Logopolis |
BBC The Twin Dilemma |
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| Episodes | 4 |  |
| Story No# | 137 | |
| Production Code | 6S | |
| Season | 21 | |
| Dates | Mar. 22, 1984- Mar. 30, 1984 |
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With Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant.
Written by Anthony Steven. Script-edited by Eric Saward. Directed by Peter Moffatt. Produced by John Nathan-Turner. |
| Synopsis: In the first adventure of the sixth Doctor, he and Peri become involved in the hunt for two kidnapped twins, whose mathematical genius is being put to destructive use. |
Oh, for a Science Lesson... by Henry Lampman 14/2/07
Ahh, The Twin Dilemma, a story that most people seem to hate. Upon re-watching it, I can understand why. I won't say that it was complete garbage, but it comes close. It works on a few levels, namely to launch the slightly deranged 6th Doctor and establish his tense relationship with Peri. The spear in the side of this post-regeneration tale rests in its motivation. The underlaying plot reveals a serious lack of scientific understanding on the part of the author which is, to say the least, embarrassing for anyone trying to create science fiction. It is also fails by the standard of plain common sense, and does so quite badly. A discussion of this requires spoilage, sorry to say. I am not going to worry too much about it, given that this is pretty bad and has been out for over twenty years. The worst spoiler is clearly marked for your convenience.
This problem is first presented in the details early on. The rather zany mention of "zanium" right off the bat may have been an inside joke on what was to come. First, are these two twins such mathematical geniuses that the police commander knows of them and has always feared them falling into the wrong hands?!? Well, maybe so. Let's look beyond it. With a fully functioning transmat linked to Azmael's ring, why bother using the freighter at all? More so, why bother doing the first leg of calculation at the safe house on Titan 3? Is this really "galaxies away" from Jaconda? I am sure that we could find ways of rationalizing this, so let's move on again. How about the ambiguous use of the regenerative chamber? It apparently deconstructs and reconstructs the body and could be used as therapy for a Time Lord near the end of his final life cycle. So, I can understand it being used as a last-ditch transmat... but for time travel?!? Even if it could, why is there a spatial displacement? Never in the history of televised Who has the issue of spatial relativity to time travel been dealt with and this seems to violate what we have come to know over the years. Worse, how could it lead them back into the TARDIS... though this issue would lead us into a dangerous discussion of how the TARDIS registers outside impact in the control room or how a visage can move through it, as in Timelash.
Well, now that I have gotten that out of my system, let's get to the main motivation. This is where the lack of science hurts our science fiction the most. First, if the new ruler of Jaconda needs more room or resources, why not simply use their clearly available space capabilities to go to, or even colonize, nearby worlds for it. It seems silly to engage in the rather extreme and dangerous effort of moving two, smaller, outer planets into sync with Jaconda's orbit. Second, why would they believe that moving these planets nearer would give them "the same atmosphere and climate as Jaconda"? The climate issue could be glossed, but there is no way to do that with the atmosphere issue since a planet's atmosphere is made up of a finite and definite supply of gasses. Third, instead of putting them into consecutive orbit, they want them to occupy the same space?!? Even with the gloss and hand-waving involved, separating them temporally would ridiculously complicate things. Maybe it is a bizarre and paradoxical attempt to share the atmosphere. Either way, it is silly. Also, there is no mention of balancing the gravitic forces which, in real life, cause horrible surface tension on moons around some of the gas giants in our own system. Regardless, it doesn't matter because as these geniuses soon discover, the smaller planets will fall into the sun anyway.
Spoiler: This is actually the big secret plan! The smaller planets are supposed to fall into the sun and cause it to explode! Unfortunately, two "smaller planets" falling into a star, even at the same time, would not be likely to detonate it. It might cause massive solar activity which would scorch Jaconda, but not blow it up. Perhaps the temporal displacement would cause an explosion, but my scientific instincts (I am a real scientist) tell me that it wouldn't. Further, even if it did blow up their sun, why is that necessary to scatter the eggs throughout the Universe? Given the Newtonian Laws, simply launching them like torpedoes in different directions from a space freighter would do the job just fine. Supposedly, the eggs are durable and heat-activated. Does this mean that they would survive the stellar explosion and then be activated by it? Considering that seeds (and presumably eggs) are activated by their growing mediums, which in this care are the planets which they may chance to land on sometime in the next several million years as they fly through the cosmos, would it be wise to activate them right away in the stellar explosion?!? Oh, my aching head...
I could go on with this rant, but most of you have probably started skipping ahead by now. I'll finish my complaints with the ever-present question in this era of Who: Why does a presumably asexual gastropod want to, for lack of a better expression, get into Peri's pants? I can understand the urge in humans (or even humanoids) because let's face it, Peri is hot. But come on! This is beyond ridiculous.
So, is there anything to save this story? Yes, just barely. First, the characterization and relation with Peri and the Doctor is great and an indication of things to come. There is some silliness, like Peri's knowing use of the mirror and foreknowledge of the gun's construction, but it seems rather unimportant given everything I've already discussed. Azmael is great and works very well with the Doctor. I have my fingers crossed that I will someday run across him in one of the novels. Hugo was all right, though I didn't like him as much as a few of the other reviewers did. When the twins aren't playing with their childish speech impediment, they do their job well. The Jacondans have a unique look and are a credit to design, even with the occasional exposed neck and foil nose. They really work as a subservient people who are easily lead by outsiders. If nothing else, I am always a fan of "death by embolism" and purely psychic battles... though in this case and context, the ability to take over and inhabit the mind of another being violates principles from Trial of a Time Lord. Wait a minute! I just had a maddening thought. If Mestor's biological form is so cumbersome and useless that he wants to simply take over someone else's body... what does that say about the motivation behind that big, secret, ridiculously complicated plan we've been discussing?
A final issue is that of regeneration. Each time the Doctor regenerates, the process seems to affect the outcome. In the same way that massive radiation and psychic exposure caused the 4th Doctor to turn out a little nutty and the horrible physical damage caused the 5th Doctor to be fairly meek, the poisoning and nerve damage seems to have made this Doctor the way he is. Despite the maturity of age that he should have, it is warped with his persona and seemingly bottled up until his next regeneration. The neurotic displays here, which diminish slightly in future contexts, are an indication of deep turmoil and a wonderful setup for things to come at the end of Trial of a Time Lord.
There we have it. That is what forces this story into canon and gives it meaning. As a post-regeneration story, we can't throw it on the fire... no matter how badly we may want to!
Rating: 3/10