9 Jan 2009, 1:40 am
Dorney
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The Green Death 1:
One of my major regrets in not being, ahem, quite as speedy with my rewatching as I'd once intended is that it becomes hard to really get a sense of the journey of the show. Getting through the first season or so was a really enlightening experience - the real sense of the first few stories as a genuine serial. If something was repetitive, you noticed. If someone left the show, you could see if you really missed them (and you really appeciate Hartnell so much more).
But sometimes it accentuates flaws. It dawned on me as I watched the first episode of this story that it's been ages since we've had a serial that actually looks good. Much as I may have liked the divine Carnival of Monsters, it's got a noticeably garish quality. There's something about The Green Death that just feels... well real, really. And it's a massive relief.
Of course, it's probably the juxtaposition. We've had six episodes of juvenile runaround in an unconvincing set, with everything desperately trying (and failing) to appear futuristic and just ending up looking cheap. The jarring and slightly false sense of quality that turns up pretty much the second that story has its sole outing onto film probably proves the point. But we're not dealing with ersatz quality here. This seems, so far, to be the real thing.
Film is so much more pleasing than the harshness of video. That doesn't inherently make anything better on it's own, obviously, but it helps. Watching the Metebelis 3 sequences in this story, it's hard not to think its predecessor would be so much more likeable if they'd had the money to shoot it all like this. The softness understandably takes the edge off the naff special effects aliens, and the lighting and sound do their very best to make the whole thing suitably eerie. There's an hilarious moment when the Doctor runs back into the TARDIS which is immediately attacked by about a dozen different things and weapons from a dozen different directions, but beyond that it's remarkably atmospheric. It's an example of the show realising it can't do something properly so trying to find a way around it. As opposed to either not realising, or hoping no-one notices.
The Doctor is largely absent with this little sub-plot for this episode, but this doesn't really matter. Partially this is down to the fact that, as Jo says, Prof. Jones is very much a younger version of him, and he fills a lot of the same plot function. But it's mainly down to the treatment of Jo. Again we have an example of the perspective that watching this story right up against Planet of the Daleks brings - Katy Manning is a revelation. Within the shifting of two episodes there's a real and obvious change and the character appears completely different.
I've not been against Jo, but when she's written with a bit of verve and a spikey quality, as she is here, you do spot what you've been missing. She's all personality, and there hasn't been much of that throughout her run. She's only been allowed to be generic. Still, at least she gets to shine sometimes, which is more than can be said of others.
The reality factor keeps playing in with the main storyline. The general plotline (an oil manufacturer and their nearby coal mine) is refereshingly every day after an endless stream of scientific establishments, military bases and universities in the Earthbound stories, and the environmental concerns are down to Earth (if you'll pardon the expression). And even the chauffeur as thug echoes a certainly 'gritty' quality as it's clearly influenced by Ian Hendry's similar role in Get Carter. Only the last few minutes betray that this isn't entirely going to be a relatively straightforward Doomwatch-esque tale of pollution. As it stands at the moment it's an intriguing hook that may or may not be successfully integrated into the main story - though I must confess, that the moment the adult tone is broken by Stevens pulling out a massive pair of comedy headphones, a little part of me was wishing it could have been something less overtly fantastical.
Because the general attitude and tone of the show gives this story a serious and mature feel. It makes you forgive the comedy bird's legs in the same way that Jaws makes you forgive the rubber shark. It feels like a children's show made with the same integrity and respect of an adult show. Edge of Darkness for the family, if you like. Very promising.
#764 10 Jan 2009, 12:17 am
The Secretive Bus
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I must admit, I find the bit with Jo reading the newspaper and complaining about pollution etc whilst the Doctor natters on about Metebelis pretty excrutiating to watch. Maybe it's the obvious dialogue or the direction or Manning's overtly chirpy acting but the "Oh no!... They can't!... Criminal, absolutely criminal!... Don't they know the pollution that'll cause!" stuff sounds jarringly fake. I'm not sure why it sticks out for me but it's some of the worst acting by a companion in the era, by my reckoning. Manning seems stuck in panto mode for a lot of episode 1, though she is admittedly pretty good for the rest of it.
#765 10 Jan 2009, 1:14 am
Dorney
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Secretive Bus
"I must admit, I find the bit with Jo reading the newspaper and complaining about pollution etc whilst the Doctor natters on about Metebelis pretty excrutiating to watch. Maybe it's the obvious dialogue or the direction or Manning's overtly chirpy acting but the "Oh no!... They can't!... Criminal, absolutely criminal!... Don't they know the pollution that'll cause!" stuff sounds jarringly fake. I'm not sure why it sticks out for me but it's some of the worst acting by a companion in the era, by my reckoning. Manning seems stuck in panto mode for a lot of episode 1, though she is admittedly pretty good for the rest of it. "
I see where you're coming from - the newspaper stuff is contrived, and it's a touch broad - but in context, and after six episodes of being generic on Spiridon it probably comes across an awful lot better!
#766 10 Jan 2009, 11:21 pm
Dorney
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The Green Death 2:
Interesting piece of construction, this episode. It's, on the surface, something of a makeweight episode. It's very clear quite early on that an awful lot of the episode is about the fallout from the cliffhanger resolution (in deed, Jo hasn't managed to get out of the mine by the time the end of the episode comes around) rather than driving an ongoing storyline. The forward motion of the story stops whilst it focuses on a subplot.
Now this could cause alarm bells for people who've been reading my witterings for a while. A lack of forward momentum is precisely what causes a story to fall apart and feel like padding. It doesn't matter whether that momentum is fast, and it doesn't matter whether it is relevant to the main storyline, as long as things are going somewhere. And to its credit, this episode maintains a sense of urgency to the sidestep, leaving it involving. There are a few issues - Dr Jones and the Doctor's abortive attempt to invade Global Chemicals is something of a non-starter (not least cos it's hard to imagine where they get a cherry picker if they can't find cutting equipment), though it does offer up some good character moments. Once again the air of 'realism' floats in the vague vacinity, and the villains are all remarkably believable. Stevens is coming across as a serious and urbane villain for a start, and their reaction to the Doctor raiding the plant is, if anything, understated. They all seem like real people rather than comic book style supervillians.
This does point to the one major flaw so far. It's all very well giving the whole thing an air of sobriety and shooting it like a proper drama, but that does mean that any time any of the more fantastical elements turn up they look ridiculous. They're so incongruous they jar. The headphones in episode one (if more archaic now than then) are a good case in point, as is the mysterious boss figure and the hypnosis all of which gestures towards the more traditional style of Who we're used to.
Anyway, I digress. As I said the episode is, on the surface, investigating a side alley (but with enough drive for this not to feel like a waste of our time). But then the characters suddenly stumble over the green goo and the maggots, and suddenly we see that it is part of the main plot line. In a neat bit of writing, the minor problem to be solved has led to the investigation, rather than the Doctor simply instigating it himself. Everything ties together well and leaves the episode feeling quite well put together.
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#767 12 Jan 2009, 12:48 pm
Raveen
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorney
"Much as I may have liked the divine Carnival of Monsters, it's got a noticeably garish quality. "
Thankyou so much, I've been trying to put my finger on exactly what about Carnival I don't like and garish is the word I've been failing to find all this time.
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#768 14 Jan 2009, 10:10 pm
Dorney
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The Green Death 3:
The faintly jarring mix of weird 'sci-fi' style additions with quasi-realistic eco-drama that slightly marred the last episode is being to grow on me. Either that, or it's just judged a little more carefully this time. In many ways, it's becoming the icing on this particular cake. The odd combination of quirky, traditionalist sci-fi gubbins (such as possesion and hypnosis) combined with the mundane. It makes this feel like a Doctor Who version of Edge of Darkness. The Whoniverse impinging and insisting itself on the real world. That and the central premise is intriguing. The last episode ended with a great strange sequence as the Maggots arrive. Tying this to the strange hypnosis stuff and the green dead people in the episode seems impossible. One episode along and yes, it's fairly clear where the Maggots are coming from, and where the Green Death is coming from - but there are clear implications that there's yet more going on...
It's particularly noticeable with Stevens, who's fast becoming my favourite character. For the chief villain he retains a remarkable amount of realistic humanity. You can truly believe this guy could exist. His confrontation with the Brigadier feels like a scene we've seen played out in dozens of cop dramas and is all the better for it. The sequence where he forces a subordinate to commit suicide, yet is protesting to his Boss that there is no need is fantastic. As he sits down and places his head in hands when it is finally done, the story genuinely makes you feel for its bad guy, something I can't recall happening in a long time. It's fairly obvious that this story is a little more complex, a little greyer than usual. And it's not just limited to Stevens. Precisely what's going on is still unclear, as the motivations of characters like Elgin are not what we usually expect from characters in his position within the villainous empire.
Outside of all that, the story is continuing in a strong manner. It's not particularly fast moving, I'll admit, and the plot is slight, but the set pieces are genuinely tense and interesting (the escape from the mine here is nicely done), there's enough of a logical progression in the set pieces (and enough of them).
The episode ends with a dinner party that quickly becomes the main talking point of the episode. In itself, it's a little odd - the Brig and Jo suddenly doing themselves up all formal, all the laughing and joking seems an entirely strange response to what they've gone through in the last day (not least because one of the people they've met is apparently dying in hospital all the time). But it does work out extremely well in terms of how it illustrates character, and specifically Jo. Now, if I'm honest, I don't totally buy the Jo/Cliff romance. It seems to happen a little quickly and for no real reason - up to now, pretty much all the time they've spent together was in his lab, where she wrecked everything. He seems cross, and then suddenly they're pretty much sorted.
However, if you can buy the fact of them falling in love in the first place, the developing romance is well handled. The faint combination of embarassment and enthusiasm is played perfectly, but even better is the Doctor's obvious jealousy and sabotage. A beautifully judged moment of actual character interaction, it really rounds the episode off perfectly.
#769 17 Jan 2009, 2:46 pm
Dorney
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The Green Death 4:
It's traditionally believed that episode four is the point where the momentum of a six parter begins to dry up. Most stories are ending at this point, this is the episode where new things need to be fed in if the story is to continue successfully. And The Green Death does manage to achieve this quite effectively.
Now there's a degree to which it has it slightly easy in this regard. The first three episodes don't entirely have much story going on in them, being largely based around the set up and resolution of one major set piece - Jo getting trapped down the mine. By providing enough obstacles this has managed to feed a good few episodes worth of material, so in a very real sense episode four is where the story proper has to kick in.
And so it does. This episode is all about escalation. What had started out as a fairly low key, if deadly, threat is now being built into a major problem. The sequences of the maggots forcing themselves out of the ground are generally well done (even if the models are, bizarrely, more convincing than the real maggots shot against miniature sets) and genuinely a little disturbing. Slowly something that seemed initially beneath UNIT is moving towards crisis point. This ramps up the excitement and anticipation for the closing episodes.
There's also the arrival of Mike Yates as a spy. It's only when you watch the series in sequence that you get a hint to the true impact of this - he's been pretty much gone for an entire year, so you've all but forgotten he exists. But it certainly is a good way to use a character who's been borderline redundant since the beginning, more so with the TARDIS' ability to travel removed. Again, it gives the story a little extra kick, a little extra mystery. You wonder where this new element is going to lead the story and that hooks you in again at the point where you need something new to keep you going, the element of surprise.
And of course the big kicker is the climactic revelation of the boss' identity as the computer. Now, this one I'm not entirely sure about. The low key sci-fantasy of the first three episodes has worked rather well played against a comparitively naturalistic backdrop. The evil computer is a concept that could push the delicate balancing act over. At the same time, the fact that it is a computer rather than an alien is something of a relief, as it does at least fit in with the quasi-realistic milieu. Obviously, it's hard to judge at this point, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
Beyond that, there are only a few points to note - I'm not totally convinced by the Doctor's various disguises. The charlady outfit is a kind of broad joke that feels slightly out of place with the generally serious tone of the rest of the story. And the Milkman is flat wrong - Pertwee plays it as a comedy caricature so it looks fake. It's hard to see how the guard buys it. It's hard to mind either of them too much in context though.
Still good.
#770 18 Jan 2009, 9:32 am
Doc Phibes
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorney
"Beyond that, there are only a few points to note - I'm not totally convinced by the Doctor's various disguises. The charlady outfit is a kind of broad joke that feels slightly out of place with the generally serious tone of the rest of the story. And the Milkman is flat wrong - Pertwee plays it as a comedy caricature so it looks fake. It's hard to see how the guard buys it. It's hard to mind either of them too much in context though. "
Pertwee was, what, 1.91m tall? A 6'3" cleaning lady? Personally, I found the babbling old Milkman faaar more believable. Loved 'em both though. I wish they had let Pertwee do more disguise bits, at least one or two a season. But, I was brought up on Mel Brooks and High Anxiety, where I learned the best way to get past security is not to be anonymous, but an extremely annoying caricature.
I'm enjoying the reviews. Keep 'em coming. Oh, and The B.O.S.S. is the best! Love him.
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#771 18 Jan 2009, 11:09 am
Dorney
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Phibes
"Pertwee was, what, 1.91m tall? A 6'3" cleaning lady? Personally, I found the babbling old Milkman faaar more believable. Loved 'em both though. I wish they had let Pertwee do more disguise bits, at least one or two a season. But, I was brought up on Mel Brooks and High Anxiety, where I learned the best way to get past security is not to be anonymous, but an extremely annoying caricature. "
It's hard not to like the comedy milkman to a degree, I'll confess. I think, like McCoy, Pertwee is a far more interesting comic actor than a straight man. But if I think my problem was best summed up by a review I saw recently that said it's clearly not the Doctor playing the milkman, it's Pertwee. Whilst Pertwee is undeniably brilliant at those bits, it feels somewhat alien to the fairly straight laced 3rd Doctor.
#772 18 Jan 2009, 12:20 pm
Dorney
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The Green Death 5:
If there is a flaw with this episode, it's the fact that after part 4 has gone to such lengths to escalate the situation, part 5 doesn't entirely go with the momentum. The level of concern and activity still seems about the same as in the previous four episodes. The ideal reaction would be a sense of the situation getting critically out of control. But it stalls slightly. The helicopter blowing a couple of things up seems a minor league stopgap solution at best, and the lightning fast possession and recovery of Yates is something you'd expect to find a bit earlier, rather than when the story should be building.
These are minor quibbles though, as the story is still pretty darn good. BOSS is, so far, a fantastic creation. Super-powered megalomaniac computers are ten a penny in sci-fi, but BOSS manages to transcend the mediocrity of his genre by entertaining a very dry wit. None of the bland booming monosyllables of WOTAN here, this evil computer has a personality.
And it's also a neat little trick that his main aim is small - success for Global Chemicals. This again means that the story comfortably straddles the realistic and the fantastical. Now I've read stuff that makes me think this is all going to go to pot in the final episode, but for the moment it works ok.
Elsewhere, the story is having to stall, somewhat. The Doctor nearly escapes BOSS, then gets captured to no end, and escapes again. The bad guys discover Mike's a spy, brainwash him for about a minute (and the sequence when he reappears at the Nuthutch is really strangely done, it has to be said) and then discover he's a spy again (though, admittedly, in one of the great sub-genre of cool cliffhangers - like Ambassadors 2, one that sounds rubbish when written down, but kind of works on the telly). Further subclause on that is that the loss of Elgin (due to actor illness) sort of works and also doesn't. His vanishing from the plot is nicely enigmatic, as if he's been dealt with and shoved out of the way, and you can't help but feel it works better than if he had taken the scenes of Roy Skelton's replacement character of Jones, which would be almost desultory. The Elgin figure barely appears in this episode (which would have been his last) and that would have left it feeling like the character drifts off. As it stands, he's removed from the story when he's still making an impact, which is a stronger exit. Now, Jones doesn't really impact in this episode as a result, and is slightly misjudged (it makes little sense for him to be a member of the management we haven't seen - surely generic guard would have felt more plausible?). But overall, I think it works remarkably well.
Anyway, back to the stalling. It's at its clearest with Cliff. Having discovered the cure, he now has to be kept unconscious because revealing it would start the end of the story too soon. Still, it's all done enjoyable enough, and with enough verve and character you don't mind.
#773 19 Jan 2009, 8:22 pm
Dorney
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The Green Death 6:
There's something difficult with reviewing this episode. It really shouldn't work. But somehow it does.
An awful lot of things are wrong with the resolution. Firstly, the incredibly convenient revelation that Cliff Jones' fungus is fatal to the maggots is... well, absurdly convenient. Not just in the fact, but also in the discovery (when one maggot just pops along to eat some at exactly the right point). Furthermore, the bizarre way that even despite this, it takes a few more deductive leaps before figuring out that this might also heal people victimised by the titular disease itself (and incidentally - what happened to the thuggish chauffeur chap? We assume he's dead, but are never really told, which is a bit wimpy, surely. Still, at least it makes Elgin's disappearance less of a problem when he's not the only one). And the magical healing properties of the blue ctystal go well beyond convenience into full on deus ex machina.
In fact, there are other moments of remarkable convenience. At this point, you do begin to wonder what qualifications are required to get a job as a guard at Global Chemicals, given how ridiculously easy Mike's escape from their clutches is. At least the Doctor's break in makes a bit more sense, though again you have to wonder how much thought BOSS put into his plans, because he's got no real reason to hypnotise his subjects again. All he does is hand himself defeat on a plate.
There's also the fact that the giant maggot plot and the mental computer plot never really intersect. This means that the plot of this episode largely consists of the Doctor switching off one plotline, before rushing away to switch off the other. The cliche of a six parter as a four parter combined with a related two parter is clearly realised here.
And yet it all sort of works. When I say 'all', I'm fairly obviously discarding the giant fly (which is more about the design of the model than anything else) and the dodgy moments of CSO, not least because if you can't suspend your disbelief for them, you've no business watching Who anyway. The combination of a relatively straightforward, heightened reality thriller tone to the story with a commited cast means that the messier bits work a bit better than they should. Because, of course, real life is messy. The two plot lines don't tie up particularly neatly... but they do tie up.
The resolutions being low key work as well. You can't really have a big ending to these essentially small (well, smaller) stories. The maggots being defeated by nature is entirely appropriate, as is resolving the BOSS storyline by appealing to Stevens - for once, a villain's sudden change of attitude at the last second is entirely apt, because Stevens has been pitched throughout as a genuine human being, so his attack of conscience isn't an absurd stretch - emphasised by the little tear on his cheek as the room is about to explode. Indeed, the sequence of BOSS' destruction is one of the most beautifully put together scenes I've seen in this show. The psychedelic colouring combined with the FX and strong performances from the two central performers give this a bigger impact than the subsequent explosion.
Though of course, that isn't really the end. Finally we reach a sequence that seems now to be one of the most influential in the history of the show - Jo's departure. I say influential because it's clearly a major contributor to the closing sequences of the last three series of the current show - the departures of Rose, Martha and Donna, and the lonely Doctor. But, if I'm honest, it does slightly show those others up. Not that they're bad, don't get me wrong. But the way all the emotion of the final scenes is underplayed means it has far more impact and subtlety than it's new series brethren. The sequence is generally expertly played (though one can't help but feel sorry for Richard Franklin, who's trying desperately to squeeze in everything the script isn't giving him an actual chance to say), particularly by Pertwee, and has a hauntingly memorable quality. A pretty damn fine conclusion to a pretty damn fine story.
#774 20 Jan 2009, 12:19 am
Phil W
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Hurray! I've always been a fan of The Green Death, at least in part because it was one of the very first DW stories I ever saw as a child (I think I had seen Planet of Evil, Revenge of the Cybermen, Pyramids of Mars and The Seeds of Doom, all of which hooked me on the show, so the Pertwee must have been a repeat at some point in the mid 1970s here in NZ). But I've always been happy that it is a good story too (for example I think it is comfortably better than the Sea Devils, which itself isn't bad).
As always it is fascinating to read you reviews, Dorney. You drop hints that you aren't so familiar with this one, though, or have I inferred something incorrectly?
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#775 20 Jan 2009, 10:16 am
AlMiles
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorney
The Green Death 6:
"There's something difficult with reviewing this episode. It really shouldn't work. But somehow it does.
An awful lot of things are wrong with the resolution. Firstly, the incredibly convenient revelation that Cliff Jones' fungus is fatal to the maggots is... well, absurdly convenient. "
Real life is like that, though. Witness penicillin. Serendipity existed before Doctor Who.
I find it more absurd that some/most of the Doctor's victories have to be so laborious and without good luck. He really does live in a flippin' depressing universe.
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#776 20 Jan 2009, 12:36 pm
Dorney
Time Lord
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil W
"As always it is fascinating to read you reviews, Dorney. You drop hints that you aren't so familiar with this one, though, or have I inferred something incorrectly? "
No, that's right. Given things like personal taste and availability, there are some stories I've simply not watched as often as others. In a few cases, of which I think the Green Death is one and Daemons was certainly another, I deliberately didn't rewatch them after a point as I knew I was doing this.
Certainly, there are a few coming up that I am very wobbly on - Revenge of the Cybermen, for example, and Planet of Evil are both pretty much blank slates to me, and I very much look forward to rediscovering them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlMiles
"Real life is like that, though. Witness penicillin. Serendipity existed before Doctor Who. "
Whilst that's undeniably true, you reach the problem that drama isn't reality. There are rarely well constructed stories, or proper endings. Real life has to be shaped into a dramatic form. And an ending that relies on luck is less satisfying than one that doesn't.
(Actually, to clarify that a touch - luck itself isn't a problem. For example, the cure for the Ice Warrior spores in Seeds of Death is found in a similarly chance way... but because the cure's something incredibly easy to come across, it feels less of a problem. Here it's the way it's almost double or treble the convenience. Jo just happens to knock fungus onto the slides. A rare fungus that is pretty much impossible to find anywhere in the UK apart from this one house. And so on... That's not just lucky, that's incredibly lucky.)
#777 20 Jan 2009, 1:06 pm
AlMiles
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Well, yeah - that's pretty much the definiton of "serendipity"!
I don't find it too pat when it happens a few times in 800-odd episodes. Some shows are like that every single week...
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#778 20 Jan 2009, 1:47 pm
Tiger
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Thanks for your reviews Dorney, always informative and they give an interesting slant on stories I either liked or disliked making me rethink my views on some of them.
You've confirmed my views on Frontier in Space though. Rather over rated given that its one hop from a cell to another with very little actual story.
It will be interesting when you get to the end of the Pertwee era to get to your views on it as a whole. Its suffered from the 'Pertwee backlash' conception since the early 90s. Whether its still suffering from that (and if it is, is it deservedly so) is an interesting subject, but having wathced the show in order, it will be interesting to get your view whether the Pertwee era now deserves a re-appraisal and whether it is superior or inferior to the show in the 60s. Its all a matter of taste though of course......
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