Day 320 — November 16th 2021
The Twin Dilemma Parts Three and Four
The Twin Dilemma — Part Three
I think I’ve decided that Mestor actually looks quite decent, but the problem is that he’s been shot too clearly and in bright lighting. I think if you were to shoot him more in shadows then there’s enough to the design to look suitably creepy. I’ll tell you what, though, it does feel like the budget has run out at the end of the season — one of the things I loved about the Tractators is that they had little wiggling antennae, but there’s no sign of that for Mestor. His antennae just sort of sit there, and the attempts to give him fur look more threadbare than the same effect did on the Tractators.
I’ll tell you what does look good, though; the make up on the bird-like creatures who work for Mestor. I can’t tell if they’re supposed to be owls, or just sort of vaguely avian creatures, but they look suitably weird. They’re not the best make up the show’s ever done, but they stand out as nice enough and I think it’s a shame more isn’t made of them. You could drop them into pretty much any era of Old Testament Who and I think they’d fit in as being a decent enough design job.
There’s some nice location work in this episode, but I can’t help thinking they might have been better off holding back the gorgeous Lanzarote filming for this one. As the first story of a new era it feels like it could do with something just that little bit… more. I like the look of the landscape they’ve filmed in, but when you realise they’ve just stuck a few random branches in the ground to represent the ‘stripped’ forest it starts to fall apart a little. I think if you were to have Colin’s Doctor Who step out of the TARDIS and onto the mountaintop with those stunning vistas behind him it would make all the difference.
Tell you what, though, Colin is very good in these location scenes. I’ve enjoyed him during all the studio stuff in the last couple of episodes, but his enthusiastic performance can feel a little much at times. Here it feels as though he’s underplaying it slightly more, and that works in his favour. I’m guessing someone (director? Producer?) had a word before they got in the studio — or maybe Colin decided himself — and the decision was taken to go bigger. Certainly you notice the difference in the performance between standing out on location and then the very next scene back in the TARDIS.
Which brings me neatly onto another issue I’ve had with this story so far — we’re spending so long inside the TARDIS. It feels like once per episode Doctor Who and Peri are allowed out to find the next bit of plot and then they’re bundled back into the ship to talk about it. I want to see them out and about! It should make this feel like it’s a really broad story, taking us from planet to planet and introducing lots of characters, but it doesn’t. It feels like the money’s run out so they’ve got to make the most of the one regular set they’ve got.
It’s another 4/10 for me, and we can add another Colin Close Up to the chart!
The Twin Dilemma — Part Four
I feel as though my patience has finally snapped during this episode. While the earlier episodes of the story — especially Part One — had several redeeming features to balance out the bits that didn’t quite work, this one feels like a let down almost across the board.
The biggest issue for me is that Doctor Who doesn’t actually get to do anything. It’s Azmael who defeats Mestor, and Hugo who manages to disarm and fend off the guards. That feels like a massive problem for a new Doctor Who’s very first story, especially when all the building blocks had been put in place to make this a really great moment for him.
We’ve spent the last three episodes with Doctor Who suffering violent mood swings, not quite being sure of himself and certainly not acting like the hero. He cowers behind Peri when confronted with aliens, belittles everyone around him, and generally makes a bit of a nuisance of himself. We get a final scene where he declares that he’s now stabilised fully and this is his new persona (‘whether you like it or not’), but that scene doesn’t feel earned in any way. You need everything to come together in this final episode, and for him to stand up in front of Mestor and declare that he’s Doctor Who and he’s there to save the day. Imagine a version of this story in which his mind has been in turmoil for three and a half episodes, but saving the day relies on him pitting his own mental powers against Mestor. So he has to summon up all his energy and get on with it. Azmael can still die, Hugo can still fight off the owl people in the background, but at least Doctor Who gets to be pivotal in the resolution of the narrative!
There’s lots of other bits in this episode which contribute to it getting a low 2/10 score. It feels like there’s no one working on this at the script editor stage for starters. There’s a point here where Doctor Who asks the twins to destroy any physical notes they’ve made containing the mathematical equations and to instead ‘carry them in your head’… which would be fine if the preceding scene hadn’t reminded us that Mestor is able to read anyone’s mind whenever he likes. Then there’s Maurice Denham miming along with Mestor’s lines so out of time that I didn’t realise he was mining along until half way through, I thought he was pretending to have a stroke.
The only thing that stops this from receiving a 1/10 is that I really like Mestor’s actual plan, to blow up the sun and use the explosion to fire Gastropod eggs out into space. I think that’s a great idea, and it’s the kind of dodgy science that I totally buy in a Doctor Who adventure. Doctor Who being shown the endless tunnels of eggs feels like a great moment which isn’t given the impact it really should have. I feel like they could have done away with all the nonsense with the twins and the maths and instead focussed solely on this aspect of the story.
Overall I can see why people might not like The Twin Dilemma. It’s not a great Doctor Who story. Heck, it’s not even really a good Doctor Who story. But I stand by my position that it’s not the worst one ever, and I think it’s got lots of elements in there which could make it work so much better.
Oh, and we can add three of the owl-like guard men and the twins to the still-growing list of guest characters inside the TARDIS!
