Story 146, Episodes 662-664, Season 24 Episodes 9-11
Doctor: Seventh Doctor
Companions: Mel Bush
Is this show even Doctor Who anymore? I’m not sure, but it’s not completely terrible as we get a weird 50s romp out of nowhere.
The Review
Weird beings flying to space
I really don’t know what to make of this story. Essentially, it’s a complete send-up of 50s weird B-movies, but in a way that actually feels intentional as it’s jam-packed with era-appropriate music and everything. There are characters on characters, from a bus full of space tourists and their amusing captain who all get shockingly murdered to a pair of old bumbling American intelligence agents. Not to mention the proprietor and staff of a Welsh holiday camp called Shangri-la. The titular Delta as an austere queen of the Chimerons, a race that is sort of like bees but if bees were humanoid. The Bannermen do often have lots of banners with them and are led by a pretty uninteresting villain Gavrok. All this, in only three episodes, but honestly, three was plenty for this story.
Ray, the companion that almost was
The repeated usage of 50s hits plays very much to this story’s credit, and it’s anchored by a usually low-key but completely in control Sylvester McCoy. He does have one great moment ripping Gavrok which is impressive, and although there are few character traits so far other than metaphor mix-ups, I like his character. Mel benefits from less being more in this story, which works out well. Most intriguing is Ray, a handy mechanic who fails to draw the love of her childhood friend Billy who ends up joining the Queen. Written as a potential companion, it’s sad that she just has to ride off into the sunset alone. Often Doctor Who becomes a sci-fi B-movie on accident, rarely does it lean into it, it does so here saving the story but it’s still a little far removed from the show proper for me.
Even wackier than the previous story, but full of charm, Delta and the Bannermen has its place as one of the most out there stories in Doctor Who.
8/10 The American characters actually feel like real people for once!
The alien tourists deserved better than a shock death
Story 145, Episodes 658-661, Season 24 Episodes 5-8
Doctor: Seventh Doctor
Companions: Mel Bush
Life on the 304th floor isn’t everything its cracked up to be as Season 24 improves the bizarre but unique Paradise Towers.
The Review
The Chief Inspector post-possession by Great Architect
Paradise Towers feels like it’s supposed to be a satire about something nobody has ever heard of. As it stands, it’s a tale about a massive apartment complex (304 floors!) gone wrong. There are the Kangs, red and blue gangs of young women who are spraying graffiti and getting into trouble with names like ‘Fire Escape’. The Caretakers are the police force of the towers, all men, following an absurdly complex byzantine rulebook. Then, there are the Residents, old women who are surviving as cannibals. If anything, the classic series usually has white men and more white men as supporting characters, so two roving gangs of women is a fun difference. This is a story that really goes for it, it’s not great, but it feels fresh and weird and different in a way Time and the Rani failed to. Oh, and Mel screams less so that’s a plus for everyone involved.
A swimming pool robot with killer instinct
The villain is the Chief Caretaker, played by Richard Briers. I’ve seen reviews say is absurdly over the top, to the contrary, I think he’s exaggerated performance is a perfect fit in this story. When he gets possessed by the ‘Great Architect’ who wants humans to not pollute his art, his zombie-like performance is noticeably different. We also get ‘Pex’, an amusingly buff ‘hero’ of the towers who it turns out is a coward, but after flirting with Mel sacrifices himself to save the day. In contrast, McCoy’s Doctor is disappointingly pretty generic in this story, there are some moments of character like his silly rulebook escape and looking bored to tears watching an intro video on the towers but there’s not a lot of unique characterization going on so far. He’s certainly far less obstinate than his predecessor, but nothing has stood out in the first two stories.
Overall, Paradise Towers is a weird wacky adventure that feels like a send-up of…something, I don’t know, but it’s got its place in the charm of weird Who stories.
8/10 A full improvement from the previous story on uniqueness alone
Story 144, Episodes 654-655, Season 24 Episode 1-4
Doctor: Seventh Doctor
Companions: Mel Bush
Sylvester McCoy is thrown into the fire with another uninteresting script, as well as the BBC discovering CGI.
The Review
Kate O’Mara, star of the show
Time and the Rani is a confusing story that makes little sense, the Rani is trying to detonate a strange matter asteroid to get helium-2 to do things like reverse Earth to the Cretaceous. Most of this isn’t explained until the Rani gives us a helpful presentation in part four, for the first two parts she’s conning the Doctor into trying to solve a puzzle that the viewers can’t even see or understand, so fat lot of good that does us. The script is confusing, has a ‘been there done that’ feel as we’re back with aliens who reminded me of The Leisure Hive. The soundtrack has some great unexpected moments of brilliance, but when you see the Rani has created a giant brain it all feels like a 50s B-movie. What keeps it together is McCoy to some extent, but really Kate O’Mara who is much improved from her previous appearance and is a very credible fun villain. She puts on a crazy wig and impersonates Mel for over an episode to trick the Doctor and her frustration at him is hilarious. Few could’ve pulled that off.
Ok I had to do another photo of the Rani’s disguise because it’s wild
After the firing of Colin Baker, this story was always going to struggle. There is no emotional closure to the Sixth Doctor era so it just feels like whiplash, the old Doctor is referenced a bit but this is the Sylvester McCoy show. He spends much of the story in the ‘post-regeneration insanity’ phase making it difficult to get a handle on his Doctor. Still, I can spot moments of brilliance over the jokes of him mixing metaphors which would be funnier if it wasn’t every other thing he said. Mel is the weakest link by far, Bonnie Langford screams to high Heaven like a parody of a companion and is unconvincing. The Lakertyans are pretty boring, but I have to praise the costumes of the weird multi-eyed wolf aliens called Tetraps. Still, this story is just not that interesting, and barely even feels like a new Doctor story other than the amnesia. Here’s hoping McCoy’s era starts to improve.
The ‘Rani’ part of Time and the Rani delivers, everything else doesn’t, from the badly aged Blender-esque CGI to the ‘what is even happening’ plot line.
7/10 Boosted up by Kate O’Mara’s brilliance really. Shame that we’d never get more of her
Through no fault of Colin Baker, disastrous production decisions and a mediocre stable of writers turn in a very disappointing era.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories
Timelash: 8.25/10
The Trial of a Time Lord: 8/10
The Two Doctors: 7.9/10
Vengeance on Varos: 7.75/10
Attack of the Cybermen: 7.5/10
Revelation of the Daleks: 7/10
The Mark of the Rani: 7/10
The Twin Dilemma: 6.75/10
My favorite Doctors are the Third and Twelfth Doctors, because I just love the idea of the doctor being crotchety but a good soul at heart. With more input from Colin Baker, he could’ve followed in this mold, but it all turned into one big misfire. The Trial of a Time Lord showed what he could do with more time, and not being given dialogue where he was constantly insulting Peri. This is one of those cases where I think the score for the era is justified, but is going to sell the potential of Colin Baker short. As a character, he’d get a higher score, but as an era, it’s clearly a low point for the show. I’m glad Big Finish has successfully rehabbed the reputation of a man who deserved better.
Now, his best moments.
5. “Dilettante??” Overhearing the Rani calling him a dilettante in The Mark of the Rani, the Doctor’s immediate indignation sums up the ego-Doctor of Season 22.
4. The Doctor’s constant belittling of the Valeyard is amusing, calling him anything that ends in -yard, though I think ‘Brickyard’ might be my favorite.
3. “I don’t think I’ve ever misjudged anybody quite as badly as Lytton.” Following the brutal events of Attack of the Cybermen, the Doctor quietly admits that Lytton was actually a good man, working against the Cybermen.
2. “…you killed Peri?” The Doctor is stunned seeing the supposed proof of Peri’s demise, as ordered by the Time Lords. For once, the Doctor is left hopelessly speechless, until he doubles his resolve to get to the bottom of events.
1. “Ten million years of absolute power, that’s what it takes to be really corrupt!” The Sixth Doctor gets a stinger in right at the end of his tenure, with a cathartic dressing down of the awfully corrupt and self-obsessed society of Time Lords. It’s a perfect capstone to Colin Baker’s tenure.
Colin Baker with better writing and influence could’ve been right there among my favorites, but after his unceremonious firing remains wrongly the face of the perceived collapse of the classic series. It’s an entirely unearned legacy on his part, but it unquestionably was an issue in this era as a whole. I’ve said my piece, now I suggest you check out some Big Finish and see the Sixth Doctor at his best.
Story 143, Episodes 640-653, Season 23 Episodes 1-14
Doctor: Sixth Doctor
Companions: Peri Brown, Mel Bush
The Doctor is put on trial by his own people, creating a frame narrative that sometimes does more than good. Colin Baker is much improved from Season 22, putting on a performance indicating there was much he still had to offer.
The Review
The Doctor gets to watch his own show!
Literally on trial with the BBC, Doctor Who got meta with an ambitious full-season length story, the longest in history, where the Doctor was brought into a courtroom and put on trial by the Valeyard. In a meta-sense, the Doctor gets to watch his own show. I must say, the whole idea does not quite work because the trial butting in gets old after a while. I wonder how many times they had to film all turning around to continue to watch on the Matrix? In addition to the Doctor, the main characters in the trial scene are the Valeyard played by Michael Jayston and the Inquisitor played by Lynda Bellingham. They’re both good performances, with Jayston’s Valeyard being the best when he revels in his evil. It’s an interesting idea for a story, and probably worked better watching week-to-week but it does impede on the stories.
The Doctor and Peri have settled down
The Mysterious Planet is the weakest of the first three interludes, taking place on Earth which has been mysteriously relocated in the universe two billion years in the future. It’s all pretty generic, there was some cataclysm, humans are kept in the dark underground thinking the surface is still uninhabitable, the works. The highlight is that Peri and the Doctor’s relationship has matured greatly. Peri sports longer hair in this story, and the cringe-inducing insults the Doctor doled out previously are gone. This story also introduces Sabalom Glitz played by Tony Selby, a delightfully charismatic bounty hunter who is my favorite performance. There’s a big robot named Drathro and the Doctor saves the universe, the usual. One of the funniest bits is actually from the trial segment where something Glitz says is bleeped to the Doctor’s indignation.
Peri, head shaved!
Mindwarp is the best interlude, the Doctor and Peri arriving on the shores of Thoros Beta, home to the gross Sil from Vengeance on Varos. Nabil Shaban is perfect as Sil, but we also get the dry evil scientist Crozier, and notorious super-ham Brian Blessed as the simple-minded war and honor obsessed captured King Ycarnos. I also want to shoutout Alibe Parsons as Matron Rani, who I think is the most notable role by a Black woman in all of the classic series. The story turns on Sil and Crozier trying to transfer them mind of Kiv, Sil’s boss as his body is dying. Sil and Kiv saying being poor is worse than death while being disgusting reptile people is a lot of fun, as well as Ycarnos’ absurdity. The Doctor is taken away by the Time Lords and we shockingly see Peri with head shaved as the voice of Kiv getting killed by Ycarnos. It’s a shocking moment, and finally Nicola Bryant got some good material.
Mel trying to help the Doctor lose weight
The third interlude takes us into the future, with the Doctor and companion Mel who is already traveling with him. That initial first episode is a lot of fun, like getting a glimpse of what the next season could look like. I have mixed thoughts about Mel, I’m not sure Bonnie Langford is giving entirely the best performance but I like how independent and fierce Mel is. Terror of the Vervoids is a bit too confusing murder mystery aboard a space liner 1000 years in the future. The Commodore of the ship has met the Doctor before, adding to the sense that we’re glimpsing the show’s future. Ultimately there is a hijacking of the ship unrelated to the real problem: a genetically grown plant slave race called Vervoids who leads the Doctor no choice but to kill them. Naturally, the Valeyard accuses the Doctor of genocide.
The Doctor faces the Valeyard
Unfortunately, things don’t really land perfectly in the final two episodes. The Master shows up out of nowhere and outs the Valeyard as a dark future version of the Doctor. Potentially if the dynamic had been set up of the Doctor loathing himself this would’ve felt more earned. The Doctor trails the Valeyard into the Matrix, a world where you can do almost anything, and so we get a weirdly empty industrial-era London and then some scenes out on a beach? Glitz returns which is fun, as well as Mel, brought as witnesses by the Master, who wants to save the Doctor as he refuses to allow the Valeyard to steal his thunder. Really, it’s all kind of mess, and we are more than tired of the courtroom by this point. The Master’s scheme predictably backfires on him, and the Valeyard manages to survive impersonating the Keeper of the Matrix. In a surprise, Peri went and married Ycarnos. Peri getting killed felt too brutal, especially after how underserved her character was, but marrying Ycarnos doesn’t make much sense either.
The Doctor and Peri’s last adventure
The big takeaway from this Season 23 is confirming what was clear in bits and spurts in Season 22: Colin Baker has all the makings of a great Doctor. He’s much more settled down and restrained from his constant insults, and is properly angry when necessary, highlighted by his dressing down of Time Lord society as being corrupt. I really enjoyed him, and it’s a shame that he was fired because there was so much more he had to offer. The overall story doesn’t entirely fit together, but many of the individual episodes in the middle of it are fun and above-average. It leaves me with a tough story to judge, but I think overall it’s a good one, for Baker’s performance alone. Thankfully Big Finish has given him more than ample opportunity to prove that with better directing, the Sixth Doctor would’ve been among the greats.
The trial story is uneven but has some great interweaving parts, all held together by Colin Baker’s excellent showing.
8/10 Probably a fair score, some sections are worse, some are better, leaving us with an 8. Can Season 24 break the classic series from its mid-80s slump?
The Sixth Doctor leaves us…’carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice’
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 