CCC2 - The Ambassadors of Death 2

I'll admit it. I've seen this story at least twenty times and I still have no idea how The Doctor makes the tape spool he's holding disappear and reappear. Is it a conjuring trick? Something to do with all that wibbly wobbly timey wimey business in Episode One? Is it of the same science/magic that we see Carrington and his men display later on this episode when they look to be mowing UNIT soldiers down with hair dryers that possibly shoot knockout gas?

Speaking of that latter sequence, you can just feel the budget spiralling out of control. Trucks, motorbikes, explosions, a helicopter - another episode, another superb stunt sequence. Kids, this is not your father's Doctor Who...

The spies in mission control are starting to pile up, though, as both Taltallian and Hobson are working for the enemy. I never would have figured Taltallian in that role, nor would I expect him to so convincingly handle a gun and threaten Liz Shaw in such a way. I also wouldn't expect him to lose his French accent later on, but that details is such an overblown quibble that naysayers of this story far too often bring up that I'm almost ashamed that I mentioned it here.

The cliffhanger to this episode is fairly weak, dramatically, but is still damned cool, mostly because, at this stage in his tenure as The Doctor, Jon Pertwee is so commanding that his command of "Right! Cut it open!" can end any episode with the right amount of justifiable panache.