6.1: The Dominators
- Doctor: Patrick Troughton
- Companions: Jamie, Zoe
- Creators: Norman Ashby (Pseudonym of Writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln), Morris Barry (Director), Peter Bryant (Producer)
- Season 6
What's the rating?
Worth Watching, with caveats.
What's interesting about it?
An oddly constructed first episode -- before The Doctor and company even arrive there are several deaths of characters you would assume were going to be present throughout the story. After a somewhat action-packed start, events slow to a crawl. The latest monsters are teased at but kept out of sight for a last shot stinger reveal (or because they were too embarrassed to show them before they absolutely had to).
The monsters are another blatant attempt to replicate Daleks -- the writers were actually hoping they would get to cash in on their design, leading to a big fight with the BBC over the licensing rights (which turned out not to be too important...) -- unfortunately these monsters seem to have been designed, performed, and voiced by five year olds.
The inspiration for the story, according to one of the writers, is the peace movement of the 60s. The writers wondered what would happen if a war-like people encountered a completely peaceful race who refused to fight back. This is a pretty explicit criticism of hippie peaceniks, which turns off some fans in itself.
There's a theme of everyone on their own quest for truth in this story, constantly investigating, debating or researching, each in their own way. This is combined with the question of when to bow to authority and when to defy it. And then for good measure responding to violence with pacifism or action is thrown into the mix. With all the sitting around debating what to do, this is more of a Star Trek story than the typical Doctor Who fare...
Wonky monsters aside, ultimately I find this Worth Watching because of the eclectic mix of themes and characters, and in particular the odd relationship between the two Dominators, who constantly bicker in an amusing manner. Way too many science fiction shows present every single member of a species as complete mental clones of each other who agree on everything; it's much more interesting when people are acknowledged to have differences and to argue among themselves and to not always like each other.
The story has more threads and fleshed out characters than most, and you should find something interesting in the resulting morass (no refunds if you don't, though...)
I do like the fashion sense of the Dominators...
But not so much that of the natives of the planet...
Though the BDSM-style women's wear is certainly intriguing...
What are others saying?
It's The Sensorites all over again, where fans typically consider it boring beyond belief while I'm captured by the themes of the story. The "making of" video is worth watching, providing the somewhat odd spectacle of the cast, production crew, and writers all trashing the story. Perhaps it's best summed up by one of the writers, who says:
"The annoying thing is that so many of the others are missing, and this one they've got the whole damn lot."
However, as with The Sensorites, I notice a trend where people who go back and actually watch the show again -- instead of relying on ancient memories -- find more to like than they ever thought they would.
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