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| The Doctor and Jamie investigate strange occurrences, with help from new friend Zoe (Wendy Padbury) |
6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 140 minutes. Written by: David Whitaker. Directed by: Tristan de Vere Cole. Produced by: Peter Bryant.
THE PLOT:
The TARDIS' fluid link breaks down (this time without any sneaky sabotage by the Doctor), leaving the Doctor and Jamie stuck in the Silver Carrier, an Earth supply spacecraft. The Carrier is drifting in space, its crew mysteriously absent and its control room sealed off. After the Doctor is injured during a sudden course change, Jamie is left to protect both of them.
The Carrier stops near the Wheel, a space station whose primary function is as a relay point with Earth. After being rescued by the crew, the Doctor and Jamie befriend Dr. Gemma Corwyn (Anne Ridler), the second in command, as well as a young astrophysicist named Zoe (Wendy Padbury). They learn that their arrival is just one of several strange events, that include both unexplained drops in air pressure and an imminent meteor storm that threatens the wheel. Jarvis Bennett (Michael Turner), the Wheel's commander, ignores any suggestion that these incidents could be related - leaving the time travelers and their new allies to investigate on their own.
The events are all part of a plan by the Doctor's old enemy, the Cybermen. But by the time they figure this out, the plot is already well underway. With Jarvis ignoring all evidence, is it already too late to save the Wheel?
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Though the Doctor is less dominant than usual, Troughton does get two noteworthy scenes in the final episode. When the Cybermen corner him in the Wheel's power room, he does not flinch as he faces them, calmly observing that he expects they have orders to destroy him - then taking a moment to pump them for information about their plans before springing a trap. At the story's end, when Zoe announces her desire to join him and Jamie, he shows that he's still haunted by Victoria's exit. He wires his mind up to the TARDIS scanner to justify a rerun... but in-universe, to make sure that this time, his new companion will know what she's getting herself in for before she begins traveling.
Jamie: Shows his ingenuity while the Doctor is out of action. First, he manages to send an "SOS" to the Wheel, letting them know that someone is aboard the ship just as Jarvis prepares to destroy it. Later, when he learns that they still plan to destroy the ship, with the TARDIS aboard, he acts quickly to sabotage the Wheel's laser. Though he definitely doesn't bond with Zoe the way he did with Victoria, treating her mostly like an annoying know-it-all, he shows compassion when she expresses her own feelings of uselessness.
Zoe: Wendy Padbury's Zoe is introduced as being much the opposite of Victoria. Her predecessor was intuitive, emotional, and often fearful. Zoe has been trained to look at the world by applying logic to all she sees. She is extremely intelligent, but emotionally cold. The story lays this on a bit thick. At one point, she is upbraided for her calculations about meteorites striking the wheel being correct - even though her alerting the crew to this crisis gives them time to prepare for it. Still, Padbury has a charming screen presence that breaks through the script, which should allow her to come across more strongly in better stories.
Cybermen: The worst 1960s characterization of the Cybermen. First, there's their plan: (1) create a meteor shower that will end up threatening the wheel; (2) take over the Silver Carrier and steer it toward the Wheel; (3) have Cybermats infiltrate the Wheel and destroy the MacGuffin Rods that power the laser; (4) infiltrate the Wheel directly by hiding in a crate of Rods; (5) use the Wheel's laser to stop the meteorites; (6) take over the wheel; and (7) use the Wheel's capabilities to take over Earth. That's a lot of steps, with any number of things that can go wrong along the way. One almost does - Remove the Doctor and Jamie, and Jarvis would have blown up the rocket (with the Cybermen on board) in Episode Two! The Cybermen's motives have also shifted from ensuring their own survival to desiring "the mineral wealth of the Earth," which robs them of much of their original edge.
THOUGHTS:
The Wheel in Space is not particularly well-regarded, and it's easy to see why. There isn't really enough story here for six episodes, even when the episodes are shorter than the norm. The Wheel crew is a pretty uninteresting lot, with none of the guest cast making much of an impression. Zoe's introduction is so heavy-handed that only Wendy Padbury's natural appeal prevents the character from getting off on the wrong foot. Oh, and the Cybermen have rarely been worse-characterized this side of, "We blew them up with love!" That's not even mentioning the limp climax.
For all of its faults, however, I still rather enjoy this story. The first episode, which save for the final few minutes amounts to a Doctor/Jamie two-hander as they investigate the empty rocket, is genuinely mysterious; it's a pity that it ranks among the missing, as it's would certainly benefit from the restoration of the visual element.
Once the action shifts to the Wheel, proceedings become both blander and slower-paced. It's telling that my first viewing of this story was before its audio release, leaving me watching only the existing Episode Three and Episode Six. Even so, I wasn't at all confused watching just those... likely because there's so little narrative drive. When I later listened to the whole thing (switching to the Lost in Time dvd to watch the two existing ones), it was largely a confirmation that I hadn't missed that much. Even so, I still didn't feel at all bored or restless - something that hasn't always been true about stories that are objectively better!
Some of that might be because the Wheel itself is a reasonably interesting setting. I also admit to liking the ensemble feel lent by the Doctor's reduced role. But the whole thing is carried by a sort of amiable feel that's hard to pin down. There's not much tension (the climax is literally Jamie and some guest characters closing a door while another guest character fires a laser). But for all its fault, I can't help but like this story. And even after all these words have been expended, I still can't put my finger on why. It isn't good... but it somehow works for me anyway.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
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