Subj : Re: Dcotor Who DVDs
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : Jim Larson
Date : Fri Sep 16 2005 22:33:02

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape

RR wrote:

> Two new Doctor Who R1 DVDs came out last week: "The Mind Robber" w/
> Troughton & "The Horror of Fang Rock" w/ Tom Baker.
> 
> "The Mind Robber" has long been one of my favorite stories. The premise
> is that the Doc must take the TARDIS out of time & space altogether due
> to a bunch of lava (from the previous story). Upon doing so, the crew
> end up in a place called The Land of Fiction where they encounter all
> manner of low-budget 60's trippy weirdness like Gulliver, Medusa, a
> unicorn, a bunch of life-size toy soldiers and bunches more. The story
> has huge amounts of imagination that more often than not the budget is
> unable to realise. I'd always been forgiving of this, but oddly this
> time around, I found the serial much harder to appreciate. Even the
> writing seemed dodgier than I recalled. The memory cheated. I was
> bummed. 
> 
> But the memory can cheat in good ways as well.
> 
> Case in point: "Fang Rock". Despite many a Who fan's assertion that it's
> one of the very best - a "classic" - I'd never really warmed to it and
> had always found it to be a bit of a snooze-fest. Not so this time
> around. I really got into the whole thing and saw it in a completely
> different light. The entire thing takes place in and around a lighthouse
> right around the time electricity came into fashion. It's basically a
> group of people and the Doctor & Leela hanging out and one by one folks
> start getting picked off. It's barely any more complex than that.
> Gothic, well-written dialogue, diverse supporting cast - the whole thing
> sails. Best of all, perhaps, there really aren't any seriously dodgy
> effects. The monster/alien menace is simplistic enough in design that
> it's pretty easy to accept and the rest is mostly period stuff. It
> pretty much rocks all the way around. 
> 
> Some Dude: Are you in charge here?
> The Doctor: No, but I'm full of ideas.
> 
> Leela (with her knife at some dude's chest): You will do as the Doctor
> instructs or I will cut out your heart!
> 

(Leela rocked.)

-- 
Jim

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