086: SoraRabbit Watches: Doctor Who Season Six

Welcome back to one of my favorite series of posts. As you may be aware by now, my plan is to watch and talk about every season of Doctor Who. (Plus the television movie, specials, and spin-offs.) I wanted to get to this season sooner, but my posting schedule for the last quarter of 2024 got in the way. Not to mention the fact that I had several tokusatsu series to watch. But here we are, finally picking it back up. So far 43 serials and 209 episodes have been discussed. If you missed any of the previous posts, here they are below:

Doctor Who Season Six aired on the BBC from 1968 to 1969 and consisted of 44 episodes over 7 serials. As with previous seasons, this one was impacted by the purging of the BBC recordings and the missing episodes had to be reconstructed using audio recordings and telesnaps. In this season only 7 out of the 44 episodes remain missing, so we’re looking much better than before! In fact, this is the final season with reconstructed episodes! We made it through the dark times! It’s all smooth sailing from here.

As always, I will give (somewhat) brief plot summaries, omitting and abbreviating details, and reordering some things to eliminate a lot of back and forth scene changes. Still, you should still consider what follows to be spoiler-heavy. I struggle with deciding what to include and what to omit. If a character doesn’t have enough bearing on the plot, I may not mention them at all. Also I leave out when supporting guest characters have a romance subplot because those don’t do much besides add filler. Just know that if you decide to ever watch these for yourselves, there’s more there than I’ve said in these posts.

This season’s incarnation of the crew. (Credit: BBC TV)

I’m sure you know the drill by now, but Doctor Who is an exceedingly long-running science fiction series that has been (mostly) in continuous production since the 60s. The titular Doctor is an alien of (as of this point in the series) unknown origins with the useful ability to regenerate himself into younger bodies when he gets old or mortally injured. This regeneration changes his appearance, personality, and— most conveniently— the actor portraying him. He is accompanied by a rotating cast of colorful companions, plucked from other time periods or even worlds. (Mostly from 1960s Britain, though.)

Let’s look at the characters and villains we’ll be seeing this time.

The fantastic Patrick Troughton. (Credit: BBC TV)

The Second Doctor: This is the second incarnation of the mysterious Doctor that we have met. He is stll just as brilliant as his previous incarnation, and a bit absent-minded, but he's more alert and watchful. He also is a little more light-hearted, making jokes and acting in unexpected ways. He's very observant, able to assess situations and calculate things about the people he meets from body language and verbal cues. He is fond of hats and playing the recorder at awkward times. (While he doesn’t play the recorder at any point in this season, he does use it as a telescope occasionally.) He also has a tendency to carry random things around in his jacket pockets.

Jamie McCrimmon: Jamie is brave and caring, accepting of new people, and always willing to undertake dangerous missions. He's proven himself really good at destroying robots. He doesn't get along with Zoe as much as previous companions, but is still protective of her. While he's the Doctor's faithful and longtime companion, the cracks are showing this season as he's getting increasingly tired of the unpredictability of the TARDIS and their landings.

Zoe Heriot: The newest companion who joined in the final serial of the previous season. She's intelligent and well-read, but leans too heavily on logic. She's also a bit bossy and impatient. She has a highly technical understanding of computers and an eidetic memory. Her specialty is in doing complex and accurate calculations on paper faster than a computer can perform.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: While not a companion, he is a recurring ally. He was seen in Season Five as a Colonel. He has since been promoted. He is very organized, confident, and helpful. Since his previous experiences with the Doctor, he has become very open-minded and receptive.

UNIT: The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. A group dedicated to observation and investigation of supernatural and strange occurrences, formed after the battle with the Yetis. Headed by the Brigadier, their numbers include Corporal Benton, working in surveillance during the Cybermen invasion. While he was a minor part of this season, I mention him because he later becomes a regular ally to the Doctor.

A Cyberman rampages through London. (Credit: BBC TV)

The Cybermen: Ruthless and emotionless, Cybermen are cyborg aliens who conquer other worlds, turning their inhabitants into Cybermen like themselves. They are directed this time around by the Cyber-Director, a powerful nonhumanoid computer. They see the Doctor as a threat to their plans for world domination due to his repeated interference.

The ever-threatening Ice Warriors. (Credit: BBC TV)

The Ice Warriors: War-like reptilian aliens from the planet Mars, looking for a new planet to live on. They are armed with sonic guns and are brutal. Their weaknesses are heat and solar energy, but they can live in low atmosphere. They are led by the Grand Marshal who has a fleet of ships at his command.

This looks like the poster in Mulder’s office. (Credit: BBC TV)

The first serial of Season Six ran from Episode 210 to 214 and was called The Dominators. In this one, the Doctor and his friends are stuck in between two races of aliens with very different viewpoints on life. There are also neat robots.

Episode 1: A flying saucer lands on an island on Planet Dulkis to refuel. Two guys with extremely puffy shoulder pads emerge. This is Navigator Rago and Probationer Toba and they're Dominators. They summon the Quarks, but we cut away before we can see them yet. After this we meet a group of adventurers from a race called the Dulcians, led to the island by the pilot Cully, who warns them the island is dangerous and radioactive. Ignoring him, they exit and run off happily. Toba has them vaporized by the Quarks, which makes Rago mad.

Finally we catch up with the heroes, as the TARDIS sets down on the island. The Doctor is tired from projecting all those mental images to frighten / prepare Zoe for her travels. (See last post.) He says he's been to Dulkis before and it's peaceful. They start to relax but obviously that doesn't last long. Cully runs to his ship, not knowing that Toba has ordered the Quarks to destroy it. He plays dead, but escapes the explosion. Hearing the explosion, the Doctor and his friends find a wrecked building. They find it's a war museum filled with laser weapons and displays of some great conflict. Zoe worries that it seems like an atomic war. The Doctor is baffled, since he always found the Dulcians to be gentle and peaceful. They're confronted by men in radiation suits.

The men are a research team led by Educator Balan and composed of his two students, Kando and Teel. Balan is confused that the strangers are not irradiated. The Doctor asks what happened, because the planet was at peace the last time he visited. Balan and his students explain that the current leader abolished war, but the previous leader tested an atomic weapon on the island. When they saw how dangerous it was, they banned all atomic weaponry and kept the island as a test site and warning to future generations.

Cully overhears the Dominators talking about drilling right next to the TARDIS, which Toba wants to destroy. He runs to the research team and warns them they're under attack. Balan thinks he's a liar but the Doctor is alarmed that the TARDIS could be at risk. He and Jamie run off to investigate and come face to face with Rago and two Quarks, which turn out to be silly boxy robots with the cutest little cartoon voices. One of them sweetly asks if they should destroy the Doctor and Jamie.

Two Quarks and a Dominator. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 2: Jamie and the Doctor are taken into custody by the Dominators. The Quarks show that they have force beans that can pin them to the wall. They analyze Jamie but not the Doctor, assuming them to be the same. They decide to test the Doctor's intelligence and he's not sure if it would be safer for him to pass or fail it. Meanwhile, unable to reach the capital, Cully and Zoe head there in a travel capsule. The Director is Cully's dad and he doesn't believe any of his stories either. Back with the Dominators, they Doctor is forced to put his hands in a box that emits electric shocks and assemble a simple shape puzzle. He fails it on purpose and suggests that Jamie act stupid too. Toba declares them useless but Rago is suspicious.

Back at the research facility, they've determined the radiation is gone and Balan declares that the fact seems to be that radiation only lasts 172 years. The Dulcians have an very unique point of view: facts are everything and if they know a fact, it's useless to look for a reason to support it. Rago tries to get the Doctor and Jamie to tell him how to use the laser guns, but they play dumb. The Doctor explains there are clever Dulcians and everyone else. The clever ones tell them what to do. Rago likes this answer. He says he'll leave them alone since it would be a waste of energy to destroy people who are no threat. Set free, the Doctor and Jamie head in a capsule to the capital. Balan doesn't believe in the robots but his students are doubtful. He grudgingly allows them to look for proof. Cully also wants proof and plans to steal a capsule with Zoe's help, after dressing her as a Dulcian. The research team finds the spaceship and are captured by the Dominators. They analyze them and find they have big brains and two hearts, so they're a different species than their previous prisoners. Cully and Zoe arrive at the research center just as the Dominators destroy it.

Aren’t the Quarks scary? (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 3: This is a classic Doctor Who episode of setting the pieces for the next few episodes. Not much happened. The Doctor and Jamie realize they missed Zoe. They try to convince the Dulcians to verify their claims and take action, but their pleas are dismissed. As one council member says, "Better to do nothing than to do the wrong thing." Also, "Universal gentleness will cause agression to die." Back on the island, Zoe and Cully have escaped the exploded building and been taken prisoner. Everyone is set to work on the drilling site to see how long they survive. If they do, they get the honor of serving the Dominators. Zoe has a plan to escape and only Cully agrees to help her.

The council views the research center on their viewscreens and see it's been destroyed and a Quark is guarding it. The Doctor and Jamie rush back in the capsule but realize it will stop where the Quark is posted, so the Doctor tinkers with the capsule. After some work he manages to stop it near the drilling site. Cully feigns exhaustion and gets the laser gun from the museum. Zoe fakes a fall to give him a chance to shoot a Quark. But Jamie interrupts him and he misses his chance. The Doctor is taken prisoner again by Toba. Toba and three Quarks go to find Cully and Jamie manages to use the laser to blow up one Quark. Toba has the others open fire on the museum.

Episode 4: Rago's pissed that the museum has been destroyed. He's big on having his orders followed. He also believes they should ignore the weak and focus on their mission. After they flex at each other awhile, the story moves on. Jamie and Cully are underneath the rubble of the museum. Rago interrogates the Doctor and Zoe. To prevent him from taking his ship to the capital to lay siege to it, he continues playing dumb and leads him to the capsule he sabotaged. His plan is to search the ship to find out what they're after and also to find Jamie. Toba is left in charge and ordered to not kill any aliens while his boss is gone. (Aren’t bosses the worst?)

Jamie and Cully finally get out of the wreckage. Jamie throws rocks at a Quark, then dodges its disintegrator and runs until it's in position for Cully to roll a boulder onto it. This distracts Toba enough that the Doctor can search the ship. He finds that the ship runs on radioactive materials that it absorbs and that's why the island is now safe for life. Back at the capital, the council are still arguing like they were last episode and are no closer to deciding on a course of action. (Fight, flight, or submit.) Rago bursts in, demands information, and has a Quark kill a dude for raising his voice to him. Back at the drill site, Toba goes on a rampage looking for Jamie and kills Balan, threatening that the Doctor is next. (Balan's actor, by the way, really hams up his death scene. It was awesome. I hope he got lots of work after this appearance.)

The return of the sonic screwdriver! (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 5: Rago arrives and prevents the Doctor's death. He's mad that the drilling has stopped and orders that something called the "seed device" must be at critical mass. He says that the Quarks are dangerously low on energy because of all of Toba’s alien murdering. He also hints that the planet will be destroyed when they've done what they came to do. The Quarks are recalled, which saved Jamie and Cully. They plan to rescue the others. Jamie sneaks up behind one of the remaining Quarks, and ties its legs so it can be knocked over and Cully can cover its head with a sheet. Everyone gets away to the bunker they found. Toba orders them all destroyed, but Rago insists they continue drilling. He states their fleet leader has communicated that the Dulcians are unsuitable for slave labor. They'll all die with their planet.

From what he learned of the Dominator's ship and from Balan earlier, the Doctor explains the plan is to install rockets around the atomic seed device. The crust on the island is thin, so they'll fracture the core of the planet. This will destroy the planet but fully refuel the Dominator's ship with atomic energy. The Doctor thinks he can defuse the seed device so there's just a volcanic eruption on the island. Jamie suggests they dig a tunnel through the bunker wall and grab the device as they drop it in. The Doctor loves this idea. He starts the tunnel by switching his sonic screwdriver to what appears to be a laser cutting mode. It makes an impressive hole in a short time. While they're working, the Doctor makes a grenade out of the medical kit. Jamie and Cully run out and gleefully destroy three more Quarks, trying to stall the drilling. One more is destroyed after they throw a grenade right at the drill. The others are sent after Jamie and Cully. Since the Quarks are low on power, Cully is paralyzed instead of killed. They make it back to the bunker.

The seed device is intercepted as planned, but it's sealed. The Doctor has to get it off planet. He sends his friends to the TARDIS and the Dulcians back to the capital to warn them of the eruption. He then sneaks the seed device into the Dominator ship as the Quarks board it. He gets out in time and rejoins his friends. As the Dominators leave the planet, the seed device explodes, killing them and the Quarks. The Doctor is happy that it all turned out so well, the Dulcians are safe and the threat is over. Jamie reminds him that they're not safe and they see the lava from the new volcano approach the TARDIS.

I think the shoulder pads make them more intimidating. (Credit: BBC TV)

Thoughts: I was very pleased to see the season start with a fully intact serial. Sadly, the entire season won't be like this, but we're getting to the end of the reconstructed episodes. Still, this was an odd way to start the season. They concerned themselves with introducing up the aliens and the island setting before anything else. So it was 8 minutes before we even saw the TARDIS and its crew. The story itself was not the best one. There was a lot of repetition, travelling back and forth, and padding. It wasn't all bad. The serial had a lot to say about how the vulnerability of a strictly pacifist society and the impotence of bureaucracy.

You would think the Dominators and Quarks would become recurring villains, but they only come back in the books, comics, and audio plays. (This is why I left them off the villain list at the start. I’m focused on the television stories only.) The Quarks have adorable little voices and silly designs. They're great. Zoe wasn't given much of anything to do except run around in her one-piece swimsuit and skirt. Whenever she threw out an intelligent theory, the Doctor gently contradicted her. This could be just to continue last season's character arc of showing that her book learning just isn't enough without the experience to back it. But that's me being generous with the writers. So, yeah, Zoe wasn't treated the best on her first serial as a companion. Jamie, on the other hand, was a total badass, wrecking robots right and left.

The TARDIS covered in lava. (Credit: BBC TV)

The second serial ran from Episode 215 to 219 and was called The Mind Robber. This was another fully intact serial, which is always nice. In this one, after a near disaster, the crew lands in a strange place run by someone called the Master (no, not that one) and their perceptions of reality are brought into question.

Episode 1: Picking up directly where the last episode left off, Jamie warns the Doctor about the lava and they rush to take off. But they again have trouble with those pesky fluid links. (The TARDIS's fluid links have caused problems in previous seasons, releasing dangerous Mercury vapor.) Unable to get the TARDIS to take off, the Doctor mentions an emergency unit but he's very reluctant to use it since it removes them from the time space dimension and entirely out of reality. The lava covers the TARDIS and Jamie hits the device, saving them. The scanners show no readings and the Doctor grimly explains that they're "nowhere". While the Doctor works on the controls, Zoe is burning with curiosity about what's outside. The Doctor warns her that they cannot leave the TARDIS and the emergency unit will only let them stay outside of reality for a short time.

On the viewscreen, Jamie sees the highlands of Scotland and hears bagpipe music. It vanishes once Zoe walks in. Jamie insists they've landed. Zoe sees the city of her home. The image disappears but comes back after Jamie leaves the room to talk with the Doctor. Zoe impatiently leaves the TARDIS and the Doctor freaks out when he realizes that she left. Someone or something put the images on the scanner to tempt them. The alarm starts warning them that they're running out of time to stay outside of reality. Jamie runs out to find Zoe and the Doctor is assaulted by some piercing noise. Jamie and Zoe wander through a misty nothingness and find each other. Lost now, they call out to the Doctor who can't answer them as he's still fighting the noise. Jamie and Zoe see more images of their homes and are confronted by a horde of sinister robots. A cruel voice speaks in the Doctor's mind directing him to go and save his friends. He finds them and they've been hypnotized by the robots. He manages to get through to them and they all enter the TARDIS and take off. While the Doctor fusses with the controls, Jamie has a nightmare about a unicorn. The horrible sound comes back and overpowers them all. The TARDIS explodes and Jamie and Zoe are left clinging to the console as they fly through space. The Doctor is asleep and floating nearby. (Try to top that cliffhanger!)

Jamie and Zoe, floating in space. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 2: After replaying the ending of the previous episode, Jamie and Zoe find themselves lost in a forest. Jamie is attacked by a redcoat and turned to cardboard. Zoe enters a door, falling into a pit. A menacing figure is shown from behind, watching everything on monitors. He orders someone to search for the Doctor so he can be brought under his control. The Doctor searches for his friends and comes upon an armed Englishman who explains that someone called the Master is searching for the Doctor. The man vanishes, making the Doctor think he was hallucinating. Shortly the Doctor is confronted by schoolchildren who tell him riddles. He solves one and is given a dictionary. He finds the cardboard cutout of Jamie, solves a riddle to open a safe, and finds that Jamie's face is now missing. Different configurations of eyes, noses, and mouths are on a board nearby. He puts Jamie's face together but does it wrong and Jamie is revived, but with someone else's face. He determines this actually is Jamie, he just looks different.

Doctor and new-Jamie continue searching and find Zoe. They can't open the door but the Doctor manages it with another riddle... when is a door not a door? The door turns into a jar and Zoe is trapped inside. They help her out and Jamie climbs one of the strange trees. He finds the trees are all raised letters and the forest is a bunch of cliched sayings. They locate the Englishman again and he says this is all the Master's doing and they're being tested to see if they may serve. They see robots which look like wind-up toy soldiers approaching. They hide, but the Englishman gives away their location because he can't see the robots and doesn't believe they're there. The man in the control room orders they be brought to him and the robot soldiers march them along until they exit the forest and end up in a blank area. They see a unicorn, which reminds them of Jamie's dream. Although they're all scared, the Doctor suggests they stand still as the unicorn charges them.

Episode 3: Jamie and Zoe want to run away but the Doctor insists they say out loud that they don't believe in it. They do, and it freezes, turning into a cardboard standee. He explains their belief was effecting him. The Master must have a fantastic mind to set up these tests. Still monitoring them, the Master thanks the Doctor, saying he'll return the compliment. The Doctor is learning the rules quickly and is highly intelligent. Jamie comes across the soldier again and is again frozen. The Doctor pieces his face back together and Zoe corrects him, so this time he gets it right.

Special guest appearance by Medusa! (Credit: BBC TV)

They then find themselves in a dimly-lit maze and have to use a spool of twine to navigate their way through to the center. Zoe uses arithmetic to help them traverse the maze and when the thread runs out, they leave Jamie behind to mark their spot. Before long a toy solder robot finds Jamie and realizing he can blind it with his coat, he gets away. This makes the Master angry. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Zoe have found the center of the maze where they encounter a minotaur. (Pronouncing it MY-na-tore in good English fashion.) They banish it the same way as the unicorn, by proclaiming it's a mythical beast. They find the Englishman again and after questioning him about the Master's citadel, the Doctor surmises that the man is Gulliver from Gulliver's Travels. The reason he's acting so strange is that he can only speak the words given to him in his book by the author. That’s also why he couldn’t see the robots. Jamie flees from the soldier and climbs a tower, meeting Rapunzel. She vanishes and Jamie finds a viewscreen that show pages from Treasure Island. A radio briefly plays a passage from Little Women. There are drawers with names of other stories like Don Quixote and the Pit and the Pendulum. He then finds a ticker tape machine labelled "Work in Progress". He reads off the tape that Zoe and the Doctor, while looking for their companion, find a new threat in the labyrinth. The threat turns out to be a statue that turns into Medusa. As he continues to read what they're doing, the Doctor tries to convince Zoe to deny Medusa's existence.

This guy’s the villain? (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 4: Jamie reads that the Doctor has a sword and one appears in his hands. The Doctor remembers the story and pulls a hand mirror from his pocket. (Why he's carrying around a hand mirror, I'm not sure. Pulling things from his pockets becomes a running thing this season.) They look at Medusa through it and she turns back into a statue. The ticker tape says the Doctor’s test was a failure. An alarm goes off and Jamie is found by Gulliver and then hides in another room. The robots from Episode 1 come looking for him and Gulliver again doesn't see them. Outside the citadel, Zoe and the Doctor have arrived, but they're stopped by the Karkus, a comic strip superhero from Zoe's time period. He has a gun, but the Doctor wills that away as "scientifically impossible". Still, he's super strong and threatens to rip them apart. The Doctor can't say the Karkus doesn't exist since he's never heard of him. Zoe does some crazy judo throws and gets him in a choke hold. The Karkus surrenders and leads them to the citadel. Zoe dismisses him and the Doctor pretends to be the Karkus to get them inside.

The group is reunited. The Doctor has decided to face the Master. Gulliver warns him that it's unwise to disobey the Master and leaves them. Jamie tells them about the ticker tape machine and the Doctor realizes that the Master is trying to make them into fiction and every time they go against the narrative, they're breaking his rules. Zoe panics and sets off the alarm. The robots arrive and the Doctor tells them that he wants to see the Master. They're taken to finally face the mysterious man.

The Master turns out to be a charming and friendly man hooked to a crazy glowing orb with a cord sticking out of his head. He compliments the Doctor on how well he faced his tests, references a higher power and the great deal of organization it takes to run this place, and how rewarding the work is. He says that he was taken from England in 1926 and that he's a writer for a magazine, having created Captain Jack Harkaway. He was taken to be the imagination that runs this place. The Doctor suggests this all sounds like the Master is a prisoner. The orb vibrates and glows and the Master goes into a trance, going back to his writing. When he comes back to himself, Jamie and Zoe go to explore and the Master explains that the Doctor was brought here to replace him. The computer cannot create fiction, so needs a brilliant human mind to run the world they're in. The Doctor refuses. The orb spins and talks through the Master, stating that the Doctor cannot refuse. He reads from his latest chapter that Zoe and Jamie are surrounded and the only way to save them is for the Doctor to take over writing duties. His companions are in a library with the robots who back them into a giant book which closes on them.

Karkus— the 21st century’s greatest hero! (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 5: The Doctor sees his companions getting trapped in the book through a viewscreen. The Master says his first task after taking over could be to free them. The Doctor still refuses. He climbs a bookcase since robots can't climb. On the roof of the citadel he finds Jamie and Zoe but they're acting blankly and keep repeating themselves. He realizes they're fictional characters now, only able to act their roles. The Doctor looks through a skylight and sees a typewriter typing his story by itself. He thinks if he can reach it, he can change the narrative. He summons Karkus with a thought to open the window and Rapunzel lowers him down. The Doctor sits at the typewriter and starts to type that he defeated the enemy. He stops himself, realizing it’s a trap. If he writes himself into the story, he'll become fiction. The Doctor returns to the roof to find his companions gone. Gulliver and the school children return, all talking at once and giving him a headache. The Master writes that Jamie and Zoe have realized the Doctor is a villain and they must punish him. They coax the Doctor into the TARDIS, but it was a trap. He's stuck in glass and vanishes.

The Doctor is held prisoner by the Master. He says that since the Doctor is not cooperating, he'll have to become a part of the computer, the Master Brain. The plan is to make all the humans fiction so that the Master Brain can inhabit the Earth. The Doctor realizes that as part of the computer, he can start thinking things into existence. He starts by freeing his companions from control. A battle of wits begins. The Master sends his robots, the Doctor sends Karkus. The Master takes control of Karkus, but the Doctor states his gun is out of power. The Master summons Cyrano de Bergerac and the Doctor counters with the Musketeer D'Artagnan. Then they are replaced by Blackbeard and Sir Lancelot. The Master Brain declares the Doctor must be destroyed and the Master begs leniency so he doesn't have to keep serving. Jamie and Zoe find the Doctor and interrupt the robots. The Doctor can't rewrite the story else he become fiction, but Zoe realizes they can overload the computer. They start pushing buttons on the console at random and images from the previous episodes flash on the screen. The Doctor unplugs the Master and the computer and robots explode. They escape, taking the Master with them. He is disoriented, with no memory of his ordeal. The Doctor isn't sure if they're about to return to reality or be destroyed. Suddenly the TARDIS reassembles.

Thoughts: I really liked this one. It was a creative story. The imagery of the TARDIS exploding and Jamie and Zoe floating on the console was jarring and unexpected. There were some very interesting ideas in this serial. Especially the idea that you can change reality with your imagination and the very act of writing yourself into the story makes you fictional. I love that. I also enjoyed that the final battle came down to a childlike game of make-believe, with the Master and the Doctor trying to one-up each other. (“I have a blaster gun.“ “Yeah? Well I’m wearing my blaster-proof armor!“)

The minotaur looked silly but it wasn't on screen for long. The toy solder robots and Medusa were fine. Actually the animation of the snakes was really good. It was stop motion but very smooth. The temporary stand-in for Jamie was disorienting. (Frazer Hines had chicken pox so they had to think of a creative way to write him out for a portion of two episodes.) I like that amid all the classical fiction they included a character from Zoe's time. That was something not every writer would think of and added another dimension to the story. (But where did he come from? I assume the Master’s predecessor wrote him in.) Also, Zoe was a little badass in the Karkus fight. She needs more moments like this to shine. I can note, however, that the Master is not mentioned again in the next serial. I can only assume he’s been returned to his own time period when the Land of Fiction was destroyed. (Side note, I made a joke about this earlier, but there is another very well-known character in Doctor Who named the Master later on. He has no relation to this one.)

Production-wise, this was a very interesting serial. I watched a behind the scenes featurette on it. The first episode was basically patchwork to expand the episode count. (The previous serial was shortened by one episode due to lack of material.) Also, the episodes were shorter than usual, under the 22 minute standard. In fact, Episode 5 was only 18 minutes long. This was due to low budget and high workload. Still, although it was a troubled production, I count this as one of my favorite serials thus far for the surreal imagery, the intriguing ideas, and the creative execution.

This is a 1968 answering machine, I guess. (Credit: BBC TV)

The third serial ran from Episode 220 to 227 and was called The Invasion. This was an eight part story and two episodes (the first and fourth) are missing and had to be reconstructed. We made it pretty far into the season before we hit some recons. As opposed to the usual reconstructions, I had to watch the animations for these two episodes, which is something I had been avoiding. (I didn't like the idea of jumping from live action to animation and back again.) There really wasn't a choice this time, though, since no telesnaps exist for these episodes. Sadly, the gentleman who handled the telesnaps passed away before this serial aired. This story involved a mysterious company and a potential invasion of Earth.

Hey, they’re cartoons now. (Credit: BBC TV, Cosgrove Hall)

Episode 1: The TARDIS is reassembled and hovering over the dark side of the moon. A missile is fired at them and they aren't able to move, the landing circuit is jammed. The Doctor struggles with it and manages to get them to dematerialize just in time. They appear in a cow pasture. The Doctor wonders if they were fired at by a previous threat. Apparently the time reading is not working, as the Doctor needs to speculate that they're in the late 20th century, Earth. The TARDIS needs some circuit repairs and the Doctor decides to look up Professor Travers for help. (See Season Five— Travers was the man who specialized in the robotic Yetis.) Before they leave, the Doctor removes the Visibility Circuit and the TARDIS is made invisible. A passing lorry driver gives them a ride but he's acting shady and snippy. He pulls over and makes them hide for a bit, saying that "the company" is tracking him. He explains the company is International Electromatics, the biggest electronics company in the world. They have huge complexes that are easy to get into, but not so easy to get out of. He's one of the ones trying to get out. After they part ways, the driver is waylaid by two guards who shoot him dead.

The Doctor and friends hitch-hike and get to London where they find Travers and his daughter have left for America. A Professor Watkins and his niece now live here, but the Professor has gone to work for the company. The Doctor fixes her camera and Zoe decides to stay and do some modelling for her. Jamie and the Doctor, after fighting with an automated telephone system, decide to sneak into the complex. They are caught and gassed, brought to the office of Vaughn, the director of International Electromatics. He says Watkins is very busy and doesn't want to be disturbed, but his technicians can help with the circuits. The Doctor hesitantly hands them over and Vaughn is way too interested in them. He says he'll send them to his workshop and gives Jamie a disposable transistor radio as a gift. He sends them out and orders his guard Packer to kick them off the site. Outside the Doctor states that Vaughn is not as he seems. He's odd, sinister, and inhuman. And also doesn't blink a normal amount. We cut to Vaughn's office where he hits a switch. The wall opens and we see some complex unearthly machinery inside.

Is this one of those fancy espresso machines? (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 2: Vaughn continues to act shady. Zoe is getting worried about Jamie and the Doctor, calling it an intuition. (Hey, she’s developing gut feelings!) Isobel, the photographer, really likes the song "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" for some reason. Jamie and the Doctor are waylaid by men in suits who take them into custody, drive them into a plane and present them to Brigadier (formerly Colonel) Lethbridge-Stuart, who is now head of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce... otherwise known as UNIT. This is a team tasked with investigating strange activities. He states it's been four years since he met them during the Yeti incident. Not only has he gotten a promotion, but he's no longer a skeptic. He explains that the reason they tracked the duo is that they've been investigating IE and have noticed that often when people enter the building, they never leave. Vaughn feeds the alien computer his data on the Doctor and Jamie. The computer states that they are known from an incident on Planet 14 and must be destroyed. (Side note, this is not something from a TV serial. Later books and audio discuss possible incidents on a Planet 14, but as I stated before, I am not getting into those parts of the Doctor Who mythos. So I guess this remains a mystery. More on this later.)

Zoe and Isobel enter the IE building and get nowhere with the computer receptionist. Zoe tricks it with an insoluble math problem and causes it to overload. Vaughn is very amused by this and sends Packer to bring them to his office. Still talking with the Brigadier, the Doctor learns the lorry driver was an agent of UNIT and he hasn't reported in. IE has a monopoly on computers around the world and Vaughn is under investigation, but they can't intervene officially without proof. He says he won't stop the Doctor from investigating on his own and he gives him a transceiver to get in touch if he gets into trouble. Back at the Travers house, the Doctor takes apart Jamie's radio and finds circuits that shouldn't be there. They find a note that the girls have gone to look for them and confirms this with the Brigadier. Meanwhile, Vaughn is ordered by the computer to destroy the Doctor. He refuses without more information and is told the Doctor has a machine to travel to other planets. Vaughn agrees to destroy him. Using a back entrance, the Doctor and Jamie see workers carrying crates far too heavy for them. Vaughn learns they're inside the complex and decides to use Zoe and Isobel as bait. The men are drawn out by their screams and see them being put into crates. Jamie attacks Packer and the pair are surrounded by guards.

Episode 3: The Doctor and Jamie are taken to a factory. The Brigadier and the rest of UNIT watch and wait. When asked by Vaughn why the Doctor thwarted his security measures, the Doctor replies "Oh, that's quite simple. I hate computers and refuse to be bullied by them." Vaughn, pretending to be on their side, promises to help them. He asks if the Doctor designed the circuits, but he refuses to answer. After he leaves, Jamie wonders if he knows about the TARDIS and the Doctor identifies machinery outside that seems to be deep-space radio communications. Vaughn and Packer threaten Watkin's niece if he won't finish a mysterious machine. The Doctor is taken to see Watkins. Vaughn listens in to this meeting and the Doctor shrewdly cuts Jamie off as he brings up the TARDIS circuits. The Doctor puts a magnet on the camera to disrupt it and Watkins mentions that he's working on a teaching machine that can cause an emotional response in its subjects. Vaughn demands the Doctor tell him the secrets of his travel machine or he'll hand Zoe over to Packer. The Doctor distracts and shoves Packer and he and Jamie escape in the lift, sabotaging it. They escape into the elevator shaft, barely escaping to the roof before being crushed when the lift starts moving again. They climb down and hide in a train. They hide in the containers they saw earlier and Jamie realizes there's something alive in his.

So weird. (Credit: BBC TV, Cosgrove Hall)

Episode 4: Vaughn reveals to Packer that he plans to betray their allies. Watkin's machine can produce "emotion pulses", which he believes can be used to defeat the powerful beings. He wants the TARDIS in case his plan fails, so he can escape. Vaughn also states that if they take over, everyone will cease to be human and will become like them. (Sound familiar?) The Doctor and Jamie infiltrate the main building to find the girls, first securing a helicopter with a rope ladder from the Brigadier. Vaughn has given the Doctor a deadline of ten minutes to surrender before he kills Zoe. Jamie uses the ladder to get into a window and free Zoe and Isobel. Vaughn's men try to shoot down the helicopter and Jamie doesn't make it inside in time. He has to hang from the ladder as they fly off. Back with UNIT, the Doctor puts things together... the missile on the dark side of the moon, the deep space radio, photos UNIT provides of flying saucers. He needs to see what Jamie saw moving in the crate. He borrows a canoe from the Brigadier and they return to the IE building. They spy on the workmen and see them working with a metal cocoon from one of the crates. It opens up to reveal a Cyberman inside.

The Cyberman bursts free. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 5: The Doctor and Jamie flee by canoe and warn Jimmy (another UNIT officer) of the Cybermen invasion. He speculates they have numbers in the thousands. The Brigadier is reporting to his superior, Major General Rutlidge who is acting strange, dismissing the concerns, and at one point freezes up. The Brigadier suspects he's been compromised. The Brigadier decides to go over his head and report to UNIT central command in Geneva. After the meeting, Rutlidge reports to Vaughn that UNIT will be investigating. During this, he falters in his speech. Vaughn worries their control over the General is weakening. Vaughn reports to the Cyber-Director (the machine in his office) that they must start the invasion within 15 hours. The Director states that they're not ready yet, but Vaughn threatens to stop helping them. The General is in the office while this is discussed and seems concerned.

The Doctor thinks the Cybermen will travel through the sewers for their invasion. He then takes apart the transistor radio, finding circuits that seem to do nothing. Vaughn tests his device on a Cyberman, and it drives him crazy. He wanders into the sewer. Isobel suggests they go into the sewer— yes, the same one— to take photos to prove the Cybermen exist so Central Command will assist. The Brigadier says that's no job for a young lady and Isobel gets pissed. Zoe is just as mad when Jamie agrees. The three youngsters sneak off to London to get Isobel's photo equipment. Vaughn is told by the Cyber-Director that the invasion will consist of changing suitable humans into Cybermen and unsuitable humans will be destroyed. Vaughn is upset because he thought he'd be ruler over Earth and be allowed to stay human. Jamie and the girls go into the sewers, followed by a policeman who's trying to keep them from going in. The cop is killed by Cybermen, Isobel gets some photos, and the crazed Cyberman is lurching at them from the other direction.

Jamie nearly loses a leg. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 6: Thankfully the wild Cyberman is so wild it doesn't notice them. UNIT arrives and starts searching the sewers for the missing punk kids. They run into the two Cybermen who are attacked by the crazed one. One agent throws a grenade, which takes out the two normal Cybermen. Another agent panics and runs, getting shot and killed by the crazed Cyberman. Jamie, Zoe, and Isobel reunite with the UNIT agents and flee the sewers. Jamie is grabbed and they have to hit it with a rifle and throw a grenade on it to get away. Isobel develops her photos and the Brigadier is concerned they look like fakes. Professor Watkins finishes his device— the Cerebration Machine— and Vaughn immediately goes mad with power, threatening his scientists and hitting Watkins with the beam. He taunts Watkins and hands him a gun, saying he wouldn't have the guts to shoot him. Watkins does, several times, but the bullets don't hurt him. The Doctor needs help analyzing the circuits and so UNIT stages a daring (yet completely off-screen) rescue of Watkins. He is absolutely no help, but what he reveals about the emotional pulses interests the Doctor. This causes the Doctor to have a realization that the Cyberman invasion ship will send a signal through all the communications satellites around Earth,. This will boost the signals and activate the circuits in the IE electronics sending out cyber-hypnotic signals which will control humanity. Zoe thinks of the depolarisers they used on the Wheel and they start making some. They can only make three with the equipment they have. The signal starts up and the Doctor falls over, having lost his depolariser. People all over London start falling and Cybermen start streaming from the sewers.

Episode 7: The Doctor recovers, half of UNIT is unconscious. Vaughn demands he be put in control of the invasion or he'll cut off his radio waves. The Cyber-Director agrees. He sends Packer to fetch Watkins. This attempt fails, but Watkins and Jamie are shot. Vaughn is upset that UNIT is still active and Packer's doubts about his boss's plans are growing. Vaughn is starting to lose his cool because his plans are not going as smoothly as he thought and his right-hand man is talking back. The good guys all assemble on a plane. The world is under attack and there's no time to make enough depolarisers. The Doctor states the only hope is to fire a huge missile at the Cyberman invasion ship. The Brigadier recalls the Russians have a launch site ready to go for a manned expedition to the moon. They could put a warhead on that. Zoe helps him prepare this. Jamie's fine, it's just a flesh wound, but he can't help thwart the invasion. The Doctor heads off to confront Vaughn and goes through the sewers. (He flips a coin to decide which way to go.)

Vaughn allows the Doctor an audience and their conversation is transmitted to UNIT by a device the Doctor is carrying. Vaughn says that he's been working with the Cybermen for five years and he's the one who led them to Earth. The Doctor tells him he's just a pawn and without Watkin's machine, he's at their mercy. And just because he made a deal, he has no way of knowing that all the Cybermen in space will follow his orders. This unsettles Vaughn, who decides the Doctor is trying to stall him. He orders the beam be turned on to start the full invasion. The Doctor can't talk Vaughn out of this, and the ships show up on radar at the military base. Zoe suggests they fire missiles and with a chain reaction they could take out 90% of the fleet. She says she could do the calculations herself in thirty seconds. The Major in charge of the base doubts this but the Brigadier backs her. The missiles are fired, the ships start exploding, and the Cyber-Director accuses Vaughn of betraying them. He denies this, but the Director stuns him and takes control of the invasion forces. The Director declares he will wipe out all living beings on Earth with his cyber megatron bomb. The Doctor shouts at Vaughn that he will be ruler of a dead world.

Episode 8: Everybody is thrilled about Zoe's calculations destroying the invading ships. But Corporal Benton, having overheard the Director's bomb threat, warns the Brigadier that they're all about to die. Way to ruin the celebration, man. Vaughn, unable to talk the Director out of dropping the bomb, turns the Cerebration Machine onto the Director’s module, destroying it. Vaughn calls for Packer. As soon as he gets into the office, he's killed by a Cyberman, which the Doctor then dispatches with the Cerebration Machine. The Brigadier says it would take ten hours to prepare the missile to destroy the mother ship. Since they don't have that, the Doctor pleads with Vaughn to help them destroy the transmitter. Sounding a lot like Doctor Doom, Vaughn monologues about how Earth needs a strong hand to rule it and bring order. But he agrees to help because he hates the Cybermen so much. The Doctor and Vaughn travel by chopper to the transmitter and the Russians get the missile ready sooner than expected. UNIT races to support the Doctor, but he can't wait for them. He and Vaughn sneak into the old IE factory which is swarming with Cybermen. They have to kill a couple of them with the device (one of which is a sweet dummy drop from the roof) and UNIT fights off a troop of Cybermen when they arrive. Isobel tagged along to take better photos of them.

Ambushed, Vaughn takes out two Cybermen but is killed by a third. The Doctor flees its blasts, barely escaping. He meets up with UNIT and an agent uses a bazooka to kill the Cyberman. Isobel takes several photos of the Doctor for some reason. (I'm not sure if this was done for comic relief or if it is something that will come back in a later episode, so I figured I'd mention it.) They destroy the transmitter, but they still have to stop the ship, which is getting closer. The Doctor speculates it's going to manually drop the bomb. The Russians manage to turn their rocket. UNIT shoots down the Cybermen's bomb with their missiles and the ship is destroyed by the rocket. Success!

After this, Isobel tells Zoe she's landed a contract and will now be a professional photographer thanks to her Cybermen photos. She also seems to have a relationship going with Captain Turner. (They'd been flirting throughout the serial.) The Doctor has the circuits fixed so he and his companions set off. Turner and Isobel see the TARDIS dematerialize and are amazed.

Wait, the evil world-dominating robots betrayed him? (Credit: BBC TV)

Thoughts: This was a good one and sets up a lot for the future, also serving as the last Cybermen story for quite some time. This serial introduced UNIT and Corporal Benton, and reintroduced Lethbridge-Stewart. UNIT will become very important to Doctor Who going forward. I think they're a good inclusion to the series and it was nice to see the Brigadier again. I found it hilarious that the Doctor kept getting angry at the automated phone system. I relate far too well with this. I always end up shouting at them myself. Zoe is starting to grasp intuition over logic, following her concern that the Doctor and Jamie got into trouble. This serial was all about the mystery. If you think about it, it's somewhat obvious that it's Cybermen... they have advanced tech and see the Doctor as such a threat that he is to be killed on sight. But they did well misdirecting and keeping the real threat in the shadows until the end of Episode 4.

Now for downsides. As is customary for the longer serials, Episode 3 was the one that had very little happen and merely existed to pad out the episode count. While this was a good serial, it wasn't all interesting and had very slow pacing. The pacing was so up and down that they even skipped over the rescue of Professor Watkins in Episode 6! (Really this was more budgetary than anything. It would have been too expensive a scene to shoot.) They also didn't really explain how half the UNIT forces were able to resist the radio waves and remain conscious. The biggest issue is that I feel there were some sloppy rewrites in the scripts. I’ve seen this before in the show, where something will seem to pivot or there will be references to something that isn’t elaborated on. In the case of this serial, it was Vaughn. I couldn’t find anything to back this up, but I believe in earlier drafts he was a robot, or a partially changed Cyberman. After their first meeting, the Doctor commented on how he doesn’t blink the right amount. And when Watkins fired several rounds pointblank into his chest, he was unharmed. This was never explained. Even with a bulletproof vest he would have been knocked on his ass.

A small note about the animation. It was professionally done by studio Cosgrove Hall. While I didn't much care for the style, it was, admittedly, nicer than watching the telesnaps with audio playing. I couldn't take it too seriously, though. Jamie looked like a reject from a Beatles cartoon and Zoe looked way too much like she belonged in an episode of Archer.

The Doctor is identified. (Credit: BBC TV)

The fourth serial ran from Episode 228 to 231 and was called The Krotons. This serial was fully intact and involved a race of people sacrificing themselves to unseen creatures named Krotons.

The Doctor is sad about his umbrella. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 1: A race of people called the Gonds select two of their number-- Abu and Vana-- to be the companions of the Krotons. Thara argues against this but Selris says it's the highest honour. Lost already? So was I. The TARDIS sets down and the Doctor is optimistic although the landscape is desolate, there are two suns, and everything smells of sulfur. They find a city and a huge machine that Abu comes out of just in time to be gassed and vaporized. They wander into an argument where Thara is still trying to get his daughter Vana out of her fate. The Doctor announces himself and Jamie picks a fight with a guy named Axus. While they're distracted, Vana gets into the machine. The Doctor tells them of Abu's fate, which shocks everyone. They're also shocked to hear that the newcomers came from the wastelands. They say it's poisoned and now they're contaminated. They rush outside to save Vana and the Doctor crams rocks into the holes where the gas comes out. This gives him enough time to get Vana away when she steps out of the machine. The gas still comes out and melts the Doctor's favorite umbrella.

They take the catatonic Vana to her grandfather Selris's house for a nice helping of exposition. He's baffled. The Krotons have always been their friends and benefactors. Now and then, the two brightest of their students are chosen to be companions of the Krotons and enter the machine never to be seen again. He's stunned that they may all have been killed. Thousands of years ago the Kroton machine landed on their world and caused a war that almost destroyed everything. Since then they haven't left their machine and the wasteland has been poisonous. The Doctor uses his skills at hypnotism to help Vana get some rest. Thara takes some students to talk with the Curator, who explains no one has seen the Krotons. They speak through teaching machines. Thara decides to destroy the teaching machines to draw them out. The machines teach them everything they need to know and train some of them to be companions. The Doctor points out that this is slavery. The Doctor insists they can get to Thara in time to stop him by crossing through the wastelands. They stop the belligerent Gonds in time and a robotic voice commands them to leave. The Doctor is scanned and his face shows on the monitors inside the machine. A mechanical snake-thing comes out and heads for the Doctor.

Trapped in the machine. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 2: When the Doctor covers his face, the probe stops, thinking it destroyed him. It works off of facial recognition. It does kill a student who tried to attack it, though. The creepy voice declares that their leader has been destroyed and all Gonds must leave the Learning Hall. The Doctor tells Zoe that there are many things the Gonds are advanced in, but there are gaps in their knowledge put there purposely by the Krotons. The Doctor, Zoe, and Selris go back to the Learning Hall to look around, leaving Jamie to give pills to Vana when she wakes. The Doctor finds a trapdoor and leaves Zoe on her own. Of course, she instantly gets in trouble. (I’m having flashbacks to Barbara wandering off and getting herself kidnapped or poisoned with pesticides. Fun times.) Zoe gets into the learning machine and when they come back she informs them the Krotons are pleased with her. She's doubled the best score a Gond has ever gotten. Vana awakens ranting about a bright light and her burning mind. Jamie gives her the pills and she falls asleep. Jamie leaves to find the Doctor.

The Doctor finds a crystalline substance on the walls and says the basement looked like a root structure. He speculates the Kroton machine is actually a living entity. There is a chime and the Krotons have chosen Zoe to be a companion. The Doctor is very upset and decides to take the test himself so he can join her inside the machine. He flubs the first few questions but by answering more he scores higher than Zoe did. He says he's happy he pleased them and realizes he's slightly brainwashed like she was. They also select him and Jamie arrives just in time to see them enter the machine. They sit on stools and the Doctor has them each hold the end of a chain to equalize the power. They find themselves petrified and a force field surrounds them. Eventually they recover and the Doctor explains that the device converted mental power into energy. There are bubbling tanks around them. The Gonds weren't enough to power them, but the Doctor and Zoe's mental powers were. It's a crystalline slurry to create life. Something starts emerging from the tank and they escape. Two Krotons watch monitors and wonder why these Gonds are acting differently. Perhaps their conditioning has failed. The Doctor tinkers with the door and they drop down to evade the gas. The Krotons see Jamie trying to break into the machine and figure out a new race is helping the Gonds. They decide to take Jamie too. They capture and paralyze him. The Krotons realize that his mind is too primative and he will be destroyed by the process.

Jamie meets the Krotons. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 3: The Krotons are big robot-looking guys with crystal heads. Jamie is spared at the last moment by one of the Krotons deciding that he would know about the Doctor. They interrogate Jamie and he's forced to answer questions about the TARDIS, which they see the Doctor and Zoe entering from the monitor. One of the Krotons leaves to investigate. Outside, there is a coup in the Gond ranks. The deputy Eelek takes command and rouses everyone into battling back against the Krotons. Selris thinks this is suicide and that their only hope is to attack when they don't expect it. Jamie is going to be killed for being useless but he learns more about the Krotons. The machine they're in is called the Dynatrope. There is no way to destroy a Kroton. Even if they're reduced to molecules, they will survive. While the Kroton is talking, Jamie is sneaking towards where the weapons are stored that the other Kroton took with him.

The Doctor has analyzed the substance from the tank as tellurium and the sulfur smell outside is from rocks producing hydrogen telluride. He needs a sample of this and Zoe senses they're being watched. The Kroton orders them back to the machine and at that moment Jamie attacks Kroton A, confusing him. Kroton B had been getting directions from the other one and without those directions, it has no idea what to do, indicating that it can't see while in sunlight. This allows the Doctor and Zoe to escape. Kroton A directs his ally to destroy the TARDIS, which he seems to. After he leaves, it rematerializes and the Doctor states that he turned on a defense system in the TARDIS that allows it to dematerialize when it's in danger and come back a distance away when it's safe. (He usually forgets to activate it, he admits.) Eelek has a stupid plan to attack the Krotons with slings and fire. Selris has a better plan-- take out the pillars that hold the machine up. The Doctor learns of this, says it's a terrible idea, and rushes to stop him. Before he goes, he leaves sulfur and instructions with Beta, the scientist. Although chemistry has been forbidden, it's important that he create a sample of what the Doctor needs. Jamie has learned that the Dynatrope will expire in three hours without high quality brain power. He manages to escape. The Gonds start destabilizing the machine, which upsets the Krotons. The Doctor rushes in, trying to stop them and is buried in rubble.

Episode 4: The Doctor is recovered from the rubble but Thara (Vana's romantic interest) is injured in the process of getting him. The Dynatrope is damaged and leaking fluid. Vana shows the Doctor the sulfuric acid Beta made. The Doctor leaves it behind in his panic when he learns Jamie followed them into the machine. There's more Gond power struggling and when a Kroton appears and kills a Gond, Eelek promises to hand over the Doctor and Zoe. The Krotons promise to leave, but if they do not produce the "high brains" as they put it, all the Gonds will be killed. This whole time Jamie was wandering around the Dynatrope, looking for a way out and is helped by the Doctor. He's sent to help Beta make more acid-- the blind leading the blind there. Selris and Vana fail to warn the Doctor of Eelek's plan but in the process Selris finds the vial of acid. The Doctor and Zoe are captured and forced into the Dynatrope, Selris arrives to give the Doctor the acid and then is killed by a Kroton.

The Krotons explain that their ship will only work with four powerful brains working together. Two of their crew were killing in a space battle and so they landed here to train the Gonds to help them. The Doctor slips the acid to Zoe. Outside Beta and Jamie carry a vat of acid towards the basement of the Learning Hall. It’s a wonder no one is hurt in the process. The Doctor distracts the Krotons and Zoe puts the acid into the tanks their air supply feeds from. The Gonds are evacuating since when the Dynatrope leaves, the city will be destroyed. Jamie, Beta, Vana, and others stay behind to fight. The Doctor and Zoe are forced to put on the headsets, but just in time the Krotons are injured by the acid and the Dyntrope starts dissolving from the acid the others are pouring in the basement. Thara will deal with Eelek, the Gonds will now be free to learn at their own pace, and Beta vows to be a great scientist. Out in the wasteland, the Doctor and his friends head off to their next adventure.

I do kind of like their design. (Credit: BBC TV)

Thoughts: This was another of those serials about an advanced race dominating a less advanced race, but it was done in a creative way at least. There were some really solid ideas here-- the organic machine hybrid life, the generational conditioning to utilize the slave species and the culture that built itself upon this dynamic. The serial was just short enough to not overstay its welcome or necessitate padding. The Krotons are another enemy that only appears in one TV serial but are expanded on in the ancillary media. At this point they were still trying to find an enemy to fill the void the Daleks had left. These didn’t do the trick. Really they were just petulant bullies. Unlike the Daleks, the Krotons didn't roll... their bottom half was clearly a skirt and you could see the actor's legs slowly walking them, which I found hilarious. Ultimately the story didn't make a lot of sense. I feel like there were some rewrites that caused plot holes. Earlier in the serial it seemed like they were creating life in their tanks but then the tanks seemed to disappear from the story and their goal was to train the Gonds to be smart enough to fly their ship. I think originally the tank was supposed to hold the "dispersed" Krotons and they were bringing them back to life with the mental powers. This would explain all the talk earlier about how Krotons can be revived. If this was the actual intention, though, it wasn't clearly stated in the episode.

The fifth serial ran from Episode 232 to 237 and was called The Seeds of Death. This serial was also fully intact and involved a teleportation system and a dire alien threat.

Episode 1: To ignore a bunch of coworker drama, I'll just keep the set up brief. Miss Kelly is stationed on the Earth and is in charge of the T-MAT control center. This is a faster-than-light teleporter that uses the moon base as its hub and teleports people and supplies all over the world. The moon base is invaded by mysterious unseen creatures with ray guns and hissing voices and you know what, I'll just say it... they're Ice Warriors. The episode seems to be trying to shock us with the reveal by keeping them off camera for as long as possible, but if you've seen the Ice Warrior serial from last season you immediately know that's all these guys can possibly be. Maybe people were easier to misdirect in the 60s? Anyway, they kill a couple people and demand contact with Earth. Before dying, one of the crew members sabotages the T-MAT controls and the communications. While all this is going on, the Doctor is struggling with the tight controls of the TARDIS and they spot a Russian astronaut in a 60's-era suit outside. They go out and realize that they're in a space museum, which delights the Doctor. He identifies the era as being the 21st century and they watch a filmstrip explaining the T-MAT system. They're held at gunpoint by Professor Daniel Eldred, the owner of the museum and a former rocket engineer. He explains he's mocked since rockets are hardly ever used since the invention of the T-MAT. Miss Kelly has also discussed with her superior Radnor that the only way to get to the moon now would be a rocket and they were all scrapped. Except at the museum.

The Doctor defuses the tense situation by bonding with Eldred over his incredible rocket design that could have taken people beyond the moon. Radnor appears and reveals he knows that Eldred has been secretly building a rocket. But he's not in trouble. The government will fund the project as long as the first flight can be to the moon right away. Eldred refuses. Locke, a guy on the moon base, fixes the video link and starts sending an emergency message to Earth, which Radnor and the others see. All he gets to say is that people are dying and they're in danger before he's stopped by the Ice Warrior leader Slaar, who orders Locke's execution. (This is the point where the Ice Warriors are first shown, but I spoiled it early.)

I’m surprised they built a model for the moon base. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 2: Locke's dead, Phipp runs away and Fewsham agrees to fix the T-MAT under threat of death. Eldred insists that there's no way to get the rocket ready in time. The world is starting to panic over the unavailability of the T-MAT they rely on for supplies and travel. The Doctor agrees to help get the rocket prepared for a trip to the moon. They set to work and realize they only have fuel for a one-way trip. Miss Kelly wants to go to repair the T-MAT but Radnor forbids it since she's too valuable to risk. She’s the only one who knows how the T-MAT works, which seems like a dumb way of maintaining your vital technology. The plan is for the Doctor to fix the monitors so Kelly can walk him through repairs.

Everything goes well and the rocket launches, with the Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie as crew. The ground control immediately panics because the video link is down and they can't answer the radio right away due to the gravity. Comms go down, the computers start smoking, and the whole thing seems disastrous. Fewsham gets the emergency link to T-MAT working and Slaar orders him to put it on receive only. When Miss Kelly hears about this, she races to use it to get to the moon. When she and two maintenance men arrive, the Ice Warriors are out of sight and Fewsham lies that Osgood got space madness and went berserk. They start fixing the T-MAT. Meanwhile Phipps has crafted a radio and is almost caught by an Ice Warrior, but the radio is also a solar weapon that disintegrates the alien. In the process, the homing beam the Doctor is using to guide them to the moon shuts off, leaving the rocket with two choices... to crash or to drift off into space.

Episode 3: Phipps gets through to the rocket and explains about the alien invasion. As soon as the T-MAT is fixed, the Ice Warriors reveal themselves. Fewsham begs them to do exactly as they say, but one crewman tries to run. The other tries to fight back. They're both killed. The Doctor and Jamie have surmised that the aliens must be Ice Warriors. Locking onto Phipp's signal they manage to land with some trouble. The Doctor leaves his companions behind to refuel and look over the motors. The Doctor meets up with Phipps and declares before they leave they will need to put T-MAT out of commission. Too late, Zoe discovers the rocket motors are useless and the only way back to Earth is by T-MAT. They run off to warn the Doctor. The Doctor distracts an Ice Warrior long enough for Miss Kelly to escape, then evades them for a long time. Finally they corner him and he is only spared by telling them he can be useful since he's a genius. While Slaar tries to find out how the Doctor got there, two Ice Warriors bring in a glowing thing they call a "seed". Phipps, Kelly, Jamie, and Zoe have all met up and plan how to stop the Ice Warriors. They manage to use the solar power weapon to kill one of them. The Doctor sneaks a peek at the seeds and finds they're small glowing orbs. He holds on and it expands and pops, emitting a gas that knocks him out. They teleport one of the seeds to London and it starts expanding like a balloon.

These guys stand zero chance. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 4: One of the men is killed by the gas before they vent it. Radnor orders he be autopsied so they know what they're dealing with. More seeds are sent out and Jamie and Phipps witness this while climbing around in the vents. They can't see the Doctor, though. The autopsy shows instant oxygen starvation. More people around the world are dying. The Doctor is inspected and seen to still be alive, which confuses Slaar. Most humans would be dead instantly. Slaar orders Fewsham to teleport the Doctor into space between the Earth and the moon. Before they can do this, Jamie manages to sneak the Doctor out and back to their hiding spot. The Ice Warriors think he's dead and Fewsham is upset that he's now a murderer, even though he's been sending the seeds everywhere. The seeds are bursting, spreading foam and killing vegetation. An Ice Warrior teleports into the T-MAT control center, terrifying everyone and killing the guards. Phipps tries to reach the heating controls but can't get through the vent, so Zoe volunteers. On Earth, the Ice Warrior continues to rampage across the countryside and Eldred realizes the pods have all shown up in cold climates. Back in the storeroom, Kelly and Jamie try to kill an Ice Warrior but the solar gun doesn't work. The Warrior locates the Doctor. Zoe uses her eidetic memory to recall the map she saw and lead them to the heating controls. Finally coming through for them, Fewsham notices them and distracts an Ice Warrior so Zoe can turn up the heat. She's noticed though and the Ice Warrior bears down on her.

This looks like a still from a very odd music video. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 5: Fewsham finds his courage and distracts the Ice Warrior. Before he's killed, the Ice Warrior falls over from the heat. He tells Zoe that the T-MAT is working and they can all get to Earth. She runs off to tell the others. Before the other Ice Warrior can get to the Doctor, Jamie and Kelly struggle with him. Before he overpowers them, he also is affected by the heat and collapses. The Doctor awakens and is brought up to speed. After some boring talking at the control center, we find that the rampaging Ice Warrior's objective was the Weather Control Station. He kills the scientist inside, sets the controls to "dry" and melts the console. The Doctor and the others use the T-MAT to come to Earth. Fewsham said he was coming last, but lied. He fakes unconsciousness when Slaar comes in to turn off the heat control. Fewsham claims the others attacked him and escaped. The weasel. (Or is he?) Slaar reveals the next stage of the plan is a fleet of Warriors heading for the moon. Back on Earth the Doctor wants to test the foam.

Kelly has a plan to launch a satellite and use that as a relay to get T-MAT working again. The Doctor and Eldred run tests on the foam and learn it's a fungus that's meant to reduce the Earth's atmosphere by 20% to make it exactly like Mars. After testing different substances they find one that will neutralize it... water. The Doctor tells Zoe and Jamie to get Radnor to contact the Weather Control Station and turn on the rain. They can't find anyone to help, so Zoe decides to go herself, Jamie in tow. (Without telling anyone, naturally.) Back on the moon, Slaar orders Fewsham to connect a homing device to the T-MAT. Fewsham asks a lot of questions about its function and how it works, annoying Slaar. Zoe and Jamie find the control at the Weather Station fused and have to hide from the Ice Warrior, who's still patrolling. Slaar reports to the leader of the Ice Warriors, the Grand Marshal, who says the fleet is on the way but are low on fuel. Fewsham sneakily turns on the video link so Earth can see what's going on. He suggests they test the homing beacon, which Slaar agrees to. The Doctor watches (and records) as Fewsham narrates the flaws in the homing beam and how any inaccuracies would cause the fleet to overshoot and get caught in the gravity of the sun, without enough fuel to escape. Slaar discovers his treachery and orders he be put to death. Fewsham dies a hero. The Doctor tells them to cancel the satellite launch so they can repurpose it to play the recorded test beam to confuse the fleet. But then he learns that his companions have gone alone to the Weather Control Station and runs off to save them. They had locked the door and the Doctor can't get in. The foam starts overtaking him and a huge bubble is about to burst right next to his face.

Episode 6: The Ice Warrior is drawn to the door by the Doctor's cries and Jamie leads it away so Zoe can open the door and save the Doctor just in time. They get Jamie away from the Ice Warrior and shut themselves in the Solar Energy room behind a radiation door that keeps the alien out. They work on creating a solar weapon like Phipps made. There is a big fight with the guards who have arrived at Radnor's orders. Most of them are killed in the struggle before the weapon is completed and they fire it, finally taking down the lone Ice Warrior. (They had so much trouble with one... imagine what a whole fleet would do!) While all this is going on, Eldred and Miss Kelly rig up the satellite with the fake homing beam. They will need a car to get it to the launch pad, but luckily Kelly found a vehicle in a motor museum, meaning they don't use cars in this era either. The Grand Marshal is pissed that Fewsham was killed but Slaar says he can find someone else to run the T-MAT. The Doctor works to fix the weather control console since it was only the levers that were fused. Once he fixes it, it starts to rain. He makes the solar weapon portable and announces that he's heading to the moon to turn off the Ice Warrior's beam in order to make sure the fleet is destroyed. Since the satellite has been launched, the T-MAT can be bounced off of it.

On the moon, the Doctor kills the transmitter guard and fiddles with the communicator before reinforcements arrive. Slaar demands he work the T-MAT for them and the Doctor agrees so they won't kill him. The others are worried that they haven't heard from him yet. As the fleet veers away due to the fake beam, Jamie gets Zoe to send him to the moon to help the Doctor. The Grand Marshal and the rest of the fleet are pulled into the sun and can’t escape. He spends his last moments calling Slaar a failure. The Doctor explains that the real beam was only transmitting in the room and they were receiving the fake signal. Slaar says the fungus will still destroy all life, but the Doctor reveals it's currently being destroyed by rain. Outraged, Slaar orders he be killed but Jamie arrives at that moment and distracts them. The Doctor jumps over the control panel and redirects the Ice Warrior's gun at Slaar, killing him. They use the solar weapon to take out the last one, ending the threat. Back on Earth, Eldred suggests that they should always have rockets on standby in case of more emergencies like this. He and Kelly argue and ask the Doctor what he thinks, but the Doctor has again snuck away. Wet and grouchy, they return to the TARDIS and dematerialize.

Thoughts: Although a little slow, I liked this serial. It was nice to see the Ice Warriors again. Slaar had a different look and we could see the bottom half of his face, which looked all scaly and fanged. Excellent makeup for the time. The other ones still had their silly Muppet-esque mouths, which were awesome in a different direction. The Grand Marshal had shiny sequins glued all over his helmet. I like the Ice Warriors, even though they're not all that bright. They're powerful and formidable opponents for the Doctor and I'm glad they're sticking around. The model for the rocket and launch site were pretty cool. The Doctor had to be written out of Episode 4 so Troughton could be on holiday. You can always tell when the actor is out because they think of some plot-related reason for them to not be around. In this case he was knocked out by the gas and an obvious double was used for his unconscious body. It was wild seeing the Doctor taking a more proactive approach this time. He killed four Ice Warriors himself, including Slaar! Not to mention redirecting the fleet into the sun with some quick thinking. He even vaulted over the control panel! The Doctor was on the top of his game in this serial.

A continuity note/rant, since I'm still working up an timeline of Earth's future history based on references in the various serials... this one makes things a little dicey to slot in. This story takes place in the late 21st century, around Zoe's home time frame. However, in this serial there is a planet-wide teleportation system that Zoe is not aware of. And space travel is not utilized to the point that the only functional rocket they can find is in the space museum. Yet in Zoe's time, they not only have space travel, but the enormous Wheel in space to monitor for threats to Earth. This serial did mention the moon base and the weather control technology talked about in the previous season's Cybermen serial, so that was an interesting bit of continuity.

So I'm shifting Zoe to a little later, closer to the turn of the century... maybe around 2090. This serial likely takes place around 2060 or so before she was born. (She seems to be in her early twenties.) Checking dates in the wiki only confused me further as her year of birth as reported in ancillary media fluctuates from 1984 to 2079, which is quite a wide margin of error. I feel like I may soon have to abandon the timeline, as the show gets more complicated and the possibility of alternate timelines and changing the future come into play. I wish the show was a little more firm on the dates, providing helpful captions with the year they're in or the like. They don’t seem at all concerned with building a reasonable timeline.

The Space Pirates look so intimidating. (Credit: BBC TV)

The sixth serial ran from Episode 238 to 243 and was called The Space Pirates. This serial involves, shockingly, space pirates. Arrrr. Sadly, five of the six episodes are missing. (All but Episode 2.) Despite that, I am quite pleased to report this is our final reconstruction! We don't have to worry about inconsistent audio and telesnaps anymore after this one.

Episode 1: This will be quick. There is a government Space Corp ship V41 (led by Hermack and Warne) tracking space pirates who are attacking ships for profit. The beacons are made of argonite, which is worth a lot of money. Hence, pirates. The pirates are led by a man named Caven and one of his crew is named Dervish who is nervous about them getting caught. V41 is orbiting the mining planet Ta, hoping to catch the pirates. There's a lot of docking and undocking, scanners get blocked, beacons explode, yada yada, they decide to man the beacons. The nearest one is staffed and the guards are told to shoot any intruders on sight. Of course the TARDIS materializes just then on that exact beacon and they have to run from the guards. The pirates also attack and kill the guards. The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are locked in a room and the pirates set the charges to blow up the beacon before leaving.

Episode 2: The Doctor and his friends survived on one of the chunks of the beacon, but are unconscious. The V41 searches for the pirates and find a drifting ship manned by a man named Milo Clancey, a sort of space hermit who speaks with an bewildering blend of an English accent and a bad Southern drawl with more than a touch of Jimmy Stewart thrown into the mix. He's taken aboard and turns out to be a prospector who lost his last five hauls to the pirates and is trying to track them down too. He doesn't trust the government and says the pirate's ship is much faster than anything they have. The Doctor and the others come to and find themselves slowly traveling through space on a chunk separated from the TARDIS with limited oxygen. It has a rocket attached so all the chunks are flying somewhere.

Clancey is let go, but trailed by a smaller ship called a Minnow. This is because Hermack suspects he has some connection with the pirates, and is possibly their leader. The Doctor looks over the machinery and finds that the beacon was built in pieces and held together in space magnetically. He realizes that he can rig a force field to connect the pieces of the beacon like a magnet until they find the one with the TARDIS. Zoe argues that if he chooses wrong, the pieces will repel each other and they'll be in worse shape, which is exactly what happens immediately. They're too far away for the Doctor's plan to work now. Investigations into Clancey show that he was suspected of murdering the owner of a mining company and that man's daughter, Madeleine, now had a more successful mining company than Clancey's, finding more argonite in the mine they thought was tapped out. Clancey is observed heading towards one of the pieces of the beacon. It's the one the Doctor and friends are on. They're almost out of oxygen and Clancey boards. Jamie runs at him and he shoots Jamie. Zoe calls him a murderer.

Episode 3: Jamie was only stunned and Clancey thought they were the pirates. Since he's not on his ship he doesn't hear the warning to surrender so they rush back to his ship to flee once the missiles start flying. Clancey blocks their tracking so they can get away. The Doctor says that since the pirates are taking the beacon fragments to their base, they will need to find the base to get back to the TARDIS, all while avoiding the Space Corps. They go to the planet Ta to hide since that's the base of Madeleine's mining company and no one would expect him to go there. (They’re rivals and she once blamed him for her father’s death.) Hermack sends the Minnows to search for him. We learn that Madeleine bought a couple of the same fast expensive freighters that the pirates use and that she doesn't suspect Clancey is a pirate, although Hermack is certain of it. Clancey lands them a mile underground and goes to fix a generator. Zoe does calculations and determines the pirates are taking the beacon fragments to Ta, which must be where their base is. Everyone agrees that Clancey may very well be a pirate. The pirates have decided to send the fragments to Lobos instead to throw suspicion on Clancey. The Doctor and friends wander around in the tunnels, followed by the pirates and Clancey. To get away, they duck into a hole in the wall and fall down a mine shaft.

Clancey, Madeleine, and her fantastic gold wig. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 4: They land roughly on stone ground but are okay, aside from the Doctor landing on some thumb tacks in his pocket. In the mine they find an injured Sorba, who was the leader of the guards from Episode 1. While they revive him, the pirates squabble. Dervish doesn't want to divert the fragments because he thinks it's too risky, but Caven tells him he's planted a bomb on his ship so he has no choice. And I thought I'd had some bad bosses. Harmack has been fooled by the trick and orders everyone to head to Lobos. Sorba agrees to team up with them. The Doctor, using a stethoscope and a tuning fork, finds an audio lock behind a wall. Dervish is almost caught by the Space Corps, but he flies into a striped nose cone to disguise himself as one of Madeleine's freighters. (Last episode she mentioned that's how Hermack would know her ships from the pirate ships.) Annoyed with the tuning fork, Jamie throws it against the wall, which opens a hidden door. The Doctor praises his clever thinking.

Clancey arrives, holding a gun. Everyone still thinks he's a pirate, but he convinces them to come with him and shoots one of the pirates who is approaching to ask Sorba where the missing fragment of the beacon went. As they escape, Clancey explains that he didn't kill Madeleine's father, they were good friends. He thinks the man just disappeared. He'd suspected Madeleine was the leader of the pirates since she was mysteriously finding argonite in a mine he thought was stripped clean. But on the way to free them, he recognized Caven, who he knows is a murderous criminal. He wants to warn Madeleine. The pirates are approaching and Jamie holds them off with a gun taken from the dead guard while the Doctor messes with a power distributor set in the wall. He turns it into an electric trap which lets them get to Madeleine. Clancey tells her to warn Hermack about Clancey. She refuses, saying they're safe. When he reaches for the communicator, she pulls a gun on him. Caven enters and kills Sorba.

Episode 5: Madeleine is upset that Sorba was killed, saying she didn't agree to murder. It's revealed that she's been funding the pirates, which I'd figured out three episodes ago when we first met her. Clancey stops Jamie from jumping at Caven and the group is taken prisoner. Hermack and his crew realize Lobos is a diversion and calculate out the original destination was Ta. The Doctor and friends are locked in what turns out to be the private study of Dom Issigri (Madeleine's dad). The Doctor shows Zoe how candles work and they find an old man with poor hygiene hiding under the table. It turns out to be Dom, driven near madness by his isolation. Caven had secretly kept him in the study, hidden from his daughter. Clancey gets through to him with fond memories of their time working together and Dom starts to come around. Madeleine and Caven have a chat where he reveals that his plan is to put the prisoners onto Clancey's ship and cut off their oxygen. Since Hermack thinks the old prospector is the pirate leader, that will get them off their trail. Madeleine refuses to go along with more murder and tries to warn Hermack, but Caven catches her and threatens her father if she doesn't go along with the plans. She's devastated to learn he's been alive all these years without her knowledge. There's no way out of the study, but the Doctor hatches a plan. He melts candle wax on the carpet and empties a bag of marbles he'd been carrying in his coat onto them. Then he burns some rags to draw the guards in. They slip on the marbles, are beaned with vases, and the good guys are free again. They run to Clancey's ship, but in the process Jamie and Zoe are separated from them. The Doctor runs back to find them and Caven launches the ship by remote control with the two old men inside. The Doctor is knocked out from the fumes of the launching ship.

Episode 6: The ship has taken off and Clancey can't get control back. They start to choke as the oxygen is cut off. Jamie and Zoe find the Doctor and drag him to safety. His pulse is weak, but he soon comes to. (Alien lungs, you know.) He quickly realizes the ship is being controlled remotely and they need to find the control fast. Dervish and Madeleine are both protesting Caven's actions. When he finds out the Doctor and his friends aren't on board, he worries they'll alert the Space Corps and rushes off to find them. The Doctor and his companions get to Madeleine's office and she angers Dervish to get him to raise his gun so Jamie can disarm him. In the process, the blast hits the control unit. The Doctor rushes to fix it. He restores oxygen and the radios, and Clancey regains consciousness. He calls Hermack, who's arrived at Ta, and tells him everything. Hermack prepares to attack the planet, the Doctor works with Clancey to disable the remote controls, and Dervish tells Caven that the secrets are out. Caven contacts Madeleine and tells her he's going to lock them all in the headquarters and set off the atomic stores. He and Dervish will get away, but the rest of them will be vaporized. There's not going to be enough time for Hermack to get to them, so the Doctor knows it's all up to Clancey. He gets control of the ship and gets back to the planet. He gets everyone out, but the Doctor stays behind to disable the bomb. He manages to get it disabled just in time, Caven's ship is shot down, Madeleine gets off with light punishment and is reunited with her father, and Clancey prepares to fly the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe back to Lobos to look for the TARDIS.

The Doctor is always tinkering with something. (Credit: BBC TV)

Thoughts: Hoo boy. I thought previous serials were slow but I didn't know what slow was until this one. The first episode was so plodding and dull that it was a chore to get through. Add into that the fact that the Doctor and his companions didn't even show up until 15 minutes in. Since there were no telesnaps, this serial felt more cobbled together than usual, reusing mocked up footage repeatedly, using still photos from Episode 2 and production stills, photoshopping actor's heads on to other bodies to serve the scene. It was a clever way of doing it, and the reconstruction team did their best with what little material they had. Still, I'm glad we're done with the recons.

I really didn't like this serial. (Do you notice I seem to have more to say about the serials I don't like as much?) It was a dull, drab slog. A definite low point of an otherwise great season. It had its moments, though, like all of them. (I like that the Doctor carries so much random crap with him now. This is a great character quirk.) I can see what they were going for-- a Western in space, a type of British Star Trek, since that show was gaining popularity at the time. (Even though it was about to be cancelled just a few months after this serial aired!) But I don't think they quite hit the mark. The mystery of whether Clancey was a pirate was not compelling... I found it far too obvious that Madeleine was in on it. (And it wasn't just her sinister gold beehive wig-helmet!) As soon as she admitted she had the same freighters as the pirates and doubt was thrown on her source of argonite, it was obvious she was funding them.

I have no clue when this one takes place... no effort was made to date this one, but Earth is mining other planets and travelling into deep space, so I would mark this one somewhere from the late 2100s to the 2400s. Somewhere around or before Vicki's timeframe (2493), since there was intergalactic exploration going on during that era. And for sure after Zoe's time since she had no idea what argonite was yet it was used in all the spacecraft at this time.

The seventh serial ran from Episode 244 to 253 and was called The War Games. The group finds themselves in the middle of a very unusual war led by mysterious persons. You all, this is a big one for many reasons, which we'll get into as we go. Story-wise, format-wise, character-wise, this one shakes up a lot of what's been established and the show isn’t going to be the same after. Plus, in a more literal sense, it's a big story. This one has ten episodes! It's not quite the longest serial to date-- Dalek's Master Plan back in Season 3 was 12 episodes. So this falls in second place. But this one is one continuous stories, while the Dalek one was shorter stories strung together loosely. Also this one is fully intact, saved from the BBC purge. This will be a turning point in my coverage, so let's get into it.

Episode 1: The TARDIS sets down in a blasted wasteland and the Doctor immediately places them as being on Earth during World War I. They're found by an ambulance driver named Lady Jennifer Buckingham who says they're in an active war zone and drives them to safety in the trenches. They meet a British lieutenant named Carstairs and Major Barrington who are shocked to find civilians wandering around No Man's Land. They believe Jamie has gone AWOL from the Highlander regiment and soon suspect them all of being spies. General Smythe, who is organizing the battle, orders them to be sent to him. He has a high tech communications device hidden behind a painting and is furious when a soldier interrupts him, almost seeing it. When he's alone he speaks into the device, asking for reinforcements and saying there are at least 5000 specimens. We get to see that some of the officers are acting strangely and suffering from memory loss, not being able to recall how long they've been on the front lines. Jennifer says she doesn't remember much from before the war either. A couple of times we see General Smythe put on his spectacles and speak sharply at people, seeming to hypnotize them or plant suggestions in their minds. He clearly has some sort of power. He conducts a sham of a trial where he cuts off the Doctor's every attempt to defend them and influences the two other officers to agree that they're all guilty. He charges Jamie with desertion and Zoe and the Doctor with espionage. Jamie will await court martial, Zoe will serve ten years in a penal colony, and the Doctor will be put to death at dawn.

Jennifer convinces them to let Zoe stay with her for the evening. Captain Ransom gives Smyth to key to the Doctor's cell. The General puts it under his pillow and lies down on his cot. Zoe sneaks away in the night and enters Smyth's quarters. He's no longer there. She looks around and finds the hidden device behind the painting. Then she finds the key and goes to free the Doctor. Before they can leave, they're recaptured because it's dawn. The Doctor is put before a firing squad and there is a gunshot as the episode ends with the Doctor wincing in pain. What a cliffhanger!

Episode 2: The Doctor is fine. The shot was from a window and hit a soldier. While the soldiers shoot back, Zoe saves the Doctor and they run. The mystery of Smythe deepens as he reports into his video screen that he's leaving for the conference. A machine appears behind him. It looks like a box and sounds a little like the TARDIS materializing. Ransom walks in so Smythe puts on his special glasses and tells him that there's nothing there and he'd been called away to an important meeting. Ransom agrees emotionlessly and doesn't react as Smythe steps into the machine and dematerializes. In Jamie's cell, a Redcoat is thrown in with him. The man is disoriented and thinks it's 1745. He says he walked into a mist and appeared next to guns and horseless carriages. The Doctor, posing as an officer from the War Office, commandeers a vehicle and enters the prison, telling the Commandant that he's there to inspect the prison. While he's looking over plans for the prison, Jamie and the Redcoat escape. The Redcoat is shot in the leg and Jamie is escorted into the Commandant's office where the Doctor keeps up his act. The Commandant starts to get wise and Zoe beans him with a vase, but they're recaptured on the way out. (They’re really bad at escaping in this serial!)

Back at base, Jennifer and Carstairs talk about their loss of memories and she also recalls the mist. They don't believe the trial was fair. When the prisoners are brought back in, Carstairs talks with them and Zoe reveals the video screen behind the painting. While Jennifer distracts Ransom with a fake order from the General, they all go into Smythe's office. At first Carstairs and Jennifer can't see the screen, but the Doctor tells them to concentrate and it appears for them. They had to break through the hypnotic suggestion. The Doctor notices that it's switched on, so even though they can't see anything, someone was able to see them. He convinces them that they all have to get to safety. As they drive off in the ambulance, Smythe returns, furious, and orders the artillery to fire on the ambulance. They drive into mist which paralyzes Jennifer, so the Doctor has to take over driving. On the other end they find themselves in Roman times being charged by men in armor with a chariot. Carstairs frantically cranks the ambulance so they can escape.

The War Chief in the War Room. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 3: They get the ambulance going and return to 1917. The Doctor needs a better map-- the one Carstairs had just shows the 1917 area. They decide to return to base to look for one and Carstairs pretends to have them captive. They tie up Ransom and find a safe in Smythe’s office. The Doctor is unable to pick the lock but cobbles together a bomb to get into the safe with the explosive from a grenade and a candle wick. Inside the safe is a big map that shows several time zones all around a black area in the middle. They get back in the ambulance and drive across the battle field, ending up on the German side. A German soldier takes them prisoner and the Doctor eventually convinces him that they're time travelers by demonstrating the Sonic Screwdriver for him. His superior Von Weich appears and takes him into the other room where he puts in a monocle and hypnotizes him into thinking they're spies. Reminding the German soldier of the Sonic Screwdriver, the Doctor tosses his gun to Jamie, who holds him at gunpoint and forces him to let them escape.

When Von Weich finds out, he uses his own video device behind a painting to inform someone that the prisoners had escaped. Elsewhere, Smythe is visiting with a stranger called the War Chief. He orders that they be captured alive and brought there, wondering to himself if he knows the time travelers. (Strangely enough, we can hear his thoughts, which is not something that ever happens on this show.) The group travels to 1872 America in the midst of the Civil War. The ambulance runs out of gas and they have to go by foot. Carstairs, covering their escape, is captured. The War Chief orders he be brought the Central Headquarters. Smythe and Von Weich are there, planning a big battle between their armies and commenting on how this would be a good test of "the human's" morale. (Confirming my suspicion that the ones in charge are aliens.) Back in America, the transportation machine appears and soldiers file out. It looks like a big box with a door that slides open like a sideways drawer. (Jamie later says it's green, but we can't tell because we're still in the black and white era.) The Doctor, curious about it, enters. Zoe follows him. Before Jamie can stop them, the machine dematerializes.

Carstairs is reprocessed. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 4: Jamie and Jennifer are captured. The Doctor and Zoe examine the machine, noting it's just like the TARDIS, bigger inside than out. But who, she asks, would have a device like that? The Doctor thinks he might know, but hopes he's wrong. The machine has rooms filled with motionless soldiers that are being delivered to different time zones. The Doctor deduces that it will soon return to its base and that's where they need to be. Back in America, Jamie and Jennifer bounce from the Union to the Confederacy and Von Weich arrives to take them back with him. A solder no longer under control arrives to help them escape. His name is Harper and he's part of the Resistance. The War Chief talks with a scientist about the 5% that are able to break processing. The scientist has a new procedure that should fix that. The Doctor and Zoe arrive at base and put on silly visors to blend in. They witness the scientist reprocessing Carstairs, who once back under control points them out as German spies. The Doctor throws a fuss about this, saying it proves that the reprocessing failed. He tells the scientist that it's because he didn't de-process him first, and he doubts this device could even do that. This tricks the scientist into explaining how the de-processing works. Jennifer and Jamie briefly escape and then are recaptured but Harper's Resistance friends arrive to take Von Weich prisoner. The War Chief walks into the demonstration room and seems to recognize the Doctor. The Doctor also shows clear signs of recognition and shouts at Zoe to run. They flee, but Zoe is held at gunpoint by Carstairs who still doesn't recognize her.

Episode 5: The scientist tells Carstairs to not shoot Zoe and then takes him for reprocessing. In the barn, Harper is upset with Jamie for telling them not to shoot Von Weich, but then gets in a fight with a crazed-looking soldier who also wanted to shoot him. (The reasoning here is a little confusing.) Their leader Russel arrives to break up the fight. While they're distracted, Von Weich gets to the video monitor and sets off an emergency beacon. Jamie explains about the green box to them, saying they could use it to get to the base where all this originates from. Zoe is questioned by the Security Chief, who wears what looks like a dustbuster on his head and hypnotizes her into answering questions. He doesn't believe she's come from the 21st century. He shows her pictures of the known Resistance members, trying to get her to identify them. The Doctor visits the scientist and interrupts the reprocessing, helping Carstairs to get free. They stick the scientist in the device, "leaving him to simmer".

The Security Chief reports to the War Chief, going to great lengths to not mention Zoe's claim of coming from the 21st century on the TARDIS. He is irate with the War Chief, asking how he knew the Doctor. The War Chief is mad at being questioned, stating that he was promised efficiency and cooperation by the Security Chief's people. SC says if he has a problem he should bring it up with the War Lord, which WC says he will. The box materializes in the barn to respond to the emergency beacon and Harper is killed before they overpower the guards. Jamie, Russel, and some other men file into it, leaving Jennifer behind to look after the wounded. The Doctor and Carstairs find Zoe, who explains what she went through. The Doctor asks Zoe to remember all the Resistance members and their time zones so they can travel around and gather them together into a cohesive army. They go to find the box, which appears in a room where armed guards are waiting. Jamie and the others come out and are attacked.

Episode 6: The Doctor, Zoe, and Carstairs run to the reprocessing room, leaving Jamie behind. The Security Chief tells the scientist that he believes Zoe and the Doctor were not brought there by them like everyone else and are from later than 1917, which is the latest era they abduct people from, due to their lower technological knowledge. He says that the War Chief's people, the Time Lords, have the power of time travel. WC came to them seeking power and he wonders if he might be bringing in more of his people. They need proof before they can bring this info to the War Lord. The Doctor finds a wall held together with a force field and uses tape and his sonic screwdriver to reverse the force field. They peek inside and see the scientist examining the Resistance member's brains with the dustbuster-helmet-thing. Jamie is among them. The guns were set on stun this time. The scientist finds that Jamie had never been processed, and sends him to the SC for interrogation. When WC finds out, he's angered. He says that if SC doubts him, he needs to bring it up with the War Lord.

The Doctor and the others save Russell and Jamie and they disguise themselves as soldiers to escape. Back in the barn, they left their least qualified man, Moor, to guard Von Weich. He tricks Moor into giving him his monocle and with difficulty hypnotizes the boy into letting him go free. The Doctor, Jamie, and Carstairs stay behind to get the reprocessing device while Russel and Zoe return to the barn. After a struggle, Moor is brought to his senses and shoots Von Weich. After the Doctor gets the machine, they make their way to the room with the transport box. The Doctor figures out the controls and uses a force field to keep the guards out. The Doctor finds some gas valves and uses one to fill the room with gas and allow them to reach the box. The fact that the Doctor can work the controls convinces SC that he's a Time Lord. They're stopped from escaping by an override, but holed up inside the box. Since the War Chief can't get them out, he operates the Dimensional Control to make the box smaller inside, hoping to crush them.

From left to right: the War Chief, the War Lord, and the Security Chief. (Credit: BBC TV)

Episode 7: To keep them from being crushed, the Doctor surrenders and comes out alone. He throws a gas valve and runs to the control console, grabbing some controls off of it. He returns to the box and operates it, placing the stolen controls on the inside console. They dematerialize. The War Chief believes they're headed to 1917 but that's the only time zone the Doctor won't go to, knowing they'd be waiting there. The box takes its time getting to the destination and the Doctor states he doesn't have control of where they end up. Jamie comments it's just like the TARDIS. They end up landing in Roman times and are ambushed and forced to flee. Back at the central base, an alarm goes off to herald the arrival of the often-mentioned War Chief. He demands to know what's been going on. War Chief blames Security Chief for everything. He suggests they set a perimeter around the TARDIS. SC accuses the Doctor of being a Time Lord and that he's working with War Chief. War Lord tells them to knock it off or he'll replace them.

The Doctor's group is captured by Smythe's men and Zoe's group follows them. Smythe is ignoring orders and just wants the Doctor put to death for humiliating him. Carstairs tries to get through to the soldiers, telling them Smythe is an alien and they're not on their own planet. Smythe retains control with his spectacles. As the Doctor is put before the firing squad, Smythe is reprimanded for not getting the machine back. He stops the firing squad and Zoe's group attacks. Since the base had been compromised, War Chief orders Smythe to shut down the area control and destroy the time zone. Before he can, the Resistance shoots Smythe. The Doctor tinkers with the area control, putting the mist around the chateau they're in, making it their secure resistance base. They then deprocess a captured French soldier, freeing him from mind control. The War Lord is angered at the failures of WC and SC and takes command, sending a transport box (identified a single time in this episode as a SIDRAT— TARDIS spelled backwards) directly into the chateau. The guards kill some Resistance soldiers and seize the processing device and the Doctor. They dematerialize.

Episode 8: The Resistance prepares for battle. The War Lord sends the processing machine back home to have it mass produced. The SC interrogates the Doctor trying to get him to admit he's working with WC but the Doctor is resistant to his truth helmet. Russell says they need to convince Arturo Villar since he has the biggest Resistance group. They hold off guards from materializing in with a machine gun and a grenade. They start setting up a meeting with all the Resistance leaders. The SC still can't get the Doctor to speak. WC arrives and admits the Doctor is one of his people and demands he be allowed to speak with him alone. SC grudgingly accepts this, but reports it to the War Lord. And here we finally get some answers. The War Chief says he recognized the Doctor even though he changed his appearance. The Doctor says he had every right to leave their home planet, but the WC points out he stole a TARDIS. The WC claims they're alike but the Doctor disagrees. War Chief says that they're both Time Lords who left their race. He reveals the ultimate plan of the war games is to train the best soldiers from the most aggressive planet— Earth— to create a super army to keep the peace in the galaxy. He claims his intentions are just. He plans to instate a United Galactic Empire ruled by himself and the Doctor. Just then the War Lord and SC enter. War Chief convinces War Lord that the Doctor will help them. If not, the War Lord says, both Time Lords will be killed. The Doctor is angry that WC elected him to help.

Back at the chateau, Arturo Villar has arrived. After a lot of talking, he agrees to help them. They decide to use the barn as their staging area and set into motion a plan to lure the guards away from the base by attacking the communication areas of each time zone. This works perfectly and the guards are thinned out. The War Lord is upset that this was allowed to happen. SC suggests using a nuetron bomb, but this would wipe out all their processed soldiers and they'd have to evacuate. The War Lord has another plan. When the Resistance is assembled in the barn, the Doctor appears on the screen and tells them he's gained control and will send a transport for them. They go to the base but once there the Doctor appears to betray them, ordering them not to move as they're surrounded by guards.

Episode 9: The Resistance is taken prisoner. They're upset at the Doctor and want to kill him, but Jamie and Zoe know he's got some plan. The Doctor realizes that although the SIDRATs have perfect accurancy in where they land, the time control units don't last long, and so the War Chief needs the TARDIS to escape. The Doctor convinces the War Lord that he can improve the Processing device. The War Lord agrees as long as he reprocesses his friends to prove he really switched sides. The Doctor states that they're not his friends anymore. They start moving their guards to wipe out the rest of the Resistance. The Security Chief leaves the Doctor with the Resistance prisoners and no guards so they immediately attack him, not believing him about the bomb. When War Chief finds out he breaks up the fight. Meanwhile SC is listening to the recordings from earlier and learns of the WC's treachery. The Doctor tricks the WC into thinking he adjusted the device, but Jamie is faking being brainwashed. After he leaves and tries to arrest the SC, he is arrested instead for conspiring against them all. After convincing the rest of the Resistance that the Doctor is really on their side, they liberate the War Chief and take over the War Room. In the battle several are killed, the War Chief kills Security Chief, and hands over his gun to Carstairs.

They send out a message that the fighting is to be stopped. They can't return everyone to their own time zones as there are only two SIDRATS left that work. The Doctor says there is only one option left. The War Chief desperately tries to talk the Doctor out of it, saying they'll show no mercy and it will be the end of them. Zoe asks why he's so scared and the Doctor says that the only ones who can end this whole thing and send everyone back to their own times are the Time Lords. Jamie says that he can't be in danger from his own people but the Doctor disagrees. He also says there's no choice. The Doctor lays out six square cards and meditates. The cards form a cube (with some more smooth stop motion), which he puts into his pocket. He says this cube now has all the information of what's been going on along with a plea for help. Then he realizes the War Chief has slipped away and is trying to escape. Before the War Chief can summon a machine to get away, the War Lord arrives, reveals he knows what the WC had been planning and orders his guards to shoot him, which they do. The War Lord wants to return to his own planet to stop the uprising but the Resistance group enters, overpowering the guards. The Doctor tells them not to kill him, he should be left for the Time Lords. He says he has to return to the TARDIS and will leave Jamie and Zoe behind. He says the Time Lords will return them to their own times. They don't want to go, they want to keep travelling with him, and he finally agrees. Carstairs comes with him to see Jennifer. The Doctor summons the SIDRAT, goes into a trance to send the cube, and is nearly shot by Arturo, who doesn't believe he's actually going to help them. The machine dematerializes and the War Lord says the Doctor will wish he was dead when the Time Lords get their hands on him. He hears a materializing noise and says they're coming. The Doctor and friends return to 1917, separates from Carstairs, and heads for the TARDIS. Before he gets there they start running and speaking in slow motion. He says it's the Time Lords and he barely gets the key in the TARDIS's door before collapsing.

Episode 10: The force field the Time Lords have created continue to slow them down. Jamie helps the Doctor reach the key and they get inside the TARDIS, but they're still slow in there. The Doctor dematerializes them and it breaks the force field. Jamie asks why he ran away from his people and the Doctor said it was because he was bored. The Time Lords are a very civilized people. They can control their environment, they can live forever (except in the case of accidents), and they had unlocked the secret of space time travel. But they only use their powers for the accumulation of knowledge. He wanted to explore, to help people. And this is something the Time Lords frown upon. He tries to land them on a distant planet but the Time Lords force a landing in the sea. This time they don't float, though, they sink and the water is getting through. The Time Lords are breaking the TARDIS's defensive mechanisms. A voice speaks out ordering the Doctor to return to his home planet of his own volition. The Doctor tries again to jump them but it's no use. He gives in. The TARDIS lands in a hanger filled with boxes similar to those on the war planet which appear to be newer model TARDISes. They are ushered by a robed Time Lord into a big room where two other Time Lords and the War Lord stand. The Doctor and his friends are referred to as witnesses. One of the Time Lords talks about the thousands of humans who were misled into dying on an alien planet due to the War Lord's machinations. The survivors have all been returned to Earth but many more would have died if the War Lord was not stopped. The War Lord is accused of breaking all galactic laws.

The Doctor tells his friends that it's very rare for the Time Lords to hold court. Called as witness, the Doctor testifies that the information in the cube is accurate and from his direct observations. The War Lord refuses to speak. One of the Time Lords stares at him and there is a high pitched noise and a light as the Time Lord's eyes glow. The War Lord screams in pain, begging for it to stop. He claims that they have no authority over him, the humans would have killed each other anyway, and besides they're involved since the War Chief and the Doctor were helping him. The Doctor denies this. In the hangar, two Time Lord scientists are inspecting the TARDIS when a SIDRAT appears. Guards come out and kill the scientists. The Time Lords deem the War Lord guilty and the Doctor not culpable. The guards come in and take the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe hostage. The Time Lords let them go to not endanger innocent lives. The War Lord makes them get into the TARDIS, telling the Doctor to take them to his home planet and make him a fleet of TARDISes. (TARDI?) Otherwise he'll kill Zoe. Jamie tells him the Doctor can't control their destination and the War Lord thinks he's lying. The Doctor tells his friends to cover their eyes and turns on a bright light which disorients the soldiers. They escape the TARDIS and the Time Lords prevent the War Lord from escaping with a force field. The Time Lords tell him that a force field has been placed around his home planet, cutting it off forever. He and his guards will be dematerialized, made as though they never existed.

And now, with the villains disposed of, it's time for the Doctor's trial. Jamie and Zoe are held in a force field as the Doctor is questioned. He is charged with repeated interference. The Doctor insists that he was in the right and they are wrong for not helping others. He asks them to set up a thought channel and he shows them images of the evils he's fought: the Quarks and Dominators, the Yeti and Great Intelligence, the Ice Warriors, the Cybermen, the Daleks. If allowed to continue, many would have died. He admits he's guilty of interference, but they're guilty of passivity. They tell him they will deliberate. Jamie and Zoe beg to see the Doctor and a Time Lord takes pity on them, seeing how attached they are. They are allowed to see the Doctor and convince him to make a run for it. This plan, of course, doesn't work. The Time Lords are waiting in the hangar. The Doctor says their journeys are over and it's time for them to return to their own times. Neither want to go. He tells Jamie not to blunder into too much trouble. Jamie says he's one to talk. Zoe asks if she'll ever see him again and he reassures her that time is relative. Zoe says that they’ll never forget him. They are ushered into a TARDIS and sent back to their own time just before leaving with the Doctor. He asks if they'll forget him. Yes, all except their first adventure with him. He's worried about them but the Time Lords assure him they're fine. They show him Zoe returning to the Wheel in Space, feeling as though she's forgotten something important. She looks wistfully back where the TARDIS dematerialized. Jamie lands in the Scottish Highlands and seems disoriented for just a moment. He then notices he’s about to be shot by a redcoat and races after him, sword drawn.

The Doctor is satisfied that his friends are okay. The Time Lords then pass sentence. They agree with the points he's made about interference and using their powers to fight evil. They’ve noticed a lot of evil has happened around Earth and he’s been caught up in it. So he's to be sentenced to exile on Earth in the 20th century, for as long as they feel necessary with the knowledge of the TARDIS stripped from him. He argues against this saying that it's not fair that he be stuck on one primitive planet and besides he's been there a lot and people are bound to recognize him. They’d already thought of this, so part of his sentence is to change his appearance. He hates this idea too and demands to be allowed to choose his new form. Stalling for time, he rejects every option they present him with until they get tired of it and force his regeneration on him. He spins in a void, repeatedly crying out “NO!”

The Doctor regenerates. (Credit: BBC TV)

Thoughts: This one was a doozy! First off, as a serial this was excellent. One of the very best stories Doctor Who has told up to this point. I know I had glowing reviews for The Mind Robber and last season’s The Enemy of the World, but this one beat both of them out in scope and execution. The plot was filled with mystery and unfolded gradually without dragging. While there was the usual moving chess pieces around and going from place to place, none of it felt like padding. It all felt like it was building to something huge, and it absolutely delivered on that. The concept was solid, with alien races using humanity as pawns in their bid to control the galaxy. There was good social commentary about war and humanity’s tendency towards it. The villains were suitably sinister while still feeling justified in their actions. The Doctor had every opportunity to show his capability and skills— scamming multiple people, braving unknown forces, and risking everything to help the time displaced soldiers.

This one kept me guessing all throughout. I love that trials bookended the serial, from the farcical trial Smythe put on to the more fair and measured Time Lord trial. Production-wise, this one was a impressive. It had an enormous cast, a lot of moving pieces. A lot of location work and a variety of settings. In a nice move for diversity in the cast, Harper was played by a black actor, something that was not pointed out or plot-related. Unlike the previous black characters in the show, he was an equal with the other members of the Resistance and not in a supporting or servile role. Sadly he was killed off far too early. Still, a move in the right direction.

And then there’s the obvious… after six seasons we finally learned more about the Doctor and why he was travelling with Susan in the first place. If you’ve been reading my posts, you’ll know I was frustrated with the lack of information, grasping at any little tidbit they gave us. But now we have the name of his race (if not his planet) and the motivations behind his journey. The driving one of which was boredom, which I found hilarious. The Time Lords themselves were imposing and menacing, but not in any overt way. They were calm and measured, like a force of nature, or gods. Stolid and almost unshakable in their resolve. The forced regeneration was disturbing, made all the better by Troughton’s great character work.

It was sad to see his friends not only sent away, but forced to almost entirely forget him. Especially after Zoe said they wouldn’t. It was a genuinely depressing and abrupt ending for their adventures together. But it makes sense. This serial served to clear the slate. To say farewell to the Doctor’s long-held companions and his second incarnation. It leaves the road clear for a soft reboot with Season Seven.

A wide shot of the TARDIS. (Credit: BBC TV)

And that’s Season Six! My remaining thoughts follow our usual section on what we learned this time around.

TARDIS Facts: We learned more than usual about the TARDIS this season, which was welcome. The TARDIS may be able to withstand lava, but the Doctor has never tried it to know for sure. It was submerged for a few moments and seemed to sustain no lasting damage. The TARDIS has an emergency unit that allows it to leave the time and space dimension and exit reality completely. It can only do this for a short time, however. Although it's never been shown until this season, the TARDIS has a control room where the mechanisms that run it are kept. There are big intricate machines and dials here. The TARDIS has an emergency power booster which gives it extra power when they’re expending more power than they’re storing. The Visual Stabilizer Circuit can be removed to render the TARDIS visually invisible. The HADS (Hostile Action Displacement System) allows for the TARDIS to automatically dematerialize when in danger and rematerialize a short distance away when it's safe to do so. The Doctor stated that the TARDIS is not designed for short distance travel. And possibly the reason for its random destinations is that choosing the destination reduces the life span of the TARDIS.

Sonic Screwdriver: There was no real place to put this, so it gets its own section this time. We learned that the sonic screwdriver has a very powerful laser cutting mode that can quickly bore through concrete. I have to wonder what sort of fantastic power source the little device runs on to be able to manage this. He also demonstrated its ability to insert and extract screws without touching them from several inches away.

Earth Facts: Around 1967 or so, UNIT was formed to investigate strange phenomenon and alien activity. In the late 21st century, Earth had mostly abandoned space travel, aside from the previously formed moon base. They had developed sophisticated teleportation technology called T-MAT to facilitate travel and supply distribution around the world. They were incredibly dependent on this technology to the point that chaos would reign without it. Continuity-wise, last season we learned that in this era, humans had control over the weather. This is mentioned again in the Seeds of Death serial. At some difficult to pinpoint era (see The Space Pirates) space travel is reinstated and humans have started mining the valuable mineral argonite from other planets. The Space Corps patrols outer space trying to keep the law.

Doctor Facts: We learned so much about the Doctor this season! Although I didn't bother to mention it in my Dominators recap, that serial is actually the first appearance of the Doctor's love for a treat called jelly babies. This is a gelatin candy that the Fourth Doctor mainly eats, and is in the shape of little humanoids. The Doctor eats one from a bag stored in his inside pocket. This is only shown once and no attention is drawn to it, but I wanted to mention it as it could be considered set up for that incarnation and the later appearances. We established in a previous post that the Doctor's lungs are different from humans, and this is shown again in his resistance to the oxygen starvation aspects of the Ice Warrior fungus. He survived a point blank dose of the gas that was shown to instantly kill a regular human. He also mentioned in the Space Pirates that he doesn't need as much oxygen as his companions. He also survived a rocket launch a couple of feet away from him. .

And now for the big stuff. From the beginning of the series, the Doctor’s origins and species have been in question. All we knew up to this point is that he’s not human and he comes from a planet he’s been away from for a very long time. No further explanation was given. It took six seasons, but that’s finally changing. We now know his race is called the Time Lords. They did not yet name their planet, but their civilization is highly advanced. They can control their environment. They can live forever barring accidents. They can control time and space. And they have a strict practice of non-interference. Their abilities are to be used for observation only. They also appear to have the power to cause intense pain in others with a look. If the Doctor also has this power, it’s not mentioned for sure. (However, I have to believe he would have used this ability once or twice when it really bad situations.) We also saw that all along he had the ability to contact his people, he just refused to do so until he had no choice.

The Doctor's Past: The Doctor had been to the planet Dulkis at some point. Also there was some situation at a place called Planet 14 where the Doctor made himself known to be a threat to the Cybermen. Whether this is some unknown event or something we'd seen was not explained. The Doctor’s journeys began when he stole a TARDIS and abandoned his people out of boredom, the urge to explore, and the drive to help others.

Defining moments to show the Doctor's personality: While I was a bit down on the Dominators serial, it did show this Doctor's personality quite a bit. He calculated the Dominator's plans and how to outsmart them by playing dumb just by observing and listening. He also was so excited by his homemade grenade that he almost blew his own hand off while he explained how it worked. Zoe had to remind him to throw it before the ten seconds was up. Shortly after that he was so pleased by placing the bomb on the ship that he was almost sealed inside with it and then nearly got them drowned in lava. So it appears in this incarnation he can easily be distracted from danger by his emotions. This is again shown in the Kroton serial, when he forgets all about fighting back against the aliens in his concern for Jamie's life. While the First Doctor cared deeply about his companions, the Second Doctor is much more worried for their safety and puts them above anything else he may be doing. (This could be leftover guilt from losing Katarina in his previous incarnation.) The War Games had several moments to show how good he is at bluffing his way through situations. Commandeering a military vehicle to save his friends, coaxing a scientist into explaining the processing device to him, and mostly convincing the War Lord of his loyalty. Most critically he shown that he has grown as a person enough to put himself and his entire way of life at risk to get the soldiers back to their own time periods. I hate to say it, but I cannot imagine the First Doctor doing this. We also saw that while he knew he was bound to be separated from his companions for good, he humored them just to extend the time he spent with them, allowing them to follow him to the TARDIS and then staging an escape attempt he knew was doomed to failure.

And finally, after falling down the mine shaft, the Doctor was in pain. He pulled a handful of drawing pins (thumb tacks) from his pocket. They'd stuck him when he landed. Zoe asked why he had them in his pocket and he responded, "I like drawing pins. Ohh, normally." Later in that same serial the Doctor produced a bag of marbles from his pocket to use in his trap, but asked Jamie to hand him the green one. He slipped that one back in his pocket, saying it's his favorite. These scenes have no real bearing on anything, but I wanted to mention these as examples of the quirky, silly quality Patrick Troughton brought to the Doctor.

Overall Thoughts: This season was, as usual, a bit up and down. You can expect that from an anthology-style series. There were a couple of longer serials, which can be good or bad. It's nice to give a story room to build and breathe, but it also invites padding, which slows the pace and makes the serial dip into dullness. In The Invasion and The Krotons I detected signs of hasty rewrites causing confusing plot holes in the stories. The Dominators, The Krotons, and The Space Pirates were all fairly bland and slow, but some of the serials— The Mind Robber, The Invasion, The Seeds of Death, and The Wars Games— were really good. There was more good than subpar this season for sure. While I am sad that this is the end of the Second Doctor's journeys (mostly...) he went out on a high note. I really enjoyed his tenure.

You could tell they were having difficulty this season in coming up with fresh ideas on a dwindling budget. The long production schedules and sheer number of episodes to produce were wearing on everyone. The necessity to write characters out in order to give them a break made for awkward story beats and at many times they felt like they were simply filling time to get their episode count up. This all leads to huge changes coming up, which you’ll see next post.

Despite that, the fact that we had the same main crew throughout— the Second Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe— with no changes was nice. It was like the first couple of seasons where you didn’t have to meet someone new or get accustomed to them. The characters had time to develop and become familiar without being written out unexpectedly. (And in the case of poor Dodo— offscreen.) The cast had good chemistry together, although in my opinion Zoe didn’t fit in and mesh as well as some previous companions. She proved useful, however, and it was good to see a smart, capable female lead in the show instead of a capture-prone scream box. (Remember how she kicked the Karkas’s ass? That was insane.) Seeing the Cybermen and Ice Warriors was nice too, and we didn’t get as many repetitive plots as we did in previous seasons. They were clearly up for trying new things to keep the show fresh. Part of that may have been a touch of desperation… they felt the show was reaching the end of its lifespan. Six years was an impressive run for a television program in those days.

All in all, I think I’ll look back at the sixth season as a good one, despite the more plodding serials. Although I liked the First Doctor and he set the scene for everything that came after, I much preferred the Second Doctor and I will miss him. Jamie too. He was a fun companion.

The TARDIS breaks apart. (Credit: BBC TV)

Lingering Questions: If you’ve read the other posts, you know that generally my biggest lingering questions have to do with just who and what the Doctor is, why he can't return to his home world, and what he's up to exactly in his travels. We got a few of these answers this time around… finally!

Before we get to that, though, we have a couple of other things that came up this season. What was the bit the Cyber-Director mentioned about Planet 14? Was that their name for Telos, where the Doctor encountered them last season? Or is this an event that the Doctor had failed to mention or forgot about? (We know he doesn't remember all of his past, hence the notebook he consulted last season.) Or could this be something involving a later incarnation of the Doctor? We do know that the Daleks are somehow able to identify the Doctor regardless of his incarnation. (When they first spotted the Second Doctor they knew him even though he looked different.) Perhaps the Cybermen can as well. Since he travels all over time, you'd have to assume his later incarnations retread some of the same areas of space and time. Personally I think it’s their name for Telos. It would make sense that robotic brains who constantly take over planets would just number them in the order they were dominated.

A more pressing question for me, though, is just how much does the Doctor carry around in his coat? Does he always carry a stethoscope, tuning fork, a roll of tape, and a bag of marbles? Or did he just sense he needed them on the Space Pirates adventure? Does he grab random things from his keepsake chest before leaving the TARDIS just in case? It seems like something he’d do.

Okay, enough stalling. So we learned that the Doctor is from an as-yet unnamed planet and is what’s known as a Time Lord. As with the best stories, the answers we get lead to more questions. How long will he be exiled on Earth? Will he remember who he is? Will the Brigadier and UNIT recognize him? What will his third incarnation be like? What will it look like to center the stories solely on Earth without the TARDIS? Will he still have the TARDIS and just not know how to operate it? Will the Time Lords take his suggestions seriously and begin to interfere? I look forward to finding out when we return to the Doctor’s ongoing adventures.

Let’s say goodbye to a fun crew. (Credit: BBC TV)

So that’s all I’ve got to say about Season Six. I peeked ahead just a tad and can say that the next season features a lot of changes. An all new cast, including the Third Doctor, the episode number is halved, no more reconstructions, and even better than that.. the episodes are in color! That's right, we finally got through the monochrome era. I'll be back really soon for Season Seven because I'm pretty excited to see what that one brings us.

We’re now at 50 serials and 253 episodes discussed! We have met two Doctors and thirteen companions. (I count Catarina and Sara Kingdom.) Thank you so much for continuing on this endless journey with me. I appreciate you all. This was a great season and I’m fired up to get to Season 7, so that will be later in the year for sure. Until then, keep coming back for more fun. See you soon!

Hi.

Mar 29 086: SoraRabbit Watches: Doctor Who Season Six

Hi.

Mar 29 086: SoraRabbit Watches: Doctor Who Season Six

Dec 24 085: SoraRabbit Does a Christmas Special: Triple Feature 2024

Related Posts