The Space Pirates

"That rare thing, a mediocre Troughton." declared a Planet Skaro poster recently, referring in fact to "The Dominators", a story which, I don't think its fair to say, is one of the least acclaimed of them all these days. It struck me as an odd thing to say at the time. A rare thing? There are loads of mediocre Troughton's, surely. I mean, I know each fan has his own unique view of every story, but when you've watched them being assessed and reviewed for this long, read umpteen story polls, hundreds of book and magazine reviews, a sort of universal truth tends to emerge. Inevitably someone, somewhere out there is going to quite like "The Dominators" and, yes, even "The Space Pirates", but by now we are all in no doubt at all as to their merits. We've heard the soundtrack, read the books and sat through the excruciatingly dull existing episodes. They are both mediocre stories.

What the poster seems to have forgotten is that, in all fairness, the story he cited is hardly alone as a mediocre Troughton. Again, I'm treading carefully here because it's not his views I really wish to analyse, but an appraisal that sees "The Space Pirates", "The Underwater Menace", "The Highlanders", "The Moonbase", "The Faceless Ones", "The Enemy of the World" and "The Krotons" as much more than mediocre must be considered an exception to the general rule; they are all pretty dull stories and we know it. If they weren't, at least one of them would have troubled the upper reaches of some opinion poll, somewhere, in the last twenty years. Troughton has inevitably suffered in part from the gradual process of reappraisal that has continued in the wake of telesnap, soundtrack and clip recoveries (as well as all his existing stories becoming more generally available in various mediums) but then, aren't his best stories, "Power of the Daleks", "Fury from the Deep", "The Invasion" and all, happily just as highly regarded today, even though we've experienced them in as full a form as possible?

The inevitable truth is that Troughton's era has just as many classics and clunkers as any other. For every experimental "Macra Terror" there is an assured "War Games", just as in Jon's era every plodding "Mutants" has a taught and thrilling "Terror of the Autons". No disrespect to Troughton, his era simply follows an evolving plan like all his fellows do. The overcrowded TARDIS and experiments in whimsy give way to an era of genuine, calculated classics, which then culminates in the overlong, desperate days of Season 6. Just as Tom's era has its much-lauded Gothic horror spell and partially successful attempts at comedy, every Doctor's lifetime was subject to a learning process. It would be unfair to assume that every Troughton (or, any Doctor) had an era where mediocre stories were rare.

Some will disagree, most notably with later Doctors. But you can't seem to argue with those that claim, and they do exist you know, that anything in the eighties is of inferior quality than anything which came before. Try pointing out that by no stretch of the imagination are "Castrovalva", "The Mark of the Rani" or "The Curse of Fenric" lesser stories than excruciating sixties fodder like "Inside the Spaceship" or "The Web Planet" and you encounter a closed door. The eighties tales are, in anyone's book, better directed, designed and scripted. And yet some are unable to unshackle the hurt and loss of pride encountered during Doctor Who's most turbulent decade with the breath of unbootable nostalgia that those monochrome classics were held in for so long.

"The Space Pirates" is a rotten old story, long, dull and uninteresting. So are "The Dominators" and "The Krotons". But they stand contrasted with Troughton's greatest tales, the terror of "Power", the filmic wonderment of "The Invasion" and the chilling suspense of "Fury". Every Doctor has his strong and weak moments, even Sylvester McCoy. I would in fact argue that in his short tenure the Seventh Doctor actually turned out as many bona fide classics as Troughton did in his long three years, but it would somehow seem an unacceptable thing to suggest. As if! Just go and watch "The Space Pirates" for proof of infallibility. It's that not-actually-that-rare thing. A mediocre Troughton.