Dragonfire Episode 2

Season24@30. People often refer to episode 1’s notorious cliffhanger but rarely the way its resolved which must surely rank as one of the most awkward. Somehow Glitz gets down to a ledge that was not there previously when we saw the Doctor’s feet dangling above a precipice. If Glitz managed to do that, why didn’t the Doctor use the easier route? Then the Doctor has to clamber down his mate in the most ungainly fashion. Combined with the clearly plastic `ice` that surrounds them it’s hard to imagine that even back in 1987 anyone was impressed. 

The three part format seems to fit this period of the programme quite well allowing this episode to become more than the runaround it might initially look to be. One surprise is the amount of time spent with Kane and his helpers Belasz and Kracauer.  While Ian Briggs’ dialogue does tend to include a bit too much exposition of things both characters in the conversation would already know it is a different take to have the antagonist’s subordinates actively plotting against him. Not that Kracauer’s methods are very sound- having turned up the heat he just stands there and watches instead of hiding somewhere warm. Then when Kane gets up Kracauer still just stands there.

Kane’s backstory –revealed in a large info dump from the `dragon` - explains his ice statue yet we never learn who the bearded sculpter is. Has he really been toiling over the ice sculpture for years as Kane implies? Does he never get time off for a shave? A decent ice sculpture can actually be done within a day or two so he’s obviously been spreading out the work perhaps knowing what would happen when he finished. The funniest thing is we get to see an image of Xana later and she looks nothing like the sculpture whose resemblance to his beloved is something Kane has earlier rhapsodised about! Still Edward Peel draws from classic Doctor Who villainy in a controlled performance with appropriate icy menace and you have to enjoy Patricia Quinn’s Belazs even if she tends to over play some scenes. Incidentally (or not) several of the characters seem to have an Eastern European flavour to their names. 

Briggs chooses not to go into much detail about how, having been exiled to the planet, Kane built up – if indeed he did- a whole society here including shops and utilities. There is no reference to his chilly biology and whether this is natural for his species- if so why do none of the others like Belazs – have the same condition? I do think some light make up of frosting on his face might have worked better to show his difference though it’s all a bit odd when none of the other characters shows any reaction to the sub zero environment in which he lives. It wouldn’t matter so much where it not for the emphasis this episode places on Kane’s need for a cold environment. Also you might wonder why Kane’s captors would even put the Dragonfire on the same planet at all? Why not store it somewhere else entirely?

The camaraderie between the Doctor and Glitz and Mel and Ace works well this week. Sylvester McCoy is in excellent form – of all the aspects of this season that have surprised me his performance has done so the most. There is so much subtlety in between the more outward clowning and I love his musings to himself, his acceptance when things aren’t going well and his curiosity. In a quieter scene with Mel, Sophie Aldred tones down Ace’s enthusiasm with a well written speech on the character’s background. It is so well written in fact that I feel as if it would have been good to have seen it. Ace doesn’t get a proper introductory story back in her normal life despite that potential. The idea of someone who always believed she was from another world is a great spin on the companion idea.

My other favourite scene is the Doctor’s philosophical talk with a guard which superbly counters expectations that the latter would look bewildered by the question; instead he engages with it. This sort of thing would become more prevalent in the following two seasons and suits this Doctor. It’s also in the tradition of the programme where words played a big part in some of the best written stories of the 70s.

Again there’s a bit of a naff cliffhanger though – in this case Kane declaring “Dragonfire will be mine” even though to the viewer it’s probably not clear what it does and what difference that would make. In any case surely that crystal will literally be too hot for Kane to handle?