Day 297 — October 24th 2021
Arc of Infinity Parts Three and Four
Arc of Infinity — Part Three
The cliffhanger to this one isn’t an especially exciting one;
Doctor Who: ‘It’s too late. Omega controls the Matrix.’
I sort of found myself replying to the screen, asking ‘who gives a shit?’. I’ve watched enough Doctor Who to know what it means when Omega takes control of the Matrix, but even I find it hard to muster up any enthusiasm for the idea, so I can’t imagine what a regular viewer in 1983 would have made of this moment. Especially because the Matrix hasn’t really been established in this story as far as I can recall. It’s treated as something the audience should already know about — this is an example of a story being written specifically for a fan audience, and that’s evident in moments like Doctor Who asking after Leela, who left the show five years ago at this point.
The thing which is annoying me the most about this one is that they’ve gone all the way to Amsterdam to film and two of our three regulars don’t even know anything about that yet. Doctor Who and Nyssa have been running around on Gallifrey for two and a half episodes so far and don’t have any indication that the Earth is involved in this story at all. One of the reasons City of Death worked so well is that it went to Paris and really made the most of being there. Here, Amsterdam is just incidental.
On top of that, they’ve yet to encounter Tegan, too. Fair enough, Doctor Who sees a vision of her in the Matrix but he’s not convinced she’s real, just unsure enough to not want to risk her life to Omega just in case. It means there’s a lot riding on the final episode to tie everything together in time and be a satisfying conclusion.
3/10
Arc of Infinity — Part Four
There’s a point in this episode where Doctor Who declares that ‘the Arc of Infinity is shifting’, and as he said it I realised I had absolutely no idea what the ‘Arc of Infinity’ is. I’ve seen this story at least twice, and I’ve been watching it for the last two days, but I’ve somehow never bothered to question what the title actually means or how it relates to the story. I’m assuming I’ve simply missed something somewhere along the line, but the fact that I’ve made it to the end of Part Four without that bothering me is perhaps telling.
I won’t lie, I’ve still not found an awful lot to enjoy in this one, and it’s another 3/10. A friend messaged yesterday to say he was sad that I wasn’t enjoying this as he thought it was a bit of an unloved gem, but nothing is quite coming together for me here. I’ll concede that this final episode is the best of the bunch — it’s nice to finally have Doctor Who and Nyssa in Amsterdam, and the best bits are the ones that feel in keeping with City of Death; actually seeing our regulars in a contemporary European city. I could quite happily watch a version of Doctor Who which was set in a different part of Europe every story if it meant we got to see more of the continent.
Sadly they never really feel part of the city, and it’s as though the Doctor Who stuff is being done on the cheap and without permission — they very rarely interact with anyone, even when people are clearly part of the production. There’s an awkward moment when a group of people react in horror to Omega rushing past and Doctor Who sort of half approaches them without actually getting there. It looks awkward and that’s a pity. They speak to a couple of people in the hostel, but that’s it. It feels like a real contrast to their time in Paris, where they didn’t interact with people much in the location work, but there were so many rich characters in the studio scenes — from the silent barman, the old lady at the Louvre and the couple critiquing the TARDIS — that it felt very much like they were part of this world rather than simply passing through.
I also don’t feel like I’ve got any real flavour of Amsterdam. There’s some great behind the scenes photos of the cast larking about on tandem bikes and having a laugh on the bridges and I wish we got to see a bit more of that on screen. Maybe it’s an unseen adventure that takes place after the credits have rolled?
