The God Complex

Praise him

The God Complex is a pretty good episode that uses horror tropes in a fairly interesting way. There are a few awkward moments in it as well so it is not a perfect episode by any stretch. There is also a tonal shift towards the end that is necessary but creates a bit of a dissatisfying contrast with the rest of the episode.

Plot Summary

En route to another planet, the TARDIS accidentally materializes in a seedy 1980's style hotel. Investigating, they are confronted by three other people: Rita, a Muslim nurse, Howie, an internet conspiracy theorist, and Gibbis, a Tivolian city planner. A fourth person, Joe, a gambler, is tied up in a room with ventriloquist dummies and is talking about praising the one to set them free.
The Doctor pulls Joe along and the party looks for a way out. However, Joe's praising summons a creature and the TARDIS has disappeared. The group disperses into several hotel rooms. Both Howie and Rita are confronted by fears: Howie by girls laughing at his stutter and Rita by not living up to her father's high standards. The others end up in a room with the Weeping Angels but the Doctor realizes they aren't real. Joe is released from his bonds and he goes to the creature who kills him, leaving his body behind.

The Doctor assumes that the creature feeds on fear and when Howie begins to talk of praising him, the Doctor decides to set a trap. Howie speaks his praise over a loud speaker which lures the creature into the room. There the Doctor talks to it. He learns the creature is actually a prisoner and that the people are brought in to feed him. He wants it to stop, but can't due to base instinct. Meanwhile, Howie convinces Gibbis to set him free as Gibbis had been hoping the creature might leave them alone. Howie knocks Rory down and goes to the creature who kills him after going by the Doctor.

The Doctor finds the security cameras and looks to use them to get out. While there, he sees Rita walking the halls. He calls a room and she answers. She had began to praise and walked off to prevent harm from coming to the others. The Doctor pleads with her to come back but she just waits until the creature appears and the Doctor turns the cameras off.

After recovering Rita's body, the Doctor realizes that the creature is feeding on their faith. Fear and stress cause them to rely on their faith, creating a stronger energy field for the creature to feed on. Amy then begins to praise, having found her room earlier. Amy's faith is in the Doctor and when the group runs into a room to hide, they find a young Amelia waiting for the Doctor. The Doctor confronts Amy, explaining that he is not special, nor her focus and that it is time to let go of the childish dream of the "Raggidy Man." As her faith wanes, the creature collapses and the simulation fails.

The creature is a Minotaur, a relative of the Nimon who had set himself up as a god over a race who rebelled against him and imprisoned him. As the creature dies, it notes similarity between itself and the Doctor, speaking of how death would be welcome to them both. The Doctor drops Gibbis back on his planet and then leaves Rory and Amy at their home. He notes that he will drop by now and again but he wants them to move on, fearing that one or both will be killed eventually. He departs and the couple goes inside.

Analysis

The design of this episode is quite good and the people doing this one were clearly students both of classic Doctor Who as well as horror. The design of the hotel is not a blatant rip off of The Shining but it's impossible not to see the allusions to it especially in the hallway design. The ballroom with the bar also invokes it, although it's a little harder to notice until the cast actually ponies up to the bar.

I also enjoy the lack of omniscience of the Doctor. He, like anyone in that situation, assumes that fear is the goal. After all, fear is everywhere and the people are steadily consumed by their fear to the point of deeper faith. It makes logical sense that the Doctor would jump to the obvious wrong conclusion and then have to fix it later once they have more information. I always enjoy it when the Doctor has to learn but still is more capable than the rest.

I'm of mixed mind about Rita. I enjoyed the other characters quite a bit and Rita herself is an enjoyable character. However, in the wake of Islamic terrorism that has become a reality, Rita's backstory came across to me as a bit apologetic. Her first reaction when the Doctor confirms that she is Muslim is to make a joke about how she hopes he won't fear her. There is the reinforcing line about her being British and fixing things with a cup of tea, again trying a tad too hard about making her to be a normal person rather than some foreign demon (as is a common perception). She essentially displays no faults what-so-ever and that to smacks of trying a bit too hard to apologize for this character. The others all had pluses and minuses, but Rita is just all good, to the point that she sacrifices herself to prevent harm from coming to the others. I'm sure I'm bringing my own biases into this (I didn't know that Muslim is actually the second largest faith in the UK, excluding those of no faith) but I do wish Rita had been a bit more flawed.

The other big thing to note in this episode is how the resolution borrows from The Curse of Fenric. Obviously there is a reference to The Horns of Nimon, but the fact that the Doctor has to remove Amy's faith in him is a direct steal of how the Seventh Doctor had to break Ace's faith to allow the Ancient Haemovore to attack Fenric. The Eleventh Doctor was much nicer in that he only had to persuade Amy to let go of her old faith rather than mentally break her as the Seventh Doctor to Ace, but the principle is the same. If that wasn't enough, Amy's room number is seven. That might just be a coincidence, but it made for a bit of a callback to me. I understand and it made sense within the context of the episode, but I never care for it that much when plot points are recycled. Not a significant complaint, but it does toggle the brain a bit.

Finally, there is the tone shift at the end. I understand that the Minotaur was not intended to be an evil villain and they wanted to draw parallels between it and the Doctor. However, the required shift in tone is just so jarring when the previous thirty minutes have been immersed in near full horror mode. You even have the monster banging on the door as you try to find the solution and then as Amy's belief in the Doctor evaporates, it becomes somber reflection, both on the tragedy of the Minotaur and about the Doctor's life. There is ominous foreshadowing to what will eventually become of Rory and Amy in Series Seven, although that's better left to The Power of Three. While recognizing that it is necessary for completing the story and setting up events for both Closing Time and The Wedding of River Song, it just doesn't flow properly in my opinion. Maybe if there had been a bit more of this theme in the earlier portion rather than the straight horror it wouldn't have seemed so jarring, but I'm still not sure. It just felt odd.

My complaints aside, this was still a good episode and it's good and proper scary up until the end. Even with that, I would easily recommend it again to someone looking for a bit of entertainment. Not quite as good as the preceding story but definitely an enjoyable one worth watching on multiple occasions.

Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5

The Deadly Assassin

You will never amount to anything in the galaxy until you tame your propensity for vulgar facetiousness.

The Deadly Assassin is probably one of the most famous stories in Doctor Who. In addition to it being a quality story by Robert Holmes, it set up many ideas and visuals regarding Time Lords and Gallifrey, the rule of twelve regenerations being one of the most prominent. It is also the story that went beyond the pale for Mary Whitehouse, who used the cliffhanger in Episode Three of an enemy drowning the Doctor as evidence that the show was too violent and needed to be changed. It was this influence that led to a toned down feel during the majority of the Graham Harper era (once Robert Holmes was reigned in a bit) and hamstrung John Nathan-Turner several times during his era.

Plot Summary

The Doctor lands on Gallifrey, having just had a vision of the President of the High Council being assassinated. The Citadel guards investigate the unauthorized landing and work to unlock the TARDIS. Castellan Spandrell does a bit of research and discovers that the only non-decommissioned Type 40 TARDIS is in the hands of a known criminal (referencing back to The War Games).

The Doctor eludes the guards as they enter the TARDIS. He is discovered by one guard but an unknown figure shoots the guard down and the Doctor flees into the tower. Commander Hilred reports back of the Doctor's movements and brings Spandrell a note from the Doctor, warning of the attempt on the President's life. Spandrell takes the letter to Chancellor Goth while the Doctor doubles back into the TARDIS.

Goth approves Spandrell's request to pull more guards to search for the Doctor and orders the TARDIS be moved to the Panopticon to prevent the Doctor from escaping. After moving, the Doctor slips out and disguises himself in another Time Lord's formal robes. Spandrell meanwhile has pulled the Doctor's bio extract from the Matrix, learning of the Doctor's membership in the most prestigious political class but also noticing that someone else has accessed the Doctor's extract.

In the Panopticon, the Doctor observes a gun on the balcony and rushes up to it. From the balcony, he spies someone holding a gun and moves to shoot them. However, the person shoots first, felling the President. The Doctor is arrested and taken for interrogation.

Castellan Spandrell asks the Doctor questions and seems skeptical of his guilt. The Doctor is taken before Chancellor Goth for a quick trial. Various witnesses come forward describing the Doctor's activities. But rather than introducing a defense, the Doctor invokes an old bit of Gallifrean law and declares himself a candidate for the Presidency. With this, the trial is postponed 48 hours until after the election. The Doctor is released to Spandrell's charge and the Doctor proposes that he convince Spandrell that he is innocent. Spandrell agrees and they head to the Panopticon to investigate.

In the Panopticon, the Doctor points out that the sights on the rifle he used were changed. They find the bullet hole from his shot, indicating that he did not kill the President. A low level Time Lord named Runcible is sent to retrieve the data tapes from the balcony cameras. Inside, Runcible finds the compressed body of the regular technician. Runcible passes out and a hooded figure steals them.

Seeing the compressed body, the Doctor realizes the Master is involved, although Spandrell is unfamiliar with him. Reviving Runcible, he is sent off to deliver the tapes to the overseer of the Matrix. However, Runcible is killed and the remaining tapes stolen as well.

In the Matrix room, the Doctor explains to Spandrell and Co-Ordinator Engin who the Master is and he realizes that the Master is manipulating the Matrix. He redirected the Matrix prediction of the death of the President to the Doctor to pull him in. The Doctor elects to enter the Matrix and try to flush the Master out. Engin is skeptical but agrees.

Waking up in the Matrix, the Doctor is attacked by various masked figures, the Master's voice taunting him as they do so. He gets his foot caught in a train track with a train threatening to run him down. It disappears and the Doctor realizes that it is all illusion. He attempts to deny the reality, but a voice appears telling him that it is in control. The Doctor is shot at by a plane and he is wounded. Again he denies the reality and the wound disappears.

The control figure appears as a masked hunter to reassert the reality. The Doctor's wound reappears as he runs away. Hiding, he sees the hunter leave to poison the water supply. The Doctor steals a grenade and sets a trap for the hunter, although it fails to kill him. Seeing the poison bottle, the Doctor fashions himself a tube and drinks from untainted puddles.

With the same straw, the Doctor fashions a blow dart using thorns and the last bit of poison in the bottle. He shoots the hunter with the dart as the hunter shoots him. Both wounded, the Doctor runs into a swamp. He then offers to surrender if the hunter reveals himself. The hunter removes the mask to reveal Chancellor Goth. As Goth shoots, the Doctor dives out of the way and the shot ignites the marsh gas. Burned, Goth attacks the Doctor and tries to drown him. But the Doctor gets free and the stress of his wounds and trying to maintain the reality is too much and Goth disappears from the Matrix.

Furious at Goth's failure, the Master tries to sabotage the Matrix to trap the Doctor inside, not caring that it will also kill Goth. The Doctor pulls himself out and Engin shuts the system down. Using the information the Doctor learned, the group heads into the lower tunnels to find the Master's lair. The Master appears to be dead and Goth is dying. He admits to working for the Master in exchange for becoming President but does not reveal what the Master's plan is.

The Master's body is sent to the Panopticon but when Cardinal Barusa hears the story, he orders it reported that Goth was killed trying to stop the Master. Guards are sent to stazer Goth's body to add to the tale and they find a syringe in the lair. Checking it's contents, the Doctor recognizes it as a neural inhibitor and that the Master is still alive. He also learns from Engin that the Key and Sash of Rassilon could be used to reveal the Eye of Harmony which would keep him alive (he has run out of regenerations) but would destroy Gallifrey in the process.

The Doctor, Spandrell and Engin go to the Panopiticon to find the Master alive. He stuns the Doctor and Spandrell with a stolen stazer and forces Engin to give him the Sash of Rassilon, believing it will keep him safe from the Eye of Harmony. He then locks the door. The Doctor wakes and climbs through an old service duct into the main room where the Master has brought up the Eye of Harmony and is disconnecting it from it's stabilization tubes. He distracts the Master long enough to get a drop on him. They fight but the Doctor knocks him down and moves to reconnect the stabilization tubes. The shaking causes a crack to open in the floor and the Master falls in. The Doctor finishes reconnecting the tubes and the planet stabilizes.

After, Barousa quietly dismisses the Doctor although thanking him in his own way. The Doctor leaves Gallifrey, saying goodbye to Spandrell and Engin as well. As he departs, Spandrell and Engin notice the Master leaving in his own TARDIS, having gained enough energy from the Eye of Harmony to continue on for a while, although not enough to actually regenerate.

Analysis

This is a highly enjoyable story. The Fourth Doctor is highly entertaining in a mix of seriousness and also flippancy. The lack of a companion does not hinder the story in Episode One and Spandrell functions very well as a companion stand-in. Engin also does well to complete the typical Holmes double team with Spandrell.

The story is quite well paced and leaps all around to keep you guessing. Episode One is a bit of a police chase with the excellent cliffhanger of the Doctor appearing to have shot the President. Episode Two slows down a bit as the Master steps in and the Doctor/Spandrell team is formed. Episode Three is just surreal. Nominally it's a chase but the environment is so out of the ordinary that it just draws you in with real tension. Episode Four is the traditional confrontation and fight but the best part is that it doesn't feel rushed like a number of final episodes can feel.

Another thing that really stands out is the gothic majesty of Gallifrey. A bit of Gallifrey had been seen before in The War Games and The Three Doctors but that had been limited to a small set of rooms. This story expanded the Citadel but did it with a great scope that really carried a sense of drama that was missing before (although hinted at in The War Games) and definitely absent in later Gallifrey stories such as The Invasion of Time and Arc of Infinity. Even tight sets such as the Matrix control room give that sense of age and mystery. It's excellent work by both the set design and the direction.

Goth's reveal as the minion of the Master was not that much of a surprise. Good old Scooby-Doo logic kept it that it had to either be him or Barusa and Goth made more sense. That being said, he made a good villain and it was nice to see them bring back the actor from the Doctor's sentencing in The War Games. It added a nice level of consistency that is often absent in Doctor Who.

If I had to bring up any negatives, it would be the Master. Not the performance, I rather enjoyed Peter Pratt's performance and the slight bit of mad hysteria made sense given how desperate the Master was to stay alive. His plan made some sense as well in it's own demented way and it was nice to see him not back out or be tricked into working against it by the Doctor. No, my gripe comes from the limitations of the mask.

It was a well constructed mask but it is very obviously a mask. The Master's jaw never moves when he is speaking and that immediately takes away from what he is supposed to be. Worse, because the mouth remains shut, the Master's voice is very muffled and there are several points of dialogue where it simply becomes impossible to hear what he is saying. It is an unfortunate side effect of the make-up that does seriously detract from the quality of the performance, which is a shame as Peter Pratt really did make a nice transition from the late Roger Delgado.

The Deadly Assassin is definitely not a story to be shown as an introduction. It is too steeped in mythology and enjoyable as the Doctor's performance is, it is too far removed from normal with the absence of a companion to be something to expect. Nevertheless, it is an excellent and very engaging story, well worth a few watches. Plus it has the distinction of ruffling the feathers of Mary Whitehouse and any story that does that is definitely one to enjoy.

Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5

Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel

So, which one are you?

In the Tenth Doctor era, it became something of a trope to have a middle of the season two-parter with a classic villain. Rise of the Cyberman and The Age of Steel was the first of these and it reintroduced the Cybermen. Eschewing both Mondas and Telos, the story recreated the Cybermen in an alternate universe with complete freedom to create as desired.

Plot Summary

The Doctor, Mickey and Rose are travelling in the TARDIS when it falls through a crack to a parallel universe. The transfer kills the power of the TARDIS and it materializes in a London where the rich travel in zeppelins and Rose's father is alive and a successful business man. The Doctor mopes about the TARDIS being dead until he discovers a small spark of energy. Using a little of his own regeneration energy, he recharges it which will allow them to leave in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Rose has connected to the internet and learned that Pete Tyler's company was recently purchased by the Cybus corporation, headed by John Lumic. Lumic, unknown to them, has developed a metal body in which a brain can be installed, creating an alternate reality version of the Cybermen. He is trying to get permission to proceed with creating more but is being denied by the President of Great Britain. Despite the denial, he is proceeding anyway, taking homeless off the street and converting them.

Rose and Mickey rebel against the Doctor's warnings and head off to explore. The Doctor follows Rose, leaving Mickey to wander on his own. While they are walking, the people suddenly freeze and get a news download from their earpods. Concerned over this, the Doctor elects to sneak in to Jackie's 40th birthday party, at which the President will be attending, and investigate.

Mickey goes to his grandmother's house. In his universe, his grandmother died tripping over a loose patch of carpet on the stairs he failed to fix. She is still alive here although his counterpart is named Ricky. She invites him in for tea, having not seen him in a few days, but he is grabbed by a man in a van and sped off. They take him to a safehouse where Ricky is waiting. They are a group called the Preachers who work against Cybus and Lumic's plans. After searching Mickey, they are unsure of what he is but elect to take him along on a planned raid of Jackie's birthday party.

The Doctor and Rose sneak in to the party as staff. The Doctor slips away to pull information from Pete's computer while Rose chats with her parents. Pete let's slip that he and Jackie are separating. She also learns that she was never born in this universe, although they do have a dog named Rose. Meanwhile the Doctor learns of Lumic's Cybermen plans. Before he can leave though, a group of Cybermen assault the house, killing the President. The Cybermen kill or round up the rest of the guests for conversion.

Ricky and his gang try to gun down the Cybermen but their bullets are useless. The gang, the Doctor, Rose and Pete are cornered. The Doctor attempts to surrender but the Cybermen deny this chance due to the resistance. The Doctor discharges the TARDIS power cell he has with him, killing most of the Cybermen and they flee into London. They are pursued by other Cybermen and Ricky is killed in the attack.

With the raid successful, Lumic begins the conversion of London. He activates all earpods, putting people in a trance and having them walk to his factory for cyber-conversion. Seeing this, the Doctor realizes they need to stop it. Pete admits to being a mole inside Cybus, feeding the Prophets information. They divide into three groups: the Doctor and Mrs. Moore (the techie) will use tunnels to enter the complex; Rose and Pete don fake earpods and enter the front door with hypnotized people; Mickey and Jake head to the roof to try and knock out the broadcast signal to the earpods.

The Doctor and Mrs. Moore enter the facility but are spotted at one point and pursued. They disable one Cyberman and the Doctor figures a way to stop them. However, Mrs. Moore is killed and the Doctor taken to see Lumic who has been converted into the Cybercontroller following an attack by his second, Dr. Kendrick.

Pete and Rose successfully enter the facility but Pete is recognized by a Cyberman who used to be Jackie Tyler. Due to Pete's knowledge, he and Rose are also directed to be interrogated by Cybercontrol.

Mickey and Jake successfully infiltrate the airship where the broadcast signal is coming from. Attempting to stop it, they wake a prototype Cyberman. The Cyberman tries to kill them but Mickey is able to use it to knock out the signal to the pods. Awakened to what has happened, the people flee the facility. Mickey also hacks into the security system and observes the Doctor, Pete and Rose with the Cybercontroller.

Aware of Mickey's success, the Doctor instructs him what to do in a mouthy speech to the Cybercontroller. Mickey sends the code for the emotional inhibitor to Rose's phone and the Doctor sends it to the Cybermen. Suddenly aware of what they've become, the Cybermen collapse as their brains are overloaded. The sudden shut down also triggers equipment failure in the factory and it begins to explode.

Mickey contacts the Doctor, instructing them to head to the roof where he and Jake will get them on the Zeppelin. Mickey lowers a ladder and the three climb aboard. But the Cybercontroller pursues them and begins to climb the ladder as well. The Doctor tosses Pete his sonic screwdriver and Pete uses it to cut the lower part of the ladder. The Cybercontroller falls back to the factory as it explodes.

Afterwards, Rose admits to Pete that he is her father in the alternate universe. Unnerved, Pete leaves vowing to destroy Cybus' other Cyberman factories. Mickey also elects to stay behind as his grandmother is here and he has a new purpose. He is also tired of being a third wheel between Rose and the Doctor. Rose and the Doctor leave, closing the crack behind them. They return to Jackie's apartment where Rose reassures herself with a good hug with her mom.

Analysis

I enjoyed this story, although I've heard others give it more of a middling grade. I don't quite understand this as I thought the Cybermen were scarier and more competent than in most stories of the classic era. There were flaws in the story, but not so bad that I didn't enjoy what I did see.

The story does start a little slow and the Doctor's mopiness at the prospect of being stranded gets annoying after a while. But it doesn't last long and the Doctor is excellent in the rest of the story. The slow periods where the TARDIS team isn't doing much are cut with scenes of Pete and Jackie Tyler as well as John Lumic, so it takes advantage of the dearth of action to at least flesh out character and other set up points for the plot. That at least is nice in that we are treated to needed information in a non-expositional way rather than given a killing time runaround.

The second part is pretty much action from the word go. It is fairly obvious that Ricky and at least one of the redshirts is going to get killed but the interaction between the various teams is nice. It was also good to see them give a bit of a gut punch by converting Jackie and not have the story bog down with the idea of a rescue. The punch is tempered with the fact that this Jackie is a bit more bitchy and as the Doctor is constantly reminding Rose, that is not her actual mother.

One of the best things of the Tenth Doctor era, in my opinion, was the fact that the Doctor was often faced with unpleasant choices. We are treated to reminders in Jackie and the woman who was converted before her wedding day that the Cybermen have real people who are not evil in them. But they have been changed to an evil form and that the only way to stop them is to kill them. It's a good reminder of the tragedy of the situation and that sometimes dark measures do have to be taken for the greater good (the greater good). Of course, the Tenth Doctor has a habit of also overapologizing to emphasize the point in case you miss it and that does get old after a while.

There were some flaws in this story though. As mentioned before, it does start slow and much of Rise of the Cybermen can feel like set up before the full story commences in The Age of Steel. It's not bad, but no one fully enjoys a story that is primarily a set up for the next stage.

Another slightly surprising shortcoming is John Lumic. The actor, Roger Lloyd-Pack, is pretty good and outside of this I know him best as Barty Crouch Sr. from Goblet of Fire (with David Tennant amusingly). His performance here though is rather hammy. He is trying to show the obsessed and slightly mad genius, but it comes across as over-the-top and a bit too mustache twirly.

There are also a couple of moments where drama gives way to reality. After Mrs. Moore and the Doctor examine the Cyberman they felled, a Cyberman is shown standing right behind them to kill Mrs. Moore. Both her and the Doctor should have heard the Cyberman coming from a mile away but it's more dramatic if it sneaks up on them. Similarly, it is never overly clear as to why the factory starts to blow up after the emotional inhibitor is deactivated. We see the Cybermen falling over and in some cases blowing up, but then the factory starts to go for no apparent reason.

In the grand scheme of things, these are rather minor problems that don't overly detract from the overall story. I will warn you that bitchy Rose does make an appearance at times and it's very easy to sympathize with Mickey who is clearly getting the K-9 treatment. In fact, it's worse than it was in School Reunion which doesn't do anything to endear you especially to Rose in this story. A little bit with the Doctor too but he redeems himself easier, especially at the end. I don't think either of these detracts though, since I find Rose bitchy in most of Series Two.

Overall if you're in the mood for a two-parter, this isn't a bad one to sit down with. It's not overly deep; just a good action story with a hint of scariness. Having enjoyable secondary characters like Pete and Mrs. Moore helps get you invested as well. Even Ricky is entertaining with Noel Clarke putting on more of a hard edged effort that still smacks of goofiness. It's fun and worth a repeat watch.
Overall personal score: Rise of the Cybermen - 4 out of 5; The Age of Steel - 4.5 out of 5

Dimensions In Time

I've seen them thrown out of the Vic, but never dragged in.

So how bad is Dimensions in Time? Pretty bad. It's actually even worse if, like me, you know nothing about East Enders and wouldn't know any of the characters if they walked up and introduced themselves. Despite everything that had gone on in the past, you do have to give JNT credit for trying to put together something fun for the thirtieth anniversary, but this is pretty bad.

Plot Summary

The special opens with the Third Doctor visiting the set of Noel's House Party and showing everyone the new special (including 3-D effects). They then cut to the Rani who has exiled the First and Second Doctor to a loop in time, leaving their projected heads swirling around her TARDIS.

The Fourth Doctor sends out a distress signal as the Rani prepares to trap the remaining Doctors in the time loop. She targets the TARDIS and the Seventh Doctor and Ace materialize in 1973 London instead of China as intended. Blips in time begin to show as the Seventh Doctor gives way to the Sixth Doctor.

Time continues to slip mixing Doctors with companions at various points in time. The Third Doctor with Mel, the Sixth Doctor with Susan, the Third Doctor with Sarah Jane; all the while, the Doctor and companions interact with characters from East Enders. The Doctors realize that a time loop is oscillating things in twenty year spans, 1973, 1993, and 2013.

Fearing that the Doctor is on to her plan, the Rani releases specimens from her collection to deal with the Doctor. A Cyberman and an Ogron attack the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Nyssa. Other monsters materialize to chase them and the Rani herself materializes as the program breaks.

The audience in invited to vote for a helper for the Doctor: either Mandy or Big Ron. The show resumes the next day with Mandy as the winner of the audience poll.

The Fifth Doctor summons his other selves upon seeing the Rani. The Third Doctor appears with Liz Shaw. Liz charges the Rani to attack but is thrown off by a passer-by (Mandy). Captain Yates rolls up in Bessie to take the Third Doctor to the TARDIS as the Rani flees. The Brigadier lands in a helicopter, meeting the Sixth Doctor.

The Rani, having retreated to her TARDIS, prepares to materialize in the loop. Romana (II) appears to help but is pulled into the pub to keep her out of the way. The Third Doctor is back outside the TARDIS with Victoria. The Doctor takes the TARDIS to the Greenwich Meridian. The Rani's TARDIS appears nearby as the Seventh Doctor emerges from the TARIDS. Leela emerges from the Rani's TARDIS, having escaped but saying that she was cloned. The Doctor realizes that she is planning to open the time tunnel along the Meridian giving her control of the development of the universe.

Knowing that the Rani has a copy of Romana's brain print to work with, the Seventh Doctor sets up a feedback loop to pull the Rani's TARDIS in the time loop she has created with K-9 assisting. The Doctor's plan works, releasing the First and Second Doctor and pulling her TARDIS in. The Seventh Doctor and Ace prepare to leave with the time stream returned to normal.

Analysis

If you were to create a list of the things that I dislike in television stories, Dimensions in Time would probably hit all of them. Poor writing: check. Poor acting: check. Poor pacing: check. Poor visual effects: check. I'm sure their heart was in the right place, but this story is appallingly bad.

John Nathan-Turner was not a writer for the show and the fact that he gets co-writing credit on this shows why he didn't write. The story is overly confusing with a desperate attempt to cram as many cameos by past companions and East Enders characters in as possible. That actually is the primary motivation of the story and the Rani's plan, nor the Doctor's solution is ever really explained as to what they are doing.

Then the acting. Tom Baker is the worst as he isn't even half-assing it. Most of the other Doctor's do fairly well, although it's pretty obvious that Jon Pertwee can barely move due to the condition of his back. The companions fair less well with most of them failing to add any depth or energy to the wooden lines. Ace does well as her dialogue actually makes sense and Sarah Jane falls back into her role with ease. The Brig also comes across decent, although that is due more to his gravitas rather than anything special in the acting or writing. The East Enders folks are even worse with cornball lines thrown in an attempted jokey fashion that just sound stupid.

The camera work isn't bad as there is a lot of circling around in a way that would have made Aaron Sorkin proud, but the overall pacing is not particularly good. It is jump cut after jump cut after jump cut. I think they were trying to get a frenetic feeling but instead it gave it an overly rushed feeling. Characters are given one line to hurrily insert or a Doctor gets thirty seconds to cram as much exposition in as possible. Then at random moments, it slows down to give the wooden dialogue even more time to set it. It's just painful to watch.

The visual effects scream no money as well. They also scream early '90s and I'm willing to cut a little slack for that, much like I give Noel Edmonds a bit of a break for the shirts he is wearing. But they are still pretty darn bad. The dummy heads of the First and Second Doctors floating around set a bad tone. What's probably the actual worst is when the various enemies make cameo appearances. These are obviously recycled costumes and puppets from earlier episodes but the lighting and camera angles used make them look even more fake than when they were originally on. Going back to pacing, it's obvious that there is this desperate push to get as many villain cameos in as quick as possible in the 45 seconds allotted to the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Nyssa running through the square and it exposes the poor quality, much of which probably looks worse just because of natural deterioration.

I can see what JNT was going for as he obviously wanted something fun and fan service-y for the thirtieth anniversary but this is of the level of a student film. While I'm sure he had almost no budget to make this, they did have professional cameras and experience that should have put them over a student level production. Certainly having another writer take a second or third stab at the script also would have helped some.

But what still makes no sense is why an anniversary special for Doctor Who was paired for a crossover with East Enders. That would be like having an anniversary special of Star Trek where Kirk and his crew interacted with folks on Dallas. The two settings are at cross purposes and I can't see how either fan base would be interested in the overall story.

I will say that for more casual fans at the time, it probably felt good to see the old characters again. Hardcore fans were probably appalled at the lack of quality and it would have seemed like a horrible way to watch the show you loved disappear into the darkness. For someone watching from the future, it just seems silly and poorly done. I would say that anyone who enjoys Doctor Who should watch it at least once, just for the experience and to get an added perspective on not only how good the new series is, but even on how bad things really could have been during the low points of the mid/late-'80's. But once you've seen it once, that's more than enough unless you intend to go full MST3K.

Overall personal score: 0 out of 5

Turn Left

There is something on your back.

Doctor-lite stories have evolved nicely since the misfire that was Love and Monsters. It is not often that Doctor Who plays with the "what if" card but when it does it usually does it well. Turn Left is an interesting exploration of how things would have evolved had Donna never met the Doctor and he died in the aftermath of the sans Donna The Runaway Bride.

Plot Summary

Donna and the Doctor are visiting a planet and they split up to do some sampling. Donna enters a fortune teller's house who prompts her to recall the point in her life where she made a decision that resulted in her meeting the Doctor. She focuses on the moment when she ignored her mother and turned left at an intersection, leading her to get the job in which she eventually met the Doctor. The fortune teller tells her to focus on turning right as something sneaks behind her and latches on to her back.

Six months after turning right, Donna is celebrating Christmas with some coworkers, having just gotten a promotion in her job. One of the women is fixated as she keeps thinking that she sees something on Donna's back. Suddenly, London is attacked by the webbed star ship of the Racnoss. The army manages to destroy it and Donna rushes towards the action while everyone else runs away. There she sees the army taking away the body of the Doctor, although she doesn't know who the Doctor is at this point. He was drowned in the flooding and failed to regenerate.

As Donna turns away, she sees a blonde woman run up and asking about the Doctor. Donna tells her that the Doctor is dead. Rose turns away but notes Donna's name. Donna asks hers but she disappears before saying anything.

Several months later, Donna is being laid off. Everyone is distracted as a hospital has disappeared. It reappears several hours later with only a sole survivor. That survivor notes how a colleague named Martha saved his life and how a woman named Sarah Jane Smith had stopped another woman from using an MRI to destroy the hospital. He also reports of the search by "space rhinos," triggering Wilfred's interest. Rose also reappears to Donna, telling her to use the raffle ticket she still has and use her winnings to take the family out of London for Christmas.

At Christmas, Donna, her mother and grandfather head to an inn north of London. A maid enters and is immediately unnerved by something on Donna's back. They are distracted though as the television reports a replica of the Titanic is crashing into London. The feed is suddenly lost, but the whole family sees a mushroom cloud appear where London once was.

With most of southern England irradiated, the family is relocated to Leeds where they share a house with several other families, including a large Italian one headed by the jovial Rocco Colasanto. Wilfred is buoyed by the thought that the Americans have promised aid to help Britain. However, this is dashed a few days later when over sixty million Americans are killed in the birth and collection of the Adipose children.

A couple of months later, Rose appears again as army soldiers are seen trying to disable toxic gas coming from the cars. Rose leads Donna away and informs her of the Torchwood team's demise as they destroy the ATMOS system and the Sontaran ship. Rose also tells Donna that she is the special key and in three weeks will agree to come with her to stop all this, although Donna must die.

Three weeks later, the Colasanto family is relocated to an internment camp with Wilfred noting that this was how the Nazis started. He and Donna try to find solace in looking through his telescope but they observe the stars disappearing. Donna then acquiesces and goes with Rose when she reappears.

Rose and UNIT take Donna to a facility with the dark TARDIS. They have used technology scoured from it to create a time machine. They first show Donna the time beetle on her back. Freaked out, she begs them to turn the machine off. Rose then tells her that the only way to get rid of it is to fix the universe by having her go back in time and forcing herself to turn left at that intersection. Donna agrees although Rose again alludes that she will have to die.

The time machine sends Donna back to four minutes before she makes the turn but also deposits her half a mile away from the intersection. She runs as hard as she can but realizes that she won't make it to stop herself. Remembering what Rose said, she steps in front of an oncoming truck. The truck crashes into her and cars begin to back up towards the intersection. Seeing the traffic, the intersection Donna turns left. As the original Donna dies, Rose reappears and whispers two words into her ear. Donna reawakens in the fortune teller's shop, the failure to change having killed the beetle and the teller flees in terror.

The Doctor enters and Donna tells him what happened. He notes the beetle is part of the Trickster's Brigade (a Sarah Jane Adventures villain) and how is usually just creates a blip in time that that universe compensates for to feed. Donna however generated a parallel universe. Talking about that triggers Donna's memory and she recalls Rose. As Donna talks of her the Doctor becomes concerned, demanding to know her name. Donna recalls she said "Bad Wolf." As she does so, the Doctor runs back to the TARDIS with warning signs flashing everywhere. Confused, Donna asks what is wrong and the Doctor states that it's the end of the universe.

Analysis

Turn Left has it's ups and downs but it's the type of story that every companion should have: a character study that allows them to breathe and develop, especially in a way that is independent of the Doctor. Not that being with the Doctor is bad, but it is nice to see a companion act in a way that is not influenced by the Doctor now and again. This story is probably also the most Doctor-lite of all the Doctor-lites as he is only in the first thirty seconds at the beginning and the last two minutes at the end. Any shots of the Doctor during the rest of the episode are taken from previous episodes (mostly The Runaway Bride).

It was also a nice way to bring Rose back without offering disrespect to the drama of the goodbye moment in Doomsday (as would be done at the end of the season in Journey's End). It makes sense that in a parallel universe created around Donna, it would offer a thinner veil that Rose could break through and act as the Doctor surrogate. In the end, she gets left out again as the veil is returned to it's original strength (at least until Stolen Earth).

Donna has another one of her nice moments in this episode as well. She starts more like her stroppier self as she is unchanged by the Doctor, but there is emotional growth as the world comes crashing down. This culminates when she is shown the time beetle on her back and her reaction of fear and horror mixed with the refusal to believe that she is special is quite good. Yet it is also still mixed with Donna's humor which gives much needed levity.

On that note, this is a bleak episode to watch. It more or less has to be since it needs to highlight how important the Doctor is but there are moments that are just down right horrifying. The nuclear blast in London is pretty bad, but I think the moment that just hits you hardest is when the Colasanto family is taken away. Nearly everyone in the story had been pretty dour but Rocco expressed happiness in the face of dark times. Then he is taken away and he still stays happy for Donna. It is not until he salutes Wilf that that moment even breaks him. The tragedy of that scene just oozes out without being melodramatic. In a way, it reminded me of the scene near the end of Life is Beautiful where Guido maintains the illusion to his son that he is just playing a game with the soldiers as he is being led off to be shot. The episode doesn't get in to whether the Italians are actively being disposed of or just being held, but it is not hard to imagine that it might come to that point in that timeline.

There are only two points in this story that bother me. The first is the unconvincing way that Donna changes her mind to turn right. That might be down to direction but Donna starts the conversation so feisty and Sylvia isn't any worse than she normally is but Donna just rolls over and concedes. Now obviously in the real timeline, she blew her mother off so it shouldn't be too different, but it just feels wrong to have Donna concede so easily.

My second is one that others have mentioned and that is the Doctor's death. I don't recall the situation in The Runaway Bride being so dire as to that the Doctor would have died without Donna. I can think of more obvious situations where the Doctor would have died when he was with Martha but this was supposed to be about Donna so I can leave that point. It is also hard to imagine that things would have been so bad as to prevent him from regenerating. The half-hearted aside of it happening too fast seems like garbage to me as well. The only point that makes sense to me would be that if the chamber flooded, drowning the Doctor, his regeneration wouldn't have mattered as there still wouldn't have been air to breathe. We've seen enough instances where the Doctor is vulnerable during regeneration (with The Impossible Astronaut providing a direct example of total death in the midst of regeneration) so drowning in a sealed chamber could be seen as a way to kill the Doctor properly. But it still seemed a bit off to me. At the very least, it could have been explained better by the UNIT soldiers. Any story where I have to fill in a better explanation than the one provided is falling a bit short.

Despite the shortcomings and other small bits, this is a pretty good episode. It makes for a good intro into the finale, even if the finale didn't quite live up to all the expectations. It is not an episode to watch for a first timer as there is too much dependence on knowing the Tenth Doctor era to understand the story. But once you've been through, it is a perfectly good story to pull down and enjoy from time to time.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5

The Ambassadors of Death

We demand that you return our ambassadors or we will destroy Earth.

Spearhead From Space firmly established that the Third Doctor era was going to be much more action oriented, but it was The Ambassadors of Death that took the full plunge into the James Bond-ian world of cloak and dagger mixed with raw action. Conspiracy reigns along with some actually rather brutal action at times. The story was enjoyable but not without some flaws inherent to this type of story.

Plot Summary

A rescue capsule is preparing to dock with a capsule that made an emergency take-off from Mars seven months ago. No contact has been made with the two astronauts inside and when rescue capsule docks, a strange high pitched signal is emitted and contact is lost with the rescue astronaut. The Doctor and Liz, observing on television, hear the signal and the Doctor heads to mission control immediately.

Inside mission control, under the eye of Ralph Cornish, the Doctor is given clearance by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and accurately predicts a response high pitched signal. He, Liz and the Brigadier monitor things and try to triangulate the response signal. When a second one comes, it is pin-pointed to a warehouse only a few miles away.

UNIT storms the warehouse. Inside a group of men are holed up with their commander ordering them to delay UNIT without killing if possible. They hold them back but are eventually overrun. The sergeant in charge of the squad has the chance to kill the Brigadier but surrenders instead. The men in charge then flee, destroying their communication equipment.

Back at mission control, the Doctor tries to get computer time from Dr. Taltalian, but he pulls a gun on them as he is allied with the warehouse group. He flees when the Brigadier shows up and they lose him in the base tunnels. The Brigadier and the Doctor then interrogate the sergeant. He tells them nothing but they do learn he is military. After the Doctor and the Brigadier leave, a mysterious figure knocks out the guard and frees the sergeant.

In space, the recovery capsule, spurred by news of an impending solar flare, detaches from the Mars capsule and returns to Earth. After landing, the mission control team tries to open the hatch but find it locked from inside. The group then prepares to move it back to mission control to open. However, they are waylaid and the capsule is stolen by the same group from the warehouse.

The Doctor, following at a distance, pretends to be an old man having car trouble which causes the truck to stop. While moving Bessie, the Doctor activates a force field which prevents the thieves from letting go and the Doctor resteals the truck, taking the capsule back to Mission Control.

After getting it back, the Doctor and the Brigadier go to see Sir James at the ministry. He promises to start and inquiry. The Doctor is unsatisfied but leaves. Afterwards, Dr. Taltalian emerges and reports how the Doctor has thwarted their efforts.

Liz manages to make contact inside the capsule but the astronauts inside only ask about reentry. After not responding to common questions, the Doctor urges the team to cut the capsule open. Upon doing so, they discover it empty with a tape player running a message over the radio. The Doctor surmises that a group within the military pulled the astronauts out during an unauthorized inspection. The Doctor also surmises based on the radiation readings, that the real astronauts are still up in the Mars capsule and that something else was brought down.

The Doctor and the Brigadier go to see Sir James who introduces them to General Carrington who has been overseeing the interference. He tells them that the Mars capsule ran into a strange batch of radiation affecting the astronauts and that they are keeping them under wraps as they are now generating radiation which could be used as a weapon. The Doctor insists on seeing the astronauts and Carrington agrees.

Before the group arrives, a man named Reegan breaks in and steals the three spacesuited men. The two observing scientists are killed when they try to stop them. Reegan also kills his two accomplices by having them sit back with the three astronauts and dying of radiation poisoning. He dumps their bodies in a local quarry. The three astronauts are put into a new room with radioactive rods to keep them alive and under the care of a rogue scientist named Doctor Lennox.

The bodies of the two accomplices are discovered and the conspirators become more concerned about the progress the Doctor and Liz are making in deciphering the coded message and about getting a new capsule up to rescue the men believed to be in the Mars capsule. Reegan is dispatched to capture them. He sends a fake note from the Brigadier summoning the two to the quarry to look over the bodies of the accomplices but only Liz goes as the Doctor is trying to help Cornish prepare for the next launch.

Liz is waylaid by Reegan and taken to the hideout to assist Dr. Lennox. Lennox takes pity on her and tries to help her escape. However, she is caught again by Dr. Taltalian who had come by to warn the group of the Doctor's progress in deciphering the message, despite the threat to Liz's life.

Cornish is also ruffling feathers among the conspirators as he is pushing hard with preparations to launch another rescue capsule. The Doctor volunteers to go up, clearing the last obstacle being thrown in their way.

Reegan sends Dr. Taltalian back with a suitcase bomb. He told Taltalian that it has a 15 minute delay but he has reset it to go off instantly. Taltalian arms the bomb but takes most of the blast and the Doctor is only lightly injured. In the wreckage, he finds a device similar to the one the Doctor is trying to build.

Learning of the bomb's failure and the Doctor's plan to return to the Mars capsule, Reegan takes one of the astronauts to Sir James' office. He kills several workers and Sir James. He nearly kills the Doctor but the Brigadier comes upon the scene and distracts him. The astronaut heads back to Reegan's truck who takes him back to the hideout.

Cornish and the Doctor take advantage of the chaos of Sir James' death and prepare to launch. General Carrington tries to stop them but Cornish ignores him. Meanwhile, learning of what Reegan did, Dr. Lennox escapes with Liz's help to tell the Brigadier what is going on. Lennox is placed in a cell for his own safety until the Brigadier can come see him personally.

Reegan, learning of what has happened, sneaks on to Mission Control himself. He sabotages the rocket fuel by flooding it with too much booster. He then breaks in to Dr. Lennox's cell and locks him in with a radioactive isotope rod. Lennox dies from radiation poisoning.

The Brigadier discovers both the murder and the sabotage to the rocket. He tries to stop the launch but is too late. The Doctor takes off but the excess booster in the fuel causes the rocket to accelerate too rapidly and will take him out of Earth's orbit. The Doctor early jettisons the stage 1 booster and his rocket levels off. He then rendezvouses with the Mars capsule. However, before he can board, both capsules are swallowed by an alien spacecraft.

On board, the Doctor finds the three astronauts, hypnotized to think they are back on Earth and in a decontamination process. An alien comes on to the screen who demands the return of their ambassadors. The Doctor convinces the aliens that a third party has intervened and he will find and return their ambassadors. The aliens agree, although they will keep the astronauts as hostages and threaten to attack Earth if the Doctor fails. The Doctor agrees and his recovery capsule is sent back to Earth.

Back on Earth, Liz discovers the "astronauts" are in fact aliens and with their strength returning are becoming more aware of their imprisonment. Reegan admits to killing Lennox and offers Liz the chance to be his replacement. He then gets a call ordering him to head back to Mission Control and kill the Doctor. Reegan does sneak back on to the base and fills the decontamination chamber with gas, knocking the Doctor out. Reegan takes the Doctor back to the hideout.

General Carrington returns from Geneva, desiring to destroy the alien ship with nuclear missiles but does not have clearance from the Council. He also accuses the Doctor of being behind it, although the Brigadier rebuffs him. Carrington leaves the base and turns up at the hideout where he prepares to shoot the Doctor. Before he does though, Reegan enters are argues that the Doctor should be kept alive to build a machine to communicate with the aliens. Carrington reluctantly agrees.

Carrington believes that the aliens are preparing to invade and wants to use the ambassadors to convince the world to attack first. He had previously encountered them when he was on a previous Mars mission and they accidentally killed his co-pilot. Believing the death was deliberate, Carrington invited the ambassadors to create the attack trap.

Carrington takes one ambassador to Mission Control while Reegan takes the other two to steal supplies of radioactive isotopes. Carrington prepares to reveal the ambassador to the world on television. Before he broadcasts though, a signal is received from the alien spacecraft demanding the return of their ambassadors or they will attack.

The Doctor builds the machine to communicate with the aliens and uses it to send an SOS signal to UNIT. He then successfully communicates with the ambassadors who protest their captivity. Reegan commandeers the machine and orders them to obey him or be killed.

Carrington arrests the Brigadier and places the base on lockdown. The Brigadier manages to escape his guards meets with the UNIT soldiers who located the SOS signal. They assemble what few men they have and attack the hideout. Reegan is arrested and the Doctor appeals to the ambassadors to help them stop Carrington.

The Doctor and the Brigadier take the ambassadors to Mission Control and they open the gates for them. The Doctor asks them not to kill anyone and the soldiers flee when they find their bullets have no effect. Freeing the arrested UNIT soldiers, the Brigadier and his men burst into the control room and arrest Carrington before he can broadcast and appeal for an attack. The Doctor frees the last ambassador and leaves Ralph Cornish and Liz to arrange an exchange with the alien spacecraft: the ambassadors go up and the aliens will send the astronauts back in the same capsule. The Doctor then leaves for his own lab.

Analysis

There is an odd quirk with The Ambassadors of Death in that not all the surviving footage is in color. So it fades from color to black and white at various points. That is a rather odd thing although it doesn't really affect the enjoyment of the overall story.

This one is pretty good from a storytelling angle. It is fairly well acted as well. It is however, too long. There is a lot of back and forth between the hideout and Mission Control, so much so that it makes the Mission Control security look like a bunch of bumbling fools. I realize that Carrington was supplying Reegan with false documents, but it is hard to imagine that any one man could go through the gate so much without being detained at least once.

The story itself was enjoyable and I especially like the fact that the ambassadors themselves are fairly peaceful. It is only the General's paranoia, fueled by remorse over his dead colleague, and Reegan's greed that make for the conflict. There is however a bit of a plot hole in that once communications are established, it becomes clear that the ambassadors are aware that they being used to kill humans. It seems odd that they continue to go along with this as they are on a peaceful mission. It makes it seems as though the ambassadors are a bit weak-willed. If a communication had been established earlier and Reegan was deliberately withholding radiation from them to compel them, that would have made their actions a bit more understandable. However we are shown that complex communications are not established until after they have been used on an attack mission.

Another aspect of this story that I really enjoyed was the music. UNIT's jaunty little theme is enjoyable and also a bit ironic given that they are often being sent out on rather dark adventures. Even better though is the ethereal theme for the ambassadors themselves. I find it strangely compelling and it offers an almost mystical quality to the air whenever it plays. I would like to have that piece isolated for my own listening pleasure.

Aside from the small plot holes noted earlier, the principle downside of this story is that it can get slow. A few of the back and forths are not really needed and there are a couple of side storylines (such as Dr. Lennox's escape and murder) that don't really offer anything other than creating the opening for the Doctor later on. I'm pretty sure this could have been tightened to six parts, possibly five, although I think the story might have suffered in the other direction if it had been cut that far down.

One other thing that I would have liked to have seen changed was the exposure of General Carrington's plan a little earlier. His exposure at the end of Episode Six made for a nice cliffhanger but it then led to the big exposition dump at the beginning of Episode Seven. I think the story might have been better serviced if Carrington had been shown as the boss earlier with his motivation rolled out over the course of two episodes rather than compressed into one three minute back and forth with the Doctor. I don't think it hurt the story directly, but it would have clarified things a bit more.

Interestingly, for as long as this story is, there is not a whole lot to say about it. It was entertaining but without overly memorable moments. There was very little that stood out as either overly impressive or as overly terrible. I guess that puts it more in the middling camp for me. It was definitely on the positive side and I wouldn't have a problem watching it with someone else who wanted to watch it, but I also probably wouldn't take it as my first choice when presented with Third Doctor options. But for the sake of the music, I'll tick it a half point higher than my original thought.

Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5