It is quite a week for monsters. Just a few days after the dreaded Cybermen returned to threaten Doctor Who, lots more of his weird foes from space will be storming the screens again.
From the deepest, darkest reaches of the Universe creatures like Krynoids, Sontarans, Mandrells, Sea Devils and, of course, Daleks are making a comeback. Not as part of the latest Doctor Who feature on BBC1 (Monday 6.55, Tuesday 7.5: Wales Monday and Wednesday 7.45) but as guests of reporter Gavin Scott on Did You See . . ? (Saturday 6.45 BBC2)
'On the sci-fi honor scale, I'd give the Cybermen eight out of ten,' Gavin told me. 'And I remember being enthralled as a child when a Dalek was opened up and something slithery fell out.' That must have been one of the best moments of television science-fiction.'
Gavin believes that successful monsters have to be both revolting and attractive.
'Some of those in the science-fiction films of the 1950s were really pathetic. They looked as though they were made from old cereal packets . . .'
Gavin thinks that modern ones are much more realisticm because out 'shock threshold ' has gone up. In other words, we don't get scared as easily.
And, as he searched through past episodes of Doctor Who to pick the monsters for the programme, Gavin recalled the shows he saw at home when he was young I admit that, like a lot of other Doctor Who fans, I watched some of those creatures with fingers over eyes, and there Is nothing really wrong with that.'
Caption: An old-style Cyberman (left), a Dalek and a Sea Devil (right)
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
