Doctor Who 6.01 The Dominators
DOCTOR: "An unintelligent enemy is far less dangerous than an intelligent one, Jamie."
JAMIE: "Eh?"
DOCTOR: "Just act stupid. Do you think you can manage that?"
JAMIE: "Oh aye, it's eas..."
Overview
This isn't a popular story among fans, as far as I can make out. I rather enjoyed it, though. Sure, it suffers from all the inherent pacing, structure and production issues that abounded in the monochrome era of the '60s - the first couple of episodes are especially tedious - and neither of the alien races we meet here are particularly engaging, but the story nevertheless does fairly well by all three lead characters. And, you know, for me a plot is only ever something to hang the characters off, anyway. This is often a problem when watching Doctor Who, since for the writers it was usually the other way around, with the characters simply there to hang the plot off, but my way tends to work best when viewing stories like this one. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are all in sparkling form here and the story allows each of them the chance to shine individually, as well as allowing each companion a bit of quality time alone with the Doctor. As a story it might be insubstantial fluff with a very flimsy plot, but for the characters it is a fun romp, showcasing each of the leads well enough that I can forgive it its flaws.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
The biggest problem the first episode has is that it takes eight whole minutes, out of a 22 minute episode, before it actually gets around to showing us the Tardis and crew. It spends those eight minutes setting the scene, with one group of aliens in a classic space invaders flying saucer landing on a planet that isn't their own and making ominous noises about destroying the natives if they prove unsuitable for slave labour, so we know these are the bad guys, while a far more light-hearted group of different aliens - natives of this planet - deliver a lot of exposition about the island the first lot landed on, before accidentally crashing into it themselves. We spend far too much time getting to know this second group, most of which is completely wasted since three out of four are summarily slaughtered by one of the first lot the moment he lays eyes on them. Off to a flyer there, show!
Both groups of aliens are very bizarrely dressed. The first lot, the eponymous Dominators, have got the most enormous shoulder pads in the history of ever, which make them look a bit like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, while the second lot, the Dulcians, wear what look like togas made out of curtains, all bunched up around the top. That is, the men wear togas, while the women wear leotards with see-through gauze miniskirts over the top! Ah, fashion. At least Jamie isn't the only male wearing a skirt in this story!
We aren't going to comment on the very obvious painted backdrop that looks as if it could use a good iron to get the wrinkles out.
This is Zoe's first adventure as a full-blown companion, after she met the Doctor and Jamie (and subsequently stowed away on the Tardis) in the season five finale, The Wheel in Space, which I haven't seen because four out of six episodes no longer exist. Thanks for that, BBC junking policy. The Doctor and Jamie have been together for the best part of two seasons at this point, so already have their schtick down to a fine art, but Zoe fits in with them perfectly and is a great addition to the team, her intellectualism and cool, collected rationality a striking contrast to Jamie's brash impetuosity and a good anchor to the Second Doctor's scatterbrained brilliance.
The basic plot of the story is very simple, although the detail really doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. The Dominators are a ruthless race who already rule ten galaxies and need fuel for their space fleet to facilitate further expansion. They have landed a pair of operatives (Rago and Toba) on the planet Dulkis, since they happen to be passing, their mission being to blow the planet up so that the space fleet can somehow harvest the energy of that explosion by way of refuelling. Yes, that seems a terribly impractical way of going about things, but it is what it is, so we'll just run with it. The Dulcians, it transpires, are the most chronically peaceful race ever, peaceful way past the point of indolent docility - so apathetic that they are incapable of even recognising a threat when they see it, never mind responding to the alien menace. So the Doctor must either attempt to stir them up into action before the invaders can destroy them - or else neutralise that threat himself. Both options prove easier said than done.
We've met Rago before - or, rather, will meet him again. Ronald Allen also played Professor Cornish in the Third Doctor adventure The Ambassadors of Death. He puts in a very intense performance here as the cautious Dominator constantly having to keep his subordinate's destructive tendencies in check in order to complete their mission without exhausting what appear to be painfully low power supplies. Although not low enough, clearly, since it takes five episodes to defeat them.
The Dominators' key strength appears to lie in their robot minions, the Quarks. It's just a shame the 1968 production team didn't manage to adequately represent the destructive capability the things were meant to possess, because what they mostly look is cute and clumsy, rather than deadly, and the squeaky little voices don't help!
The one Dulcian worth his salt is Cully, the guide of the ill-fated tour to the island, who sees his three passengers slaughtered by the Dominators but is then completely unable to persuade the rest of his people that they are in danger. Cully's enquiring mind and adventurous, rebellious spirit make him pretty unique among Dulcians and he is the most engaging guest character on offer in this adventure, teaming up first with Zoe and later with Jamie, to great effect.
The Doctor and his companions are first discovered on the island by a Dulcian scientist and a pair of students he has brought across on a research project. Scientist Balan's non-reaction to the Doctor's statement that he and his friends come from another world and another time is rather amusing. This disinterested attitude, we quickly learn, is typical of Dulcians, who appear to have given up on curiosity along with aggression. It doesn't take long to understand why a sharp-minded free-thinker like Cully is practically climbing the walls with frustration at being part of such an apathetic race.
The Doctor and Jamie manage to get themselves captured by the Dominators, leading to a number of hilarious scenes as they attempt to figure out what the aliens are up to and how to get away from them. It is hard to describe in words how funny Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines are together - they made such a wonderful double act, but the performance is very visual, it's all in the body language and the chemistry and the little gestures and whatnot. Together they are comedy gold, even in relatively serious scenes.
Also hilarious is the Dominators pinning Jamie to a table and calmly announcing that they are going to 'probe [his] physiological make up'. Probe? Way to play into every alien abduction conspiracy theory out there! Upon scanning Jamie, they observe that he only has one heart - but then, assuming his physiology will be identical, don't bother scanning the Doctor, which is just as well since the show didn't decide until Jon Pertwee's debut the following season that the Doctor has two hearts. They also observe that Jamie's brain shows signs of recent rapid learning. Yep, that would be the inevitable result of taking an ill-educated lad from 1745 on a series of wild adventures through time and space!
I love how very clear it is, the whole time the Doctor is a prisoner, that he is constantly thinking and planning, on the look-out for any advantage that will allow him and Jamie to escape. I also really enjoy hearing him spell out to Jamie the benefit of playing dumb so that the enemy will underestimate them, not because it is a mischievous joke at Jamie's expense but because that right there is one of the Second Doctor's key defining traits and he uses it to great effect in this story. Not all of his stories allow us to see the sharp, calculating mind behind the bumble and fluster so clearly, certainly not so consistently. He even lets the Dominators torture him as part of the intelligence test they carry out, rather than complete the very simple task they have set him, because he wants them to dismiss him as a harmless imbecile. Deliberate misinformation. It works, too, as Rago decides that he and Jamie are too stupid to be any good as slaves and too harmless to be worth wasting power executing, so lets them go free.
I love the set for the interior of the Dominator spaceship. The design is fantastic, full of very busy panels and displays and controls and whatnot. It's very effective and they make excellent use of the space available. I especially love the little Quark-o-meter over in one corner, which measures how many functional Quarks they have left!
While the Doctor and Jamie are busily extricating themselves from the clutches of the Dominators, Zoe is accompanying Cully back to the mainland, where they attempt to convince the Dulcian council that hostile aliens have landed. I've got to say, I rather adore the little travel capsule they ride in, even if it doesn't have any windows and resembles nothing so much as a bullet with fins. Apparently able to cross both land and sea, you just have to dial a destination, any destination, and it gets you there in under eight minutes. That sounds awesome! I want one!
For creatures that rule ten galaxies, the Dominators don't seem terribly bright - they make an awful lot of assumptions based on very little evidence. And despite having landed on a very small island that they then proceed to supposedly explore thoroughly, it takes them a ridiculously long time to notice Balan's research team, who have to actually get right up to their doorstep before the Dominators realise they are there.
I rather enjoy Zoe's disdain for the impractical Dulcian clothes Cully persuades her to change into, the better to blend in so they can sneak back to the island.
Dulcians apparently have two hearts, same as Time Lords.
While Cully and Zoe make their way back to the island - and are promptly captured by the Dominators - the Doctor and Jamie are travelling in the opposite direction to the mainland. Patrick Troughton gets to show off his acting chops in the scenes where the Doctor tries to convince the Dulcian council to take action before it is too late - for once, Two is deadly serious, dropping all his funny little mannerisms and affectations as he delivers a passionate little speech about the deadly threat posed by the Dominators. Not that it does any good. The Dulcians as a people simply cannot comprehend why anyone should wish them harm and are pathologically incapable of spontaneous, decisive action, preferring instead to debate minutia around in circles until the cows come home - they remind me a bit of Terry Pratchett's wizards (and Greek-type philosophers), too busy dithering, sidetracking and arguing to ever actually get anything done. In despair, the Doctor heads back to the island to see what he can do about the Dominators himself, since the Dulcians appear to be incapable of defending themselves.
I like how flabbergasted Jamie is at the concept of a totally pacifist society, with no armies whatsoever. Given his violent background as a warrior fighting a bloody civil war, prior to having his horizons broadened by the Doctor, it is hardly surprising that he would find the Dulcians so hard to comprehend.
Back on the island, Zoe and Cully make for a surprisingly entertaining partnership, as they conspire to plot an escape attempt from their Dominator captors, who have put them and the research team to work clearing a site for drilling. Zoe proves herself to be satisfyingly pro-active and resourceful. She also proves to be a lot fitter and tougher than any of the Dulcians present, as one by one they all collapse with exhaustion while Zoe is still going strong - and that despite the fact that Zoe's background is as an astrophysicist on a space station, so she is hardly likely to be any more accustomed to manual labour than they are.
Damn, but the actors did their level best to make those polystyrene rocks look proper heavy. I love how dirty they are allowed to become as a result of their slave labour. That's a nice touch of realism.
Of the three Dulcians in the survey team, only the young Teel is allowed a real character journey, starting out a typical Dulcian pacifist, but then making an active choice to set those scruples aside and join Zoe and Cully in planning an escape attempt, rather than meekly accept his fate as a helpless slave of the Dominators, and thereafter throwing himself wholeheartedly into the resistance.
Patrick Troughton wasn't available for the location filming, so whenever we catch a glimpse of the Doctor in those location scenes shot on film, it is actually his stunt double, cunningly concealed so we can't quite tell that it isn't the real actor. Except that we kind of can.
Returning to the island, the Doctor and Jamie have another series of funny little scenes as Jamie points out that if the capsule returns to the survey unit they will walk straight into the Dominators' hands, so the Doctor promptly proceeds to hotwire the craft so he can steer it manually to a more concealed landing spot - despite it not having windows through which to see where they are going! Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines always, always bring the funny. There is just so much warmth and humour in any scene involving these two characters, they are brilliant, but what I especially like is that the humour is never forced, it always flows from the characters and the scenarios - the actors take the story seriously and play it straight even while being very funny, rather than undermining the production by sending it up. I think I must have seen this episode, or at least a part of it, in a UK Gold re-run at some point, or something, because I remember this sequence vividly, despite being unfamiliar with the rest of the story! Something about it clearly stuck in my memory. I especially like the bit where Jamie asks the Doctor if the capsule doesn't have any ordinary controls, but has to mime a steering action because he doesn't know the name for what he means. It's a perfect character detail because Jamie comes from 1745, and although he might have seen steering wheels and other such mechanisms during his travels with the Doctor, they wouldn't be within his vocabulary.
Having returned to the island, the Doctor and Jamie set about scouting for the others, giving us an amusing little moment where Jamie sees the Doctor pulling a telescope out and promptly asks what he can see, even while snatching it from his hand before he's had a chance to see anything, whereupon the frustrated Doctor pulls an epic bitch face.
There are way too many scenes of the Dulcian council indolently debating whether or not to a) believe in the alien threat, and b) do anything about it, if it really exists. But they are tedious and repetitive enough to watch, never mind comment on. Suffice it to say that they ultimately decide to do nothing, because a less assertive culture never existed. Except possibly the post-war Thals encountered by the First Doctor in The Daleks, who took a similarly pacifist stance - but at least the Thals were decisive enough to choose to defend themselves against the Daleks, in the end; the Dulcians are far more spineless and ineffectual.
I'm rather intrigued by the large, wobbly-based desk ornament that is given a rather prominent position in all the scenes at the Dulcian council. What's up with that?
Hey, that's Brian Cant playing one of the Dulcian councillors! He was, like, the face of my very earliest childhood in Play School and lent his voice to other children's shows of the '70s, like Trumpton and Camberwick Green - but here he is being a serious dramatic actor! And he does bring a nice gravitas to his role.
The internal wrangling between Rago and Toba goes round and round in circles through the entire story. Toba wants to destroy everyone and everything he sees - his grim face positively lights up at the prospect of killing something - and he thinks Rago is a weakling for not approving of this strategy. Rago, on the other hand, feels that unnecessary destruction is wasteful and that Toba is a reckless idiot so focused on gratifying his lust for killing that he cannot see the bigger picture (i.e. that they don't have enough power to waste, and will be destroying the whole planet and everyone on it eventually anyway). And so the circle goes, from the moment they step off their ship until the very last moment we see them! Even being comprehensively smacked down by Rago and the Quarks after staging an attempted mutiny doesn't stop Toba grumbling his dissatisfaction. And, you know, the irony is that if Rago had just let Toba kill everyone up front like he wanted to, the Dominators would have won…
After Zoe helps Cully escape from the Dominators, he hooks up with Jamie; they find an antique laser gun, a relic of the days before the Dulcians became pacifist, and Jamie uses it to shoot and destroy a Quark. It is a timely reminder that for all his dim-witted affability, Jamie's background is one of conflict and he is intimately acquainted with war. He puts that experience to excellent use in this story, as he and Cully form a highly effective team - and it is especially interesting to see Jamie pushed into a leadership role by this partnership, as we are more accustomed to seeing him as the dumb muscle providing backup for the more intellectual Doctor or Victoria/Zoe, and allowing them to do all his thinking for him. He really comes into his own in the last couple of episodes of this story, as he keeps the enthusiastic but inexperienced Cully's feet on the ground and gets the pair of them organised. Jamie may be simple, but he isn't stupid, certainly not where survival and combat are concerned - it is he, rather than the educated Cully, who realises when they find themselves trapped in a bomb shelter that the ventilation shaft is blocked and they will suffocate if they don't find a way out, and it is thanks to Jamie's never-say-die spirit that they do manage to escape, as he won't let Cully give in just because the going is tough. Once free, Jamie starts strategising, first assessing the strength of the enemy and then organising himself and Cully into a two-man resistance army to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Quarks. It is impressive stuff, for an 18th century piper boy from the Scottish Highlands! This is Jamie in his element, buzzing with adrenaline and the thrill of the chase as he scampers around the ubiquitous quarry craggy hills of the island from one point of cover to another, tormenting Quarks and Dominators alike and avoiding capture all the while - Frazer Hines must have had an absolute blast filming those scenes!
The Doctor, meanwhile, has got himself captured again. Thanks to the distraction provided by Jamie, he and Zoe find themselves alone on the Dominator spaceship long enough to have a good look around to try to figure out what they are up to. I would quite like to know, though, just why the Dominators have suddenly written Zoe off as being the same 'inferior' type as the Doctor and Jamie when they haven't scanned her to know what her physiology is like, she is wearing Dulcian clothes and she worked harder and longer than anyone at the drill site earlier! Well, it is mostly just a plot device to allow her to spend some time with the Doctor, I suppose. Zoe's tremendous intellect and high tech background working as an astrophysicist on a space station allow her to more than hold her own, discussing the technology of the Dominators' spaceship with the Doctor. Bless her, she's so very earnest, she's adorable. The Doctor can't resist teasing her for it, very affectionately - Two is so wonderfully gentle and paternal with his companions; you've just got to love him for it.
I love watching the way the Doctor uses the harmless imbecile persona he has adopted for the Dominators' benefit to manipulate them in first one direction and then another, whatever will keep other people alive at least a little while longer, while listening intently to every conversation they have in search of the vital clue that will allow him to save everyone, thinking furiously and making plans up as he goes along.
Man, the director got some great shots and angles in on this story, in the location scenes especially. Of course, there are also some terrible flubs, like the scene where you can clearly see the cameraman's shadow, but we'll just ignore those and focus on the pretty.
Oh, the Doctor's face when he sees Jamie sneaking up behind the Quark guarding the prisoners is a picture. The jailbreak works, though. It really is ludicrously easy to disable a Quark!
Once free of the Dominators, the Doctor uses the medical kit in the bomb shelter to build a bunch of mini bombs for Jamie and Cully to use in their guerrilla campaign against the Quarks. Fun with chemistry! He's so gleeful when he demonstrates the impromptu explosive he's created, it's adorable. Then Jamie is just as adorably gleeful about getting to run around blowing up Quarks…but we are given a timely reminder of how deadly the Quarks are supposed to be when Cully is shot and wounded.
The Dominators' plan involves drilling through the planetary crust to trigger a localised volcano, into which they intend to drop an atomic seed device that will detonate the entire planet. So, our intrepid little band of resistance fighters decide to dig a horizontal shaft from the bomb shelter they've made their HQ into the vertical shaft being drilled by the Dominators, so they can catch the seed device as it is dropped. Crazy, right? Especially since, you know, the Dominators are using a powered drill and have a big head start, whereas the Doctor and his weary band of resistance fighters are digging with their bare hands and whatever they can scrounge from around the bomb shelter! It's ludicrous! Easily the weakest part of the plot, right there. It works though, obviously, against all the odds, because the Doctor always wins, even when his plans are insane.
I really hope Cully is hailed as a hero when he returns to the mainland, wounded but triumphant.
The planet is saved, and the Doctor manages to sneak the atomic seed device aboard the Dominator spaceship before it takes off, so that they are blown up by their own bomb, which is nice and karmic and all, but there have already been boreholes drilled into the planetary crust, triggering a localised volcano. This means that the Doctor and his companions have to sprint back to the Tardis before it and they are engulfed in boiling lava…and that would explain why the Tardis is surrounded by said lava at the beginning of the next story, The Mind Robber, which I saw long before I watched this one!
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "It's an island on Dulkis, a perfectly splendid planet."
JAMIE: "Aye, I've heard that one before."
DOCTOR: "We come from a different world, from a different time."
BALAN: "Not from this world? Really, that's very interesting. I must note that in my daily report."
ZOE: "Well, you don't sound very surprised."
RAGO: "Every culture develops, Probationer Toba. Never base an assumption on the past. Examine the present."
ZOE: "Do spacecraft often land in Dulkis?"
KANDO: "As far as I know, you are the first."
JAMIE: "Oh I must say then, you don't seem the least bit surprised."
KANDO: "We are taught to accept facts, being foolish to contemplate fantasy in the face of reality. You are here. This is fact. That you come from another planet I accept because I have no other means of proving it."
CULLY: "Vegetables, the lot of you. You don't live, you exist."
CULLY: "At least your Doctor friend showed some interest."
ZOE: "Yes, he has an enquiring mind."
CULLY: "In that case he'll end up as unpopular as I am."
JAMIE: "Oh no. You're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?"
DOCTOR: "That, I think, Jamie, depends upon what you think I am thinking."
TOBA: "We are meant to be obeyed."
JAMIE: "Not by me you're not."
CULLY: "Typical Dulcian behaviour. Something strange, something you don't understand and you switch off. [taps his head] Up here."
BALAN: "We don't all have your childish curiosity, Cully."
CULLY: "You'd have more fun out of life if you did."
CULLY: "Hey, you asked a question."
ZOE: "Yes."
CULLY: "There you go, Balan, that proves it. This girl's got an enquiring mind. She can't possibly come from Dulkis."
DOCTOR: "Shush, Jamie. I'm trying to listen."
JAMIE: "Oh, everyone wants me to shut up. All right, I will."
JAMIE: "Oh, you mean they're going to find out how clever we are?"
DOCTOR: "Yes. Or how stupid. I wonder which is the more important to them?"
DOCTOR: "An unintelligent enemy is far less dangerous than an intelligent one, Jamie."
JAMIE: "Eh?"
DOCTOR: "Just act stupid. Do you think you can manage that?"
JAMIE: "Oh aye, it's eas..." [glares]
RAGO: "What does it do?"
DOCTOR: "Oh, oh, I see. Well, guns kill people. Is that what you wanted to know?"
SENEX: "For centuries we have lived in peace. We have proved that universal gentleness will cause aggression to die."
JAMIE: "Aye, well, the Dominators don't know anything about your gentleness."
BALAN: "Resistance will only lead to violence."
ZOE: "And submission leads to slavery. We must fight."
JAMIE: "Hey, can you land the thing?"
DOCTOR: "Of course I can. I'll get us down in no time at all."
JAMIE: "Aye, but in one piece?"
DOCTOR: "Well, I think we've done rather well so far, don't you?"
JAMIE: "More by luck than by judgement, if you ask me."
DOCTOR: "Well, now's our chance to investigate the power unit and find out what fuel this ship carries."
ZOE: "Well the Quarks use ultrasound, so presumably it must be a fuel capable of producing a high enough energy quotient to sustain an amplifying complex of considerably sophisticated design."
DOCTOR: "Yes. Must be pretty powerful too."
ZOE: "Yes, well that's what…well, if you don't want my help."
DOCTOR: "Oh I do, I do. I do, Zoe."
COUNCILLOR: "Surely no civilised race would indulge in purposeless violence?"
CULLY: "Oh, you don't believe in half measures, do you."
JAMIE: "Well, it's important to keep the enemy guessing."
DOCTOR: "Jamie, it's a brilliant idea! It's so simple only you could have thought of it."
JAMIE: "Oh. Eh?"
JAMIE: "How are you going to dig through there with your sonic screwdriver?"
DOCTOR: "It's a little more than a screwdriver."
The Verdict
Overall, this is a fun romp, with a very flimsy, insubstantial plot, but lots of entertaining, engaging character work.
JAMIE: "Eh?"
DOCTOR: "Just act stupid. Do you think you can manage that?"
JAMIE: "Oh aye, it's eas..."
Overview
This isn't a popular story among fans, as far as I can make out. I rather enjoyed it, though. Sure, it suffers from all the inherent pacing, structure and production issues that abounded in the monochrome era of the '60s - the first couple of episodes are especially tedious - and neither of the alien races we meet here are particularly engaging, but the story nevertheless does fairly well by all three lead characters. And, you know, for me a plot is only ever something to hang the characters off, anyway. This is often a problem when watching Doctor Who, since for the writers it was usually the other way around, with the characters simply there to hang the plot off, but my way tends to work best when viewing stories like this one. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are all in sparkling form here and the story allows each of them the chance to shine individually, as well as allowing each companion a bit of quality time alone with the Doctor. As a story it might be insubstantial fluff with a very flimsy plot, but for the characters it is a fun romp, showcasing each of the leads well enough that I can forgive it its flaws.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
The biggest problem the first episode has is that it takes eight whole minutes, out of a 22 minute episode, before it actually gets around to showing us the Tardis and crew. It spends those eight minutes setting the scene, with one group of aliens in a classic space invaders flying saucer landing on a planet that isn't their own and making ominous noises about destroying the natives if they prove unsuitable for slave labour, so we know these are the bad guys, while a far more light-hearted group of different aliens - natives of this planet - deliver a lot of exposition about the island the first lot landed on, before accidentally crashing into it themselves. We spend far too much time getting to know this second group, most of which is completely wasted since three out of four are summarily slaughtered by one of the first lot the moment he lays eyes on them. Off to a flyer there, show!
Both groups of aliens are very bizarrely dressed. The first lot, the eponymous Dominators, have got the most enormous shoulder pads in the history of ever, which make them look a bit like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, while the second lot, the Dulcians, wear what look like togas made out of curtains, all bunched up around the top. That is, the men wear togas, while the women wear leotards with see-through gauze miniskirts over the top! Ah, fashion. At least Jamie isn't the only male wearing a skirt in this story!
We aren't going to comment on the very obvious painted backdrop that looks as if it could use a good iron to get the wrinkles out.
This is Zoe's first adventure as a full-blown companion, after she met the Doctor and Jamie (and subsequently stowed away on the Tardis) in the season five finale, The Wheel in Space, which I haven't seen because four out of six episodes no longer exist. Thanks for that, BBC junking policy. The Doctor and Jamie have been together for the best part of two seasons at this point, so already have their schtick down to a fine art, but Zoe fits in with them perfectly and is a great addition to the team, her intellectualism and cool, collected rationality a striking contrast to Jamie's brash impetuosity and a good anchor to the Second Doctor's scatterbrained brilliance.
The basic plot of the story is very simple, although the detail really doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. The Dominators are a ruthless race who already rule ten galaxies and need fuel for their space fleet to facilitate further expansion. They have landed a pair of operatives (Rago and Toba) on the planet Dulkis, since they happen to be passing, their mission being to blow the planet up so that the space fleet can somehow harvest the energy of that explosion by way of refuelling. Yes, that seems a terribly impractical way of going about things, but it is what it is, so we'll just run with it. The Dulcians, it transpires, are the most chronically peaceful race ever, peaceful way past the point of indolent docility - so apathetic that they are incapable of even recognising a threat when they see it, never mind responding to the alien menace. So the Doctor must either attempt to stir them up into action before the invaders can destroy them - or else neutralise that threat himself. Both options prove easier said than done.
We've met Rago before - or, rather, will meet him again. Ronald Allen also played Professor Cornish in the Third Doctor adventure The Ambassadors of Death. He puts in a very intense performance here as the cautious Dominator constantly having to keep his subordinate's destructive tendencies in check in order to complete their mission without exhausting what appear to be painfully low power supplies. Although not low enough, clearly, since it takes five episodes to defeat them.
The Dominators' key strength appears to lie in their robot minions, the Quarks. It's just a shame the 1968 production team didn't manage to adequately represent the destructive capability the things were meant to possess, because what they mostly look is cute and clumsy, rather than deadly, and the squeaky little voices don't help!
The one Dulcian worth his salt is Cully, the guide of the ill-fated tour to the island, who sees his three passengers slaughtered by the Dominators but is then completely unable to persuade the rest of his people that they are in danger. Cully's enquiring mind and adventurous, rebellious spirit make him pretty unique among Dulcians and he is the most engaging guest character on offer in this adventure, teaming up first with Zoe and later with Jamie, to great effect.
The Doctor and his companions are first discovered on the island by a Dulcian scientist and a pair of students he has brought across on a research project. Scientist Balan's non-reaction to the Doctor's statement that he and his friends come from another world and another time is rather amusing. This disinterested attitude, we quickly learn, is typical of Dulcians, who appear to have given up on curiosity along with aggression. It doesn't take long to understand why a sharp-minded free-thinker like Cully is practically climbing the walls with frustration at being part of such an apathetic race.
The Doctor and Jamie manage to get themselves captured by the Dominators, leading to a number of hilarious scenes as they attempt to figure out what the aliens are up to and how to get away from them. It is hard to describe in words how funny Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines are together - they made such a wonderful double act, but the performance is very visual, it's all in the body language and the chemistry and the little gestures and whatnot. Together they are comedy gold, even in relatively serious scenes.
Also hilarious is the Dominators pinning Jamie to a table and calmly announcing that they are going to 'probe [his] physiological make up'. Probe? Way to play into every alien abduction conspiracy theory out there! Upon scanning Jamie, they observe that he only has one heart - but then, assuming his physiology will be identical, don't bother scanning the Doctor, which is just as well since the show didn't decide until Jon Pertwee's debut the following season that the Doctor has two hearts. They also observe that Jamie's brain shows signs of recent rapid learning. Yep, that would be the inevitable result of taking an ill-educated lad from 1745 on a series of wild adventures through time and space!
I love how very clear it is, the whole time the Doctor is a prisoner, that he is constantly thinking and planning, on the look-out for any advantage that will allow him and Jamie to escape. I also really enjoy hearing him spell out to Jamie the benefit of playing dumb so that the enemy will underestimate them, not because it is a mischievous joke at Jamie's expense but because that right there is one of the Second Doctor's key defining traits and he uses it to great effect in this story. Not all of his stories allow us to see the sharp, calculating mind behind the bumble and fluster so clearly, certainly not so consistently. He even lets the Dominators torture him as part of the intelligence test they carry out, rather than complete the very simple task they have set him, because he wants them to dismiss him as a harmless imbecile. Deliberate misinformation. It works, too, as Rago decides that he and Jamie are too stupid to be any good as slaves and too harmless to be worth wasting power executing, so lets them go free.
I love the set for the interior of the Dominator spaceship. The design is fantastic, full of very busy panels and displays and controls and whatnot. It's very effective and they make excellent use of the space available. I especially love the little Quark-o-meter over in one corner, which measures how many functional Quarks they have left!
While the Doctor and Jamie are busily extricating themselves from the clutches of the Dominators, Zoe is accompanying Cully back to the mainland, where they attempt to convince the Dulcian council that hostile aliens have landed. I've got to say, I rather adore the little travel capsule they ride in, even if it doesn't have any windows and resembles nothing so much as a bullet with fins. Apparently able to cross both land and sea, you just have to dial a destination, any destination, and it gets you there in under eight minutes. That sounds awesome! I want one!
For creatures that rule ten galaxies, the Dominators don't seem terribly bright - they make an awful lot of assumptions based on very little evidence. And despite having landed on a very small island that they then proceed to supposedly explore thoroughly, it takes them a ridiculously long time to notice Balan's research team, who have to actually get right up to their doorstep before the Dominators realise they are there.
I rather enjoy Zoe's disdain for the impractical Dulcian clothes Cully persuades her to change into, the better to blend in so they can sneak back to the island.
Dulcians apparently have two hearts, same as Time Lords.
While Cully and Zoe make their way back to the island - and are promptly captured by the Dominators - the Doctor and Jamie are travelling in the opposite direction to the mainland. Patrick Troughton gets to show off his acting chops in the scenes where the Doctor tries to convince the Dulcian council to take action before it is too late - for once, Two is deadly serious, dropping all his funny little mannerisms and affectations as he delivers a passionate little speech about the deadly threat posed by the Dominators. Not that it does any good. The Dulcians as a people simply cannot comprehend why anyone should wish them harm and are pathologically incapable of spontaneous, decisive action, preferring instead to debate minutia around in circles until the cows come home - they remind me a bit of Terry Pratchett's wizards (and Greek-type philosophers), too busy dithering, sidetracking and arguing to ever actually get anything done. In despair, the Doctor heads back to the island to see what he can do about the Dominators himself, since the Dulcians appear to be incapable of defending themselves.
I like how flabbergasted Jamie is at the concept of a totally pacifist society, with no armies whatsoever. Given his violent background as a warrior fighting a bloody civil war, prior to having his horizons broadened by the Doctor, it is hardly surprising that he would find the Dulcians so hard to comprehend.
Back on the island, Zoe and Cully make for a surprisingly entertaining partnership, as they conspire to plot an escape attempt from their Dominator captors, who have put them and the research team to work clearing a site for drilling. Zoe proves herself to be satisfyingly pro-active and resourceful. She also proves to be a lot fitter and tougher than any of the Dulcians present, as one by one they all collapse with exhaustion while Zoe is still going strong - and that despite the fact that Zoe's background is as an astrophysicist on a space station, so she is hardly likely to be any more accustomed to manual labour than they are.
Damn, but the actors did their level best to make those polystyrene rocks look proper heavy. I love how dirty they are allowed to become as a result of their slave labour. That's a nice touch of realism.
Of the three Dulcians in the survey team, only the young Teel is allowed a real character journey, starting out a typical Dulcian pacifist, but then making an active choice to set those scruples aside and join Zoe and Cully in planning an escape attempt, rather than meekly accept his fate as a helpless slave of the Dominators, and thereafter throwing himself wholeheartedly into the resistance.
Patrick Troughton wasn't available for the location filming, so whenever we catch a glimpse of the Doctor in those location scenes shot on film, it is actually his stunt double, cunningly concealed so we can't quite tell that it isn't the real actor. Except that we kind of can.
Returning to the island, the Doctor and Jamie have another series of funny little scenes as Jamie points out that if the capsule returns to the survey unit they will walk straight into the Dominators' hands, so the Doctor promptly proceeds to hotwire the craft so he can steer it manually to a more concealed landing spot - despite it not having windows through which to see where they are going! Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines always, always bring the funny. There is just so much warmth and humour in any scene involving these two characters, they are brilliant, but what I especially like is that the humour is never forced, it always flows from the characters and the scenarios - the actors take the story seriously and play it straight even while being very funny, rather than undermining the production by sending it up. I think I must have seen this episode, or at least a part of it, in a UK Gold re-run at some point, or something, because I remember this sequence vividly, despite being unfamiliar with the rest of the story! Something about it clearly stuck in my memory. I especially like the bit where Jamie asks the Doctor if the capsule doesn't have any ordinary controls, but has to mime a steering action because he doesn't know the name for what he means. It's a perfect character detail because Jamie comes from 1745, and although he might have seen steering wheels and other such mechanisms during his travels with the Doctor, they wouldn't be within his vocabulary.
Having returned to the island, the Doctor and Jamie set about scouting for the others, giving us an amusing little moment where Jamie sees the Doctor pulling a telescope out and promptly asks what he can see, even while snatching it from his hand before he's had a chance to see anything, whereupon the frustrated Doctor pulls an epic bitch face.
There are way too many scenes of the Dulcian council indolently debating whether or not to a) believe in the alien threat, and b) do anything about it, if it really exists. But they are tedious and repetitive enough to watch, never mind comment on. Suffice it to say that they ultimately decide to do nothing, because a less assertive culture never existed. Except possibly the post-war Thals encountered by the First Doctor in The Daleks, who took a similarly pacifist stance - but at least the Thals were decisive enough to choose to defend themselves against the Daleks, in the end; the Dulcians are far more spineless and ineffectual.
I'm rather intrigued by the large, wobbly-based desk ornament that is given a rather prominent position in all the scenes at the Dulcian council. What's up with that?
Hey, that's Brian Cant playing one of the Dulcian councillors! He was, like, the face of my very earliest childhood in Play School and lent his voice to other children's shows of the '70s, like Trumpton and Camberwick Green - but here he is being a serious dramatic actor! And he does bring a nice gravitas to his role.
The internal wrangling between Rago and Toba goes round and round in circles through the entire story. Toba wants to destroy everyone and everything he sees - his grim face positively lights up at the prospect of killing something - and he thinks Rago is a weakling for not approving of this strategy. Rago, on the other hand, feels that unnecessary destruction is wasteful and that Toba is a reckless idiot so focused on gratifying his lust for killing that he cannot see the bigger picture (i.e. that they don't have enough power to waste, and will be destroying the whole planet and everyone on it eventually anyway). And so the circle goes, from the moment they step off their ship until the very last moment we see them! Even being comprehensively smacked down by Rago and the Quarks after staging an attempted mutiny doesn't stop Toba grumbling his dissatisfaction. And, you know, the irony is that if Rago had just let Toba kill everyone up front like he wanted to, the Dominators would have won…
After Zoe helps Cully escape from the Dominators, he hooks up with Jamie; they find an antique laser gun, a relic of the days before the Dulcians became pacifist, and Jamie uses it to shoot and destroy a Quark. It is a timely reminder that for all his dim-witted affability, Jamie's background is one of conflict and he is intimately acquainted with war. He puts that experience to excellent use in this story, as he and Cully form a highly effective team - and it is especially interesting to see Jamie pushed into a leadership role by this partnership, as we are more accustomed to seeing him as the dumb muscle providing backup for the more intellectual Doctor or Victoria/Zoe, and allowing them to do all his thinking for him. He really comes into his own in the last couple of episodes of this story, as he keeps the enthusiastic but inexperienced Cully's feet on the ground and gets the pair of them organised. Jamie may be simple, but he isn't stupid, certainly not where survival and combat are concerned - it is he, rather than the educated Cully, who realises when they find themselves trapped in a bomb shelter that the ventilation shaft is blocked and they will suffocate if they don't find a way out, and it is thanks to Jamie's never-say-die spirit that they do manage to escape, as he won't let Cully give in just because the going is tough. Once free, Jamie starts strategising, first assessing the strength of the enemy and then organising himself and Cully into a two-man resistance army to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Quarks. It is impressive stuff, for an 18th century piper boy from the Scottish Highlands! This is Jamie in his element, buzzing with adrenaline and the thrill of the chase as he scampers around the ubiquitous quarry craggy hills of the island from one point of cover to another, tormenting Quarks and Dominators alike and avoiding capture all the while - Frazer Hines must have had an absolute blast filming those scenes!
The Doctor, meanwhile, has got himself captured again. Thanks to the distraction provided by Jamie, he and Zoe find themselves alone on the Dominator spaceship long enough to have a good look around to try to figure out what they are up to. I would quite like to know, though, just why the Dominators have suddenly written Zoe off as being the same 'inferior' type as the Doctor and Jamie when they haven't scanned her to know what her physiology is like, she is wearing Dulcian clothes and she worked harder and longer than anyone at the drill site earlier! Well, it is mostly just a plot device to allow her to spend some time with the Doctor, I suppose. Zoe's tremendous intellect and high tech background working as an astrophysicist on a space station allow her to more than hold her own, discussing the technology of the Dominators' spaceship with the Doctor. Bless her, she's so very earnest, she's adorable. The Doctor can't resist teasing her for it, very affectionately - Two is so wonderfully gentle and paternal with his companions; you've just got to love him for it.
I love watching the way the Doctor uses the harmless imbecile persona he has adopted for the Dominators' benefit to manipulate them in first one direction and then another, whatever will keep other people alive at least a little while longer, while listening intently to every conversation they have in search of the vital clue that will allow him to save everyone, thinking furiously and making plans up as he goes along.
Man, the director got some great shots and angles in on this story, in the location scenes especially. Of course, there are also some terrible flubs, like the scene where you can clearly see the cameraman's shadow, but we'll just ignore those and focus on the pretty.
Oh, the Doctor's face when he sees Jamie sneaking up behind the Quark guarding the prisoners is a picture. The jailbreak works, though. It really is ludicrously easy to disable a Quark!
Once free of the Dominators, the Doctor uses the medical kit in the bomb shelter to build a bunch of mini bombs for Jamie and Cully to use in their guerrilla campaign against the Quarks. Fun with chemistry! He's so gleeful when he demonstrates the impromptu explosive he's created, it's adorable. Then Jamie is just as adorably gleeful about getting to run around blowing up Quarks…but we are given a timely reminder of how deadly the Quarks are supposed to be when Cully is shot and wounded.
The Dominators' plan involves drilling through the planetary crust to trigger a localised volcano, into which they intend to drop an atomic seed device that will detonate the entire planet. So, our intrepid little band of resistance fighters decide to dig a horizontal shaft from the bomb shelter they've made their HQ into the vertical shaft being drilled by the Dominators, so they can catch the seed device as it is dropped. Crazy, right? Especially since, you know, the Dominators are using a powered drill and have a big head start, whereas the Doctor and his weary band of resistance fighters are digging with their bare hands and whatever they can scrounge from around the bomb shelter! It's ludicrous! Easily the weakest part of the plot, right there. It works though, obviously, against all the odds, because the Doctor always wins, even when his plans are insane.
I really hope Cully is hailed as a hero when he returns to the mainland, wounded but triumphant.
The planet is saved, and the Doctor manages to sneak the atomic seed device aboard the Dominator spaceship before it takes off, so that they are blown up by their own bomb, which is nice and karmic and all, but there have already been boreholes drilled into the planetary crust, triggering a localised volcano. This means that the Doctor and his companions have to sprint back to the Tardis before it and they are engulfed in boiling lava…and that would explain why the Tardis is surrounded by said lava at the beginning of the next story, The Mind Robber, which I saw long before I watched this one!
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "It's an island on Dulkis, a perfectly splendid planet."
JAMIE: "Aye, I've heard that one before."
DOCTOR: "We come from a different world, from a different time."
BALAN: "Not from this world? Really, that's very interesting. I must note that in my daily report."
ZOE: "Well, you don't sound very surprised."
RAGO: "Every culture develops, Probationer Toba. Never base an assumption on the past. Examine the present."
ZOE: "Do spacecraft often land in Dulkis?"
KANDO: "As far as I know, you are the first."
JAMIE: "Oh I must say then, you don't seem the least bit surprised."
KANDO: "We are taught to accept facts, being foolish to contemplate fantasy in the face of reality. You are here. This is fact. That you come from another planet I accept because I have no other means of proving it."
CULLY: "Vegetables, the lot of you. You don't live, you exist."
CULLY: "At least your Doctor friend showed some interest."
ZOE: "Yes, he has an enquiring mind."
CULLY: "In that case he'll end up as unpopular as I am."
JAMIE: "Oh no. You're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?"
DOCTOR: "That, I think, Jamie, depends upon what you think I am thinking."
TOBA: "We are meant to be obeyed."
JAMIE: "Not by me you're not."
CULLY: "Typical Dulcian behaviour. Something strange, something you don't understand and you switch off. [taps his head] Up here."
BALAN: "We don't all have your childish curiosity, Cully."
CULLY: "You'd have more fun out of life if you did."
CULLY: "Hey, you asked a question."
ZOE: "Yes."
CULLY: "There you go, Balan, that proves it. This girl's got an enquiring mind. She can't possibly come from Dulkis."
DOCTOR: "Shush, Jamie. I'm trying to listen."
JAMIE: "Oh, everyone wants me to shut up. All right, I will."
JAMIE: "Oh, you mean they're going to find out how clever we are?"
DOCTOR: "Yes. Or how stupid. I wonder which is the more important to them?"
DOCTOR: "An unintelligent enemy is far less dangerous than an intelligent one, Jamie."
JAMIE: "Eh?"
DOCTOR: "Just act stupid. Do you think you can manage that?"
JAMIE: "Oh aye, it's eas..." [glares]
RAGO: "What does it do?"
DOCTOR: "Oh, oh, I see. Well, guns kill people. Is that what you wanted to know?"
SENEX: "For centuries we have lived in peace. We have proved that universal gentleness will cause aggression to die."
JAMIE: "Aye, well, the Dominators don't know anything about your gentleness."
BALAN: "Resistance will only lead to violence."
ZOE: "And submission leads to slavery. We must fight."
JAMIE: "Hey, can you land the thing?"
DOCTOR: "Of course I can. I'll get us down in no time at all."
JAMIE: "Aye, but in one piece?"
DOCTOR: "Well, I think we've done rather well so far, don't you?"
JAMIE: "More by luck than by judgement, if you ask me."
DOCTOR: "Well, now's our chance to investigate the power unit and find out what fuel this ship carries."
ZOE: "Well the Quarks use ultrasound, so presumably it must be a fuel capable of producing a high enough energy quotient to sustain an amplifying complex of considerably sophisticated design."
DOCTOR: "Yes. Must be pretty powerful too."
ZOE: "Yes, well that's what…well, if you don't want my help."
DOCTOR: "Oh I do, I do. I do, Zoe."
COUNCILLOR: "Surely no civilised race would indulge in purposeless violence?"
CULLY: "Oh, you don't believe in half measures, do you."
JAMIE: "Well, it's important to keep the enemy guessing."
DOCTOR: "Jamie, it's a brilliant idea! It's so simple only you could have thought of it."
JAMIE: "Oh. Eh?"
JAMIE: "How are you going to dig through there with your sonic screwdriver?"
DOCTOR: "It's a little more than a screwdriver."
The Verdict
Overall, this is a fun romp, with a very flimsy, insubstantial plot, but lots of entertaining, engaging character work.