(553) Logopolis - Part 4

Today is the 172^nd and last episode to feature Tom Baker as the Doctor. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will see a new Doctor. It’s something that I have been building up to for the last couple of weeks but here we are and the end has been prepared for. I was really wondering what I was going to feel as I started to watch this episode and it didn’t take long for me to feel a huge sense of sadness. It’s hard to believe that it’s been five and a half months and it seems like only five minutes since I started watching Robot. It does feel odd that Tom Baker’s seven and a half years comes down to this 25 minute episode and no episode in Doctor Who has had such importance placed on it. The episode starts off with the Doctor’s handshake with the Master and the look on his face which is one of disgust.

The Monitor doesn’t last very long in this episode but his death wouldn’t be a cop-out because visually it was very good and it was the start of things to come. The problems with the Master continue to show up when just after the Monitor was wiped away, the Master decides to just get up and leave which seems like the Master as a character has taken a step backwards.

The stuff where Tom Baker is running around when the story moves to Earth is perhaps the most action packed that his Doctor had been perhaps ever. I thought that the stuff on earth was better than the stuff on Logopolis. The build up to the big scene was quite good and the fact that it was on location was a nice addition because it felt like it was injecting some energy which it was needed.

The performances were good but in particular there were two that stood out. The first was Tom Baker’s obviously. There were times were he clearly knew the end was coming and whilst he didn’t have the energy that he would have had during the early days of the show but there was still some of the original Doctor in that performance. The second was Anthony Ainley who seemed to be up to speed with the character and I liked the combination of Tom Baker and Anthony Ainley and it’s a shame that they didn’t have more stories together because I think they could have had some good stories together.

The regeneration scene was really good and was perhaps more emotional than when Jon Pertwee turned into Tom Baker. The music used was really downbeat (which would change in the next story) and the watcher walking towards the Doctor and the two merging was a really good effect and the transformation was also rather good but I think that if it were done today then it would be more gradual whereas in this regeneration its still done well but does look a bit slow compared by todays standard. The sight of Peter Davison is a definitive sign that the Tom Baker era was well and truly over.

No matter how many times I have watched this story I always wish that the Doctor hadn’t tried to pull that cable off the gantry. I wish that something would happen which meant everything was alright but sadly it doesn’t happen and the final few minutes are truly sad and I haven’t felt like this since the goodbye scene between the second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. This episode may not have had much in terms of dealing with the main issue in it but to be honest that could have been dealt with in the first couple of minutes and it wouldn’t have made any difference to the story. I cant really decide whether the episode was what it needed to be. As a four part adventure it did what it needed to be and we said goodbye to the longest serving Doctor in the style that it needed to. Whereas ‘Planet of the Spiders’ did seem to have thing that were put in to indulge Jon Pertwee, here there wasn’t anything like that.

Well that’s the biggest part of the journey over with. Tom Baker has been a mesmerising Doctor and he is going to be a difficult act to follow. Already I worry that things aren’t going to be quite as good but maybe time will tell but one thing is for sure, the show isn’t going to be the same again.

(552) Logopolis - Part 3

The penultimate episode is perhaps the one where there is the most advancement happens in terms of plot. It where all the various elements from the past couple of episodes finally meet up. Firstly there is the companion line up having a decent amount of time together and I quite like it. I like how they all have different things that they bring and something I hadn’t clued on before reading the information text that they actually all have something in common and that is they have all suffered a loss before joining the Doctor. The episode restarts with the shrunken TARDIS and it reminded of the recent story ‘Flatline’ where the TARDIS is the same size. Due to the TARDIS being smaller that it meant the Doctor was out of action for a while and when he does get back to normal size he is rushing around like a mad man (in a blue box).

There might be a new Master but the problems with the Master are still the same. He doesn’t think things through until its too late. This is the first time that we get to see the Anthony Ainley version of the Master. I think that it’s a solid performance but its hard to judge really at the moment. I think that the problem with Ainley’s Master is that he is always going to be judged against Roger Delgado so I am going to try and be fair and judge Ainley’s Master against what I see.

As far as the narrative is concerned it feels like its trying to do two things at once. Its trying to tell a story right here and now but its also getting the groundwork done for Peter Davison’s arrival. The appearances of the Watcher felt like they were more significant in this episode than in previous ones and as the ending draws closer it feels like there is no real way for the Doctor to get out of things. There is a line that the Doctor gives where he says “I’m going to stop him if it’s the last thing that I do”. There is a sadness behind this that I cant figure out whether its acting or Tom Baker being real.

As far as the cliffhanger goes its another good one because it sees the Doctor and Master form an alliance and more importantly shake hands. It’s a handshake that’s going to be bad for the Doctor but I like that its not necessarily dramatic but its more what it signifies and I think that this is why the cliffhanger is so good. As an episode I really enjoyed it and for a while I almost forgot that the next episode would be the final episode for Tom Baker.

(551) Logopolis - Part 2

The first thing after the titles are finished that appears on screen is the sight of the Watcher. The first couple of minutes are back on the lay by where the Doctor is about to be taken to the police station and gets Adric to create a diversion to give the Doctor the opportunity to escape and to be honest he doesn’t have to try very hard because all he does is pretend he’s fallen off a bike and that’s all that is needed. Once the story leaves the lay-by that is when it starts to go up a gear.

Tegan appears to have found her voice in this episode and despite spending most of her time running around in the TARDIS, when she does eventually meet the Doctor and Adric, the noise levels go up and the number of TARDIS crew is going up to pre-1970 levels. Nyssa doesn’t appear until the final couple of minutes which is a bit of a surprise. What is also a bit of a surprise is that at the half way point of the story that the Master still hasn’t appeared. There are a couple of chuckles but that’s about it.

The story moves to Logopolis and the first thing that we see is a model set which isn’t the greatest if I am being honest because for me the scale of things in the shot don’t quite add up to me. I know that I maybe (and probably am) wrong but it just doesn’t work for me. When we get down onto the planet then a number of things strike me. The first is that the person playing the monitor looks a lot like Noel Edmonds and I cant get rid of that thought at tall. The idea that the Logopolitans mainly use their heads to come up with mathematical sums instead of using computers even though they do have a giant satellite.

The cliffhanger is rather good because of the fact that the Doctor is about to be shrunk to a rather small size. At the half way stage the story is starting to take shape and things are working out well. This episode might have a certain amount of glumness about it but compared to the previous episode it does seem that the narrative moves along at such a speed that there isn’t the time to worry about it. Two episodes left and there is a part of me that wishes the story would end differently but sadly that’s not going to happen but at least the moment has been prepared for.

(550) Logopolis - Part 1

Logopolis is the 41^st and final story to feature Tom Baker as the Doctor. It feels a bit of a shame that Tom Baker chose now to leave the show as I think that with the renewed freshness that the show has had since John Nathan Turner became Producer, he could have done another season but I suppose I might be in the minority there but this is the middle story in the trilogy of adventures featuring the Master although really if I am going to be pedantic (and I can cause this is my review), then out of five episodes he has only really appeared once. Anyway the thing about this episode is how glum everything is. It’s not just the fact that 95% of the action takes place in a lay-by but the fact that everyone’s performance lacks an excitement. Most notable is that of Tom Baker who looks very different from the previous episode.

I think that the relationship between the Doctor and Adric has been quite good and they spend most of the episode together. They seem to have the most interesting time in the story. This is a story which has a lot of real science in it then what we have are few moments which are a bit difficult for me to understand. The sight of the TARDIS prop inside the console room is one that is so good I wonder why it wasn’t used before. The idea of them walking into a new console room everytime they walk into the TARDIS prop is something that looks good but if the science was explained then I might lose track.

This serial introduces Janet Fielding into the show as Australian air hostess Tegan. It’s a bit generous to call her an air hostess because she has never actually done it as a job and infact is about to start when this episode begins but that aside, Janet Fielding has a rather understated debut. Knowing what she will become in future episodes, its fair to say that she starts off quite perky and jolly. She spends her time in the show with her Aunt Vanessa. Spending a moment to talk about Aunt Vanessa, if she were in todays Who then she wouldn’t have been killed off so quickly and she would have become a regular visitor to the show. She was by far the happiest person in the episode.

A strange white figure appears in the middle of the episode which as the story progresses is announced as ‘The Watcher’ but at this point he is just a strange figure but when the Doctor spots him the look is one where its clear he knows what is coming and its not good. The only aspect of the episode which I didn’t think worked was the final few minutes which led to the cliffhanger. The involvement of the DI is something that seems to offer very little and the shot of the policeman seen at the beginning of the episode and Aunt Vanessa who are action man figures dressed in the clothes of the policeman and Aunt Vanessa. I would have expected something with a bit more action.

As an opening episode which needs to be as epic as the man about to leave the show it was a good one because it set the tone right and did a good job of introducing the new companion. I watch these future episodes knowing that the Davison era isn’t too far away and whilst I am looking forward to the arrival of Peter Davison, I know that the Tom Baker era is coming to an end and after four an a half months, I am trying to get use to the idea that the show will have changed and I don’t know at the moment whether its for the better.

(549) The Keeper of Traken - Episode 4

The final episode is another episode of two halves but they aren’t that different to each other. The first half is the aftermath of the Melkur becoming the Keeper. It’s safe to say that it was never going to be the most popular appointment in history. Knowing what happens in this episode, I just want it to happen and I surprised to find out that the big scene between the Doctor and the Master doesn’t happen until seven minutes before the end. That’s pretty much what this whole episode and story have been about to be honest but before I finish this entry, I will talk about other aspects of the episode like I normally would.

I think that the sight of Melkur in the Keeper’s chair is still impressive and I also like the idea that he can pop up pretty much anywhere which perhaps isn’t quite a big thing considering the original keeper popped up in the TARDIS in episode one. The Melkur not having the power for a while does seem like a narrative stalling method which does work. The lead up to the eventual confrontation between the Doctor and the Master is quite good but I was just wishing that it would happen. The scene where the Doctor finds himself inside the Master’s TARDIS is a great little scene and it’s the first time since ‘The Deadly Assassin’ that the Master has appeared in Doctor Who and I think that Geoffrey Beevers is a superb piece of casting not just because Beevers doesn’t wear that odd mask and costume that Peter Pratt wore but instead we get to see Beevers use his whole body to show us why even when he is playing the role for Big Finish he is so damn good at it. On a side note, go to the Big Finish website and purchase from the Main Range page the story ‘Master’ which is one of the finest stories ever made. Anyway back to the story and I just wish that the scene with the Doctor and the Master was longer but that’s my personal opinion.

The final scene is great because it ends with the Master seemingly defeated and that appears to be the end of it. The Doctor and Adric are on board the TARDIS but one of the things I like about this story is that its not the end because we have the ‘regeneration’ moment with the Master taking over Tremas’ body which is a mixed moment because whilst visually it’s a great thing to see, I liked Tremas so much over the course of the four episodes that it’s a shame that he paid the price for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The last shot is of Nyssa walking into an empty room and that is a proper cliffhanger for a final episode.

It was a great ending to a great story and my appreciation for this story has gone up even more and I think that Tom Baker’s penultimate story shows just how good Tom Baker has been recently and also how much JNT and Christopher H Bidmead have improved the show in such a short amount of time. However as much as I have enjoyed this story I do feel a bit down because I know what comes next. The moment has been prepared for and things are about to get loud.

(548) The Keeper of Traken - Episode 3

This episode is an episode of two halves because the first half is pretty much like Traken itself. It’s very peaceful and very tranquil with nothing that would shake the skin off a custard. The first noticeable thing that appears at the beginning of this episode is that Melkur is after the power that the Keeper possesses. I don’t know if it was just because I wasn’t paying attention in the previous episodes but this is the first time that I have actually heard the purpose of Melkur in the story. The thing about Traken which is quite baffling is the speed at which things happen there. Kassia has gone from being a new bride to the new Keeper in an extraordinarily quick amount of time. I also cant believe that no one has noticed the change in character that Kassia has undergone in the same short amount of time. I guess that when things are as laid back as they seem on Traken that such changes in personality aren’t taken too seriously.

The second half of the episode is where the action really shows whats good about the story because this is where we learn a bit more about Melkur. It was great how there were more and more shots what the master Melkur sees. It’s not until the very end that the figure turns around and even though he’s not named as the Master in the credit there cant be many people who watched this in 1981 that this was the master. It’s quite fun that just under a week since the Master changed gender that we are getting a new Master in this story. The Melkur design has been on of the highlights of this serial and it gets better in at the end of this episode where it becomes the Keeper after consuming Kassia and the sight of the Melkur sitting in the Keeper’s chair is a great one and it makes for a great cliffhanger. The cliffhangers have been the main weakness of this story and its good that they have managed to rectify the situation a bit here.

The performances have all been quite good with Nyssa being one of the strongest ones. She has been a bit in the background so far so it was good how she seemed to develop quite a lot here. I think that with a bit more work she will show everyone why I think that she’s one of the best companions in Doctor Who. Tom Baker’s performance has been good but I think that it’s a bit tame compared to how it’s been in other stories in the season. The fact that the Doctor and Tremas are friends is still something that tickles me and I like how despite being a little bit of a spare part in the episode, Adric continues to impress me.  

This sets up the final episode brilliantly and I think that this story is even better than I have previously thought of. It’s weird to think that this time next week I will be in the Davison era and a tiny bit of sadness is starting to creep into my enjoyment. If only the show had been like this in the previous season then I could see myself saying that I wish Tom Baker had gone on for a bit longer but I think that he is getting the set of stories that he deserves.

(547) The Keeper of Traken - Episode 2

So the penultimate story of the Tom Baker era is off to a good start due which is perhaps down to nostalgia and I have to try and take that out of my watching and review this story like I would with any other story. I still think that its strange that the Doctor and Tremas are working together and are the best of friends throughout this story. Anthony Ainley is very good as Tremas and I still believe him as a good person even though a few episodes later he will be the exact opposite. Tom Baker and Anthony Ainley work well together and they are not the only good double act that appear on screen in todays episode. I think that Adric and Nyssa are a good fit together and its probably due to the fact that they appear to be the same age so the two sides of the story work quite well.

The Melkur is still a visually impressive villain and its good that we at least get to see it move in this episode instead of just moving its head. What I like is how we get to see that there is more to Melkur than just a statue walking around. There is someone inside and if you think about it then you would realise that it has to be bigger on the inside than on the outside…..wait a minute!!! The most we see from whoever (wink wink) is inside the Melkur is a hand. Kassia was pretty much singled out as one to watch when we learnt that she tended to Melkur in the gardens and in this episode things got slightly stranger as he gave her a neck thing which means that he can control her and does quite soon after putting it on. There are a few moments when her ‘eyes’ go red and it’s a similar effect to the one used in ‘Planet of Evil’. Somehow despite that story being about six years ago, the effect in this episode seems worse than before.

The problem of today’s cliffhanger is the same as yesterdays. I think that todays is slightly better but it seems that all the efforts have gone into making the rest of the episode work and didn’t have any time in working on a satisfying cliffhanger. It that’s the worst thing that I can say about the episode and story then it’s a pretty good episode and it is just as much fun as I have thought in the past. All the performances are really solid and due to my new appreciation of Adric and there being no K9 it means that there isn’t anything to get me annoyed and that’s a good feeling to have.

 

(546) The Keeper of Traken - Episode 1

Before I start this entry, I am going to start by telling a little story. Many years ago when places like HMV still sold VHS’s, I went into that store and discovered in the clearance section a copy of this story for the bargain price of £6.49 and so took it home and I can remember how much I loved this story immediately after watching it. There aren’t many that have made me feel like this and so ‘The Keeper of Traken’ has always held a special place in my heart. Today is the start of another trilogy of stories however unlike the E-Space trilogy, this isn’t an official trilogy but I think that this is a more important trilogy because of what happens during the course of the next twelve episodes. This is also the first episode to feature Anthony Ainley who will be playing the Master at the end of this story and it also sees the first appearance of Sarah Sutton who plays Nyssa. Nyssa is for me one of the best companions in Doctor Who. Everytime there is a Nyssa story from Big Finish, I look forward to theses stories even more.

The relationship between the Doctor and Adric seems to be a lot better than it was when Romana was around. I think I quite like this combination and had Tom Baker stayed in longer or Adric had come in early and Romana left early then we would have had some good stories with this combination. However as it is we just get an episode where they spend it together and most of it is in the TARDIS. The Keeper pops up during these TARDIS scenes and despite watching this story several times over the years, I didn’t realise that the Keeper was played by Denis Carey who most people now would have seen as Professor Chronotis in ‘Shada’. The purpose of the episode is explained by the Keeper in just one scene and we learn how Traken is a nice place and I just think that this is obviously not going to last once the Doctor and Adric arrive.

The story that the Keeper tells is about the Melkur. I really like the design of Melkur as even if you don’t know the big revelation that’s coming about the Melkur, its hard not be impressed with it and it doesn’t really do a lot but what it does do is very creepy and in particular how it just pops up in the crack of the two doors in the chamber. The Melkur will become even more relevant to the story in future episodes but just based on what has been shown in todays episode there is still plenty to like about what is effectively a statue.

On Traken, it’s a studio bound set yet at no point during the course of the four episode did I find myself being bored with the action and I didn’t really miss the outside filming.  The sets do look rather splendid and I think that a lot of time and energy was put into making what appears on screen looks great. John Black’s first foray into Doctor Who is at the moment a success.

If I had to pick some faults with this episode then there are two and just two. The first is the slightly frustrating matter of the Doctor and Adric trying to convince people that they are there for good reasons. The icing on the cake comes when the Keeper says “Evil” and naturally everyone thinks that he is referring to the Doctor and Adric. The second fault is that the cliffhanger is rather disappointing because it doesn’t really have any drama or tension to it. The point of a cliffhanger is to give the viewer a reason to tune in for the next instalment but on this occasion there isn’t really a reason. The only reason that there would be to tune in it to see what is going on elsewhere in the story.

As an episode it’s a good start to the story and things are set up for the rest of the serial. After being slightly disappointed with the previous story, it was nice to get back to being enthusiastic about what I see on screen. As part of the Master/New Beginnings trilogy it’s a promising start and the countdown to the Davison era really starts now.

(545) Warriors Gate - Episode 4

Today is an episode of mixed emotions because on the one hand Lalla Ward is leaving the show after 46 episodes although technically the character of Romana has been in the show for 66 episodes which would work out as the fifth longest serving companion on the show. It’s crazy to think that this is Tom Baker’s 164^th episode and there are just eight episodes left. Anyway back to today’s episode and I was kind of hoping that something would jump out at me but I have to say that this is the case. The first several minutes of the episode are taken up with a lot of talking and a lot of technical scientific terms which quite frankly I didn’t understand. This confusion does carry on for most of the episode and then with about six or seven minutes left of the episode the whole thing bursts into life and there is suddenly a lot of panic and action.

The only thing that made any sense was that Biroc says that they are basically to blame for being in the situation. Apart from that there is very little in the way of a story from this side of the episode and this episode will be remembered for Romana’s departure. Sadly Romana’s exit is a bit rushed but I liked the Doctor’s line about her being “the noblest Romana of them all”. Part of me wishes that the Doctor would have tried a bit harder in persuading Romana to stay. Lalla Ward wasn’t exactly happy with her exit One advantage of Romana departing is that Adric moves up the rankings because he was treated rather badly in this episode. It was 17 minutes before he first appeared and once he, the Doctor and Romana were in the TARDIS he was ordered to stay by Romana. At the end of the episode where its just the Doctor and Adric in the TARDIS, I think that it’s a weird combination.

As a companion, Romana has been really strong in both incarnations. I think that Lalla Ward is slightly better than Mary Tamm but I think had Tamm been in the show for slightly longer then my decision might be different. Ward gave Romana a slightly more fun sense of arrogance compared to Tamm. As an episode this story is no worse or better than the previous three but as a story I don’t think that it will be one of the classics. The next story is the penultimate one for Tom Baker and the next step in the regeneration of the show is about to take place. Sadly the final part of the E-Space trilogy isn’t quite the story that it needed to be and its perhaps the most disappointing story of the season so far.

(544) Warriors Gate - Episode 3

After wondering what was going to happen to Romana at the end of the previous episode, it must have been somewhat disappointing to see the hand wander down to the cuffs to release Romana. Or at least attempt to release her because the thing that is revealed about the Tharils in this episode is that they aren’t quite as good as we have been led to believe. This comes after Boric leads the Doctor through some sort of Alice in Wonderland setting and comes across the same banquet hall as before but this time its alive with the sound of people and music. Here humans are the slaves and the Tharils are the rulers and don’t treat the humans with a great deal of respect.

I have to say that I don’t think that this story gets the credit that it deserves in terms of special effects. People are so quick to mock the show because of ‘crappy special effects’ and other stuff but when you look at this episode and in particular the CSO used with the Doctor and Biroc in the Alice in Wonderland setting, it shows how much the show pushed the boundaries of what was possibly. Even by 2014 standards, its hard not to be impressed with what I have seen on screen. There is very little in this story that doesn’t rely on special effects of some kind and its this stuff that I find most interesting. The problem with the story is still that it’s a triumph of style over substance because narratively the story is lacking anything and I feel like Paul Joyce is doing all the work really. Ultimately when Biroc starts talking about time winds then I start to lose interest because it feels like the real science is starting to get into the story and if I want real science then I’ll watch something on BBC 4.

Adric has a slightly more productive episode than the previous one and he feels slightly more part of the team. That said I think that this is largely Romana’s episode because she seems to be everywhere and that’s not a critiscm but just an observation. It’s good to see Tom Baker being more productive than he was in the previous episode. To be honest he’s just more mobile rather than actually progressive in narrative terms.

The episode only really gets going in the final few minutes when the truth of the Tharils is revealed and I think that this is an interesting development. Frustratingly though this happens too late and the episode ends with a visually impressive cliffhanger. I say visually impressive because the shot goes from nice banquet hall to cobweb banquet hall and yet it flows really well. The episode is another one where there are good things to enjoy about this story but its still not working on me and its definelty the weakest story of the season.

(543) Warriors Gate - Episode 2

I am going to get this out of the way from the very beginning and say that I don’t think I will like this story by the end of episode four. I base this on the fact that even after all the stuff that happened in this episode I still cant find anything to be wowed by. It’s definelty a stronger episode that yesterdays but I cant say that much has really improved overall after two episodes. This really is a story of two halves because the first half is with the Doctor and he spends most of his time in the banquet hall which whilst a very nice looking set does mean that the Doctor is restricted in what he does and spends most of it interacting with the robot guards and whilst he does well it does seem like a bit of a waste of his talents. There were glimpses of the old comedic aspect of the Doctor which I know I haven’t been a huge fan of in the past but in small doses, its very much enjoyed on my part.

Romana drives the narrative in this episode in my opinion because she is very much the leader between herself and Adric in the early stages of the episode and once she leaves the TARDIS, she becomes even more involved in the episode and she does become part of the cliffhanger because it ends with a close up of her face screaming in terror at a Tharil about to lay its hand on her face. Romana doesn’t scream very much in this show (in either incarnation) and so she must feel some danger to scream. Adric still feels like the spare part of the team and that’s a shame considering how well he was used in the previous story. He does get one great moment in the episode when he tells K9 that he is more useless than usual. Considering that Adric hasn’t had as much interaction with K9 as we have, its good that he has come to this conclusion so quickly.

There is a slight problem with the character of Rorvik because I can see that they are trying to make a sinister villain out of him but when you consider the villains that there has been in just this season alone then Rorvik doesn’t quite work and I just think that its someone trying to be more of a menace than he actually is and that is part of the problem because if you don’t believe in the threat in the story then there is no desire to be bothered about the Doctor coming in and saving the day. This was another episode which had some good moments but as I mentioned earlier, I still have bought what Stephen Gallagher is trying to sell and I don’t think that its terrible compared to stories like ‘Meglos’ and ‘The Horns of Nimon’ but out of the three stories that form this trilogy, this is definelty the weakest of the three. Note I say weakest and not worst because there is too much going on in this story and still to happen for me to consider this adventure as a rubbish contribution.

(542) Warriors Gate - Episode 1

I’ve never been a fan of this story and out of the three stories of the trilogy, I felt that this was the one that let the side down and on the evidence of the first episode there isn’t anything that would make me change my mind. This is the final story to feature Romana and K9 and whilst I am disappointed about the former, the latter is good news. To be fair to the story, the opening shot is quite good because it’s atmospheric and looks really fab. This is the second time in this season that the episode starts off with a long (ish) panning shot, the first being ‘The Leisure Hive’ but unlike that panning shot, this one isn’t as long and visually is better.

I think that one of the things that works in this stories favour is the special effects because there are many throughout the four episodes and there are a few that take place in this episode. One in particular is when Biroc is running and there is a ghost trail behind him. It might be the sort of thing that would feature in a 1980’s music video. Credit should go to Paul Joyce for doing a job and pushing the boundaries of what should be possible for 1980’s TV. Apparently his directing methods caused some problem but they don’t show on TV. It’s fair to say that this story isn’t like anything that the show has seen before.

It seems like Romana’s exit has been prepared for because there is a little scene where Romana talks about her and the Doctor going their separate ways. It wasn’t with the Doctor but it seems like they are actually taking the time to prepare for a companions exit which they haven’t done for quite sometime. It feels odd that this is the ninth episode for Adric and it’s the first time that he has a scene as a companion and gets a proper TARDIS scene with the Doctor and Romana. That said he does seem to be a bit of an outsider because the Doctor and Romana are talking to each other and Adric is standing to one side like a spare part.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one because it looks like the Doctor is about to get his head knocked off. I had trouble trying to get interested in this story. It’s wasn’t terrible by any means but I think that it’s a bit dry and I worry that the next three episodes is going to be a triumph of style over substance. Only time will tell I suppose but the omens aren’t good.

(541) State of Decay - Episode 4

This episode is the final episode to be transmitted in 1980. It starts with the reprise which still looks weird when Romana is backing away from Adric as he is about to be bitten. It must be said that there is a bit of Karma at play because later on Adric is prepared to sacrifice Romana to the Three Who Rule. I quite like Adric in this episode because he clearly trying to look out for his own interests but later on he tries to pretend that he was looking out for Romana. What makes this quite fun is the look on Romana’s face which clearly shows that she doesn’t believe him. Considering that this is the first time that all three regulars have appeared in the same scene.

The whole episode is building up towards the sacrifice and normally this would be either rushed or not really looked at but it takes up a nice amount of the episode and its dealt with in a good manner. I liked how the Doctor dealt with the situation and used the scout ship/tower as a weapon and used what energy it had left in shooting it up into the air and back down again. Tom Baker was on good form because he gives a good Henry IV speech and there were some classic fourth Doctor moments.

We finally get to see the great one twice. The first is a model mixed in with scanner graphic which works but had it been the model of the great one as it is then it wouldn’t have worked quite so well. The second is when its hand comes out of the ground. Visually it’s a strong image and one of the best shots in the entire serial. I think that overall this episode is the strongest in terms of directing out of the four. Peter Moffatt has done a great job in keeping the pace up and there are some great shots that he manages to achieve. Terrance Dicks has worked his magic again and has saved the best until last and tied things up nicely.

As the middle story it does a good job of being the middle story of being a trilogy it does what it needs to do but as a story in its own right its also very good. I think that its another good story in the JNT era and the next story is the final one for K9 and more importantly for Romana. The changing of the companion line up starts in the next story so there is still plenty to look forward to in this season.

(540) State of Decay - Episode 3

I watch these episodes at the moment on my Xbox and usually when I finish an episode I stop it straight away and come the next episode and it was whilst watching the closing credits Barry Letts’ name pops up and I forgot that during this time on the show we have the partnership of Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks in Doctor Who. Sadly this isn’t 1970 anymore and the heyday of Tom Baker’s tenure has gone so whilst it’s good to have a Doctor Who story with Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks credited it’s sad to think in a way that this isn’t their show anymore. The episode was watched by 4.4 million viewers which bearing in mind that just a year before episode three of ‘Nightmare of Eden’ which aired on December 8 got 9.6 million viewers it must have looked like they needed to hit the panic button but I can’t think why this episode got such low viewing figures. If I didn’t know I would have thought that the nightmare episode would have got 4.4 million viewers and this episode got 9.6 million.

The opening scene seems quite a long one compared to usual episodes and that’s not a critiscm because it’s a really well performed one with all the important characters (except Adric). Aukon is by far the best performer in the scene and the Doctor is a close second. It’s during this scene that the Doctor and Romana first hear Adric’s name. I still think that its impressive that Adric has been side-lined for so long. Really the Doctor and Romana should have seen this coming considering in a normal story with the pair they would have been separated at the earliest moment yet in episode three they have hardly been apart. Matthew Waterhouse has a pretty easy time of it in this episode as he doesn’t appear until the final few minutes of the episode. When he does appear his costume has improved dramatically and its just a shame that he doesn’t wear it past this story.

The episode features a scene where the Doctor is locked in a cell with his companion and he talks about a hermit on Gallifrey. This is very much a Terrance Dicks trait because it appeared in two Jon Pertwee stories (where he was script editor). I thought that it was a nice bit of continuity in a time when the show was looking towards the future its nice that they did this nostalgic moment.

This episode was one of those that was a collection of moments and that is why this episode is quite good because those moments are so good and another of those good moments include any scene with Zargo and Camilla because it has a Macbeth feel to it which when done right (as in this case) is a strong image to have on screen. The death of Tarak is very grim by Doctor Who standards and not because its gory or particularly violent (even though it is), its because its quite prolonged. Instead of a quick death which is over in a second or two, Tarak’s death takes considerably longer.

The last minute sees Camilla about to attack Adric and Romana leaving him to his fate which I thought was very strange and not really in the spirit of the show but then she got her comeuppance of sorts when she is facing Zargo and this is the cliffhanger which normally would make me groan with disappointment because people would know that she is going to appear in future stories but in the case of this particular cliffhanger it works well and I am looking forward to the final episode. At the moment this is falling just short of ‘Full Circle’ in terms of ratings but I wouldn’t be surprised if the final episode goes just ahead.

(538) State of Decay - Episode 2

The second episode of this story still sees Adric separated from the Doctor and Romana. I don’t know if this is deliberate but the unexpected bonus because it is making Adric a stronger companion. The episode starts off with something rather strange, the Doctor has blue blood. Now the last time that the Doctor bled was in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ his blood was red and this is apparently a Tom Baker idea which is silly really but something else which was quite strange was the fact that Aukon was entering a room and it was clearly daylight outside which does slightly confuse the whole vampire thing.

The Doctor and Romana spend the vast majority of the episode exploring the tower which has a control room which will become relevant in future episodes but I liked the interaction between the two which considering how much tension there was apparently during recording is a surprising fact. The reaction that the Doctor gives when he comes across a barrel with blood in it is the sort of reaction he would have given during the early days of his tenure.

As this is a Terrance Dicks, it is perhaps not surprising that the story has worked as well as it has. The characters are all well rounded and at no point have I found myself bored with the story and it shows that Terrance Dicks hasn’t lost any of his magic that he has shown in the past. Peter Moffatt has directed this story rather well but due to the fact that the story is written so well and the performances are so good, the directing doesn’t really stand out which is a shame really but my abiding memory of this story so far isn’t the directing.

The revelation that Aukon, Zargo & Camilla’s names are similar to names that the Doctor and Romana read in the previous episode along with the control room development is perhaps the big thing of this episode. I really like the bit at the end where we see the model shot in the Resting place where the floor is moving up and down like a massive heartbeat. The last shot is of a close up of Aukon’s eyes which is good cliffhanger but for perhaps different reasons to normal. On one hand it was perhaps drama light but bearing in mind what had just shown up on screen it was the right ending to the episode and apart from a few individual errors, this was another solid episode with some solid performances.

(538) State of Decay - Episode 1

The middle story of the trilogy on the face of it should be the strongest one because it was written by Terrance Dicks but after enjoying the previous story I have to admit that I am questioning whether this is still the case. It’s always nice when a familiar name returns to the show because its been a while since Terrance Dicks was involved in Doctor Who. His last offering ‘Horror of Fang Rock’ was a really solid story and that was about three years ago and the show has changed so the sort of story that Dicks wrote may not work in this new era. The signs are good pretty much from the beginning because there is the model shot of the tower which looks impressive and that is followed by the appearance of Zargo, Camilla and Aukon who are the three who rule and if you didn’t know what was coming then you could easily tell that something isn’t quite right about them.

It’s quite a while before Adric makes an appearance and he spends the entire episode pretty much on his own and only interacts with K9 and manages to outsmart him (which isn’t too difficult) but its quite good that he gets to investigate on his own and not be introduced to the Doctor and Romana show. His scene where he tries to steal some bread and ends up with some food and a coat that is by far better than what he usually wears. Whilst I am starting to change my opinion of Adric, the one thing that will never change is my opinion of his costume which does look like pyjamas.

As far as the Doctor and Romana are concerned. It takes them an awful long time to get involved in the story. Once they do its when the story gets interesting. I think that Kalmar is an interesting character and despite being the oldest, Arthur Hewlett doesn’t allow that to get in the way of coming across as a believable leader. His group are an odd mix of living primitive surroundings and yet having a BBC computer in the base. I think that in 1980, the use of a BBC computer would have seemed quite a cutting edge piece of kit but sadly it dates the story horribly.

If I had to pick a fault with this episode is that it doesn’t feature as much of Zargo, Camilla and Aukon. What there is of them is good but I think that they are so good (Aukon especially) that I wanted them more involved in the story. I know that this will be the case but I wanted them more in the story now. The cliffhanger is quite creepy and just days after Halloween and that is why it perhaps works better than if I were watching this in mid-March. It’s an interesting opening episode but I cant say that I have been wowed by it. There are elements that I have always liked which are on screen again and with the new appreciation of Adric means that the future episodes will be fun to watch.

(537) Full Circle - Episode 4

The final episode of the first story of the E-Space trilogy starts with the reprise of the Marshmen walking into the Starliner and I think that it’s a fantastic image that is again helped by the music. It’s weird that I always thought that the music of the JNT era was terrible and yet twelve episodes in and I have to say that my opinion has changed. I am sure that at some point the music will not work but at the moment I am impressed with how much I have enjoyed the music and its been used smartly during this story.

I’ve always been a fan of this story and nothing in the past four days has made me change my opinion of Andrew Smith’s writing. The writing has been strong and consistently engaging, its just a shame that Smith never got to write another DW story for the show but he’s written a few cracking stories for Big Finish which I highly recommend (especially The First Sontaran). I never felt like the story was plodding along and even though I haven’t been wild about the Outlers, I cant say that they have been detrimental to the story. I think that its given Adric a reason to exist and ultimately a reason to stowaway on board the TARDIS. The direction has been a revelation and I think watching this story in this manner means that the directing really stands out.

After telling the deciders that the starliner has been ready for centuries it seems that the main aim of this episode is to get them off Alzarius. It was never going to be that simple and during the course of the episode there are a few drops of information where it turns out that the Marshmen are the ancestors of the humans/deciders and I liked this because it bought back what Draith said in the first episode and was a good payoff for explaining the marshmen.

There is a bit where the Doctor is using K9’s head to scare off the marshmen, this is the most useful that K9 has been for quite sometime. The simplistic way that the Doctor tells the deciders how to take off is quite a fun way and I think that it was never going to be a scene that would go on for a while because quite frankly this would have taken too much time and required either another set or a more complex decider chamber. I liked how they went off in the starliner with no problems and thought that the deserved a nice exit.

The final scene with the Doctor and Romana in the TARDIS is quite a sad one and it seems like a surprisingly downbeat tone. They are travelling in E-Space which is still quite funny when its green but I like how they are feeling down about their current situation without realisation that things are about to get worse with Adric on board. I really must stop the hate for Adric.

This was a good final episode to what has been the best story of the season so far. I have rated this story overall at 7.56 with ‘The Leisure Hive’ at 7.51 and ‘Meglos’ at 7.46. In Tom Baker’s stories this is tied in 9^th place with Robot and overall it is the 30^th best story beating such strong stories as ‘City of Death’ (32), ‘The Talons of Weng Chiang’ (45) and ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ (65). I would be surprised if this story isn’t one of the highest rated stories of the season. On a slightly downbeat note, two weeks on Wednesday will see the last Tom Baker episode which seems to have come around really quickly. As the moment that has been prepared for gets closer I will be thinking about the state of the show and just what Tom Baker’s legacy will be.

(536) Full Circle - Episode 3

Something struck me as I started to watch this episode and that its weird to see Tom Baker’s face when the theme tune plays. It’s a title sequence that is more associated with Peter Davison and Colin Baker so its still weird even though this is the tenth time that this title sequence has played. Upon watching the reprise, I was hoping to see K9 get his head knocked off but sadly not. What is shown are the spiders which look worse than they did in the previous episode. It’s still a major problem that I have with the story and the only time that they look ok is when the Doctor is looking at one later on in the episode.

I have been thinking about the deciders and come to the conclusion that despite having the War Lord as one of their crew, I actually think that Login is the stronger of the trio. I think of Inspector Wexford rather than Login when I look at George Baker. Login is the nicest of the trio and the one that at least comes across as having any morals.

Tom Baker is perfect in this episode because he does seem to have gotten his mojo back and does both comedy and serious acting. His comedy comes with his reaction when the Outlers are coming out of the TARDIS instead of Romana. His serious side comes when he shows his anger at the deciders and also at Dexeter who shows his mean side when he is about to perform his experiments on the captured Marshman. I hadn’t noticed how good Tony Calvin was because he had really been in the background of all the characters that have been in the story so far. Lalla Ward doesn’t really give a bad performance but unfortunately doesn’t really

The story seems to progress quite quickly in the scene where the Doctor points out that the Starliner has been ready to take off for centuries and that people are replacing perfectly fine parts. This moment is added with the announcement by the deciders that no one knows how to pilot the starliner.

The cliffhanger is another good one and does slightly mirror the first cliffhanger in that it involves several Marshmen and the music adds to it. However this one is slightly better because it sees the Marshmen penetrate the starliner and this sets up the final episode perfectly. This was another solid episode and I think that over the past three episodes this serial has done what Doctor Who should do and that’s tell a fun story with some good characters and the E-Space Trilogy is a nice thing for the season to get involved in and keep peoples attention until the final few stories to see the departure of Tom Baker.

(535) Full Circle - Episode 2

I still like the sight of the marsh creatures coming out of the lake, the directing and the music help make it as effective as it is. The marsh creatures are quite good because not only are they visually impressive but there are little things included that make them seem quite good and most notably is that they can adapt to their surroundings. Such a simple thing can make a lot of difference in a creature that never actually utters a word.

The Doctor is very different in this episode and I mean that in a good way. The Doctor encounters a Marsh child and is surprised when it doesn’t react well to his welcome and he responds by saying something about usually being good with children. Throughout the entire episode Tom Baker doesn’t really take the roll up to 11, he spends most of it at 5 or 6 and he only really gets animated when he encounters the Deciders. The Doctor and Romana don’t meet during the episode and I feel slightly sorry for Romana because she is stuck with Adric and the rest of the Outlers who make Adric take them to the TARDIS. I like the bit where Romana hands the knife back to one of them after having it pointed at her. I have decided that Adric isn’t quite as annoying as I have previously thought (at the moment) but I am not so sure about his friends.

There is one truly fantastic moment and maybe one of the best moments of the entire season and that is when K9 gets beheaded and not in a going to be back to his normal self in the next episode kind of way.

If I had to pick one thing that was wrong in this episode then it would be that the spiders don’t look very scary. It would probably have been best to have them in low light or not much of them seen because they could have worked but in their current state they just look a little bit hokey and I don’t just mean by 2014 standards. Ok there might be another thing but its not necessarily a fault of the story but more of a shift in the rules of the TARDIS. I say rules but its more like guidelines. Despite only being in the TARDIS for mere minutes, he is able to pilot the TARDIS. Ok so he accidentally does this but I think that off all the buttons he presses he somehow manages to press the right one. This is a trend that occurs quite often during the JNT era where any bugger can operate the TARDIS. This in my opinion does weaken the magic of the TARDIS.

The cliffhanger was good but not quite on the same level as the previous episode. Romana being bitten by a spider and there being no sign of help is something that works really well and it’s the perfect way to end this episode. Two episodes in and this story is just as good as I have thought of it in the past. The writing, directing and performances have all been on good form and I cant really see how the next two episodes are going to see a change in this.   

(534) Full Circle - Episode 1

It’s quite fitting that with tonight being Halloween, that this is the debut episode for Adric. Adric is arguably one of the most disliked companions ever in Doctor Who. I wonder whether over the course of his run on the show, that my opinion might change. Part of this change has happened whilst listening to the recent Fifth Doctor Boxset released via Big Finish but I wonder what will happen over the course of the next couple of weeks. Full Circle is the first story of the E-Space Trilogy which sees the Doctor and Romana enter E-Space which is like normal space but green. Things start off with the Doctor and Romana about to return to Gallifrey but thanks to K9 meddling things go a bit wonky and they end up somewhere completely different despite the scanner suggesting they are on Gallifrey. I like the fact that there is a bit of mystery about this which doesn’t last too long but long enough to be interesting.

The story takes place on Alzarius and the first thing that strikes me about this story and episode is the location footage which looks fantastic and does look like a different world. People are getting ready to go on the Starliner and I like how it seems to be dividing people because there are those like the deciders which are leaving Alzarius on the starliner and a group on people (like Adric) who aren’t interested and they are called Outlers. Adric’s first scene is perfectly fine but its funny how the scene goes about two minutes before drawing attention to the star badge for Mathematical Excellence. The Outlers don’t exactly strike me as the wisest group of people and if I had to choose then I would have gone with the deciders.

Adric has only been in Doctor Who for one episode and his actions have led to the death of someone. Due to the fact he was trying to prove his brother’s friends wrong he tried to steal some fruit and got caught by Draith. Ok so maybe Draith shouldn’t have run after him but I don’t really buy that. It’s quite the debut for the character and he can hardly be accused of being dull and inactive.

The effect of Mistfall is one that is simple but works really well and the music helps to create a wonderfully atmospheric feel to it. Peter Grimwade has always been a better director than a writer in my opinion and this episode is proof of that. He directs the episode with a lot of enthusiasm and the writing works well and what we have is a pretty solid opening episode. Even Tom Baker was on good form and the look on the Doctor’s face when Adric enters the TARIDS is quite fun.

The cliffhanger is brilliant in my mind and one of the strongest for several episodes. The sight of these disgusting creatures out of the water and the music again helps with this and after being left slightly weary with ‘Meglos’ it good to get back to business and start enjoying Tom Baker’s final season and the next four episodes should work for me in exactly the same way as today’s episode. Good stuff indeed.

On a side note, this time last year I was watching episode seven of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’.