The End of Time

So, this is it. After three and a bit seasons and five Christmas specials, David Tennant’s turn as the tenth Time Lord reaches its dramatic conclusion. It’s Russell T Davies’ second chance to write the ultimate conclusion to end all conclusions, to wrap up the most popular incarnation of the character and to end his time on this show, and I’m pleased to say that he does a better job of it than the season 4 finale. Although a chimpanzee with a typewriter would have done a better job of that, so it’s not saying much.

The Ood elder tells the Doctor of his prophecy.

And it’s my second chance to watch this two-and-a-quarter hour double bill, of which I have only the vaguest memories, mostly of the Master dressed like a scruffy hoodie with a glowing transparent skull and Timothy motherflipping Dalton turning up with his posse of Time Lords and spitting a lot. I had somehow erased the memories of the Master turning the entire human race into clones of himself (including a bad lookalike of President Obama) and the whole thing again with the drum rhythm, knocking four times, and the sound of a Time Lord heartbeat (ooh, nice touch, I’d almost think this was planned all along). There is a wonderful moment when, finally, after all the bluffs, the prophecy of the Doctor’s death (he will knock four times) turns out to be Wilf knocking on the glass door of the radiation chamber, asking to be let out, and a calm realisation spreads over the Doctor’s face. If I take away anything good from this episode, it will be that moment. It’s lovely.

Tap-tap-tap-tap, and it all makes sense.

Bernard Cribbins does a fantastic job as Wilfred, even if he does look like he’s on the verge of tears in every scene (or maybe because of that!). Wilf is essential in keeping this story grounded in human drama while insane things are happening around them. His scenes with the Doctor where they do nothing but talk to each other in a café are some of the best. The rest of the story concerns itself with big but flimsy ideas like destiny, prophecies and, yet again, the death of the entire human race and the end of the existence of time as we know it. Because, obviously, you can’t have a finale without something ridiculous happening. I don’t know why Russell T Davies has to write so many stories involving “everybody in the world”, because it immediately loses its believability if you stop to think about it for two seconds. Every single person on the planet turning into a copy of the Master would wreak absolute havoc. Planes would fall out of the sky, cars would crash in the street, people of different sizes, like children, could be crushed to death in seats and harnesses, and what about pregnant women? Are there mini-Masters inside Masters, or did all the foetuses die? I feel like I’ve said this a hundred times now, but you cannot do such big events like this without thinking about the consequences.

“Look, ma, I’m the president!”

Timothy Dalton is fantastic. Having previously appeared in Hot Fuzz, he was obviously deemed a good fit for the role of the villain again. He exudes charisma and presence both as the narrator to the events of part 1 and as the president of the Time Lords. This is the first time we see Gallifrey and the high council since the 1980s and the scale of these scenes is a vast improvement, beautifully captured by the VFX team without appearing overly “greenscreen-y”. The Time Lords have always been corrupt, but the time war has sent them over the edge of evilness. I was surprised to hear the council talking about the Doctor’s search for “the Moment” that will end their existence. I hadn’t realised the events of ‘The Day of the Doctor’ had been so explicitly foreshadowed. Side note: The Doctor travels a lot before coming to see the Ood at the start of the episode, during which time he marries Queen Liz!

The Time Lords, and Gallifrey, return. Briefly.

It’s a shame the Master is a little wasted here, turned into a rampaging monster that wants to eat people. This would have been a good opportunity to cast a different actor and do a whole new take on the character, rather than bringing back John Simm. There’s a good chance this will happen in the upcoming series, given his fate at the end. As for the Doctor’s fate, the radiation chamber is as contrived a setup as you can imagine, leading to the most drawn-out death scene ever. There’s literally fifteen minutes of screen time after the accident in which every major character the tenth Doctor has ever met is bid farewell. To say it’s indulgent is putting it mildly. I suppose I can’t really blame Russell T Davies for wanting to add these scenes; this is just as much a finale for him as a writer as it is for the tenth Doctor as a character, but I must say, the way the Doctor clings onto his life is like a petulant child. He’s been through at least nine regenerations by this point, he knows the drill. He should have had more dignified last words than “I don’t want to go.”

I don’t understand why Martha and Mickey are suddenly married. Wasn’t she already engaged to somebody else?

While I enjoyed parts of this finale and felt it was quite cleverly wrapped up, there’s a lot that doesn’t work so well or doesn’t make sense if you think about it too much. The high stakes are implausible – why would a device capable of transforming the population of an entire planet (it’s basically a weapon of mass destruction) be so casually discarded, with only a pair of bumbling alien scientists to come and salvage it? The Doctor falling from their ship and crashing through a glass ceiling, and surviving with just a few scratches, is possibly the most ridiculous thing he’s ever done. He’s not superman!

The Doctor’s explosive regeneration wrecks the Tardis.

As this is the end of the tenth Doctor’s run, I will briefly comment on the character and David Tennant’s portrayal. I think David Tennant defined the character almost as much as Tom Baker did. Not just because he was really popular and stayed on for so long; he’s a fantastic actor, whether he’s doing his comedy thing, his angry shouty thing or his quiet solemn thing. You only have to watch episodes like The Family of Blood to see the sort of range he’s capable of. His style and characteristics became synonymous with Doctor Who. He’s a tough act to follow.

The tenth Doctor is more human-like than many of the others, excepting Paul McGann as the eighth. Like him, he’s got a romantic side but actually (more or less) falls in love, which is a first. It’s not a trait I particularly care for as I feel the Doctor should be more alien and weird (something Matt Smith nails). The Doctor has always been a caring character (that’s basically what he does) but, with Ten, this empathy is more explicit, leading to more instances of him being visibly rattled, distraught or affected by events. Like Nine, his cheerful comedy routine is just to cover up his true feelings.

Any version of the Doctor (yes, even Tom Baker) wears thin over time. As I was rewatching his first season, I found him extremely likeable, but as time goes on, the character picks up annoying little habits (“weeeelllll…”), catchphrases (“allons-y!”) or traits that begin to grate (“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”). A lot of this is down to the writing, of course. I would have liked to see more of the tenth Doctor under the new writing team (when he reappears in the 50th anniversary special, he’s actually excellent). The Tenth Doctor is merciful, even to his greatest enemies, always looking for a solution other than killing, and he is fascinated by human culture to the point of coming across like an excitable space tourist.

Anyway, I’m not going to put David Tennant in ranking order with all the others, because I haven’t bothered doing those for the new series – the style of the programme is too different to compare them fairly with the old serials – but I will say that I like him more than I liked Christopher Eccleston.

Here’s my pick of favourite episodes from the past three seasons. Thanks for reading, and here’s to the next Doctor!

The Girl in the Fireplace.
A scary, sweet and clever adventure that crosses time and space.

The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit
Excellent visual design and another scary story in an impossible situation.

Human Nature / The Family of Blood
A tragic love story and David Tennant’s best performance.

Blink
The best Doctor Who episode doesn’t star the Doctor. Ingenious and frightening.

Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead
Moffat crams more out-of-this-world ideas and scares into this two-parter.

Turn Left
A wonderful “what-if” tale where the Doctor never saved the world.

Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords

On Saturday the 16th of June, 2007, I was over at some friends’ house. They were Doctor Who fans, in a stronger sense than I. I had only been watching the last couple of seasons, casually but with growing interest. As I recall, there were rumours at the time of a particular character returning to the show, so as we sat down to watch Doctor Who that evening, there was an air of anticipation. I’d never watched the programme in a group before then, nor, sadly, since; but there was something special about that night, an excitement in the air that hasn’t been repeated. As Professor Yana looked up from that old pocket watch, into the eyes of his former assistant, and mouthed those four immortal words, a great cheer erupted from the room. It led into the best twist this show has ever thrown out, something it had been saving up for the right moment to have the biggest possible impact. That moment was now, and whether it was the atmosphere of that room or simply a work of great suspense, it left with me an affection for this thing called Doctor Who that I have not felt since. Those four simple words, as delivered superbly by the great Derek Jacobi, were: “I… am… the Master.”

I couldn’t help cheer myself as those last two words left Derek Jacobi’s lips after a suspenseful pause. It was a memorable evening. Subsequent viewings have lacked the same impact, sadly.

Things have changed since that night; I’m not the “n00b” I once was. I’ve now seen all of the old serials and know who this Master character actually is and why he’s so important. I know that he was last seen in the 1996 TV movie, falling into a time/space vortexy thing at the heart of the Tardis. I’ve also started watching Torchwood in parallel, so Jack Harkness’s sudden arrival at the start of Utopia now makes a bit more sense. Jack’s character has taken a turn for the dour throughout the first season of Torchwood, not unsurprisingly so, having been brought back to life, travelled back through time and forced to live on Earth for over a century. But as soon as he’s back with the Doctor, that brooding character evaporates and the Captain Jack from Doctor Who is back, full of life and energy again.

Jack Harkness, intergalactic flirt, comes back to life in more ways than one.

Utopia is ostensibly a standalone episode, before the significance of its plot becomes apparent towards the end of ‘part 3’. On its own, it’s an uplifting tale of human perseverance and longevity, of hope amidst despair, as the last ever human beings at the very end of a dying universe, jet off in a last ditch effort to find a new home. But at the time, this plot fell by the wayside next to the more exciting revelation of the Master, disguised as the human Professor Yana, using the same metamorphosis technique that the Doctor only recently used to become human himself (how convenient!). The whole history of Doctor Who is recited in an info-dump that would have been excessive were it not intercut with Yana dramatically hearing the words in his mind that he should not understand: Vortex, Time War, Daleks, Regeneration. The build up of the music, the professor’s expression, the flashbacks of the Face of Boe reciting those words, “you… are… not… alone”, as the B plot suddenly becomes the A plot, the rocket full of humans now insignificant next to this, it is one of the best dramatic sequences they’ve ever done. It’s also the end of this particular run of high quality episodes, which has, in my opinion, yet to be bettered.

The perception field overcome, Professor Yana finally opens the pocket watch and the Time Lord essence hidden within comes flowing out.

Everything after this can only fail to live up to expectations. It’s not that The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords are necessarily bad, in fact this is probably my favourite of the three ‘finales’ so far, but it’s as totally overblown as finales always are. More so, frankly; the stakes are so ridiculously high this time that the planet Earth couldn’t possibly recover from everything that happens to it, so the big reset button has to be pushed, rewinding time to its previous state before the invasion of the spheres can even happen. That’s what you get when your plan to rule the world relies on a fragile paradox machine to keep everything held together, and then you let an immortal with a machine gun inside of it. John Simm is fine in his own (perhaps overly comedic) way, playing a version of the Master for the modern age, his exuberant personality and dramatic flair a mirror for the type of Doctor that David Tennant plays now… and yet, every time he’s on screen, I wish the role was still played by Derek Jacobi, who not only does a superbly menacing Master, but skillfully portrays the kindly human professor too. Still, had he stayed, the following episodes would have turned out quite differently.

Saxon says “yes” to gassing.

Harold Saxon, of course, was the Master all along. Russell T. Davies must have been planning this as far back as The Runaway Bride when the name Saxon is first dropped. We never see him, of course, but everyone on Earth knows him, due to the telepathic field that the Master has managed to bounce off of satellites around the planet. For me, this is the best series arc yet. Better than clumsily name-dropping Torchwood everywhere they go; a better resolution than the Bad Wolf wizard turning up to wave its magic wand and save the day. This is the Doctor staring the Master in the face for more than a year without him even knowing it, finding him in the far future, and then being responsible for sending him back to the past to become the person that has been cropping up all throughout the season. It’s inspired, it’s superb, and it’s a shame that it has to have such a blow-out ending.

Swarms/fleets attack the Earth again. Yawn.

A giant rift, presumably unrelated to the Cardiff rift, and indeed the visually similar ‘crack in the universe’, opens in the sky above the implausibly high-tech aircraft carrier, Valiant.

It’s great that Martha gets to save the world, seeing as this is her final regular appearance, but “the power of love” saving the day is such a lame and overdone thing now, and would Martha really be able to traipse across the whole planet in just a year? And still look so clean and pretty at the end of it? The Doctor temporarily gaining invincibility is too similar to the end of The Parting of the Ways. Yes, it is sort of set up in advance by the whole psychic satellite thing, but the details don’t have enough time to sink in, so the resolution feels very much like “winning with technobabble”. Just once, I’d like to have a low-key finale, a plot that doesn’t involve “huge swarms of invading things”, big CGI set-pieces and ridiculous levels of peril. I will give it bonus points, however, for the correct use of the word “decimate”.

Why does the Doctor turn into Dobby from Harry Potter when he’s super-aged? This is very silly.

There were some nicely “big” moments that did work for me. All of the flashbacks to Gallifrey, complete with colourful costumes and big collars, were nicely done. We hardly ever learn anything about Time Lord society, but here we get a short history lesson about 8-year-old Gallifreyans looking into the Time Vortex as part of their initiation into the ‘Academy’ (whatever that is). It’s suggested that the Master has been hearing the drums in his head all of his life, but this is the only time it’s ever been mentioned. It’s worth noting, however, that the drum rhythm (da-da-da-dum, da-da-da-dum) is the same as the baseline in the Doctor Who theme, a rhythm directly associated with the Time Vortex at the start of every single episode. I’d never noticed before now, but that’s clever. There’s also an in-joke where the Doctor scoffs at Martha’s suggestion that he and the Master are brothers (this almost happened for the third Doctor’s finale, but the death of Roger Delgado meant it was written out). The story ends with another jokey suggestion that the almost immortal Captain Jack is in fact the Face of Boe himself – however, whether this should be taken at ‘face’ value (har!) is open to debate. It’s certainly a fun theory, but it could equally be Jack’s idea of a joke.

I think he’d have to have a lot more work done to end up looking like a giant head in a jar. I wouldn’t put it past him.

Martha leaves us as a regular now, returning to the family that needs her, the only people on Earth who will remember the events of the ‘missing year’. Martha makes the decision to move on from the Doctor for the sake of her own feelings. I don’t like the fact that Tennant’s version of the Doctor has to be this heart-throb angsty wanderer that everyone keeps falling for, however I absolutely prefer this way of companions leaving of their own accord, and not through contrived set-ups, magic gateways and overblown emotional music.

But where would a finale be without some twist of an ending, whether it be a mysterious hand finding a ring at the Master’s burning remains or… the Titanic breaching the wall of the Tardis? What?

Doctor Who (TV movie)

The Doctor Who “TV movie” is an interesting look at what could have been but, ultimately, never was. A collaborative effort between the US and UK, it would have gone on to become an American series, had the networks picked it up. They did not. On the face of it, this is probably for the best because, while it undoubtedly looks the part and is remarkably well-produced, the TV movie misses that spark that makes Doctor Who what it is.

The parallels with ‘Frankenstein’ are not so subtle – in fact, the revival scene happens in parallel with the movie playing on the hospital television.

There’s little here that is recognisably Doctor Who-ish. It’s VERY American, set entirely in San Francisco at the turn of the millenium, and features a cast of generic modern day American characters (doctors, cops, gang members). McGann is stuck in the middle of it like Hugh Grant in a rom com.

“I finally meet the right guy and he’s from another planet.” *CRINGE*

Sylvester McCoy’s aged seventh Doctor gets barely three lines of dialogue in his twenty minutes on screen, and is unceremoniously gunned down seconds after leaving the Tardis. A botched surgery and a night in the morgue are an undignified end and he deserves better from a people he has saved from the brink of destruction many times, but perhaps the film is trying to make a point about gratuity, selfless good deeds and human stupidity, I don’t know.

The regeneration scene has a bit of CG trickery to it, but I suspect a lot of it is McCoy’s excellent face acting.

Having watched twenty-six years’ worth of Doctor Who on small BBC sets with cheap production values, it is a real thrill to see an expensive-looking version. I must admit, I did get a few goosebumps during the intro montage and credits sequence, listening to an orchestrated version of the theme music while the Tardis flies through a colourful time tunnel. It’s great to also see some actual cinematography at work, focus-pulls, artful compositions and a real movie-like appearance. It’s a great-looking piece, and features some pretty advanced CGI for a 1996 TV special.

The new ‘steampunk’ Tardis control room is considerably larger than the last one, showing its first major upgrade. It’s certainly the inspiration for the 2005 reboot.

There’s no question that it looks good but, as is often the case, with a bigger budget comes a responsibility to broaden the appeal to a wider (international?) audience and tick boxes. So we have to have relatable human characters, and generic tropes like a romantic interest, a car chase, a final showdown with a villain, friends coming back from the dead, and so on. It is more po-faced than the entirety of the BBC series, lacking in nearly all the whimsical Britishness that makes Doctor Who special.

“I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.”

The Doctor doesn’t defeat the Master with trickery or cunning, he just beats him in a fight. The relationship with Grace is the first time the Doctor has shown any sort of romantic interest in anybody, which is a contentious issue, although it could be put down to his post-regeneration state of mind. Much more contentious is the revelation that the Doctor is half-human (on his mother’s side). Were they trying to make him out to be a Mister Spock character? Whatever, the fact that it’s never mentioned beyond this movie should tell you it was a bad idea. It’s not even relevant to the movie, really.

I’m not entirely sure why the Eye of Harmony is in the Tardis, or why it would destroy the Earth, or why it revived Grace and Chang Lee after they died, but it’s a cool-looking thing to have a fight on. Timey wimey, wibbly-wobbly…

There are hints of whimsy and humour sprinkled throughout, struggling to break free. The new Doctor is likable and, to my surprise, the new Master turns out to be good for somebody who starts like the Terminator before becoming a mad, extravagant villain in a ridiculous costume (though I’m not sure if some of his lines are intentionally funny or just an accident).

The Master takes Chang Lee as his apprentice, becoming a creepy father figure. “The Asian child…”

The eighth Doctor offers a few people jellybabies, just to remind us that he’s still the same character we know and love (he also has his sonic screwdriver back – its first appearance since Davison’s fifth Doctor broke his), but sadly there’s not a lot of time for his charms to come across, as the plot has to race towards its dramatic conclusion. Everything is crammed into the middle, and it does suffer for it. Still, at least it’s never boring. That said, the best scene in the film is at the beginning, where the seventh Doctor is settling down with a book, a cup of tea and some music, while McGann narrates. It’s nice to see that lively, adventurous Doctor now in his final years, and imagine all the adventures he has had since I last saw him.

Time skips, skips, skips, skips a beat.

With so much of the movie dedicated to getting the plot across, it’s a shame we don’t get more time to acquaint with the new Doctor. Paul McGann plays a more human, more charming and romantic version of the character. Less weird, less alien, but full of love for life and the Universe around him. Dashing, and not unlike Davison in terms of being young, fresh-faced and eager. As I’ve no particular intention to explore the audio dramas, this is my only reference from which to judge the character. If only the BBC would bring him back to the screen, perhaps in some sort of short film for the anniversary year, and-… oh, wait a minute, what’s this?!

Seventeen years on, Paul McGann appears on screen as the eighth Doctor once again, bringing his character’s life to an end at the hands of the Sisterhood of Karn. A lot has changed in that time, a war with the Daleks that has seemingly diminished the reputation of the Time Lords, much to the eighth Doctor’s frustration. This is a world-weary portrayal of the character, still struggling to find the good in people, but ultimately letting go of the life that has run out and accepting his fate as the warrior the universe needs. I found this reversal to be rather sudden, but this is again the problem with short films, whether they be seven minutes or ninety – there simply isn’t enough time to develop properly. Perhaps I will have to seek out those audio dramas after all.

Although I did originally watch the TV movie in 1996, I was surprised by how little of it I remembered. It was almost all new to me, save some fragments here and there, so this was less of a memory jog and more of a new experience, which was nice. From here on, I’m much more familiar with the show, as I did start watching it properly in 2005. For now, though, I would have to say I generally enjoyed this. The steampunk-inspired Tardis rooms look great, the visuals and cinematography are excellent throughout and overall it’s a fast-paced adventure with a likable new Doctor. It’s not really Doctor Who, it’s more a slightly silly American B-movie with the name attached. I wouldn’t have wanted a whole series like this – it’s too generic and without character – but as a one-off, I was fine with it.

Survival

Seven hundred and one episodes. Twenty-six years of television in the space of sixteen months. My epic journey through time and space with the iconic Doctor has finally reached its end (or, at least, its last major milestone). Survival is not a proper finale like you would expect these days (it’s not even a monotone finale like we had in 1969), but in its own way, it is rather poignant. It deals with the theme of survival, which is appropriate given the show was killed off. A harsh wilderness, survival of the fittest, survival of a planet, and survival of the Master. It’s Anthony Ainley’s final appearance as the Master, Sophie Aldred’s final appearance as Ace and the last time we see that iffy purple swirling galaxy.

The Master is more dangerous and unpredictable in his animal-like state. It’s something he wants rid of, but then learns to control it.

Survival is not the best, but the continuation of Ace’s character-building that started earlier in the season is much appreciated and has hints of the modern style that the show now uses in its revived incarnation. Here, Ace returns to her home of Perivale to reunite with “the old gang”. There’s a kind of sadness to these scenes, of lost youth, good times that have passed, friends that have moved on, and things that will never be the same again. It’s relatable. Then they get abducted by a race of teleporting cheetah-people from a dying planet, and it becomes a bit less relatable.

Hale and Pace make a cameo appearance as shopkeepers, telling that joke about outrunning the lion, while the Doctor stocks up on cat food.

Survival is quite a personal story. It’s not about some universe-ending disaster. Admittedly, the cheetah-people’s world is falling apart, but it’s really just a story about a group of people trying to escape, trying to stay human, the Master using the Doctor as bait, the Doctor trying to bring Ace back from the point of transformation, and Ace coming to terms with what it means to survive, developing a doomed friendship with Karra, and learning what she truly calls “home”.

The cheetah-people do look unfortunately cuddly for what are supposed to be scary hunters.

Nevertheless, the ending does have a whiff of “we need a spectacular finish” to it. The exploding motorcycles are ridiculous (did the production have excess dynamite to use up?), more so that the Doctor survives the blast without a scratch! The final (brief) battle with the Master is like something out of Star Wars, but I did enjoy that. And the Doctor’s closing lines to Ace, about all the wonders of the Universe that are still out there for them to see, are very nicely done, and really hammers home that this is the end. I understand this speech was a late addition once the producers knew it was all over. Although Sylvester McCoy would return to TV as the Doctor a couple more times, this is basically the end of his run, and I will have more to say about him shortly.

The alien planet is well-realised for its time, using digital video effects.

For now, I finish the main bulk of my Doctor Who marathon with a sort of sadness that it’s all over. I never experienced it on its first broadcast, so I can only imagine what it must have been like for the fans still tuning in every week to suddenly realise it was to be no more. Although there are still hints of the cheesy old pantomime / stage drama style, the show’s twenty-sixth season has seen it turn into something vastly improved. Had it continued, I could well imagine a gradual transition into the 2005 series, and I would have traced that change back to here. Alas, it seems the show was not fast enough to adapt, and thus not fit to survive.

“There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea’s asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we’ve got work to do.”

The Trial of a Time Lord (The Ultimate Foe)

The Ultimate Foe brings this trial of a Time Lord to an end, and not in quite the way I had expected. Yes, the Valeyard is trying to frame the Doctor, but I didn’t imagine there would be a conspiracy to cover up evidence that ran all the way to the top of the high council, nor that the Valeyard would be a manifestation of the Doctor’s dark thoughts, from a post-twelfth regeneration future. That fits quite nicely with the upcoming 50th anniversary special – perhaps they’ll mention it?

In a part of the matrix that looks like a sand dune, an image of the Valeyard confronts the Doctor.

The mysteries from the previous stories actually are explained, which is surprising! The valuable data Glitz was after was leaked from the Time Lords’ information matrix, and the planet Earth was pushed away and disguised as Ravolox to cover it up. To help his defence, Glitz and Mel are brought back to corroborate the Doctor’s story, by none other than the Master. It’s quite a reunion they’ve got going on, fitting for a season finale.

Peek-a-boo! The Master reveals he’s been watching the entire time from within the matrix. The supposedly impenetrable, impossible to corrupt, matrix.

Most of the story takes place inside the matrix, where the EvilDoc/Valeyard is hiding, plotting to assassinate the judge and jury with a wibbly-wobbly matrix energy something-or-other. It does get a bit silly, with them waiting around in Popplewick’s office, being exposed to illusions and the Doctor being hypnotised by the Master. It’s not exactly a tidy conclusion, and the appearance of both the Master and the Valeyard as ‘villains’ (and both Glitz and Mel as companions) only clutters things further. Alas, it is a fairly forgettable mini-adventure, and it would seem the Valeyard isn’t defeated anyway, laughing maniacally prior to the credits rolling.

Despite ostensibly teaming up for the greater good, the Master still uses the Doctor as bait.

As this is the final story to feature Colin Baker, I was expecting him to be injured at the end and forced to regenerate, but it never happened. In fact, the whole way through this trial, I had expected a forced regeneration as his sentence (much like at the end of The War Games) – instead, the judge drops all charges because he saves their lives and the Doctor and Mel just leave. Meh, fair enough.

The Valeyard’s deadly plan is foiled when the judge and jury duck.

Regarding Mel, then. Her pantomime performance is a poor replacement even for Peri, but the weirdest thing is how she’s introduced. She’s from this Doctor’s future, so from her perspective they met in the past. But this is the first time the Doctor has met her. Presumably, then, he will have to take her back to her own time, then travel back to an earlier version of Mel who will then meet the Doctor for the first time? Goodness me, that’s messed up. Oh, and the explanation of what “really” happened to Peri is pathetic. Married to King Yrcanos, who she found creepy? C’mon, I’d rather she died! What a lame cop-out.

Another creepy mask reveal. The Valeyard takes some lessons from the Master by disguising himself as Mr. Popplewick.

Well, the trial wasn’t a total waste of time. Thematically, the “ultimate foe” being the Doctor himself is quite cool. I also enjoyed the Doctor’s epic rant in the courtroom about the corruption of long-lived societies, proclaiming the Time Lords to be more evil than Daleks, Sontarans, etcetera. Colin Baker may be a bit one-note in his performance, but when that note is ranting hysterically, he does it with flair. However, I will have more to say on the sixth Doctor shortly.

The Mark of the Rani

The Rani is name of a Time Lord (er, Time Lady?) who has travelled to the 19th century industrial revolution era to steal brain chemicals from the local miners, resulting in the poor humans becoming aggressively violent. So, it’s another historical episode with an alien incursion to deal with… and, do you know what? I thought it was fairly good!

The Master watches as the Rani examines her captive. These two should team up more often.

When the Master turns up on the scene, the dynamic changes for the better. Here we have a (seemingly indestructible) villain stumbling into a scenario without a plan of action, who almost immediately develops one, and it’s totally bonkers (“I shall rule the world by kicking Earth’s industry up a gear while controlling everyone’s mind!!”). He and the Rani work well together as characters, bickering and distrusting one another, leading to some great scenes. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Peri are well-established bickerers themselves, but there are hints of a stronger relationship developing, albeit slowly.

Luke, turned into a tree, helps Peri to not turn into a tree. Yeah, I know, right?

The Doctor’s quite tolerable in this. Since his first appearance, he’s mellowed out loads. He’s still something of an anti-hero at times, socially awkward and big-headed, but he gets some excellent lines now. I laughed when he implied he was a scarecrow.

The Rani’s Tardis looks so cool!

I almost burst out laughing when the Doctor gets himself stuck between his two captors who have both stepped on mines that turn them into trees. It’s such a ridiculous idea but it’s completely confident that you’ll just go along with it. So too with the growing dinosaur embryo thrown in at the end, as the Rani’s Tardis goes spiralling out of the galaxy. Incidentally, for the short amount of time the other Tardis is seen, it’s extremely well-realised. It absolutely looks like a “next generation” Tardis control room. Those spinning loops on the console are really cool. I think the Doctor should consider an upgrade.

So, it’s a bit daft and light-hearted, but it’s good fun. And it’s set “oop north”, which makes a change!

The Five Doctors

Following on from the 20th season is this remarkable anniversary special, originally broadcast to celebrate the show’s 20th year on the air. To replicate the original experience, I would have preferred to have seen the originally broadcast version, but circumstances led me unwittingly to the special edition released much later, with some of the visual and audio effects updated, so I can only comment on this version.

The Doctors meet!

Much like The Three Doctors, the story is little more than an excuse to get the previous incarnations of the Doctor together, plucked out of time and placed inside an elaborate ancient war game. It’s a shame that Tom Baker decided to opt out and that William Hartnell was no longer alive, as this special really ought to be called “The three and a Half Doctors (plus friends)”, but that’s not as catchy. Nevertheless, it’s a delight to see Patrick Troughton (does that man not age?!), and Jon Pertwee back again, while Richard Hurndall takes over as the first Doctor, and some previously unseen footage from Shada is used to explain the fourth Doctor’s absence. Clever!

Trapped within a maze of mirrors, the first Doctor and his granddaughter Susan are reunited. How’s that non-existent pocket of 22nd century post Dalek-invaded Earth been keeping you, Sue?

Despite the absentees, The Five Doctors is a glorious celebration of the show’s history, using every available cast member, reference and villain it can reasonably squeeze into its 100 minute runtime. I genuinely had no idea that a 20-year older Carole Ann Ford would return to play Susan, nor the cameos by Jamie, Zoe, Liz and Yates. And that’s on top of a bright yellow Bessie, Lethbridge-Stewart, The Master, Yetis, Cybermen and a Dalek all running around the battlefield (there’s even time to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!). It’s a smorgasbord of nostalgia, a who’s who of Who, and it’s quite amazing that it all works so well.

Turlough doesn’t have much to do in this story, but Tegan accompanies the first Doctor into the tower, while Susan remains in the Tardis.

Essentially, the story splits and jumps back and forth to follow each Doctor and a companion as they each take a different route up to the tower of Rassilon. This allows them some breathing space (as well as time to reminisce with old friends), but it does make the story a little scattershot, never settling in one place for very long, until a satisfying culmination towards the end. The lack of arbitrarily dramatic cliffhangers is a blessing; this is just one epic feature without cuts.

Sarah Jane is still Sarah Jane, panicked and often hyperventilating. The third Doctor is still the third Doctor, determined and confident. I swear he cops a feel of her boob at one point.

The fifth Doctor is the anchoring point, but he spends much of the story on Gallifrey, outside of the Death Zone, where he uncovers the President’s secret plans for immortality. Yes, sadly, there is corruption on Gallifrey yet again. This is becoming an embarrassing cliché and I can’t blame the Doctor for not wanting to stick around as President. He does get a brief moment to meet his past selves, which is nicely done. You can get a good sense of how the different versions of the Doctor vary. Davison is definitely the least eccentric of the bunch, a normal and level-headed type by comparison. Pertwee and Troughton play their roles much as they ever did, despite the years in between, and Richard Hurndall does a reasonable job of approximating some of Hartnell’s performance, although it would have been more authentic if he’d fluffed his lines a few times and ended all his sentences with “hmm?”.

Lord President Borusa gets more than he bargained for when Rassilon grants him immortality.

The Five Doctors is hardly a masterpiece of imagination, then, but it’s nevertheless well made and a lovely tribute to the history of the show. The sort of silly-but-fun “why the hell not” exercise I can easily get behind. As it’s a one-off special, the budget would appear to have allowed for better production and visuals. One scene in particular is genuinely great, as a robot ninja busts up a legion of cybermen, teleporting around and lobbing arrows at them, causing them to explode and fall to pieces, arms and heads everywhere. Earlier, a rogue Dalek shoots itself in a hall of mirrors and within its exploded remains is its rarely-sighted grotesque embryo. Marvelous!

Total carnage. I bet Hideo Kojima was a fan.

Sometimes logic has to fly out of the window, though. For instance, the second Doctor tricks the illusion of Jamie and Zoe by recalling that they shouldn’t know who he is, since their memories were wiped when they were returned to their time zones. But by the same reasoning, how would the Doctor have remembered that, as it happened almost immediately prior to his regeneration and exile on Earth. He would have had to have been pulled from the past moments before this, but there’s no indication this is the case when he turns up to visit the Brigadier. Similarly, why exactly is K-9 with Sarah Jane? Mk.I was left on Gallifrey with Leela and Mk.II was left with Romana (in a black-and-white photograph). I suppose it doesn’t matter, really; some questions are best left unanswered for the sake of a bit of fun, and this was a lot of fun. Job done.

The King’s Demons

Every time the Master turns up now, I’m caught completely off-guard, though it’s good to know 1980s TV makeup, a wig and a bad French accent are all it takes to pull off a disguise. This time, he’s in 13th Century England with a chameleonic robot disguised as King John, attempting to stop the signing of the Magna Carta, which would obviously be very bad for the future of civilisation. By astonishing luck, the Doctor’s Tardis arrives in time to stop him. Phew!

The Doctor and the Master have a sword fight… not for the first time.

There’s not much more to say about this one. It’s kind of fun to see period characters reacting to futuristic incursions as though they’re magical, and the writing is more olde worlde style than they usually bother with, which is something. With only two parts, it’s a shorter story than most, and quite a breezy way to wrap up the season. With its emphasis on history, it’s almost a throwback to the old Hartnell historical serials. Quite fitting that the Doctor should be travelling with an alien dressed as a schoolboy, as this incarnation is basically like a teacher on a field trip.

Tegan is distrustful of the Tardis’s new recruit. Again.

Shockingly enough, the robot, Kamelion, is not a man in a shiny suit. It’s an actual animatronic, and probably the most remarkable part of this otherwise forgettable story. Freed from the Master’s psychic influence, he’s now tagging along with the Tardis crew. I guess the producers wanted to get their money’s worth out of it.

Time-Flight

The Tardis finally lands at Heathrow airport, but it’s entirely by accident, as a timewarp from millions of years in the past has snagged a passing concorde, causing it to vanish. It isn’t long before the Doctor is involved in solving the mystery (with a nice reference to UNIT confirming his credentials), with a second concorde flight plotted along the same course sending them all back through time.

A group illusion makes our heroes think they haven’t left Heathrow airport. In fact, they are 140 million years in the past. And standing in front of a blue screen.

Intriguing as this setup is (and lovely as it is to see concorde in flight!), the plot takes a turn into the convoluted. Admittedly, I liked that they kept the identity of the Master a secret – Kalid is a strange and unusual villain, and his ‘death’ brilliantly grotesque – but for a lot of this story, I was was just left thinking… “what?”. Essentially, the Master is after another Great Power, needing to fix his Tardis and escape the past, but the details go by in a blur.

A master of pointless disguises, The Master as ‘Kalid’.

An ancient race fleeing their world, crashing on Earth and forming an amalgamous consciousness, is a big idea that needs a bit more time to settle in. But we don’t get that much time to dwell on it, because there’s also psychic hallucinations, creatures made from psychokinetic soapsuds, a dead man that comes back to life, a Tardis in a plane, a plane in a Tardis, and a power struggle between the Doctor and Master involving various bits of equipment that block this, inhibit that, redirect this, counteract that. Frankly, it’s a mess. They might as well have just said “a wizard did it”, stuff the dramatic tension.

Although many of the visual effects are ambitious, the concorde take-off sequence is decidely shonky. Bluergh.

Peter Davison has to carry all of this burden, and to his credit, he does so very entertainingly, even while the plot is whooshing past at the speed of light. The supporting cast of concorde crew and passengers are unfortunately quite poor. Even Tegan, who should be in her element here, is underwritten and blandly performed. I wasn’t surprised to see her left behind at the end, but if this is her actual departure, it’s incredibly low-key! Even that brat Adric can’t stay away for long, appearing briefly as a hallucination (along with some previous monsters). It all comes down to the Master and Doctor facing off, and this forms the only really solid bit of drama in the story. What a shame. There could have been something good here, but it didn’t work for me.

Castrovalva

In the grand scheme of things, regenerations do not occur very often in Doctor Who, and new performances should be savoured and enjoyed while they last. In many respects, the writers seemed to agree here, as Castrovalva explores the nature of regeneration more than any previous story. This isn’t even really a story ABOUT anything else. It is just about the Doctor trying to find a place to recover (the Tardis’s “Zero Room”, and later the peaceful city of Castrovalva), and the Master using all the tricks at his disposal to finish him off while he’s at his weakest.

A confused Doctor roams the Tardis, looking for the Zero Room. That scarf didn’t suit him anyway.

So, Peter Davison. He has some big shoes to fill. On the face of it, he seems perfectly pleasant. A clean cut nice guy, but lacking that dark undercurrent that Baker had. To be fair, it’s really too early to pass any sort of judgement. I will say that, early on, he does a fantastic job of impersonating Patrick Troughton while, in a confused state, he relives his earlier years. He even calls his companions Jamie and Victoria at one point, a lovely touch. But he is quick to attain a sense of identity, casting aside the recorder, unravelling his scarf, and picking up some new clothes and a cricket bat. As he says, he’s not feeling himself anymore, he’s feeling whoever he is now, and it’s “absolutely splendid”.

Do not trust this man. Not because he’s actually the Master, but because he appears to be wearing two hats.

With the Doctor out of action for much of the story, it falls to the companions to push the plot along. Unfortunately, these characters are weak and there hasn’t been enough time to establish them yet, so it doesn’t work out so well. Tegan displays a protectiveness over the Doctor that betrays the fact that she’s only known him for a day. Not to mention her Aunt was recently killed by the Master and she doesn’t even bring it up again. As for Adric, getting captured by the Master was probably for the best, but how exactly did that happen from within the Tardis?

Adric caught in the Master’s web. Like a fly caught in a… web.

The entropy theme has been ditched completely (recursion seems to be the new thing now!) and events just seem to conveniently “happen” as the plot demands, rather than naturally forming. The Master’s plan just comes out of nowhere and stretches believability. Still, he gets what was coming to him. Some of the concepts are great, like the recursive structure of the city and the perception filter on its inhabitants. The Tardis being sent backwards to “event one” and having to eject a portion of its own mass is also a cool concept. And, ultimately, I did enjoy the new Doctor struggling to find his feet and come to terms with his new identity.

Castrovalva, as designed by M. C. Escher.

On the whole, there’s some good stuff here, but I did find it a bit underwhelming. It’s early days, and there’s a lot of potential ahead. I only hope I don’t spend the next three seasons thinking “well, he’s good, but he’s no Tom Baker”.