This is my second-ever Who, and the 1975 serial is the first w/ Tom Baker:
I know Whovians will be delighted I finally saw Tom Baker in the role. This serial was one of a few recommended by a mutual on Letterboxd who is a diehard fan; I also see that the general consensus on the site is rather high. I won’t compare Jon Pertwee and Baker, given that I’ve only seen one serial of each. Baker had a few conceited moments… but he is a Time Lord and not human, which companion Sarah Jane needs reminding of. Plus, there are also a few angry moments-considering this tale has end-of-the-universe stakes, it’s understandable.
It was nice to see the inside of the TARDIS for the first time-not to mention the usage of the Sonic Screwdriver, another device from Who that was known beforehand due to cultural osmosis. This tale had quite the plot: the Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen was a familiar face from the Pertwee serial I saw… Invasion of the Dinosaurs) are in 1911 England. A professor visits Egypt and discovers a tomb, which unbeknownst to him gives a long-entombed alien named Sutekh a conduit to not only escape, but destroy all life in the universe. “Sutekh the Destroyer” is an apt name.
The effects are low-budget yet were all charming-even w/ the TARDIS “flying in space” on a string-and I was greatly entertained by this tale which was engrossing whether indoor (on decent sets) or outdoors in the woods, which I’ll presume is a common shooting location for Who episodes. The budget and effects were irrelevant when I enjoyed Baker as the Doctor, Sarah Jane & her interplay w/ him (including humorous moments), Sutekh was quite the intimidating villain-a masked villain marvelously voice-acted by Gabriel Woolf-and the story was a fun yarn which involved “mummies” and while not horror, still had some frightful moments.
This won’t be on my Spooky Season list for this year, BUT I do plan on seeing at least one Who serial horror-related by the time Halloween arrives. I’ve done Google searches so the possible candidates are already known by me.
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