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The Doctor and Mel win a place on an alien holiday tour
bound for Earth in 1959. Little do they realise that one of
their fellow travellers is being pursued by the genocidal
Bannermen...
Hailing
from one of Doctor Who's weakest seasons - the 24th
- this is fortunately one of the better entries. Its successor,
Dragonfire, with its more serious approach, is usually
singled out as being the best (or least worst) story of the
season, but Delta offers many great moments as well
as a general sense of fun. A genuine holiday atmosphere is
conveyed, not only by the Welsh holiday camp setting (recorded
almost entirely on location), but also by a jaunty yet moving
soundtrack by Keff McCulloch. The musician evokes the period
with the strategic use of cover versions to 1950s pop tunes
and other musical elements, such as the exciting theme to
the Dick Barton adventure serials.
An
unusually large cast boasts many intriguing characters, including
the enigmatic Goronwy, a bee-keeper who shares an apparently
telepathic connection with his bees, which gives him insights
into the natural world of this and other planets. Goronwy
is completely unfazed by the sight of a green alien girl,
and, as played by Hugh Lloyd, is every bit as eccentric as
the Doctor. The much maligned cameo appearance by Ken Dodd
is actually rather enjoyable; Dodd is only comical when the
script requires him to be, and he does a decent death scene.
The American characters Weismuller and Hawk (Stubby Kaye and
Morgan Deare) are practically superfluous to the plot, but
do provide a classic line when Weismuller reports that he
is calling from "Wales, England"!
Of
the regular cast, Bonnie Langford gives one of her most restrained
performances as Mel, second only to her return to the role
in Big Finish's The Fires of Vulcan audio drama last
year. McCoy is evidently still settling into the role of the
Doctor, portraying a more bumbling character than the dark
manipulator that he would later become. However, he does play
some wonderful scenes, particularly when displaying his unease
at attempting to comfort the distraught Ray (Sara Griffiths),
a task that he seems to find more difficult than the toppling
of interplanetary dictators. Scripted by Malcolm Kohll as
a potential new companion (before the production team settled
for Sophie Aldred's Ace in Dragonfire), and due also
to Griffiths' performance, Ray is a very likeable character.
Like Ace, but to less of an extreme, she adopts a tough tomboy
attitude to conceal her true feelings.
On
the down side, the alien baby who grows rapidly to maturity
is an obvious rip-off of the character of Elizabeth and her
short-lived reptilian sibling from the then recent US series,
V. Also, the potential menace of the Bannermen is undermined
by the lack of any discernible motive for their extermination
of the Chimeron race, although Don Henderson does manage to
inject some threat into his bland dialogue as the Bannermen's
leader, Gavrok.
This
is by no means a classic, but jolly good fun.
Richard
McGinlay
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