Dancing the Code

The Doctor sees a time in the future where the Brigadier will shoot both him and Jo down in cold blood. In order to avoid that fate the two part ways, with Jo taking a mission into the Arab nation Kebiria. There's something going on in Kebiria, though, and Jo is arrested along with the rest of the UNIT force; the governing regime has something to hide out in the desert, something alien and insidious which is establishing itself for a world takeover. The Doctor and the Brigadier are drawn to Kebiria, bringing the possibility of the Doctor's vision of the future closer, but if ignored the alien threat will mean the end of the world.

For starters, there is no Kebiria; it's another made-up Arab nation with distinctly vague borders somewhere around the Mediterranean. I always think it's a little bit iffy to do things like that; nobody ever makes up unknown Western nations for any of the adventures - nine times out of ten it is somewhere in the United States for some reason - so to whip up a cliche sounding nation and fill it with a fanatical Arab sect seems... maybe kinda rude. I saw something similar on some old Transformers cartoons with the action taking place in the Socialist Democratic Federation of Carbombya and that was just downright offensive that time.

Dancing the Code has a pretty interesting alien race as the main baddie behind it all; they're called the Xarax (all those extra X letters really help sell alien-ness) and from the cover illustration they remind me a bit of a Micronauts toy I has as child called a Hortentroid. They're mainly insectoid although they have the ability to mimic other forms. The exoskeleton approach doesn't always work though and they can be cracked open and a big mess of scented honey plops out. The Doctor doesn't recognize the species but they have been around for hundreds of years hiding out around Kebiria getting their plans set for the world and domination and all that.

Here's what I do not like about these sort of invasion stories; out of nowhere there is suddenly this mass of disposable invaders coming at our heroes from all sides, and they're unstoppable and oh my god how are we going to win this one... and it doesn't always come off well. The threat just doesn't quite make it to being palpable - although this could have something to do with the story taking place between episodes of the televised series and then we know everything will be fine, there's just the question of how UNIT HQ gets invaded and trashed to the extent it does and then is all back to normal again by the next TV episode. It's always a danger, making the in-between episodes bigger than what was on tv either side of them, and there's always criticism about it but by and large the Doctor Who writers keep that sort of thing under control or better yet off Earth entirely, but in some cases there's been the question of how the companions have lived through such huge events and come out unscathed.

Still, everyone does, and they're right where they need to be the next time they're on TV. That's just not yet.

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