Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 526: The Armageddon Factor, Episode Six

Dear diary,

I worried - correctly, it seems - that the whole business with the shrinking ray (another thing from earlier Bob Baker and Dave Martin scripts to make a return!), was simply going to be used as padding for this final episode, until the story was ready to tie up the loose strands of the key to Time arc in the final scenes. The Doctor’s problem, if I’ve understood it correctly, is thus: He’s opened the door to the TARDIS, where the Key to Time is being held. He’s been  shrunk, so he can’t close the door! Oh no! The Shadow could, therefore, wander into   the TARDIS at any time he likes and simply pick up the Key (he later has a lackey do it).

My problem with this is that although they’re shrunk, the Doctor and Drax also possess the machine they need to make them large again! Not only that, they’re able to get hold of K9 if they need to. What I don’t understand is why they couldn’t simply dart out from the crack in the wall, make themselves larger again, use the confusion to knock out the guard, and then hotfoot it into the TARDIS? It’s painted as some big crisis for them, but there never actually seems to be any danger involved (beyond getting trodden on).

Oh, but that’s a minor quibble, and I’ve found myself enjoying everything else about this episode. I love all the moral dilemma around Astra being the Sixth Segment to the Key (and I love even more that it’s key to the resolution, too!), and I’m surprised but keen to find that she’s restored to human form at the end! I had no idea of that - I genuinely thought that becoming the segment killed her, and always thought that it was quite a dark way to end a season.

There’s plenty of spectacle on show in this one, too, with explosions, and more shrinking effects, K9 blasting his way through a wall (albeit somewhat clumsily), and the Key being dispersed back out through the universe… yes, I think this has probably been a fitting capstone to the whole Key to Time season, and even though the White Guardian doesn’t get to use the Key (or does he? The Doctor comments that the Black Guardian could use it while it’s assembled in the TARDIS, so has the White Guardian somehow managed to do that, too?), it doesn’t feel like a let down after 25 weeks of build up!

We say goodbye to Mary Tamm with this episode, although you’d not know it by watching the story. It’s a real shame that she was never invited back to film a regeneration sequence (Tamm even says in the special features to an earlier story in this set that she was waiting for the call!), and I’m actually going to miss having her around. Romana as a character has grown on me across the season, and I’ve really enjoyed watching her relationship with the Doctor develop, while still retaining a few key things that are uniquely ‘them’. Here’s hoping that I continue to enjoy the character as much in her second incarnation!

Another thing that we’re saying goodbye to today is the six-episode format of Doctor Who… well… sort of. The Armageddon Factor is the last Doctor Who story to be broadcast in six twenty-something minute chunks - a format that the show has been using to varying degrees since right back in Season One with The Keys of Marinus. Over the last couple of seasons, it feels as though they’ve settled into a nice format for five 4-part stories topped off with a single 6-parter to round out the season. It’s certainly worked better for me than those middle Pertwee seasons, when we had 6-part tale after 6-part tale!

I say ‘sort of’, because it’s not strictly the case. I’ll be watching the animated version of the never-broadcast Shada when I reach the end of Season Seventeen in about a month’s time, and that was made (and has been completed) in six parts. Then you’ve got The Two Doctors coming up in the mid-1980’s, where there’s only three episodes… but they’re almost twice as long! There’s also David Tennant’s swan-song, The End of Time, way out there in my future, and that clocks in somewhere around the length of a 6-parter, too.

Officially, though, this is the end of the road for stories like this. I can’t really claim to be sorry at their departure - I’ve often found six-parters to be something of a struggle, both when watching through, and when trying to write about them! Unless the story continues to give you lots of new things to talk about (this story has been a great example - spending broadly two episodes apiece on Atrios, Zios, and the Third Planet), you very quickly find yourself running out of things to say! It feels like another evolution for the programme to be dropping them from its style, and I always love a bit of evolution in the series. Now… what will Season Seventeen bring? 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 525: The Armageddon Factor, Episode Five

Dear diary,

This episode has been something of a string of surprises, coming thick and fast for twenty-five minutes! For a start, I’d completely forgotten the existence of Drax, and his sudden appearance left me baffled for a moment before I remembered. I can safely say now that I’ve never watched this far before - so on my initial viewing of the Key to Time season, by this point I’d switched off either the DVD or my brain! K9 says it best, I think: Drax is, frankly, silly. But that’s not a bad thing! In a story which has been fairly bleak so far (when you start off with a nuclear war, and things get worse from there, you know you’re in trouble!), it’s quite nice to have a new character turning up who provides some much welcome comic relief.

It’s nice to see that he’s actually a bit more than just a bit of comedy in the story, though. He’s there to try and tempt the Doctor off the rightful path, but of course our hero spots that right away. I can’t tell, in the closing moments, whether he’s shot his old school friend because he’s still planning to work alongside the shadow or because he’s just a bit of a bumbling fool. It’s nice to see the angle that this spins on the Doctor, too. He’s often been portrayed as the renegade, who runs away from Gallifrey and gets himself caught up in all manner of trouble. Here, though, he’s painted as a real grown up for the first time in ages - almost looking wearily down on Drax, who’s only going to get in the way of whatever plan the Doctor is forming for getting through all of this as unscathed as he possibly can.

No discussion of this episode would be complete without mentioning it - the Doctor has finally been named. It’s only taken them 15 years to do! It’s long been established that ‘Theta Sigma’ is simply the Doctor’s nickname from school, but I’m not entirely sure that it’s the intention of the scene! Certainly, when Drax first addresses him as ‘Thete’, that’s him using a nickname, but it then seems to go on for him to clarify the Doctor’s actual name. And, realistically, it does fit in with the world of Time Lord society! We’ve had Omega before now - another Time Lord figure named after a letter of the Greek Alphabet. I should clarify that I don’t really think that his name is Theta Sigma (though, I do believe that it’s perhaps his given name on Gallifrey?), but it’s interesting to see someone finally attempt to answer that ‘first’ question: Doctor who?

It’s also fitting that it should come in this story - the final one to be penned by the writing team of Bob Baker and Dave Martin. It seems somehow right that they should be bowing out of the series before the 1970s are out - I’ve come to associate them very much which this era of the programme. They’ve been responsible for quite a few additions to the Doctor Who mythos over the last eight years, and several of them make reappearances here, including the aforementioned Greek naming convention for Time Lords (it was Baker and Martin who created Omega, after all). Bob Baker will be back on his own next series, but we’re saying goodbye to Martin here, who aside from a few books throughout the 1980s, doesn’t make any more contributions to the world of Doctor Who. Still ,it’s not too bad going to be one of the men who created k( (told you I’d be back to loving the metal mutt today!)

Over the years, the Bristol Boys have fared quite well in my ratings. Taking into account my average ratings for each story, their lowest effort was The Sontaran Experiment, which scored just 5/10, followed then by The Mutants and Underworld which both averaged 6/10 from me. The Hand of Fear fared a little better at 6.5, with The Invisible Enemy scraping a little ahead with 6.75. The Three Doctors comes in with a solid 7/10, but it’s The Claws of Axos which has been my favourite Baker and Martin offering - it achieved an average score of 7.5/10! For those of you keeping track, The Armageddon Factor is currently sitting at 7/10, but there’s everything to play for in the final episode… 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 524: The Armageddon Factor, Episode Four

Dear diary,

I really can’t make up my mind about K9 in this story. On the one hand, he’s being absolutely indispensable to the Doctor, seemingly making up for his lack of involvement during The Power of Kroll by helping the Doctor escape from danger, holding off enemies, scanning for radiation and other signals, being the conduit through which out heroes can communicate with alien battle computers and more…

…While on the other hand, he’s really, really, stupid. He’s always been resolutely logical - that’s where a lot of the humour comes from - but when he’s trying to identify the alien signal which is used to lure him into the teleport, he’s just being plain ignorant. Relying on the ‘logic’ that he must receive an answer from the device, instead of simply giving up and going to find the Doctor, which might well be a more sensible solution. On the plus side, it looks lil we’re going to be getting a bit of ‘evil K9’ action in the next episode, so I’m sure that will swing me firmly back into the ‘I love K9’ camp once again.

Today is also our first proper look at Lalla Ward. She’s appeared in the other three episodes to greater or lesser extents, but today feels like the first time she’s actually been able to get out there and show us some acting, instead of simply being where the story demands her to be for whatever plot reason. She’s certainly making a good impression so far, and while it’s hard to watch it without the knowledge that she’ll be around for the next season-and-two-thirds, I can see why the production team were impressed with her - she’s doing a good job so far!

I’m also really glad to see that the Key to Time has become an integral part of the story, with the Doctor and Romana needing to use it in order to save themselves from certain death in this episode. I’d started to worry that the Key would simply come into play during the final few scenes of the serial, to tie up the entire season, and then that would be it. I rather fear that the full 26 episodes may have felt like something of a write off had that been the case, so it’s great to see that this story really does focus on the object.

It’s also interesting to watch the Doctor work out where - and what - the sixth segment is. I’ve no doubt that he already knows it’s Astra herself (it very much fits the way he’s been characterised this season to be one step ahead of the game: I’d not be surprised if he’s known since the moment he first laid eyes on her up on the screen in Episode Two), so it’s interesting to see him pussyfooting around her, trying to see how much she knows about it all. I’m less keen on the idea that he can simply knock up a makeshift sixth segment when the story requires him to do so, though. Lots is made about the fact that it’s far from perfect, and that it only works because they have the other 5/6 segments of the device, but it almost feels as though it somehow cheapens the immense power of the Key. If it’s supposed to be this mighty object which can give people the power of Gods across the entire universe, I’m not sure I like the idea that the Doctor can knock up spare parts in the back room of the TARDIS between scenes!

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 523: The Armageddon Factor, Episode Three

Dear diary,

I realised that Zios was being controlled by some kind of battle computer at - I think - exactly the moment you’re supposed to, when K9 first approaches the door to gain entry to the commander’s quarters. Before then, all his talk about him speaking to his own ‘kind’ had me wondering if K9 had been taken over by the Shadow’s forces, and ‘brainwashed’ in some way. As soon as it was revealed that I was right, and that everything was being controlled by that one central device, I loved it. A Cyber Planner in all but name, and a rather natty design, to boot!

That’s true for a lot of this serial, really. The design work is some of the best we’ve had since Ribos. There’s something very typically ‘late 1970s BBC science fiction’ about it (indeed, when Shapp first steps out of the transmit and draws his gun, I had an overwhelming sense that this, costumes, sets, props, and all, is exactly what I imagine Blake’s 7 to look like), but it all really works, and despite it occupying the end of season slot, it feels like some real budget has gone into this. We get the first model shots of ships in the story (and I’m surprised that they didn’t use the same model earlier in the story), and it’s an example of the programme doing a good job with them. Then you’ve got the set of that ship’s cockpit, and it might just be the best that we’ve ever been given. Shot from behind and in front, it looks great, and feels very ‘real’. I look forward to its inevitable destruction at some point in the future!

I think I’m also enjoying the fact that there’s a couple of stories going on at once in here, and they each feel like they’re being given equal weight. The first two episodes were very much focussed on the war between the two planets, and the Doctor getting caught up in it. As we move into this episode, we’re introduced to the Shadow, and there’s a great scene between him and the Doctor (more on which in a moment). It’s not long before they fade back into the shadows (me so funny!) again, and we’re back to the story of the war once again. I have no doubt that they’ll be tied together some more before the story is out, but I’m enjoying that they’re running separately for now. It feels as though the Doctor is off having his own side adventure all alone, while everyone else continues on with the main story, and I like that.

In yesterday’s episode, I praised the fact that Tom Baker seemed to be getting really into this story and giving it his all. I think, in hindsight, I may have played that card a little too early, because I want to say exactly the same for this episode, but perhaps even more so! It was during Planet of Evil that I first really saw that Tom Baker had ‘the Doctor’ in him, and it surfaces again here. I love his confrontation with the Shadow, flitting so perfectly between light and dark: it really is the best performance that Baker has given since at least The Talons of Weng-Chiang. I’m absolutely captivated by it, and that’s no bad thing!

We’ve hit the end of Baker’s fifth season with this story, and after this he officially enters into ‘longest serving Doctor’ territory. I’ve felt of late (especially throughout this Key to Time season) as though I’m tiring of the programme, and of the style it’s currently in. Stories like The Pirate Planet and The Power of Kroll are simply leaving me cold, and it feels like I’m running out of any interesting observations to make. A lot of the time, I’ve thought that Baker has been showing much of the same strain, so it’s really heartening to see him so back on form again here. I’m hoping that he carries this energy and enthusiasm with him into the next season, too, because it’s just the thing I need to reinvigorate my love for Who right now!

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 522: The Armageddon Factor, Episode Two

Dear diary,

Tom Baker is really on form in this story, isn’t he? It feels as though he knows the end of the season is coming up, so he’s just going for broke and enjoying himself in the story. The dramatic bits, the comedy bits… he’s really sinking his teeth into everything (including, in fairness, the scenery in one or two places!) and I’m really enjoying simply watching him be the Doctor here. I’ve given him a lot of stick over the last couple of seasons, so I’m always glad to see that he can still pull it out of the bag when he needs to.

Elsewhere, I’m simply enjoying the story here. In many ways it’s fairly standard stuff, and nothing much too taxing, but it’s all of a fairly good quality, and I can sit back and just watch it. I think I’m also impressed by the way my attention is being held so effectively with a small cast and very few sets (much of today’s episode takes place in three or four rooms, and some characters - like Astra - only appear in a single scene), whereas other stories recently with a lot more going on have completely failed to grip me.

I’m also very keen on the way that we watch the battle between these two worlds. Model effects in Doctor Who can vary from the extremely good to the… well… not good. I’d be weary of seeing them attempt any kind of large scale battle between various space ships, so it’s perhaps for the best that we see it all on the radar screen here instead. But you know what? It’s actually ten times more effective seeing it presented in this way than if we were to watch some big special effects scene. It really hits home to you just how fruitless this entire war effort is when it’s reduced down to watching six dots on a screen being reduced down to three. I don’t know if we might still get some kind of large scale battle before the story is out (the best of both worlds!), but if not then I’m glad that they decided to go with doing it this way.

As for the story itself… I don’t really know what to think. I did have a brief moment of wondering if it could feature the return of the Fendahl (when Romana peers behind the looking glass to find a creepy skull on a pedestal with knowledge of the Time Lords, it did lead me to think - could it be that I’d failed to realise the Fendahl ever made a reappearance, but the more I think about it, the more I’m sure I’m wrong!). There’s a lot of bog-standard plotting going on here at the moment - the Doctor mustn’t die… yet! - but I’m enjoying all the performances, so they’re keeping me entertained so far.

My biggest worry is that things will all go toppling over the edge at some stage. I couldn’t help myself, and had to peek at the Doctor Who Magazine ranking for this story in their recent poll results, and I’ve found that it places relatively low - within the bottom fifth - and not much above The Power of Kroll. Suddenly, I worry that things might not be keeping me this interested for long! Still, I’ve been known to enjoy stories that others don’t before now, so The Armageddon Factor could yet turn out to be something of a gem for me! 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 521: The Armageddon Factor, Episode One

Dear diary,

When I started out on the Key to Time season about three weeks ago, I explained that I’d sat and watched all the six stories before in quite quick succession. I think that my attention must have wained rather a lot as the season progressed, because with each passing story I’ve found that I can remember less and less about it. Today’s story - coming as the big finale to the entire season - is the one I can recall the least about. To put it bluntly, I can’t remember anything that happens. All I know is the identity to the segment of the Key here… and that’s sort of it.

I’m glad, though, because it means that I get to watch all the various Key to Time threads draw together as though it were a brand new story. It certainly feels like they’ve upped the stakes for the finale, too, with the Doctor and Romana arriving in the middle of a nuclear war, and with missing planets, near missile hits, kidnap, espionage, a lost TARDIS, and even two Romana’s (well, sort of…). Coming after a story which didn’t really grab me, it feels as though this one is pulling out all the stops to get me interested once again.

It helps that the story all looks rather pretty, too. There’s some lovely big sets, and a feels to all of this that simply smacks of it being the middle of a war. Many of the sets are really rather unappealing visually (lots of grey corridors), but that all works in the story’s favour, because it really fits the feel of the world we’re supposed to be in. I’m looking forward to having all of this unravel before me over the next few days, and getting to watch both versions of Romana around on screen together, almost like a transition period. Truth be told, I’d completely forgotten that Lalla Ward was in this one, until about three seconds before she made her first appearance on screen!

So far, Ward is off to a decent start, and I’m quite liking her. Mary Tamm is also giving her all even at this late stage in the game, and I have a feeling that as the story progresses, I’m going to be left wishing more and more that they could have done a proper regeneration scene between the two. I think I’m right in saying that Tamm officially decided that, yes, she was off during the recording of this serial, and that the decision to cast Lalla Ward came from a joking suggestion made by Tamm at the time of her departure! Emma vaguely joined me for this episode, too (she was in and out of the room getting on with something, but was sort of paying attention), and she quickly decided that she enjoyed the relationship between the Doctor and the current Romana. This left me thinking that actually, I’m really going to miss the way that Tamm and Baker bounce off each other - I’m hoping that the next few episodes will be a great showcase for Romana before her departure… 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 520: The Power of Kroll, Episode Four

Dear diary,

There’s a single shot in this episode of Kroll on the horizon which really fails to work. It’s a split-screen job done wrong, and it really lets down the effect. I’ve known about it for years - everyone mentions the poor split-screen work on the effects shots in this story. And yet, I’m pretty sure that it’s the only dodgy one in the entrée serial. We’ve only had three or four appearances from the great and mighty Kroll over the last few episodes, but the others have all looked, I think, really quite good. Certainly worthy of kinder words that they currently receive. I’m even almost enjoying the shots of Kroll attacking the station here, too, even if I still think the model shots of that platform don’t look quite right.

As is often the case, it’s the sequences shot on film that have really impressed me in this episode. All the bits done out on location at the marshes continue to look fantastic, and they’re the real highlight of this story. I think I’ve taken my eye off that a little bit over the last few days, while finding The Power of Kroll a struggle, but they’re certainly the bits of this story that I’ll remember a year on from now. Today, though, we also get a sequence of the Doctor outside on the platform, doing battle with the giant squid. It’s a really rather nicely directed few minutes, and the fact that the Doctor has removed his scarf before heading outside simply serves to make it all the more striking. Tom Baker wears his scarf far less often than I always assumed he did (by which I mean he removes it more often than I expected), but not usually for such an extended period.

While I’m on that subject… I don’t know if it’s just me, but there’s been something about Tom Baker’s costume in this story that just looks right to me. It’s hard to explain what I mean, exactly, which is why I’ve been putting it off even though I made a note of it back during Episode One. It wasn’t until today’s episode that I realised - this is the very first time we actually see this version of the Doctor’s outfit! I’d sort of forgotten that we’d not had one quite like this before, but that he’d been wearing a different light coat way back when (we’ve not seen it for weeks now - he’s been in shades of brown since the start of the Key to Time season.

It’s the look that I’ve always thought of as being ‘The Graham Williams Era’, with this coat, and the various badges that adorn it. Today we’ve got the flying ducks, which are perhaps the most famous of his badges, even though they only appear in this one story. He’ll go on to wear the new coat introduced here in the next four stories as well, meaning that I’m familiar with it from lots of publicity photographs larking about in Paris, or felling from the Daleks. Maybe it feels as though the Graham Williams era has actually arrived suddenly? Even after all this time, I’m constantly surprised by just how much the Tom Baker ‘eras’ all bleed into one.

The other thing that’s been prominent throughout this story, but which really takes more of a central focus in this final episode is the idea of the Swampies having their faith in Kroll shaken. I wonder if I may have enjoyed the story more if this had been less of a sub-theme running through the story, and more central? It’s been really rather interesting to watch today, with the Swampies questioning why their ‘God’ would attack them. Of course, the priest claims that it was punishment for allowing the ‘dry foots’ to escape. When it’s pointed out that they only escaped because Kroll was attacking them, it’s declared to be a ‘test’ of their faith.

I’ve always been somewhat weary of religion, and the power that it can hold, and I think there’s a nice parable about that very idea in this one scene alone. It continues to be more and more prominent as this episode goes on, and I really wish that it could have been more the point of the whole story, especially in a season during which the Doctor is effectively on a quest for ‘God’…

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 519: The Power of Kroll, Episode Three

Dear diary,

It’s only really in the last few minutes of this episode that I actually started enjoying it. For the most part, this episode has simply felt like going through the motions, but during those closing minutes of the story, with the Doctor, Romana, and Rohm-Dutt making their escape and Kroll looming large on the horizon, I suddenly found myself interested again. My biggest issue is that this should have been the first big reveal of Kroll in all his glory. There’s a lot of tension to these scenes, as tentacles grab people, and Swampies are pulled underwater, and it’s a shame that the climax to this - the reveal of Kroll himself - is undermined by the brief appearance he made in the last episode.

The biggest shame about that is that Norman Stewart’s direction in the rest of the story is, on the whole, a better example than most of talent in the series. He’s got a real flair for choosing some interesting shots, such as the camera movements to give scale to the torture chamber in which our heroes spend lots of this episode, and he’s actually doing a good job of filling the story with tension on occasion. He’s managed to make the location work look fairly decent, too, and it’s certainly a better showcase for his skills than Underworld was last season!

Certainly, I think that the direction is one of the things saving this story from being completely tedious. It feels as though everyone is simply putting the effort in to get the story on the screen and nothing more. Everyone involved, from the writer to the actors, seems to realise that this is never going to be fondly remembered as some kind of stand out, and thus they’re not really trying. I think it’s fair to say that over the years, The Power of Kroll has rarely been regarded as a bad story, but simply as one of those mediocre tales, that everyone sort of overlooks (that said, the results of the recent Doctor Who Magazine poll place it story number 212 of 241, meaning that it had dropped 38 places since ratings were collected in 2009, although it’s score had moved up slightly over 2% since that time, too).

It’s a shame, really, because it should be really grabbing me. Lovely location, a great big monster with an effect which continues to work far better than I was expecting it to, and it’s quite a pivotal story behind the scenes, because it’s the first tale, in a manner of speaking, to be ‘produced’ by John Nathan Turner, who’ll soon become very important to the programme. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that the final episode will be able to swing round my mood on this one, so I’m eagerly awaiting The Armageddon Factor and the big season finale to turn things around for me… 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 518: The Power of Kroll, Episode Two
 

Dear diary,

I don’t have a favourite movie. Truth be told, I don’t even really like films - I much prefer television as a format, for the way that it tells story, the intimacy that it brings, and the fact that I can stick on a series of something and just enjoy it episode after episode (I’m currently working my way through the first season of The Dick Van Dyke Show as well as re-watching the fourth series of Big Brother for the first time since broadcast, one episode a night). But the way that the world works, you’re expected to have a ‘favourite’ film. I simply don’t. There’s a lot of films that I like, sure. Frankenstein, the Boris Karloff version. Singing in the Rain. A Man With a Movie Camera. The Harry Potter films, or The Lord of the Rings. I like all of these, but I’d not class any as my favourite.

It’s not easy to explain that every time you’re asked the question, though, so I tend to simply plump for a film to answer with, and I always choose one that no one ever questions, they just nod and agree: Jaws. I can distinctly pin-point the first time I saw Jaws. Because I’ve never been a big fan of films, I didn’t really watch many as a kid, so it wasn’t unusual that I didn’t see this one until I was 14, and at school. For the record, I haven’t seen other Spielberg classics like E.T. or Jurassic Park even to this day. It’s almost quite a fun game, when Emma talks about a film and I simply point out that I haven’t seen it.

Anyway. Jaws. It was a film studies lesson at school, and we were watching Jaws so that we could learn about suspense and build up in directing a film. It’s a brilliant example of that. You get plenty of Point Of View shots. There’s the odd glimpse of a fin, or the ripple of the water. You even see the shark on several occasions, but the real reveal, the big ‘It’s The End Of Episode One And Oh Look It’s A Dalek’ moment comes towards the end of the film, with the three men out on a boat, shovelling bait into the water, when Quin turns back… and the shark lurches at him! Despite the bits of him you’ve seen before, that’s the pay off, and it’s brilliant.

So, you might ask, what does this have to do with The Power of Kroll? Well, not a lot, admittedly. But also, everything. I mused yesterday that a giant squid might be the production team over-reaching themselves somewhat, but I was still keen to see what they’d do with it. It’s the perfect opportunity for them to tease us with the appearance of the monster - just like in Jaws - before revealing it, probably at the end of Episode Three. And you know what? They’re doing a good job!

We hear tell of this giant squid that the locals all worship, but then we discover that no one has actually seen the creature in living memory. And, actually, the ‘monster’ menacing Romana at the end of the last episode is a man in a costume. You almost start to relax… but then the scanners are picking up strange movements, miles and miles across, the entire bed of the marsh shifting. The cliffhanger features a tentacle attacking which is actually - I’ll admit it - rather effective! You could really build up the suspense here, and while the squid may not quite live up to it, at least you could enjoy the ride…

But then, about two-thirds of the way through the episode, the squid just pops up - literally - in the middle of the marsh. You almost want to over-dub it with him saying “hellooo!” to everyone, and asking what he’s missed during his nap. I’m only banging on about this so much because it came as such a massive let down. The effect of the squid actually looks alright, I think, but I’m not paying all that much attention because I’m too busy being annoyed that they’ve wasted any sense of suspense and drama by bringing him in so suddenly and with no fanfare or excitement.

Really, I’m just bitter today, I think. I’m also annoyed by the whole “Doctor, I dropped the Tracer out there in the Marsh and we may never find it again…” / “oh, don’t worry, I picked it up” exchange, because I thought that was going to provide us with some interesting drama over the next few episodes, as they tried desperately to find it while a war broke out around them, and a giant quid lingered on the horizon. As it is, I’m not really sure what they’re planning to do for the next two episodes, besides paint themselves green and run around a bit. 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 517: The Power of Kroll, Episode One

Dear diary,

Ah, The Power of Kroll. Along with The Space Pirates, this one is sort of the Robert Holmes child that people try to overlook when discussing the man’s career. As I’ve said before, my memory of these last few Key to Time stories is hazy at best, so the most I can tell you about this one is that there’s a giant squid in it. I’m not sure if the squid is the reason for fans’ dislike of the story, but I’d wager that ti could well be a factor - the phrase ‘giant quid’ seems to go hand-in-hand with ‘Doctor Who production team over stretching themselves’…

As for this first episode, though, there’s plenty to enjoy. I love the look of the swamp, and after my moaning the other day about the season needing a bit more variety in its locations, I think they’ve satisfied it rather nicely. Especially wonderful is the moment when the TARDIS arrives, and we only see the very top of the prop poking out, and follow the thrashing around in the plants to see where our heroes are. It creates a very different look for this adventure, and that’s never a bad thing. We’ve also got more night shooting - something that’s becoming increasingly common in the programme of late, considering that it used to be such a rarity! All the shots of the Doctor out in his boat at night look lovely, and I’m hoping we’ll be treated to some more night scenes as the story continues.

It’s a shame, with such a nice location, that I’m so disappointed in the model of the refinery. It’s often pointed out that you have to be careful with explosions in model shots, because if you shoot them at the regular speed, they look like real flames on a scale model. The same seems to be true of water here - it looks like they’ve made a model of a refinery and plonked it down in the director’s bath tub! All the waves just look too large, and it spoils the effect for me. My other complaint about this comes as a counterpoint to my praise for the night-time scenes, and it’s the lack of lights on the model! We get the flashing code when the Swampie communicates with his own people, but it’s a shame not too see a few more lights to indicate windows and the like. As it is, it simply feels like they weren’t expecting night shots, so forgot to fit the model with electronics.

That’s only a small issue, though, and it hardly ruins the episode because of a few dodgy shots. There’s a lot of other things to commend this one. It might not be Holmes’ finest script (and the issue of slavery isn’t being weaved into the story with a great deal of tact, it has to be said), but he’s certainly got a nice handle on the Doctor, and it’s plain to see throughout. I love the way he sits and makes himself a flute, and simply slips away when people aren’t looking. There’s plenty of nice lines written in for the Doctor, too, and Baker seems to be genuinely enjoying himself still - something that’s been present for a few stories now.

I’ve yet to really make much mention of the Swampies, and I don’t really plan to until I’ve seen a bit more of them in action, but I will say that they’re almost effective here, simply because of the number of them they’ve got, painted head to toe in green and jumping around preparing to sacrifice Romana. Had they simply got three slightly uncomfortable supporting artistes to stand around looking cold then it wouldn’t have been as effective as it is here, and that’s saying something, perhaps!

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 516: The Androids of Tara, Episode Four

Dear diary,

During the first episode of this story, before I simply found myself enjoying it, I made a note that all the segments of the Key were hidden in fairly similar locales, and that we really needed to have a bit more variety. This thought stemmed from the fact that we’s just had two stories in a row that involved the Doctor and Romana standing around in green fields, and The Ribos Operation had also sported a castle setting. The more that I’ve watched through this story, the more I realise that I was just moaning about nothing in particular, because this story has enough of it’s own visual identity to set it apart from the others. It’s another one of those lush historical dramas, and I almost wonder if I’d prefer this story to have been a more straight-up historical drama, without all the nonsense with androids and the like.

This final episode is the closest that we come to that kind of story, with our three androids (the Prince/King, Strella, and Romana) all out of action, and the woman who builds androids for the Count dead. It reverts to a more traditional story of trying to seize power to the throne, with planned marriages, and assassination plots, and… well, admittedly, an exact double of the princess who just happens to be an alien time traveller. It feels like absolutely ages since we had a proper historical story, and this came close enough to whet my appetite for one. Thinking of the stories to come, it’s going to be a while again before we’re given something quite in the historical vein, androids or not!

It did, however, get me wondering if there could be a version of this story with the androids removed. It’s not the kind of thing that you’d be able to edit from existing footage, but I think a few brief alterations at the scripting stage could have made it a pure historical story somewhere along the line. The Count would have to kidnap the prince after the coronation, and they’d not be able to lure the Doctor with an android duplicate of Romana, but otherwise, the story is fairly sound.

Or, at least, as sound as it can be. Today’s episode provides us with another twist to the tale of ‘ways the Count can become king’. I said the other day that I simply couldn’t get my head around Taran politics, and I still can’t. Now it transpires that the Count will only be the true king if he’s married Strella, after she has come queen. What happened to the whole ‘having to choose another nobleman to be king, ‘cos the bloke who should be here is held up in traffic’? It really is the most bizarre system.

And it’s all presided over by Cyril Shaps, in his final performance for the programme. Shaps appeared in The Tomb of the Cybermen, which makes him an automatic winner for me, and then went on to be a part of The Ambassadors of Death and Planet of the Spiders before returning for this final swan song. He’s been one of those actors I’m always glad to see pop up in a story, so it’s a shame we won’t be seeing any more of him as this marathon progresses.

On the whole, I’ve rather liked The Androids of Tara. It’s just edged out The Ribos Operation for the position of my favourite Key to Time story (pushing the previous champion The Stones of Blood even further down the pecking order), and I’ve simply enjoyed watching it. I’m sorry to say then that things do go a little to pot in this final episode direction-wise. It’s the first story to be helmed by Michael Hayes, and has been rather good on the whole. Lots of nice shots that feel perfectly suited to what is in some ways a diary story, and lots of lovely shots used in sequences like the Doctor and K9 heading across the moat to break in to the castle.

But then you’ve got today’s big, climactic sword fight. It’s very much a key part of the episode, because it takes up a sizeable chunk of it. I enjoy seeing the Fourth Doctor being a little unsure of the way to hold a fight like this (he clearly forgot such things during his regeneration), and then growing more and more confident with it, forcing the Count around the room. It could be quite a nice sequence if it weren’t for the chronic lack of music over the first half of the fight! It simply leaves everything feeling incredibly stagey, and listening to the sound of the actor’s feet shuffling around the floor doesn’t quite inspire the effect I think Hayes wanted. Things pick up a lot when the sparring partners move outside, though, and I with the whole thing could have been done like that! 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 515: The Androids of Tara, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Sometimes, often during ‘Episode Three’, Doctor Who stories have to resort to padding things out a little bit, just to stretch the story over to the next week. I think today must feature one of the most blatant examples of this that I can remember in the series for a very long time. Romana has come back in to contact with the Key segment again, and soon manages to escape the castle on horseback. She meets up with the Doctor, and they flee together… only for her to be recaptured and returned to the castle mere minutes later. This is the one thing which took me out of the story a little bit here, because Romana’s escape seems to have only been useful for the sake of giving us a cliffhanger into the next episode!

Still, that’s a relatively minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, and I have to admit that I’ve really enjoyed today’s episode again. Despite The Pirate Planet being the story of this season written by the ‘comedy’ writer, I’m finding the humour in David Fisher’s two scripts much more in my own taste than anything that Adams gave us. I commented on it to some extent during The Stones of Blood, but I’m really noticing it in this story - and especially in today’s episode. It’s filled with amusing mounts, chief among them possibly the Doctor emerging into an ambush for the second time simply to call the Count a liar for promising not to attack! There’s also the Doctor’s comments on the way they always want you to go alone when you’re walking into a trap, and his musing that it would have been ‘fun’ to hear whatever reason Lamia may have cooked up to explain her arriving so early for their planned meeting: I’m enjoying lots of the little lines like these.

It’s also having an unexpected side effect in that I’m really enjoying Tom Baker in this story. I’ve complained a few times over the last season-and-a-half or so that Baker is getting somewhat too big for his boots in the role, not taking things as seriously as he perhaps should, and sending other things up way beyond what’s probably acceptable. Here, though, he seems to be pitching his performance just right, and it’s the most I’ve enjoyed watching him since around Season Thirteen, I think. Even when he’s going for the comedic moments (like the aforementioned ‘liar’ incident), I’m simply laughing along with the story - it’s all really working for me. Maybe it’s simply the tone of the script, which makes it feel as though Baker’s antics fit in easier?

Then we’ve got a few moments of him attempting a more serious stance, too. It was during Planet of Evil that Baker really sold himself to me as a dramatic actor, and I think there’s small shades of that performance here. I don’t think we’ve ever had him quite as powerful and imposing as he was there, but a few of his comments towards the count at the start of today’s episode seem to be brimming under with the kind of rage I’d expect to see from David Tennant’s performances in the same role. I love that I’m finding things to enjoy in his performance again, because it feels as though I’ve been giving him a lot of criticism of late.

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 514: The Androids of Tara, Episode Two

Dear diary,

Of all the companions so far - including Sarah Jane - I think that Romana must have the most… elaborate wardrobe. She’s had cause to change her outfit, or at leafs accessorise it, during most of the stories so far, and they’re always quite striking styles. I think that The Androids of Tara may be the most striking of them all! Mary Tamm gets to start the story off in that very flattering white dress from The Ribos Operation. I’m not much of a follower of fashion, but even I’ll concede that it’s a gorgeous outfit, and Tamm looks beautiful in it. She then gets to change into her purple… thing, and retain that for much of the last two episodes. People joke about Sarah’s ‘Andy Pandy’ look, but really, this must be the worst costume a companion ever gets forced into?

Even more than usual, this story allows Tamm to try out a few different styles, by virtue of her playing several different parts. I was oddly struck by how much of an impact was made, during the introduction of Strella, simply by giving Tamm different hairstyles for each character. It really does make a difference, and when she arrives in the throne room at the end of the story, here hair looks especially nice. As someone who was - I believe - very interested in style (I think I’m right in saying that Tamm herself had input to some of Romana’s costumes, certainly more than the actress would usually get), I’d imagine that Mary Tamm must have very much enjoyed working on this story in particular.

The thing I’ve been spending much of today trying to get my head around is the way that coronations operate on Tara. It already seems a little harsh that should the next-in-line to the throne be so much as a minute late for the coronation then they forfeit their right to the titles, but then the Powers That Be simply get to choose who will take their place on the throne? No wonder there’s some corruption going on, with a system like that! I then found myself getting gradually more and more confused by the way all of this works. I’m sure that, at some stage, Strella is described as second-in-line to the throne. So… if Prince Reynart doesn’t show up, why does the throne not pass to her?

I then considered that everyone may think she was missing, which could account for them worrying about needing to find a new monarch so quickly (lest the throne be empty for too long. Is Tara the planet, or simply this region? It could be that a lack of monarch makes the castle, and the area, look weaker to opposing forces who may be watching), but no one seems surprised when she seemingly arrived during the coronation to pledge her allegiance to the new king. On top of all this… I thought that Count Grendel planned to marry Strella simply to get himself onto the list of people who could get near the throne, but then he’s able to become king simply by being one of the nobles, anyway! It’s all a very confusing system, and I’m spending more time thinking about it than I really should! 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 513: The Androids of Tara, Episode One

Dear diary,

When I first started out on The 50 Year Diary (what seems like a lifetime ago!), people were very keen to give me tips and advice about how to do a marathon. Some people were very helpful, and spoke from experience in doing their own watches through the history of Doctor Who. Others were simply chiming in with the way ‘they’ would do it, and point out why my way was wrong. The thing that cropped up the most during that first season was the suggestion that I should really be working in ‘half marks’. I think it stemmed from a single entry early on in which I commented on how I’d spent a while deliberating over the score to give an episode. I couldn’t decide between a six or a seven, and it took most of the day to make up my mind. People kept on suggesting that I really should have just given a ‘6.5’, and be done with it.

Personally, I’m against that. I think that once you start adding half marks, the rating system goes out the window a little bit! I’m rating the stories out of ten… giving myself double the options for scores within that seems like a bit of a cheat! The thing is, I’ve never once regretted that decision. Oh, there’s been one or two stories where I’ve struggled with the score, but on the whole it’s become second nature. Like a gut instinct, I get to the end of typing up my entry and simply type the score - sometimes without thinking. Occasionally, I’m even surprised by the score I’m giving, but if I think about it, I can pinpoint exactly why awarded the score I have.

Today’s episode has been one of those ones which has left me a little bit stumped as to how I’m supposed to rate it. As the closing credit rolled, I found myself declaring to the empty room that I’d really enjoyed this episode, and that it was probably my favourite episode from the entire Key to Time season so far. To be perfectly honest, I was surprised by that fact, but simply because I can remember so little about this story from my previous viewing. I then told myself that it was very definitely a ‘7/10’, and that’s when my troubles started. I thought about the other episodes this season. Both The Ribos Operation and The Stones of Blood had received the same score for an episode apiece, but I’d enjoyed this one more than either of those. Ok, then, this must be an ‘8/10’. Except… it isn’t an ‘8/10’. I can’t describe it - I just know the rating in my mind. I’ve spent a couple of hours deliberating about it and I’ve decided that, no, this is a ‘7/10’ episode, but a very high ‘7/10’!

So, with that said, it will come as no surprise to you that I’ve rather enjoyed this one. It already has a different feel to it compared to the first three tales this season, and I really love the way that Romana sets out, declaring that she’ll have found this week’s segment in under an hour. What I liked so much about it was the fact that I actually scoffed out loud at the suggestion. The three segments they’ve retried so far have all come at the end of an adventure lasting the equivalent of four episodes, so there’s no way she’d be able to find it so quickly. But then, almost before I’d finished that train of thought, she’s located the segment, and turned it back into the actual piece of key. Oh. That was easy. Easy… and surprising! Of course it gets taken away almost immediately, but it still came as a rather nice way of shaking up the format.

No discussion of this episode would be complete without mentioning that fan favourite monster: the Taran Wood Beast. The creature is something of a joke within fandom, and perhaps for good reason. Even I have to concede that it’s not the programme’s finest hour as a poor artiste jumps around the woods in an ill-fitting gorilla costume. That said, some of the shots leading up to the reveal of the creature are nicely done, and actually build up some degree of tension! If only I didn’t know what was coming afterwards! Still, the beast only appears for a couple of minutes and then he’s gone, so at least we can be thankful for small mercies!

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 512: The Stones of Blood, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Nope. I’m still not really any wiser about some of the things which left me confused during yesterday’s episode. Mostly, I think that my confusion stems from the fact that I’m not entirely sure about the sequence of events which took place prior to this story, and led to the Hyperspace ship hunting Cessair of Diplos… but I know enough for the story to hang together for me. Alongside all of that, I’ve enjoyed Tom Baker being given the opportunity to showboat for a while during the ‘trial’ sequences, so I’m willing to overlook a few of the flaws.

What’s struck me the most about The Stones of Blood this time around is how much the story really does seem to change style right down the middle. From the first half of the story, you’d expect to be in for something right out of the Hinchcliffe years, with a remote location, a horror vibe, some ancient evil reawakening… it seems to be a style of Doctor Who which is less present in recent seasons. Then, we shift up to the spaceship, and we’re in an entirely different kin of story. As if to underline this point, they even take one of the cast and paint her silver as if to say ‘we’re in space now!’

I can’t recall noticing such an abrupt shift in style the last time I watched this story, and it certainly didn’t ham my thoughts about the tale. This time around, I’m not sure that I’ve enjoyed it as much as I remembered doing so before (Indeed, while I’ve always cited The Stones of Blood as being my favourite story from the Key to Time season, it’s been pipped to the post this time by The Ribos Operation, which achieved an overall score of 6.5/10, compared to this story’s 6.25/10), but I think I may still be suffering a little from the fatigue which so plagued The Pirate Planet.

Perhaps more importantly, though, this is the 100th Doctor Who story! As ever, my figures are a little out because I did Farewell, Great Macedon way back between Seasons One and Two, and I revisited The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear when they were returned late last year. That said, the number ‘100’ seems at once too many and too few stories. It seems like an age since An Unearthly Child (the programme celebrated its 15th anniversary between this episode and tomorrow’s), and the show has changed an awful lot in that time. Perhaps it’s inevitable that I’d start to be feeling a little bit of fatigue by this time?

It’s also worth noting that we’re almost at the stage where Tom Baker will take over the crown of being the ‘longest serving’ Doctor. It’s true that I’ve felt a little weary about all of the Doctors at some stage (most notably during Seasons Two, Six, and Nine), and so perhaps it was inevitable that I’d start to struggle a bit this far into the Baker era? In the same way that the thought of Season Eleven and breath of fresh air was a real ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ during some of the Pertwee years, I think I’m starting to long for Season Eighteen to arrive.

That said, we’re entering slightly more uncharted territory with the second half of this season. While I’ve seen all of the Key to Time stories before, I can remember next-to-nothing about the three after this one. I’m looking forward to seeing if any of them can shake up my opinions at all. Certainly, with The Ribos Operation already taking the top spot after seven years since my first viewing, anything could happen!

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 511: The Stones of Blood, Episode Three

Dear diary,

It could simply be that I’m having another Pirate Planet incident, where I’m simply not paying enough attention to follow the plot, but I’m not entirely sure what’s happening now. As I say, I don’t know if that’s my fault, or an intention of the script that I should be left slightly in the dark at this point. I understand that the ship is based in Hyperspace, which is in a different dimension to our own. I get that Vivian has been around on Earth for some 4000 years, and thus she’s worshipped by these local people as some kind of goddess. What I don’t yet understand is how these things are related. The Doctor speculates that the Hyperspace ship is a prison ship… I’m assuming Vivian was a prisoner? How did she escape? Did the Ogri come with her from the ship, or were they already in place? Do you see? I’m lost! So many questions!

And yet, I have to admit that I’m still rather enjoying this one. Is it the best that Doctor Who has ever offered us? No, not by a long shot. Is it a decent 25 minutes of the programme? Yes, I’d say it is. In many ways, it feels like an odd sort of hybrid between the type of story that the series used to do - you know, back when the Doctor travelled the universe with Sarah Jane - and the kind of thing it likes to play with these days. It’s such an odd hybrid of the horror elements (and more on those in just a moment), and the kinds of outer space tomfoolery that feels like it’s on the increase. I wonder if that’s where some of my confusion is coming from: the story’s not following my expectations of either style.

If any one side of the story is winning out over the other, I’d have to say that it’s the horror elements. We’ve a sequence in today’s episode where some seemingly post-coital campers encounter the titular ’Stones of Blood’ and are reduced to skeletons, while the screen fades to a deep red. It’s straight out of a Hammer Horror film, and it feels like a while since that was true of Doctor Who. I have to admit, I was starting to wonder if I’d imagined this scene, because I’ve long remembered it as being the very first moments of the story. Of course, it works much better coming over halfway though, once we’re already used to the moving stones as a threat. Suddenly, they’re not only capable of crushing people and damaging K9, but they can harvest the blood they need in a horrible way.

On the other side of the Hyperspace divide, aboard the ship, I’m not enjoying it as much as I expected to. I remembered the Doctor opening the door to find a Wirrn in a much more exciting fashion (actually, thinking about it, I remembered him opening the door and then my mind cuts to the first cliffhanger from The Ark in Space, in which the dead creature falls out and startles everyone), and I have to admit that I’m actually a bit bored by all these sequences. That said, there’s some lovely model work, and we’ve got the return of the ‘live action shot inserted into the model work’ that I’ve been longing for more of since The Robots of Death. It just helps to make it feel as though the Doctor really could be aboard that ship.

I think the biggest success of all, though, is that the Doctor spends so much time paired off with Amelia Rumford. Beatrix Lehmann is one of those actors for whom Tom Baker really ups his game, and it’s great to watch the pair of them spark off each other. There’s a longstanding anecdote that during the production of this story - and because of the fun he was having with Lehmann on board - Tom suggested that the next companion should be a lady of a similar age. Frankly, I’d love to see more of this pair together, and I’m hoping that they get the chance to share a bit more screen time in tomorrow’s episode, too. I’m not all that familiar with Lehmann’s work outside of Doctor Who, but I do know that this was her final acting role, and that she died less than a year later. It’s nice to think that she seems to have had such fun with her final character! 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 510: The Stones of Blood, Episode Two

Dear diary,

It’s been a while since I’ve trotted out my regular complaint that I’d love Doctor Who to all be made on film rather than video tape. The Stones of Blood is just one of those stories which really does make me long for film, though. It doesn’t help that it’s a story with lots of exteriors and location work that’s all been confined to videotape, too, and I think I’m right in saying that this is the first time we’ve seen a night shoot for the programme which hasn’t been shot on film.

There’s some beautiful lighting in the location work - especially during the scenes of the Doctor and Amelia Rumford in the stone circle - but it just feels a bit flat by being shot on videotape. It don’t have any of the depth that film would give it, and it’s a real shame. I’m also thrown by the wildly different lighting in several sequential shots throughout the night - it seems to shift from midnight to late evening from shot-to-shot, which I’d guess was a casualty of the filming schedule. It shouldn’t irritate me as much as it does, but I just found it very distracting!

Not quite as distracting, though, as the fact that they’ve changed the cliffhanger between episodes! As scripted, Episode One ends with Romana seeing the figure of the Doctor at the cliff’s edge before he pushes her over to her doom. I believe that Tom Baker refused to film this sequence because he didn’t feel it was right for the Doctor, so instead we have Romana following the Doctor’s voice, and then simply losing her footing and falling over the edge. This episode, though, continually refers to Romana seeing the Doctor push her over the cliff (she’s even horrified when the real Doctor appears to save her), and they quickly speculate that someone has discovered a way of using they Key to transform their appearance. It all just feels at odds with what we saw yesterday, and that left me a little confused!

All I’ve done so far today is complain about things, but that’s not to say that I’ve not enjoyed the episode. Those few small niggles left me a little disheartened, but there’s plenty of other things in the story that I am enjoying. Curiously, coming after a story from Douglas Adams which is supposed to be funny, there’s a number of lines in today’s episode which left me laughing - particularly the Doctor’s insistence that K9 had always wanted to be a bloodhound! The you’ve got pretty much anything that’s said by Vivien Fey or Amelia Rumford. Thelatter in particular is amusing me because she seems to be playing the part as Patrick Troughton playing the Second Dr Who! There’s numerous little mannerisms in her performance that can’t fail to put me in mind of some of his stories - especially those early Season Four ones, when he was especially giddy!

It’s not all light-hearted, though. You’ve got the Doctor being offered up as a sacrifice, the death of a so far fairly important figure, and the set of the Big House gets completely trashed. Perhaps most effective is that they pretty soundly destroy K9. Coming only a few episodes after he duked it out with the Polyphase Avatron, I really believe that the Ogri have great strength to be able to sound the Doctor’s best friend in such a way! Then there’s the reveal that Vivien Fey has been around for a long, long, time. I knew it was coming, but it still really works for me, and it’s nice to see little hints being dropped along the way, such as Romana noticing the line of women who’ve owned the land, and the missing paintings. I’d forgotten that this revelation came so early in the story, but I guess it signals that we’re going to be off in a different direction soon enough… 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 509: The Stones of Blood, Episode One

Dear diary,

Until I moved out of home at seventeen, I used to live in a small village about 20 miles from Norwich. When I talk in the Diary about visiting the farm or seeing my family, it’s still the place I’m returning to. All that time I spent living there, and some of it as a Doctor Who fan, and I never realised that only about a fifteen minute walk away lived a man who - whisper it - had actually written adventures for Doctor Who. In fact, I didn’t actually discover this fact until some years after I’d moved out (and even crossed the country to live in Cardiff), and I was sent a clipping from the local newspaper about a ‘local man’ who was writing a Doctor Who ‘radio play’.

Of course, that ‘local man’ was David Fisher, and the ‘radio play’ was the audiobook of The Stones of Blood. While Terrance Dicks had been responsible for the original Target book in 1980, Fisher wrote a new version of the tale to be read for the CD. Suffice to say, I couldn’t believe that an actual Doctor Who writer - and a man responsible for what I’ve long considered to be my favourite segment of the Key to Time season - had been living almost on my doorstep! David Fisher will be responsible for several stories over the next few seasons, and he’s one of that small group of writers who get to contribute two consecutive stories on their first outing.

I can’t really tell you why I’ve thought of The Stones of Blood as my favourite Season Sixteen story for so long, I simply recall it being the one which grabbed my attention the most when I first watched them all. Truth be told, I can’t even recall a great deal about the story - I know it involves stones which kill, and about halfway through we’ll relocate from the rural setting to some kind of advanced space ship… but that’s all I can tell you! Oh, and a character dresses up in that bird costume at some point, but I remember that more from photographs of the outfit than from my first viewing of the story itself!

Certainly, we’re off to a decent start in this episode. The opening recap of the whole arc is perhaps a little too much of an info dump (although I rather enjoy Romana nodding along and pointing out that she knows much of the information), but I’m mostly glad that we get to see them piecing together the segments of the Key. Things were left a bit up in the air during the last story, so it’s nice to see that they did actually manage to retrieve the segment. I’d always assumed that the actual retrieval of the Key would be a key scene in each of these stories… but perhaps not! Curiously, I could remember what the segment was for The Pirate Planet, but I can’t recall what it’s disguised as in this story, or the next one. I think I rather like that - because it adds a bit of excitement to them!

We’re also back to the BBC trying to do the kinds of sets it does best. The main hall at ‘the Big House’ is just lovely, and the use of the stairs here really allows a few interesting camera angles, too. There was a moment - only a moment, mind - when I even wondered if it had been shot on location. The sets in the last story didn’t really do it for me, so I’m glad to be back on more familiar ground with these ones. I’m also really interested to see how they compare to the spaceship sets coming up letter on, and see if those are kicked up a gear by work on settings such as this one.

I’m also loving the continuation of a running theme across this series so far: Romana being the one in charge. It starts as far back as The Ribos Operation Episode One, with her giving the Doctor instructions on using the Tracer, and being responsible for creating the hole in the TARDIS. It’s continued into The Pirate Planet with her piloting of the ship, and being the one that the locals are willing to speak to when they first touch down on a new world, and here she’s the one who can both fit the segments of the key together, and suggests that they get on with looking for the next segment. The Doctor’s reaction to this last incident is particularly amusing!

It’s a good thing that we’re getting moments like these, because for the rest of the episode, she’s reduced to what I’d call your typical ‘companion’ role. She’s left to complain about things, wear inappropriate shoes, ask questions, and even gets left behind when the Doctor goes off to explore. The fact that she’s the one lured into peril during the cliffhanger should come as no surprise! I’m hoping that she gets to continue taking the upper hand before long, though, because Romana really doesn’t shot the typical ‘Doctor Who girl’ role… 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 508: The Pirate Planet, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Well… I’m tempted to say that everything fell into place and started to make sense in this final episode, but actually all I mean is that the bits I phased out for yesterday suddenly make sense to me. The old woman they found in the bowels of the bridge was the evil queen who ruled the planet, and all that stuff about a black hole was the Captain’s cunning plan to dispose of the woman. Right, fine, I’ve got that now, thanks. Where I’m left confused is when this episode starts to descend into the Doctor and Romana spouting various kinds of technobabble at each other, and planning to go pick up the bit of Key later on (after the episode has ended, it seems!)

I also found myself completely lost by the reveal that the real power behind the throne is the nurse! Because - aha! - she’s not a nurse, but the reincarnation of the evil queen, who might be a hologram (but she isn’t really. At least, not any more), and is actually using the Captain as some kind of front. Looking back, there are hints peppered across the tale, and Rosalind Lloyd even points them out during the special features on the DVD, but I can’t say that I really picked up on them as I’ve been watching. I think the fact that I’ve failed to bet interested by The Pirate Planet has led to me missing all the clues that might have made it more interesting!

It’s nice to see the Captain being revealed as more than simply a blustering villain, though. It’s a fairly arch performance throughout, but I think it’s worked for me better than a lot of the story has. The design of the character is interesting, too, and it’s quite fun to watch him doing battle with Tom Baker. There’s little wonder that the Captain is one of the more fondly recalled villains from Doctor Who’s long history.

On the whole, I’m sorry to say that The Pirate Planet has really disappointed me. I don’t know what I was expecting from the tale, but I’ve found myself being mostly bored throughout all four episodes. This tends to happen from time-to-time, and I wonder if it might be that old foe of mine - burnout. Watching Doctor Who at the pace of an episode per day is usually quite a nice way to experience the series, and I’ve found that it’s immeasurably helped a number of stories improve in my estimation. Now and then, though, you just find yourself seeing more and more of the same, and start to tire of it!

I think perhaps the best bit of the episode is the explosion at the end. It feels like quite a long time since we had a really decent exploding model shot to round off a story, and it’s good to see that the effects team haven’t lost their touch in the interim. It’s not all a loss, either - although I’ve not cared all that much for the last few day’s episodes, we’re onto The Stones of Blood next, and I’ve always thought of that one as being my favourite segment from the Key to Time…

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 507: The Pirate Planet, Episode Three

Dear diary,

I’m like a yo-yo with this one. Episode One really didn’t do it for me. Episode Two put things back on track somewhat. Today’s episode has just left me… cold. I’m not sure what it is, really, because there’s a lot in the episode that I really should be enjoying. The dialogue continues to be quite witty (indeed, I think it’s here that the story is really working), there’s some nice design work on display, and today we even get to watch K9 have a fight with a metal parrot! All that, but I’m still finding my attention wandering. There were a few moments during today’s episode where I actually zoned out, leaving me somewhat confused as to what’s actually happening (The Captain is sucking the life force out of these planets, yes? The result of this is that a black hole will be formed, maybe? That’s where I’d started to let my attention lapse a bit, so I’m not completely sure…

To that end… I don’t really have all that much to say on the subject of today’s instalment. All my notes are centred around the dialogue, taking down exchanges that at least raise a smile, if not produce a genuine laugh. I think the highlight has to be “You don’t want to take over the universe, do you? No, you wouldn’t know what to do with it. Beyond shout at it…” There’s plenty of other lines I could happily quote for you here, but I think I’ll leave it at that. It’s tricky not to mention Tom Baker’s cry of “THEN WHAT’S IT FOR?!?!?”, though…

There came a point during today’s episode where I wondered if I just didn’t ‘get’ Douglas Adams’ sense of humour, and if that might be what was stopping me from enjoying the story as much as I’d like to. A quick call round to a friend later and I found myself listening to the first episode of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series. Hitchhiker’s is obviously Adams’ most famous work, and it’s particularly pertinent to this story, because he was writing the first series interchangeably with the script to The Pirate Planet - both commissions having arrived at once. Due to the different lead times in production, the radio series made it to air a little bit quicker than this story did, and the first episode was broadcast between Parts Five and Six of The Invasion of Time.

I’m pleased to report that I really enjoyed the episode, and soon found myself letting the CD run on to the next episode, too. And then the one after that. I’ve heard the first three now, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I’d imagine that I’ll take the opportunity to have a listen to the rest of this first series at least, and then I might even venture as far as hearing some of the later ones, too. It’s easy to see the links between his radio work and this story (Indeed, there’s a few lines which I’m sure crop up in both!), so it’s just a shame that his first foray into Doctor Who is leaving me so cold… 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 506: The Pirate Planet, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I was cautious going into today’s episode. Having not enjoyed the first instalment of The Pirate Planet, I spoke to a couple of friends to gauge their reaction to the story. One confirmed that they were ‘bored stiff’ throughout, while the other told me that the direction did a dull story no favours. It worries me when things like hat happen, because I fear that I’m heading for another one of those stories which I just can’t get into - the Dominators and Cure of Peladon type tales, which are destined to languish somewhere towards the bottom of my ratings no matter what.

Thankfully, though, I’ve actually liked this episode a lot more than yesterday’s one! One of the things that I’m quite enjoying (sorry, Nick!) is the direction of things! I don’t know if that’s because my mind is trying to consciously enjoy it more knowing that I’m not supposed to, but little moments - like the way the Captain wanders down a line of his workers and then leans around them - really appeal to me. I’m even quite impressed with the effects work on display, too! The first time we see the Polyphase Avatron rise from his owner’s shoulder and fly off to attack someone is well realised, but it then left me with another worry…

I suddenly remembered being less than impressed with the flying car sequences in the story. Sure enough, it’s only a few minutes before Romana is led to a flying car by a set of guards. But you know what? I thought those scenes came off rather well, too! Perhaps more noticeable during the later sequence of the Doctor in one of the vehicles, it’s things like the wind blowing through the character’s hair which really sells the effect to me, and there’s a lot less fringing on them than in stories such as Horror of Fang Rock. Is it just that I’m tired today, and therefore not noticing the bad bits, or am I completely wrong and it’s not even CSO? Either way, I’m impressed.

I’m even somewhat amazed at how well things are being dropped in to help you piece things together. I did know that this planet materialised around others and robbed them of minerals, but I love the way it’s threaded through the tale. Romana gives a basic description of how the TARDIS works (dematerialising in one location, travelling through the vortex, and dematerialising in a new location - the Ninth Doctor manages to give an even more succinct version of that in a later story), and that same description, or a variation if it, comes back into play later when discussing the planet. Then you’ve got Romana realising what the broken component of the machine is, and the discovery that it’s similar to a bit of TARDIS tech.

And yet, there’s still things that don’t quite work for me. I can’t make myself like the power plant section of the high-tech base - it just doesn’t feel in-keeping with the rest of the design in the story. There’s also the mine workings, which look just too much like 19th - 20th century Earth mines. Oh, sure, they add in a few lines about the fact that it used to be done like that and no one in living memory has used the equipment, but then it still feels out of place.

There’s everything to play for with The Pirate Planet, I fear. I doubt it’s ever going to come out with a stellar score, but it could either claw its way up to ‘average’, or sink right down to the bottom. I genuinely have no idea which way it’s going to go…

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 505: The Pirate Planet, Episode One

Dear diary,

I really need to start today’s entry with something of a confession. As much as I’m bound to be scoffed at for this: I’ve never actually experienced The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. What I mean by that is that I’ve never read any of the books, or heard the radio play, or seen the TV series. I have seen the movie that they did a few years ago, but I can remember so little of it that I genuinely can’t remember a thing - I may as well not have seen it. To this end, I don’t really know of Douglas Adams outside of the fact that he worked on Doctor Who in the 1970s. I’ve seen City of Death, his other (finished) contribution to the programme, and I know that he was Script Editor for a time, but aside from that, I’ve got nothing. Sorry.

It’s perhaps because of that fact that The Pirate Planet has entirely failed to grab me with this opening episode. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect from it. This is a story which I know the basic premise of, I know who a few of the characters are, I know what the segment of the Key to Time is disguised as… but they’ve always been simply facts, stored away in the back of my head somewhere. I must have seen the story before, on that watch through when the series first came out on DVD, but six years on, those memories are about as useless as the ones for the Hitchhiker’s film.

Now, I can’t really claim that it didn’t grab me at all. There were a few lines which managed to raise a laugh from me (K9’s suggestion that Romana has better luck with the locals because she’s more attractive than the Doctor, for example, really got a hoot - I’m glad that in his new ‘incarnation’, the tin dog has lost none of his sarcastic edge). Then there’s the Doctor’s question ‘excuse me, are you sure that this planet is supposed to be here?’, and everything about Romana trying to learn about piloting the TARDIS properly (complete with the Doctor ripping pages from the manual). There’s lots of little bits which did work for me, but they were sadly few and far between.

I think I was turned off almost from the start. There’s some model shots which are far from being the programme’s best, and much of the episode is filled with the kind of bland sci-fi nonsense that I just don’t care about. Coming from The Ribos Operation, in which we were presented with a world full of history, and culture, with a religion and a social hierarchy that I could really believe in, this feels like something of a slap in the face. People talk of the good times coming back, there’s strange mystical nonsense going on, and the costumes are leaving little to be desired.

And then, seemingly from nowhere, we cut to a group of the characters walking across a field! I have absolutely no context for the field. We’ve seen parts of the city. There’s a large square (which, if a little bare, is actually an impressive set due to the sheer size of it), and some spacious living accommodation. There’s the high-tech lair of the half-robot Captain and his metal parrot… and then there’s suddenly a field from absolutely nowhere. It feels out of place, and having spent so long praising the world of Ribos, I’m really struggling to get behind this one. Still, it’s early days yet, and I’m hoping things will pick up once our heroes are really caught up in the story.

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 504: The Ribos Operation, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Looking back over the last couple of days, I think I’ve been a bit too harsh on Tom Baker. I’ve complained a lot recently about him not really taking the programme seriously, and I think that I’ve broadly come to equate any scene where he smiles too broadly with that sense of not doing his job. But, actually, it’s all a part of this Doctor’s character at this point. He can sit, and smile, and laugh with Garron when they’re imprisoned, safe in the knowledge that K9 is on the way to rescue them. It feels somehow right that he can fit in with this kind of person, in much the same way that the Third Doctor doesn’t feel out of place when interacting with high-ranking members of society.

I guess what I’m really waiting for is the Doctor to take a fall. It’s that same thing that I discussed under The Invasion of Time - when he starts getting too sure of himself (and I’m sure that the Fourth Doctor has), then it’s time for him to go. I’m wondering if that means Season Eighteen will come as a real breath of fresh air in a couple of months time? I’m hoping so, because as much as I can enjoy this version of the Doctor, I fear that it’s starting to grate a little.

Still, this story does boast quite an impressive guest cast - and they’re really giving their all to the roles. It’s going to sound like I’m beating the same old drum over and over again, but they really help to imbue Ribos with a sense of being something more than just This Week’s Planet. I think chief among the guest cast has to be Timothy Bateson as Binro. He only joined the cast halfway through the story, and has what is really a minor role in the story, but I genuinely care for the character when he dies. It’s not often that you find that with the guest characters, so I think it points to being something truly special with this one. It’s fair to say that the part is somewhat hammy and over-played at times… but I think that’s all a big part of the charm, and it actually works.

Someone else that I need to draw attention to today is George Spenton-Foster on directing duties. This is his second and final Doctor Who story, and I’ve had relatively little to say about his work on this occasion, in stark contrast to Image of the Fendahl, in which his role in the story was all I could talk about! The direction of this story has felt far more run-of-the-mill than it did during the last one, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In Fendahl, I thought the direction actually distracted me from the story, whereas here it’s just helping to tell the tale. He’s really managed to marshall the troops to make the best out of this one, too, and while I’m sure being the first story into production for the year must have helped (I dread to think what the budget will be like by the end of the season), he’s certainly done a fantastic job.

I think I was most impressed right at the end of the story, as the Doctor and Romana turn the lump of Jethrik back into a segment from the Key to Time. It sits on the table in front of them, as the camera pulls in to remove it from the shot. I assumed that when we pulled back out, a stage-hand would have swapped the prop with one of the crystal segments, but that’s not the case - we actually get to see the transformation a few minutes later. Is it the best effect the programme has ever achieved? Well, no. Is it a passable one? It is. As the Doctor says - that’s one down, and five to go. We’re off to a good start for this long story… 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 503: The Ribos Operation, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Because The Ribos Operation is a Robert Holmes script, I’m supposed to be telling you how ‘wonderful’ the double act of Garron and Unstoffe is, but that’s not really grabbing me all that much. For a start, I think that Jago and Litefoot may have managed to steal all the thunder on that front! No, I’m still more interested in the planet of Ribos itself, and everything that comes as a part of that.

I mused yesterday that because it’s styled as being a historical adventure that just happens to take place in the history of a planet other than Earth, it feels far more realistic than something in sterile white corridors and with bizarre ‘space’ make up would give us. The connection to Russian style of centuries past simply helps to reinforce the fact that this is real, identifiable history. But then today’s story really takes the fact that this is an alien world and runs with it. Put simply, this is the most rounded alien planet that Doctor Who has ever given us - certainly up to this point in the series, and I’d make the case for it being the most rounded location ever.

It’s mainly helped by the introduction of Binro the Heretic in today’s episode. There’s something wonderful about the idea that every world needs to go through that ‘Galileo moment’, and that certainly helps to add to the idea that we’re looking at a civilisation with a rigid set of beliefs. Simply from the guard’s recognition of the man, and Binro’s later description of the events taking place some time ago, you get a real sense that events were happening on Ribos long before the TARDIS touched down here. I really feels as though he has a history in this world, and his later descriptions of the way the people of this world believe in the various gods and the way that their religion works really do help to create a world that’s different to the norm.

This has quickly become my favourite aspect of the story, and I think it’s the finest writing that Holmes has ever crafted for the series. While he’s never been short of good concepts, unique characters, or sparkling dialogue, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so adept at creating a very real world, populated by very real people. Even when we make it down into the catacombs and are given legends that they were built so long ago that no one really knows how far they stretch it all feels very true to me, and I can’t really convey what an effect that’s having on me.

It’s a shame, then, that I’m not all that struck by the story that’s populating this rich and vibrant world. The Doctor has slipped back into being a bit of a smug know-it-all again (and it certainly feels like Tom Baker going overboard again, All that restraint he was showing so well when faced with the Guardian the other day seems to have been completely swept out of the window), but I’m loving the fact that his relationship with Romana has already started to thaw out. There’s some beautiful shots in this episode when the pair put their heads together for private conversations, and it feels both friendly, and completely different to the kind of thing I’d expect from Leela, or even Sarah Jane. It’s lovely to watch this relationship forming, and I hope it continues to grow over the coming stories in the season.

We’ve also got the first instance I’ve found of K9 being a bit of a cop out. The Doctor and his companion are locked up! There’s a massacre about to occur! There’s little chance of making any kind of escape…! But it’s ok, because the Doctor has got a new dog whistle, and K9 is able to come to the rescue, immobilising the guard for them and then becoming their bodyguard as they move into the catacombs. While there’s a part of me which looks forward to the idea that we might get to see him fight with a shrivenzale in the next episode, I can see how this kind of get out could start to become very wearisome…

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 502: The Ribos Operation, Episode Two

Dear diary,

During The Sun Makers, I pointed out that - with very few modifications - it could almost be a historical story, set at any time in Earth’s past. The Ribos Operation is, if anything, even more like a story from history. Obviously, the setting takes cues from Russian design, particularly in the costumes, and the entire serial can only really be described as ‘lavish’. Looking back, only Peladon has really had the same ‘historic’ vibe in a ‘space’ story, and even that is somewhat stepped on by the presence of the Federation and all their various aliens. This is the first time that we’ve ever really been given a world that’s set out among the stars, a setting that would usually be all shiny and high-tech, or at least futuristic, and presented it to us as going through its own middle ages period of history. It’s really quite fun to watch.

I love a good castle set, and the BBC always do them so well. Here, we’re being treated to a miriad of different rooms that all really do feel like they’re part of the same architectural style. It’s always easier, I find, to connect with the Doctor’s adventures when they’re set in a location thats identifiably ‘real’, and this is one of them. For all the talk of ‘Jethrik’, and cosmic alliances, this is a story set on a developing world, into which these space-age characters have simply been dropped.

I think ‘dropped’ is certainly the right word to use describing the Doctor and Romana’s presence in this story. They’ve not really found an awful lot to do yet - struggling to get their hands on the segment they need by conventional means, and planning to swipe it from someone they think might well be their rival in proceedings. Indeed, I think it’s almost a shame that we know the Doctor is wrong about that - because it might actually add some much-needed tension to the story. So far, even during the cliffhanger to the first episode, in which Dr Who’s assistant is menaced by the traditional green monster, it doesn’t feel like there’s any real threat.

It feels as though things might be starting to gain traction from here, though. I know there’s several characters in the story who have yet to put in an appearance, so I’m guessing that the tale will be veering off in a slightly different direction from tomorrow. Actually, and for the first time in ages, I’m looking forward to seeing how the Doctor gets out of the current cliffhanger. He looks genuinely surprised to see that they’ve been captured (even more surprised than when the Sontarans part-way through the last story), and I’m actually excited to see where we go next. Perhaps more importantly, I’m looking forward to seeing how they finally get their hands on the segment of the Key that they need before leaving Ribos. At this point, I’m staking my bet that they simply end up swiping it during a struggle in the final episode and leg it to the TARDIS, but I’m hoping there’s something a bit more cunning involved than that! 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 501: The Ribos Operation, Episode One

Dear diary,

The Doctor might describe some days as being ‘Temporal Tipping Points’ - special days which are so full of important (in some sense of the word) events. For me, there’s always 24th September 2007. Not only was it my very first day of University, but it was also the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures Series One (following the pilot episode some nine months earlier). As if all of that wasn’t exciting enough, it was also the release date for not one, or two, or even three new Doctor Who DVDs… but for six of them! 24th September 2007 was the release date for the set of Key to Time stories, Doctor Who’s entire Sixteenth Season. But there was a problem.

The fact that the set contained six brand new releases was special enough (and more than had been collected together at any other point in the range), but it was also a limited edition, in a nice box designed to look like the Key to Time itself. Ah, but the internet was awash with rumours. No-one was quite sure exactly how many sets there were going to be, and people who worked in various entertainment stores confirmed that they’d only be getting one or two copies in, and that they’d been unable to order any more, because the suppliers had run out already. There was no way I was going to miss it, which meant that I’d have to hurry up to Woolworths before heading off to University first thing. The only problem was… Woolworths didn’t actually open until the exact minute that my very first day of Higher Education was supposed to begin, and there was no way I could possibly be late for my very first day!

Well, we can all guess what happened. Nine o’clock came, and I was waiting outside Woolworths. Degree be damned. To be fair, all these years on, I can’t even remember what grade I achieved at University. I passed, that’s good enough for me. I sat through the day as they explained the way the course would work for the first year, then hurried him in time to catch Miss Smith battling the Slitheen. And then I settled in to start watching Season Sixteen. I decided to ration myself - a few episodes a night. Yes, this was the most ‘new’ classic Doctor Who I’d ever bought in a single hit before, but there was no point in rushing through it all too quickly!

I can’t recall mush of the season, looking back. I know that The Stones of Blood was my favourite of the bunch, and I’m sorry to say that I know I was thoroughly bored by pretty much everything else. Ever since then, I’ve consciously skipped over these six stories if choosing a Doctor Who DVD to while away a Sunday afternoon. General reception seems to be pretty mixed, all told. Some people swear by the season (indeed, some claim that it’s the programme’s final hurrah before getting steadily worse from here on out), while others think that it’s tedious, and dull, and everything I seemed to think that it was back in the day.

And yet… I think I’ve rather liked today’s episode. I’ll warn you now that I’m not really going to be discussing the story or anything too much like that in this entry - there’s another three days in which we can get around to all that! - I’ll be focussing today, really, on the first ten minutes or so of the episode. It’s something of a brave voice to introduce the entire arc of the season in what is effectively a massive info-dump right at the top of the first episode (hey, kids! Doctor Who is back on TV, and he’s chatting to an elderly man in a chair!), but there’s a lot to enjoy about it. That shot of the TARDIS being plunged into total darkness before the roundels become backlit and a blinding glow floods through the doors is beautiful, and it’s always been my favourite image of the ‘classic’ style console room. Back when I used to make up Doctor Who stories and take photos of the action figures acting them out, I always found excuses for the TARDIS to look like it does here.

And then I even quite enjoy the exchange between the Doctor and the Guardian. As I’ve said, it really boils down to a massive explanation of what this season is going to be about, but there’s some nice little moments in there. I love the threat that if the Doctor doesn’t co-operate then nothing will happen to him (…ever), and there’s something quite surreal, and perfectly Doctor Who about the most powerful being in the universe sipping his drink in a wicker chair while he explains the stakes to our hero. Most of all, though, I love that the Doctor is brought down to size, almost. Right the way through his conversation with the Guardian, the Doctor is trying to keep his flippant arrogance in check (not very well, it has to be said), while remembering that he’s addressing, basically, God. I’ve mused before about the fact that the Doctor is getting s bit big for his boots, and Tom Baker is starting to think of himself as being irreplaceable, so it’s nice to have a moment like this which cuts him down a little.

Then there’s Romana! Mary Tamm has massive shoes to fill following on from Louise Jameson (though the pair were contemporaries at drama school, so I have high hopes!), and I’m not sure she’s made the best first impression. Romana is tricky to judge so far, because she’s supposed to be slightly unlikable and superior, and that’s exactly how she’s coming across. I’m going to enjoy watching her own character arc unfold across the season (and beyond, once she’s regenerated), and see how much I like her by the end…