The Dominators Episode 5

The one where the Doctor blows up the Dominators' ship...

Surprise, surprise! Rago steps in to stop Toba's bloodthirsty threats, just like almost every other cliffhanger/ resolution in this sorry tale. Did the production team really think the young viewers of 1968 were that stupid? It's the same ending every week! Why would they keep coming back for more of the same? What a lacklustre way to launch a new season!

The one positive thing about this story, and particularly the last couple of episodes, is how strongly written Jamie is. Too often he's by the Doctor's side just to ask questions and be the light relief, but The Dominators shows him to be resourceful and determined, teaming up with Cully to blow up Quarks and cause as much disruption for the Dominators as possible. He's a man of action again, and it's great to see the character shine here.

The Dominators Episode 4

The one where the bad guys have a right old ding-dong...

Right at the start of this episode there's a close-up of a Quark as it burbles something or other, and you can actually see the little boy operating it inside, peering out and looking from side to side. It's very hard to capture it in a screengrab, but just take a look, and you'll see the little lad!

The Dominators are arguing again. It's handbags at dawn as Rago calls into question whether bloodthirsty Toba has the necessary intelligence and detachment it takes to be a Dominator, which suggests to me that a Dominator is a role or position, rather than their race. The Dominators are masters of the ten galaxies, apparently (which ten, we don't know), and they've not achieved that by employing what Toba accuses Rago of: "unnecessary softness". These two chaps really are the most mismatched pair of warmongers I've ever seen, spending most of their time arguing with each other and never really getting anywhere. In their own way, they're just as bad as the ponderous Dulcians!

The Dominators Episode 3

The one where Jamie blows up a Quark...

Episode 3 begins by refusing to admit that it is episode 3, as the production team forgot to put an episode number caption up. Perhaps it reflects the general feeling of apathy and embarrassment about this story displayed by most of the people making it?

It's getting very predictable now that every time Toba tries to kill or destroy, Rago will pop up and stop him. Rago is very mindful of wasting energy on piffling things like killing Dulcians or blowing up buildings, so as an exploratory crew, these two are entirely mismatched. All Toba wants to do is demonstrate their might as Dominators; all Rago wants to do is run experiments and tests. The warmonger and the scientist!

The Dominators Episode 2

The one where we don't find out that the Doctor has two hearts...

I love the Dominators' spaceship interior! It's crazy and mind-bendingly Sixties, but look at the attention to detail by the ever reliable Barry Newbery, there's so much to see, so much depth to the controls and displays. The display screens we see the Dominators viewing at the very start of the episode are swirling, pulsing and spinning with migraine-inducing psychedelic images, while parts of the set are laced with little mini Quarks in bas relief. Despite everything that's cheap about The Dominators, Barry Newbery's set for the ship is supreme, and reflects his consummate professionalism and talent in the face of everybody's else's apathy.

The Doctor and Jamie are lured inside the ship (I'm puzzled as to how Toba can already be inside the ship when we just saw him outside with the Quarks) and subjected to a series of tests to see how intelligent, or otherwise, they are. This is all quite nice fun, allowing for the rapport between Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines to shine. Jamie is placed under some sort of sunbed, secured by the Quarks' force units (and the Quark gets a front row view up Hines' kilt too!), and has his physiological make-up probed by Rago, which is where things get tantalising...

The Dominators Episode 1

The one where aliens land and take away all the radioactivity...

The episode opens with an attempt to be epic, with model spaceships that look like bin lids tumbling through space in formation, and then one separating from the group and coming in to land on a planet's surface (it's a sandpit, so it can't be Earth!). As Doctor Who model effects go, there's been much better, but what we see here isn't actually all that appalling. It's not exactly the opening to Star Wars though!

Two fearsome humanoid aliens step out of the ship, looking for all the world like Frankenstein's monsters with Richard III humpbacks! The Dominators look strange, but Sylvia James does a good job on the make-up, giving them a dark, morose, almost funereal look in their faces. They're called Dominators, and they look domineering. They don't look like they have much of a sense of humour! They're actually far from fast friends, and get quite bitchy with each other.