REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH IS THE BEST UMBRELLA SEASON IN DOCTOR WHO? - PART 5: THE FINAL WRAP-UP

At long last, we've come to the end of the road. It's time to pit the Umbrella Seasons against each other....

FINAL VERDICT: 

After a series of deep cut reviews of the various individual components of each Umbrella Season, the moment is upon us to look at things a bit more holistically. Essentially, it's time to give reviews of my overall impressions of Key to Time, Trial of a Time Lord and Flux.

Key to Time

Key to Time does have the best of intentions. There is definitely a desire to really do something epic, here. Something the show hasn't really done much of for quite some time. For most of Tom Baker's seasons, he is meandering quite purposelessly and just, sort of, falling into trouble here and there. Stories like Genesis of the Daleks or Pyramids of Mars do feel like they're operating on an epic scale. But, most of the time, things do come across as a bit homespun. Stakes often feel small. Which is not a bad thing. But it's definitely a sharp contrast to what Key to Time is trying to achieve. 

The Fourth Doctor isn't particularly good at being told what to do, either. On the rare occasions that the Time Lords do try to send him on a mission, he fights them quite viciously and can take some time to fall into line. It should even be noted that, during the Quest for the Key to Time, he is quite irresponsible, in places. This is definitely a version of the Doctor that delights in lacking any real direction with his life. To place such a character on a big season-spanning mission certainly seemed like an interesting premise. We know he'll handle the whole endeavour in the most eccentric of ways. Which is a big part of what makes the whole spectacle so entertaining. But, equally so, works to its detriment.  

Key to Time is, at least, off to a very great start. It has a strong first story. The second adventure is genuinely glorious. Even Stones of Blood maintains some good standards. Admittedly the entire first half of the season is doing quite well. I'm having a genuinely good time with it. 

But then we get to Androids of Tara. Things start going downhill quickly. They continue to deteriorate with Power of Kroll. That's now a solid eight episodes of fairly disappointing content. I am starting to have a genuinely hard time hanging in with this. I'm almost wishing it was just another normal season of self-contained stories full of aimless meanderings. 

The final story of the season needs to get back what it had during its first half or the whole core idea is going to fall flat on its face. 

In many ways, Armageddon Factor had to accomplish much of the same thing Rise of Skywalker needed to do for the abysmal Disney Star Wars trilogy. It had to, somehow, make amends for a really bad middle chapter and, at the same time, propel the saga forward to a satisfactory conclusion. It produces the same results, too. Like Rise of Skywalker, there are some things about Armageddon Factor that I found genuinely enjoyable. But there was also quite a bit that was poorly executed or made little to no sense. 

Ultimately, as Key to Time reaches its end, there's quite a bit I'm not happy with. That first half is still very good, however. So it shouldn't be forgotten. There was much fun to be had during those first 12 episodes. And there was even some pretty good stuff during the second half of the season. 

But the bad stuff can't be ignored, either. Even though some of it is connected to how the whole thing finishes off, there's still not quite enough of it to say that the effort was a complete failure. There's a lot to like about this Umbrella Season. But there's also enough poor judgement going on to say it could have been much better if they had just thought things through a bit better.

Trial of a Time Lord 

I went through a very interesting process when Trial of a Time Lord first came out. At the time it found its way to my screen, I was still a very young, impressionable lad. Basically, I was in my early teens and cared a bit more about fitting in. 

Right from my initial viewing, I enjoyed the whole season. And so did a significant amount of other fans. But there was another segment that didn't like it and were very vocal about it. Young, Naive Rob saw their angry comments in the various fanzines he was subscribed to at the time (we were nowhere near online fan groups, yet!) and thought: "Well, if so many disliked it so vehemently, there must be something wrong with it!" And, for a few years, I allowed myself to believe this. Because I felt that so many fans could not be wrong.   

By the time I hit my late teens, I'd stopped giving a rat's ass what anyone thought of me! I'd learnt that most people expressed opinions for the sheer sake of expressing them and frequently didn't think things through before opening their mouths. During that period of growth, I also kept re-watching Trial of a Time Lord on a fairly regular basis. I finally decided to start trusting my own gut and stop caring what others felt. Slowly but surely, I came to believe what I had believed right from the start: 

Trial of a Time Lord was always brilliant. 

Is it absolutely perfect? Of course not! Robert Holmes plunders a few of his own ideas from The Krotons for Mysterious Planet's plot. There's some padding issues in the third part of Mindwarp. Terror of the Vervoids does get ever-so-slightly over-contrived, in places. But the truth of the matter is: there are all kinds of brilliant creations that have slight flaws to them. But it doesn't stop them from still being brilliant. 

Unfortunately, fandom can work in these weird cycles where, suddenly, the smallest flaws can be blown out of proportion by certain people. The show can do nothing to make them happy and they are going to let everyone know about it. I've gotten quite good at shutting out those sorts of people and just letting myself enjoy something even if they swear to the ends of the Earth that it's absolutely awful!  

Trial of a Time Lord is not just a magnificent piece of television that was way ahead of its time (it would be decades before shows would start producing season-long arcs that were as tight), it helped me to learn something valuable about the weight of others' opinions. If you think something is great - stop caring about the nay-sayers and just let yourself love it!   

Flux 

Having learnt my lesson with Trial of a Time Lord, forming my own opinion on Flux outside of Popular Fan Consensus was not going to prove difficult. It helped that I'd already listened to all sorts of complaints against Series 11 and 12 that I felt were highly unmitigated. Two seasons' worth of comments that I largely didn't agree with had galvanised me to filter out whatever mud would be slung at the third and enjoy it on my own terms. 

After watching the season several times, I will be bold enough to say that it is probably the most tightly-written story the show has ever produced. Yes, I know there are many of you that believe Chibnall to be the worst writer in the history of humanity - but I'm not one of them. I don't think he's ever actually offered us up any real bad stories - just very different ones from what we've been used to. And some folks just aren't good at dealing with change and will lash out at new things (which is sad when you think about it. No show is more about re-inventing itself on a regular basis than Doctor Who!).

Flux, for me, represents Chibnall at his absolute best. He weaves together all his various plot threads masterfully. He creates two of the best episodes for recurring monsters that we could ever ask for. He also gives us some really awesome new villains with Swarm, Azure and the Grand Serpent. And he continues to unveil the mystery of the Timeless Child in a real cool way. Those are just the edited highlights of the praise I have for the season! 

Surely, like Trial of a Time Lord, there must be some problems, right? 

I can honestly say that any misfires the season had are so minute that they are barely worth mentioning. Many of the issues I have with Flux, in fact, are more about personal taste than actual bad content. I just feel that, had I been making the show, I would have made slightly different choices in some instances. 

Not even better ones. Just different. 

A RATING SYSTEM 

Those are some very basic reviews of my overall feelings about each season. Let's, now, see how they stack up against each other. We'll make this easy by establishing a rating system. This will give us a clear idea of which Umbrella Season I feel is best. 

The system, itself, will be quite simple. We'll just give it a score between One and Ten. 

Key to Time 

Creating a score for something like Key to Time is pretty straightforward. There's a very solid dip in quality during its latter half but I'm still going to say that 70% of the whole season is quite enjoyable. Which means, of course, that it gets: 

7/10 

Trial of a Time Lord 

A season that has, at best, some very minor flaws. Otherwise, it's quite brilliant. Not perfect, though. So we have to penalise it a bit. 

9/10 

Flux 

I'm going to do it. There's just not enough here that I actually dislike. So it's going to get that rating that sooo many of you will probably object to! 

10/10

FINAL RANKINGS

With a rating system in place, we can now easily see where things sit with me. Clearly, Flux is the winner of this race. But Trial of a Time Lord was hot on its heels. There is a significant point spread, however, as Key to Time comes in third. 

Key to Time is still decent, though. It was the first time the show created an Umbrella Season and it seemed to have learnt from its mistakes. As the next two efforts Doctor Who makes at this sort of story-telling are nothing short of incredible. 

And, at long last, it's done. No doubt, there will be disagreements with the judgements I've passed. But, at least, with my Criteria in place, you can see how I reached my conclusions. 

Like an Umbrella Season, itself, this was made up of many parts. Here are links to all of them: 

Intro: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html

Key to Time

Part One:

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-overview-which-umbrella-season.html

Part Two: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html 

Trial of a Time Lord 

Part One: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella_15.html

Part Two: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella_19.html

Flux: 

Part One: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella_25.html

Part Two: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/05/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html

That's it for Umbrella Seasons! On to something new....

 

 

 

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH IS THE BEST UMBRELLA SEASON IN DOCTOR WHO? - PART 4-B: FLUX

My Review of Flux continues....

5. The Actual Central Premise 

One of the biggest judgement calls I make on this particular Point of Criteria is based on a very simple question: How original is the Core Idea?

While there are all sorts of subplots running through it, the central premise of Flux is the concept of dealing with a Universe-wide disaster. In many ways, it's Part Four of Logopolis with a real budget! 

Even if it does slightly resemble something that was briefly explored one time before, most of what we see in Flux is brilliantly creative and unique. This Umbrella Season could have easily re-created what Voyage of the Damned did a few seasons previously. It could have employed all the stereotypical tropes that we've seen in disaster movies from Days Gone By. I did take the trouble to review Voyage a few years ago (Christmas Specials From Worst to Best: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from_24.html). One of the strongest remarks I make in that review is: "Disaster Movies were a pretty awful genre - why create something that pays tribute to them?!"  

What I love about Flux is that it deals more with the realistic outcomes of a disaster. We have refugees struggling to survive and the monsters that exploit them. We have greedy dictators trying to hang on to whatever is left after the disaster hits. We have the dispossessed trying to find each other. We even have the shocking discovery of what caused the whole nightmare to happen. These are things that occur all the time in disasters that shake the world. We're just seeing them displayed on a Universe-wide basis and in a sci-fi context. And it's done brilliantly. 

Easily, the cleverest of all the central themes of an Umbrella Season. Also, the most realistic. Flux was a brilliant idea from Chibnall. Hate his other two seasons all you want (and, really, it's genuinely difficult to dislike either - if we're being honest and objective!), this is a great concept for an Umbrella Season. 

6. Quality of the Stories

Halloween Apocalypse

As already stated, I love the pace of this story. I am pretty happy with the Foundations of the other two Umbrella Seasons, but this one really is amazing. Everything whips along wonderfully and keeps me on the edge of my seat for the whole ride. 

That opening was just a bit tricky. Yes, it's fun and frantic. But the whole escape sequence is, perhaps, just a little hard to believe. The Doctor and Yaz probably should have just plummeted to their dooms rather than soar along on a gravity bar with their wrists in handcuffs. Those kill discs also seem to have some pretty nasty stormtrooper aim! But I can let it go for the simple reason that it's still a wickedly enjoyable sequence to watch. And it is a great way to start the whole saga. 

It is interesting how the first installment of any Umbrella Season introduces, at least, one great recurring character. Key to Time gave us the White Guardian. Trial of a Time Lord had Glitz. For Halloween Apocalypse, it's Karvanista (technically, we meet a few other recurring characters for the first time in this episode who are all quite likeable - but the Lupari Commander is my favorite!). He's presented in such a great way in his first story. Initially, we assume he's actually an evil alien of some sort. As the story progresses, we discover he's quite the opposite. But he still retains this irascible side to him that has such great charm. I really hope that, like Glitz and the White Guardian, he will have a presence outside of the Umbrella Season he first appears in. 

Halloween Apocalypse also does a great little job of setting up the Sontarans and the Weeping Angels for the episodes that they have coming. The short teases both of them get are quite enjoyable and give us something to look forward to. 

Those last few minutes of the episode are, perhaps, the most impressive. The Flux turning its attention to the TARDIS and the attack the Doctor rigs with Vortex energy is all very suspenseful and exciting to watch. I absolutely love that the Doctor's clever twist seems to completely fail (but will have interesting consequences in future episodes). Rather than hampering the Flux and achieving escape, we're left with a really brilliant cliffhanger. 

Not just a great Foundation. But a fantastic episode, in general. 

War of the Sontarans

Let's just get this out of the way: 

War of the Sontarans is the best Sontaran story ever. 

Many fans will argue that The Time Warrior is Numero Uno. And, up until War, they may have been right. But Time Warrior did have its problems. The biggest one being that there wasn't quite enough plot for the four episodes and we did get some nasty padding in the latter half (it does have some plot holes, too. I make fun of some of them,  here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/06/complete-and-utter-silliness-few-of-my.html).  The other Classic Who stories involving this warlike species are all half-decent. But none of them shine quite as brightly Warrior. 

Up until this story, New Who tales involving the Potato Heads are a bit of an abomination. The Sontaran Stratagem/Poison Sky seems to get almost everything about Sontarans wrong. And the actual plot is nothing particularly impressive. And I do really like Strax as a character. I even get that he's probably a clone of a clone so that would make him sillier and more bumbling. But he does continue this downward spiral of making the Sontarans into a bit of a joke. 

Finally, War of the Sontarans re-dresses the balance. Their plans to change human history (resisting the perverted quote, for once!) is a sound one. The huge battle scene where the British soldiers seem largely incapable of doing any real harm to them restores their sense of power. Their cruelty as they execute human spies right in front of Dan makes them into valid monsters. When the Doctor and Commander Skaak meet for parlez, the scene is executed with the sort of finesse we expect from these confrontations. 

At long last, the Sontarans are being done right, again. 

But it's not just the fact that War of Sontarans restores them to their former glory that makes me love this episode so much. It really is a tightly-written, well-directed, excellently performed Doctor Who adventure. While even Time Warrior had a few problems - this story seems largely flawless. 

I also like that the writer realizes he can't do a total about-face and still makes the Sontarans ever-so-slightly comical, in places. Most of the time, these moments are given to Dan Starkey. Who does just the right amount of "pulling back" whenever he does have to be a bit silly. 

Once, Upon Time

I'm a bit amazed people don't go on more about how brilliant this episode is. To me, it's just about on par with Heaven Sent. 

We don't even get a minute in, and I'm already "sold". That really was a wicked cliffhanger that they created at the end of War of the Sontarans. We have no idea how Vinder and Yaz will be saved. But the great little trick the Doctor pulls was quite an excellent twist. Even though there are clearly three places available on the Mouri platforms so that Dan can be saved, too - we don't see it coming. 

The imagery of the whole episode is quite spellbinding. The Doctor hovering around in some strange version of the Time Vortex with giant Mouri looking down on her is wonderfully imposing. The way she keeps appearing - sometimes solid, sometimes ghostlike - in the timestreams of the others to let them know she's trying to help them is also a great visual. Yaz, Dan, Vinder and the Doctor all existing as characters in the others' past with only momentary flashes of the real people they were meant to be was a very cool device. Even the way the Weeping Angel is pursuing them worked great. There's just so much going on in the story that makes it a wildly engaging spectacle. 

But, of course, the moment that truly gets us foaming at the mouth is seeing the Doctor on a mission for the Division. It's absolutely gorgeous when she passes in front of the mirror and has a whole conversation with the Fugitive Doctor. It's near-impossible to not fall in love with the execution of that sequence. I adore the various ways in which the Fugitive Doctor is inserted into a story. She meets the Doctor for real in Fugitive of the Judoon. Has a more surreal encounter with her in the Matrix during The Timeless Children. And now she's a mere reflection that talks back to her. This character is being used in the most awesome of ways within the series. 

The episode is also a great vehicle for filling us in a bit more on where both Dan and Vinder come from. This kind of backstory can, usually, take quite some time to tell. Here, it's accomplished in a brief handful of flashbacks. It's also nice to get an introduction to the Grand Serpent.  Again, it's done very economically and will give us a nice pay-off later. The sideplot  that begins with Bel in this episode is another great treat. I love the argument she has with the dying Cyberman!  

The whole ending is also very smart. To just repeat what was accomplished in the Doctor's flashback was another solution sitting right under our noses that we never see until it's properly revealed. I also love the Doctor pleading with the Mouri to let her see just one more memory from her life as the Timeless Child. It actually creates some gorgeous pathos for her. Not knowing her full past is tearing her apart. It was great seeing some of that torment on display, here.  

I try really hard to find something I dislike about this story. I'll keep putting in the effort, though. If ever I come up with something - I'll let you know!   

Village of the Angels

Let's just get this out of way: 

Village of the Angels is the best Weeping Angel story ever.

To have made this claim, I'll admit, for War of the Sontarans was pretty bold. To say such a thing about Village of the Angels is probably completely outlandish. Blink was written with a timey-whimey plot so tight you could bounce quarters off of it. It's considered a Classic by many and has rightfully earned the title.  

And yet, I find Village to be just a little bit better. It does do some cool timey whimey stuff, too. The fate of the poor missing girl in the plot is extremely clever and genuinely tragic. But there's also a beautiful subversion of the formula. Claire's brief appearance in Halloween Apocalypse leads us to believe that there will be more "timey whimeyness" with her too. But it's something far different and more sinister. The sequence inside her mind with the Doctor and the Rogue Angel is wonderfully creepy. 

While Village has all the basic components of Blink, what really makes it superior is how it uses so many other traits about Weeping Angels that were established in other stories about them. Particularly, of course, the concept of "that which retains the image of an Angel can become one". The Angels' attempts to attack through Claire's sketch or manifest themselves on the polygraph are wickedly brilliant. 

On top of that, Village adds significantly to the lore of the Weeping Angels. We discover, for instance, that a double attack from an Angel is fatal. And, of course, there's the insanely diabolical way in which they can create a Quantum Extraction. The Doctor being transformed at the cliffhanger will be indelibly stamped on our memories. It's an incredible visual

I've already talked about the mad intensity that kicks in once Jericho discovers a whole brood of Weeping Angels congregating in his front yard. The near-futile battle to keep them out of the basement is thoroughly riveting. But I particularly love the moment where an Angel starts trying to break Jericho down with his own voice. We discover an incredible strength of character from the professor in that scene. I'm so glad he continues along in the season after this story. He was yet another recurring character in Flux that I fell madly in love with. 

Again, Blink is an absolute work of art. When we view it as just a great episode of Doctor Who, it is the better of the two. It will, in fact, continue to hold its place in my Top Six Episodes ranking (Oops! Another Link! https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/12/book-of-lists-top-six-doctor-who_14.html). Here is the weird part, though: If we look at it as just a Weeping Angel story - Village does the better job. 

Not sure if that makes any valid sense. But it's how I feel! 

Survivors of the Flux

As already covered when we analysed the Momentum of the season, Survivors of the Flux creates a gorgeous change of pace. Four solid episodes back-to-back that never seem to slow down was intensely awesome. But it's nice that Episode Five allows us just a little time to catch our breath. 

Yaz, Dan and Jericho's attempts to discover the date of the end of the world and break out of 1904 are very entertaining. The encounter with the hermit on the mountain is, of course, a highlight. But I also love the joke with Karvanista and the Wall of China. Another great subversion of a formula. Normally, such an effort is rewarded by getting the characters out of their trap. I love that it fails. Karvanista, basically, calling them stupid from the future is a gorgeous deadpan moment!

Finally getting some solid answers about the Division is the other high point of this episode. The "tease" we first get of Tecteun in Once, Upon Time makes this moment all-the-more interesting. Bringing back the Ood was also a nice touch. But the Doctor realizing who she's actually dealing with and yelling at her for making a choice that affected a life she no longer remembers was a beautifully surreal piece of drama. Some great pay-off is made here about the whole mystery of the Timeless Child. The full story still hasn't quite been told, but this is an awesome contribution to the saga.

Best of all, however, is the return of the Grand Serpent and his sinister plot to topple UNIT. Yes, the soundbyte of the Brigadier from somewhere off-camera is pure fan-service. But it's impossible not to love it. And Kate's scene kicked ridiculous amounts of ass. Had this plot thread not been included, I don't know how well this episode would have fared. But the inclusion of this storyline makes it absolutely brilliant.

It's a very different episode from the rest of Flux. But it's still great! 

The Vanquishers

The "trickiest" of all the episodes. There are lot of expectations riding on it. And, after so many excellent episodes in a row, it does almost seem doomed to fail. 

And yet, it does remarkably well  All those divergent plot threads really start weaving together nicely. There's a satisfying resolution to it all with the Doctor doing her famous trick of using her enemy's own resources against them. I also love that yet more respect is paid to the Sontarans. After almost being the butt of a joke in the rest of New Who, it's quite cool that they actually come off as the most powerful of all the recurring monsters. They take out the Daleks and Cybermen with little or no difficulty. 

The Doctor suddenly existing in three forms at once was also great fun. Particularly as two of her three versions do start working together quite nicely. In some ways, this is quite similar to what we got in the Series Four finale. But it's less contrived and doesn't have to include a horrifically-sappy love story with Rose! 

It is just a bit difficult that this episode does come across as the weakest of the season. Like Terror of the Vervoids in Trial of a Time Lord, it only gets this status because the rest of the stories are just so damned amazing. But this becomes even more complicated because this is the final episode of the season. We needed it to be the strongest. 

And yet, as I said when I analysed the Conclusion, the re-watch factor does have a significant role to play in all of this. As I view The Vanquishers over and over, I realise the exact opposite about it. It's actually the best episode of the season. It's just that there is so much to take in that you need to re-experience it a few times before its full magnificence affects you. 

Flux ends beautifully thanks to  the strength of this final episode. 

We did it! We got all these entries written in just one short month (more or less - I did actually finish writing this in April, but didn't publish it til May)! 

In the same way that the introduction was individually handled in March, we will take on the Conclusion all by itself in May. We'll give a Final Verdict on the strength of each season and then see how they rank up against each other.  

 

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH IS THE BEST UMBRELLA SEASON? - PART 4-A: FLUX

Finally! We've reached our third Umbrella Season. This rabbit-hole I've gone into has nearly reached its end!     

BACKGROUND: 

History appears to be repeating itself. 

Just as it did in the late 80s, Doctor Who is going through another "rough patch". BBC execs aren't out to get it, this time (mind you, they don't seem to be offering a whole lot of support, either!) but fandom definitely seems to have an axe to grind with the show. Chris Chibnall's brand of storytelling does not seem popular with certain people. Comments in fan groups are littered with disparaging remarks about the current Showrunner. 

Ratings aren't necessarily looking much healthier, either. Although this particular problem can't be truly laid at Chibnall's feet. The dip first happened toward the latter end of the Moffat era. But, regardless of who was in charge when the drop began, things are still starting to feel like they did when Colin Baker and Sylverster McCoy were the stars of the show. 

Some theorise that part of the problem lay in the controversial decision that was finally made to cast a woman as the Doctor. That the fan outcry, at least, is a none-so-cleverly veiled sense of sexism. In the same way that a lot of racists knew they couldn't openly object to Barrack Obama as President so, instead, they viciously attacked his policies - fans are criticising the writing rather than saying they can't accept a woman in the lead role. 

All this is highly speculative, of course.Whether it's true or not, the bottom line is: the show is in trouble. Again!     

But then, History repeats itself even more. In the midst of all this drama and chaos, our third Umbrella Season is born. In the same way that we got Trial of a Time Lord when the show's future was looking bleak in the late 80s, we now get Flux. 

POINTS OF CRITERIA: 

(What?! You still haven't read the intro that explains my method of analysis?! For Zarquon's Sake, what have you been doing with yourself?!!  https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html)  

1. The Foundation 

In my Review of Trial of a Time Lord, I mention how much I enjoy the fact that the story hits the ground running. The central premise gets introduced to us in a way that doesn't slow down the narrative all that much at all. 

Mysterious Planet, however, has nothing on the breakneck speed of Halloween Apocalypse! 

The opening scene truly sets the tone. The Doctor and Yaz seem to be in the most terrible of predicaments with only seconds to find a means of escape. At the same time, some nasty alien is about to go cause a major problem for Earth (we'll find out later that this isn't quite the case!). This story is wasting no time on an info dump of any sort like the other two Umbrella Seasons did. It's getting straight into the action! 

We don't really get to the main storyline of Flux until the episode is nearly done. Poor 'ole Vinder is sitting out in his lonely space station as he watches the event begin. This is the true crux of the season: watching the Universe deal with the devastation of a major disaster. The fact that this gets introduced so late in the first part is a huge departure from how the other two seasons laid their Foundations. But it still works quite nicely.  

There is another important Foundation laid here, however. It's made clear to us in Halloween Apocalypse that we are going to get "Game of Thrones-style" storytelling. All sorts of plots and subplots get established in this first episode. As the season progresses, the threads will, eventually, come together and have a final consequence of some sort on the main story. Other shows have used this technique, of course. But Thrones is probably most famous for it. 

Without a doubt, Flux has a very different Foundation from its predecessors. But I did find it to be ridiculously effective. I might even use a superlative like "Awesome!" to describe it. As the closing credits for Halloween Apocalypse rolled up, I couldn't wait to see more! 

A Foundation can't do much better than that. 

2. Momentum

With a Foundation that is already propelling us along at a speed that is practically giving us a nosebleed, the Momentum for the rest of the season can be a very tricky thing. While the other Umbrella Seasons have Foundations that give future stories somewhere to go, Flux is already whipping along furiously in its first installment. This can be a very difficult pace to maintain.  

Somehow, though, it manages to. In fact, the Momentum of the season is nothing short of spectacular. 

It helps a lot that both War of the Sontarans and Village of the Angels are probably the best stories that ever feature these monsters. You're just a lot more engaged when you see a beloved returning foe being treated well in a story. It was especially pleasing to finally see New Who do the Sontarans right. And it stands to reason that a good story will also be well-paced. 

Mind you, from the moment Jericho opens the door to see angel statues in his front yard in Village, we get a ridiculously intense roller coaster ride that barely allows us a moment to breathe. That really was one of the maddest tempos I've ever seen a Doctor Who story move at.  

What really impresses me, however, is Once, Upon Time. It doesn't particularly benefit from a strong presence of recurring enemies (admittedly, it does get some cameos) but still hammers along at a magnificent speed. The Doctor fluttering in and out of a multitude of timelines is a great image that really does make the episode fly by. 

So the next three episodes after Halloween Apocalypse do a fantastic job maintaining the pace it sets. 

Survivors of the Flux, I find, does something different. It slows down just a bit. We get a bit of fun with Yaz, Dan and Jericho trying to escape 1904 There's also a huge pause for Tecteun to give a Division Info Dump to the Doctor. But then, of course, there's also the whole new plot involving the Grand Serpent. Something that creates, at least, a bit of Momentum by keeping us intrigued as he infiltrates UNIT over the years.  

I do feel all that happens in Survivors works quite well for the Momentum. It gives the audience just a bit of a breather before going into the Conclusion. It's exactly where this sort of thing should happen. And it doesn't slow down so much that the flow is wrecked. It just introduces a slight variation that gets the season to work better than if we'd just gotten one more episode that's trying to hurtle along like a freight train. 

I really do think, at this point in the season, this was the perfect choice.  

3. Conclusion

Using the Game of Thrones writing technique can be a very tricky thing. You've had all these plot threads running along that need to be satisfactorily resolved. Many fans of  Game Of Thrones were, in fact, not happy with how the series ended because they felt a lot of strands were not competently handled. 

As I reached the end of Flux, however, I was quite happy with how most things were addressed. I did think that Kate Stewart was under-utilised. I also felt that Williamson's tunnels probably should have done more than just get used as a bit of a convenient plot device. Having said that, however, Di's usefulness to the story was a pleasant surprise. I also really liked how Vinder and Bel don't turn out to be anything more than just lovers trying to unite across the span of a cosmic disaster. I remember reading all kinds of wild theories from fans about how their child was going to create some kind of major contribution to the show's canon. I loved that their story was far simpler than what so many suspected. 

I should probably dislike the fact that the Doctor drops her fobwatch down a deep shaft in the TARDIS console. It does smack a bit of how Key to Time ended. But, in this case, I feel that the resolution works. The Doctor has suddenly realized that she doesn't want the truth, after all. But that, maybe, someday her feelings might change. Which leaves things open for the mystery to get solved at a later juncture. 

Here's the weird thing: because I love the entire season of Flux so much, I've viewed it from beginning to end several times over. Each time I re-watch that final episode, I loved it all-the-more. To the point where I've actually stopped having any real problem with it. Nowadays, I feel all of it really fits together well. 

As pretentious as it sounds, I do think there is so much to take in as the season concludes, that you need to see it several times before you realise the whole thing really does end perfectly. All the different plot strands get the exact level of attention that they need. The various conflicts and problems are solved in just the right way. But you have to view it a few times before you can truly see how well the Big Picture is painted. Which, to me, is some damned amazing writing. 

But here's what I really love: even though we see the possibility of the Doctor hitting a sort of "cosmic re-set button" during the fifth part - she doesn't manage to do it. The after-effects of the disaster are left intact (for now, at least - perhaps the Universe will be restored in Thirteen's final story). I absolutely adore that we didn't get the usual "huge disruption to reality that is then completely fixed in a way that it seems to have never happened" plot contrivance that has occurred in so many other stories (ie: Last of the Time Lords, Big Bang, Lie of the Land etc...). It's a beautiful subversion of the usual formula we get in adventures of this nature. 

4. Coherency

Coherency in Flux is handled in the most direct of manners. Whereas Key and Trial use various framing techniques within their smaller stories, this Umbrella Season links things together by just regularly updating all of its plot strands. 

Even with episodes like War of the Sontarans that really do seem to be telling a specific, individual story, time is still taken to check up on what Vinder and Swarm and Azure are up to. We even get one of the weird out-of-nowhere cameos from Williamson (which is one of my favorite parts of the whole season - I love how he keeps showing up out of nowhere!). War of the Sontarans didn't need to do this. We could have just spent the episode watching the Potato Heads trying to pervert the course of human history and that would have been fine. But breaking away to these other strands reminded us that there was still a much bigger adventure going on that we needed to keep track of. 

All the episodes do a fair amount of this sort of thing. Village of the Angels is probably the only plot that really isolates itself that much. But even it lets us check in on how Bel and Vinder are doing in a post-credit sequence. 

Continually propelling along all these individual plot strands really keeps us conscious of the much larger tale that is going on the whole time. Of the three Umbrella Seasons, this one does the best job with Coherency. At no point do we stop experiencing how inter-connected the whole thing feels. 

And, once more, we'll grab a little break before tackling the last two Points of Criteria. We'll see you again, shortly...

I was just ranting and raving about The Flux a short while ago in a series of CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES entries. Here are the links if you'd like to look at them:   

State of Flux Part One: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/02/chronologies-and-timelines-state-of.html 

State of Flux Part Two: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/02/chronologies-and-timelines-state-of_19.html

State of Flux Part Three:   

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/02/chronologies-and-timelines-state-of_27.html

 

 

 

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH IS THE BEST UMBRELLA SEASON IN DOCTOR WHO? - PART THREE - B: TRIAL OF A TIME LORD

Just like my review of the Key to Time, I decided to give you guys a little break in the middle of the Trial of a Time Lord stuff. But now it's time to dive back in.   

POINTS OF CRITERIA: THE MORE SUBJECTIVE STUFF

Blah Blah Blah ...  I was being a bit more objective  .... Blah Blah Blah .... now I'm being more opinionated  .... Blah Blah 

(Blah Blah  .... link here if you don't know the Points of Criteria: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html ....Blah)

5. The Actual Central Premise 

When I covered this category in my Key to Time review, I emphasised how a Quest to bring together parts of an object to create some Great Totem of Power is hardly original. I even pointed out how it had been done in the show before. 

I suppose I could say something similar about Trial of a Time Lord. Doctor Who is no stranger to courtroom drama. Keys of Marinus, the story that I claim Key to Time does a slight re-tread of, goes into an extended court scene for a bit. The Doctor also gets put on trial on a fairly regular basis throughout the course of the show. Key to Time even does this to him during Stones of Blood. Being tried by his own people is also highly commonplace. We see that happening in The War Games and Deadly Assassin and there seems to be a third trial being described in Frontier In Space. 

What makes Trial of a Time Lord original is that the whole story is set in court. Whereas these other examples I gave only happen for a portion of the adventure. Making the entire tale about a trial brings out all kinds nuances that we wouldn't see when it's only in a part of the plot. A movie like 12 Angry Men that is a pure courtroom drama is a very different kind of film than, say, Mrs. Doubtfire which shows Robin Williams' character in a courtroom now and again. 

So I don't feel Trial of a Time Lord is something that has been overdone in the show. For the most part, it's something quite new and different. It was an interesting way to look at how the Doctor's travels through Time and Space can truly impact things. I also quite like how it was echoing what was actually happening in the show. The undertones of those first few lines between the Valeyard and the Doctor in Part 1 are particularly poignant. 

All in all, I enjoy the central conceit of this Umbrella Season and am quite glad that it was pursued at such great length. It all works quite nicely for me. 

6. The Quality of the Stories 

The Mysterious Planet 

Most of what I needed to say about this story was already covered when I was discussing how it works as a Foundation. As I stated before, it starts the whole season off on a very strong foot and presents some interesting mysteries that won't be solved til much later. Since I've still got a few paragraphs to fill, though, I will bring up some subtler points. 

Mysterious Planet does show the beginning of a progression Colin wanted to create within the character. His Doctor has softened considerably since Season 22 but still remains a bit spiky. Which works well. To make him a totally different man overnight would have been a bit unrealistic. But it is nice seeing him strolling arm-in-arm with Peri at the beginning of the adventure. I do really enjoy it when an arc is built into an incarnation's personality rather than just making him more-or-less the same in every story. 

This is also the story that introduces Glitz. A great character who totally merited his three appearances on the show. In fact, it would have been great to see him come back in New Who. Perhaps one of his dodgy schemes finally made him the fortune he yearned for and he now runs a small empire. Or perhaps he's still trying to make it big. Either way, I would have loved to have seen him return. Sadly, Tony Selby is no longer with us. 

And, of course, if you were paying careful attention to my entry about The Key to Time, you will have also noticed that Glitz and Dibber are my all-time favorite Holmsian Double Act. The two of them do work great together, here. I like that they aren't just a pair of harmless scoundrels. They represent a serious threat and can be genuinely cruel. It gives them a nice edge. 

There are also those really nice speeches that Sixie delivers to Drathro in the final part about the value of human life. I'm amazed those monologues never get talked about. To me, they're up there with Twelve's moment in his Zygon story. It's some really powerful stuff. Even if it doesn't get Drathro to change his mind! 

All in all, a good solid story that starts off the saga nicely.    

Mindwarp

Easily, one of the strangest stories in the history of the show. Mindwarp veers in all sorts of odd directions. To the point where it's impossible to pinpoint what sort of story it's actually meant to be. It certainly wants to satirize some things like corporate greed and warmongering. But it also really plays up the courtroom element of the Umbrella Season. At times, it even seems to be a medical drama! 

But its weirdness is what makes the story so wonderful. Mindwarp can't make up its mind what it is and doesn't need to. It just does whatever the Hell it wants and I love it for that. Philip Martin's first script for the show was absolute brilliance. This one actually comes pretty close to matching it. It really does its own thing and doesn't care about the fact that it can't be pigeonholed. 

Bringing Sil back and showing us where he came from was a particularly nice gesture on Martin's part. Like Glitz, this is another excellent recurring character who I would love to see updated in the New Series. This is one of the great hallmarks of 80s Who. It really did have some great villains that deserved to come back again and again. Sil is definitely up there as one of the best. 

Having said that, there's some great one-time-only characters in this story, too. Crozier is a great mad scientist. It was also wonderful to see that Sil had a boss who was even nastier than he was. But King Ycranos is truly the best of them all. Brian Blessed attacks the role with his usual vivacity and gives us a great time watching him. All in all, this is a great guest cast. 

There are some bones of contention that some of Fandom have about this story. Some people seem upset by the fact that we are never actually shown what truly happened in the scenes that were falsified by the Matrix. I'm not sure why this is so important to them. I'm happy to just have it left to the imagination. Mindwarp also has a tonne of courtroom interruptions. Which, as has been mentioned, was something that bothered certain fans greatly. But I absolutely love how much of a role the trial has to play in this section of season. We really get a sense that the Doctor just might lose his case. And that really ups the stakes of the whole season-long arc. The stories on the screen should not be the only dramatic intensity that we're getting. 

Given that I can't even agree with the fan objections, you can safely guess that I have a lot of fondness for the second tale of the season. I'll still love Vengeance on Varos better, but this is a pretty damned good sequel. 

Terror of the Vervoids 

I have an interesting history with the reviewing of this story. A publishing company had been reading some of the stuff I'd been posting about Doctor Who and had invited me to participate in an anthology they were making. They, basically, assigned me a story to review from the Classic Series. The tale I got was Terror of the Vervoids. 

While I'd love to be lazy and just cut-and-paste in the review, here. I'll try, instead, to summarise what I wrote. 

Vervoids is, admittedly, my least favorite story of the season. Which is not to say that it's bad. It's just got some pretty stiff competition. While all the other stories have almost no real flaws to them, there is one fundamental issue that I have with this particular adventure: 

There's just too much going on in it. 

We've got spies and murderers and killer plants and hijackers. And a Black Hole thrown in just for fun! Some of these plot points, at least, relate to each other. The spy is on board the Hyperion to catch the hijackers. And the murderer is killing people to protect his claim on the Vervoids. But it's still too much stuff happening on just one spaceship. Which does stretch the credulity of things, slightly. 

It's hardly the worst of sins, though. One of my biggest grumbles about The Key to Time (and a lot of other 70s Who tales) is that there is often not enough plot to fill the episode count. So doing the exact opposite is, at the very least, a bit of a treat. This does seem to be a problem with some other stories from the 80s. Resurrection of the Daleks and Attack of the Cybermen are two other stories of this nature that immediately come to mind. But having more than you need shows that the writers were trying to do their job properly. Rather than just being lazy and coming up with filler. 

Aside from this problem, though, there's a lot to enjoy about Terror of the Vervoids. Some folks seem to like to pick on Pip and Jane Baker. But I always thought they were very competent writers. They don't quite fit in with the vision Andrew Cartmel will have for the show when he comes onboard as script editor next season. But, in this era, they do quite well. 

The Ultimate Foe

The shortness of the Colin Baker Era makes it easy to classify. Most fans will tell you that Twin Dilemma and Timelash are the "duds" of his period (although neither is as bad as they say!). On the other end of the spectrum, Vengeance on Varos and Revelation of the Daleks are considered Classics. The other seven stories from his two seasons are, generally, seen as "mid-rangers". 

I would suggest Ultimate Foe be re-assigned. Personally, I think it belongs up there with Varos and Revelation. 

It's the twists in the plot that I think are its most magnificent trait. The Master suddenly appearing out of nowhere on the Matrix screen and giving away two gigantic Reveals in the first few minutes of Episode 13 has already completely won me over. Even at this point, this story is already awesome. The fact that we then get one of the best speeches the Doctor has ever given just affirms my sentiments about the whole thing. All those courtroom interruptions have led up to this moment and the ultimate payoff is glorious. 

Suddenly shifting all the action to the Matrix takes the whole tale in a great new direction. Yes, this could have just turned into a re-tread of Part 3 of Deadly Assassin. But the surreal quality of this virtual reality is portrayed in a whole new way that keeps it fresh and interesting. Mister Popplewick is particularly fun and bizarre as he puts the Doctor through the paperwork he must process to meet his demise. It's all so brilliantly morbid. 

Episode 14 continues to deliver wild changes in direction. The power struggle developing between the Master and the Valeyard is great fun. The Master tries desperately to gain the upper hand over his greatest adversary. Realising, all-too-late, that his every move has been anticipated and countered. As is often the case when he's fighting the actual Doctor rather than the shadow of his darker self. 

Glitz, of course, adds a whole extra dimension to the battle. It's great fun as he switches alliances whenever it suits him. His involvement in the whole conflict really propels it into something truly fantastic. We especially love it when the Master fails to hypnotise him! 

It is, of course, a screaming shame that the Valeyard and the Doctor never fight again (even though a potential return was heavily teased in the final scene). Those brief few minutes when the fight really is  down to just the two of them is a remarkably nice piece of drama. It's like a twisted version of a multi-incarnation encounter. The Doctor is not getting along with himself - but in a much deeper way than we've ever seen before. It's a magnificent sequence that shows off what the Sixth Doctor does best: putting baddies in their place. 

There's just so much going on here that I adore to death. I'm even quite happy with Mel in this story and glad to see her and the Doctor riding off into the sunset as the Doctor speaks his most anti-climactic of final lines (and yet, how can we not love: "Carrot juice! Carrot juice! Carrot juice!"). Some fans were not happy that Peri was given a happy ending, after all  (including Nicola Bryant, herself) - but I even find this pleasing. 

Anything I don't like? The Doctor being sentenced to execution and suddenly being led in a horse and wagon by Gallifreyan guards doesn't exactly make the most of sense. But it's still a pretty awesome image!   

FINAL VERDICT? 

As mentioned previously, my final sentiments about this Umbrella Season will be voiced in a special entry that will pit Key to Time, Trial of a Time Lord and Flux against each other. I will not only express my general sentiment about each saga, but I will rank them from worst to best.

I think it's fairly evident, though, that I am very happy with what Trial of a Time Lord gave us. It's just sad that the show was up against such huge opposition when Season 23 first came out. It took a long time for people to really start appreciating this one. Sadly, some still insist it was awful. I'm not sure why they feel this way. 

If I'm totally honest, I actually think Trial was years ahead of its time. 

And the Review of our second Umbrella Season is in the can. On we go to the Flux... 

Want to read some other stuff I've written about Trial of a Time Lord? 

Who is the Valeyard? - Part One: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/09/fixing-continuity-glitches-who-is.html 

Who is the Valeyard? - Part Two:

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/09/fixing-continuity-glitches-who-is_28.html

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH IS THE BEST UMBRELLA SEASON OF DOCTOR WHO? - PART 3 -A: TRIAL OF A TIME LORD

So we've taken care of the Key to Time and now we're moving on to that 80s Epic: Trial of a Time Lord. I seemed to be only so happy with Season 16. Will I be more enthusiastic about the 23rd season?    

BACKGROUND: 

Trial of a Time Lord, easily, represents Doctor Who at its most turbulent of times. The actual central premise of the story is even meant to symbolise this! 

Behind the scenes, key BBC executives were systematically trying to kill the show. Not just in the way they had put it on hiatus and then radically reduced the episode count. They also refused to increase its budget yet still complained about how cheap it looked. They were even issuing huge demands about creative control that, more oftentimes than not, worked to the detriment of the program. 

On the public front, ratings were starting to drop. Some of this was through misrepresentation in the way information was being gathered in surveys, at the time (accounting for only those who watched it live when so many people were now using VCRs to tape it and watch it later). But there was still a fair amount of legitimate discontent brewing. The casual viewer was losing interest because the show couldn't keep up with other sci fi that had better visual effects. The fans, at the same time, were becoming more and more difficult to please. The show was moving through one of those periods where it was becoming popular to hate it (sound familiar?!). 

The future of Doctor Who looked bleak. Cancellation seemed imminent. How much or how little people enjoyed new content being produced would have a huge bearing on its fate. 

Art imitates Life in Season 23. For the duration of that season, the Doctor is put on trial by his own people. Should he be found guilty of the charge against him, he will face execution. 

It's impossible not to see the parallels.... 

THE MORE OBJECTIVE POINTS OF CRITERIA 

Once again, we will start with the things about the season that are a bit more provable. I will still be stating a lot of opinion, but I will be able to back it up with a bit more evidence than just: "I think this sucks!" or: "This is good!" 

(Again, if you haven't read up on the Points of Criteria and what they mean, go to this link: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html) 

1. The Foundation 

Like The Key to Time, this Umbrella Season does take the first few minutes of its initial episode to lay out its central premise to the audience. In this case, however, it doesn't quite knock you over the head with it so blatantly.   

There's more of a sense that we are "hitting the ground running" with Trial of a Time Lord. After the magnificent opening model shot, the Doctor hastily emerges from the Police Box and wonders how he came to be where he is. Clearly, he was in the middle of something else that seemed quite urgent (I love how, eight episodes later, we will finally find out what it was that he was doing!). After a moment to gather himself, he walks into the trial room and starts learning what's happening to him. The information gets fed to him (and us) over the next few minutes as he tries to orientate himself and prepare for the legal battle that is about to ensue.

Although I still think The Key to Time introduces itself very well too, this is an undeniably better way to set things up for what's to come.  The Doctor is, essentially, doing two things at once: Adjusting to the new environment he's going to be stuck in for the duration of the season and discovering why the Time Lords have brought him here. It gets the whole season off in a far less jarring way than Key to Time did. Which will massively benefit the season's momentum (which, of course, we'll get to shortly).

Once a few basic things get explained by the Valeyard and the Inquisitor we get into the actual format. We will watch an adventure on the Matrix that will occasionally get paused for trial room commentary. This is displayed to us throughout the course of Part One. 

As we finally get to the first Cliffhanger, one more crucial development kicks in. This won't just be a harmless inquiry, after all. The Doctor will be put on trial for his life! 

This really is a flawless first episode for an Umbrella Season. All the basic arcs and character are laid out in a very smooth way that eases us into things beautifully. Later episodes will also introduce a crucial plot point concerning the Sleepers from Andromeda that will have a huge bearing on the whole season. But this development is just a bit more icing on the cake for what I think constitutes an absolutely perfect Foundation. 

Again, Robert Holmes delivers a very solid first story that isn't, necessarily, a total Classic. But it's  very good. And it gives the season somewhere to go. 

2. Momentum

I will just say, upfront, that I find the Momentum for this season to be excellent. Even when watching it in  these modern days of fast-paced television, it stands up quite well. There's really not much of a sag anywhere. 

Part of what keeps everything compelling is the diversity of pacing that we see in the middle stories. Mindwarp is legitimately slow and ponderous. But the way it veers between heavy gravitas, dark comedy and vicious satire keeps it all quite engaging. Peri, Ycranos and Dorf breaking for lunch is about the only time I feel things grinding to a legitimately screeching halt (blatant padding becomes all-the-more poignant when the rest of the story is paced magnificently).

Terror of the Vervoids, on the other hand, is almost dizzy with all of its various plot strands. There's actually almost too much going on in this one. But that's more of a structural issue we can attack in the individual reviews. In terms of Momentum, it really keeps things fresh and interesting. The two tales are almost at the opposite ends of the spectrum from each other in terms of how they flow. Which keeps those middle eight episodes humming along nicely. 

Now there is an obscure segment of Fandom that does claim that the trial room interruptions slow things down horribly. I'm not part of that camp, however. To me, they enhance things beautifully. It's like we actually got five stories this season. Mysterious, Mindwarp, Vervoids, Ultimate Foe and then all the other stuff that takes place in the trial room when we're not watching what's on the Matrix. 

The scenes are also interesting because they do take a "deeper cut" into the cause-and-effects of the Doctor's actions. The Valeyard, for instance, makes a great point at the end of the first story. Less lives might have been lost had the Doctor never gone to Ravalox to begin with (more than likely, Katryca would have just killed Glitz and Dibber as she has so many others who have come for the Great Totem). This little bit of extra navel contemplation is an interesting reflection on all the action we're watching. I think it works great.  Others may disagree, of course. 

I know some fans will always hate those trial interruptions!   

3. Conclusion

Given the behind-the-scenes nightmare that went on in production, the very fact that this story even gets a Conclusion is fairly amazing. The fact that it comes out as well as it does is near mind-boggling. 

The original version of Episode 14 by Eric Saward does actually seem half-decent (from what I know of it, at least, I've never seen the script - only read a synopsis or two). But it would have left the whole season on a cliffhanger that BBC Execs probably would have taken full advantage of. His version of the finale would have seen the series axed. 

For this reason, alone, I have to favor what Pip and Jane Baker gave us for that final part. The far more upbeat ending worked just as well. On top of that, however, it also gave us three more seasons of Doctor Who!   

What impresses me most about Ultimate Foe, however, is how truly epic it all feels. Normally, when Classic Who tried to do something grandiose, it tended to not come off so well. Not the case, here. Off-camera insurrections on Gallifrey and Matrix tapes that will provide vast knowledge aren't visually impressive, but they sound quite ominous! Even the Valeyard's ultimate aim to assassinate the Supreme Court of Gallifreyan Law is really just an attempt to kill a bunch of background extras. But Colin and Jayston really sell the moment. Because of some clever writing, solid direction and great acting, this really does feel like the end of a saga.

And it was accomplished against what seemed like insurmountable odds. But even if I didn't know a thing about the fight between JNT and his script editor at the time, I think I would still be very impressed. This really is a very satisfying conclusion to it all. With lots of exciting twists and turns in the plot and something that truly felt larger-than-life. 

Exactly how the ending of a season-long adventure should feel. 

4. Coherency

Coherency in the Trial of a Time Lord season is easily established. Those courtroom scenes that some fans found so wildly intrusive remind us on a regular basis of the Bigger Story that's being told over the course of the fourteen episodes. It's a very simple and highly effective way of creating the framework that a good Umbrella Season needs. 

But there are other ways in which links are made. Mindwarp bridges quite nicely into Terror of the Vervoids by showing the Doctor in a state of shock over Peri's death at the end of Episode 8 and then mourning her loss at the beginning of Episode 9. A similar trick is done from Vervoids to Ultimate Foe. The Valeyard accuses the Doctor of genocide in the final seconds of the Pip and Jane four-parter. The entire trial then shifts gears to pursue the charge for the final two episodes. 

The way the Doctor slowly-but-surely starts doubting the Matrix evidence as we climb through the season is another great little device that helps with Coherency. Glitz returning to the plot to clarify the mystery of the Andromedan Sleepers from Mysterious Planet also brings together the season's continuity nicely. There are a few other techniques of this nature. Trial of a Time Lord is heavily-peppered with this sort of stuff so that we can really get a sense of one long story being told through a series of subsections. 

I would go so far to say that the Coherency for this Umbrella Season is actually quite flawless. 

Once more, we'll take a little break before we tackle our last two Points. I don't even feel like I got quite as long-winded, this time. But it still might be nice to give you all a brief intermission.  

 

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH IS THE BEST UMBRELLA SEASON IN DOCTOR WHO? - PART TWO-B: THE KEY TO TIME

And we're back with a "Part 2-B" of my REVIEW OVERVIEW of The Key to Time season. 

GOING THROUGH THE CRITERIA - ON TO THE MORE SUBJECTIVE STUFF

And now we move away a bit from the slightly concrete points of The Key to Time and get into some aspects that would be more opinion-based. Basically, I can just be a pompous reviewer for a bit!

5. The Actual Central Premise

Probably the biggest gripe I have with the crux of this season is its lack of originality. A quest to find multiple parts of some great relic that, when united, becomes an object of great power has been done over and over in fantasy and sci-fi. Even back in the 70s - when Key to Time was made - it was a pretty established trope. So it does make it a bit difficult to be enthused about something that's been done to death a bit, already. 

Unfortunately, I'm going to need to get a bit pedantic, here (like that's ever been an obstacle before!). The premise of going on a Quest to assemble things that will create a greater whole was done already within the context of the show, itself. Way back in the very first season, we have The Keys of Marinus. An adventure that is not only a similar idea to The Key to Time, but also uses keys as a central image. Yes, the story was done 15 years previously. We could just let it go and not see this as a bit of re-tread. But being a hardcore Doctor Who fan is about remembering everything the show has ever done from beginning to end. So it's difficult to ignore this fact. 

Having said all that, a Quest Story of this nature occurs often for a reason. It's a very engaging idea that is fun to follow. So the season does gain a lot of points for that. There's quite a bit of fun to be had as we watch the Doctor and Romana find each Segment. Those bookend scenes that I talked about earlier have a  very strong appeal to them. In many ways, I do still find myself really enjoying the assembling of the Key. 

But we also have to acknowledge that this isn't the most creative idea in the world. 

6. Quality of the Stories 

From the mildly subjective to the super-opinionated! We're going to do quick reviews of each story in the season.    

The Ribos Operation

Okay, we should probably get this out of the way immediately. No doubt, it will incite great fury and hatred against me. But I must confess it: 

I actually think Garron and Unstoffe are a better Holmsian Double Act than Jago and Litefoot. 

If I'm being totally honest, the only Holmsian Double Act I like better than them is Glitz and Dibber. I do find these guys bring a lot of charm to the story and make it quite fun. I particularly love the whole runaround that happens near the end of Part Two. It's Doctor Who doing farce but not going too far with it. 

I also quite like Binro the Heretic and the whole "Tribute to Galileo" storyline that he represents. This, to me, is a great example of "good filler" in a story. Binro gets introduced during the later episodes to provide a side plot and mark some time. But I find his story quite touching and he is still legitimately useful to the central plot. So, even though he was created to help pad things out, he still works quite beautifully within the context of the narrative. 

While I love the restrained humor at the end of Part Two, Part Three's beginning marks a significant moment for me in my appreciation of Tom Baker. All the little goofiness going on with the Graff Vinda-K as the episode opens feels just a bit too silly for my liking. For the first time in the show, Baker officially injects too much absurdity into the scene. The moment sticks out like a sore thumb. But things do get back under control fairly quickly and the rest of the comedy remains subtle rather than overdone. 

It's odd, though. I don't seem to hear a lot of love for Ribos Operation. Whereas I find it to be quite solid. It's nothing too spectacular, I'll  admit. But that's actually a great way to build a Foundation for an Umbrella Season. Start with something solid and build more and more interesting tales on top of it. In this sense, Ribos Operation is actually quite excellent. 

The Pirate Planet 

Time for yet more controversy: 

Of his two stories that were completed, I think Pirate Planet is a better story by Douglas Adams than City of Death.   

Pirate Planet is glorious. Lots of high comedy, yes. But it never quite crosses the line into the cringiness that a lot of other comedy in the season will start inducing. Instead, it's just a tonne of fun. The Captain's cursing is greatly loved. Gorgeous, colorful dialogue that I think we can't get enough of. His robot parrot is a pretty cool concept, too. It's great when K9 defeats it and brings it to the Doctor like a regular hunting dog would. All of this sounds like the show is being too ridiculous, I know. But it all works. Douglas crafts things magnificently.    

One of the sequences that really helps with the overall vibe of the story is that moment of outrage that the Doctor has with the Captain when he discovers what he's doing with all the planets he mines. This, to me, is a great way to counterpoint how outlandish so much of the rest of the adventure is. A good solid chunk of drama can really take the edge off things and stop the humor from becoming overbearing. Adams seems to understand that he's not writing Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, here. That we do want to take things a bit more seriously now and then. So he gives us this wonderful scene.  Fortunately, Baker decides to take the bull by the horns and really delivers some fury.   

To me, Pirate Planet is the jewel in The Key to Time's tarnished crown. Truly a wondrous tale. It's only flaw may lie in where it was placed in the season. Had it been nearer to the end, there would have been a better sense of build up. Instead, a lot of the rest of the season feels like it goes downhill. Essentially, Pirate Planet is a bit too tough of an act to follow.    

Stones of Blood

Stones, for me, continues to tow the line with providing solid stories. Yes, it's a bit of a step down from Pirate Planet but I still think that, for the most part, it's quite good. Which is keeping me interested in the season-long arc. 

The story plays with a number of imaginative sci fi concepts. Vampire Rocks, Justice Machines and ancient alien criminals posing as gods are interesting characters to have populating the tale. Exploring Hyperspace is also quite fun. 

As already mentioned, some fans complain about that fourth episode coming to a screeching halt to have a trial. But I found it to work quite nicely. Tom starts crossing the line again, though, with that goofy wig! But, otherwise, this is another story that doesn't mind getting a bit silly but doesn't go overboard with it too much. That final nod that Who makes to its Gothic Horror Element with the two campers that get attacked by an Ogri is also nicely done. 

Like Ribos Operation, this is not anything too amazing. But it's keeping me engaged. 

Androids of Tara

A lot of folks seem to really enjoy this one. They see it as a fun little romp full of high adventure. 

I'm not particularly thrilled with it. 

This time, we can only lay so much blame at Tom Baker's feet for going too hard for the laughs. The writing, itself, is a big part of the problem. There are aspects to the plot that just make no real sense. The big twist at the Part One cliffhanger, for instance. Yes, we see all four characters in the room drink the wine with the sleeping drug. But aren't there other people in the building?! Reynart is, after all, a Prince. Pretty sure he should have more bodyguards than just two shmucks. 

Oh wait! He does! Earlier in the episode, the Doctor does try to slip out and there's a guard at the door that stops him. What happened to him? Went on a coffee break so that Count Grendel is able to sneak in?! Was he the only other guard there?! Seems a little unlikely. So how does Grendel get past everyone when he's only administered the sleeping draught to those four people in the room?! Suddenly, we need a fun twist at the end of the episode so all logic gets tossed out the window. 

Androids of Tara is riddled with this kind of stuff. Much of the acting in the story is done tongue-in-cheek. As if imploring us to not look too hard at things and just laugh at the campiness. This doesn't really work well for me. I don't mean to sound like one of those fans that takes the show too seriously, but bad writing disguising itself with goofy jokes just doesn't really pass with me. As the story reaches its end, I'm thoroughly uninterested. All the High Farce has caused me to grow tired of it all.    

That "climatic sword duel" between the Doctor and Grendel hits an incredible low point in the season. Had they gone for just a few laughs, it might have worked. But if this is supposed to be what the whole plot has been building up to, then maybe Tom shouldn't have been mugging quite so much. A lot of the fight choreography looks like it was slapped together ten minutes before they started filming. For me, the sequence sucks whatever life might still have been left in the story. The whole thing becomes just a bit unbearable. To the point where Androids of Tara probably fits somewhere in my Ten Worst Stories in the History of Doctor Who list. 

I really feel it's that bad.    

Power of Kroll 

This is a strange one. On paper, Power of Kroll works quite nicely (so well that Holmes will re-use certain elements of it for Caves of Androzani!). The script does tell a fairly engaging narrative involving interplanetary politics and a nice allegory about what colonialism often does to indigenous people. The characters seem pretty three-dimensional, too. With several of them possessing secret motives that don't become clear until the right moment when they can create a very interesting and convincing twist in the plot. 

Honestly, I should really love this one. And so should the rest of Fandom. 

For the most part, we don't. Robert Holmes delivers well but everything we see onscreen feels very flat and largely uninteresting. The biggest problem stems from the fact that I don't really connect with any of these characters. It's not the fault of the actual actors, though. Particularly since many of them are "veterans" who have done guest turns in the show before and have given very memorable performances when they did. 

The real flaw, I think, lies in the direction. Admittedly, directing for a show like Who can be very challenging. You've got to get a lot "in the can" in a short period of time. But Kroll really feels like it was just churned out with little or no thought towards making a real impact on the audience. We needed a fifth story in the Saga so one got shlocked together. Even though it was written well. 

By this point, I'm also very tired of the whole "finding the Segment in the last two minutes of the story" format. Which is too bad since this particular Reveal is one of the most clever ones. 

A horribly wasted potential 

The Armageddon Factor 

Fans have made a very interesting point about the farcical soap opera presented in the opening scene of this story (Wow! Rob Tymec agreeing with Fan Opinion - who is really writing this blog, right now?!). They highlight the fact that if the footage had been set against a very dark and gritty story it would have worked excellently. Instead, we get something akin to one spoof introducing another. Which feels just a little too spoofy for my tastes. And, apparently, for quite a bit of the rest of Fandom. 

At first, it does almost look like we might get the juxtaposition we wanted. The first episode of Factor is pretty grim. There's just a bit of a Genesis of the Daleks vibe going on where the show is, once more, making an anti-war statement. It does this quite a bit in the 70s but I don't seem to mind it much. The actor playing the Marshall - a character who is clearly unhinged and is meant to be a satire on the Military Mentality - gives us a fairly straight performance. Which is odd, really. He's the one character who could have been a bit campier and it would have been acceptable. Instead, just about everyone else decides to chew up the scenery. Particularly as we get to those middle episodes. A sincere effort seems to be made to create some dramatic intensity at the beginning of the story. Things even get back on track a bit as we reach the end. But, dear Lord, are those middle parts awful! An embarrassing mess of actors doing their best to outdo each other with silly faces and hammy acting. 

The "love story" is a great example of this. The relationship between Princess Astra and Merak could have been a very compelling subplot. But Ian Saynor gets so damned melodramatic as he's searching for his lost love that I think we'd all be happier if that weird pit thing that he falls into had been a fatal trap. 

Like Androids of Tara, there's also some stuff in the plot that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. The peril K9 falls into during Episode Two, sort of, baffles me. Are we really expected to believe that Atrios is just rigged with special devices that can specifically hypnotize knee-high automatons? It's another one of those sequences that needed a bit more explanation. Perhaps the Zeons did invent knee-high automatons for a bit that infiltrated Atrios and a defense system was devised against them. A quick sentence or two in the dialogue to explain this could have gotten the whole thing to seem a bit more rational. 

Of course, as I've already mentioned, the entire conclusion of the story has a similar problem. Which really leaves me very unsatisfied about the whole thing. But now we're starting to get into a review of the overall season. So I'll stop, here.    

THE FINAL VERDICT? 

If you bothered to read my introductory entry, (What's that? You didn't but now you think you should?  https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html), you may recall that I said I would write a review of my impressions of the entire season. I will actually do that, but not here. After we review each Umbrella Season, there will be a final entry where I rank them against each other. That seems to be the best place to also include my Final Verdict. So, you'll learn about my ultimate feelings on The Key to Time, there. I know I haven't been entirely kind to this saga in certain places but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to completely destroy it in some Huge Review of Mass Vitriol. 

Sometimes, the Whole makes up for the sins of the Parts.   

Well, that wraps things up for The Key to Time. Hope you didn't find these entries too lengthy - there's a lot to get through. Trial of a Time Lord and Flux are shorter seasons, so I won't blather on as much.   

Hopefully... 

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH UMBRELLA SEASON IS THE BEST? - PART TWO- A: THE KEY TO TIME

After a brief overview of what to expect in this latest series, we can get on with the true work at hand: Reviewing the actual Umbrella Seasons! 

We begin at the beginning with the show's first attempt at a season-long tale. For this part (and the next, for that matter), we shall embark upon a journey into the deeper mysteries of the Key to Time. But will it be worth the trip?! 

A BIT OF BACKGROUND

As Doctor Who moved into the late 70s, Tom Baker now had several seasons under his belt as Doctor Four. Most of his material had been produced by the famous Philip Hinchcliffe. This particular era would go on to be known as the Golden Age of the show. Though it wasn't necessarily appreciated as well back then as it is currently. Nowadays, many fans consider this to be the show at its ultimate pinnacle. It's never been better. 

(Not really my opinion, though. There was some good stuff during this period. But I do find a lot of it to be over-rated!) 

But then it came time for a change. Hinchcliffe bowed out and in came Graham Williams. Tom Baker stuck around but he started getting new companions. That Gothic Horror vibe that dominated so many stories during those first few seasons of the Fourth Doctor shifted into something more comedic. Tom Baker, himself, started pushing the humor harder and harder. Guest cast members often followed suit. Writers might even try to hand in serious scripts but they were quickly changed into high farce during the read-throughs and rehearsals.  As we near the end of the Graham Williams Period, the show started becoming a parody of itself. 

In the middle of all this sits The Key to Time season. A somewhat bold idea for late 70s television. Back then, TV tended to be very fragmented. Producers didn't want to confuse viewers so, for the most part, a new plot was introduced and resolved in every episode. In some cases, characters even seemed to forget what had gone on before. The slate was wiped clean every week. So to create a season-long story thread was definitely something that was very much going against the grain, at the time. 

In many ways, creating the first Umbrella Season for Doctor Who gives Williams a bit of notoriety within the context of the show. The Big Question Is: Does this first effort earn him praise or malice?    

GOING THROUGH THE CRITERIA - THE MORE OBJECTIVE STUFF 

With a bit of background established, let's start putting The Key to Time through the paces. We'll begin with some points of criteria that are a bit more tangible. Traits I can actually prove a bit. 

(NOTE: If you want to better understand these points of criteria and haven't read my introductory essay, you should probably check out this link: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html) 

1. The Foundation 

The Ribos Operation establishes the Foundation of the whole Quest for the Key to Time in the most straightforward of manners. I mean that quite literally. Of the the three Umbrella Seasons, the central premise to this one is told to us in the bluntest of ways. Which isn't, necessarily, a bad thing. It was quite nice to just take a few minutes of that first episode to have everything explained in a great big infodump. 

The scene, itself, with the White Guardian is very nicely executed. Holmes wrote it well. Tom Baker and Cyril Luckham do a great job on the performance end of things. Even the set looks pretty good! This is a great way to set things up. Problems don't really arise with anything that is done here until we reach the end of the season and certain key points in the introduction aren't properly addressed. But that's hardly the fault of the Foundation. 

I do find the whole intro scene to be executed fantastically. I especially like how cool and laid back the White Guardian seems as he sips cocktails and tells the Doctor nothing will ever happen to him if he refuses to help. It's a great moment. 

But Ribos Operation offers a greater Foundation than just its opening few minutes. It does provide the basic gist of how most stories in this season will work. Aside from a slight variation in Androids of Tara, the Doctor and Romana will spend the bulk of the plot just trying to figure out what the latest Segment has disguised itself as. While they do this, they will also deal with a few other conflicts that need to be solved (ie: stopping the Pirate Planet, bringing Cessair of Diplos to justice, disassembling Kroll, etc...). It's not just a bit of exposition at the beginning of Part 1, the basic format of the whole season is also displayed. 

All in all, a very solid Foundation. 

2. Momentum

Here is where The Key to Time begins to flounder.   

Ribos Operation, I feel, creates a great Foundation (although some fans claim it moves a bit too slow). Pirate Planet and Stones of Blood continue to entertain with engaging, well-paced stories (although some fans complain that Part Four of Stones drags on a bit). By the time we get to Androids of Tara and Power of Kroll, however, it really does feel like the whole thing is starting to lose some serious steam.

Part of the problem, I feel, is the quality of the stories, themselves. I find neither of these tales to be particularly engaging so sitting through them does wear me out a bit and causes me to lose interest in the thrust of the whole season. I'll get into their problems at a later point, though. Here, I'll focus on legitimate pacing issues. 

While Androids of Tara does mix things up a bit by having Romana find the Fourth Segment right away, I do think the structure of the season is still too rigid.  Telling a whole story and only revealing where the Segment is in the last few minutes gets too repetitive. Which I think really starts to make things feel like they're moving too slowly. I do feel we needed more than just the slight variation in Tara to keep things interesting. The Doctor finding a Segment halfway through a story but deciding to stay to sort out whatever mess is going on could have made for a nice change, for instance. If, maybe, one or two other stories in the season had subverted the structure just a bit more that would have helped pacing enormously. But getting the same thing over and over (for the most part) really takes the wind out of The Key to Time's sails.  

I think another big problem with pacing lies in the fact that giving the retrieval of each Segment, at least, four episodes each was too much. I think a couple of two parters would have really tightened things up a bit. Finding a Segment here and there in only two episodes instead of four would have helped enormously with the pace. Taking so long to retrieve each and every Segment just drags on a bit too much. Yes, Williams has an obligation to produce so many episodes a season but he should have just gotten permission to shorten the season a bit. Or not taken a whole season to do the saga (maybe a free-standing story or two with the leftover eps after Key to Time was over?) Or something to that effect. As with a lot of 70s Who - there does feel like there's not enough story to fill the run-time. Which really damages the Momentum of this Umbrella Season.    

 3. Conclusion

That bad momentum in the latter half of the season takes us into a Conclusion that I feel is largely unsatisfactory. 

Armageddon Factor does have some good moments. It starts off quite decently and actually manages to get us excited again about the Quest for the Key to Time. The concept of making a mock piece of the Key to get it to freeze Mentalis and the Marshal was also quite clever (although the execution seems a little awkward and disjointed). Drax is also a very fun character and it's good that he gets introduced into the story when he does. These are all things about this story that I feel work really well and make for a great final story of the season. 

But there are two gigantic problems that really sour the Conclusion of this saga for me.

The first is the comedy element. Quite simply, it goes way too far. A little levity now and again throughout the six episodes would have been okay. Even letting Tom Baker get really playful works (Invasion of Time benefited greatly from this during the last season - the Doctor translating Latin to an imaginary Borusa is still so delightfully surreal!). But everybody really starts going for high farce as we reach those middle episodes. Shapp doing a comic pratfall into the transmat shaft after his shoot-out with a Mute is truly the moment where I find myself giving up on trying to take anything all that seriously anymore. Which is not how you should make an audience feel at the climax of a season-long saga. There really should have been a stronger emphasis on the drama. But because everyone just seems to be trying to create as many gags as they can, the ending to it all feels very hollow. Like it was meant to be so much better - but failed.  

And then there's that final confrontation with the Black Guardian. It's great that the Doctor figures out who he really is and denies him the Key. That was certainly very important. But the White Guardian emphasised way back in the Foundation that he still needed it, himself, to restore balance to the Universe. So the Doctor just splitting up the six Segments again and installing a randomiser seems too irresponsible for even him! What happens to the Universe because he didn't give the Key to the White Guardian? We needed a better explanation than what we got. 

Yes, we can create a bit of headcannon for this sequence (and I did exactly that in these links: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/06/fixing-continuity-glitches-what-hell.html and https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/06/fixing-continuity-glitches-what-hell_19.html), but I feel this is similar to one of the problems I discussed in my Greatest Hits Essay about Pyramids of Mars a few entries back. There are moments in a good sci fi franchise where you can leave things a little ambiguous and let the fans make up their own resolution to an issue. And there are times when an author should provide a better explanation than they did. The final ending to Key to Time is like giving Sutekh his own means of escape. Things just aren't making sense and they should have been made clearer to us. I'm amazed when the script writer(s) and script editor let this sort of thing slide. 

4. Coherency 

For the most part, the adventures in The Key to Time do feel very interconnected. This is best achieved by the TARDIS Console Room Scenes that bookend all the stories. With the exception of the beginning and ending of Power of Kroll (which does brings a very refreshing change), every tale starts with the Doctor and Romana in the TARDIS fitting the Locator into the console to find the next Segment. The final moments of Part Four show the Doctor and Romana back in the TARDIS fitting the latest piece of the Key into place. This really does help us to feel like we are watching one big saga broken down into smaller parts. Everything connects together nicely because of this structure. 

(Super Pedantic Sidenote: Androids of Tara also doesn't have a console room scene at the end. I didn't forget! Although I'm trying to forget its final scene as it was rather cringy!) 

But there are some inconsistencies that damage the Coherency. Most of them seem to involve Romana. In Ribos Operation, she seems obsessed with Pop Psychology. Spewing all sorts of psycho-babble all over the place anytime she can. This trait then largely disappears for most of the season until Robert Holmes is writing for her again in Kroll. Clearly, Romana's proficiency for Armchair Psychology should have either been written in to the rest of the season or written out of Holmes' scripts. Season 24 experiences a similar problem with the Doctor mixing up his proverbs during Time and the Rani and Delta and the Bannermen but not doing it at all during Paradise Towers and Dragonfire. 

There's an even bigger problem of this nature regarding Romana's understanding of her mission. The Doctor finally explains to her during Stones of Blood that she wasn't actually assigned her job by the Lord President. But rather, the White Guardian in the form of the Lord President. Working at the behest of the White Guardian seems to make a strong impression on her. Apparently, not strong enough, though. As she seems to forget completely about this by Armageddon Factor and is shocked, once more, to learn that the Guardians are involved with the retrieval of the Key to Time. 

There things are fairly easy fixes that seem to have slipped by the Script Editor. While they're not huge mistakes, they do damage the overall sense of Coherency to the Umbrella Season. 

As I worked through the editing stages of this entry, I started thinking to myself: "Goodness! This is going on for a quite a bit!" So I decided to split the thing in half. This way, you can take a little break. Hope to see you in the next part.