Doctor Who - The Sun Makers
Director- Pennant Roberts
Cast- Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Country of Origin- U.K.
Distributor - BBC Worldwide
Number of discs – 1
Reviewed by - Tyler Miller
Date- 07/24/2019
Tom Baker is the face of Classic Doctor Who. He was both charming and yet otherworldly missing some of the more human moments of the previous three Doctors. Since he was on the air for such a long time, his story arches could be hit or miss. The Sun Makers was the 95th official story in the shows long run and it’s one of the most enjoyable.
The title “The Sun Makers” really doesn’t play into the plot, other than a subtle plot device and a metaphor for corruption in taxes. In this story, The TARDIS makes a surprise trip to the Planet Pluto. Thought to be a lifeless rock, The Doctor and Leela (Louise Jameson) are shocked to find that the planet now has six artificial suns and large cities. Inside the massive skyscrapers are an exploited workers that are controlled by an all powerful force known only as “The Company”. The Company keeps the workers in line with brutal taxes, where even dying will cost you. As the Doctor explores the newly industrial Pluto, He starts to notice some strange gases and a weird alien influence.
The Sun Makers is Classic Who with all the trappings that make it so much fun. The limited sets and cardboard props balanced out with some excellent stories. Tom Baker gets plenty fun bits of comedy and stage acting with a fun chess game and a hilarious scene where he is captured. But this story truly shines with its cartoonish villains. Richard Leech (THE DAM BUSTERS, NIGHT OF THE DEMON) is hamming up as the greedy Gatherer Hade. He is delightfully theatrical with lots of yelling one-liners and a truly wonderful villain death scene even by Who standards. Henry Woolf plays the toad like super villain The Collector. At first I thought I would find his squeaky voice too mind numbing in a Chipmunks sort of way, But ply the third episode I was loving every bit of his blunt attitude. A being completely obsessed with money and wealth. A bean counter if you will.
BBC Video has remastered the story to look quite well with its mix of 16mm film and video. The 4:3 picture is sharp with only a few moments of motion blur, which were common with early video. The English Mono track is also clear with no hiss or pops. English subtitles are included.
Like most of these classic Doctor Who releases, The Sun Makers is packed with extras. First up is an audio commentary on all 4 episodes with stars Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Michael Keating, and director Pennant Roberts. The track is fun and I can’t get enough of Baker’s dry witt. Running from the Tax Man is a indepth look at the story with insight into Pluto as a setting choice and writer Robert Holmes history with Showrunners. Rounding out the disc is a featurette on composer Dudley Simpson, Outtakes, BBC1 trailer, photo gallery, and PDF materials with Radio time listings and Production notes.
