Going Through Doctor Who (Spoilers all Eps aired on BBC/BBCA)

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The Power Of Kroll has to be the most typical Doctor Who story ever. Oppressor and victim - check. Giant monster - check. Crazed commander - check. Base Under Siege - check. Anti-colonial message - check.

WRITTEN BY

Robert Holmes, the most veteran of all Doctor Who veterans, here to deliver this veteran tale.

PLOT

Whilst searching for the fifth segment of the Key To Time on a moon of Delta Magna, the Doctor and Romana are have to survive the conflict between swamp-dwelling primitives and refinery workers hoping to make a profit, both sides accusing them of being spies. Meanwhile, the huge beast Kroll awakens from beneath the depths, threatening the lives of all living creatures...

ANALYSIS

A very back-to-basics Doctor Who story, it lacks the typical frivolity of the Williams era thus far(particularly this season) and instead harkens back to the more grown-up themes of the previous eras. Fortunately, there are a lot of interesting elements in this story to distract from the pressing "I've seen it all before" feeling of this script. The location filming in particular is an inspired choice, as the rainy swamp immediately gives the story a different sort of feel.

And since this is Robert Holmes writing, he at least presents the overused elements with flavour, making sure not to cross over into boring territory.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker is his usual happy-go-lucky self, strangely out of place in this very down-to-earth story. When everything and everyone else are making sure the situation is as serious and credible as possible, he's just "nah, I'm the Doctor, I'll just magically find a way out of this". And of course, he does.

Neil McCarthy gives an excellent performance as the base commander, Thawn, making him appear likable in a Captain Picard sort of way until revealing his racism and impatience in making sure his project is carried through.

Lovely to see Philip Madoc again, even if he was upsettingly given some random dude role. At least they don't kill him in the end. From what I hear, he was originally supposed to play Thawn, but the role was snagged from him so he had to play this other guy. It makes sense, because his performance can be described with one word: grumpy. He has no character development at all, so he's just angry for no reason this whole story.

Another returning actor is John Abineri(best remembered for his beautiful performance in The Ambassadors Of Death), who manages to make his one-note blindly devoted character semi-relatable.

John Leeson takes a week off of his continually charming K-9 performances to deliver us the completely forgettable Dugeen. I guess it's nice that they found a way to pay him even though he's not in it...? Should've just sent him to holiday a la Hartnell.

My favourite character by far was Glyn Owen's rogue Rohm-Dutt, a nasty fellow delivering faulty weaponry to the savages. Even though he had virtually no redeeming qualities, he was the only easygoing character in the whole story and the only one to cooperate with Romana and the Doctor in some capacity until the very end. Compared to the stuffy "we must destroy them all" sorts on both sides, he was very refreshing.

Kroll himself is pretty neat in design and backstory, but the greenscreen effect when he buries himself in the swamp is one of the worst I've ever seen. He just sinks away from the screen like a papermade puppet in a child's theatre. The lifesize tentacles aren't that great, either, just uselessly flopping about.

NOTES

*How does the fifth segment stick onto the Key? We've never seen them do that before.

*I've seen many implausible things on this show over the years, but Tom Baker tootling away Bach's "Minuet and Badinerie Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor" on a flute made of reed might just take the cake.

*So... the Doctor has banshee powers? Yet another one of his magical one-offs.

*I love the opening, where the TARDIS appears in the midst of a sea of reed(or is it reeds?). It's so different from the usual clear areas it lands in.

*I give two thumbs up to the Doctor's new coat. In fact, I think it's his best one yet! AWESOME lapels(I love dem lapels! *insert any old Hartnell picture here*). Hopefully it means goodbye to that ghastly white-grey one...

*Is the Doctor's hat getting destroyed a running gag now? In the last story, it was burnt, now it's shot...

*That most futuristic of Doctor Who vessels, the hovercraft(!), reigns its ugly head again...

*The sacrificial song sung by the Swampies to Kroll at the end of episode 1, very catchy. At least the victim dies to a pleasant beat.

*How convenient for the Doctor to find the lost tracer amongst all that thick plantlife...

*Funny how we just had The Stones Of Blood a few weeks ago and now they're already talking about sacrifices on the very same thing...

BEST QUOTE

I legitimately spent like 15 minutes scouring over the transcript fruitlessly.

CONCLUSION

It's perfectly watchable and holds up just fine, but it's nothing to write home about.

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The Armageddon Factor is drawn out and tiresome, but contains enough interesting concepts to support itself to the very end.

WRITTEN BY

Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who are infamous on this marathon for their intelligent, but awfully executed stories. They're also the creators of K-9.

PLOT

The Black Guardian prepares a trap for the Doctor at the final segment of the Key To Time, hidden in the midst of long-running war between rival planets Atrios and Zeos. With the help of his friends, old and new, the Doctor has to prevent the warmongering Marshal from destroying the solar system in fury whilst engaged in a battle of wits with the Black Guardian's own agent...

ANALYSIS

The story starts out well enough, with a semi-satirical "war between two worlds" scenario that Doctor Who has pulled off successfully many times in the past, insane commander and all. However, that whole plot takes a backseat in a few episodes for a runaround(and is then completely halted when the Marshal is trapped in a time loop) on Zeos. Now, I've never really talked about Doctor Who's famous corridors, but if there's one story that feels like it's just people walking around in endlessly recurring tunnels, it's this one.

After the truth behind the Atrios-Zeos war is discovered, practically half of the story is spent on the Doctor trying to delay the Shadow from getting his hands on the Key and the Shadow trying to manipulate him with parlour tricks in return. And that means a lot of back and forth through corridors, trying to do this and that. Needless to say, it gets old fast. The elements of a good story are there, it just sort of gets stuck.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker does his "That's something. Isn't it something?" comedy shtick, which is nice, if slightly out of place in a Bob Baker & Dave Martin story.

Mary Tamm had an unfortunately limited role as Romana, spending most of the time in the Shadow's captivity and/or announcing things to the Doctor. There were a few glimpses of the old banter(though with less friction, obviously), but she was really underused.

On the other hand, K-9 gets an enormous role and stars in multiple subplots(all of them unnecessary, but you can never have enough K-9). John Leeson gets to stretch himself a bit here.

John Woodvine is great as the mad Marshal, so determined to win the war against Atrios that he makes an almost literal deal with the devil. He's likable and very slightly buffoonish, but also steely, capable and with a grandiose feel about him.

Davyd Harries portrays Shapp(great name), the Marshal's assistant who somehow turns into a recurring comedy slapstick routine from something like Yes, Minister.

Lalla Ward has an... interesting debut. To give her credit, Princess Astra starts out as an interesting character, but after she becomes hypnotised, the character never really recovers(since after we find out that she's the sixth segment, she sort of becomes hypnotised into accepting it without argument) and her performance becomes bland, through no fault of her own.

She is accompanied by her lover(I am not used to that word in Doctor Who) Merak, played by Ian Saynor, who is one of those endless boring heroic male leads that the classic series loves. I can still remember that really awful one in The Enemy Of The World. Same deal here, except he almost goes crazy looking for Astra, which was sort of entertaining in a dark way.

I don't get who invented Drax or why(Douglas Adams had a hand in writing the final episodes), but even though his Cockney Time Lord is just more filler, he's another one of those concepts that liven the episodes up a bit and he works really well with Tom Baker. He also supplies a hilarious cliffhanger to Episode 5(the only time that a cliffhanger has been used for comedy rather than suspense).

Despite the bad writing that forces the Shadow to turn into a cackling loon, William Squire portrays this villain with menace and he is supplied with an awesome electronically gargled voice. Even without Valentine Dyall, this guy would be a terrific villain. He's almost like the Black Guardian's Darth Vader in that way. I also like the way he mirrors the Doctor, who is the White Guardian's agent and the differences in the way they search for the segments of the Key To Time.

Finally, Valentine Dyall is terrific as the Black Guardian, albeit somewhat underused. I really wish the Black Guardian had been more of a presence during the season. He should've made an appereance in each story a la the Master in season 8, to really give the quest some urgency and have his defeat be meaningful. Not to mention, it would better explain the Doctor's decision to rely on the randomiser at the end.

NOTES

*Speaking of the randomiser, that's a great way to harken back to the 1960s TARDIS rule, in which the ship always landed at random, without any actual piloting from the Doctor(the First Doctor even memorably fell asleep once during flight). Perhaps that will return an element of danger to TARDIS travel, since they can't control it now out of fear of the Black Guardian. Once they take off, they can't go back.

*The entire segment of K-9 almost being roasted is both pointless(magnets wouldn't trap K-9) and is way too anticlimactic... much of Episode 2 is basically K-9 rolling towards a furnace on a conveyor belt until the Doctor rushes in at the last minute and gets him out again, somehow without burning alive.

*I am astounded that the transmat name is still going strong. By that, I mean that they haven't replaced it with the more generic "transporter" or "teleporter". I suppose the increased focus on continuity is a sign of things to come as we edge ever closer to the JNT era...

*Did the White Guardian fix the univese when the Doctor briefly froze it with his made-up sixth segment? They left the whole point of the mission kind of unclear...

*Is it just me or is the dimensional stabilizer becoming the Tom Baker-era version of the Time Vector Generator(see: The Wheel In Space and The Ambassadors Of Death)?

*Although it essentially freezes the story as well, I love the use of the time loop in this story. Timey-wimey in classic Doctor Who is so rare.

*I don't care what anyone says, the Doctor's real name is Theta Sigma. It's pretty clear here. There. Done.

BEST QUOTE

Let me transcribe this wonderful tribute to the show's beginnings here...

Romana: So where are we going?
The Doctor: Going? I don't know.
Romana: You have absolutely no sense of responsibility whatsoever!
The Doctor: What?
Romana: You're capricious, arrogant, self-opinionated, irrational, and you don't even know where we're going!
The Doctor: Exactly!

CONCLUSION

It's bloated, messy and disappointing, but receives considerable boost from all of the gimmicks in it, most notably the brilliant arc that it concludes.


Season 16 is one of the most enjoyable I've ever gone through. I loved the quest idea and I think they pulled it off wonderfully. Not perfectly, of course, but it was a great adventure with a lot of variety and imagination. Half of the stories were classics, the other half perfectly fine viewing as well.

However, it wouldn't be nearly as good as it was without the presence of the ravishing(as Tom Baker says) Mary Tamm as Romana I, truly one of the best companions in the show's history. You know, people talk a lot about feminist icons and how this girl and that girl were the start of the revolution.
For me, the best example of the feminist companion was Mary Tamm's Romana, someone who didn't explicitly require the Doctor, but benefitted hugely from his guidance. Though the two of them didn't always get along or act friendly to one another, they never crossed a line or treated each other with downright hostility(sorry, I can't help, but measure other companions with Clara to show off just how much better people they are). Suffice to say, Lalla Ward has huge shoes to fill...

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Destiny Of The Daleks kicks off the new season with a nostalgic sequel to one of Doctor Who's most revered stories. Unfortunately, it's as much of a shambles as the Kaled bunker where the Doctor finds Davros.

WRITTEN BY

Terry Nation, the writer who conceived the Daleks and then used them as a cash cow for the rest of his life.

PLOT

The TARDIS lands on Skaro, several centuries after the Kaled-Thal war. Whilst exploring, the Doctor and the new incarnation of Romana find the Daleks attempting to resurrect their creator, Davros, so he could solve a vital tactical dilemma in their warfare against the equally intelligent androids, the Movellans.

ANALYSIS

It is something of a joke amongst fans that Terry Nation was so lazy, he just kept remaking his first Dalek story over and over again. And whilst that's not entirely true, it is a fact that the man wrote in a very formulaic fashion, forcing the production team to compensate, the most famous case being that of Genesis Of The Daleks, where Terrance Dicks demanded a more innovative script from Nation(and definitely got it).

Four years later, Douglas Adams is the show's new script editor(more on that below) and Terry Nation is being wheeled out again(covered in cobwebs too, I imagine) to either cough up some plot points for Adams to fill in with his nutty humour or bring forth an interesting, if a bit dry sequel to Genesis that Adams subsequently decided to rewrite because it wasn't funny enough. Whatever you believe, what we ended up with was an awful mix of Williams-era fluff and Hartnell-era earnest sci-fi that nearly scuttled the whole thing.

Destiny has a lot of things going for it. Just the idea of making a sequel to Genesis and bringing back Davros is pretty exciting, even if Davros was best left dead. And in the first episodes, this works as we see the Doctor explore and rediscover Skaro all over again. But once the Movellans and Davros are actually found, it just collapses like a card house of pantomime.

CHARACTERS

Surprisingly, Tom Baker is by far the most serious actor in this story and seems to be trying to return to the dark, afraid performance he gave in Genesis. The initial scene with him and Davros together is quite powerful and it's clear that he's having a trip to the past with this.
Unfortunately, at some point during filming, he realised how pathetic the production was and gave up, resulting in some really goofy bits. Nevertheless, this is the first time that I've taken Tom Baker seriously as the Doctor in ages. You really feel like he has gone through a lot and become a different person since Genesis(he tries to actually kill Davros) and now he's back to where it all began...

Lalla Ward is now Romana II and I like her. I'm still missing Mary Tamm, but I like Lalla and I think she's really sweet. I love her outfit and slightly snippy personality!

David Gooderson is an unfortunate Davros. He is passionate, sure, but I don't get the sense that he is the same person as he was in Genesis at all. He lacks the curiosity and terrifying intelligence that Davros should have. Whilst there is a scene that has the Doctor and Davros chuckle over the Daleks' plight, for the most part he's just generically psychotic. I do like the idea that Davros has become so insane that he's deliberately ignoring past events, but it's unlikely that either Nation or Adams had that in mind. He does do a passable Michael Wisher impression with the odd delivery here and there, but the writing nor the toned down voice modulation helps him.

Tim Barlow is quite interesting as Tyssan, a former engineer who's escaped Dalek slavery. Apart from his bizarre zombie-like appereance, the most interesting thing about Barlow was that he was deaf until recently. And he still gives a really good performance!

Nothing positive can be said for the rest of the cast. The Movellans are easily the silliest-looking characters in Doctor Who yet, with white jumpsuits and silver Cleopatra-style wigs. Nothing could've saved them. And as for the extras, most of them have a "I'm on the telly" smile on their faces. Really.

NOTES

*I personally believe that the Daleks are not robots in this story, but merely trapped in logical thinking. The term "robot" can be applied metaphorically, although it does sound odd.
As for the Kaled mutant that the Doctor finds, I think it could imply that the original Kaleds did finally mutate into something like the Daleks, since Davros merely accelerated their mutation in Genesis.

*The Doctor's hat is starting to turn into a cameo guest appereance.

*Romana's regeneration is very odd, but I choose to ignore it. The Time Lords are aliens, I'm sure there's an explanation out there. It's not plot-related and doesn't directly mess with continuity, like Moffat's "odd moments" do.

*The Dalek dialogue in this story is awful. I think I remember some of their dialogue being really repetitive in the Nation stories of the 60s, but here, they just literally keep saying the same things over and over and over and over... here's their first line: "Do not move! Do not move! Do not move! Do not move! Do not move! Do not move! You are our prisoner! Do not move! You are our prisoner!" It's especially hilarious in the scenes where they are looking for something, as the Dalek in charge keeps saying "do not deviate!" as if they are in kindergarten.

*The scene in which Davros urges the Daleks to get a move-on is eerily reminiscent of the "Well, see to it!" from The Chase.

*What's up with the baby-blue eyepieces and orange guns that the Daleks now have? Also, this is the first time the operators seem to be physically firing the Daleks' weapons since the 60s and it's obvious why... the bits of orange paper that fly out to make it look as if energy is bursting out of the weapon would only ever work in the monochrome era. And with the blue energy beams added in post-production, it just looks ridiculous.

*I love how eager Davros is to escape Skaro and go forth conquering the universe, despite(from his perspective) only finding out that other worlds are a thing like yesterday.

*In a blatant plot hole, Episode 1 has the Doctor and Romana carry around radiation pills(the Doctor obviously having learned from his initial experience with Skaro), but those are never mentioned again, despite Romana spending a huge amount of time away from the Doctor. Does he just give her the pills off-screen?

*This is the quarry-est Doctor Who story yet. "Oh, look, rocks!" just sums it up.

*One legitimately nice touch was the use of the creepy music from The Daleks and the iconic Dalek heartbeat sound.

*Davros's behaviour in this story reminded me a lot of Mavic Chen, GUARDIAN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, who also believed he was in charge of the Daleks when he really wasn't. Again, I don't think it was intentional, but that's what I read from it, anyway.

*One small thing that really bothered me about Gooderson was that he didn't fit into the shoulder straps designed to keep the sickly Davros in position.

*Davros is oddly silent during his kidnapping, isn't he? He just doesn't say a word whilst everybody's wheeling him around and coming up with plans. He doesn't even shout "over here!" to the Daleks.

BEST QUOTE

"BYE-BYE!" - Tom Baker's newfound catchphrase.

CONCLUSION

Whilst the fundament for a great Dalek story were there, the Williams era just isn't the place for continuity.

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City Of Death is an awkward story to tackle. It is one of Doctor Who's most revered stories amongst the fandom, celebrated for bringing together all the supposedly best parts of the Graham Williams era - Douglas Adams, Tom Baker's madness, Lalla Ward... in Paris.
...
It's overrated.

WRITTEN BY

David Agnew, a pseudonym that combines David Fisher, Douglas Adams and Graham Williams. I love Fisher, I have warm feelings towards Williams and Douglas Adams wrote The Pirate Planet.

PLOT

Sprung into action by temporal disturbances in Paris, the Doctor and Romana meet Count Scarlioni, a splinter of Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth, an ancient warrior race whose survival now depends on Scaroth's ability to reunite himself by manipulating history.

ANALYSIS

It's certainly an unusual story for the classic era, with a heavy focus on timelines and exotic locales. City Of Death could easily be a run-of-the-mill Matt Smith episode, albeit much more patient and without Smith's jaw-clenching and quiet "menace".

My honest opinion is that it's fun, enjoyable and cleverly written, but a masterpiece... ? No. It certainly doesn't hold up to the Fisher classics from Season 16 or The Ribos Operation. As with Adams' earlier effort, The Pirate Planet(and indeed, any run-of-the-mill Matt Smith episode), there are multiple plot inconsistencies and problems with logic, although it manages to smooth over the cracks with its effortless charm and irreverent humour.

Because of the Paris locale and focus on Mona Lisa, it feels almost like a vacation, like we're not supposed to bother with the why and the how, because everyone involved are just taking a break and filling a quota by filming it. And indeed, I can't. Why should I, when I can take joy from John Cleese's cameo as an art critic, or anything Julian Glover says or does(okay, his random orgasm face during the mental contact scene was really dumb, especially since none of the other Scaroths do it)?

City Of Death is best remembered as the one where Tom Baker and Lalla Ward chilled in Paris and chased after the seven Mona Lisas. Lovely.

CHARACTERS

People love to point out this story as the one that started all the Doctor-Romana shipping, but I can't really see it. All they do together is briefly hold hands during the Paris scenes.

Julian Glover is fantastically matter-of-fact as the determined, completely self-interested Scaroth splinters. His enthusiastic approach to villainy(matching each of the Doctor's witty lines) is absolutely infectious. One of the greats, for sure.

Duggan is probably the coolest thug in the world. I love that his love of destruction isn't viewed as an immediately bad thing(although breaking open the beer bottle is a bit much, no?) and even saves them later on.

I thought Countess Scarlioni was interesting, in that she was basically just a thief, not really a bad person per se and married Scaroth for the promise of excitement. She wasn't an atypical Doctor Who character.

The same cannot be said for Kerensky, an absolutely awful performance from David Graham, who seemed to think he was in a pantomime. One of the worst guest stars that has ever been on the show, I would say. What is it with random OTT performances in the Williams era? First Shapp in The Armageddon Factor and now this guy. All the script said was a scientist and we get this comical, fussy, Russian caricature.

Towards the end of the story, there's an absolutely fantastic John Cleese cameo, where he plays an art critic who sees the TARDIS disappear. I won't spoil the punchline, but he's hilarious as always.

The only other character of note is the guard whom the Doctor has to tackle. Surprisingly talkative for someone only doing his job for money. He was played by Peter Halliday, who previously served Mavic Chen, GUARDIAN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM in The Invasion.

NOTES

*As per usual with Douglas Adams involved, there's several things left untidied. For example, in the first episode, someone draws Romana's face as a clock, which the Doctor theorised had something to do with the temporal disturbance. But this is never brought up again! Who was that guy??

*Why does Scarlioni need to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre if he's already got six genuines? I mean, how much money do you need? Why not just have Leonardo make one more?

*The Paris location shooting is a mixed bag. I mean, it's nice to see Paris and all, but it didn't really feel like Doctor Who. It felt like someone recording camera footage in Paris. I miss the wobbly sets.

*No more notes. I just want to see The Creature From The Pit already.

BEST QUOTE

"Is no one interested in history, hmmm?" - The Doctor trying to hail a cab.

CONCLUSION

I feel very neutral on this story. Quite frankly, the only reason why this review has taken so long to write is because I feel bored writing about it. It wasn't bad by any measure, it was brilliantly witty, charming and far above okay, but I just didn't get into the groove. It's a Doctor Who story featuring things that I don't watch Doctor Who for.

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Hi guys!! New Whovian right here!! I've been interested in Doctor You-Know-Who for awhile now so I figured, hey... why the hell not? I decided to start with the 9th Doctor instead of the 1st because I found An Unearthly Child terribly confusing.

I've been through season 1 already(moving onto season 2) and so far, my opinion is... I like it! Eccleston's performance is occasionally rough and irritating, but as the Doctor says... FANTASTIC!
My fav episode so far is definitely Dalek. Those cute robots never get old.

So here come the cons:
1) Rose - She's just not a likable character. First she ditches Mickey(not Rickey). Then she keeps disregarding(and disrespecting) time and space with her daddy issues and overall, I just don't like her.
2) Too much Earth - Does DW have some kind of "don't do two episodes away from Earth" rule or something? The TARDIS can supposedly go to any planet in any time. Why does Earth have to be some kind of special planet in sci-fi all the time?!
3) The farting aliens. Enough said.
4) TARDIS. It has an intriguing design, but how come we only get to see one room?

Stay tuned for my review of season 2!!

Have I really been reviewing Doctor Who for nearly three years? Also, sorry about my giddiness back then. Three years is a long time for someone of my age(I turned 18 a week ago).

I was going to announce this after reviewing Survival, but no need to keep it under wraps... I'm planning on going back and watching the new series all over again after I'm done with the classics and this time, I'll be reviewing it properly, in individual episodes rather than just general thoughts on one series. So this epic marathon isn't going to end any time soon. If anyone's still reading it lol.

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The Creature From The Pit. How... could they get away... with that?

WRITTEN BY

David Fisher... fortunately for him, there are many interesting elements about this story, kind of like Planet Of Evil. It has good characteristics in it, but none of it matches together for a fully satisfying story. And then there's Erato.

PLOT

The Doctor, Romana and K-9 are captured and interrogated by Lady Adrasta, who holds the monopoly on metal on the planet Chloris and is intent on using the Time Lords to wipe out anything standing in the way of her power.

ANALYSIS

The early episodes are alright and presumably because of Christopher Barry's direction, have a slightly 60s feel to them. The strange Wolfweeds aren't that far removed from the Hartnell era either. There's a sense of mystery and quirky aliens to draw the attention, although it's quite slowmoving, especially compared to the two previous stories.

However, everything collapses once Erato is introduced. If you haven't seen this story yet, let me put this way: Erato is a green, spotty penis. There's just no way to get around that. It's a giant willy. I don't care what budget they were on, they could've found a better way to present the character, even if they had to cut off the... oh God, I'm just making it worse now. But you get what I mean.

It doesn't help that Tom Baker sticks his head into it. And blows. How this was allowed to air I will never know.

Meanwhile, the slow pace turns quite tedious. Maybe it's just me, but I'd like to know what the basic story is at the end of Episode 2, at least. And then I'd like to see it explored instead of just dispensed with the moment we get explanations, thus meaning that Episode 4 is completely superfluous. Seriously, the main villain isn't even in it, it's just a bunch of cockamamie about a random neutron star flying towards the planet. Since when can stars attack planets, anyway?
Awful plotting, preposterous effects. However...

CHARACTERS

The one saving grace here are the characters. Apart from Baker's encounter with Erato(I don't care if it was his idea or not, THERE ARE LIMITS), he's quite enjoyable in this story and I loved the book gag when he's hiding in the pit.

Notably, this is the first story that Lalla Ward filmed as Romana and it's clear that her character was still being ironed out, as she wears flowing robes similar to Mary Tamm(and looks very beautiful in them, although Tamm was of course... I don't think I'm ever going to get over my crush on her).

We're also introduced to David Brierly(or Brierley... no one seems to be able to decide), who serves as the temporary replacement for John Leeson as K-9 and he is absolutely fantastic. Instead of Leeson's loyal, subtly egotistical portrayal, he goes completely off the rails with a campy diva performance, shouting at guards, whining and being generally so above the situation that he's in the clouds. This is a completely different K-9, although why they felt the need to move so far away from Leeson's incarnation, I have no idea.
It's clearly not just the actor, the script itself has him say sentences Leeson would never have. David Fisher knows K-9 through and through, so I can only presume this was something that Brierly developed with script editor Douglas Adams. If so, it'd be the first thing Adams added to the show that I completely approve of.

Geoffrey Bayldon is hilarious as a slightly crazy old astrologer. I'm not really sure what his character's purpose or motive is(he's weird, in an enigmatic sort of way). Whatever the case, Bayldon plays him perfectly and makes a great pair with Baker's Doctor.

The story features several villains, such as the greedy Lady Adrasta, who was so pompous that I love-hated her almost immediately and her old handmaiden who is equally greedy, although underused. She appears as a major threat in the first and last episodes, but is otherwise absent.

But by far the most hilarious of the baddies were the scavengers, a dimwitted comedy troupe of metal-craving thieves who just can't get enough of pots and pans. So adorable. They're really out of place in a fairly serious-minded story like this(you know, apart from... Erato), so I'm guessing it's Douglas Adams yet again. Whatever the case, I think they're a fun addition and brightened up the story considerably.

NOTES

*I don't really see the point of the Wolfweeds. They're a cool concept(rolling balls of weed serving as hunting wolves), but apart from providing one cliffhanger and threatening Adrasta, they have very little to do with the story.

*One of the scavengers was played by Terry Walsh, a regular stuntman since the Troughton era(you can very clearly spot him in the Venusian aikido scenes in The Green Death and The Monster Of Peladon).

*In classic Terry Nation style, the plant-enveloped planet is known as Chloris and the phallic alien is called Erato.

*Adrasta's handmaiden was portrayed by Eileen Way, who also played the Old Mother(the old cavewoman) all the way back in An Unearthly Child.

*How is the Doctor able to deduce the nature of the eggshell from a teaspoon and an open mind?

*What exactly is that Time Lord gadget that he and Romana find anyway? The Doctor implies that it's what he used to communicate with the Time Lords and receive messages and the like(apparently he got bored of the Bowler Hat Guy and the Jester from Terror Of The Autons and Genesis Of The Daleks, respectively). So, for no real reason, he puts it on again, causing the TARDIS to immediately go crazy and land at the source of the nearest distress signal.

*I wish the Huntsman had more of an arc to him. It makes sense for him to keep quiet until he found proof against the Lady Adrasta, but it feels kind of odd seing a henchman just suddenly jump to the Doctor's defense.

*Geoffrey Bayldon has a most interesting career... he was offered the roles of both the First and Second Doctors, had a recurring role on Worzel Gummidge, portrayed the titular character in Catweazle and also played Q in 1967's Casino Royale(a bizarre James Bond parody based on Ian Fleming's first novel. Bernard Cribbins, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Honey Ryder from Dr. No and even Woody Allen were in it too). He's also still alive and 92 years old! I sincerely hope he gets to at least 100, he deserves it.

BEST QUOTE

"Astrologer extraordinary. Seer to princes and emperors. The future foretold, the present explained, the past... apologised for." - Organon introducing himself. I love him.

CONCLUSION

A Hartnell-era story invaded by a GIANT MALE PART... what the heck?!?

[rushy]

Nightmare Of Eden is a mixed bag of extreme camp and extreme drama. It attempts to be a PSA on drugs and drug dealing, with numerous interesting sci-fi twists and yet the production appears to be completely flippant, almost to the point of incompetence.

WRITTEN BY

Bob Baker, whose former partnership with Dave Martin gave us the largest collection of "meh" stories in Doctor Who history. He's sort of like the Classic Era Chris Chibnall, always writing solid stories, but never really shocking us with quality.

PLOT

The TARDIS lands inside two spaceships that have accidentally materialised inside one another. Offering to help, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 discover a drug smuggling operation onboard, somehow connected to an eccentric scientist's CET machine - essentially an electric zoo containing landscapes and animals literally ripped from other worlds. Things take a darker turn when dangerous predators escape from the machine and all fingers start pointing at the Doctor...

ANALYSIS

I really liked the story. Focusing it simply around two spaceships makes for a nice breath of fresh air after the usual "civilisation under threat" stories and the intricate, slimy scheme is very interesting. I also like its anti-drug message, reminiscent of all those "lesson of the day" endings in the Pertwee era(The Mutants, The Green Death, Invasion Of The Dinosaurs...). Being contained in one ship, there's also a very Robots Of Death vibe to it. However, it has one serious handicap... nobody involved seems to give a crap.

Seriously, nobody in the production cast or crew had the slightest interest in this story. At least that's the feeling I got. Actors seemed to have been given no direction on what to do, resulting in a pantheon of cheesy, campy performances. The sets were not very well built. The spaceship models looked bad, like "held by a string" bad. Even the writing seemed to go off in various directions. At one point, the Doctor even says something akin to "okay, it's nice that we got this sorted out, but now let's get back to what we actually have to do..."

CHARACTERS

The master of irreverence is of course Tom Baker, who does act a little bit towards the end, very nicely showing his huge disappointment in Tryst, a fellow scientist who'd gone to immoral extremes to fund his research. But for the most part, he's just fooling around.

Lalla Ward is unfortunately given very little to work with as Romana. In fact, she's quite out of character, being terrified by unconscious Mandrels and being generally ineffectual. She's very old-fashioned in a bad sort of way.

My absolute favourite cast member is Lewis Fiander as the multilayered scientist Tryst. He is a great character, initially very likable and quirky, with a simple mind, but also turning out to be quite an unpleasant person in the end. He's a lot of fun and plays off of Tom Baker wonderfully in one of those iconic hero-villain pairings. He's right up there with Mavic Chen(GUARDIAN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM) and the BOSS for me as one of the greatest Doctor Who one-off baddies. Tryst has a strange European accent(something he apparently worked out with Baker), which might be off-putting for some, but to me, only served to make the character more exotic and fun, in a campy sort of way.

The owner of the rogue vessel that bumps into our cruise ship is called Dymond, and the only thing I can say about him is that he looks and acts exactly like Colin Baker.

Captain Rigg(played by David Daker, who played the savage Irongron in The Time Warrior) was initially conceived as a tragic character, I think... an honorable, stubborn leader who is forced to deal with a situation he can't comprehend and then forced into addiction by the villains, who plant the drug in his drink. But too many things go wrong. First of all, I find it hard to believe that simply planting a drug in someone's drink would turn him into an addict, no matter how powerful the drug. He doesn't even know that it's vraxoin, for heaven's sake, so how would he make the connection that he needs more of something?

And secondly, with lines like "I must have something for this terrible feeling!!", how can you take his addiction seriously? Why would he think Romana has whatever he needs anyway, no matter how desperate he was?

Stephen Jenn's Secker is just... odd. We're introduced to him as he's already addicted to the vraxoin and completely indifferent, so it honestly took me a few minutes to decide whether he was a very poor actor or if something was actually wrong with him. Now that I think about it, though, I'm surprised Rigg didn't get someone to send him to sickbay sooner. I know they mentioned that he was the only navigator onboard... but why? Always have backup, people!

Stott and Della are one of those classic Doctor Who romances between two youngsters. Nothing else to see here, except that I was slightly confused by Stott's motivations(see what I meant by nobody giving a crap? I have so many questions!). He claims to be an agent for some drug investigation agency, but why would that make him decide to hide out in the CET machine, knowing it was unstable? Wouldn't it be safer to come out and continue your investigation with Tryst and Della outside? You know, just in case you GET KILLED???

And who could forget Officer Fisk and Officer Costa(Rica), who are basically campy, ineffectual versions of the Kaleds from Genesis Of The Daleks. They're completely unfair and with vague Nazi overtones, but their blindness is mostly played up for laughs.

Our monsters for the story are the Mandrels, who are basically overgrown teddy bears filled with white powder. Incredible.

NOTES

*Since this is Bob Baker writing, K-9 seems to revert to his original personality, which doesn't suit David Brierley's OTT tones at all.

*Tryst's method of storing his worlds on crystals gave me Stargate SG-1 vibes. That show loved crystals to death. Every alien race ever = crystals.

*Maybe it's just me, but Tryst was so likable in the first few episodes that it seemed almost out of character for him to be the villain. I didn't really find his malevolence entirely convincing! But that's probably the point...

*For perhaps the first time, I've spotted the infamous wobbly sets! At one point, when Tom Baker is running down the stairs, the whole thing goes with him.

*Speaking of the stairs, this story reuses The Invasion Of Time's gimmick of reusing the exact same set over and over again to show. And I thought The Curse Of The Fatal Death was just poking!

*Barry Andrews, who played Stott, also snagged a role in the James Bond movie "The Spy Who Loved Me" two years prior to this. Good choice, man.

*I wish we could've seen more of Dymond's ship. I almost never felt like the two ships had integrated the way it was shown. They should've had it be bigger and have scenes in two different types of corridors.

*The plot of this heavily reminded me of Farscape's Self-Inflicted Wounds two-parter, in which a ship travelling through a different dimension materialises inside Moya and the two get stuck inside a wormhole. Obviously, it looked a lot better. Despite only having like three-four sets in total too(a few corridor sets, a Moya bridge set and an alien bridge set).

*The Doctor drags his dark brown Hinchcliffe-era coat out of the closet! I must say, I wasn't expecting it at all. It really fuelled the whole Robots Of Death vibe I was getting.

*The passengers look like the Oompa-loompas from the television room in Willy Wonka's factory.

BEST QUOTE

"Work for? I don't work for anyone. I'm just having fun." - the Fourth Doctor explaining his modus operandi.

CONCLUSION

Some really great ideas in this one, but it suffers from what I'm now coining 'the Adams Factor': comedy where comedy isn't needed. Also notable for poor production values.

[rushy]

The Horns Of Nimon is Doctor Who as a carefree cartoon. And I love it.

WRITTEN BY

Anthony Read, who was the show's script editor during Season 16. Thankfully, the free-spirited nature of his work there seems to cross over.

PLOT

After being forcibly separated from the Doctor and K-9, Romana is taken to a planet sacrificing slaves to the titular Nimon in exchange for power to dominate the galaxy. Meanwhile, the TARDIS is trapped in the singularity of a black hole, doomed...

ANALYSIS

Whether intentionally or not, this story is a comedy, riffing on the various cliches Doctor Who had generated over the years, such as the OTT villains(personified by the most outrageously fun performance the show has ever seen), the endless corridors, the Doctor's ingenious plans and tinkering, the goofy henchmen, the awful monsters and the classic "villain betrayed by superior villain". I personally don't think it was intentional. I think the stars came together to produce the right actors with the right script with the right production values at the right time to give us this wonderfully preposterous gem.

There's something for everyone here: there's some great characterisation for drama fans, the nitpickers can point and laugh at the sets and costumes and the comedy is self-explanatory. It reminds me of Steven Moffat's Series 9 opener, as it has the same sort of "how far can we go" mentality, but in a more innocent, palatable way(and of course it doesn't bother making fun of continuity, which is always nice).

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker could teach classes on how to not care about what he's doing and I mean that in the best way. The amount of effort he puts into not putting an effort is just beautiful. The cliffhanger where he hugs K-9 and announces doomsday has to be seen to be believed. In previous stories, his flippancy often bothered me, but here, it just fits perfectly and adds to the "so bad, it's good" factor. This is the stuff that Mystery Science Theater made its name on.

Lalla Ward puts in a decent performance as Romana, but I'm still not overly attached to her. I miss Mary Tamm's stronger personality and wit. Lalla and Tom work together well, but she's not making a huge impression on me apart from being cute and nice(although in the very final scene, she was adorably oblivious... I hope we get more of that). She also has more screamer tendencies, which I'm not a fan of.

As you might've expected, David Brierley's campier interpretation of K-9 was entirely befitting of the story. There's not really much else to say.

Graham Crowden portrays Soldeed, and he is truly legendary. Easily the zaniest, most psychotic villain ever to grace the show, Soldeed is the ultimate bad guy: he has a moustache, he dies shouting "you're doomed!", he wields a staff, he has a great rapport with the hero, he overestimates his intelligence and even manages to pull off a hilarious sneak-away when nobody is looking(seriously, he stands up and shuffles off-screen in the background, it's awesome).

Soldeed's partner-in-crime and straight man is Sorak, played by Michael Osborne. He's a bit of an idiot, but I loved the way that he and Soldeed both seemed to actually get along with each other. The whole "villain berates henchman" thing has been done to death. These two actually work together, which is a great change.

Seth and Teka are yet ANOTHER Doctor Who wimpy couple, albeit one with a funny gimmick: to save his dignity, Seth lied to her that he is a prince, destined to defeat the Nimon, which Teka completely falls for, to the point where it's pretty much the only thing she talks about, especially when the Nimon IS actually defeated.

Malcolm Terris memorably portrays the co-pilot of the ship that gets stuck into the black hole. He's kind of like Beast Rabban from the Dune franchise, a brutish thug who constantly blunders into trouble. It's not a big role, but it's just one that stuck with me.

Just about the only serious actor in this story is John Bailey(who previously played Edward Waterfield in the iconic Evil Of The Daleks), who is Sezom, the last survivng member of the Nimon's previously conquered planet. He's kind of like their version of Soldeed(with the staff and everything), except not hammy. I did think he didn't look old enough to be so frail, but hey, I didn't cause the end of my civilisation, so what do I know?

The Nimon themselves look awful, with giant heads that look like helmets(since the faces don't move an inch) and move slowly, waving their hands about. Even their voices are horrible.

NOTES

*At one point, the Doctor mentions phasers and blasters as being among weapons that have been pointed at him. This story may rank high amongst Star Trek and Star Wars fans. No love for stasers, though?

*Lots of TARDIS scenes in this story! I heartily approve. You can never get enough of the TARDIS. I also loved seeing the Doctor dismantle half of it, since I can relate to the mess(you need a map to find things in my bedroom). It's the cosiest the TARDIS has ever been, give or take a 90s movie.

*Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but I'm pretty sure the First Doctor said in The Edge Of Destruction that the TARDIS rotor going all the way up is like super terrible, because it would mean the power below would leak out or something(it was definitely something dramatic). So here the Doctor goes and just TAKES THE WHOLE THING OUT. I do hope he covered the Heart Of The TARDIS with something before he did that. Or maybe he just closed his eyes(yeah, that's what he did).

*There's one particularly awfully directed scene, in which the Nimon attacks the group so slowly that Romana has time to toss Seth the rock he needs to upgrade the staff weapon and explain where he needs to put it and why.

*Graham Crowden was legitimately picked to be the Fourth Doctor in 1974, but chose not to take the role. I'm sure he would've been a bit more serious than here, but still, the mind boggles.

*The Nimon technology looks so generic... it's more like the stuff the Doctor fiddled about with in UNIT than any alien tech.

*The costume designer completely lost his/her mind whilst this story was being made. Why does Soldeed, a lead scientist with a laboratory wear something similar to a Time Lord robe, may I ask? And why does the chief of military wear wings on his helmets that directly block his peripheral vision??

*K-9's tape returns!! I genuinely thought that was something we wouldn't see post-Invisible Enemy, but no, they brought it back, with a lovely gag and everything(although we didn't get to see it being used as his equivalent of a tongue again, lol).

BEST QUOTE

Truthfully, half of the story should go here, but my absolute favourite is...

"You know K-9, sometimes I think I'm wasted just rushing about the universe saving planets from destruction. With a talent like mine I might have been a great slow bowler." - Tom Baker(let's face it, that's who he is. The Doctor is long gone).

CONCLUSION

Since I do count Shada and will be reviewing it(the Tom Baker version), I can't acknowledge this as the end of the Graham Williams era, however I will say it'd be a classy way to go out. It's the pinnacle of everything I like about this era: the irreverent storytelling, the crazy villains, Tom Baker being weird, great lines, outlandish stories etc.

And so we have finally concluded with the 1970s. Wow. Since Shada is still ahead and that's still in the Williams-Adams era, I don't really feel like it's over yet, but nevertheless, we are one story away from the JNT era and one season away from Peter Davison, at long last. I am so ready for some change. The 70s were probably the peak of the show's creative output, but I've had enough space-time madness to last me a lifetime now. It's time to come back down to Earth for some more reserved stories...

NEXT TIME: The true grand finale of 1970s Doctor Who as a whole with the last six-part story of the classic series!!

[rushy]

Shada... the Last Of The Recons.

WRITTEN BY

Douglas Adams, the current script editor. Though he influenced every story in season 17(most notably City Of Death), his only previous credit is season 16's The Pirate Planet. I have mixed feelings about Adams and his sense of humor.

PLOT

Receiving a distress signal from a retired Time Lord on Earth, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 head to Cambridge to investigate, where they find that the senile professor stole an ancient artifact from Gallifrey, which is now pursued by the megalomaniacal scientist Skagra, who plots to conquer the universe with his mind...

ANALYSIS

Now, to those of you who may be unaware, Shada is an incomplete story, in the sense that half of it was never filmed due to a strike in 1979. As such, in 1992, John Nathan-Turner(whom we'll be discussing in the next review...) organised for Tom Baker to film explanations for the missing segments, oddly in-character as the Doctor(whilst also having grey hair and wearing one of his ill-fitting pinstripe suits).

In this form, Shada is comprehensible... just. It doesn't help that of all the missing stories, we lost one by Douglas Adams, whose writing was always notoriously complicated. As a result, I constantly went "is that just stupid or did I miss something?"

Fortunately, the parts that I did understand, I was very impressed with. The Cambridge setting gave Shada a uniquely British flair and I loved seeing the Doctor ride a bicycle through London. The idea of a computer switching sides was also really interesting. And of course, we learned more about Time Lord mythology, which is always exquisite.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker and Lalla Ward are at their best in this story, interacting with the old, affable Time Lord professor Chronotis. Together, the trio are absolutely adorable. Although we don't get to see much of Baker on his own, he seems to be fairly serious with lovable comic touches, just the way it should be. For once, his performance is a real highlight.

Lalla also manages fine away from Baker, when she has to manage the professor's TARDIS with Clare. She's both dominating and intelligent.
Oh, and who could forget the moment where the Doctor pins a medal on her for her intelligence and they do the salute and everything. That is one of the cutest things I've ever seen the Doctor and companion do.

Denis Carey's professor Chronotis steals every scene he's in with his wonderful kooky demeanour. He's basically the most lovable grandpa/teacher ever, with a memory so bad(like a sieve!) that the only thing he can consistently remember is to make tea for anyone who walks into his office. I love the way that the Doctor and Romana constantly have to balance their respect and frustration for the old man. The whole idea of a Time Lord pensioner, and the revelation that he used to be as much of a wild card as the Doctor himself is probably my favourite of Douglas Adams' contribution to the show.

Christopher Neame(who, to my surprise, played the terrific villain Jerec in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II) is Skagra, who wishes to use the power of an ancient Gallifreyan relic to become the supreme consciousness of the universe. Skagra kind of reminded me of sir Guy Of Gisborne from ITV's Robin Of Sherwood, both in appereance, ego and lack of temper. It's a shame that most of his appereances weren't filmed, meaning that he appears in the first few episodes and then in one scene towards in the last episode. I definitely would've liked to see more of him plotting and scheming, as all that we see is his stealing the book.

If I ever do another one of these marathons, I am definitely going to count all the wet blanket couples of Doctor Who, because here we have another one: Chris and Clare. Chris is a student interested in quantum theory and so is more intelligent than the average bloke, but ironically it's Clare who is given a piece of the professor's mind and gets to pilot the TARDIS for a while. They were both okay characters(Chris kind of reminded me of Harry Sullivan) and well acted.

One more interesting character was Gerald Campion's Wilkin, who basically represented Cambridge's British discretion, completely accepting the Doctor appearing in three wildly different time periods and professor Chronotis living 300 years. (My personal theory is that he's another incarnation of the Bowler Hat Time Lord from Terror Of The Autons, watching over Salyavin)

NOTES

*I love how in the original story, when the Fourth Doctor defeated the K1 robot, he was somewhat remorseful, but in the exhibit, Baker's supposedly in-character reaction to seeing the robot is "Beat you, c**k."

*I am not a fan of Keff McCulloch's redone Dudley Simpson-esque score. It's just too loud.

*Technically, this is the only story that Graham Williams and John-Nathan Turner produced together.

*The Krargs continue season 17's trend of ridiculous monsters with a guy wearing like a hundred metal tiles.

*The plot point of Skagra's computer falling in love with the Doctor was just hilarious.

*On the other hand, Chronotis' resurrection is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. He just comes back when his TARDIS takes off with some gibberish about paradoxes. Is his TARDIS a paradox machine now(a la The Sound Of Drums)??

*Where exactly is the time rotor in Chronotis' TARDIS?? And shouldn't the console be in the center of the room? I would still totally pick this as my desktop theme though. The Seventh Doctor appears to agree, judging from the TV Movie.

*At one point, the Doctor carries the Gallifreyan book in his bicycle's basket to take it back to Cambridge. It falls out and then Skagra takes it. However, after he abandons the bike, the Doctor doesn't even check the basket!! So did he notice that Skagra took it and if so, why wasn't a bigger fuss made of it? And if he didn't, why on Earth didn't he check?? This might've been explained in the missing segments, though.

*I will admit I was completely lost during Episodes 4 and 5. There was something to do with various spaceships jumping all over the place(at one point, we were on the other side of the universe) and people being held captives in different places... as great as Tom's narration was, I think I would've preferred an actual, 60s recon to this. I might actually try and watch the other versions of Shada one day, just to get a clearer understanding of the story.

*Of course, the Time Lord decides to call himself "Chrono-tis".

*How exactly did the Doctor, Romana and Chronotis hear the voices of those trapped in Skagra's mind trap thing?

*With what "illogic logic" did the Doctor convince Skagra's computer that he was dead?

*What exactly did Chronotis teach at Cambridge and when? Since he wasn't apparently missed, was it a Sunday?

*This story marks the first time a Gallifreyan child is described as a "Time Tot".

BEST QUOTE

The Doctor: "Listen, I can do your part if you can do mine."
Romana: "I'll try."
The Doctor: "You're a hero, remember?"

CONCLUSION

Perhaps the most fitting end to the Graham Williams era, Shada is an incomplete, budget-hacked ball of wonders.

[rushy]

The Leisure Hive is largely an incoherent mess, but it tries so hard you can't hate it.

WRITTEN BY

David Fisher, responsible for a pair of classics and one misstep. This one is somewhere in-between and probably not his fault, as it was heavily rewritten by fresh script editor Christopher H. Bidmead.

PLOT

The Doctor and Romana decide to spend their vacation on Argolis, where the last remnants of a once-proud race manage a leisure center renowned for its tachyonic technology. However, as soon as they arrive, an experiment goes horribly wrong and the old Argolin-Foamasi conflict re-emerges to threaten the out-of-depth time travellers.

ANALYSIS

Whilst it's fundamentally a good story(as one might expect from David Fisher), I feel like it's too short and would've worked better as a six-parter. There are some plot points that I still don't understand, such as the fraudulent scientist who is killed by one of the Foamasi(good or evil, who knows?). Like, what was his whole deal?

Besides that, the new incidental music by Peter Howell frequently threatens to drown out the dialogue, particularly in the first few episodes. He does settle down eventually later on, though, and his music when the army emerges from the Recreation Generator is quite admirable.

As with the music, the cinematic direction in this story is hit and miss. Sometimes, the editing and camera choices are so poor that I lose the plot, whilst on other occasions, it's very inspired and interesting.

The new era is announced with trumpets and fanfare as we have a new title sequence, new effects, new costumes and new music to enjoy. An obvious attempt is made to bring back the serious drama of the 60s-early 70s, with some of the ad-libbed humor now feeling quite "naughty", as it were. The problem is that so much focus was put on renewing the series that the story itself suffered as a result. I'm not sure if the scatterbrained script was Fisher's fault or Bidmead's(probably both).

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker gets to do some of his best acting yet as an aged Fourth Doctor. He is completely invested in coming across as an old man and it's very believable. The excellent make-up used helps a lot, too. Another interesting thing is that the Doctor is very much not in control for this entire story, merely a bit player in the plot who manages to resolve everything by the end. I think with this story, JNT and Bidmead did a pretty solid job in unravelling "the Tom Baker Show" of the past few seasons.

Lalla Ward is equally vulnerable, at one point being dragged away by guards as the Doctor is in danger. However, she does have one absolutely spiffing moment(god, I've become British) as the different tachyon images of the Doctor disappear and she becomes desperate to find the real him. It looked like she was about to break down and cry as they vanish. Aww. I think this story finally got me shipping the Doctor and Romana II.

John Leeson returns to his iconic role as K-9, in the dumbest opening sequence ever. Listen to this: Irritated, Romana throws a ball into the water for K-9 to catch, which he then pursues only for Romana to scream and K-9 to blow up because of the water. I mean, where do I begin with this? Why would Romana throw the ball into the water if she knew it was dangerous? Why does K-9 go into it if he knew it was dangerous? This made no sense to me.

The Argolins are all played very well by Laurence Payne(previously Johnny Ringo in The Gunfighters), Adrienne Corri and David Haig, respectively. Payne and Corri both play their characters as intelligent, tired and wise, wary of the Foamasi, but with an open mind whilst Haig makes for a great villain, utterly deluded in boyish dreams of glory. He sees himself as a messiah and won't let anything stop or refuse him.

Nigel Lambert's Hardin is a character that I'd define as solid, one of those loyal Harry Sullivan-types who are trying to do the right thing, even if they don't really understand the stakes.

Brock is great, basically a Foamasi who has taken on the appereance of a human con man. It was interesting to see that despite his clear-cut villainy, he was still rather concerned about Pangol's mania in what at least seemed a very humane way.

NOTES

*I am in love with Tom Baker's new costume. Whilst I think the coat is a bit too heavy(and it's a bit too trenchcoat-y for my liking), the color coordination is absolutely superb. This could be my favourite Doctor costume ever.

*The new title sequence is also fantastic and still really fun to watch and listen in a way that some of the earlier titles weren't. Of course, this was to become the iconic Peter Davison title sequence, so it's definitely a little funny to see Tom Baker's face in them. Speaking of which: Baker's face looks awful. They seriously couldn't get a better photo? I mean, I didn't think much of his staring in the first one, but here... wow. He looks like he has no idea that he's IN an intro.

*The opening shot goes on for a bit too long, but wonderfully establishes a very different atmosphere from the Williams era.

*I like that they didn't just discard the Randomiser(or forget about it altogether), but actually had it serve a useful function in the plot before letting it go.

*Tom's new scarf is so huge that it actually looks like quite a weight to wear.

*Why does the Doctor scream in the cliffhanger, if the image of him being ripped to pieces was just that? Was he just trolling?

BEST QUOTE

Brock: "His scarf killed Stimson!"
The Doctor: "Arrest the scarf then!"

CONCLUSION

Well, the new era certainly doesn't lack enthusiasm, so I'll give them this one... let's see if JNT and Bidmead can settle in.


And now, let's talk about season 17. In short, it was quite poor. Most of the stories had plot holes in them, or bad monsters. I did enjoy the frivolous atmosphere of it all(especially in The Horns Of Nimon), but it was more self-mockery than the adventurous spirit of season 16. Shada might've offered some very interesting concepts, but as it was only half-completed, we can barely count that.
Most people refer to City Of Death and the chemistry between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward when they talk about season 17, and both certainly have their merits, but at the same time, neither was as perfect as people were saying, at least in my eyes, anyway.

More importantly, let us discuss the Williams era(seasons 15-17). I really enjoyed it. I know I just harped on season 17, but it's not like I hated that either, I just thought the quality dropped. What I really appreciate about the Williams era was its imagination and free-spirited nature. I loved that it was simply trying to entertain, to deliver adventures from throughout time and space, which in the end is what Doctor Who is all about. Present day Earth became a rarity in this era, making the TARDIS feel truly adrift in the universe. It was innocent and charming, always tongue-in-cheek and I'll definitely revisit it happily.

[rushy]

Meglos is an incoherent, poorly paced story that manages to rise above itself with some great gimmicks: namely doppelgangers, time loops and hilarious villains.

WRITTEN BY

John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch. This was their first script ever and also the only time they ever did work on Doctor Who.

PLOT

Meglos, a sentient cactus-like lifeform, makes a deal with a band of pirates to steal the worshipped power source of the Tigellans, named the Dodecahedron. To do so, he takes on the appereance of their old friend the Doctor and traps the TARDIS inside an infinite time loop.

ANALYSIS

This story just gave me one constant feeling: that it has no idea what it's doing. Is it trying to be one of those age-old religion vs science stories? Is it a Robert Holmesian comedy with space pirates? Is it a doppelganger adventure? What's the point?

To its credit, Meglos does not sink under its confused premise and manages to be a pretty entertaining fare, at least when the Doctor and Romana are finally let out of the TARDIS(in the second half of Episode 2!!). Their whole time loop dilemma was the most blatant padding the show has ever done. It made no sense whatsoever.
However, once they ARE out and tricking the pirates(Romana gets into a very similar situation as in The Creature From The Pit), it's a lot of fun, especially in the final episode.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker joins in on the ancient tradition of evil doppelgangers(see also: The Massacre and The Enemy Of The World) and of course, pulls it off marvellously. I wouldn't have minded a sitcom spin-off featuring Meglos and the pirates roaming the universe and getting up to all sorts of mischief.

Lalla Ward doesn't have the best showing as Romana as the most that she does is again, lead pirates around in circles and carry K-9.

Speaking of K-9, even though John Leeson's back(I already miss Brierley), it's clear that the character is in the process of being retired, with the poor tin dog now suffering from constant malfunctions. He hasn't really been involved in the story for a long time now. It's sadly becoming a bit of a cameo role.

Jacqueline Hill's return to Doctor Who isn't anywhere near as good as it should've been. Like many have probably asked before me, why not just bring back Barbara? Still, at least she gets a religious leader role a la The Aztecs. Her death scene is just awful, though. It felt so unnecessary. A random Gaztak pirate gets up after being shot in battle and kills her. That's the whole scene. The other characters barely even bat an eyelid.

Meglos, the well-mannered cactus is pure genius. Not only does he have a wonderful double(triple?)-act with the pair of dumb pirates, but his plan to impersonate the Doctor, the most trusted hero of all is actually pretty impressive. Tom Baker plays him really well too(although he seems to become a bit bland when he meets the Doctor, maybe because Tom didn't have anyone to play against?)

The pirates were a fun pair, with one daft and one sort-of intelligent. I liked how the daft one was constantly after the Doctor's coat. I totally get you, bro!

NOTES

*How is Meglos able to trap the TARDIS in a time loop? And why does re-enacting the events in the loop(badly) break it?

*Considering that Lexa's people are opposed to treating their God from a scientific point of view, why do they call it the Dodecahedron? Does that sound mythological to you?? Oh well, alien planet I guess.

*The "Earthling" kind of reminded me of that monosyllabic hunter guy from The Three Doctors. Barely has any lines, but is somehow involved all the way through and ends by treating the whole thing as "whatever". At least they got a much better actor this time(he played Meglos too, during the scenes he wasn't played by Tom Baker). I didn't really understand why he was constantly able to break apart from Meglos-Doctor, though, as he was supposed to be Meglos' physical embodiment. Or something.

*How did Meglos recreate the Doctor's outfit? He even gave it away later!

*The dafter pirate reminded me of Stephen Dillane(who famously portrays Stannis Baratheon on Game Of Thrones).

*Apparently, Meglos was originally going to return in the Eleventh Doctor episode The Lodger. That would've been awesome.

*The scene where the Doctor is almost sacrificed was just weird. They want to crush him with a rock that is held up by three ropes that they burn in order. First of all, how often do they have to clean that rock from guts? Second of all, why burn perfectly alright ropes? Thirdly, how does the rock not hit him when two of the ropes have been burnt? And fourth, how does the Doctor survive for like a minute after they actually do begin to burn the third rope? There's no way that rock didn't hit him.

*I just love hearing Jacqueline Hill say "Doctor" again.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

This is a new segment I specially waited until the 80s to use(but forgot to introduce in The Leisure Hive) in which we analyse how the story treats the show's lore and whether or not it feels shoehorned in.

In this case, the only notable continuity element is the return of Jacqueline Hill, who of course played the First Doctor's companion Barbara in the 60s. Since she doesn't play her old character, there's not much to say, but I REALLY wish they had put her to better use.

BEST QUOTE

The Doctor: K-9, can you hear me?
K-9: Affirmative, mistress.

CONCLUSION

A fun, throwaway adventure. Not exactly solid, but not too bad either.

Interestingly, the Doctor and Romana received a summons back to Gallifrey at the end of this story. Here we go again... it's been a while since we met the Time Lords.

[rushy]

Full Circle is an intelligent, well-crafted and atmospheric story. Indeed, I would go so far as to say it's the show's most solid piece of storytelling in years.

WRITTEN BY

Andrew Smith, a 17-year old who somehow got the chance to write for the show. I am not making this up. That is incredible!! Especially considering how well it came out.

PLOT

Whilst on its way to Gallifrey, the TARDIS accidentally goes through a Charged Vacuum Emboitment(an incredibly rare anomaly in space) that sends it into a parallel universe working on vastly different laws of physics known as E-space.

Landing on a planet with a community obsessed with repairing their spacecraft, the Doctor and Romana are separated by the actions of fearful rebels and must solve the mystery behind the mysterious mute Marshmen bearing down on them all.

ANALYSIS

It was actually really hard to write that plot summary as the story is very complex and unique, with multiple clever plot twists and centered on a believable and fair, yet completely different society to our own. At no point do any of the characters feel like caricatures, the direction is top-notch and thrilling and things actually get tense on multiple occasions. It feels like a renaissance for the show.

I especially enjoy the over-arching storyline of the TARDIS team getting trapped in E-space, which is a wonderful sci-fi plotline of the sort that I've really missed in the new series. There's no "big meaning" to it, it's just a really funky, somewhat scary situation, like the Key To Time. We need more of that and I hope Chris Chibnall brings some of this kind of pragmatic storytelling into the show.

CHARACTERS

This may just be my favourite Tom Baker performance, ever. I can't really imagine that he'll top this. He retains his sense of humor, but finally, FINALLY discovers his moral authority, his desire to help people, which is something I've always criticised about the Fourth Doctor's characterisation. There's no flippancy, no joke. When he berates the Deciders on their attempt to perform a vivisection on one of the Marshmen, I was completely glued to the screen. That was the Doctor, not saving people for fun or "because he's the man that blah blah blah", but very simply because it's the right thing to do and he's been given the chance to do it. That scene defines why the Doctor left Gallifrey.

Due to her encounter with the Marshmen, Romana is largely absent from the second half of the story, although I did find her slightly childish strop about not wanting to go back to Gallifrey very amusing(considering her behaviour when she first joined the Doctor). Also, I found Romana as a mindless animal kind of... sexy? Especially when the Doctor got her to guard the TARDIS.

This story of course introduces one of the most notorious companions of all time, Adric. Matthew Waterhouse is another lucky kid like Andrew Smith, who got the chance to be in Doctor Who(possibly to appeal to a younger audience whilst K-9 was getting phased out). He can't really act well at all, but he has very good chemistry with Tom Baker and seems harmless enough.

Oh, poor K-9... why do they drag you through the mud like this? Yes, it's another one of those "K-9 gets axed... but not really" tales. It's the only thing that really bothers me about this story. If they wanted to get rid of K-9, they should've just done so. The fact that K-9 hasn't been properly involved in the story since The Armageddon Factor is simply absurd and I'm really resenting the way they treated his character.

The actors portraying the Outlers(including Adric's brother) were all a pretty wooden bunch, another flaw in this otherwise great story. They carry a lot of these episodes, so a constant annoyance in Full Circle is their sincere-robotic acting.

Fortunately, the Deciders come across as much better people, gentle and infirm, but genuine and willing to learn at the same time. I really loved every one of them: the confused, but determined Nefred(played by James Bree who also portrayed the awesome Security Chief in The War Games), the wise Draith, the supportive Garif and the hilariously named Login(who was the active and imaginative one). I really felt for them and the issues that they faced. Plus, their inability to decide also provided a lot of naturalistic comedy.

NOTES

*Maybe I missed it, but I never really understood how the people of the Starliner evolved from the Marshmen, and what exactly their relationship was supposed to be.

*I found it slightly peculiar that one of the Marshmen used K-9's head as a weapon and yet they appear to be scared of it as if it was a religious artifact or something.

*The Doctor working in a laboratory with a microscope was VERY Pertwee(especially since I just recently rewatched The Silurians).

*Why didn't Varsh and the other kids just run into the TARDIS on the multiple occasions they were confronted by Marshmen and the doors were clearly open?

*Also, Varsh staying behind for so long to blow oxygen into the faces of the Marshmen was just ridiculous. He should've just run back and helped to block the doors again.

*How exactly did the Marshmen turn Romana into one of them?

*Why does the Doctor carve into the fruit that he finds in the Starliner? Is it really a good time to start slicing up watermelons?

*And why do the Marshman later drop the knife he used, which he had stolen? The knife was like this recurring joke or something that went nowhere after the Doctor got it back.

*The sonic! I love the sonic. Seriously, JNT getting rid of it was ridiculous. It's been 12 seasons since they introduced it and I'm pretty sure it's only been used around twenty-thirty times in the entire classic series.

*When the Doctor discovers his TARDIS is gone and touches the air around where it was, I briefly thought the TARDIS had turned invisible(like in The Invasion and The Impossible Astronaut).

*The reveal that nobody knows how to pilot the spaceship... such a brilliant touch.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1. At the beginning of the story, the Doctor references the events of The Invasion Of Time, naming Leela, Andred and the earlier K-9. It's not forced per se, since they are heading to Gallifrey, but it was a bit odd, since the classic series usually doesn't refer so blatantly to past events.

2. Romana mentions that the Doctor once fought the Time Lords and lost, which is a reference to The War Games. This was a terrific callback, I thought and it's very interesting to see that the Doctor has accepted Gallifrey's role in his life, completely dismissing the idea of not returning once he has been summoned.

BEST QUOTE

"I'm usually good with children." - The Doctor

CONCLUSION

A very different, fresh kind of story with a production that's firing from all cylinders. I really enjoyed it.

[rushy]

State Of Decay is a gothic vampire story... told by scientists.

WRITTEN BY

Terrance Dicks, former script editor on Doctor Who(seasons 7-11) and writer of such classics as The War Games(my all-time favourite) and Horror Of Fang Rock. One of the best people ever associated with Doctor Who, basically.

PLOT

As the Doctor and Romana make contact with the descendants of an Earth crew surviving in E-space, Adric is captured by their overlords... former crewmembers, who have been granted immortality and the ability to drink blood by the Great Vampire... an ancient enemy of the Time Lords, who survived the Dark Ages.

ANALYSIS

It's pretty wonderful stuff. I've always loved it when certain stories feel "out-of-era", like how The War Machines is practically a Third Doctor story, and Silence In The Library is a direct precursor to the Eleventh Doctor era.

In this case, a previously unused Hinchcliffe-era script was dusted off and executed by the JNT-era production team. It's a clash of completely different styles: gothic and clinical 80s sci-fi. And they actually pull it off rather well!

The now-usual electronic score is very atmospheric, and the brooding, dark feel of the story fits very well with the show's new, expensive approach. I must also praise the set and costume designers.

The backstory of the vampires themselves is brilliant, and unlike the cheesy ones from The Vampires Of Venice, feel like a natural part of the Doctor Who universe. The blending of future technology and medieval spirit works very well here.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker continues to dazzle as the Fourth Doctor, although you can really spot Baker's illness here. He looks frighteningly malnourished and his hair's been permed(for the first and only time in the entire show).

I'm now beginning to see why Adric is so hated. Despite seemingly building a bond with the Doctor in the previous story, he is completely willing to side with the villains for his own survival, matter-of-factly stating how it makes sense for him to save his own skin.

You can really see Chris Bidmead's influence on K-9, as he is now being characterised as a boring computer that nobody really takes that seriously. Poor K-9.

William Lindsay, Rachel Davies and Emrys James are all phenomenal as Zargo, Camilla and Aukon, respectively. I love the choreographed movements of the first two. Aukon's authoritative role in the trio is especially interesting(his use of bats as servants is cool).

The villagers don't really stand out, apart from their firm, benevolent leader fighting for a better future and the fearful, but also determined scientist. Solid performances from everybody.

NOTES

*How did the Great Vampire end up buried and in hibernation?

*You have to love the futuristic Earth vessel relying on 80s computers.

*Tom Baker and Lalla Ward are wonderful. And if you caught the reference, thumbs up.

*As well as being wonderful, their inability to decide which vampire thrones to sit in(King or Queen) is adorable.

*I was actually kind of shocked by the scene where the Doctor and Romana find a vat full of blood. I'm surprised that didn't bring Doctor Who back under Mary Whitehouse's attention.

*The plot twist of the castle being a rocket, and the resolution at the end(stake through the heart) was terrific.

*K-9 finally got out of the TARDIS! I was so happy to see that. Even though he spends most of the story doing nothing as per usual, he at least finally got to have a serious role to play, and even earned some villagers' respect!

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

The Doctor mentions an old hermit on Gallifrey, who used to tell him ghost stories. This is presumably a reference to Kan'po Rimpoche from Planet Of The Spiders. In 1977, it would've been a nice connection to the previous Doctor from his previous script editor. In 1980, it's a wonderful callback to bygone days.

BEST QUOTE

"Die... that is the purpose of guards." - Aukon.

CONCLUSION

Season 18 continues to prove itself as a high point in the series. State Of Decay isn't exactly horror, but it's a spooky, fun story to watch.

[rushy]

I don't even know where to begin with Warriors' Gate...

WRITTEN BY

Steve Gallagher, an English author who made the mistake of writing a novel instead of a script.

PLOT

Finding themselves in a "gateway realm" between E-space and N-space, the TARDIS crew run into trouble when they encounter a stranded cargo ship, whose owners are willing to do anything to get out, most notably killing Tharils, a time-sensitive race with a dark past...

ANALYSIS

Sounds simple enough? Well, the problem is that apart from this premise, nothing in this story makes sense. Stuff just... happens. I do believe there's a logic behind this story(after all, it was turned into a book later), but as a first-time viewer, I was completely baffled at how little Warriors' Gate bothered to explain its own premise. It's not like Heaven Sent, where the story unfolds beautifully... stuff just HAPPENS. And that's it.

Here's an example: on multiple occasions throughout the story, the characters appear in a (CSO) monochromatic garden. Where is the garden? What is the relevance of the garden? Why is the garden in black and white?

All the characters seem to understand what's going on(except the humans, ironically)... but Steve Gallagher simply made no attempt to draw the viewers into it. I suppose there's some form of brilliance in that(for once, the complex mechanics of the Doctor's alien life aren't translated for us), but I'm more keen to believe that it's just a bit of incompetent storytelling.

Sorry, Warriors' Gate fans. I don't think this is a surrealist masterpiece. It's just a really well-directed and acted mess.

CHARACTERS

The one thing Warriors' Gate has in spades is a sense of grandeur, and it makes Tom Baker look magnificient. Continuing his phenomenal run this season, his exploration of the castle is extremely fascinating, his toying with the frustrated captain of the cargo ship is a source of endless amusement and really, I must say I finally, properly see the Fourth Doctor as perhaps the greatest incarnation of the character.
Because in this last season, he's had it all: mystery, eccentricity, a dark, depressed self and the childish glee. Over the years, Tom has been all over the map in terms of characterisation, but finally, finally he perfectly nailed down everything I love about the Doctor. I actually really don't want him to go now!!

Romana, Romana, Romana... *sigh*. You were indeed the noblest of them all. You also had the most crap companion departure ever. Dodo Chaplet's off-screen farewell made more sense than this did. Ditto for K-9.
I don't mean to spoil, but what basically happens is that at the climax of the adventure, right before the TARDIS dematerialises, Romana goes like "actually, I'm staying. You cool with that?" And then the Doctor is like "WTF?? Uh... okay. Take K-9. You're awesome, byeeee!!"

That departure would be awful for anybody, but Romana and K-9 are iconic in their own right! Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward(who I really grew to admire) created this wonderful character(the BEST female companion in my opinion) who was able to bounce right off the Doctor and really share his life in a way no other companion could.

K-9 was the champion of young fans everywhere and had such a lovably straight-laced persona that perfectly fitted in with the Doctor's boisterous approach. It was a match made in heaven. I should also mention that K-9 is the show's longest running companion(Sarah Jane lasted three seasons and two stories, whereas K-9 lasted three seasons and five stories). The only true regret I have with him is that he was perpetually underused in the show and spent most of his latter two seasons broken down. Season 18 was the worst time for him, as even his personality got sucked out. Thank God for RTD bringing him back in full glory for School Reunion and the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Oh yeah, and then there's Adric, who's barely even in this. His only real goal in the entire story is to be all symbolic by flipping a coin over and over again. I do look forward to see how he and the Fourth Doctor get along alone in the next story.

With Clifford Rose's Captain Rorvik, we see the return of a classic Troughton-era trope: the psychotic commander. And he's a great one too, acting like a dangerously obsessive, grumpy CEO.

Kenneth Cope(of Coronation Street fame) appeared as Packard, the most likable of the cargo crew. Nothing really else to say. I just liked the actor.

Gallagher tried to also include a Holmesian double-act of two crewmembers, who basically just want to be left alone, but their personalities were a bit ill-defined(one was just slightly more lazy than the other) and their antics just really weren't funny, nor did they fit into this kind of dramatic story.

And then there's Biroc aka "he who defies logic". Whenever he appeared, nothing made sense.

NOTES

*I've seen some other reviewers praise the crewmembers for ignoring Rorvik, since it's more 'realistic'. Um, how realistic is it to ignore your commanding officer when you're TRAPPED IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE?!?!

*So, K-9 has the entire design of the TARDIS fitted into his databanks? Well, it's not as bad as Donna giving Rose a piece of coral to grow a new TARDIS from in Journey's End(that almost actually happened...), but still, very implausible.

*Can't the Doctor just get another K-9 out of the box?

*The Doctor's Season 17 costume is hanging on the hatstand. That's a nice touch.

*How did the TARDIS even end up in the Gateway? Last we saw of it, it was lost in E-space.

*What's the deal with the Tharils? They apparently had an empire, it crumbled and now... ?

*If the cargo ship owners are from N-space(as the author claims), how did they discover the Tharils and how to make use of them, and how did they end up stuck in the Gateway?

*Why did Tom Baker and Lalla Ward hate Matthew Waterhouse(even if I didn't know, it's kind of obvious).

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

Romana's desire to not return to Gallifrey from Full Circle is resolved here(awfully), as is the E-space plot arc. Apart from that, not much.

BEST QUOTE

"He's mad, the backblast backlash will bounce back and destroy everything." - Romana.

CONCLUSION

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[rushy]

The Keeper Of Traken is a solid, if slightly forgettable tale, but sets the stage brilliantly for the Fourth Doctor's grand finale.

WRITTEN BY

Johnny Byrne, prolific sci-fi writer. He doesn't particularly impress me, but I don't mind seeing another story from his pen.

PLOT

The Keeper Of Traken materialises inside the Doctor's TARDIS and asks for his help in defeating a great evil threatening the Traken Union.
After travelling there however, he and Adric quickly run into trouble when the Counsels there misunderstand the Keeper's words and at the insistence of Kassia(who is manipulated by the mysterious Melkur, who has a hidden past with the Doctor) turn against them.

ANALYSIS

I was on edge this entire story, and not in the slightest because of what I was seeing. All I wanted to see was the Doctor and the Master(hell yeah!!) reunited at last. And boy, did they take their time to bring my favourite villain back into the fold.

Nevertheless, the drama of Traken itself was not without merit. I enjoyed the power struggle between the various different Counsels(puppeteered by the Doctor and the Master later on), and there were parts of Traken mythology that were quite interesting, like the Keeper and the legend of Melkur.

But despite the actors doing a fine job, the story's backbone and primary reason for existence is that end twist, so let's get into that right now...

CHARACTERS

Geoffrey Beevers, who's since gone on to an illustrious career as the "Big Finish classic Master", has his one and only TV appereance here, and gives a terrific performance. I've really only known two types of Masters: the high-and-mighty(Delgado, Pratt, Jacobi) and the loony(Roberts, Simm, Gomez). But Beevers is something else... he epitomises the Master's deviousness.
And even though he's technically supposed to be the same incarnation as Pratt, he feels completely different. Pratt's Master was obsessed with revenge and hatred against everything, whereas Beevers' Master is very gentle and almost gleeful, as if the Master had time to cool off since the events of The Deadly Assassin and rediscovered his mojo, only with a much more sadistic bent.
It's only a huge shame that he gets so little screentime. The Master isn't revealed until episode four. It's like Derek Jacobi all over again.

Anthony Ainley is surprisingly good in the thankless role of Tremas, the Consul who basically spends the entire story running after the Doctor. Though his costume and make-up look a bit ridiculous, he carries himself with dignity throughout the entire story and you genuinely feel for the character's plight, especially at the very end of the story.

Sarah Sutton is introduced as future companion Nyssa... and doesn't make much of an impact. She's nice, and seems to get on well with Adric, but she's not exactly a knock-out either. I'll be interested to see how she reunites with the Doctor and Adric in the next story, since they leave her behind on Traken at the end.

Speaking of the Doctor and Adric, Tom Baker and Matthew Waterhouse turn out to be quite a decent pairing. Without Romana or K-9 in the way, the two seem to bond much better and there's a sort of Dumbledore-Harry feel to them which I really like.

Denis Carey, whom I adored so much in Shada, plays the eponymous Keeper, but is unfortunately a rather boring character. All he does is draw the TARDIS to Traken and die in a way that turns the Consuls against the Doctor and Adric. He's basically a non-walking plot device, sadly.

Sheila Ruskin does a decent job as Kassia, although I'm a bit confused over whether or not she was supposed to be a sympathetic character(some scenes play out like she is, others don't).

I rather liked John Woodnutt(who has appeared in several Doctor Who stories before as well) as Consul Seron. He's old and witty, and seems to be the most intelligent of the Consuls. Naturally, he's the one to die.

Margot van der Burgh plays Consul Katura, who is sort of like Maggie Smith if she wasn't smart. Far more notably, Burgh appeared way back in The Aztecs as William Hartnell's love interest. Lots of old guest stars in this story.

And finally, Robin Soans as Luvic, who, despite him being a bad guy, I found really likable. All he wants is to have a nice life working for whoever is in charge. I can relate to that.

NOTES

*As always, gently pushing two guards together so their heads meet is enough to completely knock them out.

*How did the Doctor escape the Master's TARDIS by jumping through a glass wall?

*Why does the Master's TARDIS look like a grandfather clock? Is his chameleon circuit broken too?

*How exactly does the Master take over Tremas' body?

*Was there ever an actual Melkur statue that the Master replaced to win Kassia's trust? How long was he manipulating her, exactly? The flashback at the beginning shows that she cared for the statue since she was young, after all.

*And how did the Master even come up with this plan? I mean, he couldn't exactly walk around looking like he does now and talk to people to learn about their weaknesses. Did he just decide to hang around in the courtyard until somebody showed up that he could use?

*I must say, featuring a TARDIS that can walk around and is armed is quite clever.

*Why doesn't the Doctor always use a stunner? I know he hates guns and all, but surely a stunner wouldn't be a bad thing to have as a last resource.

*It seems ridiculously easy for the Doctor to move about despite him being a fugitive. It's also ridiculously easy to kill Consuls and get away with it. And just when I finished writing that, I realised it could be explained away by Traken not really needing security until now... huh.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) The re-appereance of the Master, who still looks mostly like he did in The Deadly Assassin and travels inside a grandfather clock TARDIS, just like in that story.

2) Once the Master takes hold of Tremas, his body transforms into one that clearly resembles Roger Delgado's incarnation.

3) The Master mentions that he's nearing the end of his twelfth regeneration. Both the '12 regenerations' rule and the Master's attempts to override it were established in The Deadly Assassin.

4) As this is the first story after the E-space trilogy, brief mention is made of those events.

BEST QUOTE

ADRIC: "As for your handwriting..."
DOCTOR: "What about my handwriting?!"
ADRIC: "... it's wonderful."
(The best part is that Waterhouse acts innocently, like he's in love with the Doctor's writing and completely not in on the joke)

CONCLUSION

A pretty drab runaround with some good ideas and fine acting, mostly elevated by Geoffrey Beevers and the inclusion of the iconic villain.