(618) Planet of Fire - Part 4

It’s clear that Peter Grimwade has saved the best until last because this is where so much is crammed into 25 minutes that I wonder why he waited until now to show it to us. Considering that this is Turloughs final episode it should come as now surprise that he features quite a lot in this episode. I cant remember the last time that a companion’s departure was so much a part of the story. There is a nice reference to Turlough’s first story when its revealed that people from Trion were on all worlds and the solicitor mentioned in Mawdryn Undead was from Trion. Sarn is a prison planet and Turlough’s father was being sent there which was a nice bit of back story and it gives a good feasible reason why Turlough had been put in exile.

The business with the mini-Master inside the TARDIS is quite good and some good effects used. In fact there were a few good special effects moments and Fiona Cumming did well in making these work. The effects of the great fire is something that looks slightly dated by 2015 standards but it still look rather good. The final scene with the Master is quite good because it seems to suggest that the Master is the Doctor’s brother. It also seems to suggest that this might be the last time we see the Master.

The Master is going to use the regenerative powers of the fire to help him get back to normal size. I have to give Grimwade credit for this because it was a problem that the Master needed to sort out and it wasn’t convoluted like most plans involving the Master are. Anthony Ainley has really done it all in this serial and I was impressed with the several scenes involving him in. Kamelion’s ‘death’ was a little bit sad but he has still been a useless companion. I am reluctant to use the word companion because Adrienne Hill appeared in more episodes and had a better impact that Kamelion. Grimwade also deserves some credit for using Kamelion in a way that was practical.

Turlough’s final scene is very sad and it does seem like Mark Strickson is sad to be leaving. Whether this was the case is up for debate but is obvious is that Mark Strickson did well with a character that was pretty empty and it wasn’t until this story that something was added to it. This has been a story that got better as it went along and I think that Peter Grimwade managed to make it work in the end but I maintain that he was a better director than writer. Fiona Cumming’s last story was one that was directed well.

It’s weird to think that there is just one story left in the Peter Davison era. It does seem to have gone fast and I think that the best of the Davison has been saved until last. The transition period is almost over but I think that it’s going a lot better than the Tom Baker transition.

(617) Planet of Fire - Part 3

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

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

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

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

(616) Planet of Fire - Part 2

The business with the Kamelion Master and Peri is quite interesting. There is another fun scene where Peri says that she can shout just as loudly as anyone else. With the amount that Peri has to endure just in the first few minutes of this episode would send most people mad. She also has a rather torrid time when she slips down a steep bank. As far as debuts go, Peri has had the toughest one. She must have run around most of Lanzarote during the course of this episode.

One of the few things that this story has going for it is the small matter of what is happening to Turlough and Kamelion. I have been more interested with Kamelion in these two episodes than the first time Kamelion appeared. There is a mystery because we see Kamelion Master and yet we see the Master in another room.  The mystery of Turlough’s past continues with Turlough revealing that he is a chosen one. Turlough is taken to a ship that he believes belonged to his father. Why couldn’t more effort have been put into his backstory before this story. It’s one of the many frustrating things about this period of the show.

I still cant be bothered with the inhabitants of Sarn. They don’t seem have bothered to come up with any mode of transport to get around. They are all quite suspicious of the fire which is fine but its not enough to carry a story. Peter Wyngarde seems to be playing Timanov like he’s a character from a Shakespeare play. Sadly this story isn’t as interesting as any of the Bard’s plays.

The Master acts like some sort of American Preacher and its fun to see Ainley do this. The fact that we have waited until the latter stages of this episode is somewhat annoying bearing in mind how little the story has grabbed me so far. Again, this episode works because of the location filming. At the half way stage I find myself being somewhat disengaged with what I am seeing in this story. I think that despite the best efforts of Fiona Cumming and her excellent location footage this story seems to be continue the trend that this season which is rather inconsistent.

 

(615) Planet of Fire Part 1

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

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

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

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

(599) Enlightenment - Part 4

So this the final episode of the Guardian Trilogy and it does have to do a lot because it has to finish the story but also finish off the trilogy in a way that is satisfactory and that is a lot of pressure for Barbara Clegg and I think that she manages to do it rather well. The episode starts off with the great reprise where Lynda Baron is talking to screen and its still impressive. I like how Wrack seems to hate the Doctor after just a short time and it’s the same level of hatred that the Master has for him and that one has been going on for a lifetime.

The relationship between Tegan and Marriner seems to take an odd twist which shouldn’t be a surprise considering how much this has been used in the story. Tegan thinks that Marriner is in love with her but he doesn’t know what love is. When he disappears its quite sad because I thought that the character was rather nice. Turlough goes through quite a manic period in this episode. There is one part where he talking to Wrack with his eyes wide open. It’s quite a uncomfortable moment.

Wrack’s plan of blowing up Striker’s ship with the gem is worked out in that way of being very close to the nick of time type thing. The Doctor smashes it thinking that it breaking it up would stop it but it just increased the power, now they just pick up the stuff but I wondered why they didn’t just pick the carpet up and take that outside. There is a bit where they are running around the same set trying to get up onto the deck but its clear that they are just going around the same set but I suppose it’s the restraints of the studio that means it is perhaps a bit silly.

The big scene between the Black and White Guardian is very good although the early stages of it are ruined by the sight of the stupid birds on the guardians heads. The surprise twists start with the Doctor being awarded Enlightenment but turns it down. Turlough is then offered part of it by the White Guardian. Turlough has to make the decision of which to give the Black Guardian, it’s either enlightenment or the Doctor and he chooses enlightenment which causes the Black Guardian to go up in a ball of flames. There is a hint that there would be a third outing but sadly that never happened on TV.

I like how the Doctor believes Turlough when he says he didn’t want the agreement in the first place. The Doctor has had to avoid being killed for twelve episodes and I think that it shows great character that he is willing to even go travelling with him. Now that Turlough is a proper companion that doesn’t have any secondary story and can now just be allowed to focus on the story. I think that the episode did what it needed to do and doesn’t use the entire episode to do this. The whole business with Turlough and enlightenment only goes on for about six or seven minutes and yet it doesn’t feel rushed. Barbara Clegg’s only contribution to Doctor Who is a good one and also Fiona Cumming has done a good job and the whole four episodes have been probably the best  of the season so far and watching the feature length version of this story is even better. Sadly I know that ‘The King’s Demons’ is coming up next. So at least this story will end up as story of the season.

 

(598) Enlightenment - Part 3

The penultimate episode of this story manages to make up for the lack of development that there was. At the end of the previous episode, Turlough decided to go overboard and what I was surprised with how much better it seemed. There seemed to be a bit more drama in it this time. The few moments when he is overboard is quite good but sadly the effects of Turlough being rescued don’t work entirely well. In fact it’s fair to say that Turlough doesn’t have the best of times in this episode. You could say that his chickens had come home to roost and so the predicament he finds himself in is of his own doing.

Lynda Baron finally makes an appearance as Wrack. She is the captain of the Buccaneer and her ship is the most interesting because Baron makes it seem the more fun. I like how Baron plays Wrack totally straight. Wrack is easily the best thing in the episode and I wish she had been in the story from the beginning. Wrack has been pulling the strings in the story without even being on screen. She is the one that has been handing out red gems like they are smarties and she does the same when she puts a gemstone in Tegan’s tiara.

Marriner has gone from being a bit creepy to being someone quite useful. He is helping the Doctor to locate Turlough and what he’s feeling and I thought that Christopher Brown’s performance has been somewhat underrated over the past three episodes. Even in his brief appearance Valentine Dyall’s performance is great. I haven’t spoken too much about Peter Davison and that is simply because it doesn’t really stand out that much. It’s not terrible but with everything else going on he does tend to blend into the background. Janet Fielding is slightly better but when she gets hypnotised by Wrack then it does feel like the character is back to the norm for a classic companions.

The cliffhanger is great but not because its dramatic or anything like that but simply because I adore Lynda Baron and she makes the ending of the episode work. I love how she is looking at the screen by Baron which ends with her cackling at the screen as the camera focuses on the jewel that is in Tegan’s tiara. So its fair to say that I have enjoyed this episode but not necessarily because of the narrative but because of the performances. The next episode has an awful lot to live up to and ties up a lot of loose ends. Only time will tell if this is done but this story is doing a good job of telling a story.

(597) Enlightenment - Part 2

Well Christmas is over for another year and the celebrations are a distant memory so now its time to not look at these episodes with a festive cheer. Ok that might sound like I am about to rip this episode to shreds but that’s not true. I’m just stating for the record (if such a thing exists) that that I’m back to reviewing these stories as I see them. After the rather mysterious and interesting opening episode, things seem to be moving at a slower pace in today’s episode. Something that starts the episode after the reprise is that Tegan becomes seasick.

Tegan’s seasickness is somewhat odd because I just think that someone who wanted to be an air stewardess would be affected. It’s also something that is sorted out quite quickly and seems to be a plot point just to get her into her room. Tegan wakes up in the room with a picture of Aunt Vanessa and there is a sense that Marriner has been going through her mind. This is where we learn a lot more about the Eternals who are involved in this race.

The Captain (Barron) is strange but he explains what the purpose of the story is. The information text reels off a list of people who were considered for the role of Striker including Peter Sallis who had appeared in ‘The Ice Warriors’ and was starring in Last of the Summer Wine and as much as I think that Sallis and the names given would have been good additions I don’t think that they would have done better than Barron. There is a good attempt to dislike the Captain and his crew but I personally cant find it in me to dislike him. Yes what they are doing is horrible and the lack of conscience is also horrible but Barron’s performance is so good that I am almost willing to look past it.

The spacesuits that are worn in this story are quite impressive and wouldn’t look out of place in todays Doctor Who. It’s very rare for costumes from the 1980’s to not look rubbish or cheesy by todays standards but here the costumes work really well and I like the colour scheme which is probably the reason why I think that way I do. I like the filming that takes place on the deck of the ship. The whole visual that is created with this is rather impressive and its credit that Fiona Cumming deserves. I made a note of highlighting the fact that this story was the first story to be written and directed by women which shouldn’t really be highlighted but is. Cumming is one of the best directors in Doctor Who because she knows what she is doing and directs her stories well. Even when things are moving slowly she still manages to make what you see on screen work.

One thing that does stand out in this episode is the small matter of Turlough trying to kill the Doctor. This is now officially the dumbest plot idea in Doctor Who. They got away with it in the first story but now it just seems like they have given up on it and that is why it doesn’t seem to be getting as much screen time as it perhaps should considering it’s the last story in the trilogy. Turlough is starting to crack under the pressure now that the Black Guardian has decided he isn’t the best man to kill the Doctor. Turlough ends the episode by jumping overboard. This is quite an effective cliffhanger but I think that the episode as a whole has been a little bit disappointing. It didn’t feel like it was actually doing anything and hadn’t progressed enough in my opinion. Also there isn’t any of Gladys Emmanuel yet.

(596) Enlightenment - Part 1

So today is the first episode of 2015. I have about eight months left which doesn’t really sound like that long considering I have been doing this for nearly 20 months. Yet there are still seven more Doctors left to watch (admittedly two of those will only take two days to watch). Today starts with the first story without Sarah Sutton in as Nyssa and I didn’t think that I would say this but I didn’t really miss her. I think that the fact there are just three people in the TARDIS is a good move and it means that there is an equal share of screen time and action for the regulars. The DVD for this story features the usual four episode version and a special version which has new CGI effects and is edited to be one feature length story. Sadly I will be watching the four part version but I may watch the movie length one at the end. This is most importantly the first Doctor Who story to be written by a woman. Barbara Clegg gets this particular honour in the 127^th Doctor Who story. It is also directed by Fiona Cumming so its an all female show.

The episode starts off in quite a low beat way with a nice TARDIS scene with the Doctor trying to fix the console with Tegan and Turlough playing chess. I like the low lighting that is used, its one of the few instances where it isn’t brightly lit.

The White Guardian makes his first appearance in this trilogy and it’s a great scene because it creates some mystery and it’s made even better with the appearance of the Black Guardian. The White Guardian’s performance isn’t as good as the Blacks because the White Guardian just spends his time spluttering out the odd word which doesn’t make any sense. This works in the context in the story but he does come off second best.

The place that the TARDIS has landed on is a very strange place because everyone seems to be acting very strange. Especially Marriner who seems to have a fixation on Tegan. It’s a nice performance from Christopher Brown because there is something mesmerising about the way that he appears on screen and Janet Fielding’s reaction as Tegan helps make it seem even more bizarre.

There are two famous faces that pop up in this story. The first being Tony Caunter who returns to Doctor Who as Jackson and would go on to play Roy Evans in Eastenders from 1994 to 2003. He previously appeared in ‘Colony in Space’ and plays quite a fun character that seems to be a sort of jack the lad kind of guy. The second is Keith Baron who plays Striker, Striker is the captain and comes across as such. It’s important when you get someone like Baron that they need to be able to pull off the part and thankfully that is the case. There is a third famous face that appears but that will have to wait.

The revelation that they are on a sailing ship in space isn’t revealed until the cliffhanger which must be quite an impressive ending if your watching it for the first time but after countless views its hard to really see it for the ending that it is. I think that Clegg has done a good job in creating a nice mixture of mystery and claustrophobia because there aren’t that many sets where there is a lot of open space. There is plenty to like going forward in this story and I do hope that this story will do a good job of completing this trilogy of stories up. So far the signs are looking good.

(587) Snakedance - Part 4

I went into watching this episode quite upbeat thinking that after the improvement in the previous episode that this episode would be a fine end to an ultimately underwhelming adventure. Sadly this isn’t the case because the episode starts off in quite a slow fashion and its takes about ten minutes before the episode started to get going and lead up to the crowning of Lon and ultimately the Mara completing its plan.

There are some good moments which worked quite well and these included the whole ‘coronation’ scene where Lon is about to put the crystal in the gap and I thought this is where the madness really shows and its actually quite a good end to the story. The thing is that Tegan again doesn’t appear for quite a long time and when she does she instantly makes the whole thing come alive. Some credit for this does have to go to Martin Clunes who plays it perfectly. This is despite the fact that he has to change in one of the most ridiculous costumes that I have ever seen and its used on TV whenever people want to do one of those ‘Before They Were Famous’ type programmes. How Clunes managed to deliver his lines with that on is a mystery. Back to Janet Fielding and her best moment comes when her head is positioned in the Mara and its one final reminder of how good she has been in this story and how good she was in ‘Kinda’.

Ok so I haven’t been a big fan of this story but the second half was definelty the stronger with the better writing and the better directing and acting that came from this. I have perhaps been too harsh on this story because whilst it might not have worked it was the sort of story that Doctor Who should be a least trying. The effects worked really well and showed how far they had come in twelve months because the big snake effect in Kinda was only made better with the addition of CGI, no new CGI was needed for this adventure as they effects stand up and even the ones that don’t work quite as well are still watchable.

The ratings for this story averaged at 7.28 which is down from the 7.44 which is Arc of Infinity got. At the moment this is the second weakest story ahead of Four to Doomsday. I think that is perhaps the right position for it because at the end of the day this is a story that is far weaker than the first Mara story and I think that as we know what was going to happen it kind of too some of the magic off what Christopher Bailey came up with. Due to the second half of the story Christopher Bailey and Fiona Cumming managed to snatch victory (or at least a draw!) from the jaws of defeat.

(586) Snakedance - Part 3

I know that I haven’t been too keen on this story but there is a small part of me that hopes this will change. Before I started to watch todays episode I watched two episode of Doctor Who and the Silurians on the Horror Channel and I was reminded just how close to perfect the show was and I remember how I loved this debut season of Jon Pertwee and then though of just how much I have disliked Snakedance. I had completely forgotten about the previous episode’s cliffhanger (which shows how poor the episode worked for me) so I was reminded and thought that it was ok.

The episode starts off in such a way that I thought that this would be where the episode picks up a lot and to be fair this is by far the most interesting episode of the serial. It’s the one where the plot actually seems to be working towards something and certain scenes are superbly performed. Janet Fielding is again the best thing in the entire episode. She totally steals the episode despite popping up at the beginning of the episode and disappearing for a large chunk of it. When she does return then it comes with one of the best scenes in the entire story. It features Tegan, Lan and Dugdale and the drama that is created during this short few mintues is highly enjoyable. It is intercut with scenes between Nyssa and the Doctor. These two work very well together and after a short amount of time I was convinced that this story had picked up.

I had struggled to understand just what the Mara wanted in this story. It seemed that the Mara had just be bought back for the sake of it whereas in this episode its main perfectly clear that the Mara is after a crystal. Why its taken until now for me to be able to pick up on this shows the flaws with this story.

Ok so this story is starting to work on me but I still don’t think that its as good as Kinda and it’s a shame that Christopher Bailey didn’t write another story for Big Finish because I think that he would have done well with whatever he came up with. Fiona Cumming has done well with what is in effect a very pedestrian story. The cliffhanger is an issue for me because whilst it’s the best one of the serial it does feature Nyssa crying which makes two stories running and with that and the new costume means that the decontrsuction of the character is pretty much done. With just one more episode of this story remaining, I find myself not dreading the final episode as much as I did when I finished watching the previous episode.

(585) Snakedance - Part 2

Any goodwill that I may have had for this story quickly evaporated over the course of this episode. Again Janet Fielding is the best thing in it. There is a nice switch between good Tegan and bad Tegan which shows in one scene just how underused the character was over the years. This episode really is the Tegan and Lon show because despite coming across as a rather spoilt brat but then after a bizarre scene with Tegan and a group of mirrors, becomes joined with the Mara and they both form this rather odd but ultimately story saving double act. It’s clear that Janet Fielding is loving the character at the moment. The problem is that Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton are reduced to running around and not doing very much. Seriously, I struggled to actually think of anything constructive that they did which is a shame really.

Like yesterdays episode, when Tegan is on screen I am interested because she is so good but when she isn’t on screen then I find myself losing interest. The only saviour is John Carson who treats the role of Ambrill with the level of absurdity that it deserves. What happens in this episode is the introduction of a headpiece which is suppose to have six faces on and five are on the headpiece with the wearer’s head being the sixth and the shot of Ambrill wearing it is the one that is used regularly on the back page of Doctor Who Magazine.

I really have struggled to find something to write about in the previous two episodes so I am going to fill my 500 word count limit with some stats. This is Peter Davison’s 32^nd episode as the Doctor. It’s crazy to think that he’s already done that many. Janet Fielding has now clocked up 35 episodes and Sarah Sutton is on 37, she is just 3 behind Louise Jameson and Deborah Watling.  Eric Saward will be tied with Derrick Sherwin by the end of this story and John Nathan Turner will be just four episodes behind Philip Hinchcliffe in the producer ranks.

I cant believe that I still have two more episodes left to watch. I know that the idea was to bring back a familiar monster/villain during the 20^th anniversary but I think that more time was needed for this story to try and make something else. The only thing I have to decide between now and the final episode is whether this is as bad as Four to Doomsday or not.

(584) Snakedance - Part 1

After Kinda was a success it was inevitable that a sequel would happen but its surprising that it happened so quickly. I have never rated this story very highly but after having my opinion changed on Kinda, it might be possible for the same to happen here. This story features the first (and only) appearance of Nyssa’s new dress. I don’t quite know what they were thinking. Even by 1980’s standards this costume is terrible but the one thing that I remember after watching this episode is the performance of Janet Fielding. The one thing that was so good about Kinda was that Janet Fielding was so good when she was possessed by the Mara. This time the same thing happens because it allows Janet Fielding to do something different with the character. The best scene comes when she is under hypnosis and she shines during this moment.

Apart from Nyssa’s dress, there are some interesting things about this serial. The first is that it features a very young Martin Clunes. Before he would appear in the BBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly and more recently in the ITV show Doc Martin, he plays Lon who seems like a bratty figure. During this course of this serial he wears some truly bizarre costumes and its fair to say that Clunes doesn’t look at his time on the show very positively. Another thing is the build up to the cliffhanger. Some woman decides to take off Tegan’s hearing aid which is keeping the Mara at bay. This seems like a bit of a groan inducing moment.

The problem with this episode is that it just doesn’t seem to have anything new about it. It does have any of the freshness and energy about it that Kinda did. I wasn’t totally bored with the episode but I think that when Tegan wasn’t on screen then the episode was a bit weak and when she’s on then there is something interesting going on. After being trigger happy in the previous story, it seems that Nyssa has resorted back to normality because she seems to trying to be Tegan’s friend and shoots some stern looks at the Doctor.

I think that this story isn’t going to change in my opinion. It doesn’t seem like Christopher Bailey’s heart is really in the story and despite some good things that are going to appear over the course of the next four days, its not going to be two solid stories in a row. It’s a shame really but there is still a good chance that things might change.

(557) Castrovalva - Part 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

(556) Castrovalva - Part 3

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

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

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

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

(555) Castrovalva - Part 2

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

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

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

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

(554) Castrovalva - Part 1

This is quite an important episode of Doctor Who which might sound like a stupid statement but bare with me on this because there are multiple reasons for this. Firstly there is the matter of a new Doctor in the form of Peter Davison. Another is that it’s the first time in the shows history that its not airing on a Saturday. Instead Doctor Who is airing on a Monday and Wednesday. This might seem like a sign that the BBC were showing a lack of faith in the show and that might be true but the most alarming fact is that whereas Season 18 would take about seven months to run through, Season 19 would be on screen for just three months. The gap between the final part of ‘Logopolis’ and the first episode of this was 289 days which is a record and beat the previous season’s record of 231 Days.

The episode starts with a pre-title scene which is basically the reprise from the previous and the thing that is different is that the music is more upbeat which I like cause its basically saying that there is a no sheriff in town. The episode was never going to have Davison’s Doctor running around as he would normally do but instead he’s a bit all over place and doing a bit of running. I think that Davison’s Doctor is underrated and this episode shows this because he does a great deal whilst appearing to not be his self. There are little nods to previous Doctors and I like the impressions but I don’t know what to make about his untangling the Doctor’s scarf. I don’t think they should have done that.

With this being the final story in the Master trilogy this means that it will involve a rather convoluted plan. At the moment it doesn’t look like this is going to be the case. The Master is using Adric to plunge the TARDIS into ‘Event One’ also known as the Big Bang. I like how Adric is being used because its an interesting way of using a character. The Adric that’s on board the TARDIS isn’t the real Adric and it gives Matthew Waterhouse the opportunity of playing two different aspects of the same character.

Apart from a few minutes at the beginning set on Earth, the vast majority of the episode takes place inside the TARDIS and I love the idea that this happens. With a lot of things up in the air there is a sense of not being as they were and after seven years worth of episodes with the same Doctor it’s a weird feeling with the scenes in the TARDIS of a familiar setting but with unfamiliar people. The Zero Room only appears in this story but its such a good idea I wish they had kept it and used it in future stories.

The cliffhanger is a good one and it’s the ending that the episode should be. As an episode I thought that it was a good if slight understated episode. It’s hard to judge how Peter Davison’s era is going to be after one episode but I think the signs are promising. It’s not going to be as good as the Tom Baker era or even Jon Pertwee’s but I think that there will be things in future stories that I will like and then there are smiling Silurians and the Murka. For now I am just enjoying this opening story of the Davison era and liking it.