The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988 Film)

 "Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"

And so we end the 1980s for Granada's Sherlock Holmes adaptations- they will next resume, after a gap, with The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes in 1991, a new decade, unless one happens to be gulping them all up thirty years later. Nevertheless, The Hound of the Baskervilles- the most famous, most often adapted, and most familiar story that Conan Doyle ever wrote- is a fitting coda to the decade.

It is, of course, only right that Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke should get their own Hound, and this does not disappoint. Yes, the budget is clearly lower than with the previous year's The Sign of Four- some of the mire scenes are fairly obviously done in the srudio- but the programme hardly looks cheap and, above all, the story (as ever with Hound) and performances, barring a few dodgy Mummerset accents, make this a quality production nevertheless, although perhaps the ending is a little rushed. And the much-maligned hound itself looks pretty decent, I think. It's hardly B movie stuff, and I should know.

Ronald Pickup impresses with a nuanced performance as Barrymore, and it's a delight to see good old Bernard Horsfall as Frankland. But it's James Faulkner (looking just a little older than he was in I, Clavdivs) who stands out as that rotter Stapleton, and never mind that the emphasis on Stapleton in this production makes it perhaps a little too clear that he's the killer.

Overall, though, this is an enjoyable version of the story, much better than its reputation.

Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin

Part One

“Oh, I say! Weren’t you expelled or something? Some scandal?”

How strange- a full year before Star Wars, and we get a voiceover by Tom alongside a rolling caption thingy. In context this is very odd- not only does it instantly make this story stand out from the stories surrounding it and seem “epic” and “big”, it also blurs the boundaries between form and content in a way Doctor Who arguably has not done since the likes of The Gunfighters and The Feast of Steven. Instantly we sense the rules are different, and indeed it turns out that they are- as a traveller the Doctor is used to the leeway he is given as an outsider to behave eccentrically, but here on his home planet, where he’s a “convicted criminal” of no particular notoriety, this doesn’t get him anywhere. Everything is different.

Much about this first episode has a dislocating effect; the Doctor is travelling alone, and the plot springs from a prophetic dream experienced by the Doctor, not the sort of device the series traditionally employs. And it’s just unbelievable how every throwaway line, every costume, every prop, every piece of design, seems to establish some little thing which will help to establish how Gallifrey will be portrayed from this point on. There are so many firsts in the first few minutes alone- the Presidency; Time Lord robes; the Capitol; the Chancery Guards and their distinctive red uniforms; the Doctor’s TARDIS being referred to as a “Type Forty”- and there’ll be a lot more along in a minute. And in a way that’s a shame, as it tends to obscure The Deadly Assassin as a story in itself, with its political subtext and design aesthetic which deserve to be appreciated on their own terms rather than be thought of just in terms of continuity.

As a blatantly hypocritical aside, though, we get some interesting continuity stuff- it’s meaningless without a context to put it in, really, but we’re still told that The War Games took place in the Time Lord year 309,906. And is it the first time we’re told that earth is in “Mutter’s Spiral”, presumably the Time Lords’ name for the Milky Way Galaxy?

There’s some stuff that’s fun aside from all this mythological malarkey too- there are many things I was expecting to see in this episode but a hookah wasn’t one of them! And there are plenty of political asides- the CIA, of course, but also “His Supremacy” the President has a “resignation honours list”, confiding to his underling that there are “some names here that will surprise them.” I wonder if there’s a Time Lady called Marcia Williams?

More revelations come thick and fast. Chancellor Goth is played by Bernard Horsfall- they can’t seriously expect us not to assume he’s that bloke from the tribunal. We are also introduced to Gallifreyan script and another pile of firsts- the Castellan (this one’s likeable from the start, very much the put-upon decent copper), cardinals, the Panopticon, and the various aristocratic Time Lord orders- the Prydonians, the Arcalians, the Patrexes “and so on”, each of which has its own design of “seldom-worn” robe. 

Fascinatingly, the Doctor is revealed to be a Prydonian- very posh, apparently- and is obliged to wear a robe. Again we see how he can’t act as he normally does on his home planet, anchored to his place in society by the chapter he belongs to and even being obliged to conform to rigid Time Lord ways of dressing by wearing his robe. And it’s very noticeable that for almost all of this story his trademark hat and scarf are absent.

Besides all this rich mythological stuff and mischievous political commentary shoved under the radar as only science fiction can make possible, there are some nicely drawn characters too. The Castellan, of course, is a character type immediately recognisable from many a whodunit, the determined, clear-minded police inspector under constant harassment from his superiors. Then there’s Cardinal Borusa- haughty, supercilious, but clearly a highly adept politician. He’s our obligatory red herring. And even the two members of the House of Lords- er, Time Lords- we overhear discussing the glory days of “Pandak III” are nicely drawn caricatures.

Oh, and there’s the Master. It’s good to see him again- it’s been ages- but it’s a shock seeing him so emaciated and literally skeletal as this, seemingly alive only through sheer will. His appearance is yet another example of great design.

Part Two

“Vaporisation without representation is against the constitution!”

So, Goth is insisting the Doctor be tried and executed quickly within 48 hours just to spare the newly elected president (ie Goth) the dilemma of whether to pardon him. How very revealing this is as regards Robert Holmes’ views on power! It’s also traditionally said to be the start of a new, more cynical, treatment of the Time Lords, but I’m not sure this is true- if we look at Holmes’ treatment of the Time Lords in Genesis of the Daleks and even the Doctor’s comments at the start of The Brain of Morbius it seems very much in keeping with all of this. And I’m not sure they were ever exactly portrayed as benevolent godlike figures right from the moment they first appeared in part ten of The War Games.

The Doctor’s being a suspect threatens to inflict on us the dullness of interminable cell scenes and interrogations, but Holmes admirably manages to sidestep this be having the Doctor escape execution, for the moment, on a technicality, which earns bonus points by itself being amusing. And as the Castellan, a competent detective, tends to believe the Doctor, the story can now focus on their investigation. That’s very good plotting. That said, there’s only one suspect, but I’m sure there’s supposed to be!

There are far fewer embellishments to the mythology this episode- although we get “Shabogans”, whoever they may be, and “Artron Energy”. But the big one is the Matrix, or the APC net as it’s called here- a depository for the recorded brain patterns of every single Time Lord, taken just before the point of death. The Doctor enters the Matrix to find, aside from a quick burst of the opening titles, a dreamscape, controlled by his mysterious opponent, full of surreal threats such as a surgeon with a syringe- surely this must have scared the kids more than any monster. As Philip Hinchcliffe says on one of the DVD documentaries, as an idea this would have been right out there in 1976!

Of course, the best thing about it is that we’re able to end on the ultimate Perils of Pauline style cliffhanger!

Part Three

“It’ll be over soon. One way or another…”

It’s quite jaw-droppingly brave to set this whole episode in an imaginary dreamscape and expect a mainstream audience in 1976 to watch it. But somehow it works. I can’t help that the cultural references are all ours, rather than Gallifreyan, which is odd considering this is Goth’s reality, but I think it’d be churlish to press that point as the whole thing not only works but manages to advance the plot by revealing the villain as… the bloke we knew it was all along. All the same, much as I hate to say this for something so genuinely experimental, it does go on a bit towards the end. It’s very noticeable how visual this all is- there’s very little dialogue, and uniquely for a Robert Holmes episode I was stumped for an opening quote!

Here’s the Doctor again using weapons, contrary to myth, this time a grenade and a blowpipe. It’s all very violent, especially the cliffhanger. I’m not sure whether we’re watching a restoration of the full scene on the DVD, so I should probably watch the relevant extra and find out.

Part Four

“You wistful, you craven-hearted, spineless poltroon!”

The Matrix stuff seems to end very suddenly, and then it seems the Master is dead and the story is over. But this episode is the rarest of phenomena; a second ending that actually works.

Before things conclude, though, we learn an awful lot of things, Apparently Goth met the Master at somewhere called “Terserus”, dying, at the “end of his regeneration cycle.” And of course this is later confirmed: “After the twelfth regeneration,” says Elgin, “nothing can postpone death.” This is quite a bombshell! For something which exists essentially to provide the Master with motivation and a backstory, this one line has had a massive effect of the programme.

There’s another gleefully cynical piece of social commentary too, of course, with Borusa’s insistence on adjusting the truth as it “will not do” to “maintain public confidence in the Time Lords and their leadership.” The way this is phrased seems to suggest that not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords.

And then there are all the scraps we’re thrown from “The Old Time”. There is the first mention of Rassilon, now thought of as founder of Time Lord civilisation, but thought of by his contemporaries more as an engineer and architect- so not a politician, presumably. His relics are the Sash of Rassilon, worn by the President, and the Great Key, both of which relate to the Eye of Harmony, the domesticated black hole from which Gallifrey draws its power. Apparently Rassilon, not Omega, is responsible for harnessing the black hole- how does this square with what we learn of Omega in The Three Doctors, then?

Enough of such matters. The Master, of course, is not dead, and we get our final(ish) battle between the Doctor and the Master, with the fate of Gallifrey and a large chunk of the surrounding area of space at stake. And, even better, the hatch from Tomb of the Cybermen seems to make a reappearance. The Master survives, of course, and is seen leaving in his TARDIS, shaped like a grandfather clock. The Doctor leaves too, having been awarded “nine out of ten” by Borusa. But wait! Weren’t he and Goth the only two candidates for the presidency? Surely that means-

4/5, missing out on the top mark because the script simply had so many jobs to do. But this was genuinely groundbreaking in so many ways. Doctor Who is on fire at the moment.

Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks

Part One

“I’m qualified in space medicine.”

Terry Nation is back! Oh, the nostalgia…

It’s a very odd beginning. It seems the last episode did indeed end in a cliffhanger, but it seems very disjointed. It’s also a very bad idea to have Jo speak into a tape recorder, extremely awkward in practice.

We get a jungle, hostile plants, and it all sounds a bit like Kembel. Yep, this is a Terry Nation story, all right. It’s impossible to take seriously. All the lines are functional and lacking in any sparkle whatsoever, especially Jo’s, but are as well acted as they can be. Plus, we get invisible creatures. And Space Thals. And Bernard Horsfall! Plus a jaw-droppingly gratuitous continuity reference which not only references The Daleks but mentions Barbara, Ian and Susan.

Shocking cliffhanger, the very last thing I was expecting…

Part Two

“I’ll dismantle the circuitry, reverse the polarity…”

I’ve just realised where I’ve seen Tim Preece before- he’s Tom from The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin!

More old Terry Nation tropes are dusted off: the Thals' commander was killed in the landing; there’s a nasty tentacled thing in the jungle; Jo is stalked by a menacing and mysterious figure who turns out to be a goodie. But better than that, there are loads and loads of Daleks, not one of them cardboard. Have we ever seen so many? Plus their voices are much better, they have a cool looking city, and we get to hear that pulsating sound again. 

There’s a rather good scene with the Doctor and Codal discussing courage in the cave. And you really feel for the Doctor and Jo, each thinking the other dead. There’s also some very effective use of CSO as the invisible Wester pours some medicine into a bowl for the infected Jo.

This is very by-the-numbers, but fun nonetheless. And the Daleks, with their talk of Mengele-style genetic experiments on their prisoners, are suitably evil. 

The episode ends with some more Thals arriving. And the Doctor deciding to use an ordinary screwdriver mere seconds after brandishing his sonic one.

Part Three

“You know, for a man who abhors violence, I took great satisfaction in doing that.”

This is almost certainly the last time I’ll ever watch this episode in black and white.

This story shouldn’t have been called Planet of the Daleks- Terry Nation’s Greatest Hits would have been a much better title. Even the original bits, like the water which stays molten at below zero, just feel like the sort of thing we’ve seen before. And when we get to the bit with the lifts… well.

It doesn’t all make sense, of course. The Doctor tells Codal while planning their escape that once they’ve put the Dalek out of action they might just have enough time to escape. But as soon as they’ve done it they just stand around chatting for a bit. And it’s also clear that, in this Dalek city, all roads lead to one particular corridor for some reason.

It’s such fun though. I had to laugh out loud once the Dalek started cutting through the door. This is a blatant remake of a story that was actually directly referenced a couple of episodes ago- you have to admire the sheer cheek of the blatant self-plagiarism on display here. I love the Doctor’s mad escape plan. And just when it can’t get any sillier, 10,000 Rolykin Daleks turn up.

Part Four

“Should be a long slow haul”

Er, is the cliffhanger quite the same in the reprise? Never mind, it’s forgivable in this story, even more of a 1930s movie serial than The Daleks, as seen in the way the plot stops for several episodes while our heroes encounter a series of perilous situations. It’s all very silly, but fun.

We briefly get a bit of attempted characterisation as Taron whinges at Rebec for being in love with him- what a git! Still, this being a Terry Nation script, we never again get any reference to their being a couple.

The Daleks are preparing a virus to kill all their foes with, which is a surprise- it’s usually radiation. Bet you it takes several whole episodes before it’s ready.

At last, in a highly visible display of script editing, we get some dialogue linking this, more or less plausibly, to Frontier in Space. Interesting that the Doctor needs Time Lord help to steer the TARDIS properly at this point.

I’ve just noticed in the end credits- the middle eight’s not there any more. When did that happen?

Part Five

“We can never leave here. Never. Never. Never.”

More of the same, really. Not much to say about it. And it’s damned difficult coming up with quotes for each episode in a story with such bland dialogue as this.

The only notable moments are Rebec doing her best Ian impression inside the Dalek casing, and the impressively acted distress of the Daleks trapped in a room with the virus. One of the Dalek voice actors has been particularly excellent this story, and it’s noticeable how many long scenes of Daleks talking actually seem to work well.

Part Six

“We are abandoning! We are abandoning! We are abandoning!

Ooh, the Dalek Supreme is coming! And he’s a movie Dalek. And the invasion’s set to start right now, just in time for the last episode! With a countdown! Never have I been so bludgeoned with such Terry Nation-ness.

This is fun and well enough handled, with the tiresome, half-hearted obligatory love interest stuff between Jo and Latep kept to a minimum. I like the Doctor’s speech about not glorifying war, and better still the Dalek Supreme’s speech about the Daleks never being defeated.

Of course, the best scene is where the Dalek Supreme exterminates an underling for failure. I love it when they do that.

Overall I enjoyed that, load of old rubbish that it was. Nothing happened, but nothing happened in an exciting way, and it was very good of Terry to play us all of his hits again. 3/5.

Doctor Who: The Mind Robber

Part One


"Who are you?"

You can tell it's DVD- the opening titles look so much cleaner than they did last story. The restoration team have done a magnificent job here, although arguably it's now more obvious just how much of the TARDIS wall consists of cardboard roundels. And, once we zoom in on it when things start to go wrong, just how tatty the console is.

This is only the second Troughton story, after Tomb, that I thought I knew quite well before the Marathon began. But as soon as the TARDIS starts going wrong my reaction is entirely different from watching in sequence- of course, the fluid links have been on the blink since The Wheel in Space. And this may explain why the TARDIS is suddenly vulnerable to outside forces- it's weakened in its current, mercury vapour emitting state. Oh, and Troughton speaks of a "power room". I don't remember hearing of this before.

Jamie's criticism of Zoe's Dulcian-inspired fashion sense is, of course, entirely correct, so she changes into a skintight sparkly catsuit. Mmmm...

Things start to get creepy as the Ship tries to persuade the TARDISeers to go outside. It's The Edge of Destruction again, except this time there may really be a malign outside force. But why is Zoe so keen to get back to her (unnamed) home city? She's only been on board the TARDIS five minutes.

Zoe slaps Jamie. And then things start getting really creepy with the white robots, the white TARDIS and the white Jamie and Zoe. The ending is excellent, surely the ultimate cliffhanger. And on top of that, er, a certain shot of Zoe towards the end...

That was excellent. It shows just what The Edge of Destruction could have been like if it'd been good...




Part Two


"This is like exploring a maze in the dark."


As strange as last episode was, it at least harked back to something the series had done before, whereas this episode is utterly strange and disorienting. Yet it remains gripping throughout because the familiar characters are a still point for all the surreal events to hang upon, and because it feels we can trust the story to eventually resolve itself. If last episode was The Edge of Destruction done right, I suppose we're now more into the territory of The Celestial Toymaker done right.

I like the way Jamie pauses in front of the redcoat and stands still to deliver his line before attacking.  But this is excellent, and really establishes a mood with elements from fairy tale and fiction which should be reassuring but instead are menacing. Bernard Horsfall is good as a certain character, who I won't name as I'm not supposed to know who he is yet.

Part Three



"Are you a woodcutter's son?"

"No, I'm the son of a piper."

"Oh, how very disappointing. Well, I think you ought to go. Goodbye."



I like these scenes of the Master, from behind, in his nifty little lair with the monitors. In fact the whole thing's extremely well designed, so much so that you don't mind the budget nature of much of it, or the clearly limited size of the sets.

And it doesn't just look good, it has substance. Great as the set pieces are, the story isn't just a string of them- the plot's always moving onwards underneath, which is a huge contrast from these pieces in The Celestial Toymaker.

Frazer Hines is back! Yay! But our heroes are lost in a labyrinth. And the string's run out. Yes, Doctor, that's right- split the party. If there's one thing all my years of playing D&D have taught me it's that's a really good idea.

Real thought has been put into the fantasy elements- in spite of the fantasy traqppings this is far from throwaway stuff for kids as could have been the case given the subject matter. Instead we get great concepts such as all of Gulliver's dialogue coming from swift's pen.

I love Rapunzel, and her wonderfully fourth wall-shattering dialogue.




Part Four



"Why, Sir, the Yahoos!"



The Medusa scene is well resolved, and subtly helps develop the audience's understanding of what's happening while it's at it. We see the White Robots again, and the TARDISeers are reunited. But there's one thing that's bothering me by now: is it me or has the Doctor changed during the last couple of stories? Some of the depth to the character- the Machiavellian streak, the ends-justifies-the-means attitude- hasn't been in evidence recently, and this story has really made me notice. I hope this isn't permanent, great though Troughton is.

With the Karkus the Doctor and Zoe reverse their roles- this time it's Zoe who knows it's fiction. And as for the bit where Zoe fights the Karkus in her sparkly catsuit- well, I've certainly seen worse scenes... Interesting that she's apparently from "the year 2000", or at least can remember it. That would place The Wheel in Space fairly early in the 21st century. I love the Karkus' dismissal: "We won't be needing you any longer. Run along." Much of the dialogue in this story is really quite witty, not something it seems to get credit for.

The revelations soon come thick and fast- our heroes risk becoming fictional characters (oh, how postmodern!) if they make a wrong step. And the Master wants the Doctor to replace him. Oh, and for the first time in a while, apparently, "resistance is useless."

I love the book cliffhanger!



Part Five



"Man would become a string of sausages!"



I'm loving this story. It's such a breath of fresh air to see something that's innovative and done well, especially after such a long string of base-under-sieges.

Yet again the Doctor shows his intense dislike of mind control as the fictionalised Zoe and Jamie lose their free will. His escape from the Master's clutches is great, but naturally it's Rapunzel who gets the best line; she agrees to the Doctor using her hair to climb down as "everybody else uses it, so I don't see why you shouldn't."

We get an epic ending as fictional characters duel against one another, and it's Zoe who saves the day by realising the computer is overloading. This is a great story for her.



Overall, that was great! Well structured, witty and bursting with ideas. Doctor Who has taken a real creative risk with this story and it's really paid off. An easy 5/5.