Read Online Running Through Corridors: Rob and Toby's Marathon Watch of Doctor Who (Volume 1: The 60s) by Robert Shearman, Toby Hadoke - Free Book Online
Authors: Robert Shearman, Toby Hadoke
Tags: Doctor Who, BBC
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liked his performance, Toby, but I feel he’s been a bit inclined to play his lines as if he’s declaiming blank verse – and he clearly now seizes the chance to find a lighter side to his Thal in leathers. There’s not very much detail given to any of this in the script, but the way that Hill and Bond play against some of their more doom-laden lines helps enormously, finding affectionate banter that probably wasn’t intended. It’s lovely. And it gives a bit more depth to the relationship between Ian and Barbara too; in the sequence where Barbara jumps over the chasm to be caught by Ian, they’re both a bit embarrassed by the physical contact, William Russell clearly trying to be as formal as possible. Smashing stuff.
Ah yes, the chasm sequence. It goes on forever, as we watch each of the characters one by one take a running jump into the darkness. It ought to be very boring, but it works so well precisely because it is so painstaking – and there’s one frightened Thal waiting his inevitable turn with dread. There’s a similar sequence in Voyage of the Damned, where the starship Titanic survivors are required to make a demonstration of bravery across a yawning abyss – and there you have the CGI effects, the sense of depth and killer robots to boot. But what the 2007 story doesn’t have is time – and the “ordeal” mentioned in the episode title is so much more awful because as an audience, we’re allowed to contemplate how terrified we too would be in that situation. Antodus is really only characterised in the broadest of strokes as “the cowardly Thal”, and Marcus Hammond doesn’t find much in the part other than to panic at two different volumes – but that shot where Hammond numbly lets the thrown rope fall slack against him, not even bothering to pick it up, is a terrific picture of rigid terror.
And I love the scene in which the Daleks phone up one of their engineers to ask about the progress on the neutron bomb, and how disgruntled they are when told it’ll take 23 days to finish. They couldn’t be more disappointed if they were told they’d also have to pay extra for a call-out charge.
T: Bless Antodus, he’s very stroppy. He’s got that puffy lower jaw and permanently downturned mouth while Terry Nation is busy carving “Sacrifice yourself bravely to achieve redemption” on his forehead. Everyone else seems very polite on this escapade, though – Ian compliments Kristas on his chasm-jump in such a way, it’s as if he’s tacitly apologising for the Thal being much more interesting in the book than he’s allowed to be on screen.
Meanwhile, Richard Martin – directing episodes three, six and seven of this story – gives us an ambitious mirrored shot to suggest the camera looking down on Ganatus, and later shoots everyone from as far back as possible, showing the party negotiating the tunnel in a manner that predates a similar effect from Graeme Harper in The Caves of Androzani. He also illustrates the subtext of the Daleks by having them do a Nazi salute with their suckers (so, it wasn’t just in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, as I’d always thought!). Then, alas, the Daleks somewhat spoil the moment by buggering up their supposedly synchronised chanting. Still, it was a nice thought.
“We won’t use one of the customs of your planet,” says Ganatus, in a wonderfully naive attempt to display the difference between aliens and humans. You’ll need to do better than that if you want to crack this sci-fi lark, Mr Nation. Still, I love it for its twee sixties innocence, and I’ll forgive Philip Bond almost anything as he’s working his socks off again. There’s a lovely moment later where he’s thrown a torch and gives a brilliant look back to the chucker, acknowledging that they’d done a good throw and suggesting his admiration. It’s a tiny moment, but one that keeps things real and interesting.
January 6th
The Rescue (The Daleks episode seven)
R: In a rush to reach
Ah yes, the chasm sequence. It goes on forever, as we watch each of the characters one by one take a running jump into the darkness. It ought to be very boring, but it works so well precisely because it is so painstaking – and there’s one frightened Thal waiting his inevitable turn with dread. There’s a similar sequence in Voyage of the Damned, where the starship Titanic survivors are required to make a demonstration of bravery across a yawning abyss – and there you have the CGI effects, the sense of depth and killer robots to boot. But what the 2007 story doesn’t have is time – and the “ordeal” mentioned in the episode title is so much more awful because as an audience, we’re allowed to contemplate how terrified we too would be in that situation. Antodus is really only characterised in the broadest of strokes as “the cowardly Thal”, and Marcus Hammond doesn’t find much in the part other than to panic at two different volumes – but that shot where Hammond numbly lets the thrown rope fall slack against him, not even bothering to pick it up, is a terrific picture of rigid terror.
And I love the scene in which the Daleks phone up one of their engineers to ask about the progress on the neutron bomb, and how disgruntled they are when told it’ll take 23 days to finish. They couldn’t be more disappointed if they were told they’d also have to pay extra for a call-out charge.
T: Bless Antodus, he’s very stroppy. He’s got that puffy lower jaw and permanently downturned mouth while Terry Nation is busy carving “Sacrifice yourself bravely to achieve redemption” on his forehead. Everyone else seems very polite on this escapade, though – Ian compliments Kristas on his chasm-jump in such a way, it’s as if he’s tacitly apologising for the Thal being much more interesting in the book than he’s allowed to be on screen.
Meanwhile, Richard Martin – directing episodes three, six and seven of this story – gives us an ambitious mirrored shot to suggest the camera looking down on Ganatus, and later shoots everyone from as far back as possible, showing the party negotiating the tunnel in a manner that predates a similar effect from Graeme Harper in The Caves of Androzani. He also illustrates the subtext of the Daleks by having them do a Nazi salute with their suckers (so, it wasn’t just in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, as I’d always thought!). Then, alas, the Daleks somewhat spoil the moment by buggering up their supposedly synchronised chanting. Still, it was a nice thought.
“We won’t use one of the customs of your planet,” says Ganatus, in a wonderfully naive attempt to display the difference between aliens and humans. You’ll need to do better than that if you want to crack this sci-fi lark, Mr Nation. Still, I love it for its twee sixties innocence, and I’ll forgive Philip Bond almost anything as he’s working his socks off again. There’s a lovely moment later where he’s thrown a torch and gives a brilliant look back to the chucker, acknowledging that they’d done a good throw and suggesting his admiration. It’s a tiny moment, but one that keeps things real and interesting.
January 6th
The Rescue (The Daleks episode seven)
R: In a rush to reach
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