Redeeming Features - Timelash

[Rob McCow]

Jason Thompson stated in the Best and Worst of Who thread that Timelash has no redeeming features. Yet I've heard elsewhere that a casual viewer wouldn't be able to tell the difference in quality between Timelash and the much preffered Revelation of The Daleks. So there must be SOMETHING to Timelash that makes the effort worthwhile!

Certainly when I've watched it I can see that it's largely rubbish, but I still enjoy it to an extent. So what, if anything, is good about Timelash?

[Anthony Williams]

it's a fun story!

mostly because it's unintentionally hilarious!

Ant x

[Pip Madeley]

"He's dangling on the edge of oblivion!"

Says it all, really.

[Martin Penny]

I quite like Timelash, yeah, it's rubbish, but when I was watching it I enjoyed it for its wacky camp value. Paul Darrow was great

What was going on with those clones at the end though, and the loch ness monster! Maaaaadness.

[Larry]

So there must be SOMETHING to Timelash that makes the effort worthwhile!

So what, if anything, is good about Timelash?

Er the closing credits.

[Raston]

The incidental music is insane, and i love it!

It has swearing in it!

It has the best anagram of any story title!

The Android are very creepy!

Bandrils are one of the best monsters ever-ITS JUST A PUPPET!

[Logo Polish]

The Bandrils reminded me of Lamb Chop. I could imagine Shari Lewis presenting a programme with them.

(Apologies to anyone under 30 if the reference is obscure...)

[Paul Clement]

Timelash certainly has its redeeming features. The Borad looks quite good, and it isn't a bad story, just very very dull.
Twin Dilemma... now there's a bad story.

[Dirk Gently]

Too right.

[Paul Monk]

Timelash has Darrow, the UK's version of Shatner. Enough said!

And I could defend The Twin Dilemma!

[Paul Clement]

And I could defend The Twin Dilemma!

But would you want to?

[Rob McCow]

OK, so we've got Darrow, the Borad make-up and the fact that it's entertainingly bad.

I've just remembered that the special effect where Darrow ages to death is actually rather good, especially when compared with Kerensky's death in City of Death, which was a deathly death. I think the period attention-to-detail in HG Wells' hut is pretty good as well.

[Logo Polish]

I do like the lighting for the Borad's headquarters, that dark green effect is much better than that seen in most of the rest of the story. Both the actors doing the Borad's voice are quite good.

The idea of the Doctor projecting a delayed image of himself while he's invisible is rather nice.

[Larry]

The incidental music is insane, and i love it!

It has swearing in it!

It has the best anagram of any story title!

The Android are very creepy!

Bandrils are one of the best monsters ever-ITS JUST A PUPPET!

An anagram that incedently pretty much sums up the story and quite a few others in the Colin Baker period perfectly well.

[Andrew Curnow]

It's not that bad... I think the lame direction from Pennant Roberts is what really drags it down - with a bit of flair it could have been much better. But even so, there are some delights to be had - the sequence where Vena whizzes through the console room is impressive, the Doctor gets to be heroic in a very Doctorly way (heading into the time vortex with only a bit of rope to save him), the Borad make-up, and voice, and performance is excellent, and the android is very entertaining (I know of one, perhaps misguided, DWM reader who voted the android as best supporting character in the season 22 poll). Personally I would at the very least take it over The Mark of the Rani from the same season.

And Darrow really bigs up the fairly obvious cliffhanger, making "People enter the Timelash... with a scream!" into something quite impressive!

[Captain Tancredi]

Denis Carey walking away from the camera with the wires in the back of his head is quite a good reveal.

The H.G. Wells payoff could have been very good too, if somebody had done a bare minimum of research about the historical Wells.

[Andrew Curnow]

Oh yes, Denis Carey! He was good too, if a little underused. And there's that nice scene in the power room where the Maylin's control panel starts to fall apart, but he carries on anyway!

[Rob McCow]

Denis Carey is generally pretty ace, but perhaps he could have been more animated in Timelash. He gives a very restrained performance.

The Timelash itself is very Christmas-ey.

We've got a head of steam up here!

[Andrew Curnow]

The female rebel leader (I think she went on to star in CATS Eyes?) is, well, frankly rather attractive. Which can't be a bad thing, surely?

[Larry]

to be honest I can't remember to much about it I've only ever seen it twice and not for quite a few years so that inself probably tells you how bad the story is. It's just one of those videos that has been sat on my shelf quietly gathering dust..

[transvamp]

So what, if anything, is good about Timelash?

There's no domestics in it and no Doctor/Rose relationship drivel.

That alone saves it from the nadir of Who

[Stuart Wallis]

Erm... the Myrka isn't in it...?

[Si Hunt]

Some of these have already been mentioned, but Darrow, the Borad make-up and Denis Carey are all good. The androids are also good and their 'sing-song' voices are quite eerie.

The story itself isn't that, it just suffers from a cheap production and lousy direction, in particular the atrociously inserted padding recorded during the following story.

Si.

[Leah Betts]

I think that the fact that Denis Carey gave such a restrained, steely performance is actually a positive. The best villains are the least shouty.

[Dirk Gently]

The best villains are the least shouty.

The Pirate Captain being a very good exception.