4.2 The Tenth Planet
CYBERMENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
And this wasn't even a recon until the last chapter. Aren't we the lucky ones.
I was excited about the introduction of the Cybermen, who have become as infamous as the Daleks. I've seen them mostly in the David Tennant and Matt Smith episodes and I wanted to see how they were first introduced, thinking that they would be much different in the original Doctor Who episodes. Yes, I wanted this. I really did. Up close, the Cybermen look downright frightening. I think they look less frightening in the newer episodes. They look like they're wearing ski masks in this. Children must have found these nightmarish.
In the new series I believe they come across as these heartless machines -- not unlike the Daleks -- who are driven solely to kill people and take their brains. Well, and to disintegrate the Doctor. There is that, too. It was so fantastic when the Daleks and the Cybermen teamed up to take out Earth and the Doctor. But the Doctor prevailed, as always.
However, when they are first introduced to us, they are on Earth for a purpose. Their own planet [which looks remarkably like Earth] is being destroyed and they want to suck the energy out of Earth to save their planet. That seems reasonable, don't you think?
My expert D.W. viewer pointed out that this is the first time they have appeared in the future, when we have currently surpassed that future. Funny, I don't remember reading about this occurrence in my history classes.
Okay, I have a few concerns about this plot.
One, why is there a sister planet that looks exactly like Earth just rolling around in space? In the newer Cybermen stories, they are from an alternate timeline. I hate to say it, but this makes more sense than there are two identical Earths coolly rotating in our solar system. Surely someone would have discovered that by 1986. But I don't know much about the advancement of space technology in 1986. Perhaps no one really had a clue.
Secondly, how exactly are they sucking the energy out of Earth? Do they have a big suction tube or is it more like a funnel? Could you describe the machine for me, please.?Or is not a machine and just some sort of vague thought pattern, kinda like when the Elders are sucking the life energy from the savages? Except they had a machine to do all the work for them. This is the sort of thing that bothers a stupid person like me. I think my expert Doctor Who viewer said something about magnetic energy, but I don't know what the heck that means.
Thirdly, they knew that their Earth was sucking energy from the real Earth. So they didn't have a way of turning off the stupid sucking device. If the Cybermen were so bloody intelligent, wouldn't someone have said, "Oh maybe we shouldn't take so much energy, system overload and whatnot. Perhaps too much energy could cause our planet to blow to bits." But this didn't occur to them apparently. Ah, the joys of being a Cyberman.
There was a laughable moment when the Cybermen donned the dead men's cloaks, as a disguise to get into the base. They weren't wearing them to stay warm. The Cybermen made a point to say that they were impervious to heat and cold. I mean, really. What kind of nimrod would mistake them as humans? For one they are wearing these huge clunky outfits with gargantuan boxes strapped to their chests. Secondly, they walk like they've got very deep wedgies. Thirdly, they talk like they've been sucking helium all day. Fourthly, they are very tall. Not the best way of going unnoticed, even while running around in cloaks.
And who in the name of Hades created their weapon? They look like those really large flood lights you buy at Lowes. I snidely remarked that it looks as though they are flashing you to death with an oversized camera light. My expert D.W. viewer did not appreciate this comment. [My witty comments are lost on some people.] And then they have the light bulbs on their heads for what.....when they go spelunking? Actually it looks as though they can see just fine, but I guess when it's pitch black and you're running around killing mankind, it's nice to have a back up. Their weaponry also seems very general. A bright flash of whatever it is could kill everyone in the area, not just the Cybermen, right?
Also, while their outfits are resistant to cold and heat, they are not resistant to radiation. I mean, isn't that kind of an important feature what with all the radiation floating about in time and space? The Doctor seems to find a lot of that in random places. Says the cyberman who makes outfits: Radiation, you say? No, that's not possible. Impervious to heat and cold? I'll get right on that. Oh yeah, apparently you can stun them with a moving picture. That's not weird.
What was the purpose of these two astronauts? Their speech was so slurred I could not make out what they were saying. I get that they were in space, but good grief annunciate your words. I asked my expert viewer why these two characters were even in this plot, and he said that they were probably trying to show how brutal they were by killing them. What is up with these baddies and their zero empathy skills? Just how do you extract that part from your brain when it is an emotion that you develop through your experiences? That's what makes them baddies, I guess.
General Cutler. Ah yes. We can't have a really good Doctor Who episode without an insane person. It's just lucky that Cutler has a son orbiting Earth, coming to save the astronauts. It's lucky that Cutler thinks his son is dead, when he isn't, and Cutler loses all sense of reason and the will to live. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife. We knew he was going to die, too. We knew it.
I love how in every available plot known to the Film Industry, that Earthlings always have some sort of bomb they are hiding in a remote woodshed, that can wipe out an entire planet. Well, if such and such happens, we can always blow the crap out of Earth! Or you! Or both! Isn't that great? That will teach them! And it's even handier that it is located right where the Doctor and his companions have landed. Frankly, that's just embarrassing.
The Doctor is truly ill in this episode, so that's why he is lying around all this time. Yes, he appears to grow sicker and sicker as the episode progresses, but in truth he was really very ill. I feel bad for him. He doesn't look well, and he keeps muttering his lines as he shuffles around. This is the geriatrics episode.
So it's never explained to me why Hartnell recognizes Mondas, and how he knows what it looks like and who lives there. Although, after saying that he recognizes the planet, then he gets all confused and says that he doesn't know who lives on it. Perhaps he is pulling our leg, or he's lying through his teeth. Or maybe he thought it was Planet Earth. In which case, wow dude. Put on some glasses. Either way, I am angry that the Doctor tricks us like that. It's also funny that when Hartnell sees the planet approaching, he mutters something about getting back to the TARDIS and getting the hell out of dodge. Ah Hartnell, you haven't changed all your ways. Of course Ben and Polly will have none of it. They don't mind dying for mankind.
I'm thinking that perhaps his TARDIS had landed on Mondas before. While he thinks he has landed on safe old Earth, he later realizes that it's run by humans who have replaced some of their body parts with machines so they can be stronger and live longer. Are there bloody pools of acid on Mondas, too? And of course there are a few dead plants lying around. How pleasant is that!
Ben takes control quite a bit in this episode, probably due to the Doctor's illness. He gets to run around climbing into air shafts and is thrown over a railing. I was mildly horrified when I thought that General Cutler had killed him just like that, but nope he was merely knocked unconscious. Whew, I thought they were going to pull a Katarina on us.
So they were going to shoot the Z bomb at Mondas to blow it up so that the Cybermen would not take over Earth and turn everyone into Cybermen. That seems like a good idea on the surface, but the Z bomb would kill Earth at the same time from all the radiation. So, it's a lose-lose situation. I love these kind of plots. Where would we be without Ben and the Doctor? I love the Cybermen's ethical code, too. They think that they can save the human race, once they drain all the energy from the Earth and it blows up, by turning them into Cybermen. That's very kind of them.
The last chapter was a recon and that made me want to cry. I could really do with a good regeneration, and I didn't get that. Fustation!
This ending is epic, because thus ends Hartnell's career as the Doctor. Was I sad about this? Terribly. I will miss William Hartnell and his fumbling, quiet ways. I will miss his character development, his cloak, and his ring. I will miss all that, but I'm also ready for a different personality, and from what I hear, Patrick Troughton is amazing. Hartnell regenerates into Troughton, but they don't call it that just yet. Imagine children watching this in horror, as William Hartnell's face gradually disappears and a new face appears over it.
"Mommy, mommy, can I do that, too?"
"Not unless you are a five hundred year old alien, dearie."
At least Troughton is younger. But not by much it seems.
I forgot to add that my expert Doctor Who viewer made a comment about the title of this episode because technically it should be called The Ninth Planet, because Pluto is no longer a planet. My response was to roll my eyes. I still consider Pluto a planet. Technically the correct pneumonic device would have been My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Millipedes. But that was before Mondas got blown to smithereens. So now they're down to eight planets? They only outnumber the seven evil planets by one. Surely there's another Saturn orbiting somewhere.
I never really thought I would make it through all of William Hartnell. I feel proud of my accomplishments until I realize that I've wasted hours and hours watching a blasted sci-fi TV show and will likely waste more. This is why I am cloaked in anonymity. It would be embarrassing if my family and friends find out what I do at one o'clock in the morning.
Is there something wrong with Patrick Troughton and why most of his episodes are reconstructions? Are the Doctor Who gods angry with us? I'm up for the longest run of recons in Doctor Who history. Someone really hates me.
Next up: An Adventure in Space and Time I'm so blooming excited about this!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment