Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Doctor Who-Underworld

                          The TARDIS is pulled into a gigantic spiral nebula which is pulling the surround space into its gravitational force. They materialize on a spaceship belonging to the Minyans,a race whom were the last the time lords interfered in the society of-resulting in the annihilation of their people in a nuclear war. The ship,commanded by a man named Jackson along with his compatriots Ofre,Tara and Herrick at first mistrust the time lord and Leela-seeing as they still view them as god like figures. The crew are looking for another vessel called the P7E,containing race banks with the last remaining genetic material of their species. They are pulled into the nebula as K-9 helps to stabalize the ship enough to arrive on the newly forming planet being created within. Crashing through the soft surface,the ship finds itself in a series of underground caverns.

                      Once there,an enormous avalanche overwhelms the crew of the ship,the doctor and Leela. They manage to rescue one inhabitant of this planetoid named Idas who paints for them a very grim picture. He and his humanoid companions are mining the ore used for fuel here for the seers of a great Oracle who is looking after them from a "metal citadel" that the doctor realizes is the P7E. And that the oracle,likely the computer originally built to guard the race banks has malfunctioned and taken over the lives of the descendants of the ships crew. Herrick remains behind and believes he has convinced the robot guards of the oracle of his crews quest for the race banks. When they are given to him, the doctor has discovered the actual banks in the oracle chamber,while the ones given to Herrick turn out to be bombs. The doctor makes the switch,brings along the descendants of the crew of P7E on board the ship with them and are successful in escaping the ensuing explosion of the oracle before leaving with Leela and K-9 in the TARDIS.

                       The quality that makes this story so interesting is that the doctor is essentially assisting a group of people who, while still seeing him as a god like figure, have adapted time lord technology such as regenerative systems into their world. While the doctor and Leela are as usual doing all they can to assist the crew in their quest for their race banks, they have a little help from within. That would be the rather daring and courageous John Herrick. High strung and at first very distrustful of the doctor, he is perfectly willing to sacrifice his life to the protectors of the oracle in order to save his people with the doctors help. The special effects,especially in the first part are actually quite effective for their time as well. It also gives us another glimmer into the consequences of historical interference on the part of the time lords and why they became content to observe time rather than become involved in the events within it.

                 

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