The Ambassadors of Death

Just going to be a quick one today, lads. With spoilers.

Just finished this serial. I really enjoyed it - very different from what I'm used to from that era in regards to the music, but I liked it! Felt pleasantly incongruous. There was a good balance of humour against the, you know, death. It was also spectacularly well-paced. Some of the worst fake fighting I've ever seen, though. I was under the impression for most of the serial - and still think I would have preferred this version - that there would be no aliens. It would all be fear and conspiracies - but then again, what else could I have expected from the bug-eyed monsters era of Who? (Yes, that is pretty much all of Who, I know). Still, I think they communicated the destruction that fear of the foreign can cause - and the General's madness - very well, and so overall I thoroughly enjoyed this serial.

As we make our way into the second half of season seven, UNIT and The Doctor investigate vanishing astronauts who have lost contact with Earth from Mars Probe 7.

Liz Shaw is fantastic in this story. She laps up this much more active role and looks really comfortable on screen. It struck me that her moody approach suits this more conspiratorial vibe - everything about her performance clicks into place in this one. Perhaps the problem with the Silurian seven-parter is that an apathetic response to ancient monsters beneath the Earth's crust is ludicrous to the point that it alienates the audience, whereas here it works.

I'm still adjusting to the new and improved pace of the show. Make no mistake, the general quality of Doctor Who has risen significantly and my expectations have risen with it. With the exception of Part Four of our last adventure, each episode of the 1970s so far are comparably exceptional when compared to its 1960s counterpart (my love for which, I have written about at length!!)

Was I wrong for being dubious over whether the decision to strand The Doctor on Earth was a good idea. Maybe this back to basics approach was what it needed, it is a program reevaluating itself.

Even though the idea behind this story is not as strong as Doctor Who and The Silurians I prefer The Ambassadors of Death. In this new, more "realistic" Doctor Who, old school looking monsters like the Silurians just don't look the part any more, they look unsophisticated. The Ambassadors however could not be more suitable - unnerving, slow moving, radiation reliant monsters in spacesuits. Monsters that can kill you just by touching you, who are silent and deadly. The concept and design is not just full of great ideas, but is achievable and translates well to the screen.

For the second story in a row we have to question who the real bad guys are. Just as the audience is confronted with good Silurians, it is revealed in this story that the aliens are being manipulated and used as weapons by terrible humans against their will. For the third story in a row we have corrupt officials abusing their position of power, surely a theme for this season.

The Doctor volunteering to pilot a rocket into the orbit of Mars is brilliant, ridiculous and about the most Third Doctor-ish thing I have ever heard of. Pertwee continues to be my favourite Doctor so far, he has many of the same serious / silly nuances that Troughton established but is an even more theatrical and entertaining hero.

Carrington is shown to have carried out his plan after being mentally disturbed after meeting the aliens on Mars Probe 6. Mental disturbance is becoming yet another theme of this season. In keeping with this it has been quite a dark series, so I am pleased that The Doctor finds the Spacemen unharmed, rather than dying they are mentally conditioned, in a more inventive and interesting punishment than death.

The alien being that reveals itself could have looked better but the fact that it is only demanding their alien ambassadors be returned makes the human villains so deliciously despicable. Especially considering that they had been sent to Earth to begin peaceful communication with humankind. The Doctor once again proves his upstanding morals by guaranteeing to return the ambassadors safely. The alien commander then becomes overzealous threatening to destroy the world if the ambassadors are harmed.

The Ambassadors of Death was a very strange serial to me. I had a decent time of it, reminding me of a combination of the Silence of the Library monsters and a bit of the tone taken with the Impossible Astronaut two-parter, both from the modern age.

This story, however, meanders a lot more in comparison to the New Who stories. I found it very watchable and easy to get through, but not to much purpose. The story is pretty standard and while I found there was a lot of creativity in the production early on (including some fun with Bessie and the astronauts looking pretty creepy) that sort of fizzled out after a while as we got more and more confined to a handful of contained sets.

One thing I do admire about Ambassadors of Death is how they take advantage of the then current status quo of Doctor Who. With the Third Doctor confined to Earth, him going up to space does actually become a big deal. It's a good use of the situation that helps salvage this story and let it take on a somewhat unique tone. But the other characters are just kind of there. It is nice Liz Shaw gets to be a scientist a bit more here, but her character really just winds up being a hostage and making confused/grumpy/annoyed faces. The others aren't much better, although the Brigadier stands out as always. Even the Doctor is a bit flat here, in my opinion.

All told, I didn't have a bad time with this serial, but am not left overly eager to revisit this one any time soon, either.