First time watching Terror of the Zygons and Meglos

I’ve always been a Tom Baker and 4th Doctor fan. Tom is magnificent because he eats up the TV screen with his force of character and just oozes a presence. All praise to Tom Baker for doing seven seasons and there is no sarcasm in that statement. But there are the odd few stories of his that I haven’t seen. I’ve seen brief snippets or photos because we don’t live in bubbles but not the full episodes.

My classic rewatch of all of Who in order stalled at the end of season 12. What can I say? Life became busy. To be honest, though I’ve secretly liked the idea of having a few stories of unrevealed Tom Baker. I’m relishing the idea of viewing the 4th Doctor with an unassuming adult eye rather than the nostalgia I have for childhood. It feels important to me given his advanced years to see everything. It was a special time having Tom Baker in the role. He was s hero for children. So join me as I recently cracked open a couple of unseen stories and excitedly settled in.

I started with season opener Terror of the Zygons from Tom Baker’s second series, season 13, often known as the “Gothic Horror” season. Producer Phillip Hinchcliffe with script editor Robert Holmes are a classic combination. I think I prefer Season 12  where Tom Baker is exuding mysterious intelligence but there’s a restrained energy as he’s still finding his way.

I think season 13’s descent into a darker tone using gothic horror as inspiration and the fact I didn’t enjoy “The Brain of Morbius” (it’s over-rated in my opinion) made me slightly reluctant. I’ve heard, however, so much positivity about this story and the fact the Zygons were so well represented in the Moffat era that it was the first story I wanted to make a beeline for.

Terror of the Zygons

Episodes 1 & 2

An Oil rig radio room Munro is chatting over a link when Interference comes down the link.

I love the tone of this story already: the atmospheric music and Munro seems a down-to-earth character.

Later at the Fox Inn the Doctor is lounging in a chair and needs persuading to be there and by the Brigadier..

DOCTOR: Brigadier, Brigadier! Have you brought me two hundred and seventy million miles just to sort out a little trouble at sea?
BRIGADIER: Three serious disasters, Doctor!

This Doctor is quite mercurial here more so than the third Doctor but I like how the Brigadier is still able to reason with his friend to a point.

Later on, on the beach Munro wearing the life belt is seen by Harry as he falls Harry runs over as the Duke’s ghillie watches concealed…

MUNRO: Too late. I didn’t have a chance.
HARRY: What do you mean? What happened?
MUNRO: It suddenly came at us. Smashed the rig to pieces.
HARRY: What did?
The ghillie takes careful aim and shoots Munro. Harry leaps up, and another shot rings out. Harry falls, blood on his forehead.

Blimey wasn’t expecting that!  I love that the characters in this are mysterious and rather strange. No idea why the ghillie wants to shoot them both… a conspiracy!!

Later Sarah is in a hospital corridor talking to the Doctor on the phone…

DOCTOR: Better keep his recovery dark for the moment.
SARAH: Well, why? Do you think Harry’s still in danger from something?

An alien’s rubbery orange hand is on her shoulder. Sarah turns and screams).

Great cliffhanger and direction.

The Doctor finds Sarah in the Decompression chamber and is locked in by the Zygon…

SARAH: Doctor, I can’t breathe.
DOCTOR: Shut up and save your breath.

How rude Doctor!

DOCTOR: Keep looking into my eyes. Keep looking into my eyes. You don’t need to breathe. Do not breathe. Do not breathe. You feel no pain. No pain. You feel nothing. You understand? Nothing. You feel nothing.
(The Doctor closes Sarah’s eyes. He then wails and goes very still).

The writing works for me in this sense of not knowing this Doctor.

Much later Zygon Harry has stolen the signalling device and Sarah has tracked him down into a barn and climbs a ladder. She confronts him in the hay loft. Zygon Harry takes a pitchfork and jabs it at her several times. Sarah dodges, then he lunges too hard and ends up falling out of the loft with a scream.

I love how Doctor Who in this era doesn’t shy away from violence but it’s not needless violence. It’s great that you have companions who are a doctor and a journalist. Sarah’s very capable and independent when faced with danger.

Episodes 3 & 4

Sarah has discovered the Spaceship room beyond Forgill Castle and discovers Harry imprisoned…

SARAH [through door]: Is it really you?
HARRY: Well of course it is. What on Earth’s the matter with you, old girl?

I really like the relationship between Sarah and Harry. They aren’t stroppy teenagers and it’s a grown-up friendship built on mutual respect.

Later the Doctor is onboard the Zygon Spaceship room which has left Scotland. The Doctor pulled the tannoy ‘cable’ out of the wall and folded it over, then picked through to the inside. He holds the exposed workings in his right hand. He reaches for the door and touches it, and power is conducted through his body.

Wow, this is actually painful to see the Doctor experiencing this.

Having dealt with Broton, the commander of the Zygons, the Doctor comes out of Stanbridge House in London emergency exit and sees the Skarasen. Elsewhere are police sirens and people screaming…

DOCTOR: Here, boy. Fetch it. Fetch it.

The Doctor throws the signalling device out into the river, and the Skarasen follows it.

A massive sea monster in the Thames. I love the surreal nature of seeing that popping up.

Conclusion: As the opener for Season 13 I got tingles for the first two episodes of Terror of the Zygons. I watched the story in two-episode chunks and couldn’t wait to see the resolution after the episode 2 cliffhanger  It reminded me so much of why I became captivated by Doctor Who as a child. Its solid story is built from writer Robert Banks Stewart cranking up the mystery and atmosphere within a Scottish village and the surrounding countryside. It’s a breath of fresh air to be in Scotland hearing the bagpipes and a bit of mystery and there’s time spent with the village characters to draw out who they are.

Harry, Sarah and the 4th Doctor meld well as a team even if Harry feels like the inbetweener slightly separate from the closeness of the other two. I enjoyed so much of this story by Robert Banks Stewart who also wrote “The Seeds of Doom” which is a cracking story. Looking at his portfolio of work Robert Banks Stewart wrote for “The Avengers”,  and created two brilliant detective drama series  Shoestring (1979–80), and the  Jersey-set detective drama series Bergerac (1981–91) so this writer understands drama and tension without talking down to the audience.

Terror of the Zygons reminded me of the Pertwee era in parts with the reassuring presence of UNIT in the story as Benton and the Brigadier do their part to try and find the threat to the oil rigs. Both Harry and Sarah have encounters with the Zygons but Sarah is more than capable of investigating. One of the things I miss from the latest series is how characters are stoic, just getting on things and living the adventure. There’s no crying Doctor unsure what to do. I love the way drama is at the forefront of the writing as the dark tone is set from the beginning with the destruction of the oil rig.

It feels like a last hurrah to the Pertwee past. All the location work feels authentically like Doctor Who as you have Harry, Sarah and the 4th Doctor traversing the green hills or running through village lanes and countryside. Tom Baker displaying his unique energy adds a more impatient alien edge to his doctor’s interactions with the Brigadier in this story.

The idea of having the Loch Ness monster could have been so mishandled but it’s used as an embryonic sea creature not on Earth by origin, part cyborg called the Skarasen.  As a monster how it’s realised on screen is disappointing but how the Zygons use it in their plan is so well thought out that it doesn’t matter so much. I must admit once the action moves away from the village to the conference in London the story loses a little of the atmosphere that’s been built but it was still fun to know there was a monster in the Thames.

The Zygons themselves are suitably hideous with their suckers and strange orange skin. The way their hands sink into their spaceship controls feels organic, and unsettling as do the off-key cold human replicas they create. This feels way far more chilling than the vomit-inducing visible change from human to Zygon in Day of the Doctor.  The way the Zygon Harry threatens Sarah with a pitchfork feels genuinely threatening. These days it probably would be cut as too distressing for an audience.

Score: 9 /10 Tom Baker in tartan and firing on all cylinders.

Moving on after a great first experience I pulled out an entirely different story Meglos, the second story from Tom Baker’s last season. Written together by John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch. The DVD cover of Tom Baker as a cactus and Jaqueline Hill in a different role from companion Barbara Wright looked intriguing. Season 18 is a series that I don’t have any memories of except for Logopolis which was repeated as part of “The Five Faces of Doctor Who” series on BBC2 in 1981.

Meglos

Episodes 1 & 2

The Doctor is in the Tardis repairing K9 wills Romana explains the background of Tigella and Zolfa Thura.

ROMANA: Well, there’s one called Zolfa-Thura. That’s in the history books.
DOCTOR: Well, we’re all in somebody’s history books.

I do love these little scenes in The Tardis where you see the regulars doing normal things. It feels like the Tardis is a home.

A walkway where a blonde woman with two blond men are trying to cut into something. They are all of the same society…

CARIS: It’s going to blow! There is an explosion

Oh, I loved those special effects but crikey those wigs on the actors look a bit severe and are a little distracting. They are like those terrible shop dummies with wigs you used to see in old-fashioned department stores.

In a temple, A red-robed supplicant is kneeling on a small dais in front of the Priestess when a black-clothed man enters. He whispers to the Priestess…

LEXA: No. Zastor is our leader, but he cannot lead us into sacrilege. Resume the Concurrence. I shall explain this yet again to Zastor.

Jacqueline Hill! Hip hip Hooray! She has come back to Doctor Who and still looks so beautiful. 

Later in a debating room…

DEEDRIX: No! This should be said before all Tigella. The Dodecahedron is no god! It is an artefact! Engineered.
LEXA: It descended from the heavens!
DEEDRIX: Not the heavens. From somewhere, anywhere, but not the heavens.
LEXA: Then where?

I love how quickly the conflict that will dominate the episodes is laid out and it’s done through the two or three main characters expressing differing points of view.    

On the dusty planet Zolfa-Thura,   a motley group of men are in a laboratory talking to Meglos who we can’t see initially but they realise is a cactus

MEGLOS [OC]: Ah, forgive me. Most remiss. I am Meglos, the only survivor of this planet… a Xerophyte, to be precise.

I’m having a surreal moment that this is the villain. I’m reminded of a frog.  But saying that this is still interesting and I am curiously invested in Cactus Man.

The Doctor and Romana have arrived on Tigella and (Romana runs into more of the Gaztaks and is driven back to the spaceship.
BROTADAC: She’s seen too much. Kill her!

Oh, we know she isn’t going to die. I don’t like this cliffhanger.

Episodes 3 & 4

The Doctor has seen his old friend Zastor but there is confusion amongst the Tigellans as the Doctor tries to explain his earlier appearance…

DOCTOR: One, the chronic hysteresis. I’ve never been in one before but it just might have projected a time image of me. It’s theoretically possible, isn’t it?
LEXA: You’ll have to do better than that, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Ah.
LEXA: I think you’re a fraud and a liar.
DOCTOR: Well, that makes even less sense.
LEXA: Oh? Why?
DOCTOR: Well, you see, I just don’t do that sort of thing.

I love this little exchange between the 4th Doctor, who is trying on his charm and it just isn’t washing with Lexa.  Oh, I just want to see so much more of Jacqueline Hill in this story. 

Caris is with another savant trying to turn off the ray lamps. As she looks at an open panel, then a spiny hand rests on her shoulder. Meglos pulls Caris into the food bay.

This is a sinister scene. Tom Baker as Meglos looks threatening as he pulls Caris away. It’s a great different character from TB an as intelligent quietly subtle threat. 

The loss of the Dodecahedron has caused bewilderment and panic as the energy levels of the city start to fail. Lexa decides to use the situation to seize power as Savants will be expelled to the hostile surface of the planet…

LEXA: We are taking over. In order to pacify the god, all non-believers will be collected and exiled to the surface.
ZASTOR: But they won’t survive out there, Lexa. You can’t!
LEXA: Take him away.
ZASTOR: No, Lexa, you need me as an advisor. I’ve been a believer all my life. You can’t do this.
(Zastor and Deedrix are removed by acolytes.)
LEXA: Faith dwells in the deeds, Zastor, not in the words.
DEEDRIX [OC]: He’s an old man, Lexa. The plants will kill him!

I’m not sure I like you Lexa but it was a good performance by Jacqueline Hill 

In a city walkway, Meglos is trying to escape as the human inside him tries to escape. The Earthling is separating from Meglos…

MEGLOS: What! Earthling? You again?
(Caris watches in horror as Meglos goes cactus-skinned and wrestles with the human trying to escape from his body.)
MEGLOS: It’s no use struggling. You can’t escape. No, Earthling, no. It will kill you.
EARTHLING: Nothing could be worse than this.
MEGLOS: What, a hero and a fool? You’re a very dangerous combination, Earthling.
(Meglos reabsorbs the Earthling)

This is such an interesting idea. Visually it reminds me of the bi-generation.

Meglos has escaped the city and is on his way to Zolfa-Thura and the Doctor and Romans are preparing to leave in pursuit. The Doctor is saying goodbye to Zastor…

DOCTOR: Thank you, Zastor. Come on, Romana, we’re in a hurry.
(One of the Gaztaks lying on the floor isn’t quite dead. He raises his weapon, and Lexa steps forward.)
LEXA: Romana!
(The Gaztak shoots Lexa.)
DOCTOR: She’s dead.
ROMANA: She saved my life.
DOCTOR: Yes, but we’ve got other things to do, other lives to save. Come on.
(Romana picks up K9 and follows the Doctor and Deedrix out, while Zastor and an acolyte kneel by Lexa.)

That was unexpected. At least Lexa got a heroic moment.

The Doctor is on Zolfa-Thura and has been captured by the Gaztaks and imprisoned and pushed inside without ceremony. He straightens up and looks at his cellmate…

DOCTOR: Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?

Finally, Meglos and the Doctor meet. It’s about time! 

Later Romana, Caris and Deetrix break in to rescue the Doctor and grab Meglos…

MEGLOS: You can’t take me.
EARTHLING: Got you this time, Meglos.
(The cactus skin reappears.)
MEGLOS: On the contrary, Earthling, it’s merely you they’ve got.
(A vegetable thing slides out of the figure and slithers out of the hold.)

He’s escaping. Can’t they just squash him or put something over him? 

Zolfa-Thura explodes and the Doctor has had a summons from Gallifrey…

ROMANA: They want us back immediately.
DOCTOR: Gallifrey? Do they, indeed? Well, we’ll see about that when we’ve dropped our friend off home.
EARTHLING: I told the wife I’d be in from work in twenty minutes.
DOCTOR: Well, don’t worry about that. We can get you back before you leave.
EARTHLING: Oh, good.

Happy ending for Tigella but Romana 2 has only one more story.

Conclusion: Five years on from Terror of the Zygons, Season 18 had a whole new production team with producer John Nathan Turner, script editor Christopher H Bidmead and executive producer Barry Letts. So much of the season is pushing boundaries on how the series looks, making it more scientific and serious and creating a herald of the show coming into the 1980’s.

Overall, I liked Meglos more than I thought I would. It’s not perfect but it’s the traditional type of Doctor Who that I remember from watching on the sofa. The Doctor and his companion arrive on a planet Tigella where things are going very wrong and try to help.

I like Tom Baker’s more subdued performance in series 18 to the more comedic elements he brought in the previous two seasons. Tom Baker also plays Zolfa-Thuran Meglos with a fair degree of difference, who is a cactus with a human-looking coat most of the time but with “megalomaniac” tendencies. I can accept the cactus look because the voice manipulation is entertaining. The only disappointing thing was how long it took for what was a minor skirmish when the Doctor and Meglos finally meet. The Doctor doesn’t seem that bothered by the cactus.

There are some interesting ideas. Although it does go on slightly too long before they escape, the time loop in which the Doctor and Romana are captured and which prevents them from getting to Tigella is unexpected. Having the population divided along religious and scientific lines over the Dodecahedron is also an intriguing concept. The appearance of Jacqueline Hill feels like a strange but welcome choice as her character Lexa creates a lot of tension over the Dodecahedron with her powerplays. Her religious fanatism feels consuming and  I did want to see more layers. They killed her character but I wish the writers had spent more time with her rather than imposing the uninspiring pirates the Gaztacs on the audience.

The actors are fine but given so little to do their involvement is dull, to be honest after they have delivered “The Earthling”. Given how long each reprise was at the beginning of each episode I do wonder if the story was underwritten, and I would have liked more development in the characters. It’s a nice touch that the earthling doesn’t have a name and the only interaction is his desire to uncouple from Meglos. I’m sure if it was Russell T Davies writing for him, we’d have had a full backstory of his likes and dislikes.

The smugness of Romana the second is kept to a minimum. I am a Mary Tamm fan, to be honest, so Lalla Ward playing Romana 2 does leave me cold at times. She’s too aloof and acerbic for me whereas Mary Tamm delivered her lines in a slightly different way.  The story is fully studio based which doesn’t do her any acting favours when going through the jungle or then leading the Gaztacs through there. Lalla Ward looks unconvinced. It all looks too brightly lit and I’m not keen on her costume but that’s me showing my shallow side. The story idea is good but sometimes the serial lacks the gloss of some of the other episodes in season 18.

I’ve usually envied those people when I’ve been at a BFI screening who shoot their hand when the host asks who hasn’t seen the story. They are usually richly rewarded with the best stories of a season. Watching Tom Baker again and not knowing these stories was such a fun experience. It was fascinating to see two differing interpretations of the same Doctor partly due to the individual writer’s style and also how Tom Baker was probably feeling. The 4th Doctor in Terror of the Zygons is still new and chasing around the countryside expending physical energy, brooding and s0-so present loving the role.

Meglos sees Tom Baker, in a dual role which spices the story up giving Tom Baker a chance to flex his acting muscles although Meglos isn’t pushed enough as a character. As the Doctor however there is still that fierce intelligence the character always had but he is more seasoned, more of an elder statesman who saunters the universe rather than runs through it. I wouldn’t change it because there is a sense of inevitability over the season as the established crew changes that his time is ending.

Score: 7.5 /10 Tom Baker