![]() In this quaint English setting, Davison actually looks completely at home – this is one of the rare times that the Fifth Doctor doesn’t seem entirely out of his death, with a rather an uncharacteristically confident swagger and some wonderfully coy dialogue. As it is, the cast seem to wander around the village in broad daylight, and even the Doctor seems to be having a lot more fun than usual. One gets the sense that The Awakening might have made for a much darker Tom Baker story. The Malus doesn’t make threats or demands – it causes murder and anger and hatred. It just seems so much more horrifying, as if it operates on an entirely different plain of existence. I know that actors like Graham Woolf can give these cosmic horrors a wonderful depth, but there’s something absolutely fascinating about a foe that doesn’t even have the concept of verbal communication. I like the concept of the creature, and I think that the serial is wise not to have it communicate directly with the cast. Yes, the monster looks like something from a theme park, but there’s something impressive about the creature sticking its head through that church wall (or even scampering inside the TARDIS). I’m a sucker for that type of old-school animatronic practical special effect. With that in mind, I should concede that I adore the Malus. The show struggled to create convincing and immersive alien worlds on a shoestring budget, but the crew really got a chance to shine when they were allowed to work with more common surroundings. Much like the length of the story, the production seems relatively restrained – and I’d argue it’s the better for it. Apparently the serial was shot across three different villages, and they all look absolutely sublime – to say nothing of the rather wonderful visual thrill of seeing troops on horseback marching through a quaint little village with its telephone polls and red phone booths. ![]() It’s very clearly footage from the BBC in the eighties, but it’s about as good as one could expect footage from that era to look. Even today, the location footage looks pretty nice. Still, I think The Awakening has a far more interesting central premise than either The King’s Demons or Black Orchid, even if the latter perhaps benefits more from the BBC’s stylish period design. You need something really fascinating to justify that, and it’s not easy to come by (that said, there are any number of well-paced Doctor Who episodes running to and beyond six episodes). I’d argue that one of the reasons Jon Pertwee is so underrated is because even a good story suffers if it runs to six episodes. The King’s Demons revealed that we can forgive even a fairly flawed and banal little adventure if it’s told with brevity. We’ve seen much slighter premises expanded to fill four-part episodes, so it’s nice to see a story that is just the right length for its material. Confining the action to two half-hour episodes concedes that there’s not really too much that can be done with the premise, but it’s an endearing sort of modesty. In fairness to this two-parter, it does boast a rather nifty concept, with the idea of “a confusion in time” somehow linking seventeenth century England with 1984.
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