Galaxy 4

“They consume valuable food and fulfill no particular fonction”

Il y a des robots mignons, une méchante cool, et pour ça l’histoire est presque, par endroits, plutôt fun. Mais ce ne sont quand même que quelques petits moments enchanteurs dans ce qui est peut-être le premier épisode vraiment médiocre de la série.

Ce n'est même pas un épisode révoltant en soi. La morale est concon. Mais franchement la série fera pire. En fait le plus gros problème c’est juste qu’il y a juste pas trop d’idées.

Maaga a au moins un certain charisme et l’actrice domine le script avec une performance vraiment théâtrale.

Mais il y a que ça. Comme j'ai dit.

Et les robots mignons.

📝3/10 = UNENJOYABLE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “GALAXY FOUR (LOOSE CANNON RECONSTRUCTION)”

Galaxy Four is a bit of an oddity in that it's one of the most socially conscious Classic Who stories, almost Star Trekian in its narrative, and it also happens to be one of the most missing serials (no tele-snaps and hardly any publicity shots exist; Part 3 was discovered a decade ago, and there's a snippet of surviving material at the tail end of Part 1). We do get some grip on the story, even if the production is nigh impossible to evaluate as a whole. This review is based on the Loose Cannon reconstruction.

At its core, this is a classic warring factions story disguised under a flashy sci-fi production, an all-female guest cast, and some important life lessons. The story itself is hardly representative of its themes and structure and is very repetitive in its content.

The plot sees the characters walk back and forth between two sets while trying to come up with different ways to escape the planet they're currently on. It's one of the emptiest four-parters the show has ever done.

Frankly, the action-heavy opening part, coupled with a busy soundtrack and poor sound quality, makes it very hard to understand what is going on at the beginning of the tale.

The twist in Part 3 is meant to be a genuine surprise, but I find it predictable from miles away, seeing how Maaga and the Drahvins are depicted and performed before this.

It's truly jarring how the moral lessons of the episode stick out, due to there not being much of a plot to naturally embed them into.

The idea of the ugly alien race being the good one and the beautiful alien race being the evil one (don't judge a book by its cover!) isn't particularly original but feels like a pivotal piece of education for 60s kids. And it's always a good thing to remember in the 2020s as well, kids!

William Emms obviously came up with the educational part first and then struggled to find a way to convey the message. The conclusion to the story feels very confusing as well, so it's a pity it doesn't exist. In its current state, it's a bit too messy to work.

The Doctor having to work against the clock and save everyone from a planet about to explode into nothingness is unusually bleak and depressing for Doctor Who. Add to that the rather dark ending of the story, and you have the beginning of a fairly dark and depressing season of Doctor Who.

This is an unusually action-packed episode for the Doctor, with poor 57-ish-year-old William Hartnell running around the sets trying to save everyone before the time is up. He does a good job regardless of this, though.

Stephanie Bidmead does a good enough job of feeling just as unlikeable and treacherous as she's meant to be as the villain of the piece—her fourth-wall-breaking moments are particularly effective.

The Drahvins, being a race of women warriors using men as tools, feel very forward-thinking and mean Galaxy Four is a story with a predominantly female cast, which is a rarity.

Why, oh why, did the producers insist on creating new Dalek wannabes? This time, the Chumblies (aptly named by Vicki and then accepted by everybody as a fact) become something of a hybrid between the antlike Zarbi from The Web Planet (1965) and the clumsy Mechonoids from The Chase (1965), and they appear a lot in this serial doing absolutely nothing of note, and we mostly just hear their beeping sound, so they aren't all that effective (if they ever were).

Steven is unfortunately done dirty here because he is given the lines originally meant for Barbara (this story was written while she was still a character in the show), and he lacks the energy and personality from The Time Meddler (1965) and later stories.

The Drahvins are mostly wasted potential, as their female warrior side isn't used to great effect, and they end up spending most of the story sitting inside the crashed spaceship. Additionally, the story makes it a bit too obvious that they are not the good guys here, particularly in how cold and ruthless Maaga appears to everyone and everything from the beginning.

I'm sad to say that the Rills (who we, fortunately, get to meet properly in the existing Part 3) are nothing but shouty alien lumps that work better on paper than brought to life on a shoestring budget.

It's a pity this missing story is so visual in structure because it is a chore to sit through and try to figure out what is going on. I had to read the episode synopses online to keep up with the narrative.

Unfortunately, watching a handful of pictures of Chumblies and listening to annoying beeping noises four episodes in a row does not make for a very compelling story.

Much like with The Web Planet, the head-piercing sound design is one of the chief reasons this story is hard to sit through, especially without supporting visuals.

Galaxy Four is slow and tedious but also very light on actual tension since the two halves of the story tackle the main characters very differently, and there's no proper time to build up to anything.

I'm not very sold on the production design from what we can see from the pictures and the surviving material. This is one of the least visually pleasing stories of the Hartnell era, but that was probably unavoidable considering the production cost of upcoming, gigantic stories.

“Our appearance shocks you?”

A first time watch for me, watching the animated version through IPlayer. It’s an enjoyable enough little story, with an interesting premise regarding not judging others by appearances or what may first seem to be the case. It’s a shame then that other than this premise and message, it doesn’t seem to do too much more with it.

It gets a little repetitive by the final episode, but the Chumblies are a fun design and idea, even if a little silly and unthreatening. I also liked the Drahvins and their interactions a lot, it gives us more time with Steven, and explores more of his personality than the previous story managed.

The animation is decent, simplistic but fitting for the story nicely, and while not one of the most gripping nor complex stories, I had a fun time with it!

Galaxy Four: 9.2 - Galaxy Four was, in my opinion, a great story. I thought it was another good story for the Doctor/Steven/Vicki Tardis team and all three had things to do and played a part in the story. The Drahvins were a really interesting species and their design, in both live action and animation, were really good. The Rills were also a cool species and the Chumblies were so cute. The animation was really well made and it was cool seeing the differences in set design between the live action episode 3 and the rest of the episodes being in animation. 

The best thing about this one is all the aliens - Chumblies, Drahvins and Rills. Having them fight it out between them with the Doctor, Steven and Vicki getting caught in the middle is very entertaining. As always, it was the non-missing episode (found in 2011) that I enjoyed the most, so it's very difficult to judge this one fairly.

I found Steven in the airlock suffocating to be the best thing about the story - brilliantly acted. Oh, and what a cliffhanger!

An aggressively mediocre set of First Doctor episodes, Galaxy 4 is entertaining enough, but often for reasons not intended by the production.

This is Peter Purves' least favourite episode as he is largely filling in a part written for Barbara, but it leads to amusing trivia more than it affects the story in any way. Really, it is just kind of boring. The Rills look silly but I do like how readily the TARDIS crew accept them. Otherwise, it is very forgettable content.

Love this story I know it’s a little underbaked but I love it maaga is such an amazing villain intimidating too I think Steven does suffer as a character in this story which I know his actor also agreed on Vicki has some strong moments too I love how her and 1st are together for most of it and the rell design is also amazing I do feel the animation is a little jaring with the surviving episode but I won’t hold it against the story however maaga throwing her soldier into the planet was a nice touch

Ahhh, a new season of Who. Let’s all sit down and watch our lovely cast land down as we explore the planet and discover the wondrous world of sexist fears towards feminism in the 60s.

………They just couldn’t start light, could they.

This story is notorious for all the wrong reasons. I tend to not look into production issues, since I’m mostly interested in how the story actually presents itself. But how could I have avoided all this? Everyone involved in this story hated it. It almost fired Hartnell. It had a producer who had a bit of a power trip and we will feel the awful repercussions of this fallout for half of the TV season. That’s not to mention the blatant sexism this story is known for. I basically had an opinion before I watched it.

But let’s move all that as far aside and really try to keep it fair. We’ll just look at this like any other story. Preconceived notions be damned. Afterwards, we will look at the larger implications hiding beneath.

This is a story on an unnamed planet. This unnamed planet has 2 species on them. On one side, we have the Drahvins. Warrior women who are supposed to be beautiful. On the other, the Rills, who are supposed to be hideous.

I say “supposed” because I don’t think its presented that well. The costume designs have aged a bit, and in my eyes, neither of them are presented as extremely as they are supposed to.

The 2 species are in conflict, because the planet they are on will soon explode. Taking all of them with it. The Rills are preparing to leave, and have offered the Drahvins to help, but they have an egocentrical world view and would rather take them down and leave on their own.

On paper, I do think this does some things right. If I recall correctly, the Rills are the first species on TV that are peaceful without being forced towards violence. At the very least since the Sensorites. They are a pure good force, who don’t feel the need to throw punches, which I can appreciate. In fact, they are so polite and accommodating, that they refuse to show themselves because they might scare people, instead sending out trolley robots. Vicki quickly calls those Chumblies. Great taste.

The Drahvins are on the other side of the spectrum. They look kind at first, but quickly show their ugly side. Most of them are braindead morons, while their leader is an evil schemer in the most classic way. This turns the conflict very black and white after what can be described as a very basic “subversion of expectations.”

And honestly, it’s almost too basic in places. It’s a very base level story, even for the children’s program Doctor Who. The Rills get away with this for their peaceful approach. They are kind creatures but aren’t taught violence. That’s, shockingly, pretty new at this point.

The Drahvins could’ve been more. And there are almost hints of what could be. There are a few moments in the story that feel like they’re prodding at a balloon that just won’t pop. There’s a short moment where Steven almost gets through to one of the brain zombie Drahvin. Almost getting her to think for herself. There’s also a scene with the Drahvin leader contemplating about how she didn’t really want soldiers to explore the universe, but was forced to. We’re allllmost there, but we sadly don’t get the darn thing to pop. Leaving us with pretty flat villains.

Then there’s the resolution, where the kind Rills get to escape the planet, while the Drahvins get to drown in molten lava. That’s…. definitely something a story can do. Yep. Bit harsh there, Doctor. They really weren’t established as evil enough to earn all that.

Besides all the story stuff, though, I am glad to see this cast back in action. Some things have changed with them, some have stayed the same. The fact we now have a proper party of 3 instead of 4 puts more of a spotlight on each individual, so let’s look at what we’re dealing with:

Steven feels more like his audio portrayals than his last few episodes here. He's relatively calm and collected. Not as hyper as he was before, but still definitely himself. He does not really get any stand-out moments, but I’m glad he’s back.

Vicki is practically unchanged. As mentioned, she’s the one that actually named the Chumblies. The also tries out the scientific method of throwing a rock at stuff and becomes the first person to talk with the Rills. Great stuff all around with her.

The Doctor himself has changed a bit again. Season 1 saw him as a stubborn old man who learned a lot, Season 2 saw him as a new man who had learned to enjoy life again and now Season 3 seems to present him as a sort of middle ground between the 2. He’s optimistic, yet a bit stately and stiff. Active, but to a point. I know partially why this might be the case, but let’s not talk about that yet. I do think the new approach works, and I wonder if we get some more learning moments with it as well.

And normally this is where I would summarize the story and call it quits. But we probably should talk about the elephant in the room some more. This story is widely known as a reactionary tale to feminism. The Drahvins were mostly written as an extreme of what feminism could lead to. Despising men, while only focusing on themselves. Meanwhile the Rills, with their manly voices, are presented as the better alternative by showing kindness instead.

So before looking more deeply at that, which I do feel necessary. Let me reiterate my background, like I did for “The Suffering”: I am a white guy in my twenties, so I have inherent privilege, and am probably not the person people want takes about feminism from. Yet I suppose this story makes it unavoidable. Just know that I am completely on board with equal rights between all genders. Discrimination is not be tolerated. Hate is always foolish, and love is always wise, after all.

The way feminism is portrayed in this story is eerily similar to the concept of “feminazism”. The gist of this term is that some women will take the ideas of feminism to such an extreme, that they will dismiss the male gender and strive for superiority over equality. In practice, the term is mostly used by bigots to spread hate and fear towards feministic beliefs.

While all belief systems inherently have their extremes, improperly portraying those beliefs can lead to a large number of people being put in a bad light. Think of Muslims being compared to terrorists, for example. This story portrays feminism like a novelty and brings the most radical interpretation of it to the foreground (Kill all men, etc.), while not bothering to expand on the ideas that founded the belief system in the first place. This makes the tale careless with its message, which is irresponsible and dangerous to the larger cause.

That being said, I’m not inherently against the idea of Doctor Who tackling radical feminism. A contrast between radical feminism and other feminist philosophies could genuinely be very educational. In fact, Doctor Who has covered feminism before/after in the story “The Suffering”. Maybe the Rills could’ve been presented as an alternative feminist viewpoint, instead of kind, but male, dragons. This could lead to questions and discussions, just like The Suffering did. It would take some stellar writing to do this topic and comparison justice, however.

And that’s not what we have. This script is, by all accounts, the work of an amateur. It has some good ideas, but it also had some perspectives that Doctor Who could’ve done without. Right now, it’s a simple children’s story with some sinister undertones. Yes, it has some ideas that land and some of the concepts it brings are worth exploring, but not like this. But who knows, maybe it will inspire better works in the future.

A small side note: If I’ve said something stupid or insensitive in this review, please contact me. I’ve really tried to do this subject justice, because it is important, but I’m also far from an expert.