The Dominators

The TARDIS comes to the planet Dulkis, which as the name implies, is very dull. War and agression have been left by the wayside by the people of the planet, and a musuem on a radioactive test island serves as a warning to all of the dangers associated with weapons of mass destruction. These are all noble gains, but the planet is ripe for plundering by an advance party of Dominators and their small army of Quark robots; they intend to turn the entire world into a source of radioactive fuel for their war fleet, and the Dulcians are not willing to raise a hand against them to defend themselves. Luckily, though, the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are, and their influence ignites a dissident named Cully and a group of prisoners to fend for themselves, even if their leaders will not.

This is the start of season 6, and lo all 5 episodes of the story exist and are on a VHS release, even if the efforts of the Restoration Team have made this look muddy by comparison to their DVDs. The production crew go on location to a remote sandy area, or maybe it's a quarry, and blow a lot of things up in a big way, including a travel capsule, a building, and several Quarks Jamie gets to run around a lot being shot at and trying to keep his kilt from flying up as he goes, and Zoe becomes a fashion victim, forced to wear the nasty tutu-like clothing that the Dulcians wear. The Doctor's tendancy to clown around are played on fully as he attempts to convince the Dominators that he is not very smart and not a threat to them, which allows him to escape their notice and work against them in secret. The Dominators themselves are mean men, their outfits made to give them high shoulders and no real neck. Ruthless though they may be they do not get along, and the navigator, Rago, is always reigning in his probationer, Toba, for needlessly destroying everything in sight. The irony of course is that had Toba killed everyone he wanted to outright, their plan would be secure, but with the Doctor running free because Rago thinks he's harmless, things do not go their way at all.

The 5 episode format for this adventure leaves it feeling a bit slow in the pacing area, but it's hard to say exactly what could have stood to be edited to tighten it up. This season will be rife with new episode formats as the next story will also be 5 episodes, there will be one that is 8 episodes long, and the season finale is 10. I hear this and that when I discuss the show with people, and there is some talk that Patrick Troughton did not want to stay for a third season but he was convinced to by the BBC brass, and that this season was the show's first close call with cancellation. As the majority of Troughton's work in the show has been lost this is also the season where one finally gets to know the second Doctor, right before he is about to leave (shades of what just happened in the 2005 season).

The Dominators also brings back the direct link to the next story, something we hadn't seen since the Hartnell days. As the island on Dulkis erupts, the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe run for the TARDIS, where their problems are only just beginning...

NEXT EPISODE : THE MIND ROBBER