DOCTOR WHO: SEASON BY SEASON - SEASON FIVE

So we took a brief break from Season Reviews to handle a nice, long-winded ANALYTICAL essay. But I am trying to review all 38 seasons of Doctor Who before the 60th Anniversary has come and gone. So I can't slack off on these too much! 

Let's pick up where we left off....

Season Four of Doctor Who was hardly the show at its best. At the risk of sounding too cruel, we should almost be a bit thankful that great chunks of the stories from that year have gone missing. We should even be a bit regretful that footage of Patrick Troughton prancing about in a gypsy outfit as guards in leather fetish outfits pursue him did actually survive. It's an image I'd rather not have stuck in my head! 

In many ways, Season Four is comparable to Season Twenty-Four. There was just too much going on behind-the-scenes and it had a serious consequence on the overall content that was created that year. But, just like Season Twenty Four, lessons were learnt from mistakes. The seasons that followed were a vast improvement and the Show was back on its feet. In fact, some of the best stories in the programme's history were made after Production stumbled its way through Season Twenty-Four. 

Something similar happens after Season Four. Indeed, there are quite a few fans who claim that Season Five is one of the best, ever. Troughton now had a firm grip on what he wanted to do with the role. His companions were brilliantly-conceived and excellently portrayed. Writing and production, in general, was way better than most of what the previous season had to offer. 

And then, of course, there were the monsters. Probably what Season Five is best remembered for. The Cybermen were back and being treated much better than they were in The Moonbase. There were also the menacing Yeti skulking about in two stories, that year. And, of course, we got the Great Intelligence and the Ice Warriors. Foes so iconic that they have made several more returns to the series over its many decades. 

Even the sentient seaweed in Fury from the Deep was pretty creepy! 

Without a doubt, Season Five does get the show back on track. There is nary a hint of Troughton in a gypsy costume! 

BUT IS IT THAT GOOD?

So I think it's safe to say that I am quite happy with Season Five. Review over, right?    

Of course not! 

I did mention in an earlier paragraph that certain segments of Fandom consider Five to be one of the best seasons the show ever made. Let's home in on that. As many of you know, I don't always agree with Popular Opinion (rarely agree might be a more accurate term!). Is this the case, here? Will the Great Contrarion rear his ugly head, once more? Or is the high regard Season Five receives completely mitigated? 

Let's spend this particular Review breaking things down a bit. I will look at all the strengths of Season Five and put them under a microscope to see if they really are as great as people say. Let's also examine any flaws that might exist in the stories and determine their level of potency. Once we've accomplished that, we'll go back to that Main Question: "Is Season Five as good as everyone claims?!" With the amount of detail I'm going to go into, I should be able to give a fairly solid answer. 

THE REAL PROBLEMS

So we'll start at the bottom and work our way up. Let's look at the genuine problems of Season Five and then, slowly but surely, move towards the aspects that have made it great. This way, we end the entry on a high note. 

As usual, I'll go straight to the Elephant in the Room and look it dead in the eye.  There is one big problem with this season that can be summarised in three simple words: 

Base. 

Under. 

Siege. 

This particular plot structure does tend to get abused quite a bit during Season Five. But, if we're being honest, it happens a few times in Season Four, too. In many ways, it reminds me of the "end-of-story supporting cast slaugherfests" that I complain about in Seasons Twenty-One and Twenty-Two. It does just seem like the writing in Doctor Who can get a bit lazy from time-to-time and a certain device gets overused. 

What can, sometimes, save us from getting tired of the repetition is a sense of variation. Something that I feel does happen adequately in Season Five. Tomb of the Cybermen and The Ice Warriors only start becoming a base-under-siege tale during their latter half. Web of Fear has a prevailing sense of futility running through it - the good guys seem to have little or no hope of protecting their base effectively. Abominable Snowmen is interesting because the base is a primitive monastery. The base in Fury from the Deep is trying to defend itself at sea while The Wheel in Space, of course, is a space battle. 

When we get to my Review of Season Eight, you'll see that one of my biggest problems with it is how the plots rely too heavily on the premise of the Master meddling in  things he doesn't understand. Admittedly, there's a bit of a variation on that formula, too. But, oftentimes, it doesn't feel like enough. Whereas I don't feel this is the case with Season Five. Yes, it still would have been nice if there had been a bit less reliance on the base-under-siege premise, but I don't feel it works all that much to the detriment of the entire season. It's presented in enough different ways that I don't think it gets too tiresome. 

ANOTHER REAL PROBLEM

The only other major problem that I feel Season Five has (and, really, I didn't really think the first problem was all that big!) is the one story that some fans like to praise because it doesn't rely on the base-under-siege formula. While it does offer something different, there are a lot of other problems with the whole thing.  In fact, I'd go so far to say that Enemy of the World is a bit of a mess. 

If I'm being really harsh, it veers perilously close to being another Underwater Menace. There are some really preposterous aspects to the story. Even the chase scene right at the beginning seems a bit silly. You'd think these guys hell-bent on killing Salamander might, at least, ask a few questions before trying to take him out. Especially once they see an actual ally trying to protect him. But the writer wanted to start the adventure with a bit of peril. So he arranges a clumsy chase sequence that only makes so much sense.     

One of the biggest problems with Enemy, of course, is how silly it all looks as it attempts to visualize what the world will be like in 2018 (or thereabouts). Whenever Science Fiction tries to only go a few years into the future, things tend to go badly. Particularly when we finally reach that year and it turns out people aren't walking around in plastic skirts or wearing helmets with giant antennae sticking out of them! 

I do attempt to, at least, reconcile this issue with a bit of headcannon in a FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES essay: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/10/fixing-continuity-glitches-quick-fixes-5.html. Take a look at it, if you like. I make more plastic skirt and antennae helmet jokes, there!    

The final revelation of Salamander's secret plot is, perhaps, the most ludicrous aspect of the story. I'm still not sure how you can get a small group of people in a bunker to engineer natural disasters across the world. I guess it's some sort of special technology that Salamander invented since he does seem to dabble in weather control. But it does all seem a bit too far-fetched. Trapping people in an underground base and telling them there was a nuclear war also feels a bit like the fake spaceship in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. I'm just not sure you can work a scam like that all-that-effectively. After a short while, people are bound to test the illusion you're creating for them and bust the bubble. 

I will admit, I could be criticising Enemy of the World too hard. But I do feel it's a bit of a stinker. Which definitely jeopardizes the whole Season Five is One of the Most Amazing Season Ever! Concept that certain fans believe in. 

THINGS START GETTING BETTER

And so, we begin to climb the Ladder of Quality. We have a few tales in Season Five that I would say are "mostly good". They are definitely decent stories but are riddled with a few significant flaws. Which deny them the much-coveted title of "Classic". And also make it a bit more difficult for Season Five to earn its reputation. 

Admittedly, Wheel in Space is an improvement over The Moonbase, But only so much. There is still a bit of that sense of: "Look everyone! We've brought the Cybermen back! Get excited! Don't look at the story too hard! But get excited!" The plot only seems to hold together so well. One of the biggest issues I have is that the Cybermen actually seem capable of engineering supernovas. With that sort of technology at their disposal, why are they so worried about defeating a space station?! 

Trying to get us excited about the return of this particular foe becomes even less effective since there was a really good Cybermen story at the beginning of the season. We didn't need to see them again, so soon. Or, if Production is going to bring them back - it needs to give Tomb of the Cybermen a run for its money. There are some problems with Tomb too (which I will get into shortly), but it is still infinitely superior to Wheel. Which makes the problems the season closer has all-the-more glaring. 

The other story that fits prominently into this category would be The Ice Warriors. Overall, it's a fairly good yarn. The monsters, themselves, are well-constructed enough that we see them return several more times. The main premise is fairly interesting, too. This might just be the first time Doctor Who delivers a bit of an environmental message.

Ultimately, however, there isn't quite enough there to sustain the six episodes. The story does plod along a bit, in places. I'm also only so fond of the performance the actor playing Leader Clent delivers. While he may not be a villain, the whole thing does feel just a bit "Zaroffian"! 

GETTING BETTER....

At last, we start getting to the really outstanding stuff. The stories that truly come to mind when we are going on about the greatness of Season Five. 

I've talked quite a bit about Tomb of the Cybermen when I listed my Top Five Cybermen Stories last year (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-of-lists-top-five-cybermen-stories.html). The biggest thing I point out is that there is a huge difference in quality between the first two parts and the next two. But I'm also quick to add that the latter half isn't really all that bad and I find myself able to forgive the flaws that exist in it because Episodes One and Two are just so damned good. 

Which does mean that the season is off to an amazing start. I think this gives a tremendous boost to Season Five's reputation. Especially considering that, most of the time, a new year of the show tends to start off with a bit of a whimper. Unearthly Child was a great way to begin the very first season of Doctor Who (and, even then, it's just an excellent first episode - the rest of the story is passable, at best). But the start of every season after One is nothing all that special. Until, of course, we reach Season Five.

Though there are a few problems, we do really get a strong opener, here. And this does put a very different complexion on things. Season Five feels very different from its predecessors because of this. Which really makes it stand out. 

I could rant and rave some more about Tomb. But, really, you're better off just reading the link I posted where I review it pretty comprehensively. No need to keep singing the same praises over and over! 

THE TRULY EXCELLENT

From this point onward, it's nothing but the good stuff. We really do get 18 of the most solid episodes of Doctor Who ever made.

It is a pretty huge shame that only one episode of The Abominable Snowmen is still intact. On the surface, it's a simple tale of a monastery trying to defend itself from an alien threat that lurks both within and outside of it. But it's so well-executed that it's hard not to fall in love with such a straightforward little adventure (at least, from what I've seen of reconstructions and the novelisation).

The Great Intelligence works well because he is so delightfully abstract. A shapeless consciousness seeking to establish a foothold on the Earth in the Himalayas. Up until this point, most villains and/or monsters in Doctor Who work to a fairly standard pattern. They traipsed about with a bit  of firepower and got you do to do what they wanted by pointing a laser gun at you. The Great Intelligence was something truly unique (okay, the Animus in Season Two is slightly similar - but the Yeti stories look considerably less silly than The Web Planet!). Because he is so different from so many other menaces the show had produced, the battle against him is much more engaging. And the Intelligence, itself, is considerably more sinister than most other foes that the Doctor has had to fight, thus far.

Abominable Snowmen's sequel is a great example of how much of a difference recovering the story can really make. Like any other lost story, I gleaned whatever I could about it through the usual channels. I thought it was quite enjoyable. But when they found five of the six episodes back around 2013, I was totally blown away but what I saw. Web of Fear is a really intense adventure that steps up the game the Great Intelligence first began only a few episodes previously. When you think about how hastily this second story was penned, you have to be really impressed by the writing skills of Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. The fact that they got Camfield to direct it solidifies its success. This is, easily, my favorite story of the season. Although I have to wonder if that opinion could change if a certain other story was recovered. 

The only bigger shame than Abominable Snowmen only having one part still in existence is that Fury from the Deep doesn't have any full episodes at all. Even without proper visuals to assist me in my enjoyment of it, this looks like a really great story. It's very moody and atmospheric but still has a decent plot. So often, when a Classic Who story has a great vibe to it, the narrative seems to suffer. Terror of the Zygons, for instance, looks great and is very creepy, in places. But there's barely enough story to it to fill two parts. Much less four.   

Not so with Fury. The evil plans of sentient seaweed as it invades a refinery has enough twists and turns to it to keep us very nicely engaged. Victoria's departure ends up being quite touching, too. Particularly her last scene with Jamie. It could be just me, but there always seemed the slightest hint of romantic implication between the two. So it does almost seem like, in their final moments together, Jamie might just decide stay behind with her. 

Instead, the Doctor and the Scotsman sadly go on without her. Happily enough, Zoe is waiting just around the corner... 

It is fortunate that, thanks to the harshness of Australian censorship, a few snippets of footage of Fury still exist. We can, at least, get some tasty samples of how truly disturbing the story looks. There was, of course, also the animation that was done a few years back. But I have never had much good to say about most of the work that's been done in this area. Their style of drawing just doesn't really agree with my tastes. 

Victoria's screams becoming lethal was a fun resolution to the whole conflict. And this is one of the few Who tales where there are absolutely no fatalities. I must admit, it would have been interesting to see Patrick Troughton suddenly proclaim: "Just this once! Everybody lives!" 

A FEW MORE GOOD POINTS

So there you have it. A good chunk of this season is wholeheartedly excellent with tales like Snowmen, Web and Fury. Then you've got a pretty damned amazing story with Tomb of the Cybermen. Ice Warriors and Wheel in Space are quite good, too. Only Enemy of the World is all that significantly disappointing. And, even then, it's more me that doesn't like it. I know a lot of other fans are quite happy with it. 

In my Season Four Review (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/07/doctor-who-season-by-season-season-four.html), I get legitimately quantitative in my final evaluation of the season. I enumerate just how many episodes I find to be poor versus the actual good stuff. While I won't break it down quite as much this time around, I think it is obvious that there is definitely a high percentage of quality content to this season. 

But there are a few more things about Season Five that I think are integral to its success. Most significantly, is the fact that the show really does seem to be finally finding its feet. It has stumbled around quite a bit over the last few seasons. Trying all sorts of different directions with different levels of success. In this season, Doctor Who really seems to be finally understanding what it's about. It develops a proper formula, of sorts, and works quite well with it. Part of that formula, of course, is to only adhere so strongly to it! There will always be room for experimentation. But it is also important that the show now seems to have certain core elements that it will go back to when it needs to. Whereas the first four seasons do feel more like the programme gets lost in the wilderness quite a bit and has no idea where it really is! In Season Five, the show definitely seems to understand where it's going, now. 

The other important development of this season is the firm establishment of the Doctor's ethics. At the show's very beginning, he's a bit of an anti-hero. He's not even all that likeable in his first handful of episodes. Even as the show progresses and his heart warms a bit, he's still quite amoral. He only helps the Sensorites, for instance, because they will allow him access to his TARDIS, again, if he does. There's quite a few stories over the Hartnell Era where he is merely a man caught in a bad situation and is just trying to get out of it in one piece rather than effect a positive change of some sort. In extreme situations (like when he is dealing with the Daleks), he takes a legitimate stand against evil. But, a lot of the time, he's only doing the right thing to save his own skin. As Troughton takes over in Season Four, we do start seeing more and more of a moral backbone developing. I always love to cite that Evils of the Universe speech in Moonbase as being a somewhat pivotal moment where he is starting to have a legitimate credo. 

But I don't think the Doctor truly finds that code of ethics til Season Five. From this point, onward, he is always setting out to right the wrongs he encounters. Regardless of whether or not he stands to benefit from such actions. In fact, most of the time, his moral stance puts him in danger.  This, to me, is one of the most important traits of Season Five. It is here that the Doctor truly becomes the hero we know him to be.   

FINAL VERDICT

Okay, so I've said a lot of good things about Season Five and done little to denounce it. But I have yet to truly answer the question I set out to solve: 

"Is Season Five as good as everyone claims?!"

I think the safest answer would be that I do think this is a pretty amazing season. But I don't think it's quite as good as certain fans would lead you to believe. 

If I were to list my Top Ten All-Time Favorite Seasons of Doctor Who (and I just might, someday!), I don't think Season Five would quite make it on. But it would be pretty damned close. 

Twelfth Place, at worst. Maybe even Eleventh!

Another season reviewed. I'm nearly done watching Season Six, so I will probably write about it in the next entry... 

 

 

 

  

ANALYTICAL: DOCTOR OFFSHOOTS - PART TWO: STOP CLONING AROUND!

DOCTOR OFFSHOOTS continues. The ones we'll be discussing in this part will be less cloney and far more contrived in their origins. We will also deal with some Offshoots who may not actually meet the qualifications I established in the first part but still seem like Offshoots! 

Didn't catch Part One? Here's the link: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/08/analytical-doctor-offshoots-part-one.html. You should, at least, have a look at it so you understand what an Offshoot is. 

REALLY GOOD OFFSHOOTS

We, now, move away from clones and things that are clone-like and get into some of the offshoots that were made in more unconventional manners. I use the term "good offshoots" as a sort of play-on-words. They're a good offshoot because they resemble the Doctor perfectly. But the term also relates to their sense of morality. As we will learn shortly, not all offshoots of the Doctor use his same code of ethics. 

The Instantaneous Biological Meta Crisis created in Journey's End is probably the most contrived way an offshoot has sprung into existence (at least, in terms of the offshoots where we know how they were made - in some cases, that process remains a mystery). Having kept his severed hand "handy" in the TARDIS console room over the last little while (sorry, I had to do that pun!), it suddenly becomes a useful receptacle for his regeneration energy. Siphoning it off into the hand, this prevents him from experiencing a full regeneration. His wounds are healed but his appearance remains the same. Later, of course, Donna fully activates the process by touching the hand during a state of high anxiety. Somehow, this triggers a copy of the Doctor to grow in front of her. 

He's not quite a perfect copy, though. He and Donna have somehow "fused" slightly. He has some of her personality and physical traits (only one heart, normal lifespan). She, in turn, has gained his knowledge. The alteration to the Meta Crisis Doctor's character appears to have made him slightly bloodthirsty. While the Host Doctor does not wish to wipe out Davros' Dalek Empire, his copy commits genocide with barely a second thought. Remembering the effect she had on him after the Time Wars, Host Doctor leaves Meta-Crisis Doctor with Rose in a parallel universe. At long last, Rose gets a version of the Doctor she can fall in love with. 

It is during another Season Finale of New Who that we see a similar phenomenon. Admittedly, these offshoots almost don't fit the definition I've established for them. The two extra versions of the Doctor in The Vanquishers seem as if they are created out of a sort of freak space-time anomaly. This does almost feel like the Doctor crossing her own timestream in some weird way rather than having offshoots of herself. But, among the three identical versions of the Doctor existing at the same time, no one comes from either the future or the past (as would be the case on other occasions when the Time Lord meets himself/herself through time travel). She was, somehow, split three ways as she tried to return to our reality from Tecteun's void ship. The fact that Swarm was attacking her at the exact moment of departure creates these offshoots. This does seem like another fairly contrived process. But I would still say the Meta Crisis Doctor is far more over-complicated!

Once more, we see an example of "linking" during this adventure. The three Doctors can telepathically connect from time-to-time to give each other updates. Of course, two versions don't need to make the link after a while. They have managed to meet up and are now working together. As usual, we get all that clever shooting with a double or special split-screen effects that happen every time the Doctor encounters a duplicate. 

Whether the three versions of the Doctor properly qualify as offshoots still remains questionable. The Doctor does point out to the Grand Serpent as he tries to kill her that she doesn't properly exist, right now, so his attack is useless. Which, again, makes her sound more like a Time Disturbance of some sort rather than a proper being that has been created from the Doctor. It doesn't help that it's the Personification of Time that they meet at the end of the story that merges the three Doctors back together. Almost as if this has something to do with temporal mechanics rather than a biological process of some sort. Finally, in all the other cases of offshoots, there's a "proper" Host Body. We don't actually seem to have one, here. They're the same being split into three. 

With these sort of variations in place, can we truly call these offshoots? 

I'm not entirely sure. But I thought it might still be nice to discuss them and leave the whole thing, momentarily, ambiguous!   

 

REALLY BAD OFF-SHOOTS

The play-on-words continues. These off-shoots are bad because they do not physically resemble the Doctor at all. At the same time, their hearts seem to be filled with the blackest of evils.    

Our first offshoot, like the multi-doctors in The Vanquishers, also falls into a bit of a grey area. As the delightfully tangled plot of Amy's Choice concludes (I really love this story - I may do an UNSUNG CLASSIC post on it someday), we learn that the Dream Lord was created by some psychic spores that got overheated in the TARDIS console and latched onto the Doctor's Id. The Dream Lord is, essentially, a manifestation of all things that the Doctor feels unworthy of.  All of his defects of character. 

There seems to be no actual organic component to the Dream Lord. He is a complete psychic manifestation that may not even exist in our reality. He only seems capable of contacting other beings when they're in a dream state.We do see his reflection in the TARDIS console right at the end, but the Doctor beats the Dream Lord based on the idea that he cannot affect reality. That, essentially, he can't really exist beyond our dreams.Which definitely implies that, in many ways, he's not actually real. 

He might not even be a proper sentient being. But, rather, something from the Doctor's subconscious that it just meant to prey upon his vulnerability. He is described as a mind parasite so it's possible he has no free will of his own. All he can do is feed off the Doctor's guilt. That is his sole motivation. Which would imply that he's purely a predator rather than an actual individual. . 

I tend to view an offshoot as being something that possesses the ability to act independently of its host and do its own thing. The Dream Lord seems to need the Doctor to survive and just performs the same thing on him over and over. He lives to torture the sentient beings he latches onto. He's not capable of doing anything else. 

I also specified that an offshoot is an organism of some sort. As far I can tell, the Dream Lord is pure psychic energy. Something akin to the Mara. The Mara, however, could find ways into our reality and could even, under the right circumstances, adopt a physical form of sorts. The Dream Lord can't even  do that. 

Undeniably, he lacks two of the most crucial attributes for a fully-fledged offshoot. 

Having said all that, however, I do feel that he is still an offshoot of sorts. In the end, he is something that was created from the Doctor. Which does make him, sort of, qualify. 

If I'm to pin myself down a bit, I should also admit that I also think the triple copy of Thirteen in The Vanquishers are offshoots, too.. However, if you wish to dismiss them and the Dream Lord because they don't fit the qualifications, I can't argue with you. 

FROM BAD TO WORSE

Our other Bad Offshoot works on a very similar principle to the Dream Lord. In fact, many fans speculate that there is a connection between the two. The Valeyard from Trial of a Time Lord is also created from all the darker aspects of the Doctor's personality. But he is far more of a danger to the Universe than the Dream Lord could ever hope to be. 

The Dream Lord seems purely concentrated on just making life Hell for the Doctor. The Valeyard has a similar motivation but also has ambitions beyond that. He still needs to torment the Doctor in some ways. At the very least, he wishes to inherit the Doctor's remaining regenerations in order to prolong his own life. But he has also turned his attention toward Time Lord politics. 

Although he struck a bargain with the High Council to have the Doctor silenced before he can piece together the Mystery of Ravalox, he has made alternate plans. He actually seems to be trying to take over Time Lord Society by stirring an insurrection and eliminating the Supreme Court of Gallifreyan Law. Clearly he works on a much grander scale than the Dream Lord aspires to. 

But how did the Valeyard actually come into being? Thus far, every offshoot has been given an origin story of some sort. We see the process that creates them. This is the first example of one where we have no idea how the offshoot was made. We have only the briefest piece of expository dialogue from the Master during Part 13 of Trial of a Time Lord to go off of. And it really doesn't tell much. Admittedly, not knowing the Valeyard's full story does make him all-the-more sinister. It legitimately benefits the character. 

Being the hardcore Who Nerd that I am, though, I have attempted to speculate on how the Valeyard was created in these two entries: 

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

 

THE STRANGEST OF ALL THE OFFSHOOTS 

An unknown origin is not exclusive to the Valeyard. There is one more offshoot to discuss that is probably even more mysterious than the Doctor's antithesis. And, most likely, is the most bizarre offshoot of them all. 

Very little is known of the Watcher that appears in Logopolis. If we're being really honest, he's not really even a character in the story so much as he is an effect that makes the Fourth Doctor's passing all-the-cooler. He speaks no dialogue in all four episodes and just appears at regular intervals to enhance the funeral atmosphere of the tale. He's a beautiful device, really. There probably is no regeneration more memorable than this one. Thanks to the Watcher. 

It's difficult to define him, really. I wouldn't quite say he's the next incarnation of the Doctor so much as a weird interim stage between the two incarnations that is, somehow, capable of existing in the same time and space as the fourth incarnation for a short while. The fact that he seems unformed and almost cocoon-like certainly adds to this idea. 

He looks to be corporeal. But, at the very end of the story, he becomes ghost-like as he merges with the Doctor. Was he a sort of spirit the whole time?  Difficult to say. He might only lose solidity at the time of regeneration. Or he could be something with no actual substance that is just good at appearing opaque most of the time. He can operate the controls of the TARDIS. So he can, at least, interact with material objects. But that doesn't mean he's actually solid. 

There are also implications that he can travel considerable distances without the aid of the TARDIS. Through most of Part One, we see him watching the Doctor from the highway as he materialises his TARDIS around the Master's without realising it. During Part Two, he is waiting for the Doctor on a bridge on the Thames after Four's failed attempt to flush out his arch-nemesis. How did he get there so quickly? Is he just a really fast runner? Or has he some special means of travel? One even wonders if he used those same powers to transport Nyssa from Traken to Logopolis near the end of the second episode. The TARDIS doesn't seem to have moved from its original spot since it landed on the Planet of Mathematicians. It's possible, of course, that the Watcher landed it in the exact same place after taking it briefly to get Nyssa. 

But there is a bigger question, here. How did the Watcher actually get from Earth to Logopolis to get the TARDIS and use it to pick up Nyssa (if, indeed, he actually transported the Trakenite in the time ship, at all). We certainly didn't see him board the TARDIS after he and Four have that big serious talk on the bridge. So is it possible that the Watcher can, somehow, teleport about? 

Given how little we genuinely know about him, anything is possible, really. 

It would seem, at least, that there is some similarity between the Watcher and the projection of Cho-Je that we see K'anpo Ripoche using during Planet of Spiders. Obviously, they are not exactly the same. Cho-Je is a fully-formed future incarnation that is, somehow, existing concurrently with the current version of the Doctor's old mentor. But we get little explanation of how these two versions of the same Time Lord are intermingling so this doesn't really help us to understand the Watcher any better. 

If you do read my first entry of Who is the Valeyard?, I spend a bunch of time theorising about the nature of the Watcher. Rather than do a re-tread, here, I will just simply say that making him  ambiguous benefited him as greatly as it did the Valeyard. When a story is well-crafted, we don't have to have every question answered. A little mystery, in fact, can make the whole narrative all-the-more engaging. 

Both the Valeyard and the Watcher, I think, are a great example of this. 

AN OFFSHOOT COUNT 

Well, those are about all the different offshoots that I can think of from both New and Classic Who (if I missed any, I'm sure you'll let me know) There are some interesting patterns that they seem to adhere to. It is fascinating to see how similarly-crafted they can be, sometimes. Especially over the span of so many years.  

If there was just one more thing to note regarding the analysis of this topic, it's that New Who seems to use offshoots a little more often than the Original Series did. The fact that we have seen more of them in only 13 seasons of the Revival (whereas offshoots spanned over 26 seasons of Old Who) also designates that they are used in higher concentration. Which can be a bit tricky, of course. Suddenly having an extra version of the Doctor running about can become a cheap way to resolve difficult conflicts in a plot. Unless a writer is careful, an offshoot can become a very easy Deus Ex Machina. 

All in all, though, I have enjoyed how offshoots have been used most of the time. Some I like better, of course. But I do think they're a very fun thing to occasionally put into a story. They can take a narrative in very interesting directions. At the same time, they can also offer fascinating insights into the Doctor's own psyche!  

When the Doctor claims to have a huge crush on herself during The Vanquishers, for instance, it definitely shows that Ten wasn't the only one with vanity issues!    

Okay. Offshoots done. We've offered something more than just opinion for a couple of entries. I think I'll do a few more Season Reviews, now.... 

ANALYTICAL - DOCTOR OFFSHOOTS: PART ONE - SEND IN THE CLONES....

Many of my entries, of late, have been largely opinion-based. Lots of Season Reviews and Greatest Hits. Even my "Should we Consider Them Companions?" stuff can be highly subjective. So it's good to get back to the more research-oriented work that an ANALYTICAL essay requires of me. 

I had an idea for this one quite some time ago. I thought it might be an interesting recurring concept to look into. I wrote out the title of the essay to make sure I wouldn't forget it (something I have done so many times previously when I didn't create, at least, a headline for the entry) and then let it just sit around for the better part of a year. Since I was feeling the need to move away from heavy opinions for a bit, I finally went back and found the empty entry that only has a name to it and set about filling it up. 

JUST WHAT IS A DOCTOR OFFSHOOT?! 

With an essay of this nature, it's important to create some definitions before getting into the analysis. 

Doctor Offshoot: An organic (or, at the very least, quasi-organic) being that stems from the Doctor but acts independently of him/her. It is created in any way except the conventional form of reproduction. A simple example of an off-shoot would be a clone. Essentially, it is a free-thinking organic being created through artificial means that uses, at least, a sample of the Doctor's biology as its base constituents. 

Things That Aren't Offshoots: As usual, we will help define the concept by stating some of the things an offshoot isn't:

Android copies of the Doctor like the one we saw in The Android Invasion don't count as an offshoot. Nor does something like the hologram he creates of himself in Pirate Planet. Neither of these are organic beings. 

We can also rule out someone like Susan as being an actual offshoot. Yes, the Doctor is responsible for her creation. But he did it in a natural manner by having a kid who then had a kid. 

The idea of the Doctor just crossing his own timestream is not an offshoot either. Even if we are witnessing multiple versions of him (either in different incarnations like in The Five Doctors or the same like in The Big Bang), it's really just him occupying the same place and time in several iterations. There isn't a new being that's created, here.

Finally, there are doppelgangers. There are two types. Firstly, there's people like the Abbot of Amboise in The Massacre. He is a double of the First Doctor who just seemed to randomly occur in the Universe and the TARDIS just happens to take the Doctor to a time and place where the Abbot exists. And then there are creatures like Meglos who assume the Doctor's form for a time as a type of super-elaborate disguise. In both instances, these are beings that look like the Doctor but were not created from him. So they don't qualify either. 

There we go. Definition set. Hopefully, it actually makes sense to you!    

ATTACK OF THE CLONES

So let's start with a type of offshoot that we've already stated as an example: Clones. 

Probably the best way to create a clone is the way we saw it done in the movie I referenced in the title of this section. Start them as a fetus and get them to adulthood through accelerated growth. A clone that is immediately produced as an adult seems to run into a lot of problems. 

This is best displayed in the story where we see the  Doctor cloning himself for the first time. In The Invisible Enemy, the Doctor comes up with a mad scheme to try to take out the Nucleus of the virus that has invaded him. He shrinks down a clone of both himself and Leela and sends them into his own body to eradicate the foreign invader. Clearly, he doesn't have time to "grow" a clone so he must use the Kilbracken Technique. Described as "no more than a parlour trick" by Professor Marius, it will provide the Doctor with an adult clone that will only last for so long. Marius even takes the time to explain that growing a clone works just fine by the 51st Century. They have the technology to achieve that. But an "instant clone" seems to eventually go through an extreme level of shock from gaining so much knowledge and experience so quickly. After about eleven minutes, they completely burn out. 

Something similar seems to happen with the Argolins' attempt to use tachyonics as a form of cloning. In Part Four of The Leisure Hive, we see our first example of multiple offshoots at once. More times than others, we only see one such being in a story. But, thanks to a little trickery on the Time Lord's part, the army that Pangol is creating is the Doctor rather than the tyrannical Argolin. 

This is the second time in the show that we witness the Doctor getting cloned*. Also the second time that we see an offshoot. These are very primitive forms of offshoots. Which is probably part of the reason why they have such short lifespans. Duplicating DNA in such a manner is far more complex than most forms of technology can handle. Probably only highly-advanced races can create instant clones effectively. 

Whatever the case, the clones of the Doctor in Leisure Hive are even shorter-lived than the one in Invisible Enemy. This may be because this story takes place quite a bit earlier than Enemy so the technology will be less sophisticated. Therefore, the clones will not last as long. It would seem that the many clones of the Doctor start dying off only four or five minutes after they are created. Their passing, at least, seems quite peaceful. They just gently fade away. 

JUST ONE LAST THING ABOUT CLONES

There is, perhaps, one more important point we should cover about clones before moving on. Invisible Enemy provides us with our first example of a "link" between the Doctor and the off-shoot. This sort of thing doesn't happen often but it has some interesting ramifications when it does. 

In Enemy, the link is a simple one. What happens to the original host affects the clone. When we see the Clone Doctor doing things to the host body, he does seem to be feeling the ailments he's creating for himself. We're not sure, though, if this is really the case. The Fourth Doctor does delight in exaggerated responses and could be just be acting a bit silly. 

But a bit later, he explains to Leela quite clearly how the link works. When the Host Body bumps her head badly, Clone Leela feels it. The Doctor elaborates and even reveals that if the real Leela dies, her copy gets killed, too. 

In this instance, the link between Host and Off-Shoot seems a bit disadvantageous (to the clone, at least!). Why the link even occurs was never properly explained. But, for some reason, this is a feature that 51st Century Instant Clones possess.      

CLONE-LIKE STUFF

From clones, we move on to off-shoots that work on a very similar principle to cloning but I wouldn't say they're quite the same. Either their process of creation is too different or the results that they produce don't really make an actual clone (assuming that we define a clone as being an exact copy of the host body).These "clone-like" offshoots all seem to occur during the New Series.

    

Probably the most famous example of this sort of thing would be Jenny from The Doctor's Daughter. Within seconds of arriving on the planet Messaline, the Doctor's hand is forced into a huge contraption that extracted his DNA and created a fully-mature independent being. Sounds like an Instant Clone, right? Just one big difference: 

The being created by the Doctor's DNA looks nothing like him. She isn't even the same gender. 

Dubbed "Jenny" by Donna, she was created in much the same way as one might make a clone. But the results are considerably different. It is more like she's the Doctor's daughter than a duplicate of him.While many jokes are made about the Doctor being her "Dad" - this is clearly not a conventional form of reproduction. The machines that perform the whole task are called "Progenitors". They, essentially, conceive offspring through a technique very similar to cloning. 

In many ways, there's very little of the Doctor that we actually see in this particular offshoot. Not just in terms of physical appearance, but her psychological make-up is also quite different. The Doctor always tries to be a man of peace, but Jenny has been programmed to be a soldier. She even seems ready to kill if she needs to. It's only through the Doctor's persuasiveness that she chooses not to be the warrior she was designed to be. But, unlike her Host, she was specifically bred for violence. 

There are, however, a few genetic attributes that she seems to have inherited from her "Dad". Donna shows the Doctor with his stethoscope that, like him, she possesses two hearts. Later, after getting shot near the end of the episode, Jenny dies. But she does seem to have a limited level of regeneration energy. She uses it to resurrect  at her funeral (good thing it happened before they buried and/or cremated her!). Alive once more, she steals a ship and runs off to a potential spin-off series and/or return appearance that never actually happens. 

Our other example of a clone-like off-shoot works in the exact reverse to Jenny. He looks just like the Doctor and has all his knowledge, experience and personality. However, the technique to create him doesn't seem like cloning. There are some similarities in the methodology, but also some distinct differences.

The Flesh is described as "a programmable mass" whose natural state is a whitish liquid. It's possible to feed all your genetic information into the substance and it will solidify into an exact copy of you. Cloning doesn't seem to quite work this way. Usually, clones are grown (sometimes, quite rapidly) rather than molded from a sort of soupy clay. 

Dubbed "gangers" (short for doppelganger), these off-shoots also have a link with their hosts. The humans they are molded from sit in a special harness and mentally control their every move. In much the same way as the protagonist in the film Avatar used the Na'vi that was created for him. Of course, a solar tsunami (whatever that is!) disrupts the link and the gangers develop free will. 

The Doctor's ganger, however, worked quite differently. Somehow, when he was analysing the Flesh with his sonic screwdriver, it took a reading of him at the same time. A perfect copy gets made that only seems to have a bit of trouble before it stabilises. His face does revert to that weird, pale, rough-hewn state for a short while after its creation. It also experiences a similar sort of psychic trauma that we see other instant clones go through. All that knowledge and experience being assigned to him immediately becomes a bit more than the newly-created being can take. This process is especially difficult for the Doctor's ganger as he must reconcile all his past incarnations. But he does work through it after a moment.   

Aside from that initial instability, the ganger is a perfect copy of its host. So much so, that they are able to fool Amy with a "clever switcheroo" when she actually seems to be discriminating against the offshoot. Once this offshoot does "settle in",  he becomes the most convincing offshoot-copy that was ever made of the Doctor. 

I think we will stop this little study, for now. There are a few more types of offshoots to look at but this particular entry is getting a bit long. We'll do a Part Two shortly. In it, we'll look at some things that aren't as "cloney" as what we've been analysing, so far!

If you were watching carefully, I placed a little asterisk in a paragraph where I was discussing the Doctor Clones in Leisure Hive. I expand on the point just below: 

*While I claim that the copies of the Doctor in Leisure Hive are clones, that may not actually be the case. At one point, one of the duplicates refers to himself as a "tachyon image", Which makes him more of a sophisticated hologram than anything. If this is so, then the multiple Doctors in this tale are disqualified as being proper offshoots. 

It could be that the label the Doctor assigns himself is completely accurate. But there is much to contradict it. Pangol is attempting a cloning experiment - not manipulating tachyon images as he was earlier in the narrative. From what we have gathered,Tachyon images only seem capable of existing within the Generator. The army of Doctors, however, emerge and start wandering through the Leisure Hive, itself. Romana does actually touch one of the so-called tachyon images and he is legitimately solid - not a property holograms usually have. 

These facts do insinuate that it's just as likely that these are just short-lived clones that we're seeing. Or, quite possibly, a hybrid of the two. Clones that are, at the same time, tachyon images of sorts. 

Whatever the case, I'll let them qualify as offshoots. Offshoots that don't live for very long - but offshoots, nonetheless.