Warriors of the Deep Part Four

The one where there should have been another way...

It's tried and trusted, a proven way to stop your assassin in his tracks. "Your turn!" hisses your wannabe killer as he raises his lethal ray gun to shoot you dead. And then you use your secret weapon, the inestimable art of being terribly polite: "How do you do! I'm the Doctor. Haven't we met before?"

It's a fool-proof way to convince your enemy that he shouldn't kill you where you stand at all, but instead spare your life, disobeying his leader's direct orders to the contrary. Of course, the Doctor and Sauvix haven't met before at all, it's a cunning ruse, and the daft lizard falls for it.

Warriors of the Deep Part Three

The one where the Myrka, Silurians and Sea Devils storm Seabase 4...

I felt really proud of Turlough watching this episode. He gets involved, he risks his life, he takes a stand and he fights for what he feels is right. As well as protecting his own neck, he gets involved in a bit of fisticuffs, steals a rifle and threatens Nilson at gunpoint in order to rescue the Doctor and Tegan. "The commander's orders were to keep that bulkhead closed," says Nilson. "I know what the commander's orders were," replies Turlough, waving a rifle in his face, "but now I'm giving you mine. Open that bulkhead!" You go, Turlough!

Turlough spends a lot of time racing around corridors, weapon in hand, and ends up helping to defend Airlock 5, like a true Boy's Own hero, in the same vein as Ian or Steven might in the 1960s. It's great to see this usually cowardly, self-serving character show some guts, although he spoils it rather when he's locked up in the dormitory with Bulic and suggests they escape back to the TARDIS!

Warriors of the Deep Part Two

The one where the Myrka invades the seabase...

It's highly unusual to have expensive underwater filming in Doctor Who, even these days, never mind in the cash-strapped low-budget 1980s. It doesn't last very long, but what we do get looks splendid, and the fact you can see it really is Peter Davison makes it more effective. It's actually a little sobering to see our "vulnerable" Fifth Doctor almost drowned, scrambling his way into an airlock looking bedraggled. The sopping wet Doctor looks exhausted, and a little annoyed, maybe because his celery's so limp.

Meanwhile, the Silurians are still busily - but not hurriedly - waking up their "Sea Devil brothers". The fact the Silurians refer to their brothers as Sea Devils is very problematic, because the Sea Devils are categorically not called Sea Devils. The only reason we know them as Sea Devils is because a mentally unhinged Clark in their debut adventure described them as such, but that's not what they're called. We don't know their real race name, but here, their Silurian brothers refer to them by Clark's made-up moniker, and it sticks. It's a bit like Walters naming the Martians as "ice warriors", and suddenly everybody calls them that, even the Ice Warriors!

Warriors of the Deep Part One

The one where the Silurians and Sea Devils return...

With all that celebratory shenanigans safely out of the way, Doctor Who could get back to what it does best: telling fun, exciting adventure stories full of monsters and villains. Warriors of the Deep opens Season 21 with some impressive modelwork, and one of those busy, bustling futuristic sets full of people going from A to B. It feels remarkably like a Pertwee era story straight away.

And in more ways than one. Less than two minutes into part 1, the story's returning monsters, the Silurians, are unceremoniously dumped on screen in the directorial equivalent of being pushed on stage before they're ready. The redesigned Silurian masks are gorgeous, honouring the 1970 versions but making them more detailed, while Tony Burrough's viridescent underwater sets are wonderfully lush and aqueous (thanks to some very green lighting by Peter Smee!). Like the cave sets of Doctor Who and the Silurians, the prehistoric creatures look effective in gloom and murk.

The Five Doctors

The one where (most) of the first five Doctors join forces against a traitor to their own people...

It's difficult to express just how exciting The Five Doctors was to the seven-year-old me back in '83. Doctor Who's 20th anniversary year was something of a landmark in the history of the series, and of fandom, turning a very popular family series into something of an institution. For a programme to be still going after two decades was a rare achievement, something to be rightly celebrated, and The Five Doctors, with its crazy ambition and all-star cast, was just about the best way to do this.

The excitement is still palpable almost 40 years later. It's got "all the Doctors" in it, loads of old companions, and loads of old monsters (well, I say "loads"...!). Robert Holmes was initially given the role of writing this anniversary tale, but he struggled to make work his "Cyber-Lord" idea about Cybermen fusing Time Lord DNA with their own (not so much a problem for Chris Chibnall...). The best man for the job was obviously old hand Terrance Dicks. If there was anyone who could make this mad hotch-potch of Doctor Who eras work as one, it was him.

The King's Demons Part Two

The one where the TARDIS gains a new crewmember...

The title of this story unusually refers to the Doctor and his companions, rather than any particular threat or destination. King John refers to the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough as his "demons", which got me wondering how many other story titles are simply alternative ways of describing the regulars. It all begins, of course, with An Unearthly Child (Susan) and The Firemaker (the Doctor), but there's also The Myth Makers (the Doctor, Vicki and Steven), and at a stretch, The Face of Evil (the Doctor). More recently we've had stories such as The Runaway Bride (Donna), The Lodger (the Doctor) and The Magician's Apprentice/ The Witch's Familiar (Clara), among others, but The King's Demons is a particularly potent example.

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, the Master's revealed himself, and Tegan reveals herself to be a dab hand at knife-throwing, although the renegade Time Lord also has a trick up his sleeve when he manages to catch the knife in flight without even looking. There's a lot wrong with this sequence, particularly for younger viewers, as it shows a companion casually hurling a knife at someone's head, and also suggests it's easy to catch a knife safely. It's the sort of thing that might have been edited out in the Hinchcliffe era (I'm thinking back to a drowning Doctor and a knife-throwing Leela).

The King's Demons Part One

The one where the TARDIS interrupts a jousting match...

We've arrived at Doctor Who's 600th episode, in its 20th year, which seems fitting. It's also the last classic series story title to feature a punctuation mark (there's also Warriors' Gate and Time-Flight, as well as a handful of Hartnell episodes such as World's End and Devil's Planet).

The now traditional Davison two-parter kicks off with money on the screen. The opening scene of Sir Ranulf's dining hall is a splendid mix of set design and glass shot. It's populated with plenty of extras, costumes and set dressing are spot on, and there's even a couple of wolfhounds to add colour. In fact, throughout this episode I feel as if director Tony Virgo is trying his hardest to spend what was probably a modest budget as aesthetically as possible. It just looks gorgeous, thanks to the talents of set designer Ken Ledsham (echoing his work on The Ribos Operation) and costume designer Colin Lavers.