Meggin Watches Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora

Italy. The 15^th century. And an alien energy wanting to take over humanity. It’s another day for the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith to stop hostile aliens from invading the Earth.

            While the Doctor and Sarah are taking a stroll through the TARDIS, Sarah discovers another control room that seems to fit the Doctor’s tastes better than the original one. However, when the Doctor activates the viewscreen, they discover that the TARDIS is drifting towards a peculiar time vortex that the Doctor says is called the Mandragora (pronounced man-DRAH-gohr-uh) Helix. And the Helix is drawing them in.

            After discovering that the intelligence of the Helix has landed them inside the Helix itself, the Doctor and Sarah quickly dodge behind the TARDIS to avoid a moving fragment of the Helix energy. Once the coast is clear, they head back into the TARDIS and dematerialise from the Helix, unaware that the fragment of the Helix followed them.

            The TARDIS lands in 15^th century Italy, and the Doctor and Sarah step out and enjoy the Earthly atmosphere, unknowing that the energy fragment has left the time machine as well and is affecting a devoted star-gazing cult.

            The Doctor and Sarah, after a tussle with the Brethren of Demnos, the cult hidden in San Martino’s catacombs, are taken to the city’s ruler, Guiliano, of which the situation is relayed to them.

            Guiliano’s uncle, Count Federico, has formed an alliance with the court’s astrologer, Hieronymous, so Federico can tell Guiliano that the late Duke of San Martino (Guiliano’s father) died at the fate of the stars, when it was really Federico’s doing. Federico wishes to be Duke, and so asks Hieronymous to make a “prediction” of Guiliano’s death so the throne can at last belong to the Count’s. But Hieronymous, secretly the leader of the Brethren of Demnos, has his heart set on gaining power over everyone on Earth after he is gifted with the presence of the Mandragora Helix, giving him ultimate power.

            The Doctor, discovering this, realises he must destroy the cult of Demnos’ temple in order to stop the energy of Mandragora from taking control of the Earth. He has until the end of the night’s lunar eclipse to return Mandragora to where it belongs...

            This episode is a great way to start off a new season of Doctor Who: it’s set on Earth, with costumes fit for Italians instead of aliens, and as the Dark Ages of Italy turns into the Renaissance, the history that we know of becomes threatened.

            I love that this episode is set in Italy. When I first glimpsed the Italians, I couldn’t help but remember Amy Pond from the new series saying, “Invasion of the hot Italians” (The Pandorica Opens). And for once, unlike that of the new series, the Italians actually look somewhat Italian (new Who failed on that with Vampires of Venice). The fifteenth century is also the time when the Italians step out of the Dark Ages and step into the light of the Renaissance era. People started applying art, science, and mathematics to everything. Religion was slowly being turned down for more technological advances. You see that this episode focuses on the area of astrology; Hieronymous consulted the stars and composed daily horoscopes for himself and the people living in the palace of San Martino. He could even decipher death in stars, having predicted Guiliano’s father’s death and Count Federico’s. One can also see that there were still some who refused to adapt to new forms of science. Guiliano considered horoscopes blasphemy in comparison to religion, but his views become somewhat altered when the Doctor steps into the palace, saying he is a man from the stars.

            One reference that I did notice was the relationship between Guiliano and his companion, Marcus (a GINGER Italian; so awesome). The way Guiliano confides in Marcus and also at times asks him for advice reminds me of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Horatio. The most recent version of Hamlet that I’ve seen is the Royal Shakespeare Company’s modernised film version with David Tennant (more commonly known for his role as the Tenth Doctor on Doctor Who), and the Hamlet-Horatio relationship portrayed in Masque of Mandragora reminds me of this.

            I also love Sarah’s dress in this. I bought one similar to this for the summer (before watching this episode...shows how much Sarah and I have in common...), and now whenever I wear it, I’ll imagine myself back in fifteenth century Italy...

            One funny scene-turned-serious that I love in this episode is when the Doctor is choosing a mask for Guiliano’s masked ball (apparently Leonardo da Vinci was there...). It’s the first time I noticed that Sarah points out that the Doctor jokes around not only to relieve tension, but to make light of grim situations. As the Doctor dons a lion’s head (VERY similar to that of Luna Lovegood’s), the conversation turns.

           Sarah: You know, the worse the situation, the worse your jokes get.

            (Doctor takes off the mask)

            Doctor: I think I’ll settle for the lion.

            Sarah: Things are bad, aren’t they?

            Doctor: Yes.

            Sarah: Very bad?

            Doctor: Desperately bad, but we can only do our best and hope.

            The Masque of Mandragora is the penultimate (next-to-last) serial in my classic Doctor-and-Sarah Doctor Who marathon of the summer. Up next is The Hand of Fear, which chronicles the last adventure Sarah Jane ever has with the Doctor for a long, long time. I’ll be sure to have several tissue boxes at the ready next weekend...

Meggin Watches Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom

Back on Earth, scientists exploring the Antarctic discover a pod unlike anything anyone’s ever seen buried in the frozen snow, estimating to be lodged in the ice for about twenty thousand years. Fearing a work of the alien nature, the scientists call on UNIT’s scientific specialist, the Doctor (with Sarah Jane Smith tagging along), to analyse the pod and find out if it could be a danger to humanity.

            The Doctor and Sarah arrive at the wintry scene via transportation from UNIT (really? Couldn’t the Doctor just travel by TARDIS?) and discover that the pod is in fact alien: a Krynoid species seeking heat, waiting to thaw and then latch on to the nearest human, and then take over the world by influencing all the plants to strangle humans to death.

            The Doctor, having heard of the Krynoids before, is aware that the Krynoid pods travel in pairs, and goes out into the freezing cold to find the second pod. After finding the second pod, the first is destroyed in a time bomb explosion that blows up the base where the scientists lived. The second pod gets plucked from the Doctor’s hands and is taken back to England, where it is placed in the care of a plant-obsessed man. In a special six-part story, it is up to the Doctor and Sarah to safely get rid of the last pod before it takes over the Earth.

            I was reminded of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening halfway through watching The Seeds of Doom. Except the plants are controlled by the Krynoid and involve strangling humans, not releasing suicidal gas. I suppose it’s a mildly common fear to be attacked by plants, as they actually have the potential to kill us all.

            On the subject of the Krynoid, the costuming and makeup for the Krynoid-infected humans is spectacular for its time. Really, just wow. It makes the Krynoids seem so realistic and scary. I certainly wouldn’t want to be slowly transfigured into a green, leafy alien.

And after a couple days, you can end up looking like this:

            Upon watching this episode, I noticed that the picture quality is superb. The previous story I watched was The Brain of Morbius, re-released on DVD in 2008; The Seeds of Doom was re-released just late last year, and you can tell the difference in the picture quality between the two stories. It certainly is one of the stories I just have to buy on DVD (yeah, I watched this via Netflix).

            Whenever the Doctor is around humans, particularly on Earth, he always shouts much more often than when he’s surrounded by anyone who isn’t human. I’ve seen this particularly in this episode, and many episodes in the newer version of the show. Whenever the Doctor encounters a human who possesses greatness and brilliant potential and uses these things to thwart humanity, he gets so cross. I think this is because the Doctor always views humanity as beautiful, and the human race reminds him of his home planet, and any human who turns down the evil path is like the bad side of Time Lords. I don’t think the Doctor wants humans to turn into the Time Lords, so he gently nudges us in the right direction. Now that I think about it, it seems that the Doctor wants to preserve us, in a way: we should only progress and advance for the better, but if we do something wrong, the Doctor must do something about it.

            The Doctor and Sarah get put under a lot of violent stress in this episode. While in Antarctica, the Doctor and Sarah are attacked by the Krynoid-infected human while trying to stop the time bomb. They end up having to escape without disabling the bomb, and have to trump through the outrageous cold until someone finds them. Mr Chase, the obsessive plant collector in England, attempts to feed the Doctor and Sarah to a compost grinder. Mr Chase’s armed guards keep pushing around the Doctor and Sarah. Mr Chase’s hired henchman, Mr Scorby, uses violent methods to get what he wants. As Sarah tells Scorby:

                        Sarah: You’re not complete unless you’ve got a gun in your hand.

Obviously, hired man-servants are meant to feel this way. For example, Butler from the Artemis Fowl series has been trained since he was born to fight, and follows close behind his master with several weapons up his sleeve. On the wrong side, Scorby is a horrible, terrifying baddie, but on the off-chance he happens to be stuck on the good side, he proves to be of great use.

            I was surprised at the extended absence of the Brigadier! When the Doctor demanded to reach the Brig to inform him of the Krynoid, some other UNIT official informed the Doctor that he’s still away in Geneva. After watching this episode, I did some research and found out that The Seeds of Doom is the Doctor’s last adventure of which he affiliates with UNIT until the special The Five Doctors, and even then, UNIT appeared only briefly. Could the Doctor have fallen out with UNIT, of which he was celebrated as their best scientific advisor? And after all these years, Martha Jones calls the Doctor back to UNIT in series four of the new Who, and the Doctor insists that UNIT’s tactic of “shoot first, ask later” isn’t his style. This saddens me so (a bit; like the Doctor, I’m not a big fan of UNIT’s style, either) because I really wanted to see Harry Sullivan (of whom I was particularly fond of), the Brigadier, and even Sergeant Benton reprise their roles. Well, thankfully, the Brig returned for an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures…

            One minor reason why I love this episode (almost as much as Genesis of the Daleks and Robot) is that Sarah has FOUR outfits in the span of six episodes. I’m among many, many fans in the world who absolutely adore Sarah’s style, and I’m glad she’s had the time to change into several outfits in this episode.

          Season thirteen of Doctor Who has a certain dark, Gothic theme to it, as I’ve explained in greater detail in my previous review of The Brain of Morbius. This episode is the last of this goosebump-enthralling season with its superstitious season number, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Meggin Watches Doctor Who: The Brain of Morbius

The planet is called Karn. It is dark, cloudy, gloomy, and overall gothic. The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, taking the shortcut back to UNIT via the TARDIS after their encounter with Androids trying to take over the Earth in The Android Invasion, have been driven off course to Karn. What caused the TARDIS to land there? Who caused it? And are they friend or foe..?

            The Doctor, seriously peeved at what he assumes is the Time Lords for taking them to Karn, sits and patiently waits outside the TARDIS for the Time Lords to make their appearance. But his notions change when Sarah discovers a headless Mutt, or Mutant: an alien race from the Doctor’s past. As lightning illuminates the strange surroundings for a moment, Sarah glimpses a wide, rugged terrain littered with wrecked space ships. What could possibly cause all the ships to crash? As lightning continues to brighten the sky, Sarah also discovers a castle. As it starts to rain on the time-space-travelling duo, they head towards the castle for shelter, and hopefully some answers.

            Upon knocking at the door of the castle, the two gain entry and are introduced to its inhabitants: a well-skilled surgeon named Solon, of whose work the Doctor is familiar, and Solon’s Igor-like servant, Condo. As Solon helps remove the waterlogged coats of the travellers, he appears to gaze more often at the Doctor’s head, as if forming calculations of it to himself...

            The Doctor and Sarah engage in conversation with Solon and learn more of Karn and its inhabitants. They are informed of the Sisterhood of Karn that lies near the castle.

The Sisterhood, once on friendly terms with the Time Lords, worship the Elixir of Life, a powerful draught made from the Flame of Life that rises from the planet’s core to the surface. The Elixir has the power to cure fatal wounds, bestow immortality, and, for Time Lords, help the regeneration process. But the Flame runs low, and the Sisterhood fears that the Time Lords are stealing the Elixir for themselves. One member of the Sisterhood, having seen the Doctor and Sarah land on Karn earlier, informs the leader of the Sisterhood of the Time Lord’s presence, and the leader, who assumes the Doctor is here to steal the Elixir, plots to capture the Doctor and make him suffer for his crime.

As the Doctor is prepared for burning at the stake by the Sisterhood, Solon, discovering that the Doctor has been taken from the castle, confronts the Sisterhood and demands to save the Doctor’s head for his latest experiment. Failing at his attempt, the Sisterhood begin the ritual of burning, but are cut short by the Doctor’s escape, thanks to Sarah.

Soon, all is revealed: Solon’s latest experiment is to reanimate the body and mind of Morbius, an exiled and executed Time Lord. The brain of Morbius survived the brutal execution, and Solon, devoted to the memory of Morbius, has for many years faithfully recreated him with the organs of bodies from the wrecked space ships. Only the head is left, and the head is the most crucial part of the surgery. The head must perfectly encase the brain of Morbius, and unfortunately, the Doctor’s looks like a perfect fit...

I have noticed that this season of Doctor Who (season thirteen!) has much more scary elements than its previous seasons. Terror of the Zygons: The Loch Ness Monster is not just a legend. Planet of Evil: Jekyll and Hyde-like attributes caused by chemical alterations from antimatter. Pyramids of Mars: Mummies do the bidding of an ancient Egyptian god. The Android Invasion: No, you’re not seeing double – it’s actually an evil robot in your likeness. The next serial after Morbius is called The Seeds of Doom, and the title itself sounds chilling. The Brain of Morbius certainly reminds me of many gothic films I’ve seen: Frankenstein, Sweeney Todd, Dracula, and even some elements of The Nightmare Before Christmas (although that was a couple decades after Morbius). In fact, the producer of this episode was thinking of Frankenstein when imagining the story of Morbius. In 1976, gothic stories and films were being released left and right, and the society loved it. So why not make a darker season of Doctor Who?

The setting is definitely eerie and it gave me goosebumps when I first saw the serial. The fog machine has been working overtime on the set; fog shrouds the ground and rises several feet whenever one attempts to walk through it. It’s just like stepping into a Halloween theme park. Yes, this episode is definitely perfect for a night in on Halloween.

I’ve never heard about Morbius before watching this serial (I didn’t even know he was a Time Lord...), but from what I’ve learnt about him in this episode, he sounds like one of the most dangerous Time Lords that ever lived, perhaps even rivalling the Master. When Solon reveals that he has been reconstructing Morbius, I thought that meant out of humanoid parts, so as to give Morbius a body similar to his last incarnation. But I never expected Morbius to be reconstructed out of the parts of all sorts of aliens...

In this particular series, the Doctor and Sarah appear have this new, close relationship towards each other. It’s not romantic, more like very close friendship. In the previous serial, The Android Invasion, while walking through the Earth-resembling town in the opening of the first episode, they engage in friendly conversation that is utterly witty and hilarious. One cracks jokes while the other smiles and hastily replies with another quip. It’s just smile-worthy, and it makes me wish for the adventures of the Doctor and Sarah to never end.

I can’t help but point out the new jacket that the Doctor is wearing...It’s a brilliant grey one, and reminds me of the Eleventh Doctor’s tweed jacket with the elbow patches. I hope to see this – and the return of the red jacket – in future episodes.

            So, with stifled thanks to the Sisterhood for an act of kindness, the Doctor and Sarah leave Karn and go...where? Well, The Seeds of Doom is sitting next to me, so I’ll find out soon...

Meggin Watches Doctor Who: Planet of Evil

After the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, and Harry Sullivan returned to Earth and dealt with the Zygons and the legendary Loch Ness Monster in their previous adventure, Terror of the Zygons, the Doctor convinces Sarah to take off with him in the TARDIS and return to UNIT HQ instead of taking the Earthly way back like the Brigadier and Harry. However, the Doctor winds up cleverly taking them away from Earth and on to another mind-spinning adventure.

            The planet in question where the Doctor takes Sarah is called Zeta Minor, the last planet on the edge of the universe. There happens to be a distress call coming from the planet, so the Doctor and Sarah investigate, hoping to come to the rescue. They realise that they are months too late when they land on the planet and walk into an abandoned scientific lab and stumble over a couple of odd-looking corpses. But they aren’t the only ones to have received the distress signal...

            The other arriving party is a military space ship sent out to rescue the scientists on Zeta Minor. The Doctor, Sarah, and the military crew discover the whole story of the events on the swampy, unforgiving planet. One scientist in particular, Sorenson, went out on an expedition to Zeta Minor looking for any source that could “repower” the dying sun in his race’s solar system. Upon discovering minerals on the planet that could theoretically do so, he excavates several pounds of the minerals and is ready to leave the planet. Throughout his expedition, however, his team of seven other scientists are being killed off one by one by some mysterious creature. Sorenson is left alone, waiting for anyone to pick up the distress signal and take him off the planet. When the military ship and the Doctor and Sarah arrive, he is ready to do just that. But there is something more about these minerals that Sorenson doesn’t know about that the Doctor soon discovers.

            The minerals found on the planet happen to be particles of antimatter, and any attempt to take the minerals off the planet would end up with catastrophic results. But why mustn’t the antimatter be removed? The Doctor discovers a strange pit on the planet, and to fall into this pit is not simply to fall to bottom of it; the pit is actually a void between two universes, the one we live in and one composed of antimatter, and Zeta Minor connects these two universes. But hold on, it gets even weirder than this.

            There is a sort of guardian on the planet, which the Doctor and Sarah dub “the Anti-man”, and if any of the antimatter on the planet is attempted to be removed, it will do whatever it takes to make sure the particles never leave.

            Still unmoved by the Doctor’s demands to leave the antimatter and find a new source to repower the dying sun, Sorenson keeps a stash of antimatter to himself, which alters his very person. It is up to the Doctor and Sarah to return all of the stolen antimatter to Zeta Minor before permanent harm is done to the military space ship and its crew.

            After watching Terror of the Zygons, I knew the Doctor and Sarah wouldn’t really wind up back in UNIT. One could tell by the look in the Doctor’s eyes that that wasn’t his original intention. It’s really easy to tell when the Fourth Doctor is just itching to embark on another time-travelling experience, simply just by looking at the way his eyes widen, his broad smile, his giddiness to keep going.

            By the way, when did Sarah have time to change outfits between stories?

From this:

To this:

            I love how the element of science used in this story is focused on antimatter. It was a great deal in the mid-‘70’s and it still is to most scientists today, and to see it play a big role in the future, where this story takes place, is relatable to us watching the show.

            The antimatter as the villain in this episode is a brilliant creation. It seems so much more scary and frightening when it doesn’t have a particular solid shape, as we usually perceive villains to be. We want our fears to take a solid shape, because having this mould to look at and to have sketched in our minds makes it a fear that we can grasp. However, when there is no definite shape to our fears, like if we fear a ghost or spirit or this “energy in physical form” in this story, we have no perfect image of it to relate to, so our fear is much less tangible and even more frightening. To have no definite shape makes it so much more difficult to figure out what it actually is.

            Zeta Minor kind of reminds me of the planet Dagobah from Star Wars. For those out of the loop, Dagobah is the planet Yoda inhabits, exiling himself to it after the rise of the Galactic Empire (gee thanks, Darth Vader). The swamps, low-hanging branches, odd plants, foggy atmosphere, and rough terrain on Zeta Minor are so similar to that of Dagobah that I sometimes couldn’t help thinking that Yoda himself would pop up out of nowhere in Planet of Evil.

            While I witnessed the physical change of Sorenson, I was also reminded of another classic theatrical figure. The way Sorenson is slowly becoming overpowered by antimatter and is transforming from himself into some horrible beast, back and forth until he is a permanent monster reminds me of Jekyll and Hyde. Only after watching the special feature documentary of this story were my assumptions confirmed; the producer of this story based Sorenson’s chemical alteration on The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde. Called it!

            So, will the Doctor and Sarah return to UNIT, as the Doctor promised in the previous episode? Chances are the TARDIS will throw them off course yet again...

Meggin Watches Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen

Finally, the Time Ring takes the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, and Harry Sullivan back to space station Nerva, where they hope to part company with the friends they made there. However, the Time Ring takes them a bit too far into Nerva’s past, placing them on the space station thousands of years ago, before the solar flares engulf Earth. And there’s something on board that’s affecting the crew...

            Once the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry discover the countless bodies littering the corridors of the space station, they know something’s afoot. With a bit of fiddling with the locking mechanism of a locked door, the trio come across four survivors trying to maintain Nerva and its objective.

            Before the solar flares, Nerva was commissioned to orbit what appears to be an uninhabited asteroid off the planet Jupiter (how very close to Earth...). The asteroid’s presence hasn’t been updated on the star charts of incoming space ships, so it is up to Nerva to warn space ships of its presence to avoid crashing into it. This assignment is said to take thirty years. This means that at the time, Nerva was more of a beacon than a space ship harbouring hibernating humans, like in The Ark in Space. The space station, however, was wrong about one thing: the asteroid, renamed Voga, holds an alien race in its core.

            When the Doctor is notified of Voga, he recalls its nickname, the Planet of Gold, and realises that the Cybermen are involved.

            The Cybermen are a mostly cyborg race. They used to be a humanoid race, until they kept “upgrading” themselves with technology and artificial parts for self-preservation. Usually their main goal is to upgrade the rest of the universe. However in this story, the Cybermen want revenge.

            The reason why the Doctor connected Voga with the Cybermen is because of the Cyber-Wars. Voga is well-known for having the largest supply of gold in the universe, and when the humans realised that gold is the Cybermen’s only known weakness, they could use the gold to overthrow the Cybermen and end the Cyber-Wars. This happened, but one ship survived (as it always happens on Doctor Who), and is now ready to destroy Voga and regain the power they lost. Little do they know that they’re up for a taste of their own medicine...

            Once Sarah has been affected by the very poison that took the lives of most of the Nerva crew, the Doctor sends Harry, Sarah in his arms, via transmat to Voga for the cure. Sarah and Harry are then taken by the Vogans inhabiting the asteroid (should it be called an asteroid or a planet?), and have been informed by the Vogans that they are planning to launch a rocket heading straight for the Cybermen.

            With both the Cybermen and the Vogans racing to destroy the other first, the Doctor must pick the side he wants to help and aid them until the other is destroyed.

            This is my first classic Doctor Who arc featuring the Cybermen. The first time I saw them was in the two-parter with David Tennant (Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel), and they were a different kind of Cybermen compared to the classic ones. In series two of the revival Who, the Cybermen were created on parallel Earth by the Cybus Industries. They’re upgraded versions of the human race, similar to the Cybermen of old. Although the look of the old Cybermen is much different from what I’ve seen of the new series, they have the same sort of objective: to be the dominant figure of the universe. I did notice, though, that while the new Cybermen want to upgrade everyone in the cosmos to be like them, the older Cybermen don’t seem to portray that. Like the Daleks, they want total control. Perhaps it’s just in this story where they aren’t quite the same? I’d have to watch The Tenth Planet with William Hartnell as the First Doctor to understand them more.

            The character development award for this story goes to Harry Sullivan. When he was first introduced in Robot, he was UNIT’s military doctor who thought that “police boxes don’t go careering around all over the place,” but after he steps into the TARDIS, messes about with the controls, and is uprooted to a space station in the distant future, his aspect of life is changed forever. He asks much more questions than he did before, and he slowly grasps the concept of travelling through time and space. However, being the awkward third wheel of the Doctor’s usual bicycle, he often gets picked on by the Doctor. Whenever something happens out of an act of clumsiness, the Doctor always glares at Harry, and while the Doctor walks away, Harry asks Sarah, “What’ve I done now?” Deep in the gold-lined caves of Voga, Harry accidently causes a rock slide, knocking out the Doctor. When the Doctor comes to, he laughs at what Harry has done and shouts, “HARRY SULLIVAN IS AN IMBECILE!” Even though Harry may be the subject of the Doctor’s fun at times, he’s also very quick-thinking and agile. Just goes to show that his UNIT training pays off.

            I’ve noticed that the Doctor gets put in oodles of danger in this story. He is forced by the Cybermen to go to Voga with a bomb strapped to back to plant even more bombs in Voga’s core. He gets tied up with Sarah and is stuck on the vacated Nerva, which the Cybermen programmed to crash into Voga. He suffers from the rock slide that Harry unfortunately caused. He was minutes away from being detonated. It’s absolutely crazy. The director of this story was obviously trying to put the Doctor in more peril so the viewers could realise that what the Doctor does is dangerous, and it seems like going from one whirlwind to another.

            One thing that kept bothering me was the Gallifreyan symbol for the Seal of Rassilon on the walls of the Vogan structures.

At first, I was thinking, “The Time Lords are here! Whaaaaaaat?” but after the end of the third episode, my hopes gradually diminished with the absence of the Time Lords. Only after the arc finished did I Google search why it was there. Turns out, it’s the Vogan symbol, but the show’s designer liked the symbol and kept it for the Time Lords in future episodes. Darn...

            One thing still doesn’t get resolved for me: what happens to space station Nerva? In The Sontaran Experiment two stories back, the astronauts the Doctor was talking to said that Nerva doesn’t exist, that it’s just a legend. So what happens to it? Is there something in this episode that I missed?

            Revenge of the Cybermen is the finale of the twelfth season of Doctor Who, and the end of Tom Baker’s first. I must say this story is not particularly as spectacular as its predecessors such as Robot and Genesis of the Daleks, but it does have a certain air of finality to the never-ending adventures of season twelve. Since the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry took off in the TARDIS at the end of Robot, they haven’t had any time to stop and breathe. When I first began my classic Who marathon with Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen in The Time Warrior, I always thought that the adventures of the Doctor and his companion would be something along the lines of going off on a trip in the TARDIS, wind up on some alien planet, get involved in a tussle with some villainous aliens, and then pop back to UNIT for tea and a discussion about what just happened. Season twelve has definitely widened the playing field for Doctor Who, and I just hope that it won’t fall into a rut in the next season.

Meggin Watches Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks

Thinking the transmat beam will send the time-travelling trio back to space station Nerva, the Doctor is surprised to find that someone has interfered with the pathway of the beam, taking them to a war-scarred planet. When a Time Lord emerges from the fog and asks an incredibly huge favour of the Doctor on behalf of the Time Lords, the Doctor must go forth on the planet Skaro whence they where misled to and carry out the mission his race requests of him. His mission: to rewrite the history of the creation of the Daleks, so as to either wipe them from existence or alter their structure to make them less of a threat to the universe. Once the task has been completed, the Doctor and his friends are free to leave the planet by means of Portkey. Sorry, I meant the Time Ring that is gifted to them by the Time Lord.

            When the opening scene began, I thought it was straight out of the World War II time period, but it turns out that the planet Skaro has been going through a war resembling that of WWII for years. As the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, and Harry Sullivan scope out the planet to find the place to begin their mission, they observe that the military equipment used appears to come from a long string of time periods. There are laser guns, bullet guns, poison gas, and methods of centuries-old warfare, as well as gas masks and radiation sensors. The Doctor explains that these methods were used instead of from old to new, but quite the opposite way around. They started from the newest technology when war first broke out until they ran out of new supplies, so referring to older methods of warfare. This could only mean one thing: that this war has been going on for an insurmountable amount of time, for countless centuries.

            Seeking shelter in a bunker lying outside an enormous dome big enough to cover an entire city, the trio are bombarded by gunfire and poisonous gas. Hastily putting on the gas masks that decorates the faces of dead soldiers lining the bunker (to fool the opposing side that the bunker is guarded), the Doctor and Harry are taken inside the dome. Sarah, however, gets left behind...

            The Doctor and Harry discover the history of the war on Skaro while in the dome of the Kaleds. The Kaleds and the Thals are the two races that inhabit Skaro, and for many centuries they’ve been at war against each other for domination of the planet. The Kaleds inform the Doctor and Harry that they have a team of advanced scientists that are working on the ultimate machine that will help them win the war. What is this machine? Well, none other than the Daleks. The Doctor is eventually introduced to the inventor of the Daleks: Davros. But the Doctor and Harry weren’t the first of the trio to witness Davros and the Daleks...

            Sarah Jane, after waking alone in the empty bunker, wanders around outside the dome trying to find the Doctor and Harry, until she stumbles upon a secluded area inhabiting Davros himself. In hiding, Sarah discovers the Dalek for the first time, as Davros tests the Dalek by commanding it to exterminate a test subject. Sarah then runs away, into a group of Mutos, or former Kaleds that have been altered due to chemical mutations from the war. Sarah and the Mutos are then kidnapped by the Thals and forced to work for them, loading radioactive components into a missile waiting to be launched into the Kaled dome.

            The Doctor and Harry, after being secretly freed by a trusting Kaled scientist, intend to rescue Sarah from the Thals, even though Sarah has her own methods of escape. Eventually, the three wind up back in the Kaled dome, where Davros himself harshly interrogates the Doctor by torturing his friends for information to improve the Daleks. Through great lengths of fruitless persuasion, strong alliances, and an awful lot of running, it is up to the Doctor and his two friends to impact the creation of the Daleks.

            Like Planet of the Spiders, I’ve been informed countless times by many people that Genesis of the Daleks is the best classic Doctor Who serial ever written. And this time, unlike Spiders, I wholeheartedly agree. It gives me great pleasure to say that this is the BEST classic Who story I’ve ever seen. To be able to go back to the beginning of the Daleks, to witness their invention and their change as Davros takes the big step from remote control to total self control, it’s powerful stuff. There were many times when I was properly scared, and I’m a teenager! I can only imagine how the children of that time felt when they first saw this on transmission! It has great erratic pace, spread out so brilliantly into six thirty-minute episodes, and the suspense in every episode is heightened by the thrilling music. It also, like several other Who serials in the past, reflects some part of our own society that makes it relatable and tangible. Like The Sontaran Experiment, this arc looks back on the Nazis of World War II.

            The Kaled race is all about sustaining the purity of their race. Early on in the war, the Kaleds and the Thals used chemical weapons to fight, and the chemicals mutated some of the Kaleds, changing them into the Mutos. Because the Kaleds want to keep their race pure (kind of like the Malfoys and their obsession about Pure Bloods in the Harry Potter series), they exiled the Mutos to the wastelands of Skaro. If any of the Mutos would so much as step into the Kaled dome, they were sure to be killed in a heartbeat. This strong belief of long-standing purity is like Hitler’s ideals of maintaining a pure, nationalistic German force. He was so sure that getting rid of the Jews, and other “inferior” minorities in his eyes, was the only solution to keep Germany pure. Even the Kaled uniforms resemble that of the Nazis. The Daleks, at first being merely servants and soldiers under the remote control of Davros, then developing superior beliefs of their own, of the 2005 series and onwards reflect these Kaled and Nazi views – that the Dalek race should be the only and superior race in the entire universe, and so everyone inferior to them must be exterminated.

            Of course, the Daleks, like Hitler and his Nazism, are always defeated (with the occasional Dalek dematerialising in the nick of time and scuttling off to edge of the universe in order to regrow its race. Thanks, Russell T Davies), and the Doctor knows this because he’s the one who’s always defeated them. Unfortunately, Davros realises this and forces the Doctor to reveal every encounter with the Daleks and why they were defeated, in order to fix these flaws and weaknesses and the make the Daleks utterly invincible. Now that’s a recipe for disaster...

            The big, moral-questioning situations of this story are when there are important choices to be made. The Doctor and Davros must make these choices. The Doctor, whose sole purpose on Skaro is fulfil the wishes of the Time Lords and to either destroy the Daleks or improve them, is forced to make the choice between exploding the Kaled mutation room, holding the growing Daleks, or not. While Sarah tries to convince him to detonate the room, saying that the Daleks are evil and that they will one day be the destroyers of the universe, the Doctor brings up the situation of whether or not one should kill a baby even if they knew that baby would grow up being a horrible tyrannical dictator. To kill the Daleks right there and then would make the Doctor just like them. Also, to commit genocide to the Daleks would mean the Doctor’s life would change entirely. After all, the Doctor met the Daleks for the first time in the second story of Doctor Who, so to destroy the Daleks would change his very being. He wouldn’t lose Donna Noble when he had to erase every memory of every adventure she had with him. He wouldn’t lose Rose Tyler when she is trapped across the void on the parallel world. He probably wouldn’t even meet most of his companions if it weren’t for the Daleks. He wouldn’t have to destroy both Time Lords and Daleks alike in the final acts of the Time War.

            Davros is also given a choice, this time by the Doctor. The Doctor asks Davros if he could invent a hypothetical virus that could destroy anything and everything in the universe, would he do it. The Doctor hopes that he can dissuade Davros from doing so, and I believed he could as well, but Davros relishes the idea that he can destroy everything, making himself the supreme ruler of the universe.

            This story is just fantastic. Before watching this serial, my favourite Doctor Who arc was The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End because of the return of Davros, the Daleks, and all the Tenth Doctor’s companions (and who doesn’t love the return of Sarah Jane?). But now, Genesis of the Daleks has knocked Russell T Davies’ series four finale to second place for me. Genesis has all the elements of a classic Doctor Who story: loads of running, deep reasoning, the separation of the Doctor and his companion, and the Daleks.

            And what’s truly brilliant is the final scene of episode four. As the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry all hold on tightly to the Time Ring (Portkey!) and travelling in time back to space station Nerva (hopefully), this conversation ensues:

                        Sarah Jane: You don't seem too disappointed. We've failed. Haven't we? 
The Doctor: Failed? No, not really. You see, I know that although the Daleks will create havoc and destruction for millions of years, I know also that out of their evil must come something good.

Meggin Watches Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two

           Because mostly the entire world knows what happens in the last Harry Potter film due to having seen the movie already or having read the book (and if you haven’t done any of these, you’re out of your mind. Why are you even reading this?), this review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two is going to be different. Or special. Whichever word you prefer. Instead of providing a synopsis of the movie and then the comparisons and my opinions of it, I’m going to provide my reactions to this OUTSTANDING movie. Yes, before I start off, I rate it five out of five stars for epic performances by the entire cast, great retelling of the novel, and the visual effects.

            I went to the midnight premiere of the film with several acquaintances of mine (cosplaying as Cho Chang. Asians ftw), but that very weekend, I went back to the cinema and took notes. This is what my thoughts look like: 

It’s a bit jumbled up, isn’t it? So here’s my much more organised version of what I thought about the movie. WARNING: This is not in chronological order.

            I watched the Literal Harry Potter trailer before heading off to the cinema, so at the really intense/serious moments, I’d think of the trailer to keep from crying my eyes out.

Students in Hogwarts marching in lines everywhere? Snape’s definitely increased discipline in the school...Reminds me of those strict fictional boarding schools I read about.

Neville = BAMF

Brilliant music! Alexandre Desplat is one of my favourite composers (closely following John Williams, Danny Elfman, and Murray Gold).

Neville + Luna. <3!! Even though that wasn’t originally in the book, it’s great to see how the film played out the awkward romance.

Professor McGonagall is one of my two favourite Hogwarts teachers. Maggie Smith is a gem; I’ve seen her play the strict-corset-grandmother role in so many films and costume TV dramas, and it’s so great to see her out of her typecast. Her epic duel with Snape is just outstanding, and I adore her hilarious quotes! “I’ve always wanted to use that spell!”

Way to mention that Harry’s Invisibility Cloak is a Deathly Hallow...There was one moment where Harry was the most powerful wizard ever...

Beautiful recreation of the Resurrection Stone. It hardly looks like a stone at all, but a perfectly carved gem. I did notice the Deathly Hallows symbol on it..

THE DRAGON IN GRINGOTTS OH HOLY EFF. I’ve never been so scared of a dragon in my entire life.

BELLATRIX LESTRANGE IS MY FAVOURITE VILLAIN IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE. Half the time I often ask, “What the frack is she doing?” because she’s always doing something weird or different from all the other Death Eaters.

When Hermione is disguised as Bellatrix: brilliant acting! All the more reason why I love Helena Bonham Carter!

Bill Weasley is fit.

WTF is Cho still doing at Hogwarts?

I spy Percy...

“My lord?” *Voldemort kills* That’s a great way to die...

What?! In the book, Lavender does not get nommed on by Fenrir Greyback!

Neville vs. the Snatchers. Hilarious and epic. Neville’s changed so much!

When Harry explains who really owns the Elder Wand...Hilarious how he worded it a bit blatantly sarcastic. “It’s mine.” Laugh.

VOLDY, DON’T BREAK THE ELDER WAND!

Brilliant photography. Hats off to the cinematographers.

When Harry reads “I open at the close,” I then understood what it meant.

Voldy’s army. My reaction: “Oh shit...”

Harry, upon seeing his dearly departed relatives after retrieving the Resurrection Stone, hardly looks at his dad. Gee, way to leave out James...

RIP Lupin, Tonks, Fred. :’(

“That’s my girlfriend, you numpties!” One of the best quotes of the entire movie.

Snape is such a triple agent...

The kiss in the Chamber of Secrets – is that how it was supposed to happen? That was a bit too theatrical to me. But, hey, whatever pleases the audience...there was great whooping and applauding at that bit.

Snape is the second of my two favourite Hogwarts teachers. His life is so twisted and complex, and he’s always had the best taciturn moments of all the movies. He is the most dynamic character out of everyone. A lot is revealed that makes us sympathise for what he’s been through. Personally, it should have been Lily and Snape forever. Snape’s memories are so sad! It was the second time I cried through anything in the movie (I’ll discuss the first later), but this time, I cried for the longest amount of time. His death reminded me of his actor’s death in Sweeney Todd: first the razor-quick swipe across the throat, then the collapse to the floor. While he wasn’t stabbed repeatedly by a singing barber and thrown backwards into the furnace below, his attack from Nagini is just as horrific. Snape deserves the longest paragraph of this entire review, because he’s always been an outstanding character to me. He manages to make a laugh escape from me, followed quickly by waves of revulsion. He is one of the most confusing and interesting and romantic characters out of everyone in this series.

“Not my daughter, you BITCH!” This was the most highly anticipated line of the whole movie. SO well said. Perfectly drawn out, perfectly executed. Molly Weasley, kudos to you.

When the Malfoys all walked away after that awkward hug from Voldemort, I was thinking, “There could be a spin-off series about the history of the Malfoys. They’re always such pure-blooded cowards, hiding behind Voldemort, and Draco and Narcissa changed so much in the past three movies. This should happen.”

“Let’s finish this the way we started – together!” BROMANCE!!

Love the fake ending, slowly fading into “Nineteen years later...”

Okay, out of all the people who’ve aged, Hermione didn’t.

Albus Severus Potter is such a cutie. I can tell he’ll be another popular figure at Hogwarts. The Potters never disappoint...

The first time I cried was when all the Hogwarts teachers and students and members of the DA and (ex) Order of the Phoenix cast the protective enchantments over Hogwarts. I was thinking, “Oh God. This is it. Don’t lose it, don’t lose it, oh shit...”

This movie is just. Wow. There really aren’t any words to describe it. I so can’t wait for it to come out on Blu-ray so I can watch it in uber HD. Alas; the chronicles of Harry Potter are now officially, completely chronicled. I’m always in a melancholy stupor whenever a series ends. I was miserable for days when A Series of Unfortunate Events ended. I had endless, tearful Star Wars marathons after I saw Revenge of the Sith in the cinema. I cried for days when David Tennant regenerated into Matt Smith on Doctor Who. But, in the words of the Doctor himself, “Everything’s got to end sometime; otherwise nothing would ever get started.”

Meggin Watches Doctor Who: The Sontaran Experiment

Ever since the Doctor regenerated for the third time, he, Sarah Jane Smith, and Harry Sullivan have been careering through time and space by means of travelling in the TARDIS and now by transmat. In the previous adventure, The Ark in Space, the trio leave space station Nerva by means of teleportation, for the space station’s new captain asks them to fix the teleporting mechanism that beams them to Earth. The three time-space travellers materialise on planet Earth, and the Doctor starts to work on the circle of transmat refractors, encouraging Sarah and Harry to explore the different-and-yet-the-same planet. Little do they know that there’s something hiding on what appears to be this empty planet, and it’s not very nice...

            After several scuffles with what eventually turns out to be a stranded group of astronauts, the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry discover that the astronauts are being picked off one by one, but by what or whom, no one knows, until Sarah is captured by a robot and taken to a familiar space ship...

            The robot in question turns out to be the helper of a Sontaran, a militaristic alien. While the robot rounds up all the humans it can find on the planet (which turns out to be just the Doctor and his crew and the stranded astronauts), the Sontaran executes harsh and brutally fatal experiments on the humans and sends the information to the leader of his army. Once again, it is up to the Doctor and his companions to save the day, and to prevent a whole Sontaran army from destroying Earth.

            Because this arc is only two episodes long, there really isn’t an extensive overview on my part today. The length of this arc didn’t live up to my expectations of a classic Doctor Who story. However, while the story is brief, the plot is familiar and extensively well-written and detailed. The similar theme in this story reminds us as viewers of events that have happened in the past. The methods of experimentation that the Sontaran uses are similar to those performed by the Nazis on the people they holed up in their concentration camps. Dehydration tests, strength tests, food deprivation tests - these experiments have all obviously been toned down for the children watching this show, but it reflects the harsh experiments the Nazis used after World War II.

            In a way, the Sontaran race is similar to the Nazis as well, although not as spot-on as the Daleks. They aren’t born – they are cloned. Each Sontaran looks practically identical. They live only to fight, and are trained in combat in their early years so they can serve for their race. Their sole purpose in life is to die honourably in battle. It’s incredible how the writers of Doctor Who are inspired by the historical events of Earth’s past and can create alien villains that so resemble our own. In a way, it’s like creating one’s own version of events, like CS Lewis’ and Philip Pullman’s interpretation of the Bible and Christianity. Of course, I may just be thinking too deeply on such matters...

            On the subject of Sarah Jane’s outfit, however...

            Honestly, I don’t know what she was thinking...I mean, the orange Wellies, I can deal with, and I wouldn’t mind wearing a pair myself, and the blue hat (not pictured) is a nice touch, but a yellow raincoat and matching  trousers is like you’re a shining beacon for attracting aliens. That’s probably why she got captured in the first place...

            It’s nice to see the resurgence of Sarah’s attitude in this story. She never fails to stand up for herself, even when she’s been uprooted from her own time. When Harry keeps calling her “old thing” out of habit, she points out that she isn’t really a “thing” and insists that he call her by her name. It seems that it’s going to take Harry a while to get used her feminist attitude.

            And, of course, Tom Baker never fails to disappoint. From funny quips such as “Trafalgar Square is that way...mind the traffic,” to taking out his five hundred year diary to look up the Sontarans in his past, it just makes me admire him even more. I’m not sure if I like the fight scene between him and the Sontaran, as I still have to get used to the Doctor actually fighting someone.

            One thing that I still question even after watching is of what I heard one of the astronauts say to the Doctor about space station Nerva.

VURAL: Because Nerva doesn't exist, that's why. There's no such place.
DOCTOR: Fascinating. You don't believe it exists and yet you've obviously heard of it.
KRANS: Everybody's heard of the Lost Colony.
DOCTOR: Lost Colony? You mean it's become a legend like Lost Atlantis?
ERAK: Like what?
DOCTOR: Lost Atlantis. It's a legendary city... oh, never mind.

Why do the astronauts think that Nerva doesn’t exist, if the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry all just came from it? Something must happen to it, and I have a feeling that we’ll find out soon.