Doctor Who - Battlefield "Get off my world!"

 

Right OK its time yet again for another post so this un will be on a Doctor Who story as I've not reviewed one this year so far.  I did watch the Christmas special just before the new year and it was not too bad but I prefer to review the old series myself.

So anyway this story is one from the Sylvester McCoy era: Battlefield (written by Ben Aaronovtich) which is probably in most fans eyes is a mixed bag (to be kind to it!) but is it any cop or is it just cack???  Let's find out....

And the usual warning applies again: SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!

STORY

So the story begins with the Doctor (McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) arriving back on Earth in the TARDIS as the Doctor received a distress signal.  The Doctor and Ace, hearing explosions, scout the surrounding area, Vortigen lake (in Carbury, England) soon come along a UNIT Brigadier, Winifred Bambera (Angela Bruce) who is in charge of a missile convoy.  Following this, the now retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) is informed of the Doctor's return and he decides to fly to the scene in a helicopter.  The Doctor and Ace soon head to a local hotel where they meet a young Asian woman, Shou Yuing (Ling Tai) who shares Ace's love for explosives so they quickly become friends.  Meanwhile Bambera get's caught in the crossfire between a fight going with armoured knights who fight with swords and a futuristic guns.  


In the meantime back at the hotel, the Doctor shows interest in a scabbard which had been excavated from the battlefield which hangs over the mantlepiece in the hotel.  The scabbard however is hot to touch and the hotel owner's wife, Elizabeth (June Bland) who is blind says feels like it is waiting for someone or something.  A local archaeologist, Warmsly (James Ellis) dates the scabbard back to the 8th century but the Doctor says it is much older than that and that it is waiting for something.  Meanwhile as Ace and Shou Yuing share a chat about explosives, the battle nearby with the knight sees one of the knights being flung over the hotel brewery.  The Doctor and Ace find the knight, Ancelyn (Marcus Gilbert) who comes around and calls the Doctor "Merlin" much to his surprise, however they are soon surrounded by a group of knights lead by Mordred (Christopher Bowen).  Mordred is alarmed to see the Doctor, also calling him Merlin, as he said he believed his mother, Morgaine (Jean Marsh) had imprisoned him.  The Doctor (who at this time doesn't know anything about this!) pretends he knows of what they speak and delivers some threats to Mordred who leaves with his knights.

Later on Mordred carries out a ritual which summons Morgaine, which causes the scabbard in the hotel to fly across the room and the Doctor on touching, cries out in pain as he communicates with Morgaine through the scabbard, which causes the lights in the hotel to go out.  The next day the Doctor meets with Warmsly who shows him where he unearthed the scabbard and they soon find a ruin which the Doctor has Ace blow up to create an opening.  Meanwhile the Brigadier's helicopter is shot down by Morgaine's sorcery and he eventually makes his way into Carbury and soon encounters Morgaine, who vows next time they meet she will kill him.

The Doctor and Ace meanwhile enter a tunnel after having created an entrance to the ruin which leads into a chamber under the lake which the Doctor opens by voice.  The Doctor hints to Ace that "Merlin" must be his future self or maybe himself from a parallel universe where magic is substituted for science.  The Doctor then discovers the chamber is part of a spaceship and they find the remains of the King Arthur lying next to a sword, which was apparently the source of the distress signal.  Ace however removes the sword out of curiosity causing a defence mechanism to activate in the ship, which chases the Doctor and Ace, who hides in an alcove, which suddenly floods with water.  The Doctor manages to save Ace by ejecting her from the alcove into the waters of the lake where she appears from the water with the sword while Warmsly carries out a lectutre, looks on stunned.  Meanwhile the Brigadier arrives on the scene and soon finds and rescues the Doctor by deactivating the mechanism.  And from here the Doctor works with the Brigadier and the others to help defeat the evil Morgaine from her nefarious plans.....

THOUGHTS

As a revival of UNIT and the first story of Sylvester McCoy's last season, Battlefield is an enjoyable albeit very cheesy story which has its fair share of problems but it is still entertaining enough to hold your attention.  The idea of the Doctor is Merlin is a bit daft but is an amusing play on the Doctor's character and to think that in the future the Doctor is prepared to play act as a wizard always make for a bit of amusement.  The story also makes good use of the battle of wits between the Doctor and Morgaine as the two of them war against each other in the old fight of good vs evil.  The return of the Brigadier however remains the story's biggest draw and pretty much the best aspect of the story itself as it is great to see the character get one last hurra before he retires.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTEWORTHY SCENES

As for the performances well they aren't too bad overall and yeah OK there is plenty of hammy acting going on here but its still all part of the fun.

Starting with Sylvester McCoy who by then was well in his element as the Doctor and whether or not you like his portrayal of the character or not is up to you, personally though I always enjoyed McCoy's take on the Doctor as being quite comical and playful but at times also being serious when he needed to be.

And McCoy has some good moments in the story that include the scene where the Doctor is confronted by Mordered and his knights.  And in the scene the Doctor plays along with his title of "Merlin" and improvises some threats to Mordered and says to him "Do you think I would use mere trickery against someone as formidable as you? Go, before I unleash a terrible something on you!".  And after Mordred leaves, Ace asks "Who was he?" and the Doctor says "That was Mordered, and his mother is Morgaine, the mighty sorceress".  And Shou Yuing asks the Doctor "You know these guys then?" and the Doctor says "Never met them before".  

Then comes the scene where the Doctor holds the scabbard tight as its power wracks him with pain and Ace says "You can feel it?" and the Doctor says "Yes. I'm uniquely sensitive!" and he cries out with pain as he sinks to his knees.  After this Morgaine appears infront of her son Mordred and she communicates with the Doctor through the Scabbard saying "Merlin hear me.  Do not stand against me this time, for your soul's sake" and the the Doctor painfully says "I cannot allow your interference!".

And then there is the moment where Ace sets some explosives on the dig site and the Doctor says to Warmsly "My friend is something of an expert" and Warmsly says "What in archaeology?" and the Doctor says "No, explosives" but Ace messes up the timer and it goes off too soon and they duck for cover.  And after the Doctor says to Ace "Ace" and she says sheepishly "I think the timer needs work" and the Doctor says to her "One of these days we are going to have a nice long chat about acceptable safety standards!".

And one of my favourite moments from Sly comes during the battle between Morgaine's knights and the UNIT troops.  And in the scene Ancelyn shouts on Mordred to face him and Mordred taunts him as they are about to charge at one another, the Doctor suddenly runs out onto the field and yells out "STOP!!!!!  I COMMAND IT!!!  THERE WILL BE NO BATTLE HERE!!!!".  And in the next scene when the Doctor hears from Mordred that Morgaine has summoned the destroyer the Doctor threatens Mordred saying "Tell her to call off the Destroyer...." and then he grabs Mordred's sword by using umbrella and continues "or I will decapitate you!!". 

Another good scene comes when the Doctor attempts to go and shoot Morgaine's challenger, the Destroyer who she intends to use to destroy the Earth but the Brigadier knocks him out and goes in his place.  And after the Brig (SPOILER!!!) "destroys" the Destroyer, destroying the place he was in, the Doctor finds the Brigadier amid a pile of rubble apparently dead.  And the Doctor yells sadly "You stupid, stubborn, pig-head numbskull!!!  You were supposed to died in bed!" only for the Brig to come around quickly and reassuringly says to him "Nonsense Doctor!".

And last of all is one of McCoy's best moments in the story is when the Doctor makes his final confrontation with Morgaine and he delivers an angry speech to disuade Morgaine from setting off a nuclear weapon.  And he says to her angrily "All over the world, fools are poised ready to let death fly.  Machines of death, Morgaine, are screaming from above, of light brighter than the sun. Not a war between armies nor a war between nations, but just death, death gone mad. The child looks up in the sky, his eyes turn to cinders. No more tears, only ashes. Is this honour? Is this war? Are these the weapons you would use? TELL ME!!!!".

Oh and last last of all for Sly is the fun moment where (SPOILER!!!) the Doctor prevents Mordred from killing Ancelyn near the end.  And as Mordred raises his sword to strike the Doctor stops him with the hook of his umbrella and he says to Mordred "Time and Time Lords wait for no man!" and places his fingers on Mordred's forehead, knocking him out. 

Sophie Aldred is also pretty good again as Ace, the Doctor's feisty teenage companion (although Sophie herself was 26 or 27 when she made this!).

Sophie also has some good moments too in the story that include her scene where Ace befriends Shou Yuing and they have a chat about explosives at the hotel.  And Ace regails Shou of a time at her school where she used some explosives.  And in the scene Ace says to Shou "Anyway, Mrs Parkinson the art teacher asked me what it is, right, so I told her it was a lump of school plasticine. Well, I couldn't tell her what it really was".  And Shou excitedly says "The hom gelignite!" and Ace continues her story "So, we're in the school corridor by now and Mrs Parkinson asks me to put what she thinks is school plasticine back in the art room.  And as Shou asks "So what did you do?" and Ace says "I tossed it over my shoulder, like that!  Landed right in the middle of class one C's prize winning pottery pig collection!".  And Ace excitedly says "And boom!!" just as nearby one of the knights hurls a grenade at another knight and Ace repeats again "BOOOOOOM!!" and the knight is thrown into the air (and yeah OK that second "Boom!" is a bit unecessary!). 

And later there is the scene when Ace having escaped the underground ship emerges from the water carrying Excalibur as Bambera, Ancelyn and Warmsly all look on amazed at Ace reimagining the lonley maiden of the lake.  And as Bambera asks her "What are you doing in the lake?!" Ace says "Drowning!" and she hands the sword to Ancelyn "Here, you can be the King of England!".  And Ancelyn looks at the sword in surprise "Its Excalibur!" and Ace says "That's what I said, Shakespeare!".   

And lastly is the moment where the Doctor, Ace, Brig and Ancelyn go back to the ship where they find the remains of King Arthur and Ace finds a note next to his body.  And Ace reads it saying "Dear Doctor.  King died in final battle.  Everything else is propaganda" and the Doctor asks "Who signed it?" and Ace says "The Doctor" and the Doctor reassured says "Ah well, that's sort that out!".    

Nicholas Courtney is excellent once again as the now retired Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart but decides to come out of it one last time to join the Doctor's adventure.  Nick has some great moments in the story that include the scene near the start where the Brig is doing some gardening at home and his wife, Doris calls on him.  And Doris says to the Brig "Alistair, that was the Secretary General" and the Brig says "Doris, I don't care if it was the king, I'm still retired!" but Doris says to him "He said something about the Doctor being back.  Alistair, who is the Doctor?" which prompts the Brig to suddenly look up in surprise.

Then there is the scene later on where ther Brigaider rescues the Doctor on the ship by deactivating the entity that was attacking him.  And the Brig says to the Doctor who lies on the ground covering himself "I just can't let you out of my sight, can I, Doctor?!".  And the Doctor looks up delighted at the Brig saying his full name and title "So you recognise me, then?" and the Brig says "Yes, who else would it be?!".  

Another good scene comes when Morgaine has just released the Destroyer much to the Doctor's horror and he flees the scene with Ace and the Brig.  And the Doctor tells Ace to give him the silver bullets, which will kill the Destroyer and the Brig says "What, those will stop the Destroyer? What, you just shoot the bullets into it?".  And the Doctor says "Simple isn't it?  Just like most killings" and the Brig suddenly says "Good lord, is that a spaceship?!" and he knocks the Doctor and grabs the gun and runs off saying "Sorry, Doctor, but I think I'm rather more expendable then you are!". 

And in the next scene the Brig goes back into the house where he confronts the Destroyer and he warns the Destroyer "Get off my world!".  And the Destroyer mockingly laughs at the Brig saying "

Pitiful. Can this world do no better than you as their champion?" and the Brig says "Probably.  I just do the best I can!" and shoots the Destroyer several times in the chest causing the creature to explode.  And as the Doctor soon comes across the smoking remains of the house he finds the inert Brigadier lying on the ground and the Doctor dispairs but the Brig suddenly comes around saying "Oh, really, Doctor. You don't think I'd be so stupid as to stay inside, do you?!  Really, Doctor, have a little faith" and he says to Ace "Ace?  I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. He's all yours from now on!  I'm going home to Doris!". 

Jean Marsh is also pretty good in her role as the villainous Morgaine, the mighty sorceress who is sure not one to be messed with and she actually manages to be quite menacing in the story.

Marsh's good scenes include her first scene where she summoned by her son, Mordred and she communicates with the Doctor via the scabbard and warns him "Do not stand against me this time, for your soul's sake!".  And as the Doctor says he cannot allow her interference she says "Then, Merlin, let this be our last battlefield!" and she raises her arms to create lightning and this causes the lights in the hotel to go out.

Another good scene is when Morgaine meets with the Brigadier at a graveyard where she holds a ceremony for the dead of previous wars.  And the Brig get's the gist of what she is there for and after Morgaine says to him "I wish you to know that I bear you no malice" and the Brigadier says "I understand" and then she alarmingly says "But when we meet again, I shall kill you".   

Then there is one of the story's best moments when Morgaine and Mordred turn up at the hotel and Morgaine uses her powers to control the Brigadier's pilot, Lavel (Dorota Rae) and Morgaine says to her "I must learn the strength of their forces!".  And as Lavel shoots at Morgaine she simply catches the bullet and crushes it!  So then Morgaine "Be silent" and she puts a trance on Lavel and she moves toward her and Morgaine says "Rest here and tell me" and she puts her hand on Lavel's head causing Lavel to scream and Morgaine saying "Quietly, child!" and after Lavel falls to the floor dead and Morgaine says "Now we know Mordred!".  And just before they leave Morgaine says to Pat "I will get the tab" and she pays for the tab by restoring Elisabeth's eyesight.   

Another good scene is when Morgaine appears at the hotel where Ace and Shou Yuing have drawn a protective circle and Ace holds Excalibur.  And Morgaine says to them "I am Morgaine of the Fey. I am power beyond your imagining. Surrender to me what is mine by right of conquest. Give me Excalibur!".  And Ace defiantly says "Never!" Morgaine says "Then you shall be given over to the Destroyer" and blue creature with horns appears out of nowhere and Morgaine continues "And become his handmaidens in hell!".  

Christopher Bowen while he isn't quite as good as some of the cast as he really does ham things up to 11 at times, he still isn't too bad in his role as the villainous son of Morgaine, Mordred.  

And Bowen has some fun moments in the story also that include the scene when he first appears and surrounds the Doctor, Ace and Ancelyn and he says to his guards "Kill them!  Kill them now!".  But when he sees the Doctor, he looks scared and says "Merlin!  You were bound. My mother sealed you into the ice caves for all eternity!".  And as the Doctor persuades Mordred to leave, Mordred says to Ancelyn then the Doctor "There will be a reckoning, Ancelyn. I have sworn it!  As for you, Merlin, my mother has waited twelve centuries to face you. You will bow down before her this time!".

Then there is the scene where Mordred has a drink at the hotel and he sees the hotel owner, Pat (Noel Collins) and says of his blind wife, Elisabeth "Your wife?" and Pat says "Yes" and Mordred mocks him and says "With your aspect, it is well that she is blind!".  And then the attractive UNIT pilot, Lavel walks into the bar Mordred suddenly looks at her and says "Ah there is light in this grey world!" and Lavel takes out her gun and says "Don't move" and Mordred not understanding her says "Am I to do nothing?".  And Lavel says to him "You can get the tab if you like" and Mordred smiles "Light and fire!  Come drink with me!" just before Morgaine comes (and basically cockblocks him...well sort of!).

Then there is the moment where the Doctor uses his umbrella to push Mordred's sword up against his neck threatening to decapitate him.  But Mordred dares the Doctor call his bluff "We know you of old, Merlin.  You will not kill!" and the Doctor angrily says "I wouldn't count on it!" and Mordred says "Go on then!  Look me in the eye.  End my life!" and the Doctor finally relents and releases him leaving Mordred to laugh mockingly saying "It is a weakness this lack of spirit!". 

After this another good moment comes when Mordred is held at gunpoint by the Brigadier and he calls out to Morgaine "Listen to me, Morgaine.  Leave my world or your son dies!" and Mordred panics saying "Deathless Morgaine.  Save me!" but Morgaine simply says "Die well, my son!" leaving Mordred horrified shouting "MOTHER!!".  And in a later scene Mordred turns up just after Morgaine has released the Destroyer and Mordy is less then pleased with her and says "Mother!" and Morgaine looks surprised "Mordred!  You live" and Mordred indignantly says "In spite of thee, false parent!  Witch!".  And Morgaine says "I thought you dead" and Mordred angrily says "Thought? Or wished it so!" and the two of them disappear together as Morgaine says "That was not the way of it".  

Marcus Gilbert is also not too bad as Ancelyn, the young dashing knight who helps the Doctor and Ace to try and defeat Morgaine, with Mordred being Ancelyn's main rival.  

Gilbert has some fun moments also that include the scene where Ancelyn is confronted by Bambera who says she wants to talk to him and he says to her "I am Ancelyn ap Gwalchmai, Knight General of the Britons. I do not talk to peasants" and Bambera grabs him and says "You'll talk to me!" and they begin fighting one another.  And later on the outcome of the fight results in Ancelyn being handcuffed by Bambera and the Doctor asks what happened and Ancelyn says "She vanquished me, and I threw myself on her mercy!".

Then there is the scene when Ancelyn fights one of Mordred's knights and is about to close in for the kill yelling but Bambera stops him.  And Bambera says "Can't you do anything quietly?!  You'll bring Morgaine's whole army down on us" and Ancelyn arrogantly says "Let them come. Do you not know I am the best knight in the world?!".  And as Bambera explains to Ancelyn in their world they have tradition of tactical withdrawal, so Ancelyn says "Ah, you wish to run away. Well, there can be but thirty of them at the most".  And Bambera angrily says to him "If you don't start running, I'll kill you myself, now come on!" promtping Ancelyn to ask "Winifred?  Art thou betrothed?" and Bambera to shout "Not now, Ancelyn!".  

Angela Bruce next up is pretty good too as the feisty female Brigadier, Winifred Bambera, who helps the Doctor, Ace and the other Brig fight Morgaine.  Angela has some good moments as well but save more typing I won't really mention too many at all.  But suffice to say she has some good moments most of which are Bambera's scenes with Ancelyn as the two of them have a quasi-romance. 

So I will quickly mention a couple of those scenes such as the one where Bambera first meets Ancelyn and stops him saying "Not you.  I want to talk to you!" and as Ancelyn patronisingly says to her "I do not talk to peasants" Bambera angrily grabs and yells "You'll talk to ME!!" and they start fighting.

And later there is the scene where Ancelyn is about to kill one of Morgaine's knights and he yells but Bambera stops him "Ancelyn! Ancelyn! Can't you do anything quietly?!  You're going to bring Morgaine's whole army down on us!".  And as Ancelyn seems more than prepared to fight all the knights single handedly, Bambera says to him "Ancelyn, in this world we have a great and honourable tradition of tactical withdrawal".  And as Ancelyn mocks her wish to run away, Bambera angrily says "If you don't start running, I'll kill you myself. Now come on!".

And to save on quoting more dialogue I will lastly mention the last few cast members, James Ellis does pretty well in his role as Warmsly, the local archaeologist who is a bit weary of the Doctor and Ace at first.  Ling Tai while she has a pretty small role as Shou Yuing, she does not too badly with what she is given and she shares a nice bit of friendship chemistry with Sophie as Shou and Ace and almost instantly become good friends.  And last of all is Stefan Schwartz who is also quite good as the Destroyer, Morgaine's monstrous challenger who she summons to bring doom to the Earth and his make-up for the role is quite impressive.  

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

Finally moving onto the director, Michael Kerrigan has done not too bad a job here with the story and he keeps the pace moving along nicely and the story itself never really drags at any time.  Kerrigan's direction of the fight scenes however is a bit clumsy looking in places and whether it was down to him or the show's producer of the time (the infamous John Nathan-Turner!) there is no shortage of cheesy moments in the story itself but then I can get to them in more detail in the flaws section.  But that aside Kerrigan does well with the material that he has, despite any faults with the story itself.  The production itself however had its problems that included the scene where Ace was trapped inside the alcove which fills up with water as the tank Sophie Aldred was placed in started to crack and she was lifted out in time just before it shattered flooding out water all over the studio!  

As for the music.....well.....hmmmm....OK folks this is Keff McCulloch we are talking about here who if there were ever any awards ever given to who has written the most cheesy Doctor Who music of all time, Keff would be your man!  So yes its safe to say that McCulloch's score for Battlefield is a real mixed bag with more than its share of cringe inducing music cues and cheesy sounding synths throughout.  In fact the DVD release of the story featured a special edition which heavily cut down the cheese factor of McCulloch's score! 

But despite all that the score itself still has some good moments and they are generally the quieter scenes where McCulloch uses his synths to build a bit of atmosphere rather than just hit you with some really clunky, cheesy sounding dramatic chords and some bosa-nova thrown in for inexplicable measure!  So it is what it is, its far from the best score you will ever hear in a Doctor Who story but it relatively safe to say there have been worse.

FLAWS

As for Battlefield's flaws.....yes there are some.

And to kick off it has to be said that the plot itself is a bit of a mess and its really not clear as to how the Doctor was involved in the story in the first place and how Morgaine and the others know he is Merlin (or supposed to be!).  And the timeline itself of the story is clearly pretty muddled as at the start Ancelyn recognises the Doctor as being "Merlin" and Mordred later recognises him too, but later on in the scene where Morgaine arrives, Mordered says the Doctor has a "new countenance" and she says he "has worn many faces".  Now if this is the case then how did Ancelyn and Mordred recognise the Doctor in the first place?!  And the Doctor implies that he must have appeared to them as a future version of himself in another time and just maybe another universe.  But again it just doesn't really add up very well.

The story also has some really stupid and cheesy moments too such as the one where Ace shares her story about the explosives she threw away in her school.  And in the scene she says to Shou Yuing after she threw in the school "And boom!" which is OK to say it once but then we get a silly close up of Ace saying "BOOM!" again and it just feels a bit cringe inducing when you see it!  In fact this moment was edited out of the special edition of the story on the DVD release and it certainly makes for better viewing than the original in quite a few ways!

Some of the other silly scenes involve the Doctor himself as he has to resort to some stupid improvisation to get himself out of trouble against Morgaine and Mordred.  And then there is the scene where the Doctor is about to enter a vortex to travel to confront Morgaine and he says to Ace "Now high drama, is very similar to comedy.  Its all a matter of....." and he stupidly pirouettes through the vortex saying "timing!".  And its moments like that make you go "what the hell is this programme all about????!!" and basically it makes no sense and if anything all it does is succeed in making the Doctor look even more like a complete arse!  In fact I wouldn't put it past John Nathan-Turner to have written that bit in himself!  

Another thing that bugs me about the story is just how and why do the knights have laser guns???  Again its not explained how some of them are using more advanced technology than others!  Perhaps this relates to the Doctor in some way in that his other self as "Merlin" giving the warring knights the means to fight with more advanced weaponary maybe would explain this.  But again it highlights that the story is a bit of a mess and it just isn't very coherent when it comes to it various plot strands.  

And lastly regarding the end of the story (SPOILERS!!) it leaves things just a bit unresolved as to what will happen with Morgaine and Mordred as the Doctor simply diffuses Morgaine's rage and leaves her heartbroken at the news of Arthur's death and he inexplicably knocks out Mordred by just placing his hand over Mordred's forehead.  And in the end the Doctor simply says to Bambera to just "lock up" the pair of them yet we know that Morgaine is a sorceress and she has demonstrated the power to transport herself and her son away if she wants to and to anywhere presumably too!  So for the story to just neatly lock them away doesn't make much sense in itself given the power that Morgaine has!  

Anyway that's it for my look at the flaws.

SUM UP

So to finally sum up Battlefield is an enjoyable story of the McCoy era which has plenty of daft moments of humour and good fun to keep you entertained.  The story is of course not without its faults and the plot is basically a bit of a mess which leaves alot of things unexplained and it has its fair share of cringeworthy moments.  In fact the writer Ben Aaronovitch himself admitted in the DVD commentary for the story that it wasn't all that it could have been and was quick to point out many of its flaws as well.  And to top that off you've got an incredibly cheesy and cringe-inducing score by Keff McCulloch!  Uggghhhh!  

But if you are willing to forgive its faults then Battlefield is still a story from the original series which is worth checking if not for any other reason its the last appearance of Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and that in itself makes it worth checking out as well as being just a bit of corny fun.  

And that is finally it and I will be back another time with another post.  

Till the next un bye for now!