The Ambassadors of Death - Episode 6

The penultimate episode starts off with the Doctor encountering whatever it is that is coming towards Recovery 7. The effect of the Doctor leaving Recovery 7 was an impressive effect. Still not so keen on the CSO format that Barry Letts used at every opportunity but on this occasion it works quite well.

The Doctor encounters the astronauts and it’s a surprising moment when they are safe and sound and thinking that they are watching the TV. They think that at the space centre. It’s a great little scene and it at least shows us the astronauts that we have heard loads about for the previous five episodes. During this scene we get to see an alien creature and its basic but I quite like it. I think that he simple movements that it does with its arm slightly undermine it but apart from that it’s a well realised creature. This shot of the creature is achieved using CSO and unlike the first CSO shot, this one doesn’t work as well as at times its hard to see the figure. The lack of making out what it is might have been an unexpected side effect but CSO is something that will have work 50% of the time and wont the other 50%. The alien creature asks the Doctor why his ambassadors haven’t been returned. This is the first time in six episodes that the title (or part of it) has been mentioned in the story.  The look of the ambassadors that we see when we first see Liz is quite creepy and it’s a very good effect that they use. Even by 1970’s standards.

It doesn’t take long for the Doctor to gain the confidence of the alien creature and negotiates a way to be let back to earth. This is what I like about the Doctor and think that it shows that Pertwee’s Doctor is someone who will strive to find a peaceful resolution. It’s good when the Doctor and Liz are reunited after a few episodes and it’s a nice scene which is rather well played by Jon Pertwee and Caroline John. The use of Caroline John was minimal again in this episode and I was so involved in what was going on at the beginning of the episode, that I actually forgot that Liz was in this story.

I haven’t mentioned much about Reegan in these episode reviews so far and that’s quite bad of me as he’s been quite an effective baddie. He’s the one that has been doing all the hard labour while Carrington has just been walking in and out of rooms. It was Reegan that tried to stop the Doctor’s departure in Recovery 7 and it was Reegan that was the welcoming committee when he returned. Another character that I haven’t mentioned before is Cornish who whilst not being on the same level as Reegan, has been a consistently good character and someone that the viewer can trust to help the Doctor and not hinder him. General Carrington goes very trigger happy in this episode and talks about civic duty when talking about blowing up the alien threat. He then gets trigger happy when he’s about to kill the Doctor after thinking that Reegan had killed him. It was a nice cliffhanger and I think that this was the best episode of the serial so far. With one more episode to go I find myself thinking that longer running time stories can work providing the right people are involved to make it work.