The Krotons - Episode 3

So it’s the final day of 2013 and whilst I could think of other stories I would rather be watching on this day I could think of worse. My opinion of this whole story has improved since I started to watch this story and hopefully this will continue with the final two episodes. As far as the plot goes there isnt very much really going on but its hidden by the good performances from the regulars and from the supporting cast. 

 

One of the most fun moments came when the TARDIS was shot at by the Krotons and at first we are meant to believe that the TARDIS has been destroyed before turning up nearby much to the relief of Zoe. We learn a bit more about the TARDIS and that it has something called HAD (Hostile Action Displacement system). This is one of those things that never gets mentioned again and just seems to serve a purpose here. 

 

The Gonds make more of an impression in this episode and there is a bit of a power struggle which is lead by Philip Madoc's character. Eelek is a character which could have only been played by Madoc and he chews up the scenery every time he is on the screen. That said I do find the rest of the Gonds to be quite interesting and only Vana seems less well written for compared to the other Gonds but at least she's not as bad as the Dulcian women. 

 

Jamie gets a good amount of stuff to do as whilst under the observation of the Krotons and gets the Krotons to reveal a great deal of information and he is a being used better than he was in the previous episode and gets to kill a Kroton (the effect itself was quite good). Zoe and the Doctor get to do their brainy stuff together and spend a bit of time in the TARDIS before almost being captured by a Kroton.I liked how after the Doctor and Zoe reunite with the Gonds, it takes sometime before they realise that Jamie isn't around. Shows how much they have missed him since the first episode. 

 

As far as the design of the Krotons go, it wasn’t until this episode that we get to see the full design and it came via a screen of one of them going outside and it looks fine until you get to the bottom third and it looks like a sheet that goes around the edge of it. Practically this was fine because it would be good for the actor but visually it ruins it and explains why we have never had a full look at them. Though the spinning heads did look quite good. 

 

It's a  good story so far and even though it doesn’t have the greatest plot I cant find anything to really fault it on. There is a strange sense of goodwill that I have for this story and the Krotons isnt as bad a story as I thought it was. There's something that I never thought that I would say when I started on marathon. 

The Krotons - Episode 2

The second episode of this story was the first of 1969 and it’s the final year for Troughton as the Doctor. That's not got much to do with the story or even this episode but I like these little fact and its fun.   

Despite the rather limp cliffhanger, the episode started quite well and it feels that this is the Doctor and Zoe's episode as they seemingly take up most of the episode. It's weird really because whenever I think of the Troughton era my immediate thought is of Jamie but this is one of those rare moments where this isnt the case because the whole thing about what they go through wouldn’t have worked if Jamie were involved. Zoe has a moment of stupidity when she has a go on the computer and draws the greatness of her intelligence to the Krotons. There is an unusual sense that the Doctor is annoyed with Zoe and its not amusing annoyance but genuine annoyance. I think that there is a glimmer of self sacrifice as the Doctor has a go at the test and ends up joining Zoe. It might have been part of his plan or just a spur of the moment thing but it shows a nice sense of loyalty.  

 

The scene where Zoe and the Doctor are being 'worked on' in the Krotons spaceship is quite a typical 1960's Doctor Who scene. It's bonkers and its fun to look at. It was difficult to actually understand what was going on but it was still fun to watch.  

 

We get to see the Krotons for the first time and again they are an idea that look good on paper but sadly don’t work so well. They are about as silly looking as the Quarks from 'The Dominators'. The fact that they seem to have a hold over the Godons is a bit of a mystery but Siras is still the best of the Godons. The Godons don’t stand out as much as they did in the first episode but that minor quibble aside, I think that the whole setting works. The cliffhanger is slightly better as Jamie is the one put in danger, there is no clear way of him being saved and he looks in genuine pain 

 

The episode moved quite quickly and my dislike for it is starting to fate. It's not the best story of the season by a long shot but its working quite well. I think the fact that this story has a significantly shorter running time than other stories is why it seems to be romping along at a good pace. Also that along with the fact the story is quite interesting and the characters arent as wet as they could have been.  

The Krotons - Episode 1

The Krotons is a story that I've not been looking forward to. Any story that followed 'The Invasion' was always going to have a problem but this is a story that I have never particularly liked and I've never been able to put my finger on it and so I hope that over the next four episodes I will find out the reason or even like it. This is the first story to be written by the legendary Robert Holmes. Holmes is one of best (if not the best) writer ever in Doctor Who. It's a shame that his first offering is the worst. This episode aired 45 years and one day ago (28 December 1968).  This is also the shortest story since the Season 5 opening story 'The Tomb of the Cybermen'. The legend that is Philip Madoc makes his first TV Doctor Who appearance after featuring in the second Dalek movie.  

 

Jamie actually gets to do a bit of fighting which is something that would have happened regularly when William Russell was in the show. The regulars are perfectly fine in this but its Patrick Troughton who stands out (as he should) and they are given enough to do to pasts the time. This is another story where humans are being controlled by an alien force. This is similar to 'The Dominators' but this is slightly better because the humans here are so wet and feeble. Their costumes are slightly better. The Krotons are a mysterious yet powerful influence who pick the smartest people for something. The voice of the Kroton is voiced by Roy Skelton who voiced Zippy and the Daleks. It's a rather well done voice and makes the Kroton sound quite menacing. The humans are also quite good and its what I wanted the Dulcians to be. The Godons are a race that I find quite likeable and actually care about (which wasn’t the case with the Dulcians). Selris is instantly the best thing in the episode. I wish there was more Philip Madoc but James Copeland is just as fun to watch as Madoc.  

 

I think that despite the episode being filmed mostly in a quarry, the direction of the episode is quite good and its mostly because of the regulars who are working well together. In fact its their dynamic that keeps me interested in the early stages of this story because there is very little going on. It's quite fun that within a short time the Doctor has managed to earn the trust of the Gondos. Normally the Doctor and co would spend the first episode in a cell or being interrogated but this doesn’t happen here and thank goodness for that.  

The cliffhanger was a bit rubbish. It was a shame because I thought that after doing a better than expected job during the first episode, the action seemed to disappear at the moment when it needs to shine and give people a reason to return for the next episode. On the basis of what we got here if this were Christmas 1968 I'm not sure the festiveness would have helped me want to come back.  

The Invasion - Episode 8

After seven episodes we get to see the action and the thing that UNIT were introduced for. The story has to achieve the tricky thing of making sure this story ends properly and it ends at just the right time.  

At the end of the previous episode, Vaughn finally twigged that he wasn’t going to get things his own way. Vaughn decides that he's going to destroy the Cybermen which is probably the first sensible thing that he has done in the entire story. He starts off with the Cyber Controller and the explosion was a nice pre-filmed effect. That's about as good as it gets for Vaughn because things go downhill pretty quickly. 

 

The shot of the Cyberman appearing on the video screen was a great moment. I remember the first time I saw that and it was a moment that made me jump. There arent many instances in Doctor Who that did this to me. Packer's death was as surprising as it was quick. I've grown to like the character and even though he was a badie it doesn’t meen that he wasn’t likeable. Vaughn's death was disappointing as I think that he deserved much better than what he got. It seemed like he was shot and then that was it. He was the best thing in the entire story and he was treated a bit rubbishly. The Doctor and Vaughn working together is a nice thing to see and it forms part of a nice group of scenes. They went from being at odds to working together for the same cause and the scenes at the IE building were the highlight of the episode. The 'battle' scenes with the UNIT soldiers shooting the Cybermen was perhaps a sign of things to come as it hasn’t been seen on Doctor Who before this.  

 

The plot point about destroying the Cyber ship that’s in space seemed to be dragging the story on for a few minutes. Thankfully its only a few minutes but it did feel like it could have been dealt with earlier in the story and not right at the end.  

 

The performances from Patrick Troughton, Wendy Padbury and un-official companion Nicholas Courtney were all really good and its clear why Courtney would become part of the show in a way that no other non-companion would be able to do. Troughton's performances have been consistantly good throughout this story and seems to step up a gear when he's against Kevin Stoney. Speaking of Stoney, I loved his performance as Mavic Chen and he managed to beat that with Tobias Vaughn. One of the best villains in Doctor Who. 

 

The final scene sees Jamie return and leads to a nice bit of comedy at the end of a comedy-free episode. I must say that I had forgotten the TARDIS was invisible and so was amazed again with the effect. Overall I thought that the episode was what I thought that a final episode should be. It had plenty of action and all the plot points were tied up nicely. I think that this was a much better Cyberman story than 'The Wheel in Space'. Not sure eight episodes was the right length but it was an enjoyable story but the good times are about to end because next up 'THE KROTONS'. 

The Invasion - Episode 7

It's the penultimate episode of this story that has quickly got good and made up for the rather feeble 'The Wheel in Space'. At the end of the last episode the Cybermen were seen walking through the streets of London but whats rather curious is how that’s about all that we get. At least in this episode Patrick Troughton gets out of the lab set. Frazer Hines has a brief involvement in the episode as he is shot. He is due to have a holiday in the next episode (more of that in episode 8). From the next scene with the Doctor, Jamie is not seen so that means that Zoe gets more to do. She gets to use her intelligence by working how to destroy all the ships. It's the first time since her debut story that she gets to show us how brainy she is and it’s a very good moment though its sadly becoming a rare thing. 

 

I only noticed quite late in the episode that Isobel seems to have a bit of a disappearing act along with Jamie. The fact that it took me so long to notice her lack of presence shows just how ineffective the character has been. I might be being harsh on Sally Faulkner but its not her fault but more the writing as she's not been given much to do. 

 

We get another first in this episode as we get to see the Doctor driving a car. This would be the norm during the Pertwee era but this was something special at the time. Sadly despite the fact that this story is called The Invasion there isn't any sign of an invasion apart from the very beginning. The Cybermen don’t really have much of an impact in the episode and it feels like we've gone back a step and gone back to 'The Wheel in Space'. It's rather frustrating.  

 

It feels like the dynamic between Vaughn and Packer was starting to change. Vaughn does seem to be losing control as without Watkins, they cant make more machines to control the Cybermen. Packer seems to be more unsure about the plan. I think that its good how their relationship has developed and they have both been very good from their first appearances.  

 

I do like the Doctor/Vaughn scenes towards the end of the episode. It's always great when two fine actors are working in the same scene and it leads to the moment that Vaughn realizes that he's out of his depth and is reluctant to stop his plans after five years in the making. It makes for a great ending when the Doctor asks Vaughn if he wants to be ruler of a dead world and then there is a close up of Vaughns face. I did feel like there was a slight feel of padding in this episode but not as noticeable as the first four episodes. At least there was development as far as the Cyberman's plan was concerned and the final episode should have the fitting end that this story deserves. 

The Invasion - Episode 6

The sixth episode is probably where the story would run into padding but that isn’t the case because we had four episode of padding really before we got to this point. The opening three or four minutes sees Jamie, Zoe and Isobel trying to dodgy the Cybermen in the sewer. It’s quite a good opening scene and it pretty much sums up the pace of the episode. The Doctor starts the episode working in a lab and spends the entire episode in the lab set. I don’t know whether it was a deliberate thing but its odd that he is relatively inactive during this episode which is a weird thing but it is what it is.

The Packer/Vaughn relationship is more friendly in this episode. They seem to be more on the same page in this episode which is nice to see. Even though we know that his body is robotic it takes Watkins shooting Vaughn him to show us this fact. I am still a big fan of Kevin Stoney because there was a sneaky menace to his performance and it was wonderful to watch. Edward Burnham as Watkins is on good form as he does what most people would probably want to do and that’s kill the bad guy.

It’s strange that we don’t get to see the rescue of Watkins by the UNIT soldiers. It’s also strange how Gregory is quickly killed off due to Watkins’ rescue. From the moment that Captain Munro starts talking on the radio about launching the rescue to Gregory being killed off less than two minutes would have passed and whilst it isn’t the most important part of the story but I think that it could have been done slightly better.

I didn’t notice it before but its 15 minutes before Wendy Padbury returns and in the first scene I notice her in and she’s moaning about Jamie going to sleep with Cybermen around. In her next scene she’s better because she’s included in the Doctor’s explanation. I may have been wrong about Isobel. I think that she wasn’t annoying in this episode and was rightly miffed when he work of taking pics of the Cybermen were dismissed by the Brigadier.

We get another of the Doctor’s explanations and diagrams to show us what’s been going on. I always enjoy these moments as sometimes I like being treated like I’m stupid and it’s a nice refresher moment which is done quickly and effectively.

I do like the shots of London early in the morning just before the Cybermen make their grand appearance. I think that its such a rare thing to see London with nobody on it so its nice to see. The cliffhanger is really good as we get to see Cybermen walking on the streets for the first time. When the Daleks invaded our little planet it wasn’t particularly successful though to be fair it was in the days before location filming became what it was in 1968. It’s a great ending and I feel like the story has really found its feet and the last two episode cant come soon enough.

The Invasion - Episode 5

I know what your thinking and I won’t take a day off even on Christmas Day. I suppose I should say Merry Christmas to all of you but if your reading this in May or June then it might seem a bit odd but trust me its Christmas Day and I’m about to watch episode five. This is where the Cybermen really get involved in their own story, still can’t quite believe that were at the half way stage and they’ve only just appeared.

My dislike of Isobel continues as she ranges from flirting with the Captain to be disinterested at first when the Doctor informs everyone about the Cybermen. All she seems to talk about is money she thinks that taking pictures will lead to wealth and when she’s flirting with the Captain she hopes that he’s “stinking rich”. Though she comes up with what would be considered to a rather feeble insult when Isobel calls him “you man!”. This does lead to a bit of feminism in Doctor Who when both Isobel and Zoe decide to take matters into their own hands. This is the main thing about the second half of the episode because this is where Jamie, Zoe and Isobel encounter a rouge Cybermen in the sewers of London. It’s a very well lit sewer it has to be said though it does lead to a good cliffhanger but due to the claustrophobic feel of it the ending becomes quite memorable.

Rutlidge is back in this episode and I like the scene where he is talking to Lethbridge-Stewart. He puts in a rather feeble attempt to try and stop the Brigadier. No sooner has Lethbridge-Stewart got a no from Rutlidge then he basically decides to go over his head. When Rutlidge contacts Vaughn its clear that the hold over him is fading. The unravelling has been quite fun to watch though he’s not a bad guy really but has just been bad to the Brigadier which in a way can be worse. It’s quite interesting how there seems to be a sort of Scooby Gang feel to some of the scenes. We have the Brigadier with the Captain, the Doctor with Zoe, Jamie and Isobel.

There’s a scene where Packer is talking to two Cybermen and he pre-recorded the voices so as the production text indicates he is talking to himself which is quite a fun idea. As an episode it does feel like its starting to pick up pace and its feeling more like a Cybermen story now which is a relief.

The Invasion - Episode 4

T'was the night before Christmas and all was well as I watch episode four. Wendy Padbury returns off her holiday and it’s the second of the animated episodes. The early part of the episode is made up with re-introducing Zoe and Isobel to the story. It’s interesting to note that episode four aired on Doctor Who’s 5^th birthday. This is effectively the transition episode because as we enter the second half of the story this is where the good stuff starts to enter into the story and there are still some things from the early episodes that continue here such as the wonderful incidental music.

Vaughn is showing that he has a way of trying to control the Cybermen or his allies. Now it’s nothing new that someone working with the main villain thinks that they can control them but this is the best plan that we’ve seen so far. Vaughn has been planning this for ages and so it seems that it cant fail but we all know how this one ends. I like how Vaughn continues to use Packer as a bit of a whipping boy. I’ve not mentioned the performances of the regulars recently and that’s something I will put right here as there seems to be a seriousness that I haven’t seen to the Doctor for a while. Even Jamie didn’t seem his usual self and together both Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton give very solid performances. Consider she didn’t really have much to do in this episode, Wendy Padbury reminds us that she is here and its good to have them back.

The part where they are trying to free Zoe and Isobel was quite well done and was probably the most actioned pack scene that Doctor Who has ever done. I think though that whilst it was good to have Zoe back, Isobel didn’t really do much apart from remind us that she could have taken some photographic evidence. This leads us to the fact that its not going to be easy to put an end to Vaughn or IE.  The name mentioned in episode two, Billy Rutlidge gets mentioned and we get a scene with him. He seems like a normal civil servant who doesn’t really have much power to resist Vaughn and it’s easy to see how Vaughn has the power he has.

Of course with this being a Cybermen story they weren’t going to make an appearance until the very end and they form the cliffhanger and even though its an animated episode its still an effective way to end the episode and I suppose the viewer must have known that the story would be stepping up a gear which is just what we need. A good episode.

The Invasion - Episode 3

This episode sees Wendy Padbury take a week off so she spends this week in a crate (or Zoe does). It means that Jamie and the Doctor get to do their double act and that is my abiding memory of this episode. The story shifts location during this episode and there something of interest is Vaughn’s office, despite travelling a long distance the office is the same design, size and layout and all they’ve done is change the backing cloth and given a rather clever line and uniformity and keeping things similar.

We finally get to see Professor Watkins we see that he is ‘working’ for Vaughn. I liked the scene where Watkins is talking to the Doctor and Jamie as it seems like the episode was taking a breather. With Isobel and Zoe not being around that meant that Watkins became the human contact for the Doctor and Jamie. I’ll be honest that I didn’t really miss Zoe in this episode and I definitely didn’t miss Isobel. I think that I was too distracted by Jamie and the Doctor that I wasn’t bothered that Zoe wasn’t in the episode. I’m not saying that I don’t want her in the show but unfortunately she’s teamed up with Isobel and I don’t mind if we don’t see Isobel again.

I love how Vaughn refers to the Cybermen as allies. Considering that they aren’t mentioned in the title it’s still a mystery to the 1968 viewer. Apart from that Cyber Planner that we saw at the beginning of episode two, we haven’t really had much of a hint that they are the ones involved. Vaughn just gets better and better as he spends most of the episode shouting and belittling Packer. It almost seems like Vaughn has him around just so that he can shout at him. I almost felt sorry for Packer because if the Doctor was a normal person then he would have been caught and Packer would be in Vaughn’s good books but sadly the situation is what it is and Packer becomes Vaughn’s punching bag.

The big scene came when the Doctor and Jamie were trying to get away from Packer and climbing up the lift shaft. It took up a fair portion of the episode and led towards the cliffhanger. The cliffhanger was much better. It was a good thing to question just what Jamie was snuggling up to. I thought that it was atmospheric and the look on Frazer Hines’ face helped make it much creepier. Whilst I enjoyed this episode I cant say that there was anything special that happened during this episode. It was just perfectly paced and moved the story along enough to feel like it wasn’t stationery.

The Invasion - Episode 2

The first non-animated episode of the story is where we can really start to judge the vibe of the story. We learn that this story takes place four years after ‘The Web of Fear’ which if you apply the UNIT logic (a UNIT story takes place five years in the future of transmission), means that this story is set in 1977. It’s always good when they film on the streets of London because it makes it feel different because so often they are either entirely in a studio or in a dusty quarry. The incidental music continues to impress me and credit should go to Don Harper.

Something I forgot to mention during the first entry was the introduction of Packer. He is quite funny to watch but not in a bad way. I think he can be a brut when needed to but his incompetence is what stops him from being on Vaughn’s level. At times he almost seems like a teachers pet, almost coming across as desperate to try and impress Vaughn. Speaking of Vaughn, Kevin Stoney’s brilliance shows from the very moment the episode starts.

It’s 5 minutes and 31 seconds before UNIT are properly introduced when Nicholas Courtney makes his return. There was a nice reference to the last time that Lethbridge-Stewart appeared and we know straight away that he’s going to be relatively co-operative with the Doctor. Billy Rutledge is one of the two people that Lethbridge-Stewart draws the Doctor’s attention to and he is someone that we will meet later on but its like its just a gentle reminder to us to remember this name. We know he is someone in power so he’ll be getting in the Doctor’s way later on. We then learn that the other picture belongs to the driver that the Doctor met in episode one. He works for UNIT so it makes his death somewhat more sad.

The directing is very good which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering its being helmed by Douglas Camfield is has clocked up the highest number of episodes so far as a director. The particular shot which stands out and that’s when the car that Benton, Jamie and the Doctor are in is driving along the airfield and without stopping manages to get on the airplane ramp and stop in exactly the right place. It’s a nice bit of directing.

I really enjoyed this episode. In fact when I was rating this episode like I do with the 220 episodes before this. This story currently ranks at number 3 just behind the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ and the opening episode of ‘The Tenth Planet’ and its only the second Patrick Troughton episode to feature in the top 10  and the sixth to feature in the top 20. In terms of story rating, it is currently tied in second place with ‘Mission to the Unknown’. The only thing that lets it down slightly is the cliffhanger, here Packer is telling the Doctor and Jamie that they are like rats in a trap and it just dosent hit the mark for me but that’s the only thing that is wrong with the episode.

The Invasion - Episode 1

So now we get to amazingly the second longest story of the season. Normally eight episode would be long enough to rank and the longest but not during this season. This is the first time that we have had Cybermen since the less that spectacular ‘The Wheel in Space’. This is the first of two episodes to be animated and if I recall was one of the first DVD’s to receive the animated treatment. Now did I miss something? Only I remember the Master going into the TARDIS but at the start of this episode there is no sign of him.

There is a different feel to this story and that stems mostly from the incidental music. It’s very much like the sort of drama that you would see on ITV and it doesn’t have the same sort of vibe as other stories in the season have. This is something that I really like about the Invasion. There are many things that I like about this story including Tobias Vaughn and obviously the Cybermen but more of them later.  It starts off with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe getting a journey in the back of a lorry and you can tell that this isn’t going to be a normal story when the driver gets gunned down in quite a grim manner for 1968’s story.

This story was due to see the return of Professor Travers from ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ and ‘The Web of Fear’ however they don’t appear and we get Professor Watkins and his daughter Isobel. The moment that we meet Isobel isn’t the best for the character. I must admit that I don’t really like character very much. It might have something to do with the rather unpleasant treatment she gives the Doctor. She buddies up with Zoe and this means that Zoe is separated from the Doctor and Jamie, allowing them to visit the IE building. This story marks the debut of U.N.I.T which would become an integral part of the show. However the first person we see is Benton and even then its quite serious. Not the loveable Sergeant that we would know soon after. It’s not the proper introduction but it’s the prologue if you would like it the return of Lethbridge-Stewart.

The animation still stands up and I thought that it was very impressive when I first saw it. Compared to future animation releases I think that there is a nice simplicity to it and it helps the story and I’m guessing that it adds something to the episode because obviously as the episode is lost (for the moment), we will never know whether this episode is as atmospheric as the animation suggests.

Kevin Stoney returns to Doctor Who after playing Mavic Chen in ‘The Daleks Master Plan’ and I’ll be saying several times over the course of this run that he is easily the best thing in this story and is superb from the very first moment his head appears on a screen. As Tobias Vaughn, his character has an ice coldness to it. Aside from that the performances of the regulars are all quite striking as far as I am concerned. After the relatively light hearted feel of ‘The Mind Robber’ it’s good to give the three regulars something approaching mainstream drama. The story feels like its setting things up and doing it properly.

It’s a cracking opening episode. There is a great sense that from the very beginning to the very end of the episode that this eight part run is going to be a highlight of Troughtons’ run.

The Mind Robber - Episode 5

Now I am onto the final episode which is actually the shortest episode running at just 18 minutes. It’s about seven minutes less than a normal episode but to be honest judging by what I would see, I think that it was perhaps the right length.

The episode starts off with a nice little scene between the Master and the Doctor and it leads to a rather disappointing castle set. Things don’t get any better when Karkus made a return. Rapunzel also makes a return after her blink and you’ll miss it performance in episode three. De Bergerac is brought into the episode quite late in the episode and aside from the rather ridiculous prosthetic nose, it seemed like one character too many as far as I am concerned. It was during this moment where other characters were being bought in that I thought that the story was going a bit too far away from what I would be happy to put up with.

There’s a nice moment when the Doctor almost turns himself into fiction when he starts typing. Then it becomes a battle of wits between the Master and the Doctor. The scene where he gets tricked into the TARDIS and the box that he is in gets moved is rather well done. I also liked how Jamie and Zoe were used in this episode. The Master had copied them and got them to act differently to how they would normally and I liked this though somehow it seemed rather strange to see them do anything that would hurt the Doctor (yes I know they weren’t the real Zoe or Jamie). The performances of the regulars have all been rather good and they’ve dealt with the unusual story well and there wasn’t a dud performance and they were all given good stuff to do.

It’s good that they didn’t decide to kill off the Master. Normally he would have either sacrificed himself or just got caught in the crossfire but they decided just this once to end it on a good note. The way that it ended seemed a bit odd but I suppose odd is the perfect word for this story. As an episode it did feel a bit like it was 90% padding and 10% of proper story. Even though it was so short it didn’t have the sort of ending that I was expecting. I think that the problem with the story is that whilst it certainly has a charm that I hadn’t noticed before, it cant be said that it’s the most effectively told story as the excessive amount of fictional characters became an issue.

The Mind Robber - Episode 4

We see the return of the strange borrowed robots from the first episode. I would have rather have the clockwork soldiers instead of these borrowed robots. They served a purpose in the first episode because the soldiers would have looked out of place in the white void but after that they should have been the principle guard.

On a negative note, the Karkus is a rather silly character. The whole situation is make even more silly when Zoe is fighting with him. It another test for the regulars after dealing with the Medusa and the very beginning of the episode. Speaking of the Medusa, I am still impressed with the way that they made it work and still think that even by 2013 standards, it is something that gets overlooked because we would all like to knock the show for the slightly dodgy effects but this should be praised.

We get to meet the Master and we discover how he ended up being the Master and we learn that his mind is running the machine and effectively the world that the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves in. I thought that Emrys Jones’ performance as the Master was very good. He starts off in the first meeting with the Doctor started off quite nicely and then got somewhat nasty when the Doctor refuses to help. I should take a moment to comment on the set used as the master’s… is office the wrong word? Or should it be study? Anyway its rather well done though its not immediately noticeable that

The Master is well realised as he knows that Jamie and Zoe have escaped without actually acknowledging them on screen. He’s probably the best thing about the episode as we finally get to meet this character who seems to rule this world. It’s hard to really dislike the Master’s plan but obviously we understand why the Doctor doesn’t seem so keen but I think that I find Jones’ performance to be very warming.

After the ropey start, it does pick up to be quite an interesting episode even though its relatively short it feels like a normal length episode. I do feel that this experimental story is working well. It’s not going to be one of my favourite stories but I certainly feel that as we approach the final episode I am liking this story far more than I have done in the past. I think that whilst it feels like a bit of a mish-mash in terms of characters that have been thrown in, I certainly think that compared to say ‘The Celestial Toymaker’ or ‘The Web Planet’ this certainly beats them.

The Mind Robber - Episode 3

This episode starts with the horse that had been painted horse running towards them. When I write it like that it doesn’t sound particularly good but its perhaps better than I am making it sound. This episode sees Frazer Hines return after his bout of chicken pox. He returns on his 76^th episode and is just one behind William Russell now. It’s strange that as much as I thought Hamish Wilson did a good job standing in for Frazer, once Frazer was back I felt a little sense of relief that they were back together and it felt like it was back on track and it was done rather well if truth be told.

The thing about the episode is that it does feel like it’s a holding pattern until the Doctor gets to encounter the Master. Obviously not THE master but less intense version. It’s quite odd that we don’t get to see his face but rather just his voice and its left to the other characters to keep the danger levels up. There are more literal characters that appear apart from Gulliver. Rapunzel appears when she helps Jamie climb the rocks to avoid capture by the clockwork soldiers. Though no sooner has she appeared than she literally disappears. This means that Frazer has to do his best acting against a ticker tape machine reading whatever came out of it. To be Frazer, he did it very well.

I was impressed with the stop-animation effect used to realise the Madusa. If you did this now it would look very slick and very good but doing it back in 1968 makes it look even more good. The cave scenes were also quite good because they didn’t seem boring and did the job that they needed to do and it was during this that some sense came to the producers because they could have shown us what the minotaur looked like but they didn’t and instead we got to see the shadow which was obviously the right thing to do because no doubt it wouldn’t have looked as good on screen.

Whilst I was impressed with the Madusa realisation, I thought that the cliffhanger did lack a sense of drama. It seemed like a bit of a weak ending but that’s probably the worst thing that I could say about it because as an episode it works very well and seems to be comfortable in its current setting. As far as experimental stories its one that works reasonably well and I am certainly a lot more engaged in the story than I was at any point during ‘The Dominators’.

The Mind Robber - Episode 2

So now we are onto Peter Ling’s story. After the padded episode we get to the meat of the story and this is where things start to go a bit mad. It’s always cool when the TARDIS breaks up as it’s a well done effect.

This is the episode where Frazer Hines is absent from the episode as he had chicken pox although in what has to be seen as a clever answer to explain his absence they don’t write the character out but get someone to play him. It’s a shame it happened in this episode as it marks his 75^th episode and overtakes Jacqueline Hill and becomes the second longest serving companion in the shows history (so far). Hamish Wilson does a good job of pretending to be Jamie and whilst it seems odd for someone else to be Jamie, Wilson does a good job considering he probably had little to no time to prepare.

This is where the story starts to go slightly mad. We get Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels and then there are a group of kids who pop up with riddles. It’s shortly after this that the Doctor and I suspect the viewers realised this wasn’t going to be quite like normal Doctor Who stories which depending on your point of view is a good or a bad thing. The scene where the Doctor has to try and come up with the right face for Jamie is a telling moment because after 77 episodes you would have thought that the Doctor would have known what Jamie looked like however the only purpose it served was to accommodate Frazer Hines’ absence.

This episode marks the first appearance of Bernard Horsfall who plays Gulliver. He would go on to appear in several episodes and is always impressive in whatever role he plays.

One of the more impressive things about this episode was the realisation of the sets. It’s not pointed out until halfway into the episode that what appears to be a forest of trees is in fact a forest of words. Another are the clockwork guards which are rather impressive and are much better than the robots that we saw in the previous episode.

I think it’s fair that the cliffhanger is fitting to the tone of the story. It ends with a unicorn charging at the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. Although its a horse and its just been painted white and I think that it’s a brave attempt that almost works however I just don’t buy it. On the other hand I can’t imagine what else they could have done considering that unicorns don’t exist (sorry folks but they don’t). I do find myself to be in two minds about this story. I think that there are things to enjoy and its certainly more enjoyable than ‘The Dominators’ but its not quite as good as some of the season five stories and that’s what doesn’t sit right with me. However at the moment the quality of the story has stayed at the same level since we moved into the story and that’s at least a good sign.

The Mind Robber - Episode 1

The Mind Robber is another strange story and it starts off with the conclusion to the previous episode where the Doctor set on an explosion and lava was about to hit the TARDIS. This is a special episode as its an add on episode to Peter Ling’s story. His adventure will start in episode two but what we have here are the regulars on their own with no supporting characters and just the TARDIS set. So this is a Derrick Sherwin episode and its interesting to see how these three characters work together as opposed to how the first Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan worked together.

I like the scene where Jamie and Zoe both think that they have seen their home worlds. This is the start of the weird things happening and the scene concludes with the Doctor feeling the effects the most. The scenes with Zoe and Jamie outside the TARDIS and the Doctor trying to fight the influences are really good and I have to say that Jamie and Zoe in white outfits make them look like they have just come from some Tim Burton film. Frazer Hines looks the…. Well I want to say weirdest but I find myself saying funniest.

Credit must go to the cast for making a clearly defined space seem bigger than it was. It’s clear where the set ends because it curves but to be honest I didn’t mind to much as I thought that the performances from both Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury help convince us that they are in a misty void. Wendy Padbury goes from having one ridiculous outfit in ‘The Dominators’ to another silly costume here. She is put into a glitter catsuit which is clearly ‘for the dads’. I think that Wendy Padbury has been allowed to settle down and serves a purpose that Deborah Watling wasn’t allowed to serve and that is act as someone on the same intellectual level as the Doctor. Frazer Hines also does a very good job and I think that I like the Jamie/Zoe relationship more than the Jamie/Victoria one. Patrick Troughton doesn’t have much to do but boy does he do it well.

I’m technically not telling the truth when I say that its just the regulars in this episode as we meet the robots. Due to the fact that this had to be a cheap episode the writer had to recycle what he found and what he found were some robots from a BBC TV series called ‘Out of the Unknown’. Not sure about whether this is a good idea but I suppose in the bonkers scheme of things, this might just work.

The shot of the TARDIS breaking up was a fantastic scene followed by Zoe and Jamie clinging onto the TARDIS console (though there is a funny model shot where Zoe has a very long and bendy arm). The scene is made a lot more dramatic by Zoe screaming which isn’t something I remember the character doing a great deal. It’s a great way to end the episode and I think that Derrick Sherwin did a good job of holding our attentions long enough so that the second episode and the proper story can get started. The cast also deserve praise because their performances help destract us from the fact there aren’t any other cast members. My faith in series six has been restored and its easily the best episode of the season so far.