MovieChat Forums > Doctor Who (1963) Discussion > Dragonfire

Dragonfire

posted 8 years ago by raventhom
11 replies | jump to latest

What a jumble of scenes and story lines.
A new character, a 16 year old weird-o, that likes to blow things up, talks intelligently, then has no concept of a sentence.
A 3000 year old villain that spent his time creating a supermarket?
A dragon somewhere, that holds the secret, and then old friend? Glitz, searching for buried treasure on this world of ice. Glitz has sold his crew for 17 pieces of coin. Nice.
Poor Mel is lost in this, it's no wonder she decides to take her leave, but with Glitz???
16 year old Ace becomes the Doctors new companion.
Everyone comments on the Doctor hopping over an ice cliff hanging by his brolly, why? In the script.... I can hardly believe this was written, filmed and shown
Sylvester is the only saving grace here, He does his best to "Carry On" but why he would invite a 16 year old to hop aboard the Tardis, and join him
Looking forward to the next to last season, and better scripts

[–] Chris12955 8 years ago

That ending where McCoy suspends himself off of the cliff was a litteral cliffhanger. In the script, it actually made sense, but then they went to tape it. McCoy pointed out how absurd it was, and various people asked to have it changed because it would look stupid on screen, but they were overridden because supposedly we would NEVER notice how silly it was. What happened in the script was that The Doctor was reading the map, and it told him it was further ahead. Since it was a dead end, he lowered himself to see what was down there. Kind of dumb when you don't show us the map Mr. Director.

Ace the character took a long time for me to not hate. I still don't like her, but I no longer dislike her. Hopefully Ace grows on you, because Sophie Aldred is a warm and wonderful woman, and a great actress. I hope you like the penultimate season better. Especially since it has the wonderful The Happiness Patrol.

I always thought Mel could have been a good companion if she was given a better introduction, but, she just was never fleshed out as a character. It's sad because Bonnie Langford seems like a good actress, they just hardly gave her anything good to work with.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

Dragonfire actually contains some pretty dark stuff for such a seemingly light-hearted story. Glitz selling is crew pretty grim but is played off with humour. Ace is all attitude and explosions but the fact is that she's been snatched away from her home and forced to acclimatize to and survive on an alien world is kind of a brutal idea, and Kane's officer who tries to leave, the doctor sees Kane's mark on her and basically tells her "this is your lot in life, no escape for you"

Another story that is flawed but I like it. Nice to still see a bit of the TARDIS interior and I quite enjoyed Ace and Mel palling around together.

I always thought Mel could have been a good companion if she was given a better introduction, but, she just was never fleshed out as a character. It's sad because Bonnie Langford seems like a good actress, they just hardly gave her anything good to work with.

Bonnie was more of a panto actor and always seemed to play Mel in that kind of way, you almost felt like you should be yelling "BEHIND YOOOOU" at her every time a monster is on screen.

https://soundcloud.com/coin-sides

New song "Breathless Love"

[–] Chris12955 8 years ago

Bonnie was more of a panto actor and always seemed to play Mel in that kind of way, you almost felt like you should be yelling "BEHIND YOOOOU" at her every time a monster is on screen.

I think a lot of that critisism comes from people who knew her as a theater actor prior to her performance in Doctor Who, and expected that. I didn't know of her stage acting before seeing her, and never got that impression. As for feeling like you should be yelling "BEHIND YOOOOU," don't people feel that way about ALL the companions new and old.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

I think a lot of that critisism comes from people who knew her as a theater actor prior to her performance in Doctor Who, and expected that. I didn't know of her stage acting before seeing her, and never got that impression. As for feeling like you should be yelling "BEHIND YOOOOU," don't people feel that way about ALL the companions new and old.

I feel like it was more the case with Mel, her performance was slightly too bright and chirpy to be realistic it felt like she was projecting to the back row, like she needed a director to say "geez Bonnie, maybe take it down a notch?"

https://soundcloud.com/coin-sides

New song "Breathless Love"

[–] Chris12955 8 years ago

Bright and chirpy? Didn't her character description before she played the part talk about her in conjunction with Jane Fonda doing one of her workout videos, and say she likes to sing in the Tardis? I know she did go a little over the top on being bright and chirpy, but I think that is what John Nathan Turner wanted. I would have preferred something else, but that is what he wanted.

[–] ant-mac 8 years ago

"but why he would invite a 16 year old to hop aboard the Tardis, and join him"

It took me a long time to stop laughing after I read that. 

Watching the actual serial, I would never doubt the honourable intentions of the Doctor. However, reading that sentence as typed on the page before me is a whole other matter.



ant-mac

[–] raventhom 8 years ago

I never thought or meant anything not honorable, only that she is still an underage kid, and has a home somewhere. she just seems way to teenage ish, and I can't imagine putting up with her or at least the way she is written in this story

[–] NotAmyMerrick 8 years ago

Everyone comments on the Doctor hopping over an ice cliff hanging by his brolly, why? In the script.... I can hardly believe this was written, filmed and shown

Sometimes Doctor who writers think they are being extremely clever when in fact they are not. In this case the need to be witty and have a literial 'cliffhanger' ending overtook any sense of reason.

Later we get this again manifested in the episode 'ghostlight' where the writer tries to be so complicated that only he himself knows what is going on, leaving all the actors and the viewers baffled.

[–] pferreira86 8 years ago

The 'cliffhanger' was actually one of my earliest memories of Doctor Who. Best bit:

(Everyone makes an escape on Glitz spaceship leaving him stranded on the station. He yells as they leave but it turns out Kane planted a bomb onboard Glitz's ship which promptly blows up killing everyone. Realising Kane has gone too far by not only destroying his ship but innocent people a new resolution comes to Glitz: that Kane must be stopped. His face rises out of his hands)

Glitz: KANE!

Terrific stuff!

[–] Chris12955 8 years ago

Ghost Light made more sense before it was cut from a four part serial to a three part serial, and then cut further as they were taping it. Ghost Light would still be a nutso story even if they left it at a four parter, but the casual viewer would have been able to follow it.

That is one thing about John Nathan Turner that really irritated me during McCoy's Tenure, he wouldn't commission three part stories. He commissioned four four part stories, and arbitrarily decided that Carmel should change two of them into three parters.  I wonder how some of those three parters made no sense with that nonsense going on.

[–] frosted_one 8 years ago

she decides to take her leave

WOOHOOOO!