#5 (19.17 - 19.18): Black Orchid.

A family secret is exposed.

2 episodes. Approx. 50 minutes. Written by: Terence Dudley. Directed by: Ron Jones. Produced by: John Nathan Turner.


THE PLOT

The TARDIS materializes at a railway station in 1925, where the Doctor is mistaken for a cricket player being sent for a match at a party at Cranleigh Hall. The Doctor is happy to go along with this case of mistaken identity, enjoying the chance to show off his skill at the game. But Cranleigh Hall hides a secret - a mysterious figure, held captive in a hidden room.

Soon, the Doctor and his companions are dealing with multiple murders. The killings are somehow linked to Ann Talbot, who is engaged to Lord Cranleigh (Michael Cochrane) - and who also just happens to look exactly like Nyssa! It's a relatively minor murder mystery, a case of family skeletons bringing themselves violently out into the light. The sort of thing the Doctor can sort in minutes. Except the Doctor happens to be the prime suspect!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Enjoys the chance to relax and play a game of cricket, which he plays with preternatural skill. Shades of the Eleventh Doctor playing football in The Lodger, as he joins a team suffering a miserable defeat and transforms it into a victory with seemingly no effort. When he's questioned for a murder in Part Two, he is unable to make himself believed. The more he talks, the more he makes himself look like a crazy man.  He finally just stops talking and gives up - a scene Davison plays wonderfully.

Nyssa: This story gives Sarah Sutton a dual role. Though actual character work is light, we do learn that Nyssa is an accomplished dancer, part of her training on Traken - a detail that fits perfectly with her established character. Despite her aristocratic bearing, she is a young girl and can't help but be taken with Ann's suggestion of doubling up their outfits for the party. As Ann, Sutton gets virtually nothing to work with.  Ann doesn't even register as a character, just as a plot device to justify Nyssa's being in danger at the end.

Adric: He can't dance, so spends the party stuffing his face at the buffet table. Which actually may be one of the more reasonable things he's done across Season 19! His general lack of common sense shows itself when he responds to the Doctor's arrest by protesting that it's Ann's word against the Doctor's... hardly the best way to try to garner sympathy or even willingness to listen by either the family or the police chief who is the family's friend.

Tegan: Opens the story by saying that she's decided to stay with the crew and that the Doctor can stop trying to deliver her to Heathrow - a major character shift, and one which apparently happened offscreen between stories. It is nice to see Janet Fielding giving a more laid-back performance, allowing Tegan to be something other than strident and high-strung. Her scenes opposite Sir Robert (Moray Watson) show a genuinely sweet side, and she seems to actually be enjoying herself for a change.


THOUGHTS

Director Ron Jones' first Doctor Who story. Though fandom tends to lump Jones in with Peter Moffatt as a director largely unsuited to Who, I've long felt that he's gotten a bit of a bad rap. He's certainly not up there with Peter Grimwade or Fiona Cumming, but he does understand the value of dramatic lighting.  This greatly enhances some of the scenes in the house, especially in the secret passages. He also deals well with large groups of actors, cutting between different groupings without losing track of where the characters are in the room or making the scene feel like something out of a stage play. He may not be a brilliant television director - but he is a competent one.

Black Orchid works better than most of the classic series' 2-parters, thanks to a narrative that is deliberately slight. There are no aliens, no science fiction elements, just a very minor period melodrama about family secrets.  Just about right to sustain 50 fairly laid-back minutes.

The first episode is quite good. The 1920's setting is impeccably rendered, and this is a rare classic Who story with no embarrassing production aspects. The tone is generally relaxed, with some pleasant scenes of the companions enjoying themselves at a costume party. The mystery is nicely built up in the background, from the cutaways to the mysterious figure who escapes his bonds, to the Doctor's crawling around the mansion's mazelike corridors after discovering a secret passage.

Once the Doctor is arrested in Part Two, however, it all goes a bit off the rails. There's a rushed and unconvincing scene in which the Doctor convinces Sir Robert to let him show off the TARDIS. While this little diversion is going on, the main story at the house becomes rushed. All entirely avoidable, as the story doesn't actually require the Doctor be taken off the grounds at all! Give that 5 - 10 minutes over to investigation within the house, and the script could jettison the silly TARDIS tour and give more breathing space to the resolution.

Despite the flawed ending, Black Orchid is an entertaining little diversion, a nice breather before the heavy action of Earthshock. The first episode, in particular, has a pleasant overall atmosphere, and both regulars and guest cast are in fine form. It could have been better with a little bit of rewriting to the second episode, but it's still highly watchable.


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Story: The Visitation
Next Story: Earthshock

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#3 (19.9 - 19.12): Kinda

4 episodes. Written by: Christopher Bailey, Eric Saward (uncredited). Directed by: Peter Grimwade.  Produced by: John Nathan Turner.


THE PLOT

The Doctor takes the TARDIS to Deva Loka, a peaceful planet where he trusts that Nyssa can recover from her fainting spell in peace. As Nyssa rests, the Doctor and his companions go exploring. They find a beautiful set of chimes created by the natives, with an alien yet harmonic musical sound. The sound sends Tegan into a trance, where she finds herself in a sinister, all-black plane, menaced by the evil Mara.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Adric are captured by a colonization team. The team's leader, Sanders (Richard Todd), finds them harmless enough. But when Sanders goes off to investigate the disappearance of another team member, the security officer - the unstable Hindle (Simon Rouse) - takes command. Now the Doctor and Adric, along with the team's scientific officer, Todd (Nerys Hughes), find their lives at the mercy of a madman, while the ancient evil of the Mara uses Tegan as a vessel to the real world and threatens to engulf them all!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Though apparently originally commissioned as a Fourth Doctor story, this is one of those rare serials that is difficult to imagine with any other Doctor. It's so well-suited to Davison's thoughtful, understated performance, a story for a Doctor who takes time to evaluate the situation before acting. The Doctor does a lot of watching and listening, holding back until there is an opportunity for action to actually be beneficial. When he does finally take charge, in Episode Four, it's decisive. Davison's showdown with the Mara-possessed Kinda just before turning the mirrored panels on it could serve as a one-scene rebuttal to all the charges that he lacked authority.

Tegan: The first half of this serial gives Janet Fielding quite a bit of focus, and she eagerly rises to the challenge. The Mara's attempts to gain agreement to use Tegan's form are highly effective, creepy and surreal without being so esoteric as to nullify the drama. Fielding gets to play multiple levels, as Tegan is frightened yet stubborn in her refusal, then confused by trick after trick. Two dream figures tell her that she does not exist. Then a jester figure, the Mara's face for Tegan, mentally exhausts her before making good on that initial threat, fading Tegan from existence to "leave (her) alone." Finally, the terrified and exhausted Tegan is broken into granting her consent. It's magnificently nightmarish, wonderfully-directed by Peter Grimwade and acted to perfection by Janet Fielding, who obviously enjoyed getting something truly meaty to play. There's much less for her to do in the second half, but she still is effective when she sees the Mara's true form and demands to know that it's truly gone from her mind now (a demand that the Doctor ignores, thus paving the way for a follow-up).

Adric: After being borderline unbearable in Four to Doomsday, Matthew Waterhouse actually dials it back and is once again fairly watchable. I thought Adric's scenes opposite the insane Hindle were well-done, with Adric attempting to humor Hindle to gain a chance first to help the Doctor, then to escape, and finally to do something about Hindle's plan of destruction. He does dive back into being obnoxious in his scenes with Tegan in Episode Four.  Waterhouse seems to consistently be at his best when acting opposite Sarah Sutton, and at his dreadful worst when playing opposite Janet Fielding. 

THOUGHTS

Reading through the DWM: In Their Own Words special, it seems that Kinda had a particularly troubled genesis. The script was commissioned by Bidmead, to whom the concept of the Mara doubtless appealed.  It was delivered about the time that Bidmead left. Some development was done by Antony Root, who seems to have enjoyed the layered themes of the story. But written by an inexperienced television writer, it was still in no fit shape for broadcast when Eric Saward became script editor, leading to Saward giving the second half of the story a massive overhaul - one which did not please writer Christopher Bailey, who then did an 11th hour rewrite to try to restore some of the themes that he felt the Saward draft had lost.

Given such a troubled development process, it would be reasonable to expect Kinda to be a failure. Honestly, it would almost be excusable, after skipping along between three script editors, at least two of whom had radically different sensibilities, and a writer with no television experience. But somehow, it all manages to come together. The result is probably my favorite televised Davison story, and one of my all-time favorites of the entire series.

This is the first story of Saward's script editing tenure on which he had a strong influence, and it may be his crowning achievement as script editor. Both Saward and Root seem to have recognized that there was enough going on in this story to make it worth the effort to put it into shape. The result, I think, is a clear example of how creative tension can sometimes work in a show's favor. Saward's structural sensibilities keep the story moving along and keep it comprehensible, while Bailey's layered themes make it into something special within that framework. Effectively, this is to Saward what Warriors' Gate was to Bidmead: an imaginative piece that required a massive amount of work, but which paid off with 4 stunning episodes.

Like Logopolis, this story benefits from director Peter Grimwade's eye for the visual. Tegan's nightmarish encounter with the Mara on a black-on-black astral plane, the old woman's vision of the Mara, Hindle and his cardboard city - all are effective visual moments, exceedingly well-executed. Grimwade knows how and when to use close-ups for maximum effect, and when to cut away from close-ups to wider shots. The Part Two cliffhanger is particularly strong, with its cutaways to Hindle's black-and-white face on the monitor, rather than to Hindle himself, and with that sharp zoom to Nerys Hughes' scream. The resources may not have been all that could have been hoped for, and certain moments (hello, snake) fall slightly short. But he knows how to use the resources at his disposal to maximum dramatic effect.

The story features a fine guest cast. Screen veteran Richard Todd gets the "special guest star" billing, of course, and gives a strong performance. But in guest star terms, this show belongs to Simon Rouse. There's something wonderfully childlike in Hindle's insanity. He tries to model himself on his father figure (Sanders), imitating Sanders' militaristic way of running things by dressing his native hostages as soldiers and inspecting their fingernails. When Sanders returns - to take away his command, Hindle presumes - he falls apart as the old man approaches, crying out to "Mummy" to make Sanders go away, clearly flashing back on childhood beatings to which the script alludes. I loved some of the close-ups of Hindle's eyes. Staring straight ahead, not blinking, not quite focused. One of the most convincing madmen Who has offered, and one of the most unforgettable human guest roles in the series.

While the production isn't up to the level of the four serials preceding it, I would still rate it well above the series' average. Even the infamous giant snake stands out more for falling short of the superb production values of the JNT era to this point, rather than as a Myrka- or Scarasen-level disaster.  To my tastes at least, Doctor Who rarely gets better than this.


My Rating: 10/10.

Previous Story: Four to Doomsday
Next Story: The Visitation

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#1 (19.1 - 19.4): Castrovalva

4 episodes. Written by: Christopher H. Bidmead. Directed by: Fiona Cumming.  Produced by: John Nathan Turner.


THE PLOT

The Doctor has regenerated, but this time it is not going well. He keeps losing his bearings, forgetting his own identity and the geography of his own TARDIS. He needs time for rest and recovery. But there is no time. The Master is still in pursuit of the Doctor, determined to wipe his old enemy out of Time and Space forever, and he has captured Adric in order to spring a lethal trap. The TARDIS is sent plummeting back to the beginning of creation, to be destroyed by the Big Bang.

Adrenaline allows the Doctor to regain his faculties long enough to avoid destruction, but now he needs rest more than ever. Tegan and Nyssa bring him to Castrovalva, a place of absolutely simplicity where the Doctor can recover control of his own mind. But the Master has not yet finished with the Doctor, and has one last trap ready to spring...


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Peter Davison's first story, this was actually recorded somewhere around the middle of his first season's production. A good decision on JNT's part, as it means that Davison is fully confident in the role, with his performance is at its best. In his own way, Davison is just as good as Tom was in the previous two stories. He's instantly engaging and sympathetic as the disoriented and weakened Doctor, particularly when the TARDIS is in imminent danger near the end of Episode One.  The Doctor is left helpless to do anything about it - leaving this man, so accustomed to taking control, incredibly frustrated and desperate to do something.

In those brief scenes in which he does gain his wits and is again The Doctor, he takes command effortlessly. On his entry to the Zero Room, he goes from something akin to a frightened child to a confident leader, fully in control... all done just with a change in carriage and tone of voice. Also in this scene, the Doctor assigns roles to each of his three companions.  A last attempt by writer and outgoing script editor Christopher H. Bidmead to provide a guideline for his successor in dealing with the companion overload, perhaps?  In any case, the roles are well-reasoned, and the scene conveys that this Doctor will take a more collaborative role than the Fourth Doctor did, and will rely on his companions more.

Tegan: Waiting to record this story also helped greatly with Tegan's characterization. Tegan strongly irritated me in her debut. Thankfully, Janet Fielding has greatly toned down her performance by this point. She and Sarah Sutton show a strong screen rapport in this story.  While Fielding quickly becomes the dominant persona, the brash Tegan taking a leadership role over the more analytical Nyssa in the script as well, she doesn't drown out her co-star. In Logopolis, Tegan felt surplus to requirements. Here, she fits nicely into the team, and I found myself liking both character and performance.

Adric: He's also less annoying here than in Logopolis... though that's largely because he's sidelined for the bulk of the story.  Bidmead is too good a writer to completely sideline one of his regulars, though. Even in marginalizing Adric, he makes him a key part of the narrative. Adric is essentially the battery fueling the Master's trap. He is still written as a strong member of the Doctor's team, actively resisting the Master at every turn. This is much better than the active hindrance Adric will become in... Well, exactly one story's time. Unfortunately, Matthew Waterhouse never worked as well opposite Davison as he did opposite Tom, so I doubt there will be many bright spots ahead for this character.

Nyssa: "That face! I hate it!" An advantage of following on from the previous two stories, with a script by the outgoing script editor, is that Bidmead still remembers that the Master is walking around in the body of Nyssa's father. That makes Nyssa's cry at the start of Episode Two a quite strong character moment. The Master is not just an enemy.  He's not even just an enemy who has wiped out her entire world and is apparently about to destroy her too. He is an an enemy who is doing all of this with her father's face, his every maniacal laugh corrupting her memories of a father she cherished.

There are other good character beats for Nyssa. We not only see Nyssa develop a rapport with Tegan, but also with the new Doctor. As early as Episode Two, when Nyssa assists the Doctor by building his new (much tinier) Zero Room, we see that Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison do work very well together on-screen. Davison's instincts, that Nyssa was particularly well-suited to his Doctor, were correct, and it's a shame that neither his producer nor his incoming script editor were able to appreciate and capitalize on that.

The Master: Just as it is a web in which The Master ensnares Adric, it's the imagery of the web that defines his traps. He starts with a simple, direct trap, designed simply to obliterate the Doctor. He has also prepared a trap within that trap, and revels in the complexity of his back-up plan. He doesn't seem disappointed that the Doctor escapes his first snare. After all, that allows him to actually use his second idea.

It's interesting to note how easily the Master could simply destroy the Doctor within Castrovalva.  But he doesn't.  He allows his enemy to heal, at least to a point at which the Doctor can appreciate the web in which the Master has entangled him. It's not enough for the Master to win - He wants to humiliate the Doctor, to have the Doctor know that he has won, and perhaps to impress him just a little bit. It makes him a more interesting and engaging villain. The final image of him here - entangled by his own creations, an evil version of Dr. Frankenstein destroyed by the goodness of his own monsters - is a memorable one.  It probably should have been the last seen of him, at least for a while, but it's a striking end to this trilogy.  Issues with the Master's later overuse/misuse are a discussion for another time.


THOUGHTS

In a sense, Logopolis and Castrovalva are not two stories, but one epic 8-parter.  Logopolis was all about entropy. Things fall apart, things decay. Tremas is taken over by the Master, Logopolis falls, Traken is wiped out, the Doctor dies... everything crumbles and degrades. Castrovalva becomes a story about life. The Master creates projections as a trap, but they gain free will. The Doctor's regeneration is rocky, but he recovers and comes out ready to face the universe with a sunny grin, declaring that he "feels absolutely splendid." Out of the chaos, order is restored.

Castrovalva is very different from previous stories introducing new Doctors. Previous stories dealt with the regeneration in the first one to two episodes, then got on with a more traditional narrative. Here, the central concern is the Doctor's regeneration. "I'm the Doctor," Davison says, "or at least I will be, if this regeneration works out." After 7 years, Tom was not just a Doctor, but the Doctor to most viewers. By making the changeover difficult within the narrative, it helps ease viewers over their own difficulties in accepting a new lead. Given this, I think that making the regeneration itself into the narrative was appropriate here. Bidmead's script helps in selling this, weaving the ongoing Doctor/Master rivalry and the ongoing entropy/renewal themes into that narrative.

Like Logopolis, the story consists of many set pieces. We get the Doctor literally unraveling the trappings of his previous persona as he descends into the labyrinth of his own TARDIS, unfamiliar to him in his addled state. The Master's first trap, the trip to Year Zero, is irrelevent to the actual plot, but it creates a sense of jeopardy for the early part of the story. There are many other set pieces.  Tegan and Nyssa, carrying the Doctor through the woodland surrounding Castrovalva. The trap of Castrovalva springing itself by sending the characters through a loop, returning them again and again to the courtyard. As was the case in Logopolis, most of the set pieces work. As was also the case with Logopolis, I enjoyed the fantasy elements: the castle overseen by a kindly wizard (the Portreeve), in which the Doctor might heal. The people, conjured out of nothing by a magic (mathematical) trick, who nevertheless assert their own will and declare, "We are free!"

This is a tighter script than Logopolis was, though, and the threads hang together much better.  Rather appropriate, in a story in which a tapestry plays a major part. There's a structure to the way the sequences are laid out. Except for the hook of the Master's first trap, the pieces build from lower-key ones (the unraveling of the scarf, the trip through the woods) to the more intense and bizarre (the loop, Castrovalva folding in on itself). Perhaps Bidmead learned from experience, perhaps he simply benefited from having a script editor other than himself to oversee his work. Either way, Castrovalva combines most of the strengths of his writing in Logopolis with a stronger narrative, making for a more satisfying overall viewing experience.

Castrovalva ends the trilogy began with The Keeper of Traken and continued with Logopolis.  In my opinion, these three stories taken together remain the most thoughtful and structured handover in the series' run.  Castrovalva in itself is my favorite of the three parts of this trilogy, and contends with Troughton's debut for my favorite "new Doctor" story.


My Rating: 10/10.

Previous Story: Logopolis
Next Story: Four to Doomsday

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