Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 490: The Sun Makers, Episode Four

Dear diary,

People often mourn the loss of the ‘Pure Historical’ format from the programme’s style after about Season Four (one of two exemptions not withstanding), but I think it’s a style which lives on throughout several other tales. Take this story, for instance. Sure, it’s set in the far future of Pluto, and the ‘big bad’ turns out to be a kind of alien squiddy creature (although you never actually see him in anything other than human form), but really it’s a story about oppression and revolution. You could take much of what we see in these four episodes and only apply a few small changes to set it at any point in Earth’s history. You don’t see anything that looks alien, and aside from references to other planets, it really could be set anywhere.

I think I quite like that. Over time I’ve found myself enjoying the appearances of monsters in Doctor Who, but I rather like having these stories come along every so often which don’t really conform to the usual ‘man in a rubber suit’ style. It seems to be the direction in which the series is heading, too. During Season Thirteen (to pick a random, recent example) monsters were the flavour of the day. Be it Zygons, or Sutekh and his Mummies, the Kraals, the Anti-matter creature… monsters were undoubtably a focus of the series. But then compare that to Season Fifteen so far. In The Horror of Fang Rock, The Invisible Enemy and Image of the Fendahl, the monster doesn’t turn up until at least the end of that third Episode. Oh, its presence is felt throughout the story up to that point - we might even get the odd glimpse of it - but it isn’t remotely the focus of the tale. In this story, it never even arrives. It’s an interesting change of pace, and one which I think I’m rather enjoying.

Especially when it means that we get villains and creatures like the Collector in this story. I’ve held off mentioning him up to now, simply because I didn’t know what to say about him. At times, he’s reminded me of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory (both in mannerisms and speech patterns), but mostly I think I’m just a bit… put off by him. I mean that in a good way - I find him a little bit revolting, and it’s almost difficult to watch his scenes without a sense of just being uncomfortable.

Henry Woolf gives a wonderful performance, and he’s quite unlike anything else we’ve seen in the programme before. You can see - during their confrontation in this episode - that Tom Baker raises his game in order to go toe-to-toe with the man. It feels like some time since a guest has had such an effect on our Time Lord, and that’s always a good thing to see happening. Indeed, I think the only thing I’ve found to be a let down about the Collector is that his motorised transport doesn’t quite work. As the head of ‘the Company’, I’d expect him to have the latest model of wheels… but even K9 can get around more efficiently!

On the whole, The Sun Makers has been a really pleasant surprise. I entered into the story really not knowing what to expect, and my opinion has shifted a little bit all over the place in the last few days. I’ve ended up thinking that it’s something of a success. Does everything work perfectly? Well, no. But then, that’s always the case with Doctor Who. That’s the case with life in general, probably! A nice surprise in the middle of the season, though. And tomorrow I move onto Underworld: another tale I know very little about… but I’m well aware that it’s not regarded at the best the series has ever produced…