Post by Kestrel on Nov 26, 2022 5:35:12 GMT
Jumping in for a few more 4DAs this week, going with the oldest in my backlog: The King of Sontar and The Evil One.
You'll have to pardon me as I rant for a bit here in an attempt to articulate my thoughts. I feel like there ought to be a single, perfectly appropriate word out there to describe stories like this one, but if so it escapes me. "Generic" has a bit of a negative connotation; "boilterplate" seems to indicate adherence to formula; so for now I think I'll just describe it as "padding." By which I don't mean that I disliked this story -- not at all, I found it quite enjoyable -- but rather it doesn't really have any particularly noteworthy elements to commend it: no crucial characterization or development, no particularly interesting themes or compelling big SF ideas... it's just a fun, solid adventure story, and no more than that.
And, of course, not every story needs to be more than that. Padding is, after all, a valid and valuable tool for episodic storytelling.
So, long story short, this was a fun story that rates as a solid 4/5 for me, but isn't one I found particularly memorable and isn't something I'd ever see myself relistening to.
Well, moving on.
My favorite part of this story was (surprise, surprise) Leela. It's not a great Leela story, but it does do an excellent job of demonstrating just why and how Leela deserves her place as one of the all-time best companions. She's immediately separated from the Doctor, quickly encounters a Sontarran "coward" (whom she immediately befriends, was though it was the most natural thing in the world, which is just oerfect) and winds up doing most of the work to thwart the villains' evil plans. Tom Baker gets to have some excellent banter with both the would-be King of Sontar as well as his collaborator (named, of all things, "Risotto") but ultimately his attempts to sabotage things are largely unsuccessful. Essentially, Leela wins the day here single-handedly (and boy oh boy did the Doctor not appreciate it).
Erm, yeah, that last scene where the Doctor lashes out at Leela. I dunno, it just fell kinda flat for me. I'm not sure if it's because the Doctor is criticizing Leela despite relying on her to fix everything, after messing up his own attempts, or if it's because it plays up this interpersonal drama that just... never really existed between these two characters, and therefore can't really go anywhere. This is the same Doctor who would normally watch Leela being barbaric and smile. "She's so delightful!"
Ah well.
Lastly, I am a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see, you know, Sontar. The planet. To really explore Sontarran culture more. That's something I'd love to see in a story someday, and it could've been this one -- but instead we got a generic human space station. I should also mention (and perhaps this is mostly an effect of getting into the fandom via New Who) that it felt pretty weird having Sontarran characters not voice by Dan Starkey. Eventually I got used to it, however. And despite being a fairly one-note villain, I did wind up really liking the King's vocal performance -- it gave the character this sense of weariness that really made the otherwise unremarkable dialog sing a bit. And it definitely made the brief back-and-forth scenes with the Doctor a whole heckuva lot of fun.
Actually, I think I've talked myself into raising this to a 4.5/5 story. It's not a very ambition story, but for what it's trying to be, it's excellent.
You'll have to pardon me as I rant for a bit here in an attempt to articulate my thoughts. I feel like there ought to be a single, perfectly appropriate word out there to describe stories like this one, but if so it escapes me. "Generic" has a bit of a negative connotation; "boilterplate" seems to indicate adherence to formula; so for now I think I'll just describe it as "padding." By which I don't mean that I disliked this story -- not at all, I found it quite enjoyable -- but rather it doesn't really have any particularly noteworthy elements to commend it: no crucial characterization or development, no particularly interesting themes or compelling big SF ideas... it's just a fun, solid adventure story, and no more than that.
And, of course, not every story needs to be more than that. Padding is, after all, a valid and valuable tool for episodic storytelling.
So, long story short, this was a fun story that rates as a solid 4/5 for me, but isn't one I found particularly memorable and isn't something I'd ever see myself relistening to.
Well, moving on.
My favorite part of this story was (surprise, surprise) Leela. It's not a great Leela story, but it does do an excellent job of demonstrating just why and how Leela deserves her place as one of the all-time best companions. She's immediately separated from the Doctor, quickly encounters a Sontarran "coward" (whom she immediately befriends, was though it was the most natural thing in the world, which is just oerfect) and winds up doing most of the work to thwart the villains' evil plans. Tom Baker gets to have some excellent banter with both the would-be King of Sontar as well as his collaborator (named, of all things, "Risotto") but ultimately his attempts to sabotage things are largely unsuccessful. Essentially, Leela wins the day here single-handedly (and boy oh boy did the Doctor not appreciate it).
Erm, yeah, that last scene where the Doctor lashes out at Leela. I dunno, it just fell kinda flat for me. I'm not sure if it's because the Doctor is criticizing Leela despite relying on her to fix everything, after messing up his own attempts, or if it's because it plays up this interpersonal drama that just... never really existed between these two characters, and therefore can't really go anywhere. This is the same Doctor who would normally watch Leela being barbaric and smile. "She's so delightful!"
Ah well.
Lastly, I am a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see, you know, Sontar. The planet. To really explore Sontarran culture more. That's something I'd love to see in a story someday, and it could've been this one -- but instead we got a generic human space station. I should also mention (and perhaps this is mostly an effect of getting into the fandom via New Who) that it felt pretty weird having Sontarran characters not voice by Dan Starkey. Eventually I got used to it, however. And despite being a fairly one-note villain, I did wind up really liking the King's vocal performance -- it gave the character this sense of weariness that really made the otherwise unremarkable dialog sing a bit. And it definitely made the brief back-and-forth scenes with the Doctor a whole heckuva lot of fun.
Actually, I think I've talked myself into raising this to a 4.5/5 story. It's not a very ambition story, but for what it's trying to be, it's excellent.