The Beautiful People

Story: The Dominators
Written By: Norman Asbhy
Length: 5 Episodes
Year: 1968

So starts Season 6. "The Dominators" is about a peaceful and non-violent inhabitants of a planet, having to learn how to defend themselves and fight off the ruthless Dominators and their robot slaves from The Doctor, Jamies, and Zoe. It is a pretty good story idea, and in some ways its works. Originally 6 episodes, it was cut down to 5...yet even in 5 episodes it feels rather slow and padded.
The curse of the multi-part story is the padding. While I understand old fans nolstagia of remembering the cliffhangers, for the most part I have to say I do not miss the format. Not that I ever watched the format before the new series (yea..thats right I've seen every episode of new and classic Who and I didn't even start until David Tennant was already the Doctor), but i feel the 45 minutes is for the most part a better format.

"The Dominators" has some cheap effects, strange costumes, and some bad acting. The leads are still good, but the the rest aren't in top form. The story is a decent idea, but I feel the execution is lacking. At least the story exists in its complete form for once.

NEXT TIME: The Land of Fiction

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