19x2. Four to Doomsday
Writer: Terence Dudley
Director: John Black
Script Editor: Antony Root
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Synopsis: The TARDIS materializes on board a ship carrying
survivors from Urbanka, whose ruler Monarch has become obsessed with
faster-than-light travel, believing that he is God and that he would
find himself at the moment of the universe's creation. The Doctor
discovers that he is planning to colonize Earth and wipe out its
population so that he can mine its resources to support his plan.
Review: "Four to Doomsday" reminded me a bit of "The Leisure
Hive," in that it's sufficiently entertaining at a basic level and has
more than enough intriguing concepts, but its story tends to wander
around rather than pulling everything together into a coherent whole.
It's not uncommon for Doctor Who
serials to spend the first episode in "something's weird here" mode
before revealing the central conflict, but "Four to Doomsday" goes
through *two* episodes before the details of Monarch's plan emerge.
While this allows some time to explore the personalities of the
multi-member TARDIS crew, it also lends a
slightly rushed feel to the proceedings when the Doctor and his
companions eventually spring into action.
Monarch is definitely
a step above your average villain. While it's customary to speak of
megalomaniacs as having a "God complex," it's usually meant as a
metaphor, whereas Monarch not only believes himself to be God but
intends to travel back to the beginning of time in the hopes of meeting
himself there. (While we don't see any actual time-traveling aside from
the TARDIS's arrival and departure, I'm always pleased to see a Doctor Who
story that actually makes time travel part of the plot rather than just
a device to bring the Doctor into the situation.) And yet, despite his
outsized ego, Monarch doesn't walk around bellowing at everyone or
otherwise going over the top. Instead, the script by Terence Dudley
portrays him as someone who probably does value a degree of tolerance
and moderation, even if only as a sign of his own supposed wisdom.
With
Nyssa and Tegan having only recently joined the Doctor and the previous
three serials occupied with the Master and regeneration, "Four to
Doomsday" gives us a look at how this crew reacts to more of a
stand-alone Doctor Who plot.
Tegan isn't particularly interested in staying with the Doctor (he's
trying to take her back to Heathrow at the beginning) and is the
strongest voice for simply leaving Monarch's ship, displaying
noticeable discomfort even before any of them come into conflict with
Monarch. The Doctor suspects her of selfishness and seems more
irritated than anything else when she tries to pilot the TARDIS, though
she argues that she wants to warn Earth of Monarch's invasion plans. At
the same time, she stands up to Adric's sexist comments at the
beginning, and the fact that she understands the language of an
Australian aborigine is presumably meant to show her to be intelligent
and accepting of other cultures. (An Australian reviewer over at
the Doctor Who Ratings Guide argues convincingly that, at the very least, the details of this scene strain credibility, but I appreciate the intent.)
Adric displays a mix of naivete and perhaps a susceptibility to power
fantasies, as he's initially somewhat receptive to Monarch, while Nyssa
comes off as the most likeable as the three by showing both
intelligence and an appropriate skepticism of Monarch's plans.
"Four to Doomsday" is the rare Doctor Who
serial that touches upon religious or metaphysical themes, but it
proves somewhat oblique in how it handles these issues. The script
takes care to contrast Monarch's attitude with the traditional ideas of
a benevolent deity. Love is defined as "the exchange of fantasies" in
one of his exchanges with his deputies (named "Enlightenment" and
"Persuasion"), and he dismisses the notion as "primitive" when
Kurkutji, the Australian aborigine, declares that everyone on the ship
is going to heaven. Bigon, meanwhile, seems to allude to the Bible in
noting that "the poor are always with us," though, logically speaking,
this would have to be unwitting on his part, since he's apparently a
Greek philosopher of the pre-Christian era. What's strange is that the
Doctor seems to have nothing to say on the question of a deity other
than the obvious fact that Monarch is not God. It strains credibility
that a civilization as advanced as Gallifrey would not have considered
this issue, or that the Doctor couldn't or wouldn't try to prove
Monarch wrong to dissuade his followers. I can understand why the
creative team wouldn't want to risk controversy by ascribing religious
beliefs or lack thereof to the Doctor, but it still feels like a missed
opportunity from my perspective as a viewer.
The
concept of the human-androids also feels only half-developed. Are these
androids sentient? Do they literally believe themselves to be the same
individuals who were once taken from Earth, or do they see themselves
as more akin to clones? And I have to say that, while I'm sure it
wasn't intentional, some unsavory racial implications surface in that
Bigon, the white male, easily rejects Monarch's ambitions and espouses
democracy, while the other three - Kurkutji, the Chinese leader Min
Futu, and the Mayan princess Villagra - are initially won over by his
promises that they will be given greater power when they return to
Earth. Meanwhile, the fourth episode spends a great deal of time on an
unnecessary sequence in which the Doctor tries to leap across space to
the TARDIS (which Tegan has materialized just outside the ship), and
the eventual revolt against Monarch's plans feels like it's over before
it started.
What is "Four to Doomsday" about? Is it primarily
an examination of relationships among a relatively new TARDIS crew? Is
it about a villain who has twisted religious concepts into a
self-serving philosophy? Is it a high-concept science fiction story
about an alien civilization that was undone by its leader's obsessions
and now has created a strange new society populated by androids? Again,
I'm reminded of "The Leisure Hive" in that I have to conclude that I'm
not sure if it's really "about" any of these things, instead jumping
around from one to another. The character-writing and the imagination
behind these concepts are enough to make it a worthwhile serial, but
it's definitely an underachieving one.
Other Notes:
- The personality of the new Doctor is still developing. He
has moments of whimsy (such as when he speaks to a probe) as well as
occasional impatience with his companions (though both Adric and Tegan
had it coming in this case), but seems to be a little more
straightforward and personable compared to his eccentric predecessor.
-
Speaking of racial issues, I also did a double-take at the Doctor using
the term "Chinaman," but I'm guessing that this wasn't considered
offensive in early-'80s Britain - it's unimaginable that the creative
team would deliberately portray the Doctor as a racist.
- The final scene in the TARDIS, in which Nyssa passes out right before
the cut to the credits, is a bit of a throwback to early-era Doctor Who in which there was frequently a linking scene between one serial and the next.
Rating: *** (out of four)
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