Reconstruction time again, here at
the old Time Stream. The first in a string of them, actually. This is the first
one in this rewatch that is NOT an historical story, but it will by no means be
the last. I had little to no memory of “Galaxy Four” despite having had the
audio, recons on both VHS and DVD, as well as two copies of the novelization. All
I could really remember going in was the standard synopsis of Drahvins are
beautiful but bad / Rills are ugly but good. Turns out, that’s all I needed to
know since for the most part, that’s what this entire story is based upon.
“Galaxy Four” was originally
written with Ian and Barbara in mind as the companions. This becomes painfully
obvious when Peter Purves as Steven seems to get most of the Barbara lines and
characterization, and very little of the Ian. He’s said himself that it’s not
one of his favorite stories for this reason, and one can hardly blame him. Truth
be told, I don’t think Barbara would have fared well in this story, based on
some of the characterizations. Steven is kind of snippy and definitely not as
likable as in his previous stories. Vicki comes off a little bit thinly, and
not as full a character as we’ve seen. The Doctor? Well, Hartnell must have had
some good rest on his holidays as he spends a LOT of time (for the First Doctor
anyway) sprinting from set to set. And this is based on a recon with only one
full episode. I thought the man might keel over.
My main problem with “Galaxy Four”
is that I feel it’s written, if not badly, then at the very least, half-heartedly. The
beautiful=good and ugly=evil “twist” is telegraphed so far in advance that it’s
not much of a twist at all. There is NO WAY that the Drahvins aren’t the bad
guys from the minute we first see them. The TARDIS crew seems to already know
this some of the time, and really kind of smart mouthing their Amazonian
oppressors. The Doctor’s discovery that the planet (never named in the story)
will explode in “two dawns” and not fourteen is all well and good. But… why? It
could have been “two dawns” from the get-go upping the tension immediately.
Come to that, why would the Doctor keep that a secret from the Drahvins? If he
discovered MORE time, maybe? But finding out that you have two days instead of
two weeks before you blow up might be urgent for everyone to know. There was no tactical advantage gained by
keeping that a secret.
Speaking of the Drahvins, there is
a kernel of an interesting idea in there. Like beautiful Sontarans, they are
bred for war. Only the leader, Maaga, can think for herself, the rest are just
drones. Unfortunately for the Drahvins, and for the story, Maaga gets her crazy
on, and she leaves it on for the whole time. The other Drahvins, who are only
numbered and not named, seem to want a bit of rebellion going. Or it’s a ruse
to fool the Doctor and company. Or it’s something else that I just didn’t pick
up on.
Before closing, a word about the Chumblies.
They were yet another in a long line of “the next Daleks!” to appear on the
show, and I’m sorry but no. Sort of pyramidal beehive shaped, and speaking only
in synthesized tones (unless the Rills spoke through them), they were just not
good. The name is dire but since Vicki coined it, I can let it pass, but then there
is no other name for them except “the machines”. Again, simply bad scripting.
It’s taken until the third season,
but I think “Galaxy Four” might stand atop my chart as my least favorite story,
knocking previous title holder “The Keys of Marinus” down to second place. I’m
just as surprised as you are, really. But again, my fallback position if
something’s bad, at least let it be bad in *attempting* to do something (Hello,
“Web Planet”!). “Galaxy Four” doesn’t attempt, doesn’t try, and for the first
story of the third season, it’s disappointing how little effort was put into
the making. It’s neither beautiful nor
ugly, but it *is* bad.
NEXT EPISODE: Mission to the Unknown
"Galaxy 4" novelization cover, courtesy The TARDIS Data Core at tardis.wikia.com
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