Disappointment - it's one of the bad things you don't forget in life - you can cope with failure, grief never lasts and pain is quickly forgotten, but disappointment - that just lingers... OK, OK, I'd been spoilt rotten by 'Who' almost continuously for 2 years, but the realisation in January 1983 that the standards of 'Leisure Hive', 'Full Circle' and 'Visitation' were gone (I never seriously expected the standards of 'Warriors Gate', 'Keeper', 'Logopolis', 'Castrovalva' and 'Kinda' to return) and that they were going to be replaced by the standards of 'Time-Flight' and 'Earthshock', did sadden me as I watched this for the first time. I had vague memories of 'Deadly Assasin' and I'd loved (as a 11 year old) 'Invasion of Time', so I had real hopes for this story - Gallifrey with the show's current production standards. Plus, I'd met David Howe for the first time the previous summer and I'd been confidently told by him that 'Arc' was going to be the season's spectacular... (he also told me that 'Mawdryn' was almost completely incomprehensible - so he was half right).
From the little I'd heard, I imagined a dark story of deceit, treachery - the Doctor being put on trial, Gallifrey facing oblivion, Nyssa saving the day, the Matrix collapsing... I'd seen the bangs that started Seasons 18 and 19 so I really thought this was going to be good. OK there was all this 'something in every story from the Doctor's past', but we'd only had the Master and the Cybermen in recent years, so that didn't sound so bad at the time, and I knew that Nyssa was being given the elbow, but I suppose that just encouraged me to enjoy the little of her there was left (I hadn't yet seen 'Terminus'...sorry, rotten joke).
And then, like I said, deep, deep disappointment. Gallifrey is a lot of bare rooms and shiny corridors with a Time Lord tea-bar. Amsterdam is central to the plot in the way that veruccas are central to the work of Charles Dickens. Colin Baker can't act - he can't, I'm very, very sorry, but he is awful - a poor bit-part actor got the job of the Doctor - sorry, but I knew the show was doomed the moment I heard that. The High Council are a sad parody of Traken's wonderful consuls (no wonder Nyssa keeps bawling them out - 'So much for your justice!' - spot on, girl!) - with the honourable exception of Michael Gough who out-shines the rest of the guest cast with elegance and aplomb (though it isn't very hard...). By this stage, the casting was just getting silly - OK, Nerys Hughes was wonderful, and I like Beryl Reid (talk about miscasting, though) - but where did they get this lot of bargain basement dummies? 'OK, Ron, we need an imposing figure for President Borusa - what about the chairman from the 'Good Old Days'?' 'Great idea, John, by the way I hear Lynda Baron, Leee John and Lisa Goddard are looking for work...' And as for the gormless numbskulls of Amsterdam - I almost wrote come back Matthew Waterhouse, but I won't now sanity prevails...
It's full of really, really rotten lines: 'How's my old friend, Leela?', 'Unhappy creature. My only hope is that he has found peace at last' 'We thought he was destroyed before, but he returned to confound us all', 'I see you have regenerated again' (I could end up quoting half the script...) even poor Sarah Sutton has a job with 'Time Lords, I beg of you, think of what you're doing'. Think about it - Johnny Byrne (of 'Space 1999' infamy remember) writes two scripts (two very similar scripts). The producer wants an old enemy in then - the script editor has to substantially re-write the script - QED the difference between Bidmead and Saward is the difference between 'Keeper' and 'Arc' (and then Saward managed to make Byrne's last script into 'Warriors of the Deep' - if I was Byrne, I'd have put my head in a gas-oven by that point - no, on second thoughts, I'd have put Saward's head in a gas oven and saved us all from having to watch 'Timelash'). And Ron Jones, one of JNT's mates, with absolutely no experience of TV directing, having just made 'Time-Flight' (which Davison complained about, apparently), gets to direct with all his usual flair: ie none at all ('Oooh, a chase scene - I know, I'll get them to run around Amsterdam for 10 minutes, that'll eradicate what little dramatic tension there is left by then' 'An execution scene - lots of dry ice, I think' 'The Matrix? Hmm, hard one this - I know! A few wobbly lines and Davison and Fielding sitting on chairs waving their legs'). Then he got to make 'Frontios' (which looks appalling) and 'Vengeance on Varos' (Golf carts anyone?) Sorry to go on, but the total lack of ability of these people and the terrible effect their 'efforts' had on the show still makes me want to scream. And I haven't even mentioned the music, have I? OK, so Roger Limb, I'm sure was starting to wonder why he got all the bargain basement stuff to score, but by god, his musical meanderings are painful in the extreme. Remember the score to 'Full Circle' 'Logopolis', 'Castrovalva', 'Kinda'? Even 'Keeper'? (and it wasn't that good...). My only memory of watching 'Arc' in 1983 with my family was of my uncle getting up and saying 'I can't stand that dreadful music - I think I'd rather go and do the washing up!' I don't think I can improve on that judgement. Needless to say there is only one person who bears responsibility for this collective cack-handedness...and it ain't Michael Grade.
And yet, and yet - the poor old regulars are still going for it - you really want to send them an 'In Deepest Sympathy' card for having the misfortune for being stuck in this drivel - Davison acts up a storm (even managing to overcome the terrible direction of his 'Omega' scenes - 'Tulips from Amsterdam'? I thought I'd die from the shame...), and as virtually every review spots, Sarah Sutton is a total revelation as a solo companion - brave, resourceful and totally loyal to the Doctor ('we mustn't fail him, Damon, now I want this thing open!), apart from when he's rather cavalier about Tegan's safety (just a bit!). Then, of course there's her reaction to hearing that Tegan's back - now that's prompted some conjectures... All I can ask is this: Production order: 'Time-Flight', 'Snakedance', 'Arc of Infinity' - how in god's name did 'Snakedance' get made between those two travesties? (And don't just say, because Ron Jones was locked in a cupboard those days...)
