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Post by barnabaslives on Jan 6, 2017 11:28:06 GMT
Originally I became nauseous and depressed when I watched The Happiness Patrol because most of the things in my life had turned to s**t except Doctor Who and now this. Right when the Kandyman's big stupid face first appeared, it was, I thought I was going to be ill. The last light in the heavens had gone out. To paraphrase Caesar, "Who tu, Doctor?" (On a happier note, I continued to watch and enjoy the series until the end and now here it is more years later than I wish to number and Doctor Who is bombastically better than ever).
A shame really, the "happy or die" premise is a great one and a brave one as well and I'm sure the story has a number of good points, but the premise that sociopathic tyrant Helen A is going to get a free pass from a Galactic Penal Colony by wearing pink slippers and pouting in The Doctor's general direction asks a little too much of me, it's as if The Doctor himself falls for the candy-coating that he just spent the story peeling away.
I try to make peace with the story (maybe someday), but the sense of The Doctor's nonchalance with Helen A (or with Klein's participation in a Galactic Reich) still feels very uncomfortably uncharacteristic to me, I feel more like he should be stomping on his hat and screaming, "You did WHAT?!?!" :-)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2017 12:34:02 GMT
We'll have to differ. For me, The Kandyman appeared and my grimace was itself cringing. I was drowning in lameness. The whole episode seemed to absurd to me. It's a shame about the Kandyman as the original plans for him are quite creepy. Originally he was appeared a man with really pale skin (from all the kandy) and that might have made his scenes better. I can't remember where I read that or who was responsible for the change. Ooh, sort of like a confectionary Nosferatu. That reminds me of the trolley with the human head that the Gravis was supposed to use to communicate with the Doctor from Frontios. It was cut because the director Ron Jones thought it was too grotesque and difficult to realise. Christopher H. Bidmead's description of the mining machine in the novelisation is pretty chilling too, made from the bone and gristle of the colonists dragged beneath the ground. It would've been at the top of my list of things to reintroduce with the Tractators if we ever saw them again. Mmm, there's a lot to like about it. There's this almost German Impressionist style to the sets that keeps you off-balance, the Kandyman is a delightfully horrific creation and the scene on the balcony with the assassin is absolutely mesmerising. The BBC YouTube channel has it has "The Doctor's Mind Power", but I think it's something a lot more simple and clever than that. The assassin's a coward, he's dehumanised his targets to the point that when the Doctor is standing right in front of him, he can't do it. No mind magic necessary. Given its style, it almost makes you wonder if it was done to show that the pantomine-schtick of Season 24 could be done proberly, like Happiness was an apology for Paradise Towers. Yeah, it and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy both feel like an attempt to prove that these kinds of stories could be done well given a stable production office and a bit of time on the ground. Cartmel was a very decent script editor, but the sheer deluge of anarchy on the show during Season 24 would have left anyone bewildered.
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