Samuel K. (Solvanda)
Reviewed on 10/17/2018...
Broadcast in four weekly parts on the BBC in 1980. Welcome to your villain of the day: an alien scheming megalomaniac cactus! Exceedingly original high concept ideas in this tale, and immensely enjoyable to view. The sound track demonstrates clever usage of vocoders, which gives the production an even more surreal quality.
This story features the only use in Doctor Who of a camera-linking system known as Scene-Sync that allowed the use of non-static shots of characters superimposed onto a miniature set. As the cameras on the actors were moved, the cameras on the miniature set moved the equivalent scaled amount automatically. The exact scale motion was achieved by trial and error, involving minute adjustments to the voltage delivered to the slave camera's motors.
During production of this story, Madame Tussauds in London debuted the "Doctor Who Exhibition". Included were sculptures of both the Fourth Doctor and his prickly Meglos doppelganger. As a result, Tom Baker is the only person to have appeared twice in the wax museum. Another tidbit here: The mercenary leader, Brotadac is an anagram of "Bad Actor" (In-joke by the production team. And well, he was.)
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