Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Two Doctors (Revisited)

Doctors meet, for the last time in the Classic series.

See here for my initial look at this story.

Doctor Who - Season 22, Story Four - The Two Doctors
Written between 20th and 21st April 2012

Last time I reviewed this story, I hadn't seen Time-Flight, Warriors of the Deep or Terror of the Vervoids. That time, almost two years ago, I didn't really give The Two Doctors a fair hearing, and now I look back I can see it for the actually quite brilliant story that it is. Everything just fits - the villains are fun, the Sontarans are done right for a change, and despite a lot of filler, that in itself is just as entertaining. The Two Doctors is the entertainment hightlight of this season, and as a Robert Holmes story that's deserved.
     The filler is a big issue that the story only barely contains, as one can see from my very simplified version of events in my original review. The most egregious of these areas is in the third episode, in which the Androgums decide to turn the Doctor into one of them. Two and Shockeye go into the town and eat at a side-character's restaurant, which leads to a hunt around Seville to find the two before Two becomes a full Androgum. It's just not necessary, and you wouldn't have to cut corners to be able to shave The Two Doctors down the same number of 45 minute episodes. However, I wouldn't miss them for the world. It's rare in this era, but the filler developed the characters and actually were pretty entertaining - the way the diner scene flopped between the humour of the confused alien to the tragedy of Oscar Botcheby's death is brilliant, even though there's no reason for it to even be here.
     Speaking of such, the Sontarans don't really seem to have a point here, either - simply pawns hoping to benefit from Dastari and Chesenee's machinations. They're taller, better made and generally better written; writer Robert Holmes, their creator, was keen to improve upon their last appearance, the dreadful(ly funny) Invasion of Time. These Sontarans are classic villains, and it's a real shame when they're offed just before the aforementioned filler exercise. I don't know what they're doing here, but for whatever reason it's great to have one last story done right this time.

The Two-As-An-Androgum plotline is a little odd to say
the least.

     Despite how small Two's role inevitably is, Patrick Troughton's passion for the role shines through and even as a faux-Androgum his appearances are the highlights of the serial. This is the first time where a Doctor really gets to share the limelight equally, and unlike every other multi-Doctor story, Two is perfectly represented without caricature. Not a recorder in sight. Jamie is the same; Frazer Hines really hasn't lost it in the 20 years since he began in Who, and together the two make this multi-doctor special much better from a character perspective than any before or since.
     Robert Holmes' script may be a little baggy, and push through a few overt themes, but every moment of the script is fun to witness. It's a joy to see Pat again, and he arrives at a time where Six and Peri are really beginning to work together well. Add that to enjoyably hammy villains, a beautiful Seville setting and you've got the recipe for some fun, memorable Doctor Who. The Two Doctors has its issues, but I love its little socks off.

Thanks.

NEXT TIME: I try not to fall into the Timelash. On Fridays, I'll also be finishing off my reviews of Season 21, bringing my examination of Saward to an end, starting with The Awakening.

Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Caves of Androzani

The Phantom of the Opera is here, inside my mind.

"Change, my dear. And not a moment too soon."

Two of my Classics in the November collection were written by Robert Holmes, one of Classic Who's most prolific and talented writers. Despite a somewhat formulaic story structure of a disfigured, trapped villain fighting to return to former glory, Holmes penned some of the greatest stories of the Classic series, such as The Deadly Assassin, Spearhead From Space, The Talons of Weing Chang and today's story, The Caves of Androzani, which was Peter Davison's grand finale.
     There's a vaguely Shakespearean vibe to the story, especially in the comparisons to Hamlet; villain Sharaz Jek is a man whose lust for revenge has turned him into a monster. That, and Peri is the only character to survive the story, if you count The Doctor's regeneration as a death. Five's era was often accused of having death-filled episodes, and it's fitting that his final story leaves not even he alive.
     The Doctor takes Peri, fresh from her intro in Planet of Fire, to the planet of Androzani Minor, twin to the large trade planet of Androzani Major. The Doctor is intrigued to find signs of life in the caves, and after stumbling through some poisonous webbing, they become caught up in a gunrunning cartel and are accused by the local law enforcement of assisting the madman behind the operation, Sharaz Jek. Jek is being fought by the corrupt leader of the mining operation, known as Morgus, who has a long-running rivalry with the villain and has been running guns himself. At the first cliffhanger, it appears that The Doctor and Peri are shot dead by firing squad.

The Doctor and Peri face excecution.

     This cliffhanger is oft considered to be one of the best in Who history, and I can see why - its unrelentless, pessimistic scenario seems to have no escape, and the solution to the cliffhanger ties into the story instead of being a quick fix. The one problem that I have with the acting is this story is from John Normington's Morgus, who is incredibly, incredibly wooden.
     It turns out that the killed heroes were instead Androids under the control of Jek, who has lifted the pair to his deep sanctum. There they meet Jek, as well as a man named Salateen, the android version of which was monitering the authorities that found them. Salateen explains that the company mines a substance called Spectrox, which lengthens life. The pair have come in contact with the substance's natural form, and have now contracted a disease called Spectrox Toxemia. Jek reveals to Peri the reason for his Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque mask; Morgus led him into a mud-burst accident that permenantly disfigured him. Soon The Doctor works out a way to escape Jek's lair, but he becomes embroiled in an encounter with the gun-runners and is approached by a giant Magma Beast! Of this episode's few technical failures, the Magma Beast is the only one that really stands out. It has little to no real purpose being there really, and it stains what is otherwise a creepy, Victorian atmosphere.
     The Doctor escapes but is caught by Jek, who tortures him. Peri and Salateen return to the General, who they tell about the Android imposter. The Doctor is taken onto a transport ship on its way to Major. Salateen plans on using the android to lead Jek on a wild goose chase, while The Doctor manages to escape his bonds and takes control of the ship. Fearing deception, Morgus assassinates the President. The cliffhanger of this episode is also one of the best that I've seen, and is one of Peter Davison's finest moments. The episode ends on The Doctor about to crash the ship, and his desperate cry of, "I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU STOP ME NOW" demonstrates Davison's range. You can feel his desperation, his will to fight his own demise to save the life of another.

Lots of rubber in this mine...

     On the run, The Doctor lands on Minor with an escape pod, arriving in time for there to be a tremendous gun battle between the androids and the gun runners. Jek's mask is removed and in his disgrace he assists the Doctor in retrieving the antedote to the Spectrox Toxemia. As a mud-burst arrives into the caves, killing both Jek and Morgus, The Doctor retrieves the antedote and carries Peri across the exploding surface of Androzani Minor to the TARDIS, where he sets her down and gives her the antedote. He collapses, and regenerates into Colin Baker.
     Davison's regeneration is actually one of the more interesting of the series, utilising the era's effects well. Instead of seeing him physically transform, we see what he sees, and the effect flashes on and off through his vision as he fights off death. Upon regeneration wee see all of the companions of the Fifth Doctor's era - Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion. It's quite good, actually, and provides a very interesting insight into the process of regeneration that standing up and firing energy out of one's arms simply doesn't do.
     The Caves of Androzani isn't perfect, but it comes damn near close. The writing is top notch with a wide variety of fascinating themes that reflect the nature of beauty in our society, as well as a lot of commentary regarding Capitalism. The Fifth Doctor's era was a rough one, but it ended on a story that did the era and his Doctor all the justice it deserved. We'll look more at the Doctor's era after Christmas, when I follow on in Chronological order from my review of Four to Doomsday.      

Goodbye, Peter.

Thanks.

P.S. A head's up to the Tardis Wiki for the screencaps.

NEXT WEEK: Colin Baker nearly meets his maker in Vengeance on Varos. Marshminnow?

Review: Doctor Who Classic: Spearhead from Space

Jon Pertwee makes his entrance.

In the past I've discussed something in Doctor Who that I call, "Spearhead Syndrome". This is a condition by which the protagonist of the story (in this case The Doctor) spends the majority of the episode unconscious. From what I can see, three stories have this condition in Doctor Who, and they're all post-regeneration stories. David Tennant had The Christmas Invasion, Peter Davison had Castrovalva and today we're looking at the namer of the trope, Jon Pertwee's Spearhead From Space.
     There are several things that make this story unique from a production standpoint. It was the first story to be broadcast in colour, and although not all people had a colour television, this was a huge step for the BBC. Also, all of the people working on the show changed at once - the producers, the script editors and every last member of the main cast. Furthermore, the production was affected by a strike, and so the entire 100 minute story was shot using film on location.
     The story, written by Robert Holmes, begins as plastic meteorites collide with Earth. These meteorites are being tracked by UNIT, led by The Brigadier. As the Brig interviews a woman called Liz Shaw, a body is brought in with the description of having fallen out of a police box. Hearing the news, The Brig heads over immediately with an armed guard as the doctors at the Hospital begin to discover this stranger's alien nature. The Brigadier doesn't recognise the unconscious man, but The Doctor happens to wake up and recognises him, expressing disdain at what the Time Lords have done to him. As the Brig leaves, the reporters at the hospital discover a strange, plastic looking man.

The Doctor has been exiled and regenerated.

     The Doctor expresses worry over his shoes - which contain the TARDIS key. The Doctor is kenapped by two plastic-looking wardens, led by the first strange man. The Doctor manages to escape them in which weheelchair, but The Doctor stumbles into the line of fire of the UNIT guards covering the TARDIS, sending him back to hospital with a wound.
     An engineer returns to the company that he left a few years prior, discovering slightly plastic looking stafff. His office has been rendered Out Of Bounds and his followed by the Strange Looking Plastic Man. The head of the factory is being controlled by the SLPM. Back at UNIT, Liz Shaw's experiments discover that the meteorite is manufactured. The SLPM tells the factory boss that the meteorites they haven't recovered yet will find their way to them - and that they are alive. They're seen to be controlling shop window dummies - the Autons.
     The Doctor is up and out of bed once more, and has a shower before stealing clothes. He jumps into a car (later to be christened Bessie) and drives off. UNIT recover another asteroid, but the soldiers are killed by an Auton. The Doctor makes his way to UNIT and everyone is fine and dandy - the story really begins, The man from before sneaks into the room that used to be his laboratory, and discovers a range of plastic shop window dummies - one of which moves to kill him.

An Auton.

      At this halfway point I'd just like to talk about the Autons. They're a decent enough horror idea - shop window dummies are a common enough feature of our lives that making them into aliens can scare a generation of children. I'm biased, of course - I was there when RTD did the same thing with the Autons. I actually think that Spearhead does it better, because they're actually treated like threats instead of jokes.
     SPLM (Channing) notices when the man (called John) escapes from the factory. John runs to UNIT, telling them about the Autons in basic terms. A farmer who had discovered one of the meteorites goes to UNIT as well. Liz steals the TARDIS key from the Brig for The Doctor, who tries to make his getaway. Unfortunately the TARDIS refuses to set off, setting the stage for the Third Doctor's exile on Earth. The Autons find the last meteorite at the house of the farmer, but UNIT arrive at the house, shooting the Auton and making it run away  - and then kill Ransome.
     UNIT arrive at the plastics factory, and are unsettled by Channing. Back at the Lab, The Doctor discovers that the sphere is alive. Army captain General Scobie, in charge of UNIT's army, is found by his Auton replica, who tells the Brig to stay away from the factory. Visiting Madame Tussauds, The Doctor discovers that the "replica" of Scobie is in fact the real General, solidified in plastic.

Channing

     Exploring further, The Doctor and Liz break into the factory, watching as Channing explains to the Factory Boss how the Autons work (they're living things) and they interrogate the factory boss once Channing leaves. Eventually they escape, warning UNIT and preparing for the next day's deployment - having received the last meteorite from General Scobie. The Autons prowl the streets, as The Doctor and Liz invade the factor with one of the Doctor's inventions, destroying the aliens and preventing the invasion.
     One of the best things about Spearhead is its acting roster. The Strange Plastic Looking Man, known as Channing, is played wonderfully by Hugh Burden, who imbues his character with a sense of otherworldlyness that doesn't just come off as wooden acting. I'm glad he's here really, as he provides fluency throughout a story that is slip very clearly into two distinct parts; the first half, in which The Doctor recovers from his regeneration and discovers his exile, and the second half, which focuses more on the Auton storyline. Jon Pertwee definitely gets to stretch his acting muscles, going from amnesiac to debonaire with incredible fluency, and his incarnation is almost instantly likeable. Caroline John is also very good as assistant Liz Shaw, although like a few other companions, her adaptation to this wonderful new concept of alien life isn't covered in the depths I'd like it to be. At the beginning she's an outright skeptic, and yet as these things happen she just seems to... accept it all.

     A big problem that I found stemmed from the production issues - the editing. The shot cuts were very clever - a character mentions Madame Tussauds' and suddenly we're there, cutting out all unnecessary traveltime. The problem as I see it is that in a lot of these transitions, the edit is obvious (a shot of the previous scene flashing for a second) and dialogue is cut off. For example; the cliffhanger to the first episode has a guard shouting, "Who told you to shoot, you stupid...", and the beginning of the next retcons this to, "No one told you to shoot, you fool!". It didn't overshadow the story, but it did distract me and ruined the immersion that the filmic tone of the story was trying to give.

"You really believe in a man that can change his appearance?"

     Overall Spearhead from Space is one of the better Post Regeneration stories. It does suffer from the fact that the two halves of the story keep trying to outdo each other and often distract from the main goal, but a lot of that just adds to its charm and the only real let down for me is shoddy editing. Jon Pertwee's entrance into Doctor Who was a sign of what was to come, and heralded the beginning of the program's golden era.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: We say goodbye in The Caves of Androzani

Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Ultimate Foe

The Doctor talks with himself.

“There’s nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality!”

At the end of the day, the Trial season was a failure, and that was clear even as production neared completion. This final story was a production nightmare, and led to the resignation of Eric Saward and contributed to the death of Robert Holmes. The Ultimate Foe  is, above all other things, messy and ungainly, its various twists and revelations flashing one after the other like a badly written plot synopsis.

     The two part story was due to be written by Robert Holmes, a veteran writer of the series and the writer of The Mysterious Planet. He unfortunately died of cancer after having only written the first draft of the first half and only a few notes about the second. Script Editor Eric Saward took up the job, handing in a complete rewrite of the script with a harsh, downbeat ending so typical of Sawards’ scripts. John Nathan-Turner, trying to keep things optimistic, asked him to change the ending – a decision that angered Saward so much that he resigned as Script Editor. Now left with one half-finished script and no last episode for the series, the task fell on Pip and Jane Baker, the writers of Vervoids, to finish off. You can see where this is going.

      The Doctor is about to sentenced, now with the charge of Genocide included. His last defence is the tampering of the Matrix, and despite the fact that he cannot provide witnesses, someone has done so for him. Mel and Glitz appear before the court, and The Master appears from The Matrix supporting The Doctor’s story. He reveals that the people who moved Earth in The Mysterious Planet and renamed it Ravalox were the Time Lords, trying to prevent their technological secrets from being stolen. The Doctor gives a great monologue (the story’s real saving grace) about how the Time Lords, as the oldest civilisations, are the most corrupt of them all.

The Master of Light Entertainment

    The Master then reveals the Valeyard’s identity – he is the dark side of The Doctor’s personality, and had made a deal with the High Council to cover up the Ravalox affair in exchange for The Doctor’s remaining regenerations. His identity discovered, he flees into the Matrix, and The Doctor and Glitz follow. Valeyard’s illusions bring them to a Victorian Square. There they enter a waiting room run by an incredibly bureaucratic Mr. Popplewick  (Keeping Up Appearances’ Geoffrey Hughes), who leads them to another of the Valeyard’s illusions. On a beach, on his own, The Doctor is dragged into the sand and the cliffhanger music chimes.

     When we come back, Glitz is mourning The Doctor, who reappears and reveals that his death was another illusion. The Valeyard makes an appearance and explains who his is – a darker side of the Doctor, a concentration of all of his evil. Escaping some random toxic nerve gas, Six and Glitz enter The Master’s Tardis. The Master explains that he is helping because The Doctor is a less threatening enemy, and then puts him into a zombie-like state and uses him as bait for the Valeyard. It doesn’t work; Glitz and The Master escape. Meanwhile, The Valeyard’s illusions appear to convince The Doctor that he has been tried for his crimes and sent for execution.

     Mel, watching this, storms into the Matrix and “saves” him. He reveals that the illusion was obvious and that he was trying to get close to the Valeyard, who they then go after. While The Master suffered a malfunction in his Tardis, The Doctor and Mel (who really don’t work well together at all) track down The Valeyard and his machine, designed to kill everyone in the Trial room once he had the Doctor’s lives. Mel evacuates the room and The Doctor destroys the machine, and both escape with The Valeyard apparently dead. The Inquisitor frees The Doctor of all charges, and he flies off into space to be fired by the BBC.

"Do you have an appointment?"

     Because of the reworking, the plot appears to fly off in random directions. One moment The Doctor’s standing on a beach, the next he’s incapacitated and a zombie, and then he’s at the trial, but it’s not really the trial and so on and so on. That really only applies to the second episode though, because the first is one long exposition dump using the formulaic setup that we tired of eight episodes ago. The different writers are very, very obvious, especially after the cliffhanger where it appears that all of the characters have swallowed a dictionary – the most egregious example being the quote at the top of this article.

     A heavy rewrite in the script meant that The Master and Glitz felt very wasted – a fact not lost on their actors, who were very upset about the ordeal. Really, The Master didn’t need to be there at all, and as Anthony Ainley’s penultimate performance it doesn’t really do him any justice at all. Even Colin Baker didn’t survive this story, being fired by execs – the same execs who allowed Bonnie Langford’s performance of all things.
     What the serial does do is link together the series as a whole. Robert Holmes' script touches upon the events of The Mysterious Planet and uses it as a large plot device - a means to reveal The Valeyard's plans and identity. Pip and Jane use their episode as an excuse to create another illusion regarding Vervoids, and both writers mention the most manipulated segment, Mindwarp - where it turns out that Peri is living happily with Yrcanos.

Colin gets a sinking feeling.

     The Trial of a Timelord ended on a messy note which didn't do justice to the ambition of the series' premise. The Ultimate Foe was let down by its troubled production and the script editor's spurious morality, a state of affairs that made the result just salvageable enough to keep the series on air. Despite this, the lead was fired and the script editor had left, leaving Doctor Who with a very uncertain future. Luckily Sylvester McCoy would take up the reins and after a series of mediocre bombs he would return Doctor Who to the brilliant television that it could be. 

Thanks. 

IN TWO WEEKS: My Classics season starts, with Spearhead From Space!

Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Mysterious Planet

Drathro and the Twins

Doctor Who, Season 23, Story One - The Mysterious Planet

Michael Grade didn't like Doctor Who. He really, really didnt like it. After several complaints about Colin Baker's tenure on the show in 1985, Grade put the show on an 18 month hiatus and the production team had to come up with something to keep the show alive. In keeping with the public mood surrounding the show at the time, JNT decided to have an entire season of interlinked stories where The Doctor would be put on trial for the crimes that he had committed. Composed of four single stories with the plotline running through them, the 14-part Trial of a Timelord arc is a strange period in the show's history.
     The first story, written by verteran writer Robert Holmes, introduces the main Trial storyline. The Doctor, taken away from Peri, has been called here to face trial by a mysterious figure called the Valeyard, who acts as the prosecution and uses video evidence from The Matrix (from the previous Gallifrey stories) to claim that The Doctor is guilty of various crimes ranging from interferance to Genocide. He's played interestingly by the former Emmerdale actor, Michael Jayston, and for this serial at least the Trial aren't annoying yet.
     The "video evidence" in this serial is taken from The Doctor's past - an adventure from after Revelation of the Daleks but before Season 23. Peri and The Doctor arrive on the planet Ravalox, which the Doctor is visiting because it's eerily similar to Earth and, despite the Gallifreyan database's claims, is teeming with life. The Doctor and Peri are notably more friendly to one another here, another part of the show's attempt to regain viewers. Watching them are two weapons traders, Glitz and Dibber. I love Glitz; he's easily one of the best supporting characters in the Eighties. They're here to scavenge a robot called the L3, which has taken control of an underground city run by human slaves. They need to take down a Light Converter, which is being used by a local tribe (led by Joan Sims) as a totem pole. The Doctor and Peri discover the underground tunnels - the entrance appears to be the entrance to the London Underground. This disturbs The Doctor, and he intends to find out why Earth has been so changed.

The Valeyard (Michael Jayston)

     He heads underground while Peri is intercepted by the tribespeople. Joan Sims locks up Glitz and Dibber together with her. The Doctor is arrested as a "water theif" but is eventually saved and goes to see the L3, who calls himself "The Immortal". Glitz reveals that he's here for Time Lord knowledge being kept here. The L3, called Drathro, forces The Doctor to work on his power system. He manages to escape and is followed by Drathro's L1 robot. Along the way he finds the leader of the L3's guards, Merdeen, who has been secretly escorting people to the surface. He meets up with Glitz and Dibber, but they find themselves trapped by tribesmen on one side and the L1 on the other. The L1 is disabled temporarily but they're taken to the tribe and locked up. The L1 breaks in, disabling The Doctor and allowing the others to escape. The tribe luckily destroys the L1, but they believe that this is the Immortal and thus go storming into the underground. The Doctor and Peri follow, but are collared by Merdeen who shoots them into a cliffhanger. Turns out he was shooting another guy, who had tried to rat him out to The Immortal. The tribe discover the L3 and he kills Joan Sims.
     The Doctor goes in and faces the L3. They have an interesting conversation about what makes organic life more important than mechanical life. Glitz and Dibber accompany Peri through a hatch into the chamber, but they're trapped there by the L3. As Peri and The Doctor are tied up, Glitz bluffs his way into getting the information by claiming that they can save him; they kill him and The Doctor finally stops his machine from exploding. Everyone lives happily ever after, and The Valeyard moves onto the next stage of the trial.
     I like The Mysterious Planet more than common sense says I should. It's shoddy, the villain's design is ridiculous and the acting is melodramatic and over the top. But because of Joan Sims and the way that Glitz' joke-a-sec personality takes over, it has a feeling very similar to a Carry-On film. Robert Holmes, as we'll see when I look at The Caves of Androzani, is excellent at characterisation and satire, and that's why these two side-characters are in ways better than the main characters. Colin's wit and exuberance comes off much better here than in other areas and thus the character is more empathizable; Peri too, although she's a little absent in what would become her penultimate story. I'll comment more upon the Valeyard at the end of the Trial, but I will admit that the strong performance soon does become tedious by the third episode of the story. However, it does produce some of the season's best lines and monologues, and the best one in this serial is the one in Episode Four in which The Doctor claims that The Valeyard should, based on the tired decadence of his arguments, change his name to The Knackers' Yard.

The Time Lord is on Trial.

    The Trial dynamic is interesting in this serial, despite how tiring it gets later on. Unlike previous arcs, where it was either a string of serials following on from one another or completely different serials connected by a common theme, this instead tries to do both. Here, at least, it's successful - the trial scenes enhance the story rather than slow it down. Some scenes are in fact censored the Valeyard, and this makes the core concepts that bit more intriguing.
     The Mysterious Planet is a great start for the Trial of a Timelord Arc, with satirical side-characters and a comedy aesthetic that I love. The villain is a little shoddy, perhaps, and overall the ideas are not that innovative or interesting, but the key arc behind it all more than makes up for it. I love the core story and I love the rambles on Ravalox, where character is king.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Brian Blessed, A character I've met but you haven't and another craaazy scientist.

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.

Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Deadly Assassin

1976. Season 14 was preceeded by a warning by Elizibeth Sladen, to the producers, that she would only play popular companion Sarah-Jane Smith for a certain number of episodes. Thus, at the end of The Hand Of Fear, The Doctor was whisked away to his home planet of Galiffrey, where humans couldn't visit.
     Not feeling the need to find another companion in a hurry, this serial stands as the only episode of the classic series (and really, of the entire show) to not have even an unofficial companion. And while it might play that as a gimmick, the story is revered as a classic, with brilliant writing, inspired set design and the return of one of The Doctor's greatest enemies, The Master.
   The plot is based off of the popular film/book The Manchurian Candidate, which is a fast political thriller. Indeed, the previously mystical Time Lord society is explored deeply for the first time, and to the upset of many a contemporary fan, portrayed as a group of babbling politicians. I personally prefer this more realistic portrayl of the Time Lords as a failing society. There are also many things said here that later become set-in-stone rules, such as Time Lords only having 13 lives.
    So the Doctor lands on Galifrey and gets premonition that he will shoot the President of the Time Lords. In the Capital, he sneaks round trying to not get caught (as, a fan would remember, he is a Time Lord renegade). The President is about to name his successor, and Chancellor Goth and Cardinal Borusa are rivals. When the time comes, The Doctor finds the gun, and then notices the assalient in the crowd. The gun misses, but the President is already dead and they head to arrest The Doctor.
     They arrest The Doctor and begin to sentence him to death (permanently). He claims a right which means that he can run for President himself, and as long as he wins he can stay free. He takes the time before the election to investigate with the head Police Chief. They discover the gun was bent sideways, and so he couldn't have hit the President if he had tried. Looking at the cameras, they find the cameraman killed in a manner which would suggest that The Master had killed him. They then discover that someone is working in The Matrix (Doctor Who invented the concept 23 years before Hollywood), a virtual reality that covers and scans over all time. To fight this person, who they suspect is a servant of The Master, The Doctor taps himself into the Matrix.
     In the Matrix, he fights nightmares, and one Hunter that seems to control this world. They spend the entire third episode in The Matrix, fighting and running. Eventually, the Hunter reveals himself as Chancellor Goth. They have a final fight, but Goth's body gives up and both leave the Matrix. They track Goth down to The Master's hideout, where it is revealed that The Master has apparently killed himself and Goth with him. They go away and consider the events, with The Doctor amazed at how The Master accepted death. However, his remains disappear and he is chased to The Eye of Harmony, source of all power in Galiffrey. Eventually he falls into the eye, killing him.
    It's very good story, and its status shows that. To this day the episode has profound influences on Doctor Who. The 2entertain DVD commentary? Well, it's a little bumbling because of the age of the actors, but Baker's charm is inescapable.

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