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The Leisure Hive Format Reviewed: DVD Review The Leisure Hive has the notable distinction of being the first story of Tom Bakers final season playing The Doctor. John Nathan-Turner also began his role as producer on this story, with the idea that the show should very firmly be taken into the 1980's. To this end, a whole new title-sequence was introduced, more modern and plentiful incidental music appeared and the theme was again re-arranged, this time in an electronic music fashion. As this is the title sequence I grew up with, and still the best arrangement of the theme tune in my humble opinion, JNT got off to a reasonable start with these changes. The Doctor and Romana travel to Argolis to enjoy their pleasure dome. After a war with the Foamasi race, the Argolins have become a sterile race and are trying to find a way to survive. Pangol, who is the leader Mena's son, is working secretly to clone himself over and over again to provide a new race of Argolins with himself as the blueprint. Meanwhile, rogue Foamasi agents posing as Humans are trying to buy the pleasure dome. The Doctor eventually manages to find out about and interfere with Pangols plans, expose the Foamasi agents and make the dying and weak Mena into a much younger woman with Pangol reverting to being just a baby. The Leisure Hive, being the supposed new era of Doctor Who on television, can be seen to be somewhat of a transitional story. Everyone appears to be getting used to a new way of doing things and new production values. To a certain degree, the special effects used in this story are a real main feature, and one that could be described as the reason it was written. Presentaionally, the story looks very slick compared to some of what had come before, but there were still elements that show a lack of budget overall.Story wise, I think it is a solid story of a race trying to do what it can to survive, and a megalomaniacal figure emerging from that race. It is certainly not a revolutionary tale or one that will live long and hard in the memory, but on the other hand it isn't one that you will roll your eyes at. Tom Baker, Lalla Ward and John Leeson (albeit briefly) form the regular cast in this episode as The Doctor, Romana and K9 respectively. Tom certainly does appear to be tiring in the role, and this is shown in some scenes he appears in. He is also starting to show his age a little, a fact exascerbated by his younger companion in Lalla Ward. In the guest cast, Adrienne Corry gives a delightful and sympathetic performance as the dying Mena. David Haig is rather frantic as Pangol, but isn't too bad, while John Collin gives a relaxed showing of Brock. Overall, the cast did a good job with a script that lacked real depth. In this story, the overriding impression you get is that the production is showing off a new set of rules and values. This seems to detract from the solid, if largely uninspiring story. The acting is solid, but viewing the story as a single entity rather than as a leap from the end of the previous story you get the feeling that the story doesn't really have the substance you want to fill four half hour episodes. At times the pace is great, but there is certainly a fair bit of padding around the edges. Overall, The Leisure Hive will likely be remembered as the story where John Nathan-Turner began his reign on the show, and the modernisation of Who started. A more slick presentation though masks to a certain degree the lack or any real innovation in the story so the action itself is likely to live less long in the memory. Rating:  |