May 26: The Claws of Axos Episodes Two & Three

It's a bit odd; other than a couple moments where Axos scans humans to find out about them, and the indication that they're lying about their sales pitch to the humans, there's no real indication that Axos is in fact malicious -- but episode two just assumes that of course they're bad and trying to take over/drain the planet.  But the only thing preventing worldwide distribution of axonite is that Chinn has taken charge, hoarding the supply for Britain and locking up all the UNIT people and anyone who might disagree or spill the beans.  He really is easy to dislike, isn't he?  And note that it's not just the audience that feels this way; even his superiors seem rather annoyed with him, warning him that it's his "head on the block" if things go wrong.

We also learn that it was the Master who told the Axons to come to Earth, that it would be a planet perfect for their needs.  Of course, now they're holding him hostage to make sure everything works the way he said it would -- only things aren't going their way, so they have to release him so that he can tell the rest of the world about axonite.  Apparently there's a "best by" date on axonite, and it needs to be as widespread as possible.

But the main thrust of this episode is the Doctor's effort to learn more about axonite, which he ultimately does (after a number of arguments with Winser about the best way to go about it, which leads into some guff about time travel) by sticking it into a light accelerator and having it analyze itself -- only this apparently causes the axonite to activate early, which means that the Axons have to shut it down before it's too late.  But this causes the Doctor to realize that axonite is the same stuff as Axos which is the same stuff as the Axons -- they're all the same: "Don't you see we're dealing with one single living creature?  Axonite was just the dormant state until I activated it...  This stuff could endanger the entire world!"

An Axon attacks two UNIT soldiers. (The Claws of Axos
Episode Three) ©BBC

Episode three might be the best one so far, even though the Doctor and Jo spend most of it captured inside Axos, where the Doctor is interrogated about the secrets of time travel.  It seems Axos wants to have all of time to feed on, and that's why they've been holding the Master prisoner. But he's free and, having told the world about axonite (via a hypnotized UNIT radio operator), he's now waiting inside the Doctor's TARDIS.  Which means we get our first look inside the TARDIS since The War Games -- and our first look at the redesigned TARDIS console.  Only, bravely, they've shown it in a state of disrepair, as the Doctor has clearly been tinkering with it trying to make it work.  "But what does he think he's doing?" the Master despairs, looking at all the loose wiring on the console.  "What a botch-up!"  (And even when he's made some repairs, he's still unhappy with the results: "Oh, hopeless!  Overweight, under-powered old museum piece!... You may as well try to fly a second-hand gas stove!")

But Axos has determined, meanwhile, that if they absorb the output of the main nuclear reactor at Nuton, they'll have enough energy to achieve time travel.  And since all of Axos is connected, they send an Axon into the heart of the reactor to absorb that power.  Once the Master realizes what's happening (and that he can't escape from Earth), he decides to work with UNIT to stop Axos before it's too late -- and with the Doctor gone, they have no choice but to go along with it.   His plan is to store the nuclear energy in the Doctor's TARDIS and then send it all to Axos in one go, overloading it.  "What else can we do?" asks Hardiman, the director of the complex.  "Oh, nothing very much.  Oh, I suppose you can take the normal precautions against nuclear blast, like sticky tape on the windows and that sort of thing," the Master replies marvelously.  There's just one problem with this plan: as the Doctor and Jo are still being held inside Axos, when it goes up they go up with it.  But as the Master says, "Either we destroy Axos or Axos destroys the world."  And so the Brigadier has no choice but to let the Master proceed...

May 25: The Mind of Evil Episode Six / The Claws of Axos Episode One

Well, turns out it wasn't Mailer's pistol going off; it was the Brigadier shooting Mailer.  What a cheat of a resolution.  Although full marks to the Doctor's ungrateful response: "Thank you, Brigadier.  But do you think that for once in your life you could manage to arrive before the nick of time?"

The parasite inside the Keller Machine. (The Mind of Evil
Episode Six) ©BBC

It's an odd episode, this -- particularly for a closing installment.  Rather than a race against time to stop the Master's evil scheme, the attitude here is one of mopping up.  There's still the matter of the Keller Machine and the Thunderbolt missile, but the Doctor thinks he can stop the former and the Brigadier is confident he can handle the latter.  It's only a curious conversation between the Master and the Doctor, where the Master agrees to take his dematerialization circuit in exchange for control of Thunderbolt, that really sets the final act in motion.  And since the Doctor has learned that Barnham causes the parasite inside the Keller Machine to go dormant, he can use that to his advantage.  So a plan is formulated where the Doctor will distract the Master long enough to get the Keller Machine out and near him, and then blow them all up with the abort function on the Thunderbolt missile (once the Doctor can reconnect it).  The most curious part of this, though, is the Doctor's willingness to leave the Master to die, at the mercy of either the Keller Machine or an atomic explosion.  It seems rather out of keeping with how we like to think of the Doctor typically behaving.  In the end, it's only the intervention of Barnham (who apparently can't bear to see someone suffer) that saves the Master's life, leaving him to escape with the dematerialization circuit after callously killing Barnham by hitting him with a car.  And then the episode ends with the Master taunting the Doctor over the telephone: "So, we won't be seeing you for quite some time," the Doctor says.  "Not for quite some time.  But one day, I will destroy this miserable planet and you along with it.  Goodbye, Doctor.  Oh, by the way, enjoy your exile." 

It's a bit of a curious story overall.  There are times when it feels like Doctor Who's answer to a James Bond film (and it's been three years since their last attempt, 1967-68's The Enemy of the World) -- particularly the bit with the missile and the Peace Conference -- but these get interspersed with the stuff about the Keller Machine, which is a lot more like a B-movie.  These two approaches are both fine, but they never quite gel together to form a cohesive whole.  Still, it looks great, and there's enough incident here to keep the audience happily entertained.  And the Master firmly establishes himself as a threat in his own right, even more so than in Terror of the Autons.  This alone makes The Mind of Evil worth watching.

Next up is The Claws of Axos and the debut of the "Bristol Boys" (as Terrance Dicks nicknamed them), writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin.  It certainly starts promisingly, as a strange golden ship flies through space, being tracked by UNIT radar, with (presumably) weird red tentacled monster-like creatures aboard (fandom often describes them as "spaghetti bolognese monsters").  But then we cut to an incredibly officious chap from the Ministry of Defence named Chinn, who is clearly earmarked to be as obstructive as possible throughout this story, and Peter Bathurst (last "seen" in The Power of the Daleks as Governor Hensell) plays him in such a way as to engender no sympathy in the viewers whatsoever.  And add into the mix Paul Grist as an American agent (presumably CIA, but it's never explicitly stated) named Bill Filer who's there to discuss the Master (in case we'd forgotten about him since last week), and we have a mix ripe for conflict.

Into this situation comes the golden spaceship, apparently called Axos, which lands on the southeast coast of England near the (fictional) Nuton Power Complex, after Chinn tries and fails to shoot it (Axos, not Nuton) out of the sky.  "There are freak weather conditions over the whole area... Sudden snowstorms, sir.  Dense fog's covering the area," Corporal Bell reports, in order to explain the ludicrous filming conditions experienced by the location crew.  So we're treated to the amazing sight of the tramp named Pigbin Josh cycling through snowy fields, looking through trash piles and mumbling incoherently to himself.  It looks an awful lot like they've decided to insert part of an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus into this thing (and the fact that David G. Marsh, playing the second radar technician, bears a resemblance to Terry Jones doesn't help this any).  His story ends when a glowing yellow tentacle ensnares him and drags him into Axos.

Our heroes, on the other hand, are invited in.  Here we really get to see the interior of Axos, which looks a lot like the designers have decided to take full advantage of this new color system Doctor Who is being made in, so we get rather creepy organic textures painted in lots of lurid shades of red, purple, and gold.  The other thing we see (not that the Doctor and company know it yet) is that Axos is holding the Master prisoner.  So, "not for quite some time" translated to roughly 18 minutes or so then.  (Or a week and 18 minutes, if you want to think of it in terms of the original broadcast.)  We find this out because Bill Filer (who's around because of the Master, remember) decides to go investigate Axos on his own and gets captured.  "Who are you?" Filer asks the man he's there to help track down.  What, did UNIT not even provide a photograph of the Master?

The Axons themselves appear to the Doctor's party as golden-skinned humanoids, there with a promise of limitless energy and power in exchange for a bit of power to refuel their spaceship.  Somewhat naturally, the Doctor seems suspicious: "And yet you still ran out of fuel?" he asks after the properties of the Axons' gift, a substance called axonite, are described.  But Chinn is more blinded by the thought of limitless fuel for England.  We'll have to see how that works out for them in future episodes, though, as episode one ends with a shot of the hideous spaghetti monster appearing in front of Jo Grant, who naturally screams as a result.

May 24: The Mind of Evil Episodes Four & Five

The Master's fear is made manifest. (The Mind of Evil
Episode Four) ©BBC

It's slightly muddled by later dialogue (which seems to suggest that the Master wanted the Doctor's help all along), but it looks like the reason the Doctor isn't left to be killed by the Keller Machine isn't because the Master needs him, but because the Keller Machine is growing so strong that it's affecting everyone in that part of the prison: we see prisoners slumped over, and even the Master has to struggle to overcome its effect.  The really interesting moment of this, therefore, is that we get to see the Master's fear: the Doctor, larger than life, laughing mockingly at the Master.  It's not a moment that's dwelt on, but it gives us a fascinating insight into the Master's character.  Not bad for only his second story.

But as a result of his ordeal with the Keller Machine ("You wanted to know how long I could hold out against that machine.  Well, the answer is I can't.  Nobody can"), the Doctor slips into his third coma in six stories.  It's probably not intentional, but this is starting to become the defining characteristic of this Doctor; consider, after all, the number of times the first and second Doctors went into self-healing comas (none for Hartnell, once for Troughton in The Wheel in Space) and then compare it with the third.  Of course, this does lead to director Timothy Combe's lovely dissolve from the Doctor's unconscious face to the Master's worried one, about ten minutes into episode four.

And this is the episode where the third major plotline comes into play: the Master has a plan to hijack the Thunderbolt missile, conveniently being transported right past Stangmoor Prison.  This, it seems, is why the Master has taken Stangmoor over.  And, oddly, the Doctor doesn't seem the least bit surprised by this development -- as if it's perfectly natural for the Master to try and steal a missile that up to this point has had nothing to do with the plot (at least as far as the Doctor is concerned).  But we do get an exciting setpiece as the prisoners attack the UNIT escort, leading to Sergeant Benton with a head trauma under a van, and Captain Yates with a wounded hand but still enough resolve to follow the stolen missile on a motorbike.

However, even with a stolen nuclear-powered missile full of nerve gas in the Master's possession, the focus of the cliffhanger is still on the eponymous Mind of Evil, the Keller Machine.  We learn that not only is there in fact a living parasite inside the thing, but that it's grown strong enough to teleport around, killing people (and presumably feeding off their "evil") in the process.

The first part of episode five feels like a bit of a delaying action.  We don't learn anything new and nothing of note happens, beyond the Brigadier working out that Stangmoor is the likeliest place for the Master to be operating from.  Well, that's not completely fair; the Master does tell Yates how he was able to capture the missile (with a nice line from the Master near the top of the scene: "All right, Captain.  You can stop pretending to be unconscious now"), but that's about it.  Oh, and we're introduced to UNIT's Major Cosworth, who's clearly intended to be an upper-class "traditional" style of officer, designed to be a contrast with the more practical Brigadier.  But he's so earnest and honest in how he goes about his business that you can't help but like him, even when he's unintentionally treading on the Brigadier's toes.  It's a shame he was never brought back.

Mailer threatens the Doctor's life. (The Mind of Evil Episode
Five) ©BBC

Another thing worth noting is how, after getting the Doctor to help him control the Keller Machine by threatening Jo, the Master's attitude toward the Doctor becomes awfully deferential.  He seems eager to help the Doctor with his plan, and the impression given is less of someone forced to rely on his archenemy for assistance and more that of two friends working toward a common goal.  It's another intriguing look into the Master and the Doctor's relationship.

But what the whole episode is building toward is UNIT's efforts to retake Stangmoor, as the Brigadier heads undercover with a handful of picked men to infiltrate the prison, thus avoiding having to lay siege to a fortress.  Meanwhile, Benton takes some men to a secret passage that leads directly into the prison (er, yes...).  It's fun to see the action sequence, and we also get to see how good a shot the Brigadier is, as he picks off a number of prisoners with deadly accuracy.  But all the commotion has led Mailer to take the Doctor and Jo hostage, to aid his escape -- and when Jo attempts to knock Mailer down, Mailer grabs Jo and points his gun at the Doctor: "I warned you.  I only need one of you."  And then we see the gun go off!  Now that's a cliffhanger.

May 23: The Mind of Evil Episodes Two & Three

Good thing Jo's around to save the Doctor from imagined fire, even if he seems rather ungrateful for the rescue.  Still, we learn why the Doctor saw fire (though Jo apparently didn't; this will be a bit curious when we get to the resolution in episode three of the next cliffhanger, where everyone sees the pink dragon); he had recently visited a world which "just disappeared in flames" -- undoubtedly a reference to Inferno, which Don Houghton also wrote.  It's still a nice bit of continuity though.

But there's no time to deal with the Keller Machine, as the Doctor is needed to investigate the Chinese delegate's death.  This leads to a nice little moment where the Doctor and the new delegate, Fu Peng, converse in Hokkien, much to the Brigadier's bemusement.  Of course, it does mean that we're already poking fun at the Brigadier's expense, but at least in this case it arises naturally from the situation.  It's perhaps more alarming to hear the Doctor refer to Mao Zedong as a personal friend -- you'd think Mao's policies would be the antithesis of everything the Doctor stands for.  But in any event, the Doctor soon surmises a link between the previous delegate's death and the deaths seemingly caused by the Keller Machine at Stangmoor Prison.  We learn that Captain Chin Lee is the link, and that she's been used by the Master.  Yes, we got an episode without him (and the Radio Times didn't spoil the surprise), but he's already back, being chauffeured around while smoking cigars and listening in on UNIT phone conversations.  He's certainly a lot more suave in this story than in Terror of the Autons (and considering how suave he was in that, that's saying something), and interestingly, the story, with its three separate storylines (the prison, the World Peace Conference, and the Thunderbolt nuclear missile), snaps into focus.  And while we've been primarily following the Peace Conference thread, an attempted takeover of Stangmoor by the inmates takes place, with Jo still inside.  But that's not the cliffhanger: instead we have Chin Lee, under the Master's orders, attempting to kill the American delegate by transforming into a giant pink dragon...

The Master hooks the Doctor up to the Keller Machine. (The
Mind of Evil Episode Three) ©BBC

It's clear in episode three that the Doctor, the Brigadier, and Fu Peng, who burst into the room in time to save Senator Alcott, can all see the pink dragon -- hence the curiosity of Jo not seeing flames at the start of the previous episode.  Our heroes also discover the telepathic transmitter on Chin Lee, and the Doctor quickly figures out that this is the work of the Master.  But here the focus shifts from the Peace Conference back to the prison (with an occasional sidestep to the Thunderbolt missile -- at one point hilariously represented as a photographic backdrop that Benton urgently gestures at).  Jo manages to thwart the inmates' insurrection, thanks to a distraction from Barnham (the convict with all the evil sucked out from episode one) and some quick moves of her own; she can definitely hold her own.  So much so that the Master travels in person to Stangmoor, posing as his alias Dr. Emil Keller, just so he can help the inmates take over the prison again and lay a trap for the Doctor, who's also returning to Stangmoor.  There's a really wonderful scene where the Master and the Doctor are merrily chatting away with each other, with the Master holding the Doctor at gunpoint the whole time.  You get the sense not just that these two are old adversaries, but also that Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado share a deep rapport that extends into their acting.  Great stuff.

And then the Doctor attempts an escape, but he's quickly recaptured by the Master, who hooks him up to the Keller Machine and turns it on...

May 22: Terror of the Autons Episode Four / The Mind of Evil Episode One

It doesn't take the Doctor long to be freed from the telephone cord the Master trapped him in last time; the Brigadier comes in and pulls the cord from the wall and the signal is cut.  It takes a little longer, though, to figure out how the daffodils are activated and how they kill people.  And yet when the Doctor does figure it out (via the near-asphyxiation of Jo), that plot is curiously abandoned.  Oh sure, the Master refers to it as part of the invasion plan, but beyond that, nothing.  We certainly don't see people around the nation being killed by plastic-squirting daffodils, which is really what this plot needs.

The Autons attack the UNIT forces. (Terror of the Autons
Episode Four) ©BBC

The main draw to this episode though isn't killer daffodils but rather an actual meeting between the Doctor and the Master.  Before they've been dancing around each other but never in the same room together; this episode fixes that.  Of course, it seems like the Master has the upper hand for most of the time: holding the Doctor and Jo at gunpoint, leading them to the coach where the Autons are waiting so as to prevent an air strike, preparing the radio telescopes for the arrival of the main Nestene force...really, it's only the fact that the Doctor convinces the Master that the Nestene will kill him too, leading the Master to (briefly) switch sides to send the Nestene packing, that ends up thwarting the invasion plan.  And then the Master escapes, leading the Doctor to callously say how much he's looking forward to their next meeting of death and destruction.  The git.

As a four-part introduction to the Master, Terror of the Autons works quite well; placing him at the center of a known threat and putting him in control of that threat is a good move.  Yet I find that this is a story that's easier to admire than it is to actually like.  There are lots of memorable and effective scenes, with some fun one-liners (such as the Master on McDermott's death: "He sat down in this chair here and just slipped away"), but it doesn't quite cohere into something substantial -- there's nothing really to sink one's teeth into. About Time described it as "the visual equivalent of four packets of Skittles", which is probably the best summation of this tale.  It's fun while it lasts, but there's not much beyond that.

But now we turn to the first episode of The Mind of Evil (or The Mind of Evul, if you're looking at the spine of the region 1 DVD).   Unlike, say, The Silurians or Terror of the Autons, there are no existing off-air color copies of The Mind of Evil.  Now, episodes two through six have been color recovered in the same manner as parts of The Ambassadors of Death, but when they made the black-and-white film copy of The Mind of Evil Episode One, they added a filter that got rid of the color pattern.  Consequently, this first episode has been manually colorized by Stuart "Babelcolour" Humphryes, who's done an absolutely sterling job.

We move from shenanigans with Autons and radio telescopes to a fortress prison, where a brand-new method of execution is being performed.  Except the condemned isn't killed; instead all the "evil" impulses in his mind⁵⁹ are drained away into something called the Keller Machine (after its inventor, Emil Keller), leaving the person with only good thoughts.  The Doctor seems rather worried about this idea (not to mention condescending; his constant asides to Jo during Professor Kettering's explanation are awfully rude, even if they are entertaining), and it would seem he's right to be.  People start dying around the machine, apparently based on their greatest fears; so a man who's afraid of rats dies from a heart attack, yet with claw marks all over his face and neck, while Professor Kettering himself, who's afraid of water, drowns to death in a completely dry room.

Meanwhile it seems that UNIT is handling both security for the World Peace Conference going on in London and transportation for some sort of missile.  Clearly they've got their hands full, so when the Chinese delegation, in the form of Captain Chin Lee, keep raising a fuss, it doesn't help matters any.  It seems that important papers have been stolen and Chin Lee is holding UNIT personally responsible.  "More trouble," the Brigadier says as she leaves.  "Mmm, pity," Yates replies.  "She's quite a dolly."  Sigh... Mike Yates, ladies and gentlemen.  But then we learn that Chin Lee is under some form of control, and she in fact took the papers.  It's therefore extra-suspicious that, when she calls UNIT to inform them that the Chinese delegate has been murdered, there seems to be almost a half an hour gap between when she discovered the body and when she called UNIT.

And meanwhile, the Doctor is left in the room with the Keller Machine when it starts to go off, at which point the Doctor appears to be engulfed in flames...







⁵⁹ Given that the idea of evil being an actual, measurable substance tends to go against a lot of what we're told in Doctor Who, some have suggested that "evil" in this case is another word for "testosterone". 

May 21: Terror of the Autons Episodes Two & Three

The Master invites McDermott to try one of the new plastic
chairs. (Terror of the Autons Episode Two) ©BBC

The hyperactive editing continues.  But if the first episode is focused more on introducing all the new characters, this one is focused on defining all the ways plastic is made dangerous in the hands of the Master and his allies the Nestene.  This means that we jump from plastic chairs smothering their occupants to hideous troll dolls strangling people to policemen who are really Autons in disguise (this last part supposedly getting writer Robert Holmes into a bit of trouble with the real police). And we also cut from location to location, with the UNIT lab, the plastics factory, Farrel Senior's home, and a circus all on prominent display.

The storyline itself isn't incredibly exciting -- it's all about the Master's efforts to kill the Doctor and anyone who gets in his way -- but the sense of energy engendered by both the edits and the performances more than makes up for this.  It moves at such a clip, in fact, that it's only in retrospect that you think how odd it is to have a story that takes place at both a plastics factory and a circus -- although the link such a pairing creates is rather tantalizing as one tries to work out what these two settings have in common.  As I said last time, this feels like a comic book with all the extraneous bits stripped out in favor of getting to the absolutely necessary/exciting stuff.  It should also be said that this energetic, comic-book-like feel is helped by the quite lurid color palette on display (an effect which might be exacerbated by the color restoration process, but I rather doubt it -- note how the title sequence appears to have been tinted magenta for this story).

Episode three continues in this vein.  We've got a fight in a quarry (with an impressive tumble from Terry Walsh as he's hit by a car), sinister Autons in giant smiling masks handing out plastic daffodils (shown to be dangerous even if we don't know how yet), the return of the killer troll doll, and an extra-long killer telephone cord installed by a telephone engineer who turns out to be the Master in disguise.  Against that we get an outrageous scene where the Doctor chews out a rather combative civil servant, threatening to mention him to his boss at "the club", before both parties end up looking rather sheepish about the whole thing, and Mike Yates trying to make cocoa for himself and Jo in the Doctor's lab.  It must be said, Richard Franklin as Mike Yates looks rather uncomfortable for most of this story, when he's called upon to do anything more than take orders from the Brigadier.

And finally we should note Dudley Simpson's score.  It sounds like he's been asked to deliver a purely synthesized score, which veers from quite effective (the theme that the Master gets, for instance) to weirdly intrusive (as with the bit where the Doctor and Jo hide from the Autons in the quarry).  It's not the first time he's done a score like this (Fury from the Deep features a similar approach to the music), but in this case the combination of the non-organic music and the previously-discussed visual style means that this, too, contributes to the non-natural feel of the serial.  This is a case where all the pieces are working together towards the same goal.  We'll have to see how it finishes up in the final episode.

May 20: Inferno Episode 7 / Terror of the Autons Episode One

Sutton and the Doctor take down the Primordized Professor
Stahlman. (Inferno Episode 7) ©BBC

So.  You've just seen a world destroyed by fire, lava, and earthquakes.  You find yourself back in your own dimension, to find that the drilling that caused the disaster in the other world could still be halted here before it's too late.  Would you stop the drilling not by calmly yet urgently explaining the danger but by raving like a lunatic and smashing random consoles with a wrench?

Still, there's enough going on that the Doctor's odd behavior (even if he has been under a lot of stress) ultimately doesn't matter.  People seem inclined to listen to the Doctor, even if only Professor Stahlman can apparently give the order to actually halt the project.  Fortunately for the planet, he comes out of the drilling room as a Primord, so his opinion doesn't carry much weight anymore.  The Earth is saved (once some last-minute rewiring by the Doctor happens).

But really, this episode succeeds because of the little moments.  Everyone justifiably mentions the "free will" scene ("So not everything runs parallel...  Yes, of course, of course.  An infinity of universes, ergo an infinite number of choices.  So free will is not an illusion after all. The pattern can be changed."), which really is a nice moment (and, fannishly, one might suggest that this is the moment where he really realizes that maybe you can change history, even one line -- compare with his position in The Aztecs back in the first season).  But there are smaller moments that are just as nice: Petra's growing affection for Greg; Sir Keith's reaction upon being told it's "excellent" that he's still alive ("Well, yes, yes, I think so too"); the Brigadier's response to the Doctor's claims of being of sound mind and body ("I'm not sick, I'm not in need of a doctor, and I'm not a raving idiot!") being exactly that of someone humoring a person who is in fact a raving idiot; and the lovely little hug that Liz and the Doctor share after the drilling has been stopped.  Add to that the tension of the clock running in the background before the drilling stops, where we know what will happen if penetration zero is reached, and this is quite a good episode -- not quite the equal of the "disaster movie" of episodes 5 and 6, but still very good.

Inferno is really a game of two halves: the first four episodes are primarily arguments in various forms and in two separate places, which allows some of the arguments to be repeated across episodes.  They're not the most exciting thing ever, and frankly this story is lucky to have Douglas Camfield and Barry Letts directing things, as in lesser hands these episodes would probably fall very flat; as it is, they manage to stay entertaining even if a bit repetitive.  But the second half of Inferno is where things really shine.  The end of the world sequences are very well done, and the tension is ratcheted up to a high level and maintained throughout, to the point that there's a bleed-over of this into episode 7 that also benefits that part, even though there the world is simply in danger of being destroyed rather than past the point.  It's because of these last three episodes, combined with the aforementioned excellent direction, that Inferno ultimately succeeds.  Everything before is simply building up to the moment of penetration zero and the end of the world.

It's also a moment of transition; Inferno is the last story of season 7, which means it's our last look not only at Arabic numerals for episode numbers (they're all spelled out from here on out) but also, more importantly, our final look at Liz Shaw (which may not be apparent, as she doesn't get a leaving scene).  She'll be gone next season, partly because she's pregnant here and so wouldn't have been able to return anyway, but mainly because producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks have decided that they need an assistant for the Doctor who's, to be frank, not very bright -- someone who the Doctor can therefore explain the plot to.  To be honest, they didn't seem to be having any problems doing that during this season, but nevertheless, it's the end of Liz Shaw, one of the smartest companions the Doctor ever had.  She really will be missed.

And so we say goodbye to season 7.  The shiny new color, new Doctor, and new format seems to have largely worked -- certainly they've largely halted the slow ratings slide the series had been experiencing prior to season 7, even if they haven't yet gained ground in this regard.  But more importantly, season 7 has shown that a new direction, with a different focus than before, can still be made to not only work but still be called Doctor Who.  It's not quite the same as it was, obviously, and it won't really be like '60s Who ever again, but that's one of the benefits of Doctor Who's format; even when they're essentially making a series of action-adventure serials in the same time and place instead of adventures throughout space and time, there's still enough there to maintain good faith with the show as it had been, while pointing the way forward for the future.  Season 7 had four strong stories (even if some people might complain that three of them are too long -- those people are wrong, by the way) to successfully relaunch Doctor Who in the 1970s.

But because of the odd number of episodes in season 7, we're not done yet.  Season 8 begins with a shot of a circus and a horsebox that materializes with a "wheezing, groaning sound" (as Terrance Dicks might say).  A black-clad gentleman with slicked-back hair and a salt-and-pepper goatee emerges.  "Who the heck are you?" asks a man who saw the box arrive.  "I am usually referred to as the Master," the other man replies.  Yes, the Master has finally arrived.

Actually, there are quite a few introductions to be made in Terror of the Autons.  We're introduced to not only Captain Yates of UNIT (although the dialogue suggests he was around before -- apparently he was in charge of cleaning up after the Autons after the events of Spearhead from Space), but, more strikingly, to Miss Josephine Grant, who is the Doctor's new assistant -- and about as much the opposite of Liz Shaw as you can get.  Jo is rather clumsy but very perky and eager to help.  Even the Doctor doesn't find her a suitable replacement for Liz at first (Liz having apparently returned to Cambridge between seasons), but he can't bring himself to tell her this, and so her position with UNIT is secure.

But it's the Master who dominates proceedings here, as he hypnotizes people, kills others, breaks into a museum and steals an exhibit, sets up booby traps, and takes over a plastics factory, looking cool and collected all the while.  That said, although we find out a bit by watching his actions, there's a really bizarre bit where a Time Lord appears to give a great big info-dump.  We're sort of used to this now, 43 years after the fact, but it really is astonishingly crass.  Time Lords can apparently transport themselves "29,000 light years" and hover in mid-air before giving huge amounts of exposition to the Doctor about how the Master is a fellow Time Lord, but a renegade who always causes trouble and wants to kill the Doctor.  There's a clear implication that the Doctor already knows the Master, or at least knows of him.  But it's odd how the production team clearly wants to get the backstory of the Master out of the way as quickly as possible.  He's clearly set up as the Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes, albeit without as much thought put into him.  Still, in the hands of Roger Delgado the Master is incredibly watchable.

The other thing to note about this episode is how fast-paced it is.  Barry Letts' direction is fairly workmanlike here (even if there is an incredible abuse of CSO in this first episode alone, with all sorts of backgrounds and camera tricks CSO'ed in), but the editing is extremely frenetic, jumping from scene to scene to scene with barely a chance to catch your breath in-between.  It certainly gives things a tremendous amount of energy and hurries them along impressively, such that by the end of episode 1 we go from Jo Grant being discovered by the Master to being hypnotized to opening a bomb in the Doctor's lab, all in the space of five minutes, and with intervening scenes also included.  So far, Terror of the Autons feels more like a 60s comic book than a typical Doctor Who story -- not that that's a bad thing, mind.