Jaconda Forever

I had three main takeaways from this episode. First, my ear for music must be halfway decent. I thought the music sounded a lot like the music from the Keys of Marinus – particularly the repeated two-note theme in the wind instruments. Sure enough, I checked, and the incidental music was composed by Norman Kay . Mr. Kay composed the music for only three early stories, and it did include the Sensorites and the Keys of Marinus. Second, molybdenum seems like a really random chemical element for two races to go to war over. My operative theory was that there was a spike in demand in the early 1960s, causing it to become a plot element in this story. However, my extensive research into molybdenum – i.e., a skimming of its Wikipedia page – was inconclusive. Third, the actor who portrayed John might have benefited from some time in the Royal Hospital for Overacting . Looking him up , he also played Yartek in the Keys of Marinus. I realize he was in a full-body costume for that role and not r...

I’m sure I have this story on a VHS tape and have watched it before as an omnibus version broadcast on PBS (USA public broadcasting). But I didn’t watch it regularly and I remember almost nothing about it except the appearance of the Sensorites. I’ve since picked up via various podcasts that this is not a well-regarded story and I’ve been somewhat dreading watching it. So I thought I’d make it more interesting: They had this at Costco! Okay, I live in the suburbs and had like one drink and can barely feel it. Too much more and I’d have a headache tomorrow! Anyway, I almost never notice things like camera shots, but I was surprised when they appeared to go from the TARDIS interior to the spaceship in one shot. I guess it was two adjacent studio sets? Beyond that, it didn’t seem like the worst episode I’ve ever seen. Sure, there was some unnecessary dialogue that felt like padding. And it didn’t make sense that a Sensorite could burn out the TARDIS lock while 20 feet away from the crew ...