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!).

Let's address the elephant in the room here: where's Tegan? She was left behind by the Doctor and Nyssa at the end of Season 19, but there's absolutely no mention of her here as we resume our adventures with the Doctor. Has some considerable time passed between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity, so both the Doctor or Nyssa seem to have moved on? Well actually, yes: spin-off fiction dictates that an awful long time has elapsed between the seasons, with different companions such as Thomas Brewster and Hannah Bartholomew having come and gone between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity. Nyssa's still in the same clothes though...

The programme opens with a discussion between a shadowy Time Lord wielding a funny pen, and an imaginatively designed creature who likes to sit down. I do like Dee Robson's costume design for this mysterious entity (credited as The Renegade), consisting of swirls and circular patterns reminiscent of a hawk moth or a Rorschach painting, and the way director Ron Jones projects the Renegade's image in negative blues is clever (especially as we later learn he is made of anti-matter). The Time Lord and the Renegade have chosen the Doctor for their dastardly purposes, for which the Renegade will need our hero's biodata extract transmitting to him.

Meanwhile, Nyssa is nagging the Doctor about making more repairs to the TARDIS, perhaps making him rue the day he left Tegan behind, and wishing Thomas and Hannah would come back. The narrative throughout the episode staggers in three directions: goings-on on Gallifrey, shenanigans in the TARDIS, and a subplot involving two young male hikers in Amsterdam. There are vaguely strengthening connections between the first two, but what relevance Robin and Colin's Dutch angle has on proceedings is an utter mystery.

Robin and Colin are an odd couple, played with gossamer-thin aptitude by Andrew Boxer and Alastair Cumming. Robin has obviously backpacked in Amsterdam before because he knows of the "perfect" place to sleep rough overnight: an old, abandoned crypt. He leads nervy Colin to this cobwebbed lair and encourages his Aussie travelling companion (for there always should be one) to get undressed before he snuggles down into his sleeping bag. "At least take your boots off!" snorts Robin as Colin reveals his uber-80s fluorescent socks.

The relevance of these two boys bickering in Amsterdam remains largely a mystery, that is until Colin hears the sound of a TARDIS materialising in the next chamber and creeps, in stockinged feet, to investigate. It's not the police box we might expect, but instead some kind of tombstone, which then slides open to reveal a blinding white light. Emerging out of the glare, astutely silhouetted, steps a robotic chicken thing, which zaps the astonished Colin and makes him disappear. The space chicken (clearly inspired in its design by the far more impressive work of H.R Giger and his work on Alien) returns to its floodlit domain as if nothing ever happened.

It's all as mad as a box of frogs (or chickens), and as director Ron Jones cuts frenetically between Gallifrey, TARDIS and Holland, the viewer feels increasingly alienated and confused. What has one thing to do with the other? Is the space chicken anything to do with the Renegade? The Renegade refers to his shadowy conspirator as a Time Lord, suggesting that the Renegade himself isn't a Time Lord. Why has the space chicken got a TARDIS, and why has it landed in a crypt in Amsterdam?

Meanwhile, the Renegade tries to bond with the Doctor, reaching out from his anti-matter dimension into the TARDIS. There appears to be some kind of connection, but then the Doctor collapses and seems to carry on as if he's not bonded or connected at all. The Doctor traces the energy field to a place called Rondel aka the Arc of Infinity, the location of a collapsed Q-Star (or "grey hole") and the only place to find quardal magnetism, which can shield anti-matter. This suggests Rondel is where the Renegade is hiding, although he'd better hurry up with his plan to reverse his polarity because quardal magnetism decays rapidly, apparently.

Keeping up?

The episode is a mish-mash of ideas and events that don't feel like a cohesive whole at all. Writer Johnny Byrne would appear to have put a lot of thought into his story, but sometimes the execution lets it down. The casting of Boxer and Cumming is unfortunate, and the attempt to hide the true identity of the High Council traitor is doomed as soon as guest star Michael Gough appears as Councillor Hedin. Gough had such a profoundly distinctive voice that no amount of wibbling about with a sound mixer can disguise the fact he is the shadowy Time Lord. The death of engineer Talor with an accurately identified impulse laser is also poorly executed, described later as an "accident" when it's clearly murder. All this chopping and changing in the edit makes the thing feel so incoherent. The High Council of the Time Lords (played by Leonard Sachs, Michael Gough, Paul Jerricho and Elspet Gray, no less!) appear for one scene halfway through, then disappear.

Why does the robot chicken make a possessed slave of poor Colin just to have him fix a big hair dryer contraption to the wall of a crypt? Why doesn't Robin try to communicate more with his friend instead of run away, moan about the police's inaction, then almost completely wash his hands of Colin's predicament when he checks in at the hostel? Why is there nobody to meet the Doctor when the TARDIS arrives on Gallifrey, seeing as they have specifically recalled him there? Why is Commander Maxil such a moody jobsworth? Why are the corridors of Gallifrey peppered with comfy sofas, chrome lampstands and random sculptures? And why is there just one specific "computer room"? Would Gallifrey not have hundreds, if not millions of computers for such an advanced race?

The cliffhanger has Maxil (Colin Baker) shoot the Doctor, no questions asked. In seven months time, Baker would be announced as the man to play the Sixth Doctor, which puts an amusingly different slant on this scene, as we see the Doctor's future self attempt to kill his past self, perhaps trying to spark an early regeneration!

But the biggest question of all is: who is Colin's cousin arriving at Schiphol Airport tomorrow?

First broadcast: January 3rd, 1983

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The design of the Renegade is quite refreshing.
The Bad: The robot chicken thing.
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.

Arc of Infinity 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