(637) Timelash - Part 2

The second episode of this story is a lot better than the first although that’s not a great compliment. The Doctor ends up going into the Timelash after all and what we see is rather disappointing. It doesn’t look very impressive at all. Even the sight of the Doctor being hoisted down on a rope doesn’t do very much to interest me. It was at this point that I wondered whether things were ever going to improve but then Tekker enters and I am reminder about some of the good things that happened in the previous episode. Paul Darrow continues to be superb in this episode. He acts like the ruler that he thinks he is but sadly he meets a sticky ending.

The character of Herbert is the exact opposite of Tekker. Even the Doctor is finding him irritating. It’s unclear whether Colin Baker is acting or not because if it were me then I would have pushed him into the Timelash. He spends time walking around acting its all some big adventure and I really can’t believe how disappointing this aspect of the story. It’s a good idea that the Doctor would meet the great literary figure and that encountering the Doctor would have inspired some of his novels. Sadly the casting of David Chandler has reduced this to a less interesting encounter.

There is another tease at what the Borad really looks like at the beginning of the episode. It’s around the half way mark that we finally get to see what the real Borad looks like Robert Ashby’s debut on screen is rather underwhelming. The design of the make-up is rather good however and I think that Ashby has a wonderfully booming voice which lends itself to the role. Together it is one of the highlights of the entire serial.

There is a rather interesting painting of the third Doctor. I think that after the references in the previous episode, it seemed inevitable that there should be a visual one. Don’t quite know whether its relevant to the story but it seemed to be just a passing thing.

The Doctor uses the Borad’s weapon against him so for the second time in a row, the Doctor actually causes someone’s death. Ok so you could argue that he has done this before, he has never done it so blatantly. After a moment it was strange to realise that there was about fifteen more minutes before the episode would end which is unusual in a Doctor Who story at this time. I had forgotten about there been more than one Borad and the explanation given to this is rather good and there is a nice beauty and the beast thing going on with the Borad and Peri. I like the increasing number of people that have a crush on Peri.  

This has been the weakest story of the season just like I predicted in yesterdays review. It’s certainly not as bad as The Twin Dilemma but it certainly lacks from convincing characters and that’s a shame because there is a very good idea in this middle of the serial that is trying to get out but it doesn't.