ckuppe@spock.UUCP (Charles A. Kupperman '87 ) (11/24/85)
Season Review: Season 22 (1985) This season suffered most of all from the 45 minute format that it adopted. The approach to writing a 45 minute episode was suspiciously similar to that of a 25-minute episode. In short: Nothing happens in episode 1 of interest to the plot. And in episode 4, the story gets hastily wrapped up in the last five minutes. The only problem is that this approach does not work as well when applied to the longer format. What the writers ended up with was a very long, drawn-out episode 1, then a very fast, rushed episode 2. In most of these adventures, it takes the Doctor a good 45 minutes to even run into anything resembling a plot. Added to this, the Doctor spends the first twenty or so minutes of each adventure in the Tardis arguing with Peri. This blatant padding is so poorly done that it destroys the whole story. When Peri and the Doctor finally get out of the Tardis, the plot has advanced well beyond the Doctor's ability to get involved. In other words: The script writers keep the Doctor out of the way under the pretext of "developing the plot", but then the plot usually happens quite well without the Doctor, and he never really breaks into it. One fan was watching Revelation of the Daleks, when all of a sudden this strange extra with curly hair came down a corridor. For a few moments, this fan couldn't even remember who the strange extra was. Attack of the Cybermen (2) by Paula Moore (Eric Saward and Matthew Robinson) This rather confused epic was ORIGINALLY written by a Paula Moore, who spent SUCH a long time researching the Cybermen and working the ideas out, then ran out of ideas somewhere in Episode 2. According to Matthew Robinson, the story was then handed over to him and Eric. After a while of brainstorming, the two of them came up with most of the plot. They then sat down and rewrote the whole thing, Saward adding some typical Saward characters, Bates and Stratton, and Robinson contributing some interesting plot ideas. The end result, however, is confused and silly. Lytton is not given much justice as a "villain", and the Doctor looks very silly indeed. To be continued... (Unless anybody objects)