The Mutants - Episode 3

Against my better judgement, I have decided to be more positive with this story. I still maintain that it’s a terrible story but this story is going to take longer to endure if I don’t look on the Brightside of things. Firstly, Stubbs and Cotton are quite fun to watch and are a good double act. They have been good since the first episode but in a sea of mediocrity they are a bright beacon of warmth and humour. The Marshall is quite cold as he talks about wiping out the mutts. He seems less like pantomime villain from the previous episodes and instead is more of a serious baddie. The fact that he gets off his backside and goes onto the planet is what makes him step up a gear in my book.

Thankfully the story gets out of the studio and moves onto the planet for a large portion of the episode. The caves scenes are well done and are quite dramatic. The moments where Ky is trying to fight off the mutts is a good bit and the mutts themselves are quite good designs. The only thing that spoils the cave scenes is the disco bit where Jo encounters a silvery figure doesn’t work quite well because it’s a CSO scene so it was never going to fit in with the episode.

The first scene with the Doctor, Varan and Ky was very good because the performances were all just as good. Jon Pertwee again gets the better share of the action compared to Katy Manning. His quest to find out whats in the ball is over and now he’s on to a new mission to find out what they mean. Manning gets to have some good lines with Ky but again falls into the traditional companion trap and just runs and gets into trouble. Ky gets to hold the sphere that the Doctor has been holding onto and in it there are Solonian tablets. It does feel like this part of the story is moving forward because apart from that there is very little in terms of plot progression (it’s a struggle to remain positive).

Even taking my new positive attitude out of the equation, this isn’t a terrible episode as there are plenty of things that pass the time but it’s still a story that doesn’t have a great idea.  It’s horrible to say that the whole thing is boring because its directed by Christopher Barry and I think that Barry is a fantastic director and Bob & Dave Baker are good writers but this one doesn’t quite stand up.

 

The Mutants - Episode 2

I’ve reached a stage in this marathon (need to come up with a better more positive name for this) and I think my I sort of know which stories are ones that I am going to look forward to and which ones are going to be the dreaded ones. During the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton eras I was prepared to expect that my opinion of the stories and episodes would change. They largely changed to a more positive view. The problem with the Pertwee era is that when his stories are good they are very good and when they are not good they are very poor and season nine has been the first season which has been largely below average. I have been trying to put my finger on just why I haven’t warmed to this adventure.

Now that Geoffrey Palmer’s character got killed in the previous episode it means that the Marshall is perhaps the most interesting of the supporting characters and he is the only one that has some colour in their performance. The rest of them are as bland and uninteresting as it is possible to be. This is possibly one of the reasons why my interest has gone on holiday for a few days.

One of the few positives to take from this episode is that at least we get to see what is inside the sphere even if its just for a moment and we don’t really know what it is. Another is that George Pravda returns to the show after appearing in ‘The Enemy of the World’. I was so happy when he first appeared in the episode because it was like a breath of fresh air.

Jon Pertwee has the better slice of the action in this episode as he spends the time trying to find out what’s in the sphere. He also gets to have some good scenes with Pravda. Katy Manning on the other hand gets some good stuff but unfortunately is stuck with Ky. She’s put in the predictable position of being put in danger where she has to walk on Solos with its poisonous atmosphere. This is about as good as it got for Jo.

Considering it has such an important political and social message, I cant help but admit that I find this story totally boring and nothing of any good has come from this episode. I feel like I am ready to give up on this story. Don’t get me wrong I am going to stick with it, but I think that this one of those stories that I will just have to endure instead of enjoy.

The Mutants - Episode 1

The Mutants isn’t the best story that I think that there has ever been in Doctor Who.This is another non-Earth story which should be a cause of celebration. However since the Third Doctor started travelling in the TARDIS, its fair to say that the stories in space aren’t as good as they were during the Troughton era. My opinion of this story hasn’t been particularly good but I am hoping that watching it an episode at a time will change my opinion. This is a Bob Baker and Dave Martin story who wrote the previous season’s ‘The Claws of Axos’. This time they have six episodes.

The Doctor’s mission is a lot clear than it was when he went off in ‘Colony in Space’. He has to deliver a ball to someone. The Timelords went to the trouble of sending it to the Doctor but not bothering to tell him who it was for. Bit careless of the Timelords really. If only they had put a name on it then it would have reduced this six part adventure to a four part adventure. The box does open when Ky walks by and this explains who it is for but it would have spared us some time if we knew who was suppose to get it.

The world that the Doctor and Jo find themselves in is one of humans giving independence of Solos to the solonians. The earthmen (or overlords as they referred to) aren’t particularly interesting. They are as bland as boring as you could imagine. Only Geoffrey Palmer has any life in him. Even the Solonians aren’t very interesting and whilst I could understand their frustration, I think that they don’t find any of them particularly interesting which is a problem that is going to follow the rest of the story.

The cliffhanger was probably the best thing of the entire episode as it was the only time there was any excitement. So as you can probably imagine, I still don’t think that this story is as good as it could be. I am still hoping that things pick up but after being spoilt with a good monster and some good location filming, I don’t think that my opinion is going to change but there are still five episodes to change my mind.

The Sea Devils - Episode 6

The reprise of the cliffhanger starts off with the Doctor fighting the Sea Devils before being knocked out by one. This is where the episode should have ended but instead we got the strange cliffhanger that we did. Despite this slightly poor reprise it but the action moves along quickly enough for us to forget this.

The scene where Jo and Captain Hart are trying to escape through an escape hatch is made enjoyable because Walker is now acting like a scared child. It’s the mirror opposite of how he was acting in the previous episode. He’s back to his old self before too long when he eating and drinking and wanting to blow the sea devils out of the water. Walker has been such a loathsome character and it feels like he had been in the show for the entire six episode run rather than just these two.

Captain Hart now feels like he’s on the Doctor’s side. He’s fighting the sea devils and is doing all the things that anyone on the Doctors side should be doing. There’s one moment where he’s using a bit machine gun and is aiming at the sea devils. I was thinking that it’s the sort of thing that Jon Pertwee should be doing.

There is a good action sequence with the Doctor chasing the Master via hover boat. This was one of two scenes that involved the pair of them. The second one was as the sea devils base explodes and the pair of them are floating on the water. The location scenes have been fun from start to finish and its as if the best was saved until last. The last few moments of the episode are of the Master going off in the hovercraft with the Doctor looking on. I thought that this was a disappointing way to end the episode but that’s not the worst thing in the world.

There are the usual things to like about this episode such as the scene where the Doctor and the Master work together with the Doctor trying to do something that will throw a spanner in the works. Another thing that appears is a nice stunt jump and then there is someone who is asked to guard the Master but quickly falls under the Masters hypnosis.

If I had one critiscm of this episode is that it doesn’t feel like the sea devils are the main priority. It seems like it’s more about the Doctor and the Master and the battle at the navy base. It doesn’t feel like a final episode which is always a bit of a worry for me because I would have thought that they would want to build up to something. That said I still think that as a six part adventure its easily the best one of the season so far. The location footage is what is most memorable about this story and also the Sea Devils makes this a memorable story. Sadly I’ve just noted what is coming next and its ‘The Mutants’ oh well the good times had to come to an end at some point.

The Sea Devils - Episode 5

As we approach the final third of the story. I must say that considering it’s a six part story and considering its part of a rather lacklustre season, I don’t think that the story is going to dragging and with the solid cliffhangers I feel like the series has got back on its feet. It doesn’t take long for us to find out what happened to the Doctor and its leads us to the Sea Devils base.

Walker the Parliamentary Private Secretary is introduced into this episode and instantly comes across as your typical civil servant who gets in the way and looks like he is going to ruin everything. It comes at time when Captain Hart has developed. There is nothing good about Walker and I think that this is what Malcolm Hulke was aiming for.

I don’t know why but the design of the sea devils don’t look quite as impressive as they did before. They also sound quite different to how you would expect them to sound. Apart from that its good that we get a good amount of screen time from them and one of their first scenes comes when the Doctor and the Master are trying to convince the sea devils which course of action is right. It’s rather frustrating then that when the Doctor seems to have got the Sea Devils to see sense than Walker orders the firing.

Jon Pertwee puts in a fantastic performance as the Doctor starts off by trying to broker a peace settlement with the Sea Devils and then by the end of the episode has given Walker a stern dressing down. Roger Delgado is also on fine form and spends the entire episode with the sea devils. There is one moment when he’s walking towards the camera delivery a speech and it’s a great moment because it make Delgado look like an important figure and it’s the first time since his debut that this has really been the case. Sadly, Katy Manning doesn’t really do very much in this episode and I think that she’s a victim of time because with the Doctor, the Master, Sea Devils and Walker, the episode doesn’t really allow for Jo Grant to show how good she is.

I’m still impressed with what the Navy were prepared to let the show use and shoot. The footage of the ships firing into the sea looks impressive and helps lend a real sense that this story is suppose to be taking place at sea. Even something as normal as a submarine rising from the sea looks impressive. The only thing that does let the episode down is the cliffhanger which I have to admit is somewhat disappointing because whilst it might be exciting that the Sea Devils have started to invade the navy base, the fact that the last shot is just one of them holding up their gun is somewhat anti-climatic compared to some of the cliffhangers we’ve had in this story. The episode itself is rather good as the some of the scenes are really good and a new character is introduced to help breathe some freshness into proceedings. With one more episode to go I think that this is definelty the best story of the ninth season.

The Sea Devils - Episode 4

Going slightly off topic, today is the ninth anniversary since the show returned. It seems like not that long ago that there was the excitement of new Doctor Who for the first time since 1996. On March 26 2005, the Ninth Doctor first met Rose and the Autons returned and the shot was back. It’s good to see and think about the differences as I start to watch this fourth episode. After the strong cliffhanger from the previous episode, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be as long as the previous reprise or tidied up as quickly as the first cliffhanger was. The scene where the Doctor and Jo are going through the minefield is a very good one. The Doctor jumps on the barb wire to allow Jo to get through and then the sonic screwdriver is used as a mine detector. This is an enjoyable and exciting start to the episode and ended with a sea devil going back into the sea.

The Master/Trenchard dynamic has been quite fun to watch in these four episodes. I do find Trenchard to be an intriguing character because I think that he’s been naïve more than manipulated by the Master. It does seem like Trenchard has reached the end of his usefulness as he goes down fighting when he shoots the Sea Devils. We don’t see the moment that he’s killed which is perhaps the best thing. It’s a shame that he went out whilst being fooled. The Master ploughs on with his plan. The look on his face when the Sea Devils come into his cell is the one of confidence and its funny to see that because we know how it will go and even watching in 1972 it would have been obvious to see this.

Captain Hart starts off by being just as sceptical as he always been and this is the point when I wish the character would mature and start to believe the Doctor and go along with what he says. Thankfully he does start this in the latter stages of the episode when he lends a diving bell to the Doctor. The shots inside the diving bell were very good and help add to the realistic feel of these scenes. It’s quite good how the Navy were so willing to lend the BBC all this stuff to make this show. It’s hard to imagine that anyone even the BBC would get this level of co-operation from the Navy.

Jon Pertwee starts off quite action like by helping Jo get over the mine-field but does come across as a bit of a swine when he scolds Jo for wanting to eat the sandwiches and then proceeds to do just that. I think that this was a minor blip and redeems himself with a great end to the episode. Katy Manning doesn’t quite have the same good time as Pertwee but seems to fall into the standard companion trap of just being worried about the Doctor.

The cliffhanger is another good one as there is the question of where the Doctor is and what happened after the camera left the Doctor looking at the Sea Devil. This is the second episode in a row where I feel like this is the big story that I felt it was in the past. The writing has been very good and the direction from Michael E Briant is great to look at. From the location filming at the very beginning of the episode to the diving bell stuff at the bottom every shot was well done and everything seems to have worked well together.

The Sea Devils - Episode 3

The third episode has a rather long reprise. That not really a complaint but merely a fact. It’s a good thing to reprise and it picks up with a knife narrowly missing the Doctor’s head. That some mighty fine throwing that Roger Delgado managed (I obviously know he didn’t). It’s sad to see Trenchard act the way that he does in this episode. The fact he’s willing to believe the Master over the Doctor is to be expected but still its sad to see. The Master gives a good reason as to why he still stays in the prison when he’s got one over Trenchard.

There’s a nice bit of continuity when the Master refers to the files that he stole in ‘Colony in Space’. It’s due to these files that he reads about the Sea Devils and this is a way for him to continue his destruction of the world plan which has failed about half a dozen times since ‘Terror of the Autons’.

Jo gets to do some entertaining stuff in the early stages of this episode after escaping from some guards and running around the castle. Jo is well used in this episode and gets to free the Doctor after he’s chained up. The Doctor doesn’t have the best episode after the sword fight with the Doctor. The best moment after that comes when he has a scene with Trenchard and he talks about how anyone at UNIT would vouch for him. Considering how at times the Doctor has contempt for UNIT, its somewhat unfortunate that he only speaks about UNIT like this when it suits him.

I commented that I like the location filming that occurs in this story and that continues to be the case in this episode where the show goes to the beach. This leads to some good moments in this episode and some enjoyable ones in the next episode but even the stuff at the beginning with Jo is shot well and I think its some of the best location filming in the season. A part of the story moves to the submarine and there are some really good scenes in the sub which is surprising considering the person in charge is less than likeable and its just the one set that is used.

The cliffhanger is rather good with the Sea Devils coming out of the sea. I am happy that the cliffhangers are just as good as the episodes after being worried in recent episodes that the cliffhangers have been rather weak, its good that there seems to have been some though put into them. After three episodes, its clear that this story is the best of the season so far and whilst that might be damning with faint praise it’s the truth and I think that the second half is going to be just as good as the first half.

The Sea Devils - Episode 2

It’s quickly revealed that the mysterious figure is just Clark. His involvement is minimal because after he is knocked out (nicely) by the Doctor, he doesn’t appear much. It does make the cliffhanger seem like a throwaway one which is somewhat annoying. There are some quite well realised scenes in the early stages of this episode, largely involving the Sea Devils and the incidental music. Talking of the Sea Devils we get a proper scene with one of them and it doesn’t show them in a good light. I think that this is quite clever because it shows the Doctor as the lone voice of reason whilst everyone wants to bomb them in future episodes. It also continues the trait of Pertwee’s Doctor where he wants to find the peaceful solution even after being shot at.

Captain Hart continues to show displeasure at the Doctor’s actions. It would be fun to have had a scene with the Captain and the Brigadier. It would be worth it just to see the look on the Brigadier’s face with a ‘I know how you feel’ look. I think it’s perfectly normal to have this sort of scene in my head.

There’s an interesting bit when the Doctor refers to the events of Doctor Who and the Silurians but what makes it interesting is that the Doctor informs us that they should have been called Eocenes which is their correct name (apparently). It seems like it’s the sort of correction that a newspaper puts in when they’ve printed something wrong. It doesn’t really pop up later on in the story so it doesn’t really seem to have much point really.

It didn’t take long for the Master to get his plan going and he’s in pretty much the majority of the episode. In fact the final scene is the highlight when he’s fighting with the Doctor in a sword/gun fight. It ends with the very real possibility that the Doctor might die. I know I have complained in the past about this plot device because we know that it wont happen but it would be intriguing for 1972 audiences to wonder just how the Doctor was going to survive this one. It was a great cliffhanger to a rather strong episode. It progressed things enough so that it didn’t feel like padding but still feeling like we were going somewhere plot wise.

The Sea Devils - Episode 1

The Sea Devils is one of my favourite Jon Pertwee stories and it’s the first time in this season that I feel like I am about to watch a strong story that doesn’t have any faults to it. If I’m being picky then there is one thing missing from this story and that’s the lack of UNIT and the Brigadier. That said another name does return in this episode and it’s a blessed relief.

The opening scene is a great set up with where we see the hand of a sea devil (although at this point we wouldn’t know this at the time). It seems like it should be before the title sequence and then into the action. It’s written by Malcolm Hulke who’s got a great track record and its another reason why I have a certain amount of optimism for this six part adventure. Another reason is that there is an extraordinary amount of location footage and its good to get outside after spending four episodes stuck in a studio bound story.

It’s been eight episodes since we last saw Roger Delgado and whilst I wished that they would have bought him in sooner, it’s good to have him back now. At the end of ‘The Daemons’ he was taken away and it’s good that he didn’t find a way off screen to escape as when we see him in this episode, he is a prisoner. The first scene between the Master, the Doctor and Jo was a good one as it started with a weird friendly chat between Pertwee and Delgado. The scene is good because the Master is trying to pretend that everything is normal and by the end of the scene the Master is laughing showing that he’s back on form like he’d never been away.

It doesn’t take long for the truth about Trenchard being in the Doctor’s pocket. This means that it isn’t so much a prison but a holiday camp. The Master uses Trenchard’s sense of civic duty and makes him feel like things are for the greater good and it’s a shame that Trenchard doesn’t see the Master for what he is and he is a character that comes across like Godfrey in Dad’s Army. A nice character that I enjoy watching.

As the story is set at sea there isn’t any narrative reason to have UNIT in the story so instead we get the navy and we are introduced to Captain Hart. Hart starts off like a no nonsense captain that is furious when the Doctor turns up. Edwin Richfield plays the character exactly right at this moment as someone who isn’t use to the Doctor or what happens to him.

There is a scene where the Master is watching the Clangers and I cant watch this scene now without thinking of the scene in the 2007 episode ‘Sound of Drums’ where John Simm’s Master is watching the Teletubbies. It’s a scene that introduces a fort which is where the story moves to. The fact we don’t see the Sea Devils properly until very late in the episode is no a new plot device but its still good and the look of them IS quite distinctive.

The music is used to great effect in this episode. It instantly gives a creepy impression and is used in a way that adds to the story and it’s the most distinctive music since ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’. Malcolm Clarke has done a good job with the music and its sadly a rare thing that I don’t comment on as often as I should.

The first time that I saw the cliffhanger I was quite spooked by it. The dark danky setting of the fort twinned with the knowledge that a Sea Devil is about ponce. Sadly after watching it countless times the menace of it is somewhat lost and whilst it might not have the initial impact that it did have, it’s still a lot better than some of the cliffhangers that I’ve seen this season. It’s a good solid opening episode and I feel good about this story which is the first time for a while that I have felt that.

The Curse of Peladon - Episode 4

At the end of the previous episode, the Doctor was in a fight for his life and only because Arcturus has been killed. It’s amazing that this manages to stop the fight. Arcturus is revealed to be the one that is in collusion with Hepesh. This would seem to suggest that things would be wrapped up pretty quickly but Hepesh doesn’t hang around and instead seems to turn his plans into a cout de ta. There seems to be a massive improvement in the number of soldiers and this leads to a good fight sequence in the main chamber.

Hepesh has been good in this episode and its seems a shame that after some patchy moments, he comes good at the end of the story. It’s good how he does seem to show some compassion by not wanting the King to be hurt. It does seem quite fiting that he’s killed by Agador who he has been using as a pet for many years. His death scene is quite sad and that’s due to the good performance from Geoffrey Toone (Hepesh) and David Troughton. I know that I haven’t been particularly fond of King Peladon buts that nothing to do with Troughton’s acting but merely how the character has been written.

I like how they make several references to the Doctor and Jo still being representatives of Earth. The moment when they ask Jo to use her ship to communicate with others, the look on her face is quite priceless. The very last shot is of the Doctor and Jo leaving as they discover that they have been rumbled when the real earth delegate turns up. I think that the episode is a vast improvement and whilst the story over the four parts wasn’t the strongest, it was helped by the fact that things seemed to be moving quite quick. The performances from Hepesh, the Doctor and Jo help maintain my interest. It’s not a terrible story by any means but I think that it needed something else to help elevate it above its current standing in Doctor Who opinion.

The Curse of Peladon - Episode 3

As we approach the second part of the story I worry that this studio bound story doesn’t quite have the bite that I think that it should have. The previous episode had a lot of nothing in it and this episode needed to deliver. At the end of the previous episode the Doctor was accused of herecy and this forms the plot for this episode.  The romance between the King and Jo is given a bit more time in this episode as Jo uses this to try and stop the Doctor from being killed or put in the fight. The scene ends with Jo receiving a marriage proposal. The King is somewhat weak in this episode as his inability to take decisive action is becoming frustrating.

The Doctor has a good scene with Hepesh where he discusses why he’s gone to the trouble staging things and its good that Hepesh isn’t pretending anymore. Jon Pertwee’s best scene comes when he’s trying to calm Agador whom he encounters in the caves. The Doctor’s attempts are foiled when Jo comes barging in scaring it away. Jo makes up for it by the fact that she gets to be quite feisty from the very beginning and its good to see but it doesn’t happen enough for my liking.
I do like how there seems to be more finger pointing with Arcturus being suspicious of the Ice Warriors. It doesn’t seem to be given much time and its introduced too late into the story. Had it been done in episode two then I think that this would have made the story better but hey ho, better late than never.

The Doctor gets to have his trial by combat (I say that like he wants it) and it leads to a very good and well-choreographed fight. Sometimes its clear that its not Pertwee but Terry Walsh doing some of the movements but its still a good fight. It ends in rather a horrific way with the Doctor appearing to strangle the Kings Champion before letting go. Visually its slightly odd because its not filmed at TV centre so it has that different look to and its slightly disrupts the flow of continuity.

I thought that the cliffhanger was another good one and I felt that the episode on the whole was better than the previous. There seemed to be a bit more going on in this episode and it flows better than it seemed to in part two. I really don’t know what to feel about this story and I think that the final episode will determine whether I consider this to be a good story or not.

The Curse of Peladon - Episode 2

The second episode starts off quite good with the cliffhanger of the Agador statue about to squash some of the delegates and then Hepesh pipes up about the curse and the thing about Hepesh is that he’s so willing to use Agador as a reason to end the meeting but its not going to happen. Hepesh is starting to grate on me as he just seems like a rather repetitive character that has a dodgy haircut. The King has fallen for Jo and after the initial opening moments, this scene seems like its from another programme when you look at it in the context of the rest of the episode. It’s easy to believe that the king and Jo would be drawn to each other.

The Ice Warriors start their character development in this episode as they go from being the one accused of things going wrong to be the accusers. In this story they aren’t the baddies but its still odd to think of them as anything but the bad guy. The Doctor thinks that the Ice Warriors are the guilty ones purely on past experiences.

The Doctor doesn’t really have much to do in this episode and the only thing of any worth that he gets to do is stop Arcturus from being killed after his life support is compromised. That’s its really and Jo has a slightly better time when she seems to be investigator and after being locked up manages to escape. It’s a times like this that I wish that Roger Delgado would pop up in some convoluted plot.
The problem is that this story just doesn’t seem to grab me in ways that I would have hoped. It’s not a terrible story by any means but it’s a who-dunnit that doesn’t have much mileage in it. It’s a shame that Brian Hayles has written the sort of story that he did during the Troughton era. There are a lot of talkie bits which are fine but I do find myself getting slightly bored with it and just wanting the Ice Warriors to be better than they are. The cliffhanger is rather good with the Doctor being accused of heresy. I think that it’s the best thing in what was a rather mediocre episode. I worry that any goodness that I felt towards this story is rapidly disappearing and any goodness towards this season. After six episodes it feels like the show is starting to go into auto-pilot.

The Curse of Peladon - Episode 1

As I start watching ‘The Curse of Peladon’, I’m going to start off with a couple of stats. The first is that this is the first time that we have had two four part stories back to back for the first time since The Underwater Menace and The Moonbase back in season four. It’s also the first appearance of the Ice Warriors since ‘The Seeds of Death’ 71 episodes ago. They don’t appear until the half way mark and I love how the moment they first appear it seems to imply that he’s up to no good with even the Doctor using the term “no good”. Sadly they are made friendlier than they were during the Troughton era and this is a shame and it’s the beginning of the softer side of the Ice Warriors.

The first thing we see is an excellent model of the castle of Peladon. It is just a cardboard cut out but it’s still a rather good model. We get some good scenes when the Doctor and Jo arrive as it looks like it’s a substantial sized set and with the thunder and lightning effects, we get a nice idea that we’re not going to get any location scenes. I like that this story has an isolated feel to it as it seems to hark back to the base under siege stories of the Troughton era and at the same time it’s a who-dunnit.

At the time this was transmitted (January/February 1972), the UK was debating whether to join the EEC and it seems like a very apt time to try and use this in a sci-fi setting. Peladon is about the join the Galactic Federation which is dividing opinion.

King Peladon is played by David Troughton who returns after last appearing in ‘The War Games’ and is also Patrick Troughton’s son. The character of the King is a tortured soul who is conflicted between wanting the best for his people not wanting to bring misfortune to Peladon. Hepesh instantly shows that he’s not someone that is to be trusted and this starts from the very beginning. He’s spouting all this nonsense about Agador. Alpha Centuri is a character that might look a bit silly but in 1972 it would have been fine so its fine in 2014. Arcturus doesn’t look much better as it’s a head in a jar with some green slim and disco lights around its head. The sound modulator used for its voice seems to be left over from ‘Day of the Daleks’.

The cliffhanger is a rather good one with a statue of Agador about to come crashing down on some of the delegates. As an opening episode it seems like this would have been a better season opener than Day of the Daleks but I have always thought that this was a better Peladon story than the sequel we get soon. I feel better about this season now we have had this opening episode. The opening episode introduces some good characters and a story that looks like its going to be a lot better than I have previously given it credit for in the past.

Day of the Daleks - Episode 4

The final episode of this story comes at the right time because there is no way that this would have stretched to six episodes. I was thinking that considering this isn’t a Terry Nation story it’s a perfectly fine plot, Louis Marks has written a good story in the past in the form of ‘Planet of Giants’ and was given the job of bringing the Daleks into the groovy seventies. Sadly some aspects of this story are from the sixties.

The reprise is just as uneventful as the cliffhanger. The way that it’s (thankfully) ended is when the controller intervenes. Sometimes the controller is quite clever in the things that he does. The controller still thinks that he’s got a future with the Daleks though in the end he does redeem himself by letting the Doctor and Jo escape. Pretty soon he is shown as a failure and is exterminated. Clearly he didn’t go to extermination acting because it’s a rather lifeless (forgive the pun) performance and it’s a shame because I have found Aubrey Woods to be a interesting influence over the four episodes.
The fact that the war was started by one of the guerrillas going back in time and accidentally setting off the bomb which gets blamed on styles and so the guerrillas have accidentally created a paradox. I think that it’s a clever way of explaining how this started. They could have done a rather feeble way of explaining this but Louis Marks has done well with this aspect of the story.

The main point of the first episode takes centre stage in the latter half of this episode when Styles returns and its good to have Styles and the Brigadier back because it feels like there is a bit of meat to the story. Wilfred Carter has been very good as Styles and even when he’s being told to leave the house he’s still acting like an unreasonable civil servant.
The Daleks attack on Syles’ mansion is rather pitiful and very disappointing. Lets take this step by step. Firstly the fact that there are just three Daleks and a couple of Ograns is rather a flimsy group. If your that desperate to prevent someone changing history, wouldn’t you use more. Secondly, why come from the rear and lead the only means of escape free for everyone to leave at their own convenience? It’s a rather poor way to end the episode and it’s a shame really.

The way that the episode ends is nice because it’s a nice two shot with the Doctor and Styles who discuss about the importance of making sure the peace conference goes ahead. It’s a ending with a moral that stands true even today. As an episode its rather frustrating which is pretty much how I feel about this entire story because there are things about it. It was good to have the Daleks back but again the voices and the fact they don’t do very much means that their first story since 1967 is a rather underwhelming affair. The ninth season gets off to an awkward start.

Day of the Daleks - Episode 3

The penultimate episode of this story starts off with the really good cliffhanger. The Doctor manages to find himself in the 22^nd century by accident and its means that we don’t see Nicholas Courtney apart from the in the reprise. The fact that the Doctor moves to the 22^nd century is the natural progression of the story. The shot that is used to show what 22^nd Century earth looks like is rather disappointing compared to the special edition version we get. It’s basically a block of flats which is a horrible sight but doesn’t exactly scream 22^nd century. Anyway that’s the only exterior shot we get because pretty quickly the Doctor gets the scene with the controller.

The Daleks have been quite static up until now but at least we get some movement, mainly at the start but it’s better than nothing. I find it rather frustrating when they whinge about productivity being low. You would have thought by now that they would realise that they need to feed the slaves in order to get any results. Oh well it’ll come to them sooner or later.

There’s an odd that the controller doesn’t pay eye contact with one of the technicians. The controller’s behaviour is quite interesting in this episode as he continues to play the generous host when he first encounters the Doctor. This leads to the best scene of the episode is the food scene with the controller, the Doctor and Jo where the Doctor takes the controller to task much to Jo’s disappointment. I like how she’s defending the controller even though she hasn’t seen what the Doctor’s seen. It doesn’t take much for Jo to side with the Doctor and this leads to them escaping. It’s good that they have been reunited (even though its not been very long).

There’s another clever shot from Paul Bernard. It comes at the end of the Doctor/Jo/Controller scene when the Doctor’s talking and the camera pulls out before it being clear that we’re looking at a screen. It’s simple yet effective and I am surprised at how impressed I am with this effect. Then again compared to some aspects of this story it doesn’t take much. There’s a great moment where the Doctor and Jo are on a trike. It’s a typical Pertwee moment. I could imagine Jon Pertwee being impressed with the trike but Katy Manning must have been a little bit nervous.

The cliffhanger is ok but not as good as the previous. The Doctor being strapped to a table with images of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton appearing on the screen. It’s a nice way to set up the final episode and as an episode I thought that there was nothing particular special but its not a terrible story. The only time that I get frustrated with things is when the Daleks talk any to be honest they haven’t actually done anything really which is odd.

Day of the Daleks - Episode 2

After not been terribly impressed with the opening episode of the Daleks’ overdue return, I was hoping that the story might make up for the mistakes of that episode. The episode starts with the Doctor being taken for Sir Reginald Styles. It’s good that we learn a bit more about what the guerrillas are doing and why they want to do it. I don’t think that they are particularly good really and they seem rather hapless. You would have thought that they would know what Styles looks like and make such an amateur error. Ok they might not have endless resources at their disposal but I just think that they would make a better attempt to try and discover what his appearance is. Speaking of Styles he only gets a brief mention in this episode when the Brigadier mentions that he has got the Chinese to attend the peace conference.

The Doctor and Jo have mixed fortunes in this episode. Jo gets transported to the 22^nd Century by accident and as if that wasn’t bad enough she gets transported in front of the controller. I like how the moment that Jo and the controller start talking, he is doing his very best to come across as her best friend trying to get information out of her. I now like the character and think that he’s a lot smarter than he was made to look in the previous episode. Sadly Jo doesn’t come across as particularly smart as she gives up lots of information about where she came from with next to no coercion. The Doctor is less active in this episode due to the fact that he spends most of it with a gun pointed at him.
At one point there are about five or six ograns which is a lot more than the number of Daleks we see in episode four. The Ograns are simple yet effective as they are quite imposing yet aren’t particularly smart.

Something I didn’t mention before was the location filming. Paul Bernard has done a good job in making the location footage look part of the story not just something to break up the studio filming. Another thing that Bernard did well was the shots where the controller is talking to the Daleks via the CSO screens. Basically he done well in making the image of the Daleks appear over the controller shot and for the controller to appear in exactly the right place. Those who are smarter than me might not be impressed with that but I think that it must be tougher than it seems to make that work.
The cliffhanger was a cracking one. A dalek appearing in a dimly lit tunnel is a fantastic image and it’s a great moment in the story. Sadly the voice of the Dalek diminishes any threat of menace that we had heard earlier but I think that its started to get going which is a relief after the rather underwhelming opening episode. My optimism has been elevated a lot more from this 25 minutes and I have high hopes of the next two episodes.

Day of the Daleks - Episode 1

This is the first episode of season nine, quite amazing to think that I am this far into it. This is the 60^th story of Doctor Who and coincidentally it has been decided to bring the Daleks back after Terry Nation’s attempt to take over America didn’t work when he realised that outside of Doctor Who they don’t really have much value.

The last time I saw an episode with them in was technically episode two of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ but the last time they featured in a story was way back on October 31^st 2013, an amazing 135 days ago. Since they last appeared Victoria, Zoe and Liz have all been and gone, Jamie also left and Jo has arrived. The show is now in colour and the cosmic hobo has been replaced by a dashing dandy. A lot has changed in 135 days.

I’ve decided to watch the original version instead of the special edition version with good stuff put in, partly because this version (to the best of my knowledge) is the four part version.

The episode starts off with quite a mystery. Sir Reginald Styles is working and encounters someone in military gear and is about to shoot him before disappearing. The current setting of the story is that Styles is involved in some peace talks that may not go ahead unless he intervenes. This might sound similar to what was happening in ‘The Mind of Evil’ but at least they made the effort in trying to put a different spin of world peace.

It takes 13 minutes for the Daleks to appear and that’s quite quick compared to previous stories featuring them. It’s a nice but brief scene and that’s it until the very end. It’s almost like they wanted to get their first appearance out of the way so that they could carry on telling the story. The Doctor and Jo become 1970’s Ghost Hunters as they spend the night in Styles house. It’s rather uneventful and nothing happens until daylight. This seems like more of an attempt to just keep them busy until the guerrillas appear again. The Brigadier does more in this episode than he did in the five episodes of ‘The Daemons’.

The controller set does a good job of looking futuristic, the controller himself is rather good and looks very different to most humans. He is the latest is a long line of people who are working for the Daleks. His involvement doesn’t get much mention in this episode but its clear that there’s more than meets the eye and this will become evident in future episodes.

The Daleks’ voices are not the greatest. The advantage to watching the new version is that Nicholas Briggs is the voice and it’s a lot better. Sadly due to the fact that I am not listening to Briggs’ voice means that the ending isn’t quite as good as it could be. I have to admit that this episode is rather underwhelmed by this episode. Considering it’s the first Dalek story for five years (or 135 days), I would have expected there to be more of a deal made of this fact. The fact that they are given such a low key return is rather unsettling and I hope that I feel better as the episode progress.

The Daemons - Episode 5

The final episode of season eight has to do a lot in this episode and that is to give a satisfactory end to not just this story but to the season. The story starts off again with Azal appearing in his full form for the first time. It’s a good cliffhanger but I don’t think that it’s resolved very well. I like the explanation that the Doctor gives the villagers about what’s going on and after a while it goes back to the science vs magic argument between the Doctor and Miss Hawthorne. It’s fairly good that they use Jo as the sacrifice. It might be what you could argue the companion is for but it gives Katy Manning something to do other than fall over a lot.

After being stuck on the outside of the action for most of the time, the brigadier finally gets through and into the action and it’s a massive relief as I wondered quite what the point was for Nicholas Courtney to be in the story until this episode. There was also a look of relief on Nicholas Courtney’s face as he got to do something constructive. The episode features one of the most iconic lines in Doctor Who and the most famous that Nicholas Courtney says. “Chap with the wings there, five rounds rapid”. Once he’s involved in the story he doesn’t hang around and is firing at the gargoyle with everything that

There is a nice twist when Azal offers to give power to the Doctor and not the Master who refuses instantly. This must really have annoyed the Master after all he has gone through but this is clearly another instance where the Master hasn’t thought things through. Hopefully he goes away and thinks about how to do plans. Maybe watch a bond film or something like that.

The way that Azal is defeated is quite clever really as its Jo’s heroic moment of wanting to sacrifice her life instead of the Doctor’s does the job and I think that whilst it might have been the best way of finishing of the story, I found that it meant that the companion helped defeat the baddie and that makes a change from the Doctor swooping in at the last moment.

Now way back in episode one it was shown to us that the Doctor could use Bessie via remote control and it becomes relevant and prevents the Master from escaping. At the end of the episode he is seen being driven off and I still half expected him to find a way of escaping so it was nice and refreshing and felt like it left the door open for his return at a later date. Roger Delgado has been a  brilliant addition to the show and maybe a bit of a break will do the character and the show some good but he has been fun to watch.

The last shot is of them all dancing round the maypole with Yates and the Brigadier off to the pub. It does feel like the end of the season and it’s a nice way to sign off this season which has been largely good. I think that apart from Colony in Space, the stories have good but to be honest I think that the use of Roger Delgado in the vast majority of the season has been a bit of a mistake but I think that Katy Manning has really developed well in this season and I look forward to her second season.

The Daemons - Episode 4

The penultimate episode of this season finale story and I’m still in two minds about this story but for different reasons than at the beginning of the story. I think that the problem is that like most six part stories, this is too long for the story. Admittedly its only one episode too long but its still too long. Azal’s first appearance is a rather odd shot of its feet/hooves, the next would be the back and side of its head. His involvement in the episode is brief yet important and after spending three episodes talking about him its good that there seems to be some on screen development in this area.

In the initial moments of the episode, the Master looks like the assistant as opposed to the main person. This is just as surprising as the cliffhanger from the previous episode. This weird look doesn’t last for long as the moment he leaves the crypt he’s back to his old self. The sight of the Doctor on a bike is something that still takes a bit of getting use to. As is the scene where is he shot at and falls off the bike. Pertwee’s Doctor is very much an action figure and he shows it again here and has a very good episode unlike Katy Manning who does really get much to do apart from running from one place to another and falling down a lot. Roger Delgado on the other hand continues to impress from start to finish and has his best scenes when he’s in the crypt talking to Azal. Despite my disapproval of how the Brigadier has been used in recent episodes having been kept outside the main action, I must say that I felt he was given slightly more to do but compared to Jo he looked like he had a million and one things to do.

The whole business of the Doctor being tied up and trying to convince the locals that he has powers and it means that we get to see Bessie moving seemingly on her own like she did in episode one. When he was looking for things to move he had help from Benton who deserves some praise as he feels frustrated that everyone seems to be doing something or cant be found and he’s having to endure Miss Hawthorne who has a wonderful smile on her face for the whole episode.

The CSO shot of Azal didn’t start off particularly well but by the end it looked and it was a good cliffhanger and it ended was a pretty pedestrian episode. Apart from a few brief moments of action from Jon Pertwee, nothing of much interesting happened. It’s quite surprising that considering we are so close to the end that it doesn’t feel like the end is in sight and this also feels like a padding episode.

The Daemons - Episode 3

As we approach the second half of the story we are starting to get to where all the plot threads start to make much more sense and take on more importance. At the end of the previous episode, the gargoyle was about to attack the Doctor and Jo but this obviously doesn’t happen. It’s weird that after the gargoyle has been sent packing the Doctor reveals that the words he had said were a funny rhyme. It was a good way that they solved this particular cliffhanger because it was essentially a battle between the Doctor and the Master but they weren’t even in the same room.

There is a nice bit with the Doctor and Miss Hawthorne and its very much the believers vs the non-believers. It’s an argument that is good at first but does seem to get in the way of the story. The slideshow that the Doctor presents to the others does seem like a throwback to when Patrick Troughton’s Doctor would do a demonstration to highlight a plot point. Here the Doctor uses it to show that they are dealing with aliens which is a relief after all the black magic nonsense. The Daemons are using the earth as a science experiment and the Master is trying to use this to his advantage. Speaking of the Master I think that he really has fun in this story. In particular when he’s talking to some of the locals and reveals some of their private secrets to the whole room and this does a good job of getting them to convince them of his point of view.

There is a nice action sequence with the Doctor driving Bessie and Yates riding a motorcycle. It’s over rather quickly but does end up with Jo being flung from the vehicle and being the one that gets to spend time in bed. It made me chuckle when the Doctor gives her something to make her sleep and it seems like he’s doing us as well as Jo a favour. The performances from everyone has been consistently good and in this episode I think that both Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado are the star turns. Nicholas Courtney appears in this episode but unfortunately is still outside of the action and apart from a brief scene with Jon Pertwee spends most of his time in the episode at the other end of a microphone. Shame really.

The cliffhanger is a rare thing indeed and it’s the Master in peril and its just brilliant to see someone else apart from the Doctor and Jo in the thick of the action. I think at this moment the Master is starting to realise that he doesn’t have quite the grip on things that he thought he had. You would have thought that by now he would have thought about his plan a bit more. The episode is the first one that I feel has some legs to it and it felt like every moment kept my attention and that’s the first time in this story that its really done this.

The Daemons - Episode 2

Episode 2 of The Daemons is the 300^th episode of Doctor Who. Quite hard to believe it’s been 300 days since I started this marathon. Every time I reach a milestone I am impressed that I haven’t chucked in the towel. I can’t deny that I haven’t thought about quitting over the last 300 days. When it was the 200^th episode, it was episode three of ‘Fury from the Deep’ and I don’t think that this was a great episode for the milestone whereas I can say without doubt that this is a better way of celebrating reaching 300. At the end of the previous episode, things started to go a bit wrong and the Doctor is out cold (literally) in this episode, he spends the vast majority of the episode asleep. Once he does wake up it’s like he’s just had a quick nap.

Benton and Yates become some amusing double act, it starts with them having two separate phone conversations. This then moves onto them taking the brigadier’s helicopter to Devil Hump and there is a great shot when they spot hoofs in a field which must show that what caused it is massive but sadly the closest we get to see is a shadow that forms on a police officer. There are some good effects used to hide the fact that we don’t see what it looks like and there is a nice POV shot where its moving along the floor of the crypt.

The brigadier tries to get into Devils Hump but has trouble as there is a barrier preventing anything from getting in or out. This does mean that his involvement in this episode is somewhat restricted and he cant really interact with the regulars apart from walkie talkie. Roger Delgado’s involvement doesn’t feel as big as it did in previous stories. Something that I did notice was the role and costume of a vicar does suit him. Katy Manning seems to get the lions share of the screen time in this episode which is quite surprising considering how little she was used in one episode of ‘Colony in Space’.

The cliffhanger is another good one as the gargoyle is in the dig with the Doctor and Jo and is blocking the exit. It’s not clear what exactly the gargoyle will do to them but that’s the magic of it. I think that as an episode it moves on enough and there is a nice mix of comedy and drama and all the performances are really good and I think that apart from the black magic stuff which I’m still not sure about is a good way to end the season.

The Daemons - Episode 1

The Daemons is the final story of the eighth season and its written by Guy Leopold who in reality is Robert Sloman and Barry Letts who has already directed a story this season as well as produced the entire season. This is a story that I cant quite make my mind up, on one hand there are things to like and yet there is the whole occult stuff which I really cant be bothered with so every time I watch this story I am wrestling with whether I should like this story or not. It seems strange that after letting the Doctor go to another planet, they sent him straight back to earth. But I suppose it needs to be a gradual change in setting considering its been a season and a half on one planet.

The opening scene is very good and quite atmospheric, it continues with Miss Hawthorne being introduced. Miss Hawthorne is at times an annoying character but it cant be denied that she’s a useful character and will become quite important as the episodes. The rest of the supporting characters are all quite funny and look like they have stepped out of ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ and help create a great atmosphere and the right setting.

There is a good scene with the Doctor, Jo and Mike Yates which involves Bessie moving via remote control. This is fun but wont become relevant until the final episode. Another thing that comes from this opening scene with them is that it states quite clearly that the Doctor doesn’t believe in magic and Jo is more willing to believe. Its good to remind us that the Doctor is a scientist and it’s the beginning of good performances from Katy Manning and Jon Pertwee.

This story features BBC3 which wouldn’t exist until 2003 and pretty soon wont exist again but that’s the charm of this story that they predicted BBC3 so long before it appeared.

Mr Majester is the vicar of the village and it of course there is something not quite right about him and this is realised when its revealed that the previous vicar left in mysterious circumstances. For 1971 viewers they should have instantly know what was coming. In ‘Colony in Space’ it wasn’t until episode four that Roger Delgado appears in the story and in this one it takes 15 minutes. Roger Delgado is only in the story briefly where he tries to hypnotise Miss Hawthorne but Delgado is really good and just oozes the brilliance that he has shown in every episode he has been in.

The effect when the stone is pulled is somewhat disappointing if I’m being honest. The rest of the effects were all quite good. As a cliffhanger its one of the better ones that we have seen over the course of the season. After the disappointing ones that we have had its good that we are getting some good endings. As an episode it does its job very well and I think that this season will end on a high note which is as it should be.

Colony in Space - Episode 6

The final episode of this story is the 298^th in Doctor Who. Sadly its quite early on when we see the priest but the next time we see it I chuckled when the Doctor and the Master managed to get one over on him and then the final time we see him was pretending to shake when the base starts going wibbly wobbly. That’s it now, we will never have to see it again or the guardian. Now doesn’t that feel better having read that? The episode follows the Doctor and the Master as they track down the doomsday weapon that the Timelords were worried about in episode one. Quite why its taken six episodes to get to this point is beyond me but hey ho it is what it is. Rule or serve is a great line that the Master gives when he is trying to convince the Doctor to join him in his scheme.

I didn’t realise until now that Ashe is played by John Ringham who was the bloodthirsty Tlotoxl in ‘The Aztecs’. Normally the character of Ashe would have come across as a rather bland and wet character but due to the writing and also due to Ringham’s performances, the character has been a strong presence in the story and its Ringham’s last involvement in Doctor Who. Ashe suffers an off screen death which after everything he’s done in the story would normally be a shame but on this instance it’s probably the best thing because he died being a hero.

I like the bit when Dent says “Goodbye Ashe”. It does seem genuine and perhaps the nicest thing that he’s said to Ashe in the entire story. Morris Perry has been good from the very beginning as Dent and the rest of the IMC crowd.

After destroying the doomsday weapon there is a nice little shootout after the colonists jump out and manage to get one over the IMC guys and at the end of the story they can now start a new life on the colony with the real adjudicator on their way to the planet.

The final scene with the Brigadier was apparently recorded during this episode instead of being recorded during episode one. It seems fair odd and wasteful really but it’s fun to see as the Doctor and Jo arrive just a few seconds after leaving in episode one.

I think that it’s a perfectly fine episode but I think that due to the rather pedestrian feel the story has had it didn’t have quite the kick that it should have done. I’m glad that the involvement of the priest and the guardian are kept to a minimum. The whole story isn’t terrible but I think that it’s the weakest story of the Pertwee era. The only good thing about this story apart from the fact that it takes place on earth is that they were quite disciplined in when they introduced Roger Delgado but I suspect that this was due to the fact they knew they needed to hold him back for a while because there isn’t much else.

With just one more story to go of the eighth season, I must admit that I don’t feel that this season has quite the impact that the first season had. I think that the decision to go with the Master in every story has backfired and whilst it feels that there has been some development in terms of moving the Doctor away from earth it is somewhat undermined by Delgado appearing in most episodes.

Colony in Space - Episode 5

Ok so after some rather naïve optimism at the beginning of the story, I have definelty come to the conclusion that I was right in my original opinion of this story. Even when Roger Delgado makes an appearance I still find myself rather underwhelmed by the story. It’s a shame that the first adventure for Jon Pertwee’s Doctor on another planet would be such a clunker. That said I still hold out hope that the final two episodes will pick up enough to prove me wrong.

There is a nice trial scene that takes place and is very much in the style of the one that we see in ‘The War Games’ where its clearly a farce and is designed to just show who’s boss. This means that Dent gets to be the big powerful figure now that the Master has been exposed as a fraud. The IMC guys do come out of this quite well as they are forced to leave the planet by the colonists and sneakily come back but manage to spring a surprise on the colonists. Caldwell still manages undermine Dent at every opportunity with the comments he makes. I think its down to Bernard Kay that I like this character so much. There is a scene where Mary Ashe is shrieking at Caldwell and honestly that particular shot could have come from an episode of Coronation Street in 2014.

It’s good that we don’t see the priest or the guardian. After their laughable appearance in the previous episode, it would have totally ruined this episode had they been seen. They are still mentioned and the Master is using the Doctor to find him but the Guardian and the Priest are better just mentioned instead of being seen. Sadly I know that they will make an appearance in the final episode but at least its just one more appearance and then that’s that.

As far as the central performances go. Delgado and Pertwee are both on fine form and I also have to say that Katy Manning’s involvement has greatly improved since the early stages of this story and the three of them are being used and are acting like they are important to the story. Even the supporting characters are helping rather excessive running time to pass without too much bother. I think that both the colonists and IMC are not annoying and I find myself sympathising with both groups which might have been the intention of Hulke.

This is by far the best episode of the story so far but that’s sort of damning with faint praise. It is however a stronger episode because things happen and not just one thing but many things. Also the cliffhanger is far better than what we have had. Due to the IMC somehow managing to get their way into the Master’s TARDIS in a rather convenient way and due to triggering the alarms forces the Master to press a button which could kill Jo. I say could but we all know that she makes for many more episodes but what’s quite interesting is that the Master doesn’t stop to realise that its IMC guys in the TARDIS and not the colonists but that’s a minor quibble.

Colony in Space - Episode 4

As we approach the second half of the story a lot of things happen in this episode and a familiar face makes a welcome return.

The Priest looks funny but is nowhere near as bad as the Guardian that appears later in the episode. I am a proud Doctor Who fan and can happily look past some things but the Guardian is something that I just cant defend. It’s badly realised and just ruins any interest that I might have had in knowing a bit about this planet.  By the end of the episode I found myself being more entertained with the dispute going on between the colonists and the IMC guys. It was interesting to see who the Master, sorry the adjudicator would side with. I suppose it wasn’t much of a surprise really that he sided with IMC. The advantage of it going the way of IMC is that it led to that interesting shootout towards the end of the episode.

Roger Delgado returns as the adjudicator and its funny seeing him as a judge deciding the fate of the planet. I like the look on his face when the Doctor and Jo walk in on the hearing. The moment that he appears, my interest in things improves greatly. It’s good that the Doctor has someone interesting to deal with as Dent seems to be pre-occupied with Ashe and the colonists. It’s good that Jo and the Doctor got to reunite. It means that we get some good scenes between the two and I love the moment before the guardian appears that she thinks that they are going to be sacrificed.

Despite the promising first half I have to say that this was another episode that didn’t quite hit the mark. It does feel like its moving towards something but whether its going in the right direction remains to be seen. The cliffhanger was another disappointing one which is a shame really because its becoming a common theme in this story. It seems that the focus is on the story but the cliffhangers are irrelevant.

Colony in Space - Episode 3

As we approach the mid way point of the story I find myself wondering if I had been wrong about this story before as I have found the previous two episodes to be far better than I had previously thought. We know where we stand with both camps and who we are suppose to think are the good characters and the ones that could be in the Master camp.

It’s good that both groups finally get to meet each other as considering the planet cant be that big it was getting silly that they didn’t at least communicate with each other. Ashe and Dent are two very different people with different points of view. Dent continues to be the best thing in the story because he’s so wonderfully evil and seems to enjoying being this evil.

Jo does a lot more than she did in the previous episode. Even the very first we see her its more than she did in the previous episode. Here she starts the episode by helping Mary Ashe on the radio and then gets chained to a box. She becomes more involved in the story and that’s a great relief because Katy Manning has been too good this season to just be forgotten in the corner. Jon Pertwee continues to be very good and I love the moment when he interrupts the meeting between Ashe and Dent by saying that he will tell his side of the story to the correct authorities.

I must admit that I found this episode to be very ordinary. It’s not terrible by any means and there are things to enjoy but it just didn’t really strike me as very interesting. It’s now been three episodes since Roger Delgado was last seen and I think that it’s a wise choice to have left it as long as they did. I wonder if anyone was going to put any missing posters out for him. I don’t really have much to add to the review of this episode as it was largely about people bickering and talking about legality and how it should be upheld which is mighty interesting I’m sure but it just started to get a bit of the tiresome side. The second half of this story is where its going to change and hopefully it will pick up from this lacklustre episode.

Colony in Space - Episode 2

There was less tension in the repeat of the cliffhanger. It seems that its been done like this so that that they can get straight into the action which sort of makes sense. Caldwell is the first person from the IMC that we meet and is played by Bernard Kay who previously appeared in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’. He seems to be the only one of the IMC crew that has any morals. Morris Perry plays Captain Dent and comes across as a totally loathsome from the very beginning. The way that he reacts when he hears of the two deaths is cold and quite horrific. Tony Caunter is another soap star who appears in this story as Morgan. Caunter played Roy Evans in the joyful soap Eastenders from 1994 to 2003. Morgan doesn’t seem as horrible as Dent but seems to want to be like him.

I love watching the DVD’s with the information text because they are informative and occasionally quite funny. It comments on how the uninhabited world seems to have tyre tracks and also roads. They even make a joke when Jon Pertwee doesn’t drink much of his Ribenna and they bring up the line that other drinks are available which is a running joke as the BBC aren’t allowed to do product placement.

We are entering a period of Doctor Who where the state of the planet is used quite openly. Were given a little bit of a lecture about the state of the planet and whilst its got worse since 1971 but at the same time if I want a lecture on the state of the planet then there are other programmes that would do this. It’s no secret that Barry Letts was happy enough to slip in environmental themes and messages in Doctor Who during his time and most of the time its not to the detriment of the story.

Jon Pertwee is very good in this episode as he spends most of the time with the IMC group and gets to see the other side of this battle. Pertwee’s Doctor is very much a man of fighting for the underdog and by the end of the episode, its clear that the IMC guys are the baddies and Ashe and his colonists are the good guys. However as good as Pertwee was the same cant be said for his companion. What was the point of Katy Manning being bought into the story? She doesn’t do anything apart from making food. She must have had about 20 words to say in the entire episode and it seems like with everything going on with the IMC goons and the Doctor, that Jo Grant had been forgotten.

The cliffhanger wasn’t very good as it didn’t have any real drama to it and that’s a shame because up until that point I found the story to be very interesting. Now that there is a second party involved it means that there is something to keep the story going and even though his arrival is imminent and will be appreciated and enjoyed, its good to have a Master free zone and this shows that the show can survive without him there. So far after two stories I must admit that the story is better than I remember and gave it credit for. Whether that will be the case as the rest of the story has been looked at remains to be seen.

 

Colony in Space - Episode 1

The penultimate story of this season is one that I have never really had a positive attitude to this story for reasons that will become apparent in future episodes. Unusually the story starts off on Gallifrey with three Timelords talking about the Master taking the Doomsday Weapon. This must have been a quite a shock for viewers in 1971 after having a year and a half of purely earth based stories. This story marks the first time since ‘The War Games’ and the first time during the Pertwee era that a story takes place on another planet.

The Brigadier plays a minimal part in this story due to the fact that it doesn’t take place on earth and he spends the brief scene that he’s in talking about trying to locate the Master and looking into sightings. It’s going to be weird to note have the Brigadier or Benton or Yates hovering around.

Jo’s reaction to finding herself on another planet is quite unusual and what’s good is that at first she thinks that the Doctor has been making things up and her sceptiscm isn’t dented at first when she goes inside the TARDIS and comments that it’s bigger on the inside than the outside.

Mary Ashe is played by Helen Worth who has been playing Gail Platt in Coronation Street for about 800 years. I cant look at her now without wondering what lump of misery is going to surround her now. As a result the character is somewhat redundant and that’s a shame really because something that I wasn’t expecting was to find the characters to be rather interesting. Ok some of them have got rather 1970 hairstyles but that aside the group of characters that are forming a colony do feel like they have been through a lot in the twelve months or so that they have been failing in trying to get a crop started.

I like the shot where the Leesons are standing in front of a giant lizard a nice bit of CSO. It’s probably the best that the CSO is going to be. It’s helped by the fact that its dark and so as a result it doesn’t look too much like a bloke standing infront of a blue/green/yellow sceen.

The cliffhanger isn’t bad but its helped by the fact that it seems to have been sped up. After seeing the Leeson’s scarred of something that clearly wasn’t the lizard before they died it is good that we see what it must have been about to squash the Doctor. Of course we know he’s not going to be squashed but compared to some cliffhangers that we have had recently its not too bad.

I’m still not convinced that I’m going to enjoy this story but I am hoping that this will change once Roger Delgado makes an appearance. It’s a perfectly fine opening episode and its probably the novelty of it being on another planet that lifts this episode above other opening episodes.

The Claws of Axos - Episode 4

As I have now reached the final episode of the story I was worried that it wasn’t going to work as it needed to tie up the loose ends and do it in just 25 minutes. The cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode was better than some that we have had in this story and it was resolved well. The way that they try and avoid the mind influences of the axons is by doing math questions and it’s quite a clever way.

In this section of the review that I am now calling CSO Corner, I have to say that most of the time it didn’t work particularly well because in some shots you could still see a blue line around things. The model work as particularly good with the shot of the axos ship rising from the ground to look very solid.

The Doctor needs the Master’s help to defeat Axos which is the mirror opposite of what happened in the previous story where the Master needed the Doctor’s help to control the mind parasite. Both Pertwee and Delgado were good in this episode and have worked well so far this season. I quite like the fact that Chinn pops up from the canteen and is his usual self thinking that he’s doing the brigadier’s job. In his first scene, Chinn is munching on a chicken leg and it seems that when the world is in chaos he will be found in the queue at McDonalds. I like the doubt that Filer has when he thinks that the Doctor is up to something and he has a point because the Doctor is willing to work with the Master to get off earth. It would have been nice if this doubt were introduced earlier in the story as it could have produced some much needed tension but it is what it is and Filer has been another solid character in this story.

The viewer must have thought that the Doctor wouldn’t do that but they were in for a shock when he uses the Master’s gun and points it at Jo, the Brigadier and Bill Filer. What makes this scene particularly emotional is Jo’s reaction which is one of disbelief. The look of relief when the Doctor returns is very nice to see and shows how much the two characters have gelled during the course of this season.

The directing was particularly good and the highlight came during the scene where Benton and Yates are fighting off the axon tentacle versions and it ended up with the land rover they were driving in going up in flames.

The episode on its own was rather good and managed to finish the story off with enough time and didn’t feel rushed. There was a little bit about the fact that the Master may have gotten away. Of course it wouldn’t be too long before we would see Roger Delgado and viewers in 1971 would have figured this out to bearing in mind this is the third story in a row that the Master has appeared I think that this season isn’t as strong as the previous one as the adage of having too much of a good thing is showing itself to be true.  As a four part adventure I think that its better than I remember it being and thought that some of the more psycadelic elements were actually quite fun. Not the greatest story of the season but still better than I though.

The Claws of Axos - Episode 3

I thought that the cliffhanger was rather disappointing. When there are less cliffhanger in a story it’s not a good thing to have any that are below par and this was well below par. When the episode starts we do get a fun couple of minutes when chaos seems to run loose. The axon thing that dragging itself on the floor looks rather poor it has to be said. But the tentacle version is a much better creation and according to the information text, it was a rather expensive costume. It makes a change that some money has been spent on the costumes.

The effect of turning those tentacle things into Axons around the Doctor and Jo is rather well done. It’s another in a long line of good effects done in this story and whilst I might be sceptical about CSO, I think that sometimes the effects done in 1970’s Doctor Who stories were very good and people might be sniffy about them in 2014, but when you stop to think about what they must have had to work with in 1971 then you can appreciate it a bit more. Another good effect is making Jo look older. It’s very well done and works very well on screen.

The way that the Master first appears in this episode is by tricking Benton into leaving the TARDIS unattended. When Delgado turns to face the camera its clear that he has a poor mask on. Trying to believe that Benton could have been fooled by such a flimsy disguise doesn’t do much to show Benton in a good light and considering it comes after Benton got ‘dizzy’ in the previous story, I wish they wouldn’t do this to him.

This episode marks the first time since the final episode of ‘The War Games’ that we see inside the TARDIS and it’s the first time that we see it in colour and what a mess the Master finds it in. It shows how black and white television can have a benefit because the colours that are used for the console room don’t look particularly nice and I know that this will change in future stories but people in 1971 must have been disappointed when they saw the console room finally in colour.

The Master wants the Doctor’s TARDIS so he can leave before the Axons can start their plan. As the Master has lost his TARDIS to the axons and they seem reluctant to let him have it back, it’s a plausible line of thinking but obviously with the Master it’s debatable as to whether he’s got something else planned or whether he is on this occasion being honest.

The cliffhanger is much better than the previous one. The possibility of the Doctor and Jo being killed at the hands of the Master with the Brigadier standing right next to him is one that most people wouldn’t have seen coming and even though I know how it would go (and even 1971 audience would have known that it wasn’t going to be the end of them), it still makes for a good ending. The one thing about this story is that it doesn’t feel like we’re building up to anything. It feels like it’s a six part story and not four.