Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - Survival [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

I wanted this video because it was the last adventure from the original Doctor Who series for a long time -- ended in 1989. I thought the cat costumes were cute, laughed at the stiff fake cat and The Master's glowing eyes, knew that the last words spoken by the Doctor and Ace were probably dubbed at the last moment when they realized that the series had been cancelled and probably would never air again. However, when I finished watching the show, I really felt it stunk. It didn't help when the cats howled like wolves or coyotes instead of cats. I mean I have watched a lot of the episodes with all of the doctors from William Hartnell to Sylvester McCoy and seen the so-called "cheesy" special effects, etc. but I really liked most of the adventures--and really didn't feel the effects were so cheesy. There is so much imagination in the creatures they have created -- they must have spent forever designing and creating them over the years. I have purchased ALL of the VHS tapes (and a couple of DVD's) available and watched around 30 or so. The last scene of Survival was a letdown. Buy it, if you must (like I did), but remember: I warned you.

Here it is, the final Doctor Who story in the 26 year-old TV series. Rona Munro's three part tale was never intended to end the run, but the BBC's continual indecision and eventual scrapping of the show meant that that was exactly what 'Survival' turned out to be. The Master, arch-enemy of the Doctor, here played by Sylvester McCoy, is a prisoner of the Cheetah People. He uses them to ensnare the Doctor, in the hope of being released from the Cheetah People's planet. Of course, this doesn't go to plan, and it seems that they both are destined to be trapped on a dying world... Doctor Who has never had a great deal of money spent on it during the first 26 years of life, but it was always the acting and quality of scripts that always made the show enjoyable. And that is exactly the case here. McCoy's whimsical, diminutive Doctor contrasts well with the ferociousness of the Cheetah People and continual instability of Anthony Ainley's creepy Master. While not perhaps the way people had envisaged ending the show, 'Survival' still provides thrills aplenty.

This show survived for 26 years and they end the show with a story about Darwin's famous phrase, "Survival of the fittest." Doctor Who began as the lion of the kingdom and went out as the worm in the dirt.

This story could have been so much better if the Cheetah people would have been approached from a different route. They needed to be more ominous, more devious like cats are stereotyped to be. It was depressing to see the Master be reduced to using cats as his means of getting power. When I look back as the Delgado Master, he would have never used such primitive means of achieveing power.

This story was disappointing. I bought it hoping that the final episode would be one of the classics. Instead, I fell asleep during 'Part Two.' Come one, McCoy, get with the picture.

After a rather pointless game of chicken, the Doctor is apparently destroyed in a motorbike collision and engulfed in flames. But then he turns up on an old sofa on a rubbish tip without so much as a scratch. Later, when it seems inevitable that the Master will smash his head in with a chunk of bone, the Doctor suddenly is teleported back to Earth for no explained reason.

This is a very cheap, lazy and unsatisfactory way of resolving apparently inescapable situations and leaves the viewer feeling cheated and insulted.

It's a shame the final episode of this story is in the realms of Saturday morning superhero cartoons as the first episode and one of the most gripping and well-made first episodes in the history of Dr Who. The litter-strewn council estates, social realism and down-to-earth characters prove that the programme can develop and evolve no matter what. The music is wonderfully atmospheric and there is some great and moving dialogue, notably the speech at the end of the story which makes it a shame Season 27 (which would have included the ice warriors) was never made.

It's just a shame that this story descends into melodrama and pantomime the likes of which we thought we'd seen the last of by Season 26.

Many Doctor Who fans seem to adore this story, but I can't think why. The thing I hate most is the characters involved. Most of them (especially Midge and Seargent Patterson) spend all their time trying to look hard and tough, but simply end up looking ridiculous. On the other hand, Sylvester McCoy gives a pretty good performance, and once again, Sophie Aldred is superb as Ace. Sadly, the "Cat People" (a rather cliched name, I think) look like what they are: People running around with furry helmets. Their planet ("Planet Of The Cheetah People" - it gets cheesier...) is rather boring, and the special effects of the Kitlings dissapearing are poorly achieved. Anthony Ainley is passable as the Master, but the end scenario of "He'll never get out of this one" isn't surprising, as he has previously escaped dozens of times. Basically, the story is rather boring at three episodes, and the script is nothing remarkable. It's got a nice little speech at the end, but in my opinion, it's a tragic end to Doctor Who.

The Doctor and Ace visit the latter's former home and find locals being transported to an alien planet by horse-riding cat-people. One of the best of the McCoy years, this has everything a Dr Who story should have - a combination of imaginative creatures, convincing alien lands and a thought-provoking, emotional storyline. The scenes in the gritty, realistic modern-day housing estates, the genuine residents and the social realism show that Dr Who at its best can be much more than just light-hearted SF. A deeply moving, visually excellent, well-paced and well-written tale and one which proves what a crying shame the cancellation of the series was.

Congratulations! Just when you thought an episode could not get any worse, "Survival" comes along. It is sad to say, but it really is no wonder that this episode was the straw that broke the camels back. You can tell from the cheap lack of sets and bad minor part actors that this was a story completely thrown together in hopes of making it on to TV. The cat people were somewhat interesting, but the endless chasing around of a bunch of teenagers reminded me of a bad "Friday the 13th episode." I found myself really hoping that these awful acting kids that get transported to the Cat Planet, DO get eaten, along with the ever bad acting "Ace."

What is so apparent about these last Dr. Who episodes is the obvious struggle to keep a series going that was really over after Colin Baker. I never liked the Slyvester McCoy doctor or his annoying companions. I would only buy this episode just for the nostalgia of it being the very last Dr. Who episode we will ever come to know, and leave it at that.

Good night Doctor Who... we will miss you!

the end of an era. the last of the doctor who stories. mcoy ends on a note of adventures to come. ace is good this time round. it deals with surving rather well. in a world where people fight or die. if u run u die. paterson and the master offer rather nazistic views on surval. "let the wasters go to the wall". two shop keepers talk about two men who see an aproching lion. one man gets ready to run not from the lion but to outrun his friend to be leaft and eaten. "if u dont mind losing ur friend", comments the docter,"but what happens when the next lion comes along?" the docter is taken to a world of animals were surval is esental. but the cheeta people fight eachother they hasten the destrution of their own world. the good docter see that if his friends fight and run they are doomed. he and the master become traped on the diying cheeta planet with no escape. then at the last moment the docter shouts the answer, "IF WE FIGHT LIKE ANIMALS WE DIE LIKE ANIMALS!" thus he is spared and returned to earth near his tardis. here then is the solution to the problem which the doctors sees at the nick of time and because of this he is spared from the death of the cheeta planet. the doctor and ace walk off planing of new adventures. a good end to a good sereis. mcoy repises his role as the 7th docter in the tv movie and he regenterats into his 8th incarnation (pual mcgann). the good doctor is still with us alive and strong.