Doctor Who Retro Review: Survival

Now that we have a lot of downtime until Series Ten, it seems a particularly good time to examine some Classic Doctor Who. Here is a review of the Seventh Doctor serial ‘Survival.’

Just under a year ago, we posted an article title ‘Doctor Who: Cats.’ In this article, we somehow neglected to mention the cat-filled 1989 Seventh Doctor serial ‘Survival.’ Granted, that article was mostly about actors with cats, but still, shame on us (and by “us” I mean me)!

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‘Survival’ was the last aired serial of Season Twenty Six of Doctor Who, making it the last televised story until the 1996 movie. As I viewed it, I was instantly struck by how similar the feel is to the early years of the revival of Doctor Who, which aired roughly fifteen years later. First of all, they both appear to have been working on a relatively tight budget.

There are also parallels between the Doctors and the companions, respectively. The Seventh and the Ninth Doctors are stern, steadfast, and sarcastic, while Ace and Rose are bold, critical, yet casual youths. The latter two hold a distant curiosity about the relatively boring places in which they grew up, yet are reluctant to be a part of their old lives again. Both companions are reported as missing persons by their mothers.

Like the Tenth Doctor does in ‘Fear Her,’ the Seventh Doctor attempts to catch a cat. The difference is that in ‘Survival,’ the “cat” is actually a K itling, an alien from the Cheetah World. They are telepathically used by the Cheetah People as minions. The Kitling all have short, black fur and yellow eyes. (My cat Gary would fit right in.)

The most obvious initial comparison to make to a Cheetah Person is a Catkind, but the former is actually more like a horseback-riding nightmare inspired by Zoobilee Zoo. This makes sense considering Zoobilee Zoo originally aired from 1986 to 1987. (I was born in 1981, so the overall 1980s feel of this era of Doctor Who makes my inner 80s kid feel right at home.)

Anyway, in ‘Survival,’ when the Doctor brings Ace back to her hometown, she soon learns that the youth around her age have been going missing. This also is reminiscent of ‘Fear Her,’ but in that episode the ones disappearing were children. And rather than being trapped in alien drawings, Ace discovers the missing youth on the Cheetah Planet after they have all been transported there — vaguely a la Land of the Lost, or the Star Trek episode ‘Arena‘ — to be food for the Cheetah People and the Kitlings. The Doctor and Sergeant Paterson — an arrogant man who dismisses Ace and harasses the Doctor — are also transported to the Cheetah Planet. Here they must all battle the Master, who is behind the scheme. As he holds and strokes a Kitling, we see the epitome of the classic villain. (The feline traits that he gained in this serial were visually referenced in the opening sequence of the 1996 Doctor Who movie.)

There have also been some things during the Twelfth Doctor’s time that are callbacks to ‘Survival.’ Not only is the use of both electric guitar and synth music in the score a general nod to much of Classic Doctor Who, but in both ‘Survival’ and ‘Listen,’ the respective incarnations demonstrate the ability to stun people using only an index finger to the forehead.

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Next: Doctor Who: Of Altered Memories and Timelines

The Seventh Doctor’s run is known for some questionable

writing

production. While this is evidenced in ‘Survival,’ the concept for the conflict is actually quite clever, and the performances from the leads carried the episode well enough. If the BBC had invested more in the program at the time, it had the potential to flourish.

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