caves of androzani

November 4, 2013

47

Jack Graham 50th anniversary countdown, capitalism, caves of androzani 0

Stotz and Morgus are united in one last ditch attempt to turn this muddy, bloody clusterfuck into profit. But Stotz hangs back.

“Let’s get a couple of things straight,” he says to Morgus. “An hour ago you were the boss. Now that’s all changed. Now you’re the same as me. Just a man with a gun.”

“I, the same as you?” demands Morgus imperiously and incredulously, “I’m Morgus, I’m descended from the first colonists.”

But his arrogance is either habit or bafflegab. They both know this. And they both know that Morgus needs Stotz to show him the way to Jek’s stockpile. And they both know that more spectrox can be carried by two men than by one, working equally. And they both know that, once this is done, they will be superfluous to each other.

“If we do happen to come out of this with any spectrox,” Stotz continues, “there’ll be none of that ‘four points for you, one point for me’ business. This time we split it right down the middle. Agreed?”

“Of course,” says Morgus. So Stotz leads the way. But they both know that soon, one of them will be dead.

This is the world they have made, and it is crashing down around their ears. For Morgus, ‘four points for him, one point for the little guy’ is the definition of society. One guy carries it, Morgus takes it; that’s how the world works. Until now. For Stotz, there’s a boss at every level. Inside his gang, it’s him. Higher up, it’s Morgus, or someone like him. Until now.

As it happens, Jek will be the end of both of them… but this will only happen because he gives himself away by turning on a fan to keep a feverish, dying woman cool. He once wanted her for her ‘beauty’. It’s fairly clear that he intended, eventually, to rape her. But, riddled with spectrox toxaemia, she’s not so desirable anymore. Yet he wants her to stay alive. For him, lonliness and narcissism and hate and self-pity have always been his ruling passions. Until now.

Of course, this is a tragedy, so it’s already too late for him. And it’s only right that it should be because, just as much as Morgus and Stotz, he made the world that is now about to kill him.…

December 31, 2011

Down to the Deeps to Die

Jack Graham capitalism, caves of androzani, steven moffat, the doctor the widow and the awwrgh fuck off... 4

The recent Christmas special (which I haven’t watched) apparently referenced ‘The Caves of Androzani’.

Let’s just ponder ‘The Caves of Androzani’ for a moment.

What’s it about? It’s about a commodity that, though it promises eternal life, kills everyone it touches. It’s about a commodity that, though it promises beauty, transforms the world into an ugly hellhole of war, competition, disfigurement, hatred, betrayal and murder. It’s about a commodity that, though it promises eternal youth, brings on the decline and fall of an entire society. The commodity’s hollow promises are echoed in the vanity and narcissism of the people who compete for it – especially in the tragic story of a man who, though not essentially evil, is driven to do vile things by his own wounded vanity. It’s about capitalism as a catastrophic moral, intellectual and social failure… one which we will be lucky to escape from alive.

So… let me ask those who have watched the recent special… did those ‘Androzani’ references seem thematically appropriate?

I won’t insult you by pretending that this isn’t a rhetorical question. You may say the assumptions underlying it are based on prejudice. I’d prefer to call it precedent.…

November 10, 2011

Nice Guy, Nasty Cosmos

Jack Graham arc of infinity, black orchid, castrovalva, caves of androzani, five doctors, four to doomsday, frontios, king's demons, logopolis, resurrection of the daleks, snakedance, twin dilemma, warriors of the deep 0

The great Timelash II rehash finally hobbles to a close. Here’s the last roundup. Seasons 19-21.

Castrovalva

This is a story, like ‘Logopolis’, that achieves greatness despite its many flaws. Flaws first:

“Take your hands off me – this is an official uniform!” and “We’re perfectly harmless, unfortunately!”

Seriously… who the hell talks like that? I can forgive “I know so little about telebiogenesis” because Nyssa is an alien scientist child prodigy aristocrat. But Tegan is supposed to be a down-to-earth working woman. And, on that subject, it becomes abundantly clear during this story that the programme makers aren’t going to exploit the contrast between the two characters’ backgrounds and attitudes for interesting dramatic conflict. Nor are they going to milk the business of the Master inhabiting Nyssa’s father’s body for dramatic potential either… though, to her great credit, Sarah Sutton is still trying to use her face to express anguish at the Master’s appearance.

Ainley, it need hardly be said, excels as the delightful Portreeve (channelling Olivier to the point that it becomes beside-the-point that it’s always obvious who he is) but suddenly goes crap when called upon to play an obtuse, snarling Dick Dastardly. At times, when playing the Master at the end, Ainley moves and looks like no-one other than Groucho Marx (my second favourite Marx, as it happens… but there’s a time and place for everything). As in ‘Logopolis’, we needed a better villain. It seems hardly credible that a dunce like this Master could devise a trap of such subtlety and beauty as Castrovalva, let alone characters like Ruther and Mergrave. (One can only assume that they come as much from Adric as from his captor.) Ironically enough, we’re meant to be wrong-footed into suspecting Shardovan of villainy… because he’s a villain stereotype in black clothes and a black moustache.

The first two episodes are a bit of a trudge. There are lots of good bits, but they could easily be condensed into one episode. Again, Bidmead makes the TARDIS into an almost metaphysical space, a peculiar and vaguely-sinister labyrinth with healing rooms that smell of roses, rooms that can be ‘deleted’ as though the whole structure exists as data on a hard drive, rooms that seem to have been placed in the Doctor’s way by the TARDIS itself (to help provide him with a new identity) and medicine chests with Alice in Wonderland-style bottles inside marked ‘The Potion’, ‘The Ointment’ and ‘The Solution’. “Ah my little friend… if only you were!” Gorgeous.

Sadly, the business with the TARDIS being sent back to the hydrogen inrush is a bit of a mcguffin… and, again, as in ‘Logopolis’, Bidmead feels the need to have characters naming and explaining this story’s Big Theme to each other… just in case we miss it when it pops up. Having said that, the business with the Index File being listed in the Index File under Index File is very clever, both conceptually and linguistically. But the second half of Episode Two, featuring Tegan and Nyssa slowly carrying a box through a (admittedly beautiful) forest, is possibly the most boring thing ever committed to film.…