(637) Timelash - Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

(636) Timelash - Part 1

Timelash isn’t my favourite Colin Baker story. However I do have the strong belief that things will change over the course of the next two episodes. This story was written by Glen McCoy who becomes the 60^th credited writer in Doctor Who. That’s about the most interesting part of the entire review which is going to be a bit shorter than usual. The relationship between the Doctor and Peri isn’t as fierce as it was at the beginning of the season. There is still some tension there but it has definelty been reigned back since the beginning of the season. The story takes place in Karfel which is under a rather interesting dictatorship. The word Timelash is used within the first few minutes. This is what people are thrown into for being disobedient but to be honest it’s probably a good thing.

The first time that the Borad appears in this episode its in a chair that turns around and the camera cuts to Aram before we can see what he looks like. The voice of Borad (Robert Ashby) is very good and helps to create a ‘nice’ atmosphere. Denis Carey returns to play the human face of the Borad.  Carey had previously appeared in Shada but this is a more interesting performance.

The Doctor has previously visited Karfel before but in his third incarnation. I think that this is quite a good idea that we hear a bout the Doctor visiting somewhere that we have never seen before. Paul Darrow is easily the best thing in this story. He treats the story in the way that it should be treated and does well as Tekker. There is a wonderful sense when he walks into a room he pretty much owns that room and owns the scene that he is in. Sadly that is all the good stuff that I could find to say about this episode.

Jeanne Crowley unfortunately doesn’t impress as Vena. I just find her unconvincing and thought that it was stupid how she ended up going into the Timelash. She just doesn’t carry any emotional weight when she is on screen. The Android is rather odd but not really for the right reasons. It’s blue face and yellow hair really doesn’t look right. At least they learnt from the mistakes that were evident from Kamelion. The Bandril is another unfortunate design. The idea of the Bandril is good enough it is just that the visual lets it down completely. Like the design of the Timelash, one does suspect that a bit more money could have made a difference. Considering how important it is in the story, its weird that it wasn’t higher up on the list of priorities. The Morlox is also a disappointment. I really don’t know what it looks like but it seems like very little thought was given to the look of it. The introduction of H.G.Wells is something that should have been a great moment in the show. A big name in literaly history that is in my favourite TV show and yet the casting David Chandler means that it is another disappointment. He’s portrayed as a bit of an idiot and boards the TARDIS without the Doctor’s approval.

Sadly the Timelash doesn’t look impressive. In fact I would go so far as to say it looked a bit crap. It’s clear that the jollies to Seville took its toll on the budget. I do wonder what could have been achieved if The Two Doctors had been filmed in the UK.

As you can probably guess I don’t think very much of this episode because there are more things wrong with it than right. Despite the best efforts of Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, this story doesn’t start off in a particular good way and I am just wanting Revelation of the Daleks to arrive so I can get past this one. I don’t think my opinion will change of this story and this is going to be the weakest story of the season. The only question that remains is whether it is worst that The Twin Dilemma.

(606) Warriors of the Deep - Part 4

This is the fourth and final episode which does do what I hoped it would do at the end of the previous review and that is to save the story and boy does it do it in style. It’s hard for me to imagine just how bad the story started off and one reason why things picked up is that the Myrka doesn’t feature and that is a blessed relief because it means that my focus can move onto the important stuff. After spending an awfully long time getting ready, the Silurians are ready to put their plan into operation. The sad thing about what happens with the Silurians is that it is made less effective by the voice.

The Silurians want to use the base to launch a war so that the countries go to war with each other. Considering that they are suppose to be peace loving creature, its quite a change in character although they have been through quite a lot so maybe its not that surprising. I think as a design, the Silurians are a moderate success. I like the headlight that indicates which one of them were speaking but sadly the speech was something the just didn’t work. I think they could have turned it down a bit which would have helped. The Sea Devils didn’t need to come back because they lost any of the menace that they had during their debut story 12 years earlier.

The Doctor does try and find a peaceful way of ending things. When told he should kill the Silurians and sea devils he gets quite angry and it harks back to the days of Jon Pertwee which I thought was nice. It’s hard to be the Doctor in this episode because with time running out he is being nagged at by Tegan, Turlough and the others. The sadness that the Doctor shows on the last shot of the episode shows something that I don’t think I have seen during the Peter Davison era which is surprising considering that this is his 15^th story as Doctor. This is one of the strongest performances from Peter Davison for sometime. Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson haven’t been mentioned a great deal during this story but to be honest they haven’t really done anything of any note.

The gooey death that a Sea Devil goes through is quite grim and is in keeping with how deaths were done during this period of the show. What makes their death (along with the Silurians) is that they were warned to leave but refused to and so it could be argued that they only had themselves to blame so it’s a slightly confusing ending for them. It’s a shame that after over a decade away that things didn’t come together to make this story work. I know that there were circumstances that meant the show was never going to work as well as it should but the second half of this story helps salvage this and at the moment I have given this story a rating that places it above Four to Doomsday, The Kings Demons, Snakedance and Time-Flight. This is probably a fair position.

The show has quite a grim ending with all the Silurians, sea devils and the human dead. Only the regulars are alive which is the first time this has happened since Horror of Fang Rock. The opening story of the season doesn’t quite have the impact that maybe Arc of Infinity had and so its fair to say that the twenty-first season of Doctor Who has gotten off to an average start.

(605) Warriors of the Deep - Part 3

The first couple of minutes are excruciatingly bad. As you might have guessed its largely down to the Myrka. There are some laughable moments including a bit where about four of the seabase crew die in a rather OTT manner. Production problems include the door and the green paint that appears on Tegan. There is also the small matter of the Silurians costumes that have come untucked. It’s mentioned in the making of feature on the DVD that due to Margaret Thatcher calling a snap general election, JNT had a choice of either not making this story or making this story earlier than he would have liked. I think that on hindsight he should have postponed this because it would have given time for things to be made properly and the studio sets lit properly.

The entrance of the Sea Devils is quite good as its done in a slow way and not ruined by the incidental music. Also the black coloured Sea Devils against the White floors and walls work quite well. I still think that the Sea Devils should be the leader. This episode features one of the most ludicrous things ever (and I do mean ever) to be seen in a Doctor Who episode. For some reason, Ingrid Pitt decided to do a ninja kick on the Myrka rather than run away. It’s unclear as to whether she knew it would electrify her but it doesn’t get away from it. It’s a shame as well that her character had to die because she was the best thing in it.

The stuff with Maddox has been part of the story since the beginning but to be honest it hadn’t really gripped me. Today it seemed to although I am still a bit lost as to why its happening. Nilson seems to be quite a good villain. Solow was a fun person to watch but not a believable villain. One thing is for sure about Maddox (Martin Neil) is much less annoying when he wasn’t freaking out. The supporting cast on a whole were much better but I think that some of the annoying characters have gone to me their maker, they are an ex-supporting character.

The cliffhanger wasn’t particularly memorable but considering how good the This episode was the best one of the three which isn’t a hard thing to achieve but I think that the final episode might just save the day. It’s a big ask but I think that there is a possibility that this wont be the disaster that I was predicting at the beginning of episode one.

(604) Warriors of the Deep - Part 2

The previous episode ended with the Doctor being pushed over the railing and into the water and it wasn’t perhaps the best way to end the episode but it shows that cliffhangers can be improved when we see what happens next.

The diving sequence is quite impressive and not something that has been seen before in Doctor Who. In fact the first couple of minutes is quite interesting. I was genuinely thinking that this episode might change my opinion of this story because even after the first scene with the Sea Devils and the Silurians I thought things were picking up. Sadly things with the crew of the sea base start to take any fun that there was out of the story.

It was interesting to see that the Sea Devils would obey the Silurians. It would have been nice though to see a bit of conflict or tension leading up to them bowing to the Silurians. I still cant take the Silurians serious when they have huge smiles on their faces. It does slightly seriously ruin any chance they could have of coming across as a serious threat. The Sea Devils on the other hand are dressed in black and sound like they did in 1972 and so would have been the better choice.

Just after the midway point of the episode there is another mention of the Myrka. This is one of those instances where I wish I could go back in time and change the decision to include it in this story because its at this point of the story that the production problems start to appear on screen. When the Myrka breaks through the doors are really rubbish and look like plastic or rubber. The door ‘falls’ on Tegan and in the real world that door would have broken or shattered her leg into thousands of pieces yet she shows little to no real pain. The doors bend with tremendous ease and the problems are just starting but more of that in the next episode.

So far the story isn’t terrible but the things that are wrong are going to cause more problems. It’s a shame that Johnny Byrne’s story is being let down by some poor decision in the production. Any potential that this story had seems to disappeared in just this one episode. Well at least there are just two more episodes but its going to feel like twenty.

(603) Warriors of the Deep - Part 1

This is the first story of the 21^st season and it sees the return of the Silurians and the Sea Devils. After enjoying the 20^th Anniversary story, it was always going to be difficult to keep up the excitement. This is a story that has a lot of problems which I will come to later. Johnny Byrne is the writer of this story and I like Johnny as a writer because he wrote The Keeper of Traken and Arc of Infinity which are sound stories. The Silurians make their first appearance just under two minutes into the episode. It’s surprising that the Silurians are introduced so quickly. Normally when a familiar monster returns it doesn’t happen until the end. Sadly they don’t look as good as they did in Doctor Who and the Silurians. I like the light flashing on their head when they speak but the voice is rather poor.

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough spend the first half of the episode trying not to be blown up but once they manage to avoid that they land in the under-sea base. The base itself is one that lends itself to feelings of its time in that there was the threat of war. This is a good idea and its one that Johnny Byrne has used well. Sadly the problem is that it has been filled with people who aren’t particularly believable as under sea personnel. The only person that has any value to them is the late Ingrid Pitt who makes the best of her role by pretending that she’s in some sort of 1970’s Hammer Horror film with that odd accent.

The Sea Devils’ make-over has been more successful because they appear to be a samurai-style costume but I like how they are kneeling on the floor. Whereas the Silurians appeared at the beginning, the Sea Devil’s don’t appear until the end which felt more like a Doctor Who story. It’s clear that the Silurians are the leaders of the story which I cant quite make my mind up  whether this is a good thing or not but I suppose time will tell on that one.

The thing about this episode is that large chunks of it are quite interesting but I feel like there are other things which don’t quite work such as the rather clunky 1980’s style computer graphics and also I think that such people as Maddox just make the sea base seem like its not that important. This might me being too harsh but when Ingrid Pitt isn’t on screen then I don’t really care about the rest of them.

The cliffhanger is rather impressive and one of the better ones for sometime. He is pushed over the railings and Turlough immediately thinks he has drowned. It’s quite a dramatic and unexpected way to end the episode considering it started off quite quiet for the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough. As opening episodes go its not the worst but its not the cracking opener it should be. It seems to me that this will be an average story at best. Maybe when the Silurians and Sea Devils get involved then my opinion of this story might improve but I still think that after The Five Doctors that anything was going to struggle to match it.

The Pirate Planet - Episode 4

The cliffhanger was quite good because it appeared to show the Doctor falling to his death. The way that it was resolved was quite clever because it was a projection of the Doctor. This was demonstrated in quite a good way with a nice bit of split screen. The nurse’s truth is quite good as well because we know about the connection between her and the old woman we saw in the previous episode. She is behind the planet swallowing just to save her own life but like most hair brained schemes it’s doomed to failure.

The Captain becomes a puppet in this episode once the Nurse’s truth is revealed. Though he does get better towards the end of the episode when its revealed that he has had a cunning plan to try and get rid of the Nurse/Queen. I haven’t been a big fan of the Captain during these four episodes but I think that Bruce Purchase gave 100% for the role. I thought that the way the Nurse/Queen Xanxia was defeated was quite good and I thought that in the end the character of Nurse was well written and played by Rosalind Lloyd. Mr Fibuli’s death was quite sad but that was because the Captain managed to make it seem much more emotional. The Captain’s death also had some emotion to it because he died trying to kill the Nurse.

Tom Baker and Mary Tamm have been perhaps the only consistent thing in the entire serial. Tom Baker has had a noticeable bite mark on his top lip and sometimes that has been a bit distracting but on the whole it wasn’t too bad. It’s nice that Mary Tamm got to be quite active. Romana has grown on me over the course of the four episodes and think that a bit of the snobbishness has gone since the previous story and the relationship between the Doctor and Romana is better now than it was when Leela was on the show.

The idea that a planet is actually the second segment of the Key to Time is quite a bold one and one that clearly came from Douglas Adams. The fact they don’t pick up the shrunken planet until after the episode ended does feel like a bit a bit of a shame because we are deprived of that moment where the segment changes into that crystal like segment. I don’t know what happened but I suddenly started liking this story. It seems that everything fell into place and made sense. It’s a shame that it took until now to get to this stage. I think that out of the two so far, The Ribos Operation has been the better of the two. That’s not saying a great deal but I think that this stories saving grace has been the final episode. Things made sense and it was a better written and better performed piece as a result.

The Pirate Planet - Episode 3

I think that its safe to say that I am not a fan of this story. Nothing has really made me change my opinion of this adventure. With the faults that it had, ‘The Ribos Operation’ was a better written story because there were characters that I was interested in and a story that was interesting. As much as it pains me to be mean about Douglas Adams, the story so far hasn’t been anywhere near as good as it should have been. People would be quick to point out that he was writing ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ at the same time which would explain why this story misses the mark. I would say that he should have picked one or the other.

There are positives about this episode. The captain doesn’t seem quite so annoying in this episode and his reaction to the death of his parrot is quite sad. The nurse that suddenly appeared in the previous episode seems to be more involved in things and we suddenly seem to have a trio with the Captain, Mr Fibuli and now the nurse. They just need K9 and Romana and they have their very own Scooby Gang.  

This episode features one of the best scenes in the entire serial. It comes when the Captain shows the Doctor all the planets that he has captured. The rocks that he sees are in fact the planets and this sets the Doctor off. This sees Tom Baker give one of his more serious performances. For a brief moment I was enjoying this story, then its over and my reservations about this story continue.

The fight between the Captains parrot and K9 was a little bit of fun but only because Pennant Roberts managed to make it come together quite well.

The cliffhanger is way better than the previous two because at least it had some tension with it and was well performed. The Doctor falls off the plank and there doesn’t seem to be any way that the Doctor could survive so if I were watching this for the first time then I would say that this is a fantastic cliffhanger but having seen it several times over the years, the best that I can say is that it’s the best cliffhanger so far.

The Pirate Planet - Episode 2

After being less than impressed with the opening episode, I was preparing myself to find something that would make me change my mind. A woman suddenly appears in this episode and she looks like a nurse but is clearly more than that. Obviously I know who she is and what her involvement in the story is but as first appearances go, its slightly underwhelming and its one of the few things that Douglas Adams does right.

Romana is captured and spends most of her time with the Captain. I think that the Captain has lost a bit of fun in this episode. The shouting that he does for 98% of the episode does seem to be a tad bit boring now. I really done know what they actually bring to the story. Sorry I know what they bring to the story and that is nothing. I actually hope the other guys win, that’s how little I actually care about the Mentiads.

What does get mentioned in this episode is just where the second segment of the key to time and why the tracer is picking up everything. The explanation that the planet is actually a pirate planet and gobbles up planets is quite a clever idea and this seems very much like a Doctor Who. The scene where the Doctor and Romana discover this in the caves comes just the Mentiads bore us with their presence.

The corridor sequence that features in this episode does seem very Douglas Adams as there is comedy feel to it. The problem that I do have with this episode and perhaps this story is that it cant quite make up its mind whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama. I think that it becomes a little bit distracting and as a result its left me feeling confused. This is definelty a stronger episode than the previous one because there’s a bit more meat to the story. Sadly whilst Douglas Adams has worked on the context of the episode, he still has trouble to deal with the cliffhanger. This is the second weak cliffhanger in a row and its weird that one of the best sci-fi writers ever has written appears to be a dud.

The Pirate Planet - Episode 1

This is quite an interesting story because it’s the first to be written by Douglas Adams. Adams is perhaps the second most famous writer in Doctor Who history. He is perhaps most famous for writing the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. First thing I have to say is that its not one of my favourite Doctor Who stories but maybe things will change over the course of the next four days. The opening scene is quite good. The models are quite impressive if not a little bit crude. We have to wait a while before we see the Captain’s face. He quite an impatient person as he shouts at Mr Fibbiley for being 30 seconds late which is enough to get him a scalding.

The first scene between the Doctor and Romana is intriguing because it does feel like their relationship has mellowed (just a little bit). There is a little bit of action put into to hide the fact that Tom Baker had a dog bit on his lip. It’s quite a clever little addition. There’s a nice bit of mystery when there is difficulty with the Doctor trying to land the TARDIS on Calufrax. Romana tries to land the TARDIS after the Doctor’s failed attempt and the Doctor concludes that Romana has landed on the wrong planet.

The planet that the Doctor and Romana have arrived on is filled with diamonds and jewels which is something that is quite unusual. The scenes in the ‘square’ are quite fun because the Doctor is being ignored by people and Romana is the one that gets the answers. K9 even comes up with a funny line by suggesting that Romana is prettier. If Douglas Adams can get K9 to be funny then there is hope for the rest of the story.

There are mentiads who come across as a sort of hippie group who are suppose to be quite powerful but all they seem to do in this episode is deflect some shots and also overpower the Doctor. The thing about that Mentiads as well is that they look rather silly and its hard to take them seriously and the pale make up used also doesn’t help. This isn’t a terrible opening episode. There is certainly a nice amount of mystery in it and there is something about it that makes me look forward to the rest of the story but I would be lying if I said that my opinion had changed due to watching this episode. I don’t know if things will pick up but I think that the Douglas Adams humour could have started a bit earlier than it seems to have done.   

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.

The Face of Evil - Episode 4

When watching the early moments of this episode the thing that strikes me is that there isn’t any real indication as to what the story is building up to something. It’s difficult when there isn’t a physical villain like there was in the previous story or most stories. The story also suffers from the fact that the people the Doctor does encounter to be disruptive are slightly ridiculous and don’t offer any proper menace. I still can’t get over how ridiculous the green costumes are. The savages are the better of the two but it’s only been in this episode that I have thought this.

It does take about ten minutes for the Doctor to come up with what sounds like a plan and that is to try and wipe his memory print from xoanan and that feels like a bit of an anti-climax. One of the better things in this episode is when the Doctor and Leela go to Xoanan after the Doctor has woken up. It seems to end things quite nicely and the voice of Xoanan is different enough to indicate that things have been sorted.

The scene where Leela joins the Doctor in the TARDIS is a strange one because its clear that the Doctor doesn’t really want Leela to join him and gets annoyed when she runs into the TARDIS. I don’t think the Doctor has been so unkeen on someone in the TARDIS since Harry was on the show. I think that as a story this one was disappointing because there wasn’t much that I really liked and I think that Leela’s first adventure wasn’t her best. Thankfully she will get better stories as her time on the show progresses but this all studio story lacked anything that could be classed as top rate.

This is another short review and the shortness of this review should be enough to show how much I haven’t warmed to this.

The Face of Evil - Episode 3

As this is the penultimate episode I really hope that something happens in this episode that really makes me re-evaluate the entire story. This is traditionally where the story should get interesting as all the build up had already been done. This is the first episode where I think that the Doctor and Leela are working on the same team. I was so underwhelmed with the cliffhanger that I didn’t really comment on it and I’m not going to do so here but I at least wanted you to know that I at least acknowledge this.

After a few moments I am hit with the realisation that this might be getting better pretty quickly as the story goes back to the Doctor and Leela who are in the Doctor’s mouth (strangest line I’ve ever written. The CSO that is used to show the Doctor and Leela walking through a wall is quite good. It shows an improvement on what we use to get during the Barry Letts era. Even in the big chamber where there are a few CSO screens, it looks pretty good and its used to good effect.

I like the idea that the Doctor’s actions have consequences and the people and setting he encounters is because of him. We are given a bit more information about what the Doctor did and it done in a clear way and it makes sense. It’s always nice to go to somewhere that the Doctor has visited before but the viewer hasn’t.

The action finally moves to somewhere a bit more interesting in this episode. After being stuck in the savages den and in the forest and now it goes somewhere a bit more modern. Most of the drama take places on a spaceship and this is where we are introduced to the Tesh’s who are dressed in this god awful green costume. Another problem is the corridor sets are too bright and whilst this will be a problem in future stories it’s the worst thing that I can come up with in this part of the story.

The cliffhanger is much better in this episode because its such a barmy and mad way to end the episode. The final shot is of the Doctor saying “Who am I?” but with someone else’s voice. I still haven’t been won over with this story but this is the first time that I have thought anything positive about one of the episodes.

The Face of Evil - Episode 2

I’ve done something different with todays episode and that is I am watching it and then leaving it a few hours before I write this review. I was hoping that it was have a good effect on me but I’m afraid to say that this didn’t happen. As much as I am enjoying what I am seeing in this episode. I would be lying if I said that I thought that it was particularly good. I think that as normal adventure its perfectly fine but its nothing spectacular. This is the first episode where the name Xoanon becomes part of the plot and a bit more explanation is made about why the Doctor has had the impact he has had on this planet.

I still think that Louise Jameson is giving the character a good try and being involved in the story and I like how she hasn’t screamed or really done anything stupid. As much as I dislike the outfit that she is wearing, I cant fault what is being done with the character in terms of what would be considered classic companions traits such as screaming but whereas in the past it would be annoying that the likes of Jo and Jamie would ask stupid questions, its sort of expected from Leela as she is being introduced as someone who isn’t that smart.

The effect of the Xoanon Doctor appearing was rather good and it was only made good because Tom Baker pulls the most extraordinary face which does look quite scary. Tom Baker’s humour does show itself again in this episode but this time it feels like its more at the expense of the locals. There is one bit where the Doctor is using a cricket metaphor which in the scene that he uses it is a bit odd.

The thing is that this story really is struggling to maintain my interest and I think even if you watched this long after ‘The Deadly Assassin’, this story would look a bit slow and I worry that the final two episodes will be hard to watch. It’s a shame because as I mentioned earlier, its not a terrible thing to watch because there are things in it that are making it watchable but I think that it is just lacking that final punch to make it a well like story.

The Face of Evil - Episode 1

This is the first appearance of Louise Jameson as Leela. After Elisabeth Sladen, it was perhaps a wise idea to go in a different direction with the character that would assist the Doctor and its fair to say that this is definelty the case with Leela. This was the first episode of 1977 and it returns after a month long holiday (last episode was November 20), so fans would have been intrigued with seeing what happens next.

Louise Jameson is the first face that we see when the credits end and it doesn’t take long for her to show her defiance and how she might be a bit like Sarah. Leela was one of those characters that was created ‘for the dads’. She wore very little and couldn’t be labelled as a feminist but starts off her time with the Doctor by calling him the evil one. There is an aspect of this story that I’m not a huge fan of and that the whole idea of following voices or higher beings. There will be a sound purpose for this being in the story but at the moment its not a great part of the story.

The threat the Doctor uses when he says he will kill someone with a jelly baby is another bit of humour that seems to be creeping in. Also the part where it looks like he is talking to a tree. Now at the moment these comedic moments are slight and nothing to get really bothered about but over the course of the next few seasons, it will be more of an issue.

Janice Thorn is a weapon that Leela uses and is instantly a source of conflict between the her and the Doctor. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Doctor and Leela’s relationship is the relationship between Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. Nowadays it’s very good in their Big Finish stories but back then its clear that there was a bit of resentment so Louise Jameson was the unwanted companion and that means the friendship that the Doctor and companion should have just isn’t there like it was when Elisabeth Sladen was on the show. For her first episode I think that Jameson does a good job and shows that there is some strength to the character. Whilst she might be like Sarah she is still a stronger character than some that have come before her. If only the could change the costume.

The cliffhanger is a good one because for most of the episode we have been teased with the idea of ‘the evil one’ and it appears that the Doctor has been on the planet before. The final shot is of a massive sculpture of the Doctor’s face. His is the face of evil which a nice way to end the episode. I think that following the previous episode was always going to be a tough job and its not a critiscm but I think that this story does look a bit pedestrian compared to ‘The Deadly Assassin’.