The Invasion of Time - Episode 6

This is the last episode to feature Louise Jameson as Leela. Not that you would know that due to the fact there has been no real build up. This is the 40^th episode to feature Louise Jameson and this ties her with Debroah Watling in terms of episodes. The episode starts with the Doctor and everyone on the TARDIS about to be thrown into a black star. The hand held camera adds to the great dramatic feel to the start of the episode.

Stor takes off his helmet and everytime I see it, I cant help think that it looks like Bernard Cribbins. I cant help it. No matter how many times I see this story I think that this is Bernard Cribbins is making his first appearance in official Doctor Who. This is the episode where the TARDIS is explored in a way that has never been seen before or perhaps since. I wonder if the rooms that we see in this episode get deleted in ‘Castrovalva’. Would it really be missed if they were?

There is a moment when Kelnar and a Sontaran are looking at art and I cant help think about the opening scene in the Big Finish play ‘Dust Breeding’ where the Seventh Doctor and Ace are talking about art and I cant help think of the set used for this story. If you haven’t heard that story then you should because it’s a great story.

The new Doctor is tagged with being cold and heartless and perhaps the moment when Tom Baker’s Doctor kills Stor is an early example of this. I think that the shot of the Doctor holding the gun at Stor in a particular way is his ‘John Wayne moment’ is a very cool shot and is one of my favourite shots in the entire piece. I think that all the shot inside the TARDIS are quite nice however they are completely forgotten about as future tours into the bowels of the TARDIS are completely different so its hard to really take this episode seriously as far as continuity is concerned.

Leela’s final scene is a bit rushed and feels like it. Suddenly she has developed feelings for Andred and the Doctor is rather too quick to let her go. Even though Leela looks sad when the Doctor leaves, it seems like the Doctor couldn’t wait to get rid of her. It’s a shame that more effort wasn’t made to write a better departure for her. It surely would have made more sense to have her fall in love with one of the rebels. However as the story and episode stands it’s a fine end to the season. It’s not a perfect story by any means but I think that I would be lying if I said I didn’t largely enjoy it. Oh well, now we are onto the Key to Time series which is going to be a rollercoaster of quality.

The Invasion of Time - Episode 5

So the Sontarans have finally appeared. After being stuck with the horrible tin foil (or nice Vardens if you had been watching the CGI version), it was nice to know that they wont be making an appearance. They cant be that good an alien race if they allow the Sontarans to use them in this way. The appearance of the Sontrans on the stairs continues to impress me and I think that they manage to give this final season story a bit more gravitas than it would have had. Whether it is the best of the six part finales remains to be seen but considering that this is the only one to feature a returning monster then its certainly up their.

Despite this being their third story and the race suppose to be clones, the Sontarans we get in this story don’t look like anything that we had seen before. Just by looking at their hands shows that the budget clearly didn’t stretch to proper prostecthics. There is one shot where Derek Deadman (who plays Stor) is talking to Kelner and the mask he has to wear looks a bit iffy. I think that these issues will surface in a more noticeable way in the final episode but I think that the mask is going to be one of the problems I have with this story. Certainly if memory serves me right.

It didn’t take Kelner long to become best buddies with the Sontarans. Luckily the Sontarans don’t want to know and don’t see much value in him and refuse to listen when Kelner tries to tell them that the President is the Doctor. I still think that Kelner is the best of the supporting characters but I think that its down to Milton Johns’ portrayal of this role. John Arnatt is good as Borusa but becomes a bit more of a sidekick to the Doctor which given that Brousa is suppose to be the President’s number two isn’t perhaps surprising.

The Doctor becomes the first President to hold the great key. I think that calling it the Great Key is perhaps being a bit too kind because it looks just like a normal key. Speaking of the great key, it does lead to one of the nicest moments in the episode when the Doctor hands the great key to Leela and tells Borusa that he trusts Leela and Leela smiles. After not getting the impression that they were on the same page, it was nice to see in Louise Jameson’s final episode the two seemed to be working well.

As the penultimate episode this story feels like its still in transition even though more happens in it than in the previous episode. I think that it’s a very good episode and ends in a really bonkers way. The Doctor and Rodan (presumably the others as well) are in a tiny bit of trouble and the screen goes white with the Doctor looking at the screen. I think that with just one episode remaining this story has managed to deal with the lack of money a lot better than ‘Underworld’.

The Invasion of Time - Episode 4

Get your violins out but I’m currently a bit under the weather and there was a part of me that thought that I might not be able to do it but I’m gonna fight through it and just do the best I can. The episode starts with Andred pointing a gun at the Doctor that didn’t last long as K9 was on hand to save the day. Andred is finally let in on what the Doctor is planning. He realises that banishing Leela was a wise thing to do. Castellan Kelner is easily one of the best characters in the serial. He’s just loving walking around like he’s the boss.

I am watching this story without the CGI effects on and its sad that the tin foil Vardans don’t quite work. There is one bit where one of them is sitting in a chair and that looks quite good but that’s about as good as it got. The Vardans are quite stupid really because they don’t question where he is and why they cant read his mind. It’s almost like they are trying to lure the Doctor into a false sense of security. That’s the only reason I can think of for this level of incompetence.

Leela’s part in the story is starting to get interesting. She has managed to state a fairly impressive coup by overthrowing the guards. She is the one that drives the rebels and is the one that convinces them they can succeed. I think that without her the rebels would have carried on living outside in the rather bland wilderness. It’s not the wonderful orange sky that we get promised in future stories.

I like how everyone thinks that the troubles are over and then the cliffhanger changes all that as the Sontarans appear for the first time in 86 episodes. I have to say that their appearance was done quite well by Gerald Blake. This has been the transitional episode where the plot needs to change direction and stay interesting. The episode picked up in the final 10 minutes but before then it didn’t seem like it was really going anywhere but despite that I am still enjoying this serial and think that its not as bad as I previously thought.

The Invasion of Time - Episode 3

I was just browsing the Den of Geek site and there is an article about Rainbow (which is a show that I love) and I discovered that John Leeson was the voice of Bungle for its first series which aired on ITV from October to December 1972. That has nothing to do with this story but I just thought that it was an interesting fact to start things off. The cliffhanger is made great simply by the Doctor’s laugh when the Varden’s first appear. This might also be because the CGI effects makes it look really good. The effects that were used in the original transmission are somewhat disappointing.

I like how Leela accepts her exile because she still thinks that the Doctor must have something planned and she is still willing to trust the Doctor even after all that has happened in this story so far. Leela becomes a lot more active in this episode as she goes outside and interacts with other people who seem to be unlike the timelords in the citadel. When I say unlike I mean that there is less pomp and circumstance.

When Rodan is told that she will have to build her own shelter and hunt for her own food she is basically reduced to tears and this shows how pompous the Timelords are really. Leela seems to be in her element when she meets the exiles. To be honest, the exiles aren’t particularly pleasant and its easy to see why no one really ventures outside. Also it looks baron and horrible so that’s another reason. The Doctor finally reveals his plans to Borusa and this is the first time that there has been any sense of plot explanation. This is also the first time that the Doctor has really been himself. The scene between Tom Baker and John Arnatt are nice and humorous. I have thought that in recent years that Louise Jameson’s departure was rushed and made no sense but judging on this episode it seems to be far less rushed than I had previously thought. She seems to be at home once she’s outside and it’s the first time that she’s been truly happy since she boarded the TARDIS.

The cliffhanger doesn’t quite have the punch that the previous two had but its still a good ending. I get the feeling that the story is moving on and at the half way point I am still enjoying this adventure but feel that its largely down to the CGI effects. The performances are all good and the writing and direction are all perfectly fine. I think that out of the two stories set on Gallifrey, this one is the weaker of the two but it still has some good moments.

 

The Invasion of Time - Episode 2

The second episode starts with the rather impressive cliffhanger reprise. It still works a second time. Something that struck me about the previous episode was that Leela shouldn’t be on Gallifrey due to her being an alien. Sarah Jane had to leave the TARDIS for this reason prior to ‘The Deadly Assassin’. This is resolved fairly quickly in this episode and it leads to Leela being exiled to the wastelands.

The scene where the Doctor is pretending to talk to Borusa so that he can open the secret door is quite amusing and does feel like the dark clouds have been lifted from the doctor for a moment. Such as hopscotching down a corridor and the chat he has with K9.  That didn’t last for long as by the midway point he’s back to shouting Borusa in a very stern way. I quite like John Arnatt because he gives a very grandee performance and is believable as Chancellor. Milton Johns returns after last appearing in ‘The Android Invasion’, here there is something rather slimy about him but it works and that is why he is one of the best supporting characters in the episode.

Tom Baker’s strong performance continues. It’s reassuring that he goes back to his old self and there is one look he gives K9 in the TARDIS which shows his good self. The thing about the Doctor is that its very difficult to tell whether he’s pretending to be devious or whether its just the new Doctor. The mystery is quite fun and considering the number of times that I have watched this story its still difficult to work it out. Louise Jameson’s performance is hampered somewhat by not really being given anything substantial to do. All that she does that is noteworthy is where she is introduced to Rodan (played by Hilary Ryan). Rodan seems very much like the rest of the Timelords as she shows very little interest in whats going on.

This episode has another cracking cliffhanger. This is where the people that the Doctor has been working for finally arrive after nearly an hour of storytelling. Thanks to the CGI effects being switched on for this DVD it means that the ending is far better than it would have been in 1978. This story is moving along at a decent rate but it does feel like it needs to start delivering soon. Two episodes in and there is no indication that Leela might be leaving. The episode works well and I am just waiting for it to all go badly wrong.

The Invasion of Time - Episode 1

After being largely surprised with how much I have enjoyed the last few stories, I am looking forward to the six part finale that makes up Louise Jameson’s final appearance in the show. This story also marks the first appearance of the Sontarans since ‘The Sontaran Experiment’, nearly three years ago. This is their third encounter with the Doctor but this opening episode sees the show start off in a way that most people wouldn’t have expected. The episode starts off with the Doctor acting quite oddly. There is a nice scene between Leela and K9 and by the end of it, Leela looks like she is being left out in the cold. When the Doctor lands on Gallifrey he claims the presidency which is very unlike what I saw in the previous Gallifrey story. Tom Baker is on absolute fantastic form in this episode, giving the sort of performance that I haven’t seen for quite sometime.

This DVD is one that features new CGI to replace some of the rather poor special effects. The effects don’t really stand out in this episode but if memory serves me correctly then it wont take long for the effects to stand out. This story is famous really for delving into the TARDIS like the show had never done before, this will happen later on it the story. In this episode Leela is having a swim.

Once the action moves to Gallifrey, Leela’s role in the story becomes clear and it is to spend most of her scenes shouting at Andred. I cant quite make my mind up about Andred because he doesn’t really stand out much as a guard. He doenst have much of a presence about him and it does seem that if he was a guard then the standards would have slipped quite a bit.

This story takes place on Gallifrey but its slightly different to the Gallifrey that we saw in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ just two years earlier. Yet whilst there is a similarity to the old set, the new set isn’t as dark and it seems like they left the lights on during this story. The weird random chairs that seem to be dotted around the place are slightly distracting. They don’t really seem to fit the tradition and sophicastion of the Timelords yet just seem to be a ‘modern’ thing to add.

The cliffhanger was really good as the Doctor’s coronation starts off all nice but then it goes a bit wrong when the ‘crown’ is put on his head and he falls to the floor in pain. This ends what has been an intriguing opening episode and the Sontaran’s return is held off for another episodes, its not been 83 episodes since they last appeared. Having remembered what they look like, I cant say that their return is 100% welcomed.

Underworld - Episode 4

I tend to have a little tradition when watching these DVDs and that’s watch the special features when I get to the final episode. This helps to try and put any of the stories flaws and positives into context. I have been looking forward to this one as it shows a lot of the blue screen that the actors would have worked against. Watching the documentary its clear just how much blood, sweat and tears went into this story and it makes me appreciate what they do. The set used for the Oracle is the same as the one that we saw in episode one and its used much better for the oracle because it’s much darker and the colours used are also quite good. The effect used to represent the oracle is quite good because I suppose if they had gone for something physical then it would have looked rather ropey.

There was a lot more going on in this story but compared to the previous episodes is not as big a statement as it first seems. The main thing about this episode is getting two small gold canisters which is the quest that the Minyans had been looking for. This seemed like it wouldn’t take very long and wouldn’t create much tension but credit to Bob Baker and Dave Martin did a good job in making something interesting come out of this. There was a nice case of there being two versions of these canisters. One had the genetic bank for the Minyans whereas the others had a bomb in it. There was a bit of fun with the Doctor making his way back to the oracle to hand back the canisters and telling the guards that the ones he had were the bombs but they didn’t believe him. The Minyans get the proper canisters and that’s the end of that.

I don’t think that this story has been anywhere near as bad as I have previously thought and whilst there have been problems from start to finish, at least they tried and they pulled it off. Star Wars Episode IV was released just before this serial started to air and its fair to say that this basically rewrote the rules on sci-fi production values and other areas of the genre. When you compare the movie which had a budget of around $11 million compared to this serial which probably didn’t even have 1% of that spent on it then this story isn’t going to come across good. The story does have links to Greek mythology and Jason and the Argonauts and if only more of that had made it into the story then I would have liked this years ago.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this entry for episode one, this was the last Doctor Who story that I watched in its entirety. It was painful for me to watch as I just couldn’t get past the CSO. However I failed to appreciate the good things that were in this story and as a result over the course of four days I have revaluated this story and think that out of the five serials I have watched for this season, this is probably the third best. Out of Tom Baker stories so far (this being the 21^st), this is the 17^th best story but before I started this marathon I would have placed this at the very bottom. That shows that this isn’t the best but neither is it the worst.  Now I wait for Louise Jameson’s final story and the final story of the season.

Underworld - Episode 3

My attempt to read the target novel alongside is going well. I think that Terrance Dicks is doing a great in the book of making this story. It’s a shame that after reading a bit in the book that I reminded of the flaws in this story. Oddly enough though the CSO is not what is going off like a siren, it is the fact that there are weird long shots and it’s a very short episode so I feel like this review should be equally short.

The start of this episode is where the Doctor is trying to stop the gas from flowing and he collapse just as the gaps stops. This comes across better in the book. It feels a bit close for comfort in the book whereas it happens too quickly on TV and with the short running time, they could easily have spent a minute cranking up the tension. There is a map called ‘the tree’ and the Doctor refers to it as the tree at the end of the world which sounds more impressive in the book. On TV it looks a bit disappointing yet in my head the book made it sound like a map that could have come out of the Lord of the Rings films. Something that looks better than it sounded in the book is where the Doctor, Leela and Idas floating and they just ‘push’. The book makes it sound basic and on TV the CSO is used to quite good effect.

This episode runs to just over 21 minutes which I think is slightly longer than the previous episode and like the previous epoisode there was a fair amount of long shots. This is what frustrates me about this whole story. There is a good story trying to fight its way out. I cant quite figure out why they went with the idea of prolonged shots over expanding certain elements of the story. I know that I am perhaps comparing the TV version against a novelised version written two years after this aired and written by one of the greatest writers for Doctor Who but I cant help think that if they had asked Bob Baker and Dave Martin to pad it out that they could (and would) have come up with something.

The cliffhanger is the best one that there has been so far but that’s not really a compliment. I think that the story is slightly (and I mean slightly) better than I had given it credit for in the past. I think that the story is heavily flawed but there should be some credit to everyone involved for managing to salvage something from this story and at least having a go.

Underworld - Episode 2

I am still reading the target novel as I am going along and at the moment I have read seven chapters and the phrase “The Quest is the Quest” has been written eight time and two similar lines were written. I must admit that whilst reading this book I have developed a new enthusiasm for this story but I suspect that Terrance Dicks is doing what they couldn’t do on TV and this is the episode where if my memory serves me correctly is where the story goes downhill. It takes three minutes for the problems with this story to appear and the benefits of the book are evident because things that are said and done make sense. Sadly not one can really get over some of the production problem.

The idea that the new planet has a people and not just that but there is a people who are slaves and there are those that are basically bullies. There is a good story here but sadly its all forgotten because my attention is taken with the CSO. Some credit should go the actors because they all did fantastic in at least looking like they knew what they were doing and where they were going. That’s a tough job making it look convincing.

This has to be one of the shortest episodes of Doctor Who ever and I think its fair to say that there was a fair amount of padding. There are very long shots of gas pouring out of vents, for longer than we would normally see in a more packed episode. I think that even though it has a really short running time. I wish that Terrance Dicks would have written this story for TV because reading the book there is enough material that could easily have run to about five minutes.

The problem with CSO apart from the fact that there is fraying around the heads and bodies of those on screen, there is the issue of that the background looks fake. During normal location filming, there is a sense that the actors and the scenes are together whereas in this story when the actors are walking down the tunnel, there is no sense that it’s on uneven ground even though what we see shows that it’s not smooth.  As a result of the prolonged shots of the gas vent the cliffhanger is rather lacklustre but despite very little happening in the episode I actually found this episode to be perfectly fine and I am ‘enjoying’ this story more than I have ever done before in the past.

Underworld - Episode 1

When I first started this marathon, this story was one that I was dreading. It was a story that until 2010, I hadn’t watched all the way through. I would get till the second or third episode before giving up. This is the first story of 1978 and also the first story with Anthony Read as script editor. It is also Louise Jameson’s penultimate story as Leela.

I have decided to read the Target novel of this story and just reading the prologue has got me looking forward to it. The novelisation was written by Terrance Dicks in 1980 and so two years or so earlier, it fell to Bob Baker and Dave Martin to write this story. The opening scene is just as good as I read it in the novel. This is as about as far as I got in the book. I might make a comment about the book versus the TV versions during this story but I will have to wait and see. There is a nice speech that the Doctor gives about being the first people to see a planet formed. It’s delivered like a child about to see something for the first time after hearing about it for a long time.

The set used for the Minyon’s ship is quite good. It’s clearly designed to be the showpiece of the serial and its clear that this is where the budget went for the episode. I think that the guns they use aren’t quite as impressive as they are too cumbersome and has just a silly little screen to look through.

The Timelords are treated as gods by the minyons because the Timelords gave the minyons all the knowledge and then they were betrayed which leads to their rule on non-intervention. This is quite an interesting premise for the story. The Minyons that we meet are after another ship (which in the book is carrying more minyons). They are after P7E which is their ship. This is where the focus of the episode is and the build up is gradual but it’s a good thing because the tension builds up. The effect of the rocks building a planet around the ship is quite impressive. If only they hadn’t done it then the rest of the story wouldn’t be so CSO heavy. The final shot is of the new planet getting bigger and bigger. This episode has always been my favourite one of the four but that’s because the number of people in the episode is so small and also the CSO doesn’t really get in the way. That’s all going to change in the next episodes but I think that at very least, this story is going to be sort of like ‘The Sun Makers’ at that’s average. Not terrible but not great.

 

The Sun Makers - Episode 4

This is the final episode to have Robert Holmes as script editor. This is a position he has held since the first episode of Robot. So Holmes is the last person from Tom Baker’s first episode to leave (apart from Baker himself). This is the 88^th episode that Holmes was script editor for (though not credited) and its his 44^th as a writer and he is second longest serving script editor and at present he’s the third longest serving writer behind Malcolm Hulke (47) and Terry Nation (52).

The episode starts off with Leela about to be steamed to death or staying in a sauna too long as its known nowadays. There was a tiny sense of urgency in getting her out of there but there wasn’t as much as they could have been. The focus is on dealing with the Collector. The Collector does seem to be more involved in the story and Hade’s comedic role becomes more noticeable. Hade exit from the story was quite shocking really because he is thrown off the roof and his death/murder is cheered.

The Collector and the Doctor is quite a good scene because there is a bit where the Collector seems to envy the Doctors’ full head of curly hair. It’s a subtle scene despite how well it’s performed by Baker and Woolf.  The way that the Doctor defeats the Collector is quite interesting. He doesn’t raise a hand or a weapon. The Collector just gets a bit stressed and is reduced to his natural state. Some might think that this was a bit of a cop out but it’s one of those rare instances where the Doctor’s actions don’t end a villains role. Although technically he did change something which led to the Collector’s hysterics.

It’s revealed that Leela was due to being killed in this episode. I think that this would have been a mistake because whilst she’s not my favourite companion ever, it would have been a waste to get rid of her in this manner. The way that she was effectively hidden out of our sight until she was required to throw a knife at the guard was a clever little thing to do. Louise Jameson has been good in this episode and I think that this has been a good story for her.

Cordo seems to have gone a bit giddy between episodes three and four. He was just acting like a child which is quite a transformation considering how glum he was in the opening moments of the first episode. Considering that this is suppose to take place over a couple of hours (a day maybe), he has become a lot more confident. It’s not something that I have a problem with but I just think four episodes is a short amount of time for such a change.

As an episode it was a good one, it did what it needed to do without feeling rushed or like there was padding to fill out the time. Whilst I might not have been wild about the satirical tone in the story I think that it’s worked reasonably well and the final two episodes are better than the first two. Ok I have been quite positive over the last three stories and I have been genuinely surprised about how my opinion has changed over four days when it’s been different for years. However I about to approach a story that will severely test that theory.

The Sun Makers - Episode 3

I didn’t really comment yesterday about the rather poor cliffhanger. A cart going towards the camera is a greater cliffhanger for the poor cameraman than the viewers. 8.9 million people watched this penultimate episode which completely baffles me. The cart is moving so slow its hard to believe that the guards didn’t catch up with it. Even with Leela incapacitated they would have to be standing still not to catch it. The episode doesn’t get any better when Mandrel is threatening to torture the Doctor. We are suppose to want the Doctor to support the rebels which is hard to at first though shortly after this he sees to mellow.

The rebels seem to have come around to working as a team in this episode. It’s impressive how I gone from not liking any of them to wanting them to win. If only Robert Holmes had thought about these characters earlier then I would have like this story more. There is a great scene between Hade and the Collector which is quite fun when Hade is expected to pay for something out of his own pocket. The Collector is quite a good character and is played very well by Henry Woolf. Richard Leech is a good supporting performer as Hade by Jonina Scott seems to have fallen back a bit after her great opening episode.

Leela has the better share of the story as she is about to steamed to death. Even though her movements are somewhat restricted, Jameson gives a strong performance and shows how well the character has developed. Tom Baker also gives a good performance, perhaps his best performance for a while. I don’t want to say that he’s been coasting but it’s hard to think the last time I saw a really great performance from the Doctor.

There is one slightly dodgy moment where we see a photo of the supposed city. It’s a shame that after the great job of setting it up in the opening episode that all we know get is a rather poor photo. They could have done with a model to make it look better. That said there is something quite nice about the design of the structure. Just wish it was in 3D.

I think that this is a better episode than the previous two. I don’t find people as annoying and I feel like it’s more Doctor Who than the other episodes. I still not wild about it but I think that at best it’s still the weakest story of the season so far.

The Sun Makers - Episode 2

Interesting stat welcomes me as I watch this episode on my DVD as it was announced that this episode was the 36^th most watched episode of the week. How? I am perhaps being harsh on this story but I just thing that Robert Holmes is indulging himself a bit here and its defeinetly not one of his finest stories. It’s not like ‘The Space Pirates’ or ‘The Krotons’ but it’s not a classic. I know that people might like the satirical slant in this but if I want satirism then I will watch ‘The Thick of It’ or ‘Spitting Image’.

We meet the Collector (played by Henry Woolf), the first thing we actually see is him face down looking at some figures. When he first speaks the voice is rather annoying but this might have been the intention. It was quite fun to watch the Collector and Hade interact, Hade continues to amuse me and it seems like in the first scene between him and the Doctor he has found his intellectual equal.

Mandrel gets even less likeable in this episode but it’s not because he tries to kill Leela but just because every time I look at him I just think of Ventress in Heartbeat and how nice he was in that. Even though this was made about 15 years before Heartbeat started, it’s the reverse of normal typecasting. What I would say about this group of unlikeable rebels is that it’s the sort of group that I could see Leela living with after she had left the Doctor. It would have made for a far better exit than the one she actually got. Leela does get a fair share of the action in this episode. It’s funny because its another episode where the Doctor and Leela don’t share a scene. Leela is very strong in this episode and the Doctor seems to have become a bit clownish in this episode. He starts off being tied up and his best bit comes when he’s talking to Mandrel and gets quite angry with him about Leela’s absence.

The first scene between Hade and the Doctor is quite fun as Hade is acting all nice and gives the Doctor the money he was trying to get at the beginning of the episode. I was wondering whether the Doctor would know whether he was being set up or not but it looked like in this episode that he was blissfully unaware. I suppose it keeps the story going a bit to have the Doctor not have worked out he was being played.

The location scenes are quite good considering that they are all corridors but the downside to them is that when K9 is blasting down them he makes one hell of a racket. Maybe some dubbing would have worked better in this instance. The other alternative is to just cut K9 out of the story altogether. Lets be honest, K9’s contribution to the story so far has been limited at best. If it weren’t for the racket he was making I wouldn’t have noticed him in the serial.

The episode doesn’t drag which is a surprise to me as I don’t think that there is anything that grabs me in the way that other stories in this season have. This is definelty a better episode than the first but not by much of a compliment.

 

The Sun Makers - Episode 1

The Sun Makers is the third story in a group of adventures that I was worried about when I started this period of the show. However after re-evaluating ‘The Invisible Enemy’ and ‘Image of the Fendahl’ then I am expecting the same to happen here. In the past I have found the plot to be rather boring because all it seemed to be about what Robert Holmes moaning about taxes. This story takes place on Pluto which when this episode was transmitted in 1977 was a planet but in 2006 it was demoted to a dwarf planet. This episode takes place three days after the show celebrated its 14^th birthday. Tom Baker makes his 85^th appearance as the Doctor, Louise Jameson is now on 27 episodes having overtaken Caroline John and will be just behind Ian Marter by the end of this story. Now that is the facts and interesting stuff over with. Oh, one more fact is that this is the 95^th Doctor Who story and Tom Baker’s 21^st as the Doctor which means he is tied with Patrick Troughton. There that’s it now.

This is the first story that K9 appears as a companion. I wish sometimes that K9 would suffer the same fate as Chameleon did where he appeared in his debut story and was then put away in a cupboard until his final story. It doesn’t take long for this episode to feel like it has a hint of the George Orwell novel 1984. There is talk about death taxes and every so often there is a ‘praise the company’ chant. Cordo is the first face we see in this episode and is basically in debt and will have to work himself to death by the end of his first scene. By the time that the Doctor and Leela arrive, he is about to kill himself. Its good that the Doctor and Leela try to talk him out of this as he becomes their friend and the way into to the story.

Gatherer Hade comes across as a comedic character. He is almost child like in certain moments which is perhaps a good idea when the story has such dark tones in it. I actually found him to be the highlight of the episode. The scene that Hade had with Marn outside the TARDIS was a nice scene and that pretty much sums up the episode. It was made up of some good scenes and these two characters are going to be in most of those good scenes.

There is another familiar face in this serial when William Simons plays Mandrel. He most recently appeared in ‘Heartbeat’ as Alf Ventress. Mandrel is leader of a rebel group who are called the others. They aren’t particularly pleasant people and quite why we are suppose to be supporting them against Gatherer Hade’s lot is a mystery.

The cliffhanger is rather unremarkable one because all that happens is the Doctor is stuck in a box and some gas is released. It’s not a terrible way to end the episode but I think that it certainly didn’t have much of a response with me is because the build up was rather poor. I cant quite make up my mind about whether I like the satirical tone of the serial. I don’t necessarily think that there is anything wrong with this in principal but it has be done in such a way that it doesn’t feel like a lecture. I get a feeling that after just one episode, this story is perhaps just going to be average which normally would be a good thing but considering my opinion has changed about other stories, this is turning out to be the weakest (not worst) story of the season.

Image of the Fendahl - Episode 4

I am watching this episode after just seeing Peter Capaldi’s first episode as the Doctor. First of all I thought that Deep Breathe was really good and I think that they made the right choice. The sight of a Dinosaur in London sort of does a great deal to make up for ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’. Now its back to business as I watch Tom Baker’s 84^th episode and the thing about these episodes is that I honestly couldn’t tell you what was going on. There is a lot of great things going on but I would be hard pressed to come up with an explanation. Image of the Fendahl is a case of style over substance.

The effect of transforming Thea into the gold lady was done quite well and also the effect of raising her up so she would be vertical was also a good effect. To be honest I think that this was a bit of a waste for Wanda Ventham because she’s a very good actress and she’s reduced to cameo status which is perhaps the worst thing that I can think of in this episode.

The performances from Tom Baker and Louise Jameson have been really good and the lack of K9 has definelty been a plus point. The writing has been good but its George Spenton-Foster who has really showed what can be done. If I was being picky then I could argue that the directing has been so good that it got in the way of me following what was actually going on because I was enjoying what I was looking at.

The idea that Max kills himself is quite a bold thing for a family show. It does fit in quite well with the dark theme of this story. We don’t see the death which perhaps makes it more grim than if we had seen it on screen.

The ending of the episode is rather odd because the priory explodes and we don’t have final scene with the surviving characters and before we know whats going on, the story moves back to the TARDIS where Leela’s hair is totally different. This has been a better story than I have thought in the past but it’s one that is slightly confusing and the fact that its been this baffling whilst entertaining shows how good a writer Chris Boucher was. The setting probably helped a lot but as I approach the next story I know that I am not too far away from one of my least favourite stories and I fear that this improving attitude to stories wont continue. As it is, Image of the Fendahl is a better story than ‘The Invisible Enemy’ but not as good as ‘Horror of Fang Rock’.

Image of the Fendahl - Episode 3

Despite the story being in the third part, I couldn’t actually tell you a great deal about it. The cliffhanger was quite good and it’s resolved in a good way. The Doctor and Leela are reunited very quickly in this episode and Leela starts off by saving the Doctor.

Max doesn’t seem entirely convincing in his current role as the baddie. He just comes across as a little bit wet. Wanda Ventham doesn’t really do very much in this episode so it falls to Adam and Dr Fendelman to be the supporting characters moving that part of the story. Mrs Tyler becomes more important to the story. She is the only bit of comedy in this story and she’s in her prime during this episode. With the Doctor preoccupied with other things, he can’t pretend that liquorice allsorts are jelly babies and do other funny things.

The running theme of these episodes has been that not a great deal has been happening but stuff has been going on to keep me entertained. This is going to be one of those short reviews because despite this being a well written and well directed episode (along with the other two), I cant really say a great deal about this episode.

This episode doesn’t really get going until the final few minutes of the episode when the Fendahl creature appears. It looks a lot better than the swarm/nucleus thing that we saw in the previous story. It’s a shame that it waited until the end of the episode for this to happen as I would have liked this more than Max attempting to do the whole baddie thing. This perhaps isn’t the strongest episode but it’s not a terrible episode by any means. It’s good that there has been some progression as far as activity is concerned and I still can’t get past the fact that I am enjoying this story far more than I thought.

 

Image of the Fendahl - Episode 2

There was a feature on one of these DVDs that looks at cliffhangers and this is one of those featured an its featured because it’s a bit of a confusing cliffhanger. I believed this and have thought since then that it was a slightly odd ending but I was wrong about the cliffhanger because it seems perfectly fine. I think its more down to the editing that it might not be the most straight forward of moments but I think that the DVD feature gives it a reputation that it doesn’t deserve. The episode manages to keep the Doctor and Leela apart for the entire episode which is good because it means that they have can have to different (yet equally good) plot strands.

This episode features another former soap star as Geoff Hinsliff who appears as Jack Tyler in this episode and would go on to play Don Brennan in Coronation Street from 1987 to 1997. He represents the cobbles whilst Derek Martin represents the dreary soap Eastenders. I cant make my mind up about Jack Tyler because there is something not quite right about him. He seems like he’s a nice character but Hinsliff plays the role in such a way that it comes across more like he’s hiding something and that is a bit off putting.

The episode continues its good work from the previous episode. The creepy vibe which does seem like it’s a Philip Hinchcliffe story but this is credit to Chris Boucher and George Spenton-Foster. Spenton-Foster’s directing is particularly special but it works for what Boucher has written. Things were going so well that I didn’t notice that Leela’s hair is weird and even better, I didn’t reliase that K9 wasn’t in the episode. Oh yeah I’m a K9 hater. Deal with it J

Fendelman comes across as a slightly mad individual. I suppose he’s one of those mad but brilliant scientists. The thing is that he’s just as barmy as the others now because Wanda Ventham’s Thea is behaving oddly but it is Max is the one that really has become influenced. I think that this is clever because Max really was in the background whilst Fendelman and Thea took centre stage.

The cliffhanger is perfectly fine and it starts with a bit of humour as the Doctor comes across the skull. The Doctor offers it a jelly baby but I think eagle eye fans will know that it wasn’t a jelly baby that he offered but a liquorice allsort. The Doctor becomes possessed and ends up with his hand on the skull. It’s going to be interesting the remind myself how this gets resolved in the next episode but this is the second time in as many episodes that the Doctor has been possessed and it’s the same fate that seemed to follow Sarah Jane if memory serves me correctly.

The story manages to keep things going again whilst not actually doing anything. It’s a solid enough episode and I am still enjoying this story and I am surprised by this. Hopefully the second half of this serial wont disappoint and let it down.

Image of the Fendahl - Episode 1

Ok so I was quite surprised that I enjoyed ‘The Invisible Enemy’ as much as I did and I thought that I would be more likely to enjoy this story as a result. However its amazing what a night’s sleep can do and my enthusiasm for this story has waned ever so slightly. It’s perfectly possible that this would work in the same way as enemy but only time would tell. Chris Boucher has written this story following his double header at the beginning of Louise Jameson’s time on the show. George Spenton-Foster makes his debut as a director. The thing that this story has in its favour is that its an earth story and also is quite atmospheric which is very much like the Philip Hinchcliffe era.

Fun fact: This story features Benedict Cumberbatch’s mom (Wanda Ventham) and also Raquel’s dad (Denis Lill) from Only Fools and Horses.

Fun fact #2: This is the 20^th story for Tom Baker as the Doctor. He is just one behind Patrick Troughton (21), Four behind Jon Pertwee (24) and nine behind William Hartnell (29).

The first six minutes or so show me why I may have been wrong about this story. It’s very atmospheric, creepy and well performed. The story is set in some research house where a group of scientists are doing work and not understanding what they are doing (like most scientists in tv drama). Due to the fact that Denis Lill (Fendelman) and Wanda Ventham (Thea Ransome) are the more familiar faces, these are the two more interesting performances.

Louise Jameson is sporting a new costume (one for the dads clearly) and a new hairdo which just looks weird and I think is going to be a distraction during these stories. This is her 23^rd episode and whilst she’s been in the show a while it doesn’t feel like the character has settled into the show. I don’t know whether this is because the Doctor hasn’t warmed to her but there is just something that doesn’t quite work. It’s funny because if you listen to Louise Jameson on the Big Finish audios (especially with Tom Baker), she’s a lot better and that’s because the writing is better.

The Doctor and Leela spend a lot of time walking around the woods nearby and don’t interact with anyone else. This is a Boucher trait because if you think about it for a large chunk of his previous stories, the Doctor doesn’t interact with anyone. It didn’t take very long for K9 to be written out of the story because in the first scene with the Doctor and Leela, he is in pieces. Good.

I wont pretend to understand what was going on but in a way that doesn’t really matter because the whole episode moved along and was pitched in just the right way that I could just go along with it and enjoy it. I think that this episode doesn’t really want to get too bogged down in what’s going on but just create a lot of intrigue and mystery about the setting and the people who are messing with forces they don’t understand.

Now this episode features one of those cliffhanger in Doctor Who that doesn’t quite make sense. I’ll talk about it more in the next episode but as it is here, the Doctor is frozen to the spot with something coming towards it and Leela is about to meet the end of a shotgun. As cliffhanger’s go it has to be one of the best in this season so far and if I were watching this in 1977 then I would definelty be wanting to know what happens next Saturday as it is, I will have to wait just 24 hours (maybe a bit more due to work commitments) but at least the entertainment is there. Maybe I will like this as much as I enjoyed the previous story. Season fifteen is surprising me and I quite like that. I knew Horror of Fang Rock was going to be a good one but that’s three stories in a row where the quality has been high. Maybe Graham Williams is a better producer of the show than I had previously given him credit for.

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 4

Well I never thought that I would write this but I am quite sad about reaching the end of this release. However the episode doesn’t get off to the best of start with the reprise of the prawn. The prawn has a difficult moving and has to have help which makes it the worst villain and design in Doctor Who history (at this point in time). I am perhaps being a bit cruel on the prawn but when its standing still then it doesn’t look too bad but its when it does then it just looks crude. The idea of the nucleus is quite good and visually its striking but I think a bit more time could have been spent to make it more mobile than it was.

As it’s the final episode, the story has to try and reach a conclusion in 25 minutes and it does this quite well. The race is on to stop the prawn/nucleus and stop the eggs from hatching. This means that the story moves to Titan where the story started and I think that it feels like a nice bit of closure because they could have just discarded Titan and kept the action on the hospital asteroid but now we end the story in a decently lit group of sets and my eyes could rest.

I like how the Doctor doesn’t mind the nucleus existing but just has a problem with the grand plan that it has. The “everything has a right to exist” line is particularly good. It’s been a good performance from both Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. I think that the addition of K9 is one that the show would go on to regret. It worked during the course of this story but every so often it would have to stop and at one point it had to be dragged to the TARDIS and when it has to board the TARDIS, the camera cuts away to hide the fact it couldn’t climb up.

“I only hope he’s TARDIS trained” is one of those lines that just makes me grown with embarrassment because its such a rubbish joke but it ends the episode on a rather fun note. I am quite surprised at how much I have enjoyed this story. Yes the prawn does undermine the story but the idea in principle is sound and the comedy works rather well in this serial and as a result I am looking forward to the next story a lot more than I was at the beginning of this serial. Maybe ‘Image of the Fendahl’ might be a better story than I previously thought.

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 3

This is the episode where CSO really shows itself in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Barry Letts era. This is where we go deep into the Doctor’s mind which sounds like a great thing but knowing that this show is made on a BBC budget, the chances looked like it was going to be a massive disappointment. However its hard to really find fault with what we saw. The CSO sets are impressive and this is a creative use of CSO which wasn’t the case when Barry Letts was running the show. The whole thing of going into the Doctor’s body is quite a strange one because the set looks like a bit of the forest set used in ‘Planet of Evil’. Also there are spheres that appear that seem to have been borrowed from ‘The Prisoner’. Well the show filmed where it was shot so it makes sense that they use something that appeared in the show.

Sadly, every so often the action moved from the Doctor’s head to the hospital so it was like going from the dark to the light. Another problem is that we get back to K9. There is a bit where K9 is gliding along a corridor and is making a massive racket. It seems good that Leela has someone to interact with but its just a bit unfortunate that she has to do it with K9. The hate for K9 continues.

As far as the narrative is concerned it progresses quite well and in a way its kind of put into the background due to how good the CSO and the performances were.

There is a rather unfortunate bit where a part of a wall comes down and its clear that its going to fall. Another thing that is a little unfortunate is the part where K9 becomes possessed. If he’s a robot then how can he be possessed? These are perhaps two of the biggest things wrong with this episode which probably shows how good I found the episode.

The Doctor encounters the Nucleus of the swarm in this episode and it’s a bid odd really because it doesn’t really feel like most encounters that the Doctor has had with villains in previous stories. It’s not a terrible scene but I think that its just done a bit oddly. The cliffhanger is a bit disappointing because this is the first time that we see the nucleus. There is no getting around it, it’s a bit rubbish. During the bit where its talking to the Doctor it was hidden under a black cloak it was fine but seeing it as it is then it’s a bit of a let down but that aside I am still liking this more than I previous had done in the past. I think that the performances have been very good and the production values (with CSO included) are also very good.