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Doctor Who: Timelash -Story 142

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4 star:		(6)
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2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Timelash" has long been maligned as the worst story from one of "Doctor Who"'s weaker seasons. Everyone, it seems, has a different explanation as to why "Timelash" failed: the fault might lie with the guest actors, or with the director, or the writer, the producer, the set designer... Everyone, just this once, is correct.

"Timelash"'s script is a mess, and that's the fatal flaw. There's too much going on and the end result is less than the sum of its parts. There's an interplanetary war, a deformed dictator (part man, part plesiosaur), some no-nonsense rebels (played here by a pretty young woman and a bald fat guy), a bunch of squabbling Senators, a time corridor in space... and a young H.G. Wells. The characters are by and large one-dimensional, and the dialogue is mostly woeful. Nothing that happens on the planet Karfel ever really engages the viewer... except for Paul Darrow.

Best known for his role on "Blake's 7", Darrow came to this story expected to turn in a similar performance. Instead, he wanted to explore fresh waters by playing his character as Richard the Third. He delivers, in the end, a sarcastic, pompous, oily performance that would have worked really well... had any of the other guest actors been up to the challenge. Instead, he sticks out like a sore thumb. As Darrow says in the DVD's making-of featurette, the story really does get boring once his character exits, midway through the final episode.

The making-of documentary, by the way, is one of the DVD production team's liveliest efforts thus far. Several members of the production (cast and crew) spread the blame around. Script editor Eric Saward, as he always does, blames the producer, a man who's been dead for years. He does point some of the blame at the episode director, but then blames the producer for hiring said director in the first place. As a result, these 20 minutes are far livelier than anything that happens during "Timelash" proper.

"Timelash"'s strength is in the voice acting. Three men alone were up to the task of adding gravitas to their lines: Colin Baker (the Doctor), Darrow, and Robert Ashby (the plesiosaur), who reportedly wrote his own ripostes when the script failed him: "Another expedition into the realms of duplicity". Separated from its drab sets and heard only as an audio play, "Timelash" might offer some moments of true menace.

Unfortunately, apart from those three performances, the rest of the guest cast are just going through the motions, likely as confused by the story as were the script editor and director. "Timelash" winds up a dull misfire, not as bad its legend has grown, but certainly not worth the DVD cover price unless you're a completist.

Timelash is an ok story. The sets are at times cheap, (yes, that's tinsel in there), the acting of a highly variable quality (the regulars do give very good performances here, it's the guest cast that is, at times, the problem), and the script is average. But it is still a fun to watch story. The great thing about is the imagination carries it. So much of Doctor Who from this period is horribly derivative and obsessed with past continuity and villains etc. This story has very little of that. We are shown (rather cleverly I thought) that the Doctor in his 3rd incarnation has been to this planet before. But the story itself is a good traditional Doctor Who story that stands on it's own. We do have another ugly mad man leering at Peri, but oh well. There is also a bit of controversy about what happens to the Borad (this story's bad guy) in the end. It does contradict the 4th Doctor Who story Terror of the Zygons and it's information on the origins of the Loch Ness Monster. As for the DVD itself, this release is a bit light on extras. It features a commentary track by actors Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Paul Darrow. It also has a new documentary, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (dur. 25' 01"), which looks at the making of the story. It features actors Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Paul Darrow, David Chandler, Robert Ashby, script editor Eric Saward, writer Glen McCoy and journalist Paul Lang, and is narrated by Terry Molloy. It will also have a photo gallery, production notes subtitles, and the Radio Times listings in pdf format. I would agree with the first reviewer here, this is a great beer and pizza Doctor Who story. It certainly is not the strongest of Colin Baker's era (Vengance on Varros and Revelation of the Daleks are superior in almost every way to all other 6th Doctor stories), but it is still quite enjoyable and features many elements of strong traditional/classic Doctor Who.

I've never found this one as bad as some have made it out to be. NO, it isn't the best but it isn't the worst either. This is one of those stories that, if you keep a sense of humor, you may actually enjoy it. I've always thought that Colin Baker was a great Doctor but in a time when the production was going downhill. Colin does a very good job and once again makes the story. The scene where he's talking to HG Wells on the TARDIS is fun and it's nice to see all the 3rd Doctor references after having the 2nd Doctor turn up in the last storyDoctor Who - The Two Doctors (Episode 141).

I'm in no way saying that this story is a masterpiece. It isn't. The acting is inconsistent, ranging from the best with the two regulars, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, (in a desparate bid to carry the story) to the worst with the actress playing Vena, who looks like she's being forced at gunpoint to do this, reading nearly every line in a monotone, the story ending is a cop-out ("I'll explain later" the Doctor says, when Peri asks him how he survived the Bandril's missile), and yes, the some of the set looks unusually cheap (But why should the last thing be a massive issue?)

Why do I like it so much then?

The whole H.G. Wells storyline is a massive plus for the story in my view. Every time I watch Timelash, I found my interest hitting high-gear. Just putting the naive, spirit-mad, writer wannabe young H.G.Wells before he became famous with the most angry, aggressive-eccentric, moody Doctor, and BAM! Fireworks.

Also deserving a mention is the Borad. Most reviews I've found for the VHS release I've seen just lump every part of this story in the "Horrible" category, but the Borad has to be one of the most well-realised monsters of the classic era, done so well on a small budget, like Colin says on the commentary, it's like a trick camera profile, with one side human, and one side Borad, and the two meld in to make it a VERY convincing monster. The scenes between the Doctor and the Borad are easily a highlight of the story

All in all, have another watch on DVD. Buy Timelash, Grab a beer, pizza, whatever, sit down on the couch, empty your mind of 2000's special effects, and enjoy. (If only to see the Doctor about to explode as Herbet winds him up more and more!)

Timelash is one of those Dr Who adventures that sharply split the fan base. People either love it or hate it with very little in between.

The basic idea is that in a dictatorship of the future, political opponents are thrown into the "Time Lash" a time machine that sends them into exile in medival earth. It comes to the Doctor's attention as the tardis inturupts one such rebel and diverts her to 19th century Scotland. there she, the Doctor and his companion along with a vacationing school teacher named Herbert set off to see who's meddling in time, only to discover this is a world the doctor, as Jon Pertwee visited years before. The Doctor needs little spuring on to oppose any dictator but to find a planet where he's known has fallen on hard times makes it double so.

This is Colin Baker at his best, a bar whose height is fiercely debated. He and the writing staff have grown comfortable enough to know what they are about. Baker is confident to the ppint of arrogant smugness, but pulls it off. Sure the f/x are cheesey, this is Doctor Who and that is part of the charm.

The two down sides: Paul Darrow as the pawn of the dictator is so over the top in his performance it's camp out of all scale. and Secondly the ending has a sort of double play, like they weren't sure how to end it, wrote two endings and then used them both. it is, clumsy, and also contradicts the known Dr Who sequence of events.

But it still remains one of my favorites from a bad couple of seasons, partly for the doctor's style, partly from Herbert. With him, depicted as an almost 'happy puppy' you get a very good example of how just a little time spent with the Doctor can influence a person's whole life.

Okay, so maybe "Timelash" does have its faults, but so did every other Colin Baker story. In fact, this one in many ways is a lot better. It's certainly my favorite Colin Baker story along with "Vengeance on Varos" and "The Trial of a Time Lord: Parts 1-4".

Ultimately the worst thing about this story is Peri's role in it. All she does in it is scream, get threatened by monsters and madmen, get yelled at by the Doctor, and told to stay out of the way of things. I rather felt bad for actress Nycola Bryant when I watched this. Now I woundn't blame her if this was her least favorite story. But I'm surprised that a lot of other people hate it too. The only other bad thing about this story is the alien ambassador in it. He looks like a sock puppet. He looks absolutely dreadful.

But other than those things, I can't see any other bad things about this story. The plot is actually quite good and engaging. There's never a dull moment. And apart from the alien ambassador, who only appears in a few scenes, I thought the special effects were pretty good too. They certainly weren't the best - but it's "Doctor Who"! For "Dr. Who" standards they really weren't that bad, and some of the sets were very imaginative and impressive... especially the Timelash. The story echoes a lot of the earlier stories in the series. This story has a lot of the themes in it that earlier stories had. A lot of those themes are what made "Dr. Who" so great and enjoyable, and is what made a lot of the earlier stories so popular. It also echoes some of H.G. Wells' writings. I feel that this story deserves a lot more credit than that which is given to it. And I thought the scenes between the Doctor and Herbert were very enjoyable. I also like the idea of H.G. Wells traveling with the Doctor in the TARDIS.

Highly recommended!

In the big pile of "Doctor Who" stories, "TIMELASH" is somewhere at the bottom. The story is typical, and might even have been decent if a little more time and money had been thrown at it, but the result is disappointing, not to say laughable.

Paul Darrow makes a memorable villain, carrying on from "Blake's 7" as a scenery-chomping theatrical baddie. The Borad, the main monster of the serial, is actually quite good in its few scenes, and continues the tradition of hideous deformed humans threatening the good guys. HG Wells makes an appearance, and some references to Wells' famous books are tossed in, to little effect.

The scenery is worse than usual. The sets are cardboard, and the titular "timelash" vortex is quite ludicrous, involving a sort of door with a few steps up to it, and then some tinsel...it really is no better than it sounds. The Morlox, another monster than threatens Peri, looks like the head and neck of a giant snake, or something. It's not really clear what's going on with that bit. There's also a guard robot that's not too awful, but a big disappointment if you've seen the awesome robots in "Robots of Death" or "Mysterious Planet". The costumes also look like old bedsheets.

Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant try their best, but the script is so padded out that even over-the-top performances can't make up for the awkward staging and cheap sets. "Doctor Who" was capable of great stuff on a low budget, but this is not one of its high points.

Poor Sixth Doctor. He just gets no respect. Here in "Timelash" he neither picks up a gun to shoot down the enemy nor smothers the enemy to death, dashing off a morbid quip as he does so. Nobody eats human flesh, nobody drops into a vat of acid. Nothing's unduly controversial or disturbing. So does "Timelash" get any credit for walking the comfortably straight and narrow? Oh no, far from it. It comes in for harsher criticism yet.

Which, just like the face of the story's principal villain, the Borad, is either perfectly fair or unfairly foul, depending on your perspective. The basic idea of the story is superb. The Borad, once an unsavory biologist on the planet Karfel who in the midst of one of his unethical experiments inadvertently became fused with his reptilian specimen, now he's the unseen but all-seeing dictator of the planet, banishing any dissidents through a time tunnel (the eponymous Timelash) while secretly engineering a war that will leave unscathed only himself and a new race like him in appearance. The Doctor and Peri step into this situation as it nears its crisis (of course), meanwhile involving Herbert, a bouncy young would-be science fiction writer from turn-of-the-century England--a clever pseudo-historical touch all the more enjoyable in that the real Herbert's later novel "The Time Machine" was one of the inspirations for "Doctor Who" back in the early 60's (Who made who?). Basically, this is all good classic Who through and through. And since both the prior two stories and the following one include as a theme shadily motivated genetic manipulation gone wrong, it's hard not to suspect that something was in the news or whatnot in 1985 making an unsettling impression on the social imagination. The manner in which the story plays with the unspoken power politics of seeing and being seen in its depiction of a claustrophobically totalitarian society is also ingenious. Judging only from all this, "Timelash" should be hailed as a classic. Has it been unfairly castigated?

Well, not exactly. The concept is sound enough, but its realization is radically uneven in quality. The actual plotting of the story and the script itself bear telltale traces that the writer, Glen McCoy, was himself (somewhat like Herbert) full of enthusiasm but just a bit unpracticed yet. The ending after an ending after an ending is anti-climatic, the Doctor's sacrificing himself and the Tardis to save Karfel only to show up moments later coyly deferring explanation is an unbearable cop-out, and the confusing references to a prior visit by the Doctor in his third incarnation unnecessary and cheesy. The acting ranges from excellent to horrid. Colin Baker carries the show as the flamboyantly brusque, temperamental, delightfully arrogant Doctor with hearts of gold, and Robert Ashby's portrayal of the Borad is flawless, coldly calm in his cruelty. Paul Darrow's villainous take on the Borad's majordomo Tekker is also great fun. Most of the rest of the cast though give the most uninspired and absolutely wooden performance imaginable, and this flatline context has the adverse effect of making David Chandler's Herbert seem a bit over-the-top in comparison. Strangely, the special effects show this same wild variability, from the Borad's amazingly convincing make-up to the painfully obvious Christmas tinsel of the Timelash.

So, in the final analysis, is "Timelash" the cream of the cream or the lees and the dregs? One might as well ask if the glass is half empty or half full. But if you're a Doctor Who fan it would be a shame not to take a sip and see for yourself.

TIMELASH is one DOCTOR WHO story that I often hear is better than you remember, but having watched it again, it's really exactly as I remember it.

An ambitious (read: troubled) story that features a number of good ideas buired by limited set design (everything above ground reads blank, bright and white - while below ground is your typical plastic walled cave, which is too bright to begin with and glistens with slapped on water), uneven acting (it's either played as it should be by the principals - straight up, real and in the moment, or high camp, or totally frozen), and a confusing back and forth story that labors very hard to make it all seem very, very important.

And on top of that, it's a sequel to a THIRD DCOTOR story never filmed or ever told until TIMELASH - so, it ends up feeling like a cheat as well (which, to the story's credit, it knows - the Doctor's amazing escape from certain death is played off with a wink a nod at the end, knowing no answer would be acceptable to the audience). The additon of H.G. Wells here is handled in an almost dismissive manner with the Doctor providing the groundwork for Well's stories: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE TIME MACHINE and THE INVISIBLE MAN in a check list manner than just ticks off all the high points and leaves out any of Well's social commentary. And that's what TIMELASH lacks, any type of commentary or meaning to anything that is happening. It just happens and then it stops happening and then it's over.

Extras this time around run petty light, which is not surprising for a story like TIMELASH. Commentary is included featuring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Paul Darrow and is another one of those comfortable commentaries that lacks any real punch, but from time to time (with the aid of Baker) manages to make a statement or two, but overall is a one time listen only. The documentary covers the same ground as the commentary, but with a bit more pep.

TEXT COMMENTARY is tight and worth the time spent reading.

In the end, Baker comments that out of all the DOCTOR WHO stories ranked in order from best to worst, TIMELASH come out just two above the very bottom of the pack and that's no surprise. If there is anything that saves TIMELASH from sinking to the bottom and staying there is the ideas behind it and that's it. For hardcore DOCTOR WHO fans only.

I'm glad BBC video doesn't listen to Doctor Who fandom, otherwise a story such as Timelash would never see a DVD release. I must admit, as much as I like the Colin Baker era, this ranks as my favorite C. Baker story! It always has, even way back in the 80s when it was first released. Yet, many disregard Timelash as mindless junk, a notion reinforced in the DVD extra, "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: The making of Timelash". Even those involved with the story don't regard it highly.

In trying to pinpoint why exactly I enjoy Timelash so much, I came up with simply that it is the Colin Baker story most reminiscent of the pre-JNT, post- Phillip Hinchliffe Tom Baker era, the Graham Williams stories of the late 70s. One could easily imagine this story being part of season 17, coincidentally another much maligned era of Doctor Who. Try to imagine the sets in Timelash without the actors, and you could easily imagine that you are watching Invisible Enemy, The Sun Makers, Invasion of Time, or Nightmare of Eden. I realize that only one of the aforementioned stories is actually from season 17, but all of them are from the Graham Williams era, which is my point.

Another aspect that fits in with this theory is the tone of Timelash. In a season teeming with excessively dark, adult-in-nature stories, Timelash represents a departure from this, back to a time when Doctor Who was made for children. It is strategically sandwiched between two stories of a gloomy nature with very adult themes, The Two Doctors and Revelation of The Daleks, with both containing strong undertones of cannibalism. Here we have a light-hearted, old-school adventure as a bit of comic relief. Comedy has always worked in Doctor Who. Without comedic moments, Doctor Who would become Star Trek. GASP.

Something else Doctor Who does very well is using its mythology to explain earth history. Timelash proves no exception. In fact it offers two explanations into real-life events. The obvious one is that the Doctor & his Tardis spurred H.G. Wells to greatness. Also, an explanation is given of reasons for sightings of the Loch Ness monster. Other reasons to recommend Timelash include Colin Baker's shameless portrayal of the Doctor, which I have always found quite enjoyable. So what if he yells a lot? His banter with the curious and spunky Herbert, excellently portrayed by David Chandler, is priceless. Admittedly, Peri is whiny, but she is one of the better-looking companions in Doctor Who history. And anything with Paul Darrow is a can't-miss. He is well-casted as the secondary villain, Maylin Tekker. As always, Darrow plays a character you just love to hate, fresh off his Avon role in Blake's 7. We naturally cheer when the villain "buys it", however, when Tekker gets killed you can't help but feel a bit of sorrow for him. As evil as he was throughout the entire story, he had that brief moment of conscience before his death when he realized what the Borad was really up to, sticking up for his people.

Timelash also contains a well-hidden moral message. If you are ugly, you can't just go around killing all the beautiful people and re-populating your world with other repulsive creatures such as yourself just to be able to show yourself in public. If you try, the Doctor will stop you! In the end, Timelash is unfairly maligned by Whonatics everywhere. However, for me, it represents what classic Doctor Who is all about. It's a story that although made in the 80s, takes me back to the best Doctor Who decade, the 70s.