#19 (10.21 - 10.26): The Green Death.

The Doctor is helpless to stop Jo from falling for
young Professor Clifford Jones (Stewart Bevan). 

6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 154 minutes. Written by: Robert Sloman. Directed by: Michael E. Briant. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

After performing some maintenance, the Doctor decides to try again to reach Metebelis III - but Jo won't be going with him. She declines his invitation, telling him that she's going to Llanfairfach, a Welsh mining town that's now home to Global Chemicals.

The company and its director, Stevens (Jerome Willis), tout their new refinement process, which will produce 25% more fuel from crude oil while creating minimal waste. It sounds too good to be true - which is why Professor Clifford Jones (Stewart Bevan) and his commune of hippie scientists at the nearby "Nut Hutch" are protesting, certain that any refinement process must be producing thousands of gallons of waste. Jo wants to help Professor Jones, while Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT are called in to investigate the death of a miner who was found with his skin glowing green.

By the time the Doctor arrives, after barely escaping alive from his "pleasure jaunt" to Metebelis III, Jo has already gone into the mine... where an act of sabotage by Global Chemicals disables the lift and leaves her stranded. The Doctor finds his own way down to rescue her, reuniting with Jo just in time to discover the source of the green infection: giant maggots, mutated by the waste that Global has been secretly pumping into the mine!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: This story is my pick as Jon Pertwee's single best performance as the Doctor. He essentially moves through the stages of grief at the prospect of Jo leaving. When she refuses to go with him to Metebelis III, he first ignores her refusal (denial) and then tries to persuade her to come (bargaining). While he never shows anger, there is a certain petty malice in his deliberate interruption of a romantic moment between Jo and the professor. Finally, the end sees him bid a gracious but subdued farewell to Jo (acceptance). These emotional beats are played with reserve and even subtlety, but the Global Chemicals plot allows Pertwee to display his showmanship, with him even using a couple of comedy disguises along the way.

Jo Grant: Whether intentionally or not, you can draw a direct line between the end of the previous story and the beginning of this one. At the end of Planet of the Daleks, Jo declined the Doctor's offer to take her to any planet, telling him that she was only concerned with one world - Earth. This story opens with her again refusing to travel, preferring to help Professor Jones to work for Earth's ecology. Jo describes Jones as a younger version of the Doctor, and her first meeting with Jones is a direct parallel to her introduction to the Doctor as she disrupts an experiment. Jo is as headstrong as ever, putting herself in harm's way multiple times. My favorite scene of hers is near the middle, though, when she mourns the death of a miner she had befriended.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: The buffoon of The Three Doctors is gone, thankfully, with him back to his usual competence. He is initially sympathetic to Global Chemicals, seeing the benefits of "cheap petrol and lots of it." However, he can sense that Stevens is hiding something, particularly when the executive interferes with his efforts to help Jo and the trapped miners. His superiors forbid him from taking action, so he sends Mike Yates to infiltrate the company in the guise of a Ministry official. He shuts down Professor Jones when he insists he's going down into the mine after Jo, flatly telling him to leave it to the Doctor: "My concern for Miss Grant is as deep as yours, probably more so," he says, and the combination of authority and compassion is enough to talk the younger man down.

Mike Yates: Richard Franklin does a fine job with Mike's scenes as he impersonates a smarmy government bureaucrat. He's limited in what information he's able to gather, communicating to the Brigadier that he's being watched at all times. He does gain a decent overview of the layout of the Global Chemicals building, which he puts to use to help the Doctor to locate Stevens' mysterious "boss." Then he has to get the Doctor out of trouble, exposing himself to danger in the process.

Professor Jones: Jo's love interest is a brilliant, occasionally prickly, proudly anti-authoritarian scientist who isn't afraid to put himself in danger to do good... which, as Jo observes, makes him basically an age-appropriate version of the Doctor. The script pulls off a tricky balancing act: Their scenes together are focused on the budding relationship, but every one of them also moves the story forward. As a result, the romance works without interfering with the overall pace.


THOUGHTS:

"Jo, you've got all the time in the world, and all the space. I'm offering them to you."
-The Doctor strives to keep Jo from moving on.

The Green Death ranks among the best stories of the Pertwee era. It effectively mixes two separate but related plots. The thread the story is most remembered for involves the giant maggots and the deadly infection they create. But maggots, even mutated ones, don't make for very interesting villains, so the story provides a callous human baddie: Stevens and Global Chemicals, who inadverdantly created the maggots by dumping waste into the mine tunnels.

The threads are closely linked in the first half. Global's determination to cover its misdeeds creates increasingly serious complications. The Doctor and Jo are trapped in the mine because Stevens orders a henchman to sabotage the mine lift. When their escape takes them into the Global complex, they have to flee from corporate security.

They plots separate in the second half. Global's agenda isn't related to the maggots, which were simply an unintended consequence, leaving the Doctor and UNIT with two problems to solve. Even so, the plots continue feeding each other, particulary when the final episode creates deadlines for both: the prospect of the maggots evolving into flying insects becomes pressing at the same time that Global Chemicals nears the culmination of its ambitions, and the growing sense of urgency in each individual thread adds to the tension of the other.

The plot works, and the story would be enjoyable enough on that level. What makes it stand out, however, is the authenticity of the emotion - not always Classic Who's strong suit. The Doctor/Jo relationship has grown steadily better as the seasons have gone on. In many of my Season 9 and 10 reviews, I described their interplay as "sparkling," with Pertwee and Manning elevating scenes and serials through amusing bits of screen business and ever building screen chemistry. This is the story that ends their partnership, and it was important for the series to get that right.

The script sets up Professor Jones as a life partner for Jo and as a replacement for the Doctor. Both men are shown to be protective of her, with the Doctor rescuing her from the mine in the first half and Jones putting himself in harm's way to save her in the second half. Most of Jo's screen time in the first half is with the Doctor, reinforcing the old relationship; most of her screen time in the second half is with Jones, building the new relationship.

I like that the Doctor is so resistant to Jo moving on. There's a desperation in his initial appeal to Jo when he's trying to convince her to go off in the TARDIS with him, and a forced cheerfulness when he interrupts her moment with Professor Jones. He may ultimately let her go, but it's clearly difficult, and that internal struggle is convincingly portrayed. I also love the final image: the Doctor driving away in Bessie, alone both physically and emotionally for the first time in years.


OVERALL:

I could raise a few quibbles. Though the early episodes benefit from Welsh locations that make this feel more grounded than most serials, later episodes look much cheaper. A few greenscreen shots are downright awful, notably when the Doctor deals with the maggots in the final episode. There are also cheesy moments, from overly earnest dialogue about replacing meat with fungus to scenes involving hypnotism and a blue crystal... though I'll also admit to finding The Green Death's brand of '70s cheese to be rather endearing.

None of this undermines the story's many strengths. The "A" and "B" plots work well together, each increasing the urgency of the other even when they cease to be directly related. The character material is strong, with the Doctor/Jo and Jo/Professor interactions working particularly well. It's also extremely well paced, with the character material advancing the plot rather than stopping it in its tracks.

Add in an excellent final scene, complete with perfectly judged final shot, and it all adds up to a serial that I'd rank as one of this era's finest.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Story: The Planet of the Daleks
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#18 (10.15 - 10.20): Planet of the Daleks.

The Doctor and Thal leader Taron (Bernard Horsfall) ambush a Dalek.

6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 144 minutes. Written by: Terry Nation. Directed by: David Maloney. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor has thwarted the Master's plan to spark a war as a precursor to a Dalek invasion... but he's been wounded in the process. He manages to send a telepathic message to the Time Lords to pursue the Daleks before collapsing into a comatose state. He's still unconscious when the TARDIS reaches its destination. Desperate and unsure of what to do, Jo decides to leave the ship to search for help.

She encounters a group of Thals, who tell her that they have come to the planet Spiridon on an urgent mission to stop the Daleks. Jo directs them to the Doctor, but she is told to wait in their ship for their return.

The Thals find the Doctor, who is now awake. They reveal to him that the planet is inhabited, but that the native Spiridons are invisible. A token force of Daleks are experimenting on them to try to master the secret of invisibility. Taron (Bernard Horsfall), the leader of the expedition after the death of the original commander, intends to gather as much information as he can before acting. This is a source of tension with young Vaber (Prentis Hancock), who favors a direct assault, certain that their explosives are more than a match for a dozen or so Daleks.

The actual force turns out to be much larger. Spiridon is no research outpost, but a staging ground for a full-fledged invasion. Ten thousand Daleks are in suspended animation, just waiting for their activation orders!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He gains the Thals' trust after saving Vaber from a malicious tentacle. It isn't long before he's adopted a co-leadership role, though he's careful to keep his presence from overpowering Taron's command. He fully agrees with the approach of cautious observation and planning, noting that recklessness helps nobody. Pertwee is in fine form throughout, and the script allows him to display the compassionate side of his Doctor, particularly in his scenes with Thal scientist Codol, who doubts his own courage. He has few moments of anger in this story - though one of these, a nonverbal glare after the Daleks appear to have killed Jo, is extremely effective.

Jo Grant: She spends the first half separated from the Doctor. She befriends a rebel Spiridon, Wester (Roy Skelton), who gives her (and us) backstory about the planet and its people. When Wester tells her that the Doctor was taken by the Daleks, she insists on attempting a rescue. This puts her in position to overhear the Dalek plans to destroy the Thals' explosives, and she acts quickly to save the bombs. Her role in the later episodes is weaker, with her mostly reduced to "generic companion" in the final parts. The less said about her would-be romance with one of the Thals, a plot development that comes out of nowhere and comes to nothing, the better.

Thals: Taron, the leader, is a naturally cautious man who likes to meticulously plan before acting. The hot-headed Vaber sees this is as a weakness, wanting to act immediately. Codal (Tim Preece), the scientific specialist, worries that he's not as courageous as the others because he is constantly frightened. Rebec (Jane How) is Taron's lover, who volunteered for a relief mission to be reunited with him. Latep (Alan Tucker), who appears to be the youngest of the group, falls for Jo after... she's, um, nice to him. None of these characters have great depth, but they are distinct enough to create the sense of a varied group.

Daleks: Though the Master's plan failed, the Daleks still plan to invade. As the Doctor observes, they have the numbers, and the Spiridons' invisibility will grant them a significant advantage in any conflict. They initially prefer to take prisoners rather than killing on sight, seeing them as resources for their experiments. Once the Doctor and the Thals escape, however, proving themselves a potential threat, they are quick to change to the Dalek default: Exterminate.


THOUGHTS:

"Be careful how you tell that story, will you? Don't glamorize it, don't make war sound like an exciting and thrilling game... Tell them about the members of your mission that will not be returning... tell them about the fear."
-the Doctor urges the Thals to remember the realities of war.

Planet of the Daleks was writer Terry Nation's first Doctor Who script since Season Three's The Daleks' Master Plan, and he borrows heavily from his earlier stories. The Dalek base might as well be the city from the original Dalek story, and the Thal expedition is pretty similar to the one in that serial. There are also slave workers and experiments, much like those glimpsed in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It is narratively unambitious, a familiar story following a familiar structure. Oh, and it completely squanders the idea of invisible Daleks.

That said, "narratively unambitious" is not the same thing as "bad." This may just be a basic adventure story, but at least it's a thoroughly enjoyable one. David Maloney was one of Doctor Who's most reliable directors, so it's no surprise that this is well made. The planet features one of the series' better studio-bound jungles, and Maloney finds enough variety in the ways he shoots that it remains visually interesting throughout.

The story moves along nicely, fueled by multiple set pieces. One highlight sees the Doctor improvising a hot air balloon to escape up an elevator shaft. Other strong moments include a brush with an ice eruption while crawling through a cave and a sequence in which the characters hold off hungry animals while waiting for dawn, with only the predators' eyes seen in the darkness. Some bits seem to exist just to pad the serial out to length, such as a subplot involving a Dalek bio-weapon... but even that helps to add urgency, even if the whole thread ends up just being abruptly cut off.

The scripts benefit from a strong central theme about courage. Codal considers himself a coward because of his fear, though the Doctor points out that he's more courageous for feeling that fear and still doing what needs to be done. Vaber mistakes recklessness for courage, accusing Taron of lacking bravery because of his caution. Even poor, dull Latep has a good moment related to the theme, when he and Jo find a Dalek spaceship and realize that it will be possible for the expedition to return home. Jo is pleased, but Latep is happy the others aren't here to see it:

"We all thought that whatever happened, there was no way out. It was a suicide mission. That's affected everything we've done. We've faced dangers and taken risks because there was nothing to lose... Just knowing (about the ship) might mean the difference between success and failure."

None of this is exactly subtle; as a writer, Terry Nation rarely went in for subtlety. The sentiments are well expressed, though, and the theme fits with the overall story, adding an extra layer to an already entertaining work.


OVERALL:

Planet of the Daleks lacks the narrative ambition of Frontier in Space, but I actually think it's the more entertaining of the two. It's well made, and clever set pieces maintain interest despite the well-worn story elements.

It's clear that this was written as a completely separate story, with the links to Frontier mostly confined to the first episode save for a conversation between the Doctor and Jo in Episode Four. Still, those links are enough for both stories to feel complete.

Most importantly, I wasn't bored at any point. That hasn't always been true of longer stories, even a few that I consider to be better than this one.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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#17 (10.9 - 10.14): Frontier in Space.

The latest standoff between the Doctor and the Master.

6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 144 minutes. Written by: Malcolm Hulke. Directed by: Paul Bernard. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

The empires of Earth and Draconia stand at the brink of war. Each side's ships have been raided, with survivors swearing that the other side is responsible. So far, Earth's President (Vera Fusek) and Draconia's emperor (John Woodnutt) have been able to maintain the peace, but calls for action among both races are growing.

This hostile environment is what awaits the Doctor and Jo when the TARDIS materializes inside an Earth cargo ship. When the ship is attacked, the members of the crew see their attackers as Draconians, even though the raiders are actually Ogrons. The Ogrons knock the crew unconscious and steal the TARDIS. When the Doctor attempts to tell the authorities what happened, he and Jo are arrested, charged with being spies working for the Draconians!

The Doctor soon realizes what is happening: A third party is using technology to trigger a fear response among the crews. Someone is trying to start a war. But no one in authority, either among the humans or the Draconians, is willing to believe him. Seemingly every conversation just leads the Doctor and Jo to a new interrogation, accusation, or prison.

Eventually, they are remanded to the custody of a colony offical - The Master! He is in command of the Ogrons, who are following his plan to destabilize the galaxy's two great powers. There's one more complication: The Master isn't working alone...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He retains a cool head throughout. In Part Two, when he and Jo are being held in the freighter's cell, she keeps trying to plan an escape so that they can get back to Earth. He points out that the ship is already on the way to Earth and that the people who will interrogate them are the very people they need to speak to. He initially hopes to get either the President or the Draconians to believe him. By the second half of the story, he unhappily resigns himself to the reality that no one will believe him unless he can provide proof, but he remains determined to find a way to prevent war.

Jo Grant: Most of her best moments in this story involve the Master. There's a scene in which the Doctor escapes from a cell under surveillance. Jo plants herself between the eye of the camera and the Doctor and essentially filibusters, rambling from topic to topic to keep their adversary from realizing that the Doctor has gone. Later, she resists an attempt by the Master to hypnotize her (again), and she holds firm against his fear device. He may be able to make her see monsters such as Sea Devils and Drashigs, but she rejects each illusion in turn, shouting back that "it's not real!"

The Master: This was Roger Delgado's final story as the Master; and though it wasn't planned as such, it turns out to be a fine showcase for the character. The Master's plan is genuinely clever, aggravating existing tensions and then mostly leaving the humans and Draconians to do his work for him. After a slightly "off" showing in The Time Monster, Delgado is back in top form here, the picture of urbane charm as he plays all sides against each other.

Ogrons: They were introduced the previous season as the Daleks' mindless henchmen. This serial clarifies that they are mercenaries who will work for anyone who pays. They're still not terribly interesting creations, being "dumb muscle" and not much else. It's not hard to see why they didn't catch on past the Pertwee era, and I'm legitimately confused as to their popularity in Doctor Who books and audios. They're better here than in Day of the Daleks, though, mainly thanks to the Master's clear impatience with their stupidity.

Draconians: Unlike the Ogrons, they are interesting, their society structured around strict codes. They are formal in speech and manner, and they abhor direct lies - though as the Draconian ambassador's actions show, they are not above deception as long as they can make it work within that framework. The design is particularly good, the makeup elaborate enough to be convincingly alien while still leaving the actors' faces free for a full range of expressions. Given how well they work in terms of both writing and makeup, I'm surprised that this was their only television appearance.


THOUGHTS:

Frontier in Space benefits from some good world building. This starts from the very first scene. The two crew members on the freighter discuss the potential of war with the Draconians. It's your basic exposition exchange, but it's given a lift by the attitude of the older crew member, who shrugs the whole thing off: "They steal a few of our cargoes, we steal a few of theirs. It'll all blow over."

A lot of information is sketched in quickly. Both sides still bitterly resent a previous war, one that we eventually learn was based on a misunderstanding (one that so closely mirrors the origins of Babylon 5's Earth/Minbari war that I can't help but wonder if J. Michael Straczynski had seen this story). The human government is at least somewhat authoritarian, with political dissidents sent to a prison from which no one returns. The Earth President has a lot of authority when it comes to questioning the Doctor and Jo or maintaining/severing diplomatic relations with the Draconians, but she cannot dictate purely military matters. These sorts of details help to make this future seem more real than many of Doctor Who's future societies.

Hulke was always good at weaving substance into his stories, and this is no exception. The Master is deliberately playing on the tensions between the two empires, but he didn't create them. His plan relies on fear. The humans fear the Draconians, and the Draconians fear them. With a slight push from his hypnotic device, he is able to use their existing fear to push both sides to make bad decisions and to take increasingly rash actions. It is, to put it mildly, not difficult to find real world instances of calamitous decisions that were driven by fear.

Structurally, there are good and bad elements. The narrative keeps itself fresh with frequent shifts of focus. The first two episodes revolve around the Doctor's and Jo's (unsuccessful) attempts to convince the Earth and Draconian authorities of the truth. The next two introduce the Master and his role in creating the current crisis, while also making time for an entertaining prison break caper. The final two episodes shift again, with the Doctor finally finding allies as the story reaches its conclusion. The regular changes in setting and focus keep the six episodes from becoming too stale.

Some staleness happens, however, because this serial suffers from severe repetition. In Episode One, the Doctor and Jo are captured and put in a cell. They escape, only to be recaptured and put back in that cell. In Episode Two, they are put in a cell on Earth. The Draconians break the Doctor out and briefly hold him captive, until he escapes and is recaptured by the humans. This continues for the entire story, with the Doctor and Jo being basically passed from one group to the next and from one cell to the next. There is simply too much of this, and the capture/escape pattern becomes tiresome long before the end.

Performances are strong. Pertwee is at his most authoritative when dealing with the various officials. He remains generally calm throughout, but we can see the Doctor growing more frustrated as the story goes along. He and Katy Manning continue to play wonderfully off each other, granting added energy to their scenes together, and Roger Delgado is excellent opposite both of them.

Oh, and if you haven't seen this serial yet... AVOID SPOILERS! There's a terrific twist late in the story, one that few viewers would be likely to see coming even though the story lays all the necessary groundwork. If you somehow don't already have prior knowledge of it, then don't look up anything about this serial before watching it.


OVERALL:

There's a lot to enjoy in Frontier in Space, from the interactions among the characters to the efficient world building. It does suffer from too many repetitions of the capture/escape formula, though, and this is definitely one of those stories best viewed an episode at a time rather than all in one sitting.

It's enjoyable thanks to strong performances and a fast pace, and it gets an extra boost from a late plot turn. Still, I think the repetitive structure keeps it from being as good as it might have been.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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#16 (10.5 - 10.8): Carnival of Monsters.

Entertainers Shirna (Cheryl Hall) and Vorg (Leslie Dwyer)
use forbidden technology to host a monster show.

4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: Robert Holmes. Directed by: Barry Letts. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

Aliens are strictly prohibited from coming to the planet Inter Minor - or at least, they have been. Under the more liberal rule of President Zarb, the planet has agreed to receive visitors. Too bad for them that their first aliens are Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) and Shirna (Cheryl Hall), a pair of entertainers/hucksters who hope to make their fortune with a miniscope, a device that holds various creatures in miniaturized environments.

The Doctor and Jo have materialized inside one such environment: the SS Bernice, a British ship from 1926. The passengers and crew are blissfully unaware of their captivity, believing that they are crossing the Indian Ocean and are soon to arrive in Bombay - an illusion that's maintained by them forgetting everything outside of a ten-minute cycle.

The Doctor is outraged that this forbidden piece of technology is in use and that intelligent beings are among its captives. The only way he can save the people on the Bernice is to escape the miniscope. Getting away from the Bernice is simple enough. But the next environment is the home of the Drashigs, omnivorous monsters who will devour anything - and who have a particular taste for living flesh!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He knows immediately that he and Jo aren't really on Earth, even though everything on the ship says otherwise. True, part of that is ego - He refuses to admit that they did not land on Metebelis III, smugly telling Jo that him being wrong (or at least admitting that he's wrong) is "impossible." But he also observes several inconsistencies, from a non-terrestrial component in the ship's flooring to the sun being out when it should be pitch black.

Jo Grant: She spends the first episode determined to prove that they are on Earth, in no small part because of the Doctor's particularly insufferable insistence that they can't be. When the Doctor explains what the miniscope is, she is appalled and assumes that only horrible people could use it for entertainment... right up until the Doctor asks if she's ever been to the zoo. When they discover a likely escape route that involves too deep a drop, she remembers all the rope on the Bernice.

Vorg/Shirna Leslie Dwyer and Cheryl Hall are extremely entertaining as the two showmen, and I think they might represent the first true example of writer Robert Holmes's "double acts" in Doctor Who. In a way, they reflect the Doctor and Jo. Like the Doctor, Vorg keeps insisting he has control over the situation, even when they come under investigation by a Minorian tribunal. Like Jo, Shirna seems to enjoy knocking him down a peg when the opportunity presents itself, though she's supportive of him when they actually get into trouble. This, combined with the comedy value of their scenes, makes them likable... even though Vorg, in particular, is little more than a con artist who never shows the slightest hint of concern for the people his machine has abducted!


THOUGHTS:

"Our purpose is to amuse, simply to amuse. Nothing serious, nothing political."
-Entertainer Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) shows off his "carnival" to a particularly humorless alien race.

Carnival of Monsters marks the first story after the Third Doctor's exile is lifted. In effect, the series has returned to the old rules: The Doctor can once again go anywhere in time or space... though the overall series setup wouldn't truly change until the next Doctor's arrival.

I think this is the story in which Robert Holmes really found his voice as a Doctor Who writer. As good as Spearhead from Space was, it was all but completely straight-faced, carrying little of the writer's signature style. Here, Holmes's voice fills every scene: the comedy double act of Vorg and Shirna, florid and somewhat over-the-top dialogue, a generous amount of humor laced through even the more serious moments. The charmingly unscrupulous Vorg is himself basically the template for such future Holmes creations as Henry Gordon Jago or Sabalom Glitz.

Above all, Carnival of Monsters is just a lot of fun. An "A" Plot/"B" Plot structure keeps things moving briskly, with the Doctor and Jo navigating their way through the miniscope as Vorg and Shirna try to deal with the Minorians.

Complications build in both threads. The Doctor and Jo are blocked from returning to the TARDIS; the crew of the Bernice see them as stowaways any time they find them (though they quickly forget their presence); the Drashigs pose a more mortal danger. Meanwhile, the Minorian tribunal is complicated by the conniving Kalik (Michael Wisher), who sees an opportunity to use the entertainers' technology to seize power. For three episodes, these threads are mostly separate, until they come together in the final part.

Both plotlines start immediately, with exposition laced into the Doctor's and Jo's initial exploration of the Bernice in the "A" plot and the interactions of Vorg, Shirna, and the Minorians in the "A" plot. The guest cast is both colorful and engaging, and the Doctor and Jo both get plenty to do. Oh, and Ian Marter - Harry Sullivan in the 4th Doctor era - has his first Who appearance as a member of the Bernice's crew.


OVERALL:

I might wish that the budget had stretched to the Doctor visiting a few more miniaturized environments in the course of his fantastic journey. Why tease us with a Cyberman only to never actually use him in the plot? Save for that quibble, however, this is one of the most purely entertaining stories in Pertwee's entire run.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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#15 (10.1 - 10.4): The Three Doctors.

The 2nd and 3rd Doctors pit their wills against Omega
(Stephen Thorne), a Time Lord hero who has gone insane!

4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: Bob Baker, Dave Martin. Directed by: Lennie Mayne. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

Dr. Tyler (Rex Robinson), a researcher, brings his cosmic ray monitoring device to UNIT after he picks up unusual readings and after he sees Ollis (Laurie Webb), the man guarding the device, disappear. The Doctor and Jo leave to investigate the scene of Ollis's disappearance. They return to find that Dr. Tyler has also vanished, and that UNIT HQ is under attack by "Gel Guards," creatures made out of antimatter that seem to be specifically hunting for the Doctor.

Overwhelmed and with no options beyond hiding inside the TARDIS, the Doctor sends a distress call to the Time Lords. They have their own problems, however, with their power being drained from inside a black hole. They can't help the Doctor - but, as the Time Lord President observes, "Perhaps he can help himself."

The Doctor is joined by his second incarnation (Patrick Troughton). The Time Lords also send a projection of the Doctor's original version (William Hartnell) to advise. Between the three of them, they come up with a plan that sends them through the black hole to a universe of antimatter - a universe ruled over by Omega (Stephen Thorne), a hero to the Doctor's people for unlocking the secrets of time travel.

Omega supposedly died in the supernova that granted the Time Lords their power. He insists he was "sacrificed," and millennia of solitude have left him hungering for vengeance. He demands that the Doctors aid him - or else he will destroy their entire universe!


CHARACTERS:

The 3rd Doctor: Is annoyed the presence of his more frivolous 2nd incarnation, seeming embarrassed by his younger self's conduct. Though they end the serial on amiable terms, he doesn't hesitate to say that he hopes never to meet himself again. He's determined to stop Omega, but he still feels empathy for his plight. He takes the lead in the interactions with Omega, with the 2nd Doctor more or less acting as both disruptive force and backup.

The 2nd Doctor: Both script and Patrick Troughton turn up the comedy to a far higher degree than was usually the case during his actual era. The story makes his recorder (which was relatively little seen after his first few serials) into something he's obsessive about, though it does pay that off at the end. There is a nice moment when the 2nd Doctor plays up his manic behavior until Omega loses his temper. When the 3rd Doctor demands to know what he's doing, he replies that he's testing their adversary, observing, "The limits of his self-control... aren't very good, are they?"

The 1st Doctor: William Hartnell's poor health resulted in his role being pared back to a handful of pre-filmed inserts, with him addressing the other Doctors from the TARDIS scanner. Faced with his two successors, he reacts like a disappointed father figure at finding "a dandy and a clown," and he provides advice that steers his older selves in the right direction. Though his decline is visible, Hartnell still manages some fine deliveries, and I laughed out loud at several of his line readings.

Jo Grant: She is confused by the appearance of the 2nd Doctor, but she adjusts rapidly to the situation once it's been explained to her. She finds the 2nd Doctor to be "sweet," which sounds a bit like she's gushing over the Doctor's baby pictures (and, in a way, she sort of is). Her loyalty remains to the 3rd Doctor, though, with her refusing to abandon him even when he tries to make her do so.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Unless I'm misremembering a later story, I'm fairly sure this story represents the character's low point. The normally composed and rational Brigadier is a complete buffoon here. When he sees the 2nd Doctor, he insists that one of his experiments changed his face back, refusing to listen when both the 2nd Doctor and Benton try to tell him otherwise. When the TARDIS transports them through the black hole, he insists they are in "Cromer." It's only when he finally sees both Doctors together that he even begins to accept reality. 

Sgt. Benton: He gapes in wonder when dragged into the TARDIS. But when the Doctor asks if he's going to say that it's bigger on the inside, he sensibly responds: "It's pretty obvious, isn't it?" There isn't the slightest hesitation in his happiness at seeing the previous Doctor, with whom he's paired for most of Episode Two. He seems slightly exasperated at the Brigadier's recalcitrance, making it a point to "look after" his superior as he strides out to idiotically march on "Cromer."

Omega: He should come across as a tragic villain, a man of brilliance and vision who was lost while making time travel possible. Unfortunately, Stephen Thorne's performance reduces him to a shouty, ill-tempered tyrant. It's left to Jon Pertwee's reactions to convey the sense that this is a great man who's fallen. Thorne shows none of that - and in fairness to him, the script gives him very few opportunities to.


THOUGHTS:

I first watched The Three Doctors a little over twenty years ago, when I got back into Doctor Who as an adult. It was a story I was particularly looking forward to watching, and... I hated it. It was cheap and silly. It felt like a bad comic book, complete with tacky (vaguely Christmas-like) monsters, tinfoil costumes, and sets that seemed to be generously adorned with tinsel.

A couple of decades on, I stand by all of these complaints - only this time, I enjoyed it. Ironically, I think that specifically because my degree of Doctor Who fandom has receded, with it now just one of several shows I enjoy, I was better able to get into the spirit of it.

The Three Doctors launched the tenth season of the series. Though it didn't air anywhere close to the show's actual tenth anniversary, it effectively fulfilled that function. I can only imagine how it must have felt to contemporary viewers at a time when reruns were rare and home video a rare thing. For the majority of viewers, William Hartnell's and Patrick Troughton's Doctors would have existed only in memory; for some, only in what was related by parents or older siblings.

The story fills out its four episodes well. The first part is mostly a standard (if broadly played) 3rd Doctor/UNIT story, with the multi-Doctor aspect introduced near the end. The second builds the mystery, with the 2nd Doctor and UNIT trying to get a handle on events while the 3rd Doctor and Jo explore the quarry... er, impossible world that exists on the other side of the black hole. The last two episodes pair the 2nd and 3rd Doctors as they pit first their will and then their ingenuity against Omega.

The frequent shifts give the story its greatest strength: pace. It's a very basic, slightly Flash Gordon-like story, with the Doctors confronting a futuristic madman. But it moves right along, with a generous amount of humor. I may wish that some of the humor didn't come at the expense of a couple of the characters, but it's light and lively and goes by quickly.


OVERALL:

"Light and lively" pretty well sums up The Three Doctors. The main appeal of the story is right there in the title: three Doctors, with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton returning to their roles in a way that doubtless evoked waves of nostalgia in 1972.

It's not a story that stands up to any serious scrutiny, and it is very different from Baker's and Martin's ambitious original proposal, Deathworld. That treatment was recently adapted by Big Finish as part of their "Lost Stories" range, and it will be the subject of my next Doctor Who review.

The Three Doctors does its job as a fun celebration of ten years of Doctor Who on air. I used to hate it. On this viewing, I enjoyed it for what it is, but it will still never rank among my favorites. It's a fun romp, though, as long as you don't try to take it at all seriously.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

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#13 (9.15 - 9.20): The Mutants.

The Doctor and Salosian rebel Ky (Garrick Hagon)
make a discovery in one of Solos's many disused mines.

6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 146 minutes. Written by: Bob Baker, Dave Martin. Directed by: Christopher Barry. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

In the distant future, the world of Solos is under the control of the Earth Empire. Though a barren and primitive planet with an atmosphere poisonous to humans, Solos is also rich in the fuel source thaesium. Based at the orbital Skybase One, the Marshal (Paul Whitsun-Jones) has made it his life's work to change the atmosphere so that it is breathable, but the experiments he has authorized with Professor Jaeger (George Pravda) have given rise to strange mutations among the natives.

The Doctor and Jo arrive with a box from the Time Lords. But they've come at a particularly chaotic moment. An Earth Administrator (Geoffrey Palmer) intends to grant Solos its independence, destroying the Marshal's career in the process. But when he begins to make his official announcement, the Marshal takes advantage of the chaos created by Solosian rebel Ky (Garrick Hagon) to assassinate the man, blaming it on the Solosians.

Soon the Doctor and Jo find themselves on the run from the Marshal's men. But in the heart of the disused mines infested by the transformed mutants, the Doctor makes a startling discovery...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Pertwee finds a few good moments, such as his indignation at Professor Jaeger's experiments resulting in "genocide as a side effect." For the most part, however, he's just going through the motions. His first scene features what I believe is his first botched delivery, as he repeats a line twice in order to get on script. Given that another actor does the same a few episodes later, I'm inclined to lay blame at director Christopher Barry rather than at the actors themselves.

Jo Grant: As I've noted in the last two reviews, Season 9 has been very good to the character of Jo Grant, who has been compassionate, resourceful, and quick-thinking. Until The Mutants, that is. This story reduces her to "generic companion" status. She exists for two reasons: to receive exposition from either the Doctor or Ky, and to be put in jeopardy so that the Doctor or Ky can rescue her. Even Katy Manning's chemistry with Pertwee doesn't provide the same lift as the season's previous stories, as the script unwisely separates them for most of the running time.

The Marshal: Paul Whitsun-Jones's Marshal initially seems to just be a "Pompous Bureaucrat," motivated by worries about his career and his future back on Earth should his mission to Solos end in failure. On first viewing, I remember spending the first few episodes wondering when the real villain would show up. Nope, the Marshal is it... which honestly might have worked, had the script played up how his position made him a serious threat despite him being just a dull little man at heart. But the story plays out as if the Marshal is inherently intimidating, which just isn't the case. Credit to Paul Whitsun-Jones, though, who gives his all to make this weakly written character register.


THOUGHTS:

The Mutants is the first Pertwee story that I'd actually describe as "bad." The script is both clichéd and very silly - which wouldn't be a problem, if it didn't take itself so extraordinarily seriously. It's also heavily padded, stretched like taffy to fill six episodes with a tale that would have felt minor and unexciting at four.

Pertwee and Manning find a few moments, particularly when they're on screen together - but they're separated early on and spend most of the rest of the serial in separate strands, with neither performer finding much chemistry with the guest stars they're paired with. This contributes to them giving their weakest performances of the season, and I'd wager also their weakest of their series tenure.

Guest characters are poorly written and thinly motivated. Guards Stubbs and Cotton help the Doctor escape in Episode Two, but I'm honestly not sure why. Native leader Varan (James Mellor) is introduced as the Marshal's ally and Ky as his enemy. But by the middle of the story, Varan is enraged at the Marshal (which at least does make sense in context), while Ky has been defanged thanks to becoming Jo's protector... and, other than getting some extra padding in, I'm honestly not sure why these two couldn't have been combined into a single character, which might also have helped to give that character an actual arc.

There are some moments that are downright bizarre. In Episode Four, Ky leads Jo and the guards to the "safety" of Varan's camp. When it's pointed out that Varan would probably as soon kill them all, Ky insists that he can deal with the man. If he ever had a plan, we don't see it. Varan doesn't even let Ky get a word in before taking all of them prisoner, while the motivation for them separating from the Doctor appears to be to get into danger again to keep the story from ending early.

The unfortunate part is that there are good ideas in the script. The early episodes, in particular, draw parallels between Earth's occupation of Solos and British colonialism. The administrator makes a pompous speech about how the Solosians are "partners" with Earth, but everyone knows who "the overlords" are. Jaeger smirks to the Doctor that the planet no longer belongs to the Salosians, but is now the property of the humans. In case anyone missed the parallels, the Administrator's phrasing of Earth's decision to grant independence to Solos is pretty blunt: "We can no longer afford an empire." This at a time when the existence of the British Empire was still very much in living memory. This in a story from 1972, when the British Empire was still very much in living memory.

I will give the visual effects credit for ambition. There's a scene featuring a hull breach on the space station, with objects and even one character sucked out into space. Several scenes occur in a cave suffused with radiation, with the actors overplaying their way through various greenscreen effects. The effects aren't remotely convincing; coupled with overlighting and plastic-looking monster suits, it adds to the story being one that looks genuinely cheap. But the attempt itself is worth noting.


OVERALL:

The Mutants is a bad story, but there is something vaguely charming about it. It's mostly pretty boring - but when it's not boring, it's unintentionally quite funny. 

It's as if someone threw into a pot all the silliest recurring elements of "Classic Who," and this was the stew that resulted: The caves with the obvious CSO effects, complete with border lines surrounding Pertwee and his co-star... The over-dramatic deliveries of the supporting actors... The space station with the big airport-like directional signs that has less security than a neighborhood convenience store... Pertwee and Manning, both seeming mostly bored... and the overly grave dialogue, most of it delivered with utmost seriousness. If you were to throw together a Bingo card for bad Doctor Who tropes, this story would just about fill every box. 

Bizarrely, it's that very quality that makes it watchable in spite of itself. I won't defend The Mutants, but I don't hate it, either. It may be bad - but it's a comfortable sort of bad.


Overall Rating: 3/10.

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#12 (9.09 - 9.14): The Sea Devils.

The Master forges an alliance.

6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 148 minutes. Written by: Malcolm Hulke. Directed by: Michael E. Briant. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

Ships are vanishing at sea, all in a very specific area near a sea fortress being renovated by the Royal Navy. This is not on the Doctor's radar at all... until he and Jo visit the Master at his heavily fortified island prison, where the warden, Col. Trenchard (Clive Morton), makes an offhand mention.

The Doctor investigates, leading him to discover aquatic lifeforms that he recognizes as relatives of the Silurians. Like the Silurians, these "Sea Devils" have awakened to find the planet that was once theirs now belongs to man - and they want it back.

As before, the Doctor hopes to find a peaceful solution. But first he'll have to deal with the Master, who is planning to use this situation for his own benefit. But the Doctor's efforts are complicated when he realizes that his old enemy has taken full control of his prison, with Trenchard and all the guards now working for him!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: His trust in Jo has grown over time. When she says she's seen the Master at the Naval Base, he doesn't waste a second doubting her. He snaps at Capt. Hart (Edwin Richfield), the ranking officer, to lock the place down immediately. Jon Pertwee is on particularly good form throughout this story. While visiting the Master, the Doctor tries to coax him into revealing the location of his TARDIS. The Master refuses; and Pertwee shows the Doctor's reaction in his frosty delivery of, "Ask a silly question," before returning to his normal affability. Another good moment sees him bribing the boatman into running an errand that will allow him to borrow the man's vessel. He says he would run the errand himself, except that his bad leg is acting up. He runs through a couple historical battle sites ("Crimea... Gallipolli? El Alamein?"). Then he gives up and just smiles, holding up the cash and saying, "Does it really matter?" 

Jo Grant: I liked the Doctor/Jo relationship in Season Eight; in Season Nine, to repeat an observation I made about the previous story, the two of them positively sparkle. When Jo helps him to escape a trap set by the Master, they take turns beckoning the other to leave through the open door, exchanging "After you; no, after you" in a bit that feels unscripted (whether it was or not) in the best way possible. One minus, however: There are two scenes in which Jo is written to physically attack guards. In both cases, it looks hilariously unconvincing. I love Jo when she's interacting with the Doctor, or when she has flashes of ingenuity... but let's not try to make her into Emma Peel, because that really doesn't work.

The Master: Imprisonment has done nothing to make him less dangerous. He takes the measure of his captors, manipulating them to turn strengths into weaknesses that can be preyed upon. He does this with Trenchard in the first half of the story, then repeats the same feat with the Sea Devils. Roger Delgado is at his most charming, and his interactions with Pertwee are some of their best. He may want to take revenge on the Doctor for his captivity, but he doesn't underestimate him. When he discovers that Trenchard let slip about the missing ships, he is enraged, and he isn't at all mollified when Trenchard says that the Doctor didn't seem interested. He knows his adversary too well to think that he won't investigate such a mystery.

Pompous Bureaucrat of the Week: Trenchard, the warden of the Master's prison, is a man whose career is mostly behind him. He was once governor of a British colony - but only for long enough to grant the colony its independence. No resentment is ever stated, but it's not hard to imagine his frustration at having his career apex snatched away, only for him to be treated as a silly old man and/or a nuisance thereafter. This makes him easy prey for the Master, who manipulates him with visions of being a hero.

Pompous Bureaucrat #2: Trenchard is basically a good man who has been led astray. The same cannot be said of this story's other bureaucrat, Parliamentary Secretary Walker (Martin Boddey). Walker arrives late in the story, introducing himself by being dismissive and sexist toward both Jo and a female naval officer, whom he treats as a glorified secretary. It only gets worse from there. He preens behind his desk, stuffing his face while gleefully ordering an attack. Later, in a position of weakness, he turns into such a coward that I think even The Claws of Axos's loathsome Mr. Chinn would look down on him in contempt.

Sea Devils: The oceanic cousins of the Silurians. Their design is impressive by Classic Who standards, with their amphibian qualities making them look correct as ocean dwellers and their cold eyes and stature making them threatening. Unfortunately, this story is more concerned with the Master than with them, so they are mainly relegated to the role of "monsters," though their leader at least briefly considers the Doctor's appeals for peace.


THOUGHTS:

The Sea Devils was Season 9's big production, with location filming, reasonably large-scale action scenes, a decent-sized guest cast, and cooperation by the Royal Navy lending significant production value. Aside from a submarine set that's unconvincing even by 1970s TV standards, this is a rare "Classic Who" story that looks good.

Malcolm Hulke's script juggles the different elements well. Though the Master is the main villain, the Sea Devils are established as a presence early, with their activities having drawn the attention of the Navy, the Doctor, and the Master all. The different threads all feed each other narratively. The Doctor sees the Sea Devils; though Capt. Hart (Edwin Richfield) is skeptical, he sends a submarine to investigate, and that submarine plays into the story in its late episodes. The Master spends much of Episode Three building a device, and the construction of a larger version becomes a key part of Episode Six. All the pieces end up fitting together.

The serial is mainly an action piece, and as such it feels less weighty to me than Season Seven's Dr. Who & the Silurians did. The design of the Sea Devils is superior to that of the Silurians; but as they are secondary villains in their own story, they just aren't as interesting on the page. The different Silurians in the earlier story had individual personalities and motivations. The Sea Devils are basically just monsters, with the Doctor's peace overtures feeling more like a token effort than like the increasingly desperate driving force of the earlier story. Unusually for a Malcolm Hulke story, the script makes theme subordinate to incident.

But it's hard to complain when so much of the incident is so entertaining. The Doctor and the Master get into a sword fight, with the Doctor getting the upper hand... and pausing mid-fight to munch on a sandwich. A Sea Devil rises from the water onto the beach where the Doctor and Jo are escaping, forcing them into a minefield. The Doctor descends in a diving bell; when the bell is brought up, he has vanished, with Jo climbing in and staring wide-eyed at the empty chamber. The overall excellent realization and sure-handed direction by Michael E. Briant helps each moment and visual to land that little bit harder.

My only real complaint is with Malcolm Clarke's music. His experimental score is deliberately intrusive. This is effective when the Doctor and Jo investigate an empty facility that has been attacked by Sea Devils, or in scenes that see the Sea Devils attacking or about to attack. In other moments, however, it's just distracting, with the shrill noises particularly detracting from the well-choreographed Doctor/Master swordfight. To the sound editors: We do not need to hear the score "bleep" at us every time their swords touch, thank you.


OVERALL:

I could wish for a bit more of a sense of personality from the Sea Devils themselves, and I don't think this story makes the impact that Dr. Who & the Silurians did. On its own terms, however, The Sea Devils is a well-made and engrossing action/adventure story. Pertwee, Manning, and Delgado are at their best, the script is efficiently structured, and it's among the best-looking stories of all of "Classic Who."

It's very much a set piece story, and I think it benefits from being watched one episode at a time over multiple sittings instead of all at once. But it's a really good set piece story, and it's probably among the serials that would be most accessible to modern viewers.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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#11 (9.05 - 9.08): The Curse of Peladon.

The Doctor suspects the Ice Warriors of sabotage and murder!

4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: Brian Hayles. Directed by: Lennie Mayne. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

The primitive but mineral-rich world of Peladon is hosting a delegation from the Galactic Federation, one which may result in the planet's admission. Chancellor Torbis (Henry Gilbert) and High Priest Hepesh (Geoffrey Toone), are split about this plan. Torbis hopes that the Federation will lead Peladon to a new age, free of superstition. Hepesh believes that the Federation will turn Peladon into little more than a vassal state.

Young King Peladon (David Troughton) agrees with Torbis. But when the chancellor is mauled to death, Hepesh loudly declares that this is the wrath of Aggedor, the ghostly Royal Beast of Peladon. The priest adds that, unless the planet returns to its old ways, more deaths are sure to follow.

It's into the middle of this situation that the Doctor and Jo arrive. Mistaken for the Earth ambassador and his royal charge, the Doctor takes control of the investigation. It takes little time to realize that Hepesh is involved, but the plot is too elaborate to be his work alone. The priest has to be in league with one of the Federation ambassadors - which includes a delegation from Mars, in the form of the Doctor's old adversaries: the Ice Warriors!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: As Jo observes, he enjoys playing the role of Earth delegate, particularly when the others make him the chairman of the group. In a conversation with Hepesh, he gets the other man to admit that he has outside help, largely by just keeping him talking long enough to let it slip. His suspicion of the Ice Warriors is only natural given their past encounters, and most of his exchanges with Izlyr (Alan Bennion) are adversarial.

Jo Grant: For all that she projects being an airhead, she's anything but dumb. When the High Priest announces that the only women allowed in the throne room are of royal blood, she doesn't hesitate in adopting a haughty manner and playing the role of "Princess Josephine." This is quite a strong story for her overall, with her challenging the Doctor on his assumptions about the Ice Warriors when she isn't pushing King Peladon to stop relying so completely on his advisors and to take a stand for himself.

King Peladon: I'm afraid that I find the king himself to be one of the story's weakest elements. David Troughton is decked out in an outfit that's a bizarre combination of Shakespeare and 1970s disco, complete with thigh-high boots. If he were to suddenly burst into song ala David Bowie, it wouldn't seem out of place. The story wants to give him an arc, going from weakness to strength. Unfortunately, there's not much to signal that he's become particularly strong by the end, with him still seeking more dominant personalities such as Hepesh or the Doctor to tell him what to do. When he tries to persuade Jo to stay at the end, all I can think in response is, "Run, Jo. Run fast."

Hepesh: He genuinely believes he's acting in Peladon's interest, which should make him an interesting character; I usually prefer villains who believe themselves to be in the right. However, his actions are sometimes in conflict with his motives. He plots to kill the Doctor... even though he believes that the Doctor is the Earth delegate and that his death might bring Federation retribution down on the planet. Surely he should just be trying to kick him and the other delegates offworld? Geoffrey Toone plays too much to the character's fanaticism, when a more restrained performance might have highlighted Hepesh's entirely legitimate worries, which leaves the character coming across as more two-dimensional than he should have.

Ice Warriors: Writer Brian Hayles plays on audience assumptions. Their two previous appearances were as villains, so both the Doctor and the viewer naturally assume they are the baddies again. Jo points out that the Doctor is making assumptions based on very little evidence, to which he hotly replies that he knows them and what they're like. The Ice Warrior designs translate well to color, and they remain an effective presence. Izlyr, the career diplomat, allows us to see another side to Hayles' creations. Izlyr may not be above using force when all else fails, but he prefers to rely on his own determination, observational skills, and intellect.


THOUGHTS:

There is much to recommend The Curse of Peladon. The serial is well put together, with interesting ideas about the conflict between tradition and progress and between superstition and modernization. Mix in some nods to Shakespeare that somewhat justify the staginess, a stronger-than-usual role for Jo, and a fresh and unexpected take on the Ice Warriors, and it's not hard to see why the story has garnered such a strong reputation within fandom.

Unfortunately, while I don't mind the story at all, it's also one I've never been able to get excited about. I like it a lot on paper - but not so much when I actually sit down to watch it.

Hepesh's fears about his world being exploited should come across as anything but unreasonable. Historically speaking, when a more advanced civilization becomes involved with a more primitive one, the primitive one doesn't tend to end up the better for it. Too bad, then, that the Doctor - the show's moral and expositional authority - brushes this aside, assuring us that the Federation will only help Peladon. That instantly strips away a potentially interesting layer and makes Hepesh seem even more like the cartoon baddie that the actor is playing.

The guest cast mostly take themselves extremely seriously - to the point of eliciting giggles. I think the trappings here match a lot of people impressions of "Classic" Doctor Who: costumed aliens, an older man (Hepesh) whose every line is a grave pronouncement, and a healthy heap of narrative clichés. Oh, and a plot that is twisted around the need for cliffhangers, with both Parts Two and Three getting cliffhangers out of the same plot turn: the Doctor arrested for a crime with "only one punishment... (say it with me now)... Death!!!"

Lest I overstate the negatives, I should say that I still find this story easy to take. At four episodes, it moves along briskly. In terms of realization, the alien designs and the "actor-in-a-suit" creature are well above the series' average. Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning are at their best, with the dynamic between the Doctor and Jo sparkling throughout. I may have rolled my eyes here and there, but I wasn't bored.

Still, if the actors and script took these theatrics just a little less seriously, I actually think I'd have found it easier to fully connect with it.


OVERALL:

I don't really have much else to say about The Curse of Peladon. It's a decent slice of "bread-and-butter" Doctor Who, and I'd happily rate it as average or even slightly above. Even so, I find it frustrating, because the ideas were here for something more than that. And despite the story's status as a fan favorite, I find that the end result falls short of that potential.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

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#10 (9.01 - 9.04): Day of the Daleks.

The Doctor is interrogated by the Daleks.

4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 95 minutes. Written by: Louis Marks. Directed by: Paul Bernard. Produced by: Barry Letts.


THE PLOT:

International relations are tense, with troops preparing for battle along the Soviet/Chinese border and a third World War seeming increasingly inevitable. A conference meant to de-escalate the situation has fallen apart, with the Chinese refusing to take part. It falls to Sir Reginald Styles (Wilfred Carter) to persuade the Chinese government to reverse its stance and work toward peace.

The Doctor has little interest in any of this. "Humans are always squabbling over something," he declares. But his curiosity is piqued when UNIT receives a report from Sir Styles' country house, designated to be the site of the talks. A "ghost" appeared and attempted to kill him!

Though Styles insists that he simply had a bad dream, the Doctor believes otherwise. He finds muddy footprints near the window of Styles' study. Then he discovers a futuristic weapon and a crude portable time machine, confirming that an outside force is at work.

He soon comes face-to-face with them: a guerilla force from the future, determined to assassinate Styles to prevent their world from coming into being. Theirs is a future in which humanity has become a slave race, ruled over by the Doctor's oldest enemy - the Daleks!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: As was true in The Enemy of the World, the Doctor refuses to rush to judgment without full information. When the guerillas capture him and Jo, he tries to get more information about their motivations. Throughout the story, people try to rush him toward action: the guerillas, Jo, even the human Controller (Aubrey Woods) working with the Daleks. He just keeps probing each of them for more information, so that when he does take action it will be the correct one.

Jo Grant: In contrast to the Doctor, she acts impulsively, barely stopping to breathe let alone to think. With her and the Doctor captured by the guerillas, she frees herself and threatens to destroy their time travel device, not letting it go even when the Doctor urges her to. She sees the situation in simple terms: An armed group kidnapped her and the Doctor and plans to kill Sir Reginald, so this group surely must be evil - which also makes her a little too willing to believe that their opponents must automatically be good.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: An early scene sees him smugly needling the Doctor over his inability to get the TARDIS working... and I say fair enough getting his digs in, given all the barbs the Doctor's thrown his way. Despite the banter, he has absolute faith in the Doctor's judgment when crisis hits. The final episode sees the Doctor telling him to do two things. One of these is politically tricky and the other seems tactically foolish - but there's no time for an explanation, so the Brigadier puts full trust in him and gives both orders.

Capt. Yates: A fun early moment sees him pulling rank on Benton for the express purpose of confiscating some food and wine. When Jo confronts him about it, Mike smirks while telling her, "R. H. I. P., Jo... Rank has its privileges." When the Doctor and Jo disappear, he goes straight to the Brigadier, recognizing that something has gone badly wrong.

Daleks: This was their first (new) appearance since Season Four's The Evil of the Daleks, and they were a late addition to the script. This has led some to complain that they feel tacked on, but I actually think they add quite a bit. Sure, the base story would work fine without them. But they add another layer, acting as Evil Overlords commanding the more visible villains of the story. On broadcast, the story suffered from Dalek voices that sounded alternately sluggish and tinny. The special edition replaces the original voices with Nicholas Briggs, who has voiced the Daleks on television since 2005 as well as in the Big Finish audio range, and that alone gives a considerable lift to their presence.


THOUGHTS:

"There are many different kinds of ghosts, Jo. Ghosts from the past and ghosts from the future."
-the Doctor muses about the "ghosts" that are attempting to kill Sir Reginald Styles.

The first scene featuring the Doctor and Jo signals that this story is going to play with the idea of time travel, rather than just using it as a way to get them into the story. The Doctor is first seen attempting to repair his TARDIS. Something goes wrong, and future versions of himself and Jo appear. The Doctor has an irritable exchange with himself before the console overloads, putting an end to the interaction.

This winks at the type of story writer Louis Marks has created, with forces from the future fighting in the present - one side trying to undo that future, the other trying to preserve it. There are a few twists along the way, which I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't yet watched it. The script is genuinely clever, and comics writer John Byrne would acknowledge drawing inspiration from it for elements of his classic X-Men story, Days of Future Past.

This serial is well-paced, its story comfortably filling the four episodes. There's a lot of action which is well staged, even in the original broadcast version. The story also pulls off the balance of taking itself just seriously enough to convince of the stakes, but not so seriously that it become unenjoyable at any point.


THE SPECIAL EDITION:

The 2011 Special Edition makes some noticeable improvements. Action scenes feature laser effects, whereas the original mostly just conveyed weapons fire through prop guns and sound effects. Establishing shots are used during shifts to the Dalek-controlled future, giving us a glimpse of the dystopia. The climactic battle features a heavier Dalek presence than the broadcast version, which was hampered by having access to only three Dalek props.

The one effect I preferred in the original was for time travel. The broadcast version's optical effect worked nicely, whereas I find the Special Edition's CGI to be a bit cartoonish and even distracting. But outside of that one element, the Special Edition's changes are noticeably for the better. The Dalek voices alone make it the superior version.


OVERALL:

Day of the Daleks is fun, clever, and nicely paced, and it makes good use of the full regular/recurring cast. Though I know some disagree, I also think the story makes good use of the Daleks. They may have been added late in the day, but their presence as Evil Overlords works better for me than many stories that reduce them to mindless minions that shout, "Exterminate!"

I find this to be a very good story, and a promising start to Pertwee's third season.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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