5 Comments

The laboratory looks like the set for a daytime quiz show but the real problem is that the raised section creaks when people walk on it. Never mind the wobbling sets, it's the creaking floors that (subliminally) make a show seem cheap.

Expand full comment

The shape of it also forces long takes and a sort of proscenium arch view of the set. None of which help. I used to think you could see McCoy getting the hang of what he’s doing in this story, but a lot of the better stuff was shot earlier than the much derided pratfalls in his second scene.

Expand full comment

Kate O’Mara as Mel is the best thing in this.

Also nice to see Colin in the updated Blu regeneration.

Expand full comment

What could be more 1987 than a leisure centre; other than the score using some of the same noises as the pet shop boys actually, which came out the same day part one was shown.

Expand full comment

“I hadn’t realised that Sylv spends part of this looking like he’s on the cover of Human Nature [the original 1995 novel featuring the 7th Doctor, not the TV version featuring the 10th; I have no idea what I meant by this].”

He wears an academic gown and mortarboard at one in late in part one, like on the cover of Human Nature.

Expand full comment