You join us here this week at the chilly end of 1987, a time when Doctor Who was... not in a good place. Shall we say. It had just struggled through a particularly difficult time with Colin Baker's 'Trial of a Time Lord', something everybody needs time to get over because, let's all face it - 'Trial' is a fucking mess. It's an ungraceful zit on the face of the BBC. It's atrocious. It saw the mistreatment of the lead actor, prompting desperate performances, saw the shocking (but effective) demise of a companion, and then saved her later on in a rushed and nasty way. It saw the desecration of a show that had come to be loved, the final nail in the coffin for Doctor Who, the hurried farewell sermon, the scratched tombstone. That classic innovative show lost apparently forever in the earth.
No stopping them graverobbers though.
No stopping them graverobbers though.
The much discussed and oft praised McCoy era began some way into 1987, Doctor Who's 24th year of broadcast. Colin Baker (understandably) wanted no more to do with the show, and so moved on famously before a regeneration scene could be filmed, leaving the BBC with a new lead to find and a different stance to take on how sci-fi had to be done. What they found was a Scottish ex-circus clown and a pantomime space opera, and thus the Doctor returned, lighter, funnier, odder, more relatable and sympathetic than Baker's short-tempered wanderer. Here was a Doctor the audience could warm to, a man with a panama hat and an umbrella shaped like a question mark, and r's rolled so viciously you couldn't help but smile - the wonderful alter ego of Sylvester McCoy. Companion Mel was sticking around for a bit, and with all of eighteen months to prepare a comeback deserving of a big-budget, high adventure science fiction drama, Doctor Who finally came lurching back onto our screens with... 'Time and the Rani'. And then 'Paradise Towers', and then 'Delta and the Bannermen'. Which are... n't good. So was Doctor Who past the point of no return?
You might have been excused for thinking so. A lot of fans at the time started tuning out, abandoning ship. They didn't want this new silly Doctor with his silly camp stories and his strange ways. These days we can appreciate those three unfortunate serials, at least for those aspects which couldn't be helped - we can view them through rose-tinted goggles, admiring their bravery and feeling nostalgic for McCoy. But at the time, 'Time of the Rani', 'Paradise Towers' and 'Delta and the Bannermen' were just not want the people wanted. They were wrong, turning away more fans than they gained. Doctor Who wasn't working how it once had. There was a bad, bad vibe.
Then, 'Dragonfire' happened. And 'Dragonfire' is really something different. It might still have the insane camp, and the puns, and the costumes, but it is, must be universally recognised as where things started to change. A new companion, Ace, was introduced, a character with a notoriously complex and interesting backstory. The themes were darker, the stakes higher, the Doctor's performance subtle and involved. 'Dragonfire' is the sigh of relief. From here on in, things would only get better and better until Doctor Who's untimely cancellation in 1989, two years later. The upswing of quality is catapulted from the end of this story until the closing scenes of 'Survival', and is the reason the McCoy era has become so adored with fans. Plots became intellectual and challenging, exposition was wittled to provide a healthy aura of mystery and mesmeric charm. This is where Doctor Who got good again. Let's give it a look.
Yeah. I really love this story. Seriously. From minute one, it's just great, great fun, a romp around an alien trading colony with a dragon, an insane criminal, a hapless Glitz and feisty Ace. It's everything you could want. Iceworld itself is very well designed - the bar, the caverns, the cooling tunnels. All the sets seem appropriate, and impressive - Kane's lair provides a respectable level of vertical space, which never hurts. Costumes, while still recovering from escapades like 'Delta and the Bannermen', are still glitzy and silly, but fit well enough with the environment to merit their acceptance by the viewer. Everyone's giving it their all, and it shows. The plot sparkles with good fun and heady adventure for the sake of itself, which slowly evolves into something more sinister while still retaining the wit and enthusiasm the story holds early on. It's endearing, certainly, but not endearingly bad, endearingly charming.
The characters populating our world are also convincing (or if not convincing, entertaining or engaging) enough. Returning is Sabalom Glitz, last present in the aforementioned 'Trial of a Time Lord', an intergalactic crook with a paunch and an educated turn of phrase. Glitz is just as much fun here than he was there, more so, even, attributable to the vastly improved quality of the story which is giving his character context. Tony Selby is always enjoyable to watch as the clumsy rogue from Salostophus, and his presence lends the narrative its catalyst as he produces the treasure map which is to draw the Doctor, Mel and the young waitress Ace into a quest to find the mythical dragon beneath Iceworld. Mel is good here, certainly more acceptable than she is in 'Trial', (this being Bonnie Langford's swansong as companion) and I think the way she's handled in a group makes her much more bearable than usual (I'm not a real fan of Mel, but perhaps I need more experience of her). Everything clips along - we meet the baddies, the goodies, see the sights, hear the music with time to spare for private scenes that let writer Ian Briggs expand on the characters of Bellasz, Ace and Kane. It's good to see so much going on for so simple a story.
One of the most important elements of 'Dragonfire' is, of course, the introduction of Ace, and it's really interesting to see how differently her debut plays out than those of previous companions. Indeed, the way Ace is handled throughout the next two years is strikingly mature and of a more modern nature than has been seen previously. Before now, companions have been bystanders, characters defined more by what they do for a narrative than who they are in it (exceptions being Susan, Barbara and Ian, of course, Romana, Turlough, Sarah Jane). So it's refreshing watching Ace's backstory and troubled past unfold in dialogue, hearing her side of story slip out bit by bit in masterful character touches, why she would want to travel with the Doctor, what has made her who she is today. It's remarkably progressive, and isn't the only part of this story that is; the 'monster', a cybernetic alien dragon, turns out to be affable and sweet; Bellasz is a layered character, with flaws and wants; the model shots and effects are breathtaking and the music builds appropriately at key points. 'Dragonfire' is a big push forward in terms of pure class for Doctor Who.
So the characters make sense, more sense than they have for a while. Each have desires and real-life motivations. All of them, right? All... except Kane. Now Kane is the bad guy of the piece (yeah, spoilers, whatever, not really). He's the guy who kills his own people with his bare hands, whose reasons for 'spreading chaos throughout the galaxy' (there's some really bad exposition from Kane) are shifty and a bit rubbish. He's out and out bad, so bad he needed to be stranded on a planet alone, in a prison ship with a jailer who carries the key that would release him, to taunt his evil mind (weird plot touch? Yep). But honestly, in all seriousness - I couldn't care a jot less. Kane is great. He's great to watch, he's cold, he's a bastard who wants to avenge some thing about his wife or sommat (the details aren't particularly important). He's just bad and camp. And I don't care, because this story is camp. It's camp from minute one to the closing scene. The first cliffhanger is hilariously bad, the second is obvious and CAMP. IT'S ALL CAMP. But it's kinda glorious, too. Sometimes you just need a big fun runaround, a romp without much stakes or character development. But when it's a big fun runaround romp with stakes and character development (hint: like this), the experience is so much more overwhelmingly uplifting. 'Robots of Death' is excellent. 'The Curse of Fenric' never fails to amaze, once it's picked up. But this just makes you happy. You leave it feeling content. And that's really all you can ask for.
You know, really, there isn't so much to say anymore. I'd like to mention some touches; the motif of the little girl with her teddy, for instance, is actually really nice and effective, and lends the Dragon some really adorable character moments when it waves her goodbye after saving her life. It's a nice dragon. Then you have the Doctor, who is wonderful here - McCoy plays inquisitive, sharing his findings, having a whale of a time without losing control or forgetting his bumbling self. He has some great scenes (see 'distracting the guard'), some great lines (see the speech on relative time), some wonderful, wonderful character building scenes (see Mel's goodbye. Really. I need to really talk about this properly, outside brackets). See Mel's goodbye. I'm not even the greatest fan of Mel, I've said that, but the last scene she shares with the Doctor inside the TARDIS is lovely. It speaks volumes about the Doctor, how he tries to battle away his want for her to stay with bluster and detachment, and then gives up after he's come out the other side of his preoccupations with time and its relativity. It's very New-Who feeling, in a good way that elevates the experience for the classic viewer who likes a bit of sentimentality. And then there's Ace's elation at joining the Doctor, Kane's really kind of gory demise (seriously, his face melts, like in Indiana Jones. Only... worse? It's really nasty), Kane tempting Ace with his sovereign, the girl and the diner, the really incredible model work that speaks wonders about the ambition of the production team, the ANT hunt, the revelation of Iceworld's true nature, the destruction of the Nosferatu and so many more. This story just keeps on giving, again and again.
Last Words?
Phoof. I'm out.
The first time I watched 'Dragonfire', I didn't like it. I didn't get it. I didn't like its campness, didn't understand why it should be so well-loved. The bad guy was stupid, all the acting was a bit strained, it was embarrassing to watch with someone else there.
I honestly don't know what changed.
I love 'Dragonfire'. It's just quintessential Doctor Who fun. An excellent story that has space to unfold but not to waste time, a story that lets us enjoy every facet of its production but not get tired of it. A story that excites us for what is to come, and with good reason - this is the beginning of 'Remembrance of the Daleks' and 'Ghost Light' and 'The Curse of Fenric', a story that ensures more than any other of the time that our little science fiction telly show will survive, even after it all goes wrong. 'Dragonfire' embodies why Doctor Who is still on our screens today, and why it will continue to be for a long, long time. Thank you Sylvester McCoy, thank you Ian Briggs and Sophie Aldred and Bonnie Langford and Tony Selby. What a wonderful story. Watch it for me, and be happy.
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