The Ambassadors of Death - Episode 3

To say that this is a David Whittaker story is a slightly misleading idea. According to the DVD information text, he only wrote the drafts of the first three episodes. I have forgotten to mention that the first time that I saw ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ was when it was released on VHS in 2002 and the big selling point was that some of it was in Black and White but that some moments had been found it colour so I would be watching in monochrome and then all of a sudden colour would fill the screen. It was a slightly odd way of watching a story and would slightly ruin my enjoyment at times so when it came out on DVD in 2012 I was excited to know that it would be 100% in colour.

I like the idea that after spending ages trying to get the astronauts out of the capsule we learn that there is no one inside. It still doesn’t make up for the rather flimsy cliffhanger that we had at the end of the previous episode but thankfully the episode starts quickly and so that is sort of forgotten. It’s taken so long but at least we get to see more of the ‘astronauts’. It’s interesting that they seem to need radiation in order to survive. We get a bit more information about General Carrington. Liz refers to the fact that Carrington was on Mars Probe 6. General Carrington goes from being a rather impressive baddie in one scene to a nice as pie goodie in the next. When he takes the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier to where the ‘astronauts’ were being kept, he acts all surprised when it turns out that they have disappeared. I  think that whilst it was a rather silly thing to do to have Carrington pretend to be good, narrative wise I can understand why they did it.

As performances go, everyone is working really well. Jon Pertwee is just steaming ahead in the role that is still relatively new to him. I think that Caroline John continues to be used ok but still not as well as she deserves. She really does well with the chase sequence at the end so at least she gets to do something to do other than stand in a scene looking like a spare part. Nicholas Courtney does well as the Brigadier and serves a purpose in the episode. The group of people that are working against the Doctor seem to be growing in numbers and the lengths that they will go to are getting more extreme. It even involves tricking Liz into going down to meet the Brigadier. This leads us to watching a fun chase sequence which after the previous two episodes, does have some incidental music.

The cliffhanger is the best that we have had so far as it has something dramatic about it. The chase sequence lasts for a minute or so but the final shot is of Liz Shaw being thrown over the barrier and into a river. It feels like the cliffhanger complimented the rest of the episode which is the first time that this has happened. I think the story is finally starting to find its feet and with four more episodes to run, it has plenty of time to tell its story. This is definitely the strongest episode of the serial so far and I can start to enjoy things more.