Day 531: Meglos Part 2

The most striking part of this story is the use of Tom Baker. He plays a dual role in this story, being both the Doctor and the villain, who is currently able to impersonate other people to near perfection. This villain also happens to be a cactus, and as the impersonation goes on, the image of the person being impersonated becomes more and more cactus-like. But that's not the key point that I want to mention. Instead, I want to touch briefly on the way in which Tom Baker plays the role of the villain. It's a very muted and underplayed performance, hinting that there's something not right with this character, but not pointing it out for the audience completely. It's not what we'd expect from Tom Baker, who we'd expect to overplay it dramatically and have a great deal of fun with the part (cf Soldeed in The Horns of Nimon). So this serves as an indicator that things are perhaps slowing down on the Tom Baker front, and that his departure from the serie may be imminent...