Fury from the Deep

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#107 3 Nov 2004, 12:21 pm
Dorney
Time Lord

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Re: Day by Day

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Fury from the Deep 1:

I've had the audio cassette of this for years. As far as I'm aware, I've never actually listened to the whole thing. I don't know why. Perhaps it was a combination of the fuzziness of the audio and the lack of proper narration. I do remember trying to use the DWM telesnaps at the same time... but they're so minute they're no use whatsoever. The problem with this is that I got through all the rest, and they're all equallly cack. (OK, so with virtually no recollection of Macra Terror, but I'm certain I got through it).

One thing that might have contributed is that this isn't the most exciting episode ever. For the first part of a legendary classic, you wouldn't immediately think it's going to be all that. Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly fine - just nothing particularly special yet. In deed, it mainly seems reminiscent of the previous two stories (arrival on a beach, then shot - Enemy of the World, Monstrous foam - Web of Fear), and as a result it's slightly underwhelming (I have to say that the early beach sequence seems curiously disconnected from the rest - the shooting seems a desperately contrived shortcut to get them into the action to me). As I say, it's not bad, just nothing exciting. In deed, you get the vague feeling that certain bits (discarded seaweed 'pulsating') would look really really rubbish.

Am I the only one scared by the concept of mid air landings for the TARDIS? Surely it's implausibly dangerous. Shouldn't there be some controls to prevent this? Though this leads into a nice scene with the regulars, laughing and playing and having fun (it's too easy, especially with the insistence on cliffhangers leading from one story to the next, to envisage TARDIS life as being just lurching from one perilous situation to another, meaning the regulars staying seems increasingly bizarre). There's a sweet line about the TARDIS always landing on Earth recently, acknowledging the awkwardness of this conceit, and always England (well, not quite Jamie, two in a row, with two others going to Australia and Tibet, but you're close enough). Ending with the introduction of the sonic screwdriver. It's surprisingly casual, and it amazes me that anyone would remember it enough to bring it back after this script. Odd to see how many of the staples we associate with the series are still being introduced, this late in the game (the Brig, UNIT and the screwdriver).

The opening scenes get going quite quickly (ok, so the regulars get the foam off their clothes impossibly fast). But, as with a lot of the rest of the recent stories, we've got a fairly good idea of the central threat very early on (we know there's something nasty in the pipes before we've met any of the characters). I'm not so sure this is a good thing. Mystery is a good thing. The behaviour of the riggers is odd, but we've got a fairly good idea what caused it. It all serves to slightly lessen the creepiness and the atmosphere - and in deed, watch for some staggeringly weak exposition when Harris reveals all the companies woes to a bunch of strangers pretty much instantly. It's tell, not show, in reverse of the regular maxim.)

One or two of the supporting characters show promise though. The Harrises seem fairly traditional straight edged decent sorts, but the main interest is in Robson. It's nice, for a change, to have a commanding officer who's more than a little rough around the edges, and definitively not posh. He's grumpy, surly, and instantly dislikeable. There's a lovely salt of the earth arrogance about him, a dislike for the suits, that makes him the most interesting commander this season (and we've had a few). Likewise, Van Lutyens is rather good, mainly for his stream of dutch insults. The guys got a bit of an edge.

So, fun, but nothing special. Yet.


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#108 4 Nov 2004, 12:03 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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Fury from the Deep 2:

Nice to have the episode captions visible on the telesnaps. I've missed them.

Well, another good episode... but I'm still not particularly excited by it yet. It's hard to put a finger on why exactly. I suppose, so far there's no real sense of threat. The menace itself is fairly nebulous, and hard to define (so far, just a heartbeat). It hasn't done anything particularly nasty yet either... no-one's dead, it's merely blocked a pipeline. It's not dangerous yet, merely annoying. All the moments that try to present it as scary (the cliffhanger to part one, the appearance of Oak and Quill) have a certain effect, but no underlying weight. Yes, Victoria screams at the appearance of the weed. But as of yet, we've no reason to assume there's any need to be scared. Likewise, Oak and Quill are creepy, but whilst it remains unclear exactly why they're doing anything, it's baseless. It says 'here's a creepy bit', rather than it tying in to the story directly (it's there because they need a creepy bit, more than they need to do it). It doesn't really help that they're main function in this episode is to mess with a cooker and open a door and that John Cura, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that one of the key images to preserve from this episode is a close up of Oak's arse.

One of the other great images is mere background. I love the fact that the word 'pipeline' is written in large letters on the pipeline. As if people working there couldn't possibly guess.

One of the oddities here is that no-one seems to care that the Doctor, Victoria and Jamie were locked up the last anyone knew. No one even asks how they escaped, or moves to send them back. Last episode they were considered worth imprisoning, this episode they're given the run of the place, vanishing for sections on end with no trouble at all. The standard Troughton plot involves the Doctor turning up and analysing/solving some problem - the tests in Ice Warriors, the return of the Ghanta - and as a result become a figure of trust for the inhabitants of this week's base. But here it's like someone's forgotten that scene. In fact, there's a scene of almost the exact opposite (surely Victoria's adventures in the oxygen room would make her less trusted? Couldn't the others have locked her in?) You had them shot and tranquilised a week ago people!

I've pretty much run out of things to say here. Pleasant, well made and acted, and the heartbeat and end credits combine to form a sort of dance music version of the theme at the end. But it still just isn't grabbing me and exciting me in the way Web did. Sorry.


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#109 4 Nov 2004, 5:04 pm
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Re: Day by Day

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Ah, I got interested in this from the relationship between the characters about halfway into part 1, and loved part 2, especially the cliffhanger.

It's unfortunate that episode 6 has such dire padding, really... Scary story till then, only for comedy hijinks in a helicopter...

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Ben grins out of the cockpit window:
“I am only borrowing this. I’m Ben Chatham” before expertly taking off into the clouds.

- "Face of Death" by Sparacus


"They laughed at Gallileo once."
- Sparacus


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#110 4 Nov 2004, 7:21 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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Don't get me wrong. I like it, the characters are good, the writing's good and there's no obvious sagging. I like it, but I don't really like it, yet, and I sort of expected to (expectation possibly the problem here - that and coming after Web - which is stunning).


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#111 5 Nov 2004, 11:37 am
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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Fury from the Deep 3:

Well, following on from my criticism of the last episode, everyone suddenly remembers that the regulars are supposed to be prisoners in this one (actually, a quick relisten to the start of part two reveals a barely audible mention from Robson, asking 'who let you out'. But seeing as no-one really cares it's not that relevant). Can't see why they'd bother reminding everyone of a carefully ignored plot point from a couple of weeks back, especially considering it plays no further part in this episode either. It's just drawing attention to the problematic plotting. Especially weird is the reference in the scene to the Doctor being a 'harmless old man'. Really? That's Hartnell, surely. How does Harris know? (And why does it look like Harris has a moustache half the time? It's something a little odd in the photos that).

The plot is beinning to warm up properly now. It's a slow acting story, with most of the plot to date fairly easy to condense into a single episode if you wanted to (nothing much happens with the concealed seaweed for a long time - found in part one, still lying on the patio in part three - and likewise Oak and Quill seem to be there to knock up the menace quota and fill in time - surely Mrs Harris has already been infected by the weed by the time they get there?). There's a degree to which the thin-ness of the plot is reflected in this being rather a short episode, 20 minutes only.

Victoria is rather coming into her own in this story. She's still not the greatest companion ever, tending on the whole to be whiny, and foolhardy (she always wanders off on her own and gets captured immediately... I wouldn't mind if she ever actually gained anything, or behaved bravely). Wet is probably the best, and currently most ironic, word for her. But there's a lot of detail for her here, and she's clearly in 'companion leaving' mode. She's suddenly developed an aptitude for lockpicking (wouldn't that have been useful before? Say, whilst captured by the Daleks?) and gets that little 'Oh, I wish it wasn't always dangerous' speech that's a bit forced.

Generally, I'm liking it still. There's a nice eerie atmosphere building up (particularly in the strange cliffhanger). Great acting and characterisation (Robson's breakdown comes from nowhere, but it somehow works) Problems still remain. The monster is rather an ethereal threat, still not really doing all that much to make us worry. The story is classy, but not exciting. Though as I've said before, that doesn't mean it ain't good.


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#112 8 Nov 2004, 1:08 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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Fury from the Deep 4:

As I keep saying, I do like this story, I'm just underwhelmed. It does have the reputation of being the great lost classic of the Troughton era, and I'm just not getting that. I'm getting a good solid story, with some nice creepy imagery at points, great characterisation and acting... but not an all conquering classic. In fact, I'd go so far as saying that it's exceptional in practically all those departments (for acting - look at Victor Maddern's eyes in the telesnaps, and the slow panicky drifting off of his voice; for characterisation, look at Megan Jones, a uniquely powerful woman for Doctor Who, effortlessly controlling the situation from the moment she appears). Just there's something missing. And I think I've figured out what it is.

It's a villain. The Weed as it stands is a fairly indistinct threat, at a remove from the action. It doesn't seem to be an intelligent foe as such, and it's not as physically threatening as it could be - no-one dies! Pmeperton seems to realise that he needs someone attacked permanently, hence the descent into the pipe discarding Van Lutyens (you can tell it's a token development as he is immediately replaced by a brand new character filling essentially the same plot function). But even this doesn't entirely work. The disappearance of Van Lutyens seems like a death, but it seems more like natural causes, in the sense that the weed doesn't seem like a plotting calculating thing, just more of a natural chancer that happens to be inimicable to life. It's the difference between being stabbed by a maniac, and drowning. There needs to be someone to act as a focal point for the Weed, otherwise it's just a distant threat that doesn't really connect with the main plot. They keep telling us it's threatening, but we don't get to see that much of its effects. It's the whole 'don't tell, show' thing again. We keep getting told it's dangerous, but we don't see it. We need a villain, otherwise there's no way for it to interact, there's no way to let us in. Putting it simply, we need a Harrison Chase (another story about a lifeform that is essentially unintelligent responding to natural urges).

Having said that, they are getting close. The distracted madness of Robson is creepy, and is going some way towards fulfilling the required function, and there's a lovely bit where the rig workers are literally overwhelmed by weed... but it still lacks a focus. And this means that the moments of danger are a bit samey, and occasionally contrived (Oak and Quill trapping the Doctor and Jamie for about a minute is a case in point).

Now, I will reiterate my point - I do like the story. A lot. But it's in a different way to most Who. It's not really the fast paced adventure serial we expect, it's more a thoughtful, dare I say it, Quatermass type of plot. The interest is derived more from the characters, their interactions and their responses to the situation than the threat of death and violence. It doesn't want to frighten us, it wants to un-nerve us. It's quieter, less energised. This isn't inherently a bad thing of course. However, by not quite feeling like Doctor Who, I think Fury manages not to be quite a classic.

Why is it Deborah Watling's acting is suddenly much better? Victoria's various crisis scenes are remarkably calmly played considering how hysterical she always seems to be up to now. The scenes are sweet, and the confusion in Jamie sums up the character perfectly. Of course, as with all these 'companion about to go' scenes, it does feel a little tacked on to the rest of the story, but it's nice nonetheless.

There we go then. Fine tv drama though only good but not great Who.


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#113 10 Nov 2004, 3:31 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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Fury from the Deep 5:

I'm warming into this story rather. It's rather a quiet, unshowy piece, more about a creeping menace than a melodramatic threat. The story is cerebral rather than visceral, and whilst this makes it less of an adrenalin rush than it's immediate predecessor, it doesn't make it any less successful. Less obviously thrilling, less obvious full stop, but intelligent and adult.

The central themes of possesion (I typed 'alien possesion' there, then changed it - it's rarely stated, but the weed is seemingly a natural threat, something that's been lurking in the depths for a long time until we disturbed it - a monster that has lived alongside us all the time) are genuinely unnerving. The sequences with the distressed Robson in this episode and the last are compellingly strange (and seem to be shot beautifully, from what we can judge of the telesnaps - there are several telesnaps that contain a heck of a lot of pain and drama for a tiny photo). And also, surprisingly for Who, genuinely rather sad. There's a sense that he has a history - when Megan Jones suddenly and unexpectedly calls him by his first name, John, there's a real feeling that this character isn't just limited to the context of the story. He existed beforehand, with friends and family. It's a sort of area not usually covered in Who. And it's bits like this, the sense of a man slowly losing his mind that really begin to ground the serial. The fact that the Weed is essentially non-intelligent is becoming part of the central horror. The central conceit is that the human's are losing individuality, not that they are being attacked so the fact that the villain of the piece lacks any real presence or representation doesn't matter. It's about the effect, not the cause. In many ways, this is more effective - an enemy you can't reason with is scarier than one you can, obviously. But it does mean it does lose a bit of the 'action-adventure' feel Who usually has. This must be the only Who story where none of the guest cast are villains, and as a result it does mean that everyone's vaguely pulling the same way, so the energy is lower (Oak and Quill are at best lip service to having villainous figures - for all their reputation, they don't do all that much - their attack on Maggie doesn't really do anything that couldn't have been acheived without them, and after that they lock Jamie and the Doctor in the shaft for about a minute, and kidnap Victoria for about twenty seconds).

One thing that isn't going as well is the set up for Victoria going. They're milking it now. The couple of references over the past two episodes have been nice, but they just going overboard with it now. It adds little to the episode and just makes her look like a whinger. Had they left it, it would have been sad. But now you just want her to go. It's like the 3 Sisters - in a bad production the constant talk of 'oh, I want to go to Moscow', makes you want to buy them the ticket yourself as long as they sod off.

Some lovely scenes here - the Doctor's immediate decision to go straight to the Weed's nerve centre to rescue Victoria is particularly sweet. Quite why he insists on the bobble hat, I don't know. There are no massive set pieces, true (the room exploding with foam is fab, but a bit grafted on - the doors close and hem it in, and it gets forgotten rather quickly). But it's intelligent and unsettling drama... as I keep saying, not really Whoish in style to be one of the absolute best, but satisfying.


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#114 10 Nov 2004, 6:32 pm
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Re: Day by Day

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorney
This must be the only Who story where none of the guest cast are villains

My favourite TV story, "Full Circle", doesn't have any villains at all, either - the Marshmen do things by instinct, and rarely attack anyone unless attacked first. If I recall, "The Savages" doesn't have villains per se either, just misguided scientists...

Oh, and I reckon your slow appreciation for this story might go for a burton at the beginning of part 6...

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Ben grins out of the cockpit window:
“I am only borrowing this. I’m Ben Chatham” before expertly taking off into the clouds.

- "Face of Death" by Sparacus


"They laughed at Gallileo once."
- Sparacus


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#115 11 Nov 2004, 11:09 am
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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You know I have a habit of making these sweeping statements that just go absolutely tits up with a little thought. You are of course bang on.


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#116 11 Nov 2004, 12:45 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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Fury from the Deep 6:

Hmm. What an odd episode. Lots of good stuff. Lots of poor stuff.

Right, let's try and get the bad out of the way first. The strangest thing about this episode is it's desperation to pad where it doesn't need to. There are huge amounts of additional material here at the expense of what matters. Most noticeably the helicopter sequence. Now I'm prepared to be a little lenient here, as this may have looked good on tv. On audio it's atrocious. 3 minutes of pure boredom, containing nothing but mild groans from the regulars and the other pilot seeming to stay 'stick back' all the time. But, regardless of whether it looked good or not, it's hard to justify the sequence in story terms. It just doesn't fit with the rest of the script. The story literally stops still for three minutes whilst they fart around. Visually entertaining or not, that's slack. All the built up tension is disipated. Still, we do get one of the great dodgy lines of all time from the Doctor - 'I've got it up all right, and it should be comparitively simply to propel it forward.'

Similarly, there are one or two other little bits that just feel tacked on. I can forgive the crappy forced jollity of the Harris' dinner party (it's got to set up Victoria's leaving), but the actual leaving scene does slightly go on too long (they over-do it just a bit... the final TARDIS scene is a little too flabby, really just repeating emotions already expressed). And the final scene with Robson, still grumpy, is a lovely idea... but it just feels uneccessary. Considering how anti-climactic the Weed creature's defeat is, you almost expect it to be a prelude to a twist, with Robson suddenly gassing some random Survivor. But no, it's just a scene. Without any real narrative point.

And the frustrating thing is that these wasted minutes could have been used so much better elsewhere. The actual defeat of the weed is, as I said above, deeply anti-climactic. The use of Victoria's screaming as the means to defeat it is, simultaneously, ingenious (it's been before our eyes all the time, it's obvious), and disappointing (a monster that can be defeated by someone screaming? Not exactly the best choice is it? Isn't that the stupidest weakness a monster could have? It's so pathetic and minor too...). But worst of all, it's over before you know it. The vast danger, all that foam swamping everything, the giant referred to at the end of part four, is defeated in the speediest and simplist way. Seemingly instantly, Maggie and Robson are radioing back that they're in perfect health (I love the dodgy money saving device of saying 'Oh yeah, Van Lutyens is fine too, by the way' - though we never find out what happened to Mr Oak). What a let down. (And why did Maggie walk into the sea anyway - the Weed captures two people... and then just doesn't bother to use one of them at all!)

In general however, the story still works. It mainly coasts by on the successes of the previous episodes making the damp squib acceptable. Victoria's leaving is very nicely done, though as I said last time, slighlty spoilt by over-doing the build up in the last three episodes. It's genuinely sad, and it's been a while since we've had the time taken over the companion departure (in deed, this is one of the few occasions where the story seems to have been well built around it - Victoria being instrumental in the ending, if tending towards getting captured and knocked out just as much as usual).

A very good story then, with reservations.

At the end of the cd release there's the original trailer for Wheel in Space. I love the way this gives away plot twists over three weeks away - 'who's gonna hatch from these eggs? Looks like the Cybermen might be up to something'. Hilarious.


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#117 11 Nov 2004, 5:50 pm
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Re: Day by Day

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Ah, I actually loved "The Wheel in Space". After a few dodgy stories, season 5 really gets underway with The Enemy of the World, for me...

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Ben grins out of the cockpit window:
“I am only borrowing this. I’m Ben Chatham” before expertly taking off into the clouds.

- "Face of Death" by Sparacus


"They laughed at Gallileo once."
- Sparacus


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#118 11 Nov 2004, 6:08 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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I think I agree. I like Tomb - it's brevity helps it work, a lesson a lot of the rest of the season could have learnt from I feel.

But certainly Snowmen and Ice Warriors are pretty much just 'ok'. Neither too bad, but neither that exciting. The last three have however been a fairly solid run through. I listened to a dodgy audio recording of Wheel years and years ago, so my knowledge of it is fairly non-existant. It'll be rather good to relisten, I think. As with a lot of these I haven't watched them or listened in absolutely ages, so it's a story I've been looking forward to, as I've no idea what happens in it!

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Last edited by Dorney; 11 Nov 2004 at 6:10 pm.


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#119 11 Nov 2004, 6:27 pm
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Re: Day by Day

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Had seen the two surviving episodes a while backon the Years tape, but only listened to the Cd recently. I'm not really a fan of Cybermen stories - I like the monsters themselves, but rarely enjoy their stories. "Wheel" actually entertained me, and it's certainly me fave Cyberstory. I even like the voices for them in this one. Especially the Italian ones at the end of part 3.

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