The Dominators Episode 2

The one where we don't find out that the Doctor has two hearts...

I love the Dominators' spaceship interior! It's crazy and mind-bendingly Sixties, but look at the attention to detail by the ever reliable Barry Newbery, there's so much to see, so much depth to the controls and displays. The display screens we see the Dominators viewing at the very start of the episode are swirling, pulsing and spinning with migraine-inducing psychedelic images, while parts of the set are laced with little mini Quarks in bas relief. Despite everything that's cheap about The Dominators, Barry Newbery's set for the ship is supreme, and reflects his consummate professionalism and talent in the face of everybody's else's apathy.

The Doctor and Jamie are lured inside the ship (I'm puzzled as to how Toba can already be inside the ship when we just saw him outside with the Quarks) and subjected to a series of tests to see how intelligent, or otherwise, they are. This is all quite nice fun, allowing for the rapport between Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines to shine. Jamie is placed under some sort of sunbed, secured by the Quarks' force units (and the Quark gets a front row view up Hines' kilt too!), and has his physiological make-up probed by Rago, which is where things get tantalising...

Rago asserts that Jamie only has one heart, suggesting that, as a Dominator, he has more than one. Later in the episode, when Teel is probed (ahem), we discover that Dulcians actually have two hearts, which in hindsight is a pretty major revelation. Doctor Who fans wouldn't learn that the Doctor has two hearts until 1970's Spearhead from Space, but the fact the Dulcians have two might suggest they are related in some way to the Time Lords of Gallifrey. The two hearts thing could, of course, just be a totally separate and independent evolutionary development, but it's still an interesting idea. If only the Dominators subjected the Doctor to the probe as well, instead of assuming he and Jamie were the same, we'd have discovered a lot more about our hero a lot sooner than we did!

I like the quarrelsome dynamic between Rago and Toba. Rago is the much more level-headed, sensible one, forever trying to rein in Toba's reactionary tendencies, which more often than not lead to the wasting of energy. Ronald Allen gives a great performance as the detached Dominator, and gets across Rago's suspicion that the Doctor isn't as thick as he makes out really well ("Are you such a fool? You have intelligent eyes"). I think Troughton responds to Allen's gravitas too. Kenneth Ives is more animated and emotional, and this combative relationship brings the Dominators alive, without which they'd be just dull, run-of-the-mill heavies. At least these chaps have characterisation, unlike the majority of wet wipe Dulcians.

A lot of time is spent in the Dulcian capital summarising the events of episode 1 and the story so far, but all this is great news for veteran white male actors who are perhaps past their thespian prime. The Dulcian Council is made up of a bunch of doddering old codgers who love to deliberate, but most of all, who are played by actors with next to no tangible acting ability or screen presence! John Cross, Alan Gerrard and Ronald Mansell dither about as if not totally convinced they ought to be there at all, while Walter Fitzgerald (Senex) gives the most detached, uninvolved and unconvincing performance so far. These men were supposed to seem like fusty old ditherers of course, but it's hard to credit that Fitzgerald was only 72 here (Cross was 65, and Mansell just 59!). It's true that people just looked so much older back in the 1960s!

The best thing about the Dulcian Council is their intercom voice (played uncredited by Quark vocal artiste Sheila Grant). She sounds foxy, like Fenella Fielding crossed with Marianne Faithfull! However, she erroneously believes that Cully is called "Curly"!

"Do you enjoy being treated like a clown?" says Senex to Cully, while both of them are dressed like buffoons. The scenes at the capital are laboured and pointless, and even newcomer Wendy Padbury seems to be running on autopilot because there's just nothing in the script to bring these characters alive. Arthur Cox continues to put a lot of energy into his performance, and it's clear that, while bemused by everything around them, Padbury and Cox were trying to make the best of a bad time. They seem very happy in one another's company, even going so far as to hold hands like loved-up pre-teens! It's kind of delightful but weird. And I had to smile at the bit where they seem to be poking fun at Martin Baugh's awful costumes. "Not very efficient garments, are they?" says Zoe. "They feel impractical." You said it, girl!

I'll refer again also to the writers' idea that the Dulcians merely accept facts and seek no evidence, because what is simply is. It's an interesting idea, but depicted inconsistently. Why don't Teel and Kando believe the Doctor and Jamie's assertion that they've encountered aliens and robots? Surely, if they say they have, then they have? Balan then allows them to get "positive proof", but aren't they supposed to just accept what they're told as fact, because there's no other way to disprove it? It's a muddled philosophy that needed more careful thought than Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln seemed to grant it.

First broadcast: August 17th, 1968

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Barry Newbery's spaceship interior is groovily retro and detailed.
The Bad: The Dulcian Council, led by Senex (which sounds like a suppository).
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 3 (although we're never told that on screen!)...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-dominators.html

The Dominators is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Dominators-Patrick-Troughton/dp/B003O85CDA.