"Gangers"

Jacqueline Hill's appearance in Meglos is a bit of an oddity in that never before or since in the program's history has a major cast member returned in a completely different role, with no reference to it made in the script and very little fanfare. And you know, I kinda like it. Lexa is nothing like Barbara, and it's a tribute to Hill that after numerous years of not acting, she's so good and so distinctive (in the DVD tribute to Hill we were treated to a clip of Hill playing mama Capulet in a 1978 television production of Romeo and Juliet and she's equally marvelous).

Ironically, Hill appears in a story where a doppelganger plays a significant part in the plot. Despite the fact that Meglos is a rather mediocre story, Tom Baker does some nice work differentiating his characterization of Meglos from that of the Doctor. Sure there are a few shouty OTT moments, but the modulation he employs with his eyes is brilliant. Meglos is hard and determined. Baker also plays the Doctor's confusion at being accused of cactus's various crimes very authentically.

And if I could heap an extra helping of irony onto my plate, Sunday morning I watched The Almost People (second part of The Rebel Flesh). The two-parter, while being a very traditional story, offered some really interesting insights into identity. With various characters duplicated to perform dangerous mining tasks, the "Gangers" originally seem to be little more than extensions of the original humans (not unlike someone being projected as a hologram). Thanks to a handy dandy solar tsunami the Gangers begin to act independently. What is left extremely ambiguous is the nature of the raw "flesh." It appears to be alive in its own right -- there are discarded Gangers who appear to be in pain (at least Jennifer maintains it is).

Doubles figure prominently in the top 10 of popular sci-fi tropes, whether used superficially as a plot point , or mined for more philosophical purposes in terms of identity ( the movie Moon, the two Will Rikers on ST: TNG or the parallel universe in Fringe) .

Doctor Who has a staggering history of dealing in doubles:

1. William Hartnell took on the role of the Abbot of Amboise (The Massacre) and along with Edmund Warwick portrayed a robot version of himself.
2. The whole TARDIS crew discovered future versions of themselves (The Space Museum)
3. Ben and Polly were duplicated by the Chameleons (The Faceless Ones)
   
4. Patrick Troughton played the baddie Salamander (Enemy of the World)
5. Spearhead from Space concerns an alien race trying duplicate various important figures with Auton doppelgangers
   
6. Nicholas Courtney, Carolyn Johns, John Levene and much of the cast of Inferno play parallel universe versions of themselves
   
7. The third Doctor and Jo briefly encounter future versions of themselves (Day of the Daleks)
8. Ian Marter stepped out as a Zygon impersonator of Harry Sullivan (Terror of the Zygons)
   
9. Tom Baker played an android copy of himself (The Android Invasion), as did John Levene, Ian Marter and Elizabeth Sladen
10. Old Reuben the lighthouse keeper was impersonated by a Rutan in Horror of Fang Rock
    
11. Mary Tamm practiced her needlepoint as the Princess Strella and her jerky-acting chops (The Androids of Tara)
12. Lalla Ward's Romana uses the Princess Astra's likeness as a template (Destiny of the Daleks)
13. The Tachyon Recreation Generator spit out a whole bunch of unstable doubles of the fourth Doctor (The Leisure Hive)
    
14. Sarah Sutton traded one sort of posh for another as Ann Talbot (Black Orchid)
    
15. Peter Davison (Omega duplicated the fifth Doctor's body in Arc of Infinity)
16. Two versions of the Brigadier from different points in time illustrate the Blinovich Limitation Effect (Mawdryn Undead)
17. Can I just say that Kamelion impersonates a bunch of people and leave it at that.
    
18. The Daleks create a variety of duplicates including dormant versions of the fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, as part of machinations (Resurrection of the Daleks)
19. Sharaz Jek's duplicates of the fifth Doctor and Peri don't get to stick around long before being executed by a firing squad, and dear old Salateen's double had us all fooled (The Caves of Androzani)
    
20. The Borad created a dummy double of himself to avoid getting pasted in a very lame twist (Timelash)
21. Davros did the same thing in the next story but to much better effect (Revelation of the Daleks)
    
22. Noel Clarke plays a particularly plasticky Auton duplicate of his character Mickey Jones (Rose)
23. The Slitheen's habit of employing the skin of various full-bodied figures to create skin suit doubles (Aliens of London/World War III, Boomtown)
    
24. The ninth Doctor and Rose briefly encounter past versions of themselves (Father's Day)
25. Camille Coduri, Noel Clarke, and Shaun Dingwall all play parallel universe versions of themselves (Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday)
26. Freema Agyeman empathized with her Sontaran bred clone (The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)
27. David Tennant's Doctor grew a whole new version of himself from a severed hand (Journey's End)
28. Prisoner Zero uses unconscious humans as forms to hide from the Atraxi (The Eleventh Hour)
    

And I just don't know whether to rule on the following counts: Queen Xanxia's new holographic/corporeal body (The Pirate Planet), the Rani's ridiculous but hilarious impersonation of Mel (The Twin Dilemma), and young Amelia Pond meeting her older self (The Pandorica Opens). I'm pretty sure that Scaroth's fractured selves don't really count. And the twins in The Twin Dilemma merely doubled the bad acting quotient in that story.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go throw my cactus down the garbage chute...

Original viewing date: November 24, 1984

Spirit: A double vodka martini

Music: "Cover Me" by Bruce Springsteen

Brighton Beach Memoirs

For fans of a certain age and ilk, The Leisure Hive was a seminal viewing experience. Not so much for the story (after all it was penned by David Fisher, stalwart of the past two seasons), but for the startling changes in production and tone it brought to our favorite television series.

At 15 I watched in awe as a brand new eye-popping title sequence whizzed by on the screen as if to say, "Try and keep up, burgeoning fanboy!"

Suddenly there seemed to be a gravitas to the program. Which is odd considering the story began with an endless (pointless?) tracking shot of some beach tents capped off by a snoring Doctor. But there was a strange confidence to the scene, a slow burn to acclimatize the viewer.

Between seasons, the Doctor had apparently been visited by Tim Gunn and now donned a striking and less thrown-together outfit (complete with self-conscious question marks). Of course looking back now it was the slow steady costume-ification of the cast. But back then I loved it!

And while I wouldn't have been able to articulate it at the time, the sharp direction was definitely producing a rush. Single camera setup and ceilings! Mind you it never occurred to my adolescent mind that there was less playfulness...less fun. It's kind of how when you're a kid you don't like to be kidded because it makes you feel less grownup.

Years later, when I visited the UK I made a point of nipping down to Brighton to visit this iconic location. Sadly the old pier had long since burned down, but it didn't stop me from trying to position myself at the appropriate points on the beach. And perhaps I even fantasized that I might dig up some long forgotten screw that had dropped off the mechanical mutt. In the end I bought some fish and chips, closed my eyes and listened for ghosts.

The Leisure Hive had fallen out of vogue for me in later years; it was fashionable to mock the po-faced nature of the Bidmead year, and those shots of the earth shuttle docking went on for far too long. I'm happy to report that this week I was able to slip through time and sit down beside an excited 15-year-old acne challenged teenager for 90 minutes. There is still a majesty and confidence to the whole thing, and a real desire to stretch the boundaries of Doctor Who. Adrienne Corri is wonderfully haughty and I'm sure she and Hardin were getting it on during her jaunts to Earth (to supplement her loveless, marriage of convenience with Morix who quite obviously spent most of his time in the gay quarter of Argolis).

I can scarcely believe I've arrived at Tom Baker's final season. Time has marched by like an army of petulant Pangols! Next week it's a talking cactus and Barbara Wright with a long blond ponytail.

Original viewing date: November 24, 1984

Wine: In the spirit of the story I searched the aisles of the LCBO for something new. I found I great Australian Pinor Noir from Barwick Estates.

Music: "I'm So Excited" by the Pointer Sisters

Nobody's Weakling Scum

Confession time: when I was 15 I had the hots for Simon Gipps-Kent. Er, yes, head cheese of the weakling scum. Mr. pasty-face himself. My adolescent tastes were always a little off-beat (Meeno Peluce from Voyagers or the despised brainiac from Galactica 1980 -- no not Cousin Oliver, the other one--who actually looks great now at 42).

You see, Gipps-Kent represented that quiet boy in the back of the class that the C-crowd girls always had a crush on. Of course secretly I was one of their number (the C-crowd girls that is). He would be the sort of bloke I would fantasize about having a sleepover with where we would stay up all night and talk about geeky things and then I'd turn up the thermostat to coax him out of his pajama bottoms. Then we'd wake up early and watch Battle of the Planets over a bowl of Count Chocula.

And so I would wear out the rewind button on the Betamax to rewatch his scenes over and over again. Considering a good many of his scenes were with Lalla Ward, I didn't know whether I was coming or going. Yes, yes, being a teenager is one screwed up existence, yadda, yadda pass the Chocula.

Sadly Simon Gipps-Kent died of a morphine overdose in 1987. His last role was as Rudkin the messenger in the un-aired pilot for the original Blackadder series. Of course where I was originally a 15 year old ogling a 21 one year old who looked 15, I'm now a 42 year old who looks 35 shaking my head at a perfectly preserved ghost.

Television messes with your mind that way. Seventeenth century denizens simply didn't have to contend with this. Everyone around them sagged and got liver spots and with the possible exception of rich people having paintings of themselves that were idealized in the first place, people only had their dubious memories to rely on.

But there he is, forever stuck at 21 going on 16 for me to return to, rewatch after rewatch. My tastes have changed drastically, but it gives me some small insight into those strange middle aged women who still fawn over Davy Jones or New Kids on the Block. Somewhere between the haze of memory and the cold hard light of television lies...Simon Gipps-Kent.

********

Watching The Horns of Nimon is always a bittersweet experience. Unlike many fans I love it in all its campy, cheap goodness. Romana gets to play the Doctor-y role and she presides like queen bee over a pantomime proceedings. Her moral outrage is classic Doctor. Graham Crowden is horridly over-the-top so you do have to squint a little when watching his scenes (or put some cheesecloth over the screen).

But no, what really grabs at my heartstrings is the final appearance of the diamond logo opening and classic arrangement of the title music. Despite how campy and light the series had become, that opening still gave it gravitas and history (right back to season 11 and Jon Pertwee). Of course at 15, what was to come the following week was unbelievably exciting (more on that next time), but as the years go by I am struck by the sense of loss. After all it was that classic opening that first drew my attention to the show.

Bernard Lodge's slit-scan technique is brilliant. So much so that I was rapt watching him explain it on a recent DVD featurette. Farewell, diamond logo opening, I shall miss you. Yes, I shall miss you.

Original viewing date: November 17, 1984

Wine: Dancing Bull Zinfandel! How brilliant is that.

Music: "Infatuation" by Rod Stewart. I have fond memories of watching the video at the time with a friend, as we pissed ourselves laughing. Rod Stewart stalking Key Lenz (while overfeeding his fish), but obviously more obsessed with his own body. And that ridiculous scene of him on the merry-go-round at the end looking petulant and rejected. The past is truly an embarrassing place.