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Because I require some form of distraction before I can do my schoolwork properly, I present you with my finally complete review/collection of meta-blather for "The Claws of Axos".
I suppose I should get back to Thomas Aquinas now.
I suppose I should get back to Thomas Aquinas now.
I feel I should preface this with a warning/note: Aside from “The Five Doctors”, about half of “Castrovalva”, and selected episode clips from “Remembrance of the Daleks” (“Unlimited rice pudding!”), “The Claws of Axos” was my introduction to Classic Who. I mean, I’d pored over the Who Wiki and read up on each of the Doctors, but this was the first time I’d seen Three in action. As such, my ramblings will concern my outlook on Classic Who in general as well as the specifics of the episodes.
Next up: "Spearhead from Space", "The Mind of Evil", "The Deadly Assassin", and possibly "Tomb of the Cybermen" if it arrives in time (I am now it's proud and happy owner! Yaaaaay!).
Also, I think I need a Third Doctor icon.
Having seen a few more Third Doctor and Second Doctor serials by now, I’m not sure “Claws” was the best serial to start with as far as getting to know the characters goes, if only because there are stretches throughout the episode where everybody remains quite inactive – the Doctor, the Brigadier, and the Master all spend a good deal of time trapped in something or other, and Jo has very little to do except scream. However, once the Master gets out of the Axos spaceship, the pace of the serial picks up considerably, and there are several nice moments between the Doctor and Jo, the Doctor and the Master, and the Doctor and the Axons themselves.
Actually, let’s start with them, shall we? I was impressed with the design of the Axons myself, both in their humanoid and non-humanoid forms. The golden-skinned humanoid Axons seemed to fit in perfectly with the human conception of a benevolent alien race – were it not for their jumpsuits they’d look positively angelic. It makes for quite a contrast between the neon-pink spaghetti-monster Axons we see later, and it makes the Axons as enemies more insidious than any ol’ space monster.
Now, I did have a little trouble taking the spaghetti-monster Axons seriously, but that’s because I kept thinking of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and making tasteless “have you been touched by His Noodly Appendage” jokes, so that’s hardly the costume department’s fault. What did get me, however, was the very short sequence where we see an Axon “dehumanizing”, or turning back into its spaghetti-monster form. There’s a moment where we see the tentacles beginning to emerge from the Axon’s hands and face as it runs away; it looked like it was melting, which was rather freaky.
I think the whole concept of Axos, the living spaceship, was nicely done too – it’s hardly a new idea, I know, but the idea that the ship itself could spawn guards from the walls or reach out and grab you as you tried to run away is an effective one. The slightly psychedelic, almost tropical turn the sets took inside Axos conveyed the ship’s organic nature worked nicely. Anyone ever played The Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? It reminded me of the Jabu-Jabu dungeon, where you’re literally inside the body of a giant whale. It looked organic, threatening, and like it would be very slimey if you actually touched it.
With regards to the Doctor:
I found it amusing that the very first thing the Doctor did when he showed up in this serial was bitch about doing paperwork. Hee.
Anyway, as you may have gathered from my recent macroing efforts, I’ve fallen sort of in love with the Third Doctor. I think Three places an emphasis on the difference – the alien-ness – of the Doctor, which is something I don’t see as often in the more recent series (except, possibly, for Season 1 – more on that later). He’s still a likable protagonist, yes, but he’s also very clearly Not Us. We as an audience can relate, on a superficial level, to the Doctor’s exile on Earth, in the sense that most of us are familiar with being stuck somewhere we don’t want to be. But can we really wrap our minds around what it must be like to have the whole of time and space in your grasp, if you could only remember how to get back? Or of knowing literally no one else who thinks like you do, not just in an intellectual sense but in a sense of basic understanding of the universe and how it works? (Witness his exceedingly low tolerance for bureaucracy, incompetence from authorities, and generally not being allowed to do what he thinks should be done. There’s a lot of frustration pent up there.)
Which is what makes the Doctor’s relationship to the Master so intriguing, I think. While the Doctor’s obligated to oppose the Master, foil his plans, etc., I can’t help but notice that he wasn’t all that enthusiastic when he theorized that the Master was trapped in a time loop with the Axons. The Master’s a captial-letter Bad Guy, but he’s also the only person like him that the Doctor has any hope of meeting. Goes both ways, too – the Master’s an exile from Gallifrey just like the Doctor, though he’s not stuck on Earth, so the only one who’s going to think like him is the Doctor. And once they have a goal in common (in this case, once the Master thinks the Doctor has betrayed his UNIT comrades), they settle quite comfortably into technobabbling at each other and bickering in a sort of adorable way.
About that: I think the fact that, in spite of what they’ve been through, Jo really thinks the Doctor would abandon her on a doomed Earth speaks further to the other-ness of the Doctor. After all, by this point, they’ve spent at least a year together (vis. the time gap between “Terror of the Autons” and “The Mind of Evil”), and have faced killer daffodills and Stangmoor Prison, possibly among other things (I haven’t read any of the novels yet, so I don’t really know what other shenanigans they got up to in the intervening year). They are, by this point, fairly close – but the Doctor still isn’t really one of them, still doesn’t really belong there. He knows it; she knows he knows it. And so why wouldn’t he take the chance to escape? It’s a very sad moment, and I felt quite sorry for Jo right then, especially after “I shall miss you.”
Of course, the tricky thing is that, no matter how different he is, the Doctor’s still a sympathetic, identifiable, and, in some way, human character – not in the literal sense, but in the sense that we can relate to and understand him even if not completely. He’s still very protective of Jo. He still risks being trapped in the time loop in order to rid the Earth of the Axons. He may be alien, but his actions are not completely severed from our morality nor are they inexplicable. The line between human and alien has been negotiated differently in every Doctor I’ve seen so far, and I’m becoming quite fond of how it works with the Third Doctor.
In fact, the Third Doctor’s human/alien dichotomy reminds me very much of the same in the Ninth Doctor. Granted, Nine had considerably more freedom of mobility than Three did here, and the sense that there’s no one else like him is made much more intense and sad by the Time War, but there’s still that touch of frustration with humanity in Nine, that sense that he Knows Better and everyone else should stop asking stupid questions.
Final Point of Squee: How awesome was it when Jo started to panic and lose her head during the escape from Axos, and the Doctor managed to keep her focused by shouting math problems at her? I think that might be one of my favorite moments of the whole story, with the possible exception of: “Isn’t that a rather primitive way to forge a connection?” “Would you stop pestering me?”
Moving on…
Forgive me, New!Who fans everywhere, but I have a confession to make: I think I like Delgado’s Master a bit more than Simm’s Master. Not that John Simm didn’t do an excellent job with the script he was given, but the Master is so different in New Who than what he used to be, and I think I just prefer this version of him.
The defining attributes of Delgado!Master are, at least in this serial, intelligence, manipulativeness, and resourcefulness. He rarely resorts to violence (at least direct violence) if he doesn’t have to. He’s cooler, more calculating, more reserved. Compare that to Simm!Master, who retains the charming, hypnotic aspect of the Master but who spends about half of The Sound of Drums and most of Last of the Time Lords being completely off his rocker. I find I prefer this calmer, controlled Master, who I think seems, at first glance, to be less prone to violence and evil, which makes him more surprising and unpredictable. Plus, he’s too controlled to be simply written off as insane or sadistic, the way I think Simm!Master could be. He’s not a mental case, he’s just…amoral. Self-interested. And again, Not Us – just more so than the Doctor.
(But then, I’ve always found villains who were coldly, unmistakably sane to be far more satisfying than raving lunatics. Your milage may vary.)
Of course, there’s also the shallower aesthetic reasons for liking Delgado!Master; John Simm is very pretty, yes, but Roger Delgado raises his eyebrows in a frankly magnificent way. The perpetually dry, measured voice – even when he’s got a gun to his head – doesn’t hurt, either.
I didn’t get much of an impression of the Brigadier here because he really didn’t have all that much to do besides be under arrest and make the occasional phone call. My thoughts on him (and oh, there are many :) )shall have to wait until I review “Spearhead from Space” and “The Mind of Evil”, where he has substantially more of a role. Same goes for further thoughts on Jo, but replace “Spearhead” with “whichever Jo-era serial I watch next”.
Next up: "Spearhead from Space", "The Mind of Evil", "The Deadly Assassin", and possibly "Tomb of the Cybermen" if it arrives in time (I am now it's proud and happy owner! Yaaaaay!).
Also, I think I need a Third Doctor icon.
bored
Part... part one because I really rambled forever and ever.
Thus, since I have someone with whom to meta, have a really long-winded response!
Jo has very little to do except scream.
This isn't a very good serial for her, is it? I'm much more of a Jo fan than I expected to be at the outset - she's so awesome in The Mind of Evil, among many others. And she is rather instrumental in the "softening" of the Third Doctor's personality, isn't she? Looking forward to more of your thoughts on her character!
I kept thinking of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
Aha! That explains a lot - I must've been thinking that as well. ;) Alas, poor costume department. Nobody will take them seriously now.
I think Three places an emphasis on the difference – the alien-ness – of the Doctor
Yes! And it's fun to speculate about just how much of this alien-ness is a sort of overreaction to his being constrained to Earth. Especially in the seventh series, when his TARDIS is still very much out of commission, he does a lot of name-dropping and oh-back-when-I-was-in-this-galaxy-ing (which can only have two possible outcomes: either people don't believe him and think he's crazy, or they already know he's an alien and just get annoyed with him for bringing it up every few minutes). I mean, he's just gone through what is certainly one of the most traumatic regenerations (okay, so Eight-to-Nine takes the cake there) - forced by the Time Lords, stuck on Earth, and it's not even so much that his TARDIS is broken - it's that his mind has been erased so he can't even remember how to use it. It's really, really traumatic, and he does not cope with it well.
Another reason that I think the Third Doctor comes across as very alien (in a very different way from the Ninth Doctor) is that he has very good reason to resent Earth. At least in other incarnations (well, barring the First, who is arguably the most alien for obvious reasons), he's always got this "Huzzah Earthlings!" approach - with Three, not so much.
The Master’s a captial-letter Bad Guy, but he’s also the only person like him that the Doctor has any hope of meeting.
Right, yes! I adore analyzing the relationship between Three and the Master - it's so wonderfully complex, and I just love those moments we get where they do the whole "unlikely alliance" thing and wind up working better together than with any of the humans. I always contend that Three and Delgado!Master are the Doctor-Master combo that makes it easiest to believe they were friends at school together. There are moments, sure, with the other Doctors and other Masters, but they're always eclipsed by whatever evil scheme the Master's cooking up this week. Maybe it's because Pertwee and Delgado were such good friends - but you can really buy that they got along at some point.
Also - I've just gotta say - the fact that Pertwee kinda towers over Delgado makes it very interesting as well. It's neat to have a villain who isn't really all that physically menacing (well, except for the very, very piercing glare). There are scenes (see Mind of Evil) where the Doctor winds up looking much more villainous and bullyish.
they settle quite comfortably into technobabbling at each other and bickering in a sort of adorable way
Hee! I love those moments.
And part two!
It is quite a scary thought - and I'm gonna take this moment to interject and ask if you've heard of Jeri Massi's amazing epic-length Third Doctor fanfic? (And when I say epic, I mean epic. Approximately a billion - okay, so about two dozen - high-quality novel-length fanfics.) Despite a few quibbles, it's basically become my addition to canon - and I occasionally confuse it with canon! I think that, when my Great Classic Who (re)Watch makes its way back to the Third Doctor's era, I'm gonna try to watch the episodes and read her fic in the prescribed order. Could be fun!
Anyway, yes. What reminded me is that she does such an amazing job with the relationship between Jo and the Doctor - that uncertainty that eventually gives way, just a little. It's awesome.
I think I like Delgado’s Master a bit more than Simm’s Master.
Alas, I've fallen into this situation as well. I mean, I love Simm!Master to death, really I do, and he's just wonderful and shiny and things, but nobody beats Delgado. Nobody. :D
He rarely resorts to violence (at least direct violence) if he doesn’t have to.
Again, in some serials he almost feels more Doctorish than the Doctor (which totally makes sense if you consider the "The Final Game" serial that was never made - that whole Wiki article is a fanfic writer's dream!). It's an awesome parallel, and it makes him still more wonderfully creepy when he does do things you can't condone.
But then, I’ve always found villains who were coldly, unmistakably sane to be far more satisfying than raving lunatics.
Hee, yes! I'm the same way - I've always found the Doctor/Master interactions a bit difficult to grasp, because there's so much of the Big Bad about the Master, and I have trouble with that idea - absolute, unreasoning evil. I like the fact that Delgado!Master's motivations are totally understandable (if self-serving - Jeri Massi's "The Dangers of Exceeding the Blinovitch Limitation Effect" delves into that nicely), just a bit alien - rather like the Doctor's are sometimes. It keeps us off-guard and guessing - having a more alien Doctor and a surprisingly appealing Master is an unbeatable combination.
Roger Delgado raises his eyebrows in a frankly magnificent way.
:D! We seem to have thoughts that are very much along the same lines. *grins*
I didn’t get much of an impression of the Brigadier here because he really didn’t have all that much to do besides be under arrest and make the occasional phone call.
Poor Brig. He deserves so much better!
Also, I think I need a Third Doctor icon.
I've got... um. Far more than is probably healthy. All the icon-makers are credited, and I highly recommend all of 'em. ;)
Hee - sorry to leave such a rambly comment. But hooray! I love long reviews like these and just couldn't resist.
Re: And part two!
My God, I feel like I've struck gold. Or that you've led me to gold. :D
having a more alien Doctor and a surprisingly appealing Master is an unbeatable combination.
Exactly, and I think that's the main reason I find myself liking the Three-Delgado!Master interactions more than the Ten-Simm!Master ones. I find it less satisfying when insanity is used as an excuse, or a reason in itself, for evil, since it cuts off most further exploration of a character. I think that Simm!Master was set up so much as a lunatic counterpart to the Doctor that his mental state became the only explanation for why he was who he was. Delgado!Master's just the Doctor but more so. It makes their mutual origins more apparent, complicates their relationship...just generally makes it all more interesting.
that whole Wiki article is a fanfic writer's dream!
*is awestruck again* Oh yes it is. I shall commentate on that in your LJ entry, but thanks again for showing me that. Mmm...ficbunnies. :)
And there's absolutely no need to apologize for rambly comments - discussions like these are the fun part!
Re: And part two!
It's pretty excellent stuff! I got all flaily when I first discovered it - I think that may've been the first time I found a single-authored fanfiction archive that took me more than a week to read through. And, y'know. High quality.
Really, I'm just sitting here and nodding in agreement with the rest of your statements. :D It's great to have someone with whom to discuss Three (and the Master, and Liz, and Jo)!
And a reply, part one.
I have to admit that, when I first started poking through these episodes, Liz came across as a much stronger character than Jo did, but now that I've seen some of her later episodes I think that I just picked a bad place to start with Jo. And you're exactly right about the "softening" of the Doctor; Jo's relationship to the Doctor seems to be a more emotionally-based one, whereas Liz's was more intellectual, and I think that shift changes the way the Doctor relates to the rest of the characters as well. The fact that he takes Jo with him once he can time-travel again (rather than just dropping her off on Earth and leaving) speaks to that.
(I think I should state that The Mind of Evil, once I finally finished it, made me squee like crazy.)
I hadn't considered the regeneration itself as it regards the Doctor's alien-ness, so I'm glad you brought that up - it makes sense that he'd approach that regeneration in a different way than one incurred during an adventure. In a way, his whole body and mind are an imposition on him by someone else.
...You know, I'm sure that the Doctor is already by this point accustomed to being in a different body and thus having to get used to a new appearance, but if the forced regeneration was his first rather than his second, who's to say he would even have thought of this new body as "himself", at first? He had nothing to do with its existence, after all. I mean, I'm sure he'd adjust eventually, since he'd be at least used to the idea of regeneration, but...
</ tangent>
I always contend that Three and Delgado!Master are the Doctor-Master combo that makes it easiest to believe they were friends at school together.
That's the impression I had of them as well, and even when Three gets to interact with Ainley!Master, it's just not the same. Perhaps the fact that Delgado!Master is still within his natural regenerative lifespan, whereas Ainley!Master and all his successors are living in stolen or newly-fabricated bodies, has something to do with it? From an in-character perspective, anyway.
And I hadn't noticed (well, registered) the height disparity between Pertwee and Delgado, so further thanks for pointing that out to me. I'll have to be on the lookout for that in future serials.
Further replies to follow...
Re: And a reply, part one.
Re: And a reply, part one.
And yes, Jo's proven 100% more kickass in the other serials, so my mistake has been corrected. :D
Re: And a reply, part one.
Jo's relationship to the Doctor seems to be a more emotionally-based one, whereas Liz's was more intellectual, and I think that shift changes the way the Doctor relates to the rest of the characters as well.
Yes - and it's easiest to see this shift with the way the Doctor reacts to Sarah right from the start. He was... well, not quite outright antagonistic towards Jo, mostly because she was so doggedly cheerful about everything, but he was definitely more on the aloof/distracted side in "Terror of the Autons", whereas in "The Time Warrior" he seemed amused, actually interested in Sarah. And then, right away, he was willing to accept Sarah as a companion and a friend, whereas he kept pushing Jo away for most of the eighth series. Something definitely took place while Jo was around - it's a transformation I sort of missed out on by watching everything so terribly out of order. Once my Great Who (Re)watch makes its way to the Pertwee era (which, at this rate, will probably be sometime in February!), I might have more coherent thoughts on the subject.
(I think I should state that The Mind of Evil, once I finally finished it, made me squee like crazy.)
The Mind of Evil is surely one of the most squeeworthy serials out there! I think I may have squeed about it on... on three separate occasions? I need a better tagging system on my LJ, I think, to keep track of this stuff.
who's to say he would even have thought of this new body as "himself", at first?
Ooh, which reminds me! Have you read... now, what was it... Come Back to Tell You All (I Shall Tell You All)? Excellent, excellent story that delves right into that issue. And the ending never fails to make me all wibbly.
Perhaps the fact that Delgado!Master is still within his natural regenerative lifespan, whereas Ainley!Master and all his successors are living in stolen or newly-fabricated bodies, has something to do with it?
Ah, that's a really interesting idea. I think that Four's whole interaction with Crispy!Master in The Deadly Assassin changed their dynamic entirely. But then, I've got this silly little pet theory that Four carries a lot of resentment about what was done to him in his last incarnation, and that extends to rejecting a lot of things that the Third Doctor was all about. Er. What am I trying to say, here?
What I'm trying to say is that I think the interactions between Ainley!Master and the Doctor had as much to do with the Doctor's regeneration as with the Master's. From an in-character perspective, as you say.
And I hadn't noticed (well, registered) the height disparity between Pertwee and Delgado, so further thanks for pointing that out to me.
I checked it out on IMDB, just out of curiosity - Delgado's 5'7-and-a-half", while Pertwee's 6'3". Yikes! I didn't think it was quite that pronounced - they mustn't have been wanting to emphasize that too much. Come to think of it, in a lot of their interactions one or both are sitting down. Or they're running and firing guns and things. One or the other.
More replies to follow, replies to your replies to my replies! :D
Re: And a reply, part one.
Yeah, on reflection, I should probably be watching these in some sort of order, rather than finding one that looks interesting and saying "Hey! I'll wanna watch that one!" But then, I've managed to understand every serial so far with only a quick trip to Wikipedia to refresh some facts, so...um. Yeah. I'll make that decision later. Like once I've burned through the next three on my To-Watch List.
(Why did nobody warn me that this show is ever so addictive?)
I am discovering whole new worlds of Three!fic over the course of this comment thread, and it is bringing me GREAT JOY. *hugs you* You know, I think it may finally be time for me to get a Teaspoon account, so's I can keep this and the other fics what turns up on
Coming right off of "The Mind of Evil", the Four-BBQ!Master interactions almost depressed me. I know that their relationship had to change, and I think you are once again correct - it has a lot to do with the Doctor's regeneration. Why would he want to be reminded that the Master used to be his only reliable tether to a world beyond Earth?
But...but...but I miss the bickering and the sarcasm and the SKIENCE, dammit. :( (I have shamelessly made off with your spelling, by the way. Hope that's all right.)
They are, aren't they. Even in "Axos" they spent a lot of time leaning on the TARDIS console. And then there's that publicity shot where Delgado's substantially in the background, so of course he looks smaller. Hmm.
Come to think of it, only Seven was actually shorter than the Master, wasn't he? Davison and Ainley look about the same height, as do Colin Baker and Ainley, and Tennant and Simm. And Baker the First is just a skyscraper to begin with.
Further commentation on LJ posts and fic to come. :)
A tack-on to the last reply...
Re: A tack-on to the last reply...
Re: A tack-on to the last reply...
There's no height listed on IMDB for Ainley, so I can't resolve that particular debate, but given that Davison's 6'1", Baker the Second's 6'0", and McCoy's 5'6", I'm betting that Five and Six are about the same height as if not a bit taller than Ainley!Master.
Paul McGann's listed as 5'8"; Eric Roberts is 5'10". So that gives us only two Doctors that have been smaller than their respective Masters.
Why is everyone on this show so taaaaaaaall. < /short-person rant>
Re: A tack-on to the last reply...
Eenteresting. I'm sure there's detailed meta to be written on that subject!
Why is everyone on this show so taaaaaaaall. < /short-person rant>
The companions! The companions are generally a lot shorter than I thought! (I think?)
I'm precisely the same height as Delgado, which is... not a sentence I'd ever anticipated typing, I've gotta say. Hee.
Re: A tack-on to the last reply...
even though that caption was applied to McCoy.If nothing else, at least Adric was probably fairly small. :) Zoe too, I think.
(But then, I'm precisely one foot shorter than Colin Baker. Everyone looks tall to me. :D)
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YAY for drawing comparisons between Nine and Three! I do that all the time. XD They're mah preferred slutboi alien teases.
I don't know who I prefer anymore between Simm and Delgado. But they're my two favorites, because they, moreso than the Masters between them (not counting Roberts because I haven't seen the movie yet and his appearance makes me fearful and apprehensive), have senses of humor. I quite like Ainley as well, but he and Jacobi and...the charred Master, are more about being dramatic and bitter. Simm and Delgado have this confident casual gracefulness and are FULL OF WITTICISMS. That's what I really miss about the other Masters. They don't get the funny lines (that flesh out a more specific personality as well) these two did.
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Condensing my replies into one comment...
Confession: I didn't really start doing that until "Time Crash" aired and half the people in the fandom started referring to Five as Ten's "Doctor". That got me started wondering who Nine's Doctor would be...
And then I realized that I could totally hear Three grumbling "Stupid apes". *g*
I think, for me, the point in Delgado!Master's favor was that, during most of "Last of the Time Lords", Simm!Master just seemed too unbalanced - not so much witty as manic. During "The Sound of Drums", Simm!Master was a lot closer to the calmer, cooler, and sharper Master I liked.
I agree with you about having a sense of humor, though. When the Master loses that, his vendetta against the Doctor and his Evol Plotting sort of takes over his character, and he's just not as interesting.
And I loved the Master's reaction to the Doctor 'abandoning' UNIT. That look on his face...it wasn't so much "Huzzah, I win!" as "Wait, what?"
Re: Condensing my replies into one comment...
Four gets that way too, but Three never ever leaves it.
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Three's personality with Four-ish mannerisms. Hmm.
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