Arc of Infinity
Story 123, Episodes 580-581, Season 20 Episodes 1-4
Doctor: The Fifth Doctor
Companions: Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka
We head back to Gallifrey to kick off the twentieth season of Doctor Who, and it turns out to be more of the same.
The Review
Arc of Infinity doesn’t do anything other Gallifrey stories haven’t done before, or really that The Invasion of Time didn’t do, but better. There’s a dastardly plot and the Doctor and Nyssa are recalled to Gallifrey, some antimatter creature has attached itself to the Doctor and the only way out is the Doctor must die. This creature turns out to be Omega, last glimpsed yelling and screaming at everything in sight in The Three Doctors. Now he looks really weird and still just wants to come back to reality. The Doctor is seemingly killed, but not really, and he returns from the Matrix in order to track down Omega and stop him. There’s some nice references, we’re told Leela is doing well on Gallifrey and the Time Lords are upset Romana never returned from E-Space. Borusa is President now, but the shared history between him and the Doctor is irrelevant. The exceedingly serious Commander Maxil is played by Colin Baker, who will succeed Davison as the Doctor next season, but there’s no glimpses of a future Doctor with his good but extremely serious approach. All in all, we have nothing new from Gallifrey.
The first episode starts with two young men sleeping in a crypt in Amsterdam, which seemingly has nothing to do with the story. There’s one hell of a twist when one of their cousins turns out to be Tegan, sporting a new short haircut. It’s fun to see Tegan again, though I’m surprised she offers no ill-will to the Doctor. The location shooting in Amsterdam is a huge plus, an upgrade from chroma-key and quarries and the usual fare for the show. Davison briefly plays Omega in the finale once Omega steals his body, but once it becomes corrupted he hilariously is swapped out by some actor who looks a lot closer to Javier Bardem. Still, Davison does a good job as the creepy Omega moping around the city. I think a bit too long is spent on the Amsterdam plot before the trick with Tegan is revealed. Recently it has been ‘canonized’ that Nyssa and Tegan were a thing, something I didn’t see any hint of until this episode. Seems to be more on Nyssa’s side so far with her quiet joy at hearing she’s going to see Tegan again on her face. Don’t get me wrong, I’m here for it, but I’m searching to see if there’s any there there.
The Gallifrey parts don’t add anything, and I really don’t care about Omega returning, especially when he’s never even really explained again that well. Still, solid location work.
7.9/10 Giving this an 8 would’ve felt wrong.
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