Doctor Who

Previously … The Day of Darkness … Another six-part story begins with a strong episode.  It helps that we don’t see much of the aliens at this point, and we instead have the TARDIS crew in a confined set (the bridge of a spaceship) trying to work out what’s going […]

29. Strangers in Space

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Previously … The Temple of Evil … Not much more really needs to be said about The Aztecs.  I sometimes feel that this story gets hyped up better than it is.  There are several reasons why it’s so good, but I think a lot of them have to do with […]

26-28. Warriors of Death, The Bride of Sacrifice, The Day ...

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Previously … The Keys of Marinus … The Aztecs begins with a rapid educational moment from Barbara, with support from Susan, to remind us that Barbara is a history teacher (I’d forgotten). Most interesting character is easily Tlotoxl who manipulates and schemes while others just go along with the plot.  Given […]

25. The Temple of Evil

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Doctor Who continued … Unlike the previous one-episode sub-stories, Ian’s trial continues well into the final episode.  Presumably because there wasn’t much to the resolution, which is a pity because we come away learning so little about the Voord.  At least the significance of the “fake key” worked well.  Almost […]

24. The Keys of Marinus

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Doctor Who continued … A bit of a courtroom drama, almost a forerunner to similar scenes in the first episode of “Blakes 7”. Hartnell has clearly benefitted from his holiday, as he’s more on form here – giving the Doctor a commanding presence.  Him knowing the location of the hidden […]

23. Sentence of Death

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Doctor Who continued … A rough trapper, who isn’t tough enough to kill people but will let them die, decides it’s time to “Benny Hill-run” Barbara around a table. That’s about it, really, for this one. Little bit of strange logic going on, in that they get frostbite relatively quickly, […]

22. The Snows of Terror

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Doctor Who continued … Almost a forerunner to The Seeds of Doom, this episode has some impressive sets.  Some jeopardy/suspense in the guise of the fake chip, and in trying to find out where the key was hidden.  A little bit rushed at the end for time again, with the […]

21. The Screaming Susan … urm, Jungle

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Doctor Who continued … For the most part, I enjoyed this one.  Clever use of editing (which must have been tough at the time on the BBC’s budget) to give us Barbara’s viewpoint as well as that of everyone else was very effective. The ending lets it down a little.  […]

21. The Velvet Web

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Doctor Who continued … The Keys of Marinus, which effectively has one goal – to give the story a random selection of environs for the following episodes. A very intriguing opening episode begins with the TARDIS landing on what appears to be a beach, only the sea is very still, […]

20. The Sea of Death

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Doctor Who continued … Marco Polo is one of the many early Doctor Who adventures that no longer exists in the BBC archives.  This telesnap version was presented on a BBC release. It’s difficult to understand why Marco Polo was a 7-part story as, in this abridged version, Marco Polo’s […]

14-19. Marco Polo

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Doctor Who continued … As someone who likes well done “bottle shows” (I’m thinking the likes of “Sapphire & Steel” here), this one comes across as a bit confusing.  In production terms and mystery, it works very well.  In providing explanations and solving that mystery, it somewhat fails.  So the […]

12 & 13. The Edge of Destruction / The Brink ...

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Doctor Who continued … I watched The Forest of Fear and The Firemaker whilst I was working on something else at the same time but, even so, it’s pretty clear that there is a deeper story hidden beneath the surface.  The political wranglings between Za and Kal seeking power over […]

The Tribe of Gum (overview)

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