Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan (Revisited) Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Yep, the two recently rediscovered episodes just dropped on to iPlayer this morning, and you probably knew this blog post was coming.

Before I get into the episodes themselves, though, plus revisiting Day of Armageddon because it would have been silly not to, a huge shout out to Film Is Fabulous, a splendid little charity from my neck of the country who specialise in preserving and locating films, telly and other footage for posterity, much of which may otherwise be lost. Importantly, there's no cherry picking or treasure hunting. Instead, they catalogue and preserve entire collections, treating every item with equal respect. 

Through their work, we now have these two episodes, previously thought lost. And, while we should just enjoy these for the time being, there may be more hope for the future, as we now know that cutting copies are a thing. For now, though, please do check out Film Is Fabulous' splendid website, do consider donating if you can, and please don't hassle them- they clearly know what they're doing, and their work can't and mustn't be rushed.

Anyway...

The Nightmare Begins

"If it's brain... or brawn, rather, versus brain..."

This episode, more than anything else, looks AMAZING. Douglas Camfield truly excels himself here. Much as we know damn well that the forests of Kembel are just a tiny studio in Lime Grove, his claustrophobic direction, as well as Brian Cant's desperate acting, really sells the sense of peril for Kert Gantry in particular. It's great to see him and Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon in action. We hardly have time to notice that Varga plants are only spoken of, not seen, and how tense, claustrophobic direction means we don't actually see much of the forest set- a wise decision.

It's amusing to see Mavic Chen being interviewed and discussed by a couple of lazy civil servants whose casual attitude contrasts with the selfless dedication of Gantry and Vyon, and the lady in particular looks very Swinging Sixties indeed. Such a contrast from the very bleak shot of Gantry after the Dalek kills him.

It's fascinating to see the dynamic between the Doctor and Katarina here- he's as affectionate as ever, but she interprets everything in terms of her own culture- she's in the afterlife, heading to the "Place of Perfection". As she says to Bret, they're "on our way through the underworld".

Then there's the visual of the Doctor's magnetic chair, the city, the framing of the shot where the Doctor sees the Daleks for the first time... we're so very lucky to have this back.

Day of Armageddon

"His ambitions exceed his usefulness."

I'm conscious that I've already blogged this, way back during the marathon days, but it would be silly to leave out the middle of three consecutive episodes, especially when this episode contains the key moment with the Doctor swiping the Taranium core. That aside, though, it's marked by three extraordinary performances. Hartnell, of course, but also Nicholas Courtney as the firm but brave Bret Vyon, and the always magnificent Kevin Stoney, whose performance as Mavic Chen is a joy to watch, both because of his line delivery and his physical mannerisms. We're lucky to be able to see his performance. 

The Daleks setting fire to the forest is an extraordinary visual, so much so that you can even forgive the fact that there are only three of them. All the scenes with the delegates are brilliant. And the whole thing is just so damn tense. Then there's the ever-extraordinary musical score from the underappreciated Tristram Cary, whose music both borders on the avant-garde and works perfectly in context.

And the inside of the Spar is a perfectly Sixties space opera future, with the design of the controls being, well, not quite as charming as the fridge magnet-based technology of the baddies in The War Games, but as close as you can get.

Devil's Planet

"All is ready for their space extinction!"

We've had quite a few Terry Nation-isms thus far. Hostile plants, the constant use of "space" as an adjective ("Excuse me while I nip to the space loo for a space number two"), and even a countdown. Here we get a lesser spotted one, later to be reused in the opening episodes of Blake's 7- the prison planet with no guards, where prisoners are just dumped into a Hobbesian existence. It's a rather bleak situation into which to crash one's spaceship.

Everything still looks great, though. The gripping scene leading up to Zephon's killing, for example, showcases Camfield's sublime qualities as a director- particularly his skill at the now-lost art of blocking. And even the (thankfully not overly drawn out) bleak scenes with the hostile convicts are absolutely gripping. So, of course, of more footage of Kevin Stoney's physical mannerisms and facial expressions as Chen.

And then there's Katarina, of whose five episodes, none of which once remained, we now have an incredible three. Yet, when she says to the Doctor, with those trusting eyes which we can now see, we feel a pang...

This episode, as with all of them, is bloody brilliant. 

 

 

Downtime

 "I thought I was in Cromer..."

I know: still suffering Doctor Who withdrawal.

This is another one of those curious oddities from, ahem, "the Wilderness Years", as we Doctor Who fans call the '90s. I saw Shakedown not long ago, I enjoyed it despite its endearing flaws, so I thought I'd watch this. Any good?

Well... no. I mean, on paper, it seems good. Filmed on location, a sequel to The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear, loads of old actors and characters. And yet...

The direction is flat. Marc Platt's script has it's character moments and lots of nice metatextual lines, but it's a mess. There's a heavy focus on Victoria, with Deborah Watling being very good, and a welcome appearance from her real life father Jack Watling as Professor Travers. Nick Courtney is superb, as ever, as the Brig, and has a nice little family subplot. And, yeah, this is totally why UNIT today is led by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.

Yet Elisabeth Sladen, despite being very good, is woefully underused as Sarah Jane Smith, and there's a little too much going on. And, despite some good character stuff, the plot is very muddled and oddly paced. And yes... inevitably, the whole thing looks very cheap.

This is an interesting curiosity, perhaps, and far from terrible, with very real good points. But it's not exactly great, sadly.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy of the Bane

Part One

“UNIT have their uses, but, in my experience, guns never solve a problem they didn’t first make worse.”

It’s good to see the Brig again. Of course it’s good to see the Brig again. But is it just me who’s a bit underwhelmed at this by-the-numbers attempt at a season closer?

Things start well, with lots of screen time for lovely, lovely Gita being particularly lovely. But then we get a load of quick set-pieces which don’t seem to add up to anything particularly coherent. It’s a bit of a surprise to see Mrs Wormwood again, but she’s a fairly standard example of the scenery-chewing baddie. Yes, it’s a bit of a surprise to see her people have turned against her and she apparently wants to help our heroes, but we (and our heroes) know she can’t be trusted. Sarah Jane believed the story about the Black Scrolls on very little evidence to the point where she decides to break into a top secret vault. And both she and Rani are cauight on camera- surely there should be consequences? This is the organisation that imprisoned Tosh without trial!

Worse, the Brig doesn’t question Sarah Jane’s reasons for doing this, either. Still, it really is great that we get to see the Brig one last time, especially as we’ll almost certainly never see Nick Courtney on screen ever again, given his health problems. It’s just a shame this wasn’t a more Brig-focused story, although I understand how that wouldn’t have been realistic, and he was a last-minute replacement for Freema Agyeman, intended to appear as Martha. I like the Brig’s comments to Major “Homeworld Security” Kilburne, making it clear that the good old Brig has no truck with the unpleasant undertones of today’s UNIT.



Part Two

“You alien chaps never get the message, do you?”

To no one’s surprise, Kaagh is back, and he’s as deluded and incompetent as ever. One of the more amusing and successful elements of this episode is the power relationship between Kaagh and Mrs Wormwood; she’s definitely the boss, however much he may protest.

Unfortunately, there’s not overmuch dramatic tension here. We know Luke is not going to be tempted by Wormwood (hmm…character called Luke… “I am your mother”… naaah, can’t think what that reminds we of). The reveal of Kilburne being a Bane does work rather well, mind, and it’s good that the Brig gets to deal with him, showing a bit of heroism in what must surely be his last ever appearance.

Unfortunately, the ending (Kaagh sacrificing himself to save the day out of sheer mardiness) is a bit predictable and a bit by-the-numbers, much as this whole story has been.

This whole story is shockingly uninspired. It may not quite manage to be awful, but the plot and the set-pieces just plod along mechanically, with absolutely no verve or excitement. 2/5.

Doctor Who: Battlefield

Part One



“And boom!”

“Boom?”

“Boom!”

A garden centre. Whoopee. How very exciting. But hang on- it’s the Brig. With Doris, she of the name checking in Planet of the Spiders! How very fanwanky. But it’s great to see the Brig again, even though all the dialogue in this scene is a bit of a crude info-dump (“What, giving up teaching?”)

And we get UNIT too, now a proper UN organisation with blue berets and a few token foreigners to prove it. And there’s a new Brigadier, played by Angela Bruce, the female Lister from the most recently broadcast episode of Red Dwarf. She’s great. Her catchphrase isn’t. And it’s a bit odd how Zbigniew calls her “sir”. Hasn’t she noticed she’s, er, a she?

Blimey, it’s a bit dark in the TARDIS. It’s almost as if they were trying to hide the fact they’ve managed to dump most of the console room between seasons. The Doctor is also a bit darker with his new jacket. Symbolism, perhaps? There’s talk of “sideways in time” which alerts all those aware of how this show works that this is where the baddies are going to come from. They’re following a signal from Earth “a few years” in Ace’s future, a signal consisting of just the word “Merlin”. Oooh! We never do find out what it was.

The Doctor’s great when infiltrating himself with UNIT. I love the old-fashioned pocket-emptying, the passes, his reply to Winifred’s “I think I would have noticed a nuclear explosion.” With “Yes, they are conspicuous.” But he’s even better being all brooding and mysterious about this Arthurian stuff, at least now where the possibility of it all making sense by the end still seems open.

If Patrick’s “Arthur’s Ale” is approved by CAMRA then it must be damn good, but the script seems to mock it, especially with the philistine comments of Ace’s explosive-loving mate Shou Yuing. Bah. Apparently Ben Aaronovitch is not a real ale lover. Disgraceful. Shouldn’t be allowed. All right-thinking people love real ale.

Still, the coolness of the Doctor apparently having a Zoid in his pocket rouses me from my ranting state of mind as the knights with guns suddenly appear and start shooting at each other all over the place. I’m not sure what good the mediaeval armour’s supposed to be doing them under the circumstances, but I understand Aaronovitch intended it to look a lot more futuristic, which would have made a lot more sense and been a lot cooler.

I love the Brig’s constant assurances to Doris that he’s definitely not going to get killed, which were clearly put there to foreshadow his Beowulf-esque demise until Aaronovitch decided otherwise.

We finish by meeting Ancelyn, who recognises Merlin, and then some baddie knights. All this looks good mostly, and there are some cool concepts flying about, but I’m with Shou Yuing when she asks “Can someone tell me what on Earth is going on?”



Part Two



“Yes, remember Badon and my mighty arts!”

For years until I first saw the DVD with subtitles I thought the above quote was about a “mighty arch”. Anyway…

These knights are from another dimension. One of them, Mordred, is obviously a key figure from Arthurian legend, but I don’t think Ancelyn is. I’m still not sure exactly what’s going on, or how it’s all supposed to relate to the mythology, if at all beyond the superficial.

Mordred’s insane laughter is… an interesting approach. The Doctor’s use of a crisp packet to wake up Winifred and Ancelyn is much cooler, and I love the humorous way their relationship develops throughout the story.

A couple of niggles though; who got Geneva to call in the Brig, and why? Is Winifred not considered capable? And then there’s the ridiculously slow pace of Peter Warmsly’s archaeological dig. It would have taken the Time Team crew a bit less than ten fricking years to sort that load of trenches out. And then there’s Morgaine’s confrontation with the Brig at the cemetery- good scene, yes, but what are the Thirteen Worlds, and who are the S’Rax? And why is Arthur in a sodding spaceship under the lake? What’s happening?


Part Three



“Something’s wrong.”

“What?”

“We haven’t been attacked yet.”

So, Warmsley thinks the whole Arthurian thing’s “a bit of a myth really,” in spite of the fact he’s spent ten years digging a site whose only apparent worth is its connection with the legend? Still, it’s cool to see Ace emerge from the lake with Excalibur.

The Doctor and the Brig finally meet, and I love the Brig’s casual attitude to the fact the Doctor’s changed again; “Who else would it be?” We get Bessie too. But the best bit is of course where the Doctor stops the battle. I don’t mean “THERE. WILL. BE. NO. BATTLE HERE!” but the hilarious insults Mordred and Ancelyn throw at each other.

I still have no idea what’s going on, mind.



Part Four



“Exotic alien swords are easy to come by. Aces are rare.”

I admit the Destroyer looks good, whoever he is. This story is getting more and more like an episode of Angel as it goes on. Except nowhere near as good, obviously.

Everything in this story, with the Brig knocking the Doctor out so he can get the final confrontation, is clearly signposting his heroic sacrifice. I’m glad it doesn’t happen though. Full of nice little Brig moments though it is, this story isn’t really worthy of being the Brig’s swansong.

The Doctor’s talking Morgaine out of using the nuke sort of works, I suppose, and I like the note left from his future self. That doesn’t mean I have any idea what’s been happening, though. And it’s with good reason that everyone always asks exactly how they’re supposed to “lock up” Morgaine.

Still, there’s something about this story’s heart that’s in the right place. We may get the very Scooby Dooiest of Scooby Doo endings, but in a good way.


Well, that made no sense. There’s also a sense, although to a lesser extent than Silver Nemesis, that things have been edited so tightly as to affect the clarity of the narrative. And it’s not directed all that well either. But the main problem is the many basic things that aren’t explained- we learn nothing of who Morgaine’s lot or Ancelyn’s lot actually are, where they came from or what they want. And because, unlike last story, this story isn’t abstract or allegorical- it’s not about anything other than the plot itself, not even Arthurian myth in any meaningful way- these things matter. Still, it diverted me, had some good set pieces and some fun humour. A highish 2/5.

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors

“Wonderful chap. All of them.”

It’s great to see Hartnell again, even if only for a brief yet well-chosen clip. I like these pre-title sequence teasers- perhaps they should be brought in permanently at some point? 

Meanwhile, there’s a new, very 80s-looking, considerably less battered TARDIS console which the Doctor has knocked up very quickly in the short time since The King’s Demons. Tegan’s changed her clothes again and Kamelion is presumably off playing the lute somewhere off-screen.

Our heroes are visiting the Eye of Orion, in North Wales, the most tranquil place in the universe. And for once, nothing bad is going to happen, oh no.

We cut to the First Doctor, played by Richard Hurndall, walking about in a garden and getting taken away in a black triangle. This black triangle thing may well be simple but it actually works very well. And Hurndall at least looks the part. Also interestingly, he’s observed on screen by a mysterious gloved figure who seems to be moderately talented in painting miniatures.

Meanwhile, a newly re-moustachioed Brig is chatting with Lieutenant Carstairs from The War Games either before or after a big UNIT reunion. Along comes Patrick Troughton, and it’s such a joy to see him again. Interestingly, he says of the Brig’s replacement that “Mine was pretty unpromising too”, indicating he remembers the events of The Three Doctors, and that opens a whole can of worms.

Their conversation is a key example of a great awkwardness that pervades this story though; these are two old friends who haven’t seen each other for ages, and yet the words they’re given to say acknowledge this in only the most perfunctory way, as there can be no deviation from the plot in a ninety minute story containing as many elements as this. It’s an inevitable consequence of the very nature of this story, but that doesn’t make it feel any less awkward. The characters, most of whom are fondly-remembered figures from the past, are just treated as pawns there to serve the plot and given little opportunity to display the qualities we loved about them in the first place. And this tendency will get more and more awkward as the story progresses.

At least the scene with an obviously older Pertwee getting kidnapped by the black triangle thing driving around in Bessie doesn’t display these faults, even if only because there are no other characters for him to interact with. Unlike Troughton, this is his first ever return to the show, and it’s a particular delight to see him again. And it’s obvious from the very start that Terrance Dicks gets a particular kick out of writing his dialogue (“Great balls of fire!”)

The pattern’s established by now as we get a quick scene with Sarah and K9 and a clip from Shada, and then the focus moves to Gallifrey. Sadly, the familiar tropes of the Gallifreyan ruling caste have become completely formulaic by now, but at least in a story where they’re no more than a minor element this is less irritating than it could be. Still, it’s hardly encouraging that the annoying Castellan from Arc of Infinity is back again, or plausible that Borusa has regenerated yet again. Still, their desperate employment of the Master is a damn good idea, clearly showing just how desperate the situation is, and Ainley is wonderful here. Interestingly, he’s offered an entirely new regeneration sequence. This has huge implications. Equally as interestingly, he states that “A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about”, which arguable gives a bit of credence to some of the more intriguing theories about his motivations…

Hurndall, appropriately, has been transported to an area very reminiscent of the Dalek city on Skaro. He meets Susan, of course, and again we have the awkwardness of there being little time for dialogue which does not advance the plot. Surely these two would have something to say to each other, particularly given the circumstances of their parting? Still, the Dalek looks fantastic, and the mutant inside the shell is extremely impressive. This scene is where we learn all this is happening in the Death Zone, North Wales, Gallifrey. Although hearing Susan saying the word “Gallifrey” doesn’t feel quite right.

There’s some unintended hilarity as Pertwee ostentatiously rescues Sarah from falling down a very slight slope, and then more unintended hilarity as Sarah’s intended line that the Doctor changed to become “all teeth and curls” is nabbed by Pertwee, thus ensuring it makes no sense whatsoever. Still, it’s great to see the two of them together again and their chemistry is great.

The first and fifth Doctors meet at last, but again the necessity of there being no time for dialogue which doesn’t advance the plot has awkward consequences. Surely the fifth Doctor and Susan must have things to say to one another? Again, though, this sort of awkwardness is inevitable given the number of elements to be fit inside ninety minutes.

Possibly the highlight of the whole thing is Pertwee’s arrogant dismissal of the Master’s claims that he wants to help. The sheer rudeness on display is magnificent, and I’m willing to bet that this is the part Terrance most enjoyed writing. Pertwee is splendid here too, of course. Oh, and the bit with those bolts aimed at the Master, setting bits of the undergrowth on fire, is my first definite memory from watching Doctor Who on original transmission (I was six) although I’d been watching it for a season or two by this point.

Sadly, Hurndall isn’t particularly good. It isn’t that he’s so unlike Hartnell- he was quite right to try and interpret the character himself- but that he overdoes the abrasiveness so much as to be unlikeable. A lot of the time he delivers his lines in a way which is actually sinister, the worst offender being “Well, well, well, so two of them made it. I wonder what happened to the other?”

On the other hand, the Cybermen deliver their lines in a way which is most entertaining- my personal favourite is “Ah!” closely followed by “I have found the ones from the TARDIS.” They also get bonus points for causing Susan to sprain her ankle.

This is all zooming past- the Raston Warrior Robot, “No, not the mind probe!”, a sadly hard to see Yeti- betraying a masterful skill at plotting from Terrance Dicks who, for all the problems inherent in such an artificially fast pace, has managed to work all these disparate elements into a coherent plot while giving everyone enough screen time. It’s an admirable achievement, even if the result nevertheless suffers under the weight of all the elements which needed to be included. Particularly admirable is the way that Davison, the incumbent Doctor, is allowed the starring role in being the one teleported to the Capitol to investigate who’s really behind it all.

The whole chessboard trap, in which a second group of Cybermen are dramatically killed, is good fun, however much the stuff about pi is extremely silly and the Master seems to just walk straight across the first time. It’s just a shame that Hurndall is again so unlikeable.

It’s good to see Liz and Yates again, even if they are illusions, and even better to see Jamie and Zoe, even though continuity is shattered into a thousand pieces by the fact that the Doctor remembers that their memories were wiped. Apparently in between this and his enforced regeneration he was able to nip to the UNIT farewell party to chat with the Brig. Perhaps, at a stretch, the Time Lords offered him a last request off-screen and he’s being allowed the one short trip before being brought back and summarily regenerated. Or, er, perhaps not. But I say again: Season 6b? Pah!

Hurndall, Pertwee and Troughton all get to meet up briefly for the climax while a load of companions mill about at the back. Their interactions are great, if disappointingly brief. And it’s odd to see the Brig greeting Sarah with “Miss Smith, isn’t it?” even though he’s got to know her quite well, particularly during Planet of the Spiders.

Borusa’s revelation as the villain, his eventual fate, and the appearance of Rassilon himself are all brilliantly done, and the final scene of the Doctor once again running away from his own people in a rackety old TARDIS is utter genius. And so is the story. It may be too fast-paced for the characters to really interact in the way fans would have dreamed about, the direction may be dodgy at times, but what’s not to love about this? 4/5.

Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead

Part One

“Don’t you know anything?”

It’s great to get a genuinely strange opening to a story for the first time in ages. We have two public schoolboys- this somehow seems so very early 80s- TWOCing an old car. One of them, “Hippo” Ibbotson, is your standard Billy Bunter type, but the other, Turlough, is a devious character with a mysterious background. The car crashes, and Turlough accepts a Faustian pact from none other than the Black Guardian- he’s to be taken away from Earth if he agrees to kill the Doctor. Oh, and the Black Guardian is now wearing a bird on his head. Very fetching.

And if that’s not enough, the car turns out to belong to the Brigadier himself. Yay!

To the TARDIS, and while Nyssa is again wearing a different set of clothes, Tegan is still wearing what she’s had on since Arc of Infinity.

Aside from the welcome reappearances from Nicholas Courtney and Valentine Dyall (not that we saw much of him in The Armageddon Factor), it’s also good to see Angus MacKay again as the headmaster. Good to see they’re maintaining the Who tradition of using the word “transmat”, too.

A nice line from the Brig, who we are soon to discover has lost bits of his memory: “Take it from me, boy- a solid object can’t just dematerialise!”

Part Two

“Well, well. So you’ve done it again, Doctor.”

The TARDIS has gone, and the Doctor is stranded. Meanwhile, Nyssa and Tegan seem to be in the same place, yet the Doctor is nowhere to be seen. Or is he? Because both of them immediately seem to think that the weird decaying bloke they see in the TARDIS is the Doctor, in spite of his not looking or acting remotely like him.

Meanwhile, the Brig still can’t remember much. He recalls that Benton left the army in ’79 and is now selling second hand cars, and that Harry Sullivan has been seconded to NATO. He can’t remember who the Doctor is, though, and doesn’t seem to have heard of Liz, Jo, or Sarah. There’s one slight problem here, of course. Pyramids of Mars clearly states that Sarah (and thus the whole UNIT lot) comes from 1980, yet the Brig says he retired in 1976. There’s no way round that: continuity is broken! Ah well, it took twenty years to do it, which is not bad. The moral here, I think, is only refer to continuity if there’s a need to and if you know what you’re doing, or this kind of mistake is bound to occur. The way things have been going the last few stories, with the increased number of often gratuitous references to the past, it was pretty much inevitable that something like this would happen.

None of which means I’m not enjoying this story, mind. In spite of the continuity bombs the whole structure of it all, with the two separate time zones separated by the ship, feels very fresh and different. And there’s the odd bit of clever misdirection, such as Turlough’s apparent confiding in the headmaster until he turns out to be the Black Guardian. Plus, I love the bit where the Brig surprises Tegan by instantly getting her reference to the TARDIS.

Part Three

“If I reverse the polarity of the neutron flow…”

Oh dear, two Brigs aboard the ship! The Doctor’s even mentioned the Blinovitch Limitation Effect- that’s how serious it is.

I love the way the (moustache-sporting) Brig instantly takes charge in 1977.

In fact, Nicholas Courtney really is fantastic throughout. It’s a great episode mainly because there are two Brigs and it’s a joy seeing how both of them react. All this’d stuff with Mawdryn and co wanting to die is a bit morbid, though.

Part Four

“It would mean the end of me as a Time Lord!”

Bit of an ineffective cliffhanger, that. Especially as the Doctor has yet to explain what he’s talking about. And even when he has done, the nature of the threat itself is just a little too continuity-heavy, relying as it does on the Doctor’s remaining regenerations being forfeit. Can’t we just have the current Doctor being the Doctor, as things used to be in the fairly recent past?

The two Brigs, inevitably, meet, this resolves the plot, and the Doctor “will explain later”. I’m guessing Steven Moffat is a particular fan of this era, as the Doctor has been saying he’ll explain later a lot recently.

Turlough’s on board, joking that he’s “not that easy to get rid of.” “So it seems.” says Tegan, exactly paralleling the Doctor’s reaction to her own rejoining in Arc of Infinity. TARDIS crew as dysfunctional as ever, then. Especially with the small point that the new companion seems top want to actually kill the Doctor…

That was a good ‘un. I’m starting to get a bit concerned about the excess of baggage from the show’s past, mind, as this could lead to the show becoming too backward-looking, but that’s not really a dig at this particular story, more a long term trend. This was good, using the time travel concept creatively, using the Brig well, and starting an intriguing new arc with Turlough and the Black Guardian. A good 4/5.

Doctor Who: Terror of the Zygons

Part One

“My family have served this country for seven centuries, but that seems not to count these days, does it?”

This was my first ever BBC video and the first ever “old” story I ever saw. I’ve seen this many, many times but never before in episodic format. And it’s good to see the short clip from Disney Time as well as the BBC globe.

This is great from the beginning, with an oil rig being destroyed to the sound of some fantastic incidental music. It’s great to see the Brig (in a kilt!) and Benton again. I can’t help thinking though- was there really enough time to install a space-time telegraph at the end of Robot?

The Doctor’s attitude is interesting- in this incarnation he feels much less attached to UNIT and 20^th century Earth, and has a bit of a go at the Brigadier for recalling him only to change his mind suddenly when reminded of the loss of life. This Doctor is fascinating- more individualistic and Bohemian than his predecessor, but with the same underlying principles. And there’s something very charismatic about his changes of mood. I love the oil speech.

It’s great to see Angus Lennie, of off of of The Great Escape, as the very Hammeresque pub landlord. And this is just so well directed by Douglas Camfield- the moor sets a real mood, and our first shot of the Zygons hands and eyes is great. Suddenly we have a story of tightly edited scenes and a very nice moment where the injured Harry cries “No… no…” as the Zygon advances on him, and we then cut to the Doctor on the phone calmly saying “No… no…”. This is top stuff.

Part Two

“Asleep? Impossible, I was on duty!"

The whole organic look of the Zygon ship is great- original and a triumph of both design and lighting. And there’s more great directing on show as we dissolve between the faces of Sarah and the Doctor as he hypnotises her to avoid asphyxiation. This is so well directed it almost distracts from the fact the Doctor seems to have acquired yet another superpower, one he’s never bothered to use before in similar circumstances for some reason.

We get lots of atmosphere with the fog and the great music, a bit of actual journalisting from Sarah, and generally enough excellence on show that I’ve decided to completely ignore the fact that the Skarasen looks crap.

Part Three

“Aliens! With wireless sets?”

The Doctor is saved by Harry! Yay! This man is great. And Sarah shows how great she is, too, in discovering the Duke’s secret passage to the Zygon ship, swiftly rescuing Harry and returning in time for tea. Unlike the Doctor, who attempts the same thing and promptly gets captured.

I love the Doctor’s line “Sounds like the Brigadier” as UNIT merrily lob bombs into the loch. It’s sad that this is the last ever “regular” UNIT story, but at least they’re going out on a high.

Part Four

“Was that bang big enough for you, Brigadier?”

There’s some great modelwork on show with the Zygon ship, especially the landing scene. And it’s good to get a reason for the fact that, as the Doctor points out, there are only about six Zygons. It seems their home planet was “destroyed in a recent catastrophe” and that Broton wants to terraform the Earth for the benefit of other Zygons who are to arrive in “many centuries”.

The prime minister is apparently a woman (Thatcher was already Tory leader at the time) so it seems Jeremy must have lost an election. 

The Doctor nearly loses his life by underestimating the power of organic crystallography- a common error, to be fair. I’ve almost lost count of the number of times I’ve done the same thing myself. Still, he manages eventually to escape, gleefully vandalise the Zygon ship, and release all the Zygons’ prisoners, although the bit with him operating the Zygons’, er, interestingly shaped controls certainly caused me to raise an eyebrow.

Fittingly for his last regular story, the Brig at last gets to shoot an alien baddie dead with an ordinary bullet. We finish with the Doctor claiming he’ll be able to make the short hop to London in the TARDIS an d offering a lift to both Sarah and Harry. Of course, it’s understood by everyone that the TARDIS will be doing nothing of the sort. Harry stays behind in an understated leaving scene, a little disappointing but probably in keeping with the stiff-upper-lip nature of the man, but Sarah, being fab, signs up for some further adventures in time and space.

Brilliant. Not only an easy 5/5, but the third best so far. Great story, great performances, awesomely well directed. This is Doctor Who at its very finest.

Doctor Who: Robot

Part One
 

“I think the nose is a definite improvement.”

New titles. They’re very impressive, not throwing out the baby from last season’s bathwater. Which is a good thing, because they’ll be around for quite a while.

New, new Doctor too. It’s nice that his first words relate back to The Time Warrior and Invasion of the Dinosaurs, reminding Sarah (and us) that this is the same character. New character too, with Ian Marter splendid as the immediately likeable Harry Sullivan.

Some very good directing with the robot POV shots,, and also good that the story’s threat is set up so early. There’s a lot of setting-up required for the new Doctor’ and some fun is had, but things stop short of self-indulgence.

One problem (or not) is that the plot requires the Brig to slip a lot of information to Sarah who is, however much a friend of the Doctor, a civilian and, more to the point, a journalist. The effect is that a closeness is implied which isn’t really justified elsewhere.

The establishing scenes with the Doctor- mirror, clothes, medical- are fun and, crucially, brief, nicely establishing this new Doctor’s very different personality without making this the plot itself. It’s notable that, although only last episode the TARDIS brought the Doctor “home” to Earth, having regenerated he’s now eager to get back into the TARDIS, a sign of things to come. Still, not only is this a fully-fledged UNIT story, and the first real one since Invasion of the Dinosaurs to boot, it’s the first time we hear the Brig’s full name: Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

We’re introduced to the key concepts of the plot by the end of the episode- Thinktank, Kettlewell and his perfect mad scientist hair, the Robot- but the thought that lingers is just how great this new Doctor already is.

Part Two

“I can’t thank you enough for the visit. It’s been most amusing.”

The Doctor’s mannerisms, not that the hat and scarf have been added, already seem established in only his second episode. Far from being erratic or disoriented, he’s very much thrown straight into the fray, with plenty of eccentric mannerisms and witty asides but always with something penetrating to say about the situation. And he just oozes charisma.

The sinister behaviour of Miss Winters, sadistically letting Sarah think the robot is going to kill her, makes no bones about the fact she’s a baddie, and the fascistic scientific Reform Society is equally obviously up to no good. It’s fascinating to see the contrast of the Doctor’s actions while visiting Thinktank to Sarah’s last episode. This Doctor is flippant, Bohemian, full of bon mots, always playing things by ear, but never misses anything. He’s fantastic.

It soon becomes clear, though, that the fact these baddies are so obvious very effectively hides the fact that Kettlewell is secretly with them. This came as a genuine surprise to me.

It’s fascinating to see the new Doctor still driving around in Bessie. And gratifying to see Benton promoted, albeit in a way which wryly acknowledges the cut-price nature of UNIT staffing!

Part Three

“The US Cavalry never got treated like this!”

The robot has become a figure of sympathy by the start of this episode, driven to despair by the way it’s forced to go against its “prime directive” and kill people. This is all taken from Asimov, of course (to do otherwise in a story about a robot would just be perverse, and an insult to the great man) but the robot is also an interesting amalgam of Frankenstein’s monster and King Kong.

Britain being entrusted with the nuclear launch codes of every nuclear power is, to put it mildly, the most far fetched thing yet seen in all of Doctor Who. And yet we’re made to accept it by the clever tactic of smothering the exposition in witty banter between the Doctor and the Brig: “Well, naturally. The rest were all foreigners”.

We get the first scene with the Doctor playing for time by emptying his capacious pockets, and a fine scene it is too, shortly followed by the revelation of Kettlewell’s baddie status. The funniest scene in the entire story, though, has to be the sight of the Brig’s walkie-talkie. How very Trigger Happy TV.

There are some interesting developments of elements from the Pertwee years; the bunker is yet another relic of “the cold war days” while Sonic Screwdriver Mission Creep continues unabated- this time it’s a sonic lance, apparently. Would have come in handy during Monster of Peladon then…

Oh, and the CSO’d Action Man tank- you know, I think they actually get away with it!

Part Four

“You know, for once I’d like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.”

Sarah and Harry are to be killed. But, for reasons which make no sense but are a rule of the genre, Miss Winters decrees that it is to be later and not now for some reason.

It’s fitting that the robot should kill Kettlewell in the most Frankenstein moment yet. And convenient that the countdown to Armageddon, once stopped, should start again right at the beginning on 300.

The robot’s suitably tragic in this episode to be believable (“Machines do not lie!”) but is enough of a well-known trope (King Kong and Frankenstein again) not to trouble us unduly and stop us enjoying the light-hearted fun.

I love Kettlewell’s lab- every bit as stereotypical as his hair, with all that bubbling liquid. It’s been a long wait for a proper mad scientist story so it’s good to see it done with gusto.

I had to chuckle as soon as the Brig was heard to exclaim “I think just for once we’re not going to need the Doctor”- the robot growing to giant size is funny precisely because it’s exactly what you expect to happen. And it’s when it picks up Sarah in the most King Kong moment yet that it occurs to me- there’s an awful lot of CSO in this story!

The threat is ended, perfectly, by a nice bit of teamwork between the new Doctor and Harry, who’s been great.

The final scene is fantastic. The Doctor offers Sarah a jelly baby at the end and she accepts, seeing his meaning straightaway. Much as I liked Jo, it’s nice having a companion who actually enjoys travelling in the TARDIS! And, excitingly, they’re joined by Harry. This TARDIS team looks very promising indeed. And it seems the TARDIS is where the future lies, as the Doctor seems determined to the point of childishness to cut his ties to UNIT, or at least the boring bits. Cue one of my favourite lines: “There’s no point being grown-up if you can’t be childish sometimes.”

Wow. That was great fun, and a perfect introduction to this exciting and great new Doctor,. It may have been light and fluffy, but I see no reason not to give it a 5/5.

Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders

Part One
 

“Ah! Doing a bit of hairdressing on the side?”

We start with an unexpected sight- Mike Yates may no longer be part of UNIT, but he’s back. It’s also unusual, and refreshing, to see the Doctor and the Brig watching some kind of variety show, even if it’s not entirely recreational.

Yates has infiltrated himself into a hippyish group of Buddhists whose general appearance is absolutely as ‘70s as it’s possible to get. Clothes, hair, moustaches: all look like something from a contemporary parody of the decade, but there they are.

It’s great to see Cyril Shaps again, playing another nervous character, this time someone with psychic powers. We hear than the Brig has been involved with someone called Doris, and get to see some clips from Carnival of Monsters, something which is always to be welcomed. It’s also nice to get a letter from Jo telling us how she’s been getting on. She’s returned that blue crystal, though, for reasons which seem ominous.

We get an interesting speech from the lama, Cho-Je , about becoming a “new man" only to realise you’ve “never existed”. It’s almost as if something’s being foreshadowed in Buddhist terms. I wonder what?

Suddenly Cyril Shaps is dead- and it’s hard to escape the conclusion that it’s pretty much entirely the Doctor’s fault, collateral damage from his desire to satisfy his curiosity. Again, foreshadowing.

It’s a great big spider…

Part Two

“Of course we’re flying!”

Spiders which jump on your back, turn invisible yet exert control… a brilliant idea, and one I’m sure we won’t ever be seeing again in the future, such as, for example, in thirty-four years time.

This is actually the last full on UNIT episode of the Pertwee years, and although there’s no real marking of this fact it’s not a bad way to go. The Brig’s hair may be a bit long (I’m one to talk, mind…) but there’s some good stuff, especially a nice line from Benton about how “I’m expendable and you’re not.” And the Brig’s on the phone to a medical officer called “Sullivan”- who he?

We get another mention of the Doctor’s hermit guru from halfway up that mountain, again foreshadowing later events. But basically this is a chase, involving land, sea, air, Bessie and the Doctor’s fantastic flying new car. And I like it- it’s fun, it’s appropriate as a celebration, so who cares if the plot is not advanced one iota, especially as Lupton just teleports away at the end?

Oh, and towards the end, we get our final comedy tramp of the Pertwee era. Not that there were really all that many of them in the end.

Part Three

“You are cleverer than the Two-Legs on Metebelis 3!”

Now there are loads of spiders, and after last week’s high jinks the plot is heating up. We get to hear enough of Lupton’s history to establish that he’s a nutter. I love the scene where both he and the spider attack each others’ minds in turn.

It’s a shock when Sarah is suddenly transported to Metebelis 3, the fabled planet which has been gradually seeded, Bad Wolf style, throughout the last couple of years. Things have changed since the Doctor was last here in The Green Death- it’s now inhabited by human colonists with Mummerset accents who are under the tyrannical rule of the mysterious spiders. Sarah’s quite extraordinarily brave at being suddenly transported to another planet and a bit of extreme peril- she’s quite clearly great by this point.

Interesting to have the Doctor explain to Yates something that’s always bugged me a bit- how come the TARDIS always lands at the right place on a given planet?

Part Four

“Oh dear. This is getting monotonous.”

The above quote most definitely does not sum up my feelings on this story- I think it’s great so far!

We get some nicely and economically sketched details of society on Metebelis 3. It may be a fairly generic Doctor Who trope, a society oppressed by monstrous rulers, but it’s only a minor subplot here. Incidentally, the Metebelis 3 colonists look every bit as uber-70s as the Buddhist group on Earth.

Tommy has a good look at the crystal and goes all Flowers For Algernon, a subtle hint of what’s happened to the spiders on Metebelis 3- they’re Earth spiders made larger and cleverer by the crystals, a big plot bombshell- and just how significant the crystal will turn out to be.

Sarah risks her life for the Doctor by going to get the machine for him, while the Doctor suddenly looks very old whilst lying there. Still, once cured he briefly reverts to some of the old Season Eight style rudeness by loudly waking his hosts at the crack of dawn.

The Doctor gets straight to work. This is good stuff!

Part Five

“Much as I admire your stoic acceptance of the inevitable, I’d appreciate it if you’d shut up for a moment.”

This is a very long reprise indeed, but the effect is that both Sarah and the Doctor end up in the “web”, waiting to be eaten. The Doctor escapes, but his confrontation with the Great One- all the more effective for being unseen- is deeply effective as the Doctor himself is clearly very frightened indeed. The story’s themes are starting to come together nicely; the Great One says to the Doctor “You are proud, little man.”

There’s a nice bit with our heroes about to leave Metebelis 3, as the Doctor briefly panics that he’s lost the key only for Sarah to calmly reveal that she has it. There’s also a nice touch with Tommy; Sarah suggests he might be “normal”, and he replies “I sincerely hope not.”

And then the crux of the whole story arrives as the Doctor and Sarah finally meet the mysterious K’anpo. (Incidentally, for future reference, the Doctor speaks fluent Tibetan.) It becomes clear that the Doctor is the cause of everything that’s going wrong, just because he found that crystal on Metebelis 3: “Found?” “Well, perhaps ‘stole’ might be a better word.”

Part Six

“Not all spiders sit on the back.”

Not only is the reprise very long, it also has scenes fitted around it which weren’t there last episode, which is sort of cheating. But it’s exciting stuff from beginning to end, one of the finest individual episodes yet. K’anpo reveals who he really is- the old Time Lord hermit who tutored the Doctor all those years ago. It seems he’s “regenerated” (the first use of the word- it gave me a thrill!) and that Cho-Je doesn’t technically exist at all but is some kind of avatar, some kind of “projection” of his next life. I’m sure there are Buddhist allusions here that I’m not getting, but it’s cool nonetheless.

The Doctor must face his fear and atone for what he’s done. There a real sense of inevitable doom as he sets off for Metebelis 3. Meanwhile, K’anpo is hurt after being attacked, and “regenerates” into Cho-Je. Cool!

The Great One is huge, and looks very impressive indeed. She’s overreached herself though, and the crystal is too much for her, just as K’anpo thought it would be. All the spiders are killed, but the Doctor’s been fatally affected by the radiation…

UNIT HQ. Three months later, and the TARDIS has finally brought the Doctor “home”- it’s fitting that this Doctor, having got over his exile, is now ready to admit just how attached he’s become to this one place and time. K’anpo gives the process a push and the Doctor’s face change. It may not be that visually impressive, but in context it’s a huge dramatic moment. Wow.

Well, that was great. I’m sure most of the Buddhist stuff went over my head, but it was a perfect framework for this Doctor’s swansong in a story which was truly about him as a character. 5/5.

The season as a whole scores 4.2/5, giving it fourth place so far. It’s been a season of four 5/5s and one 1/5, a strange combination!

Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Part One

“Age?”

“You’d never believe me.”

An episode in black and white for what I think is the last time. It’s tempting to say something about how it enhance the atmosphere of this particularly atmospheric episode, but of course that’s wishful thinking. These episodes should be seen as they were meant to be seen.

London is deserted, something we tend to think of as a standard Doctor Who trope, although this is only the second time it’s happened, the first being The Web of Fear. But the situation is handled very well, with a real mood being created. The bird noises on the soundtrack are particularly effective.

The pterodactyl scene is one that’s probably best seen in black and white, I must admit. But this is very good- Malcolm Hulke seems to have a particular talent for creating situations where no one believes the Doctor without being annoying, mainly because the suspicion arises naturally and believably out of the situation.

And then we get to see the dinosaurs. Yeeees…. they never fail to remind me of a certain TV advert I remember from my youth. Type “Chewits advert 1986” into a popular video site and you’ll see what I mean…

Part Two

“…And pink for your actual pterodactyl.”

The appearance of the 12^th century man is a little incongruous in the context of the whole story, but at least it serves a purpose for the plot. And after last episode’s establishment of the mood the plot can start- the sudden and welcome appearance of the Brig immediately puts a stop to the business about no one believing the Doctor before it becomes tiresome. 

Just how many sugars does the Doctor take in his tea?

UNIT are back to their best from the start here- it seems the lessons of The Three Doctors have been well and truly learned. And in a pleasing piece of continuity Yates has had a “spot of leave” after his ordeals during The Green Death. 

There’s a first class guest cast here- a suitably sinister John Bennett as General Finch- an obvious baddie, but clearly supposed to be- and Peter Miles and Martin Jarvis in charge of the main moustache-twirling duties. 

This is impressive stuff. There’s some very good writing on show here, from the Doctor’s continuous interruptions (introducing Noel Johnson- General Smythe- as Charles Grover) to the shock revelation that Yates is a traitor.

Part Three

“Well, sometimes that girl baffles me.”

This is, sadly, the last ever story by Malcolm Hulke, and well up to his usual excellent standard. And after seeing so many it’s easy to spot recurring features- the serious tone, the good treatment of UNIT, the believable motivation for every character, and the sceptical treatment of the Doctor- in fact the first episode of this story reminds me very much of the first part of The War Games. But the characterisation in this episode is always good, from Yates’ stricken conscience as he insists the Doctor not be harmed to Sarah’s journalistic background coming into good use as she researches the scientist Whittaker.

Interesting line, “Back in the cold war days”, the first indication we’ve had for a very long time of these stories being set in the near future. Charles Grover is a great character, believably written by Hulke and extremely well portrayed by Noel Coleman, in a very different performance from his role as General Smythe so long ago.

That’s a fantastic cliffhanger, something no one could possibly see coming.

Part Four

“If she fails to respond to the re-education, we shall have to destroy her.”

This is the second time I’ve seen this story, and I’ll admit I’m a little less blown away than I was the first time, with the padding a lot more obvious. But still, this is great. The Doctor’s new car is fab, for a start, although its existence seems to contradict the impression we’ve recently been getting that the Doctor is loosening his ties to Earth with the end of his exile.

Crikey, it’s Carmen Silvera! The idea of the spaceship being a fake is great, and Sarah’s realisation that she can’t have been out for three months because she’s still got her scar is inspired. Meanwhile, the Web of Fear parallels continues as the Doctor skulks around in the underground, to be faced with a pterodactyl that’s obviously on wires. Oh dear…

The people on the ship are against “moral degradation, permissiveness, usury”… all my favourite things, in fact. This completely changes our impression of the villains- they’re not just environmentalist hippies but they have a scarily authoritarian social agenda too and want to establish a version of Franco’s Spain in the Jurassic. Or Cretaceous, or whenever.

You just have to groan as the Doctor walks into such an obvious trap…

Part Five

“So it was you, Mike.”

It’s a nicely underplayed moment, the Doctor’s realisation that Yates has betrayed his friends. It showcases just how brilliant Pertwee has been in this story, giving possibly his best performance since Season Seven. Could it be that his final series will see a sustained upturn? We’ll see…

Benton, on the other hand, is as loyal as ever, and the scene where he lets the Doctor overpower him gives us hope. The method the Doctor used seems awfully Star Trek, mind…

There’s more good stuff on the “space ship” as the bonhomie of the prospective “colonists” begins to look ever more sinister- they may regret having to do it but Sarah is clearly set to be the first dissident to be executed, and the very concept of the “reminder room” illustrates just how totalitarian this little society is.

Sarah escapes, only top be recaptured after making the same mistake with Finch as she did with Grover. For the first time we see the chief conspirators all together after we’ve been put fully in the picture about what’s going on. It’s strangely believable that such a scheme could come about, if we ignore the science being nonsense. A few reactionaries reinforce each other’s prejudices, they agree that something must be done, groupthink takes hold… it could happen. Except for the small point that the timey-wimey stuff is completely impossible, of course. Interestingly, this was made only a year or so before there are supposed to have been murmurings of a coup against the Wilson government. Probably mythical, of course, but presumably there was something in the zeitgeist.

Oh, look, a tyrannosaurus. That’s an original cliffhanger.

Part Six

“Don’t worry, Brigadier. I’m never wrong.”

Before we end the story we get to see a big fight between the two dinosaurs. Personally, I’m quite fond of the modelwork and, for what it is, it’s actually very good. And, aside from Sarah finding a too-convenient air vent through which to escape, so’s the episode.

The Doctor’s speech to Yates is brilliant, in terms of both script and performance. We get the fabled “There never was a golden age, Mike. It’s all an illusion.” but also, more to the point, the advice to “take the world you’ve got and make something of it.”

We get a nice ending, with the “passengers” getting to confront those who manipulated them and, most appropriately of all, Grover and Whittaker get transported back to their “golden age”.

That was absolutely brilliant. Great ideas, great characterisation, great performances. An easy 5/5. I’ll miss Malcolm Hulke.

Doctor Who: The Time Warrior

Part One

“Brigadier, a straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.”

New title sequence- wow! This is the business. So much better than anything else we’ve seen.

Good to see Bob Holmes is back after not contributing to last season, although technically this is part of the last production block. And it’s good to see a story set in Earth’s fairly distant past, even if it is a fairly generic Middle Ages- in context it really feels like ages since we’ve seen anything similar.

We get a classic Homesian Double Act ™ with the great Irongron / Bloodaxe combo. They’re both well played and fun characters, and the scene with them discovering and investigating the “fallen star” nicely fleshes them out. Bloodaxe’s horse is a bit of an awkward sod, I notice.

We get a brilliant spaceship and a brilliant alien costume, and Linx is a great character from the start. I love the way he claims the planet for the Sontarans to general indifference.

We switch, after an almost Troughtonesque length of time, to a scene featuring the Doctor and the Brig, whose moustache has never looked so plastic. And of course it’s a rather interesting experience to see the debut of You-Know-Who for the first time since my pre-Marathon viewing of the on-screen debut of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Just when it can’t get any better Dot Cotton appears. And the cliffhanger’s rather good too- the Sontaran face mask is brilliant.

Interestingly, by the way, the TARDIS arrives where it’s supposed to- “for once”.

Part Two

“Young girl? I should’ve thought he was a bit old for that sort of thing.”

Sarah Jane’s refusal to believe she’s travelled back in time starts out funny but gets a little annoying after a while. First impressions are not great. Fortunately, this doesn’t last beyond the early part of this episode- before long she’s taking charge and telling Sir Edward what to do. Good stuff.

I love the concept of Linx using alien technology to give a mediaeval warlord advanced weapons. Still, Irongron seems to learn how to use a remote control awfully quickly.

We hear for the first time that Linx’s race, the Sontarans, are in an interminable war with the Rutans. And then, almost thrown away, the Doctor casually mentions the name of his home planet for the first time: Gallifrey. It’s incredibly low-key for such an important moment.

Part Three

“Is this Doctor a long shanked rascal with a mighty nose?”

We get an awfully long reprise. Still, this is all good stuff from the reliable pen of Robert Holmes, and the cast certainly seem to be enjoying themselves. There’s a nice chat between the Doctor and Sarah Jane in which they discuss time travel and their situation, a nice and necessary character moment. Amusingly, the Doctor refers to the Time Lords as “galactic ticket inspectors”. Holmes starts very early indeed in his bringing-the-Time-Lords-down-to-earth agenda.

The Doctor’s plan is great, as is the dialogue, consistently. This is great fun, and the perfect start to the season. Who says it was RTD who invented the “light and fluffy” series opener?

Part Four

“Not so much of that oatmeal, girl. It’s pikemen we’re feeding, not horses.”

Er, potatoes? In mediaeval England? And mentions of pikemen are a bit anachronistic, come to think of it. Plus the Doctor sounds nothing like Linx when he’s supposed to be doing an impression of him. And he spends an awfully long time in front of a firing squad getting shot at without getting killed. Still, minor quibbles. This is great.

A fantastic start to the season. A fun, light-hearted tale that may not be big or clever (and it’s certainly set in a very vague Middle Ages indeed!), but if it's meant to give the impression that Bob Holmes can just casually toss off a bloody fantastic story without seeming to try much at this point then it certainly does the trick. 5/5.

Doctor Who: The Green Death

Part One

“This fellow’s bright green, apparently. And dead.”

We get an immediate sense that this story is going to have significantly better dialogue than the last from Stevens’ Chamberlain spiel at the start. Slightly less impressive is the bizarre use of CSO for descending down a mine shaft, but this is good, and it’s also good to see UNIT again, especially the Brig. I would mention Jo dressing as Peter Davison, but I’m sure everyone else has by now so I won’t.

Interesting that the Doctor feels the need to establish his detachment from UNIT by briefly gallivanting off to Metebelis 3 for a bit of slapstick. Now his exile is over he clearly feels less attached to his old UNIT surroundings. Still, he says he’ll follow in a bit.

There’s an interesting parallel here with Jo, of course, who’s also feeling less attached to her circumstances than she was, as we’ve seen in recent stories. It was implied as early as Frontier in Space that she wouldn’t be travelling in the TARDIS again so it comes as no surprise to see her spurn a trip to the now-fabled Metebelis 3 for a more Earthly, and more serious, concern. The Doctor, freed from his exile, is more carefree than he’s been for ages while Jo, who’s clearly been following the environmental catastrophe in South Wales for some time, is moving in the opposite direction.

It’s a nice piece of foreshadowing that the Doctor and Jo don’t even listen to each other, and Jo also demonstrates her ties to UNIT are loosening. All this is clear to the Doctor: “So- the fledgling flies the coop”. There’s also an irony here; the Doctor, giddy with his new-found freedom, is neglecting his responsibilities for a pleasure journey, even if he does propose to follow on later. And while the Doctor engages in some slapstick on Metebelis 3, it’s actually Jo who’s the more Doctorish in her attitude.

There’s another symbolic parallel, of course, as she disrupts Professor Jones’ experiment, just as she did the Doctor’s back in Terror of the Autons. This pretty much tells us how she’s ultimately going to end up, right in the first episode.

Part Two

“I’m quite spry for my age, actually.”

Some interesting developments- Stevens has a “Boss”; Yates is mentioned so he’s definitely recovered from that explosion in The Time Monster- but although the plots moving along nicely there’s also some witty dialogue (“unauthorised footsteps”!) and of course we get to see the giant maggots. And this is the first time we hear the Doctor speak of Venusian Aikido, not Venusian Karate.

Part Three

“In the whole history of the world, there’s never been anybody just like Bert. And there’ll never be another…"

It’s a great relief to see that the Brig is back to his best after the unfortunate events of The Three Doctors. His confrontation with Stevens is a delight: “Are you threatening me, Mr Stevens?” “Yes, I think perhaps I am.” But Stevens has friends in high places, extending right to the prime minister, although I notice this is quietly dropped in later episodes. And the PM’s a Jeremy. Thorpe, presumably? Lock up your dogs...

There’s a bit of a Mad Men moment, reminding us just how long ago 1973 was, where the Brig and Stevens both drink whisky in the middle of the day as though it were tea or coffee. And a rather shocking Life on Mars moment, where the Boss causes Fell to commit suicide by jumping off a roof. You wouldn’t see that in a family programme these days.

The dinner party scene is fascinating. Jo is clearly getting closer to the Prof and distancing herself from the Doctor. It’s Jones who comforts her when she finds out Bert’s dead. And they’re clearly about to sleep together when the Doctor quite deliberately whisks the Prof away to the laboratory. That’s excellent writing. Can this really be the same people who wrote The Dæmons and The Time Monster?

Part Four

“Well, I’m not such a dunderhead as you all seem to think!”

We see Benton for the first time in ages, and then Stevens’ man from the ministry turns out to be none other than… Mike Yates. I’d forgotten all about that- it came as a genuine shock. The Brigadier is no fool in this story.

I love BOSS’s dialogue, especially as it could easily have been a generic baddie. But it has a real personality and wit, and a knowledge of philosophy and music. And what makes the Nietzschean allusions so great is that they so clearly go right over “little Superman” Stevens’ head. The final reveal that it is in fact a computer (of charmingly antique design and filling a whole room) makes this even more impressive- we could have got another WOTAN but instead we get this great character.

Oh yes, and we get a Pertwee comedy turn as a milkman and a tea lady. Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any better.

Part Five

“Today Llanfairfach, tomorrow the world, eh?”

I love the fact that BOSS doesn’t want to personally take over the world, just maximise the profits of Global Chemicals by any means possible. Come to think of it, the character of BOSS is almost certainly intended as a statement on Big Corporations on the part of the writers.

The Doctor’s reaction to interrogation, by now something of a Pertwee era standard, is great, as per usual. Some great lines from the Doctor: “Freedom from freedom?”

More good stuff here, and I love it that Jo gets to repair the communicator in another indication of how far she’s come. On the other hand we get more gratuitous use of CSO (this story’s most glaring fault) as the Doctor drives through the slag heap.

Oh, and naturally, the delirious Cliff chooses to murmur “serendipity” rather than “it’s the fungus” or something.

Part Six

“Don’t worry Doctor, I’ll look after her.”

I’m really enjoying this story, so just this once I’m willing to overlook the fly. It’s pretty poor though. Fortunately, everything else rocks. I love the way BOSS quotes Oscar Wilde and discusses Wagner and Tchaikovsky. He has a real personality and wit yet is also strangely childlike. It’s quite effective to see him suffer pain while dying.

Jo’s extended leaving scene is great and entirely fitting, from Cliff’s clumsy proposal to the Doctor, too upset to stay, walking out of the party and driving off, if not literally into the sunset.

Fantastic, 5/5. Great story, great dialogue, great performances and particularly great treatment of the regulars in a story where it’s essential. For some reason Letts and Sloman, usually disappointing so far, really pull it out of the bag with this one.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed Season 10 really rather a lot. In fact, with an average of 4/5 it’s in joint first place with Seasons 5 and 7.

Doctor Who: The Three Doctors

Part One

“I am he and he is me.”

“And we are all together, goo goo goo joob?”

An interesting footnote at the start, courtesy of the extraordinarily uber-70s Open University lecturer supreme that is Dr Tyler. “We may not be NASA, but we still get results” he says, implying no British space programme. We’ve come a long way since Ambassadors of Death. In fact, by now there seems to be little or no attempt to make it appear that these stories are set in the near future.

We’ve also come a long way since UNIT was something to be taken seriously, of course, and this is not a situation which can be sustained. The Brigadier has now been reduced to comic relief, passing the Doctor a silver rod to stir his tea with. And he gets lines which hardly help either the character or the format: “Make yourself at home. We’re only supposed to be a top security establishment. Liberty Hall, Dr Tyler. Liberty Hall!”

But of course all this doesn’t matter, as the format is about to be pretty much dispensed with anyway. And besides, it’s all such good fun. And it’s odd, because before the marathon I always had a particular dislike for this story. But seeing it in sequence it’s such fun. Never has a story risen in my estimation so much during this marathon.

Anyway, back to part one. It’s all very Pertwee- weird music, magnificently bizarre plot courtesy of the Bristol Boys- but then we get a foreshadowing of what’s to come as the Doctor says to Jo “When I tell you to run, run!” It may not be intentional, but it certainly got me into a frenzied state of anticipation.

Incidentally, where’s Yates? Still in hospital after being blown up in The Time Monster? Benton, meanwhile, finally gets to see the inside of the TARDIS. And it’s been redesigned for the second story in a row. Blimey.

It’s a bit odd to see the Doctor call upon the Time Lords for help for only the second time- the stakes don’t feel anywhere near as high as they did in The War Games. There’ve been eight fewer episodes by this point, for a start. And we see the Time Lords’ planet (we don’t know what it’s called yet, of course) for the first time in colour. Is it me, or is there a very ‘70s-looking brown and orange curtain on the wall to the right? It’s all getting very exciting indeed: one of the Time Lords is a judge from the Doctor’s trial, the Time Lords are in trouble, and they suddenly start talking about bringing back the Trout! Apparently, the first law of time is “Thou shalt not cross thine own time stream”, but nobody cares much about the law at times like this.

It’s the Trout! Yay! And suddenly, after years of assuming the Troughton seen here to have been a caricature of his previous performance, in the context of the marathon I now realise I was dead wrong. Before, I thought of the second Doctor as the character seen in Season Six, because those were the stories I’d seen. But this Doctor, with his whimsicality, his recorder, his intelligence hidden behind a clownish exterior, is the Doctor I remember from recently watching all his stories in order. He’s just right. Extraordinary.

It gets even better though. Soon the Time Lords are talking about “the earliest Doctor” (interesting- it’s explicitly stated he was the first) and there he is. And it’s great to see him.

“So you’re my replacements. A dandy and a clown.” Fantastic!

Part Two

“Because he told me to. And I’ve always had great respect for his advice.”

The Brigadier’s face when he first claps eyes on the Trout is truly a sight to behold. And while his flat refusal to believe what he’s told seems less of a shark-jumping moment in context, it’s still a low point for the character. And his reaction to the TARDIS is even worse. Still, he gets a good line about the Doctor being his own assistant.

A very interesting first; the first Doctor to offer jelly babies is Troughton… in a Pertwee story. I wasn’t expecting that!

We get to see Hartnell again. Fantastic, utterly wonderful in context. There’s a parallel here in my reaction to Troughton this time around; I used to find the Hartnell scenes embarrassing, even wrong, as Hartnell is so clearly ill and struggling with his lines. And yet, in context, it’s really great to see him again. And yes, he may be struggling a little, but there’s something triumphant there too. His scenes are magical.

Part Three

“I’m fairly sure that’s Cromer…”

For the second story in a row we’re introduced to some important Time Lord mythology- Omega, a “solar engineer” who created time travel for the Time Lords by blowing up a star and creating a singularity. Those Bristol Boys and their big, big ideas!

Trout says “Oh, my giddy aunt”! This is such a nostalgia fest. Who cares if the Brig is a buffoon and the cliffhanger is pointless? 

Part Four

“All things shall be destroyed! All things! All things! All things!

It’s genuinely shocking and effective that Omega has nothing under his helmet and only exists through sheer will. Somehow this is such a fantastic idea that it doesn’t even matter that Omega has never once, in his thousands of years in this world, looked into the mirror directly opposite his throne. Those Bristol Boys and their big ideas!

This is as fantastic as all the other episodes, aside from the fact that everyone who walks through the smoke arrives on Earth at once. Troughton’s great, acting Pertwee completely off the screen. The Brigadier says “Wonderful chap. Both of him.” And best of all, the Doctor’s exile is over.

Wow. I thought I was going to give this 1/5. I’ve always hated this story. And yet, this time it didn’t matter that much of it made no sense, that Ollis and Tyler have no reason to be there or that the treatment of UNIT and the Brig was unforgivable. Far more important was the fun of the big, big ideas and, best of all, the old Doctors. It really was great to see them again.