Some of the issues with this story can be laid squarely at the door of its director. Alan Bromly, who would later be lambasted by Tom Baker and sacked from Nightmare of Eden, was old-fashioned and uncomfortable with technicalities such as VFX. He refused to accept ideas from others on how to achieve such effects.
You have to wonder why Barry Letts hired him in the first place...
The main effects shots Bromly refused to accept concerned the explosion of the castle at the conclusion. The director used stock footage of a quarry blast - and this is exactly what it looks like.
The arrival of Linx's spaceship is far from impressive as well.
We see Hal the archer encourage Bloodaxe and the rest of the soldiers to flee the castle - but not Meg and the rest of the women in the kitchens.
Linx obtains the scientists from the late 20th Century - so why does he not obtain weapons from that time period as well?
Why would an alien, who has never been to Earth, select weapons which fit neither the period he's in, nor the period he has visited, and yet they are exactly of a known human weapon design? Why get his scientists to build them when he could have stolen them ready built? Just because they are expert in one field, it doesn't mean that the scientists would have the skills needed to make firearms.
Where did the gunpowder come from so quickly?
The scientists act like zombies, so did he really need them to begin with? Couldn't hypnotised locals have been used instead, or those from a closer future time period?
The biggest question about his scheme - how does he know where and when to even begin looking for what he needs? He's clearly only at the castle for a short time before he's off plundering equipment and scientists from more than one location in his future. How could he possibly know about these, and then know that the Brig had moved everyone?
If Sontarans have such time travel in the 12th Century (assuming it is the time of the Crusades, but that's only a guess) why have they not won their war against the Rutans by the time we get to Fang Rock?
Long before we had this story on VHS, fandom was convinced that an anachronistic potato featured in the kitchen scene between Sarah and Meg. We now know this isn't the case - but there is an anachronistic apple variety in the scene where one is used as target practice. The Cox's Orange Pippin dates to the 1820's.
It doesn't say much for the Brigadier's security measures that no-one else picks up that Sarah is half the age of the person she is purporting to be. Rubeish notices fairly quickly, and he's blind as a bat.
How can the Doctor and Brigadier not spot that Sarah has gone into the TARDIS in search of Rubeish? They're standing only a couple of feet away, and Sarah even calls into the ship within earshot.
How likely is it that she would have proceeded inside once she saw the console room beyond? Wouldn't she be more likely to pull back? Not only has she gone on into the console room, but she must have then headed beyond and through the internal door for the Doctor not to see her once he entered to travel back to medieval times.
Sarah is convinced the Doctor is up to no good - but for absolutely no good reason. Later she'll convince Sir Edward and Lady Eleanor of his guilt, but after he's captured he simply says it's someone else, and they automatically accept this. Sarah seems surprised that the Doctor knows about UNIT, despite the pair of them spending the whole first episode in a UNIT run facility with the Brigadier.
It seems almost sacrilegious to criticise one of the best cliff-hangers of the classic era, but Linx didn't do a great job in checking no-one was around to see him take his helmet off in the castle courtyard, did he? He's as observant as the Doctor and the Brig.
For him, his physiognomy is standard, so why does he want to keep his appearance hidden in the first place? He considers humans primitive, so why should he care what they think about his looks? And why does he suddenly not care about hiding his appearance in the later episodes?
The guard at the gate, joking with his colleague after the Doctor and Sarah have entered in their monk outfits: one of the worst acting performances ever.
Rubeish addresses one scientist as Morrison - and then a totally different scientist as Morrison...
The Doctor gets shot in the face by Linx, so later fetches a photographer's light reflector to prevent a second attack. Why does Linx not simply aim lower when the Doctor shields his face?
Last - but by no means least - how on Sontar did they get Linx's spaceship into that chamber?
No comments:
Post a Comment