Doctor Who – The Good Soldier
Issues: 175 – 178
Script: Andrew Cartmel
Pencils: Mike Collins
Inks: Steve Pini
Letters: Glib
Editor: John Freeman
Doctor: Seventh
Companions: Ace
Episodes: 4
Summary:
It’s 1954 and Ace and the Doctor are in the Nevada desert where they encounter a troop of American soldiers who are expecting unknown visitors. However, the visitors don’t come from the sky but instead capture a large portion of the desert and take it up to the warship. Slowly, primitive cybermen dig their way up through the soil and soon a battle breaks out between the soldiers and the cybermen resulting in heavy casualties and the capture of the American Colonel Rhodes. The cybermen hard wire Rhodes into their control systems but the Doctor also manages to get Ace wired in. She manages to get the automatic shuttle away from the war ship and gets the automatic systems to load the reserve reactor into escape craft. The cybermen capture the escape craft just as the reactor goes critical and the warship is destroyed. Ace and the Doctor drive off into the sunset, Ace commenting on the fact that the TARDIS needs work done on it.
Episode Endings:
One – The cybermen emerge from the ground as the American soldiers watch in horror.
Two – The Doctor and Ace stand in the cyber war ship, the Doctor telling Ace that the troubles are only just about to start.
Three – The cyberleader orders the automatic shuttle destroyed.
Four – The TARDIS disappears as it rides off into the sunset.
Continuity:
For the duration of this story, the TARDIS is seen in the form of an American convertible (it’s implied that in the previous story, “The Chameleon Factor”, the chameleon circuit might have been temporarily repaired either by accident or by the Doctor). It’s allegedly got a dodgy carburettor and the fuel line hurts.
The Doctor states that he’s not human and is wearing the ring recovered in the previous story.
Ace is desperate for a curry. She’s wearing earrings that feature the logo of the Nevada Star and has a Gerry Anderson badge on her jacket (just beneath her left shoulder). She knows of the cyber attacks in 1986 (the Doctor told her about them). When she’s wired into the cyber technology, Ace can see three new colours (representing heat, sound and gravity).
The petrol station at which the story takes place is “Nevada Star”, the last stop before Vegas (according to the board outside), in Pleasant Valley. It’s also a 24 hour bar and grill joint. Its logo is very similar to the model of an atom. There’s a Wurlitzer jukebox in the corner, the floor is checkered and it’s basically the standard American diner type set up. There’s a picture on the wall with the words “Penguin Parade” on it and the rubbish bin has a sign on it that reads “Tip it in the trash”. Another poster on the wall advertises “Tricky Dicky” on ice! Allegedly based on a play by William Shakespeare it “stars” Howard Keel (as Richard the Third), Sonia Hieny (as Queen M…) and Mickey Rooney (as Bucky).
The soldiers have a copy of “Pep” with them (a girly magazine) with Miss Amy Flagg on the cover (along with more atom symbols, you think this might be the dawn of the nuclear age or something?)
The cybermen here are of the “Tenth Planet” design. They’re accompanied by “caterpillar things” (early cybermats) and have a cyber cannon (which looks suspiciously like a cyberman wearing a cardboard box with a gun on the front). American weaponry destroys the cannon. The light bulbs in the cyber warship have arms and legs and, when they burn themselves out, detach themselves to recharge. The Doctor knows how to reprogram them so that they steal things for him. The cybermen know how to remove limbs from humans and can wire them into their computer systems. The reserve reactor on the shuttle has a big, almost “Earthshock” style face and four legs.
Colonel Rhodes served in Korea in 1950.
Jerome Wyler was born in 1936, Dade County, Florida. He ate liquorice, was frightened of thunderstorms and had never kissed a girl. He died in action aged about 18.
The soils in Southend and Nevada are very different.
Comments:
“The Good Soldier” is something of a let down, which is a pity as there’s just been a run of really good stories. There’s no real “need” to do another early cybermen story (“The World Shapers” was more than enough) and there are all kinds of elements to the plot that really don’t stand up too well. To start off with, how do the cybermen get a perfectly circular chunk of earth up into space, onto the shuttle and then to the warship without changing the gravity on the stolen land mass and still keeping sufficient atmosphere with it so that all the characters can breath? Come to think of it, given that the lump of earth needs to dock with the shuttle, which then, in turn, needs to dock with the warship, why bother with the shuttle? Why not just dock the earth directly to the warship? There’s a lot of death in this story and Rhodes being attached to the cybership to add a “human” element is so reminiscent of the little girl in “Remembrance of the Daleks” it’s uncanny. The artwork isn’t particularly brilliant either which is a shame and the TARDIS/car is just plain naff. To top it all off, the design of the reserve reactor is just a joke.
I’m sorry, but after such a wonderful run of stories, “The Good Soldier” is a terrible let down.
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