Today is the 172nd and last episode to feature
Tom Baker as the Doctor. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will see a new
Doctor. It’s something that I have been building up to for the last couple of
weeks but here we are and the end has been prepared for. I was really wondering
what I was going to feel as I started to watch this episode and it didn’t take
long for me to feel a huge sense of sadness. It’s hard to believe that it’s
been five and a half months and it seems like only five minutes since I started
watching Robot. It does feel odd that Tom Baker’s seven and a half years comes
down to this 25 minute episode and no episode in Doctor Who has had such
importance placed on it. The episode starts off with the Doctor’s handshake
with the Master and the look on his face which is one of disgust.
The Monitor doesn’t last very long in this episode but his
death wouldn’t be a cop-out because visually it was very good and it was the
start of things to come. The problems with the Master continue to show up when
just after the Monitor was wiped away, the Master decides to just get up and
leave which seems like the Master as a character has taken a step backwards.
The stuff where Tom Baker is running around when the story
moves to Earth is perhaps the most action packed that his Doctor had been
perhaps ever. I thought that the stuff on earth was better than the stuff on
Logopolis. The build up to the big scene was quite good and the fact that it
was on location was a nice addition because it felt like it was injecting some
energy which it was needed.
The performances were good but in particular there were two
that stood out. The first was Tom Baker’s obviously. There were times were he
clearly knew the end was coming and whilst he didn’t have the energy that he
would have had during the early days of the show but there was still some of
the original Doctor in that performance. The second was Anthony Ainley who
seemed to be up to speed with the character and I liked the combination of Tom
Baker and Anthony Ainley and it’s a shame that they didn’t have more stories
together because I think they could have had some good stories together.
The regeneration scene was really good and was perhaps more
emotional than when Jon Pertwee turned into Tom Baker. The music used was
really downbeat (which would change in the next story) and the watcher walking
towards the Doctor and the two merging was a really good effect and the
transformation was also rather good but I think that if it were done today then
it would be more gradual whereas in this regeneration its still done well but
does look a bit slow compared by todays standard. The sight of Peter Davison is
a definitive sign that the Tom Baker era was well and truly over.
No matter how many times I have watched this story I always
wish that the Doctor hadn’t tried to pull that cable off the gantry. I wish
that something would happen which meant everything was alright but sadly it doesn’t
happen and the final few minutes are truly sad and I haven’t felt like this
since the goodbye scene between the second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. This episode
may not have had much in terms of dealing with the main issue in it but to be
honest that could have been dealt with in the first couple of minutes and it wouldn’t
have made any difference to the story. I cant really decide whether the episode
was what it needed to be. As a four part adventure it did what it needed to be
and we said goodbye to the longest serving Doctor in the style that it needed
to. Whereas ‘Planet of the Spiders’ did seem to have thing that were put in to
indulge Jon Pertwee, here there wasn’t anything like that.
Well that’s the biggest part of the journey over with. Tom
Baker has been a mesmerising Doctor and he is going to be a difficult act to
follow. Already I worry that things aren’t going to be quite as good but maybe
time will tell but one thing is for sure, the show isn’t going to be the same
again.
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