August 8: The Deadly Assassin Parts Three & Four

Part three takes place almost entirely inside the Matrix, as the Doctor fights not only for his survival but also to unmask the other presence inside, the person who's working for the Master.  As such, this episode adds almost nothing to the plot -- yet the final result is so good that it's easy to forgive it.  Partly that's because it's filmed well, but it's also because this is the most desperate and vulnerable we've ever seen the Doctor, as he's trapped in the Matrix and forced to play by his unknown opponent's rules.  (All right, it's Chancellor Goth -- a fact we learn roughly five minutes before the Doctor, as his face is clearly visible in the scene where the Doctor shoots him with the poisoned thorn.)  It's a little curious that Goth would pick such Terran objects, though; does Gallifrey have a history filled with samurai, trains, biplanes, and big game hunters?  Or is Goth also fond of Earth culture?

It is a violent episode, to be sure, full of imagery of Goth hunting and shooting at the Doctor, the Doctor wounded and on the run, and lots of physical fighting (as opposed to the more fantastic shootings in the story up to this point).  That said, the set-up is such that it seems more in character than The Seeds of Doom did, and in general it seems intense rather than tawdry.  And, famously, the episode ends with another Maloney freeze frame, this time of the Doctor's head underwater -- an image so terrible, it seems, that Mary Whitehouse, the head of watchdog association the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (which tried to "clean up" TV), found it particularly objectionable, citing it as one of the scariest moments in Doctor Who and saying that small children would be left with that image for an entire week.  The BBC agreed, and cut the freeze frame from the master tape -- as if it were the freeze frame that was objectionable, rather than the Doctor's attempted drowning.  Nevertheless, the scene has been restored for the DVD.

Part four gets things moving again -- although, oddly, it seems to be wrapping up at only seven minutes in: Goth has been exposed as the traitor and the true Presidential assassin (it seems he wanted the Presidency and the outgoing President wasn't going to give it to Goth), and the Master appears to have died.  Cardinal Borusa gets some wonderfully cynical lines regarding the outcome of all this.  "We must adjust the truth," he states, deciding to make Goth into a posthumous hero rather than a traitor and pinning everything else on the deceased Master.  "If heroes don't exist, it is necessary to invent them.  Good for public morale," he adds.  The only thing left unexplained is what the Master's goal was in all of this.

The Doctor tries to prevent the Master from disconnecting the
Eye of Harmony. (The Deadly Assassin Part Four) ©BBC

Well, funny that.  The Master only faked his death; he wants the Sash of Rassilon and the Great Key, because he's worked out that the Sash is a powerful force field and that the Key will unlock the source of the Time Lords' power, the Eye of Harmony (which is described as both "Rassilon's star" and as an object from inside a black hole -- so it's perhaps not unreasonable to think it's a singularity).  The Master wants the power this will grant him, with the destruction of Gallifrey and "a hundred other worlds" as a bonus.⁹⁶  Fortunately the Doctor is able to stop him before he can finish disconnecting the Eye of Harmony, thus saving Gallifrey.  The Doctor departs with a full pardon -- but the Master, who was believed dead, is also seen to depart...

Part four is a pretty important episode in terms of fan lore: this is the first mention of Rassilon as the architect of Time Lord society (and no effort, it should be noted, is made to reconcile this with Omega's role as described in The Three Doctors -- fortunately both versions are vague enough for them to coexist relatively easily), the first mention of the Eye of Harmony as the source of the Time Lords' power, and the first time an explicit limit is given to the number of times a Time Lord can regenerate -- you only get twelve regenerations, it seems, and then you're done⁹⁷.  This last part is done to give the Master a more desperate motivation: he's reached his final incarnation and thus basically has no future left -- a fact enhanced by the decrepit look he has in this story.  These parts and all the other details that will endure in the mind of fandom (the Time Lord costumes, that fancy figure-eight design element from Revenge of the Cybermen that shows up everywhere on Gallifrey) means that The Deadly Assassin is an important story, at least in terms of adding to the mythos of the show.  But is it any good?

Fortunately the answer is a definite yes.  The confidence which filled much of season 13 is back in full force here, as Robert Holmes spins a tale that feels important and epic.  The Doctor is on his own and looks as self-assured as ever.  In addition, the sense of increasing desperation that David Maloney injects into this keeps everything moving at a quick pace, making it feel both desperate and urgent.  All the actors do a good job (even if George Pravda as Castellan Spandrell occasionally sounds like he doesn't understand what he's being asked to say) and the design work is fabulous, with lots of dark corners and long shadows mixed with that dark iridescent green creating a fascinating-looking world.  It all adds to an impressive package; The Deadly Assassin is definitely a classic of the show.

And I don't even mind the title that much.







⁹⁶ It's sometimes stated that the Master is screwing around with the Eye of Harmony in order to gain the energy to force another regeneration, but this is never actually stated on screen.
⁹⁷ Although see The Five Doctors for the first suggestion that this limit isn't as hard and fast as it's made to sound here.