The Doctor in the Eighties

[hushicho]

Greetings to you all! After a lovely conversation as usual with Iain I decided it might be best for me to tackle the latter few regenerations of the Doctor. Some of the last three Doctors' stories are amongst my favourite and most fondly-remembered, as I grew up in that era and witnessed the gradual development of the Doctor, from 1980 onward. Although this was also a period of huge and sometimes tumultuous transformation for the Doctor, in more ways than one, and although everyone it seems can't agree on a general consensus about any particular story, here's my two cents worth as I always say.

I thought I would start off with the ultimate passing of the torch, 'Logopolis', which leads neatly into 'Castrovalva'. These two together make up a single cohesive storyline to the end of 'Castrolvalva', which introduces us to the new TARDIS crew, for better or worse; it was to be one of the most amazing and unstable changes yet for both the show and the crew of the space-time vessel.

As 'Logopolis' opens, a myriad of events are occurring as usual: Tegan Jovanka and her Aunt Vanessa are preparing to get Tegan to the airport in time for her first flight as a stewardess, her new career; the Doctor and Adric are assessing their current options after the ordeal on Traken; and other forces are at work in the universe...but they haven't made themselves known concretely yet. The story already begins to take mysterious turns as the theme of decay and entropy from early on in the season comes to its climax here in the tense finale.

Things were set into motion at the very beginning of the season, making it a difficult although exciting string of adventures for the TARDIS crew. From the Leisure Hive controversy to the abrupt departure of Romana in E-Space, things were transforming rapidly for the TARDIS crew. Even the recent affair on Traken had introduced a new and terrible possibility, that in fact the Doctor's longtime foe the Master was in fact alive and well. The Doctor seemed to be suffering too, perhaps from the fact that he had inhabited a single form for so very long and had so many physically and mentally demanding adventures. It was time for another, more major change.

Although the initial change proposed by the Doctor was a change in the TARDIS' exterior and a cleansing of the interior, it was to draw him into a greater and more terrible web of events than he had expected. However, from the Doctor's arrival on the side of the road to measure what was presumably one of the last few remaining police boxes in England in use in 1981, the presence of the mysterious and eerie Watcher signified that something was not quite right; the Doctor had spoken to him on the bridge over the Thames when the TARDIS landed on a barge instead of the river and confounded his bizarre and nonsensical plot.

The hapless Tegan suffered along as her aunt's mechanical ineptitude got in the way of Tegan's desperate assertiveness (which often took the form of women's lib when addressing her outdated aunt!), leaving them stranded at the side of the road. However, thinking quickly Tegan approached the strange police box and wandered inside, changing her life forever. But the Master had other plans for her aunt, which later signified his presence to the Doctor...here again we see the Master trifling with innocent lives as a simple caling card, and we note his calculating cruelty.

Although this is punctuated by the strange arrival of a police car, and made further confusing by the weird insistence of the officer present to drag the Doctor along for an investigation of the presumably abandoned car! Fortunately Adric, thinking quickly, enables the Doctor to escape and joins him with his alien strength and agility, used to its best advantage here. The Doctor decides, after the TARDIS-upon-TARDIS trap and the state of Tegan's aunt, that they must go to Logopolis anyway and sort things out with the TARDIS.

They find out that they have a stowaway in the form of Tegan, who boldly insists upon coming along and making herself useful; fair enough since she's the second-oldest person in the group! Through a complex series of events Nyssa is brought to Logopolis by the Watcher and the Doctor is warned of a danger that could put the entire universe at risk, something that becomes an imminent issue as the Master ignorantly begins murdering the Logopolitans. Tegan finds out the fate of her aunt and does her part to help the Doctor when the Master's sabotage almost shrinks the TARDIS around him, but despite his interference the Doctor is forced to strike up a temporary truce with his old foe for the purpose of saving the universe.

As Logopolis' mirror on Earth, the Pharos Project is the only possibility to broadcast the Logopolitans' program and keep the CVEs open and release the entropy to control it. Logopolis is doomed, but Adric and Nyssa are piloted in the TARDIS by the Watcher, outside of time and space itself, before returning into the timestream to land nearby the Pharos Project, where the Doctor, the Master, and Tegan have arrived and begun their work. Already too much time has been lost, and whole galaxies have vanished from view...most notably Traken.

Tegan rushes out to distract the guards while the Doctor and the Master start their broadcast, but as usual the Master has something up his sleeve; he never intended to trust the Doctor in the first place, and he now intends to use the Pharos Project to broadcast his demands to the entire universe. The Doctor is having none of this and hurries out on the catwalk to disconnect the Master's megalomaniacal message, only to fall to his apparent demise; the Doctor's companions rush around, to hear possibly one of the most memorable lines in the entire series:

'It's the end...but the moment has been prepared for...'

And with that, the mysterious Watcher appears again and merges with the Doctor; apparently he was the Doctor all along, but a manifestation of the Doctor's future that was caused to overlap due to the crisis of Logopolis. As that was resolved, the Doctor's fate became undeniable...

**

This was the end of an era. I had only ever known the fourth Doctor, and I know that a good many children who began watching with him were outright shocked when the time came for a change. But then again he had gone for a good long run, and he certainly made his mark on the show and indeed on the world; at that time Doctor Who became a household name in many places, and not just in Britain, due to the iconic nature of its leading man, Tom Baker. His eccentric personality and natural ebullience brought so much to the part that it was outright impossible not to be interested in what he might be doing, even if that might not be the focal point of the story at that moment. He always seemed to be up to something, and that was one of his most attractive features.

However, things weren't so good for him in his last season as the Doctor; his relationship with Lalla Ward (Romana II) ended on not quite the best terms after extensive bickering, he suffered from a severe metabolic disorder that often caused him to gain and lose weight drastically in short periods (this is most obvious in 'Meglos'), and new producer John Nathan-Turner and he repeatedly clashed over the direction of the show and their visions for it. The time was right for a change, and so Tom Baker left the role, leaving Nathan-Turner to find another leading man...whom he envisioned should be a sharp contrast to the fourth Doctor, yet reminiscent of the earlier incarnations.

I have to say, at least Tom's physical state matched that of the Doctor in his final season; the behind-the-scenes drama was often more trying than that which made it to the cameras, and poor Tom looks exhausted especially in 'Logopolis'. One imagines that it must have been quite a chore to even get through the story for him, and that the final scene under the radio tower must have surely been a relief and a release, as much for him as for the regenerating Doctor. The fourth Doctor grew increasingly cranky and snapped often at all his companions, yet also had periods of profound introspection where he seemed to draw up inside himself and his mind. He was never afraid to assert himself strongly to anyone, and even less so during this period, staring down even vampires without so much as a clove of garlic! Still a collected and casual solver of problems, he addressed situations with an alien detachment during this time but simultaneously managed to seem more vulnerable than previously in his fourth incarnation, most especially in 'Logopolis'. Here his actions are outright insane, especially his idea to materialise the TARDIS at the bottom of the Thames to clean it out! But perhaps that can be explained away by the Watcher's influence on his mind; he had to meet the Watcher, and it had to happen then. Even if it were through forced circumstances...could it be that the Watcher influenced the Doctor's mind to make him be there at that particular place and time?

[hushicho]

And as for the Watcher, it was a stroke of brilliance. I remember when I first watched this, I had no idea who or what the Watcher was, and I found myself wondering more and more throughout the story -- it knew how to pilot the TARDIS, the Doctor was familiar with it, and it could seem to pop up anywhere it needed to. It was also brilliantly understated, making it stay on the mind even if out of sight for most of the story. I felt that Nyssa's exposition at the end was not entirely unnecessary, even if many people do, because to me it wasn't altogether clear how the Watcher was the Doctor upon first viewing. The final merging of the two always makes me catch my breath in wait, watching for the new Doctor to sit up as he does, with a temporary burst of energy.

Overall the direction for this was brilliant, with the atmosphere of 1980s Britain done extremely well. But how could they help but show 1980s Britain in the 1980s? Still, it evokes nostalgic feelings for that time even today, with the styles, the music, and the settings. This is one of those times where the electronic music really does fit the circumstances, and the compositions for 'Logopolis' were outright brilliant. The mood is always set appropriately, and especially the bleak and dark turns the story took at several junctures. Furthermore the denouement, with the Doctor under the radio tower, receives possibly the most excellent score of all, with an almost dreamlike quality to it that gently lets us down while simultaneously building us up. It allows us to say farewell to our old familiar Doctor, our old familiar friend, and hello to a new and younger, more energetic face. At last the decay that had piled upon the fourth Doctor was able to be cast off, and the Doctor was given a new lease on life.

The story itself was quite solid, and we got to see more of the TARDIS interior. Likewise it seems we were able to see more of the Doctor's own inner workings as he impulsively goes here and there, seemingly unable to really settle on one thing at first, going from one urge to another. As I said before, it's very atmospheric and the direction is good, giving us an impression of a solid setting in the early 1980s. This is also the first time we've seen the fourth Doctor on Earth since 'Shada'...and as that wasn't actually broadcast, at the time it was the first time we've seen him on Earth since 'City of Death'...well over a season's worth of time! The fourth Doctor began his incarnation on Earth, and he's brought back there to end it. It seems as well that, as with every regeneration, it seems to have some bearing on the subsequent incarnation too: the fifth Doctor would visit Earth in twelve of his twenty stories!

Furthermore the fifth Doctor always seemed much more cautious about rushing into things, unlike his previous counterpart. No more would the Doctor haphazardly put his life on the line like the fourth had, on the catwalk, pulling out a cable to stop the Master's rash broadcast. And who could blame him? As Iain and I have discussed before, the broadcast was ludicrous to begin with. This was the single weak point of Ainley's portrayal of the Master in 'Logopolis', which was otherwise quite solid and terrifying; he had no idea that what he was doing during the course of the story would have such widespread consequences, and he wouldn't have cared had it not affected him so directly. Still, the Master's broadcast wasn't just stupid and pointless, but it was pretty presumptuous of him to think that anyone would care about his rantings and ravings. But again, this perfectly portrays the arrogance and megalomania of the Master, who continues on with his mad scheme without thinking that it might not be taken seriously. He callously murders Tegan's aunt and shows no remorse later, even delights in torturing her, which is something that establishes a mutual hatred between them much like that of the first Master we saw and Jo Grant. And unlike most of the Master's victims, I rather liked Auntie Vanessa and was quite upset when she was TCE-shrunken.

Poor Tegan didn't quite have a very good day either, what with missing her flight, getting snatched to an alien world in an alien vehicle, meeting two aliens as her fellow crew, and being thrust into a situation with universal repercussions! She did quite well for someone so out of her league, and she showed a degree of strength in this that is sometimes unseen in the Doctor's companions, proving that while she is brash and occasionally too outspoken, she is also quite strong and resolute, able to put her own personal feelings aside in order to do what she has to for the situation. Nyssa's not in much of a better shape for bad days, what with seeing her dead father's form taken by a hideously evil being and then her own homeworld vanishing from her eyes, and Adric's possibly best off of all of them since he's put up with the Doctor's odd temperamental actions the longest. Still, even he gets jostled around in the course of this story, where no-one is safe and nothing is sacred.

Overall this is one of the most interesting and absorbing stories of the fourth Doctor's era, which is even moreso a shame that it's his last. In 'The Tom Baker Years', a documentary on the fourth Doctor's era presented by Tom himself, he seems to be quite excited by viewing his last season's clips and gets so excited that it slips his mind it's his last. It's easy to do with stories like 'Logopolis', which draw you in from the start with such odd premises and strange turns of plot, proving that Chris Bidmead is in fact an excellent script author. Perhaps moreso than a script editor, which he elected not to return to after 'Logopolis', the official title going first to temporary replacement Antony Root before landing in the lap of permanent replacement Eric Saward, perhaps one of the most controversial figures in Doctor Who history and certainly one of the most influential in the fifth Doctor's era; this was the beginning of the Nathan-Turner/Saward era, which would mark a tumultuous time for the Doctor, which had been begun by Nathan-Turner's heavy-handed actions spelling the end of the fourth Doctor's time.

If only Nathan-Turner and Bidmead had not been so insistent upon pushing Tom to change his portrayal of the Doctor, perhaps he wouldn't have chosen to leave when he did. Certainly his authoritative stance might have improved the largely mediocre set of offerings that marked the first season of the fifth Doctor, and indeed we know that at least one of the stories had been written for the fourth Doctor and simply delayed again and again until finally being accepted for his replacement!

But then again at the same time, I can also accept that it was time for a change. Even if the fifth Doctor got something of a rocky start, it was necessary to feel out the new identity of the Time Lord as the previous Doctor had occupied it for longer than any other actor in the part! So I can be kind to its mistakes at first due to that, and on the fact that Peter Davison is absolutely wonderful as the Doctor even if his scripting is sometimes quite weak. Nathan-Turner, despite his occasional stupidity, really did do an excellent job of casting with Peter, who always wins us over with his kind and genuine smile and his attempts at keeping his companions safe while desperately throwing together a solution.

We were moving into a new era and throwing off what was comfortable and familiar. Hello to the fifth Doctor...

More to come later!

Love!
Hushicho

[Iain]

I grew up during the eighies too hushicho and I saw that time period as a welcome change to the creeky slapstick the last season of the 70's had become. (season 17) The gloss and lusture of JNT's brave new world was a inspiring sight to my young eyes then, I suddenly had hope for the show moving on from strength to strength in the 80's.

With the announcement of Peter Davision as the fifth Doctor to replace the rather worn out Tom Baker, and the season 18 stories having a much more serious feel than the comedy show of the last few Baker seasons, i started to get excited again about future plots, rather than dreading what Mr Baker would spring on us next year after year.

This by the way is not a refection on my overall feel of both the Baker years and the JNT era, but simply the way I envisioned it as I saw the events unfold with my young eyes, despite enjoying much of Tom Baker in his early Gothic era and even some of the better williams tales of later times, by 1979 I was really not a great fan of how the show in my eyes had 'deteriorated' Sci-Fi had evolved during the 70's and Dr Who had not done so.

In 1977 Star Wars hit the Sci-Fi movie going world by storm, I was a very excited teenager that paid to see that film more than 12 times, (I was under 14 so it was kids prices 50p, which just happended to be my lunch money for school then) there was a movie house near my school and the price was right, so I went to see it with all my friends and even alone, that movie affected my feelings about Sci Fi more than anything and raised my expectations for what I wanted out of my favorite shows.

Up untill Star Wars all I had seen that was Sci-Fi related was Dr Who and Star Trek from the 60's (we didnt get it in the UK till the early 70's) British television back then would only run a show season once with an occasional re-run of a few storys in the summer months when it got slow, so I only saw most Dr Who's or Star Treks the first time they were aired. And apart from an occasional Sci-Fi movie my favourite taste was not yet fully developed, I didnt even know I was a Science fiction fan untill Star Wars opened me up to the world of fantasy and space.

Dr Who throughout the 70's had been a tradition to watch, the 5:15pm tea time saturday viewing I had recalled since a child, in much the same way "Hockey night in Canada" was a Canadian sat night tradition as wa Dr Who for me those cold winter nights in Britian. Its funny really because watching that show during the 70's at such a young age I wasnt even aware of the outside Science Fiction community, but then pre-Star wars it wasnt too well known anyway, back then it wasnt as easy to put a Sci fi show on tv and get good viewing figures, Stars Wars did change the way many people looked on the Sci-fi community.

1978-79 saw many many shows being created trying to capitalise on the termendous sucess of Star Wars, america brought ot Battlestar Galactica and Buck rogers in the 25th century very quickly and those shows were gobbled up by a hungry Sci-Fi community egar for anything space-related, the BBC's competing station ITV tried matching those shows in the same timeslot as Dr Who, the failure was soon evident however that the british prefared their own home grown shows over the glossy american rivals.

Blakes Seven by Terry Nation grew out of this renewed Sci-fi excitement and the adventures of Blake and his small band of outlaws against the evil federation ran for four very sucessful seasons between 1977-1982, that timeperiod saw Dr Who also leap to new heights, I call it the golden era of Brutish tele-fantasy as several other good related shows such as Sapphire and Steel and others made their debutes around that era.

I saw the launch of season 18 with amazement, the titles had changed the story the Leisure Hive had a glossy look to it even the feel of the shaow was different, anyone seeing the last tale of season 17 Horns of Nimon and the opening of season 18's Leisure Hive could be forgiven for thinking they were watching two totally different shows. This series of new radical changes was brought about by the new producer of the show John Nathen Turner.

I have given my frank views on JNT's style of producing before in other articles here and I will go back to that topic with any future discussion on his style of producing Dr Who. He did however drag a rather tired show out of its rut and propelled it into the eighties with his slick production values for this I do commend him, it may not have been liked by everyone but it got me back watching Dr Who in 1980 and thats the main point isnt it, to re-vitalise the show which he did very well.

I never missed a season 18 story they were all fine examples of how the show had drastically changed for the better, Tom Baker was now restrained from his earlier sideshow of 'sending up' the Doctor and even little K9 was more bearable now, of course the real changes were to come when JNT cast his own replacement for the departing Tom Baker.

Peter Davision I feel was an inspired choice to follow the larger than life Baker, you needed a less outgoing Doctor and the larger Tardis crew helped to phase Davision in nicely, the storys may not have always been high quality, but at least the potentual was there and the series had at least entered the 1980's on a strong feeling that the show was sticking around through the changes of the years.

Too bad the eighties would be its last decade of evoulution, but theres always hope for the new series I suppose. I'll return to this facinating discussion later Hushicho I hope I didnt veer to far off topic with my thoughts on the 77-78 era and Star Wars/Sci-Fi in general. Its how I relate the Dr Who era there.

[hushicho]

As agreed on I'm moving on to the next story for review so that I can do the review while it's fresh on my mind. I've been reviewing all of these episodes lately in order to do decent critiques for you! I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I've enjoyed doing them!

Now we move on to the next story, 'Castrovalva'. While it is a separate story technically, it's still basically a continuation of the story begun in 'Logopolis'. We begin with a pre-credits teaser of the Doctor's regeneration, with slightly different music from what I understand...perhaps one day I'll view the two clips side by side and hear specifically, but I've not yet got around to it! In any case, the fifth Doctor sits up with a tired, or perhaps bizarrely intoxicated smile, while his companions watch in astonishment at what happens. The opening credits roll after we've had time to digest this (if we perhaps hadn't tuned in the week before!) and we return to the group.

In an attempt to escape the guards, the TARDIS crew support the still-weakened Doctor through the grasses towards the TARDIS. This made me wonder, since Tegan got out and talked to them in the previous episode, and Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric all ran to the fallen Doctor's side unobstructed. So if Tegan convinced the guards, why were they pursuing them again? And if she didn't, how did she and the others get away from them to gather quietly around the Doctor? Sort of makes me wonder.

After an inspired bit of distraction again from Adric, Tegan shows off that she can drive with the best of them, tearing off into the field with the Doctor and Nyssa. The Master's TARDIS appears as Adric is overwhelmed but making quite a good showing, and as the girls notice once in the TARDIS he's then left alone...kneeling on the ground with everyone unconscious around him. His personality doesn't seem to be much the better for it either, and once inside the TARDIS he breaks off to go find the Doctor, who has also wandered into the corridors.

After a good bit of wandering and some quite good imitations of earlier Doctors by the new Doctor, the fifth Doctor at last gets his own distinctive costume, inspired by a classic cricketing style and very complementary to the new Doctor's complexion as well. However, things aren't quite so rosy for everyone else, and the Master it seems had an ace up his sleeve. Adric's not who or what he seems, and the girls are appalled to find it out. It would appear he's a prisoner of the Master...

Tegan and Nyssa find the TARDIS databanks and find out that their destination is not a particularly auspicious one, after the Doctor is put in the Zero Room for his own safety. Hurtling back towards Event One, one of the only things that could endanger the TARDIS, the crew is only saved by the andrenaline rush given to the convalescent Doctor. It would appear the only solution is to jettison one-fourth of the TARDIS, but the trouble with manual override is that the fourth is totally random! The Doctor heads back towards the Zero Room once Nyssa has turned on the backup systems and cooled things down a bit, his rush subsiding. Although it seems momentarily they didn't succeed, of course they did, and Tegan's bravery helped a great deal.

After finding out that the Zero Room has apparently been jettisoned, Tegan and Nyssa investigate the databanks to find that some places are naturally conducive to regenerations, such as the Dwellings of Simplicity known as Castrovalva. Tegan sets the coordinates according to the directions in the database and, after a somewhat shaky landing, they arrive. The Doctor instructs Nyssa in fashioning a 'Zero Cabinet' from the doors of the lamented Zero Room, and they prepare for the afternoon's walk to Castrovalva.

One things leads to another and the wheelchair is trashed by rolling into a stream and short-circuiting. Nyssa's attire, although changed from her 'Logopolis' outfit, is similarly tainted by being soaked in the stream in her rescue effort. Fortunately it dries fast and they're on their way again in no time, carrying the cabinet themselves. When they go to investigate, the Doctor springs out of the cabinet and disappears, perhaps violently since Tegan finds blood! So they hike it up the mountain to find ingress to the mysterious Dwellings of Simplicity.

Meanwhile the Doctor has been welcomed by the weirdly-clad natives, who turn out to be rather older men who keep some odd hobbies. After topping off his outfit with a sprig of the celery served at dinner, he goes to retire and meets the mysterious Portreeve, who comes and goes as he pleases. Soon enough Tegan and Nyssa arrive, much to the astonishment of the Castrovalvans, and things start to get much more mysterious...

The Doctor and his companions decide that enough is enough and try to leave, only for the Doctor to be overwhelmed by the seemingly nonsensical geography of Castrovalva...or perhaps the presence of the imposing Shardovan? However, in time the Doctor regains his senses and starts to understand more, as do we; as he reads the history of Castrovalva, he becomes more and more certain that things are not right there. And when he remembers his missing comrade, it all starts to fall into place more and more.

Eventually the Doctor brings some of the natives to their senses and then insists upon being taken to the Portreeve's house and seeing him, which is done at once and arouses the attention of all of Castrovalva, it seems! The Doctor, however, is not in the cabinet: it's the entire history of Castrovalva! The Doctor meets with Shardovan, whom as he suspected from the notes he found in the history, has come to believe that Castrovalva is a nonsensical trap, totally invented since the history books are 500 years old, yet chronicle Castrovalva to the present day.

The Portreeve reveals his true identity...the Master...and tries to open the Zero Cabinet in order to see the Doctor one last time. Although he barks at Nyssa for treating him like a fool...well, he really is acting like one. The tapestry of his shows very clearly that the Doctor is not in the cabinet, which drives the Master to split it open, to reveal the books he'd invented for Castrovalva.

The Doctor confronts his old foe, intent on stopping him from obliterating Castrovalva as he wipes one of the natives from existence with a control on the outside of his TARDIS. However, he isn't quick enough with Shardovan, who frees Adric from the hadron-energy web he's suspended in. The Doctor uses Adric to escape, since he created Castrovalva with block transfer computation; the Master tries to follow but is held back by the Castrovalvans and apparently annihilated as the Dwellings vanish as if they had never been.

[hushicho]

The Doctor and his crew return to the TARDIS, with the Doctor insisting that the ship-shape crew should help the ship run smoother. They all pile into the TARDIS as the Doctor expresses his optimism at his new incarnation.

And so, the fifth Doctor is introduced in a new adventure. When viewed on its own merits, I daresay 'Castrovalva' is a weak tale that doesn't stand well by itself. However, when paired with 'Logopolis' it fares much better as a second half to the story begun in the earlier story. This isn't so much a first adventure for the fifth Doctor as it is a finish to the final adventure of the fourth; it seems disjointed if considered separate from 'Logopolis' and does not contain a coherent flow separately.

The first episode takes place almost entirely in the TARDIS, letting us see what dire circumstances the Doctor is really in; we aren't even allowed to get a glimpse of who he's really supposed to be, as even he hasn't settled down enough to realise yet. The closest we get is his serene telepathic conference in the Zero Room, about as uncharacteristic as you could ask for! However, this is a particularly good episode for Nyssa and Tegan, who are forced to carry most of it and get admirable characterisation and interactions with each other, firmly establishing the relationship between them. They are allowed to form a bond of closeness during their crisis, and we can see Tegan's tendency to frustration at her circumstances...understandably so since they're so far out of her experience or that of any Earth-human from her time! And we also see Nyssa's unflinching optimism, which wears a little bit...also understandably...during the crisis of the TARDIS's near-destruction.

The story seems to hit a lull with the second episode though, and even though they do all get into Castrovalva, we're not really given much of a threat until much later. It is important that the Doctor is recuperating, but overall he takes far too long to do it and doesn't seem to be fully there even by the final episode, until the last few seconds! In a style typical of his manner of resolving things, perhaps a portent at this stage, the Doctor doesn't act until the very end and even then seems rushed through, unsure of exactly what he's supposed to be doing. While this tale does have an unusually low body count (really more typical to a usual Doctor Who tale), admittedly Saward wasn't fully settled in yet and demanding the high mortality rates that he usually did.

While the tale is rather plodding, at least the Doctor's companions do get to shine even if the Doctor himself is reduced to scarcely a supporting role. And it's a pretty doddery one at that, perhaps since he was so strong in the first half 'Logopolis'. I think, however, this was necessary in order to properly introduce his companions; Tegan had only the briefest and scantest of introductions in 'Logopolis' and had to take a back seat to the other proceedings, Nyssa got a solid supporting role in 'The Keeper of Traken' but wasn't fully fleshed-out, and Adric...well, he had already been established so needed little further exposition.

The Master, for once, had a good disguise. The first time I viewed this story I didn't actually recognise him at all until he revealed his true identit. However, the fact that the old Master could actually appear as *other people* until he peeled off the fakey-looking mask made me wonder why the Master hadn't decided to appear as Shardovan or something similar, as we were sort-of led to believe at first. And his insane behaviour during the climax of the tale...what was that all about? He just slowly came unravelled, which was certainly a bit disturbing...but it was also rather bizarre after his previous actions. Still, he had obviously planned extensively to capture the Doctor. He may have been working on Castrovalva over the course of centuries via TARDIS travel, and well...his day was veritably ruined.

So what else can I say about 'Castrovalva'? Well, it had its roots in 'The Edge of Destruction', which is my favourite of the first Doctor's stories and one of my favourite serials of all Doctor Who. 'Castrovalva' didn't quite have the same dynamic though, and all it shared was a loose premise of impending doom through travelling back through time uncontrolled. It didn't seem to make sense to need thrust on a vehicle that could come and go as it wished from any point to any other point. It seemed more like a way to get rid of the Zero Room, which may well be the reason it was done.

I wasn't fond of the way the Doctor casually dismissed there being directions for piloting the TARDIS in the databanks as he himself probably hadn't looked. I certainly don't remember them even remotely being referenced in the past, but I may be mistaken. In any case, we see clearly later that Tegan has taken on quite a knowledge of technical operations! Nyssa is also given a keen technical knowhow here that isn't undermined by the Doctor, and she carries the tale in many parts where it is needed and the Doctor isn't able. Adric is, again, underused. Possibly due to the fact that Bidmead wasn't sure how to use him at all, a weakness that Saward inherited with the position.

So all in all, 'Castrovalva' was unfulfilling by itself but generally a good finish to the storyline begun in 'Castrovalva'. It's more of a second half than anything, not a stand-alone story by any means, so please don't watch it without attaching it to 'Logopolis' unless you just really crave a slowly-paced half-story. It's not the best outing for anyone involved, but it does tie up things opened in 'Logopolis' generally well.

And there you have it...my two cents worth as always!

Love!
Hushicho

[hushicho]

Moving right along, the TARDIS crew find themselves in a tough spot in the next story, 'Four to Doomsday'. This was reportedly the first story to be shot for the fifth Doctor according to various sources, although I've also heard that 'The Visitation' was the first. It doesn't really matter, but if this was the first of the fifth Doctor's to be shot he certainly does a good job of consistency!

The tale is much stronger than 'Castrovalva' in terms of being a stand-alone story, with the TARDIS arriving mistakenly on a large ship near Earth. As the Doctor had promised Tegan she would be returned to Heathrow on the same day she left Earth, this gives another opportunity for the TARDIS crew bickering, something we're going to have to get used to in the era to come. This is the first of many! The Doctor goes out to reconnoitre and then decides to find out more. After some further quabbles between the TARDIS crew, the Doctor and Tegan go along to meet with their hosts, leaving Adric and Nyssa to investigate their surroundings...and to be captured!

The Doctor and Tegan meet the froglike Monarch, with his assistants Enlightenment and Persuasion. Monarch explains a bit about his situation and comes off as more than slightly megalomaniacal, but the Doctor decides to play it low-key for the moment. He is reunited with all his companions, and then they meet Enlightenment and Persuasion...who now exactly resemble the quite good sketches Tegan did earlier to demonstrate modern fashion on Earth.

More questions arise with no easy answers until Bigon, the Greek philosopher, reveals that he is not of the 'flesh time', that actually he is an android with his psyche transferred to a small chip. 'This is me,' he explains, holding it up to the Doctor. Furthermore it becomes even more apparent that Monarch is up to no good, with his breeding poisonous frogs in his greenhouses in order to take advantage of their poison in order to eliminate any resistance to his people colonising Earth! And his people, as well, have been reduced to chips themselves...

After some exchanges, Adric actually finds himself drawn in by Monarch and believing him, but Tegan isn't convinced and manages to instigate a TARDIS jump when she gets into the craft. Nyssa is captured and prepared to transfer her consciousness to one of the chips, but the Doctor saves her. With the help of Adric, whom he plays along with just long enough to lecture him later, the Doctor is able to get to the TARDIS using his cricket bowling skills and return it to the ship, at the same time stopping Enlightenment and Persuasion with Adric's help.

After a brief confrontation with Monarch, in which he's stopped by his own poison...it appears he was not one of the ones with an android body but still in the 'flesh time'...the people he's collected decide to find another world to colonise rather than return to Earth as they are. The TARDIS departs and Nyssa faints, overtaken by her traumatic experience on-board Monarch's ship...

Overall I have to say I'm more pleased with this as a stand-alone than I was with 'Castrovalva'. It has a similarly leisurely pace, but there's more that's happening in the meantime. With some stories in the 70s a leisurely pace meant boredom, but with others it meant being drawn into a situation fully and feeling like you're a part of it. This story is more of the latter, although there are some stretches that drag more than others. It's generally well-done, especially for one of the fifth Doctor's first season. It also has a reason for the TARDIS crew bickering, as the Doctor's promise is not kept, Adric acts openly chauvenistic, and Tegan's understandable trauma and frustration is evident. Although there is a tension between them through the story, at least it's not clash after clash after clash, like it is in some others.

The premise is a more or less familiar one, and the revelation of the people to be androids is pretty surprising even if we perhaps suspected something similar. The shocking revelation that Monarch was still made of flesh was perhaps the most poignant of all the surprises, and by that time it is shocking because we've stopped considering it and just accepted it. I found myself interested in what was going on, because it was so bizarre and detailed, and even though the whole concept of the frogs giving forth a super-poison was a bit hard to swallow, I didn't find myself really questioning it so much as it was a relatively minor detail in the scheme of things. This story had so many levels of interaction and so many details that it wasn't difficult to accept, but at the same time it wasn't convoluted and tripping over its own feet so to speak.

Again, we had Adric taken in by the promise of someone being externally charismatic and affectionate towards him...and why not? All he ever got in the TARDIS was given lowest billing. It's especially clear here why Adric never worked out well as a companion for the fifth Doctor as much as the fourth, because the fourth Doctor and Romana treated him as an adult and related to him as one: when he nearly betrayed them to the vampires in 'State of Decay', Romana read him the riot act. However, the fifth Doctor's TARDIS crew (Doctor included) all relate to him as something below them, except for Nyssa who still manages to get annoyed from time to time. Perhaps the fourth Doctor and Romana were too old to be bothered taking a paternal/sibling stance, but it worked for the character extremely well. I think that same interpersonal tension that Saward is so fond of is the reason he couldn't develop the character. There was simply nowhere to go. But 'Four to Doomsday' shows, again, the idealistic side of Adric and raises many questions. It's also particularly interesting in that his upbringing gave him a somewhat chauvenistic outlook, which keeps us mindful that not all alien cultures are idealized or enlightened in terms of gender equality!

Nyssa gets some good activity during this, and once again we're reminded that she is not Terran. I think this is very important too, because it's so easy to just tune in and think 'Oh, the Doctor and his friends from Earth.' Although some criticise Nyssa for being too complacent and agreeable, I think it's those same people who don't understand realistic personalities. Nyssa reminds me a lot of Victoria really, who was also very complacent and agreeable (and it's the same people who criticise Nyssa that like Victoria too, probably just because she's a second Doctor companion!) but who was capable when she could help even if it wasn't very often. Nyssa shows her technical expertise and ability to improvise, which really indicates her true genius. It's also particularly refreshing that she doesn't try to pick fights with the Doctor or really foment any further strife between the TARDIS crew, a respite in those days.

Tegan is, well, Tegan. I always liked Tegan and I understand her frustration. I can especially see her reasoning in this particular story and I think in most cases she's right when she clashes with the fifth Doctor; he's too slow to act and too indecisive, and he tends to keep his companions in the dark too much for them to be useful. She does show her memory is good and her technical knowledge is good by actually managing to instigate a short jump in the TARDIS, to get it out of Monarch's reach. The Doctor doesn't even thank her for it! But at least he doesn't make the situation worse either. Tegan is a strong character, which was what we needed with the wishy-washy fifth Doctor around. She was decisive and, even though sometimes she made mistakes, at least she acted decisively and put all her effort into what she did.

As for the Doctor himself, he's very consistent throughout this, although as I mentioned before...as usual in his adventures...he's too slow to act and too indecisive, which in this case results in Nyssa nearly being victimised. This, to me, was much more indicative of his vulnerability than something like the scenario presented in 'Earthshock', which I view as going much too far to try and convey that. The story was particularly excellent in outlining the new Doctor's strengths and weaknesses, which was why it was so excellent to follow 'Castrovalva' in broadcast. It's not the best Doctor Who story, but it is one of the better ones of the fifth Doctor. It's solid and interesting, although it does have its times where it sort of drags. But then what Doctor Who story doesn't? Overall it was a good story and had a lot of good parts to it. I'm sure it gets underrated, but it was enjoyable for what it tried to be, and it didn't get out of touch with that. It was a traditional Doctor Who tale that kept us occupied and for me, at least on the first viewing, kept me guessing!

There are a few slightly odd moments in it though, like the rather obvious and nonsensical use of the theory of relativity's formula probably just because it's familiar-sounding, and of course the infamous line that will forever live in my memory: 'Is this one of your dropping times, Doctor?' Which of course referred to 'dropping down to Earth to visit', but it sounded like something else entirely and made me laugh so hard I had to stop the video. And of course the way Monarch is played reminds me of how Stephen Fry in a giant frog costume would come off as, but that's neither here nor there.

But overall, yes. A good one to watch.

Coming next: Kinda!!

Love!
Hushicho