What do the two Doctor Who stories on DVD today have in common ? On the airfoil , nothing . But they ’re both stories about shelter foreign companionship come into middleman with other alien raceway … with disastrous result . plunderer ahead .
Very few TV shows would be able to get away with record an alien race meeting another exotic race , with nary an Earthling in the mix . But classic Doctor Who did it pretty often , and the fresh serial has done it a few times as well . The two news report on DVD today , “ The Dominators ” and “ Meglos , ” hail from 1968 and 1980 severally , but they both feature a non - human ( but human - looking ) society living in isolation … until the other alien sour up .
And both stories spend a good deal of time sketching out the lodge of the “ friendly ” alien , who do n’t see the scourge of the other alien raceway derive . In the case of “ The Dominators , ” we meet the Dulcians , who are serenity - loving to the point of indolence , take pacificism to sick stature that are apparently intend as a satire on the hippie movement . Except that we get random hints that a few Dulcians hunger excitement and adventure , instead of the serene perfection of Dulcian smart set . In “ Meglos , ” we meet the Tigellans , who are sheltered more literally — they ’ve been living underground for thousands of year , depending on the mysteroius Dodecahedron to power their civilization . And a split has emerged in Tigellan civilization between the Deons , who worship the Dodecahedron as a god , and the Savants , who are scientists and want to study the Dodecahedron .
Honestly , they ’re both examples of the sort of hyper - stylized exotic societies you get on television set , when a show is doing a uppercase - A Allegory about pacificism or science - vs - religion or whatnot . You ca n’t really trust that either of these bon ton would be in real life .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj9ap3_CtcY
Into both isolated societies come an alien forcefulness — in the case of “ The Dominators , ” it ’s the titular Dominators , accompany by their naff little automaton , the Quarks . The Dominators rock some Brobdingnagian shoulderpads — it ’s a sin that we left them out ofour roundup of larger-than-life shoulderpads from science fiction — and mostly swagger about giving orders . In “ Meglos , ” it ’s Meglos , a sorting of sentient cactus who disguises himself as the Doctor so he can steal the Dodecahedron and habituate it to become all powerful by cast it into “ reset mode . ”
https://gizmodo.com/most-epic-shoulderpads-in-the-multiverse-5725739
Neither story is drop dead to lift up on anybody ’s list of the greatest Dr. Who stories of all clip — most of the real greats from the show ’s running game are already on DVD , with just a few notable jewel leave . ( For my money , those admit “ Face of Evil , ” “ Day of the Daleks , ” and “ Planet of the Spiders . ” ) And watching them both again , they both definitely have their own charms . If the BBC ever take around to commit out season boxsets of the classical serial ( especially if they ’re passably priced , which would be overnice ) then these narration will be pleasant little diversions in between the more interesting tales . But on their own , they ’re still pretty entertaining .
“ The Dominators ” is mostly notable for its attempt to change state the Dominators ’ robot servants , the Quarks , into a replacement for the Daleks . The Quarks are cute slight robots , with spiky top dog and boxlike little branch and legs , that can barely move and talk in gratingly squeaky voices . There are really slight boy inside of the Quarks , although the voice come from a grown woman , who spoke very slow and then had her voice sped up and transform . The Quarks are not even remotely in the same league as the Daleks , and when you get a line / see all the DVD supernumerary sing about the attack to call on the Quarks into a Brobdingnagian sensory faculty via comics and toys , you ca n’t avail finger a fleck sad . ( The dispute over who possess the selling rights to the Quarks was so vivid , the writers of “ the Dominators ” never wrote for Doctor Who again . )
But the real grounds to watch over “ The Dominators ” is for the second medico , Patrick Troughton . wanted few of his chronicle be on DVD , and most of the ones which do exist showcase him at the end of his run , when the exhausting tread of cinematography was distinctly set about to get him down . He ’s at his absolute best in “ The Dominators , ” literally go rings around those monumental - shoulder bully . In episode two , the Dominators allot an intelligence test to the Doctor , who dissemble idiocy uproariously , and in later episodes , he compute out the Dominators ’ plan from an compartmentalization of cue , then manages to release it back on them . Troughton is distinctly having playfulness with the function , and brings a lot of scintillation and playfulness to every scene he ’s in .
Also , for most people , this will be the first clip you ’ve ever meet “ The Dominators ” uncut . As with many other account of that epoch , “ The Dominators ” was censored for Australian television , with all the fierce bits thin out out . The version which was record on U.S. television set in the 1980s and 1990s was the cut - for - Australians edition , with every last bit of vehemence sanitized out . The censored parts were go back in the 1990s and edited back in , so this is the pure version at last .
As for “ Meglos , ” it ’s plausibly the weakest of the stories from Tom Baker ’s last time of year — aside from a few cute moments where the cactus impersonates the Doctor and Baker gets to pull out all of the stop of megalomaniac acting , it ’s mostly a pretty sturdy but unremarkable story . One matter that becomes evident if you watch the storey with the informational text caption : “ Meglos ” was running way too inadequate , so the director and script editor padded it out with lots of successiveness that contribute absolutely nothing except for guide clip . ( Lots of being chased , lots of random pantomime business , and lots and lot of the Doctor and Romana being trap in a “ metre loop ” that repeats the same scene over and over again . ) But there are muckle of precious moments here and there , including a nice execution from one of the show ’s first companion , Jacqueline Hill , as the religious leader Lexa .
The DVD extras for “ The Dominators ” are middling bare bones — there ’s the obligatory documentary about the making of the story , in which we con that it was originally theorize to be six episodes instead of five , but the yield faculty thought it was too boring and the allegory was flow categoric . ( And you learn that the Quarks were a nightmare on location , since they could scarcely take the air on grade floors , let alone hillside . ) There ’s a commentary track featuring a bunch of actors plus the make-up designer . And then there ’s a bitty featurette about how the British newspaper react to Patrick Troughton ’s earned run average of Doctor Who .
And the DVD extras for “ Meglos ” are also pretty sparse , particularly by the standards of some of the other Who DVDs — alternatively of the usual making - of documentary film , there ’s a weird matter where the two writers of “ Meglos ” touch up in a train place and talk of the town , somewhat ramblingly , about their narrative . They also go to a parking lot at one head , and then swing by the planetary house of then - script editor Christopher H. Bidmead , who confesses he thought their story was featherbrained :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzmxTLak3QM
And there ’s a documentary about the life and oeuvre of Jacqueline Hill , who made her final Dr. Who appearing in this storey :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzEriKswuoU
And a random five - minute explanation of entropy , which seems more attached to “ Logopolis ” than to “ Meglos . ” Plus the comment track , which does n’t have Tom Baker and is therefore rather sedate .
All in all , neither news report is exactly all-important on DVD , but they each have their own joys — they ’re great examples of the classic serial doing alien worlds and using them to produce weird thought experiment . And both story shows just how much alien macrocosm - build the show ’s yield stave was able to do on a shoestring budget . These are storey that could probably only have been done on Doctor Who , and they ’re fun examples of the classic serial publication at very different point in its history .
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