Philip Martin how far you
have fallen. You wrote two of Colin
Baker’s best stories on television and your second script is one of my favorite
Doctor Who stories of all time, Mindwarp. You were going to write for the original
Season 23 in Mission to Magnus, so
why did you have to make your triumphant return to Doctor Who a complete
rip-off of your first and frankly weakest story Vengeance on Varos in so many ways even down to an insectoid like
alien being in control of a race and the story’s companion being transformed
into a human animal hybrid for experimentation purposes. It is also obviously meant to be two hour
long episodes but was spliced to four as there aren’t really any cliffhangers
present, just stopping points for Part One and Three. The plot is the biggest flaw in this story
for the main reason that the thing is way too traditional to fit into the
Divergent Universe Arc. There is nothing
wrong with actually creating a traditional Doctor Who story and this idea of a
planet being taken over by bureaucrats is a good idea that lends itself well to
other areas of Doctor Who as it has hints of Douglas Adams at its core, but the
problem is that the Divergent Universe isn’t meant to be traditional. The arc is meant to be a series of
experimental stories, but this story could easily have been in the regular
universe. The only element of this story
that connects it to the arc are some forced references to the fact that the
characters don’t understand the concept of time.
The acting is also a bit
spotty in most of the places. Paul
McGann, while a really good actor, sounds really bored with this script as
there really isn’t much here for him to do.
Yes the Doctor saves the day, but there isn’t any sort of change in his
character over the course of the story and McGann’s acting shows that he is
nearly asleep at the microphone. This
story is also the introduction of C’rizz, the new companion played by Conrad
Westmass. C’rizz doesn’t make the best
of first impressions as here he seems to be extremely whiny and almost a
coward. Westmass is putting in his best
effort and the few scenes he has with India Fisher and Paul McGann show there
is a possibility of chemistry going, but between C’rizz just not having an
interesting personality in this story and Paul McGann not giving it his best
the character just seems to be a little flat.
India Fisher’s Charley Pollard is the member of the main cast giving a
good and solid performance, but it isn’t without flaws. Fisher is having a lot of fun in the role and
Charley is able to act more like the friend of the Doctor instead of a
lover. Fisher however loses a bit of
steam in the back half as Charley spends most of Part Three and Four drugged
and turning into the queen of the Kromon.
The supporting cast is
also hit or miss on the acting chops.
The Kromon as an idea are interesting as they are bureaucrats who
invaded the Zone and are now running it as their home. Their quest is to get themselves access to
space travel which are extremely humorous with Stephen Perring and Daniel
Hogarth sneaking in subtle nuances to the lines that make them at least
interesting. There is also a burrowing
creature called the Oroog in this story that is just what the Zarbi should have
been in The Web Planet except not
evil. The character does come across as
a bit boring, but everything just sort of files into place very nicely with
what he has to do for the progression of the plot. The only other character is the Kro’ka played
by Stephen Perring who gets a scene at the beginning and the end of the
story. The Kro’ka is the guardian of
zones on the planet the Doctor and Charley are on who obviously has ulterior
motives and knows more about C’rizz than he is letting on hinting at some sort
of danger. The character also loves to
feel powerful as the Doctor and Charley are only allowed to go where he leads
them which is an extremely interesting piece in the story, but it is obviously
written in by either Alan Barnes or Gary Russell as a way to place this story
in the arc.
To summarize, The Creed of the Kromon is a traditional
Doctor Who story that just doesn’t work in the idea that this is the
nontraditional universe where nothing is supposed to make sense. Philip Martin knows how to write Doctor Who,
but instead of doing anything new he decides to do a thinly veiled rewrite of Vengeance on Varos which is already the
weakest of his stories. The acting is
extremely hit or miss with Paul McGann being the weakest link which makes the
story even harder to listen to as he is supposed to be the star of the show and
even India Fisher giving it her all is enough to change the story. 45/100
No comments:
Post a Comment