Reading back a few of these pages the other day, I note my recent tendency to launch a new entry by making a tenuous link to current happenings or previous remarks.
So let's start this one in a predictable fashion by talking about anniversaries...
I am informed that this month marks the tenth anniversary of myself and Ms Monoid either being together, or initiating communications, or some such thing. I am always amused by the fact that she miscounted and attempted to launch the festivities last October, reminding me of the fact that the first episode of "The Three Doctors" aired before the arrival of the anniversary year it was intended to celebrate.
"The Three Doctors" is one of those stories that I have incredibly fond memories of, yet it always comes across as vaguely anti-climactic. And I don't really know why.
Hmmm... the Steam of Singularity, there. Which may be a fitting metaphor for why Serial RRR is forever doomed to be merely Fucking Brilliant, as opposed to Totally Fucking Brilliant?
Whatever you might think, it's not worth falling out over...
Personally, I am tempted by the theory that it is victim to the polar opposite of Average Novelisation Syndrome, and the fact that a hardback of the Terrance Dicks adaptation had been on the shelves of our local library for some time before I sat slack-jawed and awestruck, watching the thing for real during "The Five Faces of Doctor Who" repeat season.
While I am perennially grateful for growing up during the period that I did, I wasn't too enamoured of the revisionism of the Target range that lumbered me with the Jeff Cummins cover of this story when I eventually got round to buying my own copies of the novels. (The one where he's used a publicity still of Salamander for reference material. I preferred Chris Achilleos' "homage" to Jack Kirby, although I didn't realise it for what it was at the time).
The novel continues to stick in the memory because it bothered to give a "reason" why Omega decided to live somewhere that looked like a quarry rather than somewhere more conventionally appealing. (Too much effort to mentally maintain lush vegetation, apparently. Probably why his TV set looked so rubbish too...)
And let's not forget the above shot, that still causes Target synaesthesia problems and makes me automatically think of "The Web of Fear"...
And whilst I'm banging on in my usual manner, I might as well get in this instalment's reference to the second series Weetabix cards, and how amazing I thought the Gell Guards looked. (They still do look amazing. They just don't sound quite so amazing).
"Kidnapped By Gell Guards - Miss Next Go"...
But no matter how they sound, any monster that can create a cliffhanger of UNIT HQ disappearing into a black hole is cool by me.
Is Pertwee stood on a box? I can't believe Troughton was such a short-arse as he looks in that shot. Maybe being the incumbent Doctor, Pertwee had it written into his contract that he had to be taller than everybody else.
And speaking of short-arses, there's the Brigadier with another of Bob and Dave's Comedy Bumpkins...
And finally, the villain of the piece. Another great bit of design that is truly memorable. Stephen Thorne doesn't half give the role some clout, and there are some suitably good scenery-chewing moments. (And, leading on from the last entry, the other great moment in the series when the villain is unmasked and there's a chilling lack of anything to see...)
Nowadays, I suppose multi-Doctor stories don't raise as much as an eyebrow, but back in the 1970's, this was really cutting edge stuff. Maybe it's very reluctance to play up the less subtle and more gimmicky elements that the 20th Anniversary special "The Five Doctors" had in spades works after all.
So what initially appears to be a weakness of "The Three Doctors" turns out to be a hidden strength; the steadfast refusal to chuck everything and the kitchen sink at a threat that is not only universal, but also as mad as a box of frogs.
And contrary to fan myth, none of it was filmed in William Hartnell's shed.
"Now, what's a bridge for, eh?"
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