Hello everyone, the Historian here. Today, we leave the unnamed world of the Gonds and journey to a brand new story! Where will the TARDIS land this time? Wait and see, as our Project team finds out…Let’s get to the episode! This episode first aired on 25 January, 1969.
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H = Historian
K = Ketina
R = Ronelyn
Sp = Spoo
MS = MiniSpoo
P = Photobug
A = Altair
E = Ezio
Cz = Cz
Cz: Well, that was a weird dream <appears to have slept through the episode>
Sp: Oh, we’re starting… right.
P: I was expecting little tiny red seeds. You know, the ones they tell you no to eat when you’re a kid…there, I did my part.
Sp: Bold direction choices.
R: bwthththththtwwthth
H: That’s from the original story. The same effect from the original Ice Warriors story.
R: It’s true.
Sp: But not just the wibbly gun effect, as cool as that was. There was some eccentric blocking going on. Some of it worked for having Kelly behind a translucent control panel while talking to the other person. Some of it was…seemed intentional. I guess. For having the person who’s not talking in focus, and vice versa. And then one of them was just weird. The acts were literally in each other’s faces.
K: Yeah, I noticed that. Like an inch apart.
Sp: Yeah, that inch apart chewing out thing was really uncomfortable making. But also clumsy.
K: I just worried if that one guy had bad breath that it would have been really awful.
H: So something that I thought was really well done, was the use of the museum canned film to give us all the exposition. It worked really well.
K: I thought the whole moving the TARDIS camera around though was really weird. When they got out of the TARDIS it seemed so obvious that they were in a room.
Sp: I really loved that bit because I took it as a playful tweak at their own special effects. I could have completely believed that the TARDIS was floating in space, looking a rocket and a cosmonaut, and I also I believe that they were in the middle of the museum. It was adorable.
H: And then, when they walked out of the TARDIS into the museum, I got that warm feeling inside of seeing a prop we haven’t seen in a long, long time.
Sp: Don’t talk about Jamie’s legs like that.
P: The TARDIS?
H: No. When they walk out you could just see, as one of the space props, the old astral map, from the Web Planet and a bunch of other Hartnell stories.
K: I could see the budget cuts in the this one.
R: Budget cuts!
K: Kelly’s desk wobbled. A couple times. And in the museum there was a shadow in the hallway in the background.
R: Someone kept walking through.
H: That was a boom mic shadow, actually. I did my due diligence on the story before we started and confirmed that.
K: Anyway, budget cuts.
R: Budget cuts.
H: But yeah, I think the script was quite good. And the acting was also surprisingly good, given what we had last time.
Cz: <calls from kitchen> Budget cuts.
R: Except for second operator lizard lips.
K: Overacting.
H: I actually think he worked tremendously well. He was a spineless coward who was in over his head.
Sp: In space!
R: Instead of chewing the scenery, he was drooling the scenery.
K: I agree with Ronelyn. Between the bug eyes and the sniveling, it got too much.
Sp: But going back to the wibble gun, the effect on that is really cool.
Cz: Oh, the wibble gun! I know what you’re talking about. I saw that bit. That’s what gave me the weird dreams. It was like…
Everyone: <hand wibblies> wubbububububububle
<like, seriously, everyone but me just did that. I was too busy typing it.>
R: I’m going to have to rewatch the new Ice Warriors episode of new Doctor Who and see if it has the wibble gun.
H: I don’t believe it did.
Sp: Also, the introductory music and what seemed like really close to a cold open, with that earth moon shot – that was pretty aresting. And part of all of the very different direction choices, which changed things up quite a bit for the start of this episode. And it’s good that they did, because even though the characters and the pacing and the dialog were good, this is still the start of a very straight forward “trouble on a station” plot in a box kind of plot. It would be very easy for something like this to feel pretty tedious, but they did a lot with what they had.
K: This is one of those where I’m remembering it as I watch it, although I’m remembering more than usual.
H: Should we talk about the whole abandonment of space travel plot?
R: I thought that was pretty cool.
K: I know that we see T-Mats a lot in Doctor Who.
H: Although they’re not called T-Mats, but Transmats. In the Dalek Master Plan they were called something like…
P: <looks it up> Particle Dissemination.
K: Basically they’re the transporters in Star Trek.
H: Except more instantaneous.
K: There’s a booth, and then you’re gone.
Sp: I really like that they didn’t add any effects to that.
A: Yeah, me too.
H: Something that I noticed, was that they showed someone leaving, like they actually focused on the booth and he disappeared, but every time someone arrived, they cut away for a second, and then cut to the booth like they were already standing there. Which tells me something about how they must have achieved the effect. It was easier to show someone disappearing than appearing.
P: They should have just used a real one.
H: If you have access to that kind of technology, you shouldn’t be sitting on it.
<Spoo starts talking about butt’s in booths. Sorry, I missed the jist of it.>
Sp: In the museum, with the curator…
H: Radnor?
R: No, that’s captain underpants.
P: <has all the names> Professor Daniel Eldred.
Sp: That guy. And the other guy, that came to get him…
R: Radnor. Or you can call him Captain Underpants.
Sp: Right. In the museum, when Radnor comes to get Eldred, at some point in the conversation, Eldred put his gun down on the counter…
K: Yeah, I know.
Sp: I was expecting Radnor to snatch it and force Eldred to take him to the moon in his rocket. And that sentence looks unsavory when I look at it by itself…now let’s talk about the electrical tape on the creases in their crotches.
P: Oh, I must be straight. I did not notice that.
Everyone else: You did not notice that?
R: There was the crotch shot, when he’s standing in the door like an aging Mexican wrestler.
K: Yeah. They focus on his crotch for like 10 seconds as he walks across the room.
Sp: What would you call a Mexican wrestler on the moon. Would that be a lundaor?
P: They actually did say that he was going to be a lunatic for going to the moon.
Cz: No.
H: I can almost defend the costumes. I agree that it’s stupid, but if you look at flight suits of the time…
R: I reserve the right to rebut this instantly.
H: Admitedly, they had a harnessy thing. But clearly the costume designer had seen pictures of that…
Sp: And ran with it.
H: Sure.
P: Like there’s instruments there to measure something.
R: Allow me to retort. Phone booth. There’s one guy on the planet, who MIGHT get into a rocket. Guess who wasn’t wearing the underoos.
H: Because he wasn’t working for the government, and didn’t have a uniform.
K: I thought it was a fashion choice, not a uniform.
H: All the men working on the T-Mat wore that.
P: A g-suite has the special straps for fighter jet pilots, and would have nothing to do with what you’d wear in outer space.
H: I’m not saying that. I’m just saying the costume designer was likely influenced by flight suit design because she liked it. I’m not saying that it makes sense, I’m saying that’s probably where it came from.
K: I want one of those tube things for my hair that Kelly had.
H: The “I dream of Jeanie” thing?
Cz: Yeah. I was thinking that too.
Sp: Yeah, it was a bold choice, by the costume designer.
K: It was a bold choice by the camera guy.
Sp: I was a bold choice by a cast composed of people primarily with square buttocks.
P: Interesting sounding alarm. Certainly not a door bell, that went off on the moon base.
K: Wasn’t that the same alarm that notified them in the museum when the moon base called?
H: I think so.
K: Ice Warrior cam was annoying.
Sp: I thought it was clever.
<everyone but me apparently liked the Ice Warrior cam. At least I started a discussion>
H: I liked it because of the attempt to disguise who the bad guys were, and create tension for anyone who did not remember what the Ice Warrior gun effect looked like.
<conversation degrades into various sound effects of ray guns and whatnot>
P: “Nothing goes wrong when I’m on duty” said a lot about Ms. Kelly, I think.
K: She was awesome.
H: Unsurprisingly, the part was originally written for a male actor, and either Terrance Dicks or the director made the change, I’m not sure which.
K: Good choice.
P: As they were describing T-Mats in front of the gang, “Oh, we’ve got one of those, but ours isn’t fool proof.”
R: But specifically I think he was talking about the Doctor being the fool.
H: That’s not how I read the line.
R: Regardless, it was fun.
P: Regarding the scene in the museum, when the gun is put down, Zoe said “a couple of kids. You can tell he’s in love with that rocket.” I thought that was a great line.
R: I liked the fact that the gun looked like it fit in with the museum. You’d almost think that the professor took it off of the shelf and thought “this ought to scared ’em.”
H: “Why are you pointing a caulking gun at us?”
R: “Um… because shut up!”
<and the project finds the left over Halloween candy… I think we’re ready for final thoughts>
E: <hipster voice> Teleportation is soooo main stream. I just use rockets!
A: Did I say anything?
Sp: Yes, you agreed with me earlier.
A: Then I agree with your final thought!
Sp: Then my final thought it “Altair, give me money.”
A: Budget cuts.
P: <mumbles over candy>
K: Is that it?
P: I like where the story’s going, however moon base under siege as a means to attack the earth… sounds sort of familiar.
R: <Eddie Izzard voice> “I’ve got a different idea, I’ve got a different idea… Oh, it’s the same idea, it’s the same idea!”
P: Also, the trains are running 5 minutes late. Really, that’s like a national emergency that the trains are running 5 minutes late?
K: Depending on the kind of transportation it could be. It could cost lots of money.
H: Also it’s international. It could cause an international incident, which Kelly mentions in one line, briefly.
Sp: Also, a) it’s instantaneous, which means any delay suggests sabotage, or some kind of rerouting, and b) consider human nature. Think about how impatient you would be waiting for a bus that’s 15 or 20 minutes late.
P: I freaking ordered this from Amazon 20 minutes ago.
K: But it’s not just transportation of goods. It’s people too. It’s all transportation around the world!
P: They’re all just going to be fat people that don’t move. <looks at self> Wait a minute.
R: We are all Americans now.
Sp: Thus the emphasis today on Trans-fats.
H: <groan>
Sp: <looks at Photobug> Got there before you did.
P: I wasn’t going there.
K: Done with your final thought yet?
P: I’m done.
Cz: I made it exactly to the point where they started talking about being in a museum. And then I was gone.
R: Transported away.
H: To dreamland.
Cz: Someone tell me what happened.
E: There was disco party.
P: I’ve never seen so much nudity on a children’s program.
Cz: :C
<that’s supposed to be a VERY sad frown-y face>
MS: Finally. I have nothing to say.
H: Did you like the episode.
MS: Yeah. I liked the episode.
H: Well, good.
P: Is there a some or an aw in there?
MS: <shrugs> I dunno.
Sp: It was good. It was a good start.
R: Yeah. I liked the really brave Transmat technician who was like “screw you. You’re not getting to earth!”
K: Yeah, he was awesome.
H: Anymore?
Sp: The director’s choices helped make that technician’s sacrifice scene even cooler. To see him staring down the camera after he sabotages the controls.
K: I appreciated head tech guy.
H & P: Osgood.
H: So, Ronelyn?
R: Let’s see. We already talked about coordinator Underoos. And first operator lizard lips. Well, apparently T-Mat links are really sexy.
H: Explain?
R: <Ice Warrior voice> “First,” <pant> you will establish <pant> a link to the <pant> surface. And then <pant> we will all travel <pant> down to earth.” Is this an invasion, or a dirty phone call?
H: To be fair, that’s just the Ice Warrior voice. They do that when ordering a sandwich.
Sp: <Ice Warrior voice> “A sexy <pant> sandwich. With a five-dollar <pant> foot long.” Apparently the Ice Warriors are all played by Jack Palance.
R: The only other thing that I thought of was when captain Underoos comes into Kelly and says “I want that link up now!” and the look on her face was like “Well, I want a pony, and we don’t always get the things that we want, do we.” Sorry, unfortunately this episode was too well written to be actually funny.
K: This is a solid… oh wait, we haven’t finished watching it yet. Well, I’m going to predict that this will be a solid, classic Doctor Who invasion story. I like the Ice Warriors. They’re just the right level of silly. I’ve seen this one before, and I remember the plot but not the small details. I’m hoping we’ll get some good interactions between the TARDIS crew. That’s it.
P: Maybe <pant> what the Ice Warrior needs <pant> is an inhailer.
R: <nerd voice> “Stop staring at my <pant> head gear.”
P: <defensively> Hey, that’s not funny.
K: Take us home, boss.
H: Don’t call me boss. Seriously, don’t call me boss.
P: Alright boss.
H: I too, really like the Ice Warriors. I think they’re a great alien race. Very well designed. Especially the new kind of ice warrior we saw this week, which we really didn’t talk about.
R: Because we really didn’t see very much. “My hat is narrower.”
H: But yeah, I think this was a really strong episode, from the writing, acting, direction. Clipped right along and got a lot of technical exposition out in a very entertaining way, that didn’t stop the episode dead. Hopefully the rest of the story will continue in the same fashion. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, so we’ll see how it goes this time.
Sp: Until next week kids. <gasp>
Everyone: Wbububububububule
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And, as usual, there you have it! As always, I write this several hours before we actually watch the episode, but hopefully the team enjoyed it, and hopefully you enjoyed our discussion. If so (or, even better, if not), why not leave a comment and tell us? And then join us next week and follow along! Until then, I remain
THE HISTORIAN
NEXT WEEK: THE SEEDS OF DEATH EPISODE 2
