DW - The E-Space Trilogy Review.

[Big Orange]

Recently I’ve hired the DVD of Doctor Who‘s story arc, the “E-Space Trilogy”, where the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker on the fag end of his long tenure), K9 the robot dog, and the Second Romana accidentally pilot the TARDIS through some celestial fissure, tumbling out of the regular Universe into E-Space, and a fairly long story arc. Here’s my review of three stories:

“Full Circle” - The story arcs kicks off with the weakest and most padded story, “Full Circle”. And an annoying companion is introduced. But luckily we have K9 and Romana to soften the blow. The story centres around the Fourth Doctor, after crashing into E-Space (depicted with a green screen effect), the TARDIS materialised on a generic Earth-like planet that the TARDIS’ navigation systems assumes is Gallifrey. There is a human community living in a primitive village not far away from the crash-landed Starliner, a huge and ancient starship which came from human space. This community is ruled over by elders known as the Deciders, leaders who have the trappings of priests and scientists. What follows is a lot of walking around in circles, a lot of padding, and local troublemaker Adric sneaking around - Adric comes across as so childish and smug, he’s played with earnest woodenness by the piggy eyed Matt Waterhouse. But then spiders pop from fruit and Marshmen rise from the water to rampage around the Starliner - it is revealed the humans are not human at all, but direct descendants of the Marshmen, which is bloody stupid.
The costumes of the Marshmen look alright, but they’re certainly no Scarecrows or Autons, and as monsters seem to be more pitiful and curious than genuinely villainous, however that said there is initially a heavy sense of dread when huge cloud of heavy mist rises out of the local lake and envelopes the idyllic village and woods. All in all I give “Full Circle” a 4/10, not complete rubbish but far from great either, but I liked the sets and models depicting the mysterious Starliner and the Deciders were well played by Leonard Maguire, James Bree, and George Baker.

“State of Decay” - This is the meatiest and most entertaining story in the “E-Space Trilogy”, written by Terrance Dicks, and involving vampire lore. The TARDIS (with Adric hidden aboard) lands on another Earth like planet in E-Space, but it is a lot grimmer than the last planet, with miserable human peasants living in the shadow of a tall tower inhabited by three vampire lords, with Aukon (played by the late Emrys James) as the de-facto leader of the trio. Of course the Doctor sets about to cast off the yoke of vampire rule and it’s soon revealed that the feudal setting is artificial - the huge tower is a starship and some of the technology is still working, although it is mainly repressed/disguised Gou’ald style by the vampire rulers, with a bit of hardware illegally used by rebel peasants out in the woods. The stock footage of South American bats is used to good effect. Everything about the vampire realm seems very dreary and sleazy and heavily beaten down, with the peasants intentionally kept in grinding ignorance and poverty, manipulated to stay within the shadow of the vampire tower to avoid a made up threat known as “The Wasting”.
The vampire lords (who were originally the officers of the permanently landed starship) are planning to bring back a Great Vampire, a monstrous creature hibernating beneath the surface of the planet, presumably from the same bygone era that Satan, the Midnight Entity, Carrionites, and Racnoss came from. Adric gets kidnapped by the vampires and almost becomes one of them, not that we care, while Romana is inducted as a sacrifice in the ceremony to resurrect the Great Vampire. But of course the vampires’ plan is thwarted - the peasants attack the vampires’ human goons and storm the tower (with K-9 leading the charge), while the Doctor crawls into a derelict control room, launching a needle shaped probe from the tip of the starship/tower to impale the hulking Great Vampire (the vampire lords perish in a graphic fashion immediately afterwards). An improvement after “Full Circle”, I give “State of Decay” a hefty 8/10.

“Warrior’s Gate” - I find this story to be style over substance, with the more dynamic camera work, early CGI, and decent sets making “Warrior’s Gate” feel a little more like a movie and less like a stage play; nice window dressing for a slightly muddled plot. Now the TARDIS is almost out of E-Space finally, yet now trapped in a weird greyish white limbo, materializing beside a ruined gothic structure and a space freighter that is still occupied and properly operational. Unfortunately the crew onboard the vessel are a band of ruthless and armed human slavers led by Captain Rorvik (Clifford Rose), a nasty customer who gives Captain Janeway a run for her money in terms of pig headed stubbornness. The human slavers have a “cargo” of lion humanoids they use and abuse as the space freighter’s navigators, and one of them breaks free and wanders into the Doctor’s grounded TARDIS, then runs off and into the gothic ruins.
The Doctor’s group and slaver crew follow, both parties finding a cobwebbed gothic dining hall occupied with robot knights and a strange mirror. The Doctor and Romana, like the lion beings, can pass through the mirror, into a strange dimension resembling the grounds of a British mansion which leads to the gothic dining hall as it once was. We learn that the lion people were cruel and greedy rulers who were overthrown by robot knights; the lion people can time travel and phase in and out of timelines, passing through the mirror. The mirror proves itself to be indestructible to any weapons Rorvik and his men use, so Rorvik decides to ignite the engines of his space freighter, in a vain attempt to finally penetrate the mirror. Of course the stupid plan literally backfires, destroying the space freighter, killing all the bad guys onboard. Fortunately the lion beings onboard phase out of time and survive the destruction of the craft, with Romana deciding to stay with them as an advisor, while the Doctor, Adric, and K-9 escape E-Space in the TARDIS, but these proceedings somehow feel a little hollow.
The slaver’s ship and the slavers themselves are clearly inspired by then recent blockbusters like Star Wars: A New Hope and Alien in particular. The intimidating model used to depict the space freighter looks more impressive than the egg carton model used for the Imperial Dalek’s flagship in “Remembrance of the Daleks” over seven years later. An attractive and watchable story, but it doesn’t make enough sense to be genuinely great. A passable 6/10.

The E-Space stories are mixed bag to me, E-Space itself seemed to be a winding diversion as interesting as the diversion was in places, and by then Tom Baker was beginning to outstay his welcome.

[Stark]

Saying State of Decay is the best is really faint praise; Full Circle is a good idea but really boring to watch, and Warriors Gate is (to my memory) a really lame and contrived method of removing Romana. State of Decay is also pretty bad, but it's just a campy story with over the top performances and a pink filter. It works, but it's not really 'good'.

PS BO, 'review' doesn't mean 'write out entire plot'.

[Patrick Degan]

Personally, I found "Warrior's Gate" to be the best of the lot: it took both artistic and authorial risks which neither of the other two entries in the trilogy even tried for and projected a building sense of doom as the trap of the void literally began to close in on the TARDIS crew and Rorvik's slavers. The themes of injustice and retribution formed two strong philosophical pillars to the script: the oppressed Tharils having created their own doom from their own past oppressions of humanity, who in turn became worse than the Tharils in literally using them up until they burned out, as nothing more than fodder for their navicomp systems. By contrast, "Full Circle" is a standard monster runaround and "State Of Decay" is a Hammer-horror pastiche; both watchable fare but nothing particularly special.

[Stark]

I can see that; it's not a 'normal' story at all, but I felt no involvement at all in the slightly surreal events around the ship. It struck me as forced and vaguely retarded (magic cat people lol). The combination of themes, massive jeopardy, setting and 'lol yeah I'm leaving for basically no reason' doesn't really work for me. At least she never came back and became president, am I right guys?

[Patrick Degan]

I wouldn't say Romana left for no reason. She became involved with the plight of the Tharils and the best alternative she had to look forward to was a return to a stultifying existence on Gallifrey. She saw her chance to escape the clutches of the Time Lords and took it.

[Stark]

If it were impossible to escape the Time Lords, that might have held weight. If it had been a thing before this, it might have been good; especially if it were touched on in the other E-Space stories. I think it was poorly handled, especially since both sides of the conflict in Warriors Gate were basically horrible cunts. It wasn't even sold as 'ending the cycle of violence', it was some mystical 'time power' thing. The episode was visually striking but I didn't find the story effective at all.

[mr friendly guy]

it is revealed the humans are not human at all, but direct descendants of the Marshmen, which is bloody stupid.

Why? I thought that was a nice twist at the end.

I also agree State of Decay was the better one of the bunch. The triumph of technology over superstition (ie the Lords wanted the peasants to remain ignorant or else they might find a way to defeat them), while the Doctor's giant stake killing off the giant vampire was a nice touch.

[Patrick Degan]

If it were impossible to escape the Time Lords, that might have held weight. If it had been a thing before this, it might have been good; especially if it were touched on in the other E-Space stories.

That complaint might hold weight if Doctor Who had ever been planned out with longterm story arcs ala Babylon 5. Television drama in that time period simply was not done that way.

I think it was poorly handled, especially since both sides of the conflict in Warriors Gate were basically horrible cunts.

Uh uh —Rorvik's crew were definitely the villains in this story. The Tharils were cruel oppressors in their past, which brought their downfall upon them. But in the present of the episode, they're the victims.

It wasn't even sold as 'ending the cycle of violence', it was some mystical 'time power' thing. The episode was visually striking but I didn't find the story effective at all.

It wasn't intended to sell the idea of "ending the cycle", it was selling the idea of overthrowing the oppressors. As for complaining about "mystical time-power", that's about as useful as complaining about the TARDIS. Especially as it was only a plot device and not the object of the story.

[Stark]

Sorry, I have little sympathy for a bunch of cunts who got ruled by their slaves and oppressed in turn? Rorvik's crew were idiots, but it's not like they were the centre of the slavery system; stopping them changes nothing. I can see what they tried to do, but it wasn't effective because everyone was bland, boring and wankers. When it's the excuse you cook up to write someone out, that's poor.

Don't try to be a smart cunt about plotting; the fact that they didn't plan shit is irrelevant to the statement that Romana's reasons for leaving might have worked better if they had been built up over time. I remember it was touched on in the Key to Stupid arc, with her becoming less and less orthodox and more interventionist, but it could have been better.

[Patrick Degan]

Sorry, I have little sympathy for a bunch of cunts who got ruled by their slaves and oppressed in turn? Rorvik's crew were idiots, but it's not like they were the centre of the slavery system; stopping them changes nothing. I can see what they tried to do, but it wasn't effective because everyone was bland, boring and wankers. When it's the excuse you cook up to write someone out, that's poor.

Oh please. That's accusing a television show of not being able to do the entire sweep of a galactic culture because of it's limited scope. What's your point?

Don't try to be a smart cunt about plotting; the fact that they didn't plan shit is irrelevant to the statement that Romana's reasons for leaving might have worked better if they had been built up over time. I remember it was touched on in the Key to Stupid arc, with her becoming less and less orthodox and more interventionist, but it could have been better.

And don't you try to pretend cleverness by tossing rocks way after the fact on a whole different style of television production than what is the standard for a later era (and in fact isn't so very well done today either). The point is that something of an effort to phase her character out was put forward instead of the writers having her just jumping off the TARDIS or getting married on a whim. And no, nothing about her eventual return to Gallifrey was touched upon during the Key to Time arc other than a throwaway line in the first story, so that objection really doesn't obtain either.

[Stark]

[quote="Patrick Degan"Oh please. That's accusing a television show of not being able to do the entire sweep of a galactic culture because of it's limited scope. What's your point?[/quote]

Excuse me? It's saying if you're going to pull out a motivation ('I don't want to go back to Gallifrey because of my changed outlook on life and I will thus take this chance to help these horrible victims of their own brutality and accept a life of exile') you might want to build up to it. This has nothing to do with 'galactic culture' at all; it's basic drama. As I mentioned, I believe it was mentioned earlier, but I don't feel it was sold in this episode at all (especially considering the personally traumatic events of her recent adventures).

And don't you try to pretend cleverness by tossing rocks way after the fact on a whole different style of television production than what is the standard for a later era (and in fact isn't so very well done today either). The point is that something of an effort to phase her character out was put forward instead of the writers having her just jumping off the TARDIS or getting married on a whim. And no, nothing about her eventual return to Gallifrey was touched upon during the Key to Time arc other than a throwaway line in the first story, so that objection really doesn't obtain either.

No, it's still irrelevant even when you repeat yourself. It doesn't matter what the standard is; it would have been better a different way, because it would have been more dramatic and less contrived. It sounds like you're just complaining it's unfair, but that's not my fault; it sucks that Model T's had to be black too and whinging about the market at the time doesn't change that. It being 'something of an effort' is obviously enough for you, but I'd prefer it to have actually succeeded rather than seeming rushed and out of place.

It's actually pretty funny that you're furious I don't accept excuses for why it was crap and just accept what happened without wondering how it could be better.

[Patrick Degan]

Oh please. That's accusing a television show of not being able to do the entire sweep of a galactic culture because of it's limited scope. What's your point?

Excuse me? It's saying if you're going to pull out a motivation ('I don't want to go back to Gallifrey because of my changed outlook on life and I will thus take this chance to help these horrible victims of their own brutality and accept a life of exile') you might want to build up to it. This has nothing to do with 'galactic culture' at all; it's basic drama. As I mentioned, I believe it was mentioned earlier, but I don't feel it was sold in this episode at all (especially considering the personally traumatic events of her recent adventures).

Excuse me? You're still just accusing a television series of not being able to show things beyond the limitations of the medium. Given those limitations, the sort of story which works best is one focussed upon a specific situation. Romana is faced with a decision: either go back to a life in which she's safe and cosseted, or do something to try to make a difference, no matter how small it might be in scale. That is basic drama: the protagonist has to make a decision.

And don't you try to pretend cleverness by tossing rocks way after the fact on a whole different style of television production than what is the standard for a later era (and in fact isn't so very well done today either). The point is that something of an effort to phase her character out was put forward instead of the writers having her just jumping off the TARDIS or getting married on a whim. And no, nothing about her eventual return to Gallifrey was touched upon during the Key to Time arc other than a throwaway line in the first story, so that objection really doesn't obtain either.

No, it's still irrelevant even when you repeat yourself. It doesn't matter what the standard is; it would have been better a different way, because it would have been more dramatic and less contrived. It sounds like you're just complaining it's unfair, but that's not my fault; it sucks that Model T's had to be black too and whinging about the market at the time doesn't change that. It being 'something of an effort' is obviously enough for you, but I'd prefer it to have actually succeeded rather than seeming rushed and out of place.

It's actually pretty funny that you're furious I don't accept excuses for why it was crap and just accept what happened without wondering how it could be better.

The only irrelevancy is your continual complaining just for the sake of hearing your own head roar. And "contrived"... No, "contrived" is suddenly having a companion fall in love with and marry a complete prat she met only two episodes earlier for no reason other than so everything can end in smiles. Romana's departure at least does have some better grounding in her increasingly interventionist orientation, even if the development of her sympathy for the Tharil cause itself stretched only four episodes. Given Romana's personality as we've seen it run through two and a half series, it's a lot more plausible that she'd choose to involve herself in a cause somewhere rather than simply return to Gallifrey like a good little Time Lord, as if her time with the Doctor had never happened to her.

[Stark]

Excuse me? You're still just accusing a television series of not being able to show things beyond the limitations of the medium. Given those limitations, the sort of story which works best is one focussed upon a specific situation. Romana is faced with a decision: either go back to a life in which she's safe and cosseted, or do something to try to make a difference, no matter how small it might be in scale. That is basic drama: the protagonist has to make a decision.

LOL, you're an idiot. I joked that it's obviously NOT impossible to avoid the Time Lords and could NEVER be shown to be impossible because PEOPLE DO IT ALL THE GODDAMN TIME, and she herself just spend some time RUNNING FROM SATAN. Regardless, establishing motivation early enough to not seem forced is important and your outrage doesn't make this less true. I don't feel that Warrior's Gate successfully put over Romana's decision, and it could have been better introduced. So... what? It really seems like you're fixated on irrelevance because you don't like people disliking an episode of Doctor Who - even one from a pretty poor period in the show. What next; will you defend the Leisure Hive?

The only irrelevancy is your continual complaining just for the sake of hearing your own head roar. And "contrived"... No, "contrived" is suddenly having a companion fall in love with and marry a complete prat she met only two episodes earlier for no reason other than so everything can end in smiles. Romana's departure at least does have some better grounding in her increasingly interventionist orientation, even if the development of her sympathy for the Tharil cause itself stretched only four episodes. Given Romana's personality as we've seen it run through two and a half series, it's a lot more plausible that she'd choose to involve herself in a cause somewhere rather than simply return to Gallifrey like a good little Time Lord, as if her time with the Doctor had never happened to her.

Sorry, I think it's contrived for the Time Lords to suddenly be relevant, for precedent to be ignored, for her to have empathy with a bunch of cunts, and to accept eternal exile on their behalf in the space of a single story that sucks. That you disagree with this really doesn't bother me nearly as much as it bothers you. Attempting to characterise this as demanding something 'beyond the scope of television' is fucking pathetic.

And I thought you said she DIDN'T have an increasingly interventionalist attitude and I remembered wrong?

[Patrick Degan]

Excuse me? You're still just accusing a television series of not being able to show things beyond the limitations of the medium. Given those limitations, the sort of story which works best is one focussed upon a specific situation. Romana is faced with a decision: either go back to a life in which she's safe and cosseted, or do something to try to make a difference, no matter how small it might be in scale. That is basic drama: the protagonist has to make a decision.

LOL, you're an idiot. I joked that it's obviously NOT impossible to avoid the Time Lords and could NEVER be shown to be impossible because PEOPLE DO IT ALL THE GODDAMN TIME, and she herself just spend some time RUNNING FROM SATAN. Regardless, establishing motivation early enough to not seem forced is important and your outrage doesn't make this less true. I don't feel that Warrior's Gate successfully put over Romana's decision, and it could have been better introduced. So... what? It really seems like you're fixated on irrelevance because you don't like people disliking an episode of Doctor Who - even one from a pretty poor period in the show. What next; will you defend the Leisure Hive?

This coming from the man who's trying to elevate a minor nitpick into a major scripting defect. That's comedy. You really shouldn't be commenting on anybody else's alleged idiocy given what you're displaying here.

The only irrelevancy is your continual complaining just for the sake of hearing your own head roar. And "contrived"... No, "contrived" is suddenly having a companion fall in love with and marry a complete prat she met only two episodes earlier for no reason other than so everything can end in smiles. Romana's departure at least does have some better grounding in her increasingly interventionist orientation, even if the development of her sympathy for the Tharil cause itself stretched only four episodes. Given Romana's personality as we've seen it run through two and a half series, it's a lot more plausible that she'd choose to involve herself in a cause somewhere rather than simply return to Gallifrey like a good little Time Lord, as if her time with the Doctor had never happened to her.

Sorry, I think it's contrived for the Time Lords to suddenly be relevant, for precedent to be ignored, for her to have empathy with a bunch of cunts, and to accept eternal exile on their behalf in the space of a single story that sucks. That you disagree with this really doesn't bother me nearly as much as it bothers you. Attempting to characterise this as demanding something 'beyond the scope of television' is fucking pathetic.

My my but you're full of bullshit here, aren't you? What precedent? Didn't the Time Lords neatly keep the Doctor under their thumbs during his exile to Earth? Didn't they manage to divert his TARDIS to wherever they wanted him to go (or pluck him and his companions from a teleport beam) when they had a job for him, at any time they wanted? And do enlighten us about how the Tharils were being "a bunch of cunts" in this story when they're clearly the ones in the chains and being used as fodder for a navicomp system that burns their brains out, and who are murdered in half the revival attempts performed upon them. That they were the cruel oppressors in the past doesn't make them any less the victims in the story's present. Are you really sure you even watched "Warrior's Gate" at all?

And I thought you said she DIDN'T have an increasingly interventionalist attitude and I remembered wrong?

And I said this... when, exactly? Seems you not only can't be bothered to remember the episode you're presuming to criticise but can't even remember what's actually being said in the very thread you're participating in. So far, you're not very impressive here.

[DaveJB]

Don't try to be a smart cunt about plotting; the fact that they didn't plan shit is irrelevant to the statement that Romana's reasons for leaving might have worked better if they had been built up over time.

It's not so much a case that they didn't bother plotting it; more that they couldn't have done so even if they wanted to. Lalla Ward didn't announce that she wanted out of the series until partway through the filming of Full Circle, and months after State of Decay had already been filmed. Maybe it could have been developed better in Warrior's Gate itself, but the writing and filming process of that story was just such a total trainwreck that frankly it's a miracle that story didn't end up in the same purgatory as Shada.