Doctor Who #52, 62 & 131: Beneath the Surface

Title: Doctor Who: Beneath the Surface (”Doctor Who and the Silurians” / “The Sea Devils” / “Warriors of the Deep“)
Year: 1970 / 1972 / 1984
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Directors: Timothy Combe / Michael E. Briant / Pennant Roberts
Writers: Malcolm Hulke / Malcolm Hulke / Johnny Byrne
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney / Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning / Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson
Music: Ron Grainer (theme); Carey Blyton / Malcolm Clarke / Jonathan Gibbs
Episodes: 17, at 25 minutes; 1 story of 7 episodes (the 2nd of 4 stories from season 7), 1 story of 6 episodes (the 3rd of 5 stories from season 9), and 1 story of 4 episodes (the 1st of 6 stories from season 21)
Synopsis: creatures who inhabited Earth before humans want their planet back
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), June 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10
Objective Rating: 4/10 (gets points for concept, pacing, acting and subjective rating)

The 80’s story strongly pulls down the average of the three. “The Silurians” isn’t a great episode, but it’s good. Surprisingly fast-paced for seven episodes. The music is particularly horrible; the DVD includes an entire documentary about how horrible the music is. “The Sea Devils” is nothing special, but it’s got some good solid Doctoring. It’s basically the same story as “The Silurians,” with a subplot around The Master (who has some great cornball lines) added. “Warriors of the Deep” is completely terrible. Possibly the worst special effects of the entire series. And awful writing; I am shocked at the quality of writing the BBC was willing to film and broadcast in the 80’s.

The French Chef: Volume One

Title: The French Chef: Volume One
Year: 1963-1973
Network: PBS
Starring: Julia Child
Episodes: 18 (selected from throughout the show’s run), at 28 minutes
Synopsis: Child teaches us how to cook for 1960’s/70’s dinner parties
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past few weeks
Subjective Rating: 6/10
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story (n/a), cinematography, special effects/design and acting (n/a))

My wife got a kick out of these, but I don’t really see the fun in cooking shows. And apparently traditional French cooking makes me nauseous (“If you don’t leave the [fish] heads on, you won’t be able to tell what it is!”). Child is charismatic, though (much to my surprise). And the show’s never boring.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Title: Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Year: 1969-1970, 1972-1974
Creators: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writers: Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones, Palin
Starring: Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones, Palin
Synopsis: absurd sketch comedy
Episodes: 45; three series of 13, one of 6
Network: BBC
How I saw it: most recently, on PBS, 2006 (with missed episodes rented from Netflix); also various episodes on video or online a number of times
Subjective Rating: 9/10
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story, cinematography, special effects/design and music)

The third series probably only gets a 7 or 6 out of 10, and a 5 or 4 for the terrible fourth series. But the first two series are good enough to pull the average up higher than should be mathematically possible.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Title: Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes
Year: 1972
Director: Werner Herzog
Writer: Werner Herzog
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Helena Rojo
Music: Popol Vuh
Distinctions: formerly on IMDb’s Top 250
Synopsis: a mad conquistador takes over a failed expedition and sets out to conquer South America single handed by floating down the Amazon
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), March 2008
Subjective Rating: 2/10
Objective Rating: 4/10 (gets points for the concept, characters, special effects/design and acting)

Extremely boring. And very German. You would think, given the concept, that this would be a lot of fun, but no. Despite all of that potential, there’s somehow not enough material for a feature film, and not much particularly memorable/interesting happens. Just the swarm of monkeys.* I’m generous giving it a point for characters. The title character is good, but there is remarkably little development of supporting characters considering how much time they had to do so. The “effects/design” are amazing; I assume they must have filmed on the real location. None-the-less, the look of the film is completely unimpressive. There was a lot to work with visually, but they didn’t take advantage of it. The acting was the only real saving grace. One look at Kinski and you pretty much know his whole character.

*In the end, everyone decides that the world is a fever-induced hallucination and nothing matters, whilst, and at the same time, they are over-run by a swarm of monkeys. That’s not really a spoiler. The hope that there will some day be a swarm of monkeys, far from spoiling anything, will be all you have to hold on to while enduring this movie.