"Curiosity's always been my downfall."

The first thing that really hits you between the eyes with this, the first episode of Androzani, is the direction. It's simply superb. Lots of non-traditional Doctor Who camera shots and there's so much going on. The scale of some of the sets is really impressive as it must have been done in the usual postage stamp sized studio. And those sets are choc full of protagonists. We have Stotz and his runners, Morgus up on Major, General Chellak and Major Salateen and the army and last, but by no means least, Sharaz Jek. With a name like a really hot southern Asia curry Jek is a real gem, Doctor Who's very own answer to Gollum as he strokes the pictures of Peri on the monitor, "my pretty".

Peri is really quite excited when she and the Doctor step foot onto Minor. Who'd have thought that every little bit of time between the end of her first adventure and her 'second' one would be used up by those marvelous continuity-thieves Big Finish, stealing every ounce of available time and crow-barring in another adventure. More power to them I say.

In such an excellent episode I'm overly transfixed by Morgus' remote control. As that's exactly what it is. Many years ago, in my younger days, when I looked like Jon Pertwee, a friend of mine's parents had a TV set with that exact same remote control. We only had a manual "get up of your arse and change the channel yourself" set and so I was obsessed by this remote.

And the Doctor and Peri die in a hail of bullets at the end. C'est magnifique. And it could have all been so bad as yet another cheap monster reared its unconvincing head earlier!

Comments

[bthogg]

I think Terrance Dicks is just as much a continuity thief as Big Finish. Or have you successfully erased "Warmonger" from your mind?