The Mutants - Un-Out on Un-DVD Un-Together!

[SiHart]

I wouldn't get too excited if I were you Paul!

Si xx

[Paul Monk]

My expectations of this story are incredibly low after years of listening to it getting bashed by fans.
It was the same with The Time Monster and I quite enjoyed that.

[Rob McCow]

Watch out for Rick James. He deserves every award going.
"Oh no! I just remembered. This room gets flooded with radiation!"

[Andrew Curnow]

To be fair it's a pretty rubbish line in the first place.

I think I'm already on the record as saying it, but just to repeat I really, really like The Mutants. Some of the acting is, well, bad - but the story itself, and most of the TV programme, is tremendously good. And it's just packed with ideas, which I really loved as a kid.

Plus Jo's line about the Roman Empire in part 1 is a classic!

[SiHart]

Like a football from the Time Lords arriving in the Doctor's lab, the DVD has made it through the post today, meaning I can now go Mutt mad.

Or something.

Si xx

[Jon Masters]

Ah, but you won't be able to open it - if it's not for you, even if you wanted to

[SiHart]

@ Jon!

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

Although the story might not be a favourite, the DVD set of The Mutants was outstanding. The commentary in particular was superb, the changing of the guests between episodes working very well for a change. Nick Pegg was an excellent moderator, knowing when to probe people for questions and when to shut up.

The highlight of the extra features (EF) was Jolly James Acheson, a man who can't help but (haha) chuckle as he (hee hee) relates his amusing (ho ho) anecdotes. He lives in New Zealand now, next door to Mike.

The feature on race in Doctor Who was very very serious, but still interesting. Especially to see black actors getting a better deal in the 60's than they did in the 70's.

The only thing that wasn't too good was the photo gallery, but then there are very few photos from The Mutants.

[Si Hunt]

We couldn't face starting it last night!

Si.

[Larry]

well my copy arrived today and has now joined Seeds of Doom and Meglos, on my still to watch pile..

[SiHart]

Laughing Jim A is a new icon. He had a lovely time working on Doctor Who from the sounds of it (aside from The Deadly Assassin, which he woalked out on half way through). I loved his little anecdotes about spilling evo-stick on taxi seats or fancying Katy Manning or whatnot.

The Making of... was of the same high standard as usual, nothing too outstanding though. Who'd have thought Terrance Dicks was an old imperialist though? He does love the Empire!

The race feature was serious, and made lots of good points. Much that was worth pondering on, though really it did boil down to it being a product of its time. That may be obvious, but it was good to hear about how Doctor Who fitted in among its contemporaries.

Nice, enjoyable, chatty commentary too.
Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

Walking out on The Deadly Assassin? There must be a story there, I'm intrigued.

[Si Hunt]

I've really enjoyed The Mutants. It's a very dark, very weighty story and I particuarly like the Solonians - an underrated species in Doctor Who, it's quite rare for a race to have such a complex, yet logical evolution. That this is tied into themes about race and genocide is very impressive.

The parts are played very well, with the exception of course of Rick James. It looks like for some reason because the story is dealing with the race issues of humans vs Solonians, the director felt the need to cast around among the humans as well... maybe there wern't any decent black actors available. Paul Whitson-Jones is excellent though, a total pig wanting his own planet and slaughtering the Mutts along the way. A special word for Pertwee is well - he's very powerful in this one. I simply love the scene where Jo escapes and he booms "I accuse that man there, and that man there!". It's so intense.

The effects work is excellent, and hugely ambitious. Great costumes, and tons of location work; the smokey, dark caves scenes are brilliantly done.

So where DOES it go wrong? It's hard to tell. We all KNOW that this one is a bit dreary to watch, especially non-episodically. Tragically, it's less than the sum of the parts and I think, tossing a coin, I'm going to blame Christopher Barry. It just doesn't QUITE work. He's totally misjudged the conclusion; the story is about evolution and the natural progression of a species: it's no surprise to learn that from humanoids to insect-men, the Solonians final form was intended to be bird-like. But instead Ky turns into a sort of floaty super-Rod Stewart. This takes the race away from the natural into the supernatural, and it's absurd to imagine them all zooming through walls on their rocky little planet as ghost-like super beings. At the same time, we are cheated of seeing a proper comeuppance for the Marshall, as he just fades away - and in the corner of a shot! I wanted to see him suffer!

Elsewhere there's just a general lack of urgency about everything. It's possibly a bit too long, and as good as everyone says Geoffrey Palmer is, the assassination of the Administrator by Varan's son early on really has little to do with anything, and there's some awful studio material in Varan's hut with a simply atrocious extra that could have gone. In fact, the actor playing Varan lets things down a great deal with his barbaric, unsubtle performance. Garak Hagon is much better as Ky.

But this is such an intelligent, thoughtful story with a hatful of really powerful performances. It's a shame Barry ruins it by telling it at such a slow, pedestrian place. In the documentary he notes that "I was happy to do another Doctor Who". That's big of you - it seems to me that this man largely resented Doctor Who because he always thought he should have been doing something better; so he plodded his way through some otherwise great scripts no doubt muttering under his breath about getting a "proper" job to do.

Still, some of the effects work is excellent, including the oddly maligned airlock scene. I love the shot when the wall of the spaceship breaks apart and Varan is pulled into space - look at it on paper and think what a challenge that must have been.

It's not perfect, but I'm beginning to think that "The Mutants" is a whole lot better than I previously thought.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Big score for The Mutants. Perhaps Chris Barry's choice to use CSO to realise Super-Ky was a mistake as well. It's the least convincing effect, especially after the insect form was so good.

Adding to Barry's dreariness, the prints still look pretty washed out.

[Lissa]

The Restoration Team should've used particle reversal to fix Rick James's performance.

[Si Hunt]

Jaeger acts in this story like someone who has overheard someone else casually mentioning that he's invented an invisibility cloak. Before the Doctor got there he doesn't even think Particle Reversal is possible, but as soon as it's mentioned he's all "Particle Reversal! Particle Reversal!". An episode later and he's claiming to the Marshall that "we can't do it without Particle Reversal!". It's like the Friends episode where Rachel makes up the thing about the Left Filangy and before long all the passengers are refusing to fly because there's no Left Filangy. For God's sake man, let it go!

Si.

[Jason Thompson]

I'ev just finished watching this and it strikes me as a decent story stuck witha few missteps and somewhat run of the mill execution. It's not bad in the way some other stories are. It's just... everyday.

The Mutants themselves are fantastic costumes, and we get a decent number of them as well. They look just as good in the cave sequences on film as they do in the harsh white Skybase sets. Having Stubbs and Cotton as the 'everyman' characters gives us a perspective on the story not often seen in others. The models are impressive(but see later).

But then what else have we? We have Varan always referring to himself in the third person for some bizarre reason. We have the segregation business with the transfer terminals, which is undermined somewhat by the fact that there is no sign of it anywhere else on Skybase. We have a very impressive Skybase model that is supposed to be a false perspective model implying a long cylinder linking two large spheres, but we have it shot in such a way as to utterly eliminate that visual effect. We have some very extensive and impressive location shooting for the surface os Solos, except that Varan's 'village' (which appears to consist of one hut) is jarringly shot on video in the studio. The transfer terminal on Solos apparently is in the middle of nowhere. We have a plan to make the atmosphere of Solos breathable by humans which, we are told, will eradicate the Solonians. Except that the Solonians can evidently breathe a normal Earth atmosphere quite easily (none of them have any trouble on Skybase). And we have that absurd scene where everyone casually gets up and walks away from a gaping hole in the side of the Skybase without showing any signs of trouble from, say, the fact that the room is open to the vacuum of space.

And of course we have the distinct impression that if only Ky had shut up and the Administrator had avoided boring speeches they could have got the message that the Overlords were leaving in part 1 and saved themselves a lot of trouble, since the assassin waited ages to shoot the adminsitrator.

So it has a lot of problems, but it has a decent story in there, and visually it is quite an impressive array of sets and locations. It's far from as bad as 'conventional wisdom' would have us believe.

[Andrew Curnow]

The Restoration Team should've used particle reversal to fix Rick James's performance

It would certainly have been worth bombarding him with a fleet of rockets.

[Jason Thompson]

The extras were a mixed bag on this DVD. I quite enjoyed the 'making of' feature, as it is clear that, however poorly the story has been regarded since, everyone involved had a great time making it and thought it was rather good. A Race Against Time was an interesting one, but seemed to go on a bit too long. It was, however, the first time I ever noticed that Remembrance of the Daleks features a bunch of white Imperials fighting renegades led by a black one. How it took me so long to realise the significance of this in a story with such a heavy emphasis on racism I have no idea, but I guess it took the added context of imperialism given by the stuff in The Mutants to hammer it into my head.

[Si Hunt]

I didn't think that much of "Race Against Time" to be honest. Noel Clarke wasn't a great narrator, and it's the usual thing they do of "oh this person can direct interviews, he should be able to make a drama yeah? They're both kind of the same". Here someone thinks that because someone is a great film maker, that will make them a good narrator as well. Cos, like, they're not that much different...

Also to someone of my generation, a lot of this is a little uncomfortable. I'm interested in history, but it's a bit like someone continually pointing out something you didn't really notice in the first place. In 2011, Rick James stands out more because of his limited acting ability than his skin colour.

Si.

[SiHart]

It was, however, the first time I ever noticed that Remembrance of the Daleks features a bunch of white Imperials fighting renegades led by a black one. How it took me so long to realise the significance of this in a story with such a heavy emphasis on racism I have no idea, but I guess it took the added context of imperialism given by the stuff in The Mutants to hammer it into my head.

Do you know, I'd never thought of that either!

Si xx

[SiHart]

Race Agasinst Time was OK, but the conclusion- Doctor Who was representative of the time it was made seemed fairly obvious to me. It didn't really point out anything outstanding or offer a new viewpoint. Gary Gillat did it better back in 1998 in Doctor Who From A-Z quite frankly.

Si xx

[Jason Thompson]

Also to someone of my generation, a lot of this is a little uncomfortable.

Frankly, somthing like that should. It is good that Rick James's skin colour is a non-issue for us, but it is equally good that hearing about the poor way black people have been treated in the past and so on makes uncomfortable listening. I think it would be worse if anyone could hear about things like that without feeing some discomfort.

[Jason Thompson]

It didn't really point out anything outstanding or offer a new viewpoint.

I thought it did, to be honest. I had previous thought that the lack of black actors on the beeb was a result of there just not being that many, and was quite surprised to find that this was simply not the case, and that the BBC was in fact almost institutionally racist for a long time after the general attitude of the country seemed to stop being so.

[Captain Tancredi]

I think that what happened in the 1970s and into the 1980s was that with industrial decline and the first generation of British-born black and Asian people entering the workforce, "race" became a social issue in a way that it hadn't in the fifties and sixties when Commonwealth immigrants were encouraged to come to Britain to fill a labour shortage and we had full employment. One consequence of that was that it set casting back a step, because your audience then expects that if you cast a black actor in a role, his being black will at some stage be important to that character.

It's a difficult area to negotiate, because at the same time BBC television was in what's thought of now as a golden age, but it was still producing almost exclusively programmes by and for white middle class people. Now white middle class people were probably the largest social group in Britain in the 1970s and are almost certainly still the largest group in society today, but there's a whole other argument about whether the BBC should be reflecting society as it is or evangelising for a more liberal, tolerant society than the one we have. EastEnders portrays a multi-racial community in east London, but it doesn't bear much resemblance to the small market town in the Yorkshire Dales outside my window.