The Awakening [Doctor Who, Story 131]

 The Awakening by Eric Pringle
19 - 20 January 1984​

After escaping from Sea Base 4, we are treated to a fine bit of whiplash in the form of a cheery family visit to sleepy Little Hodcombe in England. One has to imagine that some time has passed since last episode. So I assume for the sake of my own sanity, at any rate.

Visiting a companion's grandfather is a bit of domesticity I certainly did not expect. It's worlds away from Season 19, when Tegan was constantly begging to be brought home. Now a casual dip back into her own time and her family life is almost a thing of no note whatsoever.

As a two-part story of this era, it is of course a bit on the thinner side than most of its longer contemporaries, but I must say that I found it thoroughly enjoyable. It's rather like a pseudo-pseudo-historical, being a story set in the present day but with the imagery and trappings of the English Civil War all over the place. This leaves us with wonderful images like the cavaliers trotting past post offices and phone booths on their horses, which do stick in the mind. The location shooting is very lovely, but the dusty church set also looks pretty good, aside from the foam walls at least.

I enjoyed the presence of Jane Hampden, who takes none of the Doctor's nonsense, surprising nobody as I was also a huge fan of fellow schoolteacher Barbara...

Secondary antagonist Sir George Hutchinson is fine for what he is, though the way he dies is quite baffling. Contact with the Malus kills, apparently? Speaking of that, the Malus itself is fairly creepy despite its constraints as an immobile animatronic in the wall. Its tiny, crawling projection that we see inside the TARDIS mostly just made me laugh, but the main article is shot and framed fairly well, complete with belching ominous clouds of fog.

Comparisons with the Jon Pertwee serial The Dæmons are inevitable because of the rural setting, the ancient evil lurking beneath the village, and the church getting destroyed, but apparently it's all a coincidence. The resemblance is never to the story's detriment however, and this combination of themes makes it stand out among the other stories of its era.

That's all I had on this one, there isn't a whole lot of meat to dig into. Frontios is next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 2 May 2024.)