The Ambassadors of Death - Episode 5

The cliffhanger was good in the last episode and it was dealt with in a good way as after being saved by the Brigadier it manages to escape by simply walking out. With Quinlan dead it seems that the only person who really poses any threat is General Carrington. The story has moved on a little bit and we finally get to see the Doctor go up into space for the first time since ‘The Space Pirates’. It’s felt like this has taken an age but when a story is seven episodes long things move at a slower pace.

The Doctor is about to launch and Carrington is trying desperately to stop the rocket from launching. They even go to the trouble of tampering with various valves and whilst this stops it for a moment its just a moment and then the Doctor manages to get into space but with another minor issue. Jon Pertwee’s Doctor is very much an action Doctor as the rest of his time will show. He’s enjoying himself and one of his best moments is the scene that the Doctor has with the Brigadier before he goes into the rocket. It’s like it’s a goodbye of sorts but we all know that its not the final time that they will be together and even in 1970 the viewers must have known this so its easy to see it as a lovely scene between two characters who’s relationship has been tested over the last several episodes.

Lennox manages to escape in what the flimsiest manner possible. He makes it as far as being put in a cell by Benton which is obviously a sign that his time on the show is limited. It’s a shame really as I like Cyrill Shaps. He was good way back in ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ and he’s always a dependable actor and I felt that he deserved slightly more time. The character was a good one as Lennox was someone who was quite successful in his area of expertise but had fallen on hard times. There was a little bit more that they could have done with the character but that is perhaps my only quibble with the episode.

The effect of the Doctor being effected by the G-Force is rather well done and even the model shot of the rocket was good though by today’s standards it’s not quite as good but it does the job of convincing us that he’s off to space. It’s a shame that the story starts to get going as we reach the cliffhanger. This is when the Doctor is finally about to encounter the astronauts (the real ones I mean). It’s been an odd episode with a few moments of good stuff happening but its been mixed in with an awful lot of nothing. I think that the stuff with Liz and Dr Lennox wasn’t as good today and Liz didn’t get as much to do as she did in the previous episode. That said I still think that it’s a good story but the problems that this story had at the script stage are becoming apparent because it seems like they know what to do with the Doctor and the astronauts but everything else in in a bit of a muddle. Still an enjoyable story.