Another one I was enjoying too much to take many notes on as I’m actually watching it.
Alien pods are found in Antarctica, turns out they’re cannabilistic plants and some silly sod takes them back to England where they proceed to try and eat everything. Think that about sums it up. It’s a very simple plot really and I’m quite surprised they tried to make it last 6 parts.
And yet, despite the relative simplicity of the plot it is brilliantly worked. It’s a 6 parter that doesn’t feel like one.
Scorby: The ultimate henchman! John Challis is great as the self-serving henchman. No real loyalty to anyone but himself.
Wityh hindsight it’s hard to find specifics about why this works so well. It may be the cast or the pacing or the secondary cast but somehow it is just a story where everything comes together. It has it’s gore as well as we’re treated to a pretty brutal method of getting rid of people…
The only thing this story lacks is proper UNIT characters rather than the rent-a-squaddie lot we get in UNIT uniforms. I can’t help but wonder if it could have been even better had it featured the Brigadier and RSM Benton rather than some random Major and some random Corporal. It’s a minor gripe but, again, it could have added something to a fantastic story…
It loses but ¼ of a mark for lack of Brig/Benton but apart from that…
9¾/10
Alien pods are found in Antarctica, turns out they’re cannabilistic plants and some silly sod takes them back to England where they proceed to try and eat everything. Think that about sums it up. It’s a very simple plot really and I’m quite surprised they tried to make it last 6 parts.
And yet, despite the relative simplicity of the plot it is brilliantly worked. It’s a 6 parter that doesn’t feel like one.
Scorby: The ultimate henchman! John Challis is great as the self-serving henchman. No real loyalty to anyone but himself.
Wityh hindsight it’s hard to find specifics about why this works so well. It may be the cast or the pacing or the secondary cast but somehow it is just a story where everything comes together. It has it’s gore as well as we’re treated to a pretty brutal method of getting rid of people…
The only thing this story lacks is proper UNIT characters rather than the rent-a-squaddie lot we get in UNIT uniforms. I can’t help but wonder if it could have been even better had it featured the Brigadier and RSM Benton rather than some random Major and some random Corporal. It’s a minor gripe but, again, it could have added something to a fantastic story…
It loses but ¼ of a mark for lack of Brig/Benton but apart from that…
9¾/10