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!

The late Professor Hayter turning up in the TARDIS is a bit of a twist, although it turns out he's not the real Hayter at all, but the Xeraphin using his image so that they can help pilot the TARDIS to the Doctor. A cheap trick then.

Back out on the Jurassic plains of prehistory, the Concorde aircrew set about checking over the plane and preparing to fix the broken fuel line. Would airline crew know how to affect repairs on the craft? Just because they can fly it doesn't mean they know how it all works. It seems being an aircraft pilot also means you're an aircraft mechanic too.

As this episode unfolded I could feel my patience being severely tested. It felt like there was one embarrassing/ disappointing/ poorly realised/ awfully acted moment after another. If it's not dodgy shots of a toy aeroplane pretending to be a full-size plane, it's Roger Limb's mind-numbingly bland incidental score, which seems to have no relationship to the story, its themes or its rhythms whatsoever. It sounds like a man idling away at his keyboard waiting for his wife to call him downstairs for tea.

The Doctor and the Master have no proper face-off at all, they just resort to chummy chats about temporal limiters, quantum accelerators and time lapse compressors. They strike a deal to swap a bit of circuitry for another, but there's no danger or jeopardy, no comprehension that this is supposed to be a science-fiction adventure serial, full of thrills and spills, monsters and maniacs. What we get is a bunch of people walking around a really poor prehistoric studio set talking nonsense. The best bit of the entire episode is Nyssa's catty remark to Tegan: "You know how the Doctor collects spare parts." Not sure if she's having a sarky swipe at Tegan, or referring to Adric, but either way it's the bitchiest Nyssa's ever been, or ever likely to be.

The Time Lords amicably exchange circuitry, the aircrew change aeroplane wheels and fix fluid links, and the Doctor lies on the floor so he can have a good think about how he's going to stop the Master. He has no plan, he's just pissing in the wind. As are Peter Grimwade, Ron Jones and Eric Saward. You could hardly call these three a "production team" because it feels like there's no communication between any of them. This story feels like it got made despite the people making it, not because of them!

The whole episode is a huge anti-climax. Why don't we get to see inside the Master's TARDIS? Why are we told everything that's happening rather than shown it? The Doctor tells us that the Master will need to track back along the time contour to Heathrow 1982, then tells us that he can get there before him and occupy the same coordinates, which he tells us will prevent the Master from materialising. He then tells us that the Master's TARDIS has been catapulted back to the planet Xeriphas, where he'll be stranded, perhaps forever. And at no point do we see any of this happening to the Master. Anthony Ainley just disappears from the story without fanfare. The story stalls before it even gets into third gear.

There are so many awful aspects to this story: the conceit that Concorde will be able to take off smoothly across the prehistoric surface is bunkum (Great Britain was mostly underwater in the Jurassic); Tegan switching into air hostess mode as she ushers the dazed passengers aboard Concorde is just inane; Concorde having a wheel that could barely support a Mini Metro; the fact you can plainly see buildings in the background when Concorde miraculously takes off; the Master's wobbly (and badly painted) TARDIS prop; the lazy, repeated use of "I'll explain later".

Back at Heathrow, the TARDIS materialises on the roof, and Tegan goes for a wistful stroll around Terminal 3. It's interesting to see her gaze longingly at the International Departures board as the announcer refers to flights to Australia. Is Tegan considering her options? She is, after all, back home, at Heathrow, exactly where she was going before she got that puncture and walked into another dimension on the A555. Tegan obviously decides against flying off to Brisbane and heads back to the TARDIS, only to discover the Doctor and Nyssa have left without her!

It's a good cliffhanger to end the season. The Doctor's lost two companions in as many stories. Will he come back for her? Will we ever see Tegan again? Is this like when Dodo left in The War Machines (without ceremony) or when Liz was just written out without explanation between Seasons 7 and 8? We shall see.

Time-Flight is a truly atrocious piece of television "drama". It looks offensively cheap, made all the more obvious by the fact part 1 has lavish location filming at Heathrow with real Concorde to boot. It degenerates into a confused, confusing mess, with rubbish monsters, acres of gobbledygook and standards of acting you'd expect in pre-school programming, not a groundbreaking sci-fi series on the cusp of its 20th year in production. Peter Grimwade should never have been allowed near a typewriter if this is the tripe he came up with. Grimwade was a director with ideas above his creative station. Time-Flight is an embarrassment to Doctor Who, and an embarrassment for everybody who conspired to create it.

Season 19 is a bumpy affair. We get a new Doctor who's largely successful, but the stories are pretty hit and miss. For every gem like Kinda and Earthshock, you get a dull affair like Castrovalva or Black Orchid. And then there's Time-Flight, which is in a special class all its own. Economy, certainly not first.

Doctor Who's immediate replacement the following Monday was Daffy Duck's Easter Special, and on the Tuesday a documentary in which naturalist Jeffery Boswall investigated the history of eggs. I'd much rather be watching Daffy and Jeff than more of Doctor Who's tatty escapades in prehistory.

And so what became of the Concorde used in the story, G-BOAC aka Alpha Charlie? Registered in April 1974, the craft was finally withdrawn from use in May 2004. The aircraft is currently in storage at Manchester Airport, and hasn't been powered up since 2011. You can go and visit G-BOAC at Manchester's Runway Visitor Park for £6 (which was, coincidentally, also Time-Flight's budget).

First broadcast: March 30th, 1982

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The cliffhanger ending to the season is a refreshing twist.
The Bad: Everything.
Overall score for episode: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (story average: 2.3 out of 10, making it officially my worst Doctor Who story (so far...))

NEXT TIME: Arc of Infinity...

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

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.

Time-Flight is available as part of a BBC DVD box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Time-Flight-Arc-Infinity/dp/B000R20VKA