The Havoc of Empires

Not the real cover

Jo and Mike Yates are going on another date. The Doctor has agreed to take them somewhere in the TARDIS to enjoy themselves but they end up in the far future in another region of space on a space station instead. Their situation only gets more dire as they are separated from the TARDIS and forced to assume identities to protect themselves; the station is the venue for an arranged marriage between two formerly opposing races and crashers are not welcome. There is enough tension already between the two sides, but when the bombs start to go off things get worse for the travelers.

Continuity wise it's a bit of a fluke that I did this one here; Jo makes a reference to a previous trip in the TARDIS where she and the Doctor encountered suspicious aliens which sounds a lot like the people of Inter Minor to me. And check out Mike Yates finally getting a trip in the TARDIS even if all he wanted was to go see a cricket game in 1899. He takes it all in stride though; he's met aliens before but never any which could have been considered friendly, but he has certainly never left Earth before (yeah where was he during The Three Doctors anyway?) and I would have thought there'd be a bit more of the "Wow, we left Earth," going on. And where Mike and Jo are concerned - this whole dating thing was pretty much a wash before when Jo ended up on Peladon rather than out with Mike for a night on the town; they seem pretty immersed in this sort of relationship now. Interesting to see how Big Finish keep this one going, if they do. Still, no offence to Richard Franklin, but this one could have flown without Yates along for the ride.

Story-wise here we have a whodunnit style tale with a lot of accusations flying about, and the finger of blame pointing all over the place before its inevitible resting on the Doctor and company. There are a lot of other parties with motives so it is a bit of a guess for a while. None of the aliens present are anyone we know, but it's hard to get a handle on what these ones might look like so I default to a kind of Star Trek: TNG standard alien: humanoid with some funky forehead acne going on. The real standout in the supporting cast is the station AI, which is cool and clam and knows how to keep a secret, although the constantly tittering wedding planner is right on the money.

If I were to rate the two entries from this first third Doctor set I would probably place this one second; it sounds like a much bigger production and probably would have been flashier on screen but I feel that Prisoners of the Lake hit its mark better with it's more claustrophobic feel and a more direct threat; Havoc isn't bad per se, but just not as strong with some of its more cliche elements like the arranged marriage and all the bureaucracy surrounding process on dealing with supposed terrorists. But hey Tim Treloar doesn't falter much as the Doctor and that's the biggest saving grace. The news that there is more of this coming is only good.

NEXT EPISODE: THE SUNS OF CARESH