Today was the first day that I received mail at the new apartment. I guess I really live here now. Part of the mail was the new DVDs that I cannot watch until I get to those stories on this journey. There was also tax stuff, and the certificate for the Tough Mudder 12 mile mud run that I completed in November. I complained too much about doing it at the time, and halfway through I wanted to give up. But I didn't. While I didn’t do as well as I wanted to with some of the obstacles, I did get through the entire 12 mile course and crossed the finish line. I am proud of that, and would like to do it, or something similar again, and when I do, do it better. That is because, despite my silly complaining along the way, doing it made me feel good about myself, and afterwards I felt that I had accomplished something.
I also did more organization in the apartment tonight; most of which involves getting rid of more stuff. It’s starting to look lived in now, with far fewer boxes cluttering everything up. I think I should be almost done after the weekend. Hooray!
Episode 1 – The Web Planet
What a weird opening to this episode. Without even leaving the ship the crew are already weakened, and attacked. It seems like the greatest force they have yet faced. And what is this weird ant-like creature outside making very strange sounds? As a viewer I am concerned, and want to find out more.
The atmospheric jackets here are very easy to handle, and a lot less bulky than a spacesuit. Perhaps they are suitable simply because it’s a thin atmosphere, rather than no atmosphere at all.
Vicki’s contempt for 20th century medicine is very funny. It really shows the difference between the 20th and 25th centuries. The bonding between Barbara and Vicki is sweet in this scene and the older woman reveals that she too was in Rome in the previous story.
This is the most alien planet we have seen yet. This is a very weird and alien landscape that the crew find themselves in, and the camera effect making everything slightly blurred is very effective in contributing to that weirdness! The Doctor’s childlike delight over the echoes is very sweet.
The effect of the magnetization drawing people is rather scary, as it causes people to lose control of their bodies, which is such a scary concept. I felt something similar last year, when I had issues with the feeling in my feet and calves, and it was a very frightening thing to go through. Even more so when there is no medical explanation as there is here! The strength of the power that pulls Barbara out of the ship must be immense.
The large pyramid-type structure that Ian and the Doctor encounter is very well done. It has a great sense of scale. The design work in this story is very imaginative.
Poor Ian. So attached to his school tie! But not as attached as the Doctor is to the TARDIS. For the first time we see the ship taken away from him, and the impact on him is immediate. He looks bereft. The most important thing in his life is gone.
Episode 2 – The Zarbi
Oh, so that’s the drawback of the natty atmosphere jackets! They only last for half an hour. Not much use on Mars then! After the initial shock of finding the ship gone, it is a relief to know that it has simply been dragged away, and the drag-marks can be followed and it can likely be retrieved. We will see far more worrying losses of the ship in later stories. As a result, the panic we saw on the Doctor’s face at the very end of the previous episode has already been forgotten about.
Barbara meanwhile is meeting these weird butterfly people. As much as Rosalyn De Winter takes criticism for her “alien movement” credit, the effort here to make these creatures move in a non-human manner is impressive. I talked earlier in the blog about the courage the production team must have had to take so many risks in this second series. This story is another huge risk. Who would ever have thought to do a story without any humanoid characters other than the regulars? While this is certainly a less successful risk than some of the previous risks that they have taken, and the story have to admired for trying.
It’s quite clear who the experienced travelers are now. Ian and the Doctor, as they move deeper into the Zarbi’s habitat, and also Barbara as she encounters the Menoptera, are curious about what is happening, and about who these different aliens are. They come across as quite comfortable with being explorers and adventurers. Vicki, however, is terrified, and so relieved and grateful when Ian finds her.
The Doctor tries to communicate with the Zarbi, and he is being very Doctor-ish, and wants his questions answered. What do these ants want? Then we get to hear the force controlling them. It doesn’t appear to be friendly.
Episode 3 – Escape to Danger
Despite his first experience with the Animus, the Doctor is still willing to listen and to try and help understand the situation and make it better. His first priority though is the safety of his friends.
The Crater of Needles is a very evocative name. It’s one of the first examples of that in the series to date. We’ve had planet names, and some fun Episode titles, but the fictional locations so far have been fairly standard. This one sounds interesting. I hope it doesn’t disappoint when we get to see it.
The temporary truce between the Doctor and the Animus feels very temporary, and extremely fragile. The power that brought the TARDIS down to Vortis is still there, and even though communicating with the Zarbi is not possible, they continue to be aggressive towards the travelers. They Doctor is very wary about everything that he does, and seems rather nervous.
The TARDIS set is still so big at this time. It really is wonderful to see, whenever we go in there, and explore, even if the roundels are not everywhere. The Doctor has a wonderful and eclectic assortment of stuff. Of course when you have a dimensionally transcendental time machine as your home, that’s a lot easier to do! Vicki’s mistake as she looks for items in the TARDIS is most serendipitous as she finds a specimen that could indicate a weakness in the Zarbi.
Ian gets the other side of the story of the planet Vortis, and he finds out more about which of the various races we have seen so far might be the just side of this conflict. We hear the story of the Animus, it’s arrival and affect on the Zarbi, and the decline of the Menoptera.
This story is hard work to watch. You really have to listen to the dialog, due to the accents and vocalizations that the performers are using to make the characters seem more alien, and the blurring of the picture doesn’t help. But there are definite rewards to concentrating on it. The show has never looked this alien, and I am not sure it ever world again, and that’s something to be admired.
Episode 4 – Crater of Needles
We reach the Crater of Needles and it lives up to expectations. I think it looks really spectacular, with the webbing across the needles. As we go down into the crater we see that Barbara is really starting to suffer, and you can see the pain, and exhaustion etched on Jacqueline Hill’s face. In all my enjoyment of the relationship she has with Ian, I have neglected to mention how good an actress she is in general. It is now her turn to start hearing and understanding the story of Vortis and its domination by the Animus.
The Doctor is a tough negotiator, but doesn’t seem like he is going to be able to string along his bluff for very much longer. The Animus is losing patience with him. But still the Doctor bides his time. I have noticed that he has been very static for most of this story, and seems more powerless than usual. But I like to think that it’s because patience is a virtue that the Doctor has in spades. He knows that often time can be his greatest ally. I could learn a lot from that sometimes. But I’m working on it.
This story features so many different types of aliens here, and no one can fault it for imagination. Some of the creatures look better than others, but none of them are really humanoid. This makes the battle sequences look quite weird and awkward, compared to what we are used to. The flying Menoptera, with their wings extended, really do look quite spectacular and majestic, and the battle sequence that ends this episode is well put together and rather exciting.
Episode 5 - Invasion
For all the complaints about plot holes that are abundant among fans (other than myself, but that’s still some way off in this commentary) in the modern series, there’s a glaring one here; the Zarbi’s necklace just seems to stop working on Vicki, so she and the Doctor can escape! It’s a bit silly really. It’s possible I misheard the explanation she gives, however. It was getting quite late!
While this escape is occurring, Barbara is becoming quite the leader, and setting out her strategy for victory over the Zarbi. She encourages the Menoptera to take the chance with the cell destructor, because it has to be better than sitting and doing nothing. A great lesson really. Doing nothing is unlikely to lead to anything good, and the resulting stagnation is even worse. That convinces the Menoptera, and it convinces me as well.
Vicki is so sweet, naming the tamed Zarbi Yombo. She comes across as much younger than Susan, at least in behavior, even though Susan was in school when we met her, and Vicki is a little older, I think. In actual terms, of course, Susan is Gallifreyan and therefore likely much older than the years she appeared to be!
The final cliffhanger to this story is extremely striking. The animus as a sting, or rather a web-shooter in its tentacle, and the Doctor looks quite overpowered. This is not good.
Episode 6 – The Centre
I reach the final part of this weird story, and the final assault on the Animus begins, on several fronts.
I find it interesting that in its victory speech to the Doctor the Animus mentions wanting to go to Earth, presumably having found the reference to the planet in the Doctor’s mind. This makes the threat relevant to the viewer at home, and is something that Russell T Davies preached all the time, and was very successful at doing. I am a big believer in it actually. It does make you care more about the outcome.
Barbara is getting very confident with the Doctor’s technology, or at least confident enough to try and use it, which turns out to be rather fortuitous. I really enjoyed watching her and the Menoptera playing catch with the destructor device once they found it and started making their own way to the centre on the Animus’s lair.
I found it interesting that the destructor device only starts working once everyone, Ian and the grubs, Barbara and the Menoptera, and Vicki and the Doctor, are together. It would also appear that the Animus did more damage to Vortis than to simply set the different races against each other. It contaminated everything. It would seem that this was an early ecological tale, about the danger of evil in the heart of everything. Or perhaps I am reading too much into a simple fable.
It appears that in the future the TARDIS and her crew will be celebrated on Vortis from now on, much as happens at the end of “Planet of the Ood”. Poor Ian, though is still going on about his ruined tie. He must have really liked it! Or perhaps it was just memory of home.
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