KOOL TV REVIEW: 'DOCTOR WHO - THE WHEEL OF ICE' NOVEL

DOCTOR WHO: THE WHEEL OF ICE

A novel by Stephen Baxter

Published by BBC BOOKS

Reviewed by Scott Weller

Resilience. Remembrance. Restoration.

NOTE: This review contains mild spoilers...

Once upon a time it was invading little green men that humanity used to worry about, but now, out on the fringes of our solar system, within the frozen mineral climes of the “Wheel of Ice” mining colony of Saturn's rings, its little bluemen putting the willies up all and sundry, as that travelling cosmic hobo of space and the Fifth Dimension, the second incarnation of DOCTOR WHO, aided by his loyal companions, the highlander of Earth’s ancient past, James Robert McCrimmon, and sprightly technological marvel, the future born Zoe Herriot, encounter one of their most unusual and creepy threats yet when they arrive at an important point and location for Humanity as it continues its journey out into the stars; its early pioneers on the edge of scientific discovery and exploration, enterprise and danger…

Within a space station composed of junk yard spaceships wrapped around a planetary core being mined for the rare mineral Bernalium, the mystery of an ancient artifact located around a young child’s neck, the sabotage and disappearance of vital equipment plus an eons old predicament from a looming alien force with a mission that must be fulfilled at all costs- that could also lead to the destruction of the galaxy and the very fabric of time itself if it isn’t soon corrected- are just some of the big situations capturing the readers attention within acclaimed British sci-fi writer Stephen Baxter’s enjoyable new book for the continuing original series WHO range from BBC BOOKS: THE WHEEL OF ICE.

Presumably set somewhere between the monochrome era’s final TV season stories The Space Pirates and the epic The War Games, Baxter’s grasp of writing for our main cast is superb, his fondness for their little family group clearly showing as he delivers them into the story via a seemingly grouchy TARDIS which has a built-in directive/mission our heroes must obey. (And, let’s face it, if the Doctor and his friends didn’t arrive somewhere and not receive an ignorant and hostile welcome from the locals then I’d be very worried indeed!)

Often difficult for writers to bring to life on the printed page, Baxter grasps his childhood hero, the Second Doctor, and Troughton’s versatile performance of him, particularly well. There’s also fine use of continuity and mentions of various characters, planets and adventures from his three-year period, as well as other links to Earth history visited by the Doctor in his past (and future) incarnations.

Sharing a lot of the story and plot investigation with the Time Lord, Zoe gets the most to do in the book as a companion (of which there’s lots of links and references to her introductory story The Wheel in Space, set after the events of this book but keeping within a believable timeline). Sadly, adaptable Scots hero Jamie has the least to do, which is a bit of a shame, apart from acting on and off as an older figure guardian, occasional protector, to the satellites older revolutionary children, who take the brunt from their parents and authority figures for some of the strange and inexplicable things happening within their industry home.

The books cast of supporting characters, mostly female, are the type of important plot delivering cyphers that exist in most of classic WHO’s successful base under siege type storytelling: the overall colony leader under fire, the slightly pompous security commander distrusting of outsiders, and an overbearing and belligerent human threat making things worse for everyone: this time from a corporate baddie with a hidden axe to grind. There’s even a haughty and likable Glasweigan mind inhabited robot, MMAC, aiding our heroes, which proves to be one of the authors more enjoyable additions to the overall story.

Very much an attempt at sophisticated Eleventh Doctor storytelling within the Second Doctor’s baggy clothing, Baxter’s efforts to fuse classic and new eras of WHO, so as to appeal to a wider spectrum of modern readers, prove mostly successful, what with the families and children aspect of the book (relatable to people who aren’t necessarily WHOvians), alongside a comprehensive display of high tech science and the kind of classic monsters concept that the original series often did so well.

The aforementioned scientific aspects of the book are well handled and accurate, mixed with the kind of added fun speculation of which WHO has always excelled, but there are times when such technobabble, however important to the plot, verges on the kind of nonsense that always bogged down STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATIONs later storytelling. On the fantasy spectrum, though, the blue men and their mysterious benefactor of life are intriguing, with some well described moments and plotting, whilst the threat to the universe is just the right side of preposterous for our heroes to stop in the nick of time…

With its nice prose style, THE WHEEL OF ICE ultimately reaches a satisfying conclusion and is a highly readable, if not all-time classic, new addition to the continuing range of diversified and intelligent DOCTOR WHO adventures from BBC BOOKS.

KOOL TV RATING: 3.5 out of 5

Get the book here: Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice: Amazon.co.uk: Stephen Baxter: Books

For more on the BBC BOOKS WHO range follow them on Twitter: @DrWhoBBCBooks

KOOL TV REVIEW: 'DOCTOR WHO - THE KROTONS' DVD

The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) fight a strange new robot race in THE KROTONS, a new DVD release from the Classic DOCTOR WHO range. Images: BBC.

DOCTOR WHO – THE KROTONS

A four-part story by Robert Holmes

Directed by David Maloney

Starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, Frazer Hines as Jamie, and Wendy Padbury as Zoe

Released on DVD by BBC WORLDWIDE from July 2^nd, 2012

Reviewed by Scott Weller

I was there back in 1981 watching BBC 2’s glorious month long, four nights a week repeat season of THE FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO, and, like millions of other fans, was wondering why on Earth the channel hadn’t selected a more classic and representative story for the supreme horror/comedy era of Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor, like the hallowed TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN, than the one showing in the season’s second week: Robert Holmes then almost forgotten first story for the series, of mind draining robots enslaving a primitive humanoid race- THE KROTONS, which aired in the actors third and final season back in the monochrome years of 1968. It wasn’t until a short time later, however, reading the trusty words of fan supremo Jeremy Bentham in DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE, that the real truth behind the channel’s selection would come to disturbing light, and leave all WHO fans worldwide disheartened and gob- snacked by the news of the BBC’s unforgivable and widespread wiping of its classic black and white and early colour programming output, including Classic WHO!

Still, with the passage of time, and knowing of such losses as TOMB (which, thankfully, would return to the archives many years later and get a wonderful VHS, then DVD, release), in hindsight, THE KROTONS isn’t actually too bad a representation of the late Troughton era, in particular the fine camaraderie shown by the TARDIS trio of the Doctor, Scottish Culloden survivor Jamie McCrimmon and super-intelligent future girl Zoe Herriot.

It's quarry time again for the always amiable Patrick Troughton as the Doctor.

I especially remember how nice it was to finally see what Troughton was like in the flesh, so to speak, in his television reality as the Time Lord, after years looking at memorable and evocative black and white images and plot synopsis of his stories in magazines of the late seventies.

Yes, THE KROTONS is not a well regarded adventure by any means, by either the people who made it or by fandom in general, but it’s one that, at that time in its making, had to be filmed out of pure emergency and necessity, carefully nurtured by script editor and WHO legend Terrance Dicks and optioned for use when several stories fell through. Looking terrific in its DVD transfer, the story’s opening episode has lots going for it in its set-up, which is particularly moody and suspenseful.

Originally known as The Space Trap, its roots as a story originally submitted for the BBC’s sci-fi anthology series OUT OF THE UNKNOWN clearly show (but in a good way!). The story of self-perpetuating slavery by the mind draining crystalline headed aliens, the Krotons, seems a little lightweight by today's Steven Moffat overload modern series writing but overall it’s well paced and structured across its four episodes, though there is the occasional sense of repetition of ideas and moments within this mixed bag season, and this story certainly has examples of this, most notably with the Doctor coming under scan from another high powered alien race of which only two are seen onscreen, as seen a few stories earlier in THE DOMINATORS, and once again utilising our heroes skillful acting and bumbling antics to shield his crafty manipulations and ingenuity, all of which are realised all too late for the baddies to stop him. Parts of THE KROTONS even remind me of Classic STAR TREK (then not yet aired on British TV until 1969/70) in the way that out heroes arrive on an almost primitive world enslaved by a higher power. I could imagine Captain Kirk striding about, punching out primitive warriors, locking lips with any female in eye shot, and ignoring the prime directive (again!) to face off against the Krotons (Or “Croutons” as Frazer Hines likes to call them!), though colourful sixties TREK would have built the baddie robots a lot better than BILL KING’S TRADING POST effects company did for WHO!

The Doctor confers with Jamie (Frazer Hines),  Zoe (Wendy Padbury) and Selris (James Copeland) over the knowledge drained Vana (Madeleine Mills). 

The early hints of Robert Holmes classy teatime cruelty for children also begins to emerge, as do other examples of his trademark storytelling craft, like his perchance for eccentric characters, here represented by the repressed scientist, Beta (played by James Cairncross), who has a couple of fun double-act light comedy moments with Jamie towards story’s end.

No COUNTDOWN conundrums for the gifted Zoe!

Despite some general lasting off-screen woes about script problems that season, all three of our aforementioned main stars/characters get a chance to shine in their struggle against the Krotons. As I mentioned previously, Troughton as the Doctor would be a revelation to me-I remember in my first viewing how pleasantly surprised I was by his performance, and how he brought considerable and understated charisma to the part, as well as mixing high drama, intelligence and comedy in strong measure within a continuingly appealing and ingenious performance that would capture the hearts and minds of viewers of all ages. Frazer Hines as Jamie shows trademark bravery, die-hard loyalty to his comrades and reckless but fearless fighting skills, whilst Wendy Padbury’s Zoe’s puts her high intelligence to good use in both drama and comedy moments alongside Troughton and doesn’t come across as a stereotyped whiny screamer. Costume-wise, the kinky female baddies planned for the previously aborted Dick Sharples script THE PRISON IN SPACE may not have materialised but their almost presence seems to have thankfully lingered and transferred into the design of delectable Miss Padbury’s distinctive costume for the story: a red and black little number with boots and the very shortest of micro mini skirts-a runner up to Lalla Ward’s school girl outfit from CITY OF DEATH for the most memorable costume design seen in the series for boys and dads of a certain age to enjoy...

A solid guest cast helping the trio rise above the material includes the late, great Philip Madoc, always watchable as the ambitious and scheming power player Eelek, and stalwart Scottish TV actor James Copeland (and father of James Cosmo) as the enslaved Gond people's wise leader, Selris.

"Direction point!" The crystalline robots of the story title.

As for the Krotons- the ultimate student killers (no no university tuition fee payouts from them!)- well, they’re hardly one of the shows greatest baddies, but there have been poorer WHO monsters seen throughout the series. Their organic crystalline based visual appearance and design, from series regular Bobbi Bartlett, works okay from the middle up, though their voices (by Dalek talent/ RAINBOW’s Zippy, Roy Skelton, with Patrick Tull) seem more comedic than scary-at first I thought they were speaking in cockney accents but now I hear that they were South African based! (A blatant nod to the segregation troubles heightening in that country at the time.)

A Kroton tries to disperse the TARDIS!

Going further behind the scenes, designer Raymond London does his best with basic but satisfactory sets, making the most of the spaceship interior’s darkness (luckily the Krotons hate bright light!) where he can to help hide the shows very stretched and limited resources behind the scenes, with handy recycled props from the previous INVASION story, too. There’s also some noteworthy and effective sound design by Brian Hodgson that ably makes up for the lack of costly incidental music.

Patrick Troughton and his era's famous monsters are celebrated in the excellent DVD documentary Second Time Around. 

Onto the DVD extras now, and the highlight of the release, and easily one of the best of the entire range of any of the 2ENTERTAIN/BBC releases over the years, is Second Time Around, a lively, interesting, thought-provoking and nostalgic look back at the entire three year era of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor: the characters all-important first on-screen regeneration (or “renewal” as it was once called) and how it came about behind the scenes, the many classic stories, the iconic monsters and villains he fought, and the equally memorable companions who accompanied him on his journey’s through the time vortex. Excellently produced by Ed Stradling, linked to great behind the scenes materials and on-screen press clippings, as well as lots of great clips (especially from the recently recovered missing episode THE UNDERWATER MENACE episode 2), backed up with some terrific and fondly remembered contributions/anecdotes from all of Troughton’s surviving companions (as well as a choice clip of the late lead actor talking about early ideas for the part), it’s a wonderful celebration of a truly golden age for the series, and a special feature you’ll want to watch again and again. This easily makes the release an essential purchase for fans, as well as bringing the Second Doctor’s surviving story run on DVD to a satisfying close.

Additionally, there’s another Doctor Who Stories featurette, focusing on Fraser Hines for part one of his thoroughly enjoyable look back at his time working on the series in both its B/W and colour classic years, whilst representing THE KROTONS itself there’s no main documentary on the story (though it is covered briefly in Second Time Around), but look out for a fine audio commentary (involving actors Madoc, Richard Ireson and Gilbert Wynn, with behind the sceners Hodgson, Bartlett, David Tilley and Sylvia James), whilst Simon Guerrier and Joseph Lidster discuss the maligned story’s strengths and weakness in another looking back edition of the love it or hate it The Doctor’s Strange Love.

Finally, there’s some nice B/W photo selections, PDF materials, and an atmospheric trailer for Sylvester McCoy’s upcoming THE GREATEST SHOW IN THE GALAXY.

More a bronze medal winner than a gold in Olympics time, it’s nice to have THE KROTONS finally released regardless, and any complete Patrick Troughton story on DVD is always welcome in my book!

KOOL TV OVERALL RATINGS

STORY: 3 out of 5

DVD EXTRAS: 4 out of 5

Get THE KROTONS here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-The-Krotons-DVD/dp/B007Z10GUG