The mannys seem to change their minds and capture Liz instead of killing her (as the cliffhanger seemed to indicate was their intention). Liz is taken to Regan's base.
Carrington is convinced the baddys are "foreign agents, with enormous resources behind them" but the Doctor is not so sure, especially since everything Carrington says makes him sound increasingly like a Columbo murderer trying to get the Doctor and the Brigadier to believe his prepared story.
Lennox helps Liz escape from Regan's base. I think the incidental music is trying to help her as well, it certainly sounds like it's on her side.
In Liz's absence the Doctor works with Taltalian in trying to decode the alien message, but doesn't trust him because he thinks Taltalian might be working for the real baddys.
He's soon shown to be right, because Taltalian goes straight to Regan's base, pausing only to capture Liz (again) on the way. Regan and Taltalian argue, and it seems that not only do they not trust one another, but also neither of them is totally in charge of the other - we still don't know who is top cat in their organisation.
Regan gives Taltalian a bomb
to blow up the Doctor with, but he secretly changes the countdown timer to try and blow up Taltalian as well.
Professor Cornish can't get any more astronauts to go into space to rescue the other astronauts. I can't tell if this is because of interference by the baddys or because they are worried they might all get Tintin-Planned. I find it hard to believe that cats or doggys would refuse the chance to go into space, maybe Professor Cornish forgot to ask them? The Doctor volunteers, saying
"I've spent more time in space than any astronaut on your staff. Not, I'll admit, in the rather primitive contraptions that you use, but I'll manage."
Taltalian comes in, and he is so nervous about the bomb that he gives himself away. But when the bomb explodes right away it kills only him and not the Doctor - this scene is a clever subversion of our expectation that there would be a classic Terry Nation-style countdown that the Doctor would stop in the nick of time, as good as that would have been.
Carrington and Sir James plot together. They still know a secret truth that they're not telling anybody else about - Sir James wants to tell the Doctor, but Carrington talks him out of it for the moment. This resembles the way Dr Quinn and Miss Dawson conspired together in Doctor Who and the Silurians, which is not in itself a bad thing, but that was only the previous story.
Regan gets Liz to show him how to use the remote control for the aliens that Taltalian gave him.
Regan makes one of the aliens walk up to a UNIT soldier, who shoots at it repeatedly. This is so stylishly directed that it almost makes you overlook how stupid the UNIT manny is acting. The alien electrics him and then carries on walking until it gets into the computer room studio where it electrics some more mannys.
Sir James telephones the Doctor to ask him to come and visit him so that he can tell him "the whole truth," but before the Doctor and the Brigadier can get there...
...an alien comes in and electrics Sir James too. It then electrics the safe and the things that were inside it. The Doctor comes in and sees Sir James, but he doesn't see the alien because it is behind the door. Curiously he doesn't hear the loud hissing sound effect it makes either.
The alien closes the door - I think this remote control that Regan has must be similar to the one that Dr McCoy had in Spock's Brain since it allows for an amazingly fine level of control - then it sneaks up on the Doctor from behind.
While this creates an iconic image for the cliffhanger, the Doctor does have to maintain that pose for rather a long time - he must be having trouble listening for Sir James's heartbeat over all the noise the alien is making.
No comments:
Post a Comment