Day 595: Terminus Part 4

Terminus is an odd beast of a story. There are parts of it that are actually rather good, such as, for instance, the fact that we discover that the Big Bang was caused by accident due to a load of unstable fuel being released, and that another accident that may end up occurring will cause the destruction of the Universe, which the Doctor must try and prevent. Other parts of the story aren't so good, such as the general structure, which gives almost two parts before half of the regular cast meet somebody relevant to the overall plot, which causes for some unwelcome structuring issues. Each good decision made in the making of the story can be given a counterexample of how bad a decision it is and vice versa. Roger Limb's music is rather poor throughout, but then gets quite touching at the end, for example. The design of the ship is well crafted, but overlit, removing all of its atmosphere. The Garm is a good character on the page, but a weak character on screen. Tegan and Turlough have good character moments at the beginning of the story, but are left essentially pointless by the end. All of these things leave me confused as to the quality of Terminus. Because, on the one hand, I really don't like it, but on the other, I can appreciate what they're trying to do, and I have to give the story at least some credit for that.

These are sentiments that can also be applied to the character of Nyssa, who leaves at the end of this story to go on and fight the space plague by developing a workable cure. She's a character that's more of a traditional Doctor Who companion, being technically minded, trusting of the Doctor, and a rather nice person. But she's constantly written badly, such as in Terminus, where for three episodes she constantly screams and worries about her predicament, or for Earthshock, where all she does is stay in the TARDIS for almost all of the story. But when she's written well, the character does actually work. Snakedance sees her as a loyal assistant to the Doctor, and a kind and caring friend for Tegan. The Visitation has her destroy the robot with a machine she built in the TARDIS, whilst acting as a calmer counterpoint to Tegan's complaining and Adric's whining. All in all, she's a good character, and I will miss her, but mainly because they managed to miss an opportunity with the character, and they could have had something really interesting.

Day 594: Terminus Part 3

So one of the problems with Terminus is the main monster used. It's called the Garm, and is a large humanoid figure with a wolf's head and glowing red eyes. Its purpose hasn't been fully explored in the story as of yet, but we know that it has something to do with the treatment of the people suffering from the space plague. It is clear from the script that the Garm is meant to be a frightening figure, one that lurks in the shadows and steals people away to its lair. This is not entirely apparent when looking at the creature on screen.

It's a figure that looks remarkably cuddly, as if it came direct from a show that I used to watch as a kid. The red eyes add a sense of menace, but the overall fluffy nature of the design kind of backfires on it. It's disappointing, as this is something in the script that could be good, and there is still the potential to make it good, if the lighting in the studio were less bright, leaving it to lurk in the shadows with only the red glowing eyes to add a sense of menace. But, sadly, it comes across as one of the most cuddly characters to be produced in Doctor Who's history.

Post-script: As I wrote this entry, the thought crossed my mind that maybe the Garm did come direct from somewhere in my memory of a show that I used to watch as a kid. Further investigation revealed an Australian childrens' programme called Lift Off, which I have virtually no recollection of, aside from a few brief moments. There was a wolf in the programme, who actually rather looks like the Garm in my opinion (aside from fur colour and the addition of dark glasses and a snazzy suit). So that's nice, I suppose.

Day 593: Terminus Part 2

Given that the first episode of this story was spent mainly exploring the surrounds of where the TARDIS has landed, it seems to imply that this episode is where the plot shall begin. It does do this, but only to a certain extent. We meet more characters in this episode, and observe the fact that there is more going on on this ship than we thought. Aside from the plague victims that formed the cliffhanger to the first episode, there is also a society that is possibly dedicated to treating the plague victims, or possibly dedicated to keeping the plague victims away from the rest of society. The story's a bit vague on that point. And that's the problem with this episode of the story.

Stephen Gallagher, the writer, isn't really advancing the plot in this episode. We observe things happening, but we don't get an explanation of why they are important, or why we should care for the myriad of characters that are being introduced. Instead, we are expected to be intrigued by what is going on, and to continue watching to discover the inner mysteries of Terminus. But we don't care enough about the story to want to continue watching this story. There's an easy explanation for why this occurs, by the way. Tegan and Turlough have been confined to a ventilation shaft for the entire episode. The Doctor, along with a character that we met in Part 1, is still busy exploring the ship and trying to find the TARDIS. Only Nyssa engages with the story of Terminus with the space plague, and even then her involvement isn't large enough for us to truly invest in the story.

But here's the thing about it. If this were Part 1, I honestly wouldn't care about all of this. Part 1 is generally used to learn about the surroundings and to become invested in the plot, or to provide scant details about the plot to intrigue viewers into a new story. This isn't really expected for Part 2, where we want to get a little bit more invested in the plot, and get a strong idea of what the story is all about. This is the sort of structuring issue that should have been fixed in the script editing stage, meaning that blame falls to Eric Saward for this issue that hampers what does actually have some small potential as a story.

Day 592: Terminus Part 1

We've got a bit of a story arc with regards to the character of Turlough. He spent the previous story, Mawdryn Undead, in the employ of the Black Guardian, attempting to kill the Doctor. This plot point was not completely resolved by the end of the story, hence the character is on board the TARDIS, acting as companion to the Doctor but secretly trying to kill him throughout each encounter.

This makes the beginning of Terminus rather interesting. It sets the scene with some character interactions between Turlough and Tegan, both of whom mistrust the other, as Turlough attempts to sabotage the TARDIS without anyone else noticing. It's nice to see this as it acts as an effective reminder of the events of the previous story, being that the new companion is here to cause havoc, and that nobody really likes him aside from the Doctor. It also gives the impression that the series, at the moment, is less about engaging with the stories and more about engaging with the regular cast members as they travel throughout the Universe, which can be seen by the fact that the plot doesn't really begin to happen until around 8 or so minutes into the story, prior to that it had just been discussions between characters.

However, the plot must start at some point, and tomorrow we'll perhaps have a look at the story of Terminus, as our voyage continues.

Day 591: Mawdryn Undead Part 4

The driving thrust of the plot of Mawdyn Undead is that a group of aliens, wishing to become Time Lords, stole some Gallifreyan equipment and attempted to give themselves the ability to regenerate. It went wrong, unfortunately, and they are now walking mutations, condemned to live forever whilst their bodies remain in a state of constant decay and renewal. The reason that they seek out the Doctor is so that they can allow him to use give up the rest of his regenerations to allow them to die.

It's a complex moral issue, and one that I actually kind of wish that the story explored a bit more. If it were a story about the Doctor giving up the rest of his regnenerations to allow people to live, it would be far more obvious that the solution that the Doctor would consider would be allowing people to live in exchange for his death. This case, although it seems to be the opposite, is really much the same. These people are living in constant torment, and need the Doctor's help to set them free. But, perhaps because the loss of the Doctor's regenerations wouldn't go to any new life, he's a bit more hesitant to do it and allow them to die.

Eventually he does it, but because of extraneous events that are affecting Nyssa and Tegan, and the process ends up not working as planned, due to the intervention of two Brigadiers meeting, which causes a large amount of energy to be dispersed for plot related reasons. Despite all of this, and the fact that the most interesting part of the plot was barely explored, this was still a surprisingly good story, and one that I'm sure that I'll be able to look back on fondly as one of the better Fifth Doctor stories.

Day 590: Mawdryn Undead Part 3

Regeneration is part of the core of the structure of Doctor Who. It ensures the longevity of the programme, allowing for it to change and adapt as time marches on. In Mawdryn Undead, regeneration plays a key role, although in a slightly different aspect than what one might expect.

What happens is that, due to a series of mix-ups, Nyssa, Tegan, and the Brigadier (1977 edition) mistakenly believe that a horribly burnt person is the Doctor. When they recover from their burns, it is apparent that they are a greatly disfigured being, with a clearly visible brain coming out of their head. This unknown creature still claims that he is the Doctor though, and that he has undergone a process of regeneration after something went wrong with a transmat beam.

This is an interesting way to use regeneration, as it plays on the element of trust that the companions place in the Doctor whenever he regenerates into a new body. If they don't witness the regeneration directly, it's impossible to tell whether it really is the Doctor or not, which is clearly something that could be exploited by malevolent forces, as is done in this case. It's nice to see this key component of the show made slightly more dangerous, by virtue of the fact that it points out something blindingly obvious but that has escaped prior investigation, and shows that even in its 20th anniversary year, Doctor Who can still do exciting things with the key concepts in the show.

Day 589: Mawdryn Undead Part 2

Returns are odd things, in my opinion. Some returns, such as that of the Cybermen in Earthshock, leave little to no emotional impact on me. Others, on the other hand, inspire a feeling of happiness and warmth as we greet this old friend. This is the case when we meet again, for the first time in almost 200 days, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

When we first meet him, he's different from what we'd expect. He doesn't recognise the Doctor, and is busy working in a school, trying to teach young minds about mathematics. He's changed physically as well, with his hair being greyer, and even his moustache has been shaved off. Mentally, however, he seems perfectly normal, his usual stoic self. Until, for one brief moment, we see a crack in that facade. He shouts about how he's fit as a fiddle, and how he's perfectly alright to work, and not going to be sent to some 'funny farm'. It's then revealed that he some form of nervous breakdown in the past, causing him to lose a little bit of what made him the Brigadier. He also lost his memory of the Doctor, although this is restored through a surprisingly lovely flashback sequence as we look back at old foes and old friends, remembering the good old days of Doctor Who, where it was the Doctor, his young assistant and UNIT all up against malevolent forces of evil.

And this is where things get a little bit complicated. Because of some timey-wimey stuff, Tegan and Nyssa have been sent back to an earlier, pre-breakdown Brigadier, where he's only just started at the school. This is where the acting of Nicholas Courtney, who plays the Brigadier, really deserves a mention, as it's clear from the moment that we meet him that this is the old Brigadier that we remember from the time with UNIT. He's a little bit more active, a little more stoic and still keen as ever to help the Doctor as well as fight alien menaces in order to protect the Earth. It's nice to see this Brigadier again, to truly remember what he was like before his character had an off-screen development. That said, it's also nice to see that the Brigadier can change, as it adds a new layer to the character, and makes it more worthwhile watching this story.

Day 588: Mawdryn Undead Part 1

A new companion is introduced in this story, by the name of Turlough. His introduction is actually really interesing, on the grounds that he's clearly introduced as a villain. He steals a car, blames it all on his unwitting accomplice, gets a call from the Black Guardian to give him a mission of killing the Doctor, which he clearly accepts, as by the end of the episode he's holding a rock over the Doctor's head, ready to crush his skull. It's a nice change-up from normal companion introductions, as we're used to characters being introduced as allies of the Doctor, and for them to fall naturally into the role of travelling aboard the TARDIS, not for the characters to be introduced as slightly more nefarious than we're used to.

There's other elements of Turlough's introduction that are interesting as well. Looking back on previous companion introductions, such as those for Romana, Adric or Tegan, they seem to have all of their basic character and backstory introduced within a couple of scenes, be it a Time Lady who's a little bit pompous and knows far more than the Doctor, or an Australian air stewardess who's prone to getting a little bit cross from time to time. Turlough, on the other hand, clearly has far more depth as a character. We see him as a public school boy, and characterise him thusly, but it's slowly hinted at throughout the episode that he may not actually be human. Strange guardians, a strong desire to leave Earth, and familiarity with complex technology all shows that Turlough is slightly different from what his surroundings would suggest, and thus piques the audience's interest into watching the character more and more.

Day 587: Snakedance Part 4

One of the best patts of Snakedance, for me, is the ending. After Tegan is freed of the Mara's influence, the Doctor goes to comfort her. In tears, she asks if the Mara has been truly defeated. The Doctor says that it has, and then we cut away briefly to the Mara's rotting corpse, at which point the episode ends. There's no wrap up, no moment for everyone to say what a wonderful job the Doctor has done, instead we just focus on the moment, on the fact that this traumatic experience is finally over, which makes the overall story feel far stronger as a result. This is because it keeps the focus squarely on the Mara and how to defeat it, and it knows that once the Mara has been defeated, everything else is just padding.

But that completes Snakedance. I'd love to write more about it, because it is really an absolutely fantastic story. My only problem with writing about it, however, is that it's a massively dense story. Every scene, every moment, every character means and represents something, and it's impossible to get all of the meaning out of the story after watching it once or twice. This story, along with Kinda, is a story that is designed to be savoured, to watch over and over again, and notice more and more as you find more meaning in the tale that is being told. It's Doctor Who for a new age, an age where the audience now has access to video recorders, and can readily watch stories over and over again, getting more enjoyment out of them every single time.

Day 586: Snakedance Part 3

Snakedance is, to a strong extent, about how one views history. The Manussan, who live on the planet where the Mara was first formed, have a strong and deep culture based around the Mara and their life around it. However, the way in which this culture and heritage is viewed creates some strong problems throughout the story.

Take, for instance, the character of Ambril. He's the official historian on Manussa, and spends much of his time looking at artefacts of the previous peoples who inaphabited the world, and how they were consumed by their fear of the Mara. But he takes little notice of anything that they have to say, as he believes it all to be superstitious nonsense, and disregards much of it on the grounds that it disagrees with his personal theories. And there's a bit more to it than just that. When he finds artefacts, he doesn't seek their true meaning, instead he just applies his own reading of them and leaves them as relics of the past, not seeking to truly understand the way in which their society worked.

Some examples of this are easy to come by. For instance, there is a scene partway through this episode where he is led into a cave filled with artefacts of the previous empire. He looks at them with excitement, but he only really sees them at face value, being excited only at the prospect of these being more things for him to have in his collection, and not as works that can help him gain a greater understanding of history.

So why does all of this matter? Well, it shows the lack of respect that the Manussans have for their history, and thus shows a way in which the Mara can return, as it is not taken seriously by any of the peoples, reduced to being a relic of a bygone age or a puppet to frighten youngsters. It's all part of an underlying message of Snakedance, which is about the respect that one must give to history in order to create a well functioning society.

Day 585: Snakedance Part 2

The Doctor's role in Kinda was fairly basic. He ran around, being one of the few sane people on the planet, and tried to find out what was going on. He found help from various sources, such as Todd from the base, and Panna, the wise woman of the Kinda. It's actually fairly common as a Doctor Who story, in that regard, to have the Doctor meet a few allies in order to find out what is going on. Thisn't necessarily the case in Snakedance.

In Snakedance, the Doctor spends much of his time running about and trying to figure out how to stop the Mara. He learns from discussion with some of the historians that there is a legend on the planet that speaks of the Mara's return (for it had already been a strong presence on the planet centuries before this story took place). However, their minds are closed to the prospect of the Mara returning, caught up in the idea that it is just a legend, and failing to take in new evidence to suggest that their current theories are false.

This is epitomised in a scene towards the end of this episode, where the Doctor bursts into a dinner gathering and attempts to tell everyone that the Mara is going to return, only to be dragged away by the guards. It's an important scene, because not only does it tell of the blindness to the truth that everyone besides the Doctor has, with respect to the return of the Mara, but also of the fact that the Doctor is completely failing in his quest to be taken seriously. The Doctor has been, at least for his past couple of incarnations, a strong presence, the sort of person who walks into a room and is immediately able to take command. In his fifth incarnation, however, he's lost that commanding presence, and this means that he's even more alone as he tries to fight off the threat of the Mara. It's an interesting direction to take the character of the Doctor in, and one that we'll see again, albeit rarely (the most prominent example that personally comes to mind is Midnight, from 2008), and shows that the series isn't afraid to take the Doctor in some new directions, if only to liven up the general story structure for a little while.

Day 584: Snakedance Part 1

Series 20 of Doctor Who is all about the past. Each story features the return of some old villain from the series' past, such as seeing Omega again in Arc of Infinity, and in this story, the Mara makes a return, last seen in Kinda. It's great to see the Mara return again, as it made a strong impact in Kinda, and it deserves a return visit to the world of Doctor Who.

The way in which it comes back is really interesting as well. It turns out that, when at the end of Kinda, we believed that Tegan was free of the possessive influence of the Mara, we were wrong. A small part of the Mara remained in Tegan's mind, building up its strength such that it can possess Tegan completely. It's really interesting to see this concept, because it's a departure from normal stories where villains return, where we just bump into them, only this time in a slightly different context. Here, we learn that the story didn't end when we thought it did, making this feel like more of a continuation of the original story than just a sequel.

This continuation is echoed in some of the production of the story. Not so much in the design, which is completely different by virtue of being on a different world with a different culture than that of the Deva Lokans, nor is it found in the direction, but instead it is found through the audio cues, as developed by Dick Mills (special sound) and Peter Howell (composer) both of whom had previously worked on Kinda. This mainly presents itself with a particular screech, that occasionally comes around when looking at the Mara, or some representation of it, that formed much of the underlying tension of Kinda and returns in Snakedance to provide this tension again, as well as a continuity that helps the story feel like it's a true continuation of the original story.

Day 583: Arc of Infinity Part 4

So the villain of this story is Omega, the first Time Lord, a character last seen in The Three Doctors. His story is interesting, being that as he harnessed the power of time travel, he was sent through a black hole and arrived in a universe comprised entirely of anti-matter. In both stories, his plan revolves around returning to the normal matter universe and wreaking vengeance on Gallifrey. However, in my opinion, the way in which he is treated in Arc of Infinity comes across far worse than that of how he was treated in The Three Doctors.

My reasoning for this is that we never really get to spend much time with the character of Omega. Much of the time in Arc of Infinity is spent keeping him to the shadows, with his true identity only being revealed at the end of Part 3, which is an ill-advised move in my opinion. You see, in The Three Doctors, we spent time with the character, we learnt of his motivation, we felt his emotions, we accepted him as a character in his own right. For Arc of Infinity, on the other hand, we spend virtually no time with him and so we're just left with this nameless entity of ill intent to the entire universe, and we're expected to remember this character from 10 years ago so that we can have any sort of emotional bond with him. To be perfectly frank, it's a waste of a good character, and is yet another reason why this story is so bad.

Day 582: Arc of Infinity Part 3

A lot of Arc of Infinity is set on Gallifrey, and as such the Doctor spends some time meeting up with old acquaintances to get their help as he tries to stop some unknown creature with connections to the Time Lords enter into our universe from a universe of anti-matter. This is all handled terribly. When we meet old friends of the Doctor, we never get any sense that these two characters have kniwn each other for any period of time beyond the scenes that they share together. Take, for instance, Damon, a Time Lord working in the records room. All we get as an explanation as to how he knows the Doctor is that the two are friends. There's no explanation as to how they became friends, or why they trust each other, instead we are just expected to accept that these two characters know each other on the basis of trust, and trust alone. It doesn't help that Damon is also severely lacking in any form of character, meaning that we also don't really care for him whatsoever.

Similarly, there's Councillor Hedin, who is also introduced on the grounds that he and the Doctor are old friends. Now, at the end of this episode, it is revealed that Hedin is a traitor. This is meant to be a major plot point in the story, that one of the Doctor's oldest friends has betrayed him. But we never get any sense that these two are friends. They never talk with each other about old memories, of how much the Doctor looked up to Hedin, of any sort of history between the two characters. This means that when we see that Hedin is the traitor, all we see is not some hero of the Doctor's, revealed as a villain, instead just another character in a funny hat who just happens to be slightly more evil than the rest of the characters in this story. It all goes as just more criticisms to put on the ever growing list of problems with Arc of Infinity.

Day 581: Arc of Infinity Part 2

The Ergon is the henchman of the villain of this story, who is yet to be revealed narratively (I'll get more into discussion of the villain when he is fully revealed), and there are several problems that we can see with this character. Apparently, it was designed with the Xenomorphs from Alien in mind, which you can sort of see, if you squint. And pretend that the Xenomorphs in Alien were chicken-like in nature. Because that's what the Ergon looks like: a giant chicken. This is actually representative of a greater problem with the story, being the general design of everything. Take, for instance, Gallifrey as shown below:

It's not very impressive, lacking the style and darkness as seen with previous interpretations of Gallifrey, instead looking like something rather dull and beige. There's a certain lack of care put into the design work, making things look less impressive than they could be on paper. Part of this, though could be due to a lack of budget, although there was apparently enough money to go on a trip to Amsterdam to film this story, a fact that makes virtually no impact on the plot whatsoever and goes to show that the money could have been far better spent on getting better design work, or at the very least, a monster that doesn't look like a chicken.

Oh, and whilst I remember, two thoughts that passed me by whilst watching this episode were that the backpackers were so unmemorable that when one of them got kidnapped, I actually forgot which one was gone, and so I was surprised to see the one that I thought was kidnapped wandering around as if nothing had happened. This is not a good sign for the script, if it's that hard to differentiate between two characters. Oh, and Tegan's back.

Day 580: Arc of Infinity Part 1

I was all set to enjoy Arc of Infinity. After Time-Flight brought new lows to Doctor Who, I was hopeful. Nothing could be worse than Time-Flight, I thought. And then, three minutes in. We meet two young teenagers, Robin and Colin, going backpacking through Amsterdam. Neither of these young men are particularly good at acting. Every line that they say is so unnatural that you become convinced that the characters are actually aliens who have come to invade Earth via Amsterdam. This isn't helped by the dialogue, which is written as if Johnny Byrne, the writer, has completely forgotten how to write for human beings and instead writes soley for alien creatures or the like, with lines like "The Dutch are a very civilised race" coming across as, whilst perfectly grammatically correct and effectively communicating the point, unlike anything that any normal human being would say. And then, halfway trough this episode, just as I can't believe that it can get any worse, something truly abysmal happens. Something that demands an entry all of its own to talk about...

Day 579: Time-Flight Part 4

So eventually, the day gets saved by the Doctor. The plot, which I don't belive I've gone into in too much detail, involved the Master kidnapping Concorde so that he could fix his TARDIS (I'm actually not sure exactly how this occurs, I missed some important plot developments in Part 3 which were never touched upon again for the rest of the story), ends up reducing itself to scenes of pilots fixing aeroplanes as the Master and the Doctor come to some sort of arrangement. This turns out to be quite enjoyable, as there's a certain sense of comfort that you can get simply by watching people do their job, and do it well.

But the story comes to an end just as it was getting decent, and so too does something else. Tegan Jovanka came onto the TARDIS in order to get to Heathrow Airport. She's been an odd sort of TARDIS companion, in that she doesn't really want to be going on adventures, and she doesn't really like the people that she travels with. But now that the TARDIS has landed at Heathrow, we sort of assume that she's going to leave, and that she'll be happy about it. So when the TARDIS does leave without her, it's a bit surprising to see her so sad about this fact. Because even though she disliked everything at first, it's hard to deny that the prospect of all of time and space being at your fingertips would be a bad one, making this one of the sadder companion departures. But sometimes, an end isn't really the end, as we shall see tomorrow with the start of the 20th anniversary series of Doctor Who.

Day 578: Time-Flight Part 3

It's always interesting to note what happens with directors in Doctor Who. There are some, like Peter Grimwade or Douglas Camfield, that will be able to use the camera, lighting, or special effects in innovative ways that make stories a better experience. And then there are others like Ron Jones. There's nothing explicitly bad about the direction in Time Flight. But it's unimaginative. I never get a sense that anything special is happening, and everything just feels so mundane. Take, for instance, the cliffhnager shot of this episode. It simply concerns the Doctor saying words to the effect of "we're all going to die" as the camera slowly moves in on his face. It's pretty much the same as every other cliffhanger in Doctor Who, and adds no sense of suspense to the final proceedings, reinforcing the view that this is just a really poor Doctor Who story.

Day 577: Time-Flight Part 2

Before I begin this entry, I should perhaps put a disclaimer. I have never seen Time-Flight before, and if I have, I've forgotten most of what happened within it. So when I write this, I know that I could easily be proven wrong within the next episode.

All of that said, why the hell was the Master disguised as a weird Arabic alien soothsayer called Kalid? There is literally no reason in the plot for him to be disguised in this way. His plan revolves around working in prehistoric Earth, meaning that there is little chance of him encountering the Doctor, or indeed anyone else who knows him. What's more to the point, he keeps up with this disguise all of the time, even when nobody is actually paying him any attention.

It all comes across as the production side being more interested in the spectacle of having the Master as a literal master of disguise, and for him to reveal his disguise halfway through the story. This clearly doesn't entirely work with the plot, and means that we have a far less realistic and far more stupid story as a result.

Day 576: Time-Flight Part 1

This story begins with a brief mention of the fact that Adric is dead. The characters are allowed to grieve for two minutes, and then immediately get over it, moving onto their next exciting adventure. It feels a bit cheap, and doesn't really bode well for this story. I'm not saying that they shouldn't move on, I'm just saying that maybe a little more time is needed to deal with the fact that Adric is now dead. For a comparison, all the way back in series 3, when we saw the deaths of Sara Kingdom and Katarina in The Daleks Master Plan, this was followed with a relatively serious historical drama in The Massacre, which allowed for us as an audience to come to terms with the fact that the characters had died by virtue of it being slower and quieter than the previous adventure. This story, on the other hand, is a fun romp featuring Concorde, time travel and other bits and pieces of wacky hijinks. It's not a good follow-on story, and does not bode well for the next four episodes as we look at Time-Flight.