Dalek Babies

1975's Genesis of the Daleks is one of my least favourite Dalek serials on Doctor Who. I don't hate it--the last three episodes are especially good and as much as the next person I love the Fourth Doctor wrestling over the moral question of killing the Daleks at inception. But at a total of six episodes, the serial feels a bit padded, particularly in the first two episodes. And I like the longer serials, usually.

The whole sequence where Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) is forced to work on a Thal rocket could've been lost though I do love how she takes charge, makes an escape plan, and then nearly falls off the scaffolding because she's so frightened. That would be pretty scary.

But this sets up too much the serial can't pay off later. How can Sarah Jane and her Muto friend switch to being allies of the Thals so easily when the Thals had put them to hard labour? The intent seems to be to show that neither the Thals nor the Kaleds are the unambiguous force for good, and I like that, but there's not enough development on that idea.

I don't really like the production design, either, and the whole serial looks especially cheap somehow. Maybe all the budget went to Davros' (Michael Wisher) makeup and the baby Daleks. I know the idea was to make everyone look like credible military but I missed the distinctive visuals of the original Dalek serial. I missed the big foam Ys the Thals will apparently one day wear.

Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, and Ian Marter are great, though. I love Four repeatedly asking for a cup of tea when they're first captured by the Kaleds.

Twitter Sonnet #1289

Percussive stairs repeat for heavy shoes.
Electric mirrors cheat the glowing face.
A monster swam through cluttered greens and blues.
Graffiti cars create a faster pace.
In placing names, the map allots the land.
Accustomed ranges sort the mountain park.
For all the sea was filled with shelly sand.
Beneath the waves the water's very dark.
Consistent cash arrives in oyster shells.
Recalled militia mount a baking firm.
In airy space the spirits fill the wells.
Another wheel began another term.
A hurried tea assaults a cooling tongue.
I thoughtful nose supplies the empty lung.

Sontaran Fashions on the Heath

Last time I watched The Sontaran Experiment, the Doctor Who serial, it was a pretty lousy copy. Last night I watched the pristine restored version, or as pristine as you can get with something originally recorded on videotape, and was a little amused by how obviously Tom Baker had a stunt double for the final fight scene.

What a bad wig. It's not quite as bad as some of the grey rugs on Pertwee's doubles but it's still pretty obvious.

A double was required because Baker had broken his collarbone during filming. Considering the character of Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) was originally conceived when an older actor was intended to take the part of the Fourth Doctor so a young man would be around to do fight scenes, I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to rewrite the script to have Harry challenge the Sontaran to single combat. Though it would have been odd for Harry to come up with the idea on his own and unlike the Doctor to pass off the job on someone else.

The short, two part serial was filmed entirely on location on Dartmoor, standing in for London 10,000 years in the future. How pretty it is.

Will ye go, Sarah Jane, and pick wild mountain thyme all among the blooming heather? Or should I say time? It's hard to believe she manages to sneak around at all when the Doctor's captured by some South Africans in space suits when she's wearing all that bright yellow. I do love how her wardrobe assaults the eye, especially when she looks so comfortable.

Obviously the Doctor's a bit stiff in the episode with that neck brace hidden under his scarf. He still cuts an intriguing figure, though. I love how the serial concludes with the trio teleporting out and then the Doctor inexplicably teleporting back in a moment to make a comment. "It should be all right . . . but you never know, quite . . . do you?"