With all the recent referendum excitement having just reached its predictably tiresome conclusion, topicality dictates that I should be looking at "The Curse of Peladon" for this entry.
But mercifully I've already done it (go here if you don't believe me), so instead here's a good old Doctor-helps-overthrow-the-government type story that you get from time to time.
As Doctor Who stories go, "The Sun Makers" is a bit of a weird one. Sitting slap bang in the middle of one of the weirdest seasons of Proper Who doesn't help, but even by Season Fifteen standards, it's odd.
Famously the result of a past-caring Robert Holmes' petulant rage at his Income Tax bill, Serial 4W transcends its mean-spirited genesis and ends up a stinging attack on capitalism, taxation, bureaucracy, inflation and all the rest of the stuff that you would expect from a series experiencing a sudden headrush of socialism in the politically turbulent mid-1970s.
And it looks as cheap as shit, too.
I remain undecided whether Pennant Roberts got a really rough deal on his Doctor Who stories. They mostly end up looking shoddy and ill-formed, but "The Sun Makers" goes the extra mile by almost at times looking like experimental theatre. Some sets look decidedly unfinished, and a whole Aztec theme kind of goes nowhere fast as the budget rapidly succumbs to the rampant inflation of 1977.
That's Henry Woolf there, with his Rehearsal Hair. Woolf loomed large over my childhood, being one of the presenters of seminal educational show "Words and Pictures". (This was before Wordy, and Woolf spent his time interacting with a superimposed cartoon chap called Charlie. Which was much better than I have just made it sound). His long and distinguished career in experimental theatre (yes, that thing again) was unknown to me in those days.
Look out for him in "Superman III" though. Surely a career highlight for anybody...
Memorable stills from this story are few and far between (hence some generic publicity shots here), which means that it was either not very well featured in magazines at the time, or that I didn't pay much attention to it if it was. I favour the former interpretation, as this was another story that suffered from the taint of a late Target adaptation.
But despite the lack of money and a muddled direction, a lot of Holmes' snide gags actually work, and Tom Baker manages to pitch his performance in this story pretty well, considering what he could have attempted to get away with.
And it's always nice to see Michael Keating getting to play Vila properly (before he got relegated to the comic relief role on B7), and William Simons getting a chance to shine before "Heartbeat" got hold of him.
Never again would Yer Who hoist the red (or maybe even the black) flag so eloquently...
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