Escape To Danger No.43

Some time ago, I had the occasion to explain the concept of deferred pleasure to Ms Monoid. I'm personally quite an advocate of deferred pleasure, and have been for as long as I can recall. (Nothing extreme that may register on the autism spectrum, you understand. Just little things, like eating all the boring vegetables before finishing the tasty meat. That sort of thing).

 

So bearing in mind my preference for saving the best until last, it was more than apt that the Proper Who VHS release schedule chose "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" as their final "complete story" release.

 

 

Once universally derided by idiots, Serial WWW has recently had something of a rehabilitation on Internet-land. The standard reading now is pretty much "good story, crap dinosaurs" which is a major step forward when compared to the hoots of derision that echoed through fandom when channels like UK Gold laid bare the story for public scrutiny again.

 

 

And it's a reading that is admittedly difficult to avoid. As usual, with me it's a cognitive dissonance thing. While I can see that the dinosaur effects really aren't that great, it simply doesn't bother me at all. Really. Not one jot.

Mind you, some of the model sequences do almost remind one of a previous BBC production where a giant monster roamed the streets of London...
 

Still, it's a good job we have Mystery Inc. (sorry, UNIT) on hand to get to the bottom of things.
 

"And we'd have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those pesky kids..."

Ah, yes. I think we need to have a little chat about Mike Yates at this point, as I've already done "Planet of the Spiders" and when "The Green Death" comes around I'll be too busy discussing Talfryn Thomas, condoms, and being up on the slag heap with the professor.

 

Doubling as both a regular junior officer for the Brigadier to hang out with and a possible love interest for then new companion Jo Grant, what Barry Letts and the production team got was Richard Franklin and a performance that put the character so far in the closet he was virtually in fucking Narnia.

 

So having spent three seasons with not very much to do except resembling a character in a Larry Grayson anecdote, it was rather a nice touch for the Yates character to get a bit of action in "The Green Death".

What's that, Brigadier? You want to continue this point by using your chart and your stick?

 

 

"Right, yes. Pay attention at the back there, Benton. So, Yates loses his mind in Wales here, goes a bit do-lally and betrays everybody here, and then goes all long-haired and Buddhist and makes amends here. It's what the boffin chaps would call an arc of redemption, or something like that. By the way, are we in Cromer?".

Thank you for summarising that story arc so succinctly, Brigadier.

Serial WWW is also of course the debut of Bored Season 11 Pertwee. In DVD commentary tracks, Terrance Dicks makes much of Pertwee's bouffant becoming more dramatic as the Seasons progress, but Bored Season 11 Pertwee is a much more fascinating beast. You have to wait until "Death To the Daleks" and "The Monster of Peladon" to really see how utterly disinterested he can truly become, but it's here where the fun starts to kick in.

But for many, all the joy and goodness of "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" can also be magically conjured up with just one word...

"KKLAK!"
 

 

Despite having been brought up with the admittedly mighty fine Jeff Cummins artwork for "Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion" novelisation, I still feel drawn to the Achilleos original in all its autumnal KKLAK!-tastic glory.

 

Anyway, whichever way you cut it, Malcolm Hulke's swansong script certainly has much more going for it than we were led to believe back in my day.

 

Everyone's a traitor or a gullible fool, and it's not just Yeti that you have to be afraid of in the London Underground...