DOCTOR WHO-THE WHEEL IN SPACE

 THE WHEEL IN SPACE episode 1

This is a strange one. The first part of a Cyberman (did I ruin the surprise?) story, this episode does not have Cybermen and does not have the new companion Zoe. It does have a quick wave goodbye to Victoria and then it’s mostly Jamie and the Doctor on a small rocket ship, alone, except for a wandering Servo Robot. A change of pace as this robot is quiet and quite non-menacing really. Even so, Jamie throws a tarp over it and they stop it. The Doctor bangs his head when the rocket is shaken. A wheel in space crew is trying to decide what to do to this rocket which, mysteriously, had its crew vanish somehow. The head of the wheel in space wants to destroy the rocket. At the start of this adventure, two things happen, which will happen again, in varying degrees of explanation and success. Mercury floods the TARDIS, forcing the Doctor and Jamie to leave (this happens in one of the earliest 8^th Doctor adventures, one with Charley and Ramsay, I believe). To save them, the Doctor removes the Time Vector Generator and the TARDIS interior becomes a regular Police Box.

 

And…that’s about it. That this works is down to a rather leisurely pace, which isn’t a criticism. After the pace of the last few stories, a slowdown is just what this series needs and both Frasier and Troughton are the couple to do it. Back in this era…and so many others…sound effects and music were almost one and the same, sort of…and dialog was sometimes foregone for minutes of wandering around a new environment, sometimes scary, sometimes awe inspiring, and a mystery lurked around the corner. Great machines made new and interesting sounds. The TARDIS warned of danger…and the Doctor and Jamie find themselves adrift on a rocket in space. Where…both of them, separately of course, want a lie down on a bunk in the crew quarters. What?

 

Empty ships and space stations will happen again in the show’s future.

 

This episode is a nice, leisurely one. BUT it’s almost as if they filmed it as its own story, a one off where the two regulars meet none of the guest cast yet and do not meet the main threat yet. Was this filmed after the next four episodes were? Was it added in as filler? Does it stretch the story? None of these can be answered for sure, except maybe when it was filmed but it’s a nice addition to the show and proves how it can do just about anything, even this late in the game.

THE WHEEL IN SPACE episode 2

 

Well, a leisurely episode. It’s mostly a Jamie solo adventure if that could be said to be all about Jamie. It’s not. Gemma seems to be the main character here but as she’s curious, she examines Jamie fully and finds him in good physical and mental condition but knows he’s lying about certain things. The Doc will be examined next but Patrick’s mostly not in this episode as the Doc is still concussed. Gemma seems the level headed one on this wheel in space and Tanya seems to stick by her and stick up for her against the male members. We meet Zoey (not sure we hear her last name…I’ll be glad when all the missing stories will be on DVD as I will have a subtitled version of each…at least this story will be out VERY soon!). It is difficult to hear the dialog here and without a script, I don’t know what some of them are saying.

 

The mystery unfolds and deepens…slowly. The crew are affected by static through their headsets that comes from the Silver Needle. Jamie sees the name John Smith on a piece of equipment and uses that as the Doctor’s name. Gemma doesn’t believe it. Jamie meets Zoe who laughs at his clothes and he seems to threaten to smack her bottom if she continues. Zoe’s an interesting character.

 

And…that’s about it. The “eggs” in space come in through the hull of the wheel and start to crack open…revealing a Cyberman…the cliffhanger. So no Doc and no Cybermen until the last moment…Like I wrote, not bad, not overly fact paced, but leisurely. We do get to see more of the wheel and some men space walk to get Jamie and the Doctor. It DOES set up a whole new world here. But gives us NO year it is set in.

 

Gemma’s one of the genuinely nice people in Doctor Who who does not jump to conclusions about the Doc and friends being threats or bad…she’s a good sort…which makes it all the more harrowing when…

DOCTOR WHO-THE WHEEL IN SPACE eps 3 and 4

 

Despite the slowness of the RECON telesnaps and audio, a lot happens in these two episodes that move the plot along. That the Cybermen plot (and not just in this story) is convoluted is not the issue…the Doc’s reactions to them make them a formidable enemy. And as we shall see the Master will have more convoluted plots and the Daleks already had convoluted plots. The Cybermen had to blow up a star that will endanger the wheel…after first taking out a crew of a rocket ship? THEN, they had to make sure the Cybermats got rid of the one thing that could stop the meteorites that resulted from the explosion from hitting the wheel and that the stuff that could enable it again could be found on the rocket ship so that they can sneak aboard in the crates used to transport the stuff! What? They didn’t want the wheel destroyed but needed it in danger so that the needed bernalium could be brought aboard so they could hide in a crate, Trojan Horse-like.

 

No one is really thinking clearly here except the Doctor and Zoe. Gemma and Jarvis think nothing of allowing a large crate to be brought aboard AFTER the Doc tells them the Cybermen will find a way on board the wheel! Earlier poor Bill reacts like he’s seen a puppy when he spots and then hides a Cybermat…in a closet! More attack a man and kill him. The Cybermen, on board, kill Chang and hypnotized two others already. Bill is hypnotized and kills himself doing what the Cybermen want: putting the communications out of order. Jamie and the Doctor go to investigate and a Cyberman comes down steps in the cliffhanger at the end of ep 4.

 

Gemma’s examination of the Doctor is interesting as she mentions that his X ray is extraordinary but not why. She makes no mention of a second heart (the Doc didn’t have one at this point!)

 

Instantly likable Zoey (and this hasn’t gone unnoticed to Jamie) worries she might be like a robot and she wants to feel things and react like a robot or be thought of as a freak. She’s adorable as is Jamie. And Gemma. Who seems to have a flirt thing going on with the Doctor! And Zoe can’t be more different than Victoria. At least at this stage.

 

No one here acts like a villain but Jarvis seems very close to a breakdown.

 

Despite me not understanding most of what they are saying, the Cybermen here have gravitas and power. They come across as very heavy villains who are going to kill without thought or feeling and they do kill quite a lot of men in these two episodes. 

 

The gall for any series to do a wheel in space…previously only low budget and big budget movies did this (THE GREEN SLIME, 2001, and others). But to have this Doctor’s greatest enemies invade it…slowly and have so many nice guys die…with more to come…just makes this story dangerous and deadly.

 

Love that Jamie (early in ep3) sabotaged the laser (the Cybermats might have if he didn’t) to save the TARDIS. No one mentions it being indestructible here.

 

A good pair of episodes, even if I must say I had to watch ep 4 twice because the RECON put me to sleep. Not to say that it’s a bad episode, just late at night watching telesnaps…

DOCTOR WHO-THE WHEEL IN SPACE episode 5

A great one. BUT…the Doctor sends Jamie, Zoe, and Gemma off on a very dangerous mission which almost gets Jamie and Zoe killed in the cliffhanger and the next episode AND does get Gemma killed while he stays back in the safe place! Leo even makes comment on this, surprised it has happened.

 

Gemma’s death is one of the most upsetting ones in the entire history of all of DOCTOR WHO. The recon shows her dead body, her eyes staring but unseeing. AND the Doctor watches it all on a scanner screen! She warned him the Cybermen are trying to use poison gas to humans in the air system and then as the Doctor warns her about a Cyberman behind her, she runs and is shot in the back by a Cyberman! The Doc keeps yelling at her to answer him! It’s most upsetting.

 

The cliffhanger with Jamie and Zoe outside in spacesuits as many meteors come at them is also quite well done.

 

Thus far, the Doctor’s done very little to stop the Cybermen (though he does, admittedly provide knowledge to put all the Cybermats out of action in a sequence where he and Jamie are surrounded by a lot of them) and it’s rather upsetting. It makes the audience rather angry at him. His reason for sending Jamie? Jamie seems to have dropped (but Jamie isn’t even sure; it might have been the Doctor who dropped it) the time vector generator which the Doctor needs for some plan. The Doctor tells Jamie he was responsible so he must go get it…and to do so, Jamie had to space walk from wheel to rocket! 

 

There’s a huge fight as crewman Flannigan makes a valiant and strong physical resistance against two controlled crew men and one of them is hit by gunshot from his fellow controlled crew man. Flannigan, for all his trouble, is stopped by a Cyberman who uses a beam from is head to control Flannigan. I’m not sure how the Cybermen decide who dies by getting blasted and who gets taken over?

 

In all, a very shocking episode and it does seem as if the Cybermen will actually win out and kill everyone who is not a regular.

 

A fast paced actioner but with a Doctor who really annoys by sending out his friends on deadly missions while he stays safe! Good fight sequence, too.  

THE WHEEL IN SPACE episode 6

The rousing climax! The Doctor finally risks his own neck and goes through the air tunnel to the power room and sets up a temporary electric field to kill one of the Cybermen. He also warns Leo and Tanya not to trust Flanigan because he’s been taken over and will try to destroy the forcefield protecting the others. Jamie and Zoe survive the meteors as Leo and Enrico destroy most of the rocks. The pair overhear the Cybermen setting a trap for the Doctor and that the Cybermen found out who he is: their long time enemy. They do so by probing one of the crewmen’s memories of all on board. ABOUT TIME suggests maybe this made the Doctor recall or fix his own device which at the end of this story, he uses to show EVIL OF THE DALEKS to convince Zoe of the danger and for her to decide if she wants to travel with him and Jamie.

 

Interestingly, this lead into the repeat of EVIL OF THE DALEKS. What most people do not know is that that repeat had a specially filmed bit at the start (and possibly at the end). This consisted of the Doctor and Zoey, possibly only in voice over.

 

The scene where the Cybermen confront the Doctor in the power room is classic with some great dialog and the Doctor being at his most cagey, dangerous, and even fun as he plays con man to the Cybermen’s coldness. It’s Patrick at his best.

 

The rest is quite good, too. Well, except for Cybermen invading from their huge ship…by floating through space toward the wheel…as if they were wading through water! All in all, a good story, wrapped up well in yet another good episode.

 

It’s chilling how Jamie and Zoe return and see Gemma’s body, her eyes still staring and unseeing! Jarvis in his breakdown (the Doctor only realizes he’s gone when he sits in his seat) leaves the main room to confront the Cyberman and is lifted in the air, thrown, and then blasted.

 

ABOUT TIME will go over all the innuendo and the things that don’t make sense, plot and character bits but what it amounts to is a fun story with solid characterization, fairly good sets, danger, death, alien monsters that do what they do best, and a large bit of extrapolation about the future (they have some kind of drug that helps relieve any kind of bad encounter?). I DO wish the series would tell us the year this takes place rather than have us track down ancillary materials and have fans form their own opinions about when this takes place! A time travel show should give us the year!

 

So ends season five and onto season six. 40 episodes in season five!