Hello all, the Historian here, along with Ketina, Ronelyn, Spoo, MiniSpoo, Photobug, Altair, Ezio, CZ, and the ever-silent (these days) Schmallturm. (Whew!) This week, we return to recons, briefly, thanks to the magic of Loose Cannon Productions. We are, however, almost done with them for quite some time, having only one week until we make our way out of what Ketina so not-at-all lovingly calls “Recon Hell.”
So, let’s return to the titular Wheel in Space for an episode originally aired on 18 May, 1968!
H = Historian
K = Ketina
Sp = Spoo
MS = MiniSpoo
P = Photobug
A = Altair
E = Ezio
Cz =Cz
M = Mister Mother
Ab = Abhorsen
R: Nice animation. Not perfect…
E: Better than what we usually see.
Sp: In the next to the last still was anyone else thinking “The Doctor is Ceiling Cat?”
Cz: Why is the Doctor Ceiling Cat? I am confused.
H: There is a bit where he’s looking down into the room in the shot, and we can only see his face peeking down.
Sp: So I perked up for the last third of the episode when they introduced the concept of conditioning the crew to resist mind control through drugs and circuits and such. It’s actually a rather novel point. I mean for all of the Star Trek: The Next Generation that I remember revolving around “aliens have taken us over” it’s a rather sensible precaution and a neat bit of scifi to introduce that here to move the plot along a bit.
K: It’s like they’re used to humanity being attacked in space by stuff. But you’d think, giving the timing and Moonbase and all that, that they would have heard of the Cybermen.
H: I was going to say that. Yeah.
P: I like the “Price is Right” doors. I was confused in this story because I’m expecting two more Cybermen to be on the ship, and the reason why I say that is because in the eggs we saw people, not Cybermats.
H: The eggs that went over to the Wheel that you missed in the first episode were small. Those were Cybermats. The two eggs at the end of the second episode, and the beginning of the third episode that expanded and Cybermen broke out of were on the Rocket. Those are the only two Cybermen, besides the Cybercontroller, that we’ve seen so far in the story.
K: That’s still confusing, because the eggs grew. We saw eggs on the Rocket. Then we saw eggs move to Wheel. Then we saw little eggs on Wheel. Then we saw little eggs get big, but it wasn’t at all clear that little eggs getting big were on the rocket.
H: It was the rocket set. Presumably it might have been more clear if you could have seen the full episode.
K: But, my point is, I can see why Photobug is confused. I was confused. I thought there was a Cyberman on the Wheel somewhere guarding Cybermats or eggs or something. He stood out on guard in front of a doorway. It could have been anywhere.
Sp: I also appreciated how they made the parallel between Zoe’s highly logical nature and the Cybermen. I think they had about as light a touch as they could with that.
K: Yeah, it wasn’t quite smacking you on the head with the parallel. Mildly subtle. I kept expecting it get less subtle.
H: So no one’s going to talk about how our favorite Wheel technician bought it in this episode? We spent a while earlier talking about how we like Bill Duggan last week. Remember? No. Anyone?
K: It wasn’t clear from the recon that it was Bill getting zapped.
H: I thought it was. It was a censor clip.
Sp: The recon might have contributed to this, but I thought that the actor for Bill’s work this week wasn’t all that great. I’ve watched enough Doctor Who to be a moderate connoisseur <damn French words> sorry Ketina… to be the moderate connoisseur of death screams and this one didn’t really do it for me.
K: I liked that there was a censor clip.
<Mr. Mother walks in. This should be entertaining.>
R: I was sad, I liked Bill.
Sp: <To Historian> Feel better now?
H: Not really.
R: And speaking of death screams, I loved the fact that they burned Chang down where he stood they stopped for a second and then was “bitz bitz” yeah, he’s really dead.
Sp: Yeah. I was like “this is for being human. Bitz bitz. This is for being racist. Bitz bitz bitz.”
H: Yes. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
R & Sp: Erephant.
H: I do believe we have our most offensive character since Mavic Chen. Actually more so, because they didn’t even try to do fake Asian makeup on him.
K: I didn’t think he was offensive. I think what the other guy said to him “chop chop” was offensive. He just had, yet another, random nondescript accent. To me, at least.
R: <Bad Asian accent> “My name Chang. Velly grad to herp on rasol lepail.”
K: Okay. That’s pretty bad.
Sp: All I have to say is I, of all people, will not even dignify this with my Mavic Chen impression.
K: Still. “Chop chop” also offensive.
H: Yes. And we’re not saying it’s not.
<discussion about the details of the scenes in question that went too fast for me to capture. Basic conclusion is that this was a pretty racist representation of an Asian character.>
Sp: So back to the previous point. The Cyberman was like “buzzt” “and two for frrinching” “buzzt buzzt.”
R: While we’re on the subject of racism. “ugg ugg. Tape recorders scare Jamie.”
E: Oh, that was great.
R: What I liked about it was actually that he’s demonstrating flexibility now. He was like “how did you? Oh, that’s a box.” And you put voices in one end and they come back out later at another time. Okay.
Sp: Meanwhile. If Zoe had any kind of superiority complex before… Jamie must be like a house cat to her now.
R: And on general misanthropy, why the sneg to human being never write down ANYTHING about the Cybermen?
H: In the Moonbase they know about the Cybermen, but they think it’s ancient history, so they dismiss the Doctor. But these guys…
R: American schools.
H: Comprehensive education.
R: Charter Schools, you have doomed us all!
Sp: Well, there’s another possibility. Consider that Jamie had to sabotage the laser in order to keep them from shooting down the rocket. So it’s possible that the Wheel had just shot down all of the mailmen and they never hear of them…
H: But this takes place like 100-200 years after the Moonbase.
Sp: The Wheel’s really, really deep in space.
P: But if they are treating everyone on the base to prevent mind control then certainly they would be a little more paranoid about external influences.
R: Which is why they don’t trust the Doctor.
P: Trust the X-Ray.
H: But that doesn’t explain why they don’t know about the Cybermen?
P: Yes. If they are preventing mind control then why aren’t they aware of the Cybermen?
K: I think I can explain. Or at least guess. 100-200 years is a long time, and misinformation, political cover-ups. Wouldn’t you hide an invasion of aliens on earth to “protect the innocence” of the general population? Just guessing.
Sp: Valid theory. Yeah.
R: Or the writers need a way for the base to be under siege.
K: So, phase six?
H: I think we’re on phase five.
K: No, they didn’t talk about this phase yet. So the Cybermen send the meteors at the Wheel to scare? The people, only to push to get the gun fixed again to stop the meteors.
H: Yep. It actually makes sense, given what we’ve heard so far. The entire point…
K: Of stupid Cybermen…
H: Of sabotaging the laser and sending the meteors was to get someone from the Wheel to go over to the rocket so the Cybermen could be brought onto the Wheel. We don’t know what they want with the Wheel, except the Doctor said something about Cybermen needing the resources of earth. Presumably they need the Wheel intact, for some reason. Thus they need the laser to be repaired to fight off the meteors. I’m not saying it’s a good plan. There is a certain amount of stupid logic to it.
R: I love Ketina too much to make her write up all the holes in this plan.
K: Thank you.
Sp: So, trivia time. How many stories have we had where the commander of a base is going stir crazy, verses how many base commanders are actually cool and calm under pressure.
R: Nick Courtney.
H: The Moonbase guy was okay. And I feel like we’ve watched a story, besides the Web of Fear, where we were like “hey, he’s not crazy.”
<brief check on our own web site reviewing episode titles… maybe the Power of the Daleks did not have crazy base commander.>
K: So, overall assessment of under siege stories – most commander are, in some fashion, nuts.
M: Just the ones that need the Doctor.
Sp: No, no. That is Murder She Wrote level logic.
M & Sp: “Obviously Jessica Fletcher was the killer in every story. There’s no other explanation of how she could be there for so many murders.”
R: So on the positive side, were the animations not remarkable?
P: Yeah! There were times when I wasn’t sure if it was an animation.
R: Lots of clever reuses of little bits of footage too.
H: Very good job on the recon. It was released in 2010 or 2011. I watched in when it showed up on You Tube because the trailer looked so good.
R: So, there was this point where the commander came across the two brain washed guys and said “ha! Somebody’s finally using their brains for a change.” and I thought to myself “Well, somebody’s using their brains, but it’s not them.” And I laughed quietly to myself about the staff meeting when they talk about annual raises and the Cybermen are like “what about us?” Nobody ever gets the credit they deserve in these big corporations.
Sp: Obviously the Cybermats have a better union.
R: Billy Bugs local 442?
<laughter>
Sp: <Munchkin voice> “We shall overtake!”
H: Are we at finally thoughts?
R: What gave you that idea?
M: We’re fully into post thinking now.
K: So… Ezio?
E: I don’t really have much to say on this episode, other than I really liked the parallel between the Cybermen and Zoe. I thought that was a neat little aside. And the animation was better than normal.
R: They did a really good job of not animating things they couldn’t get away with.
P: Some interesting break walking during the transfer of cargo between ships.
Several people: That was animation.
P: Then I completely forgive. I liked the animation that was given for the Cybermen getting into the crate. And I enjoy that the author was smart enough to have the man looking for the Cybermen looking where they were instead of justing finding them there. It added to the suspense. Part of me doesn’t understand why the Cybermen doesn’t just go through the station and mind control everybody as they go.
R: That’s phase nineteen.
K: There’s only two Cybermen and the Wheel people certain have guns.
P: I’m curious as to the fate of our Cybermats. I think there’s less character development in this episode, but maybe because it’s a later episode in the story. With the exception of Jamie and Zoe. I guess that’s it.
M: I didn’t see anything I didn’t like.
<laughter>
MS: I still love the little hypnotize thing.
P: The wavy lines?
MS: Yes. I compliment the person who made the animations. That was very cool.
Ab: I was actually fooled by the animation for a good five seconds, which actually surprised me.
P: Yeah, me too.
Ab: It reminded me of those Japanese news reports.
Sp: The South Korean news reenactments.
Ab: Yeah those. Which I found amusing.
Cz: I wasn’t watching at all, but I did see the animation. I was very confused.
Sp: Riffing on Photobug’s earlier bit, it is pretty impressive that there was so much animation in this one that the animator actually did have a bit of direction too. And so we compliment her on her direction in addition to just the technical animation and appearance of it. Choosing to frame and pace shots a certain way. She put so much work into it and it paid off, and really either exactly matched what was in the script and shooting note, or was just really well done herself.
K: A good example was in the scene where the men brought the crate into the airlock and one of them stuck his arms out. It looked weird until you saw the still. And then you could see that the animation was just matching the still.
H: She did have some directorial choices, but she was definitely being guided by the telesnaps and limited by the soundtrack. Which she matched to perfectly.
Sp: I think that’s a huge part of why this is the least recon-y feeling recon that we’ve had in some time. It really breaks up the slide show of telesnaps effect.
P: It’s at a higher level of recon hell.
Sp: Recon heck.
H: The only reconstruction we’ve seen that’s later than this is The Evil of the Daleks. So it’s from the same general time period.
Sp: So, the Doctor’s taken an awfully long time to recover from his nasty bonk, hasn’t he?
H: Mild concussion. That’s what they said. It’s only been a few hours or so in the Wheel, I believe.
A: It’s unusual for anyone to take that long to recover from any kind of injury in a TV episode.
<discussion of various injuries>
Sp: <thinks… out loud… did he forget to talk about anything?>
K: Is that it, Spoo?
Sp: Yep.
H: Ronelyn?
R: “My Wheel! Mine! Mine! MINE!”
H: Is that it?
R: Yep.
K: The problem, you see, with going almost last, is that everyone pretty much covered what you would have said. Spoo.
Sp: We share a brain, we’re all voices in your head. Rada rada rada.
K: So, I don’t have anything to add there. I am enjoyed the story. I was distracted this week, for whatever reason.
<discussion ensues about whether the people who are paying attention would fit better in the downstairs TV room or up here to maximize attention. This discussion is more involved than some of the discussion that we’ve had about plot points this week. Infer what you will…. Spoo made me type that.>
K: So, whatever. Good story. Moving on.
H: <stilted voice> My, that certainly was part four of a six part story, won’t you?
Sp: Oh dear. I believe Mr. Pedler has broken him.
H: No, it was fine. It just was very clearly “the middle of the story” and stuff happened, but it wasn’t as interesting as the ramp up or the conclusion. It’s just the middle of the story. But it’s fine. And I’m enjoying it. And the recon was awesome. And that’s all I’ve got to say that hasn’t already been said.
Sp: Chang!
————————-
And that’s all for this week. Just a reminder that I am continuing to go back and fill in gaps–I’ve done wrapup posts for The Gunfighters and The Savages since last week, and I hope to have The War Machines done by early next week, at which point I’ll make a go at a Season Three wrapup. Check them out and let me know what you think! Until next time, I remain
THE HISTORIAN
NEXT WEEK: THE WHEEL IN SPACE, EPISODE FIVE
