The Dominators

"The Dominators" is a story about which I know very little. It's one of the few adventures that I had to actually conclude I didn't like on first viewing - the only others, and this is out of every existing story, were "Colony in Space", "The Web Planet" and "Underworld". And I use the somewhat dubious accolade sparingly. There were others that weren't to my taste - the shoddy "Twin Dilemma" or the dreary "Ambassadors of Death" for example. But the aforementioned stories were the only ones I actually didn't want to finish first time out.

Two of the other three have since been posthumously welcomed into the cycle of stories to regularly watch - regularly meaning once to twice a year, given the happy size of Doctor Who's canon of adventures. "The Web Planet" is better in small doses, in fact I must have been one yorrow seed short of a magum pod to attempt it in one sitting in the first place, and the dialogue is pleasingly poetic. "Colony" is still the Doctor Who equivalent of a rainy day in Southend - depressing, lifeless and inexplicably washed up. But no story with both the Master and Gail from Coronation Street is irreconcilable with redemption, and I have since been coaxed into giving it the odd re-watching under the bargaining-chip lure of Tony Caunter and Jo's stripy top.

"Underworld" on the other hand, is an odd fish. Doctor Who's equivalent of Jamie Oliver, it has so many potentially appealing facets and yet still manages to be repellant. I've yet to meet someone who can get beyond the beginning of Part 2 for a second time, whence those CSO caves kick in and the boring guy with the seventies perm becomes the main character. I can't remember what happens after that, but even the great Leela isn't sufficient reason enough for me to venture into finding out.

And then there's "The Dominators". Poor old wretch. The thing is, since I realised it had been so many years since I joined the Doctor on his thrilling trip to Dulkis (even the planet is named in Terry Nation-esque fashion after the fact that it's dull!) it became a bit of a "thing" to have not seen it since. It's almost as if the story deserves to be mentioned every time we discuss the tales that haven't graced the video recorder for the most decades, and I'd feel as if I was letting its anti-legend down if I "did" the Dominators thing again after all these years.

"It's been twelve years Si!" I'm told proudly by a friend, of his own last viewing, and I laugh knowing I daren't watch it again before he does. God help us when we get it on DVD, as surely one day we will.

I'm at least not alone in my apathy towards this particular story. Viewing it was once described as being like "watching socially aware paint dry" after all, which is all the more odd when you consider that the Quarks were once hailed, admittedly largely in the days before anyone could prove otherwise, as classic villains and stars of the comic book page alongside the Voord. In fact "The Dominators" is one of those stories, like "The Web Planet" in fact, which would be up there with "The Web of Fear" and "Fury from the Deep" if it were missing. Or perhaps the soundtrack would have ushered in reality by now, but only perhaps. If only it had been junked, it could have been one of my favourites.

It's all very silly of course. I'm sure one day I will re-watch "The Dominators" and enjoy it in a sort of weird "Colony in Space" type fashion. It probably won't bore me like the first time, and I might even be pleasantly surprised. In any case, it's actually quite nice to have just one story you never watch. That way there'll always be something new to discover, even if it is merely the partial salvation of a dismissed epic.