Doctor Who: The Hand of Fear

 
Part One

“Do they have seasons in South Croydon?”

I remember RTD once saying he’d never dream of starting a story on Planet Zog with a load of aliens we’ve never met before expositing at each other. Well, it seems the Bristol Boys have no such qualms! Interesting look for an alien race- faces unseen behind the hood of an anorak…

In an already familiar seeming self-referential moment the Doctor and Sarah land in a quarry on earth, and there’s a hilarious reference to it seeming like an alien world. Oh my aching sides. There’s a siren blatantly going off, and the our heroes are caught in an explosion. You can’t help but be impressed with the Doctor’s health and safety regime for TARDIS landings…

All the same, I’m quite enjoying this. It’s consistently witty, even in little moments- I like the hospital doctor’s speech about pain, a nice little moment for a minor character. And then there’s the agreeable Dr Tyler- er, Carter, who seems a nice chap, enthusiastically investigating this strange, ancient stone hand Sarah’s been clutching. He’s a nice chap, who doesn’t at all deserve to get whacked over the head by Sarah during her latest alien possession. While interestingly dressed- “Yes, just like Andy Pandy!”

Of course, this being a script by the Bristol Boys, the action now moves to a scientific complex…

Part Two

“That’s not as ‘armless as it looks!

A rather long reprise, and what with this becoming practically a hostage situation in a nuclear reaction things get very tense very quickly. Once again Lis Sladen performs being possessed brilliantly, even taking in to account all the practice she’s had.

It’s a shame Dr Carter gets killed- he seemed a nice chap! But it’s a moment which indicates how high the stakes are, something achieved very well with the Professor’s touching “last” phone call to his family.

There’s a nice moment as Sarah responds to the Doctor’s hypnotising her with “Ah no, that’s not fair! Not aga-“. But on the other hand that’s a bit more mission creep for one of the Doctor’s recently acquired superpowers.

Part Three

“It’s just that no one is going to believe me.”

We begin with our heroes in big radioactive trouble, but fortunately Eldrad absorbs the radiation. Fine so far. But then, as in Claws of Axos, the RAF happily set about dropping a nuclear bomb on the complex while Sarah and the Prof shelter behind a car? Oh dear! Yes, Eldrad absorbs the blast, and the Doctor probably expects this, but that still leaves a hell of a lot of bad science on show.

I like the “I worry about you” chat between the Doctor and Sarah on their way to meet Eldrad- it reminds us what a great relationship they have just as it’s about to end.

Interesting that Eldrad, from 150 million years ago, and Solon, from at least a few centuries in our future, have both heard of Time Lords. They must have been around a while then. And the Doctor tells Edrad, without being contradicted, that he can’t break the “first law” of history and take her back to Kastria in her own time- it has to be the present day. Not only this but the Doctor claims she can’t harm him in the still brand spanking new TARDIS control room because it exists in a state of “temporal grace”, something which seems rather inconsistent with previous stories, The Enemy of the World for one. And these are both rather big and limiting things to set up for plot convenience in one story!

The Prof shoots at Eldrad yet he gets to live. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised in hindsight- after that phone call there was no way he was going to die…

Part Four

“I’m sick of being cold and wet and hypnotised left, right and centre. I’m sick of being shot at, savaged by bug-eyed monsters, never knowing if I’m coming, going or been.”

Well, Eldrad can’t pronounce “matrix”, and the abyss looks too obviously like a set, but otherwise this is a satisfying conclusion. Sadly Eldrad has to become a rather shouty bloke who is much more obviously a baddie from the word go. As Sarah puts it, “I quite liked her, but I couldn’t stand him.” The Kastrians’ trap for Eldrad perhaps becomes implausible if dwelt on, but it feels satisfactory as a conclusion and I for one find it a fitting ending: “Hail Eldrad, king of nothing!”

And then it happens. One of no doubt many half-hearted arguments, but then the Doctor is summoned to Gallifrey, and actresses whose contracts are about to end may not set foot on that world be ancient degree, or not until next season in any case. It’s a great scene, threatening even my own tear ducts of steel. Sarah will be missed. Doing this marathon has shown me just how great she was, and what a great actress Lis Sladen is, especially with facial expressions and so many little physical things. I think at the moment she’s by far my favourite.

All good fun, if not quite up there with the best, as so many of this run are turning out to be. 4/5.

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.

Doctor Who: The Dæmons

Part One


"I've had enough of your knavish tricks."



The story starts out looking as though it's going to be a lot of fun- a nice spooky opening with lots of wind and lightning, and the immediately entertaining Mith Hawthorne. The television stuff, with the announcer and Professor Hawthorne, is also good fun. The same can be said for most of this episode- the Master as a vicar is a particular joy.

There's lots of tension as the episode builds up to its climax, and the Master in his red cloak leading a Dennis Wheatley style black magic ritual is a delight. In fact this episode is generally great, apart from the Doctor's gratuitous rudeness to the regulars in the pub.



Part Two

"Jo! Did you fail Latin as well as science?"

Unfortunately it starts to fall apart here, with the first of four episodes in which not much happens. Especially after the exciting climax to last episode this is particularly frustrating. There's some obvious padding, perhaps the most blatant being the Doctor having a theory about what's happening but not wanting to tell anybody what it is yet.

Another unfortunate thing is that UNIT suddenly look very cosy indeed, and it's possible this may be the story in which they jump the shark. I realise that for the purposes of a continuing drama like Doctor Who, featuring a large organisation like UNIT, it can be useful to focus on a small number of characters. But the treatment of Yates and Benton here goes too far- why would a captain and a sergeant hang out together all the time? Why is Benton, a sergeant, seemingly one of the Brig's inner circle? Are there no other officers aside from Yates and the Brig? There's a strong "UNIT family" feel here, but the big problem with that is families are by definition quite small, and not at all synonymous with large and credible paramilitary organisations. In this story UNIT seems to consist of no more than the Brig, Yates, Benton, Sergeant Osgood and a couple of others. That's it.

Still, even if not much happens and UNIT are pratting about, at least parts of this effectively set a mood. The coven scenes are very Aleister Crowley, very The Devil Rides Out, and Delgado is perfect. The cliffhanger's good too, and Bok the gargoyle is particularly well-realised.



Part Three

"Close your eyes, my darling. Well, three of them at last!"

We get our first reference to the Venusian lullaby here, if not quite in its full final form. And at last the Doctor finally gets on with it and gives us the exposition we've been waiting a whole episode for. Apparently all of human achievement is essentially down to the Dæmons, and the human race can take no credit for it whatsoever.

The Doctor doesn't make himself very likeable by shouting at Jo for repeating his own earlier complaints about the Brig. in fact, I'm not sure I like the Doctor much this season. Except for when he was allowed to leave Earth in Colony in Space he's spent most of the season in a foul mood. As gar as I'm concerned the sooner his exile is over with the better. But reluctantly I can't put all my problems with this Doctor down to the character's frustrations about his exile. Pertwee's performance is notably less subtle than in Season Seven and he's beginning to overuse the same few mannerisms, especially the Neck Rub (tm).

I like the scenes between Osgood and the Doctor, but it's hard to miss the fact that this entire heat barrier subplot is only there to delay the arrival of the Brigadier into the plot proper.

Interesting cliffhanger, the Master in danger...



Part Four

"Elemental, my dear Benton."

Another "Reverse the polarity" from the Doctor here. And a bit of continuity awkwardness as Azal shouts "Remember Atlantis!" I'd rather not, thanks- The Underwater Menace is an experience I'd rather forget.

There's some good stuff this episode- Stephen Thorne's voice, the Doctor drawing the plan for his machine on the windscreen of his motorbike, and of course the Morris Dancers of Doom. I always knew Morris dancers were evil. And, of course, the Doctor manages to avoid being burned as a witch by, er, pretending to be a witch.



Part Five

"Fancy a dance, Brigadier?"

"Frankly, Captain Yates, I'd rather have a pint."

A very revealing line from Miss Hawthorne: "All we can do is wait". It seems we've been hearing similar sentiments from several characters right through the story, which is very revealing. Even in the final episode not an awful lot happens and then suddenly Jo offers to sacrifice herself and the story's over. Still, the Brigadier does get to say a certain line.

The Doctor's speech to Azal is quite political: man "can blow up the world and he probably will", and "can poison the water and the very air he breathes".

It's good to see some closure to the season as the Master is captured.



Well, overall I've not got much to say about this one. I found it slow, dull and frankly a bit of a struggle. 2/5, the second story of the season with that score. The season as a whole averages 3.4/5, making it my least favourite season so far. Still, as far as I remember the next season should be much better. We'll see...