MR 078: Pier Pressure

I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. There's some interesting stuff going on here, but it's just way too long for what it is. It's not the worst thing I've ever heard like this author's previous story: Medicinal Purposes, but it's not really good either.

On the beach in the past, there was a pier. And on that pier there was a magician named Professor Talbot and his attraction. Only he'd been dead for a long time. But, of course, not really. He's been kept alive by this entity called Indo.

It's essentially a ghost story. The Indo kill and possess a girl named Emily just as they are trying to possess Professor Talbot, but it doesn't work out for them. That's all well and good. The problem is that the story is way too long.

Very little happens in this two hour drama, it definitely should have been an hour instead. There's a decent performance of the real life comedian Max Miller. But there is a funny section of the script where Evelyn and Max are just in the TARDIS playing I Spy, like the script has nothing to do with them. We spend like twenty minutes just sitting around with them. And while it's cute and all, it's time that could have been cut. This story is a great example of why the two hour classic format isn't necessarily a good thing.

The Doctor ultimately stops the Indo by blowing up the power source that keeps Talbot alive, thus dissipating the Indo into the pier where they will be until the pier collapses, apparently. But it's a long winding road to get there.

It's not offensive like Medicinal Purposes was, but there was some stuff that made me raise my eyebrows. The Doctor continually insists that there is some great "evil" under the pier over and over again, even before he knows what's actually happening. That is very odd to me. Doctor Who doesn't usually just assume something is evil out of pocket before knowing what it is. He tries to figure out what's happening and understand it first and then declares it to be malevolent if it turns out to be the case. Very strange. This writer, Robert Ross, has demonstrated a lack of understanding of Doctor Who already so I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here as well.

Honestly, its worst crime is that it's just boring. And that's the worst thing that a Doctor Who story can be other than fundamentally undermine the entire reason why I like this franchise, like this author's last story. Give it a miss.