The Armageddon Factor - Episode 6

Now we have reached the end of the journey, after twenty five episodes the key to Time would be completed. The previous episode ended with the Doctor being shrunk by Drax. The episode sort of takes a while to get going but the Doctor and Drax carry the early moments of the episode. Merak and Shapp seem to be forming a double act. The Doctor and Drax are a good double act. This is normally the sort of thing that Robert Holmes would have done but it just shows that other people can get away with it to.

There is a moment where Astra announces that she is the Sixth princess of the sixth royal house of the sixth dynasty and it’s a lovely way of pointing things out and it could easily have been a silly explanation as to why she’s special but Baker and Martin have thought this one through. K9 has to pretend to the Shadow that he is still under his control. This is again a moment where K9 is actually interesting and sadly it doesn’t last very long but again like the time when he was a bad K9, it was fun while it lasted.

There is a lovely moment when the countdown of the Mentalis is getting to 0 and Drax is trying to remember which cable is needed to cut and stop the countdown and it does feel a bit like comedy and bit like drama. This means that the Marshall can fire his rockets for the first time since episode three or four and the planet of evil is destroyed and then the Shadow has a wonderful final scene. After Drax leaves the Doctor and Romana there comes a really fine scene where the Doctor pretends that he has become a bit bad now that they have all six segments. This is just the Doctor playing but it’s a wonderful moment when the viewer must be unsure whether he has been warped by the power that the Key to Time has.

The Shadow talks to what appears to be the Black Guardian. Here comes the best part of the episode because the Black Guardian pretends to be the White Guardian. The Doctor does a good job of stalling things and the moment when the White Guardian turns into the Black Guardian is great moment. What isn’t such a great moment is when the tracer is broken and the segments are broken up. After spending twenty six weeks, its basically been reduced to nothing. I cant quite make my mind up about this because on the one hand it’s the epic ending that we needed and on the other hand it does sort of make a mockery of what we have seen.

This is the final episode to feature Anthony Read as the script editor. I cant really fault the quality of the stories that he has been involved with. The Armageddon Factor is the final six part story ever. I cant believe that with over 350 episodes left to watch that it will just be two or four part stories. I cant say that I will really miss the six parters because they are a bit baggy and sometimes doesn’t quite work. The episode was a decent finale but it was an episode of two halves with the first half being the ok stuff and the second half being the stuff with the Black Guardian and the Doctor. The story was ok as well but I think that it could have been a bit shorter but whilst the budget might have been a bit tight, it didn’t show too much on screen and I thought that the story was directed quite well and Bob Baker and Dave Martin managed to make a six parter interesting which isn’t an easy thing to do.

On a final note I have to say that this is May Tamm’s final episode and like Caroline John, she doesn’t get a proper goodbye scene which is a shame because she has been really a great addition to the show and it is perhaps a wise move for Tamm to depart after just one season but when she returned to star alongside Tom Baker in the Big Finish adventures just before she passed away I was reminded as to how good she was and she carried a certain dignity that the role hadn’t really had for a while and Mary Tamm will be missed.

The idea of having a season with an overarching theme is something that is something that I think has paid off. The only story that didn’t work was ‘The Pirate Planet’ but the rest of them had something to enjoy and ‘The Stones of Blood’ and ‘The Androids of Tara’ were the best stories of the season. It wouldn’t be until the new era before we would get a story arc but I think that the Key to Time season was a good one and onwards with the next season.

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 4

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

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

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

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

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

 

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 3

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

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

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

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

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

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 2

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

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

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

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

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

The Armageddon Factor - Episode 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

499 - The Power of Kroll: Episode 4

Episode 499 is one that I wasn’t really looking forward to if I am being honest and that’s because of the last couple of episodes which haven’t been the finest in Doctor Who but I was hoping that something would get me back into the story and I am happy to say that this does happen. There is at least some excitement to start this episode with and it comes when Kroll starts to pick off some of the swampies.

The humans are trying to wipe out the swampies and vice versa which just shows that this is the final episode of the story. The shot of Kroll above the Doctor and Romana in their boat works ok but there is another shot of Kroll on the horizon which looks a bit unconvincing. Also there is a shot of Kroll attacking the refinery which really looks disappointing. This is the time of the season where money starts to run out so this is where quality starts to take a dip. There is a bit where the Doctor goes up a wobbly ladder to mess with a little circuit board and when he slaps the lid back the rocket wobbles. It’s always good to try and argue that walls rarely wobbled in Doctor Who but times like this it makes my job of arguing harder.

There is a shot where John Abineri is talking to a tentacle prop as if it the head part of Kroll. It’s due to the fact that Abineri is such a good actor that it doesn’t come across more ridiculous than it could have done. Whilst I haven’t been totally thrilled with the humans in this story, I thought that they made up for it in this episode because there was a nice bit of friction between all three of them and at one point K9 Dugeen gets shot by Thawn. His death is sad but I thought that Thawn’s death was quite shocking and surprisingly gory considering that Philip Hinchcliffe isn’t the producer.

Kroll is the fifth segment which perhaps shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise. Due to the size of Kroll it was always going to be difficult for the Doctor to save the day against something that doesn’t speak and doesn’t communicate but somehow it works. The fact very little has been mentioned about the fifth segment seems to be a good way of covering up the fact that Kroll was the segment and one could argue that it was obvious when the Doctor and Romana were talking at the beginning of episode two.

One stat for today’s episode and that is this is the 52^nd episode to be written by Robert Holmes which ties him with Terry Nation. It will be a while before Robert Holmes returns to the show but I think that he managed to save the day with this episode. I feel slightly more positively about this story than I did at the end of the previous episode. I still stand that this wont be Robert Holmes’ best story but I think that Norman Stewart did a very good job of battling some tricky moments and making good use of the location filming.

The Power of Kroll - Episode 3

This episode was the first to be broadcast in 1979. There that is about as interesting as this entry is about to get.

I know that I have commented that this isn’t a great story, I think that this is the worst episode of the serial. The problem with the episode is that it just doesn’t really get going until the final five minutes. The Doctor and Romana start the episode about to be stretched to death. They spend nearly half the episode in this situation which does seem like a lot of padding was needed for this story. The Doctor is the one that saves the day by using his high pitched voice to shatter a window and use rain to stop the vines stretching them further.

It is perhaps the most obvious case of padding by having the leading characters do pretty much nothing of worth. The humans on the refinery do nothing apart from sit around and talk about things and the swampies also do very little. The only saving grace for the episode is that we do get some good location filming. Norman Stewart’s previous Doctor Who credit was ‘Underworld’ where he did a remarkable job in making that story work. He does the best he can but the problem with the story is the script so where the scrip allows it, the directing helps saves the day.

The performances from this episode are the sort that I would expect to see if nobody can see a reason to take centre stage. Not even Tom Baker’s comedy tone can help save him and if there was a time that his humour would have helped me get through an episode then it would have been now. As I mentioned the episode only really gets going in the final five minutes as the Doctor, Romana and Rohm-Dutt are escaping from the swampies. The cliffhanger is of the Doctor and Romana sitting in a boat just in front of Kroll. If they were going to have the sight of Kroll looming over people then it would have been better if we hadn’t seen it already in pretty much the same way as we see in in the cliffhanger.

This is one of the weakest episodes for sometime. I have rated this episode 7.00 and it’s the first time that an episode has received this low a rating since episode two of ‘The Face of Evil’. That was back in July. Out of the five episodes of this season it is just about in third place ahead of ‘The Ribos Operation’ but out of Tom Baker’s entire run it is currently in 23^rd place out of 28 stories. It’s tied with ‘The Invisible Enemy’ on 7.30. Hopefully the final episode will do something that makes me think this story has some hidden secrets just waiting to be shown to us but I could be wrong.

The Power of Kroll - Episode 2

Today’s episode is the final episode of 1978. It’s been quite a year as far as the show has been concerned with some quite intriguing stories (such as Underworld). One companion has left and another replace her. I think that in terms of quality the show hasn’t really changed that much in a year. This is episode 497 and is close to celebrating it Quincentenary episode (500^th) and that means that I am over 60% of the way through the marathon. I am still on course to finish this marathon on August 2, 2015.

The opening episode was a bit of a disappointment and I commented that this story wasn’t going to be one of Robert Holmes’ best stories. The cliffhanger had Romana do something that I don’t think she does very often and that’s scream when something does seem to attack her. Sadly its not the for mentioned Kroll but someone dressed in a clam costume. There’s a nice mystery that’s set up during an early scene between the Doctor and Romana when the Doctor questions who is paying Rohm-Dutt when the Swampies don’t have money. Sadly this is dismissed quite quickly by Romana.

When the stories move to the refinery I just find myself being slightly bored with what going on. I never thought I would find myself saying that a scene with Philip Madoc being boring. Madoc, Leeson & Neil McCarthy (previously in ‘The Mind of Evil’) spend the episode looking at some screen trying to decide what to do.

I forgot that John Abineri appears in this story. I forgot because he is caked under green makeup and plays one of the swampies. Like Philip Madoc, Abineri has had some impressive previous performances in Doctor Who. I think that his best performance was in the 1970 story ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ when he played General Carrington. But its still a good performance and I think that he does the best with the green make up.

We get to see the Kroll of this story and its quite a good design and looks quite disgusting but it is certainly one of the largest monsters ever seen in Doctor Who. The effect used to show it infront of the swampies is perhaps a little basic but it could have looked a lot worse and it must have been quite difficult to achieve on location. Even though I know that Kroll turns out to be the fifth segment, its still quite good as how they get round the fact that they don’t know what the segment is by having all this drama about sacrificing and that’s quite a clever thing to do.

This is definelty a stronger episode than yesterday’s. The story feels like its actually going somewhere and building up towards something which wasn’t the case yesterday. I am still more won over with the location filming and the swampies than anything else but my opinion of the story hasn’t changed I think that this is the weakest of the Robert Holmes stories. That said I think that there is something about this story and its certainly stronger than ‘The Pirate Planet’ and also ‘The Ribos Operation’.

The Power of Kroll - Episode 1

T’was two nights before Christmas and Santa seems to have come early with the penultimate in the Key to Time series. I always forget that Robert Holmes wrote this story so this story might be the third story in a row that might be rated very highly. This is one of the least popular Robert Holmes stories and I think that if it were any other writer then it wouldn’t be such a problem but when you’ve written the sort of stories that he has written then a below par story is going to stand out. Like the previous two stories, there is an extraordinary quality of location filming.  I think that this season has seen some of the best location filming that I can recall. The fact there isn’t a road or a building in sight does a lot to create the impression that this is an alien world.

The first faces that we encounter are humans. They don’t seem to be terrible people but there are clearly the aliens and the ones that are in charge. There are also green skinned people called swampies who have become slaves to the humans. They do have their own group who are very afraid of Kroll. They do business with a human called Rohm-Dutt. Rohm-Dutt is a gun for hire, played very well Glyn Owen. He is perhaps the most interesting of the humans because the people working on the refinery seem to be rather ordinary. John Leeson makes an appearance, probably due to the fact that K9 doesn’t feature at all during this story and this was probably an attempt to keep him busy. Philip Madoc returns to the show but this was never going to be Solon from ‘The Brain of Morbius’.

The sacrifice of Romana seems to go on forever. It actually turns out to be about five or six minutes. The cliffhanger involves Romana yet again and she does something that I don’t recall her doing before and that is scream. She is screaming because something does appear to be attacking her so as a cliffhanger it works and gives the episode the ending that it needed because up until this point the story hadn’t really worked for me. The whole episode seemed like it was plodding along and not really leading to anything. I don’t think that this story is going to be quite as good as ‘The Stones of Blood’ and ‘The Androids of Tara’ but maybe the rest of the story might change my opinion on that.

The Androids of Tara - Episode 4

As I watch this episode I wonder whether the story would have worked if they had gone with my original suggestion and have the coronation in this episode because it would have been the perfect end to the story. I think that as good as that suggestion might be (ok I am biased) but I think that the ending that they use in this episode is ok. This story should really have been called two weddings and two funerals because of all the shenanigans that the Count is coming up with. Like most plans in Doctor Who, the plan he has come up with is very convoluted. Surely there would have been an easier way. That said the plan never seems to be come close to working. Before the first wedding between the Prince and Romana happens, the Doctor gets involved and the wedding is stopped.

The Doctor embarks on a sword fight for the first time (I think) since ‘The Sea Devils’. The lack of music is something that I think makes the fight less interesting that it could have otherwise should have been. When the incidental music does arrive it doesn’t really save things. The end of this fight is the end of the Count’s involvement in the episode. The fight goes on for a few moments and I can’t help but compare this to the Sea Devils story. The Count jumping off the bridge into the river is a bit of a cop out. It would have been better I think for the Count to have had some sort of closure because this ending implies that he could return but obviously this isn’t the case so it just seems like a bit of a weird way for a character to be written out of a story.

The scene where Romana encounters the Princess Strella is a funny moment and one that I think is the perfect way to end this adventure. The scene with the Doctor and Romana and the segment is a good one because it reminds us properly for the first time since the first episode that they are on a mission.

I think that this episode was a perfectly fine episode but it wasn’t quite the finale that it should have been. It’s a story that has a lot to like about it and it starts with the story and ends with the characters which all been very well realised by David Fisher and credit should be going to Michael Hayes because he has directed this story beautifully and has done a really good job. It doesn’t happen very often in Doctor Who where both the writing and the directing work so well together but it happens here and this is the second best story of the season which might sound like a bit of a back handed compliment but considering that the best story of the season is ‘The Stones of Blood’ then you know how good this had to be. I think that now I am 2/3 of the way through the season, I realise that we have just two stories left of the Key to Time and the stories that are left aren’t quite as good as the previous two that I have enjoyed. The Androids of Tara has remained as good as I have previously thought of in previous years and think that David Fisher has shown himself to be one of the best writers of recent years. His freshness is something that the more established writers could learn a thing or two from.

The Androids of Tara - Episode 3

It’s fair to say that the previous episode ended on a bit of a sombre note because it appeared to show the Doctor striking a companion. It all becomes clear that it wasn’t the real Romana. The Princess Strella that is in the room is revealed to be an android and the opening few minutes become a bit mad because there is a lot of talking but I couldn’t really tell what was going on. Something else that seems a bit odd is the moment where Lamia and Romana are talking about the segment. This seems to be added in just to remind the us why the Doctor and Romana are on Tara.

I like how the Doctor is advised not to make the android King too intelligent. I thought that its was a funny moment. The humour that has been in these three episodes (and perhaps in Fisher’s previous story) have had a nice dose of comedy and perhaps not the obvious slapstick kind that Douglas Adams attempted to pull off. I think that its credit to David Fisher that he has made the good guys seem to regal and yet not at all annoying. I think that Zadek is my favourite of this group of people but even Neville Jason is doing well as Prince Reynart.

I haven’t commented on just how loathsome the Count is. I always thought he was unlikeable but when its clear that he is doesn’t have any feelings towards Lamia it makes him even more unlikeable. Lamia’s death is quick and surprising but I suppose there wasn’t really much more that the character could do. Peter Jeffrey is playing the role the way that it should be played. With 20% seriousness and 80% humour and campness. I discovered on Wikipedia that Jeffrey previous appeared in ‘The Macra Terror’. I didn’t know this and can safely say that this is the better story for him.

The episode did a thing where it managed to keep the story going without really doing anything. The coronation was done and Romana escaped and then got captured again. I am still impressed with the location filming and it becomes greater in this episode. It all feels like the location filming is a part of the story and by that I mean that it does feel like we are in a land where a kingdom is instead of a quarry pretending to be an alien world. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that this park/forest filmed wherever in the UK (I can still refer to the UK in the same way after the events of this week) and it still seem like an alien world.

The final scene leading up to the cliffhanger is quite good because it seems that the Count is up to something and it ends with him throwing a spear at the android King and running away with the real Romana. I think that it was a good episode and I am still enjoying this adventure and the final episode should be the perfect ending to this serial. I rate each episode and at the moment the average for this story is 0.01 less than ‘The Stones of Blood’. In terms of Tom Baker’s entire run of stories, it currently stands in joint 9^th place (tied with Robot).

The Androids of Tara - Episode 2

With the Prince kidnapped the Doctor proposes that they get the android crowned. The prince isn’t the only one that has a duplicate. Romana meets her double who is a Princess (Princess Strella to be exact) that is being held prisoner by the Count.

The Count doesn’t know that there is an android version of the Prince exists so when he walks into the coronation chamber and sees the android version he believes it to be impossible. It’s quite odd that if the Prince was late then his opportunity would go to someone else. It’s hard to imagine that if Queen Elizabeth were late to her coronation that they would have crowned someone else. That’s the only thing that doesn’t quite make sense on Tara. That said I thought that the room where the coronation takes place looked quite splendid.

Mary Tamm’s performances were splendid. Playing two roles that are supposed to look alike but are completely different is a tricky thing to pull off but Tamm does this really well and due to the fact Romana acts like she’s a princess she doesn’t really have to try too hard to make it work. Tom Baker does seem to not be quite on form in this episode and seems to be on autopilot which shows that perhaps his time on the show should have been coming to an end now. After over 100 episodes I suppose its only fair to expect the occasional off the boil performance.

I’m surprised that the coronation happens so soon in the story. This would have been what the story was building up to and so happened in episode four but I suppose this means that Fisher has plans for the final two episodes so that is something to look forward to. The writing has been just as good and also the directing has been superb. I still love all the location filming but even the studio scenes have been directed with a refreshing pace and it shows that studio scenes don’t have to been slow and boring. The episode zips along nicely and at no point did I feel like the story was stalling.

The cliffhanger is quite shocking because as far as the viewer is concerned, its Princess Strella that walks toward the android King but the Doctor seems to have other ideas and instead appears to strike a blow (off screen). It’s got to be one of the strongest cliffhangers for a while and its clear that David Fisher is very good at coming up with cliffhangers that are strong and don’t feel bolted at the last minute. I am still enjoying this story even though this episode doesn’t have quite the impact that the opening episode does.

The Androids of Tara - Episode 1

The Androids of Tara is a story that I have always found rather charming. After enjoying the previous story its good that a run of enjoyable stories is showing all the good things that there are about the show. This story is famous because Mary Tamm gets to play two roles. This is the second story in a row for David Fisher. There are only two instances before this where a writer has written two stories in a row, the first was Ian Stuart Black in 1966 with The War Machines and The Savages and the second was Chris Boucher in 1977 with The Face of Evil and The Robots of Death. This episode was broadcast 2 days after the shows 15^th birthday and this is the final story of 1978. This story is quite unusual in that it takes just seven and a half minutes for Romana to find the fourth segment. That means that instead of the story being about the search for the segment the story could be a standard, more traditional Doctor Who story.

The Doctor’s decision to have a break instead of looking for the next segment seems like a bit of an odd thing to do. The only purpose that it serves is for Count Grendel of Gracht to encounter Romana without the Doctor being around. Gracht thinks that Romana is a robot and she is about to be cut up. The Doctor encounters Prince Reynart who is about to be coronated and Gracht is trying to kill him and become king himself. This is essentially the plot of the entire serial. Zadek is played by Simon Lack returns after previously appearing in the 1971 story ‘The Mind of Evil’.

Like the previous story, the location filming is some of the best that has been seen in the show. If I didn’t know any better I would have sworn that it was the same director. There is a shot where we see the castle and it looks slightly dodgy because the castle looks like it has a few bits added on which don’t quite match. I’m not sure whether its just my 2014 eyes looking at a product of 1978 but it’s the only thing that lets the location filming down a bit.

The segment is pretty much forgotten about which is a bit of shame really but that aside I thought that this was another good opening episode. Despite being wedged in the middle of a season long story, the story doesn’t feel like its running out of steam. In fact it feels like its picking up momentum. I am looking forward to the next three episodes and I will probably be spending the next three days figuring out which story is David Fisher’s best. That isn’t the sort of thing I would be considering.

 

The Stones of Blood - Episode 4

This final episode of this story does feel slightly different to the previous three episodes. The Doctor is put on trial. The trial is because the Doctor broke a seal which apparently he shouldn’t have done. The Doctor uses the trial to try and discover who Vivien Fey truly is. Fey says who she is pretending to be without anyone mentioning the fact that she wearing silver body paint. The trial (or retrial) seems to be there to allow Tom Baker to be a bit comedic because he puts on his barrister wig on. The problem that I have is that I don’t really care much about this trial stuff. I am much more interested in the plot with Romana and Rumford.

The way that the megara discover who Fey was is done in quite a clever way because it does seem to come out of nowhere. Here punishment is to spend eternity as one of the stones. This seems to tie the story up nicely. I think that the final ten minutes was the best part of the episode because it was the only part that was of any interest and seemed relevant to the story. The trial stuff seemed like padding. It’s almost like David Fisher has got to the beginning of episode four and knows where the episode is going its just the journey that lets the episode down.

The performances were really good. Tom Baker does seem a bit out performed by Beatrix Lehmann. Her enthusiasm has never waivered at any point during the story and I would argue that her performance was the best out of anyone. Tom Baker’s performance has been largely good though I thought that this episode was a bit indulgent and was a bit disappointment. This story was another strong one for Mary Tamm because she was actually doing stuff and wasn’t relying on the Doctor to help her. Susan Engel was superb as Vivien Fey because she plays it like she’s playing Cruella de Vil. Even K9 wasn’t as bad as usual though that might be that because I wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing.

Doctor Who’s 100^th story (and 15^th anniversary) is a nice adventure that works well really well and its definelty the best story of the season so far in terms of plot, acting and directing. As a season its working in such a way that you wouldn’t have really missed anything if you had come to the show late but at the half way point its moving along nicely and it shows that you can have a season long story arc that will make sense at the end unlike the new series.

The Stones of Blood - Episode 3

As this is the 100^th story of Doctor Who I thought that I would look at some stats. Currently, this story has a rating (based on episode one and two) of 7.65 which puts it in joint 5^th place in the chart of Tom Baker stories. The top five stories are Inside the Spaceship (1964), The Deadly Assassin (1976), Mission to the Unknown (1965), An Unearthly Child (1963) & Terror of the Autons (1971). The bottom five are The Space Pirates (1969), The Highlanders (1966), The Myth Makers (1965), The Smugglers (1966) & The Web Planet (1965). The lowest rated story from the 1970’s is The Pirate Planet (1978) which is currently in 82^nd place. Patrick Troughton’s highest rated story is ‘The Invasion’ (1968) which is in 6^th place. The first Dalek story is currently in 49^th place, the first Cyberman story is in 11^th place. In the top 20 stories, Tom Baker currently has 7 stories, Jon Pertwee and William Hartnell have 5 and Patrick Troughton has 3. In the bottom 20, William Hartnell has 10 stories, Patrick Troughton has 8 and Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker both have just one story. Death to the Daleks (1974) and The Pirate Planet (1978) respectively.

Now back to business and I have been enjoying this story a lot and my enjoyment continues. The Doctor and Professor Rumford partnership is a lot of fun to watch and its not difficult to enjoy Rumford’s enthusiasm for what’s going on. With Romana gone (for now), the Doctor and Rumford get to work to try and find Romana and Miss Fey. Sadly K9 has been fixed and appears in the story more than I like.

The action moves to a spaceship in hyperspace and this is where Miss Fey and Romana are. The model of the Hypership is rather impressive. This episode sees the introduction of the Megaera. They are a visual effect and it looks quite good and Tom Baker and Mary Tamm work well to try and keep eye levels just right. They turn up and put the Doctor and Romana on trial. There is a bit of a puzzle here because if Miss Fey had been on Earth for 4000 years then how can she be a prisoner on the ship and living happily on earth? Hopefully this small query will be answered in the next episode but it’s one thing that doesn’t quite make sense. Miss Fey is hovering around the story and doesn’t really do much until the very end when her laugh ends the episode.

There is a death that is shown where a couple camping find two of the Ogri stones outside their tent and when the woman touches it he starts to groan and the screen turns red. This is quite a grim death but this is down to the fact that there is no blood and the death doesn’t happen on screen. It’s a short scene that does seem out of context for the rest of the episode

There is an awful lot of BBC Computer graphics which shows that the 1980’s aren’t too far away. Sadly this is a problem when they use current technology because nearly 40 years later it would look extremely old fashioned. That could be aimed at the stuff we see in today’s Who. This is a good episode and I am still enjoying the story but I don’t think that this episode was as much fun as the previous two. I think that as the story has progressed, the darker tones have disappeared and have been replaced with the bright white hyperspace studio. If memory serves me correctly I have found the stuff with the Megaera to be a bit boring but maybe that will change tomorrow.

The Stones of Blood - Episode 2

The direction used in the reprise is what makes it so impressive. There are some inconsistencies as far the sky is concerned but that’s the only thing that’s wrong with the start of this episode. Romana thinks that the Doctor is the one that pushed her over the cliff but obviously we know this isn’t the case. This introduces a nice sense of distrust for a moment between the Doctor and Romana. Oddly the story seems to have time for Romana to have a costume change. I do think that the costumes is better than her posh farmer look.

The idea that the stones should light up when active is a clever idea and one that belongs to Matt Irvine. The stones are a force that have been gradually introduced into the story and despite not having a face or a voice it seems to be quite destructive and causes some damage to K9, so there not totally evil. The idea also that the third segment can be used to conjure up an image of the Doctor to make Romana think that he pushed her is quite a clever one.

Normally I don’t praise studio sets because they are…well studio sets but the stone circles set is rather impressive. I don’t know if its because its poorly lit but it looks rather good. Other things that are good include Professor Rumford who spends some quality time with the Doctor and I could easily see Rumford travelling with the Doctor. She is a TV version of Evelyn Smythe. If only she were a little younger then it could have happened.

The gothic vibe is running through the episode and I am still amazed that this happened during a Graham William story. The whole episode is directed with a freshness and I think that considering that the episode is only 25 minutes, there seems to be quite a lot going on and I was quite surprised when the episode ended. The cliffhanger is quite a good one and again it involves Romana which shows what good form the character is on at the moment. The end is when we learn that Vivien Fey isn’t as good as she made out. I think that the revelation wasn’t handled in the best way but that aside its another very good episode and this is definelty the best story of the season so far.

The Stones of Blood - Episode 1

The Stones of Blood is the 100^th Doctor Who story. That’s quite an achievement and this story is one that I have always enjoyed in the past. After not being terribly impressed with the previous story, it feels like the show has got back to doing what it does best and the first thing that strikes me about this story is that it feels like the sort of story that Philip Hinchcliffe would have produced. It doesn’t take that long for the story to become quite creepy. We hear from the White Guardian for the first time episode one of ‘The Ribos Operation’. I think that it’s good that we are reminded that there is a white and black guardian. Even though I have forgotten about the segments, it’s nice for there to be a bit of a reminder about the potential danger. It puts it back in my mind and adds something different to the story.

The Doctor and Romana’s relationship is quite funny at the moment. Romana instructs the Doctor to search for the next segment with the Doctor realising and then talking to her like he’s made that decision. It feels like their relationship has cooled down a bit but there is a prickliness to it that makes it an utterly enjoyable experience to watch. The story is set on earth and it feels like an age since the TARDIS landed on earth. That is why there is perhaps a new interest in the story because the whole feel of the story is different to the previous two stories.

The Doctor and Romana encounter Professor Rumford who is played superbly by Beatrix Lehmann. From the moment that she appears on screen its clear that she is someone that the Doctor and Romana will be able to call a friend and the viewer will be able to warm to and like. They also encounter Miss Fay who’s first appearance should be an indication that she’s got a bit of a dark side to her. I think that Susan Engel plays her brilliantly because whilst there is something intriguing about her.

The location filming is some of the best for quite sometime. I think filming it on the coast lends a different atmosphere to it and considering that about 80% is filmed outside and that is why this has to be one of the strongest episodes of the season. When the story does move inside I am a little bored with it but that’s because the outside seems so much more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, the studio stuff is still better than what was shown in the previous story but I don’t think that it was particularly memorable.

After being disappointed with cliffhangers in previous episodes, it was nice to get back to a solid cliffhanger. Romana is the one facing threat and its literally a cliffhanger. Romana’s screaming is the last thing that is heard before the credits roll. Ok so it’s similar to episode three’s cliffhanger from the previous story, but I still think that it’s a cracking end to a cracking opening episode. I love it when an episode picks me up after being somewhat depressed by a story. It almost makes enduring ‘The Pirate Planet’ worth it now I get to enjoy this story.

The Pirate Planet - Episode 4

The cliffhanger was quite good because it appeared to show the Doctor falling to his death. The way that it was resolved was quite clever because it was a projection of the Doctor. This was demonstrated in quite a good way with a nice bit of split screen. The nurse’s truth is quite good as well because we know about the connection between her and the old woman we saw in the previous episode. She is behind the planet swallowing just to save her own life but like most hair brained schemes it’s doomed to failure.

The Captain becomes a puppet in this episode once the Nurse’s truth is revealed. Though he does get better towards the end of the episode when its revealed that he has had a cunning plan to try and get rid of the Nurse/Queen. I haven’t been a big fan of the Captain during these four episodes but I think that Bruce Purchase gave 100% for the role. I thought that the way the Nurse/Queen Xanxia was defeated was quite good and I thought that in the end the character of Nurse was well written and played by Rosalind Lloyd. Mr Fibuli’s death was quite sad but that was because the Captain managed to make it seem much more emotional. The Captain’s death also had some emotion to it because he died trying to kill the Nurse.

Tom Baker and Mary Tamm have been perhaps the only consistent thing in the entire serial. Tom Baker has had a noticeable bite mark on his top lip and sometimes that has been a bit distracting but on the whole it wasn’t too bad. It’s nice that Mary Tamm got to be quite active. Romana has grown on me over the course of the four episodes and think that a bit of the snobbishness has gone since the previous story and the relationship between the Doctor and Romana is better now than it was when Leela was on the show.

The idea that a planet is actually the second segment of the Key to Time is quite a bold one and one that clearly came from Douglas Adams. The fact they don’t pick up the shrunken planet until after the episode ended does feel like a bit a bit of a shame because we are deprived of that moment where the segment changes into that crystal like segment. I don’t know what happened but I suddenly started liking this story. It seems that everything fell into place and made sense. It’s a shame that it took until now to get to this stage. I think that out of the two so far, The Ribos Operation has been the better of the two. That’s not saying a great deal but I think that this stories saving grace has been the final episode. Things made sense and it was a better written and better performed piece as a result.

The Pirate Planet - Episode 3

I think that its safe to say that I am not a fan of this story. Nothing has really made me change my opinion of this adventure. With the faults that it had, ‘The Ribos Operation’ was a better written story because there were characters that I was interested in and a story that was interesting. As much as it pains me to be mean about Douglas Adams, the story so far hasn’t been anywhere near as good as it should have been. People would be quick to point out that he was writing ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ at the same time which would explain why this story misses the mark. I would say that he should have picked one or the other.

There are positives about this episode. The captain doesn’t seem quite so annoying in this episode and his reaction to the death of his parrot is quite sad. The nurse that suddenly appeared in the previous episode seems to be more involved in things and we suddenly seem to have a trio with the Captain, Mr Fibuli and now the nurse. They just need K9 and Romana and they have their very own Scooby Gang.  

This episode features one of the best scenes in the entire serial. It comes when the Captain shows the Doctor all the planets that he has captured. The rocks that he sees are in fact the planets and this sets the Doctor off. This sees Tom Baker give one of his more serious performances. For a brief moment I was enjoying this story, then its over and my reservations about this story continue.

The fight between the Captains parrot and K9 was a little bit of fun but only because Pennant Roberts managed to make it come together quite well.

The cliffhanger is way better than the previous two because at least it had some tension with it and was well performed. The Doctor falls off the plank and there doesn’t seem to be any way that the Doctor could survive so if I were watching this for the first time then I would say that this is a fantastic cliffhanger but having seen it several times over the years, the best that I can say is that it’s the best cliffhanger so far.