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Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space [1968] A somewhat attenuated six-part space opera, seemingly whipped up a] to reprise the business of the first couple of Cybermen stories [a base under siege] and b] to bring on a new regular [Wendy Padbury as Zoe]. It redesigns the monsters slightly, giving them odd teardop cutaways around the 'eyes', but only stretches to two of them – not to mention an amazingly complex plot to invade the eponymous space station [equipped with many lava lamps] as a beachhead to get to Earth. It again has Earth repped by a multi-national crew [Clare Jenkins as a sexy Russian, James Mellor as a fighting Irishman, Peter Laid as a sadly-caricatured Chinaman who is even told to do something 'chop chop'] in padded unitards who have forgotten about the earlier alien invasions, and - as in most Cyber stories - there's an additional complication with an obstreporous boss [Michael Turner] who initially suspects the Doctor of being a baddie and completely pooh-poohs his warnings, then cracks up because he's a complete rationalist unequipped for the unknown. There are nice bits of character doodling, like the character who dubs a deadly cybermat 'Billy Bug' and tries to make a pet of it - and, as happened very very rarely, there's a possible love interest for the Doctor in a mature, intelligent, smart woman [Anne Ridler], whose death is a bit of a shock. Only a few moments are taken to establish the rapport, but Troughton does a lot with just asking her name ['Gemma'] and then using it in dialogue. The killing-off of the character means we don't go any further, but it proves there was a precedent for more recent Doctors falling in love. The real business of the emotional arc is Jamie getting over Victoria,
who departed in the previous serial and is glimpsed at the beginning
of Episode One, and forming a different relationship with Zoe [Padbury],
who is set up as a calculating brainchild but emotionally immature and
overly reliant on logic [which the Doctor says means she can 'be wrong
with authority']. She also gets a fetching form-fitting catsuit outfit.
Jamie here remembers he's from the past and should be puzzled by things
like tape recorders even if he has no trouble getting into a space-suit
for EVA scenes [it's one of those '60s Whos influenced
by the space program]. The first few episodes use a lumbering fridge-shaped
Servo Robot and the cybermats as a menace, keeping the Cybermen in white
eggs until a pair of very tall silver villains hatch to control some
humans - as if the BBC couldn't stretch to more outfits. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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