I might be tempted to one day do "101 Reasons The Twin Dilemma Rocks" - well, probably not, but doing 101 reasons why it sucks would be the easiest thing for anyone to write. Maybe all my readers could suggest stories I'd have to either big up or knock down, like those debates at school where if you ever under any circumstances had any opinion you were forced to make a case to the class supporting the diametric opposite to justify the opinions of other people...
Where was I?
Oh yes. Well, while TTD has more positives than you'd might think, here is one no one mentions.
The Twin Dilemma is the only Doctor Who plot around which a Jonathan Creek mystery has been based. It was even made a two-parter so there could be a cliffhanger and the run-time matches a four-part DW serial. And while there was some real Whovian vibes in Danse Macabre with Peter Davison playing the Fifth Doctor in a dog collar while Ron Grainer's tune accompanied a mystery over whethere a building was bigger on the inside than not, and there was that time they were determined to get the entire cast of Immortal Beloved back together, but The Problem At Gallows Gate is practically a BBV video.
I'm not talking about the numerous DW cliches like our heroes being arrested for a murder they didn't commit, exploring deserted houses to be stalked by something that pursues them until they have to hide behind sofas, the shocking revelations about infamous historical figures, the complicated bluff to trick a harmless-seeming character to reveal they are a psychotic monster in disguise, etc...
The mystery circles a mysterious man who lives in a strange gothic castle identified by an unseen "antique telephone box" in the grounds. For various reasons he announces that he has to die to save the life of a big-breasted young woman he's been in a platonic relationship with and she weeps as he nobly sacrifices himself. She's devastated and later discovers that the same has somehow come back to life and then appears to strangle her in a psychotic episode. He doesn't, though and she survives, and he immediately assumes a hermit-like existence as penance for what he's done.
Sounding a tad familiar, huh?
You could say it's a coincidence but when said mysterious man is arrested, we get a lengthy scene of police storming around his threshold and collecting all the stuff they find as evidence.
Including his VHS tapes.
And the first one they pick up, given a glorious crystal-clear close-up is...
Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma.
Spooky, huh?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment