guardian to assist the Doctor.
Leaving K-9 Mark II in the TARDIS, he and Romana arrive on medieval world Ribos to retrieve the device in the midst of the arrival of native guards, and an off-world warlord in the marrket for the planet, which is being sold by a couple of interstellar criminals (Garron and Unstoffe). To further complicate matters the device is diguised as an extremely valuable lump of Jethrick, a gem that currently powers space travel.
There's a interval in which we are introduced to the Galileo Galilei-like and helpful Binro; a persecuted scientist. There's a lovely interplay between him and Unstoffe, and the pair form a bond.
There is the usual comedy of errors as the cast pantomimes back and forth, until the finale down in the deadly catacombs inhabited by a large predator. The warlord is killed by his own bomb that he initially gives to the Doctor disguised as one of his troopers, when the Doctor deftly passes the bomb back.
At the denouement, the Doctor again pulls the old switcheroo (a double switcheroo) with Garron the confidence man regaining the Jethrick.
In the closing scene, back in the TARDIS, they use the key detector to reveal the double crystal forming the first part of the Key to Time.
The mission to retrieve the key is the standard macguffin hunt story arc, and I did find myself thinking, oh no, five more until we can start a completely new story.
The urbanely menacing Guardian is reminiscent of
the Architect from Matrix; another knobby white beard bloke in a colonial's tropical suit.
Ribos is pronounced Reebos. Really? Really?!
This is the first appearance of a Guardian and also the Doctor's new companian Romana, who is assigned by the White Guardian to assist the Doctor. She is young, only 140, as opposed to the Doctor's 759 (he claims 739). Time Lady Romana (Romanadvoratrelunda) reminds me strongly of Time Lady Rodan from The Invasion of Time, though much snootier, and---as we see from the way the camera later lingers on her legs in episode two---thoroughly the imperious, but sexy space girl. K-9 Mark II takes a few steps back when he first meets her in the TARDIS's console room, though he was also impressed by Leela; apparently a ladys dog. She too is an alumni of the Citadel's Academy on Gallifrey, though she says of the Doctor's academic performance, "Well, it's better than scraping through with 51% at the second attempt." (Tangent: It only took me the first attempt to scrape through and that was at postgraduate level. Take that Doctor! She's very different from Leela; every mm the Citadel sophisticate.
This is a burglary mixed with a caper. The Doctor's trying to retrieve/burgle/pinch a piece of the Key of Time and there's also a con caper going down betwee off-worlders; a pair of dodgy traders and their royal client/mark. It's the usual overly-complicated plot that is a feature of Doctor Who; both Old Who and New Who.
The Key of Time is a cube that looks and sounds like Marvel's Tessaract, but in this case Marvel got there first via Jack Kirby in 1966.
There's comedy, e.g. when the Doctor remarks on the crook disguised as a watchman's fake West Country accent, and then the same crook adopts an Irish accent, which also does not impress his partner in crime.
There are strong echos of The Curse of Peladon (1972) (pod 271) and The Monster of Peladon (1974) (pod 320) in that there is a monster used to guard a royal chamber, and in the way the Doctor breaks out his hypnosis skills to subdue a guard.
The first appearance of the creatue's monster feet is a little silly. Why do all monsters in all movies (except Alien) have silly feet?. But when we see the beast as a whole, with it's bony, skull-like armoured head, and the suit-actor on all-fours, it is far more impressive and scary.
The witch seemed very Sister of Karn-like, though insane. She reminded me of Senna the Soothsayer, played by Jeanne Mockford in Frankie Howerd's Up Pompei TV show (1969); though not from her appearance, but from her pompous, portentous, and insane delivery of lines.
I was moved by the brief and touching relationship between the helpful Binro, a scorned and poverty stricken scientist, and Unstoffe. It was terribly sad when he is killed, as I had hoped the two crooks would take him into space.
Like his predecessor, K-9 Mark II does not follow orders to stay, which is lucky for the Doctor when the robot dog comes to his aid.
This episode sees K-9 Mark II in action, but I cannot see a physical difference between Mark II made by the doctor it and the original Mark I.
Mark I was made by Professor Marius, was introduced in The Invisible Enemy (1977) (pod 388), and left with Leela in The Invasion of Time (1978) (pod 398).
Mark II appears in The Ribos Operation (1978--Warriors' Gate (1981), in which he is left badly damaged with Romana.
Mark III K-9 and Company A Girl's Best Friend (1981). K-9 and Company one episode pilot featuring Sarah Jane Smith. He and Sarah Jane Smith reappeared in the 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors (1983). His final appearance was in New Who's School Reunion (2006), in which he dies and is rebuilt and presented to Sarah Jane Smith as...
Mark IV, who worked with Sarah Jane Smith throughout the The Sarah Jane Adventures ((2007--2011).
Of the more than twelve props were made, twelve were sold off by the BBC, one of which made its way to Abertay University. It was restored by student Gary Taylor in 2018 using a Raspbery Pi.