The final episode of this season manages to salvage some of
the problems that this season has had. For the first few minutes it didn’t seem
like much was happening. This was made clear by the fact that there was a scene
where Mel wants to play Eye Spy and the look on Ace’s face pretty much says
everything that needs to be said. I want Ace and Mel to be getting stuck in not
playing a child’s game.
The little girl that appeared in the first episode returns
in this episode and is given an awful lot of screen time and at one point seems
to befriend the dragon. I really don’t see what she has to bring to the story
considering she had been a peripheral character and so the reason for her to
appear so much time is a mystery.
I like the model that appears when the colony is revealed as
a spaceship. It’s one of the few model shots in the serial and it looks rather
good.
The death of Kane is quite possibly one of the most gruesome
deaths in Doctor Who. It’s very similar to the one that happens in the first of
the Indiana Jones films. It’s one of those things that if it had happened in
the Colin Baker era then it would have really caused controversy but its not
given the same reaction nowadays. I think that its somewhat foolish for Kane to
look out of a window rather than a computer screen.
Mel’s goodbye does come a bit out of the blue. Quite why she
chose now to leave. The Doctor’s reaction is rather sad and it’s the first time
that McCoy’s Doctor has had the opportunity to show this side. Mel decides that
she is going to be travelling with Glitz for no clear reason. It’s a shame that
this happened because it seems to be similar to how Leela left in The Invasion
of Time. Ace’s start in the TARDIS happens quite close to the end but that’s perfectly
fine.
As an episode, it was one that was took an awfully long amount
of time to get going. Once it did then it was a lot of fun and this three part
adventure is easily the best thing in the 24th season but that is
sort of damning with faint praise. In any other season, this would still be a
good story. Yes it has some serious problems in terms of narrative and
character development but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have a soft
spot for it.
Season 24 has been the disappointment that I was expecting.
This is the worst part of the McCoy era over with an now I can look forward to
some really good stories and this is where Sylvester McCoy shows us what he can
do as the Doctor and the show’s slow improvement starts now. The change of
companions is the last that would occur in the original run and it’s weird to
think that there is just three weeks’ worth of the classic era left. It’s
starting to fly by. 
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