Terror of the Autons Episode Four

The one where the Master teams up with the Doctor to defeat the terror of the Autons...

In the past three episodes alone, the Master has tried to kill the Doctor at least four times - first by rigging a volatiser trap in the radio telescope, then by hiding a bomb inside a UNIT crate, then by trying to blow him up with a grenade held by Phillips, and then by using a sentient trimphone cord. So when the Master suddenly appears in the Doctor's lab (what was he doing up the spiral staircase?), pointing a weapon right at him, you expect him to be able to see his threat through.

But oh no, like so many arch-villains in adventure fiction, he has too much to say for himself and ends up missing the easiest opportunity for killing the Doctor he's yet had. All he had to do is point and shoot, but his urgency to get back to the bus at the quarry means he loses all reason and instead orders the Doctor to drive him there in Bessie! I find it hard to believe the Master doesn't really mean to kill the Doctor, because he's tried in four pretty uncompromising ways already. If this is all just a game to the two of them (as has been suggested in some quarters of fandom), then the Master doesn't mean the game to last very long!

Terror of the Autons Episode Three

The one where the Autons distribute deadly daffodils...

The opening sequence, with the Doctor and Jo fleeing from the Auton policemen in "some sort of a quarry" as Jo puts it, is very well-staged stuff. I find the Auton trying to get out of the jammed police car door quite unsettling as it struggles away, then calmly opens fire with its hand gun. I really think these Auton faces are scarier than the previous ones, which is a change of opinion for me this time around as I always used to prefer the Spearhead mannequin ones. As terrifying as the shop window dummies are, I find these blank-faced "template" Autons even eerier.

These Autons are relentless, pursuing the Doctor and Jo with determined aggression, firing at them as they run, and firing at Yates in the faithful UNIT Austin car! When Yates drives the Auton over the cliff, Terry Walsh's stunt fall is sustained and impressive, and the most terrifying thing is when the Auton reaches the bottom of the slope, it just gets straight back up and starts scrambling its way back to the top! There's no tense pause at the bottom as it lies still, then bursts into life. Director Barry Letts opts to show how completely unstoppable the Autons are by allowing no time for doubt. This thing will just keep on coming for you!

Terror of the Autons Episode Two

The one where the Doctor gets mobbed at the circus...

Colour Separation Overlay - or CSO, or Chromakey, or blue/ yellow/ green screen - was an exciting new toy in the early 1970s, and producer Barry Letts was determined to capitalise on its benefits. For instance, you had the advantage of placing your characters into any scene or situation imaginable, without needing the budget to film at the real location or build an entire set. It was the CGI of the 70s.

Sadly, CSO hasn't aged well, and when it's not done particularly well, the effect is simply awful. You get that distracting halo effect around people's hair, or what's called "fringing", like you'd see in the old TV adverts for Ready Brek. The jarring effect of CSO would have been greatly reduced on the black and white TV sets of the early 1970s, which is what the majority of British households had at the time, but 50 years later, when cleaned up and presented on sparkling DVD, the effect remains poor.

Terror of the Autons Episode One

The one where the Doctor gets a new assistant, UNIT gets a new captain, and the world gets a new enemy...

Season 8 explodes onto the screen with some gorgeous bright pink graphics in the title sequence, which seems to change in subtle ways with every passing serial. This new adventure opens at a circus, complete with elephants, lions and clowns, as well as a rotund proprietor called Luigi Rossini (or should that be Lew Russell?) who is astonished when he witnesses a horsebox materialise out of thin air. Rather intriguingly, it materialises with that familiar sound of a TARDIS arriving...

"I am usually referred to as the Master... universally," purrs the black-clad occupant. Yes, it's the Master, making his official debut (it's debatable whether we've already seen earlier iterations of him). Roger Delgado makes an impressive debut: still and confident, those steely brown eyes boring into his victims with utter contempt. He can even click his fingers while wearing black leather gloves!

Inferno Episode 7

The one where the end of our world is averted...

It's the season finale! The titles make it feel even more eventful, thanks to the red hot volcanic explosions and spewing seas of lava. But the action cuts abruptly to the quiet of the "real world" workshop, where the Doctor lies unconscious on the ground, having returned from the apocalyptic parallel Earth. The reprise is the last we see of the alternative universe characters, our final sight of them cowering from an encroaching wave of volcanic lava. Make no mistake, Elizabeth Shaw, the Brigade Leader, Greg Sutton and Dr Petra Williams are dead, and that's a pretty bleak (if inevitable) twist. Inferno certainly pulls no punches.

The frustrating thing here is that the viewers know what calamity awaits the "real world" unless Stahlman slows down (or halts) the drilling, but the Doctor is unconscious in some kind of coma, and so unable to warn anybody. This leads to several more minutes of people trying in vain to warn Stahlman themselves, but it seems the professor just isn't listening to reason. Olaf Pooley gets to do some "proper" acting once again after a couple of weeks bound in Scooby-Doo make-up, although the part is essentially just him saying "no, leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" over and over again. It's interesting that the Earth seems to be communicating with him in some way, calling him almost, but this is never properly picked up on (probably rightly so).

Inferno Episode 6

The one where the end of the world really is nigh...

There's an awful lot of jargon at the start of this episode as everybody tries to work out how to get out of the Brigade Leader's office and power up the Doctor's TARDIS console. Words like coolant, master switch and relay circuits are bandied about like the viewer either understands or cares, making for quite a dull start to proceedings. Despite the overarching atmosphere of imminent destruction throughout the episode (in fact, the whole story), conversations about electronic circuitry and CO2 do nothing to quicken the pace.

Outside, a special lens filter is used to make it look like it's extremely hot, giving me flashbacks to the British summer of 2018, when poking so much of a toe outdoors resulted in second-degree burns. The filter is very effective, although makes the picture quite muzzy, and the production team don't always remember to apply it, such as when everybody arrives at the nuclear switch room in Bessie.

Inferno Episode 5

The one where Benton is turned into a primordial creature...

The opening fight between the Doctor, Stahlmann and Sutton at the drill head feels rather underpowered, mainly because you can't clearly tell who is who due to the silly baggy white suits they're wearing (a great disguise for the fact there's a stuntman at work!). There's lots of balletic somersaults too, a fight arrangement which leaves me cold because you simply never see moves such as that in real fights (unless you're in a WWF ring). I just find it silly.

A lot of screen time in this episode is given to Petra and Greg, whose relationship develops at a swift pace once it's revealed the Earth is on a relentless course for destruction. There were hints of an attraction earlier, but here it seems the inevitability of "the final end" brings them closer, breaking down the awkwardness. Petra is the first to show concern for Greg after he's been battered by an iron bar, and things really warm up later on when Greg convinces Petra that there really is no hope, and no help on its way.

Inferno Episode 4

The one where we hear the Earth screaming out its rage...

Writer Don Houghton wastes no time in fleshing out most of the characters in the parallel world a little bit more, and in some cases slightly more than so than the "real world" versions. It's great to see Elizabeth Shaw already beginning to show slight chinks in her armour with her curiosity about her parallel self. She asks what the other Liz is like, and the Doctor explains that she is a scientist, something Elizabeth had considered doing when she was younger (she studied physics at university). The very fact she asks about alt-Liz shows that at least she doesn't disbelief the Doctor's parallel world explanation outright. On the face of it, his claim that he is from a parallel world is frankly ludicrous, but there's something within Elizabeth that makes her at least consider it. Her willingness to listen to the Doctor is also demonstrated in her allowing him to fix the computer with the micro-circuit.

Houghton also packs in more characterisation for Dr Williams into two scenes than he gave the alt-Petra in the entire previous three episodes. The exchange between her and Greg about his future after the project is over, how he could be a good "servant of the state" if it wasn't for his tendency to speak out of turn, is nicely written, showing that Petra has a soft spot for Greg that she is currently unwilling to admit. It's hard to see what she might see in Greg in "our" world though, seeing as he's such a sexist pig! There are also suggestions that people who don't toe the line in this fascist Britain get "disposed of", or "liquidated" as Stahlmann says at one point...

Inferno Episode 3

The one where the Doctor travels to a parallel Earth...

Oh, the beauty of the very first scene, which manages to utilise the combined effects of studio videotape, film stock and Colour Separation Overlay in quick succession! Whenever this rather jarring combination of edits crops up (such as when the Doctor drives Bessie from filmed location into studio garage set in episode 1) I'm reminded of how the Monty Python boys used to poke fun at this quirk in a number of sketches, most effectively in the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things/ Escape from Film sketch ("Good lord! I'm on film!").

Anyway, the Doctor's disappeared (along with the TARDIS console and Bessie) and Stahlman refuses to switch the nuclear feed back on. We then get a cheap visual effect reminiscent of the opening titles of that terrifyingly creepy 1970s kids' show Picture Box, along with a whooshing noise, which is supposed to represent transportation to a parallel dimension (it also reminds me of the equally cheap-looking interstitial vortex in Battlefield). But from this moment on, things get serious. Seriously bleak.

Inferno Episode 2

The one where the Doctor uses Venusian karate for the first time...

The opening scene, where the rabid Harry Slocum is cornered in the switch room by the Doctor and UNIT, is a tense way to start, although I had to snigger when the Doctor says "There's nothing to be frightened of, old chap", and then Slocum looks in horror at the ringing trimphone! That trimphone continues to ring throughout the scene too, like a troublesome wasp that won't go away!

This is followed by a lovely scene shot on location at the Berry Wiggins and Co oil refinery in Kent (known as KCA International since 1977), with the Brigadier and the Doctor just chatting calmly atop the walkway. It's just two characters having a thoughtful and honest chat about what's going on and what they can do next. It's all punctuated with some well-chosen stock music entitled Galaxy Atmosphere which gives everything a doomy, solemn air, with its deep, resonant bass drum. Director Douglas Camfield notoriously disliked Doctor Who's regular musician Dudley Simpson's work, but his library choice here is arguably much more effective than what Simpson may have composed.

Inferno Episode 1

The one where the Doctor gets his face stretched in limbo...

The production team really enjoyed experimenting with the title sequence in Season 7, didn't they? Apart from the theme tune starting at differing places (the initial stutter of earlier stories is rectified here), there's the different ways of telling us what the story's called - traditional with Spearhead from Space, adding a controversial "Doctor Who" to The Silurians, and the energetic zoom and TWANG of The Ambassadors of Death. Here we have the titles intercut with images of exploding volcanoes and rolling seas of lava. It sets us up suitably for something apocalyptic...

The story begins with the Doctor hollering a bit of Verdi as he speeds towards another industrial location, a Season 7 stalwart, followed by drill site maintenance man Harry Slocum whistling his way to work on a bicycle. Slocum bumps into Bromley and they exchange pleasantries, but neither of them seem very keen on talking to each other any more than they have to, and the lines seem rushed, garbled and lost.

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.

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 6

The one where we finally see the alien ambassadors...

The first 10 minutes of this episode are really trippy, and must certainly have stretched both the patience and skills of the DVD Restoration Team when adding the US broadcast home video colour signal to the UK 16mm black and white film. The Recovery 7's arrival on the alien spaceship is not as poor as it could be, with the use of Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) being quite effective, even if the ship does look like an enormous colon.

When the Doctor enters the astronauts' waiting room, that's when the eyes really get put through their paces. It's a kaleidoscope of day-glow reds, greens and blues which bleed uncontrollably around the frame, but this adds a suitably weird and wonderful atmosphere to the scenes. When we finally get to see the alien creature in its raw form, it's thanks to the creative use of CSO, which makes them look fuzzy and indistinct, like humanoid interference. It's really effective in maintaining the creatures' mystery, especially shot through a Venetian blind! They remind me a lot of the Chameleons from The Faceless Ones (also co-written by Malcolm Hulke).

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 5

The one where Dr Lennox is served a radioactive meal...

I'm getting a bit frustrated by The Ambassadors of Death now. I used to think I quite liked it, but now I come to sit down and assess it as a drama serial, I find it's actually rather boring. Writer Malcolm Hulke (uncredited, in favour of David Whitaker) is in no hurry for the plot to go anywhere fast, and when you've got seven episodes to fill, you can barely afford to be complacent. There certainly is not enough material here for the allocated slots, and it really shows. You can tell that this story has been cobbled together by committee (Whitaker provided the basic story and scripted episodes 1-3, while assistant script editor Trevor Ray wrote the final draft of episode 1 and Hulke the final drafts of the rest) because it's so tentative, reluctant to power ahead. Despite the premise (bullet-proof alien astronauts, abducted Earth rockets), it's not great entertainment.

The pedestrian nature of proceedings is summed up perfectly for me by the disinterested performance of Joanna Ross as the space centre technician, who seems resolutely unmoved and appears utterly bored by the possibility of the Recovery 7 hurtling into the Sun's orbit. There's absolutely no urgency in these scenes, with Ross, as well as the almost comatose Ronald Allen and Carl Conway, failing to translate any of the real-life panic which might arise in an emergency such as this. Allen has been serenely flat throughout, so I can only blame director Michael Ferguson for turning what should have been a tense moment (the Doctor could die, for heavens sake!) into something akin to a rehearsed reading of the script.

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 4

The one where the ambassadors start killing people...

Although Liz is now a prisoner of Reegan's at the secret laboratory, that doesn't mean she becomes compliant and fearful. Far from it, Liz gives as good as she gets and remains as defiant as ever. When Reegan tells her to "start making yourself useful", she spits: "What if I don't?", and later when she is manhandled by Masters (the second Masters in as many stories!) she struggles to free herself, and snarls: "Don't touch me!" A Doctor Who girl with a fighting spirit (perhaps the first?).

I love how dismissive the Doctor is of General Carrington and his wild theories. First he tries to convince the Brigadier and the Doctor that the radioactive astronauts have been abducted by foreign powers to use as weapons, then tries to back this up by saying that the men's bodies found at the gravel pit had newspaper cuttings on them written in a foreign language. His additional attempt to compound his xenophobic theory with the use of foreign hair combs is ludicrous, and the Doctor sees this too.

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 3

The one where Liz drives Bessie in a car chase...

It really is shocking how poor the colourisation of this story is. Fans seemed to be perfectly pleased with the way it looked when the DVD was released in 2012, but watching it now, it truly is appalling. The colours are all over the place, and often just not there at all, and it makes me wish they hadn't bothered and just left it in monochrome. I remember seeing the story on VHS in black and white and it was much moodier that way, especially with Dudley Simpson's tense score.

The second thing that struck me watching episode 3 is the state of Ralph Cornish's shoes. When he climbs up to peer into the Recovery 7 shuttle you can see his brogues caked with mud! This scene was recorded at BBC TV Centre on February 27th, 1970, an entire month after Ronald Allen was on location in Aldershot for the retrieval of Recovery 7, so that's some very diligent adherence to continuity on the production team's part!

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 2

The one where a UNIT convoy is attacked...

As the Doctor and Liz stride confidently into the computer room with the tape recording of the signal sent from space, it's easy to see why Taltalian wants the spool so much. Maybe it's the original two-inch colour master tape of this episode, hence the urgency to recover it. "I want that tape!" demands Taltalian, to which the Doctor replies: "Do you realise the importance of it?" Yes! Because the quality of the picture on The Ambassadors of Death Episode 2 (and most of the rest) is appalling, despite the very best colour recovery and restoration possible in 2012. The flesh tones are all over the place, and the colour very smeary, especially during rapid movement. Some scenes are like watching through a sieve.

But hark! The reprise of the cliffhanger is counterpointed with a marvellous double sting of the theme tune for the title captions, even more exciting than episode 1. TWANG! Love it.

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 1

The one where contact is lost with a Mars exploration shuttle...

Season 7 is a strange beast. As well as Doctor Who getting a new lead actor and supporting characters, and blazing into colour, its format changed radically too. Gone were the days of the Doctor and his companions arriving on some alien planet or in some distant time and getting involved in scrapes. This new-look Doctor Who was entirely Earth-based, and feels much more generic as a result. By 1970, Lew Grade's ITC production company was churning out 26-part action-adventure series like nobody's business, often with a slightly fantastical twist but always based on a set group of investigators righting wrongs.

Doctor Who in 1970 has a distinct feel of series like Strange Report, Department S and Ghost Squad, with the Doctor and Liz, supported by the Brigadier and UNIT, marching into desperate situations to sort them out, whether they be strange goings-on at a factory, an atomic research station, or a space control centre. The decision to base Doctor Who on Earth, with no alien worlds, was a brave one, because it runs the risk of turning viewers off. People know what to expect when they tune into Doctor Who, but this must have been quite a change at the time. We have yet to see the TARDIS interior this season...

Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 7

The one where the Brigadier blows up the Silurians...

For the second time in as many stories, the Doctor is abducted by monsters while wearing a white smock, only this time the abductors don't try and make off in an ambulance, but through the wall! The scorch mark the Silurians leave after resealing the wall is rather lovely too. It looks like something you might see on the wall at the Tate Modern. Perhaps there's a market for Silurian art?

It's a shame the Silurians have become a generic monster race by episode 7. After the death of the Old Silurian, it seems the entire race of revived creatures bowed to the will of the bloodthirsty Young Silurian, who wobbles around proclaiming very proudly that he is the leader now. This new leader just wants to wipe out the apes and take back the planet, and his means of doing so is both extreme and unexpected.

Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 6

The one where the Doctor conducts some very complicated scientific tests...

For the vast majority of this episode - aside from the pre-filmed insert where he meets a doctor who I swear could be a Reese Shearsmith League of Gentlemen character - the Doctor spends all his time in a lab carrying out endless tests. It makes for seriously boring telly, with whole sequences spent in silence as we watch Liz and her clipboard watch the Doctor fiddle about with test tubes and pipettes. At one point, Liz enquires: "Have you considered the addition of A37 in the presence of Z19 might well be effective?", to which the Doctor replies, "That's a possibility, let's try", and then we have to watch Liz watching him try.

Boy is it dull, and proof that Malcolm Hulke is really struggling with this seven-episode structure. Director Timothy Combe does his best to spice up the visuals with some nicely shot - but terribly murky - location filming at Marylebone Station, but there's no escaping the truth that there's not a lot going on. We even get some really cheesy cross-fades of the Brigadier answering telephones, the Doctor conducting his tests and Liz taking blood samples like this is a 1940s Hollywood thriller. But with test tubes.

Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 5

The one where Silurian civil war breaks out...

First there was Captain Knight, then Captain Turner, then Captain Munro, and now Captain Hawkins. UNIT had a swing-door policy on captains in its formative years, eventually settling on Captain Yates of course, but I wonder why they didn't keep John Breslin's Munro on for this story, or Paul Darrow's Hawkins on for Season 8? Both captains were solid and reliable, and Darrow in particular makes a good impression as the Brigadier's right-hand man.

This fifth episode is a pretty pedestrian affair as it's principally made up of a lot of people talking in rooms/ caves. For the entire episode, Masters, Dr Lawrence, Liz and Miss Dawson go round in circles arguing about the pros and cons of sending troops down into the caves, getting nowhere very fast, as demonstrated when Masters insists on doing nothing until he gets his next report. Cue arduous scene with all four of them watching a telephone, waiting for it to ring.

Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 4

The one where we meet the Silurians...

"Hello, are you a Silurian?" What a perfect way to skewer the tension of that cliffhanger, while also adding so much to this Doctor's character and outlook. He's not scared of or threatened by the creature advancing on him, he's intrigued by it and keen to learn more about it. He offers his hand in friendship, and there's that lovely moment where the Silurian tries to reciprocate, but isn't sure how. A fantastic - and very Doctory - way to continue the cliffhanger. It's a pity it ends with the Silurian crashing his way out of the house, but then, monsters rampaging through country cottages seems to becoming a trait of the Pertwee era already!

This Doctor is very much a humanitarian, a peacemaker, and he knows already that unless he intervenes, the humans will try and destroy the Silurians. He may have a soft spot for Mankind, but he knows what we're capable of too, especially when we feel threatened. It could be said of the Daleks - "dislike for the unlike" - but it's very true of humans too.

Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 3

The one where UNIT searches for an escaped creature on Wenley Moor...

There's a monster on the loose on Wenley Moor. Not many people have seen what it looks like, and those that have seen it are turned to gibbering wrecks (except good old Liz!). It's a cast-iron classic horror film scenario - a monster lurking on a wild and windy moor, and a desperate search by the military to capture it before it kills again. It all feels very Quatermass, but also foreshadows a couple of my favourite genre series, 1981's The Nightmare Man and 1991's Chimera (that even has a monster holed up in a barn).

Director Timothy Combe does a grand job of making the search look professional and believable, with the budget stretching to a helicopter, flare guns, military vehicles, search dogs and loads of extras. His camera shots from the helicopter are wonderful and sweeping, especially the ones taking in Dr Quinn next to his car on the lonely track. These scenes add scale and truth to proceedings, even though we see next to nothing of the creature in question.

Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 2

The one where we discover Quinn is colluding with the subterranean creatures...

Liz is great, isn't she? Even in her slightly diluted form here, she's not afraid to stick up for herself and speak out. It's lovely that she has very quickly sided with the Doctor, her loyalty apparent in the early scene when the Brigadier teases the Doctor about not coming up with any credible evidence of creatures in the caves. "A subterranean Loch Ness monster? Very helpful!" he scoffs, but Liz is quick to provide support for the Doctor by apparently believing that the creature could be prehistoric. The very idea of a prehistoric monster being alive in the caves beneath Derbyshire is pretty preposterous, but Liz is willing to go with it, for the Doctor's sake.

So it's a little disappointing when the Doctor lets her down somewhat when he sides with the Brigadier in refusing to let her go down into the caves with him. Despite Liz's spirited "Have you never heard of female emancipation?", she's defeated by the sheer amount of testosterone in the room, and sadly, she gives in to it all too easily. This is not the Liz Shaw of Spearhead from Space. This is Barry Letts's version of a Doctor Who companion: loyal but submissive. Shame.

Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 1

The one where the Doctor goes pot-holing...

After a great opening scene in which two men are attacked by what seems to be a giant lizard while pot-holing (it'd make a great pre-credits sequence), we join the Doctor flat on his back under his new car, seemingly the new wheels the Brigadier promised him last week. In a jarringly self-referential move, the Doctor appears to be fixing a new registration plate to the car, WHO 1, and has named it Bessie. I've never really wondered why the car is called Bessie before, but it begs the question of what the Doctor names the car after. Bessie is short for either Elizabeth or Beatrice, and derives from the Hebrew for "pledged to God", which gives some insight into how the Doctor might see himself - or, of course, he could have named it after his new companion, Liz!

This new Doctor is shaping up very nicely already, no doubt helped by Jon Pertwee's very self-confident performance and sense of self. Pertwee was a very confident man who knew exactly who he was and what he wanted, and this seeps into his Doctor very naturally. He is a self-assured presence in any room, but retains a rather sweet politeness, especially towards Liz. I'm not sure what happened behind the scenes between Spearhead from Space and this story, but Liz does seem to have softened a little, and her leggy attire suggests new producer Barry Letts perhaps viewed the character quite differently to his predecessor, Derrick Sherwin. I do hope the character won't get watered down too much.

Spearhead from Space Episode 4

The one where the shop window dummies come to life...

There's something I can't get my head around. Why all the shenanigans around the Madame Tussauds Waxworks? It's pretty unlikely that a commercial enterprise like Tussauds would feature an entire tableau of "top civil servants", but I can get over that by rationalising that they have a special exhibition on or something (it still won't do much for visitor numbers, though!).

What I can't fathom is why General Scobie - the real General Scobie - is positioned in the waxworks while his plastic facsimile goes about his business in the outside world. All of the other plastic dummies are just that - plastic facsimiles - so why has Channing chosen to put Scobie on display at Madame Tussauds? And how is he made to stay that still and plasticky, apparently alive but not conscious? Where are all the other "top civil servants" who have had plastic facsimiles made of them? Will they be placed in the waxworks display too?

Spearhead from Space Episode 3

The one where the Auton smashes up Brook Cottage...

The Autons really are bloody terrifying, aren't they? They were never as viscerally effective again as they are in their debut, in their mundane boiler suits and silver boots. In the cliffhanger reprise we discover they have guns secreted inside their wrists, and when Ransome makes a dash for it, the Auton chases him - yes, it runs after him! No lumbering in lukewarm pursuit for these chaps!

By far the best sequence in episode 3 is the Auton attack on the Seeley home, Brook Cottage. Derek Martinus continues to direct like he's auditioning for a Hammer horror film, and it all makes for chilling footage. Betty Bowden is magnificent as the scared but brave Meg Seeley, whose initial discovery of the energy unit in the shed brings the Auton to her door. Martinus makes the connection between the Auton and the energy unit signal by giving us an establishing shot of Brook Cottage, then panning rapidly left to the woods, then crash-zooming in on the emerging Auton as it approaches the dwelling. This is edge-of-the-seat stuff!

Spearhead from Space Episode 2

The one where the Doctor enters the adventure proper...

There's some great film editing at work in Spearhead from Space courtesy of William Simon and Adam Dawson (under the direction of Derek Martinus, obviously). For example, the way the first scene of episode 2 is literally answered by the second, when Corporal Forbes asks "Is he dead, sir?", and then we switch to the hospital ward, where Dr Henderson responds: "No... he's more unconscious than anyone I've ever seen!". There's also the genius use of crash zooms to reveal the Autons in the woods, seen at first from a distance, then in rapid close-up.

The first reveal of an Auton (not yet named on screen) is a classic Doctor Who WTF moment. I mean, what is that thing? A shop window dummy dressed in a boiler suit, scarf and silver boots wading its way through the undergrowth like an escaped convict. Except, it's not quite a shop window dummy, it's like a pressure-moulded plastic face mask, and the fact you can see another layer of lumpen flesh-coloured something beneath (the actor's gauzed face?) just adds to the unheimlich quality of these creatures. Brrrr...

Spearhead from Space Episode 1

The one where Doctor Who goes COLOUR...

Doctor Who had only been gone six months, but the change was seismic. I don't think there has ever been as comprehensive a change for Doctor Who in its 55-year history as that which came in Spearhead from Space. The jolting improvement in picture quality by going from black and white to colour is startling and thrilling; the move from studio-bound videotape to location-heavy film is amazing (although sadly not permanent); and the change in lead actor from a little craggy-faced character actor to a tall, craggy-faced comedy actor was a step into brave new territory.

Then there's the stunning new opening titles which assault the eyes with a flood of kaleidoscopic colour - the swirling, fizzing, spinning graphics melt from vivid red to icy blue to verdant green in quick succession, and although very few viewers in 1970 would have actually seen all this in colour (in 1970, there were 15.6 million black and white TV licences issued, compared to just 273,000 colour licences), the impact is certainly not lost almost 50 years later. I amuse myself that in the green swirl I always see a subliminal outline of Darth Vader's helmet!

Doctor Who Decades: The 1960s

Every time Doctor Who reaches the end of a decade, it seems to be an automatic point of change and renewal for the series. Here's the first in a series of blogs looking back over a decade of Doctor Who, starting with...

1960s

It all started out as a mild curiosity in the junkyard, and it turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure!

When I embarked upon what is probably a most inadvisable odyssey to watch and review every single episode of TV Doctor Who for the Time Space Visualiser blog, I knew it would be a hefty task, and quite some commitment. My very first review - for An Unearthly Child - appeared on March 1st, 2017, at a time in my life when I needed some focus, something to occupy me, before the next big phase of my life came along. I was between eras!

I knew the reviews would take a long time to get through - years of my life - and I still have no idea whether I'll ever get to the end or not. But I'll persevere, I'll keep on watching and writing until something gives out, whether it's my patience, my sanity, or my health! But one thing is for sure, so far I've enjoyed every single moment of writing the blog. Why? Because Doctor Who is so much fun, that's why. I've never understood why every single person on the planet isn't a Doctor Who fan because it's got all the right ingredients to make life better. It gladdens, it cheers, it amuses, it impresses, it inspires and it shines. And it tries so very hard, all the time.

The War Games Episode Ten

The one where the Doctor is put on trial and exiled to Earth (with a new face)...

And so here we are, the last episode of the last Doctor Who story of the 1960s. The last Patrick Troughton episode, the last black and white episode, the last time we'll see a Quark! But the Second Doctor isn't going to give all these things up to the impending decade without a fight, and it's wonderful to share his determination to outrun the Time Lords, however fruitless it may be.

David Maloney directs this episode so well, from the beautiful dematerialisation of the TARDIS shot from low down, to the shots of the trial room from up above. He adds both grandeur and heart to the piece whenever it's needed. In the hands of a more workmanlike director, The War Games could never have been as successful.

The War Games Episode Nine

The one where the Doctor calls in the Time Lords...

I love how Patrick Troughton and Edward Brayshaw bounce off one another in their scenes together. The early scene where the Doctor asks how the War Chief has managed to overcome the limited lifespan of the SIDRAT machines is magical, with a twinkle in both actors' eyes as their characters continually try to wrest the upper hand. In fact, director David Maloney cast some of Doctor Who's very best guest players for the bigger character roles here, along with Philip Madoc and James Bree. It's one of Doctor Who's best guest casts ever.

As we rush headlong toward the long-awaited grand finale of not only this story, but also this season and this Doctor, there are plenty of twists left in writers Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke's armoury. The ongoing feud between the War Chief and the Security Chief comes to a juicy head when we discover that the latter has been bugging the former's conversations with the Doctor in order to capture evidence against him.

The War Games Episode Eight

The one where the Doctor seems to have betrayed his friends...

I don't know what material the alien guards' gimp suit costumes are made of, but they must be impregnable to bullets. In the cliffhanger reprise the guards seem impervious to the rebels' gunfire just feet away, and a little later, when the guards return to have another go, the rebel machine gun does no harm whatsoever.

The return raid makes me chuckle actually, because it just seems so silly! The SIDRAT arrives, a guard comes out, gets shot at by a machine gun but miraculously survives, and his Plan B is to poke his ray gun out of the SIDRAT door and zap the gunmen! And the crazy thing is, it works, although the two supporting actors need to brush up on their "reacting to being shot at" skills (especially the one on the right, who looks like he's sleepwalking through his scenes).

The War Games Episode Seven

The one where the War Lord arrives to take control...

Early in this episode - Doctor Who's 250th, no less - the War Chief refers to the travel capsules as SIDRATs ("side-rats"), and I think it's the only time this word is mentioned. SIDRATs were mentioned in scripts and stage directions throughout the story, but never in dialogue until now, but it does mean that the SIDRATs are undoubtedly of the same technology as the TARDIS (hence the semordnilap). What the SIDRAT acronym stands for is never confirmed in the story, but Malcolm Hulke's novelisation claims it stands for Space and Inter-Time Dimensional Robot All-purpose Transport (I wonder how long it took him to wangle that one?).

This makes a link between the Time Lords and the Doctor, as the War Chief is known to be a Time Lord, and it is the technology of his people which has constructed the SIDRATs/ TARDIS. It still doesn't conclusively prove that the Doctor is a Time Lord, because he could quite easily have stolen it from them, but seeing as we already know that he is a renegade from his own people, it's easy to connect the dots. We'll ignore anything that says the Doctor and/ or Susan built the TARDIS themselves, and stick to the evidence of our own eyes, as seen in The Name of the Doctor!

The War Games Episode Six

The one where the Time Lords are first mentioned...

The battle of wits between the War Chief and the Security Chief continues in this episode, in which we see that the Security Chief - who talks as if he's permanently constipated - colludes with the scientist to help him prove that his arch enemy is up to no good. The Security Chief does not trust the War Chief and believes he has brought the Doctor to the war planet as they are of the same race. This fact has only been heavily implied so far, so when the Time Lords are mentioned for the first time ever (2 mins 26 secs into the episode - see screencap below), it's easy to assume that we now know the name of the Doctor's people.

But not necessarily, because the scientist is naming the War Chief's people, and we do not know for sure that the Doctor and the War Chief are of the same race. It's assumed to be the case by the aliens because they both have knowledge of space/ time travel - and we already know that they recognise each other - but that in itself does not make them both Time Lords. So we continue to wait for the confirmation that the Doctor is a Time Lord...

The War Games Episode Five

The one where we meet the Security Chief...

We're halfway through this ten-part epic and only now do I detect a faltering in the pace as this episode feels a bit padded, although we still learn plenty from it. For instance, it's nice to know that the travel capsules are green!

As with the last episode, the most interesting developments take place in the alien control centre, and all of the material in the American Civil War zone is surplus to requirements. There's a particularly unnecessary and overlong sequence where Harper and Spencer have a brawl, and it's choreographed in that very rehearsed way that makes it look more like a piece of performance art than a genuine fight (even some of the supporting actors can't help smirking!). By the end of the episode, Jamie, Russell and the two smirking extras climb aboard the travel capsule to make way for the alien base, leaving poor Lady Jennifer behind to tend to hundreds of injured soldiers! Sadly, this is the last we'll see of Lady Jennifer Buckingham, which is a real shame as it would have been nice for her to make it to the alien base and be reunited with Carstairs, who she obviously has a thing for.

The War Games Episode Four

The one where the Doctor and Zoe infiltrate the alien control centre...

The alien travel capsules are TARDISes in all but name, so I wonder why designer Roger Cheveley chose to not have the interior like the Doctor's Ship? After all, the Meddling Monk's TARDIS was very similar to the Doctor's, and even the Dalek time machine reflected the architectural footprint of the Doctor's Ship. These capsules are obviously something slightly different, which we can tell by the rather flimsy interior design! Quite how the Doctor and Zoe are expected to hide from a passing garrison of Roman soldiers by hiding behind a see-through plastic shower curtain is baffling!

I love the weird controls these alien people have though, they're like little fridge magnets which are moved about into different formations to complete certain tasks/ circuits. We can all pretend to do that at home!

The War Games Episode Three

The one where we discover there are many time zones...

The Romans are coming! What's the best thing to do? Jump in this ridiculously slow ambulance and reverse (slowly) back into the war-torn 1917 zone, that's what! While it does appear to be the best of a poor bunch of options, it does afford us the glorious sight of seeing a Roman soldier extra stand open-mouthed, his gob well and truly smacked, as the ambulance disappears into nowhere while the episode caption fades up. Whoever that extra was deserves a Roman medal for giving that elusive 110%!

Actually, the gobsmacked Roman soldier kind of sums up how a first-time viewer might feel during, and after, watching this stunning episode, because it's packed full of cleverly placed mini-WTF moments. Remember, this is the programme that has recently churned out pretty standard (and sometimes sub-standard) cod teatime sci-fi like the woeful The Dominators and The Krotons, and the frustratingly dull runaround The Space Pirates. Suddenly, Doctor Who gives us The War Games, which is like a beautifully sculpted Russian doll - every time something is revealed, there's more intrigue just around the corner to reel you in.

The War Games Episode Two

The one where the Doctor impersonates a War Office examiner...

Ooh, clever! I might have my issues with the strength of the episode 1 cliffhanger, but fair's fair, writers Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke resolve it perfectly well without rewriting what we've already witnessed. Yes, a shot is fired, but the Doctor's face creases in anticipatory agony, because the bullet actually came from a rogue sniper in a nearby building, aiming at the firing squad! Who this man is remains a mystery right through to the end of the episode, but judging from the way he is dressed, he's not local...

Seeing the Doctor tied up before a firing squad, and then being hastily untied and scarpering with his companion, reminds me heavily of the same thing happening in The Curse of Fenric, and if I cast my mind back to my 13-year-old self watching that scene in 1989, I remember being quite nervous for the Doctor then too. Maybe I've got a thing about my heroes facing firing squads? Then again, who doesn't...?

The War Games Episode One

The one where the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are court martialed...

I'll be totally transparent from the off: The War Games is my joint favourite Doctor Who story of all time, so reviewing it for this blog is something of a poisoned chalice. I intend to stay as open-minded and impartial as possible because being a Doctor Who fan can sometimes mean watching things with rose-tinted spectacles. I'm going to leave the specs off and judge this epic ten-parter as I find it critically. And I cannot wait...!

The overwhelming feeling I have after watching the first episode is how unrelentingly grim it all is. After a lovely, inventive shot of the TARDIS materialising reflected in a puddle, David Maloney's direction starts full-pelt and barely lets up, and in the first four minutes alone we witness a barrage of bombs, acres of mud, an abduction, and the rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire. It's not long before our heroes find themselves holed up in a World War One trench close to enemy lines, apparently not far from Ypres. Writers Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke certainly get the story started with a literal bang!

The Space Pirates Episode Six

The one where Caven gets his comeuppance...

Madeleine's continued attempt to get Dervish to turn on his boss and help her get her father back falls on deaf ears. Dervish's allegiance is very strongly to Caven, despite his conscience, and it would be great to see the scenes between Lisa Daniely and Brian Peck because they're performed so well.

Most of this final episode concerns the Doctor's attempts to rescue the LIZ-79 from Caven's booby-trap (which he does) and then his race against time to defuse Caven's remote-controlled explosive device in Ta's atomic fuel store. The trouble is, the scene where the Doctor, in protective suit, tries to do this is so interminably long and drawn out that, as we're unable to see it, the pace is slowed right down to a crawl.

The Space Pirates Episode Five

The one where we learn Dom Issigri has been alive all along...

Now this is more like it! The huge leap in the quality of story-telling between episodes 4 and 5 is considerable, as the plot finally kicks in and the TARDIS crew finally gets (very slightly) involved! I mean, it's still pretty lightweight, but there are a good few revelations and twists that crank up the interest and turn what has been a poor runaround so far, into a mildly intriguing thriller.

As suggested last week, it seems Madeleine Issigri has been in cahoots with Caven all along, but as we learn more about her working relationship with the pirate, we realise that things have gotten rather out of hand for her liking. She first got involved with Caven to orchestrate a salvage operation, but his plans have expanded somewhat to include piracy, and now murder (or "deliberate murder" as Madeleine rather puzzlingly puts it).

The Space Pirates Episode Four

The one where we learn what's in the Doctor's pockets...

I'm finding it really difficult to come up with anything worth saying about The Space Pirates. My viewing/ listening notes are a third of what they would normally be because there's simply nothing to say! I know that worthier fans such as Jonathan Morris and Gary Gillatt have probably written perfectly intelligent and well-considered essays about The Space Pirates, but I have to admit that it's so uninspiring a serial that I'm struggling! I suppose that in itself is a critique...

It's also really hard to make out what's going on and what people are saying at times as the audio recording (made by an unidentified fan on its Australian broadcast) is very tinny, despite being restored as best it can be. But to be honest, even when you do know what's going on, it's very often not very much!

The Space Pirates Episode Three

The one where the Doctor's party teams up with Milo Clancey...

Not very much happens in this episode. Basically, the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie hitch a ride with Milo Clancey in an effort to track down the TARDIS, and that's about it. Other people have scenes and things to say, but as far as advancing the plot goes (what plot there is), it's severely lacking in incident.

I find Season 6 so frustrating. It's probably the weakest Troughton run, but it's also the one that we can see most of (seven of the 44 episodes are missing, compared to Season 5's 18 of 40 and Season 4's 33 of 43), which makes it disproportionately representative of the era. Season 5 is far more typical of what the Troughton era was like, and by this last run of stories, it feels like it's running on empty. There's an air of desperation about certain stories (The Dominators, The Krotons), and while there are pockets of inspiration (The Mind Robber), on the whole, the season just feels a bit of a mess. The quality definitely dropped, and Patrick Troughton in particular seems less engaged and happier to breeze through things just to get to the end of the episode. Season 6 is not definitive or typical Troughton, and The Space Pirates is probably the nadir.

The Space Pirates Episode Two

The one where we meet Milo Clancey, the ageing space prospector...

Oh my goodness, it's Tom Baker! It's remarkable just how uncannily like the Fourth Doctor Donald Gee (Major Warne) looked around this time, it's as if they were twin brothers! Gee would appear in Doctor Who again, in 1974's The Monster of Peladon, by which point he looked even more like Tom.

The modelwork just after the episode and credit titles shows the V41-LO gliding through space in a shot remarkably akin to what George Lucas would do in Star Wars eight years later, and actually, all of the modelwork seen in this story is so good that, had visual effects designer John Wood had as much time as Lucas's team to make the ships more detailed, it might have looked just as good as that big screen behemoth.

The Space Pirates Episode One

The one where the TARDIS crew arrives on a soon-to-explode space beacon...

The blurb on the back of the BBC Radio Collection soundtrack CD of this story states that this six-part adventure is "brimming with visions of space travel in the 21st century", and that's kind of the problem, isn't it? Visions, things you should be able to see. Because The Space Pirates was, by all accounts, a feast for the eyes, with stacks of modelwork of various spaceships in flight, as well as scenes of spacewalking and laser battles. It was a proper intergalactic adventure.

So the fact we can't see it - because the BBC decided to wipe the master tapes a mere three months after episode 6 had aired - makes it really hard to enjoy or appreciate the serial in the way intended. And so The Space Pirates is very often overlooked, underappreciated or forgotten by fans, simply because it just does not work on audio alone. Yes, we have episode 2 to give us some clue as to what people and things looked like, but there's so much still missing from our understanding of the story, due to there being no telesnaps, and very few photographs taken at the time (we don't know what Dom Issigri looked like for instance, or his headquarters).

The Seeds of Death Episode Six

The one where the Doctor confronts Ice Lord Slaar...

The ubiquitous use of the BBC foam machine in the Troughton era really reached its zenith in this episode, having been used to perhaps its advisable limit in Fury from the Deep. Here, the foam loses all sense of threat as a deadly alien fungus and simply becomes a giant playground for Patrick Troughton to play in. It's all very silly and drawn out (parts of the reprise are still being shown three minutes in!), and forms part of a greater atmosphere of slapstick  in this episode's opening minutes.

The acres of foam aside, Troughton resorts to gurning, oohing and aahing, and generally fooling around in a misplaced attempt to sell the jeopardy, while inside the weather control bureau, Frazer Hines is embroiled in a Benny Hill-style runaround playing peekaboo with an Ice Warrior, and Wendy Padbury is sliding around the corridors in an endless sprint for the front door. By the time Zoe opens the door and the foam floods into the bureau, the Doctor with it, Padbury has already succumbed to the silliness of it all and is clearly seen laughing her head off!

The Seeds of Death Episode Five

The one where Fewsham finally does something selfless...

Terry Scully really doesn't get enough recognition for his performance as Fewsham. Scully's face has a natural look of exhaustion, resignation and defeat - which means he is well cast for this part - but he also manages to say so much about his character's state of mind without speaking a word. Fewsham is finally spurred into action here, leaping rather ineffectually on the Ice Warrior in order to save Zoe, and he's thrown to the floor for his efforts. After four episodes of cowardice and complicity in order to preserve his own skin, he finally thinks and acts for somebody else.

It's hardly the actions of a hero though, and Fewsham remains one of the most complex characters in 1960s Who simply because he is a coward, and he does terrible things against the good of his own planet and people simply to survive. I mentioned my theory about Fewsham in episode 1 - that there's something going on in his head before the story even begins - and I'm even more convinced of that now. Fewsham is seen as a weak link by his colleagues (Gia Kelly thinks very little of him), and I really don't think he believes very much in himself either. He is a tragic figure from the start.

The Seeds of Death Episode Four

The one where Slaar's deadly plan starts to take shape...

Patrick Troughton was on holiday during the recording of this episode, and so supporting player Tommy Laird doubles up for the unconscious Doctor throughout. There's a moment where Fewsham rolls the prone Doctor over to transport him to a T-Mat booth and we get a brief but clear view of Laird's very unTroughton-like face, but then nobody ever doubled for Troughton very satisfactorily, whether it was Chris Jeffries (The Dominators), Gerry Grant (Sky Ray ice lolly advert) or Reece Shearsmith (An Adventure in Space and Time)!

To be honest, the Doctor isn't really missed, particularly as he has had zero impact on the plot thus far anyway. While he lies unconscious, Slaar's invasion plan takes effect as the Ice Warriors T-Mat their deadly seed pods to every major city in the northern hemisphere, which in turn explode and deprive the humans around them of oxygen. It's a shame we don't see any humans succumbing to the exploding pods on location, as that would ramp up the danger tenfold. Instead, all we get is a rapidly expanding sea of white foam on Hampstead Heath, harming no one.