(577) Time-Flight - Part 2

I’ve come to the conclusion (already) that I am not going to like this story. Probably because at the end of the 25 minute episode, I fail to really see any positives to what I have just seen. The episode does feature a cameo from Matthew Waterhouse, this is only so that people flicking through the Radio Times wouldn’t panic when they didn’t see his name in the credits. The scene is a nice one because the reactions of Nyssa and Tegan are different and yet rational. It’s Nyssa that comes to the realisation that he’s not real when she notices that his star is on him when it was destroyed in the previous story. There is a cameo of the Melkur from ‘The Keeper of Traken’ which is dealt with in the same way. This is perhaps the most exciting thing in the whole episode. That’s a pretty sad thing to say considering that this story features the return of the Master.

It’s good that the Master is bought back but it’s a shame that Anthony Ainley spends most of the episode under the mask of Kalid. I do like Kalid because its still impressive that you wouldn’t be able to tell that it was Anthony Ainley. The only slight issue with this is that when Kalid starts talking it does sound a little bit like Ainley. The death of Kalid does seem to be a bit less simple that it probably would have been with a different writer but its done and the death is quite grim which follows in the traits of other deaths that occur during this season.

I really have trouble coming up with anything in terms of talking about the narrative and that’s because there is simply nothing there. The characters from the two concords are just chewing up the scene and its hard to take anything serious about them. The Professor is perhaps the best of the supporting characters in this episode.

I think the word that comes to mind when thinking about the next two episodes is ‘endurance’. I don’t think that this story is as bad as ‘Four to Doomsday’ but its quite close. The problem is that a) there is no concorde and b) the story is slow and boring and doesn’t grab me in the way that a Doctor Who story should and even with the arrival of the Master, I cant see how this story is going to improve in the next two episodes.

(575) Earthshock - Part 4

This is technically the final episode for Matthew Waterhouse as a companion. Although he appears in the next episode as a mirage, this is really his final story as a companion and the last where he has any interaction with other people. This is pretty much what the episode is building up to because it feels like more effort has been put into the big bombshell as opposed to what the Cybermen are doing. I actually think that the Cybermen don’t really have much to do in this episode. They have done what they needed to do and so just spend a long time enjoying the misery that the humans are about to endure. They have turned the freighter into a bomb and they have put a device which only Adric can stop.

The Cyberman do get one good scene when the Cyber Leader has a nice interaction with the Doctor where they talk about the delights of smelling flowers and seeing a sunset and the Cybermen are talking about emotions being a disadvantage. It’s a nice philosophical discussion which sadly doesn’t last long. The use of the Cybermen have been largely good although I think that they didn’t quite shine as much in todays episode. The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan get back into the TARDIS with several Cybermen and this is another episode where Nyssa has been stuck in the TARDIS. There was a possibility that she would get to go out but is stopped by Scott and his guys when he run into the TARDIS. Despite not being allowed out of the TARDIS I thought that Sarah Sutton was very good in this episode and did well with very little.

I know that I haven’t been particularly positive about Scott’s group and in particular Kyle but I thought that she deserved a better death than that because she’s not facing the camera when she’s shot by a Cyberman. That’s the only death that doesn’t work because obviously the death of Adric is one of the biggest selling points of this story. Adric tries to save the day by figuring out how the deactivate the machine that is hurtling this freight towards earth. He is convinced that he can do it and the moment where there is just one more bit to do the audience thinks that he can escape just in the nick of time but a lone Cyberman stops this. The goodbye scene between the Doctor and Adric is heart breaking because they haven’t always been the best of friends and the row at the beginning of the story highlighted this. The goodbye between Adric and Tegan was also quite sad.

I thought that Adric’s death (his last shot) was very dignified. He was holding his holding something that belonged to his brother and he doesn’t cry or run around screaming but just stands there before the thing blows up and the reaction of the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan to this is a bit mixed really because without the commentary it is quite sad but when you hear it then it loses some of the sadness because the regulars are laughing about it. That said I think that after the loss of a friend it should be treated in a sad manner.

I don’t know if I agree with the idea of having the credit roll over Adric’s broken star badge. Normally there would be some music but I think this over does the sadness that the viewer is suppose to feel. It’s a significant moment (first companion to die since Sara Kingdom) but I think that the end should have been a proper end with the theme tune playing. The episode did what it needed to do and I thought that it was a stronger episode than the previous two. I have been surprised with how much I have improved my opinion about Adric. I still think his costume is a bit silly but as a character I thought that Matthew Waterhouse did quite well and much of the cristiscm that he has faced over the years has been very harsh.

As a story this has been a good one. The Cybermen have been used well and David Banks did a great job as the Cyber Leader. Thankfully it wont be seven years before the Cybermen return but their first adventure of the eighties is a strong one and the final story of the season is going to see a familiar face return and the fallout from Adric’s death.

(574) Earthshock - Part 3

This is the penultimate episode for Adric and this is where the Cybermen final seem to be joining in on the action. This is where the Cybermen begin their plan and start to make their presence felt. At the end of the previous episode, Ringway tells the Doctor and Adric that murderers are executed on his ship. This is pretty much forgotten about after a short amount of time. Ringway became a lot more interesting in this episode once the Doctor and the others learn that he is working for the Cybermen. Sadly this new found interest doesn’t last long as he is killed by the Cybermen (will they never learn).

It’s interesting that both group of humans appear in this episode for a reasonable amount of time because they don’t really seem that dissimilar. I still don’t think that Beryl Reid is a believable captain and think that the crew are a little bit hapless which is how the army crew come across because they spend quite a lot of time stuck in the TARDIS before Scott leaves with Tegan. On that point, Tegan gets to leave the TARDIS but Nyssa spends another episode stuck in the TARDIS with Kyle.

I find it surprising that the Doctor doesn’t realise that the Cybermen are involved until about the 10 minute mark. Once he does then that is when the episode picks up and I really enjoyed what was appearing on screen but found myself somewhat less interested when they weren’t on screen. All the action was taking place in the control room and it seemed like we were missing the party when we weren’t there.

There are a couple of good effects used in this episode. The effect of the Cyberman mixed in with the door is a great visual effect and still looks good today. Another very good effect is the final shot of the episode which is a shot of Cybermen marching towards the screen but its been copied and pasted to make three liens thus doing a great job of implying that there are more than just a handful of Cybermen. The cliffhanger itself was quite a good one because just the visual of what this means is a great way to end an episode and even though it does have the impact that the first cliffhanger does doesn’t mean that there wasn’t something to like about it.

This episode does seem to be another one of two halves but unlike the previous episode, I thought that it worked quite well. I am impressed with how quickly the story seems to be moving. It’s weird to think that the end of Adric is almost here but I think that so far the first Cyberman story in seven years is one of the strongest for quite sometime and shows how a Cyberman story should be set up.

(573) Earthshock - Part 2

Well the shock came at the end of the previous episode with the return of the Cybermen. Thankfully we get a lot more of them in this episode but the thing is that it takes an awful long time for the action to get going because there is all the busy with the Doctor and his friends trying not to get shot by the androids. Once the androids are dealt with then the thing does feel like it’s actually trying to move on. I like how Adric gets to be a bit heroic for the first time in a long time when he destroys one of the androids. Adric really does shine in this episode for me. Apart from that moment, I like the scene with him and the Doctor where he announces that he doesn’t actually want to leave and did all the calculations just to prove a point. It’s the exact opposite of their opening scene in the previous episode. I suppose it makes what is about to happening even more heart-breaking (although I am a bit more cynical so won’t be wiping away a tear).

The hatch business did show me that the low lighting hides the fact that it’s a studio and the low lighting continues when the plot moves to a freighter which is on its way to earth. We are introduced to a team led by Briggs. Briggs is played by Beryl Reid who I have seen in the BBC version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy playing the role that Kathy Burke played in the 2012 movie. The problem that I have with her casting is that she doesn’t come across as a captain, she just seems like a old woman who hasn’t got a clue about what she’s agreed to. Another problem is that Ringway is an irritating character and just seems like he’s there to whine and complain a lot. The only one who seems even remotely normal is Ringway (played by June Bland). Apart from that the crew of the freighter seem exactly the same as the cave crew.

This is where in the shows history that it starts the nostalgia nods. It does a nice job of pointing out some of the previous adventures that the Doctor has had with the Cybermen. I suppose its needed really because there will be people who haven’t seen any of the 1960’s Cybermen stories and as this is only the second story since the sixties finished then it’s a helpful addition. I just wish that the Cybermen were more involved in the story and the word that I would describe this episode is frustrating because I think that the Cybermen are somewhat out of the way in this episode and that’s a shame really.

I thought that the cliffhanger was a bit sloppy really because the Doctor and Adric are leaning over two dead bodies before Ringway announces to them that on the freighter, murderers are executed. I cant say that this is a particularly strong cliffhanger but I suppose that after the previous cliffhanger the rest of them were always going to be a bit of a let down but I just felt that it lacked something but I have seen much worse.

(572) Earthshock - Part 1

Earthshock is an important story in Doctor Who because it marks the return of the Cybermen and also the departure of Adric from the show. The former is more interesting because they were a regular feature in the 1960’s. They appeared in 5 stories in three years from 1966 to 1969 and in the subsequent 12 years, they only appeared in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’. In an interesting statistic, Cyberman episode accounted for 10% that were transmitted whereas during the 1970’s it was 1.5%. Anyway the most important thing about this story to many is the death of Adric. I have to say that before I started this marathon I would have been looking forward to this story but having recently found a new appreciation for Adric, I think that this story takes on a whole new meaning. I personally think that this is one of the best Peter Davison stories but it had nothing to do with not liking Adric before.

The story starts off with a crew that are going into some caves for people that have gone missing. I have to say that I think that they are some hapless during this episode that I struggle to muster any interest in them. They manage to get picked off by the androids with a great deal of ease. Even when they come across the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan it seems that they cant do serious with any great enthusiasm. The regulars start off with quite a row because Adric decides that he wants to go back to E-Space and this leads to the Doctor going a bit OTT about it. They end up underground and come across some bones.

The episode plods along rather well because of one new technique used. The lighting has been turned down and this means that there is quite an atmosphere which is something that cant be created with bright light. The claustrophobic feel to the adventure also helps make it feel like more happens in the episode than actually happens. The androids appear at moments and the lighting benefits them because then can move about quite easily. The Cybermen make their first appearance in 170 episodes and even though they are on screen for just a few seconds, its amazing what impact they have. It has to be one of the best cliffhangers in recent times on the show. Knowing that they appear does take some of the thunder out of the ending but watching in 1982 it must have been an OMG moment which doesn’t happen in Doctor Who. John Nathan Turner turned down a cover on the Radio Times to hide the fact that the Cybermen were returning. This was a brave and ultimately wise move. I remember how the human Dalek from ‘Daleks in Manhattan’ was ruined by the Radio Times so at least common sense was used here.

This hasn’t been quite the sprint out of the starting blocks that I hoped and remembered. There is some good stuff with the regulars but to be honest, when the story moves back to the hapless crew then I lose a bit of interest because I think that the regulars’ story is more interesting and the departure of Adric is the most interesting aspect of that.

 

(571) Black Orchid - Part 2

The bonus of having a two parter adventure is that there is very little time for padding so its easy to enjoy it more. If I look back at previous two-parters, they have all rated quite highly. I commented on the previous episode that this was already a better story for Terence Dudley than ‘Four to Doomsday’ and that’s definelty the case by the end of this episode. This is the 38^th episode for Matthew Waterhouse which ties him with Roger Delgado and Maureen O’Brien. If your interested Janet Fielding is on 22 episodes (3 behind Caroline John) and Sarah Sutton is on 23.

The first that tis dealt with the discovery that the Doctor made of the dead servant that was stuffed in the cupboard. The Doctor comes also comes across Lady Cranleigh who appears to be determined to hide things and the first chance she gets she achieves this. The fun thing at the beginning of the episode is that Adric is still eating although that quickly stops when the Doctor finds himself in trouble. This is the main bit of the episode because the Doctor is accused of the murder of the servant that the masked figure killed at the end of the previous episode.

It is perhaps the rather implausible idea that the Doctor is a victim of mistaken identity and the Doctor decides that he is going to prove that he didn’t commit the murder by showing everybody the TARDIS. It’s quite clear that given time, the truth would have been revealed and the Doctor wouldn’t have needed to show everyone and their dog the TARDIS and its interior. The idea that the Police Box has been transported from the railway station to the police station is one that seems like an odd thing to do because the story doesn’t really benefit from the story moving to the police station.

The episode sees the introduction of the disfigured murderer who is revealed as the person who was going to be engaged to Ann and what I like is that there is a whole wealth of backstory that is explained and in just under a minute its all explained which means that the viewers attention can now be shifted to the new threat of George taking Nyssa thinking that she is Ann. All the shots on top of Cranleigh House is rather exciting and is the most actioned packed part of the episode. It’s seems quite sad that after letting Nyssa go, that George falls to his death. It is perhaps a rather downbeat way to end the story which is a shame really because Lady Cranleigh is the one that should have met a grizzly end.

The final scene takes place after the funeral which is a rare example of the Doctor and company not leaving the story the moment the threat is dealt with. The last shot is of a book that the Doctor is given which was written by George Cranleigh before he became disfigured. It’s a rather downbeat way to end things but as it’s the first pure historical story since ‘The Highlanders’ way back in 1966/67 it was a good two part adventure. The story worked for the length that it was and the performances were as good as they could have been because it seems that something that is quite amusing and listening to the commentary, its clear that the regulars don’t really like this story (Sarah Sutton is perhaps more positive but is then reminded that she might be biased), but I think that this is a much better story that they think it is and compared to the next story, this one is quite upbeat in tone. The ending is coming for one of the regulars, but the moment has been prepared for.

(570) Black Orchid - Part 1

Black Orchid is an interesting story because it’s the 120^th Doctor Who story and also it’s the first two part story since season 12’s ‘The Sontaran Experiment’ and by my reckoning, its only the 4^th two parter story in Doctor Who so far. This is the 37^th episode for Matthew Waterhouse and this means he overtakes Anneke Wills and Michael Craze, its hard to believe he has been in for 37 episodes and sadly he doesn’t do a great deal in this episode because he stands and watches the Doctor play cricket (more of that later), then he tries to dance and then he starts eating. This story was written by Terence Dudley who wrote the less than stellar ‘Four to Doomsday’. There was no way that Dudley could write a worse story in two episodes that his debut story.

The big selling point in this story is that Sarah Sutton plays two characters in this story. Not only is she playing Nyssa as usual but she plays Ann Talbot, she looks and sounds exactly like Nyssa and its great to see the effects that are used to have two Sarah Sutton’s on the screen. I think back to the bit in ‘Enemy of the World’ where the Doctor and Salamander appear on screen and that was 1968 so its interesting to see how well things have progressed in 14 years.

The episode starts off with the Doctor and company at a train station and the Doctor gets taken to be another Doctor and within minutes he is playing cricket which is in keeping with his outfit. The Doctor as it turns out is quite good at Cricket and there is good couple of minutes which is given over to this but its quite entertaining but this would never have happened during the Tom Baker era.

The story is moving towards a ball which is taking place at Cranleigh house and this means that we get to see Tegan dancing which is quite good and its good enough I think to get Janet Fielding on Strictly Come Dancing. Tegan doesn’t do a great deal but then again there isn’t a great deal to do. As an aussie, she appreciates some good cricket and then becoming friends with Sir Robert Muir (Moray Watson). I thought that Watson is very good as Muir because he seems like he’s just come out of Downton Abbey but is better. Lady Cranleigh is another good piece of casting because Barbara Murray also seems to have come out of Downton Abbey. Her disbelief that Nyssa isn’t a Worcestershire Talbot is amusing. Michael Cochrane is great as Lord Cranliegh, I could watch Cochrane is pretty much anything and here he is just fantastic. The Doctor spends the latter part of the episode in a dressing gown (which is an odd thing to see) and goes looking for something after someone pinches his fancy dress costume. After doing such a great job in playing cricket that he deserves the chance to take it easy.

It’s a much better episode for Terence Dudley than ‘Four to Doomsday’ and Ron Jones has done a great job in keeping the story going and its easy to see why the story is a two parter because I don’t think that there is anything that would sustain four episodes. The cliffhanger is rather good because the masked figure (who pinch the Doctor’s costume) has strangled a servant and is about to strangle Ann so the end to the episode is perhaps the most exciting part of the episode but that’s not a critiscm as the whole thing works very well.

(569) The Visitation - Part 4

The cliffhanger from the previous episode wasn’t the strongest one in the world so the episode didn’t start in a particularly good manner. In fact the thing is it takes about 10 minutes for things to really get going. Thankfully once it does then it really gets going. Going back to the beginning I must admit that the way the Doctor gets out of his situation was quite clever and I didn’t see it coming. Now once the story moves to London it seems to find its feet. This is the episode where Nyssa finally gets to active her sonic boom thing that she spent so long of the previous episode putting together.

The funniest sight in the entire episode and perhaps story is that of Adric kicking the android to stop it from getting inside the TARDIS. It’s just a ridiculous sight and it’s a funny moment just before the android is blown to pieces.

The companions are all working quite well together and Adric’s best moment (apart from kicking the android) is when he actually pilots the TARDIS. This is something that is a bit of a burning issue because really the Doctor should be the one piloting the TARDIS. Plus the old short hop thing is something that never really got done before Tom Baker’s final set of stories and yet its done with regularity during the Davison era.

When the story moves to London I thought that the sets were really good and the film look to it worked really well and I wish that the story had moved to London earlier because the quality is much better. This is where a fire starts which suggest that the Doctor started the Great Fire of London. I like the idea that the Doctor causes historical events. I seems like it was all meant to be and well thought out and not just added on as a last minute thing.

I really liked this story but felt that certain parts of it didn’t work quite as well as I thought it did in the past. The crowded TARDIS thing wasn’t as much of a problem as it has been so far this season but as a four part story I thought that it worked rather well and I liked the location filming and the writing has been rather good. Eric Saward gets a bit of stick from time to time but I thought that the historical aspect helped the story. Peter Moffatt directed this story with a nice sense of enthusiasm and even made the TARDIS scenes to be interesting which is quite an achievement bearing in mind how static they can be from time to time.

(568) The Visitation - Part 3

It was obvious that the Doctor and Mace weren’t going to be decapitated partly because they are two central characters to the story and secondly the scythe that is used is too big to do any damage to the Doctor’s head. Once that is over the story sees the Doctor and Mace spend a little while locked up and then they have a scene with the Terileptil which does serve one purpose and that it explains just what the plan is and its simply to wipe out humanity and it does a great thing of using a real historical event (in this case the plague) for the purposes of television. Now that this has been explained it feels like the story can actually build towards something.

Sadly Adric does suffer from not doing very much because he goes from the house to the TARDIS and spends a bit of time there talking to Nyssa and not doing very much before leaving and then getting captured. Nyssa is slightly more productive but she’s stuck in the TARDIS for the entire episode making the sonic boom thing which may or may not work. Tegan perhaps has the best time during this episode although that is perhaps stretching the term slightly. She is still under hypnosis and by the end of the episode she is about let out the rats. Despite not really doing very much when its laid out like this, its surprising then that it feels like the story moved along as a good pace.

The episode is significant for being the last time that the sonic screwdriver would be seen in the classic era. The sonic screwdriver was first seen in ‘Fury from the Deep’ back on March 16^th 1968 and it was written out in quite a good way when its destroyed by the Terileptil. I don’t agree with JNT that it was a easy way out for the Doctor because its not like he used it literally for ever situation. Anyway it wont be seen on this marathon until April 11^th according to my list of dates and episodes. This is the thing that stands out about this episode which might sound like there wasn’t anything in this episode but I enjoyed it very much and the death of the Sonic screwdriver is the thing that stands out about this episode.

The cliffhanger is perhaps not as strong as it could have been because there cant have been that much peril from Tegan opening a box but at this point in the story I can forgive writer Eric Saward for this brief weakness.   

(567) The Visitation - Part 2

The second episode doesn’t have John Savident in it (booo) but it does have a lot of other things which work very well. The cliffhanger of the previous episode was quite clever really because the Doctor had disappeared but when the episode starts it turns out that he went through a energy barrier which was designed to give the impression that the stairs led to nothing. The effect used to create this was quite good and even compared to todays standards it holds up.

This is the episode where the regulars get separated. After being inactive in the previous serial, its nice that Nyssa is given something to do and is tagged with the Doctor and as a result gets a lot more screen time. Tegan and Adric spend the episode together and its nice that they seem to be getting on with each other. There isn’t any bickering or back biting that would normally have happened between these two. They spend a fair amount of time locked up and they managed to escape which I found to be rather implausible but the objective really was to split up Tegan and Adric.

The Terileptil is introduced in this episode and I think that the headpiece is rather splendid, the rest of it looks like a bloke in a suit but the headpiece is quite effective and striking because it looks like the flesh has rotted and for 1980’s Doctor Who its one of the best headpieces that there has been. The only thing about the Terileptil that is a bit confusing is just what is its plan? Apart from that I thought that the Terileptil’s involvement in the story was well done and I think as a villain its quite good.

The cliffhanger is one that we have seen before and quite recently. It sees the Doctor (and Mace) about to be decapitated which is what happened during one of the cliffhangers in ‘Four to Doomsday’ so it seems like if it worked once then it could work again. I actually think that this one is more effective than the previous one because the darkness of the tone allows this cliffhanger to be more striking than in the rather bland surroundings of ‘Four to Doomsday’. So at the halfway point this story is moving far too quickly for my liking, I wish there were more episodes of this story left but I suppose that this is credit to Eric Saward and Peter Moffatt for producing this story and making it work as well as it has so far.

(566) The Visitation - Part 1

The Visitation is one of those stories that I have always had a soft spot for. It’s a story that seems quite fun although in recent years I have been watching this story with the amusing audio commentary on it. After being really impressed with the previous story I was hoping that the good form would continue. This era of the show was one story would link into the other and so once the opening scene was completed the TARDIS crew started they are referring to the events of Kinda. Now I think this is a good idea because it’s a bit like the very early days of Doctor Who where most William Hartnell stories would follow one another. There is more reference to Tegan trying to get back to Heathrow 1981 and the ‘goodbye’ scene between Tegan and Nyssa is very emotional and it’s a shame that its spoilt by the revelation that they have arrived at Heathrow, but just 300 years early.

The opening scene is quite fun just because it features John Savident who is perhaps best known for playing Butcher Fred Elliot in the ITV soap ‘Coronation Street’ from 1994 to 2006. Every time I see him in this I am expecting him to act like he did in Corrie. Sadly, Savident isn’t in the story for very long because as soon as the seen is over then that’s it. The scene also does a good job in setting up the main thing about this episode and that is the mystery of just what has invaded the house. We never see the person that kills several people and causes some damage.

The Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric eventually leave the TARDIS and the first thing that strikes me about their first scenes outside of the TARIDS is just how nice the location footage is. I know that its something I have gone on about in recent stories but I cant help it. After spending the last eight episodes stuck in a studio, it was nice to be outside. The inclusion of Michael Robbins as Richard Mace was a masterstroke and is central to the reason why I like this story so much. He is fantastic from start to finish and after enjoying the performances from Richard Todd and Simon Rouse in the previous story, its nice that the strong performances continue.

This is an interesting opening episode because it sets things up nicely and the whole thing moved along quite quickly. The only thing that stood out and not in the best way is the robot that does appear. It looks very 1980’s and there is worse to come when there is a shot of its hand which looks like a cricket glove that has some gems on it. Apart from that this episode is just as fun as I have thought of it in the past and its good to have Nyssa back in the story.

(565) Kinda - Part 4

This episode is the one where there is some cracking CGI on offer. The beginning of the episode sees the departure of Panna but what’s quite clever is that the soul/essence goes into Karuna who really gets to get involved in the story and I think that Sarah Prince has been one of the underated people in this story. Due to the fact that there have been some stunning performances it was inevitable that she would fall down the pecking order but on a ‘normal’ story she would have stood out more. The standout performances from this story continue to be Hindle and Sanders. They have literally resorted to children because Hindle delivers a line to Adric and says “Outside is for grownups”. Both Hindle and Sanders are great from the very beginning where they are making people out of cardboard to the very end where they are back to normal and seem like friends. Both Simon Rouse and Richard Todd have been great and are probably my two favourite pieces of casting for this entire season.

The episode is building up to the big scene which actually starts in a rather nice scene with the Doctor and Hindle. Hindle tells the Doctor that the Kinda don’t like the mirror and it takes several minutes for the Doctor to twig what to do so when he does it leads the Aries being confronted in a circle of mirrors and this leads to one of the things that let the story down when it aired in 1982 and was released on VHS but is thankfully resolved on the DVD version. The big Mara snake is revealed and in the 1982 version it’s a bit disappointing, well completely disappointing however with the technology now much better what we get on the DVD version is a lovely snake which manages to make it look like it was apart of the original filming. It interesting that the Doctor doesn’t actually have to do anything to stop the Mara, its all done with the mirrors. One of the rare (ish) occasions where the Doctor’s actions don’t really save the day.

After being out of the story since the first couple of minutes, Nyssa finally makes an appearance in this episode but its not until the last two minutes of the episode where she says she’s fine and goes back into the TARDIS. It’s a shame that Nyssa got used in this manner, it would have been possible to find a way where Nyssa could have been used better and not be part of the story. It was done well enough in the previous story so this is the only thing that I think Christopher Bailey did wrong with the story. Apart from that I thought that this was a cracking story. Some of it I didn’t really understand but on the whole I enjoyed enough of it to think that this was the best story of the season but knowing what is coming up I cant say this will be the case by the end of the season. It’s definelty better than when I first watched it many years ago.  

(564) Kinda - Part 3

The third episode of this story is one that is a bit difficult to really but not because its boring or uninteresting but just because I found a lot of it on a level that I don’t understand. The episode starts off with us finding out the contents of what was in the box and some might be disappointed with it just being a puppet but I thought that in the context of the episoe that it was quite a fun resolvement. The thing about this episode is that it features very little of Tegan. In fact apart from a couple of quick shots of her on the floor asleep, she plays no involvement in the development of the plot which I thought was a rather bizarre thing to do for a character that has been so integral to the plot.

Adric spends his time trying to get out of playing games with Sanders and Hindle. Speaking of Hindle, he continues to be fantastic in this episode and what makes his performance so strong is that he gets to act against Todd who is just as barmy and I just think that this is the sort of double act that Big Finish could make a series out of these two. Adric is great in this episode and I thought that despite not actually doing anything he somehow manages to keep himself busy. The Doctor spends his time with Todd and they seem to steer the narrative of the episode and by the end they find themselves in sort of weird psycadelic world where they are watching over events. It’s another barmy moment but visually its an impressive sight and there isn’t a moment which I found myself bored with what was going on.

A big improvement came in the form of Aris who in the previous episode wasn’t convincing as the Mara but in this episode I thought that he was much better in this episode and was believeable as a baddie. This episode saw the introduction of the Trickster who I (and maybe you) have seen as the Landlord in the BBC sitcom ‘Bottom’ and as a teacher in ‘Grange Hill’ from 1990 to 2002. The Trickster is a character that fits in very well with this story.

I really liked the episode and though that it was building up to a thrilling conclusion. The performances were strong and the whole thing was directed very well and the thing about this story is that despite it being filmed entirely in a studio and there being things talked about that I either don’t understand or don’t care about, I still think that this is one of the strongest stories of the season so far after the wobble that was ‘Four to Doomsday’ its clear that the new series is going to survive not just a new Doctor but a new style in transmitting.

(563) Kinda - Part 2

The thing about this story is that whilst I may not understand all the bits and pieces about whats going on I can still say that I am enjoying it. This second episode is still just as bonkers as the first. The episode introduces two new characters who are quite integral to the story (well one of them anyway). The first is Panna who according to the information text on my DVD, appeared in the original version of ‘The Prisoner’. Anyway as Panna, she gives a rather dignified yet mesmorising performance and I liked her as a character. She was with Karuna who is a young girl and is basically Panna’s eyes. They are only really in the episode in order to give Sanders a box. The effect used when he looks inside the box is very good although I thought that Sanders’ contribution was a bit flat.

There are two performances which really stand out but before I mention them I have to talk about Nyssa because due to what is going on from start to finish, I didn’t think about Nyssa until I was writing this review. It shows just how unnecessary having three companions is. The two performances were Janet Fielding and Simon Rouse. Both give fantastic performances for different reasons. Fielding’s performance is great because it starts off as a rather scared Tegan where she is talking to herself (quite literally) and then by the end she has become the human form of the Mara. When she wakes up back on Deva Loka, she gives one of her best performances ever and she seems to be having the time of her life. The performance that Rouse gives is arguably one of the greatest in Doctor Who. His madness is unlike anything that has really been seen in Doctor Who before or since.

If I had to make one critiscm of the episode it would be that I didn’t find Aris convincing when he had the Mara on him. Considering he spent the previous episode and most of this episode as a mute then it would have been best to keep him that way because he just doesn’t really work as anything else. That is really as bad as it got because the cliffhanger wasn’t bad. The fact that Todd ended the episode screaming might be a bit bad but I thought that considering she hasn’t done it up until this point means that whatever is in the box really is terrifying (obviously I know different). But it works as a cliffhanger and ends the episode in a good manner and complimented the episode.

So two episodes in and my opinion of the story is that its working well and all the characters have something to contribute and others really stand out amongst a good group of performances.

(562) Kinda - Part 1

Ok so After not being bowled over with ‘Four to Doomsday’, it was time to get ready for this story which is one of those that I really disliked when I first watched when I bought it on VHS many years ago but in recent years I have started to appreciate the story. I have to say that on the basis of this episode I am going to like the story more than ever. This is a story that is Nyssa-lite and that’s because the problem with having a crowded TARDIS is evident and after a brief scene, she is hurried into the TARDIS and that is it until episode four. This story is a Tegan story because she features in it so much.

Tegan’s story is one that is very interesting because its all in the mind. She first comes across Anatta and Annica (Anatta played by Eastenders star Anna Wing). They are playing chequers which is mirroring what Nyssa and Adric were doing at the beginning of the episode and I think that was really clever and a nice thing by writer Christopher Bailey. The next interesting figure she encounters is Dukkha (played by Jeff Stewart). The three characters that Tegan meets are very striking and its hard to find something terrifying in their performances and how they look.

It’s not just Tegan that’s getting some good stuff to do in this story as Adric and the Doctor encounter the colonists. They are all brilliant with Simon Rouse being the best of the trio as Hindle. He starts off the episode as a bit of a whinger but by the end of the episode he is going to kill the Doctor and so has clearly gone barking mad. The next character that is fun to watch is Richard Todd who plays Sanders. He might as well be called Colonel Sanders because his views do seem somewhat outdated and really all that you can do is just laugh at his backward thinking.  Nerys Hughes plays Todd and is the only one out of the three that has any sense to her character. She is the one that actually treats the Doctor properly so is the one that will the fans will be liking.

The episode is a great opening one that tells two sides of the story well and sets things up nicely. I will be honest and say that I haven’t missed Nyssa despite being a big Nyssa fan but I think that just shows how well Christopher Bailey has written the story and how well Peter Grimwade has directed a story that moves along well and at no point was I bored during the course of this episode which wasn’t the case at all during the previous four episodes.

(561) Four to Doomsday - Part 4

So there is a small possibility that there would be something in this episode that elevated it above the previous three and then I remembered that there is one moment that is usually used when talking about Peter Davison’s time on the show and that is the moment when he plays cricket outside of the ship. I forgot to write in the previous review and say that it got 6.88 which is the first time that an episode got under the sevens since part three of ‘The Horns of Nimon’. One reason why I was worried that this episode would get another under seven score when the dancing returns because as I may have mentioned before, I don’t really like the dancing because it doesn’t really add anything to the story.

I did notice in the early stages that the tempo was very low and there didn’t feel like an urgency which was odd considering that this was the final episode. Tegan also spends most of the episode in the TARDIS so it seemed like this was her episode to do very little. The episode seems to be building up to the great moment where the Doctor is trying to get to the TARDIS and is cast adrift and uses a cricket ball to give him momentum to get to the TARDIS. Now obviously, scientifically speaking this nonsense but as a piece of entertainment its great because it just looks awesome. On an effects level it was very good because it still looks good compared to todays standards.

The final few minutes of the episode are quite good and I like how the Doctor shows a more aggressive side when he throws the virus at Monarch which leads him to shrink and thus ends his plans. It does happen literally without about a minute left to go and then they board the TARDIS. It’s a shame that this happened towards the end of the final episode instead of the first episode. If this had been the case then I would have been a bit more positive towards the story and also Terence Dudley. As it stands I think that this story has been utterly disappointing and I would be surprised if this story isn’t the weakest story of the season. Another plus point (lets end on a positive note), is that the cliffhanger with Nyssa fainting for no reason. Kinda is up next and that will be an interesting experience.

(560) Four to Doomsday - Part 3

So this story is one that is never going to rank highly in my Doctor Who ratings but at least this story is consistent, consistently bad but at least it was consistent. The problems with this episode continue from the previous episodes and that there is a lot of talking and stuff happening but I would be at a loss to explain what I thought happened. What I would say about this episode is that there was one thing that I did actually like. You might want to have a sit down for a moment but there was something more substantial that the cliffhanger to write about.

The thing that was a positive for this episode was the development of Adric. He does seem to be back to the Adric that we saw in ‘State of Decay’ because he’s quite conniving and not a team player. I thought that this was something that worked well in the favour of adding some conflict between the four regulars. Unfortunately, Nyssa is the one that’s given the short straw in this serial and suffers the fate of being put under. She only becomes useful towards the end asking the Doctor for his sonic screwdriver and a pencil.

The purpose of what Monarch was doing is explained but to be honest I was so distracted from the story that I neither understand nor care really about what was going on. The thing about Monarch is that he likes to act like the big man but the moment that he is questioned by Enlightenment and Persuasion then he throws a bit of a hissy fit. That’s slightly frustrating although I would say that the visual of the three of them in the chamber is quite good and that’s the only reason for having those scenes in it.

It’s another poor episode and the sooner that I finish watching the next episode the better so I can get on with some better stories. The commentaries of the Peter Davison DVD’s are fantastic if you get the chance to listen to them because they rip these stories to shred (some warrant it more than others) and I was so bored with this story that I was tempted for a while to actually listen to that instead.

(559) Four to Doomsday - Part 2

So its clear that this story isn’t going to improve in my opinion and the problems with this story are even more evident in this episode. I think that Terence Dudley has not really grasped what makes a Doctor Who story because he has written a story that manages to fill the entire running time and yet only have one 10 second moment which has something interesting in it. The problem would normally be that the writer doesn’t know what the new Doctor is going to be like but on this occasion Terrence Dudley has totally missed the mark.

First thing that comes to mind about just how wrong he got it came with the dances. Now its not just one brief moment of dancing but there are several minutes of this and the Doctor and Adric are watching them. It’s nice to know that there isn’t any great rush to sort things out. The other problem is that in between these pointless but visually nice moments, there is a mystery about the ship that isn’t given nearly enough screen time.

The mystery about what the title actually means is something that doesn’t really get resolved. It was mentioned in the reprise that they are four days left before they get to earth. No real detail is given as to what will happen when they get to earth but the word doomsday in the title could have done with a bit of explanation instead of one of the dances.

The only time there is anything interesting is when Bigon reveals that he is infact an android but sadly this comes so late in the episode that I had lost any real excitement about it but I will say that this was a much better cliffhanger than the first one. This is one of those short reviews because so little happened that I just cant be bothered to write anything else so that’s that for today.

 

(558) Four to Doomsday - Part 1

Four To Doomsday was actually the first story that Peter Davison recorded as the Doctor and it was written by Terence Dudley who becomes the 50^th credited writer of Doctor Who and becomes the first person to be credited as a writer and a director. On this occasion I have to say that this story has never been one of my favourites and I am afraid that on the basis I can’t say that the opinion is going to change. I don’t think the reason is because it was Peter Davison’s first story but because the story isn’t very interesting.

The problem ultimately with the episode is that very little happens. The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan & Adric arrive and spend a while having a look around before coming across the Monarch and his associates who call themselves Enlightenment and Persuasion. They looked quite good as a creation and I thought that Stratford John is a good piece of casting. Sadly they don’t look the same for long as after a drawing from Tegan Enlightenment and Persuasion become a bloke and a woman. This revelation comes forms a cliffhanger. I can’t say that this was a particularly good cliffhanger because if I were watching in 1982 then I wouldn’t say that there would be much of an incentive to watch the next episode.

Whilst I cant say anything positive about the story I can at least say something good about the TARDIS crew. They seem rather friendly with each other considering that in later stories they don’t seem quite the cohesive unit in future stories. This episode starts the season running gag about Tegan trying to get back to Heathrow in 1981 begins here. Considering that she outlasts both Adric and Nyssa, its weird to see her fretting about getting back. Even though she’s told repeatedly that she could get back just moments after leaving in Logopolis, she still keeps banging on about wanting to get back. I get the feeling that this is going to be a problem during the course of this season. As for Adric and Nyssa, they don’t have much to do in this episode. Peter Davison seems to be having fun in this episode and its perhaps no surprise considering this was really his first episode as the Doctor.

As I mentioned this was a bit of a disappointing episode and the next three episodes are going to be a bit of a tough watch. Maybe there is something that is going to pop out and show me I am wrong. I meant Burt Kwouk is in this story so that must mean something.

 

(557) Castrovalva - Part 4

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

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

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

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

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

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