Who Review: The Dominators

The TARDIS takes the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe to the planet Dulkis, a place that long ago outlawed weapons, and whose inhabitants are known, at least to the Doctor, for their pacifism. It’s a return trip for the Doctor who assures his friends, as they carry a beach ball and deck chair from the TARDIS, that they can relax and enjoy themselves.

But the Doctor doesn’t realize they have landed on an island known as “The Island of Death.” And there are other visitors to the island: the Dominators, with their vicious robot Quarks. These Dominators travel the galaxy enslaving and taking what they need with ruthless abandon. The Dulkians are powerless to stop them ravaging their planet. Their only hope is the Doctor and his friends. But how can he help a weaponless planet of pacifists resist the cruel Dominators..?

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

“The Dominators” launched Doctor Who’s sixth season–Patrick Troughton’s last as the Doctor. It was originally written as a six part story by Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman, who were responsible for the two Yeti stories in season five (“The Abominable Snowmen” and “The Web of Fear”). However, delays in completing the scripts meant that script editor Derrick Sherwin ended up writing and re-writing a lot of it, so Lincoln and Haisman took their names off the story, using the pseudonym “Norman Ashby” instead. Sherwin also cut the serial down to five episodes.

As it turned out, it’s not a bad story. The idea of a race of pacifists confronted by alien visitors who embody the very antithesis of pacifism is an interesting one (and quite fitting for 1968), though it is, perhaps, pushed a bit too far. Most of the Dulkians are far from inquisitive, willing to take everything at face value, and regard anyone who shows the slightest curiosity with suspicion. Without the Doctor’s intervention, they would have been wiped out, but did they learn anything from their experience with the Dominators? It doesn’t seem as if they did.

The two Dominators give unspectacular performances, saved perhaps by the friction between them. Rago, the commander, is trying to focus on the job at hand, but Toba, his subordinate, wants to blow things up and kill the native life forms. In one scene, Rago leaves Toba, warning him that there had better be the same number of natives alive when he returns. Not that Rago has any sympathy or compassion; he just doesn’t want Toba annihilating their slave labor.

The big issue with the serial, however, is the visuals. The male Dulkians look like they have curtains tied around their chests which appear extremely impractical. As for the Dominators, their huge shoulder pads mean they’re forced to look forward. Maybe that was the idea, but it looks silly. The menacing Quarks are nothing of the sort. It seems Lincoln and Haisman hoped they would replace the Daleks as the most frightening Who monster. Bless the pointy-headed little robots, but Jar Jar Binks would have been a scarier foe for the Doctor. The sets are okay, but there are times when the rocks so clearly aren’t, and everything looks very almost-but-not-quite.

Overall, it’s not a stand-out serial, but it is the Second Doctor, and he and Jamie really make it worthwhile. Indeed, if you’re a Jamie fan, this is one to watch since he manages to destroy two Quarks, disable one, and he comes up with the plan to stop the Dominators. (It’s a simple plan–“so simple, only you could have thought of it,” says the Doctor.) The scene where the Doctor and Jamie play stupid for the Dominators is also quite entertaining. Zoe’s no wallflower either on this, her first outing in the TARDIS. As well as using her considerable intelligence, she carries rocks and digs tunnels along with the guys, so she’s not just there to be a pretty face and to scream. Oh, and this serial marks the second appearance of the sonic screwdriver, demonstrating its flexibility–it doesn’t just unscrew things! 🙂

The DVD has some interesting extras. There’s a commentary option featuring Fraser Hines (Jamie), Wendy Padbury (Zoe), and some of the other cast and crew, as well as a 22-minute “Making of” feature which is quite interesting. There’s also an installment of the “Tomorrow’s Times” series, which looks at the various newspaper reviews and reactions to each of the Doctors and their stories. Naturally, the episode on this DVD concerns the Second Doctor. And, of course, the five episodes have been lovingly restored so they look as good as (and possibly better than) they did when they first broadcast.