(601) The Kings Demons - Part 2

This episode starts off with the reprise and its never made clear whether the other people in the banquet room know that Estram has changed into the Master. The King is revealed to be a fake King although he does make The Doctor a knight and also the kings champion. The problem with this episode is that I still feel like there is padding going on which for a two-parter. It takes quite a long time for the episode to actually find its feet.

Tegan is the one that is the voice of reason when she suggests that they should leave and yet it takes about another 20 minutes to do so. This episode sees the introduction of Kamelion and its at this point that the episode starts to pick up. If you thought I was negative about K9, trust me K9 is like one of the greatest ever compared to Kamelion. There is nothing good about the character and it was always ambitious to think that Kamelion would do anything of any note.

Turlough is move from one area to another and as a result doesn’t actually do anything. Tegan  spends a fair amount of time in the TARDIS. So they are just being kept busy which is a shame really.

The story is ended simply by the Doctor, Turlough, Tegan and Kamelion boarding the TARDIS. That’s it. That was worth two episodes? It has to be the worst two parter and Terrence Dudley’s track record continues to get worse. The next time that he will be see Kamelion is in Planet of Fire so it wasn’t going to be the most used companion.

This episode is a disappointing end to what has been largely a good season. I don’t know if I am being too harsh on Terrence Dudley but I can only go based on what was put on TV. Everyone is doing their best with what they are given. I thought that Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson & Anthony Ainley are triying their best to hide the shortcomings of the plot and also the creation of Kamelion. Oh well this story is thankfully out of the way and I am really looking forward to the 90 minute Doctor Who adventure which sees a lot of classic elements of the show bought back to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of the show.

(600) The Kings Demons - Part 1

Todays episode is the 600^th episode of Doctor Who. It does Doctor Who returns to the two part adventure and this two parter also sees the series come to an unexpected end due to BBC strikes. This story sees the return of The Master and the introduction of Kamelion which is perhaps the worst companion since Dodo. The story takes place in 1215 where the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough meet the King who has been acting rather strangely. Terrance Dudley has managed to make nothing last 25 minutes which is quite an achievement. There doesn’t seem to be any real reason why the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough would stay in 1215 and yet they seem to willingly walk into trouble.

Anthony Ainley is playing Sir Giles Estram (or Master). It’s clear that its Ainley and so I think that its just fun then to watch him do the things that he does. His best moment comes when he has a sword fight with the Doctor. It’s a brief fight but it does lead to Estram revealing to be the Master and the Master delivers one of the finest lines in Doctor Who when he says that the Doctor has been so naive.

Janet Fielding is wearing a new (and perhaps more practical) costume than the one she has had to wear since Arc of Infinity. Sadly that is about as interesting as she is allowed to be in this story because there isn’t much to do she is just reduced to standing, watching and wrapping a massive blanket around her. Turlough doesn’t fair much better because wanders off and then is chained up. It’s fair to say that the Doctor has the best of times and that is perhaps being quite generous. There was one moment when he and Tegan are sitting at the banquet table and this sight did remind me of the Doctor and Adric sitting observing what was going on in Four to Doomsday. That perhaps should tell you a lot about my opinions of this episode when this is one of the most interesting moments that I could right about. That’s not strictly true because there was something else.  Like in Terrance Dudley’s previous script, this episode features something that isn’t often seen in Doctor Who and on this occasion its jousting which always seems a bit of a pointless sport.

The location filming is good and bearing in mind that this would have been recorded in the winter of 1982 there is a great sense that everyone is freezing cold and yet still manage to deliver the lines in a coherent way.  In a way this is just a stop gap until the 20^th Anniversary story. There was suppose to be a Dalek story that followed this story but obviously that would become Resurrection of the Daleks which forms part of season twenty-one. I haven’t really got much interest in this story and can be at least relieved that this is a two part story. There is no reason really for the Master to be in this story and that is pretty much all I can say about todays episode.

(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.

(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.

 

(533) Meglos - Episode 4

After being slightly disappointed with the lack of anything exciting happen, I was hoping that this story would end of a more positive note. This is one of the shortest episode of Doctor Who ever and it really shows as yet again the episode starts off with a few minutes of reprise. When the action does eventually get going it seems like there has been quite a development in things because all of a sudden the real Doctor is accepted and people are prepared to have a rational conversation with him.

I still think of Barbara not Lexa when I see Jacqueline Hill. It’s surprising that Lexa is one of the characters that won’t see the end of the episode. She gets killed and is dead without so much of a speech which considering that its Jacqueline Hill isn’t the best way for a character to end. This was the 78^th episode to feature Hill and she leapfrogs William Russell and Katy Manning and now becomes the fourth longest serving companion.

There are some good things in this episode such as the set designs which are very good. I hadn’t noticed that this was an entirely studio based story and whereas the story hasn’t been totally successful, what has been appearing on screen has been quite good. Another thing that works quite well is the CSO shots that are heavily used. There are a few shots that look quite good and that includes two Tom Baker’s appearing on screen at the same time. What’s also good about this scene is that it isn’t just one quite shot but it’s a very good scene which is shot very well by Terence Dudley. Dudley’s name will pop up in credits during the Peter Davison years but his first story is quite well because the whole episode is directed with a good amount of enthusiasm and any problems with the story shouldn’t be laid at his door.

Sadly K9 returns in this episode and I was just surprised that he didn’t need recharging after moving 10 feet. K9’s time in the show is coming to an end soon so I have to just keep that it mind. K9’s involvement is somewhat small and so I wonder what the point was in having him appear in the story. It’s not the only thing that doesn’t quite work in this episode. It’s odd that Meglos waits so long before changing out of looking like the Doctor. Once he had got what he wanted, he stays looking like the Doctor until about a minute before he gets killed. When the change does happen and he changes back to the cactus it doesn’t look as bad as it did in episode one. Another thing that doesn’t quite work is that there doesn’t seem to be anything after being separated from Meglos. Also he has been in this story with the credit of Earthling. I would have named him Mark or Stephen or something like that.

It was a much better episode than the previous one and I am surprised with how much more positively about this story than I did before I started this. It’s not a classic by any means and I think that the Cactus design is still a major problem and I think that casting someone else as Lexa instead of a former companion was a mistake. Those mistakes aside the new era of the show is still going strong and the next several stories are quite important and the lien up of the show is going to change with the first change occurring next with……there is no easy way of saying this……..Adric debuting. Oh dear!

Meglos - Episode 3

I didn’t realise that yesterdays episode was watched by 4.2 million people which is one of the lowest ratings that Doctor Who has had an shows that something needed changing. Half a million more people tuned in for this episode and they didn’t really miss anything and this is another episode where very little happens. I am really struggling to find anything wrong with the episode because there is very little to pick up.

Something I did pick up is how much I liked Tom Baker’s performance as the Meglos Doctor. There were a few moments which saw a certain amount of intensity which does show how much the characters has changed in such a short amount of time. Lalla Ward is stuck with Grugger as Romana has them walking around in circles for most of the episodes. When Romana does manage to make it to where the action is its quite late in the episode and doesn’t really lead to much.

The cliffhanger is much better than the last one with the Doctor about to be crushed by a big slab of stone and this is a much better way to end an episode and with the viewers knowing that he would be leaving the show, it was perfectly possible that he could have left at the end of this episode. Even though he’s the longest serving Doctor ever and this is his 147^th episode, he does show some glimpses of his old self and I think that that his costume has somehow put a different energy into the performance.

This is a very short episode because quite frankly if there is nothing to report then there isn’t much reason for me to write about nothing. I didn’t hate this episode as it wasn’t terrible but I think that this episode is perhaps going to be remembered as bland and inactive episode. Hopefully the final episode will make up for the lack of excitement and the performances may stand out because very little has. Not even Jacqueline Hill could make me interested in the story.

Meglos - Episode 2

This episode starts off with a very long reprise, it lasts close to two minutes but once that is over with the action starts to get going it kind of stutters throughout. The Cactus Doctor gets to Tigellan first and has to take an oath of allegiance at the insistence of Lexa which is fun to watch everyone around her go mad at her for this. I still have a slight problem with thinking of Jacqueline Hill as Lexa and not Barbara. Sometimes I still think that Ian or Susan would pop up and tell her that she cant change history or something like that. Ok so I am going to try and stop using the term Cactus Doctor and refer to the creature as Meglos. Meglos’ plan is to go to Tigellan and take the Dodecahedron which would explain why he goes to the trouble of looking like the Doctor. I like that the Doctor has been to Tigellan before and judging by some of the lines that are said that he has been during the Doctor’s current incarnation.

I think that the Doctor with cactus spikes on his face and hands is an interesting look and one that looks far better than the other guy I saw in the previous episode. The idea of their being two Doctor roaming around the same place at the same time is something has been done in Doctor Who before but here it seems to be more fun but there seems to be something odd about Tom Baker. I know that he wasn’t very well during this season but there seems something specific that is altering his performance. He does seem like a shell of his former self and almost makes me miss the days when he was very silly. It may be deliberate that his performance is subdued compared to previous stories but its definelty noticeable. The highlight for Meglos comes when he arrives and after going through the niceties (or not), he manages to be alone with the Dodecahedron and somehow take it which is suppose to be vast and probably unmoveable and I like how much worry this causes.

After spending the previous episode doing very little, its surprising (or not really) that K9 doesn’t go very far before his batteries run low and he requires recharging. The thing that comes to mind is knowing that he is due to leave quite soon so there aren’t many more episodes for K9 to take up air time.

The cliffhanger is rather disappointing and this sums up my feelings towards this episode. This is an episode where not a lot seems to happen and compared to the previous episode it seems to have lost a spring in its step and when it did get into life it was quite late in the episode and had to stop at the wrong moment. The cliffhanger used featured Romana whereas I would have finished with the Doctor or Meglos but that’s just me. At the half way point, I am still more positive about it than I was two episodes ago.

Meglos - Episode 1

Meglos is interesting for a few reasons. Firstly it’s one of the shortest titles for a Doctor Who story (Robot being the shortest), secondly its infamous for the villain being a cactus and third and perhaps most importantly, it sees the return of Jacqueline Hill who was last seen 453 episodes ago but in a different role than she is in today. I don’t quite know whether it was a good idea to bring Hill back but as someone else because whenever I see her I just think that its Barbara talking and not Lexa. That’s not to say that she doesn’t give a great performance because she does and manages to at least seem different to Barbara but its not hard to imagine Barbara saying the things that Lexa says.

As I mentioned this story is infamous for being the one with the cactus in it and sadly that is the one thing that lets this story down because from the moment that it appears on screen I find myself losing a little bit of interest. It could only happen in Doctor Who where someone thought “I know what Doctor Who hasn’t had before….a talking cactus!”. Quite why JNT let this through the production meeting baffles me. Actually forget that never mind JNT, what about Barry Letts? There is something that doesn’t quite make sense and it is to do with the cactus because it required a booth to transfer to the weird looking human but doesn’t quite such a thing when changing to look like the Doctor.

The CSO that appears in this episode is quite impressive and apart from some fraying around the edges of people’s hats the effects worked very well and its been a while since the effects have looked quite so good. In fact the production values for the episode looked quite good and its easy to see that this story was required relatively early in the season run.

It’s strange (in a good way) that the Doctor and Romana spend the entire episode in the TARDIS trying to fix K9. Now firstly I want to know why they would bother considering that he is of little value to the story but secondly its fun that they manage to find something to do while not actually achieving anything. Their episode only really starts once they start to go over the same events over and over again.

The cliffhanger is quite good because the Doctor appears saying that they mustn’t upset the tigellans and considering that it comes out of nowhere and I think that anything has to be better than a cactus or a human with cactus spikes all over his face and hands (cant quite understand why they don’t go through his clothes) and the next episode should be good. I think that I feel a lot more warmly about this episode than I did 24 hours ago. I don’t think that it will ever be a classic but I think that there is going to be something good that comes out of the story come the final episode.