(695) Survival - Part 3

Today is the final episode of the McCoy era and effectively the final episode of the classic era. I know technically the TV movie is the end of the classic era but this is the end of the original run. The show has changed a lot over the previous 694 episodes but it’s fair to say that its star has dimmed during the last decade despite showing signs of improvement in stories such as this one. There is something final about this episode. Ace being possessed by the cat people is something that wouldn’t have happened in previous stories.

Ace’s development is wonderfully done but its down to Sophie Aldred who continues to impress me and in her final episode she shows how underrated she has been. “This is the only home I know” is a wonderful line from Ace. It’s fair to say that Ace has been through the ringer in this season and it has been one of the successes of the season.

I like how the Master is trying to fight the possession attempt although its clearly only a matter of time. He is playing Midge to do his dirty work and this comes to ahead during a scene where Midge and the Doctor are playing chicken on bikes. Once Midge had failed he was killed pretty much by the Master. The Master seems to start off as the new more likeable Master but there is a moment where he chuckles to himself and it seemed like he was going to return back to his bad old self. When he kills Karra it seems like he is back and continues like this leading up to the big scene with the Doctor. This scene is one of my favourite in the McCoy era. It’s one that I think these two characters should have had years ago. The sword fight between Pertwee’s Doctor and Delgado’s Master in The Sea Devils lacks something compared to this one.

“If we fight like animals, we die like animals” is a wonderful line that Sylvester McCoy delivers brilliantly. It’s frustrating that the show ends just when McCoy is really starting to get into his stride. I have really changed my opinion of the McCoy era and episodes like this shows why.

Midge is rather amusing in this episode and I don’t find him very menacing at all. Things get even worse when he dons a suit and starts to act all macho in front of other guys at the training gym. The use of Midge is one of the things that doesn’t quite work but at least his involvement doesn’t disrupt the flow of the episode.

The final speech from Sylvester McCoy wasn’t how the show was due to end but when it became clear that it may not return this was added on and if the show hadn’t returned in 1996 or 2005 then this would have been a lovely way to end 26 years of superb storytelling.

I like on the production notes on the DVD that it ends with Doctor Who 1963-89, To Be Continued? There is just one more Doctor Who DVD with production titles on it so its going to be something else to get use to when the Christopher Eccleston era comes along in two days. This is a major moment in my marathon and I am really sad that I have left this era of the show. The show has had some really great stories but then again its had some really poor stories. Despite the fact that the budget wasn’t as big as it could have been and the narrow minded bosses at the BBC weren’t keen to spend some money on the show and wanted Doctor Who to achieve Star Wars type things on a miniscule budget, the show has shown that with the right kind of writing, directing and performances that Doctor Who can hold its own. Now comes the era of the show where its clear a bit more money has been spent on it and it’s the era of the big TARDIS. Roll on the one day McGann era.

To end sign off on this portion of the marathon I thought I would end with one of the greatest speeches in Doctor Who.

“There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace. We've got work to do.”

(694) Survival - Part 2

The Anthony Ainley version of the Master has always suffered a problem. Roger Delgado is always going to be the best Master and I think that the problem that Ainley has had has been the fact he was treated almost in a lighter vein than Delgado. He was never allowed to be as serious but in this story that completely changes. It is almost a completely different delivery of the character from Ainley. One such extreme example is that he has become like the Cheetah people with cat teeth and howling at the moon.

There is a fair bit of humour in this episode. There is the bit where the Doctor has been snared by Ace’s trap and is hanging upside down and then there is the dig that Ace delivers at the Doctor where she asks him if he knows any nice people. The humour in this episode is pitched just right because without it, this episode would be very different and perhaps not as strong.

The Doctor and the Master get a good face to face scene which serves to set up the plot for the rest of the story and that is the planet is breaking up and the Master needs the Doctor’s help. The scenes between the Doctor and the Master in recent serials have been mixed but never have they had the awesomeness that this one had. I would have to go back to Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado to find that sort of great face to face.

Ace has a nice/weird bonding moment with Karra (played by Lisa Bowerman). This leads to more great scenes from Sophie Aldred. The episode ends with her looking towards the Doctor and her eyes have changed. Sophie Aldred has continued to impress me with her performance not just in this story but since she joined in Dragonfire and its another reason why the decision to rest/axe is frustrating because I think that with a few more stories, Ace could have the same sort of fan reaction as Sarah Jane.

Despite the regulars impressing and Anthony Ainley holding his own, the supporting characters haven’t really made much of an impact in my opinion. The only one of the supporting characters that came even close is Midge. Midge is a character that is quite good in this episode because he becomes possessed by the cat people and the Master uses him to teleport back to Earth. I know what the character of Midge is going to do in the next episode so I find myself more impressed what the Midge in this episode as a result.

This has been another solid episode with an impressive cliffhanger. The penultimate episode of the McCoy era is another example of how good the show has been in the last year and a half. It also shows how for the first time in the 1980’s the show that it’s felt like a drama and not an enjoyable twenty-five minute bit of fantasy.

(693) Survival - Part 1

The moment has finally arrived. Survival marks the final story for Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred and the final story to be made in the UK by the BBC for 16 years. Today’s episode marks the 807^th day that Sylvester McCoy has been the Doctor and that’s five days longer than Peter Davison was Doctor. It’s rather good that the final story of the original era is on Earth in London which is the same as An Unearthly Child. I know that wasn’t intentional but if the show hadn’t returned in 2005 then there aren’t many stories better to end the era on.

One of the few things that doesn’t work in this episode is the cat that hisses. Unfortunately it just doesn’t look convincing and it would have been better to have not seen it at all. Maybe they could have got away with it just being on screen but the hissing totally ruins it. The crane shot used in this opening scene with the guy washing the car was impressive. There are some impressive scenes that have been directed well by Alan Wareing.

I cant make my mind up about Paterson. His first scene shows his a tough but firm individual. He starts off as stern but after being knocked out by the Doctor with just one finger, he loses that edge and becomes a rather more entertaining person. Hale and Pace is another example of stunt casting that people use to attack the JNT era of the show. I remember growing up watching them on a Sunday night but I think that their casting didn’t really suit the characters and just doesn’t let the episode flow. I know it’s a brief scene but apart from seeing the Doctor buy some cat food, it doesn’t really add anything to the episode. The Doctor spends most of the episode trying to hunt for the right cat. It’s almost like Perivale is so boring it has made the Doctor snap.

This story also marks the final appearance of the Master as played by Anthony Ainley. It’s the first time that the Master has been seen since 1986’s Trial of a Timelord. We don’t see him fully until the end where he is the cliffhanger. I don’t know whether people were suppose to know that its him with the extreme close up but a good attempt is made to at least hide this until it was suppose to be revealed.

The costume/mask for the Cheetah People doesn’t look too bad in this episode because we don’t see it too close or for too long a period of time. There will be more about that in future episodes but from an first glance look, its not the worst costume that has been in the show in recent years.

The planet that Ace finds herself on in the latter stages of the episode really does look like another world even though all they have done is paint the sky pink. It was clearly filmed during a warm period (a rarity in Britain) and this help in creating this new world.

This has been a very good episode with very few faults. I thought that the performances of the central characters has been one of the best things for the first time in quite sometime. I notice that I haven’t commented on the performances of the regulars recently as much as I did in the early days but they have both worked really well and I look forward to the final two episodes of this story. Wow, that’s a depressing thought that I only have two episodes of the McCoy era is over.

(653) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 14): The Ultimate Foe (Part 2)

So we come to the end of this Trial series and also the end of the Colin Baker era. It is also the time that the current title sequence will be used. It has been used in pretty much the same style since the first episode of The Leisure Hive. I think that it’s about time that the titles were changed and the theme tune is thankfully going as well. This episode was supposed to be written by Robert Holmes but he was ill and Eric Saward had fallen out with JNT well and truly so it fell to Pip and Jane Baker to deal with the fall out and try and write a script that a) makes sense, b) finishes this portion of the season satisfactorily and c) wrap up the entire season in a way that doesn’t disappoint.

The effect of Colin Baker being lifter out of the sinking pit it a little bit dodgy because its clear that the image is being manipulated. The Valeyard keeps jumping around and this was a good effect and made even better by the reactions of Colin Baker and Tony Selby.

I like the Master’s TARDIS because it very much suits the Master’s persona. I forget that the Doctor and Glitz stumble across it and this leads to a nice end scene where the Doctor is hypnotised and is left to be taken out by the Valeyard. This then of course doesn’t happen but moments later the Doctor is taken by Mel and it leads to the courtroom to finish the trial. I like how it comes across as a proper trial and the viewer is led to believe that the Doctor is prepared to accept the guilty verdict that is given. It doesn’t take long for the viewer to be told the truth. What I like is that the Doctor appears to accept this but in truth is just going along with the lie.

I do like the scene where the Doctor and Mel are in the machinery room. I love going to that sort of thing so this bit amused me. What also amused me is a bomb that the Valeyard has created and Mel uses word like Megabyte and Modem which sound quite futuristic in 1986 but 2015 that is nothing.

The Doctor is successful in stopping the Valeyard’s bomb and that appears to be the end of it. The Doctor is found not guilty but during the scene with the Doctor and the Inquisitor the Doctor is informed that Peri didn’t die but is shacked up with King Yrcanos. I personally think that this wasn’t the best thing to do because it completely devalues the ending of episode eight.

This was the best episode for Michael Jayston because after spending the previous thirteen episodes popping up every so often with great lines and now he gets to show us what he is really made of. Jayston really enjoys himself from the very beginning.

Final lines are quite important aren’t they. William Hartnell’s were “It’s far from being all over”, Tom Baker was “It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for” and Peter Davison left the show with “Is this death”. Colin Baker sadly wasn’t afforded the same luxury as due to Colin Baker not wanting to return for just one story refused to return and so his final words were “Carrot Juice, Carrot Juice, Carrot Juice”. It wasn’t the best way to end the Sixth Doctor’s tenure on the show. The final shot is also slightly frustrating because shows that the Valeyard has now taken the body of the Keeper of the Matrix. Sadly we never get another TV adventure with Jayston.

Pip and Jane Baker did a very good job considering the time constraints and other constraints that they couldn’t deal with. If you didn’t know about the problems then you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. Chris Clough also directed this episode rather well.

I think that the season has been better than I (and many) have given it credit. The Mysterious Planet was a bit of a let-down but the rest of it worked quite well and Colin Baker gave it a good go in this season and seemed to have toned down the madness that seemed to be rampant in the previous season. Nicola Bryant and Bonnie Langford did good jobs as the companions and I have commented on my new appreciation for Bonnie Langford now. Lynda Bellingham and Michael Jayston were superb supporting cast members. Trial is never going to be very popular with fans but I have learnt to love the season.

Now I am about to enter the final portion of the classic original run and if I had concerns with the trial season before I started watching it. I have even greater concerns about the upcoming season which I have always thought of as the weakest season ever. Maybe things will change.

One thing that I have come to a conclusion about is just how badly I have judge Colin Baker’s time as the Doctor. Ok so his first story was a complete car wreck and the less said about Timelash and The Mysterious Planet the better but apart from those stories Colin Baker really hasn’t put a foot wrong as the leading man. The stories have been largely good and as far as ratings are concerned, only three stories out of the eleven did were outside the top 60 that works out at just 27.3% of his stories. Here is the full list so far.

Colin Baker (27.3%)
Tom Baker (48.8%)
Jon Pertwee (50.0%)
Peter Davison (63.2%)
Patrick Troughton (71.4%)
William Hartnell (82.8%)

When it comes to the bottom 50 stories its still good for Sixie.

Jon Pertwee (12.5%)
Tom Baker (26.8%)
Colin Baker (27.3%)
Peter Davison (31.6%)
Patrick Troughton (42.9%)
William Hartnell (62.1%)

I had always thought that Big Finish had been the ones that re-invented the Sixth Doctor but in truth they have just woken everyone up to how good Colin Baker was a the Doctor and how much better his time on the show had been than previously thought. I have enjoyed the last month a lot more than I ever thought I would and I will genuinely miss watching the Sixth Doctor because after over 20 years of not rating this Doctor very highly, I have the opportunity to say I was wrong. Badly wrong.

(652) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 13): The Ultimate Foe - Part 1

So we are now at the business end of this trial which now in effect becomes the longest story in Doctor Who history. This is now one episode longer than The Daleks Master Plan which ran for twelve weeks during 1965 and 1966. This is where all the little threads of the past twelve weeks were going to become more significant and all the ‘evidence’ was gone. Sadly there is a great deal of sadness that goes with these two episodes. Not just that Colin Baker gets sacked at the end of this series but it is also the last to be credited by Robert Holmes. Holmes died just after giving the first draft of these two episodes and so Eric Saward worked on this episode thus meaning that this was Robert Holmes’ 64^th and final episode and goes down as the most credited writer in Doctor Who history at this point.

I love how at the end of the previous episode, it was shown that the Valeyard can change and add charges at his own pleasing. It does make the legal system on Gallifrey a bit of a laughing stock but I suppose that it pretty much sums up the Timelords.

The first few moments sees the Keeper of the Matrix summoned to the trial and it is basically to continue with the Doctor’s accusation that the Matrix has been manipulated. He then accuses the Valeyard and its at this point that things start to go a bit crazy. It doesn’t take long for the Master to make a shock return. The Master for some reason has spent the last twelve weeks of the trial watching from within the Matrix. It’s at this point that the Valeyard seems to be losing control and it is fun to witness. Sabalom Glitz returns and fills in a lot of blanks about what happened in The Mysterious Planet. The question about how Earth ended where it was found was done by the Timelords. It’s always fun to have the Master back although one of the problems with the pace that the story has, is that no reference was made to The Mark of the Rani and no question as to how either managed to survive what was going on at the end of that story.

The Valeyard turns out to be the Doctor. The Valeyard is between the bad parts of the Doctor between the Doctor’s 12^th and final regeneration. This was obviously at a time when the Doctor only had thirteen lives. It’s good when he flees the courtroom and it’s at this point that the episode really steps up a gear (not that it was really lacking a gear). All the stunts and attitude that the Valeyard has shown over the previous twelve episodes become understandable. He is the one that wants the Doctor’s remaining lives and was using the Master’s ‘skills’ to get this.

The Doctor gets pulled into a crate of water by mysterious hands. This was quite a shocking moment and this is the first example of things not being quite what it seems. Another example comes when Glitz is hit with an arrow. Yet more evidence of this comes with the introduction of Mr Popplewick (Geoffrey Hughes). He also plays Mr Chambers and Hughes manages to make the two characters very different. I would have liked more of Michael Jayston in this episode because after dashing out of the courtroom, we don’t see him again and he has been so good that he deserved more time. Also Bonnie Langford deserved to be more involved in the action (didn’t expect to be writing that one when I started this marathon). She was stuck in the courtroom to listen to the Inquisitor and the Master talking.

The Doctor finds himself in a wasteland which is in fact the Camber Sands and this leads to the cliffhanger which sees the Doctor pulled in quicksand. This leads us to our eleventh episode which ends with a close up of the Doctor’s face. On a positive note it’s only the second time that he has been animated when doing this as the other time came at the end of the first Mindwarp episode. I thought that despite the close up this was a very good ending to what was easily the best episode of the season. It started well and got better from there and I hadn’t realised how much time had passed by. This is always a good sign that an episode has worked and the only worry is that the next episode won’t deliver on what this episode has shown us. Anyone wondering if the show had lost its ability to produce good moments (I include myself in that) needs to watch this episode and then the will learn that the first was still burning. It might be burning as bright as it once did but it is still alight.

(632) The Mark of the Rani - Part 2

The cliffhanger works just as well as in this episode but something is slightly different and that is a shot of a man who is later identified as George Stevenson. It is a bit of a cheat really but it’s an interesting way of introducing a character like Stevenson. Sadly I think that Stevenson is rather under used in this episode. It does raise a question as to why he was even introduced into the story. You could easily have just mentioned his name and he would have been more involved in the story than he was. There was one fun scene when the Doctor gets very wrapped up in helping Stevenson with his design. Whilst Stevenson is pretty much underused, the same can’t be said for Luke. Gary Cady plays Stevenson’s assistant Luke. He gets put under the control of the Master but unfortunately it’s difficult to tell the difference because Cady doesn’t really show much emotion.

The whole idea about the Rani have a Turner painting hiding her TARDIS is quite a clever idea and it is something that featured in the previous episode but it seems to be more important in this one. The first thing that strikes me when we see inside the Rani’s TARDIS is that she has a better designed TARDIS than the Doctor. I just want the Doctor to travel in this TARDIS from now on

There is an interesting bit where Peri is point the Masters tissue thing and it’s clear that things are going to go wrong because its Peri. She is quickly outwitted by the Rani which isn’t too difficult but its worth it just to see Kate O’Mara act like an evil genius. The partnership of the Master and the Rani is rather interesting as they do seem to be almost on the same page. The Rani introduces some interesting bomb things which turn people into intriguing things. Luke gets turned into a tree although the performance is the same. The Rani’s reaction to Luke being a tree is funny because she reminds the Doctor that a tree has four times the life expectancy than a human so he is actually better off as he is now.

There doesn’t actually seem to be a moment which is where the Doctor is victorious. The closest that we get is when the Rani and the Master escape in her TARDIS and things go wrong. Things are worse than that actually as a dinosaur starts to grow and unfortunately its not the best model of a dinosaur that there has ever been. This story has been just as much fun as I had thought. The location filming has been one of the main reasons why this story seemed to work. The introduction of the Rani was well done and I liked the trio of Timelords battling it out on earth. I thought that Sarah Hellings, Pip and Jane Baker have done quite well with this adventure. The performances have been really very good and apart from the character of Luke, they all seemed to be relevant to the story. The next story is going to be interesting because some familiar faces make a return. I am starting to think that this season is one of the strongest seasons of Doctor Who for quite sometime.

(631) The Mark of the Rani - Part 1

If this story goes the way that I hope it does, then it will be the best start to a season for many years. After the rather violent previous story, it’s a bit of a relief that we have a less violent story. This was the first story to be written by the husband and wife team of Pip and Jane Baker. Jane becomes the third credited woman to write for Doctor Who. Sarah Hellings becomes only the fifth woman to have directed the show. So far women have accounted for 5.1% of writers and 9.4% of directors.

This is one of those stories where I am going to bang on about the location filming but its hard not to when it looks as good as it does. I don’t live too far away from the Black Country Living Museum which is very similar to where this story was filmed. I wish that this story had been longer because its beautiful to look at. Every scene that is filmed outside looks perfect and Sarah Hellings makes really good use of every single opportunity.

This story sees the first appearance of the recently lost Kate O’Mara who plays the Rani. We don’t see much of her at first but on her second appearance she features more on screen. She wants to do her dastardly plans for scientific research whereas the Master just wants to destroy the Doctor. That is why the Rani could make a claim as being better than the Master. She is removing a chemical from people’s brains which takes away their ability to sleep. A group of miners are knocked out by the Rani’s gas and then become very aggressive and sort of become the lackeys for the Rani and the Master. The Master makes his first appearance since Planet of Fire (1984). It’s clear that his demise was short lived but it would have been interesting to have a bit of information given as to how he survived. His ‘first’ appearance comes when it’s implied that a scarecrow may be him. He doesn’t waste much time in trying to cause trouble. The aggressive trio are easily brainwashed into believing the Doctor is the one causing trouble.

“Devious and over complicated” is how the Rani describes the Master and that is pretty much how I would describe the Master. I like how the Rani and the Master don’t get along at all. Kate O’Mara is very good as the Rani and brings a freshness to this timelord fairground ride that exists between the Doctor and the Master. It’s always nice to see Anthony Ainley back and for once it does seem to be for a good reason. Ainley also seems to be enjoying what he’s doing and is more involved in the action than he was in his previous story.

The first scene between the Doctor and the Rani leads to the Doctor figuring out what’s going on within minutes. This is perhaps the only thing that really doesn’t quite work for me but I suppose I can forgive it for how the rest of the episode works out. If I was being ultra-harsh then I could pick up on the moment when the TARDIS is thrown down a mineshaft which the viewers know won’t affect that the TARDIS and the Master should know this.

The cliffhanger sees the Doctor strapped to a gurney accidentally pushed down a hill by Peri and then by the aggressive luddites. This is quite a good cliffhanger because there is no clear way of how the Doctor is going to get out of this situation. This has been a curious episode because it seems that it took a long time before things started to find its feet. The latter part of the episode (or second part in old money) was the stronger part but I still thought that there were things that worked well in the first part that made the whole thing work.

(617) Planet of Fire - Part 3

The penultimate episode of Turlough’s time on the show is marked improvement on the previous two episodes. There is one thing that doesn’t happen in this episode that has in the previous two and that is some location footage of Lanzarote. I know that the story doesn’t suffer because of it but I like seeing it and thought that it added something to the story.

There is a great deal of time in this episode dealing with the Hall of Fire and this actually works out quite well in the context of the episode which is something that surprised me after being less than impressed until now. Narrative wise it seems that Peter Grimwade has finally got a handle on this story and is trying to make up for the lack of drama that there has been so far.

The reaction Malkon gives when he is shot is a bit silly. The thing about this group of characters from Sarn is that they just seem a bit too primitive and had this been set on earth during the middle ages then this might make sense but to be honest with everything else going on there wasn’t much time for me to be bothered by them. The stuff with the Master is easily the most interesting but I think that the stuff with Malkon is more interesting than it has been. I don’t know if that’s because the Doctor, Turlough, Peri and the Master are involved but something has changed. Something else that has become more noticeable is Turlough. I pointed out that this basically his story and he starts to become a stronger character in this episode. I like the droplets of information that seem to be coming out and it is still frustrating that we are only just getting some information about this character now. I think that had we had something in his opening story or some stories between then I think that Turlough would have ranked higher in people’s opinion.

The mystery of the Master is finally revealed at the end of the episode but there is a nice build up because there is a mysterious box that is wheeled into the Master’s TARDIS. There is some wonderful thinking in realising the Masters TARDIS and that is by simply painting the Doctor’s TARIDS console room black. The Master has been reduced to the size of a doll. This is quite a good cliffhanger and it ended what has been a greatly improved episode. It does at last feel like its building up to something which is something that I thought was missing from this story.

(615) Planet of Fire Part 1

Planet of Fire is the penultimate adventure for Peter Davison as the Doctor. It’s the middle of the transitional period of Doctor Who and so with the departure of one companion, there must be a new one. This marks the first story to feature Nicola Bryant as Peri. This story is also the final one for Mark Strickson as Turlough. Despite this being Peri’s first story, its definelty Turlough’s story as we finally get some back story about him. This story is famous perhaps for the fact that filming took place in Lanzarote. This is also the final story to be directed by the recently deceased Fiona Cumming. I have always thought that Cumming was one of the strongest directors in Doctor Who and she has perhaps ended her tenure on the show in fine fashion.

The story takes place of Sarn which doesn’t look like the most habitable of planets that the show has visited. We are introduced to two people on a journey but to be honest I find all the stuff that takes place on Sarn to be a  bit boring. The only releveance that it has to the story is that it has links to Turlough but that’s it.It’s five minutes before the Doctor and Turlough make an appearance. The first scene sees the Doctor annoyed at the Daleks and the loss of Tegan and then its ruined by the appearance of Kamelion who hadn’t been seen since The Kings Demons. Not one word has been mentioned about it until now. As much as I have really disliked this character at least they have gone to the trouble of writing him out instead of never mentioning him again which must have been very tempting.

I like Peri’s first scene. It’s not over the top and not understated. She has a nice scene with her step-father after she announces that she’s going to Morroco in an idea that doesn’t seem like it would be out of place in one of the Taken films. This episode (and indeed the story) is perhaps famous for the panning up shot of Nicola Bryant in her bikini. It’s clear from the beginning that she wasn’t destined to be a strong companion bearing in mind how after a moment in the sea, she needs to be rescued by Turlough.

Howard appears in the TARDIS but in a suit and acts like he’s seen the Doctor before. Peri doesn’t question why he’s change costume. This mystery doenst last long as Kamelion Howard has changed into the Master and this is the cliffhanger. It’s quite a good cliffhanger but the problem is that after 25 minutes, there isn’t anything that stands out at what the point of the story is. As this is a Peter Grimwade story this isn’t too much of a surprise because as I have mentioned before, he is a much better director than writer. It is looking like it will be one of this better efforts but at the moment this story is standing out more for its location filming than anything else.

(602) The Five Doctors

When the Three Doctors aired to celebrate the shows 10^th anniversary, it was done quite well and it had one simple premise with the three Doctors and a few of the regular companions. Fast forward 10 years and the show has progressed a lot since then. This episode got its world premiere on American TV and formed part of the BBC’s Children in Need night. There are a couple of problems before the story even starts and that Tom Baker isn’t in it because I imagine that as he only left two years before that enough time hadn’t passed by. Also William Hartnell had died eight years before so they decided to recast him with someone who looked like him.

The ‘episode’ starts off with a brief clip from The Dalek Invasion of Earth with the William Hartnell speech that he gives to Susan. It is almost as if they are highlighting the fact that the person that is playing the First Doctor isn’t the real one. In fact Richard Hurndall is the first of the Doctor to be picked up. Richard Hurndall does a fairly good job in what must have been an impossible postion to be put in. He was never going to convince us that he was trying to do William Hartnell but he does enough to make me appreciate that they tried to get around a problem in the best intended way possible.

The scoop effect is rather poor and looks a bit lazy really. Hurdnall’s happens when he is walking in a garden. The one with the second Doctor and the Brigadier is better. I think the one used for the special edition is much better but that’s with the advancement of about 25 years’ worth of technology.

The return of the Brigadier seems a lot better than in Mawdryn Undead. I like how he gets to spend most of his time with Patrick Troughton’s Doctor. The Brigadier is perhaps more associated with the third Doctor, I like how they work together on screen and I am reminded of such stories as The Invasion and The Web of Fear. The brief appearance of Jamie and Zoe is quite nice even if Zoe is wearing a bubble dress. Their appearance is rumbled when the Doctor reminds us that Jamie and Zoe had their minds erased which is true.

This episode sees the return David Saville to Doctor Who after playing Carstairs in The War Games. It was more of a cameo and I do wonder whether they realised this when they put him in but it was fun for the fans to watch. The “You’ve had this place redecorated….Dont like it!” seems to have become a bit of a running joke because it pops up in the 50^th Anniversary special.

Jon Pertwee is doing his action bit from the moment that he appears on screen. He has missed a beat since he left the show 221 episodes ago. The opening scene between the third Doctor and the Master is quite good because the Doctor is still very distrusting and even though Pertwee had some great chemistry with Roger Delgado’s Master. It seems that things don’t change even if the actor does.The Third Doctor gets to slide along a rope to get to the tower. There is no way that the other Doctors would do. Pertwee is just brilliant in this story and he gives it the same enthusiasm as he did when he was the main man. The brief reunion of the Third Doctor, Mike Yates and Liz Shaw is a good one that is used to keep the Doctor from progressing in the chamber. Sadly its ended with Liz doing a rather odd deliver of ‘stop him’.

Elisabeth Sladen returns to the show with K9. This is where people get confused because they assume that they were both together during Sarah Jane’s time on the show but it was only in the 1981 K9 special and this story that this happened. The reunion of the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane is slightly undermined by the Doctor trying to pull Sarah Jane up small incline. My back garden is steeper than the one in this scene.

There are clips from the transmitted story Shada used to at least have Tom Baker appear in the 20^th Anniversary. A plausible point is used to explain why the Fourth Doctor isn’t used in the story.

The Master’s first scene is quite good as the idea of the Doctor being requested by the Timelords is something that would have been expected and then the Master is left perplexed when he is asked to help the Doctor. After a while he does look like he wish he hadn’t bothered when he gets knocked by two Doctors. His plan to work with the Cybermen is quite clever and its clear that things aren’t going well in this partnership. He is going to use the Cybermen to his own ends but its clear that whilst he’s smarter than the Cybermen he still hasn’t got the nack of thinking his long term plans through. Sadly after a punch from the Brigadier, he is left to have a bit of a kip of the floor.

It doesn’t seem like Susan has really grown up in the 19 years since she left the Doctor. She manages to twist her ankle running along and it seems like we are back in 1964. She is then reduced to being stuck in the TARDIS with Turlough and this is a problem with this story and that there are too many companions and not enough for them to do.

The brief appearance of the Dalek is a bit of a shame really when you consider that the show wouldn’t have got to the 20^th year without the Daleks so they deserve a better role in this story. The first appearance of the Cybermen is very atmospheric. They get a better deal in this story. There is one shot when they are approaching the Fifth Doctor and the Master and Peter Moffatt did a great job with this. The Raston Robot is a brilliant creation and one that is used to superb effect. It’s a simple creature and one that doesn’t do a lot yet manages to create a lot of carnage. It’s attack on the Cybermen is one of the best scenes in this story. This sequence only last about a minute but is incredibly violent for a Doctor Who story.

I like the idea that the story takes place on Gallifrey as it seems right to use this setting for the 20^th Anniversary of the show. The Timelords are an interesting if yet flawed race and it seems quite obvious that they would do a treachery style story for Gallifrey. There is a scene which is funny to me. “No not the mind probe” is a line that Paul Jericho delivers quite well and yet everytime I hear it I find it amusing.

I like how the Doctors seem to be on their own individual storylines that over the course of the story start merging into one. The Fifth Doctor (you thought I had forgotten about him didn’t you!) seems to have been given the role of trying to figure out who the traitor to Gallifrey is. The traitor turns out to be the President. He has done this to get immortality. He has clearly gone mad because he’s gone from wearing white to black. This is the most important plot strand so its not surprising really that he gets to do this but it’s a shame that he stuck for an awfully long time waiting before he figures out that there is a spare room.

The three Doctors don’t meet until 20 minutes before the end which is perhaps the right way of doing things. Whilst the Doctors are working together, its nice to see the Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith and Tegan. The big scene takes place in the tomb of Rassilon and whoever removes a ring gets immortality. If I have learnt one thing from TV, its that immortality isn’t a great as it sounds. The President gets his chance at immortality thanks to the first Doctor speaking up him even though the others said the opposite. He ends up being part of the tomb which must be a horrible way to live.

The final line about running away in an run down TARDIS away from his own people being “How it started” is a nice way to end this adventure. I am a little confused as to how I feel about this because on the one hand it was a nice story but on the other hand there are way too many characters in the piece and as a result it slightly makes the end result a little bit odd. I think that there are some good things in it and the running time is one of them. They could have done four 25 minute episodes but the feature length running time allows the story to progress at a nice pace and Terrance Dicks did a great job of writing a story and Peter Moffatt did an equally great job in directing.

To end this review I would just like to point out that there is just one season of Peter Davison’s era left. That has gone quick although there is one or two stories that I must endure before I get to arguably one of the finest stories in Doctor Who history, The Caves of Androzani.

(601) The Kings Demons - Part 2

This episode starts off with the reprise and its never made clear whether the other people in the banquet room know that Estram has changed into the Master. The King is revealed to be a fake King although he does make The Doctor a knight and also the kings champion. The problem with this episode is that I still feel like there is padding going on which for a two-parter. It takes quite a long time for the episode to actually find its feet.

Tegan is the one that is the voice of reason when she suggests that they should leave and yet it takes about another 20 minutes to do so. This episode sees the introduction of Kamelion and its at this point that the episode starts to pick up. If you thought I was negative about K9, trust me K9 is like one of the greatest ever compared to Kamelion. There is nothing good about the character and it was always ambitious to think that Kamelion would do anything of any note.

Turlough is move from one area to another and as a result doesn’t actually do anything. Tegan  spends a fair amount of time in the TARDIS. So they are just being kept busy which is a shame really.

The story is ended simply by the Doctor, Turlough, Tegan and Kamelion boarding the TARDIS. That’s it. That was worth two episodes? It has to be the worst two parter and Terrence Dudley’s track record continues to get worse. The next time that he will be see Kamelion is in Planet of Fire so it wasn’t going to be the most used companion.

This episode is a disappointing end to what has been largely a good season. I don’t know if I am being too harsh on Terrence Dudley but I can only go based on what was put on TV. Everyone is doing their best with what they are given. I thought that Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson & Anthony Ainley are triying their best to hide the shortcomings of the plot and also the creation of Kamelion. Oh well this story is thankfully out of the way and I am really looking forward to the 90 minute Doctor Who adventure which sees a lot of classic elements of the show bought back to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of the show.

(600) The Kings Demons - Part 1

Todays episode is the 600^th episode of Doctor Who. It does Doctor Who returns to the two part adventure and this two parter also sees the series come to an unexpected end due to BBC strikes. This story sees the return of The Master and the introduction of Kamelion which is perhaps the worst companion since Dodo. The story takes place in 1215 where the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough meet the King who has been acting rather strangely. Terrance Dudley has managed to make nothing last 25 minutes which is quite an achievement. There doesn’t seem to be any real reason why the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough would stay in 1215 and yet they seem to willingly walk into trouble.

Anthony Ainley is playing Sir Giles Estram (or Master). It’s clear that its Ainley and so I think that its just fun then to watch him do the things that he does. His best moment comes when he has a sword fight with the Doctor. It’s a brief fight but it does lead to Estram revealing to be the Master and the Master delivers one of the finest lines in Doctor Who when he says that the Doctor has been so naive.

Janet Fielding is wearing a new (and perhaps more practical) costume than the one she has had to wear since Arc of Infinity. Sadly that is about as interesting as she is allowed to be in this story because there isn’t much to do she is just reduced to standing, watching and wrapping a massive blanket around her. Turlough doesn’t fair much better because wanders off and then is chained up. It’s fair to say that the Doctor has the best of times and that is perhaps being quite generous. There was one moment when he and Tegan are sitting at the banquet table and this sight did remind me of the Doctor and Adric sitting observing what was going on in Four to Doomsday. That perhaps should tell you a lot about my opinions of this episode when this is one of the most interesting moments that I could right about. That’s not strictly true because there was something else.  Like in Terrance Dudley’s previous script, this episode features something that isn’t often seen in Doctor Who and on this occasion its jousting which always seems a bit of a pointless sport.

The location filming is good and bearing in mind that this would have been recorded in the winter of 1982 there is a great sense that everyone is freezing cold and yet still manage to deliver the lines in a coherent way.  In a way this is just a stop gap until the 20^th Anniversary story. There was suppose to be a Dalek story that followed this story but obviously that would become Resurrection of the Daleks which forms part of season twenty-one. I haven’t really got much interest in this story and can be at least relieved that this is a two part story. There is no reason really for the Master to be in this story and that is pretty much all I can say about todays episode.

(579) Time-Flight - Part 4

The final episode of this story is the one where things improve greatly. This reprise where the Doctor says that the Master has defeated him still doesn’t work for me. The first couple of minutes is a bit confusing because it doesn’t seem like it was clear what was going on. Then suddenly something happened and it started to pick up and the whole episode became about trying to stop the Master escaping and getting concorde ready to try and the Doctor trying to get back to Heathrow before the Master. This was when I felt like for the first time I was starting to enjoy things.

There is a moment when it’s revealed that concorde was inside the Master’s TARDIS and I liked this moment very much. The vast size of Concorde isn’t the thing that most people would expect to find in a TARDIS so it would have been great to see that had the effects been around to make it happen. Sadly the problems with this story are on show again in this episode because as it’s the final story of the season, it means that there is pretty much no money to spend and it shows badly during these four episodes.

There is a moment where Tegan actually gets to be a stewardess. This is a role that Angela would have done but she disappeared in the previous episode and so as a result this means that Tegan shows us what sort of air stewardess she would have made. This is the episode where Tegan is ‘written out’ of the show because at the end of this episode she is left at Heathrow whereas the Doctor and Nyssa are off in time and space into a series of adventures for Big Finish. This was designed to be a season cliffhanger with the viewers. I think that this is quite a good idea and something that is done in the new series to give us a reason to watch the Christmas special. It’s great to think that the show started off with four people in the TARDIS and its 50% lighter just thirteen weeks later.

This story has been a disappointment largely due to the effects. Some of the performances have been entertaining but probably not for the right reasons but this shows that Peter Grimwade IS  a better director than writer. I think that this is a story that could have been made easier to understand if some changes had been made. The 20^th Season is about to begin and there are more changes to come but if memory serves me correctly then it will be largely good. Time-Flight is one that is an underwhelming story at the very least.

(578) Time-flight - Part 3

I usually find that after being quite down after watching an episode, the next one tends to leave me feeling a bit more positive which is the case for this episode. The Master enters this story properly now after pretending to be Kalid and this is where things start to pick up (not by much but enough). The explanation as to why he’s there and why he’s doing what he’s doing is explained and its explained well. The Master pops up every now and then but despite his brief moments in this episode he still manages to be the best thing in the episode. He was trying to get some energy to help him get away from the planet.

The problem that I still have with this episode is that despite some interesting stuff, I just cant muster any real enthusiasm with what I am seeing. There was something that annoyed me really bad and it came when the Captain and the other guy (presumably his deputy) start messing around with the TARDIS controls. Now its one thing when the companions are fiddling around with it but its completely different when anybody off the street can have a go. I think that this does support the argument that the mystery of the TARDIS was starting to be undermined.

The Professor was a delight in the previous episode and he continued this in todays episode. There was one line when he was talking about the other having to work and he says “it will be the first honest days work they have ever done!”. That’s a great line and it’s a shame when he is killed and I think that it was a mistake to ditch one of the few decent characters (perhaps the decent character) in the story.

There is a bit of development with the race called the Xeraphins. Design wise, they are really quite good and the effect used to bring them to screen works well. I also like the idea that there is a good and bad version but with everything going on, I couldn’t really follow what was being said. I think that the performances from the regulars in this scene with the two Xeraphins is bordering on pantomime. The cliffhanger is the Doctor saying the line “The Master has finally defeated me!” This should be a big moment but unfortunately due to the quality of the story, it just doesn’t have the impact that it should have done.

As an episode, it wasn’t as bad as part two but I think that the sooner this story is over with the better because knowing what is coming up it just makes me want to get through this story even more. You may have noticed that I haven’t commented too much of the performances and that is because despite their best efforts they haven’t really been able to do anything of any worth. Maybe this might change in tomorrow’s episode but for some reason I am doubtful.

(577) Time-Flight - Part 2

I’ve come to the conclusion (already) that I am not going to like this story. Probably because at the end of the 25 minute episode, I fail to really see any positives to what I have just seen. The episode does feature a cameo from Matthew Waterhouse, this is only so that people flicking through the Radio Times wouldn’t panic when they didn’t see his name in the credits. The scene is a nice one because the reactions of Nyssa and Tegan are different and yet rational. It’s Nyssa that comes to the realisation that he’s not real when she notices that his star is on him when it was destroyed in the previous story. There is a cameo of the Melkur from ‘The Keeper of Traken’ which is dealt with in the same way. This is perhaps the most exciting thing in the whole episode. That’s a pretty sad thing to say considering that this story features the return of the Master.

It’s good that the Master is bought back but it’s a shame that Anthony Ainley spends most of the episode under the mask of Kalid. I do like Kalid because its still impressive that you wouldn’t be able to tell that it was Anthony Ainley. The only slight issue with this is that when Kalid starts talking it does sound a little bit like Ainley. The death of Kalid does seem to be a bit less simple that it probably would have been with a different writer but its done and the death is quite grim which follows in the traits of other deaths that occur during this season.

I really have trouble coming up with anything in terms of talking about the narrative and that’s because there is simply nothing there. The characters from the two concords are just chewing up the scene and its hard to take anything serious about them. The Professor is perhaps the best of the supporting characters in this episode.

I think the word that comes to mind when thinking about the next two episodes is ‘endurance’. I don’t think that this story is as bad as ‘Four to Doomsday’ but its quite close. The problem is that a) there is no concorde and b) the story is slow and boring and doesn’t grab me in the way that a Doctor Who story should and even with the arrival of the Master, I cant see how this story is going to improve in the next two episodes.

(557) Castrovalva - Part 4

Before I start with todays episode, it doesnt really need pointing out that today is Doctor Who's 51st anniversary and weird to think that this time last year I was at the cinema watching 'Day of the Doctor' and enjoying it. This time last year in my marathon I was watching Episode 1 of 'The Web of Fear'. Today I have been watching the two Dalek movies so I decided to end today with the final episode of Castrovalva.

The final part of Peter Davison’s opening story is an odd one. I mean odd in a good way because I liked it but not in the way that I would have expected. The episode started off with the reprise of the broken glass CSO effect but then the episode seemed to slow down in terms of pace which is a brave thing to do in a final part. This is an important episode because it is where the Doctor is suppose to put the turbulent period of his post-regeneration to an end. For the last couple of weeks I have been actually making notes as opposed to just writing the review whilst I was watching the episode. This is the first episode where I have found myself actually watching the episode instead for most of the episode.

The moment where the Portreeve is revealed to be the Master is perhaps the most understatement of the series. I wrote that I knew that it was the Master and so for me this wasn’t the big moment in the episode that it should have been. On a more positive note, the effect of revelation is good. From the moment the revelation happens, the mood of the episode changes because the Master becomes obsessed with seeing the Doctor before he dies. The Master now has a reputation for coming up with convoluted plans and then realising the error at the very last minute. In this instance he has a convoluted plan but at least he doesn’t chicken out and the plan falls apart because the Doctor is able to work things out.

Adric doesn’t appear until the latter stages of the episodes is interesting because as much as I have liked Adric since he joined the show, I can’t say that I have missed him in this episode and I think that the overcrowded TARDIS problem is starting to show. Ok in previous years the show has had a trio of companions but in this instance, it just doesn’t work and on this occasion it is Adric that has suffered. Adric’s involvement in the episode might be limited but its fun because when they are heading back to the TARDIS its clear that Matthew Waterhouse is a little worse for wear.

I haven’t really commented on the direction. Fiona Cumming is only the third woman to direct a Doctor Who and at the moment the issue of women writers and directors in Doctor Who and at the moment there have been 46 directors in Doctor Who so only 7% are women and yet the figure for women writers is 0%. Fiona has done a good job during the four episodes and has directed it very well. I thought that all the special effects worked really well and I know that she returns for future stories and that’s a good thing because she’s a really good director.

The episode worked well and managed to finish Peter Davison’s opening story with a surprisingly good feeling as I approach the rest of his stories. This wasn’t the first story that Peter Davison recorded as the Doctor and this was a good idea because this is the one that people would have judged him and that meant that he could use the other stories to get to grips with the character but the downside to that is that stories some of the stories aren’t going to be as good as this one. I thought that Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton have done really well over the course of the four episodes and even Matthew Waterhouse had a good story in the early episodes. One thing is for certain, the show is going to survive without Tom Baker and whilst the TARDIS line up is a little crowded, the stories are going to ensure that this season is one of experimentation and its going to be fun.

(556) Castrovalva - Part 3

The third episode is where the story really gets going. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the first two episodes weren’t any good but they were more about the Doctor’s instability and running around the TARDIS whereas todays episode is more about the place of Castrovalva itself. The episode starts of with the Doctor not being in the place where Tegan and Nyssa left him. The tension as to just where he is doesn’t last a great amount of time but I suppose that it’s a bit silly to put him in too much danger at this early stage of his run. Anyway whilst I still liked the forest location that was shot, I still have reservations about the model shot that is used. Thankfully the quality improves once we get inside Castrovalva and I like the set which has multiple levels and seems quite large compared to usual sets which seem quite closed in .

The Master doesn’t really feature in this episode until quite close to the end but that doesn’t mean that Anthony Ainley was left doing a crossword or watching cricket but he was doning and white beard and wig to play Portreeve who is the elderly leader of this group and this is where I have to pick up on the weaknesses of the story because I can tell that its clearly Ainley. I don’t know whether it wasn’t so obvious in 1982 but I cant imagine that they were fooled for long. Anyway I like the characters that we meet in Castrovalva. I wasn’t wild about the masks that they were wearing at the beginning of the episode but the buckets that some of them seem to be wearing in later scenes are even worse. I work in a stationary shop and the buckets could easily be sold as bins.

I am surprised at how long Adric and the Master are kept out of this story. It was good in the previous episode because it gave Nyssa and Tegan some screen time because they were newer characters whereas Adric had been in the story for about 12-15 episodes before ‘The Keeper of Traken’. When Adric does make an appearance he does so in what was quite an atmosphericly shot moment because Adric appears in darkness and a solitary light shows his outline. Another shot is when he appears to Nyssa in a mirror which is clearly a CSO shot but I thought it was well done.

This was a more lesuirly paced episode than the previous two, although there is a fair amount of running around in the final few minutes. The cliffhanger is another CSO effect which has a sort of shattered glass effect of different aspects of Castrovalva and shows that its not quite the place that they thought it was. There are a few moments which highlight this and it was clever of Fiona Cumming to do this quite subtltly. Some might say this was an error on her part but it could easily be passed off as a good piece of directing. With one more episode left of Davison’s opening story and I have to say that I am enjoying Castrovalva more than I thought I would.

(555) Castrovalva - Part 2

So this episode doesn’t air a week after the previous episode but the very next day. I suppose in this day and age where series are aired daily (mainly on channels like CBS Drama) so I suppose watching in 1982 was a weird kind of feeling. Anyway back to the story and after not being sure of how I was suppose to be feeling, it seems like the story was back on familiar grounds in today episode. The episode starts off with the TARDIS about to reach event one but the way that the Doctor and the others stop this from happening is quite a simple way that isn’t done in a straight forward way and I like that. The Doctor who ends up in a wheelchair manages to stay himself long enough to tell Tegan how to jettison 25% of the TARDIS.

The build up to the moment where the jettison happens is quite good and the idea that this scene doesn’t actually involve the Doctor is something that would have seemed totally out of place in previous regeneration opening stories but somehow this new style allows this to work. The Doctor doesn’t really have much of an impact in this episode really because he’s either rolling around in his wheelchair or holed up in his Zero Cabinet. It seems quite odd that they went to the decision to keep the Doctor so much out of the action. The upside to this is that it means that Nyssa and Tegan get a fair amount of the action which I like.

The location footage looks rather good and reminds me of the filming for ‘The Android Invasion” where the weather looked marvellous and the location itself was lovely to watch and where they filmed todays location is equally good. The only problem with this portion of the episode is the model shot of Castrovalva looks rather poor. That said that is the only thing that I didn’t like in the episode.

The episode ends with the Zero Cabinet being empty after Nyssa and Tegan found some blood which is an ok way to end an episode but I think that the cliffhanger didn’t really work as well as the rest of the episode which I thought was very good from start to finish. The episode never seemed to be slowing down or waiting for something to happen. As soon as it changed direction it did and did it in a seamless way. Two episodes in and the story is working well and I think that things are starting to settle down and the show is managing to survive without Tom Baker.

(553) Logopolis - Part 4

Today is the 172^nd and last episode to feature Tom Baker as the Doctor. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will see a new Doctor. It’s something that I have been building up to for the last couple of weeks but here we are and the end has been prepared for. I was really wondering what I was going to feel as I started to watch this episode and it didn’t take long for me to feel a huge sense of sadness. It’s hard to believe that it’s been five and a half months and it seems like only five minutes since I started watching Robot. It does feel odd that Tom Baker’s seven and a half years comes down to this 25 minute episode and no episode in Doctor Who has had such importance placed on it. The episode starts off with the Doctor’s handshake with the Master and the look on his face which is one of disgust.

The Monitor doesn’t last very long in this episode but his death wouldn’t be a cop-out because visually it was very good and it was the start of things to come. The problems with the Master continue to show up when just after the Monitor was wiped away, the Master decides to just get up and leave which seems like the Master as a character has taken a step backwards.

The stuff where Tom Baker is running around when the story moves to Earth is perhaps the most action packed that his Doctor had been perhaps ever. I thought that the stuff on earth was better than the stuff on Logopolis. The build up to the big scene was quite good and the fact that it was on location was a nice addition because it felt like it was injecting some energy which it was needed.

The performances were good but in particular there were two that stood out. The first was Tom Baker’s obviously. There were times were he clearly knew the end was coming and whilst he didn’t have the energy that he would have had during the early days of the show but there was still some of the original Doctor in that performance. The second was Anthony Ainley who seemed to be up to speed with the character and I liked the combination of Tom Baker and Anthony Ainley and it’s a shame that they didn’t have more stories together because I think they could have had some good stories together.

The regeneration scene was really good and was perhaps more emotional than when Jon Pertwee turned into Tom Baker. The music used was really downbeat (which would change in the next story) and the watcher walking towards the Doctor and the two merging was a really good effect and the transformation was also rather good but I think that if it were done today then it would be more gradual whereas in this regeneration its still done well but does look a bit slow compared by todays standard. The sight of Peter Davison is a definitive sign that the Tom Baker era was well and truly over.

No matter how many times I have watched this story I always wish that the Doctor hadn’t tried to pull that cable off the gantry. I wish that something would happen which meant everything was alright but sadly it doesn’t happen and the final few minutes are truly sad and I haven’t felt like this since the goodbye scene between the second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. This episode may not have had much in terms of dealing with the main issue in it but to be honest that could have been dealt with in the first couple of minutes and it wouldn’t have made any difference to the story. I cant really decide whether the episode was what it needed to be. As a four part adventure it did what it needed to be and we said goodbye to the longest serving Doctor in the style that it needed to. Whereas ‘Planet of the Spiders’ did seem to have thing that were put in to indulge Jon Pertwee, here there wasn’t anything like that.

Well that’s the biggest part of the journey over with. Tom Baker has been a mesmerising Doctor and he is going to be a difficult act to follow. Already I worry that things aren’t going to be quite as good but maybe time will tell but one thing is for sure, the show isn’t going to be the same again.

(552) Logopolis - Part 3

The penultimate episode is perhaps the one where there is the most advancement happens in terms of plot. It where all the various elements from the past couple of episodes finally meet up. Firstly there is the companion line up having a decent amount of time together and I quite like it. I like how they all have different things that they bring and something I hadn’t clued on before reading the information text that they actually all have something in common and that is they have all suffered a loss before joining the Doctor. The episode restarts with the shrunken TARDIS and it reminded of the recent story ‘Flatline’ where the TARDIS is the same size. Due to the TARDIS being smaller that it meant the Doctor was out of action for a while and when he does get back to normal size he is rushing around like a mad man (in a blue box).

There might be a new Master but the problems with the Master are still the same. He doesn’t think things through until its too late. This is the first time that we get to see the Anthony Ainley version of the Master. I think that it’s a solid performance but its hard to judge really at the moment. I think that the problem with Ainley’s Master is that he is always going to be judged against Roger Delgado so I am going to try and be fair and judge Ainley’s Master against what I see.

As far as the narrative is concerned it feels like its trying to do two things at once. Its trying to tell a story right here and now but its also getting the groundwork done for Peter Davison’s arrival. The appearances of the Watcher felt like they were more significant in this episode than in previous ones and as the ending draws closer it feels like there is no real way for the Doctor to get out of things. There is a line that the Doctor gives where he says “I’m going to stop him if it’s the last thing that I do”. There is a sadness behind this that I cant figure out whether its acting or Tom Baker being real.

As far as the cliffhanger goes its another good one because it sees the Doctor and Master form an alliance and more importantly shake hands. It’s a handshake that’s going to be bad for the Doctor but I like that its not necessarily dramatic but its more what it signifies and I think that this is why the cliffhanger is so good. As an episode I really enjoyed it and for a while I almost forgot that the next episode would be the final episode for Tom Baker.