Days 679 to 681 - The Happiness Patrol

I was so excited to see this one. It's one I've owned for quite a while but knowing that I would be watching it for my quest I decided to not watch it until I reached it on my journey. When I first got into Doctor Who back in the late 90s I bought a video containing a documentary all about the various monsters in the show and I was fascinated by the one shown in the picture above, The Kandy Man, and as such this is a story I've wanted to see for about 15 years. And it's utter crap!

It had a bad reputation anyway but I went into it wanting to enjoy it so much that I just don't think it could live up to all those years on anticipation. The basic plot is that the Doctor lands on a planet where it is illegal to be unhappy. The planet is governed by a woman called Helen A, who apparently written as an attack on Margaret Thatcher, but I'm afraid to say that I'm thick when it comes to politics so I would never have picked up on that if hadn't been told. In fact this story caused a bit of a outrage only a few years ago when the creators of it admitted it was an attack on the Thatcher government, and therefore contravened the strict unbiased stance of the BBC. All I can say is it must have been a quiet news day as its a bit of non story.

So the Kandy Man is a robot made out of sweets and is henchman to Helan A, handing out various horrific punishments to the "kill joys" I.e all those people who dare to be unhappy! Such punishments include drowning people in strawberry fondant. That's a little nasty I must admit.

It just seems that this is one of those stories where I didn't really understand what was going on half the time. 

Of all the stories left to watch there is now only one that I have never seen before. Therefore when I see that one I will have seen every episode that exists. Talking of which that's now not strictly true! I'm thrilled to say that we now 9 new second Doctor episodes for me to watch! With the recent recover of all nut one posted of The Web Of Fear and all of The Enemy Of The World, both fantastic stories!