Doctor Who: Logopolis
Mar. 28th, 2010 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayI need a Five icon :-)
Last night I started my pre-season 5 Doctor Who schedule with Logopolis.
This is one where I read the Target novelization a couple of years before I got to see the episode. I remember being completely absorbed through an evening school trip (no idea what it was for, although I have vague memories of it being chemistry or English related) so that I ignored everyone around me on the coach there and back and just read. It explained thermodynamics long before my physics teachers got there and explained it well. I loved that it was a science-nerd type of plot rather than big, dastardly aliens.
The episode doesn't have some of the detail of the novel, but it's still a good story and I have an lot of fondness for it. Some of the effects look ropey, but not as bad as you'd expect given that it was the 80s and the BBC made this on a shoe string budget. Logopolis itself is well-realised and the results of the Master's shrinking weapon look rather horrifying.
I still love the fact that the TARDIS misses the River Thames totally and ends up on some kind of barge-pontoon thing. It's very Doctor Who, particularly after the precision used to to materialise around the police box. This is also where my love for the Cloister Garden and Bell stems for. I'm a sucker for bells that signal wild catastrophe.
It's not a plot that would do well in the modern era, because so much of it is based around the laws of physics. This is one where it's definitely geared more towards the older fans than the kids - no big monsters and storyline would be complex to follow for the pre-teens. There are also logic gaps that we have to handwave vigorously, not to mention a bit where the Doctor trips the Master with his scarf and even I cringe at how bad that little bit is.
Watching Logopolis after The End of Time is really interesting because of the similarities. In both stories, the Doctor knows that his time is coming to and end. Four has been told by the Watcher that he'll be regenerating soon, although presumably not how, and Ten knows from the prophesies. I kept thinking how old and tired Tom Baker looked in this one and the same can be said of moments in David Tennant's performance. The interesting thing is the ways these stories differ. Ten has tried to avoid this moment and we have that huge speech when he stands in the booth to save Wilf. Four is given less warning, but he seems calmer and more resigned to it.
They both do what they have to in the end.
But Ten's regeneration is painful, with that long series of goodbyes and then the huge, flamey nature of his regeneration. I wonder whether that's because he held it off so long in order to say goodbye?
Four sees all his enemies instead, wishing him pain and death. I like the sad, yet perhaps also relieved, way he says "It is the end. But the moment has been prepared for."
His regeneration almost seems like a relief after a long and tiring life.
Comparing these two regenerations is interesting because they are the only ones where the Doctor was aware for a while that it would be his last adventure as 'him'. Anyone else familiar with both stories who wants to weigh in?
Tonight is Castrovalva, a story that I'm absurdly fond of for no good reason at all :-)
Last night I started my pre-season 5 Doctor Who schedule with Logopolis.
This is one where I read the Target novelization a couple of years before I got to see the episode. I remember being completely absorbed through an evening school trip (no idea what it was for, although I have vague memories of it being chemistry or English related) so that I ignored everyone around me on the coach there and back and just read. It explained thermodynamics long before my physics teachers got there and explained it well. I loved that it was a science-nerd type of plot rather than big, dastardly aliens.
The episode doesn't have some of the detail of the novel, but it's still a good story and I have an lot of fondness for it. Some of the effects look ropey, but not as bad as you'd expect given that it was the 80s and the BBC made this on a shoe string budget. Logopolis itself is well-realised and the results of the Master's shrinking weapon look rather horrifying.
I still love the fact that the TARDIS misses the River Thames totally and ends up on some kind of barge-pontoon thing. It's very Doctor Who, particularly after the precision used to to materialise around the police box. This is also where my love for the Cloister Garden and Bell stems for. I'm a sucker for bells that signal wild catastrophe.
It's not a plot that would do well in the modern era, because so much of it is based around the laws of physics. This is one where it's definitely geared more towards the older fans than the kids - no big monsters and storyline would be complex to follow for the pre-teens. There are also logic gaps that we have to handwave vigorously, not to mention a bit where the Doctor trips the Master with his scarf and even I cringe at how bad that little bit is.
Watching Logopolis after The End of Time is really interesting because of the similarities. In both stories, the Doctor knows that his time is coming to and end. Four has been told by the Watcher that he'll be regenerating soon, although presumably not how, and Ten knows from the prophesies. I kept thinking how old and tired Tom Baker looked in this one and the same can be said of moments in David Tennant's performance. The interesting thing is the ways these stories differ. Ten has tried to avoid this moment and we have that huge speech when he stands in the booth to save Wilf. Four is given less warning, but he seems calmer and more resigned to it.
They both do what they have to in the end.
But Ten's regeneration is painful, with that long series of goodbyes and then the huge, flamey nature of his regeneration. I wonder whether that's because he held it off so long in order to say goodbye?
Four sees all his enemies instead, wishing him pain and death. I like the sad, yet perhaps also relieved, way he says "It is the end. But the moment has been prepared for."
His regeneration almost seems like a relief after a long and tiring life.
Comparing these two regenerations is interesting because they are the only ones where the Doctor was aware for a while that it would be his last adventure as 'him'. Anyone else familiar with both stories who wants to weigh in?
Tonight is Castrovalva, a story that I'm absurdly fond of for no good reason at all :-)
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Date: 2010-03-29 07:07 pm (UTC)