Battlefield Part Four

The one where the Destroyer is freed...

So Morgaine gives Ace and Shou Yuing over to the Destroyer to become his handmaidens in Hell, only for the Destroyer to then disappear for five minutes. Morgaine cannot cross the chalk circle with her magic alone, but the Destroyer claims he can if she releases him from his silver chains. "It burns!" says the blue meanie, which is a fantastically realistic design by Stephen Mansfield and Sue Moore, complete with huge Krull-like horns, a greasy black mane and a warty complexion. Interestingly, the original design for the Destroyer was by Mike Tucker, but he was given visual effects duties on The Curse of Fenric at the last moment, and Mansfield and Moore stepped in. Tucker's original design for the Destroyer eventually became the Unspeakable One in the 1992 Red Dwarf episode Terrorform. What we got was better.

Marek Anton gives the Destroyer such animation too, despite the character being quite static. The eyes dart about, the mouth snarls and gnashes, and Anton has the size, bulk and physique to make the creature truly daunting. Even the voice is scary.

Battlefield Part Three

The one where Morgaine summons the Destroyer...

Finally, four minutes into part 3, the Brigadier and the Doctor are reunited. It's taken the old soldier more than half the story to arrive at where the action is, making it a most leisurely comeback. But it's nice to have the Brig meet yet another incarnation of his old friend ("Who else would it be?"), and rather fitting that he saves the day with a squash of his boot - the first thing we ever saw of Lethbridge-Stewart way back in The Web of Fear was his boots.

Ace escapes through an airlock to the surface of Lake Vortigern, where she rises from the water holding Excalibur aloft, like the Lady of the Lake. Warmsley notes that the site of the archaeological dig was supposedly where Mordred faced Arthur in the mythology, and where Bedivere threw Excalibur into the lake. Writer Ben Aaronovitch is toying with the various versions of Arthurian legend here, as Arthur and Mordred apparently faced each other at Camlann, which according to dialogue elsewhere in this episode has already happened. In the legends, Mordred dies at Camlann (and sometimes Arthur too), but seeing as he's alive and well here, the events of the alternative dimension must differ.

Battlefield Part Two

The one where the Doctor finds a spaceship at the bottom of the lake...

The space knight threatening to kill everybody turns out to be called Mordred, and when he lifts his visor he's revealed to be just as ruggedly handsome as his arch-enemy, blond Ancelyn. It seems Ancelyn is general of Arthur's army, while Mordred is the son of Arthur's enemy, Morgaine. I love how Ben Aaronovitch is tinkering with Arthurian legend, just as Sir Thomas Malory tinkered with the works of Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth. There is no definitive version of the mythology, so why not play with it a bit more? I was so inspired by all of this as a 13-year-old that I went to my local library to research the legends of King Arthur (when we had books instead of Google), demonstrating how, even 26 years on, Doctor Who was still educating as well as entertaining.

Mordred says that 12 centuries ago, Morgaine bound the Doctor (ie Merlin) and sealed him in ice caves for all eternity, but the Doctor - at least, the Doctor in his seventh body - knows nothing of this. He blags his way through the conversation, pretending he's Merlin and that he wields "mighty arts", but once Mordred and his tin men have gone, he admits he has no idea who any of them are. For once, the Doctor is on the back foot, and others know more than he does.

Battlefield Part One

The one where the Doctor is mistaken for Merlin...

Here it is, the beginning of the end. The first of four stories in Season 26, bringing to an end Doctor Who's classic series run. Doctor Who had clawed its way back from the doldrums with the critical and creative successes of Season 25, and the change of Doctor in 1987 gave the show the fresh start it needed after the opprobrium associated with Colin Baker's tenure (even if Season 24 wasn't of the highest quality). As the Seventh Doctor entered his third year, confidence must have been at a relative high, with the production team sure of its intent and aims for the series. Last year ratings were markedly up, so what could possibly go wrong?

Season 26 opens with the dullest, most uninspiring and underwhelming scene in the history of season openers. It starts in a garden centre, and the first person we see is a tweedy old duffer in a trilby carrying a couple of shrubs. Battlefield stumbles at the very first hurdle. No wonder this episode was watched by just 3.1m people - less than half the figure for The Greatest Show in the Galaxy part 4 (6.6m). In truth, we know it was lack of promotion and harsh scheduling that did for Season 26, but the production team was doing itself no favours by starting with such a sedentary opening.