The Year of the Pig

The Doctor and Peri are on holiday, taking a well deserved rest for a change, but their rest is soon interrupted by the strange goings-on at the seaside hotel they have chosen. Peri receives a mystery thank you gift hours prior to her saving a man's life in the sea - a man who turns out to be a French inspector on the trail of an elusive quarry. Within the hotel sits Toby the Sapient Pig - a well-dressed porcine chap watching his old film reels and dreaming of the past, while ordering lunch and snacks on a rotating basis. And what would celebrity be without the enthusiastic fan Miss Baltitude stalking the corridors of the hotel hoping for a glimpse of her hero? Toby's life is in danger, and very soon the Doctor and Peri are also at risk, but before they can save Toby, they have to figure out who the real threat is.

The Year of the Pig is an interesting title, probably chosen seeing as it's release did coincide with the Chinese New Year becoming that of the pig. Toby himself is an interesting character, being an actual pig cpabale of speech and reason - based in part on the real theatrical character Toby the Sapient Pig who was an exhibit in the ninteenth century. Played by Paul Brooke he sounds like the original Winnie the Pooh, or even Kaa the snake from The Jungle Book ... or someone's kindly grandfather telling stories of when he was a boy. Maureen O'Brien - yes, Vicki herself from the 60s - plays the doting Miss Baltitute, a very creepy kind of obsessed groupie who ingratiates herself into Toby's inner circle when his nurse goes off to help the Doctor look for the threats to Toby's life.

Notes elsewhere online place this tale further back in continuity between Timelash and Revelation of the Daleks, perhaps owing to it's 2 part format as was the case with The Reaping, but the interplay between Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Doctor and Peri is more in keeping with later adventures where their relationship is less rocky (which is either the Doctor finally settling down after his regeneration or Peri easing up on the comments that set him off). There is also the question of the version of the opening theme used for the adventure - the version that debuted in the season 23 epic Trial of a Time Lord.

And that's next...

NEXT EPISODE : THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET