Four to Doomsday Part Four

The one where the Doctor uses a cricket ball to propel him through space...

Stirring from her impassive state, Nyssa uses her scientific ingenuity to short-circuit the blade-wielding assistor's control device, as well as that for Adric's captor. This is the ideal way to demonstrate Nyssa's cleverness, rather than the usual method we get of her spouting on about everything she knows. Nyssa's ploy enables Adric to wriggle free and stand between the Doctor and Persuasion's gun, demonstrating a level of self-sacrifice akin to Jo Grant.

Persuasion laboriously itemises the contents of the Doctor's pockets, which shed some unexpected light on this new Doctor. He carries a magnifying glass because he's short-sighted in his right eye, which also explains the "brainy specs" he sometimes wears, while the cricket ball he carries urges him to remember the time he played for New South Wales. The moment where the Doctor boasts of bowling "a very good chinaman", and catches the eye of the Chinaman next to him, is hilarious! However, all this crickety talk compounds my opinion that it's not the Fifth Doctor who's the proper cricket fan, it's an earlier incarnation (see my discussion of this in Castrovalva part 1). This is so early in this Doctor's lifetime that he can't be talking about his current self.

Oh, and luckily Nyssa may keep the pencil.

Four to Doomsday Part Three

The one where we learn about Monarch's true plans...

I don't care what anybody says, Monarch's scientific achievements are very impressive, even if they are lacking in humanity somewhat. He's managed to throw off the shackles of flesh and blood and condense a person's entire being into a tiny silicon chip. The people of Urbanka are not the green froggy creatures we see in Monarch. They have actually become "fully-integrated personalities with a racial memory". Monarch's science records a person's entire lifetime, thoughts and feelings and transfers it into one microchip, which can then travel around in a synthetic body, enabling immortality. Brilliant! It's also reminiscent of what Davros achieved with his travel machines...

The fact the bodies are disposed of as fertiliser for the floral chamber is a grim side-effect, on a par with Harrison Chase's psychotic gardening tips in The Seeds of Doom.

Four to Doomsday Part Two

The one where the Doctor and Tegan enjoy a cultural exchange...

Janet Fielding is so good in this episode. The way she has Tegan react to situations makes me laugh, but it's also because it's a truthful depiction of how a highly-strung Australian air hostess who's been whisked away to the other side of space and time against her will would react! Tegan speaks her mind, with no airs and graces, she just says what she thinks without filter or forethought. I appreciate that, and I think it's long overdue in a companion. We've not had this sort of blunt honesty since Leela left the TARDIS.

As soon as it's confirmed that the Sapphire and Steel versions of Enlightenment and Persuasion are extrapolated from her sketches, she wants out. "I want to go," she demands of the Doctor. It's just too weird for her, and who can blame her? She never asked for all this. Fans sometimes criticise Tegan for moaning too much, never stopping to enjoy the wonders of the universe around her, but look at it from her point of view: she never chose this life, and right from the get-go she's made it clear all she wants to do is go back home. Intergalactic mathematicians, block transfer constructs and shape-shifting space frogs are not her kind of normal. 

Four to Doomsday Part One

The one where the TARDIS crew meets a frog king...

Another story which opens with a valiant attempt to be like Star Wars, with an "epic pan" over a spaceship in flight, before seeing it cruise over the camera, powered by fiery thrusters. It may not be George Lucas, but it's a fairly good attempt and you can't knock Doctor Who for trying.

Rather wonderfully, the story opens with no messy precursor or establishing scene, we're just straight into things alongside our heroes. There's a brief glimpse of a deserted alien laboratory before the familiar sound of the TARDIS materialising brings the police box into shot. The Doctor has arrived, and the adventure can begin immediately! It's quite a refreshingly simple opening.