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Classic Doctor Who, Season 22 Review
I knew going into it that the Sixth Doctor era of the show was very polarizing for a lot of people, but I didn't really know why. Part of this is that I wanted to avoid *spoilers* (as much as one can be spoiled for Classic Who anyway) but also because I never really saw any kind of widely expressed consensus, only that the Big Finish Audios really allowed Colin Baker to flourish in the role. So coming off of last season's The Twin Dilemma, I was expecting something along the lines of the sillier antics of the Williams era. Instead, I got the exact opposite. If I had to use one word to describe this season, it would probably be "bleak". This doesn't mean I hated it though - there are definite bright spots that I would be more than happy to revisit - but overall this sudden dark tone with the campy production setup honestly reminds me of some of the more fatalistic tendencies of the current Thirteenth Doctor era. And while I do think the season managed to figure itself out by the end, I also understand why it put the show in real danger of cancellation.
I will make a bold declaration though: Just going off of the stories I've seen, Colin Baker is an excellent Doctor. While he's still loud and prone to fits of anger, by the end of this season his demeanor and relationship with Peri is markedly different than it was when he debuted, and this transformation felt well structured and very much earned. I'm honestly kind of bummed he only has one more season in the role, even if its in an arc that looms large in the history of the show. It only makes me more steadfast in my decision to listen to the audio adaptions of the season 23 that never was after this.
Like the previous twenty-one seasons, the serials are available to watch via streaming on Britbox. This season had six stories, and was... interesting to rank because there were a couple of stories where I couldn't really nail down whether I actually liked them or not.
Characters
Colin Baker as The Sixth Doctor - As I already touched on above, the portrayal of this Doctor takes the approach of someone going through a personal transformation. At the beginning of the season, the Doctor would snap at Peri over any perceived slight, but by the end their relationship is much warmer and you actually understand why these two would continue to travel together and consider each other friends. The change in his overall demeanor is also subtle, but its definitely there. In the later stories he's a lot more patient (and he somehow didn't rip Herbert's head off in that one sequence in Timelash) and seems more willing to outwardly offer help rather than feel obligated to help. Despite all this development, this Doctor still very markedly different and unique from his predecessors (something the Fifth Doctor in particular seemed to struggle with). Baker plays the role confidently from the beginning, and it never feels like he's trying to find his footing with his characterization.
Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown - Considering what their relationship was like in The Twin Dilemma, I was really curious to see how Peri would fare going forward. After all, her goodwill from traveling with the Fifth Doctor could only believably extend so far, even if she does have "a caring nature". This season very much assuaged those fears, since by the halfway point the Doctor seemed to finally be meeting her halfway. That said, it feels like the show is starting to rely on her to be a "damsel in distress" archetype that hasn't really been used on the show in over a decade, which feels like a disservice both to the character and the overall progress the show has made in writing women. That, combined with the show's seeming nervousness to shut down any characters expressing sexist views, is probably the thing that left the worst taste in my mouth this season. On an unrelated noted, I'm not sure I would qualify Peri's accent as "American" but it sure as hell isn't "British". Bryant is consistent enough in her delivery though that it's not something I really notice anymore unless the show brings attention to it.
Anthony Ainley as The Master - I feel like it'd be a cardinal sin to call any part of Ainley's performance "going through the motions", but that's kind of what his sole appearance this season felt like. In all fairness, he wasn't helped at all by the script, which didn't seem particularly interested in following up his "death" the previous season in any meaningful way, or having his presence in this story be more than "oh the Master is in this one." It was nice having him have banter with a character of his stature aside from the Doctor, though I also didn't get much of a sense of what his relationship with the Sixth Doctor is like.
Kate O'Mara as The Rani - The Rani is a character I've heard about for years, but at the same time she's someone I knew very little about aside from being another antagonistic Time Lord. So I was a bit disappointed at how much of this story she was overshadowed by The Master. In her scenes without him, as well as the one where The Doctor and Peri explore her TARDIS, we get a good sense of what an interesting character she is when given the chance to take center stage without having to share it with someone else. I know she only makes one more canon appearance on the show, and I'm hoping the show allows her that focus next time.
Patrick Troughton as The Second Doctor - I'm not really sure why the Second Doctor made his return, since it wasn't really something necessitated by the story, but I'm really glad he did. Troughton is as game in the role as ever, and he's just present enough in the story without overshadowing Baker. It also allowed him to do something new with the character since he wasn't the one with the primary "Doctor" duties. A strange story for his final appearance on the show, but honestly that's probably the perfect bookend.
Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon - I have mixed feelings about Jamie's appearance this season. On one hand, it was nice seeing him again, and Hines had good chemistry with Baker and Bryant, which is what helped make The Two Doctors as compelling as it was. On the other hand, the continuity issues it brings up are very distracting, especially in the first episode, and its never really addressed in any meaningful way. I did find it funny though, that in this season known for its excessive violence, Jamie finally got the chance to stab a guy onscreen.
While I know her appearance this season isn't technically "canon", I have to commend Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka for gamely jumping back into the role and giving us a realistic depiction of what the character might be like now in the aftermath of Resurrection of the Daleks. Terry Malloy as Davros and Maurice Colbourne as Lytton were also serviceable in their returns, but made less of an impression that I'd expected them to. I was, however, extremely impressed by the performance of Nabil Shaban as Sil, so I'm not surprised that they brought him back later.
The Serials
I've ranked the serials based off my own personal preference which is only tangentially related to how good they are on a critical level.
6) Serial 5, Episodes 10-11 - Timelash
I honestly walked away from this story having no idea whether I actually liked it or not. The bizarre campiness of it was a nice departure from a streak of otherwise depressing stories this season, so perhaps that was what left me confused. Because with the distance of a couple of days its very obvious just how bad this story is. The least of my complaints is that the characterization (and appearance) of H.G. Wells, known throughout the story as Herbert, doesn't even remotely resemble what the man was actually like. The fact that he was introduced performing a seance resulted in me misremembering him as Harry Houdini or someone else. They would have been better off just having him be some guy who was really keen on having a threesome with this couple from an alien world. To the actor's credit though, at least he seemed committed to the role.
In my head I kept comparing this story to The Horns of Nimon, which isn't really fair at all. That story is also a mess but works because everyone involved is committed to it. Here, the actors are all over-the-top, but not quite enough, or completely lifeless. I can't recall another performance on the show that was as wooden as Jeananne Crowley's as Vena. Any given time she's onscreen where she doesn't have lines (and sometimes even when she does) she has this blank, emotionless look on her face that completely sucks the air out of moments that are supposed to be exciting or tense. A moment that really sticks out in my mind is when the Doctor urges everyone to take cover, and all of the other actors in this scene hurriedly dive behind part of the set - except for Crowley who just walks over, face blank, so slowly that Baker has to physically grab her and pull her to her mark.
I also wasn't impressed by the whole "this is a sequel to a Third Doctor story" when that story doesn't even exist (not even as a Big Finish audio as far as I'm aware). When The Face of Evil did it, the backstory was very simple and it served a very specific purpose. Here, the whole narrative is reliant on referencing events that we never saw happen. The villain is actually the scientist the Doctor turned in for science crimes last time? Great twist except we had no idea any of that happened or that that character even existed. The fact that this guy also went through all the trouble of using a body double to rule as a dictator for decades and throw people into a time vortex just to... commit genocide and replace the planet's population with mutant lizard people? Also he's gonna make Peri his wife? The furries have finally gone too far.
I could go on endlessly about the issues I had with this story, but at the end of the day, this bottom ranking boils down to one question. Do I want to watch this again? There have been other stories that I didn't connect with for production reasons (Underworld), over-complicated scripting (Warriors' Gate), and ones I did that had both (The Horns of Nimon) and I would be more than happy to revisit and reappraise all of those. I don't think I ever want to watch Timelash again.
5) Serial 1, Episodes 1-2 - Attack of the Cybermen
I think my major complaint about this story is not the one most people had with it - namely that it required a working knowledge of the Cybermen's backstory, and in particular The Tenth Planet. I didn't have this problem because I could pause the episode and look up the information online, and the serial does pay lipservice to explaining it by having Peri be perpetually confused as well. And I think this is the lasting impression this leaves for a lot of people, but I walked away mostly unsatisfied with how the whole thing with Lytton played out. I like the arc in theory, where its revealed that maybe Lytton should have been given the benefit of the doubt and had some noble intentions. But this is undercut by everything he did in last season's Resurrection of the Daleks and even parts of this story. This serial never really does the legwork of addressing this, so Lytton's heroic sacrifice at the end and the Doctor admitting he may have misjudged him all feels a bit too muddled.
As I was drafting this review, I nearly ranked this one last, before I remembered how much I actually did like the first half of this story. Everything set in London is very compelling and easy to follow, even if we don't know what Lytton's plans are yet. I also did appreciate that, as clumsy as it was, they tried to give the Cybermen a stronger underlying motivation than they've had in many of their previous appearances.
4) Serial 2, Episodes 3-4 - Vengeance on Varos
I should start out by saying that this is the beginning of the "I liked this story" part of the list, because it has one of the same problems that Attack of the Cybermen does in that it kind of spins out in its second half. The first half of it though is really solid, doing an effective job from the getgo of introducing the key players on Varos and what the situation there is like. I also appreciated the execution of Sil, both from a performance and a technical effects standpoint. Within the narrative, the idea of a corporate-esque takeover of this civilization felt very timely, and I thought the Governor in particular was a very compelling character. I also liked that the villains were trying to keep the Doctor from sharing information about Zeiton-7, rather than unlocking some secret about time travel. The hallucinations were also very effective, and as dark as it was I actually really liked the cliffhanger ending of the first part with the Doctor lying "dead" from dehydration.
I think these elements were more than enough, and its when the story begins to pile more gimmicks and twists on top of this that it begins to fall apart. When Sil tries to turn Peri and Areta into cat-like creatures for some reason it just came across so weird that it undercut a lot of the tension the story had effectively built up, and the continued additions of stuff like the cannibals and living plants just exacerbates this. I also can't help but feel the time spent by these additional "twists" could have been used to better justify the framing device of the two citizens of Varos watching these events unfold on live broadcast. At the end, they're left to wonder what the future holds for them now that they're planet has been freed from tyranny, but it all feels too disconnected from the rest of the story.
3) Serial 3, Episodes 5-6 - The Mark of the Rani
This story feels overstuffed, but it manages to tie everything together and make it all feel relevant in a way other stories this season have struggled to do, hence why it's so high on this list. A big reason it earns a lot of points from me is that it's a pseudo-historical, and involves a historical figure for the first time in what feels like ages. I actually wasn't familiar at all with George Stephenson, but this story was very accessible since it wasn't overly reliant on that, and his appearance at the beginning of the second half saving the Doctor's life is one of the high points of this story. Really, all the action set pieces in this are great, especially since it's often not just wanton murder like it is in other stories this season. Strapping the Doctor to a cart and then sending it careening down railroad tracks, and having him dangle precariously over a pit, are not things I expected to happen but they were very entertaining.
As stated above, it really felt like the Rani was battling for screen time with the Master the entire story, and not in a good way. I was very excited to learn more about her, and the stuff they did show was very interesting, but Ainley pulls focus just by his presence, which I don't think the story does a good job justifying. They didn't have to make this an extended follow-up to his apparent death in Planet of Fire, but the fact that they gloss over it entirely makes it feel like they just wanted him in this story for the sake of it, rather that doing anything to progress his character or enrich the story. The banter between him and O'Mara is fun at first but quickly becomes old hat since neither characters trusts the other. For this being the sole story where all three Time Lords appear onscreen together, I was hoping for more.
2) Serial 6, Episodes 12-13 - Revelation of the Daleks
This story really stands out in the pool of Dalek stories because the Daleks actually aren't that present in it except for at the end. If anything, it'd be more accurate to call this a Davros story, since it largely deals with his scheming away from the main Dalek contingent after the events of Resurrection of the Daleks. I think this is a real strength of the story, as by now the Dalek stories have become very repetitive, and I think the story ending with the same kind of "Daleks kill everyone" ending that Resurrection had only undermines it. It worked in the previous serial because it added to the deliberate point the story was making. Here, death feels more like a convenient way to write out characters when they've outlived their usefulness to the plot. The prime example of this Tasambeker, who is immediately killed by the Daleks once she's murdered Jobel, something which Davros had been grooming her to do the entire story. I'd thought it was because he was trying to bring her fully onboard as his subordinate, but I guess it was just for fun? It was especially disappointing because I actually found all the characters in this story very distinct and memorable, which is never the case when it comes to Dalek stories. I want to give a special shoutout to the assassin Orcini, a character so cool I thought there was no way the story would kill him off and squander the opportunity to use him again later down the road, but alas.
Turning humans into Daleks is something New Who has touched on before, so it was nice to see the true origins of that idea here, and I thought the execution of this aspect of the story was great. The setting was really unique and perfect for it, and the inclusion of a disc jockey is such a bizarre element that somehow just works and gives me a greater affection for this story. Its the kind of unusual set design and character types for a Dalek story that really helps this one stand out. Even previous stories that deviated from format still tended to look like a standard forest, quarry, or metal hallway set. Here, the Doctor and Peri walk around in the snow in really visually striking blue outfits, and then through a garden of brilliant blue flowers. It went a long way in adding levity to a story that on it's surface is rather bleak.
This story is also unusual in that in deliberately leaves the story with Davros and the Daleks that come to collect him open-ended. I know there's one more Dalek story in the Seventh Doctor era, so I'm excited to see where this all goes.
1) Serial 4, Episodes 7-9 - The Two Doctors
They also brought with them a sense of fun, and even though this story dealt with some pretty dark topics it never felt bleak the way a lot of other stories this season did. The sole exception to this being Oscar's murder, which felt tonally disconnected from everything else that was happening and felt unnecessary. That says a lot, considering there was a character that was intent on eating human flesh the whole story in a way that was just campy enough that it wasn't disgusting. Each of the humanoid villains felt distinct with clear motivations and internal conflicts, and even though the Sontarans were much flatter they were still used effectively within the story.
There wasn't really any reason this story needed to be shot in Spain, but I'm so glad they did because it looked great and it made all the set pieces and chase scenes so much more fun. The plains are a setting that looks so strikingly different from the quarries Doctor Who often shoots in, so it even helped elevate the smaller transitional scenes. This also helped contribute to the aforementioned "lighter" feeling of this story, and even the more darkly lit interior sets had a more interesting sensibility. I'm bummed that this is the last location story for the Classic era, as it's something I didn't expect going in and its been a real treat every time they've done it.
Supplemental Content
1) Jim'll Fix It, 1 Short - "A Fix with Sontarans"
The original run of the show does not have much in the way of supplemental content the way the revival series does, so I was interested to see what this was gonna be like. The only thing I really knew about it content-wise was that it... uh... tied into another show, and those elements were definitely the weakest parts of this. I get that it's designed to make a kid's wish of being in Doctor Who true, but it's not like the kids are terminally ill so I'm not afraid to say that young Gareth has the stage presence of drying wallpaper, and everything that happens from the point where he shows up to the end where the skit ends and the creepy old man walks on and gives the kid a metal while rubbing everyone's shoulders is not engaging whatsoever. On top of that, it really left a bad taste in my mouth that they uplifted the kid by putting down "girls" and generally bad-mouthing Tegan. It's definitely a relic of a time I thought the show was trying to leave behind. (I haven't really mentioned the elephant in the room because, well, what else is there to say at this point.)
The part that does work for me, inexplicably, is the beginning when Tegan shows up in the Tardis, meeting the Sixth Doctor in a scenario set after her parting the previous season. While the canonocity of this is shaky, it's still an interesting peak into what their relationship would've been like, and having those two strong, abrasive personalities clash for just a few minutes made this entire special more than worth it. Fielding is as electric as ever in the role, and I was surprised to see how much thought was given into how she would react to the Doctor in a post-Resurrection story.
Final Thoughts
On one hand, I really understand why this season is the one that really began to "derail" the show in the 80s, but I also think that by the end they were really settling into a better understanding of these characters and I would've liked to see that progress further with another season that had some more varied material. It really makes me secure in my decision to dive into the adaptions of the scrapped season 23 material, as I feel like this is a Doctor that deserves more of a fair shake than the show has given him so far. That said, The Trial of a Time Lord is one of the things I've been most looking forward to in my entire journey with this show, and I leave this season extremely optimistic for the stories I have yet to see.
With the end of this season comes the end of the length each one has been since season 7, and I honestly can't believe how little of the show I have left to get through. When I started, my arbitrary goal was to finish all of Classic Who by the time I turned 30, and seeing as that happens in June I feel like that's a very realistic goal, even with the extra material I'm adding in. This season may have been dreary, but the future is bright.
I will make a bold declaration though: Just going off of the stories I've seen, Colin Baker is an excellent Doctor. While he's still loud and prone to fits of anger, by the end of this season his demeanor and relationship with Peri is markedly different than it was when he debuted, and this transformation felt well structured and very much earned. I'm honestly kind of bummed he only has one more season in the role, even if its in an arc that looms large in the history of the show. It only makes me more steadfast in my decision to listen to the audio adaptions of the season 23 that never was after this.
Like the previous twenty-one seasons, the serials are available to watch via streaming on Britbox. This season had six stories, and was... interesting to rank because there were a couple of stories where I couldn't really nail down whether I actually liked them or not.
Characters
Colin Baker as The Sixth Doctor - As I already touched on above, the portrayal of this Doctor takes the approach of someone going through a personal transformation. At the beginning of the season, the Doctor would snap at Peri over any perceived slight, but by the end their relationship is much warmer and you actually understand why these two would continue to travel together and consider each other friends. The change in his overall demeanor is also subtle, but its definitely there. In the later stories he's a lot more patient (and he somehow didn't rip Herbert's head off in that one sequence in Timelash) and seems more willing to outwardly offer help rather than feel obligated to help. Despite all this development, this Doctor still very markedly different and unique from his predecessors (something the Fifth Doctor in particular seemed to struggle with). Baker plays the role confidently from the beginning, and it never feels like he's trying to find his footing with his characterization.
Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown - Considering what their relationship was like in The Twin Dilemma, I was really curious to see how Peri would fare going forward. After all, her goodwill from traveling with the Fifth Doctor could only believably extend so far, even if she does have "a caring nature". This season very much assuaged those fears, since by the halfway point the Doctor seemed to finally be meeting her halfway. That said, it feels like the show is starting to rely on her to be a "damsel in distress" archetype that hasn't really been used on the show in over a decade, which feels like a disservice both to the character and the overall progress the show has made in writing women. That, combined with the show's seeming nervousness to shut down any characters expressing sexist views, is probably the thing that left the worst taste in my mouth this season. On an unrelated noted, I'm not sure I would qualify Peri's accent as "American" but it sure as hell isn't "British". Bryant is consistent enough in her delivery though that it's not something I really notice anymore unless the show brings attention to it.
Anthony Ainley as The Master - I feel like it'd be a cardinal sin to call any part of Ainley's performance "going through the motions", but that's kind of what his sole appearance this season felt like. In all fairness, he wasn't helped at all by the script, which didn't seem particularly interested in following up his "death" the previous season in any meaningful way, or having his presence in this story be more than "oh the Master is in this one." It was nice having him have banter with a character of his stature aside from the Doctor, though I also didn't get much of a sense of what his relationship with the Sixth Doctor is like.
Kate O'Mara as The Rani - The Rani is a character I've heard about for years, but at the same time she's someone I knew very little about aside from being another antagonistic Time Lord. So I was a bit disappointed at how much of this story she was overshadowed by The Master. In her scenes without him, as well as the one where The Doctor and Peri explore her TARDIS, we get a good sense of what an interesting character she is when given the chance to take center stage without having to share it with someone else. I know she only makes one more canon appearance on the show, and I'm hoping the show allows her that focus next time.
Patrick Troughton as The Second Doctor - I'm not really sure why the Second Doctor made his return, since it wasn't really something necessitated by the story, but I'm really glad he did. Troughton is as game in the role as ever, and he's just present enough in the story without overshadowing Baker. It also allowed him to do something new with the character since he wasn't the one with the primary "Doctor" duties. A strange story for his final appearance on the show, but honestly that's probably the perfect bookend.
Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon - I have mixed feelings about Jamie's appearance this season. On one hand, it was nice seeing him again, and Hines had good chemistry with Baker and Bryant, which is what helped make The Two Doctors as compelling as it was. On the other hand, the continuity issues it brings up are very distracting, especially in the first episode, and its never really addressed in any meaningful way. I did find it funny though, that in this season known for its excessive violence, Jamie finally got the chance to stab a guy onscreen.
While I know her appearance this season isn't technically "canon", I have to commend Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka for gamely jumping back into the role and giving us a realistic depiction of what the character might be like now in the aftermath of Resurrection of the Daleks. Terry Malloy as Davros and Maurice Colbourne as Lytton were also serviceable in their returns, but made less of an impression that I'd expected them to. I was, however, extremely impressed by the performance of Nabil Shaban as Sil, so I'm not surprised that they brought him back later.
The Serials
I've ranked the serials based off my own personal preference which is only tangentially related to how good they are on a critical level.
6) Serial 5, Episodes 10-11 - Timelash
Timelash is the sequel to a non-existent Third Doctor story and gives you barely enough information to follow what's happening. Guest actors are either great or completely wooden, and it feels like its been padded to fill the runtime. The plot itself is also... very weird. (x)
I honestly walked away from this story having no idea whether I actually liked it or not. The bizarre campiness of it was a nice departure from a streak of otherwise depressing stories this season, so perhaps that was what left me confused. Because with the distance of a couple of days its very obvious just how bad this story is. The least of my complaints is that the characterization (and appearance) of H.G. Wells, known throughout the story as Herbert, doesn't even remotely resemble what the man was actually like. The fact that he was introduced performing a seance resulted in me misremembering him as Harry Houdini or someone else. They would have been better off just having him be some guy who was really keen on having a threesome with this couple from an alien world. To the actor's credit though, at least he seemed committed to the role.
In my head I kept comparing this story to The Horns of Nimon, which isn't really fair at all. That story is also a mess but works because everyone involved is committed to it. Here, the actors are all over-the-top, but not quite enough, or completely lifeless. I can't recall another performance on the show that was as wooden as Jeananne Crowley's as Vena. Any given time she's onscreen where she doesn't have lines (and sometimes even when she does) she has this blank, emotionless look on her face that completely sucks the air out of moments that are supposed to be exciting or tense. A moment that really sticks out in my mind is when the Doctor urges everyone to take cover, and all of the other actors in this scene hurriedly dive behind part of the set - except for Crowley who just walks over, face blank, so slowly that Baker has to physically grab her and pull her to her mark.
I also wasn't impressed by the whole "this is a sequel to a Third Doctor story" when that story doesn't even exist (not even as a Big Finish audio as far as I'm aware). When The Face of Evil did it, the backstory was very simple and it served a very specific purpose. Here, the whole narrative is reliant on referencing events that we never saw happen. The villain is actually the scientist the Doctor turned in for science crimes last time? Great twist except we had no idea any of that happened or that that character even existed. The fact that this guy also went through all the trouble of using a body double to rule as a dictator for decades and throw people into a time vortex just to... commit genocide and replace the planet's population with mutant lizard people? Also he's gonna make Peri his wife? The furries have finally gone too far.
I could go on endlessly about the issues I had with this story, but at the end of the day, this bottom ranking boils down to one question. Do I want to watch this again? There have been other stories that I didn't connect with for production reasons (Underworld), over-complicated scripting (Warriors' Gate), and ones I did that had both (The Horns of Nimon) and I would be more than happy to revisit and reappraise all of those. I don't think I ever want to watch Timelash again.
5) Serial 1, Episodes 1-2 - Attack of the Cybermen
Attack of the Cybermen follows up on several plot threads from the run of the show and manages to utilize them in a very creative way. However, it often felt too bogged down by lore, some characters felt like filler, and the arc with Lytton's character felt too rushed. (x)
I think my major complaint about this story is not the one most people had with it - namely that it required a working knowledge of the Cybermen's backstory, and in particular The Tenth Planet. I didn't have this problem because I could pause the episode and look up the information online, and the serial does pay lipservice to explaining it by having Peri be perpetually confused as well. And I think this is the lasting impression this leaves for a lot of people, but I walked away mostly unsatisfied with how the whole thing with Lytton played out. I like the arc in theory, where its revealed that maybe Lytton should have been given the benefit of the doubt and had some noble intentions. But this is undercut by everything he did in last season's Resurrection of the Daleks and even parts of this story. This serial never really does the legwork of addressing this, so Lytton's heroic sacrifice at the end and the Doctor admitting he may have misjudged him all feels a bit too muddled.
As I was drafting this review, I nearly ranked this one last, before I remembered how much I actually did like the first half of this story. Everything set in London is very compelling and easy to follow, even if we don't know what Lytton's plans are yet. I also did appreciate that, as clumsy as it was, they tried to give the Cybermen a stronger underlying motivation than they've had in many of their previous appearances.
4) Serial 2, Episodes 3-4 - Vengeance on Varos
Vengeance on Varos is a story that has a very strong setup and a lot of individual parts that never seem to quite gel together as well as they should. The first half has a great cliffhanger, but the second part spins its wheels and introduces a ton of bizarre twists and settings. (x)
I should start out by saying that this is the beginning of the "I liked this story" part of the list, because it has one of the same problems that Attack of the Cybermen does in that it kind of spins out in its second half. The first half of it though is really solid, doing an effective job from the getgo of introducing the key players on Varos and what the situation there is like. I also appreciated the execution of Sil, both from a performance and a technical effects standpoint. Within the narrative, the idea of a corporate-esque takeover of this civilization felt very timely, and I thought the Governor in particular was a very compelling character. I also liked that the villains were trying to keep the Doctor from sharing information about Zeiton-7, rather than unlocking some secret about time travel. The hallucinations were also very effective, and as dark as it was I actually really liked the cliffhanger ending of the first part with the Doctor lying "dead" from dehydration.
I think these elements were more than enough, and its when the story begins to pile more gimmicks and twists on top of this that it begins to fall apart. When Sil tries to turn Peri and Areta into cat-like creatures for some reason it just came across so weird that it undercut a lot of the tension the story had effectively built up, and the continued additions of stuff like the cannibals and living plants just exacerbates this. I also can't help but feel the time spent by these additional "twists" could have been used to better justify the framing device of the two citizens of Varos watching these events unfold on live broadcast. At the end, they're left to wonder what the future holds for them now that they're planet has been freed from tyranny, but it all feels too disconnected from the rest of the story.
3) Serial 3, Episodes 5-6 - The Mark of the Rani
The Mark of the Rani starts off with too many plot threads, but is able to dovetail them all into a cohesive story. The Rani is overshadowed in her debut by The Master, whose return feels anticlimactic. The action set-pieces in this are excellent though. (x)
This story feels overstuffed, but it manages to tie everything together and make it all feel relevant in a way other stories this season have struggled to do, hence why it's so high on this list. A big reason it earns a lot of points from me is that it's a pseudo-historical, and involves a historical figure for the first time in what feels like ages. I actually wasn't familiar at all with George Stephenson, but this story was very accessible since it wasn't overly reliant on that, and his appearance at the beginning of the second half saving the Doctor's life is one of the high points of this story. Really, all the action set pieces in this are great, especially since it's often not just wanton murder like it is in other stories this season. Strapping the Doctor to a cart and then sending it careening down railroad tracks, and having him dangle precariously over a pit, are not things I expected to happen but they were very entertaining.
As stated above, it really felt like the Rani was battling for screen time with the Master the entire story, and not in a good way. I was very excited to learn more about her, and the stuff they did show was very interesting, but Ainley pulls focus just by his presence, which I don't think the story does a good job justifying. They didn't have to make this an extended follow-up to his apparent death in Planet of Fire, but the fact that they gloss over it entirely makes it feel like they just wanted him in this story for the sake of it, rather that doing anything to progress his character or enrich the story. The banter between him and O'Mara is fun at first but quickly becomes old hat since neither characters trusts the other. For this being the sole story where all three Time Lords appear onscreen together, I was hoping for more.
2) Serial 6, Episodes 12-13 - Revelation of the Daleks
Revelation of the Daleks is more visually interesting than a lot of the previous Dalek serials, and the guest characters feel distinct and memorable which makes it have an impact when they are killed. That said, the story has a tendency to discard subplots very abruptly. (x)
This story really stands out in the pool of Dalek stories because the Daleks actually aren't that present in it except for at the end. If anything, it'd be more accurate to call this a Davros story, since it largely deals with his scheming away from the main Dalek contingent after the events of Resurrection of the Daleks. I think this is a real strength of the story, as by now the Dalek stories have become very repetitive, and I think the story ending with the same kind of "Daleks kill everyone" ending that Resurrection had only undermines it. It worked in the previous serial because it added to the deliberate point the story was making. Here, death feels more like a convenient way to write out characters when they've outlived their usefulness to the plot. The prime example of this Tasambeker, who is immediately killed by the Daleks once she's murdered Jobel, something which Davros had been grooming her to do the entire story. I'd thought it was because he was trying to bring her fully onboard as his subordinate, but I guess it was just for fun? It was especially disappointing because I actually found all the characters in this story very distinct and memorable, which is never the case when it comes to Dalek stories. I want to give a special shoutout to the assassin Orcini, a character so cool I thought there was no way the story would kill him off and squander the opportunity to use him again later down the road, but alas.
Turning humans into Daleks is something New Who has touched on before, so it was nice to see the true origins of that idea here, and I thought the execution of this aspect of the story was great. The setting was really unique and perfect for it, and the inclusion of a disc jockey is such a bizarre element that somehow just works and gives me a greater affection for this story. Its the kind of unusual set design and character types for a Dalek story that really helps this one stand out. Even previous stories that deviated from format still tended to look like a standard forest, quarry, or metal hallway set. Here, the Doctor and Peri walk around in the snow in really visually striking blue outfits, and then through a garden of brilliant blue flowers. It went a long way in adding levity to a story that on it's surface is rather bleak.
This story is also unusual in that in deliberately leaves the story with Davros and the Daleks that come to collect him open-ended. I know there's one more Dalek story in the Seventh Doctor era, so I'm excited to see where this all goes.
1) Serial 4, Episodes 7-9 - The Two Doctors
The Two Doctors is a bit shaky in places, and the Sontarans feel weirdly extraneous, but its central conceit ends up being very effective. The Sixth Doctor and Peri pair really well with the Second Doctor and Jamie. The parts of the story shot on location are particularly strong. (x)
This story follows the same trend of the rest of the season of being stuffed to the brim with a lot of seemingly disparate elements. However, this one has several advantages the others don't, namely that it's longer than the other stories, was another "shot on location in a foreign country" story, and featured great final turns by Patrick Troughton and Frazier Hines as the Second Doctor and Jamie. Now, in all honestly, none of these elements feel strictly necessary for the plot to work. This wasn't marking any kind of anniversary or event, so the Second Doctor's presence is really just for kicks, but I'm certainly not mad about it. It also helped that they meshed really well with the Sixth Doctor and Peri. It never felt like they were overshadowing them, but rather they were part of the same extended cast. Hines in particular had surprisingly great chemistry with Baker and Bryant, and it was really fun seeing him interact with this new Doctor. It also meant that Peri wasn't stuck with the obligatory "damsel in distress" role, and got to play a more active role in rescuing the Second Doctor.They also brought with them a sense of fun, and even though this story dealt with some pretty dark topics it never felt bleak the way a lot of other stories this season did. The sole exception to this being Oscar's murder, which felt tonally disconnected from everything else that was happening and felt unnecessary. That says a lot, considering there was a character that was intent on eating human flesh the whole story in a way that was just campy enough that it wasn't disgusting. Each of the humanoid villains felt distinct with clear motivations and internal conflicts, and even though the Sontarans were much flatter they were still used effectively within the story.
There wasn't really any reason this story needed to be shot in Spain, but I'm so glad they did because it looked great and it made all the set pieces and chase scenes so much more fun. The plains are a setting that looks so strikingly different from the quarries Doctor Who often shoots in, so it even helped elevate the smaller transitional scenes. This also helped contribute to the aforementioned "lighter" feeling of this story, and even the more darkly lit interior sets had a more interesting sensibility. I'm bummed that this is the last location story for the Classic era, as it's something I didn't expect going in and its been a real treat every time they've done it.
Supplemental Content
1) Jim'll Fix It, 1 Short - "A Fix with Sontarans"
A Fix with Sontarans is a cute mini story that adapts well to using Tegan instead of Peri, and the peek into what their dynamic would've been like is interesting. That said, the presence of you-know-who makes the ending deeply uncomfortable to watch. (x)
The original run of the show does not have much in the way of supplemental content the way the revival series does, so I was interested to see what this was gonna be like. The only thing I really knew about it content-wise was that it... uh... tied into another show, and those elements were definitely the weakest parts of this. I get that it's designed to make a kid's wish of being in Doctor Who true, but it's not like the kids are terminally ill so I'm not afraid to say that young Gareth has the stage presence of drying wallpaper, and everything that happens from the point where he shows up to the end where the skit ends and the creepy old man walks on and gives the kid a metal while rubbing everyone's shoulders is not engaging whatsoever. On top of that, it really left a bad taste in my mouth that they uplifted the kid by putting down "girls" and generally bad-mouthing Tegan. It's definitely a relic of a time I thought the show was trying to leave behind. (I haven't really mentioned the elephant in the room because, well, what else is there to say at this point.)
The part that does work for me, inexplicably, is the beginning when Tegan shows up in the Tardis, meeting the Sixth Doctor in a scenario set after her parting the previous season. While the canonocity of this is shaky, it's still an interesting peak into what their relationship would've been like, and having those two strong, abrasive personalities clash for just a few minutes made this entire special more than worth it. Fielding is as electric as ever in the role, and I was surprised to see how much thought was given into how she would react to the Doctor in a post-Resurrection story.
Final Thoughts
On one hand, I really understand why this season is the one that really began to "derail" the show in the 80s, but I also think that by the end they were really settling into a better understanding of these characters and I would've liked to see that progress further with another season that had some more varied material. It really makes me secure in my decision to dive into the adaptions of the scrapped season 23 material, as I feel like this is a Doctor that deserves more of a fair shake than the show has given him so far. That said, The Trial of a Time Lord is one of the things I've been most looking forward to in my entire journey with this show, and I leave this season extremely optimistic for the stories I have yet to see.
With the end of this season comes the end of the length each one has been since season 7, and I honestly can't believe how little of the show I have left to get through. When I started, my arbitrary goal was to finish all of Classic Who by the time I turned 30, and seeing as that happens in June I feel like that's a very realistic goal, even with the extra material I'm adding in. This season may have been dreary, but the future is bright.
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Varos is my favourite - but, as you say, there are some erally great people in the guest cast and the theme is interesting. Sil is so great, isn't he? Nabil Shaban loved playing him, too. (I think they were asked to consider more disabled actors by a equality group, and this happened, and the group were understandably horrified, but Nabil was delighted. He also reckons that Anthony Hopkins totally nicked his laugh for Hannibal Lector. XD)
Revelation is really good, I agree, but it's so dark, I've never been able to like it as much as it clearly deserves.
I need to rewatch Two Doctors. I enjoyed it, but I've only seen it once and it's blurred a bit in my memory.
And, lol, Timelash. Were you not won over by the sheer cheapness of the tinsel-decorated sets and the fact that they were nearly blown up by tragic glove puppets while Paul Darrow went OTT on Colin Baker in revenge for Blake's 7? (I watched Timelash first when a friend gave it to me on VHS for my 21st bday, and they told me that they were going to get the TV Movie, but they'd heard it was bad, so they got me this. And I'd read enough DWM by that point to know that they'd just handed me one of the lowest rated stories of all time and I had to keep a straight face and thank them nicely. Which I did! More DW is always good, even when it's bad. I mean, it has tinsel.)
The only caveat is that you may find yourself rewatching it, because if you watch B7, then the need to re-look at Paul Darrow and Colin Baker's rematch may overcome your good sense and judgement. ;-p
But, yes, more seriously, it's pretty bad, I agree!! I think I'd take it over the giant slugs of Twin Dilemma, though, because I am so much more for tinsel than slugs, but they are in a close race for Worst Six story, really.
Btw, I don't know what the missing S23 stories are like, but I gather the Lost Stories BF range isn't particularly good. Those, being cancelled because of circumstances rather than Reasons, stand a good chance of being better than the ones that were cancelled for good reason, but even so... I read two of the lost S23 Target novelisations and there was certainly nothing standout in the two of those. I think the first one, though, is supposed to be good!
(Just saying, not to put you off, but because the reclaiming of Six via BFA happened first and foremost through his earlier range with Evelyn Smythe rather than those as such (where, given what they are, he might steer closer to his TV performance anyway). So if they aren't great, that doesn't necessarily mean you wouldn't enjoy the rest of audio!Six by any means.)
Did you know, btw, that there was an audio story in between S22 and S23, by Eric Saward called Slipback? You seem to be dedicated to doing this in an admirably orderly fashion, so you might want to see if you can find that as well, if so. (It was a BBC radio thing, broadcast in the hiatus, with Colin and Nicola. I don't know if I read the novelisation or not, so I don't have anything more to say about it.)
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Maybe I will revisit Timelash after B7, because I really wasn't getting any of the sublime cheese factor from it (it mostly dragged tbh). The twitter for Britbox US recently hinted that they might be looking into getting the streaming rights for B7 like the UK service does, which would be nice since there's currently nowhere I can legally watch it (and I'd rather watch it on a streaming service that would presumably have it in nicer quality). Do Doctor Who actors pop up on there? I knew the series grabbed some writers but that's the end of my knowledge of it.
I'd only ever received Doctor Who as a gift once and it was the Collector's Bluray for the Capaldi years which was honestly the perfect one to pick for me. (Now I'm remembering I lent it to a friend and need to ask for it back.)
For what its worth Re: The Lost Stories, I'm most of the way through the first one and I'm actually really enjoying it. The Celestial Toymaker is back and Six and Peri are running around a carnival, which I feel like would have been a nice pick-me-up after Revelation. It is clocking in slightly shorter than what the TV equivalent would have been, and I suspect that's a result of slimming down some of the excess portions of the novelization (the reviews of which pointed to the audio as the better version to go with). If the other ones end up being duds at least it won't end up being much of a time suck. It also helps that 3 of the 4 are available to stream free on Spotify.
I did know about Slipback actually, and I've already snagged it off Audible and was planning on doing it after the other audios. I also got the Harry Sullivan and Turlough novels that were released in the 80s around this time to round out the "hiatus" era.
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Indeed! Oh, and while the production team may not be leaving the UK again until 1996, location filming was getting much easier and cheaper by this time in the 1980s, so by the time you get to Seven, they were tending to alternate between all-location stories balanced out by at least one totally studio-bound, so you will at least get to go outside again before you're done.
The twitter for Britbox US recently hinted that they might be looking into getting the streaming rights for B7 like the UK service does, which would be nice since there's currently nowhere I can legally watch it (and I'd rather watch it on a streaming service that would presumably have it in nicer quality).
Oh, that would be great. B7 Enterprises/Terry Nation Estate have been such a pain over copyright - I mean, supposedly because of trying to do a reboot, but why that should be aided by making it completely unavailable in the states for decades, God only knows.
Do Doctor Who actors pop up on there? I knew the series grabbed some writers but that's the end of my knowledge of it.
It shares writers, script editors, directors, producers, set designers, sets, costumes and actors, yes. Even more than most things made at the BBC at the same time did. Sometimes both ways round. Of the regulars, you've seen Paul Darrow twice and Michael Keating, Jacqueline Pearce & Brian Croucher once already in your voyages, and every other guest star will look oddly familiar. (Jackie was Chessene this season, Paul Darrow Tekker, although you'll have to forgive him for that. He was also, more briefly, a UNIT captain in Silurians, while Michael was in The Sun Makers.) And it was created by Terry Nation, obviously. Colin Baker has a major guest role in S3, something that resulted in Paul Darrow's performance choices and also what Eric Saward didn't like him in. (Although, to my mind, Eric Saward's reaction says more things about him than about Colin, who clearly understood his role in the episode, while the point seems to have gone sailing past Eric Saward's head and wound up creating Orsini instead, also in this season. It's a very B7 influenced season? That seems unfair, but maybe it's not! :lol:)
ETA: Here, have this little animated vid a Russian fan made for B7 to explain what it is. It's tiny, cute, spoiler free and 100% true!
ETA2: Oh, ok, Dreamwidth isn't going to do the embed for some reason
I'm most of the way through the first one and I'm actually really enjoying it.
The Robert Holmes one? I don't think I ever got hold of that novelisation, but that's the one that's supposed to be good. I'm glad it is. The rest seemed very so-so? But a novelisation is not the same as a performed version.
I also got the Harry Sullivan and Turlough novels that were released in the 80s around this time to round out the "hiatus" era.
I read one of those! It made so great an impression that I, um, honestly can't tell you which one it was.
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It's also kind of mind-boggling to me because if they really wanted to do a reboot, it would help a lot if people were actually familiar with the original series and/or could actively watch it legally.
ETA: Here, have this little animated vid a Russian fan made for B7 to explain what it is. It's tiny, cute, spoiler free and 100% true!
Kind of giving me Firefly vibes, but more Shakespeare/Traditional Scifi than Western.
The Robert Holmes one? I don't think I ever got hold of that novelisation, but that's the one that's supposed to be good.
It's actually the Graham Williams one. Robert Holmes was slated to do one of the stories that season, but his never made it past an outline so its one of the two that was never novelized nor adapted by Big Finish. (The other of the two was apparently slated for a Big Finish adaption at one point, so maybe someday since the Lost Stories range seems to be running again.) Apparently it would have been an Auton story set in Singapore.
I read one of those! It made so great an impression that I, um, honestly can't tell you which one it was.
Both look pretty interesting, but the Harry Sullivan one was written by Ian Marter himself and was published shortly before his death.
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Ah, yes, I knew there was a Robert Holmes one in there somewhere! I'd forgotten Graham Williams cropping back up.
Kind of giving me Firefly vibes, but more Shakespeare/Traditional Scifi than Western.
Firefly owes a lot to B7, as do Farscape and B5. And, yep, that's about it!
It's also kind of mind-boggling to me because if they really wanted to do a reboot, it would help a lot if people were actually familiar with the original series and/or could actively watch it legally.
You would have thought! The mysteries of it all are beyond any of us, really.