Planet of Fire Part Four

The one where Turlough returns to his home planet...

Part 4 is packed with answers to questions which were never really asked in the first place, concerning Turlough's origins and why he was masquerading as a public schoolboy in 1980s England on Earth. The Mesos Triangle is revealed as a branding applied to political prisoners from Trion, a planet once subject to a civil war. Sarn was a prison colony where Trion insurgents were sent, and the ship in the forbidden zone was piloted by Turlough's father. Turlough's mother was killed in the Trion civil war, and his family (including baby Malkon) was exiled to Sarn. However, Turlough was sent to Earth (reason unspecified), and monitored by one of many agents Trion has peppered about the galaxy: "An agrarian commissioner on Verdon, a tax inspector on Darveg... and a very eccentric solicitor in Chancery Lane."

It brings Turlough's story full circle, harking back to the solicitor in London that Brendon School's headmaster used to deal with ("A very strange man he is too"), as mentioned in Mawdryn Undead. Turlough was in exile on Earth, a prisoner of the regime that ruled Trion. So why was Turlough so keen to return to his home planet all that time, if he was in exile and the son of a political revolutionary?

Planet of Fire Part Three

The one where Peri discovers a mini Master...

Some of the dialogue Peter Grimwade gives Anthony Ainley to say as the Master is ridiculously turgid and overblown, yet somehow Ainley gets away with it. "Your cremation will deprive me of our periodic encounters," he says, delivering effortlessly what might sound awkward coming out of anyone else's mouth. "Your puny mind no longer affects me," he adds. It's comic strip bad guy dialogue, but Ainley gets away with it.

Ainley is actually rather good in Planet of Fire. Usually his performance is ten times grander than anybody else's, resulting in the pantomime villain image he has, but here he's thought about the fact K-Master isn't the real Master, and adjusts his performance accordingly. Granted, he adjusts it to send it even further into madness, but that feels right because this is the real Master (wherever he be) trying to hold on to his control of Kamelion. Ainley has a presciently cat-like presence, his eyes wide and demented, and you actually believe this man would stop at nothing to achieve his aims. He's more than happy for the Doctor to burn alive, and is unusually brutal in the way he drags poor Peri around. "Journey's end, Doctor!"

Planet of Fire Part Two

The one where Peri steals a bit of the TARDIS...

The opening scenes of part 2 might be confusing for someone just tuning in. Anyone who missed part 1 will be utterly baffled by the procession of bizarre images presented as K-Howard morphs into K-Master, then into the real Kamelion, then back to the K-Master. But then there's another Master - the real Master - controlling Kamelion from somewhere else, somewhere very green with turtle shells hanging on the wall. Oh, and if all that's not enough to get your head round, there's a version of K-Howard wandering around with silver skin too. I reckon Auntie Margaret's probably turned over to ITV by now.

Anthony Ainley is very good though, dressed in suave "gangster" suit and giving a quieter, more understated performance than usual. It's mainly when he's playing K-Master that he's more effective - deliciously menacing and threatening, sometimes even brutal in the way he manhandles Peri - as he's given some traditionally overripe lines to say as his "real" self (as well as the tiresome "my dear Doctor", there's also the pantomime villain material Ainley got so bogged down with, such as describing the TARDIS as a "preposterous box" and Peri as "positively evanescent").

Planet of Fire Part One

The one where there's an awful lot of bare flesh...

Wow! Whoever decided to film a Doctor Who story in Lanzarote was a genius. Lanzarote - a Spanish island off the coast of North Africa - has such a naturally alien-looking landscape due to the volcanic terrain, and allows sweeping vistas for as far as the eye can see that knock British quarries into a cocked hat. The colours on Lanzarote are stunning, and perfect to stand in as an alien planet such as Sarn. The episode opens with two scantily clad young men clambering across the rocky terrain, and we soon cut to another scene filmed at Mirador del Rio, a lookout opened just a decade earlier which looks both very alien and also very Spanish! The fact it looks like nothing ever seen before in Doctor Who makes the location a roaring success.

Just when you think your eyes couldn't boggle any more - at either the stunning location or the amount of flesh on display - Peter bloody Wyngarde turns up! Seen here in flowing priestly robes and handlebar moustache, Wyngarde was a mainstay on British TV and cinema screens in the 1960s and 70s, until an unfortunate case of gross indecency with a crane driver destroyed his reputation overnight. Nevertheless, Wyngarde always had a compelling screen presence, so it's great to have him cast in Doctor Who, against type.

Resurrection of the Daleks Part Two

The one where Tegan leaves...

It's great that the Fifth Doctor's first encounter with the Daleks on screen sees them rush into the room from off-camera and pin him to the wall, screaming "Exterminate!" over and over like crazed lunatics. That's the Daleks of children's nightmares! The strange thing is that the Daleks want him dead instantly, because he is their sworn enemy, but in truth their boss, the Supreme Dalek, wants him alive so that he can be duplicated (we'll come on to that). As Lytton says: "They'll kill anybody, even if they need them." Did these bloodthirsty Daleks not get the Supreme Dalek's memo?

Meanwhile, devious Davros is recruiting like there's no tomorrow, having first converted Kiston to his side, who then converts an unnamed chemist, followed by some of Lytton's troops and eventually, two entire Daleks. They willingly flip their lids up to allow Kiston to inject them with Davros's mysterious toxin, and I love the disgusted expression on Leslie Grantham's face as he peers inside the Daleks' innards.

Resurrection of the Daleks Part One

The one where the Daleks rescue Davros from imprisonment...

At last, the Fifth Doctor gets to face his oldest enemies, the Daleks, in a story originally slated to end Season 20 before industrial action put the kibosh on it. Resurrected for Season 21, the story was filmed as a traditional four-parter, but was re-edited into two 45-minute episodes in order to free up slots to cover the 1984 Winter Olympics. This made the story even more of an event, doubling its episodic length in a move that would become the norm for the following Season 22.

The story opens with an eerie tracking shot through the dank, grey, abandoned location of Butler's Wharf at Shad Thames. Malcolm Clarke's baleful music is reminiscent of the otherworldly output of Lasry-Baschet's Structures Sonores, used during the black and white era. Director Matthew Robinson succeeds at building a spooky tension, which is interrupted by warehouse doors flying open and a crowd of confused and frightened escapees flooding out. These escaping prisoners are then mercilessly gunned down by two ordinary-looking British policemen wielding machine guns! The sequence is shot with uncompromising grit, and as well as being shocking, it's also intriguing, such as when Lytton appears, dematerialises the corpses, and the other two bobbies return to their beat as if nothing happened. Wonderful! What an opening!

Frontios Part Four

The one where the TARDIS is pulled back together...

It's amusing how the Gravis is treated completely seriously by those around him, despite the fact he looks like a giant constipated rubber snail. The Doctor chats away to him conversationally, offering a handshake but then realising the Gravis's shortcomings in that department. I also like Tegan's brief fake smile when the Doctor introduces her!

Best of all, of course, is how the Doctor pretends that Tegan is an android, his "serving machine", in an effort to draw the Gravis's attention away from his companion. It's hilarious how he explains that he got Tegan cheap because "the walk's not quite right, and then there's the accent..." The look of suppressed fury on Tegan's face is priceless, and I'm surprised she doesn't pick him up on it later on!

Frontios Part Three

The one where Turlough dredges up some traumatising race memories...

Resourceful as ever, Tegan chucks a phosphor lamp at the Tractators holding the Doctor and Norna, resulting in a comical scene where the creatures scurry away screaming and flapping their little arms. It's not meant to be funny, but you can't help chuckling as the creature operators scamper off-camera. It's another good example of Christopher H Bidmead's excellent writing here though, giving Tegan an active role in the Doctor's escape rather than becoming part of the problem.

Sadly, the Doctor and Tegan spend most of the ensuing episode wandering around the cave system trying to get out, achieving very little, although the scenes where they are being drawn towards the Tractators by gravitational force are realised well, with both Peter Davison and Janet Fielding successfully selling the fact their bodies are being compelled. I love the bit where they're sliding along the ground on their bottoms!

Frontios Part Two

The one where our heroes find creatures beneath the surface...

The Doctor, who continues to be written with a classy sarcastic edge by Christopher H Bidmead, delivers the perfect rejoinder to every Doctor Who cliffhanger that ends with our heroes having a gun aimed at them. "Oh marvellous! You're going to kill me. What a finely tuned response to the situation." However, the Doctor goads the pompous Plantagenet just a little too much, as he ends up ordering his execution after all ("This wasn't what I had in mind at all!").

Then a wonderfully Doctor Who-ey thing happens, something you'd never see in Star Trek or Blake's 7. Turlough threatens their aggressors with a hat stand! This item of TARDIS furniture has enjoyed an unusual prominence in the story so far, and now Turlough is pretending it's a powerful weapon to save the Doctor. Obviously they don't have hat stands in the far future (perhaps hats have been abolished?).

Frontios Part One

The one where the TARDIS is reduced to a hat stand...

It's the return of former script editor Christopher H Bidmead with his third and last story for the TV series, and as is traditional, his script is named after the planet on which events take place. He's good at naming planets, but his story titles aren't the most dynamic in the canon (having said that, Castrovalva's working title was The Visitor, which is even duller).

The opening scene is intriguing enough, as we meet a bunch of military men who've found something in the earth, but it's not long until the earth beneath their feet begins to collapse like a sinkhole, aided by a little red straw which I am sure is not supposed to be in shot! We can laugh, but it's actually so visible that you wonder whether it's supposed to be part of the scene, and begin to imagine a mischievous worm beneath the surface poking his little red stick through the soil! The shaft collapses as the ground moves, crushing the curiously mute Captain Revere (played by the uncredited John Beardmore), but then it's discovered that his body has disappeared altogether, eaten by the hungry earth!

The Awakening Part Two

The one where the Malus gets inside the TARDIS...

The design of the Malus is splendid, and pretty scary too. It seems to personify evil, with its glowing green eyes, hooked nose and rictus grin, which seems to be laughing at us as it billows acrid fog from its mouth. I reckon the image of the Malus in the church wall, rubble falling around it as it pushes forward, gave a few kids nightmares back in 1984. And then there's the awful roaring noise it makes as it awakes, a cross between the roar of a leviathan and the sound of tearing metal. Even today - at the cynical old age of 45 - I still find the image and sound of the Malus a little unsettling.

There's a lovely little team with the Fifth Doctor, Will Chandler and Jane Hampden, but sadly it isn't really capitalised upon. There are some nice moments between the Doctor and Will, and the Doctor and Jane, but not the three of them collectively so much, which is a shame, as the dynamic could really work, the motherly middle-aged woman and the vulnerable innocent. I can imagine them as a pretty effective TARDIS team, if only Will and Jane would talk to one another!

The Awakening Part One

The one where cosplay gets a little too 'real'...

Right from the off, The Awakening sets out its stall as something a little bit different. It's also terribly familiar in some ways, but I do like how director Michael Owen Morris adds his own touch, with the galloping horses rapidly intercut with Jane Hampden's fruitless search for Ben. This juxtaposition of the ordinary with the extraordinary instantly builds a degree of tension as the viewer wonders who is coming (and coming very quickly) and how the two scenarios will meet.

It turns out that Ben is one of a bunch of men who have taken the art of cosplay far too seriously. It's all well and good dressing up in flowing wigs and cavalier finery, but the brandishing of weaponry at innocent bystanders, charging toward them on horseback, seems a little too dedicated. As we see throughout the episode, these war gaming cosplayers have taken verisimilitude a little too far...

Warriors of the Deep Part Four

The one where there should have been another way...

It's tried and trusted, a proven way to stop your assassin in his tracks. "Your turn!" hisses your wannabe killer as he raises his lethal ray gun to shoot you dead. And then you use your secret weapon, the inestimable art of being terribly polite: "How do you do! I'm the Doctor. Haven't we met before?"

It's a fool-proof way to convince your enemy that he shouldn't kill you where you stand at all, but instead spare your life, disobeying his leader's direct orders to the contrary. Of course, the Doctor and Sauvix haven't met before at all, it's a cunning ruse, and the daft lizard falls for it.

Warriors of the Deep Part Three

The one where the Myrka, Silurians and Sea Devils storm Seabase 4...

I felt really proud of Turlough watching this episode. He gets involved, he risks his life, he takes a stand and he fights for what he feels is right. As well as protecting his own neck, he gets involved in a bit of fisticuffs, steals a rifle and threatens Nilson at gunpoint in order to rescue the Doctor and Tegan. "The commander's orders were to keep that bulkhead closed," says Nilson. "I know what the commander's orders were," replies Turlough, waving a rifle in his face, "but now I'm giving you mine. Open that bulkhead!" You go, Turlough!

Turlough spends a lot of time racing around corridors, weapon in hand, and ends up helping to defend Airlock 5, like a true Boy's Own hero, in the same vein as Ian or Steven might in the 1960s. It's great to see this usually cowardly, self-serving character show some guts, although he spoils it rather when he's locked up in the dormitory with Bulic and suggests they escape back to the TARDIS!

Warriors of the Deep Part Two

The one where the Myrka invades the seabase...

It's highly unusual to have expensive underwater filming in Doctor Who, even these days, never mind in the cash-strapped low-budget 1980s. It doesn't last very long, but what we do get looks splendid, and the fact you can see it really is Peter Davison makes it more effective. It's actually a little sobering to see our "vulnerable" Fifth Doctor almost drowned, scrambling his way into an airlock looking bedraggled. The sopping wet Doctor looks exhausted, and a little annoyed, maybe because his celery's so limp.

Meanwhile, the Silurians are still busily - but not hurriedly - waking up their "Sea Devil brothers". The fact the Silurians refer to their brothers as Sea Devils is very problematic, because the Sea Devils are categorically not called Sea Devils. The only reason we know them as Sea Devils is because a mentally unhinged Clark in their debut adventure described them as such, but that's not what they're called. We don't know their real race name, but here, their Silurian brothers refer to them by Clark's made-up moniker, and it sticks. It's a bit like Walters naming the Martians as "ice warriors", and suddenly everybody calls them that, even the Ice Warriors!

Warriors of the Deep Part One

The one where the Silurians and Sea Devils return...

With all that celebratory shenanigans safely out of the way, Doctor Who could get back to what it does best: telling fun, exciting adventure stories full of monsters and villains. Warriors of the Deep opens Season 21 with some impressive modelwork, and one of those busy, bustling futuristic sets full of people going from A to B. It feels remarkably like a Pertwee era story straight away.

And in more ways than one. Less than two minutes into part 1, the story's returning monsters, the Silurians, are unceremoniously dumped on screen in the directorial equivalent of being pushed on stage before they're ready. The redesigned Silurian masks are gorgeous, honouring the 1970 versions but making them more detailed, while Tony Burrough's viridescent underwater sets are wonderfully lush and aqueous (thanks to some very green lighting by Peter Smee!). Like the cave sets of Doctor Who and the Silurians, the prehistoric creatures look effective in gloom and murk.

The Five Doctors

The one where (most) of the first five Doctors join forces against a traitor to their own people...

It's difficult to express just how exciting The Five Doctors was to the seven-year-old me back in '83. Doctor Who's 20th anniversary year was something of a landmark in the history of the series, and of fandom, turning a very popular family series into something of an institution. For a programme to be still going after two decades was a rare achievement, something to be rightly celebrated, and The Five Doctors, with its crazy ambition and all-star cast, was just about the best way to do this.

The excitement is still palpable almost 40 years later. It's got "all the Doctors" in it, loads of old companions, and loads of old monsters (well, I say "loads"...!). Robert Holmes was initially given the role of writing this anniversary tale, but he struggled to make work his "Cyber-Lord" idea about Cybermen fusing Time Lord DNA with their own (not so much a problem for Chris Chibnall...). The best man for the job was obviously old hand Terrance Dicks. If there was anyone who could make this mad hotch-potch of Doctor Who eras work as one, it was him.

The King's Demons Part Two

The one where the TARDIS gains a new crewmember...

The title of this story unusually refers to the Doctor and his companions, rather than any particular threat or destination. King John refers to the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough as his "demons", which got me wondering how many other story titles are simply alternative ways of describing the regulars. It all begins, of course, with An Unearthly Child (Susan) and The Firemaker (the Doctor), but there's also The Myth Makers (the Doctor, Vicki and Steven), and at a stretch, The Face of Evil (the Doctor). More recently we've had stories such as The Runaway Bride (Donna), The Lodger (the Doctor) and The Magician's Apprentice/ The Witch's Familiar (Clara), among others, but The King's Demons is a particularly potent example.

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, the Master's revealed himself, and Tegan reveals herself to be a dab hand at knife-throwing, although the renegade Time Lord also has a trick up his sleeve when he manages to catch the knife in flight without even looking. There's a lot wrong with this sequence, particularly for younger viewers, as it shows a companion casually hurling a knife at someone's head, and also suggests it's easy to catch a knife safely. It's the sort of thing that might have been edited out in the Hinchcliffe era (I'm thinking back to a drowning Doctor and a knife-throwing Leela).

The King's Demons Part One

The one where the TARDIS interrupts a jousting match...

We've arrived at Doctor Who's 600th episode, in its 20th year, which seems fitting. It's also the last classic series story title to feature a punctuation mark (there's also Warriors' Gate and Time-Flight, as well as a handful of Hartnell episodes such as World's End and Devil's Planet).

The now traditional Davison two-parter kicks off with money on the screen. The opening scene of Sir Ranulf's dining hall is a splendid mix of set design and glass shot. It's populated with plenty of extras, costumes and set dressing are spot on, and there's even a couple of wolfhounds to add colour. In fact, throughout this episode I feel as if director Tony Virgo is trying his hardest to spend what was probably a modest budget as aesthetically as possible. It just looks gorgeous, thanks to the talents of set designer Ken Ledsham (echoing his work on The Ribos Operation) and costume designer Colin Lavers.

Enlightenment Part Four

The one where the Doctor wins Enlightenment...

According to Wrack, the image of the Doctor in Tegan's mind is "quite intriguing". This poses a number of questions, and even Tegan looks confused by the statement! Is Wrack talking romance here? Or is she merely referring to the knowledge Tegan has of the Doctor, such as that he's a Time Lord, can regenerate and likes long scarves? I've never felt that Tegan harbours even the remotest romantic feeling for the Doctor, so Wrack must be referring to the way Tegan thinks of the Doctor, and the combative relationship they have. Is the Doctor like Tegan's big brother? A father figure? Intriguing indeed...

Back at the party, Marriner is trying some of his legendary chat-up lines on Tegan. "I missed you, I was concerned. I am empty without you," he moons. "You are life itself. Without you I am nothing. Don't you understand? I am empty. You give me being. I look into your mind and see life, energy, excitement. I want them! I want you. Your thoughts should be my thoughts. Your feelings, my feelings."

Enlightenment Part Three

The one where the Doctor and Tegan attend an Eternal party...

The reprise of the cliffhanger shows that the end of part 2 could have been edited much more effectively by finishing with a shot of Turlough drifting off into space, something you don't actually see in the transmitted episode. At the start of part 3 there are plenty of shots of Turlough looking desperately back to the Shadow as he drifts away, his hand reaching out in agonised terror, which would have been a much more thrilling way to end it.

Luckily, Turlough is "rescued" by the Buccaneer, which scoops him up in a net and takes him aboard. This is just as well because the efforts of the Shadow and its crew to retrieve Turlough leave much to be desired. Marriner tries to comfort Tegan by telling her that Turlough will have a quick death as he has so little oxygen, but I'm not sure this is going to placate her! The half-hearted attempt to throw a life ring to Turlough, which isn't even tethered, shows how little the Eternals value ephemeral lives.

Enlightenment Part Two

The one where Marriner rummages through Tegan's mind...

Those sailing (space)ships look gloriously quaint. The way they hang in the vastness of space, their sails quivering in the solar winds, has a certain magic. The fact they are real models, not CGI, adds a beautiful hauntological quality, reminiscent of the work of Ray Harryhausen. The re-edited version released on DVD in 2009 was, to my mind, a comparative abomination, removing the homespun joy of these model ships and replacing them with a studied soullessness.

The Shadow is approaching the next "marker buoy" in its race through space, which is actually the planet Venus. Striker wants to be first to pass the planet, and narrowly succeeds in doing so, before witnessing the unexpected destruction of Critas the Greek. Before the Greek ship blew up, the Doctor noticed an historically inaccurate piece of jewellery on his finger, a Spanish jewel from the 17th century. Curiouser and curiouser...

Enlightenment Part One

The one where the White Guardian gets in touch...

As we near the end of Season 20, and its pocket story arc involving Turlough and the Black Guardian, it's worth reflecting on the welcome increase in female involvement behind the scenes at this time. It might be something to do with the fact Doctor Who's producer was a gay man, or it might be simply because there were more women working behind the scenes than there used to be. Whatever the reason, it can only be A Good Thing that this 20-year-old series was finally getting a woman's touch.

Doctor Who's first ever producer was a woman, of course (the legendary Verity Lambert), but Enlightenment is the first time that a story has been written wholly by a woman (Barbara Clegg). OK, so The Ark was co-credited to Paul Erickson's wife Lesley Scott, but the truth is she didn't actually write a word of it. Clegg was the series' first bona fide female scribe, and it's a shame it took 20 years for that to happen. Even Blake's 7 had a female writer before Who (Tanith Lee, in 1980).

Terminus Part Four

The one where Nyssa leaves so she can put into practice the skills she learnt on Traken...

After another, slightly more convincing tussle, this time between Valgard and Olvir, the Garm makes off with a screaming Nyssa once again, presumably taking her on the next leg of her inexorably depressing journey. "Oh no Nyssa!" says Olvir - Dominic Guard delivering this line particularly poorly - but if he just bothered to glance to his left he'd see the Garm tottering off with her over his shoulder.

There's an exchange between Valgard and Olvir where the Vanir guesses the raider was trained by Colonel Pereira (aka The Chief), and this gives an enticing glimpse into a world beyond Terminus where young men are trained as fighters, endure multiple tours as part of some kind of army, and where troops can be "turned in" by their superiors for the right price. There's an interesting little side-plot here which is not built upon or expanded, but it's nice to have a bit of backstory for each of them. Why was there a bounty on Valgard's head? How did Olvir go from combat-trained soldier to lawless space raider? I guess we'll never know...

Terminus Part Three

The one where the end of the universe is nigh...

I'm supposed to believe that space vixen Kari is a hard-nosed galactic pirate who raids cargo liners, laser gun in hand, and barely thinks twice about engaging in combat or murdering in cold blood. I've had enough trouble believing any of that thanks to the way Dee Robson and Joan Stribling have dressed Liza Goddard, and made her up to look like she's one of Toyah's backing dancers. But now she's being asked to show her mettle and rescue the Doctor, who's being assaulted by Valgard, her credentials as a hardened space raider crumble to dust. Ellen Ripley she is not.

After being half-strangled from behind by Valgard's staff, she quivers on her knees like a terrified schoolgirl, unable to get a clear shot of Valgard with her gun, despite the fact the two men aren't really moving around a lot. Kari honestly looks pathetic at this moment, and her solution to rescuing the Doctor is just silly: she aims her laser at a nearby wall panel, so that the laser bolt will bounce off and hit Valgard squarely on his helmet, causing a massive headache. I'm sorry, but no: that is stupid. If Kari can't get a clear shot at Valgard's entire body from 6ft away, I cannot believe that she's such a sure shot that she can hit him on the back of the head by shooting in the opposite direction. Annie Oakley she is not.

Terminus Part Two

The one where Nyssa takes her skirt off...

At the start of this episode, the Doctor tells Nyssa not to let the Lazars touch her, for fear of contracting the disease that ails them. A bit later, Olvir says the disease is airborne, and they are already breathing it in, so theoretically, they're all infected. This would include Tegan and Turlough too, but nobody except Nyssa seems to show any signs of having the disease. Curious...

Olvir, who is supposed to be trained for combat, ran away when the Lazars broke out, but there's a very human reason for his apparent cowardice: his sister died of the disease. He says that Terminus Inc offers to take sufferers away to cure them, but nobody has ever returned having been healed. So where do they take the Lazars?

Terminus Part One

The one where the TARDIS merges with a passing spaceship...

Turlough is not your average Doctor Who companion. His overriding trait is that he's self-serving, always looking for ways to help himself and further his own cause. He's desperate to return to his home planet (what he was doing masquerading as a public schoolboy on Earth in 1983 remains unexplained) and even made a pact with the devil (aka the Guardian of Darkness and Chaos) to try and achieve his aims. In exchange, the Guardian wants Turlough to kill the Doctor, which is why the lad now finds himself masquerading not as a public schoolboy, but as the Doctor's companion. It's an interesting direction to take for the series, making one of the Doctor's supposedly trusted allies an imposter, a traitor looking out only for himself.

Turlough meddles with TARDIS tech found behind the wall roundels, operating the blue switches before almost being rumbled by a highly suspicious Tegan. It's perfect that Tegan would not trust this boy, and the rather heated conversation between them proves that tensions run high. Tegan regards Turlough as unreliable, dangerous and patronising, while he sees her as rude, argumentative and stubborn. Both of them are right, to be honest!

Mawdryn Undead Part Four

The one where the Doctor agrees to sacrifice the rest of his lives for his companions...

Mawdryn and his seven miscreant mutants have asked the Doctor for help: is he willing to donate all eight of his future selves to release them from their perpetual mutation? "I can only regenerate 12 times," the Doctor explains. "I have already done so four times." Well, that's what you think, Doctor, but let's not let the entanglements of The Timeless Children muddy what's happening here. Mawdryn is asking the Doctor not just for help, but to murder his eight future selves. No Colin, no Sylv, no Paul, no Chris, no David, no Matt, no Peter, no Jodie, and definitely no John. The Doctor would die for ever at the end of his fifth life.

The Doctor refuses, and I don't blame him. These scientists are in this state through their own meddling, after stealing technology from Gallifrey and then experimenting for centuries to try and live forever. But what they have done to themselves is irreversible. Mawdryn and his cronies aren't villains as such, they are merely victims of their own scientific curiosity and hubris. But at the end of the day it is their own fault, and it's a lot to ask the Doctor to sacrifice his future to give them theirs. "Sometimes you have to live with the consequences of your actions," the Doctor says, sadly.

Mawdryn Undead Part Three

The one where Mawdryn and his mutants emerge from their chrysalis...

Tegan, Nyssa and the 1977 Brigadier are arguing over whether they think the mutated creature wandering about the TARDIS dressed as the Fourth Doctor is actually the newly regenerated, Sixth Doctor. The Brigadier and Nyssa are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but good old Tegan remains highly suspicious, and as ever, says all the things I'd be saying or thinking. She points out that the Doctor regenerated into a human last time, but Mawdryn ripostes: "Is a Gallifreyan human?" There's nothing to say that the Doctor wouldn't regenerate into a non-human form. One thing's for sure though: Mawdryn's clothes regenerated with him, like when Hartnell became Troughton and Baker became Davison. Unless those flowing robes are part of Mawdryn...?

Mawdryn insists on going back to the ship alone, claiming the presence of another being could harm its restorative qualities. Tegan is adamant she's not letting Mawdryn/ the Doctor go alone, and physically stops the compliant Nyssa from opening the TARDIS doors. Tegan holds her resolve as long as she can, but loses in the end, and Mawdryn is allowed to leave alone. Janet Fielding is wonderful in these scenes, demonstrating why Tegan is one of the best companions of the classic era. She has opinions, she has guts, she has principles, and she sticks by them. She's fiercely loyal, but also fiercely independent.

Mawdryn Undead Part Two

The one where Tegan meets a past version of the Brigadier, and the Brigadier meets a new version of the Doctor...

Thanks to the transmat control unit exploding, Turlough fails to smash the Doctor's head in with a boulder. The TARDIS then materialises, momentarily, before disappearing again, which shouldn't have happened. Then we see the TARDIS materialising in the same place again, but the Doctor and Turlough are no longer there. It's a puzzling course of events and no mistake!

Rather wonderfully, the Brigadier arrives at the obelisk with Hippo, and the Doctor's face lights up as he spots his old friend and comrade, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Sadly, it's not quite the reunion hoped for, as the Brigadier doesn't appear to know who the Doctor is, in this fifth incarnation or any other. Curiouser and curiouser...

Mawdryn Undead Part One

The one where the Brigadier turns up as a teacher at a private boys' school...

The first five minutes of this new story spend time setting up a new character called Turlough, but Turlough is not all he seems. On the surface he's a pupil at Brendon School for Boys, a bit of a troublemaker (and, evidence suggests, a bit of a swine), but it's not long until we discover he's not actually human, not from Earth at all. He may look like a handsome public school boy, but really he's a creature from another world. Weird, but I like it...

But Turlough is something of a git. For a start, he's a bully, constantly having a go at his supposed pal Ibbotson (aka Hippo), calling him names (names which aren't even true, such as "fat") and purposefully preying on the poor lad's self-confidence. OK, Hippo's a bit whiney, but he doesn't deserve the treatment Turlough dishes out. Turlough's shady!

Snakedance Part Four

The one where the Mara is destroyed forever...

"Kill them!" Lon demanded at the end of part 3. Nyssa screams. "No!" interrupts Tanha at the beginning of part 4. "You can't do that." Oh, OK then. So that was one of those false jeopardy cliffhangers I dislike so much, where a very definite execution is halted by the sudden appearance of someone who disagrees. It's cheap melodrama, and Snakedance deserves better.

The inert nature of part 3 gives way to a burst of welcome action when the Doctor, Nyssa and Chela are confronted with Lon in Ambril's chambers. Lon requests that the Doctor see the Great Crystal before he's killed, asking Ambril to open the box it's kept in. Fittingly, the opening of a box sparks the Doctor into action, just as the opening of the Box of Jana in Kinda inspired terrible fear in those observing.

Snakedance Part Three

The one where everybody waits...

After two solid episodes that too often slip under fandom's radar, part 3 of Snakedance lets the story down terribly. It's not that it's bad, in any way, but so little happens that you feel somewhat cheated. People talk, people go from A to B, but the plot has barely moved on at all by the end of the 25 minutes.

The theme of the episode seems to be 'patience'. Everybody's waiting for something, and that includes the audience. On an intellectual level, writer Christopher Bailey has pulled off a bit of a coup by making this third episode so static, because one of the principal teachings of Buddhism is the search for patience and mental well-being. Buddha considered patience to be one of the mental states that an awakened person has perfected. It is an act of compassion toward ourselves, and also leads to peace and spiritual well-being. By making both his characters and audience wait for the 'next big thing' (in this case, the Manussan ceremony) Bailey is imposing his Buddhist creed onto Doctor Who. Clever, but not entertaining!

Snakedance Part Two

The one where the Mara makes slaves of men...

Peter Davison really nails his Doctor in this story. He brings out the Doctor's eccentricity, something each of his predecessors managed to portray quite organically, but which Davison has to work at. He's not naturally eccentric, and his youth works against him in this regard, but here he plays the Doctor as a scatty professor, his mind racing as he tries to connect dots and make sense of what's going on. His little routine with Sarah Sutton opening and closing the TARDIS doors is timelessly amusing. Davison really did find his mojo while making Snakedance.

I love how the Doctor comes across to everybody, including his best friend Nyssa, as a complete lunatic in this story. He races around from place to place making wild assumptions and demanding everybody agrees with him, but even the perception of the viewer is that this man is unhinged. It's the way Christopher Bailey writes it (he wrote similarly in Kinda) and the way Davison plays it: manic, desperate, breathlessly bonkers. Davison puts so much energy into his performance, hurtling about the screen with poor Sarah Sutton trying to keep up. Her frequent eye-rolling exasperation at the Doctor's dotty activities speak for the viewer!

Snakedance Part One

The one where Tegan gets possessed by the Mara again...

Tegan's only been back aboard the TARDIS for a heartbeat and already she's getting possessed by the Mara again! Yes, the Mara, the serpentine entity from Season 19's Kinda, is the returning element in Snakedance, one of Doctor Who's most overlooked stories.

We begin our newest adventure with Nyssa trying to flirt with Dr Who. Everybody thinks that companions having crushes on the Doctor is a 21st century thing, but here it's heavily suggested that Nyssa is desperate for the Doctor's attentions. "Well?" she demands, showing off her latest - and truly awful - outfit. The Doctor doesn't notice her apparel at all, in perfectly Doctorish fashion, and completely misses the fact she's literally pushing herself in front of him, squeezing between him and his TARDIS controls. Who knew that Nyssa had a thing for the Doctor? It's not surprising though, and actually quite refreshing, although I do realise that no such thing was intended by the production team at the time. It's supposed to be a humorous but innocent scene in which Nyssa tries to get the Doctor to notice her new clothes (and nothing more), but with these 21st century eyes, you can read a lot more into it. Nyssa luvs the Doctor!

Arc of Infinity Part Four

The one where the Doctor chases himself around Amsterdam...

There are a good many things wrong or disappointing about Arc of Infinity, but one of the biggest is the waste of some potentially great actors. Director Ron Jones managed to get Leonard Sachs, a veteran actor with a frighteningly impressive CV stretching back almost five decades, as well as Elspet Gray, a future baroness whose work with husband Brian Rix gave her an instinct for comedy timing. But they get virtually nothing of any great note to do or say (particularly Gray), and to be fair don't really bring anything of their own either. Their delivery is leaden and unengaged, although Sachs does seem to burst into life in part 4.

Yes, they're playing stuffy, uber-formalised Time Lords, but that doesn't mean they can't have self-expression, or a bit of individuality. Michael Gough manages to make Hedin both urbane and ruthless, almost sympathetic perhaps, but Sachs, Gray and Max Harvey (Zorac) are content to wander numbly through their scenes. All credit to Paul Jerricho for making the Castellan a more recognisable character, so it'll be good to see him return in The Five Doctors.

Arc of Infinity Part Three

The one where the real identity of the Renegade is revealed...

Just as with the resolution of part 1's cliffhanger, the resolution of part 2's shows that the Doctor isn't really dead. He's actually floating in the black nothingness of the Matrix, wobbling like an ocean wave and subjected to the soundtrack of maniacal laughter. In fact, the Doctor spends an entire 13 of this episode's 24-minute duration wobbling in the Matrix, floating like an upturned tortoise. You can tell it's part 3...

The special effects in this story have a lot to be desired. I suppose they're indicative of the limitations of the time (remember the candy cane lasers in Earthshock?), but the effects used for the lasers and the Matrix in Arc of Infinity are particularly poor. No wonder they wanted to replace them with something better on the DVD (it's arguable whether they managed it or not though).

Arc of Infinity Part Two

The one where Tegan comes back...

It was kind of obvious that the Doctor wasn't really dead. The very first cliffhanger of a brand new series, and they tried to make us believe that Maxil had killed him. Not likely, is it? In actual fact, the Doctor's barely stunned, and groggily sits up within seconds of being gunned down. At least viewers in 1983 only had to wait 48 hours to see what happened next, rather than seven days.

In The Deadly Assassin, when the Doctor was imprisoned and interrogated by Hilred, our hero was stripped to his shirt sleeves and strung up by the wrists in a cavernous chamber. Things seem to have become more civilised in the intervening years, as this time the Doctor is incarcerated in his own TARDIS, specifically in Nyssa's bedroom. It's an odd place to imprison him. I do love how the Doctor looks at the glass of orange juice Nyssa gives him, then absently places it to one side as if he's not sure what to do with it. I also love the evils Nyssa gives Maxil. At last, Sarah Sutton gets to do some emoting!

Arc of Infinity Part One

The one where an anti-matter creature tries to bond with the Doctor...

It's a new series, and Doctor Who's twentieth no less. Although Season 20 kicked off more than 10 months before the anniversary proper, fans were promised something special in each of the run's stories, something from the series' past. In the event, this promise of nostalgia wasn't quite what fans would have hoped for, with the complete loss of a Dalek story to industrial action not helping matters. Arc of Infinity saw the return of the Time Lords and Gallifrey, but they weren't exactly the hot property they once were, The Invasion of Time having dulled their sheen. Season 20's opener also saw the return of a baddie from the programme's 10th anniversary special, but looking quite different and played by a different person. Snakedance brought back a monster from the previous year (hardly nostalgic), while The King's Demons saw the return of the Master (but only because it was contractual to have him in every year). Mawdryn Undead was originally going to see the return of Ian Chesterton, but due to William Russell's unavailability, we got the Brigadier instead (which is nice, but not quite as wonderful). The only elements from the past in Terminus and Enlightenment were the Black and White Guardians, but seeing as each of them had only previously appeared in one lone episode before, we were hardly talking dynamite nostalgia.

Season 20 promised much, but fell short on delivery. So let's begin, with the first episode of Arc of Infinity (known as The Time of Neman in early drafts, which suggested we were going to see the return of Proctor Neman from Johnny Byrne's previous Doctor Who story, The Keeper of Traken!).

Time-Flight Part Four

The one where Tegan's left behind...

So that's that, then. The Master has the power of the Xeraphin at the heart of his TARDIS, so the Doctor simply gives up. He admits that the Master has finally defeated him, and prepares to shrug off all responsibility, claiming nothing can be done. It's the most pathetic and defeatist this Doctor has been, but made me see one of Time-Flight's biggest flaws (there are so many that it's hard to tell them apart sometimes). The fact is the Doctor is pretty useless in this story. He doesn't do very much at all. He seems almost completely superfluous.

Superfluity is a common complaint in this story as a whole. Keith Drinkel's Scobie spends much of his time looking and watching other people do things; Nyssa and Tegan are pretty ineffectual throughout, as is the Doctor; the Xeraphin appear in part 3, have an argument, then completely disappear for the rest of the story. Even the presence of the Master seems pointless. His role could have been any old bad guy, there's no good reason for it to be the Master. It might as well have been a real Arabian conjurer trapped in time for all that Anthony Ainley brings to the story. The best thing about the Master being in Time-Flight is the part 2 cliffhanger twist, after which he might as well be Scaroth or Monarch or the Terileptil android!

Time-Flight Part Three

The one where Professor Hayter becomes a Plasmaton...

My hope that things would improve now that the Master's on the scene seemed to be misplaced. For most of this episode the Master is trotting in and out of the Doctor's TARDIS with various bits of circuitry, achieving very little but chuckling an awful lot. Stapley and Bilton's attempts to derail the Master's plans are shockingly inept too. In fact, there's very little about the aircrew that impresses me. The actors are passable at best, with Michael Cashman and Judith Byfield particularly poor ("Nyssa and Tegan dead?"), and Richard Easton and Keith Drinkel struggling to make anything they say or do believable. Drinkel's delivery of the line "Oh no..." when the Master steals the TARDIS is truly awful.

I mean, this whole thing is awful. What's going on, and why? We learn that the Master is stranded in prehistory and managed to harness the psychic powers of the mysterious intelligence he found in the Jurassic to reach forward in time, accidentally abducting Concorde. We later learn that the entity, "an immeasurable intelligence at the centre of a psychic vortex", came to Earth in search of a new home after its planet Xeriphas was destroyed in the Vardon-Kosnax War. The Xeraphin were poisoned by radiation, and so merged into one gestalt being, an entire race absorbed into one bioplasmic body.

Time-Flight Part Two

The one where Kalid's true identity is revealed...

Is Time-Flight the story with the very worst merchandise design history of all? I remember when the Time-Flight/ Arc of Infinity DVD box set came out how appalling the sleeve designs were (by Dan Budden). On the Time-Flight cover, Nyssa looks like she's just been dug up, and the cut-and-paste techniques used were worthy of an eight-year-old with Gloy glue and rounded scissors. The heart of the DVD sleeve's "design" is a close-up of a Concorde cockpit. The VHS cover was better, but you can tell that Budden simply glanced at that and tried to copy it (and failed). The bluray disc opted for a shot of Kalid and a plasma-poo, while the box set's booklet tries to make a play on the Fairy liquid bubbles. The Target book had one of those rubbish photographic covers, showing the Doctor smiling in front of Concorde. At least someone was happy.

Anyway, back to the story. It's too easy to get distracted from it because there's so little on offer. We rejoin our heroes as the Plasmatons (for that is what they are) encase the Doctor in soapy bubbles, and while he's in there he hears a spooky voice ask him for help. Despite the fact he was encased while standing, he re-emerges from the bubbles lying down. Not sure why.

Time-Flight Part One

The one where Concorde flies back in time...

Ah, good. How clever that this next story should be written by the man who directed Earthshock. That means there should be a nice transitional through-line dealing with Adric's tragic death and the impact it has on the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa. Peter Grimwade was an excellent director, so should have a firm and realistic grasp of what's possible on a television budget.

Ha ha! I know, I'm being facetious, but that is what you'd think if going into all this with no foreknowledge. One of Doctor Who's companions has just died, and this sort of thing virtually never happens, so you'd think it would be dealt with in a mature, reflective and sensitive way. But no, the best we get is a half-hearted scene trying to wrap up everybody's "feelings" as quickly as possible so that the new story can get underway.

Earthshock Part Four

The one where Adric dies...

Peter Grimwade was such a good director. Maybe he wasn't so great with his cast (according to reports from actors), but he knew how to shoot a scene, or set up a shot, to get the best visual impact. It feels like there are lots of Cybermen in Earthshock thanks to his clever camera angles and how he blocks out the scenes. You have Cybermen in the background and foreground, you have others moving past and through scenes, giving the impression of number and might. The Cybermen haven't seemed this numerous since the Troughton era.

Another triumph of this story is Malcolm Clarke's powerful incidental score. He has a beautifully weird underscore, a kind of glassy soundscape which reminds me very much of Jacques Lasry and Francois Baschet's Les Structures Sonores, used as library music in 1965's The Web Planet. Clarke also uses squelchy synths when the Cybermen are on the move, and all of this combined makes the episode feel tense and dangerous. And writer Eric Saward's narrative compounds this danger: the viewer's never quite sure what's going to happen next.

Earthshock Part Three

The one where the Cybermen massacre the freighter's crew...

Bernard Lloyd-Jones's set design for the freighter bridge is really impressive. It's big and chunky, with plenty of space for the characters to move around in, and the dressing of the control panels is satisfyingly busy and realistic. Lots of switches, buttons and dials for the actors to play with. It looks lived in, worked in, used.

Captain Briggs continues to have a chip on her shoulder when it comes to Ringway, and perhaps men in particular. She really does not like Ringway, mocking the way he says "apprehended" instead of "caught" (a bit much coming from Eric Saward, the prince of purple prose), and later on she's very reluctant to take anything the Doctor or Adric say seriously. She will listen to her female first officer though.

Earthshock Part Two

The one where we meet a space freighter captain played by Beryl Reid...

Pretty much every time the Cybermen appeared, they had a different look. This is their seventh Doctor Who story, and their seventh different look. It works in the sense the Cybermen would always be trying to update and upgrade themselves, and their latest look brings the tin soldiers straight into the 1980s with their silver flight suits and power-fists. It's a chunkier, more durable design which would stand the Cybermen in good stead for the rest of the classic series. I particularly like the transparent mouthpiece, through which we can see a silvered human jaw speaking within. This reminds us that we're dealing with cybernetic humans, part-man and part-machine. These are the least robotic Cybermen since their debut in The Tenth Planet.

Their voices are different too, much less robotic than in the 1960s when sometimes their modulated dialogue was hard to make out. In 1975's Revenge of the Cybermen, actor Christopher Robbie debuted the deep, resonant, masculine voice, but here David Banks adds more intonation, and essentially makes the Cyberleader more emotional in his speech patterns. I like this too, I think it makes sense to demonstrate a balance between the human and the cybernetic elements of these monsters. It's a human-like voice, but one almost - but not quite - consumed by the cold, calculated logic of cybernetic conversion.

Earthshock Part One

The one where an old enemy makes a surprise return...

The year is 2526, but some things don't change. They still have quarries in the 26th century, and this is where we find Lieutenant Scott and his band of refreshingly mixed-sex troopers as they investigate a case of missing palaeontologists (and geologists). A band of ologists searching for fossils in a newly discovered cave system were attacked, and presumably killed, with just one - Professor Kyle - escaping to tell the tale. Scott remains suspicious.

There's almost five minutes spent with these guest characters, and it's directed with urgency and pace by Peter Grimwade, one of Doctor Who's best in years. It's particularly pleasing to see so many female actors in the military roles, including Suzi Arden's Snyder, Anne Clements' Baines, and Scott's deputy, Ann Holloway's Sergeant Mitchell. This is the 26th century after all, and it's great to see some forward-thinking and equality in the casting (in fact, eight of this story's 18 credited actors are female, which is pretty marvellous).

Black Orchid Part Two

The one where the Doctor gives the locals a tour of his TARDIS...

A lovely afternoon's trip to the countryside for a game of cricket and a fancy dress party has gone terribly awry for the Doctor. He didn't even get to take his bath before he stumbled into a secret passage and happened across a dead body. While everybody else is outside on the terrace scoffing a cold collation and dancing with strangers, the Doctor meets a Brazilian with a big lip, "an old friend", according to Lady Cranleigh.

It's quite ingenious how writer Terence Dudley gently but cruelly unravels the Doctor's perfectly fine day. He finds the body of Digby the male nurse in the cupboard, but when Ann accuses the Doctor of murdering James the butler, his appeals to Lady Cranleigh for an alibi fall on deaf ears. Madge clams up and refuses to corroborate the Doctor's claim that he was elsewhere when the murder happened. What a cow!

Black Orchid Part One

The one where the Doctor plays cricket...

A two-part story!? We've not had one of those for seven years, but back then it took two weeks to see the story, and not two days like with Black Orchid. Because of the way Doctor Who was being broadcast during the Davison era (twice a week), stories are over so much quicker than before. Take a week's holiday, and you'd miss an entire adventure!

But in this case, you wouldn't be missing very much. Black Orchid part 1 is 25 minutes of almost nothing happening. It's the episode where the Doctor and his friends go on holiday, the sort of story that should happen when we're not looking. Perhaps it's right that Black Orchid was over so quickly back in 1982?

The Visitation Part Four

The one where the Doctor helps to start the Great Fire of London...

The Doctor discharging the Terileptil power pack to zap Mace's gun was nicely seeded in part 2, when he first demonstrated it. It's not 100% clear what the Doctor does unless you remember the power pack scene in part 2 - and remember, that happened a week ago in 1982 - but it's a nice solution to the Doctor's predicament.

Having overcome Tegan's trance-like state by hugging her, he asks how she's feeling. "Groggy, sore and bad-tempered," she moans. "Almost your old self!" replies the Doctor. Tegan may be some or all of these things from time to time, but she's also very practically minded, and is the voice of reason when they are trying to get the locked door open. Tegan suggests the sonic screwdriver (destroyed), then a flintlock (too noisy, she's told), but is having none of the fact Richard thinks he can pick a lock using a safety pin. The flintlock is the best option after all, and if they hadn't listened to Tegan they might have been there for ever!