madmarkinabox

[madmarkinabox]

Season 13

The Brain of Morbius

The TARDIS is dragged off course by outside forces to the planet Karn. The Doctor and Sarah face danger on two fronts: the Sisterhood of Karn, who fear that the Doctor and Sarah have been sent to steal their Elixir of Life, and insane neurosurgeon Solon, who plans to use the Doctor's head as the final part of a new body for the dismembered renegade Time Lord Morbius.

No, not THAT Morbius, put the memes down. Ever wanted to see a Doctor Who take on Frankenstein? This is the story for you. We've got the misshappen patchwork creature, the crazed scientist who made it, the simple-minded assistant, the creature going on a rampage... But it also goes into wilder, more surreal territory as we dabble in science mistaken for magic again with the Sisterhood, and, unlike Frankenstein, the creature in question is immediately out for revenge, not because it can't mingle with people, but because all that's left of Morbius following his (undoubtedly long-winded and painful) execution at the hands of the Sisterhood and the Time Lords is the titular brain, and he is justifiably annoyed at the state he's been left in.

Maybe it's just because I re-read Frankenstein last year, but I really liked this one. If it does have any weak links, it's some of the stuff with the Sisterhood and their theatrical rituals. But of course, it all fits together in the end. If you're after a bit of gothic sci-fi horror, give The Brain of Morbius a go. It's only a little under two hours, you've got nothing to lose.

Next time: The Masque of Mandragora

[madmarkinabox]

Season 13

The Android Invasion

The Doctor and Sarah arrive back in their own time, but something is off. They're being pursued by robots in haz-mat suits, and every person they meet seems to have been replaced with lifelike androids, including their friends in UNIT, as part of a plan by the reptilian Kraal to conquer Earth.

Another pretty good story. This season's on a roll so far. Going into this one mostly blind helps too. I have to confess, the first time we see a glimpse of a Kraal peeping through a spyhole, I thought it was a Sontaran. Would this story have worked as well if it WAS the Sontarans behind the invasion? Probably! Would it have worked if the androids were Autons instead? Absolutely! But could the Sontarans and Nestenes work together to conquer Earth? Oh, definitely not. So, it's all original foes here with Terry Nation back in the writer's chair. The Kraal are pretty good as baddies go too. Like a mix of Sontarans and a variant of Silurian - imagine a Triceratops evolving into a biped and dressing like a Sea Devil, and that's a Kraal - with the familiar motive of their own planet dying so they intend to conquer another.

Top that off with the unsettling idea of versions of the Doctor and Sarah capable of killing without remorse, the Body Snatchers vibe with not knowing who to trust, and some great effects work with the androids (I'm pretty sure the scene with android Sarah's face falling off to reveal the gears and circuits below with the wide staring eyes spooked me as a kid) and it all adds up to another solid classic Who adventure.

Next time: The Brain of Morbius!

[madmarkinabox]

Season 13

Pyramids of Mars

A powerful force throws the TARDIS off course en route back to UNIT HQ, and she materialises in the building but in 1911, where it's being used as storage for Egyptian artifacts. And the launching point for an invasion. The Egyptian god Sutekh is seeking to escape his prison on Mars with a small force of robot mummies and a reanimated corpse at his command, and he will destroy everything if he succeeds.

Holy LORD, this was good. We revisit ideas pushed in The Time Monster - the idea that human mythology was inspired by alien encounters - and this is, of course, nothing new when it comes to Ancient Egypt. The speculations and conspiracies about how the pyramids were built, the fact that they were already ancient when the Romans arrived... But this story is a different beast, with a fantastic villain pulling all the strings. It says a lot for how dangerous Sutekh is when the Doctor's gone against Davros, the Master, the Dalek Emperor, Omega, and THIS is the one that worries him the most. Frightens him even. He's masterfully played by Gabriel Woolf: cold, sinister, quiet, a bit like Omega but less angry and vengeful, just plain vindictive. Remorselessly evil.

Add to this, the pretty well done robot mummies, Sutekh's primary operator being a man he killed and reanimated to effectively be an avatar for him, the terror of the Doctor losing his own autonomy (which is, of course, one of the things he values most in life), the sense of urgency throughout the story's tight runtime, and you really can't go wrong with Pyramids of Mars. Well, I guess there is that bad bit of casting where we have a white man playing an Egyptian, but he doesn't make it past the first episode anyway, so hey ho. Pyramids of Mars? Unmissable.

Next time: The Android Invasion

[madmarkinabox]

Dammit, Terror of the Zygons isn't available to stream for me. And I can't be arsed to go shopping right now. I was looking forward to it too. The joys of modern "conveniences". Maybe I'll do a retrospective of stories I initially had to skip later on. Stuff like The Celestial Toymaker and The Savages. Probably after the TV movie. But for now...

Season 13

Planet of Evil

Picking up a distress call, the Doctor lands the TARDIS on Zeta Minor. But upon arrival, all but one of the survey team who sent it are dead, and the squad sent to retrieve them proceed to blame the Doctor and Sarah. The planet straddles the barrier between this dimension and that of anti-matter, and it's fighting back against attempts to plunder its resources.

Gotta be honest: I wasn't expecting much with a title like "Planet of Evil." I'm not really sure WHAT I was expecting. But I was pleasantly surprised with what I got. Zeta Minor looks great from a visual standpoint, like a nightmarish red mix of Skaro and Spiridon, and the bodies drained of everything by the planet's anti-matter monsters are sufficiently gruesome. The monsters themselves look pretty good too. How did the production team achieve that effect? Rotoscoping? Greenscreen? A bit of both? Whatever it was, it looks good. The departure of Harry hasn't harmed the dynamic between Sarah and the Doctor either. In fact it's better than ever here, the way they can just bounce off and complement each other. And the spaceship effects are actually pretty getting darn good by this point. No wobble, no visible strings. Obviously, it's no Thunderbirds, but there's massive improvement.

Of course the story's got its problems. I get that it's only a four-parter, and it is kept pretty tight, but I do think the story begins to flag a bit in the second half when we're mostly stuck on the Morestrans' ship. I think we could have spent just a bit more time on the planet. And Sorenson's physical form when he becomes the Antiman (sounds like a contrarian superhero, no?) just looks and acts like a crackhead or a spice zombie. He's no Primord if that's the sort of thing they were going for.

Not perfect, not going to set the world on fire, but you can also do a whole lot worse.

Next time: Pyramids of Mars.

P.S. Does anyone else get vibes of 42 with this? My boyfriend did once I gave him the rundown. I'm inclined to agree.

[madmarkinabox]

Season 12

Revenge of the Cybermen

The Doctor and friends return to Nerva, but thousands of years earlier than when they left, with no TARDIS, and the station being steadily infiltrated by Cybermen, seeking to destroy the nearby gold-rich planet Voga.

After bloody ages, the Cybermen return, looking a lot like they did in The Invasion, just a bit beefier. And this story marks a change in them. They're far less zombie-ish in the way they move, and their speech is far more, dare I say, human. It's ironic, the way the Doctor talks about them, you'd think they were pure machine, but they're so much more alive now, especially the Cyber Leader. That's not necessarily a good thing either, he's quite pompous, grandiose, theatrical even. Good design (digging the black helmet) but a few things have gotten lost on the road to their return. Namely the quiet horror of what is or isn't under the Cyber suits, and the electronic sound of their voices. You can hear the performers trying occasionally to sound more machine-like, but it's just not as effective as the buzzing monotones of Tomb or Moonbase, or even the sing-song tone of Roy Skelton in The Tenth Planet.

Add to that, the strange wood-like masks of the Vogans (no, not Vogons, Douglas Adams wasn't on the writing team yet), and their dull civil war/politics, and the story doesn't make for the glorious fanfare we should have for the return of the Cybermen. Was I expecting too much? Did I get my hopes up? Was I just spoiled by Genesis of the Daleks right before this one? Probably yes to all three. Maybe if some of the Voga stuff had been shaved off, it might gel with me more, but Revenge of the Cybermen simply can't hold a candle to the brilliant stuff we saw from the silver giants in the 60s, even if Kellman looks and acts a bit like a younger version of Vaughn.

Next time: Terror of the Zygons.

[madmarkinabox]

Season 12

Genesis of the Daleks

Foreseeing a time when the Daleks have become the dominant lifeform in the universe, the Time Lords interrupt the Doctor's journey back to Nerva to send him on a special mission: return to Skaro, to the Daleks' infancy, and prevent their creation.

This is it. The Big One. The story that routinely tops the fan polls for favourite classic story. Incidentally, it was also the first Classic Who DVD I owned. But does it meet that hype? Honestly, yes. Is it the best ever for me personally? Time will tell, but it's damn good, damn good indeed.

By now we know full well how the Daleks work and think, but this takes us back to the very start, to the end of the thousand year war on Skaro, when both the Kaleds and Thals were getting desperate and virtually indistinguishable from each other in their hatred and violence, and in their treatment of the Mutos, the genetically imperfect and mutated victims of war; Kaleds and Thals united only in their rejection. But while we know the Thals will ultimately reject this road and mostly choose peace, and we even see the beginning of their taking this path when it looks like they've won, the Kaleds are always doomed to go the wrong way. As far back as the Dalek Invasion of Earth, there's been something inherently Nazi-ish about the Daleks, and it's very obvious when we see the people who would eventually become them. Their rhetoric, the young soldiers' vicious tempers, the boot clicks and little salutes, the uniforms, Nyder's even seen wearing an iron cross a few times for crying out loud. And in a lot of the Kaleds' dialogue, "Davros" can easily be replaced by "the fuhrer" and it wouldn't change much.

Talking of Davros, he finally makes his first appearance, and is immediately compelling, expertly played by Michael Wisher. Quiet and coldly calculating one minute, screaming and deranged the next, yet always thinking, always plotting. How many moves ahead is he thinking? How much of what transpires did he actually plan once he was certain the Daleks were ready? But his own pride, hubris, monstrous ego and own creations ultimately prove to be his downfall. This is the essence of Davros: a mad, ranting lunatic who thinks he's immortal, wanted to play God and thinks emotions are a weakness. Hitler if he was a scientist rather than an anti-semitic politician, with the cold, slimy Nyder as his ever faithful right-hand man. This one also does a wonderful job with the Daleks, filming them in shadow a lot, these mostly silent machine killers, until they decide they don't need to be told what to do anymore. I love the shots of them atop the trenches in the dim light, wreathed in smoke.

Ultimately, Genesis is damn near perfect. Harry becomes less of a joke (him being a military man, having to deal with people with guns is probably more familiar territory for him), a classic unforgettable foe is introduced, we have the wonderful "do I have the right?" and hypothetical virus exchanges, and not a single moment is wasted. If you're a Who fan at all, Genesis of the Daleks is required viewing. I just hope we haven't peaked too soon with the fan-favourite Classic Who story this early into Tom Baker's run.

Next time: Revenge of the Cybermen!

[madmarkinabox]

Season 12

The Sontaran Experiment

Beaming down from Nerva to fix the station's transmat receivers on Earth, the travellers find that the planet is not uninhabited as believed, as they tangle with desperate marooned soldiers from another colony, and a Sontaran running experiments on them.

The first two-parter in a while! Is this the first we've had since The Rescue? I think it is. And I also realised with this story that this season is running a clear continuing narrative where each story flows into the next. Last time we had that rather than an adventure/monster-of-the-week thing was Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks. But I digress...

I wasn't how sure how well this story was going to work. A 2-parter that brings back the Sontarans? Surely we need more time than that, the last time we saw a Sontaran, it was a four-parter. But it does the job very well, packing a lot into a mere two episodes. Styre is a very different Sontaran to Linx, far crueller and colder, seeing his test subjects as mere things, a stepping stone for the intended invasion of Earth by the rest of the fleet. I do think the makeup was done better on Linx to a point, he was far more expressive, but I guess you can't have everything.

The Sontaran Experiment is worth a look regardless, especially if you're following the season's running narrative properly. I'm always happy to see the Sontarans, hope to see them again soon. But the journey from Nerva didn't go too well for the Doctor and co, and the journey back is going to be even nastier....

Next time (drumroll, please...) : GENESIS OF THE DALEKS!

[madmarkinabox]

Season 12

The Ark in Space

The TARDIS arrives on a space station carrying the last of humanity and their history until they can be revived. But the insectoid Wirrn stowed aboard some time earlier and are starting to use the cryogenically frozen humans as unwitting hosts for their eggs.

Not to be confused with The Ark from Hartnell's run, with the Monoids and Refusis. No, this is a different beast. Parasitic creatures using humans as hosts to spawn more of their kind, in a massive space transport? It's impossible not to think of Alien. I'm no film expert, so I was genuinely surprised to find that The Ark In Space predates Alien by 4 years. Perhaps Ridley Scott was subconsciously inspired by this and it just got more Freudian when Giger was brought in to design the Xenomorph, the Facehugger, etc.

This is a pretty good story. We also revisit the class aspect from Hartnell's Ark, but these are far worse people. Specially selected, elite scientists, the best to restore and repopulate a ravaged Earth, and don't they know it. These people are the sort who Elon will likely pick to try to colonise Mars. In fact, I wasn't even sure Vira WAS human when she was revived. I thought she was an android. Man, I just keep comparing this thing to Alien. Her walls only finally really came down when the mission commander was obviously completely gone. Incidentally, it looks like a major chunk of that little reveal has been edited out on the iplayer. I know there's a similar edit in Dragonfire too when we eventually get there. Body horror, I guess, objected to by the likes of Mary Whitehouse. I'll get to her later and all.

Editing aside, it's solid. Some say this is where Tom found his groove as the Doctor, not Robot. I'm inclined to agree. That great "indomitable" speech, ray guns and the bubble wrap monster. What's not to like?

Next time: The Sontaran Experiment!

[madmarkinabox]

"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes." - The 4th Doctor, Robot

Season 12

Robot

A massive experimental robot has been scavenging for parts and plans for dangerous weapons, and UNIT are on the case with an eager if somewhat erratic freshly-regenerated Doctor. But the plot goes a lot deeper than a simple disintegrator gun, with a dangerous authoritarian group pulling the strings behind the robot.

Everyone's (arguably) favourite classic Doctor enters the fray, and the show itself appears to have shifted in a different direction with his arrival. Perhaps it's because his regeneration looked a bit touch and go for a while, and might not even have happened if K'anpo hadn't given it a little push, but Tom Baker's Doctor is so wild compared to his three predecessors. He can shift in a heartbeat from kooky to deathly serious to contemplative without warning. He's probably the most alien the Doctor's been so far at this point. This quality he has seems to bleed into the storytelling too; a bit less straight-laced, and a bit more more loose and silly. But it also doesn't take too long for us to get to know this Doctor, despite how enigmatic he can still be at the same time. I'm amazed the jelly babies are brought in this early too.

How's the story? Well, it's a bit of a strange one. The premise of another crypto-fascist group looking to seize control and make a world more to their liking works, even if we've sort of seen it before a good few times now. Using the robot to do so makes it a bit different though, even if the robot is pretty goofy in how it looks and behaves. I do like how they kind of pay homage to King Kong in the final part, the robot having formed an attachment to Sarah. Harry's a good addition to the cast too, as the straight man who's not stuffy about it but still able to bounce off, complement and foil the Doctor's slightly manic energy.

Overall, Robot isn't a fantastic story, but it's good enough. It shines mostly as a means to introduce a new kind of Doctor. It's fun time.

Next time: The Ark in Space

[madmarkinabox]

And now...

My personal Top 10 Third Doctor stories.

The Three Doctors

Terror of the Autons

Planet of the Daleks

Day of the Daleks

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

The Time Warrior

The Green Death

The Dæmons

Spearhead from Space

Planet of the Spiders

[madmarkinabox]

Season 11

Planet of the Spiders

Following a tip-off from Mike Yates, Sarah Jane investigates a cult that has effectively overtaken a monastery, and one of their rituals brings its leader into contact with a giant psychic spider, seeking the crystal the Doctor took from Metebelis 3. With the cult's leader looking to manipulate the spiders, and the spiders themselves planning to conquer Earth with the crystal, how's the Doctor going to get out of the mess he irrevocably involved himself in?

And so we come to the end of Jon Pertwee's time as the Doctor. And it's quite the note to go out on. The repeated attempts to get to Metebelis 3 and his eventual initial visit had to come back to bite him in the end. It's almost like a proto-Trenzalore.

So this is a lengthy story, but it all fits together well. I wish we were told what Tommy's reason is for being there besides plot convenience, but again, it does all come together. The spiders aren't too bad either. Arachnophobes, be warned. Obviously we're not looking at Eight-Legged Freaks or Chamber of Secrets, but they're not bad effects for what they need to do. It's great that Mike gets a real shot at redemption too after Invasion of the Dinosaurs. I'd say he did a damn good job of it, even if unfortunately he still can't ever return to UNIT. Really not sure about the white guys pretending to be Tibetan monks, but at the same time- no, that's too much of a spoiler.

However, I can't not talk about the ending. I think this might be the first time the prelude to a regeneration has been treated as an actual death. Granted, the Doctor's regeneration in The War Games as part of his exile was effectively an execution, but this one is a pretty sad end, and Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen absolutely nail it. Of course I'm sad to see him go, but as his predecessor said, life depends on change and renewal. And boy howdy, are things going to change. Mr. Tom Baker, come on down.

Next time: Robot.

[madmarkinabox]

Season 11

The Monster of Peladon

The Doctor returns to Peladon, some years having passed since his first visit. But the native miners are on the brink of revolution, tensions furthered by the war between the Federation and Galaxy Five, and the name of Aggedor is being invoked again....

Our second visit to Peladon isn't quite as interesting as our first. Perhaps it's because I'm personally not in a good headspace at the moment, but it took a long time to get me more invested in this story. The first half retreads a lot of familiar ground with badly-treated working class folks with fantastic-looking hair staging an uprising (hello, Space Museum) and a distrustful official who comes across as a bit of a fanatic/religious zealot using Aggedor's name to get his own way. Same old, seen it all before. It wasn't until the Ice Warriors showed up that the tables turn. And boy howdy, do they turn.

This branch of Ice Warriors are more of what we expect from them: ruthless conquerors, and their leader Azaxyr is a very competent villain. The story also threw a big twist my way that I honestly didn't expect. It's a good use of the Ice Warriors, even if they still have the same problems I've always struggled to get behind - the hissing, the lumbering, the Muppet mouths. Hell, most of their mouths don't even move anymore!

I wish I could say I liked this one as much as I did with The Curse of Peladon. Even Alpha Centauri was more tolerable this time since he took a more proactive stance throughout. But it's just too samey, and my attention span waned throughout the story. I'm not even sure it should have been called The Monster of Peladon. The Betrayal, or Fall of Peladon would have been more apt. When it takes the return of a monster I've always struggled to appreciate to get me interested in a story, there's a problem. Skip it.

Next time: Planet of the Spiders.

[madmarkinabox]

Season 11

Death to the Daleks

En route to Florana, the TARDIS suffers a massive power drain and is forced to land on the planet Exxilon. Partnering with a small marine squad in search of a rare mineral, the Doctor gains even more unlikely allies as a group of Daleks arrives, also affected by the power drain and seeking the same mineral.

So if the last encounter with the Daleks sought to empower them, granting them invisibility (even if that didn't really go anywhere), this one goes the other way and depowers them, taking their firepower away. It's a little like Power of the Daleks in the sense that the Daleks are weakened and have to pretend to cooperate with humanity for a bit. But since this is a shorter, snappier story, they show their true colours a lot quicker here, making demands and subjugating everyone they see in mere moments once they get their alternative weaponry going. Ultimately, it's nothing spectacular, but a quick, simple Dalek adventure.

The Exxilons do have a bit of an interesting history behind them, and I especially like the probes/roots. They give me War of the Worlds vibes, looking a bit like the camera probes in the 53 and 05 movies and the Heat Ray casing in the 53 one. But what stops me elevating this story too high is the music by one Carey Blyton and the London Saxophone Quartet. What on earth were they thinking with that ridiculous hooting tone throughout? Where's the tension? Where's the drama? The menace? We're supposed to think "uh-oh" when a Dalek appears, not "doyyy, I done the silly fing again!" It lets the whole thing down.

Ultimately, not bad but really nothing special. You can do worse than Death to the Daleks, but you can DEFINITELY do a whole lot better too.

Next time: The Monster of Peladon.

[madmarkinabox]

Season 11

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

The Doctor and Sarah Jane return home to find London a ghost town, with dinosaurs roaming the streets and vanishing as suddenly as they can appear. UNIT are working with the army, trying to get to the bottom of things and contain the remaining looters in the city, but a fanatical movement is using the dinosaurs in a bid to seize control, and UNIT's own Captain Yates is part of it.

This is a story I've wanted to see for a long time. Anyone who really knows me knows that I LOVE dinosaurs. Frankly I'm surprised at myself that I haven't watched it sooner. So how does it hold up?

Story-wise, it's really, really good! It's a cautionary tale of putting too much stock in "the good old days", and what could happen if someone had the power to take the world back to the state they wanted it in. And the rot and corruption involved go deep, VERY deep. Dinosaurs aside, it's another story which holds a lot of relevance to the world we're in now, with all these platitudes of "this country used to be great" and lunatics eager to throw their weight around to take it back to those days in all the wrong ways. As the Doctor says "this is not the way to go about it. [...] Take the world you've got and try to make something of it. It's not too late."

The shots of deserted London are very reminiscent of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Peter Miles is back as another slimy bad guy, looking and sounding a lot more Nyder-esque here, and it's interesting how Yates isn't entirely suddenly a villainous figure in this. You can see how conflicted he is when his loyalty to UNIT and the Doctor clash with his instructions from the fanatics, and understand some of his reasoning for joining them. But Mike, you were one of the most competent and reliable members of the Brig's team! If a good chunk of this is because you didn't end up with Jo, there are better ways to move on! Get a cat or something!

Honestly, the only real problem with this story is the most obvious and talked about one: the dinosaurs themselves. The tech simply didn't exist to bring them to life in the way they needed to behave in story terms. The visual magic of Jurassic Park was still an impossible dream, and Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks knew this, but hoped the model makers they'd recruited would provide them with respectable dinosaurs. To be fair, the herbivores work, since they just kind of stand around and look innocently dopey for the most part, and the pterosaurs are okay when their puppets need to jab at the Doctor and Sarah, but the tyrannosaurus, which has a lot more to do and has to be a real menace, looks VERY janky, especially in full-view. He only really looks good when he's unconscious. It would take another 40-odd years before Who did dinosaurs really well.

Overall, despite the dodgy-sauruses, and some might say because of it, Invasion of the Dinosaurs is truly great stuff. Do try not to bash the effects, you'll find a great story here, I promise you.

Next time: Death to the Daleks!

[madmarkinabox]

Season 11

The Time Warrior

Rocket scientists and their equipment have been mysteriously disappearing, and when the Doctor investigates the latest disappearance, with a plucky journalist stowing aboard the TARDIS, he finds the trail leads to the Middle Ages and a lost alien warrior: Linx, a Sontaran. Linx has been using the captured scientists to repair his ship, and providing the tyrant hosting him with more advanced weapons. Can the Doctor get everyone home safely before Linx's actions cause civilisation to advance too far too fast?

How do I move on from the slightly downbeat ending of The Green Death? Well, with this humdinger of a story! The Sontarans make their debut (well, A Sontaran), and much like the Daleks in their first appearance, we know all we need to know about them from the start. Their ideals, their views, their weakness, they're fully-formed right off the bat. A little rough around the edges, of course, it's only 1974, but immediately unforgettable. And is this the first time the Doctor explicitly names his home as Gallifrey? I think it is! But how do you top Jo as a long-standing well-liked companion? How about everyone's (arguably) favourite classic companion? Step forward, Miss Sarah Jane Smith, played by the late, great Elisabeth Sladen. Lovely to have you aboard.

All in all, a great story, chugging along at 4 parts, not wasting a moment. Game of Thrones would surely be far more entertaining if you took out the gratuitous sexual violence and had a Sontaran there instead, like this. All this story needs now is a little Scooby-Doo chase music in parts, especially the escape-fight-cliffhanger at the end of episode 2. Would definitely, quite happily watch this one again any time.

Next time: Invasion of the Dinosaurs!

[madmarkinabox]

Season 10

The Green Death

A Welsh coal miner is found dead and glowing bright green. When UNIT investigate, suspecting links between the incident and the nearby Global Chemicals plant (especially Jo, enamored by a local scientist-activist), they discover giant venomous maggots in the mine. With the death toll rising, just what are Global Chemicals up to?

Not the first time I'd seen this one, but it was so long ago now I barely remembered anything besides the giant maggots in the mine, and the ending. So how does it hold up? Honestly, it's like a mix between The War Machines and The Macra Terror. With the presence of BOSS calling the shots at Global Chemicals, it's hard not to think of WOTAN or Control, though I also can't help but wonder, given the way it speaks, if it was originally supposed to be the Master secretly running the show, but they had to change it because Roger Delgado was too busy with the movie shoot that would claim his life. But this one also has a massive environmental slant with the plot point of Global Chemicals dumping their waste into the mine, much like how our illustrious government would go on to dump sewage into the rivers of Britain. You couldn't possibly make a story this socio-politically on the nose nowadays without it being really heavy-handed and thus having all the facebook boomers crying "too woke!"

The maggots are effective monsters too, coming across as mini Drashigs. They were probably brought to life with the same puppetry techniques. And of course in this one, Jo has finally had one adventure and near-death experience too many and decides to leave the Doctor behind to settle down with her new beau, Cliff, to the disappointment of Mike and the Doctor. It's been coming on for a while, of course, we could see her frustrations back in Frontier in Space. It's a bittersweet ending, as all is as well as it can be, but the Doctor is still left alone, driving off into the twilight in Bessie. Is it a tear jerker in the same way that Doomsday or Journey's End are? Perhaps not, but it's definitely sombre. On par with Susan's departure, I'd say.

Overall, packed with character moments, and not wasting a single moment, The Green Death is definitely a good, understated way to bring this season to an end. I'd watch it again in future for sure.

Next time: The Time Warrior

[madmarkinabox]

Season 10

Planet of the Daleks

Pursuing the Daleks to the deadly jungle planet Spiridon, and inadvertedly separated from Jo, the Doctor partners up with a band of Thals from Skaro looking to thwart the Daleks' latest nefarious scheme: unleashing an army of 10,000 Daleks upon the universe, armed with the natives' ability to become invisible.

This is where I came in. Not for the original '73 transmission, of course, I've only just turned 38, but a repeat in '93. I don't even remember HOW I came to Doctor Who exactly, but I can only assume it was my dad introducing me to it the same way he got me into Thunderbirds: by plopping me in front of the telly and saying "watch this, matey, you'll love it." He was absolutely right.

So how does Planet of the Daleks hold up? In the Dalek Tapes documentary with the DVD release of Genesis of the Daleks, Nick Briggs described it as "the Daleks' greatest hits", saying it doesn't really do anything new with the Daleks but is still a good story all around. The Daleks are very much the same as they always have been, but they get a lot more to do here then they did the last two times we've seen them. Bringing Terry Nation back to write this one obviously helped with that. It's also good to see the Thals again, taking further steps to get the Daleks out of their lives. Now as for the idea that it doesn't do anything new with the Daleks, I think that's a bit of an unfair statement. They're seen playing with bacteriological weaponry (and almost get away with it too), which I guess they partly used in the process of the Invasion of Earth, but this time we see the process at work. And what's more dangerous than a Dalek? An invisible one. Providing it could stay quiet, you'd be dead before you knew it was there. And what if there were 10,000 invisible Daleks? The galaxy really dodges a bullet here. It's just a shame the idea isn't revisited until the audio dramas in the Wilderness Years.

Overall? It's a very solid story. Carefully plotted and well-paced. Not perfect, of course, nothing is. I can see the joins in the sets, hear the moments Michael Wisher needs to take a breath as the Daleks rant on and on, hear the movements of the operators in the Dalek shells... But honestly, like with Tomb of the Cybermen, I can let it go. It's Classic Who, it comes with the territory. As with Day of the Daleks, I always enjoy this one when I watch it. If not a top 5 Third Doctor story, it's got to be in the top 10 somewhere.

Next time: The Green Death.