4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ends the series in style., June 6, 2000
This adventure, featuring council estates, city squallor and grim reality, demonstrates how the series had moved on in its 26 years.
The gritty portrayal of Ace's home of Perrivale provides a good contrast to the science-fantasy atmosphere of the Planet of the Cheetah People. The Ace/Doctor double-act is at its best here, there is are some superb pieces of dialogue and dark undertones, and Anthony Ainley is at last playing an alternative incarnation of the Master rather than a parody of Roger Delgado's version. The Master's sense of emotion and desperation in this story provides a new angle on the character and makes it a shame this was to be Ainley's last appearance in the series.
The Cheetah people do, admittedly, appear to be on the cheesy side, but they are saved by their portrayal and some stunning camerawork. The soundtrack, original and atmospheric, is also a high point. If this story really does prove to be the final TV serial adventure of the Doctor then at least we can be thankful the series has finished on such a high note as this.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Survival of the fittest..., February 13, 2004
This review is from: Doctor Who - Survival [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This was the last story of Doctor Who to be broadcast and is a very potent story, containing themes involving survival and the dynamics that compare and contrast man and animal.
A return trip to Perivale, Ace's hometown, reveals that four kids have gone missing in the past month, some of them being Ace's friends. The Doctor and Ace find out the cause of this. Cheetah People, equestrian man-sized cats with fur and faces like cheetahs, kidnap their prey to their planet. Controlling them is the Doctor's oldest enemy, the Master, who himself has taken aspects of the Cheetah People.
The planet, a forbidding wasteland (actually a quarry in Dorset), is daunting even for the tough Sergeant Patterson, who teaches a self-defense course for the youth and prides himself on keeping his head in a crisis. Only the pacifist Doctor's help prevents him from being like so many panic-stricken victims who become catfood. Patterson's quite aggressive and social-Darwinian: "Life's not a game, son. I'm teaching you the art of survival. I'm teaching you to fight back. What happens when life starts pushing you? What are you gonna do then?" He even says this in a taunting and challenging voice to one of his charges, getting in his face and even prodding his chest with his hand. Later, Midge, one of Ace's friends, tells Patterson's class a cold harsh version of the same: "It's survival of the fittest. Get rid of the dead wood, let the wasters go to the wall, and the strong inherit the Earth."
Ace wounds Karra, a Cheetah Person attacking her, but instead of killing her, helps her recover. Ace soon connects with Karra, who calls her sister and urges her to follow her. However, the danger to Ace is that Karra might either kill her or worse, Ace will transform if drawn too deeply to the planet.
The theme of survival is carried through in a joke told between two grocers, the punchline being that for two men trying to outrun a lion, one only need to outrun his friend, because his friend will be eaten by the lion. However, many people have no easy answer for the Doctor's next question to the grocers: what do you about the second lion?
An interesting exchange takes place between Ace and Karra, as the latter invites her to partake in a feast over a corpse.
Ace: You kill people. You eat people.
Karra: When I'm hungry, I hunt. When I hunt, I eat.
Thus, Karra, like other animals, kill when they're hungry, unlike humans, who in the post-industrial free-market world, kill for more brutal and horrific reasons. It's interesting how Victorian ways had man closer to God than to animal, and how thanks to Darwin, modern thought had man closer to animal. It makes me wonder that if this post-modern world has led man to this degree of savagery, we need a realignment to modernism, acknowledging the human part.
But the Doctor's refusal to fight and his cry is one of the best lines in the whole series: "If we fight like animals, we'll die like animals!"
The black Kitlings, the feline vultures who lead the Cheetahs to food, were an example of animatronics. However, there are some scenes where actual black cats are used. I mean, how can you train cats to hiss on cue? The Cheetah costumes are a design triumph despite the criticism that it ended up like something out of Puss In Boots. The eyes and fangs are realistic, and speaking of eyes, the eerie yellow contact lenses used for the Master and others affected by the powers of the Cheetah Planet work as well.
Ace's intense words at the end, "I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet and just run forever" mirrors what many fans thought of Who, that it could just run forever.
And as the Doctor and Ace "ride into the sunset" he has these words, set to some touching music: "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on Ace, we've got work to do."
The series thus makes an unintended but triumphant farewell, and its current legacy as a legendary show ensures that it's no one's bowl of cat food.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
