1-8. The Macros.

2 episodes. Approx. 113 minutes. Written by: Ingrid Pitt, Tony Rudlin. Directed by: John Ainsworth. Produced by: David Richardson.

THE PLOT

The Doctor and Peri find themselves on the U. S. S. Eldridge, the destroyer that according to urban myth was involved in the 1943 Philadelphia Experiment, an attempt by the U. S. Navy to render a ship invisible. The Eldridge on which the time travelers have found themselves is stuck between dimensions. Crew members appear to exist in time loops, repeating the seconds before the experiment was initiated... the seconds before their deaths. The ship itself is covered in a greenish rust that has destabilized the ship's structure, to the point at which the deck itself will crumple beneath the weight of anyone walking on it.

Professor Tessler (Vincent Pirillo), the mind behind the experiment, managed to survive. He tells the Doctor that they have tried to increase power to yank themselves back to their own dimension, but that the power keeps draining away. Using the TARDIS' instruments, the power drain is traced to the micro dimension of Capron, ruled over by the despotic Queen Osloo (Linda Marlowe). Materializing on Capron in hopes of stopping the power drain, the Doctor instead attracts the queen's attention - and wakes her to the possibility of expanding her reign by using the TARDIS to conquer Earth!

CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Unusually passive in this story. He spends most of his time reacting to situations, rather than acting upon them. When he's thrown into a Capron prison cell in Episode One, he doesn't escape - he just happens to be the cellmate of Ezz (Jack Galagher), Osloo's stepson and chief rival. When Ezz is rescued, the Doctor gets to tag along. He does make a proactive effort to halt the Philadelphia Experiment - but his attempt is a very weak one, and that he seems to honestly expect it to succeed seems laughable. He spends most of the second episode ferrying Osloo around in his TARDIS while a gun is pointed at his head, and his defeat of her literally comes down to pressing (or not pressing) a button on the console.

Peri: In a candid moment, Peri admits to enjoying her travels with the Doctor. Despite her friction with this latest incarnation, she describes him not merely as a good man but "the best," and insists that for all the danger involved, this is the most exciting time of her life. "I sometimes think that I'll still be traveling with him when I am old and grey," she confesses to Yka (Rachael Elizabeth), a rebel against Osloo's rule. She adds that "one lifetime just isn't enough to see the whole universe!"

THOUGHTS

After her guest starring role in Warriors from the Deep, actress Ingrid Pitt and her partner, Tony Rudlin, made multiple story pitches to the Doctor Who production office. The Macros was the only pitch accepted, likely because of the potential in its concept. The notion of a Who serial dealing with the Philadelphia Experiment is an intriguing one, as is the idea of having both the Doctor and the Eldridge survivors stuck between dimensions.

The opening twenty minutes is quite good, raising hopes for the rest of the serial. There are shades of Sapphire & Steel in the Doctor and Peri's exploration of the ship, as they search through fog so thick they can barely see, witnessing the past actions of the crew while being blocked from interacting with them.

Then the narrative shifts to Capron, and it becomes bad "B" movie fodder. It's very likely Pitt created Osloo as a role for herself, and guest star Linda Marlowe's hammy performance in this over-the-top role is likely just an accent away from the performance Pitt would have given. The character is a distaff Ming the Mericiless, exiling all political enemies to energy mines to slowly die from radiation poisoning. Too bad the cheese on hand lacks the contagious fun of Flash Gordon - either the old serials or the 1980 movie.

Plotting is sloppy, with the Doctor and Peri getting captured repeatedly largely through their own stupidity. At one point in Episode Two, the Doctor more or less allows Osloo to gain control of the TARDIS by opening the doors right in front of her and her soldiers, then taking an incredibly long time to close them again. The structure is bizarre: The Doctor and Peri travel to Capron to pick up a couple of guest stars who then do virtually nothing for the rest of the story. Then they forget about Capron for a bit and travel to Earth, in a bizarrely halfhearted attempt to stop the experiment from ever happening. Then they decide it's time to go to Capron again to spark the showdown with the villain.

Surely the attempt to pre-empt the experiment should have come first, with all the Capron material being allowed to flow together as an unbroken block? Alternatively, the Doctor can't attempt to stop the experiment due to the Web of Time (TM), thus sparing the plot a rather pointless 15-minute side trip. As it stands, the story with Osloo comes to a halt for the first third of Episode Two, then abruptly re-starts itself.

The Macros still isn't anywhere near as bad as Mission to Magnus. The opening Act hooks listener attention very strongly. Even when it too rapidly deteriorates into cheesy "B" movie material, the first episode at least remains fast-paced and engaging. The second episode is much worse, the story's structural awkwardness disrupting the pace and the cheese becoming tedious rather than fun after Osloo takes over the TARDIS. Mix in an unusually passive Doctor, a weakly-characterized guest cast, and a silly (overly easy) ending, and it's extremely clear why this was rejected.

Overall Rating: 3/10.

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