July 23, 2010

Doctor Who #96: Underworld



Data
Title: Doctor Who: "Underworld"
Year: 1978
Network: BBC
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes each; the fifth story (of six) from season fifteen
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Norman Stewart
Writers: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
Starring: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Music: Ron Grainer (theme); Dudley Simpson

My reaction
Synopsis: an ancient spaceship crew has been pursuing another ship for 100,000 years
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Indifferent. The first episode is great, but eventually it devolves into the old Rebellion of Oppressed People crap.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Indifferent.
Cinematography: Terrible.
Special effects/design: Terrible. A lot of the story uses a blue screen, but the way it looks, they might as well have used rear projection.
Acting: Indifferent. A lot of it's good by classic Who standards, but the villains are pretty bad.
Music: Bad.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). A pretty shoddy episode, but with some interesting science fiction behind it.
Objective Rating: 1.8/4 (Eh).

2 comments:

  1. I, too, have been trying to watch old Doctor Who programs. Some are better than others. I enjoyed Logopolis because of the tardis within a tardis within a phone booth, and the Cloister. That prompted me to learn more about the Cloister and the Cloister bell.
    Read my latest blog where I tie that in to the 11th Doctor and the season ending, Big Bang..... which was great !! Steven Moffat at his best...
    http://lowiczanka.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/the-cloister-bell/
    http://lowiczanka.wordpress.com

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  2. Yes, some are certainly better than others. But I think the series as a whole is somehow better than any individual episodes.

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