DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 30th MEET-UP - THE MOONBASE

Sunday 22nd March 2015

Well here we all were again (minus Jim), meeting around Leigh's house for another Troughton.  However, unlike all the ones we've watched so far this four-parter has a proper DVD release!  Woo-hoo!

Okay 2 episodes are missing (Parts 1 and 3) - BUT those lovely DVD makers have recreated the missing first and third parts with animation.  Hoozah!  Ahh but what style of animation?  Will it be the choppy not-so-popular Reign of Terror style?  Or will it tilt towards the slightly better Tenth Planet style?  Well after the usual bout of hello's and all that jazz we put the DVD in Leigh's player and pressed play.....

Photo 1: MJ, Leigh (with the DVD cover), Mark (holding the sign)
and Jason around Leigh's house!

...and I was very happy indeed!  For me the animation was very good.  Not too choppy, lots of nice atmosphere and the characterisation was pretty spot on.  Polly and Ben had been animated before, but it was a first for Troughton and Jamie.  Patrick Troughton must be a joy to animate as he has such a wonderfully characterful face!  Anyhow the episode starts with the TARDIS making a bumpy landing and the Doctor declaring that they have arrived on Mars.  Sadly the TARDIS (or his control of it) has planted them not on Mars but on the Moon in the year 2070!  Instead of leaving they decide to lark about in space suits - which all looks quite fun, until Jamie leaps a bit far and knocks himself out!  Before the can rescue him his body is discovered from strangers who have emerged from a nearby base.  The Doctor, Ben and Polly decide to go after him and get welcomed by the workers there.  After explaining that they've taken Jamie to sick bay one of their men suddenly sprouts coloured veins on his face (with a cool animation effect that we would see properly in later existing episodes) and collapses.  He gets taken to sick bay whilst the guy in charge, Hobson, tells the Doctor that this base is a weather control station that keeps Earth's weather in check.  They are using a gravity machine called the Gravitron to control the weather.  Offering to help them the Doctor then hears that a recent communication to Earth had been listened in on nearby on the moon....  Oooo!

Elsewhere in the sick bay Polly is looking after Jamie who keeps hallucinating and mumbling about about the Phantom Piper - a legend from his clan (a sort of Grim Reaper type).  Ben has been sent to help another guy, Ralph, in the store-room.  However whilst Ben is busy elsewhere Ralph gets attacked by a metal hand and, when Ben gets back, Ralph's body has gone!

Back in the sick bay another crew member dies - the Doctor tries to convince the Controller, Hobson, that something is wrong and they should warn Earth.  However Hobson doesn't want to trouble Earth with something that might turn out to be nothing!

The episode ends with Jamie waking up alone in sick bay facing his Phantom Piper - which is really a Cyberman!  A Cyberman who advances towards the bed as Jamie collapses again.....

Photo 2: Shaun (holding the sign), Leigh, Mark
and Jason (with the DVD cover) around Leigh's house!

Episode 2 exists!  Hoozah!  And we see the fully re-designed Cyberman.  Certainly slicker than the previous ones from The Tenth Planet and I really like how they look, but I would have liked to have seen more stories with the previous design!  Anyhow this Cyberman takes another body and leaves the unconscious Jamie.  Polly arrives to see the Cyberman exit and she screams!  The Doctor and Hobson rush back and she tells them what she saw - of course Hobson doesn't believe her!  In fact he starts to see that all the bad stuff SEEMED to start with the arrival of the Doctor and his companions.  Still he gives them the benefit of the doubt and 24 hours to find out what's really going on.

After lots of to-ing and fro-ing the Doctor works out why this disease is affecting some people and not others.  The sugar supplies have been poisoned - some people take it, some don't!  See, it doesn't just rot your teeth - it gives you dark veins and kills you as well!  The Doctor says Cybermen must have contaminated the sugar, Hobson says the whole base has been checked and nothing found.  However the Doctor asks about the room they are in - the sick bay?  Hobson days they didn't need to as someone's always been in there!  Bad mistake as soon as he says that the covers on one of the beds a thrown off revealing a Cyberman with a weapon!

Photo 3: MJ, Leigh (with the DVD cover), Mark (holding the sign)
and Jason around Leigh's house!

Episode 3 and we're back to animation!  The Cyberman reveals that they have been taking the sick bodies to convert to Cybermen - but they left Jamie as his head had been bashed - they don't like damaged goods!  The Cybermen reveal that they want to take over the Gravitron to destroy Earth so that they eliminate any danger!  I assume they mean just to eliminate the humans as surely the Earth would be a better place to live than the moon?  And surely they ought to keep the human's alive so they can convert them??

Anyhow the whole episode ends with an army of Cyberman marching across the Moon to the base!  THAT is an impressive site - I can't remember how many there were but it looked good to see them trudging slowly across the Moon set - watching as slow cloud of dust moved up.  I think it being in black and white really helped the atmosphere.

Photo 4: Close up of sleepy, but content, Shaun (holding the sign)
and Leigh around Leigh's house!

Episode 4 begins with the base being told that "Resistance in futile" and they should give in!
They refuse of course as a relief ship is on it's way to help - however that gets deflected by the Gravitron towards the Sun.  They check out the Gravitron's controller and see that it's Evan's - a crew member who has been taken over by the Cybermen!  Before they can rush him the Cybermen radio the base to tell them not to touch him - and to make the point fuller they fire a laser at the base causing a hole to be blasted in the plastic window and the air starts escaping rapidly (again - why didn't this happen in the other hole earlier?  Anyhow...).  This is solved by Hobson and Benoit placing a plastic tray over the hole!

Another Cyber Ship lands and more Cybermen march towards the base -  but our Doctor has an idea!  If they can lower the Gravitron down lower than it usually goes, then they can shoot it at the Cybermen and their ship and that should knock them all off the Moon.  So with a bit of fiddling, they manage this and so the day is won.  The Moonbase crew all turn to thank the Doctor but he (and his crew) are already away in the TARDIS.  Here the Doctor shows where they are going next (on his time scanner) and Polly screams when she sees a menacing large claw moving on the time scanner screen.  Ooooo - that would be the Macra Terror - but that's next time....!

So what about this time?  Well I thought The Moonbase was excellent!  The story zipped along nicely, I thought the set design was excellent - It looked like it COULD be on the Moon.  The base seemed small and claustrophobic (which added to the atmosphere), the story and acting seemed good and the were some excellent costumes and effects (I especially enjoyed the redesigned Cybermen - though I wish we could have had some more adventures with them in their previous costumes and way of talking!  I especially liked the grumpy commander and of course Benoit - the French guy with his very French -style scarf!  Actually why did the crew all have name badges with their countries flag on them?

Anyway apart from some possible dodgy science (and plot holes - well a couple of actual holes.  As I said before wouldn't that first big hole in the base suck all the air out?) this was a great serial, in my view.But what about Jason's view?

"The Moonbase - review by Jason

The more I think about this episode the more I like it.  I declare it PROPER DOCTOR WHO!
In fact I actually did declare that during the episode.  The Doctor announced that he must stay and see the adventure through instead of escaping in the Tardis.  I could easily see any of the later Doctors acting in exactly the same way.  Though there have been some moment I felt that it was at this key-point that the Doctor became fully-formed as to who his core-character would become.  He now definitely sees it as his role and responsibility to take control and save the day.

I feel that all of the characters were written and portrayed as well-rounded and believable individuals.  The office-politics and bureaucracy that I see in a lot of the 60s episodes, no matter what species or location, was again present here.   I loved the interplay between those stationed on the moon and their bosses back on Earth.   Also there were moments where Ben lost his cool and displayed growing concerns about losing his close relationship with Polly.  I'm not too sure of Jamie's intentions, but sailor-boy seems especially threatened by the Scottish lad and it made Ben all the more human.

As for the actual story, I could see no plot holes other than not explaining how the Cybermen survived the events of the Tenth Planet.  If that bothers you, then you may want to skip the next forty-odd years of Who's recurring villains.  I loved the continuity of the people already knowing of the Cybermen, but as a thing of the past.
 
The Moonbase is a proper thrilling sci-fi base-under-siege story full of mystery, threat and creepy villains.

My favourite part though is that they not only continued the 'Polly put the kettle on' running gag (at least in my mind), but it was actually a plot point. 10/10."

Well that was a lovely addition by Jason.

Well next time we have to deal with giant crabs - even though, there is no such thing...

That will make sense next time!

Until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!
MJ - 25-03-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 29th MEET-UP - THE UNDERWATER MENACE

Sunday 8th March 2015

As the year doth "March" on (see what I did there) it was time to meet -up again.  Sadly Jim was still unable to join us (although I did see him on my way to our meet-up and he hoped to re-join us soon...!) and Shaun also couldn't join us because, in the words of Mark, he was "being gay".  Such a shame as there's plenty of room for gayness in our little group - and the following tale could be seen as quite camp.

So the rest of us trooped over to Mark's to digest a feast of Cheese, biscuits and oven cooked duck-things!  Very yummy indeed!  All this was a prelude to another feast - a right piece-meal of a serial called "The Underwater Menace"!

Why do I call this a "piece-meal"?  Well you may ask that, whilst stifling a yawn, and I'll tell you!  Episode 3 happily exists on my "Lost In Time" DVD collection.  Episodes 1 and 4 do not exist - fair enough, re-cons it is then.  But Episode 2?  Ahh yes, the earliest surviving Troughton does indeed exist and was re-discovered back in 2011 (along with part of "Galaxy 4") but it has still to be released!  There have been hopes of a release with 2 animated parts, but sadly the classic Dr Who DVD is at an end - all other titles have been released and the BBC have dragged their heels with this release.  I suppose, after the discovery of 2 (nearly) complete Troughton serials back in 2013 they wanted to hold off animating in case more came back.  Well they haven't so far.....

So where does this leave us.  Well thankfully someone has uploaded a rough pirate copy of the episode on the internet - so this is what we watched.  2 recons, 1 real episode, 1 rough online episode!  Talk about a right kerfuffle!

Photo 1: Leigh (with the "Lost In time" DVD cover), Mark (holding the sign)
and MJ (with the DVD cover) around Mark's house!

Anyhow our re-con of Part 1 starts with new crew member, Jamie, being quite confused by the inside of the TARDIS!  This is soon interrupted as our crew land on a Volcanic island - where, of course, they are immediately captured and taken underground in a lift!  As they descend further and further downwards they lose conciousness.  When they awaken later, in a compression chamber, they work out that they must be on Earth sometime after 1968 (Polly finds a bracelet from the 1970 Mexico Olympics - so not a bad deduction.  Although it does mean this could be 1970 or 2370!  Anyhow moving on our crew are told they are to be sacrificed!  The Doctor deduces that an amazing scientist called Professor Zaroff (a very clever chap who had done some renowned work but had disappeared...) must be here and gets one of the underground people (Ara) to smuggle a note to Zaroff.  The note says "VITAL SECRET WILL DIE WITH ME. DR. W" - this intrigues Zaroff enough to get the Doctor brought to him!  Jamie and Ben get put to work in some mines by a guy in charge called Damon.  What about Polly?  Well after being shown some underwater farming being done by the "Fish People"  - she is informed that she is to have an operation to give her plastic gills, thus transforming poor old Polly into a fish person!

Meanwhile the Doctor with Zaroff discovers what this underground place is.  Yes it's only the lost sodding city of Atlantis!!  Zaroff intends to RAISE this country once again!  The episode ends with Polly about to be anaesthetised by Damon....

 

Photo 2: Leigh (with the "Lost In time" DVD cover), Mark (holding the sign)
and MJ (with the DVD cover) around Mark's house!

So there we are and we're onto the earliest Patrick Troughton episode to exist!  So after a right kerfuffle finding the leaked online version we see Part 2 starting with the Doctor fiddling with some controls which affect the room Polly is in - this stops the procedure and in much confusion Ara takes Polly and gets her away!

Meanwhile Damon is mad at the Doctor and Zaroff agrees - but still tells him of his plans!  He's going to drill into the core of the Earth, drain the water into the core and let the Earth rip itself apart!  Why?  Because, according to Zaroff, it will be the greatest scientific achievement ever (although if he blows up the Earth who will be around to admire his work!!??).  The Doctor, quite reasonably asks "Are you quite mad"?  Anyhow to cut a long story short the Doctor manages to escape and, after finding Ara, hears that Polly is safe.
Whilst there he overhears Ramo (a priest who distrusts Zaroff) talking to Damon.  The Doctor manages to get to talk to Ramo and tries to convince him that Zaroff is bad.  They decide to take this information to Thoris - King of Atlantis.  He mulls it over but, deciding he wants Atlantis to be raised again, hands them over to Zaroff!  Clearly he doesn't know the Earth will blow up - I think Zaroff left that tiny detail out....!

Photo 3: Leigh (with the "Lost In time" DVD cover), Mark (holding the sign)
and Jason (with the DVD cover) around Mark's house!

So the existing Part 3 starts with the Doctor and Ramo being taken to High Priest Lolem (played by the same chubby actor who was Cyril in "The Celestial Toymaker").  Before they can be be-headed the temple idol of Amdo booms out that they should all bow their heads.  They do this and the Doctor, recognising the voice as Ben's (played through a microphone and speaker system) takes Ramo and escape into the Idol!  Inside here the Doctor starts to organise his plans.  Sean and Jacko (a couple of Irish shipwrecked sailors who also became slaves) are to insult and goad the Fish People into going on strike.  Meanwhile Ben and Jamie are to disguise themselves as guards and Doctor and Polly are going to disguise themselves as regular Atlantean shoppers - here they manage to trick Zaroff away from his guards and capture him.  However he manages to escape by stabbing Ramo and taking Polly hostage - Jamie manages to get her back but Zaroff still escapes!

We then go back to Thous wondering if they should have a nice chat with the Fish People and sort things out.  Zaroff comes in and disagrees with all that, so Thous tries to have him arrested but Zaroff is having none of this and shoots Thous!  The episode ends with Zaroff's glorious line:"Nuzzink in the World can stop me now!!!"

Photo 4: Leigh (with the "Lost In time" DVD cover), Mark (holding the sign)
and Jason (with the DVD cover) around Mark's house!
Here I asked them to pose with a "Nuzzink in ze Vorld can stop me now!" pose!

Back to recons for Part 4 and we begin with the Doctor and Ben finding the guards killed by Zaroff, but Thous is still alive.  They decide to take the wounded Thous to the temple.  The Doctor then comes up with his grand plan - he is to flood Atlantis to stop Zaroff!  He gets Jacko and Sean to move the people while he and Ben will begin the flooding process.  A bit much but hey, being flooded is what Atlantis is famous for!

Zaroff starts hearing of reports of the chaos occurring and decides to bring his plans to destroy the World forward!  However he gets locked in his laboratory by Ben and, as Atlantis starts to flood, he slowly drowns!  Thanks to those Aussie censor clips we have this grisly demise of Zaroff!

Well our TARDIS crew, the Irish pair and the Atlanteans all seem to make it to safety!
Thous wants to raise a stone for our Doctor in a new temple, but Damon says there will be no temples in the new Atlantis!  So lessons are learned and our TARDIS crew head off with the Doctor being mocked about his lack of control over the TARDIS!  The Doctor takes umbrage to this and sets co-ordinates for Mars.  I won't say if he makes it or not, but the next serial is called "The Moonbase" so I'll let you make your own guess....!

So overall I enjoyed it - we had a proper mad scientist in it!  Plus we had some other nice characters and it all seemed well costumed with nice sets!  This story hasn't the greatest reputation on the world of Who - but I thought it rather good (so did "The Book")!  Still that's what I thought - how about Jason?

Jason:

My review of 'The Underwater Menace'.
It was fun to finally see a good chunk of a 2nd Doctor story moving as intended.  And move along it did, as I didn't feel it dragged at all with pointless filler.  The set up is established quickly with the Tardis crew immediately being captured and whisked straight into the adventure on Atlantis.

Polly's character seems a bit inconsistent with how we last saw her.  In 'The Highlanders' she was all gung-ho / waving knives / blackmailing / say exactly what she thinks to anyone. Here the first episode began with her asking 'the boys' if they can take a break after they've been walking up a hill for less than ten seconds and later she frets, but doesn't help at all, while her friend is being attacked in front of her.

I note that so far the 2nd Doctor has at some point used a disguise or false identity in each of his adventures and also seems to enjoy starting rebellions.

What was great about this weeks episode was that the reasoning behind the enemy's actions was simply that he was a 'Mad Scientist (™)'.  He knew full well his plan would destroy the Earth and he didn't care.  I loved it! Zaroff's plan to 'RAISE' Atlantis is up there with Ian's understanding of scale.  He would 'raise' it by lowering the sea.  As a by product this would cause the end of life on Earth which he seemed very excited about.

I thought there were some good ideas in this story and a good balance of action, characters and humour.  The mutant slave race were well-realised for the time and did not overshadow the human drama.
9/10

*************************************************************************

Shaun did catch up with the story on his own and said:
"I would have watched it sooner if I knew it had a SHARK PIT!!! :D
The setting was forgettable, could have been anywhere really, but Zaroff was superb.  Especially his insane motivation."
So I think that was positive!

Well that's all for now - next time we have a four-part that's fully moving!  2 parts animation - 2 parts real!  So join me us next time when we take a trip to the Moon....!

Until next time, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 12-03-15