08/09/04

Blech.

Doctor Who: Time-flight

This is a four-part serial, first broadcast between 22 - 30 March 1982. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: a Concorde goes missing on its way to Heathrow. Then an unidentified flying object appears on the radar. It's the Tardis...

Let's start with the good news:

• part one isn't bad. There's a nice build-up with the Concorde disappearing off the radar, and the encounters between the Tardis crew and the airport officials are pretty entertaining

Moving on to the bad news:

• parts two, three and four are bad. Really, really bad

The biggest problem is the story. Or rather, there are a number of problems with the story that make it a non-starter as the basis for a television script:

• every conflict in this story is about science and technology
• every conflict in this story is resolved by means of science and technology
• very little of the science and technology actually exists in the world as we know it, which means that nearly all of it has to be explained to the audience
• very little of the science and technology lends itself to visualisation, which means that for much of the serial we're either watching characters standing around while they explain the plot to each other, or characters tinkering with arcane bits of equipment while they explain the plot to each other

As if this wasn't enough there's also the acting, though I suppose the script gave everyone very little to work with:

• there's a scene in part one where the regulars mourn Adric, with everyone simply oozing insincerity
• in the remainder of part one and in parts two, three and four we get a veritable repository of acting clichés. There's "I'm a mindless, hypnotised zombie" acting. There's "I'm seeing things that aren't there because I'm a mindless, hypnotised zombie and la, la, la, isn't life just grand" acting. There's "I'm seeing things that aren't there... I must hold on to reality... I'm going mad..." acting. There's even "I am an alien intelligence and I have taken over this body to bring you this important message" acting

And, as if that wasn't enough, we also get this:

• the Master in a completely ridiculous disguise
• some of the ugliest Doctor Who designs ever. The Master's disguise: ugly. The aliens: ugly. The sets: ugly. I know it was the end of the season and the BBC had run out of money, but was this really necessary?
• the incidental score isn't great either. Not really at the top of my list of things to dislike about this serial, but definitely not great

My verdict:

Blech.

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The latest version of this review:
Time-flight (1982)