Arc of Infinity

Amsterdam

Better than ‘Time-Flight’. Just. That’s not saying much is it? I’m sorry this isn’t going to be a long review today. Johnny Byrne managed to write one of the most forgettable Doctor Who stories here which consists of an entire episode of running around Amsterdam. Gawd! And a conclusion which is the Doctor shooting Omega, the villain of the piece.

Instead of getting the incredible Stephen Thorne back to reprise this role, one I truly believe there was no need to bring back anyway, they got in Ian Collier who was in ‘The Time Monster’ and frankly the role worked better as a shouting loony than trying to turn him into something he wasn’t. It’s a bit convoluted, the Time Lords are done just as bad as they were in ‘The Invasion of Time’, except they were now more eighties, and generally it’s a boring groan-fest of rubbish, not auguring well for the rest of the season to follow.

It’s also full of ridiculous coincidences, especially that last episode Tegan went away and the next they bump into her in Amsterdam because her cousin, who is also from Australia without the apparent accent, has been caught by Omega because he happened to need a place to sleep for the night and his incredibly geeky friend thought a crypt would be the place to go.

Colin Baker as Maxil.

Then we have Colin Baker as Commander Maxil, he would go on to play the Doctor but for some reason this part and that of the new Castellan (Paul Jericho) has been written with both having venomous hatred for the Doctor. Why? No idea don’t ask me I just work here. Borusa has regenerated again and is now President. Michael Gough camps up the Time-Lord traitor Hedin who apparently was a great friend of the Doctor but we’ve never heard of him in 20 years of them making the show.

Omega's new mask

Ian Collier

The show starts with the Doctor repairing parts of the TARDIS by opening ‘roundels’. Hmmmm, did they have to give the circles on the walls names? I’m sure the series would have survived without that. The sets are plastic and bright, too long again spent in the TARDIS. Time Lord technology looks like something created by Mattel. It’s DREARY! Seriously dreary. The script is nonsense, Omega runs around looking like Peter Davison and suddenly they change the actor rather than do split screen and it’s so obviously. And don’t get me started on the ludicrous Ergon.

Rubbish.

1.5/10