Nightmare of Eden - Episode 3

The episode starts with the Doctor and Romana entering Eden but its not an eden that they would have expected. The first coulpe of minutes were largely of the Doctor and Romana and it was a good couple of minutes. The eden sets are quite good but they do make me remember the sets used for ‘Planet of Evil’ but obviously money means that we wouldn’t get that sort of quality. I hadn’t got the name of the soft looking creatures until now when I realised they were called Mandrels. It doesn’t change my opinion of them but at least they have a name. There is one scene where one is attacking the Doctor and I am sure that I could see the zip on its back. Also it has some interesting feet.

The Doctor and Romana meet Stott (played by Barry Andrews) who has been inside the CET for 83 days. I do think that more could have been done in this part because even though the set isn’t as good as ‘Planet of Evil’ but its still a good set and well lit.

At the end of the previous episode Geoffrey Hinsliff returns after he last appeared in ‘Image of the Fendahl’. In this episode he seems to be the thug of the story but I cant take him seriously in that outfit that he is wearing. I don’t think we see that sort of hat is has on until Ken Dodd makes an appearance during Sylvester McCoy’s era.  The effect of the Mandrell disintegrating was quite well done. Another good effect was used at the cliffhanger when the Doctor is running towards the screen. It shows that despite the budget being a bit tight at this period in the show, certain things looked rather good.

Rigg’s performance is very good because he starts to go cold turkey and at one point wants Romana to give him some more drugs and even gets violent towards her. For all the problems that I have with the humour, sometimes Doctor Who does some top notch dramatic moments. This episode is not terrible by an means but when I can’t really think of anything significant that happens then I know that its not been a great episode. What I can say in a positive tone is that the humour has made way for some good scenes. I think that with one more episode to go I think that this story is better than I perhaps was expecting.