September 1: The Pirate Planet Parts Three & Four

Of course, the Mentiads are on the Doctor's side, so it turns out he wasn't in any real danger.  This means we get a chance to get a bunch of exposition about what's going on: why the Mentiads grow in strength every time Zanak plunders another world, and who Queen Xanxia was and why the Captain was able to take over so easily (basically, Xanxia left Zanak in ruins and easy to conquer).  And there's the memorable scene inside the Captain's trophy room, as he explains to the Doctor how he's created a feat of gravitational perfection by having all the superdense remains balanced against each other, so that they don't immediately collapse into a black hole.

DOCTOR: ...it's the most brilliant piece of astro-gravitational engineering I've ever seen.  The concept is simply staggering.  Pointless, but staggering.
CAPTAIN: I'm gratified that you appreciate it.
DOCTOR: Appreciate it?  Appreciate it?!  What, you commit mass destruction and murder on a scale that's almost inconceivable and you ask me to appreciate it?  Just because you happen to have made a brilliantly conceived toy out of the mummified remains of planets–
CAPTAIN: Devil storms, Doctor!  It is not a toy!
DOCTOR: Then what's it for?!  Huh?  What are you doing?  What could possibly be worth all this?

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - The Pirate Planet)

It's a fabulous performance from Tom Baker, who usually portrays the Doctor as in command of the situation and largely unaffected by events around him (see, for instance, his behavior not long before this scene, where he's chained up to a pillar but still manages to be in complete control: "You don't want to take over the universe, do you?  No.  You wouldn't know what to do with it.  Beyond shout at it") but here, his sheer horror at the situation bubbles over into the shocked outrage we see here.

The Nurse, the Captain, and Mr. Fibuli look as the Doctor produces
the destroyed Polyphase Avatron. (The Pirate Planet Part Three) ©BBC

And part three also features the fight between K-9 and the Captain's Polyphase Avatron (aka robot parrot), in a bizarre yet entertaining fight.  K-9 keeps blasting up while the Avatron flies around pooping death on everything.  Of course K-9 wins, but it's still entertaining to watch.  Plus it leads to the discovery by the Doctor and Kimus of Queen Xanxia, trapped in her last few seconds of life while giant time dams have been constructed to prolong those seconds as long as possible.

But as good as part three is, it's really the cliffhanger that shines, both in its execution and in its resolution in part four, as we learn that the Doctor has not actually walked the plank to his death, but rather a projection.  This little bit of trickery changes what we thought we knew about the motivations: we thought the Captain was power-mad for some reason, but it's actually his nurse (who didn't even appear in part one) who's been pulling the strings: she's a projection of Queen Xanxia, attempting to rule Zanak forever.  Everything after this just involves trying to stop her -- entertaining to watch (and touching too, in the case of the Captain's reaction to Mr. Fibuli's death), but there are no new twists in the tale.  The Doctor is able to stop Zanak from moving on and Xanxia is defeated.  Oh, and it turns out that the entire planet of Calufrax was the second segment of the Key to Time, which they apparently recover from the vortex.

It's an immensely clever tale, with quite a lot of plot running through these four episodes.  This does occasionally mean that The Pirate Planet has exposition scenes where the Doctor and Romana have to explain the plot to the Mentiads/Kimus/Mula/each other, but honestly it's difficult to mind much.  The inventiveness on display, combined with the coating of fun that these episodes have, makes The Pirate Planet a very satisfying story to watch.

August 31: The Pirate Planet Parts One & Two

Hey, it's my friend Jason's birthday!  Happy birthday, fellow Who enthusiast!  There are certainly worse ways to celebrate than the first two parts of The Pirate Planet.

So there have been moments here and there, but in general the majority of stories recently have been more concerned with serious threats and dangerous situations, with bits of levity thrown in.  But this story, much like The Ribos Operation right before it, is much more interested in being fun first and dangerous second.

Note that's "fun", not "funny".  While there are some jokes and humorous situations scattered throughout (as one might expect from author Douglas Adams -- arguably the most famous writer to work on the show), the cast generally aren't treating this like a comedy.  Well, Tom Baker might be, but as his performance here in indistinguishable from surrounding stories it's hard to tell (and as we'll see in part three, he does know when to let that carefree mask drop).  But Bruce Purchase, as the Captain, doesn't seem to be, even if he is chewing up the scenery -- there's the scene where he talks tenderly to his parrot that suggests the bravado is a cover, and the Doctor notes in part two that he and Romana are in great danger from the Captain. "What, from the Captain?" Romana says. "Oh, he's just a terrible old bully.  All that 'by the evil nose of the sky demon' nonsense is just bluster."  "The Captain is a very clever and very dangerous man.  He's playing with us," the Doctor replies seriously.

But nevertheless, fun is still the order of the day for these two episodes, and as a result we're presented with an hour of highly entertaining television.  The stuff about how to fly the TARDIS is nice (and gives us an in-universe explanation for Tom Baker's mouth wound) and the way Romana can get the native Zanakians (Zanakans?  Zanakese?  Zanish?) to chat with her while the Doctor continually fails also brings a smile to the face.  Plus the Doctor's entrance onto Zanak's bridge is great stuff.  And while the Captain is full of bellowing bluster, it's still entertaining bluster, with many creative phrases.  Yes, there are occasional missteps ("I'll never be cruel to an electron in a particle accelerator again", the Guard Captain waving goodbye to his departing aircar), but these are more than made up for by the surrounding material.

And beneath the layer of fun is a fabulous SF concept: as we learn at the end of part two, Zanak is a hollow planet that teleports across the galaxy around other planets and exploits all the mineral wealth and energy from the captive planet.  "Romana," the Doctor says urgently, "we've stumbled on one of the most heinous crimes ever committed in this galaxy."  It's an impressive and fascinating idea, and it will be interesting to see what the next two episodes do with it.  Well, so long as our heroes can escape the clutches of the Mentiads...

August 30: The Ribos Operation Parts Three & Four

Part three certainly starts entertainingly, with the Doctor trying to restrain the Graff Vynda-K from striking Garron and receiving a slap across the face with the Graff's glove for his troubles -- which leads the Doctor to indignantly take the glove from the Graff and slap him across the face.  Obviously this doesn't do anything to improve the Graff's mood, and the Doctor, Romana, and Garron are hauled off, to be questioned later.

The Doctor summons K-9 with his whistle while Garron and Romana
look on. (The Ribos Operation Part Three) ©BBC

The rest of this episode is largely complications, but there are some entertaining moments along the way: the scenes between Unstoffe and Binro the Heretic (who controversially believes that the lights in the sky are stars and not ice crystals, among other things) are justly lauded, particularly because of how Holmes allows the story enough time to insert this material.  We could have just as easily gotten some scenes of the Graff's men searching for Unstoffe, but instead we get a quiet, beautiful moment.  And the interaction between the Doctor and Garron is also a lot of fun, as Garron describes how he almost got away with selling Sydney Harbour to an Arab, only to be rumbled when the Arab complained to the government about how Garron refused to throw the Opera House into the bargain. "Doctor," Romana interrupts, "there are men out there planning to kill us, and you're just sitting here chattering!"  "Please don't panic, Romana," the Doctor tells her. "...Listen, when you've faced death as often as I have, this is much more fun."

Then there's the odd inclusion of the Seeker, who seems slightly out of keeping with everything else -- while there's a medieval element obviously present, the sense we get is of a more urban environment that the Seeker doesn't quite fit into.  But, more than that, there's also the manner that the off-worlders keep ridiculing the primitives on Ribos for their superstitious ways -- and yet all of the Seeker's predictions come true.  It's an interesting touch.

Part four is concentrated in the catacombs beneath the city of Shur, as the Graff gets closer to tracking down Unstoffe (and thus his stolen gold, as well as the piece of jethryk).  This is really more business as usual as far as Doctor Who goes -- complete with more Shrivenzales (those slightly-less-than-convincing creatures like we saw in part one) roaming the catacombs.  The most notable part is how, after a cave-in kills most of the Graff's men (including his beloved friend Sholakh), the Graff goes mad and declares revenge on everyone on the planet -- leaving his remaining soldier with an armed grenade so that he can blow himself up.  Then we as the audience hear what the Graff hears: the sounds of battle as he marches forth, clearly mad -- and unaware that the soldier (aka a disguised Doctor) has planted the grenade on him.  The Graff's reign is over, and the Doctor has the jethryk -- in reality the first segment of the Key to Time.  "Only five more to go," the Doctor says at the end.

It's a fun, fast-moving story -- yet it still has quieter moments of charm to help balance things out.  It's not a "big" story, but it is an entertaining one.  Robert Holmes has been given the chance to write a lighter script, and he's delivered in spades.  It doesn't hurt that the cast all seem to be having a good time; the only person who seems slightly out of their depth is Mary Tamm, who occasionally sounds a bit stiff -- but this could just be characterization (since Romana is also meant to be rather austere and stiff).  If the rest of the season is up to The Ribos Operation's standards, we'll be in for quite a good season indeed.

August 29: The Ribos Operation Parts One & Two

This season marks something of a bold experiment for the series: long before the BBC Wales version started having overarching themes, season 16 attempted to have an entire season with a single goal in mind.  Each of these six stories deals with the Doctor's efforts to find a segment to the Key to Time, a powerful artifact that can stop everything.

This is all set up in the opening moments of the first story of the season, The Ribos Operation, and there are some great moments just in those first few minutes.  The White Guardian is portrayed as a Southern gentleman, dressed in white and sipping a colorful drink while seated in a large wicker chair.  He's the epitome of calm sophistication, as he describes the Key to the Doctor (who has a visible wound on his lip from an earlier off-screen encounter with a dog) and how he needs it to restore balance to the universe.  "Ah!" the Doctor exclaims.  "You want me to volunteer, isn't that it? ... And if I don't?" "Nothing," the White Guardian replies. "Nothing?  You mean nothing will happen to me?" the Doctor presses.  "Nothing at all.  Ever," the White Guardian says pleasantly.

And so the Doctor is saddled with a quest and a new companion: Romanadvoratrelundar¹⁰⁴, a recent graduate from the Time Lord Academy.  Mary Tamm plays her as naturally superior, and her initial back-and-forths with the Doctor are quite entertaining. "I may be inexperienced," she tells the Doctor, "but I did graduate from the Academy with a triple first."  "I suppose you think we should be impressed by that, too?" the Doctor scoffs.  "Well, it's better than scraping through with fifty-one percent at the second attempt," Romana replies haughtily.  "That information is confidential!" the Doctor cries defensively.

Once all this initial Key to Time business is set up, it's time for the main story to get going, and Robert Holmes chooses not to give us an important tale but instead one about con men and deposed rulers.  The main storyline of these two episodes is marvelously whimsical, being unconcerned with the usual threats of universal destruction/dominion.  Instead we get Garron and Unstoffe, two off-world con men trying to sell Ribos to the Graff Vynda-K, the deposed ruler of Levithia, in the manner of those selling, say, the Brooklyn Bridge to unwitting tourists.  Of course, the con men have attempted to sweeten the deal by making the Graff believe that the planet has an unusually high amount of jethryk, the rarest element in the universe.  It's into this attempted con that the Doctor and Romana enter as they're looking for the first segment of the Key to Time, and they end up being the catalyst when the con seems to go wrong, at the end of part two, even though they're trying to stay out of the way and just get on with grabbing that first segment.

It should also be noted how well the world of Ribos is realized on screen.  By choosing to make this an alien planet stuck in its own middle ages ("As yet, they haven't even discovered the telescope," Garron tells the Graff.  "Many of the natives believe that the planet is flat and if they walked far enough they would fall off the edge"), it gives the set designers the ability to create an imaginary world that is nonetheless rooted in history, which leads to an opulence and beauty often missing from more futuristic worlds -- no gleaming bare white walls here.  Someone (either Holmes or the designers -- or both) has also decided to give things a Russian flavor, which means that we also get some slightly unusual design elements that don't appear in more English medieval stories.  The whole thing looks amazing -- and even the fake snow looks convincing for once.

So far we've got a fun, well-written story (of course it's well-written; it's Robert Holmes, isn't it?) that's a joy to look at, and we've got a cast that are taking things seriously, yet clearly having fun while they do so.  These first two episodes are a joy that makes the viewer want to see more.







¹⁰⁴ Well, that's what we're always told it is, but Mary Tamm repeatedly pronounces it as "Romanadvoratnelundar".

August 28: The Invasion of Time Parts Five & Six

The Sontarans have invaded Gallifrey!  Only a small force, but still!  It's an interesting twist to this tale, turning the Vardans into just an opening salvo for the real threat.  And what is going on with Castellan Kelner?  He seems perfectly content to sell his people down the river to whatever force is willing to exert their dominance.  Either he's unbelievably spineless, or he has it out for the Time Lords for some reason.  Or he's that desperate to gain power.

It must be said that these two episodes, despite the presence of the Sontarans, don't have quite the same impact as the first four.  There are some interesting plot elements moving along in part five (such as the Doctor's plan to patch the hole in Gallifrey's forcefield using his TARDIS), but because the Doctor is now the hero completely -- even more so than in parts three and four, where he still had to occasionally pretend to be evil -- Tom Baker slips back into his comfort zone, which just isn't quite as compelling.  Of course, there are still some nice moments -- the confrontation between Borusa and the Doctor about the Great Key is very well done (although there seems to be an implication that, as no President knows where the Great Key is and the Chancellor does, no Chancellor can become President (unless they get a mindwipe or something)) -- but it's not as mesmerizing as those first two episodes were.  Another good cliffhanger, though -- Tom Baker sounds pretty desperate as he yells, "We're being thrown into a black star!"

Leela convinces Castellan Kelner to tell the Doctor where Stor
is. (The Invasion of Time Part Six) ©BBC

Part six is the weakest of the bunch; there's an awful lot of padding with wanderings inside the Doctor's TARDIS, and the whole thing ends when the Doctor shoots a big powerful gun at the lead Sontaran, Stor.  All this and Leela's afterthought leaving scene.  It feels a little bit like a cheat, and the fact that they've shot portions of the interiors on film leads to a visual discontinuity -- particularly as this is all supposed to be in the same place.¹⁰³  Still, the omnipresent TARDIS hum does help with this a bit, but it could have been much better.  And Stor's mask does look a lot better on film than on video.

Of course, given that the whole production was under a lot of pressure (between a strike and the initial script set to end the season (Killers of the Dark by David Weir) being far too expensive to film), it's somewhat impressive that The Invasion of Time works as well as it does. Sustaining a story over six weeks is no easy task in the best of circumstances, and the fact that things don't start to fall apart until the end is a testament to everyone involved.  The only major complaints are the severe underuse of the Sontarans (they show up and then basically stand around until they're dispatched) and the disappointing farewell that Leela gets.  Apparently she loves Andred?  Well then.  It's not quite on the level of Dodo's goodbye, but it still feels like a textbook example of how not to write a main character out of a show.  But everything else is quite well done -- though one wonders how things would have gone without Tom Baker in the central role.  He's the glue that holds The Invasion of Time together, and this is really the shift where he begins to completely dominate the show.

It hasn't always been the most successful of seasons, but season 15 manages to provide some good stories and point out a new direction for Doctor Who.  There's a definite shift by the end of the season to go in a more "big concept" SF direction, and while it doesn't always work, there's still enough that does to keep things worth watching.  In some ways it's a welcome return to the philosophy that governed the show during season 3, rather than the more visceral threats of monsters and retold horror stories -- only this time, they have the dominant personality of Tom Baker as the main actor.  How these two things interact will determine the outcome of the next two seasons.







¹⁰³ It's even odder when you consider that some of this stuff was in fact shot on location on video -- all of the stuff in the President's office, for instance, is shot on Outside Broadcast video (they ended up building sets on location, due to a strike), and the scenes in the TARDIS workshop are clearly on OB video.  So why didn't they do the whole thing this way -- was it that much cheaper to shoot material on film?  Or did the idea simply never occur to director Gerald Blake?

August 27: The Invasion of Time Parts Three & Four

So right after that great cliffhanger we finally get some clue as to what's actually going on, as the Doctor orders Borusa into the newly-redecorated Presidential office: redecorated with lots of gears everywhere -- and everything cast in lead.  The Doctor is finally isolated from the Vardans (the shimmering invaders), and thus can reveal his plan to Borusa.

So if the first two episodes spent all their time making us question the Doctor's motives, these two see him squarely back as the hero of the piece, as he plots against the Vardans, who he sees as a tremendous threat to Gallifrey (it seems to be the case that they've invaded the Matrix before all this "taking over Gallifrey" stuff, but this isn't as clear as it probably should be).  The only downside to this is that once we know the Doctor is indeed still a hero, Tom Baker never quite gives the same caliber of performance as he did in the first two episodes.  Which isn't to say he's bad; just that he's not as fascinating to watch here, once he's being conventionally "good".  Of course, a lot of the other characters don't know that, so Andred's trying to organize a revolution, while Castellan Kelner is being obsequious to his new masters.

I have to say, in their semi-materialized form, I don't really mind the Vardans.  They may be sheets of aluminum foil, but I still find them quite effective, and the idea that they travel along any wavelength is a neat one.  It's only when they're fully materialized that they become a disappointment.  And what a disappointment; is there a greater letdown in the whole show than the ultimate reveal of the Vardans?  Even the Doctor comments on it: "Disappointing, aren't they?"

The Doctor hushes everyone as K-9 tracks down the Vardan
homeworld. (The Invasion of Time Part Four) ©BBC

And yes, there's some stuff with Leela and her new friend Rodan out in the wilderness of Gallifrey, where they meet up with some drop-out Time Lords already living out there.  But other than to show that Rodan is spectacularly unsuited to roughing it, this feels more like simply getting Leela out of the way while the main plot happens elsewhere; she certainly doesn't seem to contribute much to the direct resolution of events.  No, our attention is on the Doctor, as he works out how to lull the Vardans into a false enough sense of security to be able to locate their homeworld.  He finally manages it by part four, even if he has to make a giant hole in the quantum forcefield that protects Gallifrey.  And then he wins; the Vardans are defeated and it seems like everything is wrapping up -- which leads to another great cliffhanger: as the Doctor gives a congratulatory speech, he realizes no one is listening, and turns around to see a squad of Sontarans behind him.  It seems the invasion isn't over yet...

Oh, and, happily, we get to hear the middle eight section of the theme tune in the end credits of both of these episodes; it's been a while.

August 26: The Invasion of Time Parts One & Two

The first thing that strikes you about The Invasion of Time is how fast it moves.  (Well, all right, maybe not the first thing, but close.)  This story flies in comparison to Underworld: we move from the Doctor forming an unholy alliance of some sort to being inaugurated as President in the space of 24 minutes.

That alliance is also particularly intriguing, as it seems to set up the Doctor as the villain of the piece.  "You promised complete control over the Time Lords," he says to the mysterious party he's meeting with.  "... I'm honoured to be allowed to serve your glorious cause."  And from this moment on, the Doctor is behaving distinctly erratically, with sudden mood swings from friendly to near-apoplectic to deadly calm.  He refuses to let anyone know what's going on, preferring instead to boss everyone around as he demands to be installed as the President of the Supreme Council of the Time Lords (being, at the end of The Deadly Assassin, the only viable candidate remaining).  It's a fascinating approach -- we know the Doctor must be up to something (right?), we just don't have any idea what.  It certainly looks like he's planning to betray the Time Lords...

The Invasion of Time is one of those rare things in early Doctor Who: a loose sequel to an earlier story (The Deadly Assassin -- but you already knew that).  Of course, other than using events from The Deadly Assassin as a jumping-off point, there's not too much overt sequelness on display: some of the sets look similar (even if they're lit significantly differently), and Borusa is back (albeit as a different actor), and there's some reference to the Matrix.  And that's about it.  It's slightly surprising that they didn't try to get any of the actors from the earlier story back (well, they apparently did try to get Angus Mackay back as Borusa, but he was busy), as it might have made the connections stronger.

But that's okay.  These first two episodes are ultimately Tom Baker's, and while there is the occasional misstep (such as the infamous "even the sonic screwdriver won't get me out of this one" line, which Baker delivers to the audience), for the most part he excels, continually wrongfooting the audience as to his motives and holding us entranced with his performance.  That uncertainty as to his motives also keeps things moving, and moments such as the one where he discusses with K-9 the probability of his plan succeeding, which almost look like it could go either way as to his loyalties, go a long way in maintaining interest.

Plus, episode two features one of the all-time best cliffhangers (and my personal favorite) in the entire series: after K-9 destroys the barriers that keep Gallifrey isolated from the universe, the Doctor calls a meeting of the High Council.  "Gentlemen, this is no ordinary meeting," he declares.  "I'm privileged to introduce to you your new masters."  And as odd-looking shimmering shapes appear, we see the Doctor laughing evilly, and we really start to wonder just what is going on.  Has the Doctor really become a villain?  You really want to tune in next time to find out.