The Deadly Assassin - Episode 4

This if the final episode of the story without a companion and also the final story of 1976. I have been totally bowled over by this story and even though I loved this story before I started watching this I have been surprised with just how much I have loved this story. Despite Goth being such an important part of the story, he doesn’t last very long in this episode. I think that Horsfall’s last scene was great and he definelty left the show on a highnote. The idea that Goth was working with the Master to try and get some power and knowledge is a bit clichéd but doesnt mean that its not a good idea and serves a purpose in the story.

The Master pretends to fake his death to try and make people think that the troubles are over. He’s out of things for a while and when he’s eventually mobile, he’s very creepy and the dark lighting makes the Master’s costume even more effective. Peter Pratt has been very good as the Master and due to the story means that its difficult to compare his performance to Roger Delgado. In fact during the previous four episodes, I never thought about whether it was as good as Delgado.

The line about their being twelfth regeneration was designed to be a throwaway line and yet if you try and go beyond this, then certain fans will get a bit stroppy. I can see why people would use this as part of the shows folklore because there wasn’t anything telling them otherwise but the fact that nothing was mentioned before means that we can ignore and I cant believe that Robert Holmes intended this to be part of timelord information, its clear that he was just using it as a plot point.

The final fight between the Doctor and the master is very good and its made even better by the fact that things are crashing down around them. The sets in this serial have been highly impressive and something that I haven’t mentioned so far. The sets are dark and they just look really top notch and its great how they have made Gallifrey seem vast despite filming this in a studio. As much as I enjoyed all the location filming, its rare that the studio filming is just as good.

The Master is defeated by falling over the edge and its not long before its clear that he survived and leads in his TARDIS just after the Doctor does. If I were watching this in 1976, then I would be hoping that it wouldn’t be too long before the master would return but sadly it wont be until Tom baker’s penultimate story before he would return. I think that this has been one of the best stories for quite sometime (not the first time that I have said that) but the experiment of not having a companion is now over and Leela of the Sevateem is about to come on board the TARDIS.