TV7: The Happiness Review

DOCTOR WHO:

The Happiness Patrol

Written by:

Graeme_Curry

Edited by:

Andrew Cartmel

‘Your Happiness is important to us.’

The Happiness Patrol is one of those infamous stories nuvians like myself hear about, the pink tardis, the allsorts abomination that might be a timelord but only in the EU.

You hear about it a lot which is why I regret to say its not very...inspired outside of its few individual standout moments.

Sure the TARDIS is pink but thats barely remarked upon, sure theres some mystery to the strange dictatorship going on here, but none of it is fleshed out enough to matter much.

It has a simple lesson, happiness cannot exist without grief and vis versa. The primary villain tries to eliminate sadness and thus creates an eternal facade of happy folk, who in the shadows are quite depressed.

Theres also a kandyman who...exists? Like i feel like he exists simply to fuffill a quota, hes not the big bad, he is more akin to a distraction and thematic tie in to the disturbing way people are executed on this planet. He gets executed in a similar way but its inbetween cuts in a frankly absurd bit of jumpcuts

We also get a cheeky tertiary villain in the form of a doglike alien named fifi

And another tertiary villain in the form of a turncoat fake rebel type of dude.

Only fifi really gets a payoff, but every villain but the main one ends up...dead.

Happiness patrol isn't good. Its probabbly imho worse than the most mildly disliked 7th doctor classic tv story: time and the rani. Which I actually like.

Speaking of things i actually like...

The supporting cast and absurd clownery of the worldbuilding we actually get is pretty on par with the B Movie Vibe I adore in doctor who.

Theres a blues playing harmonica man, who despite few lines has a lot of personality, the rebellious happiness patroler who becomes friends with ace and gives an excuse to flesh out ace's mindset in a less facadey-bravado way.

The idea of the waiting room not being a prison but also definitely being a prison. The silent fear of the gaurd when she thinks theyre gonna get blown up but she cant SAY it. And the nonsensical existence of a Go Kart in this otherwise derelict looking place.

These are all things i liked quite a bit for their novelty and presence. Yet even still I feel that Paradise Towers did all of this better.

Remains to be seen how The rest of the legendary stories shake out.

Rank-O-Tron 6000:

C-