Doctor Who: Meglos (Story No. 111/BBC DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: B     Episodes: A

 

 

Following closely on the heels of their release of Story No. 106’s The Creature From The Pit, the fine folks at the BBC give Who fans another heaping helping of Tom Baker’s Doctor in Meglos.  Once the Doctor is aided and abetted by his trusted companions Romana (Lalla Ward), and K-9 Mk. II (David Brierly). 

 

In this story the conflicted denizens of the planet Tigella summon the Doctor to aid them in dealing with their world’s primary source of power (and upset), the mysterious Dodecahedron.  This pulsating MacGuffin draws not one, but two Doctors into its tangled plot web, as a villainous, super-intelligent cactus named Meglos assumes the Time Lord’s identity to get close enough to the device to steal it!  Amidst mistaken identities and religious recriminations, the Doctor and Romana must get the crisis sorted before the evil Meglos can use the Dodecahedron to blow Tigella into atoms.

 

This story features a strong supporting cast, including a return to show of Jacqueline Hill, who played the original Doctor’s companion Barbara Wright during seasons 1 - 2.  In Meglos she plays the priestess Lexa, a religious zealot whose worship of the Dodecahedron proves her undoing.  Mr. Baker seems to delight in his dual role as the Doctor and the doppelganger, Meglos, and he looks positively creepy in some sensational cacti-like makeup during several scenes where the villain’s human host causes his appearance to fluctuate wildly.

 

Extras include a nifty documentary on the old Scene Sync technique used to juxtapose actors with scale models of alien landscapes and giant space ships. Lalla Ward and many others provide fun and illuminating commentaries on the episodes, and a five minute video essay on the nature of entropy and how it relates to the story of Meglos nicely rounds out the disc.  As with Story 106, Meglos seems to come at the height of Mr. Baker’s powers on the show, and its combination of dynamic plot and solid effects, mixed with more than a dash of the patented Doctor Who zaniness, makes this offering a real winner.

 

 

-   Scott Pyle