Day 821: The Zygon Inversion

The Zygon Inversion will be remembered for one thing and one thing alone: the speech. Found in the video above, it is perhaps the most powerful moment ever broadcast in the history of Doctor Who. It's a man shouting and begging at two sides of a warring conflict to stop fighting, and seek the peaceful alternative. It's about always recognising that something like a genocidal war is always the worst case scenario and you should avoid it at all costs.

It's a speech that proved to be surprisingly topical - even as the story was being filmed it was generally known that it was going to reflect what was happening with the Islamic State situation, what was not known was that a short while after this story was broadcast, an attack was launched in Paris that captured the world with both solidarity with the Parisian people and fear that this would prove to be a catalyst to instigate another war. And the speech proved to be a weird cultural touchstone, something that people turned to and considered as a rousing voice in the overall fight between sensible diplomacy and hate filled fighting. Even today, a few months after broadcast, particularly considering that certain politicians are making their mark on the world through hateful, vile, warmongering statements, and watching this speech brings up a horrible image of what could happen if any of these people could be put in charge, their fingers hovering over buttons which could destroy the world.

And of course, the other big reason why this speech will be remembered is Peter Capaldi. Because no matter how good Peter Harness and Steven Moffat's writing is, as well as Daniel Nettheim's direction, Peter Capaldi surpasses all of that with the performance of a lifetime. It's such a passionate and powerful performance that I have no qualms about saying that it brought me to tears, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not alone in that regard. So, honestly, sit down and watch this speech. It's pretty much perfect.

Day 820: The Zygon Invasion

So, there's not going to be a blog entry today. You see, I actually wrote about this episode quite a bit in advance, as a review for the upcoming issue of The Terrible Zodin. And I think that that review pretty much sums up everything that I want to say about this episode. So when the next issue comes out, I'll link to it here, and then everything will be tickety-boo. So, sorry, but you'll just have to go without my opinions on The Zygon Invasion for a week or so.

Although, just to pretend that I've written something to talk about it today, I will just leave this point of discussion. Doesn't it make a great deal of sense that the Doctor's greatest achievement in terms of peace is completely destroyed by Missy?

Addendum (11/4/2016): And said issue of The Terrible Zodin can be found here:

http://doctorwhottz.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/the-terrible-zodin-18-spring-2016.html

Day 814: The Magician's Apprentice

One of the things that Steven Moffat decided to do with Series 9 was to experiment with story telling methods. In particular, he experimented with longer stories, with every single episode bar one in Series 9 being, in some shape or form, a multi-part story. It means that we get to spend more time developing the plot and allowing it to be just a little more complex or giving it just a bit more time to breathe and not get caught up in the need for action every fifteen minutes. And in some stories, this approach works really well, producing some of the most compelling and brilliant episodes of Doctor Who ever produced. But, the only problem is, I'm not sure that it works for The Magician's Apprentice.

If I treated 'The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar' as one episode, then I'm fairly sure that I'd have no problems with it. As I'll talk about tomorrow, I actually rather like The Witch's Familiar, and it solves many of my problems with The Magician's Apprentice. But I can't get behind The Magician's Apprentice as an individual episode. It's not the direction, which is really well crafted (the pre-titles sequence in particular strikes me as one of the best in the series' history, primarily due to the way in which it has been shot). The writing, as well, isn't really at fault. It behaves exactly as a 'Part One' of a two part story should, delivering some fine set-up to the story and focussing on the exact situation of the characters, in this case primarily that the Doctor is feeling profound guilt about his actions towards the young Davros. But I can't get beyond the fact that nothing happens in this episode. It feels like there's fifteen minutes of plot in this episode and half an hour of filling time and waiting for Part Two to come along. It means that I'm just left feeling empty from this story, because there's nothing to really bite my teeth into.

And I fully acknowledge that this is my problem, and not anyone else's. As I say, I do enjoy the two part story as a whole, it's just that I can't enjoy The Magician's Apprentice as an individual episode. Fortunately, things do improve from here on, and Moffat's multi-part experiment does end up working a lot better after this point.

Day 812: Death in Heaven

When the early reviews for Deep Breath first came in, every single one seemed to focus on the restaurant scene. It's a surprisingly long scene where the two characters are just allowed to talk about their situation and figure out what is happening. It was frequently called out as a representation of how this new Capaldi era of Doctor Who would look like a collection of longer scenes, giving the stories more time to breathe instead of giving them more bells and whistles to gawp at. And whilst these longer scenes may not be seen in every single episode of the Capaldi era, there is one particular one that pops up in Death in Heaven that is definitely worth talking about.

The graveyard scene is absolutely fantastic. It happens towards the end of the episode, after the Doctor has escaped death by falling into the TARDIS and unlocking it, where his first port of call is to find Clara, who's dealing with the fact that Danny Pink has suddenly become a Cyberman, but still has his emotions. And what the scene does is, instead of just allowing the Doctor to fix the situation and be done with it, it gives the characters an ethical dilemma to consider. Because all three characters, at some point in the scene, have some desire to remove Danny's emotions, whether it's to take away his pain, or for a tactical advantage against the Cybermen. But none of them want to be the one to do it, so they spend time standing around and considering their options as they attempt to stall the inevitable. And this is what makes the scene so memorable: it allows the characters to talk and develop over the course of the situation. It also helps that the ending to that particular strand is that Danny loses his emotions and becomes a Cyberman, adding a heartbreaking inevitability to the event.

But that's still only half of the scene. The other half concerns Missy, who enters the scene with a desire to make it go in a completely unexpected direction. She reveals that she created the army of the Cybermen specifically for the Doctor, not as creatures for him to beat, but as creatures for him to use. She wants him to use them to fight evil throughout the Universe, as the world's most good General. And she specifically does this because she wants him to consider that offer, so that he can realise that he is not a particularly good man and that he would clearly use that force for some sort of evil. It's a wonderful road for the story to go along; it reveals that the entire plot has not been conceived out of some simple desire to take over the world, but the far more complex and interesting want to change a character's mind. As Missy says to the Doctor, she just wanted him to realise that they're not so different.

And of course, order is restored by the end of the scene. The Doctor realises that, whilst he isn't a good man, he is happy with being an idiot who just helps out from time to time wherever he is needed. Danny takes control of the Cybermen and uses them to solve the bigger issues that Missy had set up to take over the Earth. And so the story comes to an end, but a bitter-sweet ending as Clara deals with the loss of Danny, but hides it from the Doctor. Perhaps we'll see how all of this plays out tomorrow, as we continue our look at Peter Capaldi's time as the Doctor.

Day 799: The Day of the Doctor

The Day of the Doctor is, unsurprisingly, perfect. It's a massive celebration, not so much of the programme itself, but of the philosophy behind the programme. And there's honestly so much happening in this episode that I'll have to skim over an awful lot, and I'll just look at a few highlights that I feel are what makes this episode special.

For a start, there's the very concept of the episode itself, and how it plays out. One of the biggest changes that Russell T Davies made to the character of the Doctor when he brought the series back in 2005 was to have the Doctor destroy Gallifrey and kill all of the Time Lords. And that's good for the programme, as it introduces a new facet to the Doctor's character; something which leads him to have a new found sense of regret and guilt about what he's done. But the problem with this is that this doesn't seem like something that the Doctor would do. The Day of the Doctor keeps coming back to that question as John Hurt's War Doctor, who is about to commit that act, continually questions himself about what is his best option. So that gives the story an opening to consider what the character of the Doctor really should be, what connects each of the twelve actors who have so far played him into doing what the Doctor does.

And we see that through the sub-plot of the episode, where the Doctors have to not only prevent a Zygon invasion of Earth, they also have to prevent UNIT from blowing up the Earth as well. So they do this by forcing them into a situation where they have to negotiate a peace, by wiping everyone's memory of whether they are Zygon or human and then forcing them to sit down and talk. It's put down in the episode as penance for the Time War, where the Doctor feels so guilty about what he has done to Gallifrey and how he was forced to take the violent solution that he opts to always seek for the peace in the universe. It's what drives the New Series Doctors in a nutshell, that they remember what happened on that fateful day on Gallifrey and that they swear never to do it again, they will be the Doctor forever-more.

But the problem with that reading, as the story points out, is that it still doesn't excuse the War Doctor from destroying Gallifrey. Because that title that the Doctor has taken on extends far back to before the series even started, all the way back to before the TARDIS landed in a junkyard in 1963. It's a decision that he made to never be cruel or cowardly, always to help people in their time of need. And with all of that in mind, it's still impossible to imagine the Doctor destroying Gallifrey like that. As Clara says when the Eleventh Doctor joins the Tenth and War Doctors in support to use the Moment to destroy Gallifrey "I never pictured you doing it". As written, it's an easy decision to make for the character, but when you start to picture it in your mind, you can't see any of the Doctors doing it - actually killing so many innocent lives.

So, naturally, the Doctor decides to rewrite history, bringing together all of his past, and one of his future, selves so that they can save Gallifrey by sending it away somewhere safe from Daleks. And it's one of the most beautiful moments in the history of the programme because it's all about saving lives on a massive scale - taking the peaceful solution en masse. And throughout that sequence, there's one moment that stands out for me as a single segment of joy that's never fully explored in the episode. Of all the Doctors there, only a handful get put on the screen by themselves. And chief among them is not the eyebrows of the Twelfth Doctor, instead it's the face of the Ninth. This man, who has been so tortured by this decision that he believes that he has made, is here saving Gallifrey and doing the thing that he constantly wished that he was able to do throughout his all too brief time aboard the TARDIS. And that's kind of perfect.

So that's The Day of the Doctor in a nutshell. It takes the concept of what the series is all about and plays around with it, before finally settling on this idea of the Doctor as the man of peace in a Universe at war. And it's that concept that's made Doctor Who one of the greatest television programmes ever, in my opinion, and it's what made the last 2 and a bit years such a joy to do. But that time must come to an end, as all things do, and the end is rapidly approaching for We've Got Work to Do...

Day 753: Planet of the Dead

Planet of the Dead, like The Next Doctor, is another one of the specials that doesn't really feel that huge. Yes, there's been some foreign location filming in Dubai, which does look impressive, and there's also a sense that more money has been spent on this episode than on normal episodes, which makes the episode feel a little bit more special, but other than that it's an average science fiction romp of an episode. Which is what makes the episode rather interesting, in my opinion.

You see, this is a story in the mould of something like Partners in Crime or Smith and Jones. It features the Doctor having fun in a story that simply provides a fun adventure for the Doctor to have with his new companion. But, after the events of Journey's End, the Doctor has been travelling alone and he fully intends to stay that way, which eventuates in him rejecting Lady Christina's request to travel on the TARDIS with him. So what this episode becomes is an example of how the events of Journey's End have affected him. He's made the decision not to travel with anyone, even when he can see their clear potential as a companion. And the story quite obviously looks towards setting this moment of rejection up as quite an important moment.

Lady Christina is set up to be a basic concept for a companion. Not only does she have the physical and mental prowess required to become a companion, she's also a character that has just enough of an edge to make her stand out against the rest of the supporting cast. She's the only one with any sizeable back story, as well as the one that takes charge when events get out of hand. She's also able to build up a good relationship with the Doctor, gleefully disregarding his orders in much the same way that he gleefully disregards hers. She could have clearly been a companion, were it not for the fact that the Doctor was always going to reject her because he doesn't want someone else on the TARDIS. This simple rejection should be seen as important because the story itself is pointing out that she's perfect for the Doctor and yet he still decides to walk the lonely path.

All of this goes as an example to show how the events of Donna's departure affected this Doctor, and marks a nice example of character development for the Doctor, which will be explored tomorrow, with fairly larger consequences...

Day 750: The Stolen Earth

The Stolen Earth is an episode that I've personally got mixed feelings about. On paper, the episode feels remarkably fantastic, but as broadcast the episode doesn't quite work in some areas, while wholeheartedly succeeding in others.

I think that where the episode's key success is is in its scale. The invasion of Earth by the Daleks feels as epic as it ought to, with the Earth being subjugated in a ball of fire and mayhem, all kept to within the time limit of around 10 minutes. It all makes the Daleks feel impressive and as if they're a powerful force that could feasibly destroy the Earth. Also important is the presence of the large supporting cast, with companions from throughout the Russell T Davies era taking part, making the event feel just a little bit larger than normal episodes would.

However, both of these points also work to the story's disadvantage in my opinion. The Daleks, whilst they feel epic, don't have any real menace behind them that would make them truly frightening. Think, for instance of the silent "Exterminate" scene in The Parting of the Ways, where the tension of Lynda's oncoming death continues to rise, and is then subverted, giving the Daleks the sense that they enjoy the sensation of playing with their victims before they kill them. There's no real scene of that nature in The Stolen Earth, instead the Daleks feel like soldiers going out and killing instead of the truly malevolent creatures of hate that they truly are.

Also, whilst having a large supporting cast is fun, it also makes the episode feel just a little bit crowded. For all that I love the conference call scene in this episode, especially the flirting between Captain Jack and Sarah Jane, I can't help but feel that there's just a little bit too much going on in too short a space of time for my liking. The episode needs a point of stillness within it, where the characters can just breathe and talk about what's happened. There are moments that are like that within the episode, such as Martha meeting with her mother but they all are part of some greater scene where action is being taken, which doesn't totally work in my opinion. Although I will say in the story's defence that the scene where the Doctor and Rose meet again is actually fantastic, and was everything that I was looking for within this episode.

There's also the cliffhanger, which is probably one of the best in the series' history. The regeneration works because it not only represents the oncoming death of one of the series' main characters, the Tenth Doctor, but it also shows takes all previous 'certain death' scenarios featured in cliffhangers by providing an easy way to show that this really is the Doctor dying and there is no way out for him. That is, unless something completely ridiculous happens to lend a hand and get him out of that situation...

Day 749: Turn Left

The Doctor-lite episode was a concept developed by Russell T Davies in order to work around the main cast's shooting schedules. A typical Doctor-lite episode will only have the Doctor in it for a fraction of screen time, with most of the focus instead being placed on the supporting characters. What makes these episodes particularly interesting is the way in which they tell a Doctor Who story without the presence of the Doctor. Love and Monsters decided to take the angle of looking at people who were obsessed with the Doctor, taking the hole left by the Doctor's absence and filling it in with the new characters and their impression of the Doctor. Blink, on the other hand, opted for a different approach by instead showing a Doctor Who story that the Doctor doesn't happen to feature in very much, with the lack of the Doctor in the story not as noticeable thanks to Steven Moffat's strong storytelling. Turn Left feels as if it looked at both of those stories and instead chose to tackle the initial problem head on. Whilst the previous adventures tried to dance around the fact that the Doctor wasn't present, Turn Left openly asks the question of what would happen if you tried to tell a Doctor Who story without the Doctor.

The result is, of course, chaos. Every single event that the Doctor should have saved Earth from instead goes horribly wrong, with massive amounts of destruction and death taking place without his valued input into the Earth. It's an episode that's filled with horrific event after horrific event, and it feels absolutely terrible to watch. It's worth noting as well that Davies makes the clever decision to create all of the tragedy out of the lighter episodes of the series such as The Runaway Bride or Partners in Crime. It's a retroactive impact for all of those previous adventures because it suddenly reminds you that all of those stories had the chance to end horribly, for all of their rompy nature. It reinforces the importance of the Doctor to the Universe, creating not only a stronger episode but a stronger series overall.

And there's so much more besides this to create a frightfully good story. The scenes with Mr Colasanto go from being heart-warming to tragic, and Jacqueline King delivers an understated but perfect performance as Donna's mother. It's one of the best episodes that Davies has produced under his tenure and is, in many ways, absolutely perfect.

Day 743: The Poison Sky

"I've got to give them a choice"

Full disclosure: when preparing this blog, I will occasionally draw up vague plans in my head for what certain entries will be about. These plans, however, will often jump gleefully out of the window once I watch the episode and realise something far better to talk about. One such example is this entry, where I was planning to talk about the duality of the Sontarans and UNIT. But then I watched the above scene, and realised that it had to be about it.

It's a scene that crept up on me, because I wasn't expecting it to happen. The events leading up to it are about the Doctor planning to kill all the Sontarans, with a device that will destroy their atmosphere. The only problem is that he has to activate it manually. And when Martha asks the Doctor why he can't set it on a delay, I thought he was going to say that they'd find and defuse it. I didn't expect him to say the quote at the top of this entry. But, of course, it makes perfect sense that he would. He's the Doctor, a man who always seeks for the best way out of any given situation. Even consider The Fires of Pompeii, where he only erupts Vesuvius on the proviso that it will end up saving the entire world, although at the cost of Pompeii. It's a strong character beat, and sums up a lot of what the Doctor is about.

And then it gets even more interesting when he offers the choice to the Sontarans. He hadn't considered the fact that the Sontarans would be so one dimensional, and so he isn't able to have the debate that he was hoping to have, where he could perhaps convince General Staal to rescind the order to destroy the Earth. So the focus is turned entirely on the Doctor, where it's about whether he has the ability to press that button and kill the Sontarans. Unfortunately, the story prevents us from further dwelling on that question of whether he would have pressed that button, but it's an interesting moral quandary nonetheless, and provides a nice ending to a thoroughly decent story.

Day 742: The Sontaran Stratagem

The Sontaran Stratagem is, rather surprisingly, quite watchable. Helen Raynor's last story for Doctor Who (the Daleks in Manhattan two parter) was, in my opinion, less than satisfactory. But for the Sontaran story, on the other hand, she's able to produce something that's far better in terms of quality, if a little simpler in terms of plot. However, it does still manage to do some interesting things, in particular with the re-invention of the Sontarans.

The Sontarans, in the Classic Series, weren't that great as monsters. Unlike the Cybermen or the Daleks, they lacked anything that made them stand out amongst the swathes of monsters that the Doctor faced throughout his incarnations. This is partially due to the fact that they only appeared in four stories, leaving them with less screen time to truly make an impact, and that one of those stories just used them as generic invading monsters (The Invasion of Time), meaning that their entire modus operandi doesn't really have enough time to sink. The main focus of the Sontarans is that they are military beings, obsessed with war and conquest. In The Time Warrior, we see this as the Sontaran advising medieval people how to best fight their enemies, while in The Sontaran Experiment, they adopt the far more sinister approach of researching the best ways to kill their foes in battle. It's a nice conceit, but the problem is that it's not brought out significantly enough in their stories to be sufficiently memorable.

The Sontaran Stratagem changes this slightly by bringing their military nature to the foreground. They are always seen standing up straight like little soldiers, with a general barking out orders to his men and the Doctor even pointing out that their weakness of a probic vent on the back of the neck is also a fun psychological battle advantage, forcing them to face their enemies in battle. And this all works as something to show what the Sontarans are, but it doesn't really show why the audience should be that interested in them.

To answer this, the Sontarans are given the beautiful advantage of being funny. We're allowed to laugh at the Sontarans, and recognise that their obsession with war is really a bit over the top and kind of laughable. It's best seen in the line "(The Doctor) led the battle in the last great Time War. The finest war in history and we weren't allowed to be a part of it". It contrasts the constant grieving from the Doctor over the fighting in the Time War and how he lost his entire race with a group of people who were quite disappointed that they couldn't take part. It's a rather funny notion and it allows the audience to laugh at the monsters. And whilst being able to laugh at the Sontarans ended up being one of the programmes greatest strengths in later episodes, taking them seriously can reveal some other interesting things, as seen in The Poison Sky.

Day 685: Battlefield Part 4

I think that the reason why I got so much out of this story is that it's unabashedly just a fun story. Looking ahead to the next few stories, the series will be going to some dark places, so Battlefield ends up giving off the impression that they got all of their frivolous and funny moments out of the way in one little package.

And there are plenty of fun moments, like Mordred's penchant for laughing, as seen in the video above. This gives the feeling that the people involved were having fun with the adventure, and allowing things to be a bit lighter than usual, whether it be through writing, directing or acting their roles. This can also be seen in such things as the relationship between Ancelyn and Brigadier Bambera, who gently flirt with one another whilst fighting and generally being awesome, which not only helps to endear the characters to the audience, but also lightens the mood of the whole adventure.

But it wouldn't be worth anything were it not for the fact that the story will allow itself to be serious every once in a while. There's a scene, for instance, where the Doctor talks Morgaine Le Fay from setting off a nuclear missile is played well, and we feel Morgaine's sadness when she discovers that her long time foe: Arthur, King of the Britons, is dead, and she didn't get to have one final battle with him. These moments of contrast not only allow for the lighter scenes to appear just that bit more joyful, but also lend the story an air of respectability that keeps it from falling into the trap of just being a generic action-adventure story. And if there's anything that I've learnt over the past 685 days, Doctor Who is generally at its best when it's not a generic action adventure story.

Day 684: Battlefield Part 3

There's a series of interesting decisions leading up to the revelation of the monster, The Destroyer, at the end of this episode. We first see it in silhouette, inside a crystal ball. That silhouette is then transfered to the real world, but it remains in silhouetted form, keeping a degree of mystery about the character, but also allowing for a sense of anticipation to build as the monster becomes more of a threat. This threat becomes palpable at the end of the episode, as it reveals itself in all of its glory, a majestic horned blue beast that looks vaguely demonic. It lives up to the anticipation that has been built around the character, mostly because through the shadow that we see of it, we're able to discern a lot of its features. However, there's a degree of disappointment, because the shadow form of it is slightly more unnerving and mystical, and one kind of wishes that they had stayed wi that form for the entire story. But, it's still a good monster, and another positive thing about this story.

Day 683: Battlefield Part 2

So this story is all about the Doctor engaging with the legend of King Arthur, as he fights Morgaine Le Fay, the evil villain who fought Arthur in days of old. What's interesting about this setting, however, is who they have in the role of Merlin. It's the Doctor, which is fairly obvious as far as analogues go, although what's not obvious is which Doctor. Merlin is a future version of the Doctor, and has set up a lot of this adventure such that his past self can come along and finish it for him.

It's a fun idea, not only because it plays with the idea of time travel (something which is rarely mentioned in Doctor Who in the Classic era) but also because it plays with the idea of the Seventh Doctor. The Seventh Doctor has become known for being a bit of a manipulator, developing complex and ornate plans in order to defeat villainy across the Universe. Here, he's been put in a position where he's a pawn in a future version of himself's game, and he's willing to play his role, treating it as some sort of puzzle where he has to figure out exactly how everything falls into place.

It all adds to the sense of fun behind this story, and makes each episode one to look forward to, as we see what happens as the Doctor figures out the Doctor's plan.

Day 682: Battlefield Part 1

And so it begins. Season 26. The last season of Classic Doctor Who. It begins with Battlefield, which appears to be an action story merging Arthurian legend with UNIT, who are making their first full appearance since Season 13 (there have been name-checks here and there, but this is the first story in a very long time to feature them in such a major role). It's clear from the offset that things have changed in the intervening years with regards to UNIT, in part due to the fact that fresh eyes are now able to look at the concept and re-work it to fit their idea of what UNIT should be.

For a start, there's a new Brigadier: Brigadier Winifred Bambera. She's similar to the old Brigadier, in that she's clearly a military type of person, someone who commands respect and is able to lead their team, but is slightly closed-minded with regards to new ideas (in her case, specifically the nature of the Doctor). However, what she lacks with comparison to the old Brigadier is the sense of warmth and familiarity that we associate with the character, or indeed, that character is allowed to associate with the Doctor and co.. But this is not necessarily a bad thing, as it allows for room for the character to move and grow, and one can expect that if the series continued we would see Brigadier Bambera more frequently throughout the years.

But as we know, things didn't pan out that way. So instead of focussing on the possibilities of the future, let's get back to the present and continue watching Battlefield. For, as the Seventh Doctor is becoming increasingly fond of saying, "We've got work to do!".

Day 427: The Seeds of Doom Part 6

Earlier in the story I posed the question of whether this should be considered a Doctor Who story. It's frequently violent and dark, something which continues throughout the rest of the story as Scorby is drowned by some pond scum, and Harrison Chase is fed into a compost mixer. Eventually the Krynoid is dispatched not through the Doctor using his wits but through a full aerial assault from UNIT (and even they don't feel right, with it lacking the regulars that we know and love). The end result is something that feels more like a James Bond film than a Doctor Who story.

But there are two things that make this feel like a Doctor Who story regardless. Those two things are Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. Both represent the very core of their characters beautifully, with Baker showing the alien side of the Doctor and Sladen showing the human side of the companion. An example can be found near the climax of the story as they fight Chase, ending with some Chase shaped compost. Sladen reacts to this with a degree of sadness, because someone has died. He may have been despicable and he may have cost several people their lives through his actions, but Sarah Jane is able to remember that he was once a human being, and to mourn his death. It's a tiny moment, but a good moment nonetheless, and representative of so many good things about this story.

And this is a good story. I may have issues with it, but on the whole it would be remiss of me not to think of it as something that was well produced. A lot of this, of course, comes down to the director Douglas Camfield, who makes his final entry to the series with this story. He has brought with him a natural talent for directing, creating an awful lot of tension in The Web of Fear, giving us some fantastic action sequences in The Invasion, getting good performances out of actors in The Crusade, and several more besides. It's a shame that we won't get to see more of his work, but that's not to say that there won't be directors just as good as him, because there's a long way to go on this odyssey and We've Got Work To Do!

Day 426: The Seeds of Doom Part 5

Easily one of the best things about The Seeds of Doom is Amelia Ducat. She's an artist who sold a picture once to the villainous Harrison Chase, and is now being used by the World Ecology Bureau to discover more about what Chase is up to. Where she succeeds as a character is in the way in which she has fun with the entire thing. Everything and everyone around her is being deadly serious, but she is content to just treat all of this as a little amusement. This is partially due to the writing from Robert Banks Stewart and Robert Holmes, but also due to the performance of Sylvia Coleridge, who injects such an awful lot of charm into the proceedings. It's an absolute highlight of the story, and perhaps of the series so far, meaning that I can only recommend seeking out her scenes to fully get to know and thoroughly enjoy her character.

Day 417: The Android Invasion Part 4

There is an absolutely ridiculous moment in this story. One which threatens the quality of rest of the story by simply existing. There is a character called Guy Crayford. He is an astronaut who was rescued by the villainous Kraals, reassembled after a nasty accident (sans one eyeball which is replaced with an eye-patch), and then used as an unwitting pawn in The Android Invasion. Towards the climax of this story, the Doctor points out that Crayford has been used as a pawn by the Kraals, and to demonstrate this fact he reveals that Crayford actually has two working eyes, and thus no need for an eye-patch.

This is truly and legitimately stupid. For a start, it defies all logic that Crayford would not have lifted his eye-patch once since getting it, meaning that the Kraals must have relied on him being extremely gullible for him to believe them. Not only that, but there is actually no reason for them to give him the eye-patch in the first place. They could have just as easily told him that they rescued him and gone about their merry business on this lie, but instead they decide to utilise a plan which could fall apart almost instantly. This shows some poor writing from Nation, who is clearly going for such a big dramatic moment that he has failed to notice the obvious flaws staring right in his face, meaning that what once had the potential for a rather nice story instead becomes a story that has its moments, but not too much else.

Day 416: The Android Invasion Part 3

It's worth mentioning that this is essentially the last script for Doctor Who to be written by Terry Nation (he will be credited for one more story but there are varying accounts as to how much he actually wrote of the story). It's also one of only two stories that he has written not to feature the Daleks, out of 10.5 stories that he is fully credited for. It's thus interesting to see what he does when he's clearly not able to write to the set structure that he is used to employing for Dalek serials. There are less allies for the Doctor and Sarah Jane, for instance, instead they are surrounded by danger at every turn. There's also a knowledge that visuals can make for more memorable moments than dialogue, Part 1 ends with the reveal of the monster's face, Part 2 with the reveal of the android face of Sarah Jane and Part 3 has an entertaining set-piece where the Doctor is tied to a spire in the centre of the village. But there are still issues. Nation doesn't let things be subtle, with future plot revelations being hinted at throughout dialogue or set-pieces (there's one particularly egregious example which we shall look at tomorrow relating to an eyepatch), but on the whole he provides some generic action adventure fun, and sometimes we all need a little bit of that in our lives.

Day 415: The Android Invasion Part 2

The iconic moment that defines this story is the cliff-hanger to Part 2. The Doctor quickly deduces that the TARDIS has not taken them to Earth and that they have instead landed on a replica of Earth, then he deduces that the Sarah Jane that has been with him for the past few moments is also a replica. He throws her to the ground, at which point her face falls off revealing a robotic underside. It's a good scene, partially due to the direction from Barry Letts but mostly due to the design of the android face from either Len Hutton (Visual Effects) or Barbara Lane (costumes) which provides an unsettling visages and one that is guaranteed to stick in the nightmares of children.

That's not to say that there aren't problems though. The scene is simple enough to work out from what precedes it, as we have already seen the fact that android duplicates have been produced and that Sarah Jane is acting oddly, thus we can surmise that she is an android duplicate. But it still remains iconic due to the nature of the cliffhanger, something which has to be designed to stick in the viewer's mind for an entire week. There will be a massive post about cliffhangers at some point in the future, but for now let's just accept the fact that of all cliffhangers, this is one of the better ones.

Day 414: The Android Invasion Part 1

Never having seen this story before, the first thing that struck me was the speed with which it started. We're used to beginning stories with establishing shots, a quieter beginning to ease the viewer into the adventure. This time, however, we begin immediately with some disjointed music from Dudley Simpson and a UNIT soldier walking erratically to camera. The suddenness of this opening scene immediately shocked me, and encouraged me to sit up and pay attention to the story.

By paying attention, I was rewarded with sone excellent camera work from Barry Letts, the former producer/director/writer for the series, making a return as a freelance director for one last time. Here, he shows off his skills at creating suspense, particularly in a scene in the middle of this episode where people get off a truck and walk into a pub, then remaining perfectly still. Letts creates tension from thsi scene by holding long close ups of the people's faces, as we expect them to make any sort of movement, yet they don't. It's eerie, unsettling and exacerbates the mystery, prompting the viewer to wonder more about The Android Invasion.