POINT OF DEBATE: SHOULD WE CONSIDER THEM COMPANIONS? - ADAM

It's time for Season Reviews to step aside again for a bit so we can do something else. Should We Consider Them Companions? has been a popular series, of late. It's amazing how many characters have been on the show that fall into such a grey area that I'm able to have so many debates of this nature! 

Having done exhaustive research into the long history of the Brigadier in our last entry on this subject, we will now do the exact opposite and look into someone of considerably less longevity. Back in Series One of New Who, we had Adam roll in for just two episodes. The character was used in a very unique way. He appeared to be someone who was meant to become a companion but had, somehow, failed. Even Turlough, who was trying to kill the Doctor when he first climbed aboard the TARDIS, did a better job than Adam did! 

He was also meant to illustrate just how good of a person Rose actually was. That she was travelling with the Doctor for all the right reasons and that the Doctor valued her greatly because of it. Of course, she would get knocked off her pedestal an episode later when she breaks all sorts of major Time Laws during Father's Day. But that was, perhaps, one more purpose that Adam had in the whole narrative: To show that the Doctor was idealising Rose too much. 

Whatever the case, I do think Adam was used very well in Series One. His small presence in the show achieved several important goals in the whole arc of the season. Bruno Langley - even though he's done some serious things that have gotten him cancelled - still does a great job of playing the role.     

But the question still remains: Do we actually consider Adam Mitchell a proper companion? 

PUTTIN' HIM THROUGH THE QUALIFIERS

While I have done quite a few of these essays, this may still be your first time encountering one. Or, you may have just forgotten my basic format since it has been a while since I've written this sort of entry. So I will quickly recap what I think a character in Doctor Who needs to have to be considered a companion: 

1) Onscreen Longevity: A character has to be on the show for an extended period of time. We have to actually see them in a large number of episodes.

2) Travelling in the TARDIS story-to-story: A companion leaves with the Doctor at the end of a story and goes on to travel with him for several more.   

If you'd like a more in-depth examination of these two traits, check out this link:  https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/point-of-debate-should-we-consider-them.html

Let's see how Adam fares when we run him through the Qualifiers.... 

TRAIT #1: HOW LONG OF A GAME DID ADAM PLAY? 

So, as mentioned, Adam only gets two episodes: Dalek and The Long Game. It's not much, really. Which means he's not doing particularly well in the longevity department. For a companion to really be considered one, they should get a good season under their belt. 

If we want to give Adam just a bit more credibility, we can point out that one episode of New Who is the equivalent of two episodes from the Classic Series. So, by Old Who standards, he actually got four episodes. But this still doesn't help him much. Four episodes only equates to the average length of one story from the show in its original run. So that doesn't really make all that great a difference.   

We can build a bit more of a case for Adam by pointing out that not all companions stay for an entire season. Later on in Series One, itself, Captain Jack will come along and only get five episodes before he goes. Fans, for the most part, seem to consider that an adequate enough time to qualify him as a companion (who would, of course, eventually become a recurring character). There are other examples like this. Dodo would be another character who stays on for less than a season but still achieves companion status. 

So, if other people can get less than a season in and still be companions, maybe we can think the same about Adam. Especially when you consider that Nine only got a season before he went. Things that happen during his brief era have to be a bit condensed since he was only around for so long, himself. This justification does, sort of, make it conceivable that Adam could be a companion even with such short longevity. 

TRAIT #2: HOW LONG BEFORE THE DOCTOR DECIDES HE ONLY TRAVELS WITH THE BEST? 

For the second trait that a character needs to become a companion, Adam does meet the minimum requirement. At the end of Dalek, he does climb aboard the TARDIS and travels into The Long Game. To me, it is crucial that a companion does this. They need to depart from one story and travel into the next. There are any number of characters in the show's history that travel in the TARDIS for the course of one tale. But this does not qualify them as a companion. Once they start making it into other adventures, however, my outlook on them changes. 

Of course, a really proper companion travels to more than just one new story. They should make it through several adventures before they depart. They don't have to do this as often as, say, Tegan or Sarah Jane Smith - but they should still be taking quite a few trips. 

Which does mean that, maybe, Adam doesn't quite measure up in this department, either. Is journeying to just one new story really enough? Maybe it makes a character a little bit more special - but it doesn't, necessarily, give them companion status. 

In terms of this particular trait, Adam sits in the same general area as Katarina. Who, of course, received her own entry in this series only a short while ago (although she had to share it with Sara Kingdom!). I left it somewhat ambiguous as to whether she was truly a companion just because she took one trip into a new story. I think we have to do the same with Adam.

MORE ARGUMENTS AGAINST

There is a very vital point that we could make against Adam being a companion. Throughout his all-too-brief era, he actually seems more like an an enemy to the Doctor than a friend. Or, at the very least, he is definitely a thorn in the Time Lord's side. In Dalek, he is working for Henry Van Statten. Who is, very much, the villain of the story (he might even be worse than the actual Dalek - even the Doctor points this out!). Which makes Adam, through guilt of association, a bit of an antagonist, too.  

As we shift to Long Game, he becomes even worse. We can see that succinct moment where he pockets the phone Rose has forgotten to take back from him and thinks to himself: "I'm going to use this to my advantage!" Later in the plot, he tries to leave a message for himself in the past that will enable him to reap all sorts of rewards from his foreknowledge of events to come. His quest to gather even more information for his benefit leads him to a situation that legitimately endangers the life of the Doctor and Rose. 

His poor judgement eventually leads the Doctor to being furious with him. He returns Adam to his proper place in Time and Space with the results of his operation still intact. Forcing him to have to "lie low" for the rest of his existence and never make much of himself. Otherwise, people will notice that his forehead can swing open and probably want to dissect him in order to understand how he does it! 

Clearly, the Doctor and Adam part ways on very bad terms. 

Companions, for the most part, are good guys. They help the Doctor - not hinder him. The Time Lord  also tends to get along fairly well with his companions. They become close friends. Very little of this sort of thing goes on between the Doctor and Adam. For the most part, the genius human just causes trouble. He even competes with the Doctor, a bit, for Rose's hand! 

Can we truly consider someone who creates so much turbulence in the Doctor's life a companion?  

It's difficult to say, really. Not all of the relationships the Doctor has had with his companions have been so positive all the time. As we already mentioned earlier, Turlough actually wants to kill the Doctor when he is travelling with him for the first little while. Even when he makes the decision to break his "assassination contract" with the Black Guardian, he's not always the most likeable person. He frequently implores the Doctor and other characters to quit trying to be heroes and choose actions that will lead to self-preservation. 

Tegan tends to judge Turlough for being like this even though she doesn't always have the most harmonious relationship with the Time Lord, either. She does tend to bully him a bit here and there and gives him the most thorough of tongue-lashings at the beginning of The Visitation. They also don't part on the best of terms at the end of Resurrection of the Daleks. It's not as bad as the split the Doctor and Adam had - but it's not that great, either.   

Adric and the Doctor can definitely lock horns, too. Particularly after the Time Lord's fourth regeneration. Their bickering reaches its crescendo during Earthshock. It should also be pointed out that, for a brief time during Four to Doomsday, he takes the side of the story's villain (there are other occasions where he appears to betray the Doctor but we do, eventually, discover that he's just doing this to lull his opponent into a false sense of security that he will press to his advantage at the appropriate moment - ie: he pretends to join the vampires in State of Decay but still tries to save Romana when they are trying to sacrifice her).

Peri has a very difficult time accepting the Doctor's Sixth Personae and argues with him frequently. To the point where the Doctor jokes about it at the end of Mark of the Rani. 

These are just some examples of relationships between the Doctor and a companion becoming rocky that took place in the 80s. They happen in other eras of the show, too. Ian and Barbara fight quite a bit with the Doctor for being so callous during most of Season One. Ben also starts siding with the bad guys during Macra Terror. Clara experiences a very similar situation to Peri when Eleven transforms into Twelve. 

The Doctor does not always get along well with his companions. In fact, he will become extremely hostile with Rose in the very next episode. So, if we try to disqualify Adam because he created some problems for the Time Lord then we would have to discount a whole bunch of other companions as well. 

However, it should be pointed out that, with other companions, the Doctor tends to mend fences with them, eventually. Adam and the Doctor don't ever  really get on that well. So there might still be some validity to this point. 

SOME ARGUMENTS FOR

There are some other issues that increase Adam's sense of significance that we should also look at. 

In the short time that Adam is around, it is clear that a romance of sorts starts to develop between him and Rose. It reaches its end pretty quickly as we get to about the mid-way point of Long Game. But it's still exists for a substantial period of time before it dies. Giving such a storyline to Adam definitely makes him seem like a bit more than just a mere support (it is also one more way in which the character is "used" by RTD - he helps to demonstrate that the Doctor and Rose are developing deeper feelings for each other). The fact that Mickey, another love in Rose's life, becomes a valid companion next season helps to re-enforce this idea. Climb aboard the TARDIS because you're hot for someone on it, and this entitles you to become a companion. 

Of course, we can still invalidate this point quite easily. Ace, alone, had several romances bloom as she travelled with the Doctor. But I wouldn't  consider Mike from Remembrance of the Daleks or Captain Sorin from Curse of Fenric to be companions. So, maybe being an existing companion's love-interest doesn't earn you the status of a companion, after all. 

It should be noted, however, that neither Mike nor Sorin actually get a chance to travel in the TARDIS. Both end up dying before the closing credits of Episode Four. So they had the potential to be more than just supports. If they had survived, Ace might have asked the Doctor if they could come along on new adventures so that she could continue to explore her feelings for them. Unfortunately, the opportunity was just never allowed to happen. 

Which leads us to another point in Adam's favour: Potential. In many ways, he was meant to be a companion. It's just that certain circumstances and/or bad choices got in the way of things. Again, he fits the profile of Katarina quite a bit. Her potential, too, was nipped in the bud. In her case, at least, she died heroically. Whereas Adam was kicked off the TARDIS. 

Which is, of course, the one thing that sets the two "possible companions" apart and could be what disqualifies Adam, altogether. Katarina was still in the Doctor's Good Graces when she went. He would have wanted her to keep travelling with him if she hadn't sacrificed her life. Whereas the Doctor was done with Adam. The young man was still alive, but he was not wanted aboard the TARDIS anymore. 

Mind you, it could be argued that the Doctor might have been a bit too hard on Adam and should have given him another chance. Which, once more, shifts him back to the status of a companion who was meant to be. Which, in turn, could actually make him a "proper" companion. 

COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS

There is one final point I wish to make in this argument. It's one that's in favor of Adam being a companion. But, admittedly, it's fairly ridiculous. 

The Ninth Doctor's era is far too short. He was a magnificent Doctor who really should have done, at least, the standard three seasons. Although, I loved Eccelston's performance so much that he could have easily beaten Tom Baker's record and I would have been fine with that. Especially since he really does seem to have resolved the bulk of his Survivor's Guilt by the end of Series One. It would have been nice to see what they would have done with the character after that.  The Ninth Doctor's sense of angst was never grating (unlike the Tenth's!), but I would have assumed that, from his second series onward, we wouldn't have seen much of it. A much "lighter" Ninth Doctor who is enjoying life more would have made interesting viewing. 

Sadly, Eccleston was having too much trouble with BBC politics and decided to only do one season. Which, in some ways, worked best for the show. It introduced the new audience that was coming onboard to the concept of regeneration very quickly. Doctor Who might not have survived if we had gotten several more years of Nine. He might have been loved so much that it would be impossible for new fans to accept a different Doctor after him. 

So here's where the actual silliness comes in: Because his era was so short, I would like it to have more significance. To, basically, give the Ninth Doctor "better stats". He seems more impressive if we claim  he had three companions instead of two. So that's why I like to think that Rose, Adam and Captain Jack were all travelling companions of the Ninth Doctor. It's an extremely silly form of reasoning, I know. But I've never been one to take any opinion I have all that seriously!    

Ultimately, of course, I still leave it to you. If you want to see Adam as a companion, you have my support. Or, if you consider him more of an interloper who the Doctor sorted out very quickly, you can view him that way, too!      

Another "grey area companion" has been explored to their fullest limit and debated as thoroughly as possible. Hope you enjoyed the discussion. I would be happy to hear any insights of your own. 

I'm coming along fairly well with my re-watch of Season Seven. So it will probably be another Season Review coming up next.... 

  

Other Should They Be Companions? Debates:

River Song: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/point-of-debate-should-we-consider-them.html 

Katarina and Sara Kingdom: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/06/point-of-debate-should-we-consider-them.html

The Brigadier: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/06/point-of-debate-should-we-consider-them_26.html

DOCTOR WHO: SEASON BY SEASON - SEASON SIX

And the Season Reviews continue. This time, we'll be looking at Patrick Troughton's final year on the show.    

The Almighty Season Five has ended. Doctor Who seems triumphant, once more. Britain is in love with Patrick Troughton and the interesting new monsters his era seems to be ushering in. After a troubled Season Four, all is well in the World of Doctor Who, again. 

There's only the shortest of breaks where the show cleverly broadcasts a re-run that is, apparently, being telepathically projected by the Doctor (even the Doctor's own psyche recognizes that Part One of Evil of the Daleks is completely extraneous and seems to be jumping right to Episode Two!). When the repeat concludes a few weeks later, we launch straight into Season Six. 

Perhaps there should have been a bit more of a rest, though. 

While I don't, necessarily, think Season Five is quite as great as most fans do, it's still very strong. And, regardless of my own personal opinion, it went over quite well with its audience. Even on its initial broadcast, it received some high appreciation. There are other periods of Who that don't get the love they deserve until some time later. Even the famous Hinchcliffe/Holmes Era was under some pretty heavy fire when it first came out. It's only a bit further down the road that it starts getting heralded as "The Golden Age of Doctor Who". But, from what I understand of Season Five, it was greatly enjoyed right from the moment it was first transmitted. 

Which means, of course, that a lot of expectations were heaped on to Season Six. It had to shine just as brightly as its predecessor. Production decides that they want to keep riding the success of the previous season as much as possible and start creating new material as quick as they can. 

This may not have been the best move, however, It might have been smarter to take a bit more time to reflect on what exactly they wanted to achieve with the new season before leaping into it.  At the very least, they needed to line up their scripts better. The episode counts for several stories that season end up getting messed around with because submissions from certain writers weren't quite working, after all. 

But this does not seem to be the only problem Season Six suffers from. All in all, audiences seemed a bit disappointed with it. It's not considered a terrible season, either (at least, not by most fans!), but people do feel let down by it. 

Season Five was definitely a tough act to follow. 

ANOTHER SILLY QUESTION

As I write these reviews, I'm going to do my best to keep them engaging. To do more than just say: "I liked this, but I didn't like that!" (although, with so many seasons to review, at least a few of them will probably be that straightforward). In my last review, for instance, I made the entire entry revolve around one significant question: "Is Season Five as great as they say it is?".  

In case you didn't read the Review, I did say Season Five was great. But that I didn't think it was as great as Fandom claims it to be. This is, essentially, how I like to roll. Regardless of what the consensus is among the fans, I find my own voice and express it. Because of this, my opinions can frequently go against the grain.

Which leads us to another interesting question that we can make this essay answer. Perhaps I like Season Six more than most fans feel about it. At the same time, I don't think the fifth season is quite as great as the reputation it's received. So, maybe, just maybe, I feel these two seasons are equal in quality. 

So this entry's Big Question will be: 

"Was Season Six actually as good Season Five?"

Sounds crazy, I know. So, once more, I will break things down a bit....

OFF TO A GREAT START

None can deny the Great Beginning of Season Five. Tomb of the Cybermen really grabbed the attention of the viewers when it was first shown and got everyone to perk up and pay attention. We can't quite say the same of The Dominators, though. But I also wouldn't say that we've gone back to the weak openers we were getting for quite a few seasons prior to Five. 

Dominators is a solid enough five-parter (thank God someone in Production was honest enough to admit that it just couldn't fill six episodes and gave us something tighter, instead). Its central premise is nothing too original - not even to Doctor Who. The very second story, ever, had a similar plot. What keeps Dominators enjoyable is that there are enough variations on the "Pacifist Race Going Up Against a Tyranical Race" trope that is the crux of the adventure. The best nuance being the use of Cully in the plot. Usually, everyone in a sci-fi story involving a non-violent society is the same. There are no misfits that break the rules like Cully does. Putting him into the plot gives it some nuances that make us feel like we're not just getting a re-tread of The Daleks. 

The Dominators, themselves, are an interesting enough species. Their dependence on Quarks makes them quite unique from all the other intergalactic conquerors out there. They are still full of bluster and think that no one's better than them. But, really, if it weren't for their Quarks, there wouldn't be much to them. Again, another great example of variation on something we have seen over and over. 

While The Dominators doesn't quite pack the same punch as Season Five's Opener did, it's still quite decent. And the next stories that follow it are really quite remarkable. 

The Mind Robber is another beautiful excursion into the surreal that we have not seen since The Celestial Toymaker back in Season Three. Like Toymaker, I label this one an Oddball Story, too. And I adore the cleverness of it all. Particularly the way Lemuel Gulliver only speaks in quotes from the book. That, alone, was a hell of a lot of extra detail that a writer went to! But the story is quite delightful, all around. Imaginative and unique. The sort of thing that makes you almost proud to be a Doctor Who fan. Because, quite honestly, no other sci-fi franchise would do a story this weird! Whereas Who embraces a tale like this with open arms! 

There are some minor flaws to the adventure that are barely worth mentioning. Part One is very visually fun - but it is clear that it was tacked on just to compensate for some editing issues that Dominators had. And just suddenly twisting a lot of dials on the Master Brain computer is a bit of an anti-climactic ending. But, otherwise, this is a damned brilliant adventure. I'm more likely to label this a Classic than a lot of other Who stories that have received the title. 

From there we move on to the 8-part saga that is The Invasion. Another Classic. In fact, if you look at my Best Cybermen Story Countdown that I recently did - Invasion kicks Tomb's ass. This is one of the longer stories the show has ever done. Impressively enough, there's no real "sag" to it, anywhere. There's also some really great action sequences that still hold up quite well to this day. And, of course, a great turn by Kevin Stoney. No one plays megalomaniacs like he does! 

Like Tomb, I won't do an extensive review, here. You can just read the one I wrote, already:  https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-of-lists-top-five-cybermen-stories_28.html 

Season Five's first story might have been stronger than Six's - but the next two stories more-than-make-up for Dominators' deficiencies. Which makes the beginning of Six just as strong as Five. Maybe even stronger. Tomb is great but has a few problems. Abominable Snowmen is awesome. But then The Ice Warriors is just okay. Six's first three stories, in my book, represent a better standard of quality

THE NEXT STORY IS SPECIAL

Before we get to The Krotons, there is one more thing I'd like to bring up about our first three stories of Season Six. Another trait that I feel puts it ahead of Five. One that almost seems to indicate that lessons were learnt from the previous year. 

Many have remarked how Season Five relies too heavily on the Base Under Siege formula. And I can't deny that they make a valid point. How nice to see, then, three stories at the beginning of the next season that are so wildly diverse. An attack on an alien planet involving characters that come from nowhere near Earth. A mad adventure in a fantasy land. And then an invasion plot in the modern-day world (or is it the near future?!) being executed by an old foe. And not a single headquarters is being defended at any point. This is definitely one more point in Season Six's favor.  

But then we get to The Krotons. Admittedly, we are returning to a similar premise that we saw in The Dominators: An antagonistic group of aliens is exploiting an alien race less-capable of defending themselves. They even titled the stories in a similar way. Both use the the "evil alien" as the name of the tale.

Of course, there are still enough variations between both adventures to make us feel like we're getting a very different plot. But something else very important is happening here: 

We are getting our first script from Robert Holmes.  

Without a doubt, Holmes was the best writer for the Classic Series. While I am the Great Contrarion, I will not disagree with this sentiment. The Krotons is a simple enough tale that doesn't really show off any of his signature style, yet. But it is definitely a very tight plot that stays engaging throughout all four parts. Like Dominators, it is very solid. Although I would say it's a little better than the season opener. 

This is a great first offering from Holmes. He would write far superior stories in the future, but he's off to a very good start with The Krotons. 

SECOND ONE NOT SO GOOD!  

Thus far, I've been tackling the stories of this season in the order they were transmitted. But now, for the sake of thematic purposes, I'm going to jump ahead a bit. 

As exciting is it is to see Bob Holmes finally writing for the show, it does seem like the production team may have put a bit too much weight on his shoulders too quickly. A four-parter during Season Six might have been all he was really capable of at such an early stage in his career. 

The Space Pirates is the final tale in Classic Who that we must piece together from what's left of it. Thankfully, from this point onwards, all stories are, more-or-less, intact (although some have had to be re-colorized because only black-and-white versions still existed). I am grateful that Part Two of Space Pirates is still around. It does display the first appearance of Milo Clancey - a character archetype that would appear in several more of Holmes' scripts. 

Many fans talk about how much they enjoyed the double-acts that appeared regularly in a Robert Holmes story. But he also loved to write about what I liked to call: The Colorful Rogue. A sort of misfit character that looks and behaves eccentrically. Almost flamboyantly, in some cases. He's not even, necessarily, a likeable character - but he is a lot of fun! Sometimes he's even part of a double-act (Garron in Pirate Planet or Sabalom Glitz). But he definitely stands out from the person he's playing off of. Milo Clancey is, essentially, the first personality of this nature that Holmes creates. I'm glad we can still witness his entrance into the adventure. It's quite funny watching him try to have breakfast as he first appears!  

Other than that, though, Space Pirates does plod on quite a bit. There's really not enough to it to fill the six parts it's been allotted. Certain elements of it are also fairly predictable. It's still not terrible, of course. But it's definitely the weakest offering from Holmes' repertoire. He was probably happy that quite a bit of it was lost! 

MORE LATE SEASON DIFFICULTIES

While I would say Space Pirates is probably the Achilles Tendon of Season Six, Seeds of Death has its fair share of problems, too. It does hold together fairly well most of the time. But there are moments when the plot seems to meander a bit in some strange directions that don't really make sense. This is probably the story where efforts to write out a lead for an episode so that they can have a holiday seem the most obvious. Slaar's sudden weird choice to transmat the Doctor into space really does come from out of nowhere. Not to mention that transmat doesn't really seem to work that way. You need to be sent from one cubicle to another. Suddenly, however, the rules change so that Troughton can have an unconscious stand-in for a week while he gets a much-needed break! 

Having twelve episodes of content that's on fairly shaky ground during the latter half of the year definitely works to the season's detriment. Again, there are elements of Seeds of Death that I quite like. Patrick Troughton running around the corridors of the moonbase in a purely Chaplinesque fashion is, oddly enough, one of my favorite moments in the entire Second Doctor Era. I just adore that scene! But, when the rest of the season is doing so well, to suddenly have a story with some structural issues really does make it stand out. To then follow it with The Space Pirates - a six-parter that is dragging quite a bit in places is definitely tarnishing the shine of things even more. 

But then, Season Five is hardly perfect, either. Enemy of the World is far from being a masterpiece and both Ice Warriors and Wheel in Space have some significant weak points. So maybe Season Six hasn't lost this race, yet.... 

AND THEN WE REACH THE END.... 

And so, we come to the final adventure of Season Six. The Biggie is upon us. Not only do we say farewell to the Second Doctor but we actually get a decent account of his origins. This story is making, quite possibly, the most important contribution to the show's Lore that any one tale has made. 

But is it good? Beyond: "Goodbye Doctor Two, it's been nice to learn about you!" - does the story have any real merit? There's been more trouble with script submissions and the production team has a ridiculous ten episodes to fill. This could just be one huge over-padded mess rather than the epic masterpiece it's meant to be. 

Fortunately, The War Games is amazing.  

What is most impressive is that it does stay engaging for all ten parts. We really don't feel much of a sag anywhere. Even the subplot in Part Six with the soldier played by David Troughton guarding the War Lord keeps us interested. It is chiefly there to allow the occasional cutaway when the central action of the story needs a break, but we still enjoy it (David must have done his Dad proud!). The writing, here, really is well-done. On top of introducing Robert Holmes, Season Six also had the wisdom to bring back Malcolm Hulke. He and Terrance Dicks do a great job with handling the challenge of filling the outrageous episode count. 

I'm especially impressed with how well the whole story arc is defined. In Part One, it really does seem like the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are stranded in World War I. But those one or two strange inconsistencies have intrigued us and get us to realize something more sinister must be going on. I love how the layers slowly-but-surely peel back over the next few episodes til we see the Big Picture. New characters get introduced at just the right time in the middle episodes to allow the plot to move in new directions and develop still further. By the end of the tale, we are now deeply immersed in a genuine science fiction adventure rather than the historical we originally thought it to be. It's all done quite remarkably. 

And then there's the final episode. Where the Doctor's past catches up with him. Troughton does a remarkable job with the huge info dump he must deliver in the console room to his companions. He really does personalise what could have been a fairly dry backstory. We admire the Doctor so much more now that we understand where he came from and what decisions he made to get him where he is. The fact that he sacrifices his freedom to fix a problem that he knows is too big for him makes him even more heroic. The conclusion to The War Games does feel truly epic. 

Have I any objections? Yes. But they border on irrelevant. Whenever the aesthetics of a Classic Who story bothers me, I tend to ignore it as best I can. The show was doing the best with the money it was given. But I do have to wonder if the costume designers from this era were really into BDSM. So often, the guards in various futuristic stories are given the most outrageous of fetish outfits! The military personnel of the War Lords look especially gimp-like in their uniforms. It doesn't help that a few of them really didn't have the physique to pull the outfits off! Which just made them look all-the-more like we should be seeing them tied up in a basement somewhere waiting for a dominatrix to arrive rather toting laser rifles and fighting human soldiers from the past. 

Speaking of fights, the stunt choreography with the War Lord soldiers is some of the worst the show has ever seen. But, again, I try not to hold this against War Games too much. They were trying as hard as they could with the budget and time restraints working against them. 

Which means that, overall, this is a brilliant conclusion to the season. And to the whole Second Doctor Era.  Probably one of the greatest farewells an incarnation of the Doctor ever got. Logopolis will always be my favorite swansong story. I also really enjoy how both Eleven and Twelve went (I have a feeling Thirteen's passing will also be awesome), but I do still think War Games ranks Second Place as best "final" story for a Doctor. 

FINAL VERDICT

As Season Six closes, there are a few important things to point out about it: 

1) This isn't just the end of Doctor Two. This is the end of 60s Who. What we will get next year will be very different from what we have gotten so far. War Games does a great job of setting up the transition (so does, to some extent, The Invasion) by having the Time Lords sentence the Doctor to his exile. It's also just a very strong story. Which causes the whole era of 60s Who to end on a high note. 

2) We should be very impressed with how this period handled its longer stories. Both Invasion and War Games had a high episode count. But both were quite enjoyable spectacles that did a great job with pacing so that we barely felt any of the padding. 

3) We should also be genuinely impressed with just how seriously the show takes its title. Doctor Who milked its sense of mystery for all it was worth. There aren't too many other shows that keep their protagonist's origins a mystery for an entire six years!    

Okay, okay, I'm stalling again. I need to answer this entry's Big Question. But I also felt it was important to highlight those last few details. The Final Verdict Section seemed the best place to do it. 

FINAL FINAL VERDICT

Is Season Six as good as Season Five? 

Would I really spew that level of heresy and claim that Six could even compare to the incredible awesomeness of Five?!   

I might. Five is a tad over-rated. Whereas Six is stronger than most people give it credit for. I did also compare Season Four to Season Twenty-Four. It was a weak season where lessons were learnt and the next two seasons that followed were amazing. 

I continue to hold fast to this comparison. I do think the last two seasons of 60s Who were outstanding. The best that were produced in this decade. After floundering for quite a few years, the show really is on solid ground, now. There are still flaws here and there. But, overall, we get a show that is very slick and confident in what it's doing.  Which makes for some great television. 

However, in the final analysis, I would say that Season Five is just that little bit better.  I can't pinpoint exactly why I like it more. On paper, these two look pretty evenly-matched. But if I truly search my heart, Season Six loses the race. 

But he was hot on Five's heels. 

Every season of 60s Who has been thoroughly picked part. Time to move on to what is, probably, the most popular decade of the show. 

I might have something different to say about it, though....

...Who am I kidding?! Of course I will! I am the Great Contrarion!  

The Other Season Reviews of the 1960s 

One: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/06/doctor-who-season-by-season-season-one.html

Two:

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/07/doctor-who-season-by-season-season-2.html

Three:

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/07/doctor-who-season-by-season-season-three.html

Four: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/07/doctor-who-season-by-season-season-four.html

Five:

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/08/doctor-who-season-by-season-season-five.html 

 

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. 

 

DOCTOR WHO: SEASON-BY-SEASON - SEASON FOUR

Well, it had to happen. Any sci fi TV show worth its salt will, eventually, do this. Particularly if it's always trying to progress and move forward. Or explore new ideas and experiment with its own format. But I still didn't think it would happen quite this soon. 

After only three years, we get our first bad season of Doctor Who. 

You can, sort of, see it coming. Things are getting a little bit worse with every new season. It's almost like the show needed to hit a bottom before it would pick itself up by its bootstraps and get its ass back in gear. Unfortunately, the production team doesn't learn their lesson before giving us a season that is, for the most part, below standard. But that's often the way it goes with hitting bottom. There needs to be, at least, a bit of public humiliation before you regain composure. 

THE BEGINNING   

Like Season Three, things start off on a bit of a whimper. Of all the Historicals made in the 60s, I would say The Smugglers was the weakest (at least, from what I was able to piece together of it from the novelisation and suchlike). It's still not an absolutely terrible story. But it is a bit lacklustre. Which makes it stand out all-the-more since most Historicals were so above-par during this period. 

After doing cowboys last season, Production decides to do another historical figure often loved by the legions of young boys that would now be watching the show. This time, they went for pirates. The story wasn't as ill-received as The Gunfighters was when it first came out. But Gunfighters is still intact so that we are able to re-evaluate it. The best memory Smugglers seems to inspire was that it was somewhat mediocre.  

THIS SEASON'S CENTERPIECE 

Like Dalek Masterplan in the previous year, this season also possesses a series of episodes that really stand out from the rest. That draw way more attention to themselves than anything else the season has to offer. It's not one long story, this time, though. But, rather, two stories that would mark the most significant change the show would ever undergo. 

For the first time, the Doctor regenerates. 

Some fans do actually complain about The Tenth Planet. They feel the First Doctor should have been more active in his final story. That he should have been given some sort of valiant final battle that would have defeated the Cybermen and saved the world. And then, on that Note of Glory, he transforms into Patrick Troughton. 

Tenth Planet, instead, emphasises the Doctor's frailty as he reaches the end of his first life. So much so, that he spends an entire episode unconscious while Ben and Polly get up to all sorts of business without him. Personally, this works just as well for me. In fact, I wish more Doctors were written out this way. It gets particularly tiresome in New Who when almost every Doctor seems to have to end on some sort of epic world-threatening and/or universe-threatening crescendo (thank-you, Mister Moffat, for deciding to finally write a simpler tale for Capaldi's demise). I think it's perfectly acceptable to turn him into a more vulnerable character as he reaches the conclusion of an incarnation. As long, of course, as he doesn't become an annoyingly angsty emo-kid like Tennant's Doctor did!

The Cybermen are also quite awesome in this story. The suits are extremely clunky and would look much better in later models. But the Mondasians' ridiculously ruthless logic is as eerie as their otherworldly voices (and the way their hands are still organic - so creepy!). I love how their emotionless state turns them into ironic-sounding philosophers. When Polly, for instance, wants to rescue the astronauts from dying because she cares about them, it's great the way the Cyberman points out: "There are people dying all over your world all the time. You do not care about them!" I love the interpretation that is given of them in this tale. No other recurring foe gets as good of an introductory story as these guys do (okay, maybe the Weeping Angels tie them!).    

The fact that the Daleks get equally-good treatment in the next story really makes the whole difficult transition the audience had to go through feel as smooth as possible. Power of the Daleks, as far as I'm concerned, is the best Dalek Story of the 60s. In so many other tales that feature them, the Daleks rely more on raw power to achieve their goals. They are domineering to the point where they will actually blunder their way through things from time-to-time (ie: a Dalek trying to menace a mannequin in Dalek Invasion of Earth), 

In Power, they are genuinely cunning. Biding their time by appearing friendly to the humans until they can increase their numbers and overrun them. It's really the first time that we see them using such tactics. And it's utterly terrifying. As Lesterson has his mental collapse in the latter episodes, we're almost tempted to join him. The Daleks are represented in a whole new way, here. And it really is quite chilling. 

Troughton, meanwhile, takes the bull by the horns as he asserts a whole new identity for the Doctor. In doing so, he gets the audience to accept him as quickly as possible so we can actually get to all that good stuff with the Daleks. But there's some fun to be had as Ben and Polly both question if this man is still actually the Doctor. And I love that the Doctor, himself, plays upon those doubts.  Even talking about himself in the Third Person during the first few moments of his creation. It was a very bold tact for the production team to take but it worked quite well.  

ONE LAST BIT OF QUALITY BEFORE THE DIP TRULY BEGINS

As fans, we should be quite happy that the First Doctor's last story and Second Doctor's first story are of decent quality. Changing the lead in a show is always a risky venture. But because both stories really are quite good, saying goodbye to Hartnell and hello to Troughton becomes an easier process. Bringing a well-loved recurring foe like the Daleks back for Two's first adventure also helps a lot with the transition. The fact that the Daleks already recognize this incarnation as being the Doctor was another nice technique to help us to accept him. 

This is a pretty solid regeneration. There are better ones, of course (as my Ranking the Regenerations entry would show: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-book-of-lists-ranking-regenarations.html) but the stories are strong enough to keep the show alive during a difficult time. The Centerpiece of Season Four is as enjoyable as the one in Three. 

Fortunately, the standards continue just a little bit longer. Once more, I can only base my opinion on what still remains of a lost story - but what I have seen of The Highlanders looks quite good.  It is a bit strange that Jamie becomes a companion at the end as he is featured only so much in the plot. But I am, nonetheless, very thankful that he comes aboard the TARDIS. He would still get pushed aside a lot while Ben and Polly were around. But, once things shift to a two-companion dynamic, Jamie becomes one of the greatest companions the show ever had. 

Troughton is great fun to watch in this one. While he does seem a little over-the-top with some of his more comedic moments in Power of the Daleks, he tends to get the tone right, here. Even when he's actually pretending to be a woman! His assortment of silly disguises throughout the tale is an utter delight. Particularly as we reach the end of the story and one of his disguises is really put to good use. He's also just having a great time with being quirky and unpredictable. The sudden power-nap he takes in the middle of the adventure is another fun moment. 

Of course, the actual plot involving the Highlanders and Redcoats is decent enough. Things even take a particularly-interesting dark turn as the story starts focusing more on the slavery that was going on at the time. It is nice when these stories are willing to show less-romanticised versions of our past.   

The Highlanders would be the last "true" Historical for Doctor Who for quite some time. Thanks to the quality of the production, this whole type of story finishes off on a very high note. 

AND NOW THINGS REALLY GO TO CRAP - PART ONE: THE ABSOLUTE WORST

You may actually be starting to wonder why I refer to this season as being "bad". Sure, the first story was a bit on the forgettable side, but the next three seem quite solid. The season is going pretty good, so far. What's the problem?!

Well, from this point onward, things go seriously downhill. There are some high points here and there in certain episodes. But, for the most part, we're dealing with some very substandard content. 

And it starts with the next story. The Underwater Menace just might be the only Doctor Who tale from the 60s that I'm glad is still partially missing. The two episodes that do exist are pretty difficult to watch. Particularly Episode Three. That one is a legitimate embarrassment. And I mean that quite literally. 

I remember when I bought the Lost Stories DVD boxset. My older sister had taken an interest in New Who and wanted to see some older episodes. She happened to be over when I brought the set home so I just popped in the first Patrick Troughton disc. I felt she would probably like him better than Hartnell. The first episode on that disc just happened to be Part Three of Underwater Menace. I had heard legends of how awful it was but had only seen snippets of it. As we started to watch, I realized I couldn't put my poor sister through more than a few minutes of it. She just sat in front of the TV, aghast. Finally she had to say: "Is all Old Doctor Who like this?!" 

I tried to assure her it wasn't. But it was too late. She decided she would just stick to New Who! 

Underwater Menace is, in my opinion, the very first Doctor Who story that is genuinely bad. There had been stories that came before it that were problematic, in places. The Chase even comes perilously close to being a total flop.  But there had been enough redeeming qualities to these tales to make them still passable. Nothing spectacular, but watchable. 

Not so with Underwater Menace. It's all just pretty awful. The whole thing looks ridiculous on several levels. The budget appears to be horrifically low. As usual, though, I won't hold that against it. But so many of the outfits that were made for it do appear genuinely comical. Making it legitimately difficult to take anyone in the production all that seriously. It's almost like the costumiers were thinking: "How ridiculous can I make everyone in this story look?!". 

The actual plot is quite ludicrous.  Its various elements all sound like a badly-written Childrens' Panto. The lost city of Atlantis is relying upon someone who is evidently unhinged to restore it to glory. A mad scientist wants to destroy the world just for the sheer bragging rights. Fish People are being exploited by their human tormentors. It's, pretty much, the cheesiest premise a Doctor Who story has ever had. 

But what truly propels this whole thing into complete drivel is the infamous Professor Zaroff. To say the character was performed with camp sensibilities would be too generous. That would insinuate that the actor playing him appeared to have some sort of skill that enabled him to appear kitschy. The truth is: he is just doing some really horrible acting. In the actor's defense, the dialogue for him is so badly written that it's impossible not to perform it horribly. There really is no way to proclaim: "Nothing in ze world can shtop me now!" in a way that doesn't cause some serious cringing! 

Zaroff, himself, is another notorious first for the show. There would be other Doctor Who villains that would get horribly hammed up. Soldeed from Horns of Nimon or Tekker from Timelash. But Zaroff was the original. And - hands down - the worst! 

There are few stories in the show's history that I consider genuinely bad. That I would be happy if they had just never been made. I'd even go so far to say that most fans probably have a bigger list of stories like this than I do (some fans have a list of this nature that is so big that one almost wonders why they call themselves fans!). It takes a lot for me to say that there is really nothing about the story that I like. But Underwater Menace manages to achieve that! 

AND NOW THINGS REALLY GO TO CRAP - PART TWO: MARGINALLY BETTER

With Underwater Menace still leaving a foul odor in the air, we move on to a few stories that really aren't all that much of an improvement. 

The Moonbase isn't quite my least favorite Cybermen story. The Next Doctor and Revenge of the Cybermen are still probably worse. But Moonbase really is only marginally better. Admittedly, it does have some good points. The "Evils in the Universe" monologue the Doctor delivers in Part Two is probably one of the best speeches of the Troughton Era. The new costume for the evil cyborgs is a vast improvement over the old one. There are a few well-executed creepy moments here and there.   

But there are any number of problems with the plot. The biggest one being: why do the Cybermen go to such contrived methods to overcome the Moonbase when they could have, easily, just marched up to it right from the beginning and overtaken it?! On top of that, why do they even really care about the Moonbase? They seem to have a decent enough fleet of ships. Just attack the Earth directly. You'll do the same level of damage that you would with the Gravitron. 

The science is a bit wonky in places, too. How certain holes that are made in the Moonbase's structure get sealed up against the vacuum of space aren't really all that feasible. Some pretty silly sequences, in general, occur, too. How many times, for instance, can a Cyberman change his mind about abducting Jamie?!  

The Cybermen, themselves, are more like those generic intergalactic conquerors we have been seeing over the years (Drahvins, Moroks and Monoids during the latter episodes of The Ark) rather than the creatures of cold logic that we got in their first adventure. In general, this isn't so much of a triumphant return of a great foe as it is a bit of a disappointment. 

Ultimately, the whole thing comes across as a desperate attempt to try to fuel "Cybermania". They  brought the evil cyborgs back as quickly as possible without really caring too hard about the actual quality of the story. Production had found a new monster that seemed to rival the Daleks in popularity and wanted to exploit them for all they worth. If anything, though, the story cheapens their reputation. 

The Macra Terror, on the other hand, is a bit more coherent than The Moonbase. In that sense, it is less of a mess. But the story is so horribly lacklustre. Particularly the ending. Basically, the Doctor just yells at Ben through a door to turn off a few taps and the whole conflict is resolved! There is very little about this story that I find all that particularly engaging. It's so mediocre that I really don't have much to say about it. I can barely give it more than a paragraph in this review! 

Macra Terror holds itself together better than the two tales before it. But, because it's a fairly plain story that followed two pretty bad ones, it maintains the downward spiral the season is now moving in. 

PICKING THINGS UP SLIGHTLY

After three solidly disappointing tales, we really needed to step things up if we were going to finish up the season on a high note. A nice effort gets made in the final two stories - but it's really not enough. And there are still some serious problems with some of the plot mechanics we see going on in the writing.

The Faceless Ones does manage to rise above mediocrity for much of its telling. I would be given to believe this has something to do with Malcolm Hulke being a co-writer of the script. He is able make the Chameleons into something more than just the latest alien baddie out to get humanity (and will continue to do so in future scripts - which is why I believe it's his involvement that contributes so much to the success of the tale). The whole way in which these aliens are trying to steal bodies for themselves isn't too contrived, either. We don't have to suspend our disbelief so much as we did with the Cybermen's attack on the moonbase a few episodes earlier. The Chameleons' method of infiltration does, for the most part, make some degree of sense.  

Overall, the plot works fairly well. Its biggest problem probably lies in the fact that there really isn't quite enough to sustain six episodes. There's a fair amount of just running around the airport to pad things out. Also the Doctor tries multiple times to get some evidence on Chameleon Airlines but they just keep managing to cover their tracks in the nick of time. This recurring plot strand starts getting a bit tiresome. Clearly, it's also there to just add to the run-time rather than actually achieve anything.  

But I would still say this is better than the last three stories we had to sit through. But only marginally. Not enough, at least, to get me excited, again, about where the season is going. I'm still happier to just see the whole thing brought to an end so that everyone can, basically, re-charge and start with a clean slate to make something better next year.  

Unfortunately, there's still one more story to go.   

Evil of the Daleks, for me, feels quite similar to Dalek Invasion of Earth. There seems to be a certain degree of high regard for the tale that I'm not really seeing, myself. There are some nice moments here and there.  Particularly as we get to the Dalek Civil War towards the end (always love me a good Dalek Civil War!). But there's also quite a bit of nonsense going on that works against the story's effectiveness. 

Part One can, literally, be ignored. It's a bunch of Jamie and the Doctor walking around trying to find the TARDIS until we can get to the Cliffhanger at the end. Even though the surprise appearance of a Dalek doesn't really matter since we know from the title that they're going to be involved!   

The tests that get done to determine the Human Factor also seem a bit ridiculous. Getting Jamie to run around in a Victorian Manor in the 1800s seems like a very silly way to create a controlled experiment. There's got to be better ways to run this series of tests. Pretty much any other way, in fact, would have been better! 

Things do improve as we move the setting completely to Skaro. But the story does suffer the same problem that Faceless Ones does. There's a big need for padding. So we get a bit of a runaround before the Doctor's efforts to do anything all that really effective against the Daleks truly flourishes. The Dalek Revolution that he initiates is very cool, I'll be the first to admit. But I do feel it's too little, too late. By the time we reach this moment, I've gotten fairly bored with things. Most of the story comes across as pretty flat. Or even a bit ludicrous, in places. 

It's funny, my first real encounter with this (mainly) lost story was its novelisation. After reading it, I really thought it was the Classic that everyone labeled it it to be. Only as I watched the reconstructions and the one existing episode did I realise just how much John Peel had cleaned the whole thing up!  

 

 ACTUALLY TALLYING HOW BAD THE SEASON IS

Since I am claiming this is the first bad season of Doctor Who, I thought I would actually try to do some solid math to support my viewpoint. 

The season begins on a very mediocre note. There's nothing all that particularly engaging about The Smugglers. You just, sort of, sit through it as you hope for something better to come along once the TARDIS takes off again at the end of Episode Four. 

The same can be said for Macra Terror. But it's lack of entertainment value feels compounded because we've sat through two very problematic stories just before it.

Ultimately, however, that's 8 episodes of fairly flat and uninteresting content. 

Then we get to The Moonbase and Evil of the Daleks. Two stories that are quite messy and seem to rely more heavily on the excitement a return appearance of a popular monster generates rather than actually creating a coherent narrative. Both of these adventures are, I feel, very low in quality. 

So that's 11 more episodes that are probably just a bit below mediocre. Not completely awful. But not all that great, either. Bringing my negative experiences with this season up to a total of 19 episodes, thus far.

Then there's the legitimate atrocity that is Underwater Menace. Fortunately, it's only 4 episodes. But it should almost get a double-point value! Still, we'll bring our tally of unimpressive episodes up to 23. 

The Faceless Ones does do a bit better than all the other stuff I've been covering, thus far, in the tally. But it is still troubled by padding issues. Which makes it feel a tad disappointing. And, just like Macra Terror, we are becoming desperate for a vast improvement over what we've been getting during the latter half of the season. Because it doesn't rise as well to the occasion as it needed to, we have to put these 6 episodes on "the bad pile". Which now brings the negative score up to 29. 

Then, of course, we do get some actually solidly-put-together adventures in the early section of the season. Tenth Planet, Power of the Daleks and Highlanders can all be considered "good". Which brings us to 14 episodes of decent enough quality that we do feel a genuine lift in the season. Particularly since all three stories are back-to-back. 

In total, we have 43 episodes to this season. Only 14 of them really are much of anything to brag about. The rest of it veers from mediocre to downright terrible. That amounts to only about a third of the season really being worth watching. The rest is largely disappointing. 

We can't say that Season Four is completely bad. But then, there are "great" seasons of Doctor Who that still have problems, too. To me, it's all a game of percentages. And there is just too much content in this season that is pretty unwatchable. Thus ruining the overall entertainment value of the experience. Season Four suffers from just too many poor choices made in its crafting. The show is definitely at a low point, here. 

Fortunately, something vastly superior is just around the corner....