I don’t agree with fan convention about some ‘bad’ stories
The fan conventions are that Davison’s first and third seasons are his best. I disagree. There is too much wrong with his first season, which is by far the weakest. It is invariably slow and dull, and Davison takes some time to find his feet. True, his second season has the odd clanger, but even weaker stories like ‘Arc of Infinity’ and ‘Snakedance’ have a few aspects working in their favour. The former has (admittedly entirely gratuitous) location filming in Amsterdam, and the latter has a lovely and very funny performance by Martin Clunes. Others like ‘Enlightenment’ are incredibly inventive, and ‘Mawdryn Undead’ is a unique story that is pulled off convincingly. It’s also accepted that Davison’s final season opener ‘Warriors of the Deep’ is a stinker. I profoundly disagree. Corny dialogue aside, it is a strong Cold War allegory, still very much unsettled in 1984 when it aired. The underwater sequences are well-handled and make for an excellent cliffhanger. Yes, the Myrka is laughably bad, and director Pennant Roberts allows the ridiculous creature far too much screen time. But if they’d only brought down the studio lights and made it gloomier, then ‘Warriors of the Deep’ would be a near-classic. I also love ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’, which is much better than its author Eric Saward allows. The location filming and guest performance by Maurice Colbourne, as well as excellent design work and slick, fast-paced direction by Matthew Robinson make for rather a superficially pleasing outing. The multi-racial prison ship crew is also a commendable feature. I also don’t hate Terminus. There are some lovely ideas in there, even if they are lost in the translation to screen. I’ll stop now before I lose any more readers…
