Nightmare of Eden Part Four

The one where we find out who the drug smugglers are...

There's a lovely scene near the start of this episode where Romana and Della talk about what happened on Eden and to Della's lover, Stott. Romana knows that Stott is alive, but holds this vital information back until she discovers exactly why Della thinks Stott's dead. It transpires she was told as much by Tryst, who even went to the trouble of mocking up a grisly vis-print to prove it. Lalla Ward and Jennifer Lonsdale pitch the dialogue beautifully, Lonsdale in particular hitting the right emotional tone when she learns Stott is still alive. It doesn't quite pass the Bechdel Test, but it's a touching moment between two women amid the nonsense.

The Doctor comes round aboard Dymond's Hecate, having slipped through the wrong side of the closing matter interface. He discovers Dymond has a CET machine and an enchooka laser aboard ship, which would enable him to extract the crystal projections from Tryst's CET machine aboard the Empress, then turn tail and run (with the vraxoin safely stowed within the projections). It's an ingenious idea, and all credit to Bob Baker for such an adult, thoughtful, workable plot. When you take away the silly monsters and the silver space costumes, Nightmare of Eden is actually one of the most original stories of the era.

Nightmare of Eden Part Three

The one where the Doctor discovers the source of vraxoin...

The monsters are called Mandrels ("Mandrel. Doctor, they're called Mandrels") and, let's take a step back here, they're not that bad. Often maligned, these monsters are actually quite nicely designed, quite well sculpted, even if they do look a little bit like grinning toads. They tower over human beings, they're big and scaly, they're ferocious with slicing claws and glowing green eyes, and they ROAR at people, just like proper monsters should. They look infinitely better in the gloom of the Eden projection, and lose most of their impact when lit in the harsh studio lighting of the Empress corridors, but still... I'm not going to knock them too much because they look like proper Doctor Who monsters. So there.

The early scenes of the Doctor and Romana creeping around the forest of Eden are gorgeous, lit so effectively by Warwick Fielding. It all feels so dangerous and dark, which heightens the tension and atmosphere no end. I love the slo-mo footage of the vines wrapping themselves around the Doctor's legs, like something out of an M R James adaptation, sort of uncanny and unsettling.

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).

Nightmare of Eden Part One

The one where a spaceship materialises as part of another spaceship...

"By Bob Baker". Whatever happened to his mate, Dave Martin? Baker and Martin were consistently the most imaginative scriptwriters Doctor Who had throughout the 1970s, and certainly the writers with the least regard for the programme's budget. They were fantastic ideas men who let their imaginations run riot on the page, and it was up to the programme makers to translate that imagination into affordable TV drama. Sometimes the boys' ambition outweighed the programme's capabilities, and at other times Doctor Who rose admirably to the demands, but whatever the outcome, Baker and Martin rarely disappointed. Now that Martin is gone (not dead, just gone), I wonder whether Baker can carry on the tradition?

The opening shot is another of Doctor Who's attempts to be Star Wars, with an extravagantly designed spaceship CSO'ing its way through space reminiscent of, but not much like, Star Wars' Tantive IV and Star Destroyer. But then the ship shimmers out of existence, and straightaway Doctor Who has done something different (although it later transpires its jumped into warp-speed, for which we must read light-speed, so perhaps Baker's imagination has wandered somewhat).