Thursday, October 13, 2011

Ep. 69 The Dimensions of Time

"Well, I’ve got two more mimmians before I can go home. Yes, I say it often enough, but it’s still two thousand Xeron days...and it sounds more in days.  Yeah, I know, I volunteered, you were ordered. If the truth were known, I was just as bored on Morok.  Still it was home, and youth never appreciates what it has. Oh, I don’t know what I’m going to do now. Still...let’s get on with it, shall we? ____these reports. I don’t know."

   Is it subtle farce or a disappointing script?  I'm not sure.
   We have a classic Doctor Who conflict.  An officious invader has control over a downtrodden population yearning to revolt and just needing something to push them over the edge.
   In this one the officious invaders are the Moroks.  Switch the "k" for an "n" and you might have a clue as to how the writer felt about this alien species.  They were the white clad figures from the last episode.  Seeing them up close you can make out their punked out raccoon hairstyles and world weary attitude towards life.
    In the other corner is the spunky little native species of Xeros.  As far as I can make out the rebellion consists of three guys in dark clothes and sneakers.  I thought that they were wearing eye makeup yesterday, but it's actually a prosthetic forehead with weird eyebrows.
   I don't know about you, but I immediately thought of this:

    Oddly enough this reminded me of Douglas Adams' work.  Adams' of course cut his teeth as script writer for Doctor Who before the Hitchhiker's juggernaut took off.
    The problem with taking this one too seriously is the fact that half of the dialog between the travelers boils down to "maybe this is what puts us in the museum."   After a while this became annoying.
    There are some good things in this one.
     Ian and Barbara getting snippy with one another.  The Doctor beating the crap (offscreen) of his Xeran guard and then hiding inside a Dalek casing.  The Doctor cheating the Morok thought detector. 
   





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