Reviewed by Guy Clapperton
Stars Tom Baker, Elizabeth Sladen, Gareth Armstrong, Tim Pigott-Smith | Written by Louis Marks
UK certification PG | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 99 minutes | Directed by Rodney Bennett
OK, bad points first. This was made in the 1970s on a budget and in places it looks like it. The early scenes inside the TARDIS – good though the makeover is (dropped after a single season unfortunately because the set warped in storage) – are marred by the outer space bits which are pretty obviously done by means of some liquid going down a plughole.
But that’s OK. The audience of the day didn’t need everything spelled out for them; we knew damned well it wasn’t actually filmed in space, so the suggestion that it was alien was fine, cheap or otherwise. And anyway, they’d spent the money so wisely elsewhere. The Doctor and Sarah Jane land in 15th century Italy, here represented by Portmeirion, after a brief diversion in space. The bring something nasty and deadly, with them. The sf element is the presence of the Mandragora Helix energy, which remains resolutely low budget, but this doesn’t matter as a ball of energy would probably not look that expensive or spectacular anyway. Beyond the first scenes this story benefits from a load of location filming and the sort of period drama flair for which the BBC was and is justly renowned.
Oh, and the characters. There are machinations, superstitions, power games, and a young idealist all well established by the time the travelers arrive. These are all played and directed by people who understand that the way to make this sort of show is to play it utterly straight. Nobody is less than convincing, least of all the two leads. Viewers of the modern series will be delighted to see Sarah Jane Smith in even better form than in her current programmes. Her badinage with the Doctor doesn’t feel forced, it’s one of the most solid friendships on TV, ever; the body language is just right, these people are best mates. They know each other well, and share awkward as well as relaxed moments – when she tells the Doctor his jokes get worse the more dangerous the situation is, they both know immediately that this was the one thing she’s never supposed to say.
Tom Baker, meanwhile, has yet to resort to the constant silliness of his later years. He’s a cauldron always threatening to bubble over but never quite doing so. It’s a nervous, agitated performance; he’s always doing something, never content just to stand and recite a line, this time in a perfectly written and pitched script. You can well imagine the young David Tennant being inspired to act by such a performance. The supports are good. A young Tim Piggot-Smith is Marco, an earnest young innocent, but Norman Jones as high priest Heironymous steals just about every scene he’s in from under the noses of the other actors. Everyone is perfectly pitched in this, a memorable story from a series enjoying one of its periodic highs.
EXTRAS ★★ PDFs of the Radio Times listings, documentary on the making of the show, flippant look at the 1970s in which it was made, mini-feature on the changing TARDIS console design