The Doctor's Family UNIT

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 3.03

Title: Last of the Gaderene
Author: Mark Gatiss
Team TARDIS: Third Doctor, Jo Grant, the UNIT boys
Adversary: The Master, The Gaderene
Originally Released: January 2000
Range and Number: Past Doctor Adventures #28

Synopsis (from TARDIS Wikia) -

2000 BBC Books Edition -
"My name is Bliss," said the newcomer, "and I bring great news for you all!"
The new owners of a Second World War aerodrome promise a golden dawn of prosperity for the East Anglian village of Culverton. The population rejoices - with one or two exceptions. Former Spitfire pilot Alec Whistler knows the aerodrome of old, having found a strange, jade-coloured crystal there years before...
When black-shirted troops appear on the streets, Whistler takes his suspicions to his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The Doctor and Jo are sent to investigate and soon discover that all is not well in the seemingly idyllic village.
What are the black coffin-like objects being unloaded at the aerodrome? What horror lies behind Legion International's impeccable facade? And what is the monstrous creature growing and mutating in the marsh?
As Culverton gears up for its summer fete, the Doctor finds himself involved in a race against time to prevent a massive colonisation of Earth. For the last of the Gaderene are on their way...

2013 BBC Books Edition -
The aerodrome in Culverton has new owners, and they promise an era of prosperity for the idyllic village. But former Spitfire pilot Alex Whistler is suspicious – when black-shirted troops appear on the streets, he contacts his 
old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart at UNIT. The Third Doctor is sent to investigate – and soon uncovers a sinister plot to colonise the Earth. The Gaderene are on their way...

My Review:
The last couple of Pertwee stories I’ve reviewed have departed a bit from the norm of the Third Doctor’s era. “The Curse of Peladon” - while certainly one of my favorites - don’t employ any of the usual tropes of this era. “The Last Post” involves UNIT and much of Season 7, but it’s Liz Shaw rather than Jo Grant as the companion (not to take anything away from Liz because I think she’s one of the best, even if she gets overshadowed by what comes later). But I felt good about highlighting these other aspects of this era because the book chosen to be part of the 50th Anniversary reprints for the Third Doctor has everything that the Third Doctor is associated with - this is the salad days of UNIT. In fact, this story has a distinct “The Daemons” vibe - they aren't really at UNIT HQ, everyone’s scattered around the area, the Master is playing second-fiddle to the real bad guy of the piece, but the Master is still making his presence felt (not to mention a classic Doctor-Master barb-trading session in which each insults the other’s Time Lord cred, friends and... maybe their mothers come up. I’m not too hip to Gallifreyan slang, but I think it happened in there somewhere).  Basically, if Jon Pertwee is your Doctor or if UNIT fries your bacon, you will love this story.

(Oh - and Spitfires. Can’t forget the Spitfires. I wonder if Mark Gatiss had that in mind when he wrote “Victory of the Daleks.” For me, Mark Gatiss and Spitfires go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Sort of a strange connection, but there you are).

Really, the stars of this story are the Doctor, Jo and UNIT.  There are a requisite number of one-off characters, but they only serve to make the main players look good.  Yes, you're going to say "But that's what the one-offs are supposed to do!"  Well, they did their job very well because I don't remember them very much.  But I do remember all the wonderful scenes between the Doctor and Jo, the Doctor and the Brigadier, and anything with Sergeant Benton.  Just for good measure, there's a scene where the Doctor makes his own nitrous oxide out of fertilizer, iron filings and a kitchen sink.  Definitely something I could imagine Three doing in a televised story (Jon Pertwee: The Original Mythbuster).

Not to spoil anything (oh, who am I kidding? This is a Spoiler-and-a-Half) - this may even possibly be where the Master regenerates. At least, the Master mentions that he’s going to miss this body - that it had flair and style (something along those lines). We never actually see it happen because we’re too worried if the Doctor is going to make it out of the Deadly Column of Light, but it is nice to see the Master’s regeneration alluded to in a Pertwee-era story. Particularly since Roger Delgado never did get a proper send-off in the TV show (understandably - and tragically - so). Maybe that’s just as well, and why in all the incarnations of the Master, the character may be dead and dusted, but he always manages to come back in some capacity. It’s yet to be seen if the New Series will ever bring him back again, but he has been known to return from worse... okay, maybe there’s never been anything worse than being time-locked with Gallifrey and the Time Lords... but still - he’s a wily old fellow.

To wrap up: This was a very fun story.  I enjoy UNIT immensely and I was glad that this book came into to represent that element of Doctor Who for this project since I also wanted to highlight other lesser-attended-to aspects of Three's run.  It's hard to let everyone have their say in a project like this, even though that's what I want to do.

And if I had a hard time letting all of Three's friends and villains have their moment in the sun, just think how much more difficult it's going to be in the next round? (Spoilers, sweetie!)

***
Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 4.01 - Rod Serling Does Who (or Philip Hinchcliffe Does The Twilight Zone - take your pick)

Previously -
Review 3.02 - The Following Takes Place Between "Spearhead from Space" and "Inferno"

The Following Takes Place Between "Spearhead from Space" and "Inferno"

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 3.02

Title: The Last Post
Written by: James Goss
Team TARDIS: Third Doctor, Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Adversary: Daniel Prestaigne, The Apocalypse Clock
Release Date: October 2012
Range and Number: Companion Chronicles 7.04

Synopsis (from TARDIS Wikia) -
People are dying. Just a few, over a period of months... but the strange thing is that each person received a letter predicting the date and time of their death.
Throughout her time as the Doctor’s assistant, Liz Shaw has been documenting these passings. Her investigation ultimately uncovers a threat that could lead to the end of the world, but this time Liz has someone to help her.
Her mother.

My Review:
One of the most grievous errors that gets made in assessing the Doctor's various companions is the short shrift given to Dr. Elizabeth Shaw.  Yes, she was only there the one season. No, she never traveled in the TARDIS (thanks either to Time Lord exile or BBC budgetary issues - take your pick).  But she is one of my favorites and no discussion of the Pertwee era would be complete without remarking on her additions to the show.

Something I hadn't known until very recently was how close Doctor Who was to being canceled in 1970.  On the "Spearhead from Space" DVD, there's a documentary about this transition period for the show and they discussed how most of the BBC brass figured that Doctor Who had a good run, but six years was good enough for any show and it was time for something completely new.  But they didn't have anything in mind, so they granted Doctor Who a one-year reprieve until they could decide what to fill the slot with.  In many ways, Doctor Who gave the BBC a completely brand new show within the old one - the Doctor was stranded on Earth, UNIT became a permanent fixture, and it was in color!  And the companion? Well, the companion wasn't going to be a traditional companion.  At least, not that you could compare to what had come before (though I'm going to try to).

Liz Shaw is the scientific advisor for UNIT (at least, she is until the Doctor comes in).  She isn't this wide-eyed kid that the Doctor charms with promises of adventures in time and space because, well, he doesn't have that to offer anymore.  Liz is a very competent career woman with her own objectives and goals and scientific achievements.  Furthermore, she doesn't take crap from anybody, not even the Doctor.  She does come to trust him, however, especially in instances where she is waaaaay out of her depth (to be fair - everybody's out of their depth when shop-window dummies start attacking people or when the Silurians come out to play).  Liz is the type of companion the show hadn't seen... probably since Barbara Wright - a mature, adult woman who's got her life pretty well in order and doesn't want to do anything to upset that, but all that gets knocked askew when the Doctor comes into the picture (though obviously, Liz's experiences are drastically different than Barbara's - but the basis for both characters is remarkably similar).

Doctor Who is at its best when change is in the air.  The most obvious types of change are changes in the Doctor or companions, but that could also mean change in producers or storytelling techniques or episode format or villains.  I contend that, outside of the 2005 revival, the 1970 season was the time that Doctor Who experienced the most change.  Everything was brand new - even the adversaries (Daleks or Cybermen  never even came up, nor did any references to past companions).  It is against this backdrop "The Last Post" is set.

(Ha. Wondered how I was going to transition, didn't you?)

"The Last Post" starts out with Liz having lunch with her mother, Emily.  Right off the bat, Liz Shaw is getting the kind of treatment that I imagine she would had she been around for more than one season.  Emily Shaw (played by Rowena Cooper) is as different from her scientifically-minded daughter as it is possible to be - Dame Emily (as other characters refer to her as, and it fits perfectly) is an expert in medieval belief systems at Oxford and she doesn't give a whit about science and would much rather discuss art, poetry, mythology and superstition.  It would be so easy to say that Liz and her mother don't get along based on their different academic pursuits - but it's the exact opposite!  Emily is very proud of her daughter, even though Liz diverged from the family tradition of the arts (I call it a "family tradition" because Liz's sister, Lucy, is an architect and it's implied that most of the family has gone into artistic fields).  And Liz actually goes to her mother for help in solving a problem that seems to have its roots in the supernatural.

This story takes the idea that all the strange deaths that happened in Season 7 were loosely connected, in that the people who died were sent letters telling them the date and time they would meet their end.  I'm not as well-versed in Season 7 as I'd like to be, but in the interview included at the end of this audio, writer James Goss said that there were so many government officials who died in Season 7 of really bizarre causes and he wondered if maybe there was a reason for all of that.  The story as a whole takes place throughout the events of Season 7 and there are plenty of fun little mentions of the stories from that season (alien plastic, lizard men, missing astronauts - just to name a few).  Turns out that these officials were all on a committee to predict life expectancy - but they ended up dependent on a machine that could ultimately predict the end of the world (a machine, interestingly enough, that has its roots in WOTAN from "The War Machines" - there are some nice little nods to that story as well).

The framing device in this story - as with all the Companion Chronicles I've reviews thus far; I'm beginning to think this is a trend - is really clever.  The first scene in the story has Liz and her mother in the same place talking to each other, just to establish the characters' relationship.  But from there on out, the narrative takes the form of letters and phone calls between Liz and Emily.  That framework gives the story room and time to take place over the course of a full season (how long that is in real time, who really has a clue?) and it also gives Emily's character time to grow and the listener to become familiar with her.  After all, as a companion's mother she should be a very sympathetic individual.

I have to give some mention to the Brigadier. He is simply delightful in this - even through Liz’s POV. When Liz says “The world is ending,” the Brigadier replies “Does the Doctor say so?” (the Doctor’s been knocked out by a sting from an alien scorpion thing, but he’s okay). I loved this because even though the Doctor and the Brigadier disagree on various things and bicker from time to time, he still trusts the Doctor.  It's just fun to still have the Brig around in Big Finish, even though Nicholas Courtney has passed.

There are some particular lines in this story that I just love.  Liz is usually seen as a straight-laced, mature, responsible person - which she is.  But she also has a bit of a snarky side and Goss gave her some great dialogue to work with (and I have to point out that Caroline John still sounds like Liz Shaw from 1970 - I could easily imagine Liz as she was on TV in this story).  Some of my favorites:

- "The Brigadier even reads neatly." (Caroline John's impression of the Brigadier is just lovely).

- (Speaking about Prestaigne): "If the Doctor were here, he'd break out the Venusian Akido. I just wanted to kick him in the shins."

- (Speaking about the Doctor): "The first time he came to UNIT he looked like a geography teacher."

This one isn't Liz's, but it's good anyway -

The Apocalypse Clock: "Doctor who? He is required" (cute little nod to "The War Machines")

A few words on the interview included on the audio: as I listened to the interview, I felt incredibly sad. Mostly because Caroline John passed away a few months after recording this, but also because she, Rowena Cooper and the production team all talk like there will be more Big Finish stories with Liz and her mother. The idea sounds incredible because Liz and Emily are such great characters. Even though they’re both very different - Liz is a scientist and Emily is into the arts - there’s still a lot of love between this mother and daughter combination. You don’t often get that - usually when there’s a parent-child dichotomy, they end up fighting at some point. While Liz and Emily do have their moments of being annoyed with each other, it never becomes heated or angry. There’s always a softer element of love and admiration between the two - a definite family bond that would have been lovely to see again.

When I heard about the passing of Caroline John last summer, there was a great sadness.  I really liked Liz as a companion and she's one of those people that I would love to have met at a convention and just be able to say how much I enjoy her performance in Doctor Who (along with Jacqueline Hill and Michael Craze and Mary Tamm and Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen - yeah, pretty much everyone ever).  But I am grateful for the stories she did leave us with and that we all get to keep Liz Shaw with us as long as we want to.  With that in mind, I'd like to end this review with Babelcolour's tribute to Dr. Elizabeth Shaw -


*I owe a debt in part to io9's lovely article they posted soon after Caroline John's passing asserting how the character of Liz Shaw helped saved Doctor Who in 1970.  It's a wonderful little read, so go check it out.

***
Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 3.03 - Oh, were you using this planet? My bad...

Previously -
Review 3.01 - Those Best Suited to Rule

Those Best Suited to Rule

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 3.01

Title: The Curse of Peladon
Team TARDIS: Third Doctor, Jo Grant
Adversary: High Priest Hepesh, Arcturus (Spoilers. Sorry).
Originally Aired: January 29-February 19, 1972
Number of Episodes: 4

Synopsis (from TARDIS Wikia)-

The Doctor and Jo make a test flight in the TARDIS and arrive on the planet Peladon. Seeking shelter, they enter the citadel of the soon-to-be-crowned King Peladon, where the Doctor is mistaken for a human dignitary summoned to act as Chairman of a committee assessing an application by the planet to join the Galactic Federation.

My Review: 

“It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. 
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

In Traveling the Vortex’s recent Third Doctor Retrospective, the Vortex Boys asked the question “What defines this era the most?” Rightly so, they cued into things such as UNIT, the Master, gadgets and gizmos, Venusian Akido - things to do with the earthbound stories representative of the Pertwee era. And, let’s be honest, most broad reviews of the Pertwee era make great mention of those things. So when it came time for me to choose the televised story I wanted to review for the Third Doctor, I didn't want to rehash the same stuff that everyone else talks about. Don’t get me wrong - UNIT is awesome. I love UNIT. The Brigadier, Benton, Liz Shaw (who gets unfairly overlooked in so many things) - the dynamic within the UNIT family is a treat to see (even Captain Yates - before he turned to the dark side). But I wanted to give the non-UNIT stories of the Pertwee era some love because they often get ignored simply for not being representative. While “Carnival of Monsters” would have been an easy choice because it is generally well-liked (I enjoy it immensely), I also love “The Curse of Peladon.” And I was unpleasantly surprised to see that this story is not highly-regarded by fandom. When that came to my attention, my choice was made even easier.

Sometimes the politically-focused stories in Doctor Who get the short end of the stick in fandom regard.  But "The Curse of Peladon" balances out the political strife with a fair amount of suspense and action - but also a lot of heart.  While I was rewatching this, I ended up taking lots of notes about the politics these characters find themselves in - to the point that I actually had to pause the DVD and write out my thoughts on what was going on.

The Delegation is made up of people who have been around political games for a long time and play the game they same way they breath, eat and poop - it's just a fact of life for them. Kind of like Game of Thrones, but with less incest (there's another Wife-in-Space-ism for you - and they just finished their last review of the Classic Series. Sad day...)  I guess this could be a commentary on politics in real life (uh-oh - I'm bringing politics into my reviews...) in that normal, sane people who would never seek political office in a million years look at the permanent political class largely as a group of sleazeballs who are only in it for themselves and their lackeys while paying lip-service to the people who put them into office.  Generally "getting things done" in political office means being cynical and mistrustful and assuming that the people you deal with do the same kinds of underhanded, sleazeball things that you do (because that's how everyone lives their lives, don'cha know?)

Thing is, in "The Curse of Peladon," King Peladon genuinely wants to be a good king and serve his people - he is a man in whom there is no guile.  He believes the best in people - mostly because he hasn't had his ideals beaten out of him yet. That also means that his politically savvy advisor, Hepesh, thinks he can play Peladon like a naive little puppet.  Hepesh probably would have gotten away with it too - if it hadn't been for that meddling Doctor (and Jo - but I'll get to Jo's role in all of this).

The Doctor's seen his share of political intrigue and what-have-you.  But the Doctor is the kind of guy that runs from any offer of political power (for all reports that the Doctor is a mad man, at least on this score he is as sane as you or I - unless you, Dear Reader, are the sort of person that wants to run for public office, in which case what the hell is wrong with you???)  Thing is, the Doctor is the very person who would be most suited to public office simply because he would see it as a job to do, do the job, and go on to something else.  The Doctor sees through all the political intrigue and tells the truth (seeing as he really doesn't have any reason to lie - he doesn't have a dog in the fight over Peladon joining the Galactic Federation.  He's not even really the Earth Delegate).

I've got to talk more about Jo in this story. She really shines here, and not just because she gets to play the role of a badass Earth princess (anyone who can climb a mountain AND sneak out a window into a storm in high heels is pretty tough). Jo is a lot like King Peladon - she too is one in whom there is no guile.  Even more than the Doctor, I think Jo was the one to really throw a monkey wrench into Hepesh's plans to rule behind a puppet king.  Jo was probably the first person Peladon met that wasn't trying to maneuver into power and who genuinely wanted to do the right thing.  It was probably quite the revelation to Peladon to discover that he wasn't the only one in the universe not scheming for personal ends.  The funny thing is, Jo has even less of a reason to want peace than the Doctor - she's not from this time period and it didn't even matter to her what became of the Galactic Federation or Peladon or any of it.  But she sees a way that she can help and she just does it, regardless of what happens to her in the long run.  That's more or less why Peladon likes Jo - he sees someone he can finally relate to and that he could be happy with - but the poor guy does a really bad job of communicating.  He's not used to relating to people beyond political alliances (which he's probably been trained to do from a young age, never mind forging personal connections).  That doesn't sit well with Jo, sadly.  Because I almost wish that she'd stayed behind with Peladon (that could be more a result of me finding Cliff Jones to be a complete and utter dork).

This side of Jo was a big surprise for me because it was the first one I'd seen with her outside UNIT.  To this point, I'd assumed that Jo was the sweet, sassy, spunky little blonde girl in awesome '70s boots that made the Doctor look good.  Don't get me wrong, I love sweet and sassy Jo.  But in this story - the first one that she doesn't have to compete with all the UNIT boys - Jo gets to show off why she is the Doctor's companion.  The Doctor takes only the very best, after all, and Jo is no exception.  Her contribution to Team TARDIS is along the lines of what Jamie did - Jo has a lot of heart.  She cuts straight to the center of Peladon's dilemma between honoring the traditions of the people who raised him and changing a few of those traditions in order to do what is best for his people.  I don't think any other character could have - or would have - done as much.  She proves that honesty is her best trait - her best weapon, if I may use the term.  And that's just as important as knowing which polarity to reverse and when to reverse it (or even proclaiming that "girls can do whatever boys can do!" as happens in the sequel to this story "The Monster of Peladon," which I'm not as fond of.  I'd rather the girls actually do something than sit around and philosophize about how wonderful it is to be liberated.  Liberation isn't worth much if you don't do anything with it).

All this blog space and I haven't even talked about Aggedor yet!  Well... there's not much to say about the guy.  He's a teddy bear with horns that lives in the catacombs under Peladon's castle (palace? stronghold? I can't recall...)  The Doctor puts Aggedor to sleep with a metronome-hypnotizer-thing and a Venusian lullaby, which is pretty cool, but not much to write home about beyond that.  But I wouldn't mind an Aggedor plushie.  He's sort of cute (but Arcturus looks like that Jamaican-shrunken-head-thing in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Seeing as that is my second-least favorite of those movies, that is not a compliment).

"The Curse of Peladon" is a nice mix of political intrigue, heart, mythology, character development and, yes, a little bit of romance.  This story gives Jo Grant time to shine and kick ass in her sweet, endearing, charmingly girly ways.  No other companion has been given the title Princess of TARDIS, and it's one that suits her very well.  Even more than King Peladon, Jo has the whole "benevolent ruler" thing down pat.  The only thing that would make this better is if she had gotten to use her talents in that area in the long term.

***
Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 3.02 - Where have they taken you, Elizabeth Shaw?

Previously -
Review 2.03 - The Celestial Chessmaster