Monday, May 30, 2016

The Juggernauts by: Scott Alan Woodward directed by: Gary Russell: The Opposite of Davros

The Juggernauts stars Colin Baker as the Doctor with Terry Molloy as Davros and Bonnie Langford as Mel.  It was written by Scott Alan Woodward, directed by Gary Russell and released in February 2005 by Big Finish Productions.

 

There’s a reason that Terry Molloy will always be the definitive Davros, especially for me.  It’s because Molloy has played him the most and shown the most nuance with the performance.  Molloy knows how to play the character at different points in his history and adjust against the different personalities of the Doctor.  Molloy is able to add a depth of character to the megalomaniac even when the writing is subpar and he performs his best in two stories that delve into his past.  First is Davros and second is today’s story, its spiritual successor The Juggernauts which to a lesser extent also explores the same ideas of Davros wanting to change his ways after a near death experience.  The plot sees Mel stranded on the planet Lethe while the Doctor is captured by the Daleks and sent to kill Davros after he escaped, off-screen, after the end of Revelation of the Daleks.  He crashed on Lethe and is passing himself off as Dr. Vaso and creates robot servants for sale.  These titular Juggernauts are the Mechanoids from the serial, The Chase, which hold a rather disturbing secret on how they were created.  The way the story plays out is probably its weakest aspect as it is just your standard Dalek story and there is nothing particularly wrong with it, but it just isn’t very interesting.

 

The characters however are what elevates this story among the greats starting with the portrayal of Mel played by Bonnie Langford.  It is Mel who carries most of the first episode and the story is all the better for it as Mel is stranded on Lethe for a couple of months where she forms relationships with the computer programmers there.  She even gets a boyfriend who of course as this is Doctor Who, doesn’t make it until the end which leads into a closing scene that tugs at the heartstrings with a music box version of Schubert’s Ave Maria playing into the credits.  Bonnie Langford is a great actress with the right direction which is something she never got on television, but on audio she excels as the companion.  While her character really isn’t anything special Langford has this sense of energy that she injects into her role which makes for a great story whenever she can get her teeth into the script which is something the television show could never really master because of the lack of a script editor prevented her from elevating above the screamer.

 

The characterization of Davros is as I said great as Terry Molloy is such a versatile actor.  Throughout the first part of the story he is masquerading as the kindly old Doctor Vaso who just wants to see the world become a better place and uses his juggernauts to do this.  The idea that Davros wants to reform is of course nothing new as it has been done before in Davros, but there is a twist as this is after his Necros experiments have failed and leads into the Dalek Civil War.  He has realized he can’t perfect the Daleks and they are always going to rebel and try and kill him, but his pride doesn’t stop him from trying again with him having complete control over his creations this time.  Of course it goes wrong at the first sign of trouble and it is up to the Doctor to stop them.

 

The other member of the cast that is of note is Colin Baker as the Doctor is initially the only one to see through Davros’ deception as he is the only one who before this who has met Davros before.  Of course Baker gives a great performance as Woodward uses the script mainly to focus on Mel and the idea of the corporation needing to have a free market.  Yes instead of doing the big bad corporation route, as a way to juxtapose the plot of Davros, Woodward’s story has the corporation being controlled too much by the government which is why people start to go along with Davros.  It’s honestly a breath of fresh air for that to be the main idea of the story instead of what would be the norm for Doctor Who.

 

To summarize, The Juggernauts has its flaws and of course is very gimmicky in the aspect of having the Mechanoids feature.  That is a welcome return and the script is a wonderful script in many aspects with the cast giving it there all, but there is just a sense of bad pacing and too much reliance on being a sequel to Davros.  85/100

No comments:

Post a Comment