The story moves back to the first universe and its just as
things are starting to get interesting as the drilling gets closer to
penetration. You would think that with just 25 minutes to tell the story that
they would move quicker than they did. The Doctor appears and he doesn’t get up
but is put in bed. Even when he’s unconscious, the Doctor is able to be quite
useful and that gets round the problem of making the Doctor useful but not making
the jump from universe to universe seem like changing buses. He does have a
great moment when he goes slightly mad and starts to wreck some of the
instruments.
The way that Stahlman is killed and the drilling is stopped
just in the nick of time is quite a tense few moments. I have been very
impressed with Olaf Pooley from the very beginning and whilst his
transformation happens very quickly in this episode, it doesn’t detract from
what has been a consistently solid character. I think the moment when Stahlman
starts gets some of the green slime and smothers it over his mouth is the sort
of thing that wouldn’t be out of place in a hammer film. It was good how Greg
and Petra ended up together as it was obvious in both universes that this was
going to happen. I thought that Greg had grown on me and this might be down to
the other Greg but I didn’t find him annoying. Petra has also been a good
character and played brilliantly by Sheila Dunn. It’s not been the greatest
character that’s ever been created but Dunn did better than some actresses
would have done with the role.
The final scene is a strange one in the grand scheme of
things. It’s Liz’s final scene (though at the time they wouldn’t have known
it). The way in which the Doctor rather angrily speaks to the Brigadier and
then appears after finding himself back in the rubbish top is quite amusing
because of the sheepish way that the Doctor asks for the Brigadier for help.
As an episode I thought that it ended well. It didn’t rush
itself and took its time and as a result it’s a satisfying ending and I liked
it. After seven episodes it was good that I didn’t find myself disappointed
with how things went. All the performances and the writing have helped this be
the perfect final story to the perfect season. Before starting this season, I
probably would have said that this was my favourite and I still love this story
but I think that the Silurians story is the marginally stronger story. I still
stand by the fact that this is my favourite season because there isn’t a dud
story. I think that the season would have benefited from having shorter
episodes as three seven episode stories is just too much but apart from that I
think that Jon Pertwee’s first season as the Doctor is a success. It’s a shame
that Caroline John didn’t get the goodbye scene that she deserved as she has
been a great joy of this season. If you would bear with me whilst I go into
stats mode, Caroline John has appeared in 25 episodes and has the third
shortest involvement in Doctor Who ahead of Jackie Lane (19) and Adrienne Hill
(8). 
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