It’s rare in Doctor Who for one of the Doctor’s companions to get the best line. But it’s Turlough in Warriors of the Deep that has a throwaway line that is actually one of the few outstanding ones, asking what it is that makes humans think “a futile gesture is a noble one.” I think this line sums up a worthy effort in the history of the program, even if it is a set of episodes some fans just can’t stand. 

Fans tend to hammer on about how the Silurians or Sea Devils looked wrong or walked too slowly (doesn’t that add menace, to be slow but unstoppable?). And they tend to complain that darker sets would have worked better, and hidden some of the flaws in the design, like a giant foam horse called the Myrka we’re all supposed to be afraid of because it can electrify you on contact. I can really only agree with the second part, that a story about a sea base invasion should have had darker, more claustrophobic sets. But you’d think Doctor Who fans would be used to imperfect sets by now. And while fans, ironically enough, allow mild inconsistencies to ruin their enjoyment of the show, it has to be remembered that most people don’t care. 

Here’s the biggest flaw as I see it: there are too few sympathetic characters. I don’t know what it was about the fifth, and in many ways most civil Doctor, but somehow he was increasingly dropped in situations where he and companions were the only people around that didn’t have closed minds and hostile attitudes. In a story that’s going to leave the viewer with a huge body count, and the Doctor left standing to say “There should have been another way,” (the second best line), the viewer needs a reason why the human race or the invaders should have been saved. The Doctor pays lip service to the idea that the Silurians are an ancient and noble race, but we only see them plodding through corridors killing everything in sight. And among the humans, there are a couple of sympathetic characters (mostly Maddox) but we can’t be said to really get to know them. Writers do this time and time again: introduce characters and fail to give them a single really human idiosyncrasy or memorable characteristic (something that isn’t clichй), then expect viewers to care when they’re killed. We feel for Maddox, as someone young and forced to perform horrible things, but he’s relegated to a mostly passive role. Vorshak the base commander does little more than act dense, threaten the Doctor, and finally die. And since he’s the example of a human from this era we see most often, I think it’s arguable that if he’d been better written, or performed by an outstanding actor rather than a wooden one, it would have gone a long way to save this story. We’d have had a reason to care if the earth goes boom. Even the Silurians spend the entire story reaching the bridge, then just swagger around and absolutely refuse to change their minds about provoking war. 

As the Doctor, Davison is absolute class, he’s like someone desperately trying to bail out a rowboat. After the death of Adric he’s willing to literally pounce on anyone about to go after his companions, and starts a scrap with some guards at the end of episode one. But everyone else seems to have decided they’re in a crap story. Even Janet Fielding as Tegan delivers a line to the Doctor about how billions could die as though she’s mildly annoyed. It’s a shame, because I don’t think every Doctor Who story tackled something like this, and perhaps it’s because fans can see the heights the story aspired to that they’re so frustrated and attack it with such venom. I love the idea of the Silurians employing the Myrka, a giant plodding organic creature, as their main weapon. And the idea they need send nothing more than the equivalent of a horse to wipe out most of the human population does suggest that they have fairly amazing powers we’ve not seen, and add to the tragedy of it all. Yes, I think it’s simultaneously a flawed production and a flawed script, but it’s still worthy Doctor Who. Finally, I think this story is an excellent candidate for a special edition on DVD, with perhaps darker corridors, and a Myrka that has an unearthly glow and throws off the occasional bolt of electricity, not just a bright flash when it sends people to the other side. I write this quietly and desperately knowing that I shouldn’t care about such things, but I do.

My purchase of the “Lost in Time” collection has reignited my interest in the early Troughton Doctor Who episodes. The surviving episodes are often far better than a story summary or Target novelization might suggest, leaving me eager to find out how the rest of the story plays out. Since it’s unlikely that all the missing episodes will turn up in the next few months, I’ve begun buying the BBC radio releases, starting with a story with which I was totally unfamiliar prior to LIT: The Faceless Ones. I knew a few things about the story of course. Ben and Polly make their final appearance and it’s set in an airport. Beyond that most of the story was completely new to me, so I’ve particularly enjoyed being able to see the two existing episodes and hear the audio, narrated ably by Fraser Hines.

The story starts off at a fast pace, but slows down rather quickly once events are set up. The opening scenes with the TARDIS landing on a runway in the path of an approaching jet are great, as are the scenes of the Doctor and Jamie crouched behind the airplane tires. The use of location filming always helps create a better illusion of reality for Doctor Who, especially in a location like Gatwick Airport. I’ve never been there, but I’ve been to local airports and so relate instantly to the locale. I don’t know how much of the other episodes use location shots, but episode three and especially one benefit greatly from the visuals that the airport location provides, widening the scope beyond what is available with studio sets. The attempt to anchor the story in a recognizable contemporary setting is worthwhile and effective. I’d love to have seen rather than heard Jamie’s exploration of the airport concourse in episode two.

As far as the characters go, there are some good and not-so-good ones. It goes without saying that Troughton’s Doctor is brilliant as always. Troughton always brings so much energy and enthusiasm to the role that his performance alone makes some of the less interesting stories worth watching. Jamie gets a lot more to do with Ben and Polly out of action for two thirds of the story. This and Evil of the Daleks are stories where his character really starts to shine. His chivalry towards Samantha in taking her place on the airplane (the flying beasties!) is wonderful. 

Poor Ben and Polly get very little to do overall, though Polly is integral to episodes one and two, since her witnessing of the murder is what draws the TARDIS crew into the events. Ben might as well not even be in the story for all the impact he makes. It’s a shame, since he’s such a good character. The story does make good use of the loss of the companions though, because as events proceed it really does feel as if the Chameleons are taking out everyone one by one. Polly is kidnapped in episode one leaving only her Chameleon double; Ben is taken at the end of episode 2, and Jamie is captured after infiltrating the space station, leaving the Doctor to deal with events without his usual crew. If it wasn’t for the Chameleons’ continuing failure to kill the Doctor over and over again, the story would have far more of a feeling of events spiraling out of the Doctor’s ability to control.

The Commandant of the airport is an excellently written and portrayed character. No-nonsense and very down to earth, his refusal to believe the Doctor’s wild story is entirely believable. Only as he is confronted with more and more evidence does he finally come around to the Doctor’s side, and once he’s convinced of the facts, he acts with as much surety of himself as ever, despite the strange circumstances. The Commandant is really the hero of the final episode as much as the Doctor. As for Sam, I’m very happy that she did not remain on the show. She’s a strong enough character, but I found her very annoying. Victoria’s sweetness is far preferable to Sam’s blustering. Sam’s flirting with Jamie is fun though.

The story is solid enough. Alien abduction on a mass scale isn’t necessarily original, but perhaps it was more so back in 1967. The concept still works well within the Doctor Who formula. I can only imagine that the abduction of people can’t have been going on for very long though, or more people would have begun to be suspicious. The Chameleons are a varied lot as antagonists go. Blade is pretty good, but the Director mainly talks a good game and gets shot in the end. Spencer isn’t too bright at all. He makes mistake after mistake. His worst blunder is having the Doctor, Jamie and Sam at his mercy in episode four, and rather than shoot them he puts them in the position where a laser will cut them in two and then leaves. Of course they escape.

Ben and Polly’s departure is far too short. At least they get a good final scene, unlike Dodo. Ben and Polly are great traveling companions, and their departure seems abrupt, though entirely understandable. They have to be some of the few who actually get back at exactly the point they left, so who can blame them for remaining behind? The farewell to Jamie and the Doctor is heartfelt.

It still hardly feels as though I really know this story well. I’m grateful to fellow fans who did what I used to in the pre-VCR days and tape-recorded these episodes so we can at least listen to them. The linking narration helps, but there’s no understating just how important the visuals are, and how much they are missed. The telesnaps help, but it’s never quite the same. Despite that, I’ll be kicking back in my recliner and giving this story another listen soon I imagine. It’s a good story for the most part, and worth your time.

"Frontier in Space" is a high point from my favorite era of the show. While I adore the UNIT scenario, it is wonderful that the Third Doctor’s exile to Earth ended, freeing him to have adventures such as this. This story is far from perfect, but accentuates the strengths of the Time Lord’s third incarnation and casts some interesting light on this entire period in the show’s history.

Doctor Who didn’t attempt a sprawling space opera that often (only "The Dalek Master Plan" leaps to mind). There are many stories set in the future or on board space ships, but few serials present such an epic canvas which the characters are seen to cross: no "star map" of the Earth/Draconian Empires has ever been published by merchandisers, but none is needed: the script, dialogue, and production provide just enough for the viewer to visualize the rest of the landscape in the mind’s eye. Yes, there are several instances of obvious padding but even some of the repetitive escape/capture/escape/recapture sequences lend a feeling of a story happening on a vast scale.

Malcolm Hulke’s script is quite good. There are occasional moments of embarrassing dialogue (The Doctor referring to Jo as a "perishing panda" and his anecdote concerning mind probes are best forgotten; as are, indeed, the very cliche of "mind probes"), but these are rare gaffes. Far better are the sequences on the lunar penal colony (The scenes between the Doctor and the other prisoners there are full of great character moments, and the Doctor’s exchange with Cross is very memorable. "Doctor: (after Cross confiscates another prisoner’s chocolate bar): That’s stealing, you know. Cross: That’s what I’m in for ... Got a troublemaker, have we? Doctor: That’s what I’m in for." In fact, watching this serial now, it is interesting to note how it anticipates the opening episodes of Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 in many ways.

The Draconians are a well-realized alien race: the scenes in their embassy on Earth and their home world suggest a well-thought out society, with plenty of room for further exploration. This, coupled with the excellent costume design, makes one wonder why they never featured in Doctor Who again. The Master is strangely comical in this outing: reading H.G. Wells and mocking everyone from the Doctor to the Daleks with equal scorn. It’s well played by Roger Delgado but perhaps the Master could have been written in a slightly more sinister vein. This is a minor complaint, however, and Delgado’s swan song is very entertaining, nonetheless.

The Doctor is fascinating here; this incarnation is justifiably linked to UNIT in the minds of so many people, but it is always interesting to see him operating without the organization to fall back on. It is easy to forget that, whereas UNIT depends upon the Doctor, in the UNIT stories the Doctor himself also depends on UNIT for support and/or rescue. Without them, he and Jo are refreshingly on their own, depending upon their wits and whatever allies they can find to escape and win another day. Pertwee’s Doctor is not only the stylish moral crusader, but one of the most physically active incarnations of the character, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with Earth soldiers, Draconians, and the Master, undertaking several space walks to repair and or escape from assorted space vessels, and so on throughout the tale. Storylines are obviously tailored for whatever Doctor is incumbent at the time, but it is interesting to ponder how well Doctors would have fare if placed in some of their counterpart’s serials.

As for Jo Grant... Hmmm. I am partial to Liz Shaw, myself, but Jo doesn’t come off too badly in this story. She resists the Master’s hypnotic effects and diverts attention from one of the Doctor’s escape plans (for a while, at least), proving herself far more capable than I have considered her in the past. In Episode One, she even deduces that the Daleks might be in command of the Ogrons, only to be shot down by the Doctor’s contention that Ogrons have many employers. All right, the Master was guiding the Ogrons, but the Daleks were ultimately involved as well! Perhaps it’s time for me to re-evaluate Jo Grant?

Perhaps the only disappointing feature for me is the final sequence. It provides the cliffhanger lead-in to "Planet of the Daleks" well enough, but, in a piece of poor (one might even say bizarre) editing, the Master simply disappears! He shoots the Doctor one moment, and then the Ogrons flee, leaving Jo to help the wounded Doctor into the TARDIS. In an eyeblink, the Master is nowhere to be seen! Where did he go, and why? This always puzzled me, and, coming right at the end of the story, it closes out the tale on a slightly unsatisfactory note. Nevertheless, director Paul Bernard does a fine job otherwise, and "Frontier In Space" remains, for me, one of the greatest successes of the Pertwee era.

The Ribos Operation was the opening story of the sixteenth season and saw very much a final break in style and tone with the previous Tom Baker years. There has been plenty of comment about the humorous style of the latter Baker years, most of it misplaced. The humour here is as subtle and as clever as the gothic content of the Hinchcliffe years. The addition of the humour works. Season 16 as a whole works as does, for that matter, season 17.

The season was given a running theme, a story arc, which has since been replicated but never equalled. Namely the search for the Key To Time. 

The main drivers for this story are the relationships between the six main characters. Firstly there is the Graff Vynda-K and his trusty sidekick, Sholakh. These are two battle hardened veterans. From the looks of Sholakh he spent all the battles in the front line and from the looks of the Graff he spent those battles as far removed from the front line as Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth. The Graff is a man who is bitter and has been deposed, he is driven by revenge and the desire to reclaim the Levithian crown. Sholakh, being a career soldier knows little else. His loyalty is wholehearted to the Graff. Theirs is a relationship borne in adversity. 

Another relationship borne in adversity, albeit of a different kind, is that of Garron and Unstoffe. Garron is played with a larger than life panache by veteran screen actor Iain Cuthbertson, best remembered by me in the wonderful Children of the Stones. His put upon sidekick is played by Nigel Plaskitt and actor whose two main claims to fame are being the voice of a hare on a childrens TV show and being "Malcolm" in the Vicks adverts for blocked noses in the seventies. Chosen career criminals, and portrayed as lovable rogues (Gawd bless em, they never armed anyone apart from their own) they have gone from planet to planet conning people out of their hard earned (or otherwise) goods and money. Constantly with an eye over their shoulder for the Police being on the run has forged a bond between them although I doubt either trusts each other. 

The final key relationship is the Doctor and Romana. Romana is a very different companion to any we have seen before. An equal to the Doctor, not in awe of him and very very aloof. A Time Lady version of Margot from the Good Life with The Doctor playing Tom to her Margot. 

Romana will lose, as the series evolves, she lost her aloof edge as she realised what was out there in the big old universe. However in this story Romana is at her most superior and there is some sparkling dialogue between her and the Doctor throughout the story. The Doctors annoyance at her putting a hole in the console to fit the tracer was wonderful, as was her smug superiority at the Doctor getting caught in one of the nets on the outskirts of the city.

In fact the dialogue is the best thing about this whole story. It fairly sparkles. Next to the dialogue is the superb characterisation of the main characters. The characterisation, and the motivation, of the characters is very well defined.

So the basic premise of the story, Garron and Unstoffe are trying to sell the planet Ribos to the Graff Vynda-K. They plant some documents to make it look like there are valuable mineral reserves on Ribos. The Doctor and Romana turn up and throw a spanner in the works. The story keeps going at a fairly reasonable pace, there are some interesting natives especially the seeker and, of course, Binro the Heretic played by Timothy Bateson, a man who has made his name in sitcoms as "middle class neighbour" or "Bank Manager" gives a truly sympathetic performance as a man who thinks the world is not flat and the planet revolves around its own sun in contravention of the thinking of the day. The interchanges between him and Unstoffe, hiding in the Catacombs, where Unstoffe reveals to him that he is right all along and one day people on Ribos will know he was right were truly moving. Worth a life !

Thank You Robert Holmes, for yet another superb story.

The penultimate story of the Davison era, Planet of Fire is an fairly entertaining four part romp which wasn’t as good as it could have been. However it does execute it’s main agendas competently (the reappearance of the Master, the exits of Turlough and Kamelion, and the introduction of an new companion Peri), but it cannot be regarded as one of the highlights of the Davison era. 

The location overseas filming on Lanzarote is nice if slightly bland, although it is clearly obvious that the locations on Sarn quite clearly appear to be the same as those of Earth. 

The adventure starts off in the vein of most mid 80’s serials, with lengthy scenes inside the TARDIS, with the Doctor still distressed about the events of Resurrection of the Daleks, and Turlough being disturbed by an distress signal of Trion origin, an recurring theme throughout this story, with Turlough being forced at the near end to finally stop running from his people. 

Another recurring theme is Kamelion and the Master’s usage of the robot throughout the story as an slave. 

You don’t know why the Master is forced to use Kamelion until later on at the cliff hangar to episode three, with the big payoff as the rogue Time Lord is seen miniaturized inside an control box of his TARDIS. The interior of the Master’s TARDIS is disappointing, clearly being the same version of the Doctor’s but painted black instead of white. 

I also found the plot fairly tiring and confusing at times, the natives of Sarn appear to be shallow and rather dull people, being led by Timanov, an pompous and fanatical religious leader. 

It is also unclear whether newcomer Peri is actually in fear of her step father Howard, whom appears as one of Kamelion’s guises throughout the story. 

Nicola Bryant does make an very good debut as Peri, and her infamous Bikini scene in Part One is in context, and adds much needed drama and increases the tempo of an slow episode when she is seen to be drowning, and Turlough has to go out and rescue her, one of the first times on the series where we get to see this normally cowardly and selfish character risk his life to save another. 

Another observation for me is that in this story the 5th Doctor really lacked the strength and presence of the 3rd and 4th Doctors, and a lot of the time it is Turlough who is the commanding authoritative figure. Mark Strickson for mine puts in one of his best performances as Turlough whom finally faces up to his destiny and becomes an real leader for the first time, helping the survivors and his brother Malkolm return to Trion. 

Another performer who excelled in this story was the late Anthony Ainley, easily giving his best performance as the Master since Logopolis with an classy and menacing performance as the Kamelion-Master for most of the story, and I do agree with the sentiments that the 80’s Master looked far better in a business suit than that silly penguin outfit he was forced to wear so often. 

With all those elements taken into account, this story should have come across as exciting and fast paced, but sadly due to an number of factors, the thinness of Peter Grimwade’s script (I think it lacked enough substance to sustain it for the four episodes) and the rather drab and uninspiring direction by Peter Moffat (just compare the direction of Planet of Fire to the following story The Caves of Androzani and see what I mean !!!) and some bland acting from some of the extras (although Peter Wyngarde is superb as the fanatical Sarn elder Timanov) and the general impression I get is one of disappointment. This story had the potential to be so much better, I think too much was made of the natives of Sarn worshipping Logar and the concept of the natives worshipping technology was covered far better in Face of Evil.

It’s saving grace however is the nice and fitting departure of Turlough, and contains one of the best performances of the series of the late, great Anthony Ainley, and is an great tribute to his considerable acting talents.

This story is rather uneven. On the one hand are some rather odd acting moments, e.g. Ian’s false “strangulation” gestures and Susan’s very moody stares, but on the other the audience sees some great confrontations, particularly between Barbara and the Doctor near the end of episode one. The Doctor’s verbal attack is strong enough to make the audience fully support Barbara’s reaction and she stands up for herself wonderfully. Hartnell also has his best episode yet in The Brink of Disaster – he transforms from a hostile accuser to an apologising kind man who has learnt something very important. His flustered inability to apologise to Ian is great to watch, as is his decent apology to Barbara at the end. No other episode in the history of the series ever had the Doctor learn so much about friendship and himself.

All of this drama is enacted within the TARDIS and involves no one else, giving us time to see more of the TARDIS interior and the dynamic of the crew. I feel the direction isn't quite good enough to make the audience believe there is an intruder aboard, and the initial lapse of memory results in some odd moments between Ian and Barbara at the beginning. Susan’s behaviour is particularly worrying – she certainly looks possessed but when the cause of the crisis is revealed, this is shown to be false, so her violent scissor attack was based on paranoia, fear and hysteria rather than possession. Freud would probably have liked to ask her some questions after that one. 

The story’s main boost in my opinion is not the Fast Return switch problem but Hartnell’s performance. He is suspicious, worries, cares, bullies, learns, speculates and apologises all in a few scenes in these episodes. When he fails to bully Barbara he offers the crew drinks, his explicit intention to calm everyone down hiding his real intention of forcing them to sleep so he can solve the mystery himself. The scene where he checks Ian and Barbara, chuckling to himself, is wonderful, for he is childishly enjoying himself. The next episode forces him to admit he needs the help of others to solve the problem (a nice touch for from Pertwee onwards he becomes so clever and invulnerable that he rarely needs anyone to help him). However his potential to commit murder is raised again (not seen since the Za stone incident) but this time it’s worse for he is going to force two acquaintances out of his TARDIS who have previously saved his life and are the victims of his prejudiced false conclusions of events he has shown he doesn't understand. This act makes his desire to ask Barbara to forgive him at the end more touching – not only has he learnt an important lesson about himself, he needs forgiveness to move on. His line “You still haven’t forgiven me have you?” is very poignant and when Barbara does forgive him the audience knows this crew is now much stronger and warmer than it has ever been before. It is a significant development and a sign of David Whitaker’s writing skills as well as the acting of the regular cast. 

The stock music adds to the drama very well, but I associate it more strongly with The Moonbase and kept thinking of that story when I heard it. It makes the “mystery” stranger. The cause of the problem is almost incidental to the suspicions it has raised, but the final moments when the Doctor fixes the spring have sufficient drama to make us urge him to hurry up before they’re all annihilated. The final moments are nice to see – the tension has gone once the Doctor is forgiven and they are all looking forward to exploring their next destination. The audience will see a kinder Doctor from now on, though his complex fascinating nature will still remain…