Earthshock

Trouble in paradise!

This one is regarded as a classic, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a very strongly written, strongly directed story. It’s very very ‘tight’ – I think that’s the best word. We have the surprise return of the Cybermen  (God bless them for not putting ‘Cybermen’ in the actual title of the show), it has androids, a very pacey plot, and the death of Adric. Not only that, but as it was his last story, Saward gave Waterhouse a few things to do!

It's Beryl Reid!

Again, it’s not perfect and the plot does not make a lot of sense really. The first two episodes are basically all underground (the best underground/tunnels set the show has ever seen by the way) with androids apparently guarding a bomb. If the Cybermen wanted to blow up Earth, why would you bother guarding the bomb? Why wouldn’t you just blow the thing up once you’d put it in the right position?

Ok, they wanted to blow up a conference where different worlds were going to pool their resources to fight the Cybermen. Which in itself is a bit weak. Then it has a timing device? It gets armed by the Cybermen, hiding somehow thanks to one traitor on board, a freighter ship. Hmmmm. But then there’s a countdown. Why not just go bang?

It does seem a bit silly all up. The Doctor transport a whole lot of army-style dudes to the freighter via TARDIS which is hardly his style and again

exposes the TARDIS to any-ol dude. The Cybermen have been redesigned, in the most part it’s a very good job apart from the Ug-boots painted silver and the dodgy gloves. Their dialogue though is even sillier than in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ and they have a leader who says ‘excellent’ a lot and who apparently has met the Doctor before. Which seems unlikely at best.

Redesigned Cybermen.

But. The first episode builds up beautifully, it’s full of fear and menace and anticipation plus a wonderful reveal. Peter Grimwade is an excellent director, even if the actors were driven nuts by him. We have a sad farewell to Mathew Waterhouse as Adric. Did I like Adric? Not really. But that wasn’t the actor’s fault. He was always written as a whiny kid who kept stuffing up. That’s sadly exactly how the story starts too. But through the story the Doctor chills a bit and shows a bit of faith in Adric. It’s sad that his death was pointless, and the final scene in the TARDIS is very moving, although I wasn’t totally convinced by Janet Fielding’s crying. The silent credits were a nice touch.

The plot has not got a lot to it, but it just goes to show that you don’t need a convoluted plot to make a great four episodes of TV. The Cybermen want to destroy Earth. Basically, that’s it, isn’t it? They have a 15,000 strong army hidden in silos in a big ol’ space ship. Beryl Reid plays the Captain of the space freighter and apparently she’s not what Saward had in mind at all. But come on! This is the BBC in the 80s! I think she’s awesome!

There’s not much more to say. It has faults, and may be a little over-rated, but ‘Earthshock’ is undoubtedly a very tight story!

Adric's last moments.

8/10

Black Orchid

When Nyssa met Anne

This is going to be a hard one to review. A short story at only two parts, ‘Black Orchid’ is almost ‘filler’ – they had 26 episodes for the series and JNT didn’t want to do six-parters, which in all fairness was a very good call. The last two broadcast six-parters were very slow drawn-out affairs. However, instead we get ‘Black Orchid’, a two-part purely historical story with a wobbly plot by a man whose attitude was ‘it’s only Doctor Who’.

Terrance Dudley’s ‘Four to Doomsday’ was okay, lacking a fair bit in action but okay. If they offered him a commission it seems he took it, he was a working writer after all. ‘Black Orchid’

Peter Davison plays a rather unconvincing shot to be honest.

struggles to fill out TWO parts though. I mean we have a cricket game taking up a good chunk of episode one, and episode two wastes time taking the Doctor and companions to the police station.

Why? Because the plot itself is one of those ‘what’s going on’ type plots. Once you piece together the shabby plot points and kill the protagonist there’s nothing left. Instead we get prolonged parties, dancing and Adric eating a lot of food. The companions become purely functional, even more so than they have been. Adric is superfluous to the plot again, and Tegan is just there to explain strange Earth traditions to the two alien companions. Nyssa gets a double, for some strange reason, and the Doctor spends 30 per cent of the story wandering secret corridors. It’s naff and boring.

Charleston time!

What tops the dreadful plotting off is Terrence  Dudley getting himself into a hole with the Doctor accused of murder. How does he prove his innocence? He blows his alien cover and shows the police the inside of the TARDIS! It’s not something ever done before and hopefully not again. It’s purely and simply a plot point. It’s dreadful, lazy writing from Dudley. At that point the story was completely lost to me.

Peter Davison points out in the commentary another plot hole where he tells everyone not to let George Cranleigh know he doesn’t have Anne (Nyssa’s double) on the roof, but in fact Nyssa.

The Doctor and Lady Cranleigh.

Then he goes up there and that’s the first thing HE tells the guy! George has been to South America and something bad happened to him and his features got distorted and he went mad and lost the ability to speak it seems. What a horrible caricature was presented on screen. And his own family kept him tied up on a bed all the time! I mean really. Please! Don’t ask an audience to buy this crap.

Can't fix your plotholes? Take everyone into the TARDIS.

Then the cricket scene. Apart from the one ball Peter Davison bowled on the stumps which took a wicket, it’s woefully directed. The shots must have been done in a hurry because it doesn’t look like real cricket at all. The ball moves so slowly, the shots that Davison hits would be lucky to get past cover, the catch he takes clearly did not come off a bat. It seems like they had ten minutes to shoot the cricket game shots and they had to make do.

They dialogue is mostly expositional, especially from Tegan. Grrrr. Bad. BAD. BAAAAAD.

2.5/10

The Visitation

‘The Visitation’ was the second of Peter Davison’s stories to be recorded, behind ‘Four to Doomsday’. It’s a return to a more ‘traditional’ style of Doctor Who story, with an historical setting mixed with alien and science fiction elements. It’s a very solid story, enjoyable too, if not one without its issues as most stories have.

The Doctor and co spy a stranger in the tree

Eric Saward’s first Doctor Who script would see him very quickly become the script editor – Antony Root was script editor on a temporary basis only whilst JNT looked for a permanent person in the post. It’s a very solid four episodes, strongly directed by Peter Moffat, good pace and build up to the climax, a new and interesting villain, and a great setting.

The combination of history and science fiction is what Doctor Who does best, so it’s no surprise that ‘The Visitation’ is such a competent piece. By now, I have to be honest, it seems clear that the show’s biggest issue is the three companions. They have become caricatures and even over 100 minutes of story it seems very difficult to find something for them all to do. Naturally they get split up at points and have their own subplots, in ‘The Visitation’ though they inherit another pseudo-companion, Richard Mace (Michael Robbins) , who gets more of a supporting role than either Tegan, Adric or Nyssa. The sad thing is, he’s far more interesting than any of the three companions as well!

Android disguised as death.

Tegan meets the Tereleptil.

A highway man, an actor and a rogue, it might have been an interesting exercise to have a companion like that, but instead we get feisty, whiny and meek. No offence to any of the actorsn because they did their best with questionable material which rarely showed any interesting in using or developing their characters. Hey, in ‘Kinda’ they just wrote Nyssa out and barely used the other two. It goes to show that by now the best mix is just one companion with the Doctor. They can have a fair bit to do, whilst it allows for more colourful characters (like Mace) to also chime in with a sizeable role without diminishing that of the companion.

In ‘The Visitation’ Tegan spends half the story hypnotised, Nyssa spends nearly half in the TARDIS tinkering with a machine to destroy androids and Adric runs around looking for people, fighting badly and being pretty darned useless.

Saward starts the story well, with a group of humans attacked by androids and Tereleptils who have just arrived on Earth. They all die, so we don’t see any of the characters again,  but immediately the audience is drawn into this story.

Who you looking at?

The Doctor and his companions don’t take long to get drawn into local politics when a group of villagers immediately attack them after they arrive for very little reason other than ‘they’re strangers’. We see the android, the house, the Tereleptils. The main one has some great animatronics moving his mouth, although like the Marshmen in ‘Full Circle’ the joins in the costume betray poorly that there’s a man inside. Needed to be wet! Such a common issue with Who monsters!

Richard Mace helps out the Doctor.

It’s an interesting and pretty silly plot to be fair. Three Tereleptils on Earth plan to wipe out the population with a deadly virus. And then what? There’s just three of them. They can hardly populate the Earth now, can they? Still, it’s effective enough in my opinion. Most plots fall apart under real scrutiny, and I don’t just mean Doctor Who but Sci-fi plots in general.

The sets are a highlight, and the locations were perfectly chosen. The sets are pretty much faultless, easier to do when you don’t have to build a lot of futuristic stuff I know, but even the backdrop for London in the final scene is well done. The idea that this is the start of the fire of London is great too, the sort of thing which Doctor Who should have done more of by now – explain historical events. It’s paced well, moves along, has colourful characters. Far from perfect, but a very solid story!

7.5/10

Kinda

‘Kinda’ is a very different story in a season of different stories. However, it works on so many levels unlike ‘Castrovalva’, and that is because, purely and simply, good writing. Good writing, good ideas and good characters. Good exposition, a good mix of action in there with it, Christopher Baily’s first Doctor Who story is the first Peter Davison story I have liked.

There is a point to the story, unlike Bidmead’s rubbish which is a scientific concept gone awry. It has its fault, principally in production values and the fact that the giant snake at the climax of the story is rubbish, and that is a major issue because it’s the resolution and end of the show and that needs to convince your audience. The CGI version on the DVD is obviously a much better rendition of a giant snake, but perhaps they were asking too much of the production team initially. Still, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect a better effort than what they originally gave the viewers.

The Doctor enters the dome.

But let’s forget that. The script is complicated without being convoluted, which is very important for Doctor Who because once you’ve got a convoluted script the amazing production values will simply not get you out of that hole. Baily’s script has the two stories combined really. That of the Mara coming, and ancient force which comes to the Kinda world via Tegan’s dream. The ideas of collective dreams are great, the strength in collective dreaming is what prevents the Mara from coming through. Janet Fielding gets some great stuff as well.

Simon Rouse is brilliant as Hindle.

In the dome we have the plot of two men who have gone completely mad. The Doctor but principally Adric have the job of humouring them both. Hindle is wonderfully portrayed by Simon Rouse,

who would go on for a very many years in ‘The Bill’. His madness is not underplayed at all, but you never get the sense of over-acting. In fact it’s an incredibly believable performance. Richard Todd as Sanders loses his mind when he opens the kinda box, but it’s a very different kind of looney to Hindle. It’s great that someone with such a resume as Richard Todd threw himself into the role so wholeheartedly.

Mary Morris as the 'Old Woman'

Nerys Hughes was great support as Todd, and Mary Morris played the old woman Panna, and her look was absolutely amazing. Peter Davison’s performance is his strongest yet. Mathew Waterhouse finds Adric in distressing situations again, as he always seems to week after week. I feel quite sorry for the guy to be honest. I think he did his best but his character appears to written just to whine, complain and get into stupid situations. This story is no exception sadly and it would have been nice for a writer to take his character and develop it!

The Doctor shows the fool a trick,

Having said that it’s better than Nyssa – who was written out of this story at the start and only reappears once the whole thing is dealt with. This linked in apparently with her fainting at the end of the previous story. She uses a machine called a ‘delta-wave augmenter’ to give her some proper sleep. Very weak pointless bizarre stuff.

The sets were as good as you could hope for when doing a jungle for video in a small studio. They weren’t great and it would have been much better if they used filming and Ealing Studios, but this one was completely studio bound, as was ‘Four to Doomsday’. The dome sets were good, but you never really believe you’re on an alien world. The Kinda, the locals, also don’t exactly

This is NOT the CGI snake.

convince. Their costumes are a bit too nice and uniform – they all sort of look the same. Perhaps a lack of water of mud is another contributing factor.

‘Kinda’ though is an engrossing, interesting, at times funny story. It’s offbeat in some ways, larger than life in others and easily the best story since Peter Davison took over.

8.5/10

Four to Doomsday

Let’s start positive ok? There are some great ideas in the story, and a great premise. ‘Four to Doomsday’ is set entirely inside a space ship, and for the most part it’s the best looking space ship (on the inside) they have probably ever done to this point on Doctor Who. Veteran BBC writer but new to Who, Terence Dudley started from a good place.

The Doctor gives Tegan the key to the TARDIS.

However. If I was to laughingly call this story ‘Four to Snoozeday’, you might instantly get an idea of what’s wrong with the story. Yes, it’s painfully slow. Especially the first three episodes. And some of the ideas are not fleshed out. We have Stratford Johns, a stalwart of the TV series ‘Z Cars’, playing the main villain, an Erbankan called ‘Monarch’. Some pretty nice make up for the character too. We hear that his main plan is to go back in time when he has worked out how to go faster than light, and meet himself at the beginning of the Universe. Why? Because he believes he is God! Well, that sounds really interesting to me. However, it was merely mentioned in the story. We didn’t actually see Monarch talk about this plan.

Chinese and Indigenous Australian leaders.

Instead Monarch goes throughout the story from believing the Doctor trusts him to wanting the Doctor killed back to trusting him… it’s a real yoyo effect.

The companion characters are very poorly written. In fact they are pretty much shunted off as much as possible. Tegan moves the TARDIS – to just outside the space ship in an attempt to take it to Earth to warn everyone what was coming. For two episodes she is pretty much stuck in the TARDIS on her own saying ‘rabbits!’ She also happens to speak the exact dialect that the Aboriginal leader aboard the space ship does. The odds of that are zero. ZERO. ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Nyssa does a bit here and there, but not that much and Adric has the worst arc of all believing Moarch ahead of the Doctor in what was simply an unbelievable turn of events. I understand that they wanted the character to be somewhat naïve but really, it just seemed stupid.

The Doctor and Bigon (Philip Locke)

The Doctor… well this was Peter Davison’s first story filmed so I will cut him some slack but the emphasis on many lines doesn’t seem quite right and he is frequently angry at his companions and it just doesn’t work very well. He was finding his feet and has freely admitted feeling very unsure about the role at the time – he didn’t ever watch ‘Four to Doomsday’ until he recorded the commentary for it for the DVD!

The idea that they are on a space ship, four days from a date with Earth where Monarch intends to spread a virus, is great. Quite original. Hence the cool title! On the ship we have different ethnic groups – Aborigines from  36000 years ago or something, Greeks, Miyans, Chinese… but they are androids with chips… of Erbankans I think. It’s a little unclear. Except most only have motor functions. And every five minutes they have a cultural dance.

This story would have worked well as a 2 or maybe 3 parter. For four it just stretches the premise too far and so much of the story is filler. Dancing and the like. And after the first episode is very slow indeed.

The Doctor in space.

But there is a bit to like as I have mentioned. Add to that the climax of episode two – when Bigon (Philip Locke) reveals he is an android of sorts and pulls out his chip from a metal frame and says ‘this is me’. Right up there with the most chilling of cliff-hangers. The design is great too, although occasionally it’s obvious that the walls are basically molded plastic.

What could have worked is if four episodes were squashed into three, and in the final episode Monarch takes the TARDIS back to the beginning of the Universe to look for himself. That would have been a great conclusion and a payback for this information about Monarch which Terence Dudley never followed through with.

Finally, there’s a scene where the Doctor throws a cricket ball at the ship (he is suspended in space) which bounces back and he catches it, using the momentum to take him to the suspended TARDIS with Tegan inside. Ok, so he couldn’t survive in space for a second let alone six minutes as he claimed, and perhaps the science is completely wrong (although listening to the splendid chaps podcast they believe it’s all good), it’s still rather a good scene and shot very well by director John Black.

The drawbacks are principally the lack of pace and excitement. But it’s not the worst of stories, if still a little dry.

5/10

Castrovalva

A new Doctor at last - Peter Davison

So at long last we have a new Doctor. Peter Davison appears on screen properly as the Doctor for the first time in ‘Castrovalva’, however this is in fact the fourth story that he has recorded. The second story chronologically, ‘Four to Doomsday’, was the first recorded and he has much shorter hair in that one.

Again, Christopher H. Bidmead has written the story, and sadly it makes less sense than Logopolis. I can’t say I was very taken with the tale. It’s not very exciting, it’s a concept piece perhaps, and as the opening story to a new Doctor it was a very poor choice. Doctor Who at this point moved to a twice-weekly slot over two nights a week, the first day-shift the programme has experienced. Although Season 17 rated its socks off, the ratings for Season 18 were as bad as the series had seen in 12 years, and as an overall season I think the lowest average.

The Doctor tries to prevent the destruction of the TARDIS.

Quite a shift from the (admittedly aided by strikes at ITV) ratings of Season 17 which contained ‘City of Death’, the highest rated story of all time, at around 17 million for one episode. In contrast 4-6 million was more the norm for season 18, season 19 saw those figures pretty much double in the new time slot.

BUT I digress, again. Christopher H. Bidmead comes across as being very full of himself on the DVDs, and quite frankly I don’t know why. He had a vision for the show, but after only one year became the outgoing script editor in favour of Antony Root. He still had given himself the power by writing Tom Baker’s last tale and Peter Davison’s first. ‘Castrovalva’ continues from where Logopolis left us, the Master is still hanging around.

It’s a story of two halves – the first is completely centred around the TARDIS and the Doctor’s failing regeneration, the second in the land of Castrovalva. Note that this story, like Logopolis, has an ambiguous sounding name based on a location of the story.

The Doctor arrives in Castrovalva.

Not since the heady days of William Hartnell had the production team decided to use the TARDIS so much, or explore it so heavily. They needn’t have bothered. It’s white and uninteresting and apart from the odd room it’s mostly corridors. The Doctor seeks refuge in the zero room, which is a nice idea and it doesn’t look too bad. The whole TARDIS should have been that soft pink colour, might have looked better!

Communicating to Castrovalvans isn't so easy.

The Master has set a trap, using a projection of Adric (I think) to set the co-ordinates for ‘Event One’, the hydrogen in-rush which began the Universe, he hopes to destroy the Doctor that way. Adric is stuck in a web for most of the story, in the Master’s TARDIS creating things, and several projections of himself that run around and do stuff. With the regeneration failing, this was not the wisest choice by Bidmead because Nyssa and Tegan are left trying to help the Doctor but they haven’t reallyhad much of a relationship with him beforehand, there’s no history. In fact, Tegan isn’t even a willing companion at all. Narratively it would have made more sense for Nyssa to be trapped in the web, I believe.

There’s not a lot of action until part four. Part One starts a bit lively as they are chased to the TARDIS, but then it’s wandering through corridors mostly. Oh, big finish. More time in the TARDIS in episode two, but eventually they arrive on Castrovalva after some awful dialogues about Index Files which really is squirm material. Not the actors’ fault – Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton do a great job delivering Bidmead’s wordy scientific rubbish. The rest of the episode is them wandering through the forest towards Castrovalva, a citadel atop some rocks.

The Master finally decides it's time to kill the Doctor.

Episode Three and the Doctor starts to recover, they are taken in to Castrovalva, we meet a whole bunch of other characters, something is wrong, build, episode end. Episode four they work out that Castrovalva is suffering from ‘recursion’, obviously Bidmead’s favourite word of the day he thought he would turn into a story. Turns out one of the people from Castrovalva – the Portrieve, is in fact the Master! Anthony Ainley starts to camp it up a bit. ‘Castrovalva’ was all a plan to, as far as I can see, catch the Doctor and destroy him, which disguised at the Portrieve the Master had plenty of chances to do.

Suddenly the people of Castrovalva, also created as part of this plot by the Master, realise he’s bad and attack him. Behind a tapestry we find Adric and the web! The Doctor pulls Adric out and the run away, to find recursion really taking hold of Castrovalva now. They have a lot of difficulty in working out how to get out! Luckily Adric created the place and he can see the way out. The Master is not so lucky and is still inside when the citadel disappears.

Space folds in on itself. Like so.

All that to just kill the Doctor? Because the ‘Event One’ thing didn’t work? Bah! Rubbish utter rubbish. It’s the first story of a new Doctor, you don’t want to spend most of the time working out what’s going on, you want to see what the new guy has to offer. And Peter Davison is a little in consistent to be honest. However, he’s just regenerated and it’s all within the bounds of what could be. Cast-wise it’s strong. It’s just so pointless! It’s not very engaging and quite boring at times to be honest. As a first story, I would have preferred to see a bit of action, and get to see more of Peter Davison as he takes the reins.

4/10

Logopolis

Tom Baker and Mathew Watherhouse

One thing that feels imminent is the end of the fourth Doctor, all the way through season 18. Things had changed and a change in the lead man was what was needed to really reboot the series and launch it unapologetically into the 80s. The final tale of season 18, Logopolis, sees Tom Baker say goodbye in a script written by Christopher H. Bidmead, which seems to indulge the author a lot.

Not to say that this is a bad story. It certainly has an epic feel to it, but it is absolutely riddled with issues. But let’s start with the new companion – Tegan Jovanka. When she appears in episode one with her Aunt Vanessa, there are some great exchanges between the two. Breath of fresh air? Definitely! A real feeling relationship with a bit of humour. John Nathan-Turner cast Janet Fielding as the Australian air-hostess, and the casting was perfect.

The Doctor is found in the TARDIS cloister room. The cloisters ring impending doom, so at the final story for the fourth Doctor, it’s fitting to start there. The set is rather nice too. All of a sudden the Doctor wants to repair the chameleon circuit, and decides to materialise around another police box. Turns out the Master already did that, so we have a TARDIS inside a TARDIS inside a TARDIS… the conundrum continues on and on. Except that unlike

in ‘The Time Monster’ they are all the Doctor’s TARDIS, which makes little sense. The Master dematerialises, but the issue continues, and yet there the Master is to kill Auntie Vanessa. Bidmead, that who sequence makes no sense at ALL!

The Logopolitans await the Doctor's arrival.

As I said, Bidmead seems to be playing with ideas, but he forgot to make something that made sense. We have all this guff about materialising the TARDIS underwater to flush the Master out. We have the Watcher – a projection of the next Doctor. I liked that idea. We end up on Logopolis where the Monitor and the Logopolitans are trying to harness the power of the CVE to stop the Universe disappearing thanks to entropy.

Apparently the collapse of the Universe has started, and only Logopolis stands between the Universe and total disintegration. Pity the planet looks so rubbish. I mean really it does, it’s the final story for a great Doctor and the corridors and backdrops look like white tarpaulins with a bit of sand. It’s a dreadfully unconvincing design.

Anthony Ainley and Sarah Sutton

Oh yes so the Master is back, now played officially by Anthony Ainly in a frilling costume with tails. That’s right –TAILS! Pantomime much? Although much of performance is pitched softly with chilling undertones, so I think he did a good job in his first full story as Master. We will have to wait and see if he returns. Did he need to go the beard, just like Roger Delgado? Probably not.

Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) suddenly shows up, brought to Logopolis by the Watcher – why? Don’t really know. She is manipulated rather callously by the Master whom she believes is her father briefly, but she adds little to the story. She sees her planet, Traken, destroyed in a heartbeat by entropy on the TARDIS screen. Considering the Master has also taken over her father’s body, I guess I expected her to be a bit more upset than she was. In fact the rate that the TARDIS scanner shows the entropy taking over the Universe, you’d think the whole Universe would be gone in 1-2 minutes. Perhaps hard to show but it seems impossible that anything survived.

The Master and Doctor face off.

The Doctor and the Master team up in a chilling end to episode three. They end up at Earth’s Pharos Project, a disk aimed at the sky, to send information taken from Logopolis to keep the CVE open and save the Universe. This they do, but the Master turns around and sends a bulletin to the Universe that if they don’t accept him as supreme leader he will destroy the CVE and the Universe with it. The Doctor then climbs out onto a moving gantry to disconnect the cable, he does but falls to his doom. This at least prevents the master from destroying the CVE. The Master runs away as guard approach the control room connected to the gantry. It’s not shot very well sadly, and the use of a still photograph of Anthony Ainley to show he is watching the Doctor’s struggle to get to the cable is frankly laughable. But I guess Peter Grimwade, the Director, was very stretched on both budget and time.

It's the end, but the moment has been prepared for.

On the fake Astroturf below the dish, the Doctor is joined by his companions, and then the Watcher. They become one, and the Doctor has a new face – Peter Davison. That scene was done nicely bar some of the replayed clips of enemies and friends, which had out of sync sound and were unneeded. The style of combining the two (in fact three) actors was different from previous regenerations, and I liked that very much.

The story is a real mixed bag. It’s big on gloom doom, but not on action. I still don’t understand why a CVE – Charged Vacuum Embointment, which it has been established as a gateway to E-space, can stop entropy. I don’t understand WHY the Universe was decaying to the point of no return. I do understand they wanted to link back to E-space and therefore the CVEs gained importance. I don’t understand why some shots are grainy, others are blurry, and the look of the thing is very inconsistent.

It has an epic feel, needed for a Doctor’s finale. It’s well acted for the most part. The design is stretched too far – and dolls are used to represent the shrunken remains of the people the Master kills with his Tissue Compression Eliminator. Not convincing at all. It smacks of a story that struggled to get made to be honest. It’s a little to ideas-focussed for mine. But Tom Baker – what an amazing 7 years he gave to the part. Wonderful wonderful performance over the years, and he is wonderful in his final tale.

6.5/10