Delta and the Bannermen

It’s his bees who are telling us to come! – Delta

I apologies for not making my usual update on Saturday but I neglected to check Presthaven Sands had internet before I left, so upon my return, what could be more fitting than the Doctor’s own holiday to a Welsh holiday camp?

 

I do sometimes wonder what the hell the Doctor Who production team were on when they were making some of their stories, and this one is no exception. It’s badly made, it’s badly written and badly acted. The Doctor and Mel are going on holiday to 50’s earth and decide to go by travel agent for some reason. The episode makes a good start of effortlessly capturing the awkward hell that are touring Brits in the intergalactic coach journey from hell. Mel is thrown into needless peril immediately whilst the Doctor must somewhat expectantly come to the rescue.

 

It would seem the bus came acropper of an overgrown kinder egg spray painted silver. As it is the bus is out of commission for a day, so meanwhile the congregation are stalled at the Shangrila Holiday camp where they can have a dance, have green babies and visit a beekeeper.

 

I think I’ll have to spend the majority of this review slagging off the green baby. As a plot device this bundle of joy sprang out of nowhere quite literally and continued to be a strange and ill conceived plotline from the word go. For the start the make-up is shockingly bad, with the only exception being the initial hatchling, from baby to maturity the whole effect is one of a seasick girl who’s fallen headfirst into the seaweed tray at a Chinese buffet.

 

The universal reaction to her is equally unconvincing. For example 50’s leather dude is so calm and at peace with the idea he quite happily goes along with the entire thing without so much as querying what we were all shouting at our screens: “WHAT THE FUCK?!”. The Beekeeper later in episode 3 is just as bad:

“Oh, here’s a green child, I’ll give her some sweets”.

I mean Jesus Christ, who actually checked this and went “yup, that’s just dandy”?

 

The only positive aspect in this episode Is McCoy’s evolving performance, rebuking the chief Bannerman gives glints of future performances such as Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield.

 

And this rather sparse edition is just about it. Finding talking points in this one is a bit like finding a fart in a Jacuzzi. Difficult and pointless.