Review: Doctor Who Classic: Survival

The Doctor and the Ainley Master have one
final battle.

Doctor Who - Season 26, Story Four - Survival
Written 1/7/12

This has been a sad time for me, to say the least. Despite the fact that Doctor Who returned triumphantly 16 years later (and I should know, I was there), I still feel a tad poignant knowing that I've just watched the end of Doctor Who's original run. Survival could have been a disaster, but it did a lot of things in unexpected ways and, along with the rest of Season 26, it's another great example of Who done right. While it's not perfect, it's a fitting end to the 26 year run that pioneers both its adventurer spirit and its focus on character.
     In the final part of the accidental Ace trilogy, The Doctor follows one of Ace's offhand requests and takes her home to Perivale to meet her old friends. To her surpise, they're all missing - taken by what appears to be a mysterious cat, controlled from afar by a shadowy figure. Soon Ace has been taken, and The Doctor goes with her, alerted to the true nature of their situation - people are being taken to the planet of the Cheetah People, a place where people are transformed and possessed by their own primal rage, and where the planet responds empathically to the mood of its inhabitants. The Doctor must make sure that Ace does not succumb to the planet's allure, and that his enemy, The Master, doesn't manage to do any more damage to Earth than he already has.
     Ainley at times is a bit subdued as The Master, but it's a brilliant portrayel that oozes sophistication. For the once, he's not trying to control the Universe or even escape - his motivations tie into the themes of the story, about survival and desperation. The Master only wants to escape the Cheetah Planet and prevent himself from being absorbed by the planet's power. Apparently this was what he originally wanted to go with, all the way from Logopolis, and I so wish he had, because he's so wonderfully intimidating in the part. It's a shame, really, because the next story, 7 years later, saw another Master being incredibly camp. Given the power of the Ainley Master here, I despair more about the state of his character in the modern era - the horrendous Eric Roberts, the boring Derek Jacobi and the absolutely ridiculous John Simm.

Ace and Karra have a great chemistry, as she tears Ace
away from everything she knows.

     Survival also finished off Ace's story in style, beautifully showing her conflict between her older, confident side and the primal, possessed Ace attracted to the planet and its people (especially a Cheetah woman named Karra, who has a lot of lesbian chemistry with Ace despite the script having to be reeled back.) This episode does more than any other to cement the character and her dynamics with the Doctor, and it's absolutely perfect. She's flawed, but not in a really irritating way, and she has genuine reasons for being torn between both sides.
      The episode's theme was perhaps an incredibly ironic one. Even though this was never meant to be the final story of the season (that was Ghost Light, in which we find the final filmed scenes), the episodes focus upon survival against all odds does seem rather fitting for a show that had survived so much and was at an all time high. I have absolutely no idea why it was cancelled, but the general consensus was that after the controversy of the Saward Era and the show's rescheduling to run opposite soap giant Coronation Street, so few people were watching that it wasn't worth it any more. The show was put on indefinite hiatus, and in 1990 it was officially cancelled, as had nearly happened three years prior. Survival is a perfect ending to a great season, and to the Original Run. I've had a lot of fun with the Cartmel Era, and I'm gonna miss it.

Thanks.