The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Dominators
The Dominators - Part One (10/08/08)
Hmmm. Not the most auspicious of starts to a series, but not bad. We're on an alien planet again (hooray!) for the first time since, well, this time last year. A couple of odd alien types have landed on an atom test island and drained the radiation off to fuel their spaceship. Now they intend to enslave the locals (well, at least the leader, Rago, does) and get them to drill through the planet's crust.
Meanwhile, a group of middle-aged sightseers in silly togas have turned up looking for adventure and all but one has been killed with a cheap but quite good special effect... I mean, the alien Dominators' robot Quarks (who, unlike the special effect of the effects of their guns on the locals, are a bit silly looking).
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe turned up (eventually), found the remains of a war museum and were met by the local survey team who later found Cully (the middle-aged sightseeing survivor) who then explained the episode to the Doctor who in turn took Jamie off to make sure the hole the Dominators were drilling next to the TARDIS wasn't doing any damage.
Then Rago's psychopathic sidekick, Toba, turned up with some Quarks which gabbled something incoherently - I imagine they intend to kill the Doctor and Jamie, although they'd better do it soon as it looks like the money's running out!
It wasn't bad. It just didn't really gel. Cully is meant to be a rebellious 18 year-old, not a rebellious 48 year-old; the togas are silly; the robots are silly; the Dominators are weird; and the whole story is taking place on the Planet of the Pacifists - aptly named Dull-kis. On the up side, there was some nice location work, the sets aren't that bad, and we had a very nice explosion. You never know, there's always room for improvement and it couldn't get much worse!
The Dominators - Part Two (17/08/08)
Not bad this week. The Dominators took Jamie and the Doctor aboard their spaceship and did some tests to find out how intelligent they were, so the Doctor made out they were idiots. Meanwhile, Cully went back to the planet's main city with Zoe to tell his father (the President or something) about the aliens and their robots. The Dulcians, however, are even older and more stupid than the ones we met in Part One, and weren't inclined to believe Cully anyway as he's a bit of a Boy Who Cried Wolf.
While Cully kitted Zoe out in some frankly awful clothes, the Dominators let Jamie and the Doctor go. They travelled to the city, passing Zoe and Cully returning on the way and neglecting to suggest that the three Dulcians at the research station stay well away from the Dominators. Obviously, the Dulcians went off to investigate the Dominators' spaceship, underwent the tests, and were found to be intelligent enough to be used as slave labour (?!) after which Toba took his Quarks off and blew up the research station just after Zoe and Cully had got there.
Well, it looked a lot better this week, and more happened, but the TARDIS has landed on the planet of the idiots and the idiots also have really stupid clothes. I'm hoping that next week the Dominators blow up the entire planet and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe bugger off to somewhere more interesting. But that's not going to happen.
The Dominators - Part Three (24/08/08)
Quite a good episode this week. It seems to be slowly improving. Whilst very little actually happened until the last five minutes it was at least interesting. Zoe and Cully were caught by the Dominators who put them to work with Balan, Kando and Teel (the survey team) on clearing the area next to the museum building, monitoring them until they were too exhausted to work. Zoe hatched a plan to use the laser gun in the museum to destroy their Quark guards, and Cully almost succeeded.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jamie debated with the Dulcian leaders at the Capital who refused to fight back. The arguments were actually quite reasonable, if incredibly stupid. Anyway, they saw the Quarks on the relay at the research station, and Jamie and the Doctor returned to the atom test island having learnt that Zoe and Cully had returned there. The Doctor overrode the automatic programming of the travel capsule but on arriving got caught by Toba (the psychopath, who's actually quite fit and seems to be having a whale of a time running around the gravel pits in the location footage).
Jamie found Cully with the gun in the museum and stopped him from shooting the Quarks in case he hit Zoe. Then Toba turned up with some more Quarks looking for Cully. Cully gave Jamie the gun and he destroyed a Quark, but Toba ordered the destruction of the museum.
This isn't a bad little story reasoning between the Dulcian pacifism and the need to fight back against oppression. The cameraman needs shooting, though, as a lot of the shots had people's heads half missing, notably when Brian Cant turned up and was only recognisable in his close ups!
The Dominators - Part Four (31/08/08)
This one continues to be quite good. It started off with a huge fight between Rago and Toba with Rago accusing Toba of being subordinate and destroying stuff unnecessarily. Toba accused Rago of being soft, but in the end Rago won the argument and sent Toba off to supervise the drilling. Jamie and Cully survived by hiding in a bunker, then destroyed another Quark.
Meanwhile, Rago had questioned the Doctor and Zoe and gone off to the Capital to give his demands to the Dulcians. The Council wouldn't shut up, so he killed Brian Cant. It looks like the Dominators' plan for universal domination requires the use of Quarks, leaving their planet without a labour force, so he plans to use the Dulcians as slaves instead.
Jamie destroying the Quark sent Toba off on one again and he tortured Teel, took everyone back to the ship, killed Balan then turned on the Doctor. What this story lacks in proper action (the best we get is Jamie and Cully throwing rocks at the not-very-quick Quarks) it does make up for in dialogue. The Dominators themselves are particularly well rounded and acted. The Dulcians, mainly the Council, are well written, too, trapped in submission by their own rhetoric. If they weren't so pacifistic they could easily have mobbed the Quark and Rago but instead sat around arguing/debating until Rago got fed up and Killed Brian Cant to shut them up (and I don't really blame him - ironically, I think I'm more inclined to like the Dominators than the idiotic Dulcians). As an argument against total pacifism in the face of a ruthless enemy, The Dominators works rather well!
The Dominators - Part Five (07/09/08)
That was quite good, though I didn't expect it to end this week. Nevertheless, I think that's a good thing as, had we had another week of this, it may have become tedious. Turns out that the Dominators were drilling a hole in Dulcis so they could seed the magma with radioactive material and make the planet into one huge energy source for their battle fleet.
Jamie and Cully rescued the others and got them all down into the bunker where the Doctor made some bombs out of the medical kit so they could distract the Quarks from drilling, dig a hole from the bunker to the borehole and catch the seed device on its way down - this plan was Jamie's idea; a plan 'so simple only (he) could've thought of it' according to the Doctor!
Lots more running around and angry Dominators ensued, they got hold of the seed device and the Doctor put it on the Dominators' ship as they left thus blowing them up and leaving a small, localised volcanic eruption on the island. Cully, Teel and Kando escaped in the travel pod and the cliffhanger had the Doctor and Jamie panicking about being on the island as the volcano erupted. Um, so get in the TARDIS...
Overall, this wasn't a classic but a refreshing change from last season. Zoe's much better than Victoria as she's intelligent and something of an assistant to the Doctor so he isn't explaining everything. Plus she doesn't scream as much. The Doctor used his Sonic Screwdriver again this week - to bore a large hole in the wall of the bunker! More than just a screwdriver, apparently, though exactly what I don't know! A laser cutter? A blowtorch?
A slow burner of a story, but smart and promising. Oh, and I've decided having Cully tubby and middle-aged did make sense given the rest of the Dulcians were even older and weaker! But, even by this episode, I have no idea what the Quarks were saying!
Hmmm. Not the most auspicious of starts to a series, but not bad. We're on an alien planet again (hooray!) for the first time since, well, this time last year. A couple of odd alien types have landed on an atom test island and drained the radiation off to fuel their spaceship. Now they intend to enslave the locals (well, at least the leader, Rago, does) and get them to drill through the planet's crust.
Meanwhile, a group of middle-aged sightseers in silly togas have turned up looking for adventure and all but one has been killed with a cheap but quite good special effect... I mean, the alien Dominators' robot Quarks (who, unlike the special effect of the effects of their guns on the locals, are a bit silly looking).
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe turned up (eventually), found the remains of a war museum and were met by the local survey team who later found Cully (the middle-aged sightseeing survivor) who then explained the episode to the Doctor who in turn took Jamie off to make sure the hole the Dominators were drilling next to the TARDIS wasn't doing any damage.
Then Rago's psychopathic sidekick, Toba, turned up with some Quarks which gabbled something incoherently - I imagine they intend to kill the Doctor and Jamie, although they'd better do it soon as it looks like the money's running out!
It wasn't bad. It just didn't really gel. Cully is meant to be a rebellious 18 year-old, not a rebellious 48 year-old; the togas are silly; the robots are silly; the Dominators are weird; and the whole story is taking place on the Planet of the Pacifists - aptly named Dull-kis. On the up side, there was some nice location work, the sets aren't that bad, and we had a very nice explosion. You never know, there's always room for improvement and it couldn't get much worse!
The Dominators - Part Two (17/08/08)
Not bad this week. The Dominators took Jamie and the Doctor aboard their spaceship and did some tests to find out how intelligent they were, so the Doctor made out they were idiots. Meanwhile, Cully went back to the planet's main city with Zoe to tell his father (the President or something) about the aliens and their robots. The Dulcians, however, are even older and more stupid than the ones we met in Part One, and weren't inclined to believe Cully anyway as he's a bit of a Boy Who Cried Wolf.
While Cully kitted Zoe out in some frankly awful clothes, the Dominators let Jamie and the Doctor go. They travelled to the city, passing Zoe and Cully returning on the way and neglecting to suggest that the three Dulcians at the research station stay well away from the Dominators. Obviously, the Dulcians went off to investigate the Dominators' spaceship, underwent the tests, and were found to be intelligent enough to be used as slave labour (?!) after which Toba took his Quarks off and blew up the research station just after Zoe and Cully had got there.
Well, it looked a lot better this week, and more happened, but the TARDIS has landed on the planet of the idiots and the idiots also have really stupid clothes. I'm hoping that next week the Dominators blow up the entire planet and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe bugger off to somewhere more interesting. But that's not going to happen.
The Dominators - Part Three (24/08/08)
Quite a good episode this week. It seems to be slowly improving. Whilst very little actually happened until the last five minutes it was at least interesting. Zoe and Cully were caught by the Dominators who put them to work with Balan, Kando and Teel (the survey team) on clearing the area next to the museum building, monitoring them until they were too exhausted to work. Zoe hatched a plan to use the laser gun in the museum to destroy their Quark guards, and Cully almost succeeded.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jamie debated with the Dulcian leaders at the Capital who refused to fight back. The arguments were actually quite reasonable, if incredibly stupid. Anyway, they saw the Quarks on the relay at the research station, and Jamie and the Doctor returned to the atom test island having learnt that Zoe and Cully had returned there. The Doctor overrode the automatic programming of the travel capsule but on arriving got caught by Toba (the psychopath, who's actually quite fit and seems to be having a whale of a time running around the gravel pits in the location footage).
Jamie found Cully with the gun in the museum and stopped him from shooting the Quarks in case he hit Zoe. Then Toba turned up with some more Quarks looking for Cully. Cully gave Jamie the gun and he destroyed a Quark, but Toba ordered the destruction of the museum.
This isn't a bad little story reasoning between the Dulcian pacifism and the need to fight back against oppression. The cameraman needs shooting, though, as a lot of the shots had people's heads half missing, notably when Brian Cant turned up and was only recognisable in his close ups!
The Dominators - Part Four (31/08/08)
This one continues to be quite good. It started off with a huge fight between Rago and Toba with Rago accusing Toba of being subordinate and destroying stuff unnecessarily. Toba accused Rago of being soft, but in the end Rago won the argument and sent Toba off to supervise the drilling. Jamie and Cully survived by hiding in a bunker, then destroyed another Quark.
Meanwhile, Rago had questioned the Doctor and Zoe and gone off to the Capital to give his demands to the Dulcians. The Council wouldn't shut up, so he killed Brian Cant. It looks like the Dominators' plan for universal domination requires the use of Quarks, leaving their planet without a labour force, so he plans to use the Dulcians as slaves instead.
Jamie destroying the Quark sent Toba off on one again and he tortured Teel, took everyone back to the ship, killed Balan then turned on the Doctor. What this story lacks in proper action (the best we get is Jamie and Cully throwing rocks at the not-very-quick Quarks) it does make up for in dialogue. The Dominators themselves are particularly well rounded and acted. The Dulcians, mainly the Council, are well written, too, trapped in submission by their own rhetoric. If they weren't so pacifistic they could easily have mobbed the Quark and Rago but instead sat around arguing/debating until Rago got fed up and Killed Brian Cant to shut them up (and I don't really blame him - ironically, I think I'm more inclined to like the Dominators than the idiotic Dulcians). As an argument against total pacifism in the face of a ruthless enemy, The Dominators works rather well!
The Dominators - Part Five (07/09/08)
That was quite good, though I didn't expect it to end this week. Nevertheless, I think that's a good thing as, had we had another week of this, it may have become tedious. Turns out that the Dominators were drilling a hole in Dulcis so they could seed the magma with radioactive material and make the planet into one huge energy source for their battle fleet.
Jamie and Cully rescued the others and got them all down into the bunker where the Doctor made some bombs out of the medical kit so they could distract the Quarks from drilling, dig a hole from the bunker to the borehole and catch the seed device on its way down - this plan was Jamie's idea; a plan 'so simple only (he) could've thought of it' according to the Doctor!
Lots more running around and angry Dominators ensued, they got hold of the seed device and the Doctor put it on the Dominators' ship as they left thus blowing them up and leaving a small, localised volcanic eruption on the island. Cully, Teel and Kando escaped in the travel pod and the cliffhanger had the Doctor and Jamie panicking about being on the island as the volcano erupted. Um, so get in the TARDIS...
Overall, this wasn't a classic but a refreshing change from last season. Zoe's much better than Victoria as she's intelligent and something of an assistant to the Doctor so he isn't explaining everything. Plus she doesn't scream as much. The Doctor used his Sonic Screwdriver again this week - to bore a large hole in the wall of the bunker! More than just a screwdriver, apparently, though exactly what I don't know! A laser cutter? A blowtorch?
A slow burner of a story, but smart and promising. Oh, and I've decided having Cully tubby and middle-aged did make sense given the rest of the Dulcians were even older and weaker! But, even by this episode, I have no idea what the Quarks were saying!
I agree that it IS a better story than the reputation that precedes it, but it's still not great. The constant bickering between Rago and Toba is just tedious - they're like a married couple who have come to hate each other but for some reason refuse to get a divorce. I also dislike the fact that all the good-looking Dulcians are killed off way too early :(
ReplyDeleteGiven their realisation it's kind of laughable that the Quarks were conceived as a monster to rival and indeed replace the Daleks. The design's not bad... from the middle up. Rather like the Krotons, they're most effective when you can't see all of them or, if you can, when they're static. As you say, their garbled dialogue doesn't help either.
Plenty of faults then, but still bits'n'bobs to like. (The Trout is quite playful throughout.)
I still think it's not a terrible story, but that's only after watching it in instalments. Prior to that I used to stick it on when I was having difficulty sleeping and rarely made the end of Part Two. It certainly isn't a story you can easily watch in one sitting and would have been much better had it been just four episodes, but then there's the problem of filling the gap.
ReplyDeleteThe Dominators starts Season Six with an indication of how it's going to develop. It's much more varied than Season Five and thus an improvement in that respect, but it also seems to be having an identity crisis, unsure of its style, tone or target audience. In amongst the confusion is one of the best TARDIS teams of the 60s, almost rivalling the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki. It's just a shame about a lot of the material they were given.
I still can't believe I didn't comment on that awful close up of Pat's stunt double on location in Part Five! How did I forget that?!