Doctor Who #126: The War Machines Part 3

"You see the official mind can only take in so much at a time."TECHNICAL SPECS: First aired Jul.9 1966.

IN THIS ONE... A hypnotized Polly puts Ben to work, and war breaks out between the British army and the war machines.

REVIEW: This serial really does look like they've abandoned the "record as live" format, but I'm assured they haven't. It's not just that there's a lot of location stuff shot on film, but director Michael Ferguson makes other sequences match with lots of close-ups and inserts. Of course, it's not all roses. The battle between the army and the war machines goes on wayyyyyy too long and tests our patience by making the same point - that whatever gas the machines fire prevent guns from working - over and over again. However, it's a sort of pilot for the UNIT era, still years away, as beret-clad soldiers fire ineffectually at the monsters. The War Machines is ahead of its time. It's really a Pertwee story.

Polly got grabbed at the end of the previous episode, so here she's under WOTAN's control. It still doesn't prevent her from saving Ben's life and later letting him escape. Polly's got a lot more resolve than your average companion, and her fairly recent bond to Ben is enough to help her break the spell. It's also of interest to note that WOTAN isn't exerting direct control over its pawns. Polly, as a more recent convert, can update the others' orders, acting as a patch on their programming. I am, of course, making more computer sense than the episode does.

Forget the perhaps-companions and the smoking war machines though, the real character to watch is the Doctor, off-model though he may be. Hartnell is sharp and precise in both word and gesture throughout the episode, another reason why it doesn't feel like the usual "as live" Doctor Who of this era. His standing there, in the machine's spotlight, holding his ground as the soldiers all run, is a great cliffhanger and a wonderful moment. Especially after we've seen the machines bulldozing tired workers like something out of concentration camp horror. Machines as the new master race, or WOTAN's Internet as Stalinist communism? Both are evoked.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium - The Doctor's great as is the direction, unless you count the endless fighting and mayhem in the alleyways of London (and yet, some of that looks cool too).

Steven and Dodo: The Character Sheets

Our fictional Doctor Who RPG club has lost two players in the past few days, and Peter and Jackie were nice enough to leave us their characters sheet before they left. (Click to enlarge for legibility.)Stuff that didn't fit on the sheet (Peter kept it on the back)...

SKILLS
*Steven has +2 Craft Expertise bonuses in Carpentry and Music, and a +2 Transport Expertise bonus in Spacecraft.

GOOD TRAITS
Attractive (Minor)
Brave (Minor)
Sense of Direction (Minor) - He did get around Paris with relative ease.
Tough (Minor)
Voice of Authority (Minor)

BAD TRAITS
Argumentative (Minor)
Eccentric/Impatient (Major) - Steven tends to get really frustrated when things don't go his way.
Eccentric/Skeptical (Major) - Steven questions absolutely everything.
Impulsive (Minor)
Unlucky (Minor)

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
Inspired by his choice of Bad Traits, Steven likes to play as if he actively disbelieved the other characters or even the proposed setting, getting himself into trouble for it.

And leaving two days later...
BACKGROUND
*Ok, ok, that's not what Jackie actually had on her character sheet. In reality, it said:
"Dodo is an orphan quite content to leave her great-aunt's care to go gallivanting around the universe with the Doctor."

SKILLS
*Dodo has a +2 Craft Expertise bonus in Music, and a +2 Knowledge Expertise bonus in her favorite era, the Wild West.

GOOD TRAITS
Charming (Minor)
Face in the Crowd (Minor) - Only if she succeeds at ignoring her Eccentric/Fashion Nightmare Bad Trait.
Lucky (Minor)
Screamer! (Minor)

BAD TRAITS
Distinctive (Minor) - Only if she fails to ignore her Eccentric/Fashion Nightmare Bad Trait.
Eccentric/Careless and Over-Enthusiastic (Major) - Dodo thinks of every situation in terms of being safe and fun.
Eccentric/Fashion Nightmare (Minor) - Dodo tends to wear the most outlandish outfits from the TARDIS wardrobe.
Eccentric/Innocent (Minor) - Dodo is easily tricked because of a trusting nature and kindness she tends to show even to enemies.
Impulsive (Minor)
Insatiable Curiosity (Minor)

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
She puts herself in danger as often as possible, allowing herself to be duped or walking into traps, knowing she'll use her Story Points and innate luck to get out of it. For a GM looking for a PC to activate plot points and showcase the villains' or setting's capacity for danger, Dodo's a dream.

One played the equivalent of a full season, the other in only a few stories. Check back in a couple days for the Season 3 wrap-up!

Doctor Who #125: The War Machines Part 2

"Either that telephone is dangerously out of order, or..."TECHNICAL SPECS: First aired Jul.2 1966.

IN THIS ONE... WOTAN builds his war machines while the Doctor de-hypnotizes Dodo and sends her away... forever!

REVIEW: Ok, so it's really strange to hear everyone refer to the Doctor as "Doctor Who" and I wish they would just stop it. Only Peter Cushing should answer to that name. There are other strange happenings in this episode, some good - beware strangers bearing chloroform - some not so good - how fast are war machines designed and assembled is only marginally more acceptable than the speed at which a tramp's death (with photo!) is published in the newspaper, apparently hours after his body was found. Looks like it was a long night! The whole story could definitely have benefited from a more relaxed time line, letting a day or two pass by here and there. Of course, you could always explain away two flaws with one stone if you considered that the reason the war machines look so silly (again with the cartoon faces) is that they had to be built from existing parts. Because while the assembly is possible overnight, those pieces had to be manufactured somewhere. Just a matter of hours with time to spare for human testing here!

Creepy hypnotized Dodo is, as ever, over-eager, but in all the wrong ways. It's not a particularly interesting performance, but at least it's not robotic, and I do like the bit where she stands facing the door, her back to us, for the longest time. After WOTAN tries to take over the Doctor via modem, Dodo shows her hand and the pain on the Doctor's face almost seems to come from his sense that Dodo's been lost. The Doctor practices a bit of hypnosis for the first time, something he'll get better at in other incarnations, and using his ring as a focus. And off he sends her to recuperate in the country, never to be seen again. Watching at the time, you wouldn't know she was gone for good. It just looks like one of those holidays the main actors occasionally get. She'll get one more mention in a later episode, but that's it for Jackie Lane. We hardly knew ye, Dodo, but then, there wasn't much to know.

As for Polly and Ben, it's only with hindsight that we know they've replaced Dodo as companion because they seem so well integrated into the plot. Polly is doing her job, and Ben comes round on her invitation for lunch, after they hit it off at the Inferno. They're the young couple who may get together at the end, but first they have to help the Doctor sort out the trouble in their lives. They'll survive if they're lucky. And yet, they've effortlessly slipped into the roles. Polly is matched to Dodo, both presented as secretaries in the previous episode, and the Doctor is already giving Ben life-threatening missions as if he were Steven or Ian, getting trapped in a war machine's efficient little spotlight.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium - Despite the somewhat silly war machines, collapsed time line, and soul-draining exit for Dodo (admittedly a character we never cared much about), Part 2 is the serial has a slick, filmic look and easily creates a fun new team in the Doctor, Ben and Polly.

This Week in Geek (19-25/03/12)

Buys

Got some DVDs this week, including three new Special Editions of Doctor Who stories I already own (what can I say?), Flying Guillotine II, The Muppets and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

"Accomplishments"

DVDs: Justified Season 2 was, if anything, even better than the first, with the same commitment to character and dialog for an additional 13 episodes. New season means new villains, and the Bennett Family arc is a tighter than Season 1's Crowder story, with fewer detours (not that I minded them). The Bennetts are all incredible creations, especially Mags who is apparently based on a real life woman from Harlan County. She's the Ma Dalton of Kentucky. I can't wait to check out what's already cooking in Season 3. Can I wait for the DVD?! This particular release features no commentary tracks, but still some deleted scenes and outtakes, an excellent tour of the sets and locations with the production designer, and a making of for the season that talks to most of the actors.

Sometimes, Kung Fu Fridays are a little closer to home. Kung Fu Panda was this week's choice, and though it's an American film with lots of American stars doing the voices, the design ethic, philosophy and martial arts could all have come out of Hong Kong cinema. What else should I have expected from a movie that has two characters called the Shaw Brothers? Incredible animation on the action (the highlight for me is the chopstick fight) makes up for a certain lack of texture at times, though you know what? I wouldn't have minded if the whole movie had been in 2D like its awesome, Samurai Jack-type opening sequence. I was surprised to find Jack Black's performance pleasantly subdued. This isn't one of those Shreks or Aladdins filled to the brim with anachronisms. Authentic and sweet, and I won't mind putting up the sequel on a future Friday. Lots of extras here - a director's commentary, making of elements with behind the scenes footage of the actors reading the parts, lessons on how to make noodles and use chopsticks, a bit with Jack Black about saving the pandas, a music video, and some games for the kids.

Finally saw the latest Muppet movie, and it was as wonderful as everyone said it was. Jason Segel and Amy Adams are just the purest souls on screen, and perfect to act against everyone's favorite puppet ensemble. The songs are fun and memorable, and there's a lot of clever and funny meta-textual humor. Most genius of all, this isn't a story with the Muppets in it. It's a movie ABOUT the Muppet Show, and INCLUDES a Muppet show in it! So if you're a fan of the show as well as the characters, you're getting everything you need. Made me smile uncontrollably. I've got minor complaints - Amy Adams doesn't always look comfortable singing and dancing, and I miss Kermit's original voice - but these are small indeed. Oh, I have another one. I should have gone for a bigger, pricier edition of the DVD. Having loved the film, I'm wanting more than the 8-minute blooper reel (as fun as it is). But that one's on me.

You know what has pretty much the same plot as The Muppets? Greg the Bunny's pilot episode! I loved this series 10 years ago, and I think I love it even more now without Fox's airing everything out of order, though the network still messes with the show in other ways, the result being a less funny second half of the show's only season. It's not just Firefly and Futurama, is it? Greg the Bunny's world is the same as the Muppets', and these often get name-dropped in jokes about their personal lives (it's one of the funnest things, so of course, Fox nixes them), but the show's puppets are much closer to our world's celebs, as well as victims of racism (oooh, political, Fox to the rescue in the back half). Fox even forced Greg to get proper eyes instead of the cute little buttons he had. Boo. But for all that, even those last episodes aren't bad. The comedy is good, and when you've got comic talent like Seth Green, Eugene Levy and Sarah Silverman (well... they do make her play the straight man), you can't exactly go wrong. That first half though... real belly laughs. There's something about the incongruity of puppets with human vices that just reaches in and grabs me. Lots of extras too, from commentary with cast, crew and puppets, making of featurettes, deleted scenes, images, puppet auditions, a poignant existential Greg sketch from the AFI stuff, and many Easter eggs of outtakes.

Audios: Still going through my Lost Doctor Who episode CDs vol.4, featuring the second Doctor and Jamie (and various other companions), with linking narration from Frazer Hines. In The Faceless Ones, we lose Polly and Ben, almost as unceremoniously as Dodo (they disappear, but at least they do return for a proper farewell). As replacement companion, we get "brassy Scouser" Samantha Briggs, and I quite like her and wish she'd actually stayed on. The story takes place at Gatwick Airport, where aliens called Chameleons have been kidnapping young people. It's a fun story, with good performances, but it does end on a strange lack of resolution. On the one hand because a rare compromise is reached, and on the other because the TARDIS gets stolen at the end, sending us into the next story without that familiar groaning sound. So off we go...

The Evil of the Daleks is the first big, huge season finale the show's ever known. Unlike the Doctor Who we know today, all previous seasons ended wherever the scripts seemed to run out, not necessarily on the big moment (so the first Doctor's departure, for example, was 2 stories into the 4th season). Evil is MOMENTOUS. It finds a way to fill its 7 episodes with variety both in genre and character, and ends on the then-final destruction of the Daleks. The first third is in the present day, with the Doctor as a detective. The second is in the Victorian era, with Wellsian mad science and Jamie finally fed up with the Doctor's secrets (I've never loved him more), and the third on Skaro as civil war brews and the TARDIS finally picks up a new companion, Victoria. Raw sound from Skaro's destruction, the last scenes without narration, and a Dakek voice session are also included. The boxed set's bonus disc of interviews is included in this story's case, but if you don't mind, I'll review it at the very end when I do a piece on the box itself.

Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
III.ii. The Mouse-Trap - Kline '90

Doctor Who #124: The War Machines Part 1

"DDDOCTORR WHOO ISS RREQUIREDD. BRING HIM HERE!"TECHNICAL SPECS: The War Machines is available on DVD. First aired Jun.25 1966.

IN THIS ONE... Meet Ben and Polly! In swinging 60s London, the Doctor investigates the sentient computer WOTAN who is taking control of people, including Dodo.

REVIEW: Though we've had little bits of 60s London before (Ian and Barbara's return home, Dodo's pick-up), we've never sen a complete adventure take place there. That, in addition to the various changes instituted by the production team, make this very different than what has gone before. In a way, it almost feels like a new pilot. Now that they've done away with episode-specific titles, the production is free to experiment with giving each serial a clearer identity. Each episode of The War Machines starts with a flickering title card in a "modern computer" font, with modem-like sounds in the background. I love the approach, but it's not one we'll see a lot of. The episode begins with building-top shot of the TARDIS materializing on location, and immediately, the focus is on the then-new Post Office Tower, a famous London landmark. We've seen that sort of thing before, but as background (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, for example), not as an actual plot point. The monster in this story will be housed there. It's telecommunications as a danger, as Ian Stuart Black continues to indulge his fascination with the evils of progress.

And though the Doctor is wearing his hat from the first episode, he's as off-model as he was in The Savages. As soon as he sees the Tower, his skin crawls like he's got Spidey-sense, and claims to have the same sensation when Daleks are nearby. And he magically gets into the Tower as a "computer expert" like he's already got UNIT credentials or psychic paper, though of course, neither yet exist. Obviously, he must've been up to something while Susan was going to school, but it's still a completely different way to handle the character. And what of WOTAN calling him "Doctor Who"? The computer seems to know a lot of things it shouldn't, and I don't think it's explained in the serial (so see Theories), but calling the hero Doctor Who isn't even a true fact (or is it? there is evidence that points to the "Who" sound at least being part of his true name, although it might be the name he gave at the door, one of his aliases like John Smith). WOTAN is much like Colossus of Forbin Project fame (the book came out in 1966 too... connection?) - a living internet who wants to do away with human beings. Unlike Colossus, he's also got the ability to hypnotize people through sound, sending a coded message via airborne or phone line modem. It's especially creepy if you're a Dollhouse fan. Where WOTAN fails is in his design. The fact that they've given him a face, not unlike the one worn by the Toymaker's robot, in fact, is rather silly. But the superimposed hypnotic disc and eerie music when he does his thing is good and serves the 60s atmosphere.

Speaking of 60s-isms, Dodo is nearly invisible in the story even though she plays a big part. Why? Polly, Polly, Polly, that's why. Anneke Wills' portrayal of the soon-to-be companion is fresh and sassy, warm and cheeky, fashionable and naturalistic. It puts to shame the character of Dodo, meant as a backgroundless cipher, vaguely childish in a children's television presenter kind of way, and a plain, dowdy one at that. In contrast, Polly isn't only connected to her world, with a job and friends who would miss her were she to leave, but constantly making new connections, here with Dodo and then with sullen sailor Ben. Polly's world is the swinging 60s and she knows where all the fabbest clubs are - the Inferno is a strange grotto of a place - places where Dodo melts and disappears, just as her personality (what little there is of it) will be absorbed into WOTAN's network. Michael Craze as Ben is by comparison the lesser of the two new cast members, but still makes an impression. He's got that period slang down (birds and duchesses, oh my) which is sure to bug the Doctor, and a deep need for adventure. He didn't sign up for no barracks duty! He's quick to come to Polly's defense and can handle himself in a fight. It's like these guys are auditioning to be new, younger, hipper versions of Ian and Barbara, and they just got the part.

THEORIES: I've addressed why WOTAN would call the Doctor "Doctor Who" in the main review, but what about its knowledge of what the acronym TARDIS stands for? Has the Doctor left this information somewhere in history to be indexed in WOTAN's considerable databanks? Or is there a more immediate answer? Is it, for example, in contact with the TARDIS itself? We've seen it take control of people through phone lines, and the TARDIS does have a phone in its exterior shell. Could the Post Office Tower be broadcasting a signal that can be picked up by other machines like the TARDIS? Maybe it's even why the Doctor felt something was off as soon as he stepped out. If WOTAN has access to at least some information from the TARDIS' databanks, that would make it even more dangerous, and perhaps even have sparked its leap to sentience. Alternatively, might we see in its Nordic call sign an echo of the evil god Fenric? If an entity like that was behind the computer, it could explain why it has so much knowledge and power, though the guiding hand behind WOTAN would not be revealed by serial's end. And then there's the novel Original Sin that claims Tobias Vaughn (The Invasion) funded the research that created WOTAN, so there's a Cyberman connection there, if you want to acknowledge it.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - It feels like a new beginning, and Polly especially makes a great first impression. It's amazing how often we'll return to this episode's structure in future.

Siskoid Radio: Geek Out! - March 24th

"If you treat action figures like statues, you might be a geek..."

Had to work last weekend and missed my show, so as a penalty, I've given myself a challenge: To play 7 songs that reference one of the 7 founding members of the Justice League of America. Hope you like my choices. If you couldn't listen or understand the French interventions, I supply the episode's playlist, with You-Tube links where available.

Intro tune: Doctor Who IX - Murray Gold
Introductions
Wonder Woman Theme
Geek News: This week's headlines include news of a new Doctor Who companion, and Michael Bay's take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Ring Capacity - Kirby Krackle (that's Green Lantern down)
Comics round-up: Basically a few of the week's tweeted comic book reviews
Aquaman's Lament - The Motion Sick
Fais de moi un cowboy - WD-40 (not on the Internet, sadly)
TV recommendation: Justified
Long Hard Times to Come (Justified Theme song) - Gangstagrass and T.O.N.E.-Z
Movie recommendation: Young Adult
The Concept - Teenage Fanclub
Geek Band: Lemon Demon
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny - Lemon Demon (mentions Batman)
Geeks in Love - Lemon Demon
Atomic Copper Claw - Lemon Demon
Superman Song - Crash Test Dummies
Geek 101: Death and superheroes
The Ballad of Barry Allen - Jim's Big Ego (and with the Flash, I'm 6 out of 7)
Les Sentinelles de l'Air - Kermess (the title is the French name of the Thunderbirds)
U.F.O. - Kermess
Jon Jonez - ErbaKnight (and Martian Manhunter completes the set!)
Napster Voodoo - Les Martiens (not available on the Internet)
Goodbyes and your Doctor Who theme remix of the week:
Surfwho - Sobermo

The show's on CKUM Radio every Saturday between 7 PM and 8:30 PM Atlantic Time (-4 GMT) on 93,5 FM in the Moncton area, or online, while capacity isn't exceeded, HERE.

Reign of the Supermen #418: Let's Be Friends Again's Many Supermen

Source: Let's Be Friends Again webcomic (2011-2012)
Type: SpoofCurt Franklin and Chris Haley's webcomic takes the piss out of mainstream comics every couple days, so Superman has obviously turned up a few times. Whether it's as the star of alien films (above), or flying Jesus around on his back...
...or being accused of hipsterism...
...or being written by regular guys...
...Curt and Chris always bring the funny. Lots more where that came from, follow the link at the top of the post!