Nightmare of Eden Part Two

The one where Captain Rigg's drink is spiked with vraxoin...

Seeing the cliffhanger reprised just makes the whole thing seem even worse than before. You can actually see Tom Baker and David Daker trying to disguise their mirth as they approach the panel to remove it, because they know what lunacy lies behind it. A monster lunges out of the hole, swathed in dry ice, and K-9 wastes no time in shooting at it to fend it off. The oddest thing about it all is that neither the Doctor or Rigg appear to be very scared of the monster, which is probably because it doesn't look all that threatening, but really, as actors, they should have reacted a little more realistically.

And then they just pop the panel back into place (held from behind by a mysterious hand!) and the monster's gone again. "What the devil was that?" asks Rigg with barely a trace of fear or apprehension. They just take the fact there's a monster in the walls in their stride, it's directed so poorly by Alan Bromly, with no attempt at realism (as real as science-fiction can get).

I'm glad Captain Rigg refuses to let go of his curiosity about who exactly the Doctor is. He's already established that he's not from Galactic Salvage and Insurance, which the Doctor glossed over, but Rigg returns to the question of who he is again. "Who do you work for?" asks Rigg, to which the Doctor responds: "Work for? I don't work for anybody. I'm just having fun!" What a wonderful way to sum up what the Doctor's all about, especially this version. He's just a mad man in a box zipping around the universe having adventures. That's what Doctor Who should be, and that one line sums it all up beautifully, all 57 years of it (so far). Doctor Who may not always be as simplistically fun as that, but at its heart, its very essence, is fun, adventure, danger and derring-do. Writers try to prise in the odd story arc, something deep and meaningful, but at the end of the day what people want from Doctor Who is fun, entertainment, a good laugh, a monster, a cracking story and that's it.

So thank you Bob Baker, or Douglas Adams, or Tom Baker, or whoever wrote that line. You just summed up Doctor Who in one sentence.

The Doctor and Rigg use the Empress's vraxoin scanner to see if there are any illegal drugs on board. It's a slightly clunky scene, despite the snazzy scanner graphic, with moments of nothing happening for that little bit too long while they watch the scanner do its thing. But this leads to Rigg questioning yet again why he should trust this complete stranger. "How do I know I can trust you?" he asks. The Doctor, quite rightly, replies: "Or I you, Captain."

Meanwhile, Della has found Romana collapsed on the floor of the lounge after being bitten by a rubbish special effect. It doesn't seem like Romana is aware that she was bitten by a rubbish special effect, she thinks she just fainted (unless she's lying). Della goes to the vending machine to get her a drink, but when she's not looking, a mysterious hand pops up and pours something into the glass. Quite how a human being fits inside a vending machine isn't explained, or how long they've been in there waiting for someone to get themselves a drink. Unfortunately, the spiked drink ends up going to Captain Rigg instead of Romana.

What puzzles me is how Romana can confirm to the Doctor that the creature he saw behind the wall escaped from the Eden projection. Firstly, she never saw the creature the Doctor saw, and she never saw a creature in the projection (she saw a man, that's it). Secondly, there's no evidence whatsoever that anything has come out of the projection. If it's right that Romana is oblivious to the insect biting her, that means she's being mighty presumptuous with the facts here. Also, what was the point of the insect biting her if it doesn't lead to anything? She's not poisoned, she doesn't learn anything, it was just false jeopardy. I hate false jeopardy.

Rigg is high on vraxoin, and David Daker is excellent at portraying the effect. Vraxoin induces complacency and apathy, and Daker's blissed out euphoria is disturbingly realistic. The Captain no longer cares what's going on, he doesn't give two hoots whether the ships are parted, or even whether he keeps his job - or his life! Everything's a joke to him, nothing has any consequence. What a thoroughly repellant drug vrax is, stripping people of their individuality and personality until they just become giggling morons. And then, according to the Doctor, they die.

The Doctor chases a handsome stranger through the ship, recognising him as the man who shot him in part 1. The stranger is quick on his feet, clever at using lifts instead of stairs. The chase takes them through Passenger Pallets 67-90, where the coverall-clad customers are anxious to complete their journey to Azure. It's amusing that the passenger sections are referred to as pallets, as if these people are mere cargo!

The stranger leads the Doctor into the matter interface between the ships, and the video effect of the interface is really well done, reminiscent of, but much better than, the interface with the Dark Circus in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (which used tinsel). Very briefly, it's actually quite a spooky effect, when the Doctor's on the floor and then approached by a monster's claw. The disorientating murk is unsettling, in the same way that the Antizone in It Takes You Away is broodingly oppressive.

And it's all coming out about Stott. Who? Well, Stott is Della's old flame who was killed on Eden, but we are to assume he wasn't really killed, and it's actually him peeking out of the projection, and maybe him running around shooting the Doctor and running through passenger pallets. Tryst accuses Stott of being the drug smuggler, and poor Della his accomplice, because Stott apparently went missing for two hours the day before he was killed. This all smacks too much of Tryst trying to point the finger, and perhaps the zoologist doth protest too much? Certainly, the Doctor and Romana refuse point-blank to believe Della is a drug smuggler, simply because she's a young woman and couldn't possibly be evil and twisted like that. To me, that's the perfect cover, but this is Doctor Who in the 1970s: of course Della's innocent.

As the end of the episode nears, the last thing anybody wants is some comedy policemen to arrive, but here they are anyway, with their funny peaked caps and refusal to listen to reason. I wouldn't say Geoffrey Hinsliff is the obvious choice to play a space policeman, and he fails to convince on almost every level (he was much better suited to Jack Tyler in Image of the Fendahl). Peter Craze (Michael's brother) isn't a lot better, and together they're more like Cannon and Ball than Holmes and Watson. I like how the Doctor and Romana just run away from them though, slamming the doors on their way out!

The ending sees the Doctor and a reluctant Romana leaping into the Eden projection, despite its instability. It's hardly a classic cliffhanger, but the implications are serious. They could be torn apart by the instability, or by whatever monsters (or dodgy white blobs) may lurk within the forests of Eden.

First broadcast: December 1st, 1979

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Doctor chasing the stranger through the ship and into the matter interface is nicely done.
The Bad: How on earth did the mystery vrax pusher hide inside the vending machine?
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 21 - the Doctor offers a moaning passenger a jelly baby to try and placate her ("And don't forget to brush your teeth!").

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/2014/08/nightmare-of-eden.html

Nightmare of Eden is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Nightmare-Eden-DVD/dp/B0074GPF26