Hogan Reviews

Another Doctor Who blu-ray set dropped, so it’s time for another review! Season 25-wise the story that I haven’t watched in the longest time was The Happiness Patrol, a weird bit of political commentary that’s caught between the super-child-friendly Season 24 mood and the more-serious (for Doctor Who) storytelling of Season 26. It… doesn’t entirely work, but there are some really good scenes in it though, especially the ending, so let’s take a look!

The story is set on the planet “Terra Alpha” and sees The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) arrive as the people of the planet are dominated by a regime that has outlawed unhappiness to the point where anyone caught being unhappy is executed by the titular Happiness Patrol (who for the record also paint the TARDIS bright pink because it otherwise look depressing, which is at odds with the whole depressing aesthetic of the sets, but whatever…) The planet is led by Helen A (Sheila Hancock), a rather on-the-nose parody of Margaret Thatcher, who while just before my time (I was a child during the latter days of her reign and therefore not interested in politics!) it only takes a second to discover how truly cold-hearted she was and let’s say controversial in her decisions, so it’s not hard to see where the writers were coming from even if this parody is obviously dialled up to eleven. She has a long-suffering husband in Joseph C (Ronald Fraser) and a pair of executioners in Gilbert M (Harold Innocent) and the infamous Kandy Man (David John Pope), who looks so close to the Liquorice All-Sorts mascot Bertie Basset that a lawsuit was threatened due to copyright breach. He’s a robot who takes great pleasure in making really sweet treats and watching as people die due to the side-effects… plus just pulling a lever and watching people get molten hot sugar poured on them. It’s a scary concept and the costume isn’t even that bad, but the weird modulated voice and constant use of 60s Batman-level puns takes the edge off, sadly…

Scary! … Plus there a weird creature on a chair as well!

It doesn’t take long for the Doctor and Ace to get separated, where Ace soon befriends Susan Q (Lesley Dunlop), who starts off as a member of the Happiness Patrol but is caught being unhappy about that fact and thrown in “this isn’t a jail, you’re free to leave at any time but if you leave this open area I’ll shoot you dead” … place. The Doctor meanwhile meets Earl Sigma (Richard D. Sharp) who likes playing sad music on his harmonica when nobody is around to turn him in, as well as the “Pipe People” who were the original inhabitants of the planet who were driven underground. It’s also key to point out that Helen A. has a favourite pet called “Fifi” who she puts in the pipes to kill the Pipe People and Ace at one point, but Ace uses her Nitro 9 to explode the beast… only for it to appear in Episode 3 with some bandages on, which is odd… extra odd when you consider something else I’ll talk about in the spoilers!

Other things to mention in the first two thirds (this is one of those odd three-part stories!) include The Doctor managing to out-smart the Kandy Man by spraying lemonade on his sweet legs (literally!) that cause them to melt and attach to the floor, he does this twice somehow… again, great concept for a villain, they just leaned into the silly too much in my opinion, which I know is a odd thing to say about a villain made of sweets but hey, there is something menacing about a funny looking thing acting all kill-y if you go full on with it. There is also a scene where The Doctor confronts two snipers and tries to get one of them to shoot him point blank where they can see who  they’re killing face-to-face and they can’t bring themselves to do it. It’s a frankly great scene and an early example of McCoy’s Doctor’s more cynical and serious side. Part 2 ends with The Doctor finding a poster claiming “Ace Sigma” was due to be executed…

The Doctor and Earl meet the “Pipe People”… you don’t though, as they’re in shadow. Sorry!

As I said it’s a weird bag, the Happiness Patrol being bright and obnoxious makes sense but feels close to the Kangs from my least favourite story in Paradise Towers, and Fifi and the Kandy Man’s look and puns also feel more cartoony like Season 24, but the message, dour tone and Helen A. and the Kandy Man’s actions are far more in line with the more mature (for TV Doctor Who) season 26. The confrontation with the snipers I already mentioned and the final five minutes of the story are really good though, so it’s worth a watch, definitely.

The Continuity:

The screenshot you were all waiting for! Look at the extra blu-ray clean-up detail! … Okay, you can stop now. (The eyes rotate for the record!)

Not a great deal. The Kandy Man, in his originally proposed “regular-looking human with white powdery face” form returns in the Eighth Doctor audio two-parter “World of Damnation / Sweet Salvation”, but that’s about it. It’s not a story that really lends itself to direct sequels or prequels…

Overall Thoughts:

Which one’s the odd one out? That’s right….. Ace. Sorry, I was trying to think of a gag answer there and couldn’t think of one.

“The Happiness Patrol” is an odd story, it mixes zany visuals and gags from Season 24 with a more serious message and occasionally chilling Seventh Doctor from Season 26. It does the latter really well when it does go down that road, especially with the ending, but a lot of the other stuff does detract from it a bit. Far more good than bad though, and a recommended watch if you’re looking for a TV Seventh Doctor story.

The Doctor manages to rescue Ace and Susan Q by gathering a group of rebels (who he helped convince to “down tools” and fight back, so a Miner’s strike reference for that extra bit of Margaret Thatcher-ism!) and having them all laugh hysterically and act happy while rebelling, and therefore the Happiness Patrol can’t arrest them, and in fact some of the Patrol join in, causing a bunch of infighting. This is soon followed by The Doctor and Ace outsmarting the Kandy Man once again and causing him to flee into the pipes only to get caught by a stream of his own molten sugar and destroyed, and later Fifi is put into the pipes again to chase everyone again, only to be seemingly killed, again. It’s three episodes long and they repeated that scene twice?! Anyway, Helen A sees the writing on the wall and tries to escape in her personal craft only to see both her husband and Gilbert M have used it to flee instead.

The chilling final scene… that I don’t talk about until the paragraph underneath this. Oh well, I really didn’t want to miss out screen-grabbing it!

Helen A then tries to make her escape on foot only to run into The Doctor, who chastises her for her treatment of the people and for thinking that happiness could exist without sadness. She sticks to her guns until she sees Fifi in the last moments of its life, breaking down into hysterical tears and cradling her beloved pet. Ace arrives and despite everything looks sorry for her and asks when they should do, The Doctor simply replies “it’s already been done”, coldly looking down on the weeping woman without a hint of remorse. Chilling stuff, and worth the three episodes of average-ness to reach, honestly. The Doctor and Ace soon depart after painting the TARDIS back to its blue colour.