Game Changer

So on Saturday night we decided to bite the bullet and buy a new 40' Sony Brava HD TV. Now I realize that The Deadly Assassin is just run-of-the-mill-looking television from the 1970s (albeit in cleaned-up DVD shape), and I know in no way does it draw upon the full potential of our new TV. Yet, my viewing experience seemed light years ahead of where it had been the week before. It gave the trip to Gallifrey an extra little lift in the Time Lord loafers.

The Deadly Assassin is a game changer, no matter how you look at it. After this solo outing, no longer is it the Doctor and Sarah--it's the Doctor and companion. Because for the first time in history, a Doctor carries a story pretty much on his own. Sure he gets to play off of Spandrell and Engin, but the Fourth Doctor is front and centre in a new way. Mind you it wouldn't have worked indefinitely. Having the Doctor talk to himself so much is a bit self-conscious.

From the moment we get the scrolling prologue and voice-over, everything feels differently. Like a television series beginning a new season with big changes. Except, the tone still feels recognizable. Hinchcliffe/Holmes is still driving the car, but they've shifted gears up to third. It must have been positively epic for viewers at the time, the Doctor goes home. History tells us that many fans were spitting blood. Gone were the Time Lords of The War Games. In their stead were aliens more at home in Westminster: cynical, conniving and vain. Thank God Robert Holmes decided to bring it all down to Earth. I cannot imagine watching the boring, lifeless Time Lords we eventually got in Arc of Infinity. Apart from the gripping, surreal action in the Matrix, the best parts of the story involve Borusa, Runcible and the daffy double act of Spandrell and Engin. Even the Master is kind of throwaway in the story.

I still laugh out loud at the chalk outline of the fallen President, or Borusa's tampering with the truth. The only thing missing is an old Time Lord stashed away somewhere actually playing the organ in the narrative. That would be brilliant.

Too bad most of the subtleties of the story went over my head at 14. Most of my enjoyment came of the fan-wanky thrill of seeing the Doctor's home planet or the Matrix sequences (they reminded me of the Star Trek episode "Arena"). Now I couldn't care less--it's just a fantastic and inventive story that shifts gears in the same way that say Inferno does. One minute you think you've got the gist of it and then it takes a 180 turn. Rather like the series as a whole. And because I watched the story in re-editing movie version, I was never aware of the freeze-frame cliffhanger controversy until years later. In fact I would argue that the story is one of the few that holds up well in movie-format.

Liqueur: I decided to watch the story on Sunday morning, so Bailey's Irish Cream in my coffee seemed the obvious choice.

Original viewing date: December 11, 1983. (Okay, I've taken a stand and decided that KVOS was quite consistent with showing all their stock of Doctor Who stories in chronological order, thus they must have played Revenge and I just plain missed it!)

Music: "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling.