An Hour of Who a Day: May 2014

May 31: The Dæmons Episodes Two & Three

The Doctor's in a coma again (the fourth one for this incarnation), and Jo is in hysterics. The Brigadier can't be reached, so Benton and Yates decide to take matters into their own hands and fly a helicopter to Devil's End. When they arrive they find some giant hoofprints (which, as everyone points out, change size when viewed from the air versus the ground), and then Benton gets beaten up by an invisible force after rescuing Miss Hawthorne, who's been tied up and placed in a trunk by the verger for no obvious reason whatsoever. Then the verger is killed by something, which also sets up a giant heat barrier around Devil's End that no one can penetrate. It all seems to be magical, but then the Doctor wakes up and is confident that it's not, even if he's not giving out explanations quite yet. But his learning that the Master is involved ("Jo, did you fail Latin as well as science? Magister is the Latin word for master!") seems to confirm some of his suspicions, and another visit to the dig site confirms the rest. Only Jo and the Doctor are then set upon by a living gargoyle...

Episode two (which is also the 300th episode of Doctor Who) doesn't have much in the way of plot advancement, concentrating instead on ensuring that all the pieces are in their proper positions. So Benton and Yates are in Devil's End with the Doctor and Jo, and the Brigadier and any UNIT backup is stuck on the outside of the heat barrier. And Miss Hawthorne is stuck in a trunk so that Benton can hear her, rescue her, and then be assaulted by something that appears to be supernatural rather than scientific. The whole episode, in fact, is ensuring that everything looks supernatural indeed -- so it's making sure that the audience's mindset is also in the proper position, ready to be debunked by the Doctor in episode three.

The Doctor explains the Dæmons to Miss Hawthorne, Benton, Jo,
and Yates. (The Dæmons Episode Three) ©BBC

And episode three does in fact give us some explanations that aren't rooted in magic. Well, sort of. The Doctor's explanation, that the Dæmons (here pronounced with an [e] sound, identical to the name "Damon") are an ancient race with incredibly advanced science that left their mark on humanity in the form of horned gods, devils, and all sorts of black magic -- and so when the Master is using invocations to summon the Dæmon that's been sleeping in the Devil's Hump, he's just tapping into their science -- sounds scientific but isn't actually that different from "it's magic". And when the Doctor scares away Bok the gargoyle with a magical-sounding incantation and a trowel, he's tapping into Bok's fear of that same science. You might notice this as essentially being Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"), but it does give them a fig-leaf to keep doing "magical" things with this scientific, ultra-Rational Doctor.

But if pseudo-explanations aren't up your alley, there are still some nice action sequences, such as Yates's fight with the unusually strong and resilient Girton (the implication being that's he tapping into some of that Dæmon science, thanks to the Master), and the subsequent car/helicopter chase between the Doctor and Jo in Bessie and Girton in the UNIT helicopter, which blows up in the heat barrier thanks to a last-minute swerve by the Doctor -- albeit one which throws Jo clear, injuring her in the process (entertainingly, the novelisation has the Doctor wondering why she didn't buckle her seatbelt). And there's also the Master's effort to place the entire town under his sway, which at times looks like attempted mass hypnosis but ultimately seems to be an effort to persuade them that his position is right; and when that doesn't work, he summons Bok to kill Squire Winstanley in front of them. If you can't make them see it your way, make them fear you, I guess.

And then the Master summons the Dæmon Azal into the cavern below the church, which causes an earthquake and leads to the Master being worried that Azal will crush him underfoot (underhoof?) -- a bit of an odd cliffhanger, as it requires the audience to be worried about the fate of the Master, the villain of the piece...

May 30: Colony in Space Episode Six / The Dæmons Episode One

The Doctor kicks the Master's remote control out of his hand, and before the Master can reclaim it they're both captured by the Primitives -- and thus Jo Grant's life is saved. And now the Master is inside the Primitive city, which means he can finally gain access to the Doomsday Weapon we were told about at the very beginning of this story.

The Master illustrates the uses for the Doomsday Weapon.
(Colony in Space Episode Six) ©BBC

Actually, this episode is probably the best of the six, because it moves at a decent clip on account of having to wrap up two separate storylines (the colonist/mining one and the Primitive city one) in the span of 25 minutes. Some of this is a bit perfunctory, such as the scenes with sending all the colonists packing, but even with this we get some nice moments, such as Captain Dent surveying the empty dome after the colonists have left and tearing down their crops chart in a fit of pique, or Winton and an IMC guard having a knock-down-drag-out in a wet clay pit, resulting in one of Doctor Who's more realistic-looking fights. And given how this storyline has been proceeding, having the colonists' spaceship actually taking off and exploding in the air is a surprising moment, and all the more welcome for it (in terms of plotting at least -- not (necessarily) in terms of wanting all the colonists dead). With the colonist storyline wrapped up, the Primitive city stuff is finally fully explained by the Master, who's looking to use their ultimate weapon for himself. Interestingly, he offers the Doctor a share in the power -- illustrating the respect he clearly has for the Doctor, even when he's been trying to kill him off earlier. It's only when the Guardian intervenes, telling the Doctor to set the self-destruct mechanism, that the Master's plan is foiled. Then when they emerge from the dying city (along with Jo and Caldwell, who went in after them), they're surrounded by IMC troops who are then themselves surrounded by the colonists, who snuck off the spaceship when IMC wasn't looking. The Master escapes in the confusion, and soon the colonists win and everything ends happily...unless you're a Primitive.

The main problem with Colony in Space is that it's simply too long. If they'd made this a four-parter and introduced the Master at the end of episode two this might have been all right. But instead they've given Malcolm Hulke six episodes and he turns in a story in which the colonists and IMC trade the upper hand every episode (odd, this; usually Hulke is a lot better at filling his stories out). With a colony totally devoid of interest and an IMC crew that's been neutered against the director's wishes (Morgan was originally going to be played by actress Susan Jameson until BBC Head of Drama Serials Ronnie Marsh overruled Michael Briant's decision), there's far too much time wasted with dull power struggles and not enough on the far more interesting Primitive city. The point of the colonist story (corporations are evil and ruthless -- admittedly a more radical idea in 1971 than now) is made early in episode two and then reiterated ad nauseam, and the Primitive city is only given prominence in episodes four and six. The result is a rather tedious runaround, and the first real clunker of Jon Pertwee's run.

But now it's time to turn our attention to the last story of season 8: The Dæmons⁶². This first episode is a bit of an odd one: it starts with the Doctor dismissing Jo Grant's belief in anything magical or occult ("You know, really, Jo, I'm obviously wasting my time trying to turn you into a scientist") and then spends the rest of the time with the Doctor trying to stop an archaeological dig because a number of occult signs are lining up ("Aquarius? The Devil's Hump? Beltane?" the Doctor mutters to himself), with no scientific explanation (or even technobabble) given. It's just off to Devil's End to stop Professor Horner because a white witch named Miss Hawthorne said so. Well, all right, it's not quite that simplistic, but it sometimes feels like it.

And then there are strange goings-on in the village of Devil's End (the first "outsiders aren't welcome" village of the 70s, and only the second ever after The Smugglers -- and note Bert the Landlord's reaction to the Doctor if you need proof), with strong winds, unexplained deaths, and police constables temporarily turning homicidal. It would also seem the vicar has disappeared -- but this one can be explained, as we see that his replacement, Mr. Magister, is in fact the Master. Clearly evil things are afoot, and the ceremony the Master is carrying out is clearly designed for mischief, ending as it does with a gargoyle's head moving and the Master crying out "Azal! Azal!" Although, entertainingly, during this ceremony the Master throws up the horns during his invocation. All right, clearly he's meant to be summoning the devil or some such and thus is using the sign correctly, but it's still fun to see.

So the Doctor tries to get to the dig to stop Horner from breaking into the Devil's Hump, but he's juuuust too late, and Horner and the Doctor are blasted by what appears to be snow as the ground begins shaking violently. This could be an issue... but we'll have to wait until next time to learn more.

⁶² You can blame director Christopher Barry for the inclusion of the ash (that's the name for the symbol æ) in the title -- apparently he thought it gave the story extra atmosphere.

May 29: Colony in Space Episodes Four & Five

Thank goodness for the Master; his arrival improves things immensely. Now everyone has someone they can react against, even if the Master is pretending to be an Adjudicator from Earth, ready to settle the dispute between the colonists and IMC. That dispute suddenly comes into focus as both sides plead their case. Roger Delgado is as watchable as ever, listening calmly to both sides, after which he declares an adjournment while he ponders the situation, threatens the Doctor in the back room, and then immediately comes back out and announces that he's reached a decision in favor of IMC. Guess that didn't require much thought, did it?

The Guardian of the Primitive city. (Colony in Space
Episode Four) ©BBC

The other good thing about episode four is that the Doctor has gone into the Primitive city to rescue Jo Grant, and so we learn more about this civilization and how they were once an advanced race before some sort of tragedy happened that reduced them to their current savage state. There also appear to be three races: the Primitives, the smaller Priests ("Is it humanoid?" the Doctor asks Jo about, essentially, a small man with a weird head; "No, not really," replies Jo -- the speciesist), and their leader, a tiny figure called (in the credits, at least) the Guardian. The Guardian seems to be the only one who can talk, and honestly he (she?) seems like a reasonable person, even if he/she threatens the Doctor and Jo with death if they ever return. The whole city in general is an interesting design, with lots of rock-like textures and blacks and green on display, and a welcome contrast to the more muted tones of the colonists' domes.

But as I said, the Master has ruled in favor of IMC. This displeases the colonists, so they stage a rebellion by luring the IMC officers to the main dome under the pretext of signing official paperwork. And have the colonists been keeping close tabs on Norton? Of course not, so he gets to warn the IMC personnel as they arrive, leading to a shootout. And in the confusion, the Master is prepared to kill Jo and the Doctor -- victims of "stray bullets"; only Ashe's arrival saves them from this fate.

Episode five has the colonists winning this struggle and ordering IMC to leave Uxarieus. The Master appears willing to help them declare independence -- it's not clear what his ultimate goal is, but he does want to explore the Primitive ruins. The bits with the Master are reasonably entertaining -- as is the Doctor's investigation of the Master's TARDIS. Even if Jo spoils it all by suddenly deciding she's impatient and walking all the way across the TARDIS to trip an alarm beam that she knew about on her way in (in even more flagrant a manner than Zoe in The Mind Robber), which leads to the Master gassing them both. Meanwhile, IMC leaves, works out the Master is an imposter, and then comes back, capturing all the colonists and ordering them to either leave the planet or be killed. It's not very exciting, to be honest, even if it does eat up a lot of screen time, and the stuff with the Master is far more interesting. He's very interested in the Primitive city, and once he learns that only the Doctor has been inside and come back out, he forces the Doctor to help him -- lest Jo Grant be killed. And when Caldwell and Morgan make their way inside the Master's TARDIS (via a dropped key) and discover Jo imprisoned, the Master is alerted. "I warned you, Doctor!" the Master says, his finger poised to flood Jo's chamber with deadly gas.

May 28: Colony in Space Episodes Two & Three

So what was the point of the Time Lord sequence at the beginning of episode one? Was it to assure viewers that the Master would drop in at some point, just be patient? Because by the end of episode three there's still no sign of the Master or any sort of doomsday weapon.

Instead what we do get is two episodes of politicking as the Interplanetary Mining Corporation "arrives" and tries to convince the colonists to leave. Even though their colony is failing, they're all on the brink of starvation, and they were discussing leaving last episode, now they don't want to leave. And it's not like IMC are exactly above board with their dealings: it becomes clear they've been around for a while and are behind the lizard attacks in an effort to drive the colonists out. But really, none of their villainy is particularly imaginative; the lizards are a nice touch, but then they try to kill the Doctor and do things like literally chain Jo Grant and a man named Winton to a bomb in order to dissuade the Doctor from testifying against IMC when the Adjudicator arrives to decide which group gets the planet. Oh, and they've got a man on the inside (Norton is IMC, it turns out) who doesn't actually do a very good job of blending in -- even Jo Grant looks at him suspiciously. And his whole "destroy the generator and blame it on the Primitives suddenly going crazy" plan doesn't seem very well thought out either, even if the colonists seem to swallow the story. Mind, it only seems to take the Doctor a few moments before he's convinced that Norton is working for IMC, but when he warns Winton ("Unless you want IMC warned, I'd keep a very close watch on our friend Norton"), do they immediately grab him and lock him up somewhere? Not obviously -- let's hope that doesn't come to bite them in the ass.

Jo is captured by the Primitives. (Colony in Space Episode
Three) ©BBC

The main problem is that the colonists are so thick sometimes that it's hard to root for them, and the IMC people are so evil that they might as well be wearing signs. This might be acceptable if something interesting happened, but instead we get a lot of people talking and not a lot of doing -- to the point where the Doctor has to hop out of a car and fight some Primitives just to inject some action into the proceedings. The Primitives are just about the most interesting thing on display so far, and all they've done is wander around silently.

Actually, that might be the main problem so far with Colony in Space -- we're finally, after a season and a half, away from Earth and on an alien world (even if it's just about the dullest alien world ever), and they take up the time by having two groups of humans squabbling with each other, rather than by exploring this world and the native inhabitants. And since the squabbling isn't even particularly interesting to begin with, the result is that these first few episodes just plod along. The one bright spot in all this (other than the Primitives) is Caldwell, the IMC miner with a conscience. By giving us one person who's not willing to act villainously, we get some glimpse of hope that maybe things will turn out unexpectedly. And it doesn't hurt that Bernard Kay is doing a good job of portraying a man conflicted between greed and Doing the Right Thing. But he can't carry the whole story (nor should he have to), and so what we're left with is still awfully tedious.

Things can only get better, right? Right?

May 27: The Claws of Axos Episode Four / Colony in Space Episode One

Axos is tearing itself apart, with lots of psychedelic lights and overlayed figures floating around as the Doctor and Jo try to escape. Jo is in sheer hysterics -- so much so that the Doctor slaps her to bring her back (well, that's what it looks like; it's admittedly a bit difficult to tell for certain, what with all the flashing lights and superimposed images, but careful viewings would seem to indicate that a slap does occur). But it's not the end for Axos, as they manage to redirect the power back into the light accelerator and save themselves -- but at least Jo and the Doctor manage to escape in the confusion.

Once free, the Doctor explains that "the claws of Axos are already deeply embedded in the Earth's carcass", but that he might be able to stop Axos before it activates the axonite and consumes the world -- only he'll need the Master's help. Except inside the TARDIS the Doctor admits that he doesn't have a plan, and he wants the Master's help in order to get the TARDIS working so they can both escape. The Doctor certainly seems earnest enough when he discusses this plan -- enough so that you worry that he might be telling the truth about things.

The Doctor brings the Master back to Axos. (The Claws of Axos
Episode Four) ©BBC

Meanwhile, Axos is coming to life, so Yates and Benton (who've been watching it) have to fight off attacking Axons as they make their escape.⁶⁰ And while that's going on, the Doctor reveals his plan and dematerializes with the Master in the TARDIS -- only to rematerialize inside Axos. Apparently the Doctor wants Axos's help to overthrow the High Council of the Time Lords (the first mention of this piece of Doctor Who mythology), so he's willing to give Axos the secrets of time travel in exchange. But not really (did you think he would?); he's actually putting Axos into a time loop that they'll never be able to break free from, and he's willing to sacrifice himself to do so. The ruse is successful and Axos is time-looped; the Doctor boosts the circuits in the TARDIS and manages to break free (whether Axos would be able to do the same thing isn't addressed), although it's pretty clear that the Master escaped before the loop was activated. Still, Earth is saved, even if while the Doctor was away Axos overloaded the light accelerator, which blew up and destroyed a lot of the building it was in. (Let's be charitable and assume that the nuclear reactor at Nuton which powered the light accelerator was somehow unaffected by the surge and explosion, or else everyone's happily wandering around a heavily radioactive area with no concerns whatsoever. Although the next time Bob 'n Dave do this, we'll be less forgiving.)

In many ways The Claws of Axos is a pretty workman-like story; there's an interesting big idea at its core (aliens give Earth a gift that turns out to be a Trojan horse), but it's buried beneath layers of what one might call "typical" Doctor Who -- so, e.g., the Axons are naturally evil, and they attack soldiers more when it's time for some action in the episode rather than because it makes logical sense. There's nothing really that new or unusual here -- even the Doctor working with the Master scenes had been done in The Mind of Evil (though to be fair they're better in this story). But then, overlayed on top of that, are some really lovely alien designs (both the gold-skinned Axons and the spaghetti version) and some trippy psychedelic effects inside Axos -- certainly the interior of Axos is more wonderfully strange than anything we've seen thus far (or will see again until arguably Terror of the Zygons in 1975). It's these things that help make The Claws of Axos a little more than a bog-standard story -- not to the standard of a true classic, mind, but enough to make it worth your while to watch.

The next story, Colony in Space, opens with the Time Lords gravely concerned about the actions of the Master: he's stolen a file about a doomsday weapon, and it seems only the Doctor can stop him. But to do that, the Time Lords will have to send the Doctor to a different planet and a different time. So after a brief discussion with the Brigadier about the Master, the Doctor and Jo enter the TARDIS and are forcibly transported away, Jo refusing to believe anything the Doctor has said about the TARDIS in the meantime. (What, did she forget about everything that happened at the end of the last story? Mind you, she also seems to think that the colonists left Earth in 1971.⁶¹) She's therefore quite surprised (and a little alarmed) to learn she's on the planet Uxarieus in the year 2472. And look! It's the first alien planet we've seen since The War Games, and Jo Grant's first trip in the TARDIS. Or, as Arthur Dent might say, "'this is the first time I've actually stood on the surface of another planet . . . a whole alien world . . . ! Pity it's such a dump though.'" Yes, it's another bleak BBC quarry, and without black-and-white film to help give it a sense of atmosphere it just looks like a lousy desolate world. Still, better than nothing, even if they've screwed up the TARDIS materializing/dematerializing effect since the last story. (Oh, and the TARDIS doors open with the Dalek door sound effect too.)

And on this world are a bunch of colonists struggling to survive; apparently their crops refuse to grow, and nothing they do seems to change that. The Doctor thinks there's an external force at work, but that's not the only problem: giant lizards have been spotted, and one of them attacks and kills two of the colonists. Although the Doctor is suspicious: if the lizard was really twenty feet tall as it was described, how could it have gotten into the colonists' dome to kill them? But then another person is discovered, from a previously unknown colony, who describes how his colony was destroyed by giant lizards, which would seem to lend credence to the lizards' existence, even though no one had seen them until very recently. (Or, as Mary Ashe puts it, "There's no animal life [on Uxarieus], just a few birds and insects.") But when the Doctor goes back to the Martins' dome to investigate the attack, he's set upon by a terrifying robot...

⁶⁰ All right, let's discuss the backdrop/sky issue here. As Benton and Yates are fleeing, shots of them from inside the Jeep appear to have what might be a dark backdrop placed behind them. It's sometimes suggested that this might be a CSO cloth that nothing was keyed in over, as a) the color doesn't match any of the long shots of the sky, and b) the lighting in the Jeep makes it looks like they're inside something, not out in the open. But no, we're told, no CSO work was ever attempted or even planned on film, so this can't possibly be a CSO backcloth and instead it's just a weird color of sky. Except it doesn't look like sky (although, compounding the problem, there are some similar shots which do appear to be the sky -- but it's not the same shade as the controversial shots). Fair enough on the CSO issue (particularly since it doesn't look like a very useful shade of blue to chromakey out), but given that the last time Michael Ferguson directed a story (The Ambassadors of Death), we had another unconvincing backdrop placed in the windows of vehicles, can we not just consider the possibility that hanging sky-colored cloth in vehicles is Ferguson's method of (say) hiding the fact that the background isn't moving when the vehicle allegedly is? It's also a bit odd that no one seems to bring up this issue in The Ambassadors of Death -- though that might be because the scenes in question have only recently been restored to color.
⁶¹ It's sometimes suggested that if you flip the order of The Claws of Axos and Colony in Space so that Colony is first, a lot of these issues go away. The main problem with this theory is that at the beginning the Doctor is explicitly attempting to "bypass the Time Lords' homing control", which he only found out about at the end of The Claws of Axos.

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

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.

May 19: Inferno Episodes 5 & 6

I'm willing to bet that the high reputation Inferno enjoys rests squarely on the shoulders of these two episodes, because these are the two that see the parallel world destroyed. This is taut, gripping television. It's interesting to see how relatively defeatist the Doctor is in these episodes: there's no last minute plan to save the world, because it's already too late. "The heat and the pressures'll continue to build up until the Earth dissolves in a fury of expanding gases, just as it was billions of years ago," he says. When asked how long they've got, he replies, "Maybe a few weeks, maybe only a few days." Which admittedly seems slightly odd (how is the bore hole much different from a volcano?), but in terms of the drama it's very effective.

These two episodes therefore see an increasing sense of tension and desperation as a plan is made not to save this Earth but the one the Doctor is from. Remember, they're not as advanced with the drilling there, so the Doctor might be able to stop them from penetrating the Earth's crust. But in order to do so they have to rewire the nuclear reactor and dodge the Primords that are roaming the complex. And while these two episodes also have quite a few scenes of people arguing with each other, this time it feels like there's a point behind it, and even when the point isn't obvious it still drives home the futility of it all. Or as Greg Sutton puts it: "It's marvellous, isn't it? The world's going up in flame and they're still playing at toy soldiers!"

So the world's being destroyed (illustrated by lots of tremors and a pleasing red haze for the scenes outside) and the Primords are closing in -- so the main characters can't even stop to catch their breath without the threat of being rubbed in mutagenic slime and regressing into a savage ape-like creature (as we see happen to Benton at the end of episode 5). But the most interesting thing is to watch how each character deals with the impending doomsday. Sutton becomes a lot more dominant, probably because he knows he's got nothing to lose and therefore no reason to toe the party line. Section Leader Shaw is practical yet increasingly insubordinate -- she's willing to help the Doctor but she has little patience remaining for her superior, the Brigade Leader. Nicholas Courtney, however, is the standout performer of the group, as his Brigade Leader becomes increasingly cowardly and scared and therefore belligerent and bullying as a result, as if desperate to hold on to some shred of power, even if it's ultimately meaningless.

But it's the final moments that demonstrate clearly why this story was worth doing: power has finally been channeled to the TARDIS console, and after a brief confrontation the Doctor is free to escape if he can while the world (or at least this section of it) definitively ends, as a huge flow of lava heads towards the hut that they're all trapped in. Here we have a world that clearly does end -- all the fascist stuff is there to add to the drama, but the real point of Inferno is to actually show what would happen if the world was going to end. And by making it a parallel universe they can have their cake and eat it too -- they can be bleak and absolute with their ending (no last-minute saves here) and still have the show continue on next week. It's the ultimate cliffhanger ending and, because of its finality, it's deeply satisfying as a result.

So there's still one more episode of Inferno to go. How are they going to top these two?

May 18: Inferno Episodes 3 & 4

The Doctor has disappeared into a strange dimension -- "sideways in time", he says -- which is close to but not quite the same as the world he's just left. All the characters seem to still be present, but they're all slightly different. Yes, it's time for the "evil parallel universe" story.

To be fair, it's not like it's an unreasonable idea for a serial, and as it's the first time Doctor Who has done this type of story we can forgive them a bit of indulgence. And unlike, say, every episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine involving Trek's "Mirror Universe", this isn't simply a chance for the regulars to indulge themselves by playing "bad" versions of themselves. The parallel universe part of Inferno feels much more dangerous, because everyone's playing it so straight.

Starting by having an extended chase sequence where troops are all shooting at the Doctor as he zooms around the complex on Bessie is a good move; it immediately brings home the danger of this place. There are lots of troops (well, it seems like there are, at least) and some great location shots of the Doctor high up on the gasometers. (Oh, and incidentally, I was wrong last time; the world record fall happens in episode 3, not episode 1. It's still Roy Scammell, though -- twice, in fact, as both the private who falls and the one who shoots him down.) And then we get to see the people in this world: the Brigadier is now Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart, with an eyepatch and no moustache; Liz is now Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw, with black hair; and Sergeant Benton is Platoon Under-Leader Benton -- he still looks the same but is decidedly nastier as a person ("Are you coming with me quietly, or do I shoot you here and now?" Benton asks the Doctor at the end of episode 3, and it's quite clear which outcome Benton is hoping for). Meanwhile, Professor Stahlman has become Director Stahlmann -- he's lost the facial hair but is still the same basic person. The other main difference is that in this parallel world the drilling has been proceeding a bit quicker, so instead of being something like 40 hours away from penetrating the Earth's crust, this world is only a little over 3 hours away.

It's got to be said, though, that these two episodes, much like the first two, consist largely of people rehashing the same points over and over again. In episodes 1 and 2 it was everyone versus Stahlman; here it's everyone versus the Doctor, as the Brigade Leader tries over and over again to find out which foreign power the Doctor is working for and how he got onto the base in the first place. They try demanding answers, then they try interrogation, then trying to be nice in an effort to get the truth out of the Doctor. All the while, the Doctor is trying to convince the people at the base of the danger their project is causing; he repairs the computer so that it can warn them, as well as reasoning with everyone there repeatedly about the dangers (something, it must be said, he didn't seem as willing to do back in his own universe). Needless to say, no one believes him, and episode 4 ends with Penetration Zero being reached as the drillhead starts making a really nasty noise, while the Doctor yells out, "That's the sound of this planet screaming out its rage!" It's such a good cliffhanger that it's slightly surprising that the episode carries on a little bit longer, with Stahlmann holding a gun on the Doctor as the actual cliffhanger.

May 17: Inferno Episodes 1 & 2

Standard and special edition DVDs

So we've arrived at another scientific research base out in the middle of nowhere. The Doctor and UNIT are already settled in at this project; this time it's about drilling deep into the Earth and penetrating the crust, thereby hoping to tap the vast pockets of Stahlman's gas down there. How anyone knows this gas exists in the first place isn't brought up. The man the gas is named after, Professor Eric Stahlman, is unashamedly the first mad scientist introduced in the Pertwee era. Yes, we might cite Dr. Lawrence from Doctor Who and the Silurians as a mad scientist, but he's not remotely in the same league as Professor Stahlman. Irritable from the get-go ("Our liver playing us up again this morning, is it, Professor?" the Doctor asks pointedly) and completely unwilling to consider the safety of anyone if it risks slowing down the rate of drilling, Stahlman comes across as pig-headed and dangerous at best. There are no subtleties in Olaf Pooley's performance here: Stahlman is single-minded in his goal to penetrate the Earth's crust, no matter what the cost.

Of course, this causes a problem in that these first two episodes consist largely of various emergencies that Stahlman refuses to take seriously, and so several people argue unsuccessfully with him about slowing down or stopping the drilling, or at least taking some of the warnings seriously. It works reasonably well in the first episode; after the second it starts to get a little tedious, as the Doctor, Sir Keith Gold (Christopher Benjamin, who'll return in The Talons of Weng-Chiang), and Greg Sutton (who played the caveman Za in An Unearthly Child) all try to get Stahlman to see reason -- or at least not endanger lives unnecessarily.

Still, it's not the only thing going on; there's also a subplot about a strange green goo⁵⁷ that turns anyone who touches it into a regressed ape-like creature (the credits call them "Primords") that emits intense heat and burns anyone and anything it touches. This leads to some fairly brutal moments, as the first person to be infected, Harry Slocum, starts brutally murdering people (and note the blood spatter on his coveralls when he's inside the nuclear reactor control room). Then two more people are infected (by Slocum, it seems, so either he smeared some of the green goo on himself or he can turn people into Primords à la werewolves), including a private who falls to his death (in what was at the time the highest fall ever performed by a British stuntman -- nice work, Roy Scammell). And Professor Stahlman also ends up touching the goo -- not that you'd notice from his behavior, since he's already acting extremely irrational and territorial. He even tries to sabotage the main computer when it starts warning that the whole place is in danger -- a scene which leads to Jon Pertwee's first use of what he calls here "Venusian karate"⁵⁸, in which a certain pressure point has the ability to paralyze a person (even if the actual effect is Pertwee grabbing someone in a non-dangerous (read: unable to be copied by children) hold). Here it's used on Stahlman himself, although it doesn't stop him from ultimately destroying the microcircuit he removed from the computer.

The other subplot running through these first couple episodes consists of the Doctor trying to get the TARDIS console (still outside the TARDIS itself, as seen in the opening moments of The Ambassadors of Death) working again. In episode 1 a power surge sends it and him through an interestingly directed but painful-looking realm that the Doctor later describes as "some sort of limbo", with a "barrier I couldn't break through." Episode 2 sees him try again, but the power is cut off at a crucial moment and so the cliffhanger has the Doctor, the TARDIS console, and Bessie all dematerialize in front of Liz Shaw and the Brigadier...

⁵⁷ In reality a heavy duty hand cleaner known as Swarfega.
⁵⁸ Fandom tends to refer to it as "Venusian aikido", but this term isn't actually employed until The Green Death.

May 16: The Ambassadors of Death Episodes 6 & 7

After spending so much of this story as a conspiracy thriller, with agents moving against our heroes for unknown reasons, episode 6 finally supplies some answers. The Doctor is taken aboard a trippy alien spaceship, where the three human astronauts are waiting around, apparently under the belief they're watching a football match. Soon the Doctor is confronted by an alien dressed like a mummy: "Why have you not returned our ambassadors?" the alien demands, finally explaining the title of the serial in the process. "An agreement was made. You have betrayed us. Unless our ambassadors are returned, we shall destroy your world."

And down on planet Earth, tensions at Space HQ remain high. "The American space agency are now preparing to launch an unmanned capsule to observe the unidentified object," says one of the technicians, glancing repeatedly at the camera every time she has a close-up. When the Doctor finally returns, he refuses to tell anyone about what happened while in orbit until he's face-to-face with them -- which ends up being a problem when he's gassed by Reegan and taken back to where the ambassadors are being held. General Carrington then insists, bizarrely, that the Doctor might have staged his kidnapping: "[The gas] could be a blind to make us think he'd been kidnapped." He also states that they should blow the alien spaceship out of the skies, insisting it's their "moral duty". "I think the General's a bit overwrought," the Brigadier comments. "I think he's insane," Cornish replies, and it's growing increasingly harder to disagree with him.

And then no sooner is the Doctor brought back to consciousness in Reegan's bunker when General Carrington appears; it turns out he's Reegan's boss. "You're not surprised to see me?" Carrington asks the Doctor. "Not particularly, no," the Doctor replies. Carrington then pulls a gun on the Doctor, ready to kill him and once again claiming it to be his "moral duty".

It's only Reegan's insistence that the Doctor could still be useful, combined with the Doctor's sweet-talking of Carrington, that saves the Doctor's life. Carrington's rabidly xenophobic plan, and his reasoning behind it, are finally revealed: when Carrington was on Mars Probe 6, they made contact with the aliens, and one of the aliens accidentally killed his fellow astronaut Jim Daniels (an incident which apparently escaped the attention of anyone in the British space programme). Now Carrington intends to unmask one of the ambassadors on live television as a pretext for declaring war on the aliens, to prevent, in his eyes, an alien invasion of Earth.

Carrington's plan gets pretty far too; he arrests all of the UNIT troops, including the Brigadier himself, and brings one of the ambassadors to the Space Centre, ready to unmask him and cause a world panic. Fortunately the Brigadier escapes, rounds up his few remaining troops, and heads off to rescue the Doctor (thanks to an SOS signal the Doctor's been transmitting). There's a rather limp battle (certainly not up to the standards of the fights in episodes 1 and 2), and then the Brigadier bursts into the bunker to rescue the Doctor. "What kept you?" the Doctor asks ungratefully. Fortunately Reegan isn't killed in the battle; he's become so charmingly slimy that you do root for him a little, and so it's good to see him survive. He's also the one to suggest taking the two remaining ambassadors to Space HQ to stop Carrington's broadcast. And that's in fact what UNIT does, thus stopping Carrington and therefore saving the Earth by freeing the ambassadors. Touchingly, the Doctor allows Carrington to keep his dignity as he's led away. "I had to do what I did. It was my moral duty. You do understand, don't you?" Carrington asks the Doctor. "Yes, General. I understand," the Doctor replies, and it sounds like he really does.

So that's two Earthbound stories in a row that aren't about mad scientists or alien invasions -- in fact, this is a story about a friendly alien encounter gone wrong because of narrow-minded humans, rather than about alien monsters come to enslave us all. In that sense it turns the idea of an alien invasion on its head, with the aliens among us explicitly identified as ambassadors, with all the connotations of the word, and it's only the actions of one xenophobic man that lead to the derailment of an official first contact between these aliens and humanity (even if, admittedly, this element is pretty far down in the mix, with lots of action sequences and standard thriller moments given more prominence). The Ambassadors of Death is another success: an exciting, well-paced thriller with space travel, action-packed battles, and lots of memorable images.

So that's two seven-part stories in a row that have more than justified their length. Can the production team keep it up?