Day 637: Timelash Part 2

Meanwhile in this story, there
is an actual sock puppet acting as
an antagonist.

20 minutes into Timelash Part 2, Paul Darrow gets killed. Given that he is the only good thing about this story, it is clear that the rest of this episode isn't going to be that great.

25 minutes into Timelash Part 2, the Borad gets killed. Given that he is the main villain of the story, you could be forgiven for thinking that the story ends there. But unfortunately, it doesn't. Instead, there's around 20 minutes left of Timelash to go. 20 minutes of padding and waiting for the credits.

There's also the Timelash, which is
made out of tin foil. Clearly a lot of
effort went into this story.

I'm not going to say that these are the worst 20 minutes of Doctor Who ever produced. But I will say that I was shouting at the TV throughout it and begging for it to end. Every single fault in the story becomes so much larger when it becomes apparent that there's no story to base anything on. The Doctor becomes even less likeable, at one point picking Peri up and almost throwing her out of the TARDIS control room. That said, he's nothing compared to Herbert, who brings a sense of irritation to Doctor Who that hasn't really been felt since Matthew Waterhouse's performance as Adric in The Visitation.

Once entering the Timelash. we
discover that it's made of
styrofoam and tinsel. You can almost
taste the effort that went into the story.

And there's even worse yet to come. There's a thoroughly unconvincing explosion that makes you wonder whether any thought was given to the very notion of special effects in this story, but you believe that the Doctor is dead. Then the Borad shows up, where he reveals that the one that was killed earlier was just a clone. This plot development is given virtually no prior warning and is never expanded upon, making it even more painfully clear that this scene has been shoehorned in at the last moment because there are still 5 minutes left to fill. Then the Doctor shows up, where he reveals that he survived the explosion. He doesn't bother elaborating on why this is the case, which acts as a further example of how lazy the writing is in this story. But he saves the day, and reveals to the audience that Herbert was actually HG Wells. This, in turn, reminds me of how much of a missed opportunity this was, and how there could have been a really good story where the Doctor meets HG Wells. But instead we get Timelash, a sorry excuse for a story that I'm thoroughly glad is over.

Day 636: Timelash Part 1

There's not much to like about Timelash. The script is uninspiring, the acting is generally non-existent (with the exception of Paul Darrow, who makes it reasonably watchable), and the direction is somewhat flat. More to the point, it fails to engage the audience with any sort of hook, instead it just has events happen and it expects the audience to be interested in them.

An example of a lack of any sort of hook for the story is how they attempt to bludgeon in some continuity by saying that the Third Doctor and Jo have previously visited here. But it fails to do anything interesting for the plot, aside from providing the villain with a motivation for revenge. There is potential in the idea, if the script decided to have a far greater showing of the Doctor's influence. But as for now, it feels like a 'fun fact' about the planet, which whilst somewhat diverting, fails to be of any substance whatsoever.

Still, at least it's not offensively bad like The Twin Dilemma. Although, at least The Twin Dilemma was interesting in its awfulness, whereas this is just completely uninspiring.