With Christmas Specials now a thing of the past, I've decided to list them all in order of preference. In the first entry,we tackled the Specials that weren't to my liking at all. That, in my opinion, were genuinely poor. I felt kinda bad for spewing such vitriol and am glad that I can list some stories that I like a bit better.
PART 2: WEAK, BUT STILL ENJOYABLE
There still won't be a lot of glowing praise for the next few stories I'm listing. But I am, for the most part, quite happy with them. They are problematic in places. But not so bad that they are completely ruined.
The Runaway Bride
I'm pretty sure a lot of you would have put this one in Part One. It did not garner a lot of admirers when it first came out and hasn't, necessarily, aged well either. I can even see why so many dislike it.
It's not so much the fact that Runaway Bride goes for a lot of laughs that makes it difficult to enjoy. I feel it's more the fact that it's trying too hard to go for a lot of laughs. A lot of the comedy - particularly in the first few minutes - seems a bit too forced. Tennant and Tate are pushing their delivery a little too hard to be funny. The loud farty music that Murray Gold is playing in the background doesn't help in the slightest. The score, like the acting, feels ridiculously overdone. The story is really off to a bad start because of this.
Admittedly, when Donna becomes more melancholy, she becomes more likeable. The interaction between her and the Doctor improves and we're no longer feeling annoyed by what we're seeing on the screen. We can even sense some of that chemistry emerging that will make them such a great duo during Series Four.
Runaway Bride does still feel quite clumsy in places. It seems to misfire a lot. Moments of comedy happen when it might have been better to go serious. And it actually tends to become dramatic during times when it might have been better to go for a laugh. The writing does come across as very counter-intuitive, in places. This is definitely another big problem that makes me see why some fans are so displeased with it.
There are a lot of really enjoyable moments to the story, too. The kids cheering from the backseat as the Doctor saves Donna from the cab. The Doctor summoning the TARDIS just before evil robots pepper them with bullets. Donna telling the Doctor he shouldn't travel alone cause he needs someone to ground him. I find these moments are strong enough to drag Runaway Bride out of the Bad category and into something more passable.
Overall, it is a fun romp. It just tries a little too hard in places to be fun.
The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
For the most part, I find Moff did a much better job with Christmas Specials than RTD. Oftentimes, he was much more careful about just how "Christmassy" the Specials would be. He tended to write something that just happened to involve Christmas a bit but still told a decent story. Many of RTD's scripts seemed to suffer at the expense of the Christmas theme. Runaway Bride is a good example of this. It would have been much easier to just have it be about a woman who is accidentally abducted from her wedding because of an alien plot gone wrong. Much of the Christmas stuff that's actually in it feels very shoe-horned. Which mars our enjoyment of the whole thing.
The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe is the one exception to this rule. Moff misfires quite a bit, here. It's difficult to determine what exactly hurts the story the most. The plot is, perhaps, a bit too threadbare. While the comedy in Bride feels forced, I find there are both funny and dramatic moments that come across as quite unnatural in this Special. And then, of course, there's "humany wumany". I wonder if Moff actually wishes he could travel back in time and stop himself from writing that line....
I also think the story suffers from a sort of Caves of Androzani/Twin Dilemma Effect. A Christmas Carol was a pretty damned amazing Christmas Special (you'll eventually see where it ranks on my list). Whatever had to follow it the next year was just going to tremble in its shadow. It's almost as if Moff tried too hard to write a script that was equally moving when, maybe, he should have just gone for something different, altogether. Maybe just make something light and fun that had a strong plot. Or maybe an action and/or horror piece. Basically, anything but what we actually got.
Who can say for sure what exactly makes this story fall so short. But I shouldn't harp on the problems too hard if I'm claiming the story is still enjoyable. Matt Smith does very well with what he's served. We like him just as much here as we did in Carol. He does a great job at being a big kid who is over-excited that it's Christmas. That does a lot to save the story.
Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe also does a similar thing that Hand of Fear did in the Classic Series. It has a really good ending that helps us to forget a lot of the problems that existed in the rest of the story. The Doctor making the decision to go back and find Amy and Rory was very touching. Particularly when he sheds that tear of happiness. We're also really damned happy that Amy and Rory have returned to the show. They were great companions that weren't quite ready to be written out. We needed just a bit more of them. This particular Christmas Special stands up a bit better because it brings them back into the TARDIS. It's definitely a saving grace.
Voyage of the Damned
Things are almost starting to get pretty half-decent on this list. Voyage of the Damned has a nice pace going on. There's just about enough plot, too. I know Christmas Specials are always trying to stay pretty light and uncomplicated - but they don't have to be pure spectacle. As we move up this list, we'll see more and more concentration actually being paid to the story. And that concentration does seem to start here.
The ending has some nice twists to it, too. Max Capricorn is certainly highlighted quite nicely throughout the tale - but I still didn't see it coming that he was the mastermind behind it all. I also like the courage RTD showed by killing off certain likeable characters and allowing nastier ones to survive.
Probably the biggest problem with Voyage is its dedication to pay tribute to a series of popular disaster movies that came out in the 70s and early 80s. It certainly does a good job of emulating them. My question is: do you want to imitate something that was really quite awful and cheesy? Just by virtue of this, the episode feels very "off". Even somewhat bad, in places. Its original source material could be quite crude and tasteless - so now Voyage of the Damned, itself, takes on that tone.
The camp sensibility of it all goes a little too far in places, too. Like a simple plot, another core element of any Christmas Special is to go a bit for the laughs. Some stories go for it a little too much, though. And we're left with something that we almost don't want to admit is a part of canon because it's just a bit too silly. There will be other Specials higher on this list that will also do this - but not to the extent that this particular adventure does.
There are some pretty vocal fans that detested this story, but I'm pretty happy with it. There's some good fun with the angel androids (that didn't turn out to be Axons!) and it is great that the Doctor found his Alonzo.
Well, that's three more off the list. There are quite a few Christmas Specials so we still have a ways to go. But my reviews will start sounding more and more favorable from hereon in. The Truly Bad and the Somewhat Weak are over with. Now we'll be moving into the Pretty Decent...
Here's Part One:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html
Sunday, 24 November 2019
Tuesday, 19 November 2019
BOOK OF LISTS: CHRISTMAS SPECIALS - FROM WORST TO BEST - PART 1
Well, it looks like the Age of Doctor Who Christmas Specials is well-and-truly over. At least this will probably be the case while Chibnall is in charge of things. I know some fans are outraged by this decision but I actually back it. The Doctor coincidentally having adventures in and around Christmas time over and over was starting to get just a bit ridiculous. He should have almost started having some sort of "Bad Wolf suspicion" about the whole thing. Like there should have been a moment where he started questioning why the TARDIS kept taking him to Christmas so much. Did another companion who really likes Christmas stare into the Heart of the TARDIS?!
With the Christmas Special now being a thing of the past, I thought it might be fun to make my end-of-year countdown about Christmas Specials. The era seems properly cemented in the past so I can safely document it and not worry about having to alter the list, someday, because of future Christmas Specials that have come out.
Now, there have been a lot of Christmas Specials. To try to give each of them its own entry might be just a bit too lengthy of a process. I had a similar problem when I counted down Doctors from Worst to Best a few years back. So I listed 2 to 5 incarnations per entry. I thought I would do the same thing with Christmas Specials.
PART 1: THE GENUINELY BAD
I'm going to get just a bit mean-spirited, here (call me a Grinch!). There were a few Christmas Specials that genuinely missed the mark. We're going to review them in this section. And we're not going to be that kind to them.
The Next Doctor
Not only the worst of all the Christmas Specials, I consider The Next Doctor the worst episode in the entire New Series (thus far - a new episode might come out someday that's actually worse. But Next Doctor is hard to beat). Its biggest problem being that it's built around a central premise that is just a bit stupid.
But before we get to that gripe, let's look at some other stuff that makes the story so bad for me. I have quite a bit of trouble with even the first few minutes of this episode. The Cybershades look and act in an embarrassingly stupid manner. They're meant to be a product of Cyber-technology. So they should be emotionless. Instead, they react in erratic and even savage ways. That seems a contradiction in terms. Add to the fact that they are, basically, men in masks and fun-fur suits crawling around on all fours and we've got something, here, that is Myrka-worthy. I can accept something like the Myrka in Classic Who because of the terrible budget limitations. We should not be seeing nonsense like this in the New Series.
Then we get to a chase sequence that seems to ignore a lot of basic physics. The Doctor and Jackson Lake get dragged across a wooden floor for quite some distance. They manage to stay on their butts for the whole ride (which is, sort of, impossible in itself - they should have fallen over onto their stomachs). When the ride is over. They are laughing at the whole jolly adventure and feeling a bit stiff. They should have been in endless pain. Their clothing and flesh being dragged along a wooden surface for so long and so quickly should have been torn to shreds from the friction and actual splinters that such a journey would have produced. While we point out such obvious inconsistencies, lets also mention that Rosita would have never had the time to make it to that window sill with the ax. The Cybershade had scaled the wall by the time she noticed the ax. He was running quickly across the floor while Rosita would've been running up several flights of stairs and then getting over to the far end of the building. No matter what sort of logistics you apply to this, she's just not able to get to that window anywhere near fast enough.
So, in just the first few minutes, we're ignoring important elements of aesthetics, logic and even basic physics. It's pretty hard to bounce back from this. But if the rest of the story had been amazing - I could've forgotten these problems.
Unfortunately, the plot is pretty uninteresting and even a bit preposterous. Why would the Cybermen build a giant mech to take over the world? It seems to me there's about a hundred more effective ways to convert a primitive human population. Slowly but surely just abducting people and converting them until you have the advantage of numbers would be the smartest most logical way to go about things. A big nasty dreadnought traipsing around seems almost kinda stupid. Humans everywhere will see the giant from miles away and flee. Is this really what you want when you want to zombify a species?
And then there's the whole central conceit of the story. Is Jackson Lake actually the Doctor? We don't know, at first, of course. But RTD had a track record, at this point, of teasing us and then revealing that the tease wasn't what it seemed. He had foreshadowed the death of both Rose and Donna during Series 2 and 4. But then, as the seasons ended, he gave us a big "Just kidding!" and arranged their departure from the show in a different manner that only seemed, sort of, like death. So when he's suddenly hinting that we're going to meet the next incarnation of the Doctor before the current one regenerates - we're pretty sure he's going to use the same tactic.
I might have been okay with any other tactic to dismiss the next Doctor except the one he uses. RTD could have actually made him a future incarnation - but from an alternative dimension or an aborted timeline. Or he's a special clone or even an android. Or maybe he's an alien superfan trying to assume the Doctor's identity. I would have been okay with any of these ideas. But an 18th Century human in a fugue state that somehow had an info stamp backfire into him seems over-contrived to the point of being ludicrous. It might have just been easier to just cast David Morrissey as the next Doctor and made this a proper multi-incarnation adventure. It would have been pretty awesome, actually, if RTD had not tried to subvert expectations and, for once, delivered on what he'd promised. But, instead, we got this mess.
Re-watching Doctor Who is one of my favorite pastimes. But Next Doctor ruins even this. The real central premise of the story is finding out whether or not this man that's claiming to be the Doctor is actually him. The Cybermen stuff is actually pretty peripheral to the whole thing. So, once it's revealed that this isn't the next Doctor, there's little appeal left to the story. With the mystery solved, there's not a lot of motivation to ever watch this again. This is the problem with giving a Doctor Who adventure a sort of tabloid appeal. Once we find out that the attention-grabbing headline isn't the truth, there's little purpose in wanting to re-visit the article. It was all just a dumb trick. Why remind ourselves that we fell for the sensationalism?
Sadly, there's more that I could go on about. But this review is already getting long enough. So I'll try to find a positive point in my final paragraph:
Is there anything I enjoyed about Next Doctor? It's the first story to use a flashback sequence showing all of the Doctor's previous incarnations. That was nice.
Other than that, I got nothing.
The End of Time - Parts One and Two
During my Top Doctor Who Story Countdown from Days Gone By, I wrote an extensive entry on why I love Logopolis so much. To help illustrate its effectiveness, I compared it to The End of Time - a story that had to accomplish the similar task of writing out an extremely popular incarnation of the Doctor. You can read what I said here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-10.html..
Just in case you bother to read it, I'll try not to do to much of a re-tread, here. I will also include both parts - even though the second episode was, technically, a new year's special.
The End of Time, for me, was probably the weakest of all the "swansong stories" for an incarnation of the Doctor. As I did mention in the review of Logopolis, it relies too heavily on just being a big sentimental event and doesn't give us enough plot. We're just meant to be content with watching the Doctor run around and be angsty. We're not supposed to notice that there's really not much of anything going on. Gallifrey is trying to return and the Master wants to take over the world. Both end up failing when there's still a good twenty minutes left in Part Two. So we end the story with just a series of pained expressions on the Doctor's face as he visits different people from his past but doesn't say much to them.
The story handles the Master in a pretty horrible way, too (something I go on about in my Ranking the Master series - https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/11/book-of-lists-ranking-masters-part-2.html. Again, I'll try not to re-tread too much). Flying through the air as the Renegade Time Lord shoots power beams from his hands just doesn't seem like the sort of thing you're supposed to have in a Doctor Who story. It all feels really out of place. I don't even blame John Simm for going so OTT in the story. How else can you perform that sort of material?
There are other little nitpicks I have. Donna being able to produce what appears to be a wave of regeneration energy that knocks all the approaching Masters on their asses requires more explanation than it gets. Time Lords being able to smell each other also seems really silly. Even Part One seems to lack enough content to fill the episode and we have to stare at endless shots of carbon-copy Masters overtaking the world.
Was there anything I enjoyed? The scenes with the Doctor and Wilf chatting were brilliantly performed. The Doctor's mother getting him not to make the wrong choice with Wilf's gun was very moving. The final revelation of what "He will knock four times" means was quite clever too.
And this is why End of Time ranks a bit higher than Next Doctor. It does have a few strong moments in it. Not enough to redeem it. But at least I can enjoy certain sequences.
As you can see: those Specials in 2009 didn't, necessarily, sit too well with me!
In the next entry, however, I will become a bit kinder. I'll be listing some Christmas stories that I consider fairly weak but are still, overall, enjoyable. Naturally enough, as we get closer to the top rankings, my praise will get stronger....
With the Christmas Special now being a thing of the past, I thought it might be fun to make my end-of-year countdown about Christmas Specials. The era seems properly cemented in the past so I can safely document it and not worry about having to alter the list, someday, because of future Christmas Specials that have come out.
Now, there have been a lot of Christmas Specials. To try to give each of them its own entry might be just a bit too lengthy of a process. I had a similar problem when I counted down Doctors from Worst to Best a few years back. So I listed 2 to 5 incarnations per entry. I thought I would do the same thing with Christmas Specials.
PART 1: THE GENUINELY BAD
I'm going to get just a bit mean-spirited, here (call me a Grinch!). There were a few Christmas Specials that genuinely missed the mark. We're going to review them in this section. And we're not going to be that kind to them.
The Next Doctor
Not only the worst of all the Christmas Specials, I consider The Next Doctor the worst episode in the entire New Series (thus far - a new episode might come out someday that's actually worse. But Next Doctor is hard to beat). Its biggest problem being that it's built around a central premise that is just a bit stupid.
But before we get to that gripe, let's look at some other stuff that makes the story so bad for me. I have quite a bit of trouble with even the first few minutes of this episode. The Cybershades look and act in an embarrassingly stupid manner. They're meant to be a product of Cyber-technology. So they should be emotionless. Instead, they react in erratic and even savage ways. That seems a contradiction in terms. Add to the fact that they are, basically, men in masks and fun-fur suits crawling around on all fours and we've got something, here, that is Myrka-worthy. I can accept something like the Myrka in Classic Who because of the terrible budget limitations. We should not be seeing nonsense like this in the New Series.
Then we get to a chase sequence that seems to ignore a lot of basic physics. The Doctor and Jackson Lake get dragged across a wooden floor for quite some distance. They manage to stay on their butts for the whole ride (which is, sort of, impossible in itself - they should have fallen over onto their stomachs). When the ride is over. They are laughing at the whole jolly adventure and feeling a bit stiff. They should have been in endless pain. Their clothing and flesh being dragged along a wooden surface for so long and so quickly should have been torn to shreds from the friction and actual splinters that such a journey would have produced. While we point out such obvious inconsistencies, lets also mention that Rosita would have never had the time to make it to that window sill with the ax. The Cybershade had scaled the wall by the time she noticed the ax. He was running quickly across the floor while Rosita would've been running up several flights of stairs and then getting over to the far end of the building. No matter what sort of logistics you apply to this, she's just not able to get to that window anywhere near fast enough.
So, in just the first few minutes, we're ignoring important elements of aesthetics, logic and even basic physics. It's pretty hard to bounce back from this. But if the rest of the story had been amazing - I could've forgotten these problems.
Unfortunately, the plot is pretty uninteresting and even a bit preposterous. Why would the Cybermen build a giant mech to take over the world? It seems to me there's about a hundred more effective ways to convert a primitive human population. Slowly but surely just abducting people and converting them until you have the advantage of numbers would be the smartest most logical way to go about things. A big nasty dreadnought traipsing around seems almost kinda stupid. Humans everywhere will see the giant from miles away and flee. Is this really what you want when you want to zombify a species?
And then there's the whole central conceit of the story. Is Jackson Lake actually the Doctor? We don't know, at first, of course. But RTD had a track record, at this point, of teasing us and then revealing that the tease wasn't what it seemed. He had foreshadowed the death of both Rose and Donna during Series 2 and 4. But then, as the seasons ended, he gave us a big "Just kidding!" and arranged their departure from the show in a different manner that only seemed, sort of, like death. So when he's suddenly hinting that we're going to meet the next incarnation of the Doctor before the current one regenerates - we're pretty sure he's going to use the same tactic.
I might have been okay with any other tactic to dismiss the next Doctor except the one he uses. RTD could have actually made him a future incarnation - but from an alternative dimension or an aborted timeline. Or he's a special clone or even an android. Or maybe he's an alien superfan trying to assume the Doctor's identity. I would have been okay with any of these ideas. But an 18th Century human in a fugue state that somehow had an info stamp backfire into him seems over-contrived to the point of being ludicrous. It might have just been easier to just cast David Morrissey as the next Doctor and made this a proper multi-incarnation adventure. It would have been pretty awesome, actually, if RTD had not tried to subvert expectations and, for once, delivered on what he'd promised. But, instead, we got this mess.
Re-watching Doctor Who is one of my favorite pastimes. But Next Doctor ruins even this. The real central premise of the story is finding out whether or not this man that's claiming to be the Doctor is actually him. The Cybermen stuff is actually pretty peripheral to the whole thing. So, once it's revealed that this isn't the next Doctor, there's little appeal left to the story. With the mystery solved, there's not a lot of motivation to ever watch this again. This is the problem with giving a Doctor Who adventure a sort of tabloid appeal. Once we find out that the attention-grabbing headline isn't the truth, there's little purpose in wanting to re-visit the article. It was all just a dumb trick. Why remind ourselves that we fell for the sensationalism?
Sadly, there's more that I could go on about. But this review is already getting long enough. So I'll try to find a positive point in my final paragraph:
Is there anything I enjoyed about Next Doctor? It's the first story to use a flashback sequence showing all of the Doctor's previous incarnations. That was nice.
Other than that, I got nothing.
The End of Time - Parts One and Two
During my Top Doctor Who Story Countdown from Days Gone By, I wrote an extensive entry on why I love Logopolis so much. To help illustrate its effectiveness, I compared it to The End of Time - a story that had to accomplish the similar task of writing out an extremely popular incarnation of the Doctor. You can read what I said here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-10.html..
Just in case you bother to read it, I'll try not to do to much of a re-tread, here. I will also include both parts - even though the second episode was, technically, a new year's special.
The End of Time, for me, was probably the weakest of all the "swansong stories" for an incarnation of the Doctor. As I did mention in the review of Logopolis, it relies too heavily on just being a big sentimental event and doesn't give us enough plot. We're just meant to be content with watching the Doctor run around and be angsty. We're not supposed to notice that there's really not much of anything going on. Gallifrey is trying to return and the Master wants to take over the world. Both end up failing when there's still a good twenty minutes left in Part Two. So we end the story with just a series of pained expressions on the Doctor's face as he visits different people from his past but doesn't say much to them.
The story handles the Master in a pretty horrible way, too (something I go on about in my Ranking the Master series - https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/11/book-of-lists-ranking-masters-part-2.html. Again, I'll try not to re-tread too much). Flying through the air as the Renegade Time Lord shoots power beams from his hands just doesn't seem like the sort of thing you're supposed to have in a Doctor Who story. It all feels really out of place. I don't even blame John Simm for going so OTT in the story. How else can you perform that sort of material?
There are other little nitpicks I have. Donna being able to produce what appears to be a wave of regeneration energy that knocks all the approaching Masters on their asses requires more explanation than it gets. Time Lords being able to smell each other also seems really silly. Even Part One seems to lack enough content to fill the episode and we have to stare at endless shots of carbon-copy Masters overtaking the world.
Was there anything I enjoyed? The scenes with the Doctor and Wilf chatting were brilliantly performed. The Doctor's mother getting him not to make the wrong choice with Wilf's gun was very moving. The final revelation of what "He will knock four times" means was quite clever too.
And this is why End of Time ranks a bit higher than Next Doctor. It does have a few strong moments in it. Not enough to redeem it. But at least I can enjoy certain sequences.
As you can see: those Specials in 2009 didn't, necessarily, sit too well with me!
In the next entry, however, I will become a bit kinder. I'll be listing some Christmas stories that I consider fairly weak but are still, overall, enjoyable. Naturally enough, as we get closer to the top rankings, my praise will get stronger....
Thursday, 14 November 2019
COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS: THE CAPTURE-AND-ESCAPE HALL OF FAME
POINTS OF DEBATE is not the only new entry that I have introduced over the last year. COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS was premiered on my latest Anniversary Special. After introducing fans to the concept of a frotnok. (don't try to look it up - it's my own special creation. Although, really, it should start turning up in fan reference material), I felt it was time to have some more fun with my favorite show. Rather than always just taking it way too seriously all the time!
I'm not presenting another outlandish theory, this time. Instead, I'm going to look at a somewhat over-abused writing device that was used in the Classic Series and assign fictitious awards to the grossest examples of it. We'll even have specific categories.
CAPTURE-AND-ESCAPE: THE ULTIMATE PLOT FILLER
New Who tends to move very quickly, these days (some might even say too quickly). Many stories are resolved within the same episode they started in. We get the occasional two-parter, or even three-parter (or are they really three parters? - read about the debate here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/09/points-of-debate-what-constitutes-three.html), but even they tend to fly along at breakneck speed. Our "ADHD Culture" that loves YouTube clips that don't last longer than 5 minutes can't tolerate a story with any kind of real sag in it. Our interests must be constantly held or we turn our attention elsewhere.
Keeping us focused in New Who has sometimes occurred at the expense of good writing. Points in a script that should have been better explored get brushed aside in the name of Maintaining Momentum. In some cases, actual plot holes have been glossed over because the author wanted to keep the story moving. Perhaps they could have fixed the issue with the story if they had been allowed to examine things a bit more closely. But, again, Momentum wouldn't let them. They had to maintain a flow. This seems to be the priority in modern-day television.
Classic Who, of course, frequently did the exact opposite. Classic Who could contemplate its navel all day. Especially when you consider that it frequently indulged in longer stories that ran for six episodes. It also dipped its toe into seven parters - or even longer!
Doing the reverse of New Who does not mean all problems were eliminated. Instead, we were introduced to all new set of writing obstacles. On certain occasions, a writer was assigned more episodes than they had story for. Rather than ask for less episodes (and, subsequently, less pay), they tried to come up with "filler" or "padding". These were tricks an author might use to intentionally slow the plot down so that it would properly fill the assigned episodes.
One of the most obvious devices used by the writers in Classic Who was the "capture-and-escape" technique. Your protagonists could easily get from Point A in a plot to Point B - but that would not eat up enough time to fill your episode count. So you have them get caught and imprisoned in some way by the antagonists of the story. The main characters now have to spend some time trying to figure a way out of their jail cell. Time gets wasted and episodes get filled.
In a lot of cases, "capture-and-escape" should actually be called "capture-and-escape-and-re-captured" - but that it is too much of a mouthful. It is what most frequently occurs with this device. After some great struggle is spent getting out of jail, the protagonists then get re-captured a short while later and are thrown back in their cell with increased security now being used against them. This is, of course, the ultimate filler. For several long minutes, absolutely nothing was really achieved in the story. But the writer goes to bed that night happy to have gotten a nice paycheque for their efforts.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION?
I was going to go for one of my big, wordy definitions where I make totally sure that we're all clear on what a capture-and-escape is. And then I was like: "Rob! Lighten up! This is supposed to be something funnier. Take a chill pill, dude!"
So, yeah. Pretty straightforward. If the Doctor or a companion (or the entire TARDIS crew) gets caught and then has to spend a bunch of time getting out of their trap rather than propelling the plot forward - that's a capture-and-escape. The escape can even include a rescue rather than them completely getting out of it on their own. Although, probably at least a few minutes get wasted with them trying to escape of their own volition. After all, the whole point of the process is to eat up time.
WARNING!!
I will admit, outright, I consider this a really cheap device. The author should have created more subplots or character conflicts to mark the minutes. To just incarcerate the main characters and then have them struggle to find freedom is very lazy writing.
I will be discussing certain well-loved stories that exploit this technique quite a bit. Because of this, they're not so well-loved by me. So, brace yourselves, I may be taking the piss out of a few stories you really like.
Okay then, with all that out of the way. Let's get to the awards:
Most Blatant Use of the Device
There are two stories that use this device so obviously that I have to say they tie. So I will list both:
The Three Doctors
During Part Two of the Tenth Anniversary Special, the Doctor, Jo and a Professor Dude Who Got Accidentally Embroiled Into the Story (who is played by an actor who will play yet another Professor Dude Who Got Accidentally Embroiled Into the Story during Hand of Fear - he must love Doctor Who's casting director!) are being marched through the strange, alien-looking palace of Omega. There seems to be a few minutes that need filling as the episode nears its end. Professor Dude suggests they try to make a break for it. The Doctor argues against the idea. The debate, itself, eats up a good minute or so. Finally, Professor Dude pretends to submit. Then, suddenly, makes a break for it! Another minute or so gets wasted as he charges around the palace and gets intercepted by the giant jelly monsters that are roaming about. Slowly but surely, they press him back towards the Doctor and Jo. "Well, that was a waste of time!" he woefully admits as he re-joins them.
Yes it was Professor Tyler. Which was the whole point of the exercise. Nice of you to be obvious about it!
Talons of Weng-Chiang
A very popular story among fans. This is one of those tales, however, that I've never really seen why it's got such mass appeal. Making up a white guy to look Asian certainly gets it to look very offensive by modern-day standards. Although, really, even in the era it was made - it seemed pretty offensive!
But, rather than ruffle too many feathers with my many objections to this story, let's get to the real topic. As we're nearing the end of this Six Parter (that really only needed to be four parts), Bob Holmes seems to be getting desperate to mark time. He has his latest double act incarcerated in a manor of some sort by the evil Magnus Greel. Jago and Lightfoot spend a good few minutes investigating a dumb waiter and debating whether or not they could employ it as a form of egress. At last, we watch them awkwardly climb in and descend together to another level of the building. Clumsily, they climb back out - consuming as much time as possible in the process. Just when freedom seems apparent, a whole gang of actual Asians (as opposed to white people pretending to be Asians) descend upon them and force them back into their prison.
A huge screeching halt that we could, easily, fast forward through without causing any real damage to the story. It's almost embarrassing, really.
Talons ranks so highly because it is such a well-regarded story so it almost makes the capture-and-escape more famous. Three Doctors ties with Talons because it, outright, announces that it was a waste of time!
Story That Abuses this Device the Most
Without a doubt, this particular category goes to the notorious Frontier In Space. There's a lot of things I like about the writing of Malcolm Hulke - Frontier In Space, however, is not one of them!
Yup, he's given us another alien species that is not completely good or evil. They're just like us. Yup, their masks look really good/ Even by modern-day standards, it's a fairly good costume. If they returned in the New Series, there would be little need to alter the original version. It's also a bit cool that the Master teams up with the Daleks. Although the team-up is woefully short.
Otherwise, that's really about it for the qualities of Frontier In Space. I would say there's enough plot for about two episodes. But Hulke needed to give us six. So it is capture-and-escape after capture-and-escape after capture-and-escape.
I bothered to re-watch the story and actually count all the times the device is used. I had actually expected one capture-and-escape per episode (which, when you think about it, is still pretty bad!). I was wrong. Part One has two capture-and-escapes. The Doctor and Jo get imprisoned by the pilot and co-pilot of the bulk freighter they land on (are they really shipping flour to a colony world?! There really is no way for the colony world to just make its own flour - it needs to be imported?!). They escape only to have Jo imprisoned again by the Ogrons. We'll be merciful and include the cliffhanger of Part One (the Doctor and Jo now being captured by Earth Authorities) as the capture-and-escape for Part Two. In Part Two, the Doctor escapes Earth Authorities only to be captured by the Draconians. Who he escapes a short while later (in one of the most ridiculous methods of egress I've ever seen. Did you really need to flip over backwards in an art-deco chair, Jon?!). The Doctor is then re-captured by Earth Authorities only to escape again into the hands of the Ogrons at the cliffhanger. So, yeah, that's right. Three capture-and-escapes in Part Two. So, in just two parts, that's five capture-and-escapes!
Things slow down in Parts Three and Four. Only one capture-and-escape per episode. The Doctor tries to escape from the Lunar Penal Colony (woah! That gets referenced in Bad Wolf! Except that Bad Wolf takes place a good 100 000 years or so after Frontier In Space. Was the Moon a prison that whole time?!) in Part Three. He is delivered to the Master and tries to escape from him during Part Four. Now, if you thought the chair flip was silly in Part Two, the escape attempt in Part Four is way more ridiculous! Why did he need to do a space walk?! Couldn't he have just gone down the hallway and snuck up on the Master that way? The door between the room with the cage and the bridge didn't seem to be locked. And wouldn't some kind of instrumentation on the bridge register that airlocks are being opened and closed all over the place? Was the War of the Worlds book so engrossing that the Master just wasn't registering these notifications?!
Herein lies the problem of an endless array of captures-and-escapes. In order to keep things varied and interesting, the escapes need to become more and more outlandish. Frontier In Space definitely illustrates this problem quite clearly.
Part Five, amazingly enough, has no true captures-and-escapes. I say "true" because my definition stated it had to be a main character who tries to escape incarceration. There is a capture-and-escape of an Ogron - but I won't count it. Just as I didn't count the capture-and-escape from the Ogrons at the beginning of Part Three because it happens so quickly that it doesn't truly mark any time. It was there, moreso, to create a cliffhanger and give us a little bit of suspense. Even though it really just came across as Micheal Kilgarriff (or, quite possibly, Stephen Thorne - it's hard to tell!) running around in his Ogron costume as he smashes his way through bulsa wood doors that are meant to be metal.
Part Six, makes up for the absence of true capture-and-escapes in Episode Five by giving us two. Jo does one from her prison cell but is tricked by the Master and re-captured. The Doctor then gets captured and escapes a short while later by using the "mini-Keller Machine" that Jo stole (does no one check a prisoner's pockets before throwing them back in jail?!). There is, again, a super-short capture-and-escape right at the very end of the episode. But I'll let it slide. Again, it doesn't really mark time. If I was giving out awards, however, for most poorly edited scenes in a Doctor Who story, the last couple minutes of Frontier In Space would get first prize. You almost can't tell what happened at the end of that adventure because the editing is just that bad!
So, if I'm being nice, Frontier In Space has a total of nine capture-and-escapes. If I want to include the super-short ones and the Ogron capture-and-escape - we're up to twelve! There is no story in the history of the show that abuses this device more. Which is why I rarely watch Frontier. In fact, this was the first time in years. I only put it on to do this count. And to laugh at the super-obvious strings that hold up Jon Pertwee during his space walks!!
Story That Abuses This Device But We Tend To Ignore It Because It's A "Classic"
Now, I gave a warning that my opinions in this essay might offend some of you. I'm sure a few of you are already upset about what I've said about Frontier In Space. It does seem to hold a special place in the hearts of certain sectors of Fandom. You might have even gotten a bit mad at me for the things I said about Talons of Weng Chiang. This is a greatly-adored racially-offensive tale and no one should ever say anything ill of it.
But now you're going to get really mad at me!
For many, Genesis of the Daleks is their all-time favorite story. I had heard legend of it before watching it. Perhaps my expectations were just a bit too high because of it. When I was finally able to view it, I was pretty disappointed. I didn't think it was absolutely horrible, of course. But I definitely don't consider it the best story ever.
There were a couple of things about it that I found downright silly. Can you really escape a landmine like that? Pretty sure once you step on it, you're done for. Sarah Jane falling off the scaffholding only to fall back on it, pretty much, constitutes the worst cliffhanger resolution ever. Yup, the end of Part One of Dragonfire is pretty bad, too - but this one might be worse. I also think the famous monologue about Davros contemplating releasing a virus is pretty silly. Would someone really get that over-excited about cracking open a vial?! It's just a little too OTT for my liking. But it's funny how we never seem to talk about how bad certain elements of Genesis of the Daleks are. Almost as if we're not allowed to because the story is so highly regarded. Genesis almost reminds me of a dysfunctional family where a parent is a severe alcoholic but we're not allowed to talk about it because they're also a prominent figure in the community!
But the thing that really made me lose respect for Genesis of the Daleks is its abuse of the capture-and-escape device. While not as bad as Frontier In Space, there is still not enough story here for a Six Parter. At best, Terry Nation could have comfortably filled four episodes.
We know we're in trouble when Harry and the Doctor do a full capture-and-escape-and-recaptured with the Kaleds in Part One. We're not even through the first episode and there's a need for padding. Things continue to go bad when Sarah Jane gets captured by Thals in later episodes. The failed attempt to climb to the top of the dome is as painful to sit through as the Third Doctor's space walk in Frontier. There's still a bit more capture-and-escaping in the last few episodes when the TARDIS crew return to the Kaled bunker. To his credit, though, Nation does find other ways to pad things out in the latter half of the story. Davros delivering an impassioned-yet-boring speech to a group of Kaled scientists and soldiers we don't give a rat's ass about that we know will become gunstick fodder in just a few short minutes was an interesting alternative to just one more capture-and-escape.
Again, the tallying of capture-and-escapes is a fairly subjective process. But it does look like there's about five of them in Genesis of the Daleks. As I've said, though, we never acknowledge this flaw in the story. Or any other problem, for that matter. Because we're not allowed to. It's Genesis of the Daleks, damn it. The best Doctor Who story ever. Supposedly.
Earliest Example of a Capture-and-Escape
The capture-and-escape device seems to have a long history with the show. But just how far back does it truly go?
Believe it or not, we can trace it all the way back to its most humble of beginnings. Even Unearthly Child (or 1 000 000 BC - or whatever you want to call it!) takes advantage of it a bit.
Some of you older fans are, no doubt, familiar with the works of Dicky Howett. A great little comic strip artist who was, obviously, a big fan of the show. Dicky drew some great strips involving Who that were clearly geared at people who knew the show inside and out. While other comic strip artists might make a bit of fun here and there by drawing pictures of Daleks that can't climb stairs or other easy jokes like that, Dicky went for the more obscure stuff. It's great to see that a T-shirt company has used some of his images and I catch the occasional New Who fan wearing them. Howett's legacy lives on.
At one point, Dicky released an extended strip that was his own version of Unearthly Child. It had some great jokes in it. One of the ones I liked the best was his own acknowledgement of the capture-and-escape device. The basic gist of the gag is that Howett suddenly inserts a panel near the end of the strip that proclaims something to the nature of: "Six Capture-and-Escapes Later...". In the next panel, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara are racing towards the TARDIS with cavemen chasing them.
It's an exaggeration, of course. But then, comedy will do that for effect. But Part Three of the story is one big capture-and-escape-and-recaptured. It's just difficult to notice because it's still, actually, a pretty well-written episode. The scene where Ian, Susan and Barbara teach compassion to Za and his girlfriend is quite compelling. That is the same scene, of course, where Ian stops the Doctor from attempting to kill Za. Which is a crazy moment to watch retrospectively. To see someone who is your hero be that heartless in his earliest days can really throw you off.
And that's the thing about capture-and-escape: if it's well done, we're not bothered by its attempt to mark time. There are some other problems with Unearthly Child. But I don't believe its use of capture-and-escape is one of them.
Which leads us to our next award:
A Story That Creates Such a Compelling Capture-and-Escape That We Don't Mind It
As I just tried to illustrate in the last award, there are times when a capture-and-escape doesn't actually drag the story down. If done cleverly, it can really lift the story and create some legitimate tension.
I picked pretty hard on Terry Nation for Genesis of the Daleks - so now I will sing his praise. While Planet of the Daleks is a bit of a Daleks (or The Dead Planet - or whatever you want to call it!) re-tread, it also does do a good job of doing a huge capture-and-escape that we don't mind at all because it is really well-conceived. The Doctor getting captured by the Daleks and being hauled off to their base on Spiridon starts feeling like that stereotypical: "Oh boy! It's a six parter and we only have story for four!" moment. But I find it really fleshes out nicely. So much so, that some of it even gets referenced in Remembrance of the Daleks.
Getting out of his cell and running into some other Thals that are stuck in an ice vent keeps the pace going nicely. The "ice slime", in fact, is a pretty nice effect. As they figure out a way to use the hot air rising through the refrigeration vent to their advantage, I really find myself impressed by the cleverness of the whole thing.
For years, the episode that featured all this capture-and-escaping was cut out from the story because it only existed in black-and-white. They finally colorized it and put into the DVD release. It is interesting to note that the story does do pretty well without the episode in it. Which shows off quite nicely that it was meant to just eat up some minutes. But, with the episode back in, I find myself enjoying the action that takes place within it. Yes, it's largely superfluous to the overall plot - but it's still a damned good episode!
The TARDIS being able to run out of oxygen, however, is still pretty weird. Not sure what that was all about!
Story That Could Have Abused Capture-and-Escape But Didn't
Obviously, a longer story is far more likely to take advantage of the capture-and-escape motif than, say, a two-parter. Totally awesome Classics like Inferno had seven parts to fill. So the Doctor does end up breaking in and out of captivity a few times when he's trapped in a fascist parallel universe.
With this in mind, a story like The War Games would be more-than-justified to be peppered with capture-and-escapes to fill up its ten episodes. Amazingly enough, it doesn't seem to resort to this tactic half as much as it could have. Parts One and Two do use this device a fair amount. But then it actually settles down and finds other ways to fill up the bountiful episode count. Some of these devices work better than others. The subplot of David Troughton having to guard a War Lord, for instance, is a fairly decent piece of drama. The Doctor and Jamie trying to blow open a safe while Carstairs deals with a surprise visit is another very enjoyable moment. These are storylines that do little to advance the main plot but still provide us with lovely distractions. Other moments, like trying to explain to a converted French soldier that he's being exploited by an evil alien race, don't necessarily work as well. But they are still far more effective than just chucking the Doctor and/or his companions in another jail cell and letting them try to find a way out. It's almost like Terrance Dicks and Malcolme Hulke sat down and said: "Let's try to find as many other ways to pad this out than just capture-and-escape."
War Games is still longer than it needs to be. And it does abuse capture-and-escape a bit. But I do recognize it as a story that could have used the device a whole lot more. Because of some of the creative choices that get made by the authors, the story ends up working quite well. It could have plodded along horribly and made Troughton's send-off absolutely tedious. But it gives us something quite masterful, instead. And I think some of that is due to the fact that Dicks and Hulke decide not to be lazy writers.
If only Hulke had maintained that same level integrity for Frontier In Space!
An Actual Example of Capture-and-Escape in the New Series
I did say in those introductory paragraphs that New Who tends to move really fast and doesn't use this device anymore. But we are a good eleven seasons into the show, now. That's a lot of stories. Couldn't just one of them have used that device somewhere?
Truthfully, it's probably happened a few times. But the one that seems to stand out the most would be the "three Doctors in one jail" scene from Day of the Doctor. It's almost as if Moffat is using the anniversary special to pay tribute to the great capture-and-escapes of yesteryear. While Clara's plotline does continue to move and develop, the Doctors' is brought to a grinding halt as they are thrown into a medieval cell by the Queen. There's much discussion and debate about where the Doctor has been going since the Time Wars and two different escape plans get hatched at once. And then we find out the door was unlocked the whole time!
To all intents and purposes, this does sound like a bit of a time-eater. Just like the old capture-and-escapes were. But, upon closer inspection, we see that Moff is setting up some crucial character development that will affect the Doctor as the story reaches its climax. Some of what gets covered in the prison cell will even bleed into Time of the Doctor a bit (the scene does start to foreshadow what's waiting for him on Trenzalore). It also sets up the basic premise of what will stop the Doctor from destroying Gallifrey in the Time Wars. So, on the surface, this may actually seem like yet another capture-and-escape. But there's quite a bit more going on there than you think. It is actually a very important scene on several levels.
Well, I have to admit, I enjoyed doing that. There's a few other conventions the show has used that I find quite silly that I might set up award ceremonies for, too. I definitely want to tackle the Cast Slaughterfests of Seasons 21 and 22. I could have some fun with that one!
I do hope some of my opinions on certain stories that I know are greatly loved didn't offend you too much. Some fans get very distressed by the fact that I don't think Genesis of the Daleks is that great! I also hope you noticed that I didn't just take the piss out of my favorite show for the entire entry. I intentionally pointed out some good stuff, too. Certain stories do resort to this tactic to mark time but end up doing it in a very effective way. I wanted to highlight that a bit too.
Like COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS? Here's the first entry in the Series. Learn all about the frotnok:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/03/complete-and-utter-silliness-was.html
I was going to go for one of my big, wordy definitions where I make totally sure that we're all clear on what a capture-and-escape is. And then I was like: "Rob! Lighten up! This is supposed to be something funnier. Take a chill pill, dude!"
So, yeah. Pretty straightforward. If the Doctor or a companion (or the entire TARDIS crew) gets caught and then has to spend a bunch of time getting out of their trap rather than propelling the plot forward - that's a capture-and-escape. The escape can even include a rescue rather than them completely getting out of it on their own. Although, probably at least a few minutes get wasted with them trying to escape of their own volition. After all, the whole point of the process is to eat up time.
WARNING!!
I will admit, outright, I consider this a really cheap device. The author should have created more subplots or character conflicts to mark the minutes. To just incarcerate the main characters and then have them struggle to find freedom is very lazy writing.
I will be discussing certain well-loved stories that exploit this technique quite a bit. Because of this, they're not so well-loved by me. So, brace yourselves, I may be taking the piss out of a few stories you really like.
Okay then, with all that out of the way. Let's get to the awards:
Most Blatant Use of the Device
There are two stories that use this device so obviously that I have to say they tie. So I will list both:
The Three Doctors
During Part Two of the Tenth Anniversary Special, the Doctor, Jo and a Professor Dude Who Got Accidentally Embroiled Into the Story (who is played by an actor who will play yet another Professor Dude Who Got Accidentally Embroiled Into the Story during Hand of Fear - he must love Doctor Who's casting director!) are being marched through the strange, alien-looking palace of Omega. There seems to be a few minutes that need filling as the episode nears its end. Professor Dude suggests they try to make a break for it. The Doctor argues against the idea. The debate, itself, eats up a good minute or so. Finally, Professor Dude pretends to submit. Then, suddenly, makes a break for it! Another minute or so gets wasted as he charges around the palace and gets intercepted by the giant jelly monsters that are roaming about. Slowly but surely, they press him back towards the Doctor and Jo. "Well, that was a waste of time!" he woefully admits as he re-joins them.
Yes it was Professor Tyler. Which was the whole point of the exercise. Nice of you to be obvious about it!
Talons of Weng-Chiang
A very popular story among fans. This is one of those tales, however, that I've never really seen why it's got such mass appeal. Making up a white guy to look Asian certainly gets it to look very offensive by modern-day standards. Although, really, even in the era it was made - it seemed pretty offensive!
But, rather than ruffle too many feathers with my many objections to this story, let's get to the real topic. As we're nearing the end of this Six Parter (that really only needed to be four parts), Bob Holmes seems to be getting desperate to mark time. He has his latest double act incarcerated in a manor of some sort by the evil Magnus Greel. Jago and Lightfoot spend a good few minutes investigating a dumb waiter and debating whether or not they could employ it as a form of egress. At last, we watch them awkwardly climb in and descend together to another level of the building. Clumsily, they climb back out - consuming as much time as possible in the process. Just when freedom seems apparent, a whole gang of actual Asians (as opposed to white people pretending to be Asians) descend upon them and force them back into their prison.
A huge screeching halt that we could, easily, fast forward through without causing any real damage to the story. It's almost embarrassing, really.
Talons ranks so highly because it is such a well-regarded story so it almost makes the capture-and-escape more famous. Three Doctors ties with Talons because it, outright, announces that it was a waste of time!
Story That Abuses this Device the Most
Without a doubt, this particular category goes to the notorious Frontier In Space. There's a lot of things I like about the writing of Malcolm Hulke - Frontier In Space, however, is not one of them!
Yup, he's given us another alien species that is not completely good or evil. They're just like us. Yup, their masks look really good/ Even by modern-day standards, it's a fairly good costume. If they returned in the New Series, there would be little need to alter the original version. It's also a bit cool that the Master teams up with the Daleks. Although the team-up is woefully short.
Otherwise, that's really about it for the qualities of Frontier In Space. I would say there's enough plot for about two episodes. But Hulke needed to give us six. So it is capture-and-escape after capture-and-escape after capture-and-escape.
I bothered to re-watch the story and actually count all the times the device is used. I had actually expected one capture-and-escape per episode (which, when you think about it, is still pretty bad!). I was wrong. Part One has two capture-and-escapes. The Doctor and Jo get imprisoned by the pilot and co-pilot of the bulk freighter they land on (are they really shipping flour to a colony world?! There really is no way for the colony world to just make its own flour - it needs to be imported?!). They escape only to have Jo imprisoned again by the Ogrons. We'll be merciful and include the cliffhanger of Part One (the Doctor and Jo now being captured by Earth Authorities) as the capture-and-escape for Part Two. In Part Two, the Doctor escapes Earth Authorities only to be captured by the Draconians. Who he escapes a short while later (in one of the most ridiculous methods of egress I've ever seen. Did you really need to flip over backwards in an art-deco chair, Jon?!). The Doctor is then re-captured by Earth Authorities only to escape again into the hands of the Ogrons at the cliffhanger. So, yeah, that's right. Three capture-and-escapes in Part Two. So, in just two parts, that's five capture-and-escapes!
Things slow down in Parts Three and Four. Only one capture-and-escape per episode. The Doctor tries to escape from the Lunar Penal Colony (woah! That gets referenced in Bad Wolf! Except that Bad Wolf takes place a good 100 000 years or so after Frontier In Space. Was the Moon a prison that whole time?!) in Part Three. He is delivered to the Master and tries to escape from him during Part Four. Now, if you thought the chair flip was silly in Part Two, the escape attempt in Part Four is way more ridiculous! Why did he need to do a space walk?! Couldn't he have just gone down the hallway and snuck up on the Master that way? The door between the room with the cage and the bridge didn't seem to be locked. And wouldn't some kind of instrumentation on the bridge register that airlocks are being opened and closed all over the place? Was the War of the Worlds book so engrossing that the Master just wasn't registering these notifications?!
Herein lies the problem of an endless array of captures-and-escapes. In order to keep things varied and interesting, the escapes need to become more and more outlandish. Frontier In Space definitely illustrates this problem quite clearly.
Part Five, amazingly enough, has no true captures-and-escapes. I say "true" because my definition stated it had to be a main character who tries to escape incarceration. There is a capture-and-escape of an Ogron - but I won't count it. Just as I didn't count the capture-and-escape from the Ogrons at the beginning of Part Three because it happens so quickly that it doesn't truly mark any time. It was there, moreso, to create a cliffhanger and give us a little bit of suspense. Even though it really just came across as Micheal Kilgarriff (or, quite possibly, Stephen Thorne - it's hard to tell!) running around in his Ogron costume as he smashes his way through bulsa wood doors that are meant to be metal.
Part Six, makes up for the absence of true capture-and-escapes in Episode Five by giving us two. Jo does one from her prison cell but is tricked by the Master and re-captured. The Doctor then gets captured and escapes a short while later by using the "mini-Keller Machine" that Jo stole (does no one check a prisoner's pockets before throwing them back in jail?!). There is, again, a super-short capture-and-escape right at the very end of the episode. But I'll let it slide. Again, it doesn't really mark time. If I was giving out awards, however, for most poorly edited scenes in a Doctor Who story, the last couple minutes of Frontier In Space would get first prize. You almost can't tell what happened at the end of that adventure because the editing is just that bad!
So, if I'm being nice, Frontier In Space has a total of nine capture-and-escapes. If I want to include the super-short ones and the Ogron capture-and-escape - we're up to twelve! There is no story in the history of the show that abuses this device more. Which is why I rarely watch Frontier. In fact, this was the first time in years. I only put it on to do this count. And to laugh at the super-obvious strings that hold up Jon Pertwee during his space walks!!
Story That Abuses This Device But We Tend To Ignore It Because It's A "Classic"
Now, I gave a warning that my opinions in this essay might offend some of you. I'm sure a few of you are already upset about what I've said about Frontier In Space. It does seem to hold a special place in the hearts of certain sectors of Fandom. You might have even gotten a bit mad at me for the things I said about Talons of Weng Chiang. This is a greatly-adored racially-offensive tale and no one should ever say anything ill of it.
But now you're going to get really mad at me!
For many, Genesis of the Daleks is their all-time favorite story. I had heard legend of it before watching it. Perhaps my expectations were just a bit too high because of it. When I was finally able to view it, I was pretty disappointed. I didn't think it was absolutely horrible, of course. But I definitely don't consider it the best story ever.
There were a couple of things about it that I found downright silly. Can you really escape a landmine like that? Pretty sure once you step on it, you're done for. Sarah Jane falling off the scaffholding only to fall back on it, pretty much, constitutes the worst cliffhanger resolution ever. Yup, the end of Part One of Dragonfire is pretty bad, too - but this one might be worse. I also think the famous monologue about Davros contemplating releasing a virus is pretty silly. Would someone really get that over-excited about cracking open a vial?! It's just a little too OTT for my liking. But it's funny how we never seem to talk about how bad certain elements of Genesis of the Daleks are. Almost as if we're not allowed to because the story is so highly regarded. Genesis almost reminds me of a dysfunctional family where a parent is a severe alcoholic but we're not allowed to talk about it because they're also a prominent figure in the community!
But the thing that really made me lose respect for Genesis of the Daleks is its abuse of the capture-and-escape device. While not as bad as Frontier In Space, there is still not enough story here for a Six Parter. At best, Terry Nation could have comfortably filled four episodes.
We know we're in trouble when Harry and the Doctor do a full capture-and-escape-and-recaptured with the Kaleds in Part One. We're not even through the first episode and there's a need for padding. Things continue to go bad when Sarah Jane gets captured by Thals in later episodes. The failed attempt to climb to the top of the dome is as painful to sit through as the Third Doctor's space walk in Frontier. There's still a bit more capture-and-escaping in the last few episodes when the TARDIS crew return to the Kaled bunker. To his credit, though, Nation does find other ways to pad things out in the latter half of the story. Davros delivering an impassioned-yet-boring speech to a group of Kaled scientists and soldiers we don't give a rat's ass about that we know will become gunstick fodder in just a few short minutes was an interesting alternative to just one more capture-and-escape.
Again, the tallying of capture-and-escapes is a fairly subjective process. But it does look like there's about five of them in Genesis of the Daleks. As I've said, though, we never acknowledge this flaw in the story. Or any other problem, for that matter. Because we're not allowed to. It's Genesis of the Daleks, damn it. The best Doctor Who story ever. Supposedly.
Earliest Example of a Capture-and-Escape
The capture-and-escape device seems to have a long history with the show. But just how far back does it truly go?
Believe it or not, we can trace it all the way back to its most humble of beginnings. Even Unearthly Child (or 1 000 000 BC - or whatever you want to call it!) takes advantage of it a bit.
Some of you older fans are, no doubt, familiar with the works of Dicky Howett. A great little comic strip artist who was, obviously, a big fan of the show. Dicky drew some great strips involving Who that were clearly geared at people who knew the show inside and out. While other comic strip artists might make a bit of fun here and there by drawing pictures of Daleks that can't climb stairs or other easy jokes like that, Dicky went for the more obscure stuff. It's great to see that a T-shirt company has used some of his images and I catch the occasional New Who fan wearing them. Howett's legacy lives on.
At one point, Dicky released an extended strip that was his own version of Unearthly Child. It had some great jokes in it. One of the ones I liked the best was his own acknowledgement of the capture-and-escape device. The basic gist of the gag is that Howett suddenly inserts a panel near the end of the strip that proclaims something to the nature of: "Six Capture-and-Escapes Later...". In the next panel, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara are racing towards the TARDIS with cavemen chasing them.
It's an exaggeration, of course. But then, comedy will do that for effect. But Part Three of the story is one big capture-and-escape-and-recaptured. It's just difficult to notice because it's still, actually, a pretty well-written episode. The scene where Ian, Susan and Barbara teach compassion to Za and his girlfriend is quite compelling. That is the same scene, of course, where Ian stops the Doctor from attempting to kill Za. Which is a crazy moment to watch retrospectively. To see someone who is your hero be that heartless in his earliest days can really throw you off.
And that's the thing about capture-and-escape: if it's well done, we're not bothered by its attempt to mark time. There are some other problems with Unearthly Child. But I don't believe its use of capture-and-escape is one of them.
Which leads us to our next award:
A Story That Creates Such a Compelling Capture-and-Escape That We Don't Mind It
As I just tried to illustrate in the last award, there are times when a capture-and-escape doesn't actually drag the story down. If done cleverly, it can really lift the story and create some legitimate tension.
I picked pretty hard on Terry Nation for Genesis of the Daleks - so now I will sing his praise. While Planet of the Daleks is a bit of a Daleks (or The Dead Planet - or whatever you want to call it!) re-tread, it also does do a good job of doing a huge capture-and-escape that we don't mind at all because it is really well-conceived. The Doctor getting captured by the Daleks and being hauled off to their base on Spiridon starts feeling like that stereotypical: "Oh boy! It's a six parter and we only have story for four!" moment. But I find it really fleshes out nicely. So much so, that some of it even gets referenced in Remembrance of the Daleks.
Getting out of his cell and running into some other Thals that are stuck in an ice vent keeps the pace going nicely. The "ice slime", in fact, is a pretty nice effect. As they figure out a way to use the hot air rising through the refrigeration vent to their advantage, I really find myself impressed by the cleverness of the whole thing.
For years, the episode that featured all this capture-and-escaping was cut out from the story because it only existed in black-and-white. They finally colorized it and put into the DVD release. It is interesting to note that the story does do pretty well without the episode in it. Which shows off quite nicely that it was meant to just eat up some minutes. But, with the episode back in, I find myself enjoying the action that takes place within it. Yes, it's largely superfluous to the overall plot - but it's still a damned good episode!
The TARDIS being able to run out of oxygen, however, is still pretty weird. Not sure what that was all about!
Story That Could Have Abused Capture-and-Escape But Didn't
Obviously, a longer story is far more likely to take advantage of the capture-and-escape motif than, say, a two-parter. Totally awesome Classics like Inferno had seven parts to fill. So the Doctor does end up breaking in and out of captivity a few times when he's trapped in a fascist parallel universe.
With this in mind, a story like The War Games would be more-than-justified to be peppered with capture-and-escapes to fill up its ten episodes. Amazingly enough, it doesn't seem to resort to this tactic half as much as it could have. Parts One and Two do use this device a fair amount. But then it actually settles down and finds other ways to fill up the bountiful episode count. Some of these devices work better than others. The subplot of David Troughton having to guard a War Lord, for instance, is a fairly decent piece of drama. The Doctor and Jamie trying to blow open a safe while Carstairs deals with a surprise visit is another very enjoyable moment. These are storylines that do little to advance the main plot but still provide us with lovely distractions. Other moments, like trying to explain to a converted French soldier that he's being exploited by an evil alien race, don't necessarily work as well. But they are still far more effective than just chucking the Doctor and/or his companions in another jail cell and letting them try to find a way out. It's almost like Terrance Dicks and Malcolme Hulke sat down and said: "Let's try to find as many other ways to pad this out than just capture-and-escape."
War Games is still longer than it needs to be. And it does abuse capture-and-escape a bit. But I do recognize it as a story that could have used the device a whole lot more. Because of some of the creative choices that get made by the authors, the story ends up working quite well. It could have plodded along horribly and made Troughton's send-off absolutely tedious. But it gives us something quite masterful, instead. And I think some of that is due to the fact that Dicks and Hulke decide not to be lazy writers.
If only Hulke had maintained that same level integrity for Frontier In Space!
An Actual Example of Capture-and-Escape in the New Series
I did say in those introductory paragraphs that New Who tends to move really fast and doesn't use this device anymore. But we are a good eleven seasons into the show, now. That's a lot of stories. Couldn't just one of them have used that device somewhere?
Truthfully, it's probably happened a few times. But the one that seems to stand out the most would be the "three Doctors in one jail" scene from Day of the Doctor. It's almost as if Moffat is using the anniversary special to pay tribute to the great capture-and-escapes of yesteryear. While Clara's plotline does continue to move and develop, the Doctors' is brought to a grinding halt as they are thrown into a medieval cell by the Queen. There's much discussion and debate about where the Doctor has been going since the Time Wars and two different escape plans get hatched at once. And then we find out the door was unlocked the whole time!
To all intents and purposes, this does sound like a bit of a time-eater. Just like the old capture-and-escapes were. But, upon closer inspection, we see that Moff is setting up some crucial character development that will affect the Doctor as the story reaches its climax. Some of what gets covered in the prison cell will even bleed into Time of the Doctor a bit (the scene does start to foreshadow what's waiting for him on Trenzalore). It also sets up the basic premise of what will stop the Doctor from destroying Gallifrey in the Time Wars. So, on the surface, this may actually seem like yet another capture-and-escape. But there's quite a bit more going on there than you think. It is actually a very important scene on several levels.
Well, I have to admit, I enjoyed doing that. There's a few other conventions the show has used that I find quite silly that I might set up award ceremonies for, too. I definitely want to tackle the Cast Slaughterfests of Seasons 21 and 22. I could have some fun with that one!
I do hope some of my opinions on certain stories that I know are greatly loved didn't offend you too much. Some fans get very distressed by the fact that I don't think Genesis of the Daleks is that great! I also hope you noticed that I didn't just take the piss out of my favorite show for the entire entry. I intentionally pointed out some good stuff, too. Certain stories do resort to this tactic to mark time but end up doing it in a very effective way. I wanted to highlight that a bit too.
Like COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS? Here's the first entry in the Series. Learn all about the frotnok:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/03/complete-and-utter-silliness-was.html
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