DOCTOR WHO, SEASON 17 SERIAL 4:

NIGHTMARE OF EDEN

Doctor: Fourth (Tom Baker)

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward), K9

May 2023

Oh, now this is a brilliant little story.

With Nightmare of Eden, we are decidedly moving into the realm (seasons 17-18) of stuff that I have never seen before. And wow! God damn!

Okay, it’s not the best episode of Doctor Who ever. But it is a delightful little journey with some cool ideas executed in a cool way. I like it a lot! I recommend it!

In this story, the Doctor, Romana, and K9 tackle two ships that have become interdimensionally linked in space, animal conservation, the cops, and drug smuggling! Drug smuggling!!

I really do enjoy this story. It escalates in a most satisfying way, and the mystery is actually pulled off very well: even though the story ends with practically an entirely different conflict than the one it began with, the chain of events fits together very neatly and thus the resolution feels perfectly earned.

The “monster” of this episode admittedly looks quite schlocky, and they don’t direct around this fact very well: we get a lot of well-lit shots of them front and center doing pretty much fuck-all. I don’t mind this too much, though: the Mandrels aren’t as charmingly silly as the wolfweeds from the last story, but it’s not as if they’re unwatchable, or even poorly written (except for arguably one weird random moment with the dog whistle at the end. But it doesn't really detract). It helps that they’re an incidental threat, because the real monster...is man.

Specifically, smugglers of dangerous drugs, and cops. Which is a pretty strong message to send, I feel. The drug smuggling is a rather excellently-served-up mystery — it at first serves to complicate the problem of the interlocked ships, and is quickly revealed to be the primary driving conflict behind the entire story. We’re shown what happens to people addicted to Vraxoin, which allows us to more expertly tell a story surrounding it with high stakes.

This story has basically three high concepts, and I like all of them: one, the drug smuggling; two, the spaceship crash/intersection; and three, Tryst's "electric zoo." And they all come together really frankly quite well, and leave this story with basically zero downtime. It's quite something!

The supporting cast for this story is quite good, I think, even though the scientist is ambiguously space-German for unknown reasons. I like the captain’s repartee with the Doctor, and Della (I think that’s her name) is solid, etc. The cops are played to what was maybe a cartoonishly bloodthirsty level in 1979 (I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t around then) and come off as refreshingly (and depressingly) realistic portrayals of police officers in 2023. It’s very fun to see the Doctor run rings around them, and alarmingly true-to-life when they say “he’s a criminal! Of course he must be shot!” (They are still a little cartoonish. But even so.)

Overall Thoughts:

In the vein of The Space Museum, Nightmare of Eden is not a brilliantly inventive piece of television. It doesn’t play up a profound moral conundrum or object lesson (except, I suppose, “it’s bad to endanger people for profit”, and—well, I suppose it has something to say regarding drug smuggling. Alright, maybe it has something to say. but regardless). It isn’t the best episode in its season. But it sets out to do what it wants to do and it executes it very well.

I think that City of Death is the stronger serial overall, but I do like Nightmare of Eden more than Creature from the Pit and Destiny of the Daleks, though neither of those quite reach the depths of "bad" per se.

I recommend this if you want more of the 4th Doctor and Romana as played by Lalla Ward after City of Death, or honestly just as a solid mid-70s serial. Quite enjoyable. I don't recommend it if you're not a fan of schlocky monsters - although, again, in that case, probably stay away from the 70s show? Next up is another mystery to me: The Horns of Nimon!