18: Galaxy Four

Before Watching

I think that there was a feature in this in one of the very first Doctor Who Weekly Magazines I read in the late 70s, and I remember thinking – well, this doesn’t seem very good - when I read it. So I’m not expecting miracles from this one to be perfectly honest. The reviews I’ve read since in some of the definitive works on the subject really struggle to say much that is positive about it either. So what have we got to expect from the next four episodes? Nasty blonde Drahvins, nice ugly Rills, and some rather silly looking robots called Chumblies. Any more than that, well, we’ll find out over the next four episodes.

After Watching

Right, well, the version I watched was made of 3 recons and one surviving episodes. The recons weren’t quite the standard telesnaps versions I’ve become used to, as wherever possible fragments of live action, and appropriate bits from other episodes have been stuck in to break up the monotony. And I’m sorry to say it, but monotony is one commodity of which there is no shortage in Galaxy Four.

Our heroes arrive on a planet where two alien spaceships have crashlanded. One contains the Drahvins, and the other the Rills. The Rills breathe an ammonia based atmosphere, and are therefore unable to leave their ship – and so they use some rather silly looking round robots. For some inexplicable reason Vicki decides to christen the robots ‘chumblies’. The chumblies want to take the travellers to the Rills’ ship, but the Drahvins intercept them, and take them back to their ship.

Right, the Drahvins. These are warlike humanoid women with identical uniforms and identical blond syrups. Three of them are soulless, indeed brainless warrior servants, and the other, Maaga, is the leader, an arrogant one dimensional piece of work. The Drahvins need to get themselves off the planet which they believe will blow up in 14 days’ time. Well, they’re right it’s going to blow up – but in a much shorter timescale. They tell the Doctor that they were attacked by the Rills, and the crash has rendered their ship inoperable. The plan is to take over the Rills’ ship, which is supposed to be operable.

Of course, the ‘pretty’ people are the baddies, while the ugly old Rills are actually as nice as pie. They never attacked the Drahvins in the first place, and have already offered to take the Drahvins with them when they leave the planet. Of course, they need the Doctor’s help to leave – he recharges their ship from the TARDIS with about 20 minutes to spare.

There really isn’t a lot more to the story than this, and it’s pretty dire, when all is said and done. In episode 3 Maaga gets what is probably meant to be a serious monologue about how soul destroying it is to only have the company of these warrior ‘drones’ who don’t have a though in their heads, but her own behaviour before and after this means that it is actually out of place and out of character. Then there is the question about who you should believe and who you can trust, when Steven is left alone in the Rills’ ship, and they have to break through his scepticism. But it’s heavy handed at best. The visuals, while no worse than, say, The Sensorites and The Keys of Marinus do nothing to detract from the poverty of the script.

I think that this is my least favourite William Hartnell story so far. It’s just so . . . terminally bland. All of the cast try their best at different times, but nobody rescues this leaden production. It hasn’t got much going for it at all – after all what can we say positive : -

-          Its heart’s in the right place

-          It’s not a 6 parter

-          Umm – that’s about it really.

What have we learned?

Including this story and ‘The Daleks’ the score currently stands at Mingers – 1, Pretty People 1.