Terror of the Zygons Part Two

The one where the Doctor is chased by the Loch Ness Monster...

As fantastic as that cliffhanger is, I'm not totally clear on what follows. The Doctor finds Sarah cowering in the decompression chamber, but was she imprisoned there by the Zygon, or is she hiding there? And if she is hiding, how did she escape the Zygon and get into the chamber without it seeing her? I always used to assume the Zygon that attacks Sarah is the one disguised as Sister Lamont, but it can't be, as Sarah has only just left Sister Lamont in the sick bay, and the Zygon comes from a different direction. The fact we don't see what happens between Sarah and the Zygon makes her discovery in the chamber slightly puzzling.

Nevertheless, Douglas Camfield continues to direct this story like it's a horror film. The fleeting glimpse we get of the Zygon before it slams the chamber door shut is masterful, and the bit where the Zygon snaps the blinds shut so the Doctor can't see out only adds to the chill factor.

Terror of the Zygons Part One

The one where the TARDIS team meets UNIT in Scotland...

The episode opens with a shot of an excellent and perfectly detailed and convincing model of an oil rig in the ocean, but the model doesn't stick around for long because it starts to break up and sink into the icy depths. Pity poor rigger Munro, whose appeal for some haggis on the next shipment over will forever go unheeded. He wanted haggis because he's Scottish, you see.

We're then treated to a gorgeous introductory scene for our heroes, the Doctor, Harry and Sarah, as they emerge from the undergrowth on a remote Scottish moor (the original introductory scene, with the TARDIS materialising in a wood, was cut, but is available on the DVD. That's lovely too). It's great to see them again, Harry with the Doctor's scarf wrapped round him (although he still hasn't changed his clothes), Sarah donning the Doctor's floppy hat, and the Doctor himself wearing a tam o'shanter and tartan scarf as he follows the signal of the Brigadier's Time Space Telegraph. Douglas Camfield's direction is gorgeous, accompanied by some beautiful pastoral music by Geoffrey Burgon using wind instruments.

Revenge of the Cybermen Part Four

The one where the Doctor turns the Cybermats on their masters...

I've said it before, but I'll say it again - I love Harry Sullivan. How can you not love the bumbling old fool, played so perfectly by Ian Marter? At the start of this episode, he's basically responsible for nearly killing the Doctor twice over. "Harry, were you trying to undo this?" asks the Doctor of the explosive bomb buckle. "Well, naturally," Harry innocently replies. "Did you make the rocks fall, Harry?" adds the Doctor, to which Harry responds: "Er, well, I suppose I must have done, yes."

"HARRY SULLIVAN IS AN IMBECILE!" hollers the Doctor, creating one of the most memorable moments involving Tom Baker and Ian Marter. The following scene is wonderful too, all down to Marter's spot-on performance and characterisation. Harry's rambling summation of events to the Doctor is hilarious. The way he casually mentions Kellman's death as an aside, forgets what the Cybermen are called ("Terribly bad on names") and sums everything up with the beautifully understated: "Things have gone a bit wrong." It's Marter at full throttle, totally in control of his character, and that's why I love him.

Revenge of the Cybermen Part Three

The one where the Doctor becomes a walking bomb...

It might have taken them too long to actually enter the story proper, but when they do arrive, the Cybermen are pretty impressive. They board Nerva in a way very similar to Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers in Star Wars two years later, and waste no time in gunning down every human they see: Commander Stevenson, Lester and the Doctor. They use gunfire from their helmets and it looks very much like everybody's dead (except of course we know the Doctor can't die). It's soon revealed that they're not dead at all, just "neutralised", as they are needed as part of the Cybermen's grand plan.

And we finally find out what that plan is: the Cybermen will send Stevenson, Lester and the Doctor down to Voga with lethal bombs strapped to their backs. When they reach the core of Voga, the bombs will be exploded, resulting in the planet of gold being "fragmatised" (as the Doctor points out, that isn't a proper word!). These cyberbombs have been banned by the Armageddon Convention, but the Cybermen don't give a toot about intergalactic law so carry on anyway. The Armageddon Convention features in the 1995 book The Empire of Glass, and is also mentioned in the New Adventure Original Sin. For the record, Cybermen and Daleks refuse to cooperate with the Convention, but Ice Warriors, Krargs, Sontarans and the Rutan host do.

Revenge of the Cybermen Part Two

The one where Sarah and Harry transmat down to Voga...

What a swizz! The blatant reordering of scenes in the reprise is a monumental cheat which directly contradicts the chronology of the previous week's cliffhanger. Last week, the Doctor was not free of Kellman's quarters when Sarah was attacked by the Cybermat, whereas this week he gets out in time to hear her scream and run to her aid. Cheating the audience like this really annoys me. It's so easy to write a good cliffhanger which has a workable solution the following week. Simply re-editing it to make it work better is just lazy production.

This second episode is treading water already. I've just sat down to write this after watching it, and I'm still hard pressed to think what actually happens in its 25 minutes. The Doctor does next to nothing except fiddle with various circuitry to get Harry and the ailing Sarah down to Voga, and then listen, boggle-eyed, in the background of numerous other scenes. The plot is literally on pause until the Cybermen decide to rock up at the end.

Revenge of the Cybermen Part One

The one where our heroes return to Nerva, but find that much has changed...

Season 12 just continues to give. First you have a new Doctor and companion, then a magnificent giant robot, followed by a new species of monster in the Wirrn. Then there's a trio of stories that brings back classic monsters: the Sontarans, the Daleks and now... the Cybermen! This is the first proper Cyber-story since The Invasion finished in December 1968, and is also the first time we'll see them properly in colour. Exciting!

The Time Ring zips the Doctor, Sarah and Harry back to Nerva, but I have to admit I'm just as puzzled as Harry as to why they have gone back in time thousands of years before the point from which they left. It's a pretty rubbish Time Ring if it can't even get you to the time you need to be. The Doctor gives some garbled explanation that the TARDIS is drifting backwards in time to meet them, and doesn't seem at all put out by this. To be honest, it makes little sense, but I do appreciate the fact there is a kind of season arc going on here, linking The Ark in Space, The Sontaran Experiment and Revenge of the Cybermen (with a pretty monumental interlude in the form of Genesis of the Daleks!).

Genesis of the Daleks Part Six

The one where the Daleks turn on their creator, Davros...

I didn't notice at the end of part 5, but in the reprise I heard the Doctor scream Sarah's name in agony, which just makes the whole thing even more upsetting. As he's being throttled to death by not one, but three Dalek mutants, he calls out for his best friend, Sarah Jane Smith. Not macho man Harry, but Sarah. How touching...

Genesis of the Daleks has a few moments which have passed into Doctor Who legend, but chief among them - and one of the most legendary of all Doctor Who scenes - is the "Do I have the right?" scene which follows here. The Doctor questions whether he has the right to commit genocide, to wipe out the entire Dalek race, simply because they will go on to destroy so many other other peoples and races. Surely, that would make the Doctor just as bad as they are? Sarah is the audience's voice of reason here, reminding the Doctor what the Daleks are capable of, but then he puts to her that old time traveller's favourite, would you murder the child Adolf Hitler so that he didn't grow up to slaughter millions as head of the Third Reich?

Genesis of the Daleks Part Five

The one where the Doctor gives Davros details of every Dalek defeat...

Forced to list the cause of every Dalek defeat so that Davros can programme his creations to counteract accordingly in the future, the Doctor mentions the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, as well as two adventures unseen on TV: a Dalek story set on Mars, and another taking place in the "space year 17,000" involving the planet Hyperon. A Dalek invasion of Mars sounds like a wonderful idea for a TV story, as it would undoubtedly involve the Ice Warriors too, and this has been touched upon in spin-off fiction, including the 1996 novel GodEngine. As for the Daleks' tussle with Hyperon, that's not really been expanded in spin-off fiction, although I'm sure it's only a matter of time until Big Finish make a four-disc box set out of it.

The thing about the Doctor relaying all of this future information is that, if Davros was to programme his Daleks accordingly, and so alter the course of future history (ie, the Dalek invasion of Earth succeeded), then the Doctor would no longer be able to tell Davros that they were defeated in the first place. It's one of those frustrating paradox things. Mind you, the Daleks would still come unstuck at some point in whichever their next encounter with the Doctor was in his timeline, so it's not a hard and fast cure-all, Mr Davros!

Genesis of the Daleks Part Four

The one where the Kaleds are wiped out and the Daleks try to wipe out the Thals...

After a lapse in quality last episode, Terry Nation really cranks it back up in this fourth part thanks to some tight direction from David Maloney and a creeping, menacing score from Dudley Simpson. The whole atmosphere of this story reeks of danger and threat, and it's all credit to the production team for managing to harness that in almost all respects and create a story that feels unsettling.

The destruction of the Kaled dome is impressive. Even though it's a model shot seen on a screen in the Thal city, the prolonged series of explosions and collapses - including some stunning sound design when it's being heard from Davros's bunker - gives a clear sense of total annihilation. The Thals have committed genocide, and every living Kaled in that dome is dead. The only Kaled survivors are those safely holed up in Davros's bunker.

Genesis of the Daleks Part Three

The one where Harry is attacked by a giant clam..

Exactly how does Sarah Jane land on a platform when she fell from the outside of the scaffolding? It's the fault of director David Maloney, as it should have been clear from Terry Nation's scripts what the cliffhanger resolution was. Maloney misinterpreted the scene, and as a result the cliffhanger comes across as an almighty cheat.

Anyway, Sarah's entire bid for freedom is in vain as she and Sevrin are easily caught by the Thal soldiers and taken prisoner again, making the whole subplot superfluous, and highlighting the fact that Nation has got nothing productive for Sarah to do right now. In fact, Nation isn't really giving either companion much to do, as Harry is pretty much just following the Doctor around like a lost lamb. That is when he's not getting his foot stuck in a giant clam...

Genesis of the Daleks Part Two

The one where the first ever Dalek is armed...

We're straight into part 2 with no reprise, and we find Sarah in danger, captured by the sluggish ragged creatures that have been following her to the ruined building. They surround her threateningly, which seems to make her pass out - I hope she hasn't fainted like some silent film damsel in distress - but it's not long until she and her new Muto pal Sevrin are captured by Thal scouts and taken to their dome. The ruthless death of Sevrin's mate Gerrill brings home how different these Thals are to the type we're used to seeing (in The Daleks and Planet of the Daleks), especially when they resent the "waste of good ammunition" used in killing him.

The Thals are building a rocket packed with distronic explosives which they plan to aim at the Kaled dome in the hope it will bring a final end to this centuries-old war. And if that's not bad news enough, Sarah and her new friends Sevrin and the nameless Kaled leader will slowly die as they are forced to load the rocket nose cone with explosives, which causes distronic toxaemia.

Genesis of the Daleks Part One

The one where the Doctor is tasked with trying to alter the course of Dalek history...

From the opening moments of this episode, you can tell you're in for something quite gritty. A gas-masked face emerges full screen amid the swirling fog, but just as we start to establish the assumption that we're somewhere among the trenches of the Great War, the masked men are mercilessly gunned down - in slow motion! The horrors of war are rammed home as these unidentified soldiers are cut down in cold blood before we've even got to know them. The slow motion effect accentuates the horror, giving it as nightmarish quality.

And then out of the fog emerges another shape, this time the familiar outline of the Doctor. He's met by a mysterious man who identifies himself as a Time Lord, one of the Doctor's own race, dressed in some rather ostentatious black robes with a bat-winged collar not unlike the ceremonial collars we see make their debut in The Deadly Assassin (it's also uncannily like the black cape worn by the Master in the Death Zone in The Five Doctors).

The Sontaran Experiment Part Two

The one where a Sontaran does some experiments...

Elisabeth Sladen plays her first scene with Styre really well, selling Sarah's shock and fear of what she thinks is a creature she'd seen the back of. Kevin Lindsay is just as menacing as Styre as he was Linx (perhaps even more so), exemplified by his gradual, silent approach to Sarah before grabbing her by the thorax. Sadly, the mask for Styre isn't as effective as it was for Linx, with obvious loose holes for the eyes, and a less realistic, rubbery skin lacking the detail of The Time Warrior's version (I miss the little hairs). The fact Styre's lower lip is attached to Lindsay's jaw means you can quite clearly see the actor speaking inside, which also unravels the illusion.

When poor Roth takes his chance to escape, Styre guns him down in cold blood, having already got from him all of the scientific knowledge he can muster. Roth was of no more use to him, so he killed him. "I am a warrior," Styre justifies. "Murderer. MURDERER!" shouts Sladen. Electrifying stuff.

The Sontaran Experiment Part One

The one where the Doctor, Sarah and Harry meet some people on the abandoned Earth...

Rather like the TARDIS in The Ice Warriors and Castrovalva, Sarah Jane materialises upside down. It's a silly, slapstick moment, but it's not quite as ignominious as the Doctor landing arse-up in a pile of junk in Survival, a moment I've always winced at.

The barren, deserted expanse of Dartmoor lends this story plenty of scale and completely sells the fact this is supposed to be an abandoned Earth thousands of years after its devastation by solar flares. You can see for miles in every direction, and there's nothing to see but hill, sky and heath. When you look at the location of Hound Tor on Google Maps, you can see how remote the place is, a good 13 miles away from the nearest significant conurbation of Newton Abbot. A perfect Doctor Who location, and much better than the staple quarry.