The Green Death - Episode 6

I forgot to mention that episode four was the 100^th episode for Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and now joins the century club with Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell. This is the final episode for Katy Manning as Jo Grant in her 77^th episode and is tied in second place with William Russell as longest serving companions though is still 35 episodes short of Frazer Hines’ record of 112. I commented that it didn’t feel like this episode was the final one. So it has to effectively rush things into a 25 minute episode.

Jo doesn’t do much for the first 10 minutes until she reveals that she had the happy accident which the Professor was saying serendipity about. She doesn’t really have much to contribute until the final half of the episode but when she’s involved she’s really good and gives the sort of performance that we come to expect from Katy Manning. Jon Pertwee is on fine form as usual and actually doesn’t deliver the fatal blow but almost inspires Stevens to do the job for him.

If I were the Professor I would be slightly miffed that I had been bumped down the list of priorities when they decide that killing the maggots was a greater priority once they knew that Nancy’s food had an effect on the maggots. The scene where Benton is treating the maggots like cats and this annoys the Doctor was a funny moment.

This episode does feature the unfortunate flying insect which does undermine all the good work of the maggots and I had always thought that this featured earlier in the story not in the final episode. I suppose one of the benefits of watching an episode a day is that it breaks up the monotony that a six part story can have if watched in one sitting. The flying insect was a brief part of this story and I liked that the Doctor just did a simple thing of flinging his coat over it to kill it.

The relationship (if you can call it that) between Stevens and BOSS is a curious one because by this episode, BOSS seems overly confident his plan will work and Stevens is panicking that things wont work out. The build up to this episode comes when the Doctor is trying to convince Stevens about trying to put an end to BOSS. The end is the best pay-off that we could have had because it’s the pupil that puts and end to the teachers plan and the last shot of Stevens with a tear running down his face is the icing on the cake.

The moment when the Professor seems to be out of the woods is when it seems like Jo has left Team Doctor and gone over to Team Professor. The build up to Jo Grant’s departure has been well handled over the six episodes and she gets the exit that she deserves. Unlike Caroline John’s exit (which wasn’t really an exit), Katy Manning’s final scene is as emotional as when Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury left in ‘The War Games’. What makes the departure even more emotional is the reaction of the Doctor who leaves quietly without saying goodbye to Jo. Even I found myself getting a bit emotional which isn’t something that I normally do. It’s a very downbeat ending which isn’t something that classic Who tended to do. Even when a companion left it always had a more upbeat ending but I suppose that considering Katy Manning was such a good companion that there was no way to put a positive spin on it.

Despite being concerned that this episode wasn’t going to end the story in a good way, I thought that it was a very solid episode which was a episode of two halves with the Global Chemicals/BOSS stuff dealt with at just the right time and there was just the right amount of time to write Jo out of the show. This was a great way to end the anniversary year and I think that on the whole, this season has been the strongest since Pertwee’s first season. Only ‘Carnival of Monsters’ let the side down and even that wasn’t the worst story ever.

The Green Death - Episode 5

As we approach the final stages of this story, it’s important really that it feels like its building to something.

The Doctor starts the episode talking to the BOSS. The first big scene is of these two have a debate about the human mind. Considering that Jon Pertwee is acting on his own, he manages to give a great performance during this scene. Pertwee has a good episode because after the stuff with the BOSS and Stevens, he has a good attempt at escaping from Global Chemicals. Mike Yates pops up every so often to remind us he’s still around and starts by helping the Doctor escape and then gets hypnotised into trying to kill the Doctor and then is ‘treated’ and goes back to Global Chemicals to pretend that he’s killed the Doctor however as is always the case with someone who works for UNIT, he over does it and raises suspicion with Stevens when he reckons that Jo’s death wasn’t important.

Jo and the Professor are in a spot of trouble at the beginning of the episode after Jo went off to find a maggot. Now they are both trapped in a cave with a few maggots as friends. There is another bit where Jo’s changing feelings after Cliff gets hurt during the explosions. Even though it’s her own fault for being in this situation, Katy Manning is very good in this episode. As this is her penultimate episode its perhaps the best time to just think about how far the character has come since that first episode of ‘Terror of the Autons’ and how far the show has progressed during this period.

This might sound weird but this is where I learnt the word serendipity and its meaning. The word is used after the Professor becomes infected by the green stuff and this means that its game set and match as far as the tennis match for Jo’s feelings go. There is nothing the Doctor can do to turn this around.

The CSO used in this episode is curious. Not because it doesn’t work but because it’s used in a scene which could have been done on location. Especially when in the same scene they go from studio to location filming, it then goes back to the studio before ending with location filming. It ruins the illusion of this being filmed outside. It’s one thing when it’s all filmed one way or another but it doesn’t make sense to do it both ways. The production values in this episode weren’t quite as good as they usually are and that’s a shame considering how good the story is.

Tony Adams was forced to leave the show due to illness and so had to be replaced by Mr James played by Roy Skelton. The voice of the Daleks, Cybermen and of course Zippy from Rainbow, it’s good that he finally gets to appear on screen. He is involved in the cliffhanger which unusually doesn’t involve the Doctor or Jo but it’s still a good cliffhanger, largely due to Jerome Willis’ performance and the stare he gives which the camera zooms into as the theme tune plays. The main issue that I have with the story at this stage is that it doesn’t feel like it’s building up to anything and if I didn’t know beforehand that the next episode would be the last then I would be expecting a few more episodes before the end so it would have been a surprise in 1973 to know the truth. Still a great story with great characters and maggots that don’t undermine the moral that this story has subtly put in front of us.

The Green Death - Episode 4

The maggot crawling over the floor via CSO is still quite effective as is it leaping up. Normally this is where the story would fall apart but its clear that the money has been spent to try and make them look good which is perhaps the most important thing when they are the main selling point of the story. A bit like the dinosaurs in ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ but the maggots work a lot better.There is a nice build-up of tension when the Doctor has 32 and a half minutes to talk to Stevens to try and stop the exploding. There is a surprise during this scene when we see the return of Mike Yates. Yates is pretending to be helpful to Stevens but goes so far as to go against the Doctor and seem like he’s siding with Stevens. Benton has a light presence in this episode which is a shame because he always provides some light comedy relief and this is what this story needs a bit of.

The cleaner that appears at the ten minute mark does feel like she stereotypically welsh but that’s the only real problem with this episode. The relationship between Jo and the Professor seems to have developed even more in this episode. Even to the stage where Jo does something insanely stupid as to try and get him a maggot. This is the sort of thing that she would have done for the Doctor before this story so it’s another sign that she’s moving away from the Doctor.

We get another great quote from the Brigadier which is similar to what he said in ‘The Daemons’.

“Never thought id fire in anger at a dratted caterpillar”

The Brigadier is on fine form in this episode and Nicholas Courtney is enjoying himself which is always a good thing. Jon Pertwee is also someone who is having fun as he has not one but two disguises that he uses as he dresses up as a old milkman and also as a cleaner. The Doctor doesn’t really get to be his usual self until the very end of the episode where we get to find out who is in charge of Stevens and it’s an even bigger screen with the squiggly line on. It perhaps has a lot more of an impact on first viewing but after several viewings, it doesn’t quite have the same effect. That said I still think that this story is very good and this episode continues to entertain me. The performances are very good and the maggots are quite impressive and the CSO has been a positive influence. It does feel like after four episodes, the story is changing direction and these final two episodes will be something different.

The Green Death - Episode 3

Here come the maggots is what I was thinking when I started episode three. I am still looking forward this story and think that I am going through a new enthusiasm with these stories. It’s hard for me to believe that since mid-January I have been enjoying (mainly) the Pertwee stories and since February I have been enjoying Jo Grant and so I realise that with every episode I am enjoying the story more but realising that the number of Jo episodes is reducing.

I am getting frustrated with the rather inconsistent CSO that has been used in this serial. The shot of the Doctor and Jo going back the maggots is rather dodgy. The Doctor and Jo make their way to Elgin and during this period is one of the best moments in the episode where there is tremendous tension in whether the Doctor and Jo would make it out before the pipes are filled with the horrible sludge. The CSO used to make the maggot moved at the end was the only bit of saving grace for the technology but its still frustrating that it is used in the way that it is.

I quite like the Brigadier out of his army uniform and into civvies. He looks like he should be shooting pheasant on some country estate. His involvement in the episode begins with Stevens and having a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister who is called Jeremy however the PM in 1973 was Edward Heath.

I like how Stevens shows a more human side than we have seen before and its good because it will make his demise all the more striking. The way that he reacts to Fell’s death is what makes the character more interesting and not just a rather two dimensional villain.

The story stops for a moment where we learn a bit more about the wholemeal community and the different people there who started off in the city but have become different people. It’s almost as if Robert Sloman (and Barry Letts) are trying to say to the viewers that there is a better way of life from what is currently been experienced.

I like the line that the professor gives about there never having been a person like Bert, not will there ever be. It comes in the final stages of the episode which shows just how far Jo has drifted towards the Professor and away from the Doctor after Jo’s rather poor attempt at a positive response to the Doctors revelation to getting to Metebelis Three.

This is another great episode and it continues to move along at a good pace and I never found myself bored or my attention wandering. Apart from the occasional iffy CSO, the quality of the story holds up rather well over 40 years after it transmitted. Second half should be just as good as the first.

The Green Death - Episode 2

This episode starts with the intriguing way of how Jo and Bert are going to survive plummeting to the ground. The fact that the Doctor just managed to stop it. The CSO used in the early moments of this episode were not great. The bit used in the previous episode wasn’t great but it was better than this instance. When the Doctor goes down then it’s slightly better but the thing that undermines it is the slightly dodgy movements that they do which is designed to give us the impression that they are in a lift but it all highlights that it’s a dodgy set/sequence.

Global Chemicals comes across as a thoroughly nasty place when the Doctor is after the cutting equipment to help Jo. Stevens seemed like the one running the place in the previous episode but it’s not quite so simple and I like that things are developing in this aspect of the story. We are introduced to the person that appears to be controlling Stevens. I say persons but that’s not true really at the moment it’s just a voice. I like the simplicity of how he’s realised with just a squiggly line (technical term). Elgin is the only one in the entire company that seems nice and Tony Adams gives what I perceive as a genuine performance that is a bit more than acting.

Bert is trapped with Jo and I like him because he seems nice and jolly but he doesn’t last long but really it’s his own stupid fault really because he touches something he clearly shouldn’t and any right minded person would have avoided it. That might sound a bit cold but it’s hard to try and defend something when it’s undefendable.

I like the part of the episode where Professor and his group are creating a diversion so that the Doctor can gain access to Global Chemicals is entertaining and it leads to the first encounter between Stevens and the Doctor. There are better ones to come but it’s good that the Doctor is really getting involved in the story. The initial scene between the Doctor and the Professor was interesting because it was like the two people fighting for Jo’s affections and it was so understated.

The cliffhanger is much better because from out of nowhere we start to see the maggots and this is the first time that we get to see the proper threat of this story and whilst I know that the larger maggots are in fact inflated condoms, I still think that it’s a creepy ending. Two episodes in and I feel that its still maintaining my interest and things are going to get even better and Jo’s final story is going to be just as strong as her debut one.

The Green Death - Episode 1

The Green Death is quite a special story for several reasons. Firstly it’s the final story to feature Katy Manning as Jo Grant, a role that she has played since January 1971 comes to an end in a mine in south-Wales. This is the final story of the 1972/73 season and its been encouraging how this season has been so much stronger than the previous one. With the exception of ‘Carnival of Monsters’, we have been treated to so quality stories. Another reason why this story is special is more personal to me as it was the first story to be released on VHS that I purchased. I remember going to the shops and buying it, it was a double pack release with a purple sleeve and it was released a couple of months after Jon Pertwee had passed away and this is one of his best stories. Before I get started with the actual episode, I should also point out that this is the 350^th episode of Doctor Who and Jon Pertwee’s 97^th episode as the Doctor.

It should be pointed out that this is another story that has a major moral to it and this was written by Robert Sloman with uncredited help from Barry Letts. I don’t mind there being a moral message to a story as long as it doesn’t hijack the whole thing and in this case the message blends in well with the story. The story hits the ground running as we are introduced to two of the main supporting characters. Stevens is the man who runs Global Chemicals and in his first scene he gets into a ‘debate’ with Professor Jones. This scene does a pretty good job of painting Stevens as the villain and Jones as the good guy. Stevens comes across as a great villain and this is shown during the criss-cross scene between Stevens and the Brigadier and the Professor and Jo. By the end of the episode we are shown there appears to be an outside influence to Stevens’ behaviour, the mystery has begun.

The first scene with the Doctor and Jo does a good job of achieving two things, first it starts the Metebelis III part of the story and also it puts in wedge between the Doctor and Jo. Jo seems to fall in love with Jones without meeting him. The moment when Jo tells the Doctor that she’s only got 10 minutes and the Doctor responds by saying that she’s got all the time in the world is a lovely moment and it feels like the Doctor knows that he is losing Jo and he doesn’t like it. It’s good to have the Brigadier back in what is the beginning of the end for the character and for the golden era of Doctor Who.

We get to see Metebelis III for the first time and whilst it is as blue as the Doctor has said, it’s not the warmest of planets and I immediately thought that Jo had made the right decision. This is confirmed when the next scene is of Jo and the Professor have their first scene where they do this clumsy and almost flirty scene. The Doctor spends half the episode on the blue planet and it isn’t until the 20 minute mark that he’s back and speeding towards Llanfairfach in Bessie going at least twice the speed limit.

The cliffhanger is rather good because we know Jo’s in peril and the lift wont stop so in the real world this would be a major problem so the threat is real and the close up of Jon Pertwee’s face helps make the tension work. It’s a great opening episode and I am really looking forward to the next five episodes and think that this is going to be a great way of writing Katy Manning out of the show and ending the Anniversary season.

Planet of the Daleks - Episode 6 (Victory)

The final episode of this six/twelve part story seems to have out of nowhere which might sound like a silly thing to say but it shows how much I have been involved in the story to be surprised. I think that taking it as a twelve parter would make it even better because the episodes have been so consistently strong. It’s fair to say there is a lot riding on this episode because it needs to wrap things up in a satisfactory way. This episode would have been called ‘Victory’ by Terry Nation which I think is a great title. It just makes me want them to return to single episode names. This episode sees the appearance of the Supreme Dalek and its disappointing somewhat that they haven’t appeared until now. The disappointment continues when the ship lands and it does look like two dog bowls glued to each other. The first look of the supreme Dalek is amazing. It’s nice to see a Dalek with a bit of colour but sadly it goes wrong the moment it starts talking because the person inside the Daleks messed up the light synching and so it looked off which is a shame really.

The episode is heading towards the blowing up of the bomb to stop the 10,000 daleks from being activated. The journey is perfectly paced and there is a nice amount of delaying things until the right possible moment. Of course it was never going to be that simple and it was the case here as the bomb fell in between a dozen of daleks and the timer then stops working and Codal has to work very quickly to sort it out. The shot of the bomb exploding as two Daleks walk by followed by the ice flowing is one of the highlights of this serial and looked impressive which shows how good things can be achieved on a miniscule BBC budget.

I think its good how there is a nice farewell scene involving everyone. Despite my concerns that there were too many thals in this story, I am glad that they did survive. I really love the speech the Doctor gave Taron about telling him not to glamorise war and tell people of the lives lost and the fear felt. This shows the Doctor at his most passive and it shows that despite all the blustering and humour the Doctor shows, he can be serious when he needs to be.

There is a scene at the where Latep asks Jo to go abck to Skaro and this is designed to put in the viewers mind that she would not be around for long and of course she leaves in the next serial. I often wonder what things would have been like for Jo if she had gone with him instead of the soppy welsh scientist. Over the six recent episodes, I think that both Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning have been just as strong as each other. Even the supporting cast have been on the same level at times with Prentis Hancock and Bernard Horsfall being the highlights.

I thought that the whole story has worked well and the issues that people have with this story being a rehash of Nation’s previous stories whilst valid really help to enrich the story as far as I am concerned. If you had written the quality of stories that Nation had written since the show started then you would indulge yourself. Unlike ‘Day of the Daleks’, the Daleks are used well here, the voices are a lot better and this is one of the strongest Dalek stories for many years.

Planet of the Daleks - Episode 5 (The Day Before Eternity)

The Day Before Eternity is the name that Terry Nation gave this episode. In a way I wish that they would return to giving each episode a name as opposed to just ‘episode 1’ or ‘episode 2’. As we are now in the final third of the story the think that has stood out against other six part stories is how there has been the shift in direction like there was in the previous story. This is because Terry Nation has a good track record in keeping the action going and not needing to change. The episode starts off with everyone in the stones and they are being watched.

The effects of the creatures looking through the darkness does look a bit cheap but at least its better than what it would have looked like if they had gone with some bloke in a costume. So we must be thankful for small mercies.

I was surprised that they decided to kill Vaber off at this point as it would have made a much better if he had sacrificed himself in the final episode. Another interesting character that meets their maker in this episode is Wester who has been helping since the beginning and he is killed by lifting the lid on the case with the virus in it before it was ready and the last shot of him is his face.

The way that the Daleks are protected from the virus is rather basic as its just the sort of light you would see in a hospital surgery. There’s one thing about this that doesn’t quite make sense to me and that is why do they have it so close to their made control room. Surely it would have made more sense to have it a few floors down. Something else that slightly ruins the who operation is that there are several Daleks on screen but only three moving Daleks. So every time there is a group of Daleks,  50% of the Daleks are talking and moving and the other 50% are frozen on the spot.

It’s taken until episode five but we finally get a bit of location filming and it’s a nice moment. It’s quite a dramatic moment when they try and get two Daleks into the cold which kills them. This end scene does lead to another ‘nod’ to a previous Dalek story where they scoop the Dalek out of its casing and then they get Rebec to do what Ian Chesterton did and attempt to move around. This is the only time in the last five episodes that the nods have bothered me because it seems so obvious. I don’t know if its just me picking up on them more but it didn’t seem as subtle as before.

I quite like cliffhanger because it seems to come out of nowhere. It seems like it’s the fault of the Doctor and the others because the Daleks wouldn’t have spotted them otherwise and considering it was just after Wester lifting the lid it sort of feels like this was their best opportunity to get their plan done. It’s a good penultimate episode and feels like it is building towards something and it’s still holding my attention and if the final episode goes the way that I think it will (and has in the past), then this will be the second six parter in a row that has been consistently good and not something that I have wanted to end as quickly as possible.

Planet of the Daleks: Episode 4 (Escape or Die)

Escape or Die was the original name given for this episode and you have to give Terry Nation some credit for trying to create some excitement with just a title. When the episode restarts, the Doctor, Rebec, Taron and Codal are flying up and the Daleks take an awful long time to realise that there is only one way that they could have escaped. One of the things that I like about this episode is the slowest chase in TV history with a Dalek rising up to chase the Doctor and his new friends. It’s a great shot of seeing the Dalek coming towards them as I think that it adds to the drama and tries to instil some exciting in the slowest chase on TV. The purpose of the Daleks being on Spiridon is made clear here and its creating a rather nasty virus.

Jo starts the episode trying to find the bombs but only manages to get herself knocked out. It’s the typical course of action for a companion. What’s quite interesting that given the size of the rock, it’s lucky that she survived. Not only did she survive but she woke up relatively quickly. The moment when Jo and the Doctor are reunited is a lovely moment and shows how this dynamic is perhaps as strong as the Second Doctor and Jamie’s relationship. Jo gets a romantic interest in this episode with Latep and it seems (with the benefit of hindsight) that this is the beginning of setting up Jo’s departure from the show. In the scene between the Doctor and Jo there is a minor reference to the previous story, considering that this is one (unofficial) long story, it would have been nice to have a mention of the Master as well as the Ogrons.

When the action moves to the stones that they use to try and stay save and perhaps warm is a nice moment in the story. It’s well set up and the performances and directing help make this scene atmospheric. There’s more of this in the next episode but what we got here was quite good and one of those rare moments in Doctor Who that isn’t over lit by being in a studio. The action is directed well by the legendary David Maloney who is doing his best in this story. If anyone can make action seem interesting in largely jungle sets then it would be Maloney. Terry Nation has been accused in this story of just reheating his ideas from previous stories but to be honest that dosent really bother me because if it was just a colourised version of such stories as ‘The Keys of Marinus’ and ‘The Daleks’ then that would be a problem but the fact that its mixed in with new stuff means that it can be enjoyed.

I found the cliffhanger to be a little better this time but nothing special. Unlike the previous episode I got the feeling that it was actually moving and things were happening. Despite their being more than a few comparisons to previous Terry Nation stories (a greatest hits if you like), I still like this story and think that it’s an enjoyable and interesting adventure.

Planet of the Daleks - Episode 3

The third episode of this story is one that until it was released on DVD only existed in black and white and due to technological advances, we know have this in colour and its rather well done and looks just as good as the rest of the episodes.

The Thals have a plan and at least that’s better than them aimlessly stumbling around. I am still unsure as to whether we need as many Thals as we have but thankfully that number is going to be reduced in this episode. During this episode we are told a bit about the planet and that instead of explosions of volcanic lava we get the exact opposite. I don’t know why but I like the idea of molten ice. It’s a typically Doctor Who idea that is used well in this episode and the acting helps create the impression that this isn’t the sort of thing you would want to be near. The tunnel sets were so good that even I became a little chilly watching them.

Jo is quite proactive in this episode as she sneaks her way into the Dalek’s base. Once she’s in though she doesn’t do very much and that’s a shame after the good start that she had. Out of the two female characters in this episode, she falls into second place behind Rebec who isn’t the most proactive character ever imagined but at least she’s active. The Doctor starts the episode still in the cell and is just waiting to test his new gadget on a Dalek and the scene where he does is quite dramatic though its over too quickly for my liking. Once the Doctor gets out with Codal, there is a game where they try and dodge the Daleks does seem a bit like what happened during the Daleks first adventure. This ends with the Doctor and Codal reunited with Taron just before the ice explodes into the corridor.

The Daleks don’t really seem to have a purpose in this episode, at least their voices have been sorted out and the colour scheme is a lot better. Speaking of the voices (no pun intended), they are becoming more like the ones that we would come to expect in later Dalek stories. At the end of the previous episode it was referred to that there were 10,000 daleks on the planet and we have to wait until the 21^st minute to see a blink and you’ll miss it shot of them. The cliffhanger is rather weak compared to previous ends and it pretty much sums up what I think of the episode and that it does feel a little bit like a transitional episode and those episodes are rarely interesting.

Planet of the Daleks: Episode 2 (Mission Survival)

I forgot to mention in the previous entry that Jo got some fungus on her hand which will play an important part in this episode. As well as this being the show’s 10^th anniversary, it is also the Daleks’ 10^th anniversary. Continuing the Terry Nation unnecessary episode titles sees this episode called Mission Survival. We don’t get a proper reprise but instead the Doctor finishing off his new paint job. After appearing breiefly at the end of the previous episode, we get a good scene with a couple of them and they spend the rest of the episode being their usual self which isn’t a bad thing.

Prentis Hancock is very good as Vaber because he’s not just being negative and dull but there is a good bit of charisma about him. Hancock is very much like Bernard Horsfall is someone that I could watch in anything and the pair work well together. Tim Preece is the likeable of the trio and the one that seems most human. He is the most gung-ho of the three yet seems to be more likeable because of it.

The Doctor’s reaction to the ship that he thinks has Jo in it being blown up by the Daleks is a lovely moment from Jon Pertwee and I think that the loss is quite strong. There is another nod to a previous Nation story when the Dalek shoots at the Doctor to weaken his legs just like they did to Ian Chesterton in the Daleks’ first adventure. I like the scene between the Doctor and Codal where they talk about being brave but still doing what’s needed. It’s shows the Doctor that he can act when needed but would rather he didn’t have to.

Despite being sick at the beginning, Jo befriends a Spiridon who is under a purple fluffy cloak and makes Jo better. She doesn’t really do very much in this episode but compared to other episode where she’s had very little to do at least she gets to learn something about her helper. Jon Pertwee is on fine form again and my irregular fashion watch appears in this entry. His purple velvet jacket should stand out a bit but in the jungle it blends in quite well.

Towards the end of this episode there are more Thals introduced to the story, three more are added to make it six altogether which I think is three or four too many in my opinion. However I will talk about that more as the episode progress but this another solid episode and considering it takes entirely in a studio, I felt like there was scale and it wasn’t just taking place in a studio. The cliffhanger might not have had the impact that the previous one did but it was a big revelation of there being more than a few Daleks but 10,000. We wont see 10,000 Daleks or even 10 on screen but the idea of their being that many must have sent the imaginations of children wild in 1973. I am still enjoying this adventure very much and looking forward to the rest of the serial.

Planet of the Daleks - Episode 1 (Destinus)

With this opening episode, Barry Letts becomes the longest serving producer of Doctor Who having clocked up 87 episodes. Jon Pertwee is now on 9 away from his century of episodes and Katy Manning now has 66 episodes to her name. This is the first episode that Terry Nation has written since the Christmas Day episode of ‘The Daleks Master Plan’ back in 1965.  Planet of the Daleks is the second half of this epic story and after saying goodbye to Roger Delgado in the previous episode, there is no time to look at how the Master managed to escape but instead chase after the Daleks. Since Terry Nation last wrote for the show, they have scrapped giving each episode a title yet thankfully the information text gave us the title that Nation gave the episode and it’s called Destinus.

The first few minutes of this story take place in the TARDIS and it’s the first time in a fairly long time that this has happened. The action doesn’t stay in the TARDIS for long as Jo ventures out into the endless forest. In these early minutes, Jo is put in some good situations of drama as she comes across the ship and then gets found out by two Thals. One of those Thals is played by the ever reliable Bernard Horsfall who I could watch all day. He’s the reluctant leader of this small group. But obviously we don’t know this at the time, here he’s just a leader. The other two that we meet are impressive in this episode but that will change.

There are some good scenes in this episode. The first impressive one is when Jo is hiding and there is a bit of CSO used to make a phone. That’s right I have praised a bit of CSO, lets not get ahead of ourselves, I think that CSO hasn’t helped the show in the way that Barry Letts thought that it had but there are some good moments from time to time.

One of the critiscms that have been laid at the door of this story is that its basically a repeat of Nation’s previous adventures and whilst that may be true I simply don’t care. I enjoyed this story before I knew this and I still enjoy this adventure. It’s got some great performances and it flows a lot better than most six part adventures. The cliffhanger of this episode is new and really good, the sight of an invisible Dalek, slowly being revealed is a great moment and it’s the perfect end to a very good opening episode and I think that the fact we don’t see the dalek until the very end is typical Nation and its good because it allows the supporting characters to be introduced and mingle with the Doctor and Jo.

Frontier in Space - Episode 6

The final episode of ‘Frontier in Space’ is the final appearance of Roger Delgado who was killed in Turkey a few months after this episode was transmitted. It is also the 86^th episode that has been produced by Barry Letts which is the same number that Verity Lambert produced from 1963 to 1965. That will be the only stat that appears in this entry.

The episode has the feel that its building up to something and not in a good way. The mystery starts when the Master is talking to someone but unusually we don’t hear who he’s talking to. That mystery doesn’t last long as its soon revealed that the Daleks were the ones behind it all. This is the first time that we have seen them in 36 episodes and sadly they haven’t solved the problem of the voices which is a shame.

The Daleks don’t appear until seven minutes before the end and this is when the serial goes into overdrive and it’s a great way that they are introduced because they appear at the top of a hill and appear almost from out of the ground. The idea that the Master and the Daleks working together is a brilliant idea and sadly it doesn’t last long enough. They are only in it for about a minute and then they glide off.

Delgado’s final scene in the show is rather disappointing when you think of it but I suppose they didn’t know that this would be the last time we would see him so I suppose when you put it into context you have to be fair. Roger Delgado has been one of the highlights of the Pertwee and he is the best Master that there has ever been. He played the role with some wonder and brilliance that it’s the first time I have felt sad watching an episode of Doctor Who since the final episode of ‘The War Games’. This is the beginning of the end really for the third Doctor because without someone like the Master or Roger Delgado, where does the conflict come from. I will miss Roger Delgado.

As a story this has been one of the best six part adventures that I can remember. I think that the characters have all been really well done and the plot has moved along at a good pace and its been a very impressive adventure which shouldn’t really be a surprise considering that it was written by Malcolm Hulke who has a proven track record of writing superb stories with superb characters and I think that this is Paul Bernard’s best story and everything just clicked and its always a joy when things

Frontier in Space - Episode 5

It could be argued that the previous episode was a interlude in this story but it didn’t feel like one. If you think about it not much really happened because we were suppose to be more focused on what was going on between the Doctor, Jo and the Master, that it didn’t matter what was going on elsewhere because the performances were suppose to distract us. In this penultimate episode the action moves to Draconia where the Doctor, Jo and the Master meet the Emperor. It’s a scene which shows that the Doctor has been here before and this helps to convince the Emperor that the humans aren’t a threat really. It’s a nice scenes which is ended with the Ogrons attacking the Emperor’s chamber but the Doctor manages to convince the Emperor that they have been seeing things. This means that there is no way of the Master pretending that the two sides are fighting each other and he has to rely upon destroying the evidence.

It’s good that we get the President and General Williams back in the story where the Doctor and the Emperor’s son tries to convince them that they should go to the Ogrons world. I like how we get a bit of backstory about General Williams and learn that his attitude was down to a misunderstanding. This is an important moment and a major shift in attitude for the Williams character. It seems that as the Doctor is always drawn to Earth, the show is drawn to a quarry and this is case in this episode buts it’s a brief shot which sees the Master and Jo arrive at the Masters base on the Ogron world.

I think that it’s a great moment when Jo manages to get over the Master trying to hypnotise her like he did in their first adventure. It shows how far the character has developed since her first story and shows how she’s not the weak feeble individual that seemed to only be there because she had relatives in high places. Katy Manning has had a good run of episodes recently. I don’t think that anything special has happened but it just feels that the writing is allowing her character to be more than it use to be. Jon Pertwee’s performance is also very good and his best scene comes in the Emperor’s chamber where he gets to act just as noble as the Draconians.

It feels during this episode that we are building up to something which is a critiscm that I have had of stories over the last season and a half. The episode does that thing that six parters have which is to go off in a different tangent and Malcolm Hulke does that without realising it. It’s a better cliffhanger than the previous one part of me doesn’t want to watch the next episode because of the importance of it.

Frontier in Space - Episode 4

The story starts off with the rather intriguing cliffhanger of the Doctor and the Professor running out of oxygen and I suppose if I am being positive then I would say that it would be intriguing to see how the Doctor would be saved. The way that he was saved was probably not necessarily the way that most people would have expected. Imagine being saved by your nemesis. It must be a horrible feeling for the Doctor and the smugness that the Master must be feeling is clear to see. There is a moment when the Master is reading a list of bogus crimes that the Doctor is supposed to have committed and its funny because its clear that the Master has put some thought into his plan. There is a nice moment when the Master talks about the roles being reversed, this is because obviously the Doctor and Jo visited the Master in ‘The Sea Devils’. One of my favourite scenes in this episode comes when the Doctor goes for a spacewalk. Ok so you can see the strings in some shots but it’s a good attempt on a very miniscule budget. It would have looked in a movie but on the BBC it looked rather good.

For most of the episode it’s just the Doctor, Jo and the Master. It’s only briefly at the beginning and the last couple of minutes that there are other people and it’s one of the things that I liked about this episode because it showed how close these three had gotten over the last couple of years. It’s quite fitting that with this being Delgado’s last story that we should see and perhaps be quite sad about what we are going to miss.

The supporting characters don’t really have much impact in the episode. I suppose they aren’t totally redundant because it makes sense that we have to move from one setting to another and introduce elements for the next episode but really this episode belongs to Delgado, Manning and Pertwee and I cant help but think that Delgado just edges but that’s because he oozes charisma and even though he’s a baddie I still find mself almost wanting him to win and that probably isn’t what Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks were aiming at when they introduced the character of the Master but it is what it is.

The cliffhanger isn’t very good because all that we get is an ogron looking at a computer screen after the Master setting off a homing beacon. If I could change one thing about this episode then it would be this. I think that this episode continues the good work that the previous three episodes had achieved. With two more episodes to go, I still think that there is plenty of mileage left. This is a rare story where six episodes actually work. The writing was good and the directing was equally sound.

Frontier in Space - Episode 3

I do feel sorry for the president in this episode because she’s been forced into going into war but she is also trying to prevent a coup. It’s quite clear how well General Williams and the President work together. I really like General Williams and think that Michael Hawkins plays the character really well with a hint of borderline pantomime villain. My worry about the Doctor and Jo been accused of being something that they are not is already getting tiresome. During the mind probe session on the Doctor I found myself thinking of this fact and getting slightly depressed that there were going to be more moments like this.

The episode sees the story move to the Moon. On first looks, the set is quite good and I think that even though it’s a studio set it still look quite good. It’s a lunar version of Porridge except there’s little humour and no Ronnie Barker. I think that Jon Pertwee gets a better share of the story than Katy Manning but that’s more to do with the fact that the lunar scenes were the more interesting. The bonus for Jon Pertwee filming the scenes on the lunar set was that he got to wear a dressing gown.

The episode really picks up when Roger Delgado makes a welcome return. This is the last story that Roger Delgado appears as The Master. Like most times, he is pretending to be a commissioner and I let out a small cheer when he appeared. From the moment he gets involved in the story it picks up (Not that it was really dragging). I think that the costume he wears is quite interesting as it’s similar to what he wears but more importantly, it features a symbol which for years I thought little of it but it was only upon watching the extras on the DVD that I noticed it looked like the Daleks eye.

There is something good about the cliffhanger because on the one hand the Doctor and the Professor are going to run out of oxygen but then on the other hand its one of those where its obvious that the Doctor will survive so why put him in that situation. Apart from that minor quibble I think that this episode is still working well and we are getting more and more information and its not boring or moving things at a reasonable pace until the right time (probably episode five) before it picks up again.

Frontier in Space - Episode 2

After the interesting set up of the previous episode, this is where things start to get more intriguing. The guards that appear in this episode are quite amusing. It’s hard to find anything menacing about them so quite why the Doctor and Jo obey what they say is questionable. However the thing about the Doctor and Jo is that all they do in this episode is get moved from one cell to another. The supporting characters also just bicker about who is wrong and who is right. It’s clear that someone else is causing all this largely due to the noise that occurs and also because neither side seems like they want this war and so would be reluctant to start it. We all know who’s behind it all but at the time it must have been racing through people’s mind about who it could be.

One of the earlier scenes in this story shows the strong relationship between the Doctor and Jo. There are a couple of cell scenes which show this well and if there is one advantage of these cell scenes is that it gives us more time for these two to talk to each other. When the mind probe is mentioned, I must admit that I am reminded on the moment in ‘The Five Doctors’ where it is mentioned in one of worst delivered lines in TV history.

As I mentioned before, the Draconians are a honourable yet stubborn race. They are rational beings and have their own point of view. I like how it’s the Doctor that gets to interact with them. The Doctor does have a knack of convincing the people he’s talking to that he’s making sense. The scenes at their embassy are memorable to me for no particuarl reason. My best guess is that it doesn’t really seem like they’ve been there very long because it’s just like a normal room that has some mildly intriguing furniture.

There is some erm…interesting location filming as the Doctor and Jo walk along what at the time must have seemed like futuristic buildings but sadly look like the sort of place that they would film Shameless or Benefits Street on. That said the action itself is quite good. The final bit of location filming where the Ogrons are attacking the president’s office (??). The Ogrons somehow manage to find the Doctor and Jo in their cell surprisingly quickly. I think that this shows that the story has moved on and is developing nicely.

Frontier in Space - Episode 1

Officially this is the first part of a six part adventure however really it’s the first part of a twelve part adventure because they pretty much feel like the same story. There is nothing really to separate the two adventures. The model shots that we have in the early minutes of this adventure are very impressive. The impressiveness continues with the sets of the space freight. Ok so some of it screams the 1970’s but even comparing it to today’s standards there is something quite good about the sets.

The Doctor is confused as an alien race initially called a Dragon and Jo thinks that she is seeing a Drashig. The space crew and Jo are affected by the weird noise yet the Doctor isn’t which is quite interesting. I know the Doctor is an alien but sometimes it would be good if he could be affected just like everyone else. The only time he’s incapacitated is when he’s shot at by the Ogrons.

The idea of having a female president is a bold one and one that I thinks shows how Doctor Who did create good female roles from time to time. Vera Fusek plays the role as someone who has a lot of pressure but wont jump to the wrong conclusion. General Williams is a bit of a swine from the very moment that we see him. He is the exact opposite to the president. Michael Hawkins is playing the role exactly as it should be played because with the president being so passive, these scenes need someone to be the voice of opposition.

The Draconians were Jon Pertwee’s favourite monster and its not hard to see why. Visually they are very striking and the mask is perhaps the best mask that has been used in Doctor Who. They come across in this episode as a race that are proud but can also be stubborn. When they appeared in the 2010 Big Finish play ‘Paper Cuts’, they were one of the best things in it and that shows how good they are. We don’t see their full potential in this episode but that’s normal as there are many more episodes for them to show their greatness. We see the Ograns appear in this episode and it should have been a clear indication that the Daleks might becoming back. Even with the line that the Doctor gives about different races using them to do their dirty work, I think that it’s a subtle nudge that the Daleks will be returning soon.

As an opening episode it sets things up quite well. We know what the conflict is and the two parties that are involved. This ThIng of the Doctor and Jo being confused and accused of things that aren’t true is something that I have remembered in the past as one of the things that I don’t like and I get a feeling that the same thing is going to happen over the course of the next five episodes.

Carnival of Monsters: Episode 4

The final episode sees the two plot strands finally meet with the Doctor escaping the scope and then growing. The main point of this episode is to try and get Jo out of the scope before it goes caput. This is a relatively straight forward part but it’s stretched out but it’s done well and the whole episode moves along at a good pace and Barry Letts has done a good job.

I haven’t mentioned Shirna at all in these episode reviews so far and that largely because the character hasn’t been aprticuarly interesting. All she has done in these four episodes is stand behind Vorg and whine. I think that Vorg would have been better off on his own. I like how Vorg goes from just a harmless entertainer to a terrible human being with just one speech by the Master. I know that he was always like this but it took the Doctor to make it clear on screen. Though this is slightly devalued when we learn that Vorg won it. The Drashig escaping from the scope should have been an epic moment in the story sadly, it was ruined by the CSO. It’s a shame that they Drashig’s wont feature in any more Doctor Who stories as apart from a few shots, they were a simple and well realised creation.

I have found the relationship between Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning to be on par with Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton. Whenever I think of the third Doctor, I always think of Jo Grant and there’s a good reason for that. There have been several moments when the best thing in the episode has been there dialogue. At times I have felt that their friendship wasn’t acting and that they were delighted to be in each others company.

Carnival of Monsters is one of those stories that is better than I have thought. Yes the grey peoples make up is rather bad and the CSO is largely a bad thing for the story but the rest of it works well and I think that for the Doctor’s first adventure without the Timelords’ involvement is a promising start to this era of Doctor Who and the best thing about reaching the end of this story is that the next twelve episodes are going to be great.

If you had asked me before I started to watch the Pertwee stories, I would have rated Carnival of Monsters as one of the weakest stories however these four episodes gets an average rating of 7.48 with The Mind of Evil (7.47), The Curse of Peladon & The Claws of Axos (both 7.45), The Time Monster (7.44), Colony in Space (7.41), The Mutants (7.39) and Day of the Daleks (7.33) rated worse. Also the Cybermen have been missing for 109 episodes, The Daleks have been busy exterminating for 29 episodes now, the Ice Warriors have been absent for 25 episodes and the Master has been away putting together convoluted plans for 25 episodes.

Carnival of Monsters - Episode 3

The beginning part of this episode feels like a narration between Vorg and the grey people. They talk for a bit and then we cut away to the location stuff. This ends relatively quickly and the story goes off into its various plot strands and this is where I feel that for the first time the story has really found its feet because both sides of the story are just as good as the other.

The stuff that takes place on the SS Bernice is all very good and at least we get them to say something different instead of the repetitive dialogue that they have had to say for the previous two episodes. I still chuckle at myself thinking about the previous episode where Ian Marter and Jon Pertwee are doing that silly boxing bit. Despite these characters seemingly have come from an episode of Upstairs Downstairs, I still think that they are quite entertaining and don’t get annoyed by their presence.

The grey people (I can’t be bothered to find out their proper name) are a bit more interesting than they have been before now. Michael Wisher and Peter Halliday make these roles far more watchable than they otherwise would have been. Halliday is always a reliable performance and every time I think of him I think of Packer from ‘The Invasion’ which will always be his best performance. Wisher also gives a sound performance but unlike Halliday, his best performance is yet to come. The problem that they have is that the grey makeup is not very good. It’s hard to look at them without looking for where the face-paint stops just around the eyes and mouth. It does ruin it somewhat.

The Drashig’s make quite an impact in this episode and even when they are on dodgy CSO shots towards the end, they are still an effective creature. Their best moment comes I think when they are breaking through the ship and one breaks through what must be the cargo bay roof and roars and even though its CSO, its looks rather good and makes up for the poor CSO that we saw moments earlier (just about). I’m still not won over by CSO and even when you take away using 2014 standards to measure the effects, the CSO was never going to be a success and Barry Letts really should have tried for something different.

The cliffhanger is rather good as it shows Jon Pertwee stumbling out of the scope machine and then collapsing. It’s the perfect balance between putting the leads characters in a position of peril but not deadly peril as I always think that’s its rubbish because you know that Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning are going to make it. Anyway I found the story to be far more interesting this time and I think that the final episode will be a good way to end a story which has improved in my opinion.