The Robots of Death - Episode 4

I’m going to start on a totally random note and start with the target novels. I am working my way through them and was tempted to start on Robots of Death. It’s quite a fun thing to do where you read the novelisation of the TV story and see the difference between the two versions. I think that Robots of Death is one of those that will be better than the TV version but at the moment I am reading ‘The Deadly Assassin’. Now back to the main bit of business. The final episode is one that I hope isn’t going to disappoint me. It’s funny because I have seen all of these stories countless times and yet I am still unsure sometimes whether I am going to like the episode or not.

The reprise is still good and its resolved when Uvanov kills V4 in quite a violent way by stabbing it in the back of the head. The fact we don’t see it is perhaps worse than if we had seen him stab V4. This is another example of the tone being somewhat stronger than it would have been during the Letts’ era. There is a shot of the robots surrounding the Doctor and Uvanov and I thought that this was a great sinister moment and credit for this moment as well as other moments go to Michael E Briant who shows yet again why he is perhaps the most underated director in Doctor Who.

Taren Capel is the mad scientist who has changed the robots behaviour. He’s also known as Dask and the revelation that he’s wearing the robots costume and has similar face paint on is quite well done because its revealed quickly even though Dask hasn’t been in the story too much and yet when we see him back it seems like a perfectly normal thing. David Ballie’s performance has been really good and in fact all the performances from the surviving supporting cast members have been really good and the annoying ones bit the dust early which is the right way.

The Doctor uses helium gas to change Capel’s voice and this leads to Capel being killed by SV7. Killed by his own creation which seemed like the most sensible way for the story to be wrapped up. I thought that it was ended in a perfectly fine manner and the only thing that I take issue with is that the build up seemed to lack the sort of build up that I would have expected. That said I thought that this was a perfectly fine end to a really good story and I am really looking forward to the next story but I will talk about that a bit more in the next episode review.

The Robots of Death - Episode 3

After the cliffhanger was resovled, I thought that the sinking of the mining ship was going to take longer than it did. I think had the story being underrunning then this might have taken more than a few minutes. As it is, the story doesn’t really waste much time and hits the ground running. The conversation why Leela asks why they do what they do on the mining ship is a nice one because it shows the sadness that the crew face whilst they may not want to admit it. This is where the purpose of Leela starts to make sense because due to the primitive nature of her mind she can puncture the pomposity and absurdity of certain situations and ask the sort of questions that most people probably wouldn’t want to ask.

The shot of SV7 with black eyes that turn red is a very creepy shot and it’s a simple and yet effective shot. This is when Doctor Who is at its best, its when it manages to make the most simplest thing scary. It’s something that works with the weeping angels in the new series but in the classic era its not that regular occurrence. The question of who is making the robots go bad is given a nice bit of mystery when the person is seen on screen yet he is wearing a hood type thing so the closest we get is a close up of his face on a TV screen. The robots start to go a bit mad and go on to kill everyone but they aren’t very good at it and it almost seems like a half-hearted idea.

I like how the Doctor befriends D84. D84 is the ‘dumb’ one so it allows the Doctor to treat him childlike. The humour that D84 brings is perhaps the only bit of humour in the entire episode and story because there are several shots which are quite graphic such as blood appearing on a robots hand, the mangled head of a robot, a robot pulling its hand off after its stuck in the door. I could go on for ages but I wont. After being bereft of anything dark in the previous story,  

It takes 22 minutes for Uvanov to make an appearance. Due to the fact that the story was so good, I forgot that he was even in the story. He arrives just moments before the cliffhanger and the episode ends with one of the robots trying to strangle the Doctor. This is the second time in nine episodes that the Doctor has been strangled. This one is less graphic than when Goth did it in ‘The Deadly Assassin’. It’s still a good end to a good episode. I think that this is one of those rare instances where the story could have been extended, not by much (maybe an episode) but this is definelty the better of the two by Chris Boucher.

The Robots of Death - Episode 2

The cliffhanger deserves a mention as its quite a good one with the Doctor and some unnamed extra being buried by what are suppose to be bits or ore. The Doctor survives because he somehow has a snorkel with him and uses that is a bit more comedy that is starting to creep in. The Doctor and Leela spend this episode being accused of committing murder which considering they spent most of the previous episode not to speaking to anyone, its quite the turnaround for them.

Uvanov runs the risk sometimes of stealing the show because Russell Hunter does a great job of seeming to be totally bonkers. He is the rather clichéd boss who cares more about his bank balanace than he does about his crew which is fine but there is something about Hunter’s performance which makes him stand out. Unlike David Ballie’s performance which knowing what most people who have seen this story before, is very underrated and is deliberately so. This means that we don’t suspect him an when the big reveal comes it will be a great moment.

The finger of suspicion gets pointed at a lot of people and its done to clearly prolong the time before the culprit is revealed. Two more people meet a sticky end and Zilda is one of those which is actually one of the positives that I take from this episode. As annoying characters go, she is one of the most annoying and I was glad when she seemed to have been killed. When you have Pamela Salem and Louise Jameson on the show, you don’t really need any other female performers on the screen. Tom Baker has been somewhat……I don’t want to say ordinary because there is nothing ordinary about Tom Baker but it has been like he currently on autopilot. It’s not surprising really as this is his 64^th episode as the Doctor and Robots of Death is his 16^th story and he is very confident in the role and whilst sometimes the comedy is unnecessary, its hard to deny that he commands your attention.

The cliffhanger is ok with the miner about to meet an unfortunate end. This episode has worked rather well because it’s done a lot of distracting to keep the story going until Chris Boucher is ready to reveal who is actually behind all this and with two more episodes to go I think that this could be the second best story of the season which might not sound like a compliment but considering the number one story is ‘The Deadly Assassin’ then that’s not a bad thing.

The Robots of Death - Episode 1

This is the 444^th episode of Doctor Who and this is the second story in a row to be written by Chris Boucher and I cant recall a time when an author has written two different stories and had them transmitted next to each other. Ian Stuart Black had two stories during the 1960’s and I think Robert Banks Stewart had the same treatment during previous season but not one after the other. I need this story to pick me back up after enduring Leela’s opening story. This story has a nice base under siege vibe with it which is something that I always approve of. Like the previous story this is another studio bound story but whereas the previous story suffered from this I think that not having any location filming actually helped it.

I have always liked Robots of Death and this has been one of the stories during the Tom Baker era that I have been looking forward to. The Doctor and Leela’s scene in the TARDIS is a good one because the Doctor starts his educating of Leela by explaining why the TARDIS is bigger on the inside. This is slightly ruined by Leela replying with the line “that’s silly”. This episode also marks the last time we see the wooden console room which I think is a shame because it looked very nice and much more visually impressive than the white one we would be stuck with for the rest of the classic run.

Dask is played by David Baille and some people will know him for playing the Celestial Toymaker in a couple of Big Finish plays. Another familiar name is Pamela Salem (Toos) who would appear in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ but plays the only other female character (apart from Leela) that isn’t annoying.

This story is essentially a murder mystery spread over four episodes and even though its clear who (or what’s doing the killing) it’s fun watching everyone on the mining ship turn against each other. To be honest most of them are fairly annoying and it will be a good moment when they meet a sticky end or have to endure some misery. The robots themselves are very creepy and I think that its down to the fact that they don’t have any facial expressions and have that rather cold tone to their voice. That’s why they are an effective creation.

This was a cracking opening episode and I have enjoyed this 25 minute episode more than the previous four episodes. It does what an opening episode should do and it does it very well. Ok some of the supporting characters are a bit clichéd and the outfits look rather silly but those are minor issues with what I am sure will be a return to form for the show.

Revenge of the Cybermen - Episode 4

This is the final episode of Tom Baker’s first full season as the Doctor. The reprise that we got at the beginning of the episode is slightly different from the cliffhanger and that’s the shot of Kellman and Harry being taken out. It means that the beginning of the episode is much better than the cliffhanger and it’s a rare thing then that happens. I like the Doctor’s reaction when he learns that Harry was about to unbuckle the belt and makes the rocks fall. “Harry Sullivan is an imbecile” is a line that always makes me laugh. The bit where they are still travelling to the centre of voga doesn’t last that long and it makes way for the rest of the episode.

The fight sequence between Harry, the Doctor and Cybermen was a little disappointing but it was probably the best that they could do. I thought that Lester’s death was quite a good one. He had been a good character throughout the story and the fact that he gave his life to destroy two Cybermen was a noble death.

I’ve not commented on it before now but the Cyber Leader headpiece looks rather silly. It’s like they made no attempt to distinguish the leader from the rest of them. It’s only now that I realise that black and white television lent something good to the Cybermen which is lost now the show is in colour. What caps it off is one scene where the Cyber Leader is walking out of a room with his hands on his hips and rambling. Their demise is also a disappointment because its just them being blown up by the rocket from Voga.  It’s a shame that their only story of the 1970’s is such a let down. That was a weird thing to write. It was over 2,000 days since the Cybermen were last seen and I suspect that it will be the same amount of time before they turn again in ‘Earthshock’.

The idea that the Cybermat is used to kill a Cyberman mirroring the way that they were used in the first episode is quite a good idea. Sadly its only used a couple of times before its dropped and whilst it looks better than when the humans get bit, it means that the chest plate isn’t the only place that can get affected by gold. Even though they are metal, the ‘teeth’ on the cybermats are enough to do the job.

There is a scene where Harry is seen stood on the spot doing nothing. That pretty much sums up his involvement in this story and it’s a blessing that the next story will be his last because Ian Marter really has suffered during the course of this shortened series. Whereas Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen had been largely strong in this shortened season, Marter has been made redundant because the person chosen to be the Doctor is younger than they were anticipating when they cast Marter. Marter isn’t terrible and he’s nowhere near as bad as Jackie Lane but he’s not been one of the best companions.

As a story its not as bad as I remember. Like ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’, this story has some very sound moments but there are small things that due undermine this story and so the final story of Tom Baker’s first season is just about better than his first. I think that over the course of the past twenty episodes, it has been shown the show can survive without Jon Pertwee just as it had survived after Patrick Troughton left the show and after William Hartnell left. The next season will be the first that hasn’t had the Barry Letts touch to it and so I think that the show will go from strength to strength.

Revenge of the Cybermen - Episode 3

Today is the 400^th day of my journey to watch an episode of Doctor Who a day from the very beginning. I am now 50% through and the show has changed in the last 100 episodes and I don’t just mean in terms of leading man or even companions but more the tone of the show. It’s very much got darker since ‘The Daemons’. This is the first full episode that the Cybermen are properly in the story. I still don’t like the guns in the cybermens helmets. It means that they are hand free and I know that its good when your using Bluetooth but when you are on a beacon trying to destroy a planet. Also the voices aren’t quite right. It’s a bit like when the Daleks returned in ‘Day of the Daleks’ that the voices weren’t right.

Kellman does come across as quite a creep in this episode now he is face to face with the Doctor. His departure in the story comes at just the right time but there is a part of me that wonders whether he should have made it till the end and sacrificed it at the decisive moment. The purpose of the Cybermen is finally explained and its a good one because it makes sense. The Cybermen are there because they want to destroy Voga because it is pure gold.

The Doctor, Stevenson and Lester are going to be used to destroy Voga. Which is an interesting way of continuing their involvement in the story. The scenes where they walking through Wookey Hole are quite good and I just like the idea that the Doctor is freely admitting that he hasn’t got a plan but is forming one. It’s very much like the fourth Doctor. There is a nice scene between the Doctor and the Cyber Leader where the Doctor tries to belittle the leader by saying that they are nothing but a bunch of tin soldiers “skulking about the galaxy”. It’s clear that the Cybermen aren’t quite the force they once were and even the way that they have been written and are performing suggest that they aren’t quite the menace they were during their golden age.

Now the Cybermen are fully immersed in the story then I find myself a bit more interested in what is going on. That’s not to say that I can overlook some of the weaker elements of the story such as the vogans. The shoot out between the Cybermen and the vogans is rather silly as the Cybermen guns against the vogan guns. On a slightly more positive note, I do find the sight of the Cybermen walking through Wookey Hole to be a nice one because the contrast between the silver costumes and the brown rocks.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one because it’s the first thing that Harry has done in several episodes. It’s a shame that it could be to cause the death of himself and the Doctor. Of course that wouldn’t happen but it’s fun to imagine what might happen to the Doctor. It’s good that this episode is finally moving but it’s a shame that the Vogans are involved because apart from that I really like this story and its easily the best episode so far.

Revenge of the Cybermen - Episode 2

Just a few days before this episode aired, William Hartnell had passed away which the first loss that the show had suffered. Without Hartnell’s involvement in the show then its hard to believe that the show would be about to approach the 400^th episode. Since Tom Baker took over from Jon Pertwee, the show has found new feet and is going from strength to strength. The previous episode ended with Elisabeth Sladen doing a dance routine with the cybermat that wouldn’t look out of place on Strictly Come Dancing. Within moments Sarah has become infected and the action starts.

The idea that the Doctor can use the trans mat to get the poison out of Sarah is quite clever and there is a nice built of drama built up in trying to get it working after a part of it is missing. Then there is a nice standoff between Kellman and the Doctor with Kellman acting like the tough guy pretending he doesn’t know anything. If it weren’t for Kellman this this story wouldn’t be worth watching.

The story moves a bit more to Voga with Harry and Sarah now find themselves there. I think that its funny how Harry becomes obsessed with the gold that he finds. This is perhaps the most interesting thing that Ian Marter has been up to for several episodes. Another problem that I found with the vogans that capture Harry and Sarah is that they do look a bit like Godfrey from ‘Dads Army’.

The first appearance of the Cybermen in 172 episodes is somewhat understated. It’s just a group of Cybermen in their ship. I always thought that the cliffhanger is when we first seem them. It had been 2,317 days for fans in 1975 since the Cybermen last appeared and it’s good to have them back. They pop up in the brief scene early in the episode but they really don’t get involved in the story until the cliffhanger which is perhaps what should have happened in the previous episode. I really don’t like the Cybermen being able to

There are some familiar faces that appear in this story. William Marlowe previously appeared in the 1971 story ‘The Mind of Evil’ (directed by Michael E Briant), here he plays Lester and its good that he goes from pointing a gun a Jon Pertwee’s Doctor to helping Tom Baker’s Doctor. The next familiar face is that of Kevin Stoney who last time we saw him in Doctor Who was working with the Cybermen oddly enough in the last Cyberman story. The character he plays this time is Tyrum who is the complete opposite.

Whilst I find the stuff on Voga rather tedious, I can’t deny that the cave scenes that were filmed on location were very good indeed. It does provide some entertainment and it’s good that they have finally broken out of the studio for the first time since the early stages of the last Dalek story. They used Wookey Hole to film these scenes and it was famously used in a sketch on ‘The League of Gentlemen” and considering Mark Gatiss is a huge Doctor Who fan (having written a few TV stories and a couple of Big Finish plays.

“The beacon is ours!” I think is a great way to end the episode. I think that the problems that I had with the previous episode are still evident in this episode and that’s a shame because the first appearance of the Cybermen in about seven years isn’t quite the epic event that it should have been. I think that this is the same problem that the Daleks had back in ‘Day of the Daleks’ when they returned after five years the problem was that the theory was that the name alone would help

Revenge of the Cybermen - Episode 1

This is the 20^th episode of Tom Baker’s first season and the final story of that season and the final story of the Arc trilogy. I know that the idea to set this story on the ark was a financial one but its done in a way which makes it seem like it was planned all along. I like the idea that it’s the same place but at a different point in time and the TARDIS will eventually get to them means that the viewer can rest assured that they can relax into the action and our heroes will make it out alive at the end of the story. Despite the familiarity of the setting, one thing that separates this story from ‘The Ark in Space’ is tone. It takes less than two minutes for the first dead body to appear. The group of people on the ark are very different to the ones that we encountered in ‘The Ark in Space’.

Kellman (Jeremy Wilkin) is immediately a great character as he is clearly at odds with the rest of the crew. It’s clear that he knows more than Lester and Warner because he is going to the trouble of removing evidence of signals from the mysterious Voga. Unlike Vira, Rogin & Noah in ‘The Ark in Space’, the characters of Lester and Warner have something about them. They are clearly very weary and untrusting of the Doctor, Harry and Sarah. They have clearly been through a lot and they are infinitely more interesting than Vira and Rogin.

Even though this has Cybermen in the title, the episode is lacking in the silver menace. They are mentioned once or twice. Oh well, its been nearly six months since I last saw them so I suppose I could wait another day. Gerry Davis is teasing us with their return (or Robert Holmes is) and its clearly designed to try and build up some tension and suspense in their return but what I would have wanted is for them to appear at the very end of the episode.

There is one shot of the Doctor, Harry and Sarah walking in the corridor and there is one actor playing a corpse and the rest are dummies. They are clearly dummies and it slightly ruins the illusion of a plague. Sadly this is the beginning of the issues with this story. The next issue are the vogans, the masks just look rather poor and in some cases it’s clear to see where the mask ends and the face begins. Another issue comes when the cybermats attack people. The CSO used to show them jumping is blatantly CSO and it’s just cringing to see people trying to fight them off. In fact the very last shot of the episode is of Sarah trying to fight off the cybermat. I’m sorry but despite the best efforts of Elisabeth Sladen’s acting, its just a rather damp ending to what has been a bit of a mixed episode. There were things that I liked about it but there are things that I am nt so keen on and its these things that I think will undermine the Cyberman’s return. Oh well I suppose that I may be wrong and the next three episodes will change my opinion. I doubt it but one can hope.

Death to the Daleks - Episode 4

As I started to write this I noticed that they had put episode two of this story on the Horror Channel. If only I had started this marathon two days later then I could have watched it whilst it aired on TV. Chances of this happening again are remote but that all depends on Horror. I was less than excited to go through the previous episodes cliffhanger where the Doctor simply says “Don’t Move”. Now everytime I watch this episode I hope that somehow the reveal would be better but sadly this isn’t the case. The problem with this episode is that it starts off very slowly. Despite the Daleks following the Doctor and Bellal, there seems to be no really sense of urgency. There are a few moments which do cause a bit of interest when Bellal turns against the Doctor and when two figures appear and try to stop the Doctor from destroying the city. The parts of the episode with the Doctor were very dull and I found nothing exiting about it.

It’s weird that the Sarah Jane part of the story is more interesting but sort of damning with faint praise really because even the stuff with Sarah Jane isn’t particularly exciting. The only good thing about her portion of the episode is that she is involved with swapping the Parrinium with sand. That’s quite inventive for a companion but shows that Sarah Jane isn’t your dumb companion.

Another thing about this story is that you could have taken the Daleks out and replaced it with any monster. There is nothing special about the Daleks in this story and we get nothing new from them. The Dalek over reacting when he notices that Jill has escaped is sort of the problem with their involvement in this story. The Daleks decide not to kill the Doctor, Sarah and the earth people which makes no sense. Why wait to fire a plague bomb when they could just kill the Doctor there and then? This is one of those things that comes up in every Dalek story or even when the Cybermen and the Master are in a story.

The idea of Galloway sacrificing himself to destroy the Dalek ship is perhaps the only good thing that is done in the entire story. Galloway had always seemed to be on the outside but soon showed why he had been put into the story. I thought that throughout the four episode Duncan Lamont has played Galloway really well and has been the strongest of the supporting characters. Sadly the rest of the supporting characters are quite bland and don’t really stand out and I never found myself wanting them to get of the planet and when I don’t really care about the good guys then I know that the story isn’t working.

It’s not a very good episode but then again the whole story has been something of a disappointment. This is by far the weakest Dalek story that there has ever been and I really think that this season is going to be a disappointment and after the previous season that’s really disappointing. The only good thing to say about this story is that was four episodes instead of six.

Death to the Daleks - Episode 3

The episode of this rather tiresome story starts with the Doctor being attacked by some weird creature that looks like a giant worm. Sarah Jane is stuck with Bellal who is played by Arnold Yarrell and the costume he wears is quite good. He becomes a sort of companion to the Doctor when he decides he doesn’t want Sarah Jane following him into the city.

I haven’t mentioned this but the voices are perhaps the only good thing about the Daleks. Ok the look of them is good but is made even better with the addition of fire. After a while of thinking that this episode was going to be a boring collection of scenes in a corridor so changes when it seems like it’s going to be a chase but that doesn’t last long with the Dalek is defeated by a gap in the wall being thinner that it is.

Just when I have given up on this story (and I’m still not convinced that I won’t), it takes a turn towards something interesting. This is because the story moves properly to the Exillon city which is the cause of the power loss and the moment that the Doctor and Sarah Jane see it (via CSO), it’s a impressive model and the CSO works quite well. There is a lovely moment shortly after which shows the Doctor and Sarah Jane being closer than I had noticed before and it shows how well they have gelled since Elisabeth Sladen joined the show.

When the story moves into the city and they have to follow puzzles I found this to be thoroughly enjoyable. Ok so it’s not the most exciting television that there has ever been but I have been waiting for something entertaining to happen and welcome anything that maintains my interest. They through in a bit of drama with the Daleks just behind Bellal and the Doctor. The bit where they have to follow the maze on the wall is fine for the Doctor but not quite sure how the Daleks can really get away with it considering they only have a sink plunger.

The Dalek that falls into the ‘lake’ after being attacked by the tentacle thing is rather well done. It’s always good when a Dalek is set on fire as it’s a great visual.

The cliffhanger is ridiculous. There is no other way of putting it. If you want people to tune in the following week then you need to give them an incentive to tune it. Why would anyone want to tune in to see how the Doctor and Bellal overcome a pattern on the floor? I know that there were issues concerning the running time but I could think of 1000 ways of ending this episode better. Anyway for the first time since I started watching this episode, I am seeing some positives in this adventure. I only have one episode left and the final Dalek story of the Pertwee era is almost over. Its sad to say that I cant wait.

Death to the Daleks - Episode 2

Anyone watching the previous episode would have wanted the following Saturday to arrive so they could see how the Doctor was going to survive. The truth is rather dull and its that they are affected by the power loss that affected the TARDIS. The Daleks shoot and there is no death which is instantly an interesting idea but sadly any hopes that the story will pick up lasted less than three minutes when the story moves to Sarah Jane and the Exillons.

The scene where the Daleks are talking amongst themselves where they talk about not wanting to reveal their true intentions is a nice moment. There is a moment when they are being attacked by the Exillons and I was thinking why are they screeching when arrows cant hurt them and they could just run away. The shot of one of the Daleks on fire is quite an iconic one and is perhaps the highlight of the entire episode.

The humans that the Doctor encounter are mildly interesting but lost a bit of sparkle when John Abineri got killed by the Exillons. Now they are just a group of rather weary individuals that are trying to pretty much stab the Doctor in the back to get what they need to and get off the planet. That’s pretty much all that is accomplished in this episode.

This is a thoroughly dull episode. It is the first time for quite a while that I have felt so downbeat about a story. I am just greatful that this is a four part adventure could I don’t think that I could have dealt with six episodes of this. At four episodes the plot is stretched a bit and I cant wait to get past this story and that’s a terrible thing to say about a Dalek story. This has to be one of the worst Jon Pertwee’s stories that I have seen and that’s pretty much all I can say about this story so far. I am still holding out a bit of hope that this story will pick up but I’m not holding my breath.

Death to the Daleks - Episode 1

1 year ago today I decided to start my Doctor Who marathon with An Unearthly Child. What a difference a year makes. There has been a whole range of stories and some have been good and some have been bad. We have had reunions and the birth of some classic monsters and villains. Sadly year two starts off with Death to the Daleks which is one of my least favourite Dalek stories. This story is written by Terry Nation and directed by Michael Briant who previously directed ‘The Sea Devils’, so it’s a surprise as to why this story suffers in the way that it does.

It starts off well enough with Jon Pertwee’s stunt double Terry Walsh being killed by a mysterious arrow and then the TARDIS is forced to land after its power source is drained and considering the power that it has its surprising that this has happened. Sadly the moment that the Doctor and Sarah Jane leave the TARDIS the story falls apart. There’s a brief moment when Sarah Jane returns to the TARDIS with one the exillons inside. After this not much happens and its fifteen minutes before we meet any of the supporting characters. One of those is John Abineri who we last saw as General Carrington in ‘The Ambassadors of Death’.

It seems that all the good work that was done with Sarah Jane because from the very beginning of the episode it seems that they have decided to ditch that feistiness and stick her in a bathing suit. Then all she does is shriek and then run around for a bit, get caught and then find herself in trouble. This is the sort of thing that would have been done to Katy Manning and does show that Terry Nation didn’t get the memo about the new companion and how she was suppose to be different to other companions.

The story does start to pick up when Sarah Jane is about to be sacrificed towards the final stages of the episode but it’s the Doctor that gets the cliffhanger when a ship arrives and with the humans thinking that it comes from Earth, they are somewhat shocked to find that it’s Daleks. The last shot is of them shooting at the Doctor and that’s quite a good way to end and episode that hasn’t quite worked in the entertaining department. I don’t know why but I am finding this story rather dull and that’s a weird thing to write in a Dalek and Terry Nation story. I don’t quite know why the story doesn’t work but it just feels like Terry Nation is going through the motions. Whereas people were quite quick to critisce Nation for ‘Planet of the Daleks’ but I think that this has many more issues in that the previous Dalek story. Never mind, things can only get better. Can’t they?

The Green Death - Episode 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Green Death - Episode 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Green Death - Episode 4

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

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

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

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

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

The Green Death - Episode 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Green Death - Episode 2

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

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

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

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

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

The Green Death - Episode 1

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

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

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

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

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

The Sea Devils - Episode 6

The reprise of the cliffhanger starts off with the Doctor fighting the Sea Devils before being knocked out by one. This is where the episode should have ended but instead we got the strange cliffhanger that we did. Despite this slightly poor reprise it but the action moves along quickly enough for us to forget this.

The scene where Jo and Captain Hart are trying to escape through an escape hatch is made enjoyable because Walker is now acting like a scared child. It’s the mirror opposite of how he was acting in the previous episode. He’s back to his old self before too long when he eating and drinking and wanting to blow the sea devils out of the water. Walker has been such a loathsome character and it feels like he had been in the show for the entire six episode run rather than just these two.

Captain Hart now feels like he’s on the Doctor’s side. He’s fighting the sea devils and is doing all the things that anyone on the Doctors side should be doing. There’s one moment where he’s using a bit machine gun and is aiming at the sea devils. I was thinking that it’s the sort of thing that Jon Pertwee should be doing.

There is a good action sequence with the Doctor chasing the Master via hover boat. This was one of two scenes that involved the pair of them. The second one was as the sea devils base explodes and the pair of them are floating on the water. The location scenes have been fun from start to finish and its as if the best was saved until last. The last few moments of the episode are of the Master going off in the hovercraft with the Doctor looking on. I thought that this was a disappointing way to end the episode but that’s not the worst thing in the world.

There are the usual things to like about this episode such as the scene where the Doctor and the Master work together with the Doctor trying to do something that will throw a spanner in the works. Another thing that appears is a nice stunt jump and then there is someone who is asked to guard the Master but quickly falls under the Masters hypnosis.

If I had one critiscm of this episode is that it doesn’t feel like the sea devils are the main priority. It seems like it’s more about the Doctor and the Master and the battle at the navy base. It doesn’t feel like a final episode which is always a bit of a worry for me because I would have thought that they would want to build up to something. That said I still think that as a six part adventure its easily the best one of the season so far. The location footage is what is most memorable about this story and also the Sea Devils makes this a memorable story. Sadly I’ve just noted what is coming next and its ‘The Mutants’ oh well the good times had to come to an end at some point.

The Sea Devils - Episode 5

As we approach the final third of the story. I must say that considering it’s a six part story and considering its part of a rather lacklustre season, I don’t think that the story is going to dragging and with the solid cliffhangers I feel like the series has got back on its feet. It doesn’t take long for us to find out what happened to the Doctor and its leads us to the Sea Devils base.

Walker the Parliamentary Private Secretary is introduced into this episode and instantly comes across as your typical civil servant who gets in the way and looks like he is going to ruin everything. It comes at time when Captain Hart has developed. There is nothing good about Walker and I think that this is what Malcolm Hulke was aiming for.

I don’t know why but the design of the sea devils don’t look quite as impressive as they did before. They also sound quite different to how you would expect them to sound. Apart from that its good that we get a good amount of screen time from them and one of their first scenes comes when the Doctor and the Master are trying to convince the sea devils which course of action is right. It’s rather frustrating then that when the Doctor seems to have got the Sea Devils to see sense than Walker orders the firing.

Jon Pertwee puts in a fantastic performance as the Doctor starts off by trying to broker a peace settlement with the Sea Devils and then by the end of the episode has given Walker a stern dressing down. Roger Delgado is also on fine form and spends the entire episode with the sea devils. There is one moment when he’s walking towards the camera delivery a speech and it’s a great moment because it make Delgado look like an important figure and it’s the first time since his debut that this has really been the case. Sadly, Katy Manning doesn’t really do very much in this episode and I think that she’s a victim of time because with the Doctor, the Master, Sea Devils and Walker, the episode doesn’t really allow for Jo Grant to show how good she is.

I’m still impressed with what the Navy were prepared to let the show use and shoot. The footage of the ships firing into the sea looks impressive and helps lend a real sense that this story is suppose to be taking place at sea. Even something as normal as a submarine rising from the sea looks impressive. The only thing that does let the episode down is the cliffhanger which I have to admit is somewhat disappointing because whilst it might be exciting that the Sea Devils have started to invade the navy base, the fact that the last shot is just one of them holding up their gun is somewhat anti-climatic compared to some of the cliffhangers we’ve had in this story. The episode itself is rather good as the some of the scenes are really good and a new character is introduced to help breathe some freshness into proceedings. With one more episode to go I think that this is definelty the best story of the ninth season.