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Four to Doomsday
chuffnobbler
Posts: 10,771 Forum Member
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I'd forgotten just how bad this one is! It's not that it's badly made (the Doctor's spacewalk is nicely done), just that it's very poorly thought through. A waffly, longwinded script, minimal action, and lots of very pausy, dreary talk. Monarch is quite fun, and Stratford Johns makes him almost quite likeable.
This one has to be up there with Colony In Space as the series' least action-packed, most boring stories. It took me two goes to finish it off, and Mrs Chuff nodded off on both occasions.
Some nice ideas, but really not worth bothering with. Can anyone give any defence of Four to Doomsday?
This one has to be up there with Colony In Space as the series' least action-packed, most boring stories. It took me two goes to finish it off, and Mrs Chuff nodded off on both occasions.
Some nice ideas, but really not worth bothering with. Can anyone give any defence of Four to Doomsday?
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But, from memory, the story itself is DULL DULL DULL.
Even though his body and I think his face are exposed in space.
All the folk dancing is very odd in Fout to Doomsday.
"Tiresome" would be a good word for that story.
It was one of the only DVD's where I've gone straight to watching it with the commentary on. Usually I'll watch the story first and then later watch it with comm....Don't think I could have watched FTD twice in a week.
Stratford Johns is great, but yep I find this one a bit of a plodder.
I tend to agree - it looked good (quite stylish and well lit), but there's no escaping the fact it just wasn't a very engaging story.
I didn't think it was that bad
Annie Lambert as Enlightenment is pretty damn sexy though.
So no surprise that this is were Four to Doomsday falls down, in the script.
It is visually very good, has good direction, has some good ideas, some good characters with interesting back stories and some good performances but ultimately the poor attempt at a script by Dudley leads to an uninspiring dull plod that is full of plot holes. Must give credit to Stratford Johns who is pretty good in it.
I still find it quite enjoyable though, if I am in the mood. :sleep:
Mr Dudley directed Meglos. This is another story that verges on indefensible.
Mr Dudley was producer on series 3 of Survivors, and managed to kill that series stone dead by dumping all of the best characters. The backstage dramas on that show are well known, and it seems he was a very difficult person to work with and very much of the old school.
IMDB states that he died on Christmas Day, which is quite a harsh punishment.
Interesting stuff Chuffnobbler
I forgot about Kings Demons, had tried to wipe it out of my mind.
I like BO as well but again it is the lazy writing that lets it down, there is no mystery in a story that is supposed to be a Murder Mystery.
I watched 4tD with commentary last night. I was quite impressed by the sets when I watched the prog originally (Monarch's throne room is great, with huuuuuge high walls), and it was good to hear the cast talk about the lighting. Very effective, and I hadn't really noticed it. Also, lovely to hear PD talk about filming that "spacewalk" scene.
Still a dreary story though.
Except for that I agree with you, its pretty harmless.
Out of the three of them I would choose Four to Doomsday every time, then Black Orchid with Kings Demons trailing in a long way behind.
I'm tempted to buy this one, but I remember it being quite static with lots of drawn out conversations on a spaceship.
It was. Then "The Visitation" After Davison came back from filming his sitcoms they then did "Kinda", "Castrovalva", "Black Orchid", "Earthshock" and "Time Flight".
G
I remember it being quite static with lots of drawn out conversations on a spaceship.
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That's the one. Yawnsome and thankless.
Well, they were hardly likely to slag off the direction with the director there with them!
On the Warriors of the Deep DVD commentary, Peter Davison said he wasn't particularly impressed by any of the directors until Graeme Harper did his last show, although he acknowledged that Peter Grimwade was also quite good too. Janet Fielding agreed.
Perhaps not surprisingly, if they put them on a commentary with one of the actual directors, they might not be prepared to be quite so forthright! :rolleyes:
I hate how they do that. I'm still reeling from what an awful idea it was to put Chris Bidmead on the Logopolis commentary... :mad:
I'm also a big fan of PD and JF's commentaries, I find them more entertaining than the actual show most of the time. Which is a shame as PD had all them making of a wonderful Doctor, as seen in 'Caves' it's an even bigger shame he was let down by the scripts and general poor direction of that era.
Generally, though, I'm quite keen on directors being involved in the commentaries, since I'm quite interested in that angle. I've not got the Four to Doomsday DVD yet, so I can't comment on what this one is like. I did think that the Warriors of the Deep one was very interesting, since everything really came out in the wash during that one.
I think they should mix it up a bit on the commentaries. When you get the same group of people on each DVD there tends to be a lot of repetition. Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks have managed to mention Jon Pertwee's bouffant on almost every DVD! :yawn:
Yes, the plot was waffle, and Part 4 was a little anticlimatic, but it had lots of brilliant ideas, two marvellous cliffhangers that relied on "WTF is happening?" rather than "In what contrived way will the Doctor survive this?", an interesting dynamic with the TARDIS crew (how much more developed are they here than in their previous two stories, particularly the L-word?), a lot of satisfyingly quirky oddness (Ancient Greeks, Chinese and Aborigines on a spaceship!), and a chilling performance from Stratford Johns.
I also loved Davison's first attempt at the role. Other than the odd slip up it was compelling and quite clearly defined. It's really the first time that his Doctor emerges, seeing as he spent most of Castrovalva in a daze.
I don't think Doctor Who stories need to have a lot of action to avoid dullness. The ideas and character interaction in this story more than compensated for the nonsensical plot and slow pace.
I'm really enjoying Season 19 so far. While this and Castrovalva have flaws, they're both good fun, and are certainly much better to watch than anything I've seen in Tom's last series which really seemed to take itself far too seriously. I'm looking forward to watching Earthshock again (I haven't watched it for a couple of years) and seeing if Time-Flight really is as bad as everyone says it is!
Speaking of which, I really wish they'd make more of an effort to release the remaining stories in almost-complete series on DVD. Not only Kinda, but Revenge of the Cybermen, The Ambassadors of Death, Attack of the Cybermen... It makes it rather awkward for those of us who are trying to watch Classic Who in as close a way as possible to those of you who watched the episodes when they were first aired. How am I meant to get a decent impression of a Doctor's time if all I have are a bunch of randomnly scattered episodes? :mad:
I don't think they are likely to release Ambassadors of Death on DVD while it's still a mix of colour and black and white episodes.
I've read that Attack of the Cybermen is due for DVD release next year and that a commentary was recorded for it last year.
I really like 'Four To Doomsday'.
There, I said it - let's move on.
Regards,
Cypher
I believe it's coming out with The Twin Dilemma, but don't quote me on that...