Doctor Who #141: The Power of the Daleks Part 5

"Why do human beings kill human beings?"TECHNICAL SPECS: Missing from the archives except for a few brief clips. I have thus used a reconstruction (Part 1, Part 2). First aired Dec.3 1966.

IN THIS ONE... The rebels and the Daleks both make their moves.

REVIEW: If you've been waiting for the Daleks to go crazy and start overrunning the colony, this is the episode for you. The Daleks have multiplied and hold an insane, cacophonous rally, pumping themselves full of hate before putting their plan into action. When Lesterson tries to block the capsule door with a file cabinet, it's pathetic, but it's so ridiculous as to be funny too. He's terrified, and teeters on the edge of madness, but who could blame him? Every time he tries to speak up, somebody (Janley, the Dalek) lie about what he may have told them before to make him doubt himself. It's an incredibly cruel and well-executed smear campaign. Before this story, you could at least count on the Daleks to shoot you without resorting to destroying your reputation and dignity.

THESE Daleks are manipulative bastards! "Why do human beings kill human beings?" What's with the guilt trip? Skipping over the fact that it was the Dalek who actually shot the Governor even if Bragen gave the order, the Daleks are planning on exterminating the whole colony, capitalizing on the rebellion that's about to start. In their world view, though they are killers, they are better than humans because they don't kill their own kind. Well, they DO, but it's usually a mercy killing (also, see Theories). Seeing the way Bragen and Janley act, we might be inclined to agree, but we soon remember that not everyone is a Janley or a Bragen, while all Daleks are Daleks. Their purity is their greatest pride, and the one we condemn them for. But even in the rebel camp, humanity's not all bad. Just look at the minor character of Valmar who almost responds to Polly's arguments (this week, it's Michael Craze who's on vacation), until she attacks Janley on whom he is "soft". The Daleks could never relate with these emotions.

And the Doctor in this? Well, he also makes his move by breaking out of jail. It seems I jumped the gun on his interest in sonics in the previous episode. It's not that he's thinking forward to his sonic screwdriver, it's that the lock responds to a sonic key, something I completely missed earlier (the disadvantage of not having video to marry the audio). That he manages it by rubbing the rim of a glass of water is sheer brilliance. I do love the 2nd Doctor's MacGyverisms! Unfortunately, the sounds he makes don't unlock the minds of his captors as easily. Bragen sentences him to return to jail, which come to think of it, may be the safest place at the moment.

THEORIES: If these Daleks have traveled back in time from their destruction, then they know about the civil war that destroyed Skaro (in Evil of the Daleks). If so, the question has even more meaning. The civil war starts because the Doctor has infected some Daleks with the "Human Factor", a symptom of which is the ability to question orders and in effect, turn on their own kind. This Dalek may find humanity especially vile because of this.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - The episode could do with a little more Doctor, but the guest cast and villains do very well whether he's around or not. Even when it bides its time, it doesn't feel like it's WASTING time, as some of the middle episodes in The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth did.

Before She Was Wonder Woman, She Was...

She had a Steve to pine for then too. But a nursing license? Not so much.
And if those red jumpers don't inspire confidence, how about a change of clothes?
We just need to dig up a Wonder Woman paper doll costume for her and we're all set. And I know I have some somewhere.

Doctor Who #140: The Power of the Daleks Part 4

"Ben, I've found a message in code. It's an anagram, you just take the capital letters, see, work it out yourself." "Oh, I can't do crosswords."TECHNICAL SPECS: Except for a few brief clips, the episode is missing. I've used a reconstruction (Part 1, Part 2). First aired Nov.26 1966.

IN THIS ONE... The Doctor and Ben spy on a rebel meeting while the Daleks start mass-producing.

REVIEW: The Doctor really is quite charming with his clown act, at least, to the audience. This episode marks the first time he's ever said "I would like a hat like that" (about Bragen's deputy governor's cap), perhaps not as iconic as "When I say run...", but a recurring gag during his first season. Speaking of firsts, he also tries to open a lock with a dog whistle and amusingly, only manages to make a dog bark outside. Is this perhaps the origin of the sonic screwdriver? Only a man who knew what sonics could really do would attempt something so silly. And of course, there's all the clowning around when a Dalek is present, acting scared so that he appears less of a threat. Well, isn't that pretty much what the Daleks have been doing themselves?

It's no surprise that the Daleks have been using the materials supplied by Lesterson to mass produce, but while we have some fun footage of a dozen Daleks coming out of the capsule (through the easy trick of just going 'round the set), I wish we have more of the production line. From the pictures, there are mechanical arms, sprays and foams, mutants grown in a boiling soup and placed on the skirts before the tops come down. Looks awesome. What HAS survived is the cheapest bits of the sequence - toy Daleks on a moving belt and Daleks chanting in front of a cardboard cut-out army. They almost pass muster, but some angles show the trick quite clearly. Still, I like it when Doctor Who gets ambitious.

The characters in the story are ambitious as well, and may fail just as much. Janley is a beautiful monster, as bad as the Daleks, sedating a distraught Lesterson after blackmailing him with his lab technician's death. Bragen is on the cusp of usurping power from the Governor and throws the Doctor in jail with Quinn. And both seem to believe they can control the Daleks. They should look to Lesterson as a cautionary tale. After he realizes the Doctor was right, the man has something of a breakdown. I like how seeing the mutants inside has gnawed as his sanity like he's in a Lovecraft story. Having seen the ugly light, he might have a chance.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - Despite some production flubs and a sad lack of Polly, the episode still hits some high notes for the Daleks and a number of intriguing moments for the Doctor. But when will they unleash their fury?

Star Trek #1432: Vulcan's Vengeance Part 1

1432. Vulcan's Vengeance Part 1

PUBLICATION: Star Trek #7, IDW Comics, March 2012

CREATORS: Mike Johnson (writer), Joe Phillips (artist)

STARDATE: Unknown (sometime after the Star Trek movie)

PLOT: The Vulcans have recovered Red Matter from the site of Vulcan's destruction, but the Enterprise is unable to stop it from being stolen by a masked party. One of the culprits is revealed to be a former Narata crewmember who would really like to avenge Nero. What the Enterprise doesn't know is that he's working with Sarek. The Enterprise decides to follow them into the Neutral Zone without asking permission.

CONTINUITY: Various elements of the Star Trek movie are featured, including Rura Penthe, crewmen from Nero's ship the Narada, Red Matter, and Spock's father Sarek. Boma makes an appearance (Galileo Seven). The destroyed subspace relay on the Neutral Zone evokes events from Balance of Terror.

DIVERGENCES: The story starts in a "forgotten corner" of the Delta Quadrant, which seems a bit far for the ships of the era. Obviously, it's somewhere on its frontier with the Beta quadrant (and thus, the Romulan Empire), but the bar features Alpha Quadrant races like Tellarites and Andorians. Using the Beta Quadrant might have been more appropriate.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Kobayachied AND Marued!
REVIEW: Now that's more like it! The more vocal readers have been clamoring for material not based on TOS episodes, and we finally got one. More please! (Or at least pick stories that would be vastly changed in the new timeline, like Amok Time.) Using Nero's surviving crew is a good idea, as they have the ability to throw the timeline into even more of a lurch. But if they're goal is to give contemporary Romulus the means to build more ships like the Nerada and Red Matter weapons, why is Sarek on board with the plan? If the title is to be believed, then is Romulus actually about to get its ass destroyed? And if so, why are Nero's men on board? So it's got a nice little mystery going and big, big stakes. The comic balances action and characterization nicely, and I do like this more reckless Spock. He's happy to give his stamp of approval to crossing the Neutral Zone (no longer a bureaucratic impediment to Kirk as he was in the film), and gives a good speech about what it means to be a Vulcan survivor even as he threatens a Vulcan scientist with a forced mindmeld. The art is a bit uneven, perhaps too reliant on photo referencing, and the coloring tends to give everything an aura that just makes Phillips' clean lines muddier. These are minor complaints however. I WOULD like to see some proper covers on this series, though. The photo montage stuff is really generic even when it tries not to be.

Doctor Who #139: The Power of the Daleks Part 3

"She's looking around, there's a lot to see in the colony. She's interested. I like that."TECHNICAL SPECS: The episode is entirely missing from the archives. It's off to a reconstruction again (Part 1, Part 2). First aired Nov.19 1966.

IN THIS ONE... One Dalek becomes three, and Bregan is revealed as the murderer and manipulator behind everything non-Dalek.

REVIEW: The Daleks are a lot like the Doctor in this episode. Like him, they reveal themselves move to the audience than they do the people around them, except that instead of reference some trip to China (which we know about, but the companions don't), they almost blurt out that they're better than humans. So we know, it's only a matter of time before they try to kill everyone, even of the colony is quite happy to believe they make fine servitor robots. And like the Doctor, they've adopted a disarming strategy, in their case quite literally, going so far as taking off their own gun arms. It's probably a safety precaution, because their plans wouldn't work if they mistakenly shot too many people (one person has died already, but it was covered up). Seeing the Dalek ineffectually click his empty gun socket reminds us that these guys are always quick on the trigger, fueled by rage as much as static electricity.

The humans also show their hand, and we start to understand the relationships at work. Janley is only pretending to work with the rebels in order to foster instability. She's actually working for security chief Bregen who has killed the Examiner and thrown suspicion on deputy governor Quinn for it. Quinn is revealed as the one who called for the Examiner in the first place, which doesn't put him in the governor's good graces to begin with and ends up in a cell while Bregen takes his place. A proper Richard III, that one. And then there's Lesterson, who's so obsessed with his experiments he doesn't notice Janley steal a Dalek gun. If by now you don't know what happens to people who try to use the Daleks for their own ends, just give Mavic Chen a call. Oh wait. You can't.

And our heroes? Well, it's interesting that instead of taking credit for his companions' good ideas or calling them stupid like the first Doctor was prone to, this Doctor lets them take the lead. Ben's been doing all the theorizing since they arrived on Vulcan, and even gets a compliment out of it. I love the quotation about Polly I used at the top, as it shows a real paradigm shift for the Doctor/companion relationships. They are no longer little girls to be protected or idiots that need everything to be explained to them. The Doctor actually likes them for their curiosity, bravery and resourcefulness. It's a paradigm that holds true today. Of course, Polly gets herself kidnapped (as Anneke Wils goes on vacation), but that's neither here nor there. The Doctor gets to play the boffin and say "What I say run, run" for the first time, in case you're wondering when the second Doctor clicked into place. He's there after less than three episodes.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - As we start to play the Daleks' waiting game, we may get frustrated, but the plot thickens and there's great joy at discovering what makes the new Doctor tick.

This Week in Geek (02-08/04/12)

Buys

Only a couple DVDs this week - The Greg the Bunny IFC Original Series Best of the Film Parodies, both volumes.

"Accomplishments"

DVDs: Though Eureka Season 4.5 is the continuation of Season 4, it has its own arc and feels like a complete package. One of my favorites too. They continue to milk the aftermath of the temporal changes wrought in 4.0 to give the show a good characterization backbone, added Wil Weaton and Felicia Day to the cast of regulars, but most of all, made the arc about a space race to get to Titan. I'm a huge sucker for space program stories, and the continuing story of crew selection provided just the right background for all each week's A-story. Nice guest stars along the way (like Ming-Na, Dave Foley and Grand Nagus Zek), and it builds to an exciting finale. The DVD includes some extended cuts and commentary tracks on key episodes, lots of deleted scenes, a gag real, a featurette about the seasonal arc, and the crossover episode with Warehouse 13 "Don't Hate the Player".

The Wrestler is a raw look at a broken down pro wrestler played with intense naturalism by Mickey Rourke (and mirrored in the broken life of stripper Marisa Tomei) by Darren Aronofsky, and I use the word naturalism in more than one sense. The performances ARE very naturalistic, bordering on the documentary, as we learn the tricks of the trade and see pro wrestlers interact before and after matches. It looks to be a hard life, but one with camaraderie. It's also naturalism in the literary sense, with protagonists unable to elevate themselves beyond their present positions. It could be a depressing film, and it is a tragedy, but it avoids it, I think, by celebrating its main character and not judging him, only presenting him. Like the Black Swan, the Wrestler may die doing what he loves, and is that really a sad thing? The DVD only has Bruce Springsteen's video of the title song as an extra.

Equilibrium is one of those grand dystopias like Farenheit 451, 1984 and Gattaca - and it may remind you of any of these - but it has its own message. In the world of Equilibrium, emotion has been outlawed, and agents known as Clerics are tasked with finding those who aren't taking their meds and destroying the emotion-inducing works of art they hoard. Christian Bale is perhaps the best Cleric that's ever been, but when he misses a dose by accident and starts to feel, he turns against the regime. So it's about self-medication and desensitization, and while I wouldn't call it an iconic SF masterpiece, it is at least a solid entry in the genre. The marketing seems more geared towards action fans, and it does have some of the sweetest gun fu I've ever seen. The DVD is supplemented by a short making of and two very illuminating commentary tracks (director and director/producer, the latter more about the production details than the ideas at work).

The Men Who Stare at Goats would make a good companion piece to Norwegian Ninja (a film I've shilled for this year because it's bloody brilliant, that's why). Both films are based on real-life alternative warrior manuals, both are completely ridiculous, and both are incredibly sincere. The Men Who Stare at Goats is the more mainstream of the two, however, with a stellar cast (Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey) and heartfelt comedy. It's about the U.S. military's real life efforts to use psychic powers in the field and makes creative use of the book by the same name, crafting a fictional story set in Irak to present its research. You won't want to believe it, but there it is. Very funny, surprising, and ultimately, a feel-good movie. One thing that bugged me is that the super-soldiers are called Jedis (this is real), and they have Ewan McGregor play a guy who seems to never have even heard of Star Wars. That called attention to itsel even though, as the director's commentary explains, they didn't even realize he'd played a Jedi before when they cast him. The DVD also has a second commentary with the book's author telling us what's real and what's a fiction, a featurette that talks to the real Jedis fictionalized by the film, a making of, and a few deleted scenes.

When I finished Greg the Bunny' s only (half-)season on Fox the other day, I was left wanting more. Well, there WAS more. The Independent Film Channel, where Greg and Warren the Ape were before Fox picked 'em up, took them in again in 2005 to do more film parodies for them as a way to present specific films. The first season features 14 episodes ranging from 7 to 15 minutes each, a blend of 2005 material and some of the classic stuff from 1999. There are some great puppet parodies in there of the Godfather, 2001, Plan 9 from Outer Space and Natural Born Killers, for example, and a really disturbing Eraserhead parody, but where the most yucks are for me, is when the indulge in the behind the scenes stuff (which is often). The Pulp Fiction episode had me busting a gut because it was all behind the scenes. I just love to see puppets being interviewed with a cigarette in their hand and flipping out at the disrespect, you know. Fun DVD package too. Like the Fox series DVD, each menu has a soundtrack with various characters doing improv, and there's a commentary track for every episode and all the deleted/alternate scenes. The 20-minute outtake reel has some funny stuff as the puppets go off-script. And there are galleries of behind the scenes pictures as well.

Our Kung Fu Fridays selection? The Bastard Swordsman, a late (1983) Shaw Brothers film, and one of their rare full-on magic wuxias. WHAT A STRANGE AND WONDERFUL FILM! The plot is nothing new. A clan challenges another clan, but a third clan has infiltrated the first one and attempts to steal its secrets and destroy from within. Our hero is a poor, bullied servant who is being secretly trained to do kung fu at night by a mysterious benefactor. Convoluted, but simple enough. Into this comes some really crazy chi tricks as characters fly around the room, gravity gives out entirely, people shoot laser beams from their hands and our hero gets encased in a cocoon and comes out a beautiful butterfly. That last one is only a mild exaggeration. There is actually some chi-powered web-spinning in this. Whenever you thought you'd seen it all, there was more. At everyone's insistence, I and my rubber arm immediately ordered Return of the Bastard Swordsman, because we just have to know if the guy with the Fatal Skill also gets his ass handed to him.

Audios: Finished The Ice Warriors, as narrated by Frazer Hines. Even if only a third of its 6 episodes are lost, the BBC still made an audio for it in its Lost Episodes series. It introduced the Ice Warriors to the world, a monster I wish the new series would bring back (though I fear they won't do another Reptilian species so soon after the Silurians), and I can't wait to watch the surviving episodes to see what it all looked like. Moving glaciers and ice caves and of course, the aliens. There's also a large human cast and a strong theme of science vs. nature that I quite liked. The Volume 4 boxed set ends here (damn it, so much of Troughton is gone!), but it does include a bonus disc with interviews with the box's two narrators, Anneke Wils and Frazer Hines. Both have some interesting anecdotes to tell, though the former's sounds like outtakes of the interview she recorded from the previous box. Not complaining, as I love her to bits. I don't think they'll release Volume 5 before I get to its stories in the daily revues though. Ah well.

Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
III.ii. The Mouse-Trap - Fodor (2007)

Doctor Who #138: The Power of the Daleks Part 2

"Those 'lumps of metal' - Daleks - I want them broken up, or melted down. Up, or down, I don't care which, but destroyed!"TECHNICAL SPECS: Aside from very few clips, the episode is missing from the archives. A reconstruction was used, though I have, of course, listened to the audio CD narrated by Anneke Wills as well. First aired Nov.12 1966.

IN THIS ONE... Lesterson has been experimenting on a Dalek and manages to wake it up. It is our servant.

REVIEW: This script is incredibly clever and I'll hear point to Ben's use of Cockney, calling the Doctor "China" (China plate = mate), an exchange I would have found mystifying if I had never seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but it's representative of the entire serial's theme. Ben is transforming words just as the Doctor has transformed himself. The colonists have transformed the Daleks intoo servitor robots, but only by their perspective. The Dalek is obviously putting on a show, screeching "I am your serVANT!" in the cliffhanger - Victory of the Dakeks owes a great debt to this story - transforming itself, but not sincerely. And you have rebels running around making like they're loyal members of society as well.

Is this the first time we've seen the Dalek point of view? In a circle like that? It feels like it is, and even if it's not, it has an important function - reminding us that they certainly AREN'T robots, that there's a malevolent entity lurking in there, watching, plotting. When it meets the Doctor, it seems to recognize him, which is strange (see Theories), as is the Doctor half-remembering something horrible about the Daleks that he can't quite put his finger on. Troughton's performance is once again a highlight, continually keeping secrets, whether it's refusing to answer Ben's questions directly, or blowing in his recorder to prevent a companion from saying too much. He's quite good as a Columbo-like detective, questioning with enough sharpness, it puts the lie to his more clownish behavior. Even if Ben stays wary (getting a few good wisecracks in, like the Doctor not just being of two minds about something, but of two bodies as well), Polly takes to this funny little man, singing words with him and accepting him completely. She was always the more intuitive and personable of the two. But it's not all a put-on, as the Doctor has always been a character of contrasts. Though he has a darkness about him, he'll still rip a doorknob off by mistake or some other foolishness. He's BOTH the genius and the clown.

The colony's soap opera continues as well, adding to the mystery not only of the real Examiner's murder, but to the sabotage of the communication systems. Who called for an Examiner in the first place, and who murdered him? Could the deputy governor (Quinn) be after the top job, as Ben believes? Or is it all about the rebels? Or Lesterson's experiments? You get the real feeling in this episode that Janley is manipulating Lesterson so that the rebels might use his Dalek as a weapon, and he being a representative of scientific progress devoid of morality, is more than happy to do what she asks. The experiment is all. He doesn't care about "politics". The Doctor represents a more humanistic way to deal with science, a better way. And that's where we recognize him as the Doctor.

THEORIES: How can the Dalek recognize the newly minted Doctor? There's no real date on The Power of the Daleks, but everything points to the earlier days of space exploration, so only a century or two from now. The only other Daleks who met the 2nd Doctor are the ones from Evil of the Daleks which are more or less at the end of their history and have access to time travel. Of course, as soon as he meets them, they're destroyed. So could this be a Dalek who escaped Skaro's destruction in a time ship? This time traveler might have the Doctor's face on file. Rob Shearman's Dalek episode in the new series, like Victory, owes something to this story then. Not only that core idea, but there's even a line about a single Dalek being more than enough to exterminate the entire colony. Once the Daleks start reproducing as if there's a need to regenerate the race, it gives this theory even more credence.

REWATCHABILITY: High - If the change in actors is going to be a sort of mystery, then let's make the entire thing a mystery. And it works! Clever in the way to tries to reimagine everything you thought you knew about the program.