Dragonfire: Part Three

Getting through Dragonfire has been a real effort, the whole point of watching a set list of stories is to try and find some good, see them with fresh eyes, and perhaps look on them more favourably.

Sadly Dragonfire deserves its bad reputation......Part three, one good point, is that it's only a three part serial, they could have made us suffer a fourth, but mercifully they didn't. It has zero atmosphere, zero interest for or from the characters, two terrible assistants (through no fault of their own) and looks cheap and nasty.

Mel waves farewell, fortunately for her. Bonnie was treated so badly, she's a good actress, but went from being intelligent and plucky, to a spineless screamer, no wonder she left. Ace was infuriating, shouting random silly words.

The plot is so thin, there virtually isn't one. I'm actually struggling to find any positives from this conclusion, it is just bad, no other word needed.

Bad, 2/10

My local PBS channel stopped showing the Doctor Who episodes in the 1980s shortly after Colin Baker showed up, so I never got to experience the Seventh Doctor stories until 45 years later.

Yeah, I like McCoy, and I was quite taken with Bonnie Langford. I absolutely don't understand the supposed hate for the character of Melanie. Sure, she screams a lot, but that's just fine. She is otherwise quite intelligent and capable. At her worst, she (and much of Season 24) just suffers from bad/uneven storytelling.

Case in point, "Dragonfire," which... well, there are plenty of plot holes and nowhere near enough dirt around to fill them. In general, though, I like the characters, the dialog, and a general sense of fun. The writers, though, sure like to kill a lot of extras whole hog: in space-ship busses ("Delta and the Bannermen") and in this story with those fleeing in the Nosferatu.

It just seems to me that if someone in charge of the franchise had cared more and made just a few better choices, an edit here and there, and a more logical explanation about why or how something was happening in each story, we might have seen episodes with at least a passing grade.

Oh well. I'm off now to see if I can dig up some of the radio plays featuring Melanie, which I've heard do her a little more justice.