Resurrection of the Daleks

I am very difficult to kill. You should already know that.

Resurrection of the Daleks is a fairly well known story both for it being Tegan's final story and for also being the most death soaked story in Doctor Who history. You could argue that other stories (such as Logopolis) had greater death tolls with the destruction of planets, but this story gets up close and personal with all the deaths. From what I've been able to tell, it seems to have a fairly good reputation although some fans find it a bit too grim to full enjoy.

Plot Summary

A group of soldiers and scientists attempt to escape from an abandoned warehouse in London in 1984. Almost all of them are gunned down by guards dressed as police men who then vaporize the bodies. Two men escape but one is later found by a patrol and also killed, leaving Stein as the sole survivor.

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough try to fight their way out of the time corridor that sucked the TARDIS in at the end of Frontios. The Doctor is able to perform an emergency maneuver that gets them out and they materialize outside the warehouse where Stein has collapsed. They tend to him and he takes them inside when the Doctor asks about the time corridor.

Elsewhere, a dilapidated prison ship is holding location in space as a new junior officer, Lt. Mercer, rotates on. While he is on duty, the ship is attacked by a Dalek battle cruiser. The Dalek ship overwhelms the defenses but the initial boarding wave is repulsed. A second wave, led by a mercenary named Lytton, overwhelms the defenses and they secure the primary prisoner, Davros, who has been held in suspended animation.

While exploring the warehouse, Turlough is accidentally sucked into the time corridor and finds himself on the Dalek ship. He hides as a Dalek is dispatched from the ship down the corridor to recover the Doctor, whom they have detected at the other end. The Dalek materializes just as the Doctor, Tegan and Stein are confronted by a small group of army personnel who had heard the Doctor shouting for Turlough. The Doctor directs the soldiers to shoot the eyestalk of the Dalek. Blinded, the Dalek is unable to defend itself as the soldiers push it out the window where it explodes upon crashing to the ground.

Tegan is injured in the fighting and is taken to a makeshift hospital area. The man in charge, Colonel Archer, leaves the warehouse to call in for reinforcements as well as medical supplies to assist the wounded. The outside phone has been disabled but he finds two police officers and asks to use their radio. They however, are the same policemen who killed the escapees and attack Archer.

On the ship, the Daleks are aware of Turlough but leave him alone, hoping to use him as bait to lure the Doctor. Turlough instead runs into the last of the crew who killed a group of Dalek-allied humans and stole their uniforms. They interrogate him but finding he knows nearly nothing about what is going on, take him with them in their plan to destroy the ship.

Davros is brought out of suspended animation and informed that the Daleks lost their war with the Movellans due to the implementation of a virus. Davros is being brought back to concoct a cure, although neither Davros nor the Daleks trust the other. Davros agrees but only if he can set up a lab on the prison ship. He manages to inject the engineer who had been repairing his chair with a serum that brings him under his control and then takes him with to the lab.

The Dalek mutant survived the explosion and crawls out of the wreckage. It attacks a soldier, injecting him with an agent. The Doctor and soldiers find the creature and kill it. The Doctor and Stein then head to the TARDIS to trace the time corridor to find Turlough. The Doctor locates the source when a group of Daleks travel down the corridor and invade the warehouse. The Doctor materializes the TARDIS on the Dalek ship but once on board, Stein turns his gun on the Doctor as he is a Dalek agent.

Stein and the Daleks take the Doctor into a lab where the Daleks have made duplicate versions of the soldiers on Earth and of the Doctor's companions. They intend to make a controlled copy of the Doctor to infiltrate Gallifrey and murder the High Council. The machines are activated and they begin to copy the Doctor's thought patterns. The Doctor appeals to Stein, who's copy is beginning to fight the control and reintroduce his original thought patterns.

The team with Turlough make their way to the self destruct mechanism. The Daleks become alerted to this development and dispatch Lytton and his team to deal with them. Before they arrive, Turlough and Lt. Mercer leave to see if they can access the time corridor and escape before the prison ship blows up. They map the access but upon returning, find Lytton's men have overrun the position and killed the rest of the team.

On Earth, Tegan and her nurse, Professor Laird, come to the conclusion that Col. Archer and his men have been taken over by the Daleks. Laird sets up a covering that makes it look like Tegan's asleep and then has her run out. Archer discovers the ruse quickly and orders a search. Tegan is apprehended by the two Dalek allied policemen outside, killing a local fisherman whom Tegan tried to flag down for help. She is taken back inside to be transported through the time corridor to the Dalek ship with Laird. Laird tries to fight and is shot by Archer.

Davros works quietly in his lab requesting samples of Dalek tissue and a sample of the Movellan virus. However, as new people come in, they are injected with the same serum and brought under his control. He takes control of a technician, one of Lytton's men and two Daleks, with whom he plans to reform the Dalek race in an image loyal only to him.

Tegan is sent to the Dalek ship on her own where she is nabbed by Turlough and Mercer. They enter the room where the Doctor had been held to find he has been set free after Stein fought off the Dalek's programing of him. The Doctor destroys the information recorded and the whole group heads to the TARDIS. Inside, the Doctor orders Tegan and Turlough to stay while he goes to kill Davros. Mercer and Stein come with him.

Davros, unaware that the Doctor was captured on the Dalek ship, sends his Daleks and converted soldiers down through the time corridor to capture the TARDIS. He also sends out his technician with a sample of the Movellan virus to kill the original Daleks. The Supreme Dalek becomes aware of the Doctor's escape as well as Davros' plans. He dispatches Lytton and his men to kill Davros and his converts.

The Doctor arrives to kill Davros but hesitates as Davros explains his plan to change the Daleks. However, even after learning that they will still be killing machines he still hesitates in pulling the trigger. He is distracted by the sounds of gunfire in the hall. Stein and Mercer have killed four of Lytton's men but Mercer was also killed and Stein is finding the Dalek control reasserting itself. Davros locks the Doctor out and the Doctor is forced to flee for the time corridor.

With Davros barricaded in, Lytton and his men are sent down the time corridor to deal with the renegade Daleks instead. These have already destroyed Colonel Archer and his men. Lytton and his men manage to kill the humans with them but are massacred by the actual Daleks, though Lytton only feigns death.

While all this is going on, the TARDIS is transported back through the time corridor to the warehouse based on a preset timer. Deciding to help as best they can, Tegan and Turlough sneak through and steal a canister of the Movellan virus that had been placed in the warehouse for safekeeping. They carry it back to the TARDIS and wait for the Doctor.

With the failure of Lytton's men, the Supreme Dalek sends Daleks to deal with Davros. They break through the doors but Davros smashes a vial of the virus, infecting and killing them. He begins to make his way to an escape pod but shows signs of the virus infecting him as well. Another group of Daleks kill the technicians who had been carrying the other sample of the virus.

The second group of Daleks is sent to the warehouse to destroy the renegade Daleks and they begin to fight. The Doctor follows them down the time corridor and destroys one with a makeshift bomb. He then takes the virus canister and sprays the virus into the air. Those Daleks that survived the initial battle are killed by the virus. In the carnage, Lytton kills one of his own men and sneaks out. He disguises himself as a police commander and then meets up with his two remaining men, the police officers from earlier, and slips away.

On the Dalek ship, Stein, still fighting with the Dalek control, finishes priming the self destruct mechanism begun by Mercer's group originally. The Supreme Dalek becomes aware of this and sends a third team of Daleks to deal with Stein. They kill Stein but he falls on the control panel, activating the mechanism. The explosion destroys the prison ship and the Dalek ship still docked with it.

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough exit the TARDIS to survey the damage and Tegan breaks emotionally. Unable to enjoy the experience and surrounded by death, she informs the Doctor that she is staying behind. She shakes their hands and then runs off. She comes back for a brief glance as the Doctor and Turlough depart in the TARDIS.

Analysis

This is the first story that Eric Saward wrote on his own since Earthshock and it is rather obvious that he is trying to recapture what he had there in this story. This time however, it is with the Daleks and he increases the body count dramatically. He doesn't get the splash this time of killing a companion, but he does send one off (I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't have at least one draft where Tegan did get killed) and it's almost as despairing as if she were killed given the tone of the goodbye. I'm of a rather mixed mind on this one as it moves along nicely, there's a lot of action and a dark tone. But at the same time, it doesn't feel like there is much depth to the story and it is nothing more than a slog to see when each person is going to die.

If I had to peg a single problem with the development of this story it is that there is very little time for explanation. Earthshock waited until the end of Episode One to reveal the Cybermen and in that time there was development of the other characters. What's more, the teams were relatively small with just the one military team and then a small freighter crew. Here you have the space prison ship crew and a rather sizable crew on the ground. None of them are given much time to develop except for Stein. Styles and Mercer are given a bit of development but it doesn't stick that well. I didn't even remember Styles' character's name and know her only as Rula Lenska due to the number of references made to her by the fans.

Another problem of this story compared to Earthshock is that some of the guest cast survived there. Even with Adric's death, there was the redemption that took place through the survival of the crew. After all, it was Adric's own stupidity that got him killed rather than any direct actions of the Cybermen (despite one blowing up the control panel). Here, there are no survivors except Lytton and two of his men. If any one other person of the forces allied with the Doctor had survived, whether on the ground or the prison ship, it would have felt like there was something else that was gained, but instead we get only the Doctor and his companions surrounded by the dead. That's a bit too much hopelessness for me.

The performances were good. I enjoyed the Doctor for the most part and even liked that he got his hands dirty with the killing of a Dalek. However, he was the wrong choice for trying to kill Davros. Nearly every other Doctor you could believe in taking that step, but the steps the Fifth Doctor takes to avoid killing, despite the exceptionally high body count that surrounds him, just makes his threat to kill Davros feel false. Davros was quite correct when he pointed out that the Doctor's failure to pull the trigger did represent a level of weakness. Because it didn't suit the Fifth Doctor, it just felt like something that had been tacked on for drama rather than a genuine outgrowth of no other choice.

In the same vein, I do wish the Fifth Doctor didn't have such an inept feel about him in this story. The Doctor has been trapped and needed to be rescued by his companions or others before. But I don't recall specific instances where it felt like the Doctor was in such a weak position. If he was in some sort of death trap or it might be a form of noble sacrifice, that's one thing. But here, he is going to be stripped of his mind to create a weapon to be used against his own people. That seems like something he should be fighting harder against. I realize he was working on Stein's mental conditioning the whole time, but it still felt like the Doctor was completely helpless and I would have liked a stronger vein of resistance from him.

Tegan and Turlough were pretty good. Turlough actually seemed braver here than in other stories and I can't fault him for always looking out to save his neck. I would have appreciated a scene showing him transported to the Dalek ship as that was a little confusing but otherwise he worked fairly well. Tegan was also alright although she was rather whimper-y in this story. There had been stories in the past where she felt stronger but this was more of a fearful and off-put Tegan. Some of that was probably part of the performance given that she was supposed to be recovering from a concussion, but having had good performances from her, I would have liked something a little stronger: a grim determination that breaks at the end perhaps.

I think I also would have liked a stronger breakdown at the end. In the end, you had Tegan trying to hold it together but it seemed a bit stilted. I think I would have liked a bit more raw emotion and even more crying breakdown by her. She is crying as she runs off but could you imagine her beating her fists on the Doctor's chest and screaming about how their all dead and that she can't do this anymore? He tries to comfort her but she shoves him away and runs off. I think I would have cut the "Brave heart, Tegan" line as well. That cuts away at the emotional rawness of the running off scene, like she had a change of heart or wistfulness rather than the emotional trauma that she is supposed to be dealing with. It's a good leaving scene, but not as good as it had the potential of being.

The Daleks worked pretty well and I thought they worked well as villains. I think my biggest appreciation was that they were well aware of most of the goings on and either dismissed them or tried to turn it into a trap. Granted, they should have been a bit more aware of Davros' schemes but that's a small niggle. What makes less sense though is why the Daleks were so bent on staying on the prison ship. Lytton continuously pointed out that he had planned for a get in/get out operation. But the Supreme Dalek seemed all too eager to go along with Davros' plan to stay. It's a small flaw, but one that you can't help but feel is a little too convenient for the plot.

This was a very good Davros in my opinion. Still not up to Michael Wisher in Genesis of the Daleks but a close number two. He appears a bit more thoughtful and resourceful. He does go on a rant at one point and near another when talking about remaking the Daleks, but those more underlie his madness. He has a number of quiet moments and it is in those moments that he has that strong level of menace and where he is so threatening. The only real undercut to him is that he was so short-sighted as to not foresee that his Kaled DNA would make him susceptible to the Movellan virus designed to kill Daleks. Davros should be smarter than that and that was just a bit of lazy writing to offer the possibility that Davros was killed in the event that the character was to be retired.

Under normal circumstances, Lytton would be ignored or just lumped in with the generic bad guys evaluation but given that he returns in Attack of the Cybermen, he needs to be looked at a bit. I was rather surprised because many fans seem to think of Lytton undergoing a vast character change in the two stories, aided by the Sixth Doctor's harsh reaction to him. But the Doctor never actually meets Lytton so that's a bit odd to start with. Second, I saw almost no difference in Lytton's characterization between the two stories. Lytton is a mercenary who has been hired by the Daleks and who has a strong inclination towards self-preservation. He was cold toward the crew of the prison ship but that was his job. His hire job in Attack of the Cybermen allows him to show a bit more compassion and selflessness, but it's not different when you get down to brass tacks. I liked Lytton both in Attack of the Cybermen and here. He was the person who had the brain to think in the long term and about how to outwit the enemy rather than just try to overpower. It's rather a shame that he was killed off in his second story as he would have been an interesting character to bring back on occasion. Sort of a darker Captain Jack if you were.

Speaking of darker, it should be pointed out that not only did this have a darker tone in the volume of bodies stacked around but the manner of those deaths was pretty gruesome in some cases, especially with the gas attack. As I recall, both the nature of the violence and the fact that two police officers are shown murdering people (including an unsuspecting fisherman) caused quite a stir in Parliament, which actually fed the idea of going more violent in Season 22 to garner the shock watcher. I for one didn't mind the violence and I'd rather see violence in war portrayed more brutally since it takes the romantic veneer off this type of violence. It was more the overall feeling of hopelessness and death of all involved that bothered me. It gave it a "what was this all for" feel and that was where I had a problem rather than the grim nature of it.

Of the three R. Dalek stories that make up the 80's, I would rank this as #2, behind Remembrance of the Daleks. All three are pretty good but that one had a depth that I enjoyed. This one worked fairly well although it was not without it's faults. It's entertaining but not a lot of fun which is something that Earthshock did manage to capture, despite it's grim nature. A little levity, a survivor on the good guy side and an even more emotional Tegan leaving and I think this would have been one of the best of the Fifth Doctor stories. But I do have to downgrade it as such.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5

Warriors of the Deep

There should have been another way.

Warriors of the Deep is one of the stories that actually does create something of a deep divide in fandom. The majority of fandom derides it for shoddy special effects and bad lighting. In fact, the flood lighting in this story is supposedly one of the worst in all of the classic series and there were a number of stories, especially in the Fifth Doctor era, that were overlit. However, defenders of the story will cite good writing and performances which should override the effects. I expect to come down somewhere in the middle as I generally favor good writing and acting but when looking at a story as a whole, you can't just ignore the effects of what is put on the screen. We'll see if it's as bad as it's reputation would imply.

Plot Summary

In the year 2084, a cold war has developed between two major powers. One power has manned an underwater sea base and is in the process of going through a series of drills for combat readiness. They are unaware that at the same time a group of Silurians has woken up and is in the process of reviving a hive of Sea Devils in preparation to attack the base. They deploy their own defense in the form of an underwater creature called a Myrka, which destroys one of the sea base's probes.

On the sea base, the base communications officer, Maddox, is having trouble as he is only a student trainee who was forced to take over when his mentor was killed in an electrical accident. The base goes through a missile drill where Maddox is forced to sync with the computer and would be responsible for launching nuclear missiles. After it's revealed to be a drill, Maddox collapses and is taken to sick bay. In sick bay, Maddox is programmed using a data disk with subliminal suggestions by the base doctor, Solow, and the base second-in-command, Nilson, who are actually agents for the opposing side.

At the request of Tegan, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to Earth in her future. They materialize in orbit around Earth where a fault develops. They are spotted by a defense satellite and shot down. The Doctor is able to dematerialize the TARDIS before they crash and rematerializes within the sea base. They wander around to investigate where Turlough accidentally sets off the security alarms. They try to get back to the TARDIS but find their path blocked by patrols. The Doctor cuts into the nuclear reactor room and creates a fault in the system, hoping that it will drive the technicians towards it. However, they are interrupted by a patrol.

Tegan and Turlough run while the Doctor fights with the guards to give them time. He disarms one but the second knocks him over the side and into the water. Turlough and Tegan run into the corridor where Turlough booby traps the door to by them time. They run into another group of guards and get separated when Turlough is captured. The Doctor meanwhile swims out an access hatch and slips on the uniform of a guard who was knocked out by Turlough's trap.

The Doctor locates Tegan and they head to the bridge to find Turlough, who is being interrogated by Commander Vorshak. The Doctor turns over his weapon to demonstrate trust and shortly after, Security Chief Preston reports on finding the TARDIS and verifying Turlough's story. Preston finds Tegan hiding outside the bridge and brings her in as well.

While they debate on what to do with the Doctor, the base receives a warning signal. The Silurian leader, Icthar, and the Sea Devil captain, Sauvix, have launched their cruiser and are approaching the base. Vorshak orders an attack on the ship against the Doctor's orders but the Silurians use the energy of the weapon to destroy the base's outer defenses. They then send the Myrka to attack one entrance while Sauvix leads his soldiers through another entrance.

Vorshak, most of the guards and the Doctor's team head down to try and stop the Myrka's entrance. Upon learning of the Sea Devil's attack, Vorshak takes a group of guards to oppose them, leaving Lt. Bulic in charge. The Myrka breaks through, electrocuting several guards and resistant to the human weapons. Bulic retreats but Tegan is trapped under a part of the metal door. The Doctor manages to free her when the Myrka steps on another part of the debris but Bulic has already locked the door, trapping them in.

While the battle rages, Nilson and Dr. Solow take advantage of the chaos by activating Maddox's programing and having him start to sabotage both the missile launch system and the communications system. They also have him kill operator Karina when she tries to stop them. Into this comes Turlough who, having learned of the Doctor being trapped, ran to the bridge with a gun. He forces Nilson to open the door allowing the Doctor to escape. This also allows the Myrka to enter the base and Turlough runs off to help the Doctor, but he apprehended by Vorshak and sent back to fight off the Sea Devils.

The Doctor and Tegan reconnect with Vorshak and he sends them off with Preston as the Doctor has a plan to stop the Myrka. She gives them a large light projector which the Doctor reconfigures into the UV range. Knowing the Myrka is to head this way to attack the bridge, he sets in wait.

Dr. Solow, learning that Maddox has nearly finished the sabotage, takes the code disk and promises to meet Nilson in the escape pod, which she will get ready for them. She passes Preston, the Doctor and Tegan but runs into a group of guards retreating from the Myrka. She tries to fight the Myrka as it attacks her but is killed, dropping the disk. It is found by the soldiers who check her body after the Myrka passes.

Entering the same corridor as the Doctor, the Doctor fires the UV weapon, killing the Myrka. Icthar is alerted to the Myrka's death and tells Sauvix to divide his forces with one group continuing on their current attack and the other to circle around and take the bridge. He does so with most of his troops overrunning the station guards. Turlough and Bulic are forced to surrender and are locked in the crew quarters.

The guards take the code disk to Vorshak who is on his way to the bridge to signal the mainland for help. He confronts Nilson about it but though Nilson denies it, his control of Maddox and the sabotage are soon exposed. Maddox breaks his conditioning enough to try and attack Nilson, but Nilson kills him. Nilson takes Tegan hostage and retreats towards the escape pod. The Doctor follows him and activates the UV gun as Nilson passes it.

Nilson is blinded by the gun and stumbles down the corridor where he is killed by an advancing squad of Sea Devils. The same squad corners the Doctor and Tegan and take them to the bridge. The Doctor identifies himself to Icthar and Icthar permits him to stay, acknowledging his attempts at peace the last time. Tegan and Preston however are taken to be kept prisoner with Turlough and Bulic.

Icthar intends to launch the missiles of the sea base into the atmosphere where both sides will think the other has initiated a war and destroy each other, allowing the Silurians to take the planet back. They set about repairing the sabotage to the computer and keep Vorshak on the bridge to provide handprint authorization. The Doctor encourages him to not resist while the Doctor tries to dissuade Icthar from these plans.

In the quarters, Turlough manages to pull of the grate to the ventilation shaft and the four of them crawl out and into the hallway. Tegan and Bulic sneak to the bridge and signal the Doctor though a door. While the others are distracted, the Doctor slips out and they head towards the chemical storage room. They meet Preston and Turlough just outside, the latter two having secured weapons while trying to make their way back to the TARDIS. All five then enter the chemical storage area where the Doctor looks for something that will knock the Silurians out.

The Sea Devil guards discover that the prisoners have escaped. Icthar also notices that the Doctor has left the room. He orders Sauvix to kill the prisoners, including the Doctor on sight. One guard discovers the group in the chemical storage room and when he shoots at the Doctor he accidentally hits a bottle of compressed hexachromite. The gas sprays him in the face and he dies of chemical poisoning. The others suggest using the gas but the Doctor resists, not wanting to kill. Sauvix interrupts and prepares to kill the Doctor. Preston shoots at him and he turns around and kills her. As he does so, Bulic sprays him in the face with the gas and he falls dead.

While this is going on, the Silurians activate the missiles and they prepare for launch. With no time left, the Doctor has Bulic spray the hexachromite gas into the ventilators while he, Tegan and Turlough try to stop the missiles from launching. The gas seeps through the station and kills the guards on patrol. The trio bursts in to the bridge and order Icthar to stop or he and all his people will die. Icthar doesn't care and continues with the countdown even as he and his people are being felled by the gas.

The Doctor orders Tegan and Turlough to try and help them with a cylinder of oxygen and orders Bulic to stop pumping the gas into the system. Vorshak meanwhile tells the Doctor that the only way to stop the missiles is if someone can discharge it through the computer interface and Maddox was the only one equipped to do that. The Doctor hooks himself to the computer and has Vorshak walk him through on how to stop the missiles.

The Doctor overcomes the initial resistance and sets the charge to disarm the missiles. Tegan and Turlough manages to revive Icthar but he grabs a gun and shoots Vorshak in the side. Vorshak buckles but sticks with helping the Doctor disarm the missiles. Turlough knocks the gun out of Icthar's hand and then shoots him, killing him. The Doctor successfully disarms the missiles but Vorshak slumps over dies from his wounds. The trio survey the damage with nearly everyone around them dead.

Analysis

This is a very hard story to judge as both the supporters and detractors have very valid arguments. The writing and acting are pretty good and they can draw you in really easily. On the other hand, the lighting is bad, the action directing is terrible and the special effects are atrocious. So it's a matter of what you pay attention to and what matters to you from an overall perspective.

Let's start with the positives. First the story. This is a fairly tense story with a lot of drama and action in it. You have a cold war situation (very apt for the mid-80's), heightened by a couple of double agents who are successfully implementing a plan to allow their side to destroy or take over the sea base. This effort is interrupted by the invasion of the Silurians and Sea Devils, who steadily overwhelm the defenses and nearly launch an attack that will plunge the world into nuclear war. All that is a good storyline and at it's core, not that different from other good "base under siege" stories such as Cold War.

The writing and dialogue flow fairly well and there is a level of tension that all the actors do a pretty decent job of delivering. I think the only objection I have there is the Episode One cliffhanger as I can't even imagine Turlough simply proclaiming the Doctor drowned and they have to run. A better cliffhanger would have been Turlough grabbing Tegan as the guards take a shot at them and then focusing on the Doctor slipping below the surface of the water. In fact, all three cliffhangers were a bit weak with only the Episode Three one feeling halfway decent. But I'm trying to focus on positives here.

The acting, for the most part, is pretty good. I think the Fifth Doctor is at his best when he is under stress. Of course, it highlights his failings more than any other Doctor, but it makes for good tension and it seems to drive the Fifth Doctor in directions that force his best efforts. You can see the same level of moralism that you might get from the Third Doctor but those morals are pressed harder and he is forced between two bad options, including the fact that even if you try to do the right thing, you can force the parties to make the right choices.

Though she didn't actually contribute much, I liked Tegan in this story. She wasn't moping about getting back to the TARDIS (that was Turlough's job) but was instead sticking with the Doctor and determined to try and help, even if she never actually was. Turlough was decent but still had a tendency to go a bit over-the-top, especially when he would flip back to his coward side. He rush in and help the Doctor bits were very good but his lay back and just focus on escaping were where he would get overexcited and a bit shout-y. He was better more often than not, but still not good all the way around.

Most of the guest cast did reasonably well in their roles. They kept the stiff military manner which hid their shortcomings for the most part. I think the technician Karina was probably the weakest but they were also clearly hinting that she had feelings for Maddox and that might have pushed her beyond or she just wasn't given good enough direction. Everyone else was good more often than not although all of them had little slips where they were either too stiff, too emotionless or the way they played the scene didn't quite match the overall mood. But it still came together fairly well and a few rough acting patches here and there are entirely forgivable.

The Silurians and Sea Devils weren't bad, but neither were they great either. I wasn't a huge fan of either race back in their Third Doctor stories so their inclusion wasn't exactly a big deal to me. I did notice that the third eye of the Silurians now functioned like the dome lights of the Daleks and flashed whenever someone was speaking and while I found it distracting at first, I came to appreciate it since there wasn't much differentiation between the three Silurian voices. I rather wish they could have done something similar with the Sea Devils as their whispering was a little hard to hear at times.

I think my biggest frustration with both the Silurians and the Sea Devils is that in this story, the Doctor treats them as though they were completely altruistic in their original stories and that's just not true. In Doctor Who and the Silurians, he does make peace with the old leader, but the young upstart takes over and launches an attack, violating the terms the Doctor had laid down. Similarly, in The Sea Devils, the Doctor makes a plea for peace but the Sea Devils turn him down flat. Yes they had been manipulated by the Master, but they still made the conscious effort to continue with the war. So both races showed an open belligerence towards humanity, enough so that I don't think anyone should feel bad about the genocide that was used to stop them. In fact, the one act of compassion shown ends up getting someone else killed. Tegan and Turlough revived Icthar long enough for him to kill Vorshak. Had they just let him die, Vorshak would have survived. There is a point where you have to recognize that someone is going to remain your enemy and any act of mercy is only perceived as a sign of weakness and an opportunity to do more harm to you.

So let's go ahead and tackle the negatives. To give the story a little bit of leeway, pretty much all it's problems are tied to the fact that Mrs. Thatcher called for snap elections and the BBC was caught flatfooted. They told John Nathan-Turner that he could either cancel the story and they would be ok with him only delivering 22 episodes that season, or he could try and have the story made with two weeks less studio time. Turner opted for the later and it shows rather badly.

The first significant problem is the lighting. Apparently it was quicker to light from above and that meant that the whole set was bathed in flood lighting. Actually, from my point of view, this wasn't a problem for about the first episode and a half of the story. It highlighted the make-up a bit much (especially on Turlough) but the set was nice enough that flood lighting it actually wasn't a problem and there's no reason that a base wouldn't be well lit during normal operation. But during the crisis of the Silurian attack, the lights should have been brought down. That would have added to the atmosphere and would have had the added advantage of hiding other flaws that came about due to the compressed schedule. Even putting filters over the flood lighting would have helped. Submarines and other naval vessels go to red light during crisis and I think the atmosphere would have been well served if red filters were put on to give it that eerie quality.

The second problem was the action direction. Again, I'm guessing that if there had been a bit more time to plan and reshoot it might have looked better, but most of the action scenes, especially the initial invasion by the Sea Devils just looked terrible in their staging. With the way it was lit and their entrance, you couldn't help compare the Sea Devils' entrance with that of the Stormtrooper attack on the Tantive IV at the beginning of A New Hope. Had the attack gone down like that, it would have looked amazing. But instead we get two solid lines of firing and the implication that despite being less than ten feet from each other, neither side could hit each other. The Sea Devils do manage to hit one or two guards but most make it to the hallway and it's just so disorderly looking that you can't help but see it for the stage play that it is.

The third major problem is just the shoddy design of the props. The big standout is the Myrka but it should be noted that there are a lot of pedestals, consoles, doors and other props that are clearly polystyrene or some other light and malleable material that wobble all over the place. One or two is not uncommon in any story, but there is a wholesale shift of the lighter elements of the set throughout this story and they can't help but grab your attention; especially given the lighting.

But let's look at the Myrka. I don't think the Myrka is quite as bad as it's often made out to be. The top half especially is pretty good from your typical Doctor Who standpoint. However the lower half painfully looks like your typical "two guys in a horse" costume. Even with the two extra weeks, I'm not sure much could have been done to improve it's overall look. What should have been done was to work the shots better and lower the lighting. That would have put more of it in shadow and hidden some of it's more obvious flaws (such as the magma beast in The Caves of Androzani). Of course, a better idea would have been to scrap that Myrka and make it a second squad of Sea Devils but that would have required a wholesale rewriting of Episode Three and if they didn't have time to make the Myrka work, they certainly didn't have time to make huge rewrites.

On a more neutral level, you can definitely tell this story is part of the Eric Saward era. Saward's stories, especially after The Visitation, were heavily marked by a large level of violence and often a rather bleak ending. That the story ends with all the Silurians, Sea Devils and most of the humans lying dead at the Doctor's feet is not uncommon in his era. Bulic had survived but that would have ruined the bleakness of the visual. Contrast this to Pyramids of Mars or Horror at Fang Rock which also have all the guest cast dead at the end. The Doctor is a bit more cavalier in acknowledging all the deaths, to a point of coldness in Horror at Fang Rock in my opinion, but he doesn't let that bog him down. The Fourth Doctor's chastising of Sarah in dwelling on the death of one man, when five have already died and all the lives on Earth are at stake is a prime example of looking at the whole rather than getting bogged down in mourning the dead of the battle. Granted, I liked the ending with the Doctor looking beat all to hell, but his anger and depression should be targeted mostly at the Silurians who rejected his overtures on several occasions.

So back to the original question: how to judge this as an overall work. As much as I enjoyed the story, I don't believe you can separate it from the production. You judge by what's on screen and even if they were shortchanged on time, if what's on screen is bad, you have to view it as bad. That being said, I can overlook a number of things because I either have low expectations or know that the era was limited. I judge a bit harsher when I know there was a chance to fix things such as the action direction or the ability to alter the lighting, even just a little. So on an overall scale, I actually think this story is better than a number of earlier Fifth Doctor stories which had more time just because they didn't engage me like this one did. It may be harsh, but I think this is better than something like Four to Doomsday, which only looked a little better but was a real slog of a story. I wouldn't recommend introducing anyone to the Fifth Doctor to this story, but you could do far worse in terms of overall entertainment.

Overall personal score: 3 out of 5

Time-Flight

Shall I say "Bon Voyage"?

Time Flight is one of the stories that is invariably in the running for worst Doctor Who story ever. Sometimes I find these reputations are justified but other times they are not so I'm very curious to see if this story is as bad as people think it is. I'm sure it won't be good, but there can be a broad gap between "not good" and "abysmal."

Plot Summary

While approaching Heathrow Airport, a British Airways Concorde disappears from radar and vanishes into thin air.

On the TARDIS, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa decide to lift their spirits following Adric's death by visiting the Victorian Great Exhibition. However they run into a time warp which causes them to materialize above the runway at Heathrow just after the Concorde disappeared. The Doctor reroutes the TARDIS and has it materialize in the main terminal instead.

They head out to find out what happened when they are approached by airport security. The Doctor invokes his UNIT credentials and is given full access. He learns of the Concorde's disappearance and decides to replicate the experience but with the TARDIS on board to monitor events. The TARDIS is loaded to a second Concorde and Captain Stapley flies the plane out to match the course of the prior flight.

As they come in for approach, the concord undergoes the same effects and disappears from radar. Stapley however lands at what he thinks is Heathrow and escorts his crew and the TARDIS team off. Nyssa however sees human remains and screams. The Doctor uses her vision and encourages the rest to see through the illusion. As they do, Heathrow disappears around them and they find themselves on a stretch 140 million years in the past.

Inside a cave, an Oriental looking man is watching the new arrivals through a sphere. He sends the passengers and crew from the first flight out to work under hypnosis. When Stapley's under-officers, Scobie and Bilton, try to convince them of the delusion, several bubble creatures appear and vanish both men. Two more creatures appear and envelop the Doctor. He is covered in ectoplasm for a few moments in which he hears voices appeal to him for help. They then vanish and the Doctor rises once more, aware of a race called the plasmatons.

They continue towards the workers, who are carrying away the TARDIS when they are intercepted by one of them, Professor Hayter. Hayter specializes in hypnosis at his university as was able to shake off the control. He informs them that a cave system is where the workers all are concentrated, though he is very hesitant to go with the team after the rest of the passengers.

As they approach, plasmatons envelop Nyssa and speak through her, warning the Doctor of the danger. She then collapses in a semi-comatose state. Tegan opts to stay with her while the others head into the caves. In the caves, the Doctor moves ahead while Stapley and Hayter discover the passengers and crew digging into a large rock. Stapley, with Hayter's help, manages to rouse Bilton and Scobie and the four go looking for the Doctor.

The Doctor finds a hidden cavern and meets Kalid, the person manipulating the plasmaton energy. He verbally spars with the Doctor and demands that the Doctor grant him access to the TARDIS. The Doctor refuses. When Stapley, Bilton, Scobie and Hayter enter, Kalid suspends them in a dome of energy.

Nyssa wakes and despite Tegan's insistence on heading back to the Concorde, heads towards the caves to help the Doctor. Kalid notes their approach and tries to stop them with visions of Adric pleading for his life, the Melkur, and a Terileptil. They bypass all of them and enter the central core of the caves, the power source of the plasmaton energy. Angered, Kalid refocuses the energy into a two-headed snake to attack the humans but Nyssa, sensing danger, smashes part of the power source. Kalid is seemingly killed and the snake vanishes.

The Doctor begins to examine the control orb, confused by it's make when the Master emerges from beneath Kalid's robes. The orb is actually from the Master's TARDIS who used it trying to create a time corridor to allow his eventual escape using the power source as a replacement within his own TARDIS. He forces the Doctor to give him the key to his TARDIS, ducks inside and vanishes.

The Doctor leaves the three flight crewmen in the control area while he and Hayter head back to the place where the passengers were digging into the central core. The Doctor refocuses their efforts and they manage to cut a hole into which he and Hayter slip through. They rouse Tegan and Nyssa only to find that the hole has disappeared behind them.

The TARDIS reappears and the Master leaves to enter his own TARDIS in the core room. Stapley and Bilton slip into the TARDIS while Scobie stays outside to keep an eye on things. The Master then returns to the TARDIS where Stapley and Bilton retreat into another room to hide. Scobie then leaves and runs into the stewardess Angela. She and the other passengers have emerged from the hypnosis and are struggling to figure what is going on.

In the TARDIS, the Master attaches some equipment and then leaves. Stapley tries to sabotage it but is noticed by the Master. The Master removes the last of the parts he needs and then mockingly gives the TARDIS over to Stapley. Stapley tries to take control and manages to get it outside the caves and hovering above the ground where it holds position. Meanwhile the Master reenters the core room and forces all the remaining passengers into his TARDIS along with the equipment he has stolen.

In the core area, the Doctor realizes that there is a living entity in the core governed by multiple personalities. It takes control of Nyssa again and prepares to use her up to allow it to communicate. Hayter however steps in her place and is consumed. But the power absorbed allows a figure named Anithon to manifest himself. He is a creature called a Xeraphin, a civilization that was destroyed by a war. To escape, they had the entity absorb all the minds of the Xeraphin and come to Earth to restart themselves. However, the remaining bodies were infected with radiation and they needed time to allow regeneration to take place. Just as they were about to though, the Master arrived and tapped into the core, using the energy and harvesting the negative mental energies.

A second entity, called Zarak, manifests itself and attempts to take control, representing the negative energies given power by the Master. The Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa assist mentally and manage to fight Zarak back. But power vanishes as the Master begins to drain the core energies and transfer them to his own TARDIS. Both Anithon and Zarak disappear and the Doctor begins to search for a way out.

Outside the caves, Captain Stapley hesitates to handle the TARDIS controls. But Professor Hayter appears and pilots the TARDIS into the core before disappearing once more. The Doctor enters the TARDIS, suspecting that Hayter was another projection by the Xeraphin to help them. He then takes the TARDIS out of the core where Scobie tells them that the Master took the passengers into his TARDIS and disappeared. The Doctor orders Nyssa to take the flight crew and the TARDIS back to the Concorde and prep it for takeoff while he and Tegan try to find the passengers.

Nyssa pilots the TARDIS into the cargo hold and the crew inspects the plane with the only damage being a blown tire and a damaged brake line. Stapely decides to cannibalize the other Concorde for parts but notices that it seems a bit too new and shiny compared to their previous view of it. The Doctor and Tegan arrive and notice the same thing. The other Concorde starts to disappear and they realize that it's the Master's TARDIS. However it reappears and they realize that something has gone wrong.

The Master emerges and he asks the Doctor about the sabotage he's done to the TARDIS. Stapley informs the Doctor that he switched some parts around before the Master could finish his theft, which pleases the Doctor. He makes a deal with the Master that he will give back the stolen parts and the passengers and he will give the Master the spare parts he needs. The Master agrees and Doctor sets out to repair the TARDIS while Stapley and his crew repair the Concorde. Once all repairs are complete, Tegan guides the passengers on board and Stapley readies the plane for takeoff.

The Doctor gives the Master the spare parts he requested and the Master and his TARDIS disappears. However, the Doctor put a fault into the equipment he gave the Master and the Master's TARDIS will appear only after they have arrived back at Heathrow. Stapley takes off and as they approach the point where Concorde disappeared before, the Doctor activates the TARDIS and sends the whole thing forward to only twenty-four hours after they left. The Doctor takes the TARDIS out of the plane and lands it out on one of the buildings just as the Master's TARDIS appears hovering over the airport. The Doctor sends a power surge into the Master's TARDIS and it is sent to Xaraphin where, after 140 million years, the radiation will have cleared up and the people can repopulate the planet. It also will burn out the equipment the Doctor gave the Master, leaving him trapped on the planet.

Tegan escorts the passengers off the plane and then meets Nyssa before heading down the corridor to where she was supposed to report for duty. Stapley and his crew are debriefed by the airport controller who try to explain although the controller doesn't believe them. They head out to see the Doctor, who is being questioned by two airport security personnel. The Doctor promises answers after making a phone call from inside his box. The TARDIS then vanishes leaving the crew smirking but Tegan looking wistful as she had changed her mind about traveling with the Doctor and was hoping to catch him before he left.

Analysis

Time-Flight is certainly not a good story and it might even be the worst Fifth Doctor story, although I'm not completely convinced of that, but I'm a bit hard pressed to see why fans argue that it might be the worst Doctor Who story. I think there are a fair number of stories that I would relegate as worse than this.

To be fair, there are an awful lot of things that are bad about this story. The acting, outside of the TARDIS team, the Master and Stapley is terrible, with Hayter and the stewardess Angela being the worst offenders. The stewardess is pretty forgettable as she only has a few lines and most of them are under hypnosis so she is an easily dismissible blip. Professor Hayter on the other hand is just a bad choice. The actor is wooden both in his delivery and even in how he moves. Given that he sacrifices himself and becomes the Deus Ex Machina for the story, it would seem to be kind of important to have the audience develop him a bit. But when he sacrifices himself, I couldn't be bothered to care and was even relieved as I found him a waste of screen space.

A second significant problem is the plot. The plot is overly complex with the alien collective consciousness that the Master is trying to tap. We are shown two different types of creatures and neither is properly explained. Worse, nearly everything about the life force and the Xeraphin is done through expositional speeches. There are very few points of natural dialogue. Instead it's the Doctor, the Master, or one of the Xeraphin just talking about what is going on. Talking about the plot is nothing new, but the dialogue must be natural and you also can't have entire episodes where people just talk about what the plot is. It gets boring and this story became boring in it's second and third episodes.

A third point of trouble and one most often cited by fans about the problems with this story is why is the Master dressed as Kalid? His disguise as Kalid does absolutely nothing for the overall story. The orb is made of components from his own TARDIS. The Xeraphin are completely aware of who the Master is due to their telepathic communication and the people on the plane have no idea who the Master is and wouldn't care what he looks like. In fact, bringing the first Concorde was an accident so he was dressing as Kalid even before they arrived. It serves absolutely no purpose except to give misdirection to the audience that it's the Master once again.

I can't help but wonder if Kalid was the original villain but Peter Grimwade was told to include the Master in the story and he just merged the two, thinking it would be a cool twist but didn't think of anything beyond that. Whatever the reason, it gives one mildly interesting cliffhanger and nothing else. It would have worked just as well if Kalid had been an android or a psychic projection and the cliffhanger to Episode Two is the Master stepping out of his TARDIS with his Tissue Compression Eliminator. In that case, the Master could have waived it off as a means of interface while he operated things from within his TARDIS. It might not have been the best reason, but it would have made more sense that having the Master dress up.

A fourth reason that is probably a bit more subtle in people's dislike of this story is both it's following Earthshock, which was well received, and the style and set up of Episode One being pretty decent. The story addresses Adric's death and then it get sucked into a missing plane adventure similar to The Faceless Ones. We even bypass all the typical stalling garbage by having the Doctor flash his UNIT credentials and then be given full reign of the place. It's even on film which gives it a slicker look. Then towards the end of Episode One, we are taken to studio and the contrast is palpable as the sets suddenly look so much cheaper. You can just imagine that after the visual treat of the first part, the comedown infects the viewer's expectations and the story does nothing to alleviate this.

A fifth fault is in the little things involving the Concorde that the story doesn't take care of. Concorde, being a sleek and sophisticated aircraft, has no internal stair so how do the passengers get on or off? Where do the crew get the tools to cannibalize the previous Concorde for the parts they need? Given what happened with the Paris Concorde disaster, the idea of a Concorde getting up to speed without a proper runway is pretty laughable. In the film cut, you can even see that it's taking off from a normal runway with some rocks placed in front to hide the cut (although you can see part of the terminal in the background). It's just a bunch of little things that are hard to let go but clearly never occurred to the production team when given the opportunity to include a Concorde promotional.

So is there anything good? Actually base cast is pretty good. The Doctor is his normal Doctor self although he does have some moments of bad melodrama towards the end of Episode Three. Tegan and Nyssa are both pretty good as Tegan is actually given some things to do which distract her from complaining and Nyssa becomes much more engaging as she becomes the interface for the Xeraphin. I suspect that Sarah Sutton was never really given much direction with Nyssa and it became a default that she would be impassive which translates to wooden. When given emotional range such as here and in Black Orchid, her acting is actually decent.

Despite the nonsense with Kalid, I enjoyed the Master in this story. He's over the top but he's so clearly having a good time. Even Ainley's stint as Kalid is decent. It's a mildly racist caricature and the makeup is terrible, but the character still draws you in with the mystery of who he is and what he is after. You even get some nice snark by the Master when he gives up the TARDIS to Stapley. I can't help but enjoy it.

Some folks gravitate to Stapley as enjoyable but I'm a bit more hesitant to go that far. To me it was more like Stapley was good by comparison and when all the other extras range operate mostly in the terrible range, an average performance looks great by comparison. He had bearing and a sense of leadership, which is why Hayter assumed he was in charge, but his overall performance was just decent in my opinion and he functioned well in the role of extra companion. In fact, Stapley should be considered as one of the many guest companions that appeared in the Fifth Doctor era, nearly all of which showed better range and characterization than the normal companions. I would say though that Stapley was one of the few who did not outstrip Tegan and Nyssa in their interaction with the Doctor, which pulls him down a bit more in my estimation than others probably have him.

I can't speak much for the direction of this story. The director was clearly trying to compensate for the lack of set and budget but I didn't see anything that might have hidden flaws in the sets or in framing the story in ways to compensate for the lack of action. It was very point and shoot, to the point that the backdrop for the scenes in front of the Concorde tire is pretty clearly a backdrop. It's not as bad as in the days of the First Doctor, but it's pretty obvious that it's a set at that point and no effort is made to add any freshness or tricks to draw the viewer back in.

Although I'm going to be giving this story a low score, I still think it's not quite as bad as it's reputation. I also think I would actually rate Terminus as a worse story because it feels more plodding and boring while this has some action in the first and fourth episodes and the hammy-ness of the Master to provide some measure of relief. In fact, if the overall flaws weren't so glaring and obvious, I think I might even rate this story above Four to Doomsday and Frontios, because again, I found a measure of entertainment in some of the performances. But there is an awful lot that drags this story down and you just can't overlook that at the end of the day. I will still throw in the caveat that I don't think it is a contender for worst story of the classic era. But again, that doesn't mean that it's good either.

Overall personal score: 1 out of 5

Four to Doomsday

Conformity, the true freedom.

This is the first story filmed for the Fifth Doctor, though third shown. I've heard fairly mixed reviews on it with some people really loving it and others being rather meh on it. I do believe that it set the defining tone for how people remember the Fifth Doctor era, at least in the span with Adric if not also with Nyssa. Certainly the impression people have of Tegan and Adric as well seems to be heavily cultivated from this story.

Plot Summary

Attempting to get Tegan back to Heathrow, the TARDIS accidentally lands on a spaceship outside the solar system. Detecting a slightly toxic atmosphere, the Doctor grabs a breathing helmet and heads outside to explore, leaving the three companions in the TARDIS. Outside, he observes advanced laboratory equipment and a floating ball with a camera that tracks his moves.

The Doctor heads back into the TARDIS and gets the others out. Nyssa and Adric examine the equipment while the Doctor asks the floating eye if he can see the leader. A door opens and he and Tegan head down the corridor. At the end they meet three humanoid aliens: the leader, Monarch, and his two associates, a male called Persuasion and a female called Enlightenment. Monarch states that they are from a far planet and are heading to Earth for a visit. They ask the Doctor about his ship and his companions. Enlightenment specifically asks Tegan about the latest fashions of her time. A little surprised, Tegan takes paper from the Doctor and draws a man and woman in fancy dress.

After the talk, Monarch has the Doctor and Tegan taken away for some refreshment. Nyssa had already been taken away by a man in Athenian dress while Adric had followed a few minutes later. Reunited, the group sits down to fruit with their Athenian server, whose name is Bigon. As they eat, three other persons enter: an Australian Aborigine called Kirkutji, a mute Mayan princess named Villagra and a Chinese Mandarin named Lin Futu. The group is forbidden by Monarch to discuss why they are there so they sit and wait while the others eat. As they finish, two people walk in dressed and looking exactly like Tegan's drawing. They reintroduce themselves as Persuasion and Enlightenment.

Persuasion and Enlightenment tell the Doctor that they are from the planet Urbanka which was destroyed when it's sun went nova. Their ship in now on a journey to Earth with 3 billion survivors for resettlement. Adric is skeptical but the Doctor takes it in stride and they retire to their quarters with Monarch locking them in.

The Doctor blocks the camera with a hat and activates the sonic screwdriver to drown the microphones. He agrees with them that something odd is going on if for no other reason than the periods where the humans are from on the ship don't match with the Urbankan's story. He decides they should explore and unlocks the door with the screwdriver.

Monarch, aware of the Doctor's suspicions, attempts to find out more about the Doctor and Gallifrey but finds no information in his computer. He separates the Doctor and Tegan from Adric and Nyssa by closing a set of doors between them. The Doctor and Tegan enter a hall where the various humans put on cultural displays as entertainment for the others. Persuasion enters and keeps a close eye on them as they watch.

Adric and Nyssa enter other compartments and are forced to put on their breathing helmets as there is no air here. However, humans are seen working in the environment. The enter and leave several rooms, observing people performing tasks with both high technology, robotics and advanced biochemistry. In each room, they note the human workers have a silver disk on their hands.

Monarch calls Bigon in and warns him against telling the Doctor too much. Bigon protests as he has always told the truth but Monarch suggests he remain silent. Bigon goes to the Doctor and Tegan and arranges a meeting with them later. Shortly afterward, two Greeks have a sword fight with one of the Greeks seemingly killed in the duel. This upsets Tegan and she runs out, the Doctor close behind.

The "killed" Greek is brought into a chamber where Adric and Nyssa observe him placed in a bed with a dome and then healed of his wound. They also notices that although stabbed, he walked in and showed no blood coming from the wound. Monarch, aware of Adric and Nyssa's observations, orders them to be brought before him.

Tegan and the Doctor return to their quarters where Bigon is waiting for them. He calms Tegan down by demonstrating that the man was not killed as he and all the other humans on the ship are in fact androids. Bigon also reveals that Monarch actually destroyed Urbanka through overexploitation of it's resources and pollution and is planning to do the same to Earth. He notes that any android that has a silver disk on it's had is a slave while those that do not have free will so long as they do not cross Monarch.

Monarch admits to Nyssa and Adric of his conversion of humans and his people to android state. Nyssa is appalled but Adric is impressed and begins answering Monarch's questions about the Doctor and the TARDIS. Eventually, Monarch asks Adric to bring him the Doctor so that he might see the TARDIS. After he leaves, Monarch has Nyssa hypnotized by Enlightenment and then taken away to be converted.

Bigon and the Doctor leave the Doctor's quarters to destroy the poison supply that will kill the people of Earth and to free the people from Monarch's tyranny. Tegan meanwhile has become hysterical and wants nothing more but to go back to the TARDIS to warn the people of Earth. The Doctor manages to calm her down a bit but she gets amped back up when Adric comes to collect the Doctor. Angry at him, she shoves him aside where he bangs his head against the bed and is knocked out. Tegan storms back to the TARDIS and opens it with the TARDIS key. Inside, she begins to press random buttons, trying to get it to take off.

As they pass through each section, the Doctor disables the monitors in each room, allowing Bigon to speak freely. This does alert Monarch to their progress, though he initially dismisses it as Bigon giving the Doctor a tour. In the android room, Lin Futu, in the middle of processing Nyssa, overhears the Doctor and Bigon talking about overthrowing Monarch and leaves to warn him. They spot Nyssa and free her before the conversion is complete.

Adric awakes and stumbles up after the Doctor, eventually discovering them in the android room. He argues on Monarch's behalf until Persuasion enters with Greek guards. They restrain both Bigon and the Doctor and sentence him to death for attempting to overthrow Monarch. Adric tries to intervene but is restrained as well. The Greeks force the Doctor down, intending to cut off his head. Nyssa, who had borrowed the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and a pencil earlier, uses the combo to create a surge in the silver plates on the hands and short circuits the androids holding Adric and the Doctor. Persuasion then tries to shoot the Doctor but Adric leaps in front of him. Monarch, not wanting Adric killed, orders the lot be brought to him.

Tegan, after mashing a ton of buttons, manages to activate the TARDIS and dematerialize it off the ship. However, the magnetic field of the ship forces it to rematerialize just outside the ship and hover in space. Tegan then pulls out the manual, trying to figure out how to get the TARDIS to either return to the ship or get back to Earth.

The Doctor denies trying to overthrow Monarch, though Monarch is skeptical. He has Bigon's personality chip removed while Nyssa is taken away and sedated as a hostage for the Doctor's good behavior. Monarch himself spares the Doctor's life and allows him freedom to further convince Adric of his benevolence.

The Doctor and Adric head back to their quarters where the Doctor pretends to see Monarch's side, much to Adric's delight. They head to the entertainment area where the noise of the performance drowns out their speech and the Doctor rebukes Adric for his folly. He forces Adric to choose to be with him or Monarch and Adric reluctantly chooses the Doctor.

Feigning tiredness, the Doctor and Adric leave the entertainment but sneak down to the android repair section. The monitor has not yet been repaired from the Doctor's earlier disorienting of it and he further knocks it out with a bit of cobalt. He then convinces Lin Futu of Monarch's plan to subjugate and destroy the Earth. They recover Bigon's personality chip and Lin Futu sends out Chinese dancers to perform the Dragon Dance in the entertainment area.

The Doctor and Adric enter the entertainment area and sit next to Bigon's soulless body, which had been placed in the seats on the floor. Under the guise of the Dragon dancer's leaving, they sneak Bigon's body back to the repair room where Lin Futu reinstalls Bigon's chip. Lin Futu also speaks to the leaders of the other factions and convinces them to join the Doctor while the Doctor wakes Nyssa.

A restored Bigon activates an override circuit in the slave androids and they all come out to perform entertainment at once. Knowing he has to recover the TARDIS, the Doctor has Adric put on a life suit while he dons his breathing helmet. They head down to a launch bay where the Doctor propels himself out on a tether, knowing he only has six minutes before his body succumbs to the cold.

Monarch, now aware of the uprising, sends Persuasion to stop the Doctor. He attacks Adric but Adric knocks the gun out of his hand. Adric repeatedly fires at Persuasion, but the gun has no effect on his android body. He overpowers Adric but the Doctor pulls himself back on the tether and yanks out Persuasion's personality circuit and tosses it into space. Furious, Monarch sends Enlightenment to help. She walks past a still stunned Adric and unties the Doctor's tether before he can come back a second time. Adric rises and rips out her personality circuit as well.

The Doctor, stuck about halfway between the ship and the TARDIS, pulls a cricket ball out of his pocket and hurls it at the ship. It bounces off the hull and he catches it. Retaining it's momentum, the ball and the Doctor hurl towards the TARDIS where the Doctor manages to snag the door and let himself in. He ignores Tegan and pilots the ship back into the entertainment area.

Enraged, Monarch cuts the life support for the rest of the ship. The Doctor gives his helmet to Tegan while Lin Futu repairs another helmet and gives it to the Doctor. With all four of them able to breathe, the Doctor pulls Monarch's poison out, giving it to Adric for safekeeping.

With no other options, Monarch grabs a gun and heads down to the TARDIS to kill the Doctor himself. The Doctor however grabs the poison and smashes it on Monarch. The poison causes his flesh to sink in upon himself and he shrinks to only a fraction of his size. The Doctor reveals that he was still mostly flesh as his ideas about faster than light travel and his own godhood could only be the product of organic thinking. The Doctor traps the shrunken Monarch in the borrowed space helmet, Monarch having turned the life support back on when he left the control room.

Bigon thanks the Doctor and tells him that they intend to fly the ship to a new planet and establish themselves there rather than try to reintegrate with Earth. The Doctor and crew reenter the TARDIS and prepare to try and get to Heathrow again. However, as they take off, Nyssa collapses.

Analysis

I can see how some fans might like this story, especially if they saw it when they were younger. After the dourness of Logopolis and the slow pondering of Castrovalva, this story, especially in Episode Four, would have seemed faster paced and more exciting. Throw in the highly metaphorical Kinda as the chaser and a younger person would have easily glommed on to this story as something fun an exciting. However, watching it in isolation, I can't say that I liked this one very much.

Looking over things as a whole, I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm just not fond of the Fifth Doctor era that much. The Fifth Doctor himself isn't the problem for the most part. The problems tend to lie in production, storyline and especially, the companions.

I don't think it will be a shock to say that my antipathy for Tegan and Adric has never been higher than in this story. In others, the negative aspects of their personalities have either been mitigated by more positive elements, a balance of their character against something else, or a simple lack of screen time. In this story however, Adric and Tegan are very front and center and the worst aspects of their personalities are brought front and center.

Probably more so than any other story I can recall, the Doctor is playing babysitter. It doesn't help that Monarch repeatedly calls them children and Adric's obnoxious comment to Tegan indicates that he clearly still thinks of Nyssa as underdeveloped in her femininity. I find this ironic as Nyssa is easily the most mature acting of all of them. She is still stiff in her performance, but at least she shows gumption, is never taken in by Monarch and works with the Doctor to stop the situation. Her only real drawback is that because she is aware, she is sidelined as the hostage for most of the story.

Adric is a naïve prat through most of this story. He is openly insulting to Tegan and rather dismissive of Nyssa. He buys in to Monarch with almost no prompting, proving himself exceptionally gullible as well as hardheaded as he still wants to believe in Monarch, even after Monarch orders the Doctor's initial execution. The only positive aspect of his buying in wholesale to Monarch's schlock is that the Doctor is able to exploit it and hide his intentions from Monarch. But, to me, that reflects more poorly on Monarch than it does offer any positive aspect to Adric.

Tegan, I felt like slapping for a good portion of the story. She is single-mindedly obsessed with getting back to Heathrow. Fine, we get it. She doesn't appreciate the opportunity in front of her and I can get past that. But the volume of whining she does about it does get annoying. On top of that, nothing she does is useful. In fact, she is the opposite of useful the entire story. She gets hysterical upon learning of Monarch's plan; a trait I hate in any character who displays it. Then she goes and mucks things up royally by actually moving the TARDIS. If she had fled to the TARDIS for a good cry and some isolation, she would have been far more useful. Instead she becomes so obsessed in her own hysteria that she abandons the three people she has traveled with, all of whom have some degree of expertise in piloting the TARDIS, and plops the TARDIS in a location where she can't move it and nearly gets the Doctor and Adric killed trying to recover it. I believe the Doctor would have been well within his rights to leave Tegan on the ship and leave it up to Bigon's benevolence to simply get her back to Earth, let alone get her to Heathrow.

Speaking of Bigon, he's a bit of a problem in this story as well. He is so eager to help the Doctor and overthrow Monarch that I can't understand why Monarch has permitted his existence to continue. Yes, Bigon was punished by being kept in isolation for one hundred years, but that didn't seem to take so why not destroy Bigon. If Monarch is as brutal a dictator as we are meant to think he is, why not fully crush all opposition? The man on the inside who makes the rebellion work, has too much power available to him. This makes Monarch seem naïve and incompetent.

In a similar vein, Lin Futu is a bit too easily convinced for my taste. Granted, he might have already been suspicious of Monarch, but he does rat out the Doctor very quickly when he frees Nyssa. He's been working for Monarch for thousands of years so why should he buy the Doctor's hasty argument that Monarch is mad and will destroy them all upon reaching Earth? It would be one thing if Bigon had mentioned that unrest had been growing but they were too scared to move against Monarch. But Bigon instead says that Lin Futu and Villagra are loyal to Monarch because of his promise to make them rulers of their people. I found it to be rather lazy and frustrating writing.

Now the villains. Enlightenment is fine, albeit a bit bland. She is at least good at her job. Persuasion is also not bad, although I would have expected a bit more competence from him in monitoring the Doctor. But you could argue that after thousands of years of docility, he got a bit lax with regard to a sharp mind like the Doctor.

As for Monarch, I'm so torn as I can't help but like Monarch. I think he is well acted and he sits high and mighty as you would expect a dictator to be. He is pompous and convinced of his own infallibility, which I suppose leaves him vulnerable. But he is too benevolent to match the description of crazy given by Bigon. He grants the Doctor too much freedom and he puts far too much trust in both Bigon and Adric. A ruler who makes those kind of shoddy decisions should have been overthrown long ago. Several times, Monarch could have easily stopped and/or destroyed the Doctor but he turns a blind eye, believing in their belief in him rather than with the keener eye of someone at the top for as long as he has been. Perhaps it is a function of his own belief in his deity, but it looks more like the combination of plot contrivance and dictatorial naivety.

Circling back around, the other primary performance I enjoyed was the Doctor. He is quiet, controlled and clearly using his head to try and get out of the situation they are in. He even goes so far as to call Adric the idiot he is in order to get him back around to thinking properly. He has a clear respect for Nyssa and far more patience with Tegan than she deserves. In fact, the limitations of the Doctor are generally through his companions. Left to his own devices or perhaps only with Nyssa, Bigon and the Doctor could have overthrown Monarch with relatively few complications. Instead, he wastes time acting as a babysitter to at least two people acting like brats. That the companions personalities improved a bit in other stories helps a little, but the fact that the Fifth Doctor is so much better when paired with older pseudo-companions in stories like The Visitation, Kinda, or The Awakening, speaks to how limited the Fifth Doctor is by these shackles.

Episode Four was something of an improvement for the story as it got away from the set up of ideas and actually got some action going. Once there was action, the story buzzed along. The fight and effects may not have been that great, but the Doctor's battle with Persuasion and Enlightenment as well as his cricket ball physics are the clear highlights of the story. Even people who enjoy this story cite that scene first when talking about it. Aside from the action, I think one of the main reasons it works so well is that it puts all the focus on the Doctor. Tegan is absent in the TARDIS, Nyssa is with the androids and coming out of her sedation and Adric can't say anything in his space suit. So the Doctor and his actions drive all the story at that point and that is where things shine. The Doctor should be the focus as much as possible. When stories don't, they tend to fall apart.

As far as the production, I don't know that I can say much. I thought the direction and effects were decent. Certainly the floating cameras were a pretty good effect for the day. I won't say that I thought there was anything groundbreaking or especially drawing on the production side, but it did well for what it was an what was available to them.

I feel a little bad dumping so hard on a story that I think is generally well regarded (or at least given indifference to), but I can't that I was bored or irritated by most of the story through the first three episodes. It had a slight pick up in Episode Two after a lackluster start but sank badly in Episode Three. Episode Four worked reasonably well but still had significant plot holes that just sat wrong with me. I think a younger audience would enjoy this story more. But the volume of bad simply outweighs the good for me in this one.

Overall personal score: 1.5 out of 5

Frontios

Tegan: Doctor then do something!
Doctor: Oh I am. Lots of things. Nothing that fits the gravity of the situation.


Plot Summary

The TARDIS flies near the planet of Frontios, a planet settled by a colony of humans fleeing the destruction of Earth. The settlement has been having hard times as they run low on supplies and more and more people and equipment are sucked down into the Earth. The Doctor attempts to stay away from the planet, not wanting to get involved in human development, but the TARDIS is caught in a meteor storm and pulled in to the planet.

Upon landing, they help various colonists into the caves away from the meteors and the Doctor opts to give medical assistance. There is poor light in the caves and no electricity. Seeing a generator, he hopes to get it running but has no power. The medical officer, Range, assists him and his daughter Norna recalls that there is a basic battery generator in the remains of the colony ship. Tegan and Turlough go with her to help carry it.

The colony ship is outlawed territory, the local authority trying to preserve supplies, and the three are forced to sneak into the ship. Meanwhile the military authority, Brazen, alerts the colony leader, Plantagenet, of the new arrivals and they are immediately suspicious that the Doctor is part of an invasion force. Plantagenet has only recently taken command from his father, Captain Revere.

The three young people manage to recover the battery, though they are forced to knock out one of the guards to do it. They return with the battery to the infirmary, much to the Doctor's appreciation. Range informs the Doctor, as Plantagenet bears down on them, that they had no trouble on the planet for ten years, attempting to grow crops and survive. But for the last thirty years, they've been attacked by some unseen force pulling in meteors at them.

Plantagenet accuses the Doctor of being the fore of an invasion force and the Doctor offers to show him the TARDIS as proof that they are just travelers who didn't mean to stop there. They are halted by another round of meteor strikes which forces everyone back into the caves. As it stops, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough race back, hoping to leave in the TARDIS. However, they find the TARDIS gone, apparently destroyed.

Plantagenet arrests the Doctor and prepares to have him shot but Turlough steps in, grabbing the Doctor's hat rack and pretending it is the weapon which summons the meteors. The Doctor attempts to assuage the people that he will only help. Tegan is sent with Range back to help the wounded while the Doctor, Turlough, Norna, Plantagenet and Brazen head to the sealed science lab to run tests on the rocks, though the work had been stopped by Plantagenet's father.

As they enter the lab, Plantagenet attacks the Doctor with a club from a soldier. The Doctor defends himself and Plantagenet is knocked to the ground. His heart begins to go erratic and the Doctor and Brazen carry him back to the infirmary. In the infirmary, the Doctor creates a makeshift defibrillator and settles his heart. Brazen becomes more convinced that the Doctor is actually here to help.

In the lab, Norna runs tests but Turlough is more curious about the source of the rocks, given that Norna told him that the quarry had been outlawed years ago. Examining the block and tackle they used earlier to get the battery, he discovers a secret passage out of the lab through the floor. He and Norna head down to investigate and find themselves in smoothed tunnels. Turlough becomes increasingly nervous and recalls things from his past, including the name "Tractators."

The Doctor and Range return to the lab while Tegan watches over Plantagenet. While talking, Tegan let's slip that she has learned of uncategorized deaths in the records, causing Brazen to begin to question her. While distracted, Plantagenet slips off his cot and disappears into the ground. Both Tegan and Brazen are shocked by this but their investigation is cut short when a group of people, fearing Plantagenet has died come in to see. Brazen chases them out, leaving Tegan a chance to slip free of the guard. When Brazen reenters the infirmary, she braces the door with piece of metal.

The Doctor and Range enter the lab and discover it empty and the tunnel. The Doctor heads down, telling Range to stay behind, but Range disobeys and follows him, running into him later. Tegan also enters the lab and subsequently the tunnels.

While exploring, the Doctor and Range run into Turlough who is fleeing in a state of panic. They catch him and can get nothing out of him except for Tractators. The Doctor orders Range to look after Turlough while he finds Norna. He comes across Norna being held in a field, surrounded by large, roly-poly type creatures. He sees Tegan from across the cave and motions for her to stay down. He is seen though and the Tractators encase him in the field with Norna.

Tegan throws her lamp and the chemicals explode in a flash of light. The Tractators scatter and the three head back up the tunnels. After reuniting with Range and the still shocked Turlough, the Doctor heads back into the tunnels. Tegan and Range go after him. The Doctor is caught in a Tractator gravity beam along with Tegan. He orders Range to head back to the lab with his daughter and Turlough.

Brazen and his men manage to get out of the infirmary and set about restoring order. Brazen finds one of his officers named Cockerill looting food. He is arrested and exiled outside the camp with others considered Retrogrades. The Retrogrades attack Cockerill, stealing his food and leaving him half dead.

Brazen heads to the lab where he finds Range, Norna and Turlough returning from the tunnels. He arrests Range for withholding information about mysterious deaths from the authorities. Range protests, stating that he was given orders to not speak of them and only catalogued the disappearances. During the discussion, Brazen becomes aware of Turlough speaking from repressed race memory about the Tractators and he begins to question him.

The Doctor and Tegan are pulled further into the tunnels but they again destroy a lamp when approaching the Tractators to blind the creatures and flee. They wander about the tunnels trying to find a way out and wondering about the nature of the Tractators. They come across one who is using a gravity beam towards the surface. It is pulling the half-dead Cockerill down. The Doctor distracts it and it breaks the beam, allowing Cockerill to escape. His escape is met with wonder by the Retrogrades as they had never seen someone escape the ground before and he is taken in.

After questioning Turlough, Brazen takes Range, Norna and Turlough to a part of the quarry where he shows Range the location where he saw Captain Revere pulled under the earth. Knowing that there are others, he assembles a squad and heads into the tunnels with Range to combat the creatures. Norna and Turlough stay behind but Turlough, near recovered, feels ashamed of his own cowardice and heads in after them.

The Doctor and Tegan follow the sound of a mechanical drill and discover the central lair of the Tractators, overseen by their leader, the Gravis. They also see Plantagenet being held in a cage. The Tractators use active minds to run their machines and they call in one drilling machine, fitted with the near drained mind of Captain Revere.

The Gravis comes forward and releases Revere. He recognizes the Doctor as a Time Lord and assumes that the Time Lords have come to take stock. The Doctor plays along, pretending that Tegan is actually a defective service robot, much to her annoyance. She is suspended in a gravity field while Plantagenet is taken from his cage and hooked up to the drilling machine. The Doctor whispers in his ear to play along until he has an opportunity.

Range, Brazen and his men stop in the tunnels as Range has lost his way. Turlough comes upon them and offers to help. Range panics at Norna being left alone and heads back up the tunnels, only just managing to avoid capture by a Tractator while doing so. Turlough is also grabbed by a Tractator but Brazen and his men subdue the creature and free him. They burst into the central lair and pull Plantagenet out. The Gravis tries to stop them but an electrical discharge is made and the Gravis is knocked out. The other Tractators flee leaving the humans alone. Turlough is strangely drawn to the machine but the Doctor and Brazen pull him away. However, Brazen is caught in the machine's grip and cannot pull himself out. He instead orders the others to run while he uses his mind to fight and destroy the machine.

In the lab, Norna is attacked by a looter and tied up while he looks for scavenge. He is in turn jumped by Cockerill who knocks him out. Cockerill and the rest of Retrogrades take over, plundering what they can. Norna manages to free herself and tells the group that Plantagenet isn't dead and shows them tunnel where the group went down. Range appears at the tunnel entrance, telling them that the Tractators are everywhere and moving towards them. Cockerill decides to take some men and attack.

As the Doctor and the humans flee, Turlough's memory comes back and he tells the Doctor that the Tractators are harmless without the Gravis to lead them. It is he that is driving the plan to turn Frontios into a mobile base that will allow them to scavenge other planets. They hear screaming as Cockerill and his men run into other Tractators and press on. Tegan however discovers a separated bit of the TARDIS. She is spotted by a revived Gravis who advances on her. She ducks through the TARDIS doors to find the others in the console room.

The Doctor orders them to hide and opens the door, displaying the TARDIS console room. The Gravis, consumed with greed when he realizes what it is, exercises all his gravitational power to pull the disparate pieces of the TARDIS back together. The act exhausts him and he collapses on the console and with the TARDIS back together, he is cut off dimensionally from the other Tractators.

Plantagenet and Turlough head back to the surface where the restore order. The Doctor and Tegan take the Gravis to an isolated, uninhabited planet where his power is limited. The Doctor returns and picks up Turlough, intending to return to Gallifrey, although he begs Plantagenet to never say a word of his involvement in the affair. As they leave, the TARDIS is caught in a time corridor which pulls them away from Gallifrey and toward the center of the galaxy.

Analysis

I never watched Tachyon TV but I heard a mock song they put out once about how boring Christopher Bidmede's writing was. I'm not sure Frontios is deserving of that level of mockery, but it is a rather dull story with a lot of little things that don't make much sense.

The Doctor is very good in this story with a strong sense of urgency most of the time. It is a bit odd that he seems so worried about getting in trouble with the Time Lords about interfering but that point is discarded fairly early. He has a nice interaction with Range and I also liked his witticisms that he would crack now and again. I don't recall the Fifth Doctor doing that that often and it was a bit of a throw back to the Fourth Doctor's style in dealing with high pressure situations. About the only thing I didn't care for was his almost cavalier attitude toward the destruction of the TARDIS. He seemed a bit too blasé about the prospect of being marooned on Frontios, to say nothing of losing that level of a companion, though the Fifth Doctor was probably the most distant from the TARDIS as a living thing.

Tegan and Turlough weren't bad but they had their faulty moments as well. Tegan did a lot of running around and helping here and there but after she rescues the Doctor and Norna, she doesn't seem to do much of anything except be there. I did like her indignation when the Doctor passes her off as a discount servo droid.

Turlough was fine, especially when he was clearly working to overcome his cowardice after returning to the lab with Norna. However I did not like the race memory bit. The acting was alright, if a bit over-the-top, but the explanation of it that Turlough's people kept deep memories of the Tractators and what they are that could be called upon in moments of trauma seemed like the flimsiest of writer's cheats. Granted it made Turlough more important and kept the Gravis from going off on a Bond-villain explanation speech, but it was still a very convenient dropping by the exposition fairy and I didn't care for it.

Most of the rest of the case did fine in a serviceable way, but no one really stood out. Range was probably the closest one as he had a nice rapport with the Doctor and got a lot of time to settle into various character moments. Most of the rest though were fairly one note, with Brazen and Plantagenet being the worst. Brazen was at least consistent in his firm military mind and bulldog attitude.

Plantagenet on the other had seemed rather fickle and changed his mind so easily. Worse, he gave off a feeling of weakness which undercut the idea that it was by his will and the promise of his leadership that the colony held together. I could buy that idea about his father, but a weak presence seemed at odds with what we are being told is happening in the script and it felt jarring to me. He also seemed to have rather rapid and unwarranted attitude swings as the plot shifted from him being either a help or a hindrance to the Doctor.

The Tractators were a fairly interesting idea, although I'm not sure they were well executed. There are limits to the costumes and they seemed overly stiff and a bit too much like a man inside a lumbering suit. The gravity power bit was also very weird. Having technological minds and developing engines I can understand. That seemed well thought out and believable. But that they had an almost magical power of creating gravity fields seemed very strange. It also felt a bit weak that they were actually a benevolent race who were being led astray by one bad leader. I'm not big on stories where everything falls into place with a quick decapitation. Yes sometimes it works but more often than not, it feels like a quick way out of a situation.

I'm also a bit non-plussed about the casual power the Tractators have to destroy and rebuilt the TARDIS. Why was the TARDIS separated into pieces simply by pulling it underground? Why did the Gravis have the power to pull it together, especially if pulling it back together made it trans-dimensional again? That seems to give the Tractators a level of power that would have made them strong enough to battle the Time Lords. If that were the case, I would thing they would have actively sent the Doctor to take out the Gravis much like they did on other missions. It was an unneeded plot device as the TARDIS could simply have been pulled into the tunnels whole and the Gravis tricked into entering and then subdued, allowing the natural trans-dimensionality of the TARDIS, cut off his power from his own kind. The pull-apart was completely unnecessary.

The story was fairly well directed and well lit. I thought the production team did a nice job in trying to stretch what they had and make it look like a believable place. I'm actually surprised they didn't try to film any part of this story in a quarry as it would have fit in well with the mood, but the studios were well dressed here anyway.

Aside from the powers of the Tractators, I think the biggest problem with this story was that it was large in ideas and short on scope. There was a tremendous amount of backstory for all the character and a lot of threads that could have been elaborated on. But most of those were not explored, leaving a lot of questions. Yet despite that, the flow of the story felt padded with a lot of running around, escapes, recaptures and just little things that didn't matter much. This gave it the disadvantage of being both boring to watch and frustrating in a lack of answers, which is strange for a writer who likes to go on about how a thing is scientifically possible.

Overall, I can't say that I enjoyed this story that much. It had some good moments but the overall story just seemed to drag and left too many things up in the air and against the common logic of the show. I wouldn't protest overly if someone pulled if off the shelf to watch, but I certainly wouldn't seek it out or put it in the top tier of Fifth Doctor stories to recommend.

Overall personal score: 1.5 out of 5

Enlightenment

You are a Time Lord. A lord of time. Can one be a lord of such a small domain?

Enlightenment completes the Black Guardian trilogy and is generally held as the best of three by most fans. I was exposed to little snippets of this one before I sat down to watch it wholesale, mostly from the end, but they didn't leave much of impression other than it was a nice looking set and some interesting camera work. Unfortunately, after I started to watch it, I discovered that my available copy was missing Episode Four and I was forced to leave this one unfinished. I finally have been able to get a full copy and get through it for a proper assessment.

Plot Summary

Running on low power, the Doctor is trying to fix the TARDIS when he receives a message from the White Guardian. He is instructed to proceed to a set of coordinates given. The Doctor follows them and lands. He and Turlough step out into the cargo hold of an Edwardian sailing vessel. Tegan remains in the TARDIS should the White Guardian try to contact them again.

The Doctor and Turlough enter the crew quarters where the crew has been waiting for a couple of days. None of them can remember coming aboard, but they know the vessel is to be part of a race. They mistake the Doctor for the ship's cook and give him a hearty welcome while they wait.

Tegan receives a garbled message from the White Guardian about a race and it being winner-take-all. She also sees a projection of the First Mate of the vessel, Mr. Mariner on the TARDIS screen. She leaves the TARDIS to find the Doctor and to see who the observer was but is discovered by Mariner and taken up to the Captain's quarters. After doing so, Mariner goes to the crew quarters and escorts the Doctor to the Captain's quarters as well. Turlough is left behind with the men.

Tegan passes on the message from the White Guardian although neither of them seem to understand it. Captain Striker enters and bids them welcome, already seemingly aware of who they both are. They sit down to dinner but the meal is interrupted by buffeting suggesting that the race is about to start. Mariner escorts Tegan to the wheelhouse while the Doctor lags behind.

The crew is summoned topside with a bonus grog ration before the start of the race. Turlough lingers behind and the Doctor discovers him. Together they head to the wheelhouse to find Tegan. Tegan is already uneasy as they passed a set of modern wetsuits outside the wheelhouse and that the race is preparing to start with it being pitch black outside. As the Doctor and Turlough enter, Mariner activates a viewscreen via a computer terminal and they learn that although it appears they are on an Edwardian sailing vessel, they are actually on a spaceship.

As the race begins, Tegan gets sea sick and Mariner takes her below to a cabin built from images in her mind. He gives her a glass of rum and she falls asleep. Turlough comes down to check on her a little later. He wakes her and she is both feeling better and more at ease with the surroundings. Turlough suspects that the drink helps with compliance as one member of the crew is a teetotaler and is the only one who seems to react to their surroundings like a normal person.

As the ships approach Venus, the first marker, Striker dives the ship in towards the atmosphere and gets a gravity boost to surge ahead of the others. Two other ships follow: a Greek trireme and a pirate frigate. The trireme explodes during the maneuver. Striker and Mariner dismiss it as a failed maneuver but both the Doctor and Turlough suspect sabotage as the ship exploded in an unexpected way. Upset at Striker and Mariner's indifference to the death of the people aboard, Tegan leaves the wheelhouse and heads back to her cabin.

Turlough also leaves but heads down towards the crew quarters where he runs into the tee-totaling sailor. He has stolen the key to the rum cabinet to clear the crew's head and gives it to Turlough to hide. He heads aloft while Turlough contacts the Black Guardian on what to do. The Black Guardian demands to know why he hasn't killed the Doctor. Turlough demurs saying that he can't kill him. The Black Guardian becomes angry and declares their deal void and that Turlough will never leave the ship alive. He strikes Turlough down in a bout of pain.

In the wheelhouse, the Doctor learns that the officers are creatures known as Eternals who use mortal beings (ephemerals) to entertain themselves. The prize for winning the race is "enlightenment" and the ability to realize your greatest desire. The Doctor leaves the wheelhouse but not before discovering weaknesses in the Eternal's ability to read minds. He collects Tegan and discovers Turlough passed out, although Turlough blows it off as a slip down the stairs. They attempt to head back to the TARDIS but the excitement in their minds alerted Striker and Mariner of the TARDIS's existence and they cause it to disappear.

Attempting to alleviate Tegan's depression at being trapped, Mariner, who is entranced with Tegan, takes her on deck to appreciate the beauty of space. The Doctor and Turlough also head aloft to look around. The Black Guardian's words echo in Turlough's mind and unable to deal with the situation any longer, Turlough throws himself overboard. The crew of Striker's ship attempt to throw him a life preserver but he drifts out of reach. He is instead swept up and rescued by the pirate frigate, commanded by Captain Wrack.

Wrack toys with the idea of torturing Turlough as ephemeral pain is a source of amusement to her, but Turlough intrigues her with his deviousness that she frees him. She sends an invitation to Striker's ship to come aboard for a party. Striker initially declines but the Doctor requests to go so he permits him and Tegan to go with Mariner serving as his representative.

Before they leave, the ships are caught in a meteor storm. One ship takes advantage of the situation and surges past Wrack's frigate. She heads below, dragging Turlough along, and enters a secured chamber. Shortly after, the passing ship explodes. Striker and Mariner assume that it was destroyed by the meteors but the Doctor again suspects sabotage.

After the storm passes, the Doctor, Tegan and Mariner board the frigate to a lavish reception. Turlough sneaks away to try and discover the secret of Wrack's power in the sealed room. He finds it mostly empty except for a focus window protected by a vacuum shield. A member of the crew discovers the room left unsecured. He seals the door and deactivates the vacuum shield. Turlough begins to suffocate. He appeals to the Black Guardian but the Black Guardian dismisses him and leaves him to his fate.

The Doctor, looking for Turlough, asks Mariner to search his mind. Mariner notes that it's at the lowest point of the ship and somewhat shielded. The Doctor heads below and hears Turlough screaming for help. He reactivates the shield and opens the door. In there he finds an energy weapon that Turlough missed in his panic. The two realize that Wrack has been either giving or planting focusing crystals to the other ships, disguised as rubies. When she powers the energy weapon, the gem becomes the focus and the energy concentration destroys the vessel. The Doctor and Turlough head back but are caught by Wrack's second-in-command, Mansell.

Wrack takes Tegan to the wheelhouse where she freezes Tegan in a moment in time. She then places a focusing crystal, disguised as a ruby, in the tiara that Tegan is wearing. She unfreezes her and dismisses her to the care of Mariner, who had been concerned for her. He professes desire but when Tegan questions if he is in love, he is confused and only desires existence.

The Doctor and Turlough are brought before Wrack where Turlough accuses the Doctor of being a spy and he was trying to capture him. The Doctor, Tegan and Mariner are dismissed but Turlough is allowed to stay on board. Turlough pretends to be on her side, desiring to win the race for himself.

Wrack demonstrates the pirate plank on two eternals who were arrested when they came aboard for the reception and they disappear as they fall overboard. Wrack prepares to demonstrate it on Turlough as she is aware of his greed for the prize. Turlough tells Wrack that he too serves the Black Guardian, having heard his voice when Wrack entered the sealed room. Impressed, she spares him and brings him below after ordering Mansell to pull even with Striker's ship.

As Wrack's ship pulls even, the Doctor realizes that Wrack is planning to destroy them. When describing the focusing crystal, Tegan recalls seeing it on her tiara when she took it off. They race to Tegan's room as Wrack is absorbed in a column of darkness, allowing her to focus power on that crystal. The Doctor finds it and smashes it, forcing Wrack to split her focus on the fragments. The Doctor then scoops up the fragments and tosses them overboard, just as they explode.

Wrack's anger at Striker's survival is diminished by news that the winds have stopped and Striker is becalmed. With the extra sail of her ship, Wrack pulls ahead and prepares to dock at the city of the enlighteners. Striker is powerless to stop her but the Doctor appeals to him to give him back the TARDIS as he can stop her. Striker agrees and reveals that it was hidden in the Doctor's mind. The Doctor visualizes it and it reappears on the bridge. He tries to take Tegan but Mariner refuses to let her go.

The Doctor materializes outside the chamber and enters. He appeals to Wrack to stop, not knowing what she is tapping in to. She laughs him off and orders Mansell to throw him out the aperture. On Striker's ship, he, Mariner and Tegan observe two bodies emerging from Wrack's ship and disappearing into space. Wrack's ship does not stop and docks at the city, winning the race. Striker, Mariner and Tegan board the longboat to pay homage to the winner.

Wrack's human crew disappear to their own time and place as the Black and White Guardians appear in the wheelhouse. The Black Guardian calls for the captain and the Doctor and Turlough appear, having thrown Wrack and Mansell overboard and taken command of the ship. The Black Guardian angrily rebuffs the Doctor, informing him that he has only won a battle and that he will come again. The White Guardian offers enlightenment but the Doctor politely declines.

Striker, Mariner and Tegan arrive and Tegan is surprised to see them. The White Guardian dismisses the Eternals, though Mariner begs Tegan for help. She admits that she cannot help him and the two disappear. The White Guardian then offers the prize to Turlough and reveals a giant, glowing diamond. The Black Guardian reminds Turlough that they still have a contract which gives anything Turlough has to him. The Black Guardian offers to let him have the diamond in exchange for the Doctor, forcing Turlough to choose between great wealth and the Doctor.

Turlough stares at the diamond before throwing it to the Black Guardian. The Black Guardian shrieks and disappears in a blaze of fire. The White Guardian informs Turlough that their contract is now annulled and they are free to go as he disappears. The Doctor informs them that enlightenment was never about the diamond but the choice. They then leave with Turlough requesting that they aim for his home planet.

Analysis

Having finally have seen the full story, I can say that while it is good, I don't believe it lives up to the hype that many fans have given it. It is well acted, the sets are interesting and the story is somewhat compelling, yet it is also slow and the eternal's lack of emotion can bring a total dearth of feeling through the whole thing that is slightly off-putting. I also felt like there were a couple of strings that were left hanging so that the story was left with a few missing pieces.

I enjoyed the Doctor in this story, although he was quite reserved. My principle hang-up was in the very beginning where the Doctor has seemed to become fully aware of Turlough and his mix-up with the Black Guardian but has gone from being wary and trying to pull him over to being more hostile to him. In either case, it's a passive-aggressive streak that I don't particularly care for in the Doctor. He knows and should confront Turlough.

I was also a little disappointed that there wasn't as much direct conflict with the Eternals as there was potential to be. Granted, Striker and Mariner weren't hostile to them, but I thought more action would be necessary when they took the TARDIS. There was a hostile in the form of Wrack, but the critical moment was deprived, whether for time or the thrill of the deception, and we never actually see the Doctor gain the upper hand over her.

The companions were alright, although Turlough has more to do and was thus more interesting. Tegan was a bit too passive for my taste. Mariner held on to her and that kept her from being anything more than a liability in the form of getting the focusing crystal on to Striker's ship. She wasn't whiney, which was nice, but she also wasn't particularly engaging either.

Turlough was pretty interesting as he was fighting with sides. I did not like how he kept appealing to the Black Guardian in his moment of trial, despite the fact that the Black Guardian had tried to kill him once and driven him to try and take his own life shortly after. It's a bit inconsistent. Even in his cowardice, I would have liked more general pounding on the door and calling for help, going so far as to appeal to the Doctor and Mariner (and maybe even Wrack and Tegan) before trying the crystal. I also would have liked to have seen him properly turn on Wrack in the final fight. I understand the drama of questioning who was killed, but it would have been nice to actually see Turlough make an active move for once.

All of the Eternals have their ups and downs. Striker is probably the one I like best, even though he is the most emotionless. It really isn't that different from a "stiff upper lip" sort and it makes him strangely interesting.

Mariner has the creepy, almost rape-y thing down. I would have liked a bit more build up as to why Tegan strikes him more than say the far more emotionally turmoiled Turlough. I can't even begin to imagine what he would do with someone like Victoria. Probably his best scene is at the beginning of Episode Four where he spouts dialogue that could have come directly from a bad romance movie but in an impassive yet obsessive way. It goes so far as to make Tegan question him about love, a concept he is unfamiliar with. Again it comes back to his desire for the intensity of emotional existence and Tegan's passion and roil of emotion is what draws him. It's an interesting character study.

Wrack is profoundly over the top, occasionally too much so. She makes for a nice contrast with the emotionless Striker and Mariner and an over-the-top pirate queen would make sense. If Striker and Mariner are trying to understand emotions, she is bathing it them full stop. I didn't like the end to Episode Three though when she stares down the camera and laughs. That was too Snidley Whiplash for my taste and a step too far, even for that character. I also have to mention my disappointment in her getting an off-screen dispatch. I would have liked to see her spit some venom at the Doctor before pushing her overboard.

The sets are very nice as well as the direction. You can tell that the ships are models, but that is pretty much a given with what they are trying to do on the budget they have. I also enjoyed the lighting as well as the switchover to film when they go topside. The lighting is so low that the grain of the film really stands out, especially at the end of Episode Two, and it gives it a rather eerie quality, enough to distract you from the thin veil of lights attempting to look like stars in the background. Similar things can be said about the costumes so there is very little to complain about from a production standpoint with this story.

I keep coming back to my central question as to why I didn't care for this story as much as I expected to. I think pacing was some of it. Ultimately, I knew where the story was going with Turlough having to prove himself loyal to the Doctor. But rather than focus on the race or step to unentangle themselves from the Eternals, we focus on scenes with the crew, which are dropped halfway through Episode Two. We get Mariner pining after Tegan who seems bored by the whole thing and yet it still is never quite clear what Mariner is truly pining after. Then after the slow development of the first three episodes, we get the hasty conclusion in Episode Four that doesn't even give Wrack a good send off.

I also couldn't help but be a bit disappointed in the subplot with the jewels of destruction. Wrack's ship is clearly faster and she could win the race without destroying Striker's ship. The first two ships did actually pass her at various points so I understood her blowing them up, or at least luring them in to blowing them up. But Striker is someone she wants to blow up just for the fun of it as she has enough sail to overtake him and pass him. It reminded me of the old cartoon Wacky Races where the bad guy, Dick Dastardly, actually had the fastest car and if he just raced instead of hatching plans to destroy the other racers, he would have actually won. When you can be openly compared to a cheap Hanna-Barbara cartoon, that's not exactly the finest comparison.

I will say one thing about the story. Even if I was a bit bored here and there, it's overall telling was somewhat compelling. Having been foiled the first time I tried to watch it, the second time, I knew what was going to happen in the first three episodes yet still found them entertaining. I also found myself drawn in a little more by the story. I don't think this story is at the level of Kinda where repeated viewings will cause you to find more and more to enjoy, but I think the slow pace and sometimes odd detours hide other aspects which can draw you in on a second viewing.

All in all, I'd say this is good but not great. I think I would still agree that it is the best of the Black Guardian trilogy but more for it's overall balance. Mawdryn Undead was elevated by the Brigadier and only suffered in my eyes because of some laziness in the storytelling. Enlightenment is better balanced with good acting and a decent story all around, but the pacing and other small flaws bring it down from where it could have been. Perhaps the fault is entirely mine with hearing about how good this story is and building it up in my mind to something it wasn't. But it's still worth watching and it will draw you in, even if you find yourself distracted by other things from time to time.

Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5