3 out of 5

Directed by: Derek Martinus

Typical of early Who, ‘Galaxy 4’ is a bit over-stuffed with world-building elements that don’t end up feeling quite necessary with the way the plot pans out, but there’s a confidence to the presentation and acting with the start of season 3 that makes ‘4’ work, even in the currently available reconstructions, save the recently-recovered third ep.

Doc, Steven and Vicki de- whoop whoop and start to titter about the bulbous robot that’s making a beeping noise and bumping into the TARDIS.  Vicki calls the robot a Chumbly and the name sticks (hilariously so, when the race that created the robots questions Vick – ‘You call them Chumblies?’ – and now we’re all on board with that fantastic name).  It’s hard to say what the ‘bot’s intentions are before a blond chick with a laser – of the Drahvin race – blows the dang thing up and tells the team to hurry up and follow ’cause more of the buggers are on the way.  So all three follow to a ship where there are more Drahvins, in which we learn that there’s really only one thinker amongst the group – the confusingly evil Maaga – with the rest of the staff being clones.  A story is laid out about the ‘Rills’, the robot’s makers, with which the Drahvin are at war, after both crashed on this planet in Galaxy 4.  Maaga is one of those villains who just wants to kill others and fuck shit up in general, really without any context to it except that, y’know, she’s the bad guy.  But she reluctantly lets the Doctor and Steve head back to the ship to do some research, holding on to Vicki as collateral.  And guess what?  The planet is about to go boom..  So off we go.

…Which leads to a Doctor / Vicki recon mission to the Rill spaceship, in which, of course, we find out that the Rills are totes nice guys, if a little ugly.  Then it’s a matter of juicing the Rill ship via groovy TARDIS power so that all the good folk can leave and the bitches can be exploded.

In the stills and the one reconstruction episode, ‘Galaxy 4’ has a weird blend of good production design with poor decisions.  The Drahvin costumes are pretty good, simple fabric blends that give the right ‘future’ look without being too dated, and the simple makeup / hair costuming for Maaga and her clones is effective.  But their ship is an odd set, never really feeling like a mobile contraption, as does the main TARDIS set.  Similarly, the Rill is appropriately garish looking, and the Chumblies, conceptually, are well-designed (fully believable as the drone robots they are), but the Rill ship is so sparse that you can’t possibly conceive of it as anything but a couple thin panels put up to block what needs blocked.  And the plasticy material chosen for the Chumbly exterior unfortunately makes them look cheaper than usual.  This was probably done to differentiate them from the metal Daleks, but I woulda been fine with the repeats.

So when the directions starts to veer toward the ‘get off the planet’ shtick, the mini-war of Rill vs. Drahvin and the history of both races just doesn’t feel properly integrated – it comes across, even at the time of viewing, as filler.  But Steven and Vicki have rejuvenated the format (even if this script was apparently intended for Barbara), keeping things (and the Doctor) moving, and the motivation curiosity of each race does require our leads to stay on their toes for info gathering, Doc not really getting to resort back to his whimsical “I’ve got this” mentality for too long.  This adds up to a jumble of pieces that make for a pleasing – if not singularly great – episode.