Oh Mr. Whitaker, what has gone wrong this week?
It's difficult coming off the back of a base under siege done so, so right and stumbling into one that's as paint-by-the-numbers as this. The Wheel in Space would not have been a good story in any case, but the contrast most definitely makes the blow a little harder!
I can't imagine what really happened behind the scenes here. David Whitaker and Kit Pedler are both better than this. I have to imagine this was a last minute sort of deal, stuffed at the end of a season as a rush order when the original script idea (Daleks vs Cybermen, go figure) went belly up. It's the only explanation that really makes sense, though you could also implicate directorial deficiencies. It's hard to say because the story is mostly missing, but this is all by the by.
Whatever the reasons, what we have here is a fairly dull and uncreative serial which does very little to justify its place as either the close to a season or the introduction of a new main cast member. Okay, I'll grant you, a couple of pages ago I was patiently explaining to myself that "event television" did not yet exist at this point in history, but this is a lack of ceremony that almost borders on the sacrilegious.
Zoe is charming in her first appearance, but underserved by the story in which she debuts. I think it will be nice to have another "brainy" character on board the TARDIS alongside the Doctor, and I can see how the dynamic would be fun. There are some moments between the new main cast, both good and bad... On the good side, I really do enjoy the Doctor questioning Zoe's assumptions and then trusting in her deductions later on. Jamie and Zoe have some fun banter. And then on the other end is Jamie's remark about putting Zoe over his knee. Full body cringe right there.
Some members of the side cast are likable, but none are particularly memorable. I liked Dr. Gemma the best, and was pretty disappointed when she was killed; she had a stalwart reliability about her, and was pretty well-acted, too. Duggan is in the same boat. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the most aggravating base commander so far, Jarvis, who has none of the vulnerability or layers that Robson did in the story before; just the thickest skull in human history. Special mention must go to the crewman named Kemel (go figure) who puts in some really funny overacting just before being taken down by Cybermats of all things.
To throw some other complaints out there (oh, as long as they're on sale), I'm annoyed that a conscious decision was made to set this merely 9 years after The Moonbase (last season!) and Jarvis claims never to have heard of the Cybermen before. Wouldn't they have been a big deal after that and the South Pole in 1986? It seems really contrived. Further, Jarvis's nasty demise stuck in my craw. Even for a character I disliked, it seemed too gratuitous, especially with the Doctor and friends forced to watch on the TV all the while. There are a few instances of violence on the Cybermen's part that seem this way, really, but that was the worst.
Really, the cardinal sin here is that it's boring. I don't think that any Doctor Who story has any right being boring, the premise being what it is. For a story about Cybermen infiltrating and trying to capture a human space station, there really is a whole lot of nothing happening. Thus I doubt I'll remember much about this one in the passing of time. More's the pity.
Another season, gone in a flash. The traditional end-of-season roundup comes next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 11 March 2021.)
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