Watching Classic Who - Carnival of Monsters / The Green Death
Who_Daily: < a href="http://persiflage-1.livejournal.com/142844.html">Watching Carnival of Monsters & The Green Death by < lj user=persiflage_1>
I've been catching up on some Third Doctor stories this weekend.
Carnival of Monsters
Carnival of Monsters is a far better story that its concept (of a "human ant farm") might suggest; it's full of humor, and yet takes the sillier components just seriously enough to make them work well. The satirical approach doesn't sacrifice the integrity of the "straight" science fiction approach.
The Doctor and Jo are on their way to Metebelis Three, but the TARDIS lands them aboard a 1920s ship out in the ocean, a ship that the Doctor knows was once almost as famous as the Marie-Celeste for vanishing inexplicably.
At the same time, a gaudy showman (Vorg) and his blonde female assistant arrive on the Minorians' home world with their MiniScope in tow. They propose to use this to entertain the Minorians, but they don't have the required paperwork to "perform", and the Minorians, who are obviously fussy bureaucrats, object.
The Minorians are well drawn - the class struggles they have with the Functionaries (the slave race on the planet), their paranoia about "contamination", and their strange insistence on using the pronoun "one", all combine to mark them out as a genuine alien culture with its own unique quirks.
Unforunately, the MiniScope contains miniaturised "environments" in which "Tellurians" (actually humans) are trapped and forced to go through the same sequence of events repeatedly - and one of the environments contains the ship on which the TARDIS has landed. It's up to the Doctor to work out how to get them out of the MiniScope (the devices were banned by the Time Lords at the Doctor's insistence as being immeasurably cruel to sentient life forms, but Vorg's somehow survived the purge) - preferrably before it breaks down and kills everyone.
I confess, I spent this story half-distracted every time we saw the ship-board parties as Ian Marter (who went on to play Harry Sullivan alongside the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane) was playing one of the sailors. (Unexpected!Ian Marter FTW!)
I loved Jo teasing the Doctor about not ending up on Metebelis Three - and him saying it's impossible for him to be wrong (though he didn't seem wholly serious when he said that). And his expression when Jo pulls a set of skeleton keys out of her jacket pocket was totally joyous!
The Green Death
Global Chemicals, a presumably multinational corporation headquartered in Wales, has developed a new process for producing greater quantities of gasoline from crude oil. While more efficient, this process also unfortunately creates a dangerous by-product: a toxic green sludge which can't be broken down or destroyed, so it must be stored. Global's solution is to pump the sludge down into a recently closed coal mine, where it will supposedly remain buried. Out of sight, out of mind, or so they think, but it's never that simple of course, and in true Doctor Who fashion, there are monstrous results. The sludge mutates maggots, causing them to grow to giant proportions, and to grow fangs and learn to jump. The sludge also begins to kill people on contact, hence the "green death" of the title. All of this happens before the story proper begins, and UNIT is drawn into events, initially to provide security for Global Chemicals, but also to investigate the death of a miner.
It turns out that the chief executive of Global Chemicals is being controlled by a meglomaniacal computer called BOSS (Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor) which is only interested in efficiency, profits and productivity. Oh, and ruling the entire world through a network of seven other similar computers.
This was a really enjoyable UNIT story - the Brig gets to muck about in civvies a fair bit, which is fairly unusual for him; Benton is his usual affable, unfailingly polite self and has a fantastic line when throwing Professor Jones' fungus to the maggots: "Kitty, kitty, kitty. Come and get your lovely din-dins." (which earns him a "Benton!" in a very sharp voice from the Doctor, but I was giggling madly!); Mike Yates gets to go undercover at Global Chemicals - and dares to go back a second time for more information for the Doctor, despite knowing his cover's been blown (I think this is the only UNIT story I've seen where I really liked Yates!).
And the Doctor's disguises as a milkman and a cleaning lady were utterly priceless!!
I found this story less satisfying as a Jo story, though. I love the way she wants to go and help Professor Jones' protest against Global Chemicals' intended expansion, and the way the Doctor's quite hurt (but hides it) when she'd rather go to Wales than with him Metebelis Three, but the way she falls in love with Cliff Jones had me rather baffled: it seems so sudden - and to me - inexplicable since he twice calls her "cloth-headed" and a "goat"!
I did like the Doctor's jealousy when he sees Jo snuggled up with Cliff in the living room, and his disappointment when he shows her the blue crystal he brought back (with no small effort) from Metebelis Three, and she's more interested in Cliff's book on the Amazon seemed realistic to me.
At least when the Doctor left Jo dancing with her husband-to-be he drove off it was into the sunset, not the pouring rain (over-worked metaphor #784 from RTD!)
I've been catching up on some Third Doctor stories this weekend.
Carnival of Monsters
Carnival of Monsters is a far better story that its concept (of a "human ant farm") might suggest; it's full of humor, and yet takes the sillier components just seriously enough to make them work well. The satirical approach doesn't sacrifice the integrity of the "straight" science fiction approach.
The Doctor and Jo are on their way to Metebelis Three, but the TARDIS lands them aboard a 1920s ship out in the ocean, a ship that the Doctor knows was once almost as famous as the Marie-Celeste for vanishing inexplicably.
At the same time, a gaudy showman (Vorg) and his blonde female assistant arrive on the Minorians' home world with their MiniScope in tow. They propose to use this to entertain the Minorians, but they don't have the required paperwork to "perform", and the Minorians, who are obviously fussy bureaucrats, object.
The Minorians are well drawn - the class struggles they have with the Functionaries (the slave race on the planet), their paranoia about "contamination", and their strange insistence on using the pronoun "one", all combine to mark them out as a genuine alien culture with its own unique quirks.
Unforunately, the MiniScope contains miniaturised "environments" in which "Tellurians" (actually humans) are trapped and forced to go through the same sequence of events repeatedly - and one of the environments contains the ship on which the TARDIS has landed. It's up to the Doctor to work out how to get them out of the MiniScope (the devices were banned by the Time Lords at the Doctor's insistence as being immeasurably cruel to sentient life forms, but Vorg's somehow survived the purge) - preferrably before it breaks down and kills everyone.
I confess, I spent this story half-distracted every time we saw the ship-board parties as Ian Marter (who went on to play Harry Sullivan alongside the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane) was playing one of the sailors. (Unexpected!Ian Marter FTW!)
I loved Jo teasing the Doctor about not ending up on Metebelis Three - and him saying it's impossible for him to be wrong (though he didn't seem wholly serious when he said that). And his expression when Jo pulls a set of skeleton keys out of her jacket pocket was totally joyous!
The Green Death
Global Chemicals, a presumably multinational corporation headquartered in Wales, has developed a new process for producing greater quantities of gasoline from crude oil. While more efficient, this process also unfortunately creates a dangerous by-product: a toxic green sludge which can't be broken down or destroyed, so it must be stored. Global's solution is to pump the sludge down into a recently closed coal mine, where it will supposedly remain buried. Out of sight, out of mind, or so they think, but it's never that simple of course, and in true Doctor Who fashion, there are monstrous results. The sludge mutates maggots, causing them to grow to giant proportions, and to grow fangs and learn to jump. The sludge also begins to kill people on contact, hence the "green death" of the title. All of this happens before the story proper begins, and UNIT is drawn into events, initially to provide security for Global Chemicals, but also to investigate the death of a miner.
It turns out that the chief executive of Global Chemicals is being controlled by a meglomaniacal computer called BOSS (Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor) which is only interested in efficiency, profits and productivity. Oh, and ruling the entire world through a network of seven other similar computers.
This was a really enjoyable UNIT story - the Brig gets to muck about in civvies a fair bit, which is fairly unusual for him; Benton is his usual affable, unfailingly polite self and has a fantastic line when throwing Professor Jones' fungus to the maggots: "Kitty, kitty, kitty. Come and get your lovely din-dins." (which earns him a "Benton!" in a very sharp voice from the Doctor, but I was giggling madly!); Mike Yates gets to go undercover at Global Chemicals - and dares to go back a second time for more information for the Doctor, despite knowing his cover's been blown (I think this is the only UNIT story I've seen where I really liked Yates!).
And the Doctor's disguises as a milkman and a cleaning lady were utterly priceless!!
I found this story less satisfying as a Jo story, though. I love the way she wants to go and help Professor Jones' protest against Global Chemicals' intended expansion, and the way the Doctor's quite hurt (but hides it) when she'd rather go to Wales than with him Metebelis Three, but the way she falls in love with Cliff Jones had me rather baffled: it seems so sudden - and to me - inexplicable since he twice calls her "cloth-headed" and a "goat"!
I did like the Doctor's jealousy when he sees Jo snuggled up with Cliff in the living room, and his disappointment when he shows her the blue crystal he brought back (with no small effort) from Metebelis Three, and she's more interested in Cliff's book on the Amazon seemed realistic to me.
At least when the Doctor left Jo dancing with her husband-to-be he drove off it was into the sunset, not the pouring rain (over-worked metaphor #784 from RTD!)