Month: June 2016

Orphan Black Season 4, Episode 10 Recap: Die Hard, or Maybe Just Get Maimed

Not only is this episode, “From Dancing Mice to Psychopaths,” the season finale, it’s the finale to the penultimate season! BBC America announced that Season 5 would be the series’ last, and I’m glad for that. Don’t get me wrong – I love this show! – but there are times during Season 4 where c0-Brain Mike and I wondered if this series was going to start meandering without any sort of endgame in sight. And lo & behold, we have it! We know now that it’ll have: a really NASTY villain; a mysterious puppetmaster who’s possibly immortal (!); and probably a major death or three. Because let me tell you, Season 4 ends on a dark note.

But before that – hey look! Ferdinand’s back! A little poorer (OK, a lot poorer) but not dispirited, he reawakens Rachel’s lust for power via some S&M and bondage. (Somehow, this motivational trend hasn’t yet made the cover of Fast Company.) Now that Evil Cho is out of the way – permanently (death by maggot-bot!) – Rachel drops any pretense of working with Sarah and the rest of Clone Club. She wants Neolution, and she’ll betray anyone to get it. Speaking of betrayal…

Over on the Island of Lost Clones, Mommie Dearest Susan locks up Cosima after their attempt to create new Leda/Castor stem cells succeeds tremendously. For Susan, the search for the cure is important – but not as important as seizing power by restarting the cloning project. Like Rachel, Susan sees an opportunity to pull Neolution back onto the path of cloning supremacy. Unfortunately for Susan, she doesn’t have Rachel’s ruthlessness and self-hatred – and boy, is THAT a wild combo of bad traits! Spitting like Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator, Rachel (a clone herself, mind you) tells Neolution’s board that the testing of clones will not only resume – she intends to push the White Rat metaphor to its nastiest extreme, stripping the new clones of all rights and keeping them locked up. OHHHH, SHE’S CRAZY.

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And yes, her bionic eye is still giving her David Lynch Vision – which leads to one of several references in this episode to Neolution’s founder, P.T. Westmoreland, who literally wrote the book (he did! He wrote a book!) on Neolution and genetic theory about 100 years ago. Susan had suggested that Westmoreland himself developed Rachel’s eye, but how could that be if the guy lived decades ago…?

In any event, Sarah and Mrs. S are in the dark about Rachel’s motives until a visit by clone beautician Krystal (and subsequent impersonation of Krystal by Sarah) gives them a chance to quiz new Brightborn big-wig Dr. Van Lier. They realize what Rachel and Susan are up to, and Sarah strong-arms Castor clone Ira into summoning a helicopter to take her to the Island of Lost Clones, where she intends to bring Cosima back, Die Hard style. Yeahhhhhh, about that….

Wednesday Charlotte gets an increasingly ill Cosima out of the locked room and says they have to get to the boat. First, though, they happen to see Rachel viciously stab Susan! Holy Matricide, Batman! Wednesday Charlotte is going to need therapy for that. They quickly leave the house, but a) they’re not sure where they’re going, b) it’s dark and really, really cold, and c) by leaving, they miss bumping into Sarah!

Sarah’s Bruce Willis impersonation lasts about as long as my brain cells during Live Free or Die Hard. She finds a badly injured but still alive Susan, and Rachel takes advantage of her distraction to beat the crap out of Sarah with her cane, stab her in the knee (!), and grab her gun. This would’ve been 30 seconds in a Die Hard film, but it’s understandably traumatic enough to send our hero Sarah scrambling for her life!

Sarah calls Mrs. S for help, but whoops, Ferdinand is already in the Rabbit Hole safe house, keeping an eye (and his gunsights) on both S and Kira. Rachel outmaneuvered Clone Club big time in this episode. The only tiny bright spot is the return of Delphine! Creepy Uncle Joe from Rachel’s visions shows up to save Cosima and Charlotte, and he brings them to — a homeless camp on the Island? With medical equipment? And ominous glances from other bearded people? Where is this, Mulholland Drive? Fortunately, Dr. Delphine brings Cosima back from the brink with her, um, bedside manner.

The season ends with Rachel, now firmly in power, about to have her first audience with … P.T. Westmoreland. Yes, he’s alive! Maybe. Could he be cloning himself over the decades and transferring his memories, ensuring his immortality? Or is a fakeout?

The Good:

It’s great to see Rachel as a villain again. Let’s give the writers credit for slowly building her back up over the course of two years. She’s now very much aware what defeat and humiliation taste like, which makes her deadlier than ever.

I’ve mentioned several times that I’m sick of the Castor clones, but I’ll make an exception if we can get a spinoff featuring Ira, Rachel, and Ferdinand. “Is he wearing socks?”

The Hendrixes hiding out in the woods with Grizzly Helena: Alas, Alison “has the shits.”

Krystal refuses to believe that she has any resemblance to Sarah. Brilliant.

I love it when a clone impersonates another clone. It somehow makes Tatiana Maslany even more amazing.

The Bad:

NOOOOOO, not another “Man Behind the Curtain” trope! Geez McGee, I thought we were done with that after Lost. I don’t mind the concept of an immortal mastermind, but this episode gives us the intro and the payoff in the same hour. No setup. It’s a little too Deathly Hallows-ish.

The WTF:

Why in the world does Sarah go solo to the Island of Lost Clones, when she already knows it’s a hostile situation? It’s crazy. She could’ve left Kira with Felix. There’s no reason for her NOT to have taken Mrs. S with her, since this is the type of situation that S excels in. That’s just, well, dumb.

Next:

That’s it for this year’s recaps, but stay tuned! Mike and I will soon mingle brain cells and discuss our final thoughts on Orphan Black Season 4.

–Ken

Orphan Black Season 4, Episode 9 Recap: A Game of Clones

Oh, Evil Cho. Sigh. You really thought you were going to come out ahead of Clone Club that easily? One episode of triumphant glory, and … pfffftttt. Already kicked to the curb. Then again, it could be worse – at least it wasn’t Helena doing the kicking.

Anyway … onto the recap!

We begin with more weird visions. Rachel’s bionic eye is still glitching – not only is she still seeing digital visions of a swan, she’s now apparently tapped into a video feed of The Others’ winter resort on Lost. Seriously, if Hurley was sitting by a fire, it wouldn’t be all that surprising. Rachel’s visions get interrupted by Ira, who lets her know that they have visitors – Sarah and Felix, who want to talk about getting rid of Evil Cho. The meeting’s not exactly cordial. “Scarcely believed it, a Castor who favors slacks,” snarks Felix as they all gather, which pretty much sets the tone of the meeting.

Turns out that while BrightBorn (and Evil Cho) have Big Plans for going global, there’s a couple of inconvenient hiccups happening there. Two of the surrogate mothers there, rightly creeped out by what’s happening, decided to split and have gone rogue. One of them also took a video of doctors at BrightBorn euthanizing one of the Eraserhead babies and is threating to go public with it. Rachel wants to find the rogue mothers and have them spill their story to the press, along with the video. And they need to do so before Evil Cho and her minions find them first. Sarah and Felix are down with the plan, but they don’t want any further assistance from Rachel and Ira. Rachel agrees. Rachel’s also a liar.

Meanwhile, Donnie’s out on bail, and apparently all he can think about now that he’s a free man is getting laid. “I’ll make you see God,” Donnie so tastefully says to Alison. Ewwwwwwww. Donnie, we love you, but it’s not like you were doing solitary in Attica for the last twenty years. It was a weekend. Settle down. Mercifully, they meet with their attorney – Felix’s bio-sister Adele – before getting it on, and Adele’s already figured out that there’s plenty they aren’t telling her. Felix shows up to do some damage control, but by the time they’re confidently proclaiming that Dead Darkwing Duko is “on leave” and nothing to worry about, Adele’s had enough.

With Felix at the Hendrixes, Sarah enlists Art’s help in tracking down the BrightBorn mothers. One’s easy to find – she “committed suicide” at a halfway house. Art looks into it, and can tell pretty fast that it was a “forcibly assisted by Neolution goons” suicide. While he’s doing that, Sarah gets a call from Helena. Yay! Helena’s been slaughtering deer and roughing it in the wild, but she’s okay. Helena wants to know if her sestras are okay. Sarah says things are about the same as usual. Helena knows what that means.

Over at the Island of Misfit Clones, Cosima’s busy fertilizing Sarah’s eggs with Ira’s sperm with Susan Duncan’s help. Ewwwwwwwww, even if it’s scientifically necessary. While they wait for the tissue samples to reach zygote status, Susan gives Cosima the dusty Ye Olde Ancient History of Neolution to read. She does, with some interest. “It’s fascinating, for something written by a racist blowhard who thinks poverty is genetic,” Cosima says. Susan, surprisingly, takes this in stride. They discuss ethics some more, and it’s interesting to see that they’re able to see each other’s points of view. It’s also interesting to see Susan’s attitude towards Cosima – she gives Cosima a lot more respect than Rachel, even though Rachel’s ostensibly on the Neolution side.

Back to Sarah and Art. Doing some police posing as Beth, Sarah gets a lead on the remaining on-the-lam BrightBorn mother. They track her down to a ramshackle house in the little town of Tisdale – she’s given birth to her BrightBorn baby, who’s blind and would probably be on Evil Cho’s euthanization list if she hadn’t run. Art and Sarah tell her that she needs to come forward with her story. She doesn’t want to – she’s afraid of what might happen to her other child, a 10-year old boy. Sarah relays this to Rachel, who pretty much says blackmail her into doing what they want. Sarah refuses. Rachel’s not happy.

Not happy with Donnie and Alison’s lack of answers, Adele starts demanding them from Felix. He does a decent job of dancing around her questions, but when Helena suddenly shows up … awkward. “This is Sarah’s other twin?” Adele asks. “Who comes from a different country?” Hah! Her reason for being on the show might not make sense, but Adele’s still awesome. Helena and Adele get into it a little, and Felix needs to break things up before he admits the truth to Adele – or at least a small slice of it, anyway. “Adele, you are so beautifully unsullied by all this shit, and I’m not going to be the one who ruins that for you,” he says. Reluctantly, Adele realizes that it’s probably best if she extricates herself from the Clone Club drama, and she does. It’s a great scene.

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Sarah and Art are still with BrightBorn Mom. She hasn’t changed her mind about going public. When Neolution goons show up with guns, though, that makes her a little more inclined to change her mind. Also encouraging her is a surreptitious phone call from Ira – surprise – who’s waiting outside in a car to rescue her and her baby. Oh, and by the way, if she doesn’t come along? Bad news for her 10-year old son. While Sarah and Art deal with the goons, she makes the prudent choice and escapes with Ira. To say Sarah’s pissed is an understatement.

Donnie and Alison – after some fairly unspectacular Donnie-coitus that probably didn’t leave poor Alison seeing God, as promised – decide that going on the lam for a while might be a good idea. (AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH. NOT A GOOD IDEA, DONNIE AND ALISON.) They start to pack. A Neolution goon shows up, and ties up Donnie. He tells Alison that he’ll stick a glitchy maggot-bot in her cheek unless she tells him where Sarah is, and what happened to Darkwing Duko. She refuses, and starts to pray. She’s a moment away from getting a cheek full of maggot-bot when Helena shows up and SHOOTS A FREAKING ARROW INTO NEOLUTION GOON’S NECK. Holy shit, that was awesome. “Where did you come from?” an astonished – and bloodspattered – Alison askes. “Beaver Falls National Park,” Helena replies. “Very peaceful.”

Evil Cho’s about to have her YUGE press conference announcing her Big Plans for BrightBorn. Rachel shows up. She tells Evil Cho that she still wants in with Neolution, and offers her the euthanization video and the remaining rogue mom. Evil Cho accepts. And then, in a moment that defies all logic, Rachel asks Evil Cho to reveal and admit to her evil plan … and she does it. No hesitation, she starts monologuing in all her glory. Of course, the pendant around Rachel’s neck is a video camera recording said monologuing … and the moment Evil Cho leaves to start the press conference, Rachel and Ira are busy sending the videoed confession – and the euthanization video – to every reporter at the press conference.

Bad move, Evil Cho. Bad move. Rachel played you. Like a fiddle. Which makes the moves she made earlier this season even more puzzling – why repeatedly threaten to eliminate Sarah, Cosima, and the rest of the ‘aware’ Leda Clones, but not actually do it? Why allow Rachel to hang around to cause damage, especially since it seemed it was obvious she was going to do so? If Evil Cho was a villain on “Game of Thrones”, characters like Littlefinger and Varys would’ve eaten her alive.

Or, in the words of another more brilliant villain …

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Then again, Evil Cho’s still around as well. Guess we’ll see how she counters Rachel and the other clones in the season finale.

Speaking of which, next week: More Helena! More Krystal! And is Delphine back from the dead? It’s going to be a hell of a finale …

The Good:

“Donnie Hendrix. You look like roast pig.” Awwwww. We so missed you, Helena.

“You did just mix mood stabilizers with gin, darling.” “That’s brunch.” I still have no idea why Adele is actually on this show, but her scenes with Felix this week were fantastic. I just hope the show can come up with a vaguely plausible and legitimate reason for her to be on this show next season!

The Bad:

Donnie’s “I need to get laid right now” bullshit. It was … strange.

The WTF:

A lot. Again.

The euthanization video. Why the hell would you EVER send that to Evil Cho and Neolution while you’re on the run? Having that is a death sentence. It doesn’t make sense to send it unless 1) you’ve already got backing and protection from someone like Rachel or 2) Because Plot. Sigh. Option #2 got picked for the zillionth time this season.

Evil Cho’s admission to Rachel made ZERO sense. That went beyond dumb. “Can you admit that you murder babies?” “Sure!” Again, Because Plot. There were more clever ways to get Evil Cho to admit that, and instead, we got the lazy version. It’s been a recurring and frustrating theme of this season – characters doing incredibly bizarre and out-of-character things just to advance the storyline.

 

 

 

Orphan Black Season 4, Episode 8 Recap: Challenge Rating 7

Three things come through clearly in “The Redesign of Natural Objects”:

  1. For the first time in a while, there’s a sense of hope. It’s tiny, and could vanish in an instant, but it’s there.
  2. Don’t mess with Mrs. S.
  3. Darkwing Duko plays D&D! Unfortunately, he’s a 3rd-level rogue who walked into a CR 7 encounter. See #2 above.

Let’s deal with these in turn. Item #1: The hope comes from a new idea conjured by Cosima, whose on-again/off-symptoms remind me of how Peter Parker’s Aunt May was either always on death’s door or getting romanced by Dr. Octopus. But I digress. Cosima, newly energized from learning that Delphine may be kinda-sorta alive, gets in touch with ex-Neolution boss Susan Duncan and twitchy sestra Rachel (thanks to M.K.’s super-hacking) and theorizes they could still get the combo Leda/Castor DNA, despite Kendall’s death: What about old-fashioned in vitro fertilization of a Leda egg with Castor sperm?

Naturally, Sarah would need to agree to this, and she does so, only because Cosima is so excited about it and, really, what other choice is there? Cosima is facing a death sentence, otherwise, as might the rest of the sestras – including M.K., whom we see with a nasty nosebleed. Shockingly, the basement of a comic book store isn’t really equipped for such a procedure, so Cosima and a ziploc bag of Sarah eggs will have to travel to Susan’s super-secret retreat. Susan is excited about this; Rachel sees an opportunity to kick out Evil Cho and put Susan (and herself?) back in control of Neolution. That’s not the only thing Rachel sees: Her bionic eye keeps displaying glitching digital visions of a swan (i.e., Leda), including one where it’s beheaded. But hey, everything’s fine!

Item #2: Don’t mess with Mrs. S: It’s obvious to everyone except Orphan Black’s main characters that Mrs. S might have a teeny desire to seek revenge for her mother’s death and go all Jack Bauer on Darkwing Duko’s ass. One positive development of Mrs. S almost-assassination attempt: She sees Darkwing Duko meeting with Alison! Oh ho. She informs the rest of Clone Club that Evil Cho may be using the Hendrixes to get to Sarah. And indeed, that’s exactly what’s happening. Jailbird Donnie will get his feathers fatally plucked by a skinhead with a Neolution tattoo (subtle – NOT!) unless Alison tells Duko where he can find Sarah.

Time out. If Evil Cho thinks the “self-aware clones” are such a threat to her plans to gene-modify the world, then, uh, why the hell did she let Cosima walk free the night Duko killed Kendall? I mean, if you really want Sarah Manning, why didn’t you – oh, I don’t know – threaten to kill Cosima unless Sarah revealed herself? I can understand letting Cosima go in order to warn the other clones to back off, but if you really want Sarah out of the way, you tossed away a pretty good bargaining chip. Okay, time in.

Sarah and Mrs. S convince Felix to chat with Alison (who is in rehearsals for the church production of Jesus Christ Superstar, a.k.a. The Plot Thread That Wouldn’t Die) and make sure she hasn’t been co-opted by Team Evil. Alison assures Felix that, aside from all her assets being frozen and Donnie being in an ugly orange jumpsuit, she’s peachy. However, when next we see her meeting with Duko, he puts her on the phone with Donnie, who is getting the crap beaten out of him in his cell. Pressured, she tells Duko that Sarah will be at the Rabbit Hole tonight.

Hours later, Duko is on stakeout outside the comic book store – and Skinhead Tattoo Boy is still beating up Donnie? Really? Isn’t that kind of a long time? Aren’t there lockdown hours? Does Wilson Fisk run this jail, because that would explain a lot!

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Tatiana Maslany as Alison, and Gord Rand as a fuzzy Duko

In any event… surprise, it’s a setup! Alison told Felix what was going on, so Sarah, Art, and Mrs. S ambush Duko inside the Rabbit Hole and force him to call off the jail hit squad. In one of the best scenes of the past two years, we see a very anxious Alison in the middle of Jesus Christ Superstar rehearsals juxtaposed with scenes of Donnie getting beaten up. Felix, quietly watching the rehearsals, gives Alison the “Donnie isn’t dead” code signal, and she’s able to smile and relax in a literal and theatrical prayer of thanksgiving. Nicely done.

Mrs. S is still in a Jack Bauer mood, so she shoos Art and Sarah out of the store while she hooks up the car-battery clamps onto Duko’s shoulders. DAMMIT, DUKO! THERE’S NO TIME! Sorry, got carried away on a 24 wave of nostalgia. It’s soon apparent that Duko knows bupkis about Neolution’s bigger plans; he’s a mere tool who was forced into doing Evil Cho’s dirty work because she’s threatening his niece. “You understand? It’s about family!” he pleads. “Oh yes,” says Mrs. S, preparing her favorite rifle. “Family.” BLAM! Darkwing Duko’s blood sprays across an Atomic Robo poster, reducing its value by 85%.

Oh, and what made Duko feel so at ease that he let his guard drop inside the comic book store? Item #3: Dungeons & Dragons! He saw Hell Wizard’s D&D tabletop! Hell Wizard nervously said that his party consists of of a 10th-level paladin, a 12th-level thief and a half-elf cleric named Albus Dimbledots. Duko compliments him on the party makeup but says that it’d be even better if it had someone who could turn into a dragon. Ah, great. Darkwing Duko is a munchkin.

Was a munchkin. Min/max that, you dire weasel!

The Good:

Felix’s sister Adele wasn’t annoying this episode! Still clueless about clones, she gets the night’s best line when she meets Alison and says she looks just like Sarah, “but with less anger and more hygiene.”

Also surprisingly non-annoying: Rachel! When Susan proposes she take up a hobby instead of worrying about the fate of Wednesday Charlotte and the other clones, Rachel suggests carpentry: “I can build us all coffins. Shall I start with the smallest first?”

Everything with Alison this episode was terrific. My breath was taken away again by the fact that it’s one actress playing all these wildly different characters. Kneel before our Taslanic majesty, fools!

D&D for the win, baby.

The Bad:

Evil Cho Incorporated is guilty of poor supervillainy, as described above. If they truly want to get rid of Sarah, they had better, earlier opportunities to do so.

There’s a logic leap behind the trap to get Duko. Okay, Alison sends Duko to the Rabbit Hole. But why would they ever think that Duko would go alone? Or that he wouldn’t tell Evil Cho about Sarah’s hideout as soon as Alison told him? It’s a stretch, at best.

The WTF:

Still no Helena! But she’s back in the next episode.

-Ken

Doctor Who Review: The Curse of the Fugue

Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor has had a marvelous existence in Big Finish’s audio adventures. Through them, we’ve been able to see how this eccentric, passionate, and occasionally dour Doctor lived between his birth in the 1996 TV movie and death in “The Night of the Doctor.” Adding greatly to the popularity of these adventures was companion Lucie Miller, played by the superb Sheridan Smith. Outspoken, indomitable, and even caustic at times, Lucie was the perfect foil to the Eighth Doctor, balancing his melancholy as much as Sarah Jane Smith’s tenacity redeemed the Fourth Doctor’s recklessness. What really stood out, though, was that the character felt real.

Last heard in 2011’s “To the Death,” Sheridan Smith and Lucie Miller have returned in “The Curse of the Fugue” – and it’s like they never left. The 30-minute tale is part of Big Finish’s Short Trips range, where one actor reads an original story (as opposed to Big Finish’s full-cast audio plays).

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Alice Cavender’s story drops us into 1974 London, during an energy crisis, and where we find Lucie working in a nursing home. But why? Where is the Doctor? And is resident Cecille’s invisible friend a figment – or a messenger from the past with a dire warning?

The story takes a little while to develop, but that’s fine because it does an admirable job of creating a true 1970’s feel and establishing key characters like Cecille. It’s also fun to hear Lucie – who’s not at all happy about her apparent abandonment by the Doctor – casually sharing future news tidbits with the ’70s residents. An added treat is Sheridan’s interpretation of the Eighth Doctor. She handles both roles extremely well.

One thing I feel compelled to mention is that when Sheridan goes “Full Lucie,” it can sometimes be difficult for American ears to pick up everything she’s saying. But hey, that’s the character! Ultimately, “The Curse of the Fugue” is cause for celebration for all Lucie Miller fans. (And if you’re not familiar with Lucie Miller or the Eighth Doctor, I recommend listening to, say, “Human Resources” first.)

Additional: Big Finish is hosting a Short Trips writing competition this month! Fancy a chance at writing your own Doctor Who tale for the Big Finish website? Check out the details here.

Rating: 4/5 Braaaaaaaaaains.

–Ken

Doctor Who DVD Review: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (Great Story, Lousy F@#&ing Puppets)

Jon Pertwee’s fifth and final season as the Third Doctor is something that’s quite enjoyable to watch, if a bit melancholy. The tone of the season still has the same sense of swashbuckling, Steed-and-Peel Avengers-influenced derring-do of the rest of Pertwee’s time as the Doctor, but there’s also a sense of somberness to it. In many ways, it feels similar to David Tennant’s final run of specials and the four knocks – the blue crystal of Metebelis Three seems to be beckoning to the Third Doctor throughout his last season, letting him know that his time is indeed running out. And while it’s not the best of his seasons – the three middle seasons with Jo Grant were certainly his heyday of classics – with the introduction of Sarah Jane Smith to the TARDIS, it’s still an exceptionally good one.

Perhaps the best story of this season is “Invasion of the Dinosaurs,” a story than many classic Doctor Who fans have derided as a low point in the show’s long history … but that criticism is, in hindsight, unfair. Yes, if you ever wanted a poster child for why the special effects of the classic series were utterly atrocious, “Invasion” is the most obvious and easy story to point to. But if, as a viewer, you can get past that – and, admittedly, that’s a Very Big If for some – it’s one of the most surprisingly good stories broadcast during Pertwee’s time as the Third Doctor.

Why? Glad you asked. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Also, spoilers ahead – as much as a 43-year-old story can have spoilers, anyway!

“Invasion” opens with the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith returning to modern-day Earth, where they find London virtually abandoned and under martial law. Mistaken by military patrols as looters (because OF COURSE THEY ARE), they learn that the city’s been cleared out because dinosaurs keep randomly appearing and disappearing on the streets. Why? And who’s responsible? That’s the mystery that the Doctor and Sarah Jane need to figure out, and it’s a mystery that eventually requires the full assistance of U.N.I.T. to solve.

dinoIt’s a story that’s kind of hard to neatly classify, despite the bonkers premise of time-traveling dinosaur invaders attacking London. In reality, “Invasion” is much more of a sci-fi espionage thriller/mystery – yes, really! – and it’s a surprisingly good one. “Invasion” is  a  complex, well-thought-out story, and unlike many of the typical six-parters of Jon Pertwee’s era, it doesn’t feel like it’s being stretched too thin. Much of the story involves the investigation into the cause of the dinosaur appearances, as well as the reason – and not everybody agrees on what’s most important to figure out first. Not even the Doctor and Sarah Jane are always on the same page, and while things invariably go the way the Doctor expects they will, it’s interesting to see the characters try to puzzle everything out.

Even once the basic mystery’s solved, it leads to further questions, and further problems, all of which are logical and fit the story . In this way, it stands out from many of the other six-part stories of this time frame, which typically resemble two separate stories stitched together with some plothole-ridden excuses of ideas. “Invasion” is  cohesive from beginning to end, and always manages to stay engaging and interesting throughout each of its episodes.

One of the big surprises in “Invasion” is how well-nuanced the so-called “bad guys” are in this story. Most Who villains of the Pertwee stories – and, for that matter, in “classic” Who, period – are pure evil, out to take over the world or destroy the universe, and the stakes of these stories are very clearly delineated into good/evil consequences. Here? Well, the main antagonists come in the form of Project Golden Age, a scientific group that has an agenda that seems oddly prescient: Humanity’s busy screwing up the world, possibly dooming it to extinction, and they want to set things right. That, all told, isn’t such a horrible mission. How they plan on accomplishing their goals isn’t exactly great – they want to send an elite group back in time and basically start humanity over, which would wipe out just about everyone in the modern world as we know it – but their basic premise of “making things right” is at least well-intentioned.

Also, most people in Project Golden Age aren’t even aware of the “wipe out humanity” aspect of the plan. So instead of a simple good/evil conflict, you have the Doctor and Sarah Jane finding themselves at odds with plenty of characters who are basically good people with inadvertently bad intentions. And it takes a bit more than a bit of Venusian Aikido to stop those good people.

It’s an interesting – and modern – twist. Fast forward the story thirty-some-odd years to another show in another country, and you could see pretty easily how “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” might be an episode of Fringe or the X-Files, without needing to edit much at all. Having Walter Bishop spout lines like “I posit that these dinosaurs are not being bred in modern times, but instead being brought here through a time corridor” … yeah. It’d work just as well now (and better with modern CGI effects, obviously!).

Most surprising in “Invasion,” though, is the twist of Mike Yates’ betrayal of U.N.I.T. – and of the Doctor! While Seventies Doctor Who really didn’t have much going on in terms of overreaching, season-long story arcs – at least not like it does in the modern era of the show – the recurring appearances of the U.N.I.T. regulars gave at least some backstory to the characters, and made them feel to regular viewers more friendly and familiar. You’d occasionally have the Brigadier grumbling about his wife, Doris, for example, or have a casual mention of Jo Grant and Captain Yates going out on a date, even though said date would never be shown on-screen. In the “classic” Who era, it’s probably as close as you get to character development like the Ponds, or Rose Tyler’s family. And U.N.I.T. certainly was a family.

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So to see Mike Yates take sides with Operation Golden Age, and essentially sell out the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and the rest of U.N.I.T. – it’s both shocking and sad. Especially since Mike is like many of the other “villains” of “Invasion” – he thinks he’s doing the right thing, just for the wrong reasons. And when he finally realizes that he’s not only wrong and will have to resign from U.N.I.T., but that he’s also deeply disappointed his friends, and especially the Brigadier … man, it’s heartbreaking. This is watching it with modern television sensibilities, too – one can only imagine how shocking this must’ve been for first-time viewers in 1973!

On a more positive note, though, watching Sarah Jane in this story is awesome. I think most Who viewers associate the character primarily with Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, but it’s easy to forget how well Elisabeth Sladen worked with Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor as well. “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” is a solid reminder of the terrific chemistry that they had together – it’s only their second story, but they work with each other with a great, natural ease. The Doctor’s still more than a bit patronizing to Sarah Jane, but that comes with affection, and you can see her understanding that he’s mostly trying to be protective of her (not that she always wants his protection!). It’s also great to see Sarah Jane still in full-on journalist mode – hey, dinosaurs overrunning London just might be a front-page story! So seeing her trying to help the Doctor out while still getting the scoop, and while trying to navigate security clearances, both from bad guy General Finch and from good guy Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart … she’s got a lot to do in these six episodes besides say, “What is it, Doctor?”!

dino13Everyone else in the story is pretty good as well. Pertwee’s in fine form here – even though it’s his last season (and he knew it at this point), on-screen, he’s still radiating the same flamboyant confidence as always. (Particularly when he finally gets to unveil the Whomobile in episode four!) And Mike Yates’ betrayal gives the U.N.I.T. regulars meatier dialogue than “five rounds rapid,” which is great to see. In particular, the Brigadier’s staunch but sad disappointment in finding out Yates is a traitor is terrific. Meanwhile, the guest cast reads like an all-star cast of other great classic Who episodes – hey, the evil scientist is Nyder from Genesis of the Daleks! And General Finch is Li H’sen Chang from Talons of Weng-Chiang! They give the excellent performances that you’d expect, so between the script and the actors, everything’s firing on all cylinders …

… except the dinosaurs.

The goddamn puppet dinosaurs.

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Yes, the proverbial elephant in the room with “Invasion of the Dinosaurs,” unfortunately, are the dinosaurs … and yes, they’re every bit as bad as their reputation. Not only are they obviously puppets, they’re bad puppets, with primitive CSO overlay trying – and failing – to integrate them into the story. Every scene they appear in is utterly cringeworthy and laughably awful. There’s no way to take this seriously. Usually this era of Doctor Who was pretty good about knowing the limits of its next-to-nothing budget, but the dinosaurs show that the production team was clearly overreaching themselves this time – which is a shame, because if the story had been done with any sort of more conventional Who monster, I think it would’ve been a home run. I give them top marks for ambition, but in terms of execution, it’s one of the biggest failures in the show’s history. (I would love it if this could somehow get the “Day of the Daleks” modernized CGI effects options, which would probably allow viewers to see this story in a different light!)

Sigh.

Finally, “Invasion” represents a swan song of sorts for the classic U.N.I.T. era, which is both wonderful and bittersweet to watch. Already missing Katy Manning and the late Roger Delgado, U.N.I.T. was on the wane in its place in the Doctor Who universe, and “Invasion” is probably the last time we get to see the rest of its regulars – and the Third Doctor – operating at their finest. Yes, there would be more stories featuring U.N.I.T. over the next few years, but their impact in those stories isn’t nearly as strong. They’re basically off to the side of the main action in Pertwee’s final tale (“Planet of the Spiders”), and during their first few appearances in Tom Baker’s early season, it’s obvious that U.N.I.T.’s been relegated to an afterthought. “Invasion” is the story where you can see the curtain really begin to close, and it’s a good one to say a fond farewell to Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and his team, who meant so much to the stories of the Third Doctor’s era.

So, despite the dubious reputation of “Invasion of the Dinosaurs,” I highly recommend it as one of the best stories of the Third Doctor. And if you’re watching it on DVD, some of the extras are great – the Doctor Who Stories: Elisabeth Sladen Part One feature has the late Lis Sladen talking about her auditions for Sarah Jane, and working with Jon Pertwee. Some of the stories she tells are familiar ones, but it’s still nice to have them all in one place, being told by Lis herself. Also, People, Power, and Puppetry is a great “making of” featurette where both Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts talk at length about the behind-the-scenes work that went into making “Invasion” … and that, yes, even during the making of this story, they were acutely aware of how bad the dinosaurs were going to be.

At any rate, if you’ve never seen a Third Doctor/Sarah Jane story … I’d seriously recommend “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” as the one to watch, even with the terrible puppets. Even despite them, it’s outstanding.

Rating: 4/5 Braaaaaaaaaains.

–Mike