The penultimate episode of the Davison era and the reprise
is the dragon like creature approaching the Doctor which is the second one that
puts the Doctor in peril. Admittadley it wasn’t the biggest peril that the
Doctor has ever faced but it served a purpose and it was put to one side
quickly enough. The Doctor and Jek have a good scene in the early stages of
this episode when Jek wants to know where Peri is and the Doctor’s being flippant.
It’s fun seeing the Doctor being somewhat flippant because there have been few
times during Davison’s time that he’s been able to be humorous but there have
been several moments in this episode where he gets to do that.
Despite this, the Doctor’s time in this episode isn’t particularly
good because Krepler and Stotz. He spends a bit of time chained up and has to
put himself through some discomfort to get free. Peri’s bad time also continues
as she is back in the arms of Jek and his obsession with her. If I were her
then I would have insisted on being sent back to earth at the first possible
moment. To be fair these three episodes have been superb for Nicola Bryant as
she has shown what she can do with the character.
The death of the President by the hands of Morgus is quite a
surprising thing but it shows that Morgus is a totally loathsome individual. He
is very untrusting of pretty much everybody. Even though the shot of the
President falling looks a bit dodgy but that doesn’t bother me really because
the whole scene is fantastic. John Normington comes very close to stealing this
entire story.
Graeme Harper continues to impress with his directing as
there are a couple more moments which do seem like they have been pinched from
other TV shows as we don’t get to see a Doctor Who story. It’s kind of
frustrating that we will go back to how things usually are in the next story. This
story isn’t just great because of the director but also because of the writing.
Robert Holmes really has upped his game.
The episode ends with the Doctor seemingly about to die with
the ship he’s on. Another situation where the Doctor’s life is in peril. This
has to be the best of the cliffhangers because it’s the closest that the story
has come to getting the Doctor into his regeneration. This was a strong episode
but for some reason it didn’t quite have the pace that the previous episodes
have had. I am really looking forward to the final Peter Davison episode.
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