The Randomiser: The Happiness Patrol

[purplecat]

"Oh dear, this looks cheap," Tame Layman said as the opening shot swept along the corridors of Terra Alpha.

And, well, it does. As a classic Who fan, I'm fairly forgiving of sets and even more so of special effects, but once it was pointed out it was painfully obvious that the streets of Terra Alpha consisted of a painted studio floor and some painted plywood. Other sets worked better. I particularly liked the whimsy of the Candy Kitchen, though even that looked more like a stage set (albeit an elaborate one) than an actual kitchen.

I'm equally in two minds about the costumes which, to be honest, also look cheap though I don't think that is their main problem - though it is possibly a contributory factor. The Kandy Man, much maligned at the time, doesn't actually bother me that much. It is mostly the eponymous Happiness Patrol itself that fails to convince. There is something about the combination of women in high heels, mini-skirts and guns that always makes me feel that an ill-advised point about the evils of feminism is being made (see Galaxy Four - a story I've not seen so I may be misjudging). Thankfully the script doesn't go there, though it can't help making the odd reference to the implied gender-role reversal: "women get all the best guns" a man muses at one point. The white face-paint worn by the elite of Terra Alpha similarly is either a rather laboured point about powerful women and make-up or a rather more interesting point about ornamentation and culturul standards of beauty. It frankly could be either. I think the costumes are either a case of a thoughtful costume designer hampered by a miniscule budget or an unimaginative costume designer being rescued by a great script.

Because the script here is very good, clearly good enough to elict excellent performances from Sheila Hancock, Ronald Fraser and Harold Innocent all of whom, frankly, could have wandered through the script with the bemusement one feels Joan Sims did a few years earlier but who, instead, rise above the cheap sets and slightly farcical costuming. The Happiness Patrol is, possibly infamously, supposed to present a cariacatured Margaret Thatcher. While this is moderately obvious from the performance, it is only moderately so, and I think one of the strengths of the script is that while it may have been motivated by a desire present topical social commentary, its tale of the way dictators allow themselves to believe that their actions are for the public good. What is more that anything apparently evil they do, they have been forced into by people who accept what is good for them. It's a message that continues to be relevant and is a much more nuanced view of villainy that Doctor Who normally presents.

"That was really rather good," Tame Layman said at the end, showing that a good script and fine performances can lift Doctor Who well above what you might expect its budget to allow.

Comments

[miss_s_b]

I lovee Happiness Patrol. Sheila is AMAZING.

[thisbluespirit]

Ah, I love The Happiness Patrol! I think, with both sets and costumes, they are both deliberately fake (the painted smile, I think was a reference, all the apinted bright candy colours painted over a crumbling society, literally and metaphorically). I can't decide, though, whether it was a good move, given how much it can look just like the usual BBC 1980s fake sets! I've been watching so much old TV these last few years, and it is interesting, in the different ways in which it is and isn't theatrical, and last time I rewatched HP, it struck me that it's quite agressively theatrical, maybe more so than any other DW story before or since.

But, it is still so relevant and angry and the script never lets up. I understand why people can't stand it, of course, and I would criticise it for some of the same things you mention - but at the same time, I love it to pieces. The last five minutes of it was the first bit of Doctor Who 11 year old me saw. It mystified me, but it struck me, especially the confrontation between Seven and Helen A - and that was absolutely the moment I fell for the show and the Doctor, even though the only format I got to see THP in for years was the novelisation. But somehow, Seven championing sadness and love was what did it for me. :-)

(So, my views on THP are never unbiased.)

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I rate it as one of the worst of all Who stories. Not Dragonfire bad, but close.

[daniel-saunders.livejournal.com]

I think it's dated well. As an attack on Thatcherism (as opposed to a personal attack on Mrs Thatcher), it's fairly weak, but as an examination of happiness and social conformity, it works well, perhaps even better now that right and left seem to cooperate in maintaining a plasticky consumerist culture that tells us that happiness can be bought or given by the state. I've always liked it, and that hasn't changed even as my politics have moved somewhat right-wards over the years, which is telling. My biggest criticism is that it's a bit of a runaround: it has a strong idea for a society, but isn't quite sure of what story it can tell with it, so it ends up having everyone run about.

I think the director Chris Clough thought that the make-up was supposed to look like a society past its best holding on to its past. Or something.

I don't think Galaxy Four is about feminism, btw, but I guess more about that when you get to it.

[liadt]

They say something about the make-up on the DVD. I think the thick make-up represents a cracked society or something. I like 'The Happiness Patrol', it's good enough to get over the sets & not being over lit helps too.

I wasn't impressed with the female soldiers in 'Galaxy Four' they kept having naps! Like women don't have the stamina to be soldiers?