Capsule Verdict: Top of the class in the three S’s – Satire, Story and Silliness. Shame about the budget.
When you wanted proper, honest-to-goodness satire in Classic Doctor Who, with proper memorable characters and grotesques, with a healthy dollop of fantastic dialogue and double helpings of silliness, Robert Holmes was most likely to be your first call.
The man who made shop-window dummies terrifying and called them Autons, and invented the Sontarans as a satire on military imperialism, was seldom short of a stinging idea – or the clout to get it turned into compelling television. Perhaps, then, not the best man to irritate, on that whole ‘pen is mightier than the sword’ principle.
The Sun Makers was Holmes at his most scathing, taking elegant, and indeed eloquent shots at both the Inland Revenue and the internal structures and bureaucracy of the BBC in the 1970s – both of which had got, it’s fair to say, squarely up his nose by attempting to make him conform. The story of evil Usurians (any linguists in the building are now laughing their heads off, by the way – ask them why), grinding the faces of the human poor into the dirt for the sake of tax revenues, and the ensuing revolution their pernicious taxes cause, is actually very bleak and surprisingly (for the time and the man) violent. It’s to the credit of the script, and to those who realised it, that you never particularly notice these things, because above all, The Sun Makers is riotously good fun.
There is a lot of running down corridors, and plenty of carboardy walls, and those stock transport vehicles that, not to be too unkind, you could probably out-walk, peppered throughout this story, but likewise, they’re not things you focus on unless you’re an out-and-out geek, because the characterisation – and the silliness – is so strong.
Gatherer Hade, for instance, played by Richard Leech, is so spectacular a fusion of the self-important, paranoid bureaucrat and the snivelling toady, played with a pitch so perfect as to balance always on the edge of falling right over the top, that you almost root for him. Not quite, because Holmes wrote him as clearly unsympathetic…but almost…
Likewise, The Collector, played with characteristically marvellous weirdness by Henry Woolf, makes such a lasting impression that his voice refuses to leave you alone for quite some time after watching the story…however much you want it to.
And on they come – Michael Keating as Goudry, Jonina Scott as Marn, William Simons as Mandrel, David Rowlands as Bisham, notably Roy Macready as Cordo, and, as it turned out, importantly John Leeson as K9 all deliver strong performances against a cobbled-together looking BBC backdrop, and sell the world they’re inhabiting convincingly. There’s a tendency for The Sun Makers to be lumped together with The Underworld as ‘the low points’ of season fifteen – the season that delivered The Horror of Fang Rock, The Invisible Enemy and The Invasion of Time. Certainly as far as The Sun Makers is concerned, that’s a perception that focuses on production values over quality science fiction, because in terms of its writing, its characters, and its knock-down drag-out pacing, The Sun Makers is the equal of any story in that well-respected season.
The Extras
The extras on this release are what might be called a “solid bunch” – giving enough added value in themselves to warrant a look, while having the good fortune to be attached to a strong story. The commentary track is one of the best in this reviewer’s experience, not because it adds anything particularly new or noteworthy to the knowledge bank, but because it lets Tom Baker be as gorgeously insane as he undoubtedly is – one entirely pointless but charming tale involves meeting a window-cleaner in a supermarket, and convincing the man he had no windows whatsoever in his house “because my wife’s a vegetarian”…
See? Madness, clearly, but very beautiful madness nonetheless. Getting Baker in a room with Louise Jameson (who has made no secret of the fact that The Sun Makers was her favourite story), Pennant Roberts, the Director, and Michael “that-bloke Vila-from-Blake’s-7” Keating, and you simply have to sit back and let the fun unfold.
The making-of is a curiously self-important little piece, exploring not only the history of the time the show went out, looking for parallels, but also the science of building colonies on Pluto. So – that’s a handful of minutes you’ll never get back.
Part 2 of The Doctor’s Composer, looking at the later Who-work of the inimitable Dudley Simpson is…well, it’s as engrossing as the first part was, so watch it. Watch it lots.
And the outtakes are alternately funny and pointless, giving you a mixed bag altogether, but well watch spending those minutes of your life on at least once.
All in all, there are plenty of Classic Who stories that you’re going to want to buy the instant they come out, or sooner. It would be going too far to put The Sun Makers in that category, but if you happen to have a spare £13 in this day and age, there are faaaaaar worse things you could spend it on than a spanking new copy of The Sun Makers. There’s Paradise Towers, for a start…
Edit by Combom: The cheapest place to buy this DVD on the internet, with free P&P ATM is Zavvi, £11.85 here.
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