The Oxford University Doctor Who Society Magazi ne TThhee TTiiddeess ooff TTiimmee Issue 29 Easter Vacation 2004

BUFFY AND THE BRITISH

Star Trek

The Prisoner

The career of Brian Clemens …

…and something called Doctor Who, apparently.

The Tides of Time 29 • 36 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 1 • Easter Vacation 2004 the difference between people and objects. The Tides of Time Shorelines When Lamia presents Grendel with her android copy of Romana, a primitive device More shorelines IIIIIIIssssssssuuueee 222999 EEEaaasssstttteeerrrr VVVaaaccccaaattttiiiiiiiooonnn 222000000444 By the Editor Well, that’s about it for now. Thank you to everyone intended to kill the Doctor, Grendel exclaims that it is a killing machine, and that he would for getting this far; unless you have started at this Editor Matthew Kilburn end of the magazine, in which case, welcome to Turn of the Tide? marry it. In doing so he discloses his [email protected]@history.oxford.ac.ukoxford.ac.uk This issue of The Tides of Time is being issue 29 of The Tides of Time! I said a few years ago, published within a few weeks of the understanding of power, that it comprises the when I cancelled my own zine, The Troglodyte, after SubSubSub-Sub ---EditorEditor Alexandra Cameron cancellation of Angel by the WB ability to kill people. Grendel is a powerful one issue, that having got a job as an editor I didn’t Executive Editor Matthew Peacock network in the USA. The situation may man, in his own society, and at least recognises think that editing in my spare time would have much Production Associate Linda Tyrrell have moved on by the time that you the Doctor as another man of power; but the appeal. The temptation of looking after this issue of read this, but in this second week of Doctor’s power comes from smiling in the face Tides proved too strong to resist, however. Thanks March, it looks impossible that any of danger, from being generous to people, and to Mat, the man who edited Tides for longer than other US broadcaster will be willing to anyone else, and the committee, for letting me play Contents commission a new series. The WB from not taking himself too seriously. Grendel with this venerable institution. have said that they would like to is not alone among Doctor Who villains in not commission Angel TV movies to air WWhathat a Piece of Work is Man 4 appreciating why the Doctor always wins Time for some more acknowledgements. Alex Sophia Woodley says why she likes Star Trek during the 2004/05 season, but Joss through; but he’s one of the few who have a Whedon has pointed out that his cast Cameron speedily checked that everything makes and crew may all have other, regular consistent basis for their villainy. sense and follows where it should, and William and A Beginner’s Guide to The Prisoner 6 jobs by then which would prevent Mat co-ordinated most of the articles before I took Daniel Saunders is not a number. He is a free man! them from taking up any one-off Grendel’s name is lifted from the foe of over. Outside Oxford, Alex Norrish was of engagements. Thus, after seven years, Beowulf. I haven’t read Beowulf but according particular help with the ideas in my Buffy article. I’m the universe that Joss Whedon What really happened to Beagle 2 13 to the website of the Beowulf in Hypertext also grateful to the owners of the various websites unleashed upon the telefantasy-viewing from which I have borrowed images. Many pictures Exclusive visual evidence from Alex Cameron public with Buffy the Vampire Slayer project at McMaster University in Canada, Grendel’s ‘origins stretch back to Cain, who have been found via Google searches, but I’d like to looks as if it is being laid to rest. Joss particularly mention Steve Hill’s ‘ Doctor Who Image My Nights with REG 14 himself is concentrating on his feature killed Abel. He is of particular cause of trouble Archive’; ‘ Ex Astris Scientia’– Bernd Schneider’s Star film, Serenity, a sequel to his short-lived Paul Dumont examines Scream of the Shalka to Hrothgar because of his disregard for law Trek Site; Eric Alglave’s ‘Be seeing you / Bonjour series Firefly – and his experiences with and custom: he refuses to negotiate a peace Firefly were enough, by any account, to chez vous’; www.the-prisoner-6.freeserve.co.uk; and Slay up, and slay the game! 16 deter anybody from trying to make settlement or to accept tributes of gold’. The David K. Smith’s ‘ The Avengers Forever!’ How Buffy gets Britain, by Matthew Kilburn fantasy television for a major US relevance to Grendel in ‘The Androids of Tara’ Following my election as magazine editor at the last network. is only general, though Grendel is probably a close relative of Prince Reynart and Princess committee meeting, I think I’d better stay on for one Wiles Thing! 24 more edition. I hope to include at least one article A look at John Wiles’s period as producer of Doctor Who Strella if he is a plausible candidate for the throne in a society led by an hereditary on Big Finish’s CDs, and a look at Peter Davison’s Doctor. With the new series not quite imminent, aristocracy. The territorial titles of Princess Brian Clemens 26 there might also be an article from another veteran Strella seem to be made up of Germanic James Davies marks the achievements of this writer-producer telling of what DocSoc was like when Doctor Who elements, but Tara itself was the seat of Irish was coming to the end of its first run in 1989. As a kings, suggesting either a disappointing lack of prelude to that, no fanzine in the late 1980s and How does Doctor Who entertain? 30 consistency, or a postmodern confidence in the early 1990s was complete without a picture of Asking the question, Daniel Saunders way the material ransacked is deployed. Sophie Aldred, and on the back cover is a picture Whatever the truth, ‘The Androids of Tara’ is from her visit to the Society in 1991. Grendel of Gracht 34 executed with tremendous flair, and much of I plan to put the magazine together over the next Matthew Kilburn looks at Tara`s chief villain that flair is Grendel’s. Jos s few months, but as I expect that work commitments will grow during next term. I’m going to be very busy Joss Whedon Matthew Kilburn at the end of September and the beginning of Published in March 2004 by the Oxford University Doctor Who Society. Several other fantasy and science fiction October, so the more articles that I receive earlier, the better. Help with editing will be appreciated. PRESIDENT Brian Larkin (Christ Church). SECRETARY Dewi Evans series in recent years dependent upon (Brasenose). TREASURER Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson (Balliol). American finance have had curtailed Other resolutions for next issue – fewer Copyright in article texts remains with the original contributors. This lives. I know little of Jake 2.0, but gather Write for The Tides of Time! photographs copied from websites, as they rarely magazine is a work of homage and there is no intention to violate the that is an infamous cancellation. I saw E-mail articles to: reproduce well, as you’ve doubtless noticed; and copyrights held by BBC Worldwide Ltd, Viacom, Twentieth Century some of Now and Again, now a few maybe more consistency in typography! See you years old, late at night on ITV1 – a bit Fox, Mutant Enemy, Canal + Image, ITV plc, or any other copyright matthew.kilburn there. flat but promising, and killed off before holders. its time. The most infamous case is Republished online in July 2010 at tidesoftime.wordpress.com @history.oxford.ac.uk PS July 20102010: Reconstructed with relief, having Farscape. I didn’t manage to follow tracked down all the fonts or near-equivalents.

The Tides of Time 29 • 2 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 35 • Easter Vacation 2004 it, but saw the occasional episode, Doctor Who understood as long circuit. Nowadays every episode has and wished it was screened at a time ago as Verity Lambert’s period at been released on VHS at one point when I wasn’t cooking or addicted to a the helm. The works of Joss or another, the colour serials have news programme. In hindsight, Whedon have provided a missing been repeated endlessly on UK Grendel of Gracht considering its vulnerability as an link, reminding Doctor Who’s Gold, and the stories are now international co-production, it might makers of what it can do for them appearing in enhanced form on have been a miracle that it lasted as and for us. This is the real thing – DVD. Most of the freshers of Reflections on ‘The Androids of Tara’ long as it did – and if so, it’s a greater let’s look forward to it. 2005 will have been three years one that it’s back in production, even as old or thereabouts when a four-episode miniseries, going it alone Old Management ‘Survival’ aired in 1989 – when I on the sound stages of Sydney, without ‘This is an undergraduate magazine. was that age I was watching ‘The SOMEONE , at some time, wrote a fanzine article, commercial video and weekly satellite former backers the Sci-Fi Channel. It needs new blood.’ Time Warrior’, and had the or maybe it was even a paragraph in a book, broadcasts, when DocSoc showed ‘The Baker-Hinchcliffe-Holmes era to I had wondered if the right moment for that grouped together fans who liked ‘The Stones of Blood’ to an audience that was for I couldn’t agree more with what look forward to. With the Time Monster’ and ‘The Androids of Tara’ as the most part not versed in the myths of the resurrection of Doctor Who might Mat wrote in the last issue, in be when the American telefantasy exception of a warm spring people whose horizons needed broadening, fandom. There was a collective gasp as the October 2002 – but in the absence boom ended. I remember watching the of new blood, an older vintage will evening in 1996, this generation contrasting them with admirers of ‘The Stones lesbian undertones of the relationship telefantasy scene change in the mid- have to do. of undergraduates have grown up of Blood’. The commentator had a point. between Professor Rumford and Vivien Fay 1990s, as the partly nostalgia-led covers in a desert for mass audience Doctor Who fans can be an introspective lot, were realised. A generation brought up by of TV Zone, with their Doctor Who Long-term readers will notice a few Who. For lots of them, Doctor prone to mistaking handed-down fan lore based John Nathan-Turner to believe that there and Blake’s 7 stars interspersed with changes to The Tides of Time. Who simply isn’t familiar; for those of Star Trek: The Next on half-understood memories for genuine was no ‘hanky-panky’ in or out of the Firstly, the magazine is now turning some others, it is a piece of Generation, gave way to Mulder and up in pigeonholes or being retro-chic. criticism. However, I was taken aback, because TARDIS now learned that before John Scully, to John Sheridan and Londo delivered through letterboxes I’d interpreted ‘The Androids of Tara’ as a Nathan-Turner there were suggestions that Mollari. British broadcasters didn’t give unsolicited. With the Society being different kind of story to ‘The Time Monster’. characters had sex lives that could contribute up entirely on fantasy subjects, but they much smaller than it once was, we The latter, I think of as an end of season caper to their characterization. struggled to match the genre to the can afford to produce a substantial uniform depressing realism that seemed story, a sort of bad flashback to ‘The Dæmons’. magazine, if less lavish than in recent to be the hallmark of 1990s British years, and deliver it to members ‘The Androids of Tara’, unlike ‘The Time Again, it is Grendel whose character is television drama. The only one that I without them having to hand over Monster’, is unashamedly derivative (of The blighted by dysfunctional sexual found to have succeeded was their cash. Secondly, instead of Prisoner of Zenda, chiefly) and thus can be relationships. He is dismissive of Lamia, Ultraviolet, with its tight camerawork, being published in A4 size, we are afforded more scope for discussion. stating that he ‘once’ showed her a ‘courtesy’, urban locations and dedicated now A5. Very long-term readers performances, combined with a light implying that their physical relationship was will remember that Tides was surefootedness. Ultraviolet failed to published in this size for six of the Russell T. Davies The key character in ‘The Androids of Tara’ is long ago; but Romana’s baiting of Lamia, continue because its creators had failed first seven issues. Grendel. I remarked during the viewing that I that she has no chance of becoming to maintain the interest of Channel There has, of course, been plenty of would have liked to see Peter Jeffrey try his Grendel’s queen, suggests that either Lamia Four’s senior management during a It’s my recollection that when Tides new material. The various lines of hand at playing the Doctor. Certainly Grendel holds on to Grendel in hope of resurrecting period of high executive turnover started its first editor, Louise books and the Big Finish CDs are across all British broadcasters. deserving of credit for making sure is under the impression that he is the Doctor’s the affair, or that it still continues and that Dennis, wanted to distribute it free, funded from the Society bank that new Doctor Who stories superior, not only socially but intellectually, for Grendel’s view of the relationship is that his Doctor Who looks as if it will not have account, but the idea was vetoed by continued to be told on a most of the story; only by the end has he courtesy was shown in making her his this trouble. There seems to be stability the committee. Fourteen years on, professional basis – but they haven’t conceded that the Doctor may, after all, be his partner in the first place. It’s likely that at BBC ONE and BBC drama at the we live in more enlightened times. been part of mainstream culture in equal. His end has been described, by the Grendel would view it as his right to take all moment, and those who are there Proof of this is that Lorraine the same way as a television series show every sign of commitment to can be. The webcasts have acted as authors of The Discontinuity Guide, as ‘sequel- the initiatives in the relationship, and that Heggessey made good on the hints making the new series of Doctor Who Mat mentioned on page 27 of the advance raiding parties, reaching hunting’, but it’s as effective as it is because the Lamia would be too conscious of her status a success. The decline in the number of last Tides, and commissioned a new people who might not have bought Doctor will not be returning to Tara; where as a peasant to question this. Grendel’s main American productions may mean that series of Doctor Who for BBC the books or CDs, and proving that most Doctor Who villains are defeated psychosis, though, is that he can’t relate to audiences are more open than they ONE. Funnily enough, one of the there is still an audience out there knowing they have been outclassed, Grendel human beings at all. He mistakes Romana for may have been a few years ago to writers of the new series was for the Doctor. The macro-ecology British-produced telefantasy. British of Doctor Who is being never does. an android on their first meeting, and despite pictured getting married on page 28 programme-makers have had their eyes – congratulations again, Paul transformed by Russell T. Davies, carrying her some distance doesn’t realise opened, too, by the critical acclaim Cornell. Julie Gardner, Mal Young and their ‘The Androids of Tara’, like ‘The Stones of that she is flesh and blood until it is almost received by Buffy. No longer will we be team. I look forward to seeing what Blood’ that preceded it at first broadcast, is too late. This incident primarily serves the expected to warm to the ponderous Forgive me if I start to ramble. they do (indirectly) to the micro- aware of the dramatic possibilities inherent in function of sketching in the details of Taran self-conscious seriousness that dogged Fourteen years ago there were only ecology of DocSoc. Invasion Earth or The Last Train. It’s the presentation of sexual relationships. Both society – that most of the work is done by a handful of Doctor Who stories possible to illustrate themes and tell released on video cassette; part of were written by David Fisher, then a new androids, that society is strictly hierarchical, stories about the hard facts of human the appeal of the Society was access contributor to the series. I remember, a long and that only peasants have technical skills – life and enjoy the fun of a fantasy to childhood memories time ago, before the days of widely-available but it also suggests that Grendel can’t tell setting – Buffy has demonstrated this to rediscovered through the fan video the sceptical, and it’s something that

The Tides of Time 29 • 34 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 3 • Easter Vacation 2004

defend their enjoyment of what critics might The Doctor call dated, cheap children’s television. However, the morals are usually very simplistic I think that the Doctor himself is an What a Piece of Work is Man (pollution is bad; war is bad; totalitarianism is important part of the way the show bad) and I doubt that anyone has ever radically entertains the audience. To most of the The appeal of STAR TREK rethought their lives or political ideals as a audience he is a likable, if somewhat result of watching the show. ‘The Curse of unpredictable (arguably likeably GROWING UP as a Star Trek fan in Amer ica, I was at ‘Best of Both Worlds’ ( TNG), the appeal is the Peladon’, for example, clearly parallels Britain’s unpredictable) lead character who is the mercy of the schedule of my local PBS station, and same. I would love Star Trek no matter how it entry into the Common Market, but it does not thus had only seen a couple of episodes of Doctor looked. entertaining to watch (and look at the fan present a deep analysis of the arguments for criticism of the sixth Doctor who was Who. So it was not until I became the girlfriend of a and against greater European economic and Doctor Who fan that I decided that I had better see 2) Really cool technobabble intentionally unlikeable at times), but to a what it was that I had missed. I watched some political integration. However, intelligence is significant part of the audience, I think he is Everyone always makes fun of Star Trek’s relative and compared to most other television episodes, and read some articles in order to understand penchant for technobabble, so this may sound more of a figure to identify with or even the appeal of Doctor Who. However, while going frivolous, but I do have a point. The writers are programmes, especially those aimed at a family admire. I am thinking here of the children in through stacks of fanzine back issues, I discovered actually very careful to keep their use of science audience, Doctor Who is intelligent. Perhaps the audience, but particularly those who are something that I found disturbing, inexplicable, and and technology both accurate and consistent. its relative intellectual level is best shown by yet strangely fascinating: many (if not most) Doctor intelligent, bookish and not really liked by So, for example, when Geordi LaForge saves the the fact that it has a habit of asking difficult many of their peers. To put it bluntly, Who fans seem to despise Star Trek. I’ve never been day by ‘backflushing the Bussard collectors,’ you questions, but giving easy answers. For quite able to understand why; maybe someday probably the people who become fans (well, can follow his reasoning and understand exactly example, if the industry of ‘The Green Death’, someone will explain it to me. it describes the ten year old, novice fan I why it’s going to work. It’s also worth pointing is Bad and something to be avoided, then how out that the Bussard collectors are named after a was, anyway). Most hero figures (fictional In the meantime, I will offer for consideration some of real twentieth-century physicist, who proposed are we to get the Good technology of ‘The or otherwise) presented by society to them the reasons why I think Star Trek is worthwhile. I the idea which is now immortalized in Star Curse of Peladon’? are not really people they would see any don’t aim to argue that it’s better than Doctor Who Trek. Now, that’s style… (although I personally like it better); neither will I reason to admire (sportsmen and women, To some extent, there is more enjoyment in pop stars, etc.) and I think they enjoy, and explicitly compare the two. Rather, I will simply spotting these subtexts than in learning discuss my own point of view, arguing that Star benefit from, seeing an intelligent, bookish Trek’s best points are exactly those that its detractors anything from them. This is certainly true of social misfit who prefers to solve problems have criticised. the other kind of secondary layer, references to with his intellect and wit, rather than brute literature, mythology, films, other television force. When I refer to Star Trek, I’ll generally be implying programmes and so forth. These can be brief either the original series ( TOS) or Star Trek: The in-jokes or the basis for stories that imitate or Next Generation ( TNG), the two series that exemplify subvert them, as mentioned above. All Conclusions what I consider to be the message of Star Trek. The secondary layers, by referring to a body of task of defending Enterprise is not one that I would experience outside the programme itself only So, having taken Doctor Who to pieces, have like to take on! we learnt anything from the process? It is appeal to those viewers able to understand 1) NOT the special effects them, most obviously adults (or some adults), possible to enjoy even a single episode of Many Doctor Who fans will probably expect me to although older and more intelligent children Doctor Who in several different ways. begin by arguing that Star Trek’s special effects are will be able to see at least some of them and Which parts are most entertaining varies according to the tastes of the viewer and also immeasurably superior to those of Doctor Who. I’m appreciate being treated as an adult by the sorry to disappoint you; I’m not going to do it. writer. according to age; the horror appeals more to Trekkies are, indeed, often caricatured as being It would be difficult to overestimate the number children, the humour and secondary layers fanboys who like nothing better than ‘kewl of people who have been inspired to study more to adults. Few, if any, stories combine exploshuns’. In his essay on ‘Fury from the Deep’ for astronomy and space travel as a result of Star all of these elements, but most have a Doctor Who Magazine’s The Complete Second Trek. This is, I would argue, because it presents mixture of some of them, as this is needed to Doctor, Russell T. Davies has described us as a believable picture of space exploration in the ‘deprived’, having watched a show so well-produced future, and, fundamentally, makes science look attract the family audience for which Doctor that our imaginations were never even challenged. both exciting and relevant. Who was usually produced. As a result stories should not be criticised for lacking For my own part, I couldn’t care less whether the 3) Stories that relate to issues on earth some of these components. The series does explosions are shown on-screen or just implied. It’s Star Trek has, over nearly forty years, dealt not entertain just through horror, comedy or really not the presentation that matters. Although I with almost every social and political issue action, but through a mixture of various know that Star Trek is a TV show, I rarely think going: racial prejudice, the Vietnam War, about it while watching. It’s not that I think of it as elements. There is no one-word answer to terrorism, xenophobia, the relationship between the question ‘What makes Doctor Who real life, but rather, that its worldly incarnation as a science and religion, homosexuality, product as a Hollywood studio is just a substrate for enjoyable?’ environmentalism, capitalism, sexism, issues of the delivery of the story. From the stage-play like cultural tolerance, and so on almost indefinitely. simplicity of ‘The Empath’ ( TOS) to the big effects of Daniel Saunders

The Tides of Time 29 • 4 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 33 • Easter Vacation 2004 it slightly less ridiculous. Of course, if done this vague statement is that the stories the TOS had the first interracial kiss on television; or not this is actually possible. But surely, if any badly it can backfire and draw attention to series tells are original and told well. TNG had an episode banned by the BBC genre is allowed to prompt us to ‘believe six problems, which might explain why many Taking these two points in turn, I think that because it referred briefly to the situation in impossible things before breakfast’, then it is Northern Ireland. science fiction. If we are to pick a myth to writers for the show concentrate on other Doctor Who stories were rarely entirely believe in, then we could do worse than to types of humour. Patrick Troughton, Tom original. Terrance Dicks has written (in the Many, if not most, of the episodes in Star Trek believe that humanity has potential. Baker and Sylvester McCoy all frequently foreword to The Discontinuity Guide) that are allegories of situations on Earth that would used physical comedy in their performances. no less an authority than Malcolm Hulke never have been dealt with on prime time 5) Focus on the human condition Black humour makes very occasional stated that ‘All you need for television is an television if it weren’t for the fact that they were Fundamentally, Star Trek, like all great appearances in the show. Robert Holmes original idea – it doesn’t necessarily have to presented through the medium of science fiction. literature, is about exploring the human used it on occasion, as do two scripts clearly be your original idea.’ They were often an Often, when watching an episode, I find myself condition. What does it mean to be human? influenced by his work, ‘Revelation of the original mixture of old ideas, such as ‘man identifying not with the human crew, but with What is humanity capable of accomplishing? the ‘aliens’ who represent us, the comparatively Characters such as Spock and Data are so Daleks’ and ‘Ghost Light’, but other than turns into monster’, ‘parallel universe Earth primitive 20 th century viewers. Yes, the aliens sympathetic and so interesting because they that it is very rare. Most of the comedy in with totalitarian government’ and ‘scientific act like humans—yes, it’s preachy—that’s the represent our quest to understand ourselves, Doctor Who is the witty, off-the-cuff project threatens world’. These are all point. and our humanity. When Riker jokingly calls dialogue also present in the programmes clichés, but ‘Inferno’ is probably the only Data ‘Pinocchio’, he makes the allusion clear. spiritual siblings, The Prisoner and The work of fiction to combine all three, mixing 4) An optimistic view of the future Avengers, possibly explaining why fans of in a bit of nuclear apocalypse fiction for good A criticism of TNG, in particular, that is made one of these tend to like the others too. measure (and if you think the drilling project even by fans is that it shows a world that’s ‘too perfect’: the main characters all get along, they is original, read Arthur Conan Doyle’s When live in a utopian world where money has been Action the World Screamed). abolished and everyone has all they need, and they are motivated not by greed or There is not much I can say about this aspect Others are new twists on old plots. ‘The competitiveness, but by curiosity and the desire Horns of Nimon’ sends Theseus and the to help others. of the programme, as there is nothing clever or sophisticated about it, but it is very minotaur into space (one twist, and a very important. It is probably the most common common one in the programme) with the element of the show. Some stories have no monster really being in control (second monsters or jokes; few, if any do not have a twist). Most stories are a mixture of old chase (up and down corridors or otherwise) ideas, ‘twisted’ clichés and genuine or a fight scene. This is probably the originality. The use of second-hand ideas element that appeals most to children, can also entertain the audience. By a ‘well- told’ story, I mean one with a high degree of although it can be very effective for an adult audience too if directed well, as ‘Inferno’, for clarity, but that is also well paced, so that the story is intelligible, with no unresolved plot TNG sets the theme in its premier episode, example, shows. when the omnipotent being ‘Q’ puts humanity elements at the end, but maintains the on trial. The crew of the Enterprise is given the

interest of the audience until then with responsibility of proving that we are not, as Q This optimism is exactly what I love about Star tension (a threat that needs to be overcome) charges, ‘a grievously savage race,’ and that we Trek. The characters are civilised in the best are thus worthy of survival. Are we? As Q says and/or mystery (an element of the plot sense of the word: off duty, they play chess, in the series finale, the trial will never end. which the writer intentionally leaves paint, act, make music, and engage in hobbies

unexplained for some time). The success of like archaeology. In Star Trek, people are The message of Star Trek can be summed up in certain novelists (Agatha Christie being respected for their intelligence and their talents a scene in which Q attempts to quote rather than for their looks or their money. This probably the most obvious example) shows Shakespeare at Picard. ‘Oh, I know is the sort of world in which I would like to that a well-told story can be absolved of Shakespeare,’ Picard replies, ‘and what he said live—this is the sort of person that I would like many sins, including improbability, a lack of with irony, I say with conviction: “What a piece to be. If only we were all, like Captain Picard of work is man…”’ originality and less than poetic prose - or in and his crew, ‘too perfect’.

Doctor Who’s case, poor dialogue and low production values. Star Trek’s ideology is out of fashion these days, Conclusion I know, but it has a long and honourable So I end by asking, with Rodney King, can’t we pedigree. TOS is full of the idealism of America all just get along? I hope that there will be a Secondary Layers future in which Doctor Who fans and Star Trek Storytelling during the Kennedy era. However, more fundamentally, its ideas derive from the fans can coexist peacefully, respecting each There are two main types of secondary eighteenth-century rational enlightenment, other’s unique cultures and values. I know I’m Doctor Who fans often attribute the series’ layers in Doctor Who. The first is an which argued human beings were inherently being optimistic, but what do you expect? After success to what they call ‘strong allegorical, moral or satirical subtext. This perfectible, and that reason could triumph in the all, I’m a Star Trek fan. storytelling’. What they seem to mean by world. We can, of course, argue about whether is the element that fans use most often to Sophia Woodley

The Tides of Time 29 • 32 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 5 • Easter Vacation 2004 viewers was due just to scheduling or more argument is completely wrong. To pick just A Beginner’s Guide to children watching). Indeed, the horror in the one example from many, Shakespeare mixed show does have an effect on even the most comedy and intellectual depth all the time, mature of viewers. They will not be even in the tragedies. Hamlet is laugh-out- cowering behind the furniture with their loud funny in places. Seen from the children, but there is a certain frisson of perspective of an ordinary viewer, humour is excitement to be had when watching clearly an important element in Doctor ‘Pyramids of Mars’ (I deliberately choose a Who. For example, I watched the Paul story with few of the other qualities I discuss McGann TV movie with my parents, neither below) that comes from something deeper of them fans, but both long-term viewers of than a cheap fright. the series. Both thought it was quite good, but needed more ‘one-liners’ (they also Without wanting to sound pretentious, I complained about ‘Americanisation’, by FIRST BROADCAST in 1967, at thirty -seven Script Editor George Markstein think most Doctor Who stories appeal to which I think they meant that kiss, but that’s years of age The Prisoner still remains one (episodes 1-12 and 16) something deep within the human psyche. a subject for another article). of the most impressive, entertaining and Theme Music Ron Grainer Many things that are seen regularly in the thought-provoking television series ever programme are, literally, the stuff of made. Stylish and stylised, it has an identity The Episodes nightmares. Just think how many times like no other, yet while lots of people have these appear: forests and jungles; caves and heard of it, not so many have seen it, perhaps 1) ArArArrivalAr rival tunnels; pursuit (through forests, jungles, put off by its reputation for being difficult (if caves and tunnels); people falling from great not downright impossible) to understand. Written by George Markstein and David heights, drowning or suffocating (or nearly However, while it may be less eager to Tomblin doing these); everyday objects that turn out explain itself than most television shows – Directed by Don Chaffey to be lethal; not to mention, of course, the assuming the viewer is intelligent enough to Guest cast: Guy Doleman, George Baker, monsters – many of which are, or are discover its meaning – it does not deserve its Paul Eddington, Virginia Maskell reminiscent of, giant insects or reptiles. If reputation as a surreal, but unbearably you dreamed Doctor Who, you would book pretentious and depressing programme. On Plot an appointment with a good psychiatrist the contrary, it is exciting, witty and hugely immediately (especially if you dreamed ‘The enjoyable. As a service to those members of A British intelligence agent resigns from his Creature From The Pit’: thick tentacles in the public who have no idea what it is about, job, is knocked out and wakes up in a strange tunnels at the bottom of a pit in a forest The humour in the show is a key factor in The Tides of Time therefore presents this village. After discovering that there is no ruled by a woman in skin-tight leather… Dr balancing it to appeal to a family audience. beginner’s guide. Episodes are presented in easy route out of the Village, he meets Freud will see you now, Mr Fisher). It may It lightens the horror content, a necessary the order of their first UK transmission, and Number Two, responsible for its day-to-day not be scary as it appears on screen (as some task in view of the afternoon timeslot where basic cast and crew details are provided, as administration, taking orders by telephone limp rubber chases the Doctor through a it was usually scheduled and the substantial well as brief story synopses and reviews, from the mysterious Number One, and is forest, trying hard not to knock the trees child audience. If the horror is mainly for both of which are spoiler-free. As some of told that he will be kept there until the over), but what we see taps in to deep-seated the children in the audience, then much of the episodes are rather abstract, this has Village authorities find out why he resigned. fears to provide that frisson. At any rate, the comedy in the programme, which can be resulted in some very brief and odd Now known simply as Number Six, the this is the only explanation I can think of for quite sophisticated, is for the adults (and the Prisoner vows to escape. synopses! why adults enjoy ‘horror’ stories that are cleverer children). It also prevents the show released on video with a U or PG and for becoming too po-faced and ridiculous. There Regular Cast why the series returns so frequently to the is little funnier than three actors (none of same scenarios without getting boring. whom are exactly prospective Oscar The Prisoner Patrick McGoohan winners) in green make-up talking about The Butler Angelo Muscat Humour technobabble and intergalactic politics, (in all episodes except episodes 7, 14 and 15) especially to adults who are indifferent or The Supervisor Peter Swanwick Humour is dismissed by many fans, even hostile to science fiction. Skilful use of (episodes 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 16 and 17) presumably on the grounds that something humour can deflect the laughter to where the that is funny can not also be serious. There author wants it, away from the more serious Production Team are two problems with this argument: aspects of the script, especially if knowing Doctor Who is not the most intellectually humour is used. By making jokes at the Executive Producer Patrick McGoohan challenging thing ever (see Secondary expense of the production, the author shows that he is aware of its shortcomings, making Producer David Tomblin Layers below) and, more importantly, the

The Tides of Time 29 • 6 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 31 • Easter Vacation 2004 and even haircuts, themes and dialogue Review Written by Anthony Skene become dated) Directed by Pat Jackson How Does • nostalgia (similar to camp value, but As an opening episode, ‘Arrival’ works Guest cast: Colin Gordon, Sheila Allen, connected to some extent with the viewer’s extremely well. The basic concepts behind Katherine Kath, Peter Bowles memories of the first viewing, whether of the series, in terms of characters, setting, Doctor Who the programme itself or of the experience conflict (both dramatic and literal) and Plot of watching it as a child), and themes are established quickly and • episodes that are ‘so bad they’re good’ effectively. The early part of the episode has Number Two is convinced that the Prisoner Entertain? (some stories must have been pretty bad on an appropriately disorientating feel, as both resigned because he was selling out. To test first viewing, but add twenty years and the the Prisoner and the viewers explore the his hypothesis, he uses a new drug to process described under camp value will Village and are constantly surprised by it. manipulate the Prisoner’s dreams so that make it much worse in a way some people Unfortunately, the latter part, in which the they enact what would have happened had GOTHIC HORROR ? Post -modernist comedy? find enjoyable). Prisoner makes his first escape attempt, is he not been taken to the Village and Hard SF? Most fans seem to know exactly less successful, being too hurried to build up observes them. what does and does not make good Doctor Horror any real feeling of suspense, although it is Who. Unfortunately, they do not seem to understandable that the production team Review able to agree with each other about it. One Perhaps the most well-known element in wanted to establish escape attempts as a key fan’s Golden Age ™ is another’s Silly Doctor Who is the horror content. component of the series from the beginning. After much thought, I have decided not to Pantomime That Nearly Caused/Did Cause Famously, several generations grew up Nevertheless, by efficiently establishing the write a review for ‘A. B. and C’.; just read my The Programme To Be Cancelled™. It watching it from behind the sofa and many format of the series and raising many more review of ‘The Chimes Of Big Ben’, strikes me that all the arguments about the of the most memorable moments of the show questions than it answers (as any good replacing the story titles and reading ‘Colin comparative merits about how good the involve the monsters: the murderous shop opening episode should) ‘Arrival’ is a Gordon’ for ‘Leo McKern’ and ‘an exciting show was under certain production teams window dummies, Scaroth ripping off his successful start for The Prisoner. fight sequence’ for ‘unexpected plot twists’. are really arguments about what those mask, the Dalek rising from the Thames This is a cop-out, but the stories have similar producers, script editors, writers and (and the Sea Devils and the Marshmen and 2) The Chimes of Big Ben strengths and I honestly could not think of directors thought the programme was. My the Haemovores…). This should only appeal anything to say about ‘A. B. and C.’ that was hypothesis is that there are several ways that to young children and I doubt whether any Written by Vincent Tilsley not in the previous review! Doctor Who can succeed. Separate viewers over the age of eleven or twelve Directed by Don Chaffey production teams have emphasised some of were really scared by anything they saw. Guest cast: Nadia Grey, Leo McKern 4) Free for All these elements to a lesser or greater degree. As we shall see, some of these elements are Plot Written by Paddy Fitz (a pseudonym for present in most stories, others more rarely Patrick McGoohan ) and as a result often become associated with The Prisoner takes part in the Village art Directed by Patrick McGoohan a particular production team. competition, but his entry is the cover for an Guest cast: Eric Portman, Rachel Herbert escape attempt. Starting Points Review For this article, I have tried to assume the viewpoint of someone watching Doctor Who ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ largely ignores any on original transmission to try and decide deeper meanings in favour of an exciting what they would enjoy when watching the story packed with suspense, wit and programme. As a result, there are three unexpected plot twists, with a splendid reasons people seem to watch the show performance by Leo McKern as Number Two. As such, it is difficult to write about, nowadays that I have not discussed, because Yet many fans would argue that the these mainly apply some time after but great to watch. In many ways, this is a programme was only effective when it had a better introduction to the series than transmission (although this is not so true of high horror content (some even refusing to the last one), because they are ‘minority’ ‘Arrival’ and anyone new to the series and find anything worth watching in the more uncertain as to whether they will like it ways of enjoyment, which many people will comedic stories or the historicals). The fans Plot not experience and, most importantly, could do worse than watching this. might be influenced by nostalgia, but the because they are accidental, the product of much higher viewing figures for seasons The Prisoner stands for election as the new time or production shortcomings. These are: 3) A. B. and C. Number Two, but the current incumbent twelve to fourteen compared to most of the ••• camp value (which tends to increase over rest of the series indicate that this is a factor will not relinquish the post without a fight. time, as the sets, costumes, special effects for adults too (I doubt the increase in

The Tides of Time 29 • 30 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 7 • Easter Vacation 2004 Review scenes of the episode clearly establish the identity of ‘Number Twelve’. The story is I have not got a lot to say about this episode; further undermined by some improbable it is simply a great script performed well, plot developments towards the end. with some nice satirical moments. It does Nevertheless, the majority of the episode really need a couple of viewings to be is enjoyable, if not as unsettling as it understood completely, but in the age of could have been, and it recovers to deliver video and DVD, that is probably an a suspenseful conclusion. advantage. 6) The General 5) The Schizoid Man Written by Joshua Adam (pseudonym for Written by Terence Feely Lewis Greifer ) Directed by Pat Jackson Directed by Peter Graham Scott Guest cast: Jane Merrow, Anton Rogers Guest cast: Colin Gordon, John Castle, Peter Howell

Plot

The Villagers are encouraged to use a new subliminal teaching programme designed by the Professor and the unseen General. The Prisoner suspects the system is not as innocent as it appears. never the intention, and the expression that Who, Clemens is known as the creator and would be used today is ‘larger than life series consultant of Bugs. The series was a Review characters’, bordering at times on the comic mainstay of BBC One Saturday night strip, but managing to remain somehow scheduling in the mid-nineties. It illustrates ‘The General’ is difficult to judge, being a believable and generate tremendous tension the goal of the telefantasy writer, an utterly mixture of the good and the mediocre. In along the way. unbelievable series that is yet eminently its favour are an intelligent idea (and one watchable. Those inclined to dismiss it as a Plot that is not just about the conflict between Clemens’s career was at its zenith, and he dead end in the history of telefantasy drama the individual and society for once), good was one of the highest paid producers in might reconsider if they look at some of the The Prisoner wakes up in a new room and dialogue with a sense of underlying British television. The success of The credits – not only Doctor Who novelist discovers that overnight he has grown a menace to it and the excellent subliminal Avengers and The Professionals had already Colin Brake, but series contributor and moustache, changed his taste in food, message scenes. Unfortunately, it suffers secured his place in television history, whilst horror novelist Stephen Gallagher wrote for become left-handed and is now known as from a silly ending, which includes one of other writing credits, too numerous to the series, as did Alfred Gough and Miles Number Twelve. An identical double claims the most clichéd plot twists in television mention here, were securing awards and Millar, latterly devisers of Smallville. to be the real Number Six. science fiction; as in ‘The Schizoid Man’, critical acclaim. In addition to a BAFTA, Certainly there have been less successful the writer appears to have thought of a Clemens won two Edgar Allen Poe awards. moments in his career. 1998’s CI5 – The Review great idea for a story, but been unable to Although demand for Clemens’s brand of New Professionals springs to mind, but why resolve it convincingly. Colin Gordon’s television seemed to dry up in Britain in the do we assume that script writers will not It is a fundamental law of nature that any performance as Number Two is 1980s, during that decade he was in demand have off-days? The releases on video and good science-fiction television programme reasonable, but disappointing after his in the US, writing for Remington Steele and DVD are testimony to the enduring quality will produce a episode featuring a memorable appearance in ‘A. B. and C.’, Perry Mason on television, and in the of many of the series Brian Clemens has been doppelgänger of the hero, a ‘mind swap’ although this could be due to the script cinema, providing the storyline for involved in, and the timeless appeal of the episode and a cowboy episode, and The (‘The General’ was filmed first, Highlander II. The sheer volume of output is crazed madman, intent on gaining power, Prisoner is no exception. This is the incidentally) and Lewis Greifer appears to staggering, but understandable when one women, money, or all three. doppelgänger story, and manages to make have no idea of what studying history at considers his training in the 1950s. quite effective use of this cliché, with the university level involves; as this is a key And he is still writing. Prisoner’s identity crisis dealt with in a plot element, it spoils the episode (at least For those of us left staring at television manner that almost makes us wonder who for history students like myself!). ‘The screens bereft by the cancellation of Doctor James Davies the real Number Six is. Almost, because the General’ is not bad, but it could have been much better. writer made one crucial mistake: the early

The Tides of Time 29 • 8 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 29 • Easter Vacation 2004 the highest of high concepts. Canadian co -producers withdrew their 7) Many Happy Returns Plot Tensions between the production team and support, and after two seasons and twenty- their employers at ABC (UK) led to the six episodes in 1976 and 1977, The New Written by Anthony Skene The Prisoner is invited to the Village services of Clemens, Fennell and Wintle Avengers suffered the fate of the old. Directed by Joseph Serf (pseudonym for carnival and then finds a corpse on the being dispensed with at the close of Diana Patrick McGoohan ) beach, which he sends out to sea with a Rigg’s final season. The rift was temporary, Guest cast: Donald Sinden, Patrick Cargill, message to the outside world. Meanwhile, at least in the cases of Clemens and Fennell Georgina Cookson Number Two tries to get information from (Wintle’s departure may also have been due Dutton, a colleague of the Prisoner who has to his lifelong battle with haemophilia) but in Plot been in the Village for some time and is their absence Linda Thorson was cast to play approaching the end of his usefulness. Tara King, and some Tara episodes shot, The Prisoner awakes to discover that the before their return. The cause of the rift is Village is deserted. He builds a raft and tries Review unclear, it has been attributed to the to sail to England, but on arrival discovers production company’s dislike of the that all traces of his identity have been Although most of its elements fuse together increasing outlandish style of the episodes, destroyed and no one believes his story. into a coherent whole towards the end of the but the series was enjoying phenomenal episode, for much of its length ‘Dance of the success in America. Brian Clemens himself Review Dead’ is a series of surreal incidents with a has said that the rift was unrelated to the dark, unconnected, nightmarish quality. series, and its cause remains something of a ‘Many Happy Returns’ is a well acted and More than any other episode of The mystery. Clemens and Fennell struggled to directed adventure with disconcerting Prisoner (with the possible exception of ‘Fall produce a series that reconciled their own implications for the Prisoner. This is just as Out’) this is less a thrilling story and more instincts about The Avengers with the well, as it is also the most pointless episode an intelligent parable about the conflict demands of the British and American ABCs, in the series. All of its plot and thematic between the individual and conformist but the series’ popularity had started to wane points are covered by other stories, society, with a conclusion (in both senses of and when in 1969 ABC in the US cancelled especially ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’, ‘Do Not the word) that makes for unsettling viewing. the series ABC in the UK – no longer an Forsake Me, Oh My Darling’ and ‘Fall Out’. Leavened with cynical wit, this is one of the ITV broadcaster, as their weekend franchise Ultimately it is only its position before most most powerful and memorable episodes in had disappeared and their shareholders’ of these (in the original transmission order) the series. interests had been folded into the new that rescues this from complete obscurity. London weekday company, Thames – could 9) Checkmate not support it without the US market. 8) Dance of the Dead But Clemens and Fennell were back within Written by Gerald Kelsey Brian Clemens’s career stretches far beyond the year with a new series. They used the Directed by Don Chaffey one series. Screenplays followed, including company they had set up to make The New Guest cast: Ronald Radd, Patricia Jessel, the stop-go animation classic The Golden Avengers - Avengers (Film & TV) Peter Wyngarde, Rosalie Crutchley, George Voyage of Sinbad (starring Tom Baker), and, Enterprises / Mark 1 Productions Ltd – but Coulouris with Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, for had the benefits of a commission from ITV Hammer Flms, also in 1973, his directing through London Weekend Television, a Plot debut. The reputation of The Avengers was clean slate and creative control. The still high, however, and it was not long Professionals sought to achieve Clemens’s The Prisoner tries to find trustworthy allies before an attempt was made to revive the aim of a harder-edged series. Five series for an escape attempt. Meanwhile, Number series. New backers were found in France followed, with considerable success as the Two has a Villager brainwashed to believe and Canada, and Clemens planned a new men of CI5 – Martin Shaw as Doyle, Lewis that she is in love with the Prisoner as a way direction, towards a glossy version of Collins as Bodie, and Gordon Jackson as of constantly monitoring him. Starsky and Hutch: jokes, criminals, and their boss, Cowley – tackled terrorists, chemistry between two lead characters. The criminals, and mad generals, with a selection Review backers, however, insisted on international of hardware borrowed from the training locations, which made maintaining quality of depot of the Life Guards regiment at There are only three episodes of The production more difficult. Whilst the quality Woolwich. The series was less successful Written by Anthony Skene Prisoner that concentrate primarily on an of some of writing is equal to, if not superior, with the lead actors (Martin Shaw in Directed by Don Chaffey escape attempt, perhaps because in an to the original series, Clemens and Fennell particular was vocal in what he saw as a Guest cast: Mary Morris, Duncan MacRae , ongoing series the outcome could not be in never received the support of a British ITV waste of his craft) who felt they were being Norma West doubt. ‘Checkmate’ attempts to circumvent company nor a US network, the French and asked to compete with James Bond. That was this problem by including several other

The Tides of Time 29 • 28 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 9 • Easter Vacation 2004 components, including the symbolic human comedy, its powerful opening and closing In the period 1956 to 1959 Brian Clemens series out to freelance producer Julian chess game and brainwashing. scenes excepted. Although an interesting wrote nineteen screenplays which were Wintle, who brought on Brian Clemens and idea and entertaining at first, the Prisoner’s released as films. However, due to the Albert Fennell as his associate producers. Unfortunately, these elements do not all fit attempts to convince Number Two that he is nature of his lock-in contract with the Clemens’s experience with working with film together perfectly, with the brainwashing a spy soon become repetitive. The story also Danzigers, any writing for television that in his days with the Danzigers helped subplot feeling underdeveloped. That said, lacks any sense of urgency; it might have Brian did on his own account had to be recommend him for the post, and his it is better to leave an audience wanting worked better if Number Two was trying done in secret outside of his work hours. partnership and friendship with Fennell was more than to bore them with the repetition new, possibly violent, interrogation methods One of the products of this work was the to last for many years. Production of the first of one idea and ‘Checkmate’ is an enjoyable on the Prisoner, giving the impression that if pilot for Danger Man, ‘View from the film series of The Avengers began in late story, albeit one memorable more for its he can not remove Number Two soon, he Villa’. The series, made by ITC, the 1964, and after problems with the initial visuals than its ideas. will be forced to reveal why he resigned. production house allied to the ITV choice of actress, Diana Rigg was cast as Midland and London weekday franchise- Emma Peel. The weekly game to secure the 10) Hammer into Anvil 11) It’s Your Funeral holder ATV, launched Patrick McGoohan biggest name guest stars had begun, with as Special Agent John Drake onto our the shooting of each episode revolving Written by Roger Woddis Written by Michael Cramoy screens, and Brian worked as script editor around a ten day cycle. Directed by Pat Jackson Directed by Robert Asher for the early years of the series. Drake was Guest cast: Patrick Cargill Guest cast: Derren Nesbitt, Annette Andre, initially a UN agent, but later Marc Eden metamorphosed into a representative of a shadowy British government department, Plot M9.

Number Two ensures that the Prisoner finds Clemens found his move to television a out about an assassination plot, but then highly successful one. He was involved refuses to listen to his warnings. with The Avengers almost from its Undaunted, the Prisoner tries to prevent the inception at the close of 1960. Sydney murder. Newman, then head of drama at ABC Television, another ITV company, Review serving the north of England and the Midlands at weekends, came up with the ‘It’s Your Funeral’ turns the conventional title and decided there would be two Prisoner story on its head by having the regular characters – initially a doctor, Prisoner try to save Number Two. There David Keel, played by Ian Hendry, and a are, however, a few flaws present. The plot mysterious government agent, John is a little contrived, the ridiculous kosho Steed, played by Patrick Macnee. Brian game appears again and it is a pity that the Clemens co-wrote the first two episodes ideas raised about freedom fighting and with Ray Rigby (best remembered as the assassination are not developed. More could screenwriter for the Sean Connery film set also have been made of the fact that the in a military prison, The Hill), but was only credited on the second episode, albeit Prisoner is manoeuvred into working for the good of the Village. However, the episode as sole writer. For the first three seasons Plot of the programme Clemens was one of the has enough in its favour with its original plot to be successful. most prolific contributors, although he Number Two goads a young woman into never formally held a production post. committing suicide and the Prisoner decides The first Diana Rigg season, still in to avenge her death by convincing Number 12) A Change of Mind monochrome, was bought by the American This situation changed dramatically Two that there is a conspiracy against him when, at the end of the third season in network ABC (a distinct company, the in the Village. Written by Roger Parkes American Broadcasting Corporation, not to Directed by Joseph Serf (pseudonym for 1964 (which also ended Honor Blackman’s run as the first ‘ Avengers girl’, Cathy be confused with the British ABC Television, Review Patrick McGoohan ) derived from Associated British Cinemas), on Guest cast: Angela Browne, John Sharpe Gale) the decision was taken to change from shooting on primitive video tape to the condition that a second would be made in Ask a Prisoner fan about ‘Hammer Into colour; it was perhaps this second Rigg Plot film, which was of a higher quality and Anvil’ and he will almost certainly tell you easier to edit, as the export market season that secured the reputation of The that it is a Jacobean-style revenge tragedy. Avengers, and Clemens, as purveyors of The Prisoner is declared unmutual by the became a target. ABC contracted the This is rather odd, as it seems to me to be a lavishly-produced escapist drama that braved

The Tides of Time 29 • 10 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 27 • Easter Vacation 2004 Village committee and is sentenced to ‘instant screen presence. Nevertheless, the story ‘At one time, all of British episodic social conversion’, a form of lobotomisation. has undoubted strengths. This is one of Review the most important episodes in terms of understanding the series, giving the television was written by about ten This episode could be called formulaic, as clearest hints about who runs the Village once again the Prisoner tries to subvert the and perhaps also why the Prisoner latest scheme to make him conform. It is resigned, although these are present to a writers, and I was one of them’ redeemed by its emphasis on the negative lesser extent in several other stories. The aspects of the individualistic philosophy of the story also has a wistful atmosphere – Brian Clemens speaking in an interview in 1999 Prisoner (both the character and the series). largely absent from the rest of the series, Its message that anyone who rejects the making Stock’s subdued performance instructor and competing in athletics’ negative aspects of society must be prepared more suitable than might otherwise be the competitions. to forfeit its benefits too gives a less didactic case. This is not one of the best episodes and more questioning feel to the series as a of the series, but is certainly not worth On his return to advertising, with a position whole. There are also some nice satirical ignoring. at advertising agency J Walter Thompson, touches especially the scene where the Brian Clemens took the advertising Prisoner is denounced as both reactionary 14) Living in Harmony copywriters’ tests. There were two tests, one and revolutionary, perhaps the fate of many practical and one psychological. The results freethinkers. Written by David Tomblin (from a story were somewhat contradictory. The practical by David Tomblin and Ian L. Rakoff ) test produced one of the highest scores the 13) Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling Directed by David Tomblin agency had ever seen, whilst the Guest cast: Alexis Kanner, David Bauer, psychological test inferred he was a Written by Vincent Tilsley Valerie French dangerous lunatic. Clearly suited to Directed by Pat Jackson copywriting, Brian was taken on. Guest cast: Zena Walker, Clifford Evans, Nigel Stock It was at this time that Brian began writing, initially for television, and having a plot for a Plot IN ORDER to gauge Brian Clemens’ impact thriller accepted by the BBC. He then moved on British popular television since the mid- to full-time writing with Edward J. Danziger The Village authorities want to kidnap 1950s, it is almost quicker to list those and Harry Lee Danziger, two American Professor Seltzman, who has developed a way programmes with which he has not been brothers who specialized in producing of transferring minds to different bodies. The involved. The Avengers may be his most second features (‘B movies’) and cheap TV Prisoner was the last person to see him, so his well known production, but he was also series in the United Kingdom. This was to be mind is transferred to a body in London and scriptwriter for Danger Man , The New Brian Clemens’ training ground, shaping his only by finding Seltzman can it be returned Avengers, The Professionals, My Wife Next entire approach to writing and production. to his body. Door (for which he won a BAFTA), and The Danzigers built and worked from the series consultant for Bugs. Additional credits small ‘New Elstree Studios’ building in Review have included screenplays, directing and Hertfordshire, but were dependent upon producing. using existing sets and studio space that had There is usually nothing I hate more than been used by other companies. The scripts judging intelligent television programmes by However, a biography must be more than had to fit what facilities were available, and their production values, but ‘Do Not Forsake PPPlotPlotlotlot just a catalogue of achievements. Brian films had to be shot in a matter of a couple of Me, Oh My Darling’ looks so bad it has to be Clemens was born in 1931 in Croydon. A weeks. There was no six month ’pre- commented on. In most episodes of The A sheriff in the American West in the bout of childhood pneumonia led to him visualisation’ phase. The short shooting time Prisoner, the use of footage from other nineteenth century resigns from his job, being regarded as a sickly child, and at meant that rewrites had to be done episodes is a result of the pressures of but is ambushed by bandits and taken to fourteen he went to work as a messenger boy instantaneously. The result was a crash production that does not affect the final the town of Harmony. Unable to leave, in an advertising agency, with the intention course in writing to order and producing the programme; here it causes problems, with the judge who runs the town tries to force of finding his way into a career as a best quality, if occasionally bizarre, output shots of Patrick McGoohan clearly used him to become Harmony’s sheriff and to journalist. It was during two years National possible. These were skills Brian was to instead of Nigel Stock. The plot is a little carry a gun. Service that he finally threw off the image of utilize fully in his later career. slow and while it is interesting to see the sickly child, serving as weapons training someone else play the Prisoner and Stock’s Review performance is not bad, he lacks McGoohan’s

The Tides of Time 29 • 26 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 11 • Easter Vacation 2004 I confess I have seen very few westerns, so I After the next two episodes, you will be Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve’ - never to be young audience. Lloyd , like Wiles, had a do not have much to compare this to, but I grateful for it… attempted again in the series. background in children’s entertainment, but it think ‘Living in Harmony’ works well. The was of a different stamp to Wiles’s history as a John Wiles’s idea of heroism was expressed playwright, having been producer of the plot would be simplistic in an episode set in 16) Once Upon A Time through the actions of ordinary young people television version of the school quiz series Top the Village, but the new setting requires a against symbols of enduring evils. In ‘The of the Form in 1963; he seems to have regarded less complicated story to allow the audience Written by Patrick McGoohan Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve’ the drama the series as in need of a major overhaul, and in to adapt to it and seeing a typical Prisoner Directed by Patrick McGoohan revolved around Steven’s attempts to steer a moral the longer term as a stepping stone away from story played against a different backdrop Guest cast: Leo McKern path in the face of religious intolerance in features into plays. highlights the essential themes of the series. seventeenth-century France. Dodo’s innocent but The explanation for the change in setting is principled stand against the embittered and Before the 1990s Wiles’s period at the helm of Plot narrow-minded Monoids drives much of the final Doctor Who was usually interpreted as a not terribly convincing, but comes so late in two episodes of ‘The Ark’ . In ‘The Celestial rudderless time before Innes Lloyd and Gerry the episode that it does not really spoil it. Number Two decides that the only way to Toymaker’ both Steven and Dodo have to Davis saved the series by aiming it at a more The most impressive aspect of the episode is find out why the Prisoner resigned is for negotiate their way through a maze of petty deceits ‘adult’ audience. It’s true to say that their the direction, with excellent use of point of them both to undergo Degree Absolute, a where one slip will lead to eternal corruption as a stories are superficially more ‘gritty’ – ‘The view shots to involve the audience in events, process which only one of them can plaything of the Toymaker. Tenth Planet’, for example, begins with several a technique particularly effective in the survive. minutes that establish the masculine, aggressive lynching scene and the gunfights. The Doctor represented the human being’s environment of the South Pole base before the continuing quest, not just for knowledge but for more whimsical elements of the Doctor, Polly Review experience. He journeyed through the universe as and Ben arrive – but they are also more 15) The Girl Who Was Death mere mortals journeyed through life. The simplistic. Yet Lloyd and Davis engineered a At first glance ‘Once Upon A Time’ situations in which he was called upon to make Doctor Who that was more robust, that Written by Terence Feely (from an idea by appears to be just a lot of shouting, but moral judgements were comparable to those faced appealed to the broad audience that the David Tomblin ) careful viewing shows it to be the subtlest in a British viewer’s everyday life, even though the programme was aimed at, and went out of its Directed by David Tomblin episode of the series; careful attention to Doctor effectively had the run of the universe. It way not to confuse viewers. Wiles’s Doctor was that universal viewpoint that helped give the Who universe was a less reassuring one than Guest cast: Kenneth Griffith, Justine Lord the dialogue is essential to understand it. Doctor’s life meaning; his companions and those the one that Lloyd presented, where the good It strips The Prisoner down to its they encountered were seeking meaning too. always won. Perhaps, though, today’s more Plot essentials: the conflict between two men jaded audience will demand more complex and the opposed ideologies that they The Doctor carried on despite himself; John Wiles storytelling. I rather hope that the soundtrack Outside the Village, the Prisoner represent. They are fighting less for their was more frail, and he left Doctor Who after just a recording of ‘The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s investigates the death of Colonel Hawke- lives and more for their beliefs, their few months in charge. The reasons for his Eve’ was part of the crash course Russell T. Englishe. He was on the trail of a mad souls. The battle at the heart of the departure seem either to have been the pressure of Davies prepared for his new colleagues. making the three-month epic, ‘The Daleks’ Master scientist named Schnipps who wants to series, between Number Two, who Plan’, inherited from Verity Lambert, specifically destroy London and the Prisoner picks up believes each person is ‘a unit of society’ Matthew Kilburn ordered by senior management, and at odds with the scent. and the Prisoner, who insists he is an his intentions for the series; or his failure to individual, ‘number nothing’, is enacted remove William Hartnell from the role of the Review one last time, more intensely than ever Doctor, perhaps after Hartnell arranged the before. Uncomfortable viewing at times, renewal of his contract over Wiles’s head. Wiles’s ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ abandons The it is also one of the most thought- plans for Doctor Who were never entirely carried through. The script editor who shared his vision Prisoner’s usual setting, characters and ideas provoking and rewarding episodes of the for the series, Donald Tosh, resigned with him, and in favour of a pastiche of espionage stories in series. the remaining stories they had commissioned were the mould of the James Bond films and the taken through production by their successors, stranger episodes of The Avengers. It 17) Fall Out Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis. probably does not belong in the series at all, but is so much fun that this does not really Written by Patrick McGoohan (Kenneth It’s been recorded that Lloyd and Davis did not matter. However, it is not perfect. While Griffith wrote much of his own dialogue have a harmonious working relationship, and both died before fan historians began the reassessment enjoyable, it is rarely funny, which is a uncredited) of their period in creative control of the series; problem for something that appears to be Directed by Patrick McGoohan these are just two reasons why we will never know trying to be a comedy. It is also unclear Guest cast: Leo McKern, Kenneth exactly which features of Doctor Who as it whether it is a homage to or a criticism of Griffith, Alexis Kanner emerged in the latter part of 1966 were based on the improbable plots and characters of 1960s the initiatives of Davis or of Lloyd, or what they spy stories. It seems to be both, yet surely Plot thought of the programme they inherited. There the two positions are mutually exclusive? was an interview with Gerry Davis in Doctor Who Magazine in 1987 in which he described the stories These are relatively minor quibbles; just sit The Prisoner is told that he can leave the commissioned by his predecessor as ‘too precious back and enjoy fifty minutes of pure fun. Village or lead it and meets Number One. for children’, indicating low expectations of his

The Tides of Time 29 • 12 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 25 • Easter Vacation 2004 introducing teenagers to improvisation, plot, being padded out with song and dance emphasising drama through physical expression routines and that the Prisoner gets very little rather than the language of the conventional to do. He spends most of the episode watching theatre which failed to reach most of his pupils. These led to a series of ‘physical dramas’ with events unfold with a bemused look on his face, large casts which were widely praised and which seems surprising for the last episode of Wiles copied in other areas. Wiles became involved the series in which he is the title character; when he was one of the judges of a school perhaps it is some kind of postmodernist drama competition in the London area. His first reflection of the reaction of the audience! production of this type was The Battle of Agincourt, at Turner’s Court vocational ‘Fall Out’ does have some redeeming features. training centre in Oxfordshire in 1957. Developed from the battle scenes in It is directed very well, with an impressive use Shakespeare’s Henry V, Wiles directed a cast of of incidental music, the unveiling of Number 120 educationally and socially disadvantaged One is one of the most memorable and thought- Thing! boys, six horses and 50 staff on an outdoor provoking moments in the series, and perhaps

‘stage’ that was 200 yards long by 50 yards on television as a whole, while the Review wide. disorientating, nightmarish quality of much of

the series reaches new heights here, especially By all accounts, ‘Fall Out’ was hurriedly The contribution of John Wiles Most of Wiles’s subsequent plays also retold with the implications of the last few scenes. stories from history or legend. His second play written to conclude the series when it was ‘Fall Out’ is a disappointing end to The as producer of Doctor Who, at Turner’s Court was The Trojan Horse in suddenly cancelled. If this is true, it Prisoner, but it is difficult to imagine a better 1959, foreshadowing his first credit for Doctor certainly shows on screen. It is conclusion; a more literal one might have been 1965-1966 Who on ‘The Myth Makers’. He later returned disappointing that it only making sense on a to Greek mythology with The Golden Masque less anti-climactic, but would also have been a metaphorical level, not providing any literal of Agamemnon and The Magical Voyage of less intelligent, memorable and disturbing “In all my plays for young people I have answers to the questions posed throughout Ulysses, both for youth theatre companies in resolution to a series that is all three of these. concentrated - usually unknowingly - on the the series, but at least it contains some theme of heroism. In many ways this has run the London area. All these stories were expansive tales that sought to deal with the interesting ideas. The real problems with counter to the general trend of drama today, but DanielDDDaniel SaSaundersunders I firmly believe that what we still crave great questions of human existence. the script are that it contains hardly any (individually and collectively) is an identificatio n with something bigger than ourselves, some This epic quality can also be found in Wiles’s cause, some theme, some faith that transcends Doctor Who work. For a lot of commentators ourselves and gives our life some meaning. To Doctor Who stories are at their best when they find no meaning in life is to render life involve a small number of people in an isolated meaningless; I believe the search continues in spot besieged by an external threat. Serials spite of ourselves.” commissioned by John Wiles were set against What really happened to Beagle 2… vast backdrops: the plains of Troy, a spacecraft — John Wiles, 1978 the size of South London, the limitless realm of the Celestial Toymaker. The fates of countless numbers of people would be foreground JOHN WILES wrote these words to accompany the elements in the storytelling: the Protestant published version of his play The Golden Masque community in France, the entire human and of Agamemnon. Like much of his work for the Monoid races or, indeed, the peoples of the theatre it was written to be performed by entire galaxy. companies of young people, and was intended to be as much an education for them as for the audience. Wiles’s interest in education reflected Sydney The concerns which emerge from this aspect of his Newman’s desire that Doctor Who should career also shed light on his period as producer of appeal to a young audience whom previous BBC Doctor Who. programmes had missed. The replacement of the futuristic teenager Vicki with the Wiles’s plays for young people emerged from his contemporary adolescent Dodo gave the series a involvement with drama projects run in East character very close to the original young London in the 1950s by a drama teacher called female character who appeared in the 1963 Alan Garrard. The English secondary education format documents but who had evolved into the system of the 1950s was shaped by the 11+ otherworldly Susan. Jackie Lane had appeared examination; those students placed in secondary in a John Wiles play four years before she was modern schools rather than the more sought-after cast as Dodo as a young Cockney girl, and she Alex Cameron grammar and technical school places were represented a down-to-earth, urban regarded by many in society as lost causes. ordinariness – clearly a Coronation Street Garrard sought to unleash this wasted potential by northern English from the soundtrack of ‘The

The Tides of Time 29 • 24 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 13 • Easter Vacation 2004 Jewish, as we are occasionally reminded create a physical army and surge of through dialogue, and so is part of an older goodwill that overwhelm the First Evil. My Nights with REG religious tradition than the Christian one This is a magic innate in her (Jewish = regularly invoked in the flashback sequences ancient) make-up, and refined in self- Watching ‘Scream of the Shalka’ described above. In the first three seasons of consciously modern California and in the Buffy she is principally characterised by a mystical landscape of the English west remarkably swift intellect and especially a country. Willow’s understanding of the facility with computers, enabling her to wholeness of the natural world in the end ‘THE SCREAM OF THE SHALKA ’ was announced as an Under, which seems have no other purpose except pluck obscure information from unlikely or enables her to see that the occult is part of official anniversary story in July 2003, a webcast to remind viewers that the foreign accents haven’t classified sources and reach plot-furthering the everyday world and is not something starring the new BBC approved Doctor, Richard E. improved since ‘Death Comes to Time’, and there is insights that elude Giles. At the climax of to be feared. The division between the Grant. Less than eighty days later the news of the much to admire. The supporting cast acquit the second season, however, Willow popular kids and the outcasts from high 2005 revival was leaked in The Daily Telegraph. themselves well. Andrew Dunn is just the sort of actor I hope to see in the new series, a recognisable discovers an aptitude for magic, and this school that was so foregrounded in the ‘Shalka’ changed; from being the sole new BBC TV face (from, among other things, Dinnerladies, aspect of her character comes to first two seasons of Buffy is finally sanctioned Doctor Who, a pilot for a possible series, to Bremner, Bird and Fortune, The Bill) doing predominate. This is followed in season four despatched, and with it factionalism and an interesting diversion before the main event. In the something slightly different (resigned despair, not by her realisation of a lesbian sexual identity. the First Evil. (If there had been no space of one day, the 26 th of September, Richard E. something you associate with Bren’s boyfriend, Willow thus not only arises from the Angel, it might well have been Cordelia, Grant made an effortless transition from the Alistair Campbell or a senior CID officer). wellspring of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, symbol of aggressive, oppressive and torchbearer for the future of the show to an also-ran of Jim Norton provides everything that one could but is a witch, able to change the natural insecure cool, who fell fighting in the indeterminate status. It’s as if the TV Movie had want from a senior military liaision figure – bluff, suddenly become as important as ‘The Ghosts of N- hearty and sceptical. world by magic. Willow’s lesbian sexual front line against the Turok-Han in Space’ – before being broadcast. orientation also underlines her embodiment ‘Chosen’, 7.22, and not her shadow Anya). Sophie Okonedo rises to the challenges set by Paul of a distinctive form of womanpower that Early in November, a couple of weeks before episode Cornell’s scripting: her scene-setting, flashback perpetuates itself without male involvement. The conclusion of Buffy the Vampire one of ‘Shalka’ was due to be streamed, I stood in the soliloquy is one of the highlights of the first Slayer thus depicts the acceptance and basement of the new Shaftesbury Avenue branch of episode. This soliloquy also demonstrates the control of the unknown other, often Forbidden Planet, browsing through the design affinity of ‘Scream of the Shalka’ with graphic characterised as British, by the young nightmare of Doctor Who: The Legend. Tucked novels. It’s easy to imagine Alison’s speech being away in the back of the book were most of the crucial trailed across three panels (pencils by Martin Californian lead characters. This is not all plot points and surprises in ‘Shalka’. I expect that Geraghty, inks by Robin Smith, lettering by Elitta the story, however, nor its end. Spike has over the next few months there will be spoilers and Fell). The Doctor’s response isn’t so much a line of already transferred to Angel where leaks about the upcoming series all over the internet, dialogue as the contents of a speech balloon: rivalry will resume between the and in various unlicensed SF media magazines. I doubt nineteenth-century Englishman and very much though that any future Doctor Who story eighteenth-century Irishman in Los will be as thoroughly ‘spoilered’ by an official BBC Angeles. There will also be a convincing publication! robotic Englishman at one point in the So, as I sat down to watch ‘Shalka’ part one, my new season, perhaps representing Britons expectations had changed somewhat, from ‘This is the as no more than a programmed set of first episode of potentially the only new format that I GIVE YOU reactions who lack genuine self- the BBC will give to the series’ to ‘When’s the Master MY WORD. awareness. There will be more flashback At the start of the seventh season Willow is going to pop up, then?’ (Not much change then, I sequences. Angel has not stopped THIS ENDS in the care of Giles in the west of England, suppose, from sitting down to watch the first episode exploring and playing with the tensions of Season 9, or Season 20.) TONIGHT and is being taught how to use her gifts by between America and the British Isles, the aforementioned coven of witches in and between Ireland and Britain-England. It’s slightly ironic that a story dependent on new Devon. The scenes shot in England arguably The understanding of universal common technology to reach its audience should be so rooted in represent the coming together of the the past. Part One in particular comes across as a It might seem self-evident that ‘Shalka’, as humanity that the characters of Buffy American and British sides of the series as pic’n’mix selection of other part ones. The opening animation, would have affinities with a comic strip, have achieved has yet to reach Angel; it but this certainly wasn’t the case with the three well as the assimilation of the ‘other’ into the shot of the Earth in space (‘Spearhead from Space’/ remains to be seen whether they will do webcasts that preceded it. Paul Cornell’s dialogue, I contemporary. The seventh season shows ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’); the Doctor stepping so or whether their backgrounds will out of the TARDIS to castigate unseen superiors (‘The would argue, tends towards this ‘speech balloon’ Willow able to function as witch, as continue to divide them. Brain of Morbius’); mysterious, deserted streets pattern, unless it’s being delivered by a performer technologically adept genius, and also begin following some unidentified civil emergency completely sure of what they are doing. Sadly, it seems to me that the person having the hardest a new sexual relationship. At the end of the (‘Invasion’); and for good measure there’s even a feeble season, and of the series, it is Willow’s magic Matthew Kilburn joke about ‘rock’ music (‘Genesis of the Daleks’). time of all is our leading man. that enables the powers of the Slayer to be Once past the inconsequential opening scene Down One of the more lacklustre items in BBC ONE’s shared with every potential slayer and thus

The Tides of Time 29 • 14 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 23 • Easter Vacation 2004 Buffy’s engagement wit h colonial America is from Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, and Christmas line -up was the EastEnders Christmas other end of the line. As for line of dialogue about fleeting and uncomfortable. The slayer’s thus again suggesting that Britishness in Party, a bizarre attempt to marry audience-grabbing weapons of mass destruction, apparently you can encounter with Chumash Indians in ‘Pangs’ Buffy in part represents class in America) doom, gloom and misery of life in the Square with the hear one of those in a May 1956 edition of has been mentioned above. The Angel Giles uses that knowledge to help rather razzamatazz of Christmas Night with the Stars. At Hancock’s Half Hour. one point the scene switches to the Café, where an episode ‘Darla’ (2.7) included a brief glimpse than exploit Americans. If the inhabitants of assortment of minor celebs are being given lessons in Instead, the concerns are those standbys of the of colonial Virginia; its society is barely Sunnydale are ignorant of what goes on how to talk Walford by, if I recall correctly, Big Mo Pertwee era, mutual tolerance and lessons in established and so is scarcely distinguishable around them, then Buffy portrays Americans and Ian. Lines such as ‘It’s family, innit’ are rehearsed ecology. Animation provides the series with a from the hierarchical European societies we as a nation of innocents, a reading which and then critiqued, by, of all people, Carrie and David chance to depict the threat of destruction on a see elsewhere in Buffy and Angel flashback perhaps suits earlier seasons of the series Grant, two judges from Fame Academy. There at the global scale. Paradoxically, it doesn’t seem that sequences. Darla herself seems to be than the last, where as the ascendancy of the back of the Café, is REG, and here is his namesakes’ dramatic – mainly because none of the supporting perpetually stuck in a dependent role; she is First Evil gathers pace, the inhabitants leave verdict on him: ‘Pathetic… no conviction at all’. cast (or anyone that we care about) seems to be in any peril. When the TV series debuts in 2005, I either the satellite of the Master or of rather than seek a way of fighting. Giles is If you can bear it, have another listen to the Doctor’s hope that the temptation to ‘do’ big apocalyptic Angelus. Although Darla sired Angelus, she there at the end to provide what knowledge triumphant ‘Got You! Got You!’ at the start of episode special effects is reined in – unless such effects are is dependent on his physical strength and he can, though at the last this is a new two. It’s meant to be the first real indication that this in service to the story. energised by the youthful exuberance of his situation where Buffy’s actions will set new Doctor is capable of mercurial changes of killing spree. Without him, she returns to precedents not available in Giles’s books; the temperament, from sardonic bystander prone to Between July and September last year it seemed the side of the Master, who originated in destruction of the Watchers’ Council and petulance to childlike glee as a plan works. That’s how that the legacy of ‘Scream of the Shalka’ would be medieval Europe; it’s significant that when their library confirms the independence and it’s written – but, as it’s played, the lines just fall off an ongoing stream of annual webcasts and the page on to the ground. multimedia DVDs, as the BBC gingerly felt its way we first meet Darla she has a ‘Catholic isolation of Buffy as the only power able to to making a new series for television. As it stands schoolgirl’ look, with echoes of the stop the First Evil, as the United States Time and again, watching ‘Shalka’, I got the now (March 2004), it seems likely that ‘Shalka’ will paternalist America of the 1950s as well as appears to have become the world’s only impression that Richard E. Grant was all at sea. To be not be followed up. Perhaps the legacy is now an overt message of submission to a religious superpower, menaced by elusive forces who fair, even Sir Derek Jacobi would probably have twofold. Even a classically cast, ideally ‘Doctor’- hierarchy. Darla might have been an early come from another moral universe. struggled with ‘Take me home big boy!’ (Although it’s esque actor can be inconsistent and less than émigrée, but unlike Wesley she has been possible to imagine his delivery). This wouldn’t be so successful as the lead. And ‘Shalka’ shows what a unable to properly adapt her European Giles remains a valuable resource. His most obtrusive if REG wasn’t burdened with such thoroughly traditional, base-under-siege tale looks portentous, self-reflexive lines – ‘manifesto lines’, to like these days – and how much room for values for American life. dramatic intervention as possessor of hidden borrow a handy term from an online reviewer. ‘Only improvement there is, should the series revival knowledge and secret traditions from the the monsters know me, only the monsters know how tackle such a story. The Giles Question barely-recorded past comes at the end of the weak I am’ ‘I’m just popping out to something sixth season, when he comes armed with the eccentric’, ‘I have a tradition of getting in the way’, ‘I’m not human and I don’t care, as the actress said to Paul Dumont Giles, in contrast to Darla, is very successful power that can stop Willow’s orgy of in America. His secret is that his studied destruction. Significantly, though, the the bishop’ and ‘I don’t like the military but I have so Britishness of the first season turns out to be decisive power wielded by Giles is borrowed many friends in it. I say I do not kill but then I kill thousands…’ Paul Cornell stops just short of having just that. In that season he blends elements from a coven of witches in Devon. The the Doctor recite the ‘never cruel or cowardly’ mantra of the bumbling and the sinister – the Briton power is British, but it is female, and so Giles – I wonder if we’ll get those lines in his television as comic foil and as oppressive colonial has in a sense become the representative not story next year. administrator. Much is made of his attempts just of mature Britishness, but also of mature to interact and even integrate with the womanhood against a young American There are other elements in ‘Shalka’ that I hope to see modern, technologically literate, consumer woman who has let grief lead her to self- in the new TV series. There are some excellent society of California. These processes in indulgence. It is a reasonable assumption cliffhanger endings, and, in episode four, an excellent cliffhanger resolution – ingenious, satisfying, and some way always lead to crisis, as seen in ‘I that the coven are female, while the delayed (we have to wait for about a quarter of the Robot… You Jane’ where the scanning of Watchers’ Council are mainly male, and its episode to pass by before we get back to the Doctor in occult texts unleashes a demon on the female members are through dress, manner peril). This is a lesson to be learnt, I think, from 24, internet, or ‘The Puppet Show’ where Giles’s or ambition presented as would-be men which usually ends each episode on three or four presence as director of the Sunnydale High rather than as comfortable with their female moments of jeopardy, and then, despite the split- talent show reveals that the participating identity. screen technique, tackles them one by one. students are being cherry-picked by an (The other element I would like to see transferred organ-harvesting demon. However, as his The Willow Answer over wholesale from the webcast is Sir Derek Jacobi). personal history is revealed, Giles is shown to be a powerful occultist, a representative of Willow’s career in Buffy provides a Despite being set in ‘2003’, ‘Scream of the Shalka’ the old knowledge which America lacks. In commentary on the themes of this essay. doesn’t feel particularly contemporary. When the contrast to his former friend Ethan Rayne (a Although the relationship between Britain ninth Doctor phones the UN secretary-general, it doesn’t seem very likely that Kofi Annan (and name which, to me, is more suggestive of and America has in part been explored eavesdroppers from British Intelligence) are on the New England than old England, borrowed through Christian iconography, Willow is

The Tides of Time 29 • 22 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 15 • Easter Vacation 2004 paternalist structure of the Watchers’ Council. In the United States he is at first a Slay up, and slay the game! free agent, then a member of a commonwealth of like minds (Angel Buffy, Angel, Britain and Ireland Investigations) and then is elected their leader. Wesley’s progression thus represents both his own liberation from British notions of deference and class, and Buffyverse- CONSIDERING the content of some episodes of sitcom (Pateman argues plausibly that America’s independence from a prolonged their productions, Mutant Enemy could do Buffy, although presented to the audience colonial rule. with a production base in the mid-Atlantic. as a horror series, is 'generically fluid')

Not only has Buffy the Vampire Slayer looks at Giles, Wesley and Spike as Buffy herself eventually is forced to seek an included a throwaway reference to The Sun stereotypes of 'British' - or as Pateman accommodation with the Watchers’ Council, (in 'Amends', 3.10), much of its backstory states 'English' -behaviour, which 'offer a power, but even in the twentieth and during the fifth season, as depicted in the takes place in the British Isles. Several of its range of notions of English masculinity twenty-first centuries British imperialism episode ‘Checkpoint’. There, she and her regular and semi-regular characters are of that trade upon but also contribute to the walks abroad in slayerdom. Giles’s friends are subjected to exhaustive and British or Irish origin - to name six, Giles, store of clichés, stereotypes and models suspicion of modern technology, intrusive interrogation. Much of the episode Angel, Spike, Drusilla, Wesley and which allow for a discursive notion of the foregrounded in the first series, is is played for laughs, no doubt to defuse what presumably also Darla. There is a strong concept in the first place'. intermingled with a British reserve that the script reveals as a harrowing process for British flavour to the creative staff. Joss verges on the aloof, and even as late as the Buffy and the slayerettes. The process could Whedon attended Winchester College in his Donna Potts: Angel as Irishman fourth season (as Potts notes in her essay) be interpreted as that of a weakened colonial teens. Marti Noxon's father is British. Gareth he says he is ‘still trying not to refer to power attempting to impose the terms by Davies, credited as producer on all seven Potts introduces her argument by your lot as “bloody colonials”’ (‘Pangs’, which her stronger former colony is series of Buffy, began his career in Britain mentioning 'Pangs', an episode from Buffy 4.8). The Watcher’s Council, who readmitted into international politics, forty years ago, where he worked in the BBC Buffy’s third season, which depicts long- thinly conceal their brutal management of attempting to obscure from the ingenue that Drama Group under Sydney Newman, and dead Chumash Indians as spirits seeking the slayer lineage under a veneer of benign she, in fact, is the stronger. Buffy realises the although he never directed for Newman's pet to avenge the decimation of their tribe by paternalism, have never devolved power to full force of her negotiating position late in Saturday afternoon serial Doctor Who, he did settlers in California. The episode America; they regard the United States as a the episode, to great dramatic effect; much as work on the strand of single plays at the heart acknowledges that their claim has some British colony. Wesley, when he becomes a the United States, refusing to join the of the Newman project, The Wednesday Play justice, but 'nonetheless depicts them ‘rogue demon hunter’ in Los Angeles in the League of Nations after World War One for and its post-Newman successor Play for according to the colonizers' stereotypes as first season of Angel, is treated by the fear that her distinctiveness would be erased Today. That connection is enough to make irrational savages unfit for the civilized Watcher’s Council in a fashion that is and that her weight would be abused by self- Buffy and Angel cousins on the British world' who are eventually defeated by perhaps intended to parallel British interested European government, found television drama family tree, albeit grafted Buffy and her friends in a fashion that treatment of their American colonies in the during World War Two that she was able to onto a Hollywood vine. restores the status quo ante. Angel, she decades immediately before and after the dictate many of the terms of her involvement

argues, similarly embodies a stereotype American War of Independence. As Wesley in the conflict, and be a decisive voice in the The relationship of Buffy with the British Irishman of the sort used by the British, was expected to assist the Council to post-war settlement. Discussion of the Isles has caught the attention of several from the twelfth century onwards but recapture Faith in return for a pardon, so parallel that might be hypothesised from this university teachers and researchers. This particularly in Victorian times, to justify Britain’s actions in the second half of the argument, that the goddess Glory is an article considers two scholarly papers: 'Anglo-Saxon' domination over the Celt. eighteenth century and after, up to the War embodiment of the depersonalising forces of 'Convents, Claddagh rings, and even The of 1812, could be interpreted as offering Stalinist communism is a topic for another Book of Kells: Representing the Irish in Buffy Potts's argument is hampered by the America integration into and advancement article. However, Buffy’s triumph over her the Vampire Slayer' by Donna L. Potts of quality of her sources for cultural within the British Empire. In return, the foes is a rejection of glory in the abstract. Kansas State University, published in Studies stereotypes, some of which are derived American colonies had to perform duties The Watchers’ Council are smug colonialists in Media and Information Literacy Education from a secondary source (L. Curtis, for Britain; pay taxes, restrain their who enjoy their little triumphs; Buffy, on the 3/2 (May 2003), and '"You Say Tomato": Nothing but the same old story: the roots westward expansion, and shun ties with front line, a pioneer in contrast to the Englishness in Buffy the Vampire Slayer' by of anti-Irish racism, 1984) that appears to European countries other than Britain. All directors of colonisation, never glories in Matthew Pateman of the University of Hull, be a republican text from the 1980s these could be seen as suppression of self- victory, and when she comes close to doing published in Cercles 8 (2003). Potts explores attempting to associate Ireland's expression, something which Wesley, who so (for example, when in ‘Real Me’, 5.2, she the portrayal of Angel in Buffy and in Angel relationship to England and Britain with during his first few episodes in Angel drunkenly dismisses the threat from through a postcolonialist analysis of the that of the experience of Britain's rapidly sheds his repressed, comic persona, Harmony, who then invades her house) she depiction of Ireland and the Irish by British nineteenth- and twentieth-century has suffered within the hierarchical, stares defeat in the face. writers. Pateman, contributing to a special colonies. However valid or invalid this issue of Cercles on the American television interpretation, it is so widely-

The Tides of Time 29 • 16 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 21 • Easter Vacation 2004 re -establishment of the Catholic hierarchy all shot in the dark, and either outdoors or in disseminated that it is part of political folk in 1850, and the effects of Irish very lavish interiors (like the house at the culture in many parts of the world, and immigration; women were encouraged to Christmas parties where we see Angel) – it therefore part of the stock of lore or take orders to assist in the work of an sets up a deliberate contrast to the bright information that Buffy the Vampire Slayer can overstretched priesthood. So, the sunlight and modern classrooms which expect its viewers to share. Potts is perceptive presentation of Drusilla’s religion is the dominate the visual world of Sunnydale.’ in emphasising that Angel, as a young human most credible of the three. (Liam) in eighteenth-century Galway, Britain: A Class Joke, with Cruel 'embodies virtually all the characteristics that Buffy and Angel show greater respect for Intentions? the English attributed to the Irish as a means of the European past as depicted in cinematic proving their unfitness for self-governance.' She horror. Angelus, Darla and the Master are As Matthew Pateman points out in his places less emphasis, however, on the way in in some respects the successors of the article, the British characters in Buffy (less which Liam’s characteristics also place him rational sceptics who scoff at Van Helsing so in Angel) often serve as figures of fun. In outside eighteenth-century social structures and his kind in the Hammer horror films, the first three seasons of Buffy the old- irrespective of his nationality; he is arrogant only to end up either collaborating with the fashioned lifestyle of Giles is regularly and outwardly self-satisfied, honours not his forces of evil or fall prey to them. Old mocked. The addition of Wesley leads to father and his mother (ignoring most of the knowledge is to be respected, although it is much humour at the expense of all-male other commandments as well), and lusts after not put forward through the pervasive but boarding schools, particularly during women. His sexual advances towards Darla inept church but through a rationalist who Wesley's fumbling courtship of Cordelia. signify transgressive ambition; a desire to be and restrained in his choice of victims, does not close his mind against what others During 'The Prom' (3.20), Giles and Wesley self-made that makes him evil to the traditional displaying the supposedly Anglo-Saxon dismiss as superstition. Giles is thus an heir contrast their education with that of the society that is the Ireland of Buffy and Angel, qualities that were held to legitimise to Hammer's Van Helsing, although one Sunnydale High School students; they do so and thus an exceptionally powerful vampire in British rule in Ireland. who is dependent on the superior physical in clipped British accents and so the viewer his own century and continent. strength and unorthodox youthful mental might assume that democratic, relaxed, Matthew Pateman: Three Faces agility of the Slayer. The flashbacks in this young America is being contrasted As a vampire, Angelus is obsessed with from England sense contribute towards placing Buffy and favourably with stuffy, class-bound Britain. religious symbolism, which Potts sees as Angel in a tradition of British horror Yet the discussion between Giles and another Victorian English stereotype of the Pateman's article on Englishness explores cinema - although the Hammer films in Wesley is couched in American language, Irish, an obsession which leads him to turn Giles's role as father-figure to Buffy; he their turn were indebted to the Universal talking of 'an all-male preparatory' instead of Drusilla into a vampire on the day that she was suggests that a model for a discussion of films made in Hollywood in the 1930s and a public school (which of course in American to take her vows as a nun. Angel's tattoo that the relationship, and for those Buffy has 1940s. English is a state school). To a British Buffy describes as "a bird or something" is with Wesley and Spike, would be the way viewer the conversation seems very self- actually a winged lion from the Book of Kells, in whch some critics see Vladimir Most importantly, though, Buffy and Angel aware, the characters using American which represents the evangelist Mark. It is held Nabokov's Lolita as an allegory of the need their European contexts because the terminology to speak to an American to symbolise the supposed spiritual qualities of shaping of young America by series needed to continue to play on the television audience, in the full knowledge the Celt, and within the context of Buffy sophisticated but depraved old Europe. I contrast between the modern and the that the characters' authenticity is being Angel's conflicted identity - a being cast out of haven't read Lolita but feel that this ancient. From ‘Lie to Me’ onwards, Giles is compromised. Although apparently British, the sight of God, but who seeks to do good. parallel leads itself to misinterpretation; increasingly absorbed into the modern; as this conversation reveals that as characters (God is mentioned with the reservation that Giles, as Pateman emphasises, is very Buffy and her contemporaries learn what it in an American television series Giles and both Buffy and Angel seek to avoid a narrow much a father-figure to Buffy in a way is to be adults Giles, too, learns how to live Wesley are American conceptions; their identification with the Christian faith.) The that Humbert fails to be to Lolita. Initially as an individual in America and also to British accents displace what is effectively a most overt sign of Angel's Irishness, however, he is a collection of clichés about share his knowledge rather than comment on American as well as British is the Claddagh ring that he gives to Buffy in Englishness, asserting at the Bronze authoritatively impart it. While Buffy’s class divides. 'Surprise' (2.13); it is presented as an assertion nightclub that he would 'much rather be narrative becomes more complex the viewer of his cultural Irishness as well as of his fidelity at home with a cup of Bovril and a good isn’t burdened with much detail about the The most important class divide, though, is to Buffy, and it is that ring which calls Angel book' ('Welcome to the Hellmouth', 1.1) past of Sunnydale, which continues to play that between the Americans and the British. back from Hell at the end of 'Faith, Hope, and but later becomes more complicated as we the part of modern America; the series Both Buffy and Angel depict the British as Trick' (3.3). Just as Angel displays Irish learn his occultist past as 'Ripper'. instead develops an exotic, superstitious remote authority figures who condescend to characteristics, so Potts sees his conflict with Europe which doesn’t need more than a other peoples, who they regard as inferiors. William/Spike as one between Celt and Saxon. The other male English Watcher is slight resemblance to the Europe of history. Angel, regressed to his eighteenth-century, Angel is artistic: as a killer, he is promiscuous Wesley, introduced as 'much more closely As one commentator on an earlier draft of pre-vampire Liam persona in ‘Spin the and prefers to draw out the agony of his allied (than Giles) to a bumbling, this article remarked, ‘It’s no accident that Bottle’ ( Angel, 4.6) expresses his distrust of victims. Spike, contrastingly, is direct and cowardly, effeminate Brideshead Revisited the historical / English scenes are almost Wesley as the representative of an occupying practical when he wants to kill, and moderate Edwardian sort of character', his

The Tides of Time 29 • 20 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 17 • Easter Vacation 2004 obsession with rules being his way of Flashbacks and faith information through the appearance of the be seen as Sir Lancelot and Spike as his and compensating for his lack of maturity. Both new demon. En route, humour was Drusilla's offspring, Sir Galahad, who Wesley and Giles, however, are seen by My interpretation of the use of Ireland and extracted from the clash between Buffy and eventually achieves the Holy Grail and, like Pateman as belonging to 'a rather idealised England by Buffy and Angel is perhaps her friends, representing the newness of Spike at the end of the seventh season of Buffy, notion of the English gentleman-scholar' in a close to Pateman's. I see both countries as California – Buffy is fashion-conscious, disappears in a blaze of light. tradition established (for all his supposed being principally important as Willow techno-literate, Xander always French origins) by Star Trek: The Next representations of the Old World in questioning through his cheerfully- Generation's Jean-Luc Picard. contrast to the New, and these similarities admitted ignorance – and the experienced in the depictions of both countries are more and knowledgeable but apparently Spike is the third English male character important than their differences. Both culturally inflexible Giles. There was only discussed by Pateman. He is introduced as 'a countries, as imagined by Buffy and Angel one short sequence set in the European past version of reasonably recent Englishness as in their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century in the first season, at the beginning of 'I exemplified through youth culture'. Pateman guises, are depicted as spiritual and Robot… You Jane' where the audience was notes that Spike and Drusilla were intended observantly Christian, in contrast to the allowed to see the capture of the demon to evoke Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, secular and materialist worlds of Sunnydale Moloch and anticipate what would happen whose decadent behaviour 'scandalised the and Los Angeles. Almost at the very end of to the text in which he was trapped once it British media' in Pateman's words; Pateman Buffy's second season, in 'Becoming, Part was scanned into a computer connected to seems to have missed that Nancy was One' (2.21) we glimpse the end of Angelus's the internet. As the series became more American and the drama of their relationship complex and began to question, in effect, murder of a priest to whom Drusilla was was played out on both sides of the Atlantic, elements of its own narrative (a process about to make her confession. When in the The depiction of the British and Irish pasts in a potential parallel first for the reign of Spike that begins round about the episode 'Lie to Angel episode ‘Prodigal’ (1.15) we see Buffy and Angel is of questionable value to and Drusilla as the lords of the undead in Me' in the second season) then the Liam's funeral in Galway, about a century anyone hoping to learn a little about history. Sunnydale, and later for Spike's flashback sequence was re-adopted as a earlier, a man in antique clerical garb This is in part the result of budgetary psychologically intense sado-masochistic device to tell viewers, but not the presides. Even in the twenty-first century constraints; the flashbacks are usually short and sexual affair with Buffy. Pateman discusses characters themselves, about the prehistory it seems that Britain is more attuned to the so are reliant on existing studio lots and (I how the characters of Spike and Giles are of the fictional universe that was emerging ancient evils that imperil the world than suppose) use few new sets and costumes. The much closer than they initially appear: in and provide them with a context for the contemporary Sunnydale and Los Angeles late Victorian London of 'Fool for Love' could 'Restless' (4.22) both manifest themselves in characters' actions. - we learn at the beginning of the seventh easily be somewhere in central Europe. In some Buffy's (Xander's?) dream, wearing tweeds season of Buffy that there is a benevolent ways this setting is appropriate; vampires first and sitting side by side on a set of swings. As Most of these sequences involved the witches' coven in Devon that helps Willow became part of English-language culture in the discovered early in Buffy’s fifth season, in vampire characters, including their entries achieve a workable peace with herself mid-eighteenth century, when the press 'Fool for Love', Spike was once a 'softly into undeath. Overt attention was given to following her attempt to destroy the world reported tales of a vampire-hunt in Hungary. spoken, rather effete poet' called William, vampire behaviour and the tensions at the end of the sixth season. The area with the greatest potential to mislead, from the same upper (or perhaps more between Angel, Darla, Drusilla and Spike - however, is the depiction of the church. I doubt precisely upper-middle) class background as beings in a moral universe who had lost The 'flashback' sequences set in Europe in that either the Church of England men and Giles or Wesley. Pateman discusses at their ability to see their way through it. As previous centuries, however, are more women who founded the colony of Virginia, or length 'Tabula Rasa', the episode where all previously noted the church is present, central to the argument, as they are used their Catholic neighbours in Maryland, would the regulars lose their memories: when Spike through the implicit Catholicism of Angel's not only to provide retroactive information have entertained someone disguised as a monk realises that he is English, after insulting Irish background, the Master's about characters but also to validate Buffy's to administer the last rites to Darla; in one Giles as effete, Giles responds with impersonation of a churchman, and cosmology to the viewer. This cosmology, colony it would have been inconceivable, and in 'Welcome to the nancy tribe'. Drusilla's religious vocation; there is also a highly developed by the end of the seventh the other they would probably have been religious dimension of a sort to William's season, and developing onwards through risking arrest. Whether it is a Catholic priest or fall into vampirism, for Drusilla sees Pre- the continuation of Angel, has its origins in Church of Ireland clergyman who presides over Raphaelite imagery in his mind, and the need to contrast Buffy Summers, the Liam's funeral, it's unlikely that in the seduces him with the temptation of modern Californian teenager, with her eighteenth century that he'd be wearing becoming her Sir Lancelot, an iconic figure vampire slayer heritage, as interpreted to anything that we would recognise as clerical of medieval lay spirituality. William/Spike her by the stereotypically stuffy Briton, dress, which was reserved for the higher clergy may have been a virgin when seduced by Rupert Giles. Initially this cosmology was of the established church. As for Drusilla's Drusilla - many fans have thought that they part-anecdotal, as Buffy and her friends religious vocation, recent research has shown did not have sexual relations for nearly two received information, usually incomplete in that in the 1850s and 1860s it was becoming decades after Drusilla sired William's some way, about that week's foe; it was increasingly common for young Catholic vampire self - in which case William could then part-revelatory, as Buffy discovered Englishwomen to become nuns, following the

The Tides of Time 29 • 18 • Easter Vacation 2004 The Tides of Time 29 • 19 • Easter Vacation 2004