An archaeological expedition in 1980 uncovers a Movellan power pack. Before long, a reactivated alien ship is rising – a ship that contains a deadly secret weapon from an interstellar war…
An archaeological expedition in 1980 uncovers a Movellan power pack. Before long, a reactivated alien ship is rising – a ship that contains a deadly secret weapon from an interstellar war…
THE MOVELLAN GRAVE
I’ve belabored this point over and over with regard to this series of Fourth Doctor Adventures, but I’m going to come back to it anyway: the suggestion that these stories are set in season 18 of the TV show is utterly laughable. In “The Movellan Grave” we get a script from someone who actually wrote for season 18. Andrew Smith wrote “Full Circle,” a layered, intelligent, and moody story that kicked off the E-Space trilogy and happily embraced the season’s theme of entropy increasing. And now he’s back in that era with “The Movellan Grave,” an obvious evil monster runaround that has nothing to do with season 18 and feels like it was written in about ten minutes. Perfect!
By the time you know what’s happening in “The Movellan Grave,” you should also know exactly how it’s going to end. The only defining trait of the Movellans is their emotionless machine logic, so this story shows them trying to develop an emotion-driven Movellan, Chenek (Chris Jarman), to break the Dalek stalemate. Smith toys with an intriguing premise: the Movellans model their creation’s emotions after captured Dalek slaves, meaning that his actions are dictated by paranoia, fear, and hopelessness. But instead of spending time with Chenek and really examining his thought processes, the script casts him as the killer in a monster movie, stomping around tormenting the innocent. Lots of running around ensues until the Doctor is finally able to reprogram Chenek and save the day. All of this, plus the “twist” at the very end, is predictable from miles away.
As I always say, a predictable plot is acceptable if the story has other interesting elements. Had we spent more time fleshing Chenek out, the story would have been better. Had the Doctor or Romana been given any sort of a challenge to take them out of their comfort zones, the story would have been more intriguing. Had the supporting cast had any depth whatsoever, the story would have been more compelling. But none of those things happened, and as a result “The Movellan Grave” remains dull. Nicholas Briggs directs well. The performances are generally good – Lalla Ward finally dials the sarcasm and hostility down a notch while Tom Baker is always great, though Chris Jarman’s performance is a bit too broad. The sound design from Jamie Robertson is fine, but even though I listened to the story earlier today I already can’t remember anything about the score. In the end, I don’t have much more to say about “The Movellan Grave.” It’s an obvious, predictable story that offers nothing of interest and continues the streak of failing to sound even a little like a season 18 story. If you’ve never heard a Doctor Who audio before, this might not be too bad, but I’ve heard quite a few by this point.
4/10