Day 270 — September 27th 2021
Meglos Parts One and Two
Meglos — Part One
Having gone with the shock of the new for The Leisure Hive, this feels like much more of an evolutionary step between the style of the show we’ve had for the last few years and the one we’ll be watching for the next few. It’s got lots of the elements that defined the last story — there’s technobabble, some glossier sets and of course the new style of music, but there’s also a lot more humour in there. And while the last story was about a race on the brink of destruction renewing themselves to wage war, this one’s about a giant cactus who wants to take over a planet, and that’s about the most Doctor Who thing in the world.
I think the mix of approaches works in the episode’s favour. It’s certainly more to my tastes than the last story was, but it also feels stronger than a lot of the material we had in Season Seventeen. I’d be quite happy for the show to continue in this vein for the rest of the year. Crucially it feels like there’s loads packed into these 25 minutes — there’s no long, lingering shots in this one, or desperate attempts to be ‘artistic’; it just gets on with telling a story.
That’s not to say that the direction isn’t interesting or noteworthy. The BBC invested in some new technology which got a trial run on this story — software which can link a couple of cameras, meaning that you can mix live action actors on a blue screen with scale models and have them move in synchronisation with each other. That might not sound like a huge thing — the series has been dropping people into model sets for a decade now — but it’s surprisingly effective, and it feels like a leap forward.
Okay, there’s caveats. The long shots where you’re looking at a group of people milling around outside a spaceship look fantastic, and when they watch as Meglos’ lair rises from the sand it’s genuinely impressive. It feels like the programme is operating on a whole new level. The effect isn’t as strong when we come in for a close up on anyone, and you’ve got some of the harshest cutting-out we’ve ever seen. I think the success of the earlier shots more than makes up for the roughness of the close ups, though. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the series is experimenting with the CSO process more seriously than it has in years, as Barry Letts has returned to oversee the show in the position of Executive Producer.
It’s the comedy which works the best for me in this episode, though, and I’ve written down loads of little moments which made me laugh out loud. It’s not that there were no jokes in The Leisure Hive, but the script there was certainly taking itself more seriously than this one is. I think my favourite moment is when Doctor Who finishes the repairs to K9;
Doctor Who: ‘Post repair test questions. K9, can you hear me?’
K9: ‘Affirmative… mistress.’
Doctor Who: ‘That’s a promising start.’
And then there’s the whole idea of Meglos itself; a talking cactus which sits and listens to the pirates bicker and bitch before revealing that he’s been there all along. I’ve always thought of it as a bit rubbish — the villain is a cactus for god’s sake — but actually watching it I’ve found myself loving the idea and hooting along with it.
The jokes aren’t the only areas of nice writing in this one; there’s some really nice turns of phrase in here too. I, especially fond of Zastor’s description of Doctor Who, which feels like a mission statement for the character as much as anything, and manages to be quite poetic about it;
Zastor: ‘Some fifty years ago, I knew a man who solved the insoluble by the strangest means. He sees the threads that join the universe together and
mends them when they break.’
I’m also fond of Meglos’ description of his plan (‘They’ve sent for a travelling Time Lord, who’s travels I must interrupt…’), and it certainly feels like there’s more of an attempt to make this sound good while the last story was more concerned with science fiction technobabble. It’s surprising, because this is the kind of lovely dialogue I’d have expected to come from the pen of David Fisher.
It’s a decent start to a story I could remember nothing about but didn’t expect an awful lot from.
7/10
Meglos — Part Two
Tom Baker’s Doctor Who really does spend more time on jungle planets than anywhere else, doesn’t he? We’ve only just had two of them in Season Seventeen and now we’ve got another one! Tigella here looks good, but I think it’s probably the weakest of the jungle sets we’ve had in this era. That’s hardly a criticism, though, because the standard has been remarkably high.
Is this also the longest time it’s ever taken for our heroes to get into an adventure? Doctor Who and Romana have had their own part to play in the story so far, but they don’t leave the TARDIS until more than half way through this episode, and they only encounter other members of the cast as we approach the cliffhanger. I’m struggling to think of any other story where the TARDIS crew are so late to the party. It’s a pretty interesting change of pace and while I wouldn’t want it to happen in every story, I’m enjoying it here.
That’s largely because although Doctor Who hasn’t been involved with the main plot yet, a version of him has been. Tom Baker seems to be enjoying playing an evil version of his Doctor Who, and while I can’t put my finger on it, he’s doing something different with his performance. I think it’s more assured, while he’s very much playing up the clumsy aspects of the character here when he’s the real Time Lord. I also think — and this is going to sound ridiculous, because it’s the same on both versions of the character — the burgundy costume looks a lot better on Meglos’ version of Doctor Who than it does on the man himself. Whatever the weather, I think it looks a lot better in this story than it did in the last — losing the jacket from under the coat has helped to slim the whole thing down.
I can’t talk about Meglos and not mention that it’s pretty unique in Old Testament Who for bringing back a former companion and casting them as someone else (I think we agreed that Jean Marsh doesn’t count, didn’t we?). Here it’s the gorgeous Jaqueline Hill who’s making her first Doctor Who appearance since departing with Ian way back at the end of The Chase. I watched that one on February 8th, so it feels like ages since I’ve seen her.
While part of me is sad that she’s not returning to the role that she made so iconic in the programme’s early years it’s nice to see her all the same, and she’s every bit as brilliant here as she was when playing Barbara. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of her work outside Doctor Who, but that’s something I definitely need to rectify.
I’m not sure you could get away with bringing someone back as a new character once you get past this point in the show’s history. Between this season and the next one the BBC will air the Five Faces of Doctor Who run, repeating selected adventures from the past, and as the 1980s wear on the show becomes ever more aware of its history, and it aimed at an audience who are well versed in that sort of stuff too. I think I’m right in saying that Graham Harper wanted to bring Michael Craze back for a part in The Caves of Androzani and it was vetoed on the grounds that the fans wouldn’t accept a former companion as someone else.
It’s gotten me thinking, though. In both this episode and in Part One we get to hear Jaqueline Hill use the phrase ‘Time Lord’ quite a bit, which she obviously didn’t do back in the day, as Doctor Who’s species wasn’t invented until four years after she left the series. So how many of the old companions got to use the phrase on the whole? She’s not Barbara here but it’s still Jackie saying it, so I think that counts. I’d be willing to bet William Russell and Carole Ann Ford use it in some Big Finish audios somewhere… what about all the others?
I don’t have much else to add for this one, so I’m going to give it a 6/10 and move along…!
