Wednesday, April 1, 2009

B6 - The Ordeal




Apart from the obvious variances between the budgets and the technology available at the time to make the program, the main difference between new Who and classic Who is the pace. When the new series first debuted in 2005, there were small pockets of fandom who were worried that the new 45-minute stories would feel rushed and that it wouldn't allow time for proper character development. They preferred the old four-part stories, which they felt allowed time to properly develop the story, introduce the characters, unnecessarily pad out the story during Part Three, and so on.

To a point, I can sympathize with that attitude. But, having now become used to the pace of the new series, jumping right back into the beginning of the classic era takes some getting used to. And a seven-part Dalek story isn't the way to ease into it, either. Basically, each episode so far has revolved around one long set piece. In episode one, it's the TARDIS crew exploring the dead planet. In episode two, it's their plight with radiation sickness. Part Three focuses on their escape from their cell; Part Four, their escape from the city; Part Five, their trek through the swamp; and now, in Part Six, Ian, Barbara and some Thals brave the perils of The Cave of Crumbling Polystyrene in order to try and sneak into the Dalek city.

Meanwhile, the increasingly ineffectual Doctor and Susan, who, oddly, get less and less to do each week, somehow short circuit the Daleks' power supply with the (only?) TARDIS key, and then get captured. To further hammer home the leisurely pace, the Daleks are threatening to explode a neutron bomb....sometime tomorrow! It's all (gradually) building to an exciting climax in part seven...

1 comments:

James said...

After a well deserved coffee break I sat down to watch "The Ordeal" which moved along at a better pace than the last episode, still we don’t seem to be getting very far. I mean did they really need to spend about 10 minutes throwing the rope across a gap in the rocks. If anything I was expecting a lot more action in this episode as I vaguely recalled an attack from the lake, a climb up the pipes, etc. Unfortunately these seem to have been from the Novelisation and not the episode that I was recalling so we were left with what felt like a quick cut from the base to the top of the mountain and a day seems to have passed of the 2 1/2 day walk. Still hopefully everything will come together in the end and we did have the first literal cliff-hanger

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