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Doctor Who: Dragonfire (1987) What mostly happens in this three-parter is that the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) gets shot of Bonnie Langford, who wanders off with dragged-back-in Glitz (Tony Selby) from The Trial of a Time Lord, and is stuck with Ace (Sophie Aldred), the unaccountable fan favourite character - lumbered with dreadful middle-aged teen dialogue ('ace', 'mega', 'brill', 'wicked'), awkwardly enacted and not even taking much advantage of the funny idea of a drop-out waitress who wishes to be over the rainbow (her real name is Dorothy) and winds up as a waitress in outer space. Set on Iceworld, which is one of the sparkly-pretty settings common
on the show in the 1980s, it strangely drops a lot of film theory names
for characters (Kracauer, Balasz, etc) and has a few witty lines but
is mostly a riff on Mr Freeze about a subzero villain (Edward Peel)
assembling a mercenary army to invade his long-destroyed home planet
and needing a gadget from the brainpan of a pantomime Giger creation
that lurches around in the background. It has a slipshod feel typical
of '80s Who, with a plot that doesn't amount to much
and still fails to make sense, supporting characters played by a capable
cast given little to work with and touches of nastiness to evoke the
horrors of the show's past (Peel melts at the end). Langford does a
great deal of hands-on-hips posing. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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