It's time for The Doctor to show us his dark side again...

By the prickliness of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes...

Yup, it can only be Meglos, the talking cactus who wants to rule the world. Oh, you can imagine Christopher HAMILTON Bidmead crying buckets into his state-of-the-art 1980 word processor at such a concept.

Meglos is an interesting one in that it feels somewhat out of place in a season that's full of sombre mumblings about entropy, decay and other cheery concepts. What's more interesting is that we're only at story number two in the season, and after the relatively heavy-going Leisure Hive, Meglos is comparatively upbeat in tone. Along with State Of Decay, Meglos is about the only story of the season which feels more like the Doctor Who of old. And while State could have passed for a Hinchcliffe story, Meglos feels a bit like a season 17 story but with classier production values. We have a more light-hearted Doctor, a couple of clunky clichéd baddies, and a somewhat silly-looking monster.

But being season 18, Meglos still contains its fair share of scientific ponderings and terms. The most obvious phrase is the oft-repeated Chronic Hysteresis, which kind of sounds like a painful medical diagnosis rather than a time loop, but never mind. More significantly, we have the big debate about science vs religion.

Basically, the planet of Tigella is broken down into two factions, the Savants and the Deons. The Savants are the rational scientific realists with an odd line in silly blonde pudding-bowl wigs, while the Deons are a somewhat stereotypical gaggle of religious nutbars who think nothing of dropping big rocks on people in order to appease the great god, Ti. Fortunately, they don't break into close-harmony renditions of Runaround Sue, instead making do with their oft-quoted "Thanks be to Tiiiiiiiiii!!!" mantra.

Both parties have somewhat different views of the big power source on Tigella, the Dodecahedron. The Savants regard it as what it is, a valuable powerpoint that keeps the planet alive. The Deons, on the other hand, regard it in more mystical terms.

"Generally, the debate between science and religion is handled well, even if at one point in part one, the argument threatens to tip over into Jeremy Kyle-style bellowing"

The conflict between religion and science sums up the theme of season 18, in which science is seen to be the dominating factor. Bidmead has often spoken of how he felt that previous Graham Williams stories were too steeped in fantasy, and were the equivalents of waving a magic wand about (Bet he's going to love the new Harry Potter film, then). Instead, both he and JNT felt that the new season should be rooted in harder science and a more grown-up approach. Whether or not this approach works, well, I'll look at that again in the coming reviews, especially with the new glut of companions who are anything but grown-up. But generally, the debate between the two sides is handled well, even if at one point in part one, the argument threatens to tip over into Jeremy Kyle-style bellowing. You almost expect a boss-eyed chav to stumble onto the set at some point.

"A great performance from Jacqueline Hill throughout, making Lexa a convincing fanatic rather than a one-dimensional cutout"

It also helps that the acting's generally good. Crawford Logan and Colette Gleeson just about overcome the limitations of their rather stupid wigs to give strong performances as Deedrix and Caris. Edward Underdown is OK as Zastor, although sadly his performance was hindered by a serious illness. Stealing the show though is Jacqueline Hill - yes, the Barbara Wright - who is suitably bonkers as the head of the Deons, Lexa. If Barbara was a practical realist, then Lexa is anything but - refusing to believe that the Dodecahedron was stolen by conventional means, and that some sort of mystical mumbo jumbo was involved - a sacrifice to which will only bring the thing back. In the end, Lexa does redeem herself by taking a laser bolt for a teary-eyed Romana - a great performance from Hill throughout though, making Lexa a convincing fanatic rather than a one-dimensional cutout.

On the other side of the tracks are a motley collection of bandits, who have been assembled by Meglos to do his dirty work. Chief among these are General Grugger, a beardy grump who manages to sound mightily pissed off every time he opens his mouth, and his amusingly inept sidekick, Brotodac. Ironically, Brotodac is the more effective of the two, on account of Frederick Treves' strong comic timing, and also of the fact that Bill Fraser's half-arsed performance as Grugger never really convinces.

I do wonder why though it's necessary for Meglos to go to all the trouble of capturing a speccy Jack Straw lookalike to take over, since any of Grugger's goons would have done. All Meglos needs is a humanoid shape so he can use it to adopt his impersonation of The Doctor to steal the Dodecahedron on Tigella. But then this is a cactus with delusions of grandeur we're talking about here. Any basis in reality is null and void.

"The character of Meglos really shouldn't work at all, but thanks to Baker's excellent performance, it does"

In a sense though, this doesn't matter, since when Tom Baker becomes the evil baddie, the story gets much more interesting. We've already seen Baker's Doctor turn to the dark side in The Invasion Of Time (deceptive lunacy), The Invisible Enemy (possession) and in The Android Invasion (his android double). And again, Big Tom comes up with the goods as a really convincing baddie. There's a huge difference between Meglos and his usual performance as The Doctor (which thankfully is a lot more light-hearted than in The Leisure Hive). Just look at the way he screams "I AM MeglosSSS!!!" with wide-eyed evil at a trembling Caris in part three. You really do believe that Meglos is a force to be reckoned with - even with the cactus make-up and gloves. I also like the sequences in which the Earthling threatens to break free from Meglos' grip - this is done well with some good cross-fading effects and excellent acting from both Tom and Christopher Owen. The character of Meglos really shouldn't work at all, but thanks to Baker's excellent performance, it does.

And there's a great rapport between The Doctor and Romana in this one, whether they're trying to break free of the Chronic Hysteresis, or trying to repair poor old K9, who's so far gone that he can't even tell the difference between Time Lords and Ladies. Lalla Ward is again superb as Romana, and she has, by now, got her character down to a fine art. The second Romana, while more accessible than the first, also has more of an ability to give as good as she gets. So when she's cornered by Brotodac and Grugger, she simply uses that aloof Time Lady power to string them along round the forests of Tigella and then lead them into a horde of entangling vegetation.

On the production side, Meglos is generally fine, although Terence Dudley's direction, while competent enough, isn't quite in the same league as Lovett Bickford's. There are some notable innovations though, notably the Scene-Sync effects for the scenes on Zolfa Thura (basically a more mobile, cleaner version of CSO). Philip Lindley's jungle designs for Tigella are also pretty good, but one of the most effective aspects of the production is Peter Howell's excellent score. After Paddy Kingsland's reasonable score for part one, Howell's score for the other three parts is inspired, especially the Vocoder motif for the Deon scenes. The dramatic cliffhanger for part three is boosted by that tense, eerie Vocoder riff, and it works like a charm.

Meglos isn't the first story that springs to mind when discussing the infamous season 18. As one of the more light-hearted entries in the season, it's buried underneath the exits of Romana, K9 and The Doctor, as well as E-Space and introductions of certain unpopular companions. Taken on its own though, it's quite entertaining. It's not propelled by a big, ambitious concept, but the story trots along fairly well, and thanks to Lalla Ward and especially Tom Baker, it's always good value.

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, The Leisure Hive

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