Day 222 — August 10th 2021
The Deadly Assassin Parts One and Two
The Deadly Assassin — Part One
‘What has happened to the magic of Doctor Who?’ wails Jan Vincent-Rudzki’s review of this story for the Doctor Who Appreciation Story at the time of its broadcast in 1976. It’s a typically dramatic Doctor Who fan reaction to having not enjoyed something, but what’s interesting about the review are how fandom has seemingly done a U-turn on the story over the last 45 years, and how it’s hard to argue with some of the complaints raised.
Far from being a story hated by fandom (‘I’ve spoken to many people,’ says Vincent-Rudzki when talking about how disliked the tale was at the time) The Deadly Assassin is now considered the latest in a long line of Hinchcliffe/Holmes ‘classics’ which have stellar reputations. In the 2014 Doctor Who Magazine poll this came in at number 21, with an average score of just over 8.4/10. I’ve never understood the love this story receives, and I’m sorry to say that I’m still none the wiser having watched this first episode today. The 1976 review highlights my major issue with the story quite well;
‘This story shattered [viewers’] illusions of the Time Lords, and lowered them
to ordinary people. Once, Time Lords were all-powerful, awe-inspiring beings, capable of imprisoning planets forever in force fields, defenders of truth and
good (when called in). Now, they are petty, squabbling, feeble-minded,
doddering old fools.’
When the Time Lords rocked up in The War Games it was a proper Event. We’d never even heard their name before that story began, and when we found ourselves on their home world they were revealed to be these incredibly powerful gods, with the ability to erase people from history and cause them pain simply by staring. Their allure has been dissipated a bit since then, with moments like the bowler-hatted Time Lord showing up in Terror of the Autons, or the panic they show in The Three Doctors, but this story really deconstructs them and gives us just a planet of old men huffing about.
I think the last time I watched this story — for my last big marathon — I decided that we were seeing the Time Lords presented from different viewpoints. In The War Games we’re seeing them as all powerful gods through the eyes of Jamie and Zoe, or the War Chief. Here, we’re seeing them through the eyes of Doctor Who; as just the kind of stuffy boring people he’d want to run away from. And the way they’re presented here is a perfectly valid interpretation of a staid race who live forever (barring accidents) but it’s just not as appealing to me as the one we saw back in the 1960s.
The biggest issue for me is that this lot could be any old alien race — it doesn’t feel like there’s anything especially unique about them. This is the first time we’ve ever explored Doctor Who’s home world in any great depth, and I want to be more impressed by it than I am. Our hero is able to escape the guars here with very little trouble, where I want to see him really having to use his wits because he’s up against something so powerful, able to anticipate his every move because they know him so well.
And don’t get me started on the idea of the Gallifreyan news reporter, which feels so ridiculous that it actively took me out of the story. In theory I like the idea of showing another alien race with their own form of television, but the Time Lords? I can’t think of anything that feels more bizarrely out of place. I’ve always imagined them as a race with their heads stuck in dusty old books, not ones sat at home watching the local news.
I’m going with a 2/10 for this one, and I’m afraid that the next two days might feature a lot of me complaining…
The Deadly Assassin — Part Two
Right then, I’m going to be up front and say that I’ve given this one another 2/10 and haven’t found an awful lot of enjoyment in these 25 minutes, but rather than moaning on for another seven paragraphs I’m going to talk about some of the things I like in this episode (and wish were all in a better episode).
The big thing for me is the design work for Gallifrey. As much as I’ve droned on about this story destroying the mystique of the Time Lords, I can’t say the same for the look of the planet. It’s totally different here than any of our previous glimpses of this world, and I think the changes are for the better.
All the sets are decked out in a gorgeous shade of emerald green, and that gives it a look totally distinct from all the other alien worlds we’ve had in the series lately. Green is a difficult colour to work with in design. For such a natural colour it can feel overpowering and a bit sickly. Several of my covers for Big Finish have started off green and then altered as the process has gone on because I just couldn’t make them work. Here, designer Roger Murray-Leach proves that it can work with the right person in control.
It shouldn’t come as a massive surprise, really, because Murray-Leach has been responsible for all my favourite design work over the last few seasons, from the Nerva Beacon to the gorgeous jungle in Planet of Evil. He’s only got one more story to come after this one and I’m really going to miss his input to the series. We see some of the design work from Revenge of the Cybermen being reused in this one, with the proper introduction of the Seal of Rassilon. I tend to think the design has become a bit too over-used on merchandise to have any real impact on me, but I do like the way it’s been integrated into the sets here (it looks especially nice on the huge hangings above the Panopticon, something I copied for the back cover of the recently-released Doctor Who Roleplaying Game) and I think it looks especially nice as part of Doctor Who’s letter in Part One.
The sets are helped massively by some beautiful direction, with David Maloney also putting in his penultimate work on the series. I spent most of The Hand of Fear complaining that we didn’t get to see the full scale of the vast locations, but I suspect it’s not a problem I’d have had were Maloney in charge of the direction on that one, because here he goes to great lengths to make the cramped studio feel as expansive as possible.
I’m not entirely certain how all the effects are achieved (I suspect glass painting, but I don’t want to check and spoil the illusion!), and that’s sort of the point. They work so well because it’s not over the top or showy. You accept the huge scale simply as part of the world we’re presented with. It’s especially effective in the scene where Doctor Who has been imprisoned in a cell suspended high from the ground — you can easily believe that the actual set isn’t just plonked in the corner of Television Centre.
The direction is brilliant throughout the story — there’s a beautifully-framed shot of the TARDIS materialising in Part One which puts the ones in the last story to shame, and there’s some close ups of Tom Baker which feel like they could have come direct from a Douglas Camfield story, and that’s about the highest praise that I can possibly give!
It’s not only the design work on the sets which is beautiful in this one, though, because you’ve got James Acheson back on costume duties (this time working with Joan Ellacott), and the introduction of that iconic Time Lord collar, with the large circular cut outs. I think the design really comes into its own in New Testament Who, where the design is smoothed off a little, but it’s undeniably brilliant right from the word ‘go’. I think something which often gets overlooked is that these are specifically costumes — the Time Lords here are changing into them because they’re attending an official function. They’re not just something that they wear around all day long. I suspect that point gets missed later on, and they just end up becoming the ‘default’ look for the species.
I’ll allow myself a single moan about each element of the design work, though, because otherwise I’ve written a post full of praise and then slapped an incredibly low score on it. The sets are beautiful, yes, and Gallifrey never quite looks this good again, but my God they don’t half sound hollow when the actors are walking around them. There’s a sequence in the Panopticon in this episode where you can barely hear the dialogue over the sound of feet clunking around on MDF. And then there’s the ‘crime scene’ outline of the assassinated President… which includes the Time Lord collar! Oh, lord, it doesn’t half look ridiculous. It feels a bit like one of those silly Doctor Who things that should make me hoot, but… oh dear, it doesn’t.
The biggest criticism I can level at these episodes is that my two-year old has been totally bored by them. He sat through several episodes of The Seeds of Doom enraptured and paid a bit of attention to Mandragora, but with this he’s been asking for something else on almost from the start. Old men droning on in rooms is bloody boring, even if those rooms are very pretty.
