Doctor Who Season 5
Cybermen! (Twice!) Yeti! (Twice!) Base under siege! (Nearly every bloody time!)
In my attempt to watch all 870 episodes of Doctor Who — in order, from the start — I have reached up to Season 5.
In order so I commit, I’m inflicting observations onto the Internet. Not really reviews, there’s so many already, but observations and thoughts about the stories. Ideally, the production process creates some cohesive narrative but I’m certain that it won’t, real life being like that.
Anyway, here are my collected thoughts and stray observations from Season 5 of the program.
While reading this, it might help to have this playing in the background.
THE TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN
Episodes 170–173 (2 September — 23 September, 1967)
Describe in six words: The Mummy’s Tomb but with Cybermen!
The one where the Cybermen are released from their tomb, look menacing, and then go back to hibernate because the door’s locked.
What do we have here? For a long time, this was a ‘lost’ classic. Since its 1992 discovery, it’s been called a classic. It’s enjoyable, and only four episodes long. The plot doesn’t stand up to the slightest bit of scrutiny with some nonsensical padding where the Cybermen return to their tombs: a sign that base under sieges can manage at least one significant set piece before they use up the ideas of the set-up and need to resolve themselves. Still, the production team see this base under siege model as the future of the series so we’re stuck with this format for better or worse.
Notes:
The opening scene with the Doctor showing Victoria the TARDIS sets up the basic premise of the show which makes it a nice introduction to new viewers: A situation that it probably has now as the first complete Second Doctor serial. In 1967, it had only been 9 weeks between this episode and the last episode of Season 4.
Morris Barry makes sure some good depth-of-field shots here and some tableaux. This is a story relying on visuals to highlight subtext. Key moment: The Doctor talking to Victoria about “keeping an eye on things” with Kaftan in the background. Lots of close-ups and cutaways as well.
Music for action scenes! 😊 (Almost every occurrence is Space Adventure)
Never mind being bigger on the inside: Why does Victoria think the Doctor must be very old if he has a time machine?
Why does it take Cybermen being mentioned by name before the Doctor cottons on, despite the obvious Cyber-decoration?
The location is described as the city of Telos by Professor Parry. Perhaps we’ve all got it wrong, and Telos is a place on Mondas (although, it’s a tomb they uncover, not a city. Maps must either be written or read incorrectly)
In Ep 2, the Doctor is eager to get them to stay in the control room. Was his plan to get the expedition so far, let them get nowhere, force them to go back? Because then, the Doctor helps Kleig open the hatch and lets him thaw out the Cybermen. So what’s actually going on?
Cybermen seem to consider this story to be following the Moonbase (likewise, they considered The Moonbase to follow The Tenth Planet. There’s this little understated trilogy going on that goes undiscussed. Undiscussed largely because each depiction of the Cybermen so far are visually and thematically different.)
Cybermats increase in size between Ep 2 and Ep 3 from being easy to hold in Victoria’s hand to taking up most of Callum’s chest. (But of course, watching this weekly, perhaps that’s easier to get away with because all you need to remember are the odd Cyber-larvae critters, not necessarily their scale).
Love the Doctor’s moment: “Now I know you’re mad. Just wanted to be sure.”
THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN
Episodes 174–179 (30 September — 4 November, 1967)
Describe in six words: Evil space foam plays Yeti chess
The one with a Tibetan monastery in the vicinity of robotic Yeti.
Written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln at apparently Troughton’s request to do more stories set on Earth. The writers set their story in the Himalayas imagining it would all be done in studio. Instead, the production team booked a lot of filming on location to Snowdonia (perhaps imagining it would live up to its name. It didn’t). The character of Professor Travers was played by Jack Watling, Deborah Watling’s father. Recently released commercially as an animation accompanying the surviving soundtrack, although I rewatched the Loose Cannon reconstruction which has adorable CGI Yeti (which work best in the night scenes).
Notes:
No music for action scenes at all (budgetary reasons) but it doesn’t really feel missing. Although there is a niggling sound issue: By Ep 3 it is very evident that the sound effects in the courtyard are inconsistent. In Ep 2, snowy wind effect only happens when the gate is opening (leading me to believe this was an interior set when I was 9 years old watching this on my Lost in Time boxset). By Ep 3, they seemed to have realised their mistake, making it clear that it’s an exterior set. However, by Ep 6 they forgotten it again with the only nature sound effects coming from the scenes actually shot on location. (It’s my first non-animated, largely fully relying on the audio reconstruction in ages; these are the things you notice).
The return of the magic chest (since Power of the Daleks) producing the Holy Ghanta. And again, the magic chest implies past adventures.
Victoria: Oh, it’s a bell, Jamie (Watling adding some humour to Victoria). She’s quite fun which is not something she’s particularly remembered for. But she’s quite witty when leaving the prison. Victoria has done some training on the TARDIS’ systems evidently, having worked out to use the scanner (which is now on its own pillar).
What We Are Missing: A very long silent moment of the Doctor exploring the monastery courtyard and prison in Ep 1 and Troughton’s acting as he mentally battles Padmasambhava in Ep 6.
Padmasambhava’s voice is BRILLIANT! (Good work from Wolfe Morris).
For all the padding, which there is quite a lot, the episode reprises get into the action very quickly.
THE ICE WARRIORS
Episodes 180–185 (11 November — 16 December, 1967)
Describe in six words: Computer cannot solve stalemate? Fight aliens.
The one with the ‘melting-the-ice’ base in the vicinity of Ice Warriors.
Innes Lloyd’s formula of a base in a hostile environment under siege by monsters continues. By now, the myopia of some Doctor Who fans who think Season 5 is the program’s zenith is bewildering. It’s difficult to see how this is a cheaper approach than any of the previous stories. Myth has it that all you need is one big set yet we keep needing to cut to the alien bases. Myth has it that the characters are under siege yet we keep having excursions to-and-fro, frequently with Character A leaving only to create drama when we can have Character B go out to rescue them. Hardly a siege. And a base commander who doesn’t listen to the Doctor mainly out of pride and a general sense of hating other people. In saying all that, The Ice Warriors is probably the best of the lot. There’s a theme at the heart of it all, characters have a greater sense of interiority. Yet, it still has us waiting six episodes and uses the same old tricks to fill time.
Notes:
Difficult computer voice again. Sounds like a child gurgling. By Episode 5, the subtitles are mishearing “minutes” as “megs”
“Oh no,” says Victoria when the Doctor hears something wrong: She knows they’re in trouble.
Avalanche set piece in Ep 1 and bear (wolf?) attack scene, fairly well-edited (very rapid cuts mixed with stock footage). Establishes the environment as dangerous, not just polystyrene rocks.
Clearly set after The Abominable Snowmen: lots of references: “on ice,” “not again,”, the Doctor says they’ve “been on retreat. In Tibet.”
Ep 2: Storr and Penley are like a married couple: Could there be something extra (There’s something implied between Penley and Garrett but I find it hard to believe).
Jokes: The Doctor using a chemical dispenser machine to get a drink of water; Storr describing himself as a loyalist and Jamie being excited; references to the Doctor’s sense of dress.
The film sequences in Ep 4 look beautiful. So glad this exists (Also, the entire chase sequence: Can you imagine that being animated?)
Problems with Base Under Siege beginning to show (beyond repetition): The Ice Warriors aren’t really holding anything to siege (same with the Cybermen in ‘Tomb’ and the Yeti last story), at least 4 sets need to be big: the Base, the Plant Museum, the ice Warrior spaceship, and the tundra.
Ep 4 has a pointless cliffhanger leading to a weak reprise in Ep 5 (The countdown is different).
Suddenly, Penley talks about Storr in the past tense (did he see Storr die?)
Interesting overhead shots of Zondal communicating with Varga.
The world is implied: other bases, Clent’s desire to save face, conscripts.
THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD
Episodes 186–191 (30 December, 1967–27 January, 1968)
Describe in six words: Who doing Bond, then out-doing itself.
The one with the Doctor’s double being a dictator on the make.
Finally! A break from the formula established in the last three serials. Proof that Doctor Who can still be exciting. Inspired by James Bond and other spy-fi shows of the time, this has to be a globe-trotting adventure full of set pieces and foreign locales. Obviously, Doctor Who can’t really afford that. What a clever idea of Whittaker’s then, to obscure just how non-exotic the locales are (A beach! A park! A kitchen!) and the diminishing returns of action set-pieces (There’s a very exciting helicopter chase and explosion in Episode 1; an exciting but rushed assassination attempt in Episode 2! And then some crockery gets broken in Episode 3.). Having the villain be the Doctor’s double allows the show to go off in a different direction and have the main source of tension not be the Doctor stopping the Bond villain but actually meeting the villain. Deliciously, Whittaker keeps us waiting until the final episode. Even more delicious, is that Whittaker keeps us waiting until the final scene. How brilliant!
Lost until 2013, this serial got some heavy re-evaluating. Its reputation during its wilderness was a vague sort of non-commentary beyond Troughton’s dual roles. I do wonder, if perhaps children’s imaginations (and the myopic Season 5 zealots’) would have been captured if rather than some deluded individuals it was an alien species Salamander was keeping underground. The Troughton era really does equate ‘Otherness’ with evil, in part because it commits to its base under siege model requiring evil monsters. But it’s unfair to ask David Whittaker, who does so much for Doctor Who anyway, to resolve all of Lloyd’s problems.
Notes:
Episode 1: Opening on film: makes it feel bigger. After years of fan articles and guidebooks constantly regurgitating the description of the Second Doctor being a “cosmic hobo”, we finally get to see it in again with Troughton’s Keaton-esque antics running into view of the screen on the beach and then running towards the camera when examining the hovercraft. The first half of Episode 1 is constant and instant action: Anton thinks he recognises the Doctor, tells Astrid, she warns Giles, the rescue, Astrid is shot, momentary pause to patch up Astrid and get exposition, back under fire, escape, helicopter blows up.
The Doctor’s doctorate is of “no medical significance” which is different to The Moonbase — perhaps Polly questioning his degree from Lidster made some kind of impact. (Brilliant dialogue between Astrid and the Doctor: “Who’s law? Which philosophy?”). Episode 1 proves itself to be quite a find.
Season 5 continues its habit of setting each story after the last one through references at the start of the new story as opposed to the Hartnell era’s method of teasing the new story at the end of the current one. Here, the Doctor uses the “on ice” joke again to explain where he’s been, and Jamie makes references to the ioniser (The Ice Warriors being very recent history then). Enough time has passed for Victoria to dress up as Jamie and for no-one to comment on this.
During the United Nations report, a journalist calls him “Leader Salamander”. This honorific is repeated throughout the story, despite Salamander’s status as a politician being very dubious.
Ep 2: Barry Letts playing with depth of field, dirtying the shot, Victoria and Jamie framing the image of Ken, tree branch waving over an establishing shot. All very technical. But Barry, please find a new music cue.
“Disued Yeti?” joke.
No reprise at the start of Ep 3.
I love Salamander justifying his blackmail: “I’m actually suppressing facts about you.” (Troughton seems to enjoy that line too).
Watching Episode 4 for the first time, without knowing much about the story beyond Troughton’s dual role, the Record Room sequence and the people in the bunker was a wild and brilliant sudden left-turn. Still enjoyable on a rewatch. Episode 4 works quite well that I didn’t even realise Jamie and Victoria were absent until I saw them being carried in at the start of Episode 5.
Salamander really seems to like Swann: Why else would he try to let someone who knows the Truth go back in the Bunker instead of killing him.
Love the description of the TARDIS as “something the three of us have in common”
Love how the Doctor cottons on to the bunker based on admin (like Al Capone and his taxes). Astrid works as a de facto companion so much that her discovering the bunker makes up for the fact that the Doctor never actually visits or gets to discover it for himself beyond asking about the food supply.
I do wish that the double exposure effect worked: The Doctor and Salamander meeting at the very last scene is such a genius concept but the whole (music-less) sequence is too rushed to get even close to the spectacle promised. (Although, the Doctor being the Doctor is great: Saying that they’re going to send Salamander outside with “no friends”)
THE WEB OF FEAR
Episodes 192–197 (3 February — 9 March, 1968)
Describe in six words: Station sieged by Yeti. Expect delays.
The one with Yeti in the Underground
Jamie and Victoria seem to have learnt some skills about how the TARDIS works (both know the light flashing means they ought to have landed; both help the Doctor check if the TARDIS is working, and Jamie knows where the Doctor keeps technological bits and bobs) However, this probably doesn’t extend to them being able to fly it (cf. The Enemy of the World). Is this knowledge brought out by their travels, or is it that Doctor Who is so focused on being an adventure series, that it must upskill its historical characters but then play up Victoria’s background as a frightened miss to put her in peril, and Jamie’s background for comic relief about his intelligence?
“Funny, isn’t it? How we keep landing on Earth?” — Odd thing to lampshade but then again, the Doctor’s right. How used are we knowing about Jon Pertwee’s Earthbound adventures to forget.
Time seems to have passed between the Silverstein/Travers scene and the Knight and Chorley/Travers scene.
Victoria cottoning on to it being the Professor Travers before Jamie is delightful. So is watching Travers’ joy at seeing Jamie and Victoria again (He seems to know them more intimately than he got a chance to in the Abominable Snowmen)
Episode 3: The DVD tele-snap recon does lots of zoom in and outs to help it be active (although downright distracting once you realise how consistent it is. Surely, let a few tele-snaps just ‘be’)
Ep 4: Camfield’s direction: Use of depth-of-field to great effect (makes sets look bigger). Really obvious in Ep 4 , especially favouring Troughton in the foreground
Watching the Colonel become the last man standing is actually genuinely sad and unnerving, especially after Arnold’s and Knight’s death.
Ep 5: The Doctor pairing up with Anne works: they’re fun, respect each other equally (the Doctor always talks of the control box as being Anne’s). You can see why Liz Shaw was created.
FURY FROM THE DEEP
Episodes 198–203 (16 March — 20 April, 1968)
Describe in six words: Seaweed monster in pipes hates screaming.
The one with the Seaweed Monster and where Victoria’s screaming saves the day
Notes:
After the Doctor mentions how often they end up on Earth, Jamie and Victoria do it here.
What We Are Missing: The escape in Ep 1 is some much-needed comedy. Would love Ep 4 to be found due to some lovely scenes between Jamie and Victoria.
How nice to see where people live (the Harris’ residence) after so many stories in bases with people only obsessed by their jobs.
Victoria suddenly has escapologist capabilities.
Ep 2: How did New Zealand understand what was happening when they censored the Oak and Quill scene in the Harris bedroom.
Robson (the chief) is really unlikable. People discussing as much doesn’t alleviate it. It goes from him being annoying to being obviously stupid: This is a recurrent issue with the Troughton base-under-siege.
Ep 3: Victoria foreshadowing her moment. Same moment in Ep 4 during Jamie’s nap. Real attempt at setting her departure up (in contrast to Vicki, Katarina, Dodo, Polly and Ben).
By Ep 4 I’m really wishing for a scene on one of the constantly-referred to rigs. The video calls feels ages ago and insignificant: we don’t really get to know Baxter or see where he works (I’ll even accept stock footage, just something to see/understand the world).
Beach scenes are very dramatic (although, as a location it’s too rare in Doctor Who that it makes me think of The Enemy of the World again)
We finally see the rigs in Ep 5 with another helicopter action sequence, just like the beach scenes, a bit too rare and too close to Enemy of the World.
THE WHEEL IN SPACE
Episodes 204–209 (27 April — 1 June, 1968)
Describe in six words: Cybermen re-enact Eagle Has Landed unsuccessfully
The one where Zoe joins
Notes:
The TARDIS seems to pick up how much metal is in an area.
David Whittaker lets his interests show here: Mercury (Jamie knows what mercury is and what it looks like), food machines, and the TARDIS trying to communicate through montages.
Ep 2: Nice bit of Jamie being defensive about his clothes to Gemma and Zoe.
Nice dialogue bridging with Duggan asking Jamie “When will this Doctor character be up?” and the next scene being Gemma and Jarvis discussing him.
Ep 3: Surviving episode and it reminds me why I loved this story as a kid (having only watched the surviving episodes and reading the tele-snaps). Quite a lot happens at the start, Cybermen hatching from eggs (yes, really). Scenes follow each other nicely: For example, Jamie saying “the Doctor told me” cut to the Doctor who then has a close-up which fades to the Cyberman’s close-up.
Why divert the Silver Carrier to Station 3 when it was already heading towards it?
Top of the set visible during Jarvis’ reprimand of Bill.
Ep 4: The Doctor describes the Cybermen as “ruthless, inhuman killers” — A line that Troughton will be using frequently in Cybermen adventures from now on. He describes the Cybermen quite well here, a sad loss for the type of people that make documentaries about the monsters.
Making Zoe the one to find the Cybermat works to get her on-side quickly and stop with all this scepticism that only serves to slow the plot and make characters stupid.
Gemma’s and the Doctor’s conversation about Jarvis makes it clear he is mentally ill.
Ep 6 (the only other surviving episode): Everyone reacts to news about Gemma’s death — This is new to the series where characters act as functions rather than people with relationships more often than not.