Doctor Who (Classic) 057: Colony in Space // Season 8 (1971) Review Part 4

A frame from the serial

Context for those unfamiliar with Doctor Who

In the classic era of Doctor Who, stories were divided up into multiple episodes, in a serialized fashion. This story is six episodes long. The show follows The Doctor, the protagonist, on various adventures through space and time. Since Spearhead from Space, he’s been exiled to Earth and aiding the monster fighting-military organization, U.N.I.T. Other main characters are U.N.I.T. members, Jo, The Brigadier, Benton, and Yates, and the villainous “The Master”. This article is part of a review of Doctor Who‘s eighth season.

This one’s special. The serial starts with some Time Lords discussing the Doomsday Weapon, something only they and the Master know about. It must not be used. They realize they must get the Doctor involved. The Doctor and Jo go inside the TARDIS, the Time Lords make it take off and they’re sent to the planet Uxarieus. This is quite a big deal. This is the first time since 1969’s The War Games that we’ve had an adventure off-Earth.

Colony in Space is a fair romp. It’s a story one has probably seen a few times. An oppressed group, the colonists, is bothered by an overpowered and authoritative group. Even ignoring other movies and shows, this is the plot of one of the most famous classic Who stories, The Daleks. This is not to say that Colony should be more original, as it’s a much different flavor. The two stories were produced and released almost a decade apart.

In terms of the quality of the story, it’s average. When the character, Norton, is introduced, he’s unwell, and his performance is amusingly bad. He speaks of something bad that had happened to him, not that you really believe it. Another bad performance is for the character Jane Leeson, who we’ll get to later. A lot of the sillier bits of dialogue are poorly delivered. Generally this is stuff that’s formality for a story like this. Whenever characters have a civil disagreement, the stock lines are plentiful. The regulars and some of the more prominent guest actors do a good job with acting. A notable guest actor is John Ringham, though in his forties at the time, has an aged performance. Older actors are generally the best in Doctor Who.

Admittedly, the arguing dialogue is not all bad. Ringham’s character, Ashe, and another colonist, Winton, have some good back and forths, though the stock arguing lines are not resisted. The writing and directing are also unimpressive, but not bad. This story has two big successes. One is a spoiler and the other is the adventure. The serial is mostly a big battle. Characters get split up and have to go through mud and strife. Characters go on journeys and make discoveries. Characters learn surprising things. Colony is never boring. It wants to be a dumb action movie and that’s what it is. The story and pacing are good. The tension slowly stretches throughout the story. Ashe and Winton recurring disagreements paint a lot of their characters and the situation. Most of the characters in this story are pretty well written.

This show generally has bad fight scenes, but Episode 6 of this story has a good fight between two people. It’s not just one punch and you’re out. It looks real and is well filmed. While the directing is mostly standard, there are a few good moments in the fold.

We see more characterization of the Doctor. He gets some standard quippy lines like, “No. No, it’s quite healthy. Similar to Earth before the invention of the motor car.” I like how formally he speaks lines like that. The Doctor is rude to a character and is generally condescending. The Doctor looks forward to his exile on Earth as this predicament is dangerous and stressful. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to normal, where he wants to leave Earth. Jo once more is not stopped by the bologna she sees. She snoops around and speaks to the colonists, trying to convince them to be more active.

The alien race seen here, named “the Primitives”, look unconvincing. Once again, some people are slipped into thin costumes that look really bad. They don’t at all look interesting or threatening. They never do anything that makes them worth noting. It’s as if they left a different story and found their way in this one. Characters who come across them often brush them aside and move on.

SPOILERS

One well directed scene opened on the TARDIS, it’s then knocked over and the Primitives drag it off. That scene looked very good. This was only included as the whole adventure would’ve been quite short if the TARDIS was available. I briefly mentioned a character named Jane Leeson earlier. She gets her Oscar moment in Episode 1. She sees a person off screen and calmly asks of them. She then realizes they’re a threat and she’s terrified. Next thing we know, she’s dead. This scene looks so bad. The framing is off and it looks gross. It looks so awkward as it’s positioned so we can’t see the attacker. Jane’s actress is giving a laughably bad performance. Her terror is more amusing than anything. When we later see the machine that killed her, it doesn’t look at all like a person. Why would she react to it like it was initially?

The Doctor is investigating the area where Jane was killed and a scary robot appears. Insert closing credits music here. Turns out the machine is being operated by a friendly man named Caldwell who was just investigating the planet. The machine wasn’t going to harm the Doctor. I am not a fan of these cliffhangers. The Doctor was never in danger. I like the bit of mystery built as the Doctor and the audience don’t know if this guy is a friend or foe. Turns out, he’s a bit of both. He’s part of an expedition to mine this planet. The captain of the expedition, Dent, is quite villainous, as is one crew member, Morgan. Caldwell is quite nice and often disagrees with Dent’s villainous decisions. Dent’s a fun villain. He’s strict and nasty, but I love him for that.

A well written and performed scene features Dent cryptically telling Morgan to kill the Doctor. It’s not obvious if what he meant was that Morgan should kill him per se. Later, Dent directly tells Caldwell of what he’s done. We then cut to Morgan with a machine. We find out one of those machines killed Jane and cliffhanger. The Doctor disarms Morgan and escapes. I don’t consider this cliffhanger a fake, as its events were necessary for the Doctor to discover that Dent’s crew is responsible for the deaths as well as how they were done. Speaking of Dent’s crew, we get an amusing surprise that Norton has been a part of the expedition this whole time. The reveal is subtle, but well filmed. He goes to a quiet place, pulls out a communicator, and reveals himself to the audience. As tensions rise between the two groups, it’s decided that an adjudicator should be called to assess the situation. They’re referenced often.

Winton and Jo sneak onto Dent’s ship and are quickly captured. In an escape attempt, Winton successfully flees, but Jo is captured. We see Winton get back to his people and dodge some of Dent’s men, who are firing at him. This does a good job of showing how they act in such a situation. Jo is later captured by the Primitives. Her being passed around is silly, but it leads to an excellent cliffhanger. Jo is taken to a cave where her body except part of her face is bathed in darkness. Roll credits. The cliffhanger isn’t leading us to the next episode with a shot of a monster, it’s the uncertainty of the situation, what’s happening, and if it’s safe. Jo’s being taken somewhere by a group with unknown intent. The scene also looks very good.

The adjudicator shows up and when they appear, we see they’re the Master. The reveal was subtle and a good, unexpected surprise. I was enjoying the story without the Master and I didn’t want him to show up, but the main success of the story is with the Master. He gets a lot of good scenes with the Doctor. Everyone’s trying to fool everyone in this story, not only between the colonists and the expeditionists, but with The Master and Doctor. They’re both Time Lords. They’re using their tools and intelligence to get everyone to do what they want. The Master wants to do this for the Doomsday Weapon, the Doctor does it for peace.

The Doctor, discovering that Jo was taken by the Primitives, goes to their cave to offer food in exchange for Jo. He finds Jo, but is treated as a captive. We get a nice moment of the Doctor distracting a Primitive with a trick. Ah yes, the millionth time in the series a foolish guard was distracted by someone, only to be hit unconscious. Doc and Jo escape before almost immediately being recaptured. They’re taken to a little alien, who leads the Primitives. They sentence them to death for coming to the cave. The Doctor says Jo was forced there and he was just going to get her. The alien sees reason and lets them go, but says he’ll kill them if they return… what was the point in the Doctor and Jo escaping only to immediately be recaptured? Better yet, what was the point in this whole tangent of Jo being captured? Outside of the cave, the colonists and the expeditionists are constantly seizing control of one another. You’d think they’d learn their lesson! There’s a few fights which are all basically the same. Norton has a good death and the expeditionists seemingly win, before losing and leaving.

When the expeditionists win a battle, they make the colonists leave in a damaged ship they arrived on. When it leaves, the whole thing blows up. It’s later revealed that all the colonists except Ashe snuck out the ship. One person needed to stay in and Ashe volunteered. Ashe, despite his small amount of screen time, is a well written character. He wants to help his people, even at the cost of death. I don’t mind the cop out that the colonists didn’t die as there is emotional weight in Ashe dying. That’s not a cop out.

Episode 6 is mostly about the Master and the Doctor. Other than the damaged ship plot, it’s about the Master trying to get the Doomsday Weapon in the cave and the Doctor trying to stop him. The Primitive’s leader shows up and we essentially get a trial. The Master says that using the Doomsday Weapon will help them, but the Doctor reveals how this will fail. Dramatic dialogue sequences commonly work well in Who and this is no exception. The acting is top notch and the stakes are high. Annoyingly, we hear nothing of the leader saying he’d kill the Doctor if he returns. When the Doctor returns to the cave for the Master, he never worries that if he’s caught, he could be killed. That whole plot element is dropped. After the Doctor and the leader first met, why not have the leader just not bring that up? He would just let them go and that’s that. Alternatively, why have Jo be captured initially? Couldn’t Episode 6 be the first time we see the leader?

OVERVIEW

There’s something I really liked about this serial and it wasn’t obvious at first, but then I realized… this is Blake’s 7. Blake’s 7 is a classic BBC sci-fi drama about a group of seven fighting a large, authoritarian government. Just about every good thing and bad thing about Colony in Space is in Blake’s 7. I love both that show and this serial for their many triumphs and their many faults. One notable flaw is that the Doomsday Weapon is barely involved, despite how importantly it’s treated. This serial is a typical fun runaround and I can watch that junk all day.

This story loves captures and escapes. The same characters are captured and then escape several times. It’s almost comical how much that’s done. While that’s a flaw, it’s hilarious to watch. Colony loves being good, it loves being bad, and I love it for that. I thought 1969’s The Dominators was the best dumb Doctor Who serial, but it’s been dethroned.

Headquarters (1967) Review

The band from this album’s photo session.

The Monkees finally have creative freedom over their work. Their first two albums were corporate and crumby. How do they do on their third album, Headquarters? Let’s see. Due to the flow of this album, I’m going to be reviewing the tracks in the order they appear on the album.

The album starts with “You Told Me”. I like how the song starts with the band members shouting “One, two, three!” It’s silly and lighthearted, but it doesn’t detract from any of the more serious elements of the album. This is especially amusing as this parodies the opening of the Beatles album, Revolver, which starts the same way. Knowing that makes it even more clear that this is not establishing itself as something that should be taken too seriously. The Monkees’ first two albums appeared to be asking for more respect than they earned. This track, written by band member, Michael Nesmith, seems to comment on the band not having control. According to some, they were initially promised more freedoms than they got, so lines like, “All these things you said you said sincerely”, seem to refer to that. The track also discusses someone wanting to break out of their situation. This is complemented by good singing and guitar playing by Nesmith.

“I’ll Spend My Life With You” is the second track, sung by Micky Dolenz. This one discusses the singer saying he’ll spend his life with a good girl. He’s happy to go with someone reasonable. The singer indirectly says he’s getting smarter and he used to be more foolish. I like that the song’s not stating things directly. This song is very sincere and honest. Its style is different from the previous track. In fact, this album doesn’t have a ton of repeating styles. “You Told Me” was a country inspired faux-parody. This one is a quiet, subtle piece about the singer’s emotions. The simplistic instruments work well with the lyrics and good singing.

“Forget That Girl” is the third track, sung by Davy Jones. This one is very pop-styled, but the subtle vocals and clever use of instruments make it sound more complex than it is. The guitar and the maracas amplify the song. Davy’s vocals are very good. It’s weird listening to the older albums with uninspired vocals, because in Headquarters and later, they’re often the best part. Next is a silly rag song called “Band 6”. This album is going for its own aesthetic. “Band 6” is silly like in past albums, but it has an intelligent spirit. It seems to be parodying outtake tracks by having a sloppy quality with the instruments. The drumming is overly intense, the music stops, a voice says “I think you got it now, Micky [Dolenz, the drummer]”. This one is a fun interlude that once again shows the heart of the band. It leads very well into the next track.

We’re back to Nesmith for “You Just May Be The One”. Its vocals are a bit too simplistic, but the piece does a good job of painting the singer’s interest in a girl that they clearly care about. This track is one of the more serious on the album. It doesn’t come off as parody or anything of that manner. It’s a diverse song that dances around a lot with its instruments. The next song, “Shades of Gray” is beautiful. It speaks of breaking into the world and learning of life. The singers learn that things are more complex. Davy Jones’ vocals are absolutely superb. They excellently show the breaking of childlike innocence. Peter Tork is also very good, but has a little bit of wood in his voice. The instruments paint the tone perfectly. They emphasize the idea of growing up and experiencing the realism of life. Some lyrics are overly dramatic and over stylized, but the lyrics overall work. A particularly great line is, “It was easy then to tell truth from lies… The foolish from the wise.” A particularly moderate line is, “Life was such a simple game, A child could play.” Davy Jones does not sound good when saying the word “child”.

“I Can’t Get Her Off My Mind” is another Jones piece. It’s a simple rag. It sounds like a saloon song, just like Band 6. A piano of all things is the song’s dominant instrument. The singing is really good, though the lyrics are not anything special. They’re not bad, but it’s just Jones singing about how he can’t get a girl off his mind. They’re so boring. The piano overpowers the song, which is not a good quality, but it pulls attention away from the lyrics. Overall, the track is alright.

“For Pete’s Sake” has often polarized me. Some parts of it are quite good, others are not. Lines like “Love is understanding” are both good and bad to me. It summarizes the song, but it’s so bland, but the blandness works, but it’s… Is it good because it’s weird, or is that a bad thing? The instruments lack much detail and life, but that works, but I don’t really know how. This song discusses how love helps people. The simple premise isn’t bad, but the song’s paper thin… but that kind of works. I also flip flop on the ending. “We gotta be free!” is yelled a few times. The line speaks to the concept of breaking out of creative constraints and it’s sung well, but it’s so off putting and it doesn’t mean anything in the song. There are things that are genuinely good. Micky’s vocals are what fans love. He’s really good. “And what we have to be is free” is a particularly well sung line. He’s good at vocal complexities, not necessarily instrument complexities.

“Mr. Webster” is an odd one. The song tells a story about a Mr. Webster. The story isn’t interesting and the words don’t sound good. The vocals are once again good and the instruments are well played. They have a good energy and pace. It doesn’t come off like a Monkees song, it’s more like a Beatles song, though “Mr. Webster” has a harmony by Micky and Davy. “Sunny Girlfriend” is very much a Michael Nesmith song. It’s about a girl and it’s country inspired (more so than the others). You can tell that the singer loves this girl, based on what he says and how. The lyrics once again aren’t particularly good, but not bad. The high energy, lightly played instruments give the feeling of a sunny day. It’s the kind of instrumentation you’d hear at a park.

“Zilch” is another interlude. It’s a fun break from the more standard songs. It shows the band’s fun spirit and life. It doesn’t detract from the album’s aesthetic or tone and it works well if you just listen to it on its own. The song has a trippy, unnatural feel, which adds to the odd sound of the piece. It sounds cool. The band whispering “Zilch” at the end adds to the trippy feeling. This one’s pretty fun. “No Time” has the highest intensity of all the tracks. It’s very quick paced and exciting. Micky is shouting of how he has no time for a girl. He has real energy and spirit in his voice, but he’s also out of energy for the girl. It’s a good balance. The song was written by all four Monkees. This song seems like a reference to their real life situation. They got no time for the system stopping them from making their own music. Lines like, “You don’t seem to make no sense”, are particular examples. The writing feels like a group effort, which helps bring the piece to life. The line, “Nevermind the furthermore, the plea is self defense”, is so good. It’s like the band can’t contain their emotions and those great lines pop out.

“Early Morning Blues And Greens” seems like filler, but it’s still good. It doesn’t feel wholly like filler. It’s a low energy, very basic Davy song. This has one of the best uses of low energy instruments I’ve heard so far in the Monkees catalog. They’re mostly quiet, but they very well compliment the song’s tone and Davy’s vocals, which are quite good. Davy communicates a lot in his vocals. He’s tired, he’s waking up, he’s young, he’s old. The vocals have a detail and character that is very expressive. A particularly good line is “I will drink my coffee slow”. It’s very well sung.

This album continues to best itself, that has never been truer than with “Randy Scouse Git”. The track starts with a powerful and impressioning use of the timpani. There’s buckets of character in Micky’s voice. He seems exceptionally passionate about the matter. The lyrics are filled with metaphors. The lyrics are very interesting and descriptive. The singer wants more from the “wonderful lady”. This song summarizes all the album’s styles and concepts. There’s quieter moments, crazy moments, sincere moments, and in between, though Micky never gets too quiet. There’s a lot going on in the kind of way Micky’s singing and the instruments are being played and it’s blended so well. A lot’s going on. After some loud, crazy drums, it all goes quiet and you hear the drumsticks hit the ground. Just like at the beginning, the timpani is played and it sounds exceptional. The piano solo around the middle is so good, as well. This song exemplifies the writing prowess of Micky Dolenz and his abilities as a musician.

The band really seemed to care about this album. It’s finally a chance to prove themselves as real musicians. They, for the most part, play their own instruments. There’s themes to this album, unlike the last two. Headquarters is about growing up and learning new things. It’s about being a crazy, young guy. It’s about girls. There’s a solid flow from one track to the next. They fit together very well. Few tracks are like another and when they are, they’re not next to each other. This album is kind of their first. The Monkees will push themselves even further after this…

Next Album: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.

Doctor Who (Classic) 056: The Claws of Axos // Season 8 (1971) Review Part 3

The spaghetti monsters

Context for those unfamiliar with Doctor Who

In the classic era of Doctor Who, stories were divided up into multiple episodes, in a serialized fashion. This story is four episodes long. The show follows The Doctor, the protagonist, on various adventures through space and time. Since Spearhead from Space, he’s been exiled to Earth and aiding the monster fighting-military organization, U.N.I.T. Other main characters are U.N.I.T. members, Jo, The Brigadier, Benton, and Yates, and the villainous “The Master”. This article is part of a review of Doctor Who‘s eighth season.

As a kid, the Doctor I was least familiar with was Jon Pertwee. I heard that this story was really good, so I picked it up. I didn’t like it much then. Now that I’ve rewatched it, I see it’s not particularly liked (or disliked) by the fandom… but what do I now think of The Claws of Axos?

All of our old favorites are back, The Doctor, Jo, The Brigadier, Benton, Yates, and their good ol’ base, U.N.I.T. The opening is very good. We see shots of radars and scanners detecting a comet of sorts. We then see people discussing what they’re seeing. This is very atmospheric. It gets you wondering what’s going on. Mr. Chinn, the head of a committee inquiry into U.N.I.T., demands papers on the Doctor’s identity from the Brigadier. The Brigadier doesn’t give any. This does a good job of showing the kind of person Mr. Chinn is. He’s upset at not getting what he wants and he’s concerned with the unknown. In the first episode, we’re dealing with the unknown, this comet. Next up, we’re introduced to who is now one of my favorites one-off characters, Bill Filer, an American with a thick Texan accent, sent to track down and deal with the Master. This guy always has his gun on him and acts just like a stereotypical Texan. He’s absolutely great.

Something I picked up on was how in Episodes 1 and 3, the Doctor doesn’t have a lot to do. U.N.I.T. and the guest characters usually are the ones dealing with the situation at hand. In Episode 1, the Doctor is mostly observing the other characters and the problem. In Episode 2, he acts on what he knows. In Episode 3, he’s away from the group dealing with the problem his own way and gaining more info. In Episode 4, he acts once more. The Doctor is very much a Patton type of character. If what you’re saying makes sense, he has no problem listening to you, if what you’re saying doesn’t make sense, he has no problem going against you.

This serial’s pacing is faster than typically. If a mystery is introduced, it’s solved pretty quickly. Sometimes an element of a story would take several episodes to be concluded, but here we find out what the comet is quickly and things about it fast. While a bit of tension would be nice, this story doesn’t suffer much from this. It clearly just wants to move along to other things which are still interesting and developing the narrative.

Episode 1 is good. Despite seeing a lot of the comet, it’s so weird, spooky, and mysterious that seeing it doesn’t spoil its mystique. This episode’s main purpose is to introduce the terror of the threat. You can feel it based on simply not knowing what is going on. A lot of the cliffhangers are awkward technically in the 70’s stories I’ve seen so far. The episodes end very suddenly. This episode’s cliffhanger has a dramatic music cue, which leads into the credits. That would become common practice for cliffhangers. It looks and sounds much better.

SPOILERS

The comet lands on Earth and sends a message to U.N.I.T. that they need assistance. Most of the characters go to it and are allowed inside it. The group comes across the Axons. They look similar to humans, but with weird gold bodies (and zippers on their backs, bad costume design!). They want to stay on Earth, get “nutrition and energy” and leave when they’re done. In exchange for Earth’s aid, they’ll give them Axonite. Axonite can make things smaller or larger. This could end world hunger among other things.

This is an interesting concept. Does one save this for themself or give it to the world? That’s barely addressed, however. The story is mainly about what the Axons are doing. They have an evil plan. The Axonite turns into monsters. The monsters themselves are called ‘the Axonites’, but I like to call them the spaghetti monsters, based on how they look. The Axons act perfectly nice and friendly in Episode 1. They’re are many hints to them being evil, but they’re excusable. The comet kills a man, but for all we know, that could be unrelated to the Axon’s personal objective. Similarly to in The Mind of Evil, the main baddie messes with the mind, the inside of the comet does this as well. There’s a joke where the Axons think that frogs are food. This subtly makes the Axons look nicer, as they’re associated with lighthearted humor.

Jo wanted to go to the comet, but The Doctor told her not to. Her character was established as such where she would happily not listen to such an order, but she actually listens to him… until she does leave, just not immediately. This is yet another nice scene that shows Jo’s character.

We continue to see The Doctor’s frustration with humans. He thinks people are jumping into the situation too much. When the Doctor is speaking of how to deal with the problem, a human scientist asks who’s in charge sarcastically. The Doctor sharply responds, “Why, you do, of course!” This is a great way of showing his sassiness. The Doctor later says to the scientist, “Oh, nothing, my dear Holmes.” This is another sarcastic remark that shows how the Doctor feels. When the Doctor is away from the other characters, he’s very focused on solving the threat. That’s the only thing he’d doing. He often just wants to get this problem out of the way. When the Master shows up, despite the Doctor not agreeing with his villainous actions, respects him and treats him like an intellectual. The Doctor has the understanding that the Master is smarter than people, he’s just using his intelligence for evil.

The Brigadier also gets some interesting moments. When Mr. Chinn refuses to give the Brigadier the Axonite, he simply and frankly pulls a gun on him. This show doesn’t want you to forget that the Brigadier is a military man. If he’s got to do something, he’ll do it. When the Brigadier and the Master run into each other, despite their negative past, they both speak politely and respectfully to the other, despite their disdain they obviously have. It’s not in him to be vindictive. The Doctor and Jo are in the Axon comet and due to the Doctor’s absence, the Brigadier has to work with the Master to get rid of the Axons. The Master says that he can blow up the comet. The Brigadier doesn’t want to as the Doctor and Jo will likely die, but agrees to when not blowing up the comet would result in an Axon conquest. The Brigadier’s main priority isn’t the rules, he just wants everyone and everything to be as safe as possible. 

We learn for certain that the Axons are villainous in Episode 2. This is learned through a conversation between the Master and an Axon. The Axon essentially details their whole plan that the Master already knows about. This scene was included so the audience knows that the Axons are evil. The Axons lost trust in the Master, who they had made a deal with. The Axons will give the Master his TARDIS back if he spreads the Axonite. At this point onward, his scenes are perhaps the serial’s best. Just like with the Doctor, the Master is efficiently going on a journey. One particularly fun scene is when the Master jumps on a truck just to get where he’s going faster. He hypnotizes the driver by saying, “I am Master. You will obey me. You will obey me.” The Master helps a bit in spreading the Axonite, but once The Master realizes he can fix The Doctor’s TARDIS and leave, he immediately drops that. Once he realizes he can’t, but he can get the most out of helping U.N.I.T. defeat the Axons, he helps them. It’s both funny and great characterization to see how the Master acts in these situations. It’s fun seeing the TARDIS interior again, as well.

The ball is dropped a bit on the awe of the Axons. The serial constantly shows off how spooky they are, but there’s a lack of subtlety. Bill is knocked unconscious and when he’s coming to in a hospital bed, he’s awkwardly rolling around. He says, “Axonite. Axonite. Dangerous. Must be kept here. Must not distribute. Must not distribute.” That’s so goofy due to how on the nose it is. The bad acting doesn’t help. One good moment is when the Doctor says, “You can’t just walk in there and take it!” An Axon replies, “On the contrary, Doctor. We can.” Those witty, small lines do so much more because they say a lot. That line tells us the Axons can be well spoken, thus they’re intelligent. It says they don’t have too many concerns. Bill goofily speaking in bed makes the Axons themselves look goofy. This is paralleled with the Axons we see. We start out seeing some well mannered, intelligent-appearing, humanoid creatures, but then we’re shown the spaghetti monsters, then we see their leader, a weird eye creature. The two more monstrous costumes don’t look convincing, so they take away from the Axon’s creepiness.

Episode 2 has a good ending. The audience learns the threat is more serious than initially thought and the Doctor gets some good facial expressions. However, then the spaghetti monsters show up and the episode ends on “Hey, look how spooky they are!” Episode 1’s cliffhanger was more or less the same. The Axons take the Doctor and Jo to the comet. Irritatingly, they tell the Doctor and Jo their plan. Episode 3 mostly focuses on the conflict outside the comet. It’s boring until the Master shows up. When The Master blows up the comet, we see the Doctor and Jo trying to escape from inside. This is a really good cliffhanger. The two are already in a dangerous situation, but not there’s explosions on top of that. We get to see a nice character moment between the two in the beginning of Episode 4 when the Doctor quickly and efficiently calms Jo and helps her escape. We see the Doctor’s caring nature under his standard relatively cold exterior. While the Doctor may be an alien, he does care for humans.

Episode 4 is quite fun. Chinn, who had been mostly uninvolved in the middle two episodes, speaks to the Brigadier, but he was unaware of most of what’s happened since Episode 1. The Brigadier is quite annoyed by his lack of knowledge on the Axons and the issue in general. I never knew I wanted to see a character with one episode’s knowledge speak to someone with the knowledge of basically the whole story.

Episode 4 mostly deals with stuff relating to the long running story of this season, what’s up with the Master and The Doctor trying to leave Earth. The Doctor finds the Master and sees that he’s helped a lot with his damaged TARDIS. The Doctor proposes that he and the Master leave the situation and let the humans fend for themselves. The Master supports that. The Doctor reveals to all the human characters that he’s abandoning them. This closes a small element from the beginning of the story. Chinn was concerned about the Doctor and his suspicions were seemingly confirmed here. We also get a really well performed and shot scene of Jo banging on the TARDIS, begging the Doctor to not leave them. As some may have already guessed, the Doctor had no plan to let everyone down. He goes and saves the day, tricking the Master in the process, and then returning to Earth. While it was his intention to save the day, he didn’t want to return to Earth. He said the Time Lords have rigged his TARDIS so he must always return to Earth, thus maintaining his exile. The scenes of the Doctor and the Master talking together like intellectuals are gold. Their wits and abilities are on full display. They’re such good characters. We see their lives and opinions in these conversations. They both hate and deeply respect the other. They’re both trying to best the other with their words and actions.

In real life, the script editor, Terrance Dicks, disliked the Doctor being exiled, so he wanted to find loopholes that would allow the Doctor to leave Earth. However, many wanted the element to remain. His solution was in the ending of this story. There’s a big plot hole with it, though. Can the Doctor not just go anywhere he wants, return to Earth, then go to the next place? How is this a particularly large hindrance?

OVERVIEW

It’s amusing how little the Axos stuff was actually focused on, especially near the end of the story. That whole element was more or less not important. This story was mainly about how the characters react to the Axos, not the Axos itself. By the end, some characters are worrying about other matters. This shows that the story is moving beyond the typical “Problem of the week”. We’re working on the actual story arc of the season, but it’s not taking anything from the individual serials.

This story generally avoids clichés and absurd developments. Fight scenes are common in Who, however here they’re good. There are many moments, mostly in Episode 3, where the story loses itself in the stupidity that’s all too tempting to go to. Things are a bit too slow and a bit too convenient. While this story can be quite silly with the spaghetti monsters among other things, the drama and character development vastly make up for it.

The Claws of Axos brilliantly handles a lot of different elements. Nothing is ignored or forgotten, if something stops being relevant, there’s a good reason and it comes back around. The overall story is dramatic and character based, but there’s sharp lines and acting that bring the whole thing to life. This story has brought the story of the Third Doctor to another level.

More of the Monkees (1967) Review

The Monkees in 1967 from left to right, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz

First, there was The Monkees and now there’s more… of the Monkees. One of the Monkees’ band members, Michael Nesmith, in Melody Maker magazine, said that More of the Monkees was “probably the worst album in the history of the world”. Similarly to The Monkees, The Monkees themselves had virtually no creative control here. You can tell.

The album starts with “She”. A recurring issue with Micky Dolenz in these first two albums is that his vocal skills are very poor. It’s a small step above just saying the lines. This isn’t helped by how bad the lyrics often are. Though there are exceptions, a good line in this song, “She needs someone to walk on so her feet don’t touch the ground”. That’s a funny line that emphasizes the point of the song. Another song here with a similar issue is “Mary, Mary”. Dolenz’ vocals are similarly uninterested and lifeless. It’s a shame the lyrics are so poor as the song was written by Michael Nesmith, who generally is quite talented.

Speaking of Michael Nesmith, he has one vocal contribution here, “The Kind Of Girl I Could Love”. This one feels more like a song written by Nez than Mary, Mary. It’s fast, faux-country, and upbeat. While Nesmith’s vocals are not spectacular, there is character and life to them. He’s not entirely interested or disinterested, based on how he sounds when singing the song. The instrumentation is uncharacteristically creative. The main problem here is that the lyrics are not very good. You could give these lines to any other pop singer. They don’t suit Nez.

The talents of Micky Dolenz that one would come to expect are seen more in “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” and “Sometime In The Morning”. Sometime doesn’t contain the greatest of deliveries, but this somewhat dry delivery style better suits the quieter, relaxing nature of the song. Like with morning time, the song reflects that feeling of waking up and starting the day. Micky seems to be trying too hard to be calm and relaxed in the song, but it’s overall passable. There is some emotion in his voice which improves the track and a line at the end when the title is said is so good.

Steppin’ Stone is one of the most famous songs in the Monkees’ catalogue. Micky trash talks a girl who’s stepping all over him. This song is high in spirit, tone, and sharpness. Dolenz’ vocals and the instruments are really good. Perhaps it’s unfair to criticize that something isn’t a different way, but what would help this song more are more instruments that are louder and wilder. Make it known, shout about how much of a gold digger this girl is. This track is similar to “She” in subject matter. The singer doesn’t like a mean girl.

Now onto the Davy Jones songs. “Hold On Girl” is the most obvious filler track. It’s a very typical romance song with no life anywhere. It’s a very bland experience. The instruments are noticeably louder than Jones’ quiet vocals. The song is overall very boring. “Laugh” is trying a little bit more than “Hold On Girl”. There’s laughter in the song by the other members. That’s it. The instruments here are too loud, just like in the other one. The instrumentation seems like a stock romance track. Both of these tracks portray an overly simplistic relationship (many of the other songs here do as well). They seem like attempts to appeal to the teenage girls who would be into the teen idol, Davy Jones.

Jones’ pieces improve with “When Love Comes Knockin’ (At Your Door)” and “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)” In “When Love Comes Knockin’ (At Your Door)”, the instruments are once again very simple, but they work. Some of the lines are sung well, but for the most part, they’re unenthusiastic (I feel I’m repeating myself). It’s noticeably more interesting than the other Jones songs mentioned. Jones plays around with his voice a bit, trying to stretch it out and make it more prominent. The instruments seem to be trying to create something impactful. This song never hits any high bars, but it gets over the small ones.

Of the four songs not mentioned, two are bangers and the other two are trash. “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)” finally gives us the good Davy Jones. His character loves the girl in the song and you know it. There’s finally a bit of life to the instruments. While it could be improved in all of it’s little elements, it’s still hitting marks and making a real impression. Jones’ voice and the instruments needed at least a little work. Near the end, there’s a bit of drag. Davy whispers things like “I love you” in the microphone. I wonder if this was done for the teenage girl audience. Rehearsals could probably iron out the wrinkles in the song, but it’s still good regardless.

Another stock-sounding instrumental plays for Davy Jones in “The Day We Fall In Love”. He’s barely even singing, this one’s more or less spoken word. This attempt at being soothing creates an uncomfortable experience to listen to. Sometimes Jones just stops singing and the terrible, faux-happy instruments play. This one alternates from being this album’s second worst song and its first in my eyes… Peter Tork generally seems to put the least into his vocals of the band. It appears that the man has always preferred to play the guitar. However, he sings great in “I Don’t Think You Know Me”. This is the same with “Shades of Gray”. In “Your Auntie Grizelda”, his vocals are wooden to an incredible degree. They are so stale and lifeless, it’s like a really talented vocalist was hired and they were asked to sing the song as wooden as possible. The instruments shriek and don’t convey much. They don’t emphasize the lyrics, the tone, anything. They subtract in how distracting they are. Tork near the end starts making noises with his mouth. I’m unsure if this was a joke or not and by extension, why it was included in this song. It doesn’t sound good. To give this track some credit, the lyrics have potential. They could go for some changes here and there and if sung well, this song could be good. Some of the lyrics hint at a darker nature to Auntie Grizelda, go more into that.

The last track on the album is the best, “I’m A Believer” is a very good song. It seems that more time and effort was put in here than in the others. The instruments are doing a lot and conveying a lot about the song’s lyrics, story, and tone. Micky Dolenz’ vocals are very good at portraying the concept of the song. You can tell he’s now a believer. The lyrics don’t seem that good on paper, but when sung well, they jump to life and really excel at sounding good and portraying the story. Despite how popish this one sounds, it’s a real piece with real effort behind it. 

The Monkees love negative romance songs. Characters talk about why they don’t like the relationship they’re in, instead of why they do. Songs like “She” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” are notable examples. The singer really does not like the girl in these songs. Speaking of singing, all four members of the band sing and most of the time, their vocals are uninterested and lifeless. It seems that the band didn’t enjoy working on this album and it shows. There’s an odd amount of repetition in these songs. In two Davy Jones songs, “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)” and “Laugh”, shoes are mentioned. In “Mary” and Look Out, the girl of discussion is named Mary. I wonder if this is a coincidence. These repeats don’t seem to mean or add anything.

This album has more uniformity in tone than the first album. The first album is like if songs were plucked from very different pop albums and jammed together in one album. This one has more repetition in themes. “I’m in/was in a relationship and it was good/bad”. There are less direct examples like “Your Auntie Grizelda”. That song is about a relationship, but not a romantic one. This album is trying less to be fun. The first album’s songs feel like they’re trying to create an experience, these ones are not. This album’s repetition isn’t all good. Sadly, it goes too far and I feel like I’m hearing the same stuff on repeat. That was less of an issue the first time around.

The Monkees after this get creative control. I can’t help but consider their third album their first and this one their zeroth. I guess their first one would be the negative first album by the band. Having had two albums to practice, they bring their A-game as they run their music’s Headquarters.

Next Album: Headquarters

Doctor Who (Modern) Series 8 (2014) Review

The three most prominent characters, left to right, Clara, The Doctor, and Danny

Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, has just left Doctor Who. Now it’s time for Peter Capaldi to give it a go at the role of The Doctor. The companion of last season, Clara, continues on in the series. Notably, this season focuses more on her than last season. One episode of it briefly showed her as a school teacher. In Series 8, numerous episodes focus on her school and her at it. We see her frustration at the Doctor’s alien qualities and her developing relationship with another teacher named Danny Pink. If Doctor Who didn’t exist, then Series 8 came around and Clara was listed as the main character, it wouldn’t feel too out of place. There are numerous times in the franchise where it’s more about how the companion sees things than how the Doctor sees things. In the revived series, this was the case with companions Rose, Amy, and Clara as mentioned and even in the classic series, the show started with companion Ian Chesterton as the focus. When his actor left the show, it focused on the Doctor. This is an interesting idea. It’s important to focus on the Doctor, the protagonist, but there’s no reason this can’t be done through the lens of his companions. In the famous novel, The Great Gatsby, the story is from the perspective of someone who is not the protagonist.

I had trouble determining why I was a little underwhelmed by this episode and other good NewWho. I realized that the NewWho formula was the issue. It just sticks out so much to me. Good ClassicWho is generally good at hiding its formula, though I admit it’s almost always there. Just as I’m enjoying something different in NewWho, the formula hits me in the head and slots itself in where I know it will go. It’s extremely frustrating. I think if I decided to binge every NewWho episode I liked, then maybe the formula wouldn’t be so clear. I guess I can’t be sure.

This season has twelve episodes and while I wanted to review all of them, not all appealed to me enough. This will be detailed later.

Episode 1: Deep Breath

I wasn’t looking forward to this after the disappointing Series 7. Fortunately Deep Breath was good. Many of the actors are giving their best performances up to this point and the newbies are knocking it out of the park. Some of the humor and special effects are quite good as well. One joke about the character of “Handles” from The Time of the Doctor got a really strong laugh from me. I loved the scenery, the cinematography, and the costumes. A surprise cameo at the end annoyed me in the past, but it actually works well in a pretty good scene. Many of the little surprises work very well.

Just like lots of Doctor Who, there are annoyances. Some of the humor is poor. When it’s bad, it’s insufferable. Clara acts out of character, such as at the end, just to move the plot along. Some of the ways in which the antagonists act is nonsensical. It’s a bit formulaic at points in how the plot movies, but overall it’s still a fair episode.

I was terrified when watching the second episode, Into the Dalek as it gave me nothing to talk about. There’s nothing developed or interesting to say. Anything it posits as little or no connection on the rest of the season. This sentiment also applies to Episode 3, Robot of Sherwood. Even if we aren’t focusing on their impact, the episodes themselves are not very good.

Episode 4: Listen

This is actually something different. Listen is a cute, subtle mystery. It’s a mystery of what’s going on with the Doctor. The Doctor wonders why we fear what’s under the bed. If we turn around and it seems something like our cup of joe has vanished, where to? The audience surrogate is Clara. She’s on a date with Danny Pink and the Doctor keeps interrupting in order to take her places in an attempt to discover this mystery. Something of note is how strange the Doctor acts. It is true that he acts like a child at times, but it just seems logicless here. Whenever the Doctor has acted so strangely in the past, it’s been to fool someone, like an enemy, but here he’s only with Clara and one other person who isn’t villainous. There’s a bit of an explanation at the end… 

SPOILERS

Clara discovers that the Doctor, as a child, had bad dreams. She accidentally grabbed him from under his bed. Once he’s relaxed a bit, she gives the child Doctor a monologue about how it’s okay to be afraid.

So this episode is telling us that the Doctor never before thought to pursue this quandary of his? It makes sense that it would pop into his head right before the episode started and he can’t help but think about it, but how did this not happen sooner?

OVERVIEW

The sudden kid show lesson at the end feels out of place with the tone and style of the show, which is at least a few years older. The different kind of style for the episode was appreciated, but the payoff doesn’t really work.

In Episode 5, Time Heist, The Doctor doesn’t know what high heels and make up are, despite referring to make up in the last episode and being over two thousand years old. There are numerous times in the season where he seems unfamiliar with pretty basic things. In Episode 7, Kill the Moon, he can’t tell how old a child is.

Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express

This episode was good. Parts of it are annoyingly formulaic, but actual character and heart make up for it. The horror of the Mummy is felt in the audience. The idea of having to face your death digs into the core and sends a chill up the spine. Mummy’s main success was how it developed the Doctor and Clara’s shaky relationship. This is personified in the episode itself.

SPOILERS

The Doctor was arrogant uncharacteristically in the episode and thus pushing away Clara. It turned out to all be part of a plan that surprisingly made sense. It says a lot about the Doctor not being too emotional at the people’s death. He’s trying to get to business and solve this problem.

Episode 9: Flatline

Flatline is filled with conveniences. It’s very convenient that the Doctor’s spaceship, the TARDIS gained or lost power whenever it did. It’s convenient that the right people were around.

SPOILERS

The Doctor deems the villains of the episode as bad without knowing much about them. This is a character that’s often curious to learn new things and understand the unfamiliar. He even admits that they could have positive intent, but then just kills them as they seem dangerous and can’t be communicated with. This is very out of character for the Doctor. There’s virtually no attempt to learn or understand them. It seems the only reason that he showed up and killed them was that the episode was almost over and it needed to be wrapped up.

Episode 10: In the Forest of the Night

It’s quite funny how the Doctor speaks to a child named Maebh. He is interrogative and acts like an intellectual. While it’s a little thing, it’s a moment of good comedy which is lacking in the season. This episode is filled with Clara’s students. All I can say is don’t include bad child actors in your show, they can’t act and these kids can’t act.

Forest is like a fairy tale, not a good idea for Doctor Who. The whimsy and child-like innocence roughly matches with the more serious tone of Who. The plot of what to do with the dangerously-large amount of trees that suddenly grew seems like it’s plucked straight from a children’s book. To add to the problems, it’s a very obvious social commentary on caring for forest preservation. Social commentaries are not a bad thing, but a recurring issue with them is a lack of subtlety. This episode is not subtle at all. The Doctor gives a speech criticizing humans for wanting to cut down trees. The trees are shown as misunderstood. The story basically stops for this. The other half of the episode focuses on Clara, Danny, and the Doctor relationship. Despite this connection to the main plot, In the Forest of the Night is very much a filler episode. It’s like an episode needed to be produced quickly for a younger audience.

SPOILERS

Maebh mentions recurringly that her sister went missing. In the last seconds of the episode, that sister appears with the aid of magic. The day is also saved by Maebh telling the whole world to not destroy the trees as they will in fact save the world by shielding Earth from a solar flare. Then, as the trees protect Earth against the flare, the excess of trees are destroyed and there’s no damage. Is the absurdity of that not obvious?

OVERVIEW

I find it difficult to believe that that ending or even this whole episode was made for people older than ten. It panders so much to the youngins’ that it seems to block out everyone else, even those who are trying to enjoy the season’s story. Forest is alienating and skippable.

Episodes 11-12: Dark Water & Death in Heaven

This whole affair is very melodramatic. Actors act like they’re in a soap. In some ways it’s like they’re on stage. When Clara and Danny are upset, they’re near sobbing. When the villain is making a scene, they’re making a scene. Characters overreact to an extreme degree. The villain is so hammy and silly that I couldn’t take anything they did seriously. There was clearly an idea for them, but it wasn’t executed well. The character moments are nice. The villain mostly strips away their humor for Part 2 and has a serious talk with the Doctor. That’s a really good scene. This is also the case with Danny and Clara, they get actual time to be people.

SPOILERS

The episode starts with Clara on the phone with Danny, who is on a walk. While on said walk, Danny gets hit by a car and dies. Sudden, huh? Clara meets the Doctor and relatively calmly asks to go to a volcano. She walks around the TARDIS collecting various hidden keys. She then asks the Doctor for a “sleep patch” as she says she’s been struggling to fall asleep. After he does so, Clara places it on the Doctor. There’s a cut to the two of them by a volcano. Clara says that Danny is dead and she knows that saving him would cause a paradox, but they have to do it anyway. The Doctor eggs her on and she destroys all the keys. Clara then wakes up in the TARDIS and the Doctor reveals the whole thing to not be real. It was a “telepathic test” to see how she would act under her situation and she never actually hit him with the sleep patch. This whole scene is a lie. It would be fine if Clara never threatened or in fact threw the keys in the lava as there would be no bating for the audience’s attention, but it’s not good that the creators tried to make us think the keys were gone when they actually weren’t. They’re being dishonest to get drama. This is something I hate to see in movies and shows. I will say, the close up on Clara when the Doctor asks what he can do for her is great. It’s very dramatic.

The Doctor has got to kick Clara out. What if she tries something again and actually messes something up? Also, how are we supposed to like Clara after seeing this? She comes off incredibly selfish. She’ll possibly destroy reality for her boyfriend. I now don’t want that character to continue travelling with the Doctor. This story doesn’t just make Clara look bad. Later, the Doctor discovers that someone he’s talking to is a recurring villain, the Master. The Master insinuates to her employee that she’s going to kill him. After a long, annoying sequence, she does so. Why did The Doctor just let the man be killed? He doesn’t even react to the situation after it happened.

Danny’s death was so rushed. This two-parter doesn’t much develop it, namely because it comes out of left field. If it happened a few episodes earlier, we could’ve had the time to feel the pain of Clara. Admittedly, it seems like it would be difficult to fit that and the rest of the season into just twelve episodes. Perhaps the Danny arc should’ve taken two seasons.

The Cybermen, a recurring villain, appear, but they don’t act like Cybermen as they barely do anything in the story. The plot doesn’t focus on them very much. I don’t mind as it’s something new that’s interesting and inventive, but I just wish that the episode never bothered to even attempt to make them a threat. They’re not a threat, so don’t try to sell us that. In the episode, just have them used as a mindless force and go on with business. Perhaps it would’ve been better to come up with a new monster.

Part 2 just loves to kill. There are tons and tons of mindless, inconsequential deaths. So many could be cut out and you’d have a better paced story. There’s so much death that the dead come alive as Cybermen. Danny returns as one. He isn’t entirely transformed and much of his time in the story is spent with him having a talk with Clara. The action stopping for actual human interaction is very alleviating. This is ironic seeing as Danny has transformed into a cyborg. The biggest tragedy of this season is the lack of development for Danny and Clara’s relationship. They go around in circles for the season, then it all doesn’t matter when he suddenly dies. Him kind of coming back doesn’t solve this as the two never get to be together. Ultimately, the dead go back to being so. It’s all a big shame. Anytime we learned something about Danny or Danny learned something about the Doctor and Clara, it didn’t mean anything. It was also dropped and the plot shifted to the dead thing. These Danny moments don’t enlighten the main characters either. The parts that affect Clara are their relationship and Danny’s death. There’s plenty of other things, like Danny being a soldier, which aren’t important. Clara lied to Danny by saying her adventures with the Doctor weren’t dangerous. That doesn’t matter either.

OVERVIEW

In general, this season has choppy, broken stories.

The Doctor gives lots of speeches which are over dramatic. They’re trying to convey a deep message of how the Doctor is or how people are, but they develop from nowhere and don’t serve much of a purpose to the plots. This season wants the Doctor to be more special than he is. In one episode, the Doctor leaves for a time and it’s dreadful for everyone else involved. It’s great in past seasons when we see his weaknesses sewn in. This season gives him none, but then slaps some weaknesses on him at points with no class or subtext. The episodes are now screaming “The Doctor is weak!” The characters in this season are such a mismatch of tropes and ideas.

Most stories in Doctor Who’s revival series suffer from being too short. The classic series stories could be virtually any length. Thus, things are not often underdeveloped. NewWho characters, plots, and ideas are often underdeveloped as those elements and much more have to be crammed into forty-five minutes. Guest characters often fall in certain character types. There’s someone who is under respected/appreciated that gets along well with Clara. There’s someone skeptical to the abilities of the Doctor and/or the seriousness of the situation. There’s someone who is innocent and silly. There’s characters with few lines that just get killed and that’s their whole character.

I hate the quippy dialogue characters have. When the head of U.N.I.T., Kate Stewart, disturbs a villain’s plan, she has quippy dialogue intended to get a laugh. Clara does this frequently as well. These moments remove the tension and seriousness of scenes. Can you stop wasting time and get on with the plot? The jokes are so tacked on. They’re probably attempts to appeal to people that like such humor.

This season is such a wreck. Even though Series 7 is worse, that one could at least stay focused. Series 8 is a million concepts blended together and writing about it is exhausting. Onto Series 9, unless I can’t stomach it.

The Devil Is a Woman (1935) Review

Marlene Dietrich from the film

The famous Marlene Dietrich has made quite an impact on culture with her counterculture way of acting and dressing in public and on film. One of her most beloved films is The Devil Is A Woman. She is that woman and she certainly acts the part.

Dietrich’s character, Concha Pérez, gets a solid introduction. When one of the male leads, Antonio, sees her, she’s partially obscured, but you can still see her radiating and addictive beauty. Soon after is the first scene where she’s not obscured. She gives herself attention and makes herself hard to forget with her comedy and way of moving around the small space. She has many qualities that draw men to her. She acts very seductive and draws those into her life seemingly because she enjoys doing so.

The direction, by Josef von Sternberg, is very good. The film seems mostly focused on Dietrich’s captivating performance. One highlight is a scene where she moves around a room filled with people and various goings on, but the camera stays on her. Scenes that don’t feature her are not particularly impressive, though not poor.

Antonio runs into an old friend, Pasqual, and when Pasqual finds out that Antonio is looking for Concha, he spends half the film telling him his story with Concha. It’s amusing, I thought the protagonist was Antonio as for the beginning of the movie, we’re following his perspective, but he’s absent for this backstory. The backstory featured Concha, but it focused on Pasqual. Once the backstory is over, the film focuses on Concha.

The humor of the film is quite good. For the first half of the feature, Concha makes various wisecracks. The deadpan rich girl act gets a lot of laughs, despite the fact that she’s never shown being engulfed in wealth. Her mother is poor and she lives with her. Pasqual has lots of money. Many of the jokes revolve around the mother’s honest desire for said money.

SPOILERS

Concha seems both attached and unattached to people. She takes an immediate interest to Pasqual and he does to her, but she seems unable to commit to anything. She’ll leave him for extensive periods of time and act like nothing has happened when they run into each other by chance. The two knew each other for very little time before Pasqual fell in love with her. It’s understandable that he takes an interest, but she treats him so terribly. She’s often asking for lots of money, which he happily gives. He sees how distant she is and the two never make a strong emotional connection. However, Pasqual is madly in love with Concha the day they meet. How Concha feels is a bit of a mystery. She seems to like him, but she’s so distant and cold. Pasqual seems obsessed with being with her.

Despite never making a commitment with Pasqual, he is possessive of Concha. She has a contract as a performer and he tries to buy her out of it without consulting her so she can leave Spain, he then demands she leave Spain with him, and at one point, she particularly annoys him (not unlike any other time), and he brutally beats her. Even after all of this, he’s not portrayed villainously. The film portrays him sympathetically. He’s in love and can’t control himself.

To speak of the directing, the beating scene was filmed well. Before Pasqual struck Concha, there was a cut to a door and we could only hear what’s happening. Her screams were more expressive than any possible visual.

Pasqual tells Antonio that she’s bad news and Antonio promises to not pursue her. Later that day, Antonio runs into Concha and is persuaded to just get coffee before he takes a train to Paris. Next scene, they’re at a party. I thought they were just getting coffee, why are they at a party? A bit into it, Concha asks Antonio to kiss her, which he immediately does. Then guess who walks in… Pasqual. Both men are upset with the other for pursuing Concha and they agree to have a duel. I have some questions, how did Pasqual know where the other two were? Why do either of them feel a duel will solve anything? It’s quite frustrating that the only reason why Antonio and Concha’s kiss was included was so Pasqual could witness it. It’s so sloppy to include things just to move the plot along.

Antonio later says he loves Concha. How? He’s seen and heard of how she hurts people and just like with Pasqual, we never saw them connect or bond. The two of them have basically just got a boner for her. Later, Concha says to Pasqual of the duel, “You’re going to kill the only man I’ve ever cared for!” We’ve never seen Concha connect to Antonio, at least she did a little with Pasqual.

OVERVIEW

Antonio and Pasqual don’t feel like real people. The various stupid things they do in the movie are only there to drive the plot. We barely see how they react to things or how they’re thinking. Usually it’s a mystery what could possibly be driving their decisions. The screenwriter, John dos Passos, uses them as pawns to tell a romantic-drama with all the little moments you’d expect from those stories, but none of the development. The two don’t move through their arcs, they jump to different points. Something that would help would be to see more of how they’re lives were before the drama of the film started. We see a little of Antonio’s and even less of Pasqual’s. They do so much in The Devil Is A Woman, but we can only wonder why.

Doctor Who (Classic) 055: The Mind of Evil // Season 8 (1971) Review Part 2

The Doctor and Jo

Context for those unfamiliar with Doctor Who

In the classic era of Doctor Who, stories were divided up into multiple episodes, in a serialized fashion. This story is six episodes long. The show follows The Doctor, the protagonist, on various adventures through space and time. Since Spearhead from Space, he’s been exiled to Earth and aiding the monster fighting-military organization, U.N.I.T. Other main characters are U.N.I.T. members, Jo, The Brigadier, Benton, and Yates, and the villainous “The Master”. This article is part of a review of Doctor Who‘s eighth season. This review contains spoilers for The Tomb of the Cybermen and Terror of the Autons.

Season 8 continues. Something I didn’t expect was for there to be a bit of a story arc. Modern Doctor Who is no stranger to the story arc, but Classic Who kind of was. There’s only been a handful of Classic arcs ever. This one seems to have fallen under the radar, but that’s mainly due to the fact that it’s just my interpretation. Who knows if it will continue after this serial? Something introduced last time that I thought would be a plot point all season at least seemingly got resolved in this serial. The story arc of the season is essentially the characters and their relationships. Someone our protagonist, the Doctor, knows so well has returned to cause trouble, his old friend/foe the Master. He was causing trouble last serial and now he’s back for this one too! The Doctor is aided by a new friend, Jo, also introduced last serial, with his old friends at the military organization, U.N.I.T. The recurring members are The Brigadier, Benton, and Yates. Something special with Jo is how there seems to be more of an attempt to make her a rich character as opposed to many past companions of the Doctor that didn’t get as much development as her.

In The Mind of Evil, The Doctor and Jo go to a prison where a new device has been invented. A scientist named Emil Keller invented a little machine called the “Keller Machine”. It does something to prisoners’ brains that makes them non-violent. The Doctor and Jo witness a demonstration on a large, intimidating guy. The treatment doesn’t go as planned, but apparently everything is fine. When that guy, named Barnham, recovers, he has the mind of a child. Despite a few comments throughout the serial about the immorality of such a practice, it’s never detailed and there’s no closure on it. You’d think that such a blatant and obvious comparison to the practice of lobotomy would warrant a detailed discussion, however that’s not the case here. This procedure is barely part of the plot. The Keller Machine does serve a large focus in the story, but Barnham is the only person to receive the procedure that we see. It is said that other prisoners received the procedure before the start of the serial. The discussions of the thing’s morality are interesting, but they were jammed into this story. Go find your own episode!

To indulge more in my detection of an arc, during the presentation on Barnham, the Doctor rudely and openly speaks during the demonstration. There have been numerous times in the past where the Doctor has been rude and uncooperative, though as a whole his character is portrayed more or less contradictory to that. Sometimes he’s the definition of kindness. Is Jo and The Master becoming involved in the Doctor’s life making him ruder? In numerous serials, including this one, he’s frustrated at the incompetence of other people in the situation. Something that’s more common in the Modern series, but sneaking around here is that it seems the Doctor thinks he’s both brilliant and an idiot. In Doctor Who and the Silurians, he fails to prevent something at the end that upsets him greatly. In The Massacre, he’s depressed by his various companions leaving him. However, in stories like Inferno, he feels he is very knowledgeable of how to solve the threat and anyone that disagrees with him is foolish. This is changed a bit with the Master. He seems to at least respect the Master as intelligent, even if he is using his intelligence to be villainous.

The director of this serial, Timothy Combe, also directed Doctor Who and the Silurians. His style is detectable. He is a good director for moving. We see many angles and creative shots from him. One highlight is a scene in Episode 4 when the camera is on the Doctor, then there’s a fade to the Master. I’m a big fan of the “Fade” transition. Sadly it isn’t used much in Doctor Who. The dialogue and acting are also quite sharp. There’s numerous witty lines spoken in clever manners.

SPOILERS

The drama of The Mind of Evil starts when someone alone in the room where the Keller Machine is turns up dead. Most confusingly, the person appeared to have been killed by being attacked by rats. There’s apparently no way rats could have gotten into the room. I like how it’s not clear what the threat is until surprise! Someone is dead.

The Doctor immediately accuses the Keller Machine, thus asserting his intelligence. A character named Professor Kettering is understanding, but also skeptical of the Doctor’s resistance to the Machine. He says he’ll look into it later. Later when Kettering is working on the machine, it turns on and an overlay of water appears on screen (courtesy of bad special effects). Kettering is terrified. He’s later found dead and the cause of death is drowning. The reveal of how the machine kills is well done. Everything was normal for Kettering as he worked on the machine. He was even set up to be a main player in the serial. Characters like him usually survive or die in the last episode. Kettering’s story ends in Episode 1. The Doctor demands to work on the machine himself. It activates when he is and the Doctor begins to be burned. The cliffhanger is exciting, though I couldn’t help but think of what’s the point in being invested. He’s either going to escape or be saved.

Unusually, this serial has a B-plot. Said B-plot is about a peace conference which everyone desperately wants to go well. Chin Lee is a Chinese army officer who seems a bit peculiar. There’s a reveal that she’s being mind controlled, though it takes a while for the other characters to learn this. The machine is channeled to her on the streets and she uses it on Benton. Inexplicably, he doesn’t die, but is instead briefly knocked unconscious. When he comes to, he chases after Chin Lee. The camera follows him, but when he runs by a Handyman, the camera focuses on the Handyman. They go in a truck and there’s a reveal to the audience that they are The Master! The way we transition from Benton to the Handyman is pretty snazzy and inventive. This is an example of the director’s abilities. The nonchalant way the Master is introduced is appreciated. It’s not a huge spectacle or built up a lot. It is annoying that the machine barely affected Benton.

Later, the Doctor and the Brigadier speak to Fu Peng, the Chinese delegate. The Doctor asserts his intelligence over the Brigadier by speaking in Chinese. This is yet another moment of the Doctor acting like he’s better than another person. Something worth noting is that he especially does this with friends of his. He seems to make the Brigadier look less intelligent and respectable, but he overall makes the situation more relaxed and comfortable as he gains a friendship with Fu Peng.

Amusingly, the Master progressively becomes more involved in the story as the conference becomes less. It’s revealed that the Master is controlling Chin Lee. Another cute surprise is that we get a very subtle reveal to the fact that the Master is Emil Keller, yet another good surprise in the story. Later down the line, Doctor Who loves to throw subtlety out the window when the Master’s around, but this story resists any potential urges. Once the Doctor discovers that Chin Lee is being controlled, she is out of the story. Not just her, but the peace conference serves a much lesser role in the story. The Master plans to blow it up, but other than that, it’s not in the serial’s second half. We don’t see what it looks like or what anyone there knows about or thinks about what’s going on with U.N.I.T. This wouldn’t be so bad if that plot point wasn’t so involved in the first half.

When one B-plot falls, another must rise. At the prison, a man named Mailer is held there and is set to undergo the Keller Machine’s procedure. In my notes, I refer to him as Ron Swanson due to his striking resemblance to the character. When Mailer escapes and captures Jo, she gets a good character moment where she knocks his gun out of his hand. People are constantly captured and recaptured in this story. After Mailer is recaptured, the Master helps him escape. When the Doctor finds the Master, having suspected that he was behind the stories’ various issues, he says, “Yes, yes I thought as much.” That’s a very fitting and amusing response by him. The Doctor is imprisoned by the Master, he escapes, then is recaptured. There’s no reason the Doctor needed to escape other than to pad time. The same applies to Mailer. Just like in the previous serial, Terror of the Autons, the Master explains his plan to the Doctor. Unlike in the last serial, it makes sense that the Master explained a bit of his plan. He needs the Doctor’s help and he told him as little as he could… more or less. He tells him a little more than he should, but at least it’s not all the meat and potatoes. The Master straps the Doctor to a chair and has the machine focus on him. The Master wants to see how long the Doctor can survive the contraption.

In perhaps the best scene of the serial, the Master stops the machine once it’s clear that the Doctor could barely hold out and is within an inch of his life. The two have a well-performed scene. The Doctor says the machine can’t be controlled. There’s a creature in their that feeds on evil in people’s minds. The Master seems to have at least a small investment in the Doctor’s well being, despite speaking of his desire to kill him. The Doctor is moved by Mailer to a cell with Jo. He tries to knock out Mailer but fails. I wish there was some consequence to the Doctor doing this. However, everyone trusts him equally as little as before.

When the Doctor and Jo are in the prison room alone, the Doctor acts sick and Jo tries to nurse him back to health. Eventually, seemingly randomly, the Doctor gets up and seems fine. I’m not sure why he was sick for narrative purpose. Was he pretending? Did he suddenly get exceptionally better? We saw him well earlier. Was that scene not supposed to happen? Was he trying to fool Jo? Was he trying to fool the audience? I don’t understand.

A particular scene of importance is when the Master sees his machine. He wants to make sure he can control it. He lets the machine go for his mind and he tries to tell it that he is its master. The machine wins and we see the Master’s great fear. The Doctor appears and laughs at him. The Master can’t control the machine and leaves the room. This speaks of the character of the Master. His greatest fear seems to be the Doctor having control of him. This suggests that their relationship goes much farther back than one might have thought. The idea of the Doctor besting the Master terrifies him. We don’t see how he reacts to his failures in this serial or the previous one, this speaks to how he may. This also speaks to the Master’s personality. Does he lack confidence? Is he insecure? It’s better to not state this directly as it could make him look unchallenging, but this suggestion that’s up for interpretation says what’s needed.

In Yates’ moment of glory, U.N.I.T. is ambushed by a group of prisoners sent by the Master to get a missile. U.N.I.T. is badly injured, but when the prisoners leave, Yates grabs a motorcycle and goes after them. There’s a well directed sequence where Yates runs to a cycle, the camera goes by Benton, then once Yates leaves, the camera cuts to Benton getting up. While Yates is later captured, we see his versatility and abilities in tough situations. He never goes down without a fight.

The machine learns to teleport and kills much faster than before. The Doctor and Jo get in harm’s way. Cliffhanger! The machine, getting stronger, disappears without affecting the two. The Doctor suggests that it went after Mailer as he has a “higher concentration of evil”. This is bad for a few reasons. A.) The machine never before or after goes after the most evil target at a given time. B.) Why not go after the Master if it wants evil? C.) The thing kills so fast, why not get Jo and the Doctor before continuing on its merry way to more targets? D.) Mailer is not seen having to face it, what happened there? E.) This cliffhanger and resolution is insulting as it lied to us. There wasn’t even a chance of danger for the Doctor and Jo. It didn’t teach us anything either about the story. It’s bologna!

Later, the Master has to leave the prison and he puts Mailer in charge. A nice scene comes when the Doctor proposes that Mailer leave the Master and join him. Mailer says he will if he can give him a better deal than what the Master’s offering him. The Doctor thinks, struggles, and says, “I’ll do the best I can for you.” An amused Mailer refuses. The Brigadier and some other U.N.I.T. soldiers break into the prison and a fight starts with the various prisoners. Despite this being a shoot ‘em up, which I generally dislike, this one is actually good. The whole conflict isn’t solved with a shoot ‘em up, it’s just another step up in the battle. The opponents aren’t aliens that are supposedly extra strong, it’s a bunch of Englishmen. This results in another cliffhanger lying. Mailer pulls a gun on the Doctor. We get a close up of the gun and we see it fire with a bullet come out. Next episode it’s revealed that the Brigadier shot Mailer. However, we saw the gun! How can you cheat that?! In The War Games, someone is shot, but instead of seeing the gun, we see the reaction of the person who had a gun on them. Thus, it makes sense that the reveal would be for a third party to be shooting at the gunmen.

The machine once again encounters the Doctor and Jo. Before something interrupts it, the Doctor and Jo are once again barely affected. The Doctor can possibly be excused as he’s not human, but Jo is. Remember Barnham? In my notes for Episode 2, I wrote “We’re all waiting for something bad to happen to Barnham.” Well he actually has a larger role near the end. In Episode 5, he walks in on the Doctor and Jo and his presence makes the machine ineffective, because he was affected by the experiment in the beginning. It’s a good twist that it seems like Barnham’s point for being in the serial was to show off the machine, but he came back around and served an important part in saving the day. Jo takes a motherly role with Barnham. Throughout these last two episodes, she’s a bit protective with Barnham.

At the beginning of Episode 6, the Brigadier reveals that the missile can be detonated remotely. Obvious foreshadowing is obvious. The Master has the missile in his possession. Can you guess what’s going to happen? While I never like the presence of deus ex machinas, could the writer not at least bring this up near the beginning of the serial? It would be better for that element to be forgotten about, then we get a surprise at the end and we presumably would remember the supposed scene at the beginning. You’d think that in the last few episodes of the missile being stolen, this trick would’ve been mentioned. Throughout this whole episode I was just wondering, “When is the thing going to be blown up?!”

In Terror of the Autons, the Doctor stole a device, “the dematerialisation circuit”, from the Master. It lets him time travel. The Doctor offers it to the Master if he agrees to not bother Earth. He agrees. The Doctor doesn’t plan to give it to him. The Doctor, Jo, and Barnham go to the Master with the machine in a van. The Doctor pulls out the circuit and Barnham then drops the machine by the Master before him, the Doctor, and Jo run off. I like how there was subtle foreshadowing earlier in the serial that the Master can’t control the machine. That pays off here. There’s also a bit of payback for the Master. His machine made Barnham kind hearted instead of a criminal. This kind heartedness does ultimately best Barnham. He moves it away from the Master, presumably because he sees the Master in pain and doesn’t understand the situation’s complexities. The Master immediately jumps in the van and runs over Barnham. We see Jo and the Doctor’s distressed reactions to Barnham’s death. We see how it hurts Jo on her face. Hopefully this leads to her developing more. Admittedly, there have been times when companions have been in situations like this, but none received the attention and focus Jo did.

The Master calls the Doctor and says he got the circuit. The Doctor is upset by this. I like that both the Doctor and the Master lost and won something. The Master got the circuit and the Doctor prevented the Master’s terrorist attack. 

It weirds me out how nonchalant death is in this show. This is common in both the classic series and the modern series. Numerous U.N.I.T. stories feature a scene where some soldiers are fighting something, then we cut to one or two of the soldiers getting killed mindlessly. This seems like a cheap way of creating drama. “Oh no, the monster can kill!” This makes the Doctor and U.N.I.T. look weaker as they can’t stop these nickel dime deaths which are so pointless. Ninety-five times out of one hundred, you could cut out the death scenes. Usually, the scenes are already dramatic and tense enough where this isn’t needed. Some deaths feel earned. In an example from one of the best Doctor Who serials, The Tomb of the Cybermen, an expedition by a group of explorers results in almost all of them being killed. Each death is a reminder saying, “Hey, this was a pretty bad idea, huh?” The characters in that story aren’t on a mission to save people, they’re on a mission to be greedy. That’s what the story is about. If Tomb ended with most of them surviving, it would lessen its impact. That story also has a big guy who wasn’t intelligent, which is what Barnham was.

The Doctor discovers Barnham’s immunity when Barnham walks in on the Doctor with the machine and its effects just go away. Barnham is scared of it, but the Doctor henceforth tells him to stay near the machine unless told otherwise. The Doctor said earlier that the machine was evolving and getting stronger. Did the Doctor consider that the machine might get strong enough to kill Barnham? Did he not care? I understand that this was probably an oversight in the writing process, but what we see is this little plot hole that creates an interesting implication about the Doctor. Perhaps he’s just being logical. Later when Barnham is killed, he is thinking rationally and tells Jo to leave while they can. Is he being rational or is he numb to these deaths? The Doctor rarely seems bothered by the various deaths that litter the serials. He clearly still cares about people because he’s fighting these threats. The reason why the machine made him burn up is because of the events of a Season 7 serial called Inferno, where fire related issues occur. It would likely be easy for him to find a way to escape the danger and live peacefully. Is a part of him deteriorating? Is he losing his cool with the forces of evil? Who knows?