Wednesday, January 1, 2020

THE DOCTOR ON VULCAN.... INDEED. (A CONTINUING O'BSERVATION)




'DOCTOR WHO'
"POWER OF THE DALEKS"


I.
The TARDIS arrives on the Earth colony of Vulcan where the newly-regenerated Doctor assumes the identity of an Earth Examiner.
II.
While the Doctor worries about the inert Daleks in the capsules, Lesterson makes plan to reactivate one of them.
III.
The Doctor fails to convince the colonists of the danger posed by the Daleks and soon the other two are also reactivated.
IV.
With Polly being held prisoner by the rebels, the Doctor and Ben decide to investigate them, while Lesterson discovers the Daleks are reproducing.
V.
The Doctor and Quinn attempt to escape in order to stop Bragen using the Daleks to take over the colony.
VI.
With Bragen having taken over, the Daleks trick the rebels into turning them loose and only the Doctor can stop them wiping out the entire colony.


I've written about this story before and how - in their infinite wisdom - the BBC wiped the tapes clean in order to use them again.  So far none of the episodes have been recovered, only clips still exist.  But the soundtrack survived and an animated version was created, which was seen on BBC-America last year.

In the story (set in 2220), there was a human colony on Vulcan.  This doesn't have to create a Zonk with the mythos of 'Star Trek'.  It could be an abandoned and untamed desolate area uninhabited by the Vulcans and leased to the human settlers by the Vulcan High Council.  I imagine they did so in order to promote the relationship with the Terrans.

Once the Doctor was able to disarm the threat of the Daleks on Vulcan, he left the swamp area with Polly and Ben in tow - but he did not leave the planet, merely landed elsewhere on one of the continents dominated by the native Vulcans. 

While there, the Doctor easily picked up the Vulcan mind-meld procedure (in scenes not seen by the audience viewing at home.) And he soon had his fill of their narrow-minded sense of logic, which to him stifled the creativity needed to advance in all fields.  Only then did the Doctor and his Companions beat a hasty retreat in the TARDIS from Vulcan; to the battle fields of Culloden.  ("The Highlanders")


And that's why he dismissed the concept of Logic so flippantly to Zoe Heriot.  (The quote comes from "The Wheel In Space".)

At the same time, it could be that it was the Time Lords who taught Surak everything he needed to know in order to mold the mental disciplines of his fellow Vulcans in their fourth century.  Now that I've finally seen "The Sensorites", it appears the Doctor knew about such mental powers before his first full regeneration.  (More on that elsewhere today.)


'DOCTOR WHO'
"THE SENSORITES"



DOCTOR: 
What's the matter, my child? 
SUSAN: 
I had a talk with the senior Scientist just before we left. It seems that the Sensphere has an extraordinary number of ultra high frequencies, so I won't be able to go on using thought transference. 
DOCTOR: 
Oh, I don't know. It's rather a relief, I think. After all, no one likes an eavesdropper about, do they? No, I think you obviously have a gift in that direction. When we get home to our own place, I think we should try and perfect it. 

So it may be a discipline for the Gallifreyans as well, not an inborn trait which came naturally to them.

As we know however, Susan never did make it home to Gallifrey with her Grandfather - at least not as seen on TV.  By the time we met her again in "The Five Doctors", she may have finally had the chance to go back.  If I had the opportunity to bring her back to Toobworld, not just in fanfic, I would cover that pozz'bility.


BCnU!


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