The opening sequence was only recorded after Graham Williams vetoed a birthday scene in the TARDIS - this being the time of the series' 15th Anniversary, and 100th story. It would have been a nice little scene, with the Doctor pleased to accept from Romana a new scarf, exactly the same as his old one.
Instead we get a recap of the Key to Time set-up. The all-powerful McGuffin appears to be kept in an old fridge in a plain black room. It all looks very cheap.
David Fisher is the worst writer of the season for integrating the Key into his narrative. The opening scene would have been the work of Anthony Read. The segment turns up right at the end, just as though it were simply an afterthought.
Why has it taken this long for Romana to ask about the background to their mission? Surely knowing of the threat from the Black Guardian and his agents would be something that she ought to have been warned about.
Why does Cessair make do with sharing a little cottage when she could continue to own the big mansion?
If it's because she's in a Sapphic relationship with Prof. Rumford, as certain sections of fandom like to think, then couldn't they share the Hall instead?
The Druidic cult is introduced as followers of the Cailleach - who is being impersonated by Vivien Fey / Cessair. What she gets out of this we never know.
Why continue this for centuries when she's an alien from an advanced civilisation. She doesn't get any benefit from the deception that we ever see.
Why does she kill De Vries? Is it because he was too stupid to recognise a solitary bicycle lamp approaching?
Having authority over the neighbourhood may have been useful in the past, when she was the acknowledged landowner, but these days she's just an ordinary local, staying in a cottage.
What is Cessair doing on Earth all this time anyway. She can flit back and forth to the spaceship anytime, and has the Great Seal of Diplos (really the Key segment) which surely has the power to get it moving again.
Not so much something wrong as personal opinion, but the story seems to lose its way once the action moves to the spaceship. Courtroom drama can be very static and dull, unless you're Hitchcock or Billy Wilder. The first half works better, having some of the Gothic trappings reminiscent of the Hinchcliffe-Holmes era.
Why does Romana ask why they can't see the spaceship, when the Doctor has already told her that it's in Hyperspace?
Why does the Doctor have a tea-towel covering his gun-like machine when he fills it? It wouldn't be to hide the fact that the crystals are already in the end piece would it...?
How would falling into the sea destroy an Ogri?
The legal code followed by the Megara is rather silly. Surely even logical machines would know that they had been prevented from carrying out their function by being locked up, and that releasing them isn't necessarily a crime - especially one punishable by death.
Why do they destroy the Ogri when it can't possibly harm them, and one of their responsibilities is to have them taken back to their own planet?
The Doctor dismissing them by simply waving the Seal at them is most unsatisfying. Its particular powers are ill-defined.
Cessair had it for thousands of years - so why didn't she use it to send the Megara away?
Beatrix Lehmann - the real life inspiration for Cabaret's Sally Bowles - struggles over her lines at times. But we love and forgive her for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment