Day 240 — August 28th 2021
Underworld Parts Three and Four
Underworld — Part Three
I often say on here that I don’t really remember the scores I gave episodes during my last marathon, and that’s broadly true. I sometimes remember vaguely if a story fared well with me or not, but when it comes to the actual scores I honestly couldn’t tell you. I’m often tempted to go back and check. I’ve got a spreadsheet of them all saved on the computer as I type, right next to the updated-daily spreadsheet I’m keeping for this marathon. But I’ve held off peeking because I want to wait until the end of the year, so I can compare every score from this marathon to every one from the last time and really see how my opinions have changed (or not, as the case may be).
The only thing I’m absolutely sure of is that no episode last time received a 1/10 score. I’d been given a remit when publishing my thoughts the last time that they should be broadly positive and it was decided that giving out the absolute bottom score probably wasn’t the best move. And I think I convinced myself that actually no episode of Doctor Who deserved that rock-bottom figure, because there was always something to love in there somewhere.
I’ve been harsher with the scores this time around, and I’ve already given out a handful of 1/10 scores. The Web Planet, The Space Pirates, Day of the Daleks and Image of the Fendahl… I think I’ve also been more generous at the other end of the scale, too, as I feel like I’ve handed out more 10s than last time. Sadly I’m adding another episode to the bottom of the list here, because this is the definition of a 1/10 episode if I’ve ever seen one.
It took me an hour and a half to complete this episode, through a combination of realising that I’d zoned out and wasn’t paying attention and pausing the episode so that I could do something more interesting instead. There’s absolutely nothing in the story to grab me, I don’t give a toss about any of the characters, and while I managed to be vaguely supportive of the attempt of CSO yesterday, my patience has finally worn thin and it looks worse and worse as the story goes on.
I don’t want to just spout negativity here, so I will say that there is occasionally a flicker of brilliant dialogue on display. I love the description of the ‘tree at the end of the world’ which is ‘guarded by invisible dragons’, and Tom Baker’s reaction to that imagery is the most engaged he’s sounded in a while. Sadly when we get to the ‘tree’ it’s not impressive in any way, and all those great ideas end up being a bit of a let down.
(I’m popping back to edit my write up here having just finished Part Four and realising that all the ‘tree at the end of the world’ material is cribbed from the Greek myths, so no wonder it stood out as being better than everything else on show…!)
There’s not been many points in this marathon where I’ve struggled to go on, but this was one of them.
Underworld — Part Four
The biggest problem that the over-use of CSO causes in this story is that it makes the direction so incredibly flat. Lining up moving shots with using the technique is still a few years away (they’ll make their first strides into that area during Meglos), which means that every shot in the caves is incredibly flat and static because everything has had to be carefully lined up. Occasionally you might get a cut to another shot — this episode even includes some close ups which have felt in very short supply — but it makes the whole thing a bit lifeless and dull.
I try not to criticise anyone’s work in particular when I’m commenting on these stories because no one sets out to do a poor job, but I do wonder if it’s not just the CSO which is causing some problems with the direction here. This is Norman Stewart’s first time in the director’s chair for Doctor Who, and it has to be said that the material shot on real sets doesn’t look markedly better than the stuff on the blue screen. We’ve been a bit spoiled of late, I fear, by a run of very strong directors. Almost every episode I’ve watched in the Baker era has had a shot which I’ve written down as especially impressive, and even if I don’t always talk about them they often end up as screenshots in these posts. There’s not been a single instance of that in Underworld. Stewart will be returning to the series next season, with another incredibly ambitious story, so I’m hoping I’ll find more to enjoy in his work on that occasion.
The direction isn’t the only thing which drags this final episode down, though. I think we might have some of the worst performances ever seen in the programme during these 25 minutes. I’m thinking specifically of a few of the black-hooded guards who are so atrociously bad that I honestly wonder if they’re taking the piss. I overlooked it the first time, because it was clearly a supporting artist given a single line to say, but then they keep getting more and more! This was someone paid to be in this!
Tom Baker wakes up a little for his confrontation with the Oracle (and I’ll say that I love his description of it as ‘another self-aggrandising artefact’), but on the whole there’s nothing remotely interesting in this episode. I’m going to go with another 1/10, but believe me when I say I’ve been debating whether I’m allowed to give a zero, because I think this is probably the single worst episode I’ve done so far.
Onwards and upwards, though; things can only get better from here…!
