The Sun Makers

In my opinion, a very dull, boring story. As someone who does not have much of a relation to the story's behind the scenes influences of the British tax system in the 1970's, I don't care for. Arguably its a dystopia from an economic point of view; but its just sooo boring. Leela has some good moments and K9 playing chess is a classic moment but its one I would consider never watching again.

First off, I usually loathe criticising production values (and these aren't too bad), but the colour scheme for the sets is quite gaudy and the location filming is actual corridors and the roof of a building. The directing is fine but it just doesn't do enough to create a sense of space. The whole Megropolis feels very claustrophobic. Where the story succeeds is the writing and structure of the story. Even though, visual it lacks a sense of space Holmes is top-notch at detailing alien worlds. After introducing the characters most of the first episode is a massive info dump. Once the Doctor and Leela leave the Tardis they bump into Cordo who explains the workings of the Megropolis and that they have no word for dark. this cuts between Gather Hade explaining to his assistant about resistance movements elsewhere on the planet. The cutting back and forth between these two sequences breaks up what might otherwise be monotonous.

There are two deaths. And the first one interests me because it shows the technician slumping to the floor, possibly stunned. But if the Doctor killed him even indirectly that raises concerns over morality and whether it is a "Doctorly" thing to do. I think they were having their cake and eating it. People naturally assume he is dead but if Whitehouse were to kick up a fuss they could easily claim he was merely incapacitated.

Overall, my opinion vacillates. It's not Holmes at his best but there is enough here to really like.

A sorely needed return to form! The Sun Makers is a cracking little spoof; packed to the rafters with some wonderfully entertaining characters played with panto aplomb (particularly Richard Leech). This is a story fully self-aware, not attempting to tick boxes, but simply to entertain.

Despite much being made of political allegory, besides the bizarre twist of anti-corporate spin to what is ultimately an anti-treasury subtext, there's little to find of much depth. Unlike Letts' excesses (namely the Green Death), TSM never preaches or delves much deeper than the simple apolitical reality of taxation being a sore irritant. Whilst there's heavy-handed comparisons to be made (Huxley's Soma, P45 tags and so forth) The Sun Makers is first and foremost a fun serial, well shot, with plenty of action for secondary characters.

It won't set Pluto on fire overnight, but nevertheless it's a really solid and fun romp to be recommended.

The first 3 parts of this tale represent some of the best Doctor Who take on a typical dystopia with some outrageous characters and concepts of taxation Also Louise Jameson shines as a powerful Severtine warrior Leela. The resolution to the story is probably its weakest parts, while Part 4 has its moments, there's a bit of rush to wrap up a complex story and fell a dictatorship. I also felt that the conscious shift of villains to a corporation rather than a greedy government hurts the tale as well. Overall, though, this is a high-point for Season 15 and for the Graham Williams era.