Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#672

As we all continue to be confined to our own spaces, this week we gain solace in knowing at least we’re not confined to the space of The Platform as Des, Jeff, Brittany, Scott and (the mostly silent) Stacy review this Netflix original.  Then we discuss Paul Von Stotzel’s Lovecraftian short film The Curse of Yig....which, because we couldn’t find a trailer, we present in its entirety below!

Also to be found are the trailer for The Platform, a countdown of the worst prisons in history and most disturbing prison experiments, a discussion of Yig’s background, plus music from Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats and Sworn In!

Listen to Dread Media #672 here

A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 6. The Survivors (The Daleks, Episode Two)

Let’s be honest--if you take this episode on its own, it’s a variation of the Corridor Chase, with the third act being almost exclusively taken up by shaky close ups of a really spooked Susan running to get to the Tardis so she can retrieve the anti-radiation drugs the others so desperately need.  Outside of a little interrogation session the Daleks subject the Doctor to, the rest of the regular cast spends their time in different phases of swooning from radiation poisoning.

But then there are the Daleks.  We don’t see too much of them, but what we see is memorable.  They’re in maybe three scenes, and they’re all kinda expositional.  But it’s undeniable that they are menacing.  I think a major reason why the Daleks captured the imagination so strongly is because they’re totally inhuman--there is nothing even remotely humanoid about them, and it drives home their alienness*.  And their callousness (when asked if Susan would be allowed to give the drugs to the crew, the Dalek in charge says, “They will die anyway.  We need the drug so we can replicate them for ourselves.”) makes their otherness stand out.  The effectiveness of these foes at this time is that these are not obviously men in suits; we have nothing to relate them to, or to relate to them with.

I think another reason that the Daleks literally held Britian in a pop culture mania that almost resulted in a Daleks-only spin-off and tons of toys is because Nation really drives home how high the stakes are.  We need to remember that the lore of regeneration wasn’t made up until Hartnell became too sick to continue in the role (and you can see him stumbling on his lines and taking the first of his ‘DocNaps’ in this episode; it’s remarkable he maintained enough discipline to successfully assay the role for so long), so there’s the real possibility of death when we see the Doctor weaken and crumble. 

There’s also more of the Doctor/Ian member-measuring contest, with the Doctor admitting to his deception and Ian taking him to task for it.  I really like the fact that this crew has serious tension that isn’t handwaved away.  While I admit I like the oddness of Hartnell’s softer, more family-friendly persona he develops late in his run, I like this enigmatic and unpredicatable version even more.

So this is a landmark episode in a landmark serial.  And it still holds up.  I’m looking forward to the next leg of this journey.

*--I think that if you look at all the alien enemies of the Doctor that really took off (in my mind The Daleks, The Cybermen, The Sontarans, The Ice Warriors and, more recently, The Weeping Angels), that ‘inhumanity factor’ is key.  It’s one of the things that NuWho got wrong under Russell T. Davis--it’s hard to be terrified of something when they’re obviously people in cat or rhino or fly or kewpie doll masks.  Even the Cybermen have those immobile, inexpressive faces that keep us for emphasizing with them one hundred percent.

A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 5. The Dead Planet (The Daleks, Episode One)

There are a number of writers in the history of Doctor Who who end up a cut above the average.  Personages such as Robert Holmes, Terrence Dicks and Christopher Bidmead are integral to certain eras of the show.*  But none of these had an impact on the series as much as one Terry Nation.

Terry Nation was a Welsh writer who had some minor success in writing for comedy programs before Verity Lambert brought him onto the writing staff for this show.  He wrote other things during his association with Who, went on to create two other significant BBC series (Survivors and Blake’s 7, the Space Opera for people like me who don’t like Space Opera), wrote some interesting films (I particularly like the collaboration he did with my hero Brian Clemens, And Soon The Darkness), but even if he did nothing else, his place in the series’ history would be cemented by creating...The Daleks.

This is the first part of the first appearance of the Daleks.  These monstrous pepper-pots (and I say that with utmost respect) don’t technically appear in the episode save for one plunger-arm making its way into the last, iconic shot, but this is where the show gains traction in the minds and hearts of Britions in 1963.

The crew has landed in the middle of what appears to be a petrified forest.  They know it’s not Earth because of the petrified metallic lizard they find during their exploration...and because there’s also an alien-looking city off in the distance.  The Doctor really wants to explore the city whereas Ian and Barbara want to leave immediately.  So The Doc pretends to take off--but we, the audience, clearly see him kinda...tinkering with the Tardis console, so it stays stuck.  There’s this part that’s run out of the mercury essential for operation and there’s no mercury on the ship and maybe they could find some inside the city.  While searching for the elusive liquid, Barbara gets separated from the others and is confronted by something inhuman.  And that’s not even mentioning the unseen figure who touches Susan and leaves a metal container filled with strange vials outside the Tardis...and the fact that the viewer (but not the crew) knows the radiation level is dangerously high.

To me, what makes this episode work is how Nation continues filling in the dynamics between our lead quartet.  This time it’s Susan doing the Girl’s School Screaming, but the interesting thing is how he develops the way Barbara and The Doctor interact.  Unlike the contentious battle for control the Doctor has with Ian, the Time Lord seems to be respectful of Barbara, admitting that there are things she can communicate to Susan that he just can’t because of the generational gap.  I got the impression that the Doctor is telling Barbara things he doesn’t want to admit, and looks upon her as an authority in the one of the few areas he can’t claim expertise in.

That doesn’t mean the Doctor isn’t a massive Dick in this story.  The direction by Christopher Barry makes it clear that the Doctor’s story about the faulty macguffin is not only willful but defiantly obvious.  It brings into sharp contrast what Susan means when she says the Doctor is a little...insistent on getting his way.

Considering this half hour is pretty much four people wandering around some sets, Nation skillfully keeps our attention...and the bizarreness of the final shot makes it stick in your memory.

*--I know you expect me to mention Douglas Adams, but considering how much of his work on the show was recycled from his Hitchhiker’s Guide radio shows, I don’t recognize him as Who royalty.  Come at me.

A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 4. The Firemaker (An Unearthly Child, Episode Four)

This wrap up to our first story will always be remembered for me as the one where we find out that the cave people we’ve been following may not have learned about fire, but they did learn about underpants before meeting the Doctor and his friends.

The deets: The crew is dragged back to the tribe, The Doctor becomes the first lawyer and successfully defends Za from the charge of killing the Old Woman, Ian makes fire by rubbing two sticks together (which would be more effective if the two sticks were actually touching when said fire ignites), Za kills Ka in an...exciting?...fight scene (a scene that clearly displays the briefs and undershirts of the combatants), Susan figures out a way for our heroes to pretend to be dead long enough for them to get to the Tardis and escape to an unknown planet that seems to be safe...or Is It?

Oh, and Barbara...I think she trips once during their escape. Jacqueline Hill really get the short end of the stick throughout this inaugural story.

This is supposed to be the Big Climax, and it is here that we really see how low the budget is, as the tribe chasing the heroes through the forest is portrayed by a series of close-ups with stage hands off camera waving twigs around.  I was also somewhat surprised at how Za and Hur’s personalities change before our eyes--Hur is no longer as scheme-y as she was in the previous episode and Za suddenly becomes a lot shrewder than he was during the story up to then.  I get the sense that these changes are more about wrapping up the story rather than educating the chilluns.

The give and take between Ian and The Doctor still seems to be the spine of the story--Ian chooses to defer to the Doc when asked who leads the trial, but seems to challenge the Doctor when they’re back in the Tardis.  And I still really like the way Hartnell is still not softening his portrayal of the Doctor....once he’s back in a position of relative power, he is willfully deceptive to Ian’s questions.  I like this Doctor’s unpredictability; I suspect one of the reasons I don’t care for a lot of the NuWho incarnations is because there’s no ambivalence to their position as a Savior of Humanity (and also why my favorite Doctor is Colin Baker, who was dwelling in a similar shade of grey during his too-short tenure) and the sense of the Doctor not being necessarily clear as to where he stands brings a real flavor to this crew.

The last few minutes of the episode teases the next serial, and here’s where the true fun begins.  This is a significant serial....but the next one literally threw Britian into a pop culture tizzy and cemented Who’s identity.

Next time, we meet...The Daleks.

A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 3. The Forest of Fear (An Unearthly Child, Episode Three)

I am not sure who determined that the default length for a typical Doctor Who serial would be four episode or why.  I do know that right from the start, it’s obvious that one of the biggest--and kind of annoying--tropes was cemented right here in this third episode of the first serial.

This is the prototypical ‘Corridor Chase’ episode.  The bulk of this episode is concerned with our protaganists escaping from the Cave of Skulls, running through the titular forest of fear while enemies (in this case Za and Hur) are in pursuit, and are promptly captured.  There’s other stuff, and some of that stuff is interesting, but the gist of it is the equivalent of running in a circle.

The really interesting thing is how the dynamics of the original Tardis Crew are coming together.  A real tension develops between the Doctor and Ian, with the two sort of struggling over who takes command.  Although I was a little concerned that Barbara was going to be all ‘Girl School Screamer’ this go round, hugging Ian tightly and crying in terror, she ends up being something of the moral center, insisting that they help the injured Za when they could reach safety by fleeing.  And I’m increasingly becoming convinced that if this is a Shakespearean tragedy, then Althea Carlton is Lady MacBething the hell out of this.  I definitely get the impression that she is the smartest of her tribe, and is using those smarts to manipulate Za so she can have a position of power by proxy.  There’s one eyerolling moment of...jealousy?...between her and Susan, but I can forgive that.

The educational element is still there--we learn how to make a improvised stretcher from Ian--but in his way William Hartnell lets us know who’s in command of the show.  I find the way he develops the Doctor in these early episodes fascinating.  He’s continually adding new layers and nuance to his character, and I still don’t have any clear sense of who’s side he’s on.  Even something as standing off to the side stoically while Ian, Barbara and Susan are tending to Za tells us a little about who this Doctor is without letting us know if he’s friend or foe (and that sense will play extremely well in a serial we’re coming up on after this one and next wrap up).

This go around, I’m still not keen on this serial...even though I can see how it acts as a ‘mission statement’ for what the series was supposed to be.  It’s still significant, and should be viewed if only for that.

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#670

Don’t you just hate it when The Dead Don’t Die?  Des and I evaluate the great Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy with a real Big, (Quirky) Star Studded Cast!  Then Des gives you his Top Five Zombie Comedies.

The Trailer is below, as is a list of the best Tilda Swinton Performances, an interview with Jarmusch, Selena Gomez discussing Bill Murray, and music from Tom Waits and Sturgill Simpson!

Listen to Dread Media #671 here

A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 2. The Cave of Skulls (An Unearthly Child, Episode Two)

Remember I told you that two of the initial companions--William Russell’s Ian and Jacqueline Hill’s Barbara--were teachers?

Well, the BBC had intended the show to be educational (I think the show was under the purview of the Children’s Department during the entire classic run), and the two adult companions were supposed to represent the subjects Doctor Who was going to explore, science and history.

I bring this up because our second episode actually starts the story of that first serial, and that story is....not much.  You see, the Tardis has ended up in what we will learn is prehistoric times.  As the crew is trying to figure out where the hell they are, a local theatrical troupe that are supposed to be a cro-magnon tribe are in the midst of a political crisis.  The son of the tribe’s old leader, Za, is in conflict with new arrival Kal, and the thing that seems to be what will determine who will get the coveted position is the ability to make fire.  While Za is trying to make things ignite, Kal observes the Doctor lighting a pipe with a match--which, to him, makes him believe the old man has fire coming from his fingers.  Kal captures the Doctor, Susan and the others go in search of him, the whole crew is captured and sent to the titular cave with the titular skulls and ordered to make fire....except the Doctor lost his matches.  There is also some intrigue involving the daughter of an elder and much talk about meat and cold.

I can understand what writer Anthony Coburn was getting at in this story, showing the kids of 1963 what life might have been like at the dawn of time.  But the cave dwellers in this episode look like they’re wearing carpet remnants and are speaking like this is some sort of Shakespearean play.  The whole back and forth between Za and Kal, with female Hur (she’s digging on Za, but her dad has promised her to the one who makes fire) acting as a sort of spoiler, gets tiresome very quickly.  I was almost thankful when the main quartet got tossed into the cave, as it spared me more of these actors’ gesticulating.

I will say that I liked the way Russell and Hill flipped the script on what was set up with the first episode, with Barbara being the one to take point once the two venture out and Ian having trouble coping.  Susan shows her capacity to be all aflutter with the panicking for the first time, and Hartnell continues to build an intriguing, mystifying figure, especially in the way he just off-handedly agrees to make enough fire for everyone.  If only he hadn’t lost those darn matches....

We’re still in the shakedown cruise of this series, where the people behind the show are trying to figure out what this damn thing is supposed to be.  As such, I’ll be a little charitable and overlook the flaws with an eye towards watching everything come together.