Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Two Doctors

1985. While not a complete mess, The Two Doctors certainly falls under the criticisms of JNT's era; it's such a blatant fanwank that quality gets put buy the wayside. While the Sontarans' appearance here is less awful than in The Invasion of Time, it's a little unneccessary, and the story really doesn't deserve its three episodes.
   The Second Doctor and Jamie are working for the Time Lords, in the period known by fans as Season 6b. They go to a large space laboratory where two scientists called Carts and Rheimer are experimenting with time travel. Doctor2 argues with Dastari, the head of programming, who has biologically worked on Androgums to make them more human. He ends up being drugged, as his Androgum protogé have let Sontarans invade the laboratory. They kidnap The Doctor and leave Jamie with an illusion of his death.
   Meanwhile, Doctor6 is out fishing with Peri. He feels the "death" of Doctor2 and he begins to ramble. He questions what's going on ( note that for the whole story he remembers nothing of his time as Doctor2 in this story). He remembers Dastari and decides to go and consult him on what's going on. When they arrive, they find it wartorn, abandoned quite recently. He learns from the ship's computer that the effect was the fault of the Time Lords, and the ship gets put on Defense Alert, turning it into a giant death trap.
   In Seville, Spain, the Androgums (augmented Chassini and madman Shockeye), Dastari and the two Sontarans enter an old house, where they set-up operations. Back on the ship, and the ship is hunting the two through the ship. They find Dastari's office where they find his journal, which explains everything that happened. They at first assume that the Time Lords caused the carnage, but they work out that it's probably someone trying to blame them. The two try to work their way down to the central power centre to turn the computer off.
   They drop down into the service hatches, and are stalked by some creature. They get to the central control box. Back in Seville, the Sontaran ship gets nearer and we get introduced to two tourists. The Sontarans and Shockeye argue some more, and the Sontaran ship lands.
   Into our cliffhanger, Peri is attacked by the creature and The Doctor gets clouded with a gas that leaves him unconsious. It isn't bad, totally watchable and maybe even enjoyable, but at this stage there are some of the smaller glaring inconsistencies. Everything's working rather nicely though, even if there are too many villians, and the villians we do have are extremly melodramatic.

   The creature, it turns out, is Jamie, and The Doctor manages to keep conscious though his alien biology. Jamie explains himself tiredly, cueing The Doctor in on the Sontarans. He suspects that his death in the past will lead to the end of the universe. While pondering, he discovers a machine that presents an illusion of anyone who's been on the ship dying, and thus Doctor2 isn't dead. Doctor6 goes into meditation, and is somehow able to hear a bell, and realises that not only where the bells are, but how far away he can hear them. They go to Seville and meet the two tourists. Doctor6 pretends to be a policeman.
   The basic plan of the bad guys is to extract the biological mark of the Time Lord that lets one travel through time. They can then use this to ajust their time machine and travel through time. Sontarans want to use it to fight the Rutans, while the Androgums want to turn The Doctor into an Androgum through augmentation. I'm just gonna simplify the rest of the story; There's a lot of moving about; the two doctors are locked together at one point, and then later Doctor2 is temporarily turned into an Androgum and goes for a meal, where he kills one of the earlier tourists. The Androgums end up killing the Sontarans and exploding their ship, while The Doctor chloroforms Shockeye for trying to kill Peri and Chassini, mad and returned to her lesser form, tries to use the broken time machine, which kills her.
   The episode is fun, but the excessive melodrama and pointlessness of several characters means that it is a little odd. I may be a little biased; this was the first episode that I held on record, a video handed down from my cousin. Regardless, it isn't a bad episode, simply a shoddy one, and it's inefficiencies do have some charm.

Thanks.