Doctor Who #33: Hidden Danger

"No opinion can be worse sometimes than a very dogmatic one."TECHNICAL SPECS: Part 3 of the Sensorites. First aired Jul.11 1964.

IN THIS ONE... The Sensorite Elders agree to meet the Doctor's party, but their City Administrator doesn't trust them and tries to kill them.

REVIEW: We continue to learn more about the Sensorites, but there's a lot of repetition in this episode, a sure sign of padding. We discover they have a caste system they are quite content with, and that "Sensorites" are only one of these casts (presumably the telepaths, but they look the same as the Elders). They fear physical confrontations and are defeated by the Doctor armed with a light switch. Their Elders aren't any more stylish though they accessorize with black sashes or collars, according to their rank. It's a handy way to tell them apart, but the writer really should have resisted the urge to explain all this to us. It's part of the script's redundancies. Sometimes information is repeated, and sometimes it's just not necessary. We got it. Pretty obvious, really. We don't see much of the planet, but it's a welcome break from the dreck that is the ship. One the Sense-Sphere, there are no sharp angles. Everything is rounded (perhaps the designer's inspiration was the word "Sphere", but it does make at least one room look like a TARDIS interior full of roundels), and the buildings outside, as seen rather quickly through a window, makes me think of the town of Bedrock, for some reason.

The most important piece of information, however, is that the Sensorites were burned by humans some years earlier when five people came to the Sense-Sphere and started fighting each other over the planet's riches, a fight that ended in an atmospheric explosion that released a deadly disease into the air (there's an echo of the Aztecs' final fate in there - I wonder if it was on purpose). It doesn't take a genius to figure out Ian's been infected with it via tainted water in the final scene, nor that the water carries the disease (the characters aren't as quick the audience on this one). It's one of two ploys by the distrustful City Administrator (who seems to be third in the Elder hierarchy) to kill the landing party against orders. It's a better one than the dreadfully slow disintegrator scheme that sounds like the Sensorite version of bingo (and which our heroes have no hand in stopping). Skip the system checks, next time, sheesh! (The heroes' eating scene isn't much better as things start slowing to real time again.)

When the plot is slow and the dialog repetitious, I seek refuge in the character moments. It's unfortunate that Susan isn't allow to fulfill the promise she made in the previous episode. She's instead absorbed in a larger party and returns to being under-utilized. It is interesting however to see a bit of teenage rebellion in her, and her first argument with her grandfather, ever. She's growing up and he's not liking it. Barbara, the "mother", understands this much better, of course, though she's left aboard the ship with Maitland. It's Jacqueline Hill's turn to go on holiday for a couple weeks (she'll be missed). Ian's role isn't much more than choking on plague water though. Even Carol and John get bigger parts, she seeing her love slipping away, and he, promised a cure to his affliction, sensing good or bad through the haze of his madness.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium-Low - It's a lot of people, some in masks, some not, standing around and talking, often making points they've already made. Rather dull.

Reign of the Supermen #405: Tim's Pal, Superman

Source: Tim Publications official Superman-Tim fan club (1942-1950)
Type: Non-canon (marketing)There is a world in the wide multiverse where Superman doesn't hang out with Jimmy Olsen. Instead, he hangs out with a self-reliant boy named Tim. Who is Tim? A brilliant inventor, a positive thinker, a co-presenter of puzzles, a shill for the Superman-Tim clothing line, a time traveler thanks to his Whirlaway Watch (take that, Olsen!), , and a boy who taught younger children how to be better citizens and suggested ways to kill the enemy! Get your membership card today! (Thanks Internet, I knew you'd have one.)
More on this at Dial B for Blog!

Doctor Who #32: The Unwilling Warriors

"Well you come from nowhere and you seem to be going nowhere."TECHNICAL SPECS: Part 2 of the Sensorites. First aired Jun.27 1964.

IN THIS ONE... The Sensorites board the ship and refuse to free the crew because they know too much - namely about a rich ore deposit on their planet.

REVIEW: What the Aztecs did for Barbara, The Sensorites attempts to do for Susan. She seems to grow up in this one, and the strong empathic skills she's shown in the past are brought to bear as she becomes, more or less, the telepathic conduit between the aliens and the humans. She appears well able to explain psychic phenomena, and takes to the task with calm and bravery (see also Theories). Though she's best suited to the task, all the women have a stronger connection to the Sensorites, even Carol, while the Doctor is deaf to them. It's less a Time Lord thing than a female thing. The dialog isn't drawing attention to it, so I'm not sure why, though looking through the somewhat sexist point of view of the era, it may be that women's more emotional minds are more open to the Sensorites. They do say mineralogist John opened his mind to them when he got excited by a rich molybdenum deposit, after all, and fear acts as an open door. However, it seems to be a two-way street, as all the women can sense the Sensorites up to one point or another.

And we do finally get to see a lot more of the Sensorites and they're really not as rubbish as I was once led to believe. They have no sense of style, and those stethoscopes/telepathy boosters look silly, but the masks are fine, the suction cup feet are a fun trait, and their short stature works for these cerebral creatures. They're not meant to be particularly threatening physically, and though Ian tries to treat them as Voord or Daleks, Barbara brings him back to reality with her sensible analysis of the situation. They're a threat, but not monsters. Their perfect solution to their problem is simply to put anyone who would want to exploit the Sense-Sphere in a colony where they would be well treated, but never allowed to leave or tell their secret. Their mental powers and technology allow them to enforce this pacifist ideal, though of course, there's also the matter of the debilitating side effects prolonged exposure to their mental attacks can have on the psyche. There's mention of Sensorite warriors, but these are unlikely to be much of a physical threat, not when loud noises and the dark seem to hurt them so much. Can they really survive in the vacuum of space? I have half a mind to call that shot of one outside the porthole a mental illusion. Creepy and dramatic, but it has no effect on plot.

So that's the set-up. What was that disastrous first contact with Terrans? What will happen with the molybdenum MacGuffin? How will Susan fare as she leaves the safety of the TARDIS family to go down to the planet with the Sensorites? Will they recover the TARDIS lock? (So the Sensorites DID remove it... weird.) There's enough here to keep you watching.

THEORIES: Time Lord telepathy is now a fact. While the classic Doctors rarely made use of it, and usually only with one another in multiple Doctor episodes, or in passing, or perhaps as a powerful form of hypnosis, Doctors 10 and 11 have made clear use of it in several episodes. At this point in the series, however, the term "Time Lord" is years from being coined. Susan obviously has abilities beyond those of humans, but the Doctor does not. Or does he? Unlike Susan, he's making a conscious effort to keep his mind closed to the Sensorites. It may even be the cause of his irritability here, because his harsh "Do as I say!" to Barbara is otherwise slightly out of character. We also hear him tell Ian that sometimes he can read what he's thinking, but that sounds like a joke. New Who Doctors require physical contact, so it's not like he he has a telepathic field around him he can tap into. Maybe a pat on a companion's shoulder is more than it appears. Then again, can we take any future Doctor's abilities are evidence that the first Doctor has them too? Like dozens of other traits - physical and mental - the level of telepathic ability may vary from incarnation to incarnation. A regenerated Susan, for example, might have far weaker psychic ability. Or it may prove one of her constants. We'll never know (in-canon, at least).

REWATCHABILITY: Medium - The plot is developing nicely, Susan gets a strong role for once, and the aliens aren't half as bad as fan wisdom would have you believe.

Kung Fu Friday Moments: The Van Dammathon

Yesterday, we spent 13½ hours (counting dinner break) watching 7 Jean-Claude Van Damme films. I decided to live-tweet the event and given I'm a little tired this morning, I'm going to reprint those tweets here (plus any guest comments from the Twitterverse). Coherent capsule reviews on Sunday, as usual.

Preambles
-Today, a KFF special event, our Van Dammathon! 7 Van Damme movies from noon to midnight, and I'll be live-tweeting it under hashtag #JCVD
-Because I'm not that quick typing on an ipod, I probably won't be filling your tweetdeck with copious amounts of #JCVD coverage
-So non- #JCVD fans probably won't feel the compulsion to unfavorite me. I'll probably blog the results tomorrow as well.
-#JCVD Attending are @idiotbrigade @nathgoguen Isabel and St-Pierre. More will join.
-We're doing it chronologically. Bloodsport it is #JCVD-Arrived just in time: Ann-marie & Marc Burner
-#JCVD haha starts with a literal ice breaker!
-#JCVD is shower shy #dontaskdonttell
-#JCVD Accent excuse no.1: His dad is French.
-#JCVD Geez that flashback is right out of Proust.
-#JCVD 12 minutes in, we have achieved 1st split!
-#JCVD America's well represented by Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds. Ooh karate arcade game.
-If_I_fell_ : @Siskoid bloodsport is still quoted daily among my childhood friends and a vhs copy must be kept as initiation.
-#JCVD Forest Whitaker !?!?!!!!?
-#JCVD Wait, this isn't a Superstation original movie?! back to the least secret secret fighting ring...
-#JCVD So this underground event has a sponsor?
-#JCVD Dude, don't taunt Bolo! He fought Bruce Lee and Black Belt Jones!
-#JCVD Kumite theme song underscored by some awesome monkey kung fu!
-#JCVD 80s tasers have 2 giant USB jacks. Did any of those rockin 80s tunes survive?
-If_I_fell_ : @Siskoid the biker guy was the Danny Trejo of the 80s
-#JCVD Van Dammmmmn butt shot, all for skanky Lois Lane's benefit
-#JCVD Half the game seems to be showboating... and now you're dead.
-#JCVD Doctor can't find Ogre's heart. No... that's the clavicle. Dude, you're almost in the armpit...
-#JCVD Slow mo Jcvd expressions are the no.1 reason to watch Bloodsport
-#JCVD Bloodsport - the secret origin of Daredevil
-#JCVD Bloodsport - based on the true story that for legal reasons had to be remade as The Quest
-#JCVD Universal Soldier is next! Dolph Lundgren guest stars in a Roland Emmerich (gag) film
-#JCVD 6 minutes in and both leads are dead.
-So does every #JCVD film have an interfering female reporter?
-#JCVD TV's Conan is... the Universal Plumber.
-#JCVD The Universal Soldier program - so secret, we'll only discuss it on the news, but no pictures!
-#JCVD Reason for accent no2: Human robot (also, for the lack of acting)
-#JCVD Another butt shot for the benefit of a skanky Lois Lane. Drinking game coming together. Also lots of flashbacks.
-#JCVD Nothing like an army of Unisols to make you lose your damage deposit.
-#JCVD Reason for accent no3: When asked, deny you have one.
-#JCVD Those ear puns are on the level of Mr. Freeze's ice jokes in Batman & Robin.
-#JCVD I wonder what kind of club Kitty's is. Too subtle. Does the whole movie take place in America's shitholes?
-#JCVD Lois, how did you miss your bus ? It was right THERE!
-#JCVD I think the lesson if this movie is that you need drugs to be a winner. Slow clap, Emmerich.
-#JCVD Lundgren smoothie anyone? And yet he returns in the third sequel.
-#JCVD BODYCOUNT'S IN THE HOUSE!!! What the hell does that even MEAN?
-#JCVD John Woo's Hard Target is up next! (watch for dove alerts)
-#JCVD rocks a curly, greasy mullet. Yeah, that's not coming back any time soon.
-#JCVD Reason for accent no4: Cajun.
-#JCVD Lesson: Don't put your pathetic one-candle cake, lit, in a drawer.
-#JCVD Fact: A slide guitar soundtrack makes everything more badass.
-#JCVD True villainy is washing the blood off your hands in the victim's fish bowl.
-#JCVD DOVE ALERT!!!
-#JCVD Aww I thought for sure he would end up with the only cop in New Orleans.
-#JCVD Where would John Woo be without motorcycles I ask you.
-#JCVD Make no mistake, JCVD WILL punch your snake.
-#JCVD DOVE ALERT!!! And in a totally explodable disused factory. John Woo gold.
-#JCVD A Mardi Gras float factory! Did JCVD just wink at a dove?
-#JCVD Lance Henriksen almost got his crotch exploded! Uncle Duvet character find of 1993.
-#JCVD 's make-up guy is just called Zoltan. ZOLTAN!
-#JCVD During the dinner break, @MartyLight joined the party! Up next... Street Fighter! (And may God have mercy on our souls.)
-#JCVD The film that killed Raul Julia... Wha? Kylie is in this?
-#JCVD Street Fighter, based on the sequel to the game!
-#JCVD They tell me there are a dozen characters of the game butI'm afraid I have NO context
-#JCVD Features a guy who used to be Iron Fist. Getting my references crossed already.
-If_I_fell_ : @Siskoid If someone has a name and seems strangely shoehorned in, they're a character.
-slaymonstrobot: @Siskoid Don't hate me, but I actually sorta liked the movie...
-#JCVD Reason for accent no5: Despite the USA tattoo, works for the UN. That's international!
-#JCVD 21 minutes in and the lead has just been killed. These are short movies.
-#JCVD Ok Raul Julia is pretty awesome. "Then I would have ripped out his spine. The road not taken."
-#JCVD Note another female journalist mistreated by Jean-Claude. A ninja journalist.
-missmartin: @Siskoid I love ninja journalist, actually I think I have a thing for them... #jeudiconfession #JCVD
-#JCVD The war is canceled. We can all go horm... Guess what, nobody wants to go horm.
-#JCVD Bison makes some amazing cocktails and has a sweet bone chandelier.
-#JCVD Bison will fight the Allied Nations with an arcade machine.
-#JCVD Release the Hulk!
-#JCVD "Hostage pit open. Hostage pit open." Imagine recording that.
-#JCVD Doesn't Ken understand no one will want to play him if he runs away. Ryu knows.
-IdiotBrigade: @Siskoid All anybody plays as, is Ken. LINK
-#JCVD That's what I call platform shoes with variable height!
-#JCVD Now they're all doing their special attacks! FINISH THEM (wrong game)
-#JCVD FINAL GROUP ACTION PHOTO!!!
-slaymonstrobot: @Siskoid Fact: those are all their actual victory poses from the video game.
-#JCVD After credits scene - WORLD DOMINATION REPLAY! Now on to Sudden Death - Die Hard at a hockey game!
-#JCVD Game 7 of the Cup Stanley finals. The stakes couldn't get any higher. I sure hope a Canadian team is involved.
-#JCVD Reason for the accent no6: A Quebecker despite the English name (it's a common phenomenon actually)
-#JCVD Oh it's the Blackhawks... but these Penguins are filled to the gills with Canadians.
-#JCVD My apologies to Powers Booth. For some reason I remembered him as Huey Lewis.
-#JCVD PIT 1 CHI 1 - "It's hockey, you don't need to think." Americans just don't understand the game.
-#JCVD If the Zamboni gets under 50 mph, the evil mascot will kill the little girl.
-#JCVD Oh tranny mascot, you thought you would Pengwin, but you Penglost. (not mine, blame the room)
-Johanne_4: @Siskoid Boo the room. #JCVD
-#JCVD CHI 2 PIT 2 - the secret service didn't get the Die Hard memo from the FBI
-#JCVD is MacGyver. And beware Puckhead in the audience. He'll give you a piece of his mind.
-#JCVD CHI 4 PIT 3 - JC is now on the ice. He's got to goal and... HE'S STOPPED IT!!
-#JCVD To get off the ice, starts a fight. But when it comes to bad guys, it's skates to the face!
-#JCVD CHI 4 PIT 4 - But does the goal count if the player is in slow motion but the timer isn't?
-#JCVD Helicopter crash on the ice! Misconduct 2 minutes
-#JCDV So we'll never know who won the Stanley Cup?!??!! (the Canadian POV may differ from the norm)
-#JCVD Zoltan lives - he applied Vam Damme's makeup through the 90s... Double Team next!
-#JCVD Ooh Tsui Hark! Also, Mickey Rourque! But sadly, Dennis Rodman.
-#JCVD Reason for the accent no7: Lives in the south of France.
-#JCVD 2 anal sex jokes already and I'm not counting the title. Ooh I didn't expect underwater bondage.
-#JCVD I love being in the hands of a Chinese director. The action and visuals are crazy awesome, but the dialog is ridiculous
-#JCVD He wakes up in the Village?! Where's Number 6 when you need him?
-#JCVD Now leaving the island thanks to the plane that obviously brings coca-cola to the Village.
-#JCVD Parachutes are yesterday's news. Now introducing giant basketball technology. ---BOMB BABY!!!
-#JCVD In Rodman, they finally found an actor who speaks less clearly than Jean-Claude.
-#JCVD Disguises. Rodman as a pimp. Van Damme as Robert Downey Jr. Tsui Hark as John Woo DOVE ALERT!!!
-#JCVD Cyber-monks?!? And I thought the guy who held a switchblade in his foot was cracked out.
-#JCVD Roman arena, loose tiger, Rodman on a motorbike, baby in the middle. #badparenting
-#JCVD An explosion of Coke machines. Now I've seen every permutation of product placement possible.
-#JCVD Up next, JCVD... in the original French!
-#JCVD I didn't expect it to be that viciously funny! Haha tidy whitey SWAT guy.
-#JCVD It's over, lots to digest and it's late. So I'll take care of it in This Week in Geek Sunday

With Twitter, who needs to keep a journal? Am I right? And thanks to all my KFFFriends for much of the material above. I stole liberally from the room.

Doctor Who #31: Strangers in Space

"Now let the intelligence be our only defence and attack!"
TECHNICAL SPECS: The is the first episode of The Sensorites, a story that will be released in January (Region 2) or February (Regions 1 and 4). I can't stop and wait, so I watched it on Dailymotion. First aired Jun.20 1964.

IN THIS ONE... The TARDIS lands on a spaceship where the small crew is beset by creatures called Sensorites who can control their minds and prevent them from leaving their area of space.

REVIEW: The word "hack" comes to mind. I know SF is popular with the kids, but at this point, it's what Doctor Who is worst at. The production design on the ship is cheap, but that's expected. What it doesn't need to be is silly, and that's exactly what the ship crew's uniforms are. What is this, pilots with rockets pointing at their ties? We've also got Barbara and Susan missing "WATER" signage that's so big it can be seen from across the room, white on black and the only one at that, and no one noticing them opening the door that should not be opened only a few feet away from them. We've got musical stings in the "Tan-tan!" mold. We've got Sensorite ships incoming that look like Lima beans. We've got a lot of fists-on-temples "get out of my miiiinnnnd" acting. And it all starts with a forced recap sequence that almost launches us into a clip show (thankfully, they hadn't been invented yet).

But it's not all bad, even if none of it is particularly good. Though the "we've all changed" scene doesn't tell us anything about that change, the characters really do seem more at ease with each other in the episode proper. Ian and Barbara have settled into the role of adventurers and are positively giggly when the Doctor claims he never interferes or feels curious. Barbara and Susan are immune to Sensorite mental attacks because they don't feel fear, which is certainly a welcome development (if it sticks). The mystery presented has potential. I don't mean the seemingly dead crew members who suddenly wake up from suspended animation (geez, it must be uncomfortable to fall into a deathly sleep in those chairs), but rather the untold reason why the Sensorites would want to keep visitors around and in a state of terror, but not kill them. Prolonged exposure to their mental attacks has turned John into a potential threat, so his colleagues have locked him up in a section of the ship. Because Barbara looks like his sister, the girls are able to pacify him, and it doesn't devolve into a zombie movie. Susan's empathic skills are once again hinted at (though Barbara has a certain intuition too, and guest character Carol seems more resistant to the fear projected by the Sensorites... a girl thing?).

As usual, there's a reason for them to stick around - it looks like Terry Nation's "melting lock" safeguard first mentioned in "The Daleks" has bit them in the ass. Either the Sensorites melted it on purpose or they were trying to get inside, but this is probably where the TARDIS loses that silly feature. The characters' deduction that the Sensorites came and did this, then left and now return for the cliffhanger is nonsense, of course, because they'd have been warned by that whining sound. So the Sensorites must be coming to get their saboteur who was already aboard. I do like the look of the Sensorite outside the ship's window in the cliffhanger, though it looks more adorable than dangerous. Like a suction cup animal in your car window. Fan wisdom would have it that the Sensorites are rubbish-looking, and I'm not disputing that (the gloves fiddling with the TARDIS lock offer some proof), but in the limited exposure they're given in the final shot, they are striking. I've slammed the production a lot, but I will give props to the special effect of Barbara looking out the viewscreen at the Sense-Sphere during the averted crash sequence. Primitive, but does the job.

THEORIES: In Planet of the Ood, a graphic will reveal that the Ood-Sphere and the Sense-Sphere are in the same solar system, so you might want to look at how the Sensorites and the Ood resemble each other as we go through these episodes.

REWATCHABILITY: Low - Almost everything about this episode is shoddy.

Halo Joins a Band

Batman and the Outsiders #9 - Pages 16-18
So here we go. The finale to that Outsiders/Masters of Disaster jam-up was postponed for a Halo solo story, so it better be a good one. Halo's secret origin maybe? Don't hold your breath. We will not answer any origin-related question. We will, however, be able to answer this one: Do the Outsiders have any redeeming features without the Aparo art? But I'll let you make the call about the Bill Willingham/Mike DeCarlo job. For now, let us join Halo in the Wayne Foundation basement, where Halo has already started talking...I've made sure you could read the absolutely wonderful prose of one Mike Barr (I refuse to suffer alone). So right off the bat, I'm wondering three things. 1) If we're in the basement, what is that window looking out onto?
2) What's that piece of stone on the table? Is one of the Outsiders a Close Encounters fan? Or is that actually an Outsider - Metamorpho spying on teenage girls in the basement?
And 3) Who is Halo talking to? Haha, don't be so critical Siskoid, it's just Mike Barr breaking the fourth wall for fun. This is just a kooky story that takes a break from the usual narrative. Or is it?*
Whatever the truth, Halo sure is pulling an Ambush Bug here. If you don't remember what she's talking about (and who could blame you), issue 3 featured a scene in which she was intuitively able to play the piano. What she's reminding us now is how that particular aspect of the character hasn't been touched on in over 6 months! At this rate, we'll find out who Halo is sometime next year. 2012 sounds about right for such revelations. So okay, from piano to flute, as Halo does her American Pie mash-up.
It's good to see teen superheroes interested in extracurricular activities. I think improv or reading the dictionary would have been better after-school committees for her, but marching band's fine. But at Edison High? Issue 6 showed her high school to be in the middle of town (the stadium looks to be a bus ride away) and painted white - like its students (oh no, you didn't go there - why, yes I did). Edison High is where Black Lightning teaches and in the same issue, it is portrayed as a red bricked inner city school. Was there a Crisis that merged School-1 and School-2 while we weren't looking? The DCU's continuity IS confusing, isn't it? But then, we're dealing with a school that would allow "Tonite" to be written on one of its official banners. Wait, who's that?
Don't tell Katana, but Halo has a new best friend and her name is April Dave. (Oh, I guess that's "Daye".) Neither Halo, April, Dave, nor that tiny soldier boy in April's backpack will let "Greg" down. Who's Greg?
Our story's romantic lead. And inspirational too. While the teacher is "sick" (when I was in high school, that was code for doing jail time for poaching moose - well, in Physics class anyway), Greg keeps the troops motivated. I don't know if they actually play sports at that stadium, but the kids are really into competitive band marching.
Dating advice from Halo? She's still wondering why High School is at ground level. But April is a nervous Nellie. She can't ask a boy out AND have her parents in the stands. Or apparently, remember simple biographical details about her potential best friend.
She made Halo cry. Oh, the angst! And of course, Halo has no idea what "nerd" means. She does know she's in the marching band, right? And that dating advice may be premature. I'm not saying Greg is gay or anything. I don't have to. Mike Barr is strongly implying it. Cue phone call from sick teacher.
Graffiti, impending muggings, sports teams called Rattlers... Ok, NOW I recognize Gotham City. As it will soon be revealed that the attacker is from a rival school (Carmichael High), wearing your letterman jacket kind of defeats the purpose of wearing a ski mask. It's not gonna take Batman to solve this one. The writing's pretty much on the wall... or the sky:
Someone's making out with him in the back of a station wagon! I mean OFF, making OFF with him.
And in case nobody sees their jackets, these turkeys (I mean, Cardinals) have got a bumper sticker with their school name on it. They're just begging for a chase.
I guess the band members parked out back, because we just saw a parking lot and they're all running back into the stadium. There's only one person who can help Greg now! She is the one called Sailor Moon!
Copyright lawsuit pending.

Five pages to go, but we'll have to continue this discussion after Christmas. I'm just not in the mood for an episode of Glee right now. Meet back here for Boxing Day?

*You'll have to wait for the conclusion to this story to find out the truth.

Doctor Who #30: The Day of Darkness

"You failed to save a civilisation - but at least you helped one man."TECHNICAL SPECS: Part 4 of The Aztecs. First aired Jun.13 1964.

IN THIS ONE... As the eclipse looms, the TARDIS crew manages to narrowly escape Aztec sacrifices, duels and weddings.

REVIEW: The last chapter of this serial is a little more action-oriented, as the characters rush to get to the TARDIS before what they've set in motion gets them killed, but there's still some of the courtly intrigue I enjoyed so much in the first three chapters. John Lucarotti's script has trapped our heroes into a surprisingly adult gray zone. Though Tlotoxl and Ixta are nominally black hats, acting dishonorably even according to their culture's values, from their point of view, it's Yetaxa and her servants that are the real troublemakers. Through her actions, Barbara condemns Autloc - the one good man she meets - to exile in the wilderness, his faith shaken, his position lost. The Doctor kindly tries to comfort her by saying she "saved" him if not the society (compare to the family saved in The Fires of Pompeii), but we know the truth. She destroyed the man. Any notion that his "soul" was saved is a 20th-century artifact that only means something to Barbara, and perhaps, the audience. Cameca fares a little better, but while there is no doubt the Doctor was enamored of her, he was still using and manipulating her for his own ends. By deducing that he was going to leave before ever marrying her, she keeps her dignity, and hopefully nothing bad befalls her for helping Susan escape (unlike that poor guard).

The action is of two types. First, there's the engineering that must happen for the TARDIS crew to get into Yetaxa's tomb where the ship is. In such an ancient culture, you can't have the characters spout technobabble, press buttons and be done with it. The pace of television in those days, and how it was filmed, means we see the characters actually work out how to do it practically, because, well, the actors have to do it in real time! And it's not boring, just slower than what modern audiences are used to. But I bet it was a big hit with young boys who liked to get their hands dirty and perhaps build a wooden pulley of their own. And then there's the fighting. Unlike previous Ian-Ixta fights, this last one benefits from being edited on film, using stuntmen, and more dynamic camera angles (like close-ups and rushing-the-camera-type moves). Ixta's death is well realized, the top of the temple finally feeling like it was high up, the warrior falling to his death. So it's a good exit for a character who was always a little pathetic.

Endings are important here. As the eclipse begins, Tlotoxl lets the TARDISeers escape so he can turn his attention to the sacrifice at hand. There's a sense of a history only momentarily interrupted, and everything returning to normal. The whole story was a sort of eclipse, and in character terms, Autloc was the sacrifice. It's about the inevitability of history. But the final moment I'd like to bring to your attention is the Doctor replacing a coin of Yetaxa on the altar (the clue that made him discover the secret tunnel), and then gruffly taking it back. It's a lovely, subtle moment where the Doctor admits to himself (and no one else) that he really did care for Cameca, so he takes a souvenir of this adventure with him. So sweet an ending, and the brief shot of him dematerializing the ship before going to black reminds me of all those lonely console scenes after Tennant loses a companion and resolves to charge on alone. (Yes, there's a further scene that acts as cliffhanger, but it's too dull to mention.)

REWATCHABILITY: High - While there's a little less of that delicious cod-Shakespearean dialog, this is still a rather great resolution to all of these characters' stories. It's not a strictly happy ending, but definitely bittersweet.

STORY REWATCHABILITY: High - When people ask me to recommend a 1st Doctor story to get a feel for the era, The Aztecs is what I tell them to watch. Where Marco Polo was a meandering travelogue, The Aztecs is a more compact, tense and dramatic story. I don't think Barbara will ever get such a strong story, and the Cameca-Doctor relationship is charming and amusing. Ian gets to do a lot too, and only Susan is sidelined (not a bad thing considering how she was used for most of her time on the show). A real gem. I'd like to see its kind again.