stunt_muppet

So that cold I mentioned in my last entry managed to morph into vertigo, meaning I spent the last day in bed unable to sit up without feeling...well, the most adequate descriptor would be "a bit drunk". No nausea, thankfully, but still a day spent in bed being useless and not participating in all the lovely fun things going on. Clinic Doctor tells me it should clear up in two to three days, but I'm still a bit wobbly and sometimes if I'm not careful I tip over.

Naturally, it took me until 10 p.m. last night, whilst staring at the ceiling being bored, to remember that I had such things as audiobooks to entertain me, derp. (I tried reading. I ended up reading the same sentence five times without comprehending it, going a bit cross-eyed, and giving up.)

So the point I'm trying to make is that I finally finished listening to the audio track of Power of the Daleks, which becomes really creepy when listened to in a dark room alone at night. That said, lying in bed while sick might be the best way to listen to an audio - it provides relief from the various bodily complaints and there's nothing for me to look at and thus become dizzier.

Granted, this has its own problems.

1. I know I just used the word "creepy" up there in the descriptor, but I feel the need to reiterate: this is a freaking creepy story, and speaking as someone who came into the series too late to really find the Daleks scary, it's kind of an interesting feeling. Thing is, in most of the Dalek stories they're just too damn stupid to be any credible threat, whereas the Daleks here are manipulative and smart and play everyone in the colony against each other until the time's right to come in and slaughter them. And that's the scary part - waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for the hoardes of mass-produced Daleks to swarm in and kill everyone - because you know they're going to - and watching everyone else do nothing about them, or try fruitlessly to fight back once they do cotton on to the threat.

2. I rather liked the secondary cast here; not sure why. Possibly because they all fell into shady moral grey areas (with the possible exception of Quinn) rather tan being "the good guys" and "the bad guys"? There was only one unambiguous bad guy - Bragen - but even the scientist who activated the Daleks ended up as a sympathetic character. Then again, perhaps what made them sympathetic was knowing that all, or most, of them were going to die horribly at the end, but this is Doctor Who, so that's kind of a given.

Lesterson and Janley were my favorites, I think, even if I was a bit annoyed at the only woman in the story besides Polly being one of the "bad guys". Also it's probably sexist in some way that she was the one to raise objections to Bragen's killing of the rebel leaders (making her the somewhat compassionate one compared to the ruthless male), but I was glad that she had some complexity to her, so I don't think I'm about to complain.

3. Oh, Polly. I love you to bits, but I do wish the writers knew what to do with you. I loved the way she reacted to the Doctor in the beginning, and she did have a few good moments with the other colonists, but before you know it she's shunted off to be a prisoner for, what, two or three consecutive episodes? Even when she and Ben were the only ones on the TARDIS, she still can't catch a break. :(

Granted, Ben gets the same treatment - hauled off to prison well before much of the plot happens - so it looks like the writers don't know what to do with him either.

Still, their scenes with the new Doctor were very well-played. This is the one moment of the show that I truly wish I could have watched live - I wish I'd known how the first regeneration had played out,and whether there'd been any press or announcements about it, or what. But I imagine Ben and Polly had to serve as stand-ins for the audience here, unsure of just what was going on and trying to figure out if this man was going to be anything like the old Doctor or not. I loved Polly's faith that the new Doctor was the same man, I loved Ben's skepticism (and the bit where he blows into the recorder in frustration made me giggle), I loved how careful they both were with him, unsure of what he would do - they almost seemed frightened of him at times, which fits with him being a complete unknown.

Particularly interesting is that, at this point, Polly and Ben have no reason to think that the Doctor isn't human - he gives no indication to the contrary in their earlier stories. So this comes completely out of nowhere for both them and the viewer at the time. Part of their uncertainty is trying to figure out what he is as much as who he is.

Not to mention that Ben, in particular, doesn't believe that Two's the Doctor until the Dalek recognizes him - but Ben's never met the Daleks, and he has only the Doctor's word that the Doctor's met them either. Perhaps because that's the first thing that corroborates any of the new Doctor's stories, he siezes on it? He remains suspicious afterwards, but that's clearly the moment that clinches it for him.

So, basically, I loved them while they were onscreen, and they just sparked with life in their scenes with the new Doctor, but I wish we'd gotten more of that. I want more disbelieving!Ben trying to get a grasp on what's going on; I want more confused-but-realizing!Polly. Please write me lots of fic about them and the new Doctor in between this serial and The Highlanders. Thank you, good night.

4. Speaking of the new Doctor...well, not quite yet. First I want to be fanwanky about regeneration. It's interesting that the aftereffects of regeneration don't seem to carry over to even one Doctor after Two - I haven't seen Six-to-Seven yet, but I don't think the Doctor ever refers to "the Doctor" in the third person after this. In his other regenerations, he seems quite sure that he is the Doctor, even if he's not quite sure which one he is (Four-to-Five). Of course, perhaps he still knows he's the Doctor here, and is just screwing with his companion's heads/passing commentary on his past self as his other regenerations do/is shaky from regenerating for the first time. He acts as though he knows who he is sometimes and he doesn't at other points. It's peculiar to watch, as a recent fan who's seen later regenerations, and I'm curious as to why they decided to change the reaction - if they did.

5. OMG TWO. I wish this serial wasn't burninated, oh how I wish. I would have loved to see Troughton play these opening scenes. I've listened to them far more times than I've listened to the entire audio, and they're still brilliant. There are hints in there of what Two's personality will be (sharp, observant mind hiding behind an oblivious exterior), but the Doctor here is much more mysterious and much more obtuse then he will be in stories to come - there are scenes where he's almost sinister in his sheer refusal to explain anything. Some of that, surely, comes from just how unknown he is (was?) in the wake of the regeneration, but I find it interesting to note that at this point Two isn't quite into the full-on Obfuscating Stupidity yet - his veneer isn't so much one of niceness as one of silence.

Perhaps that ties in to not referring to himself as the Doctor quite yet - his personality hasn't quite settled yet, maybe leading to a sense that his identity hasn't settled yet (yes, I know, I keep going back to that. Shush.). The other regenerations, who don't demonstrate this ambiguity as to who they are, settle into a personality pretty much right off the bat. Or at least an exagerated version of their personality, which...I suppose this counts as too, but I don't know. It's so enigmatic, and so shorn of the cheery air (and the genuine joie de vivre, as I noted earlier) that would later come to define Two for me that I can't quite tell whether I should make something of it.

Also interesting is that he's perfectly willing to lead Bragen's guards to slaughter if it saves the rest of the colony. More interesting, he barely seems to give it any thought - it's left to Ben and Polly to feel sorry for the dead. This provides us with Bragen's one moment of sympathy - he seems unwilling to sacrifice those loyal to him even if he was about to kill those who weren't - and it's interesting in light of the sheer fuss the new series throws about letting anyone die ever some of Two's later actions when the chips are down (see The Seeds of Death, The Enemy of the World). It's another subtle, telling moment, reminding the viewer of how calculating the Doctor can be when he has to.

Oh and one more thing - Two's scenes with the first Dalek were things of utter brilliance. He seemed at once scared of the Dalek, angry at his own inability to take action, and even mocking of the Dalek's temporary powerlessness. There was just so much going on in those few short exchanges, and oh, I wish I could have seen them. Oh, Troughton, you are so very brilliant and it makes me sad that you're dead.

6. One advantage to the audio track is that the series' budget constraints can't affect the visuals. Don't get me wrong, I love my show in all its rubber monsters and puppet-aliens and costumes with visible zippers and all, but I can't help but think that the scene of the Dalek production line was very ambitious for the time. I'd be interested to see what it actually looked like, of course, and I'm sure the production crew pulled it off admirably, but...well, it makes a very spooky and cool visual in my head, let's put it that way. And I say that with love in my heart.
 

Ta for now; I've reading to catch up on, now that I can see straight. Comment replies to come, possibly tomorrow.