CRRRRS 553 Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma

By Roy Mathur, on 2024-09-08, at 23:46:10 to 00:54:50 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show

Star Trek Day

Happy Star Trek Day! First USA broadcast on 8 September 1966 on NBC, but actually first broadcast on 6 September 1966 on CTV in Canada. We didn't get it until July 12 1969 on BBC One, and some episodes of TOG (and TNG) were cut or censored by the Beeb.

As for Who, I cannot overemphasise what a struggle it has been, but I'm back and we are so near the end, I can smell it. Ah! The smell of freedom.

Production

Notable Cast: Sixth Doctor: Colin Baker; ex-solicitor, trained at LAMDA, on TV since the 70s, Bayban the Butcher in Blake's 7 City at the Edge of the World, Gallifreyan Commander Maxil in Arc of Infinity, Peri Brown: Nicola Bryant; From Surrey, dancing, piano, amdram, Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, DW first TV role, Edgeworth/Azmael: Maurice Denham; distinguished, prolific, and easily recognisable actor in Animal Farm (1954) all animal voices, the historian in Amicus's Torture Garden (1967), Master Fabio in Hammer's Countess Dracula (1971)
Director: Peter Moffatt, also State of Decay, The Visitation, Mawdryn Undead, The Five Doctors, The Twin Dilemma, and later The Two Doctors
Writer: Anthony Steven; this is his only DW script
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Location: Springwell Quarry, Rickmansworth, HERTS, Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Quarry, BUCKS, BBC Television Centre TC3 and TC8, Shepherd's Bush, London, 1984
Broadcast: Story 136, season 21, serial 7 finale, following The Caves of Androzani covered in 539, 4 x c. 25 min, 22 March to 30 March 1984
Media: Target novelization by Eric Saward (1985), VHS 1992 and 1993, DVD 2009 and 2010, DVD Issue 127 of The Doctor Who DVD Files (2013)

Zeitgeist

Let's time travel back to the day of the first broadcast with our refreshed zeitgeist section.

International news: McMartin preschool teachers in California falsely charged with Satanic ritual abuse.

UK news: IRA bombs blew up in Belfast and the Prevention of Terrorism Act became law allowing the proscription of terrorist associated organisations.

UK No. 1: Hello by Lionel Richie of which I have no memory.

UK weather: chilly c.11 C, about the time of the broadcast, I think.

Personal news: to re-cap, I started watching Pertwee back in 1971, when we moved into our damp South East London council maisonette on our first BW TV with a dining chair as a TV stand on a carpetless floor. The newish secondhand sofa I would not hide behind (I never made it behind there in time) was bright yellow vinyl. By 1984, the sofa was now a pleasant green fabric one, we paid for central heating, and may even have had a colour TV by then... maybe, though we still didn't have a phone or a car. Apart from the geek stuff, I was miserable in sixth form college, but at least heading towards finally passing my O'Levels, after failing the lot in an equally miserable secondary school.

Story

Snotty overachieving twins, Romulous and Remus are spirited away to Titan 3 by Professor Edgeworth, the formaer ruler of Jaconda, under the orders of his usurper, Mestor. The following fighter ships are destroyed by Mestor, leaving a single survivor, Lang. Coincidentally, after almost strangling Peri, the unstable new Doctor decides he needs a meditative retreat on asteroid Titan 3. The Doctor and Peri rescue Lang, but are captured by Edgeworth, who the Doctor recognises as his former mentor and friend, the Time Lord Azmael.

They escape and travel to Jaconda, where they discover Mestor's plan to utilise the mathematical genius of the twins to calculate the trajectories required to bring two nearby planets into stable orbits. These will provide Jaconda, previously laid waste by Mestor's slug-like people, with food. However, it is all a ruse to cause the smaller planets to explode into Jaconda's sun, scattering Mestor's species' eggs across the universe in his bid for conquest.

In the final confrontation, Mestor demonstrates on Azmael how he will take over the Doctor's body. As Mestor's mind takes root in Azmael, the Doctor flings a chemical bottle at the prone body of Mestor, disintegrating him. Azmael, regenerates, but as his final regeneration was already used, he begins to die. The panicking Mestor's mind tries to escape, but with nowhere to go, it dissipates. As Azmael is dying, he and the Doctor talk fondly of old times .

The Doctor gives Lang Azmael's ring of office, then he and Peri begin their journey to return the twins home.

Thoughts

Let's talk about Colin Baker. The Peter Davison era closed in The Caves of Androzani revisited on 2024-05-06, when Five regenerated into Six, heralding the arrival of Colin Baker; ex-solicitor, trained at LAMDA, on TV since the 70s. Like Sylvester McCoy later he actively sought the role and was a self-cofessed sci-fi lit fan.

I have always been a sci-fi fan...I adore 2001: A Space Odyssey...There are some athours, like Ursula Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, and Frank Herbert, whoose every book I have got.---From interviews by Jean Airey for Fantasy Empire and Paul Duncan for Arkensword (1984) quoted in The Handbook by Howe, Walker, and Stammers
I believe he must have been at least partly recruited to Doctor Who for his breakout role as the batty Bayban the Butcher in Blake's 7 City at the Edge of the World (1980); one of my favourite episodes. Though, he of course had previous Who form, famously portraying ruthless rooster carrying Gallifreyan Commander Maxil in Arc of Infinity (1983) (pod 490). Those previous eccentric performances transferred to Six and was evident from the moment of regeneration, when freshly regenerated, he declared to Peri at the end of The Caves of Androzani (1984) (pod 539), with Bayban's and Maxil's same high, nasally, camp, and manacing tones, "Change, my dear. And it seems not a moment too soon".

Six awakens arrogant, egocentric, then collapses into a state of extreme fear of his endless life (entrophobia/chronophobia/apeirophobia?) He is all over the place and we are not quite sure what type of Doctor to expect until the regeneration turmoil somewhat abates (though he remains unstable and murderous) and he selects a new look. The stupid garish outfit consists of bright yellow stripy trousers, the question mark-collar shirt carried over from Four and Five, blue and white polka dot Regency-style loose bow tie, wide round red spatted clown shoes, and the terrible and unfortunately iconic coat of many colours, patterns, and fabrics, with a gag-inducing enamel cat brooch as a lapel pin, screams lunatic. It's a pity because Baker had the acting chops to pull off insanity without a clown suit. What was wardrobe thinking? Did they hate Baker?

John Nathan-Turner opted for a deliberately colourful ensemble, against the wishes of Baker...The costume was designed by Pat Godfrey---thepropgallery.com
John Nathan-Turner had the idea that it should be in "very bad taste" to show the Doctor's alien nature. Baker himself had wanted to wear black to display the Doctor's darker side...Colin Baker has expanded...stating that what he wanted to wear...would become the costume for Christopher Eccleston..."---tardis.fandom.com
The above quotes don't seem to tally with JNT's rationale, when it's even written into the script that Peri hates the Doctor's new clothes. However, despite Baker's ridiculous credibility-sabotaging outfit, he is a breath of fresh air. I.e., he is weird and complicated, like me. The new Doctor says that Davison was "feckless", and to some extent I agree, directly contradicting how I felt about him in my youth, when I thought Five dynamic and age-relatable, with a touch of the All Creatures Great and Small's Tristan Farnon's likeable youthful foolishness. Still, without a doubt Baker's Doctor was extremely unpleasant. In case there was any doubt how unlikeable the new, companion-strangling incarnation is, the Doctor's final words to Peri at the end of the story is, "I am the Doctor, whether you like it or not!"

Still on outfits, Peri also chose a new outfit. It included a flouncy skirt, but nothing revolutionary. The Doctor vengefully scorned it in retaliation for her previous comments. Hilariously, when the stunned copper came to, he also selected new garb that made him look like a shiny clown. Maybe he secretly yearned for more than his drab daily space plod attire. The rest of what we see of civilian humanity---the twins and their father---are bedecked in the usual futuristic Adric-esque leisure suit variant. It's all a little boring, but as I've said before, I miss leisure suits and I can see why we thought it was the future back then. To endlessly reiterate (sorry), I had a nice beige safari-style one and my dad had a blue one. Azael is berobed in a homespun outfit consisting of a tabard, though embellished with geometric patterns as befits an old Time Lord scientist.

Acting was pretty good all-round, though Peri's sobs, when she suspected the Doctor blown to smithereens in Titan 3's alien dome, were forced and hammy. She was written whiny in general, but was she also having problems settling in with Baker? I'll say this for Baker, he's trying his best to play an almost impossibly written part, though which is what you'd expect given how much Baker wanted the role in the first place. A case of being careful of what you wish for? Maurice Denham (Azmael) plays the gentle academic, with the occasional sinister turn, with seasoned professionalism. I was particularly moved by Azmael's death scene, when he remembers his time with the Doctor by the fountain, into which the Doctor once threw him to sober him up.

Creature design of aliens was good. As well as the bird-like natives, in Mestor's court of aliens, I was rather taken with a glimpse of an impressive, though static, treefrog-like humanoid who only appeared for a few seconds in this one scene. Borrowed from another production perhaps? It looked like a tall Kermit and was even outfitted with a variation of Kermit's iconic leafy fringed collar, and winks to the camera. An Easter Egg? The Mestor slug-like costume itself was good, but let down by its fixed lifeless eyes. Set dressing was the usual wobbly JNT era 80s-type affair and the FX equally cheap, though, as a Blake's 7 fan, I don't mind.

Some final notes on the script. Why is a creature able to usurp a Time Lord stupid enough to fall for the Doctor's tricks? Why does the Doctor leave the gun-toting Earthman in charge? It smacks distastefully of colonialism; distinctly un-Whoish behaviour.

I didn't know this in advance, but apparently this story is rated as one of the worst. IMDB gives it 2.5 stars. In summation, I don't agree. This is a perfectly serviceable DW tale, clearly set out, with very little fluff. Natives taken over by parasitic sentient mollusc overlord and an another renegade Time Lord are fascinating thought-fodder. (The Legacy of Gallifrey short story by Gary Russell in Doctor Who Magazine 100 and The Twin Dilemma novel further expands Azmael's backstory, not only as a drinking companion, but also a mentor of the Doctor). If there is a problem, it's that it's hard to get excited about the big threat. Maybe it's a little anaemic or maybe I'm a jaded epicurean.

Trivia

Though I don't believe this is a terrible story, given their job is the exercising of the imagination, writers are excellent at making up excuses.

The writing process was further complicated when Anthony Steven claimed his typewriter had exploded.---Den of Geek