The Eye of the Giant

UNIT receives a mysterious artifact which needs investigating, and the Doctor and Liz are only too keen to see what it is about and where it came from. Their investigation leads them literally over four decades into the past to a remote tropical island where a Hollywood film crew is scouting locations for a new film. The special effects are only too real, however, as the island is found to be overrun by gigantic fauna, and somewhere near a volcanic crater is parked a spaceship. While the Doctor and Liz search for answers to solve the riddle of this island, the Brigadier suddenly has his hands full with UFO sightings and a crisis that could tear apart the future.

The Doctor and Liz get some more innings together with this tale, and Liz actually gets to take a trip through time, albeit without setting foot in the TARDIS. The Doctor manages to lash together his own makeshift time machine which can open portals to the past and allow people to cross over, including, eventually, a UNIT force. The UNIT force has a new face to it: one sergeant Mike Yates. It's another one of those tales where someone was dying to tell an origin story of a character, as Yates will eventually feature as a member of the UNIT "family" through this era but without an actual introduction story, just showing up in an upcoming story, and when he does arrive he will have been promoted to the rank of captain. A few more of the UNIT folks get an intro on page here, notably Corporal Bell and the beleaguered Corporal Osgood, several stories ahead of their televised appearances. Osgood here is not the same Osgood as has been seen in the new era of the series - they're both bumblers but this one is an actual army man not a flaky scientist girl who shows up wearing parts of the Doctor's wardrobe from previous incarnations.

The rest of the cast of the story are unfortunately just caricatures, mostly of Hollywood archetypes like a selfish diva film star, a browbeaten husband who is also her producer, a smarmy director, a swashbuckling leading man who likens everything he does to roles he has played on screen, and for some reason there is a scientist along with them. And there are aliens, too. One is a giant, marooned on Earth a very long time ago and laying dormant. The rest are a species of aquatic creatures who have to troll about in dome-like tanks which sound awfully similar to the Daleks.

It took me a long time to read this one. I just couldn't enjoy it. Christopher Bulis is usually a very good contributor the Doctor Who range but this time he doesn't quite get there. There's just something very ... pulpy about how he writes this one, and it could be deliberate but I somehow doubt it. The references to the Doctor's alternative time line adventure in Inferno are just downright sloppy; this novel was published in 1996 so twenty five years had passed since Inferno was televised and maybe Bulis felt he had to throw in a very clumsy recap of that tale assuming no-one ha watched it since then. After having watched the serial again and then moving to this novel it feels unnecessary and even a bit like reading a children's book.

The Eye of the Giant does stray into the trap of the parallel universe / alternate reality and things just get out of control. The story did not have to go there at all, it could have been told without it. Jumping from aliens confronting each other on a remote island to an alternate future where a movie star is now a goddess just leaves too many things underdeveloped and when the end does come it feels too hasty. Who exactly were these aliens anyways? They're just reduced to throw-away menaces which are suddenly replaced by a bigger threat; you can almost hear the brainstorming session at the pitch for this one being an enthusiastic splutter of "Oh! Oh! And then - we can have underwater aliens in tanks! And they can have a HUGE spaceship underwater and, and - the other spaceship can shoot at it! Oh - and then! And then time can go all funny across the world!"

The Doctor and Liz only get a few extra tales together, it's a shame this was one of them. Maybe things will improve.

NEXT EPISODE: THE SCALES OF INJUSTICE

Inferno

A massive drilling installation in the UK is within hours of penetrating the Earth's crust with the aim to unleash a newly discovered energy source. UNIT is onsite to provide security, and along with the Brigadier and his crew are the Doctor and Liz Shaw. The Doctor has brought the TARDIS console with him to attempt some repairs, but at a critical moment he is slipped sideways into a parallel universe where a dictatorship rules over the world and the project is being run at a scientific labour camp. The drilling is much further ahead on this Earth, and the waste from the drill shaft has turned people into hideous deformed beasts. Without friends or credibility in this world the Doctor is condemned to be executed as a spy, provided the world doesn't end first.

For me Inferno is the most compelling episode of this season; it throws the Doctor into an environment where he is threatened at every turn and faces death minute to minute and it plays with the whole parallel universe concept to such an extent that we see characters we already know to be allies performing as enemies. The Brigadier is counterpointed by a Brigade Leader who is more of a coward backed up by thugs than a man of honour and pride. Liz Shaw in the other dimension is a soldier, not a scientist, although she had entertained the notion in university. UNIT itself does not exist, it is replaced with the Republican Security Force which enforces a regime in power since 1943. Clearly, this is a world where World War II did not end in favour of the allies. Parallel universes are a common science fiction angle usually used wrong with absolutely everything the opposite of what we would know in a regular series; in the Star Trek universe there are episodes across several franchises where characters travel to or from a Dark Mirror universe and we see those contrasts. Here in Doctor Who it's not presented as just one parallel universe but as several possible ones where simple choices have created new realities. Inferno is really the first time we see this in the series but it is not the last by far. In fact, parallel universe could be a handy way to write off everything that happened in the series from 2010 to present; somewhere else, the show has not slid into suckdom.

This particular parallel world, though, inspired some expanded universe fiction; this is the same parallel world where the Brigadier found himself in the spinoff The Schizoid Earth, and it pops up again a little while later in a BBC Novel.

Content aside Inferno has a distinct visual style; it was filmed on what looks like a gasworks or an oil refinery, the gritty location made to look even more desolate in the grainy film. It almost looks as if the world already ended here, so it's fit for an apocalypse. And in the parallel world version as disaster strikes the film is shot through a red filter to give it the look of a doomed volcanic spot. And there are the monsters, too; they're call Primords and have been turned into wolf-like creatures when they came in contact with green goo brought up from the drill shaft. They're not really the best visualized monsters - those fangs are clearly bought from a Hallowe'en shop - but the actors playing them either got coaching or developed some distinct shambling movements to make them a bit creepier.

Inferno is the last shout for Liz Shaw. Boy that year went by fast. And really, despite her being a scientist and being able to help the Doctor out with repairing the TARDIS and clever things, I felt she did not really get her fair shake. The late Caroline John played her very well, it's just a shame that we didn't get a second season with her. What we do have, though, are nine more adventures with Liz in them, some books, some audios. As I said, Caroline John has passed away so while they may write more books about her, we're not going to hear from Liz (literally) again after going through the Big Finish audios she made. Without those Liz would not have actually gotten a departure episode; when the series resumed the following season there was mention of her returning to Cambridge but that was all; the additional material gives us a chance to see how Liz's remaining days with UNIT went, and why she finally did choose to leave the Doctor's side.

NEXT EPISODE: THE EYE OF THE GIANT

The Ambassadors of Death

In high orbit above Earth, Mars Probe 7 has returned from a journey to our neighbouring red planet. The capsule has been in radio silence since it left Mars and the world waits anxiously to hear what has become of the astronauts. Space exploration is old news to the Doctor, but when a mysterious signal comes from the space craft he becomes interested. UNIT's investigation into the returning probe is suddenly hampered by a well organized and well equipped force determined to steal the capsule upon landing. The Doctor suspects there is something deeply amiss, a conspiracy on Earth which could start an interplanetary war.

It is worth noting that by sheer coincidence Ambassadors of Death was broadcast around the same time as the American space mission Apollo 13 was encountering significant difficulty on its mission to land on the moon. The parallels are interesting, and the public felt the same palpable tension that would have been evoked for the fictional public waiting for news from Mars Probe 7. Personally I preferred the dramatization in Doctor Who over another Tom Hanks theatrical dirge when Hollywood decided to have a bash at presenting the plight of the real world crew.

Ambassadors is an interesting one on a lot of levels, mostly to me for how it portrays the British Space Program as on par with or above that of the rest of the world with manned missions to Mars by 1970 and a fully functioning space centre to rival Cape Canaveral (although we never see this location again in the series). Here's where the debate about the UNIT years starts off: visually it looks to be the 1970s, but here I am writing this in 2017 and there has yet to be a manned mission to Mars in my lifetime so it's possible that these adventures were intended to be set in the 1980s, an argument which gets revisited a lot. But the concept of the British Space Program stays alive within Doctor Who right through to present day and who else but UNIT would be trusted with its security.

UNIT has its regular run-ins with the British Army here and there; most of it seems to be born out of some kind of envy or jealousy that a select group of British personnel now answer to the UN in  Geneva rather than to the home office. General Carrington in Ambassadors is definitely not a fan, and back in Spearhead from Space General Scobie may have been an ally but his Auton double seemed to have no problem mustering support against UNIT when it wanted it. This time there are operatives within the Ministry itself with some suspicions about UNIT, in particular about the Doctor and his lack of official existence. UNIT's "family" sees the return of Benton this episode; last time we saw him it was during the Cyberman invasion and here he is again and here he will stay for quite some time.

At seven episodes long Ambassadors gets a bit of a bum rap for being slow in spots, but I don't see that myself. The pace is even throughout, there is a lot for every character to do, with Liz Shaw kidnapped and operating on her own for most of the story (this following a high speed chase in Bessie) while in the company of the mysterious Ambassadors themselves. Despite the fact that these aliens were found on Mars, they are not Martians as we know them (Ice Warriors!) and are more humanoid and depend upon radiation to survive. We only see one without a space suit on, the rest of the time they are hidden behind fogged-up visors and protective suits. But damn they are creepy in some of the shots, notably with the sun behind one as it advances upon a lone UNIT sentry.

This is the third story of this season; it seems to be going by fast despite the fact that aside from Spearhead all the stories are seven episodes long. Liz Shaw is only here for one season but thankfully she like the others has had some chance at extension through the Big Finish ranges, effectively tripling the material with her as the first companion of the Third Doctor. Still to come, though.

THE BLAME GAME

Months into his exile the Doctor is paid a visit by none other than the Monk. His old adversary has heard of his predicament and offers to free him from Earth by taking him away where he can get a new time machine and get on with his travels. The Doctor agrees and leaves with the Monk but Liz has stowed away in the Monk's TARDIS, which soon breaks down itself due to the Doctor's exiled sentence.

Interesting to see the Monk back being all chummy with the Doctor - but you know this isn't genuine. The Doctor must as well but he's desperate to get away from Earth. He pretty much just walks out without thinking to say goodbye to Liz. The Monk doesn't seem to be as vicious as he was in The Black Hole so it's fair odds this is still his original incarnation from the Hartnell years when he was mischievous rather than bloodthirsty and vengeful.

It's the Doctor's character we get an interesting glimpse into here - he has already tried to run off in his own TARDIS once and is trying like hell to get it to work properly but when he gets a concrete opportunity from an old foe he forgets everything and wants out. One wonders if he had a plan to dump the Monk as soon as possible and make off with his TARDIS; not a very Doctor-ly thing to do but hey he's desperate by now. We've all been there.

Continuity wise there are few hints as to where this might be placed but with reference to the Autons and the Silurians but an early line in Ambassadors of Death placing the second and third stories of the season close, this is as good a spot as any really.

NEXT EPISODE: INFERNO

Old Soldiers

Many years into the future, the Brigadier pours a drink and toasts to absent friends. He recalls seeing men fall in service, both at his side and under his command, but in particular one old friend who was transferred to West Germany and then called out for his help. As a loyal friend the Brigadier attended and witnessed an incursion by an enemy that can walk through walls to attack, and when he needed help the Doctor came to his aid. The Brigadier muses that there are few old soldiers in the world, and death is a reminder of why.

Normally I leave the Companion Chronicles like this until a time after a character no longer appears in the series. giving them a bit more perspective on their time with the Doctor and time to get their new lives sorted out. This time, though, I have placed it where it is set in continuity, immediately following the end of Doctor Who and the Silurians. The Doctor is outraged at the Brigadier for blowing up the Silurian habitat and marches out of UNIT with the Brigadier wondering if he would see him again. The call for the Brigadier's help comes soon after and when he finds himself overwhelmed eventually he is surprised to have the Doctor come to his aid. We never really see it on screen and it's not explicitly said here either but there's a forgiveness granted by the Doctor; as the story is told from the Brigadier's perspective there's no insight into when the Doctor gets over what the Brigadier had to do in the line of his duty, but coming to his aid as he did is the sign that he understands what that duty is.

The other reason for doing this tale where I have is because the Brigadier is around a very long time in the series, across all the media and crossing paths with almost every Doctor over time. It's more effective to tell this story closer to the Brigadier's more active days with the Doctor than years and years later... cause it could take that long before I reach his final appearance. This is the only Companion Chronicle that Nicholas Courtney actually does as the Brigadier and he only gets a few more outings with Big Finish as it is. This is a unique character in the whole universe that is Doctor Who; no other has adventured with as many Doctors as the Brigadier, and no other has been called "the Doctor's greatest ally" (words from the Great Intelligence in the Lethbridge Stewart range) not even the infamous companion Sarah Jane Smith. It's a unique friendship stepped in blood and fire, there's no other like it in the series; indeed the Doctor's involvement with UNIT itself carries on long after the Brigadier is gone, and try as it may the new series has yet to really capture that again try as it might with other groups like Torchwood or the tremendously unlikely and boring Paternastor Gang on the new series circa 2010 to 2014.

NEXT EPISODE: THE AMBASSADORS OF DEATH

Doctor Who and the Silurians

There's trouble at the top secret underground nuclear research base at Wenley Moor. Mysterious power drains have put a strain on an already demoralized and exhausted workforce, but a death adds to the stress and triggers an investigation by the Brigadier and UNIT. The Doctor and Liz soon arrive as well and discover that the base is under attack from a race of reptile people called Silurians; the base has been built practically on top of their home where they have been sheltering for millions of years in suspended animation. The Doctor discovers that the Silurians pre-date humans on Earth and after being dormant so long are ready to emerge and take back "their" planet, which will mean the annihilation of humanity.

When Doctor Who went Earthbound under the Doctor's exile the storylines which could be used pessimistically were narrowed down to two: alien invasions or mad scientists. In a way it's not too unfair to put it that way; after all in a science fiction series there are not a lot of alternatives where one is staying in the same place all the time. Indeed, Spearhead from Space started the season with exactly one of those formula, the alien invasion, and Silurians looked set to follow the same path until the twist that the monsters in question were actually from Earth already. Humans now become the invaders in what is seen as a loose comment on aboriginal rights, with the show taking a slightly political edge to it. Given that it was the late 1960s when it was written and filmed, The Silurians is seen to have a few political metaphors in it, starting with the plight of the title characters and moving through to the distrust of civil servants as embodied by their portrayal in the script.

Metaphor was completely lost on me the first time I read this one; as with Spearhead I got hold of the

novel (which was re-titled Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters) first when in third grade and read that eagerly, although the fact that the Doctor on the cover doesn't really look much like Pertwee made me wonder if there was another regeneration I had missed somewhere. It took years before I saw the episode, and at the time all that was available was a black and white film print which loaned the serial a certain distinctness that the eventual colourized episodes seemed to lose (possible because the colourization was really just merging a colour video print with the black and white which made for terrible muddy colours). By then I was in ninth grade and after watching a few of the Earthbound stories my math teacher commented to me that they seemed more like murder mysteries than what we were used to, which is again the side effect of the confined Doctor on Earth if you ask me. In one of the Doctor's more humanizing moments he is seen working on repairing a vintage yellow car which he affectionately nicknames "Bessie"; with the TARDIS out of service this car will serve as his alternate transport throughout the Third Doctor era.

I love the Silurians as monsters though. Here they are an advanced civilization waking up out of a hibernation to discover that the humans have overrun their planet, much the same as when one goes back to one's cottage after a winter and discovering it full of mice or other vermin. They're not all as bloody minded as that though; not all of them want mass extermination and can see the Doctor's ideas for sharing the planet with humans as a possibility, but one would have to convince the humans as well as the Silurians to rise to that challenge instead of going to war. The Doctor is caught between the aggression of the Silurians and his newfound affiliation with the Brigadier, and while she may be a scientist, Liz can see that this is not going to be as cut and dry as the Doctor would like it to be. Here's a bit of naivety on the Doctor's part; he can see the solution but he doesn't get why the parties involved can't just switch off their instincts and coexist. Seeing just how wrong he is about things is something that could drive a wedge between the Doctor and the Brigadier.

Thankfully the potential of the Silurians is not ignored and they return eventually in the series, although their Big Finish and printed page appearances outnumber their televised ones. And they will also return in the new series but with a different and more Star Trek look to their realization; there are always complaints about actors in rubber suits on Doctor Who but when it comes to the Silurians their eventual "humanization" look really detracts from their menace. The originals were best, no question.

NEXT EPISODE: OLD SOLDIERS

Spearhead from Space

A swarm of meteorites slams down into the English countryside at the same time as the TARDIS makes its landing. The regenerated Doctor staggers out of the ship and collapses and is taken to hospital. As UNIT is already on the scene investigating the meteors, the Brigadier believes help is at hand when he hears of the police box found in the woods, but he does not recognize the Doctor after his regeneration. While the Doctor is recovering, an alien presence called the Nestenes is at work, insinuating itself into killer plastic dummies called Autons. The Nestenes have their sights set on Earth as a target for conquest, but by the time the Doctor and UNIT can act it may be too late.

Spearhead from Space is a marked departure for the series; when it hit the screens in January 1970 everything was new - opening sequence, colour picture, and a new Doctor all in one go. And to go with the new Doctor, of course, a new companion, physicist Liz Shaw who was resentfully drafted into UNIT to act as scientific adviser just before the Doctor's return. The episode also had the distinction of having been recorded entirely on film as an outside broadcast production, which makes it the only classic serial able to be transcribed onto blu-ray.

So a new Doctor... taller. A little more elegant than Troughton's Doctor was but Jon Pertwee retains a certainly playfulness that his predecessor honed to a fine point. He strikes an immediate rapport with Liz, speaking to her in scientific terms that she can relate to, even if a lot of the science she knows is child's play to him. And with the Brigadier there is a definite bond forged from their previous encounters with the Yeti and Cybermen (neither are referenced this time) although the Doctor isn't exactly keen on military methods of dealing with problems. Still, they do need each other; the Doctor has had a great chunk of his memory blocked and the TARDIS is grounded on Earth by the Time Lords as his sentence of exile begins, although he does not dwell on it too much; yes he is stranded and yes it is going to be frustrating. And the Brigadier needs someone on hand who can advise on the unknown, even if the Doctor is going to try his patience a great deal.

The first time I came across this story was in print, a Target novelization with illustrations of all things, and I read it cover to cover one summer day at my grandmother's house by the lake. At the time I was still coming to the realization that there we big holes in the available material (although I had no idea exactly how big those holes were as far as missing episodes went) but I had seen the third Doctor on TV already so to get a glimpse of his debut story was a treat. I didn't know who Liz was though as she is only a single season companion and was not featured in the episodes I had seen on TV.  I had, however, read the novelization of The War Games and realized that this was indeed the next episode I needed to experience, but actually seeing the episode was something that had to wait until autumn of 1985 on a special WNED17 broadcast of a pretty bad print. I didn't care, though; this was new Doctor Who and I lapped it up eagerly. The same poor quality print was a VHS release which of course I bought and managed to enjoy, followed by a DVD release and then this wonderful blu-ray. To see Spearhead presented in such sharp detail is just like seeing it for the first time; the muddy film prints I had previously seen lost so much detail - I hadn't noticed how waxy the humanoid Autons' faces like Channing, Scobie and especially the creepy receptionist at the plastics factory were made up to be. The iconic moment in the serial, though, with the Autons coming to life in shop windows one morning and going on a killing rampage is perfect in such sharpness; I thought the relatively gloomier film and VHS release would have made that a bit more horrific but no.

The Auton massacre of the unsuspecting general public deserves extra special mention - this took the series into a new place with the acknowledgement that the children who started watching Doctor Who at the beginning were now 6 years older and could handle more. The Pertwee era is known for its monsters and an increase in on screen action and violence, with Pertwee himself being a far more physical Doctor than Hartnell or Troughton, and it starts here with the aforementioned shop dummy attack, and carries through with brazen gun battles between the Autons and the UNIT troops, with the UNIT bodycount rising faster than the Autons'. With the Doctor now pinned to Earth the monsters and threats would all be coming to him, making the world seem a scarier place.

So now we move ahead with the new TARDIS team... even if they do not have the TARDIS to use.

NEXT EPISODE: DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS

World Game

Contrary to what the Time Lords decreed at the end of the Doctor’s trial, the charges of interfering in other civilizations proved to be too great to let go lightly, and the Doctor’s execution is ordered. The Celestial Intervention Agency, a shadowy branch of Time Lord beaurocracy, sees the Doctor as a potential agent and offers him a lifeline: service to them in exchange for his life. As a convicted criminal he has no official standing and if their hand were ever detected in any interventions they could always deny sending him. The Doctor is wary but accepts, and is sent on a mission to Earth with a Time Lady named Serena as his assistant. The Agency has detected meddling in the timelines around the Napoleonic Wars, and the Doctor must stop it, but he has to defeat an omnipotent group simply known as the Players to do so.

There really is nothing more potentially disastrous than retconning established lore in Doctor Who; it’s one thing to try and tie up a perceived loose end or maybe seize on a trivial aspect in the background and give it a backstory, but to try to overwrite something and insert more detail requires skill and discipline. Author Terrance Dicks doesn’t have as much of both as he would like us to think with his work in World Game.

There’s a widespread belief, made canon by BBC Licensing, that since there is no real visual record of Patrick Troughton regenerating into a new Doctor then he may well have been used as an agent by his own people for some time before he did indeed regenerate. The first inklings of this were in licensed (and therefore actually canon) Doctor Who comics published between the finale of The War Games and the new season premiere Spearhead From Space six months later, wherein the Doctor did do the dirty work of the Time Lords while on Earth and then did eventually regenerate into a new form in time to emerge from the TARDIS in a new season. There’s further proof to support the theory in future episodes such as The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors where the second Doctor meets his future selves at the behest of the Time Lords themselves; obviously he could have no contact with his own people prior to The War Games so logically this all is afterwards when he should have been sent into exile. It just stands to reason he did not go directly to Earth.

Terrance Dicks was script editor for the series at the time and had embraced this whole “season 6b” notion in World Game although it at times feels a bit too thin of a tale with action sequences lacking a lot of detail and characters such as the villainous Countess feeling two dimensional at best. I feel it’s an ambitious task to try and create the narrative for this hidden section of the Doctor’s past and although as an elder statesman of the series Dicks wants to do it and feels he should, his narrative skills are really not the best for the task. A co-writing credit with someone like Simon Messingham could have done just as well with the tale really going into some dark places of Time Lord secrets, and the Doctor trying harder to escape from this dirty work. I don’t mean to diss Dicks and his contribution to Doctor Who as a whole but his strength is not in writing prose, it’s in translating script to screen. He even takes the opportunity to set up an explanation for the second Doctor’s presence in The Two Doctors but it feels almost a bit too rushed like he thought of it at the end and stapled it onto the manuscript. In fact there are a few too many times where things feel like they were hurriedly put into the story instead of developed properly. Case in point: the Doctor's one-off companion for this one, a Time Lady named Serena who finds herself quickly buying into the allure of freedom from Time Lord society, probably because the Doctor keeps taking her to cafes and parties and eating a lot. See - not exactly credible.

And it’s not like this is the only time this sort of thing ever happens; with a time travel series the temptation is just too great to go back and tweak or replay or simply overwrite – one only has to look at how the time travel rewrite cop-outs have reduced the current series of the show to drivel where proper writing was obviously too difficult to master. There was even an ambitious fan made video tacked onto the DVD release of The War Games entitled Devious following the adventures of a halfway Doctor – Doctor 2.5 in effect – midway through his regeneration where he is visited by his future self. In many ways it is actually done better than most of what hit the screens from 2011 onwards.

 

So with Jamie and Zoe still flashing back to their time with the Doctor, their friend is still adventuring in time and space, albeit on a bit of a leash until the day comes for him to regenerate.

Which is now.

NEXT EPISODE: SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE