Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) Newsgroups: net.tv.drwho Subject: "Black Orchid" story Message-ID: <5151@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Tue, 9-Oct-84 16:01:03 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.5151 Posted: Tue Oct 9 16:01:03 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 11-Oct-84 04:18:31 EDT Organization: Ballistics Research Lab Lines: 37 The local (St. Louis) station showed the "Black Orchid" story Sunday night. It was the absolute WORST Dr. Who program I have ever seen! It had the dubious advantage of being only 45 minutes long; what is bad about that is that they showed this on one of the few Sunday nights before a holiday when I could stay up and watch an entire long episode! (Our outlet has the despicable habit of scheduling Dr. Who at 10:30 PM Sunday nights, so I tend to see the first half of most programs and then fall asleep...) It's hard to enumerate the many faults of this story; first off, it is only an ordinary 20's country-house murder story, with nothing to tie in the presence of the Doctor or the companions; they just happen to be there but take no real part in the story, except for the silly idea of having one of the locals being an exact duplicate of Nyssa. Among other defects that spring to mind: the Tardis is moved by the local police; I thought it had the effect of being super-massive or somehow immovable except by internal control (maybe I'm wrong on this). The murderer has some kind of super-strength which is NEVER explained by the reasons given for his condition. There's an Indian who cannot tie knots, and doesn't learn to keep from being knocked out repeatedly from behind. The Doctor takes the Tardis on one of those infamous "short hops" that are always supposed to be so difficult, but this time works perfectly and is done merely to save a few minutes of driving. The insane thing is that he could have just as easily moved in time as well as space and prevented the murders from happening (and himself from being suspected) in the first place! Only the convention of the "short hops" being tricky and un-repeatable prevents this simple solution from eliminating 90% of the plot twists and situations in all the Dr. Who episodes! I wish they really DID take advantage of the time-travel aspects; then their writers would really have to WORK instead of churning out the usual drivel... Anyway, "Black Orchid" is an episode you DON'T want to use to introduce someone to the Doctor; it will have the effect of making them avoid any other Dr. Who programs. Miss it if you can... Will Martin PS -- the only good part of this was the cricket game; we American viewers could identify with Adric and Nyssa in being completely mystified by it...