6x01. The Dominators
Writers: Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln (as Norman Ashby)
Director: Morris Barry
Script Editor: Derrick Sherwin
Producer: Peter Bryant
Synopsis: The Doctor, Jamie,
and Zoe arrive on Dulkis, a planet known for its pacifist inhabitants,
just as a threat arrives in the form of the Dominators Rago and Toba,
who intend to destroy the planet and turn it into a fuel source for
their alien invasion fleet, and their robotic Quarks. At first
reluctant to fight, the Dulkians are spurred to resistance by the
Doctor and his companions.
Review: "The Dominators" is a
story about two races in conflict. One of them, bent on exploitation,
willingly and ruthlessly resorts to violence and murder to achieve
their own ends, while the other, scarred by the horror of atomic
weapons, has retreated into a dogmatic pacifism that renders them
unwilling to fight even to defend themselves against unprovoked
aggression. If you think that this sounds awfully similar to "The
Daleks," you're right -- except for the fact that "The Dominators"
largely falls flat where "The Daleks" succeeded.
The Dulkians are probably the weakest link in the chain here. Unlike
the Thals, whose pacifism was borne out of a devastating nuclear war
with the Daleks and who came across as taking a principled moral stand,
the Dulkians seem rather naive and decadent. They've banned all weapons
simply because they realized the potential of atomic explosions, even
though they discovered this while researching the use of atomic energy
for peaceful purposes and have never actually fought a war, and their
ruling council fails to take action even when the Dominators show up
and Cully, at least, recognizes the need to fight back. Writers Mervyn
Haisman and Henry Lincoln reportedly intended the Dulkians' pacifism as
a criticism of the hippie movement, and even if I take off my
left-leaning hat for a moment, I still have to say that this isn't very
effective. From pretty much any point of view, the ruling council
members are an almost Pythonesque exaggeration, especially when they
chide Rago for his "disrespect" when he starts giving orders and kills
one of them: I half-expected them to agree to his plans if only he'd
fill out the proper forms for shooting people.
If the Dulkians are silly caricatures, the Dominators aren't much
better. Rago and Toba have a running conflict throughout the serial
that boils down to the fact that Rago is intent on completing the
drilling as quickly as possible, while Toba is more interested in
killing people and blowing things up. Their race's project of galactic
conquest has no context or motivation whatsoever, and Toba's
single-mindedness eventually becomes almost comical, as he repeatedly
ignores Rago's orders and abandons the drilling to order the Quarks to
"destroy" someone or something. I'm particularly thinking of one scene
in which he responds to another attack from Jamie and Cully with
"Quarks, des..." and then, clearly with great internal conflict and an
enormous effort of self-restraint, manages to say, "Continue drilling."
If this was actually supposed to be funny, then I guess it worked, but
somehow I doubt that was the intent. One can argue over which of them
is more at fault for
their eventual failure -- Rago for his disregard of the resistance from
the Dulkians and the TARDIS crew, or Toba for attracting their
attention with three pointless murders at the beginning -- but clearly
neither of them are especially bright bulbs. Add this to the fact that
Jamie and Cully are able to foul up the entire scheme by dropping
boulders on the Quarks,
and it's hard to believe that the Dominators could take over a nursery
school, much less an entire galaxy (especially one not inhabited
primarily by pacifists).
Zoe, a new addition to the TARDIS crew at this point, doesn't make much
of an impression, but the Doctor and Jamie are still engaging
protagonists even when they're stuck in a dull story. It's to the
credit of both Troughton and the series' writers that simply watching
his Doctor react to a situation, no matter what it is, is usually
plenty entertaining in and of itself. He's at his best in "The
Dominators" when he's pretending to be stupid in order to convince Rago
and Toba that he's not a threat, and indeed he and Jamie are even
released because Rago thinks they're too dumb to cause any trouble.
This sets up my favorite scene later when, after the Dominators scold
him for not staying away from the Quarks as ordered, he protests that
he's been trying very hard to run away from them but they just keep
turning up again. And while it's hardly the stuff of great writing, the
pace does pick up a little bit when Jamie and Cully start waging
guerilla warfare against the Quarks, and there are some pretty decent
action scenes by the standards of early Doctor Who.
Unfortunately, even the more entertaining moments can't compensate for
the bland characterizations and the mediocre premise (absurdly
bureaucratic pacifists vs. absurdly incompetent alien invaders). "The
Dominators" isn't a total disaster, but it ranks with "The Chase" and
"The Keys of Marinus" as one of the weakest of the preserved early
serials.
Other notes:
- Though most of the action scenes are pretty well done, there's one
moment of distinct low-budget hokiness when the camera follows a
boulder down the side of a hill and then we hear it destroy a Quark
off-camera. Either the crew hadn't figured out how to get the boulder
to actually hit the Quark, or they hadn't made many Quarks and couldn't
afford to wreck too many of them. (Or both.)
- Interesting piece of trivia: co-writer Henry Lincoln eventually went
on to make a career out of investigating the mysteries of
Rennes-le-Chateau in France and later co-authored The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
(which is either the most explosive piece of historical research ever
or the greatest crackpot book ever).
Rating: *1/2 (out of four)
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