Every time Doctor Who reaches the end of a decade, it seems to be an automatic point of change and renewal for the series. However, in this case there was no change or renewal, just a full-stop. Here's the third in a trilogy of blogs looking back over a decade of Doctor Who.
The 1980s
I reached the end of the 1970s in December 2020, when the world was in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK we were initially under the impression we'd be able to spend Christmas with our families, but as the infections worsened, this leeway was reduced to just one day. It was a sad and frustrating time in world history, but if everything else was falling apart around me, there was one shaft of light that kept me going through it all - Doctor Who!
Here I am, 18 months later, and I've reached the end of the 1980s, and the end of Classic Who. It didn't take me as long to review the 1980s because I simply had more time to do it in, although family issues did interfere quite stressfully along the way. There were times - notably towards the end of the Davison era - when I considered packing it all in. My blog would have ended with part 4 of Planet of Fire, and its 'unfinishedness' would frustrate millions of readers for generations to come. Well, a couple perhaps. For minutes!
Doctor Who's 1980s actually began with part 3 of The Horns of Nimon, but spiritually it kicked off with Season 18's The Leisure Hive. Tom Baker was in his seventh and final series as the Doctor, and the programme was changing around him to reflect newer, flashier, glossier times ahead. By 1980, Baker was looking and feeling tired. He may have been a national hero, but all heroes need a rest, and it did feel like it was time for Tom to go.
That last season of his is strange because it feels like it should be in the Davison era. The new titles and theme arrangement, the new incidental composers, the introduction of three new companions... Season 18 is like a dry-run for what's to come - same feet, new shoes - but the full impact of what incoming producer John Nathan-Turner did to the programme wouldn't take full effect until Peter Davison pulled on his cricketing costume in 1982.
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Davison is most definitely a good actor, a thoughtful performer who cares about the role he's playing. I do think he was probably too young to play the part at the time (unlike Matt Smith, Davison lacked an organic eccentricity), but he gradually made it his own. Perhaps too gradually, as he didn't really nail his interpretation solidly until Season 21, when it was time for him to go. The Fifth Doctor of Season 21 is quite different to the one we see in Season 19. The Doctor's more boyish and naive in Season 19, but by the end of his tenure he's more cynical, grumpier even. The events of his era hardened the Fifth Doctor until, by the end, he'd fully-formed into the selfless Boys' Own Hero who sacrifices himself for his friend in The Caves of Androzani.
Most of Season 21's Davison stories populate the top half of my Fifth Doctor chart, with my favourite being the beautifully doom-laden The Caves of Androzani, still the best swansong a Doctor ever had. The Awakening is a life-long folk horror favourite of mine, while Frontios is so much better than most people think (and many people do like it). It's intelligently written and performed and has some great moments which sadly slip through the cracks because the Tractators look a bit silly, and steal the limelight.
A hidden gem of the era is the magnificent Snakedance (different and better than Kinda), which gives Janet Fielding and Peter Davison some fine moments to shine, while there's no escaping the rush of nostalgia that comes with The Five Doctors. It may be flawed, but it's so unique in the canon that its nonsenses can be forgiven. Other highlights of the era include the merciless Earthshock, which still packs a punch today, and the cleverly plotted Mawdryn Undead, which I came to appreciate much more this time around thanks to writer Peter Grimwade's revolutionary (for the time) story-telling. He was the Steven Moffat of the classic series!
I was less enamoured by fan favourite The Visitation, which looks good but actually boils down to a rather stale runaround, in which the burgeoning TARDIS crew simply doesn't have enough to do. That's a common complaint throughout Season 19 really, but while some stories lack vim and vigour (Castrovalva and Black Orchid), by and large they have great ideas. Four to Doomsday may be a terribly old-fashioned stroll, but I appreciate its retro atmosphere, feeling like an early Hartnell.
When the Davison era is poor, it does poor properly. Time-Flight (my lowest scoring classic series story of all) and Arc of Infinity both have decent opening episodes, but they descend into tedium and nonsense very quickly, and in the case of Time-Flight, it looks really cheap. Again, Warriors of the Deep starts off OK but tumbles into oblivion thanks to some ill-judged production values.
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It's specifically the TV version of the Sixth Doctor I dislike. I know wonders have been worked with him on audio since, but the Doctor who flounced about the universe dressed like a clown in a Harpo Marx wig in the mid-80s was a joke. His stories weren't very good either, the best being Eric Saward's black comedy Revelation of the Daleks, and even that wouldn't be as good if it wasn't directed by Graeme Harper. I really enjoyed Timelash this time around simply because it was 'old skool'. It looks cheap and hasn't got anywhere near enough plot to fill 90 minutes, but there's a hokey charm about it which I enjoy.
The best written work of the era comes from Pip and Jane Baker, those periphrastic scribes who invented the wonderful Rani (played perfectly by Kate O'Mara) and wove an enjoyably tangled murder mystery featuring monstrous vegetables with fantastic diction. The Bakers might be ridiculed for their overripe dialogue, but The Mark of the Rani and Terror of the Vervoids are both very enjoyable adventures which avoid the less attractive trappings of the era.
It's the violence that gets me. I'm no prude, but I feel the way violence was portrayed in Season 22 was unforgivable. Sometimes it felt more like a slasher flick than a family adventure show. The Two Doctors is the worst of this for me, which as well as featuring cannibalism, severed limbs and melting faces, treats Patrick Troughton disrespectfully, reducing him as an actor, and the Second Doctor as a whole. Pat should've said no.
As for The Trial of a Time Lord, well... What a wasted opportunity to restart and try again. The BBC more or less gave the production team a clean slate and the perfect opportunity to make Doctor Who better again, to make it more relevant to the times. Instead, the same producer and script editor who got the show into so much trouble in the first place stayed on, and just carried on as they were, only this time with less imagination and enthusiasm than ever. Putting the Doctor on trial was a curious decision, as if they were trying to shanghai the show themselves. The entire season was a narrative mess, with a lead actor who was past his prime already and an atmosphere of shabbiness throughout. By the time the Doctor and Melanie - the best thing about Season 23 - climbed aboard the TARDIS talking of carrot juice, Doctor Who was well past the time for change. It needed CPR.
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Fandom commonly places Season 26 as the best of the McCoy era, but my critical reviews show me that I much prefer Season 25. There are three versions of the Seventh Doctor: Season 24's comedic hobo, Season 25's loveable hippy, and Season 26's darker interpretation. While the brown-coated Doctor is fine as character development goes, he's a less entertaining, less present Seventh Doctor. Season 26 has quality written through it, but Sylvester's Doctor isn't as much fun to watch.
The highlight of the era - and the entire classic series for me - is Remembrance of the Daleks, the true 25th anniversary tale, which oozes quality at every turn. It's the serial that turned me from a casual viewer into an avid fanboy for the rest of my life. The story is exciting and action-packed, well-written and performed, directed with flair and imagination. In fact, imagination is a hallmark of the era, which gives us giant pink brains, regenerating green babies, biomechanoids with crystals in their head, confectioners made of liquorice allsorts, living statues, clowns dressed as undertakers, knights from another dimension, a Neanderthal butler, mutants from the end of time, and humanoid cat-people on horseback.
Script editor Andrew Cartmel took inspiration from comics and graphic novels, and that shines through brightly. It's a colourful, strongly imaginative era which wears its heart on its sleeve and features one of the very best Doctor/ companion relationships the show ever had. Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred gelled so well, creating a dynamic so profound and convincing that after too many years of cod B-movie sci-fi hokum, the viewer could invest in the characters and follow their journey. The Seventh Doctor and Ace are up there with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane, and perhaps the First Doctor and Vicki, for me, as the finest couplings the show had.
Most of the Seventh Doctor's stories are good or very good. Classics such as Remembrance of the Daleks and The Curse of Fenric vie with strong contenders like The Happiness Patrol and Ghost Light, but there are also stories which are just damned good fun, if not terribly good. A piece of my heart will always belong to Delta and the Bannermen because it's such runaway breathless fun, while Time and the Rani may have its embarrassments, but it's force of character makes it memorably enjoyable to watch.
Even the dregs of the era are perfectly fun to sit through, such as the busy Silver Nemesis or the messy Battlefield (so much potential, ruined by terrible execution). Dragonfire is kinda just 'there', but again, there's much to enjoy. The one thing you can say about the McCoy era is that it's never boring.
The 1980s were not the best of Doctor Who, but they had some of the best. Producer John Nathan-Turner should have moved on - he should have been allowed to move on - after the 20th anniversary to let fresh blood and ideas in. Maybe the Sixth Doctor's era wouldn't have been the car crash it was if the production team was different. We'd have had a different actor in the role, and maybe the tone of the show wouldn't have precipitated a hiatus? Maybe the Sixth Doctor's era would have lasted longer, there'd be no Sylvester McCoy, and the programme would still be running well into the 1990s?
JNT was good for Doctor Who, to begin with. He brought gloss and colour, an 80s sheen and a modern outlook. But he was out of ideas after a few years, allowing his script editor to take the creative reins, and to be honest, Saward's creative vision was not a good match for Doctor Who. The hot mess that was Season 23, and the fall-out behind the scenes, turned out to be a good thing for the programme, because it meant Saward stropped off and new recruit Andrew Cartmel was ushered in, a man with plenty of fresh new ideas which would rejuvenate the show. It's a pity the BBC didn't recognise what it had, because those last couple of seasons were among the best Doctor Who ever made, with a cracking team at the helm. Doctor Who certainly burned bright before the night fell...
And so here is my Top 10 of the 1980s. Unsurprisingly, it's dominated by the Fifth and Seventh Doctors, with the Sixth Doctor making an honorary appearance for that stylish Dalek story alone. I've purposefully omitted Season 18 stories, but if they were included, State of Decay would be in joint second place, a story which is pure quality. People might be surprised to see The Happiness Patrol so high, but if you can get past the pink pyjamas and Kandy Man design, there's a bloody good story there to be savoured. And if you can't get past the Kandy Man, it's a shame because you're missing something special. It's telling that 75% of Season 25 is in the Top 10, as it is also my favourite season of classic Who.
3. Earthshock
= 4. The Happiness Patrol
= 4. The Curse of Fenric
= 6. Snakedance
= 6. The Awakening
= 6. Frontios
And the bottom 10 of the decade? Here it is, with number 1 being the worst...
1. Time-Flight
= 5. Black Orchid
= 5. The King's Demons
= 5. Vengeance on Varos
= 9. Arc of Infinity
= 9. Battlefield
McCoy just scrapes in there with the disappointing misfire Battlefield, but it hardly seems fair it should share the same place as the shoddy Arc of Infinity. If I were including Season 18, Meglos would drop in joint fifth place (boy is that a bad story). The Sixth Doctor has a disproportionate number of his stories in this bottom 10, with his debut story The Twin Dilemma revealed as one of the very worst serials put out under the Doctor Who name ever. Almost every single thing about that story is wrong, and I wish it could be wiped from memory so we start the Sixth Doctor's era proper with Season 22. It would still be my least favourite era, but at least the mistakes made in that story wouldn't have taken place. Time-Flight, Black Orchid and The King's Demons are in there because they're just so damned boring, while the Season 22 stories are the nadir of Saward's distasteful obsession with blood, guts and violence.
It's taken me five years and three months, from start to finish, from Totter's Lane to Bleasdale Avenue, to review every single broadcast episode of classic Doctor Who. It's been an adventure, an education and a joy. But the prospect of embarking upon the new series is too overwhelming, and I simply don't have the time in my life to dedicate to it. So if any of you are wondering if I plan to continue with the TV movie, Rose and beyond - no. Sorry. I'll leave that to better men.
But thanks for reading these reviews. They'll be here for good now, or until the world implodes in a surge of greed, war and disaster. But if that were to happen, one thing I know for sure: the Doctor will always be there to save us.
~ Steve, July 1st, 2020
PS... How many individual episodes of the 1980s scored the golden 10/10? A total of 15 episodes scored top marks, including: State of Decay 2, 3 & 4; Kinda 1; Earthshock 4; Snakedance 2; The Caves of Androzani 3 & 4; Remembrance of the Daleks 1, 2, 3 & 4 (!); and The Curse of Fenric 3 & 4. No Sixth Doctor episodes, you'll note: the closest he got was 9/10 for Revelation of the Daleks 1 and The Trial of a Time Lord 9.
And how low did the 80s go on my score sheet? A number of stories had episodes scoring 3/10 (Meglos, Warriors' Gate, Castrovalva, The King's Demons, Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos), but 2/10 was the lowest any episode went, including: Time-Flight 2, 3 & 4; Warriors of the Deep 3; The Twin Dilemma 1 & 4; The Two Doctors 3; and The Trial of a Time Lord 6 & 7. Nothing in the McCoy era stooped so low, the closest being Silver Nemesis 2 and Battlefield 2 & 4, with 4/10.
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