The Sontaran Experiment greatly benefits from sequential viewing. Over the years I've rarely had a desire to go out of my way to watch it, yet somehow, I was really looking forward to viewing it as part of this on-going narrative. Does that make sense? I mean, so far I've been watching one story per week. Either, Saturday or Sunday night, depending on my schedule. It makes Tom Baker Who special in the same way as watching current seasons of the show (minus the surprise factor). I guess The Sontaran Experiment is sort of like The Lazarus Experiment that way.
When I was 14 I enjoyed the story, but it left me wanting...er, for two more episodes. Because when you get one "movie-edit" story a week, you can't help feeling a bit cheated. Realistically, it wouldn't have stretched successfully to a four-parter, but story mechanics weren't foremost on my mind at that age--I just wanted as much Doctor Who as possible each week!
There isn't much story, and what there is of it doesn't make a lot of logical sense. But it's so completely different from last week's studio bound offering that I just can't help getting a jolt. It's so damned novel, a uniqueness that is lost when you just pop it into the DVD player at random. From the beginning, there's a strong sense of mystery. And as low tech as the robot is, it has a kind of creepy spider effect (okay, I'm probably alone in this view, but it wouldn't be the first time). Filming in Dartmoor really helps the sensation that the regulars are in the middle of a vast nowhere (and makes a nice change from a gravel pit).
Nobody does dirty spacemen like the Holmes/Hinchcliffe production team (reaching a zenith next season with Professor Sorenson in Planet of Evil). Barbara Kidd (costume designer) and Sylvia James (make-up artist) can be credited with giving the spaceman here a really gritty, filthy look . You can practically see the stink lines coming off them! Hey, if you have to have anonymous characters like these, might as well make them look authentic.
And my love affair with the fourth Doctor and Tom Baker continues. He's got so many wonderful lines like: "You never know when these bits and pieces will come in handy. Never throw anything away, Harry." [He throws it away] "Now, where's my five hundred year diary. I remember jotting some notes on the Sontarans... It's a mistake to clutter one's pockets, Harry."
Originally viewed: September 23, 1983
Wine: An extremely light and fruity "Beaujolais Superieur" that was incredibly smooth and made me feel young and happy, like I was having a picnic in L'avignon (or perhaps Dartmoor). It's grape kool-aid with a kick! And it compliments this light little two-parter perfectly.
Music: Okay, this is an odd one, but for some reason the story evokes "Mull of Kintyre" by Paul McCartney and Wings.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Skin Eruptions
I was not a big fan of The Ark in Space when I was 14. It just seemed...boring to me, particularly episode one. I liked listening to the banter between the Doctor, Sarah and Harry, but that was about it. Clearly the strength of Robert Holmes script was lost on me.
What did stand out was the horrific transformation that Noah went through, turning from taciturn head cheese to bubble-wrapped beastie. Body horror was something that always fascinated me as an adolescent. Whether it was drawing pictures and then subjecting them to aging, warts and animal features or my weekly insistence on breaking out the 8-milimetre projector to watch the abridged (and silent) Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, watching the human body being mutilated or changed tapped into something deep in my psyche. At 14 I also suffered from chronic and embarrassing acne.
When I think of those early Tom Baker viewings, I always lumped The Ark in Space, Planet of Evil and The Seeds of Doom. Each had striking body horror imagery.
Of course as an adult The Ark in Space is a fantastic story and probably the best of season 12 (although Genesis will always be my emotional favourite). The script is brilliant and while the production is quite chilling in its own right, imagine if they hadn't been restricted by budget or censors. I think in particular of the scene of the Wirrin falling out of the cupboard onto poor Harry.
Also, in a post-Russell-T-Davies Doctor Who world, it's curious to note the characterization of the far-future humans. Vira and Noah are played very much in a classic sci-fi way, quite humourless with no understanding of 20th century vernacular. Curiously, Holmes decides to introduce Rogin in episode 3 as a much more familiar type, employing a bit more contemporary attitude/speak. Rogin is much more in tune with an RTD representation of future humans--someone the average viewer can identify with.
Other things I enjoyed: the use of shadows in episode 1; the almost biblical feel of the minister's pre-recorded speech to humanity, almost as if she is talking to Abraham; and the great scene with the Doctor berating Sarah to make her climb through the access tunnel--it's such a portent of their developing relationship.
And then there is the intriguing question: will Vira now have to switch to a swinging lesbian lifestyle now that Noah and 4 other of the males (in the carefully balanced Ark ecosystem) are dead?
Original viewing date: September 16, 1983 (I should note at this point in case it isn't obvious, I watching "movie versions" of the stories (thus my recollections will never include cliffhangers, sadly. I have also decided not to watch updated versions of stories with new special effects).
Wine: "Girls Night Out", a serviceable chardonnay from the Niagara region. I don't generally drink whites, but I needed it for a carrot soup.
Music listened to: "Karma Kameleon", by Culture Club. The song was unavoidable at the time.
What did stand out was the horrific transformation that Noah went through, turning from taciturn head cheese to bubble-wrapped beastie. Body horror was something that always fascinated me as an adolescent. Whether it was drawing pictures and then subjecting them to aging, warts and animal features or my weekly insistence on breaking out the 8-milimetre projector to watch the abridged (and silent) Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, watching the human body being mutilated or changed tapped into something deep in my psyche. At 14 I also suffered from chronic and embarrassing acne.
When I think of those early Tom Baker viewings, I always lumped The Ark in Space, Planet of Evil and The Seeds of Doom. Each had striking body horror imagery.
Of course as an adult The Ark in Space is a fantastic story and probably the best of season 12 (although Genesis will always be my emotional favourite). The script is brilliant and while the production is quite chilling in its own right, imagine if they hadn't been restricted by budget or censors. I think in particular of the scene of the Wirrin falling out of the cupboard onto poor Harry.
Also, in a post-Russell-T-Davies Doctor Who world, it's curious to note the characterization of the far-future humans. Vira and Noah are played very much in a classic sci-fi way, quite humourless with no understanding of 20th century vernacular. Curiously, Holmes decides to introduce Rogin in episode 3 as a much more familiar type, employing a bit more contemporary attitude/speak. Rogin is much more in tune with an RTD representation of future humans--someone the average viewer can identify with.
Other things I enjoyed: the use of shadows in episode 1; the almost biblical feel of the minister's pre-recorded speech to humanity, almost as if she is talking to Abraham; and the great scene with the Doctor berating Sarah to make her climb through the access tunnel--it's such a portent of their developing relationship.
And then there is the intriguing question: will Vira now have to switch to a swinging lesbian lifestyle now that Noah and 4 other of the males (in the carefully balanced Ark ecosystem) are dead?
Original viewing date: September 16, 1983 (I should note at this point in case it isn't obvious, I watching "movie versions" of the stories (thus my recollections will never include cliffhangers, sadly. I have also decided not to watch updated versions of stories with new special effects).
Wine: "Girls Night Out", a serviceable chardonnay from the Niagara region. I don't generally drink whites, but I needed it for a carrot soup.
Music listened to: "Karma Kameleon", by Culture Club. The song was unavoidable at the time.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The Grand Tour
My best friend Graeme recently wrote an excellent blog entry on the DWIN site where he talked about the fan tradition of doing "The Pilgrimage," in this particular case, watching Doctor Who from the beginning. His own viewing comprised the entirety of the Tom Baker era. He admitted to a certain amount of laziness, only tackling that era. If he's lazy, I'm certainly being unimaginative by following the same route (I just don't own enough first, second or third Doctor stories to make starting at those point feasible).
But it also makes a lot of sense, since Robot did mark the formal beginning of continuous Doctor Who viewing for me. It was 1983, and everyone was crazy for Duran Duran, rugby pants and Return of the Jedi. I was starting grade nine (which would prove to be the most difficult year of my adolescence). A quick perusal of the TV guide revealed such eagerly awaited treasures as a rerun of The Incredible Hulk, the return of Knight Rider and a quirky little British show called Doctor Who. I'd always been intrigued with what little I'd seen of it in the past (the second Peter Cushing movie, episode 2 of The Hand of Fear, and the entirety of Colony in Space and The Three Doctors).
The following is an excerpt from an Enlightenment article I wrote about 10 years ago: "I'm still haunted by the memory of setting the Betamax machine to tape Robot back in 1983. It was 11:30 PM on a Sunday and I wasn't allowed to stay up [the channel was actually KVOS 12 a great quirky little independent station out of Bellingham, Washington--they used to show fantastic marathons of old 60s and 70s TV shows every year during the labour day weekend]. Excitedly I popped in the tape, hit the button and scurried off to my bunk bed.
"The next day I raced home from school, anticipating my prize. Dad greeted me on the front steps, his hands covered in transmission grease.
"'What the hell was that you taped last night,' he cracked, brushing his greasy forefinger against his chin."
But I didn't care, I loved Robot. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The quirky colourful characters, the almost stage-like presentation, and Tom Baker's outrageous Doctor.
Twenty-seven years have passed since the first time I watched it. I'm now allowed to stay up, but of course DVD affords me the opportunity to start the story whenever I want. So I sat down with an Argentinian Malbec [Misterio] and let my imagination travel down that spooky diamond tunnel once again.
And so begins my own pilgrimage, which I'm calling my "Grand Tour"
Tom Baker still enthralls me like he did when I was 13. Nothing he does in the episode feels unwarranted or over the top even though viewers probably thought so at the time (I remember annoying my sister by endlessly exclaiming, "Exactly, Brigadier, exactly" over and over again). I guess it's because he seems so authentic. He is the Doctor, he's not just playing him [I feel the same way when I watch Matt Smith, the latest incarnation]. I still enjoy Patricia Maynard as Miss Winters--you just know she probably ties up Jellicoe up in a closet and whacks his bottom like Cloris Leachman did to Harvey Korman in High Anxiety. And the design of the robot is still rather cool--from the shoulders up anyway. Sarah Jane is at the funny stage of the character's development where she's halfway between her sensible mannish attire and scripted feminism to her cute and more iconically remembered persona.
Thank God I no longer have to get on a full school bus with only seats at the back with the bullies!
My original viewing date: September 9th, 1983
Music: "Talking in Your Sleep" by the Romantics. Classmates told me endlessly that I looked like the lead singer, and being an insecure 14 year I protested and wished it wasn't so.
But it also makes a lot of sense, since Robot did mark the formal beginning of continuous Doctor Who viewing for me. It was 1983, and everyone was crazy for Duran Duran, rugby pants and Return of the Jedi. I was starting grade nine (which would prove to be the most difficult year of my adolescence). A quick perusal of the TV guide revealed such eagerly awaited treasures as a rerun of The Incredible Hulk, the return of Knight Rider and a quirky little British show called Doctor Who. I'd always been intrigued with what little I'd seen of it in the past (the second Peter Cushing movie, episode 2 of The Hand of Fear, and the entirety of Colony in Space and The Three Doctors).
The following is an excerpt from an Enlightenment article I wrote about 10 years ago: "I'm still haunted by the memory of setting the Betamax machine to tape Robot back in 1983. It was 11:30 PM on a Sunday and I wasn't allowed to stay up [the channel was actually KVOS 12 a great quirky little independent station out of Bellingham, Washington--they used to show fantastic marathons of old 60s and 70s TV shows every year during the labour day weekend]. Excitedly I popped in the tape, hit the button and scurried off to my bunk bed.
"The next day I raced home from school, anticipating my prize. Dad greeted me on the front steps, his hands covered in transmission grease.
"'What the hell was that you taped last night,' he cracked, brushing his greasy forefinger against his chin."
But I didn't care, I loved Robot. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The quirky colourful characters, the almost stage-like presentation, and Tom Baker's outrageous Doctor.
Twenty-seven years have passed since the first time I watched it. I'm now allowed to stay up, but of course DVD affords me the opportunity to start the story whenever I want. So I sat down with an Argentinian Malbec [Misterio] and let my imagination travel down that spooky diamond tunnel once again.
And so begins my own pilgrimage, which I'm calling my "Grand Tour"
Tom Baker still enthralls me like he did when I was 13. Nothing he does in the episode feels unwarranted or over the top even though viewers probably thought so at the time (I remember annoying my sister by endlessly exclaiming, "Exactly, Brigadier, exactly" over and over again). I guess it's because he seems so authentic. He is the Doctor, he's not just playing him [I feel the same way when I watch Matt Smith, the latest incarnation]. I still enjoy Patricia Maynard as Miss Winters--you just know she probably ties up Jellicoe up in a closet and whacks his bottom like Cloris Leachman did to Harvey Korman in High Anxiety. And the design of the robot is still rather cool--from the shoulders up anyway. Sarah Jane is at the funny stage of the character's development where she's halfway between her sensible mannish attire and scripted feminism to her cute and more iconically remembered persona.
Thank God I no longer have to get on a full school bus with only seats at the back with the bullies!
My original viewing date: September 9th, 1983
Music: "Talking in Your Sleep" by the Romantics. Classmates told me endlessly that I looked like the lead singer, and being an insecure 14 year I protested and wished it wasn't so.
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