PROGRAM NOTE: I apologize to my faithful reader(s) for the week’s delay in this post: last weekend, I got diverted by various other things.
“The Malus is pure evil. If not stopped, it will destroy not only the village but everything else as well. Cheer up!”
The TARDIS arrives in the village of Little Hodcombe in the present day (of the story’s original broadcast) so that Tegan can visit her grandfather, a local historian. But as always, all is not well when our heroes arrive. The village is in an uproar over a planned reenactment of a battle that took place in the English civil war in the 1600’s, in which the village was destroyed, and it soon becomes clear the reenactment is out of control. Some of the participants appear to have gone mad with plans to reenact the battle up to and including an actual slaughter. Others are in denial, laughing that it’s all in good fun even as the violence escalates before their eyes. Only the local schoolteacher is refusing to participate, and Sir George Hutchinson who organized the war game, is on the verge of having her killed for it. Meanwhile, ghosts from the 1600s keep appearing, and in a ruined church on the outskirts of the town a wall is crumbling away to reveal what looks like the face of the devil.
The Doctor eventually traces the trouble to the Malus, an alien probe that crashed centuries ago from the planet Hakol, where technology developed to exploit psychic energy. The Malus is a weapon, designed to provoke, and then draw power from, violence and bloodshed. It last woke up during the civil war battle, and now is awakening again— and unless the Doctor can stop it, the massacre will be terrible.
Originally planned as a 4-part story, The Awakening was shortened to 2 parts during the scriptwriting process, when writer Eric Pringle found himself having trouble extending the story out to the required length. Since the series would need a 2-parter somewhere in season 21, script editor Eric Saward went ahead and told Pringle to go with the shorter length. Even more so than last season’s 2-parter The King’s Demons, the shorter running time makes The Awakening feel very much like an episode of the new series: it has a similar pacing, and its biggest problem (noted by both cast and crew in later interviews) is one that has also troubled many new series episodes: by the time the story has revealed what’s going on, there’s no time left to do anything but end it too quickly, and too easily.
Apart from the abrupt ending, the short length removes the need for any padding and so the story moves forward nicely. The location used for Little Hodcombe is such a perfectly classic English village it’s almost hard to believe it’s not a backlot set somewhere (it’s not). The sets look good, especially the ruined church where the Malus is emerging, and the mix of period costumes worn by those in the reenactment, the old village, and the incongruous modern touches produces a very good, eery atmosphere. An especially nice touch is an opening scene of seventeenth century cavalry riding along, making us think we’re simply in the past, until suddenly they’re charging at a woman in modern clothes beside a building that has power lines overhead. There’s a moment of disorientation as you realize you don’t know what’s going on: and you’re drawn into the story immediately.
Two stories into season 21 and (given that I like Warriors of the Deep better than its reputation) and things are looking pretty good.
Details
- The Doctor’s costume differs in a few details from his previous 2 seasons. His frock coat is a slightly different shade, there are new red and black stripes on his sweater, and green trim on his shirt collar. There’s an in-universe reason for the change, though no one onscreen points it out: in last week’s Warriors of the Deep the Doctor started in his previous costume but changed into the outfit of a Sea Base guard after an underwater swim. By the end of the story he hadn’t changed back. Evidently he never retrieved his old clothes (or he did but the seawater had ruined them) so he went rummaging in the TARDIS wardrobe to find the best match he could.
- The Doctor makes an unusually cruel joke at one point in the story. Tegan has been captured and is going to be forced to serve as the Queen of the May in the village’s spring ceremony. A boy transported from 1643 tells him that under the Malus’ influence, the villagers had actually burned that year’s May Queen to death. The Doctor actually cracks a smile and remarks, “The toast of Little Hodcombe.” Speaking for the audience, the boy rebukes him: “Tweren’t funny, she were screaming.” The Doctor replies, “That’s nothing to what Tegan would have done,” and moves on. It’s really a strange and rather disturbing little exchange. Not necessarily bad— the Doctor has always occasionally dropped these remarks that reveal how alien his perspective really is (especially the Fourth Doctor) but it’s not something you expect from the generally more human (and humane) Fifth.
- The Awakening produced one of Dr Who’s most famous bloopers, featured prominently in the blooper-reel shows popular in the UK as well as the US (the UK version was called “The Golden Egg Awards” and staged as a mock award ceremony). The production had built a fence and covered gate around the churchyard of the (real) village church. At the climax of the story the Doctor and friends rush back to the church in a horse-drawn wagon, dismounting outside the gate and then hurrying through. During filming, the horse was apparently spooked by the prop gate and refused to approach it. The horse trainer finally suggested putting a mare inside the churchyard, to reassure the horse it was safe. This time the horse came to the right spot, reined to a stop, the cast all climbed out and filed through the gate— and then the horse followed them, pulling the wagon behind it and completely demolishing the gate. Fortunately, the take was usable since there was neither time nor budget to rebuild the prop for additional shots.
- At the end of the story, the Malus is about to self-destruct and the Doctor herds all his allies (his companions, Tegan’s grandfather, the schoolteacher, and several others) into the TARDIS to take them to safety before the blast. Altogether there are seven people inside the TARDIS, besides the Doctor himself. Although he intends only a short hop to materialize the TARDIS back in the village, the episode ends with them all in the console room while it’s still in flight. Although they are all gone by the time the next episode begins, given the TARDIS’ notorious unreliability we have no guarantee they got back to the village directly. So— are there unseen adventures with the Doctor having to handle a set of 7 companions? Fan fiction writers, start your engines!
Next Week:
“Frontios,” 4 episodes.
