Today is an episode of mixed emotions because on the one
hand Lalla Ward is leaving the show after 46 episodes although technically the
character of Romana has been in the show for 66 episodes which would work out
as the fifth longest serving companion on the show. It’s crazy to think that
this is Tom Baker’s 164th episode and there are just eight episodes
left. Anyway back to today’s episode and I was kind of hoping that something would
jump out at me but I have to say that this is the case. The first several
minutes of the episode are taken up with a lot of talking and a lot of
technical scientific terms which quite frankly I didn’t understand. This
confusion does carry on for most of the episode and then with about six or
seven minutes left of the episode the whole thing bursts into life and there is
suddenly a lot of panic and action.
The only thing that made any sense was that Biroc says that
they are basically to blame for being in the situation. Apart from that there
is very little in the way of a story from this side of the episode and this
episode will be remembered for Romana’s departure. Sadly Romana’s exit is a bit
rushed but I liked the Doctor’s line about her being “the noblest Romana of
them all”. Part of me wishes that the Doctor would have tried a bit harder in
persuading Romana to stay. Lalla Ward wasn’t exactly happy with her exit One
advantage of Romana departing is that Adric moves up the rankings because he
was treated rather badly in this episode. It was 17 minutes before he first
appeared and once he, the Doctor and Romana were in the TARDIS he was ordered
to stay by Romana. At the end of the episode where its just the Doctor and
Adric in the TARDIS, I think that it’s a weird combination.
As a companion, Romana has been really strong in both
incarnations. I think that Lalla Ward is slightly better than Mary Tamm but I
think had Tamm been in the show for slightly longer then my decision might be
different. Ward gave Romana a slightly more fun sense of arrogance compared to
Tamm. As an episode this story is no worse or better than the previous three
but as a story I don’t think that it will be one of the classics. The next
story is the penultimate one for Tom Baker and the next step in the regeneration
of the show is about to take place. Sadly the final part of the E-Space trilogy
isn’t quite the story that it needed to be and its perhaps the most
disappointing story of the season so far.
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