Day 331 — November 27th 2021
Timelash Part Two
Timelash — Part Two
It’s funny. I stand by my statement yesterday that there’s nothing especially awful about Timelash, it’s just a combination of pretty much everything being not quite good enough which all come together to make it feel worse than it is. But watching this episode my patience has lapsed and I’ve found it all so much worse than I did yesterday.
This episode conspires to test the patience with a string of poor performances (I’d managed to convince myself yesterday that David Chandler’s turn as Herbert wasn’t as awful as people said, but he sinks to new lows in this one). Then there’s the introduction of some new sets including the inside of the Timelash itself, which takes the form of some polystyrene and a bit of tinsel.
I also don’t think it helps that this episode seems to have an especially awful script, where I’ve spent the whole thing zoning in and out and vaguely wondering why I’m supposed to give a toss about any of it. They dispense with the story’s main villain about half way through the episode and then have to scratch around to try and pad things out, even to the point where five minutes from the end they reveal that the baddie had a secret clone that’s not even been hinted at before now. This whole production has an air of ‘that’ll do’ about it which has actively pissed me off.
It’s so bad that I genuinely considered going for a score of zero, which would have been the first one ever (and would have meant breaking my rule that every story is at least a one). There’s one thing here which has prevented that, and it’s the make up on, and design of, the Borad. It’s one of the very best we’ve ever had, and it feels like a significant step up from the dodgy Sontarans in the last story. Heck, it even feels like a step up from the work on Sil earlier in the season, and I thought that was pretty decent!
Robert Ashby continues to put in a decent performance, and I think the combination of that and the make up are the only things worth watching this episode for.
And that’s it, all I have to say on this one. If the production team couldn’t be arsed, then frankly neither can I.
1/10
