The Ambassadors of Death Episode 7

The one where General Carrington's plan comes unravelled...

There's a lot of exposition at the start of episode 7, with General Carrington explaining his motivation like a comic book super villain. The difference is that the villain here is written sympathetically, as a man who has been doing all of this for what he perceives is a good reason, his "moral duty". He is keen for the Doctor to understand his motivation, and why he's done what he's done. The Doctor certainly does understand ("You had to do what you had to do"), but of course he does not agree with it. Carrington actually seeks the Doctor's "approval" twice, at the top and tail of this episode, and John Abineri gives a nice performance. It's the old adage that the bad guys never think that what they're doing is evil; they think what they're doing is for a good reason. As a certain Osirian once said: "Your evil is my good."

It's also interesting to note that all of this plotting and killing was triggered by the accidental death of astronaut Jim Daniels on the Mars Probe 6 mission. Carrington lost a friend because the aliens didn't understand that their touch would kill. It's all one big misunderstanding through a lack of communication.

I love the audacity of Carrington's plan to unveil a living alien creature on live television during an international simulcast (I also admire how Wakefield has managed to organise this in such short time). It still doesn't ring true though, that such a huge set-up, which will undoubtedly lead to international repercussions, has been organised with such ease, with absolutely no governmental interference. It's almost like Downing Street and MI6 are on holiday.

Carrington also has the Brigadier and all of his UNIT men arrested so that they don't interfere, but quite rightly the Brigadier manages to escape and turns into quite the action hero. It's nice for Nicholas Courtney to get some action scenes, showing that he is more than just a man striding around with a stick giving orders. It harks back to our first, grittier experience of the Brigadier (or Colonel) in The Web of Fear.

It's amusing, but rather lovely, to see UNIT reduced to four men in a sprightly yellow roadster, but despite UNIT's trademark ineptitude (they're so rubbish they let the mercenaries wrest their rifles from them), the Brigadier manages to rescue the Doctor and Liz from the bunker. Sadly, the fist fight on location is like watching a stereoscopic 3D film without the specs - the colourisation continues to struggle, especially with rapid movement.

When the Brigadier finally does burst heroically into the bunker, the very first thing he does is shoot a mercenary dead at point blank range, then shoot Reegan's revolver from his hand (now that's some excellent sharp-shooting!). And the Doctor's welcome? "What kept you?" Charming! Even Liz is short on gratitude: "Just get me out of here."

The finale sees the Doctor using the aliens to break through Carrington's security at the space centre to prevent the live TV reveal. Director Michael Ferguson seems to have a fascination with the aliens' welly boots - on location only! - as he has shown them getting in and out of the bakery van several times in this story, from the knees down.

UNIT and the aliens rush the space centre and relieve Carrington of his control, and his revolver, just in time, although we're to assume that Wakefield continues to broadcast all this to the watching world. The billions of people around the globe must be extremely disappointed not to see the alien's true face revealed, and for everything to just end with polite arrests and handshakes. If I were watching all this from my condo in LA, or my trailer in Brisbane, I'd be giving the broadcast a very poor appreciation score.

It all ends very amicably, with the Doctor determined to get away as soon as possible, leaving the whole mess to be cleared up by Ralph Cornish and the Brigadier. Interestingly, he leaves Liz with Cornish to operate the communication device because "she's much more practical than I am". Does he really believe that, or does he just want to get back to tinkering with Bessie?

We have a lovely final shot, a reprise of the wide-shot Ferguson used briefly in episode 1 to establish the space centre, with Pertwee literally walking off set, leaving everybody else to it. It's a job well done for Doctor Who, but that's as far as his help goes. He has no time for mopping up.

The Ambassadors of Death is a solid sci-fi thriller but there's nowhere near enough material for seven episodes, and the pacing is, at times, deadeningly slow. I can't imagine the younger audience at the time were kept very entertained by the story, and the stats reflect this - between episodes 4 and 7 a whole four million people tuned out, and the ratings didn't properly recover for the rest of the season. There are some gaping logic holes in the plot, and a completely lifeless performance from Ronald Allen, but there are some nice character touches, with both Carrington and Reegan coming across as realistic antagonists (William Dysart does a very good job as the latter).

Doctor Who needs some monsters for the kids, and a tighter pace. Maybe even a trip through time?

First broadcast: May 2nd, 1970

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The care taken over Carrington's motivation is rewarding for both John Abineri and the viewer.
The Bad: Ronald Allen really was phoning it in by episode 7. I'm not sure the phone was connected though...
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (story average: 6.3 out of 10)

"Now listen to me" tally: 4
Neck-rub tally: 0

NEXT TIME: Inferno...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5; Episode 6

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-ambassadors-of-death.html

The Ambassadors of Death is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Ambassadors-Death-DVD/dp/B008H2JK5Y.