The Sun Makers Part One

The one where the Doctor and Leela prevent a suicide...

There's nothing as certain as death and taxes, and it's very clever of writer Robert Holmes to combine the two in the opening scene of this new story! D-grade foundry worker Cordo is informed by a woman speaking from a hatch high up in a wall that his father has died. Cordo seems happy about this, as it was reportedly a "fine death". But when somebody dies on this world, it means there's a price to pay, and in this case it's a death tax. Cordo is sent to the Gatherer to pay the tax for his father's "golden death", but when he gets there it seems the tax has gone up, and he owes 117 talmars instead of the expected 80.

It's a lot to take in about this new world all at once, but there's a maturity to the writing which is sadly not reflected in the design. Tony Snoaden's corridors, and especially the Gatherer's office, are like something out of 1981 children's show Chock-A-Block, as are the costumes by Christine Rawlins. I mean, it's 'a look' I suppose, but not really one I appreciate. To me, it looks cheap. The design of the Gatherer's office is so haphazard, it barely looks designed at all. Mismatching colours and shapes and angles, all colliding to make one big mess. The only striking thing about it is the use of Aztec iconography as emblems, which was apparently a nod to the work of Mexican propagandist art, but to me it just adds to the mush of ideas.

Something else that doesn't fill me with much confidence is Richard Leech's unrestrained performance as Gatherer Hade. It's like he's acting in a pantomime or a children's series, while everybody else around him is treating the script more seriously. The tone of his performance sticks out like a sore thumb, and coupled with the children's playground set design, it makes my heart sink, because the script seems really intelligent; serious but with a tongue in its cheek.

What is good is the breathtaking location filming, with the TARDIS materialising on top of a tower block on the planet Pluto. The Doctor, Leela and K-9 are seen playing chess, which is a nice return to the original Pygmalion dynamic intended for the Time Lord and the savage. It's marred a little by the fact the K-9 prop is so damn noisy, even when it's doing next to nothing, but I love the bit where the Doctor and Leela go to leave, and K-9 "entreats" his master to join him. K-9 only wants a walk, and promises: "I'll be good!" Sadly, he's told to stay indoors!

Outside, on the roof of a tower block 1,000 metres high, the Doctor and Leela find poor old Cordo about to jump off, devastated by his inability to pay the 117 talmar tax he's been landed with. Thankfully, the Doctor sees it as his duty to prevent Cordo from killing himself, and tempts him away from the edge with a jelly baby (it's actually a liquorice allsort). This is the correct way to write Dr Who when he's faced with a person so desperate they want to end their life. He should try anything he can to stop them, unlike in the previous story (Image of the Fendahl) where he pretty much aided and abetted Max Stael's suicide. I was very unhappy about that, but now that Robert Holmes is here, everything feels right again!

It seems everything on Pluto is taxed, including death and even sunshine. The population is also controlled by something pumped through the air-conditioning, while there's also screening and preparation centres, as well as an ominous correction centre. Cordo decides that if suicide isn't the answer, then the next best thing will be to join the band of rebel outlaws believed to live in the undercity. You can tell this is Doctor Who when there's a bureaucratic plutocracy riding roughshod over a demoralised workforce, and a bunch of rebels hiding in the woodwork ready to be adopted by the Doctor!

Director Pennant Roberts makes the most of the striking locations: a tobacco factory in Bristol for the exterior Megropolis scenes, and Camden deep shelters in London for those wonderful scenes with the cavernous stairway. The locations are not ideal for the clunky K-9 prop though, proven by the extremely limited way the tin dog traverses various gratings and walkways!

Hade and his jumpsuited sidekick Marn consider that the TARDIS is a container being used by the Doctor to smuggle arms into Megropolis for the outlaws. Hade also thinks the Doctor is an Ajack, a miner from Megropolis 3 (it's ironic that Ajack is so similar to Arar-Jeck, a race of subterranean people mentioned in Frontios). The magnitude of the offence astounds Marn, although Jonina Scott struggles to express this.

The subterranean outlaws are a rough and ready bunch, led by pockfaced Mandrel, who's handy with a whip. Playing outlaw Goudry is Michael Keating, who would go on to play Vila Restal in that other classic BBC sci-fi show Blake's 7, while Adrienne Burgess plays token female outlaw Veet, who feels the wrath of an irked Leela at one point ("You touch me again and I'll fillet you!"). When Mandrel accuses the Doctor of being an Ajack too, he wonders whether he's insulting him, to which Leela replies: "With a face like his, he wouldn't dare!" Wonderful Holmesian dialogue.

Mandrel forces the Doctor to draw 1,000 talmars out of the ConSum Bank using a forged ConSumCard, which is the same size as a large print copy of War & Peace! If the Doctor refuses to comply, then Leela will be killed (I'd like to see them try). So the Doctor, led by Cordo, trek to Subway 37 to draw the money out, but the ATM becomes a trap, sealing the Doctor in and filling the cubicle with gas. Cue end titles as Tom Baker inelegantly sinks to the ground.

I'm being pulled in by Robert Holmes's intriguing world-building (there's not much by way of plot yet), but I'm put off slightly by Tony Snoaden's haphazard set design, using bold shapes and colours that clash against empty black backdrops (these people are supposed to be rich, but they're surrounded by cheap tat). The use of black drapes at the rear of Hade's office and the outlaws' den make it feel more theatrical, and this feels at odds with the very realistic location filming in the tunnels and walkways of the factory. Studio and location scenes rarely match anyway, but in this instance, there seems to be even more of a distance between the inside and the outside, mainly down to the heightened artificiality in Snoaden's work.

First broadcast: November 26th, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The tobacco factory location for Megropolis 1 is breathtaking.
The Bad: Richard Leech's comedic performance, and Tony Snoaden's eccentric set design, devalue the genius at work in the scripts.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 11 - The Doctor saves Cordo's life by offering him a jelly baby (which is actually a liquorice allsort - he has a habit of doing this in Season 15!).

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

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: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-sun-makers.html

The Sun Makers is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Sun-Makers-DVD/dp/B004VRO87O