By Roy Mathur, on 2023-05-13 at 23:55:18--00:44:53 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show, Listen
From 2014 to 2023 I covered almost 19 seasons (1963--1982) of Doctor Who. There are only have 7 seasons left. So, fingers-crossed, the end is in sight. The moreso because my general geekly content consumption is rather low lately, I going to be doing more of these classic era Doctor Who revisits to make up for the shortfall. Buckle up, Whovians, because we should finish Season 19 in just a few days! If you are a Old Who fanatic this is going to be great. The end is nigh. (That's the wrong idiom from anyone but me).
This episode is going to sound different because I've swapped microphones. I've swapped from the Shure SM7B to the Shure SM58 yet again because I am completely potty.
This episode is also later than expected because too much kayaking made me stiff and painful and too much Feta gave me diarrhea.
As if all that unnecessary activity isn't enough, I booked a motorcycle CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) for June, so I'm trying to buy a full face helmet. The last helmet I owned was a terrible open face thing from the 80s, when I used to ride a black Vespa 50 Special, so I did not have to contend with my stupidly proportioned jaw. The only modern helmet that even comes close to fitting me is the Bell Moto-9 MIPS adventure helmet. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I have ordered my third, as the last two had broken mouthpieces.
Fifth Doctor: Peter Davison
Companion(s): Adric: Matthew Waterhouse, Nyssa: Sarah Sutton, Tegan: Janet Fielding
Notable Cast: Lord Cranleigh: Michael Cochrane; British TV actor. Latoni: Ahmed Khalil; actor from 1967--2014, including an uncredited role as an Indian in The Devil Rides Out (1968). Lady Cranleigh: Barbara Murray; prolific actress from 1948--1999, including Ammonia in Up Pompeii! Blimey.
Director: Ron Jones
Writer: Terence Dudley, also producer of Doomwatch and Survivors
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Locations: Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, various locations in East Sussex and Worcestershire, and BBC Television Centre, Shepherd's Bush in 1981. There was also stock footage from the BBC's God's Wonderful Railway (1980).
Broadcast: Season 19, serial 5, story 120, following The Visitation covered in 483, 2 x c. 25 minute episodes, and first broadcast 1--2 March 1982.
Media: Target novelisation by Terence Dudley (1986) (creepy clown cover art), CD audiobook read by Michael Cochrane (2008), VHS with The Visitation (1994), DVD (2008), Doctor Who: The Collection Season 19 Blu-ray (2018).
Number one was Tight Fit's ludicrously camp and excellent The Lion Sleeps Tonight and the brilliant Toni Basil's Mickey was at number two. Why wasn't it number one? Why?! It's so good that it's on my Roy's Wake Up Mix Tape TouTube Playlist.
An attack is in progress and a woman resembling Nyssa sleeps fitfully. We see an Amazonian Indian guarding a tied-up body struggling to free itself.
The TARDIS arrives at a railway station in 1925. Tegan says she no longer wishes to go to Heathrow to resume her life. They exit the TARDIS and are greeted by a chauffeur expecting the Doctor.
A cricket game is in progress on the grounds of a mansion. The Doctor joins as a ringer and quickly helps his team win. Their host, Lord Charles Cranleigh, invites them to a fancy dress party and they later discover his fiancee Ann is a doppelganger for Nyssa.
A black orchid brought back from Brazil by plant explorer George Cranleigh, Charles Cranleigh's brother, is displayed prominently in the house.
For the party, the Doctor is given a harlequin suit and Nyssa the same dress as her double.
Someone sneaks into the Doctor's room while he is bathing leaving a secret door open. The Doctor follows, finds a dead body, while his fancy dress outfit is stolen.The unknown figure wearing the Doctor's costume attacks Ann. When the Doctor arrives as Harlequin, he is immediately suspected. As the Doctor and companions are driven away, he convinces his accusers to prove his innocence by showing them the TARDIS.
They travel back in the TARDIS only to find a fire raging and Nyssa held hostage on the roof by George Cranleigh, mutilated by natives for stealing the black orchid, but rescued by the chief of another tribe. The Doctor reasons with him and Nyssa is set free. When Charles approaches his brother George falls and is killed.
As the Doctor leaves, Lady Cranleigh gives him a copy of her son George Cranleigh's book titled Black Orchid.
Tegan no longer wants to go home, but wants to stay on with the Doctor.
The Doctor excelling at cricket, an easy feat with the superior physiology of a Gallifreyan, is showing off. We see much the same in New Who's The Lodger with Matt Smith, who, in real life, played for Leicester City youth team.
The fancy dress dance scene is great fun. I enjoyed watching the companions letting off steam. They all danced, Adric somewhat reluctantly, as he was more interested in tucking into the spread.
I was loosely reminded of the video game Maniac Mansion (1987) and the US TV show Marblehead Manor (1987) thrown into an Agatha Christie period whodunnit.
There's also a touch of The Relic book (1995) and film (1997), with an acquisitive interfering Westerner, succumbing to the wrath of an Amazonian tribe.
I was also reminded of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Creeping Man from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, filmed 1991 in Jeremy Brett's series, which also features a crazed beast man stalking his manor house.
The mystery is centred on the theme of mistaken identity and doppelgangers; both Nyssa's and the Doctor's. It is a subject that fascinates me.
The creepy clown trope returns after being used in the previous adventure---The Visitation with it's harlequinesque androids. This time it is the Doctor who is made facelss and sinister by his fancy dress outfit.
At least they aren't resorting to brownface this time, but an actor with actual brown skin. However, Ahmed Khalil is of my race and frankly looks or sounds absolutely nothing like a native of South America. He does, though, portray Latoni with dignity and resolve.
Theft of sacred objects by acquisitive Westerners, ghastly mutilation, and tragedy aside---I'm choking here---there are steam trains, the Charleston, the Roaring Twenties, and a grisly whodunnit. What's not to like?
Apparently this is a bonus two-parter story, thanks to some extra production budget.
As I said at the top of the show, I doing many more of these classic era Doctor Who revisits to make of for a dearth of other geek stuff in my life at the moment. Think of this as a Mini Doctor Who Ultramarathon.
Additionally, Peter Davison's tenure is comparatively short, so in no time we will transition to Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor. "Clunk Click Every Trip", people, the TARDIS is coming in hot!