tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5075740671122268515.post4173254585702507911..comments2023-04-06T22:01:07.239+10:00Comments on YOA's Blog Of The Unusally Pointless: Hang On...Youth of Australiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08509521019229324658noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5075740671122268515.post-3617010528836367252011-02-03T10:42:13.756+11:002011-02-03T10:42:13.756+11:00I do have to say that, much as I love the story, i...<i>I do have to say that, much as I love the story, it was considerably weaker than I rememebered when I saw it on DVD.</i><br />Let's be clear on this<br />a) I love ROD. I saw it when I was a babe. In black and white. It is marked "awesome" in my DNA.<br />b) I genuinely had this epiphiny yesterday. It just popped into my head out of heat-choked nowhere.<br /><br />Yet the wierd thing is that people tear apart the plot of Pyramids of Mars (specifically someone in Egypt deciding to fire a missile from England) while admitting it still works on The Rule of Cool, yet Robots has never ever had anyone point out a similar state.<br /><br /><i>Really, Robots of Death has to be right up there with Classic Who's biggest triumphs of style over substance - which makes it appropriate for it to be the progenitor of Kaldor CIty, really.</i><br />Meow... nah, totally agree. And ironic, it's all KC's attempts to create subtext in the original that made me realize how rubbish said original was.<br /><br />Oh, bone of contention #876:<br />In KC, Uvanov is an uncontrollable psychopath who wants every possible person he doesn't like dead. In ROD, he is shown to be riddled with guilt after he failed to prevent Zilda's brother committing suicide, and even allowed people to assume he was a negligant asshole to help the family cope with the shame. But that would make the man character halfway human, and we can't have that in an ultraviolent tale of media manipulation, can we?<br /><br /><i>And, you know, to fascinatingly re-write the ending in absentia by making Uvanov, Toos and Poul survive even though they are clearly meant to be dead when the series ends.</i><br />I mean, yes, the Doctor is seen standing over the bodies asking "You all right, Toos?" in a non-sarcastic manner, but consider that - for me - a couple of hours later we have Horror of Fang Rock. Why the hell <b>shouldn't</b> they all be dead?<br /><br />Imagine it...<br /><br />DOCTOR: Right, blue eyes, back to the TARDIS.<br />LEELA: Shouldn't we check on the Colonel and Vince to ensure they survived the lethal zaps of the Rutan?<br />DOCTOR: Oh, I dare say they'll be all right now the fog's lifted.<br /><br />Gah-what?!<br /><br /><i>Boucher has said that as he's gotten older as a writer he's become more reluctant to kill of characters.</i><br />Apart from that ONE time everyone remembers...<br /><br />Course, in his TV stories the only interesting characters he killed were Neeva and D84. Was he seriously considering sequels in the 1970s?<br /><br /><i>So, yes, it's a strange beast that maybe, just maybe, doesn't warrant a fully-fledged spin-off series...</i><br />I know. I mean, there is a VAGUE line to explain it:<br /><br />"Who is Taren Capel?"<br />"A mad scientist. A VERY mad scientist."<br /><br />So if we just assume TC is completely, utterly, smearing-his-shit-on-the-walls crazy, yeah, the demented plot KIND of makes sense with his stupid mistakes and the like. But the spin offs keep saying he was actually a criminal genius and visionary...<br /><br />...who liked painting himself green and wearing washing up gloves...Youth of Australiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08509521019229324658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5075740671122268515.post-58256852172041501092011-02-03T00:20:46.984+11:002011-02-03T00:20:46.984+11:00I do have to say that, much as I love the story, i...I do have to say that, much as I love the story, it was considerably weaker than I rememebered when I saw it on DVD. I think pretty much every problem you said stems from the fact that it started with Bob Holmes suggesting <i>Murder on the Orient Express</i> in a sci-fi setting, and the rest of the work of the story was working backwards from that point.<br /><br />(But, this being Doctor Who there's sadly not much mystery - especially when, as you point out, there's a dearth of logic behind the murders which makes it all difficult to follow)<br /><br />Really, <b>Robots of Death</b> has to be right up there with Classic Who's biggest triumphs of style over substance - which makes it appropriate for it to be the progenitor of Kaldor CIty, really.<br /><br />When you look at it, <b>Corpse Marker</b> is really an effort to retcon the odd bits of the story into making sense, with things like making Taren Capel into a semi-legendary figure and, as you mentioned, a bizarrely forgotten history of robotic revolutions. And, you know, to fascinatingly re-write the ending in absentia by making Uvanov, Toos and Poul survive even though they are clearly meant to be dead when the series ends. (Boucher has said that as he's gotten older as a writer he's become more reluctant to kill of characters. Fair enough. Better men than him have done Lucases worse than this...)<br /><br />So, yes, it's a strange beast that maybe, just maybe, doesn't warrant a fully-fledged spin-off series...Jared "No Nickname" Hansenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13825668092428993308noreply@blogger.com