FAN FILM REVIEWS: TIME STEALERS

STORY:    Simon Williams plays a beefy, thuggish, cheerfully evil version of the Master through four episodes.  It’s not more complicated than that…

 

REVIEW:  There’s this guy, Simon Williams, apparently he got the idea to do a series of fan videos about a Time Lord: The Master.

William’s Master is not a good guy, except by accident. He reminds me most of George McDonald Fraser’s character, Harry Flashman. The Master as played by Williams is a thorough villain, he’d tie girls to railroad tracks on general principle. He’s arrogant, treacherous, deceitful, brilliant, utterly unprincipled, a bit sadistic, fearless and oddly petty. He’s the sort of guy who would find a way to urinate in the punch bowl at a mixer, just to sit back and watch everyone else drink it. At one point in the third story, without any provocation or reason, he destroys RTD2 with his tissue compressor… because its fun. Basically, he’s cheerful evil. He brings an infectious glee to the role. Mind you, his character is constantly doing this ‘evil chuckle,’ which is thoroughly annoying and gets on the nerves. But he’s a watchable bad buy. He needs to lose a little weight, so he doesn’t have the ‘lean and hungry’ quality of Delgado and Ainsley, but he brings a beefy thuggishness to the role which is engaging.

He’s also not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. He’s constantly screwing himself up, his treachery and dishonesty keep coming back to bite him on the ass. In short, he’s only a slight exaggeration of the Delgado and Ainsley Masters, both of whom, despite their ruthlessness, having a decided penchant for shooting themselves in the foot. But their boundless self confidence, their pride and utter certainty that nothing can go wrong prevents them from seeing it. They are their own worst enemies. There’s just no self awareness. It’s this penchant for scheming his way into failure that makes the Williams Master especially fun to watch. It’s just entertaining as hell watching him scramble trying to cope with the messes he gets himself into, happily betraying everyone he meets……………


5 comments

  1. @DenValdron

    These weren’t bad either. Except for the score in the first two. Oh Boy! It’s a pianistic Elton John in alto and some sharpish synths!

    The 3rd theme with the introductory credits and appealed to me quite a bit. It was a joyous little thing which, despite a lack of plot, was hilarious because of the English trekkies arriving in perfect unison and were instantly recognisable right from the first teleport.

    The camera work is good, isn’t it? though I feel there’s a depressing feel to numbers 1,2 and 4: is it the small rooms? The oppressive cold weather? The shrunken cybermen?  Not sure! I liked the Master, though, as a bigger Time Thug -just as good as the leaner, meaner machine!

    I like how the 1st and 2nd manages to slot together. First the fellow -is it young Roberts? has no idea who this Master is but later, when he re-meets him, the Master immediately reverts to ‘nasty’ TL with his “you loathsome, pathetic man and I could kill you where you stand, you know!” Roberts (?) says “yes, I believe that about you easily enough” so we have the foe and the innocent bystander more clearly established. The military claims that duct tape is the most useful apparatus and I think for producers it’s just as true! Attached to your neck or face is absolutely the right way to go here, with the cyberrats (as I call ’em)  though the army (not UNIT, though?) are alarmingly worrying with their M16s pointed right at the unsuspecting civilians (not usually done in ‘canon’) although out of desperation, Army Man 1 tells the civilian all the classified information.

    Maybe Roberts (I’m stickin’ to that name now) has a believable, helpful kind of face. 2 and 3 could be connected by the Master’s “You loathsome…pathetic” people statement with the Morris Dancers: “When I rid this planet, I’ll start with the Morris Dancers”  -or something like that. Gee, they get the short end of the stick don’t they? As I said, earlier, these dancers are quite the violent types and very possessive of their culture. The ones I knew played away from home all the time, married, divorced, remarried and played again. It’s the devil’s dance, I tell you!

    As for 4, oh boy! I liked the regeneration scene and plot which like the Sim manifestation made him all the worse for it.

    There was a lot of ‘actorr’ stuff with the Rani who didn’t seem scary at all, just school- play scary, I suppose: “Come, Rani  we need the ingredients for the elixir…  Find the other one and make sure he fades into obscurity.” The endless discussions about regeneration were a problem for me. “the Master is his own worst enemy. It will take a miracle to stop him….” and

    “We need your help to defeat the Master who should never have existed.”( We get it).

    ” Why should I help you when I know I’m going to regenerate anyway?” (And again…)

    And I shall be a Queen…a toast to the destruction of Gallifrey”… -gosh, is that a Russian accent?

    And at 26:46, “nooooo. Rrrrrrr” That was…some acting…..:)

    Still, it’s a good premise. I would have liked just The Master (or the three, anyway) instead of the Rani and less dancing around the locations (which are beautiful but made for some confusing elements). I liked the changing TARDIS. With the present Master that would make up for the police box (I’m not against it but we need a contrast now).

    Did you hear the musical “drum drum drum drum in the high register near the end? That was a nice foreshadowing of the statement that Gallifrey  now runs at full capacity and must therefore require the presence of the Master as witness against the “renegades”.

    “I defeated you with my startling intellect” -really?

    “Not if I kill you first!” Too bloomin’ right!

    Thank you!  That was fun.

    Kindest, puro

     

     

  2. Regarding that opening score, I’m absolutely sure I used to hear that in early 80’s cheap direct to video scores.   I can almost, almost put my finger on where they lifted it from.  I think it was the company instrumental.  Not Full Moon, maybe Astron or one of those.

    You’re quite correct – the Rani was entirely superfluous in the fourth story. Replay it in your mind – imagine her not being there in every single scene.  Nothing is different.  She’s there to give the bad (badder?) Master someone to explain things to.  And it’s fun to have a Trio of Time Lord Renegades – The Master, the Monk, and the Rani together.

    The ‘sound of drums’ – synchronicity.  The fourth episode came out in 2004, several years before we would learn the secret of the Master.   The odds are vanishingly likely that it’s a coincidence.   Or is it?  The UNIT soldier in the second story is named ‘Osgood.’   Small world, or what, eh?  Again, most certainly a coincidence.  Then again, Kate Lethbridge was imported from Downtime and Daemos Rising, which, if they weren’t technically fan films, sure as heck weren’t BBC.  I dunno, maybe someone who had input saw it and it left an earworm in the back of the mind.

    Speaking of earworms, I’ve definitely got to review Downtime.  Gotta find a post it note.

    A final comment – the third and fourth episodes seem to feature the addition of a Nigel Peever.  He played the Time Lord chancellor, but he seems to have been heavily involved in the background.  I suspect that his involvement may be responsible for the sudden upgrade in scene composition, editing and locations.

    Next up….   “How To Stop A Timelord”   the greatest  Transylvanian Doctor Who Fan Film ever.

     

     

     

  3. Please can you Doctor Who fans complete my questionnaire of the Doctor Who Radio Drama: https: //www.surveymonkey.com/s/CLHV6RB

  4. @DenValdron

    I know the score you mean and the tune; it is so in the back of my mind that I can picture the score actually. Oh hang on. Oh, it’s three chromatic notes and a major 3rd; sounds exactly like the ‘Spooks’ theme in the first three seasons starting in, 2001??

    I’m sure of it. Not that this particular organisation of notes is fundamentally unique -but it’s also the same pitch, scale, pace and orchestral sound. How about that. Anyway…

    As for synchronicity, absolutely: that or time travel because there are overwhelming coincidences which suggest some overlapping with ‘a person in the know’. There’s an ‘upgrade’ in the general filming for sure: OK, How to Stop a Timelord…

    Upwards..

  5. @Hakobaya I’m sorry but the link didn’t seem to work? If you placed this request on The Sofa or in The Cloven Hoof (our ‘pub’ thread) you may get more acknowledgement? Perhaps, anyway.

    Kindest, purofilion

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