GGG4 - The Claws of Axos 4

Okay, did anyone believe for a second that The Doctor was actually going to join up with The Master halfway through this episode? Given their borderline friendly relationship in The Mind of Evil, I often wonder if contemporary viewers were suckered into The Doctor's ploy, just as The Master was. And it only took The Doctor shooting Bill Filer's hand off to convince people, too.

There is some remarkably dodgy science going on when the nuclear reactor explodes. First, the Brigadier and friends hide behind their cars at least a couple blocks away from the Nuton complex to shield themselves from the impending blast. Once the (relatively) tiny explosion occurs, everyone hops back in their cars, drive right back into ground zero of the explosion, fearing no (and feeling no) ill effects of what should have been a massive dump of radiation. Oh, and then The Doctor's TARDIS just happens to materialize in the same spot where the Brigadier and Jo just happen to be looking. Add to this some of Dudley Simpson's worst music during Season 8 (some of it sounds as if he's making it up as he goes along), and you have a closing episode of a story that started better than it ended.

And pity poor Jon Pertwee, forced to utter the infamous closing line,"It seems I'm some sort of a galactic yo-yo!". Funny, though, after Colin Baker's last words on the series in 1986, Pertwee's line would become all but forgotten...