(637) Timelash - Part 2

The second episode of this story is a lot better than the first although that’s not a great compliment. The Doctor ends up going into the Timelash after all and what we see is rather disappointing. It doesn’t look very impressive at all. Even the sight of the Doctor being hoisted down on a rope doesn’t do very much to interest me. It was at this point that I wondered whether things were ever going to improve but then Tekker enters and I am reminder about some of the good things that happened in the previous episode. Paul Darrow continues to be superb in this episode. He acts like the ruler that he thinks he is but sadly he meets a sticky ending.

The character of Herbert is the exact opposite of Tekker. Even the Doctor is finding him irritating. It’s unclear whether Colin Baker is acting or not because if it were me then I would have pushed him into the Timelash. He spends time walking around acting its all some big adventure and I really can’t believe how disappointing this aspect of the story. It’s a good idea that the Doctor would meet the great literary figure and that encountering the Doctor would have inspired some of his novels. Sadly the casting of David Chandler has reduced this to a less interesting encounter.

There is another tease at what the Borad really looks like at the beginning of the episode. It’s around the half way mark that we finally get to see what the real Borad looks like Robert Ashby’s debut on screen is rather underwhelming. The design of the make-up is rather good however and I think that Ashby has a wonderfully booming voice which lends itself to the role. Together it is one of the highlights of the entire serial.

There is a rather interesting painting of the third Doctor. I think that after the references in the previous episode, it seemed inevitable that there should be a visual one. Don’t quite know whether its relevant to the story but it seemed to be just a passing thing.

The Doctor uses the Borad’s weapon against him so for the second time in a row, the Doctor actually causes someone’s death. Ok so you could argue that he has done this before, he has never done it so blatantly. After a moment it was strange to realise that there was about fifteen more minutes before the episode would end which is unusual in a Doctor Who story at this time. I had forgotten about there been more than one Borad and the explanation given to this is rather good and there is a nice beauty and the beast thing going on with the Borad and Peri. I like the increasing number of people that have a crush on Peri.  

This has been the weakest story of the season just like I predicted in yesterdays review. It’s certainly not as bad as The Twin Dilemma but it certainly lacks from convincing characters and that’s a shame because there is a very good idea in this middle of the serial that is trying to get out but it doesn't.

(636) Timelash - Part 1

Timelash isn’t my favourite Colin Baker story. However I do have the strong belief that things will change over the course of the next two episodes. This story was written by Glen McCoy who becomes the 60^th credited writer in Doctor Who. That’s about the most interesting part of the entire review which is going to be a bit shorter than usual. The relationship between the Doctor and Peri isn’t as fierce as it was at the beginning of the season. There is still some tension there but it has definelty been reigned back since the beginning of the season. The story takes place in Karfel which is under a rather interesting dictatorship. The word Timelash is used within the first few minutes. This is what people are thrown into for being disobedient but to be honest it’s probably a good thing.

The first time that the Borad appears in this episode its in a chair that turns around and the camera cuts to Aram before we can see what he looks like. The voice of Borad (Robert Ashby) is very good and helps to create a ‘nice’ atmosphere. Denis Carey returns to play the human face of the Borad.  Carey had previously appeared in Shada but this is a more interesting performance.

The Doctor has previously visited Karfel before but in his third incarnation. I think that this is quite a good idea that we hear a bout the Doctor visiting somewhere that we have never seen before. Paul Darrow is easily the best thing in this story. He treats the story in the way that it should be treated and does well as Tekker. There is a wonderful sense when he walks into a room he pretty much owns that room and owns the scene that he is in. Sadly that is all the good stuff that I could find to say about this episode.

Jeanne Crowley unfortunately doesn’t impress as Vena. I just find her unconvincing and thought that it was stupid how she ended up going into the Timelash. She just doesn’t carry any emotional weight when she is on screen. The Android is rather odd but not really for the right reasons. It’s blue face and yellow hair really doesn’t look right. At least they learnt from the mistakes that were evident from Kamelion. The Bandril is another unfortunate design. The idea of the Bandril is good enough it is just that the visual lets it down completely. Like the design of the Timelash, one does suspect that a bit more money could have made a difference. Considering how important it is in the story, its weird that it wasn’t higher up on the list of priorities. The Morlox is also a disappointment. I really don’t know what it looks like but it seems like very little thought was given to the look of it. The introduction of H.G.Wells is something that should have been a great moment in the show. A big name in literaly history that is in my favourite TV show and yet the casting David Chandler means that it is another disappointment. He’s portrayed as a bit of an idiot and boards the TARDIS without the Doctor’s approval.

Sadly the Timelash doesn’t look impressive. In fact I would go so far as to say it looked a bit crap. It’s clear that the jollies to Seville took its toll on the budget. I do wonder what could have been achieved if The Two Doctors had been filmed in the UK.

As you can probably guess I don’t think very much of this episode because there are more things wrong with it than right. Despite the best efforts of Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, this story doesn’t start off in a particular good way and I am just wanting Revelation of the Daleks to arrive so I can get past this one. I don’t think my opinion will change of this story and this is going to be the weakest story of the season. The only question that remains is whether it is worst that The Twin Dilemma.

(635) The Two Doctors - Part 3

The first three parter since Planet of Giants (1964) ends with what needed to be a better 45 minutes than the previous two for the whole return of Patrick Troughton thing to be worth it. It hadn’t struck me until now but Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton hadn’t actually met. The first encounter between the second and sixth Doctors is one of the highlights of this episode. It’s slightly frustrating that its taken until now for this to happen.

The second Doctor is going to be turned into an andragum. Quite why Robert Holmes has waited until now for this to happen is a bit of a mystery. I say this because it by far the most entertaining aspect of the episode. The Second Doctor and Shockeye start going in for food. They form a more entertaining double act than Oscar and Anita. Their walk to find food does lead to some lovely location filming. The filming ends up in Seville itself and there is quite a lot of it which makes up the little that we had in the previous episode.

The tension between the Sontarans and Chessene really starts to rise to the boil as they set to wipe the other lot out. Chessene is the one that strikes first as she drops some acid bombs on them and acts like it’s a normal activity. Stike makes it and lasts a while before he tries to make off in his ship and that explodes. Once the Sontarans are out of the way its means that the threat comes from Chessene and Dastari. I have to say that I think that the Sontarans were very underused in this serial and suffer from being treated as secondary monsters. Chessene is the one that is calling the shots and Jacqueline Pearce is very convincing as a baddie. It’s only during a scene between the two that its clear that some of Dastari’s morals start to come to the centre. There is a rather odd moment when Chessene puts her hands in some of the Doctor’s blood and seems to smother it on her face but the camera cuts away to Dastari’s reaction.  One of the grimmer moments in Doctor Who in my opinion.

This episode features a scene which is far worst that the apparent accede bath scene in Vengeance on Varos. It is where the Doctor pops a cyanide laden sponge on Shockeye’s mouth thus killing him. Even if the Doctor weren’t the one doing it then it would be a shocking moment in Doctor Who but it is the Doctor doing it and so just seems worst that what was shown in the previous serial.  

Sadly Oscar returns in this episode and when he gets stabbed by Shockeye I was really happy about this because it means that he is leaving on a permanent basis. Even just after he is stabbed he over acts in such a terrible way that I just hate the character even more. It is funny how Peri and Jamie leave Anita to tend to the recently deceased Oscar.

The deaths of Dastari and Chessene come in quick succession and I was disappointed with the death of Dastari as I would have liked for him to have made it and either die trying to save the Doctor or decide that he’s going to work for good now. Sadly this wasn’t the case but at least things ended at just the right point. The goodbye between the two Doctors, Jamie and Peri is rather amusing and seems to be just as good as the goodbye scene in The Five Doctors.

This episode has definelty the better of the three just because it’s been the most consistent. Unlike the previous episode, this one didn’t get started at the half way point. I don’t think that this story needed to be three episode and I still stand by my idea of making one of these episodes a standalone episode. That said I think that for a non-anniversary story, they just about got away with it although the question about why the story was set in Spain was never answered. Well there are just two more stories left of this season and this is the weakest of the season so far. Sadly this is the last time that Patrick Troughton would appear in Doctor Who as he passed away two years after this story transmitted. Troughton’s final performance summed up what was magical about his era on the show. Ok so most of the stories weren’t that great but there were some absolute crackers and even when the story didn’t work you could always rely on Troughton making at least worth watching.

(634) The Two Doctors - Part 2

The thing about this being a three parter is one that I didn’t go into much in the previous review. The show went from 26 x 25 minute episodes to 13 x 45 minute and this means that there is going to be an odd number of episodes. They got around this in the previous season by having a two parter so I think that they could have don’t just a single 45 minute episode. The problem at the moment is that the fast paced feel that the previous stories have had has pretty much gone in this serial.

The cliffhanger is solved by Peri saving herself from the person that grabbed her. That person is Jamie. It’s good that the pieces of the puzzle start to slot into place so early on and its means that Jamie isn’t doing nothing. The opening scene with the Sixth Doctor, Jamie and Peri helps add a bit more to the story. The interaction between Peri and the Doctor is on fine form again with their usual bickering on display.

I like how the Doctor says he might be wiped out in a few centuries and Peri doesn’t seem to understand the rush and then he puts his head in hands. A funny moment in an episode that doesn’t have a great deal of comedy.

Shockeye’s eating habits are quite interesting. At one point he eats a rat and Dastari’s reaction mirrored my own. The group of villains is something that I think works quite well because it doesn’t feel like the old adage about too many cooks.  The trio of Shockeye, Chessene and Dastari work well together but there isn’t a clear leader amongst them which is perhaps the only thing that needs improving. Chessene does edge it a little bit but not by much.

Like the previous episode, this episode takes about 20 minutes before it starts to get going. I could tell where the point happened and that was when the Second Doctor wakes up and talking to Dastari and the others. Patrick Troughton has a rather easy time in this episode. He spends most of it either lying down or sitting in a wheelchair.

Like the previous episode, there is a nice amount of Seville on display here. Ok so its not the city centre but its still nice to see a bit of sun on Doctor Who that doesn’t involve a quarry.

Oscar continues to be annoying. He assumes that the Doctor is working for Interpol even when Anita points out that the police box sign isn’t written in Spanish. Sadly Oscar is quite involved in this episode. I don’t mind Anita but Oscar is totally annoying.

There is a nice reminder about the Rutans. For me this is a nice bit of continuity for the Sontarans. The question of the Sontaran’s involvement in the story is still something that doesn’t quite. Stike is the lead Sontaran but I think that Clinton Greyn doesn’t come across as a convincing Sontaran. I know that Sontarans are referred to as potatoes but I think that the design of the current costumes does make them look like a baked potato.

The Doctor was involved in the previous cliffhanger so it perhaps makes sense that Peri is involved in the ending. She is about to be menaced by Shockeye which is terrifying in itself because he has spent the previous 45 minutes acting in a really fun way.

I think that this has again been an episode of two halves but even the more active part hasn’t been as good as I would have expected. There were moments where things seemed to be just plodding along. I think that the final episode is going to make up for this but at the moment this has to be the weakest story of the season so far. It just doesn’t live up to the hype that this story has created for itself.

(633) The Two Doctors - Part 1

Despite this not being an anniversary story, we are treated to a Multi-Doctor story. This is the only three part story of the season which would be six 25 minute episodes in the old format. I have never been a fan of the longer story so it was going to be interesting to see how this serial would work. This story was written by Robert Holmes and this is his first story since The Caves of Androzani. He becomes the most credited writer in Doctor Who history with this being his 57^th episode. Patrick Troughton returns in his 125^th episode and Frazer Hines returns in his 115^th episode. The Sontarans also make a return for the first time in 152 episodes (3,598 days).This story sees the show filmed in Spain. Quite why I don’t know why and there doesn’t seem to be any explanation given. That said what we do see of Spain is quite nice but its not of the same quality that we saw in the previous story.

I like how they went to the trouble to start the episode in black and white to give a nod to the fact that the Second Doctor and Jamie were in the black and white era of the show. The Second Doctor and Jamie seem to be one a mission and I will state here and now that I won’t be going into continuity problems that arise with their involvement and their activities in this serial. The Doctor and Peri don’t really interact with anyone in this episode. They spend a lot of time fishing, a lot of time trying not to be killed by the computer and then spend the latter part of the serial in a weird area with lots of pipes. The chemistry that Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines had in the 1960’s is very evident in this serial. The problem I think with having these two in a story together is that they have a danger of overshadowing the current line-up. Speaking of the current line-up, the bickering style that they have does seem rather out of place considering how well the Second Doctor and Jamie get on.

This story has some interesting supporting characters which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering that it is a Robert Holmes script. The character of Shockeye is mesmerising and well performed by John Stratton. He is obsessed with food and turns into quite the food critic when he arrives on earth. Jacqueline Pearce plays Chessene and she really is very good as one of the main threats in this serial. She carries a certain elegance throughout and never raises her voice yet there is much more to her character which shows itself during this serial. Laurence Payne plays Dastari. Payne previous appeared in The Gunfighters (1966) and The Leisure Hive (1980). However I think that this is a stronger performance than in those two. The former I will be honest don’t really remember but recognised him from the latter. Dastari is a clever person but like most clever people in Doctor Who, he just wants to use his intelligence for bad purposes.

The introduction of Oscar (James Saxon) & Anita is something of a common theme as all Robert Holmes stories feature a double act and this story slightly changes the format with a courting couple. I do find Oscar to be an annoyance and Anita is there purely to work alongside Oscar but doesn’t contribute anything to the story. Oscar uses cyanide to kill moths which seems like a horrible thing nowadays but at the time must have seemed perfectly fine and fine enough to include on prime-time Saturday evenings.

The incidental music is particularly impressive. Peter Howell’s highlight is the Sontaran music because it’s very striking.

Even though their ships had been identified as Sontaran ships, we have to wait a long time for them to appear. There is a shot of one’s hand but its 25 minutes before we actually see one and even then it’s a rather understated first appearance. Bearing in mind that it had been about seven years since they were last on screen it is somewhat disappointing that their first appearance happened in this way.

Sadly the quality of the costumes is not very good. It’s not terrible but I don’t think is as good as previous designs. The question as to why they are even in this story is something that doesn’t get answered in this episode. Considering that the Sontarans are strong enough to act on their own it does raise the question as to why they would be in league with Dastari.

The cliffhanger is ok but nothing spectacular. The problem is that the final 10-15 minutes does start to show the episode has run out steam which is very odd for a Robert Holmes story. The opening episode of this ‘special’ story is one of two halves but I think that there are a lot of positives than negatives. I don’t think that I am going to have to endure the next two episodes which is a relief. Still wonder why the story was set in Spain.

(632) The Mark of the Rani - Part 2

The cliffhanger works just as well as in this episode but something is slightly different and that is a shot of a man who is later identified as George Stevenson. It is a bit of a cheat really but it’s an interesting way of introducing a character like Stevenson. Sadly I think that Stevenson is rather under used in this episode. It does raise a question as to why he was even introduced into the story. You could easily have just mentioned his name and he would have been more involved in the story than he was. There was one fun scene when the Doctor gets very wrapped up in helping Stevenson with his design. Whilst Stevenson is pretty much underused, the same can’t be said for Luke. Gary Cady plays Stevenson’s assistant Luke. He gets put under the control of the Master but unfortunately it’s difficult to tell the difference because Cady doesn’t really show much emotion.

The whole idea about the Rani have a Turner painting hiding her TARDIS is quite a clever idea and it is something that featured in the previous episode but it seems to be more important in this one. The first thing that strikes me when we see inside the Rani’s TARDIS is that she has a better designed TARDIS than the Doctor. I just want the Doctor to travel in this TARDIS from now on

There is an interesting bit where Peri is point the Masters tissue thing and it’s clear that things are going to go wrong because its Peri. She is quickly outwitted by the Rani which isn’t too difficult but its worth it just to see Kate O’Mara act like an evil genius. The partnership of the Master and the Rani is rather interesting as they do seem to be almost on the same page. The Rani introduces some interesting bomb things which turn people into intriguing things. Luke gets turned into a tree although the performance is the same. The Rani’s reaction to Luke being a tree is funny because she reminds the Doctor that a tree has four times the life expectancy than a human so he is actually better off as he is now.

There doesn’t actually seem to be a moment which is where the Doctor is victorious. The closest that we get is when the Rani and the Master escape in her TARDIS and things go wrong. Things are worse than that actually as a dinosaur starts to grow and unfortunately its not the best model of a dinosaur that there has ever been. This story has been just as much fun as I had thought. The location filming has been one of the main reasons why this story seemed to work. The introduction of the Rani was well done and I liked the trio of Timelords battling it out on earth. I thought that Sarah Hellings, Pip and Jane Baker have done quite well with this adventure. The performances have been really very good and apart from the character of Luke, they all seemed to be relevant to the story. The next story is going to be interesting because some familiar faces make a return. I am starting to think that this season is one of the strongest seasons of Doctor Who for quite sometime.

(631) The Mark of the Rani - Part 1

If this story goes the way that I hope it does, then it will be the best start to a season for many years. After the rather violent previous story, it’s a bit of a relief that we have a less violent story. This was the first story to be written by the husband and wife team of Pip and Jane Baker. Jane becomes the third credited woman to write for Doctor Who. Sarah Hellings becomes only the fifth woman to have directed the show. So far women have accounted for 5.1% of writers and 9.4% of directors.

This is one of those stories where I am going to bang on about the location filming but its hard not to when it looks as good as it does. I don’t live too far away from the Black Country Living Museum which is very similar to where this story was filmed. I wish that this story had been longer because its beautiful to look at. Every scene that is filmed outside looks perfect and Sarah Hellings makes really good use of every single opportunity.

This story sees the first appearance of the recently lost Kate O’Mara who plays the Rani. We don’t see much of her at first but on her second appearance she features more on screen. She wants to do her dastardly plans for scientific research whereas the Master just wants to destroy the Doctor. That is why the Rani could make a claim as being better than the Master. She is removing a chemical from people’s brains which takes away their ability to sleep. A group of miners are knocked out by the Rani’s gas and then become very aggressive and sort of become the lackeys for the Rani and the Master. The Master makes his first appearance since Planet of Fire (1984). It’s clear that his demise was short lived but it would have been interesting to have a bit of information given as to how he survived. His ‘first’ appearance comes when it’s implied that a scarecrow may be him. He doesn’t waste much time in trying to cause trouble. The aggressive trio are easily brainwashed into believing the Doctor is the one causing trouble.

“Devious and over complicated” is how the Rani describes the Master and that is pretty much how I would describe the Master. I like how the Rani and the Master don’t get along at all. Kate O’Mara is very good as the Rani and brings a freshness to this timelord fairground ride that exists between the Doctor and the Master. It’s always nice to see Anthony Ainley back and for once it does seem to be for a good reason. Ainley also seems to be enjoying what he’s doing and is more involved in the action than he was in his previous story.

The first scene between the Doctor and the Rani leads to the Doctor figuring out what’s going on within minutes. This is perhaps the only thing that really doesn’t quite work for me but I suppose I can forgive it for how the rest of the episode works out. If I was being ultra-harsh then I could pick up on the moment when the TARDIS is thrown down a mineshaft which the viewers know won’t affect that the TARDIS and the Master should know this.

The cliffhanger sees the Doctor strapped to a gurney accidentally pushed down a hill by Peri and then by the aggressive luddites. This is quite a good cliffhanger because there is no clear way of how the Doctor is going to get out of this situation. This has been a curious episode because it seems that it took a long time before things started to find its feet. The latter part of the episode (or second part in old money) was the stronger part but I still thought that there were things that worked well in the first part that made the whole thing work.