TV Review: Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol

Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol written by Graeme Curry and directed by Chris Clough

The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) travel to Terra Alpha, an Earth colony in the distant future. The planet has a domineering leader (Sheila Hancock) who wants to ensure all the citizens are happy. So they live in an oppressive society where no one is allowed to be unhappy or express any negative emotional states like disappointment. The Happiness Patrol is a corps of miniskirted women who go around capturing and/or executing the undesirables, who are known as "Killjoys." The Doctor and Ace start investigating the falsely happy society. They quickly run into the Candy Man, an executioner who seems more interested in experimenting with various sweets.

The show has a fun premise--the Doctor needs to alleviate oppression by letting the people be unhappy. The execution is not so great. The Candy Man looks very silly, as does his Candy Kitchen lair. The place should have been either an industrial kitchen or the witch's cottage from Hansel and Gretel, not a implausible mash-up of the two. The planet also has some mole-people living underground who help out the Doctor and Ace but only seem to be in the story to be helpers. They don't fit in with the society or the storyline. McCoy and Aldred are charming as always. Other minor characters are well performed but still can't quite sell the thin material they've been given. The interesting premise but the political satire is constantly shifted off stage for some very run-of-the-mill shenanigans.

Not recommended.

TV Review: Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988)

Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988) written by Stephen Wyatt and directed by Alan Wareing

The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) go to the planet Segonax for the Psychic Circus, the titular Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Ace hates clowns so she is reluctant. More reluctant is two of the circus regulars who flee the big top only to be hunted down by the Chief Clown (Ian Reddington). The regulars split up, resulting in the capture of one and the death of the other when she stumbles upon an abandoned hippie bus with an evil android ticket-taker. The Doctor and Ace stop at a roadside fruit and snack stand run by a local who is down on the circus and anyone who wants to go. They have to leg it to the tent. On the way, they discover famous explorer Captain Cook and his companion. The captain is trying to unearth a giant robot. Or at least his companion is, while Cook blathers on about his exploits. The Doctor and Ace eventually move on, making it to the circus. They find a very small audience (a family of three). The Doctor is immediately recruited to be a performer, though it's the sort of command performance that involves a jail cell.

The plot is all over the place at the beginning in a surreal and disjointed way. The first (of four) episodes introduces a lot of characters and I was nervous that they wouldn't get pulled together. The story became a lot more coherent in short order. McCoy's goofy comic sense shines and he gets to do a bit of very credible-looking stage magic (nowadays they'd just use CGI or quick cuts). Like Patrick Troughton and David Tenant, McCoy has the knack for seamlessly switching between comedic and  dramatic performing as the Doctor. Reddington is good as the Chief Clown with a performance that is sinister and just under over-the-top (a very hard mark to hit). The rest of the cast is good, too. The circus setting is fun and sets up an interesting and creative shift at the end.

Recommended--the patience you need to get through the set-up is highly rewarded.

TV Review: Doctor Who: Dragonfire (1987)

Doctor Who: Dragonfire (1987) written by Ian Briggs and directed by Chris Clough

The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) goes to the Iceworld Trading Colony on Svartos for an adventure. He and companion Mel (Bonnie Langford) run into an old acquaintance, Glitz, who is in debt to the base commander Kane (Edward Peel). Glitz has an old map that leads to a fabulous treasure guarded by a dragon in the depths of Svartos. If they can find the treasure, Glitz can repay his debt and leave on his ship. The three enlisted the aid of Ace (Sophie Aldred), a teenage waitress on the colony who is an explosives expert from twentieth century England. Base commander Kane has ulterior motives, though, and is manipulating the situation for nefarious reasons that come clear by the end of the show.

McCoy is fabulous as the Doctor, following the Patrick Troughton model of comic bungling and quirkiness. McCoy delivers for the dramatic moments as well. As the villain, Peel manages to be both low key and highly menacing without going over the top like the typical Doctor Who baddies. Aldred shines as Ace (and becomes the Doctor's companion through the rest of McCoy's run). She's spunky and self-assertive--not at all the shrieking damsel in distress. The "dragon" looks pretty good for a Doctor Who monster from the 1980s.

The sets are a bit cheap looking, especially by today's standards. The visual effects are minimal which works in favor of the show. Occasional bits of the story don't make much sense and create peril for peril's sake rather than for the story's sake. Not cheap-looking is one surprisingly gruesome death, so the show isn't for the under-ten crowd, even if that was the show's primary audience in 1980s Britain.

Overall, this episode is a fun outing for the Doctor--recommended.

TV Review: Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks (1988)

Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) written by Ben Aaronovitch and directed by Andrew Morgan

Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy travels to 1963 England to take care of some unfinished business. Unfortunately, two factions of Daleks (who are naturally in conflict with one another as well as the Doctor) are interested in the same unfinished business. An earlier incarnation of the Doctor had left the Hand of Omega, a Time Lord device of amazing power, hidden in plain sight. The Daleks want it for the power; The Doctor wants to keep it out the hands of the Daleks...or does he?

The story has nice bits of cleverness as the Doctor tries to get his plan to come off. He's assisted by Ace, a 1980s girl who makes her own explosives and carries around a baseball bat and a boom box. When a Dalek tries to eliminate her, she doesn't shriek for the Doctor's help. She gets the bat out! She is a refreshing change for a classic female companion to the Doctor. The episode also has lots of big, credible-looking explosions (how else can you kill a Dalek?) and is otherwise on the high end of the BBC's production values. McCoy's wit and physicality are put to great use, especially when he confronts the Dalek leader. The blend of fun and drama is near perfect.

This four-parter (about 100 minutes) is solid entertainment.

TV Review: Doctor Who The Movie (1996)

Doctor Who The Movie (1996) directed by Geoffrey Sax and written by Matthew Jacobs

The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) is transporting the remains of the Master to their home world of Gallifrey. The Master isn't quite fully dead and manages to escape his locked urn as a puddle of goo. The goo messes up the TARDIS, forcing it to crash land in 1999 San Francisco. The Doctor leaves the TARDIS and is caught in gangland crossfire. He's taken to hospital where cardiologist Grace Holloway fails to save him since she can't figure out his internal workings (you know, the two hearts and all). His body is carted off to the morgue where he regenerates as the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann). He's got a bit of amnesia which slowly recovers as he has more interactions with Dr. Holloway. Meanwhile, the Master in goo form has infested the ambulance driver and plans to take the Doctor's body for his own as well as hijack the TARDIS. Action and mayhem ensue.

The production values are quite high for the old Doctor Who series. The editing is well done--as the Doctor regenerates, the morgue attendant is watching TV on which the Boris Karloff Frankenstein come alive. This is further intercut with the Master taking over the driver. The plot still has some big holes which are made up for by quirky little moments with side characters. The music is too obvious and over the top. McGann is good as the Doctor and probably would have had a good run with a full series. The Master looked a bit too much like The Terminator, making him more cheesy than threatening. Grace is an interesting companion and shows lots of potential. Too bad they did not keep going with a full series.

All in all, a fun story worth at least one watch.

TV Review: Doctor Who Battlefield (1989)

Doctor Who: Battlefield (1989) written by Ben Aaronovitch and directed by Michael Kerrigan

The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) receives a distress signal originating near the English village of Carbury in the early 1990s. Being a lad after an adventure, he shows up and discovers an archaeological dig near a fabled battlefield where King Arthur and Modred are supposed to have their final battle. Armored knights from another dimension show up and start fighting each other and the UNIT troops stationed nearby (they are guarding a nuclear missile that they brought in for no clear reason other than it becomes a plot device toward the end). With the Doctor's presence soon discovered, the UNIT people put in a call to retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The Brigadier goes once more into the breach for his dear friend. In the mean time, evil witch queen Morgaine has shown up, mistaken the Doctor for Merlin, and is ready to summon the Destroy of Worlds to get what she wants. Mayhem ensues.

The plot is fairly interesting if a bit daft. The actors are all good, especially Jean Marsh as the well-written Morgaine, a villain with more depth than usual on the show. Her son Modred is a bit cartoony--his maniacal laughter goes on too long in some scenes. McCoy is good as the Doctor, able to swing from the comedically absurd to the dramatically heavy without looking silly. Weirdly, the sword fight scenes are much better than the gun battles. The alternate dimension knights have futuristic guns that use fairly inferior practical effects. Classic Doctor Who fans are used to some rubbish visual effects, I suppose. On the other hand, the makeup for the demonic Destroyer is quite impressive and the Lady in the Lake moment is great fun.

This set of four half-hour episodes is well worth watching.