DOCTOR WHO-THE MOONBASE

 

DOCTOR WHO-THE MOONBASE 1 and 2

DOCTOR: No, Ben. We can't go yet.

BEN: Well, why not? They don't want us here.

DOCTOR: Because there is something evil here and we must stay.

HOBSON: Evil? Don't be daft.

DOCTOR: Evil is what I meant. There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything that we believe in. They must be fought. This disease, for instance. It isn't really a disease at all, but I can help you with it. You'll see. I'll find the cause for you.

HOBSON: Will you, indeed?

DOCTOR: Yes, certainly. I just need to examine a few things, that's all. It should be simple.

 

 

The show hasn’t really picked up on doing special openings as it did in THE WAR MACHINES and a few others but they soon will. ABOUT TIME will tell you everything that is wrong with THE MOONBASE but I’m partial to it. It seems to be everything DOCTOR WHO will become or add on to what it has already done. It seems here that Patrick Troughton starts his clearing of the throat and maybe leaves behind a lot of the hat stuff and the recorder bits. He claims to be a MEDICAL Doctor and his rapport with Polly is amazingly good and fun. He also acts like a scientist, trying to get to the bottom of the disease, which is particularly ghastly. The buildup is quite nice, too and we see maybe two Cybermen in the second episode and shadows and outlines in the first episode and of course, Polly and Jamie seeing them. Jamie knocked himself out on the Moon.

 

Which brings me to the fact that DW then felt like an exploration fantasy science fiction. It rings along the same tones as FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (with some fun as the foursome explore the moon in space suits), THE TIME MACHINE, THE TIME TRAVELERS, and others as well as, here, like a 1950s science fiction horror movie (and some of the cheaper but better ones like NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST or IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, both of which will be directly used by ARK IN SPACE) and with the stock music, which fits well, it gives a creepy and imaginative tone, atmosphere, and setting. Both cliffhangers are interesting, especially the second where, despite logic, the Cyberman was laying on a table in the sick bay all along! Fantastic! Love it.

 

The problem with doing these, I thought, would be that I know what’s going to happen all the way through, mostly. I may have forgotten some things here or there but mostly I know these stories and where they are going, especially the lost ones, because for years, I thought we’d never see them. Therefore, I read the novels, read the DW Magazine synopsis of them, and even bought audios of them before they were officially released. Nothing really satisfied until the fan made RECONS though and now we have some of them animated and some of them found.

 

THE MOONBASE sets up the same type of base under siege story as THE TENTH PLANET and while they might seem similar, THE MOONBASE does not bore (at least not me). The set is nice and imaginative, the building of a future that humans can control the weather from the moon is an interesting one even if not fully realized. Troughton is really good in everything he does in this. The Cybermen, not well known back then in this, their second story, are force to be reckoned with and this story, logic flaws and all, is a solid one to entertain, scare, and thrill. It’s the smarts of the Doctor AND his friends against a creepy race of beings, The Cybermen who invade sickbay, the store room of food, spike the sugar and cause a deadly (seeming) disease. The imagery sticks in one’s head long after it is over!

DOCTOR WHO-THE MOONBASE ep 3—DW not politically correct in this era? Polly comes up with the way to kill the Cybermen AND balks against Ben telling her to remain behind. She also stops the macho alpha male posturing that Ben and Jamie seem to FINALLY have against each other for the first (and maybe only) time. Otherwise you might think they were best friends and/or…something closer!? ABOUT TIME will give us all the things wrong with this story and why it makes little sense at times (they snuck in…by cutting on a hole in the base and no one noticed? Why not just shoot other holes in the base and take the controlled humans to go into the gravitron room? Why hide in the busiest place---the medical unit--- in the base…during a plague? …that they created?)  but honestly, it is still entertaining.

 

One thing…Ben’s line when Polly mentions it is so cold, is… “You’ll get a gorgeous suntan.” What? Was he reacting to the idea that she wanted to put their spacesuits on? Even so, does that line make sense even then?

 

Another thing at this time is…DOCTOR WHO seemed to be straining NOT to be a family show OR a children’s show. At this time of the show---and to be fair sort of toward the end of William Hartnell’s reign and season three…a great deal of TV curse words were injected. Were the makers trying to make this show an adult one? Characters like Hobson in this story…say things like “damn” and “hell” in order to…make this more real? Make this more adult? Make this appeal to the olders?

 

And it’s not just this character or this story. I noticed it a lot in season three (and maybe even season two) but kept forgetting to make note of it in the reviews.

 

That said, with such violence and death, the show seemed to be NOT a kid show or even a family show. It seemed deadly serious with people in almost every episode and certainly every story getting shot, stabbed (sometimes in the back), killed when on the ground already wounded (as far back as THE AZTECS), etc.

 

The Cybermen are perfectly emotionless here but seem more robotic than they did in THE TENTH PLANET. Well, they are. And they’re even creepier here, more like vampires or supernatural beasties, as Jamie might say. Even their plan is total *&^%, they themselves are not. They have presence and menace even when they are not on screen.

 

The show still has gall: to attempt a chase sequence on the surface of the Moon! Amazing. The music used might be stock but it gives this an otherworldly feel. The Doctor doesn’t do much in this episode: the companions do and the crew of the base do. BUT he does secretly sabotage the Cybermen control unit. SO to everyone who thinks the Doctor should bolster and bluster and loudly shout down his enemies and always has…they should see this episode. He basically does almost NOTHING else. Yet when he’s on screen he has presence, too.

 

The cliffhanger, with many of the Cybermen on the surface of the Moon, heading toward the base…is unforgettable. Oh, one other thing, when everyone is already inside…why does the commander…Hobson say, “Everyone inside!” To get deeper into the base?

 

Other things wrong: how did the men on the surface of the Moon get taken out of their spacesuits? And which men were they? Were they the ones who were ALSO taken over and controlled? Or were they the ones who were just killed? Why leave their spacesuits there? Why take them off at all? It almost doesn’t bare thinking about. When Cybermen die do they melt inside their suits? That is what the RECON implied. In any case, disturbing.

 

A good episode and yes, there are flaws but it is still enjoyable.       

DOCTOR WHO-THE MOONBASE ep 4

 

“Ahh, well, Doctor? I guess it’s best he goes. We have enough madmen around here.”

 

A rousing climax. As ABOUT TIME will tell us, there’s a lot wrong with this story and this episode in particular. The men…Commander Hobson and Benoit …stop the oxygen escaping through the window hole that the Cybermen fired a laser cannon at…by at first using cloth, which gets sucked out into space and then…they stop it…with a lunch tray!

 

Hobson and Benoit seem are almost the main characters and the heroes of this piece with our foursome of time travelers almost surplus baggage…. However, the Doctor does more in this episode than in all the other three combined. And Jamie’s wide awake this episode as he was last but here, he does more. I guess I keep saying this but I think two male companions work well and especially with this Doctor. I wonder what it would have been like to have had Adric with Turlough?

 

….and why don’t the Cybermen just fire again with that weapon?

 

Uhm, why does it look like Dr. Evans is wearing another man’s name plate on his chest or am I misreading it? AND speaking of which…why is he, still infected, being allowed to roam around the base? A few men get hit over the head…do they die?

 

Okay, I have to admit it now: I cannot understand most of what the Cybermen say in this story. Yes, the voices sound alien and robotic all at once but really? WHAT are they saying besides, “Resistance is futile!” ?

 

What’s all this about the Doppler Effect? The poor relief ship goes into the sun. This reminded me a bit of similar scenes in THE TENTH PLANET, which this story most resembles.

 

Early on someone, a stage hand or one of the crew, is peering through the control room doors…when they shouldn’t be. I’m also not sure of the Cybermen’s plan: use the weather Gravitron to ruin Earth, kill everyone, and make it…unusable? Was it revenge? Did they need the planet for something? Perhaps I was not paying that close attention.

 

Love the Doctor standing his ground after everybody takes cover and urges him to as well and this is when he seems to think the next ray will be deflected…and moments after it is deflected, nearly collapses, showing that he wasn’t really all that sure it would be!

 

What amazed me is the shortness of this episode. It runs to about 23 minutes and that’s with the cliffhanger as the foursome are in the TARDIS watching the scanner as the Macra Terror claw appears and then before the credits we see, “NEXT WEEK: THE MACRA TERROR.”

 

THE MOONBASE is nothing earth shattering (pun?) but it’s a fun story with many entertaining moments and it is thrilling to see the Cybermen in action against this Doctor and this Doctor figuring things out. It’s just…it seems that it could have been so much better. Of course, the depiction of the Moon is quite amazing for 1966, even if in one scene, the Moon “dirt” seems like a thrown rug or something as Wellington Booted Cybermen walk across it…

 

In many ways, once again, this resembles a horror movie of the 1940s AND a science fiction base under siege movie of the 1950s and frankly, all those movies are probably better than this. The music does stay with you long after the story is over.