Teeth and Curls: Unbelievably this is a story that has Tom
Baker's Doctor possessed by an evil gaseous entity and doesn't do anything
remotely chilling with it. Beyond the shock factor of the Doctor being taken
over (which is rather spoilt by the cover) it merely seems to result in Baker
droning out his dialogue like a roboman straight out of Dalek Invasion of Earth.
I would have given him carte blanche to really go for it and growl out his
dialogue but instead Briggs seems content to rein him in. Given how genuinely
frightened Colin Baker played his fear of the Eminence in The Seeds of War I
was expecting something a little more than this. Wouldn't it be dramatically
more satisfying if the Doctor committed unspeakable acts under the influence?
Instead he is just pretending to be under their spell so he can get close and
affect their defeat. How...obvious.
Noble Savage: Leela is perfectly convinced that the TARDIS
never lands where the Doctor thinks it is going to. Given that she is from a
human colony herself, it is rather sweet that the Doctor has brought to Leela
to one of her races most successful examples. It's a chance for her to bask in
the glory of what humanity can achieve. Leela can sense war even before the
shots are fired. Is it wrong to celebrate a victory? Leela wants to bask in the
defeat of the Eminence but the Doctor's forlorn attitude reminds her that good
people have died. Her conscience is developing.
Standout Performance: This is an astonishing cast featuring
Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Michael Fenton-Stevens, Clive Mantle and Ian
Hallard...none of whom are remotely challenged by the hollow characters they
are inhabiting. Hallard probably makes the most impact because he gets to play
his 'what-ho, old bean' Biggles character to the hilt.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'What can be so powerful that it makes a
man forget the people that he loves?'
'Sometimes I think you humans take to war with a little too
much vigour.'
Great Ideas: Can you think of an opening that screams of
Doctor Who more than the one that kick starts Destroy the Infinite? A
subordinate being called before his almighty rulers, being praised for his good
work and then tortured out of recognition as he becomes an Infinite Warrior.
There are shades of Timelash, The Sun Makers, The Krotons...an innocent member
of this planet being summoned against his will. A planet of unnatural clouds, burdened
by heavy industrial pollution. People say the Eminence has no physical form,
that it travels as an orange mist in caskets that appear from nowhere. People
have started to think of them as Gods or demons. Many life forms have evolved
into gaseous states (if the Doctor is to be believed in Utopia then the human
race suffered that fate at some point in its future). The Doctor saw terrible
visions of the future when he was at one with the Eminence, visions of entire
galaxies consumed by the Eminence.
Audio Landscape: Marching jackboots, rain lashing, shots
fired, glass crashing, electricity crackling, mine workings, alarms, bullets
bouncing, going up a hatchway, a ship screaming in the sky, cocking guns,
bleeping scanners, explosions, applause.
Musical Cues: More wonderful music courtesy of Jamie
Robertson. His soundtracks are absolutely one of the highlights of the range.
Isn't it Odd: It is strange to return to a point where the
Doctor hasn't met the Eminence before given that as an audience we have already
seen the sixth (The Seeds of War) and eighth (Dark Eyes II) Doctors come up
against them. Rather than play this as a story where Briggs acknowledges that
this might be where the Doctor first meets them but we already understand their
raison d'etre this is played as if we have no knowledge of the Eminence at all.
It feels like a debut for the race all over again. It might feel authentic to
tell a story of conflict through the eyes of a handful of people given what
Doctor Who's resources were like at the time...but didn't we just do that last
month with Last of the Colophon? This is definitely a case of poor
juxtaposition and Destroy the Infinite comes off worse as a result because
Briggs doesn't quite have Morris' excellent ability to capture characters with
a few lines, there is relatively little humour or personality to this bunch on
Delafoss. Tillegat is a thankless role, a character constructed out of pure
cardboard (or should that read plot convenience) and killed before we get to
know a single thing about him. How can we care about these people if we haven't
been given the chance to get to know them? Isn't it bizarre how a war on an
alien planet can be staged to appear to be a direct riff on the Second World
War complete with stalwart upper class soldiers and military generals? Wouldn't
you go for something a little more alien than this? Defeat of the Eminence is
effortless...are they really a credible threat?
Standout Scene: When the Eminence tell the Doctor that he is
the same as them are they letting on more than we are aware of? Are they
somehow linked to the Time Lords? Are they the Time Lords in the far flung
future? Watch this space...
Result: War, possession, gaseous entities...how many clichés can you pack into one
Doctor Who story? I think it is a little unfair on the era that this story is
supposed to be aping to suggest that Destroy the Infinite is merely going for
the nostalgia jugular. It's something that I have heard a lot lately with
regards to the 4DAs (especially in my own reviews) and I think it is worth
remembering that the Hinchcliffe/Williams eras are some of the most innovative
and imaginative periods of the show. Certainly there was nothing that
surrendered quite as much to formula as The Evil One or Destroy the Infinite.
The producers would simply not allow anything this predictable to screen. What
Briggs is doing it pulling a number of Doctor Who clichés out of the bag
(Master + companion gone bad, war + possession) and applying them to the bare
bones of a narrative and injecting it with a sense of adventure. Superficially
fun but the merely the essence of a Doctor Who story rather than a substantial one.
Destroy the Infinite feels like one long action set piece rather than a plot
that has been well thought-out and given they are as blankly characterised as
the guest cast this story could pretty much feature any Doctor/companion
combination. The Doctor and Leela could easily be excised and the third Doctor
and Jo or the sixth Doctor and Peri slipped in. I'm not saying that every piece
should be uniquely carved to a particular set of regulars (although some more
the of the probing of this pair would be welcome after flirting with the idea
in The Heroes of Sontar/White Ghosts) but they should never be this throwaway.
This is passable filler (I seem to keep saying that about Nick Briggs' 4DAs,
easily the most expendable stories of the range because they never attempt to
think outside the box) but as an Eminence story The Seeds of War was more
intriguingly structured and detailed (with a stronger cast of characters) and
Time's Horizon in the Dark Eyes II box set was much more frightening. I had no
problem listening to Destroy the Infinite but I wont pretend it challenged me
for a moment. Listening to a 'written and directed by Nick Briggs' story at the
moment is like enjoying a Chinese buffet; instantly fairly gratifying but you
will have forgotten all about it within five minutes and never be able to
distinguish it from the other meals you've had for the rest of your natural.
Sometimes it's nice to chow down on something memorable: 5/10
1 comment:
This should have been Big Finish's "Best of Both Worlds", but was instead a rushed script.
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