The first episode of the 11th season sees a
change in the line up and it’s the first since February 18th. It’s
weird to have got past the Jo Grant era of the show but things change. Elisabeth
Sladen makes her debut in this episode and this is also the episode where the
Sontarans make their first appearance in the show. The DVD of this story comes
with a CGI Effects version which replaces the iffy ones that director Alan
Bromly thought were good enough back in 1973. We also get a new title sequence
for the first time since Jon Pertwee’s first episode.
We are introduced very early on to Irongron who is a bit
down on his luck until they spot a shooting star. He joins forces with Linx
where he will get weapons to take on Edward of Wessex (played by Alan Rowe) and
Linx gets to repair his ship. The scene where the Sontaran makes his first
appearance outside of the sphere is a great moment. When Linx speaks, he comes across
as a very good villain, he’s soft talking yet talks with authority. It’s
slightly undermined by the flag that he plonks into the ground. It’s quite good
that Linx doesn’t take his helmet off until the very end. There is a nice sense
of mystery about how he looks.
I will be honest that I find Irongron’s group to be far more
interesting than Wessex’s. Even though Edward has Dot Cotton as his wife, I
still find Irongron’s group to be more enthusiastic and entertaining and
actually I want them to win in their upcoming battle which isn’t presumably what
Robert Holmes was intending. Speaking of Robert Holmes, I think that he has
written a large collection of interesting characters and the story is
interesting considering it’s a historical story. The direction is something
that will prove to be an issue later on but in this episode it’s perfectly
fine, the action moves along at a good pace and things work out well enough.
The CGI effects are impressive and are well done. From the
star falling in the early stages of the episode to the Doctor using his ghost
hunter device to show a Sontaran ghost help make the story work much better
than the original version did. The CGI stuff doesn’t detract from the story and
I just felt that it complimented the scenes very well.
It’s six and a half minutes before Jon Pertwee and Nicholas
Courtney appear. This is Courtney’s 80th episode in the show. The
Doctor is at a research place and this is where we first meet Elisabeth Sladen
who is pretending to be her aunt but is in fact a journalist. She is completely
different to Jo Grant as her reaction when the Doctor says she could make some
tea is met with anger. It’s quite something that she gets a historical adventure
in her first episode. I quite like the character of Professor Rubeish (played
by Donald Pelmear). He has some comedic value and works well in this episode.
The cliffhanger is really just us getting use to the look of
Linx. It’s quite an effective mask and its made even creepier by Kevin Lindsay
sticking his tounge out and back in again. As cliffhangers go its not the most
exciting that there has ever been but if I were watching this on December 15
1973, then there would be enough to make me want to watch episode two. As I don’t
really have much of a choice really I still think that there is some good stuff
that is yet to come. It feels like a new era in the show has started and Jon
Pertwee’s final season is going to be very different to the previous one.
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