Doctor Who - Nightmare Of Eden (1979)
Yes, I know, continuing the Sci-Fi drugs theme, here. We've got a monster of a fab, traditional, 70's Dr Who trend, complete with space corridors & the usual monsters roaming down them, killing people. With the cool exception of a drugs smuggling operation! A Galactic cruise-liner, the Empress has some kind of temporal/cloak collision with a private shuttle.
The Doctor & Romana offer their assistance to help separate the ships, but not only encounter monsters known as Mandrels that have seemingly escaped from Dr Trysts C.E.T. machine, supposedly a conservation machine, but pushers of a deadly drug known as vraxoin! If that weren't enough, they have to put up with trigger-happy beurocrats as well, who accuse our hero's of being the drug runners. The Doctor & his faithful Romana phase 2 must find out who the real drug smugglers are & stop the vicious Mandrels, well as avoid being shot by brain-dead beurocrats..
I LOVE this! This is good ol' traditional Classic Who yet appears to be despised by my Whovian brethren,. Is it the monsters 70's sense of fashion? Trysts German (or Dutch?) accent? Should it even matter? Because this is a fun watch! The Empress is a 22nd Century space cruiser from Earth doing the "Milk run". The Doctor gets to indulge in his hobby of.."interfere? Of course we should interfere! Always do what you're best at!" .
Trysts C.E.T. machine has captured acres many alien worlds (including one from Space 1999) the main one being Eden Jungle planet of Mandrels & other hostile, Trffid like life. Whilst addicts die (mainly from a Mandrel & a trigger-happy beurocrats ) we learn that the Mandrels themselves, once vapourised into powder form, are the source of pure vraxoin & our 'wonderful' conservational Tryst & the shuttle pilot are the drug runners, is the budget that bad? Our Empress Captain is none other than David Daker who was Sontaron Lynxs' buddy Irongron on Dr Who-The Time Warrior (1973) Sarah Jane Smiths first story. & Romana reveals that the creators of Russian Dolls were making a model of the Universe, gotta admit, tense stuff! K9 gets to zap both Mandrel & Humans alike, not to mention his ability as a blow torch. The Doctor lies about working for Galactic Insurance which was liquidated in London, 2096. He wondered why he'd never been paid. These hard times, but, always look on the bright side of life..
As mentioned this is obvious, 'trad-ish', Classic Who, but with the added dimension of the brilliant drug plot. The way in which The Doctor catches the drug runners, after all that monster business, is sheer genius! He uses Trysts technology against him! The Doctor does a pied piper against the Mandrels, & we're entertained with another hilarious, 4th Doc quote: "Oh, my arms, my legs, my everything, aah!". Still this fab quote doesn't seem to be appreciated by my Whovian brethren. Well, I think it's hilarious!
This is a jolly well fun romp & the brilliant drug plot, added with the Mandrel catch, Tom Baker at his usual best, not to mention Trysts budget crisis, could he possibly get THAT desperate? Maybe a sign of the times? I'll leave you, my reader, to consider. As a child, this was just another exciting Monster-fest. Was I oblivious to what was going on around me?
Now, can I leap off of my holier-than-thou soap box & smash it?!
Borgduck ala Stewart,
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