BOOK OF LISTS: TOP 5 ONE-TIME-ONLY VILLAINS

Hey there, Mister Tymec! What's going on here?!   

You're supposed to celebrating your blog's 3rd anniversary with another installment from that goofy Whocology 101 series of articles that you wrote for a fanzine all those years ago. You're meant to give us the third part. Where you freak over Adric dying. It's tradition that, every anniversary, you post a new episode from the series. So why are we seeing a BOOK OF LISTS headline, instead?

If anyone loves to buck tradition - it's me. Even if I created the tradition, myself. My end-of-year countdown that I do concerning an order of preference has become quite popular around here so I thought I'd do another one to celebrate the blog's anniversary. Besides, a BOOK OF LISTS entry shouldn't only be exclusive to New Year's. It's another tradition for me to break! 

So, we'll start the countdown on the anniversary date and continue to do regular installments over the next little while. Until, at last, we find out who my all-time favorite one-time-appearance baddie is. 

Good luck trying to guess who it might be.




The stipulations for this particular countdown are pretty simple. I'm looking at any bad guy (or girl) that has only been in the show once. Sure Doctor Who is populated with recurring enemies that have come back more times than we can count. There's even two-timers like Sil or Lady Cassandra who more-than-merited that second story. But, every once in a while, you get a baddie who was so well-written and portrayed that they earn a special place in a fan's heart. Many people, for instance, have a great love for Harrison Chase in the popular story Seeds of Doom. Admittedly, he was an interestingly-constructed character who was played with great relish by Tony Beckley. We adore it when he proclaims: "I could play all day in my Green Cathedral"!

Did Chase make it into my Top Five? You'll have to wait and see... 




PART FIVE: A NEW WHO VILLAIN

Finding a one-time villain who stands out in the New Series can be a difficult task. The show moves very quickly, these days. And a good baddie needs the plot to slow down a bit for them to get some serious mustache-twirling accomplished. Most of the time, an actor just doesn't get the time to do that. The story is over before we really get a chance to appreciate their evil that much.

Some actors just happen to have so much presence that, even with the hasty plot, they can still get us to enjoy the character. Anthony Head in School Reunion is someone who quickly comes to mind. His portrayal of Mr. Finch is beautifully-measured and really stands out. His history as a character actor in another very popular Cult Show that had a strong influence on early New Who helps him. But even without his Buffy lineage, he does a very memorable turn as Mr. Finch. Particularly since this is only Series Two of  New Who and the writing is still, kind of, all over the place. He's really able to grab the bull by the horns and make his character stand out among all the clutter.

Mr. Finch, however, doesn't quite win for best one-time villain from New Who. There is one actor who I find shows even greater gravitas and makes his portrayal that bit more distinctive.

Those five episodes that constitute the first half of Series 7 are definitely a mixed bag. I loved Asylum of the Daleks. I also felt The Angels Take Manhatten was quite strong. A Town Called Mercy and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship were middle-of-the-road for me. The Power of Three was, pretty much, 46 minutes of my life that I'll never get back!

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship might not have been as great if hadn't been elevated so much by the presence of David Bradley as Solomon. I'd seen Bradley in some other stuff, of course. For me, he was most memorable in his role as Walder Frey in Game of Thrones (I'm not a big Harry Potter fan so Argus Filch didn't do much for me). It helped that The Red Wedding sequence, itself, sticks out in your memory (and, quite possibly, resonates in your nightmares) but Bradley really does carry the character well. Even without that gory scene, he just seems to stand out in any role he takes.

For me, his street cred totally goes through the roof when he lands the role of William Hartnell in An Adventure in Time and Space. He becomes even cooler when he takes on the role of the First Doctor in Twice Upon a Time. But all that is still down the road for him when Dinosaurs on a Spaceship airs. Even though we don't know, yet, just how much cooler of a role he's going to get, Bradley still seems to really shine as Solomon. Just like Walder Frey before The Red Wedding - there's just something about the man's acting style that gets us to stand up and take notice of him.

The way in which Solomon is brought into the story is, perhaps, the best demonstration of Bradley's chops. We hear him first in voiceover as he is watching events from a monitor. This is a wonderfully sinister way to introduce a villain, yes. But if the person playing the baddie lacks strength of presence, it can all go quite bad. You haven't the bonus of facial reactions to help instill a tone - it all has to come through your voice. In Keeper of Traken, we are hearing Geoffrey Beevers carrying on quite a bit in this manner. But Beevers gets a lot of scenes like this to help create some good gravitas. In New Who, Bradley isn't given that sort of benefit. He has to accomplish the same task in scant amounts of time. And yet, he pulls it off.

When we actually see Solomon for the first time, Bradley is given an even greater challenge. His character has been severely wounded. Rule #1 of creating pathos for a character: Injure them. This is a great device for making someone likable in a story. But, let's remember: he's supposed to be the bad guy. We're supposed to be disliking him. This device is actually to his disadvantage. Good 'ole Bradley works through this handicap like a pro, though. Even in his pitiable state, we see clearly that he's bad news.

Fortunately, he does do something really unlikable fairly quickly by injuring Rory's Dad. Once he's accomplished this, there's no chance left for him to be anything but a rotten old bastard. As Solomon's health is restored, he becomes more and more fun to hate. His list of sins continue. We discover that he murdered all the Silurians on board the vessel. He, more or less, forces the Doctor at gunpoint to mend his wounds. Then he does something really unforgivable - he orders one of his bumbling robots to murder a sweet, innocent triceratops. Yes, he's committed genocide. But hurting animals - that will always get an audience to want to see you dead.

Just to put some icing on the cake, we find out Solomon is some kind of pervy sadist as he tries to escape the doomed ship with Queen Nefertiti. Those crutches that he's using that could have induced more pathos end up being weapons that he menaces her with. He's really ramping up the villainy, now.

It helps that Solomon is kept so simple, of course. In a nice streamlined plot that's meant to just be about thrills and spills - you don't want a complex antagonist. A ruthless merchant who will do anything for profit is exactly what the story needs. Because he's so basic, Bradley really can sink his teeth into the part and get us to properly despise him. It's especially impressive that we don't really meet him until we're nearly halfway into the story. In the twenty or so minutes of screentime that he actually gets, he cements the character beautifully.

Part of what makes Solomon so memorable is his method of dispatch. This is one of the few times in the show's history where the Doctor kills off his enemy in a very direct and merciless manner. But because we've come to hate him so much - we're pretty okay with it. Once more, a tribute to both the crafting of the character and Bradley's performance. Solomon really deserves what he gets. It's quite the classic moment as he calls out the Doctor's name angrily seconds before the missiles impact.

Even with the restrictions of a fast-paced plot, I find there's a vibe to Solomon that really puts him more into the category of a Classic Who villain. He just has a strong presence in the story and counterpoints the Doctor's heroism very effectively. He's rotten to the core and we love to watch him exhibit that. A lot of this is down to Bradley's talents, though. In a lesser pair of hands, Solomon wouldn't have succeeded half as well as he did. Instead, Bradley takes an almost too simple and gimmicky story and lifts it into something quite enjoyable.




That's Number Five down. See you again soon with a one-time baddie that is often obscured by the fact that his story is so heavily reviled. Hopefully, as you read what I have to say about him - you'll see him in a new light....