Four to Doomsday Part One

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

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

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

Inside the TARDIS, writer Terence Dudley is keen to explore the dynamic between the four crewmembers, four people thrust together by circumstance rather than choice. Only one of these four have specifically chosen to spend time with the others (Adric, with the Doctor), so of course the tensions and relationships between them is going to be rich ground to cover. Over time, there tended to be too much time spent in the TARDIS in the Davison era, but in these early stages, I think it's important to explore how each character interacts with the others.

And it's interesting to see how Dudley, a rather patriarchal, old-fashioned man by most accounts, sees these relationships. He portrays Nyssa and Adric as siblings, a squabbling brother and sister, and Tegan as the older sister. It's not a bad reflection of the three actors' real standings at that time: Matthew Waterhouse and Sarah Sutton were both 20 years old (born just two days apart), while Janet Fielding was a much more mature 28 years old (amazingly, there's only two years between Fielding and Peter Davison).

Adric is rather proprietorial among the girls, which is a perfectly realistic reaction for him to have. He's been with the Doctor the longest, and may not know this Doctor very well, but he knows what life is like travelling with him the best ("Oh he's always in trouble, or haven't you noticed? It amuses him!"). He sees himself as the "elder statesman" of the companions, busying himself about the console and instructing Nyssa to fetch the Doctor (and Nyssa blankly obeys: "Yes").

When the Doctor bursts in with Tegan in tow, it feels like Davison has slipped right into the part with ease, despite this being his first story recorded. Davison might feel he took a while to find his interpretation of the part, but he pretty much found it straight away, in my opinion. To a large extent, the Fifth Doctor is just Peter Davison being himself, but that's not unusual: Pertwee and Tom Baker were the same.

What's also interesting is that Tegan doesn't want to stay with the Doctor on the TARDIS, and this is another accurate reflection of her true character. At last, somebody has thought about how these kids would behave, rather than just give them tokenistic dialogue, as Christopher H Bidmead's been doing. Tegan got waylaid on her way to work as an air hostess, back in Logopolis, and life hasn't stopped for her since. But now all that business with the Master and the Doctor's regeneration is sorted, her first thought returns to getting back to her normal life, going to work at Heathrow. What doesn't fit well is her rather off-hand recollection of what happened to her poor Aunt Vanessa ("Reduced to 'so' long!"), but it's still nice that Dudley refers to it.

Dudley decides to give Adric a chauvinistic edge which may not have been evident before, but then the character hasn't had a lot of opportunity to express it. I like that Adric's reacting in this way. From his perspective, life was fine travelling with the Fourth Doctor, just the two of them. Then they went to Traken and everything came unravelled, and these two girls have appeared and won't go away. They've spoilt the little world he had with the Doctor. Even the Doctor's changed. No wonder Adric's a bit prickly. "That's the trouble with women," he says. "Mindless, impatient and bossy." OK, so that's a pretty heavy-handed dose of sexism he dishes out there, but it's character-forming. It shows why Tegan might develop a dislike of the precocious young Alzarian, and that's fair enough after that exchange!

His insistence that girls should read more, perhaps maths books, appals Tegan ("Maths!"), and he does himself no favours with Nyssa either, who's busy reading Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica when she's told she's "only a girl". Adric is throwing a heck of a lot of shade around at this point, making few friends, but I think this is all quite natural. It's the first time these three have had time to stop and spend time together, and tensions run high.

Tellingly, the Doctor treats his three companions similarly. He sees Adric and Nyssa as the "children", automatically entrusting the TARDIS key to the older Tegan (and when she asks if she can stay behind, he offers it to Adric, knowing the Australian will react). This is all written so thoughtfully by Terence Dudley. He doesn't get it right with every line ("Heathrow is on the M4, not Corfu!"), but at least he has given some consideration to how these people might interact, and it's the first time anybody's really done that.

Outside the TARDIS is a vast, deserted laboratory, and it's a joy to see the Doctor explore, admiring the equipment like a seasoned scientist, but never losing sight of the fact he's being observed. Tony Burrough does a magnificent job of the sets, which look solid and detailed, and lit so beautifully in reds and greens by Don Babbage. Later, Burrough's designs for the ship's corridors, and Monarch's throne room are equally as impressive, and always complemented so well by Babbage. The set and lighting design in this story deserve high praise.

I adore the atmosphere generated by the slow exploration of the lab, it feels like it's come right out of Season 1 (specifically The Sensorites). The pace is slow, but there's mystery with it, and the realisation that the Doctor's crew is being watched by unseen strangers. Director John Black creates a spooky atmosphere despite the fiercely technological setting, and that's no mean feat. It's partly down to the sparse use of music, just having the gentle thrum of the ship underlying the scenes, and that feeling of them being watched is eerie.

The effect of the monopticon hovering quietly above them, simply observing ("with a hypnotic stare"), is done really well, and I like how the lens dilates, like an all-seeing eye. It's a very clever little effect for the time, and still stands up four decades later.

When a door slides open ("Look! A door!"), the Doctor decides to take Tegan to see whoever owns this ship, leaving Nyssa and Adric behind in the lab. Again, Adric reacts realistically, feeling snubbed by the Doctor. Why should Tegan be the one to go with him, when he is the "elder statesman" of the three? He doesn't like being left behind, and sinks into a sulk, squabbling with Nyssa, who's busy showing off her knowledge of interferometers, graviton crystal detectors and time curve circuits. I bet she's great at parties.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Tegan meet the frog-like Monarch ("You look as if you might be") and his two amphibian aides Enlightenment and Persuasion ("Friendly, I hope?" being a classic Fifth Doctor line). Veteran actor Stratford Johns brings a grandiose presence to Monarch, and manages to convey the character's pomposity and self-regard through Dorka Nieradzik's marvellous froggy make-up. Nieradzik's work on Paul Shelley (Persuasion) and Annie Lambert (Enlightenment) is less successful, looking more like pull-on masks than carefully applied make-up, but they still look suitably alien.

By the way, the moment just after the Doctor removes his helmet (just past the 13min mark) is the first time in this endless episodic marathon that I've ever felt even slightly attracted to the Doctor. I used to think it was sacrilege to find Dr Who attractive, until they cast David Tennant and then I had a real internal struggle on my hands! I got over it, and then they cast Matt Smith and that was when I was utterly lost. But watching these classic episodes through, there's not been much opportunity to find the Doctor attractive, until now. Peter Davison is not my type, but when he looks slightly confused, with tousled hair, there was a moment...!

Dudley's dialogue continues to impress. He considers what he's writing, and gives the characters conversations rather than lines. Sometimes the conversation goes to a very strange place (all that about safety pins is just weird), but it feels natural and organic, and that's quite refreshing after eight episodes of sometimes cold, mechanical dialogue from Christopher H Bidmead. Dudley does throw in some googlies though, such as the heavy-handed bit about salt/ sodium chloride, and Tegan's miraculous ability to speak Tiwi.

As part of this casual conversation, Enlightenment asks about the fashions of Earth, and this is the point where we learn that Tegan chose the wrong career when she trained as an air hostess. Given paper and pencil, she manages to sketch a truly stunning example of male and female haute couture in a matter of minutes, while crouched awkwardly in the middle of the room. Her artistic skills are breath-taking, and although I wouldn't necessarily agree that that's what the people of 1980 were wearing on the high street, that is what Tegan sees herself wearing when she's in her civvies. She must watch a lot of Sapphire and Steel.

The closing scene sees the Doctor, Adric and Tegan reunited with Nyssa in a dining area, with vegetarian food brought in by an ancient Athenian called Bigon. They are quickly joined by an Australian Aborigine (Kurkutji), a Mayan princess (Villagra), and a Chinese mandarin (Lin Futu), making Four to Doomsday one of the most ethnically diverse stories in Doctor Who's history. It's great to have Burt Kwouk in Doctor Who at long last, although the Doctor's borderline racist reaction to "I am Lin Futu" is disappointing ("Well, I'd never have guessed it. You look in the best of health to me").

It's a mystery. A spaceship four days away from Earth, flown by three froggy aliens, carrying with them a menagerie of humans from throughout Earth's ancient history (Athens, Central America, Australasia and China). Kurkutji believes they are on their way to Heaven, although the more rational Bigon does not. Villagra has vowed not to speak again until she is reunited with her people. It's an intriguing set-up.

And then Tegan's drawings walk in. It is Enlightenment and Persuasion, who have somehow transmogrified into real-life versions of Tegan's sketches. It's not a classic cliffhanger, but it does pave the way for frogs in Doctor Who never being quite what they seem.

Four to Doomsday is often overlooked or maligned. I really enjoyed this first episode, it felt like a traditional, old-school Hartnell Who.

First broadcast: January 18th, 1982

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Terence Dudley's script builds both character and intrigue, and although it's modestly paced, the drip-drip of revelations, and the interactions of the regulars, hold the interest.
The Bad: The thankfully short-lived make-up for Persuasion and Enlightenment.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

Four to Doomsday is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Four-Doomsday-DVD/dp/B001ARYYUE/