ARCHIVE: REVIEW

Review by Anne Godden-Segard TRAUMATURGE review Someone is stealing dreams. No, it's not corporate America, it's Plentitude, a sleazy, 22nd century entrepreneur with a new selling concept: dreams for sale. And he has customers. But first he has to steal those dreams for his customers, and he does this by kidnapping his victims and attaching them to his dream-stealing machine. However, sometimes his dream machine develops a slight glitch which causes his victims to lose their life as well as their dreams. (We see evidence of this in the opening scene of the movie; a Plentitude victim, played by Jeff Baker, dies). Plentitude has been getting away with this for some time, until he tries to steal the dreams of Nyssa. Bad move. Nyssa is a friend of the Doctor and now the Doctor is about to put Plentitude out of business. Robert Warnock's Doctor is suitably dry, unflappable and very much in command. He is togged out in very authentic Doctor gear, with no Tom Baker Dr. Who scarf in sight! When faced with the evil Plentitude, our Doctor calmly rescues Nyssa and puts an end to Plentitude. Steve Hill, as Plentitude, slithers around chuckling in a wicked manner, enjoying his evil deeds like all good villains should. He even rubs his hands with glee! He's alternately arrogant while succeeding, defensive while losing and angry he's lost. He does a very good bad guy! Kris Herzog is Plentitude's incompetent assistant in crime, Jacey Bacacon. He has fun with the part of a toady, annoying and wimpy I'm just doing my job and I can't help the consequences type. Even while the Doctor is ridding the world of one less entrepreneur, he finds time to set Jacey on the right path too. Nyssa is Jennifer Adams Kelley, and she proves herself almost too much a match for Plentitude with her knowledge of his technology and her outrage at his murderous deeds. A slight detraction, although with very clever cinematography, is when Plentitude, the Doctor and Nyssa duel and Plentitude and the Doctor repeatedly change into each other. Just when you think Nyssa is safe with the Dr. it turns out to be Plentitude. And just how many Doctors are there, and which ones can you trust? This becomes confusing and some explanation would have helped. The music for Traumaturge, an original composition by Robert Warnock, is great! It's electronic so it's more in character with actual DW music. (The music for Realitywarp was more orchestral, but just as good as this). Another slight detraction, but not enough to spoil the film, was that although the story line was clever, original and fun, the performances were mixed - some very good, some very weak. But all in all, this second Dr. Who is just as fun as Realitywarp, the first film. -AGS

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