The Dominators Episode 3

The one where Jamie blows up a Quark...

Episode 3 begins by refusing to admit that it is episode 3, as the production team forgot to put an episode number caption up. Perhaps it reflects the general feeling of apathy and embarrassment about this story displayed by most of the people making it?

It's getting very predictable now that every time Toba tries to kill or destroy, Rago will pop up and stop him. Rago is very mindful of wasting energy on piffling things like killing Dulcians or blowing up buildings, so as an exploratory crew, these two are entirely mismatched. All Toba wants to do is demonstrate their might as Dominators; all Rago wants to do is run experiments and tests. The warmonger and the scientist!

In episode 2 we got a lot of flummery with Cully getting exasperated at the Dulcian Council, and an unnecessary summary of the story so far for Senex and his sedentary friends. In episode 3, the Doctor and Jamie are the ones to hit a brick wall with the Council, and we're threatened with yet another rehash of the story so far ("I'd be grateful if you could tell me what occurred on the island," says Senex). Walter Fitzgerald makes for a pretty passive leader, and doesn't seem at all sure or convinced of his part in all this. He's just a really flat actor, and his lack of expression or animation gives the already lifeless dialogue an added monotony.

These Dulcians are frustrating in their insistence on being as dull as ditch water, and Jamie's rising exasperation is exactly how I felt watching them. When faced with the prospect of the Dominators being aggressive, Senex replies: "Why seek menace where there may be none?" Well, because there might be, you wet wipe! "Better to do nothing than do the wrong thing," says a councillor. "Universal gentleness will cause aggression to die," adds Senex. My God, these people deserve to be invaded, subjugated and killed. If they don't care about what's at stake, why should the viewer?

The younger Dulcians are little better. Tasked with moving a load of polystyrene rocks away to make way for a drill site, Balan, Teel and Kando are equally as pathetic when faced with Zoe and Cully's enthusiasm to escape. "Escape is pointless, where would we go?" says Balan, while Kando simpers: "We can't get off the island."

At last, after a rather under-powered start to her Doctor Who adventuring, Wendy Padbury gets to show off the Zoe Heriot spirit that she'd become remembered for. Zoe is the only one determined to escape the Quarks, and the only one to come up with a plan. Being a super-intelligent child of the future, she refuses to take all this lying down, despite being less than experienced in this sort of situation. She comes into her own, declaring: "Submission leads to slavery! We must fight!" She also gives plenty of lip to Toba. At last, the Zoe we know and love is emerging!

Zoe's plan is to distract the Quarks in order to get the laser gun from the abandoned museum and destroy the little blighters, but it's not the best thought-through plan. I mean, why send Cully to get the gun when he will be completely unaware of how to shoot the thing? Zoe is hardly a gun-toting sharp-shooter, but her knowledge and intelligence would probably make her a more capable candidate.

Events conspire to give Jamie the chance of shooting a Quark, which he does quite spectacularly (all of the explosions in The Dominators are impressive, particularly Cully's capsule in episode 1), and when the smoke has cleared, all that's left are a pair of little feet! Hilarious!

Elsewhere in the episode the Doctor and Jamie mess about in the travel capsule, wasting time, achieving nothing except turning in a rather pathetic bit of slapstick. The Dulcian Council call in their top man, a capable chap who has successfully dealt with floods and earthquakes, and a lot hangs on what advice Tensa can give them. He essentially gives them three options: fight, submit, or flee. Wow, thanks for that searing insight, mate! And, predictably, the Council opts to do nothing, except wait. I'm starting to think the writers have no idea what they want to do with this story.

The cliffhanger is yet another rehash of the same scenario - Toba and the Quarks going on a violent killing spree of destruction, although the effect of the Quarks' firepower in the studio has a lot to be desired, with just a few bangs and flashes!

This is all pedestrian, unimaginative, cheap-looking stuff. What has Doctor Who become? Just a few months ago it was turning out claustrophobic, atmospheric, considered, intelligent stories such as The Ice Warriors, The Enemy of the World and Fury from the Deep, with believable characters and situations, and the production values to match. But The Dominators is just cheap trash. Patrick Troughton, a character actor with so much talent and dignity, must have been embarrassed. It's no surprise that it was mid-August 1968 (when this story was transmitted) when Patrick Troughton decided to leave Doctor Who after Season 6.

First broadcast: August 24th, 1968

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Wendy Padbury finally gets to show what Zoe Heriot is made of!
The Bad: The Dulcians are just so drippy. I want them all to die.
Overall score for episode: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 4...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; 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.