Doctor Who - The Leisure Hive (Episode 110)
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Movie Reviews of Doctor Who - The Leisure Hive (Episode 110)
Movie Review: "The birth of the new Argolis must be recorded by history."
Summary: 5 Stars
With this storyline, "Doctor Who" embarks upon its tumultuous trek through the 80's with a bang. Starting of course with a new opening sequence complete with a revved-up version of the theme music. I still remember how this surprised me when I was watching the show on PBS in the late 1980's; it seemed excitingly up-to-date, and, well, like most things that are self-consciously up-to-date, it's rather dated now. Pleasantly so, like a hit song by Duran Duran that you haven't heard in ages, but in any case it's rather emblematic of a fairly noticeable shift in the show's long history.
In fact, it's extremely difficult to evaluate "The Leisure Hive" on its own terms instead of as the starting point of John Nathan-Turner's extended tenure as producer. For one, because his fingerprints are all over it. He seems madly intent on redesigning and reinvisioning everything from the Doctor's scarf (toned down to burgundy) to his pet (K9 is written out in what seems like a rather malicious joke). Sometimes he seems almost prophetic; his emphasis on prominent instrumental music with a greater variety of texture and his insistence that the special effects be as top-notch as possible is very much something taken for granted in television today and can readily be seen to great effect in the new "Doctor Who" series now running. But then again, sometimes he seems to be working at cross purposes, toning down the wonderful "undergraduate humor" that Tom Baker brought to the role and which tends to appeal to adults while attempting to make the show more sophisticated by incorporating undergraduate astrophysics (tachyons in "Leisure Hive"). Anyway, at least Romana's still around, so we are given some modicum of continuity.
Now, as for "Leisure Hive" itself, it's lots of hits with a few misses. Again, as with the new opening, the first thing that catches your eye is that it's eye-catching. This is a visually rich storyline with intriguing sets full of exotic colors, and the make-up for the Argolins who run the Hive is aesthetically pleasing and convincingly alien. A clear "Cold War" ambiance informs the tale's historical background: a very brief but extremely devastating war leaving a planet (Argolis in this case) infertile and its people sterile. Similarly to "The Armageddon Factor," it's really fascinating to see how the anxieties of the nuclear arms race translated into a science fiction idiom so that the dire absurdities and fearsome consequences of the situation could be explored without hitting too close to home. The story itself intriguingly deals with serious issues of xenophobia and fascism as well as cultural heritage and corporate exploitation--unfortunately, where these two story elements converge the plot tends to blur somewhat incoherently, as if one more round of editing was needed to tighten up the script just so. However, the directing is creative and expertly evokes depth and tension while the acting is quite excellent, especially Tom Baker's perfect rendition of the Doctor prematurely aged 500 years older.
It must be said too that the extras on this DVD are unusually interesting, especially since they're on the very same disc as the episodes (so as not inflating the wallet damage). In lots of DVD extras out there today, the cast and crew all describe each other as geniuses and go on about how they were all like one big happy family. Which is both unbelievable and boring. Not here, though. the interviewees are delightfully frank, straightforward, opinionated, and critical (in the true sense of the word), and listening to them discuss the significant shift in "Doctor Who" marked by "The Leisure Hive" and their involvement in it is a real eye-opening experience. Their candor is appreciated. So kick back and enjoy this reasonably fine "Doctor Who" moment at your leisure.
Movie Review: An Anti-War Monument
Summary: 4 Stars
The Leisure Hive: A resort where the different races of the universe can gather and learn about each other, to co-exist, to learn what it's like to be the foreigner, to abhor war... Then came the Islamic ones and did what they do best, blow up the Hive!Movie Review: The turning point
Summary: 5 Stars
Dr. Who was always rather bizarre when I started watching in college. This was the episode when a true master took hold. From here on, it was a definite enjoyment, not just a moment of watching twisted reality.Movie Review: A mixed bag
Summary: 2 Stars
The Leisure Hive by David Fisher is a mixed bag. The story came toward the end of the Tom Baker years, after Tom had begun to rely increasingly on his personal style of comedy (which I personally think is brilliantly funny). Tom ad-libbed many of his lines by this point, and some Doctor Who directors found him somewhat difficult to work with. Some, such as John Nathan-Turner, had begun to feel that Doctor Who, once a sci-fi show full of ideas, had slowly become "The Tom Baker Show," a half-hour pop culture phenomenon in which Baker pranced around and cracked jokes. When John Nathan-Turner took over as producer (I believe The Leisure Hive was his first story as producer), having felt that Doctor Who had become too jokey and silly for its own good, he immediately had some changes to make. First, K9 was killed off instantly. Many people, including Tom Baker, did not like K9, and some felt that the robot dog only made the show more childlike. Nathan-Turner wanted to get the show back to its roots a bit, placing greater emphasis again on the sci-fi element of the show. Further, he wanted the sci-fi in the show to extend beyond mere gobbledygook, hopefully incorporating ideas from real science. Hence all the tachyon talk in The Leisure Hive. Tachyons are actual hypothetical constructs from physics, and Fisher's story used the concept to good effect.
However, as I said at the beginning, The Leisure Hive is a mixed bag. Though the story is very good; unfortunately its execution is somewhat shoddy. As stated above, many had complained that Tom's humor was getting in the way of the show; I however think that his humor was part of his character, and never found that it got in the way of anything. His wit and ad-libbed banter, and his remarkable ability to rewrite parts of the script in his head on the spot, were reliable assets. His dialogue was often better than what was written, and, again, the man is just plain laugh-out-loud hilarious. Interestingly, the episode the many refer to as evidence that Baker's Who had become too jokey, Nighmare in Eden, was actually a great story about drug use with some very adult aspects to it, but I digress. Recreate his character a bit they did, including giving him his new, grand, burgundy outfit with ever larger scarf. Not a bad change, I must admit. This is also the first episode to feature the "starburst" opening, complete with the new title music by Peter Howell, who had been told that what was wanted was something that sounded more like dance music.
Now, what's wrong with The Leisure Hive? Well, for starters, a great irony occurred. Producer John Nathan-Turner wanted to "update" the show; he thought much of it looked dated and he wanted to "bring it into the eighties." The irony is that many of the changes they made to "update" the effects really only further dated the show! For example, the new synthesizer music by the BBC, though some of it was quite good, seemed, compared to films today, much more dated than Dudley Simpson's previous scores. The Leisure Hive producers also spent a lot of money on a new computer process called Quantel, which gave us all those effects of heads and arms and whatnot separating from bodies in the regenerator. Though this was doubtlessly very cutting edge at the time, it looks very poor today, poorer even that many special effects found in much older episodes of Doctor Who. The special effects in The Pyramids of Mars, for instance, a much older episode, are much better than in The Leisure Hive. (It must be added though that budget cuts had something to do with that.) The outfits for the reptile race of the Foamasi are downright awful, some of the worst in the whole history of Doctor Who. If one looks closely at these big fabric beasts one can actually see the human actor's face through the holes in the reptile's head.
Fans of Who shouldn't make issues out of the effects though. The bad special effects I have always felt only added to the charm of the show, and may have even kept the show's quality up there in terms of forcing writers to write around budget difficulties. The big problem with The Leisure Hive is that it is actually boring, which is never a word I usually associate with Doctor Who, one of the most brilliant and fantastic shows in television history. It makes one yearn for the Hinchcliffe/Holmes years, which brought us such goodies as The Seeds of Doom and The Talons of Weng-Chiang. It is interesting that hot head Nathan-Turner wanted to take the show back from Tom Baker, and yet, it was in Nathan-Turner's hands that the show ultimately fell apart. He was producer for far too long.
Movie Review: Great compared to anything else on TV; middling compared to other "Who"
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Leisure Hive" was the start of John Nathan-Turner's run as Producer of Doctor Who. JNT made the show more serious and mature (or at least teenage). Depending on your point of view, he either saved it from its slide into farce and self-parody, or took away the sense of fun and whimsy that made it a delight.
"Leisure Hive" is right on the cusp, a JNT production but with a story and script conceived and written before he arrived, with traces of the old style. The DVD highlights this with special features (commentary, "information text", and some short making-of films) that show the transition. For instance, it's interesting to learn that some of the more obscure details of the story (such as the villains' names and aspects of the costumes) are actually vestiges of the original, more light-hearted version.
"Leisure Hive" isn't a story I would use to introduce Doctor Who to those who have never seen it. It's not as fun and a bit hard to follow and not as coherent as other stories. Other Tom Baker-era releases on DVD ("Talons of Weng-Chiang" or "City of Death" in particular) are better and more enjoyable. But if it's not the best of the Tom Baker-era episodes on DVD, it's still tremendous entertainment and for the fan, definitely worth adding to one's collection.
Three stars compared to other Who DVD releases -- but Five-plus compared to anything else on television.