The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Feast Of Steven - Destruction Of Time
Doctor Who - The Feast Of Steven (25/12/05)
An interesting episode: very Christmas without being overtly Christmassy! Having left the Daleks behind, the TARDIS landed on Earth and there was a comedy sequence at a police station with the trader Ben Daheer from the Saracen story in Jaffa. After this there was a bit of running around while the Doctor was rescued from being arrested then they all got back in the TARDIS and ended up on a Hollywood film set with Sheiks and Keystone Cops. Yet more running around ensued until they got back to the TARDIS and buggered off again.
Largely speaking, all of this was superfluous and had nothing to do with the Daleks; not sure if they'll be back next week - the Doctor seems to think they'll be after him when they realise the taranium was switched - but we did have six weeks of them. So anyway, no plot as such, but plenty of fun and it is Christmas! Oh, and at the end, the Doctor wished everyone at home a merry Christmas! Hmmm.
Doctor Who - Volcano (01/01/06)
The Monk's back! And he's out for revenge! Oh, and so are the Daleks.
Good episode this week. The Daleks found out the taranium's a fake and killed Trantis for the hell of it. Then they sent Mavic Chen and a load of Daleks after the Doctor in a Time Machine, but that didn't happen 'til the end of the episode.
Meanwhile, the Doctor et al. arrived on a volcano planet cuz they were being tracked by a time machine which turned out to be the Monk who fucked the TARDIS lock but the Doctor managed to get back in with his ring. I can see why they've brought the Monk back - he's a fun character and it'll add some confusion as they've now got two sets of Time Travellers on their tail! Good to see the Daleks being ruthless again, too. Starting to seem a bit like Ian and Barbara's last story, though, with all this running about throughout history. Still, should be good next week too now we've picked up the plot again.
Doctor Who - Golden Death (08/01/06)
Yay! Ancient Egypt! I wondered how long it would be before the Doctor had an adventure there - it's one of the most obvious historical settings! The Daleks and the Monk have also turned up providing the expected confusion. The Monk is as wily as he was in 1066, leaving you unsure as to whether he's helping the Daleks or just himself. The Doctor is proving just as wily, changing the Monk's TARDIS into a Police Telephone Box!
Steven and Sara were caught by some Egyptians and imprisoned in the pyramid (!?) but escaped and beat up the guards - really warming to Sara. She's a complete contrast to all the other female companions so far - nice to see a woman getting stuck in and fighting.
The Daleks continued their ruthless streak, shooting down Egyptians, and Mavic Chen continues to be a convincingly intelligent villain. Less like the previous Dalek story now, although Sara and Steven do appear to be in for an encounter with a mummy a la the last story's Haunted House bit... Hmmm... We'll see.
Doctor Who - Escape Switch (15/01/06)
Really good again. The mummy was the Monk, trussed up by the Doctor. The Monk, Sara and Steven were caught by the Daleks and ransomed for the taranium, but the Doctor had nicked the Monk's directional unit and has fitted it to the TARDIS in order to return to Kembel and stop the Daleks.
Finally we're back on track! The plot seemed to meander over Christmas, picking up a bit after New Year, but now things seem to be heading towards a conclusion. Christ, this is a long story! It's been going for two and a half months! To be honest, the Daleks are getting a bit stale now, just randomly killing anyone they come across, Mavic Chen (or Magic Mavic Chen, as the Doctor called him this week) acting as the brains of the group.
I wish they'd stayed longer in Egypt, but this story's been going on long enough and I guess two episodes was acceptable, especially when the only Egyptians we saw were workers. Still, back to Kembel next week, it seems; that is if the TARDIS hasn't really rejected the directional unit and blown up (yeah, as if)!
Doctor Who - The Abandoned Planet (22/01/06)
They've arrived on Kembel but the directional unit has been destroyed. The Doctor was hardly in it this week, disappearing early on and leaving the plot to centre on Steven and Sara and Chen and the Daleks. Chen is clearly unhinged, gunning down Gearon at one point! Even when locked up in a cell by the Daleks he;s still going on about Universal domination.
The Daleks have set about organising their forces to use the Time Destructor. Chen faked his own death and took Sara and Steven to the Daleks. Not a lot really happened this week, but it was still interesting, the Alien Delegates being back in it and turning against the Daleks. Looks like it should lead to a conclusion next week with Sara and Steven being taken to the Daleks' underground base.
Doctor Who - Destruction Of Time (29/01/06)
Wow. A really tense final episode. Chen was disposed of surprisingly early on, shot down by the Daleks and clearly insane. The Doctor had already followed the Daleks into their base and triggered the Time Destructor, taking it with him when he left. He'd already sent Steven and Sara back to the TARDIS, but Sara returned to help him as the Time Destructor started to accelerate time. Ultimately, she was aged to death before they reached the TARDIS, though the Doctor survived for some reason - but then he is alien. Eventually the Daleks were also destroyed by their own weapon.
It's been a good story, if a little over-long. Quite shocking in parts with two companions killed off quite arbitrarily. The story, especially the writing, improved once Dennis Spooner took over, but it's quite clear by now that Terry Nation is an ideas man and not so much a good writer (sometimes not even that - Marinus, the previous Dalek story!). So, a new story next week and, for the first time, no female companion!
An interesting episode: very Christmas without being overtly Christmassy! Having left the Daleks behind, the TARDIS landed on Earth and there was a comedy sequence at a police station with the trader Ben Daheer from the Saracen story in Jaffa. After this there was a bit of running around while the Doctor was rescued from being arrested then they all got back in the TARDIS and ended up on a Hollywood film set with Sheiks and Keystone Cops. Yet more running around ensued until they got back to the TARDIS and buggered off again.
Largely speaking, all of this was superfluous and had nothing to do with the Daleks; not sure if they'll be back next week - the Doctor seems to think they'll be after him when they realise the taranium was switched - but we did have six weeks of them. So anyway, no plot as such, but plenty of fun and it is Christmas! Oh, and at the end, the Doctor wished everyone at home a merry Christmas! Hmmm.
Doctor Who - Volcano (01/01/06)
The Monk's back! And he's out for revenge! Oh, and so are the Daleks.
Good episode this week. The Daleks found out the taranium's a fake and killed Trantis for the hell of it. Then they sent Mavic Chen and a load of Daleks after the Doctor in a Time Machine, but that didn't happen 'til the end of the episode.
Meanwhile, the Doctor et al. arrived on a volcano planet cuz they were being tracked by a time machine which turned out to be the Monk who fucked the TARDIS lock but the Doctor managed to get back in with his ring. I can see why they've brought the Monk back - he's a fun character and it'll add some confusion as they've now got two sets of Time Travellers on their tail! Good to see the Daleks being ruthless again, too. Starting to seem a bit like Ian and Barbara's last story, though, with all this running about throughout history. Still, should be good next week too now we've picked up the plot again.
Doctor Who - Golden Death (08/01/06)
Yay! Ancient Egypt! I wondered how long it would be before the Doctor had an adventure there - it's one of the most obvious historical settings! The Daleks and the Monk have also turned up providing the expected confusion. The Monk is as wily as he was in 1066, leaving you unsure as to whether he's helping the Daleks or just himself. The Doctor is proving just as wily, changing the Monk's TARDIS into a Police Telephone Box!
Steven and Sara were caught by some Egyptians and imprisoned in the pyramid (!?) but escaped and beat up the guards - really warming to Sara. She's a complete contrast to all the other female companions so far - nice to see a woman getting stuck in and fighting.
The Daleks continued their ruthless streak, shooting down Egyptians, and Mavic Chen continues to be a convincingly intelligent villain. Less like the previous Dalek story now, although Sara and Steven do appear to be in for an encounter with a mummy a la the last story's Haunted House bit... Hmmm... We'll see.
Doctor Who - Escape Switch (15/01/06)
Really good again. The mummy was the Monk, trussed up by the Doctor. The Monk, Sara and Steven were caught by the Daleks and ransomed for the taranium, but the Doctor had nicked the Monk's directional unit and has fitted it to the TARDIS in order to return to Kembel and stop the Daleks.
Finally we're back on track! The plot seemed to meander over Christmas, picking up a bit after New Year, but now things seem to be heading towards a conclusion. Christ, this is a long story! It's been going for two and a half months! To be honest, the Daleks are getting a bit stale now, just randomly killing anyone they come across, Mavic Chen (or Magic Mavic Chen, as the Doctor called him this week) acting as the brains of the group.
I wish they'd stayed longer in Egypt, but this story's been going on long enough and I guess two episodes was acceptable, especially when the only Egyptians we saw were workers. Still, back to Kembel next week, it seems; that is if the TARDIS hasn't really rejected the directional unit and blown up (yeah, as if)!
Doctor Who - The Abandoned Planet (22/01/06)
They've arrived on Kembel but the directional unit has been destroyed. The Doctor was hardly in it this week, disappearing early on and leaving the plot to centre on Steven and Sara and Chen and the Daleks. Chen is clearly unhinged, gunning down Gearon at one point! Even when locked up in a cell by the Daleks he;s still going on about Universal domination.
The Daleks have set about organising their forces to use the Time Destructor. Chen faked his own death and took Sara and Steven to the Daleks. Not a lot really happened this week, but it was still interesting, the Alien Delegates being back in it and turning against the Daleks. Looks like it should lead to a conclusion next week with Sara and Steven being taken to the Daleks' underground base.
Doctor Who - Destruction Of Time (29/01/06)
Wow. A really tense final episode. Chen was disposed of surprisingly early on, shot down by the Daleks and clearly insane. The Doctor had already followed the Daleks into their base and triggered the Time Destructor, taking it with him when he left. He'd already sent Steven and Sara back to the TARDIS, but Sara returned to help him as the Time Destructor started to accelerate time. Ultimately, she was aged to death before they reached the TARDIS, though the Doctor survived for some reason - but then he is alien. Eventually the Daleks were also destroyed by their own weapon.
It's been a good story, if a little over-long. Quite shocking in parts with two companions killed off quite arbitrarily. The story, especially the writing, improved once Dennis Spooner took over, but it's quite clear by now that Terry Nation is an ideas man and not so much a good writer (sometimes not even that - Marinus, the previous Dalek story!). So, a new story next week and, for the first time, no female companion!
Nothing to add to that, since I agree completely - it's overlong and uneven, but does have some really good (and indeed some shocking) bits. At their best in the story the Daleks are as ruthless as they've ever been; at their worst they're boring, bog standard Terry Nation boys' own fare. And that's pretty much the story in a nutshell. Luckily Nation allowed David Whitaker to reinvent the Daleks for their next two appearances.
ReplyDeleteWhat I noticed writing up the journals for this story is that, before and during The Feast Of Steven, it really felt like we could have seen the last of the Daleks for a few months, and I remember finding the Christmas episode very entertaining; but once the Master Plan was back on track and it was clear that the same adventure was continuing some of the episodes felt like padding and despite the majority of the story being really good and often incredibly tense and dramatic, in hindsight it started to look very drawn out.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to note that the Monk was the first adversary to return since the Daleks and it's a massive shame that the three episodes here are the last we see of him. I think he'd've been great opposite Troughton! I guess Peter Butterworth's success with the Carry On films pretty much ruled out the possibility of bringing him back as he'd be too expensive.
Also of note, I categorically don't regard Sara Kingdom as a companion since she's only in the one serial (much like Duggan, for example, and unlike Katarina and Adam who I certainly do regard as companions). I can fully see how she's achieved the status of Companion in most groups, however, and in my journal I refer to her as such. At the time, because the story was so long and there was the red-herring Christmas interval, it did feel like she was very much the same as Barbara, Susan, Katarina and Vicki. It would have been nice to have seen her progress beyond the one story, but I also think she had a fitting end which underlines the brutality of The Daleks' Master Plan as a whole. The Daleks would never again be quite so frightening and ruthless as they are at points during these 13 episodes, which (despite its length) is what makes this one of the very best Dalek stories.
Two things probably did for the Monk/Peter Butterworth: the rest of his career; and Innes Lloyd's decision to ditch the historicals. Since the character's raison d'etre was meddling with time it would have been difficult, and arguably pointless, to recalibrate him as a generic adversary in a generic present or future setting.
ReplyDeleteThat said, he WOULD have fitted in perfectly with the zaniness of Troughton's mid-early run, and probably would have worked very well paired with Troughton. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to swap out Zaroff from The Underwater Menace and replace him with the Monk, for example.
I would love it if Zaroff had been replaced with the Monk! It would have raised the serial no end, and would likely have resulted in it being much more popular. If only!
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