(756) The End of Time - Part Two

The End OF Time is the final appearance for David Tennant as the Doctor (apart from his 2013 appearance). This is 47^th and final episode and is the sixth longest serving Doctor in terms of episode credited to. This is also his 1,468^th and final day as the Doctor and becomes stays as the third longest serving Doctor in that respect. It is also the 60^th and final episode for Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner as executive producers and the 31^st for Russell T Davies as writer and becomes the seventh most credited writer in Doctor Who ever and the most credited writer since the show returned in 2005.

The first scene after the titles have played is set on Gallifrey and it’s the most that we have seen of Gallifrey since the show returned. Sadly the room that the Lord President meets the other Timelords in is less impressive. I suppose that it could be argued that it just means that there is nothing to distract you and your attention could be focused on Timothy Dalton. Dalton’s character is called Lord President for most of the story but it isn’t until the end that he’s called Rassilon.

It’s nice that the drumming was started by the Timelords and he has had this all his lives. It gives an nice explanation as to why the Master has been the way that he has been since he debuted in Terror of the Autons. The idea of using six billion copies of himself to find where the signal of the drumming is coming from is.

When the Lord President arrives on Earth that is what things start to ramp up and soon Gallifrey appears above the Earth and I love how quickly things spiral out of control. The reason why the Time War was timelocked is finally explained and its quite a good one.

Bernard Cribbins is fantastic in this story and the scene where he is trying to get the Doctor to shoot the Master is one of the best scenes in this story. The fact that Wilfred is the one that knocks four times and causes the Doctor to pretty much sacrifice his life is something that would normally make him a terrible character but it shows how close Wilfred and the Doctor have become that he is prepared to do this ultimate sacrifice.

The performance that John Simm gives in these two episodes is much better than the one he gave in series twenty-nine. The Master is used rather well and is quite central to the story but not in his usual way. The fact he gives up his life for the Doctor is the perfect way for the Master to exit the story.

The Doctor jumping out of the ship to crash land into the main room of the Naismith mansion seems a bit of an over the top thing to do but its not as bad as the hover boat scene in Planet of the Spiders. I thought that the moment when the Doctor realises he is alive and then hears the four knocks is a heart stopping moment and the look on Tennant’s face is so sad. When he decides to go into the booth to let Wilfred out it’s a scene that is as emotional as anything in the show since it returned. Even when RTD was trying to be emotional, this was the first time that it seemed to have an effect on me.

The final fifteen minutes is given over to the Doctor saying goodbye to all of the people who have been a part of the show during RTD’s time. I mentioned during the Journeys End review that too much time was given over to the soppy sentimental stuff but that wont happen here. You don’t appear in so many stories without earning the right to say goodbye this way. The first people that he visits are Martha and Mickey are seen trying to dodge a Sontaran and have become a married couple.  That seems like a bolt out of the blue. Next was Sarah Jane and Luke also return and the Doctor saves Luke’s life after he runs into the road. This was nice cause because Elisabeth Sladen does seem to well up and it’s the last time that Sarah Jane would appear in Doctor Who because she passes away the following year.

Captain Jack is in a bar with Slitheen, Judoon, Adispose, the Hath and ends up hooking up with Alonso from Voyage of the Damned. The tune from Daleks in Manhattan is playing in the background. Next up is Jessica Hynes appears as Verity Newman who is a descendant on Joan Redfern from Human Nature. It was perhaps for time reason that they didn’t go back to Joan Redfern and instead went for her granddaughter. Whatever the reason for it doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s a nice moment. Donna gets married (properly this time) and sadly doesn’t notice the Doctor but Wilfred and Sylvia do. The Doctor goes back to meet Geoffrey Noble and I had forgotten that bit and it was a nice touch because Geoffrey would have appeared in the 2008 series had he not passed away. The final encounter was with Rose which was always going to be the case. It happens just before Rose meets Eccleston’s Doctor but I do wonder how Rose wouldn’t remember him later on.

After all the goodbyes are done, the Doctor takes a slow walk towards his TARDIS and I think that this is where Murray Gold’s music works its magic because it builds up and up trying to crank up the emotions of the moment. I suspect that Tennant’s final words as the Doctor aren’t 100% acting. There must have been a part of him during that scene that wanted to carry on but not everything can go on forever. As last words go “I don’t want to go” is a million times better than “Carrot Juice, Carrot Juice, Carrot Juice”. The destruction of the TARDIS was a great moment and this is the last time that it features like this (it makes an appearance later in the next series).

Matt Smith’s opening minute wasn’t the greatest start and I know that there is suppose to be a bit of madness to this part but it was perhaps just a bit too mad. That said I know certain people that I watched this scene with weren’t convinced that Matt Smith was the right person to play the role. It’s hard to judge someone after such a short time but I was convinced that he would prove everyone wrong and now it remains to be seen whether this is still the case.

The End of Time was a good story and I think that it gave Tennant the send off that he deserved. Tennant had a difficult job to do when he took over from Christopher Eccleston in June 2005 but over the course of his time on the show he has helped the show increase in popularity and despite some iffy moments, the Tennant era has been really good and it will be interesting to see how watching the Smith era an episode a day will match up with Tennant’s.

(751) Journeys End

Today is the final episode of the series and the final series that David Tenannt would do as the Doctor. This is a longer episode than normal. Just over an hour (1hr 3 min) which is the length normally reserved for the Christmas Special but this episode is given special treatment. Back in 2008 I was happy about this cause it meant 15 minutes more of my favourite TV show but watching it today I don’t think that the story needing that extra time.

The cliffhanger of yesterday’s episode was one of the best one for a long time and sadly that always meant that the resolution of it would be disappointing and to be really harsh on RTD, this was a bit of a cop out. He managed to put the energy of the regeneration into the hand. That hand then becomes a more human version of the Doctor.

The Osterhagan Key is a weapon that is talked about a lot and will basically blow up the Earth. It was never going to happen but it still an effective thing to use in the story.

I don’t know why but hearing Daleks talk in German is quite funny.

This is an episode where Donna is quite central to the story. She starts hearing a heartbeat sound and then manages to absorb some Timelord intelligence which is never a good thing. Seeing her manage to outsmart Davros and the Daleks is quite fun to watch. There is an explanation about the Doctor Donna line from Planet of the Ood. Catherine Tate does a good job of making all the technical jargon sound real and that knows what she is talking about.

It’s quite a while before Davros finally makes an appearance but it’s well worth the wait cause Julian Bleach gets to show us why he’s a great Davros. Davros isn’t really the leader of the Daleks but is instead working for the Daleks which is slightly disappointing because it would be nice to have Davros back as leader. Bleach manages to channel both Michael Wisher (in his voice) and the madness of Terry Molloy’s Davros. I did like the reunion between Sarah Jane Smith and Davros. They met in Davros’ first story back in 1975 and it’s a lovely fanboy moment but probably won’t mean much to many people who are new to the series.

The truth about the Doctor (according to Davros) turning his companions into murderers and weapons. There is a nice glimpse of the people that have died in Doctor Who stories since 2005. It’s a great moment because it does show that the Doctor’s actions have consequences. Ok he can’t control them but the reckless manner in which he roams the universe has consequences.

I had the thought that most RTD finales were ruined by slushing nonsense but in recent series finale’s it hasn’t been as noticeable. The main plot is dealt with and Earth is returned home meaning that there is nearly a quarter of an hour of the Doctor saying goodbye and this is a problem because it did go on way too long. What took the cake was that yet again the Doctor and Rose get their blubbery farewell. If all of that had been cut down then Donna’s goodbye would have been even better. I thought that Donna’s departure is really sad and I found it a more effective end that either of Rose’s. Donna having her memory wiped of the Doctor is very similar to Jamie and Zoe but back then they didn’t have Bernard Cribbins and he was great.

The music from Murray Gold was quite epic in this two parter. I think that this was the peak of his abilities (not that he has gone off the boil).

The visual effects team deserve credit because some of the crucible shots are superb and some of the best that the show has produced. It could easily rival what is seen in a Hollywood movie.

Yesterday I commented that the business with the bees was the first sign that RTD has started to lose the plot a bit and in todays episode there is another example of this. The TARDIS being able to pull the TARDIS like a tow truck pulling a broken down car is another moment where I really scratch my head wondering just what was going through RTD’s head. On the plus side there is a lovely shot of The Doctor (both of them), Donna, Jackie, Rose, Martha, Sarah Jane, Mickey steering the TARDIS with help from K9. The music is lovely and another example of how good Murray Gold is.

This was a good two parter and did a good job of using Davros and the Daleks and making it seem like the most important Doctor Who story ever. I do think that it was fifteen minutes too long and that the cliffhanger wasn’t resolved in the way that it should have been but the performances were all really good and this series as a whole has been quite good but not as strong as the previous one.  Now I am about to embark on the specials which spell the beginning of the end for the Tennant era.

(750) The Stolen Earth

This is going to be a stat filled review today. First stat is that The Stolen Earth is the 750^th episode of Doctor Who. It is also the 200^th story as well which is a point that could be argued. I would argue this by saying that Trial of a Timelord was four stories not just one and I have clubbed Utopia with Sound of Drums and Last of the Timelords. The BBC say that this story is number 198 and that Planet of the Dead is the 200^th but I think that we should leave it is it is.  This episode sees the return of Davros 81 episodes ago or 7, 185 days since the final episode of Remembrance of the Daleks. In the 2005 series, the Daleks returned, in 2006 it was the Cybermen that returned and in 2007 the Master made an appearance and so it was Davros’ time to make a comeback.

This is where all three shows that RTD is involved in are in the same story. Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures and their respective characters join the Doctor Who world. This is a arguably the biggest episode of Doctor Who. You could see it as Doctor Who’s answer to The Avengers film. Russell T Davies has to fit an awful lot into two episodes and that’s not an easy thing to do.

There is a slight issue with the idea of people able to make phone calls on their phones and yet the planet has moved. In one scene Luke is able to make a call and then in the next scene Martha can’t make a call.

When the Daleks’ voice sound, it’s a moment that gave me goose bumps. I can’t deny it but the sound along with the Murray Gold music helped make it seem like an big moment. The thing is that the reason for what the Daleks are doing isn’t explained. I think that there isn’t enough time to properly explain this but that didn’t bother me really.

It wouldn’t be a series finale without cameo appearances. They have become something of a calling card for Russell T Davies. However one of the cameos is quite interesting. Richard Dawkins makes an appearance and his cameo is interesting because he’s married to Lalla Ward. Paul O’Grady also appears.

The Shadow Proclamation has been mentioned countless times since 2005 and we finally get to visit it. Personally I think that it should be something that is talked about but not seen. During this period of the episode we learn more about the planets moving but Russell T Davies comes up with the idea that Bees are aliens. This is first instance that I think shows that Russell T Davies was starting to lose his grip on what works and doesn’t work. This is his last series as Head Writer (although he is still in charge for the specials).

Davros doesn’t appear until quite late in the episode and even then we only see his metal hand (blown off in Revelation of the Daleks) and his blue head light. We don’t get to see him properly until the end and then it’s the best couple of minutes in what is a superb episode. Julian Bleach has a difficult job because he will be compared to Michael Wisher and Terry Molloy. What is impressive about his performance is how he manages to mix their version into his own. The mask that Bleach has to wear is very good because it allows Bleach to very as expressionative as he wants to be. Wisher and Molloy didn’t have that luxury but thankfully the process has improved and we get to see the benefits. I just wish there had been more of Davros in this episode.

This episode marks the final appearance of Penelope Wilton and I love how she introduces herself as former Prime Minister (even to the Daleks). This short appearance seems to be designed to give her character some redemption because of what happened in The Christmas Invasion. It’s a lovely performance from Wilton and it reminds me of what was so good about the character.

The question that has to be raised in this two parter is whether enough time is given to all the supporting characters who normally are central characters. Luke doesn’t really have much presence in this episode but its Gwen and Ianto that have the better slice of the action but that’s because Captain Jack is so involved in the central story. Russell T Davies does manage to make everyone seem relevant to the story. Martha is in ‘New York’ with UNIT and then teleports to London but doesn’t really do very much yet seems relevant to the story.

The cliffhanger is quite possibly the best cliffhanger that the show has ever come up with. It starts with The Doctor running towards Rose and the Doctor being shot at by a Dalek. I thought sneaking the Dalek in to what was suppose to be a lovely moment was a great decision. The final shot is of the Doctor seemingly regenerating. Bearing in mind that at this time, David Tennant had announced he was leaving, it seemed like this was going to be Tennant’s final episode. I think the there was a genuine belief that the Doctor would regenerate. That week between episodes was an awfully long time.

(713) School Reunion

This episode is famous for three things. The return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 but perhaps just as importantly, Anthony Stewart Head appears and almost steals the show. When I watched this back in 2006 I was totally preoccupied with her return but fast forward nine years to today, I think that Anthony Stewart Head is probably the best thing in this episode. In time terms, its been 23 years since Elisabeth Sladen had been in Doctor Who but in marathon terms it been about four months.

The Doctor is a teacher and Rose is a dinner lady. Had she not gone off for adventures in time and space I could easily see her cleaning tables and dishing out chips. If Jamie Oliver were writing a Doctor Who story then elements of this would be his. Chips leading to something bad is the sort of thing that he would have come up with.

The thing that was going to determine whether Sarah Jane Smith’s return was how she was bought back and its done rather well. She’s back to do what she does best and that’s by being an investigative journalist. The look on the Doctor’s face when he first sees her is pretty much how every fan was feeling and that is just astonishment. The looks of astonishment continue when Sarah Jane stumbles across that TARDIS and then realises that the person she thought was just a teacher was in fact the Doctor.

The jealousy of Rose when she meets Sarah Jane does seem a bit of a step back for Rose after the progress made in the previous episode. I think that the jealousy isn’t quite as annoying as it was when Lynda was being friends with the Doctor but it’s still a character trait that is becoming annoying and the strop she throws when she thinks that the Doctor will forget about her only adds to the problem.

There is a nice little scene between the Doctor and Sarah Jane where the Doctor learns there are consequences about her travels with him. He also learns that she didn’t get dropped off in Croydon but in Aberdeen.

Back to the subject of Anthony Stewart Head. Everytime he is on screen I think that he is superb. His face to face seen with David Tennant is one of my favourite scenes in the entire episode. ASH plays the fine line between villain and pantomime villain. The Krillotaines are a good villain however with the return of Sarah Jane and K9 as well as Anthony Stewart Head, they kind of get lost in the shuffle which is perhaps the one things that the story gets wrong. It is interesting that when they are in human form they walk with their arms behind them. It’s also interesting that they are bits of other races and this is something that could have been looked at more.

I hate writing this but K9 sacrificing himself was a moment that made me like the character. I am still unmoved in my original opinion of the character but it was a lovely moment.

The goodbye scene between the Doctor and Sarah Jane is heart-breaking. It’s because of David Tennant and Elisabeth Sladen that it works and the fact that K9 is hiding behind the TARDIS as a surprise present is the perfect way to end the episode. When Sarah Jane is offered the chance to go back travelling in time and space, I wanted her to say yes but I always get disappointed when this doesn’t happen.  

This has been a lovely episode but it’s one that ultimately seems to purely serve fans who has watched the show for years. New fans might not have taken as much from it as fans like me but it’s another well written episode with some very good performances and it is nice to see Elisabeth Sladen back in Who again.

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 Masque of Mandragora - Episode 4

This opening story hasn’t been the best as far as I am concerned. I think that it’s fair to say that it’s been a bit of a damp squib. Louis Marks might not be the most successful writer in the show’s history but I think that he has written solid stories in the past. Sadly this isn’t one of his best. Despite not really caring or understanding what was been talked about. I did find the performance and directing to be enough to find some good stuff in it.

I remember during some of the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton stories where I would have quite happily skipped that story if I wasn’t so determined to watch/listen to every Doctor Who story. Whilst I haven’t felt like whilst I have been watching the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker era, I came pretty close during this story. I think the main stumbling block has been that it is a classic case of style of substance.

The idea of a ball featuring in the final episode does make it seem like it’s a final episode because it’s such a grand thing and its done very well indeed. The BBC has a reputation for doing good costumes in period dramas and that is definelty the case during this episode and in fact the previous episodes. I got the feeling that this episode doesn’t have much of a fast end of episode pace to it that I would expect. I still like the ball that happens but I think that the pace doesn’t really change in this episode compared to the previous ones.

The way that the whole thing was dealt with was rather good but I wasn’t really bothered by what happened to the mandragora helix. This episode wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it could have been but I still think that this story was a disappointment. The next story is the final one to feature Elisabeth Sladen and it’s a shame that her penultimate story is such a weak one. I was watching the extras and this story was due to the success of ‘Pyramids of Mars’ which is a pseudo historical story. The difference between that story and this one is that the Mars story was a more traditional Doctor Who story that had something to it and this one this one doesn’t and so it wont go down as one of the finest Tom Baker stories.

The Masque of Mandragora - Episode 3

The thing about this story is that part of me likes it but then part of me is totally frustrated with it. The opening episode is always the best one because it sets things up and its usually the cliffhangers in future episodes that make the thing work. The previous cliffhanger was total disappointing and so the episode started off in a slightly disappointing way. Not even Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen can get me excited.

I will be honest and say that the whole sacrificing angle to be rather tiresome and as a result I thought that the whole episode was a massive disappointment for this reason. The thing is that unless this sort of thing interests you then you are not going to be that excited by things. That’s not a critiscm of Louis Marks or of Philip Hinchcliffe but just that this story isn’t working for me. There are probably people who aren’t fans of stories that I like such as ‘Inside the Spaceship’. Doctor Who attracts different sorts of fans and some will like sacrificing.

I haven’t mentioned until now that Tim Pigott-Smith and that’s largely because he has been up against Gareth Armstrong’s Giuliano and in this episode he does have a few scenes on his own but it does seem like he is a bit wasted in this story and the role could have gone to someone else and Pigott-Smith could have had a meatier role which would befit his talents.

The bit where Federico unmasks Hiernoymous only to see a glowing sphere where his face use to be was the only good moment in the entire episode and that was the cliffhanger. I think that I have finally lost patience with this story and its probably lucky that the next episode is the final one because this is a story that has failed to grip me in any way. I think had it not been for the costumes and the location filming then I would have been really annoyed with this story.

The Masque of Mandragora - Episode 2

The Doctor uses humour to get out of feeling the chop from the executioner. It’s the future as far as Doctor Who during Tom Baker’s time is concerned. After escaping he manages to run around the set of the Prisoner which is worth it because it does look beautiful.  Sarah spends the first part of this episode about to be sacrificed. She is rescued by the Doctor just in the nick of time. There cant be many more ways that Sarah can be put in significant peril so its just as well that it does last too much into this episode.

There is a small bit of interest in what is going on between Giuliano and Federico. Giuliano is worried that if Federico is ruler he will stifle learning. I like Jon Laurimore and think that  his performance is just behind Norman Jones’. Gareth Armstrong’s Giuliano is a bit wetter but due to Armstrong’s performance its not as wet as it could be. Norman Jones returns to Doctor Who as Hieronymous, he had previously appeared as Major Baker and here he is just as intense as he was in the story. His performance is somewhat overshadowed by his huge beard. That is a beard and a half that he wears in this story.

It’s not an episode that feels like it has a lot of padding but I would be at a push to try and describe any of the major points of this episode. The whole thing plods along at a good pace and I thought that the performances of several people helped make this more interesting. I don’t find any to do with predicting the stars and horoscopes and all that stuff so that’s maybe why I have never found this story to be particularly interesting. However it does have a small charm to it and I am still looking forward to the final episodes.

The Masque of Mandragora - Episode 1

The first episode of ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ is the start of the fourteenth season of Doctor Who and also the third with Tom Baker as the Doctor. It is also the penultimate adventure for Elisabeth Sladen and this is a story that I haven’t really thought that highly of in the past. I have often thought that it’s a rather dull story.

Sad of me I know but I quite like the change in font used to list the title and episode number. That not the only thing that’s new in this fourteenth season. I think that it’s a nice opening scene with the Doctor and Sarah wandering through the TARDIS corridors. It ends with Sarah and the Doctor walking into the second control room. This is the first time that we have seen anything other than the bright white console room. It’s a nice relatively small console room and has atmosphere and character in the sort of way that the main room just doesn’t have.

Something of interest is that the location scenes were filmed in Portmeirion which is where they filmed the original version of ‘The Prisoners’. The location work is just as good as it was when Douglas Camfield directed the previous story. Rodney Bennett returns to the show and uses what he does very well.

Federico is like Chase in the previous adventure, its clear that he is a nasty piece of work from the moment that we see him. Giuliano comes across as the exact opposite of Federico. It seems at first like this is just going to be a family dispute. This continues a bit more before Federico is talking to the Doctor. I like the line when the Doctor says he cant see Federico’s future because he doenst have one. This is the 47^th episode for Tom Baker as the Doctor and whilst at times during the previous story that he was a bit cross more times than would be expected of him but here he’s a lot more calm and confident than he has seemed in the past.

The way that the episode ends is one of those that slightly frustrates me because it ends with the Doctor about to have his head lopped off but the camera focuses in on the sword and it ends just before it goes in. I always think that this sort of thing is rather silly cause we all know that he makes it as the departure of a Doctor always makes the news so it wasn’t going to be his last episode and I cant even think of a reason why I should really be worried about that. The only reason that anyone would have to tune in the next week is to see how he gets out of it. I like this opening episode as it has a fresher feel to it than the previous stories. Whether this good feeling will continue for the rest of the story will be seen but I am looking forward to find out.

The Seeds of Doom - Episode 6

I think that its fair to say that this six part story has felt longer than six parts. True there have been some good moments but there have also been moments that have very hard to sit through. I think that the main problem with this story is that there hasn’t been six episodes worth of plot. They could easily have condensed all the stuff on the Antarctic down to one episode and the rest could easily have fitted into three episodes. Then this would have been a much better story. As I watch it I just cant find myself getting that excited with whats happening.

The fact that UNIT are in the story but the Brigadier or Benton aren’t in it is something that doesn’t work for me. The person who is leading them (the brigadier is in Geneva) doesn’t quite carry it off and I just think that its UNIT without any of the joy that comes with it. They are just as ineffective as ever but it just doesn’t carry the same weight as if Nicholas Courtney was shouting his way through things.

The models of the Krynoid over the house is quite a good one. It shows why models are better than CSO and even shows that compared to the CGI that 2014 Doctor Who could achieve, model work still works and when its done right can actually  be better than what we have today. The explosions were also quite good but on the downside it does ruin what was a good model of the house.

Something that was a bit differnet in this episode was Tom Baker’s performance. The last couple of episodes he has been shouting and very angry whereas in this episode he was bit grumpy but on the whole he was a bit more his usual self. This is good because as much as its fun to see a less pantomime version of the Doctor (which we will get in future stories), I would rather the Doctor not be as grim as the deaths are in this story. Baker’s second season shows that he is on his way to becoming the best Doctor of the classic era if not the best ever. Elisabeth Sladen was due to leave in this story but would stay on. I think that this story was a sign that the character had pretty much reached its course. The average time that a companion has spent on the show is currently 48 episodes (I will use this average stat if future as I like it so much).

Scorby’s death is quite a grim one (not the first or the last). I think that the reason for him being out was a bit silly but that doesn’t detract from the death itself as he drowns. Sgt Henderson’s death is also quite a grim death as he ended up as compost. Considering that this show was suppose to be a family show, its not particularly bothered with how far they push thing and that’s a good thing as far as I am concerned. I mentioned in the previous episode that I wanted more Chase and Doctor scenes and it’s the same in this episode although we do get a great fight scene between the two which ends with Chase becoming compost in what could be argued is the most violent death in Doctor Who (at this point). Despite the fact we don’t see blood of the rollers or hear any bone crunching, the scream of Chase and the knowing what is happening is perhaps more grim that if they had blood and bones.

This was the last Doctor Who story to be directed by Douglas Camfield. Camfield has directed 50 episodes of the show (including this one) and he is 11 episodes ahead of Christopher Barry. Camfield’s first contribution was ‘Planet of Giants’ and over the course of 11 years, he has directed all the story he has been involved in with a regimented familiarity and when you look at his stories its clear to see why he is one of the best directors in Doctor Who. Despite not being totally over the moon with this story, I think that Robert Banks Stewart has been a good addition to the show and if this had been a four part adventure then the story would have been better than what it ultimately ended up.

The Seeds of Doom is an average story to what has been largely an average season.

The Seeds of Doom - Episode 5

The penultimate episode of this story starts off with the reminder of how Dunbar died and how silly the Krynoid looked staggering towards the camera. This reprise seems to go on for an age before it resumes with the Doctor, Scorby, Sarah and two guards running into a cottage. I like how the Doctor is very angry in the early stages of this episode spending a fair amount of time shouting at Scorby.

The Krynoid is very big now by the middle of the episode. Although despite the epic size that Krynoid can (and does), I find the simple effect of vines smashing through windows to be more effective than the huge krynoid running rampant around the house. The effects used to make the plants that are overpowering Sarah, Scorby and the Butler is simple yet effective and these do more to create an impression of terror than the CSO version that we get.

Chase continues his ideal that humans are replaceable and krynoids aren’t. It’s a fair point but it doesn’t diminish that the character is a strong one and at one point he seems to have gone a bit mad when he says to Scorby that the krynoids have the right of the earth and that humans are parasites. His madness is made very obvious when he is talking to hit plants and has his legs crossed. If there had been more Chase in this story then I might have felt more positively towards it. In fact I wish there were more scenes between the Doctor and Chase because Tom Baker and Tony Beckley are two very different actors but together they worked very well. Elisabeth Sladen has been very good over the course of the previous five episodes and showed some of her old self. This is her 65^th episode in the role and she’s currently the fifth longest serving companion and is just nine episodes behind Jacqueline Hill. This is also Tom Baker’s 45^th episode as the Doctor, Philip Hinchcliffe’s 41^st episode as the producer and Robert Holmes’ 45^th as script editor.

I’m not saying that it’s a dull episode but the episode really gets going in the final five or six minutes of the episode when the plants start to attack Scorby, Sarah and the butler. It’s made even better with Chase watching on in joy.  Sadly the butler meets his end during this scene so the number of character gets reduced further. The Doctor is given an ultimatum of giving himself up to the krynoid by dawn. What I don’t get is why if the Krynoid is as powerful as it seems does it wait for so long for the Doctor to give himself up, thus allowing him to come up with a plan?

The episode ends with Chase smirking to himself and it just confirms that he is the best thing in the episode. Whilst I think that the story is building up to a finale I think that there is something missing from the adventure.

The Seeds of Doom - Episode 4

The one thing that I knew was coming when I started to watch this episode was knowing that Tom Baker was going to come crashing through the rooftop window. That is about as energetic as the Doctor gets in this episode. I don’t quite know what the theory was behind this decision but it does seem odd that the lead character should be so inactive at such an important part of the serial.

The sight of the Doctor with a gun is a rare one and we know that the Doctor wont use it but he basically says that the others don’t know that so its clear it won’t be much of a problem. The Doctor’s fortunes take a drastic turn for the worst when he becomes attached to a machine that makes compost. It takes most of the episode to get him to the point and even then nothing happens so Tom Baker is really a bit wasted in this episode and it falls to Elisabeth Sladen to do a lot of the work.

Chase really comes across as a nasty piece of work when he doesn’t seem to concerned with Keeler’s transformation. I think he maybe one of my favourite villains in recent years in Doctor Who. Keeler does suffer a rather grim fate in this episode as he starts off as his normal self and by the end of the episode he has become a krynoid. It’s a shame really because he was a likeable person but he just chose a rather rubbish person to work for.

Miss Ducat’s involvement in the previous episode seems to be more relevant because she gets to distract Chase in a nice scene. It seems at first that its just another random scene with a dear old lady but soon it becomes clear for the reason of her unexpected visit. When she gets into a car we learn that she is sort of working with Thackeray and Dunbar. Dunbar slightly redeems himself when he reveals to Thackeray that he has made a mistake but doesn’t go the full hog and admit what he has done. This happens just moments before he meets a rather grim ending at the tentacles of a krynoid. It’s definelty a trait of the Hinchcliffle/Holmes era of the show that people who die in this show don’t exactly have a nice ending.

The cliffhanger does come across as slightly comedic because it’s the Krynoid staggering towards the camera. I know that they were intending some quite dramatic to end the episode but sadly it doesn’t quite work out that way. It’s another episode which seems to have a bit of padding but not as much as there was in the second episode. I think that this story is going to be just as I have thought of it in the past. It’s neither terrible nor is it great. I think that on reflection that they could have done a four episode and two episode split just like they did in the previous season.

The Seeds of Doom - Episode 3

I always feel bad when I accuse an episode of padding but in the case of the previous one, I feel that I was in the right. As I started to watch this episode I was hoping that things would improve a lot.

The explosions at the cliffhanger were really good and they looked just as good at the beginning of this episode. The story moves back to blightey and the shift of the story seems to have happened now. I cant say that I am totally sad to be leaving Antartica because whilst I did like the base under siege vibe that was going on, it does mean that the story can open up and more characters can become involved. There is a scene that occurs where the Doctor and Sarah are talking to Dunbar and Thackeray and its clear that the Doctor and Sarah are facing an uphill battle to persuade Dunbar and Thackeray of whats going on. There was a moment where Sarah seemed to be going back to the early days of her character by being a bit feisty.

After being sidelined in the previous episode, Chase becomes more involved in the story. He’s wonderfully bad in and doesn’t seem like he would be out of place at a pantomime playing some over the top character. That’s not to say that this gets in the way from being a believable villain but in this episode its clear that he is the main villain which is an improvement on the previous episode. Chase’s disregard for humanity is made evident when he reacts to the loss of a pod more than of human life.

Miss Ducat does seem like more padding but it was at least less noticeable and it was worth it just because of Sylvia Coleridge who played Ducat. Sadly her part in the story is all too brief but at least it does serve a purpose and that is to get the Doctor to that long overdue scene with Chase. I think that when it does happen it’s a great moment and Tony Beckley is more than capable of holding his own against Tom Baker.

The grounds of his house are rather nice to look at. Thankfully we get to see a fair amount of it because there are two chases which are quite good action sequences. After the poor attempt to try and convince us that by painting a quarry white that it could pass as Antarctica, its good to enjoy some location filming and Douglas Camfield directs these scenes very well and actually directs the studio scenes rather well. It seems like he was having an off day in the previous episode.

The episode’s cliffhanger is a strong one because it involves Sarah and she is about to be infected by the pod which about to open up. The Doctor has a birds eye view of this and the question will be just how close the Doctor will leave it before getting involved. I really liked this episode and thought that it was much better than the previous one. There was some excitement going on during the course of the previous 25 minutes and whilst I am still not sold on the story I can’t deny that I have been intrigued by what’s been going on.

The Seeds of Doom - Episode 2

As I start to watch the second episode I am wondering whether my opinion of this episode would change. I think that over the course of the episode my question was answered and not in a totally positive way. When Winlett looks at the camera in the early stages of the episode he does look a bit like Tom Baker. Its something that I always think everytime I watch this story. First time I ever saw this story I thought it was him and that I missed something.

When Boycie, sorry Scorby appears on screen he becomes main villain in the episode and that’s partly down to Chase not really featuring in the episode. It’s really difficult to know who we are suppose to consider the main villain because a case could be made for Scorby, Chase and the Krynoids. Speaking of the Krynoids, sadly they are the Axos creatures that were used in ‘The Claws of Axos’ however on this occasion they have been painted green. I suppose that unless you were told you wouldn’t have noticed the difference but now I do then all I can think that that Axons change colour depending on the temperature.

Dunbar is another crony of Chase’s and is doing it more for power and the annoyance he’s felt of being overlooked. This was quite an interesting moment in an episode that was lacking interesting moments. The episode is really a lacklustre one and that because it only really gets going in the final few minutes of the episode. This isn’t the first story that Robert Banks Stewart has written for Doctor Who with his first being ‘Terror of the Zygons’ and at the moment I think that the Zygon story was the better one (so far).

The episode ends with a very big explosion and to call it a cliffhanger is probably over doing it. I wasn’t totally impressed with this episode as it did feel like an awful lot of padding was involved before we got to anything interesting. I don’t think that every episode is going to be like this this is definelty a decline in quality in terms of storytelling.

The Seeds of Doom - Episode 1

There have been so many four part stories recently that it feels weird that I am about to watch a six parter. This is the first six parter since ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ and this is the final story of Tom Baker’s second season. I haven’t been a particularly fan of this story but I am hoping that this will change over the course of the next six episodes.

The episode starts off with a photo and some fake snow, this might look impressive in 1976 but now it looks a little lacklustre. This scene set in Antarctica is a good opening scene because it introduces the setting and the supporting characters. I like the setting because it feels remote and claustrophobic. It harks back to the days of a base under siege story.

World Ecology Bereau (WEB) is the organisation that mentioned at the beginning of the episode and they have lured the Doctor into what’s been going on at the Antartic base. The villain of the episode is Harrison Chase (played by Tony Beckley) comes across as a horrible person from the moment that he appears. He walks around with gloves on and on baddies do that don’t they? He seems like he has the W.E.B in his back pocket which just confounds the idea that he’s a baddie. Although he does come across as a baddie with a soul.

John Challis appears in this episode as Scorby who is a thug of Chase’s. He would go on to play Boycie in the BBC classic ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and its spin-off ‘The Green Green Grass’. Michael Barrington plays Sir Colin Thackeray and he played the Governor in the BBC sitcom ‘Porridge’.  Two very recognisable (to me) comedy actors in one Doctor Who story isn’t something that happens very often and in the case of Challis, its hard to see him as a baddie but I just wonder where Marlene is.

Winlett becomes the first person to be infected by the pod and it doesn’t take long for him to be completely covered by the green stuff. He has quite the tough time in this episode and I think that he drew the short straw when it came to casting.

It’s eleven minutes before Elisabeth Sladen appears on screen after the Doctor appeared briefly at the beginning of the episode. Sladen doesn’t really do very much as the story doesn’t really allow her to get too involved. Tom Baker’s Doctor is very grumpy in this episode. There isn’t much in the way of humour for him which isn’t normal for his character.

The episode ends on rather a violent note and it doesn’t even feature the Doctor or Sarah. It’s an odd opening episode but still a good episode and I think that this six episode run might be a good one.

The Brain of Morbius - Episode 4

Let’s discuss the costume of Morbius now that its complete. It might look a bit silly with the head ware on but the rest of it looks quite good. I suppose on a BBC budget they couldn’t do the costume that they wanted but I still thought that the human hand was a nice touch.  The Doctor tries to get Solon to disconnect Morbius’ brain from the rest of its new body and tis clear that this isn’t going to happen. It’s another example of how slow the Doctor has become in his new incarnation to figure things out. He slightly gets the chance to redeem himself when he comes up with a plan to try and flush Morbius out with a special gas and that only kills Solon.

The ending of certain characters was a slight problem for me Kondo’s death is quite sad and happens early on. It would have been nice if he had survived until the end and would have had his hand reattached. Solon’s death was a bit of a cop out really because I think that considering he had been so involved in the story up until this point that he deserved a better ending. This wasn’t the way that Philip Madoc should have ended his time on the show but it seemed that he suffered from a lack of time because he was basically reduced to a supporting role which isn’t what he was really.

There is a rather fun mind battle between the Doctor and Morbius. We see faces in the mind screen which seem to suggest that William Hartnell wasn’t the first incarnation. This is of course nonsense as it could be argued that they were incarnations of Morbius but it’s something that gets bought up whenever this story and in particular this scene is discussed or watched. It’s the final encounter between the Doctor and Morbius and its not the sort of final battle that most people would have expected. It wasn’t a war of words or a fight with swords or anything like that but just a battle of who was the most powerful mentally.

Morbius’ death comes at the hand of the sisterhood who effectively push off a cliff. The last shot of him is spinning to the ground in the sort of way that Wile E Coyote use to fall to the ground. It’s quite a good if slightly odd effect though I don’t know if he should have been spinning around. That said it would normally be an issue if the Doctor weren’t the one that stopped/destroyed the villain but in this case, it worked that it was the Sisterhood that ended Morbius’ life. The sisterhood use the elixir on the Doctor which shows that they have pretty much got over their dislike of the Doctor.

I thought that it was a solid four part adventure. I don’t think that its as good as ‘Pyramids of Mars’ but it’s certainly one of the best Doctor Who stories in the classic era. The thing about this episode is that its one of those final episodes that doesn’t feel like it’s a final episode. That’s not to say that it was boring but it didn’t really feel like it was ending until the bit where the sisterhood are cornering Morbius. The story as it is continues the good trend that the show was heading on and this second season of Tom Baker’s is shaping up to be just as good as his first.

The Brain of Morbius - Episode 3

After two episodes, Morbius finally becomes involved in the story. The whole episode is building up to the when Morbius becomes more than a head in a jar. Sadly Sarah is still blind and that’s rather annoying, true it had a purpose in the previous episode but now they could have got round it somehow. Also if the Doctor said in the previous episode to Sarah that her vision should return in a couple of hours, why then did he then go to the Sisterhood for some of the elixir?

The Sisterhood are starting to lose their appeal as far as I am concerned. This is largely down to their first scene when the Sisterhood talk to the Doctor and they are still going on about his death. The issue of the elixir is solved by the Doctor and it’s a bit of a relief because it’s not the most important thing in the plot and yet it was the only thing that they would go on about so know they can get past this particular stumbling block.

Solon The shot of the green liquid pouring out of Morbius jar allowing the brain to just flop to one side is quite a grim image. Another grim image was when Solon shot Kondo and you actually see blood fly from his chest area. It’s perhaps another opportunity for Mary Whitehouse’s killjoy brigade to attack the show. Despite the potential hysterics that this woman would bring down on the show, I am happy that for once that production values aren’t at the centre of any problems with the show but instead the level of gore/violence is. Personally I think that there is just the right amount.

Doctor Who during this time was the era of borrowing from different movies and genres. Sort of the pre-Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz type thing. There is a Jekyll and Hyde theme before this episode and there is definelty a Frankenstein moment in this episode when Solon is working on the new body for Morbius. I was half expecting for Solon to shout “It’s alive!” at the top of his voice but sadly this didn’t happen.

On a totally random and weird topic. I quite like the day scenes set on Kahn. I think that its nice there are some light scenes in what is effectively a very dark episode. They only appear for a few moments and don’t actually contribute anything to the story but they I still like them.

The cliffhanger seems to be a nice mix of the previous two. That’s because it involves the new body for Morbius, Sarah and her being blind and unable to see anything. Whilst it looked nice I don’t think that it had the ending it should have done. It doesn’t weaken the episode because the whole episode kept me entertained from start to finish (despite the few moments that didn’t quite work) and the final episode should complement this story really well.