Monday, July 27, 2009

TT3 - The Dominators 3


Fewer scenes with Quarks + fewer scenes with bickering Dominators + more dull scenes with Dulkian politicians = a much more boring episode than the first two in this story.

There's also a great deal of padding regarding scenes set in, and involving, the transport rockets that everyone on Dulkis seems so fond. The Doctor and Jamie fly from the island to the capital to find Zoe and Cully, only to learn that Zoe and Cully have returned to the island from the capital by travel rocket, which means that a frustrated Doctor and Jamie now have to return to the island. It's right around this episode that Derrick Sherwin and a young Terrance Dicks started taking over the writing duties after finding fault in the original scripts written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. One must wonder if Sherwin and Dicks were trying to come to terms with the story during this episode, as the plot doesn't move along a great deal.

The original theme of this story, as intended by Haisman and Lincoln, was to show the inadequacies of a truly pacifist society. Although this was toned down considerably in the final version, elements of it are still present. Look how, among the work party, only the headstrong Cully and non-Dulkian Zoe are still fit for work after just a short time, while Balan, Kando, and Teel, the typical Dulkians, have passed out due to exhaustion. Translation: hippies are no good at working. Which side of the anti-war protests do you think Haisman and Lincoln were on back in 1968?

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