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| The Doctor is menaced by a Dominator. |
5 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 121 minutes. Written by: "Norman Ashby" (Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln). Directed by: Morris Barry. Produced by: Peter Bryant.
THE PLOT:
Dulkis is a planet of absolute pacifism. The only trace of warfare is on a single island: The Island of Death, where nuclear weapons were tested 172 years earlier before being permanently outlawed. "For centuries we have lived in peace," Director Senex (Walter Fitzgerald) brags. "We have proved that universal gentleness will cause aggression to die!"
But now the planet has been invaded by beings who know nothing of peace nor gentleness. The Dominators, Rago (Ronald Allen) and Toba (Kenneth Ives) have landed on the island. With the Dulcians incapable of waging war, or of acting at all, the Doctor and his friends must find a way to stop these enemies - before they and their deadly Quarks enslave or kill the entire population!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: With the Dominators believing that he and Jamie are Dulcians, the Doctor decides to behave as if he is meek and stupid. Even as the invaders dismiss him as a threat, he absorbs as much information as possible, until he is able to figure out exactly why the Dominators have come to this planet. In the final episode, he uses a medical kit to improvise explosives for Jamie and local troublemaker Cully (Arthur Cox), so that they can disrupt the Dominators' work. When a test shows that the explosives work, he jumps around like a gleeful child.
Jamie: Keeps the Doctor grounded, reminding him of immediate dangers - be it a Quark that is waiting at the site where their transport rocket is programmed to land, or a volcano that will soon erupt. He also displays skill as a guerilla fighter, leading Cully as they pick off Quarks to disrupt the Dominators. He also comes up with the plan that finally thwarts the aliens - one which receives backhanded praise from the Doctor for being "so simple, only (Jamie) could have thought of it."
Zoe: Her first story as a proper companion doesn't really give her much to do; this serial would not be particularly different if it had been made with Victoria. Still, Wendy Padbury slips well into the existing Doctor/Jamie dynamic, playing well opposite both Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines, and she is able to show more spark and humor here than The Wheel in Space allowed.
THOUGHTS:
The Power of the Daleks. The Macra Terror. The Abominable Snowmen. Fury from the Deep. All of those stories were junked... and this survived. The Dominators isn't quite the worst Troughton story - The Underwater Menace is stupider, and The Space Pirates is more padded. But it is probably the most generic serial of his tenure, a runaround that was deemed so tedious that the production team removed an episode from it. They probably should have removed two.
The script is credited to Norman Ashby - a pseudonym for Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, who were displeased when the story was cut and never worked for the show again. It is difficult to credit that this was the same writing duo that created The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear - though in fairness, I thought Web had some issues that were largely obscured by an excellent production.
The Dominators does not benefit from its production. Given dull nonsense to shoot, Morris Barry falls back on the tried-and-true technique of pointing the camera at the actors and not doing much else. The Dominators exchange vital information in front of their prisoners, with no sign that they are even attempting to avoid being overheard. The heroes do the exact same thing, with Jamie and the Doctor not even bothering to whisper their assessment of their captors directly in front of them. The entire thing looks cheap, even by 1960s Who standards. Oh, and the Dulcian costumes are straight from the famed Window Drape Line, and provoke giggles on sight.
The interactions of the regulars keep the story watchable. Likely painfully aware of how weak the script was, Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines insert even more bits of screen business than usual. These create bursts of amusement that help brighten up an otherwise deadly dull set of episodes.
In the end, however, a few good throwaway moments can't disguise how boring this is. Tedious villains, a generic plot, and a bland production all combine to create one of the least interesting stories of the Doctor Who's black-and-white era. When the end credits finally rolled over the closing episode, the only thing I felt was relief that it was over.
Overall Rating: 2/10.
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