Doctor Who: Keeper of Traken and Logopolis
Mar. 5th, 2007 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayI am spamming LJ because I have nothing else to do at the moment except watch spreadsheets do nothing at all.
The Fifth Doctor was "my" Doctor, so when I was going to back to hunt down Doctor Who stories the regeneration into Five was one of the first things I looked for. I managed to borrow the novelisation of Logopolis fifteen years ago from the library and thoroughly enjoyed - I still keep an eye out for it at second-hand bookshops. I managed to borrow a copy of Logopolis from the library a few months later, but had to wait a year before I found a copy of Castrovalva for sale. I didn't get to see the Keeper of Traken until last year and Logopolis actually makes a lot more sense once you've seen it :-) So I was quite pleased to find that they were putting together these episodes in a box-set of DVDs.
The Keeper of Traken is an odd one that actually improves on second viewing. I remember being rather unimpressed with it the first time I saw it, but I actually enjoyed it this time around. There is some impressive over-acting in a few places, notably Tremas' wife, but I was impressed by the subtelty of Anthony Ainsley's portrayal of Tremas, particularly when viewed against the demands of the Master later. He made me feel a lot of sympathy and genuine liking for him despite the fact that he was wearing the face of the man I grew up thinking of as the 'true' Master.
Sarah Sutton also had a slightly better role to play with than she often got in later episodes. Nyssa was never a particularly dynamic character, but I can see why they decided to bring her back as a regular. It's just a shame she so rarely got good scripts!
The story has its plot-holes, but overall it played much better for me this time around and some of the effects are pretty cool for old-school DW. I'm stil not quite sure what to make of the idea behind Traken, but as a way to bring back the Master it works for me.
Logopolis is quite a different episode. I know that the writers intended people to think the Watcher could be the Master, but that element didn't work for me. That's probably because I read the Target novelisation before I saw the episodes. I do remember on my first reading wondering whether the Watcher was some new enemy, though, particularly when he took Nyssa and Adric in the TARDIS - I remember wondering whether the Doctor had been fooled in some way.
It's one that always appealed to me because the central ideas - entropy and using maths to describe the world around me - were fairly new when I was first reading/watching this episode and it seemed like really cool science. Other touches, such as the TARDIS never quite managing to land in the correct place but only being 2.6m off target, also appealed. The TARDIS inside a TARDIS idea also worked well, even if I wasn't quite sure how that tied into the rest of the plot. Hmmm.
The two important things about the episode are the introduction of Tegan and the regeneration. Having watched several early Four episodes recently, it becomes fairly obvious that Tom is getting older by the time of Logopolis, but he didn't stint in the performance stakes even thought he must been tired at that point. With such a long history on the show, it was good to see the regeneration acknowledging how much Four did and how many people he affected.
Tegan is a character that people seem to either love or hate. I actually like her a lot - she didn't descend into silly screaming too often and she stood up to the Doctor frequently. Yes, she was often a bit whiny and could shout rather shrilly sometimes, but she was actually given some decent stories over the years and her character grew from the air hostes we originally met. Her introduction pretty much set the scene for much of the time she was on the show, with the mixture of determined Aussie practicality and potentially suicidal curiosity, but it worked. And they actually remembered to give her a reaction shot when she found out Aunt Vanessa died, although if that story was being done now we probably would have had a bit more acknowledgement of it in later episodes. Still, that's more of a comparison between new and old Doctor Who's than anything and not something I really feel the need to go into today :-)
I have still to re-watch Castrovalva, but it's been good to find that the episodes haven't dated too much and benefit from second viewings.
The Fifth Doctor was "my" Doctor, so when I was going to back to hunt down Doctor Who stories the regeneration into Five was one of the first things I looked for. I managed to borrow the novelisation of Logopolis fifteen years ago from the library and thoroughly enjoyed - I still keep an eye out for it at second-hand bookshops. I managed to borrow a copy of Logopolis from the library a few months later, but had to wait a year before I found a copy of Castrovalva for sale. I didn't get to see the Keeper of Traken until last year and Logopolis actually makes a lot more sense once you've seen it :-) So I was quite pleased to find that they were putting together these episodes in a box-set of DVDs.
The Keeper of Traken is an odd one that actually improves on second viewing. I remember being rather unimpressed with it the first time I saw it, but I actually enjoyed it this time around. There is some impressive over-acting in a few places, notably Tremas' wife, but I was impressed by the subtelty of Anthony Ainsley's portrayal of Tremas, particularly when viewed against the demands of the Master later. He made me feel a lot of sympathy and genuine liking for him despite the fact that he was wearing the face of the man I grew up thinking of as the 'true' Master.
Sarah Sutton also had a slightly better role to play with than she often got in later episodes. Nyssa was never a particularly dynamic character, but I can see why they decided to bring her back as a regular. It's just a shame she so rarely got good scripts!
The story has its plot-holes, but overall it played much better for me this time around and some of the effects are pretty cool for old-school DW. I'm stil not quite sure what to make of the idea behind Traken, but as a way to bring back the Master it works for me.
Logopolis is quite a different episode. I know that the writers intended people to think the Watcher could be the Master, but that element didn't work for me. That's probably because I read the Target novelisation before I saw the episodes. I do remember on my first reading wondering whether the Watcher was some new enemy, though, particularly when he took Nyssa and Adric in the TARDIS - I remember wondering whether the Doctor had been fooled in some way.
It's one that always appealed to me because the central ideas - entropy and using maths to describe the world around me - were fairly new when I was first reading/watching this episode and it seemed like really cool science. Other touches, such as the TARDIS never quite managing to land in the correct place but only being 2.6m off target, also appealed. The TARDIS inside a TARDIS idea also worked well, even if I wasn't quite sure how that tied into the rest of the plot. Hmmm.
The two important things about the episode are the introduction of Tegan and the regeneration. Having watched several early Four episodes recently, it becomes fairly obvious that Tom is getting older by the time of Logopolis, but he didn't stint in the performance stakes even thought he must been tired at that point. With such a long history on the show, it was good to see the regeneration acknowledging how much Four did and how many people he affected.
Tegan is a character that people seem to either love or hate. I actually like her a lot - she didn't descend into silly screaming too often and she stood up to the Doctor frequently. Yes, she was often a bit whiny and could shout rather shrilly sometimes, but she was actually given some decent stories over the years and her character grew from the air hostes we originally met. Her introduction pretty much set the scene for much of the time she was on the show, with the mixture of determined Aussie practicality and potentially suicidal curiosity, but it worked. And they actually remembered to give her a reaction shot when she found out Aunt Vanessa died, although if that story was being done now we probably would have had a bit more acknowledgement of it in later episodes. Still, that's more of a comparison between new and old Doctor Who's than anything and not something I really feel the need to go into today :-)
I have still to re-watch Castrovalva, but it's been good to find that the episodes haven't dated too much and benefit from second viewings.
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Date: 2007-03-05 01:38 pm (UTC)I fondly remember a friend's reply when I asked her what she thought of The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition (she was young enough not to have seen it in the cinema previously) and she included in her reply that "Luke finds out a dark secret about his family's past!" I did find that rather sweet :-)
I must say that, although I started with Tom Baker, I do regard Davison as my favourite Doctor and I think Nyssa and Tegan were an important part of why.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-05 07:28 pm (UTC)Aww :-) I know that I have at least a couple of people on my flist who have arrived at Doctor Who via the new series and are now going through all the classic stuff they can get their hands on, so I'm kind of trying to be nice to them. Although it does seem a little silly sometimes :-)
I do regard Davison as my favourite Doctor and I think Nyssa and Tegan were an important part of why.
Peter Davison is where I started, which I think is why he's become my favourite (closely followed by Sylvester McCoy). To be honest, the only companion from the era that I can remember watching the first time around was Peri - Nyssa and Tegan were all new to me when I started going back through DW as a teenager and I think I've managed to find most of their least complimentary episodes :-) But I like what I've seen a lot despite that, particularly Tegan, and Nyssa has been growing on me a lot over the years.
Adric...is more difficult. In Traken and Logopolis there are glimpses of a mischievous, playful teenager who doesn't quite understand why people aren't as intelligent as him and I like that. The problem is that after that, Adric ends up being a moody, unlikable character and that seems a shame after those brief flashes.
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Date: 2007-03-05 10:07 pm (UTC)I've got the New Beginnings box set, although I haven't got round to peeling it yet. I've seen Keeper a few times since the original broadcast, and it's still great (and shows that you can do alien planets on a budget, Russell! There are what? five Traken sets?) It was only this year that somebody pointed out to me that Tremas was an anagram...
Logopolis doesn't really live up to my memories of the original broadcast, but I suspect that's because of its original impact. Now I know how it works, the impact is lessened sufficiently that I feel let down.
Castrovalva, on the other hand: I haven't seen that since it was first broadcast. This is either going to be great, or a serious disappointment. On the other hand, I'm expecting the commentaries to be surreal!
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Date: 2007-03-06 03:04 pm (UTC)and shows that you can do alien planets on a budget, Russell!
Indeed! It's been the one thing that I was disappointed about with the new series. The Impossible Planet world was cool, but a big part of the appeal of DW for me was that you could visit other worlds as well as other times and it was ordinary people who got to be companions on the adventures. I think it's possibly short-sighted of RTD to think the audience needs the root with Earth every week or that we won't buy into alien worlds without a massive budget.
It was only this year that somebody pointed out to me that Tremas was an anagram...
I'd never spotted that before! How cool :-)
I think one of the problems with particularly powerful or innovative episodes is that they do lose their impact on repeated viewings. Although I do still really enjoy the episodes, I remember enjoying the novelisation much more - I don't think I have any hope of tracking that down to find out how it survives repeated readings :-)
Castrovalva, for me, is great :-) But I am looking forward to the commentaries for that one...