The Dominators - Episode 5

5.9 million people saw this final episode so it lost nearly 1 and a half million. I was impressed that the previous episode managed to get anywhere near seven million viewers. Plot wise we actually get something that looks like a plot and that hasn’t been the case before now. This story really is very dull. It was clear that they were struggling to make the story work in five episodes so what we have is four episodes of rather plodding dialogue and one episode where we get all the action. It’s a shame that we have had four episode of feeble Dulcians and squabbling Dominators.

I do like how this Doctor goes to the trouble of explaining things by drawing.  It’s done for the supporting characters but the viewer actually benefits (well I do anyway). It’s not something that William Hartnell would have done and it wont be the last time that Patrick Troughton would do this and it’s a nice way of explaining whats going on without baffling people with science. It’s not dumbing down but just including people in whats going on.

The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe reunite for the first time in a long time. It does feel like this is the episode where everything comes together and its where all the main action is shown. They manage to stop the Dominators from setting of their explosion. It’s the best episode for Patrick Troughton, Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines in this entire story. I think that it’s because there is something for them to do and everyone seems to be flying into action. There is a moment where the Doctor is running with the bomb it is clear that it isn’t Patrick Troughton doing the running as he wasn’t there during the location filming and the problem with this is that the actor doubling for Troughton is on screen long enough to see that it isn’t Troughton. A shame really.

The Sonic screwdriver makes a return after first appearing in ‘Fury from the Deep’. However this time it becomes a blowtorch. Quite the handy weapon isn’t it? Well I know that some people dislike the Sonic Screwdriver but it’s a good tool and does work in some cases.

This would be the last time that Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln would write for the show and it’s a shame that this is their final work. They did very well with ‘The Web of Fear’ and there were things to like about ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ (though it is one of the weakest Troughtons stories). I think that they could have done more stories of the calibre of Web. Morris Barry does a fairly good job. Nothing spectacular but it’s a perfectly fine story that is directed with the usual professionalism that you would expect from him.

As an episode it’s the best of the five, though that’s not a massive achievement. The problems that were happening behind the scenes (covered on the Dominators DVD) have a huge impact on the story. There is an awful lot of negativity about trying to create a replacement (a merchandisable replacement as its referred to in the documentary) a replacement for the Doctors. The Quarks were never going to be a success (easy to say in 2013 but its true) and no matter how many times I watch this story it still baffles me how anyone thought that they were going to be a success. The first story of the sixth season isn’t a very good one but its got to get better. Hasn’t it?