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The Randomiser: Enlightenment
Somewhat to our surprise the DVD for Enlightenment came with a 75 minute "special" version with updated special effects. After a little debate we opted to watch this version, because why not?
Enlightenment is an odd story. It should be one of Doctor Who's strange jaunts into the surreal. It is, after all, the tale of eternal creatures who live outside time itself, having a race around the solar system in space ships that are made up to appear as Earth sailing ships from miscellaneous points in history. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough find themselves aboard the Edwardian vessel where the first mate Marriner takes an unsettling interest in Tegan. Meanwhile the Black Guardian continues to manipulate matters behind the scenes. Yet somehow, in spite of all the visual strangeness, the juxtapositions of space suits and climbing the rigging, Enlightenment feels much more like business as normal than one would expect. That may be the passage of time and the onset of familiarity of course. I vaguely recall being a little non-plussed by it at the time, but I think the acting helps. We are not encouraged to view this as a whimsical piece, but as something which is, in fact, deadly serious.
The acting is, in fact, one of the strengths of Enlightenment. The guest cast are consistently excellent from Marriner's creepy stalkerishness, to Captain Wrack's pirate bluster which remains just on the right side of being over-the-top. Even Janet Fielding, who has been one of the disappointments of the Randomiser rewatch, is on good form here. The sets are also excellent though the story undoubtedly benefits from the fact that the BBC is, in general, better at reproducing the historical than imagining the futuristic.
A fair bit must have been cut from the original in order to get it down to 75 minutes. I was interested that I couldn't actually spot anything missing, and the story progressed at a good pace. I was less convinced by the updated special effects. The original shots of the sailing ships in space were all done with models, and had a certain charm that I'm not convinced was achieved by the somewhat blocky CGI replacements. In general, I think this kind of updating is probably unwise. Special effects nearly always date rapidly and at least leaving the originals in place keeps the period feel (as in TV period) while more modern, but still dated, additions merely look clumsy.
Enlightenment is a surprisingly successful story, given its somewhat way out premise. I would suggest its one of the occasions where Doctor Who has attempted something ambitious and successfully pulled it off, managing to make the concept of sailing ships racing through space seem entirely reasonable. The generally high production quality and good acting, from a period when both could be distinctly variable, definitely helps. One of Davison's better stories.
Enlightenment is an odd story. It should be one of Doctor Who's strange jaunts into the surreal. It is, after all, the tale of eternal creatures who live outside time itself, having a race around the solar system in space ships that are made up to appear as Earth sailing ships from miscellaneous points in history. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough find themselves aboard the Edwardian vessel where the first mate Marriner takes an unsettling interest in Tegan. Meanwhile the Black Guardian continues to manipulate matters behind the scenes. Yet somehow, in spite of all the visual strangeness, the juxtapositions of space suits and climbing the rigging, Enlightenment feels much more like business as normal than one would expect. That may be the passage of time and the onset of familiarity of course. I vaguely recall being a little non-plussed by it at the time, but I think the acting helps. We are not encouraged to view this as a whimsical piece, but as something which is, in fact, deadly serious.
The acting is, in fact, one of the strengths of Enlightenment. The guest cast are consistently excellent from Marriner's creepy stalkerishness, to Captain Wrack's pirate bluster which remains just on the right side of being over-the-top. Even Janet Fielding, who has been one of the disappointments of the Randomiser rewatch, is on good form here. The sets are also excellent though the story undoubtedly benefits from the fact that the BBC is, in general, better at reproducing the historical than imagining the futuristic.
A fair bit must have been cut from the original in order to get it down to 75 minutes. I was interested that I couldn't actually spot anything missing, and the story progressed at a good pace. I was less convinced by the updated special effects. The original shots of the sailing ships in space were all done with models, and had a certain charm that I'm not convinced was achieved by the somewhat blocky CGI replacements. In general, I think this kind of updating is probably unwise. Special effects nearly always date rapidly and at least leaving the originals in place keeps the period feel (as in TV period) while more modern, but still dated, additions merely look clumsy.
Enlightenment is a surprisingly successful story, given its somewhat way out premise. I would suggest its one of the occasions where Doctor Who has attempted something ambitious and successfully pulled it off, managing to make the concept of sailing ships racing through space seem entirely reasonable. The generally high production quality and good acting, from a period when both could be distinctly variable, definitely helps. One of Davison's better stories.