Frontier in Space

Somewhere in the 26th century, Earth is at the height of it's Empire. Colonies are formed one after another as the Human influence expands across the galaxy. The rival Draconian Empire is also expanding and a truce made in the wake of a war keeps the two states apart, even if suspicion remains. The Doctor and Jo arrive as an Earth cargo ship is attacked by a force of Ogrons, but the Human pilots believe it was a Draconian raiding party. Caught between the politics of both races the Doctor and Jo try to discover who is using the Ogrons to sow the seeds of chaos and propel the galaxy towards war again. And when the Master appears on the scene they think they have the answer, but his presence is only one piece of a far reaching plot.

The Draconians were only ever seen once in the entire series and it's a tremendous shame; they are a fascinating race of reptilian humanoids with an aesthetic appearance somewhere between a Samauri and an actual dragon, thus earning then the unflattering - nay, racist - nickname of Dragons by people with a grudge against them. The species is far from perfect and has some tremendous sexist views where women are not permitted to speak, although how they manage to deal with an Earth Empire with a female head of state is a puzzle. The realization of the Draconians is particularly effective, with their dominant reptilian features including a high crested head and a pointy beard and all created with very effective half-masks instead of complete rubber suits.

Oh yes the Earth Empire. But not in a classical sense; there is no one person sitting on a throne being called Emperor. The Draconians have an Emperor as head of state but Earth's leader is an elected President, this time a woman whose name we never know, she is just "the President". She is on the edge of losing it, though; the constant accusations by the Draconians along with her own peoples' claims of Draconian attacks leave her with very few options outside of failing diplomacy, and her pushy military adviser is chomping at the bit to get back to war, as he was the man who started the first one. The people have had enough - they want open war on the Dragons and there are Draconians who want open war on the Humans but both leaders know that such a war would ruin both Empires and leave the galaxy in ruins.

There's no way that the Master is around by coincidence with all this going on. Having escaped the wrath of Kronos he is free once more to create havoc across the galaxy without compunction, but in a characteristically polite move he makes sure to rescue the Doctor and Jo from their respective prisons (the Doctor is sent to a penal colony on the moon, so weather control from there is no longer a thing it seems) and keep them as his own prisoners. He knows that the Doctor has a way of ruining things for him so getting him where he can see him is the best plan, even if he is going to kill him anyway. Unfortunately this is the last time we ever see this version of the Master as actor Roger Delgado was killed in a car accident after he had completed this story, and it's a tremendous shame as he brought such dignity to a role that would eventually just be reduced to some manic nonsense fluff and be skewered on the Sword of Stupid when recast as a female. But Frontier at best serves up a consistent Master, one who never ceased to plan and scheme and work towards killing the Doctor in their universal game of cat and mouse.

Continuity wise there is a reference to the other moments in Earth's Empire, to Solos in The Mutants where the Empire was contracting and colonies were leaving in droves. When the Doctor and Jo emerge from the TARDIS in episode one, both are still wearing the same clothes from Carnival of Monsters which implies that there is no gap between stories and Suns of Caresh and the first volume of third Doctor audio should really take place after The Three Doctors. Small details there and in the end there are no real gaffes in continuity either way.  The first time I ever got into this one, though, was back when Target novels would rename the story for print if it wasn't as exciting as they wanted: Frontier in Space became The Space War and was graced with a really striking cover displaying an Orgon in all its simian nastiness. I still wonder to this day how they got away with cramming all six episodes of story into such a short format, but again these were really just kids books in the end so who would notice if it wasn't the most descriptive narrative.

Frontier in Space has the distinction of being one of those episodes which lead right into the next one, creating a larger picture than just its six episodes. Here's where it's hard to avoid a spoiler given that the next episode will be revealed in just a few lines, but when the big threat to galactic peace is finally revealed, it's up to the Doctor to take the fight to it, chasing across the galaxy to stop a coming massacre...

NEXT EPISODE: PLANET OF THE DALEKS

The Suns of Caresh

The planet Caresh is in trouble. A woman named Troy Game finds herself on Earth with no real memories of why she is there, only that she is lost and her world, Caresh, faces disaster. A man named Lord Roche holds the key to Caresh's salvation but she does not know where he is. The Doctor and Jo Grant cross paths with Troy Game while investigating what the Doctor initially believes to be a simple matter of small temporal anomaly, but as Troy Game's memories clear and the Doctor's investigation broadens it appears that the events on both worlds are connected, and that while Earth's problems are minor, Caresh itself it at risk of destruction. 

I'm going to start with an observation about the cover. The Doctor and Jo have shaved heads, which is not something that happens on the televised series at all. Given that the novel is set sometime shortly after the Doctor is freed by the Time Lords it would imply that there is a big gap - a couple years potentially - between the events of The Suns of Caresh and the next televised episode where the Doctor and Jo would appear with full heads of hair. Interesting that - and fertile ground for the Doctor and Jo to go off and do all sorts of things together while their hair grows back in. Unless some fan wanker is going to suggest that they just wear wigs for the next little while. I'll go with my own theory, so this would be a great spot to drop any further third Doctor and Jo tales unless they have some pretty specific references to television.

And now the story itself. Paul Saint wrote it with far more intelligence than was the norm for the BBC Books range, which is not to say that this was a more complicated story or that it was hard to follow - it just feels like someone put a lot of work into detailing it. The fact that the type font is so small indicates that someone editing the range felt that rather than slice the narrative to make the page count might have chosen a way to get more content on the page (although my eyes... oh my eyes). The storytelling doesn't blurt out a lot of detail and there are implications used in dialogue instead. There's also the matter of the planet Caresh and the cultural norms that Troy Game mentions from time to time, usually to contrast against what she sees among the people of Earth.

There's also a bit of Time Lord content added in which is handled well. After all, so far the only other Time Lords we have seen have either been evil (the Monk, the Master), stuffy (the Time Lords at the Doctor's trial), slightly mad (Iris Wildthyme) and... well.. Susan. How refreshing to have other Time Lords in the story and not have it be all about their plans to kill the Doctor or nag him or pester him. I speak of Roche and a Time Lady called Solenti - Roche is in it up to his eyeballs with what's going on with Caresh and the snooty Solenti knows a lot more than she lets on and it all drives the Doctor nuts to have to sort out their business. But neither of these characters goes over the top as other Time Lords have in past, which is good to see. Although "over the top" was never said about Susan. Ever.

NEXT EPISODE: FRONTIER IN SPACE

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

Carnival of Monsters

The TARDIS materializes in the hold of a ship making its way across the Indian Ocean to Bombay in May of 1926, which perplexes the Doctor as he set the ship's co-ordinates for somewhere completely different. His suspicions about where he and Jo have landed are roused when the ship is menaced by a marine dinosaur and the occupants seem to be repeating all their actions over a loop of a few minutes. In reality, the ship is just one of many exhibits in an illegal Miniscope which has been taken to the planet Inter Minor to introduce the highly bureaucratic ruling class and the underling Functionaries to the concept of amusement. While the Doctor and Jo fight for survival inside the machine's workings, on the outside ambitious political foes scheme to find a way to use the Miniscope to their advantage to seize power.

In typical Robert Holmes style we have the action split up between not two but three double acts of characters playing off each other; there's the standard Doctor and Jo, and outside the 'Scope are the Lurman showrunners Vorg and Shirna and the Inter MInor officials Orum (who is stipid) and Kalik (who is sly and scheming). The story unfolds at a good pace on either side of the 'Scope's walls with the Doctor only finally interacting with the Lurmans into episode four, close to the climax, but it never feels like it's two separate adventures at all.

Despite its title, though, the show is a bit light on actual monsters. We get glimpses of Ogrons and Cybermen in there (the latter would have made for an interesting alternative version of the story once they realized what was going on, and they would) but otherwise our monster sightings are down to the monstrous rubber masks slapped on the extras playing Functionaries and the vicious caterpillar monster Drashigs. The Drashigs are said to be the worst monsters ever anywhere in all times... and we never hear of them again in the regular series. Not that they are really that compelling - they are pretty mindless and hunt by scent, and they make a really horrible screaming noise when they roar. They made for an interesting action figure hand puppet when they were made into toys though. Still, monster quota notwithstanding there's a not so subtle comment on animal cruelty in the script, with the Doctor likening what's happening to him and Jo and all the other beings in the 'Scope as nothing more than a day at the zoo for whoever is on the outside. Granted modern zoos do their best to imitate an animal's natural habitat, although how natural it is to be stared at by hundreds of people ever day remains to be seen; so far that's really humans watching reality shows. But yes, there's our editorial moment of the show, and then back to running for our lives.

Another fun bit of continuity here is something that is unique to Robert Holmes scripts: aliens refer to humans as Tellurians. There's no further mention of Inter Minor in the series after this one but every so often the term Tellurian does pop up, leading to a notion that Holmes' space stories all take place in a certain area of space where interlinked societies have come up with the word themselves. Inter Minor is by no means an Empire but it does have influence in other worlds and those other worlds have defense treaties. I kind of picture one of those maps you get at the start of epic adventure fantasy novels with Inter Minor over here, the Third Zone over there... you get the idea.

But hey the Doctor and Jo are once more in time and space. The TARDIS works again.... sort of. But the Doctor is free and enjoying himself, and the adventures are going to come fast and furious... or as much as a BBC budget will allow. But between the episodes of this televised series there's a lot of extra material; Prisoners of the Lake was just one of many audios, Wages of Sin just one of many books. What was just a 5 story season has been increased threefold, adding all sorts of extra fun to the Doctor's return to space and time.

NEXT EPISODE: THE HAVOC OF EMPIRES

Prisoners of the Lake

An underwater archaeological expedition makes a startling find in the deepest part of a lake in England: a completely air tight stone building. Inside, a stone statue stands vigil until it begins to speak and move. Trespassers are not welcome. Mike Yates is already on scene to deal with reports of artifacts removed from the site going missing, but when he realizes he is out of his depth he calls for the Doctor and Jo. At first the Doctor is not interested, until he sees a transcript of the statue's words and realizes that this is more than just a building. This is a spaceship, and it is carrying several hardened alien criminals to their trial, but that was thousands of years ago and they have been dormant the whole time. And with the trial date missed, the prisoners are no longer to be held.

Big Finish had toyed around with a few third Doctor stories with the Short Trips and Companion Chronicles lines but here for the first time is a full cast audio story with two original cast members (Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates) along with astounding Jon Pertwee soundalike Tim Trelaor. With the first and second Doctors effectively re-cast it was just a matter of time until the third was added to the list, and the result is I'd say about 90% effective. The chemistry between the third Doctor and Jo is captured very well though, and even though Ms Manning has had to make herself a bit squeakier to recapture her youth on audio, it is definitely them. And to make everyone get their money's worth out of it, Prisoners is the first of two full audio adventures in the first volume of Third Doctor Adventures.

The narrative doesn't give a precise idea of where this takes place in the third Doctor's timeline; there is no mention of the TARDIS or being in exile so it could really go either side of The Three Doctors. The Doctor initially sounds like his exile self though, busy with something of his own and not interested in the comings and goings of the people of Earth, or of those in UNIT. Missing from that equation, though, is the fantastic back and forth between the Doctor and the Brigadier; it's just not the same to have the Doctor brush off the other UNIT guys, they give up too easily. But alas, with the former stars of such a long run series no longer with us there is only so much that can be done with soundalikes, and the Brig is confined to narration, his interaction only with Mike Yates as he reports on the situation at the Lake.

Big Finish have managed to address the biggest gap in their audio range almost perfectly here; next challenge would be to convince Christopher Eccleston to return to his role as the Doctor under their direction. But even if that doesn't happen anytime soon, the third Doctor is back, good and proper.

NEXT EPISODE: CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS

The Wages of Sin

With the TARDIS now restored to working order, the Doctor is eager to start his travels again. The first journey is planned to be a limited run to test the TARDIS systems and his returning knowledge of dematerialization codes, and the Doctor decides to make the trip special by inviting Liz Shaw along with himself and Jo. As Liz never traveled inside the TARDIS she accepts, and the ship takes all three of them back to Russia in 1916 where it is stolen and the travelers stranded. But this is not the most tranquil time in Russia's history - moreover the world itself is in the grip of the first World War - and the Doctor and company are not only caught up in the machinations of the royal court but come face to face with one of the most notorious historical figures ever: Rasputin himself.

The Wages of Sin is penned by David A. McIntee, whose previous forays into the adventures of the Doctor have been a lot heavier into the sci fi angle of things, so to go into a purely historical after that is quite the switch for his own style, and after having the Doctor stranded on "modern" Earth for so long is a nice change. In fact, the third Doctor never had a purely historical outing at all so this is indeed something new for him. I myself am not that well versed in this area of history so as far as accuracy goes, I have no idea; as the Doctor often points out, history is written by the winning side so any accounts of the behaviour of Rasputin are going to be written by the very people who felt the need to murder him and remove his influence from Russia's inner circle. So there's a familiar theme for the Doctor and his companions: they know what is going to happen to Rasputin in a few days, and they can do nothing more than just watch it happen. The usual debates between Doctor and companions is held but it's a lot shorter and Jo and Liz are less combative about accepting the inevitible than Barbara was when she met the Aztecs.

And welcome back Liz Shaw! Some of the Big Finish audios in the Companion Chronicles suggest that she never saw the Doctor again, with Sentinels of the New Dawn being their last real meeting (at least for the third Doctor). That one took place just shortly after Jo had joined UNIT and the Doctor was not really digging the new companion vibe, but here we have Liz joining them and now feeling like something of an outsider as the Doctor and Jo are unmistakably a team. Liz feels the normal pangs of jealousy witnessing her successor with her previous mentor, but she is intelligent enough to know that she was only replaced because she chose to leave, and that is neither the Doctor's nor Jo's fault. The contrast between Jo and Liz is well displayed here, and while there have been companions previously who worked well together despite differences in their own intelligence levels (Jamie and Zoe.. Jamie and Victoria... hmm Jamie and everyone) it doesn't feel as if having Liz and Jo together as a crew would really work. Liz does develop a respect for Jo as she witnesses her coping with situations using her UNIT training but still has a slight pitying attitude towards her. Jo, on the other hand, would eventually feel outnumbered by two brainy condescending science types

Liz's return, though, is a one-off, and upon returning to her present she will stay there and leave the Doctor and Jo to continue their travels. And there are still plenty ahead for this team.

NEXT EPISODE: PRISONERS OF THE LAKE

The Three Doctors

A strange cosmic force has scanned the Earth and started an attack - and its target is the Doctor. Trapped inside the immobilized TARDIS, the Doctor sends a message to the Time Lords asking for their help, but they too are under attack and their energy reserves dangerously low. In desperation, the Time Lords do the unthinkable and lift the second Doctor from his time stream and deposit him with the third, and eventually the first Doctor is also sent to help his beseiged selves. But they are not up against any ordinary foe; the attack originates from a black hole, from a universe of antimatter, and on the other side of the hole waits Omega, one of the greatest figures in Time Lord history, presumed lost. But Omega is alive. And angry. Very, very angry.

I think this one has to qualify as the first major fan-wank episode of the series, bringing the previous Doctors not only into contact with their successors but also onto a colour screen for the first time ever. The precedent is set with this one of the Doctor not being able to co-operate with his previous incarnations, choosing instead to squabble and argue and criticize each ither; mostly this is between the second and third Doctors with the older-looking (yet chronologically younger) first Doctor keeping them in line as a sort of elder statesman. The first Doctor doesn't get as much screen time as the others, which is a shame, but William Hartnell was of very ill health when this was done and there was no way he was going to be able to interact and dash about the sets and locations like the other actors. Had the novel of the episode been published back in the late 80s when there was license to include extra scenes or even rework sequences in prose, that might have been a bit different. But no. Terrance Dicks wrote the adaptation to a minimal standard, so, yeah.

This is the second time we get a glimpse of the Time Lord homeworld, although this time it reminds me of some tacky apartment foyer from "modern" residential units like in Soylent Green. The Time Lords run things like air traffic controllers, and this is the first time we see that there is a heirarchy to their world, with one identified as the President and the other as the Chancellor. And what lovely shiny capes they wear. Nothing pretentious about that at all, oh no.

And not only is there revelation about the homeworld but here we get another nugget of info about the race; they let their greatest stellar engineer die in a supernova so they could harness its power for time travel, and assume the mantle of Time Lords. Omega is resentful to the extent of revenge on the entire cosmos - clearly driven mad by centuries of isolation with only scary gelatinous blobs as company. He's really the most dangerous kind of madman; he's not only powerful but he is emotionally wounded by the abandonment by the Time Lords, and anyone who has ever been dumped or betrayed knows how that fury can burn long and deep. And by his own admission he has some slight personality disorder; he is a congenial host when the Doctor first arrives but explodes into sudden rages and unleashed the "dark side" of his mind on the Doctor for a bit of slow motion professional wrestling.

So here's an interesting bit here. The third Doctor is in exile on Earth for the sins committed by his earlier two selves, yet here they are acting on behalf of the very race who condemned them. There was certainly no contact between the Doctor and the Time Lords prior to The War Games so the question is where did these incarnations of the Doctor spring from? This is where the fan theory of season 6b comes from, with the second Doctor employed by the Time Lords before being sent to Earth to begin his exile, which would explain why he is without Jamie or Zoe or any of his other companions. As for the first Doctor, there was a bit of retcon employed at the start of Empire of Glass where the Doctor is aware that something has happened and he can't remember what it was, employing a cop-out mind-wipe excuse to cover up the gaps and his lack of companions as he never travelled alone.

But the biggest moment is at the end, the Doctor is redeemed and forgiven by the Time Lords. He is free. The TARDIS works again.

Where will he go now?

NEXT EPISODE: THE WAGES OF SIN