The penultimate episode starts off with a great TARDIS scene
with the Doctor, Romana and Princess Astra. There are some weird moments in the
early stages of the episode where there are duplicates of the Doctor and Romana
which is quite clever and done quite well. Its nice to know that even when the
budget has run out that there is money for a nice little effect.
Drax appears in this episode and is a friend of the Doctor’s.
Whilst Romana is otherwise detained, Drax becomes his assistant. Drax seems to
be a comedic character and its good that despite all the darkness in the
episode there is still time for the Doctor to be slightly funny. Drax seems to
have developed a cockney accent for some reason but whilst there is a reason
given it doesn’t really work and so just seems to be an odd. Drax doesn’t seem
to have much of a purpose in the episode until the end when he shrinks the
Doctor who leaves the TARDIS door open. That’s the cliffhanger which is quite a
good one compared to some that we have had during this season.
I mentioned in the previous episode that I was happy that K9
had turned bad and wasn’t refereeing to the Doctor as Master but simply as
Doctor. Sadly the bad K9 doesn’t last for long but it was fun while it lasted. Now
he’s just going to be his usual boring self. I cant wait until the moment where
K9 leaves the show because he is just irritating.
I don’t know whether the Doctor is suppose to know that
Astra is the final segment or not but it’s a bit frustrating that I know that
Astra is the segment and yet its not been revealed even at this point. The
mystery about the segment’s identity and who knows what is something that
happened during the previous story but in this case it’s the final story and it
could have been revealed earlier (or made clearer that the Doctor knows) thus
allowing for a different kind of drama
I have to say that the story
doesn’t seem quite as interesting as it did in previous episodes. The fact that
we are now in the business end of the story and season means that it loses some
of the fun aspects of the show and the darker aspects take hold. I think that
there were moments which did feel like padding until the final episode. It’s
still a good story but it just feels a bit heavier than I would have liked.
It’s not terrible but I don’t think its quite as good as ‘The Androids of Tara’
or ‘The Stones of Blood’ but I will be hoping that the final episode will end
the season in style.
On a final note, this is the final
story to be written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin together. Although Bob Baker
would return to the show the following year, Baker and Martin have been one of
the most underated writers in Doctor Who. Their ratings have been The Claws of
Axos (7.45), The Mutants (7.39), The Three Doctors (7.60), The Sontaran Experiment
(7.71), The Hand of Fear (7.65), The Invisible Enemy (7.30) and Underworld
(7.41) so they have performed consistently. Whilst I think that The Mutants is
their weakest story by a clear mile, they have worked really well and have
delivered stories that haven’t been boring (except for the Mutants). However
they do have the most heinous of crimes to face up to and that’s the creation
of K9.
No comments:
Post a Comment