REVIEW OVERVIEW - COMPANION FAREWELLS - PART THREE

 And so we come to the thrilling conclusion of our latest REVIEW OVERVIEW essay. 

Thus far, a REVIEW OVERVIEW usually gets accomplished in just one entry. But we've gone for a really big theme, this time. There was no way I could examine every companion farewell scene in one go and not turn it into something of unreadable lengthiness. So, just like the show, I broke things down into parts.

In the first two parts, we looked at the various styles of farewell scenes and put them into categories. We also did a quick commentary on the effectiveness of all these scenes. I offered a general impression of how I felt about these moments. Giving strong indications of what I felt was the really outstanding stuff while also voicing my opinion on the content that I believed was sub-par. 

It's usually at this point where I very definitely create a ranking system. A list is made of worst to best based on the criteria I have established during the previous stage. But, again, we are dealing with a pretty huge topic, here. I can't see anyone caring too hard about reading the full list of companion farewells from beginning to end. It's a lot to take in. Quite honestly, I don't think I even want to go to the trouble of compiling it! 

What I will do, instead, is just list what I believe to be the five best companion goodbyes the show has ever produced. Before we begin, you may want to go back to Part One of this little venture and re-read my three points of criteria for what constitutes a great farewell scene (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-overview-companion-farewells.html - in the section titled: "What Qualifies as a Good Farewell"). I will be basing my choices heavily on these key ingredients. 

All right, then. Let's go. 

COMPANION FAREWELL #5

As we explored Vicki Goodbyes, I mentioned how this one stood out for me. It happens just as quickly as anything else in this category, but there seems to be a lot more going on behind it. 

I have heard a lot of fans voice their disdain for Vislor Turlough of Trion. I've never been sure why. Perhaps it's because Mark Strickson does get a bit OTT, in places (personally, I still adore it every time he hollers: "Tractators!! I saw one!"). Perhaps it's because he's not always the most likeable of characters. Who knows for sure. 

All I know is that I love Turlough. Few companions have had as much attention given to their development as he has. He starts out as someone in a bad situation who elects to kill the Doctor in order to get out of it. He moves on to being a cowardly character who tends to choose self-preservation over anything else. And then, slowly but surely, he gets brave. So that, by the time we reach Planet of Fire, a really nice arc is completed in his personality. He faces up to his past and is willing to sacrifice his highly-valued freedom for the sake of a group of people he barely knows. That's actually some really good character treatment. 

Which means, of course, that the brief exchange between the Doctor and Turlough as the Trion ship awaits him seems to have so much subtext going on. When the young companion proclaims: "I learnt a lot from you" (or words to that effect) we really feel what he's saying. The Doctor's belief in his better nature made him transform from someone genuinely nasty to a legitimate hero. And that comes across in just a few well-chosen words. It's a very beautiful moment that didn't need to go on any longer than it did. So much is done with so little. And that's always a marvellous thing to behold. 

COMPANION FAREWELL #4

This is one of those opinions that, no doubt, is going to get me in a bit of trouble. So I'll just say it: 

I never liked Jo Grant much. 

In my humble, contradictory opinion, there is no companion that is more cipher-like. She stumbled into danger and triggered the Doctor's info dumps with pointed questions. The purpose of all companions, yes. But there really didn't seem much more to her than that. Even a blatant screamer like Polly had a bit of a cool swingin' 60s vibe to her, at least. There really doesn't seem to be all that much to Jo. I really do believe it's her sheer longevity that endeared her to the audience more than anything. She was around for quite a while so people got attached to her. 

And now I'll get even more hate directed towards me. I don't think The Green Death was a particularly good story. The plot feels very poorly constructed and the preachy environmental message hits you way harder on the head than Orphan 55 could ever hope to. Most poignant, however, is my disdain for the Jo and Cliff romance. Their first scene together plays out like poor pantomime. Particularly Cliff's bad joke about a bug crawling up Jo and her exaggerated reaction to it. Their abortive kissing scene is ludicrous. Jo, by this point, has seen tonnes of people die. Why would she suddenly need so much consoling? To set up a very forced romantic moment, of course! 

I have stated all this negative opinion for a reason. I'm not just trying to be "one of those fans" that loves to bitch. In fact, I keep my mouth shut about Jo Grant and The Green Death most of the time because I know it will just incense the many people who love both. But I wanted people to know how little I like the things that happened around Jo's farewell scene to highlight just how much of a shining jewel it is. 

All my dissatisfaction for this story and this particular companion really does fade away in those last few minutes. Everything becomes magical as the announcement is made that Jo is leaving. Even Cliff's bumbling assumption that they were going to get married without actually asking her comes across as charming. It really is a beautiful final scene. Especially when you consider that I have enjoyed little of what went on before it. 

The very fact that I am not a huge fan of Jo Grant but that her final goodbye can still mist me up a bit is a great testament to the quality of this sequence. 

COMPANION FAREWELL #3

The fact that this particular goodbye makes it onto this list speaks volumes of its potency. 

If that very first farewell scene between the Doctor and Susan had been a bit "clunky" or ill-constructed, it would have been understandable. Such a sequence had never been executed before, so it's likely to have some teething problems. But this really is an absolutely gorgeous moment. It takes into consideration that something like this needs to be handled carefully and really goes to the trouble of getting the whole thing to work. 

It ages quite nicely, too. This is from a TV show in 1964. Television was made very differently, back then. Oftentimes, things could look a lot more "stagey". Acting on film was still a very new concept so people were still performing as if they were in a theatre. Which means their reactions looked a lot more exaggerated. This can really ruin the credulity of a scene when viewed under modern-day scrutiny. You get "taken out of the moment" and can't really enjoy the sentiment of it all cause it's a bit too overdone.  

Some of this is going on during those final few minutes of Dalek Invasion of Earth. This does feel a bit like we're watching a play on film rather than an episode of television. But, somehow, the moment transcends the limitations of the times and we are genuinely moved by what we're seeing. Regardless of what year we're watching it in. 

We owe a lot to both William Hartnell and Carol Ann Ford for the effectiveness of this sequence. Particularly as the Doctor locks Susan out of the TARDIS. The sense of final separation between the two characters really hits home when this occurs. And the Doctor's sacrifice as he forces his precious granddaughter to stay behind and build her own life really is touching. No matter how many years go by, this moment will always pluck at heartstrings. 

COMPANION FAREWELL #2

It's time for me to get into even more trouble. This one may even cause some serious hate messages in the comments. But, here goes: 

I'm not a particularly big fan of Sarah Jane Smith, either.   

Before I go any further, let me say that Lis Sladen was a brilliant actress. She does an amazing job with what she's given. But, as far as I can see, she really wasn't given much. She's Jo Grant with slightly stronger feminist opinions who occasionally mentions she's a journalist. Otherwise, it's just a lot of the same that we just saw with Jo. She stumbles into danger, gets possessed a lot and asks "what is it Doctor?". None of the writers really seemed all that interested in adding much more than that to the character. Lis, herself, added whatever she could. 

Like The Green Death, I'm also not that fond of Sarah Jane's swansong story. In fact, if I had to choose between Green Death and Hand of Fear, I'd put on Twin Dilemma!  

So, once more, we have to be amazed by just how good her exit must be if it's got all this working against it. Another companion I'm not all that interested in getting a final story that I feel is really bad. And yet, those final few minutes are so strong that this is my second-favorite farewell of all time. 

Tom and Lis are brilliant in this moment. Regardless of how I feel about the character, Sarah Jane has put in some serious miles with the Doctor. A season with Three and then another two-and-some-change with Four. No one has travelled for as long in the TARDIS. She deserved the attention that last scene gives her. 

What I think I love best is the emotional gamut that the whole sequence runs. There's humor and lightness but also sadness and wistfulness. And lots of great stuff in between the two extremes. The Fourth Doctor still retains some degree of that emotional aloofness that he always seems to have during times such as these but also shows he will miss this companion who's been at his side for so long. All of it is executed with a sort of deftness and skill that makes this a truly touching moment. Even for freakish curmudgeons like myself who actually aren't big Sarah Jane Smith fans. 

COMPANION FAREWELL #1

And so, at last, we come to Number One. The best companion farewell scene of them all. No doubt, you're wondering what it could be. I've listed the usual suspects, already (and an odd one - I'm pretty sure most folks don't like the Turlough goodbye half as much as I do!). You must be puzzled.What could actually be any better than that brilliant moment in Hand of Fear? 

If you go back to Part One of this essay where I enumerate all the things a good farewell sequence needs, you'll notice that memorability is a very vital element for me. And there's no companion departure that has seared itself onto my memory more than this one. 

I will never forget the first time I watched Adric die. 

While I know many fans love to hate him, I really don't think he was all that bad. I even liked him a bit. I actually preferred him when he was at Davison's side rather than Baker's. I found all his social awkwardness with Five, Tegan and Nyssa to be entertaining. It was one of many attempts during the 80s to try to give us a different kind of companion. In that sense, I'd even go so far to say that Ardic was a bit of a success in his own right. It was actually great to see a companion struggling to just fit in with the rest of the crew. It was a very unique dynamic.Which, to me, signposted that an unusual departure would be needed for the character. 

We certainly got that.

The fight between the Doctor and Adric at the beginning of Earthshock sets up a great little trick with our expectations. Once more, Adric isn't fitting in. But it's gotten so bad that he now wants to leave. We should have just gotten a moment in the near future where Adric finds a place where he feels like he belongs and elects to stay there. That would have been the stereotypical ending for a character of his nature. 

I love so much that this isn't what happens at all. 

Technically, the boy dies a hero. He's trying to stop the space freighter from crashing into the Earth. He wants to save humanity - even though anyone human that was with him has jumped ship. Which makes him even more noble. 

And yet I love that there is a uselessness to the whole gesture, too. The freighter has time-jumped and is now responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. Adric can't succeed in what he's doing or the Web of Time will be ruined. His death must now happen.   

Eric Saward, for all his faults (the guy didn't actually like Colin Baker - can you believe that?!), made a great choice with this ending. While Adric didn't have the biggest fanbase, there was never anything simple about the character. I love that even his death is a complicated matter that has many different sides to it. There's a legitimate poetic quality to the whole thing.  

It helps enormously that there is an excellent story leading up to this breathtaking conclusion. In fact, Earthshock is one of my all-time favorites (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-4.html). After four parts of breakneck pacing and intense suspense, the story becomes all the more enjoyable by ending on the unusual note that it takes. The Cybermen are defeated - but at a terrible cost. A main character dies senselessly. And yet, he also dies a hero. 

I don't think anything will ever top Adric's departure. It's just too brilliant.    

That's my Top Five (for what it's worth). As usual, my strange tastes are prominently on display, here. Although, in my defence, a few of my picks are what most fans would agree with. 

Maybe I'm not such an oddball, after all! 

Part One

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-overview-companion-farewells.html

Part Two: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-overview-companions-farewells.html

 

REVIEW OVERVIEW: COMPANION FAREWELLS - PART TWO

 We continue looking at the quality of companion farewells....

Having examined the two extremes of goodbye scenes for companions in Part One (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-overview-companion-farewells.html), we now tackle the mid-range stuff. These are farewells that are, typically, fairly solid. But they're not anything too extraordinary. There is a moment of sentimentalism, we feel a bit for the companion that is leaving, but a bigger deal could have been made about their parting. 

There are a few notable exceptions that fall into these categories. Really outstanding moments that are of the same quality as a Susan Goodbye but don't quite fit the same description. We'll highlight them when we get to them. 

COMPANION FAREWELL STYLE #3: THE VICKI GOODBYE 

This is, perhaps, the most common form of farewell. It's a very economical scene that will still have some substantial emotional undertones to it. It's not as hasty as, say, Harry Sullivan's goodbye. Nor is it as grandiose as the farewell scene that Susan got. We see something like this for the first time with Vicki, of course. It is a somewhat-rushed scene because Troy is, literally, crumbling around them as they must part ways. But it's still done with enough respect to the time Vicki spent with the Doctor. It usually has a nice coda to it, too. Where we stay with the departing companion for a moment after the TARDIS is gone. 

*SPECIAL NOTE: It should be stressed that some of these scenes can be difficult to judge as they take place in stories that no longer exist. We can only hear them on audio and, perhaps, watch them in an animated or "telesnap" form. Vicki's goodbye is a prime example of this. 

Other Companions in this Category

STEVEN: After a nice little four-part runaround, Steven elects to stay behind to help restore the relationship between the Elders and the Savages. It's a quick-but-sentimental exchange where Dodo cries and hugs him and the Doctor offers some words of encouragement. And then it's done.   

VICTORIA: While she does have a very nice scene with Jamie that goes on for a nice minute or two, the actual parting of the ways between all three characters is done silently and takes less than a minute. It might seem a bit cheap but it actually evokes a lot of feelings. Quite nicely done, in fact. 

JAMIE AND ZOE: There's almost a sort of symbolism to the hasty-but-nostalgic farewells that we see during this era. In an emotional sense, the Second Doctor tended to travel lightly. So it would make sense that he wouldn't drag out his goodbyes. So even someone like Jamie, who was with the Doctor for so long, still only gets a quick moment with him. As does Zoe, of course. The extra scenes that were shot after the Time Lords dropped them off were a nice touch, though. Particularly Jamie charging down the redcoat!

THE SECOND ROMANA: Apparently, Tom and Lalla specifically wanted their last scene to be executed the way it was. To, essentially, make it only vaguely nostalgic, at best. It worked nicely and had a sort of sense to it. Two Time Lords parting ways would probably not get too over-sentimental about the whole thing. 

NYSSA: An interesting choice made by "the middle child" of the Fifth Doctor's early TARDIS crew. Many seemed to hope that, before she left, she would get some sort of revenge on the Master for all that he did to her. But I like that she bows out quietly and just chooses to stay on Terminus. In many ways, I felt that suited the character better. 

TURLOUGH: This one really stands out for me. It's the usual short-but-sweet goodbye but I feel it really works well. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that some really nice arcs get completed in Turlough's character as he bids his adieu. It all just seems a bit more touching than usual for something in this category. 

MEL: Because of the gorgeous monologue and the overall quality of the scene, this one almost makes it to Susan Goodbye status. However, Mel's decision out-of-nowhere to leave makes it a bit odd. And it's even harder to believe that she wants to stay with Glitz! 

BILL AND NARDOLE: It's actually a bit difficult to place where the real farewell occurs. It, sort of, happens during The Doctor Falls. It's quite moving and touching the way both characters bow out during that episode. I particularly like how they handle Nardole as he meekly accepts that he cannot stay to fight the Cybermen. But then the whole thing happens again in Twice Upon a Time. And that one definitely is more of a Vicki Goodbye. And it's quite nice to finally see an economical farewell scene in the New Series. So this is the one I prefer to go with.

COMPANION FAREWELL STYLE #4: THE KATARINA GOODBYE

After exploring several different ways to write out a companion, the production team goes to the ultimate extreme: What if a companion actually died while on an adventure with the Doctor? It is a very brave choice that creates a "no one is truly safe" rule in the show's premise. The only unfortunate side to the whole thing is that they barely gave the very first companion they did this to a chance to establish herelf. Katarina is only in a handful of episodes before she sacrifices herself in an airlock to save the day. Her period on the show was so short that some don't even consider her a proper companion. The whole sequence would have been far more effective if she had been around a bit longer before killing her off. 

Other Companions in this Category:

SARA KINGDOM: As usual, this manner of departure is repeated with the next companion. She is given an equally short period of time aboard the TARDIS. To the extent where her classification as a companion is also called into question. It seems the production team was trying to play it safe. They didn't want the audience to get too attached to these characters before their deaths.  

ADRIC: This is the companion death they got right. While there are some folks that weren't too fond of the lad, he was still with the Doctor long enough that his demise had a serious impact on us. I was, quite frankly, blown away the first time I saw it. The, overall, intensity of the story adds to the whole moment and the broken mathematical badge during the credits should be corny. But, somehow, it works. 

AMY AND RORY: They weren't truly killed, of course (well, Rory was a bunch of times!). This is what I like to call a pseudo death. RTD tried to create this sort of thing with both Rose and Donna by having prophetic characters predict their demise, but it took Moff to get it right. Due to the various paradoxes now going on around them (and not just the mere fact that they live in New York), the Doctor can no longer see his two beloved companions. So they might as well be dead. Their names appearing on the tombstone in the graveyard has a poignant symbolism to it: the very first married couple to travel aboard the TARDIS are well-and-truly dead. 

COMPANION FAREWELL STYLE #5: THE TEGAN GOODBYE

It took ages for the show to finally explore this particular avenue. This one is, perhaps, even more bold than the killing of a companion. In this case, they depart on a sour note. They get in an argument or the Doctor is genuinely neglectful of them. Or he is required to be cruel to them to create a greater good. Or something of that nature. It happens for the first time with Tegan Jovanka. In this case, the production team isn't trying to do this first with a companion who hasn't been around long. Tegan telling the Doctor: "It's stopped being fun" packs an extra wallop because she's been with him for a good three seasons. The farewell has the short running time of a Vicki Goodbye, but has so much more impact because of the way it plays out. As Resurrection of the Daleks concludes, Tegan truly breaks our heart. 

Other Companions in this Category:

PERI: One might almost say she belongs in the previous category since she appears to die at the end of Mindwarp. But we find out in Ultimate Foe that she's still alive (more than likely, Ycranos got Crozier to reverse what he'd done to her). This is happy news, of course. But what makes things terrible is the fact that the Doctor never appears to go back and see her. He just leaves her on Thoros Beta to fend for herself. 

ADAM: Another companion whose tenure was so short that some don't actually consider him one. During his brief time aboard the TARDIS, Adam messes up so bad that the Doctor just leaves him on modern-day Earth with weird crazy technology grafted into his cranium. Thus forcing him to keep his head down for the rest of his life rather continuing to benefit from his natural-born genius. 

CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS: Having been resurrected by a super-powered vortex-infused Rose Tyler, Jack races to join his friends in the TARDIS only to discover they left him behind on a space station full of murdered humans and disintegrated Daleks. Apparently, Jack's friends suck! 

DONNA NOBLE: Donna's departure is, perhaps, the most heart-breaking of them all. After pointing out on many occasions how mediocre she is, she finally receives this incredible gift from the Doctor's meta-crisis process. Only to have it taken away from her because it's burning her brain out. Her entire memory of her time with the Doctor is also erased. Seriously, how miserable is that?! 

We've, now, covered every style of companion departure. In so doing, of course, we've looked at every companion farewell scene that's ever occurred (did I miss any?! I think I got them all!). For Part Three, I'm going to list what I felt were the five best companion goodbye moments. You may be surprised by what ends up there. 

Here's Part One: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-overview-companion-farewells.html

REVIEW OVERVIEW: COMPANION FAREWELLS - PART ONE

 I am starting to have quite a bit of fun with these REVIEW OVERVIEW essays. Yes, it's one of those dreaded opinion pieces that we can find all over the internet when someone discusses Doctor Who. But there's just enough of a scientific process to it that I don't just look like yet another opinionated fan droning on endlessly. I'm backing myself up a bit as I force you to listen to how I feel!  

WHEN A COMPANION SAYS GOODBYE.... 

Next to an actual regeneration, a companion leaving the series is one of the most emotional times in the show. In fact, I might even dispute that it can actually be more emotional. Look at something like The War Games, where the Doctor saying goodbye to Jamie and Zoe is far more sentimental than the regeneration sequence that occurs just a few minutes later. The regeneration sequence is actually played up a bit for laughs. Whereas the farewell to his companions is quite sad. 

Whichever way you look at it, companions leaving is a big deal in the show. Since there have been so many companions, there have been many departures too. Which means we can legitimately rate the quality of their farewells. 

I have created such a scale. In my scheme of things, there are about 5 different levels of companion farewell sequences. Some are what I would definitely call poorly crafted. Others are more mid-range, in quality. Others, still, of course, are excellent. They are, essentially, the departure that a good companion deserves.  

WHAT QUALIFIES AS A GOOD FAREWELL? 

Before actually exploring that scale, we should probably try to come up with, at least, a few salient points that all good farewell scenes must contain. The most obvious, of course, would be that they evoke something legitimately emotional for the audience. More times than others, it's a sense of sadness. We are going to miss this ongoing character that is leaving the show and the way they say goodbye should bring that point home. 

A good companion farewell should also show us the strength of the relationship between the Doctor and this person he has decided to bring along on his journey for a while. A special bond must have formed between them and we should somehow see it on display one last time before they part ways. There are, of course, more obvious ways to show this. Again, that sense of sadness that takes place in most of these scenes is the easier way to go about it. But there are other directions to go in. Tegan and the Doctor, for instance, do not split up on the best of terms. But we see the power of what they had between them still resonate. Tegan is disappointed in how things have been with the Doctor, of late. Which, in turn, causes the Doctor to become disappointed in himself. This, to me, shows the closeness they've developed without having to just employ the usual technique of them simply saying goodbye and that they'll miss each other.  

The final vital ingredient in a good companion farewell scene would be memorability. The moment really should stand out for us. We remember it for years to come and measure it against the other goodbyes that we've seen and will see. I might even say this is the most potent determining factor for me. A departure might be as touching as Hell. It might really show just how much the Doctor loves that companion. But, sometimes, it just doesn't stick with me much and I move on without thinking much about it. 

THE RANKING SYSTEM

As usual, we've taken some time to create solid definitions. Let's just explain the ranking system a little bit better and then get on with things. 

Categories should always have titles. I have named the different types of farewell scenes based on the very first time we've seen this type of goodbye in the history of the show. Which means, of course, that most of them will come from companions we've seen in the 60s. Since most of the different styles of goodbye scenes were first explored during this era. 

In this first part of the essay, I will designate "bad" farewell scenes and "excellent" farewell scenes first. Basically, the best and worst categories. In Part Two, I will go into the mid-range stuff. What is most important to note, however, is that some of our mid-rangers do have really strong farewell scenes in them. But they still fall into that specific category. Which means that, as we reach Part Three, which will be me ranking the Top Five Best Companion Farewell Scenes of All Time, some of the mid-rangers might make it into that particular count. 

*SPECIAL NOTE: While some companions like Sarah Jane Smith or Rose Tyler do make return appearances, we are going to look at the instance where they said goodbye to the Doctor for the first time. 

**SPECIAL SPECIAL NOTE: There are some characters that seem like companions but, in my book, are really just recurring characters. The men of UNIT, for instance, would be an example of this from the Classic Series. Sergeant Benton, Captain Mike Yates and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart may seem like they were companions to the Doctor during his exile, but I don't feel as though they are. 

If Grace had climbed aboard the TARDIS and had a whole series of adventures with the Doctor at the end of The 96 Telemovie, then I would consider her a companion. As it stands, she is just someone he met for a bit after he regenerated and had a few nice snogs with. 

Certain family members of New Series companions sometimes seem like companions in their own right. Jackie Tyler and Brian Williams went on proper adventures with the Doctor in the TARDIS. That should qualify them as a companion. But, again, I feel they're not. 

In a similar vein, River Song does feel like she could be an actual companion. We are even told she will travel with the Doctor for a bit after he loses Amy and Rory in The Angels Take Manhattan. But I still view her more as a recurring character.   

Having said all that, Captain Jack Harkness should be considered a recurring character. He has made so many return appearances that the brief time he travelled in the TARDIS should almost be ignored. But we're still going to count him as one and discuss how he first departed during Parting of the Ways.  

. 

COMPANION FAREWELL STYLE #1: THE DODO GOODBYE

This is the absolute worst style of goodbye sequences. Not only does this happen first with Dodo. But she is still probably the strongest example of it. After getting written out halfway through The War Machines, a message is delivered to the Doctor through Ben and Polly that she no longer wishes to travel with him. You really couldn't ask for a less sentimental way for a companion to go. It does score slightly on the memorability scale, at least. We remember it well because we can't believe a companion was written out so poorly! 

Other Companions in this Category:

BEN AND POLLY:  Ironically, the ones that assist in the delivering of Dodo's poor goodbye, suffer the same fate a short while later. They do actually get a bit of a sentimental moment in their final few minutes of The Faceless Ones. It also has quite the clever hook to it by bringing them back the exact same day they left in The War Machines. But the fact that, like Dodo, they were written out of most of the story cheapens the whole moment horribly. 

LIZ SHAW: There is, perhaps, no worse way to see a companion off than to not give her a farewell scene at all. Sometime after Season 7 ends, Liz appears to leave the Doctor. At the beginning of Season 8, she is mentioned as a sort of footnote. 

HARRY SULLIVAN: A quick hasty decision made at the end of Terror of the Zygons where he barely says goodbye. He just suddenly announces that he's not going aboard the TARDIS. A cheap way to send off a quite loveable character.  

LEELA: This one really just comes out of nowhere. Somehow, Leela appears to have fallen in love with Andred during the course of The Invasion of Time. We see none of this romance building. It is just simply announced at the end of the adventure. The whole sequence barely makes sense, really. An excellent and inventive companion gets a legitimately stupid departure. 

THE FIRST ROMANA: Similar to the Liz Shaw farewell (or lack thereof), we're just suddenly not seeing her at the beginning of the new season. She's already in mid-regeneration as the Doctor encounters her in the console room. It would seem that, after repeating this mistake twice, producers now took actresses seriously when they said they didn't want to stay on for the next season! 

ACE: The ultimate in poor farewells, really. Particularly for one of, if not, the best companions. Sometime during those dreaded Wilderness Years, the Doctor and Ace part ways, somehow. We never know how, actually. It just happens offscreen. By the time Doctor Who - The Movie starts up, she appears to be long-gone. 

COMPANION FAREWELL STYLE #2: THE SUSAN GOODBYE

Essentially, this is how every companion departure should work. We have a complete adventure where the central conflict of the plot is resolved. In Susan's case, the Dalek invasion of Earth is properly thwarted. The last handful of minutes of the final episode are then devoted to the companion bidding adieu to the Doctor. No other action is going on in the story but the farewell sequence. If it all possible, we should also have a build-up leading to this moment. Like the way David and Susan are seen to slowly fall in love. We know that, ultimately, she must choose between her lover and her grandfather. It's all magnificently crafted and really makes us respect the companion's choice to leave. Most of the time that we get a farewell scene like this, it works beautifully. But there are one or two times when it fails. Susan is not one of those instances. It's a gorgeous goodbye. But we will discuss the ones that didn't work when we get to them. 

Other Companions in this Category

IAN AND BARBARA: The other two "original companions" get their own extensive farewell scene. It's skewed a bit differently than Susan's, though. Ian and Barbara are quite happy to finally find a way home. There's even a bit of comedy to the moment during the photographic montage and as they board a train. A bit of sadness is also included in the sequence as the Doctor and Vicki watch them on the time scanner. So a wide range of emotions do get explored during this farewell. Which makes it just as poignant as Susan's. But it's great that they go for a very different tone, this time. 

JO GRANT: After quite some time of doing companion farewells very differently, the production team gets it right. With all the problems of The Green Death solved, Jo and Cliff announce their engagement. A merry celebration ensues for quite a few minutes. Sneakily, the Doctor leaves the party and drives off into the sunset. Wiping a tear from his eye just before he goes. Beautiful stuff!

SARAH JANE SMITH: In a brilliant scene written by Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, we see Sarah's journey cut short by the Summons to Gallifrey (even though, amusingly enough, Sarah was threatening to leave, anyway!). Again, it's a nice extended moment at the end of the story devoted exclusively to this long-standing duo giving each other a proper farewell. The sudden freezing of the shot as Sarah Jane strolls off is the perfect final touch. As if the memory of her departure has been frozen in time, itself. 

MICKY SMITH: The first of the "extended companion departures" that I feel went badly. While he's given a solid set of minutes to say goodbye to Rose during Age of Steel, much of Micky's dialogue comes across as very corny. The music is going for it a bit too hard, too. The sentimentalism of the moment just feels too forced. 

ROSE TYLER: This one will probably get me in trouble with some of you. But this is the second extended farewell sequence that I feel goes poorly. It is just too sappy. Rose is not quite the companion she's been made out to be, I think. Well-crafted in Series One but she gets a bit lost in herself during her second season. She doesn't really merit the attention she gets in her departure. The whole thing drags on a bit. The bond she has with the Doctor feels overdone in this long, over-contrived goodbye scene. It just doesn't really work for me. 

MARTHA JONES: The first of the extended farewells in the New Series that I actually feel goes really well. Martha has this unhealthy crush on the Doctor that she finally works out. It's a nice arc. And she shows she's truly over him by leaving him with a phone so that she can see him again, sometime. But only as a friend. It's actually really well-written and excellently performed. Not over-the-top in the slightest. 

CLARA OSWALD: Technically, she gets an entire episode devoted to her farewell. Or, more specifically, it's the Doctor fighting the goodbye he must finally say to her. It's a bit of a controversial episode that many fans view as a let-down. But the actual goodbye scene is quite beautiful. Even if the Doctor ends up forgetting her for a time. We could almost put this under a different category because of the memory loss issue. But it fits a bit better, here.    

And so ends the first installment of our three-part epic! We'll look at three more styles in the next entry. 

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL?

Having premiered this new style of entry about a month ago, I felt it was time to explore its ideas and concepts a bit more. This time, we'll be looking at what Anniversary Specials best accomplish the task of being Anniversary Specials! 

November is a wonderful month, isn't it? Fall is creeping into winter. Christmas is just around the corner. But, most importantly, there's the anniversary of JFK's assassination to celebrate! Or the death of C.S. Lewis. 

Kidding.  

This year, our favorite program turns 57 on November 23rd. Not much longer before we hit another decade. Hopefully, the show will be around to celebrate it. It's always sad when an anniversary goes by and it's off the air. So many wonderful things can happen in an anniversary special. In fact, one might even say there are a certain number of boxes that must be ticked to make an anniversary special so good. 

As I make my second attempt at a REVIEW OVERVIEW essay, I'm going to look at all the elements that seem to be needed to make an anniversary special really shine. I will see which adventure does the best job of incorporating all these necessary ingredients.  Once again, the actual overall quality of the story will also have an influence in the effectiveness of the tale. I am, in a sort of backhanded way, reviewing these stories. So how much I like them should be a determining factor in all of this. 

In my first essay of this nature, I tried to create a sort of format for presenting my points. I thought to myself: "Yeah! I'll structure all my REVIEW OVERVIEW essays this way!" I should have guessed right then that my quirky, inconsistent temperament would not fall in line with this idea. So, this time, I'm attacking this subject in a totally different manner. Maybe later essays will use that format I employed in the first effort. But I doubt it. Chances are, I'll just be all over the place!   

The first thing I should do, of course, is list all the stories that I consider anniversary specials. 

Tenth Anniversary: The Three Doctors

Twentieth Anniversary: The Five Doctors 

Twenty-Fifth Anniversary: Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis     

Fiftieth Anniversary: Day of the Doctor    

SPECIAL NOTE: While Silver Nemesis is considered the official Twenty Fifth Anniversary Special, many fans feel Remembrance does a better job of celebrating the occasion. Overall, they consider it a better story, too .Which strengthens their convictions all-the-more that this should be the adventure that commemorates the event rather than Nemesis. Obviously, we'll take a more detailed look at this and see which story comes out on top.   

OTHER SPECIAL NOTE: Some of you might be asking: "Gee Rob, why haven't you listed Dimensions In Time as the Thirtieth Anniversary Special?!" The answer would be: "For the same reason I don't acknowledge K9 and Company in any essays that deal with K9!" I just don't want to accept anything so bad as being part of Established Canon! 

Okay, with that out of the way, we can now get on with listing all the necessary traits for a good anniversary special and how well each story on the list uses these traits. 

Let's see how they do.

Vital Ingredient #1: The Nostalgia Factor

This is the biggest and most obvious one. The Special must take some considerable time from its plot to indulge in its own past in some way. Sometimes, at the expense of the story, itself. The Five Doctors, for instance, has a pretty threadbare plot. Borussa is secretly manipulating multiple incarnations of the Doctor to win the Game of Rassilon for him so that he gains immortality. Not really much going on there. But with so many past incarnations and companions and villains and monsters appearing in the adventure, we don't really care much. We needed something simple so that we could include so many past elements. A more complicated plot would have gotten in the way of things!    

Obviously, your multi-incarnation stories will score well, here. There's nothing more nostalgic than bringing back previous leads to reprise their roles. Three and Five Doctors accomplish this nicely. As does Day of the Doctor. Of these three stories, however, some do a better job than others at bringing in the nostalgia. 

The Three Doctors ranks very low on this particular tier. Yes, Patrick Troughton returns as Doctor Two (and, pretty much, steals the show). William Hartnell also comes back. Albeit, in a somewhat reduced state. But, beyond their inclusion, the story really doesn't dwell too much on the show's past. Which is odd, really. Since there really isn't much of a plot to this adventure, either. Rather than using nostalgia to mark time, they rely on Troughton acting completely frivolous and silly in any number of scenes. Fortunately, he is absolutely hilarious during those moments and actually keeps the story entertaining. 

Day of the Doctor succeeds much better in this department. We get three particular incarnations interacting with each other and then an awesome cameo of all the other Doctors coming in, briefly, to help save the day. So that aspect of nostalgia is handled as well as it could be (it would have been impossible to devise a plot that gave equal amounts of time to all twelve incarnations that existed during this period). Day of the Doctor then goes on to incorporate a few other things from the show's past. UNIT is brought back (yes, UNIT was in Three Doctors but it was a current aspect of the show rather than something from its past). The Zygons also return. As do the Daleks. Rose Tyler is brought back in a strange twisted way, too. We also go into the Time Wars quite a bit and discover what the Moment is. The episode even goes to the trouble of showing more of the story between the Tenth Doctor and Queen Elizabeth the First. That's quite a bit of contemplation of its own naval going on! 

But The Five Doctors is the clear winner, here. Not only does it succeed in dividing itself into four distinct plot threads that give past incarnations equal screentime, it brings back an endless array of old friends and enemies. To list them all individually would just take up too much time. But it's great how there's even illusions of companions that appear at one point just to give us that little bit more nostalgia. UNIT is also briefly revisited and K9 gets a cameo. I even like how the Castellan is given the line: "The Doctor wants revenge!" to show that Terrance Dicks even bothered to check out what had happened between the two characters during Arc of Infinity. 

Truly, nothing beats the nostalgia trip that The Five Doctors takes.

Remembrance of the Daleks hinges greatly on the events of An Unearthly Child. To the point where it can almost be considered a sequel to the story. We visit the key locations of that very first episode and show that there was much more going on at the time than we knew. The Seventh Doctor also gets great lines like: "I rigged something like it once on Spiridon." and discusses Yetis in the Underground and the Zygon Gambit with the Loch Ness Monster. Dialogue that is purely meant to be fannish and celebrate the show's past. 

Silver Nemesis, in this category, is completely at the bottom. It does reference a previous adventure of the Doctor's - but it's not one that we actually saw. It also seems to deal a bit with Time Lord history. But, again, it's stuff we didn't really know anything about until that particular story. The Nostalgia Factor is present. But in a weird, convoluted way.    

In this particular category, our Twenty-Fifth Anniversary stories rank only so well. It's not to say that they don't reference the past at all, but it's considerably less than Day of the Doctor and The Five Doctors. I will note, however, that they're about on the same level as Three Doctors. As mentioned, Three does bring multiple incarnations together. But, beyond that, there's not much nostalgia. The 25th anniversary specials don't give us past Doctors, but indulge more deeply in the show's legacy than Three. So it kinda all comes clean in the wash.  

Vital Ingredient #2: Re-writing History

While a nostalgia trip is very important for a good Anniversary Special, something should also be thrown into the plot to indicate that there's more to the Doctor's past than we've realized. New aspects of continuity that even upset established canon need to be revealed and explored. Hidden layers should be given to the title character that we've not seen up until that story. 

Silver Nemesis did poorly in the first category, but it does much better, here. This is, in fact, the story that deals most directly with what was commonly-referred to as The Cartmel Masterplan. This was a special arc that was being built into the series that would ultimately reveal that the Doctor was more than just a mere Time Lord. That he was actually a sort of re-incarnation of the Other - a special figure from Gallifrey's ancient history. Lady Peinforte is given some very succinct dialogue in the final minutes of Episode Three that indicates all of this. As Ace and the Doctor are playing chess in the final scene of the story, we all find ourselves' wanting an answer to the question that the young rebellious girl is asking. 

"Who are you, Doctor?!" 

This story does a great job in creating a whole new aspect to established continuity that was never really heard of until this moment.  

Some would claim that Remembrance of the Daleks does the same thing. Which would reduce the impact of Nemesis since it precedes it  by several episodes. I would argue, however, that the hints Remembrance makes about the Doctor being the Other are far too subtle to give the adventure that much merit in this department. Even if the famous deleted scene of the Doctor claiming he is "more than just a Time Lord." was factored in, it really doesn't actually hint all that strongly at the Doctor's hidden past. It could just as easily come across as a mere brag. Like if someone came up to me and said: "You're a writer." and I come back with: "I am more than just a writer!" This could easily be construed as me trying to say I'm really awesome at writing. And not me trying to claim that I have some strange connection with some ancient writer from literary history. 

So, yes, Remembrance of the Daleks is making some effort to reveal a hidden past to the titular character. But it's negligible compared to the full-on approach that Silver Nemesis does later on in the season. So Nemesis scores more strongly, this time. But Remembrance can't be completely ignored. 

However, Day of the Doctor does better in this area than both 25th Anniversary Specials, combined. The sudden revelation that there was a whole secret incarnation of the Doctor is, technically, revealed at the end of Name of the Doctor. But it's left as a complete mystery as to how such an incarnation exists. Night of the Doctor does answer some questions Name creates. But the real exploration of the character happens in Day. A whole new dimension is added to the Doctor's past as we fully understand the role this secret incarnation played in the Time Wars. This is one of the hugest plot twists in the whole history of the show. The entire numbering of the Doctor's incarnations has to suddenly be altered. You really can't re-write history in a bigger way. 

Three and Five Doctors, however, do not even dip a toe in this particular category. No hidden twists about everything we ever knew about the show get revealed in either story. So they score no points at all, this time. 

Vital Ingredient #3: A New Direction

This is another area where some Specials succeed very well and others don't undertake in the slightest. It is the idea that a good Anniversary Celebration should create a big change of emphasis in how the show should play out from this point, onward. 

The Three Doctors - which has been doing poorly, so far - does very well with this element. At the end of The War Games, the Doctor is regenerated and sentenced to exile on Earth. For three solid seasons, earthbound stories become the center of the show. Aside from the occasional special mission the Doctor is sent on by the Time Lords, our hero is either dealing with alien invasions or "homegrown baddies". To be quite frank, it's starting to get kinda tiresome by the time Season 9 rolls up! 

Thank God the Time Lords give a functioning dematerialisation circuit to the Doctor as The Three Doctors ends. The show is restored to its original formula. Which, after three years of exile to Earth, becomes a whole new change in direction for the program. It's a great moment that changes things radically. 

Day of the Doctor, however, achieves this point just as effectively. 

Having believed for seven seasons that Gallifrey was destroyed in the Time Wars, the Doctor suddenly learns that it was actually saved by him at the last Moment (see what I did, there, with the word "Moment" - pretty punny, eh?!). His new somewhat haphazard mission in life is to go find his homeworld and return it back to our universe so that the Time Lords can prosper again. This quest actually begins in his very next story and slowly-but-surely plays out over the next few seasons. To me, this is as bold a move as the one Three Doctors makes for changing the thrust of the show. Gone is the Doctor's despair over being one of the last of his kind. He's going home, again.   

We can say that Remembrance of the Daleks does a bit of a change-up at its conclusion, too. Nothing quite so large-scale as Three Doctors or Day of the Doctor, but it's still a fairly significant alteration of the Core Formula. This is the first story where we see the Seventh Doctor being very devious and pro-active. From this point onward, the character becomes much darker. He employs methods that make him almost as reprehensible as the villains and monsters he's defeating. Up until this adventure, the Doctor tended to just wander into trouble and blunder his way back out of it. Now he's more of a strategist. Devising plans to ruthlessly beat his enemy before he even arrives in their point in time and space to fight them. Elements of this Doctor's character would even frequently "echo" into various interpretations of the role during New Who. Not so much the pro-active traits (although we do see some of this still happening in episodes like Impossible Astronaut or Witch's Familiar), but the Doctor is definitely much more deceitful and manipulative in most of the incarnations that we see after the events of Remembrance. So I do think this constitutes a fairly significant change in the direction of the series. 

Silver Nemesis, however, does not accomplish the same. The Doctor is already the Cosmic Chess Player by this adventure. He's just doing some more of what he already does. 

The Five Doctors also doesn't really score any points in this category. Yes, the Doctor does become Lord President, again, at the end. But, like the Doctor having his existence erased from Dalek Memory in Assylum of the Daleks, this action is quickly undone a short while later. The Doctor attempts to use his status as Lord President to sway the Bandrels' decision to destroy Karfel in Timelash, but this has no real effect. In Episode One of Trial of a Time Lord, he learns that he's been deposed. So, in the end, no actual change to the formula. The Doctor being re-instated in this political position has no legitimate consequence.  So this doesn't truly institute a New Direction for the show. It vaguely hints at one, but that's as far as it goes.   

Vital Ingredient #4: There's Got to be Some Gallifrey Stuff

This would be one that shows up in all the anniversary tales. But manifests itself in many different ways. 

As we are celebrating a milestone in the show, it makes sense that we take some kind of look at the planet and the culture the Doctor hails from. To either re-enforce or even expand his origins. It's just a sound way to commemorate the occasion. 

Day of the Doctor does this very well by simply having a good portion of the story take place on Gallifrey. We even get to see locations that we'd never really seen before. Like Arcadia, the second city of Gallifrey and the little barn out in the wasteland that we would only find out later has a strong role to play in the Doctor's past. This is also the story that gives us the deepest look into what happened during  the Time Wars. A pretty crucial moment in Time Lord history. 

The Five Doctors, however, also scores very strongly. Even better than Day. The Doctor spends more physical time on Gallifrey than he does in any other anniversary special. We get to see another new location in great detail as his incarnations wander all across the Death Zone. But what really puts Five Doctors at the top of this category is how much Time Lord history we learn about. There's quite a bit that gets divulged about Rassilon and the general ruthlessness of Time Lords back in the Ancient Times. 

The Three Doctors also gives quite the account of Time Lord history as we discover the role Omega had to play in the whole thing. We do get quite a few scenes taking place on Gallifrey, but the Doctor never really goes there, himself. Yes, the First Doctor has a bit of a conversation with the President at one point. But he's still stranded in a Time Eddy and only speaks to him through a screen.

One might almost be lead to believe that the 25th anniversary specials don't do well with this element. But I would point out that they accomplish the task in a very different manner. The Doctor does not go near Gallifrey in either of these tales. Nor do we see the planet in scenes that are independent of him. But both of these adventures take pretty deep cuts into Time Lord history. The Doctor using ancient Time Lord relics to influence cosmic events also puts an interesting new spin on his origins. Aside from The War Games, any story involving Gallifrey (be it an anniversary tale or not) tends to make the Time Lords seem like ineffectual elder statesmen. Even episodes that offer us glimpses into the Time Wars show us a people that are out of their depth. Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis make the Time  Lords of the Ancient Times seem very deadly and powerful. They possessed technology that could easily wipe out entire galactic battlefleets in seconds or even poke a small hole in the universe by inducing supernovas They do a great job of rebuilding the sense of mystery and genuine potency that the Time Lords once possessed. Which, to me, gives the stories very strong links to Gallifrey without ever having to actually go there. 

Still, if I had to come up with a winner in this category. It would probably have to be The Five Doctors. It really does deal the most with Stuff About Gallifrey. Day of the Doctor is a fairly close Second. Three Doctors and the 25th anniversary specials all tie for Third. 

Vital Ingredient #5: High Stakes

As it is an anniversary special, the Doctor ought to accomplish something fairly amazing. The threat he is combating should have huge deadly consequences if he doesn't succeed. 

The small scale stakes we've had in regeneration stories, of late, are always a refreshing change. It's nice to see the Doctor just protecting small colonies in Time of the Doctor and The Doctor Falls rather than saving the entire Earth like he did in End of Time or even stopping the destruction of the Universe like he did in Logopolis. But, while it's nice to change up the scale of things during a regeneration story, I do feel like there should always be some fairly big things going on during an anniversary special 

The Three Doctors wins this one. At first, it only seems to be Gallifrey that's in danger when the first three incarnations of the Doctor are brought together to combat the threat of the mysterious Black Hole. But as Two and Three enter the Singularity Point and find Omega, the situation changes pretty radically. Upon discovering that he's now merely a shadow of himself, Omega decides he must destroy the universe. The power of the Singularity Point appears to make this possible. So, as the Second Doctor drops his recorder on the floor, he has probably just saved the whole of creation with his clumsiness! 

Day of the Doctor does pretty good, here, too. Gallifrey is definitely rescued from the peril of the Time Wars. But, if we think about it, the Time Wars were a threat to all of Time and Space. Bringing the Time Wars to an end by hiding Gallifrey in a painting does, sort of, insinuate that the Universe gets saved here, too. 

The Five Doctors doesn't quite hit the same threat level. Borussa does point out early on in the adventure that use of Death Zone is draining the Eye of Harmony to the point where it is endangering Gallifrey. So the Doctor's four incarnations banding together to take out the mad Lord President does seem to rescue the home planet of the Time Lords. So that's still some pretty major stuff.    

As usual, the 25th anniversary specials handle things a bit differently. Which makes it difficult to determine if they rank as highly in this department as the other stories do. In both instances, the Doctor is saving the Earth. But there's a bit of a catch, here. He actually brought the threat to the Earth in the first place by luring them in with powerful Time Lord Relics.  Averting a disaster that you caused in the first place does sort of make it difficult to view things as an impressive accomplishment! 

However, in both specials, the Doctor takes a huge chunk out of the forces of two of the most dangerous races in the Universe. To the point where he seems to have nearly wiped them out, completely. That counts for something.  I wouldn't say it's not quite on the same level that the other three specials achieve. But it shouldn't be dismissed, either.  

So all the specials qualify, here. Some just have higher stakes than others.      

ACTUALLY RANKING THINGS 

So, those are the five basic ingredients that I feel a good anniversary special needs to really succeed. Just in discussing them, you get a pretty good idea of where all of them rest. But let's take a good solid look at where they rank according to the scale I've created. 

Clearly, the 25th anniversary celebrations don't do very well in this system. In some ways, it seemed almost silly to try to have them. I mean, yeah, I get it. Claiming the show was celebrating its silver anniversary was a good way to get it some media attention and, possibly, boost the ratings. But the 20th anniversary had only been five years earlier. We weren't ready to get so nostalgic again so soon. 

It was interesting that efforts were made to celebrate the occasion in a different way than it had been. No multi-incarnation stuff, but some interesting developments occurred with the whole lore of the show that I thought worked nicely. Some complain that Silver Nemesis was too similar to Remembrance, of course. But it made a sort of sense that they were. The Doctor was out to take down his greatest foes. Using Gallifreyan relics to do so made sense. He needed something with some real power to do it. Luring his enemies in close by appealing to their lust for conquest was also a sound strategy. Like I said, the similarities all make sense.

And, really, if you're that upset about plots resembling each other, you should be complaining to no end about Season Eight. Every story was: The Master is meddling with things he can't control and is going to cause a major disaster if the Doctor doesn't stop him! Yet most folks refer to this as a great season. But, of course, this is because it was made in an era where the fans weren't super-critical like they were in the late 80s. 

Anyhow, I'm digressing like there's no tomorrow, here. Let's get back on topic. Of the two 25th anniversary specials, which story sits at the absolute bottom? 

Well, if you're looking at the points they scored in the various categories, they are pretty close to even. Silver does well in Vital Ingredient #2 while Remembrance suffers. They do, pretty much, the exact reverse in the next Vital Ingredient, though.  In the other three categories, they're very close to being even. 

Which means that, ultimately, we must turn to overall story quality to split the tie. Now, some folks do like to lean in pretty hard on Nemesis and claim it's absolute crap but I actually quite enjoy a lot of it. However, I do love Remembrance waaayyy more than Nemesis! (Second favorite story ever. Read about it here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/01/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-2.html). So Remembrance definitely beats out Nemesis and puts it at the absolute bottom. 

However, The Three Doctors does complicate things. Overall, it scores quite badly in most categories. It does do a great job at changing the emphasis of the show and has some high stakes, but it really doesn't tick a whole lot of the other boxes much. Or, in the case of Vital Ingredient #2, at all. When you really take a look at it, it's in the same league as the 25th anniversary specials. We don't tend to think that because it has multi-incarnation stuff. But, in the strictest sense of my stipulations, it is only so effective of an anniversary special. It, pretty much, ranks about the same as Nemesis and Remembrance does. 

Which means that, once again, story quality must determine the winner. 

I have to say, then, that Three Doctors comes in fourth place in our silly little competition. I like it better than Nemesis but Remembrance is just so much more kick-ass. 

Day of the Doctor and The Five Doctors are way ahead of the other three. Both really score well in the various categories. Admittedly, Day does well in all five of them. Whereas Five gets nothing for Vital Ingredient #2 and also doesn't do very well in #3. However, it is the clear winner in #1 and 4. And it still does decently in 5 Which I think gets it to make up for its deficiencies.  

To me, this does look like another pretty close tie. These two stories are both head-and-shoulders above the other three in terms of the "points" they score. But neither really outstrips the other. Once more, I'll have to go with my actual appreciation of the individual tales to determine the winner.

I will say: I absolutely adore The Five Doctors. The lack of plot does not bother me in the slightest. It just does such a great job of celebrating those first 20 years by bringing back all these great elements from the show's history. They actually manage to re-create specific eras quite masterfully. Sometimes in the simplest of ways. Like the way Doctor Three tools around in Bessie for a bit. It just totally takes us back to his period. Richard Hurndall must also be commended for how he portrays the first Doctor. It's part imitation but also a bit of his own interpretation of the role. I love the choices he makes with the character. This is an amazing celebration of what the show had achieved up until that point. I really do love the whole thing. 

Having said that, however, I must point out that - like Remembrance of the Daleks - Day of the Doctor is also in my Top Ten Favorite Story List (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-7.html). It achieves many of the same things that Five Doctors does but accomplishes it a bit better. It also gives the Doctor some genuine character growth as he deals, once and for all, with what he did in the Time Wars. It's got a few more "tricks" than Five Doctors has that appeal deeply to my fannishness. Capaldi's cameo, for instance, is super-cool. No anniversary special has ever given us a future incarnation! Which, technically, Day of the Doctor does twice. It's heavily implied that Tom Baker as the Curator is a face the Doctor will, someday, re-visit. Which is also mega-cool. I even adore that they bother to give us a regeneration sequence for the War Doctor. Just so we can now have a regeneration scene of some sort for every incarnation (yes, Colin Baker still got ripped off a bit - but the cycle is still complete!). While I do love The Five Doctors, I love Day of the Doctor just a little bit more.    

So, in the final analysis, it's Day of the Doctor in first place and The Five Doctors, second. 

Just so we're clear, here's the proper list: 

1. Day of the Doctor

2. The Five Doctors 

3. Remembrance of the Daleks (ironic that a story that wasn't meant to be an anniversary special ends up doing better than some of the stories that were!)

4. The Three Doctors 

5. Silver Nemesis 

And there you have it. Using the REVIEW OVERVIEW process, I have determined the effectiveness of all the Anniversary Specials. It was fun to make it a bit more scientific rather than just list off my preferences. 

There is one more thing that makes November special for me, by the way. While I won't give out the specific date, my birthday is also in this month (won't be telling you my age, either!). One of my birthday traditions is to sit down at some point during that day and enjoy, at least, one of the anniversary specials. I've actually been doing it every year since I was in my teens. This particular habit is what gave me the idea to write this entry, in fact. I'm glad it did. It was a fun essay to write. Hope you had just as much fun reading it   

  

 

CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: A HISTORY OF ZYGON INCURSIONS

 I did recently claim that I had nearly exhausted all of my CHRONOLOGY AND TIMELINES topics. But the emphasis here is on the word nearly. There are still a few recurring characters/races whose histories are a little convoluted and could use some sorting out. But their appearances in the show aren't quite as prolific as, say, the Cybermen, Daleks or the Master. So these won't be sprawling, multi-part epics like some of my other essays of this nature have been. Chances are, they'll take up one entry. 

THE TRICKINESS OF ZYGON HISTORY 

In many ways, the manner in which we've seen the Zygon stories transmitted is a fairly chronological order. A good chunk of any Zygon story takes place on contemporary Earth and can just be assigned the date on which we saw it. In this sense, a timeline for these aliens is pretty straightforward: Terror of the Zygons, then Day of the Doctor and then The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion. 

There you go. Latest essay complete.   

If only it were that simple...   

If you'll notice, I've titled this entry: A History of Zygon Incursions. This is because any story we've seen,  so far, involves them trying to colonize the Earth. Quite often, their attempts are  done in a somewhat forceful manner. So their history, by our perspective, is just a series of incursions. 

Sadly, this means we have no clear idea of their past. We never witness what life is like on their homeworld and we don't see much of their activities in other parts of the galaxy. This makes determining their origins a somewhat complicated situation. Particularly since there does seem to be a contradiction in what has actually caused the Zygons to start trying to invade us. 

There are still further complications. Zygons have a tendency to arrive at Earth at one point in time but then don't actually start causing any real trouble til some centuries later. In order to truly present an accurate version of their history, we have to pinpoint arrival times and attack points. Which can become quite convoluted. We even have to accept that several groups of Zygons came to Earth at different periods to attempt colonization. Apparently, the Earth is something of a Zygon hot-spot! 

Finally, there are a few references made to Zygons both visually and in dialogue that need to be placed in a proper order of some sort. These references are quite brief. We see a Zygon ship in Pandorica Opens. The Zygons are mentioned in Power of Three and Face the Raven.  But these things still have some degree of relevancy and need to be addressed.  

With all these factors in mind, I have to admit: this essay won't quite be as straightforward as I thought it would be...

EARLY ZYGON HISTORY

As has been mentioned, we have never actually seen what the planet of the Zygons is like so we have to make some suppositions about their background based only on dialogue and visual cues. 

The most obvious thing we can note about their culture is that they evolved along the lines of biotechnology. They don't manufacture equipment for themselves like we do. They grow it. In this sense, all machinery that a Zygon uses is probably, in some sense, alive. 

Humans build devices with functions that are activated when we flick on electric circuits. Zygons handle things differently. They do things to specifically-created organisms that trigger bio-chemical responses within the life form to produce a desired effect. Probably the most famous example of this would be the Zygon computer the Twelfth Doctor "stimulates" to acquire data from. But we see this sort of thing all over the place in Zygon stories. Their technology, then, would be comparable to that of the Axons. The one big difference between the two cultures would be the fact that the Zygons aren't as integrated with their tech as Axons are. 

Like the Axons, however, the Zygons would seem to be a bit of a parasite race. With, perhaps, a bit more of a militaristic bent to them. Zygons are quite happy to visit other worlds and exploit their resources without asking nicely. However, they're not quite as mad about conquest as some of the other militant races out there like the Sontarans or the Daleks. Zygons are happier to use stealth to achieve their aims rather than the application of brute force. It does seem, however, that they do ultimately intend to assert their dominance over the other races they infiltrate. They just like to be sneaky about it. 

Which leads us, of course, to their most prominent core trait. Like the Rutans or Kamelion, the Zygons are shape-shifters. They're able to change their form at will and duplicate other life forms when they need to. One of the most efficient ways of chronicling their history is by noting how advanced their shape-shifting abilities are in the story they're being featured in. The technology to achieve this trick does always seem to upgrade and improve as the Zygons evolve.

This is the best we can determine about the origins of this species. They are shapeshifters who are reliant on bio-technology. They are both parasitic and militant. Other than that, we don't have much to go on. Little has been said about what life is like on the planet they hail from. What has been said about it is, in fact, somewhat self-contradicting. 

WHAT LED THEM HERE - PART ONE: SPACE LANES

Having established that we have little or no idea of what things are like on their planet, there is one thing we can definitely say about the origins of the Zygons: they have dealt with some serious disaster. It is, in fact, a cataclysm of some sort that seems to have brought them to our world. Their home seemed doomed and they were desperate to find somewhere else to live. 

For whatever reason, quite a few ships that fled the Zygon homeworld ended up on Earth. We don't know exactly why this happened. It is doubtful that the planet of the Zygons is all that close to us. There is some dialogue in Terror of the Zygons about a large colony ship that is on its way to Earth but will take another century or two to get there because of the distance between the two planets. So why would so many Zygon refugees make their way here? Surely there must be habitable worlds that are closer.

There could be any number of reasons why Zygons choose Earth so much as a place to settle down. Personally, I think it has something to do with how Earth seems to be located on a well-known Space Lane.  

I have always liked the concept of Space Lanes. It's a term we've heard used casually a few times throughout the course of the show. The basic idea of a Space Lane is that there are certain ways to pass through the cosmos that are the most efficient trajectories. In the same way that we build roads here on Earth that are meant to be the shortest distance between two points. These trajectories make travel as smooth and short as possible. A Space Lane is, essentially, a road in space.A popular path that ships take through the Universe to reach certain destinations. A sort of Intergalactic Highway.

Earth is on, at least, one really good Space Lane that a lot of vessels like to use. It might even be possible that it's an intersection of several Space Lanes. So Zygons were just using a well-travelled pathway through the galaxy that led them to Earth. Any number of their ships might have been using this Space Lane as an escape route and found Earth along it and decided to stop there. Earth being on a popular Space Lane would even account for the frequency of visits we've received from so many different aliens over the years. They all just fly by Earth on a popular Space Lane and decide to check things out. 

WHAT LED THEM HERE - PART TWO: CONTRADICTIONS

Of course, Earth being on a popular Space Lane is only one factor. There are probably plenty of other planets that are also along this same Space Lane that had suitable conditions for the Zygons. It's entirely possible that some refugees may have even tried to set themselves up on them. My guess would be that a lot of these other planets had highly advanced civilisations already living on them. So they would be harder for the Zygons to infiltrate. 

Earth's appeal lay in the fact that it was at a primitive stage when Zygons first flew by it. They could settle there and not be easily detected by the natives. This was a bit of a double-edged sword, of course. The settlers would be lacking in certain creature comforts. But, overall, it seemed like an ideal spot. Again, in terms of larger continuity, my guess would be that Earth is one of the few primitive planets along this particular Space Lane. Which is another reason why it gets hit as often as it does by alien travellers. Like the Zygons, other aliens see that they are less likely to be detected should they land there. 

There is still one major problem that remains in getting the scant knowledge we have about the origins of the Zygons to work. There seems to be, at least, two different disasters that are responsible for their mass evacuation.  

In Part Two of Terror of the Zygons, Broton does a nice big info-dump on Harry Sullivan. He explains that his ship crash-landed on Earth several centuries ago. That they've been trying to get the ship to work again and have discovered that their home planet was destroyed in "a stellar explosion". Which we can assume is a more poetic way of saying super novae. In Part Four of that same story, Broton explains to the Doctor that the disaster is "fairly recent". These conversations with Harry and the Doctor are meant to be taking place in either the late 70s or early 80s. This is, technically, a UNIT story. So setting a clear date is near-impossible.   

However, the Zygons in Day of the Doctor tell a somewhat different story. They claim that the Zygon homeworld was one of the first planets to be destroyed in the Time Wars. These Zygons fled the disaster and, presumably, arrived a short while later on Earth. The date, when we see them first entering into the paintings made from stasis cubes, is 1562.    

There are a lot of facts that are not adding up, here. Broton says it's a super novae that wiped out his people and that it probably happened sometime within the last century ("fairly recent" would imply that, at least). Another group of Zygons say their planet died from the Time Wars and this would probably have happened sometime around the 1500s (to the best of our knowledge, Zygons can't time travel - so they would have fled their world and made it to Earth a short while later). 

How do we get these contradictions to work? 

GETTING THE CONTRADICTIONS TO WORK

When I was working on my History of Ice Warriors essay (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/06/chronologies-and-timelines-brief.html) I tried to create a timeline where several disasters befell the Martian people that turned their world into the barren wasteland it is, today. I could attempt something similar with the Zygons but that seems a bit too tricky. Both the Time Wars and a super novae seem pretty final. I can't see their planet being able to exist after one such incident so that a second Armageddon can sweep in and take them out all over again. 

I could say the Zygons went the same route as the Daleks and took on a second homeworld that was also destroyed. Or I could even claim that the Time Wars created some sort of "temporal retcon" that re-wrote history. But I would prefer a much simpler explanation. 

The long-range communication equipment on Broton's ship was damaged when it crashed. He only recently got it working again. Even then, it only works so well. There's still a lot of interference. He received some sort of looped message from an emergency transmitter left somewhere near the devastated Zygon homeworld explaining its situation. He couldn't quite make out everything, though. From what he could discern, it seemed like his planet had been destroyed in a super novae and he guessed that it had only happened, recently. He was working off that information when he managed to contact a colony ship travelling along at sub light speed. Again, communication was difficult. But he promised them a nice habitable planet when they arrived in a few centuries time. 

So, in truth, the planet of the Zygons was destroyed in the early 1500s by some side effect of the Time Wars. It's possible that enemies were attacking each other with stellar manipulators and they took out a sun near Zygonia (or whatever the Zygons call their planet of origin) - which would cause Broton to interpret things the way he did. He only got the news recently, and thus, believes that the whole event is far more recent. 

This, for me, is the explanation that works best. 

WORKING OUT THE TIMELINE: ARRIVALS

Having reconciled a major contradiction in Zygon history, we can now get on to establishing a proper timeline for their incursions. It should be noted that, on several occasions, these aliens land on our planet and stay hidden from us for quite some time before making an attempt to conquer us. This means, of course that we need to establish an arrival time before noting their order of attack. 

The first Zygons to reach Earth (that we've seen, thus far) would be Broton's party.  Unlike other Zygon arrivals, no specific date is given. The best we get was Broton saying they first got here "several centuries ago". I'm going to estimate that they landed about 800 years prior to the events of Terror of the Zygons. 

What we see of their technology strongly indicates that Broton's group is the first to arrive. Their shape-changing capabilities do seem to be at the most primitive. In all cases that we've seen, the subject they are copying should be kept alive. But Broton's storage cubicles do seem to be the most bulky and inefficient. Which helps support the idea that this is the oldest of the Zygons to have come here. 

The dependence these Zygons have on a Skarasen might be another indicator of their age. No other group of Zygons seemed to need a Skarasen to help them survive. Which would indicate these other parties are more advanced. Sometime after Broton's craft came to Earth, it would seem that the Zygons found a way to by-pass their need for Skarasen lactic fluids. 

The last really good point that supports that Broton's team landed here first would be the fact that they don't actually seem to be refugees from the Time War Disaster. But, rather, just a passing ship that happened to crash here. Broton only learns of the destruction of his world quite some time after his ship has crashed. So it stands to reason that other stories featuring Zygons had later landing points since they are fleeing a doomed world. Broton and his cronies all hail from a much earlier time. Which means, to me, they must have been the first Zygons to get here. So their landing point has to be sometime before the arrival of the Zygons from Day of the Doctor. I'd like to think it's not too much sooner, though. Just a few centuries. Which is why I've chosen my 800 years earlier timeframe. 

Our other arrival times are much easier to determine since specific dates are often given in the stories involving them. The Tenth Doctor starts dealing with a group of Zygons that are on Earth in the Year 1562. My guess would be that they just got there when Ten starts fighting them. How they arrived is a bit of a mystery. We see them in an underground base of some sort but we can't say for certain that it's a spaceship. The fact that they are in possession of a stasis cube might have significance since it is a piece of Time Lord technology. The Doctor in It Takes You Away, speaks of how one of her Grans suspected another Gran was a Zygon spy. Could this mean that some Zygons found their way to Gallifrey and tried to infiltrate their society? The Time Lords might have detected them and sent them off with a time scoop or something of that nature to Earth in the 1560s. There, the Zygons set up their plan to go into hibernation until the world gets more interesting.** 

A more advanced style of shapechanging indicates to me that these are Zygons from a later time period than Broton's gang. The Terror Zygons have to integrate their subjects into their technology by placing them in a special alcove before they can start using their form. We see this specifically happen when they copy Harry Sullivan. But in Day of the Doctor, a Zygon just has to meet Queen Elizabeth to copy her. Yes, Kate Stewart does get a bunch of weird blobby stuff put all over her later in the story. I would guess this is because they need to make a better copy of her. But it is not necessary, anymore, for a Zygon to do this like it was in Broton's Day. So I'm sure this is a group of Zyongs from a later era. 

Our third Zygon arrival is an unusual one. We don't actually see any Zygons while it happened. They are only referenced as a sort of gag. As an anniversary present, the Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the newly-built Savoy Hotel in 1890. He promises them there will be absolutely no danger and excitement while they stay there. Just an enjoyable time of relaxation. 

We cut a moment later to see all three of them sitting around disappointed with all kinds of cacophony erupting off-camera and the Doctor saying something to the nature: "Who knew the Savoy was built over a Zygon spaceship that replaced half the staff?!" As I said, the whole thing is played as more of just a goofy joke but we should still acknowledge it in the timeline. 

While the Savoy Incident takes place in 1890, my guess is the Zygon ship sat there for a century or two. I'm also going to guess that this is another batch of Time War Refugees. So their arrival would be somewhere near the time that the Day of the Doctor Zygons got here. I'm going to say early 1600s. The Day Zygons arrived earlier cause they used Time Lord technology to get here. The Power of Three Zygons arrived by more conventional means.

** SPECIAL NOTE: I do think the Day Zygons did, indeed, attempt an invasion of Gallifrey. When their world was destroyed in the Time Wars, they managed to get their hands on some kind of time travel technology that a Time Lord, Dalek or other combatant (a Skaro Degradation or Nightmare Child or something like that) was using that caused the devastation. Perhaps a warrior was thrown from combat and their time ship broke down. That very act of being ejected from the battle may have had side effects that destroyed Zygonia (or whatever it's called!). While the warrior was trying to repair their ship, surviving Zygons snuck aboard and took it over. 

The Day Zygons then, somehow, took the ship into Gallifrey's past to before the Time Wars. They may have even made it to a point where the Doctor hadn't even been born, yet. There, they attempted their coup. Perhaps they were hoping that, by going to a period before the Time Wars, they could stop them from happening and, therefore, save their homeworld. The Time Lords, however, caught them and put them back into a proper post-Time War timeline. As they were being returned to their proper point in time, a Zygon managed to steal a stasis cube. Some other Gallifreyan tech might have also been taken. 

One of the Doctor's Grans, however, remembers the whole incident and suspects there are still a few Zygons hanging about. She believes one of them is another of the Doctor's Grans. 

WORKING OUT THE TIMELINE: ATTACKS! 

Now we arrive at the other end of the timescale: the periods where Zygons start trying to take us over. 

The first attempt would be the Savoy Incident of 1890. We know little about it, of course. We just know that Zygons were uncovered by the Doctor, Amy and Rory and whatever plans they had were foiled by this particular TARDIS crew. Any more precise details than that have never been revealed. It is a cute joke, though.   

The next attack is a bit trickier to pin down. It really depends on what UNIT Dating Protocol you subscribe to. It could have taken place in either the 70s or 80s. We can't quite say, for sure. I tend to favor the "year the story was transmitted in" theory. So, in my head, Broton's Abortive Display of Power at the World Energy Commission Conference would be somewhere around 1976. 

Finally, we have the Commandeering of the Black Archive. Quite obviously, this occurs in 2013. Probably even in November (was Clara celebrating her birthday, that day? It's on November 23rd!). This particular Incursion doesn't quite fail like the others did. But it isn't a successful invasion attempt, either. Thanks to some sonic trickery that the Doctors employ on a mind wipe device, the whole problem evolves into something quite different. We see the beginning of a treaty between Zygons and humans being forged as the story nears its conclusion. 

THE ZYGON/HUMAN TREATY

From this point onward, we see a whole new side to the Zygons. No longer are they mere parasitical conquerors. They're more like Homo Reptilia, now. In that, just like humans, there are Zygons who want to live peacefully and there are Zygons who want to conquer. 

A treaty is forged that fateful day in the Black Archive and Twenty Million Zygons are allowed to secretly live among us. Most of the Zygons are happy to pretend to be humans and enjoy their new home. But there are splinter factions that rise up from time-to-time who harbor the old Zygon ideology of oppressing the worlds they inhabit. To combat this problem, the Doctor has left the Osgoode Box in place. Whenever an uprising of this nature occurs, it is referred to by UNIT as The Nightmare Scenario. This scenario has taken place several times, now (and, more than likely, continues to happen on a regular basis). Each time it does, however, the Doctor wipes the memory of key participants so that the peace treaty can continue. Seemingly unbroken.    

It is clear, of course, that Zygon Invasion/Zygon Inversion  takes place after Day of the Doctor. But the fact that Zygons have advanced even more helps to support this. Their shapeshifting abilities now enable them to simply look into someone's memories and assume the form of people they know. They don't actually have to meet the person they are copying. There is also no longer a need to maintain a live feed with the person they have duplicated. 

Zygons also now have some sort of weaponry implanted into their hands that fires a bolt of energy that can either kill or stun. The weapon doesn't appear to have much of a range, though. When the target is destroyed, all that is left of them is a pile of electrified hair! We also see a special implant Zygons can use that can force other Zygons to lose their ability to change shape.  

The use of pods to contain the subjects they are copying almost seems like a step back from what we saw being used on Kate Stewart in Day of the Doctor. That version seemed much more portable and efficient. It could be possible, however, that what was used on Kate was more of a sort of lash-up that only works for a short while. The pods are probably something more permanent and effective. 

A FEW OBSCURE REFERENCES  

Officially, we have reached the end of what we know of the Zygons' onscreen timeline. There are a few references made, however, that tell us that the Zygons will continue to prosper after 2015 (roughly, where I would date Invasion/Inversion).

Just a few episodes later, Ashildr (aka "Me") brings up the Zygons while she and the Doctor are having a conversation on the secret Trap Street that she has been living on along with a host of alien refugees. One would guess this incident is happening only a few months after the events of Invasion/Inversion. The conversation indicates that the Zygons continue to live among us and that the peace treaty has been maintained. 

But what of the far-flung future? Will the Zygons still be around any time after the 21st Century? 

We have, at least, one visual clue that indicates that the Zygons survive until, at least, the 42nd Century. If you go to Part Five of my Cyber History Essay (Specifically, the "More Cross-Referencing" section https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of_27.html) you'll see that I finally commit to a date in which the Alliance Against the Doctor was formed. It was this Alliance that goes back in time to Stone Henge in the 2nd Century and seals the Doctor in the Pandorica to ensure that his TARDIS never explodes and destroys the Universe. While we don't actually see a Zygon assembled in the Under-Henge to imprison the Doctor, we do definitely catch a few solid glimpses of a Zygon spaceship floating above Stone Henge as the Doctor does his famous speech that scares the Alliance away for a bit. 

The Alliance Against the Doctor seems to be made up of some pretty unsavory characters. Any group that welcomes the likes of Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans can't be the nicest of organizations. Does this mean the Zygons have "turned bad" again like they were in the days of Terror of the Zygons, Day of the Doctor or even Power of Three? It seems unlikely that they would be admitted into the Alliance if they hadn't. More than likely, some Zygons have become corrupt, again. There are probably still a whole gaggle of them out there, however, that have kept their good intentions. Like the Ice Warriors or the Silurians, my guess would be that they exist in factions. Some good. Some nasty. 

Whatever their intention,.it would seem that the Zygons will live on for quite some time... 

Well, that ended up having a bit more word-count than I expected!  I was tempted to turn this into a two-parter but that would have made each entry feel just a bit too short. So I decided to get this all done in one post. Hope it didn't feel like too long of a read!   

Some other CHRONOLOGY AND TIMELINE essays that only go on for one entry:   

The Great Intelligence: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/09/chronologies-and-timelines-great.html

The Weeping Angels: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/06/chronologies-and-timelines-brief.html

River Song: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/03/chronologies-and-timelines-complex.html

The River Song entry is, easily, the entry I have put the most work into. Ever!