ZZZ5 - Planet of the Spiders 5

Jon Pertwee's Doctor has always been a Doctor in control, more so, perhaps, than any of the other Doctors. So to see him being forced to march around in a circle at the bidding of the Great One, despite his vain attempts to resist her will, comes as a bit of a shock. Then, when the Great One points out the fear in The Doctor's mind, you know that, for the first time, the Third Doctor is in over his head.

It may have taken up until Pertwee's penultimate episode to put him in a peril that he couldn't get out of, but it was the only way to but the Third Doctor in a believable enough situation for him to not be able to get out of. As it's so rare to see Pertwee's Doctor have to face situations like these, I genuinely fear for him, too, because he is completely out of his comfort zone.

There's a magical scene in this episode when The Doctor meets his old mentor, the one he mentioned in his monologue in the last episode of The Time Monster. It doesn't hurt that the link between the two stories is enforced by the casting of George Cormack as K'anpo Rimpoche, as Cormack , ironically, playing King Delios, was cast into The Doctor's cell in The Time Monster, thus interrupting the monologue! The Doctor's admission to K'anpo of the fact that he stole the Metebelis crystal, not found it, is particularly notable. Just as the Second Doctor was being held accountable for his actions at the end of his era (in a literal sense), so, too, is the Third Doctor being held accountable for his. However, instead of a court of Time Lords being his judge, jury, and executioner, those roles are being played by his own actions. Only The Doctor could have set these events in motion, and only The Doctor can stop them now.

ZZZ4 - Planet of the Spiders 4

The Doctor spends the first half of this episode incapacitated, leaving the others to carry the action while he waits for his new friends on Metebelis Three to figure out how to cure him.

The action at the meditation centre is the best stuff in this episode. Barnes and his friends seem to be minions of Lupton (who is clearly the alpha male there), but without his Lupton's presence there, they are lost. Their closed door meeting in this episode isn't one of nefarious intentions, but one called out of fear. Not only are they scared for Lupton, they're scared of what they've become involved in. When Mike Yates happens upon them, one of their numbers, Moss, reacts with fear again and clubs him from behind. Fear is at the heart of most characters' motives in this story.

The only person who doesn't feel fear, it seems, is Tommy, who doesn't have the mental capacity to feel fear, and once the Metebelis crystal opens his mind, he is too filled with wonder and innocence of his new world to be fearful of anything. The slow Tommy and the cured Tommy are two different characters in their own right, and they are both played remarkably well in a terrific performance from John Kane. Kane is the best thing about this episode, and one of the best things about a story that, after four episodes, has been thoroughly enjoyable.

ZZZ3 - Planet of the Spiders 3

After two and a half episodes, I'm beginning to think that the often lukewarm reaction people have towards Planet of the Spiders is completely unfounded. The scenes set in the meditation centre have been very interesting, the spiders are creepy, and things really seem to be building towards a dynamite finale. And then the action switches to Metebelis Three.

No longer the well realized blue jungle that we saw in The Green Death, Metebelis Three is now entirely consistent of bad CSO matte lines and still photos of Monument Valley in Arizona, populated by some of the weaker performances seen in some time. The weakest of them all, of course, is that of Jenny Laird as Nesta. Laird is terrible in every scene she's in, but her grand moment where she attempts to stop her husband, Sabor, from being taken to the lair of the Eight-Legs takes the cake. It is astoundingly bad. Somewhere, Rick James from The Mutants was watching Laird's performance, sitting contently, sipping a glass of cheap champagne, content in the fact that, for the moment, there was at least a cause for debate who was the worst actor to ever appear in Doctor Who. (My money's still on James, but mostly because we're mercifully spared Laird's performance apart from a few scenes in Episodes Three and Four).

The Metebelis scenes unfortunately take the emphasis off of some great character scenes early in the episode featuring John Dearth's superbly played Lupton. Tommy and Cho-Je are also interesting characters, even if the latter is another in a long line of white actors playing non-white characters. Kevin Lindsay does his best to portray Cho-Je, and while it probably was a notable performance in 1974, it smacks more of offensive parody now. Truly a performance of its time.

ZZZ2 - Planet of the Spiders 2

People often deride Episode Two of Planet of the Spiders because it basically consists of one (over)long chase sequence that amounts to nothing. Lupton seeks to steal the Metebelis crystal, which he does with the help of the new spider on his back. End of story. However, fifteen minutes later, after a chase that features Bessie, the Whomobile, a police car, an autogyro, a motorboat, and a hovercraft, Lupton merely escapes again. The crystal never changes hands during this entire sequence - it's Lupton's from pillar to post.

Yes, it's self indulgent. Yes, it's padding. Yes, it goes on far too long. But it's a loving tip of the hat to Jon Pertwee - a man who had, by that time, played The Doctor for almost half of the programme's 11-year run. The self indulgence follows on from a similar vibe to previous season-enders (The Daemons and The Time Monster especially), but since this is one of Pertwee's last triumphant moments in this story (the chase is a triumph, not the resolution), I just don't have the heart to hate this sequence as much as I should...

This episode is also the last time we see Sgt. Benton for the rest of the Pertwee era, and the last time we see The Brigadier until the final scene of Episode Six. (One of the Brigadier's last acts is to fire six shots at Lupton - and miss six times - during the latter's escape from UNIT HQ). The comfortable world of The Third Doctor is slowly dissolving, piece by piece...

ZZZ1 - Planet of the Spiders 1

It's great to see Mike Yates again as his well written character arc draws to a close in this story. The fact that Yates is now out of UNIT and a resident of the Buddhist retreat allows Richard Franklin to grow his hair out significantly since we last saw him in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Quite what gives the Brigadier and Sgt. Benton the excuse to have their hair as long as they do (UNIT hair length standards have clearly fallen by the wayside) is beyond me. The Brigadier, in his 1970s suit during the opening scenes, looks more and more like Peter Sellers in Revenge of the Pink Panther each day.

The Brigadier is also resembling Inspector Clouseau more in his actions, too. He is very much the simpleton during the scenes where Professor Clegg visits UNIT - even more so than in the previous stories where he was portrayed as a simpleton. It's a rather sad fact that this story is the last that would feature the Third Doctor/Brigadier duo, because the familiar pairing deserved a better sendoff.

Sarah has a much more impressive outing compared to her previous two stories, though. She doesn't even appear in a scene with The Doctor in this episode, instead being called to the meditation centre specifically by Mike Yates to investigate the strange goings on in the basement orchestrated by Lupton. We still have yet to see Sarah file a story to The Metropolitan, but one assumes that this often happens off-camera...

This story looks like it's going to be wrapping up a lot of themes that have manifested in the Jon Pertwee era - the Metebelis Crystal, Mike Yates, Buddhism, with more to be revealed as the story goes along. Episode One is a riveting little view. Good stuff.

YYY6 - The Monster of Peladon 6

Is it possible for a story to have nothing really remarkable about it - no standout performances, no glaring errors, no memorable scenes - and yet be more than slightly entertaining? Because that's what The Monster of Peladon was to me.

I expected this to be one of the longer (in my mind) six-part stories that I've had to endure thus far, but it really wasn't as bad as all that. I can't help but laugh at the one Ice Warrior with the oversized head, though (forever christened Ruprecht in RFS #99). His helmet was the first built for the Ealing film recording of The Ice Warriors in 1967, but, after seeing how ludicrously large it was on film, newer, smaller helmets were built for the rest of the Ice Warriors for the studio recording. There weren't enough Ice Warriors in one camera shot (i.e. two of them) in either The Seeds of Death or The Curse of Peladon, so Ruprecht wasn't pressed into service from 1967 until 1974. I'm amazed they used the head again in Monster. There are times in this story (especially in Episode Four) where I am convinced the helmet is going to fall off...

Sarah is forced to deal with the possibility of a dead Doctor twice in this story, most notably in Episode Six. For all the danger he gets himself into, it is rare that a companion actually has cause to believe The Doctor is dead, let alone having the companion actually see The Doctor's body (as Sarah does on the monitor in the communications room in this episode). Elisabeth Sladen handles Sarah's situation splendidly, of course. She'll have even more opportunity to do so again very soon...

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Now that the miners and the guards are working together in opposition against the Ice Warriors, and all the nobility (what's left of them, anyway) sequestered to the Queen's throne room, Chancellor Ortron's usefulness officially comes to an end in this episode, and, conveniently, so does his life by way of an Ice Warrior gun. Perhaps, with Ortron's death, Peladon can end their decades-long habit of installing Dick Cheney-like Chancellors to undermine their weak monarchs.

Speaking of weak monarchs, I present to you Queen Thalira. The poor queen doesn't wield much power, and, apart from a brief foray into the mines earlier, has spent this entire story in her throne room, and the last couple of episodes under guard in said throne room by one or more Ice Warriors. She also has an overbite, and, coupled with Jon Pertwee's sssibilant sss's, as well as all the hissing Ice Warrior dialogue, there must have been plenty of saliva to mop up after each recording session at BBC Television Centre...

If the Queen is more than often stuck in the throne room in this story, then has Alpha Centauri even left the communications room this story? Or in the 50 years between visits by The Doctor? And what, apart from playing table tennis, has it been up to all this time? Can't help but feel sorry for the poor creature.

YYY4 - The Monster of Peladon 4

The Ice Warriors make an impressive entrance in this episode, firmly establishing their power and influence over everyone in this story. The miners succeed in capturing the armory and steal some laser guns (making the Queen's guard look like idiots in the process). They also seem surprisingly adept at using the wepaons that they should have, logically, no prior experience using.

Once they break into the throne room, though, and threaten the Ice Warriors with those guns, they meet their match, as the Ice Warriors, with blazing quickness, wipe out five of the six miners with a single shot. It's an impressive sequence and, after their oddball turn wearing the white cowboy hat in The Curse of Peladon, it's great to see how strong a menace the Ice Warriors really could be. I've always been a fan of the Ice Warrior gun effects, too - Mirrorlon in all its glory. However, the two times in recent memory that Mirrorlon has been used (The Mutants and this story), the camera seems to be shooting the flexible mirror material on an angle, giving the game away early that an Ice Warrior gun is about to go off.

Still, the old standby of using heat to thwart Ice Warriors (heat>ice, get it?) is used again, allowing the miners to escape from the clutches of their Martian captors in the mines. Tried and true, I suppose, but it had already been done to death in The Seeds of Death.

The real tragedy of this episode, and of Jon Pertwee's final season in general, is that most of the final battle scene is played out with Terry Walsh doubling for Pertwee because of the latter's ailing back. Pertwee used to be the man of action, and it is always a thrill to see Pertwee himself fling people around in his early days. From about Season 10 onwards, Pertwee's back had become such an issue that is rare to see him perform any kind of action sequence at all.

YYY3 - The Monster of Peladon 3

1970s feminism is given a rare boost in Doctor Who in this episode for one scene, before it all comes crashing back down to Earth again just seconds afterward. The scene in question is when The Doctor, before leaving the dejected Queen in her throne room, instructs Sarah to have a quick word with her about women's lib (which Terrance Dicks, esteemed civil rights soldier that he is, has trouble specifically understanding, as seen through Sarah's awkward dialogue. The scene does, however, contain the great line "There's nothing only about being a girl.")

Well versed enough in his own eyes about women's equal rights, The Doctor retires to the communications room (where Alpha Centauri really should set up a cot as she spends most of this whole story there) and engages in a chat with the phallic hexapod. In comes Sarah, fresh off her empowering chat with the Queen, and what does The Doctor do? Swats her down for trying to interrupt his conversation with Centauri. Hope you enjoyed your moment, Sarah. You'll seldom have another one this season.

Once it becomes known that Federation soldiers will be sent in to help with the situation on Peladon, and that Ortron is now pleading with the same miners with whom he is fighting to project an image of peace in order to fool the soldiers, you can almost see the expiration date on Ortron's forehead...

And how about that cliffhanger? The Ice Warriors are back, and they seem to be bad guys again! I'm not sure how much was known about their return when this story first aired, but it isn't half exciting to see the the Martian loom in the doorway as the closing credits roll...

YYY2 - The Monster of Peladon 2

There have been some silly hairdos in Doctor Who (one need look no further than Bill Filer and Captain Dent in Season 8 for proof of that). But what exactly is the reasoning for making all the Pel miners wear badger Afros on their heads?

All the miners have them, but no one else on Peladon does. Are the miners of a different species than the rest of the inhabitants of Peladon? Are they even from the same planet originally? Is the badger Afro (henceforth known as the "Bafro") a characteristic of Peladon's oft-neglected indigenous population, and that, on top of the satire of the coal miner strikes of the early 1970s, The Monster of Peladon is also an allegory on how world governments have treated the aboriginal people living in their respective countries?

If it is hair, and the mines are as hot as the miners claim they are, surely such a warm and fuzzy hairdo would be detrimental to the job the miners are doing, as such a hairdo would not only make their heads hot, but it must surely become covered in dust and soot almost constantly. Plus, and this is perhaps the most important question, do the miners know how silly they look? Do the guards laugh at them a lot? Because I would.

This Pel Bafro conundrum consumed my every though while watching this episode. I can only assume everything else that happened with the story went fine.

YYY1 - The Monster of Peladon 1

It's good to see so little has changed on Peladon over the course of fifty years. No redecoration has occurred to the walls and throne room, the guards still wear short skirts, the Chancellor is a superstitious old coot who still holds dominion over the inexperienced monarch, the reigning monarch has a mute giant as his/her champion, and Alpha Centauri is still hopping around the place, annoying everyone with its grating voice and bad jokes.

I've probably been quite unfair to The Monster of Peladon over the years (especially considering the licking my Radio Free Skaro cohorts and I gave it in Episodes 98 and 99), but, certainly at first glance, it seems to be covering the same ground as its predecessor The Curse of Peladon. Not only were both stories written and directed by the same people (Brian Hayles and Lennie Mayne, respectively), but both stories open with the exact same camera shot!

What's most remarkable about this episode, though? The fact that Donald Gee reminds me so much of Tom Baker. Gee even wears a similar shiny space suit (maybe the same shiny space suit, knowing the BBC) that Tom Baker will be wearing in Genesis of the Daleks. Gee's got the wide-eyed expression that Baker would soon make famous down to a T. Looking at this, one wonders if Donald Gee's number was far from the phone when Tom Baker broke his collarbone during the making of The Sontaran Experiment, and they needed a double for some long shots...

XXX4 - Death to the Daleks 4

The Doctor and Bellal's journey through the city of the Exxilons should have been more fun and exciting than it turned out to be. Instead of having puzzles and mazes that the viewer could play along with at home, The Doctor and Bellal are thwarted by tiled floors and spinning lights as they make their way to the core of the city. It's a shame that we don't see how the Daleks make out in some of these tests. The Doctor had to convince Bellal not to shoot him during one of the tests. How could a Dalek do the same for one of his own kind when their prime directive is to kill?

Sarah, after two very strong stories to introduce her character, is given a lot less to do throughout this whole story, and she joins the equally (and increasingly) ineffective party of humans in this episode in trying to deceive the Daleks into thinking they've loaded bags of parrinium on board their ship. In fact, the humans might be slightly less useless than the Daleks themselves, whose only success is blowing up the beacon and restoring power to their ship (and thus rendering The Doctor's efforts meaningless and his destruction of one of the 700 wonders of the universe come off as wanton destruction).

Death to the Daleks is a reasonably entertaining and diverting tale, but at its heart is a burnt out writer who doesn't know what he wants to do with his creations anymore. Looking ahead, though, it is the last Dalek story of an era when the Daleks were the sole focus, and when they were seen to be a lot stronger at formulating plans and orchestrating devious partnerships with lesser races. It's also, canonically, the last Dalek story in what has become known as the First History of the Daleks. With Terry Nation's "Dalek story" slot for the next season, things would be very different indeed...

XXX3 - Death to the Daleks 3

We're introduced, in this episode, to one of the more adorable supporting characters in recent memory - Bellal. He's so little and helpful (and glowing) that from the first time we see him crawl out of a crevasse in the wall, we hope he makes it through okay and doesn't wind up dying horribly like that other "local alien who helps The Doctor and his companion, yet dies horribly in a Terry Nation-written Dalek story", Westar.

I absolutely adore Sarah's reaction upon meeting the little fellow. I can't tell if she's more scared or repulsed by Bellal, but her superb, jumpy reaction as he darts around her, trying to ensure her that he is on her side, is delightful. One has to remember that, apart from Linx in The Time Warrior, The Exxilons are Sarah's first experience with aliens, and Elisabeth Sladen brings Sarah's unfamiliarity with them to life in an unsurprisingly believable way.

The Daleks aren't that effective in this story thus far, carrying on from their first meeting with The Doctor in Episode Two. They do manage to outfit themselves with projectile weapons fairly quickly, but the only creatures they succeed in destroying are the odd few Exxilons. The strange root creature dispatches a couple of Daleks, and none of the remaining humans seem overtly in danger. One thing I do like about these Daleks, though? Their silver paint job, which would never be seen again after this story. I think it looks sharp.

XXX2 - Death to the Daleks 2

A scene in this episode, perhaps unlike any other, serves to highlight the key differences between the classic series and the new series, and the way the Daleks were treated by both the production team and in the stories themselves by the characters they encountered.

Once the cliffhanger is resolved, and it is apparent that the Daleks' guns are non-functional, The Doctor confronts the Daleks and taunts them for not being able to exterminate him. Compare this scene with Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor's first meeting with a Dalek in 2005's Dalek. Both scenes are remarkably similar. Both scenes even contain the exact same lines of dialogue (The Doctor's reaction to a Dalek's empty threat in both scenes is "What are you going to do to me?"), but it's the delivery by the actors and the level of gravitas that each version of the scene is treated with that sets the two scenes apart.

Most of you who are reading this have probably seen Dalek, so I won't go into too much detail about it (plus, it will get its own due in a few months' time). But note the way that the Dalek is shot using stark lighting and intimidating camera angles. The viewer, and The Doctor, is scared of the Dalek, even though it is chained up and unable to hurt anyone. Rewind to the first Doctor-Dalek scene in Death to the Daleks. The lighting is bright, the camera is perched up well above the Daleks, making them look like the tiny dustbins they are. Even Jon Pertwee's Doctor treats them with a great lack of respect. He doesn't fear them, and he shares the same sentiment with the viewer.

This is nothing against Jon Pertwee's acting in this scene, or Michael Briant's direction in the way it was shot. It's a testament to how, in a larger sense, how television was produced back in 1974, but more of how Doctor Who and the Daleks were perceived at that time in the programme's history. Both were treated as something that entertained and, in an endearing way, frightened the children enough to hide behind the sofa, but not enough to ruin their evenings or give them nightmares. And if The Doctor isn't even scared of the Daleks anymore, then why should the children watching at home?

XXX1 - Death to the Daleks 1

Death to the Daleks has some similarities with both The Daleks and the virtual remake of The Daleks, Planet of the Daleks, but not enough to be annoying. Oh, there's the standard Terry Nation staples of The Doctor and companion finding themselves alone on a strange planet, getting separated, the companion finds the bad guys, The Doctor finds the good guys, and there's a surprise appearance of the Daleks at the end of Episode One.

There's also some more features of the TARDIS that are revealed for the first and last time - another feature often seen in Nation-written scripts. It's interesting to see the TARDIS depleted of its power, but it's quite handy for the Doc to have an oil lamp sitting in the console room when it happens. The hand crank to open the door is a relatively new feature, although something similar was previously seen in The Web Planet.

But that, thankfully, is where the similarities end. The result still isn't that impressive, though. The join between location shooting on film to brightly lit sets with grey studio floors is very jarring. The incidental music, as done by Carey Blyton and a saxophone quarter, is also quite grating, but not nearly as bad as Blyton's earlier score for Doctor Who and the Silurians. There's also some endless banter about space plagues over dinner. If John Abineri wasn't in this, I'm not sure my attention would have been held at all.

WWW6 - Invasion of the Dinosaurs 6

Invasion of the Dinosaurs was the final story written by Malcolm Hulke, who was and is one of my favourite Doctor Who writers. It's been pointed out by many (along with myself) that Hulke's stories often didn't feature "good" and "bad" guys, just two or more factions that each had good and noble reasons for what they were doing; those reasons just happened to clash with others, thus creating conflict.

This story is perhaps the most notable example of Hulke's approach. While Butler seems more vindictive than the rest of his conspirators, Grover, who is the main thrust behind the cause for a new Earth, almost makes a good case for what he's trying to do. So much so that The Doctor not only agrees with the cause, but sympathizes with it. It does lead to a bit of rather heavy handed moralizing at the end of the episode, but the main message of this story is a worthy one.

The character arc for Mike Yates is still, in my mind, a brave one, and a rarity for the classic series. In fact, even using the relatively recent term of "character arc" for a show from the early 1970s seems odd to me, but such is the case with Yates. From seeing the light (literally) in The Green Death, to getting suckered into doing something about it here (and with more to follow), Yates fared better than most of his other companion/regulars of the classic era, perhaps even having his character develop more than that of the Doctors themselves. Certainly, the character of The Doctor developed over the course of the various regenerations and during each incarnation, but these developments were mainly due to how the actor playing the part changed himself. The path of Yates's progression can be directly found at the scripting level with the talents of Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks. They already wrote Jo Grant out with considerable aplomb, and their treatment if Yates was equally well handled.

The climax of this episode really rolls along, as two parties (the inhabitants of the fake spaceship and The Doctor and The Brigadier) converge on the main control room to try and stop Whitaker from rolling back time and erasing thousands of generations of people. It's tense and exciting, and almost entirely devoid of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the thought of scientists in basements couldn't sell this story to the general public and entice them to want to watch. Dinosaurs, it was thought, would be a much more attention-grabbing draw, but the effects of the day just couldn't hope to match what the marketing of the show promised.

If Invasion of the Dinosaurs would have been named Operation Golden Age (which was mooted at one point) and truncated to four parts, it may have been one of the better stories of the Jon Pertwee era. As such, it's still much, much better than its reputation deserves, but was just one or two tweaks away from being a really great story.

WWW5 - Invasion of the Dinosaurs 5

Sergeant Benton has always been lovable and reliable, and never more in this story. Not only does he look like an angel in comparison to the other UNIT regular, Captain Yates, but his willingness to allow The Doctor to knock him out and escape from UNIT mobile HQ is rather heartwarming. It's also clear that Benton and Yates were friends, despite their difference in rank, and it's unfortunate to watch Benton's reaction to The Doctor telling him that his friend is a traitor.

Most of this episode features The Doctor on the run from UNIT soldiers, which is unique enough to be interesting, but instead just seems like more padding in a story that started off with an episode that was almost entirely filled with story padding. It does let Sarah escape from the spaceship in the bunker, though, although, like The Doctor, she simply ends up where she started from - held captive in the bunker.

The very end of the episode is, regrettably, another shot of the Tyrannosaurus Rex model in what promises to be a truly underwhelming fight sequence. This story has been much better than its reputation would lead one to believe, but there are one or two devastating flaws (padding and dinosaurs) that threaten to curtail the story's success.

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The Doctor's new car, the Whomobile , makes its first and second last appearance of the series in this episode. It's most likely that the introduction in this episode was intended to set up its greater role in the Season 11 finale Planet of the Spiders, because there is little cause for it to take over from reliable old Bessie. I never realized it at the time, but The Green Death was also a bit of a swansong for Bessie, too, as she would only feature fleetingly in her final two stories in this production block.

There is a daring amount of time given over to a sequence that sees The Doctor tracking down the underground bunker from where the manifestation of the dinosaurs is being controlled. Without Sarah or anyone else tagging along for the ride, the entire sequence is devoid of almost any dialogue as The Doctor traces the signal, tracks Butler down to the bunker, then explores the underground location while, unbeknownst to The Doctor, Butler and Whitaker redirect him back to the lift by strategically closing doors and leaving The Doctor no alternative but to head back out. Jon Pertwee especially excels during this sequence in conveying what he is thinking through facial expressions only. It would have been easy to simply have The Doctor talk to himself during all of this (as has been done in the past) to try and explain what The Doctor was thinking. Kudos to writer Malcolm Hulke for not going down the obvious route.

Another strong cliffhanger rounds out this episode as The Doctor is, according to General Finch, caught in the act while making a dinosaur appear. We all know that The Doctor isn't guilty, but the suspense lies in wondering how The Doctor will prove his innocence to not only Finch, but to the Brigadier, as well.

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Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a particularly strong story for both Mike Yates and Sarah Jane Smith. Yates's character arc is quite interesting. He is revealed to be one those behind the dinosaur appearances surprisingly early in Episode 2 - so early that you have to wonder if perhaps Yates is spy for UNIT in a more overt example of espionage like what he did in The Green Death. When he first sabotages The Doctor's dinosaur stun gun, then, to save The Doctor from being attacked by a marauding T-Rex, reactivating the gun and using it to fell the beast, it looks like he might have been on the side of the "bad guys", but then hops back to the good at just the right moment.

Sarah is so strong in this story that she threatens to overshadow The Doctor, especially in this episode. It is she who clues into the possibility of a nuclear reactor existing underneath London, and her forthright attitude leads her to the office of Charles Grover, who promptly reveals himself to be a traitor and imprisons Sarah in the bunker. It's then Sarah who gets put aboard the "spaceship" that is setting out to find New Earth (presumably the first one of sixteen New Earths). Seldom has a companion been in the thick of the action this much since the Ian Chesterton days.

The cliffhanger revealing that Sarah is, supposedly, on a spaceship seconds after having been seen in a basement in present day London is superb. Of course, you know it's most probably going to be some sort of trick that will be explained in Episode Four, but it's one of those cliffhangers that aren't necessarily suspenseful, but turn the plot on its ear and threaten to take it in an entirely new direction come the next episode.

WWW2 - Invasion of the Dinosaurs 2

I mentioned earlier about how it took me years to realize that the omnibus version of Planet of the Daleks that I had been watching for years was missing Episode Three. The same thing goes for the omnibus version of Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Episode One. At the time, I thought, after watching the first scene of the story (that of The Doctor and Sarah handcuffed in the back of a detention center transport) that it was an odd scene to begin on.

Later, The Doctor and Sarah take stock of the situation, basically explaining the plot to themselves (and, more importantly, the viewer), that of the fact that London was deserted apart from the random appearances of several different dinosaurs. Shortly afterward, the Brigadier stumbles upon them, and the story finally gets underway, an episode and half into it. Overt padding has been this story's main downfall thus far. Well, that and, of course, the dinosaurs.

Buoyed by the success of the Drashigs (successful depending on who you listen to), Barry Letts greenlit this story hoping that the same effects could be parlayed into making realistic and convincing dinosaurs. I actually think some of the dinosaurs don't look too bad. The Brontosaurus and the Stegosaurus look good, and their limited movement looks relatively realistic for as far as pre-animatronic puppet technology had advanced by 1973 when this was made. It's when the dinosaurs, specifically the Tyrannosaurus Rex, start to move around, roar, and open and close their mouths that it starts to look really, really bad. Really bad. And it's not going to get much better. One's enjoyment of this story, it would appear, will hinge on being able to accept the shoddy dinosaurs as they are and move on, or just simply move on.