Today sees the final episode of the serial and of the
season. It’s clear that I haven’t been overly positive about this serial. I was
dreading this episode because I just thought that it would be another 25
minutes of boring stuff with a few good moments of Colin Baker scattered
inbetween. So it is with great surprise that I report that this wasn’t the
case. I think that there is a different vibe to this final episode It seems
like the previous three were just padding. Quite why Anthony Steven was hiding
all this material until part four is a mystery.
The twins aren’t as annoying in this story and perhaps I
have been too hard on the people playing the characters. The writing doesn’t allow
them to be anything other than irritating smartalecs. They don’t tend to
feature as much in the episode due to the build up towards the Doctor and
Mestor. The encounter between Mestor and the Doctor in this episode is good.
Edgeworth gives his life to enable the Doctor to defeat
Mestor. He did it so the Doctor wouldn’t have to but he is at the end of his
regeneration cycle (remember when they could only have 13 lives?). Azmael’s
final scene is quite sad and part of me does wish that he would have survived
or been able to regenerate.
The death of Mestor was quite gruesome and Peter Moffat doesn’t
use that much which is perhaps the best thing he chose to do in this serial. I
have commented on the grimness of deaths during the Peter Davison era and I was
hoping that this would have changed but sadly this isn’t the case.
The very final scene with the Doctor and Peri and the twins
is good but its slightly odd that the Doctor and Peri are hving their ‘discussion’
with the twins present. It ends with Colin Baker saying that he is the Doctor
where Peri likes it or not and a slightly odd smile between the two of them.
This episode manages to redeem this serial somewhat. It’s not a complete
success and its not hard to see why this story was rated 200th out
of 200 in the 2009 Doctor Who Magazine survey. I think that more of an effort
should have been made to try and make the previous three episodes stronger because
I think that this story would have worked.
This is the final episode until The Trial of a Timelord that
the episodes would be 25 minutes in length. The change in format I think will
have a positive influence on the serial which is in desperate need of changing
and more change than simply recasting the lead role.
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