The Randomiser: The Creature from the Pit
Feb. 29th, 2016 08:00 pmOnce upon a time, if you read Doctor Who Monthly, The Celestial Toyroom and Doctor Who Bulletin, you could claim to have a pretty good handle on the opinion of UK Doctor Who fandom as a whole. Back in the 1980s, when I was doing this, I think it is fair to say that the vituperative parts of fandom were pretty scathing about the Graham Williams era but there was already a revisionist movement which wanted his stories reassessed. These days fandom is sufficiently decentralised I'm not sure it can claim to have an opinion, as such, about anything.
At any rate, I've always erred towards the revisionist camp when it comes to Graham Williams. I think most of his stories are at least moderately clever and amusing, even if they don't have the consistent quality of the Hinchcliffe stories that preceded them.
That said, Creature from the Pit really is bad.
( More under the cut )
It's sad in a way because the core of this script is far from stupid, even if it has some fairly stupid bits. The final effect is of a production that ran out time and what we see is the equivalent of an early run through before the performances (and monster costume) could be brought up to standard.
At any rate, I've always erred towards the revisionist camp when it comes to Graham Williams. I think most of his stories are at least moderately clever and amusing, even if they don't have the consistent quality of the Hinchcliffe stories that preceded them.
That said, Creature from the Pit really is bad.
( More under the cut )
It's sad in a way because the core of this script is far from stupid, even if it has some fairly stupid bits. The final effect is of a production that ran out time and what we see is the equivalent of an early run through before the performances (and monster costume) could be brought up to standard.