Logopolis Part Four

The one where the moment has been prepared for...

So here it is: the end. The last time we'll ever see Tom Baker's face in the opening titles, the last episode of a monumentally significant and popular era in Doctor Who history. But this moment has been prepared for...

It's strange watching classic Who through the lens of the 21st century, when the departure of a Doctor is given such apocalyptic importance, such grandiloquence. Back in the "olden days", a Doctor going was often treated with as much importance as a mid-season pot-boiler, and in many ways, that goes for Logopolis. These days, this story would be called something grandiose like The End of the Universe, but in 1981, it's named after a planet. And these days the Doctor would go out doing something far more heroic than simply trying to unplug a cable, but there you go. That's how different television was 40 years ago.

Logopolis Part Three

The one where the Master accidentally rots the Universe...

Somewhere, a Logopolitan has got his sums wrong, resulting in the TARDIS reducing in size with the Doctor trapped inside. "The honour of Logopolis is at stake!" whittles Monitor. Yes, just imagine: people laughing at Logopolis because it got one of its sums wrong! I do like the way Peter Grimwade directs the TARDIS interior scenes though, with a muzzy look to the lens as if it's smeared with Vaseline. It reflects the fact the dimensions are compacting (it also makes it look like the Doctor's back on Vortis!).

The Logopolitans (who don't speak or smile, but do carry) transport the miniaturised TARDIS through the streets to the central registry. It's every Doctor Who fan's dream to have a mini TARDIS like this, in the corner of the bedroom or the bottom of the garden! Now most of us have a model police box on our bookshelves, but a model this size is even more exciting. It's almost possible it's the real thing, as we see here and in Flatline over 30 years later.

Logopolis Part Two

The one where someone from the last story randomly turns up...

This is the last episode that we get to see the Fourth Doctor/ Adric dynamic working in isolation, which is a shame. I'll be sorry to see the relationship corrupted by the arrival of additional companions, and ultimately by the change in Doctor. This episode is full of little moments of charm between the two, such as the continuation of the reprise where the Doctor just knows Adric is there behind him, and shouts over his shoulder calling for a diversion to help him escape the police.

Adric searches around for a prop and finds the copper's bicycle, and it's a lovely little moment when Matthew Waterhouse looks at the bike in confusion because of course Adric doesn't know what a bicycle is! Adric then pretends he's fallen off the bike to distract the policemen, allowing the Doctor to skip merrily back into the TARDIS with a cheeky wave. Adric hurls the bike into the pursuing policeman's path before rushing into the TARDIS and slamming the door in their face. What a team!

Logopolis Part One

The one where there's a TARDIS within a TARDIS...

Logopolis. Great word to roll around the mouth, but what does it mean? It's one of those Doctor Who stories named after something that doesn't mean anything until you've sat down and watched it, like Meglos, Praxeus or, indeed, anything written by Christopher H Bidmead. When I was a teenager first encountering this story on VHS, I thought it was pronounced "LO-GO-PO-Lis", stressing the first three syllables in a most unlikely way! I used to say "SON-ta-ran" too until I learnt better!

This 550th episode of Doctor Who opens with a policeman using the telephone of an actual, real police box, which even 40 years on, is ridiculously exciting for a Doctor Who fan. This episode is full of moments like that, teetering dangerously close to fanwank, but that's no reason not to find it exciting! Something wibbly seems to happen to the police box, and the copper is pulled menacingly inside it by malevolent laughter. Attack of the killer clowns?

The Keeper of Traken Part Four

The one where the Master gets a new body at last...

It's a real rollercoaster ride trying to work out whether the Doctor knows Melkur is the Master or not. As a viewer, we were given a strong hint at the end of part 3 when the man inside Melkur turned to camera and looked pretty much like the Master the last time we saw him (The Deadly Assassin). But that was not definite, and seeing as The Deadly Assassin was over four years previous, lay viewers could be forgiven for not getting the connection.

As early as part 2, the Doctor says: "So you're the cause of all this" when he hears Melkur's voice (he knows!) but it transpires he was just referring to Melkur (he doesn't know!). In part 3 Tom Baker puts some heavy emphasis on "master plans" in reference to the Source Manipulator blueprints (he knows!), but it was just a coincidence it seems (he doesn't know!). And at the start of part 4, the Doctor warns Luvic that he should do what Melkur tells him to or "he'll make you" (he knows!), but then states that his only ambition "is to stop you, Melkur!" (he doesn't know!).

The Keeper of Traken Part Three

The one where Melkur seizes control of the Source...

Looking at it a second time, the reprise is a bit of a shambles. First of all you've got one of those awful instances where someone (usually a companion) says "Doctor, look!" and points before there's anything there to look at, ie Adric points out that the TARDIS has returned before the TARDIS returns. Then you've got Anthony Ainley's rather confused performance as he waits on tenterhooks for the right moment to embrace Sheila Ruskin (Shall I? Shan't I? Shall I? Shan't I?), and then when he does seize her, he stares into Kassia's clearly painted-on eyes before they zap him. I wouldn't normally be bothered by painted-on eyes (I was fine with it in Image of the Fendahl), but when seen as part of this series of mini-missteps, it just seems a bit primary school.

This third episode definitely suffers from Part Three Syndrome, in that there's an awful lot of running about achieving very little. It's that bit of narrative between halfway and finale that gets in the way for a writer who hasn't paced his script properly. Basically, you don't need part 3 of The Keeper of Traken, except for the cliffhanger which moves the plot towards the end game.

The Keeper of Traken Part Two

The one where Adric detects the wave loop patterns of another TARDIS...

It's an open and shut case, to be frank. The Keeper asks for the strangers to be brought forward, the Doctor asks that he tell the Consuls who he is, and the Keeper replies, rather vociferously: "Evil! Eeeee-vil! Infinite evil!" While the viewer knows that the Keeper is actually referring to Melkur peeking round the door, nobody else knows that, and so by rights, the Doctor and Adric really ought to be executed, by the apparent law of Traken.

But instead they are given a reprieve simply because the Doctor claims he is actually innocent, and that it's obvious the Keeper was under attack, perhaps from some high energy beam. The Doctor has absolutely no evidence of this at all, but still manages to persuade the Consuls to not have him killed. In actual fact, the Keeper was under no kind of attack at all, he was just rattled by the appearance of Melkur at the front door. A bit of a muddle, but at least it saves our heroes' necks.

The Keeper of Traken Part One

The one where infinite evil begins to infect a sanctum of goodness...

I firmly believe that Tom Baker and Matthew Waterhouse worked well together. I realise this overlooks the fact that Baker was a bit of a sod towards Waterhouse on set, but it does recognise that, when it comes to what ends up on screen (which is all that matters in the end), the Fourth Doctor and Adric make for a pretty good team. I'd even go so far as to say they're sweet together.

Just look at how physically close the two actors are in the early TARDIS scenes, with Tom draping his arm round Matthew's shoulder, and Matthew looking up at his mentor adoringly. Baker occasionally stands behind Waterhouse, gripping both shoulders, and the proximity between them is so close at times that you'd think they'd been working together for years.

Warriors' Gate Part Four

The one where the back-blast bounces back and destroys everything...

It takes a solid five minutes of screen time for the Doctor to make the point that they're all in danger, and that they're all in this together. A somewhat panicked K-9 reveals that time and space are both contracting around them, and the dimensions of the Gateway are being affected by a huge mass disturbing its stability. It turns out that the huge mass is Rorvik's spaceship, the hull of which is made of the extremely dense dwarf star alloy.

Nothing really happens in this closing episode until Adric rocks up almost eight minutes in and threatens Rorvik and his pals with the MZ. The whole MZ routine plays out really strangely, because at no point do you see Rorvik and his men in the same shot/ context as the MZ. The camera shots and moves try to sell the fact that the Doctor is aiming the MZ at Rorvik's men as they all edge closer to the exit, but you don't see that happening, you just see the two shots edited together. Were they even in the same studio on the same day when it was shot? It's indicative of how haphazard the editing of Warriors' Gate feels.

Warriors' Gate Part Three

The one where the Doctor feasts with the Tharils...

It's interesting that you get a fleeting shot of the injured Tharil's scarred face in the reprise, something left out of the part 2 cliffhanger because it may have been deemed too unpleasant an image to leave kiddies with for a whole week. This Tharil, Lazlo, was played by the terribly handsome vicar from Keeping Up Appearances (Jeremy Gittins). Lazlo is not trying to harm Romana as first thought, but free her, but before they can escape together, they are disturbed by the return of Aldo and Royce.

Aldo and Royce are two characters in search of a point. Fans who analyse this sort of thing far too much have suggested they are some kind of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern device, referring to two characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are often seen and treated as if the two men are one character, always seen together, often finishing one another's sentences. This is also an accurate summation of Aldo and Royce, but the only difference is that in Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are commonly thought to be two minor characters of major importance. In Warriors' Gate, as far as I can work out, they are two minor characters of zero importance.

Warriors' Gate Part Two

The one where Romana is used as a time sensitive navigator...

The axemen cometh! The Gundan robots (for that is what they are) are a great design, and the movement by Robert Vowles is suitably robotic, but not in a disco way. The Gundan is genuinely threatening, especially with its armoured appearance and half-obscured silvery skeletal face. Peter Howell's lumbering theme for the Gundans is great too. What's not so great is the fact it takes an entire eight minutes of this episode before the Doctor manages to actually escape the Gundan attack. Not because it takes him eight minutes to outwit them, but because the episode is paced and edited quite eccentrically, spending more time with Romana and Rorvik's men before resolving the cliffhanger from last week.

The Doctor spends the entire episode inside the banqueting hall finding things out. There's a lot of info-dumping in his scenes, and the Doctor has virtually nothing active to do, while elsewhere Romana gets to go on an adventure.

Warriors' Gate Part One

The one where the TARDIS lands at the intersection of two universes...

The story with the most troublesome apostrophe in Doctor Who history opens with the most amazing tracking shot which does everything right that Lovett Bickford did wrong at the start of The Leisure Hive. Director Paul Joyce* conjures so much atmosphere and anticipation by panning across an interesting set (rather than a bunch of beach huts), lit in beautiful midnight blue by John Dixon, and which progresses steadily as POV, as if the viewer is really there. Doctor Who does virtual reality! It's a shame the overall sequence is pieced together using separate cross-faded shots, but overall it's a highly effective and intriguing opening to the story.

It builds an interest in what's going on in this strange world of scaffold and sleeping lion men. The voiceover countdown raises expectations too, and it's cheekily playful to have the camera pass a couple of loafers playing cards who appear to have little of interest going on. The fact they are there, doing that, is like a little window on the real world, whatever this world is (and however real it may be!). There's lots of graffiti too, attributed to Kilroy (played uncredited by regular Doctor Who supporting artist Mike Mungarvan).

State of Decay Part Four

The one where the Great Vampire arises (or his hand does)...

It's so hard to tell, which is why I missed it at the end of part 3, but Adric actually throws a knife at Zargo, which imbeds itself firmly into the vampire's heart. It's directed by Peter Moffatt with rather too much obfuscation, resulting in it passing me by completely the first time. I can understand they might not want to show something as graphic as a knife to the heart in a family show, but in that case, why have it in the final draft? At least we didn't get a comedy "booiiiing" sound effect like we did in The Robots of Death.

The Three Who Rule cannot wait for the Great Vampire to arise so that they can get on with swarming through the universe, devouring people and planets and growing ever greater in number. The Great One apparently knows the secret of passing more easily between E-Space and N-Space, so the threat is very real. Now that the Great One is sufficiently regenerated, all wounds healed, it's almost time for The Arising. In readiness, Aukon plans to sacrifice Romana, a Time Lord and sworn enemy of the Great Vampires.

State of Decay Part Three

The one where the Doctor tells Romana of the Great Vampires...

We get told a lot of information in this episode, but it's told engagingly, and rarely feels like a blatant info-dump. The early scene between the Doctor, Romana and Aukon tells us that the Hydrax fell through the CVE and was lured to the planet by the Great One, and now the Three Who Rule hope their master can help them return to N-Space.

It's also revealed that Zargo, Camilla and Aukon are not ancestors of Sharkey, MacMillan and O'Connor - they are Sharkey, MacMillan and O'Connor! They were given "unending life" by the Great One, and now they hope for the same for the Chosen Ones (ie, the Doctor, Romana and Adric).

State of Decay Part Two

The one where the Doctor and Romana discover that the tower is the Hydrax...

The first 10 minutes of this episode are sublime, some of the best written, performed and directed Doctor Who ever, but you'd be forgiven for not realising it. It's all done so subtly, so organically, that you don't quite realise that you're watching brilliance. It's almost like you're spellbound by the brilliance. It all starts with Terrance Dicks' effortless yet elegant dialogue, which inspires the performers to riff on it gleefully, and it's all directed so precisely by Peter Moffatt.

Everything that takes place or is said between the Doctor, Romana, Zargo and Camilla is so well done. Moffatt directs the foursome like they're performing an Elizabethan dance, keeping the characters on the move all the time through what is a very dialogue-heavy scene. If they'd all just sat down and chatted for 10 minutes, the scene would be much less engaging, but thankfully it's orchestrated like a stage play, with characters moving in and around one another, foregrounded and backgrounded, so that the visual is never dull.

State of Decay Part One

The one where the Doctor and Romana encounter a swarm of carnivorous bats...

I have a deep-rooted relationship with State of Decay. When I was five I had the Pickwick audio cassette of the story which I listened to over and over again, both fascinated by and slightly afraid of Tom Baker's doom-laden narration. It came out before the Target novelisation, and differs from both the TV and book versions significantly (I seem to remember it cuts a lot of K-9 out). Another fundamental connection I have with this story is that (I believe) it is the first memory I have of watching Doctor Who. There's a very specific scene and shot (maybe in part 3 - I'll know when I get to it) of Romana and the Doctor climbing the ladder to the top of the Hydrax, which for some reason, despite its humdrum quality, stayed with me. I can even visualise it in the same hazy way I could for all those years until I got the VHS and could relive it again.

The episode opens with a tracking shot of a huge cathedral-like tower looming over a rural landscape and village. So far, so folk horror. The architecture inside the tower is what I might call gothic, others might call rococo, still others might call Romanesque, but whatever the truth, it's a gorgeous design by Christine Ruscoe which, in partnership with Amy Roberts' sumptuous costumes, just screams HAMMER HORROR! Doctor Who and Hammer are two of my favourite things in the world, so State of Decay is already shaping up well.

Full Circle Part Four

The one where the Marshmen run riot through the Starliner...

It's weird seeing the Marshmen lumbering along the Starliner's corridors, but a cool sight nonetheless. We've only seen them on location, or in their natural habitat, so far, so it's mildly arresting to see them flooding the ship, wielding cudgels (and robot dog heads). They're really good at marauding, smashing up laboratories, breaking their way through barraged doors and tearing up those bloody silly system files. And there's a lot of them. Romana lets an awful lot of the Marshmen in!

Another thing the Marshmen do well is kill people, and the first victim we see is Tylos. I'm not sorry to see him go, he should have been written out episodes ago, but the way he goes at least has some pathos to it, as he helps a nameless supporting actor escape the clutches of a Marshman, only to be dragged back by the same monster. There's a very deliberate shot of the rescued man deciding not to return the favour, and running away instead of helping to save Tylos. It's a nice little character beat for a background artist, giving him more characterisation than Tylos had!

Full Circle Part Three

The one where Romana gets possessed by the Alzarian eco-system...

It's weird seeing the TARDIS rammed with youths in pyjamas. It's also amazing how the Outlers manage to operate the door mechanism and instigate dematerialisation with the very first switches they try. Beginners' luck, I suppose. These kids are becoming less relevant as the story progresses, starting out as a way to introduce new companion Adric, but increasingly becoming wallpaper. In truth, Tylos should have been written out in some way by now, because his presence is pointless, and Keara's only really there because she's Login's daughter. It's a real shame that Richard Willis is wasted as Varsh, because he's got such a striking screen presence, and he can act, which helps. It would be quite a different couple of years had Varsh become the companion instead of Adric

The Doctor is getting frustrated by the community's endless preparations for the fabled Embarkation, when the Starliner finally leaves Alzarius and returns to Terradon. Login tells him that the preparations take generations, despite the fact everything is checked and counter-checked on a monotonously regular basis (it takes six people to change a circuit at one point). Surely it's ready to go by now?

Full Circle Part Two

The one where K-9 has his head knocked off...

The Marshmen really are the perfect monsters. They're ugly, they're lumbering, they're scaly, they growl, and they emerge from the marshy waters grasping and dripping with seaweed. Peter Grimwade directs their emergence from the marsh with horror film elan, making it one of the most effective monster scenes Doctor Who's ever had. And if their initial appearance isn't eerie enough, once they've made it to the side of the water, they stand still, hissing and moaning as they acclimatise to their new world. Grimwade also has the Marshmen leer into the camera lens a few times, which proves he had a good eye for what's scary!

The Doctor and K-9 watch from the undergrowth as the Marshmen lumber slowly but purposefully through the forest, wading through bog and fen. Surprisingly, the Doctor asks K-9 to follow the Marshmen to see where they settle. This is the robot dog that can barely move across a perfectly smooth, flat surface, never mind a lumpy, boggy, grassy, muddy wasteland. At least the Doctor's optimistic about his pet's abilities!

Full Circle Part One

The one where creatures emerge from a black lagoon...

The Time Lords have put out a call for Romana to return to Gallifrey, and she's not very pleased about it. As the Doctor reminds her, she was only sent in the first place to help him find the Key to Time, and that's long done and dusted. The scenes between the Doctor and Romana in her bedroom are tiny glimpses into the real emotions and feelings of these characters, and it's refreshing because we're too used to them just swapping wisecracks and trying to outsmart one another. Here, writer Andrew Smith gives Romana a visceral, truthful reaction to the Time Lords' call. Why would she want to go back to Gallifrey after everything she's seen and done with the Doctor? It's a common refrain of many companions (once you've seen the universe, how could you possibly want to go back to the humdrum of daily life back home?) and you really feel Romana's pain.

The Doctor seems quite resigned to the fact she has to go back. In fact, he doesn't seem too bothered at all, and is quite looking forward to returning so he can see how Leela and Andred are getting on, and so that K-9 can meet his twin. Lots of little nods to continuity, stemming back as far as The Invasion of Time three seasons back, but not so heavy that they confuse the lay viewer. It's nice little mentions like that which please long-term fans (and again, are realistic things for the Doctor to say), but do not alienate everyone else.