The Twin Dilemma

The Doctor has regenerated, and the man how at the helm of the TARDIS is by no means the same as the man Peri has called Doctor for so long. Prone to fits of rage and even violence he goes to another extreme of self imposed exile and stumbles across a plan to kidnap a pair of child geniuses and perpetuate a race of obscene monsters across space.

See what I did there? I made it sound better than it actually was. Because it's crap as far as a debut story for a new Doctor. For some reason the production team decided that the new Doctor, now played by Colin Baker, should be made to act totally opposite to Peter Davison's "nice guy" of the previous three seasons, and now we have a stranger who is moody, sarcastic, and so unsettled that he tries to kill Peri at one point. He can't even put together a proper fashion statement - the costume that is created for the sixth Doctor is just apalling to look at, especially under the harsh lights of the BBC studios.

As for the story... yeah. Jay and I sat there slack jawed at how horrible the two actors cast as the Sylvest twins performed. Casting must have just decided that oh well any twins will do. They could have hired the twins from Degrassi Junior High and made it work better. Unconvincing delivery of their lines coupled with Auton-like blank faces have made these two twits the worst characters ever in the series - and that's saying something because even the actors in The Gunfighters were trying. So these two twins are mathematical geniuses - shades of Adric just without the charisma - and they have been kidnapped by a rogue Time Lord the Doctor recognizes as Azmael (who we have never ever heard of before). But Azmael has troubles of his own; he is master of a world called Jaconda, which is a garden paradise, but it has been invaded by giant slugs that have lain dormant under the surface for milennia. The leader of the slugs, Mestor, has a plan that will supposedly create a new supply of food for the Jacondan people and for his own gastropod offspring, but the Doctor realizes it is not the benevolant scheme Azmael has been led to believe.

Or something like that.

I feel for Colin Baker, being instructed to trun one of the most beloved television characters of all time into... this. It's no wonder ratings started to flag when this gem concluded season 21, which up until this point was innovative and new, and you could still feel that someone cared about the show. I remember my dad and I watched it and he left the room saying "This is a very different Doctor Who,"

Ain't that the truth.

NEXT EPISODE : ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN