There are several cases of stories in the classic era of Doctor
Who that do possess a very strong story, but the overall impact and effects of
the story are somewhat hampered by studio lighting and weak effects. The show
obviously couldn’t always help this, what with it being a very tightly budgeted
show made at lightning pace. But there are the cases where despite the
shortcomings, the story itself still manages to be very good indeed. Ao very
good example of this is Nightmare of Eden.
Let’s get over the bad points first. Of course, the lighting
for this story is far too bright. I once went to Longleat when they had one of
the Mandrels on display in near pitch darkness, and in that setting the
Mandrels looked actually highly creepy and menacing. But with stonking light
blazing behind them on screen one can’t help but feel that they look a bit
silly indeed. Not so much when set in the dark jungle in the CET machine, as
the lighting is just in these sections done well. I find it odd that a ship
that has just crashed into another would still have its full lights blazing!
And some of the effects work is not very impressive. Such as
the guard’s guns being about the worst the show ever did, hardly ever coming from
the gun nozzles! But then again there are some superb effects too on display.
One of the finest is the merging of the vessels and the planetary scene right
next to them in space. These scenes actually look extremely impressive, and
another also extremely polished effect is when the ships separate and the
Doctor dissolves. That is a brilliantly realised effect and looks highly
effective.
Tom Baker's infamous "My arms, my legs, my
everything!" scene is clearly the sign of a lead actor just being allowed
to run wild with no control. Not that it is a horrendous scene, but it does
seem to make the Mandrels look even less of a threat than they are clearly
supposed to be. Maybe Tom should have been reigned in a little with this
moment. But these bad parts of the story are the only ones of serious note. The
rest of the well thought out story comes out very strongly.
It is also very relieving to see David Daker being more
restrained in his role as Captain Rigg with this story, when in The Time
Warrior his Irongron is so outrageously over the top. Here he is even at times
very convincing when he has inadvertently taken the Vraxoin drug and is
starting to flip out on the terribly dangerous drug. That his final scene is
one showing him in painful withdrawal, and heading to pound Romana when she
won’t give him any more is an extremely palpable moment. This is a far more
enjoyable performance by David here.
Lewis Fiander is truly wonderfully zany with his unknowable
accent as Tryst. He is highly amusing but the ruthless streak in him is still
present and he comes over as a very devious and untrustworthy fellow. You just
know he is bad one. His final scene with the Doctor where he tries to get him
to speak for his actions and the Doctor just whispers Go Away is a great finale
and an end to Tryst and Dymond's vulgar and despicable plans. The dark
sunglasses just complete his amusingly deviant look!
Geoffery Hinsliff was always a reliable actor, and his Fisk
here is your typical hardnosed bureaucratic policeman, who is wonderfully inept
and stupid. Michael Craze's (Ben Jackson, opposite Pat Troughton’s Doctor)
brother Peter also makes his second appearance in the show as Costa. His
character somehow doesn’t come over as stupid as Fisk!
And one other element that can’t ever be faulted in this era of
the show is the wonderful chemistry between the Doctor and Romana. Tom and
Lalla are just a totally electrical combination, and they bounce off each other
just so perfectly every story they are together. Their pairing was surely a
masterstroke from the series. Even David Brierley isn’t too bad at being a John
Leeson replacement as K9. Together the team of Doc, Romy and K9 are always a
recipe for firm success, even in their weaker written and produced stories!
Amidst all the outlandish characterisation, there are a few
restrained and more believable performances too. Jennifer Lonsdale as Della is
a case in point. She is calm and reserved and Jennifer definitely shines as one
of the better characters of this story. Barry Andrews as Stott too is also
commendable and competent.
The main thrust of the story line of this story is very
pertinent too. To have a show clearly warn children of the harm of drug
addiction is a very bold move and theme for a story. In one way it’s a shame that
the mood of the story line is almost completely offset by some of the poor
realisation and blazing lighting as I have already stated. But one more
extremely effectively achieved moment is when the Mandrel is electrocuted and
crumbles to a powder...and it turns out that this powder is the deadliest drug
in existence. It’s a very clever plot twist, realised well.
What also comes over well is the acting of the people who have
been drugged by the Vraxoin. Of particularly good note is Stephen Jenn as
Secker. He plays the part of a withdrawn drug dependant superbly well, and his
horrific cry in the destabilised zone when attacked by a Mandrel is very well
acted indeed. It’s a shame his character couldn’t have been in the show just a
little longer actually. Scenes of the Mandrels in the destabilised zone too are
another case of the story's much better effects. Being in a hazy and creepy
area.
One comes away from the Nightmare of Eden with the sense that
whilst the story is very commendable and well thought out, that its realisation
is sometimes highly cringe-worthy. But if you can get past the silly lighting
and the somewhat flat set design, you will see there is a lot that is decent
one can take away from the story, particularly its stance on drug taking.
Surely a still hugely relevant message to so many to this very day.
For the fact that season 17 is known as the "Funny"
season where a lot of people say the show got way out of hand with its cheap
humour, Nightmare of Eden is actually scant for OTT humour. Honestly in fact
it's only Tom's aforementioned "My arms" scene that is a little
ridiculous, but nothing much else is to laugh about in this story. It stands,
just for its story merit, as a fitting final script from the brilliant Bob
Baker, this time working solo after he had gone his own way from his former
writing partner Dave Martin. As a farewell gesture to the show it could have
been much, much worse. In fact, Nightmare of Eden is possibly the worthiest
story of season 17 by far for its moral content. So, not the unmitigated
disaster it is often unfairly maligned for being. Far, far from it...
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