Doctor Who - Documentary s03e02 Episode Script
One Hit Wonder
The appeal of the Monoids, that's quite hard to quantify.
I think it's because they're the absolute epitome of a comedy villain.
They have a slightly ridiculous appearance.
They walk around telling their plans to each other.
Take them away to the security kitchen.
RAYNER: They've got a security kitchen, they throw flowers menacingly on the floor.
It's all a bit ridiculous and that's Watching it with sort of an adult knowing, how you can enjoy that and think that's great.
Yes, I bet it'll take some time to get the whole of the population down here.
So the sooner you get started, the better, I should think.
Don't worry.
It may not take as long as you think.
But at the same time, they are actually quite menacing, because they are ruthless.
They're prepared to wipe out the whole of humanity.
I mean, this is the whole of humanity on the ship.
What do you mean? Are you up to something? (HESITANTLY) Uh, no.
RAYNER: I think it shows really that you can be ridiculous and scary at the same time.
And that's in some ways scarier than just being scary.
We don't see many Doctor Who monsters repeated, actually.
There's a sort of myth that Doctor Who is obsessed with its own continuity.
And there's a great sort of repetition of Daleks, Cybermen and whatnot.
But actually, there's only a few that are repeated more than about twice.
They all tend to be monsters that are undilutedly evil.
So they can be just used again and again as standard horrible, frightening monsters.
And they're also flexible in terms of purely the design.
You know, a Cyberman can go anywhere.
It can be the desert, it can be an ice planet, it can be in a spaceship.
Whatever, whatever, whatever.
The one-off monsters were also by one-off writers.
What tends to happens with the monsters, I think, is if they return, they come back quite quickly, and they come back by their creator.
And so if the creators didn't come back, then most of the time, there's no real impetus for the monster to come back, unless they were phenomenally popular.
SANDBROOK: So why bring them back? They look like men in suits.
And that's something that I think Doctor Who wisely avoids these days, is having monsters that patently are a man with a stupid wig, you know, with a sort of Chewbacca suit and whatnot.
They've got stupid voices or they don't speak.
I mean, what's to like? KIM NEWMAN: They're sort of monsters built entirely around a "what if you put the eyeball in the mouth?" That's it.
That's the whole idea of the Monoids.
And I remember, actually, at the time being quite taken with it and watching it again, it is a striking and strange effect, even if their outfits are a bit baggy and the wigs are sort of odd-looking.
They don't individually, or as a race, have enough character to distinguish them from many other races that only appeared once on Doctor Who and we've never gone back to.
That said, I wouldn't rule out anybody turning up again in a show that's run this long.
Well, I think that the Monoids suffer from a condition that's quite common among Doctor Who monsters, in that they have wonderful torsos and heads, but very ridiculous feet.
The Monoids are sort of these odd, splay-footed, duck-like creatures from the knees down.
It's very hard to tell whether their knees are their true knees, whether their skin is their true skin.
Because in the shots that we see of them actually walking around, they waddle.
They almost have a kind of carapace that goes down to their ankles from beneath which these great flappy feet protrude.
And rather like You know, this may be the same reason why the Wirrn have never come back.
Dodgy feet, I think is the answer there.
The current incarnation of the series does seem to me surprisingly hung up on the William Hartnell version of Doctor Who.
It seems to me that almost all its references go back that far.
And I do think that, for instance, the treatment of the Monoids is very like the treatment of the Ood.
You can see what, as it were, a modern take on that type of story would be like.
Since they can do those sort of stories, there's no particular reason to do this one again.
I think it's because they're the absolute epitome of a comedy villain.
They have a slightly ridiculous appearance.
They walk around telling their plans to each other.
Take them away to the security kitchen.
RAYNER: They've got a security kitchen, they throw flowers menacingly on the floor.
It's all a bit ridiculous and that's Watching it with sort of an adult knowing, how you can enjoy that and think that's great.
Yes, I bet it'll take some time to get the whole of the population down here.
So the sooner you get started, the better, I should think.
Don't worry.
It may not take as long as you think.
But at the same time, they are actually quite menacing, because they are ruthless.
They're prepared to wipe out the whole of humanity.
I mean, this is the whole of humanity on the ship.
What do you mean? Are you up to something? (HESITANTLY) Uh, no.
RAYNER: I think it shows really that you can be ridiculous and scary at the same time.
And that's in some ways scarier than just being scary.
We don't see many Doctor Who monsters repeated, actually.
There's a sort of myth that Doctor Who is obsessed with its own continuity.
And there's a great sort of repetition of Daleks, Cybermen and whatnot.
But actually, there's only a few that are repeated more than about twice.
They all tend to be monsters that are undilutedly evil.
So they can be just used again and again as standard horrible, frightening monsters.
And they're also flexible in terms of purely the design.
You know, a Cyberman can go anywhere.
It can be the desert, it can be an ice planet, it can be in a spaceship.
Whatever, whatever, whatever.
The one-off monsters were also by one-off writers.
What tends to happens with the monsters, I think, is if they return, they come back quite quickly, and they come back by their creator.
And so if the creators didn't come back, then most of the time, there's no real impetus for the monster to come back, unless they were phenomenally popular.
SANDBROOK: So why bring them back? They look like men in suits.
And that's something that I think Doctor Who wisely avoids these days, is having monsters that patently are a man with a stupid wig, you know, with a sort of Chewbacca suit and whatnot.
They've got stupid voices or they don't speak.
I mean, what's to like? KIM NEWMAN: They're sort of monsters built entirely around a "what if you put the eyeball in the mouth?" That's it.
That's the whole idea of the Monoids.
And I remember, actually, at the time being quite taken with it and watching it again, it is a striking and strange effect, even if their outfits are a bit baggy and the wigs are sort of odd-looking.
They don't individually, or as a race, have enough character to distinguish them from many other races that only appeared once on Doctor Who and we've never gone back to.
That said, I wouldn't rule out anybody turning up again in a show that's run this long.
Well, I think that the Monoids suffer from a condition that's quite common among Doctor Who monsters, in that they have wonderful torsos and heads, but very ridiculous feet.
The Monoids are sort of these odd, splay-footed, duck-like creatures from the knees down.
It's very hard to tell whether their knees are their true knees, whether their skin is their true skin.
Because in the shots that we see of them actually walking around, they waddle.
They almost have a kind of carapace that goes down to their ankles from beneath which these great flappy feet protrude.
And rather like You know, this may be the same reason why the Wirrn have never come back.
Dodgy feet, I think is the answer there.
The current incarnation of the series does seem to me surprisingly hung up on the William Hartnell version of Doctor Who.
It seems to me that almost all its references go back that far.
And I do think that, for instance, the treatment of the Monoids is very like the treatment of the Ood.
You can see what, as it were, a modern take on that type of story would be like.
Since they can do those sort of stories, there's no particular reason to do this one again.