Planet of Evil Part Four

The one where Sorenson goes full-on Mr Hyde...

Just look at the way director David Maloney and lighting guy Brian Clemett handle the death of Reig: it's stunning! Some of the directorial and lighting choices made by the production team in Planet of Evil - indeed, in many of the stories of this era - are just as ambitious, creative and ultimately effective as those made by Hollywood. Maloney's camera looks down from up high, giving size and scale to the unseen monster that bears down on Reig. And the use of that huge, monstrous shadow looming over the cowering Melvyn Bedford adds to the brutality of Reig's demise.

At long last, Vishinsky wrests command from the annoying Salamar, who doesn't give up too much of a fight at all. When Vishinsky declares: "I'm taking command!", Salamar just accepts the coup immediately, says something about Vishinsky regretting it, and slumps obediently into second position. It's another example of why Salamar should never have been in control in the first place: he doesn't even put up a fight for his job!

Planet of Evil Part Three

The one where Sorenson goes all Jekyll and Hyde...

Every time I watch Planet of Evil, I see it. I've never seen or heard of anybody else having seen what I always see. It's like a ghost hidden in the machine, a creature trapped in the master tapes. It's there - and to me it's as plain as day - in the cliffhanger to part 2 and the reprise in part 3. It's in the shot where the Morestrans and Sarah are watching the Doctor fall into the abyss via the oculoid tracker. They're watching the Doctor, but all I see is a strange, unsettling alien face looking back at them, as if trapped in the reflection. It's like something from The Outer Limits, or reminiscent of Marvel's Green Goblin or 2000AD's Mighty Tharg. Has anybody else ever seen it?

It's tricky to capture it clearly with a freeze-frame screengrab, but it's there: an eerie pointy-headed, long-faced creature (perhaps wearing a hat?) leering out of the screen. Am I going crazy? Am I seeing things nobody else can? If you see it, please leave a comment and let me know I'm not going totally bonkers.

Planet of Evil Part Two

The one where the planet refuses to let go of its minerals...

I love it when a minor player gets the chance to be noticed, and I particularly love it when that chance takes the form of a tremendously well-milked death scene. O'Hara is killed early in this episode by the anti-matter monster, and actor Haydn Wood takes the opportunity full-throttle and executes a delightfully melodramatic death, very different and much more energetic than those of his predecessors. And as with the death of Baldwin in part 1, evidence of the mechanics behind the scene are evident, when we see that the jungle floor is richly carpeted for him to fall on!

And still that jungle remains the star of this particular show. It can't be over-emphasised just how beautiful Roger Murray-Leach's set is, how rich, detailed and textured it all is. Carpeting aside, it's a faultless creation, and coupled with Brian Clemett's intelligent lighting, it makes for a totally convincing environment (in fact, Clemett's lighting is among some of the very best I've seen in the classic series). And Peter Howell's special sound when the creature passes by - a kind of glassy, tinkling, chattering effect - only adds to the creep factor.

Planet of Evil Part One

The one where the Doctor and Sarah are accused of murder... again!

The opening five minutes of Planet of Evil are highly reminiscent of Planet of the Daleks, what with its dense alien jungle and a spaceship with MFI door handles. We discover straight away that the year is the mind-boggling 37,166, and that several people have died, as Braun places a grave marker for the latest in a line of deceased, called Egard Lumb (what a wonderfully weird name!).

We join interplanetary geologists Baldwin and Professor Sorenson as they apparently refine crystals found on the ground into another, presumably more useful, substance. Sorenson is pleased with his discovery of some kind of seam, but Baldwin is anxious that there's not long left 'til nightfall, and is keen to get back to base. In true horror film style, bad things must happen at night here. But Sorenson seems unconcerned, more focused on the fact he's found a rich seam which may not be there tomorrow because, he thinks, the planet is sentient. It moves, it knows, it watches. Spooky!

Terror of the Zygons Part Four

The one where the Loch Ness Monster swims up the Thames...

The Duke of Forgill is apparently Chieftain of the Antlers Association, which is not some sort of Masonic-style secret membership club for noblemen of the Scottish Highlands as you might expect, but actually a private bar in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (it's true, Google it!). The Duke is a man of many facets, obviously. Sarah's research also unearths the fact the Duke is trustee of the Golden Haggis Lucky Dip (whatever that is) and president of the Scottish Energy Commission. It's worth knowing, that is...

The Zygon ship makes its merry way down south, headed for London where the monsters can create havoc and thus take over the world (somehow). The Zygons use a jamming device to switch off every piece of radar equipment in the UK so that their ship can pass unnoticed as it flies from Scotland to Brentford. The Zygons are very keen on not being seen, whether it's their spaceship or the Skarasen crossing Tullock Moor (I still don't understand why the Skarasen needed to cross the moor for all those centuries).

Terror of the Zygons Part Three

The one where UNIT goes Zygon-hunting...

OK, so despite me lavishing praise on the Skarasen's realisation in episode 2, it does actually look rather silly in this third episode. Its eyes swivel rather randomly, and when it looms over the Doctor with its giant flipper, it looks nothing other than comical.

The Skarasen is apparently a cyborg, a hybrid of half-animal and half-machine (which bit produces the lactic fluid, I wonder?). The word cyborg was coined in 1960 by scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline, but the idea of a half-mammal, half-machine creature stems back as far as the 19th century, in Edgar Allan Poe's The Man That Was Used Up (1843), and really took off in science-fiction literature in works such as Jean de La Hire's Nyctalope and the works of Edmond Hamilton. But the word itself was very fresh by 1975, so all credit to Robert Banks Stewart for having his finger on the pulse.

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.

The Ark in Space Part Four

The one where Noah saves the day...

The Wirrn costumes are a triumph of design over practicality. They look splendid, they have some nice texture and a great silhouette; they really are very memorable Doctor Who monsters. But they look nothing more than a rubber monster suit, thanks to a lack of flexibility. Whenever you see them move, the first thing that comes to mind is how they're walking. In reality, they'd scamper along on their many legs, but as far as we can ascertain (because director Rodney Bennett never shows us!) they're hobbling along on the end of their abdomens. One behind-the-scenes photo on set shows operator Stuart Fell's little legs sticking out of the bottom!

Mutant Noah takes time to explain the Wirrn's modus operandi, revealing that this is all the humans' fault to start with. Mankind destroyed the Wirrn's breeding colonies on Andromeda, making the creatures homeless, so now they are wandering through space looking for new territories to colonise and breed from. And what better place than a space station crammed full of defenceless human bodies? This is about revenge, as well as the survival of both species.

The Ark in Space Part Three

The one where the Wirrn attack...

Events are interrupted by a doom-laden female voice claiming to be the Earth High Minister. It's great that writer Robert Holmes makes the boss of Earth a woman, because, you know, this is the future and all, when attitudes have changed. Disappointingly, Harry Sullivan lets the side down with his sexist surprise that a member of the fair sex is "top of the totem pole". Gladys Spencer's High Minister actually chose to record a pretty melodramatic speech, and when she signs off her "pre-match pep talk" with "God speed you to a safe landing", it tells us that mankind still has religion in the far-flung future.

Meanwhile, poor old Noah is struggling to fight against being totally absorbed by the Wirrn consciousness, and Kenton Moore does a grand job of portraying the turmoil and the inner conflict going on inside him. It could quite easily have been a very silly scene, with Noah fighting against his own bubble wrapped hand, but he manages to play it convincingly, and you do actually start to feel for this poor, conflicted victim.

The Ark in Space Part Two

The one where the hibernating humans come to life...

Yay, the blue titles are back! It must've been Harry fiddling with the helmic regulator last week.

So the terrifying insectoid monster lurching toward the camera at the end of last week's episode is actually a mummified insectoid monster locked in a cupboard (Who by? How did it get in there? Did it open the door itself?). There are lots of Doctor Who cliffhangers with curveball resolutions, but this one is up there with the weirdest!

The dead bug on the floor doesn't occupy our heroes for long though because Sarah Jane is still in suspended animation, so it's fortuitous that one of the sleeping crewmembers suddenly decides to wake up. Vira's revivification looks terribly painful, and it's interesting that the first sensation anybody feels when coming out of suspension is searing pain (welcome to the real world!). Wendy Williams is elegantly beautiful, and puts in a marvellously removed performance as a human from the very far future who, quite naturally, would be very different in manner and outlook to "dawn-timers" like Harry. The way she glides across the floor like she's on a Paris catwalk, her head high and proud, is lovely (and I love how the little yellow trolley glides effortlessly alongside her too. She has a way with castors).

The Ark in Space Part One

The one where Harry loses his shoes and the Doctor burns his scarf...

What's going on with the funny opening titles this week? They're all brown and green and metallic. I thought someone had fiddled with the colour settings on my TV for a while. It's not that I dislike variations in the opening titles (which will be a boon when I reach the Matt Smith era!), but this sludgy, coppery version isn't as good as the Robot one.

The episode opens with a shot of a wheel in space (oh no, not a sequel!), and someone - or something - approaching a sleeping man within. The sequence means next to nothing to me at this point, but it's suitably intriguing, and as it leads into a shot of the TARDIS materialising in the darkness, it sets the episode up with a spooky start.

Robot Part Four

The one where the robot grows to giant size...

Professor Kettlewell may be a genius, but he's also tremendously naive to think that he'll be able to persuade the world to look after the environment better by ganging up with a bunch of fascists with their finger on the atomic trigger. When he discovers that Hilda Winters is deadly serious about exploding the nuclear bombs if the world fails to heed her wishes, he realises the folly of his ways. Despite this, he still agrees to activate the nuclear countdown, which just makes him stupid rather than misguided.

Once the countdown has begun, only then does Miss Winters think to check they've got enough food and water to last nuclear Armageddon. Although the Scientific Reform Society seems to have the world's governments over a barrel, they haven't really thought things through very carefully, have they?

Robot Part Three

The one where Professor Kettlewell reveals his true colours...

After a lengthy reprise lasting 2 mins 20 secs, the giant robot breaks out onto location to fight back against Benton's UNIT troops, and it looks mighty impressive too. Despite the fact visibility must have been next to zero for actor Michael Kilgarriff, he manages to strike an imposing figure as the robot smashes its way (tentatively) out of Kettlewell's lab. So what if he stumbles a little at one point, the robot is a design triumph and looks just as awesome on film as it does video.

Kettlewell mentions that the robot is made of a new invention, something he calls "living metal", which can grow like a living organism. So basically the professor has invented validium, the living metal created by Rassilon and Omega as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, all by himself. What a genius he must be!

Robot Part Two

The one where both Sarah and the Doctor are threatened by the giant robot...

I love how Tom Baker inhabits an awkward presence in any scene, but still manages to command it. Just look at our first shot of him, lying on his back on a bench with his hat covering his face. It's unconventional to say the least (I'd love to know whether the Doctor's positions are dictated in the stage directions, but I'd wager they're all Baker's ideas), but gives this new Doctor an instant quirkiness, an unpredictable presence which means you're never sure what he's going to say or do (for instance, he's randomly building a tower of circuit boards at one point!). And this feeling pretty much stays with him for his entire tenure, perhaps only receding in his final season.

We finally get to see the K1 robot full-length when Miss Winters shows him off to a rather rattled Sarah, and what an impressive design it is too! It's huge! The actor inside is Michael Kilgarriff, who was 6ft 5in in his stockinged feet, and although the nature of the robot's design makes movement a little clunky, Kilgarriff makes for an awesome presence, especially when director Christopher Barry emphasises the robot's size in comparison to the human cast.

Robot Part One

The one where the Doctor dresses as David Bowie...

It might have been three days after Christmas, but the biggest gift to children in 1974 was seeing the debut of the new Doctor Who in the tersely titled Robot. It only struck me on this occasion that it seems odd that we first see the new Doctor's outfit (on screen) in the opening titles, rather than in the show itself. With the Third Doctor you just saw a white collar, but with Robot you get full-on scarf round the shoulders of a maroon jacket.

It's been said before, but Tom Baker is the Doctor from the very moment he sits up and starts talking about placid dinosaurs and spinning rodents. If ever there was somebody born to play Doctor Who, this man is he. But taking a step back from the tricksy over-familiarity we all have with him in the part, I wouldn't be surprised if it took a little longer for younger viewers to warm to the new Who at the time. He's utterly bonkers, unpredictable, and at times even a little abrasive, and nothing at all like the dependable uncle figure of his predecessor.

Planet of the Spiders Part Six

The one where the Doctor faces his fear, and loses his face...

So this is it, the end of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor era. And although Planet of the Spiders hasn't been the swansong I wanted for him, it's nice that, at the end, Pertwee was surrounded by a good many familiar faces, whether it be Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney, John Levene and Richard Franklin on screen, or Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks and Robert Sloman off it. And let's not forget that almost everybody else involved in Planet of the Spiders has had a hand in one of Pertwee's stories beforehand: Cyril Shaps (The Ambassadors of Death), John Dearth (The Green Death), Christopher Burgess (Terror of the Autons), Terence Lodge (Carnival of Monsters), Andrew Staines (Terror of the Autons and Carnival of Monsters), Kevin Lindsay (The Time Warrior), Pat Gorman (several), Terry Walsh (several), Stuart Fell (The Curse/ Monster of Peladon), Ysanne Churchman (The Curse/ Monster of Peladon), Walter Randall (Inferno), Max Faulkner (several) and George Cormack (The Time Monster). And let's not forget Kismet Delgado, Roger's widow, and Maureen Morris, wife of production manager George Gallaccio.

It was a veritable reunion for Pertwee, a familiar environment in which to say goodbye. But first, the viewers must say goodbye too...

Planet of the Spiders Part Five

The one where the giant spiders begin their invasion of Earth...

There's unrest among the giant spiders of Metebelis III. It's quite frustrating that the spiders don't have individual names because it's hard to identify them when writing about them here! Lupton's spider harbours treasonous thoughts of staging a coup to depose the queen spider, but what's interesting is that there's another arachnid which is even higher than the queen, some kind of deity figure called the Great One. The queen spider agrees to go and speak with the Great One to seek advice, and it's key that we don't actually see this scene, as the next time we see the queen, she is conspiring with Sarah Jane Smith.

The queen tells Sarah that all she wants is peace with the people of Earth, and her crystal back. Suddenly, the queen is a pacifist democrat who is open to the idea of abolishing slavery, but she's only been that way since visiting the Great One. I'm sorry, but I don't believe a word of the queen's supposed capitulations, and Sarah would be more wary than she is too.

Planet of the Spiders Part Four

The one where Sarah becomes food in the spiders' larder...

I'm going to get it out of the way early: Tuar and Arak make for a fine pair of brothers, don't they? Ralph Arliss and Gareth Hunt are well cast by director Barry Letts as they are convincing as siblings, and both are handsome young men with fine facial hair. Arliss would go on to be just as impressive in 1979's Quatermass IV, while Hunt would soon find greater fame as Gambit in The New Avengers. I've always found it rather sobering to see actors I admire in this way captured forever in their prime in TV and film, and then think of what the passage of time has done to them (and us all). Doctor Who fans live in the past, poring over old episodes and analysing them, picking them apart (rather like me and this blog!). To us, these people - these characters and actors - are still as they were back then. Ralph Arliss will forever be a handsome 27-year-old, and Gareth Hunt will forever be thought of as action man Gambit, or shaking those Nescafe coffee beans in his hand in those 1980s adverts. So when the inevitability of time catches up with them - as it did Hunt in 2007 - Doctor Who fans feel the loss that little bit more, and mourn appropriately.

Gareth Hunt may be gone, and Ralph Arliss may be in his 70s now, but for Doctor Who fans, Tuar and Arak will never die.

Planet of the Spiders Part Three

The one where Sarah is transported to Metebelis III...

Tommy has been lurking around the corridors of the meditation centre throughout the story so far with nothing in particular to do. He seems to live under the stairs, collect shiny things and displays the mental age of someone much younger than his physical self. I guess he must be at the meditation centre to try and develop his mental capacity in some way. John Kane does a great job of making Tommy - a quite formidable physical presence - a gentle, sympathetic, sweet soul, although it's hard not to compare his demeanour, speech pattern and love of "pretties" with Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.

What I like about this third episode is the focus on characters such as Tommy, and most particularly on Lupton, who's given a back-story and a reason for being at the meditation centre which is both tragic and slightly unnerving. Lupton was a "bright young salesman, Salesman of the Year, sales manager, sales director". Then the money men came in, and after 25 years of loyal service, a takeover and merger meant Lupton got a golden handshake. And when Lupton tried to set up business on his own, his former employers "deliberately, cold-bloodedly broke me. I'm still looking for some of the bits..."

Planet of the Spiders Part Two

The one where the Doctor chases a man over land, air and sea...

Times really have changed, haven't they? These days, when it comes to a Doctor's last ever story, all the stops are pulled out to make it as memorable, emotional and headline-grabbingly special as possible (well, usually - that doesn't really apply to The Time of the Doctor). It's a big, important thing that the writer does not want to mess up. But with the classic series, Doctors' last adventures were a little hit-and-miss, and certainly not as heralded and well-sculpted as they would become.

And as a Doctor's final adventure, Planet of the Spiders has so far failed to impress on almost every level. Two episodes in - that's a third of the entire story - and nothing seems to be happening with any narrative urgency. The first half of part 2 bumbles along trying not to be noticed, while the second half goes all out to be as action-packed, but as mind-numbingly dull, as possible. As a whole, it's a mess.

Planet of the Spiders Part One

The one where the Doctor gets a present from South America...

The first few minutes of this episode consist of a series of quick cuts between different scenarios featuring Mike Yates and the Doctor, and don't appear to be related at all. In fact, the entire episode runs along on parallel storylines which don't have anything to do with each other until the very end, which is a clever little touch.

By far the least engaging storyline involves the Doctor, who goes to see a variety show at the theatre with the Brigadier. There's a lame comedian, then a belly-dancer who certainly grabs the Brig's attention, followed by one particular act that the Doctor is most keen to see - Professor Clegg's demonstration of extra-sensory perception.

The Monster of Peladon Part Six

The one where the Doctor uses Aggedor to save the day...

The monster of Peladon doesn't really feature very much in The Monster of Peladon, does it? I mean, if you take the monster to mean Aggedor, the real Aggedor only appears in two brief scenes in the entire story, while its "spirit" isn't Aggedor at all, but a statue. Of course, the real monster of Peladon was probably Ettis, seeing as he was much more bloodthirsty and crazed than Aggedor ever was.

The Doctor uses Eckersley's matter projector to project an image of Aggedor outside of the refinery so that the heat ray can destroy the encroaching Ice Warriors. Amusingly, as soon as he sees his two pals disintegrated by the heat ray, Sskel scarpers like a frightened rabbit!

The Monster of Peladon Part Five

The one where Eckersley is revealed as a traitor...

After the walloping Ettis gives the Doctor you'd expect him to have a few cuts and bruises, but the Time Lord comes out of it all remarkably well, just a bit shaken and dishevelled (I hate to see that lovely green combo dishevelled!). Sarah, watching from the comms room on a monitor, believes the Doctor to be dead, leading to Azaxyr's prescient line: "The death of the Doctor was an unfortunate necessity." Well, it wouldn't be shown for another 36 years yet, but Death of the Doctor wasn't that bad at all, Azaxyr...!

It's interesting that Sarah's first thought isn't for herself and how she is now stranded on Peladon without the Doctor or a means to operate the TARDIS. She mourns her friend, telling Thalira that "he was the most alive person I ever met". Just you wait until the next story, Sarah. Then you'll get a shock!

The Monster of Peladon Part Four

The one where the Ice Warriors declare martial law over Peladon...

It's so good to see the Ice Warriors back on the scene. This story has been terribly humdrum so far, and what it really needs is an injection of something Martian-shaped, and what better way to fill that hole by getting Alan Bennion, Sonny Caldinez and his cronies back? Last time writer Brian Hayles took us by surprise by having the Ice Warriors as good guys. This time the Martians arrive as a security detail sent by the Federation to sort out the in-fighting and get the miners back to work. Or so it seems at first...

Bennion has such a good voice and gives Commander Azaxyr as much scheming presence as his predecessors, Izlyr and Slaar. Azaxyr succeeds in summarising the situation perfectly, establishing that everybody's point of view seems to be opposed by another's: "You say that the miners have rebelled against their proper rulers. But Gebek here says that the nobles have cheated them of their rights. You say that the Doctor here is a spy and a saboteur. But the ambassador says that he is an old and valued friend. You say that your god appears to you because he is angry, but the Doctor here is sure that the appearances are caused by trickery." As the Doctor says: "An excellent summing-up."

The Monster of Peladon Part Three

The one where Sarah introduces Women's Lib to Peladon...

The part two cliffhanger involving the ferocious flesh-and-blood Aggedor is neatly wrapped up by an encore of Kokleda Partha Menin Klatch from the Doctor, who "lightly hypnotises" the creature with his TARDIS key. Aggedor is then not seen again for the rest of the episode, so that was all a waste of time wasn't it?

The Doctor and Sarah then go to have a chat with Queen Thalira (who, at her shrillest, sounds remarkably like Alpha Centauri), quaffing from cups made of horns and eating some mysterious green lumps. And is that the price tag I can see on the bottom of Sarah's cup? Astutely, the Doctor leaves Sarah in Thalira's company, presumably because he knows she might teach the Queen a thing or two about emancipation.

The Monster of Peladon Part Two

The one where the Doctor and Sarah are sacrificed to Aggedor...

It's only part two and already this serial is struggling to tell a compelling story. It's just so dull. Apart from it being terribly bland and brown to look at, the actual plot is paper thin, and realised with very little flair. As I watch, I can see that poor Jon Pertwee - just weeks away from the end of his tenure - seems bored to tears by it all, walking through it on autopilot and giving as much to it as he's getting out of it. He's a leading man with nothing to lead.

Elisabeth Sladen's Sarah remains as feisty as ever thankfully, refusing to trust anybody else to save the Doctor from the rockfall, and going into the tunnels alone to find him. Naturally, she gets lost, but happens across the trisilicate refinery, where she sees a shadowy figure moving behind the frosted glass. She's then assaulted by a psychedelic psychic alarm which renders her unconscious. Eckersley claims there's nobody inside the refinery, but notably doesn't go so far as to prove it by showing Sarah inside. The moving figure behind the glass is quite spooky, and about the only moment of intrigue in the entire episode.

The Monster of Peladon Part One

The one where the Doctor returns to Peladon 50 years later...

It's a bit short-sighted of the production team to take us back to Peladon so soon after our trip to Exxilon, because the aesthetic and design of the two planets is too similar. Basically, rocks and caves! I also have to ask myself whether we need a return to Peladon, although seeing as the first story was so good, I'll wait and see what Brian Hayles comes up with this time. His scripts have certainly improved in leaps and bounds since his first effort with The Celestial Toymaker.

The spirit of Aggedor - the big cuddly rhino-bear thing that everybody worshipped in The Curse of Peladon - seems to be killing scantily-clad middle-aged men with haircuts like badger hides. The badger wigs of the Pel miners is a major misstep which renders these characters utterly redundant when it comes to serious drama. They look silly, it's unavoidable. I can accept and turn a blind eye to rubbish dinosaurs, or wobbly sets, but when it comes to ridiculous wig choices, it's hard to take anything they're saying seriously.

Death to the Daleks Part Four

The one where the universe loses its 700th wonder...

"What is it?" asks Bellal, quite rightly. "It's another test, I think," replies the Doctor, before he starts to scan the "ornamental floor" with his sonic screwdriver. Of course, it's a "deadly floor", capable of pumping 7,000 volts into anybody who crosses it, but luckily the Doctor works out that it can be crossed safely by playing Venusian hopscotch (but regular hopscotch will do!). If only we'd had an inkling of what this danger was at the end of last week's episode, we might have felt more bothered. It was done so much better when script editor Terrance Dicks pinched this idea for The Five Doctors nine years later...

The city is basically made up of a series of Escape Rooms, which the Doctor and Bellal have to solve and survive as they move closer to the heart/ brain of the structure. The next room pits Bellal against the Doctor in an attempt to turn them against one another, but thankfully the Doctor overcomes the city's control over his Exxilon pal, again by using his sonic screwdriver. When the Doctor asks Bellal if he's ready to go on, the little fella says: "No. But we must?", and my heart weeps a tiny bit.

Death to the Daleks Part Three

The one where the Daleks have a bit of root trouble...

The screaming hosepipe thing has a pot shot at Dr Who, and the screeching noise it makes as it swoops in is ear-shreddingly loud. For saying it's literally a big tumble dryer pipe suspended from wire, the root creature is a pretty formidable adversary, and it makes short work of the Dalek, administering its deadly "sting" several times. The Doctor describes the root as an "underground support system for the city", but does he mean the roots are literally supporting the fabric of the building, or that they "support" the city's defense system by acting as "guards"? Bellal clarifies all this a bit more when he explains that his ancestors built their cities rooted into the ground, and which drained electrical energy from the air (hence the power drain).

The Exxilons are an interesting race, the victims of their own technological advancement. They are an ancient race which "solved the mysteries of science" and conquered space travel long before most other civilisations were out of bed. They travelled the galaxies as the "supreme beings of the universe", even apparently visiting Earth to help the Incas build their temples in Peru (which was good of them).

Death to the Daleks Part Two

The one where the Daleks develop a new kind of weapon...

"Total extermination!" barks the Dalek. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" And everybody just stands still and awaits their fate with remarkably calm resignation. Nobody bolts, nobody runs, nothing. What a bunch of wimps (including Dr Who!). However, the squelchy noise the Dalek gunsticks make when they fire means something is amiss, and we soon learn that their weapons are just as powerless as the TARDIS.

With the Daleks disarmed (in more ways than one), the usual rules of the game are cast aside, and the two groups agree to team up until the power drain can be reversed. For all his formulaic trappings, writer Terry Nation has come up with a corking new twist by having the two great enemies - the Doctor and the Daleks - join sides for once, and it's fascinating watching it pan out.

Death to the Daleks Part One

The one where the TARDIS loses all its power...

There's quite a brief but brutal opening, in which a running man is shot in the belly by an arrow and tumbles into a lake to his death. It rather spoils the mysterious build-up that writer Terry Nation crafts throughout the rest of the episode, and I think it would have been much better to open with the second scene, with the Doctor spinning his parasol and crooning Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside. And from there, an inexorable descent into fear...

I have such nostalgic feelings about Death to the Daleks. It was one of the handful of stories I had in omnibus form on VHS in the 1980s, and I absolutely adored this story, perhaps more so than other tapes I had, like The Robots of Death and The Time Warrior. I mean, it had Daleks in it, and I was only 11 years old, so that kind of swung it for me! But I must try and put my warm thoughts aside to review the story episodically, critically, to see whether I still feel the same way.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part Six

The one where the Brigadier meets a triceratops on the London Underground...

Doctor Who really shouldn't have attempted a dinosaur fight on the budget it had in 1974. It's easy enough for Malcolm Hulke to write "the T Rex and the brontosaurus fight", but it's not so easy for director Paddy Russell and producer Barry Letts to make that happen convincingly on screen, certainly not with the dinosaur models being used. It was Hulke (and script editor Terrance Dicks') responsibility to dial that back, but they didn't, so what we're left with is two inflexible giant lizards appearing to nuzzle each other gently.

While the Doctor tries to avoid the ferocious dino-wrestling outside, Sarah is locked up in a storage room, where she's reassured by Butler that she will be going with them on their crazy voyage back to the "golden age". But why do the bad guys insist on keeping Sarah around? She's clearly a disruptive influence, and it would be much easier to dispose of her to enable them to get on with their dastardly plot. Luckily for Sarah, she's been locked in a room with one of those handy ventilation shafts. You know the type, the ones you never see in real life but seem to be commonplace in the Doctor Who universe. Always big enough for a human to crawl through.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part Five

The one where Sarah discovers she's not on a spaceship at all...

It's interesting, isn't it, that after all these years of the cosy "UNIT family" investigating and battling alien invasions alongside the Doctor, when it boils down to it, the only person he seems able to trust is good old Sergeant Benton. Captain Yates is exposed as a traitor at the start of the episode, and the Doctor doesn't really know if he can trust the Brigadier any more either ("What about the Brigadier?" says Benton. "What indeed?" wonders the Doctor). Maybe if Corporal Bell was still around she'd be the Doctor's ally.

But it is heartwarming that it's trusty Benton who stays loyal to the Doctor, sending the other men away so that he and the Doctor can talk properly, and then encouraging him to use his "Venusian oojah" to render him unconscious to stage an escape. Benton was the most loyal friend of all the Doctor's UNIT colleagues, so it's a shame he never got to be reunited with him after his final appearance in The Android Invasion. I rather think John Levene would've loved that.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part Four

The one where the Doctor discovers, then loses, a secret underground bunker...

The Doctor seems to do a lot, but achieve very little, in this episode. Armed with his new mobile time displacement detector, he hops into his "new car", which has to be one of the most ridiculous things ever to appear in the programme. Never explicitly named on screen, but known off-screen as both the Alien and the Whomobile, this UFO-inspired vehicle comes out of absolutely nowhere, for no reason. It would be a fabulous merchandising opportunity for the show, but as a piece of hardware, it's just ridiculous. It smacks of Jon Pertwee wanting to be James Bond, and although 007's famous Lotus Esprit was a few years away yet, it's from the same ideas bank as all those other TV show toys that hit the market in the 1970s, like Scooby Doo's Mystery Machine and the Six Million Dollar Man's Bionic Mission Vehicle.

The Whomobile was only ever seen in a couple of episodes of Season 11, but also featured in the 2013 comic strip In with the Tide. I'm very glad it didn't hang about once Tom Baker came along, it's just really tacky and gimmicky.