More on Season 18.
I've finished watching "The Leisure Hive", and have now started watching "Meglos". One of the bits I've jotted down is this:
The surreality of an English accountant being held prisoner by space pirates is nothing compared to Meglos himself. He is the last of the Zolfa Thurans, and a diabolical genius, and has a grand master plan to take over the universe. He is also a cactus.
Just to clarify: he is not a humanoid alien with arms, legs and a head covered in little spiny thorns. He is a talking cactus. A relatively inanimate object. He sits in the middle of his gleaming white control room like an angry but talkative houseplant. He doesn’t seem to have a mouth, so goodness knows how he actually talks. Goodness knows how he does anything, unless he has secret telekinetic powers that we never get to see.
The very concept of making the villain a talking, evil cactus is so deeply odd, and completely ridiculous, that one can’t imagine it was done for any reason other than to win a bet. It brings to mind images of John Flanagan and Andrew McCullough sitting drunk in a study, one writer daring the other to type ‘talking cactus’ and mail the script off to the BBC.
It's certainly a much pacier, more entertaining story by far.
The surreality of an English accountant being held prisoner by space pirates is nothing compared to Meglos himself. He is the last of the Zolfa Thurans, and a diabolical genius, and has a grand master plan to take over the universe. He is also a cactus.
Just to clarify: he is not a humanoid alien with arms, legs and a head covered in little spiny thorns. He is a talking cactus. A relatively inanimate object. He sits in the middle of his gleaming white control room like an angry but talkative houseplant. He doesn’t seem to have a mouth, so goodness knows how he actually talks. Goodness knows how he does anything, unless he has secret telekinetic powers that we never get to see.
The very concept of making the villain a talking, evil cactus is so deeply odd, and completely ridiculous, that one can’t imagine it was done for any reason other than to win a bet. It brings to mind images of John Flanagan and Andrew McCullough sitting drunk in a study, one writer daring the other to type ‘talking cactus’ and mail the script off to the BBC.
It's certainly a much pacier, more entertaining story by far.