“Do you feel like arguing with a can of
deodorant that registers nine on the Richter’s scale?!!”
Now let’s get the infamous
out of the way at the beginning with this story. One cannot help but be baffled
by the cliffhanger to part one. The Seventh Doctor for no readily apparent
reason choosing to hang from his umbrella from a high perilous frosty slope is
an image that one most certainly remembers well from this story. It’s just
totally weird and inexplicable and for this reason does strikingly mar what is
otherwise a solid and entertaining story. It must go down as the worst
cliffhanger of the classic era, because there is absolutely no reason given in
the script as to why the Doctor does this. Is it indicative of the chaos
happening behind the scenes? Maybe. But one wonders how a flaw as big as this
can be allowed to be placed in the story so bizarrely. Perhaps the only good
thing about this scene is the absolutely incredible amount of facial
expressions we get from Sylvester as his hands slide down the umbrella to its
tip! Right that’s the major quibble out of the way, now let’s get back to the
good points of the story.
Sophie Aldred gets her
memorable debut as Ace McShane. And what an indelible and immediate impression
she makes. Her verbal slanging matches with Sabalom Glitz throughout the story
are a treasure and comedic delight. Male chauvinist bilgebag being the prime
example of her wonderful language. Grade A hundred Percent Div is high up on
the scale too. But despite her nitro nine cans and her sometimes loud mouth, we
do get the glimpses of her true, insecure and unsure self. Sophie showcases just
how fine an actress she is in that she is a young teenager in Ace, but yeah,
she has a massive heart in there. Its clear from her debut scene that here is
the next companion! And what a brilliant companion she turned out to be.
It is also a delight to
see Tony Selby return as intergalactic Del Boy Sabalom Glitz. For once the
production office saw some good potential in an awesome character and brought
him back again, and he’s just as good the second time round. Perhaps it’s a bit
of a shame that he isn’t assisted by Dibber this time, but I suppose one cannot
have everything ever! But Tony is a brilliant actor and gives a brilliant
performance and totally makes Glitz his own. Honestly, I think there is severe
potential in the character and I can’t believe Big Finish have never thought of
a spin off with Glitz and Dibber. That would be such a laugh.
Edward Peel is
delightfully nasty and vicious as the unhinged Kane. He gives his character
such a zeal and vein of cold evil and he is nothing less than a constant
delight to watch on screen. And Kane’s melting faced ending is a superbly
achieved effect for the makeup team. It’s very very unpleasant and striking for
all the right reasons.
Patricia Quinn as Belasz
is one of my favourite characters of the McCoy era. Patricia is such a fine
actress, and she gives all she has in giving the best performance as the
unsatisfied Belasz. One is almost saddened to see her so easily defeated and
killed by Kane. But her character drives the show for two episodes. Her scenes
with Tony Osoba’s Kracauer are nicely performed and never less than totally
convincing.
Shirin Taylor must be
given a mention too. Her affronted customer display with Ace is brilliant and a
wonderfully comic moment in the story. But even more charming is the delightful
Miranda Borman as Stellar. She is hands down my favourite character in this
story. She doesn’t feel like a tacked-on character even though she isn’t
integral to the main plot thrust of the story. But in her sparkly little blue
dress and her totally innocent voice she is wonderful to watch.
The design of the Dragon
itself is a triumph. I can’t help but think that this wonderful Dragon Jailer
design was used as the basis for the aliens in Independence Day, as they don’t
half bear a very close resemblance to it. Some superb design work was displayed
during the McCoy era and that’s no lie. Mind you it’s pretty obvious in this
story that the snow is just little blobs of polystyrene, sadly no attempt is
made to mask its distinctive sound so it rather mars the effect somewhat. But
one can’t expect £1,000,000,000 stuff from a tightly budgeted TV show.
Some of the directorial
decisions in this story too seem a bit skew-wiff at times too. Such as when Mel
and Ace are trying to escape from Glitz’s frosty crew and come to the stairs,
we’re meant to believe that Mel trips onto the stairs and is stunned but it
looks more like Bonnie Langford sits on the stairs and just moans from where
I’m watching. Then there is the scene of the not even a drip of coffee that Ace
hands to Mel which is cringingly poorly done.
Dragonfire is often
derided and jeered at and I’ve often seen it stated as one of the worst stories
from the whole history of the show. I am not sure it’s quite as bad as all
that, but this is certainly, at least from my viewpoint, the weakest story of
the McCoy era. But it does have a lot to recommend in it as I have already
stated. This story could still stand head and shoulders over a sizeable chunk
of the modern era of the show. At least aside from the aforementioned
dumbfounded cliffhanger to part one, and a few iffy directorial slants, there
is a whole lot of good on show.
The goodbye to Mel as a
companion seems just a little too rushed and easy too for my liking. Although
there is some nice dialogue given to the Doctor in this scene. And his grin
towards Ace as she joins him on his travels is wonderful and just bodes well
for the future. Dragonfire has a few faults along the way, but it’s not an out
and out disaster of a story. It’s never going to be an out and out classic, but
as an introduction for Ace things could have been a lot lot worse.
Ace would still go on to
become one of the most fondly remembered companions of the classic era, so it
is only fair that Dragonfire gets a mention. After all, it is her debut story.
The first of many more to come.
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