Revenge of the Cybermen

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry finally return to Nerva via a Time Ring given to them at the start of their adventure on Skaro only to discover that things have changed there. They have returned to the beacon at a time thousands of years before the solar flares devastated Earth and now just have to wait for the TARDIS to drift back to them. But there is a problem on Nerva: put into service to guide space traffic around a new planet around Jupiter, the beacon has been ravaged by a plague that has left all but four members of the crew dead. The Doctor does not believe that it is actually a plague and his suspicions are confirmed when Sarah is attacked by a Cybermat and injected with poison. Crewman Kellman has apparantly been working with the Cybermen, and the new planet is of interest to them: it is Voga, the planet of gold. Gold, it is revealed, is the one substance to which Cybertechnology is vulnerable as it is non-corrodable and destroys a Cyberman's inner workings. The Cybermen plan to destroy Voga with a series of bombs but all the while they are victims of a double-cross; Kellman has planned with the Vogans to lure the Cybermen onto the beacon and blow it up with a rocket.

Um. Right from one of the best Dalek stories ever we go into what is one of the weakest Cybermen adventures ever made. Not seen since The Invasion in 1969, the Cybermen are slightly redesigned for their first colour appearance, but unlike previous adventures where there were armies of them on screen, here we only have four of them including their Cyberleader - the last of the species apparantly. The Cyberleader is done all wrong by the actor playing him, he sounds too emotional and actually shouts and gloats, and even makes the odd ironic quip, which is something that has never happened before. Until 1992 this was the earliest Cyberman adventure that existed intact, so it was actually the introduction story for an entire generation of fans who had never seen a Cyberman on screen before. The new Cybermat design is a lot bigger and more sinister than the previous ones, though; it has no eyes and flows across the floor more like a silverfish. And it jumps. Okay it's a CSO jump but a jump nonetheless.

The production values of the adventure are very good despite the bad presentation of the key villans; extensive location work was done in some caves for the Vogan planet sequences, including Sarah and Harry arriving via transmat and many many chases down corridors. Again there is the problem of going from the filmed locations to the studio sets built to represent the caves, but one gets used to that sort of thing with Doctor Who. Eventually.

Revenge of the Cybermen was actually the first VHS Doctor Who adventure I ever bought, sometime back in the summer of 1989. I remember hauling it around downtown Toronto all day with me and after a Blue Jays game at the SkyDome coming home very late and sitting up for another 90 minutes to enjoy it. It still hasn't hit DVD release status yet and my copy has held up very well over the years, but it would make a good addition to the DVD library I think. Well, they all will in time, but some would just be more fun. The only sticking point is the special effects again; as the adventure is set of Nerva just as with The Ark in Space the new CGI effects would be a nice touch but it might prove more challenging this time around as the beacon does not just sit still the whole time; it is actually set on a collision course with Voga by the Cybermen. The entire sequence of the collision course uses a lot of CSO already and some astonishingly well timed performances by Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen.

The TARDIS turns up just in time and the three travellers leave for Earth, having received a summons from the Brigadier to help him with some mystery. The next televised adventure was made for this season but for some reason it was put off to serve as the season premiere, so viewers were left with a bit of a gap before the adventures of the Doctor and company resumed. As a result there is a gap perfect for some additonal adventures, so let's look at two of them before resuming.

NEXT EPISODE : WOLFSBANE

Genesis of the Daleks

Travelling back to Nerva via transmat beam, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry are diverted by the Time Lords and deposited on a wartorn no-man's land of a planet. The Time Lords have a mission for the Doctor; they forsee a time when the Daleks will have conquered all other life forms and become the dominant species of the universe, and they have brought the Doctor to Skaro at the dawn of their creation to avert their development. The people of Skaro are at war, and have been for centuries; the Thals and the Kaleds have been attacking each other with all forms of weapons and are almost reduced to using bows and arrows as their resources are diminished and their societies verge on collapse. Weakened by mutation, the Kaled scientific elite, lead by a crippled genius named Davros, have developed a travel machine for the creature their race will evolve into, and it has been called a Dalek. The creature is programmed to exterminate without pity or remorse, and factions of the scientific corps do not want to see their race go down this path and help the Doctor in his attempts to stop Davros and his Daleks, but as the Doctor has said time and again there is no way to change history, and the carnage that follows gives rise to the Daleks and their rise to power and dominion.

BRILLIANT. The Daleks have always been the most feared creatures in the universe of Doctor Who and a story of their origins was inevitible, telling the backstory that was hinted at in their first appearance back in 1963. The people of Skaro are still humanoid, and the two races hate each other to the core. There is also a third faction on Skaro; the Mutos, the genetically wounded outcasts of both races who have been banished into the wastelands between the two cities. My one big point of contention is the scale of this conflict; exactly how big are these cities? Can they really hold every member of each race? And why are they so close to each other? If they didn't like each other they could have just lived somewhere else unless Skaro is not a big planet.

Despite being the title characters, the Daleks are not in this story a lot. Oh sure they're around in the background while they are being developed, but they are not the key players in the story until the final moments of episode 6. One Dalek does make its appearance at the climax of episode 1, and Sarah, separated from Harry and the Doctor, witnesses its first weapons test under Davros' supervision. And the look of sheer horror on Sarah's face at seeing a Dalek again is incredible; I don't think any companion has shown such a genuine reaction to them since Barbara's encounter with one at the end of The Dead Planet. When the Dalek army makes its attack on the Thal city in episode 4 the slaughter is absolute; in fact, there are a lot of mass deaths at the hands (figuratively speaking) of the Daleks, with Davros maniacially looking on. Davros himself is a survivor of the war, crippled by a Thal shell attack and confined to a wheelchair, blind save for his enhanced vision equipment, and only having the use of one arm. The Dalek machines mirror his own life support system, and they too only have one appendage like their creator. Physically the Daleks we see in this adventure are small squid-like creatures and we only see them briefly as they attack the Doctor when he attempts to blow up their incubation chambers. What follows is the Doctor's greatest moral dilemma ever: he can destroy the Daleks and kill everything in the incubator room and save the lives of millions of people in the future (and he never says this part but he would also be saving the lives of Sara Kingdom and Katarina, as they would never be caught up in the Dalek plot of The Dalek Masterplan) but in turn he would also become as bad as them by wiping out an entire race. And this part is not brought up either but hos own life would no longer be hampered by them; his first landing on Skaro would not subject himself, Susan, Barbara and Ian to radiation sickness, he would never be pursued to Mechanus and meet Steven Taylor, the aforementioned Katarina and Sara Kingdom would still be alive and safe, and without the Daleks bullying Edward Waterfield, the Doctor would never meet Victoria.

And let's not forget the humanoid cast as well; the sly cold Nyder, Davros' chief lackey. The Thal girl Bettan leading a force against the Daleks. Sevrin the Muto who helps Sarah lead an escape from the Thal city. The Kaled scientists Gharman, Cavell and Ronson who all meet horrible deaths attempting to break Davros' power. The entire chain of events leading to the rise of the Daleks is full of heros who for the most part fail and die, but without the influence of the Doctor it is interesting to surmise what would have gone on otherwise. Would any of these people have worked against Davros anyways? When the Doctor succeeds in convincing the Kaled government in the city that Davros and his scientists in the bunker are up to no good, Davros betrays the entire Kaled race to the Thals and sees them all killed in a holocaust rather than have his Dalek project halted. Would that have happened without the Doctor's presence? Did the Doctor cause even more harm in his attempts to do good?

And why is Harry Sullivan not exploited like male companions in the past? Jay and I agree that he's a hunk. We see him disguised in nice form fitting uniforms a couple times in this adventure but alas never get to see the moments in between his wardrobe changes, not even a glimpse. Booo I say.

But the Daleks survive. The Doctor fails to stop them. But he may have changed things and delayed them, only time will tell.

NEXT EPISODE : REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN

The Sontaran Experiment

To aid with Nerva's mission to repopulate the Earth, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry use the transmat beam to go down to the planet and scout ahead for the arrival of Vira and her newly awakened people. Earth has been swept clean of all traces of the civilization it once held, but a party of military officers from Galsec have been marooned there and are being picked off one by one by a Sontaran field officer named Styre. The Sontaran empire's war with the Rutans has finally spread into Earth's galaxy, and in order to conquer they must see how strong the humans are, and what it takes to kill them. Sarah becomes part of the experiments herself and the Doctor takes on Styre in single combat in an attempt to stop his plans and free his prisoners from torture...

As with Robot, The Sontaran Experiment has the distinction of having all its location shots done on Betacam, but for the first time ever the entire story is set on location with no studio element at all. Usually this kind of clarity makes for really cheap looking values but when everything is just a moor-like terrain it can't really be criticized. There's the authentic wind sounds as Sarah looks for the Doctor on the empty fields, real rocks for a change as Harry tries to escape from a pit he fell down, and rain - real rain on location!

Jay and I continued our viewing after escaping from the plight of Gerard and Pape, and he was impressed to see that the Sontaran mask was actually made so the mouth moved with the actor's own. Previously in The Time Warrior it did not, which made for some discomfort to the actor inside, Kevin Lindsay, and this time the mouth was made wider. The costume also had more fingers added to the hand, making for some variation amongst Sontarans that would eventually be explained in Lords of the Storm, a novel placed several years later in the series. And it will be reviewed, have no fear.

The Sontaran Experiment is a mere 2 episodes in length, the third of its kind, and it works very well in that format. Only problem is with its neighbouring episodes either already on DVD or scheduled/rumoured for release in 2006, it will be left on its own and might be chunked into some compilation release with other 2 parters down the road. The VHS release saw it paired on two tapes with the next adventure, but the DVD releases do not seem to be hot to merge the adventures like that (aside from next year's In The Beginning box set). I would like to think that with the right extras package and a reduced price it would make a good standalone... so I could get the UK release and watch it in film-like quality on my mulitregion DVD player. Yes I know it's always about me. Except for when I have a guest viewer like the loyal Jay.

NEXT EPISODE : GENESIS OF THE DALEKS

The Ark in Space

A massive space station hovers over Earth in the far far future. Harry's attempts to get out of the TARDIS, having taken it for a parlour trick, has resulted in the Doctor and his companions being flung into the 40th century and landing on Space Beacon Nerva, the last resting place of a select group of humans in cryogenic suspension waiting for the day when they can return to a fire-ravaged Earth. During their long sleep, though, the humans of Nerva have been visited by the Wirrn, a race of space wasps intent on using the sleeping humans for food and making Earth their new breeding ground, and when the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry arrive, the Wirrn are almost ready to move...

Everyone love a good doomsday story. And I love The Ark in Space. LOVE IT. For the entire first episode, the Doctor and his companions wander the seemingly abandoned station in creepy near-silence until they discover the cyrogenically preserved humans; Sarah is actually caught up in the process herself and becomes one of the sleepers for a time until the reviving crewmembers bring her back from the edge of her suspension. The people of the Ark are naturally suspicious of the presence of outsiders and react almost snobbishly; one gets the feeling that the people of Nerva were a select group of the best humanity had to offer before the solar flares devastated the planet and made evacuation necessary. Add to this the feeling of isolation in the adventure: it's true that in space no-one can hear you scream, and this was before Alien came along. And the Ark does not just have one Wirrn on board; Harry finds the dead queen at the end of episode one, but the infrastructure is festooned with chrysalid forms of Wirrn preparing to hatch and devour. I think when I first saw this episode I was very young and the Wirrn gave me bad dreams. This time, I had Jay with me. And together we braved the episode.

The DVD release of The Ark in Space has entirely new CGI effects for the space station exterior shots, and it's a good thing considering how much the original wobbled against the video background of stars. What we are presented with looks close to Babylon 5 quality but still somehow looks like it was done for a video game. A few liberties are taken with the design of the station, adding to it an inner obeservation transom where the impressive corridor shots are supposed to take place, adding a bit more size to the whole thing. Normally Jay and I revel in the shortcomings of the special effects but I insisted on adopting a revisionist attitude for the day and the enhanced version was what we ended up watching. And we really didn't have too much to say about production values; the adventure is very well directed and the set design while being still on the "affordable" side of things is still something quite impressive. That said, we did notice one of the extras in a cryogenic capsule actually blinking; "You'd think she could have held it together for just that one shot," Jay said. We also found the lack of legs or visible signs of locomtion on the Wirrn a bit of a problem, but we did agree that as giant killer bugs go they are pretty creepy, even if they speak to each other like dolphins.

We had no beefs with the supporting cast outside of the blinker we mentioned. Noah's battle with his bubble-wrap hand made us question his abilities as a serious thespian, and Libri's death by laser fire was... um... rigid. But Vira (although a bit cold) was excellent, and Lycett and Rogin made for more human elements of a crew that may as well have been robots for all the compassion they initially showed.

So fresh from this tale of claustrophobic horror we went on to the Gerard Square McDonalds to enjoy some of the plight that the solar flares will eventually wipe away. What a dump. I'd take my chances with the Wirrn any day over the regulars at that place.

NEXT EPISODE : THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT

Robot

As the Brigadier and Sarah watch, the Doctor regenerates on the floor of what has been his lab at the UNIT headquarters for the last several years. The Brigadier does his best to take the regeneration in stride, as he is not exactly unfamiliar with it after his experience with the Doctor's first two selves, and Sarah doe sher best to come to terms with what has happened. While the Doctor recuperates, a series of robberies of high tech equipment are committed; unlike regular thefts, these are committed by something big, and metallic. The Doctor shakes off his regeneration trauma and helps the Brigadier with his investigations, but Sarah stumbles across the culprit during a visit to an organization called ThinkTank: a giant robot is being used to steal the plans for a disintegrator gun and the firing codes for the nuclear weapons of the entire world. ThinkTank plan to blackmail the world into obeying their orders, with armageddon as their ultimate threat and the armed robot as their guardian. The robot, however, has become unstable and Sarah's show of compassion for it creates even more confusion in its brain until it decides that all of mankind deserves to be destroyed...

Robot is unlike any previous post-regeneration story; the Doctor does not require a long period of recuperation and his identity is not questioned by those around him, despite him being wildly different from his previous self. While the third Doctor was a man of refinement and elegance, the new Doctor is younger in appearance and dresses in clothes that one might find on one of today's urban hipsters, although the immensely long scarf that would become this Doctor's trademark is something all his own. The new Doctor's approach to any situation is to disarm with humour and play the fool, the sarcasm and seriousness of his previous self left behind. Also missing is his rapport with the Brigadier; it is obvious in the pained expressions of the Brig that he is having trouble relating to this new version of his scientific advisor, and I found myself wondering how things would have happened differently if the Doctor had not regenerated and the third Doctor was in this situation. The Doctor does, of course, win. He always wins. In one fashion or another. And as soon as he has won, he's off in the TARDIS, with Sarah Jane Smith at his side and UNIT attache lieutenant Harry Sullivan along for the ride.

Robot was not only the first story for Tom Baker's Doctor but it was also the first adventure completely recorded on video as opposed to video in studio and low grade film on location. The result is a uniform clarity across the entire adventure, although when the Brigadier's attempt to destroy the robot result in it growing to giant size, the effects still leave a lot to be desired. The new version of King Kong just opened this week, and there are obvious parallels between the giant ape's ascnet of the Empire State Building and the robot's battle with the UNIT soldiers, but I'll save you the suspense; one is clearly better than the other. Then there's the bit with the forced perspective model tank at the climax of episode three. Oh boy. Ambitious, but really... they shouldn't have.

Our cast has some truly memorable characters in it; top of the list being the baffled professor Kettlewell, the robot's creator, with his insane mad scientist hairdo and his squinty little eyes. Next is the isane science bitch Hilda Winters, the head of ThinkTank. Oh how I loathed her. Her smug assurance that the Brigadier could never shoot her as he holds her at gunpoint doesn't waver enough when Sarah picks up a gun and sticks it in her face, though; if times were different I'm sure Sarah would have slapped her one or there'd have been a catfight or she would have shot Winters in the leg to show her she meant business. But alas, Benton just arrests her. And the Doctor makes fun of her.

So the Doctor is back. Unlike his previous self he is eager to go out into the universe; there will be no more sitting around waiting for UNIT's next crisis to loom. In fact, UNIT as an entity will soon be phased out as the Doctor resumes his travels in space and time, starting with a trip into the far future...

NEXT EPISODE : THE ARK IN SPACE

Full Fathom Five

Somewhere in the future, another Doctor and his companion, Ruth, stand on the shores of the ocean and discuss events of the past and the future. The Doctor is preparing to go undersea in a submarine to an abandoned research facility where Ruth's father died; 27 years ago there was an accident and the base, known as the DEEP, was scuttled, and Ruth's father blamed. Ruth wants her father's name cleared, and the Doctor seems to be operating on his own agenda. As the truth slowly emerges, Ruth learns that her father was made a scapegoat to cover up for the disasterous results of some illegal genetic experiments that were being conducted alongside his own. The Doctor was there at the time, arriving in the TARDIS, and attempting to stop the events as they unfolded but his efforts left behind a trail of dead bodies, including that of Ruth's father. Realizing that the Doctor has become the monster he has always fought against in the past, Ruth shoots him repeatedly, waiting for him to regenerate between each bullet before firing again...

Wow. There are hints later in the series that say the Doctor has a darker side, and there were glimpses of it offered in the past, but here we are presented with a new kind of Doctor: one who operates on his own agenda and is willing to kill to justify the ends. He deals in absolutes, unlike any of his previous or future selves, and the consequences to himself this time are disasterous. The Doctor was played by David Collings, who will appear on screen in the series in future episodes (The Robots of Death and Mawdryn Undead); as I outlined in my last paragraph of Planet of the Spiders, its possible that this is who the Doctor could have become had he not made it back to Earth after being irradiated by the Metebelis crystals. Just as well he gets killed; he's not the man we would tune in to see every week by any stretch.

Let's go back to the way things really happened...

NEXT EPISODE : ROBOT

Planet of the Spiders

After his traumatic involvement in Operation Golden Age, Mike Yates goes to a meditation retreat to regain his sanity. Trouble is, some of his fellow meditators are up to no good, conducting secrret sessions to tap into unknown powers for their own uses. Knowing that the Doctor and the Brigadier would not necessarily trust him, Mike calls upon Sarah. The Doctor, meanwhile, receives a package from Jo Grant: she is returning the Metebelis crystal that he gave her as a wedding gift as its presence is causing troubles amongst the South American tribes she and her husband are working with. The crystal is the object of yet more trouble, though; giant intelligent spiders from Metebelis use the mediation centre as a bridgehead and take over Mr Lupton in their attempt to recover the crystal for their own uses. Sarah is transported to Metebelis and the Doctor follows, and they discover the truth of the plan: the Great One, a spider of enormous size, has built a crystal web and needs the final crystal to complete it in her mad quest for ultimate power.

Spiders. Creepy. There are few people who will say that they love spiders, and the sight on a giant one leaping onto Lupton's back sends shivers down many a spine. Unfortunately the CSO effects of the time meant that any shots involving the spiders moving across the floor are not very well executed, and they look brown, not black like the static models used in the spider council chamber.

Mike Yates has done well. He must have received a good retirement package after his UNIT discharge to afford all his swanky attire (nice ascot, Mike) and his sporty new car. He's perfectly right to suspect the Brigadier and the Doctor might be suspicous of him, but why Sarah decided he was safe to be around again is anyone's guess. Her reckless journalistic spirit, perhaps. Her fashion sense needs work this time though.

Ah the Doctor. It's almost as if he knows his regeneration is out there waiting for him; the script is peppered with subtle hints about change, about endings and beginnings, and his convenient conversation with fellow Time Lord K'Anpo Rinpoche (who is hiding at the meditation centre after leaving Gallifrey - but doing so without running off with a TARDIS) leads to the first proper discussion about regeneration, for the sake of Sarah and for us at home, who have never really heard the logic behind why it happens. And the Doctor goes out with style; the script is packed with tense moments, including the Doctor's near-fatal wounding by a spider guard, and his irradiation by the crystals in the Great One's cave. When the regeneration does come, the Brigadier and Sarah are both on hand to see their friend's features fade away and be replaced by a complete stranger.

Just before the Doctor regenerates, he emerges from the TARDIS claiming that he has been lost in the time vortex and that the ship finally brought him back. Sarah says it has been about three weeks since he disappeared, which leaves some interesting space for additional third Doctor adventures with him lost in time and slowly dying from the radiation, all the time trying to get back to Earth.

But what if the Doctor regenerated in the TARDIS, or somewhere else, and never returned to Earth? Before we go on with the televised series, let's look at another of the Big Finish Doctor Who Unbound range...

NEXT EPISODE : FULL FATHOM FIVE

PS : 6:49 AM EST now...

The Ghosts of N Space

The Brigadier is a man of many secrets it seems; who would have guessed that he has an uncle who owns a castle in Sicily? While visiting on his Easter holidays, the Brig discovers that a mob boss from America is trying to pressure his uncle into selling his castle to him. Having none of it, the Brig gets ready to intervene and then discovers that the castle is haunted by hideous monsters. The Doctor soon arrives at the Brigaider's behest, and Sarah Jane Smith also shows up, coincidentally being on vacation with her friend Jeremy Fitzoliver. The castle is the site of a potential breach between the regular space time continuum and what the Doctor calls "N Space", or null space, where every person on Earth has a counterpart N-form. The gangster, Max, is attempting to merge with his own N-form and become immortal, and the key to his success lies within the castle. The Doctor realizes that there is no easy way to stop a castastrophe and takes Sarah first into N Space, and then into the castle's past to discover the origins of the breach and hopefully find a way to stop it.

As with The Paradise of Death, this is another adventure reuniting the third Doctor with Sarah and the Brigadier for a radio adventure. This time it is 6 episodes in length, which is perfect for a couple days' commute to and from work. The theme music used is a bit jarring when enjoying the adventures in their intended sequence; although Ghosts was recorded in 1996 the theme music chosen was the 1980's version, not the 1970's version from Pertwee's own era and not the current (at the time) version from the Sylvester McCoy series. The actors sound as if they are still in the show, though, even if Pertwee's voice has aged a bit more than the others. Talking of voices, the squeaky annoying voice of Maggie, Max's companion bimbo, is provided by Sandra Dickinson, ex wife of fifth Doctor Peter Davison. And then there's pseudo-companion Jeremy; whiny and wimpy in Paradise of Death he seems to have grown a pair this time. Sure he's still a wimp but he's not such a bad wimp anymore, his presence actually being useful for a change and not just someone for Sarah to feel superior to.

The whole concept of N-Space is a bit of a continuity issue; in the 1981 adventure Full Circle the TARDIS will pass into another universe referred to as E-Space, different from what is referred to in that adventure and the subsequent three as "N-Space", or normal space. But who cares, we're having fun here.

It's too bad there are no more audios along this line, but Jon Pertwee died shortly after it was broadcast. Still, perhaps it was the combination of these two radio plays and a Radio 4 adventure called Slipback (featuring the 6th Doctor and his companion, Peri, in 1986) that helped pave the way for the success of the Big Finish line. Speaking of theose, there's one coming up, but first, back to television for Jon Pertwee's final adventure as the third Doctor...

NEXT EPISODE : PLANET OF THE SPIDERS

PS it's 10:33 PM...

The Monster of Peladon

50 years after his visit to Peladon with Jo, the Doctor returns with Sarah to find that the planet's membership in the Galactic Federation is not proving to be as fruitful as promised. The Federation is at war with the forces of Galaxy 5 and needs the mineral trisilicate for it's efforts, and it can be found in abundance on Peladon. Trouble is, the mining guild are effectively on strike and talking armed rebellion against the Queen and those in her court who get all the benefits of the Federation. The Queen herself is little more than a child, only ascending to the throne because Peladon had no son, and thus the real power is held by Chancellor Orton, who is also high priest. The situation is made worse when it appears that the spirit of Aggedor is on the loose attacking the miners who work with the Federation equipment, but the Doctor, having met Aggedor himself previously, suspects some kind of trickery. While Sarah talks womens' lib with the Queen, the situation worsens as the Ice Warriors arrive on the scene with their own agenda for Peladon, the trisilicate, and the Doctor.

Brilliant. A trip back to a previous setting to see how things have changed after the Doctor's presence all those years ago - brilliant! Peladon is still steeped in superstition where Aggedor is concerned, but unlike Hepesh before him, Ortron is loyal to the Federation and the duties that come with membership, although as soon as Aggedor is brought into the situation he gets edgy about where his loyalties lie. Queen Thalira is a cowed monarch, holding no real power until Sarah teaches her how to be gutsier, which will save her life in the end. Good old Alpha Centauri is back, twittering away as always and waving his tentacles at everyone. And those Ice Warriors... classic at last, the bad guys through and through; there are five different sculpts to the helmet this time to add variety to the ranks, although one looks like it is grinning foolishly the whole time. Their mouths do not move as easily as they did in their debut back in 1967, so they are lead by Commander Azaxyr, one of the most vocal and brutal Ice Warriors to date. My nephew, Parker, is a huge fan of the Ice Warriors and asked if he could sit in for this adventure, and he actually applauded when Azaxyr got his comuppance. THAT is what Doctor Who is all about if you ask me; the power to protray characters you can laugh with, miss when they're gone, or cheer when they are given their just desserts.

I found some of the production values disconcerting, though. The mines of Peladon are shot on video in the television studio for the most part, but for action sequences or pyrotechnics the sets were rebuilt in a film studio, which makes for some odd shifting between two different grades of picture quality for what is essentially the same location. Also a bit unsettling is the climax of episode 4 (there are 6 all told) where the Doctor disarms miner Ettis in a swordfight but the tide turns and the Doctor gets one of the most brutal on-screen beatings of the series; he is headbutted, run into a wall and punched out repeatedly. Sure, it's been said that the Doctor deals with violent people sometimes, and in the novel version of the story Terrance Dicks removes a lot of the beating from the text, but I noticed that Parker was distressed watching the hero getting the stuffing beaten out of him, much like vampire slayer Buffy taking a pasting from the Ubervamp in her final season. But again, the reaction is down to emotional connection; guys are beat up on TV all the time in other series or on UFC programs, or even in professional wrestling, but they're strangers to the casual viewer; after several years the Doctor has become a friend of the audience, and when anything happens to him, we all feel it.

So, a very good one in my opinion. And in Parker's. sadly it's the last time we'll see the Ice Warriors again. They only clocked up four appearances but managed to enshrine themselves in the top monsters list right along with the Daleks and the Cybermen. Here's to their return in the new series in 2007 (I hope - it's not even a rumour at this point but it would be a great idea...).

NEXT EPISODE : THE GHOSTS OF N-SPACE

Death to the Daleks

En route to the galactic luxury world of Florana, the TARDIS becomes stranded on the planet Exxilon, its energy sucked away by some unknown force. The Doctor and Sarah find themselves on a barren world inhabited by savages, and a mysterious pristine city towering over the landscape. An expedition from Earth has also been stranded on Exxilon in their search for a rare mineral that will cure a plague that is wiping out their colony worlds. Trouble is, a force of Daleks has been sent to the planet for the same reasons, although the Doctor doubts their motives. Humans and Daleks form an uneasy truce as the Daleks discover that they have no energy for their weapons, but that will only last until the Daleks develop substitute weapons and resume their murderous ways. But the Daleks are the least of the Doctor's worries, and he seeks to unravel the mysteries of the city.

I don't know why people don't like this story. It's got Daleks! It's got better Daleks than Day of the Daleks and it has Daleks out of their element with their weapons not functioning, leaving them as helpless as those they would crush and destroy. Helpless Daleks have never been encountered before, and even the disarmed ones from Power of the Daleks knew that they were in control of their situation without their weapons. In fact, Daleks without their power to exterminate would only be examined twice in the future; in the audio Jubilee and the new series adventure Dalek. But trust the Daleks not to be down for long, and when they reinvent the machine gun for their own use, they're back to their old style. The guns actually do fire but there's this wierd ticking noise that comes, and some bad ricochet sound effects. And the Dalek colouring... they're painted silver for some reason.

Exxilon suffers from bad casting; another rock quarry. A very bad paper mache boulder. Some sad puddles of water. And the city appearing as a very bad CSO effect, until episode 4 when it is revealed that it has been made out of wax. The peoples of Exxilon are realized as well as they could be, their bulging eyes and bald heads obviously latex masks but somehow they don't demand a lot of explaining, they're just accepted. The subterranean Exxilons like Bellal are a bit different with their oddly glowing skin, but to their credit you can only see one actor's eyes behind the mask the whole adventure. That's got to count for something.

Jon Pertwee is obviously not doing his own stunts anymore; some editing could have saved me from noticing that it is just some guy in a wig in some of the fight scenes. And speaking of fights .... when Sarah encounters an Exxilon after it sneaks into the powerless TARDIS, rather than scream or faint she beats the living crap out of it with a crowbar. That's my girl! This is the first time we see her in the console room, and the room itself has become a lot smaller than it was back in 1963. And speaking of the old days, the power loss that strands the TARDIS draws some parallels to the plight of the ship and its crew from The Edge of Destruction, although Sarah never gets worried about something getting in... until it does.. and I've already said how she deals with that little trifle. The Doctor does not find the TARDIS' plight as traumatic as the first Doctor did; he's either gotten jaded to outside forces attacking his ship or he's suffering some kind of lingering disconnect after being exiled to Earth and deprived of his symbiotic link with the ship.

I want this one on DVD soon. And not just because it'd be nice to have it in episode format (the VHS copy from Playhouse Video - a dreaded name from the past! - has all four episodes wound together into a movie format, and you can really see the difference in quality between what copy of episode 1 they have and the rest of the adventure) but it would piss off the people who don't like it. This is a good Dalek story as far as I am concerned; their chemistry with the Doctor is a bit diminished I'll grant you, but hey they get to show themseles as more innovative, coming up with a new weapons design and shooting Exxilons off cliffs for sport. A total of three Daleks meet flashy deaths on screen, and another one just screams a lot.

NEXT EPISODE : THE MONSTER OF PELADON

PS That logging issue still remains.. it's 9:52 PM right now.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

The Doctor and Sarah return to London to find that, shades of The Web of Fear, the whole place has been evacuated. The deserted streets are being looted, and UNIT has been called in to investigate the sudden appearance of dinosaurs. The Doctor suspects that the dinosaurs are being brought forward in time rather than appearing on their own, but every time he attempts to make any kind of investigation his efforts are stymied by General Finch, who has Mike Yates helping him. Sarah finds herself on board a spaceship full of people who believe they have left Earth for a new planet which is unspoiled my pollution and technology, but in reality uncovers the key clue to a plot to roll back time and return Earth to a supposed "golden age" before humans evolved and change history.

The first episode of this story only exists in black and white as it was simply called Invasion to conceal the presence of the dinosaurs, but the only colour copy of that episode was junked, mistaken for the first episode of the 8 part Patrick Troughton adventure with the Cybermen from 1969. What we have on VHS is much like the release of Planet of the Daleks, with 5 episodes in colour and one in black and white.

Oh the dinosaurs. I had actually never watched this one in its entirety before, so I knew who I wanted on board for this treat: Jay. Armed with trans-fat laden belated birthday cake and our best sense of humour we watched the ponderous plodding of the BBC's best plasticine dinosaurs and... well.. laughed a lot. And whimpered. Almost cried too. Make no mistake, folks: these dinos are BAD. I know it's terrible to moan about the quality of the effects from back then but we were both reminded of the original Land of the Lost at times. And the shimmering blue screen CSO effects... Jay has a hard time not screaming at the TV to turn up the... something... he's a tech boy, he knows how to make CSO look better than that. This is an example of the BBC getting ambitious but not having the ability to realize it properly. I have seen on a website an alternate cover for the video and the tyrannosauras rex on the cover is nipped from Jurassic Park. If only.

As far as the story is concerned, though, very very good. A far reaching conspiracy drawing in people from all levels of government and the military, matching them up with a scientist with a theory about rolling time back. Mike Yates, probably driven wacko by the events surround Global Chemicals in The Green Death, has joined the conspiracy (either that or he really misses Jo Grant) and finds himself with a gun on the Brigadier. Sarah tries to retain her journalist attitude and tries to get an exclusive but instead gets stuck on a spaceship with people with pants that are too tight, after narrowly missing being dinosaur food. But in episode 2 she gets some of the best affirmation anyone around the Doctor can get: he refers to her as his assistant, showing that he has no hard feelings about her initial suspicions of him during their adventure with Lynx and Irongron. And she proves herself once again by finding the heart of the conspiracy for the Doctor, even if she can't get to him right away and tell him about it.

But those dinosaurs. Yikes. No, Jay, I don't know why. I wish I did.

NEXT EPISODE : DEATH TO THE DALEKS

PS I can't seem to log the proper time anymore when I post... it's 8:41 PM EST.