A serious air overtakes the most jocular Doctor in season 18 of Doctor Who...

Seven months is not a long time. At the time of writing, October 2010 is still pretty much the same for me as it was in March. In Doctor Who-land though, time is all relative, and seven months can make a hell of a difference. The most glaring example is in 1980, when The Leisure Hive burst onto the screens.

It's a case of new brooms everywhere, as new producer John Nathan-Turner makes his debut. As a result, everything's changed in a drastic new makeover. After all it's the hip 'n' trendy 1980s, so why not get with the times? The Leisure Hive boasts all of these new changes, so much so that it's nigh-on difficult to absorb them all.

Hmmm, I feel a list coming on...

CHANGE 1: THE THEME MUSIC

I'lll be honest with you. I used to be terrified of the original title music - to the point where I used to run screaming out of the room when the plummy announcer used to give way to the show (only to return 30 seconds later).

However, I distinctly remember being brave and forcing myself to sit through the scary music on August 30th 1980 - only to be greeted with an unusual Keeee-owwwww, as the new titles (read on) came crashing in. I swear Nathan-Turner read my mind or something...

Nevertheless, I still have a soft spot for the new music. At least it's not a complete wash-out like the pompous Come Dine With Me replacement music. No, the new theme still retains the mystery of the original, while being slightly more accessible and modern. It's great - I've also got good memories of the 45rpm single, with Peter Davison's cheesy grin on the front sleeve - the new TV theme arrangement, alas, doesn't feature my favourite bit from the complete version - that big dramatic rapid chord change before it launches into the last salvo. Pity, but for nostalgia value, the new theme from Radiophonic Workshop guru Peter Howell gets a big thumbs up.

CHANGE 2: THE TITLES

No longer do we get to see the unearthly time tunnel, it's now been replaced by a cross between Star Trek, Superman and the title sequence from the Corbett sitcom Sorry. Basically, we're whisked through a galaxy of stars, which quickly form The Doctor's disembodied head. The head whizzes towards the viewer before the stars spell out Doctor Who in a funky new neon chrome logo. Cool and the gang.

As I said in my Face Of Evil review, disembodied floating heads always make me laugh for some odd reason, so the new titles with Tom's head in a half-hearted grimace (to be followed by Peter Davison's head looking as he puts it himself "goosed") look rather silly. But again, for nostalgia value, the titles are great, and Sid Sutton's new sequence meshes well with the new theme tune.

CHANGE 3: THE INCIDENTAL MUSIC

More problematic - especially as I'm a big fan of Dudley Simpson's long list of excellent scores. There's a DVD extra about the mid-70s stories, which compares a Dudley Simpson score with a rather twee little ditty from The Visitation. Which says it all.

Don't get me wrong, some of the composers are pretty good. The best of these is Peter Howell, who makes his debut on The Leisure Hive. Howell's scores are generally excellent, full of drama and innovation without sounding too tinny. But some of the other composers don't quite get it right, frequently turning in scores that are too bland or too undramatic. We're fortunately worlds away from some of the inappropriate scores from McCulloch and Gold, but there's still a pang of regret for Simpson's absence.

CHANGE 4: THE PRODUCTION VALUES

Wowee, The Leisure Hive looks a million dollars, and it's hard to believe that this is the same show that brought you Nightmare Of Eden or The Horns Of Nimon. From now on, it's high production values and glitzy effects all the way. Generally, JNT has a knack for hiring some top-flight directors who know their stuff and how to make the show look as cinematic as possible. Lovett Bickford certainly understands the arty side of Doctor Who, and his unusually filmic direction is the real plus point of The Leisure Hive. More on this later, but then don't forget that some of the earlier stories (especially the Hinchcliffe stuff) looked just as classy. Even stories like The Ribos Operation and City Of Death bely the age-old myth that Doctor Who is all wobbly sets and toy spaceships.

CHANGE 5: THE LONG FACES

Come on people, this is serious drama we're talking about. Especially when JNT and new script editor Christopher HAMILTON Bidmead are in the room.

Fun Chris especially seems to hate the more jokey side of Doctor Who, which had reached some sort of apex in the previous season. I have mentioned that sometimes the humour did threaten to destroy stories like Destiny Of The Daleks or The Horns Of Nimon, but when the humour and the drama are in tune with each other, it all comes together perfectly.

The other side of the coin is that a show without its trademark humour feels a bit clinical and mannered. Nowhere is this more apparent than some of the season 18 stories. OK, some of the stories in this run are undeniably great, but the see-saw has now swung drastically in the other direction. Now, no one makes jokes, and if they do, it's more like an obvious ad-lib. The end results, like The Leisure Hive, come across as too po-faced and forced as a consequence. Cheers for that, Fun Chris.

CHANGE 6: THE GRUMPY DOCTOR

The biggest casualty of this is the toned down version of the fourth Doctor. Tom's Doctor is now older and more subdued, to the point where he almost fades into the background.

A number of reasons for this. One is that Tom himself was allegedly poorly throughout the season, and this shows in his rather gaunt appearance and flatter hair (The Leisure Hive, Meglos, State Of Decay and The Keeper Of Traken are the most notable examples). Another is that Tom's temper was also allegedly spiralling out of control, given that lots of DVD documentaries, commentaries and books chart a rather tense behind-the-scenes working environment. So we get stories of how Tom's either bellowing at or ignoring Lalla ("Just look at that glare - real hostility," she sighs on the DVD commentary), and then doing the same with the new incumbents Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding (who points out that his anger frightened her on the Logopolis commentary).

"The problem with season 18 is that its stories have, to a point, been overshadowed by the gruesome details of what went on behind the scenes"

The other obvious reason is again thanks to JNT and Fun Chris, who are steamrollering the great man's witty ad-libs and improvisation with stone-faced efficiency. Tom's evidently trying to get through as many jokes as he can in The Leisure Hive ("Arrest the scarf then!"), but he seems to be fighting a losing battle, as he starts bellowing at hapless Lovett Bickford in behind-the-scenes footage from the DVD documentary.

Sad really - as Patrick Troughton once said, giving too much away about the show and its stars takes the mystery away, and the warts'n'all DVDs really are a good example of this. The problem with season 18 is that its stories have, to a point, been overshadowed by the gruesome details of what went on behind the scenes. The Leisure Hive commentary and documentary are just the starting blocks of this bleakness - but all the above factors lead up to a main character that's no longer recognisable. It's like making Avon from Blake's 7 into a cowardly wimp. Stupid really.

So all of these changes which crop up in The Leisure Hive will surface again throughout the season. With such a slew of changes though, it's easy to overlook The Leisure Hive itself. While it was initially praised for its high-quality effects and visuals, that opinion's recently been qualified by the view that the script's not up to much.

Looking at The Leisure Hive again, 30 years later, it comes across as a flashy kaleidoscope of impressive set-pieces. So we have the long opening pan of Brighton Beach. The Doctor getting ripped apart in a big black bubble. The Doctor auditioning for the part of Dumbledore. Stimson wishing that he'd gone to Specsavers when getting throttled by a giant green claw. The unmasking of the Foamasi. All memorable images, but they're either too long or too confusing for them to make any real sense. Like why does a Tachyon image of The Doctor scream in agony? Well, just to provide a good cliffhanger - which it does., Actually, The Doctor's apparent dismemberment is one of the most gruesome cliffhangers in the show's history. Even Charlie Brooker agrees. It's brilliantly filmed, with the fast zoom-in into The Doctor's bellowing mouth melding perfectly with the new theme scream.

There's a reason for the lengthy sequences though, and that's because the script of The Leisure Hive, to be blunt, isn't long enough for three parts, never mind four. Rumour has it that when Fun Chris was looking around for scripts at the start of the season, the pickings were pretty slim. What he did find was a David Fisher script that needed a bit of dusting down, a satire on the Mafia, with the aliens even wearing shades (I would have paid good money to to see a Foamasi in a suit, shades and chomping on a cigar actually). The problem was though that the script was deemed to be too jokey in tone, so a rewrite from Fun Chris was required.

Problems of this are twofold: One is that there's a greater reliance on technobabble and scientific bafflegab which is so OTT it would send Magnus Pyke into a spin. Let's look at some of the examples: Tachyonics. Schroedinger Oscillator. Anti-Baryon Shield. The Leisure Hive is so full of this nonsense to the point where you need to have a hefty technical manual at your side to work out what the hell characters are babbling about.

"Bickford is probably the saving grace of The Leisure Hive in that he neatly papers over the shortcomings of the script with a lavish feast for the eyes"

The other big problem is that I get the impression is that because lots of the jokey stuff got cut, this leaves a big hole in The Leisure Hive, to the point where the shorter episodes still need visual padding. So it's a great shame when Lovett Bickford has to splutter an excuse every time Fun Chris says something along the lines of "What has this long sequence got to do with the finely crafted script that I help create blah blah blah I wanted Hamilton to be included on the end credits blah blah blah..." on the DVD commentary.

Well a good reply to that would be: Thank the lord for Lovett Bickford, since he's the one who's visually filling in the gaps of a script that needed more attention in the first place. Yes, the toilet-roll shuttle landings carry on for aeons, as do the sequences on Brighton Beach and when Stimson's running away from the empty Klout suit. But these are still undeniably well filmed, and overall, Bickford's filmic style of shooting works brilliantly (for example, the quick cuts in dialogue from character to character). Bickford is probably the saving grace of The Leisure Hive in that he neatly papers over the shortcomings of the script with a lavish feast for the eyes.

His casting's not too bad either. Adrienne Corri gives a nicely controlled turn as Mena. Ian Talbot is very good as Klout the lawyer (why this makes Lalla chortle on the commentary is anyone's guess - although her constant remarks about the phallic Helmet Of Theron suggest she's been hanging out too much with wizened Sex And The City hag Kim Cattrall). Stealing the show though is David Haig as Pangol. Haig's better known these days for playing slightly bumbling fops in films like Four Weddings And A Funeral or Two Weeks' Notice, but this is a blistering performance, and his descent into madness in part four feels totally real. Marvellous.

"The fourth Doctor's rapid ageing ominously suggests that this incarnation is nearing the end of his life, especially when he can't think of a quick-witted plan until part four to get himself out of his predicament"

That said, again, part four is a classic case of Fisher in that there's no real link with the previous three parts. Brock and Klout are exposed as villainous Foamasi (excellent rapid jump cuts in their unmasking here), so the rest of the part is filled up with Pangol's slightly odd plan to duplicate himself in the Tachyon Generator. Much as David Haig steals the show, there's still a vague sense of "Who cares?" A Mr Whippy head trying to make several copies of himself is hardly the stuff of legends. The Foamasi themselves look rather silly in all their glory, but at least Bickford keeps their appearances to a minimum with subjective shots of claws and eyes.

Still, there's quite a lot to like in this story. The scenes in which The Doctor shuffles about as an old man are brilliant, and neatly set up the theme of Entropy Increases for the whole season. As Paul Simon once said, 'Everything Put Together Falls Apart', and this is the common denominator for season 18. The Fourth Doctor's rapid ageing ominously suggests that this incarnation is nearing the end of his life, especially when he can't think of a quick-witted plan until part four to get himself out of his predicament. And even if The Doctor isn't really around much in parts one and two (another problem with some of this season's stories), at least Tom Baker gives an impressive performance as his older self, full of understated sadness ("Is that me?" he whispers in shock at his distorted reflection) and desperation ("Please hurry, there's so little time..."). Lalla's on top form too, and it's great to have John Leeson back as K9, even if the metal mutt is disposed of quickly in part one.

Does The Leisure Hive stand up though? Just about, although this is down to the strong acting and direction rather than the somewhat moth-eaten script. More of a concern at the time though was the alarming drop in viewing figures, which averaged about four or five million, which is a fraction of the previous seasons. Whether or not the changes put people off or whether kids wanted to see Buck Rogers rather than listen to scientific prattle is still open to speculation, but the warning bells were probably ringing at the BBC. Altogether though, an impressively assembled story, but one that's somewhat lacking in heart...

John Bensalhia limbered up for this mammoth task with a full four-series review of Blake's 7, and writes professionally and recreationally all over the web. Check out his portfolio of work at Wordprofectors.

Check out John's previous Doctor Who review, Shada

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