Four to Doomsday

Viewing recommendation: one at a time, the story is well entertaining enough to sustain it. Mute the spacewalk scene.

Being as I am very alone and a long way from home, it's nice to have four of my friends here with me. I just think this TARDIS team is irresistible. This episode is making a lot of the four different cultures, which I like - most subtly, Adric's overwhelmed reaction to the mathematical impossibility of the whole race being on the ship; most unusually, remembering the emotional cost for Tegan of wanting to be away and home, objecting to watching the death in the Recreational, and not forgetting the death of her aunt; most obnoxiously, the assumption that as Nyssa is a scientist, she's an expert in whatever is convenient this week. Maybe that's why people dislike it - they've never been fond of the quarrelsome, OverCompanioned S19 TARDIS. Personally, I've always thought they were adorable.

Yes, folks, it's time to do that thing we do here again - the one where I watch a bad episode of Classic Who, and completely fail to see what's wrong with it. You might like to look through the archives to catch my reactions to King's Demons, Warriors of the Deep and Trial of a Timelord later, all slightly embarassed, all gushingly positive.

Bad DW is a funny thing.

Actually, sometimes its bloody hilarious, but I wasn't talking about the Myrka. There are episodes that should have worked, but don't - Terminus is one of those, a brilliant episode struggling to get out. There are ones which have problems, but the things which are good are SO good that I forgive them. I can't get over the awesomeness of a Concorde passing through time; Maxil and Castellan are two of my favourite Gallifreyans ever, and there's so much potential in Omega as a character; so so so many things in Trial of a Timelord. It's not just me - we all politely ignore Genesis of the Daleks' flaws - of which there are many - because when it gets great it's practically the second coming. It works the other way too - the strengths in the Visitation* are overwhelmed, in my book, by too much running about and no substance. And then there's the sheer emotional response - I loved Warriors of the Deep, period, and haven't thought too hard about why everyone else disagrees. Four to Doomsday I package with Kings Demons - as in, I don't see why they are bad episodes at all. Actually, I think they're both pretty brilliant - in a calm, considered way.

*edit: see my newer review for an enthusiastic revision of this opinion!

Point one - if Warriors of the Deep can be completely dismissed, seemingly on the strength of the sets alone, then why is this not praised? The beginning reminded me of Enlightnement - the wandering about, the creepy ship, the steampunk coolness of oblivious Earth races being in space. The first episodes are unsettling, and terribly atmospheric. Look at those sets! Logically, I know they must be the same corridors reused and reused, but it never seems like that in the episode itself - it feels like a real ship, confusing and cramped. And look at the Monopticons! Surely one of the best classic-Who effects ever? However "I wouldn't dream of interfering with your monopticons" sounds like filthy Gallifreyan slang for something else entirely, not helped by the entirely sincere delivery.

It's also really nicely directed - the subdued opening with the ship, the sense of dread without any clear reason why. All the surveillance stuff. The long closeup on Adric's disappointment at being stuck with Nyssa; Nyssa's own close up on the approach of the Greek servant. I loved the outrageously daring spacewalk - that's almost new-series level of adorably daft. I just wished someone would have killed the music at this point - because the lack of any diegetic sound was very effective. In future, I'm going to mute my TV for this scene - the music telling us things were dramatic was less dramatic than the tense emptiness of absolute silence would have been.

I'm also amused that the Fifth Doctor gets to meet the other most deadly substance in the universe on his second day.

The Doctor's still not entirely over regenerating yet, is he? Somewhat disorientated, overwhelmed by his companions and demonstrating a suicidal lack of caution. The Doctor is always too curious for his own good, but he seems completely out of his depth here. Normally, he confidently brushes off the thought of danger - here, he doesn't appear to even consider it. I'll let you have "innocent", just this once. The mini character arc 5 goes through is overwhelmingly the best thing in his era, and it's a nasty, nasty shock to see Four to Doomsday straight after all the S21 stuff. "Seemed young for his age, don't you think?" muses the Doctor with a lost expression on his face, as if he still expects to be Tom Baker when he wakes up in the morning. See him try dropping Fourth-style puns and quips, only to have them fall flat! Watch him order his companions around, only to realise it just doesn't work any more (would the Fourth Doctor ever have politely asked his companion whose side he wanted to be on?)! See him instinctively kill off the villain, in a way you will never ever see Five do without flinching again! From a real world perspective, the likely explanation is that it's secretly a Fourth Doctor episode with a different actor delivering the lines. Yet ignoring that, it's still fascinating to watch.

But he gets into his swing in E2 - gum I love 5! It's safe for me to go clothes shopping again!* - and he feels it too, the joy of being a new person and seeing the world afresh. Diving out of an airlock without a spacesuit is also an irresistably Fiveish thing to do. The Doc's always been up for slightly crazy-suicidal impulsive activities, but 5 does it with a particular flair. Saving the world with a cricket ball and a smile - that's my doc!

*(I've been through a massive 6th Doctor phase recently, which has proved to have an...interesting effect on my dress sense. It happens whatever Doc I'm watching, but this is only really a major problem with 6....)

Yes, he's wonderful - but name me an episode in which the Doctor isn't the best thing? (actually, the word you're looking for is Enlightenment, but that's not the point). Taking Adric aside and pointedly explaining things. His wonderfully mingled horror at the robotic Bigon, and his curiosity and admiration for its skill. The fact that, post-Castrovalva, he thinks keeling over is the best way to distract people. Most episodes I can reduce to a list of "things the Doctor does" - but here, it's practically the whole episode!

There was a real sense of him working it all out - I really like it when episodes develop a physicality like this. Other examples would be the whole trial-and-error of Green Death, the whole sequence with the computer and the scene with the wheelchair in Two Doctors, escaping from the handcuffs in Caves and diving between the cars in Gridlocked. I loved the various uses the lack of oxygen were put to, all the sneaking about with Monopticons. It felt very earthy, very real - no metaphysical lever pulling and technobabble, just practical working things out.

There is just such a lot of stuff going on - never for a moment did I feel companions were being sidelined, they all had moments to shine. In this respect it reminded me of Mawdryn Undead - which juggles the Doc, plus four companions, plus two villains so adeptly, I hadn't noticed there were so many of them until this moment. Similarly, if never felt padded - even though the Recreationals should have been easy to pigeonhole as such. A good test to see if a DW story has outlived its welcome is to try watching it sans episode 3 and see if it impedes your viewing. If you can't remember what you've missed, it's probably going on too long. I don't think you could have done this with Four to Doomsday.

(for the record, it was literally 24 hours before I had to go off to university, I was still half way through rewatching Terror of the Vervoids, I wanted to get to Ultimate Foe and I couldn't take the videos with me. So I fast forwarded through E3, and didn't really notice the loss - a shame, because I'd always thought it was a rather good episode, but if you can cut a solid 25 minutes so easily something must be lacking.)
Tegan is irritating here - I hated her on first sight in Logopolis, but I do that for most companions, and after a smattering of seasons 20 and 21, grew to like her very much indeed. Now I remember why that initial impression was so strong. But I do think her behavior here is interesting - particularly her horrorstruck dash from the room at the Recreational, which is curious in terms of where it's all heading with Resurrection, also prefigured in the Awakening.

On the strength of this episode, I now understand a little better the Five/Tegan shippers. These people make me go "what?!" at the best of times, but it was finding a Paul Cornell quote which revealed it was his opinion that the Doc deliberately left her in Time Flight on account of "being embarassed by his feelings for her". WHAT?!* Not that a published Who-writers thoughts count for more than a casual fan's...but they do. It certainly made me want to have another look at Goth Opera (though rereading my review, I note that things of this nature wound me up at the time) I can at least see where these people are getting their evidence from now. Even though I mostly disagree - I've always thought of 5's companion relationships as bizzarely paternal. Now, Turlough's feelings for Tegan is another matter entirely...

*For the record, surely this is Tenth Doctor style "nasty things happen to my companions! I'm going to travel alone!", except he can't dump Nyssa as she has nowhere else.

Nyssa is, well, Nyssalike. I have a large soft spot for Nyssa, but she's still a waste of space. They never made enough of her character's individuality as I perceived it.

And I still can't see why Adric is unpopular. The season 19 companions always seem to be locked in a bad acting competition, in which Adric is by no means the worst. Nyssa and Tegan muff their lines a lot worse than he does. Their first scene alone in the TARDIS is character perfect - Nyssa passively assumes everything is fine, Tegan wants to go and do something about it. And Adric, dear thing, demonstrating the dogged loyalty and teenage irritability which makes me love him, and which annoys everyone else. You get a real sense that he feels he's the companion - Nyssa and Tegan are just baggage the Doctor can't dump - and thus he's in charge in the Doctor's absence. To an extent he's right - Tegan intends to pass through, and Nyssa's has nowhere else to go. People dislike him for his whinyness, but for me it makes him more human - going from the centre of attention to having to fight for it is hard for any kid, especially a smart one who sees himself as better than the competition. He's knows he's the brainest of the three, he sees himself as more mature than Nyssa and more male than Tegan, so why does he have to stay behind? "Pass the sodium chloride please", he points out, just to prove he's smarter. The temper tantrums are endearingly fallible - imagine if he was a blue-eyed tyke, all smiles and laughter. How irritating would that be! And Adric simply adores the Doctor. Earthshock really was always inevitable, in someone that desperate to prove himself.

That's the thing about Adric, his flaws outweigh his positive qualities, but I find him to be the most convincing of companions. No, it's not an attractive thing that he rattles on to Monarch when even Nyssa can tell it's the wrong move; but it's motivated by admiration for the Doctor (why shouldn't he boast on his behalf?), and being very impressed by the Urbankan's technology, and chuffed that someone's paying him some attention for once. And plus, isn't that what the Doctor would do - approach the alien race, assume they're friendly, try and help. It's not attractive that he is rude to Tegan and assumes authority over her, then runs and tell tales to the Doctor as soon as she disobeys, but it does stem from something which is beautiful - his trust, his loyalty. And yes, bound in with the arrogance of youth. When the Doc decides to dive out the airlock, he disables Persuasion by yanking out his neurons or something - moments later, Adric follows it exactly with Enlightenment.

It's also one of those unusual Doctor Who episodes which are actually science fiction, instead of adventure-romp-in-space or advertisement for Amnesty International/the Green party. I'm not going to give away the twist, mainly because I purposely didn't go looking for information before watching it and enjoyed it more for knowing nothing about it (incidentally, the missing unit from the titular "4" is days.)

It certainly isn't perfect, but there are so many good things that the bad things don't matter. There's the odd worryingly colonial overtone if you have a look at it too deeply, but I'd rather not. Particularly, the villains are a mixed bag. Monarch's plan is totally dodgy - I like his ultimate aim, but what is his intent regarding the Doctor and co.? He could have easily prevented them finding anything, alternately he could have sat them down and explained. He may be a god, but he's a very indecisive one. By episode 2 I'm thinking "JUST KILL THEM!"; and even if he doesn't want to do that, why not chain the Doc to the wall - its plain he's going to cause trouble.

Actually, he can't do any of these things, otherwise there will be no story. It's a perennial problem that Who villains have, that they actually can't kill the regulars (sans Logopolis). He only works successfully if you recall that he is totally nuts on every level, and possibly the craziest Doctor Who villain of all time. That excuses a few logical lapses. And now I'm wondering whether Battles in Time have him down as a "monster" or "robot"...

Here, it's far more obvious than normal, and it does kill tension fairly quickly by later episodes. Enlightenment has nothing to recommend her except a cool sounding name. Persuasion creeps me out - he gets to shout "kill him!" like he actually means it - and the green suit look is really quite natty. In fact, the script is just jam packed full with corking lines.

"You may keep the pencil..."