Review of Frontier in Space (#67) DVD Release Date: 02 Mar 10 Original Air Date: 24 Feb – 31 Mar 1973 Doctors/Companions: Three, Jo Grant Stars: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning Preceding Story: Carnival of Monsters (Three, Jo) Succeeding Story: Planet of the Daleks (Three, Jo)
As I took this penultimate entry in the Everything Else series off the shelf, I realized I remembered almost nothing about it. The cover image gave me some clues (“Oh, yeah—the Draconians” [though I honestly didn’t even remember their name accurately]; “The Master? Ohhhh… Isn’t this Delgado’s last serial?”), but my recollections were so vague that I questioned the things that were jogged loose. A few of those general impressions turned out to have been based in reality, but there was precious little of substance.
Writer Malcolm Hulke is generally considered among the better writers of this era, so when I saw his name on the screen, I had high hopes. Among the things I remembered was that the Draconians were a cool species that I wish we’d seen more of. However, in the end I felt somewhat disappointed. It’s not that the story was bad, by any means. It just wasn’t particularly innovative. (I began to understand how this adventure ended up in Everything Else.)
To begin, there’s a bit of “everything but the kitchen sink” energy in this six-parter. First we get our new supposed antagonists, the “creatively”-named Draconians. When the TARDIS nearly collides with an Earth-ship and the Doctor and Jo are mistaken for Dragons (an equally “creative” epithet), the conflict seems to be between humans and Draconians. By the end of the first episode, though, we realize the Ogrons (introduced in the previous year’s Day of the Daleks, and last seen in cameo in the preceding story) are really to blame. It’s not until we get into the third episode that we discover it is the Master who is behind the Ogrons.
Review of The Invasion of Time (#97) DVD Release Date: 09 Jul 19 Original Air Date: 04 Feb – 11 Mar 1978 Doctors/Companions: Four, Leela, K9 Stars: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson Preceding Story: Underworld (Four, Leela, K9) Succeeding Story: The Ribos Operation (Four, Romana I, K9)
Every time I pick up one of my Classic DVDs and see that I’m in for a six-parter, especially now that I’m down to Everything Else, I cringe a little. Despite the fact that I can easily invest dozens of hours in a K-drama, somehow spending two and a half hours on Classic Who feels like an ordeal.
Usually.
When the sting sounded and the credits rolled on the first episode of The Invasion of Time, I was shocked. “That went so fast!” I thought. Then it happened again for the second episode. Maybe I was just in the right frame of mind this time, but this Invasion didn’t feel like as much of a slog as some have.
Then again, perhaps my poor memory worked in my favor. My pre-viewing notes show that I remembered precious little about the story: a trip through the TARDIS interior (including the swimming pool), Leela staying with Andred, and Sontarans on Gallifrey. I’d say that last point was a spoiler—none of these but the pool actually show up until the last two episodes—except for how prominently displayed the Sontaran is in the cover image.
Review of Enlightenment (#127) DVD Release Date: 08 Jun 21 Original Air Date: 01 – 09 Mar 1983 Doctors/Companions: Five, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough Stars: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson Preceding Story: Terminus (Five, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough) Succeeding Story: The King’s Demons (Five, Tegan, Turlough)
I’ve occasionally heard other fans talk about how much they enjoy Enlightenment, but it’s not one that’s made much of an impression on me before (thus its fate as a member of Everything Else). Maybe I just never consider it, as part of an era I usually find a little dull.
But despite starring the Beige Doctor, and including both a baddie with a bird on his head and one of the more irritating Companions, the plot and the other Companion being awesome—that’s Tegan, one of my personal faves—make it eminently watchable.
Going in, pretty much all I remembered about Enlightenment was the race. I also knew it involved the Black Guardian and the end of Turlough’s interactions with him, but that was as much due to having pulled it out of my Black Guardian boxed set as anything. And though I didn’t write it down in my pre-viewing notes, I had at least a vague impression of Captain Wrack in my mind.
Review of The Dalek Invasion of Earth (#10) DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20 Original Air Date: 21 Nov – 26 Dec 1964 Doctors/Companions: One, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright Stars: William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill Preceding Story: Planet of Giants (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara) Succeeding Story: The Rescue (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
For once, during my rewatch for an entry in the Everything Else series, I found that the things I could spontaneously recall beforehand were both accurate and fairly important details. Although that recall was on the slow side, once I got my head in the right story space, a picture formed pretty easily: a “No Dumping” sign, cyber-ized humans, a bomb in the center of the earth [okay, that part was slightly mixed up], and Susan gets ditched.
The story opens with the TARDIS crew landing—finally!—in London. Ian and Barbara aren’t fussed about being off by a couple of years either way from their departure, but it soon becomes apparent that they’re actually 200 years in their future, in the year 2164. Worse, the world is in a post-apocalyptic state where the Daleks are the self-proclaimed “masters of Earth.”
Given that the adventure spans six episodes, it is unsurprising that our TARDIS crew of four soon gets split into two, then three, and even four groups. Each of our heroes make their own acquaintances and allies among the human resistance as they are chased, and sometimes captured, by the Daleks and their enslaved human “Robomen.”
After performing too well on an intelligence test (which serves as a reminder to the modern viewer that these episodes were first broadcast only a year into the show’s run, while it was still very much meant to be teaching history and/or science to a young audience), the Doctor is himself selected to be robotized. Luckily, our story arcs converge here and Barbara and Susan help bring the chaos that allows for a rescue.
One of the things that keeps this particular six-parter from dragging too much is the aforementioned splits and convergences of subsets of the TARDIS crew. More often than not, Ian gets to hare off by himself and do something heroic (par for the course) while the others each do their own thing. But we get more instances than usual of other party members having interesting experiences, too.
For one thing, Barbara gets to be even more badass than usual, driving some sort of tanker truck (conveniently stolen from a vehicle museum, in perfect working order) straight through a rank of Daleks. Her experiences with the Doctor serve her well in other sections of the story, too, allowing her to contribute important ideas and skills to a group or to devise her own plan of resistance to escape from Daleks and try to stop their plan.
Perhaps more obviously, though, Susan finally gets a little more screen time. Although her romance is not very well developed, writer Terry Nation at least gives it a jolly old try. He’s clearly not a romance writer, but he even takes it so far as to give Susan and David an on-screen kiss, which is vastly superior to the romantic endings some Companions have had (:cough: Leela :cough:).
And then we reach the iconic First Doctor speech. “One day, I shall come back,” he tells Susan, who he has locked out of the TARDIS to force her to stay on a ruined Earth with her new beau. “Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.”
I’ve always been kind of angry with the Doctor for treating Susan that way. But this time, somehow, it wasn’t as hard to swallow, and I’m not sure why that is the case. Perhaps this time I bought into Susan’s attachment to David more than I had before. Perhaps it’s just that I was expecting it, mulling the idea over in the back of my mind all along. Or perhaps I’ve just had that much more time to think about familial separation from both generational directions.
Whatever the case, I’ve come out the other side of this rewatch with an overall more positive impression of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. While there are still a few cringe-worthy “product of its time” moments, it’s a relatively solid story that speaks to both the continuing will to resist oppression and the mental and emotional exhaustion that come with that. It’s a good reminder that even though those in power might, like the Daleks, insist that “resistance is useless,” it is instead one of the most important—and human—experiences we can ever have.
Review of Planet of Evil (#81) DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20 Original Air Date: 27 Sep – 18 Oct 1975 Doctors/Companions: Four, Sarah Jane Smith Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen Preceding Story: Terror of the Zygons (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry, the Brigadier) Succeeding Story: Pyramids of Mars (Four, Sarah Jane)
I know there have got to be fans out there who have a particular soft spot for Planet of Evil, but as far as I’m concerned, this is a seriously forgettable story. It came around on my calendar and I thought, “Which one is that again?” And I wasn’t much the wiser after looking at the DVD cover.
As usual, I tried writing down what I remembered of the adventure before starting my re-watch, and I am chagrinned to report that (a) I could barely remember anything beyond the story involving the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith (with that recollection being entirely due to the aforementioned cover image) and (b) everything else I remembered was in error.
To make matters worse, even after watching all four episodes again, I still don’t have much of an impression of the storyline. It’s a pretty typical story of its type: some planetary exploration team has discovered something it shouldn’t have, causing members of the expedition to die before the TARDIS crew arrive and discover what’s going on and how to resolve the situation.
Review of Battlefield (#152) DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20 Original Air Date: 06 – 27 Sep 1989 Doctors/Companions: Seven, Dorothy “Ace” McShane Stars: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred Preceding Story: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (Seven, Ace) Succeeding Story: Ghost Light (Seven, Ace)
Happy Doctor Who Day! Our show turns 59 today, and though we have to wait another year for any more new episodes—ugh—I’ve got a review for you today. Much like the rest of the Everything Else series, this story is one that I don’t think gets talked about enough.
It’s not like there isn’t a lot of action, or interesting characters and lore to be had in Battlefield. (And how can you not love seeing Jean Marsh back for a third guest role?) I have to admit, though, the thing I remembered most about this adventure before re-watching was the watertank accident in which Sophie Aldred narrowly escaped a potentially fatal situation (the DVD release even has a short extra about it).
However, the main conceit of the adventure may be the part that makes it most memorable overall: at some point in their personal history—though not before now—the Doctor was Merlin, and now Morgaine is back to take her revenge on him. The ensuing mashup of plate-armored knights with both swords and energy weapons pitted against UNIT soldiers, including both the now-retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Steward and the new Brigadier Bambera, makes for bonkers conflicts that couldn’t readily appear anywhere but Doctor Who.
Review of The Seeds of Death (#48) DVD Release Date: 12 Jun 12 Original Air Date: 25 Jan – 01 Mar 1969 Doctors/Companions: Two, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoë Heriot Stars: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury Preceding Story: The Krotons (Two, Jamie, Zoë) Succeeding Story: The Space Pirates (Two, Jamie, Zoë)
When I first decided to finish off the blog with the Everything Else category of reviews, I had The Seeds of Deathscheduled for October 2022. However, since we had the delight of Whittaker’s final episode last month, my October review slot ended up being filled by that instead. As I had no desire to shift my entire posting schedule, and didn’t want either to skip Seeds of Death or to move it to the very end, this month you get a bonus review instead of a confession.
It turns out that the timing couldn’t have been better. This past week has been a bit rough for me on a personal level, and so the gentler pacing of a black-and-white era story ended up being exactly what I needed. Even with a high body count, this adventure was well paced enough to feel relatively calm to me.
The Doctor, Jaime, and Zoë arrive on Earth at a time where space exploration has been effectively halted, and transport of both people and goods is accomplished almost exclusively by T-MAT, a high-tech matter transmission system. But there are weaknesses in the system that an enemy can take advantage of, which is how the Ice Warriors end up making a play to take Earth for themselves.
Review of The Power of the Doctor Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.
There was nothing subtle about The Power of the Doctor. It was pure fan service, from start to finish. Some of it we knew about beforehand, and some of it came as a surprise—again and again—but it was blatantly obvious that showrunner Chris Chibnall wanted to check off every single item on his bucket list on the way out.
For the most part, I was happy to go along for the ride. Only in the final thirty seconds or so did I balk. (Yes, we’ll talk about that more, but under the cut.) It made me want to use my full-on Mom Voice: I’m not upset with you; just disappointed.
But let’s back up for a while, and leave that moment for later. First, let’s talk about the bonkers hour-and-a-half of Jodie Whittaker’s last episode in the lead role. This was Chris Chibnall’s ultimate fanfic moment; he threw in every plot thread and character he could think of (and book), and wrote a huge fix-it fic.
For those who may not be familiar with fanfic (I am only peripherally so, as I don’t read fic myself, though my kids do), the biggest purpose of the genre—as far as I can tell—is to tell the stories with beloved characters that the fan writer really wanted to see/read in the original media property, but was never given. (In other words, all of modern Who is basically fanfic of Classic Who, show-run by Classic fans.) And one sub-genre of fanfic is the “fix-it fic,” in which the fan writer fixes something that they felt was inherently wrong with the original.
Review of The Time Warrior (#70) DVD Release Date: 22 Dec 20 Original Air Date: 15 Dec 1973 – 05 Jan 1974 Doctors/Companions: Three, Sarah Jane Smith Stars: Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen Preceding Story: The Green Death (Three, Jo) Succeeding Story: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (Three, Sarah Jane, the Brigadier)
Unlike most of the other entries in the Everything Else series, The Time Warrior is one about which I remembered quite a lot even before watching it again. Even though I’ve previously only covered it as a NuView (way back in the second month of the blog), it’s long been one of my favorite Third Doctor stories.
Among other things, it’s got a lot of firsts: the first Sarah Jane Smith story, the first appearance of a Sontaran, and the first ever mention of Gallifrey. It’s also got Jon Pertwee buckling some swash, scientists from the present day being used to nefarious purpose in the past, and an overall strong story that holds together well.
Almost as soon as I hit “Play,” further details came flooding back. To begin, writer Robert Holmes’s name showed up in the opening credits. “Ah yes,” I said to myself, “that explains the ‘strong story’ bit.”
Review of The Two Doctors (#140) DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20 Original Air Date: 16 Feb – 02 Mar 1985 Doctors/Companions: Six, Two, Perpugilliam Brown, Jamie McCrimmon Stars: Colin Baker, Patrick Troughton, Nicola Bryant, Frazer Hines Preceding Story: The Mark of the Rani (Six, Peri) Succeeding Story: Timelash (Six, Peri)
Robert Holmes is among the most revered writers in Classic Who fandom (and rightfully so, imo), so when I fired up my DVD of The Two Doctors to refresh my memory for this review, I was utterly surprised to see his name in the credits. It’s not that I had remembered this serial as particularly bad, whereas most Holmes titles are distinctly among the good, but rather that I didn’t have a very strong sense of the story at all.
I always make a few notes for myself before a re-watch about what details of the particular adventure I actually recall, and they were pretty thin on the ground this time. Aside from the presence of the eponymous reincarnations—Two serving as support for Six—I remembered the Androgums (though not by name; all I could pull out was the final syllable), the location shooting in Spain, a lepidopterist, and Jaime trapped in some sort of matrix-y space.
