Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 537: The Creature from the Pit, Episode Three
Dear diary,
I seem to be saying, and realising, this a lot at the moment: but Tom Baker is really very good at being the Doctor, isn’t he? In today’s episode, we have a sequence lasting several minutes in which all the action is carried by Baker. He’s essentially left alone in the studio communicating with some green bin bags, and yet it’s absolutely captivating. Another thing I seem to be saying lately: it’s the best that he’s been in the role for absolutely ages. It really does feel of late as though he’s found his interest in Doctor Who again and has started putting the effort back in.
From about Season Fourteen onwards (certainly parts of Season Fifteen), it felt as though he was bored and just doing whatever the hell he fancied once the cameras started rolling, whereas here it feels like every action has been considered in a split second to suit the moment. People say that he’s the actor who is most ‘like’ the Doctor in real life, and I think we’ve gotten back to a stage here where I can really see that - and I’m honestly very pleased about it. I’ve had the opportunity to be quite down on his performance a fair bit over the last couple of months, so I’m glad that he’s found his stride and is hitting the high notes again, because it’s certainly helping to reinvigorate my interest in the programme again.
It also helps that this ‘version’ of the programme really seems to chime with everything that I enjoy in Doctor Who. People talk about the Graham Williams era being the ‘comedy’ years of the programme, and that’s never more in evidence than here in Season Seventeen, possibly stemming from the influence of Douglas Adams in the Script Editor’s chair. I’ve seen that description of this ‘comedy’ period used as something of a stick to beat the show with - I’ve said before that there’s a subset of Who fandom which doesn’t like the show being too silly about itself. But everything we’re getting at the moment just seems to work for me! It’s pitching the comedy just right for me to enjoy it, and I’ve found myself again laughing rather too loudly at a number of moments in this instalment. My notes are brimming with snatches of dialogue from all the characters, and I’m simply being swept along with the story, instead of stopping to worry too much about it.
Before it sounds like I’m falling a little too much in love with this story, I have to report that it’s not all good news. K9 is really starting to irritate again. It’s not so much the character himself - he’s given lots of things to do again, today, even if many are fairly run-of-the-mill (‘K9 - blast that wall/creature/mirror/person’) - but rather his new voice box which just isn’t working for me. The metal mutt is being more sarcastic than ever, which I’m really enjoying, but I just can’t take to David Brierley’s performance in the role. I’m sure there’s nothing all that wrong with what he’s doing, but I’ve been spoiled by being so familiar with John Leeson’s version of the tin dog.
It feels almost as though Brierley is trying to imitate what Leeson did while also taking it slightly in his own direction, but I’m simply left longing to hear our original K9 back again! I’m surprised, all these years on, that no one seems to have had Leeson record the lines and create an edited version of the stories featuring K9’s more familiar voice - there’s certainly nothing in the dialogue to indicate that he’s switched his settings (though it’s been pointed out to me today that it’s explained away by the ‘laryngitis’ comment during Destiny of the Daleks. That was over a week ago for me, and frankly I’d forgotten it, so I’m not sure it causes that much of an issue!) Someone call John Leeson, I’ll meet him at the recording studio!
