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.

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 5

The penultimate episode starts off with a great TARDIS scene with the Doctor, Romana and Princess Astra. There are some weird moments in the early stages of the episode where there are duplicates of the Doctor and Romana which is quite clever and done quite well. Its nice to know that even when the budget has run out that there is money for a nice little effect.

Drax appears in this episode and is a friend of the Doctor’s. Whilst Romana is otherwise detained, Drax becomes his assistant. Drax seems to be a comedic character and its good that despite all the darkness in the episode there is still time for the Doctor to be slightly funny. Drax seems to have developed a cockney accent for some reason but whilst there is a reason given it doesn’t really work and so just seems to be an odd. Drax doesn’t seem to have much of a purpose in the episode until the end when he shrinks the Doctor who leaves the TARDIS door open. That’s the cliffhanger which is quite a good one compared to some that we have had during this season.

I mentioned in the previous episode that I was happy that K9 had turned bad and wasn’t refereeing to the Doctor as Master but simply as Doctor. Sadly the bad K9 doesn’t last for long but it was fun while it lasted. Now he’s just going to be his usual boring self. I cant wait until the moment where K9 leaves the show because he is just irritating.

I don’t know whether the Doctor is suppose to know that Astra is the final segment or not but it’s a bit frustrating that I know that Astra is the segment and yet its not been revealed even at this point. The mystery about the segment’s identity and who knows what is something that happened during the previous story but in this case it’s the final story and it could have been revealed earlier (or made clearer that the Doctor knows) thus allowing for a different kind of drama

I have to say that the story doesn’t seem quite as interesting as it did in previous episodes. The fact that we are now in the business end of the story and season means that it loses some of the fun aspects of the show and the darker aspects take hold. I think that there were moments which did feel like padding until the final episode. It’s still a good story but it just feels a bit heavier than I would have liked. It’s not terrible but I don’t think its quite as good as ‘The Androids of Tara’ or ‘The Stones of Blood’ but I will be hoping that the final episode will end the season in style.

On a final note, this is the final story to be written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin together. Although Bob Baker would return to the show the following year, Baker and Martin have been one of the most underated writers in Doctor Who. Their ratings have been The Claws of Axos (7.45), The Mutants (7.39), The Three Doctors (7.60), The Sontaran Experiment (7.71), The Hand of Fear (7.65), The Invisible Enemy (7.30) and Underworld (7.41) so they have performed consistently. Whilst I think that The Mutants is their weakest story by a clear mile, they have worked really well and have delivered stories that haven’t been boring (except for the Mutants). However they do have the most heinous of crimes to face up to and that’s the creation of K9.

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 4

The fourth episode of this story is where the story has its usual change in direction which can sometimes work and sometimes doesn’t. Sometimes it manages to do it without too much of a giveaway and I think that this is the case in this episode. Once the episode starts up there is one thing that seems to suggest the darkness has gone and that involves Shapp. Shapp is definetly a comedic character. This is evident when he shoots the Shadow and shrieks backwards before falling to the ground.  For the Doctor and Romana they have to deal with the Mentalis machine and that seems to be sorted quite quickly.

I like how the Doctor thinks that he can sort of get around the fact he doesn’t have the sixth segment of the key and decides to try and make his own segment. It works but it’s a short term fix. The Doctor tries to talk it into working but that doesn’t do the trick and we are reminded constantly that time is stretching but looking at the clock that is counting down.

There is a bit where K9 does come across as quite stupid. He enters a room with a ringing phone and then when he is transmatted he stumbles across the Shadow and becomes overpowered. To be honest this is best he has been in since he joined the show. I think I quite like bad K9 and I never thought I would put like and K9 in the same sentence without being sarcastic. The Marshall is stuck in a limbo now until the end of the story just as says ‘fire’. It’s a shame that someone like John Woodvine has been reduced to this minor role now. He has been one of the best things in the story and now he’s not. Ok so at least he will be appearing in the rest of the story but he wont be the same and between him and K9 I would rather have more Woodvine.

There is a scene where Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward are on screen at the same time and its weird to think that two incarnations of the same character are interacting and also Tom Baker is encountering his future ex-wife. Lalla Ward is given some good stuff to do and feels like she is part of the story instead of just being a character that appears in random scenes. Her best period in the episode comes when she is in the TARDIS and is looking at the Key to Time. It was during this time that I realised that I don’t think that there has been so much time used in the TARDIS.

I don’t think that this episode was as good as the previous one but I still think that its maintained my interest and I think that with two episodes left the story is starting to build up to the big finale and the pieces are starting to fall into place.

 

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 3

I have been keeping an up to date note of how many episodes people have been in and even though Lalla Ward isn’t playing Romana yet, she is in the show and this is her third episode and that puts her just two behind Adrienne Hill. People may say that as she is not a companion it does count but I disagree and I did the same when Peter Purves appeared in ‘The Chase’ as Morton Dill before appearing in episode six as Steven Taylor. Also and I know that he has been involved in the show for a while at this point but John Nathan-Turner’s name has been appearing in the credits at the end of the episode. Now back to the episode itself. The episode starts off with the Doctor being held by a strange figure dressed in black who calls himself the shadow. It’s a great name for a well realised design. The Shadow knows about the Doctor’s search for the key to time and seems to have a lot of power.

I still think that Merak is a wet individual and isn’t someone that I have really have a lot of time for. Sadly as the Doctor is spending time with the Shadow, it means that Romana has to interact with someone and that person has to be Merak. He pinches the tracer of Romana and decides that he is going to Zeos without her. “I’ll explain it to you when I’ve got two weeks to spare” is what Romana says to Merak and it shows a bit of the Romana that we saw at the beginning of the season but said in a way that shows she has mellowed.

Shapp gets to become a more independent character because he finds himself on Zeos. I don’t know whether its because the Marshall isn’t right next to him but I find him even funnier than in previous episodes. He doesn’t quite believe that he is on Zeos and his refusal to accept this fact is breathing a bit of humour in a story that doesn’t quite have a lot of fun qualities about it. When the Marshall does return to the episode, he is ranting at the camera in a war speech to try and get people whipped up into a frenzy. It’s a short scene but its enough to remind me of how good John Woodvine is.

It was a while before I realised that this were a studio bound story as the story was so good that I was too involved in what was going on to either notice or care. We do get a model shot in this episode and its used to show us the Marshall’s ship and the only ship left in the fleet. This is the last episode where the Marhsall gets to be useful really as I think in future episodes he is part of a loop that will last for most of the serial. The revelation that there aren’t any Zeons on Zeos but infact its just one computer that has been fighting with the Marshall is wonderful idea and the computer is called Mentalis and interacts with K9 thus making this the only time that K9 has been useful.

The episode ends with the Marshall just saying “Attack”. This is perhaps not quite as impactful an ending as the previous cliffhanger was but I enjoyed the episode quite a lot and thought that there have been much worse endings in the show before that I forgave the story for its weak ending. I am now at the half way point of the serial and think that its progressing along nicely but I am waiting for the build up to start because whilst there have been a few mentions of the key to time and segment, the drama and tension has yet to really start and time in starting to run out. Still at least I can say something good about a six parter and that is I am still not bored. Couldn’t really say that about other six parters that there have been during the Tom Baker era.

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 2

I still think that the TARDIS being out of action isn’t the best cliffhanger that there could have been. Anyway this is a minor blip really as the episode starts off in a good way because we get a Doctor and Marshall scene. I have just noticed that Merak is with the Doctor and Romana. Merak is in love with Princess Astra so as a result becomes someone that the Doctor and Romana can trust and the viewer knows is a good person. My impression is that he’s a bit wet and not on par with the Doctor or Romana. The Marshall continues to be very good in this episode but whilst we noticed that he’s a bit odd in the previous episode we learn a bit more in this episode and that is he has a little thing on his neck which seems to be controlling him and on the other side of the mirror he talks into he is actually talking to a skull.

Tom Baker and Mary Tamm have been really good in this episode. I haven’t really commented on the performances of the regulars for quite sometime in any real detail but I have to say that Tom Baker was fantastic and seemed to be back on fine form. I cant quite put my finger on exactly what it was about Baker’s performance that I liked but its been one of his best performances this season. Mary Tamm is also very good in this episode but for different reasons. The role of the companion is pretty much a thankless task but Mary Tamm has always managed to drag something out of the character and I think she has been one of the best things about this season. There is a point where K9 looks like he is about to meet his end and I am so happy about this because as regular visitors to this blog know, I am not a huge fan of K9. Sadly he is saved by the Doctor. There are few things that I can’t forgive the Doctor for but this is one of those instances.

The Marshall is after the ‘ultimate deterrent’ and the Doctor does a deal with the Marshall that if he helps the Doctor find the Princess (who he sort of let slips that is the segment) and he will help the Marshall to create this ultimate deterrent. Normally if the Doctor were to help the bad guys then that would mean a comprise of the Doctor’s principles but on this occasion I think that the Doctor is helping partly to get the key/Princess Astra and partly because he sees it as a challenge.

It’s funny that during the ‘battle’ scene of this episode we don’t see any models to indicate this but a radar on the CSO screen. This is another indication that the money has pretty much run out. Another indication of this is the outfit that some of the crew wearing the sort of costume that the Sensorites were wearing. The difference being that it suited the Sensorites and it was 1964 not 1979. During this episode it enters my head about why they don’t just try and seek peace and its an argument that could be used in some conflicts in the world today. There is a line about how many ships they have going from hundreds or thousands to three.

As this is a six parter this story is still moving along at a good pace and whilst there doesn’t seem to be much of a story, Bob Baker and Dave Martin have done a good job of fleshing things out to make it seem like its not padding. I haven’t felt bored during these two episodes and even with budgetary limitations on screen, I don’t think that production values have really taken a dip. The cliffhanger for this episode was much better than the previous one although like the previous cliffhanger Mary Tamm gets the last line in the episode. The Doctor has walked into a trap but finds out just before he is taken. This has been another good episode and the ending matches the rest of the episode and I am looking forward to the remaining two third of this serial.

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 1

So I have now reached the final story of the Key to Time season and today’s episode is the 500^th. This story is also the six parter of the season. With so many four parters in a row, it’s weird when a six parter arrives. Six parters have become something of a problem as far as the show is concerned because when I was watching the Pertwee era they were really fun to watch and now they seem to be a bit of a bore because they have to almost change stories at the 2/3 point. I watch this story knowing what the sixth and final segment of the key is but I wonder what those watching in 1979 would have thought the segment would be when they started to watch.  This has never been one of my favourite stories ever but I am hoping that watching it at steady pace might mean something comes out at me that I have previously missed.

This story has a lot to live up to and do in a longer time than previous stories and do it with probably less money than previous stories. Lalla Ward makes her debut in the show but not as Romana. Here she plays Princess Astra and from the moment she makes her first appearance on screen she commands my attention.

John Woodvine is very good as The Marshall. I recognise him from appearing in ‘The New Statesman’ and he played a slightly unhinged policeman. As the Marshall there is something peculiar about him. Davyd Harries plays Shapp who is the marshall’s right hand man and I found to be one of the few moments of comedy in the episode. I don’t think he was intended to be funny or says anything particularly funny but its just the way that he performs because it’s the impression that I get.

Atrios is the planet featured in this story and its twelve minutes before the segment if mentioned. Atrios is at war with Zeos and that’s pretty much all that we need to know really. Due to the fact that money is tight, it means that the lavish location filming that we have seen in previous stories are gone and its all studio based from now on. I think that it adds a certain amount of claustrophobia which might work in its favour.

As we approach the end of Mary Tamm’s time on the show, I am reminded of how far the character has changed in such a short amount of time. In ‘The Ribos Operation’ she was quite a snobby madam but now it feels like she’s mellowed a lot and is forming quite a partnership with the Doctor. Due to the fact that quite a bit is happening, it means that I don’t think Mary Tamm and Tom Baker really got to stand out. I suppose that might be a good thing but considering this is suppose to be such an important story its weird that they spend so long in the TARDIS at the beginning of the story. Also I haven’t missed K9.

The cliffhanger is a little bit disappointing. It’s just the realisation that the TARDIS has gone but with five episodes left in the story, it was clear that they weren’t going anywhere. Apart from that odd cliffhanger, the whole episode has worked out quite well. The various aspects of the story have been set up well and whilst it might be light on humour or location filming, I think that the final story of this season might be a good one.

Underworld - Episode 4

I tend to have a little tradition when watching these DVDs and that’s watch the special features when I get to the final episode. This helps to try and put any of the stories flaws and positives into context. I have been looking forward to this one as it shows a lot of the blue screen that the actors would have worked against. Watching the documentary its clear just how much blood, sweat and tears went into this story and it makes me appreciate what they do. The set used for the Oracle is the same as the one that we saw in episode one and its used much better for the oracle because it’s much darker and the colours used are also quite good. The effect used to represent the oracle is quite good because I suppose if they had gone for something physical then it would have looked rather ropey.

There was a lot more going on in this story but compared to the previous episodes is not as big a statement as it first seems. The main thing about this episode is getting two small gold canisters which is the quest that the Minyans had been looking for. This seemed like it wouldn’t take very long and wouldn’t create much tension but credit to Bob Baker and Dave Martin did a good job in making something interesting come out of this. There was a nice case of there being two versions of these canisters. One had the genetic bank for the Minyans whereas the others had a bomb in it. There was a bit of fun with the Doctor making his way back to the oracle to hand back the canisters and telling the guards that the ones he had were the bombs but they didn’t believe him. The Minyans get the proper canisters and that’s the end of that.

I don’t think that this story has been anywhere near as bad as I have previously thought and whilst there have been problems from start to finish, at least they tried and they pulled it off. Star Wars Episode IV was released just before this serial started to air and its fair to say that this basically rewrote the rules on sci-fi production values and other areas of the genre. When you compare the movie which had a budget of around $11 million compared to this serial which probably didn’t even have 1% of that spent on it then this story isn’t going to come across good. The story does have links to Greek mythology and Jason and the Argonauts and if only more of that had made it into the story then I would have liked this years ago.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this entry for episode one, this was the last Doctor Who story that I watched in its entirety. It was painful for me to watch as I just couldn’t get past the CSO. However I failed to appreciate the good things that were in this story and as a result over the course of four days I have revaluated this story and think that out of the five serials I have watched for this season, this is probably the third best. Out of Tom Baker stories so far (this being the 21^st), this is the 17^th best story but before I started this marathon I would have placed this at the very bottom. That shows that this isn’t the best but neither is it the worst.  Now I wait for Louise Jameson’s final story and the final story of the season.

Underworld - Episode 3

My attempt to read the target novel alongside is going well. I think that Terrance Dicks is doing a great in the book of making this story. It’s a shame that after reading a bit in the book that I reminded of the flaws in this story. Oddly enough though the CSO is not what is going off like a siren, it is the fact that there are weird long shots and it’s a very short episode so I feel like this review should be equally short.

The start of this episode is where the Doctor is trying to stop the gas from flowing and he collapse just as the gaps stops. This comes across better in the book. It feels a bit close for comfort in the book whereas it happens too quickly on TV and with the short running time, they could easily have spent a minute cranking up the tension. There is a map called ‘the tree’ and the Doctor refers to it as the tree at the end of the world which sounds more impressive in the book. On TV it looks a bit disappointing yet in my head the book made it sound like a map that could have come out of the Lord of the Rings films. Something that looks better than it sounded in the book is where the Doctor, Leela and Idas floating and they just ‘push’. The book makes it sound basic and on TV the CSO is used to quite good effect.

This episode runs to just over 21 minutes which I think is slightly longer than the previous episode and like the previous epoisode there was a fair amount of long shots. This is what frustrates me about this whole story. There is a good story trying to fight its way out. I cant quite figure out why they went with the idea of prolonged shots over expanding certain elements of the story. I know that I am perhaps comparing the TV version against a novelised version written two years after this aired and written by one of the greatest writers for Doctor Who but I cant help think that if they had asked Bob Baker and Dave Martin to pad it out that they could (and would) have come up with something.

The cliffhanger is the best one that there has been so far but that’s not really a compliment. I think that the story is slightly (and I mean slightly) better than I had given it credit for in the past. I think that the story is heavily flawed but there should be some credit to everyone involved for managing to salvage something from this story and at least having a go.

Underworld - Episode 2

I am still reading the target novel as I am going along and at the moment I have read seven chapters and the phrase “The Quest is the Quest” has been written eight time and two similar lines were written. I must admit that whilst reading this book I have developed a new enthusiasm for this story but I suspect that Terrance Dicks is doing what they couldn’t do on TV and this is the episode where if my memory serves me correctly is where the story goes downhill. It takes three minutes for the problems with this story to appear and the benefits of the book are evident because things that are said and done make sense. Sadly not one can really get over some of the production problem.

The idea that the new planet has a people and not just that but there is a people who are slaves and there are those that are basically bullies. There is a good story here but sadly its all forgotten because my attention is taken with the CSO. Some credit should go the actors because they all did fantastic in at least looking like they knew what they were doing and where they were going. That’s a tough job making it look convincing.

This has to be one of the shortest episodes of Doctor Who ever and I think its fair to say that there was a fair amount of padding. There are very long shots of gas pouring out of vents, for longer than we would normally see in a more packed episode. I think that even though it has a really short running time. I wish that Terrance Dicks would have written this story for TV because reading the book there is enough material that could easily have run to about five minutes.

The problem with CSO apart from the fact that there is fraying around the heads and bodies of those on screen, there is the issue of that the background looks fake. During normal location filming, there is a sense that the actors and the scenes are together whereas in this story when the actors are walking down the tunnel, there is no sense that it’s on uneven ground even though what we see shows that it’s not smooth.  As a result of the prolonged shots of the gas vent the cliffhanger is rather lacklustre but despite very little happening in the episode I actually found this episode to be perfectly fine and I am ‘enjoying’ this story more than I have ever done before in the past.

Underworld - Episode 1

When I first started this marathon, this story was one that I was dreading. It was a story that until 2010, I hadn’t watched all the way through. I would get till the second or third episode before giving up. This is the first story of 1978 and also the first story with Anthony Read as script editor. It is also Louise Jameson’s penultimate story as Leela.

I have decided to read the Target novel of this story and just reading the prologue has got me looking forward to it. The novelisation was written by Terrance Dicks in 1980 and so two years or so earlier, it fell to Bob Baker and Dave Martin to write this story. The opening scene is just as good as I read it in the novel. This is as about as far as I got in the book. I might make a comment about the book versus the TV versions during this story but I will have to wait and see. There is a nice speech that the Doctor gives about being the first people to see a planet formed. It’s delivered like a child about to see something for the first time after hearing about it for a long time.

The set used for the Minyon’s ship is quite good. It’s clearly designed to be the showpiece of the serial and its clear that this is where the budget went for the episode. I think that the guns they use aren’t quite as impressive as they are too cumbersome and has just a silly little screen to look through.

The Timelords are treated as gods by the minyons because the Timelords gave the minyons all the knowledge and then they were betrayed which leads to their rule on non-intervention. This is quite an interesting premise for the story. The Minyons that we meet are after another ship (which in the book is carrying more minyons). They are after P7E which is their ship. This is where the focus of the episode is and the build up is gradual but it’s a good thing because the tension builds up. The effect of the rocks building a planet around the ship is quite impressive. If only they hadn’t done it then the rest of the story wouldn’t be so CSO heavy. The final shot is of the new planet getting bigger and bigger. This episode has always been my favourite one of the four but that’s because the number of people in the episode is so small and also the CSO doesn’t really get in the way. That’s all going to change in the next episodes but I think that at very least, this story is going to be sort of like ‘The Sun Makers’ at that’s average. Not terrible but not great.

 

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 4

Well I never thought that I would write this but I am quite sad about reaching the end of this release. However the episode doesn’t get off to the best of start with the reprise of the prawn. The prawn has a difficult moving and has to have help which makes it the worst villain and design in Doctor Who history (at this point in time). I am perhaps being a bit cruel on the prawn but when its standing still then it doesn’t look too bad but its when it does then it just looks crude. The idea of the nucleus is quite good and visually its striking but I think a bit more time could have been spent to make it more mobile than it was.

As it’s the final episode, the story has to try and reach a conclusion in 25 minutes and it does this quite well. The race is on to stop the prawn/nucleus and stop the eggs from hatching. This means that the story moves to Titan where the story started and I think that it feels like a nice bit of closure because they could have just discarded Titan and kept the action on the hospital asteroid but now we end the story in a decently lit group of sets and my eyes could rest.

I like how the Doctor doesn’t mind the nucleus existing but just has a problem with the grand plan that it has. The “everything has a right to exist” line is particularly good. It’s been a good performance from both Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. I think that the addition of K9 is one that the show would go on to regret. It worked during the course of this story but every so often it would have to stop and at one point it had to be dragged to the TARDIS and when it has to board the TARDIS, the camera cuts away to hide the fact it couldn’t climb up.

“I only hope he’s TARDIS trained” is one of those lines that just makes me grown with embarrassment because its such a rubbish joke but it ends the episode on a rather fun note. I am quite surprised at how much I have enjoyed this story. Yes the prawn does undermine the story but the idea in principle is sound and the comedy works rather well in this serial and as a result I am looking forward to the next story a lot more than I was at the beginning of this serial. Maybe ‘Image of the Fendahl’ might be a better story than I previously thought.

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 3

This is the episode where CSO really shows itself in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Barry Letts era. This is where we go deep into the Doctor’s mind which sounds like a great thing but knowing that this show is made on a BBC budget, the chances looked like it was going to be a massive disappointment. However its hard to really find fault with what we saw. The CSO sets are impressive and this is a creative use of CSO which wasn’t the case when Barry Letts was running the show. The whole thing of going into the Doctor’s body is quite a strange one because the set looks like a bit of the forest set used in ‘Planet of Evil’. Also there are spheres that appear that seem to have been borrowed from ‘The Prisoner’. Well the show filmed where it was shot so it makes sense that they use something that appeared in the show.

Sadly, every so often the action moved from the Doctor’s head to the hospital so it was like going from the dark to the light. Another problem is that we get back to K9. There is a bit where K9 is gliding along a corridor and is making a massive racket. It seems good that Leela has someone to interact with but its just a bit unfortunate that she has to do it with K9. The hate for K9 continues.

As far as the narrative is concerned it progresses quite well and in a way its kind of put into the background due to how good the CSO and the performances were.

There is a rather unfortunate bit where a part of a wall comes down and its clear that its going to fall. Another thing that is a little unfortunate is the part where K9 becomes possessed. If he’s a robot then how can he be possessed? These are perhaps two of the biggest things wrong with this episode which probably shows how good I found the episode.

The Doctor encounters the Nucleus of the swarm in this episode and it’s a bid odd really because it doesn’t really feel like most encounters that the Doctor has had with villains in previous stories. It’s not a terrible scene but I think that its just done a bit oddly. The cliffhanger is a bit disappointing because this is the first time that we see the nucleus. There is no getting around it, it’s a bit rubbish. During the bit where its talking to the Doctor it was hidden under a black cloak it was fine but seeing it as it is then it’s a bit of a let down but that aside I am still liking this more than I previous had done in the past. I think that the performances have been very good and the production values (with CSO included) are also very good.

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 2

So of course Leela wasn’t going to be gunned down at the beginning of this episode but the way that she survives is quite clever. The Doctor is fighting with whatever is in his mind and gives enough time to warn Leela. The action moves after a short time to a meteorite that has a massive red cross on it. Here the costumes get sillier and the words on the wall are just as silly. This episode becomes a recruitment drive as Lowe infects lots of people. It’s done in such a way that just seems rather basic and not very exciting or dramatic. The effect used is still quite good.

The sets go from dark colours at the beginning to really bright as the story moves to the asteroid hospital. The bright white walls along with the PVC costumes means that sunglasses should be provided with this DVD.

K9 makes his debut in this episode after the five minute mark. K9 is one of those creations that loved and hated by Doctor Who fans and I am personally with the latter. K9 is one of the most recognisable things about Doctor Who but for me I cant see the fascination. I think that K9 has a purpose in this story and the fact that it’s a studio based story means that he can move around quite well but beyond this story, he loses his appeal somewhat. K9 is the creation of Professor Marius (played by Frederick Jaeger). Marius is a likeable person as is someone that the Doctor and Leela can rely upon. Even though he is now a baddie, I just don’t see Michael Sheard’s Lowe character as a villain but it’s still a good performance.

The story seems to go in a slightly different direction as the Doctor and Leela get cloned, shrunk and then the episode ends with the pair going down what appears to be a plughole. It’s quite a good ending because whilst its not tense or dramatic, it is still quite entertaining so after two episodes I am still enjoying this story. There are things that don’t quite work but I think that (at the moment) I am perhaps being too hard on the show as I am judging it by 2014 standards. I don’t quite know why I am enjoying this story but I’m just going to go along with this.

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 1

As I got the DVD for this story off my shelf, I noticed that it was a 12 certificate. I wonder whether this fact will become evident later on. This story sees the debut of K9 but he doesn’t appear in this episode (thankfully). There is an interesting opening scene which sees three astronauts being hit by what looks like lightening. After making no reference to leaving an empty lighthouse, the action picks up with the Doctor and Leela in a familiar location. The old console room returns to the show which is a shame really because it seems like we’ve gone from a nice atmospheric console rom to a white over-lit room.

There are plenty of things that I will be saying aren’t very good in this story so I am going to start with the positives because there are more than you would thing. Firstly the models are all quite good. It’s clear that this is at the beginning of the season because it looks quality and also the effects used to show how the thing is transferred from one person to another.

The Doctor appears to be affected by the conscious and at first it doesn’t look like he’s been affected and Leela also looks like she has been affected but I think because she’s a bit dim she isn’t smart enough to be affected. It’s second time lucky a short time later when he is possessed. This story features the return of Michael Sheard who is always dependable and starts off as a nice guy but that doesn’t last long and I just don’t think that I can buy that he is a baddie.

Now for the bad things. I think that changing words so that they sound like real words but aren’t spelt the same is slightly annoying as it doenst do anything except make it look like people in the 1970’s thought that we would have all lost the ability to spell things in the future. Also the dodgy eye make up looks silly. That is pretty much all that I can say about this story in terms of positive or negative. I know that there will be plenty of opportunity to find fault in this story. There is going to be a run of about twelve episodes or so where I wont be very positive because I have never thought highly of these stories in the past. There is always the possibility that things could change but there is one story in particular that I highly doubt this. I will end on a positive and say that the cliffhanger is quite good. The Doctor appears to be about to shoot Leela when he is possessed so unless Leela turns around at the last minute, it would appear that she isn’t going to last long. Obviously we know that she will be fine but this is one of those rare instances where I don’t mind the fact that I know she will be alright cause she’s one of the lead stars.

The Hand of Fear - Episode 4

This is the final episode for Elisabeth Sladen as a companion. She asked that her departure didn’t feature a wedding (like Jo’s) or that her departure was the centre of the story as she didn’t consider Sarah to be the central character which is a rather selfless thing to do. The episode starts off (as it always does) with the reprise and I don’t know if it was the case in the cliffhanger but looking at Eldrad, the way she is standing seems to suggest she is already holding the dart and just waiting to turn around. Anyway that’s irrelevant really but the early moments of this episode are given over to Eldrad and trying to save her. The bit where Eldrad falls onto Sarah after some rocks come down is a slightly comedic moment and does seem out of place during this early part. There is bit of ‘Death to the Dalek’s in this episode where they are travelling through tunnels with booby traps involved. This doesn’t happen for long as the female Eldrad doesn’t last long as she gets squashed. Just when it looks like that all is over the story has another twist when Stephen Thorne appears as the male Eldrad. The problem that arises pretty much straight away is that Eldard sounds an awful lot like Omega. Thorne played Omega in ‘The Three Doctors’. I still think that Thorne is a great addition to the story but I think that he could have done something else to make him sound less like Omega. King Rokon is introduced just moments after the male Eldrad is at first I thought that this was going to ruin the good work done but it turns out that what we see of Rokon is actually a recording and so saves the situation. What isn’t saved is how Eldrad is defeated and its simply done by tricking him over into the abyss. Bit of a shame really.

The final scene between the Doctor and Sarah is a great scene. It starts off as a rant and Sarah thinks that she is going to make a point to the Doctor but it back fires when he gets a message from Gallifrey and the Doctor is forced to dump Sarah on earth. I really don’t want Sarah to go and even though I have seen this countless times, I still hope that she will stay and go to Gallifrey. When she leaves the TARDIS I know that it go down the same way. The very last moment between Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen is very emotional and just as emotional as when Patrick Troughton, Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines said goodbye to each other at the end of ‘The War Games’. Telling each other not to forget the other and that travel broadens the mind are two bits which are sad and the Doctor caps it off with “until we meet again”.

It wouldn’t be Doctor Who if something wrong didn’t happen and moments after the Doctor leaves, Sarah realises that Sarah probably isn’t even in Croydon. This is something that would crop up when Sarah Jane meets the Tenth Doctor but I don’t quite know what better way there could be to have Sarah Jane walking out on the show. Whilst I might not have been sold on the idea of Sarah Jane going from feminist journalist to what a normal companion would be like (minus the screaming), but Elisabeth Sladen has been one of the greatest companions in the shows history

I think that ending the episode on a cliffhanger was perhaps the wrong way to end it as it doenst actually serve a purpose to the story and so that is the only thing that I would have changed. That said I get the feeling that the honeymoon period of Tom Baker’s time is over because I don’t think that the relationship between the Doctor and the companion will be the same

The Hand of Fear - Episode 3

It’s hard to believe that this is Elisabeth Sladen’s penultimate episode. After the previous serial, its good that Elisabeth Sladen is starting to get the story that she deserves. The main problem that I have felt that has been in four part adventures is that when it gets to the third episode it starts to go off the rail a bits whilst trying to get to the end of the story. The episode begins with things going off a bit and then nothing happens. It’s quite a clever way to get out of a cliffhanger and its done in a way that isn’t silly or convoluted. An unexplosion is a term used by the Doctor which is a great one.

The beginning of the episode see the nuclear base destroyed and the Doctor, Watson and Sarah hide behind a land rover. Even though the explosion doesn’t happen, its stretching things a bit beyond believability to think that hiding behind a car would provide any protection from a nuclear explosion. That’s a minor issue in the grand scheme of things really because its difficult to know exactly what the thinking was behind surviving this sort of thing in 1976 would be.

The reveal of Eldrad is quite fun as its put off for a few seconds after the camera pull into the shot. The idea that Eldrad starts off as a woman is quite a creative one because the instinct would have been to have Eldrad as a man from the start. The costume is quite effective. It shows what can be done even on what must be a relative budget and Judith Paris is a very good Eldrad and more than holds her own against Sladen and Baker.

The scene where Eldrad, Sarah and the Doctor are talking is a nice. It’s fairly good at explaining what is going to happen for the rest of the story. When they end up in the TARDIS its here that the idea of the temporal grace line is introduced. This is something that gets used occasionally for most of the Doctor’s time in the classic era and it seems like a convenient throw away line that only serves a purpose in this particular scene.

The cliffhanger again doesn’t feature the Doctor or Sarah but instead features Eldrad who gets the point of why her home world isn’t quite as good as she remembered. It’s a great ending and its another solid episode and I am really struggling to come up with any problems with this story. Ok so that there are things that could perhaps have been improved but they are minor things. Now there is just one episode left for Elisabeth Sladen and I hope that watching it in the way that I have been watching it doesn’t mean that Sarah Jane’s final episode is a disappointment.

The Hand of Fear - Episode 2

After the great opening episode, I did wonder whether the remaining episodes wouldn’t be as good as I was hoping for. The effect of the hand moving that we see at the beginning of the episode is still a great effect. Even the shot later on where it appears to move on its own (via CSO) is a good effect.

Professor Watson is the leader of the nuclear base and I think that its fun that that all the employees wear a big photo of themselves. They are all smiling whereas they themselves haven’t got anything to smile about. The security of this place is a lot better than most places but it seems that once inside the base its pretty easy to get around unless spotted by someone. The sets in the nuclear base are still impressive, they are slightly undermined by the great location scenes but I still think that the setting of the nuclear base works perfectly.

The death of Doctor Cater is a sad one because Rex Robinson is very good. His death was quite spectacular and it was done well because he was possessed and this started in the previous episode so at least it was done 10 seconds before he died. I thought that Glyn Houston was a good piece of casting as Professor Watson. I liked how Watson went from being untrusting of the Doctor to pretty much giving him free reign of the base.

The phone call that Professor Watson makes to his wife and child is heart-breaking because he thinks that it’s the end. He’s even lying to his wife and its made slightly embarrassing when the moment he puts the phone down the crisis is over. Despite the episode taking place in just the nuclear base, its surprising that the story moves along as much as it does. Ok there are many sets the story uses but it is essentially the same location and its credit to Bob Baker and Dave Martin (along with Lennie Mayne) for making the story work.

Sarah is hypnotised for the third time in two stories which must be annoying for Elisabeth Sladen. After the good work she did in the previous episode it seems like she’s taken a step backwards in this episode.

The ending is a bit odd because it doesn’t feature the Doctor or Sarah in a proper way. The last shot is of Watson. That said I thought that the episode was another solid one and despite being hypnotised again, this is turning out to be a fitting end to Sarah Jane’s involvement in the show. Halfway through and it feels like it’s a million times better than ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ which isn’t exactly saying a great deal but it’s the truth.

The Hand of Fear - Episode 1

The next four days aren’t going to be very happy ones because this story marks the end of Elisabeth Sladen’s time on the show. Today’s episode is her 71^st episode and by the end will be on 74 and tied with Jacqueline Hill in all time appearances. Although by the time she makes her final appearance in show I think she will have overtaken both Katy Manning and William Russell.

As opening scenes go, the one for this episode is rather good and gives the story an epic feel to it. It almost felt like an annoyance that the focus of the story was shifting back to earth. When it does go to earth it’s a rare thing of them filming in a quarry which is suppose to be a quarry and not an alien landscape. The shot of the rock exploding and it all falling on the camera is one of the most impressive shots that I have seen in Doctor Who (that didn’t require CGI). The fact that Sarah is caught in the falling rocks should have been a big indication that Elisabeth Sladen’s involvement in the show was about to come to an end. I’ve heard that Sladen wanted to go out with a bang and that’s about as close as she would get.

Eldrad Must Lie is the line the Sarah Jane utters and this is where Sarah’s hypnotism really begins. Her new menace is either undermined or enhanced by the Andy Pandy vibe of her costume. Personally I think that it slightly undermines it but not to an extent that ruins the story. It’s largely due to Elisabeth Sladen that it works to the extent that it does. It’s mainly down to the stare that Sladen uses for most of the episode, she is cold and is far from the Sarah that we all know and love. Not since the early days of her time on the show has Elisabeth Sladen been allowed to do something different with the character. Tom Baker is almost the companion in this episode as his performance falls below Sladen’s and that is perhaps as it should be in this story.

When the story moves to the nuclear base it just increases how epic this story feels. The idea that they were filming in a proper nuclear base just seems made by today’s standards because there would be so much red tape and security checks that it wouldn’t be worth doing it now so to be able to get away with it in 1976 is something that adds a great deal of excitement to the serial. Ok so some most of the scenes in this setting are filmed in a studio but just the sight of what we get in this episode and what we will get in future episodes.

The effect of the hand growing back its fingers and moving around is a great one and makes for a great cliffhanger. After being slightly bored with the previous story, I am happy to say that I have had my faith restored in the show and this opening episode does everything that a companions final episode should be and I think that the final three episodes will be a fitting send off to one of the most loved companions in Doctor Who history.

The Sontaran Experiment - Episode 2

Despite lacking a Sontaran or anything approaching an experiment, there was cause to be more optimistic within the first five minutes that things would change. Another thing that changes in this episode is the role of the humans. In the previous episode, I commented that they were rather dull and that I didn’t care about them very much but thankfully due to the introduction of the Sontaran it means that the humans are basically bit part players and that’s a good thing. I still don’t find the robot to be very menacing. Apart from pulling people along it’s a rather poor thing and should really have been left behind in the opening episode.

It’s implied that the Sontaran that we saw at the end of this episode is not Linx as seen in ‘The Time Warrior’ but is in fact called Styre and this is the first time really that we understand that Sontarans look the same. For the first time we see more than one Sontaran when we see The Marshal (both played by Kevin Lindsay. It’s a different headpiece that Lindsay wears compared to ‘The Time Warrior’. I don’t think that this headpiece is as good as the previous one and think that it looked rather poor in comparison. That said I still think that the Sontaran was a good creation and Kevin Lindsay was a very good Sontaran though he died shortly afterwards it’s quite good that he was able to leave such a mark on what is a rather inferior alien compared to others in the show. It would be until Dan Starkey in the new era that an actor would have some a good run with the character.

I really like the bit where Sarah is scared many times by Styre. The performance from Elisabeth Sladen is brilliant and makes up for the rather downturn in how strong the character has been written for in recent episodes. This episode sees a good fight sequence between Styre and the Doctor. However Tom Baker famously got injured during recording and so many of the shots during this fight are filmed far away to hide the fact that Terry Walsh doubles for Tom Baker. To be fair to Baker, he gives a good speech just before the fight happens and he acts like nothing has happened after it becomes clear that he holding himself in a particularly way. I think that Ian Marter does suffer in this episode and I didn’t really miss him when he wasn’t on screen.

This is definelty a more interesting episode than the first. I like how the way to defeat Styre is quite a simple way and one that benefits the two episode running time. I think that despite this story serving no other purpose than to bridge the gap between ‘The Ark in Space’ and ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. It’s clear that this would not have stretched to a four part and this is probably one of the better Sontaran stories and I think that it complements the series rather well.

The Sontaran Experiment - Episode 1

The Sontaran Experiment is the first two part story since ‘The Rescue’ back in 1965. The bonus of having a two part adventure is that there isn’t the need to find things to fill the story to keep the running time to four episodes. This story was done because they couldn’t make ‘The Ark in Space’ last six episodes (which is a fair point). As a result we have a two part story which doesn’t have any studio filming, one Sontaran and a couple of supporting characters. The fact that this is the only story at this point to be filmed entirely outside is one of the big selling points of this story and it’s a nice sequel for the Sontarans. So at the end of the last episode, the Doctor was going to find out what earth was like for everyone on the ark.

It doesn’t take long for the no human’s thing to be shown as wrong when there are a group of humans with South African accents. On their first encounter with the Doctor they decide to shoot him first and ask questions later. The thing about the regulars is that they all get into trouble at various points of the episode and both Ian and the Doctor fall victim to the unexpected hole in the ground. Only Sarah doesn’t get this treatment which is normally the one person that I would have guaranteed to fall. However whilst she doesn’t do this she does get captured.

Whilst we don’t see the Sontaran, we do get a robot which glides along and I cant believe that this poses any kind of threat and yet everyone seems to be scared to death of it. It doesn’t fire anything or say anything so something dreadful must have happened before this story began. Maybe it didn’t invite the humans around for robotic tea when they first landed there.

It takes fifteen minutes before the Sontaran or the experiment part of the title becomes relevant. Even then it’s a small shot of the Sontarans hand that we see. It isn’t until the end that we see the Sontaran come out of the sphere which we all saw in ‘The Time Warrior’ and out comes Linx and that is how the episode airs. Whilst I enjoy the fact that this is a story that takes place outside the problem with the episode is that not a lot really happens. I don’t think that the colonists are particularly interesting and that’s going to be a major problem in the next episode and I think that considering this episode must have been thrown together at the last minute, this could have been a lot worse but it’s the holding story until we get to the Daleks.