Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Episode 6

Day 365 sees the final episode of this story that isn’t as clear cut as many people would suggest in terms of quality. Yes the episode doesn’t start off in the best way due to the fact that there is the darn T-Rex. The Doctor is doing his best to look scared against something that would win 2^nd prize at a kids making competition. It’s made worse by the fight between the T-Rex and whatever it was fighting. The fight was very poor and had no entertaining value to it whatsoever. Whereas we didn’t get very much dinosaur action in the previous episode, we got more than our fair share here.

I like how the Brigadier comes in to save the Doctor just as General Finch is about to collar him. The Brigadier really does show his loyalty to the Doctor in this story and also Benton does as towards the end of the episode, he gets to have a scrap with General Finch and I love how he apologises to Finch, totally Benton. Yates pulling a gun on the Doctor, Benton and the Brigadier is one of the most unexpected turns in the show. Even when he’s telling them on the plan he has a look of someone who believes he’s doing the right thing.

Normally I wouldn’t talk too much about actors that are recurring but not what I would class as supporting actors. Bryson is a character that has a great look on his face when asked to make a cup of tea. His usefulness is made even greater when he distracts Yates. I think it’s a shame that Yates gets sidelined again after this moment. When the episode ends there is a brief mention about what is going to happen to him but that’s it.

The only aspect of this episode that is somewhat frustrating is the bit with Sarah Jane trying to convince Adam and the others. If Sarah Jane could escape without causing harm to the others why wouldn’t they let her do what she did in the previous episode? Thankfully Adam is the one that sees sense and leads the revolt against Grover. When they do realise it does lead to a good final scene with Whittaker and Grover. Grover goes to a lot of trouble to convince the Adam and Ruth that all is well but it does seem like a last ditch attempt and its doesn’t feel like it has much heart in its execution which is why it doesn’t last long. The effect where the Doctor is trying to reverse the time effects is done rather well and it is one of the better effects that are used in this story.

It’s good that Grover and Whittaker end up sending themselves back to where the dinosaurs were coming from (with a little help from the Doctor). It’s good that the Doctor didn’t have a direct involvement in this but Grover and Whitaker were hoisted by their own petard.

I think that whilst this story has a fantastic premise but it totally let down by the models. There are many ways that they could have got around the dodgy dinosaurs so this story is known as the one with the dodgy dinosaurs but if you put that to one side then what we have is a great story that has some very impressive performances especially from Richard Franklin and Malcolm Hulke and Paddy Russell deserve credit for coming up with this story and making it work as well as it did on screen.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Episode 5

Today is day 364 of my marathon and it starts off with General Finch telling the Brigadier that the Doctor is a monster maker and by the end of the reprise he is under arrest. The plan to discredit the Doctor doesn’t really seem to have had much thought apart from placing the Doctor in the right place at the right time. Even the Brigadier clues up to the fact that the Doctor might not be guilty. Sarah is still stuck with trying to deal with the natives. It doesn’t take her long to sus out what is going on. It takes her less than 10 minutes to escape right in front of Mark. She manages to make it out for most of the episode before being recaptured by General Finch. It’s hard to believe that she is as dim as she is in not suspecting that General Finch is basically leading her back to where she started the episode. To be fair to her she does realise her mistake just as Finch is holding a gun at her.

This is the episode where it becomes clear to the Doctor that Yates is working with General Finch and it’s a lovely moment. There is moment when it seems that the Doctor thinks that the Brigadier is involved and it ends with Benton willing being knocked out by the Doctor. Going back to Yates, after being revealed that he’s involved he then proceeds to do nothing. It does seem like a bit of a waste but apart from my annoyance with the dinosaur models, this is the only issue that I had with the episode.

There is a portion of this episode which seems to be a tad bit indulgent as it’s the Doctor being chased by the army and to be fair it does at least have a purpose to it and is less like a Bond film that the similar scene we get in ‘Planet of the Spiders’. It does mean we get a bit of Jon Pertwee doing a cockney accent which is far better than the one Dick Van Dyke attempted to do in Mary Poppins.

There is a nice shot of Butler smashing a mug and then it reforming and even though it’s a relatively normal effect it looks good on TV. I still like the relationship between Whittaker and Butler and think that there is a potential spin-off series that Big Finish could do wonders with.

Apart from the reprise, its 22 minutes before we see any naff dinosaur models and they saved the worst still the end because yet again the T-Rex is chosen to pose a threat to the Doctor but a five year old couldn’t find it scary. It’s a shame really because up until this point I had found the episode to be a lot of fun and built upon the good work that came from the previous episode. As I am about to watch the final episode I do so knowing that the story is building up to something and it will be a corker.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Episode 4

As I approach the second half of the story there is a desire to ensure that things keep moving. This is where traditionally the story shifts in direction and we are as a result introduced to new characters. In this cast we are introduced to Mark (Terence Wilton), Adam (Brian Badcoe) and most famously Ruth (played by Carmen Silvera). This episode is where we are introduced to the Whomobile which will show off itself in a future story but in this case just seems like a weird thing to introduce into this story but hey-ho.

The Doctor and Sarah are in very different surrounding in this episode with the Doctor going to find out where and who has been sabotaging his equipment. He manages to make it down to where Butler and Professor Whittaker who are playing games in trying to get the Doctor to leave. When the Doctor returns with the Brigadier there’s a depressing inevitability about what they are going to find and that is nothing.

Sarah Jane is still led to believe that she’s on a spaceship and she isn’t accepting what been told to her. There is a moment when Sarah is watching a video in the reminder room which I thought was similar to when the Doctor was watching a video in ‘Colony in Space’. It’s simple yet effective and it explains why Mark, Adam & Ruth have moved away and there is a nice CSO shot to show that this is a vast number of people involved. Although as the story will show this is as fake as the CSO.

General Finch, Butler, Professor Whittaker, Yates and Grover share the same scene for the first time in this story and it’s a great moment to see the people responsible. They come up with quite an ingenious plan by trying to discredit the Doctor and they do this very well to set up the cliffhanger because the last shot is of General Finch and the Brigadier basically catching the Doctor red handed. This hasn’t been an episode that has been about the dinosaurs which is why this is the best episode of the story. Yes there were some dinosaurs that appeared but I think that we have now got to the part of the story where the Dinosaurs have become a tool of the conspirators as opposed to being the main menace and now the good parts of this story are going to take centre stage and that’s a big relief really.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Episode 3

The third episode starts with the rather disappointing cliffhanger which has become the form during this story so far. The T-Rex collapsing to the ground was rather silly and undermined the good scenario that the episode begins in. It’s hard to really be angry at Yates because he is conflicted. This is something that is done quite well in the early half of this story but in the latter half he sort of disappears but I think that Richard Franklin does a very good job of making us feel conflicted about whats going on.

General Finch is being the nice as pie general in this episode. He helps Sarah get a camera so that she can take pictures of the T-Rex. The part of the episode where Sarah is taking pictures is slow and works quite well even though half of it is using CSO and the T-Rex rising doesn’t quite work but before that it’s a good effort.

The moment when a bit of timber falls on Elisabeth Sladen’s head is a bit funny because it almost sounds like a comedy thud. It’s where the issues with the story are bought to the screen. For the rest of the story she has a slight graze to the head and had this happened a decade later then Sladen would have spent the rest of the story in bed but on this occasion she is still active and gets into a world of trouble. The Doctor realises that there is a conspiracy after what happened to Sarah and the fact that there were no readings on his machine. It’s about time that some time was meat put to this part of the story and we get that with the various members of the conspiracy doing their part to thwart the attempt to find out who is behind bringing the dinosaurs to London.

Despite having a comedic thump to the head, Sarah Jane gets frustrated at being left out of things and goes off to try and find out where a generator might be. She has been rather foolish in this episode by waking up the T-Rex and then going off to see Grover without telling the Doctor, Brigadier or Mike Yates.  She ends the episode being hypnotised and made to think that she’s been on spaceship. The cliffhanger belongs to Sarah Jane even though it ends with a shot of space and some stars and it’s the best end to an episode so far because it hasn’t involved a naff dinosaur model shot. This time there was shock and amazement in the ending. Even though there isn’t as much dinosaur activity as they seems have been in previous episodes and that’s why it’s the best episode so far. At the half way mark I think that there is still plenty of story to tell in the remaining episodes and apart from the dinosaurs, this is a very solid story.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Episode 2

The second episode of this six part adventure is where the story really gets going because the first episode did a good job of setting up the setting up the location of the story and the idea of an abandoned London is a good one and one that always works well as a setting. The T-Rex that we see at the beginning of the episode is still a problem as far as I am concerned.  This twinned with the CSO used to put the soldiers in front of the T-Rex is another problem.

I love the scene with the Doctor and Sarah when Sarah mentions a theory which sounds rather flimsy. This isn’t really an episode for Sarah Jane but the thing that does come out of it is that due to the fact she’s a journalist she isn’t trusted and is treated like a pariah and its only when the Doctor says that she’s his assistant that it seems like she’s becoming part of the UNIT family.

The effect used to get that historical man to disappear back to where he came from was one of the few effects that worked. It works when they make the dinosaurs disappear. The Stegosaurus is a better model effect that the T-Rex and the CSO of it appearing with the Doctor is better. The CSO has mixed results in this episode and I think it largely depends on the dinosaurs and who or what they put on in front of it.

I think the scene between Mike Yates and Sarah is a nice environmental discussion where Yates talks about the peace being rather nice and Sarah preferring traffic. I don’t think that she does believe it but is just being opposite for the sake of it. Yates is different due to the effects of what happened to him in ‘The Green Death’. It’s in this episode that its revealed that he is involved in the Dinosaurs plan. Part of the reason why the plot works so well is that it’s a new thing in Doctor Who for one of the good guys to be smilingly working against the Doctor and putting him danger.

The explanation that someone is causing the dinosaurs to appear and disappear is explored here and this introduces Michael Jarvis and Peter Miles. Jarvis had previous appeared in ‘The Web Planet’ and Miles previously appeared in ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’. Jarvis plays Butler who is the nicer of the two and Miles played Professor Whittaker who seems like a similar version to Dr Lawrence in his previous story. Another of the people involved although we don’t know it yet (even though we do) is Sir Charles Grover (played by Noel Johnson). General Finch was introduced in the previous episode but its this episode where I think that his true colours are shown when he seems to be against the Doctor. John Bennett would return in a future Tom Baker story but here General Finch is at the moment the most obvious villain in the story.

The cliffhanger is ruined by the last shot being of the T-Rex looking at the camera. If it were a better model then it would be a far more effective way to end the episode. That said the main plot of the story is what makes this a better story that it could have been and why I get frustrated with this story because whilst it might b a good thing that the show is trying to do something different, sometimes its better to know your limits and there was no way that this was going to work.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Episode 1

It could be argued that ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ is a watershed moment in the Jon Pertwee era. It’s also a story that is used when people try and knock the show. To be fair it’s a show that has its problems but I could quite happily argue in its favour but there are aspects that don’t quite work. However the good points are shown straight away. The opening shots are of London with nobody around. It’s very reminisant of shots in ‘The Invasion’ and ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’.

I love the eerie feel that this stage of the episode gives. No people, no cars, nothing apart from birds singing. It’s just past the three minute mark before someone other than the Doctor and Sarah Jane appear. Great Britain always closes on a Sunday is a dated line because I work in retail and occasionally have to work on a Sunday. Everytime I do I think of that line.

The moment when the looter that the Doctor and Sarah encounter dies in a car accident is quite a grim moment. In fact you cant really say that this episode has much humour despite Jon Pertwee trying his best in several moments towards the end of the episode. It’s good that we have UNIT back as their appearances are becoming even more rare as the stories progress. Nicholas Courtney plays the Brigadier with a certain degree of weariness as he is under a certain amount of pressure trying to maintain law and order.

This is a Malcolm Hulke story and is his 42nd episode. Hulke is the most prolific writer in the shows history and has a very strong track record and the faults with this story shouldn’t be laid at his door. Neither should they be laid at the directors door. This is Paddy Russell’s second serial with her first being way back in 1966 with ‘The Massacre of St Bartholomew Eve’. Both have done well with this story and the thing that I will probably mention throughout these reviews is that when the dinosaurs aren’t on screen then the story works really well and considering that Dinosaurs are in the title, it’s a big problem with the story.

It’s 11 minutes before the problem with this episode become evident and its when the Dinosaurs of the title appear. It’s quite frankly the biggest problem that this serial faces. Everytime they appear it just ruins any hope that it will be better than I previously thought. Another problem is the noise that the UNIT guns make, its clear that there aren’t any bullets coming out yet we are suppose to believe that they are proper guns. As an opening episode it shows perfectly well just whats good and whats bad about this story. I think as a six parter it has plenty of things to keep us entertained and I am looking forward to the rest of this story to try and see what percentage of the story is good and what percentage is bad. Only time will tell.

Frontier in Space - Episode 6

The final episode of ‘Frontier in Space’ is the final appearance of Roger Delgado who was killed in Turkey a few months after this episode was transmitted. It is also the 86^th episode that has been produced by Barry Letts which is the same number that Verity Lambert produced from 1963 to 1965. That will be the only stat that appears in this entry.

The episode has the feel that its building up to something and not in a good way. The mystery starts when the Master is talking to someone but unusually we don’t hear who he’s talking to. That mystery doesn’t last long as its soon revealed that the Daleks were the ones behind it all. This is the first time that we have seen them in 36 episodes and sadly they haven’t solved the problem of the voices which is a shame.

The Daleks don’t appear until seven minutes before the end and this is when the serial goes into overdrive and it’s a great way that they are introduced because they appear at the top of a hill and appear almost from out of the ground. The idea that the Master and the Daleks working together is a brilliant idea and sadly it doesn’t last long enough. They are only in it for about a minute and then they glide off.

Delgado’s final scene in the show is rather disappointing when you think of it but I suppose they didn’t know that this would be the last time we would see him so I suppose when you put it into context you have to be fair. Roger Delgado has been one of the highlights of the Pertwee and he is the best Master that there has ever been. He played the role with some wonder and brilliance that it’s the first time I have felt sad watching an episode of Doctor Who since the final episode of ‘The War Games’. This is the beginning of the end really for the third Doctor because without someone like the Master or Roger Delgado, where does the conflict come from. I will miss Roger Delgado.

As a story this has been one of the best six part adventures that I can remember. I think that the characters have all been really well done and the plot has moved along at a good pace and its been a very impressive adventure which shouldn’t really be a surprise considering that it was written by Malcolm Hulke who has a proven track record of writing superb stories with superb characters and I think that this is Paul Bernard’s best story and everything just clicked and its always a joy when things

Frontier in Space - Episode 5

It could be argued that the previous episode was a interlude in this story but it didn’t feel like one. If you think about it not much really happened because we were suppose to be more focused on what was going on between the Doctor, Jo and the Master, that it didn’t matter what was going on elsewhere because the performances were suppose to distract us. In this penultimate episode the action moves to Draconia where the Doctor, Jo and the Master meet the Emperor. It’s a scene which shows that the Doctor has been here before and this helps to convince the Emperor that the humans aren’t a threat really. It’s a nice scenes which is ended with the Ogrons attacking the Emperor’s chamber but the Doctor manages to convince the Emperor that they have been seeing things. This means that there is no way of the Master pretending that the two sides are fighting each other and he has to rely upon destroying the evidence.

It’s good that we get the President and General Williams back in the story where the Doctor and the Emperor’s son tries to convince them that they should go to the Ogrons world. I like how we get a bit of backstory about General Williams and learn that his attitude was down to a misunderstanding. This is an important moment and a major shift in attitude for the Williams character. It seems that as the Doctor is always drawn to Earth, the show is drawn to a quarry and this is case in this episode buts it’s a brief shot which sees the Master and Jo arrive at the Masters base on the Ogron world.

I think that it’s a great moment when Jo manages to get over the Master trying to hypnotise her like he did in their first adventure. It shows how far the character has developed since her first story and shows how she’s not the weak feeble individual that seemed to only be there because she had relatives in high places. Katy Manning has had a good run of episodes recently. I don’t think that anything special has happened but it just feels that the writing is allowing her character to be more than it use to be. Jon Pertwee’s performance is also very good and his best scene comes in the Emperor’s chamber where he gets to act just as noble as the Draconians.

It feels during this episode that we are building up to something which is a critiscm that I have had of stories over the last season and a half. The episode does that thing that six parters have which is to go off in a different tangent and Malcolm Hulke does that without realising it. It’s a better cliffhanger than the previous one part of me doesn’t want to watch the next episode because of the importance of it.

Frontier in Space - Episode 4

The story starts off with the rather intriguing cliffhanger of the Doctor and the Professor running out of oxygen and I suppose if I am being positive then I would say that it would be intriguing to see how the Doctor would be saved. The way that he was saved was probably not necessarily the way that most people would have expected. Imagine being saved by your nemesis. It must be a horrible feeling for the Doctor and the smugness that the Master must be feeling is clear to see. There is a moment when the Master is reading a list of bogus crimes that the Doctor is supposed to have committed and its funny because its clear that the Master has put some thought into his plan. There is a nice moment when the Master talks about the roles being reversed, this is because obviously the Doctor and Jo visited the Master in ‘The Sea Devils’. One of my favourite scenes in this episode comes when the Doctor goes for a spacewalk. Ok so you can see the strings in some shots but it’s a good attempt on a very miniscule budget. It would have looked in a movie but on the BBC it looked rather good.

For most of the episode it’s just the Doctor, Jo and the Master. It’s only briefly at the beginning and the last couple of minutes that there are other people and it’s one of the things that I liked about this episode because it showed how close these three had gotten over the last couple of years. It’s quite fitting that with this being Delgado’s last story that we should see and perhaps be quite sad about what we are going to miss.

The supporting characters don’t really have much impact in the episode. I suppose they aren’t totally redundant because it makes sense that we have to move from one setting to another and introduce elements for the next episode but really this episode belongs to Delgado, Manning and Pertwee and I cant help but think that Delgado just edges but that’s because he oozes charisma and even though he’s a baddie I still find mself almost wanting him to win and that probably isn’t what Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks were aiming at when they introduced the character of the Master but it is what it is.

The cliffhanger isn’t very good because all that we get is an ogron looking at a computer screen after the Master setting off a homing beacon. If I could change one thing about this episode then it would be this. I think that this episode continues the good work that the previous three episodes had achieved. With two more episodes to go, I still think that there is plenty of mileage left. This is a rare story where six episodes actually work. The writing was good and the directing was equally sound.

Frontier in Space - Episode 3

I do feel sorry for the president in this episode because she’s been forced into going into war but she is also trying to prevent a coup. It’s quite clear how well General Williams and the President work together. I really like General Williams and think that Michael Hawkins plays the character really well with a hint of borderline pantomime villain. My worry about the Doctor and Jo been accused of being something that they are not is already getting tiresome. During the mind probe session on the Doctor I found myself thinking of this fact and getting slightly depressed that there were going to be more moments like this.

The episode sees the story move to the Moon. On first looks, the set is quite good and I think that even though it’s a studio set it still look quite good. It’s a lunar version of Porridge except there’s little humour and no Ronnie Barker. I think that Jon Pertwee gets a better share of the story than Katy Manning but that’s more to do with the fact that the lunar scenes were the more interesting. The bonus for Jon Pertwee filming the scenes on the lunar set was that he got to wear a dressing gown.

The episode really picks up when Roger Delgado makes a welcome return. This is the last story that Roger Delgado appears as The Master. Like most times, he is pretending to be a commissioner and I let out a small cheer when he appeared. From the moment he gets involved in the story it picks up (Not that it was really dragging). I think that the costume he wears is quite interesting as it’s similar to what he wears but more importantly, it features a symbol which for years I thought little of it but it was only upon watching the extras on the DVD that I noticed it looked like the Daleks eye.

There is something good about the cliffhanger because on the one hand the Doctor and the Professor are going to run out of oxygen but then on the other hand its one of those where its obvious that the Doctor will survive so why put him in that situation. Apart from that minor quibble I think that this episode is still working well and we are getting more and more information and its not boring or moving things at a reasonable pace until the right time (probably episode five) before it picks up again.

Frontier in Space - Episode 2

After the interesting set up of the previous episode, this is where things start to get more intriguing. The guards that appear in this episode are quite amusing. It’s hard to find anything menacing about them so quite why the Doctor and Jo obey what they say is questionable. However the thing about the Doctor and Jo is that all they do in this episode is get moved from one cell to another. The supporting characters also just bicker about who is wrong and who is right. It’s clear that someone else is causing all this largely due to the noise that occurs and also because neither side seems like they want this war and so would be reluctant to start it. We all know who’s behind it all but at the time it must have been racing through people’s mind about who it could be.

One of the earlier scenes in this story shows the strong relationship between the Doctor and Jo. There are a couple of cell scenes which show this well and if there is one advantage of these cell scenes is that it gives us more time for these two to talk to each other. When the mind probe is mentioned, I must admit that I am reminded on the moment in ‘The Five Doctors’ where it is mentioned in one of worst delivered lines in TV history.

As I mentioned before, the Draconians are a honourable yet stubborn race. They are rational beings and have their own point of view. I like how it’s the Doctor that gets to interact with them. The Doctor does have a knack of convincing the people he’s talking to that he’s making sense. The scenes at their embassy are memorable to me for no particuarl reason. My best guess is that it doesn’t really seem like they’ve been there very long because it’s just like a normal room that has some mildly intriguing furniture.

There is some erm…interesting location filming as the Doctor and Jo walk along what at the time must have seemed like futuristic buildings but sadly look like the sort of place that they would film Shameless or Benefits Street on. That said the action itself is quite good. The final bit of location filming where the Ogrons are attacking the president’s office (??). The Ogrons somehow manage to find the Doctor and Jo in their cell surprisingly quickly. I think that this shows that the story has moved on and is developing nicely.

Frontier in Space - Episode 1

Officially this is the first part of a six part adventure however really it’s the first part of a twelve part adventure because they pretty much feel like the same story. There is nothing really to separate the two adventures. The model shots that we have in the early minutes of this adventure are very impressive. The impressiveness continues with the sets of the space freight. Ok so some of it screams the 1970’s but even comparing it to today’s standards there is something quite good about the sets.

The Doctor is confused as an alien race initially called a Dragon and Jo thinks that she is seeing a Drashig. The space crew and Jo are affected by the weird noise yet the Doctor isn’t which is quite interesting. I know the Doctor is an alien but sometimes it would be good if he could be affected just like everyone else. The only time he’s incapacitated is when he’s shot at by the Ogrons.

The idea of having a female president is a bold one and one that I thinks shows how Doctor Who did create good female roles from time to time. Vera Fusek plays the role as someone who has a lot of pressure but wont jump to the wrong conclusion. General Williams is a bit of a swine from the very moment that we see him. He is the exact opposite to the president. Michael Hawkins is playing the role exactly as it should be played because with the president being so passive, these scenes need someone to be the voice of opposition.

The Draconians were Jon Pertwee’s favourite monster and its not hard to see why. Visually they are very striking and the mask is perhaps the best mask that has been used in Doctor Who. They come across in this episode as a race that are proud but can also be stubborn. When they appeared in the 2010 Big Finish play ‘Paper Cuts’, they were one of the best things in it and that shows how good they are. We don’t see their full potential in this episode but that’s normal as there are many more episodes for them to show their greatness. We see the Ograns appear in this episode and it should have been a clear indication that the Daleks might becoming back. Even with the line that the Doctor gives about different races using them to do their dirty work, I think that it’s a subtle nudge that the Daleks will be returning soon.

As an opening episode it sets things up quite well. We know what the conflict is and the two parties that are involved. This ThIng of the Doctor and Jo being confused and accused of things that aren’t true is something that I have remembered in the past as one of the things that I don’t like and I get a feeling that the same thing is going to happen over the course of the next five episodes.

The Sea Devils - Episode 6

The reprise of the cliffhanger starts off with the Doctor fighting the Sea Devils before being knocked out by one. This is where the episode should have ended but instead we got the strange cliffhanger that we did. Despite this slightly poor reprise it but the action moves along quickly enough for us to forget this.

The scene where Jo and Captain Hart are trying to escape through an escape hatch is made enjoyable because Walker is now acting like a scared child. It’s the mirror opposite of how he was acting in the previous episode. He’s back to his old self before too long when he eating and drinking and wanting to blow the sea devils out of the water. Walker has been such a loathsome character and it feels like he had been in the show for the entire six episode run rather than just these two.

Captain Hart now feels like he’s on the Doctor’s side. He’s fighting the sea devils and is doing all the things that anyone on the Doctors side should be doing. There’s one moment where he’s using a bit machine gun and is aiming at the sea devils. I was thinking that it’s the sort of thing that Jon Pertwee should be doing.

There is a good action sequence with the Doctor chasing the Master via hover boat. This was one of two scenes that involved the pair of them. The second one was as the sea devils base explodes and the pair of them are floating on the water. The location scenes have been fun from start to finish and its as if the best was saved until last. The last few moments of the episode are of the Master going off in the hovercraft with the Doctor looking on. I thought that this was a disappointing way to end the episode but that’s not the worst thing in the world.

There are the usual things to like about this episode such as the scene where the Doctor and the Master work together with the Doctor trying to do something that will throw a spanner in the works. Another thing that appears is a nice stunt jump and then there is someone who is asked to guard the Master but quickly falls under the Masters hypnosis.

If I had one critiscm of this episode is that it doesn’t feel like the sea devils are the main priority. It seems like it’s more about the Doctor and the Master and the battle at the navy base. It doesn’t feel like a final episode which is always a bit of a worry for me because I would have thought that they would want to build up to something. That said I still think that as a six part adventure its easily the best one of the season so far. The location footage is what is most memorable about this story and also the Sea Devils makes this a memorable story. Sadly I’ve just noted what is coming next and its ‘The Mutants’ oh well the good times had to come to an end at some point.

The Sea Devils - Episode 5

As we approach the final third of the story. I must say that considering it’s a six part story and considering its part of a rather lacklustre season, I don’t think that the story is going to dragging and with the solid cliffhangers I feel like the series has got back on its feet. It doesn’t take long for us to find out what happened to the Doctor and its leads us to the Sea Devils base.

Walker the Parliamentary Private Secretary is introduced into this episode and instantly comes across as your typical civil servant who gets in the way and looks like he is going to ruin everything. It comes at time when Captain Hart has developed. There is nothing good about Walker and I think that this is what Malcolm Hulke was aiming for.

I don’t know why but the design of the sea devils don’t look quite as impressive as they did before. They also sound quite different to how you would expect them to sound. Apart from that its good that we get a good amount of screen time from them and one of their first scenes comes when the Doctor and the Master are trying to convince the sea devils which course of action is right. It’s rather frustrating then that when the Doctor seems to have got the Sea Devils to see sense than Walker orders the firing.

Jon Pertwee puts in a fantastic performance as the Doctor starts off by trying to broker a peace settlement with the Sea Devils and then by the end of the episode has given Walker a stern dressing down. Roger Delgado is also on fine form and spends the entire episode with the sea devils. There is one moment when he’s walking towards the camera delivery a speech and it’s a great moment because it make Delgado look like an important figure and it’s the first time since his debut that this has really been the case. Sadly, Katy Manning doesn’t really do very much in this episode and I think that she’s a victim of time because with the Doctor, the Master, Sea Devils and Walker, the episode doesn’t really allow for Jo Grant to show how good she is.

I’m still impressed with what the Navy were prepared to let the show use and shoot. The footage of the ships firing into the sea looks impressive and helps lend a real sense that this story is suppose to be taking place at sea. Even something as normal as a submarine rising from the sea looks impressive. The only thing that does let the episode down is the cliffhanger which I have to admit is somewhat disappointing because whilst it might be exciting that the Sea Devils have started to invade the navy base, the fact that the last shot is just one of them holding up their gun is somewhat anti-climatic compared to some of the cliffhangers we’ve had in this story. The episode itself is rather good as the some of the scenes are really good and a new character is introduced to help breathe some freshness into proceedings. With one more episode to go I think that this is definelty the best story of the ninth season.

The Sea Devils - Episode 4

Going slightly off topic, today is the ninth anniversary since the show returned. It seems like not that long ago that there was the excitement of new Doctor Who for the first time since 1996. On March 26 2005, the Ninth Doctor first met Rose and the Autons returned and the shot was back. It’s good to see and think about the differences as I start to watch this fourth episode. After the strong cliffhanger from the previous episode, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be as long as the previous reprise or tidied up as quickly as the first cliffhanger was. The scene where the Doctor and Jo are going through the minefield is a very good one. The Doctor jumps on the barb wire to allow Jo to get through and then the sonic screwdriver is used as a mine detector. This is an enjoyable and exciting start to the episode and ended with a sea devil going back into the sea.

The Master/Trenchard dynamic has been quite fun to watch in these four episodes. I do find Trenchard to be an intriguing character because I think that he’s been naïve more than manipulated by the Master. It does seem like Trenchard has reached the end of his usefulness as he goes down fighting when he shoots the Sea Devils. We don’t see the moment that he’s killed which is perhaps the best thing. It’s a shame that he went out whilst being fooled. The Master ploughs on with his plan. The look on his face when the Sea Devils come into his cell is the one of confidence and its funny to see that because we know how it will go and even watching in 1972 it would have been obvious to see this.

Captain Hart starts off by being just as sceptical as he always been and this is the point when I wish the character would mature and start to believe the Doctor and go along with what he says. Thankfully he does start this in the latter stages of the episode when he lends a diving bell to the Doctor. The shots inside the diving bell were very good and help add to the realistic feel of these scenes. It’s quite good how the Navy were so willing to lend the BBC all this stuff to make this show. It’s hard to imagine that anyone even the BBC would get this level of co-operation from the Navy.

Jon Pertwee starts off quite action like by helping Jo get over the mine-field but does come across as a bit of a swine when he scolds Jo for wanting to eat the sandwiches and then proceeds to do just that. I think that this was a minor blip and redeems himself with a great end to the episode. Katy Manning doesn’t quite have the same good time as Pertwee but seems to fall into the standard companion trap of just being worried about the Doctor.

The cliffhanger is another good one as there is the question of where the Doctor is and what happened after the camera left the Doctor looking at the Sea Devil. This is the second episode in a row where I feel like this is the big story that I felt it was in the past. The writing has been very good and the direction from Michael E Briant is great to look at. From the location filming at the very beginning of the episode to the diving bell stuff at the bottom every shot was well done and everything seems to have worked well together.

The Sea Devils - Episode 3

The third episode has a rather long reprise. That not really a complaint but merely a fact. It’s a good thing to reprise and it picks up with a knife narrowly missing the Doctor’s head. That some mighty fine throwing that Roger Delgado managed (I obviously know he didn’t). It’s sad to see Trenchard act the way that he does in this episode. The fact he’s willing to believe the Master over the Doctor is to be expected but still its sad to see. The Master gives a good reason as to why he still stays in the prison when he’s got one over Trenchard.

There’s a nice bit of continuity when the Master refers to the files that he stole in ‘Colony in Space’. It’s due to these files that he reads about the Sea Devils and this is a way for him to continue his destruction of the world plan which has failed about half a dozen times since ‘Terror of the Autons’.

Jo gets to do some entertaining stuff in the early stages of this episode after escaping from some guards and running around the castle. Jo is well used in this episode and gets to free the Doctor after he’s chained up. The Doctor doesn’t have the best episode after the sword fight with the Doctor. The best moment after that comes when he has a scene with Trenchard and he talks about how anyone at UNIT would vouch for him. Considering how at times the Doctor has contempt for UNIT, its somewhat unfortunate that he only speaks about UNIT like this when it suits him.

I commented that I like the location filming that occurs in this story and that continues to be the case in this episode where the show goes to the beach. This leads to some good moments in this episode and some enjoyable ones in the next episode but even the stuff at the beginning with Jo is shot well and I think its some of the best location filming in the season. A part of the story moves to the submarine and there are some really good scenes in the sub which is surprising considering the person in charge is less than likeable and its just the one set that is used.

The cliffhanger is rather good with the Sea Devils coming out of the sea. I am happy that the cliffhangers are just as good as the episodes after being worried in recent episodes that the cliffhangers have been rather weak, its good that there seems to have been some though put into them. After three episodes, its clear that this story is the best of the season so far and whilst that might be damning with faint praise it’s the truth and I think that the second half is going to be just as good as the first half.

The Sea Devils - Episode 2

It’s quickly revealed that the mysterious figure is just Clark. His involvement is minimal because after he is knocked out (nicely) by the Doctor, he doesn’t appear much. It does make the cliffhanger seem like a throwaway one which is somewhat annoying. There are some quite well realised scenes in the early stages of this episode, largely involving the Sea Devils and the incidental music. Talking of the Sea Devils we get a proper scene with one of them and it doesn’t show them in a good light. I think that this is quite clever because it shows the Doctor as the lone voice of reason whilst everyone wants to bomb them in future episodes. It also continues the trait of Pertwee’s Doctor where he wants to find the peaceful solution even after being shot at.

Captain Hart continues to show displeasure at the Doctor’s actions. It would be fun to have had a scene with the Captain and the Brigadier. It would be worth it just to see the look on the Brigadier’s face with a ‘I know how you feel’ look. I think it’s perfectly normal to have this sort of scene in my head.

There’s an interesting bit when the Doctor refers to the events of Doctor Who and the Silurians but what makes it interesting is that the Doctor informs us that they should have been called Eocenes which is their correct name (apparently). It seems like it’s the sort of correction that a newspaper puts in when they’ve printed something wrong. It doesn’t really pop up later on in the story so it doesn’t really seem to have much point really.

It didn’t take long for the Master to get his plan going and he’s in pretty much the majority of the episode. In fact the final scene is the highlight when he’s fighting with the Doctor in a sword/gun fight. It ends with the very real possibility that the Doctor might die. I know I have complained in the past about this plot device because we know that it wont happen but it would be intriguing for 1972 audiences to wonder just how the Doctor was going to survive this one. It was a great cliffhanger to a rather strong episode. It progressed things enough so that it didn’t feel like padding but still feeling like we were going somewhere plot wise.

The Sea Devils - Episode 1

The Sea Devils is one of my favourite Jon Pertwee stories and it’s the first time in this season that I feel like I am about to watch a strong story that doesn’t have any faults to it. If I’m being picky then there is one thing missing from this story and that’s the lack of UNIT and the Brigadier. That said another name does return in this episode and it’s a blessed relief.

The opening scene is a great set up with where we see the hand of a sea devil (although at this point we wouldn’t know this at the time). It seems like it should be before the title sequence and then into the action. It’s written by Malcolm Hulke who’s got a great track record and its another reason why I have a certain amount of optimism for this six part adventure. Another reason is that there is an extraordinary amount of location footage and its good to get outside after spending four episodes stuck in a studio bound story.

It’s been eight episodes since we last saw Roger Delgado and whilst I wished that they would have bought him in sooner, it’s good to have him back now. At the end of ‘The Daemons’ he was taken away and it’s good that he didn’t find a way off screen to escape as when we see him in this episode, he is a prisoner. The first scene between the Master, the Doctor and Jo was a good one as it started with a weird friendly chat between Pertwee and Delgado. The scene is good because the Master is trying to pretend that everything is normal and by the end of the scene the Master is laughing showing that he’s back on form like he’d never been away.

It doesn’t take long for the truth about Trenchard being in the Doctor’s pocket. This means that it isn’t so much a prison but a holiday camp. The Master uses Trenchard’s sense of civic duty and makes him feel like things are for the greater good and it’s a shame that Trenchard doesn’t see the Master for what he is and he is a character that comes across like Godfrey in Dad’s Army. A nice character that I enjoy watching.

As the story is set at sea there isn’t any narrative reason to have UNIT in the story so instead we get the navy and we are introduced to Captain Hart. Hart starts off like a no nonsense captain that is furious when the Doctor turns up. Edwin Richfield plays the character exactly right at this moment as someone who isn’t use to the Doctor or what happens to him.

There is a scene where the Master is watching the Clangers and I cant watch this scene now without thinking of the scene in the 2007 episode ‘Sound of Drums’ where John Simm’s Master is watching the Teletubbies. It’s a scene that introduces a fort which is where the story moves to. The fact we don’t see the Sea Devils properly until very late in the episode is no a new plot device but its still good and the look of them IS quite distinctive.

The music is used to great effect in this episode. It instantly gives a creepy impression and is used in a way that adds to the story and it’s the most distinctive music since ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’. Malcolm Clarke has done a good job with the music and its sadly a rare thing that I don’t comment on as often as I should.

The first time that I saw the cliffhanger I was quite spooked by it. The dark danky setting of the fort twinned with the knowledge that a Sea Devil is about ponce. Sadly after watching it countless times the menace of it is somewhat lost and whilst it might not have the initial impact that it did have, it’s still a lot better than some of the cliffhangers that I’ve seen this season. It’s a good solid opening episode and I feel good about this story which is the first time for a while that I have felt that.

Colony in Space - Episode 6

The final episode of this story is the 298^th in Doctor Who. Sadly its quite early on when we see the priest but the next time we see it I chuckled when the Doctor and the Master managed to get one over on him and then the final time we see him was pretending to shake when the base starts going wibbly wobbly. That’s it now, we will never have to see it again or the guardian. Now doesn’t that feel better having read that? The episode follows the Doctor and the Master as they track down the doomsday weapon that the Timelords were worried about in episode one. Quite why its taken six episodes to get to this point is beyond me but hey ho it is what it is. Rule or serve is a great line that the Master gives when he is trying to convince the Doctor to join him in his scheme.

I didn’t realise until now that Ashe is played by John Ringham who was the bloodthirsty Tlotoxl in ‘The Aztecs’. Normally the character of Ashe would have come across as a rather bland and wet character but due to the writing and also due to Ringham’s performances, the character has been a strong presence in the story and its Ringham’s last involvement in Doctor Who. Ashe suffers an off screen death which after everything he’s done in the story would normally be a shame but on this instance it’s probably the best thing because he died being a hero.

I like the bit when Dent says “Goodbye Ashe”. It does seem genuine and perhaps the nicest thing that he’s said to Ashe in the entire story. Morris Perry has been good from the very beginning as Dent and the rest of the IMC crowd.

After destroying the doomsday weapon there is a nice little shootout after the colonists jump out and manage to get one over the IMC guys and at the end of the story they can now start a new life on the colony with the real adjudicator on their way to the planet.

The final scene with the Brigadier was apparently recorded during this episode instead of being recorded during episode one. It seems fair odd and wasteful really but it’s fun to see as the Doctor and Jo arrive just a few seconds after leaving in episode one.

I think that it’s a perfectly fine episode but I think that due to the rather pedestrian feel the story has had it didn’t have quite the kick that it should have done. I’m glad that the involvement of the priest and the guardian are kept to a minimum. The whole story isn’t terrible but I think that it’s the weakest story of the Pertwee era. The only good thing about this story apart from the fact that it takes place on earth is that they were quite disciplined in when they introduced Roger Delgado but I suspect that this was due to the fact they knew they needed to hold him back for a while because there isn’t much else.

With just one more story to go of the eighth season, I must admit that I don’t feel that this season has quite the impact that the first season had. I think that the decision to go with the Master in every story has backfired and whilst it feels that there has been some development in terms of moving the Doctor away from earth it is somewhat undermined by Delgado appearing in most episodes.

Colony in Space - Episode 5

Ok so after some rather naïve optimism at the beginning of the story, I have definelty come to the conclusion that I was right in my original opinion of this story. Even when Roger Delgado makes an appearance I still find myself rather underwhelmed by the story. It’s a shame that the first adventure for Jon Pertwee’s Doctor on another planet would be such a clunker. That said I still hold out hope that the final two episodes will pick up enough to prove me wrong.

There is a nice trial scene that takes place and is very much in the style of the one that we see in ‘The War Games’ where its clearly a farce and is designed to just show who’s boss. This means that Dent gets to be the big powerful figure now that the Master has been exposed as a fraud. The IMC guys do come out of this quite well as they are forced to leave the planet by the colonists and sneakily come back but manage to spring a surprise on the colonists. Caldwell still manages undermine Dent at every opportunity with the comments he makes. I think its down to Bernard Kay that I like this character so much. There is a scene where Mary Ashe is shrieking at Caldwell and honestly that particular shot could have come from an episode of Coronation Street in 2014.

It’s good that we don’t see the priest or the guardian. After their laughable appearance in the previous episode, it would have totally ruined this episode had they been seen. They are still mentioned and the Master is using the Doctor to find him but the Guardian and the Priest are better just mentioned instead of being seen. Sadly I know that they will make an appearance in the final episode but at least its just one more appearance and then that’s that.

As far as the central performances go. Delgado and Pertwee are both on fine form and I also have to say that Katy Manning’s involvement has greatly improved since the early stages of this story and the three of them are being used and are acting like they are important to the story. Even the supporting characters are helping rather excessive running time to pass without too much bother. I think that both the colonists and IMC are not annoying and I find myself sympathising with both groups which might have been the intention of Hulke.

This is by far the best episode of the story so far but that’s sort of damning with faint praise. It is however a stronger episode because things happen and not just one thing but many things. Also the cliffhanger is far better than what we have had. Due to the IMC somehow managing to get their way into the Master’s TARDIS in a rather convenient way and due to triggering the alarms forces the Master to press a button which could kill Jo. I say could but we all know that she makes for many more episodes but what’s quite interesting is that the Master doesn’t stop to realise that its IMC guys in the TARDIS and not the colonists but that’s a minor quibble.