Right, time for a new post and one that will go between the first and second part of my list of my favourite scenes from The Sopranos (basically I'm stuck for ideas on which scenes to choose to finish it off!!).
Anyway back to the new post and this one is on yet another Doctor Who story only this time its a Tom Baker story, but not just any story, its his final story: Logopolis. So how does Tom's swansong story fair after 36 years???? Well let's take a look and find out....
And yep the usual warning is coming......
SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!
STORY
So, the story begins with the Doctor deciding to try and fix the TARDIS's broken chameleon circuit, which he sets about doing by measuring the exact dimensions of a police telephone box, which the TARDIS is currently modelled on with the help of his companion and mathematic genius, Adric (Matthew Waterhouse). Once the Doctor has the measurements he plans to take them to the planet Logopolis, which is inhabited by a population of mathematicians who will be able to repair the Doctor's circuit with their calculations.
In the meantime, an airline stewardess named Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) stumbles along the TARDIS as her car breaks down she looks to try and call for help, however instead she enters the TARDIS and get's lost in its maze of corridors. The Doctor and Adric also soon learn that the Master (Anthony Ainley) is on their case after escaping from Traken (in the previous story, The Keeper of Traken) as he has materialised his TARDIS inside the Doctor's. This causes a strange loop where the Doctor and Adric keep entering inside the Master's TARDIS over and over and the Doctor soon decides the best way to banish the Master would be to flush him out as they land the TARDIS at the bottom of Thames.
However, the Doctor looks outside and sees the TARDIS has in fact just landed on a boat by the river but the Doctor soon sees a mysterious white figure, the Watcher, which the Doctor meets with up, who advises him to travel to Logopolis as soon as possible. The Doctor and Adric then set the TARDIS for Logopolis (with the Master's TARDIS now having dematerialised from the Doctor's) but enroute they discover Tegan onboard and the Doctor decides she has to come with them.
Once the Doctor, Adric and Tegan arrive on Logopolis, they are met with by the Monitor (John Fraser) the chief mathematician to whom the Doctor gives his new dimension calculations for the TARDIS to. However, it is soon apparent that the Master has arrived on Logopolis also as he kills several mathematicians, which ends up sabotaging the calculations for the Doctor's TARDIS, which begins to shrink as a result. This leaves, Adric and the Monitor to frantically try and work out a solution to attempt to get the Doctor's TARDIS back to full size.
Meanwhile, the mysterious Watcher figure has brought Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) to Logopolis, who is an aristocrat from the planet Traken (who appeared in the previous story TKOT) and she is reunited with Adric and meets Tegan. The Doctor's TARDIS is eventually restored to full size, however at this point, the Master reveals himself and he uses a device to temporarily disable the Logopolitan mathematicians from their calculations, which soon causes them to erode and turn to dust.
This now has catastrophic consequences for the universe as the Logopolitans were using their calculations to excise off entropy in the universe into other universes through the use of charged vaccum emboitments (CVEs). This now means that the universe could be in danger of being wiped out unless the Doctor and the Master can find a way to restore one of the CVEs.
And from here, the Doctor now must pull resources with the Master and form an uneasy alliance, so they can try and save the universe from certain destruction.......
THOUGHTS
As a swansong for the Tom Baker era, Logopolis remains a pretty good story and a very respectable send-off for the fourth doctor, although it has to be said its not a classic story by any means, however it still has plenty going for it. The story also sees the introduction of a new companion in Tegan Jovanka, who makes for a pretty feisty and entertaining character, who although she starts off a bit brazen and annoying at first, she soon mellows a little becomes one of the more memorable companions of the 1980s.
The plot of the story is pretty dense and complex but it remains a very intelligent script written by Christopher Bidmead, who himself was a former actor, who turned to being a writer and journalist and he wrote several articles for science journals. Bidmead at the time of this story was also the show's script editor and in Tom Baker's last season he certainly helped bring back a bit more credibility to the show after the fantastical excessive humour we had seen during the Graham Williams producer era of the show. So overall this is a good story from Bidmead.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
As for the performances, well they are mostly good here.
Starting off with Tom Baker, who is great in his final performance as the fourth doctor and by now he had grown so well into playing the role that he seemed to have wound himself well and truly up in the Doctor's own eccentric personality. Although in this story we do get a more serious Doctor from Tom as he plays him with perhaps a sense of a man who is aware that the time of his incarnation might be numbered.
Tom has plenty of good moments in the story that include his first when he talks to Adric in the cloister room (which is the room containing the bell that sounds in the event of impending danger) about how the TARDIS is starting to decay. And the Doctor says to Adric "The second law of thermodynamics is taking its toll on the old thing. Entropy increases". And as Adric asks "Entropy increases" the Doctor rambles in reply "Yes, daily. The more you put things together, the more they keep falling apart, and that's the essence of the second law of thermodynamics and I never heard a truer word spoken! Come on".
Then there is the scene where the Doctor tries to flush the Master out the TARDIS by landing it at the bottom of the Thames river, however they end up materialising on Cadogan pier in Chelsea (London). And as the Doctor and Adric step out, the Doc says "Ah. I thought there's be a perfectly simple explanation!" and Adric offers "Nearly got it right" but the Doctor says "Nearly, but not quite right. There's something not quite right about all of this". Then the Doctor sees the Watcher in the distance on Albert bridge and waves at the Doctor to come up and the Doctor looks on rather worried saying "Nothing like this has ever happened before" then he goes off to speak to the Watcher.
Another good scene is when the Master reveals himself on Logopolis and Nyssa, who has mistaken him for her father (as the Master used Nyssa's father's body to regenerate) shouts out "Father" only for the Doctor to tell her "That's not your father. Tremas is dead, murdered by him, the Master!". And Nyssa looks at the Master coldly and says "You killed my father??" and the Master tells her "But his body remains useful. Without it I could not have conquered Logopolis!". However the Doctor angrily tells the Master "This is not conquest, its devastation!" and the Master says "Its nothing more than a blanket of silence" and the Doctor tells him "Which is killing the Logopolitans and turning them to dust!" and the Master scoffs "You expect me to believe that?" and the Doctor shouts "YES!!".
Then there is the moment where the Doctor decides to pool resources with the Master in order to try and save the universe from its possible destruction at the hands of the entropy caused by the death of the Logopolitans. And the Doctor tells the Master "We must pool our resources" and Nyssa interrupts "That creature killed my father!" and the Doctor annoyed says "I can't choose the company I keep!". So, the Master smiles and says "An alliance with you, Doctor?" and the Doctor says "In the circumstances, yes" and the Master tells the Doctor "If we do cooperate, there will be no question of you ever returning to Gallifrey" and the Doctor reminds the Master "If we don't cooperate, there will be no question of Gallifrey!".
Nyssa then objects again to the Doctor "But Doctor!" and the Doctor interrupts her and says angrily "I've never chosen my own company. Nyssa, it was you who contacted me and begged me to help you find your father. Tegan, it's your own curiosity that got you into this. And Adric, a stowaway!". So after, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa depart in the TARDIS with the Watcher, the Master approaches the Doctor, he extends his hand out for him to shake it, saying "Together?" and the Doctor says "One last hope" and he reluctantly shakes hands with the Master.
And last of all is the scene where the Doctor (SPOILER!!!) manages to finally foil the Master's evil plans at a cost of his own life as he falls from the Antenna of the Pharos project to the ground where his surrounded by his companions. And the Doctor thinks of his old companions and enemies throughout his 4th incarnation and he then looks up at his friends and says his last words "Its the end, but the moment has been prepared for..." and we then see the Watcher walk towards the Doctor and merge with him, which sees the Doctor begin to regenerate.
Matthew Waterhouse next up does fairly well in his role as Adric although it has to be said he never really looks that comfortable onscreen as he spends alot of time fidgeting about not knowing what to do with his hands!
And Matthew has some good moments here and there although I will only mention a couple such as the scene where the Doctor is detained by a police detective (Tom Georgeson) after they find the miniaturised corpses of Tegan's aunt and a policeman. So the Doctor calls out for Adric to devise a ruse so he can get away from the police and in the scene Adric spots a bike and he uses it to pretend he has fallen off it. And Adric yells "Help me! Help me, please! Quickly! Help!!" and the Doctor then flees to the TARDIS and as the policemen approach Adric, he pushes the bicycle into them and he runs into the TARDIS too.
And once they are back in the TARDIS, they both notice the police box that was previously inside the control room has gone and Adric says "The box has gone!" and the Doctor suggests "It could be anywhere in the TARDIS!" and Adric asks "Battlestations?" and the Doctor replies "Absolutely!".
Then there is the scene where Adric reunites with Nyssa on Logopolis, who calls out to him "Adric!" and Adric smiles and greets her "Nyssa!" and rushes up to her "How did you get here?" and Nyssa tells him "A friend of the Doctor's brought me here. He's here somewhere". Then Adric and the Monitor both watch as the TARDIS begins to shrink and Adric asks "What's the matter?" and the Monitor says "Transfer instability. It may only be temporary". But the TARDIS continues to shrink and Adric says "Something's wrong!" and the Monitor says "Yes, you're right" and Adric asks "Can't you do something?!" but the Monitor is lost for an answer "I don't understand. I simply don't understand!". And as the TARDIS shrinks even more, Adric looks in horror and says "But the Doctor's in there!".
Next is Janet Fielding, who is pretty good in her debut role as the airline stewardess, Tegan Jovanka, who ends up getting lost in the TARDIS, mistaking it for a real police telephone box before she meets the Doctor and Adric.
And Janet has a few scenes worth a mention such as her first one where Tegan get's in her car, wearing her stewardess uniform, along with her Aunt Vanessa (Dolore Whiteman). And in the scene, Tegan's Aunt can't get the car started, so Tegan tells her "Okay, Aunty Vanessa, let's go. More choke. Easy on the throttle as you turn her over" and Aunt Vanessa tells her "While I do that, dear, I wonder if you'd mind shutting the front door!" and we see Tegan's house front door is left open. And after Tegan comes back to the car, having closed the door, she swaps seats and get's in the driving seat instead and manages to start the car first time and she smiles at her Aunt and says "I've got the knack!".
And just as Tegan is about to drive she goes through her little airline stewardess speech as if speaking to passengers onboard a flight "Ladies and gentlemen. Although the fasten seatbelt sign is now off, we suggest that you keep your seatbelt fastened when seated. If necessary, you may move about the cabin. Smoking is now permitted!".
Then there is the scene where atfer Tegan has continually wandered hopelessly around the TARDIS's maze of corridors she finally ends up in the main console room to see the Doctor and Adric, who both look on in surprise. And Tegan angrily says to them "I demand to see whoever's in charge of this ship!!" leaving the Doctor and Adric speechless. Tegan then angrily says to the Doctor "You can take me right back where you found me, Doctor whoever you are! My aunt's waiting in the car to take me to the airport!". This then sparks the Doctor's interest as he asks "You're aunt? Woman in the white hat, red sports car?" and Tegan asks "You've seen her?" and the Doctor plays it down and says "Well, a little of her!".
Lastly there is the scene where the Doctor having sent Adric, Tegan and Nyssa off with the Watcher in the Doctor's TARDIS, we see Tegan come back out the TARDIS as she wants to find the Doctor to take her back home. And Adric protests to her "Look, we all want to help the Doctor, but we've got to do as he says!" but Tegan tells him "Listen. The Doctor's my ticket back to London airport, so I'm going after him!" and as Tegan is about to go, Adric calls out "Tegan!" but she turns to Adric and says "Have a nice trip!" and heads off.
Sarah Sutton is also pretty good (and looks rather cute in that outfit of hers!) as Nyssa, the young aristocrat from the planet Traken, who's father Tremas, was killed by the Master, who inhabits his body.
And Sarah's most notable scene comes when the Watcher having taken Adric and Nyssa out of time and space itself on the TARDIS, Adric get's back to the control room with Nyssa and sets the TARDIS co-ordinates for the Pharos project on Earth. And Nyssa in the scene, flicks a switch that brings on a displays of a cluster of stars on the monitor screen and Nyssa says "Adric, the scanner" and Adric looks at it and says "The whole universe. Of course. We're beyond space and time!". And after they spot Earth on the scanner, Nyssa looks closer at it and suddenly becomes a little emotional and tells Adric "Adric I can't see Traken". And Adric has a look to see and says "Traken should be..." and Nyssa continues "I can't even see Metulla Orionsis. The Master killed my stepmother, and then my father, and now the world that I grew up in, blotted out forever!".
Then we have Anthony Ainley, who made his debut here as the Master, although he previously appeared as Tremas in the story prior to this one, "The Keeper of Traken". And it has to be said that Ainley really seems to enjoy hamming things up here in his role as the Master as he always plays the Master with a rather cheesy evil grin on his face and has him often laugh out loud! Despite this though I've always quite enjoyed Ainley's portrayal of the Master even if it can be a bit pantomine-esque and his debut here is still fairly solid.
And Ainley has his share of good moments too that include the scene where we finally see the Master in person on Logopolis (prior to that we just hear him do a lot of wicked laughter off camera!) just after the TARDIS has shrink, as a result of the Master killing a few of the Logopolitans, it sabotaged the dimensional calculations for the TARDIS's restructuring. And in the scene as we see some of the Logopolitans carry the TARDIS off to the central register to try and restore it, we see the Master hiding in one of the doorways and he laughs saying "At last, Doctor. At last I've cut you down to size!".
Then there is the scene where Nyssa first meets the Master on Logopolis and she thinks he is still her father, Tremas. And Nyssa says to the Master "But what is this mission of yours, father? You're so changed by it. You look younger, but so cold!". And the Master says to her "Logopolis is a cold place. A cold, high place overlooking the universe. It holds a single great secret, Nyssa, which you and I must discover together!". And in the scene, the Master tells Nyssa she should return to the Doctor and Nyssa says "Father, I don't want to be parted from you" and the Master says to her "No need to, my dear. Here, wear this" and he givs Nyssa a gold bracelet to wear, which he places on her wrist. And the Master tells Nyssa "It will keep us in mind of one another. Remember to tell no one that you've seen me, yet!".
And lastly there is the scene where the Master and the Doctor, having pooled their resources to try and activate the one last remaining CVE at the Pharos project (which would in effect save the universe from being wiped out due to the catastrophic effects of entropy caused by the destruction of Logopolis).
However in the scene, the Master plans to blackmail the universe by controlling the CVE and threatening to deactivate it unless they bend to his demands. And in the scene the Master tells the Doctor "And now I think it's time for you to go and explain the presence of your friends. There's quite a hubbub outside" and the Doctor says "You're quite right. One mistake now could ruin everything" and the Master tells him "I know that, Doctor, and it could happen so easily". And the Doctor, suspiciously asks "What do you mean?" and the Master says "The universe is hanging on a thread. A single recursive pulse down that cable and the CVE would close forever. Even a humble assistant could do it!" and the Doctor looks shocked and says "You're mad!".
So, the Master then plays a recorded message of his blackmail to the universe over the Antenna control room's speaker system, leaving the Doctor appalled and he says to him "Blackmail" and the Master says "No, Doctor, I'm merely reporting the state of affairs. I have it in my power now to save them or destroy them!". And the Doctor looks at the Master in disgust and tells him "You're utterly mad!!" and the Master holds his gun up to him and warns "Back, Doctor. The proceedings must not be interrupted!" and he looks at the control room and laughs to himself "It's mine. The CVE. It's all mine!".
And last of all is, John Fraser, who is very good in his role as the chief mathematician on Logopolis, the Monitor.
But to save time I will just mention one of Fraser's scenes as the Monitor and its the one where the Master turns on a device that acts as a sound canceller that temporarily will disable the Logopolitans from their calculations, however this leads to disastrous consequences. And in the scene, the Monitor warns the Master "You're destroying everything! It may already be too late!" and the Master says "You exaggerate, Monitor. Logopolis is not the universe" and the Monitor shouts back "But it is! Logopolis is the keystone. If you destroy Logopolis, you unravel the whole causal nexus!".
And the Master says to the others "I can demonstrate the continued functioning of Logopolis from here. This device only creates temporary silence and can be switched off!" as he switches off the device but there is nothing but silence. And as they run outside they see the Logopolitans having indeed decayed to dust and the Monitor dispairs "You will hear nothing. Local disruption of structure is now irreversible. Logopolis is dead!".
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the direction, Peter Grimwade does a fine job here with the story as he paces it out at a nice leisurely speed and it rarely ever lags and he also allows for the injection of some fun into the story with the arrival of Tegan and the Doctor and Adric trying to flush out the Master from the TARDIS. Grimwade himself was already a member of the show's production crew prior to becoming a director of several serials (including "Earthshock" during the Peter Davison era) and so it remains that this is easily one of his better directorial efforts for the show.
Lastly we move onto the music score, which is by Paddy Kingsland, who was around that time already a member of the BBC Radiophonic workshop and he has prior to writing scores for Doctor Who also did the music score for the sci-fi radio show "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Kingsland would also go on to score other TV shows in the future such as Michael Palin's "Around the world in 80 days".
As for Paddy's actual score here, its actually not too bad and it is purely electronic synthesizer based (although I think it does feature a guitar in there somewhere!) as were all the other scores were during the 1980's era of the show. The score however is not that memorable in itself and it is better served simply to listen to while watching the story rather listen to it by itself as an isolated soundtrack but it is still fit for purpose and is pretty decent.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may also contain spoilers!)
Now flaws....does Logopolis have some??? Yes it does have some albeit nothing too drastic.
And to kick off it has to be said that with this story, Christopher Bidmead's script is at times just a bit too convoluted to follow as the whole plot can be quite difficult to follow. And even though its an enjoyable story for adults I could easily see it quickly being a bore for children as it would most likely just confuse them!
As for one of the big plotholes of the story, the biggest one for me was the Master's ignorance as to what the consequences would be if he tampered with the operation of Logopolis, as it really never occurs to him by doing this that he would potentially cause irriversible damange to the universe! Yet the Master in the scene where he enables his signal cancelling device at the central register on Logopolis, he is totally oblivious to the results it will have, yet even the Doctor is aware! It makes you think at times, the Master really isn't as bright as he would like to make himself out to be!
Another issue I had with the story was the silly scene where the Doctor and Adric decide to try and flush out the Master's TARDIS from the TARDIS by materialising it underwater in the Thames. I mean its a pretty stupid idea and ultimately it never works because the Doctor lands the TARDIS on a pier instead! Also the Master could have easily dematerialised his TARDIS before the Doctor even managed to try the manouvere in the first place.
Then there are one or two continuity issues in the story itself with the main one being the scene where Adric creates a diversion so the Doctor can escape from the police, who have detained him, so Adric uses a nearby bike to pretend he has fallen off it and he lies down on the wet grass and when he get's up, his outfit is all damp and a bit muddy at the back. However once we cut to the Doctor and Adric back in the TARDIS we can see that Adric's outfit is now completely clean and there is no damp or mud on it at all! So its a pretty silly continuity error that obviously went unmissed.
There are also one or two laughable moments in the story too, such as the one where we see the Monitor lead the Doctor and the others through the corridors of the office on Logopolis, where we see the Logopolitans seated at work. However as the Monitor goes through the next door we see a cardboard cutout of the previous room, which evidently exposes the show's rather modest budget at the time!
And then there is the laughable moment near the end where the Doctor tries to make his way out onto the Pharos project's radio antenna walkway but the Master has activated the dish, which makes the walkway start to spin around and leave the Doctor clinging on for dear life. However in this scene we can also see another cardboard cutout of the Master in the background as the Doctor desparately tries to cling on to the walkway and again it just looks as fake as anything and laughable!
And last of all is the whole concept of the Watcher in the story, which is a strange one in itself as we later discover that (SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!) the Watcher was in fact the Doctor all along. Now that would suggest to me that if you hold to the theory in the Jon Pertwee story "The Three Doctors" if the Doctor's other selves co-exist together at the same time then this would transgress the first law of time itself. So this means that yet again, the first law of time here had indeed been transgressed once more, and you also never get to the find out just where did the Watcher come from and who, if at all, sent him???
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum it all up, "Logopolis" is an enjoyable and worthy send-off for Tom Baker as the Doctor, even if the story itself isn't a bona-fide classic, it still has plenty to commend it with its intelligent (albeit overly complex) script, fairly solid performances and decent direction. The story however is of course a bit too complex at times to follow with its convoluted plotlines and the story isn't really a classic as such and yes arguably, Tom Baker could have recieved a better send-off than this one.
However despite these flaws, "Logopolis" is still well worth a look and as far as swansong stories, it does nothing to disgrace the Tom Baker era and it sees one of the show's most popular incarnations get a decent finale.
Right and that's it for now and I will be back soon with the 2nd part of my look at my Top 10 favourite scenes from The Sopranos (once I can decide on which scenes to do!).
So until the next one, its bye for now!
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