Title: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (”Full Circle” / “State of Decay” / “Warrior's Gate“)
Year: 1980 / 1980 / 1981
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Directors: Peter Grimwade / Peter Moffatt / Paul Joyce
Writers: Andrew Smith / Terrance Dicks / Stephen Gallagher
Starring: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse
Music: Ron Grainer (theme); Paddy Kingsland, Peter Howell
Episodes: 12, at 25 minutes; 3 stories at 4 episodes each, from the middle of season 18
Synopsis: The Doctor and Romana are trapped in a parallel universe
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past few weeks
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, cinematography and special effects/design) c. 2.5/4 (Okay).
Well-performed - with the glaring exception of Matthew Waterhouse. And, for 1980's Doctor Who, reasonably well-written - with the exception of "Warrior's Gate," which makes no sense. The first two stories don't really stand out as memorable, but they're good. The show's last gasp before moving full on into the 80's and crap-as-the-norm.
Warriors' Gate rewards repeat viewings (whilst State of Decay is so derivative and lacking in plot that it scarcely rewards the first), and does make more sense than might be initially apparent. The writing is pretty good, too [I thought]; the real problem is that so much of the script had to be hacked away. Have you watched the DVD's feature on the making of this story? It's quite an interesting piece, and it left me amazed they ever managed to make it at all.
ReplyDeleteI think it's just a matter of taste. I don't see "derivative" as a negative when it's deriving from folk legends. As for Warrior's Gate, I'll just have to wait and see if you're right about repeated viewings (I'm sure I'll watch all of these many times again).
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