MR 072: Terror Firma

The Doctor is irresponsible with his companions, the story. I mean, that's not necessarily out of place for the Doctor. They do tend to wander off and get into danger all the time. It's a necessary part of telling a Doctor Who story. However, he's kind of grossly negligent in this one. And not towards Charley and C'rizz.

We last left off with a cliffhanger that as soon as they got back into their universe, the Doctor, Charley, and C'rizz all encounter Davros and the Daleks. That was honestly the most interesting part of that story and it's just kind of funny here. It turns out they're on Earth, naturally, at some unspecified point in time where the Daleks have taken over. Davros has turned everyone on Earth into a Dalek, with a few holdouts. It's kind of a big deal in Earth's history.

We meet a couple of other characters: Samson and Gemma who are kind of wandering around here. Gemma is part of the resistance and Samson is... just here? I guess? And their mother is throwing parties on the surface above the Dalek base. Samson is not doing well, he knows what the TARDIS key is and has memories of the Doctor while Gemma turns out to be a Dalek duplicate.

The two of them apparently used to be the Doctor's companions before Charley, but Davros erased his memory of them and captured them. This was the negligent bit that kick started the whole story. The Doctor let them go off and explore a spaceship while he sat there and read a book, without scanning it or anything. I'm not sure why he would do that. Normally he's a helicopter parent, hovering over them and telling them not to run off or they'll sprain their ankle. Naturally Davros is on board and he captures them all.

Davros wants to take revenge for the whole blowing up Skarro thing in Revelation of the Daleks. So he makes Gemma a puppet and somehow links Samson's mind with the TARDIS so he can keep tabs on the Doctor at all times. And then he erased the Doctor's memory of them entirely. He then goes to Earth to destroy the Doctor's home and convert all the humans to Daleks after the Doctor destroyed his planet. I do like the link here with the first Eighth Doctor audio story, Storm Warning. The end of this story leads directly into the opening scene of that one. Cute.

The problem is that Samson and Gemma are just very generic as far as companions go. Might as well be Ben and Polly. They used to be librarians and they follow the Doctor into his TARDIS. I do like the little montage where they have sentient guitars attacking them, though. That was funny.

C'rizz goes with Gemma and joins the resistance, which are all actually Daleks intent on resisting Davros. They want to make C'rizz their emperor because he kills to keep himself alive. Apparently that's enough to make someone a Dalek? Sure, I guess. I do like the teaser here that C'rizz could become the emperor. This was put out in 2005 and the emperor had just been introduced on tv. They used the same voice as the one used on the show. So what if C'rizz really does become the emperor Dalek? Of course he doesn't, but it's an effective tease.

Charley is hanging out with Samson the whole story and the Doctor breaks his link with the TARDIS. Samson's mother was secretly part of the resistance and is kind of a badass as well. That doesn't really go anywhere though. The Doctor makes a deal with the Daleks that they leave. Davros gave the Doctor poison that would kill everything on the planet (making him question whether it's better for everyone to live as Daleks/Dalek duplicates) and so the Doctor uses that as blackmail to get all the Daleks to leave. I feel like they'd call his bluff there. This is not the Doctor that will press the double genocide button and this story isn't serious enough to consider it anyway.

Anyway, the Daleks leave and make Davros their emperor and then the Doctor leaves without a goodbye to Samson, someone he used to travel with. I feel like that was underutilized here. There should have been a little more emotional impact, more scenes between them. It's kind of just a plot point and not used for character work at all really. And then we get a little teaser about C'rizz talking to people he's killed, hinting that he's a psycopath and that's it.

I know I'm just describing the mechanics of this plot, but that's because I didn't really feel much emotional or character weight here. The story doesn't have a lot to say, just Davros being bent on revenge and the Doctor being a little moody. Nothing unusual for either of them. Just a very standard Davros story. The twist about Samson and Gemma having traveled with the Doctor before doesn't really add that much to the story I think. It's just another mechanic in Davros's revenge plan. The idea of Davros specifically using the Doctor's companions as part of his revenge is interesting, for sure, but the weight of it is let down by wiping the Doctor's memory of them. What's the point of the revenge, then, if the Doctor doesn't know what he's lost? Also, the Earth is completely devastated. There's only a few people on it now after all the Daleks left. Not sure when this story is supposed to take place, but good luck rebuilding it last of the humans.

SUCH A GOOD STORY I NEED MORE SAMSON GEMMA STORIES IN MY LIFE