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Book Review: Logopolis (The Black Archive 76), by Jonathan Hay
I was inspired to take a look at this after reading NWhyte's recent review, and I'm glad I did. As a child it was all about Tom Baker's final story as the Doctor; truly an era coming to an end. It's interesting that the story gains dimensions, as you gain knowledge. I realised during the 1990s that one of the regular writers in PC Plus magazine, Chris Bidmead, was in fact the same Christopher H Bidmead who wrote this story.
Jonathan Hay's overview of the story looks at the production aspects (Baker and Nathan-Turner agitated; the Police Box on the Barnet by-pass being removed between the story being written and filmed; filming not taking place at Jodrell Bank, despite being the obvious model for the Pharos project telescope), but most of the book is at least somewhat about the science. Bidmead was keen to bring "hard science" to Doctor Who, and thermodynamics is perhaps the hardest science of all.
Bidmead creates the concept of Charged Vacuum Emboîtements managed by the Logopolitans to manage his way out of Maxwell's demon, but his solution doesn't violate the second law; it merely transfers the entropy to a place beyond our own universe. Doctor Who has always had a scientific basis; for all the dei ex machinae, it doesn't generally rely on supernatural outcomes. But it's fair to say that science mostly takes a back seat. Not here: As well as entropy, we have human computers and the Watcher (an oddity which for me is never explained in the actual story, but which Hay plausibly ascribes to a quantum disturbance, the future Doctor appearing coincident with his current self).
Hay argues that all of season 18 (script edited by Bidmead) has a story arc about entropy and decay. Beyond the trip into e-space via a CVE, I hadn't picked up on that, although I had viewed it as the Doctor's body suffering such a series of assaults (artifically aged in The Leisure Hive; absorbed by a cactus in Meglos; falling into another universe) that regeneration was inevitable - "this body is worn out" as William Hartnell put it. After the change in the theme music for this season, and the known impending regeneration, in 1981 it seemed a real prospect that the TARDIS itself might be changed. Of course, it doesn't work out that way.
It's interesting that season 18 departs from the old formulation ending with a six-part story; although with seven four-part stories it's actually longer than previous seasons (even accounting for the loss of Shada due to industrial action the previous year). The egalitarian nature of the arc makes it difficult to raise Logopolis onto a plinth, and its own story arc continues with Castrovalva into season 19. But it probably is something of a high point; I had to rewatch it after reading this book, and Hay does it justice.
I was inspired to take a look at this after reading NWhyte's recent review, and I'm glad I did. As a child it was all about Tom Baker's final story as the Doctor; truly an era coming to an end. It's interesting that the story gains dimensions, as you gain knowledge. I realised during the 1990s that one of the regular writers in PC Plus magazine, Chris Bidmead, was in fact the same Christopher H Bidmead who wrote this story.
Jonathan Hay's overview of the story looks at the production aspects (Baker and Nathan-Turner agitated; the Police Box on the Barnet by-pass being removed between the story being written and filmed; filming not taking place at Jodrell Bank, despite being the obvious model for the Pharos project telescope), but most of the book is at least somewhat about the science. Bidmead was keen to bring "hard science" to Doctor Who, and thermodynamics is perhaps the hardest science of all.
If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the Second Law of Thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.Arthur Eddington
Bidmead creates the concept of Charged Vacuum Emboîtements managed by the Logopolitans to manage his way out of Maxwell's demon, but his solution doesn't violate the second law; it merely transfers the entropy to a place beyond our own universe. Doctor Who has always had a scientific basis; for all the dei ex machinae, it doesn't generally rely on supernatural outcomes. But it's fair to say that science mostly takes a back seat. Not here: As well as entropy, we have human computers and the Watcher (an oddity which for me is never explained in the actual story, but which Hay plausibly ascribes to a quantum disturbance, the future Doctor appearing coincident with his current self).
Hay argues that all of season 18 (script edited by Bidmead) has a story arc about entropy and decay. Beyond the trip into e-space via a CVE, I hadn't picked up on that, although I had viewed it as the Doctor's body suffering such a series of assaults (artifically aged in The Leisure Hive; absorbed by a cactus in Meglos; falling into another universe) that regeneration was inevitable - "this body is worn out" as William Hartnell put it. After the change in the theme music for this season, and the known impending regeneration, in 1981 it seemed a real prospect that the TARDIS itself might be changed. Of course, it doesn't work out that way.
It's interesting that season 18 departs from the old formulation ending with a six-part story; although with seven four-part stories it's actually longer than previous seasons (even accounting for the loss of Shada due to industrial action the previous year). The egalitarian nature of the arc makes it difficult to raise Logopolis onto a plinth, and its own story arc continues with Castrovalva into season 19. But it probably is something of a high point; I had to rewatch it after reading this book, and Hay does it justice.