I’m in a bit of
a hard place with this one as Bang-Bang-A-Boom!
is the second satire from Roberts and Hickman, but instead of a satire on
Doctor Who this one is a satire of many different things that I am not familiar
with. Mainly this is a satire of the Star Trek franchise to the novels of
Agatha Christe and the Eurovision Song
Contest neither of which I am familiar with at all. This makes the story a great opportunity to
see if Roberts and Hickman are good satirists as good satire can make you realize
what it is doing without you having prior knowledge of what is being
satirized. I would argue that this is a
good satire as Roberts and Hickman work well at making fun of the core ideas of
Star Trek and a lot of the tropes of
the show and how it fell from grace after The
Next Generation stopped airing in the mid-1990s. You have the ship’s technical officer who is
a drunk, the doctor that has no idea what she’s doing and you have an alarm
button placed in an almost too easy to reach place that it often goes off with
false alarms. It is honestly really
quite funny, but when compared to The One
Doctor, this one has a lot of flaws.
The plot sees
the Doctor and Mel arrive on Dark Space 8 where there are several murders
taking place during the Intergalactic Song Contest which is actually a façade for
the Peace Conference which is just a funny idea. The Doctor plays Poirot while Mel plays
Watson and they have to find the murderer before it is too late. Sylvester McCoy gets a chance here to spread
his comedic acting which is great as always.
Unlike Season 24 the script works well for comedy as the Doctor is
pretty much the fool throughout the story.
He works really well off his costars especially Bonnie Langford, who is
great in her own right and Patricia Quinn.
Yes Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture
Show plays a big part in this story and she is over the top and amazing as always. I mean its Patricia Quinn in a Doctor Who
comedy, if that doesn’t get you excited nothing will.
The supporting
cast is mainly stereotypes of American science fiction characters which are all
pulled off really well and I don’t want to give too much away as the story is
just such a good one that letting out the jokes would be ruining some great
comedy. Not all jokes make their mark as
there are pauses that just don’t feel right and it’s obvious when something isn’t
funny. I will say however to beware the
pits of Angvia which gosh is hilarious.
Also there is a The Curse of
Peladon style ending scene which had me in stitches as it addresses the
Doctor not being who he says he is which I love to bits. This story however has one main flaw which is
its length. So each episode is announced
by a continuity announcer which are all hilarious but it just makes you notice
how long the episodes are which doesn’t help matters. Part Four has a great gag where you think it’s
all over, but you’re only about halfway through the episode. The gag is great, however the following scenes
aren’t as they drag on for way too long and just take you out of the action.
To summarize, Bang-Bang-A-Boom! is really just
depending on your tastes as there are things to like and things to hate. Some people absolutely despise this story
which is fine as the length is way too long and some jokes are hit or miss but
when they hit they hit hard. The acting
is some of the best comedic acting and it’s got Patricia Quinn in it which is
great. 65/100
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