Things I've Learnt from Watching My Favourite Doctor Who Stories Part 32: The Two Doctors

32: The Two Doctors

I don't know much about art but I know what I like!



I'm going to be thoroughly contrary with this one. Anyone who read my entry on the Caves of Androzani may be thinking I'm a bit hypercritical of putting this on my list after saying Caves' success led to Eric Saward crafting a more violent style for Season 22. Yes. The Two Doctors is quite violent, gruesomely so in some bits but it is also a lot more fun than, say Vengeance on Varos which has a cruel streak I'm not too fond of.

Tonally the Two Doctors is all over the shop. Violent and very funny, sometimes in quick succession. But Robert Holmes delighted in that. I don't think it's any more violent than Caves or Talons, it's just not as well directed. But it's fun and was the story from Season 22 I videoed. I was only allowed to tape one story and I choose this one because it was there episodes not two and I loved the second Doctor! 

Also, we have two Doctors, both of whom are a delight to watch. Colin Baker has huge charm and presence that offsets his Doctor's more abrasive nature. He and Nicola Bryant have a great chemistry that's often having material that works against that. We have a little bit of that in this story, but when Colin says the line I've quoted above, you sense a genuine warmth between them there. In part two, Peri mouths "Is that so!" behind the Doctor's back and I've often thought it does unfortunately look as though she's telling him to p*** off! Which she isn't, of course! 

Then there's Doctor no.2, with Patrick Troughton returning plus Frazer Hines as Jamie. As much as I adore they're back, I can't help thinking Saward suggested Holmes write an extra Doctor in because he didn't approve of Colin's appointment in the role. He's completely wrong, you only have to work through Colin's Big Finish work to see he's a great Doctor. Both Troughton and Hines are great value as always, and Jamie works well alongside Six and Peri. 

It's fair to say that of the Blake's 7 regulars making guest Appearances in season 22, Jacqueline Pearce gets the better deal and gives the better performance. But unlike some fans, I don't think she's just playing Servalan in a wig. I don't think she's rehashing her Blake's 7 performance, it's laziness on the fans part for not noticing the subtle differences.

Yes, both are ruthless and dispatch anyone who's no use to them anymore, but Chessene lacks Servalan's sense of humour and sensuality. The former is alien to her, the latter because she's been surgically augmented to suppress those base desires. There's a coldness to Chessene, if she was playing - and if it was written to be - like Servalan, she'd be trying to seduce either of the Doctor's! Chessene also lacks Servalan'd femininity, whivh is ironic given that Servalan was originally written as a male character. 

John Stratton's Shockeye is a character I don't think you'd never get away with nowadays. The implications of his cannibalistic tendencies are too much for family viewing, especially with the part two cliffhanger. I realise he's an Androgum but they should have gone a bit further make-up wise to differentiate him from humans. That said, Stratton is very funny when alongside the augmented second Doctor in their scenes filmed in the streets of Seville. 

A big shout out too for Peter Howell, who's often overlooked in the annals of Doctor Who music compared to Dudley Simpson and Murray Gold. Howell's work is both varied and superb, from the awesome wall of sound in The Leisure Hive to that menacing horn motif for the Five Doctors. Here his music is augmented by a Spanish style guitar and works really well, especially the scene where the Doctor, Peri and Jamie have to duck into hiding from Chessene and Dastari. 

So, the Two Doctors makes the list as despite it's faults I have a lot of fond memories of watching it over and over again. Plus, how can you not like a Doctor Who story that features 2 Doctors, Jacqueline Pearce and mentions Shepton Mallet?


Next Time: How many Nimons make three 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God Bless the Good Ship Atlantis and all who sink in her!

Image
The (waste of) Time Monster  Nietzsche said "life is a choice between suffering and boredom." He obviously never watched the Time Monster... Back in the 1980s, Doctor Who was not as good as it used to be. At least, not according to the older generation of fandom. Season 24 in particular was subject to a barrel of abuse from "the usual suspects" who opined that the series had gone downhill since 1970s. The Pertwee era in particular was held in an almost unassailable high, in comparison to Tom Baker's reign, which was three years of Hinchcliffe highs and three years of wallowing in the Williams era plus one year of him looking miserable in maroon with John Nathan Turner...  JNT came up with the infamous phrase, "The memory cheats" which did very little to quell the argument. In fact it just fed the flames of their hatred and was definitely a case of biting the hands that feed, another cliche JNT used, if memory serves me correctly.  I recently listened...
Read more

Randomiser : Out of Time 1

Image
This blog was set up to review stories in a random order, so here's my thoughts about one of Big Finish's most celebrated stories   Somewhere in an alternate universe, the August Bank Holiday weekend of 2009 saw an extra special with David Tennant, leading into the Waters of Mars. The audience would have whooped with joy at the familiar sight of certain scarf and tall figure, waxing lyrical about Michaelangelo pilfering his ideas as he paints his fresco, talking to a character played by Katherine Drysdale, who played Bliss in Love & Monsters. It also had the Daleks back in their gun metal grey livery as seen in the 1970s along with the red and gold Dalek (Chicken!) Supreme...  OK, in reality, Out of Time is possibly the only benefit I can think of, that was a result of the 2020 pandemic lockdown (apart from an extended period of paternity leave after the birth of our third son!)  Suddenly available thanks to tv and film productions grinding to a halt, David Tennant qu...
Read more

Happy 90th Birthday Tom Baker

Image
A wise person once said, "The best thing to happen to Doctor Who was Tom Baker and the best thing to happen to Tom Baker was Doctor Who. It's the great man's 90th birthday and like many fans of my generation, I have happy memories of watching Tom on a Saturday night in the late 1970s and early 80s. Here's some of my favourite moments but possibly not the one's that immediately spring to mind  1. "There's no point in growing up if you can't be childish sometimes"  Terrance Dicks makes the fourth Doctor quite manic in his first story, certainly in comparison to his straight laced predecessor. But there's a wisdom behind the manicness and this line has gone on to be a quite I've often referred to.  2. "Homo sapiens, what an inventive invincible species..."  As much as I like actors like Faulton Mackay, Bernard Cribbins and Graham Crowden, I just can't imagine them giving this speech as much justice as Tom does. It's the Olym...
Read more