Previously … Kidnap

A Desperate Venture finishes the story adequately, but it felt like a bit of a poor pay-off after waiting six episodes (weeks) for this.  A bit more could have been made of the few people scavenging away underground.  Also, given that episode 5 came across as little more than padding, the end of the story could have been structured much better.  For instance, the cliffhanger at the end of episode 4 (the Doctor attacked in the aqueduct) could have run straight into this final episode with the revelation of the humans and the final episode could have then been used to chase/track the City Administrator (complete with “frame the Doctor” plot, if necessary).

With the way we see it, the story ends a little limply.  It’s fairly obvious that they no longer had access to the “ship” set – hence no return to the TARDIS, and having Barbara suddenly turn up from nowhere – so I wouldn’t expect a final episode to involve that, it’s just I feel that the final two episodes could have done so much more than they did.

Suddenly Susan’s telepathy comes in incredibly handy, only for us to be told just as suddenly it’s because of some magical doohicky in the air so she can go back to being the screaming one in future episodes.

But, still, overall the story is better than its reputation with it sagging a little in episode 5, and episode 6 requiring a little bit of forgiveness, but it certainly isn’t one that should be avoided when watching the series.

Next time … A Land of Fear