Project Who 50: No. 30

I listened to the final stage play, Curse of the Daleks. I enjoyed this one a lot more than the others. It wasn't as camp and was more like a serious story, though maybe 2 hrs was just a bit too long for this story. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the weird thing with the women in this story. There are two women in it, Marion and Ijayna. Marion is this brusque professional woman who's mainly concerned with her work; she's the assistant to Professor Vanderlyn. Ijayna is a Thal.

Marion is pretty logical and brushes off the advances of Rocket Smith, the comic relief guy. In a long conversation between them, Rocket wants to know why she's so cold. So she tells him how hard it is, as a woman, to work in a field of men, where she has to be twice and smart and four times as strong, etc. etc. Rocket Smith then explains that this is just how things are, men are better than women, and all that equality stuff was like that old 20th century movement. Naturally Marion finds this offensive and says the usual "you're just like all the rest of them (men)" and "you didn't listen to a word I said".

Then the conversation takes this weird turn where they have a sort of flirt with each other. Which makes no sense in the context given. Maybe you could interpret their earlier conversation as "mock arguing that is actually flirting" except that Rocket pretty much confirms that whatever century they're living in, women are less valued. So that was a weird conversation. I don't know where the writers were trying to go with that. Unfortunately, after this conversation and when the danger in the story ramps up, Marion's more logical attitude drops away and she does a bit of the damsel in distress (though luckily no ear-splitting shriek of terror). She also makes the men some sandwiches.

Ijayna turns out to be this Thal who fell in love with Ladiver. She's been waiting for him to return and her father has promised her to Ladiver. She loves him a lot and...there's not really much more to that. She doesn't really further the plot in any way, other than getting the other Thals to trust Ladiver.

When the villain and commander of the Daleks is revealed, he decides that he needs a bride to rule the universe at his side. He also considers using the budding Rocket/Marion relationship against the protagonists. The captured protagonists are separated by gender and the Daleks tell the two females to clean themselves up. The villain contemplates who his bride will be, and after the Villain Rant, he decides, "Why settle for one bride when you can have two?"

Obviously the villain is defeated, and the story ends with Ladiver telling Rocket to go away so he can kiss Ijayna in private and this gives Rocket the idea to go and find Marion. And the story ends on that romantic note.