This is one of those stories which, on paper, works very well. It's just the realisation that let's it down.
With Nightmare of Eden, however, the worst of its problems were the ones which we didn't see on screen.
This is the story which, notoriously, saw the director dismissed before completing the job.
Alan Bromly was the worst kind of hack director, at least by this stage of his career. Barry Letts had previously experienced his lack of imagination when he had declined advice from him, and help from the VFX Department in favour of using stock footage of a quarry blast at the conclusion of The Time Warrior.
He was basically coasting towards retirement in 1979 and was only given another Doctor Who to do as a favour to senior management, in the belief that he was a safe pair of hands.
This was just the sort of attitude which a technically complex programme simply didn't need at this time of high inflation, with an increasingly domineering star.
Bromly had an overly rigid way of working - unwilling to deviate from his planned shots and timetable. This led to an inevitable clash with the improvisational, experimental style favoured by Tom Baker.
Baker took to openly disagreeing with the director - likening him to a parrot when he kept repeating the same instructions over and over again.
By the last recording session, it was open warfare and Bromly was replaced in the gallery by producer Graham Williams.
Other unhappy personnel included the VFX team. Due to the tight budgets, Williams had decided to have the model shots recorded in studio using CSO instead of using the far superior model stage filming method.
Colin Mapson's detailed models of the Hecate and Empress simply weren't done justice.
According to the DVD documentary, special T-shirts were printed with the slogan "I Survived the Nightmare of Eden" when the serial wrapped.
The BBC tried to build up the Mandrels by claiming that they were so frightening that no photographs were allowed of them - patently untrue. Two of the guest artists also claimed in interviews that they were scary.
The costumes are fine in the darkened environment of the Eden jungle projection, but their limitations are all too apparent in the overly-lit studio. They have been given long arms, but these are too rigid.
Being the 1970's, they've also got flares.
Keep an eye on David Daker when the Mandrel bursts out of the hole, bridging the first and second episodes. He finds it hard to keep a straight face.
It's a bit too obvious that the actors are running up the same small section of stairwell - which moves out of position at one point when it's bumped.
The same problem arises with the passenger pallets. They've moved people about to make it look like lots of identical sections, but you recognise certain extras.
Plot-wise, why are the passengers wearing dark glasses and overalls when the crew aren't?
Are the passengers being kept in some sort of unshielded part of the ship?
The reason for the collision in the first place is due to Tryst deliberately spiking Secker's food or drink to cause the accident, so that the transference can take place.
However, none of this has made it from the script to the screen, so we have no clue as to why the accident takes place.
Now that we do know, it actually makes little sense. How could Tryst and Dimond possibly know what would happen when the vessels collided? They could just as easily have been destroyed.
Why deliberately draw the attention of the customs officials by staging an accident, when all they needed to do was slip an innocuous looking crystal from one person to another, or use their enchuka laser option anyway.
You have to wonder how they first discovered that Mandrel ash was Vraxoin in the first place.
Captain Rigg discovers that the Doctor and Romana are imposters quite early on - but does nothing about this information. He continues to allow the Doctor to take charge over his own vessel.
At one point Romana is bitten by what the script terms a "somno-moth", which flies out of the projection. But you'd never know that to look at the scene. A small electronic effect flies at her and she collapses, but the audience don't have a clue what they've just seen.
Stott and the Doctor discover that things can move in and out of the projection early on, and is also the source of the Vraxoin (even if they don't yet know the precise source) - but don't put two and two together to work out that the person responsible for the projection might just possibly be the smuggler.
Why was Lewis Fiander allowed to use such a ridiculous cod-Germanic accent? Surely this should have been addressed at the rehearsal stage.
Perhaps Williams had simply given up the ghost by this stage, as he also allowed the whole "My arms, my legs, my everything!" nonsense from Baker.
Della gets shot in the throat, but clutches her stomach before falling.
Fisk calls Tryst "Fisk" at one point.
There is some quality model work on show - just a pity it's from Space:1999...
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