19x5. Black Orchid
Writer: Terence Dudley
Director: Ron Jones
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Synopsis: The Doctor is mistaken for an expected guest at the
home of the 1920s upper-class Cranleigh family, where what seems like a
light-hearted cricket match and costume ball gives way to a murder
mystery with the Doctor as a suspect. The culprit turns out to be
George Cranleigh, a former explorer who had his tongue cut out and has
since gone insane, kept hidden in the family's home under the cover
story of having gone missing. Nyssa, whose appearance is near-identical
to that of Ann, George's former fiancee who is now engaged to his
brother Charles, finds herself in danger when George gets loose.
Review: "Black Orchid" is an odd little serial that has its
appealing elements but relies a little too much on
"because-the-writers-said-so" plotting for me to give it a full
recommendation. It's the first two-part serial since "The Sontaran
Experiment," and much of the first episode is spent in a light-hearted
"TARDIS crew on vacation" mode, but then it steps into more serious
territory and raises questions that it never completely answers.
Seeing
the main cast in a more relaxed setting is a welcome change of pace,
especially with a larger-than-average TARDIS crew. Tegan, who has
typically been the most easily intimidated by the dangers that they
encounter, has nevertheless decided that she'd like to continue
traveling with them for a while and clearly enjoys the party at the
Cranleighs' house. Meanwhile, Nyssa shows herself to have a playful
side when she agrees to wear the same costume as Ann and keep everyone
guessing as to who's who. The Fifth Doctor continues to emerge as a
more relatably human incarnation than his predecessor, proving himself
to be a skilled cricketeer and revealing that he had wanted to drive a
train car as a boy. (It's actually a little strange to hear the Doctor
refer to childhood - I don't recall seeing children in any of the
Gallifrey serials, and it doesn't seem like the Time Lord aging process
works the same way as that of humans.)
Underneath
all the mirth, however, is a story of an upper-class family that has
prioritized keeping up appearances, even to the point of keeping George
as a virtual prisoner in their own home. When the initial murder victim
is discovered, Lady Cranleigh asks that it be kept quiet until the
party is over, and later she allows the Doctor to be blamed for the
killings in the assumption that he'll eventually be cleared. What
exactly do the Doctor and his companions think about all this? It's not
entirely clear, because a considerable portion of the second episode is
occupied with the Doctor getting arrested and eventually winning over
the skeptical police by showing them the interior of the TARDIS. The
Doctor initially agrees to keep quiet about the first death until the
police arrive, but if he recognises the social customs that prompt Lady
Cranleigh to behave as she does, he never really says anything about it.
At a more basic level, the serial employs
two rather blatant contrivances to set these events in motion. One is
the near-perfect resemblance between Ann and Nyssa, which is apparently
meant to be nothing more than a coincidence. Maybe I'm barking up the
wrong tree given that Doctor Who has
so many humanoid aliens in the first place, but this feels like a
stretch given that Nyssa is not only unrelated to Ann but is not even
human -- it seems incredibly unlikely that this would "just happen,"
much less in a situation where people also "just happened" to be
expecting an unnamed "Doctor" right when the Doctor turns up. The other
is the nature of George's mental illness -- whatever it might be. I say
that because the serial tells us nothing other than that he's insane.
Okay, fine, but plenty of people suffer from mental illness, even
severe mental illness, but still don't just randomly murder somebody
the way George does. Does he have PTSD? Is he delusional? Psychotic?
All
this culminates in a somewhat ham-handed ending, where Charles
convinces George to let Nyssa go and moves to embrace his brother, but
George recoils or flinches and falls off the roof to his death. Perhaps
this could have been convincing if we understood more about George's
mental illness or what sort of relationship Charles has had with his
brother, but without that background, it feels like the script
forcing an abrupt tragic ending rather than letting the story and
characters develop naturally. There's a brief epilogue in which we see
that the TARDIS crew have stayed on to attend George's funeral - as has
Ann. Is she still planning to marry Charles? Again, the script is simply silent.
While
I wouldn't argue that "Black Orchid" should have been four episodes, I might say that three would have been more suitable - the
extra time might have allowed for more substantial development of the
guest characters and a clearer understanding of George's behavior. As
things stand, it has a promising setup but doesn't fully deliver on its
potential.
Rating: **1/2 (out of four)
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