4W1 - The Sun Makers 1

On the outset, The Sun Makers looks like a very basic Doctor Who story. There's a harsh and brutal regime ruling a planet and its people, The Doctor lands on the planet, meets the repressed and huddled masses, then (presumably) saves them, with an acceptable amount of casualties, and then flies off before anyone asks too many questions.

But get a basic story written by such a script-writing pantheon as Robert Holmes, and all bets are off. Holmes decided to turn a rudimentary Doctor Who story into a scathing satire of the British tax system and, in the process, probably churned out one of the best stories of his career, and certainly the most clever. This episode is concerned more with the plight of poor Cordo, our window into the poor, working class of Megropolis 3 on Pluto, and the outsiders who live in the underground and scavenge what they can find from the vast city above them.

However, it's the scenes with Richard Leech's delectable Gatherer that makes this episode zing. Leech is hilarious, and of the reactions his sidekick, Marn, to his various boastings are very amusing to watch, just as that of any personal assistant's eye rolling towards her less intelligent, yet more experienced, boss. 25 minutes of pure Doctor Who delight.