Battlefield

Nic Courtney and Jean Marsh.

‘Battlefield’ to me is a prime example of what goes wrong when a writer has a thousand ideas he wants to include in the one story and doesn’t want to let go of some of them to make a story work. Instead we have a lot of rushing around from scene to scene, location to location, trying mix the elements together but we don’t really get a coherent story. We get instead a hotchpotch of scenes and concepts that don’t really gel.

Let’s see. We have knights from another dimension. We have the return of UNIT. We have the return

Cast pic!

of the Brigadier. We have a nuclear missile. We have King Arthur. We have Morgaine played by the amazing Jean Marsh. We have Bessie. We have the destroyer. We have a war. We have the hunt for Excalibur. We have a space ship in Vortigan’s Lake.

The sum total of which is – not much. It’s a grade A flop. Ben Aaronvitch’s first story, ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ also suffers from the same sort of issues, however it pulls together a hell of a lot better than ‘Battlefield’. It’s a pity because much of ‘Battlefield’ is well done. The idea that the Doctor is Merlin has merit, but there is very little purpose to the story. Morgaine is after Excalibur, right? She gets the sword, and

disappears presumably back to her own dimension. But instead she returns to the battlefield where her soldiers lie dead and decides to destroy as much as she can with the nuclear missile.

The story needed to start with the convoy arriving at the lake and having troubles. Why couldn’t they get the thing moving after a few hours let alone a few days? Why was Brigadier Bambera not with the convey at the very start? Why are the knights propelled through space just wearing armour when they come from a different dimension?

Their armour looks like traditional armour with chain mail underneath. It is made quite clear that shooting them in the head would kill them, so how can they

survive being propelled across space and dimensions. Ancelyn is next to a grenade when it goes off and he flies through the air and into the beer shed. He’s a little dazed. It’s just really lazy writing when something more conceivable could have written in to get characters from point A to point B. In my opinion at least.

We have the beautifully sculpted mask ever in Doctor Who for the blue destroyer. It’s a pity he wasn’t more relevant to the storyline. He wasn’t used all that badly though. The music is dreadful, my favourite composer Keff McCulloch is at it again. Drum machine much?

So how could this story have worked? How about the Doctor and Ace actually meeting King Arthur? The real one, none of this alternate dimension nonsense which was pretty meaningless to me. I don’t know if the characters in this are the ones from the legend, or a version of them in another dimension. Maybe it shouldn’t matter but I get caught up on these things from time to time. Arthur thinks the Doctor is Merlin, which puts the Doctor in a scrape, and the story builds from there. It could still feature science fiction aspects. But honestly, it seems like Aaronovitch woke up one day and thought – ‘UNIT fighting knights from another dimension? Awesome!’ and wrote ‘Battlefield’.

It is good to see Nicholas Courtney, and the casting is strong at least with the one exception of Shou Yuing (Ling Tai) who is rather dreadful at times. McCoy has good and bad moments throughout, as is the norm for him. The direction is ok but the music dictates far too much of the story and is enough to drive you mad. Seriously.

3/10

The Five Doctors

Tegan and the Doctor at the Eye of Orion

Carole Ann Ford as Susan with a NEW First Doctor.

After twenty years, it was time for a one-off special, and in the vein of ‘The Three Doctors’, ‘The Five Doctors’ provides an entertaining, fun story to celebrate a very special milestone. The fact that Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee were in it is a little bit magical. Tom Baker declined (in the end), and I must admit I think it might have been a little strange if he was in it. The use of the ‘Shada’ clips was a clever way around it and allowed the story to be called ‘The Five Doctors’. Add to that Richard Hundrell’s First Doctor, (Hartnell sadly passed away in 1975), and the thing works brilliantly. Hundrell is NOT William Hartnell, but similar in many ways whilst putting his own mark on the part as well.

Then Carole Ann Ford, Lis Sladen and Nicholas Courtney came back to reprise their roles, with cameos from Caroline John, Richard Franklin, Wendy Padbury and Fraser Hines. Plus Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti and Athony Ainley as the Master. It really was a celebration of all that had come before in the previous 20 years. A tough task for Terrance Dicks, but one he did a great job with considering all the things he had to include. His writing is very natural, and whilst it feels quite different from recent stories, it was a true ‘Doctor Who’ tale from a man who knows the show as well as anyone.

Jon Pertwee is also back.

I won’t go into the behind-the-scenes issues with Robert Holmes and the likes here, I will just look at this 90 minute special, which was slightly extended on the version I saw on the DVD. To the short comings firstly. It was sad to see Borusa turned into the bad guy, and Peter Moffat cast him with the fourth actor in as many stories (Philip Latham) who seems evil from the get-go to be honest. So this turn to the dark side was telegraphed and with the Borusas we have seen previously, it is rather hard to believe as well. Paul Jericho is back as the Castellan, getting brutally

And Pat Troughton!

shot on Borusa’s orders, and the garish Gallifrey/capitol sets are also back with a vengeance. Borusa also gets some crazy headwear at one point. A couple of dodgy direction points here and there – Susan spraining her ankle was perhaps more a nod to this oft-used plot device rather than anything else, but it’s not done or directed convincingly. When the Third Doctor meets Sarah, he pulls her up a slight incline using a cable and Bessie. To be frank it looks ridiculous and something else should have been done in my opinion if they couldn’t convince.

A couple of old companions cameo.

Aside from that, what’s not to like? Okay, the script isn’t amazing, ground-breaking stuff, but it didn’t need to be. It needed to provide something for all appearing Doctors to do, which it did admirably, and it needed to wrap things up nicely. It also did

that. The principle location, Wales, was a good choice. Certainly better than a quarry! Then we have a new TARDIS console, a huge step up from the previous one which had been used, I think, since Graham Williams took the reins, and to be honest was a poor cousin to the original console first seen in 1963.

It’s a wonderful nod to the past, Peter Davison gets a good run as ‘the Doctor’, as he should have. I agree with some disappointment that it would have been nice to have the Doctors sharing more screen time together. Pertwee and Troughton again are great together but they don’t  get that much of a chance. They both still retain what they originally brought to the role brilliantly, even if Troughton is a little more understated than he was in ‘The Three Doctors’. He is ten years older of course.

What else is there to say? This ticks a lot of boxes for me. Much better than the general feel of Season 20 too, which was rather bland at times despite the Guardian stories being rather solid.

8.5/10

Mawdryn Undead

The Brig is back!

A story which plays a lot with time, Peter Grimwade was given a second chance and despite the story being complicated, he makes a much better fist of his second tale than his first. We see the return of the Brigadier after it seems like forever, which is nice, even though he was originally supposed to be in UNIT in the early 1980s (Sarah Jane once said she was from the 1980s) and yet in 1977 he looks a good 10-15 years older than when we last saw him. So if I was only interested in Doctor Who cannon I would have to give this story a big fail, but I’m kinder than that.

It is another loopy story with some nice touches in the scenes mirroring each other in 1983 and 1977. The idea of two Brigadiers, the way when they touch the day is saved, the build up is excellent. We have a new companion too in Turlough, the return of the Black Guardian, we have a lot in this one, and for the most part it works.

Strange that they wanted to go back to three companions, or indeed a male companion. Turlough seems very old for school, but is perfectly pitched by Mark Strickson and is clearly no Adric-replacement. Then we have the great David Collings (previously appeared in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ and ‘Robots of Death’, another great piece of casting, as Mawdryn, a member of a race who cannot die stuck on a space ship going nowhere. I really like most of the elements, and for the most part they come together pretty well.

David Collings must have felt he was still on the Sandminer from ‘Robots of Death’, the space ship was decked out in Art-Deco and didn’t look too bad. Ok, the exterior was very poor and unbelievable but you can forgive that by choosing the new CGI effects on the DVD menu. They are a good idea because the 80s effects used are seriously distracting and garish, especially the pattern behind the Black Guardian, played by the returning Valentine Dyall. Apparently he didn’t know what was going on for much of the production, and I can see that but he is perfectly cast in a sadly two-dimensional villain. They might as well have used the Master, but I’m glad they didn’t. Does the Black Guardian storyline add a lot to the rest of the story? I don’t think so to be fair, it would have worked just as well without him.

David Collings as Mawdryn.

Mark Strickson, Valentine Dyall and those 80s special effects!

It is a little slow in places, there does seem to be an awful lot of shots of people wandering around the space ship watching the automatic lights pop on and off. I think a trick was missed too. Nyssa and Tegan find a man they think is the Doctor (it’s Mawdryn) burned in the capsule, and take him back on board the TARDIS. He says he is the Doctor and is regenerating. But then we see the Doctor in a different time zone conversing with the Brigadier. A great scene by the way – flashbacks to earlier adventures featured, which is rare. BUT what if the audience DIDN’T know either? Maybe we have a new Doctor? With spaghetti on his head….

Probably wouldn’t have worked but I think it’s a nice idea. This story is not perfect, but it is a nice idea. The aliens move around brilliantly in there strange foam costumes like Daleks – they don’t appear to have feet. I liked that. The design was pretty good too even with the spaghetti. It’s very timey-wimey, but in a good way, and if you over look the cannon-stuff, the plot holds together very well.

The original plan was to bring back Ian Chesterton, which I would have loved to see (instead of the Brigadier), but when he proved unavailable the script was altered to suit Nicholas Courtney returning as the Brigadier, and it worked very well. The Brig is a classic Who character after all.

All in all, it’s fun but could do with a bit of a snip here and there. And definitely opt for the new CGI effects on your DVD.

7/10

Terror of the Zygons

Hoots, it's a Zygon!

Och Aye! It’s been a long time since the Doctor found himself in Scotland, and in real terms not relative even longer – ‘The Highlanders’ was set in the 18th century after all. ‘Terror of the Zygons’ is again in the ‘near future’, relative to its broadcast of course, so we can say around 1980 or so. It’s an interesting tale, with some excellent looking creatures in the Zygons, all red with nodules. Of course they still look a little bit human and you can see the top of the costume and the bottom are like pants and a pullover, but good to see a new monster in Doctor Who.
Also good to see the Brigadier and Benton back as well. It starts well, very mysteriously and eerily over the Scottish moors not too far from Loch Ness. John Woodnutt returns to the Doctor Who fold with a great performance as Broton/The Duke of Forgill, some wonderfully rolled ‘r’s! Not to be out done though, we have Angus Lennie as Angus the owner of the pub, who previously appeared as a scavenger in ‘The Ice Warriors’ with his wonderful Scottish accent. ‘I’m the seventh son of the seventh son’ – which granted him powers of second sight. Wonderful if not big supporting role.

A Scottish Tom?

It’s dopple-ganger city in this story, even though we’re on the countryside. That’s the Zygons plan. Although there’s a lot that’s not clear – how long have the Zygons been planning taking over Earth using the Skarasen – the Loch Ness Monster. It all starts by the monster attacking oil rigs. Well that’s a bit odd too really, Broton claims it was preparation or something, but really they just brought UNIT and the Doctor down on themselves (the Zygons).
Robert Banks Stewart wrote this one, a new writer to ‘Who’. His characters, action and atmosphere are superb, but unfortunately the plotting is pretty ridiculous. Not that other Doctor Who stories can’t claim that, but it just doesn’t logically piece together. An energy conference in London is the Zygons’ main target, where they will unveil the monster and broadcast their demands to the world. How the devil did the monster get all the way to London from Loch Ness without being seen and so quickly?

The Doctor does some dental work/

If I was grumpy, I too might attack an oil rig I guess.

In the third episode The Duke (Broton) leaves Sarah alone in the library which connects via a passageway to the Zygon space ship. That seemed a little careless as he knew the Doctor was onto him. So much doesn't add up and defies logic.
That said, it’s certainly not a BAD Doctor Who story. It’s well paced, exciting, the ideas behind the organic nature of the Zygon ship are nice, and the design is excellent. I would have liked the local community to feature a bit more and give a sense of the location, and a proper purpose to the attacks on the oil rigs. The characters and the characterisations though were colourful and highly enjoyable. It ends rather oddly when Harry decides to not to go with the Doctor and Sarah at the end, preferring to rely on road transportation. He had become a regular companion, and although the series may not have needed him, it seemed odd he would turn his back on the time travelling just like that. Sorry to see him go.

Last time as a team, The Doctor, Harry and Sarah.

7/10

Planet of the Spiders

Jon Pertwee’s swansong is a strange six part tale involving the good, bad and questionable aspects that have become the trademarks of his era. Originally planned as the final story with the Master, Roger Delgado had sadly died and this was then a completely new story written by Barry Letts and Robert Sloman.

'The Great One'

It’s not their best work, nor their work. Jon Pertwee is again a tower of strength as the Doctor, Elizabeth Sladen wonderful as Sarah. Great performances throughout from John Dearth as Lupton and John Kane wonderfully playing Tommy, the man who starts off simple but his learning disability disappears thanks to the Doctor’s Metabelis crystal.

It ties in and up a lot of stuff, finally we get some time on Metebelis Three, a planet the third Doctor often talked about (and went, briefly, in episode one of ‘The Green Death’.) Roger Delgado’s widow, Kismet Delgado, gets to voice the ‘Great One’, the all powerful spider. Cyril Shaps is back for another story, this time he dies in the first episode! And there are a host of players from the Pertwee era with guest parts and Jo gets a mention too.

The Brig and Benton take Bessie on the chase!

There’s a chase sequence, a very pointless and long one, in episode two. But it’s all a bit of fun as the Doctor and Lupton go from craft to craft. It takes half the episode only to end with Lupton being transported away. Some dodgy CSO when the Whomobile flies, and then for the village on Metebelis Three – one trait common with the Pertwee era which was less successful.

We have the three main UNIT regulars, the Brigadier, Benton and Richard Franklin in his final story as Mike Yates, redeeming himself for past foibles in ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ which is nice. Generally the acting is fantastic, however, the exception is the villagers, and I hate to single someone out for bad acting, so I will single out both the mother and daughter of the villagers – Neska and Rega (I won’t write the actors names down) as possibly the two worst performances in Doctor Who history. The mother over acts terribly, the daughter underacts. Maybe it’s courtesy of bad dialogue, but they are genuine shockers!

The spiders are, on the whole, realised pretty well and are pretty creepy. They’re a little bit megalomaniac standard for me, and the sets in the spiders city are poor. Mostly light blue or cream corridors and the spider council sits on plastic benches. I understand they needed to be raised to facilitate dialogue with the human characters, but it’s not just the lighting that’s bad here. The whole thing should have been very dark and cobwebs, probably didn't need to build anything. Cobwebs in front of a black backdrop would have worked much better.

George Cormack as Kanpo.

The at the end we have some wonderful moments. The process of regeneration explained far more than previously. Great lines and moments, the idea to have Kanpo regenerate first was a great piece of writing to clue the audience in to what was going to happen to the Doctor. Kanpo is played by Geroge Cormack, who played Dalios in 'The Time Monster', and couldn't have been more suited to the role. Also, he is now the Monk which the Doctor talked about with Jo in 'The Time Monster'. 

Wonderfully played final episode by Jon Pertwee, showing fear brilliantly when faced with the great one. The use of Tommy is also very good. So much to love mixed in with a bit of the dubious too. Farewell Jon Pertwee, another great Doctor. An actor worthy and perfect for the role. That’s 3/3 so far!

7.5/10

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Director Paddy Russel’s first Doctor Who story was ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’, a strange story that I really enjoyed except for, well, any Doctor Who fan will know what’s wrong with this story. If you’re going to call a story ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’, then simply your first priority once the script is written is to have decent looking dinosaurs. And this story scores a massive fail in that area.

The Drashings were quite dinosaur-like in ‘Carnival of Monsters’, so it’s disappointing that something of the same quality couldn't be done for this story. The dinosaurs don’t work on any level sadly, and there are three key reasons why. 

Jon Pertwee CSOed onto a model. Not the best. The Stegosaurus isn't great, but the backdrop is dreadful.

1/ They lack detail, movable limbs and don’t look realistic at all. In fact, they look like something out of a carton of cereal. They appear to be held by their tails. It’s shocking.

2/ The backdrops they are put in front of don’t match the filming. They look like models sadly and it was a very strange decision to do it this way. As the dinosaurs only, for the most part, appear outside, the corresponding shots are all on film. So the Doctor looks up to see a T-Rex, cut to a T-Rex in front of a set that looks like it’s from ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’. They should have, in this case, shot the angles they needed on film and CSOed the monsters in. Instead the Doctor gets CSOed onto unrealistic backgrounds, shot on video, facing giant plastic toys. Fail on every level.

3. They linger sooooooo long on the dinosaurs. The key to building suspense is limit the time you see the monster. Give glimpses. But the shots just go on and on and on. The longer you look at the dinosaurs, the more you see their faults.

A T-Rex in chains.

Perhaps a different director would have come up with a different way to do the shots. But sadly it’s embarrassing for Paddy Russel. Michael Ferguson would have been perfect for this story – he is the most inventive and clever director of this era in my opinion, and that’s the sort of thinking ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ needed to work.

But enough of the criticism, because actually I like this story save the dinosaurs, which I understand is a fairly common stance amongst Doctor Who fans. The plot, although quite non-sensical when examined closely, is very interesting. I rather like most of the sets even if many of the corridors wobble a bit too much. It’s well cast, seeing the return of Peter Miles as Whitaker, played almost exactly as he played his character in ‘The Silurians’. But mad-Professor – he’s your man! Martin Jarvis as his sidekick was perhaps under-utilised. We have Mike Yates back and Richard Franklin gets to explore the more gullible side of his nature as he changes sides, believing this Earth is in trouble.

Whitaker (left) Sarah, Finch and Grover.

Whitaker plans to turn the Earth back to the Jurassic era, keeping London intact. Really though – isn’t he just taking London back in time? Why would you bother reversing time for all the Earth when you already had equipment that pulls dinosaurs out of time and brings them to the future – ie. he has already achieved time travel!

But don’t look too hard, and you won’t notice the absurdity of the script. We have a group of people who believe they are on a space ship heading to ‘New Earth’, but in fact are still stuck in central London whilst they turn time back. It’s interesting that Hulke has written them all as quite dim, but believing that the world has become ultra-polluted and society has degenerated. He writes them as fools, in stark contrast to characters in ‘The Green Death’. That’s what is really interesting about ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ – what happens when environmentalists go too far? Hulke and Letts, it must be said, were on different sides of the fence politically.

Sarah aboard the fake space ship.

The acting is very solid, this aspect Paddy Russel excels at when it comes to directing. It moves pretty well. There’s a strange instance when the Doctor has been framed, and then he escapes, and he starts running away to the middle of nowhere for some reason though, and that seems to simply be filler as there’s a long chase sequence. Benton has a wonderful moment when he punches General Finch, played by John Bennet. As they fight he is told he will be court-martialled and he says ‘yes sir, very good sir’ as the fight goes on. He then smiles about it in the final scene, and is wonderfully reminded by the Brigadier he’d better not make a habit of it. As for Mike Yates, it seems the end of the line for him...

Classic moment - Benton grapples with Finch!

I still like this story despite a seemingly very critical review. The plot’s bonkers and the dinosaurs are embarrassingly woeful, but still I like this one. It’s a pity the colour-recovery didn’t work out for episode one, the results are ok at points but pretty bad at others. It’s possibly the best episode of the six too, very foreboding. I love the idea of the Doctor and Sarah returning to London to find no-one around, martial-law enforced and wondering what’s happened. It’s very eerie, and we only see a dinosaur at the very end. Oh, hate to end on a negative note but three episodes end with the Doctor being faced with a (dodgy obviously) T-Rex. Oh, if only....

6.5/10

The Time Warrior

Greeted by new credits

The season-opener for Season 11 is really a wonderful piece of writing, with some fantastic performances from the guest cast. It’s a fun romp, with a wonderful humorous  edge. Whilst Robert Holmes introduces the Sontarans, a potato-headed warrior race, the real stars of the show are the characters he wrote so beautifully in Irongron and Bloodaxe, portrayed by David Daker and John J. Carney. As a pair they are simply very funny, and work brilliantly off each other. There is something very funny about seeing two stupid people in positions of power.

Irongron (left) with Bloodaxe.

For Example: Bloodaxe (to Irongron): Indeed yours is a towering intelligence.

Then we have Professor Rubeish, played by Donald Pelmear.  A doddering old scientist blind without his glasses who potters along for the whole story like he’s invisible to Linx, the Sontaran, played by Kevin Lindsay, holding up a piece of glass he fashioned into a spectacle. Linx looks great, the mask is well proportioned to the actor’s face, and they cast exactly the right man for the job in my opinion. We only see his face sparingly too, the director has avoided revealing too much of his chief-villain.

Kevin Lidsay as the lovely Linx.

However, the end of episode one is extremely contrived. The Doctor is hiding in the castle behind a wagon or something, and Linx strolls out, and takes his helmet off so we can see his ugly features. There’s no good reason for him to do so unless he was desperate for air I guess.

Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.

Now, we have a new character as well, a new ‘companion’ for the Doctor when she sneaks aboard the TARDIS as the Doctor sets course for medieval England, Sarah Jane Smith. Quite a departure from Jo Grant, Sarah is very aggressive and in fact thinks the Doctor is responsible for the missing scientists for a time. Played by the late Elizabeth Sladen, Sarah is very good in this story, making a strong debut, organising attacks on Irongron’s castle, kidnapping the Doctor and the like.

Eventually she realises the Doctor is on the side of good of course, and helps him out. She helps the rather helpless Edward of Wessex (Alan Rowe), who is attacked by Irongron and fears for his castle and lands.

personal favourite: Bloodaxe

What is strange is that Irongron and his band of men with questionable intelligence don’t seem to be very good at hunting, instead preferring to capture castles, stay there until all the food and drink has been consumed and move to the next castle. Not really sure what the ultimate aim is.

Linx and Irongron plot together.

It’s a nice, compact four-part story. The DVD release includes some new CGI effects, which is a good thing because to be frank the effects in the original telecast version are all a bit rubbish, especially the exploding castle at the end. Robert Holmes was apparently reluctant to write a story in an historical setting, however ‘The Time Warrior’ proves that mixed with science fiction elements, an historical setting is a great place to set a Doctor Who story.

8/10

The Green Death

Jo and Professor Jones.

We say a fond farewell to Katy Manning and Jo Grant in this story. We return to a far more familiar style of tale for the Pertwee era in an Earth-based story that could have been penned by Malcolm Hulke for its political message, but was in fact written by Barry Letts and Robert Sloman. It has a strong environmental message, before the green movement had really started to make waves. In fact we see the environmentalists shown as basically a bunch of fringe-dwellers led by the charismatic Professor Cliff Jones (Stewart Bevan).

Stevens and the 'BOSS'.

The plot is an interesting mix of styles I feel. It’s quite different in many ways from the previous two season-finales in ‘The Daemons’ and ‘The Time Monster’. There’s a blend of comedy in this one and I think it’s just about Jon Pertwee’s best performance as the Doctor. It’s little wonder – he gets to pretend to be a milkman and the cleaning lady in a wonderful comic-turn which had previously been denied the actor, who entered Doctor Who with a career primarily as a comedian.

The main protagonist is the ‘BOSS’, a megalomaniac computer voiced by John Dearth. It’s a lovely performance from a man who didn’t actually get to appear on screen, full of colour and clear enjoyment. His chief puppet is ‘Stevens’, the chief of Global Chemicals, played by Jerome Willis. There’s just one thing – where has this computer come from? Who built it? In some ways it’s a copy of WOTAN from the first Doctor Who story ‘The War Machines’, albeit done much better. The BOSS plans to take over the world when the other main computers are all linked to him. However, again, it is never explained where the computer came from and why it became so crazy and power mad.

Yates and Stevens.

The direction is solid, especially for the actors’ performances. I wonder though if they ran out of time on the location shoot, because there are a number of shots that should have been shot outdoors that have instead been done on CSO. It doesn’t work at all well unfortunately, and that’s disappointing because much of the story is really good and really well done. The glowing green marks on people infected by the ooze or maggots for instance. The maggots themselves are pretty well done in most cases. But, like ‘Carnival of Monsters’, CSO is relied on just a little too much. Also some of the model shots of the maggots on the hill don’t match the exterior shooting at all. At the end of the day, they had time and money constraints, but it holds back the story from being as good as it could have been.

Jon Pertwee the cleaning lady!

The characters are great, and the Brigadier, Benton and Yates all have good parts. Poor Richard Franklin, doesn't appear until episode three or four, and this was his only story in season 10! But he gets to look funky in a suit and wear his hair unlike a military type. Katy Manning gets a great send off, perhaps this is the one time I can believe in the ‘falling in love and getting married’ reason for leaving the show. With Letts and Sloman, Katy had a writing duo who know her character very very well, so the issues of ‘Planet of the Daleks’ do not resurface here. It does however make the whole situation with Jo and Latep in the previous story seem even more out of place.

Set in a wonderful little Welsh mining town, the characters and lilting accents colour the story very well, with some wonderful performances from the supporting cast. The Nut-Hutch, the home of Professor Jones and the whole-wheat community is also well done. Very sad to see Jo go, it’s definitely the end of an era. The final scene where the Doctor drives off, teary-eyed, is one of the most touching moments in the show’s history to this point, and I suspect, to this day it remains so.

7.5/10

The Three Doctors

Have you ever met yourself? I have. It’s a very frustrating experience to be honest. At least in this story the three Doctors didn’t start singing and dancing – that’s what happened when I bumped into to other selves the last time.

Publicity shot of the Three Doctors.

Please see ‘The Quest for the Golden Slippers’ for more information.

‘The Three Doctors’ was penned by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, and in some ways is the least bizarre of their first three tales. An honour to receive the chance to write the first ever multi-Doctor story I expect, they acquitted themselves very well. But as a viewer, it’s just a joy to see, above everything else, Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton on screen together. They look like they actually get along very well, but I believe initially they didn’t. However their dialogue, their exchanges were just a joy to behold, and Baker and Martin wrote very well from Troughton.

Poor William Hartnell, in poor health at the time, gets sadly very little to do except appear on the TARDIS scanner and issue instructions. Would have loved even one scene with him and the other two in the final episode. It’s a pity that wasn’t possible and for much of the story it is sadly just the two Doctors.

Perhaps though the actor that steals the show in this one is Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier in the way he deals with Patrick Troughton, not to mention the situation. Finally the Brig and Benton (John Levene) get inside the TARDIS to see what it’s all about. Nicholas Courtney spends most of the four episodes disbelieving everything the Doctors say to him, blowing his top and being extremely army-like (as in more than usual!). As with Jon Pertwee his best stuff is playing straight man to Patrick Troughton.

We have the return of the Time Lord home planet, still unnamed (Spoiler alert: It’s Gallifrey. I should know, I was born there!). It’s very big and very blue, and we have a bunch of Time Lords without names who we don’t know much about running the show.

Then there is the villain of the piece, Omega, played by the boisterous Stephen Thorne. Thorne was equally as loud as Azal in ‘The Daemons’, still he didn’t hold back here either. In an interview on the DVD he said he would have played it much softer if he had the chance to do it again. He did, perhaps push it too far, although I didn’t mind the performance to be fair. It certainly is a very impressive voice! The mask and look was rather good too.

Omega

The story is not as clever as the previous two by this industrious writing pair. ‘The Mutants’ especially makes the audience think and analyse, and ‘The Claws of Axos’ is full of ideas an imagery, however, ‘The Three Doctors’ is an anniversary tale, and as such is somewhat functionary to allow the Doctors to come together. The ideas of anti-matter and going through a black hole are nevertheless interesting and may well have perked some kids’ interest in science and astronomy.

Back in a quarry, it would have been nice for a different sort of world, as much as did suit the world of Omega for the story. Quarries, by now, have become almost the default exterior location for filming Doctor Who. The sets were colourful, the use of bubbles nice on the walls, although the ‘blob’ or ‘bubble’ creatures were a little too comical for my liking.

The Brig and the second Doctor have some great moments.

Even counting the negatives, Patrick Troughton on screen, in colour bickering with Jon Pertwee erases most ills of this story in my opinion, and makes it an enormously fun!

8/10