The Wheel In Space
daveyboy7472
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Though this is a strong story within itself, I think this is the weakest story of Season 5 due to the stronger stories within this run.
There are lots to commend it though. The first episode with mostly The Doctor and Jamie gives a good sense of isolation. Zoe's introduction is a good one and the banter with Jamie and The Doctor's challenging of her scientific principles are good. Love the hint of romance between Tanya and one of the crew. The Cybermats are good here and the Cybermen themselves are on top form despite their dialogue being delivered very slowly.
My only quibble is the story taking a while to get going due to Troughton's absence in the second episode.
The ending was good and I liked the idea of Zoe having to watch The Evil Of The Daleks to fill the summer break. Proves what a great story it was(Chuff)
There are lots to commend it though. The first episode with mostly The Doctor and Jamie gives a good sense of isolation. Zoe's introduction is a good one and the banter with Jamie and The Doctor's challenging of her scientific principles are good. Love the hint of romance between Tanya and one of the crew. The Cybermats are good here and the Cybermen themselves are on top form despite their dialogue being delivered very slowly.
My only quibble is the story taking a while to get going due to Troughton's absence in the second episode.
The ending was good and I liked the idea of Zoe having to watch The Evil Of The Daleks to fill the summer break. Proves what a great story it was(Chuff)
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Loose Cannon did a nice recon of this one last year with some impressive CGI bits.
I guess the look didn't go down that well as that design was used only once!
It is another base under siege story but it’s nice to get back into space after a run of stories set on Earth. I think overall it’s a decent entry mainly due to a strong supporting cast. Its good to see Clare Jenkins again (playing a very attractive engineer Tanya with her ‘nose for trouble’ . The accent is very stock Russian but the flirting between her and Leo is rather fun and adds some interest. She seems a bit out of his league and he seems a bit up himself telling Zoe she is like a machine, all facts and no emotion.
Poor Jarvis Bennett seems to have a complete breakdown ( What is it about the characters in charge in this era that they don’t seem to want to listen to reason ). Seeing Donald Sumpter ( Rassilon in Hell Bent) so young and playing a Spaniard ( I think) is amusing. For some reason I get him confused with the actor Terence Yardley.I l did love Anne Ridler as Dr Gemma Corwyn. She was asking all the right questions so to see her killed by the Cybermen felt undeserved.
David Whittaker (one of my favourite writers for the era) he’s had a good record at writing for the Daleks and making them interesting so does it work for the Cybermen ? Well I like the idea of the round egg like pods containing the Cybermats who eat all the bernalium stores and how they are launched against the Wheel ( soundtrack is great as they enter the ship). Regarding Rudkin’s death the Cybermats seem to move really slowly but I notice they disable him really quickly with their sonic ray. I also really enjoy seeing how the Cybermen control the humans with hypnosis ray or whatever it is. I don’t remember it seeing later when I originally watched the Davison era so it was done away with I guess but the ray does feels a bit more threatening than the guns they developed for the Cybermen later.
I enjoyed Wendy Padbury’s debut playing Zoe although she wasn’t central to the action for a lot of the story. There is something cute about her general naiveté When the crew think Zoe and Jamie are lost in space due to the meteor storm I thought it was fascinating how the Doctor was so accepting that they had to take the risk. There are hard choices to be made and sometimes things that happen and I like that kind of maturity. No trying to reverse events.
I know what you mean about the pace. The first couple of episodes are basically mostly Jamie and the Doctor and I liked how Jamie missed Victoria and craved a roast dinner. With the Servo- Robot releasing the Cybermat pods I can only imagine how the Cybermen killed the crew of the rocket all those weeks ago and set the rocket on a course towards the wheel. With the Doctor missing from Episode 2 I liked the emphasis on Jamie attracting the attention of the Wheei and then sabotaging the laser. It also felt realistic that the Doctor was later restrained to the sick bay and I like his professional relationship with Dr Gemma.
Wouldn't necessarily say it was the weakest but this story is much simpler to watch then some other stories and the plot moves along slow enough over the 6 episodes to enjoy seeing things unfold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXacKOtcHbo
and another one from the same person, this time, '2001: A Space Odyssey'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXacKOtcHbo
Enjoy
Cool bit of work.
the second link is the same as the first though. Perhaps you meant https://youtube/zXnV1UNbTuM
I rather like when the doctor is confronted by the Cybermen. They act with cunning and it's almost
as if they have emotions about the Doctor "You know our ways" "others are coming"
https://youtu.be/cexT2aE0M5w
Yes, I meant to put the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXnV1UNbTuM