#12 (14.1 - 14.4): The Masque of Mandragora.

An alien intelligence unleashes havoc on Earth!

4 episodes. Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: Louis Marks. Directed by: Rodney Bennett. Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.


THE PLOT

The TARDIS is drawn into the Mandragora Helix, a mass of living energy that the Doctor describes as having "an intelligence" behind it. The Doctor is able to escape- but not before unwittingly picking up a passanger, a fragment of Helix energy that escapes when the time ship materializes in 15th Century Italy.

A succession drama is playing out in the village of San Martino. The old Duke has died very suddenly, leaving his title to his son, the intellectual Giuliano (Gareth Armstrong). The death was foretold by Hieronymous (Norman Jones), the court astrologer, in league with the duke's brother, the evil Federico (Jon Laurimore). Now Federico plots for Hieronymous to cast another horoscope - one that will pave the way for him to eliminate his weak nephew and claim power for himself!

The Doctor has no interest in these petty power struggles. As soon as he sees a victim of the Mandragora energy, he realizes what has happened - a malevolent force has been set loose that could destroy or enslave the world, and he was the one who brought it here. He determines to do whatever is necessary to stop the Helix energy from spreading its influence... but with Federico using the Doctor's appearance as an excuse to accelerate his plans, and with Hieronymous hatching plots all his own, it soon becomes apparent that the Doctor can't solve one problem without becoming involved in the other.


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Though he ends up assisting Giuliano against Federico, there's no sense that the Doctor has chosen a side. His sense of responsibility exists on a larger scale. He does end up assisting Giuliano, but only because the young duke helps him against the Mandragora energy. He feels deep responsibility for having brought that energy to Earth, and he is committed to correcting his mistake, while the human political conflict doesn't interest him in the slightest.

Sarah Jane Smith: Seems to have taken a hefty I. Q. cut for this episode, wandering off and getting into trouble multiple times during the first two episodes. Did writer Louis Marks think he was still scripting for Jo Grant? Elisabeth Sladen puts her usual energy into her performance, and the rapport between co-stars is as strong as ever - but this is definitely not one of Sarah Jane's better stories, which seems all the more a pity given that she only has one more story left in her tenure.


THOUGHTS

The Masque of Mandragora kicks off Tom Baker's third season as the Doctor with a safe slice of what I term bread-and-butter Who. We have a historical setting, spotlighting a scheming uncle's plans to murder his earnest nephew for his title. We have the ancient Cult of Demnos, performing human sacrifices to their pagan god. And we have a malevolent alien presence using both of these evil forces to help it take over the world.

It's all very nicely-shot by director Rodney Bennett, and it does an excellent job of passing off its locations and studio sets as 15th century Italy. Everything looks right, and the script is able to bring its disparate elements together so that they all feel like part of the same narrative. It's all very competent.

It's also very dull.

I think part of the problem is to do with the story's structure. The Doctor is focused on the threat of the Mandragora Helix... but the Mandrogara energy does practically nothing for the first three episodes. It hitches a ride in the TARDIS, zaps a couple of extras, and gives a disemobied speech to Hieronymous. It's not exactly coming across as the Earth-shattering threat the Doctor insists it is. Meanwhile, the rather hackneyed Giuliano/Federico conflict is left to carry the action through the first three episodes, only for this subplot to be promptly disposed of at the start of Episode Four - so as not to distract when the Mandragora energy decides that it's time to actually do something.

The dominance of the Giuliano/Federico plot is unfortunate. It's not just that this is the kind of story we've all seen played out many, many times before. That can be said of a lot of Who serials that I rate substantially higher than this one. But the Doctor behaves as if this whole conflict is nothing but an annoying distraction, which has the effect of discouraging viewer involvement. Meanwhile, Jon Laurimore's Federico is too one-note a villain to create much interest on his own, and Gareth Armstrong's Giuliano just comes across as a bit weak. Only Norman Jones' Hieronymous really works, Jones going over-the-top in just the right way to make his scenes fun to watch.

All told, this is a well-made story, and there's nothing about it that's badly-done. But I find it tremendously uninvolving. It's a story that has nothing really badly wrong with it, save for rather weak guest characters. It just doesn't do much to hook me into the story. Instead of getting caught up in it, I just watch it at a distance, waiting for the credits.

It's not bad, per se. It's just kind of... boring. An unpromising start to a season that would end up offering much better entertainment than this.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

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#3 (12.9 - 12.10): The Sontaran Experiment

Sontaran Field Major Styre (Kevin Lindsay) menaces Sarah.

2 episodes. Written by: Bob Baker & Dave Martin. Directed by: Rodney Bennett.  Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.


THE PLOT

The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry have transmatted down from Space Station Nerva to repair the transmat system, so that the waking survivors can recolonize the Earth... but Earth is not as lifeless as they had believed.

A group of astronauts were lured by a false distress signal, and their group has been growing smaller. Out of a crew of nine, only three remain. When they find the Doctor, they decide that he is responsible. While they interrogate him, Sarah befriends one of their missing colleagues, Roth (Peter Rutherford), who is half-crazed after escaping from an "alien in the rocks."

That alien is Styre (Kevin Lindsay), a Sontaran Field Major and scientist who is studying the humans in preparation for an invasion. The Sontaran battle fleet is already preparing to secure Earth as a foothold in the endless war against the Rutans - which leaves very bleak prospects for both the astronauts and the humans on Nerva.

The Doctor has a more immediate problem: Sarah has been taken prisoner, and she is about to be subjected to the Sontaran's latest experiments!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: This was the first recorded story of the production block, and writers Baker & Martin would only have had Robot to go on in their characterization. This may explain why the Doctor doesn't come across as strongly here as in The Ark in Space. Tom Baker remains in fine form, but the script makes the Doctor useless and even borderline stupid for much of the first part, notably when he falls down the same trap that entangled Harry through willful recklessness. The climax feels like a leftover of the Pertwee years, relying on physical combat, which leaves only major "Doctorish" moment at the end, when he attempts to bluff the leader of the Sontaran fleet.

Sarah Jane Smith: With the Doctor having an unusually weak outing, Sarah ends up practically taking on his role in the first episode. She befriends Roth, rescues the Doctor from the astronauts, and asks all of the key questions about Roth's fear of his shipmates and about the alien in the rocks. Yes, the second episode falls back on the tried and true formula of her being captured and needing rescued, but this still emerges as a strong story for her.

Harry Sullivan: A nice character beat sees him enjoying the tranquility of an Earth with no people, half-regretting that the people on Nerva will change this idyllic countryside all too quickly. Once it becomes clear he is not going to be rescued from his trap anytime soon, he finds his own way out, just in time to witness Sarah being kidnapped by Styre. He wisely doesn't attempt to rush in, instead doing what he can to try to help where he can while retaining his own freedom.

Villain of the Week: Styre may be the only Sontaran in a televised story to be genuinely menacing.  The Time Warrior is a better story, but Lynx was more amusing than frightening, while later stories would tend to play them more for comic relief. Styre is anything but amusing. The dispassionate, meticulous way he goes about his "experiments" is quite chilling. "You are nothing," he tells Sarah, and he means it. His victims are mere data points, with him neither enjoying nor bothered by their cries as he tortures them.


THOUGHTS

Classic Who had very few two-part, 50-minute serials, and that was mostly for good reason. The series tended to be at its best when it had time to explore settings and characters. Lacking that breathing space, most Classic Series two-parters tended to come across as rushed.

The Sontaran Experiment is one of the better 50-minute stories. The Doctor's weak role aside, the first episode is genuinely good. Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin establish the base situation quickly, and they give each of the regulars something to do. The problems are small at first: Harry's fall, the Doctor's capture by the astronauts. In working to solve these problems, Sarah Jane encounters larger ones - "the alien in the rocks," the tortured Roth. This progression fuels the first episode, building to the effective reveal of Styre, with Sarah recognizing him as a Sontaran with genuine fear.

Unfortunately, in Part Two, the action becomes a bit too rushed, and the resolution comes a bit too easily. The Doctor defeats Styre by challenging him to single combat and just avoiding the Sontaran until he gets conveniently tired.  Meanwhile, Harry yanks a Thingamajigee out of the ship, which conveniently is enough to resolve the situation with minimal effort. In short, a lot of things suddenly happen with a lot of convenience for the regulars, with even the Doctor's grand bluff at the end - a scene with the potential to be great - going by too quickly to be particularly dramatically effective.

This isn't to say that Part Two is bad. Styre himself is well-written and wonderfully portrayed by Kevin Lindsay. The scenes involving his experiments evoke the "scientific research" of Dr. Josef Mengele during the Second World War, as the alien methodically tests humans' reaction to lack of fluids and to "immersion in liquid." He tests Sarah's responses to fear, and he begins a rather gruesome experiment that involves the resistance of the human ribcage to extreme pressure. Realization is variable, particularly if you've read Ian Marter's much, much better novelization, but his clinical reactions to each test makes it effective.


OVERALL:

I honestly think that part of the reason this story is a fan favorite is its novelization, which takes the ideas of this story and develops them to far more memorable effect. In its televised form, Part One is mostly excellent, but Part Two rushes through the plot and finishes with a rather limp conclusion.

It's never bad, and I would rate it as one of the Classic Series' better 50 minute stories. Still, given how well it starts, the weak conclusion is a definite disappointment.


Rating: 6/10.

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