The Leisure Hive - Episode 1

Todays episode is the beginning of the end but as we all know, the moment has been prepared for. There is a new producer in the form of John Nathan Turner who has been on the show since ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ in 1977 and was handpicked by Graham Williams. Barry Letts rejoined the show as Executive Producer who was there to watch over JNT. The opening panning shot last for 1 minute and 40 seconds. I can only assume that the episode was running short because there is no need for it. As much as its nice to see Brighton in 1980, I don’t think that starting the season with a arty style panning shot was perhaps the best idea.

This episode does feature the demise of K9. Sadly its only temporary. I don’t get why if the dog was so smart that it didn’t realise that it was approaching a substance that would cause it some damage. Then again it kind of proves my point about how stupid K9 is. At least that means that we wont have to see him for the rest of the serial.

There is a nice freshness to this season because whilst there is an 80’s feel to the whole thing, there is a renewed enthusiasm and that probably has something to do with JNT. Lovett Bickford has done a good job but I think could have cut the initial panning shot in half or completely. David Fisher’s last story wasn’t such a great one so its good that he has redeemed himself with this adventure.

I quite like the look of the argolans. I think the bits dropping off their heads is a bit of odd decision but apart from that they are pretty strong. Their story is quite a good one and I think that the whole planet looks impressive and there is a base under siege vibe running through the entire story.

Quantel 5000 is the technology that is used to achieve some of the effects and whilst by 2014 standards it might look ropey compared to the year before its fantastic. I am not so keen about the music. I miss Dudley Simpson’s music already. I think that the music change is a mistake and it will be one of the big problems for pretty much the rest of the classic run.

Morix’s death is surprisingly quick but it’s a death that has some relevance to it and it’s a shame because I think that Laurence Payne gave a solid performance and should have had more on screen time. The Doctor has a new costume which I quite like. After several years of the same costume, its good that he has a change. Tom Baker’s performance is quite subdued in this episode but thankfully the silliness that seemed to be the norm in the previous season has pretty much gone.

The cliffhanger is a rather good one because it shows the Doctor apparently being pulled apart. As opening episodes go, this is one of the best ones for quite sometime. Compared to the previous season’s opening episode, this is a million times better. The JNT era of the show has gotten off to a promising start.