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