4.21: The Sun Makers

In which the writer is furious to receive a tax bill.

Broadcast: November-December 1977

Watched: July 2020

The Sun Makers, Part One

Sorry [name of furious friend who absolutely loathes this one because he thinks it’s Tory propaganda redacted], I like this one. I’m a sucker for silly satire in Who. What this reminds me of, watching it now, is Kerblam! Might be right-wing, deliberately or by accident, but is so much fun so I don’t really care. 

For what it’s worth, though, I don’t think it’s really “about” tax. I think it’s generically about an exploitative society. Calling it tax (and the Healey eyebrows, though we’ve not got there yet) is just the desktop theme.

I like all the ideas – Pluto, the fake suns, the anarchists in the dark, etc etc. Starting with Cordo being relieved his dad is dead, and talking to a disembodied face in a high up window, sets the tone nicely.

Did Michael Keating do this before he was Vila in Blake’s 7? (When I saw bits of this on UK Gold as a kid I got mixed up and briefly believed he played Cordo, rather than random rebel number 4.)

K9 calls the stuff about Cassius a bit wrong. There are so many Pluto-sized objects in the outer solar system now that they demoted it from planet status. [There’s a whole essay about this in my book, The Compendium of Not Quite Everything! Sign up to my proper newsletter for a year and I’ll send you a free copy.]

The bit where we’re meant to be impressed by the view of the city is ruined slightly by the fact the view is rubbish.

The Sun Makers, Part Two

“If we take the P45 return route they’ll never expect to find us there.”

Mandrel is basically an evil Blake [again, from the BBC’s more grown-up – citation needed – scifi show, to which writer Robert Holmes was soon to be contributing]. I’d forgotten that the anarchists were all utter dicks. I like the scene in which only Cordo will help Leela rescue the Doctor. I also quite like the cliffhanger – the image of Tom passing out in a box full of gas. 

Bisham, the thought occurs, is another version of a character we see surprisingly often in Who – a cheery fellow prisoner who will cheerily explain to the Doctor where he is and how they’re going to kill him. It’s almost a cliche at this point.

Huh, on googling I learn that Cordo was in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Unexpected.

The Sun Makers, Part Three

“Your concern is noted. Please do not embarrass me.”

I watched this last night and one of my notes just reads, “Tom smiles”. Does he smirk about something inappropriate at some point? He’s starting to do that more. This may or may not suggest he’s had a drink before rfilming.

I also have “Keating acting”. I think that’s because he’s quite good in this and you can see why B7 cast him, but who knows, maybe he sucks.

Leela and K9 gleefully kill some henchmen and then run their corpses over for an encore. This becomes even more problematic when you find out that humanity is being manipulated. Bit odd.

The fact the Collector has heard of the Time Lords is also a bit odd. Though it does make sense when we get to the final twist. Leela hanging from a thread at an angle from a wall is also weird. 

The revolution seems to start a bit too easily.

The Sun Makers, Part Four

“Why don’t you girls listen to me?”

Also, “Don’t you think commercial imperialism is as bad as military conquest?” as if they’re different things.

Anyway. Very not sure of that ending. The revolution is too easy, and also gleefully, uncomfortably violent (which is probably in keeping with revolutions generally): it feels strange to play the fate of the Gatherer, thrown off a roof for his crimes, for laughs. More to the point, I don’t like that it turns out to be aliens – feels like a cop out, when humanity is more than capable of exhausting its own resources and exploiting itself. 

Other things: there’s something quite Whitaker science about this, the way it goes something something drugs in the air something death by steamer something. Also there’s something very odd going on with the guest cast’s height, with Bishar looking really tall, but actually turning out to be the Doctor’s height, so in fact it’s just that everyone else is really short.

Still don’t agree it’s anti-semitic though. A Jewish actor playing the villain isn’t enough.

[Two days pass] “Usurians”! I just got that. That’s another reason [redacted] thinks it’s anti-semitic isn’t it. Hmmm.