The Wheel in Space

#120 16 Nov 2004, 12:57 am
Dorney


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The Wheel in Space 1:

David Whitaker never had it easy. Whilst I think it's true to say that he's still a vastly popular writer (wasn't he in that DWM special's top 5? Something like that), we've never really seemed to grasp whether we like his stories or not. His early Hartnell two parters are ignored (though they are both rather fine examples of the two part form, possibly the most natural ones of the series). And look at the contrast between his stories for season 4 and 5. Two scripts in both, one a season finale featuring a recurring monster... and in one we have two of the most popular scripts of all time, and in the other... two fairly forgotten tales, certainly the least well regarded stories of the fifth season. The one's that tend to get ignored in the praise.

Now, you may have noticed above that I loved Enemy of the World. Always have, always will. So it's time to get a bit of thought in about Wheel, a story I know very little about.

Not that there's that much in this first episode. It's virtually plotless, and little actually happens - certainly surprisingly little that can follow on - the little bubbles is about it, as far as I can tell - otherwise this episode is pretty stand alone. With the vague threat of the Servo Robot neutralised at the end, you do get the feeling that this episode is just an add on to the main plot.

That's not to say it's not good though. I find it odd that when I watch a lot of old tv programmes, they're incredibly wordy and slow in comparison to modern tv... but they seem to be much more engrossing, and as a result, they pass quicker. I've watched episodes of I, Claudius and Edge of Darkness that seem to go by in half the time of an episode of Spooks (and I enjoy Spooks). Simultaneously, an episode of Sapphire and Steel goes by much quicker than a comparitively pacy Tomorrow People (though in that case it may help that S&S is simply better). I've tried to think why this is. I think we like detail. There are whole five minute sequences of Bob Peck just walking around a room in Edge of Darkness... but it's never boring. Likewise, I love the overwritten bits of Stephen King where he tells you far more than you need to know - bizarrely it aids readability. Likewise this episode goes by surprisingly quickly considering how little happens, because Whitaker explores the situation in full detail - we are asked to consider how they eat, all the investigation... and it's fascinating.

The episode in that sense reminds us of Edge of Destruction... and it's odd how similar the two are (well, to that first thirteen episode block anyway). There's a bit with a food machine that's spookily similar to that of the early days, reference to the fault locator and the fluid link (odd to have such a continuity mad episode, especially when it's by someone who's written a lot for the new version of the show). The long introductory episode reminds us of Hartnell, as does the forthcoming Doctor holiday.

Following on from the Sonic Screwdriver, the time vector generator essentially fulfills the same function - but it's easy to see why it didn't get taken up more. It feels more like a magic wand than the screwdriver did - for the pathetic reason that the screwdriver sounds less like technobabble (we can conceive how it works from the name, but the vector wotsit is just a magic stick that can do whatever the story needs it to - essentially the same thing as the SS became, but it's amazing how much you'll buy with a solid base).

A few final thoughts - lovely, but surprisingly jarring, having Wendy Padbury on vocals for this cd release. I'd forgotten the variation and it was quite a shock. And I do think it's weird having a reprise of a bit that doesn't feel like a cliffhanger (do you get the feeling Fury 6 was running short and they added this little scene? - it added little to the former).

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#121 16 Nov 2004, 7:44 am
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Re: Day by Day

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I agree that episode one is a bit slow, but I think the story does really pick up in episode 2, even if it is Doctorless. There's a great cast guest in this one.

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“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."
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#122 17 Nov 2004, 12:28 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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The Wheel in Space 2:

Anyone else think that, without the Doctor, and with a large spacestation filled with glamorous international types, this episode feels a little Star Trekky? Leo Ryan with his exaggerated smoothness comes across as a virtual Captain Kirk type.

This is another odd little episode. The plot proper really takes a long time to get going in the story, and this is another episode of procrastination - which seems weird at the beginning of a story. The little dollops of plot established in the first part - the tiny bubbles - don't really progress. We're reminded of them, and a few more have their go... but there's no real development of them. We don't get to see anything further about what they do, why we should be worried.

The odd thing is that this manages to be, perhaps, equally as intriguing. The very obvious lack of proper plot is bizarrely just as much of a hook. We're kept hanging, wondering what the plot itself is going to be, and caught up in the tension of that mystery, rather than any specific plot related intrique (there's enough vague information to suggest that a plot will eventually materialise, just as of yet we've no idea what it will be). It's odd that whilst very little happens, it remains an enjoyable episode to watch. It's filled with enough detail to keep it from being boring.

It has to be said that the absence of the Doctor from this episode is a bit of a drawback. Without it being used as as much of a plot device and a tension tightener (as in Enemy and Web), and with the plotless episode, we do really miss him. Jamie's a lovely character, but he really does need the Doctor to bounce off (he is driven by loyalty to the Doctor more than any natural curiosity, so it's tricky getting him to drive a plot rather than react to it). The introduction of Zoe doesn't really help in this, as their relationship (one of my favourite in the show, and one I'll come back to another time) hasn't established itself yet. She just comes across as a little bit annoying (and for one of the companions that regularly does well in the 'most fanciable female in Who' type threads and polls, boy does she get a lot of unflattering photo's in the telesnaps).

Characterisation beyond all that is interesting - always Whitaker's strong point. The crew's overjoyed response to the prospect of blowing something up is wonderful (they even want to get a video of it), and it immediately suggests the boring environment they're working in. Having said that, I do think they're a tiny bit obvious and on the nose straight away - Jarvis is clearly a bit nutty very very soon, before anything's really happened, for example. Leo and Tanya are the voices of reason (bar a bizarrely mental bit about her nose), and Gemma is a little cold. But they do all have immediate personalities, and we have to be pleased with that.

Great cliffhanger too, clearly suggesting that thing's are going to heat up in the next episode. Which is, joy of joy's, back on video!


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#123 18 Nov 2004, 12:44 pm
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Re: Day by Day

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The Wheel in Space 3:

Actually, it doesn't heat up much at all. The Cybermen are activated - in order to sit in a couple of chairs and update their boss. C'mon. These are the current big monster. Why waste them?

The Cybermats are the bigger threat in this episode, and truth be told, they're never that terrifying (and why do the Cybermen instruct them to kill anyway? Surely that should alert the Wheel staff that something dodgy is happening?). It's weird that of the two guys who see them in this episode, the first thinks they're cute, and the second is immediately terrified. Make your mind up. They're either clearly scary (which to be honest, they're too small and, yes, cute looking to pull off) or they're not. The second sequence is probably the hammiest bit of Who I've seen in ages. The guy immediately crouches down into a chimpanzee impersonation, pulling the most comically aghast faces you'll ever see. Not exactly the greatest moment in the series. I'm glad he's killed so quickly.

But at least we can see it. It's lovely to be back on video for a change. Certainly Wheel 3 is something of a watershed, in that you finally feel like you're out of the wilderness years of missing episodes. OK, there are still another nine missing, but you feel like you've broken the back of them. Someone observed that there are (or rather were, pre-DMP2's recovery) three batches of thirteen episodes in a row without an episode extant. This is the end of the third batch, and whilst it's not as annoying as the first (we do at least have telesnaps for this period), it's still a struggle at times.

What kind of idiot is Jamie? Why not just tell the Wheel staff not to blow up the rocket? Why just blunder in and smash it up - I say smash, but his desperate 'spraying' seems a rubbish way to sabotage a device. It happens to work, but you can tell that's more by luck than judgement.

I'm beginning to get slightly frustrated by the inaction of the plot though. The characterisation does begin to feel like desperate filler - Leo and Tanya's flirting in particular. It's nice that they've all got distinct and different personalities... but they do still feel a little stock - over-serious scientist, increasingly deranged commander (Bennet is still unreasonably quick to fly off the handle - how on earth was a man this obviously unstable get into a position of authority? Remember, they haven't really been at crisis point, until this episode, where he proceeds not to help in any clear way, concentrating more on domestic difficulties - who cares about firing Bill when there's a meteorite storm coming!) There is a degree to which it does feel like characterisation by numbers - each character gets a one line personality - nutter, flirt, etc.

The plot isn't helped by trapping the Doctor in bed for the entire episode either - that's half the story gone with him unable to interact with anyone else. And then Jamie and Zoe pretty much join him there. I'm beginning to warm to Zoe. Cold and annoying in the last episode, the Doctor does seem to bring out the best in her, a friendly meeting of minds. The relationship with Jamie starts here too - the thing I've always liked about them is the way they patronise each other. Zoe patronises Jamie because he's not as smart as she is. He patronises her because she's a girl. There's a real sense of this sparkiness in their scene where they identify the Cybermat.

A lot of this story is still good. The writing is classy, the seeds of the plot seem intriguingly elaborate... but it really ought to get going before too long. There's only so much build up you can take before you want things to take flight.


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#124 18 Nov 2004, 1:34 pm
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Re: Day by Day

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I still think it's fantastic. Listened to it one episode a night and was fairly rivetted. And don't you love the fact that the Cybermen turn Italian for one scene, the cliffhanger to part 3?

"You-a will-a take uzz to da wheel-a!"

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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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#125 19 Nov 2004, 11:57 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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The Wheel in Space 4:

Yeah, what is up with the Cybermen voices? Sounds too me like they retained that dental plate device for the command wotsit, but went to manually impersonating it for the rest of the story. They're ok for what they are, and slightly up the clarity. But they don't really have any menace - my mum caught the cliffhanger to part three and was laughing for about ten minutes (and you've got to love a review that mentions the reviewers mum, haven't you). Fortunately, they shut up for the majority of this episode.

Generally, the story is well written, the characterisation is at worst thought through (you do get the sense that these people could have real lifes outside Who - Gemma's talk of her dead husband is irrelevant to the plot, but is good detail). It's a shame none of it really progresses, but they're trying.

The big flaw is that the law of diminishing returns is really settling in. Now, I've been fairly open in suggesting that the description of this season as being 'base under siege' doesn't really hold up (very few sieges - the Cybermen invade the base here terribly easily for example). But that's more in a literal sense, if I'm honest. There is a certain samey quality to a lot of these stories that's a little annoying when watched in a lump. And certainly, Wheel suffers from overt similarity to it's predecessors, and Fury in particular. Honestly, I can't figure out why the production team allowed these stories to go out so close together. Robson and Jarvis Bennett are practically clones - increasingly deranged and dangerous. Put that together with recurrent themes of possession, and then minor little details - the first to be possessed are a duo, who then bring the enemy inside. There's a couple (of sorts) in both bases. The sensible authority figure is a woman. And so on. For what it's worth, Wheel is probably an enjoyable, if slow, story out of context. Following on from Fury and the other, vaguely similar scripts, it just comes across as a lot of things we've already seen. Even the Cybermen seem unexciting for a change (what exactly was this 'plot' suggested by Pedler - one sentence perhaps? 'Cybermen invade spacestation'?). Still, at least the characters echo my own thoughts from last episode, wondering how someone like Jarvis could possibly reach this sort of position and post. Shame they don't answer it.

Generally though, I can't help but wonder how someone dies on the ship and everything seems to go along as normal. Everyone's still doing their jobs, not seeming to care what's just happened. There's no real investigation or anything. Odd that. But at least the Doctor finally gets out of bed and starts to interact with the plot proper.

I seem to recall writing an article, yonks ago, and never completing it that debunked David Banks' Cyber-chronology. It was entirely rooted in the placement of Moonbase vs. Wheel, which he has in that order. My contention was that it had to be the other way round, due to an incident in part six that I'll get to later. However, it does seem odd that the staff of the Moonbase know who the Cybermen were, but the staff of the Wheel have never heard of them. Hard to know what that might signify (the Moonbase incident could have been hushed up. Wouldn't placing Wheel before Moonbase be too close, in time, to the events of 10th Planet for such a mistake to be legit?).

Zoe is increasingly likeable. Smart, a little lippy and seemingly less of a wimp than Victoria, easily able to hold her own. I love the way Zoe berates Jamie by his full name (which she's already learnt). Really sums up the relationship the two have, straight away. Her little worries about emotionlessness also emphasise her human side, and make us warm to her a lot (and they're rather appropriate for a Cyber-story too). I felt, certainly when I joined fandom, that Victoria was regarded as the 'definitive' Troughton girl, mainly because she appeared in all the high popularity season 5 stories, and 'Evil', less than on the actual quality of the character. Zoe's always romped it for me, and her instant likeability helps. Mind you, I think I liked Victoria intially (still do I suppose, just not as much). Zoe just seems sparkier.

Lots of meaningless little observations on this episode tonight. First, one of the staff of the Wheel looks twelve to me. Not Zoe, I'm not mad. Have a look at the girl in the bottom of the tenth telesnap here and tell me I'm wrong. I'm not you know. Next: Is Chang supposed to be Chinese? I'd imagine so, with a name like that. Shame the accent is one of the worst ever and the actor in question doesn't even look vaguely oriental, to the degree I didn't immediately match the photo with the voice. I dunno. Why bother going for the 'multi-cultural' space-station if you don't get actors of the right race. Good job he dies straight away (and the casual take on what happens to his body is pricelessly nasty - nice to see the series treat us with intelligence). Next, I love the bizarre safeguard of a Hypnosis Monitor. Blimey, how often do they need that?

And finally, Bill's screams getting hypnotised and killed (the cd and telesnaps can't agree whether he's electrocuted or shot) are two of the most wonderfully ott things you've heard. This story is a treasure trove
of ham. They're the worst screams since Del Henney, and whoever played the Make Up assistant in 'The Last'. Worth the admission fee alone, them.


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#126 20 Nov 2004, 12:35 am
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Re: Day by Day

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Yup, strange Cyber voices. However, the Cybermen of this story are me favourites of the series...

I listened to Wheel an episode per night straight off from Fury, and enjoyed it a lot. It is slow, but has a nice creeping menace, and the Cybermen's plan is complicated enough to while away a half hour or so laughing at it....

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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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#127 22 Nov 2004, 12:40 pm
Dorney
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Re: Day by Day

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The Wheel in Space 5:

Huzzah! The last episode I'll have to watch with telesnaps. For this thread anyway. At least until I go back and do 'Marco Polo' properly. I could have phrased that better I suppose...

I love the way that after all the detailed and complicated stages of their plan, phase six for the Cybermen is simply 'take over space station'. What, that's it? That's the best they could come up with? It's like they're so unconvinced that they'll manage to get into the Wheel that they haven't really thought what to do with it (especially since their plan seemed to include putting the Wheel in very real danger of being destroyed, you really don't get the impression they've thought this through - and bar the unplanned stowaways they'd have been blown up five minutes into episode 2. So it's the Doctor's fault).

What is odd here is that the Cybermen still don't really feel like part of the main action. None of the main characters really seem that fussed about them - they're more worried about the meteorites. I accept that they are dangerous, but I want to see a little more acknowledgement of the fact that they are sharing their spaceship with dangerous monsters. Likewise, the Cybermen are wandering around killing people every now and then, but there is equally little drive to them. They're not attempting to hide, but they're not exactly up to anything either (the resolution to the cliffhanger is that the Cybermen, casual as you like, nips into the (now notceably brighter) storeroom and gets himself some berylium before nipping off again. What's that all about?) Everyone's wandering around the ship as if this is what happens every day.

It's a shame, because there is a lot of attempts as pseudo-action in order to fill up the time. The Irishman who fights the controlled humans, for example, and the attack of the Cybermats. Neither of these progress the story at all (one of the controlled humans is killed, but then immediately replaced. Why bother?) The Cybermat sequence does at least resolve their hanging plot thread, I suppose, but that hardly makes it any less padding.

Likewise, the Jarvis stuff seems to lack any real point. He doesn't speak in this episode, and the story really wouldn't have gone anywhere different if he'd stayed sane. OK, there'd have been one more character to stand around doing nothing, but that's not the point. The characterisation drifts in this episode (Tanya and Leo pretty much might as well be non-speaking desk workers for all the individuality they display) but the fact that there's been some effort with this before stands them a bit better than if we knew nothing about them. Most of the character stuff is reserved for Zoe, who's increasingly likeable and sweet. She's flawed, and she knows it.

Looks worryingly like we're heading for a technobabble finale too. The defeat of the Cybermats has a vague whiff of this, but the Doctor's need for the time-vector generator (as I think I said before, a precurssor to the Sonic Screwdriver, in it's meaningless catch all get out clause status) is dangerous.

I'm wondering whether Whitaker's heart just wasn't in this one. Once or twice, I've tried writing stuff based on ideas friends have given me... and I find it so much harder to get enthusiastic about it. Even if I like the idea. I just think DW can't think of ways to invest in his story, really. It's not a story he wants to tell, really, it's a story he's been asked to tell. It's well written enough to sustain our interest, the man knows how to write dialogue and how to entertain... but it just ain't vintage Whitaker.


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#128 23 Nov 2004, 1:18 pm
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Re: Day by Day

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The Wheel in Space 6:

Why's it called a Wheel anyway? It doesn't really look like one. If it was on its side, maybe. But this way up it looks like a fancy lamp at best.

Well, we're onto the final episode. I'm ashamed to admit that I'd never realised until the end credits that this story does feature one massively well regarded actor in a bit part - the great Donald Sumpter as Enrico. It's weird. Now I know it's him I can see him instantly, just never did the maths on it til now.

This is one of the few saving graces of the episode though. It's hard to knock a lot of the more hilarious moments throughout the story though - the script can't quite figure out how many Cybermen there are aboard. Clearly there are two, as they eventually admit with one dead... but a lot of the rest of the time they can't quite bring themselves to accept this. Flannigan has a couple of lines to try and make the whole thing seem a bit more threatening (Something like 'This place is swarming with Cybermen' and 'I've got a whole bunch of them locked up'), but it still never seems like they're a credible threat (it's telling that the climactic cliffhanger of the story doesn't focus on the cybermen at all - the crew are more concerned about other things for the majority of the story). The moment they actually interact with anyone proper, they get killed (the defeat of the second cyberman in particular seems terribly weak). This sudden invasion force that lurch out of nowhere, in their strange balletic manner are funnier than threatening, and are defeated with equal ease. The general defeat seems so easy and anti-climactic (they just blow up their ship), and it's because there's never really been a sense of threat. Add to this a fairly unclear motivation for them anyway (there's a vague attempt at explaining why they need the Wheel... but to my mind it's fudged. It's some guff about radio waves or something).

The Cybermen just seem to wander around looking for something to do. As I said before, the elaborate plan to get on board appears to be all they could think of (their poisoning scheme is simple to step around and even their crew possesion device wotsit is implausibly easy to over-ride). They just march around looking for someone else to threaten - the death of Jarvis in particular - again, no plot function at all, his madness not adding to anything in the slightest - couldn't he have redeemed himself somehow, switched over the oxygen or something. As it is, we're not even given a reason why he decides to nip off. He quite literally nips out just to get killed.

Want the other piece of evidence that suggests Wheel has to take place after Moonbase. Look at the photo sequence when the Cybermen are trying to identify who knows them. They recognise the Doctor, so one Cyber-story has to take place before this one. Now, I know what you're thinking. It could be The Invasion. But if this group of Cybermen are affiliated to that group, they recognise Zoe. And they don't. So they have to know him from the Moonbase.

I love the last scene with the crew - if we ignore Tanya and Leo fondling each other, which is given great significance in the direction as if it hasn't been clear that they're an item since about episode two - I like the terribly casual way Leo sums up the situation to base. 'Radio transmission interrupted because of invasion by alien force. I'll tell you more later'. And the other end of the call doesn't even seem surprised.

Generally very disappointing. It's a Cybermen story that forgets to be about the Cybermen, really. When there seems to be more urgency and fear of meteorites than the main villains, you know you're doing something wrong.

On the plus side, Zoe is tremendously promising - sparky and likeable, and ballsier than Victoria. Looking forward to the next season.

Well, that's me a full year into my rewatching, and pathetically far behind on my original daily plan as you can see (at this rate it'll take me four years or so to do them all!)

Should add a little warning that I'm going to be in a play out of the country as of about February next year, so there might be quite some delays in the updates... unless I take a few VHS with me... but then I won't have a connection to the Internet all that often...

Ah rabbits.


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#129 23 Nov 2004, 6:17 pm
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Re: Day by Day

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Hurrah! Entertaining review, for a story I rather like even I do agree with everything you say!

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