DOCTOR WHO: SEASON-BY-SEASON - SEASON TWENTY-FOUR

Poor 'ole Season Twenty-Four! It gets slammed so much by Fandom. Many consider it to be the absolute worst season the show ever produced. Any number of people that I have spoken to over the years that followed Doctor Who during the 80s claimed that this was the season where they gave up on the show and stopped watching it. That's just how much Twenty-Four is reviled. 

If you've been bothering to read all of these Reviews, you know that I already consider Seventeen to be the worst season of Doctor Who, ever. So where does that leave Twenty-Four? The second worst? Or do I actually enjoy it better than most? Might I even consider it one of the greatest seasons ever? Second only to Eighteen, itself?!   

I may be the Great Contrarion. But even I can't go that hard against the grain!    

Clearly. Twenty-Four has its fair share of problems. There is some tremendous behind-the-scenes drama going on that interfered enormously with its effectiveness. But, in the end, we can't make excuses for what ended up on our screen that year. Bad TV is bad TV. And it's undeniable that poor choices were made when this season was created. 

But the question still remains: just how awful was Season Twenty-Four? Is it, like so much else of 80s Who, the victim of exaggeration? Or were the fans actually right?   

Let's dive in and figure it out..

STORY-BY-STORY

Unfortunately, at this point in the show's history, reviewing a season story-by-story is all too easy. There's just not that many tales to go through, anymore. It's sad that the BBC, in all their wisdom, have cut Doctor Who down to only 14 episodes a year. I'd go so far as to call this a crying shame. Sylvester McCoy became an excellent Doctor. Even in Season Twenty-Four, he showed great promise. He did the same amount of time most actors do in the role, but we get so little of him. 

Like Colin before him, he deserved better. 

There is, at least, one blessing that comes from this short-sighted decision made by the BBC. After over 20 years, the three-parter makes its triumphant return. Planet of Giants absolutely would not have worked as a four episode adventure. But, in the format it got, it's quite enjoyable. The same can be said with many of the three episode tales that we will get in the next few years. Plots that could not sustain the usual running time would still find a home. And I really like this. Three-parters had a very different flow to them that were a welcome change from always trying to fill those four episodes. I'm so glad the choice was made to do this. Season Twenty-Three, after all, did three four-parters and a two-parter. They could have, easily, kept running with this. But, instead, they took a chance. Not only was a three episode story something we hadn't seen in forever, but it had only been attempted once.  Season Twenty-Four gives us two three-parters. A very bold move, when you think about it. But I feel the decision paid off well. Three-parters are great fun. 

With that said, there is a strong chance that these last few reviews of Classic Who will all have a story-by-story component to them. As I said, it's a fairly easy process since the seasons are now so small. It just behooves me that a season the size of, say, Twenty-Two would never happen again during this period of the show. 

THE RANI IS BACK 

Admittedly, Season Twenty-Four is not off to the best of starts. Time and the Rani has some issues. Many fans use terms like "absolutely terrible" or "incredibly bad" when they describe it. Quite honestly, though, I wouldn't go that far. 

The first two episodes are horrendously discouraging. The pre-titles set an absolutely horrible tone. By 80s standards, the TARDIS being pulled off-course looks okay. But the actual regeneration sequence is fairly laughable. Couldn't we, at least, bring in a body double for Colin? It's as clear as day that we are just getting Sylvester in a blond curly wig as this "transformation" ensues. I get that we needed to do regeneration in a very different way than we had before. Sixie had to go in an abrupt manner. But the visual did not need to be as awful as it was. Especially when you consider that it was now possible to create better effects because each episode had an improved budget. Also: what actually caused Six to regenerate?! He fell off a bike?!! 

I do seem to recall discussing Time and the Rani elsewhere in this blog. Can't, for the life of me, remember where, though. If I did, I would provide a link. In my defence, I have written a lot of entries over the years! But I said in that post that I think the biggest problem with this tale is that Pip and Jane are trying just a bit too hard to give the Rani her "gimmicks" again. We see in Mark of the Rani, that she has a penchant for disguises and creating weird mine fields. Which is fine. Time Lords seem to cultivate these sort of bizarre hobbies! Perhaps it's because their extended lifespans give them a lot of time on their hands to go down various rabbit holes. Whatever the case, the Rani's strange pursuits work in Mark. Whereas they feel very shoe-horned in Time. There must have been a thousand less-contrived ways to fix the damage to her pyramid thingy than disguising herself as Mel and creating some of the most uncomfortably odd scenes we've ever seen on the show. But it's like Pip and Jane were saying to each other: "Sure, there are better ways to fix this plot complication. But we gotta have the Rani wear a disguise!" It's a bit reminiscent of the Master dressing up as Kalid in Time Flight. For a good chunk of that story, he didn't actually need to hide his identity. He just did it because ... well, the Master also likes to wear disguises! 

The mine-fields are equally nonsensical. Yes,the effect looks great. But it's another really over-complicated way to do things. Maybe, every once in a while, the Rani should just make mines that simply blow people up! Trapping them in bubbles and bouncing them off hillsides seems way more elaborate than needed. Credulity stretches even further when Mel gets caught in one but doesn't get smashed against rocks. No clear explanation is offered for why she doesn't get hurt. We have to just assume it's plot armor. 

These sort of issues make the first two parts of Time and the Rani a pretty big mess. However, I do find things settle down fairly well in the latter two episodes and enjoy this section of the story quite a bit. I particularly like that we are already seeing Seven's ability to defeat his enemies through bluffs and deceit. It's quite clever how he manipulates the Rani into activating the bombs in the bangles. And it's the first hint of how this incarnation of the Doctor will fight his foes. 

Probably the only other real problem I have with this particular story is just how much it doesn't fit in with the rest of the season. Pip and Jane Baker wrote a script that was not at all in the style that Andrew Cartmel wanted. Apparently, there was a lot of bickering between the writers and the script editor. And I can see why. The tone of the rest of the season does not line up with what we have here. 

JNT, however, knew he could rely on the Bakers to pull the show out of the fire it was, once more, in. They had saved Trial of a Time Lord, so he felt they could do the same with regenerating the Doctor without Colin. But Cartmel really wanted to take the show in a very different direction than what the Bakers were accustomed to. This causes Time and the Rani to stick out like a sore thumb within the context of the other three adventures.   

BUILD HIGH FOR HAPPINESS 

Paradise Towers, on the other hand, is much more in keeping with what Cartmel was looking for. It's written by someone he, specifically, went out and found. So he knew the author would be far more likely to give him a script that suited his vision. 

It's probably also considered the first of the Oddball Stories that we would see throughout this era (although, there's some pretty odd stuff in Time and the Rani, too!). It's obvious this story has some very solid camp sensibilities. The Doctor tricking the Caretakers with their own manual, for instance, is being played up for laughs. Realistically, the Caretakers would just look at the Manual, themselves, rather than follow the Doctor blindly. But the writer is having just a bit of fun in that scene and asking us to go along with it. But this sort of stuff seemed to outrage quite a few fans. Apparently, we had reached a stage in the show where everything had to be taken absolutely seriously all the time. 

Now, before anyone accuses me of hypocrisy, I still recall how much I complained about the campiness of Season Seventeen. But I do think there's a big difference, here. Seventeen's camp element almost seems to be raging out of control. Like we're watching 60s Batman rather than Doctor Who. Whereas what we get in the Oddball Stories is definitely a lot more carefully-measured. Yes, things do go over-the-top here and there. Richard Briers definitely hams things up a bit when he's meant to be possessed by Kroagnon. But, by no means is it the sort of awful performance we get by Graham Crowden as Soldeed in Horns of Nimon. Or Lewis Fiander as Tryst in Nightmare of Eden. There's definitely a lot more restraint at play in Paradise Towers. Which keeps the whole tale from descending into a gang of wild actors who are clearly just trying to take the piss out of the show. 

Personally, I'm fine with Who getting a bit silly now and again. I just feel there's a definite limit to how much I'll tolerate. I don't feel this particular story goes too far with it. Which makes it all quite fun. 

The plot to Towers is very well-constructed. And there's a lot more of Seven's deviousness on display. Like the Rani, he beats Kroagnon by tricking him. By no means is he coming across as dark as he will be in future seasons. But we are seeing more seeds being planted with that harsher edge to the character. Which is good planning on Cartmel's behalf. When the Doctor does turn into the master-manipulator that he will be in Seasons Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six, it won't feel like it comes from out of nowhere. 

FLIGHT OF THE CHIMERON 

While I find Paradise Towers delightful, I can't quite get behind Delta and the Bannermen in the same way. There is definitely a dip in quality, here. Not a dramatic one, though. The story is still quite passable. Although there are some fans who feel this one is quite awful and use it wholeheartedly to illustrate their "Season 24 is absolutely terrible" theory. 

Bannermen's biggest problem is the fact that, even for a three-parter, the plot is a bit light. Part Two is a fair amount of inconsequential running around whose main purpose was to fill a bunch of minutes. For the first time in ages, we get a full part that we can, more-or-less, skip. 

The Bannermen's motivation for wiping out the Chimerons also seems a tad bizarre. They commit genocide simply because the race they're slaughtering has the ability to occasionally produce an offspring that can, for a while, make a noise that really irritates their ears!  If the Bannermen seemed impervious to all other forms of attack, this whole campaign might make sense  A militant race  with that level of power would want to destroy anything that they might be legitimately vulnerable to. But Bannermen seem to possess all the same weaknesses that normal humans have. So such efforts are just a little too extreme. Even though fascists have been known to go to such great lengths, this still seems a bit much. Since, pretty much, anyone can harm a Bannerman, are they just on  a campaign to kill off every other species in the Universe?! Did we just happen to come in when they were busy with their assault on the Chimeron? Will they, slowly but surely, get everyone else, too?     

Of course, Baby Chimeron having the ability to hurt their ears so badly also makes the ending of the story pretty obvious. Clearly, the Doctor's going to find a way to weaponize that. And, quite naturally, he does. 

But I won't complain too much about this one. There's still a fair amount to enjoy. Oddly enough, I really like the Bannermen, themselves. There's really not much to them. Just another one of those nasty alien races that seems hell-bent on galactic conquest. But I do like the way they run around and wreak havoc everywhere they go. I had just recently read Douglas Adams' Life, the Universe and Everything and they vaguely reminded me of the Krikkit Warriors. Which, somehow, just made them all-the-more fun to watch. I'd actually even love to see them brought back in the New Series. Maybe in just a brief cameo like the Movellans had in The Pilot. But it would be great to see them dashing about some more with flags on their backs. They're just one of those aliens on the show that I've become strangely infatuated with. 

Goronway is another character I adore. I do appreciate the whole theory that he's actually a Time Lord. I even go to the trouble of exploring the idea, here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/01/point-of-debate-was-goronwy-from-delta.html. 

Seven continues to develop in an interesting manner, too. It's weird that he's, suddenly, spewing mixed proverbs again. Otherwise, though, he is becoming more and more interesting to watch. He's relying less on just full-on visual comedy and starting to add more layers to the character. His social awkwardness, in particular, brings out how alien he truly is. And, again, his trickery is prominently on display. He's almost running circles around the Bannermen as he ties trackers to goats or causes honey to topple down on them so that they get attacked by bees. It's all great fun to watch. 

In the end, Delta and the Bannermen is a fairly mediocre tale that does, however, show promise. This is another new author that Cartmel has found. They are trying to tell a different kind of story than Who is used to giving us. With a bit more tweaking, they will give us something truly magical. 

ICEWORLD 

This, to me, is the story that truly lives up to Season Twenty-Four's reputation. Time and the Rani has some problems but, overall, is okay. I actually really love Paradise Towers. And, as I just said, Delta and the Bannermen is passable. 

But Dragonfire is genuinely awful. 

It's off to a fairly promising start. Seven shows his first signs of pro-activeness (and a bit more sneakiness) by going to Iceworld for a very specific reason but not revealing his purpose to Mel until later. Glitz is back. Which is absolutely fantastic. He was great last season. He's someone else who should've shown up in New Who (sadly, he can't anymore. Unless they use a different actor who looks like him). I always thought it would be great if the Doctor spent an episode dealing with a problem in some huge futuristic mansion and it turns out that Glitz owns the place. His dodgy deals had finally made him a fortune. Or some kind of premise like that. I just really wanted him to come back one more time so we can see what he's been up to. 

And then, of course, there's Ace. British Media had made it very clear that she would be the next companion. But, even if I hadn't known this, I was still adoring her within minutes of her introduction. Part of her appeal comes from how "gimmicky" she is. How can you not like a teenage girl that makes explosives?! But Sophie Aldred  puts so much into the performance that we're convinced there will be more that we enjoy about Ace than just her pyrotechnic skills. 

As promising as Part One looks, everything goes to crap when we get to that Cliffhanger. It is, quite likely, the worst Cliffhanger in the whole history of the show. It doesn't help that its Resolution is equally bad. In a carefully-cut sequence where we don't get to see some of the more crucial elements of the procedure, Glitz seems to climb past the Doctor onto a ledge and then helps him down to it. It's all quite absurd. However, it's not like that scene in Paradise Towers where the Doctor tricks the Caretakers with their own manual. There's just a bit too much disbelief to suspend, here! 

It only gets worse, though. We get this whole big subplot in Part Two where two of Kane's employees conspire to kill him. The whole thing, of course, is so much fodder. Something to help pad out the episode. Kane just catches them at what they're up to and kills them. 

I do despise when writers do this. Creating a story thread that seems to come to no real avail is cheap. It's for this reason that I never really enjoyed The Last Jedi. Finn had absolutely no purpose in that film. Everything they gave him to do in the story resulted in failure. He becomes even more superfluous when you realise the movie lasts for over two hours. He wasn't even needed to pad the run-time! This same "trick" also caused me to not consider the Great City of Death the Classic that many other fans feel it to be. Scarlioni's wife was, pretty much, created to help fill up an extra five minutes in Part Four. Once she's done that, she's executed. I'm not saying, of course, that a subplot absolutely has to lead to success for the characters that are in it. But you can't lead us on this journey that seems to produce no real results at all, either. Your audience picks up on this poor time-filling technique when you've caused them to waste their emotional investment on a useless subplot. 

Part Three really falls apart. We kill off two supports only to bring in two more near-identical characters to hunt down the Dragon. That looks pretty silly, already. But the whole "trying to re-create Aliens" thread gets even more ridiculous. So Kane sends them down to kill the creature and get the power source it's keeping. It took him an entire 3 000 years to finally figure out where the Dragonfire was?! And then it's that easy to recover it?! Just dispatch a pair of shmucks to fire wildly at it and then chop its head off. Seems way too easy. Just what kind of prison is this?!    

Really, though, we should think just a bit more about this so-called prison. Kane is running an active spaceport. Why is he still stuck there when the Dragon is wandering in the lower levels? It seems to me he could easily buy passage on a ship with a really good fridge in it and go exact his revenge with little problem. More than likely, the Dragon would not catch him in time before he leaves. 

There's tonnes of other highly illogical stuff going on, here. Why did he need mercenaries to clear out the station? Why not just claim there's a radiation leak or something and order a mass evacuation? This method seems extra silly since it takes out his entire army to accomplish it. 

The rich woman and her daughter not noticing any of the action in Part Three is another one of those absurdities too great to swallow. Particularly since the little girl saw the bartender at the ice cream parlor get shot right in front of her. She should be, at least, a bit traumatised. 

And then, of course, there's the "doozy". After all his plotting and scheming, Kane realises the planet he wishes to wreak vengeance upon no longer exists. It's a similar plot to Hand of Fear. Eldrad, however, was stranded on a primitive planet with no way of being able to gather information about what had happened to his people. Kane, on the other hand, was running a busy high-tech spaceport. Surely, there was some way for him to keep in touch with what was going on beyond Svartos. There must have been the equivalent of an Intergalactic C-Span that he could tune into to learn what happened to his homeworld. He should have known this long before the Doctor reveals it to him. 

In the end, there's just too many damned plot holes, here. The story does seem to start off fairly well. But, as the episodes progress, it just falls apart more and more. Until the end is just one giant mess.    

FINAL CONCLUSION

So ....there we go: Season Twenty-Four. So many complaints about this one. Allegedly, the most completely awful year of Doctor Who. Or is this, once more, another example of the sort of  exaggeration that was running rampant in 80s Who? 

Personally, I feel that certain episodes from Season Twenty-Four are nearly unbearable to watch. But I wouldn't even say that there's a story in this season that I entirely hate (although Dragonfire comes perilously close!). Basically, the first and last two episodes of the season are pretty bad. Which, in a fourteen-part season does occupy a fair amount of space. On top of that, it means that Twenty-Four leaves a very bad first impression and goes out on a sour note. So I can see why it has garnered the reputation it has. 

But the plain truth is: There's a lot of stuff in the middle that's quite good. In the case of Paradise Towers, I would even say excellent. So I can't agree with the general sentiment towards Season Twenty-Four. It's a weaker season, yes. But it's not the worst season, ever. Unfortunately, because fans were in one of their "overcritical phases" when it came out, this became a final nail in the coffin for them. At this point, many gave up on Doctor Who.

I will openly state that, out of all the seasons that JNT produced, this is his worst.  But I believe I've said elsewhere in this blog that I would rather re-watch Season Twenty-Four than sit through Season Seventeen, again. I'd even say that it's easier for me to view Twenty Four than it is Seasons Eight to Eleven. How's that for heresy?!     

For the most part, this is just a season mired by some serious behind-the-scenes drama. The show underwent some very huge and sudden changes and is desperately trying to find its feet. But it is also massively re-inventing itself and is just stumbling quite a bit as it does so. 

Fortunately, by next season, it has made the appropriate adjustments and is firing on all cylinders. For the next two years, we truly get a Golden Age of Doctor Who.