"I'm not interested in men's comfort, Major!"
TECHNICAL SPECS: Short existing clips aside, one of five missing episodes from this story, I've had to go back to reconstructions. First aired Mar.8 1969.
IN THIS ONE... Space pirates are stealing beacons and the Space Corps tries to capture them. Oh yeah, and the TARDIS shows up eventually.
REVIEW: Despite this story's reputation, Part 1 isn't TOO bad. It's just that, well, it really feels like it's another show, doesn't it? The TARDIS doesn't land until the 15-minute mark, and we're left with a Space Corps/Space Pirates space opera with lots of very pretty models and eerie space music. In New Who, we're quite used to voices in the music, but in 1969, it's like they're doing 2001: A Space Odyssey for TV. And I think that's fine. The TARDIS can materialize in any kind of story and turn it on its head. In fact, I'd love to see the police box appear on an unrelated SF program one of these days, just to say it happened and that all of TV Land is somehow connected. The interactions between the TARDISeers once they do show up is as good as usual, a mix of comedy and jeopardy, but there's just not much to it.
While the structure is questionable in the context of a program with regular protagonists, it does work on its own terms. We see how the pirates operate, so we're ready for it when the same thing happens to our heroes. Those TARDISless 15 minutes give writer Robert Holmes to explore this future world as well. Not that it makes complete sense. There are these beacons (that how you know you're in the Whoniverse, that obsession with beacon technology) and they're made of the universe's most precious metal, argonite. It's like building buoys out of gold or something, but worse still, they never figured someone would try to steal them. They're unmanned. I do like that they have the capacity to be used as emergency shelters and CAN be manned, but the 11th hour idea of manning them to catch the pirates seems all too obvious. The TARDIS distracting the Corpsmen long enough to let the pirates shoot them in the back is a good complication however.
In defense of the dodgy American accents in this episode and the rest of the story, I have to ask what kind of accents space colonies might spawn in the future. To me, it's much more distracting that Technician Penn looks like a Sgt. Pepper-era Ringo Starr.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-Low - Not enough Doctor Who for most viewers' taste, I'm sure, though a fair example of 60s space opera.
TECHNICAL SPECS: Short existing clips aside, one of five missing episodes from this story, I've had to go back to reconstructions. First aired Mar.8 1969.IN THIS ONE... Space pirates are stealing beacons and the Space Corps tries to capture them. Oh yeah, and the TARDIS shows up eventually.
REVIEW: Despite this story's reputation, Part 1 isn't TOO bad. It's just that, well, it really feels like it's another show, doesn't it? The TARDIS doesn't land until the 15-minute mark, and we're left with a Space Corps/Space Pirates space opera with lots of very pretty models and eerie space music. In New Who, we're quite used to voices in the music, but in 1969, it's like they're doing 2001: A Space Odyssey for TV. And I think that's fine. The TARDIS can materialize in any kind of story and turn it on its head. In fact, I'd love to see the police box appear on an unrelated SF program one of these days, just to say it happened and that all of TV Land is somehow connected. The interactions between the TARDISeers once they do show up is as good as usual, a mix of comedy and jeopardy, but there's just not much to it.
While the structure is questionable in the context of a program with regular protagonists, it does work on its own terms. We see how the pirates operate, so we're ready for it when the same thing happens to our heroes. Those TARDISless 15 minutes give writer Robert Holmes to explore this future world as well. Not that it makes complete sense. There are these beacons (that how you know you're in the Whoniverse, that obsession with beacon technology) and they're made of the universe's most precious metal, argonite. It's like building buoys out of gold or something, but worse still, they never figured someone would try to steal them. They're unmanned. I do like that they have the capacity to be used as emergency shelters and CAN be manned, but the 11th hour idea of manning them to catch the pirates seems all too obvious. The TARDIS distracting the Corpsmen long enough to let the pirates shoot them in the back is a good complication however.
In defense of the dodgy American accents in this episode and the rest of the story, I have to ask what kind of accents space colonies might spawn in the future. To me, it's much more distracting that Technician Penn looks like a Sgt. Pepper-era Ringo Starr.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-Low - Not enough Doctor Who for most viewers' taste, I'm sure, though a fair example of 60s space opera.
Comments
Ideally, one that's already connected to the Tommy Westphall universe.