The Ambassadors of Death: my review
jph...@aol.com
watching, I couldn't make myself stop...
The Ambassadors of Death
7 episodes.
THE PLOT
It has been 7 months since contact was lost with the UK's Mars Probe
7. The ship did successfully leave Mars and commence its journey back
to Earth - but with no radio communication of any kind during the
journey. Now a recovery capsule has been sent up to verify that the
astronauts are still alive and to get them home. But the capsule
itself loses contact after a bizarre, electronic transmission. When
the capsule returns to Earth, an attempt is made to hijack it.
Finally, when it is cut open at the Doctor's urging, the most shocking
discovery of all: The capsule is empty!
General Carrington (John Abineri) eventually reveals that the
astronauts, suffering from massive radiation poisoning, were taken by
his men as a matter of security and to avoid panic. But the Doctor
doesn't believe this story. When the astronauts disappear from
Carrington's facility, the Doctor insists that the three beings in
their spacesuits were not human at all. They were alien ambassadors,
and the human astronauts are still in orbit!
With Carrington doing all he can to stop the Doctor from inquiring
further, and with his assistant, Liz Shaw, kidnapped, the Doctor
becomes more determined than ever to get to the truth. But when the
three alien "astronauts" begin breaking into secure facilities,
killing people with massive doses of radiation simply by touching
them, the Doctor realizes that he has a major crisis on his hands. Is
this an alien invasion? Or - as he suspects - does someone simply want
them to suspect invasion?
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Still annoyed with the Brigadier over the Silurian
incident, but quite willing to work with him once his interest in the
recovery mission is piqued. For the first time, the Time Lords'
meddling with the Doctor's memories actually effects his ability to
aid UNIT. As he explains to Liz in Episode One, he knows he has heard
the Ambassadors' transmission before... but because his memories have
been scrambled, he is unable to put the pieces together in time to
prevent the Ambassadors' kidnapping. The 3rd Doctor remains
unflappable. Even when taken hostage alongside Liz, he is able to
accept the situation and do what he can with it - giving in to
Reegan's demands to construct a machine to communicate with the
Ambassadors, and at the same time turning the situation to his own
advantage.
Pertwee also gets one of his best scenes to date at the end of the
serial, when dealing with the defeated Carrington. He doesn't make a
speech at the man, he doesn't dismiss him as an idiot, and he
certainly doesn't gloat. He responds to Carrington's pleas that all
the general did was his "moral duty" but replying that he understands.
He doesn't actually forgive or exonerate. But he deals with the
defeated, insane general with a measure of compassion, allowing the
man a sliver of dignity as he is led away. It's a fine moment, and one
that really seems like it could only belong to this Doctor (pity poor
Carrington if he had made the same appeal to the 6th Doctor).
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: A bit less prominent here than in the
previous two serials, but he still gets plenty of strong material. In
the second half of the serial, he becomes the voice of reason when
Carrington begins insisting that the alien spaceship must be made the
target of an all-out attack. Effectively, the Brigadier is placed in
the Doctor's position in Silurians, knowing that an attack is
unnecessary at the current time, and seeing that Carrington is going
ridiculously over the line.
Liz Shaw: Considering that she spends just over half of the serial
being a prisoner, she has a surprisingly strong role. Liz proves calm
and capable, often seeming more in control than her captors. The
iconic Liz moment comes in this serial. Threatened by Reegan, she is
all but pushed back into a large guard, who threatens her. Her reply?
A cool, "It's all right. I won't hurt you." No wonder Reegan is
impressed enough by her to offer her a job with his crew. I know I
will dearly miss Liz once Season Seven has reached its end.
The Villains: Season Seven continues to show itself as a season that
excels in strong characterization. There are two excellent villains in
this serial, both of whom work as three-dimensional characters.
Carrington (John Abineri), the ex-astronaut unhinged by his
experiences on Mars Probe Six, insists that all he is doing is for the
best. "It is my moral duty," he insists, almost desperately as his
body count rises. Seeing the Ambassadors kill his friend, albeit
accidentally, has made him convinced that they are a malevolent race
planning to attack, and that he must adopt the role of savior and warn
Earth of the threat.
Reegan, the self-serving criminal, is the subsidiary villain, but so
well-played by William Dysart that he seems more than capable of
carrying a serial all on his own. He sees the Ambassadors' strengths -
their impervience to bullets, their ability to kill with a touch - and
realizes that they are the ultimate thieves. He frequently acts to his
own agenda, disregarding or adapting "inconvenient" instructions. When
he realizes he is captured, he is also the one who suggests that the
Doctor and the Brigadier use the Ambassadors to stop Carrington -
ending his role with a plea that they remember his usefulness. Eric
Saward's Lytton gets praised, and not without reason (more on him
later)... but long before there was Lytton, there was Reegan. And
Reegan is frankly a better character.
THOUGHTS
The Ambassadors of Death is a story that has only fairly recently
gained in reputation, after years of being regarded as Season Seven's
"clunker." I can only assume that this is down to some fan theory of
every season requiring a clunker, because there is no part of this
smart, well-paced sci-fi thriller that could possibly merit the word.
It perhaps suffers by comparison to the stories on either side of it.
But in many seasons, this would be likely to be the season standout.
This is probably the most outright action-oriented of Season Seven's
stories. Episode One provides a shootout in a warehouse. Episode Two
provides a large-scale hijacking sequence, now semi-notorious as a
sequence milked by Michael Ferguson for far more resources than
producer Barry Letts should have actually allowed. I'm glad Letts had
to learn that lesson the hard way, though. Not only did the experience
make a better producer out of Letts, but it also provides more scale
to this particular story. A helicopter, smoke bombs, a sort-of car
chase... It's surprisingly cinematic, and really helps to set up both
UNIT and Carrington's forces as being capable and professional. It
also helps ratchet up the excitement.
As with Silurians, the story gets off to an excellent start and has an
excellent finish, but runs into some trouble in the middle episodes.
The entire two-episode subplot with the Doctor going into space and
then back again (all in the course of a couple of hours, apparently!)
shakes my suspension of disbelief. When Troughton's Doctor takes a
rocket to the moon in The Seeds of Death, fair enough - the entire
story's a fantasy, so the ridiculous doesn't feel out of place. But
all of Season Seven strives for, and largely succeeds in delivering,
and adult, authentic, recognizably real world "feel." The first four
episodes of this serial succeed in maintaining this realistic
atmosphere. Then the Doctor pops off to outer space and back like he's
just taken a day trip to Kent! The episodes in question aren't at all
bad. But given the realism with which the situation has been presented
up to this point, I find it shakes my suspension of disbelief a lot
more than in serials that are clearly pure fantasy, and these middle
episodes therefore cost the serial one point.
The VHS release does a fairly good job of restoring just over half of
the story to color. Episode One was retained by the BBC in its
original, full color form. Episode Five was fully restored to color
using a poor-quality NTSC color recording, along with a surprisingly
large amount of Episodes Two, Six, and Seven, leaving only Parts Three
and Four as predominantly black & white. Having previously only seen
this serial in black & white, I was pleased to watch it mostly in
color, and I thought the compromise (fading to black & white where
necessary, and presenting Episode Four solely in black & white) worked
well. It's my hope that more color can be restored to the eventual DVD
release. But even if this is the best the story ever sees, it looks a
lot better here than it did on my previous, off-air black & white,
viewing.
Rating: 8/10. A very good story, that has justifiably gained back the
reputation denied it over the years... Just not quite as good as the
ones surrounding it.