Galaxy Four [1.2]

Landing on an unnamed, nearly uninhabited planet, the Doctor, Vicki and Steven find themselves caught in a miniature conflict between two crashed spaceships. On the one side are the supposedly ravishingly beautiful Drahvin. (Disappointinly, the CGI recon that I watched did not depict them as particularly pleasing to the eye!) On the other side are the Rills – supposedly so ugly that they hide in tanks in case anybody looks at them. Allied to the Rills are the Chumblies – little rounded robots whose charm is as minimal as their vocabulary.

Once the situation is set up, we have a lot of back and forth. Various different people are held hostage at different times. Various motivations are questioned. It turns out the planet is about to explode. And with one spaceship broken, everyone is going to have to co-operate or die.

The Majesty

It’s a nice idea: beauty is only skin deep. The ugly aliens and the creepy robots are the goodies. The beautiful ladies are the baddies. Marga, leader of the Drahvin, has a nicely sadistic streak which combines with her veneer of civilisation to give you the feeling that there is actually more to the character, though we don’t really explore it as much as we could.

The theme is nicely summed up by one of the Rill: “It’s an honour to help others, when they are so willing to help you.”

The Misery

Well frankly, the story is very dull. One episode exists of the four, and this is of course the most enjoyable section, but even then there’s a lot of padding and filler and very little sense of drama. There’s a lot of confusion over geography. At one point it’s reported that Steven is suffocating in the other spaceship and they run back to help him, so the two ships have to be within spitting distance. But then at other times, it seems to take hours to get from one to the other, as they have to go on ‘expeditions’ and ‘patrols’. It all just feels a bit cobbled together.

The Drahvins are lame villains – they are all lacking in personality, with the exception of Varga. It’s deliberate for the story, but it’s dull to watch. They are supposed to be bred to fight, but they are really bad at that as well. They are stupid; they go to sleep when guarding prisoners; they allow people to steal their guns... It’s all a bit pathetic.

The Chumblies are also ridiculous – their name, their look, their abilities, their lack of coherence... It’s all very silly.

Magical Moments

• The moment Steven meets the Drahvins he jumps into flirting mode. “Well look who we have here!”
• In episode three, the Doctor and Vicki try to hide from a Chumblie by jumping behind the tiniest desk in the world. Their bums are still sticking up in the air but somehow the Chumblie rolls on by.
• The Doctor yanks at a set of metal bars in a corridor. “I can’t move it!” Meanwhile the whole set is shaking back and forth with his exertions.
• The Doctor places his hand on an air conditioning unit and a large piece falls to the floor with a clunk. He hesitates, then ignores it and goes on with his line.
• We get to see a rather nice flashback, all seen from the point of view of a Rill. It’s a nice visual device in a story that’s very lacking in them.

In Summary

It was a nice idea, but had nowhere near as much story development as it required to make it worth watching. There are no proper characters except Varga; no major plot developments except batting back and forth between the spaceships, and no opportunity for the Doctor et al to do anything worth watching.

Overall: 1.2