Meglos [TV/1980.9.27 ~ 10.18]

★★☆☆☆

  Perhaps John Nathan-Turner had a reason for not liking the ideas here — he would've noticed that they weren't enough to form a four-parter. It's a miracle that they even made it work!

  I'm not as distressed by the successive run of The Leisure Hive and Meglos as I could've been, thanks to the fact that I'm very well aware of Season 18 and the highs it reaches. I'm more mulling over the fact that this season was helmed under the goal of "removing all the silliness" of the Graham Williams era and injecting a lot more science in science fiction. That's all well and good, but that becomes rather a moot point when this serial is anything but intellectually stimulating. The four parts are stretched to their limit to accomodate the format, with so much filler and repetitive nonsense. We've also reached the stage where both Tom Baker and Lalla Ward are visibly tired of being on the show (and being in the vicinity of each other), and therefore the already meager excitement factor is dragged down the mud. It's a shame, really; there are quite a few fascinating special effects at play here, and one moment I'm sure I won't forget anytime soon is when the human host of Meglos desperately tries to get out of Meglos-Doctor's body and the alien entity physically holds him hostage. Flickers of actual imagination they are, but there are too few of those around in this rather boring serial.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  Meglos has quite a few problems (a clear dearth of ideas in comparison to its four-part format, a disinterested primary cast, the sheer lack of entertainment value) that I can't bring myself to enjoy, but at least it has the great Jacqueline Hill giving one last go at the series. Even as a religion-crazed priestess, she's so engrossing.