The Sun Makers Part Two

The one where the Doctor enjoys the delicacy of a raspberry leaf...

In my review of part one I mentioned my dislike for Tony Snoaden's set design, especially for Gatherer Hade's office, as it reminded me heavily of the 1981 children's educational series Chock-A-Block. Not everybody will get that reference, but a quick Google Image search will show you what I mean. But the likenesses don't end there: as well as the Chock-A-Block computer looking like Snoaden's set design for The Sun Makers, there's also the jumpsuit costume design (Chock-A-Bloke and Chock-A-Girl look like they could be Marn's contemporaries), the Chock-A-Truck that's like the buggies driven by the MegroGuards, the data blocks inserted into Chock-A-Block that look like Plutonian ConSumCards, and the way the kids' series presenters watch clips on a little TV monitor, rather like Hade and Marn observing their tracker.

The thing is, The Sun Makers predates Chock-A-Block by four years, and as far as I can tell, the two share no production personnel. So it's perhaps just a massive coincidence that the two seem so alike to me, but the fact is the similarity ruins my ability to see The Sun Makers for itself.

But as well as the set design that reminds me of a pre-school series, there's also the comedic performance of Richard Leech as Gatherer Hade, and in part 2 we meet the Collector, who Henry Woolf plays as a cross between Uncle Fester from The Addams Family and Carry On legend Kenneth Williams, with Denis Healey eyebrows. The scene between Hade and the Collector is really silly, with some childish dialogue, and again, that Chock-A-Block set design which upsets me so! I've no appreciation at all for Leech or Woolf's acting choices.

Someone I do respect so much more, and who pretty much acts everybody else in the episode off the screen, is Louise Jameson. Leela finds herself at the mercy of the ruffian outlaws in the undercity, waiting for the Doctor to come back with the 1,000 talmars. When he doesn't, Mandrel turns on Leela, but the savage is having none of this man's nonsense. "Before I die I'll see this rat hole ankle deep in blood. That is a promised thing," she snarls, and you believe her. Jameson is so good at playing Leela, she knows the character inside out. She balances Leela's hard-edged savagery with her gentler, naive side so well.

When it's time for Leela to meet her maker, the outlaws make the fundamental mistake of not disarming her, so out comes her knife, but she needs no blade to fend Mandrel off. She's got the moves, and shows them all up for the cowards they are. They might be outlaws, but they're not very good rebels. They leave the undercity to scavenge for food, but they have no fight in them, and refuse to side with Leela to rescue the Doctor because the MegroGuards have guns. "And what have we got?" asks Mandrel simply. "You? You have nothing, Mandrel," replies a disgusted Leela, facing up against the pockfaced leader. "No pride, no courage, no manhood. Even animals protect their own. You say to me you want to live. Well, I'll say this to you: if you lie skulking in this black pit while the Doctor dies, then you will live, but without honour!"

She continues to shame every single one of them as she asks them to join her on her rescue mission, and they literally turn their backs on her. "Who amongst you is a true man? I see. Not one of you. Then I shall go alone." The only one to join Leela on her quest is timid Cordo, a man who recognises his lack of courage and fight, but wants to help anyway (after all, Leela did save his life). "Cordo, you are the bravest man here," Leela tells him. It's all so beautifully written and performed, and shows Leela's character off at its very best. Jameson, the consummate classical actress, brings every fibre of her training to bear in her fearless delivery, treating the script with the respect it deserves. Unlike others in the cast...

Meanwhile, the Doctor's tied up in a straitjacket at the correction centre, where prisoners' neural pathways are opened up so wide that they feel pain a thousandfold, and by the time they leave they remember very little. The Doctor makes a new friend, fellow inmate Bisham, who was sent for correction after getting too curious about things that didn't concern him at the chemical plant. Bisham proves to be extremely chatty and very informative, filling the Doctor in on the Company's use of PentoCyleinicMethylhydrane (PCM), which people are told eliminates airborne infections, but is actually an anxiety-inducing agent.

The Doctor manages to rig the controls so that when an attendant comes to use it, it blows up, electrocuting him. Is the attendant dead? It's not made clear, but if he is, the Doctor's responsible for someone's death yet again (Terrance Dicks' novelisation refers to the attendant's "body"). Luckily, Gatherer Hade has instructed that the Doctor be released and brought to him, and sends Marn to fetch him. "What about my chum?" asks the Doctor of Bisham, but there's no hope for him it seems. It's a shame the Doctor doesn't show a little more concern for his friend, or even argue for his joint release. And when he gets to meet Hade, he doesn't appeal for Bisham's pardon, he just forgets about him, which is a real shame.

Luckily, Leela's on the prowl with her small guerrilla unit (Cordo and K-9!), and manages to find the correction centre and rescue Bisham (is that another attendant dead, this time killed by Leela's gun?). It's nice that Bisham's rescued, he seems a jolly cove, and he has been very helpful.

The Doctor's meeting with Hade is a damp squib. You expect a confrontation between our hero and the oppressor, but it's written with so many false platitudes and pleasantries that when the meeting ends, you realise nothing's been achieved. The Doctor hasn't achieved or learnt anything of worth during his meeting, he hasn't confronted Hade or challenged him at all. All he does is grin a lot, eat raspberry leaves and play the fool. You want the Doctor to stand up to this buffoon, this representative of the Company that brainwashes its people. But no, he just offers sweets, and when he leaves is unknowingly being tracked by the Gatherer. Only Hade gains from this liaison, and really, our hero should have achieved more.

Naively, the Doctor goes straight back to the undercity and the outlaws' base. Whether he knows he's being tracked or not, that is surely a very foolish thing to do, immediately after being released. Banging his head on the scenery as he arrives, the Doctor hands Hade's 1,000 talmars over to Mandrel, but when he asks where Leela is, things turn serious. "If anything's happened to that girl..." the Doctor threatens, once again showing a natural concern for his friend which he's had since the moment he met her.

Meanwhile, in corridor P45 (oh, the subtlety...), Leela, Cordo and K-9 are cornered by MegroGuards in buggies. The cliffhanger is a buggy full of guards gliding silently toward the camera. They're not even shouting threats or firing weapons. It's an under-powered end to an episode in which very little has happened. I've noticed that the last three stories (The Invisible Enemy, Image of the Fendahl and now The Sun Makers) see the Doctor less immersed in the plot, slightly apart or aloof from it. He's less of an active force, and more an observer, or a victim of circumstance. It's almost like he's wandering through the story, rather than a central part of it (all he does in this episode is kill a stranger, and enjoy a genial lunch with a man in a silly hat). I'm hoping for a more pro-active Doctor under new script editor Anthony Read.

First broadcast: December 3rd, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Louise Jameson is fabulous in her confrontation with Mandrel and his men.
The Bad: The villains are too silly to take seriously.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 13 - The Doctor offers a jelly baby from his coat pocket to the correction centre attendant (and leaves a bag of sweets with his chum Bisham). Later, he offers a sweet to Gatherer Hade (he says "humbug?", but he takes a green jelly baby).

NEXT TIME: Part Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; 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