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The Happiness Patrol Format Reviewed: VHS Review To follow the excellent Rememberance of the Daleks, the production crew chose to commission and make The Happiness Patrol. In tone and production, the story is very similar to Paradise Towers of the previous season. Fitting neatly in between stories about the Daleks and Cybermen, The Happiness Patrol really needs to be a very good stand-alone adventure for the Doctor. The Happiness Patrol sees the Doctor take Ace to an Earth colony on Terra Alpha where thery find a society in which everyone must be happy at all times. The colony is run by Helen A, and her henchman is the Kandy Man, a humanoid made up of oversize liquorice allsorts. The colony is ruled by an iron fist, and 'routine disappearances' happen all the time. The indiginous population, the Pipe People, meet up with Ace and start to cause an insurgency. The drones start demonstrating and take over factories on the planet, so Helen A prepares to leave. Distraught at the injuring of Fifi though, and her reign of tyranny is at an end, while the Kandy Man dies in the tunnels through being engulfed in boiling fondant. After the excellent Rememberance of the Daleks, it is a real shame that this story exists. If it had been in the previous series, it would have fit perfectly as it really is mindless dull drivel. There are more incidental characters that make very little difference apart from providing padding where none should be. Census taker Trevor Sigma is the example here, as his character is completely unneccessary, just providing padding. Essentially, this story suffers from a lack of depth that really stems from trying to provide a visually stunning piece, but it just fails. The superficial nature can be summed up by considering the character of Earl Sigma, the jazz harmonica player. He seems to be in the story meerly to provide tone and incidental music, alonside a contrast from the gaudy happiness patrol itself. There are some excellent performances in the cast, despite the failings of the script and the story. The great Sheila Hancock appears as Helen A, and really does do a great job. The members of the happiness patrol that are excellent are Georgina Hale and Lesley Dunlop who play Daisy K and Susan Q respectively. Sylvester McCoy gives a decent display as the Doctor, and Sophie Aldred does equally well as Ace. Probably the major complaint with The Happiness Patrol I have is that it really doesn't go anywhere, it just sort of happens. I believe that the outcome would have been the same had the Doctor not taken Ace to Terra Alpha, as the uprising started in the factories without any coersion from the Doctor. The regime would have crumbled in the same timeframe, just in a different way at the top so it really makes the story kind of pointless. The main factor that does however go in favour of this story though is that it is fairly pleasant to watch and the time passes without too much discomfort. Hardly a glowing reference, but it's not as bad as some in the previous season. Overall, The Happiness Patrol is a very superficial story that doesn't really go anywhere. Considering the much better quality of story that were starting to come through, it is really very disappointing to find a rather incipid tale stuffed in the middle of a decent season. Rating:  |