Review: Doctor Who Classic: Delta and the Bannermen

Seven and Ray are in danger.

Doctor Who - Season 24, Story Three - Delta and the Bannermen
Written 9/6/12

The last true three-parter, excluding the 135-minute epic The Two Doctors, was Planet of the Giants - the first serial from the second season back in 1964. Since these serials were designated by the fan community rather than the actual production team, Delta and the Bannermen stands as the first of six deliberately three-part serials in the McCoy era. In something that seems common in this season, it feels almost deliberately sitcom-esque in its structure - and that is both to its benefit and its detriment in equal measure. Like the previous two serials, this mix of goofy Eighties comedy and decent sci-fi ideas means that the story is a riot from beginning till end.
     Becoming the ten-billionth customer of the Navarinos spaceport, the Doctor and Mel are invited on a sight-seeing tour to 1959 Disneyland aboard a space-bus with shape-changing aliens. When an unfortunate collision with an American military satellite sends them hurtling down into the Shangri-La holiday camp, The Doctor becomes embroiled in the battle between the criminal Bannerman and their intended victim - Delta, the last queen of the Chimeron. Along the way, they meet a pair of mechanics, two US spies, a beekeeper and a very enthusiastic camp owner.

Sure, you're so pretty that I'm totally not freaked out by your
green alien baby.

      The standout irritation from Delta and the Bannerman is the character of Billy, a mechanic who decides that since this Delta girl is pretty, he should abandon everything he knows in order to become the new male of her species. A novel idea, maybe, but one that makes Billy come off as a complete and total tit. Worse, the plot has to do so many curves away from common sense to make it happen: when Billy walks in to find that Delta is clutching a green blob and calling it her child, he shows absolutely zero sense of surprise and calmly sits down while Delta casually explains the plot to him. It's incredibly contrived. Originally, one can guess that the reason behind the plot was to free up minor character Ray, his childhood friend who is incredibly distressed by his choosing of Delta but then goes on to become the Doctor's main ally throughout the episode. Since Bonnie Langford was considering leaving, she would have become the new companion; the movement of this story back a position and the writing of Dragonfire rendered this null and void, leaving the story with this almost robotic character design.
      Again, Music affects the story drastically, it really doesn't understand what the music is for. A lot of the sequences have this cheery tune that almost reminds me of Yackety Sacks (Benny Hill). I understand that they were trying to lighten the series after JNT's efforts to reverse the problems with Season 17 had led them too far in the wrong direction, but this story (the first written for Seven) had the chance to really show what the character could do. There's no point in having such great characters (because Seven is great here) and then ruin it all by making your story into a laughing stock.

Ken Dodd's in this. Just thought
I'd mention.

      It's also stuffed with soooo many characters. In Paradise Towers this was to show seperations of class and race, but here it's just the fact that we're getting into the Holiday Camp spirit and there's lots of people around. As I said, the highlights are the scenes with Sara Griffiths' Ray, who would make excellent companion material, and with the incredibly life-affirming Burton, the Shangri-La manager. It's unfortunate that the story's worst characters are those in the title; Delta and her daughter are incredibly wooden and flacid, while Gavrok (Don Henderson, who would later turn up in Series VII of Red Dwarf)'s Bannermen are a race of unexplainedly evil gangsters that embody a million clichés. Especially egregious is the scene where The Doctor and Gavrok face off, while the evil leader randomly chews some raw meat for effect.
      But most importantly, the episode is just a romp. You feel like our leads are having fun, no matter what amount of danger they're in, and that makes Delta and the Bannermen incredibly entertaining. Apart from the music and the few characters I mentioned, there is nothing to hate in this serial simply because it feels so sitcomesque - most of the characters are fun to watch, in a way that really encompasses Season 24 in a way that I haven't experienced with Who before. Even though this atmosphere is probably what draws most fans away from the season, I absolutely adore it and I'm having a fun ride.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Don't get burnt by the oddity of the Dragonfire.