2 episodes: The Old Men in the Clock, The Guardian of the Solar System. Running Time: Approx. 70 minutes. Written by: Simon Guerrier. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Jean Marsh, Niall MacGregor.
THE PLOT:
Decades have past since Robert agreed to stay in the house possessed by the consciousness of Sara Kingdom. Robert's daughter has grown and moved away, leaving him alone - and he has lost interest in going on with this life. Sara agrees to grant his final wish, but only after telling one last story of her travels in the TARDIS.
She relates a tale Robert has never heard before, though one that she has alluded to. The TARDIS materialized inside a mammoth clock, one that is tended by old men who seem completely unaware of the time travelers' presence. It becomes clear that they aren't merely tending to the machine - they are slaves to it.
"They are prisoners." So the trio are informed as they are taken into custody by a woman wearing the same Space Security uniform as Sara. They have arrived on Earth, one year before Guardian of the Solar System Mavic Chen makes his deal with the Daleks, and they have unwittingly stepped into the darkest secret held by Earth's government.
Sara's brother, Bret Vyon, is there, and he arranges a private audience between his sister and the Guardian. To her surprise, Mavic Chen is happy to have her input, agreeing with her that the exploitation of the old men is wrong and even offering her a position at his side. Sara begins to wonder if she might change the past to stop Chen's alliance before it ever happens - which would also prevent her own greatest regret, the execution of her brother!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: He is fascinated by the workings of the clock. He slips into lecture mode, going into detail about how time is kept by the capture/escape of the mechanism - establishing some of the story's themes and allowing writer Simon Guerrier to show off his research at the same time. He shows faith in Sara's judgment by not going after her as soon as he and Steven free themselves from their cell, instead turning his attention to the clock and the old men who are being kept prisoner.
Sara Kingdom: Throughout this trilogy, she has been haunted by guilt over Bret's death. She's trapped in that moment, as much its prisoner as the old men are prisoners of the clock. Now, seeing him alive, she clings to the hope that she can change the past. Her meeting with Chen, in which he seems to take her concerns about the treatment of the prisoners seriously, encourages that belief - which only increases her despair when, inevitably, altering her own past proves impossible.
Steven: He and the Doctor are in sync, while Sara thinks of herself as an outsider and believes the Doctor still has doubts about her. She seems to envy Steven's certainty in situations, contrasting that with her own self-doubt. Steven remains focused on the well-being of his companions. When he and the Doctor get free, his first thought is to go to Sara's rescue.
Mavic Chen: It may qualify as fan heresy, but I actually think this story provides better characterization for Chen than The Daleks' Master Plan did. Though actor Kevin Stoney's charisma made up for a lot, television Chen was quickly reduced to a paper tiger, failing repeatedly and often as a result of his own arrogance. By contrast, this Chen is a master politician, expert at picking out what people want before they're aware of it themselves (a neat echo with the house of the frame story). Chen plays Sara perfectly by telling her what she wants to hear and by making her feel valued and useful to him.
Bret Vyon: He is assigned to the clock, a classified operation that he could not reveal even to Sara. She observes in narration that they often did work that they could not discuss with each other. His fondness for her is clear in their interactions. After he takes her to see Chen, he is both amused and proud, assuming that she took the initiative to secure a meeting in order to advance her own career.
Robert: A theme of this story is people being trapped by their choices: Sara by her choice to shoot Bret, Robert by trading his own freedom for the sake of his daughter. Robert talks about having had no choice. When Sara points out that he didn't even try to leave with his daughter, if only to see if he could, he simply responds that he gave his word. He shows compassion when Sara breaks down at one point, telling her that what she did to her brother wasn't her fault, though she cannot make herself believe that.
THOUGHTS:
"There's never been any choice. I thought I had a chance to change things for the better... I can't change anything. There's nothing else to wish for."
-Sara Kingdom reveals the full extent of her own despair.
The Guardian of the Solar System brings Sara full circle. Her final story to Robert details a return to her own time, at a point just before everything went wrong. She sees her brother, she meets with a Mavic Chen who has yet to sell Earth out to the Daleks, and she deludes herself into hoping to change her own past - which proves ultimately impossible.
As good as this trilogy has been, I think this is its finest entry. The story is wonderfully written, with outstanding descriptive writing, such as when Sara describes the workings of the clock as a city made of blocks with individual mechanisms that are larger than rockets she's flown. The threads, both past and present, weave together much the way they did in Home Truths, and both threads are equally strong.
Early on, we're told how the clock operates: Each swing of the pendulum turns the cog a fraction, with the cog's teeth caught and then escaping from the mechanism only for the next tooth to be caught and escape. "The swing of the pendulum turned the cog, the turn of the cog swung the pendulum." And so the setting itself represents one of the main themes: the sense of being trapped.
Throughout the trilogy, Sara has observed how she had "no choice" in actions she has taken. This story pushes what has been a background motif into a foreground theme. Every character is trapped in one way or another, and their very attempts to escape just deepen their personal traps. The Doctor and Steven are captured and taken to a cell, which they of course escape. Standard Doctor Who padding... except that after he escapes, the Doctor returns to the clockwork, determined to free the old men - and in so doing, gets himself and Steven caught in the old men's prison.
Sara and Bret are prisoners of the inevitability of time, with Sara coming to realize that whatever she does, Bret is still destined to die at her hands. Meanwhile, the present-day strand has Robert insisting that he had no choice but to offer himself to save his daughter. Every so often, one will remind the other that they've had choices, albeit not always good ones, but each quickly slides back into the refrain of insisting that they had no choice at all.
The sound design for this release is particularly good. Within the great clock, we hear a constant, loud ticking that matches the oppressive nature of the mechanism itself. When the story moves back to the frame, there's still a ticking noise, the much quieter sound of the house's own clock - but the clocks of both past and present tick in the same rhythm, enhancing the sense of being trapped within mechanisms both cultural and mechanical. There is relief from the clock noise when Sara meets Mavic Chen, and the freedom from the sound of the clock may itself lower Sara's defenses when he justifies himself to her... but once that meeting is over, the ticking resumes.
OVERALL:
This is a splendid release, my favorite entry in a trilogy that's been largely excellent. A well-scripted tale is strengthened even further by the performance of Jean Marsh, who is at her best here. When she breaks down and decries that she's never had a choice in anything, the character's pain and anger is tangible.
It's not quite the end of my run through this mini-series, however, as this version of Sara would have one more appearance in a very different type of story...
Overall Rating: 10/10.
Set between: Episodes 7 and 8 of The Daleks' Master Plan
Previous Story: The Drowned World
Next Story: The Five Companions (not yet reviewed)
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