Drekal's Domain

Full Circle

2012-02-05T22:07:00.000Z

Much like the season before, there was a drive to attract new writers to Doctor Who for season eighteen. Unlike the previous season, there was some measure of success in that task. Take Andrew Smith for instance. He was a talented young writer that had submitted scripts to Doctor Who as well as comedy scripts to shows such as Not the Nine O Clock News. His work had impressed Anthony Read - script editor at the time those stories were submitted - and so his name was kept on record, and Smith was encouraged to write more. It's also worth pointing out that Andrew Smith was a teenager at this point.

As confusing as it might seem, it wasn't until after the following serial (State of Decay) had already been recorded that the linking arc between the three stories would be written up. The E-Space trilogy would occur in a much smaller universe than the regular one, which would enable The Doctor a much greater degree of control over where the Tardis would land. In my opinion the only story that is really affected at all by the E-Space concept was the last one in the trilogy, Warrior's Gate. The other two could have easily been rewritten to occur in the regular universe with no trouble at all.

Around the time of recording Full Circle it became apparent that Tom Baker's run would end with his seventh year. He had now played the role of The Doctor for two years longer than the second longest (his predecessor Jon Pertwee) and was becoming tired of the job. He had also threatened to leave the show in previous years, and now both he and the production team were coming to agree that it was time to move on to a new era of Doctor Who.

Gallifrey calls for Romana's return, but when The Doctor tries to take her there something strange happens and they arrive at completely the wrong place. This is a puzzling fact since the Tardis co-ordinates indicate that they really should be on Gallifrey...

Instead they have arrived on a swamplike planet. A crashed cruiseliner has been undergoing repairs on this planet for generations in a desperate attempt to get home, but what does it mean when a dying man warns that they've come full circle?

We pick up right from where we left off in Meglos, and have some pretty good continuity as The Doctor thinks about meeting up with Leela and K9 mark 1. Shame they never appear any other time that The Doctor visits Gallifrey following this, but take what you can.
Romana is rather upset that The Doctor is willing to take her back to Gallifrey at the first summons. The Doctor of all people remarks that you can't fight the Time Lords. He did, and lost. Exiled to Earth until he made them happy enough to let him go. Plenty of continuity so far in this story, which is interesting and different. Sort of a shame about Romana's reaction. I always viewed her as a stronger character than this.
Something happens to the Tardis that K9 can't explain. They arrive and the scanner shows Gallifrey, but outside the Tardis is a completely different location. With people swimming in a river.
Ah yes, the flutes of mystery. I think it's a flute, certainly some wind instrument or other. Get used to hearing those if you're watching alongside me. This is what Doctor Who is gonna sound like for a while.
Impromptu chase sequence!
Meanwhile, The Doctor and Romana are baffled by the co-ordinates, the scanner and what they see when they leave being completely inconsistent.
Getting some minor flashbacks to last week's story as a scientist wants to see something sacred but is blocked by procedure. Hm. System files, they're saying. How interesting.
And there he is, Adric. Many hate him, others tolerate him. I tend towards the latter group myself. He's introduced trying to join this group of rebellious kids, who don't think he has what it takes to join up with them.
And there's the "star for mathematical excellence". He's a little bit protective of it, and plenty arrogant about it too. The gang will let him join if he manages what they failed to do earlier- steal some river fruit.
Suddenly, the river starts to boil and everybody gets out of there in absolute terror. Something about "mistfall", which gets more than a few gasps.
Adric sneaks in through the water and grabs some of the fruit only to be seen and pursued. When the elderly man tries to take him back to the starliner, Adric shoves him off, which causes him to stumble and lose his footing. Well done Adric, hope you're pleased you just killed an old man.
Everybody else piles into the starliner, leaving at least one parent worried about his rebellious child. But now she's out there "without protection."
The old man wakes up just in time to be dragged into the water and namedrop the title.
And then Adric spots the Tardis. Yes, it's about time that our regulars got involved in the story.
You know, that's actually a kind of believable reaction from Adric there. Given that he just accidentally caused an old man to die in a rather horrible manner, then he runs off and encounters the Tardis... Yes, I think most people would faint after that sort of experience. Not sure how I feel about Romana letting him inside, though.
Most of the rebellious kids have abandoned the gang for fear of mistfall. Those that remain believe it to be a myth used to keep everyone in line. Well, this is where you find out the hard way whether that's true or not. You'll be an example to your people either way.
Apparently whenever mistfall rolls around, these people seal themselves in the starliner for a decade because the atmosphere outside becomes unable to sustain them. Yeah, that seems like a sensible precaution to take given the available information.
Heh. The Doctor tests whether Adric was hallucinating or not by asking him to describe the outside of the Tardis. Which he does, in greater detail than I would've bothered with.
And I will readily admit, Adric is beginning to get a little tiny bit obnoxious. Also, his species has rapid healing abilities sort of like - wait a minute, one of them was called Logan earlier... Nah, he's too much of a wimp to make the comparison.
Curiously, K9 refers to the mists as non-toxic, which indicates that something else is going on. Out of the marsh some angry looking humanlike figures appear.
"Oh man, how long were we under there? I'm still hungover! Hold on, let's stop a minute, then adjust to the light."
Adric heads back to the gang, and tries some rather pathetic lies to keep them out of the Tardis that are easily refuted by what he's already told them. Supposed to be some sort of genius.
"Alright, that's better! Everybody conga!"
Okay, that music is officially beginning to get on my last nerve. It's not as bad as Last Chance Salloon, but it's still killing my suspension of disbelief.
Yes that's right, leave the Tardis unlocked on a strange world, just let anyone walk right on in. Now look what's happened, some gang has taken over the Tardis.
Logan agrees to become the replacement Decider for the guy that died earlier.
The marshpeople are playing follow the leader apparently.
I think that this is the main problem from this era of Doctor Who. There are long, long stretches where damn all seems to happen.
"Everybody hang on! The camerman's drunk! You know what effect that tilting the camera has on gravity!"
The Doctor politely knocks on the starliner's door, then on no response lets himself in via sonic screwdriver. Hardly egregious usage given that this is what it's sort of meant for. Unfortunately, he's also forgotten to close it after him which has in turn let one of the marsh people inside. And it has a knife. So many problems would be solved in this story if the Time Lords remembered to lock doors after them.
The Tardis was lifted by something, but there's no machinery on the planet that could lift it... Which leaves the marshmen, who wake up when mist falls. Turns out they've taken the Tardis to a cave.
The Doctor and the marshchild are spotted and knocked out by the locals. They want to dissect the child, but The Doctor is rather apalled by the notion that they treat an intelligent creature in such a manner. Quite right, it's obviously scared out of its mind.
You know, I should be used to this by now, but I can't get used to the way the marshmen look like they're wearing pyjamas.
K9 gets broken, once again. It is getting increasingly obvious that the current production team doesn't like him very much.
So the marshmen are apparently planning to throw the Tardis down a slope to use it as an improvised battering ram against the starliner, because they want to get inside it.
It turns out that the leaders lie to their people about the lethality of the marsh gas to keep them in the starliner during mistfall. I'd think that the threat of being dragged into the marsh by marshpeople might be enough motivation myself, but if they do so insist on lying.
The marshmen are frightened off when a giant spider hatches. Not just one, as it happens. Lots of them.
Only spiders Romana? Spiders as big as your head on an alien world? Um. They could be toxic.
Well done Adric, pulled the wrong lever and abandoned Romana to the giant spiders with the glowing eyes. Now she's been bitten on the face and fallen unconscious. Good work!
Meanwhile on the starliner, The Doctor is trying to figure out just what these people are up to. It's nothing too complicated. They crashed generations ago and are trying to get their ship back in order. Unfortunately, once he's learned all this and decides to leave, he's caught by one of the Deciders who insists he shows how he got in.
The Doctor notes that the technicians are disasembling pieces of the ship that are in perfect working order, and wonders just what they're doing... But Logan is more interested in finding his missing daughter and sees The Doctor as a good way to do so.
The Tardis arrives in the starliner, and out comes the gang, safe and sound. But now they have to worry about Romana. She's behaving rather oddly, just sitting in place, uncertain just who The Doctor is.
The new head of the Deciders is worried about the experiments, and needs to discuss the matter with the others. The mysteries deepen...
The gang is put on trial for stealing river fruit. No punishment is given since they're just children, and better yet they can serve as an example against future would be rebels.
The experiments begin, in secret as insisted on by the Deciders. The Doctor protests because this isn't science but barbarism masquarading as science (or as he puts it, cold blooded murder), but the scientist doesn't listen and cuts in the brain of the marshchild. Romana screams as veins spread down her face...
The marshchild struggles and breaks free from the chair, then clotheslines the scientist and starts smashing up the room. Unfortunately, this causes a small explosion that kills the poor confused child.
And now the Deciders have to put up with the full wrath of The Doctor. He's worked out the truth, and we find that the title is actually a cleverer one than we think it is. Perpetual motion going around and around, repairing the ship, taking it apart, then repairing it again. The ship could take off at any time. Intentional procrastination, though The Doctor doesn't understand why. The final secret is revealed at last, though they can repair the ship again and again from the ground up none of them - not a one of them - can pilot it. This is actually cleverer than one might think. Obviously the majority of the population thought that the Deciders knew how to pilot it, or that maybe the ship would do so itself.
While everybody else is distracted, Romana freaks out and leaves the Tardis. Then she lets in the marshmen. "Come on in guys, it's party time!"
Something about those veins on Romana's face, I've seen something like that somewhere before. Where have I - OH!
The Doctor finally twigs the real final secret, but needs to confirm it by heading back to the laboratory. Not likely to be easy given the marshmen all over the place.
Oh hey, K9's head. Um... What are you doing Doctor? K9's head is not a mask. Stop that. It's silly, and it's not really scaring them. They're just baffled by your weird behaviour, is all.
Ah, but now you have to snap Romana out of the control by whatever the spiders injected into her.
Poor Logan. He's obviously frustrated by the inability of the Deciders to do anything. The ability of the marshmen to adapt to anything makes it rather difficult for them to figure out what to do.
"Books? Who needs books! Party! Party! Party!"
The Doctor looks into the genetic material of various creatures on the planet, whips up a cure for Romana, and proves his theory about what's really going on.
The head of the Decider dies, revealing in his own way the final truth that The Doctor already worked out. The people of the starliner aren't able to return to the planet they yearn to get to, because they have never been there in the first place.
After a brief skirmish, they snap Romana back to herself. It transpires that high oxygen content drives off the marshmen, though it seems that their distant cousins have no ill effects from the stuff. It is rather funny to watch the big "scary" marshmen being driven off by blasts of air.
There is the truth at last, the marshmen, the people of the starliner and the spiders all have the same cells. Which probably isn't entirely true, but the point that we're supposed to take away is that they're similar enough that it's obvious the people are natives of the planet.
Oh come on, that music just completely ruined what was supposed to be a tender moment of grief over a lost life.
The marshmen are driven off and flee back into the swamp, leaving The Doctor to explain the truth to them at last. Must come as a shock to them.
The Doctor explains how to fly the ship, and the two remaining Deciders have to decide what to do next. Leave the planet, or stay behind. Ultimately, they decide to leave.
K9 gets the last line of the story. Fine, okay, I mean he wasn't in most of it at all.

This is a weird story, which seems to be the main recurring theme of this season. Is it bad? Well, no not really. Is it any good? Well, no not really. It's in that weird area that I think a lot of stories from this era fall into, where stuff just sort of happens largely by momentum than anything else.

From a science fiction perspective the idea is a pretty good one and certainly interesting to explore. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced it really did explore the idea. Don't bother with Full Circle. It's not likely to make you want to tear your eyes out, but there are much better uses of time than watching this.

Best Moment: Intentional Procrastination
To be a bit more specific, the moment I'm referring to is when The Doctor calls out the Deciders on what's really been going on. Up until this point, the story has had a semi-interesting mystery. But now we start to get into the part of the story that's actually pretty interesting. I think that's the big problem with the story actually. The solution is more interesting than the puzzle - or rather, the solution is more interesting than finding out what the solution is.

Anyway, this is the moment that made me realise that full circle was a cleverer title than I first gave it credit.

Adventure Awards
"Bigger on the Inside"
Adric has one of these moments, sort of. He was a little bit overwhelmed with the death of someone he knew to really take it in at first, but came back to it once he'd calmed down.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."Romana was really not herself for a large portion of the story, and was behaving as if she were a marshperson.

"Musical Interruption"
The music in this story, and the music that is used for a while... It distracts me from the action. What's worse is that the pieces of music used are so similar regardless of whether there's any different emotion supposed to be conveyed by the scene. I hate this musical style because it makes it so hard for me to suspend disbelief, and actually come to think I found it more irritating than Adric. This may be an award that I rarely grant, but it's likely to catch up a fair bit soon enough.

Meglos

2012-01-30T02:45:00.000Z

Meglos

At the end of 1979, one of the first people contacted by new script editor Christopher H Bidmead was Andrew McCulloch. He was an actor that formed a writing partnership with an actor and journalist named John Flanagan.

The pair were commissioned to write an idea they had suggested called Meglos (though the title would change throughout production until going back to Meglos) that didn't particularly impress John Nathan-Turner, but since time was pressing the scripts were contracted. The story was quickly written to the point that it was felt it could go into production as the third story behind The Leisure Hive and State of Decay. Since it didn't feature Adric (who I'll get to next week), Meglos was put in as the second broadcast serial.

Jacqueline Hill made her return to Doctor Who for the first time since 1965. She had taken a long absence from acting to raise her children, and was eager to resume her career. She wound up working on this story because her husband was friends with the director and Nathan-Turner was very much aware of her prior involvement to Doctor Who. As we will see in coming reviews, he was rather fond of drawing from the show's past. Jacqueline Hill died of cancer in 1993.

Meglos also holds the distinction of being the only classic Doctor Who story with more than two episodes in which all credited cast members appear in all episodes of the story.

The planet Tigella is a divided one. To the Savants, the Dodecahedron is to be studied nad used to benefit Tigellan civilisation. To the Deons it is a god. When the planet is threatened, the two sides cannot agree on how to resolve the problem... andso they turn to one that has helped them before. The Doctor! But the Deons are suspicious of him, and perhaps they have good reason to be.

The Doctor and Romana are doing stuff with the Tardis, probably a bit of repair work. We find out that The Doctor has visited Tigella at some point in the past, though he can't remember that at first.
Meanwhile, presumably on Tigella, we see some bowl cut blonds in white jumpsuits doing engineery stuff.
"I've always argued!" "That's certainly true." I like that, that was pretty funny.
We get an introduction to the conflict between the scientists and the religious Deons. The scientists have a plan to sort things out but the religious nuts say "no!" Scary thing is, I'm seeing all sorts of parallels to the arguments around climate change in this so far.
The religious leader, played by Jacqueline Hill, discusses with the political leader about why they should not engage in the scientist's blasphemous plan. You see, the scientists want to enter the Dodecahedron's room, to make a few measurements and prevent them all from dying. This is a blasphemy, so... yeah, that's not happening. In response the leader decides to call on The Doctor for assistance since they met some 50 years ago and he's sent them a message telling them he'd like to pay a visit.
Meanwhile, The Doctor is repairing K9 from the water damage he suffered at the beginning of the last episode.
It's quite obvious that the two sides of the debate are sick and tired of each other and are engaging in little more than mudslinging at this point rather than calm and reasoned debate. Gotta say, I'm siding with the scientists(obviously, because I'm a passive observer) but the lead scientist comes off as a bit of a smug jerk.
Whence cometh the Decahedron if not from the heavens? That's quite the appeal to ignorance.
Meanwhile, on Tatooine! Okay, not really but it does remind me of that quite a lot.
Turns out that these mercenaries have been hired to kidnap a random businessman. Said businessman is freaking out. Quite justifiable, too.
They head into a spaceship that appears as if from nowhere, and find nothing inside but a cactus and a disembodied voice. He introduces himself as Meglos, the only survivor of this planet. He's the cactus, you see.
More bickering, and back to the mercenaries being mocked by the cactus. Look at him, so intimidating. He tells the mercenaries just what their ultimate goal is, then the poor businessman is stuck into a pod as the cactus is put into another one.
The mercenaries plan to take everything apart and sell it, but Meglos has outsmarted them. He's locked them in, and won't let them out until they do as he says.
Cactusman, Cactusman, does whatever a cactus can.
And now time keeps on looping. Our heroes are trapped in Groundhog Day! On the third iteratin both The Doctor and Romana figure out what's happened. And it makes them worried. I like that it starts with Romana saying "blast, here we go again" for unrelated reasons.
Then Meglos becomes The Doctor oh no!
There's no known technological procedure for escaping one of these kinds of time loops. Apparently. This means that when they inevitable escape later on, they can totally brag about it to the other Time Lords. Though they'd probably be treated like those fisherman that just about caught a fish this big.
So in order to enter and examine the Dodecahedron - which for those unaware is basically a twelve sided shape, these people are essentially worshipping a D12 - he must take an oath of allegiance to the planet. Sorry, his allegiance is already pretty much towards Earth. Sort of.
Meglos has his impersonation of The Doctor down pat, it must be said.
Interesting moment there from Meglos, as he's asked to take the oath. He obviously struggles with the idea, which betrays his true opinion of the planet, but then relents and pretends that he was stunned by the honour to do so. Really good performance from Tom Baker for that brief moment. He's furious but damn well trying his best to not drop his disguise.
It turns out that the way out of this kind of time loop is to throw it out of phase by intentionally repeating the loop before it starts over again. Well, I guess that works.
Meglos rather cleverly tricks everybody to let him enter the Dodecahedron room by himself using what was obviously an attempt to dissuade him from entering in the first place. Now that he's taken the oath surely he can be trusted to enter! Right? Only goes to show the level of intelligence from these people.
The real Doctor arrives on the planet while Meglos affixes a device to the glowing Dodecahedron.
Hey Romana, remember you read earlier in the historic database that the planetlife on this planet was hostile? Should've probably kept that in mind maybe.
Meglos is seen leaving the Dodecahedron room by a scientist and the religious leader, who notice that the light from within has dimmed. At the same time, the real Doctor arrives at the entrance to the city, rather confusing the guards.
Meglos' disguise falters, turning his skin green and prickly. It's a pretty startling image, very memorable. Silly thing is I prefer it to the cactus people from End of Time. Then again, I prefer pretty much anything that's compared to End of Time.
Unfortunately for The Doctor, he's quite unaware of his evil lookalike and has just run into some people that are rather convinced that he stole what doubles as their god and power source. One could even say it triples as the thing that keeps them alive. Confusion abounds.
Romana decides to go a-wandering in the forest of hostile plantlife nad encounters a mercenary ship. They spot and corner her, no doubt leaving Romana feeling a little bit silly for indulging her curiousity like that.
Also, there will be no K9 to the rescue because his battery power is quite low. The impression that the production team didn't much care for K9 is rather apparent, would'nt you say?
The mercenary captain doesn't recognise Romana from when Meglos set up the time loop around The Doctor, which just shows us how much he didn't pay attention.
The scientists sit in the Dodecahedron room, at last. But now it is gone, and it's up to them to determine how it was accomplished. It's quite obvious that their technology level is far enough below the transmat that they couldn't imagine the possibility of that being used to steal the "heart of their civilisation".
Romana leads the mercenaries around the jungle in a giant circle to the back of their own spaceship. The jungle full of hostile plantlife. Did any of them really think this through?
And at last, The Doctor realises that they think he's responsible for the missing artefact. Took him a bit.
Nobody can feed nonsense to a simpleton quite like a Time Lord.
The businessman struggles against Meglos, trying to break free from his control! But to no avail. He then finds one of the scientists, and pulls her into a dark corner. That's not even remotely sinister. Not a little bit.
Whatever The Doctor did when he was last here, he made a massive impact on the leader of these people. I doubt he'd mistrust The Doctor if he was punched in the face by him. In the meantime, the religious leader seems to have her own plans.
The Daons are gathering for a revolution, intending to kick out the unbelievers to the surface. Worse yet, their plan is to sacrifice The Doctor to try and have their god brought back to them. See, this is why letting religion take charge is a bad idea.
Romana leads the mercenaries into a trap via plantlife. She steps on a root to get them annoyed, then runs off towards the city. She finds K9 and brings him in just before the city gates are closed.
The businessman struggles against Meglos, an act of futile heroic defiance. It lasts just long enough for the scientist to grab his gun... then Romana mistakes him for The Doctor and rescues him. Oops!
The mercenaries blast their way into the city with a little help from the plantlife by way of makeshift battering ram.
Meglos escapes with the Dodecahedron, which is slightly larger than your typical D12 thanks to him shrinking it down a considerable amount. But then he states that this is just the beginning!
Looks like The Doctor is up for sacrifice once again. He's underneath a giant rock being suspended by three ropes, which are then burned through one at a time. No talking his way out of this one.
You know, the alert announcing that The Doctor has escaped should surely be confusing the people that are currently attempting to sacrifice him.
I didn't remark on it earlier, but when The Doctor mentioned that he thought there might be a doppleganger of him running around the camera sort of closed in on this one character and I couldn't help but think he was thinking "doppleganger? What's that? I'd better look it up in case they ask me!" And just now he just rather enthusiastically yelled out "the doppleganger!" Obviously he had time to look it up and was eager to show off what he'd learned today. Well done! You get a gold star.
Now that everybody seems to be on the same page regarding the whole thing about the doppleganger, they're all just sort of standing around in the room where the sacrifice was about to take place wondering what to do now. Not like they can do much else, except maybe chase down Meglos since they know where he's going. Work it out on the way.
One of the mercenaries wasn't quite dead, and takes a shot at Romana. Then the religious leader takes the shot and dies, because there wasn't anything left for her to do in the story. That was kind of out of nowhere, it must be said. Added pretty much nothing to the story either. Was that supposed to be the character's redemption for almost sacrificing The Doctor? It felt shallow and cheap.
The Doctor decides to use his current likeness to Meglos to impersonate him. Meanwhile, Meglos hands over his coat to the mercenary that was obsessed over having it. Fortunately, The Doctor spots that and takes off his coat and scarf to make appearances fit. A guard catches him, but then he tricks the guy into holding up a wall. Heh. That was pretty funny.
And then the mercenary leader decides to throw The Doctor into the brig. Luckily for him, he manages to duck out of the way quickly enough for them to catch Meglos instead. Unluckily for him, he then runs right into some more that toss the two of them in together.
Oh hey split screen effect! How are you doing today?
The Doctor reveals what he did. He inverted the settings so that their new superweapon will blow up nobody except them. And there they are stuck in the cell.
Dur hur hur, robot dog! Hey, someone hit me in da head wiv a rock!
And now it's time to pick a game of pick the real Doctor! Oh. Or not, I suppose. Meglos reverts to his normal body and crawls away, never to be seen again. The businessman is back to himself as well, so to the Tardis they all go.
Gallifrey calls for The Doctor and Romana, and they intend to go after dropping off the poor businessman back home before he leaves. Gee I wonder what that call to Gallifrey was for, and if it will be brought up again past the next adventure.

Meglos is a bit of an odd serial, and if I'm perfectly honest I don't have the slightest idea of what to make of it. This is one of those cases where the story stands right in the middle ground between good and bad. I'd say it leans slightly more towards good, but it's definitely not one that I'd go out of my way to watch again.

I had the vague impression that too little was properly identified in this story, and that the events were just a flow of consciousness more than anything else. The Doctor and Romana spend the entire first episode in the Tardis, and don't land on the planet until about half way through the second. There's not really much of a threat throughout most of the story, up until the final cliffhanger when the sacrifice almost happens.

Again, this isn't terrible. It's not even really boring. But it was closer towards both than it probably should have been. Maybe if certain ideas and concepts were better fleshed out, I could have enjoyed this story a lot more than I did.

Best Moment: I know your kind
I thought this was a good establishing moment for Meglos as a villain. It shows that he's no fool, and that he is more than capable of planning ahead. If only he'd thought quite that far ahead in the last episode when they tossed him into the cell. I mean, come on. Really? You didn't think they might try and take over your superweapon at the first opportunity?

Adventure Awards
"Time Warp"
The Tardis gets caught in a time loop.

"Send in the clones"
The primary point of interest in this story is a supervillainous genius copying The Doctor's physical form so that he can do something evil.

The Leisure Hive

2012-01-23T04:15:00.001Z

The Leisure Hive

So begins the era of John Nathan-Turner as producer of Doctor Who. Much like his predecessor, he sought to introduce new writers to the programme. However, he intended that a move be taken away from humour and a greater emphasis be placed on science, a vision that was shared by executive producer Barry Letts. Unfortunately, the few scripts under consideration for this season did not fall in line with this new vision. Since a script editor had not yet been hired for the season, it fell to the new producer to search for a script. David Fisher was selected as he was a familiar name and it was more important at that point to get a good writer involved than to find a new one. It would also prove to be David Fisher's final contribution to Doctor Who.

The first of many troubles to plague this story involved Fisher's experience falling under the time during which Doctor Who was more of a comedic show, which meant his script was intended by him as a pastiche of gangster movies. Much of the comedy would be eased out during the editing process, by which time Christopher H Bidmead had come aboard as script editor. He agreed with the more serious vision for Doctor Who as both Nathan-Turner and Letts. This final point seems a little obvious in retrospect, as it seems quite likely that they would want someone that wouldn't fight them on that point.

Nathan-Turner had a lot of plans for Doctor Who. He wanted to overhaul several areas of the show. The entire title sequence was radically altered into a starscape animation, with a new logo and electronic composition. Furthermore, The Doctor's outfit was changed into a largely burgundy colour scheme instead of brown and question marks were placed on the shirt collar. On top of all that a long standing relationship (15 years) came to an end in early 1980 as Nathan-Turner informed Dudley Simpson that his work writing compositions would no longer be required. Instead, the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop would produce the incidental music and they also produced the new arrangement of the theme.

Lovett Bickford was brought in to direct what would become known as The Leisure Hive. He wanted to experiment with new image processing equipment, and those experiments resulted in filming falling rather badly behind schedule. The attempt to catch up meant that it went rather severely over budget, and ensured that Bickford would not work on Doctor Who again. Nathan-Turner was reprimanded for letting things get this out of hand.

But at the end of the day, it would all surely be worth it. Yes? Well, no. Not quite. The Leisure Hive fared badly against ITV's import, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The viewing figures wound up at less than six million, the smallest since the fourth season's The Smugglers. Worse yet, the audience would decline week after week. By the third, Doctor Who had fallen out of the Top 100 programmes for the week for the first time since its very first story. Though it was not known at the time, this would foreshadow the difficulties that Doctor Who would face during the 80s.

The Doctor and Romana arrive at a famous leisure hive for a bit of rest and relaxation, only to realise that there is a conspiracy afoot to reignite a feirce and devastating war between two races.

We begin on a beach with a scene that John Nathan-Turner thought might catch some interest as K9 rather thoughtlessly heads into the ocean in pursuit of a ball that Romana rather carelessly tossed.
Woah! Someone filled K9 with explodium!
Heh. Romana throws some exposition at The Doctor, and he just nods off.
You know, the pyramid shaped monitor seems like a bad design choice. In the meantime, it seems that the leisure hive has been having trouble getting people to show up.
Hang on, this is a leisure planet where the surface is highly radioactive? Sounds familiar.
The earth marketing person arrives on the planet, and reveals that the head of the hive is dying. On the bright side, he's found an offer for the planet that is outright and immediately rejected.
Yeah, sure. Non-gravity squash. I'm sure it's a lot of fun, but I'm afraid I'm not particularly impressed.
It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to take an offer to buy land.. when the offer is made by someone that was the other half of a brutal war.
Jump cut and a bead disappears from the hive leader's hair!
... I don't even want to know what the rest of his body is doing there. It looks like the stereotypical "white dude that can't dance" routine.
Oh no someone that is invisible is drawing on the wall in green felt!
The hive elder keels over, and... his face goes all photo negative on us. He's regenerating!
It transpires that tachyons can be used to manipulate time. Gasp!
Yes, I can see how spontaneously having your limbs detach would be incredibly painful. Something appears to have gone wrong with the machine in any event.
You know, I can imagine the Time Lords having a thing or three to say about people using temporal manipulation to deage people. Unfortunately, one of those things might well be something like "why didn't we think of that?"
The Doctor and Romana have been mistaken for someone else and taken to see the new chairwoman. Who knows the person they were mistaken for, and thus the guards are called on them.
Apparently the various neat things we've seen so far were faked. No really but they looked so real.
The Doctor examines some of the aparatus, and we see a doll version of him up on the screen being pulled apart limb by limb. Yeah, if that had slightly improved special effects that would've probably given a few children pretty bad nightmares.
Since this is the end of the first episode I'd just like to say... Even if I didn't know already, it would be pretty obvious that something had changed behind the scenes. Everything has a completely different look and feel to it.
Turns out that The Doctor wasn't really in the machine at all. Oh. Well, okay, I guess that is the best way to resolve that cliffhanger.
The Doctor and Romana are asked to help with an experiment with time. Heh. That was pretty funny, asking two Time Lords if they've ever experimented with time.
You know, that is a fair point. They did just sort of appear on the hive without buying any tickets or anything. They should've gone through the proper channels.
So, the irradiated planet that has a resort on it has a beautiful scenery? Again, sounds familiar...
A bead falls off the new chairwoman's hair, and she ages a fair bit. Turns out this is what happens when this race dies. Steady metabolism for most of their life, then all the aging hits them at once. Makes next to no sense from a biological perspective, but I suppose it's alright for a sci-fi one.
The two scientists are concerned about the experiment. Which makes sense, given how they're faking it. Now they have two Time Lords to worry about, poking their noses in where it doesn't belong...
Huh. Didn't take long for one of the frauds to crack.
Uh oh. Turns out that the cameraman is actually an alien with a great big green claw!
The scientist encounters a rubber mask, which deeply worries him. He is then pursued by anxious sounding music and a man in a green rubber alien outfit. And then he dies.
The body is found with The Doctor's scarf around the neck. The Doctor is obviously enough accused of the crime, and brought to trial.
Romana solves the problems with the rejuvenation, but they decide that one more test is in order. Since The Doctor is on trial, they decide to send him through it.
Romana encounters a green glowy thing which deeply concerns her. The Doctor then comes out looking rather ancient... Hrm. The Doctor spontaneously aged? That sounds familiar too.
Hm. We're half way through the story at this point, and... I don't really know what the plot is supposed to be. That's not a good sign.
The Doctor is confined to quarters, even though he's an old man. The chairwoman isn't fairing much better, it seems.
The fraud is uncovered, but the chairwoman is too lost in hope to do anything but give her apparent former lover a chance to prove that he can get it working with Romana's help.
Suspicious people behave suspiciously.
Wow, but this youngster is dark. He doesn't care about anything, and is really bloodthirsty.
The Foamasi offer for the planet comes up again, and since there was that rather nasty accidental death earlier as well as the murder, visitors have been leaving in droves. It seems as though the offer is all that they really have at this point, and - ugh this is just not interesting me at all. At least it's going by quickly enough.
The Doctor's collar is taken off, allowing him to look around. Unfortunately he's a fair bit clumsier in his old body.
Ah, now we're getting to the point. The youngest of this lot is far too young, he was clearly born after the war that supposedly sterilised the planet.
So apparently the plan is to recreate the race by way of mass cloning. Basically.
A Foamasi appears, having saved Romana. Additionally, they've found a device that apparently interfered with the rejuvenation device.
The Foamasi is brought into the meeting room, and tears off a rubber mask to reveal that the agent from Earth was really a Foamasi in disguise!
It turns out that a Foamasi crime syndicate has been trying to take control over the planet, by having their henchmen perform sabotage to try and force them into buying.
Also, the young guy is sounding more and more like a tyrant in the making with each sentence he utters. His plan is apparently to construct an army of copies of himself.
Nobody noticed the old man hiding behind the moving statue that is smaller than himself? Wow, those are some unobservant aliens.
He steps into the machine, creates a whole bunch of copies of himself, and nobody except Romana seems to be making a move to stop him.
Oh wow, but this looks terrible.
It transpires that all the copies were The Doctor. Also, they're all unstable and shortly fade away into nothing. The perfect army for invading five feet away.
The chairwoman is on her last legs, and is carried off to the generator.
The Doctor copies seem to be having a bit of fun with Romana, toying with her a little over which of them is the real one. Yeah, seriously don't you guys have anything better to do right now?
The chairwoman and the tyrant go into the rejuvenator, and both walk out much youthened. Hm. The antagonist winds up as a baby? Again, familiar.
"You mentioned Foamasi?" marvellously cheesy.
The Doctor decides, eh screw it. Who needs a randomiser anyway? Who cares if he had to use bits of it to deal with the situation? Who cares if the Black Guardian can track them now? Well, we'll see if you care in a couple of years.

This was kind of a boring one, all truth told. It didn't capture my attention all that much, and it felt like nothing was happening for the longest time.It seemed much more style than substance, and I can kind of understand why the viewership declined week after week.

That's not to say it's even anywhere near my bottom ten, so to speak.The only feeling I have towards this serial is apathy. No recommendation for this one.

Best Moment: The Doctor, seemingly torn apart
As awful as it might look now, I can't help but find the idea behind this as a rather impressive cliffhanger. We've seen someone die like this earlier in the episode. The visual of The Doctor screaming in agony like that is rather effective, even if the special effect used to show the seperation of his body is anything but.

Adventure Awards
"Pointlessly Advanced Technology"
What was the point of the zero-g squash? I mean, honestly.

"Send in the clones"
This was the main scheme of the villain. To create an army of copies of himself. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't seem to have understood the process properly. Or The Doctor sabotaged it. Either way it failed.

Season Seventeen Overall Review

2012-01-17T02:20:00.000Z

This season was a disaster. Only one good story in the bunch, and all the rest were pretty far below average. You know, except for Shada which wasn't finished because of circumstances conspiring against it. A series of planning mistakes and good intentions gone astray cast Tom Baker's penultimate season into the lower areas of any list of seasons by overall quality. I think the only truly worse season we've done so far is probably season three, and that's entirely because it was much longer. This will change when we get to Colin Baker (sadly, because I love his Big Finish work) but for now this is the second worst season I've reviewed.The next one is a slight step upwards as I recall. Not long before we encounter Adric. Which should be tremendous fun.

Shada

2012-01-16T01:51:00.000Z

Shada

Discussing season seventeen really isn't complete without talking about Shada. While it was not produced due to industrial action, several scenes were indeed shot and eventually released with linking narration by Tom Baker. This ratehr drastically alters the nature of this review, as it is an incomplete product... but then again, since Linkara, Nash and Film Brain were able to do a very funny review on the incomplete Wonder Woman pilot I think I can give this a shot.

There are two (well, three sort of) versions of Shada available. The first is the version I'll be looking at here. The second is a Big Finish produced audio play featuring the Eighth Doctor instead of the Fourth, and the sort of third is really the audio with accompanying flash animation. I listened to the audio version shortly before diving in to this version, which I have never experienced before.

I've already mentioned in previous reviews a fair amount regarding the background to Shada, but here it is again. Graham Williams was intending to step down as producer at the end of this season and wanted his last story to be a memorable one. Given the difficulties regarding budget for the finales in previous years, he had both Nightmare of Eden and The Horns of Nimon (which Williams was not enthusiastic about but felt compelled to make because there were no other scripts available) made with a more limited budget in mind. Simultaneously the intention to showcase new writers for the show failed rather badly and this left Williams turning to script editor Douglas Adams for a six part finale. The two worked together on the script, but Williams decided to let Adams take sole credit since he had a writing career beyond Doctor Who.

Unfortunately for Graham William's plans he had forgotten another problem that had plagued previous year's finales. The aforementioned industrial action had proved rather troublesome for the production of both Invasion of Time and Armageddon Factor. Given that, he probably should have considered juggling around the production schedule to try and keep Shada out of it. It's not as if Doctor Who had produced serials exclusively in order, in fact Destiny of the Daleks was the first to air and the third produced. But alas, it is what it is.

Though out of this there did come at least some small good. John Nathan Turner did away with six part stories as he felt they were too long, and ultimately managed to ensure that season eighteen would have no less than seven four part stories, marking it as the longest Doctor Who season since the sixth. I will discuss his other plans for the season this coming weekend.

For those interested, the Doctor Who wiki mentions that the industrial action was supposedly about "which union had jurisdiction over the operation of an elaborate clock that was featured on the BBC children's programme Play School."

Graham Williams would go on to continue working as a producer throughout the eighties, and even wrote a Doctor Who story for season 23... which was then not made for reasons I'll get to at that point. He left television in the later parts of the decade having lost his passion for television, and sadly died in a shooting accident on August 17th 1990.

In the meantime, I think most of you would have a good idea of what happened to Douglas Adams. He became rather famous worldwide for his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio and television show, not to mention the novels. He also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, which used elements of both Shada and City of Death. Douglas Adams died of a heart attack on May 11th, 2001.

The Doctor receives a summons by Professor Chronotis, an old Time Lord friend of his living in Cambridge. Unfortunately, the visit is poorly timed as a sinister man named Skagra has plans for Chronotis. Plans that will grant him the ultimate power... But just what exactly is the mysterious Shada?

We open with Tom Baker, wandering through a museum of Doctor Who props from various eras, starting from his then going back and forward (Yeti and Vervoid standing nearby). He encounters a monster that reminds him of Shada, and reminisces about the untransmitted story. It's amazing really, as he rambles on I can't help but wonder if he's slipped back into character, or if he really is like this.
We open on a space station, with six people sitting in a circle with their backs to a sphere. A screen shows various Roman numerals, and suddenly one of them stands up while the others convulse and eventually go limp as though unconscious or dead... and whispers start to fill the room.Spooky!
The one that stood up takes the sphere, and suddenly the others stand up and do impersonations of people forced to watch the entirety of season seventeen up to this point in a marathon. They twitch a lot, fall over and stop moving.
In all seriousness, that scene seemed fairly complete and was fairly typical for a Doctor Who opener. Introduces a mystery in a fairly intriguing way.
Meanwhile in Cambridge, a man rides a bike. He's paying a visit to Professor Chronotis, who appears to have the Tardis in the corner of his room. Must be a little disconcerting, all truth told.
Bit of conversation that people might remember from Dirk Gently. The visitor borrows some books from the absent minded elderly man, queries about the Tardis and then leaves him, with the old man sitting on his chair reading The Time Machine...
Ah yes, yes anyone that's seen The Five Doctors knows this part. The punting bit. We get to see a bit more of it, and there's no time scoop in the background. Also, the mystery man from the opening scene smiles a cruel smile and walks away...
Bit of brief linking narration from Tom, then back to The Doctor and Romana visiting the Professor. Also, it turns out that custodians have very good memories about people they talk to, which is another thing people may remember from Dirk Gently.
I do like Chronotis, he's a very charming old man. It's also worth noticing how the script is rather similar to the audio version, and comparing how Tom Baker and Paul McGann played the part.
Chronotis is a little bit muddled about who sent The Doctor the signal, claiming he didn't. This is intercut with shots of the mystery man, who is followed wherever he goes by ominous music. It's a trap! He must have sent it! Also, he's just barely shy of being dressed like a pimp. Honest to god.
Oh, except it turns out that Chronotis just has a bit of memory like a seive. The Doctor is worried that he heard voices on the river, but the Professor insists that it must be something to do with a book...
Romana is a little angrier in the audio version when she learns that the book was brought from Gallifrey, which makes a lot of sense given that in the audio she's President.
"Just the odd two or seven." Always loved how Adams could turn a phrase.
While our villain walks into an invisible spaceship, The Doctor learns what book he's there to find and is shocked to learn it's The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. Seems as though it's a fair bit of an important book.
More linking narration, as the villain absorbs knowledge about The Doctor. Interesting thing is, this scene has apparently been shot at least partly.
The script seems fairly close to the audio version thus far. The only modifications I'm noticing are things that make sense in the transition between media.
The Doctor and Romana discuss the importance of the book, and suddenly Romana randomly brings up a name that has some rather tremendous plot significance. I think that part could've been rewritten slightly so that Romana had another two names in front, and then have The Doctor laugh those two off and then react to Salyavin the same way he does here. Apparently, the man was something of a hero to The Doctor. He was a criminal, certainly, but he had such style that he couldn't help but admire the man. I can sort of see The First Doctor being like that, on reflection.
Knowing what I know about the plot, when The Doctor called the name Salyavin into the kitchen to ask the professor where he was imprisoned, one of his hearts must have stopped.
Chronotis is so utterly charming in a doddery, grandfatherly sort of way.
More linking narration, since one of the things they couldn't manage to film was the scenes at Chris' laboratory.
Haha, "I'll be back in fifteen minutes! (To Romana) If I'm not back in two hours..."
Plenty of outdoors shots as numerous characters barely miss one another.
While Romana nips into the Tardis to fetch some milk, the villain nips in and makes his levitating sphere give the poor old man a noogie.
We're not really missing all that much from the sequences at the lab, sad to say.
Romana discovers the professor unconscious just as Chris returns to ask about the book. Chris is a bit slow on the uptake about the robot dog, but given that he's sent into the Tardis to get a medical kit that's the least of his shocks today.
Chronotis dies after using his hearts to beat out a signal to warn Romana about the coming dangers, but it's too late for The Doctor as he finds himself face to face with Skagra and his mysterious sphere.
And suddenly random singers as a sphere floats down the street in pursuit of The Doctor. It really is an odd, odd story.
Oh no, Skagra found the book! But the sphere is relentless in its pursuit of The Doctor, and he's having a lot of trouble finding a hiding place in time.
That's a pretty good cliffhanger, as it happens. The Doctor with no place to run with the sphere closing in on him, maybe a foot away in the final shot. We've also seen just what it does to people it comes into contact with just a few minutes prior to this sequence, so we're left wondering just how exactly he could possibly escape from this situation.
Luckily, the Tardis materialises in the alley and the sphere retreats.
Bridging narration from Tom Baker, and back to the office where the professor's body fades away into nothing. Then there's some tragic irony as it transpires that Shada is a forgotten concept to the Time Lords, and means nothing to them. Just the same way that Shada was a lost Doctor Who story.
I agree with this poor fisherman. I wouldn't know what to make of a floating sphere heading towards me either.
The narration seems to be becoming increasingly required. I supppose interior Tardis shots couldn't be filmed either, which makes sense.
The Doctor has found the invisible ship after following the sphere's trace back. He then has to play at miming an invisible spaceship. Also, a recurring thing from Horns of Nimon, in that K9 doesn't seem to understand the limits of organic eyesight.
You know,this could be used to illustrate to new writers the importance of "show don't tell", since the narration (while required to keep the story making sense), isn't quite as exciting as it would be if we could see what is being described. Or even hear audio cues that would help build the necessary atmosphere. It's the best they could do with the provided material, but still.
This is the point in the story where The Doctor and Skagra have a bit of a discussion in the ship while the others are sent off to a prison elsewhere.
Meanwhile with the other three within the cell, much of the conversation is as it is in the audio version, so the scene winds up playing out much as the same.
Bit of a funny scene with the porter, who is a pretty fun character I think we should've seen more of.
Man, if it was that easy to get out of there, then that would make this the worst prison ever. Just say "I wish I could get out of here" and you're out? That's not a prison. It's not even an intelligence test.
There was probably a linking scene here showing Skagra talking to Romana before taking her out of the ship, but since it adds next to nothing to the story Tom Baker didn't narrate it.
This is where the true horrors of what the sphere can do are best shown. Skagra knows how to open and operate the Tardis!
Ah yes, this part. It was kind of required for the plot that the professor be killed off, but since Douglas Adams like him so much he wound up bringing him back to life, and obviously decided to excuse it by throwing so much technobabble at us that we wouldn't even notice. Still, I do find it funny that the professor apparently kept his cricket gear next to the Tardis circuits. He's not appeared onscreen quite yet, but he'll be there next episode.
A trick that The Doctor enjoys using is briefly explained. Pretending that he's stupid to make his enemy underestimate him. It didn't work in City of Death too well, but it saved his life in this instance. The sphere only took a copy of his mind, you see.
It just occured to me that Tom Baker is now playing the role in character (referring to his character in the first person), even though certain comments near the start indicate that he's out of character. Interesting.
There's the trouble with illogic logic. It gets you suffocated by the artificial intelligences that you use it on.
The professor's room has been transformed into a blue version of the matrix! Oh no! Now we have to put up with philosophical nonsense!
Chris and K9 are transported out of their cell, and Tom Baker narrates in front of the robot from Robot.
And here are the Kraag, which are creatures of coal and lava. Surely then, they'd burn to death anyone that was in the same room as them, contact needed or not.
Lots of narration for the opening of the fourth part. I think we're moving away from Cambridge, and into the parts where they had virtually nothing filmed.
So apparently, The Doctor gives Skagra's ship the ability to dematerialise. While making the same noise as a Tardis. So much for the idea of "leaving the brakes on", but then again, I suppose Shada isn't strictly speaking canon.
Apparently the professor came back to life in his pyjamas. I'd be a bit freaked out as well, in her position.
Skagra's assumption that The Doctor knew what the book meant turned out to be rather wrong. He doesn't know. The book is insoluble.
Really, they never got around to temporal grammar? Odd thing for the Time Lords to avoid doing. Then again I doubt it would translate well into english.
Ever get the feeling you were in over your head? That's where this character is right about now. She must think he's completely off his nut.
Skagra works out the secret of the book with the help of some dialogue in a previous scene that was never performed, which is a shame. Makes more sense in the audio. All we need to know is that he's off to Shada.
... Two points for this scene. 1: The door quite clearly says "ASS", not "ASD." Second, Chris accidentally says the title of an adventure in the coming season. State of Decay.
Think tank is in a bit of a state of disrepair compared to what it was like in the first scene. Also, it turns out their peripheral also sucks as they don't notice the old filthy looking men in the middle of the room.
Salyavin is revealed as the key point to Skagra's plan as they arrive at Shada...
The Doctor asks Chris to do something for him that will probably be quite unpleasant. He's going to borrow his intelligence and feed it to one of the old men in an attempt to jumpstart his mind and - gah! Someone cut those nails!
Time for a little background on Skagra and the Think Tank. All the best of their generation in each of their fields. Brought together to work on a single project by Skagra. They would pool their intellectual resources, but didn't realise that his goals were far higher than he'd told them. Also, it can't be easy to say the words "stole our brains" with a straight face.
And we finally get to see a Kaarg in action. Barely.
Huh. It's glowing red in the fifth episode shot, but not in the fourth episode cliffhanger. Interesting.
With The Doctor fleeing from the Think Tank, he must pursue a different avenue of investigation.
Meanwhile in the professor's office, he's trying to fix his Tardis in such a way that he won't just die again. Which seems fairly sensible. We also get a brief bit of explanation of who Salyavin is. A hot headed youth with a peculiar ability, one of the more dangerous and misunderstood kinds of people there are. This information doesn't help them escape their situation. You see, the trick is that there are two particular operations that must be performed at the same time, and the professor lacks the capacity to be in two places at once while the knowledge is also far above any human to understand.
Suddenly, the professor takes on a bit of a mood change. He's still the kind hearted slightly bumbling old man, but he seems much more serious all of a sudden. He stares at what'shername with glowy eyes, and suddenly she understands Tardis circuitry. How mysterious...
There's a big bit of exposition regarding Skagra's goals at this point which is missed out on. He intends to use Salyavin's ability to put his mind into the minds of others to make all minds in the universe one single hive mind.
It turns out that Shada is the Time Lord's prison planet. Ah, luckily we get the second half of the exposition, which explains Salyavin's ability and contrasts it with what Skagra can do. Skagra can take people's minds out of them, while Salyavin can put his mind into others. That's how the hive mind will be created, you see.
Skagra arrives at Shada, closely followed by The Doctor and the professor. The other two remain in the office, and piece together that the professor is Salyavin. See, this is where he should've put a bit more thought into what he wanted to do. If I was him, I'd not have bothered explaining who I was and just used my ability to put my mind into his to defuse the situation entirely.Now you might well be thinking "why not stay away from Shada entirely," but surely the next step Skagra would take would be to analyse information in the minds of everybody he'd absorbed to discover potential leads for where Salyavin was hiding. He'd then find that he already had Salyavin's mind all this time and continue with his plans anyway.
K9 breaks the sphere apart, and each piece forming into a smaller sphere which attached themselves to people, bringing them into the universal mind. Oops.
You can see the moment Romana comes up with a plan to counter Skagra. You might think it's a bad thing that The Doctor's mind is in the sphere, but it turns out that this plays to the hero's advantage.
The plan in question is for The Doctor to walk through the space time vortex from the professor's Tardis to his own, while a forcefield is extended between the two. Tricky, since the professor's is even older than The Doctor's.
The Doctor arrives in his Tardis, and starts putting together a funny little device that will play a crucial part of his plan. Meanwhile, Romana isn't sure whether he's alive or not but has no choice but to continue with the plan anyway.
And now for the climactic scene, covered entirely by narration. The Doctor uses the fact that he's in the sphere as well to take control over the controlled minds, prompting a battle of wills between him and Skagra. It all sounds very exciting. Wish I could see it.
And now we see Skagra being held prisoner by his own ship. It turns out that the ship has been written in the same format as a modern day companion, in sheer awe over The Doctor, on the point of worship. Not sure it's the most appropriate fate for him.
Denoument in narrative, then funny scene to close. You've already experienced it if you've read Dirk Gently. "The room's been stolen!" bit.
There really is something horribly poetic about the final musings of The Doctor considering the direction the revived series took. "Was that really The Doctor? He seemed like such a nice man..."

Shada is a pretty good story, even given how much of it is flat out missing. I wouldn't show it to a non-fan by any measure, but it's still pretty fun. The script is funny, the villain is just the right shade of unlikable that you want to see him defeated rather than not onscreen at all, and thevarious mysteries throughout the plot are very intriguing. Even knowing the answer to them doesn't detract from the enjoyment to be had.

Having said that I would have to recommend the audio play more. The only thing really missing is Tom Baker's performance. A heavy loss to be certain, but Paul McGann makes up for it. It's simply a more complete story than this version.

Best Moment: "Was that The Doctor? He seemed like such a nice man..."
This was a little bit tricky, because a few of the scenes that I might have otherwise chosen were not filmed for example if it was the audio version I'd have gone with the Doctor tricking the ship. Unfortunately that exchange is lost, and it's a shame as Tom Baker would've delivered it rather well.

So too is lost the moment where this line is delivered... Except that it is narrated verbatim, and we can thus gain an appreciation for it all the more. In one sense we can see that Chronotis is a reflection of The Doctor's own future. A rogue that was actually rather a nice person behind the inflated legends told about him. After seeing the most recent season in particular, this line gains a tremendous amount of gravitas. A chill shot down my spine both times I heard it, for exactly that same reason.

Adventure Awards
"Bigger on the Inside"
Happens offscreen, when Chris heads into the Tardis for medical gea.

"Nothing Like the Present"
Happens in what appears to be modern Cambridge. Funny, but both the good stories of this season occured in the modern day on Earth.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."Skagra's scheme rather depends on mind control, particularly Salyavin's ability.

"Time Warp"
Temporal technobabble brings the professor back to life.

The Horns of Nimon

2012-01-15T04:39:00.000Z

The Horns of Nimon

It's easy to see that this was a rather troubled season for Doctor Who. Attempts to find new writers failed, with each proving unusable for one reason or another. Then there was the dispute between Tom Baker and the director of last week's serial, covered there in a little more detail. Then there was the infamous case of a little story known as Shada.

It was never planned for The Horns of Nimon to be the closing story for this season. In fact, producer Graham Williams felt it was rather weak. He had hoped that by placing it as the penultimate story of the season he could just get the slot filled and move on to a brilliant finale that would make people forget about the Nimon. He had no choice in the matter, as no other scripts were available. To set up for Shada, both this serial and last week's were restricted so that there would be no pre-filming in a cost saving measure. That money was for Shada.

In the meantime, Williams had long since confirmed his intention to leave the show at the end of this season and suggested John Nathan-Turner take his place. Nathan-Turner had impressed Williams for his hard work on the show, and although an attempt to promote him to associate producer had failed, he would ultimately take the position as full producer. The Head of Drama Graeme McDonald was understandably a little wary of putting a novice producer in charge of Doctor Who, but his intended choice would shy from doing further work on science fiction and instead went on to a period drama called Mackenzie. So Nathan-Turner got the position instead. He'd worked on the show for quite a while in various positions, rising up the ranks. His first job had been on The Space Pirates as a floor assistant.

Barry Letts was brought in as Doctor Who's first executive producer to assuage some of the concerns that McDonald had of Nathan-Turner's level of experience, particularly since McDonald himself would be unable to directly focus on individual shows due to further responsibilities being given to him.

In the meantime, Douglas Adams decided to leave the show as well. The aforementioned difficulties regarding the recruitment of new writers had been understandably frustrating, and he was happier writing his own material than helping others with their scripts. What's more, the rising success of his Hitchhiker's Guide radio series meant he really did not have the time required to focus on Doctor Who. A new script editor would have to be brought in to replace Adams...

After all this difficulty, and others regarding the filming of this serial, filming did indeed begin on Shada. This finale would surely have made the rest of a rather awful season worth all the hassle... only for industrial action to make finishing it impossible. Shada had to be abandoned, becoming the most well known of the likely dozens of Doctor Who stories to never be made. Season seventeen came to an ubrupt close, with a whimper rather than a bang.

The Doctor and Romana discover a space vessel in need of repairs... which also happens to be transporting seven young people from Aneth to Skonnos as sacrifices to the Nimon! This bull like creature has promised the Skonnans great power in exchange for sacrifices, but there's more to this than meets the eye...

We start things off on an unknown ship that is apparently not quite working as well as it once was. They talk about how they will soon have better equipment as promised by the Nimon, once their cargo is delivered.
One of them heads back to check the cargo, but really it's just an excuse to shout abuse at them. Yeah, that's right. The cargo is people! Soylent green joke, and we're walking, we're walking.
The worst part of being taken by these aliens isn't the lack of furniture or the periodic verbal abuse or the rations or even the fear of what's to come next. It's being forced to wear those bright yellow clothes. Yuck.
Playing a game of exposition as our two alien pilots argue over whether or not they should try to rush this last delivery. One of them is a fair bit reckless, and disregards concerns over whether their ship can take being pushed like this because it won't fly again. True, but you're forgetting that it's flying now.
See, that's a little thing called tempting fate. Worse yet, their attempts to fix the problem make things worse.
As the ship drifts through space, the Doctor discovers the Tardis chapter on redundant statements.While affecting repairs, switch off everything except that which doesn't need to be switched off.
Turns out that even though everything is off, the Tardis is moving at an incredible speed. They're not near anything, but since The Doctor shut off the dematerialisation circuit they can't just leave. Lucky they're not near anything.
Oh no, K9's head has been blown backwards! The Doctor gives him the kiss of life. Come on Doctor, he's not a NES cart. You really think that'll work?
Naturally, it transpires that the Tardis is heading directly towards that ship for some reason. I call it plot magnetism.
Meanwhile, on the planet most of the serial will take place on! It's overacting central!
The Tardis collides with the spaceship, and The Doctor decides to go take a look on board while he's there. Which is remarkably in character for him. They're perfectly safe now, so he could easily get the Tardis fixed up while they're safe, but instead he decides to head over and take a look.
The Doctor meets with the cargo, much to his surprise because he believed the ship long abandoned. They're a bit frightened of them, quite understandably since they're supposed to be tributes to the Nimon.
The Doctor theorises that someone is trying to create a black hole, to which Romana asks if it can be done. Um, yes. Actually, it has been done. By someone quite well know, you've probably heard of him guy by the name of Omega.
The man in charge of the ship walks into the cargo hold with a gun and demands to know who the intruders are. He accuses them of being space pirates, which is patently ridiculous. After all, they're not wearing rivets on their heads.
See now, what even is the point of calling the sacrifices weakling scum every time you walk into the room.
The Doctor and Romana figure out a way to fix the engines because it's mutually beneficial and there's a bad tempered man with a gun who seems rather insistent that they do something about this problem. The Doctor heads back to the Tardis to get some equipment while Romana works on the engines.
The overacting head priest heads into a special area and calls for the Nimon in much the same manner as an adult would while playing hide and seek with their child.
Gasp! The bad tempered person with the gun that seems eager to transport seven people as sacrifices is untrustworthy! He leaves with Romana locked in the cargo hold (which stops her for about ten seconds since she has a sonic screwdriver) and The Doctor is stuck in the Tardis.
Seriously Romana, I get that you're angry at the guy but let's be quite blunt about the situation. He has a gun. He is probably rather happy to use it. A guilt trip seems unlikely to work in this situation. Perhaps another strategy is in order?
We get our first glimpse of the Nimon. It sounds okay I guess with a distinctive deep voice, but it looks lousy. Really lousy. It has the look of a person wearing a paper mache mask over their head, and the body language to match. This is a terrible costume even for the standards the show is known and frequently mocked over.
The Tardis is heading directly towards a planet at high speeds and has seemingly no way to prevent their imminent destruction. Or at least that is what The Doctor thinks until he thinks of a cricket ball. Flash forward to his next incarnation? Anyway, what he does is he put some spin on the Tardis, and as we all know from Flash comics if you're spinning at high speed then the plot gods smile approvingly upon you and let you do whatever you want. In all seriousness, the laws of psychics just got a headache from that part.
As I watch the Nimon and the head priest discuss whatever they're discussing, my mind wanders away to other matters. Such as, what would it be like if these two were paired up in a sitcom? Imagine it! The head priest and the Nimon, reluctant roomies! See how they tackle everyday challenges. See them try to handle their wacky next door neighbour! It would run for years.
Romana tries to talk the sacrifices into helping her take control of the ship, but fails since they're too afraid of the inevitable retribution... from the out of date, breaking down warships of the long since crumbled empire. Ah, but actually it transpires they are more afraid of the Nimon which is a bit more sensible given they apparently have more advanced technology. Moot point anyway since she left her sonic screwdriver behind... which is improbably since when did she use it after she unlocked the door the first time? If I'd been writing this, I'd have had the copilot confiscate it from her.
Oh, wow. If I knew anyone that was behaving like this outside of a performance, I'd have either staged an intervention or tried to get them some psychiatric help. This is textbook overacting. You could show these clips in acting classes to illustrate to the students what not to do, or at least you could if it didn't mean subjecting innocent people to this story.
Try to imagine that you're sitting very nearly shoulder to shoulder in a group of seven other people, that look up to you as their great saviour save for the one you decide to confess to that you don't think you have it in you. How likely is it that you will not be heard by anyone else? Because, you know, he's right there. They can easily hear you. Doesn't matter how low you whisper, they're too close to fail to hear you.
They even do the whole "your secret is safe with me" routine.
The Tardis malfunctions, and makes sound effects that would sound more at home in a Loony Tune.
The copilot constructs a lie about what happened to cover his ineptitude, but the high priest doesn't buy it for a second, and he's driven into the Nimon's place. Romana and the sacrifices are sent in after him.
How many different ways can I say that this guy is overacting? We may discover this by the end.
And so we see the minotaur's labyrinth. It is a constantly shifting structure, the walls changing location periodically, keeping those within lost no matter how clever they think they are.
The Doctor repairs the Tardis, and lands on the planet. He then finds himself confronted with guards holding guns, and decides that since he's in a bit of a cliche mood demands to be taken to their leader.
ROMANA: Yes. It's as though something has sucked the life force out of it and left just a husk.
You don't say? I joke, but that would've been so much better. So much of an improvement.
Wow, the body even turned to dust on contact.
No Tom Baker! Resist the urge! Resist it! Just because he's overacting, doesn't mean you should try to rise to the challenge! Oh thank goodness, he's managed to resist.
The Doctor embarks upon an "exciting" chase through the building, then runs into the complex. He tries marking the walls so he can tell where he's going but soon realises that it's changing structure as he goes. Walls appear and disappear with remarkable silence. The trick with the string won't work here. Nor will putting your hand on the left wall and following it.
The copilot holds the sacrifices hostage and calls for the Nimon to feed upon them. He tries to bluff his way out of it, but the Nimon points out the flaw in the logic and - hahaha, watch as the actor tries desperately to keep the horn from falling off the mask! Oh, but that looked stupid. Half way through this garbage.
The Doctor manages to distract the Nimon and makes a mockery of it by using a red cape. Then he, Romana and the only two sacrifices that have shown the remotest personality make a break for it.
It's The Doctor. It's The Doctor. Honestly, did anyone ever fall for this?
The Nimon begins to feast on the sacrifices while The Doctor and company are lost in the ever shifting labyrinth. They stumble on a room full of equipment and try to figure out what the Nimon are up to based on it.
The Doctor finally realises what the labyrinth really is. A giant circuit! That's what its purpose is in the shifting walls. It's not to get people lost, it's to do whatever the circuit is meant to do.
K9 gets called out of the Tardis, and soon finds himself deactivated by the head priest's overacting. I mean, giant energy wielding staff.
Black holes don't work that way! Not that the show has ever really understood them anyway.
So, you just randomly call these meetings often then? Not to give instructions now or anything productive like that, just a friendly hourly reminder of your long term goals.
The head priest is naive enough to think that he understands what the Nimon is after, and that he's manipulating it rather than the other way around. That's the best way to manipulate someone, really .Let them think you're manipulating them. I've been reading too much Liar Game.
Wow but she's put all her eggs in one basket hasn't she? I wouldn't trust this guy to save a cat from a tree, never mind a civilisation from the Nimon.
The Nimon returns to the room with all the machinery, prompting The Doctor and Romana to hide. The laws of peripheral vision play into their favour, and they can observe from hiding what the minotaur knockoff is up to.
The head priest decides that studying K9 is a fine plan, and who can blame him? I'd certainly want a robot dog too, whether or not my evil mad scientist split personality was in charge that day. Er, forget I said that.
The complex/labyrinth begins to glow, and the head priest heads inside.
Why doesn't he know? Um. Why would he know?! What in your expectations makes you think it's likely that he'd know? And why do you seem to expect him to be able to take on a Nimon in single combat?
A metal pod appears, and two Nimon appear out of it. They have the same problem as the other one did.
As Romana studies the capsule and The Doctor the transmitter, the head priest is heading through the labyrinth grinning like a cheshire cat. And calling for the Nimon in the same manner as described earlier.
Oops. The Doctor accidentally sent Romana to the place the Nimon came from. Unfortunately, the head priest shows up and interrupts his attempts to bring her back.
The would be hero finally does something and knocks out the head priest with a stun shot, but this doesn't help Romana any.
Oh hey, more peope with paper mache bull heads on. I mean. Nimon. Obviously.
The law of peripheral vision plays against our heroes for once, as the head priest wakes up and sneaks away. He then cackles like a madman once he's out of sight. This man knows not the meaning of the word understated.
Romana meets the old head priest of the Nimon's old world. He gives the exposition for what happened to their world.
Well done hero, you got seperated from the girl so obsessed with you that it's kind of obvious you'll be an item by the end of the story. She then gets grabbed by the head priest, who freaks out a little when three Nimons appear.
K9 reactivates, and forces a guard to take him down from the desk at gunpoint. Then off he goes to the labyrinth to answer the dog whistle. And just to drive home how stupid the guard is, he can't seem to open the door.
How does he know all this stuff about the Nimons contingency plan? I hardly see them being all that willing to sit down discuss it with him over a cup of tea. Also. Jasonite? I pray that it isn't related to argonite because we've already had way too many references to The Space Pirates in this review so far.
The head priest of the former Nimon world gives Romana what she needs to get into the capsule and some Jasonite. Since that's pretty much his only purpose for existing, he dies soon after.
Now that Romana is back, she and The Doctor are seemingly stuck, but then in comes the hero with the staff. Romana tosses him some Jasonite and he knocks out the Nimons, save the one that K9 gets when he finally appears.
Ah yes. This scene. I've been looking forward to it all review, purely so that I can link to this. It says more about the scene than I ever could.
Funny thing about the death of the head priest. You see, the actor thought it was a rehearsal rather than the actual shot, but since they were trying to save money... they kept the shot. Even though it was thought that the guy was rather badly overacting. Oh, and this guy was considered for the role of Fourth Doctor. Thank heavens for that near miss.
Turns out that in his final moments, the head priest managed to set off a self destruct that they can't switch off.
In the meantime, Tika (whose name I only remember because I barely resisted making a joke) continues to bug me with her obsessive insistance about the would be hero.
K9 leads them out of the ever shifting maze thanks to his sensors being able to track the most efficient route. Turns out that the maze cheats twice. Not only does it constantly shift, the exit is disguised as just another wall. Very clever.
Seriously there's a time and a place to obsess over your hero. While standing in front of a building about to blow up is probably not the time.
The Doctor's back to repairing the Tardis, and we discover that the sacrifices have been sent back home. He feels sorry for that hero, given that the girl is likely to build up all kinds of legends about him that he'll have to live up to. Well that's the way it goes, isn't it? Tell a little lie and it just snowballs.

Good lord what a terrible serial this one is. Watching it is somewhat akin to being forced to watch your suspension of disbelief drowning in a river of children's tears. The best compliment I can give it is that it is the perfect way to end the season but that is only because it was such a godawful season.

I don't think there was anything right here, even a little bit. The pace in particular was all over the place, the narrative wasn't remotely strong enough to hold together, and the only times I wasn't complaining about something I was thinking about the similarities to the Greek myth. Those thoughts were typically coupled with "Gee, I wish I was reading that instead."

Best Moment: How Many Nimons Have You Seen Today?
Only because it was so ridiculous in context, and because of that link. It's impossible to watch this and fail to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of what's happening before your very eyes. Believe me, it's the closest to fun that anyone is likely to get while watching this story.

Adventure Awards
"Time and Relative Defects in Space"
A large chunk of the first episode focused on how the Tardis wasn't working.

"Spectacular Weapons Failure"
Turns out that a gravi-whatsit is pretty good at deflecting energy blasts.

Nightmare of Eden

2012-01-08T13:27:00.000Z

Nightmare of Eden

The Armageddon Factor was the last story written by the Bristol Boys as a team, but it was not the last that would be written by one of them for Doctor Who. Dave Martin didn't write for the show again, but Bob Baker did continue making his own submissions. One of which even got accepted.

The tempting factor regarding this particular submission was its subject matter, and its cost effectiveness.In the first case, the story would be centred around drugs. This is always a heavy subject for a family show, but Douglas Adams felt it was original enough at least as far as Doctor Who was concerned. The regulars disagreed with this assessment, resulting in the language being used regarding the subject matter being altered to make it sound as unappealing as possible. The latter factor is related to something that is almost a cosmic joke in retrospect. It was hoped that the fourth and fifth stories of this season could be made fairly cheaply so that they could use the rest of their budget on a big finale. I'll get to that next week.

I usually don't discuss the directors for a story in these segments, but only because there's not usually much of interest to note about them. This is a rather rare exception because of a specific incident. The director was Alan Bromley, who had last directed The Time Warrior in 1973. Bromly was largely retired by this point, but occasionally got jobs from the BBC. He reportedly immediately clashed with Tom Baker because one of them had old fashioned tendencies, and the other was rather well known for imposing his will on production.

That old fashioned outlook on filming stories didn't help matters much, especially in regard to how stories were paced and how much special effects were now used in the show. Bromly made several changes to the recording schedule, and was very strict about how he wanted the actors to perform. This led to a heated exchange between him and Baker, which in turn led to Bromly walking away from Nightmare of Eden after filming every scene yet to be shot that did not require the lead. The remaining scenes were directed by Graham Williams. Shortly after this, Bromly fully retired having taken the full blame for the incident. He died in 1995.

In the meantime, this was Bob Baker's last contribution to Doctor Who as well. He would continue to write, with his most well known work with Nick Park on the Wallace and Gromit series. In addition to this, Graham Williams had finally decided that he had had enough of Doctor Who following three very difficult years. At the end of the year, he would leave the role of producer. That end would come a little bit sooner than he and Douglas Adams had planned, through absolutely no fault of their own...

Two spaceships collide in hyperspace, causing them to merge together. The Doctor and Romana try to help the ships seperate, but soon stumble upon a drug smuggling operation and a spree of mysterious deaths.

We kick things off with a ship arriving around a planet. I like how it's got a lot of similarity to a modern plane, though the silver uniforms the passengers are wearing is a little weird.
One of the pilots is behaving in a most unusually goffy apathetic manner, which causes a collision with another ship which happens to be much larger. Luckily, the ships sort of... meld rather than rupture.
And into this mess arrives the Tardis. Good timing as always Doctor. Romana insists that they not interfere, but The Doctor responds that they should always do what they're best at.
The Doctor steps into an argument between the pilots of the two ships, claiming to be from the insurance company responding to their SOS. Unfortunately, the company he names was apparently liquidated some time ago, as the passenger ship's pilot finds when he checks up...
The co-pilot was instructed to show The Doctor around, but suddenly becomes very tense and tries to brush off The Doctor while claiming he's busy. The Doctor then observes him take something from the cargo, which he has K9 analyse. When the name vraxoin comes up, The Doctor gets very concerned because he's seen communities and planets destroyed by the stuff.
Meanwhile, Romana meets with some of the passengers. A scientist and his assistant in particular. He introduces a major plot point device, which basically serves a a 3D picture generator, that stores living environments. Romana isn't impressed, and shows off her own knowledge on the matter. Sort of.
The Doctor finds out about the device, and while he's very excited about the device he pulls a bit of a Columbo routine on him, criticising him for putting alien creatures into his electronic zoo like that.
Romana learns that a crew member on the scientist's expedition died under unknown circumstances, and... Okay, I can't put this off any more. Those tiny sunglasses are really stupid looking.
Suddenly, The Doctor is knocked unconscious by someone and his sonic screwdriver is stolen!
Worse yet, the navigator has been attacked and killed by something. The scientist claims that he didn't bring anything on board, but The Doctor points out that there are unstable zones throughout the ship which could facilitate animals being released from the thing.
Romana checks out the device and is knocked unconscious by Navi.
K9 makes a cut into a bit of the ship so that The Doctor can get to the right place, and within the walls they find a monster. Which I'm surprised they didn't hear, to be honest.
You know, the captain is surprisingly trusting of The Doctor given he knows that he's lying about who he is.
A scan of the ship reveals... no vraxoin. How strange.
Romana recovers from the... attack? And while the assistant goes to get her some water, someone slips some poison into the water, which the captain winds up taking. He's not particularly observant since he was facing the direction the poisoner was in.
The Doctor discovers that the device is much more unstable than he'd originally feared. He makes the scientist promise to deactivate it, then runs off to help the ships seperate.
The captain has fallen under the influence of the vraxoin that was put in the water. Pretty bad time for it too, given that the ships were supposed to be seperating. It's funny really, the villain just basically foiled himself. See, if you think about it the villain would surely want the ship to be seperated so that he could get away with the drugs. This has prohibited that from occuring.
The other pilot finds the procedure isn't working, and shuts down the reversal. This prompts The Doctor to check out what's wrong, and then he runs into... an Elvis impersonator? A really bad one.
Cue chase scene.
The captain of the ship is a giggling mess. Vraxoin is a hell of a drug.
The scientist tries to blame his assistant, but The Doctor has none of it. No evidence for that accusation, and he's refusing to leap to conclusions.
In contrast to that, some real officials have appeared and they demand The Doctor and Romana reveal their true identities. When they can't they are subjected to a scan and vraxoin is found in The Doctor's pockets. Presumably planted by the real criminal.
And so, they run into the 3D projection. Now that we're half way through the story, I'll let you know this. It's not as stupid as last week's, but it's every little bit as boring. At least so far. I think the second half is worse than the first, but... we'll see soon enough.
And now they're in the projection of Eden. Jungle scenery, hiding from beasts. Then there are the plants that want to give people hugs. Lethal hugs. Padding padding padding.
Finally, the plot moves forward when a man saves The Doctor and Romana from an attacking creature. He introduces himself as the supposedly dead member of the scientific expedition, and explains that he was trapped in the projection when trying to return to the ship. He's basically an agent sent to investigate the drug smuggling and has been trying to find the source of the vraxoin with no success. What's more, he also informs that it's possible to leave the projection from pretty much anywhere on the ship, which is a pretty useful ability.
A passenger gets attacked by a Mandril, and the captain watches from the bridge laughing because he's stoned. One of the beaurocrats finds out about this and decides to have the captain shot for his lack of concern for the wellbeing of the passengers. He assumes that the man is drunk rather than realise it's vraxoin, but that wouldn't be much of an improvement.
Look out, Doctor! It's a Mandril, and he's looking for a hug! Turns out that hugs are deadly in this story, who knew?
The head beaurocrat decides to order that The Doctor be shot at the slightest sign of resistance. In his words "what else do you do with criminals?" Um... Arrest them? Due process? No? Judge jury and executioner, are we?
The Doctor's setup is destroyed by a rampaging Mandril, and he realises the truth. When they are electrocuted, the Mandrils transform into the drug. Because apparently their bodies are barely held together and will disintigrate into a fine powder if they shuffle on a carpet.
Romana dodges some beaurocrats and overhears that the system means they'll be promoted for sorting this mess out... because of the number of people that died while they were sorting it out. Yeah, wow. Jerks.
Romana then has a pretty good scene with the captain, who is suffering through withdrawl. She's trying to activate her half of the plan to seperate the ships, but he's demanding more of the drug. His behaviour is extremely erratic, and honestly this is the best part of the story. This says virtually nothing.
Then a beaurocrat shows up, deals with the captain and holds Romana at gunpoint, prohibiting her from activating the controls. She realises she's dead anyway and does so anyway. This knocks the beaurocrat off his feet and this allows Romana to escape.
The other ship's captain reveals that the ships have been seperated, but the beaurocrat prohibits him from leaving because of red tape. The reaction to this news is pretty much what anyone's would be in the same situation.
You know, there are times when K9's habit of referring to The Doctor as master momentarily confuses me.
Hold it, wait a minute let me get this clear. So, according to you, the guy was shot by a stun gun then mauled by a mandril. Then you didn't see the evidence of this yourself, but you were shown a recording of it by someone else entirely? And this person is the same person you've just now learned tried to implicate you and your dead (but not really dead) boyfriend in drug smuggling? Idiot.
The Doctor wakes up on the other ship, and hides himself when the captain shows up. Now he can learn the truth by observing a computer that comes from an era before GUI was realised. I love how science fiction gets dated like that.
I'm amazed that he didn't notice The Doctor sitting behind him like that. I mean, it's not like there was anywhere he could hide or anything. Perpiheral vision strikes again! Though this time it's forgivable given he was wearing a spacesuit.
Fortunately for The Doctor, he's got a special agent on his side that knows he's innocent. Seems as though the beaurocrats have their hands tied.
So you learned that this man lied to you about the death of your boyfriend and then you go and confront him on it without first letting the officials know about this, thus placing you squarely at the mercy of the man that very probably tried to kill your boyfriend. Idiot.
She gets away when a mandril attacks, but the smugglers are also able to get back to their own ship. The mandrils are then rounded up and lured into the projection again.
The smugglers are the scientist and the captain of the other ship, by the way. Just in case it wasn't clear.
I do like how The Doctor caught them, though. He used their own device to ensnare them as projections, meaning that they're nice and stored away for taking off to prison. I do like seeing a villain hoisted by his own petard, even in a rubbish story like this one.
The Doctor has this brilliant reaction to the scientist claiming that he did it for the sake of pursuing his research, and pleading that The Doctor should understand him. It's so restrained, but you can tell he took that as a deep personal insult.

This wasn't all that great. There was a rather tremendous amount of padding throughout, and it made the story feel a little bit awkward. The pace did feel a little more old school than other serials this season, but the trouble was that it was obviously not written that way.

The one saving grace is that there wasn't quite as much stupidity as compared to last week, and I thought that the ability to manipulate dimensions to use as a storage facility was a pretty interesting idea. As far as any drug message goes, I thought it was a little underplayed. Sure it was the central piece of the villain's goal and aim, but I'm not convinced it would have changed anyone's mind on the subject of taking drugs. Still, having said that I don't think it would ever be one specific thing that would change a person's mind, and more a combination of different things. I also don't think that was really the story's intention at all. Rather than a PSA, it was trying to be a story that just happened to feature a fictional drug as a prominent plot element.

I had considered making mention of the idea of an apathy inducing drug being addictive with the intention of saying it's ridiculous, but then I realised that would be a stupid thing to do. The apathy only lasts while the drug is in effect and I can easily understand how a person could get addicted to having no worries or stress. But enough about the drug: Do I recommend this story? The answer is... Not really, no. It's not quite as painful as I remember it being, but it's still below average for Doctor Who.

Best Moment: You understand all this. You're a scientist.
The last desperate act of a man that cared more for the preservation of his career than millions of lives. As The Doctor earlier said, this drug had wiped out entire worlds. Its effects are known to be lethal and addictive. And here's this man, this stupid little monster of a man coming up to him in an attempt to get a little bit of sympathy in the vain and futile hope that it might somehow lessen his sentence.

And then he does it in such a manner as to insult everything that science stands for.

The Doctor's response would have been restrained had he punched the man in the mouth. Instead all he does is stare away from the man and say two words. "Get out." He is angry at this man, this insect that thinks himself above morality, thinks that the ends justifies the means. He is furious. It shows in his facial expression and the tone of his voice and it is every bit as easy to read as a book written for a toddler. I don't know if this was Tom Baker being a brilliant performer (which he is) or if he was still angry over the argument with the director, but either way I just loved this tiny part of the final moments for this story. Just barely squeeked over the bit at the end of the previous episode, with Romana and the captain. It was a photo finish.

The Creature From the Pit

2012-01-03T03:48:00.000Z

The Creature From the Pit

Ah, David Fisher. Obviously writing decent serials quickly was a bit of a blessing, given how much money it must've made. Four serials over two seasons! Not bad. Not bad at all. In this instance - the first he worked on for this season - he had been asked to write an adventure with an atypical monster. He felt it would be interesting to write about a fundamentally good creature being forced to commit murder by accident or misunderstanding. To further subvert expectations, the main antagonist would be a woman.

It's a funny thing, but Fisher used a fair amount of comedic elements in the style of Adam's own the Pirate Planet... Only for Adams to try and restrain the comedy somewhat. Even so, the comedy that remained did invite some criticism from above, as it was felt to sabotage the programme's credibility.

In the meantime, this was the first story produced with Lalla Ward as Romana. Since Creature From the Pit had been written with the original Romana in mind, Fisher had to do some rather hasty rewrites to accomodate the new version of the character. Lalla Ward didn't feel that her character was well accomodated for in these rewrites, and so she was given more say in her character's portrayal.

In the meantime, there was an attempted change to the production team as a consequence of Graham Williams falling badly ill. Much of the work he would have performed was instead done by one John Nathan-Turner, a name of some significance to Doctor Who in years to come. Williams advocated for Nathan-Turner's promotion for his work during this period but this was denied.

The Tardis arrives on the planet Chloris, which as may be imagined from the name has vegetation to spare but no metal to speak of. It is ruled by the tyrannical Adrasta, who throws prisoners into a pit. Within that pit there lurks a creature, but the title does rather give that fact away. However, there's more to this creature than meets the eye and soon enough two worlds will hang in the balance.

The Tardis spins through some sort of green mist. I don't particularly think much of K9's new voice. Doesn't quite sound right. I don't so much believe he's a robot dog so much as I believe that someone got themselves trapped inside the robot dog. The inflection is all wrong, and I don't like it.
One amusing interlude regarding The Doctor's tendency to accumulate junk, and on to the plot! Romana plugs in a distress call detector thing that The Doctor doesn't like very much, and it brings them to a planet.
My goodness but those are large leaves. And that's a good point, when did Romana learn of Peter Rabbit? Wow, out of context that must seem like such an odd question.
While the Time Lords examine a piece of the shell of a semi-metallic egg, The Doctor is set upon by little cacti thingies, and is then captured by some guy with a whip. He is then locked in a mobile stockade and dragged away against his will. It's a fairly typical capture scene, but the weird thing is that I just don't care for some reason. And nor do I care when Romana is seperated from The Doctor following an ambush by bandits. How the smeg does that even happen?
The Doctor meets with Adrasta, the leader of the area. She's intrigued enough by The Doctor to not have him killed quite yet, and in particular she's interested in his theories regarding the egg. In the meantime, for all that they're trying to "subvert expectations", by making the main antagonist a woman it's flat out blatant that she's evil. It's one thing I will give credit to this story for regarding this performance and the costume. She exudes pure evil with every step avery syllable and every gesture.
And then we settle in for more comedy. You know, that element of the story that was toned down? It's pretty obvious by this point that this was intended to be largely comedic in nature, but the vast majority of that has been removed. This doesn't result in a bad story so much as it does a bland one. It wants to be funny. It aches to be funny. But it isn't.
Another thing that isn't helping is that I get a very strong feeling that this is the previous Romana. I understand exactly where Lalla Ward is coming from about this point. It's just... wrong. This is not the same character as in the previous two stories, at all.
So, K9 frees Romana from the bandits and off they set to find The Doctor. They do indeed find him, at the pit mentioned in the title. K9 tries to fight off the "wolf weeds" but is overcome by sheer force of numbers. Now The Doctor decides that the smartest thing to do right about now is to dive into the pit. Not literally mind, but rather speedily climb down the ropes. Which seems a bit out of nowhere for my liking.
Romana tries to convince Adrasta to rescue The Doctor, but she has none of it. She's instead interested in finding out more details about the egg, and Romana is her best chance of that right now. With K9 out of action, she has little recourse but to follow along.
So we intercut between scenes of The Doctor investigating the pit, and Romana doing her damndest to stay alive.
Okay, the bit where Adrasta slaps Romana is worth a bit of comment. See, Adastra's handle seems to be that she's a tyrant and doesn't even care what others think of her. She's a bully and has no illusions about the fact. Sounds interesting, but when you really analyse her it makes her character so two dimensional she could slip under doors by lying down.
ORGANON: Astrologer extraordinary. Seer to princes and emperors. The future foretold, the past explained, the present apologised for.

Okay, that was kind of funny. I expect Adams wrote that line, it's his kind of humour.
Anyway, Organon gives a bit of planetary backstory. Adrasta owns the only metal mine on the planet, meaning she has a monopoly, and - Wait. The only metal mine? That seems somewhat unlikely. I mean, was she the only person with the resources to set up a mine? Is that what they're saying happened here? I don't get this, it raises a whole bunch of questions to which there are many possible answers. Each of which that I can think of is stupid. Is this the only place on the entire planet that anyone could ever find metal? Or is it simply that nobody thought to set up another mine well outside Adrasta's reach with whatever metal they could find? Okay, maybe that would be a fair bit difficult without the tools you'd need to get mining done at all... But which metal specifically did they find inside that mine? Gold? Bronze? But no, this is the only mine they have and both gold and bronze and other metals beside have been shown in this story. Therefore, this one mine is like a super store for metals! Your one stop shop for all your metallic needs!
In the meantime, the bandits plan a raid on Adrasta's place on the logic that the guards can't be in two places at once. Except, yes. Yes they can. There is more than one guard, in fact I expect there are more than one dozen guards. How hard would it be to have half off searching for you lot while the others stay home, so to speak? I doubt very much that Adrasta is dumb enough to consider leaving herself unguarded given that she must surely be the most hated person on the planet. What with that whole tyranny maintained by a monopoly thing.
Unfortunately, Romana isn't quite as sharp as she usually is, and tries to use K9 to escape. Because it worked so well before. She really did not think that plan through, at all. I mean, did she really expect Adrasta was stupid enough to not reason "hey, she wants to repair that robot dog with the weapon. Maybe I should be prepared just in case she's stupid enough to think I'm stupid enough not to be ready for that."
While The Doctor and his new astrologer friend investigate the creature - which looks like a giant ball of snot, no really - K9 is interrogated about the Tardis and Adrasta intends to use it for the sole purpose of maintaining her monopoly on the planet she already has a well entrenched monopoly over. Wow. Just, wow. You discover that you have the means by which to travel anywhere and anywhen in the universe, and the first thing you intend to do is use it to maintain the status quo?! You are dumb! You have no imagination! Your ambition is as artificial as John Cena's charisma! The apathy I had towards this story is rapidly shifting towards a strong dislike, and the worst part is that I know for a fact there are two much worse stories ending this season.
Adrasta decides it's time to kill the creature because she no longer needs it because of the Tardis. Please note that this does not negate my previous point, because if she was a real villain with real imagination she'd try to come up with a plan to use the time and space machine that fell into her lap for more useful things than maintaining the status quo.
And then The Doctor, who did just about two degrees north of damn all this episode, gets engulfed by the creature.
While Adrasta and her guards head down into the pit through a secret entrance while dragging Romana and K9 with them, the bandits attack. And manage to get into the palace. Which speaks to the security level of the structure tremendously. I mean, come on. It's one thing having those guards and wolf weed things at your beck and call, but at least try to do something with the architecture to make it difficult for someone to mount even a sneak attack on it.
The creature spits The Doctor out, and he has a bit of a chat with it. Turns out that the creature doesn't have any capacity to communicate except for taking over the voice of anyone in direct contact with it. Sort of like the tree things from the recent christmas episode.
The bandits make off with every bit of metal they can find, including a metal pentagon that starts to glow eerily and have an obvious effect upon them. How peculiar, yet uninteresting.
Romana tries to get K9 to cut through a mysterious shell that forms, but to no avail. The material is self repairing, and gets stronger when it does so. In spite of that, not a minute later The Doctor walks through it and says hello. Turns out that the creature can let people walk through if it wants them to and now you're just making up abilities it has because it sounds cool. Stop that.
Adrasta sends her guards to try and kill the creature, which seems rather foolish given what it can apparently do. The Doctor tries to dissuade her because he's like that, but she doesn't listen and they get killed.
Okay. So the guard holding Romana is making sure she keeps K9 pointing at the wall. The Doctor gets out a mirror under the pretense of allowing Romana the chance to fix her hair. This permits K9 to fire into the mirror and stun everyone.
Adrasta still manages to get behind The Doctor somehow, and threatens to slit his throat open with a knife unless K9 kills the creature. The Doctor refuses, but then the bandits come along carrying the pentagon and place it on the creature. Did... Did someone slip something into that lemonade I've been drinking? No... Wait... this is actually happening. Alright. I was about to label this the lamest trip ever.
Now we start getting a little exposition, but they drip feed it to us a little bit at a time. Which is highly annoying. For now we learn the creature's real name and that he was a high ambassador sent to this planet by his people. Then we get interrupted by the revelation that the wolf weeds have smothered K9 again while The Doctor and Romana weren't paying attention.
And now we get the rest of it drip fed out to us. The Tythonians eat plants and their world has an overabundance of metal on it. So they sent an ambassador to offer trade. Some of their plants for some of the metals and ores on their world. Unfortunately the ambassador encounted Adrasta, and she tricked him into the pit then threw people at him that she wanted dead. Why? Because she wanted to maintain her monopoly, and if there was an abundance of metal it would be harder to maintain. She didn't care about her people one little bit, and only cared about maintaining her position.
Now, I want to talk about that for a little bit. Adrasta, you are a complete moron. You are living in a society which has severely limited supplies of metal. The Tythonians obviously have the capacity for space travel. They eat plants, and that's pretty much your best weapon; the wolfweeds. Your response to this crisis to your tyranny was to basically kidnap their ambassador. You are holding an ambassador. Now, I don't know how things work with you but in the real world? That's an act of war and the Tythonians would be justified in sending their army at you. You stupid, stupid short sighted buffoon. How could you not expect a response?! You held hostage the person they sent to try and open contact with you! Of course they're going to want to follow up on that if he stops contacting them!
The guy with the whipe turns face and forces Adrasta to touch the Tythonian so she can confess the truth. It had to come from her own mouth because, as she insisted, The Doctor or Romana or anyone else could lie about this. Then the wolfweeds and the ambassador decide to flat out murder her. All's well that ends well, right? Of course not! We only just started the last episode!
This is a pretty amusing scene, with The Doctor helping Romana figure out just why he's uncertain that the crisis is over, then revealing that he's already taken the precautions necessary to ensure they get the truth out of the ambassador. I'll probably make that the best moment because there is damn all else I liked so far.
One of the bandits decides that hey, this whole tyranical monopoly thing worked out well for Adrasta. Why not get in on the action himself? I think there's something in the atmosphere of this planet that makes people dumb.
And hey, what do you know? Turns out that the Tythonians have reacted to the abduction of their ambassador much like any nation would. By sending them the very special gift of a neutron star. Wait. What? Overreaction much?
Organon proves ineffective at protecting pieces of alien spaceships.
The Doctor decides to take advantage of the ambassador's ability to spin metallic threads into any form he desires. Which is a pretty useful ability, and it's a good thing they're friendly. When not sending neutron stars to destroy solar systems.
Apparently this solution to the problem of the neutron star, as well as the problem itself was suggested to David Fisher when he went to talk to some members of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge. They were fans of Doctor Who, so blame them for this if you must.
You know, I'd talk a little about how this last episode went but... Really, it's so utterly uninteresting. The Doctor persuades the ambassador to help them, then discovers that the ship piece he took to prevent him leaving was stolen, and that he needs it back if his plan to save the planet is to work. He confronts the bandits, and has K9 destroy their collected metal to force them to tell him where they hid it. They enact the plan, it's all very "exciting", and the day is saved. The end.

Oh, wow. That was... much more painful than I remembered. This story went all over the place. The last episode in particular just felt rushed and all over the place. As villains go, Adrasta was pretty terrible. As stupid and petty tyrants go, she was the stupidest and pettiest. I hated her for reasons that I should have and reasons I should not. Seeing her final comeuppance at the hands of the creature was just so anticlimactic.

But not just that, I felt the same way with most scenes from this story. It felt so flat and bland, just plot points to move things along to the next plot point. The bandits had so little point in the story that they could probably have been excised. They were time wasters, sorry my mistake, time fillers. And that was it.

Aside from issues with the plot, the antagonist and the last episode another major problem I had was with Romana. She felt... off. It was kind of obvious that there were rewrites performed to get her away from the first Romana, and it actually diminishes the character rather tremendously throughout this story.

I would be happy to never watch this one again. Same applies to the majority of this season. Do you want to know the truly scary part? I'm fairly certain it's going to get worse from here. I hate this season.

Best Moment: The Present Apologised For
There wasn't much I enjoyed throughout this story, but that one line from Ogranon during his introduction did get a pretty big laugh out of me. Like I said earlier there was something distinctly in the style of Douglas Adams about it, and I do wish that the story had emphasised the comedic element a bit better. That way there might have been something for me to latch on to and have fun with.

Adventure Awards

"Hablas Ingles?"
One of the jokes in this episode involves The Doctor being unable to read a book that was written in Tibet, so he pulls out a phrase book to help him translate it. In addition, the titular creature communicates by taking control over the vocal abilities of those in contact with it. I'm being a bit flexible for this one because both points are worth raising.

"Pointlessly Advanced Technology"
I couldn't shake the feeling that most of the creature's abilities were just made up on the fly to try and impress us.

"Deadly Wonders of Nature"
The creature may have been friendly, but it was certainly deadly enough to kill people by accident while trying to communicate with them.

City of Death

2011-12-26T21:21:00.000Z

City of Death

The original intention for City of Death was very different from the final result. You see, it was intended to be a parody of a character called "Bulldog" Drummond, a character created by Herman Cyril McNeile that first appeared in the 1920 novel Bulldog Drumond and then went on to appear in almost fifty books and movies. The idea came into being after the success and popularity of The Androids of Tara, which made it seem like another literary satire piece might also meet with success. David Fisher was brought in to write it after finishing a later serial in this season, The Creature From The Pit.

The setting for the story changed a number of times. Originally Las Vegas with an emphasis on gambling, then to Paris and Monte Carlo... Before finally settling on Paris after it was realised that not only was it possible to do shooting in Paris for much the same budget as studio work, but it would also present a fine opportunity for some publicity. The trouble was that this meant the story could no longer occur in the 1920s and had to be moved forward half a century.

More significant alterations occured because of a feeling from producer Graham Williams that David Fisher had indulged too much in the satire element and not focused on what made a good Doctor Who story. Since h'd already moved on to other commitments it fell to Williams, script editor Douglas Adams and the director for what would be his final Doctor Who story, Michael Hayes. The former two locked themselves in William's house for three days to produce the replacement scripts.

The alterations included name alterations, the removal of a gambling subplot and supporting characters relating to the subplot, slight alterations to the villain's motivation and rather more significant changes to the climax. As far as the title went, it had to be altered from A Gamble With Time because of the removal of that subplot, and became City of Death much later on.

In an odd quirk of fate, City of Death was only one of a very few Doctor Who stories that was not novelised for Target Books. You see, Douglas Adams had become rather well known for his Hitchhiker's Guide series, which meant Target simply couldn't afford him. Worse yet, he refused to allow anyone else to write it. Even so, Adams wound up using a number of elements from both this story and the unfinished Shada in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

The Doctor and Romana find themselves in modern day Paris, where it becomes apparent that someone is playing with time. The culprit is one Count Scarlioni, a far more dangerous man with far worse intentions than The Doctor may at first realise...

We begin with a shot on a wasteland with an alien ship, and I'm getting all kinds of Dirk Gently vibes from the dialogue.
The Jaggaroth were originally supposed to be called the Sephiroth. Shame they changed it. Would've been ripe for all sorts of Final Fantasy 7 jokes, but alas.
Many millions of years later, The Doctor and Romana stand in Paris, and decide to take in the sights. Show off Paris a little while they're at it. Including the underground train station, which, um, didn't really need showing off. It's a nice one as they go, but still.
And here's our villain for the piece, giving his scientist a big wad of money to continue his research. To acquire the necessary funds, he has a servant of his sell off some priceless masterpieces. The servant warns to be careful, since people might get suspicious if they sell off too many at once...
In a cafe, The Doctor and Romana unwind. Romana turns to look at an artist sketching her, spoiling his work and suddenly the scene repeats. The sketch turns out to have shown Romana with a clock face with a crack in it, which The Doctor finds rather ominous.
Much like in David Fisher's previous work, The Doctor isn't particularly interested in dealing with the problem since he's on holiday. Bit of an odd reoccuring theme that.
The Doctor seems a bit of a fan of the Mona Lisa, though Romana isn't really all that impressed. I suppose that The Doctor is a little bit biased towards humanity by now.
Time suddenly repeats itself, prompting The Doctor and Romana to feel rather faint. He falls onto a bench, nearly landing on a woman and is helped to his feet by a man in a trenchcoat. The two Time Lords leave hurriedly, but are being followed by two seperate parties...
Got to feel bad for the poor scientist. Yeah sure you can have all the food and wine you like, but no sleep for you! Work!
The Doctor and Romana discuss what happened in the museum, and it's revealed that a bracelet the woman on the bench was wearing has been stolen by The Doctor because it's alien tech being used to figure out the security system surrounding the Mona Lisa. To make things a little more complicated, the man in the trenchcoat is standing behind The Doctor pointing a gun in his back.
So, it turns out that in French cafes, it's possible to hold people at gunpoint and nobody except the people with guns being pointed at them will even remotely react to it.
In the scene before this one, we're told that Duggan is a very stupid man. But since it's bad writing technique to tell rather than show, we are shown this here. He seems rather convinced that The Doctor and Romana are up to something.
The Count - and no, I'm not going to try and spell his full name - establishes his villain credentials further, by having the thugs that brought the bracelet back killed for not doing a good enough job. Which, honestly, is a bit of a waste of manpower.
And then some other thugs are sent back to retrieve the Time Lords and the detective. That's probably what the Count wasn't happy with. Also, daylight kidnapping at gunpoint. Hello? Anyone going to react to this? Maybe call the police?
Alone in the lab, the scientist presumably getting some well earned sleep, the Count removes a face mask sort of like the ones The Master used a couple seasons back. Turns out he's that alien from the beginning of the story.
Our heroes are brought to meet with the Countess, and The Doctor rather expertly spins a web of deceit while appearing to babble. In the process he gets out a line that's pretty well known. "You're a beautiful woman probably" It's a pretty fun line, all truth told. But anyway, it's pretty obvious that the Countess doesn't buy his line even a little bit. She's the kind of person that gets into mischief just for the sake of a little fun, and it's all the reason she needs.
COUNTESS: My dear, I don't think he's as stupid as he seems.SCARLIONI: My dear, nobody could be as stupid as he seems.
One of those instances where The Doctor's stupidity act seems to be not working. Meanwhile, this is the kind of thing that makes this story work really well. It's funny most of the time, while the rest is pretty exciting.
The Count orders them to be thrown into the cellar. When Duggan attempts to break his chair on Herman's back, The Doctor chastises him about it as it's a masterpiece. Really it was an act to stop them all getting killed because of the detective's stupidity, but there you go.
Into the cellar, locked up next to the laboratory. Hardly the best place for them given all the sensitive equipment and all that.
The Doctor's sonic screwdriver doesn't work, so Duggan takes it and thumps it against the door, causing it to work. See, what happened is, Duggan's awesome rubbed off on the screwdriver, fixing whatever the problem was. He's an idiot, but an awesome idiot. That loves giving people a good hard thump. Thumping people is his lifeblood.
The scientist wanders into the laboratory, and The Doctor manages to hide and pretend he just arrived. Prime opportunity to find out what's really going on, how can he be expected to pass that up?
The Doctor decides to have a little fun pointing out how the scientist's work is based on wrong principles. Then while he's distracted, Duggan sneaks in and knocks him out. Just because he could.
Seriously now, I can't believe that nobody stopped to think "hey locking up our prisoners next to our laboratory might be a bad idea. Especially if we don't have a guard in there or anything." Were all the thugs needed elsewhere?
Meanwhile, we get to see a trial run of the theft of the Mona Lisa which uses some rather advanced alien technology. Including a hologram to represent the museum. Pretty clever.
Romana found a walled off room which fascinates The Doctor. She also takes the time to point out why stealing something as well known as the Mona Lisa is kind of stupid. Who could you sell it to? Who would buy it? They wouldn't be able to show anyone and say "that's the real one by the way" so what's the point? I had a story idea along similar lines, actually. The world's greatest thief wasn't anyone that stole something huge or rare. It was a guy that stole lots of very small things, and did everything in his power to keep from being noticed.
It's been about five minutes since he last thumped something, and surely hours since his second last. Thus, Duggan is just aching for the chance to have a go at that wall, and throws himself at it with energy to spare. That man is an addict, and I pity any of his friends that attempt to stage an intervention.
Inside that secret room there are numerous perfect duplicates of the Mona Lisa, which even the discerning eye of The Doctor can't tell the difference. Duggan, of all people, figures out just what the Count is up to.
Wait, how did Romana and The Doctor not see the Count enter the room? They were both facing that direction.
Duggan throws a punch, knocks out the Count, resolves the problem. Woah. I'm getting vuja de. That feeling like I've just seen something that I will be seeing again in the future.
The Doctor heads into the past to see da Vinci, but soon finds himself held at sword point. Just then, he's approached by a very familiar figure, though with longer hair and a look more timely to the Rennaissance. It's the Count!
Meanwhile in the present... Yet another example of time travel screwing with the English language... Romana and Duggan are too late to stop the robbery. Then Duggan sets off an alarm by mistake. Then dives through a window. Dumb as a brick, but simply awesome.
The scientist wakes up, and finds the unconscious Count. Curious thing is, he's talking in his sleep. The same thing he's saying to The Doctor. Interesting.
Okay, so now he's telling all and baring his plan in full, including the fact that he's an alien that first arrived on Earth 400 million years ago and is now fragmented across time. Meanwhile the soldier is just standing there, and he has to be thinking at deep lengths about his employer's sanity.
What I like about him as an antagonist is that he's smart, he's ruthless, but he also doesn't mess around. He knows what he wants, he knows how to get it, but he's also smart enough to recognise a threat and how best to deal with it. However. The only reason he doesn't kill The Doctor during their first meeting is because of his only real vice: Curiousity. This combination of traits makes him a very effective villain to square off against The Doctor.
Anyway, while the past Count is off finding some instruments of torture, The Doctor manages to knock the soldier out and write "This is a fake" on the canvases for the paintings. He then takes the time to write a backward message for da Vinci, but is caught before he can escape into the Tardis. Doh!
You know, regardless of what a person may say in their sleep, if they asked me where they were when they first woke up, it would not be to tell them what city they were in. Not if it was the same one they had fallen asleep in. In this situation, I'd instead have replied, "your cellar", or whatever was appropriate to the situation.
Okay, he's going a little off the rails now. Just a little bit. And the scientist is really quite apalled by what is apparently being proposed as planned for his work, increasing the effect he was trying to eliminate.
The Doctor decides to forgo the torture and just talk already. Save a bit of time.
Um, yes, he really is going off the rails a bit and cares decreasingly about who knows about the truth. The voices he's hearing in his head can hardly be helping matters any.
And now the voices are being all "As you know, because you're me and everything." It's also providing enough of a distraction that the soldier isn't watching The Doctor, allowing him to undo the thumbscrews and nip into the Tardis.
Politely wake Duggan up, and his response is to draw his gun. This man is a danger to be around. I'd say to take the gun away, but... Whether he's armed or not, he's armed.
When confronted with temporal mechanics, in particular, fraud perpetuated by way of time travel, Duggan starts thinking about his previous line of work in divorce proceedings. Hard to blame him. Weird is a good word to use for this situation, but it does ill justice.
Good use of humour there. The Doctor thinks that they can't be mad enough to go back to the chateau, then reads the note, then we cut to them being held prisoner at the chateau. Yes, Duggan probably wasn't ever any good at actually breaking into places with discretion.
Now that he has Romana, the Count decides that he'll have her use her specialist knowledge to get what he wants. To demonstrate his capacity to destroy Paris if he wanted to, he kills the scientist... who breifly seems to attempt to do one of those poses like in the hyroglyphs before aging to death. Very nasty.
While the Count talks Romana into helping him - while threatening to destroy Paris or kill Duggan if she refuses - The Doctor is taken prisoner and meets with the Countess.
It's hard to tell sometimes if The Doctor is being serious or not about the people he's supposedly met, or if he's just goofing around.
The Countess is too amused by The Doctor's claims to take him seriously, until she remembers something on an item she keeps in her safe. It turns out that one of the earlier versions of her husband set himself up as an Egyptian god, and she has a scroll which depicts him in as himself. Much like what The Doctor described.
See, there's the thing about what the Count is up to. Romana thinks he just wants to pull himself back together, but in truth he's got much worse intentions than that. And The Doctor is not falling for the threat he makes to destroy the city because the consequences will be worse.
The Count heads upstairs, and encounters his wife. Who has a gun. She's done some serious thinking, and decided to get some real answers. She gets them. He shows his true form, which shocks her enough that he's able to kill her with that bracelet she's been wearing.
Despite escaping from the prison, The Doctor, Romana and Duggan are unable to stop the leap back through time. Now their only chance is to flee back to the Tardis and hop back four hundred million years. It's the only chance they have to prevent humanity from non-existance.
And hey, there's John Cleese. Admiring the Tardis, as an art piece. Fun little comedic interlude.
Into the past they go, and while The Doctor and Romana talk about how the engines will surely blow up, all Duggan can do is point at it and say "that's a space ship!" Rock dumb, but awesome.
There's something in Scaroth's body language which says "oh, what you're here? Screw this, I'm warning my people."
And then out of nowhere, Duggan punches the problem into unconsciousness and resolves it. The most important punch of all history.
Back in the present, or at least the late 70s, Hammond encounters a one eyed alien in the cellar and has a reaction that is rather appropriate to that revelation. He lobs something at it, causing an explosion.
All is well that ends well. The Doctor was only able to save one of the Mona Lisas, and it's one which has "This is a fake" written under it in felt pen. Oh well. Must make do with something...

This is an absolute delight to watch. It is largely comedic in nature, but the story is strong enough with more than enough interesting concepts that it seems to become much more than that.

I can't recommend it enough. Go. Watch it now whether you've already seen it or not. This would easily be the high point of any season, but is especially so in this one.

Best Moment: The Most Important Punch in History
There are a lot of choice lines in this story, and a lot of very fun moments. But there's something about Duggan just flat out KO punching the Jaggaroth after he declares that he must do this, there's something tremendously funny about it. It's so very funny how he goes on about how humans were just the tools that brought him there, how they're so far beneath his kind, and then he just gets laid out flat by one just like that.

To reiterate the point: Duggan's a bit thick, but he's awesome.

Adventure Awards
"History Lesson"
Brief period spent in the Rennaisance.

"Nothing Like the Present"
Most of the story is set in the present day.

"Send in the clones"
The antagonist is a temporally splintered alien.

"Time Warp"
See previous award.

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe: First Impression

2011-12-25T20:58:00.000Z

This episode helped remind me of why exactly I like The Eleventh Doctor so much. At times he's like a big kid, goofing around showing off trying to be cool but being really geeky about it... But then it's like a switch flips and suddenly he actually is rather effortlessly cool. There were a number of rather funny lines from him throughout the episode.

But that's right about where I stop being complimentary. It was sachrine, it was cheesy, it was so over the top that it ceased being fun. I also felt that there was something very off about the pacing, or the narrative structure in general but couldn't quite place exactly what it was. Most dramatic beats had me rolling my eyes since it became almost transparent what was about to happen as soon as the point was brought up. I think the worst part is, it felt like there was a really good story buried somewhere underneath all of this. It's not the worst Doctor Who Christmas special by a long way, but that bar needs a limbo master to crawl under. This is probably the weakest Doctor Who story to air this year.

No spoilers, because everything I wanted to say about the plot has already been said in a non-spoilery manner.

Destiny Of The Daleks

2011-12-18T09:38:00.004Z

Destiny Of The Daleks

This is Terry Nation's last Doctor Who script credit, and his last Dalek story ever. At the same time, this is Douglas Adam's first story to air as script editor following the departure of his predecessor Anthony Read. I specify "to air" because City of Death was produced first.

The Daleks had last appeared in Tom Baker's first year with the show, in Genesis of the Daleks. This was because of a feeling that having the creatures overexposed rather diminished their effectiveness. This is a sentiment rather reflected by Steven Moffat fairly recently, and I do agree with it. Terry Nation's last story for Doctor Who had been The Android Invasion before this point, and in the interim he had been rather preoccupied with work on Blake's 7, including proposing the introduction of the Daleks to the show, a notion which was shot down.

However, this involvement with Blake's 7 somewhat limited Terry Nation's time to write his last Dalek story. This is why it was pushed back in production, though aired first. The plan was for this story to open up the seventeenth season, since the reintroduction of the Daleks would be a powerful season opening. The suggestion given to Terry Nation was that he draw upon a short story that apparently was written by Isaac Asimov regarding two battle computers incapable of outplanning one another, resulting in a stalemate. However, Nation had his own intentions for the story as well, in particular that he bring back Davros and not use K9 at all.

Given the recasting of Romana, Douglas Adams had to write a scene to illustrate the transition. This was tricky since Mary Tamm was several months pregnant at the time, and I somehow doubt that having Lalla Ward bang her head on the Tardis console while wearing a wig and her face being covered by a special effect would have worked at all. Besides which, that idea is so stupid that nobody connected to the show could possibly think it was a good idea. Not that what we wind up with instead is all that much better.

The following year (1980) Terry Nation moved to America and owund up writing largely for American television from this point onwards. In the early 90s he and Gerry Davis worked on an attempt to bring Doctor Who back to television, which ultimately failed. He also prohibited an attempt at relaunching Blake's 7. Terry Nation died in 1997 of emphysema, following a decline in health throughout the 90s.

The Doctor and Romana have narrowly escaped the wrath of the Black Guardian, and fitted a randomiser to the Tardis to escape him. The first place it takes them is to none other than Skaro, the home of the Daleks. There they discover that the pepperpots plan to ressurect their creator in an effort to use his mind to overcome a fearsome enemy...

Ladies and gentlemen, K9's only appearance in the story! Give him a round of applause.
Romana comes in, having regenerated into the form of Princess Astra. Interestingly enough, The Doctor doesn't recognise her at first and mistakes her for Princess Astra. As an aside, in preperation for another project I'm working on I watched The End of Time earlier. There was a part in that where The Doctor and The Master could smell each other. I was already unimpressed with that given how The Doctor could never recognise a disguised Master, but this just made me shake my head. He's standing right next to her and can't recognise that she's a Time Lady.
And now the controversial part. Many questions are raised by this section, where Romana tries on different bodies before settling back on the Princess Astra form. I vaguely remember reading the novelisation, wherein The Doctor was suitably unhappy about Romana's ability to control her form when she regenerates.
"What, and never know where I've been until the end of time?" Again, having rewatched that piece of garbage earlier, there was something rather amusing in the mental image of the Tenth Doctor moping around on the spaceship, talking to Wilf, then out of nowhere slapping his forehead and going "Skaro! Obviously!" Though it is very much in character for The Doctor to wonder where he'd been.
I always liked how Romana 2 had an outfit similar to The Doctor's, but with an opposite colour scheme.
The Doctor gets trapped beneath some rubble, leaving Romana to wander off in search of assistance to get him out. Then decides to use the time to catch up on a little light reading, criticising the work as he goes. Which sadly gets interrupted by some very unfriendly looking figures in very goofy looking costumes...
Meanwhile, Romana gets cornered by a very zombie like looking local and slips down a shaft of some sort. No doubt this guy is actually quite friendly and will now help her out.
The Doctor is now on board the alien ship, and discovers that they're on Skaro. Well, now you know where you are! Time to leave! Oh, wait. The slave labour. And these mysterious aliens... Uh, you're not leaving for a while yet are you?
I always figured that Daleks just like the sound of their voices, so they repeat themselves when they don't need to. Or maybe they think that other races are really, really stupid so they need to repeat themselves to make sure the simple instructions are understood properly.
While Romana is interrogated and put to work by the Daleks, The Doctor attempts to discover just what his new alien friends could possibly want with Skaro.
What are the Daleks doing on Skaro? You mean, their home world? Researching how to make the perfect cup of tea. What else would they be doing on their home planet?
A former prisoner of the Daleks is brought in, and readily answers to who he is, how he was captured and what he has been doing there since. If one thing is clear already, it's this. The Daleks are workign these people to the point of death by exhaustion.
It's a nasty plan to keep people from escaping. For every one person that tries to escape, they kill five random prisoner. Which has the drawback of limiting their own slave workforce even further, but as one of the prisoners speculates, that's not the point. The Daleks like seeing people suffer. Remember that point for later on, because it becomes a bit of a wallbanger when the main point is taken into consideration.
Romana seems to be succumbing fairly quickly to the radiation sickness.
The Doctor finds out that the Daleks have Romana, and immediately decides to mount a rescue. I don't even think he took a breath before deciding. But the odd thing is, these freaky aliens want to come with him. I'm sure they have no alterior motive at all. Honest!
In the meantime, Romana collapses. Not been a good day for her, as her first in a new body.
The Doctor and company sneak into the Dalek city, but the Daleks are no fools, and have motion sensors that pick them up. It looks like things are going to get very messy soon, if they're not careful...
The lookout left behind spots a Dalek, but misses another one and gets shot. Fortunately, the lousy peripheral vision of the Daleks permits the rest to hide and dash past them.
The aliens prohibit The Doctor from attempting to help the killed lookout, citing religious reasons involving permitting aliens to see their dead.
This line about The Doctor taunting the Daleks about them being unable to follow up the shaft was added by Douglas Adams and not appreciated by Terry Nation. He felt that by emphasising the vulnerability of the Daleks like this it diminished their threat in the eyes of the viewers.
Turns out that Romana was able to fake death, and tricked the Daleks into letting her "corpse" be taken outside, which essentially got her free. Kind of an obvious method of escape in hindsight, given that the other prisoners were constantly saying that you can only get out of there if you're dead.
The Doctor plans to make use of a shaft he thinks that the Daleks don't know about. He seems to have a good handle on what they're looking for now, and resolves to get there first. Probably a good idea to get there first no matter what happens.
It's impressive how he's not decomposed or anything, and is just covered in dust and cobwebs and stuff. Also notice how the mask looks... off. It was damaged, and it doesn't quite properly fit the new guy they got to play Davros.
Dead for centuries? Uh, surely then he'd be rather more like... a skeleton than he is?
A cavein occurs, crushing the Movellan escorting the others. But while that's going on, none of them have noticed Davros trying to play an invisible piano... he's coming back to life!
Ah, but they notice when Davros can't keep quiet and feels the irresistable urge to monologue more or less immediately. This is before he devloped the ability to zap people as a defensive measure, so they manage to capture him with a fair amount of speed.
I don't know, this isn't quite as impressive a voice as the original Davros. Not right at the moment, anyway. Doesn't quite sound right.
So why isn't Davros trying to get the attention of the Daleks? I mean, they were very near them there so why not call out or otherwise attempt to let them know where he was?
The Doctor sends the others one their way, but can't get Davros out the same way. It being a high window, and all. Instead he opts to stay and try to prevent the Daleks from getting hold of Davros.
And during this conversation, there's an attempt to justify the title. Davros talks about destiny, and that he's going to improve the Daleks with new designs... But The Doctor points out that the Daleks can do that themselves, and don't really need Davros anymore. Pretty sure he's just needling Davros while trying to figure out what's really going on here.
Davros explains how he survived, presumably based on what he learned from The Doctor in his effort to stop the Daleks, but the conversation is rather cut short when the Daleks decide to burst through the wall. Oh yeah! Luckily, The Doctor is able to keep them at bay with some explosives he whipped up.
Meanwhile, Romana discovers that there's something a bit off about the Movellans, and gets increasingly suspicious... They know things they probably ought not to know.
The Daleks decide that it is time to use their prisoners to force The Doctor to surrender. It almost works, but he manages to regain the advantage. We also get a hint of the incoming stupidity when the Daleks insist his plan to blow himself and Davros up is illogical.
The Doctor manages to slip away, but is unable to prevent the Daleks from accomplishing their objective. They now have Davros, who insists upon learning of their victories... and their defeats. Let's hope he's not memorised the thins that The Doctor mentioned under duress about Dalek defeats, because there are probably still a few due after this point in time.
Turns out the supposedly dead Movellan wasn't dead at all. It does decide to knock Romana out, though, while the others decide it might be a good plan to capture The Doctor.
Hey Dalek, give us two words which are synonyms in a manner that sounds like an order. "Seek and locate!" Stellar work!
Stop playing with the dead Kaled mutant like it's silly putty, Doctor. Please. It's highly disturbing.
A Dalek locatse The Doctor and the former prisoner, but they are rescued by a Movellan that then tries to take them prisoner. Isn't that always the way? Luckily they're able to play keepaway with the Movellan's powerpack until it powers down.
A quick controlled test of the "nova device" indicates what it is. A weapon that makes an entire planet's atmosphere highly combustable, so that they can easily blow it up. Very nasty weapon that.
The Movellans lay a trap for The Doctor using Romana. They've certainly got him pegged, as that's the surest way to get his attention. Threatening the life of his companion. Unfortunately, this is also the surest route to getting him to foil your evil plan.
Here comes the stupid. Davros has the battle control sphere thingy, with all the Dalek data on it.
The Doctor figures it out, and the stupid is about to commence. The Daleks are not a race of robots. They're a race of mutants that live within machines. They are not purely logical beings, and yet this story makes use of them as if they were. It makes sense for the Movellans to be completely logical, but the Daleks? They're balls of hate that trundle around in pepperpots. They have repeatedly demonstrated the capacity to play upon the emotions of others. So this stalemate, as stated, makes absolutely no sense.
The stalemate is illustrated by way of rock-paper-scissors. Imagine two computers attempting to outwit one another at that game. If they were both entirely logical and rational, then they'd never be able to manage it. A problem for game theory, I feel.
The basic setup here, is that the Daleks intend to use Davros to overcome the logical stalemate while the Movellans plan to force The Doctor to help them overcome the same thing. To that end, the Movellans intend to make sure the planet goes up in a firey inferno.
The former prisoners set an ambush for the lone Movellan, and swiftly remove his powerpack. Nicely done!
Turns out that the prisoners have reprogrammed one of the Movellans so that it attacks another one. Cunning, and makes the Daleks look kind of stupid for not thinking of the same thing.
When Davros learns of the Movellan plans, he has the Daleks strap explosives to themselves and sends them on a suicide mission because why not?
The prisoners break in and rescue The Doctor and Romana, but there's still the problem of the incoming Dalek suicide squad. Luckily, this does leave Davros with less Dalek guards than he might otherwise have. Prime opportunity for The Doctor to sneak in for a friendly chat. Though do pay attention to the fact that there are merely less Dalek guards on Davros, rather than no guards.
One stray Movellan runs off to try and trigger the nova device, so it's something of a double whammy of threats here. Though I do feel compelled to say, some of the people shot by Dalek guns just... did not act very well there at all.
While Romana deactivates the lone Movellan following a brief fight in the dirt, The Doctor manages to toss his hat on the Dalek eye stalk. It is utterly stupid, and manages to make the Daleks look like less a threat than they ought to than the shaft thing earlier.
Davros is taken prisoner, and frozen solid. This results in a rather awesome speech in Big Finish's Davros. Perhaps the best thing to come out of this problem.
Make mistakes. Confuse the enemy. Win the battle. Well, if you're doing that deliberately then it's less a mistake and more a feint. Not sure it's a great lesson to teach, that. Make mistakes and win! Doesn't tend to work out that way from what I've seen, but sure Doctor. Whatever you say.

This is a pretty lousy story, all truth told. The Movellans weren't nearly as threatening as they ought to be for a new threat capable of taking on the Daleks. And come to it, the Daleks weren't particularly good either.

There is just this fundamental misunderstanding regarding the Daleks which detracts so much from the story. This sort of logical paradox plot would've better suited the Cybermen rather than the Daleks. Not that this would have improved things tremendously, but it certainly would've given me one less thing to complain about.

Then there's the title. Destiny of the Daleks? I'm sorry, I fail to see what that title has to do with anything in this story outside of one conversation. Had destiny and fate been a more prominent theme then the title would have been warranted, but as it stands...

Bringing Davros back was another mistake. Unfortunately we're going to be stuck with him throughout every Dalek story throughout the rest of the classic series. Mercifully there are but three left.

Best Moment: Speaking simply as scientists, the problem is fascinating, don't you agree?
I dislike the idea of the Daleks getting trapped in this sort of situation, but seperate from that the actual idea is very fascinating. Enough so that The Doctor and Davros actually agree on it! The two of them sharing an opinion on anything is rare indeed.

The best part of this story is quite possibly the two different conversations between The Doctor and Davros. Two minds, both sharp and highly intelligent, with moral codes as polar opposite as can be imagined duelling with their words alone. It's just a shame the rest of the story is surrounded by so much suck.

Adventure Awards
"By Any Other Name"
We have no less than four different actresses playing Romana in the opening scene. Also, we have someone else playing Davros.

Special Review: Ranma 1/2 Live Action

2011-12-15T12:32:00.003Z

Time for something a little bit different.

Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi. It was originally a manga series, which ran from 1987 to early 1996. It was made into an anime series that lasted from 1989 to 1992, with several OVAs and two animated movies released following the conclusion of the anime series. Ranma 1/2 is one of a handful of anime series labelled as a "gateway anime", a series that serves as an introduction to the writing and animation style usually used in anime to the point that viewers actively seek out more like it out of sheer enjoyment. Other oldschool gateway anime series include Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon, but this is by no means a comprehensive list. The most recent OVA was released around the time of a special event celebrating Ms Takahashi's long tenure as a mangaka, this being back in 2008. This was the end of a twelve year gap, given that "The Two Akanes! "Ranma, Look at Me!"" aired in mid-1996.

And then for some reason, it was decided that a live action version of Ranma 1/2 would be a good idea. This baffles me. The OVA made some sense given that it was one of three released for the celebration, alongside one for Ms Takahashi's other two main works (the previously mentioned Urusei Yatsura and Inuyasha), but a live action version makes no sense to me. The series ended in 1996 and there was no new material produced for it in the course of a twelve year gap. Why make this now? Why not make it during the height of Ranma 1/2's popularity? Or even shortly after the manga ended? The timing simply confuses me, I just don't get it... And as I'm writing this before seeing it, I'll let you know in advance: I'm honestly not optimistic about whether or not it'll be any good.

Here is a simple image that may help sum up Ranma 1/2, courtesy of tvtropes.

Most of this is entirely unlikely to come up in the two hour live action special.

The setup for this series is roughly as follows. Soun Tendo owns a dojo. He has three daughters, but wants a man to run it after he passes on... I'm gonna credit this to a combination of Japanese culture and him being a fair bit sexist and move on. The point is, he makes a deal with his friend and former training partner Genma Saotome so that Genma's son Ranma will marry one of Soun's daughters. Trouble is, the Saotomes visited a place called Jusenkyo. This training ground is... a place that by rights ought to be barred from public entry for the sake of their safety. It's also covered with springs that possess a rather unusual property. Any living thing that falls into a spring will turn into whatever first fell in there. This unfortunate curse is reversed via hot water, but cold water reactivates it. Let's leave aside the questions such as "what is the exact temperature that water counts as being hot or cold?" and again move on before we get bogged down too much in fridge logic.

Genma fell in the spring of drowned panda, while Ranma fell into the spring of drowned girl. This rather results in some major confusion given that it was raining when they arrived at the Tendos. Ultimately, the engagement is made with the youngest Tendo Akane, who is not one little bit happy with the arrangement. Ranma and Akane thus form into the prototypical Takahashi couple, even more so than Ataru and Lum from Urusei Yatsura. The two of them fight and argue quite often, because they are both very proud people that their parents are trying to force together. However, they do show regular signs of interest with each other. Trouble is, there are also a lot of other quirky characters introduced that complicate matters tremendously, and believe me when I say that nobody does quirky characters anything like Rumiko Takahashi. Feel free to take another look at that chart to get a good solid grip of how complicated things get, at least in the manga.

But this is just a two hour special. Anyone that could introduce all those characters in two hours in more than a cameo is almost certainly a master of temporal manipulation. On with the show!

After watching, I was quite surprised with how well it turned out. In fact, I found it quite difficult to make fun of, largely because it already was very funny. Thus I abandoned my plan to do my usual weekend Doctor Who style reviews, which is a bit of a shame. Sure Genma's panda form is rather blatantly a guy in a suit, sure the moko takabashi looked about as good as energy attacks generally do when translating from anime to live action, but this was miles, entire leagues above above Dragonball Evolution. And far closer to the original characters too.

The plot took various different areas of the manga and anime, then mixed them all together to create a sembalnce of a coherent plot. Things fit together rather nicely, and the only real complaints regarding plot or indeed most things at all were more related to how live action shows generally turn out in Japan. The sort of things that make one appreciate just how good Ms Takahashi is at comedic facial expressions.

I hope to see more of this, though the timing still baffles me. It might be nice to see characters like Ryoga or Shampoo realised, though how their cursed forms would be represented - a piglet and a cat respectively - isn't something I'm too confident about. Far too small to be played by people in costumes. They'd need actual animals for either of them, or Mousse's duck form come to it.

It's pretty good, but again I will emphasise that it's only really for people already familiar with either Ranma 1/2 or Japanese live action series in general. It's a pretty funny special, and certainly worth the time of anyone from either of the previously mentioned sets that is looking for a laugh.

Season Sixteen Overall Review

2011-12-12T16:38:00.001Z

This is a pretty good season. Varied stories which hit just about all the main categories of Doctor Who. Almost all of them are a lot of fun to watch.

But in more than one case, the utilisation of the Key to Time series plot was more of a hindrance than anything else. It's telling that the best story got it shoved away in the corner and only brought it out to remind people it was still present. In at least two of the stories, what should have been the main plot fell to the wayside towards the end in favour of something completely different. In one case this wasn't so bad, while in the other it completely ruined the story.

It's odd, really. The individual stories of this season are very good, but the overall linking narrative didn't really work at all. In contrast, the later Trial of a Time Lord had very weak stories but a pretty good linking narrative. I'll deal with that next year... For now I'll leave it with saying that five out of six isn't bad at all. I just wish that sixth had been a fair bit better.

Two Previously Missing Episodes of Doctor Who Discovered!

2011-12-12T12:08:00.000Z

My goodness, this is tremendously exciting! Episode three of Galaxy Four and episode two of The Underwater Menace have now been found! Here's a link to the BBC page reporting this find.

I honestly doubted we'd ever get another episode checked off the missing list. This is brilliant news! That's another two down, a hundred and six left.

The Armageddon Factor

2011-12-12T01:14:00.001Z

The Armageddon Factor

The final adventure of season sixteen, the final six part story to air, the final collaboration between the Bristol Boys, the final adventure to star Mary Tamm as Romana and the final story with Anthony Read as the script editor.

In a little more detail... The main source of inspiration for this particular story was the cold war. Two populated planets set to war, both being driven on by the mysterious Shadow, a being that intended to use the Key to Time to set both halves of the universe against each other. Because he's evil, and... And that's about the sum total of his motivation.

Recalling the character of Drax created for The Hand of Fear, the Bristol Boys decided to use him here to make up for their inability to use him in the previous story. He was reimagined a fair bit, from an elderly figure to a car salesman type. However, the writing duo decided to put an end to their eleven year writing partnership and as a consequence rewrites fell to Anthony Read and his successor in the role of script editor, Douglas Adams. In particular they rewrote the climactic encounter with the Black Guardian, which originally had it as the White Guardian instead. The Doctor decides he doesn't trust anyone with this much power and scatters the six segments of the key.

Due to this break in partnership, Dave Martin would have no further involvement with televised Doctor Who, though he did write for various books related to the show and its spinoff K9. He ultimately succumbed to cancer in 2007.

As mentioned last week, Tom Baker seemed ready to leave the show due to a perceived lack of input to it. A tentative agreement was reached, whereby this resignation would be tabled until they could hold further discussions. However, Mary Tamm seemed increasingly unwilling to remain on the show since she felt that her character was devolving into just another screaming companion. Worse yet, it looked like the BBC was about to go through another round of industrial action. This had plagued the previous year's Invasion of Time, and quite understandably made people quite nervous.

Mary Tamm confirmed that she would leave the show in December, and would go on to feature in various television shows such as Jonathan Creek(Which I'm increasingly noticing features a lot of actors connected to Doctor Who) , Agatha Christie's Poirot, The New Adventures Of Robin Hood and Doctors. Like many other actors that portrayed companions, she has returned to the Big Finish Audio Range to portray her character for them, and is starring alongside Tom Baker in Fourth Doctor stories to be released next year.

In the meantime,Anthony Read was also departing. He would continue to write for television, including the following year's Horns of Nimon for Doctor Who. He also became a prolific novelist, occasionally working with Doctor Who collaborator David Fisher.

And then there was Tom Baker, who very nearly left the show here as well. He demanded more control backstage, and producer Graham Williams threatened to resign is he got what he demanded. Ultimately, after a meeting with Graeme McDonald Baker would stay and not get what he demanded anyway. Even so, he was rather happy to learn that Romana had been recast as Lalla Ward since the two had hit it off during filming of this serial. Anyone that knows what came next for the pair just winced. Lalla Ward was her stage name, with her real name being the Honourable Sarah Ward, an actress with a great deal of television, stage and film experience. This would be her first appearance for Doctor Who. It would not be her last by some way.

While searching for the final segment of the Key to Time, The Doctor and Romana encounter a terrible conflict being driven on by the mysterious Shadow. Not this or this.

The Time Lords must figure out his dastardly plan while avoiding the activation of the Armageddon Factor, and locate the final segment of the Key to Time before all is lost. But the location of this final segment may be a little more personal than either of them could believe...

... Did I accidentally put on the cheap romance channel? Oh, wait. No, apparently not. It's a cheap propoganda piece.
Atrios is a planet at war, and they're suffering quite badly. To illustrate the point the walls, ceiling and floors are all dark shades and dirty looking.
Um, Marshall, I don't think it's cowardice if your pilots have no clue where the hell they're supposed to be flying. Just a thought.
"Once more, they shall not pass"? Sorry Marshall, but Gandalf you are most certainly not.
One thing is immediately apparent. The Marshall isn't fighting this war for any reason other than to fight the war. He's enjoying himself way too much.
Meanwhile, it transpires that the princess is in a secret relationship with a doctor. The two are conspiring to contact the enemy in an attempt to negotiate, which is tricky since the Marshall is having them watched constantly.
Meanwhile, our heroes arrive and are worried that they're so off course. Unfortunately, the Astrians mistake the Tardis with the device being used to jam their instruments.
The Marshall's eyes glaze over suddenly, and he approaches a funhouse mirror he keeps in the corner of the room for some reason.
The Princess is led off into a trap by a guard on orders from the Marshall, and left sealed in an irradiated room. Then the Marshall kills the guard. You know, part of the problem with this story is that I don't think it's properly established the setting quite enough yet, and leaped straight into the mystery.
Gee, paranoid much Marshall? We don't know what it is, so it's probably an enemy thing, and they probably expect us to capture it so let's vaporise it! Hooray for highly destructive tendencies!
So much for getting in and out with the sixth segment quickly. It's stuck behind a lead lined door, and worse yet, when they have K9 cut a hole in so they can see what it is, a silent alarm goes off and the Marshall catches our heroes at the door.
And now it's time for them to be mistaken for spies. Worse yet, that doctor working with the princess is also taken in. It's amazing that people still follow the Marshall, given that he's such an obvious megalomaniac. Then again, he probably has people shot for even thinking about questioning his orders.
K9 gets them out, and the Time Lords flee to the Tardis only to find the way back blocked by rubble. Meanwhile, the unconscious princess is taken by a mysterious dark figure...
You know, I'd like this story a lot more if it didn't get so needlessly convoluted so quickly. It's making it hard for me to care about what's happening.
Say what you will, but they're trying their best to make this work. Trouble is, I don't even care enough to make fun of what's going on. Just, total apathy.
There are times when K9 is just plain stupid. Most of the time he's the smartest thing in the scene, but there are other times...
Time to be recaptured! And sneak in a quick Doctor Who joke that you'd blink and miss.
The Doctor speculates on the Marshall's staring in the mirror being a sign of megalomania - come on did you really need any more clues? - And suddenly, the man that wanted him executed ten minutes ago is his best friend. Bit unbalanced, this fellow. Paraphrasing Shakespeare and everything.
Aw, poor K9, trapped on the conveyor belt. All he wants are more instructions!
Gotta repeat the word attack three times, or they won't believe you.
Um, yes this is just a little unbalanced. No wonder the princess wanted to negotiate. They're losing horribly. A fleet of six versus a regular sized fleet. Goes about as well as could be expected. Better in fact, since three of them survive a couple of minutes and the battle starts with one of the enemy ships being destroyed.
The Doctor's most scathing insult: You have such a military mind. Also, that's a heck of a deal. "Help me find your missing princess, and I'll give you a superweapon."
See, this indicates the mentality of the Marshall. Offered a means to ensure the protection of his people, he rejects it because it means they can't attack either.
Okay, that was a rather sudden resolution to the K9 being melted down plotline. Its real purpose was to get Romana to see the box stuck on the Marshall's neck. Bit of a complicated way of doing it, but there you go.
The Doctor comes up with a rather brilliant measure that the Marshall would agree to. Trick is, it relies on getting an enemy prisoner and there are none because he's a monster.
What's interesting about the use of Columbus for that analogy is that though its intended use is based on a falsehood, it still works even given the truth. See, people today think that Columbus was going against the grain by claiming that the world was round - when everybody already knew that. What he believed was that the world was smaller than it really was, and took provisions that reflected this. There's a little more to it than I'm explaining here, but I do feel compelled to correct the falsehood surrounding Columbus whenever it comes up.
The princess appears on the viewscreen, telling them that she's been kidnapped by the enemy. She insists that the Marshall be handed over, and he responds by pulling the plug and sending The Doctor to the enemy planet to try and save her and find a prisoner. Funny thing though, if he knew about transmat that can send people to Zeos, then why not send people to it? Also, it turns out that he's talking to a skull behind that mirror.
The Doctor is kidnapped by transmat! The curse of peripheral vision strikes again.
Sorry Marshall, it turns out that talking skulls behind mirrors aren't trustworthy at all. Also, note how the Marshall is only thinking of how he can win now that they aren't going to attack anymore.
Turns out that the control device doesn't work on The Doctor. Instead, the Shadow decides to interrogate him with a lie detecting electrocution device. Also he's stolen the Tardis.
Yes, maybe telling the guy in love with the princess that you've got a device that can locate her when she's been kidnapped is perhaps not the best thing to do.
A little banter between The Doctor and the Shadow, and suddenly the antagonist decides to simply leave him be. Quite the villain.
And then the Shadow interrogates the princess in an attempt to discover the sixth segment of the key to time. Sorry, I'm not really able to take him all that seriously as a villain. He's just too... generically evil. Has all the personality of a stone.
And now we have two seperate groups wandering around Zeos. Though I do get the impression that the Marshall's assistant is largely there for someone that The Doctor can exposit at.
Meanwhile, K9 has been communicating with the Zeos leader. A supercomputer.
All the Marshall is missing is the moustache. Seriously, translate that part into German and deliver it in the same way, and it would probably sound exactly like... Yeah.
Oh, you can just tell that K9 is enjoying this. A supercomputer outwitting a whole bunch of organic life on a massive scale? Hah, yeah he'd love that.
And now we get the title drop. The supercomputer has been instructed that the war is over, and that everything is to be obliterated. Meanwhile, the Marshal is coming ever closer in his warship...
So, the Armageddon Factor is really mutually assured destruction where only one side is aware of it. However, the way it's presented does prevent me from making a crack based on Dr Strangelove, since it's either a glitch in the supercomputer's programming or more likely something that the Shadow intentionally set up.
Good luck convincing the Marshall of anything, much less stopping his attack on a seemingly beaten back enemy.
"What are you doing, man?" "Oh, nothing just thought I heard the Princess. Didn't you hear her? I mean, you're not that far away..." "Yes, yes I did. But I'm ignoring it for some reason."
Okay, that fall backwards into the elevator was rather unintentionally hilarious.
Wow but that looked monumentally bad. Also, what exactly is the Shadow's plan here? I mean. It so far looks like his plan is 1: Instigate war. 2: Capture Doctor. 3: Let him go. 4: ???? 5: Profit.
The Doctor is unable to disable the supercomputer, and has no choice but to adapt a riskier plan. They connect the five pieces together, and use the gap to create a makeshift key to time. With it, they keep the planet in a time loop to prevent the self destruct from going up.
K9 is really not at his brightest in this story, that's the second time he's fallen for something like this.
Right, okay. Not sure what the point to that whole bit was with the princess and her boyfriend. But here's the Shadow laughing maniacally, and illustrating the fakeness of the mask he's wearing.
The sad thing is, if they had figured out what the key segment was disguised as the story could've been over there. Just let her reach out and touch that tracer, and it's done. But alas, there are two further episodes of this garbage to sit through.
And now K9 has been reprogrammed by the Shadow, just because. And it's time to get that maniacal laugh out of the way. It's like an addiction for this guy.
Oh come on, that was far too blatant! Surely The Doctor could've worked that one out!
Now the Shadow is just screwing with him for the sake of screwing with him. Which pretty much defines this story, I think. Come to it that's probably his plan. Screw with The Doctor for the sake of screwing with him.
Sure, that's a revelation. The Shadow is working for The Black Guardian. The Shadow. Yeah. Really hard to figure that one out.
And that's our heroes captured. Romana by gunpoint, and The Doctor by... I'll get back to you on that.
And there he is. Drax. I hope you like South London car salesman type of characters! If not, you're shot out of luck. I'm kind of having trouble imagining The First Doctor being friends with this guy, but maybe that's just me.
The Doctor susses Drax's game immediately. Threatened by the Shadow into helping him steal the key, but The Doctor manages to talk him out of it. Notice that the focus has shifted hard away from the Armageddon Factor and that war now.
And just like that, The Doctor sorts out that whole brainwashed K9 problem. Shame he gets caught by a guard almost immediately.
Now Drax gets to see what K9 is useful for, though he's not so happy with being talked down to by a tin dog.
Now it's time for the Shadow to explain what he's up to. He's intending to set both halves of the cosmos against one another, when it would probably be easier and more chaotic to set up a multi-side conflict. Then he has a good gloat about it, followed with a maniacal laugh and everything. Sigh.
"The Shadow that accompanies you all" is quite possibly the winner of the cheesiest of cheesy lines within this serial. By quite a distance.
Drax shows up with his new toy, and decides to use it to shrink both himself and The Doctor. Because apparently we needed another plot point to throw into this mess.
And now for the last sixth part to a serial! Unless you count Trial of a Time Lord as a single story, but I don't tend to.
Because they couldn't afford any extras for this scene, we only get hold of the characters that have already been cast, as they try to figure out what the princess knows about the sixth segment of the key.
It is slightly surreal watching a scene between Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward. And Romana doesn't appear to be paying attention to any of the blatant foreshadowing.
The Shadow tries to enter the Tardis, since the Doctor happened to have unlocked it just before Drax had shrunk it. Then the Tardis tries to keep him out by shining bright light on him, but he just sends in a minion to do it instead.
Oh, sure now you get it Romana.
Man, this thing just turned into a romantic tragedy. Poor guy realises that in order to save his people, he must sacrifice the one he loves.
The Doctor's plan is risky. Hide his shrunken self inside K9, and have him pretend to still be under the Shadow's control.
Stop being so melodramatic, it's not nearly as impressive as you think it is.
K9 pretends to have killed The Doctor and Drax, distracting the Shadow from the truth, and allowing The Doctor to regrow and steal the now key to time segments. Meanwhile, the Shadow lists his place of residence as "over the top".
Now that they have the segments of the key, it's time to deactivate the self destructing supercomputer. Trick is that they can't do anything about the Marshall.
Or the missiles could suddenly redirect to the Shadow's "planet of evil" because The Doctor set up a forcefield.
I love this moment. The Doctor has a little fun with the realisation that he has ultimate power, and demonstrates just the sort of thing that someone less good intentioned might do with it.
And now, the White Guardian shows up, but... There's something not quite right here at all. The Doctor is troubled by his lack of caring about the princess being one of the segments. It transpires that it is the Black Guardian instead, disguised as the White. I think I would have preferred it if it transpired that this was the White Guardian, and The Doctor decides neither Guardians could have it.
And just like that, we get a happy ending. Each of the six segments return to their rightful places, and all is right with the universe. Hooray!

This story is a mess. A great big convoluted mess that tries to reach far, far above what it should be reaching for. The idea behind the Armageddon Factor was, by itself, an interesting idea. Trouble is it gets lost in the mazelike plot points brought up seemingly constantly to the point that it fade away into the background. Which is a tremendous shame. A simpler story which focused on that would've been a much, much better one.

It's not helped that the Shadow is just another evil figure that exists for the sake of being evil. We know next to nothing about him, save that he serves the Balck Guardian. Why does he serve him so loyally? Why does the Shadow revel in chaos and darkness? Why should we give a damn about him? He's far too generic for us to care about what's going on, and that detracts horribly from the story.

Do not watch. This is a horrible story, and I'm glad this is the last collaboration between the Bristol Boys. I expect things to get slightly easier from this point out since it's the last six parter as well.

Best Moment: There is no will save my will, for I have the Key to Time!
The Fourth Doctor is always at his best when he's going completely over the top, and this time is no exception.

Adventure Awards
"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."
The Shadow controls people on more than one occasion with a simple device he attaches to the neck.

"Pointlessly Advanced Technology"
The Shadow uses some illusion based technology that adds precisely nothing to the narrative.

The Power of Kroll

2011-12-05T01:45:00.001Z

The Power of Kroll

Robert Holmes was brought back to write a second story for this season after rapidly finishing the opening Ribos Operation and it transpired that Ted Lewis' "Shield of Zarak" would not be completed. Producer Anthony Read requested that a monster larger than any other in Doctor Who history be used, and that the humour the Doctor Who veteran usually had in his scripts would be lessened. That second request was because of instructions from Head of Drama Graeme McDonald.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these constraints made writing what would become known as The Power of Kroll an unsatisfying experience, and worse yet the use of this giant monster would make Michael Hayes - the director originally planned for this story - worried about whether or not it could be realistically realised on a Doctor Who budget. This resulted in Power of Kroll and Androids of Tara to switch places in production order, to give a little more time to figuring these details out and to get another director with more experience of a serial with intense effects requirements.

Because of the swampy conditions of the location, K9 was not used for this story. However, due to recasting requirements which occured when Martin Jarvis dropped out, John Leeson - K9's voice actor - was put into the show in his only onscreen appearance.

Various behind the scene tensions began to mount around this time. Mary Tamm had some difficulties with how her character was developing, and since she does leave at the end of the season must have felt frustrated enough by this and possibly other things, not to sign back on. Anthony Read planned to leave as well, suggesting Douglas Adams take his place in spite of the workload on his successful Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Adams accepted in spite of that immediately on being offered.

Then there was Tom Baker to consider. After five years with the show, he felt that he ought to have a greater control over the creative direction of the show. Ultimately, orders came down to fire him from the role but Williams indicated that this was not necessary since Tom baker had already left him a note declaring his intention to quit the show... Then he wound up staying another two years anyway, but we shall get there when we get there.

In search of the penultimate segment of the Key to Time, The Doctor and Romana find themselves on the marshy moon of Delta Magna. Soon enough they are caught between the native Swampies and the crew of a chemical refinery. Worse yet is the awakening of Kroll, a giant monster that the Swampies worship as a god, that sleeps beneath the swamp...

We start with the usual establishing scene meant to illustrate a key part of the problem that will be encountered by our heroes, as well as introduce a few of the key characters. The uniform looks a little, shall we say, stupid. let's try not to hold that against them.
They decide to curse out an environmentalist group that apparently intends to arm the natives. I'm of two minds on this issue. On the one hand, they're clearly reacting this way because the thought process is "the natives will be easier to deal with if they're unarmed and helpless" which I find abhorrant. On the other hand, the "Sons of Earth" appear to be less attempting to give the natives a chance to defend themselves and more a chance to initiate a war. That's not exactly moral either. It's certainly pretty shortsighted, and can easily have way worse consequences than good. Particularly if they're giving weapons that the Swampies don't know how to make or use.
Apparently the plan is to find the person they "suspect" is planning on running guns to the Swampies and arrange an "accident".
Meanwhile, the Tardis arrives, and the tracer has a bit of trouble locating the segment. Making matters more complicated is a brief cut back to the other two guys planning on accident arrangement... and the description they give is easily applyable to The Doctor! Oh no!
Romana gets grabbed by a pair of Swampies, while The Doctor plays on a reed not noticing. Then he gets shot at. It's not quite as exciting as it sounds.
And now our heroes have both been taken prisoner by two seperate opposing groups. If nothing else, the description we heard earlier lets us identify the real gun runner.
The gun runner is a nasty piece of work, as his interrogation of Romana reveals rather handily. The sort of person that prefers the quiet threatening intimidation, casual insults and makes up his mind before even starting the questions.
Not that The Doctor is in much of a better position himself. He's been taken to the refinery and being held at gunpoint by some people that very much do not know who the hell he is. So, that'd be a day that ends in a y.
He gets out of the interrogation by dazzling the technicians with his technical knowledge, which at least prevents them from killing him outright. Even if they're not willing to let him go.
Meanwhile, the guns are given to the Swampies. I like that they're portrayed as rather intelligent beings, very clever but not particularly advanced in technology.
The Doctor quite accurately points out that progress is a very flexible word. He's not entirely a fan of having the Swampies ejected from their homes or being forced into what would surely amount to little more than slavery, particularly in the name of "progress". Wow, that last sentence may be the biggest understatement I've uttered this year. All the technicians care about is the energy they can harness for their civilisation, but they respond to The Doctor's points in much the same tone as someone that's said it or thought it a thousand times.
The Swampies may be intelligent beings, but they're still kind of extremely religious. They worship a being called Kroll, and intend to offer Romana as a sacrifice. Hm. Given that it's been mentioned that the Swampies have made technicians disappear of late, maybe this is something to do with it.
The Doctor tries to sneak off, but is soon enough noticed before he can leave. The only real point to that was to get across a few plot important points. The first: That a squid being transported by humans to the colony wound up getting worshipped by the Swampies as their god. Second, that the leader of the technicians fully intends to use the guns as evidence that when they wipe out the Swampies, it was in self defense.
I like that Romana is just more annoyed than scared of the sacrifice.
Kroll appears! Probably just annoyed that they keep on chanting his name like that. Oh, actually Romana does get scared when Kroll starts stroking her neck with his claw. That would probably creep anyone out, I think.
The Doctor intercepts the sacrifice, and reveals that the monster that looks like a man in a costume is actually a Swampie in a costume. Huh, how about that? He even comments on it, how meta.
The gun runner suddenly realises that he's screwed. He should have gotten out of there as soon as possible. The attack is happening sooner than he was expecting, and suddenly he's about to get himself slaughtered while in the crossfire.
I'm sure there's a good allegory in here somewhere. Let's see. The Swampies were shipped to the moon in the first place, because the humans wanted the planet they were living on. And now they've found something on the moon they want too, so it's time to kick the Swampies out again. Hmm. I'm sure that's an allegory for something, but I just can't think of what it could be.
Meanwhile, the refinery isn't actually preparing for their attack in the morning because they've discovered something outright bizarre under the surface of the swamp. Everything's moving around in a two mile radius.
Oh my, but the leader of the refinery is just barely on the cusp of over the top. He's right below the top, poking it with a stick.
Sucker marks! It's funny, but The Doctor keeps saying those two words next to each other and all I can think of is that depending on the definition used the two words are synonyms.
The Doctor finds a little history book that gives him enough background information to get him worried. There's a monster in the swamps that's due waking up. Not the kind of news anyone in the swamp would want to hear.
The next morning, the Swampies run out into an open piece of swamp which seems like less of a sensible place to be if it could be at all avoided. Then the Swampie that was dressed up as Kroll informs their leader that the sacrifice was interrupted - and he makes the politically astute position to not inform the rest as they'd take it as a bad omen. While planning to continue the attack anyway. Indicates to me that he doesn't really believe it would've made the remotest bit of difference in any sense other than morale.
The guns soon blow up, and then Kroll appears. It's not what I would call a great effect, though Kroll manages to be rather a disgustingly ugly brute of a creature. What spoils it a bit for me is how he's sort of manifesting just about where the horizon is. Which weirdly enough also manages to emphasise just how massive it is.
Oddly enough, the appearance of the giant monster makes the planned attack get called off quite suddenly. Can't imagine why.
Back at the refinery, they make some new plans. They intend to get rid of the Swampies, believing that it's now a matter of personal safety since they have guns and there's something out there spoiling for a rumble with Godzilla.
Gotta love the low tech hi tech computers. Sorry, sorry shouldn't complain about that.
The Doctor and Romana are captured by the Swampies. Really should pay more attention to where they're wandering.
Attack its weak point for massive damage! Yes, I know. And I don't care.
Um, yes trying to hit something that big with depth charges... If it's that big then it probably has really tough skin. I doubt depth charges will do much more than annoy it a lot, unless you get really lucky and get it to eat a dozen or so.
The gun runner tries to talk his way out of his situation, but he's in too deep now and the Swampies indicate that they're far too smart to fall for it now. They've examined the guns, and know enough about them to realise that they would never have worked. More damning, they heard him try to get the attention of the refinery folk when Kroll showed up earlier.
Meanwhile, at the refinery: Kroll sends a friendly tentacle in to say hi.
Yeah, that's the usual religious routine. Confront them on a contradicting piece of faith, and suddenly it's a metaphor and not meant to be taken seriously. And yes, I am kidding, though it was a little meaner than my usual fare.
... Seriously Romana, none of them have even seen Kroll? How in the flying hell did you not see that earlier?
Less time than you thought? Bit of an understatement there Doctor, given as how 1: You're about to be executed, but again that's probably just indicative it's a day that ends with y. 2: There's a guy in the refinery about to be introduced to the concept of tentacle hentai.
Stop calling Kroll the great one, it makes me think of him as The Rock.
So hey this might be a good time to call in for help.
Wow, that's a typical Bond villain method of execution. Strapped to vines that will tighten and pull them until their spines snap. Very nasty. Also, the Swampies all leave them alone. But at least there's a good reason for it. They're not savages, they find no pleasure in suffering. Also a fine opportunity to talk and get information vital to the plot.
Um, yeah. The Sons of Earth do sound like a bit of a nutjob group. I agree that colonising other worlds and displacing the locals is bad, but there has to be some point in between that and returning every single human to an Earth that is apparently no longer capable of supporting life. Extremist positions = not helpful.
The discussion the remaining three technicians have about killing Kroll is very interesting and extremely realistic. They explore all the options available to them, and slowly realise that they're royally screwed.
The Doctor tries talking to the other two to keep their mind off things. Doesn't seem to be working. So instead he tries shattering the glass with his voice, which gets the rain in and loosens up the vines. I think... I think this ranks as one of the more what the hell escapes the show has done. Which says a lot.
The gun runner is grabbed by a tentacle, making it the last we see of him. Shame that, no redemption for you in a heroic sacrifice. Doesn't seem the sort that'd go for that, on consideration.
Okay, how did you not notice that until just then? It was right in front of you, and is towering over from the horizon I think it would have at least caught your peripheral vision. Is it some sort of super stealth squid? Or does it dwell within the blind spot of Time Lords?
Kroll begins to attack the Swampies, and because of this prime opportunity the leader of the refinery decides it's a fine time to call an orbital strike on both at once.
It's time to reveal true colours! The leader of the technicians views the Swampies as lower life forms which they clearly aren't because as I've mentioned previously they have shown signs of ingelligent reasoning. In the meantime another technician reveals that he is one of the Sons of Earth. Which is consistent with his behaviour so far.
Man, he got taken out of action pretty quickly. That barely grazed him and even if it did, it would surely be a minor inconvenience.
Here's another religious out when the evidence is against them: Things go against them? It's a test! That's right! Just a test! No, we can't possibly be mistaken in our beliefs at all, let's just rationalise around the contradicting evidence.
The Doctor sneaks into the rocket to deactivate it, willing to sacrifice himself to do so. Rather in character for him, but Romana is trying to talk him out of it. Presumably because of the whole Key to Time thing being hugely important and all that.
The leader shoots the now recovered Son of Earth technician in the back when he tries to stop the countdown, in an act of cold blooded murder. The countdown continues until The Doctor's sabotage takes hold, and then the remaining technician says he intends to report the leader for murder in spite of the other man's protests. He's quite clearly completely out of his mind.
The Doctor has been taken prisoner at gunpoint quite often enough by now that he's able to correct the tech leader on a minor line he had forgotten.
It seems that the Swampies are beginning to question their religious leader, who is sort of a sub-antagonist in the story. They're not standing for his religious manipulation of them anymore, but will follow him at least until this particular crisis is over.
The Swampies take hold of the refinery, killing the tech leader. Now we're heading into the climax.
Kroll is attacking the refinery now as well. The Swampie leader tries prayer. The Doctor and Romana decide to try coming up with a more practical plan.
The refinery machinery is used to emit noises to drive Kroll off, and the Swampie leader thinks his prayers did the trick. Now he's off to give thanks to his god for saving them. He's a dead man.
Yep, there it is. Grabbed by a tentacle and dragged off into the dark.
The Doctor's plan is apparently to try and use the Key to Time tracer on Kroll, believing his power is the Key to Time segment. Risky plan. But he might not have any real choice in the matter. Cue exciting fight scene, as The Doctor tries to avoid tentacles while retrieving the tracer!
One final problem to deal with. The automated nature of the refinery means it's going to continue trying to work its processes, even when damaged, even thought this will result in the destruction of the refinery. Someone cut corners while working out the safety protocols.
Of course it was delayed right at the last moment.
One last technician left with all those Swampies. can't be an entirely comfortable thing to experience, can it?
It transpires that the reason Kroll was so big was because of the Key to Time segment. Without it, none of the squid will grow to anything like that size again. Also, with Kroll gone the methane he was generating is no longer going to be anything like a useful level, so the Swampies can live in peace.

This is a bit of a weird one. It falls into the same basic category of Doctor Who stories as, for instance, The Colony in Space, The Mutants and the like. This is probably the best one, in no small part because it's shorter than the others.

Even so, it's still probably the worst story we've looked at out of the season so far. That still doesn't make it bad, but not quite as enjoyable overall as the others. It's certainly worth a look but there are other stories that should demand your attention from this season before this one.

Best Moment: Shouldn't you say don't make any sudden moves?
I was honestly hurting for my favourite moment for this story. I think that the reason for that has something to do with why it's my least favourite story from the season so far. It just didn't have much that really stood out to me as being worth called a great moment.

This was rather fun, though. It happened a few times throughout the episode. The Doctor gets captured, at gunpoint but is so casual about the whole thing that you'd think he was chatting with some friends.

What makes this line so fun to me is that it makes me think that he's silently critiquing everyone that captures him and likes to drop little hints of improvement. Which is something I find rather hilarious, personally, in part because it's an indicator of how used to being captured at gunpoint he is by now.

Adventure Awards

"Spectacular Weapons Failure"Just this once, it's because the guns were sabotaged rather than the enemy being immune to bullets. But they still do fail.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."
The Doctor tries - and fails - to hypnotise the leader of the Swampies into letting them go.

The Androids of Tara

2011-11-28T01:10:00.001Z

The Androids of Tara

It's a funny thing, but an adventure called "Shield of Zanak" had been intended for this slot in the season. It's funny because the idea behind it - that legendary figures such as Robin Hood might not have been so benevolent as their stories indicate - had been planned briefly for The First Doctor. I also find it amusing because a script for a similar story (unrelated to Doctor Who) had been intended for production as a major motion picture with the Sheriff of Nottingham being the protagonist... only for executives to interfere and this is a rather unrelated rant to this story so I'll stop here. The reason this story wasn't used in this particular instance was more because the writer (Ted Lewis) had personal problems that made it quite impossible for him to finish writing the story.

And so, David Fisher was approached to write a replacement that would be a similar swashbuckling yarn. This time inspiration was to be drawn from The Prisoner of Zenda to the point that titles used along the way included "The Prisoner of Zend" and "The Androids of Zend". Numerous analogue characters exist which will surely be familiar to anyone that's read the work. A major exception being the two antagonists, as they were combined into a single person. Count Grendel, a name which rather famously draws from Beowulf and the novel's hero was to all intents and purposes shared by both The Doctor and the android "George".

One can already see that much like last week's Stones of Blood, David Fisher is utilising names from mythology and legend to rather interesting effect. Tara, for example, is named after the ancestral seat of the kings of Ireland

Finding the fourth segment of the Key to Time was easy. Leaving with it won't be. Romana and The Doctor soon find themselves embroiled in the politics of Tara, as they prepare for a most austere royal occasion. They must contend with android duplicates, sword fights and monsters as they fight to restore peace to this planet.

The Doctor plays chess against K9 again, with much the same level of success as before.
Yeah, Romana makes a good point here. The Doctor is slacking off just a little bit. Time itself is at stake, Doctor. Why are you lounging around playing chess?
They arrive on Tara, and The Doctor immediately makes plans to go fishing. Um. Seriously? Kind of in an irresponsible mood today are we?
Kind of sympathising with Romana here. Not a particularly good time to take a day off. Not during a quest of universal importance.
Romana gets a good look around one of Tarals forests. Seems a nice enough place. The segment is hidden as a statue, and then Romana has a random encounter! Luckily it was a scripted fight meant to introduce the antagonist, who uses some sort of electrified sword to scare the beast/man in a costume away.
The antagonist marvels at Romana's appearance - for reasons not made apparent for a few scenes as I recall - then takes the key segment insisting that it has to be registered since unusual materials must be so.
I like this. Count Grendel is adopting fake chivalry to try and get Romana to come with him. She's uninterested, but he's quite insistent. They play off each other quite well. It seems like such a small conflict, but it's still interesting.
And what's the hero of our story up to? Sleeping with a hat on his face... Only to be apprehended for fishing on the prince's land. Then he talks them out of it inside of a minute by revealing he knows about how their electric swords work, and when he realises that seems to make them happy he plays along. Also of note, he disarmed one of them so casually I had to go back to see it again.
And so our protagonists are embroiled in the local politics whether they like it or not. Hint: They don't like it.
Not a good day to be Romana. For some reason, they appear to think that she is an android and are making plans to cut off her head.
Haha, the guard decides to keep an eye on The Doctor by trodding on his scarf.And then, gasp, he burns it with the electro-sword!
I like the prince though, he's a nice guy. Very charming, but quite obviously in a desperate situation.
Reuse of the android prop from The Android Invasion, or did they make a new one? Looks kind of the same.
Romana's neck is saved by her injured ankle. Only then do they realise, she's not an android at all.
It transpires that only peasants are permitted to know how to build androids. That's partly in line with how I recall medieval education working. The peasants would be the ones to build things, mend things, do all the maintenance work. On the other hand, building an android is a much more inticrate job than woodwork or crafting a sword. The peasants would have to not only build the things but program them as well - and I'm pretty certain most medieval peasants would not be able to read and write, never mind formulate logical computation statements in any meaningful order. Then again, my memory regarding medieval education may be a little off.
The android is a duplicate of the prince. A diversion to keep Grendel from assassinating the soon to be king. When he learns of this plan, The Doctor is suddenly much more willing to assist.
Wow but that's a dopey expression on the mechanic's face. It's almost like she's thinking "I stuck myself with the needle by accident."
The Doctor fixes the android - now dubbed George - but while they celebrate it soon transpires that the wine has been drugged and everyone falls over... And Grendel is waiting by the door as The Doctor falls at his feet. Which leaves me wondering about the security this place has, and why Grendel didn't just flat out murder the prince there and then.
When they all come to, The Doctor suggests they stall for time by crowning the android instead. Then tries to leave, but is rather kept behind with his mind changed by the rather irate swordsman.
Romana awakens, and learns of her duplicate and Grendel's plan. Marry the princess that looks like her, then kill her off and inherit the land. Since the princess won't co-operate, Romana would do just as nicely instead... And if she refuses, he can just as easily have her killed. It's an interesting thing to think about. He can offer Romana freedom while the princess has no such offer. In terms of pure game theory, Grendel has the advantage. Unfortunately for him, Romana's not exactly the type to go along with such a plot so easily.
Okay, so the reason Grendel is keeping the prince alive is purely for his own satisfaction of killing him whenever he wants. And to that end, since the prince is ill he's having Romana serve as his bedside nurse. I don't think you've thought this through quite as well as you think you have. Just let him die and enjoy his slow, lingering death. Man, that's not a good sign: I'm a better villain than this guy, and I'm outright nice.
And off K9 goes on a rescue mission, no doubt freaking otu a few locals along the way.
An attack from behind like that was hardly a chivalrous way to deal with an adversary, though if I had the choice between letting a person with a crossbow know where I was and attack him from behind I know which way I'd lean.
Unsurprisingly, attempting to study the segment of the key to time goes... less than well. It's just a little more advanced than their technology can probe, and for all intents and purposes indestructible.
And so, we see the ceremonial hall. Grendel covets the throne, even having the audacity to seat himself in it to try it out. Little does he realise that beneath their feet, George is approaching...
Ah, but he has had guards placed in the underground caverns so he's not a complete fool.
It occurs to me that Grendel is the least over the top villain of this season so far.
There's the trouble with artificial intelligence. It's trivial to teach it how to raise things to the power of sixty three in the blink of an eye, but tell it to walk across a room or through a cave it's never been through before and it's just gonna bang its head against the ceiling.
At the last possible moment, George sits himself in the throne. Though they still need to make sure that George doesn't just tip right on over and reveal his android nature.
Not much of a speech, but it does the job for the occasion. Just then, the princess appears. I think we're supposed to believe it's Romana, but then out of nowhere The Doctor leaps down and batters her head in with a sceptre! My gosh!
Oh, it was obviously an android. Not much of a cliffhanger, really. Sent in by Grendel to assassinate the prince. Not that they have proof of this, of course.
Romana gets interrogated by the engineer, who is baffled by the segment of the key to time. Too curious to give it up, so it seems that Romana will have to work to get it back. Not exactly easy, but I'm sure she'll think of something.
I do feel a little for Mary Tamm here. She had four roles to play. Romana, the princess, and their robot duplicates.
It's quite amusing though. Because George was programmed by The Doctor, he's more intelligent than the real king, and it's making the bodyguard... a trifle nervous.
Offer The Doctor an obvious trap, and he'll stride right on in. Every time.
Remarkable how they were able to copy The Doctor's voice so perfectly. This one's given a good explanation at least. Grendel had a recording device on him, and managed to get The Doctor's voice on that. Must keep it on him at all times in case he needs to get a voice just right.
Romana picks the prince's lock, and they do that old trick of having the prince pretend to be dying and have the guard called in to check up on him. It's an oldie but a goodie.
The relationship between Grendel and his engineer is a fascinating one. She clearly loves him enough to know that he's using her for her talents, and doesn't care. And he even knows that, too.
Did they cover horse riding at the academy? Hrm. Apparently not. Romana still manages to get it going after a bit, though.
One thing that Grendel hadn't considered was K9's presence. Otherwise, that might just have worked. Worse yet, madam - waitaminute her name was Lamia? - gets caught in the crossfire.
There may well have been just one entrance to the building, but K9 is rather adept at making new ones.
Grendel approaches under the flag of truce and tries to persuade The Doctor that it's to his benefit to change sides. The Doctor toys with him a little, then outright refuses and spears poor George... and rides off with the recently freed Romana. Oh, and she was doing so well avoiding the typical female companion role.
Now for the next part of Grendel's new plan. Get Romana married to the king, then kill him and marry the freshly widowed queen... and then kill her as well.
Meanwhile, battle plans for attacking Grendel's castle are drawn up. This is where the swashbuckling nature of the story really kicks off.
We've not actually seen much of the real princess yet. She isn't really all that different from Romana, save a little more regal, but then we don't see enough of her to really get her personality. You know, I have to wonder... If each incarnation of a Time Lord has a doppleganger out there in the universe somewhere. This is, what the third Time Lord doppleganger we've seen so far?
Gotta say, Grendel's really good at adjusting his plans. The Doctor and Romana keep throwing spanners in the work, and he keeps on bouncing right back.
Of course The Doctor appears at the wedding at the last possible moment. Cue swordfight, and it has been a fair while since The Doctor has done any swordplay. It does show a little at first, but he soon gets the hang of it. Get the hang of it and then become a bleeding master of swordplay.
Not much else to talk about for a while. It's a pretty fun swordfight, very swashbuckly action.
Both Romana and the princess get on quite famously. It's also noteworthy that The Doctor couldn't tell the two apart either.
Just retrieve the segment, and then they can leave. Or The Doctor could toy with Romana a little first, having already found the segment.
And they left K9 on a boat. Okay, I guess that's as good a way to end the story as any...

This is a tremendously fun swashbuckling adventure. There may have been a few minor niggles regarding the plot, but the action is quick enough that they don't really register completely.

Definitely the strongest point of the season so far.

Best Moment: Strong Stuff...
I have to admit that the first cliffhanger is a really effective one, and it's the one I always remember regarding this story even over The Doctor seemingly beating Romana/the princess to death. There's something about it that just indicates precisely how prepared this villain is, that produces a highly memorable quality.

Adventure Awards
"Send in the clones"
Android duplicates are the main point of interest in this particular story. Romana also has a lookalike in the princess.

The Stones of Blood

2011-11-21T00:22:00.001Z

The Stones of Blood

The one hundredth Doctor Who televised adventure! Hard ot believe it's been fifty since War Games, but here we are nonetheless. When this fact was realised, a scene was written celebrating The Doctor's birthday - only to be excised. Though not before a cake was ordered in, specially made for the occasion.

A new writer was brought in for this story, by the name of David Fisher. He had been invited to contribute an adventure in the show's very first season by its original story editor David Whitaker, but for whatever reason this wasn't taken forward. He was later contacted by Anthony Read, who was the script editor for this season, and (obviously because why else would I bring this up) this is the story that resulted from that.

The idea for this serial was to construct a Doctor Who adventure with supernatural overtones. The basis would be a stone circle, one of the many around Britain dating back at least as far as the Neolithic period. There was plenty of mythology to draw from, so these legends provided a great source of inspiration. Particularly with names used throughout the story.

On their search for the third segment of the Key to Time, The Doctor and Romana arrive near the mysterious Nine Travellers. This stone circle has changed number every time that it has been surveyed. Maybe it has something to do with the locals that worship Caukkeach as druids that gladly performs human sacrifice to slate their goddess' demand for blood.

We begin with the Tardis... spinning around in a disco, judging from those lights. The story immediately places the story right after they've retrieved the second segment.
The Doctor seems rather excited to return to that planet he was once exiled to. His home away from home, I suppose you could say.
Druids in a stone circle! I'd make a joke about how "oh it's a good thing they're not at stonehenge or they might accidentally wind up finding the Pandorica," but the stone circle looks nothing like stonehenge so that joke doesn't even kind of work.
Apparently, the Seeker from Ribos Operation survived and somehow managed to get herself in charge of some druids on twentieth century Earth.
Oh really Romana, you were doing so well with that outfit... right up until the shoes. High heels? Really? Sure, they look nice but they're far from practical.
And for no particular reason, The White Guardian decides to call in and remind them that they should beware the avatar of chaos and darkness that has powers far beyond their capability to resist. Also, it's interesting that Romana apparently doesn't know who the Guardians are.
In all seriousness, it's just a reminder of the season arc. For new viewers presumably. In the meantime, The Doctor seems to realise that it makes absolutely no sense for Romana to not know who really sent them on this mission.
One of these days, K9's going to enter a room and try to warn them about The Master being present and nobody's going to understand what the hell he's talking about.
And here's our exposition source, the rather wonderful Professor Emilia Rumford. And her assitant arrives shortly thereafter, one Vivien Fay. Hm. Fay, you say? In a story with a tremendous amount of British mythology? Nah, I'm sure it's a coincidence. She seems nice enough.
A lead is presented! Time for a little investigation, eh?
Yes Romana, crows are typically not particularly looked upon favourably in mythology when they appear. Harbingers of bad luck usually. Ah, I see. They use the crow as a linking image between these two scenes. Very good.
There's a look in this man's eyes that doesn't so much scream madness as it does dare you to point it out. Much like other villains from this season so far, he's rather over the top. I think that's the real connecting theme between this season. All its enemies are so over the top, they leaped the moon.
You can tell from the music alone that The Doctor is approaching the mansion where the craziness is happening... and then it just tells you the fact anyway seconds later.
The dangerous mad people are the ones that are good at pretending they're normal.
The name Morgana, you say? Hm. Morgana... Fay... Bah! I'm sure it's a coincidence. Doesn't mean anything at all. Especially the fact that the painting supposedly showing this Morgana is missing.
Yes, the crow looking around is fascinating. Absolutely engaging. Can we look elsewhere now?
Heh. The Doctor does so like prodding people. Kind of weird that the man is so upfront about worshipping a Celtic goddess, but he seems to know what he's doing.
"Costume so stupid... can't look away!" *klong to back of head!* "Down I go!"
That's the line reading you're using? Really? Wow. Just... wow.
The Doctor calls out to Romana... or does he? In truth, it is but an illusion, leading her across the countryside. In bare feet because those heels were a stupid idea. Though not quite as stupid as backing off a cliff for no discernable reason, while saying the words "no, no" in the flattest tone of voice I've ever heard. Mary Tamm, you're better than that. Seriously, that cliffhanger made no effort at all to show us why she stepped backwards like that.
Huh. The cliffhanger just picks up right where we left off... With Romana literally hanging off a cliff.
In the meantime, The Doctor is being prepared for sacrifice. One of the druids is very much insisting that they not do this, which is certainly interesting.
"Quick, run! Our one and only weakness! It's an old woman on a bike!"
I wonder how many hours Romana hung onto that cliff. Interesting that she didn't lose her hat.
K9's personality makes up for whatever possible complaints people might have about the robot dog. He's so much fun.
I like that the first plan that The Doctor has is getting Romana a decent pair of shoes once he's found her.
DOCTOR: I'm going to see Mister De Vries.
ROMANA: What, after what he did to you?
DOCTOR: Because of what he did to me.
Oh, wow. Look into his eyes. Anyone else saying that with that expression, I'd be thinking he was out for revenge. In a manner of speaking he is, but only in the same way that The Fourth Doctor exacts revenge on people. By foiling their evil plan or freeing them of alien influence.
The ominous heartbeat sound fills the air, and the former druid leader pleads with the woman with him to leave. "I would, but you're gripping my shoulders! Let go, you fool!"
They're both dead! Crushed to death. I like the touch of covering K9's eyes. It would seem we've moved back to horror for today.
Not a good day to be The Doctor. Knocked out by druids intending to sacrifice him, then knocked out by a giant moving glowing rock that he really should have noticed coming.
Romana proves that she's not your typical woman companion by getting into a little investigative work. She uncovers that the land around the Nine Travellers has always been owned by a woman. Right back to the middle ages, which is really impressive by itself.
Yeah, stop with the anti-men bit, it's getting old. Really old.
K9 fought off the stone thingy, but has been severely damaged in the process. Time for repairs!
According to my calculations, I will get over the silliness of that costume in about... Never? Yes, that seems about right.
Nothing like a secret passageway to brighten up a story. Especially following it up with a scene of K9 being repaired. Yay, K9 is fixed! Oh no, crows resting on the Tardis!
Miss Fay was the villain all along? Who knew? Oh no, Romana encountered Miss Fay near the stone circle and is zapped by a giant glowing rod!
A giant glowing mobile rock doesn't sound like much of a threat. Doesn't look too great onscreen either. But you know something, it still kind of works for me. They're a looming, powerful presence.
The matador treatment deals with one, but I doubt the others will be so easy. Never before has seeing a rock fall off a cliff been of so much relief to the main character.
Vivian shows her true face now. An arrogant, self assured intelligent sneering alien.
Hyperspace exposition, it's actually very good. The initial idea is at least based somewhat in real physics, which works pretty well.
So many Fourth Doctor quotes... cannot choose which ones to post... All too good!
While K9 tries to fight off the Ogri - the living stones - The Doctor manages to get himself into hyperspace and finds lots of nasty looking skeletons in small rooms.
The Ogri leave to recharge, finding two campers out in the middle of a forest. One of them places their hand upon the mysterious stone that appeared out of nowhere, and in a chilling moment, begins to scream as it feasts upon her blood, skeletising her hand in the process. Best moment in the story by quite a way. Utterly horrifying.
The Doctor finds a locked door with something inside it, and lets out flying sparklies! Unfortunately, they're rather annoyed that the seal on the door was broken because it's against the law to do so without the proper permits.
Vivian reappears, her skin covered in silver makeup, and she destroys the only means by which The Doctor and Romana, prompting Vivian to appear before them once she's done for a good gloat and maniacal laugh. Again, over the top villains prove to be the reoccuring theme of the season.
Fortunately, the sparklies show up and prevent the Ogri from killing the Time Lords, but unfortunately they appear to have sentenced The Doctor to death in absentia. Fortunately, The Doctor is fast on his feet and knows how to talk people out of killing him. Unfortunately, he's only got two hours to prove his innocence or he gets executed on the spot.
MEGARA 2: In accordance with article fourteen of the legal code, subsection one three five, this humanoid's execution is stayed for two hours while we graciously consent to hear his appeal. Afterwards, the execution will take place as ordered.

I find that rather revealing. It's a rather obvious point to make that the Megara obviously believe they're still going to execute The Doctor, but that also tells us a tremendous amount about their personalities. To the letter of the law, if not the spirit. The letter of the law is important, but the spirit of the law... even more so.

Honestly, telling them that you're Time Lords will only make it likely that they'llrecalibrate their execution method to more effectively/efficiently execute The Doctor. Bad plan, Romana.
MEGARA 2: The witness will take the stand and be sworn in. The witness will repeat the oath. I swear to tell the truth. Repeat.
ROMANA: I swear to tell the truth.
MEGARA 2: As far as I, a mere humanoid
Yeah, this also tells us rather a lot about the personality of these things. Utter contempt for humans, which is something no judge should possess for those that are on trial.
Vivian gets called to the stand after Romana, and then... they don't subject her to the same truth beam that Romana was subject to. Wonderful. It's almost as if they were deliberately trying to get The Doctor found guilty by any means available to them.
Gotta say, Vivian wears smug like a second skin. Erm, never mind the fact that she's covered in silverish makeup just now.
Romana soon discovers evidence that Vivian is not what she appears. Erm, what about the stones? You know, the stones that have been absorbing blood? Can we give them a little focus? Maybe?
The Doctor tries his very best to demonstrate Vivian's true identity, but since it has no bearing on whether he committed the crime of which he was accused he is stopped dead. Things are looking hopeless...
The sparklies go to execute The Doctor... While Vivian's standing near enough for him to shake her hand. My goodness, how irresponsible of them! Not particularly bright of Vivian either, standing so close to him like that.
With Vivian unconscious, The Doctor persuades the sparklies to read her mind - something they couldn't do before without a justified legal reason (which makes a lot of sense to me from an ethical standpoint). The justified reason in this case being "make sure we didn't accidentally cause brain damage." Presumably if they had detected such, they'd have sent her somewhere to get treated. Instead, the scan proves her true identity. That of a dangerous criminal they'd been transporting in their ship when it crashed.
The Doctor snatches the third segment of the key from around Vivian's neck shortly before she is turned to stone. Not feeling so smug now, are we? The sparklies are sent away, and will no doubt find themselves having substantial difficulty tracking down a Time Lord. I doubt it would stop them trying...

This is a bit of an odd one. I think I might have enjoyed it morw if there was a a greater emphasis on the Ogri. But it's still a pretty fun serial even the way it is.

Vivian is a fairly good antagonist. You don't really notice her an awful lot as she hangs about in the background most of the time... but when you do notice her, there's something just a little bit off about her personality. Something like superiority, smugness, condescension in everything she says and does.

The odd thing about this story is that its focus shifts so dramatically in the final episode. It's almost like an entirely different story altogether. Still, it is perfectly enjoyable and a slight dip of the toe back into the horror realm that Doctor Who is best known for. That much is definitely appreciated.

Best Moment: The Camping Scene
This scene was added in when the method the stones used to kill people was changed at the last minute. No longer did they merely crush you. No, now they feed on blood. Suck it right out of your body with a deadly touch.

Imagine how horrifying this death must have been. To lay hand upon a mysterious stone that appeared out of nowhere, to find that you could not remove your hand, and then to feel the sheer agony of it sucking the very blood from your body. Your hand turns skeletal before your very eyes, and you scream and you scream and you can't stop screaming...

It's a horror scene, and it's a well shot one. I just wish there was more throughout the adventure in line with it.

Adventure Awards

"Hablas Ingles?"
A reversal in this case. The Doctor and Romana couldn't read the text on the sealed door that gets them in so much trouble within the hyperspaced ship.

"Nothing Like the Present"
This is pretty obviously set in the present day of the time. Probably the seventies given the technology shown.

The Pirate Planet

2011-11-13T16:40:00.000Z

The Pirate Planet

You may have heard of Douglas Adams. During 1976, he submitted a storyline called The Krikketmen to Doctor Who. Robert Holmes (script editor of the time) ultimately rejected the idea (to understand why, read Life, The Universe and Everything. It's more or less the same story), but asked Adams to continue sending in scripts. The next year, Adams was commissioned by the BBC to write a pilot for a potential radio program called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". With a name like that, I doubt it would go anywhere at all. It certainly wouldn't become a much loved science fiction series with the story remade in every format under the sun.

Since he was uncertain of the success of this endeavour, Adams decided to continue to try writing for Doctor Who and agreed to work with Holmes' successor, Anthony Read to create a new storyline.

The original idea was quite convoluted, and involved several disparate elements that were all brought together at once. The Time Lords mining a planet with the assistance of locals that were pacified by a device disguised as a statue, a drug allegory regarding a company that gave people afraid of death the ability to slow down their personal time, and producer Graham William's idea of involving space pirates in some manner.

As I said, the resulting mixture was a little bit complicated. On top of that, he wound up being asked to write a further five episodes of Hitchhiker's Guide and felt rather obliged to focus on that rather than The Pirate Planet. Since Adams had little experience of writing television drama at that time, he had little ability to figure out how much the budget would allow. Contrast that with the realisation that he was the script editor for the following season.

Read was apparently due to get a lot of work dumped on him, as Williams broke his leg. This meant that Read had to act as producer and story editor for this serial, which wasn't made all that much easier when the head of serials was complaining about the comedic elements of the script and suggesting that the story be dropped altogether. Read defended the serial by using the Key to Time arc as a defense, claiming that the story was central to the plot and they didn't have the time to find a replacement for it.

On the quest for the Key to Time, The Doctor and Romana find themselves on the planet Zanak. The people of Zanak enjoy an economic miracle, with deeper and darker implications than any of them could ever realise. Can The Doctor put a stop to this operation before it reaches its next victim - Earth?

Anyone that didn't know coming in that this was written by Douglas Adams would probably be able to work it out within the first, oh let's be generous, five lines. Provided they've read his books at all.
Want to talk about over the top? The Captain is easily in the same league as Omega.What is it with this season and over the top villains?
The Captain declares a new Golden Age of Prosperity, and there was much rejoicing. But one of the people doesn't cheer among the others, and is watched on a floating oval by cowled figures.
Cue a comedy routine with The Doctor, K9 and Romana. Pretty good characterisation bit, too. Also gives us how long The Doctor has been piloting the Tardis.
The Doctor trips and bangs his mouth on the console, a last minute addition meant to explain the cut on Tom Baker's lip. Shame it was already shown onscreen beforehand, but applause for effort.
Oh gosh, this is what The Captain looks like. That costume is certainly, um, unique don't you think?
The Doctor gets shown up by Romana again, more comedy. Very Douglas Adams style comedy.
And suddenly a spinning K9, presumably related to the circle of people chanting about lifeforce dying.
Calm himself? Calm himself? The poor boy is quite obviously very unwell. Calm himself indeed!
There's where the realisation that this is a tyranny walks into the mind. Questions? Can't be having those!
Oh, stop being so snarky Romana. He already told you that it's the right place and time, but the wrong planet.
They've arrived on the planet of rude people! Hrm. Rude people that are only polite to a pretty face.
Ah yes, the Mentiads. Not even remotely connected to Mentats, honest! I mean, one is a group of very select people with highly developed mental powers, while the other are... Uh... Hold on a minute... Let me reword this... One group is psychic, the other isn't.
Further evidence of the tyranical nature of the planet is exposed! Jelly babies are forbidden!
Precious gems, lying in the street. Some truly rare in all the galaxy. Galaxy presumably being a synonym for universe.
Huh, I wonder why these Mentiads are so bad that this man would rather strangle his own grandson than let them have oh no zombies! Zombies talking of harvesting him! Okay, yeah, based on that got to agree with him.
Don't run from The Doctor like that, he's not that scary.
Telescopes are forbidden. Strangers are forbidden. The question "why" is forbidden. Man, this place must be one heck of a party town when the night falls. Either way, Romana is arrested on three counts of engaging in forbidden activity, and it wouldn't surprise me if being snarky to the guards is also forbidden.
Relax, old man! Never seen a robot dog before? Ah. Actually come to think...
K9 takes down some guards, and then the Mentiads show up and knock The Doctor out with their psychic powers and deflect K9's laser. Gee, with such powers at their disposal, they must surely be the villains. Right?
On the other hand, the Captain is far more along the lines of a typical Douglas Adams antagonist. And then he launches a robot bird thing at a guy and kills him because "whenever someone fails me, someone dies!"
Only now does The Doctor notice that Romana has been arrested. You can tell this is predominantly a comedy.
It's remarkable how different Romana is to your typical female companion. Nothing phases her.
Careful now guard. Those jelly babies are loaded.
Yes. Riding in an air car = freedom to think.
Have I mentioned how much the Captain is over the top? Also, take note of how he listens to the nurse...
The more sophisticated a mechanism is, the more vulnerable it is to primitive attack. Words to live by, certainly. The Doctor is, was, and likely always shall remain a total showoff.
Adams hated corridor scenes, so he invented a few means of circumventing them. The linear induction corridor was one such thing, the air car was another.
\That's a great joke there. The Captain orders for The Doctor to be brought to the bridge, and then he just walks right in through the door.
Very clever, this. Both the Time Lords and the Captain are trying to outmove one another, in a proper battle of wits. The Captain wants to find out why they're there, and The Doctor is trying to figure out what the Captain is up to. When he gets it, The Doctor is appalled by the discover and calls it the greatest crime of the galaxy's history. I'm inclined to agree. It's actually one of the more evil schemes the show has done yet.
That is an amazingly transparent bluff. I can't believe it worked.
You know, it's amazing how many lines The Doctor gets that are used in Adam's later works. I wonder if someone's actually tried to keep track of them...
Down into the mines our heroes go, and The Doctor explains what he meant by crime of the century. The planet is hollow. It materialises around a planet, has the planet within mined dry. Even populated planets. Millions of people, perhaps billions have been killed by this planet.
The guards show up, but are soon dispatched by Mentiads who take The Doctor away for a little chat... I seriously don't get why the guards are so confident in their ability to kill the Mentiads.
I get why the people are scared of them. I mean, they look like zombies and have overwhelmingly powerful psychic abilities. You'd be scared too.
Ah ha, there it is. The Captain has an equaliser. The minerals of the planet they just swallowed give them the ability to disrupt the Mentiad's psychic abilities.
Lots of foreshadowing here, lots of little things that will be revealed in fuller detail later.
The Mentiads are basically hearing the cries of dying planets, becoming more powerful with each one crushed by the Pirate Planet. Which did get a namedrop earlier, by the way.
Nice try Doctor, but they're not quite that stupid to fall for the same trick twice. Not that it makes much difference since he was heading there anyway.
The Fourth Doctor is one of the better ones for pushing a person's buttons. He's toying with the Captain, and also tells the guy with him "don't panic". So many references!
It takes a lot to impress The Doctor, but he's also supremely angry at what's been done here. The Captain has taken the remains of the crushed planets and keeps them behind as part of a very special gravitational engineering, and The Doctor is indeed impressed by what has been accomplished but apalled at how many must have died to make it happen. But there's more to this than meets the eye...
The Captain's parrot analogue fights with K9! Ah, such a shame. His only friend, killed by a robot dog. The indignity of it!
Fun fact, the actress playing the aged version of Queen what'shername demanded more money before she'd take out her false teeth for this scene.
The Doctor walks back into the bridge, and winds up being made to walk the plank. It's such a simple and elegant trap that he can't have time to think of a way out of it. Except, he sort of already did. It's not the real Doctor at all, but a holographic copy.
And at last it's revealed that the nurse is really in charge here. The Doctor tried to switch her off since she was a hologram, but it seems that he's too late. She's too ready for him.
The Mentiats have their abilities shut off when the device is activated, meaning that now the tides have turned and it's time for something a little more mundane to take them through this fight.
It's amazing that the energy requirements for the time dams aren't met yet, given that it's supposedly an exponential growth.
The Doctor's plan is to take advantage of what happened at the beginning of the story, trying to materialise the Tardis in the same place and time as the planet, which is a risky move to make but it does seem to work out quite well. Eventually.
AAAAARGH CREEPY FOURTH DOCTOR AND MENTIAT HEADS!
So apparently their equipment is so carefully calibrated and sensitive in that there engine room that if some clumsy dolt happened to bang a spanner against a console the whole lot would blow up.
The Doctor reveals that he's worked out that the Captain was secretly trying to work against hte hologram controlling him, and that he knows where the key to time segment is hidden. Unfortunately, they're going to need to shift a few things around to make it work...
The Captain makes his play, but it doesn't work much as The Doctor attempted to warn him. The former nurse kills him, and then when he tries to shoot The Doctor she vanishes as well. But it's not over yet...
On the previous point, I think his plan might have worked better if he'd not yelled out that he'd be free from her as he tried to do it. Then again, it's not exactly in his character to do that.
Complicated plan to get the key fragment out without killing everyone on the planet, it's really jus a heaping pile of technobabble.
Blowing up the time dams, eh? Well, if you think it'd work.
Um, guys I get that you're telepathic and all, but the detonator is right at your feet. You could always, you know, bend over and push the plunger in. Gonna use telekinesis to do it, eh? Getting a bit lazy there aren't we?

It's science fiction comedy written by Douglas Adams. Need I say anything else?

Oh alright. This is very much a comedy, so don't go in taking it all that seriously. The villains are rather deliberately over the top, and most of the lines are either a punchline, a setup to a punchline, or moving the plot forward. It's a good story, but not exactly necessary to follow the Key to Time arc.

Best Moment: Bring me The Doctor! Immediately!
Since this is a comedy, I feel obliged to judge the best moment on the joke that made me laugh the most. That had to be The Doctor walking into the bridge moments after the Captain demanded he be brought there immediately. Other people may find other moments funnier, but this is what I enjoyed the most.

Adventure Awards
"Time and Relative Defects in Space"
Pushing it a bit for this one, but the Tardis does crash at the beginning of the story. Other than that, the awards don't really fit for this story.

The Ribos Operation

2011-11-07T06:00:00.001Z

The Ribos Operation

The previous season saw Graham Williams become the show's producer, and he wasn't entirely fond of the idea of The Doctor stumbling into adventures all the time. He felt it was too much of a coincidence. To fix that problem, he decided it might be a good idea to have him be employed by a higher power with the intention that he be deliberately sent to various locations on a series of missions.

This is where the original Key to Time plot arc came from, which was a little different from what wound up being made. Well, obviously. Few ideas last as originally intended, after all. Especially since the idea had to be postponed a full year, because it needed too much planning to be implemented given how much time they had.

Robert Holmes was one of the first writers to be contacted for writing this season, and he turned in an idea called "The Galactic Conman". This became "The Operation", slang for a con, and finally The Ribos Operation. Ribos was modelled on medieval Russia, and Ribos is an anagram of Boris.

Given the failure to convince Louise Jameson to stay on as Leela, a new companion was needed. Enter Romanadvoratrelunda, better known as Romana. She would be a Time Lady, with the role going to Mary Tamm. Oddly enough Tamm and Jameson had trained together at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Alongside this new companion would come a brand new K9 prop, which it was promised would work much better than the old one.

A major incident occured off camera during production of this serial. Tom Baker was bit on the lip by a dog owned by Paul Seed (who played the Graff Vynda-K), leaving a deep cut on his upper lip. The resulting scar would remain quite visible even under uncomfortable makeup throughout this season and well into the next. Fortunately, much of the remaining scenes made it possible for his face to be hidden, so continuity was not broken with previous scenes.

The Doctor is contacted by the White Guardian, manifestation of the Universe's Order and Light. He is given a quest, to locate each of the hidden six segments of the Key to Time. He is also given a new companion, a Time Lady that he nicknames Romana. The two don't get on well at first, but they soon land on Ribos and have to work together to retrieve the first segment.

Little do either of them realise quite yet, but they've stumbled upon a dangerous con being played on a very dangerous man. Soon enough the two of them will be struggling to survive, never mind locating the disguised segment...

Oh, Doctor. You should know better than to make plans like that out loud! When have you ever reached your intended holiday destination with good time? I do like K9 showing excitement by rapidly repeating the word "affirmative".
And the importance and power of the Guardians is established pretty effectively. Though the Guardian could probably have picked a more hospitable location, I think.
Wow. The Doctor is downright respectful to the Guardian. No flippancy here, and considering which Doctor that is... that says something about respect. Says a lot about it. A hell of a lot. He even apologises if he accidentally steps out of line.
Wonderful advice, White Guardian. Beware the Black Guardian. Yes. That's... tremendously helpful.
And so, the battle of wits between Romana and The Doctor. The two of them are both very arrogant, The Doctor doesn't particularly want her help, and she's actually smarter than he is. Book smarter, anyway. He's way more experienced at this sort of thing... Though to be fair, she's not too shabby either.
Exposition dump ahoy!
You know, I can't help but look at that and think "That's blatantly a set."
And you say this place, where the people dress like this is based on medieval Russia? Not seeing it! Not in the slightest! Too sarcastic?
Let the banter begin! Or... continue! Cheap shots across at one another. You can tell already that Romana's not your typical female companion.
"I'll show you whether I'm suffering from a compensation syndrome! Just.. just forget I said that last thing first."
Introducing the Graff. He is one of many characters that are competing for the role of my favourite within this story.
This is the part of the story where The Doctor gets hoisted by his own petard. It's a change, but it's not entirely undeserved. He's been behaving like a bit of a jerk so far. Not that Romana's much better.
Good way to get out the planet's background, introducing it to us by having the con man explain it to the Graff.
And this is why the Graff is one of my favourite characters. He's so over the top, so completely nuts that it's actually a lot of fun to watch him.
Drinking on duty, are we? Taking the drink from a stranger? Not too bright, are we?
And just like that, Romana and The Doctor are trapped with the monster that apparently acts as a guard dog to the Ribos treasury. Could be a problem, that.
Worse yet, the guards are right outside the door and most of the locks are off the bottom of the treasure containers. Not entirely innocent looking, are they? Best to hide and slip out while the guards are distracted.
The conman is one of the others in the favourite character competition. He's a lot of fun to watch as well, though it's more because he's constantly trying to be charming or portray himself in the best possible light. It's endearingly funny.
As Hustle indicates, the real art in the con is to feed the greed. Make people think they're getting something for nothing. Feel free to insert your own comment about the financial situation here if you'd like.
Oh, wow. That's... that's one lousy accent he's adopting there. Scringe stone, indeed!
Haha, I like the conman discretly stepping on his partner in crime's foot. Taking it a bit too far, don't you think? The main problem with the con is rather nicely foreshadowed by the Graff, though. Nobody fools with him. Or they'll have their tongue removed by a rusty knife.
A treasure map. Really. That's so realistic.
This is where The Doctor outshines Romana, here. He's universe travelled, seen it all by now or near enough to recognise a blatant con like that. And it is a blatant con. A ridiculously blatant one. Then again, that's the trouble with a well executed con. It's only obvious in hindsight, or to an outsider looking in.
This is the real con, here. The deposit is the real con. And they even intend to have it guarded in the place that the conmen have already broken into once already. Cunning, if a little circuitous.
Uh oh, the Graff has noticed the listening device that was planted in the room! Now you're for it, mate.
The conmen are both rather fun to watch. The older one is definitely the smarter of the two, and the younger one is a little too eager.
It seems like the Time Lords are starting to get into the groove of working together now after their initial hostility.
That was smooth. The conman managed to handle the keys just for a moment, and while his back was turned, he was able to palm it in seconds. That's real skill.
The Doctor gets caught approaching the treasury by a guard that looked more asleep than he really was. And then he shows him his pocket watch and sets him asleep. Brilliantly done.
Oh dear. Nothing quite like being mistaken for an accomplice to a con by the ruthless person with guards that just figured out he was being conned.
Mercifully, the captain of the Graff's guards reminds his employer of the missing gold which manages to be enough of a prompt to keep our heroes alive. For now.
No really the scringe stone tale was a lie too? But he had such an honest face!
This is a brilliant performance by... everybody involved. But in particular the Graff. The mark of a really good actor is when he or she doesn't need to say a single word but you know exactly what they're thinking just by looking at them. The Graff is like that here. Sure he goes a fair bit over the top but it works for this unhinged character.
The conman thinks that The Doctor and Romana are coppers on his tale. The Doctor makes a rather astute observation, same one I've already made. Fooling someone like the Graff is a Very Bad Idea.
K9 to the rescue!
The conman's assistant is hidden by a friendly old man, just in the nick of time. Apparently he's a heretic, that believed different planets existed. Given how some cultures treated heretics, I'd almost say he's lucky to be alive... but given how he's living that would be a rather questionable statement. At least they've not tortured him to death.
Oh, and here's another contender for favourite character. The Seeker. Very hocus pocusy, but apparently her abilities work wonders at catching criminals. Another one that's so over the top that it's brilliantly entertaining. She's throwing herself so completely into the role.
This character was originally supposed to be Australian, which is why the comment about the Sydney Opera House.
Look at him. He's so proud. Then again, he's a conman that is experienced at selling entire planets.
Romana's pretty good at psycho-analysing people in a highly insulting manner.
Wow, check these guards out. I thought this planet was the one supposed to be based on medieval Russia.
You don't like the sound of that, huh? What, the sound of the prisoners(ie: You) being killed when the gunfire starts? You have a tremendous talent for understatement, Doctor.
This is a touching scene. The heretic explains his heresy. Believing in other worlds, other suns. Believing that Ribos moves, rather than the other way around. Which contradicts the religious beliefs of the locals. On hearing this, the conman's assistant confirms these beliefs to be true. He asks for nothing, had no compulsion to offer this truth save for the pity he felt for this poor soul that helped him in his darkest hour.
K9 finally arrives, knocks out the guard and then The Doctor uses a rigged up device to warn the assistant that the guards are approaching. Now we get into the more action oriented portion of the story.
That is marvellous garbage that she's spouting. Sounds impressively mystic, though.
Finally, they realise what the segment was disguised as. About time.
Into the labyrinthine catacombs they delve! But the Graff and his men are close behind and The Doctor accidentally kicks a skull that alerts them to where he's hiding. Fine time to be clumsy.
I like how the Graff and his guard captain talk like old war friends.
Sad thing is, The Doctor really means that. Travel with him a bit, and you wouldn't call that "nearly killed".
UNSTOFFE: You'd risk your life for me? Why?
BINRO: You wouldn't understand. For years, I was jeered and derided. I began to doubt even myself. Then you came along, and you told me I was right. Just to know that for certain, Unstoffe, well, is worth a life, eh?
That's just incredibly touching. This is the thing I'd say this story does above all other things. It gives you characters and it makes you understand them and it makes you care about them.
This is where the Graff kicks the dog. No, not K9. He shows just how ruthless and uncaring he is by having a native guard shot to make the Seeker show up a little faster. Not someone to mess with, or to try to con.
The conman lifts the Key to Time detector, presumably assuming it's worth a thing or two. Well, it detects the pieces of the most powerful artefact in the universe, but that's no good if you can't travel through space and time. Actually, he thinks it's used to detect jethrik and has used it to locate his friend. Though he might also be planning to use it to maybe locate more jethrik, which may well be a lucrative course of action.
The Seeker makes an ominous prediction. All but one of those present shall die.
Uh oh. The heretic bumps into the Graff's lot, and is found with the watch communicator thingy.
It's tricky to summarise everything that's going on, so let's just say that all hell is breaking loose. The conmen narrowly avoid execution when one of the monsters shows up and the roof caves in.
The Graff loses what was likely his best friend in his captain. Wow, the guy looks like the wolfman a little from this angle.
Romana and K9 find the conmen, and get them out from behind the wall of rock trapping them.
The Graff kills the Seeker, and is left with the last of his guards. The guard speaks, and is rather obviously The Doctor. In the meantime, the Graff remembers his battles and loses the rest of his mind. Little realising the bomb he'd intended to have the last of his guards deliver on a suicide run was actually just planted back on his person. One of the few times that The Doctor has deliberately killed a humanoid being.
Then The Doctor uses his slight of hand once again when the conman attempts to sleight of hand it away from him. Very clever of him to not trust him like that. At least the conman has the run of the Graff's ship, which has eighteen year's worth of treasure inside it.
First segment get! Five more to go...

A pretty solid start to the Key to Time arc. It gave us a brilliant cast of characters, and a unique flavour. The setting was alien yet familiar, the plot is one that certainly stands out, it explains everything that we need to know in a completely non-intrusive manner, and the pacing was very solid.

The thing is, this isn't even the best story of the season. It's still getting a tremendous recommendation, but there is at least one which is better. Seriously, take the time to give this one a watch. Well worth your time.

Best Moment: You'd risk your life for me? Why?
You know, when I think about what happened to people like poor Binro throughout history it makes me sigh in... Horror? Disbelief? Disappointment? I'm not sure exactly what the emotion is. Probably a mixture between all of them. Binro was their representative in this story. The person that made the discoveries of facts we take for granted today. In his society he was a heretic. From our perspective, he was a good man that deserved better than he got.

Adventure Awards:
"Hablas Ingles?"
The primitive and superstitious planet of Ribos speaks English fluently.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."
The Doctor uses hypnosis to send a guard to sleep.

"Deadly Wonders of Nature"
There's a point where Romana asks if there are many creatures like that, and The Doctor gleefully responds "millions of them!"

"The Lonely God "
Sort of a reversal in this instance, as The Doctor actually would have preferred travelling alone.

Season Fifteen Overall Review

2011-10-31T18:24:00.000Z

This was not a good season. It started out great, with one of Tom Baker's best stories from all seven of hi seasons, but there was so much else here that I'd rather not watch again if I didn't have to.

The shift away from horror hurt the show a fair bit, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong. The Fourth Doctor gets some of the best comedic lines out of any Doctor. But making this many stories with a supposed comedic bent was a terrible idea.

I rather like Leela and K9 as companions, even though none of the adventures in which the two prominently starred were particularly good. There was some pretty good contrast between the pair, pretty fun banter, and both did serve solid, yet entirely different roles as members of the Tardis crew. There were times where I felt Leela wasn't quite utilised properly, as sometimes she'd seem to become less brutal and other times she'd take two steps back. While her character arc had interesting potential it was kind of squandered. And don't get me started on the manner in which she left, because that was terribly handled. If you're going to have a companion leave for romantic reasons, build up the romance! Had I been writing this story and absolutely had to have Leela leave for romantic reasons, but wasn't sure if I could convince Louise Jameson to return... I'd have written a romantic subplot, then have her agonise over whether to continue travelling with The Doctor or stay behind. Much more interesting, and that way bases are covered. I joked in the review a little about how the two were a Takahashi couple, but at least in that storyline trope the normally arguing couple show some honest to goodness affection for one another when not arguing! This just springs out of nowhere, and it's so contrived that - Argh! I got started on Leela's departure! This is why I didn't want to discuss it in the first place...

Next up is the Key to Time season. I'm kind of hopeful for this one, because I happen to remember it being largely good.

The Invasion of Time

2011-10-31T02:43:00.001Z

The Invasion of Time

This is going to sound strange later on, but I'm glad this story was made rather than the intended series 15 closer. Allow me to explain what I mean by this. Firstly, I dislike this story. Secondly, even given the first the original plan sounds much worse.

The popularity of The Deadly Assassin prompted the decision to make another Gallifrey centred story. Trouble was, Robert Holmes didn't want to return so quickly and declined the offer. However, he had no trouble with them using Cardinal Borusa, a character of his own creation for The Deadly Assassin.

Instead a different writer was brought in by the name of David Weir. The story he was commissioned to write was a six part adventure called Killers of the Dark which would have been about a race of cat people with ties to Gallifrey. It would have drawn on Asian cultures and featured a Gladatorial battle within a stadium filled with catlike people. The reason this wasn't made was due entirely to budget concerns at a time when the BBC was wanting the show to stop going over budget. This concern is part of why there was a CSO deluge in Underworld; They were saving the money for this story.

There were two weeks before filming when it was realised a different story was needed. With a little assistance and advice from Robert Holmes (as well as permission to use another of his creations, the Sontarans) they managed to pull something together rather speedily.

There seemed to be no end to the troubles faced with this story, however. During the Seventies there were almost yearly industrial disputes, and 1977 was no exception. Due to these disputes Invasion of Time would only be allocated one studio block as opposed to the three normally given to a six episode story. It was rather fortunate then, that an emergency fund existed that provided two weeks of outside broadcast taping. The storyline had to be tweaked to take advantage of existing locations, resulting in... Well, we'll get there later on.

Of more importance was the departure of two companions. The original K9 prop didn't function as well as they had hoped - a lesson that you'd think they'd have learned from when a certain humanoid robot gets introduced during the Fifth Doctor's run but noooo - so they decided to write the final scene of this story with the original K9 departing and The Doctor constructing K9 MKII, which would be an improved version of the prop. Less effort than this was put into Leela's departure, who gets a clunky out of nowhere romance departure, rather than being killed off as Louise Jameson had hoped.

Louise Jameson would go on to perform in stage and television, also developing a career in drama teaching. She returned during the thirtieth anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time in 1993, and has also done work for audio dramas from Big Finish beginning with Zagreus in 2003, continuing with various Companion Chronicles, and especially their long running Gallifrey series.

When The Doctor begins to behave oddly, Leela isn't sure what to make of it. When he returns to Gallifrey and assumes the position of President both she and the Time Lords are further befuddled. Is he under some malevolant influence, or does he have some brilliant plan in mind?

Spoiler: The story thinks it's the latter, but it comes off more as the former.

We kick things off with The Doctor meeting some mysterious figures, that tell him speed is of the essence. Yep, the guy with the time machine is always the one you want to bring in when speed is of the essence.
Meanwhile, back with K9 and Leela. She wants to know what The Doctor is up to, but is frustrated by the dog's lack of co-operation. K9 in the meantime sulks when Leela shouts at him. I did enjoy that part. For all he just explained that he has no emotions, his actions demonstrate otherwise.
The Doctor ominously signs a contract that will grant him "control over the Time Lords". Then he returns to the Tardis and has K9 aim his gun at Leela. Markedly out of character behaviour indeed.
This kind of bugs me a little, as it happens. Something similar to this sequence happened at the beginning of Deadly Assassin. Surely after that incident they'd have identified The Doctor's Tardis and stored it in their databases. I mean, he was kind of involved in a high profile incident which kicked off when his Tardis landed right outside the Panopticon.
And this brief scene of Leela swimming does... what, exactly for the plot?
I'll say at least one thing, though. This does close up a minor complaint I had for the villain's motivations I thought of coming into the adventure. Why not hitch a ride in the Tardis to take over from there? Answer? The Tardis will be guarded on arrival. Much less risky to wait for their contact to lower the shields... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
... So apparently these beings can interpret randomly flashing purpleish rectangles as telling them that The Doctor has arrived on Gallifrey.
The Doctor's erratic behaviour continues, and it really is erratic even for him. He tells Leela to follow him, then the next sentence instructs her to stay where she is.
Haha, I like that. The Doctor has been marched along corridors by guards so often that he actually strides out in front of them, effectively leading them towards the intended destination. Until the lead guard catches up and points out how this ought to work.
There it is, his claim of Presidency. It's a pretty neat realisation that follows nicely from Deadly Assassin. He did enter the election, and the only other member of the election was killed. If nobody else stepped up for election, then The Doctor wins by default.
It's probably for the best that you're leaving, K9. Insulting the Tardis like that... could get a robot into all sorts of trouble.
What we're seeing now is a completely different kind of behaviour from The Doctor. His fuse snaps on a drop of a hat, and he's acting in an extremely unhinged manner.
We're also seeing some rather obsequious behaviour from the guy in the gold hat and robes. Watch him. The obsequious ones are always the ones you should be watching.
It does make sense that The Doctor would like mid-20th century offices, given his exile there. And the fact that he has more adventures there than any other place and time. In a sense, I'd say that if he really had gone bad it would have been a dig at the Time Lords that their current President was the man they exiled there.
Shopping trip for Leela! Because the Time Lords are known for the height of fashion. I watch this scene, and can't help but laugh at the way this story ends. They're the most perfect example of the Takahashi couple that doesn't appear in a Rumiko Takahashi work.
Time Lords do ceromonies with just the right amount of ridiculous over the topness.
The Sash of Rassilon. The Key of Rassilon. The Kettle of Rassilon. The Doorknob of Rassilon...
Please, I'm begging you. Stop talking about the Matrix. You see that pain the Doctor is feeling? That's how much pain I'm in not making the obvious movie references.
The Matrix has rejected The Doctor, even though he supposedly is the Matrix now. Obviously because there is no - No! Bad! Too easy!
Hey, there's a good idea Leela. Draw your knife without checking behind you to see if there's a guard there with a gun. I mean, you're only in what's presumably one of the most important rooms to the Time Lords, filled with their most important people. What are the chances they'll have security present?
The Doctor wakes up from the attack, and for his first official action as President has Leela exiled. With friends like this...
Further amusing note. Leela flees from the guards, and the one leading the chase is her future love interest. Perfect Takahashi couple.
Borusa and The Doctor have a brief discussion about whatever has gotten into The Doctor's head, and then the new President of Gallifrey is left to recuperate. With guards at the door, and his behaviour markedly back to normal he sets about finding a secret passageway. Borusa is obviously not quite as smart about locking it as he thinks he is. I'd have gone for a combination voice print and palm scan. At the very least.
The Doctor has taken to his new role as President with aplomb, playing hopscotch down the corridor.
I like the way Leela gets past those guards. That's something The Doctor would've tried. "I'm with him" indeed!
The conversation between The Doctor and K9 is rather entertaining. May give it the best moment. There's not much competition, though.
This is where the transduction barrier is introduced. It's what keeps Gallifrey safe from the rest of the universe. What's more interesting is how appalled the Time Lady (only the second we've seen, with the first being Susan) manning the station happens to be by Leela's suggestion of interferance.
Man, this story has a lot of juxtaposition in dialogue between scene jumps. It's neat once or twice, but it keeps on doing it.
Oh, that's a brilliant idea. Let in the alien that all the guards are looking for. I know that she's disgruntled by her work, but show a little common sense. I mean, if it was discovered that she was there, what sort of trouble do you think she would have gotten in for that?
K9 destroys the induction barriers, the invaders teleport in, and The Doctor gives a little maniacal laugh. Come on, you've got to dig deeper, laugh from the lungs, don't hold it back.
The invaders are given a name now. The Vardans. They have the ability to adopt an energy form, which permits them near instant movement abilities, as well as the power to read minds. They sound powerful, but they're also rather stupid.
"Discussion is for the wise and helpless, and I am neither!" right from Leela's mouth. Well, I wouldn't say that you were exactly stupid, either.
Leela's hardly easily convinced by reason when her instinct screams otherwise. Her instincts are rather remarkable, admittedly.
The Doctor and Borusa talk in a room completely lined with lead decorations. This permits them protection from the aliens, and a moment to discuss things. Now, I know that the Vardans were watching The Doctor's movements, apparently telepathically, but that raises a few questions. The first arises from implications within the conversation, that their ability to read minds and teleport are connected to the same underlying ability. Well, in that case why not teleport to Gallifrey as soon as The Doctor arrived? The signals were apparently reaching them just fine. Secondly, how were they able to read minds through the induction barrier? I mean, if I were designing that then one of the very things I'd be blocking with it would be wavelengths of any kind. Who knows what kind of information could be picked up by hostile forces? There's more than that here as well, it must be said. The Doctor's plan is kind of stupid. Like the sort of thing that The Seventh Doctor would try while suffering from a concussion. In order to deal with the threat, he first intends to allow it to land on Gallifrey. Oh, sure because then nothing could possibly go wrong!
One thing about this conversation that I do appreciate. It shows that The Doctor's experiences in travelling the universe are a big part of what makes him so effective. It's not just what he knows, but how he thinks that allows him to save the day. Borusa is smarter than him in terms of knowledge, but in terms of applying that knowledge in real life situations The Doctor is ten paces ahead. That's not to say that Borusa can't - or can't learn to - but that The Doctor is just that much better at it. There's nothing in the universe quite as useful as experience.
Meanwhile, Leela and her new friend manage to get out of the city and into the wilds of Gallifrey. The stated reason The Doctor wanted her out of there is to prevent her mind being read by the Vardan, possibly because she knows The Doctor too well.
Yet more juxtaposition, this time without a scene switch. One moment, Leela's saying they should be safe. The next, spears are being pointed in their face.
Mister Gold Helmet attempts to introduce intrigue to the story, but is rather too blatant about it to be remotely interesting.
Leela is brought to meet the people that live outside the citadel. The scene is fascinating from at least one perspective: It helps illustrate why The Doctor left in the first place. The Time Lady here is about as likely to survive outside the citadel as she would in deep space. No wonder The Doctor wanted to leave that society behind! They're pampered, privelaged elitists.
The Doctor and Borusa put up a good act against the Vardan, but this plan still does smack of stupidity. It's like inviting a vampire into your house, because you can't get your stake out through the front door.
It may sound like I'm being complimentary of the story, but that's largely because I'm trying so hard to enjoy myself. That said, I do admit that The Doctor does play a pretty good tyrant.
And Leela decides to rally the troops, so to speak. This lot are Time Lords that are more like The Doctor than the typical Time Lord. The only real difference, is that none of them were able to steal a Tardis.
The head of the guards decides that it might be a good idea to get The Doctor alone, then perform an assassination. There's the trouble with The Doctor's plan, people that would be his allies don't know what's really going on.
ANDRED: But you have access to the greatest source of knowledge in the universe.
DOCTOR: Well, I do talk to myself sometimes, yes.
That sums up this Doctor to a tee.
Yet more juxtaposition. It's like an addiction. Can they go a single episode without? Might be nice.
This is where the plan escalates into the heights of stupidity. It's like leaving yourself out in the open as bait, because it's the only way to lure out a serial killer in a horror film. Dumb idea. Just so dumb.
Have I mentioned that K9 is awesome? If not, then... I mention it now. K9 is awesome. He's dead smug about it, too.
The Vardans materialise on Gallifrey at last, and... they're less than impressive. They're pretty much just a bunch of third series Rimmers. About as smart, too.
The Doctor hides himself in the lead lined office, prompting the Vardans to realise that he's betraying them. They're too committed now to try and leave, but it's too late in any case since K9 has traced back their signal and locked their homeworld in a time loop.
Mister Gold Hat is left high and dry. He'd been hoping to use the aliens to help him get rid of his political enemies and establish himself as being in a more important position. Doh?
And there's the sudden shift. The real villains were none other than the Sontarans! Fun fact, when The Seventh Doctor meets them in a book he mocks them as "the only race to be fooled by the Sontarans."
The question I have is, if the Vardans were all that powerful and could read minds how couldn't they figure out the Sontarans were intending to double cross them? Come to it, why would they need the Sontarans for anything? This plot point makes no sense, from whichever angle I look at it from.
It is a little worrying that Borusa has a secret passage that leads right to the President's room within his own. Not surprising, but worrying.
And now gold hat moves on to ally himself with the new invaders. I expect he'll be shoved around a fair bit.
Earlier, The Doctor made a remark about Leela becoming proficient at murder. She just flat out killed a Sontaran dead.
Also, remember what I said about Borusa not being as experienced as The Doctor but still able to handle himself? He shows that here, too.
Why unlock the door like that? I honestly cannot figure out why he did that. Any sensible person would've bolted through the secret passage and left them to try and blast through the door. Let them waste time on that, while actually working on overthrowing the invaders.
Alright. So, it turns out that each President of Gallifrey has to swear an oath to find the Great Key. Trick is, each Chancellor also swears a rather more secret oath to keep them from finding it. The Doctor figures this out, somehow. Presumably with knowledge acquired offscreen. It couldn't be from the Matrix because no President succeeds, and every President is connected to the Matrix. Unless each President breaks their oath and makes a show of looking for the key, while pretending not to know where it is. Which is... kind of daft. So it would fit this story fine.
Oh, it turns out I'm right. Nobody in the Matrix knows.
... The Sontarans are as dumb as a rock. New orders indeed.
Engineering work. Thrilling!
Hey now, don't mock The Doctor's wife like that.
Yes, as long as the Tardis remains secure. Cue juxtapos- oh yeah, good guess didn't even get to finish typing.
Yah! Zombie Sontaran! I'll give you whatever you want, just stop staring at me like that!
Here's the silly part, where they shoot the same scene a number of times in a council pool. I suppose it's supposed to be funny, but... Ugh.
... So apparently, The Doctor can just go up to someone and say that they're under deep hypnosis and they just go along with it. Come on, put a little effort into the hypnosis, don't make it that easy.
Leela expresses my sentiments at their continued use of the pool. Oh no indeed!
Huh. Apparently The Doctor keeps Sontaran eating plants in his Tardis.
Oh come on, leave this pool area alone!
Wait, that Sontaran isn't a zombie. He's just high! It would explain his slow speech.
Ugh. I sometimes complain that nothing happens in the first episode of an adventure, but it's also true of the last episode too.
The Demat gun. The Doctor has it constructed with the intention that he use it to fight off the Sontarans.Which, sorry, just not accepting that.
Oh, what does he think he's doing? Does he think he's James Bond with that gun or something?
The last of the Sontarans is destroyed by the Demat gun, and it also destroys itself and The Doctor's memories of the last few days. God in the machine, I suppose.
And there it is. Leela stays behind because she's fallen in love with the guy that she's shown no sign of even liking throughout the story. It just comes out of nowhere. Nothing even remotely as meaningful as Sarah Jane's departure. Not even a little bit.

This is a very odd story. It does some things quite well, but other things... Not so much. The last two episodes feel like a completely different "adventure". The Sontarans come out of nowhere, no hint of their involvement no reason for them to be there at all and absolutley no foreshadowing. They simply do not fit within this story.

It's quite obvious that this was a rushed story, and given that fact it came out a lot better than it might have done. It needed a lot more time spent on it, to iron over the finer details. Too many plot elements seem to arise because they're just what the writer needs there and then to push things into the direction needed. I honestly do feel that if this story was given maybe two or three months to polish things up, it could've been tremendous. But it isn't. It's bad, it's boring and though it does certain things quite well there's too much bad for me to like this story.

Best Moment: But you have access to the greatest source of knowledge in the universe.
I thought this was a rather brilliant one liner, very amusing, very in character and didn't slow the plot down in the slightest. It gets a good laugh out of me whenever I hear it.

Adventure Awards
"Hablas Ingles?"
Everybody speaks the same language, from Leela to the Time Lords to the Verdans to the Sontarans.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..." The Doctor brainwashes that one person into making the Demat gun, then has his own memory erased once he's used it.

Underworld

2011-10-24T05:56:00.001+01:00

Underworld

Full control went over to Anthony Read as script editor for the final two serials of this season. His first decision was to bring back the Bristol Boys, who had already contributed The Invisible Enemy, presumably because we haven't suffered quite enough.

The key idea utilised in the formation of a plot involved looking into the Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece. Character names are derived from the tale (Commander Jackson was named for Jason, Herrick for Heracles, Orfe for Orpheus, and Tala for Atalanta) and so on. Greek mythology was not the only source from which inspiration was drawn, but looking over the various names and ideas presented, it was certainly the main one.

As with their previous two stories the Bristol boys felt it would be good to introduce a recurring phrase. In this instance, "The Quest is the Quest" which to my ears feels like it might be more at home in Castrovalva.

Unfortunately, unexpected budget problems cropped up due to skyrocketing inflation, and this forced a radical alteration to how this adventure had to be filmed. Rather than constructing sets (which would come out at three times the expected rate) it was instead decided to use CSO. So very much CSO.

The last of the Minyans wander the universe in search of their long lost genetic race banks, desperately needed to revive their civilisation. On the final days of this long quest, they are joined by one of those arrogant beings responsible for their destruction. He claims to wish to help them at this final stage, but there is no love for their former gods anymore. If the Time Lord called The Doctor wishes to help them, he'll have to earn their trust...

The sight of Leela playing with the console should surely fill people with minor dread. Also, I love that The Doctor comes out of the back wearing a painters coat and makes no comment at all.
K9 gets ignored while The Doctor marvels at the edge of the universe. Total nothingness, the absence of anything at all! You know, except those other people that wandered over to take a look. Maybe if they look hard enough, they'll be able to look into that other universe where everybody wears cowboy hats.
The Doctor also marvels at the forming galaxy about to crush them, which I think counts as this week's "Deadly Marvels of Nature." Best remember that for later...
Ah, and here's our Argo. They get worried about the sound of the Tardis dematerialising/rematerialising, and ask if it's coming from inside or outside the ship. Hm. Considering there's a vacuum outside the ship, I'd have to speculate that it was coming from inside given that there's no noise in space. Then again, this is science fiction where sound does happen in space.
Backstory time! When the Time Lords were young and stupid - as all people and peoples are at some point in their history - they encountered the Minyans and were worshipped by them as gods. They gave the Minyans advanced tech, got kicked out, then the Minyans destroyed themselves. This led to the Time Lords looking at this and thinking "we stay the hell out of the affairs of others from now on," which unfortunately will lead to them doing things worse than accidental genocide. Like, say, genocide on purpose.
Some of the Minyans are a little bitter, while others are hopeful they might get some assistance in the quest. If nothing else, the background is certainly introduced quite well. It's actually pretty interesting so far, but I fear it shall not last.
It occurs to me that The Doctor explaining who Leela is might not go over particularly well with these people. "She's a savage that I'm educating, and... um... Not like we educated you lot. Really. Completely different."
Turns out that they have a gun that shoots good vibes. I can imagine that being pretty useful. The freaky part is that it seems to compell people to thank the person that shot them with it. Something very creepy about thanking someone for making you feel happy against your will.
Hm. Maybe happy wasn't the right word. High as a kite is probably better.
The Minyans have access to the ability to regenerate, it seems. Though it's not the same regeneration as we're aware of it. They retain the same mind and body, though younger. This has permitted them to engage in their quest (which is a quest don't you know?) for thousands of years, regenerating a thousand times. You think Odyseus had it bad?
Finally we find out what their quest is. They're in search of the P7E (on an out of universe level named for Persephone, who had precisely nothing to do with Jason save for their mutual existance in entirely seperate Greek legends)
While I'm on the subject, the Minyans of legend were a part of Greek legend as well. The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as Minyans becaue Jason's mother came from the Minyan line, and several of his cousins were Argonauts as well.
Man, can you imagine going thousands of years not meeting your god, and suddenly he shows up and calls in his robot dog to solve your most immediate problem?
"We did it! We escaped the CSO!" "No, I fear that we have not. The CSO shall haunt us still..."
Ah, it seems as though old Herrick here is one of those people that's fearful of god because he thinks god is... well, the devil. If he does something good then he simply has to be setting you up for something worse!
I do find it funny that when she finds out that she was pacified, Leela begins behaving like a child that didn't get her way. Probably a side effect of the come down.
Yes, that's right. Encourage her not to lose the signal, because she sure as hell wasn't trying at all during the last couple of thousand years you've been picking it up and losing it.
The ship has started to attract mass, turning it into a mini-planetoid. They have to blast their way out, which is a horribly risky thing to do! If only there was another means of escape like a ship that can travel through space and time, was bigger inside than outside and was shaped like a police box.
They shake the mass off, and soon find the P7E within another larger planet, which they crash right through since it is still rather soft. Lucky, huh? One of those problems they don't have to do anything to solve.
Random shots of people living underground, screaming that the sky is falling. First thing we learn about this culture is that it hasn't heard of Chicken Little.
Wastes no time establishing the villains, then. Apparently they use sacrifices as a little bit of motivation for their slaves. They always work harder after a sacrifice. Puppy = kicked.
Yeah, okay. Can we please get on with it? Main problem this has is that it takes until about half way through the second episode for anything to really happen.
So... much... CSO... It's everywhere! I - I'm losing the ability to tell whether I'm actually in my room, or if it's been overlayed over a background-less shot. The sense of scale and proportion is fading rapidly. I need help!
"Must have doubled back. They certainly can't be hiding under that sheet over there. You know, the one that's moving around as if someone was hiding under it. The only hiding place in this cave. Must have doubled back. Only explanation."
My god, Leela. Feeling a bit violent today, are we? The character feels all over the place. Sometimes she's the cunning strategist, other times a bloodthirsty maniac.
The really frustrating thing about this story is that it introduces the Mynyans so well and then doesn't do a damn thing with the people of this place. They're just... there.
I do like the reflector weapon they have. That's kind of cool. It's like a satellite dish, absorbs incoming
The villains seal off the tunnels that this guy they were looking for was running around in, and pump in gas to try and kill him. The Doctor decides that the best course of action is to try and reverse the pump so that it sucks out the gas. There's our half way through cliffhanger, folks!
I really don't want to keep on going on about this, but the CSO really is wrecking this story. It's sucking out all the atmosphere, meaning that the entire focus of the story has to be on the story and the characters. Which is a simply incredible handicap, given that the Minyans have very little discernable personality beyond "Herrick is a collossal jerk".
The tree at the end of the world indeed, Doctor! It would appear to me as though he is starting to see through the writer's intentions with this serial, though if I'm quite honest a lot of it would probably be lost on most people if they weren't already looking for the similarities.
Invisible dragons? I know there was a dragon guarding the tree the fleece was on, but there wasn't an invisible one as far as I can remember.
Is it bad that I keep expecting Charlie (from the original Chocolate Factory movie) and his grandfather to float up past the three of them?
That really is a needlessly complicated execution, but you know the amazing thing? According to these calculations, I am actually giving -1 damns. That's negative one damns being given. This story owes me a damn. I demand my damn!
Suddenly, firefight out of nowhere. I think I blinked and missed what happened there.
Oh hey, the Minyans. I wondered where they were.
Aw, Herrick sacrifices himself to give the others time to escape.
These faceless goons really do seem to enjoy their work.
This should be a serious conversation but all I can do is think is "CSO, CSO, CSO!" to a jaunty tune. On a loop. Throughout the entire conversation.
Based on a plan from Ulysses, Doctor? You mean Odyseus, surely. You remember Odyseus. He was a pirate that forced you to help him invade Troy. Remember that? No?
Herrick survived the earlier encounter, and is tortured by the Seers. They find out about the quest (which remains a quest) and in turn he discovers that they are robots.
Hold on back up a moment. You didn't want to take credit for this plan, Doctor, because "Ulysses" came up with it. Okay. Ride in a mine cart to enter the enemy base. Sounds like a variation on the Trojan Horse strategy. Which The Doctor came up with in The Myth Makers.
The Seers grow a brain cell and realise that these Minyans are causing a huge lot of trouble so they might as well just give them what they want so they can just go away. After all, now that they know what the Minyans are there for, and it doesn't seem like something that'll interfere in giving their slaves a good kicking... Why not give them it? Herrick's comment that they've been searching for millenia is pretty likely to put a little bit of fear into them as well. I mean, when he says "there's no stopping us" you get the feeling he means it. They looked for this long! They'll not stop now! They will never, ever stop until they get what they want.
You know, I do appreciate this performance from Herrick here. He's finally reached the end of the quest, and is finally feeling the full weight of millenia of seeking. Mental and physical exhaustion is overwhelming him, and the torture couldn't exactly be all that helpful either.
Meanwhile, The Doctor sneaks in to talk with the Oracle. No, it is not a database. It's a maniacal computer, mad with power, you know the type.
Turns out that the Mynyans didn't get their thing after all.
K9 is too loyal to be ordered to leave without The Doctor and Leela. For the best, since they've unknowingly taken a bomb aboard.
The silly thing is, if K9 had been paying attention and doing his passive scan thing, then he would've spotted the bomb earlier. Before The Doctor told him to scan it. This is kind of silly because the serial's opening scene had K9 detecting the Minyan's ship without being told to do any scans. I'd think he might've mentioned the bomb, you know?
"It's no good, we're lost! All this CSO... I can't keep my bearings straight!"
See, this is especially mean of The Doctor. Borders on something the Seventh might do. Double bluff to make the Seers take the bomb, which winds up destroying the very people that set it in the first place.
Weird the Seers don't notice the mass evacuation of all their slaves.
Jackson's worries are a little justified, if heartless. I mean, they're attempting to escape a nebula on low fuel, meaning extra weight is gonna make it all that much harder. Extra weight such as the entire slave population of that planet might well slow them down a hell of a lot.
Aw, I'd almost feel sorry for the malevolant AI if it was in a better story.
Riding out the destruction of the planet to escape... Okay, fine. At this point, I'm just going to roll with it as well.
This last part makes me shake my head. The Doctor really does reach for the Jason analogy with desperation, and I just... I'm sorry, but this isn't remotely close to the story of Jason. Don't get me wrong, it's kind of hard to do a proper retelling of that kind of Greek myth, but... They missed out on so much of it.

I can't believe I'm about to type this, but this might have been a story that would've worked better with more episodes. The first episode would have been a perfectly fine episode... if it was the first of a six parter. I'm very surprised to come to this conclusion for a story I hated, but it just felt like they glossed over way too much.

The first episode was a servicable introduction to the Minyans. Perhaps it could have given them all more personality, but it did more or less what I would expect of it. Then there was the second episode, which introduced the actual setting this was supposed to be set in... and gave us way too much at once. If it had focused more on the slaves a bit better, showed us a little more of the culture, how they were being controlled then the entire experience would have been that much more dramatic and powerful. Instead the rest of the story managed to be confusing or boring. Sometimes even both at once.

Best Moment: A hundred thousand years of searching, General. There's no stopping us now.
Can you even imagine a hundred thousand years of searching? The human brain has not evolved to cope with that kind of time scale. These people have driven themselves on a true odyssey across the entire universe, searching desperately for their goal. Never stopping, resting only when they had to, and when they were too old to work anymore they underwent the painful process of cellular regeneration to youthen themselves. Their minds and bodies were pushed to the very limit, and the other hardships they must surely have suffered along the way we can only speculate at or have nightmares of.

And these robots think that they can stand in the way of these people? Hardly.

Adventure Awards
"Hablas Ingles?"
The Minyans all speak the same language, whether they were from the ship or the planet. Pretty impressive, especially given that a hundred thousand years of seperation would surely result in some rather major alterations to language.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."
A gun which shoots good vibrations at people.

"Pointlessly Advanced Technology"
See above.

"Deadly Wonders of Nature"
The Doctor marvels briefly at the forming galaxy looking to crush the Tardis.

The Sun Makers

2011-10-17T03:30:00.002+01:00

The Sun Makers

Robert Holmes was engaged in a long disagreement with the (as it was known then) Inland Revenue regarding taxes applied to his work as a freelance writer. To everybody that has seen this serial, learning this particular fact will no doubt make them nod their head in understanding because The Sun Makers was peppered with satire and barbed jabs towards that particular institution. On a personal note, my father has spent his entire career as a civil servant, particularly in an area now called Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and formally known as the Inland Revenue. I'll be talking to him about this story later on, as he may have a few opinions worth sharing.

The original inspiration for the storywas not the difficulties Holmes faced but rather a non-fiction book called The Iron Sun: Crossing The Universe Through Black Holes by Adrian Berry, which postulated the idea of man-made suns. Holmes took to the idea, and suggested a colony transported to an alien world where artificial sun(s) provided all the heat and energy they would need.

In the meantime, killing off Leela was considered rather briefly during production of this adventure. The consideration was passed over, though it did make the powers that be rather aware that they may need a new companion for the following year.

Humanity has been moved to the planet Pluto by a mysterious Company. Humanity is transformed into a race of wage slaves, though not in the manner the term is applied today. The Doctor must mount a revolution, but the real challenge is surviving being hit in the face with the story's message. I am honestly fearful for my life, 'cause it's gonna hit hard and often.

We begin with a scene that does a decent enough job of hammering in the anti-tax message of the story right from the word go. Some guy's father dies, then the guy finds out that he owes more in death tax than he was expecting, forcing him to work even more overtime to pay it off.
The automatic "Praise the Company" response tells us partly why the people have never yet mounted a succesful revolt. They've been brainwashed into accepting the boot on their neck, believing that the Company slowly crushing the life and spirit out of them is actually a benefactor. The other reason is simply that The Doctor hasn't shown up yet.
Oh, sure he'll be happy that he's kept warm and fed but come on guys. He needs sleep too!I just don't get this. Does the Company think that people that are sleep deprived are better workers? It's to their benefit if their workforce is physically and mentally healthy because it means they can do their jobs properly. Which is surely what they want, right?
Meanwhile in the Tardis, The Doctor is going up against K-9 and Leela in chess. Sort of. Leela moves the pieces, K-9 tells her where to put them. The robot dog is winning. I do admit to liking that recurring element. The Doctor underestimates the robot dog, robot dog shows him up.
Ah, Pluto. No longer classified as a planet, but by the time this serial is set they must have changed the classification again. Really, anyone that sees that as a plot hole isn't applying their reasoning skills.
This scene caused some minor trouble for filming, because they had to find a rooftop that would give a deserted enough skyline. They couldn't find one in London, meaning they had to look elsewhere... Though they weren't entirely happy with taking such measures for just a few scenes. Luckily, the problem resolved itself when they realised that the corridors could be used as well
It's that guy from the first scene. You know what they say about the only things being inevitable in life being death and taxes. Well, turns out that given the choice this guy would prefer the former.
CORDO: Then there's the medical tax on Q-capsules, and work tax on extra hours, so I could never clear the debt. You see, the Company charges fifty percent compound interest on unpaid taxes. I'm only a grade D work unit, three talmars a shift. Three talmars. That's not enough.
LEELA: What is he saying, Doctor? I do not understand.
DOCTOR: He can't make ends meet. Probably too many economists in the government.
Terribly sorry about that, I didn't mean to expose all of you to the completely blatant message in quite so unfiltered a manner. Must've hit like a wrecking ball. Cordo's dialogue is revealing, though. I mean, anyone that doesn't look at that economic system and think "that's more broken than Cheetahmen" has to be brainwashed or brain damaged. Believe it or not there is a good reason the people haven't revolted yet.
Oh yes, it's all flooding back to me now. The Gatherer falsely believes that there is a conspiracy to overthrow the Company. Which is just silly, I mean The Doctor only just this moment arrived.
Running through corridors, and it is truly convenient that the guy's father just so happened to mention how to get to the Undercity before he died.
It turns out that most people on Pluto are scared of the dark, and not just because there might be Vashta Nerada in there. Which by itself is a pretty good reason... But no, it's because from cradle to grave they live in perpetual day. Multiple suns keep things bright.
Michael Keating, ladies and gentlemen. Before Blake's 7. He's playing a short tempered jerk that happens to be in charge of the Others.
The Others are - to be blunt - thieves. Marvellous, isn't it? The choice is apparently to either toe the line and be kept in perpetual debt by the Company, or become a selfish, murderous thief that lives in the dark. Neither option looks particularly tempting.
K9 has left the Tardis, and is tracking The Doctor. However, K9 is in turn being tracked by the Gatherer's security system.
Hrm. There's something off here, and I just realised what it is. This story is focusing too much on the satire, and it's far too blatant for me to enjoy it. The barbs are too sharp, I'm not laughing at this.
And just what the hell is an Ajack? I don't remember if this is explained or not. Apparently The Doctor looks just like one.
Well done K9, you led the villains right to The Doctor. On the plus side, paying attention to the dialogue reveals that Ajacks are apparently miners. Wait a minute, you're saying that miners go into their mines looking like The Fourth Doctor? Can you even begin to imagine mining while wearing a scarf that long? Or that rather warm looking coat? Someone did not think that through, at all.
Ah Leela, you're so much more vicious in this story than even your usual self. Still, at least this story isn't making a plot point out of her being "stupid".
Here's our main villain of the tale, the Collector. He's a rather petty little snot. Very unpleasant. But not very interesting, really.
Lesson 1: Attacking Leela is a bad idea for any normal, untrained human to attempt.
DOCTOR: Going for a little hop. Good for the circulation. What did they get you for?
BISHAM: Curiosity.
DOCTOR: That's a crime here?
"In which case, I may well be public enemy number one."
Confirmation on the chemical in the air supply. It induces anxiety. I'm not sure how to feel about that one. On the one hand, it may keep the people too afraid to do anything. On the other, it may well cause them to get angry to the point where they rise up and fight back.
Leela calls out the Others on their cowardliness, and to a point I agree. In order to cause any change at all, they need to be more disruptive to the Company. Trouble is, they'll be breathing in that anxiety inducing gas, which is keeping them too afraid to act. Suddenly the big man in charge doesn't seem so big.
The Doctor is released by the guards, and taken to meet the Gatherer. Seems like the Gatherer thinks that The Doctor is the only lead they have in routing the conspiracy, and plans to try and keep him from realising that he's onto them so that the other conspirators don't go to ground. Hrm. An earlier scene indicated that Gatherers are given pills that make them immune to the anxiety gas. Are you sure the Gatherer has been taking his? He seems rather... paranoid.
Huh. Wonder how many bags of jelly babies he has in those pockets. He left one behind for that other guy, offered some more to the Gatherer just now.
You know, I have to wonder if the Others are jealous of the Company being the antagonists of this story, and are making every attempt to be just as unlikable.
Things turn around a little when The Doctor helps them formulate a plan to overthrow the Company, and he's even canny enough to realise that the security were watching his every move via hidden cameras in the walls which are claimed to be something else entirely. Which is why he went right back to the hidden base of the people most likely to overthrow them... Uh, actually that does make sense in spite of me making fun because where else would he go? He must've noticed earlier, and realised that the only place without them would be where the Others were hiding.
Leela has been captured by the Company! And a little gentle questioning gives the Collector The Doctor's name, and hey what do you know they're aware of the Time Lords. Can't help but wonder if they have classifications for planets like Skaro. Class three is probably "avoid like it was a plague carrying psychopath."
Now then, this part is interesting when you realise that it's all supposed to be a dig at the Inland Revenue and taxation in general. After all, the general public doesn't tend to know exactly where the taxes they're paying go. Wouldn't it be an interesting society if people paid more attention to that? But yeah, the main difference between the Company and the Inland Revenue is that in real life taxes do generally go into things for the public good. At least, that's the idea. With the Company, that profit just goes up the chain and disappears into nothing. In other words, the scene simultaneously manages to be an interesting metaphor and utterly demolishes the idea that the two organisations are analogous.
Wow, the Gatherer is very obviously attempting to curry favour with the Collector by using words that make it seem like he's very big. That's a bad strategy to take, I think. The toad's probably quite aware of how small he is, and you're merely drawing attention to the fact. If it were me, I'd be insulted.
Okay, the little cry he gave when he learned that the prize for The Doctor's capture would come from his purse did get a chuckle. Oh. Oh my god. That... that may be the best moment.
The steamer is a nasty way to execute someone. No doubt it's cost effective, too. It sounds like something that happens as a by-product of water regulation, so it probably is.
I think this was where Leela was originally intended to die, but it was felt that having The Doctor stop mid-story to greive over her death was rather out of character for this Doctor. The next Doctor on the other hand...
With Leela safe, it's time to mount the rebellion. Stage one seems to be going well. The air is being cleared and they've got people raising gripes against the Company.
Wait a minute, this is the last episode? But... it feels like nothing's happened at all! Where's the time gone?
Revolution! The workers unite against the Company, easily overpowering the guards through sheer weight of numbers, though we only really see one instance of this because did you really expect the BBC to afford lots of extras to show that off? Hah!
Time for the villain to speak with The Doctor face to face, backstory backstory backstory, accidentally wake up the hypnotised guard...
The Collector starts to panic when it reads out data from a computer. As we find out later on, The Doctor did a clever thing that made their economy crash, and the Collector couldn't handle the shock which causes him to revert to his natural state. Revolution succesful within about two episodes. Must be some kind of record, surely.

I don't care for this one all that much. It might have been a decent story, maybe... but with so many pointed barbs aimed at the Inland Revenue it distracts me from whatever good the story could have had in it.

There isn't much I want to say about the story. There isn't quite enough characterisation to make them interesting. The jokes are mostly not all that funny. There isn't much real tension in the supposedly dangerous events, and the whole thing feels a little bit flat.

This one can be given a miss.

Best Moment: The money to be paid from your private purse.
It's a sad statement, but the moment I enjoyed the most in this story was the part where the Gatherer finds out he's paying for the bounty on The Doctor's head. The actor sold it remarkably well, showing a man trying desperately to reign in his complaint on this mistreatment.

Nothing else really stood out to me.

Adventure Awards

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."
There was something in the air supply. It was a major plot point, since that had to be taken out before the revolution could start.

Image Of The Fendahl

2011-10-09T23:17:00.003+01:00

Image Of The Fendahl

The gothic tradition of Doctor Who comes to a close with this serial, the last made with Robert Holmes as script editor. Chris Boucher had been brought back following his success the previous year with two consecutive stories which had tremendously impressed Holmes to the point that Boucher was recommended to become script editor for Blake's 7, a role that Holmes had declined because of a desire to return to full time writing. Boucher would find this job consuming much of his time during the production of the script for this serial.

Amusingly, a legend persists regarding this serial. For years after the broadcast of this season, the fandom was led to believe that a story called The Island of Fandor had been dropped from the schedule at the last minute, when in actuality Gordon Blows (editor of the leading fan publication at the time, TARDIS) had misheard Image of the Fendahl during a telephone conversation.

Robert Holmes would maintain close ties with the show as he would contribute two serials for season sixteen and several in the mid-eighties. That said, this would be the last story to feature him as the script editor.

A skull is found, more ancient than man. But it is more extraordinary than even this implies, for this is the skull of the ultimate predator: The Fendahl! A creature so terrifying in its power that even the Time Lords themselves were compelled to destroy it. The skull is still alive, and it is growing with power. Can The Doctor and Leela stop it before it spreads a message of death and destruction first through the Earth and then the universe itself?

"Don't just sit there Eustace, say something!" "Go on, sing a showtune and dance around like you do whenever nobody else is watching!"
Slick way of getting the exposition out without doing the whole "as you know" bit.
Sneaking around at night, sneaking around at night, whistling nonchalantly, not being followed by anything honest.
Close up on the skull, and all I'm thinking is "Hi folks! I'm your antagonist this evening. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the show!"
Repeat everything I saw before you do it. Repeating everything you say before I do it... now!
"Hi folks, me again! Are you creeped out by this overlay effect? Boo! Haha, hope you're enjoying the show!"
Oh snap, you did not just compare the Tardis to the robot dog! Don't insult the missus like that, Leela! Also, introducing special guest, Leela's cleavage. Turns out I was wrong, and this was the serial they introduced the fanservice outfit in. Also, they have her hair up which manages to wreck the notion of her being a savage rather thoroughly. Blame the person that cut her hair too short.
Another insult at the Tardis! Why don't you just tear out his heart and stomp all over it! That's the love of his life you're making fun of!
Oh, sure, one minute you're insulting her and now you're begging for forgiveness when everything's gone all wrong. And another jab at Leela's intelligence... Honestly, let's not start that again.
He's right you know. We're really quite brilliant at that whole self destruction thing.
A body is found, and one of the scientists very much wants to keep it hushed up. Which, wow, that's incredibly unethical.
Gotta love Leela defending herself with a knife... from a herd of cows.
The corpse is decomposing already, even though outward signs indicate it died just recently... The mystery deepens!
"You've both escaped from somewhere." "Several times."
Nothing like getting information from the racist local, with such gems as "They say he made his money in electronics, but that hardly seems likely 'cause he ain't Japanese."
A new security force is instituted at the site, and they attempt to prohibit the chef from entering since she has no clearance. Unfortunately for them, this woman is as tough as old boots. And slightly unhinged.
Oh, now that is how you do an evil eye. Wow. I believe that no dog would attack her with a look like that.
It seems as though the security team is to keep people from leaving or entering without permission. Meaning that the scientists are effectively prisoners here.
Leela's solution to dealing with the guard? Kill! Yeah, no, not happening.
Wait, so he's invented a space time visualiser? Huh! That... that could make him the most powerful person on Earth if it works right.
Lots of foreshadowing. Heaps of it. We are drowning in foreshadowing.
Hey, here's a good idea! Mess around with the equipment that belongs to the unbalanced guy that ordered that no police be contacted regarding the corpse, then ordered an autopsy on it to find out what killed him!
Turns out that's a bad idea for unrelated reasons. Like say, being possessed by a skull.
It seems as though The Doctor is having trouble moving his legs, and has to concentrate rather intently to get moving. Rather indicative of how powerful the enemy is.
Ah, Leela. You truly must learn that violence is not the answer. You'll get there eventually, I'm sure. Not today, but eventually.
She's in a trance, she's in a trance, she's in a trance trance trance.
Man, but that security guy is so dead. So dead!
Mitchell. The security guard's name is Mitchell. Was Mitchell. My, my, my, my Mitchell.
Another birthmark on the back of the neck, and the female scientist is rather oddly dispassionate. I wonder if this is anything to do with having her mind invaded by a malevolant alien force?
She faints just before The Doctor enters the room, and then starts glowing and slugs appear all over her body. That's, that's pretty gross.
Unfortunately, the person in charge is rather hostile to The Doctor's advice and has him locked up. Because hey, that's just how the show rolls if you're not used to it by now I don't know what to say.
It doesn't happen often, but it's always fun to see a companion attempt to repeat some technobabble stated by The Doctor.
Leela saying that The Doctor is full of gentleness + immediate cut to him kicking a box = Juxtaposition!
Door opened by itself!
Yes, you really should have gone to the police straight away. Oh, what's that? It seemed so unimportant? A dead body seemed unimportant?
And now you're trapped in a place surrounded by security guards that won't let you leave, the phone is cut off and there are two dead bodies. You're so screwed.
I really like the way the camera panned down to bring the skull into the shot as they left. Very nice touch.
He does make a good point, for a nutjob. Accusing him flat out of being a madman is hardly conducive to his survival, given all the security everywhere. that works for him. And the gun he's cradling in his palm.
So he believes that humans are actually aliens because of the skull. Well, it's one possibility, I'll grant him that much... but there are others that can be explored as well.
Oh, now Doctor! Don't you know how rude it is to eavesdrop?
One question: Why bother x-raying the skull at all? I mean, x-rays show up bone tissue, and it's already a skull. They must have been really desperate to find out information about this mystery artefact.
Turns out the old woman is psychic, and is rather shocked by the sudden image of a monster wanting to suck out her soul. I imagine that would be rather traumatic for any psychic religious person.
A pentagram on the skull! Now you've got me all curious about the history of the pentagram.
Man, that's actually pretty interesting stuff on the wiki page. Did you know that the Pythagoreans saw mathematical perfection in the pentagram? Also, it attained mystic status due to guys like Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and others from his time. Long story short, it has a big and complicated and fascinating history which in no way impacts this story aside from "pentagram is a mystical symbol."
Judo chop! And Leela's inside the facility.
Good thinking guys, leaving the skull scan up there! Definitely won't screw with anyone's head.
Man, this guy screams evil. Screams it from the very top of his head to the bottom of his feet. I mean, come on, if you use the words "meddling fools" like this unironically, then your immediate reaction should be something like "oh my god, I'm a supervillain."
"Hey guys, don't mind me. I'm just going to telekinetically force The Doctor into putting his hand on me then drain away some of his life essence. Mm, mm, that's good Time Lord!"
Both of the cliffhangers thus far have involved The Doctor being telekinetically controlled by the Fendahl.
An explanation for what the Fendahl actually is, or at least the beginnings of it. The story has been dropping hints here and there, but this is really the first useful information outside of backstory.
Declaration that you shall be a god, that a particular thing or person shall be the key to unlocking ultimate power, watching said thing or person from afar for quite some time? How is he not aware he is a supervillain?
Max makes his move, holding the other two at gunpoint and making more obvious villain quotes. My goodness, how did nobody figure this out? He'd be at a restaurant and call over the waiter "Minion! My soup is cold! Have it taken back, and then bring it to me heated up while contained with the skull of the chef!" and people around him would react like "That's so Max" and laugh it off.
Huh. So that ain't the way to make the fruitcake. I suppose using something normal to shock someone back out of psychic shock is a sensible enough way to go about it.
"Jack I need you to do something for me." "If I can." "It could be dangerous." "... Oh."
My goodness, taunting the obviously insane just seems to be your hobby, doesn't it?
If every atom of every cell in his body had the word "supervillain" printed on it, then it would be but a single percentage of how much evil Max exudes with a single breath.
Meanwhile, in the Tardis! More exposition about what the Fendahl actually is. It evolved on a planet, and was so terrifying in power that the Time Lords looked at it and went "no. Bad. Not happening." and sealed the planet in a time loop... and this skull still escaped. Think about that for a moment. The Time Lords did their damndest to prevent it from getting into the universe, and a skull still managed to slip on through.
There's the cult members, including the racist guy.
Often sleep on the floor Leela? Also, stop being so knifey all of a sudden. Though given the nightmare, I can understand it.
Ah, that's a good logical phalacy. If the majority of people believe it, then it must surely be true! Nope, facts don't work that way.
You know this is serious when The Doctor says, verbatim "I was too frightened to think clearly."
Okay, so you suddenly know about the Fendahl because? I mean, it's nice to draw attention to your name being "Fendelman" and that having significance, but how the hell did you even know about the Fendahl? Near as I can tell it's not been brought up in your presence.
And then he got shot in the head offscreen. Very nicely done, implying it without showing it.
Something surreal about seeing a guy in a lab coat being the leader of a cult.
Another cliffhanger on telekinetic control, and my goodness a lot happened in the penultimate episode.
Man, how can something be so fake looking and gross at the same time?
And here it is, the Fendahl itself. A golden entity with, erm, anime eyes. It has the ability to transform humans into the sluglike things. Nasty pieces of work.
The Fendahl gives a little smirk as it transforms people, which is a rather nice touch I have to say.
... And the Fendahl appears to be doing interpretive dance in the background.
Huh. Wow. The supervillain decides he'd rather die than be transformed, and begs The Doctor for the gun. Given that there's nothing he can do to help him, The Doctor actually obliges him. Remarkable, isn't it?
Can you go five minutes without insulting people? Please? Oh! Thank you for some good sense Leela!
And, of course, it turns out that the charms are actually vital to defeating the Fendahl. Rock salt as a vulnerability! Not as bad a weakness as water, at least.
I like that this story doesn't give us a definite answer on a few things, and leaves us with a few possibilities for what happened. Very nice.
Huh. Imagine trying to aim a gun at something which will paralyse you if you look at it. Can't be an easy thing, that.
I like that the scientist just accepts the Time Lords as existing, given all the weird stuff he's been seeing lately.
The Doctor's plan is a risky one, but it's the best chance they have by quite a ways. He'll have the scanner switched on to distract the Fendahl, surround it with salt, steal the skull and then run like hell.
Huh. You know, I much prefer Leela in her old dress to the new one. And the older hairstyle suits her better as well. Anyway, time for K-9 to appear in the last scene, and rather uncharacteristically answers a question with a squeeky nod rather than a "Yes Master!"

Image of the Fendahl was better than I was expecting. It may not have moved at lightning speed, but it was certainly pretty quick. It was a rather fine gothic story with interesting characters and a pretty good ongoing mystery.

Looking at what's still to come this season, I'll probably wind up ranking this the second best adventure of this season. This is not particularly stiff competition. It is not a story that will drag you down and will pass by in the blink of an eye. I do recommend it.

Best Moment: It's not for the Fendahl. It's for me.
I cannot stress how over the top supervillainy Max was. It did get rather funny quite often. It felt like I ought to have been playing supervillain bingo with all of his lines.

Still, the moment where he asks The Doctor for the gun to kill himself was a rather poignant moment. The Doctor knows he can't save this man, so he offers him the chance to die with some dignity.

Adventure Awards
"Nothing Like the Present"
Apparently set in the present day, possibly the near future. I don't think it's outright stated.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."
The Fendahl's main method of attack appears to be telekinetic in nature, and it certainly has some form of mind control.

"Deadly Wonders of Nature"

The Doctor refers to a dead Fendahline as beautiful at one point.

The Invisible Enemy

2011-10-03T00:34:00.001+01:00

The Invisible Enemy

With Graham Williams taking over from Philip Hinchcliffe came a directive from Bill Slater, the Head of Serials. Bill wanted the violence and horror de-emphasised, given criticism and controversy over the past several years. The aim was a more family oriented direction, which meant that humour would be featured more than under the previous production regime.

Williams came up with the idea for the Key to Time around this point, but it was far too late to implement it during this season. That discovery necessitated more traditional Doctor Who stories being found, including this one from Bob Baker and Dave Martin. They had been inspired by an article on virus mutations, and they thus suggested an intelligent and adaptive virus as the antagonist for their story.

Ah, but I could not go without mentioning one key element that was introduced in this serial. A talking robot dog, originally called FIDO which stood for “Phenomenological Indication Data Observation unit”. The Bristol Boys had a tendency towards phonetics, don't look at me for answers on this one. It was then re-christened as K-9. Even though both Williams and Robert Holmes liked K-9, neither was completely certain they wished to retain it beyond this serial. Thus, they delayed the decision and had the script structured in such a manner that K-9 could either stay or leave the show.

While answering a distress call, The Doctor is infected by a terrible alien parasite that is slowly taking over his mind. It's down to Leela to take him to a medical facility to cure him, but before long there's an outbreak. With even The Doctor succumbing, how can this deadly and invisible menace possibly be contained?

We begin with a screensaver, and a shot that makes me imagine some kid has set up a toy spaceship on strings and is doing the Star Trek intro. Even the astronauts are sleepy, it seems.
Nothing of interest really happens for a couple of minutes, as the astronauts go about doing their thing, bickering a little... But then, suddenly! The ship passes through a thing!
Contact has been made? So, there are a couple of Time Lords around being psychic at eacfh other?
Oh good, Leela's wearing her fanservice outfit while The Doctor complains at the Tardis for giving him a white room rather than showing some imagination.
Heh. I do like the disease metaphor. Good foreshadowing.
The astronauts arrive at base, go in with their suits on, and gun down the people they were there to relieve. Helmet removed, and OH GOD THEY'RE BECOMING TALAXIANS! A fate worse than death!
There is something deeply unsettling about a group entirely composed of men talking about making a place an ideal location to breed.
They missed one! And then they tell the man what they intend to do. Clever. Clever. Clever.
The Doctor responds to the distress call, and Leela starts panicking when she senses something is wrong... and even picks out that another message telling to disregard the distress call was not in fact human.
Static thing hits the Tardis! The Doctor isn't worried about it, but it's obviously important since they, you know, showed it to us.
Ah, there it is. Contact is made with The Doctor, and he collapses.
The virus tries to attack Leela, but is unsuccesful. If I remember the reason correctly, it's a stupid one.
The Doctor wakes up, and tries to leave the Tardis... only for Leela to close the doors because she can sense something is wrong out there.
Oh Doctor, you should know by now that they always wander off. Always.
Hey guys, stop talking about breeding it's so very creepy.
And The Doctor is one of them now.
Poor guy that wasn't infected was locked into a freezer and left there. He's still alive, thanks to Leela but he's more than a little chilly.
Couldn't tell the difference in The Doctor's voice, eh Leela? Shame that.
And then the one guy that wasn't killed or infected goes and gets himself infected when he tries talking to an infected guy Leela knifed in the back. Nice going.
While the episode felt very vacant, the cliffhanger was pretty good. The Doctor aiming a gun at Leela's back? Effective.
To fight the infection, The Doctor withdraws into himself to fight it off.
The newly infected man uses the most ridiculous glasses I've ever seen to hide the... The... Hold on. Invisible Enemy? But the effect the infection has on people is perfectly visible!
They've done the sensible thing, actually, and taken The Doctor to a hospital. Amusing little interchange between Leela and the receptionist, and we can get into the real meat of this story.
And there's K-9 for the first time. Giving his creator information that is correct, but also not quite as complete as it should be. Fortunately, it corrects this mistake shortly after that.
I've said it before, but there are few that do banter quite like The Fourth Doctor.
Yes, this is the explanation given for Leela's immunity. She's an instinctual creature, thus the intelligence affecting virus had no effect on her. I find this sort of insulting to the character, actually. She's demonstrated some pretty good intelligence in previous stories up until this point.
You know what might have been more sensible, there? To alert security using the internal communication system. Rather than walking off with a guard to find the man that "might be a carrier".
One thing I like about K-9 is that he's occasionally quite smug while being completely justifiable about it.
See, the thing is, this is actually not a bad enemy idea. It seems just about unstoppable.
Leela is scanned, and no physical immunity is found within her. Because this is an enemy that feeds on intelligence, and ugh.
That was clever. The infected caused a crash into the hospital and used it to simultaneously cause a distraction and cut The Doctor off from everybody else.
Suddenly a firefight breaks out! Leela's pretty clever, isn't she, for outsmarting those infected like that.
The Doctor has a plan. Create clones of himself and Leela, then shrink them, then send them into his bloodstream to confront the virus. This is a silly, silly plan, and... And a shrunken copy of Leela entering the body of the main character to deal with something living in his head? This is an episode of Futurama, for crying out loud!
The real Doctor is getting really bad. Silver whiskers all over his face! Any minute now, he'll be annoying sfdebris and doing stupid, stupid things.
How does he intend to shrink? Easy. The Tardis has a thing that lets him pull it off. Remember Planet of Giants? I also agree with his reasons for taking Leela. She's immune and she's a trained hunter.
You know, I do like the shrinkage effect. It works quite well.
Unfortunately, not much else here is. It's not even interesting enough to comment on. I'm just not feeling anything. No tension, no suspense, maybe a few chuckles here and there... but that's really it.
So now Leela is doing two things at once. Her clone is inside The Doctor's head, while her real self is fighting off the infected with K-9.
Um, okay wow. K-9's laser looked stupid.
The Doctor spends a lot of time gushing about how brilliant his brain is, which shouldn't really surpirse anyone that's paid attention to his character.
Giant fuzzballs attack Leela. Apparently they're The Doctor's antibodies. All I'm thinking of is the thing from The Prisoner.
K-9 winds up infected by an infected that it shoots, which makes things rather turn against Leela's favour.
This whole thing where Leela's clone self is made of the same stuff as her other self makes them share pain is almost as bad as The Matrix's "you die in The Matrix you die in real life". No, wait. Actually it's worse.
The infected have managed to get at The Doctor, and infect the expert. Now they're the ones racing against time, to stop the microbes.
One of the medical staff managed to slip out, and warn Leela and K-9 about what's happened.
Meanwhile, an infected gets the whole clone shrink inject procedure done, and pursues The Doctor and Leela. Through terrain that looks about as artificial as anything I've ever seen.
At last, we encounter the nucleus. It looks stupid. The conversation, now that's actually pretty interesting. Probably the best moment. Not much else to pick from.
Ah, now you've got his attention. Time, you say? All of space was one thing, but time as well? Oh dearie me.
Wait a minute. The cloned Doctor wasn't infected, so how did the cloned infected guy manage to... Well, I suppose he was cloned by someone that knew what he was doing. Maybe that's what it was.
The nucleus was taken out of The Doctor's body at the same time as the clones were taken out, and is then made to grow... This is what the invisible enemy looks like. Suddenly the title doesn't seem all that smart, does it? I've seen more intimidating and believable Muppets.
Time for the villain to gloat about the success of his evil plan. Make use of the plan developed by The Doctor to grow to macro size, then profit!
Y'know, the smart thing to do would probably be to reinfect The Doctor rather than talk to him. Or kill him if you can't.
How intimidating is the nucleus now? It needs to be assisted to walk down a corridor. Tremble in awe!
A disguised Leela rescues The Doctor, and they flee to the Tardis... Well, brilliant. Making use of that dimensional thingy has rendered the Tardis inoperable until they get it back.
It's amazing. I watch The Doctor give K-9 instructions, and I feel like he's been doing it for years. It's really just the first time.
Yes, you probably should have given that instruction quicker, before K-9 shot you.
So, The Doctor's body absorbed Leela's cloned body to create an antibody. That's, that's kind of gross. Also, I like the idea that it's not to do with her "instinctive" nature like the story appeared to be going with.
The nucleus is kind of impatient, it seems. Use all the fuel, go as fast as possible? With victory in sight, I'd only take that sort of risk if it was the only way to ensure success.
So, the nucleus is Mister Toad? Faster indeed!
Hm. Leela would make a good player character in a p&p. Take it on with as much violence as possible!
LEELA: K9's breaking up, my blaster's finished. What are we going to do?
DOCTOR: Shall we try using our intelligence?
LEELA: Well, if you think that's a good idea.
Can't help but find that charmingly funny. It's worth spotlighting.
So they reused the antibody effect again, for the virus hatching. Very good.
There have been guards with peripheral vision problems, but I think this is the first time there's been a guard with peripheral hearing problems! Good lord, they must be five feet away, talking about how to deal with him.
And then on top of that, he slightly turns to see K-9 and his peripheral vision fails to catch the other two completely.
The Doctor's antibody plan fails when one of the infected gets a shot off at The Doctor, only for K-9 to use up the last of his reverves to finish that particular infected off.
Nice touch with the leash.
Huh. Stabbed him right in the neck. And here's me thinking they were going for less iolence in this season.
With that scheme failing, The Doctor sets up a trap for the nucleus. When the breeding chamber opens up, it pulls the trigger on a blaster which in turn ignites a bunch of gas he let fill the base. Turns out Leela's plan to blow it all up was the one that was used.
This last scene would have been excised if K-9 would not have come along. The implication would have been that they had dropped the dog offscreen. I think the reason for taking the dog does make a little bit of sense, even if it does feel a bit sudden.
And as could be expected, the serial ends on a joke. Har har, Tardis trained.

I do not like this one. It didn't seem to know what it wanted to be, and wound up being a largely emotionless mess. Which is a shame, because a virus as an antagonist like this was a good idea. The trouble was largely in the execution.

At best this is a failed comedy. There were a few laughs here and there, but it felt like this was attempting to be a serious story. It just doesn't work for me, and I'd rather not sit through it again if I didn't have to.

Best Moment: And on your argument, I have a perfect right to dispose of you.
The Nucleus was about as far from an intimidating enemy as I think the show has ever gotten. It looks stupid, sounds like almost any other randomly selected one shot inhuman villain you could name.

But this initial conversation with The Doctor was a pretty good one. It lay bare the philosophy of the villain, and though the above might be viewed as a barb, the Nucleus accepts that The Doctor has every right to try and dispose of it. Notice the word try, for that is how the Nucleus thought things would go. Oh, but he was wrong on that count.

It was honestly one of the only things I actually enjoyed throughout this rather dull slog.

Adventure Awards

"Time and Relative Defects in Space"
Sort of. The Tardis only malfunctioned because The Doctor removed a vital component.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."
This is how the villain operates. By infecting, then taking control over a person's mind.

"Spectacular Weapons Failure"
The infected develop weapons resistance in the last episode out of nowhere in an effort to make things seem more exciting.

"Send in the clones"
There were quite literally clones of The Doctor and Leela.

The Wedding of River Song: First Impressions

2011-10-01T20:05:00.005+01:00

Quite the finale for a rather blistering season. Spoilers!

Okay, the main motivation of this season seemed to simply be putting The Doctor's reputation back in the box. Now he's not willing to make use of that particular method of solving problems, and will almost certainly travel under various aliases again.

There was a mix of good and bad strewn throughout this story. Didn't particularly care for most of the sappier moments, but when Amy put the eyepatch back on Kovarian that was rather fun. The skulls were also rather creepy.

Honestly, though I like them I wouldn't be too disappointed never to see the Ponds again. That felt like a good way to end their storyline.

Not a perfect episode by any means, and it did leave a few questions hanging. I think nobody is surprised by the question being Doctor Who. That happens to be a question I don't want to know the answer to myself. The question I want to know the answer to is why it matters in universe. I can see this plotline coming to a head during the 50th anniversary. Oh, and a few more details about the Silents might be nice. We will probably get that next year, drip fed information bit by bit.

Kind of a necessary one to follow the entire season's plot, but not quite as good as it perhaps could have been.

Horror of Fang Rock

2011-09-26T01:59:00.000+01:00

Horror of Fang Rock

Having been retained for this season, Robert Holmes went about contacting his predecessor as script editor - Terrance Dicks - about crafting a story for this season. His last work was Brain of Morbius, which had a little difficulty in bringing towards Holmes' vision, so Dicks went to an earlier rejected idea to see if he could pull something together.

The result? A vampire based story, titled "The Vampire Mutation" which would have led of the fifteenth season. However, the BBC blocked this idea from progressing too far, as they felt it might be viewed as a parody of a forthcoming adaptation of Dracula. This forced The Invisible Enemy back into this position at that time, and on a personal level I'm very grateful that this did not remain true.

Since Holmes wanted Terrance Dicks to write for this season, and Dicks in turn was quite happy to provide a script on short notice, they brainstormed and developed a new story. Small cast of characters in an isolated location, perhaps a lighthouse. The inspiration came from Wilfrid Gibson's 1912 poem Flannan Isle which was based upon true events regarding the mysterious disappearance of a lighthouse crew.

For the first and last time in the televised show, the Rutan were to make an appearance. The creatures were consistantly mentioned whenever the Sontarans had appeared previously, but scarcely any information about them as a race existed. The suggestion was made by Robert Holmes, who had written The Time Warrior, for which the script editor was Terrance Dicks.

Speaking of the script editor position, it was coming towards time for Holmes to leave the show as per his new plans. He had agreed to stay on for six months longer, but then confirmed that he would indeed be leaving the show once that was up. His initial suggestion for replacement was Dicks, who was unwilling to return to that position. Instead, the job would go to Anthony Read. I'll deal with that more when the change happens. This would, however, be the first story that Graham Williams would be the producer for. He would remain with the show for three years.

A final note of interest was the change of Leela's eye colour. Given that Louise Jameson had found the contacts she'd had to wear the previous season uncomfortable, she had been promised that her eye colour would be changed quickly this season. It happens at the end of this story.

A lighthouse off the south coast of England, manned by three keepers. It is early 20th century, and something terrible has come in from the sea. A monster that kills all it comes in contact with. The Doctor and Leela have their work cut out for them, as the mysterious adversary keeps itself well hidden. Will any of them survive until the morning?

Disclaimer: I'm excited about this one. This is probably the best gothic Doctor Who story ever written, and far and away the best story of this season. Well, that is, if my memory serves me properly.
Location shooting for this one. Oh! Quickly, make a wish!
Hey now, have you seen what the weather's like? If there are any bathing belles on that beach, they're quite frankly out of their minds.
Red and glowing? I dunno, it seemed more purple to me. And don't you worry about having to deal with it, it'll deal with you soon enough.
Brief argument over which was the better system to make use of: Oil lighthouses or electric. I think this is supposed to help us date this serial, though the clothes do help a little with that as well.
As for the dating thing, the speaking trumpet definitely helps as well.
Fog starts rolling in out of nowhere, which baffles the two more experienced keepers. Thick fog, cold too. Here comes the typical "mock the one that is part way to figuring out the truth" routine.
Ah, superstition vs science! Well, not exactly. Superstition vs skepticism would be the better term to use in this instance.
The Doctor really does take his companions to the very best places. Or rather, his Tardis does. Leela's still wearing clothing appropriate to the period. Probably popped ahead a few years, given they were in the late Victorian era previously.
Oh, you're just falling into the fallacy that you only notice a gadget when it isn't working. Stop it.
Eerie green glow and menacing insectoid noise!
There's Leela's instinctive ability to sense danger again. Never really explained, but it probably doesn't need to be. Works okay as a character gimmick.
You know, given what this thing looks like, I'd probably have screamed as soon as I saw it rather than gawping for ten seconds or so.
Small point, but I like that Leela pronounces technician as tesh-nician.
Unlike many situations, The Doctor is able to show up and not be suspected of anything, because it actually does make very good sense that he'd randomly show up like this. It's not like he's somehow appeared in the cargo hold of a spaceship, or in an otherwise secure area or something like that.
While The Doctor steps out to look for the missing keeper, Leela sees no trouble at all with taking off her wet clothes while there's a man in the room. Feel rather glad that he at least shows enough good sense to scarper and find her something dry to put on, even if it's men's clothes.
The lights randomly turning on and off is definitely adding a little extra something to the story. Turns the lighthouse into a much creepier building than it already is. It's one thing to keep note of. There are no corridors to run down, or next to none at least. Spiral stairs and that's about it.
One of the keepers is dead, killed by an electric shock. Though the other keepers suspect the generator, The Doctor thinks otherwise...
Ah, there we go. The older keeper suspects The Doctor and Leela for arriving around about the time that that things started going weird. Funny thing is, one of the 8th Doctor books has an antagonist point out that the laws of probability change when The Doctor is around. A theory that he tests at the end of the book because it rather distresses him. I rather like this theory. A combination of that and the Tardis intentionally taking him where there's trouble feels somehow right.
Good planning Leela! Go out alone to fight something that kills with electricty while armed with a knife. A metal knife at that.
What I like about this serial is that it doesn't properly show us the monster until the very end. At least, not in its true form. Definitely adds to the horror. No jump scares here.
To make things worse, there's a boat heading straight for the rocks in spite of the foghorn. The actual crash itself doesn't look particularly impressive and all I can think is...
The lighthouse inhabitants scramble to search for survivors, though Leela seems pessimistic. Kinda cold about it too.
The electricity keeps coming back on and switching back off, seemingly at random. Very creepy stuff.
Huh. I was mistaken, it seems. Leela sees the Rutan crawling over the rocks below the lighthouse.
There are a few survivors from teh shipwreck. I count three new ~~victims~~ characters.
The old keeper overhears Leela telling The Doctor about the Rutan, and his reaction is that it's surely the beast of Fang Rock. A local legend it seems. I'm sure most remote places have something like that.
The three survivors can be summarised as irratable guy, former army guy and woman. What, she's the only non-Leela female character here.
Tense atmosphere there, which The Doctor breaks a little by pointing out that they haven't introduced themselves.
Irrattible guy desperately wants to get to London, and is excited when The Doctor seems to have an idea... only to be told he has no chance in this fog. Love it. Apparently army guy appreciated that too.
Oh, there was a fourth survivor after all. The ship's bosun. It seems that he found the dead keeper's body out in the fog. It seems as though he got out there somehow.
The dead body was taken for study by the Rutan. Post mortum.
Um, yes I do think he's mad. You want to rest up and then head out again in this weather? That really is madness!
The Doctor isn't telling anyone about his suspicions to avoid a panic, which requires some creative deception. In part it's because he doesn't know what's going on yet.
Irratable guy tries to argue that everybody but himself is at fault for the crash, and that everybody else should do the work necessary to get him to London.
Time for some investigating. The Doctor and Leela head on out onto the rocks, searching for "the beast" while the keepers discuss the legend. Good red herring, I suppose. It'd be a better one if we hadn't seen the thing crashing at the start. Still it's good background atmosphere.
Using a compass to track down the creature giving off electricity. Clever.
You know things are bad when The Doctor doesn't know what's after them.
Army guy and irratable guy have a conversation. It seems as though irratable guy had lots of IOUs from army guy that he tore up in exchange for information that he has to use by tomorrow, in London. Otherwise it's worthless to him. Tut tut, that was rather foolish wasn't it?
The Doctor does some calculations that make him seem rather worried, which adds a tremendous amount to things. When he's nervous, everybody should be.
Subplot of the irratable guy trying to get a telegraph sent. This goes badly for him, when the bosun realises that the man in front of him is responsible for the death of good seamen he's worked alongside.
Well, if nothing else you have their undivided attention Doctor. Even if they're not too likely to believe your story.
What I'm amazed by is how little seems to be happening plotwise, yet it's utterly enthralling. It's the tension in the atmosphere, the fleshed out and interesting characters that drive events, and the sporadic actions of the monster make it all that more terrifying when it does appear.
Leela is something of an expert at bringing an argument to a close. By doing it at knifepoint.
The old keeper has done his part with the ominous warnings, and encounters "the beast" shortly after crossing himself in prayer. You can tell because of the scream just as the lights faded...
Down the stairs our heroes go to investigate the scream. They find the door open, and cautiously head out into the fog to find the missing old keeper...
Irratable guy may be the "unlikable one" but in all honesty he has a good point here. Sticking together is the best way to ensure they all survive. Especially in a situation like this.
The old keeper appears, pale faced and shambling like a zombie. It's like he's seen a ghost, or forgotten how to behave like a human being.
Good point to make there by the secretary. I doubt anyone would want to sleep after being told there was a thing out there looking to kill them, shortly before the lights went out and someone screamed.
Amazing. The Doctor does babble quite a lot but he does still pay attention to his surroundings to quite an impressive degree.
DOCTOR: Reuben. I thought you said you'd seen him.
HARKER: Er, yes, sir, going up stairs, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
DOCTOR: Then why didn't you tell me?
HARKER: I told miss, sir.
DOCTOR: Why am I standing here wasting my time trying to work out its size?
HARKER: I don't know, sir.
DOCTOR: If Reuben's seen it, he can tell us.
LEELA: That is what I thought, but of course I am only a savage.
DOCTOR: Come on, savage. Harker?
I wanted to say that the thing that makes this serial is the character interactions, but that's not true. It's everything. The atmosphere, the pacing, the direction. Everything comes together perfectly.
The old keeper (Reuben) is alone in a locked room, and starts glowing green. Not that The Doctor can see it and is led to the wrong conclusion that the man has gone into shock.
Fifty pound doesn't seem like much now, but back then... That'd be quite a lot. As for a hundred? No wonder he took it.
Rutan climbing up the side of the lighthouse now! Creepy, that.
Leela's got a plan to deal with that wooden door. Sledgehammer, anyone?
Irratable guy decides to hide while The Doctor talks with the lighthouse keeper, but has some rather bad timing as the monster gets him with an electric shock.
The secretary looks for her employer, the now dead irratable guy, but finds herself being ordered back to the crew room by The Doctor.
Yes, this would indeed spook someone. There was only one way out of there that he couldn't see, and it was straight down. All the way to the rocks below.
Uh huh. A hostile alien from another planet out to destroy us, you say? Well, that's certainly more believable than a hostile sea creature out to destroy us.
You're quite right. Astrology killed your employer. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that something from beyond the stars killed him rather than the stars themselves killing him?
Leela's grown quite a bit here, and it's tremendously amusing seeing her mention that she prefers science over superstition to a person that believes in astrology. See, that's the funny thing. I think (and may well be mistaken in this belief, but see that's the difference I'm willing to acknowledge that possibility is very likely and will change opinion based on a little thing called evidence) that people that follow astrology think it really is a science. Rather than a superstition perpetuated by con artists that have mastered the art of bullshittery to the point that they don't get called out on it and still to this day get published in magazines. Oh, sure it's harmless enough you say, but I don't buy that. Because it perpetuates superstitious beliefs within society, which leads to people making very stupid decisions, which can be harmful to them personally if not to society as a whole. I don't even really blame astrology. I just blame the inherently faulty pattern recognition abilities of human beings.
The Doctor learns that the telegraph has been wrecked, and he's rather less than happy about that. You can sort of tell that he's growing more frustrated with them all.
The monster claims another life down in the generator room, and they all run down to find the bosun dead. The Doctor realises his mistake when he finds the old keeper's body hidden away in the corner of the room. A terrible and critical mistake at that. Rather than locking the creature out, they've locked it in with them.
The death count is racking up now, as the last of the keepers is killed off right away in the last episode. The electrical effect isn't as good as it could be, but it's not entirely terrible either.
Leela's confidence in The Doctor's abilities are telling, but he's more aware of how dangerous this situation is. After all, while the chameleonic factor is elementary for Time Lords, it's still packed with electricity, and they're stuck in a small area.
There are only two non regulars left in the serial. The secretary is useless enough to merit Leela rolling her eyes in disgust.
Eek. The Doctor hides from the monster by hanging precariously from the windows. Not exactly the place to be.
Leela tries to usher the survivors up to the lamp room, but they're delayed by the secretary. Well done! You just got yourself killed.
Leela uses Knife Throw! Rutan uses Green Glow! Knife Throw is ineffective!
Time for The Doctor to have a conversation with the monster, adn we're able to see it for what it really is at last in all its glory. A giant green glowing jellyfish. Not particularly impressive looking, but in all seriousness imagine what it would look like today.
It's interesting, but the Rutan really are the ideal adversary for the Sontarans. The Sontarans are produced by cloning technology, you see, while the Rutan are a sort of... I don't want to say gestalt entity, but it's probably the closest to it. The two races have a fair few things in common. Neither favour individuality, though both send out individual soldiers as scouts. They're both inherently warlike in nature, though their style of technology seem rather different. Rutan seem to prefer biologically inclined technology, while the Sontarans make use of machines. Presumably the Rutan have time travel technology, since they've been fighting the Sontarans for a long time and they definitely have time travel. See The Time Warrior, for instance. I find it hard to believe that a race without time travel would have difficulties waging a war against a species that did not.
The Doctor is an expert in pushing buttons and extracting information from an adversary that could easily kill him.
The Rutan is chased off by a match. But it will be back! Heh. I suppose if the Sontarans have an easily exploitable weakness, so too should the Rutan.
It's funny, I just realised. The season begins with the Rutan and ends with Sontarans.
Leela rather brilliantly suggests using the lighthouse light, modifying it into a laser. Trick is, they'll need some diamonds to pull it off. There are some in the crew room, but the Rutan is down there somewhere...
The Doctor tosses some unneeded diamonds to the floor, which prompts army guy to pick them up... Which stalls him just long enough for the Rutan to crawl around the corner and kill him. Then it dies a minute later when Leela fires a flare at it. That's everyone that The Doctor and Leela met in the story dead.
Oh, how wonderful. The electricity dies before the modifications can be made.
At least the Rutan is deflating! Notice also that it uses plural form to refer to itself.
Man, I wish they'd use these guys today. The special effects for them would be so much more impressive. As is, the Rutan's spaceship looks just like a floating fireball.
Main problem with the setup being used here is that not being in the lighthouse is a very good plan. Very, very good plan. Mad dash for the exit!
Leela looked back, and is momentarily blinded. She thinks it's permanent and would rather die than live as a blind person. Wait, wait. It's the fate of the old or crippled to be killed (though I should note that Leela uses the logically incorrect "and" rather than "or"), but earlier she chastised someone for not listening to the elderly.
And there it is, no more need to wear the contacts. Good news for her, at least.
The Doctor quotes the poem that inspired the serial in the first place, and we close out on a simply tremendous serial.

This is, without question, one of the best Doctor Who straight run of serials that I can think of. From Deadly Assassin to this, all of them have been absolutely brilliant fun. Such a shame the streak ends next week...

The atmosphere was great. I don't think they could have picked much of a better location to film this. The amazing thing about it is, not much seems to happen. Not because there's nothing happening, but because what is going on is so engrossing that time simply slips right by.

This is a must see. Absolutely and unquestionably. In fact, I urge everybody to find the time to sit through this one again whether they have seen it or not. Go! Watch!

Best Moment: The Doctor's Mistake
He is not an infallible character. He is never meant to be. Some writers don't seem to get that. Some writers think that he's damn near clairvoyant. But he isn't. He makes mistakes. Fatal mistakes. Sometimes The Doctor gets people killed, even as he thinks he's doing the right thing.

In this instance, it's a rather sombre moment and rightfully belongs as the final cliffhanger of the serial. The realisation of the true nature of their foe and the sheer depth of the mistake that he's made strikes The Doctor hard. You can see that the guilt weighs down upon him, regarding the death of the bosun. But he does not waste his time with grief or angst. His immediate response is to do all he can to prevent more deaths. This time, he'll be more careful. This time, he's that little bit smarter. This time, he won't make that same mistake.

Adventure Awards:
"Spectacular Weapons Failure"
Leela's knife did precisely nothing to the Rutan.

Closing Time: First Impressions

2011-09-24T20:14:00.000+01:00

I felt this was a rather fun episode, light hearted fun with the return of an old menace. Spoilers!

While I thought the Cybermen were beaten in a rather rushed manner, I got why they did it that way. Though I am sensing a recurring theme of parent's love for their children this year, gotta admit.

I like the Cybermat design, it does feel like a natural evolution of what we've seen of them before. I liked he mouth, but at the same time I kind of wish we could have seen one of them actually kill someone. Perhaps if they appear in another story, we'll see it murder someone then. Even so I expect most new fans will find them interesting creatures and want to see a return as much as I do.

Next week promises to be downright exciting! It may be a single part finale, but it looks like it will be brimming with intrigue, mystery and suspense from start to finish. It's perfect in that I have no idea what to expect and feel insanely jealous of myself from a week from now. Curse you, me a week from now! You lucky so and so!

Season Fourteen Overall Review

2011-09-20T04:06:00.000+01:00

A very fine season, looking at it overall. Most serials here are considered timeless classics of the Tom Baker era, pretty much extending from Sarah Jane's departure onwards. Weird that. Loved the character, didn't care much for most of her stories.

Leela brought a rather fresh dynamic to the role of companion, and her story arc will be continuing through season fifteen.

To look at it from this perspective, this is probably the best Tom Baker season looked at yet.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang

2011-09-18T04:28:00.000+01:00

The Talons of Weng-Chiang

It was inevitable that Doctor Who would delve into the Jack the Ripper legend. The allure of that unsolved mystery seems irresistable to so many writers. So many want to put their own spin on it, and Robert Holmes was no different. His idea was for the killer to be from the future.

That summer would be a difficult one for him. While visiting family in Italy, his wife took ill with a perforated ulcer, forcing an extended stay in Germany. When he returned in August, he found that the writer intended for the Jack the Ripper story had taken a job elsewhere and could no longer work on it, prompting Holmes to do the work himself.

Both Holmes and Hinchcliffe were intending to leave the show at the conclusion of this series, which prompted Hinchcliffe to grant Holmes free reign over the story, with the sole exception being "no Master" as it was felt that this would be far, far too obvious given his reappearance in The Deadly Assassin.

With this free reign, Holmes drew on numerous sources. Perhaps most obviously, Sherlock Holmes. There are numerous references throughout the story. Other sources include The Phantom of the Opera, and Fu Manchu.

One plan set in place for this serial was scuppered by the intended departure of the production team, since it didn't seem fair to them that their replacements would have to deal with whatever character was put in place, essentially saddling them with a character they would know little to nothing about. Thus, instead of the Victorian urchin, Leela would be further retained past this story and would adopt the same basic storyline intended for the urchin. Namely, that The Doctor would make attempts to educate her. Incoming producer, Graham Williams would keep Leela on for the following year, though Tom Baker wasn't entirely happy with the character being kept on as he still wanted to do the show without a companion.

The Doctor and Leela arrive in London, and soon find themselves embroiled in a series of mysterious events that centre around the magician Li H'sen Chang. This man believes that he follows the word of Weng-Chiang, a god. But the truth is more sinister than it first appears.

We begin with a Victorian audience applauding the Celestial Toymaker at the conclusion of a performance. Oh, no wait my mistake. It's Fu Manchu.
Here's Jago! Words may fail him but that'll hardly keep him from shutting up. I doubt anything but death itself could manage that miracle.
I do wonder how appropriate it might be to play a game of "count the Asian cliches and stereotypes". Then again, it may keep us rather more preoccupied than it ought.
You can tell that the accusation of abduction is founded in reality, because of two facts. 1: It's in the first scene. 2: It's not aimed at a character we know.
Jago's alliteration abilities are awesome. Shame this fellow is a dead man walking.
The Doctor decides that just this once, they shan't stand out and will dress accordingly. Then he walks out cosplaying as Sherlock Holmes.
You know, I get the feeling that I'll be saying the words "Jago is awesome" a fair few times here and there. I'll try to refrain myself, but make no promises.
Nothing like a walking puppet with a knife to scare the hell out of a man.
Just because he doesn't practise Venusian Aikido these days, doesn't mean that The Doctor can't defend himself. Shame that he's outnumbered, and even Leela can't overcome the odds. At the very least they capture one of them.
This is kind of an impressive trick, but what's not so impressive is Mr Sin's inability to clean up the rather obvious bloodstain before going out on stage in front of a large audience.
The Doctor and Leela have some trouble at the local police station, which isn't entirely surprising given that Leela is probably a little on edge given the Victorian garb and The Doctor is always rather annoyed by beurocracy.
Yikes, torture? I suppose it does sort of fit that she'd have that sort of backwards perspective.
Unfortunately, this obstructive policeman has a good point. Though The Doctor does speak Chinese dialects fluently it really would not be proper for him to behave as an interpreter since he's involved in the case as a witness.
Argh! Creepy old woman!
And naturally, the interpreter is our magician. He is also involved in the case, but nobody knows about that quite yet. He slips the prisoner a poison, and he kills himself. Man, that's dumb. The minute the translator shows up, the prisoner dies.
Definitely getting a strong Sherlock Holmes vibe from the story now. Very strong indeed.
And the reference to Jack the Ripper "killing again" dates this story after 1888. According to the Doctor Who wiki, it's "circa 1892" though that may well be utilising sources outside of this story to determine.
Interesting way to determine to the audience that Mr Sin is not a "midget" dressed up as a dummy.
Very, very strong Sherlock Holmes vibes coming out now. Particularly from this scene involving Litefoot(yay).
Leela saves The Doctor's life by Janus thorning a would be assassin in the back. Now it's off into the sewers, among the rats and filth. Oh Doctor, you take your companions to all the best places.
Oh wow, Leela continues to be somewhat less than intelligent in this serial, almost admitting to killing that would be assassin just outside the police station.
... Pft! This special effect is brought to you by Thunderbirds villain, The Hood.
Wait a minute, I know this voice! That's... Morbius! Actually, yes it is. That is, voiced by the same guy. Not the same fictional character.
Jago insists that he's a man not inclined to go under hypnosis easily. Within three seconds, he's under.
I'm skipping through a lot of scenes because there's not too much to remark upon. It's all very well written. Nothing wrong, though there's not much truly worth highlighting that hasn't already been (eg: Jago and Litefoot are magnificent fun to watch)
Haha, Litefoot is appalled by Leela's lack of knowledge regarding cutlery usage.
Of course the house that the villains were looking for is Litefoot's. Why wouldn't it be?
Hm. Lots of scurrying around in the dark. Not exactly easy to see just what's going on.
Never underestimate Mr Sin. He's just a little puppet, but he's got such a great big instinct for murder.
Oof. A knife to the neck doesn't seem to even slow it down. Luckily, The Doctor arrives back to Litefoot's home and seems to scare them off.
No Leela! Don't give chase to the psychopaths!
Another victim of The Hood's flashing eyes effect
Yet again, people in Doctor Who have no peripheral vision. Best way to hide is to press yourself really hard against a flat surface as they walk past.
Two hypnotised girls, being taken for feeding. Rather vampiric sounding, isn't it?
Doctor, please don't tempt fate by asking what could go wrong.
Leela is brave as all hell, and - wait a minute. Didn't Fu Manchu there say he could read minds? I guess it's an active power rather than a passive one, given as to how he didn't notice Leela had replaced the other girl.
Leela tries to save the other girl, but fails to get to her in time. Worse yet, now she's being chased with a laser! Worst yet, now she's trapped in the sewers with giant rats! Even a warrior of the Sevateem finds that just a little bit terrifying, you know?
We're quite sure this isn't Morbius? I mean, he's behaving almost exactly like him.
I love how Jago fills in the blanks in his own inimitable fashion. Absolutely brilliant.
In the meantime, The Doctor rescues Leela from the oversized sewer rats.
The mysterious cabinet that "Weng-Chiang" is in pursuit of intrigues The Doctor.
I do admit, Leela does look very beautiful in that Victorian dress. It suits her quite well. Definitely prefer that outfit to her "fanservice" costume.
Ah, Jago you just can't help yourself but to talk about the fellow working with the police on an investigation, can you? Just have to brag to anyone that'll listen that you're involved in the investigation.
Off to the theatre goes The Doctor, to better see the enemy in person.
That one policeman stands about as much chance of stopping Weng-Chiang's men from entering Litefoot's house as an umbrella could prevent the tide from coming in.
Bit weird that they would have a woman sing a song about waiting for an answer to a proposal from a woman. Unless there were men named Daisy in the Victorian era.
The Doctor is brought in as a volunteer for a few tricks by the performer, which happen to be particularly dangerous. A very cunning manner in which to murder a person, under the illusion of a trick gone wrong. But he doesn't take up on it straight away.
And there goes the policeman. Also, what was it Litefoot said about them catching him napping?
Now for a more dangerous trick still, with a cabinet that has swords thrust into it. The Doctor ducks out, in a rather amusing moment, but when the cabinet is opened up the stage hand is in there dead. Not quite the way the trick is supposed to go.
While The Doctor is anxious to find the new location of "Weng-Chiang" all Jango is thinking about is how best to make money off of this. From anyone else this would make me roll my eyes but he's got this weird charm about him.
Leela's already learned that when The Doctor starts to babble, it's best to let him get it out. The information is usually useful, to him if not to anyone else.
So, if Mr Sin has the brain of a pig then, that must surely mean it's a good thing he can't produce the waste it could so easily wallow in.
This guy is one second away from screaming "I am surrounded by incompetent fools!"
And here it is,the greatest team up since... Uh... Ever, I think. Jago and Litefoot. Words do them no justice. There should be no wonder that they got their very own Big Finish spinoff. No wonder at all. By themselves, tremendous characters. Put together, a divine combination.
Love this. Litefoot is all "come along let's do the right thing" and Jago's all "I really do not want to sir, but neither do I wish to appear as a coward."
The former magician survived his encounters with the rats, with a leg missing. Luckily for him he was able to find a heaping load of opium to dull the pain as he died. Unfortunately he does so before he can fill The Doctor in on where to head to next.
Jago and Litefoot, masters of discretion! That's right guys, stand in a brightly lit spot opposite the place where the baddies are. They'll never see you.
Ah, the classic dumb waiter escape attempt. Such a shame that they come right on out into a place filled with guards armed to the teeth, and more than ready to send them back to the room they were in.
Even the bravest and strongest of the Sevateem are no match for chloroform on a cloth!
Also, that's a really hideous face underneath that mask. Glad we don't see it for too long, otherwise it would diminish the overall effect.
You know, the best thing to do to get what you want from The Doctor is simply to ask nicely. Trying to threaten him is akin to handing him an invitation which reads "You are cordially invited to completely wreck my day."
JAGO: Well, I'm not awfully. Well, I'm not so bally brave when it comes to it. I try to be but I'm not.
LITEFOOT: When it comes to it, I don't suppose anybody is.
Everybody has their limit. It's an interesting sentiment, don't you think?
The Doctor and "Magnus Greel" (as we find his real name is) play a little chess while exchanging barbs. A rather interesting metaphor for the conversation, and it's kind of subtle if you're not watching for it.
Interesting how he protests that he's remembered as a war criminal. I do wonder sometimes, if a time traveller could meet a war criminal before he(or she, but it's the oddest thing I can't think of any female war criminals off the top of my head. I'm sure that there are some, but I don't know of them) did the things that would label him as such and showed him how history would ultimately remember him, how that person would react. It's interesting to think of, from a purely philosophical standpoint.
Unfortunately, The Doctor pushes Greel a little too far and he reneges on their deal. Looks like he was going to go along with it up until that point, too.
Nice attempt Leela, but Greel has plenty of guards and all you did was annoy him. Now he intends to drain your life.
There's the title! And here's The Doctor with an axe throwing trick to free Leela!
Gunfight time and we're long, long past the part of the story which feels anything like a Sherlock Holmes tale.
There is the trouble with hiring on psychopaths. Give them half the chance, they'll kill your other employees. Maybe you too.
Greel gets hurled into his own cellular thingy and drained dry, but things aren't quite done yet since Mr Sin is still up and about. Not for particularly long, but there we go.

This is another of those serials that is rather fondly remembered, and for good reason. It is a rather fun journey with several memorable characters, and excellent dialogue. Each episode is rather brilliantly shot as well, and the atmosphere feels simply perfect.

Tom Baker didn't have too many six part stories. This is either the best or second best, depending on the mood. It's not quite as heavy as Genesis of the Daleks, but that's all part of what makes it so much fun.

Was there a theme running through the narrative? Not particularly. There was, albeit towards the end a theme around how history will come to view major figures, and how they in turn believe they ought to be viewed. Other than that, there wasn't any particular message built into the story. It was all about the action and the mystery. That's not a bad thing when the writing is right, and in this particular instance the writing was very much right. Definitely see this one.

Best Moment Jago and Litefoot meet
I probably could have picked so many other moments. The magic show where The Doctor is the volunteer was probably second place. But let's be blunt, seeing these two meet up in the penultimate episode was like the sudden realisation someone once must have had that while fish and chips were awesome while seperated, together they were the perfect team. And once you're made aware of that combination, you're left wondering how you never saw it before.

The two play off each other rather brilliantly. Completely distinct characters, but it's not hard to see how they could easily become friends.

Adventure Awards

"History Lesson"Set in the Victorian era, and though I'm not exactly an expert on the era it looked fairly accurate for the period.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."Hypnosis must be a good aide for the aspiring mass kidnapper. Essential, even.

"Spectacular Weapons Failure"A knife to the neck of Mister Sin does precisely nothing to him.

The God Complex: First Impressions

2011-09-17T23:32:00.004+01:00

I rather liked this one as well. At this rate, the low point of this year would probably wind up being The Black Spot, which altogether wasn't exactly terrible. Two left to prove me wrong! Spoilers!

Okay, not only was this a creepy, creepy episode but it was fantastically thematically interesting as well. The situation forced The Doctor to look inside himself, to see what he does to people, and I can't help but think that when he looked in Amy's eyes there at the end and said goodbye, he was thinking of Katarina and Adric.

What did he see in the room? We might well see it in the finale. It seemed like that sort of scene. I can see plenty of different theories cropping up here and there regarding its exact nature, but my money would be on "himself."

The minotaur showing up made me think of Horn of Nimon, which is probably the worst thing I can say about this episode. Glad the shoutout was made, and that it wasn't actually a Nimon involved in this situation. Because as I will deal with in a few months, that story sucks. So hard. Not just because the Nimon themselves look about as threatening as a sentient teddy bear.

Actually, that would be immensely creepy. Get on it Moffat!

Next week sees the return of one of the most awesome villains in Doctor Who: The Cybermats. Oh, and the Cybermen. Featuring that guy from The Lodger, and no Ponds/Williams. Should be fun!

The Robots of Death

2011-09-12T03:59:00.001+01:00

The Robots of Death

As mentioned last week, Chris Boucher was asked to write another serial to give the production team enough time to adapt to Leela's character and decide whether they wanted to keep her around long term or not. There were other reasons as well, however. For instance, trouble with Douglas Camfield's "The Lost Legion" had caused The Hand of Fear to be pulled towards the season's beginning.

The Robots of Death (also known as Planet of the Robots or The Storm Mine Murders) drew on various science fiction forms. Asimov, naturally enough. Cliffod D Simak's Bathe Your Bearings in Blood! (AKA Skirmish) while the sandminer itself drew from Dune (no doubt alongside numerous other plot elements). In the meantime, the murder mystery element was drawn from Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, a novel also known by certain shall we say, less politically correct titles.

The various sources of inspiration went further yet, with the names being references or corruptions of various science fiction authors. Uvanov - Asimov. Taren Capel - Karel Capek (who coined the term robot).

In the meantime, both Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes were considering leaving the show at season's end. Hinchcliffe decided to remain an extra year following prompting from Head of Drama Bill Slater, but the decision was reconsidered with Graham Williams stepping into his role and Hinchcliffe being shuffled elsewhere, with a show that was felt would better suit his style.

This serial would be the final use of the rather short lived wooden TARDIS set, given its non-appearance in the next serial and the warping of the wood between seasons. This necessitated the replacement of the set.

The Doctor and Leela find themselves mixed up in a murder mystery! Is it really possible that these Sandminer Robots are killers? And can our heroes avoid being accused of these deaths? Probably not, but they'll have other things to worry about shortly.

Pretty good opening. Establishes the mining pretty well with the exterior shots. Shows us the robots. The creepy, creepy robots that are easily among the best ever designed for Doctor Who. Possibly including the revived series. Is it any wonder that those angel robots were obviously based on them?
The robots are quite obviously being used as slave labour while the humans recline in a rather fancy looking lounge.
As one guy gets his arm joints gently... I don't know, massaged, stretched, excercised? - by a robot another decides to tell him a story about a robot that ripped someone's arm off, in an effort to scare him. He doesn't seem convinced of its veracity. If anything, it's just annoyed him.
If there's one thing this serial has already impressed me at, it's foreshadowing and setting up the scenario. We're already very anxious about these robots even if the people don't think it's possible for them to malfunction. On top of that, the setting has been established. We know that they're dependant on the robots for just about everything. It's a pretty brilliant setup.
What's that? They're heading off into a sandstorm?
Leela's playing with the yo-yo, giving it all the concentration in the world, all because she thinks it's part of the Tardis "magic". Love the banter.
This is a classic explanation of dimensional transcendentalism. Here it is paraphrased.
My goodness but what are these people wearing? It's so... so... So much like the 1970s view of what people in the future will wear.
While the crew gets to work on their sandmining, one guy heads off to the storage room and calls for a robot for assistance. Trouble is, the robot's eyes are glowing red. Want to know what it means? Well, let's just say that the Ood were part inspired by the Sensorites, part inspired by the Sandminer Robots.
Man, that was a loud scream. Did only that one guy really hear it?
Leela and The Doctor explore, and wind up breaking into the sandminer. Trouble is, the Tardis is stolen while their backs are turned.
The captain of the ship prioritises the sandmining over the death of a crewmember. Because he is, in fact, uncaring of morale. Seriously, everybody else is just a little bit understandably panicked by this, but he's all "Nothing we can do to help him. Let's sort him out later." Logically true, but emotionally... wow. He only cares about the money.
Well that's just great luck there. The two of them are locked in the part that lets the sand in for the machines to sort. And the Tardis has been taken, so there's no seeming escape.
Examining the body now. There's a weird red disk on his wrist.
The robots find the intruders, and there's something markedly intimidating about their approach. Maybe it's that
Here's the typical sequence from the murder mysteries, where aspirations are cast around. Of course, we've seen the truth already. A robot did it, but none of the humans even consider that and accuse each other. It turns out that the red disk is a corpse marker, and I'm reminded of the Discworld book that introduced golems. One of them found a dead human, and stuffed words into his mouth to "try and make him live" since that's how golems work. Sort of sent the watch on the wrong trail a little, finding the paper stuffed in the body's mouth like that. Probably thinking along those sorts of lines.
It's remarkable. The Doctor and Leela haven't interacted at all with the main cast, aside from the robots... and it's still a cracking first episode. Compare and contrast this to "Wheel in Space" or "Space Pirates". It's all in part the banter. The contrast between The Doctor and Leela helps out quite a lot.
Oh yeah, sure. The Doctor's very prone to waiting around when he's told to.
And, of course, the intruders are taken for the killers immediately.
Leela finds a dead body, while The Doctor finds the Tardis. Oh, but why do the companions wander off so? And isn't it a shame that in the course of his snooping around, The Doctor gets caught in a room filling with... something? Looks like fiber. Not the best way to go, but at least he found that dead body in there as well.
Ah, the old "breathe through a pipe" trick. Well, whatever works.
Leela finds yet another corpse, and is restrained by a robot that tells her that he did not do it and starts interrogating her... up until the captain comes in, and then he plays dumb. But hey, now it's Leela's turn to be accused of being a killer.
These characters are all so full of life. Their banter is brilliant, and quite honestly they do feel as though they're lifted out of a science fiction mystery novel.
Best. Jellybaby. Bit. Ever.
I can't really fault anything here (aside from the human costumes). It's all brilliantly pulled together. No way to know who the real killer is, but it's so entertaining that it's not really what you're concentrating on.
The metal restraints aren't exactly looking quite as sturdy as they should. It's really sold more during the dialogue, more than anything else.
One of the crew lets The Doctor out of the straps to hear a theory he hinted at earlier. Thing is, he uses the bumblebee's ability to fly as an example of an impossible thing. Yeah, actually that's been refuted. The calculations make a few wrong assumptions. It's not flight like a bird flies, it's more like how a helicopter works.
Time to investigate the crime scene. The Doctor quickly realises that the victim would have had no choice but to call a robot, given that the thing he was in the storage room to retrieve was too heavy to be lifted - or more accurately was stuck.
Zilda heads into the captain's quarters and goes through his stuff. She then blames him for killings, which gets people a bit panicked.
Robots, eh? Can't live with them, can't live without them. The civilisation is rather dependant on them now, it seems. If robots truly are responsible for these murders, then it's the first dominos to fall in the collapse of this civilisation.
Apparently the captain was in love with his accuser, and now that she's dead he feels the most tremendous remorse. That bit with him teasing her about how wealthy he'd be when the job was done was his idea of flirtation. Trouble is, she clearly found him repugnant.
And now they think the captain did it, so he's confined to quarters with a robot looking after him to keep him in his room. Oh dear.
The first showings of Leela's sixth sense, just before the miner crashes. There's the final piece of isolation for us, just to complete all the cliches required for this kind of stories. Like they weren't isolated enough already...
"How did you get out?" "Never mind that! What's going on?" "Oh, well, since you asked. I'll just ignore the fact that I think you're a killer and tell you about the ongoing crisis."
Nothing like a little sabotage to fight sabotage! Shame that one of the crew stops him from meddling.
Seems like The Doctor critically succeeded on his "persuade" roll.
Now that things have broken down, the murders are momentarily forgotten.
This is what Zilda probably meant by the murder accusations at the captain, then. He let a man die, rather than risk losing a good sandstorm payday. Given that it was her brother that died, no wonder she got emotional.
That guy's being very mysterious, so Leela goes to follow him... only to find that he's locked her in!
Now he's snooping around and you know what he finds? A robot with blood all over his hands. Wow. That's more "blood" than we've seen in the series revival, I think.
Oof. The head robot is reprogrammed by someone intentionally hiding their voice from us by speaking in hushed tones.
The Doctor catches out the "dum" robot that can talk, and persuades him into stating what's going on with him.
I didn't think it was possible for these robots to be creepier, but seeing the one at this angle lying down like that, staring up at the ceiling... yeah that's pretty creepy.
Apparently, someone gave a lunatic threat that prompted the powers that be to place agents on this miner. I like this robot investigator. He even gets a little upset when he realises that he has failed in the line of duty due to an obvious oversight.
Another robot murder looks to be happening... but then the robot simply wakes her up and gives a report.
Poor robot investigator. The Doctor and him are talking at cross purposes. It was not him that he's talking about.
The calm and detached manner in which the robots assign people to kill, it's rather brilliantly creepy.
Leela is a badass, but she's not entirely used to fighting robots. Funny thing is, the trajectory of the knife is quite impossibly because it rather noticably arcs towards the ground long before the robot.
Very poetic description from the robot. Rather a beautiful verse to describe the function of a tool.
The Doctor tries warning the new captain about the robots... but she doesn't believe him at first. Then she encounters a robot at the door, but when it raises a corpse marker at her she panics and traps its hand in the door. The sight of it detaching the hand and walking away is chilling, and she's shaken by the experience.
Brilliant plan. The woman's been traumatised by a robot, so let's send the good robot to save her. She won't freak out at all!
Speaking of freak outs! The guy that helped The Doctor and Leela escape? The guy that saw the blood on the robot's hand earlier? Curled up under a desk, too scared to do anything but pray and babble. He sees the robots as the walking dead that secretly control the humans.
There's the original captain. He levels another accusation at The Doctor, just in time for a red eyed robot to storm into the room and start to strangle him...
How's about that, the captain manages to save The Doctor.
The Doctor manages to slip away from a robot ambush by slipping his hat and scarf onto another one, managing to confuse the robot pursuing him into trying to strangle another robot.
Haha "That is not The Doctor" indeed! That was almost a deadpan delivery.
There's something almost mopey and depressed in inspector bot's voice, it's rather endearing.
The main players are now gathered in the command deck. They've sealed themselves in, and now they can get a little bit of exposition in before the actual revolution starts.
Grimwade's syndrome is a reference to Peter Grimwade, a production assistant. He apparently bemoaned the fact that his stories always had robots in them, so there it is.
Grimwade's syndrome (aka robophobia) is sort of like a severe reaction to the uncanny valley effect. It looks almost real, but not quite, and it becomes even more disturbing because of it.
Now we get the truth about Zilda's brother. He suffered from robophobia, went a bit mad, and got himself killed. Family hushed it all up.
The Doctor figures out a weaopn that might well work against the robots. Magnetic bombs. That'd do the trick. Magnetise their systems. Scramble the computer circuitry.
A man pounds at the door, begging to be let in... But it's really the mad scientist trying to trick them into opening the doors rather than forcing them open. Luckily, they don't.
Body language is fast becoming a subtheme of the serial.
Aw, man. You can just tell from the way that conversation went that the helpful investigator bot is gonna be around when the deactivator is used.
Mad scientist is definitely the right term to use for this character. He's sort of on the opposite end of robophobia - the kind of person that identifies himself as a robot rather than as a person.
The Doctor's grand plan to put down the robot rebellion? Helium. It's actually pretty clever, as it happens. The helium changes the mad scientist's voice enough that the robots don't recognise him anymore. Now they'll kill him just as surely as the others...
There it is, an act of self sacrifice. He destroys himself and kills the other robots in the room at the same time. Shame. He was the most likable character introduced in this story.
It's telling, I think, that the mad scientist calls himself the robot's "master". Oh? I thought that the robots were to be the rulers of the world? The word betrays his true ambition there, right at the very end.
It all wraps up rather nicely. The robot rebellion dies with its leader, and the magnetisation of the sole remaining robots.

This is one of the best Tom Baker Doctor Who stories, and one that is quite often remembered. I definitely agree that it deserves to be so remembered.

Just about everything they did came out correctly. Its murder mystery elements were not, perhaps, as good as they could have been but the overall story is so engrossing that I don't particularly care. Backstory seems to ooze from every scene, the characters feel like real people with real history with each other and without.

How can this one not be recommended? I just can't see how anyone can fail to enjoy themselves.

Best Moment: Which box is larger?
This is one of those serials where I was sorely tempted to throw up my hands and say "all of it". Hands tied back, I rather liked this one. It helps a little to establish the main plot thread with Leela. Educating her, making her less of a savage.

She comes out quite well in this serial, actually. Perhaps a little quick to anger and violence on occasion, but her critical reasoning skills indicate that she's quite intelligent
Anyway, I went with this scene because like so many others from the episode, it had the most tremendous banter. But it also helped to establish the relationship between The Doctor and Leela, which gives it extra imaginary points

Adventure Awards
"Bigger on the Inside"
This is the first time we see Leela inside the Tardis, as it happens. But this one gets the award for Leela asking for more details on the dimensional transcendance dealie.

"A Little Harmless Mind Control..."
In a manner of speaking. The robots were reprogrammed rather drastically.

"Spectacular Weapons Failure"
Leela's knife did pretty much nothing at all to the robot she tried fighting for a brief period.

The Girl Who Waited: First Impressions

2011-09-10T20:11:00.002+01:00

While not the best on offer from the season so far, I thought this was a perfectly enjoyable episode. Very emotional and character driven.
Spoilers as always!

This was Doctor Who doing a love story correctly. The Doctor himself stayed largely out of the ongoing events, and the focus shifted to where it ought to be - Amy and Rory. This was their story. This was all about them, and that's perfectly fine by me because they're both great characters.

I compared it to Amy's Choice last week, and that's a bit unfair. They're completely different stories which do their own thing actually pretty well. I can see some fans of classic Who not being fond of this one, but I didn't mind it too much at all.

What caught my attention was The Doctor's behaviour towards the end. Thematically, it managed to fit rather neatly into the overarching story of the season. Particularly with elements introduced in A Good Man Goes to War. It's good to remember that though he is a good man, The Doctor has some truly monstrous qualities deep down within him. Rule one is "The Doctor lies" for a good reason. Sometimes to save a life, he has to do something like this. Something that quite obviously deeply affected Rory, and though we don't see it, will no doubt affect Amy when she finds out about it. Having Rory and old Amy repeatedly call out The Doctor throughout the episode added quite a lot to this, thematically.

As for next week, the trailer makes it look like there's a hotel which specialises in rooms which are tailor made to scare the person in it. The title is apparently "The God Complex." But I do have to admit, part of me was thinking that when it was mentioned "there are things in the room" I was almost punching the air and yelling "Cybermats!" No fortune there, sadly.