Planet of the Spiders written by Robert Sloman (with Barry Letts) and directed by Barry Letts

This story in a nutshell: Aracnophobics beware! The Giant Spiders of Metebelies Three are on Earth! The Doctor has to face his fears because that is far more important than just going on living…

Good Grief: Without criticizing Patrick Troughton, it has to be acknowledged that Jon Pertwee took a dying show (the BBC were half convinced to axe the thing and it was only because they couldn't think of anything better that they gave Doctor Who another shot in colour) and turned it into a ratings success. Troughton's last batch of episodes were lucky to reach five million and could fall as low as three whereas in Pertwee's final two season it was regularly soaring to the heights of ten or eleven million - they are numbers that you simply cannot argue with. And whilst much of the reason can be attributed to Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks' approach to the show, the leading man is always one of the biggest draws to any television show and Pertwee deserves his portion of the victory as well. Not the most obvious choice to play the Doctor and surprising the audience by choosing to play the role entirely straight, Pertwee offered an intelligent, arrogant man of action who dashed through his stories like a moral compass, holding the sonic screwdriver in one hand and with his other arm around his pretty assistant. It has become popular to knock his Doctor (and era) in recent years but there must have been a reason so many warmed to his interpretation of the character (although it has to be said that his successor was even more popular, numbers wise, building on his success). Planet of the Spiders proves to be an appropriate final showing for the third Doctor, a story where he gets to show off all those sides of his character that made him so unique. There are cuddly scenes with the Brigadier, more serious moments in the UNIT lab, a whole episode devoted to his love of fast vehicles, plenty of opportunities to glitter (TM Tom Baker) in the face monsters, an opportunity to re-visit his childhood and even some lovely development at the climax where he comes to acknowledge his arrogance and face his fears. Barry Letts (and Robert Sloman) ensure that as the third Doctor bats his butterfly wings one last time we get to see all the facets and colours. He’s fun and playful, a man of action, beautifully serious at times and violently takes on his opponents. With a mixture of Earthbound  action and alien landscapes, it sums up his era rather nicely too. The Doctor plays along with the Professor for a while before surprising him with the truth that he knows he is a powerful clairvoyant – the Doctor is every bit the performer as much as Clegg. Only Benton’s coffee can rouse the Doctor from his trance. He spent some of the finest days of his life with the Hermit from Gallifrey, learning to see into his mind and look at the universe afresh. There has always been tangible chemistry between Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen but just watch the scene in episode two where he doesn’t listen to anything she is saying then makes her repeat it again when she says something that finally catches his attention. There is far more the sense of two equals working together with Sarah Jane, like it was with Liz Shaw. You have to admire the vanity of the man as he stops the Brigadier from shooting at Lupton because he might damage his car. If his role as the Doctor was something of a mid life for Pertwee then he gets one dramatic final flourish in episode two where he gets to play James Bond in high speed vehicles across a variety of landscapes. He talks about the TARDIS as though she were alive and always leaves the actual spot that they land up to her. The Doctor and Sarah share some very funny black humour later in the story, whimsy through adversity as they find themselves in the Spiders' larder. I was laughing my head of at the Doctor wiggling his way free of the webbing crying ‘Harry Hackenschmidt!’ - he could sure be a facetious fella at times! The Doctor is not used to losing control and being humiliated and frightened in the way the Great One pulls at him with invisible puppet strings. The Doctor accepts that it was his greed for knowledge that set all this off, stealing the crystal in the first place. Interestingly Barry Letts was very much of the opinion that the Doctor should be made to repay for his arrogance and greed (his Buddhist philosophy emerging) whereas Terrance Dicks disagreed strongly but did not oppose the producer. I am inclined to agree with the former, it warms my heart to think that the Doctor would acknowledge and repent for his failings before his death. His reunion with his mentor is very poignant because the Doctor shows rare reverence for a character and we discover that the disciplines of the Time Lords were not for the Doctor and that was why he stole the TARDIS. I’m so glad that the third Doctor got such a brave exit – he was always one to walk into danger and here he faces his fear even at the cost of his own life. He is missing for three weeks after confronting the Great One as the cells in his body degenerate and the TARDIS brings him home, which tellingly is Earth, UNIT Headquarters. Pertwee is astonishingly gentle and devastating in his last scene, proof of what a superb actor he is right up to the last moment and the silent close up on his ghostly face when he dies always reduces me to tears. He had me in rapt attention right up to his last breath.

My Sarah Jane: I thought it would be hard to watch this story after the news of Elisabeth Sladen’s death. That night I had guests and had to hold myself together with smiles until they had left but as soon as the door was shut I collapsed in the hall and burst into tears and couldn't stop.If that makes me sound like a big wuss then I am unconcerned, this was the first time that grief has touched my life in this way. Where somebody whose career I followed and admired had been snatched away without warning.  Look back on my previous reviews – I have always considered Sarah Jane the finest Doctor Who companion and Lis Sladen’s commitment to the character and the show has always impressed above and beyond any other actor that has appeared in Doctor Who. It was a devastating blow to lose the Doctor’s best friend; it felt like a little bit of my childhood had died. But when I stuck Planet of the Spiders on I didn’t find myself choking back tears but as enthralled as ever by her superb performance – I laughed at Sarah poking fun at the Buddhism, loved her awesome interaction with the Doctor, screamed as the spider appeared on her back and she showed real fear and finally the tears came as she wept over the Doctor’s death. We shouldn't selfishly groan about what we wont see from Elisabeth in the future but bask in the work she has done over the years in bringing such a marvelous character to life. I intend to do just that – I will always love Sarah Jane and I shall continue to enjoy her unique contribution to the Doctor Who universe. The commentaries on these DVDs are a wonderful bonus because we can still spend many hours in Elisabeth’s company and listen to her unique take on the show that brought her so much popularity. Sarah is still after a good story and cannot resist Mike Yates’ summons to the monastery in deepest marmoset, although you get the strong impression that she feels something for the man as well after the incident with the Golden Age bunch. There is something personal, almost flirtatious about their banter and I think she would have been drawn to the monastery whether there was a story there or not. She’s still a career girl, working for Metropolitan magazine and it’s a shame that we lost that once she was whisked off into time and space by the fourth Doctor (with the odd acknowledgement - Terror of the Zygons). She is respectful to a point but can only keep a poker face for so long when discussing the activities of the Buddhist monastery (‘like contemplating their belly buttons?’). Sarah emphasizes with Tommy, she doesn’t patronise him and as such he is drawn to her. Like so many she is clearly not keen on spiders (I'm one of those weirdos who thinks they are rather cute). I love how real Sarah feels, discussing fabulous planets and aliens like talking about fish and chips and the Liverpool docks. She's already had a moment to pause and consider the danger of travelling with the Doctor when she thought he was dead in The Monster of Peladon and we get a glimpse of her future grief when he lies unconscious outside the TARDIS on Metebelies Three. They saved the greatest 'Good grief!' for last, the spine tingling sight of the spider clinging onto Sarah's back.  I love how she smells his coat to remind herself of him three weeks after he has gone to his death, suggesting an intimacy and warmth between them and a longing for his return. Her tears at his death make this easily the most affecting regeneration, it genuinely feels as though the Doctor has died and his companion cannot cope with the loss.

Chap With Wings: Another tragic loss to Doctor Who making the commentary on this story an especially valuable one. It’s a shame that we couldn't have had more of the Brig in the third Doctor’s last story (compared to say Robot where he is a strong presence throughout) but as a joyous indictment of the Brig's relationship with the Doctor relationship and the way it has grown we get to witness the two of them socialising together in the first episode. Of course the Brig likes a bit of the old exotic dancing, the dirty get! There’s a very revealing moment that the Brigadier seems to want to skip over – a moment of intimacy in Brighton with a young lady called Doris who would go on to be a very important person in his life.Watch out for his typically stalwart expression when the Whomobile takes to the skies.

Camp Captain: It's most unlike Doctor to look back to previous adventures and capitalise on them so to have Mike Yates come back after his betrayal of the Doctor and the Brigadier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs is an unusual moment of development and allows for some redemption of the character. After his devastated reaction to Jo's engagement to Cliff, it is possible that it was losing her that was the turning point for his character so it is rather lovely that he would try and re-define himself as an individual who shouldn't be afraid of his feelings in this story. Mike is trying to find himself in a Tibetan Monastery after his discharge from UNIT. Sarah comments on the fiendish cunning of the man hiding away and spying on the spooky goings on in the cellar. Trust an ex-UNIT operative to sniff out the one monastery in England to be conjuring evil giant Spiders. His compassion protects him when he is attacked by the Spiders, but then he always was something of a sensitive soul. Whilst the character was set up originally to have a bit of a fling with Jo Grant, his relationship with Sarah is far more flirtatious and you could see how if the wonderful Ian Marter wasn’t available that Sarah and Mike could have gone off into space with the Doctor. After their interaction in this story I can see how this could have been made to work for the benefit of the series.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘When everything is new, can anything be a surprise?’
‘Bow down before me planets! Bow down stars!’
‘A tear, Sarah Jane? No don’t cry. While there’s life, there’s hope.’

The Good Stuff: Cobwebs strewn and giant spiders jumping on peoples backs – it's about time somebody drew on one of the most prevalent phobias and how appropriate to end the Pertwee years with such a memorable monster from an era that gave us mannequins, gargoyles and maggots. Cyril Shaps is one of those actors that exudes amiability and whatever guise he turns up in (even whiny Viner from Tomb of the Cybermen, but especially the Archemandrite in The Androids of Tara) I cannot help but be drawn to him on screen. Here he plays a showman with a real talent for ESP, trying to hide the gift that has cursed him in plain sight. The Doctor's assertion that all human beings have Clegg's capabilities given the right genetic switch being thrown is intriguing and certainly worthy of further exploration (The Tomorrow People had a good stab at that). There is a real contemporary seventies atmosphere to the first episode that we haven't seen a great deal of in season eleven whilst we have been having fun in the Middle Ages, Exxilon and Peladon. Shots of Sarah leaping from a train station and into a tasty red sports car could have come from any contemporary drama of the time. Who ever knew that chanting could be quite as creepy as this? Revealing once again that the Pertwee era was the most serialised of all the classic periods; here we catch up with Mike after his breakdown, find out a little about Jo's adventures up the Amazon and witness a reunion between the Doctor and his mentor. It is appropriate that Planet of the Spiders wraps up all of these threads, the plotting again following up on the Buddhist themes of cleaning out the clutter before the new man breaths life. You can actually hear Katy Manning reading the letter aloud it captures Jo's voice so well and Pertwee dictates wistfully, clearly still missing his friend. Topping off a nourishing first episode, excitement abounds as UNIT HQ descends into psychic chaos, the Professor screams his last and a giant spider appears in the monastery, quivering on its eight legs. I've heard complaints about the silky Spider voices and whilst they can be shrill on the odd occasion (and that weird chorus of 'hmms' they make when giving their assent is just bizarre), I find the voice work of Ysanne Churchman and Kismet Delgado some of the best in the series. What is it with the Doctor's friends agreeing to sacrifice themselves for the Doctor? It's Benton's turn this time around, the lovable old grunt. The idea of a final confrontation between the Doctor and the Master to top of this era is an intoxicating one but tragic events scuppered those plans and so Letts had to fall back on the idea of giving the Doctor a new foe for this story in the form of Lupton. In many ways he is a far more sinister character than the Master (who had become a little cuddly by the time of Frontier in Space), a failed man who seeks power over others to make himself feel more important. John Dearth gives a fantastically feral, sweaty, violent and nasty, just-this-side-of-psychotic performance, a desperate man is always uncomfortable to watch and this is a guy who is past his prime but doesn't know it yet. From the outset it is clear he has got a nasty surprise coming to him and given his previous complications in life it is unfortunate that he should choose such a self destructive path. Everybody piling into Bessie to chase the Whomobile should be tacky but I was cheering with joy - if you can't be a little silly and self congratulatory in your swansong then when can you? Hooray for the comedy copper (he, Stuart Fell's tramp and Pigbin Josh from The Claws of Axos should have set up their own rural sitcom) who is utterly bemused by all the space vehicles that keep racing by him in the English countryside. I wont deny that the chase is indulgent (how could I not - it's over twenty minutes long!) but Letts directs excitingly and it is full of comedy touches that make the absence of a narrative for an episode speed by enjoyably enough. The twitching, breathing spider court is a memorable set up. I wondered how this story would hold up to some of my non fan arachnophobic friends and showed them a couple of scenes but they couldn't get past the shot of the Spider rearing up to attack Sarah and then leaping on her back! Who knows what pandemonium would have occurred had they gone with the original, breathing Spiders. Pertwee gets to indulge in a spectacular fight with three guards – Hiya! Judo Chop! Sorry, forgive me. Whilst there is an element of the theatre (there is no way you will be convinced that Metebelies Three is anything but a staged planet) about them, the night time scenes are evocatively lit (both in the shadowy house and the moonlit exterior) and the funereal bell tolling pre-empts the tragedy to come. Thank goodness I didn't show my mates the Queen Spider - she has horrid shiny eyes and twitching mandibles - it really is a grisly piece of design work. There was perhaps too much subtlety going on with the Tommy thread when I first watched this story and I found it quite boring but through adult eyes I can know see how the Buddhist themes are re-affirmed through him. John Kane’s performance as he reads the child’s book with ease is affecting, a mixture of relief and awe that comprehending the symbols on the page is so effortless. You can count on Terrance Dicks to ensure that the set up of the Spiders on Metebelies Three is going to be back up by an appropriate back story - the colonists came to the planet and the Spiders came scuttling out of the spaceship into the crystal caves and grown out of all proportion, physically and intellectually. There's one moment when the humans in the cellar are surrounded by numerous Spiders, surely the worst nightmare for a large proportion of the audience. The exchange: ‘Tommy you’re just like everybody else’ ‘I sincerely hope not’ is loaded with meaning– after being an outsider all his life Tommy is now in the position to fit in and he cannot imagine anything worse. I cannot think of anybody finer than George McCormack to play K'anpo, he radiates warmth, wisdom and good humour. In his hands, the wise old mentor that the Doctor has waxed lyrical about lives up to his reputation. The Doctor’s mentor knows that they are both soon to regenerate and it is fascinating to see them interpreted in different ways, one is played as a delightful rebirth and the other a tragic murder. Visually the Great One is one of the more formidable foes that the Doctor has encountered but when you add that hysterical, vehement voice she become more than worthy of the rare honour of being a Doctor Who villain that manages to kill the main man. How could this possibly be the final Pertwee story without an almighty explosion and Barry Letts goes all out blowing up a mountain. I love how K’anpo gives the regeneration a little push, gently easing the Doctor on his way.

The Bad Stuff: Oh dear, the Whomobile taking to the skies is exactly the sort of effects disaster that Michael Grade leaps upon when trying to formulate a prosecution against the show. Similarly the effects shot of Sarah transporting is one of the most important of the story (it is a shocking moment, but the realisation is shocking too). How Jenny Laird has an acting award named after her baffles given her performance in Planet of the Spiders, she is hilariously awful (‘I shant let them take you! I shant! I shant!’) and this is precisely the sort of thing that Barry Letts is normally very good at weeding out so I'm not sure what went wrong here. Those are some of the least aesthetically pleasing corridors on Metebelies Three and the Spiders larder feels as though it could do wth more cobwebs or menace or anything...although it is hilarious that they have gone to the lengths of spinning webbed cushions for their victims! Why writers give critics openings with lines like 'this is monotonous!' is a mystery. What is up with episode five's cliffhanger oddly re-edited and five minutes into episode six?

The Shallow Bit: I kind of find Ralph Arliss really attractive – even dressed up like a hippy. Which possibly makes me nuts.

Result: Arachnophobics beware! Metebelians flee! The Spiders are attacking! Often unfairly criticised for a couple of dodgy effects, Planet of the Spiders is a fine celebration of the Pertwee era and a memorable tale for the actor who brought the show a new direction and success to go out on. Rather than concentrating on its few faults (like so many Who fans have an obsession with doing) let's discuss its many strengths. The cast is genuinely impressive (something that bolsters all of the Letts directed stories) with Cyril Shaps, John Dearth and George McCormack all rocking in some well written and characterised roles (especially Lupton, a genuinely nasty piece of work). There is plenty of well directed action, terrific development for the Doctor, Sarah and Mike and memorable scares with the twitching, giant Spiders that have a habit of leaping on their victims backs. The first episode is one of the strongest of the era and the last episode takes the Doctor on the most important journey of his life so far, climaxing on a final scene that will melt your heart as the Doctor tries to comfort Sarah as he dies before her. The Metebelies sequences are quite theatrical but nowhere near as bad as people pretend they are and pretty nicely realised on the whole (only a few CSO shots appall but the design and lighting is very strong) and the power games with the Spiders are great fun, and their voices are particularly effective. There is about an episodes worth of padding, which is unfortunate and some of the acting choices of the Metebelies actors (Jenny Laird is clearly in a world of her own) are unusual. There are so many lovely, characterful touches throughout (Mike’s redemption, Jo’s letter, the return of the Doctor’s mentor, Sarah’s grief smelling the Doctor’s coat) it generates more than enough relevance to make this a worthy swansong to a memorable Doctor. With three of its main cast and the director now no longer with us it stands a fine example of their incredible work: 8/10

Starlight Robbery written by Matt Fitton and directed by Ken Bentley

What’s it about: Sick of the same-old slaughter-appliances? In need of a killer new killing-machine? Then look no further than Garundel Galactic's secret arms auction. Blasters, tanks, missiles and bombs – no bang too big or micro-laser too small. If you’ve got the credits, Garundel's got the kill-sticks. (Cash buyers get preferential rates.) In search of the key to a sinister alien technology, the Doctor, Klein and Will set their sights on an illicit intergalactic arms fair run by an old acquaintance – the slippery Urodelian crook, Garundel. But what are their chances of pulling off a particularly audacious heist from under the noses of Garundel and his alien clients, the ever-belligerent Sontarans…?

The Real McCoy: Last month’s Doctor Who magazine gave me the impression that Fitton would have more of a chance to explore the seventh Doctor in the writers second audio from his era (his first, Black and White, was recorded when McCoy was busy filming The Hobbit and so his role had to be reduce significantly). So imagine my surprise when he was barely present throughout the first two episodes, having to have the reins of this operation over to Will and Klein (lest Garundel recognised him) and waits by the phone in the TARDIS for one of them to call with a report. First Klein, then Garundel; it seems that the Doctor is in the habit of picking up old acquaintances at the moment. It is about time that somebody coined the seventh Doctor a control freak, and you can trust Garundel to cut to the chase when it comes to assassinating someone’s character.

Nazi Scientist: Some might say the sight of Elizabeth Klein, a reformed Nazi, decked out in leather might be a sight for sore eyes. It’s certainly amusing given her previous life that she should criticize such a look. The Kraken mother doesn’t like to leave a genocide incomplete, Klein is the same with a crossword – see how far she has come on! Garundel coins her the ‘ice queen’ because she is as cool as a cucumber when dealing with him and his slippery auction attendees. She wouldn’t say that a culture where the egg bearers (ahem, women) are allowed to contribute to the military is a weakness. There’s a moment where a Sontaran asks Klein if she ever given birth and she hesitates for a moment before admitting she hasn’t. An unsubtle parallel between the Nazis and the Sontarans is drawn, and Klein froths at the mouth at the thought of unlimited cloned troops (that was basically Hitler’s dream). Klein thinks nothing of Garundel’s punishment for his machinations, the one moment where her morality comes into conflict with the Doctor’s. However she redeems herself by giving Will the gift of ignorance, informing him that Ziv has headed for the open road rather than breaking his heart with the news of her death.

Sexy Geek: It only struck me during Starlight Robbery how much Will sounds like Wesley Wynden-Pryce when he first joined the Buffy universe. Arrogant, overbearing and yet also craven and uncertain. It is not an appealing mix. Given the brevity of their adventures, I am not willing to put money on the notion that Will will undergo the same kind of transformation that Wesley did when he came into his own on Angel. Will has always been fascinated at how so many of the Earth’s invaders resemble the human race so closely. He’s far less useless in Starlight Robbery than he was in his debut but that doesn’t mean that this character is anything to shout home about. I think the character is fundamentally flawed from the outset so the best any writer (and Fitton is currently one of the most promising of Big Finish’s repertoire) can manage is damage limitation. He’s never been good at picking up those kinds of signals, women not being his field of expertise (although you would think quite the reverse given his smouldering good looks on the cover of Persuasion). He can’t quite get the hang of being undercover and gets far too mired in the method of social graces. He’s not only terrible at reading signals, he whinges on about it when it causes hassle for the Doctor. I just wanted to smack the guy in the face when he was trading barbs with Ziv, getting uptight as she tears into his character and declaring boldly that he has encountered an exciting number of aliens during his time with UNIT. He’s so desperate to impress and that’s another unappealing feature. He finally gets to something other than whimper during the negotiations with the Sontarans, standing up to a race that could blast him out of the sky proves to be a brave thing to do. Ziv describes Will as a ‘nice boy’, which tells you everything you need to know about the dramatic potential of this character. Go on, Big Finish, prove me wrong in the final story of the trilogy.

Standout Performance: It is so nice for Dan Starkey to get the chance to play the Sontarans bad for a change and naturally he is excellent, delivering a smart, menacing performance. Stuart Milligan’s Garundel failed to impress me the first time around and it would have to take a script the calibre of Robert Holmes (and to be fair to Matt Fitton he has a damn good stab at given the character a second chance – ‘Far enough from home so I can embargo my siblings but close enough for them to hear me rattling me coinage!’) at his best to allow me to hear past those teeth shatteringly hysterical and camp tones and find something of worth in this character. Was he really considered that much of a success that he needed a second story?

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Who next, Bandrils?’

‘Humanity is no slouch when it comes to war, Marshall. I’d say we’re beyond the nursery now.’

‘Small talk/Sontaran…funny!’

Great Ideas: It’s great how this story instantly segues into Persuasion, with Garundel trying to flog the machine and the inventors body’s (at no extra charge). This end of Mutter Spiral attracts the belligerent, humans included. It must be the feng shui. The Sontaran stratagem is at its limit – the Imperial war fleet is active across a thousand star systems and the clone banks are at capacity. They need to find new ways of waging war beyond the militaristic and the persuasion machine fits the bill perfectly. Fitton includes some amusing races bidding at the auction, including one whose refreshment of choice is the spinal fluid of its victims once it has crushed the life out of them. There is no point telling a Sontaran that you will take care of its weapons as though they were its children because they will have more than likely have sent their brood hatchlings into battle to be slaughtered for the glory of the Sontaran Empire – you’re much better saying you will treat the weapons as weapons, because they are much more valued. Everybody hates the Sontarans which makes them the perfect attendees to push the bids up. Did Garundel ever think that the Sontarans would ever bid for the persuasion machine in the usual fashion? When a phalanx of warships approaches, the pace starts to pick up exponentially. Garundel’s whole auction set up was a fake – he has no weapons or EM field that prevents the bidders from killing each other, he just let them believe that to keep the peace. The whole purpose of the auction was to steal the bidders weapons as well as their money. Whatever else he might be, the Doctor cannot deny Garundel’s technical genius. Garundel never trusted his female associate, he arranged for his ship to be operated by remote control just in case she decided to step out on him. He’s a slippery toad (hohoho). The persuasion-lite device does not work on anybody that doesn’t want to be persuaded, which rather defeats the purpose of the thing! Garundel murdering Ziv was the first genuinely shocking moment in the story (which isn’t a criticism, this isn’t a story that is trying to be shocking); where we see that no matter how amusing he might be, he is still a dangerous con man who always has his finger on the trigger. I’m guessing he had to do something genuinely unpleasant to justify his excruciating fate in this story (although we do learn that his hand will grow back within a month). He’s a frog with big ambitions, planning on stealing the entire Sontaran fleet (ships, guns and technology – woohoo!) and making tracks.

Audio Landscape: Bask in the auctions unusual merchandise, realised aurally by a way of a demonstration of the weapons – the droning of gunfire, hideous screams as a population burns/freezes/explodes…and then polite applause from the auctioneers.  Buzzing, sparking consoles, Sontaran communication devices, the polite chatter and alien voices present before the auction, mobile signal lost, a spaceship crashing, Sontaran ships descending.

Musical Cues: I’m guessing that Howard Carter is going to have the honour (see what I did there?) of scoring every Sontaran story because of his phenomenal theme for the militaristic race? It first appeared in Heroes of Sontar and continued apace in The First Sontarans and now the opening seconds of Starlight Robbery and instantly buoyed up by the familiar and yet bombastic and exciting presence of this theme. The godawful lift music that is slavered over Garundel’s advertisement is frighteningly authentic. Where the Sontaran theme fails is the cheerful adaptation that skips over the Sontaran attack in episode two – are we supposed to take these events seriously? 

Isn’t it Odd: Given that the general reaction to treating the Sontarans as comedy buffoons in Heroes of Sontar went down like a cup of cold sick (I exaggerate, as usual, some people did like this treatment but I’m willing to bet not as many as Big Finish were hoping for) and their repair work accomplished in The First Sontarans, it galls to see them once again treated as a figures of fun quite so soon. With the race being belittled in the TV series on a regular basis (I love Strax, but he is hardly an argument for why this race is considered an intimidating military force) it feels as if everybody is going for the funny the bone when it comes to this once proud race (yes I know there were plenty of humorous lines in The Time Warrior, but it treated Styre as the straight amongst so many primitive buffoons). ‘We are not errand boys to be sent shopping!’ Deep Space Nine crafted an episode (Business as Usual) that dealt with the potentially comic and grave consequences of aiding an arms business that forced its central character (Quark) into a moral dilemma concerning 80 million that were about to be made an example of. Quark was generally treated as a comic relief character but he managed to make the leap into high drama with surprising ease. Try hard as I might I could never imagine a character as broadly drawn as Garundel proving as dramatically chameleonic. Come to think of it, Deep Space Nine also pulled off a comedic episode with an auction of some the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals all seeking a dangerous artefact (Q-Less). Some of Garundel’s dialogue is very similar to Quark’s to the bidders when the shit starts to hit the fan. When characters state unconcerned ‘we’ve all got to make a living, it’s not like we’re pulling the trigger’ you know that the ethics of this situation are being quietly side stepped so we can get to the fun. I wasn’t sure whether the Sontaran attack was supposed to be funny (Garundel is firing off witty lines like he’s auditioning for the role of Noel Coward) or dramatic (people are dying en masse), to me it felt like a incompatible mixture of both. It strikes me that every opportunity that Fitton has to probe deep beneath the characters he fails to do so in order to keep the story light and frothy. Garundel asks the Doctor about Ace and Hex and he instantly changes the subject and there is the perfect opportunity to discuss Klein’s opinion on motherhood which is similarly skipped over. I did hope that there would never one a day when any character said ‘totes impossible’ in a Doctor Who story, but that day has now arrived. They’ve just driven off Tom Baker’s latest season, they turned up as a surprise ending in the previous season of Gallifrey and now they make their presence known in the main range…it’s the Daleks again! I’m starting to hope that Nation Estate withdraws their permission for Big Finish to use them because this is getting beyond tedious now. One new monster race every couple of years isn’t enough (the Viyrans, the Eminence), stop wheeling out the mobile dustbins and do something original! The fact that this entire story is a distraction rather displays its insignificance…but at least it was a diverting intrusion to the main narrative of the trilogy.

Standout Scene: The end of episode three where Will’s life hangs in the balance, and at the whim of a Sontaran missile. I was screaming ‘press the button!’ which might not be the response that Fitton was after.

Result: As much as some the details bugged me (more Sontarans in a comic setting, Stuart Milligan’s shrill choice of voice for Garundel), the first episode of Starlight Robbery is jolly good fun, taking place as it does in an auction for the device that was so sacrosanct in the first adventure of this trilogy. There’s a lightness of touch to the events that makes this story much more easier to enjoy than its predecessor. Garundel is much more tolerable in this adventure than he was in Black and White because he is not pitched at quite such a ridiculous level and this time around he is the star of the show and there aren’t a ton of other characters and ideas vying for your attention. Milligan is clearly having a great time playing the intergalactic wrangler and that energy infects the rest of the cast and they all pitch up their performances to match it. For a heist story it doesn’t quite have the twists and turns that you might expect from the genre (Grand Theft Cosmos was much more surprising in that respect, what I was looking for was the constantly subverting narrative of something like Situation Vacant) but it sure gets the tone and the pace spot on. It basically does exactly what it says on the tin; it is a peppy adventure through space with the seventh Doctor, Klein (who is given much more to work with here), Will Arrowsmith (still irritating but showing glimmers of potential) and the Sontarans. With Matt Fitton scripting there is plenty of witty, memorable dialogue and to his acclaim he is treating the Sontarans credibly, it is just the humorous tone of the story means that they are rather swept up in the comical tide. Ultimately this was never going to top what I still consider to be the ultimate Doctor Who auction story, Alien Bodies, which took the very simple idea and turned it into a portmanteau of oddball characters, hyper imaginative concepts and stunning world building (in the same breath The Name of the Doctor loses points for stealing most of its best ideas for this novel too). Starlight Robbery is an enjoyable Doctor Who story that diverts for its running time and provides a good ride. Just don’t expect to remember much of it afterwards, this is ultimately pretty disposable stuff (Garundel even admits as much at the climax) with an ending that rips of Frontier in Space and sees Big Finish leaping on the continuity bandwagon again (can you guess who the menace in the next story is?). Worth checking out : 7/10

The Alchemists written by Ian Potter and directed by Lisa Bowerman

What’s it about: The TARDIS lands in Berlin in the 1930s, where Hitler and his National Socialist party are in the ascendant. Some of the greatest scientific minds are gathering here: Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck, Schrödinger, Wigner. The people who will build the future of planet Earth. But the Doctor and Susan have brought something with them. Something apparently harmless, something quite common. Yet something that could threaten the course of history…

An Unearthly Child: Time (and Big Finish) have been kind to Susan. She is no longer being written as the fourth most important character of a four man ensemble or being highlighted as a snivelling child that needs a jolly good smacked bottom. No, in the hands of some of Big Finish’s strongest writers (Marc Platt being mostly responsible) she has matured into a more appealing, intelligent young woman. Whilst she is still capable of making mistakes (they are, after all, what add complications to a story), she is also capable of ingratiating herself in many different settings, reasoning out problems and coming up with some creative solutions. If this was the Susan that appeared on television I would take far less issue with the character. As Susan writers her journal she tells Barbara that the only reason she could be reading it is because she has either died or left the TARDIS. At this stage she’s not planning on doing either but you never know what will happen in this unpredictable lifestyle of theirs. There was a time in the past when Susan was tempted to change the past, when she had to learn the same lesson that Barbara would go on to learn in The Aztecs. She makes the astute observation that there is something a bit strange about how the TARDIS keeps coming back to Earth – if the Doctor isn’t doing it on purpose then something must be drawing the ship to the largely insignificant little planet. Susan thinks the early thirties could potentially be during the war, which isn’t such an educational faux pas when you think that she comes from another planet and that our damp little world has a history littered with conflicts. Like me, Susan hates haggling. She has seen enough of this planet not to be surprised that a symposium of scientists would contain relatively few women in this time period. We saw a couple of stinging examples of this in Doctor Who’s pilot episode, Susan finds it hard not correct people when she knows them to be wrong. I like the idea of the Doctor being kidnapped, leaving Susan alone and having to fend for herself on the streets of Berlin. Now we can discover what she is really made of. Susan compares the blond, beautiful members of the SA party to the Thals.

Hmm: Susan worries what the Doctor would do without her and she wants Ian and Barbara to look after him if she ever does decide to leave. He’s not concerned with the machinations of Hitler but hob nobbing it with some of the greatest scientific thinkers in the planets history; Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck, Schrödinger, Wigner. The Doctor studied the universe from afar at one point in his life, and in particular the planet Earth, which explains his detailed knowledge of the world before they had ever set foot on it. He can be a right old flatterer when he wants to ingratiate himself with certain company, all his arrogance dropping away. He’s upset that he wont get to see Einstein but in the same thought he considers his move abroad for the best – imagine Hitler with the brains of Einstein at his command?

Standout Performance: I’ve never been the greatest fan of Carole Ann Ford’s generally hysterical performances as Susan (for reasons I have gone into ad nauseum in the past – check out my reviews of her other Big Finish adventures and those discussing her adventures in seasons one and two). The Alchemists proves that it must be partly the writing that is at fault because here Susan is written for in a very subtle manner and as a result Ford’s performance is an extremely mature one. There’s only one moment when she loses it and that is when her life is genuinely in great danger. I was rather impressed.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘An elegant formula doesn’t need to be memorised, sir. Once known it becomes inevitable.’

‘Oh dear me! Undone by chemical ignorance!’

Great Ideas: I remember when Kim Newman’s Time and Relative first came out, the first book that I had read that dared to tell a story before An Unearthly Child. Whilst all other periods of the show were fair game as far as the audio, novel and comic market was concerned there seemed to be some kind of unspoken reverence about the events that lead up to the shows pilot that nobody wanted to touch. That’s what made the book so exciting. To this day it is still a period that is only highlighted on the rarest of occasions (Big Finish have released Quinnis and Hunters of the Earth) and so it still maintains that level of excitement that we are trespassing on a time before the show began. I’d like to think that more adventures could be cultivated in this fallow area but perhaps it is for the best that the companions chronicles are coming to an end so this can remain a respected period of the shows legacy. Just by being in a place you have an impact, whether you are planning to or not, so the Doctor’s insistence that they don’t interfere with history is more to protect the so called ‘important’ events rather than doing nothing at all. Potter paints an evocative picture of 1930s Berlin, not scrimping on the detail that allows us to sketch a meticulous picture in our minds. It is an occasionally romantic portrait of the city, a much more reminiscent atmosphere than you might have been led to expect.  Potter isn’t afraid to get political either, offering a balanced view of the political undercurrents of the time. The Strumabteilung is given some consideration, the Hitler’s shadow starting to cast wider across Germany. Pleasingly, Potter goes on to let us know what happens to his characters after Hitler rose to power, giving us a full account of their journey. The Doctor poses that if Germany had been more financially secure it might have looked for its leaders elsewhere. They know the war takes place and it is terrible, but the Doctor promises his granddaughter that the world that follows is a better place. He promises to show her a post-war Earth, suggesting that this is the story segues directly into An Unearthly Child.

Audio Landscape: There’s a terrific, hypnotic sequence where we experience Susan’s nausea first hand; her heart beating faster, voices swimming in her head and the background ambience becoming a spellbinding blur around her. Scribbling in a notebook, lovely nostalgic TARDIS hum, chugging car, blaring the horn, children giggling, a ticking clock, flames crackling, the gorgeous thronging atmosphere of the square, gunshots. 

Musical Cues: An unusually light and jolly score for a pure historical, which helps to ease you into the story. It’s slightly odd in places, such as the lead in to the cliffhanger which wants to depart some shocking news (that Susan will have to employ the services of the SA to get her grandfather back) but the music seems to suggest she is off for a cheerful jaunt. The pianos and saxophone that kick in when Susan’s tries to obtain information from the proprietor of a nightclub generate a romantic atmosphere. I love the Avengers’ style drumbeat as Susan escapes Pollitt and his gunshots.

Isn’t it Odd: You know when a cat suddenly coughs up a furball unexpectedly? That’s what the cliffhanger to this story feels like, a sudden lurch out of the blue. Even though this story is billed as having a central dilemma of whether Susan will change history or not that is not what it is about at all. That issue is dealt with very briskly in about two minutes and there is never any serious consideration given to the idea that she might defy her grandfathers wishes.

Standout Scene: Suddenly the story becomes very serious when it appears that Pollitt is willing to hurt, or possibly even rape, Susan to get what he wants. Listening to her banging at the door as he advances on her is quite, quite terrifying. Suddenly you realise that the Doctor and Ian (and later, David Campbell) are vital parts of her life, keeping her safe from the clutches of vile bullies like Pollitt.

Result: I’m not sure that The Alchemists is the greatest story that Big Finish has ever released, but my word it has atmosphere. If you idea of a good Doctor Who adventure is to be whisked away to another time and place then this is the story for you because 1930s Berlin is conjured up with no small amount of romance and atmosphere. It’s a tale the touches upon that rarest of periods, the pre-Unearthly Child era where the Doctor and Susan were travelling alone. With the Doctor kidnapped, Susan is forced to traverse history on her own and has to stand on her own two feet and learn important (but familiar to Doctor Who fans) lessons about not interfering in history. As a character study of Susan, it is excellent, and Carole Ann Ford gives one of her best ever performances in the role, geed on by the opportunities that the script gives her. Potter touches upon politics, science and crime but doesn’t go into too much detail into any of these subjects, instead choosing to keep the story on the move. A shame because I think a more substantial story could have been told had the pace slackened and we had been able to explore under the political surface of a pre-war Berlin. Everybody in the economic guest cast has secrets and they are revealed in the fullness of time and during the climax I got the same feeling as I often do with the Bernice Summerfield adventures – that you don’t need a full cast of characters to make a piece of drama work. With a production as polished as this and, great performances from the actors and some fine characterisation, I really don’t have that much to complain about and get away with it. The Alchemists isn’t one of the finest companion chronicles, but it is still extremely good and if this is an example of when the series perhaps isn’t firing on all cylinders then it is indicative of how strong the range is in general: 8/10

The Monster of Peladon written by Brian Hayles and directed by Lennie Mayne

This story in a nutshell: A return to the medieval world of Peladon…

Good Grief: ‘I can’t believe he’s dead. He was the most alive person I’ve ever met…’  I found the Jon Pertwee interview in the latest issues of DWM extremely interesting especially with regards to his approach to the role in season eleven. By all accounts he was grieving for the loss of Katy Manning and Roger Delgado, he was working with the knowledge that the role that had made him a household name was soon to come to an end and he was no longer surrounded by comforts such as UNIT and the Brigadier on a regular basis. To throw in a new assistant must have been tricky especially after his relationship with Katy Manning was so spectacular. And yet somehow (and this is something that he acknowledges with some pride) there is a palpable chemistry between him and Sarah Jane that is vastly different from that of the third Doctor and Jo and also acres apart from the relationship between the fourth Doctor and Sarah. It is there in their games of trust in The Time Warrior, and when he tempts her with the delights of a trip to Florana in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and when he cups her face so intimately in Death to the Daleks before he heads off to the City of the Exxilons. And it’s never felt keener in the lead up to the regeneration scene in Planet of the Spiders – I can’t think of a scene more intimately played between two actors in Doctor Who. There is something very special between them, a Doctor a little past his best and a companion in her prime and brought together they ground each other and produce real magic. Away from Sarah is where the problems lie (at least with this story, I think Pertwee acquits himself rather well in every other season eleven story) as Pertwee seems to breeze through one scene to the next without a care in the world. Is this really the same Doctor who screamed out in frustration when the world was burning in Inferno? It almost feels as if the return to Peladon was in some way appeasing the leading man by surrounding him with familiar things before his swansong but the resulting effort that he puts into his performance is subjacent to the norm. Saying all that the characterisation is still mostly excellent and he lives up to the typical Terrance Dicks description of the Doctor (which is as succinct an example as you are going to get); he’s charming and courteous, protects the underdog, is never cruel or cowardly and faces death in order to save lives. Perhaps Pertwee is a little more complacent than usual but there is certainly no part of this story that you could point at and say he is giving a poor performance or that the Doctor is behaving out of character (and that is not something you could always say about various other incarnations). It’s moments like the Doctor hypnotising Aggedor with his spinning mirror whilst singing a Venusian Lullaby when I love Doctor Who the most. No other show in the history of anything ever would dare to present anything as absurd as this. It’s lovely that the Doctor gets to indulge in one more swordfight before his regeneration and Pertwee’s Doctor looks magnificent clashing swords with Ettis (Terry Walsh, less so). The Doctor is at his best in episode six when he tinkers about in the refinery and continues to be witty and defiant even when Eckersley throws all the mind tricks he can at him.

Investigative Journalist: It’s interesting to compare how Brian Hayles writes for his two female protagonists in the Peladon stories. Drippy Jo is easily shoehorned into the role of playing royalty and falling in love whereas tomboy Sarah spends her time arguing her way out of trouble, grappling with soldiers and miners and taking an active role in the fight to reclaim the planet. It looks like women’s lib really has dawned on this show. In her Doctor Who career Lis Sladen has had to convince in the face some pretty absurd looking props posing as monsters (she managed to make Big Man T-Rex from Invasion of the Dinosaurs a genuine threat for a few seconds, that’s how good she is) but her fazed reaction to being first confronted with Alpha Centuri clearly shows that she is being pushed to the absolute limits. She soon slips into her groove and they develop and affectionate relationship. It’s how the other characters react to Centuri that make it so convincing (at least to me). Come episode two she stands between Centuri and sword wielding mainiac, grappling with Ettis with her usual spunk. Show don’t tell has always been my philosophy so having Sarah ram the idea of feminism down Tharila’s throat is the one time when I felt that she was a walking diatribe rather than a authentic character with an attitude that favours equality. I half expected her to walk out the throat room declaring ‘power to the batches!’ and clicking her fingers. It’s a shame because everywhere else in this story Sarah is handled as excellently as ever. Episode six is great for Sarah where she gets to hold a gun on Eckersley, bravely face what she thinks is going to be a shot to the back and grieve over the loss of her best friend.

Menagerie: It’s not secret that this is direct sequel to The Curse of Peladon and as such it tries to cram in as many of the popular monsters from that story as possible whilst trying to add a few more to the mythos. It’s also true that I have an unerring affection for Alpha Centuri which completely bypasses my good taste chip and forces me to ignore all the design faults and naiveté that goes into creating such a creature. Whether it’s Ysanne Churchman’s insanely shrill voice, Stuart Fell’s intimate gesturing (oo-er), Brian Hayles’ scripting or simply because I immediately sympathise with any creature that looks that phallic I couldn’t tell but in my mind this is a living, breathing ‘penis in a cloak’ (TM Terrance Dicks) and in no way a rubber costume with a stuntman inside. In fact in my more delirious moments I can be seen menacing my husband around the flat with my hands as claws going ‘che-che-che…we could all have been killed!’ and trying to grapple the phone off him as he attempts to ring the local nuthouse. His bitchy line in episode five ‘thank you Eckersley but you are still a traitor!’ might be the best thing in this entire story. Vega Nexos doesn’t last beyond episode one but he continues the bizarre fascination of trying to make all aliens that visit Peladon as weird as possible, what with his glassy boss-eyed stare, his bare man boobs and his impressively hairy legs. Perhaps not the most convincing of races ever developed for the show but the way everybody seems to accept him convinces the viewer that this is a perfectly acceptable representative of his planet. Although given that the make up and costume artistes have failed to glue his eyes on in line makes that hard to swallow at times. Needless to say I have been looking for a head warmer in the style of the Peladon miner badger wear but to no avail. I hate it when science fiction shows feel the need to give their aliens funny haircuts to try and suggest their otherworldliness and this a particularly comical example. Bless Rex Robinson for acting his way out of it, the only miner to escape the show with any real dignity. Aggedor is still a man in a monkey suit but Lennie Mayne seems more careful this time to keep him in the shadows and to shoot him dramatically with quick cuts.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Quite the little Napoleon, aren’t we?’

The Good:

• Since this is our second visit to Peladon it is quite nice to see how the place looks given another airing. This planet made quite an impact back in season nine, offering up a stormy, wind lashed castle atop a mountain with creepy catacombs to play about in. Monster re-uses the same sets but there is definitely a different vibe this time around. I would say that the main sets feel plainer and the lighting is far simpler (it isn’t helped by what is clearly supposed to be an imaginatively shot high angle in the throne room that really exposes the paucity of the set and the flatness of the studio floor) and less atmospheric but the catacombs (they’re called mines this time) are much improved for being shot on film. It genuinely feels as though they have found some old mine workings to film the show in. Regardless it’s still a fun playhouse of gothic trappings to play about in.
• What to make of the Aggedor creature? Through the eyes of an adult it is clearly a poorly disguised bit of trickery (although the mass murder it commits is certainly a convincing point in its favour) but to a young child this might just be the ultimate fright. A glowing, roaring, giant statue that belches smoke and strikes people dead with a breath of fire. Plus it zips about all over the place, appearing apparently at random and it is that unpredictability that gives it is edge. Mind you the extra that dies in the first scene is almost as frightening, or at least his performance is.
• Donald Gee as Eckersley is so charming, affable and carefree that it would have been a greater surprise if he hadn’t turned out to be the villain. He’s also decked in black leather, camp as hell, smooths his way in with Sarah and revels in being the sexiest person around on Peladon. And his hands never stray far from his hips. He really couldn’t give off any more indications that he is up to no good. Half the fun is waiting for him to make his move whilst wrapping everybody around his little finger. I wont say that Gee is giving a particularly nuanced performance (because he really isn’t) but he does everything that the script requires of him. Only a baddie would hop into a room and exclaim ‘Alright chum, I’m here, what’s the panic?’ When the Ice Warriors turn up he brilliantly refuses to admit that any of this argy-bargy is anything to do with him and the way that Azaxyr treats him so gently suggests that there might have been some interspecies romance in the past between them. He’s the sort of villain who every bugger can eavesdrop on at the appropriate point and hear him rubbing his hands together and cooing ‘fooled them all…’ Eckersley even knows which camera to turn to in a sweep of villainous decadence as he declares that once the Ice Warriors win he will be ruler of Earth. Despite his many failings, you can’t help but love this guy (when he pulls out his gun to shoot a bystander he does so with an apologetic ‘sorry chum’). Thalira is appalled by the mess of bodies in the mines both Pels and Ice Warriors and as proof that he has what it takes to make it with the best baddies Eckersley looks around and shrugs ‘never mind.’ What a guy. Anything less than a tussle with Ageddor would have been a disapointing end for him. 
• Anyone who argues that the Pertwee era didn’t have a deliberate political agenda (stand up Terrance) must surely crumble in the face of the complaints that the miners bring to the Doctor in the form of bad pay, terrible working conditions and no thanks. It’s nice that Doctor Who can bridge the gap between fiction and reality like this and make a Citizen Smith stand for the underdog. It even ensures that the miners aren’t entirely blameless in what they are accused of either to keep things balanced.
• Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the whole mystery of what is behind the refinery door generates some great suspense early in the story that is somewhat lacking in the miner plot.
• Functional, adequate and acceptable are all uncomplimentary words to toss at a director but I mean them with the greatest respect when it comes to Lennie Mayne’s handling of this story. He’s not looking to revolutionise genre television (like Graeme Harper) or to craft each shot artistically (stand up David Maloney) or even turn the show into a masterpiece of action (a round of applause for Douglas Camfield) but instead Mayne wants to provide six episodes of rollicking entertainment. I wouldn’t even say it is Mayne’s best direction (that for me would be The Hand of Fear) but he seems very comfortable here (perhaps a little too comfortable on the odd occasion) and every now and again there is a shot that really makes you ponder how the hell he did that (such as the long shot looking up from the pit at the Queen, Ortron and Centuri staring down). The POV shot of the miners attacking an Ice Warrior from inside the helmet is quite imaginative too.
• The end of episode three is a doozy with an Ice Warrior baring down on the camera. It’s precisely what I have been hankering for since the very beginning…some real menace. I really like the mind games that they chose to play with the Ice Warriors in the Pertwee era, first pulling off a coup by having them turn up as noble and honest creatures in Curse of Peladon (against all expectations) and now reversing that innovation and having them return to their malignant ways (although a line is slipped in to suggest this a splinter group so their portrayal in Curse is still how the race should be seen in general). To be honest I prefer them as baddies because there is something marvellously chilling about their design and menacing about the way they are shot. The green carapace armour looks fantastic in colour and they add to the rich blush (the Doctor’s coat, the royal purples of the Queen and Ortron’s costumes) that stand out from all the beiges and browns on offer elsewhere. Alan Bennion plays a very different kind of Ice Lord to the one he presented in Curse, relishing the chance to play bad and spit out each line for all they are worth. My one complaint about the Ice Warriors is that one of their number has been fitted with a helmet so smiley that he lacks any menace when he stomps along the corridors with a huge grin plastered all over his face (it wouldn’t seem out of place for him to scream ‘please be my friend!’ as he pursues all and sundry). Brilliantly the Ice Warriors take out eight miners in about three seconds, showing that they mean business. Although they get their comeuppance when Aggedor turns on them (and make sure you keep your eyes peeled for the Ice Warrior who legs it up the passage when two of his chums get disintegrated). Ice Warriors are clearly not above the old hiding behind pillars routine and waiting until the miners are up close and then cutting them all down (think of the similar trick that Daleks pulled off in their first story with the Thals).
• In typical tidy Terrance Dicks style, the narrative turns back on itself when the Ice Warriors arrive so the miners that had been such a threat in the first half of the story are now working with the Doctor and co (except Ettis of course but he’s got problems) to try and save the planet. Azaxyr’s terror methods unite the people of Peladon to rise up against their oppressors. It’s no neat you could write a thesis on it. It’s practically the same tight narrative construction that unfolds in Paradise Towers but it is (mostly) praised in that story and declared lazy in Monster of Peladon. Come episode five I had completely forgotten about the identity of the miscreant controlling the ‘spirit of Aggedor’ so the way it is suddenly dropped in was a great surprise. Then for the Doctor to figure out how the trick was done and use it against those who were exploiting it in the first place…Terrance Dicks’ elegance at its finest. 
• I don’t know if the scripts for Planet of the Spiders were written at this point but there is some marvellous foreshadowing for the events that were about to strike. The sequence where Sarah thinks the Doctor is dead is magnificently played by Elisabeth Sladen (you genuinely believe that Sarah thinks the Doctor is gone) and its a dummy run for what would play out in the next story. Also Sarah mentions that the Doctor always said that while there’s life there’s hope which are his eventual dying words.
• By the end of the story it is clear that there is a hierarchy of villains in this tale that is quite similar to The War Games (except The War Games pulls it off far more memorably). On the bottom rung of the ladder is Ortron who means well but causes trouble regardless, followed by psycho miner Ettis who cannot be reasoned with, topped by the Ice Warriors who are thrilled at the chance to go on a killing spree, led by Azaxyr who is motivated by greed and power and at the top strutting about in tight leather is Eckersley who is running rings around them all. It would have been awesome if at the last minute Alpha Centuri had swished his cloak and revealed that he was the brains of the outfit all along.

The Bad:

• Nina Thomas is no David Troughton, that’s for sure. You can remind me that she is supposed to be a naïve young slip of a Queen until you are blue in the face but that still doesn’t excuse how vacant Thomas appears to be in the role at times. Thalira has a habit of speaking her lines with a glassy stare that suggests she’s just taken a good sniff of powered Peladon lapacho. I’ll toss Sarah’s feminism aside for a moment and point out that she is a bit of fox though. Even when she finally grows some balls (metaphorically speaking), she’s a bit rubbish being dragged from cave to cave by Eckersley. She’s wetter than a frogs backside and drippier than a frying pan after a days work at a greasy spoon. As if Sarah needed to ask if she could faint convincingly. It feels as if the women’s lib angle is added so Thalira can rise up and do something brave and prove her worth but at the climax she is still being dragged around by men. Useless harpy, they should stick Sarah on the throne.
• This is far from Dudley Simpson’s best score for the show and in parts seems to be made up of a ‘best of’ series of steals from other stories. Things improve exponentially when the Ice Warriors show up (it feels as though he is invested in the story again) and he provides them with a terrific scream-like sting that really sends a shiver down the spine when they appear. He has a fit on the bongos (or whatever drums he happens to be playing) in episode six as Eckersley and Thalira take a tour of the catacombs.
• At times the story does seem to forget what constitutes an interesting story. Demonstrations of mining technology might be impressive on a production level but it feels like we have wandered into a dreary ‘how it’s made’ documentary on Sky. With aliens.
• Ettis is one of those characters that turns up in Doctor Who at least once a season who is so obstinate and irrational he is constructed out of plot conveniences rather than characteristics. He is just there to muddy the waters, to stir up trouble and to get in the Doctor’s way. Without Ettis this story could comfortably be three parts long. Ralph Watson does what he can with what is basically a series of rants that equate to little more than narrative contrivances but he cannot mine (hohoho) for anything deeper because if he went looking he would discover there is nothing there. Ortron is similarly defiant but at least he is seen to have a decent reason for doing so and he shows some genuine concern for Thalira and Peladon in his machinations. Ettis handicaps events because that is what he is designed to do. Come episode four he has to be put out of his misery, he’s killing his closest friends and threatening mass murder of all in the citadel. There was nothing more extreme to be done with this cipher.
• The end of episode one is absolutely precious with Blor’s hilarious reaction to being confronted with the spirit of Aggedor being more akin to a baby gurgling at an extreme high pitch. Go and watch it again. I promise you most comedies couldn’t score laughs like this. Perhaps somebody high up at the BBC complained that Doctor Who was no longer taking itself seriously because the gurgle has miraculously vanished during the reprise in episode two. It loses something as a result.
• Come episode three and the story desperately needs something more potent than the miners and their machinations to prop the story up. Fortunately Brian Hayles has something scaly, green and nasty right up his sleeve and they don’t come along a moment too soon.
• In a shocking moment of oversight the director doesn’t even bother to use a Jon Pertwee voiceover as Terry Walsh takes on Ettis. He just has Walsh do a particularly gravelling Pertwee impression. Face hits palm.

The Shallow Bit: Sarah is wearing a leather jacket and chords. As far as I am concerned the only year she had any dress sense was season eleven (although her later fashion effrontery was admittedly much more fun and said something about how much she had loosened up – like the Doctor – into a seasoned time traveller).

Result: Nowhere near as bad as its reputation. On the one hand The Monster of Peladon is overlong, padded, repetitive and unoriginal but on the other it is exciting, topical, adventurous and bursting with character. I’m probably not the best person to talk about the Pertwee six parters (plus) because I pretty much adore most of them and not just because of their individual merits (and with stories like Inferno, The Sea Devils & Frontier in Space these are easy to spot). Their length means that you get taken on an extended adventure away from your life for a while (and let’s be honest there are always times when that is a necessity) in the hands of one of the most expert storytellers (Terrance Dicks’ nuts’n’bolts approach to Who pervades his era). For six episodes you can get whisked away to Peladon or Draconia or Spiridon for an action packed adventure infused with great morals (the way that the good guys triumph so spectacularly over evil makes this perfect fairytale Who). It might be easier to approach this era as a child in that respect but I think there are times even as an adult where it is necessary to drag out your inner ankle biter and immerse yourself in something as pleasurable as formulaic classic Who. In this respect The Monster of Peladon comes out extremely favourably featuring as it does monsters you can coo at (Alpha Centuri) and monsters you can hiss at (the Ice Warriors), a dastardly villain (Eckersley), a rock solid Doctor (even a somnambulistic Pertwee is debonair and upright) a feisty companion (the inestimable Sarah Jane), plenty of running about, action and danger and even the odd moment of high drama (the Doctor’s apparent death and Sarah Jane’s reaction) to take your breath away. I’m not trying to pretend for one moment that this is classic Who or anything approaching it because it is far too safe and habitual to really make an impact but it is perfect comfort viewing on a evening when you are at a loose end. I can think of nothing finer than slipping into the TARDIS and heading off to Peladon to help the Doctor out in an exciting adventure involving miners, monsters and modest hermaphrodite hexapods. Don’t expect anything revolutionary but do expect typically engaging Doctor Who. If this is the sort of thing you don’t like then I don’t know what you are doing watching Doctor Who because so much of its oeuvre is made up out ubiquitous action adventure like this that taps into your inner kid: 6/10

Death to the Daleks written by Terry Nation and directed by Michael E. Briant

This story in a nutshell: The Daleks are forced to work with the Doctor...

Good Grief: The Doctor always comes back from Florana feeling a hundred years younger, this is another of the Doctor’s mystical unseen pleasure worlds that we never get to visit. This is how he coaxes these young slips into the TARDIS, isn't it? He knows they will always end up somewhere cold and miserable but instead he promises seas of warm milk (ugh!). A much forgotten team, once again there are some lovely moments between the third Doctor and Sarah. He finally loses it when another companion complains about his poor piloting skills, although in his defence the TARDIS has been drawn to Florana and drained of power. It is the first time he has had the chance to taunt the Daleks without the fear of them blasting the crap out of him and he really looks as though he is enjoying the experience.  I love the cold logic of this statement - ‘The only alternative to living is dying’ - it feels as though they are introducing the possibility that the Doctor could die and accept the inevitable before it actually takes place in Planet of the Spiders. Leaping into a religious ceremony, the Doctor risks execution to save Sarah’s life. I love the scenes of the Doctor and Sarah creeping through the catacombs trying to convince each other that the growling up ahead is just a subterranean wind effect (‘Next time you have an idea…keep it to yourself.’). Watch out for the gorgeous moment when the Doctor tells Sarah that he might not be coming back from the city and strokes her face intimately and looks for all the world as though he is going to kill her. There is far more going on here than is in the script, Pertwee and Sladen suggesting a depth of intimacy that goes beyond anything even the Doctor and Jo experienced. Pertwee’s Doctor is so casually arrogant you have to admire his audacity: ‘The city defies all attempts to interfere with it’ ‘I think I know a way.’ The universe is now down to 699 wonders, which makes the Doctor sad.

Juicy Journalist: Sarah can sink anywhere, apparently. I love her sense of humour in adversity (‘hooray for old fashioned oil!’) and at this stage of the game I've long forgotten all about Jo Grant (Who fans are fickle like that). She’s smart enough to head back into the TARDIS when she is wearing inappropriate clothing for the climate, more in tune with the new series companions in that respect (or more specifically, Donna). The Doctor admits that Sarah is rather headstrong and is probably out looking for him rather than remaining in the safety of the TARDIS. He's got the measure of her alright. She's not afraid to get into something of a scrap either, roughing up Bellal when he tries to drag her away from the Doctor and hysterically attacking the Doctor with questions when he manages to escape the Dalek. The Doctor needs an assistant who can think on her feet and the way Sarah gets Jill to fill the bags full of sand and sneak the perrinum away from them proves she is made of the right stuff.

The Good Stuff: I've heard an awful lot of criticism about Death to the Daleks in the past but I really cannot see what its detractors are going on about. It might be because this is one of the very first 'old' Doctor Who stories that I ever watched. I remember getting my hands on the edited together video version (I can still hum the BBC Video music with the star logo) and watching it over and over as a lad, thrust into a world of dangerous primitives, devious Daleks, roots which burst from underground to set folk on fire and a whole bunch of arrows shooting through the air. To my twelve year old eyes it was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. The Doctor was stalwart and true, Sarah Jane was brave and beautiful and the Daleks were both helpless and awesomely powerful. Exxilon was the most exciting world in the universe, with creepy underground caverns, misty quarries and a beautiful city that shone with brilliance. I loved it then and when I stick on now it still excites me greatly now, and not just for nostalgic reasons. Michael E. Briant was one of the more innovative directors and he goes to some lengths to ensure this story is executed in as unusual and atmospheric a way as possible. The opening scenes look gorgeous, a man runs through the misty half-light and is shot in the stomach with a arrow, falling to his death into muddy water. How could you not get excited by a dark and mysterious opening sequence like that? Now the TARDIS is back in action, Nation can be relied on to give the ship a new spin (just like he did in Planet of the Daleks with the fungus shooting plants removing all of the ships oxygen) and it is fascinating to watch the old girl lose her juice and fall dead and silent. Suddenly the ship becomes a frightening place full of shadows and silence, almost sepulchral. Watch carefully for Exxilon hands groping at the sand and rocks as the Doctor and Sarah explore the landscape, very subtle and creepy. This might be one of the creepiest worlds the Doctor has visited yet, or at least certainly in the first episode. The atmosphere is genuinely frightening - check out Sarah running through the misty moonlit fog back to the apparent safety of the TARDIS. Briant uses fades to suggest the passing of time and POV shots to put the audience in the uncomfortable position of being the monster that is attacking Sarah in the TARDIS. Don't get this Doctor or companion frightened, they both deck the crap out of the Exxilon's that they encounter. I tend to applaud successful effects more than I criticize ones that haven't worked because the budget that supported Doctor Who was miniscule and so when something as glorious as the Exxilon city is created it is genuinely worth celebrating for all the effort that has gone into making it work. A story that features stereotypes such as Stone Age tribes, a sacred city, rock monsters and stock SF uniformed characters really shouldn’t work but everybody is treating the story with such gravity that it transcends its cliches into something quite absorbing. Nation is testing out his fresh idea of a plague that devastates the population (which would later go on to power his series Survivors) and for once it is nice to have the stakes this high, with the lives of ten million people hanging in the balance over the consequences of this story. Candle lit, incence laced sacrifice scenes manage to generate an atmosphere all of their own that suggests a genuine society outside of the confines of this story, especially with the (very catchy) chanting. Even though the Daleks are powerless (probably the best idea in a story bubbling with innovation) you just know the devious buggers will find a way to overcome their impotence and turn on their allies eventually. Much of the underlying tension comes in waiting for them to make their move, whilst pretending to co-operate. It is no secret to say that Carey Blyton's score for Death to the Daleks has come in for some flack in the past but I personally think that it is his most accomplished soundtrack for the series. I loved it as a child with its simple, catchy tunes and to this day I can join in with most of the cues. The Dalek theme has been bashed for being slightly comedic but cannot you imagine those scenes of them wobbly along the sand dunes without it? Sacrilege. The most interesting of the human characters is Galloway, so it is a good thing that he gets the most screen time. He's a character painted in shades of grey, never quite a hero or a villain and his death bed conversation with Stewart suggests a tense back story between the two of them that is never explore further. It's a story that isn't afraid to promote some powerful imagery and the Dalek whose head blows off after coming under attack by the Exxilons and their subsequent use of its burning shell as a totem pole made for quite the video cover when this story was first released. Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me you don't find the idea of Daleks fitted with machines the most exciting idea of all time? When they blast away in the inner sanctum with casual abandon it is total carnage that would make Eric Saward smile. I remember thinking that I wished Bellal would step into the TARDIS with the Doctor and Sarah at the end of this adventure when I was younger, although looking at the story as an adult it is hard to imagine him fitting in with any of the subsequent stories (maybe Monster of Peladon with its menagerie of aliens). Arnold Yarrow takes what is usually a standard role (the friendly alien that aids the Doctor) and turns it into something much more memorable, creating a very likable ally and wonderfully sweet-tempered character in Bellal. I have recently come to the conclusion (thanks to a marathon viewing of Blake's 7 and Survivors) that Terry Nation is a much better ideas man than I ever gave him credit and looking through his catalogue of Doctor Who stories they are littered with exciting, engaging concepts. The back story of Exxilon can be added to that list, a people who created their own downfall by building a city that can protect, repair and maintain itself. A structure with a brain that turned on its creators that leeches off the power of passing ships, that also gives a clever explanation for the energy problems in the first episode. Have you ever screamed so hard at the TV so hard that your voice has gone hoarse? Imagine my 12 year old self deploring the Exxilon that is set alight by the root to fall backwards in the water! Nowadays I can see the strings holding the hoover pipe up but back then it was just the most rivetting thing I had ever seen. A building full of puzzles and games that kill you in you lose - what is this Knightmare? The maze on the wall, the deadly IKEA flooring, the hypno room and Daleks in hot pursuit…how could kids fail to love this? How could adults resist either? The Daleks are right hard nuts, gliding across the flooring of death and blasting the crap out of it when it only gives them a mild headache. I can think of few moments in Doctor Who as psychedelic and and freakish as the sanity assault, Briant deploys simple but mind numbing effects to drive the Doctor out of his mind. The story keeps coming up with fun ideas; the city creating antibodies to protect itself is a lovely touch of zombie horror in a story that has already thrown some pretty scary moments at the young'uns. The Doctor and Bellal run through the city whilst it has a nervous breakdown which translates into doors having a paddy and the lights dimming but the effect is quite disorientating. The Daleks are like big kids; once they have taken the Perineum they want to scorch the planet so nobody else can have any. Galloway’s suicide is a lovely touch of ambiguity at the end of the tale because he isn't the sort of character you would imagine would be capable of self sacrifice.

The Bad Stuff: If Galloway is the most interesting of the human characters, Jill Tarrant (what is it with Nation and that name?) is the most irritating and played with robotic incredulity. Why we need a character this goofy who states the obvious all the time baffles me...isn't that what the companion is for? The Dalek saucer once again looks remarkably like a bottle top…did they learn nothing from Planet of the Daleks? The root sequences might feature some explosive Dalek action but hanging a hoover pipe from a string is precisely the sort of nonsense that non-fans are expecting when they tune in. The chatter between the Daleks is as banal as ever and in the least subtle plotting ever witnessed they scream their underhanded plan aloud metres from their new allies. The editing of the third cliffhanger is bizarre, showing the Doctor's horrified reaction to...flooring! Is this the first time we have seen a Dalek have a nervous breakdown because it has failed one task? Michael Wisher is having a field day with the voice work but it really does seem that these creatures fall to pieces at the slightest possibility of failure. It’s a shame the death of the city is so clearly model work although the melting walls and screaming are both great touches.

Result: I got this story for my twelfth birthday and can still remember trembling with excitement as I inserted the video into the machine and sat down by my mums feet in the near dark of the living and watched Death to the Daleks from beginning to end. It had it all as far as I was concerned; the Doctor doing aikido, Sarah Jane being menaced in the TARDIS, a creepy foggy planet to explore, aliens, fights, sacrifices, hidden secrets, sentient buildings, puzzles...and Daleks! To this twelve year old boy there was never going to be a Doctor Who story that topped this one. Unfortunately jaded adult eyes have since viewed Death to the Daleks and spotted strings holding up the root, dodgy CSO and bottle cap Dalek saucers and so it has lost a little of its edge but when I slip in the shiny DVD version I still get that buzz of excitement when watching. I wish I could turn off my critical faculties sometimes and simply enjoy something for what it is (Simon has this ability and I would love to be able to adopt it at times) but Death to the Daleks still works for me for the most part.At four parts this story has a fantastic pace and there’s always half a dozen things to overcome that keeps the momentum going. The new look Daleks are pretty snazzy, looking for all the world as though they have stepped off an assembling line rather than tatty BBC props. It's little but a stack of really groovy set pieces but each of them work to a greater or lesser extent and Michael Briant keeps the story visually arresting throughout. Nowhere near as tired and worn as people will lead you to believe, this is an inventive and snazzy little piece with plenty of atmosphere: 8/10