(534) Full Circle - Episode 1

It’s quite fitting that with tonight being Halloween, that this is the debut episode for Adric. Adric is arguably one of the most disliked companions ever in Doctor Who. I wonder whether over the course of his run on the show, that my opinion might change. Part of this change has happened whilst listening to the recent Fifth Doctor Boxset released via Big Finish but I wonder what will happen over the course of the next couple of weeks. Full Circle is the first story of the E-Space Trilogy which sees the Doctor and Romana enter E-Space which is like normal space but green. Things start off with the Doctor and Romana about to return to Gallifrey but thanks to K9 meddling things go a bit wonky and they end up somewhere completely different despite the scanner suggesting they are on Gallifrey. I like the fact that there is a bit of mystery about this which doesn’t last too long but long enough to be interesting.

The story takes place on Alzarius and the first thing that strikes me about this story and episode is the location footage which looks fantastic and does look like a different world. People are getting ready to go on the Starliner and I like how it seems to be dividing people because there are those like the deciders which are leaving Alzarius on the starliner and a group on people (like Adric) who aren’t interested and they are called Outlers. Adric’s first scene is perfectly fine but its funny how the scene goes about two minutes before drawing attention to the star badge for Mathematical Excellence. The Outlers don’t exactly strike me as the wisest group of people and if I had to choose then I would have gone with the deciders.

Adric has only been in Doctor Who for one episode and his actions have led to the death of someone. Due to the fact he was trying to prove his brother’s friends wrong he tried to steal some fruit and got caught by Draith. Ok so maybe Draith shouldn’t have run after him but I don’t really buy that. It’s quite the debut for the character and he can hardly be accused of being dull and inactive.

The effect of Mistfall is one that is simple but works really well and the music helps to create a wonderfully atmospheric feel to it. Peter Grimwade has always been a better director than a writer in my opinion and this episode is proof of that. He directs the episode with a lot of enthusiasm and the writing works well and what we have is a pretty solid opening episode. Even Tom Baker was on good form and the look on the Doctor’s face when Adric enters the TARIDS is quite fun.

The cliffhanger is brilliant in my mind and one of the strongest for several episodes. The sight of these disgusting creatures out of the water and the music again helps with this and after being left slightly weary with ‘Meglos’ it good to get back to business and start enjoying Tom Baker’s final season and the next four episodes should work for me in exactly the same way as today’s episode. Good stuff indeed.

On a side note, this time last year I was watching episode seven of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’.

(533) Meglos - Episode 4

After being slightly disappointed with the lack of anything exciting happen, I was hoping that this story would end of a more positive note. This is one of the shortest episode of Doctor Who ever and it really shows as yet again the episode starts off with a few minutes of reprise. When the action does eventually get going it seems like there has been quite a development in things because all of a sudden the real Doctor is accepted and people are prepared to have a rational conversation with him.

I still think of Barbara not Lexa when I see Jacqueline Hill. It’s surprising that Lexa is one of the characters that won’t see the end of the episode. She gets killed and is dead without so much of a speech which considering that its Jacqueline Hill isn’t the best way for a character to end. This was the 78^th episode to feature Hill and she leapfrogs William Russell and Katy Manning and now becomes the fourth longest serving companion.

There are some good things in this episode such as the set designs which are very good. I hadn’t noticed that this was an entirely studio based story and whereas the story hasn’t been totally successful, what has been appearing on screen has been quite good. Another thing that works quite well is the CSO shots that are heavily used. There are a few shots that look quite good and that includes two Tom Baker’s appearing on screen at the same time. What’s also good about this scene is that it isn’t just one quite shot but it’s a very good scene which is shot very well by Terence Dudley. Dudley’s name will pop up in credits during the Peter Davison years but his first story is quite well because the whole episode is directed with a good amount of enthusiasm and any problems with the story shouldn’t be laid at his door.

Sadly K9 returns in this episode and I was just surprised that he didn’t need recharging after moving 10 feet. K9’s time in the show is coming to an end soon so I have to just keep that it mind. K9’s involvement is somewhat small and so I wonder what the point was in having him appear in the story. It’s not the only thing that doesn’t quite work in this episode. It’s odd that Meglos waits so long before changing out of looking like the Doctor. Once he had got what he wanted, he stays looking like the Doctor until about a minute before he gets killed. When the change does happen and he changes back to the cactus it doesn’t look as bad as it did in episode one. Another thing that doesn’t quite work is that there doesn’t seem to be anything after being separated from Meglos. Also he has been in this story with the credit of Earthling. I would have named him Mark or Stephen or something like that.

It was a much better episode than the previous one and I am surprised with how much more positively about this story than I did before I started this. It’s not a classic by any means and I think that the Cactus design is still a major problem and I think that casting someone else as Lexa instead of a former companion was a mistake. Those mistakes aside the new era of the show is still going strong and the next several stories are quite important and the lien up of the show is going to change with the first change occurring next with……there is no easy way of saying this……..Adric debuting. Oh dear!

Meglos - Episode 3

I didn’t realise that yesterdays episode was watched by 4.2 million people which is one of the lowest ratings that Doctor Who has had an shows that something needed changing. Half a million more people tuned in for this episode and they didn’t really miss anything and this is another episode where very little happens. I am really struggling to find anything wrong with the episode because there is very little to pick up.

Something I did pick up is how much I liked Tom Baker’s performance as the Meglos Doctor. There were a few moments which saw a certain amount of intensity which does show how much the characters has changed in such a short amount of time. Lalla Ward is stuck with Grugger as Romana has them walking around in circles for most of the episodes. When Romana does manage to make it to where the action is its quite late in the episode and doesn’t really lead to much.

The cliffhanger is much better than the last one with the Doctor about to be crushed by a big slab of stone and this is a much better way to end an episode and with the viewers knowing that he would be leaving the show, it was perfectly possible that he could have left at the end of this episode. Even though he’s the longest serving Doctor ever and this is his 147^th episode, he does show some glimpses of his old self and I think that that his costume has somehow put a different energy into the performance.

This is a very short episode because quite frankly if there is nothing to report then there isn’t much reason for me to write about nothing. I didn’t hate this episode as it wasn’t terrible but I think that this episode is perhaps going to be remembered as bland and inactive episode. Hopefully the final episode will make up for the lack of excitement and the performances may stand out because very little has. Not even Jacqueline Hill could make me interested in the story.

Meglos - Episode 2

This episode starts off with a very long reprise, it lasts close to two minutes but once that is over with the action starts to get going it kind of stutters throughout. The Cactus Doctor gets to Tigellan first and has to take an oath of allegiance at the insistence of Lexa which is fun to watch everyone around her go mad at her for this. I still have a slight problem with thinking of Jacqueline Hill as Lexa and not Barbara. Sometimes I still think that Ian or Susan would pop up and tell her that she cant change history or something like that. Ok so I am going to try and stop using the term Cactus Doctor and refer to the creature as Meglos. Meglos’ plan is to go to Tigellan and take the Dodecahedron which would explain why he goes to the trouble of looking like the Doctor. I like that the Doctor has been to Tigellan before and judging by some of the lines that are said that he has been during the Doctor’s current incarnation.

I think that the Doctor with cactus spikes on his face and hands is an interesting look and one that looks far better than the other guy I saw in the previous episode. The idea of their being two Doctor roaming around the same place at the same time is something has been done in Doctor Who before but here it seems to be more fun but there seems to be something odd about Tom Baker. I know that he wasn’t very well during this season but there seems something specific that is altering his performance. He does seem like a shell of his former self and almost makes me miss the days when he was very silly. It may be deliberate that his performance is subdued compared to previous stories but its definelty noticeable. The highlight for Meglos comes when he arrives and after going through the niceties (or not), he manages to be alone with the Dodecahedron and somehow take it which is suppose to be vast and probably unmoveable and I like how much worry this causes.

After spending the previous episode doing very little, its surprising (or not really) that K9 doesn’t go very far before his batteries run low and he requires recharging. The thing that comes to mind is knowing that he is due to leave quite soon so there aren’t many more episodes for K9 to take up air time.

The cliffhanger is rather disappointing and this sums up my feelings towards this episode. This is an episode where not a lot seems to happen and compared to the previous episode it seems to have lost a spring in its step and when it did get into life it was quite late in the episode and had to stop at the wrong moment. The cliffhanger used featured Romana whereas I would have finished with the Doctor or Meglos but that’s just me. At the half way point, I am still more positive about it than I was two episodes ago.

Meglos - Episode 1

Meglos is interesting for a few reasons. Firstly it’s one of the shortest titles for a Doctor Who story (Robot being the shortest), secondly its infamous for the villain being a cactus and third and perhaps most importantly, it sees the return of Jacqueline Hill who was last seen 453 episodes ago but in a different role than she is in today. I don’t quite know whether it was a good idea to bring Hill back but as someone else because whenever I see her I just think that its Barbara talking and not Lexa. That’s not to say that she doesn’t give a great performance because she does and manages to at least seem different to Barbara but its not hard to imagine Barbara saying the things that Lexa says.

As I mentioned this story is infamous for being the one with the cactus in it and sadly that is the one thing that lets this story down because from the moment that it appears on screen I find myself losing a little bit of interest. It could only happen in Doctor Who where someone thought “I know what Doctor Who hasn’t had before….a talking cactus!”. Quite why JNT let this through the production meeting baffles me. Actually forget that never mind JNT, what about Barry Letts? There is something that doesn’t quite make sense and it is to do with the cactus because it required a booth to transfer to the weird looking human but doesn’t quite such a thing when changing to look like the Doctor.

The CSO that appears in this episode is quite impressive and apart from some fraying around the edges of people’s hats the effects worked very well and its been a while since the effects have looked quite so good. In fact the production values for the episode looked quite good and its easy to see that this story was required relatively early in the season run.

It’s strange (in a good way) that the Doctor and Romana spend the entire episode in the TARDIS trying to fix K9. Now firstly I want to know why they would bother considering that he is of little value to the story but secondly its fun that they manage to find something to do while not actually achieving anything. Their episode only really starts once they start to go over the same events over and over again.

The cliffhanger is quite good because the Doctor appears saying that they mustn’t upset the tigellans and considering that it comes out of nowhere and I think that anything has to be better than a cactus or a human with cactus spikes all over his face and hands (cant quite understand why they don’t go through his clothes) and the next episode should be good. I think that I feel a lot more warmly about this episode than I did 24 hours ago. I don’t think that it will ever be a classic but I think that there is going to be something good that comes out of the story come the final episode.

The Leisure Hive - Episode 4

The final episode of this story is one that I was worried wouldn’t live up to my new expectations. The start of the JNT era is going better than I would have imagined when I started to watch these stories. The reprise is still good and I don’t know whether its changed slightly but it seems more harrowing as Brock’s mask has been pulled off. The revelation that Brock is a Fomasi comes with an explanation which works and that is the real Brock is still on Earth and the Fomasi that is pretending to be Brock is a traitor. This just seems to spur Pangol into action and this is definelty his episode because he becomes quite the dictator, not even waiting for Mena to die before installing his authority on Argolis. He is immediately the villain of the piece and this is proved by the fact that he is willing to shoot the Fomasi ship down even though he knows that it will start a war.

The whole episode is geared towards the new army of Pangol’s coming out of the generator. The effect of creating dozens of Pangols is something that we have to give credit to the Quantel 5000 machine. It’s another example of how the show has changed. Another thing that works in the stories favour is the incidental music. Whilst it’s a shame that Dudley Simpson’s music is no longer a part of the show its fair to say that his music wouldn’t have had the effect that Peter Howell’s did during the scene where the Pangol’s are marching out of the generator. The effects are the thing that stand out for me in this episode with the multiple Pangol’s is one such impressive one use but another is the shot of two Doctor’s appearing in the same shot. I am reminded of that shot in ‘Enemy of the World’ where Salamander and the Doctor appear on screen at the same time and thought how impressive that was and it was by 1968 standards and it shows how far the technology has come in 12 years.

Once the Doctor gets to be back to his old self he is running around like he usually does and whilst he doesn’t get going until quite late in the episode it means that it falls to Romana to be the one that again moving the action along. She has really been on fine form over the last four episodes and Lalla Ward has taken the role of Romana and made it her own.

If I had to find fault with the episode then it wouldn’t be the Fomasi costume which was actually quite good but it was the part where the Fomasi inform Mena that hadn’t taken off and that in fact it was the Fomasi Brock that was killed onboard. It does seem odd that they waited until Pangol was a baby and the danger had been averted that they decided to show themselves. This is something that doesn’t quite work for me but to be fair it’s the only thing that I could pick fault in. This has been another good solid episode and I think/hope that Meglos is going to be better than I had thought of in the past. But that’s in the future and this opening season story is a lot better than the previous one and one thing is for sure, the show is never going to be the same again.

The Leisure Hive - Episode 3

The sight of seeing a very old Tom Baker is something that might not seem such a shocking sight today but in the context of this episode, its quite a good way to end the previous episode and start todays episode. I think the fact that Mena wants the Doctor to rest shows that she is still someone that is going to be on the Doctor’s side but if Mena is the Doctor’s angel then Pangol is the devil on the Doctor’s shoulder as he reminds her that they are still on a murder charge and so are locked up. The neck braces that the Doctor and Romana are forced to wear look quite good and look very much of the time. With the Doctor looking old it means that he isn’t dashing around quite as much as he usually does but his inactivity doesn’t last long as he is gingerly dashing around.

There comes a moment when the Doctor mentions that Pangol looks quite young compared to the other argolans. This is something that has been on screen since the start of the story but its only know that it has become part of the story and towards the end of the episode its revealed that he is a child of the generator. That’s a wonderful line that sums up the new mentality of Doctor Who in the 80’s because it just sounds new and modern (even by 2014 standards) and I like it very much.

The Fomasi design is a curious one because on the one hand it sort of lets down all the visually good work that has taken place so far and on the other hand there is something retro about the design. It’s the sort of thing that would have looked quite good during the seventies Doctor Who stories but its unfair to judge a monster on the looks alone. I know I was a bit critical in ‘Nightmare of Eden’ but this is my review so I can be if I want. The cliffhanger for the episode involves the newly included Fomasi when it goes to Brock and pulls off his mask. I think it’s a great revelation and what makes it work is that the mask comes off quite smoothly which is more than could be said for when the Count took off his mask in ‘City of Death’.

It’s another solid episode to serial and the longer this continues the more likely I am to change my opinion of not just this series but of the John Nathan Turner regime. Now I know that I am only three episodes into his tenure but I think that watching the episodes in the manner that I am means that things might change and after witnessing how good the story flowed through this episode I am think this might happen.

The Leisure Hive - Episode 2

This is one of the shortest episodes of Doctor Who ever as it runs at just under 21 minutes. That means that there is no room for padding or taking things slowly. Unlike the previous episode there isn’t any 90 second panning shot but also sadly the entire episode is studio bound. The thing that stands out in this episode are the performances and the characters. Hardin (Nigel Lambert) is a likeable person but it would be boring if he was just likeable. As it turns out he has a bit of a secret and its that he has been lieing to his close friend (Mena) about the results of his experiments and spends a great amount of time working with Romana to try and fix it. This is where the main action is as it leads to the cliffhanger. Mena is another likeable character and it is sad to see her age so quickly.

There are two quite surprising deaths. Klout is the first death that we see although we don’t see the murder. What we do see is him standing in cupboard. The only thing that slightly undermines it is that the face looks like a dummy or a protesthic mask. I can’t quite figure out why they didn’t go and use Ian Talbot. The second death was a lot better because the whole scene was quite good. It was very atmospheric when Stimson is walking around a dimly lit room before being struck down.

There is a line that the Doctor gives when he says “Arrest the scarf” which would have been annoying in the previous season but the humour has been so reigned back that the few moments where there is some light relief it’s very welcome. Tom Baker yet again gives the sort of performance that he would have done three or four years ago. Its weird that when there was a close up of his fingers at the beginning of the episode that look old and it dawned on me that he has been playing the role for such a long time.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one like the previous episode but unlike the previous episode this cliffhanger isn’t as dark. The sight of Tom Baker with a big beard and white hair is how he looks today (minus the beard) and what makes it shocking isn’t the reaction of Romana (which is good) but actually Mena’s because it is one of sadness and this is another example of how nice the character is. This was another solid episode and that’s two episodes in a row where I have found myself enjoying the episode and I didn’t think that this would be the case after the recent run of stories.

The Leisure Hive - Episode 1

Todays episode is the beginning of the end but as we all know, the moment has been prepared for. There is a new producer in the form of John Nathan Turner who has been on the show since ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ in 1977 and was handpicked by Graham Williams. Barry Letts rejoined the show as Executive Producer who was there to watch over JNT. The opening panning shot last for 1 minute and 40 seconds. I can only assume that the episode was running short because there is no need for it. As much as its nice to see Brighton in 1980, I don’t think that starting the season with a arty style panning shot was perhaps the best idea.

This episode does feature the demise of K9. Sadly its only temporary. I don’t get why if the dog was so smart that it didn’t realise that it was approaching a substance that would cause it some damage. Then again it kind of proves my point about how stupid K9 is. At least that means that we wont have to see him for the rest of the serial.

There is a nice freshness to this season because whilst there is an 80’s feel to the whole thing, there is a renewed enthusiasm and that probably has something to do with JNT. Lovett Bickford has done a good job but I think could have cut the initial panning shot in half or completely. David Fisher’s last story wasn’t such a great one so its good that he has redeemed himself with this adventure.

I quite like the look of the argolans. I think the bits dropping off their heads is a bit of odd decision but apart from that they are pretty strong. Their story is quite a good one and I think that the whole planet looks impressive and there is a base under siege vibe running through the entire story.

Quantel 5000 is the technology that is used to achieve some of the effects and whilst by 2014 standards it might look ropey compared to the year before its fantastic. I am not so keen about the music. I miss Dudley Simpson’s music already. I think that the music change is a mistake and it will be one of the big problems for pretty much the rest of the classic run.

Morix’s death is surprisingly quick but it’s a death that has some relevance to it and it’s a shame because I think that Laurence Payne gave a solid performance and should have had more on screen time. The Doctor has a new costume which I quite like. After several years of the same costume, its good that he has a change. Tom Baker’s performance is quite subdued in this episode but thankfully the silliness that seemed to be the norm in the previous season has pretty much gone.

The cliffhanger is a rather good one because it shows the Doctor apparently being pulled apart. As opening episodes go, this is one of the best ones for quite sometime. Compared to the previous season’s opening episode, this is a million times better. The JNT era of the show has gotten off to a promising start.

The Horns of Nimon - Episode 4

This is quite a landmark episode in the history of Doctor Who because it’s the final episode of the seventeenth season which is the 20^th episode of the season and the joint lowest (tied with season 12). This is also the last episode with Graham Williams as producer and Douglas Adams as script editor. It is also the last episode where the time tunnel sequence is used and the last episode that the theme tune is used. Sadly after the humour disappeared to a certain extent in the previous episode it returns in todays episode. The only upside to this is that it meant that Lalla Ward got to drive the plot (such as it is) through and it meant that when she was on screen I was able to enjoy the episode. Lalla Ward does get some good scenes and it is perhaps her strongest performance since she joined the show.

The Doctor doesn’t really do very much during the course of this episode because he’s trying to get Romana back but this takes an awful long time. Tom Baker really hasn’t been very good in this serial and I take no pride in saying that. The thing about Baker’s performance is that he has become a pastiche of his former self. Even Soldeed’s death is a bit over the top. The laughing that Graham Crowden does wasn’t what was intended but I think that it sort of makes a change to the normal deaths that the villains of the piece get.

The way that the Nimon were defeated was a bit of a disappointment and the thing about the episode is that it never felt like they were building up to something. If I didn’t know better then I would have assumed that there were more episodes left in this story. It’s been a while I think since I have noticed this problem but its definelty the case with this story that there is a lack of a build up.

It’s a shame that this is the last story of Graham Williams’ tenure as producer because I don’t think it’s the send off that he deserves. I have never thought that highly of Graham Williams as a producer before I started this marathon but I have to say that that opinion has changed because I think that he was a better producer than I gave him credit for. Yes sometimes he struggled to get Tom Baker’s humour in control and he didn’t have quite as good a run of stories as Philip Hinchcliffe but I think that he did what was asked of him by BBC management and that is to try and lighten the show after the Hammer Horror themed stories that preceded his time. It cant have been easy behind the scenes and my appreciation of his time has improved. This is probably one of his worst stories (before this I would have said Underworld would be the worst) but I think that to judge him just on this story would be unfair. Douglas Adams’ tenure as script editor wasn’t a complete success but he seemed to do a better job of been a script editor than he was when he was just writing.

This season has been one of inconsistency. It started off with an average Dalek story before improving greatly with ‘City of Death’ and then starting a gradual decline in terms of script quality and production values. I think that the Tom Baker’s penultimate season as the Doctor wont and isn’t remembered for the quality stories but more for what was the beginning of the end for the show. When the show returned, it would have a totally different tone to it and I wonder whether my opinion of it will change for the better or for the worst.

 

The Horns of Nimon - Episode 3

Well this is the first episode of the 1980’s. There that will be the last time I bang on about the last or second to last or first episode of a decade until at least the end of the classic era. This is the episode where the Doctor finally meets the Nimon. For some reason this is a short scene and then they are separated for the rest of the episode. The thing about this episode is that nothing really happens until the very end of the episode. I think that the appearance of several Nimon is perhaps a good move because thinking that there is just a solitary nimon doesn’t quite work and I still have a problem with the look of the creature. Kenny McBain says (in the information text) that he didn’t want them to just look like a bloke in a costume. Sadly he doesn’t quite make this happen as it seems the walk is designed to make sure the headpiece doesn’t fall off.

Soldeed is still highly enjoyable in this episode and just seems to be having the time of his life as he is roaming around. The addition of Graham Crowden was used as one of the selling points which is fair enough but the second was the costumes and sets. When this is one of the selling points of the entire serial then you know that there isn’t much going on. Not even the monsters are used which shows how memorable they are. K9 gets captured by Soldeed which is a great moment and my enjoyment went up even more when he was in bits.

The cliffhanger wasn’t great but neither was it terrible and that pretty much sums up the episode. There were things that worked and things that didn’t but more importantly the humour in the episode was reigned right back and there were a few gags here and there but it was nowhere near as bad as in the previous episode. The performances from Tom Baker and Lalla Ward were quite good. Tom Baker didn’t really get the chance to be as annoying as he was in the last episode and there seemed to be glimpses of the old Doctor today. Lalla Ward was her usually strong self though I thought that there was a moment that was a bit silly for Romana when the Doctor mentions the term positronic circuit which sees Romana throw her arms in the air and say “of course”. One more thing about the performances is that I liked how Seth tries to dodge fighting the Nimon in front of Teka. This was a clever moment and was one of the few things in the serial that made sense.

There is just one more episode of this serial left and one more episode before we venture into the John Nathan Turner era.

The Horns of Nimon - Episode 2

Todays episode is the final episode of the 1970’s. It’s quite impressive how much the show has grown in this decade and the show starts a gradual decline that would carry on for the rest of the classic era. It’s weird to think that there is just nine years of the classic era left and I am less than a month from entering the Peter Davison era.  My main gripe with this episode is the humour which is again a major problem with this story because it starts pretty much from the beginning. There is a moment later on where the Doctor is messing around with the console and there is a flash and explosion along with some comedy noises and I think that just totally ruin the story and I am really getting fed up with this and I am only two episodes in. Thankfully the story does actually get given some time away from the comedy show that is the Doctor and K9 show. The reason why the Nimon takes them is so that they give the humans some technology/power that they crave. This is the generic explanation but considering I am desperate for something good to happen in this story that I am just happy that something works.

The rearranging of the sets is a really inventive way of getting around the fact there wasn’t enough money for extra sets. It something that impressed which me does sound like damning with faint praise but it’s a genuine positive in this story. Another positive in this story is that for some reason I found Soldeed to be very good. I think that Graham Crowden seems to have pulled back the silliness and the character is bordering on slightly maniacal. It was weird seeing Tom Baker and Graham Crowden on screen together considering that Crowden could have been the fourth Doctor. The co-pilot meets a horny ending (that just sounds wrong doesn’t it!) when he is killed by the Nimon. It’s odd though that this is the cliffhanger, well technically Romanas reaction is the cliffhanger but this isn’t the best way of trying to entice people back for the first episode of 1980.

The character of Seth seems to be the one that the others are pinning their hopes on and if I were them then I would think that we were screwed because he shows absolutely nothing to me that suggests he could be the hero. Even in a story such as ‘The Mutants’ which isn’t one of my favourites, there was at least someone that was perceived to be the one that would bring balance to the force….sorry zoned out for a second but the point is that he worked in that story. With all due respect to Simon Gipps-Kent, I just don’t think that he carries much weight in narrative terms.

Its weird that they gave Romana her own sonic screwdriver in the previous episode and then proceed to part her from it in this episode. This seems like a totally silly thing to do or you could see it as a silly thing to have done in the previous episode to have given it to her in the first place.

The first episode of the decade was the first episode of ‘Spearhead from Space’ which I rated at 7.8 out of 10 and todays episode got 6.80. This is only the second time that a Tom Baker story has got below 7 (yesterdays episode was the first). It’s the first time that two episodes in a row have got below 7 since episodes five and six of ‘The Space Pirates’ way back in season six or January 12^th and 13^th of this year in my marathon. I think that this shows that the story hasn’t changed and could possibly get even worst with the remaining episodes. I will end on a surprising note, episode one got 6.0 million viewers whereas this episode got 8.8 million. That means that 2.8 million people thought that they would put their common sense next to one side and watch this episode. What is even more scary is that the next episode got 9.8 million episodes and the final episode would get 10.4 million. I really cant see what people were tuning in for. Presumably to see how silly the Nimon costumes were.

The Horns of Nimon - Episode 1

The Horns of Nimon is the last story of the season although that particular honour was suppose to go to ‘Shada’. Due to this, this season is the shortest so far and it’s the last story with Graham Williams as producer and Douglas Adams as script editor. I have never been a big fan of this story but I am going to try and be positive although I think that this may be difficult. This is the penultimate episode of the 1970’s with this episode being transmitted on December 22^nd 1979. The opening scene is quite interesting because its about the most serious scene in the entire episode. We have the pilot and co-pilot (for that is how they are credited) are doing a scene where they are complaining about the state of the ship and it’s they are the sort of characters that will be sort of clichéd in future Doctor Who stories. They do have a bit of a sinister side when its revealed that they have hostages with one of them being Janet Ellis who would go on to appear on Blue Peter from 1983-87.

When the action switches to the TARDIS that is when the serious/sinister tone goes for good. The humour returns after taking a slight holiday in the previous story. There are at least two things that occur in this scene which I found a bit tiresome. First is when the Doctor says “What could possibly go wrong?” just before something goes wrong and then he repeats it. The next is when he tries to give the kiss of life to K9.

After being impressed with the models and effects with the previous story I think that there is a dip in quality because the models don’t look as good and there are a few effects such as Soldeed walking through a curtain that look a bit ropey. Speaking of Soldeed, he is played by Graham Crowden who was considered to replace Jon Pertwee but instead the role went to Tom Baker. His performance is a bit on the pantomime side of things which isn’t the best way to start things. Another problem is the co-pilot who is played by Malcolm Terris who I just cant take seriously due to the way that he performs in the episode.

I mentioned the hostages and when they explain their circumstances to the Doctor and Romana I just don’t find it particularly interesting. Also the characters in general are rather bland and I don’t particularly find them interesting and so this is probably going to be a problem in future episodes. The Nimon design is also going to be a problem because it does just look like a bloke in a costume with a massive mask/head piece on. There are positives in this episode. Firstly the effect used to show the Doctor, Romana and K9 going from the TARDIS to the ship is quite well done and also I like the fact that Romana has her own sonic screwdriver which makes its debut in this episode. The scene where it is introduced is quite good as the Doctor tries to show that he’s not impressed with it before trying to do a swap on it. There was a joke delivered when the co-pilot says “Nimon waits for No man”. Ok so some jokes do work but that is the exception rather than the rule.

The cliffhanger would have worked quite well had it not been for the fact that Tom Baker plays it a bit to humorously. As a result I don’t think it has quite the dramatic tension that perhaps Anthony Read was hoping for. Kenny McBain clearly didn’t have much of a chance trying to keep Tom Baker in check because this has his finger prints all over it. There are good things in this episode but there are also bad things in this episode and I don’t think that my opinion will change over the remaining three episodes.

Nightmare of Eden - Episode 4

The episode starts off with the nice tense reprise and nice effects shot which both look just as good the second time around. It’s just struck me where I had seen the actor playing Dymond before and he plays a Jeremy Paxman type interviewer in ‘House of Cards’. It’s not the most important thing to put in one of these reviews but I am the sort of person who gets bugged when I see someone on TV that I recognise. For instance I was watching tonight’s Doctor Who (Flatline) and the train driver is recognisable and at the time of writing I still don’t know. Anyway I like how once the ships are separated that he wants to get out of the area as quickly as possible and its because of Fisk that he stays. I haven’t really thought of Della as a particularly important character but thankfully she seems to be a stronger character. Della isn’t a very thankful task and Jennifer Lonsdale does well with the role.

I like the Doctor’s attitude towards those who are involved in drug smuggling and it’s nice to the see the Doctor take such a strong view on such a retched topic. The Doctor’s humour is toned down in this episode and its been a blessed relief. There are a few moments where there is humour and the most notable point comes when he’s behind a group of bushes fighting off the mandrels. Apart from that the humour is in proportion to the story.

The special effects look quite good in this episode and I think that overall the effects have been largely good. Ok there are a few moments where it looks a bit ropey but these moments don’t happen very often. I think that this is the era where the lighting becomes a problem and I think that they could have done a better job in lowering the light. Another thing that didn’t quite work in this episode were the effect used from the guns which looked rather poor even comparing them to previous stories at the time. I just haven’t warmed to the Mandrels. They don’t look particularly frightening and I think that had the lighting been lower then they would have been scarier. K9 only serves one purpose in this episode and that’s to provide some power and that pretty much serves my point about how useless K9 is. Considering that K9 was co-created by Bob Baker then its surprising that he didn’t make better use of his creation.

The way that Tryst and Dymond were captured was something that I don’t fully understand but it looks great on TV. This was by far the best episode of the serial and it was due to the fact that it has a lot of pace and enthusiasm in the performances. It was directed well (probably due to Graham Williams) and it also delivered the ending that it deserved. Over the four episodes it hasn’t been as bad as I feared. Without the Mandrels and K9 then this story would be more well regarded than it currently is. I dare say that maybe it could be in peoples top 10. Sadly I cant say that at the end of the next story I will be as positive. The Horns of Nimon is a story that I have held in lower regard than this story.

Nightmare of Eden - Episode 3

The episode starts with the Doctor and Romana entering Eden but its not an eden that they would have expected. The first coulpe of minutes were largely of the Doctor and Romana and it was a good couple of minutes. The eden sets are quite good but they do make me remember the sets used for ‘Planet of Evil’ but obviously money means that we wouldn’t get that sort of quality. I hadn’t got the name of the soft looking creatures until now when I realised they were called Mandrels. It doesn’t change my opinion of them but at least they have a name. There is one scene where one is attacking the Doctor and I am sure that I could see the zip on its back. Also it has some interesting feet.

The Doctor and Romana meet Stott (played by Barry Andrews) who has been inside the CET for 83 days. I do think that more could have been done in this part because even though the set isn’t as good as ‘Planet of Evil’ but its still a good set and well lit.

At the end of the previous episode Geoffrey Hinsliff returns after he last appeared in ‘Image of the Fendahl’. In this episode he seems to be the thug of the story but I cant take him seriously in that outfit that he is wearing. I don’t think we see that sort of hat is has on until Ken Dodd makes an appearance during Sylvester McCoy’s era.  The effect of the Mandrell disintegrating was quite well done. Another good effect was used at the cliffhanger when the Doctor is running towards the screen. It shows that despite the budget being a bit tight at this period in the show, certain things looked rather good.

Rigg’s performance is very good because he starts to go cold turkey and at one point wants Romana to give him some more drugs and even gets violent towards her. For all the problems that I have with the humour, sometimes Doctor Who does some top notch dramatic moments. This episode is not terrible by an means but when I can’t really think of anything significant that happens then I know that its not been a great episode. What I can say in a positive tone is that the humour has made way for some good scenes. I think that with one more episode to go I think that this story is better than I perhaps was expecting.

Nightmare of Eden - Episode 2

The Doctor is threated on all sides, but by whom is what the information text tells us the Radio Times said for this weeks episode but presumably it wouldn’t be by the woolly mammoth monster that appeared at the end of the previous episode. I will be honest and admit that for the first several minutes of this episode I didn’t really know what was going on. Apart from splitting the two ships up there isn’t a great deal going on. It does eventually find its feet and then the story continues and by this point I was quite bowled over with certain aspects of the story.

I was knocking the models in the previous episode but I think that the special effects are quite good in this episode and whilst they might look dated compared to todays Doctor Who but I still think that they look pretty good. The effect of the Doctor chasing the person who knocked him out in the previous episode looks good even by today’s standards.

Tryst is quite a pantomime character and if you don’t see that he is the villain then you are just not trying. Normally I am quite slow in picking up on this fact and I haven’t seen this story for many years but even if I hadn’t seen this story before I would have easily guessed that Tryst was up to no good. Sadly the monsters are still disappointing to look at I think the more interesting part of the story comes when the monster isn’t on screen. That is the only aspect really of the episode that doesn’t work for me. The story shifts tone in this episode when it goes into the CET and that forms the cliffhanger which I have to say is quite a good one because its like the Doctor and Romana are going into the unknown. 

I thought that the sets were also quite good in this episode because two simple things were done to make the area that this story is taking place on seem grander. The first is the Doctor running down several flights of stairs even though its just the one set. The second instance is when the Doctor is chasing after someone and running through room after room of passengers even though it’s the same room and probably the same passengers.

Daker’s character has been drugged at the beginning of the episode but spends the rest of the episode suffering the side effects and this is the first instance in Doctor Who where someone is treated in this way. Daker does give a good performance. The performances in general were quite good and I have to admit that Alan Bromly has done a good job in these two episodes of directing it well. It’s not the most ground breaking story ever but I think considering how badly he handled certain aspects of his previous story that he has managed (so far) not to mess things up although according to the information text he didn’t exactly get on with the cast and crew in the way that a director should.

I think that providing the monsters don’t have as much of an involvement as they have had in previous episodes then the final two episodes should be quite good and I think that this story wont be as bad as I have thought of it in recent years. I think at the moment that this story is better than ‘The Creature from the Pit’ for reasons that might seem odd to many as they both feature monsters that don’t work in the way that they were suppose to but I just think that there are more strong characters compared to the creature story and that is why I still have high hopes.

Nightmare of Eden - Episode 1

Thankfully its not just good things that have to come to an end, its also not so good things or in the case of this story things that are just boring. Thankfully this isn’t the last story that Fisher would right as it would have been terrible if this were his last offering. It’s unfair to blame some of the writing at Fisher’s door because Douglas Adams should have reigned back some of the humour and put more of an effort into telling a good story.

Erato gets to speak for the first time when he is speaking using the Doctor’s voice. In just a few moments we learn a lot about the creature. He was about to offer a trade agreement and he met Astrada who threw it straight into the pit. This suddenly makes the story worth all the silliness that we have had to be put through. This explanation makes Astrada seem a much better villain than she was perceived to be in the previous three episodes. If only this had been mentioned earlier then I might have reacted much more fondly. The death of Astrada would normally indicate that the story has ended but quite cleverly this isn’t the case in this story because there is still some more action and its that the planet is about to be blown up because Erato’s people took its silence as an act of war and retaliated. I like how Erato isn’t too keen to help the people that imprisoned her/it for 15 years. Though despite its imprisonment it does the right thing and by the end of the story that trade agreement is still on.

The humour is still misplaced in this episode with a moment where the Doctor is saying goodbye to Organon before he is killed. There is also a repetitive yes answer between the Doctor and Romana which does get a bit tiresome. This is about as much as I am prepared to go on about the humour for this story.

I think that this episode saved this story for me. There wasn’t much time really for any of the humour that has bogged down the previous episodes. Tom Baker was far more his old self rather than the new even lighter humoured Doctor that we have had during this season. I still think his line to Organon was a bit out of character and perhaps was the most obvious clue so far that Tom Baker’s influence in the show was starting to have a detrimental effect on the show. I am now half way through the two stories that I thought were going to cause me problems and it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be but I am still dreading the next story.

 

The Creature from the Pit - Episode 4

Thankfully its not just good things that have to come to an end, its also not so good things or in the case of this story things that are just boring. Thankfully this isn’t the last story that Fisher would right as it would have been terrible if this were his last offering. It’s unfair to blame some of the writing at Fisher’s door because Douglas Adams should have reigned back some of the humour and put more of an effort into telling a good story.

Erato gets to speak for the first time when he is speaking using the Doctor’s voice. In just a few moments we learn a lot about the creature. He was about to offer a trade agreement and he met Astrada who threw it straight into the pit. This suddenly makes the story worth all the silliness that we have had to be put through. This explanation makes Astrada seem a much better villain than she was perceived to be in the previous three episodes. If only this had been mentioned earlier then I might have reacted much more fondly. The death of Astrada would normally indicate that the story has ended but quite cleverly this isn’t the case in this story because there is still some more action and its that the planet is about to be blown up because Erato’s people took its silence as an act of war and retaliated. I like how Erato isn’t too keen to help the people that imprisoned her/it for 15 years. Though despite its imprisonment it does the right thing and by the end of the story that trade agreement is still on.

The humour is still misplaced in this episode with a moment where the Doctor is saying goodbye to Organon before he is killed. There is also a repetitive yes answer between the Doctor and Romana which does get a bit tiresome. This is about as much as I am prepared to go on about the humour for this story.

I think that this episode saved this story for me. There wasn’t much time really for any of the humour that has bogged down the previous episodes. Tom Baker was far more his old self rather than the new even lighter humoured Doctor that we have had during this season. I still think his line to Organon was a bit out of character and perhaps was the most obvious clue so far that Tom Baker’s influence in the show was starting to have a detrimental effect on the show. I am now half way through the two stories that I thought were going to cause me problems and it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be but I am still dreading the next story.

 

The Creature from the Pit - Episode 3

One thing that I should be thankful for about this story is that it is only four episodes long. Now that I am three episodes in I know that there isn’t much left for me to endure. The episode starts off with the reprise of the less than convincing CSO but does show the Doctor being squashed by the blob and his reaction is not as comedic as when the Wolfweed’s were on him. The Doctor was never going to be killed so the idea of pretending the Doctor is dead is a narrative tool that is somewhat pointless.

Romana’s interaction with Adastra is interesting one because there is a thing called the Blechdal test which sees whether films or television are fair to women and female characters and for most of this story these characters pass this test but for the moments when  the Doctor is mentioned it obviously doesn’t pass the test. When the Doctor has scene with Adastra I think that this is the first time for a while that the Doctor has been serious. I know you may be sick and tired about me mentioning this but the humour is a major issue for me and it just ruins what could have been a decent story. It makes all the serious moments special.

There is a period where I cant make my mind up about the humour and whether the Doctor is being humorous or not and it comes when he is talking to the creature. At least during this period we start to understand a bit more about the creature. Sadly its slightly undermined by the actual design which at certain angles look sillier than usual. According to the production notes, nobody was really happy with the design of the creature and so its impossible to be too hard on anybody because if they had said that it was ok then I would think that they deserved all the critiscm but as they all admit that the creature was rubbish then that’s the end of that.

This episode was better than the previous one but that’s not very difficult. I thought that like the previous episode the cliffhanger was the best part but in this episode there were more interesting moments in this episode and I think that I feel more positive about this episode than yesterday’s episode but I still think that this is a disappointing episode. The only question is whether its more or less disappointing than ‘Destiny of the Daleks’. At the moment I really don’t know.

The Creature from the Pit - Episode 2

As I get into this story I wonder whether something is going to make me change my opinion and make me say something positive about this serial. Sadly on the basis of these two episodes, that isn’t going to happen. The Wolfweeds which caused the Doctor no harm in the previous episode seem to have incapacitated K9 which I always thought was slightly odd. When the Doctor is hanging onto a rock in the shaft he decided to teach himself Tibetan which I think was a bit of a mistake. Whereas the humour in ‘City of Death’ was spot on in this story its just misplaced.

We get to see the creature in this episode and its….erm….well a bit silly. There’s no getting away from it, it just looks like a part of the male anatomy. It’s a bit difficult to take an alien menace seriously when that’s the only or first thing that comes to mind when it appears on screen. When we see the bigger version of the creature it doesn’t look to bad, sadly its mainly the smaller version that we see

Cast in the story is Geoffrey Bayldon who has appeared in a couple of Big Finish audios including playing the Doctor in the Unbound series. I think that his performance is quite good and seems to work well with the Doctor in his current mood. This is why the Doctor and Organon spend so much time together and I think that despite my misgivings about the humour I think that this is by far the more interesting.

The cliffhanger isn’t quite as good as the previous one but its still a good ending. It’s another instance where the cliffhanger is the best thing about the episode. I still don’t like this story very much and despite this being written by David Fisher and being the last story to be directed by Christopher Barry, I think that this story doesn’t work because it cant quite make up its mind what it wants to be. I don’t really care much about the characters or the story. Despite the visuals and the fact that it doesn’t feel like padding, this is definelty the weakest story of the season so far. The effort that Tom Baker is putting into the story is getting weaker and weaker with every episode.

The Creature from the Pit - Episode 1

I have never been a big fan of this story although I have noticed that this story was written by David Fisher so it might not be as bad as I thought. This was the first story that Lalla Ward recorded as Romana but its been shown third for some reason. David Brierly is makes his first appearance in the show and this is the first time that K9 has been involved in a story since ‘The Armageddon Factor’ and to be honest I haven’t missed him. One thing that this story does have in its favour is that most of it is filmed at Ealing studios which gives it a different feel. It makes it feel like they are on a different planet and not a studio.

The Wolfweed look quite impressive and normally when they cover the Doctor it would be a moment of danger but sadly due to the fact that Tom Baker is using a more comedic style in his performance nowaways means that he treats it as a comedy moment. Speaking of Baker’s comedy it seems to span the whole episode because he spends a long time in some stocks which just seem silly

This episode sees Eileen Way return after appearing in the first story as the Old Mother I belief. She is very good in the role and I could belief that she is the ruler of the planet and not Lady Adrasta. This might be a problem in future episodes but its good that the main villain is a woman. There are two aspects of this story. The first is with Lady Adrasta who is the ruler of Chloris and the second is with a bunch of rough looking people who are obsessed with finding metal and wrongly think that Romana is Adrasta’s lady in waiting. Romana does have to try too hard to outwit her captures but she doesn’t really have anything memorable to do.

The only exciting thing that happens in this episode is the cliffhanger which sees the Doctor swing down into the pit. That shows the problem with this story when the only exciting thing to happen is the thing that is used to entice you to come back the following week is the best thing. Sadly despite the best efforts of Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, the rest of the performances (except Eileen Way) are a bit below par but that’s partly due to Fisher’s script.

I am willing to accept the fact that this could change in the rest of the story but at the moment my original thoughts about this story seem to be spot on. My friend came up with one word to describe this episode and it was simply……bland.

City of Death - Episode 4

So this is the most watched episode of Doctor Who ever. Over 16 million people watched this episode and sadly it wasn’t because it was the most talked about TV event ever. Due to a strike at ITV (which I have already mentioned) meant that despite the ratings for this story this wasn’t the greatest story of Doctor Who ever made. Certainly it’s a good one and far better than Douglas Adams’ previous offerings but to be fair it has worked quite well during this story. As I write this I am on holiday with a friend so for the next several episodes I may have input from my friend. This is my equivalent of padding but it will hopefully be more enjoyable than some of the padding that there has been in Doctor Who so far.

After the death of Kerensky, the only weak link in this story is the Countess. The problem with the Countess as far as I am concerned is that she is naïve to the point where it is frustrating. Narratively it does serve a purpose so I suppose its more due my expectations that flaws with the story. When she does come the realisation about the truth it does make for a very good scene where the Count rips off and like the first episode cliffhanger the green mask does come off as the face mask comes off which does slightly ruin the effect.

The Count only has two minutes to stop his previous self from pressing a switch that causes the explosion seen in the first episode but the way that he is stopped is simply by talking to the Doctor and Duggan punching which leads to a wonderful line from the Doctor says that it might be the most important punch in history. The character of Duggan has been one of change because at the start he was annoying but overtime he has been a great part of the cast and I think that Tom Chadbon did well with the character.

This episode features the cameo of Jon Cleese who makes a cameo in the art gallery where the TARDIS is located. I just love the idea that one of the Pythons has featured in Doctor Who.  There is a slight continuity error in this episode because in the previous episode, he wrote THIS IS A FAKE yet when he tells Romana and Duggan about it he says “THESE ARE FAKES”. I hate to be pedantic but I feel the need to point it out and they even go to the trouble of pointing it out on the DVD information text. Julian Glover is the best thing in this story and my friend says that we didn’t need to see the alien face but just has Glover’s Count as the villain. I think that the casting of Glover was great and I don’t know what more I can add to it I’m afraid.

The final shot is of the Doctor and Romana walking away after apparently flying and shouting “Goodbye Duggan” which my friend says is impossible. It’s a nice shot though because the camera pulls back and gives us one last look at Paris. It’s been a good end to a good story and I think that after being disappointed with ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ it was good that this story restored my faith in the show. The story was good, the performances were also good and the directing was sound and when all these things come together then the story has a good chance of doing well. Sadly I know what the next story is and so my recently restored faith might be test in the next story. In fact the next two stories are going to be a test but I suppose my opinions can change.

As I mentioned, Tom Baker is now just one episode behind William Hartnell. My friend reminded me that in Baker’s last season he looks a lot more tired than he did in this season. As this is his penultimate season its fair to say that his humour is becoming more impactful on the story and on this occasion he got away with it but I think when the story doesn’t require it then his humour just looks misplaced. On a totally random note, the bodyguard/stooge that the Count has looks an awful lot like one of the maintanence guys that works at the caravan park that I am staying at. Means nothing to you but it does make me and my friend chuckle.

City of Death - Episode 3

It seems that humour is the order of the day as there is more humour in this episode than in the previous two. It takes less than three minutes for Duggan’s comedy to show itself. It’s not the only bit of comedy as Peter Haliday’s comedic role is ended when the Doctor uses a Polaroid to blind him. The stuff in 1505 does seem to be a little odd because its moving quite slowly. Once the action returns to 1979 it seems to be moving along a lot better. I like how Duggan and Romana have developed a different kind of relationship. It’s one of those things to try and think about how the show would have been had Duggan stayed on the show. It’s one of those things that Big Finish could do.

There is a moment where the 1979 Scarlioni is talking to 1505’s Scarlioni where one question starts in 1979 and ends in 1505. That must have looked very impressive on the script page and it’s edited very well and its simple things like this that show the vast idea of what David Agnew/Douglas Adams was trying to achieve. The THIS IS A FAKE moment happens in this episode and this is why I cant look at the Mona Lisa without thinking that this might be in the background. The montage of the different Scarlioni’s is quite a good one and does a good job of showing us that there are more than just the two versions. I haven’t commented on Michael Hayes’ directing so far in this story which is a shame because he has did quite well in his two stories during the Key to Time season and he has managed to do wonders in this story.
There has been only aspect of this story that hasn’t worked so well and that is the role of Kerensky. Apart from being there to do work for the Count, he hasn’t really contributed to the story and I think that the role is a bit too silly for the story so his death was perhaps overdue but it was a good death as he aged to the end of his existence. This marks the cliffhanger with the final shot being of the Count. It’s not the strongest cliffhanger of this story but I suppose after two really good cliffhangers it was inevitable that there would be a bit of a dud ending. The episode was another good one which continued the story and for once the humour was quite enjoyable and I think that the whole story is working very well. I am glad that they have got some location footage in this episode because it makes up for the lack of it in the previous episode. Looking forward to the final episode and hope that it ends just as I hope it does.

City of Death - Episode 2

This story got the highest ratings for any Doctor Who story during the classic era. This episode got 14.1 million viewers any that was a record but it would only last seven days with 15.4 million and then that record lasted for seven days when the final episode got 16.1 million. This was due to strike action at ITV. Whilst the previous episode was memorable because of the French location filming but todays episode doesn’t have any of that.

First thing that stands out in this episode is the comedy is back and I think that this is down to the fact the story is starting to stagger a bit because it doesn’t seem to flow as well as it did in the previous episode. There is a bit in terms of what the Count and Countess are doing and that is they are trying to steal the Mona Lisa. The Doctor decides to go and visit Leonardo Da Vinci and encounters Peter Halliday (aka Packer). Halliday’s character is quite a comedy character which seems to be odd considering moments later he meets an older version of the Count. The cliffhanger is just as good as the previous episodes and its just the way that Julian Glover walks into the room. Julian Glover is a fine piece of casting and its largely down to his performance in the two episodes so far that has stood out aside from the location filming.

The idea of their being several Mona Lisa’s is something that could only have come from the mind of Douglas Adams (sorry David Agnew). I cant think or look at the Mona Lisa on the TV without thinking of the moment that’s about to come up where the Doctor writes THIS IS A FAKE. It’s quite an big moment and even gets mentioned in a Big Finish story.

I know that the comedy might seem a little bit unwelcoming but I think that it works a lot better than the humour that appeared during Adams’ last story ‘The Pirate Planet’. The performances from Tom Baker and Lalla Ward have been quite fun to watch and also I have found the running gag about Duggan hitting everyone and anyone to be quite fun and I think that this has slightly made up for the lack of filming in Paris. I think that this story is still fun but I am worried that the lack of location filming is going to sap any positivity out of this story.  

City of Death - Episode 1

Today is Tom Baker’s 129^th episode as the Doctor which puts him in second place behind William Hartnell who is on 133 so by the end of this story he will be just one episode behind him. I know that I enjoyed the Key to Time (most of it anyway) buts it nice that the show has returned to just randomly going to different places. This story is credited to David Agnew who previously wrote ‘Invasion of Time’ but this is a Douglas Adams script and after being left a bit disappointed with ‘The Pirate Planet’, I wonder just what to expect over the next four episodes. There is something quite special about this story and its that this is the first story to have been filmed abroad. That’s the real Eifel Tower and those are real French people walking around a real Paris. It’s weird that its taken nearly 16 years for the show to go out of the United Kingdom and whilst its not uncommon for the show to venture away from our green and pleasant lands with the most recent episode (Kill the Moon) being filmed in Lanzarote but back in 1979 this must have felt like a holiday for the viewers.

The first shot is a very impressive model which sees the camera pan across a rather grim and baron landscape before focusing on a spider like ship. Scaroth’s mask is probably a bit silly compared to todays standards but in context it looks fine. Count Scarlioni is played by Julian Glover and is someone that throws money around like its funny money so is instantly unlikeable. He is messing around with time so there is a nice mystery as to how he is linked with Scaroth. As well as having money is a slave driver because Kerensky is doing all the donkey work and doesn’t get to go out and have a life.

The opening shot in Paris is beautiful. Very rarely would I describe something in Doctor Who as beautiful but I cant help it. When the Doctor and Romana end up on the train it looks weird to think of a couple that could fly through time and space end up on public transport. The whole sequence of them travelling through Paris is fascinating because I am one of those people who like to watch old programs and see how the transportation or something similar looked when filmed in the ‘modern’ day. Even when the action moves to a studio, it still feels like we are still in Paris even though it’s a BBC studio in wet London.

The episode ends with Scarlioni removing his mask to show that he is in fact Scaroth and its only ruined by the slight moment where the mask appears to be pulled up when the face mask is pulled off. Apart from that the revelation is quite good and ends of a good note. I have really enjoyed this episode after being slightly disappointed with the Dalek story and thought that this episode had everything that I would want from an episode and after several episodes which haven’t quite had that effect on me I am just relieved to get that fanboy feel from an episode.

Destiny of the Daleks - Episode 4

The ending of the previous episode was a good one because it was a companion in peril but done in quite a clever way. Once the episode starts it turns out that one of the Movellans hand not set the bomb to go off which seems to be a bit of a cop out. Something struck me as I was watching this episode and it was a DVD that was on my shelf that’s above my computer, another thing that struck me was the relationship between the Daleks and Davros. Considering how the Daleks treated Davros, its funny how there hasn’t been anything said between the two. I know there wasn’t a Jeremy Kyle or a Jerry Springer Show in 1979 but I wonder what was said to get Davros to forgive and forget.

There is a bit where David Gooderson is giving a speech to his Daleks and I thought that this was the first time that he has really shone in the role. He gives a slightly more human performance than Michael Wisher did as there was a different tone in his voice. Sadly the mask is still a problem because during his scene with the Doctor you can see Gooderson’s skin through the mouthpiece. Also there is a bit of that wobbling that was seen in a previous episode and these two things are what I remember when I think about Gooderson’s performance as Davros. I haven’t really wanted to compare his performance with Wisher’s but I think that as the first person to play the role, Wisher is always going to be the person to beat.

We get another scene between the Doctor and Davros which is better than their first encounter. It ends with a certain amount of comedy and it’s the first time since the opening episode that comedy has been noticeable. The Doctor uses Davros’ own hand to set off the Daleks with the bombs on and that is the way that the Daleks and Davros are defeated. It’s not the greatest end to their involvement in a story but I suppose it was an effective way and that is what the story needed. It’s weird to think that it will be another couple of years before the Daleks return. Nowadays we are use to Daleks appearing every series but the Daleks wouldn’t appear until 1984 and that must have felt like an eternity to people watching in 1979.

Todays episode has been a strange one because it hasn’t felt like a final episode should but it wasn’t a disappointment. I enjoyed it and yet I don’t really know why. It’s fair to say that Destiny is not as good as Genesis. The story worked but it wasn’t at the sort of level that I would expect a Dalek story would. It’s also fair to say that Terry Nation was working on auto pilot when writing this story as it doesn’t have any of the energy that his previous offerings have had.

Destiny of the Daleks - Episode 3

Todays episode is where Davros get involved in the story after seemingly being killed by the Daleks. There is a problem from the get go because of the style that David Gooderson is talking. I would have thought that he would try and mimic Michael Wisher but no, also they could have done something to make Gooderson’s voice sound different because they could have hidden his normal voice. Also the mask he is wearing seems to be the one the Michael Wisher wore and as a result it doesn’t look right. The mouth is the only active part of Davros’ face and it barely moves when he’s talking. Also when Gooderson moves he wobbles from side to side which just looks silly.

It’s quite funny that the Doctor effectively kidnaps Davros and the period of the episode where they are alone. It’s not quite as good as the scenes they had in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ but it still fits in with this story. There is a funny moment when the Doctor tells the Daleks to ‘spack off’. Clearly he was just trying to say back off but its funny they kept it in. I don’t quite get why the Doctor goes to the trouble taking Davros if he’s just going to hand him back to the Daleks.

Seeing Daleks walk around on Skaro is a huge development because in the very first Dalek story they couldn’t even leave their city but now they are walking around (albit with some strategically place cameras). The quarry stuff is quite good and even though I know that it’s a quarry, I can believe (via the sound effects) that this is a cold and miserable planet and also that we are on Skaro.

After being quite good in the previous episode, its sad that Romana doesn’t get to do very much in this episode. It seems she just leaves the Doctor and ends up in a tube that has a bomb in it and that forms the cliffhanger. It’s a good cliffhanger but I wish that she could have done something interesting as opposed to what she ended up doing. I think this shows that the second incarnation of Romana isn’t going to be any different than the previous incarnation. This was another good episode but there are things that happen that just take the shine off it. It’s not the greatest Terry Nation script that he has ever produced for the show but its an interesting one and one that is slightly let down by production values. If this weren’t a Dalek story then I would probably be more positive or negative than I am being but when it’s a Dalek story then I expect something slightly more engaging than what is on at the moment.

Destiny of the Daleks - Episode 2

If you tell someone not to move then chances are they wont move and so you don’t need to repeat saying that phrase. It still bothers me that the Daleks feel the need to repeat. Clearly Terry Nation thought that it would be a great way to end the previous episode but I think that it just didn’t work. This is the episode where the Daleks really get into the story and their first piece of action is to interrogate Romana. They are quite cross which is presumably why they are repeating things. Sadly something that is quite obvious as well as their mood is the state of them. Sadly the Daleks here have seen better days and look in relatively bad condition with scuff marks and bits missing.

After she is interrogated by the Daleks, Romana becomes quite active and is the one that is trying to escape from the Daleks. She even goes to the trouble of pretending that she’s dead to fool the Daleks and be buried before surfacing and putting the rocks just before the Doctor finds her ‘grave’.

The Daleks have a plan and its revealed in this episode, they are drilling for something and its not to mine the core of the planet and use it as a giant spaceship. They are after Davros who was last seen in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. Sadly its not Michael Wisher playing the role but instead David Gooderson. Things start off well with Davros’ return but problems will surface in next episode. The idea of using him moving his hand as the cliffhanger is a great one.

Tyssan is the one that made Romana fall down the hole in the previous episode. He is played by Tim Barlow who is profoundly deaf but it doesn’t show. His performance in this episode is quite good. There is something about him that makes him seem quite a solid character and yet he seems like he would fall over if there were a gust of wind. The Movellan’s are a bit rubbish if I am being honest (and I have no reason not to). I just think that its hard to believe that they could pose any kind of threat. It’s hard to fathom whether it’s due to their attire or just the performances that make me think this and I know that they are robots but still it is possible to have charismatic robots, I mean Kryten is a good example and ok this story was shown about a decade before Kryten would appear on Red Dwarf but you get the point.

There is a moment I have seen a thousand times and its when the Doctor is talking down to a Dalek trying to get it to come and get him and its used to highlight the fact that Daleks had trouble going up stairs or going up different levels. Obviously any Doctor Who fan with half a brain would know that they have always been able to go up stairs and it seems odd that the Daleks creator would show up such a flaw. Its made even worse when the flaw isn’t really a flaw but something that wasn’t possibly due to the technology of the period.

This is a much stronger episode than the first one. I think the performances are better and more importantly the humour has been reigned back a lot and it meant that the story could take centre stage and the performances from Tom Baker and Lalla Ward and the other supporting characters meant that I enjoyed it and I am feeling much better about this season as a result. Whether this continues remains to be seen.

Destiny of the Daleks - Episode 1

The seventeenth season of Doctor Who is one of change because out goes Anthony Read as the Script Editor and in comes Douglas Adams. Considering that I wasn’t a huge fan of ‘The Pirate Planet’, I am somewhat concerned that this season of Doctor Who isn’t going to be as good as previous seasons. This episode also sees Lalla Ward debut as Romana. After spending six episodes playing Princess Astra, its now time for Ward to try and be a new version of Mary Tamm. I am surprised that Tamm didn’t get to do a regeneration scene. This story also sees the Daleks and Davros return for the first time since ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ which was way back in Tom Baker’s first season. Terry Nation also returns to writing duties for the first time since ‘The Android Invasion’ back in December 1975.

The DVD for this story allows me to watch it with CGI effects which is always a good thing. The first bit of CGI comes when the Movellans ship arrives and drills its way into the ground. Speaking of the Movellans they look quite striking but I can’t make my mind up about them and I am sure that something will stand out in future episodes but at the moment my opinion is up in the air.

The opening scene is the regeneration scene where we see several versions of Romana which leads to some people to whinge that she’s wasted several regenerations which isn’t necessarily the truth but it does show what the tone will be in future stories. I have always assumed that Graham Williams’ tenure was more comedic than past producers but watching this opening episode I realise that the fault for the humour should go to Douglas Adams who didn’t seem too bothered that there was too much humour.

When the Doctor and Romana land on Skaro (obviously they don’t know that they are on Skaro at this point) It’s quite different to the one we saw in Genesis. There is a lot more green grass around and its not as foggy as it was then. I am guessing that this story was filmed during the summer because the sunny weather does make the quarry scenes seem a lot nicer than perhaps was intended.

Lalla Ward doesn’t get one episode before she is put in peril as she falls backwards. Here falling down leads us to what I think is one of the best cliffhangers for a while. The sight of Daleks breaking through  a glass wall telling Romana not to move. They repeat the phrase “Do Not Move” about half a dozen times yet Ward stays firmly on the spot so its perhaps not the best opening return for the greatest baddies in Doctor Who. That said I thought that this was quite a good opening episode and despite the rather unnecessary comedy moments I thought that things were set up nicely and the lack of supporting character makes it seem like a claustrophobic episode (even though there is more than a brief moment outside).

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 6

Now we have reached the end of the journey, after twenty five episodes the key to Time would be completed. The previous episode ended with the Doctor being shrunk by Drax. The episode sort of takes a while to get going but the Doctor and Drax carry the early moments of the episode. Merak and Shapp seem to be forming a double act. The Doctor and Drax are a good double act. This is normally the sort of thing that Robert Holmes would have done but it just shows that other people can get away with it to.

There is a moment where Astra announces that she is the Sixth princess of the sixth royal house of the sixth dynasty and it’s a lovely way of pointing things out and it could easily have been a silly explanation as to why she’s special but Baker and Martin have thought this one through. K9 has to pretend to the Shadow that he is still under his control. This is again a moment where K9 is actually interesting and sadly it doesn’t last very long but again like the time when he was a bad K9, it was fun while it lasted.

There is a lovely moment when the countdown of the Mentalis is getting to 0 and Drax is trying to remember which cable is needed to cut and stop the countdown and it does feel a bit like comedy and bit like drama. This means that the Marshall can fire his rockets for the first time since episode three or four and the planet of evil is destroyed and then the Shadow has a wonderful final scene. After Drax leaves the Doctor and Romana there comes a really fine scene where the Doctor pretends that he has become a bit bad now that they have all six segments. This is just the Doctor playing but it’s a wonderful moment when the viewer must be unsure whether he has been warped by the power that the Key to Time has.

The Shadow talks to what appears to be the Black Guardian. Here comes the best part of the episode because the Black Guardian pretends to be the White Guardian. The Doctor does a good job of stalling things and the moment when the White Guardian turns into the Black Guardian is great moment. What isn’t such a great moment is when the tracer is broken and the segments are broken up. After spending twenty six weeks, its basically been reduced to nothing. I cant quite make my mind up about this because on the one hand it’s the epic ending that we needed and on the other hand it does sort of make a mockery of what we have seen.

This is the final episode to feature Anthony Read as the script editor. I cant really fault the quality of the stories that he has been involved with. The Armageddon Factor is the final six part story ever. I cant believe that with over 350 episodes left to watch that it will just be two or four part stories. I cant say that I will really miss the six parters because they are a bit baggy and sometimes doesn’t quite work. The episode was a decent finale but it was an episode of two halves with the first half being the ok stuff and the second half being the stuff with the Black Guardian and the Doctor. The story was ok as well but I think that it could have been a bit shorter but whilst the budget might have been a bit tight, it didn’t show too much on screen and I thought that the story was directed quite well and Bob Baker and Dave Martin managed to make a six parter interesting which isn’t an easy thing to do.

On a final note I have to say that this is May Tamm’s final episode and like Caroline John, she doesn’t get a proper goodbye scene which is a shame because she has been really a great addition to the show and it is perhaps a wise move for Tamm to depart after just one season but when she returned to star alongside Tom Baker in the Big Finish adventures just before she passed away I was reminded as to how good she was and she carried a certain dignity that the role hadn’t really had for a while and Mary Tamm will be missed.

The idea of having a season with an overarching theme is something that is something that I think has paid off. The only story that didn’t work was ‘The Pirate Planet’ but the rest of them had something to enjoy and ‘The Stones of Blood’ and ‘The Androids of Tara’ were the best stories of the season. It wouldn’t be until the new era before we would get a story arc but I think that the Key to Time season was a good one and onwards with the next season.