Serial 95: The Sun Makers

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)
Companions: Leela

Written by: Robert Holmes
Directed by: Pennant Roberts

Editor's Note: Hallo hallo! Dropping in to point out that this is Cassandra's last entry! Lordie lord we are racing towards an ending and quickly, aren't we? By golly we are. But yes. Here's Cassandra with some discussion on "The Sun Makers".

Background & Significance: So the name of this game is 'satire'.

When I watched this story for the first time, the point flew right over my head and so I ended up disliking it.  "Robert Holmes?" I thought.  "Oh, surely this shall be another heavy masterpiece."  And it's not, so, I was confused and felt a bit betrayed and let down, since this was the last Robert Holmes story we did on our initial watch-through.

But just because this is much lighter fair than what I've come to expect from Holmes, doesn't make it bad.  On the contrary, it really shows off his range as a writer, as good comedy is one of the hardest things to master.

And this is a comedy.  It's a very biting satire on Imperialism and Colonialism as well as the British equivalent of the IRS, which I think is hilarious.  Granted, there are some dark elements/moments that we'll talk about in a bit, but at its heart this is a comedy, which makes it fit in splendidly with the Williams era aesthetic.

This is also one of the last stories featuring Leela as a companion, which makes me really sad because I love Leela and I think she's really great here, which may or may not have something to do with the return of Pennant Roberts, who also directed Leela's debut story "The Face of Evil".

But enough of all that, let's take a closer look, shall we?

Serial 96: Underworld

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)

Companion: Leela

Written by: Bob Baker & Dave Martin

Directed by: Norman Stewart

Background & Significance: "Underworld" is not exactly a well-regarded story. In that famous Doctor Who Magazine ranking of all the stories of Doctor Who from "An Unearthly Child" to "Planet of the Dead", "Underworld" was the lowest ranking Tom Baker story. And not just low ranking for Tom Baker standards (his stories get a "Tom Baker bump" because everyone loves him so frakking much), but low as in bottom five Doctor Who story. Of all time.

Now, I should qualify that by saying I don't agree with a fair bit of some of the rankings on that list, but when you get so much concentration on positive (the top ten is fairly solid, if misguided) and the negative, it turns out that the masses are really not that wrong.

I hate Underworld. I'll just say that in the background and significance. It comes in one of my least favourite eras (The Graham Williams era) and suffers from being the first 4th Doctor story not overseen in at least some respect by Robert Holmes. And I think it REALLY shows you how much you need a good writer to bring something to the table to really make a story... you know.... good.

It also suffers from being written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, more jovially referred to as "The Brighton Boys" when they were a duo or whatever.

I'll also repeat something that I've said previously: Baker/Martin are not good. Or at least, the stories that they make are traditionally stories I REALLY don't like. The only time I've actually relished in a story that they wrote, it took Patrick Troughton to frakking save the day and completely steal the show. And of the only other times I found two other of their stories enjoyable, one had the benefit of being completely re-written by Robert Holmes and based on a half-decent concept AND the departure of one of the finest companions ever, while the other was handicapped to being just two parts.

Also, two of my all time least favourite Doctor Who stories OF ALL TIME are written by these two guys. Three if you count this one. So ummmmmm..... Not a huge fan, no.

But enough blather and mea culpa whatevering.

"Underworld" comes towards the end of Tom Baker's fourth season and is still in the early years of Graham Williams's producership and it's everything I associate with the era. It's poorly written and constructed, it looks awful, it makes no sense, it's cheap, and it's schlocky in all the worst of ways. Gone is the good writing and it shows you how much Baker/Martin can't stand on their own. Known for high concept ideas, studying Baker/Martin stories is a clinic in how to not do certain things. Which I'll elaborate on.

Honestly, this story is a mess even before the really awful CSO (green screen) kicks in. It's an awful travesty, and my god do I loathe this story.

Ugh.

So let's get to it!

Serial 97: The Invasion of Time

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)
Companion: Leela, K-9

Written by: David Agnew (a.k.a. Graham Williams and Anthony Read)
Directed by: Gerald Blake

Author's Note: Hey guys! Before we get into this week's review, I just wanted to say that I'm one of the new co-hosts of this sw33t Doctor Who podcast called "The Doctor's Companion" where my co-host Scott and I discuss Classic Who stories in recap form not so unlike this blog (but also much unlike it too because it comes in "sound-word" form). The first episode is available for download here and I encourage everyone to subscribe in iTunes (or whatever tickles your fancy) cuz it's tons of fun and I promise a super great ride. And now on with the show!

Background & Significance: "The Invasion of Time" is, to me, something of a case study in the Graham Williams era. If nothing else, it really just reminds me that sometimes it's really hard to be hard on Tom Baker's second producer.

We've talked about it before, but it's definitely worth repeating here. The Williams era is, in my mind, a much maligned era, and how could it not be? He's coming right after three seasons of ridiculous high quality under producer Phillip Hinchcliffe, who had a much firmer grasp on his vision of what he wanted the show to be and was thusly able to execute it that much more effectively than Williams. In addition to that, the show's budget was slashed as hard times fell on England (or something. THIS ISN'T A HISTORY SHOW. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT DOCTOR WHO), Tom Baker (best-Doctor-ever-no-contests) was growing increasingly more and more heady and drunk when it came to his influence on the show, and the BBC came forward to tell Williams to cut back on the violence and horror of the previous era, focusing instead on something much more "important": Humour.

And then you remember that Hinchcliffe's vision was supported by the insane quality of having Robert Holmes in charge of the stories they were telling and you just realize that Williams... Williams didn't stand a chance.

But he gets props for trying.

"The Invasion of Time" is probably the thing I think of most when I think about Williams trying incredibly hard to make something that's awesome and matters and really cool. If you go and look at what Williams was trying to do, he was just trying to make the best Doctor Who stories he could make. The level of the fantastical was increased as Williams scoured the Earth for the best stories that he could find.

Building off the success of an extremely high water mark from the previous season's already extremely high quality, Williams thought Robert Holmes's fantastic Time Lord opus "The Deadly Assassin" a mythology rife with potential to expand and build upon. It had proved to be incredibly popular, so why not build on it by telling another story set on Gallifrey but with a different focus? He even asked Robert Holmes to come in and write it as a companion piece/sequel to "The Deadly Assassin". When Holmes refused and other possibilities proved fruitless, Williams and new script editor Anthony Read opted to write it together under a psuedonym in order to cut back on costs.

What we're left with is... this. And... Oh boy does it merit some discussion.

Before going into it, I'd almost recommend coming at it from a place of leniency. It needed to be made on the cheap, and what they're dealing with was... I understand why they did it and they get super props for at least trying it, because really... Why shouldn't you? Revisiting Gallifrey and Time Lord society was bound to happen at some point and choosing to revisit it wasn't a bad choice.

But... let's be honest... Neither Williams nor Read are Robert Holmes. And he's the only one who's proved himself capable of writing a quality Time Lord story. Ah well. They couldn't have known. Ce'st la.

So let's get to it!

Serial 103: The Armageddon Factor - The Key to Time Part VI

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)
Companions: Romana I, K-9

Written by: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
Directed by: Michael Hayes

Background & Significance: So it comes to this. The end of the Key to Time.

With its sixth story, the Key to Time season came to an end. There were ups and downs, certainly, but more than anything it was at least watchable.

Yeah... Until this.

Y'see, I do think highly of Bob Baker and Dave Martin (Of note that they've done is "Claws of Axos" and "The Three Doctors". And while I don't necessarily agree or enjoy the "let's make it comedic and let Tom Baker do whatever the hell he wants" mentality of his era, I do think Graham Williams is an entirely competent producer. Likewise, Anthony Read (script editor for the past season and a half) is fine, suitable even.

But "The Armageddon Factor"... This is where I draw the line.

Of course, it's not as easy as the weak, weak script this turned out being. Tom Baker was incessantly fussy about this whole thing (as he gets at the end of every season when he demands more creative control and threatens leaving and gets to be a "diva"), Mary Tamm decided to leave at the end of the season, Baker/Martin split as a writing team after handing one of their drafts of the script, and, as always happens because of poor planning, the budget was running extremely, extremely tight.

In the end, what you have is this... well... I guess we'll just have to take it as we go.

So let's get to it!

Serial 102: The Power of Kroll - The Key to Time Part V

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)
Companions: Romana I

Written by: Robert Holmes
Directed by: Norman Stewart

Editor's note: Never fear! We're almost done! After this Robert Holmes, there's only but one! Cassandra's got our second to last adventure starring the Key to Time and then I'll be back in two days to wrap up this two week saga with "The Armageddon Factor".

Background & Significance: Before Doctor Who's ambitious Sixteenth Season began, script editor Anthony Read worked hard to try and hammer down each of the six stories in place so everything would go smoothly. Unfortunately, writer illness and apparent lack of ideas made it so that the fourth and fifth serials in the Key to Time were unplanned. What resulted was the hire of writers David Fisher and Robert Holmes, both of whom had already written one story each this season: "The Stones of Blood" and "The Ribos Operation", respectively.

The result of David Fisher's rehire we saw with Monday's "The Androids of Tara", but what of Holmes?

Well, you're about to find out.

A couple things I want to point out: Robert Holmes is a good writer. He is. Really. Remember "The Deadly Assassin"? Yeah. That was him.

But what we see with the disappointment that is "The Power of Kroll" (because spoilers: this serial was so disappointing and hokey) I can blame on two things: studio intervention, and writer burn-out. This is Holmes' last serial before he wrote the acclaimed Peter Davison serial "Caves of Androzani", which is supposed to be AMAZING. And watching this, you can tell he needed a break. Also, the Head of Drama at the BBC at the time told Holmes to cut back on his humor. Why on earth would you do that, buddy? Way to fail.

But enough of all that. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Serial 101: The Androids of Tara - The Key to Time Part IV

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)
Companions: Romana I, K-9


Written by: David Fisher
Directed by: Anthony Reed

Background & Significance: Smack in the middle of The Key to Time, producer Graham Williams and script editor Anthony Read found themselves one story shy of a full season. Then, to make matters worse, one of the writers had to back out due to "personal reasons".

With everything else taken care of and running out of options, they turned to David Fisher, who had written the previous story "The Stones of Blood", which the two leading Doctor Who men had been most pleased with (obviously their standards are not as high as mine).

They told him to write something in the vein of what the original writer had written. Something swashbuckling and exciting and full of rope swinging and adventure. Something that was reminiscent of... Perhaps Ivanhoe or Robin Hood. Something like that.

"The Androids of Tara" was the result of that project.

And what a fun, fun time it turned out being.

Really, this is one of those stories that I've had on my mind for a long time. I just love that title. Androids. of Tara. That's just... wonderful. And boy this wasn't anything about what you'd think it'd be about, but I just did not care. What. a. romp.

So let's get to it!

Serial 100: The Stones of Blood - The Key to Time Part 3

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)
Companions: Romana I, K-9

Written by: David Fisher
Directed by: Darrol Blake

Editor's Note: Still on the Key to Time, kids. I needed a break after the one-two punch of the beginning of the week, but I'll see you back here Monday with "The Androids of Tara". For now, just sit back and enjoy Cassandra's discussion of "The Stones of Blood".

Background & Significance: It's the week of Halloween, 1978. What should you be watching to get you in the spooky scary mood?

Why, "The Stones of Blood", of course!

The third serial in Doctor Who's sixteenth season and coincidentally the third installment in the epic Key to Time, it's important for a couple of reasons. The main one being that this lovely serial happened to be the 100th broadcast story in the show's long history.

Party!

To ring in the auspicious occasion, writer David Fisher was commissioned to pen this adventure, the first of four Who stories he would be asked to write, including next week's "The Androids of Tara" and the previously reviewed "The Leisure Hive".

Unfortunately, no asparagus people in this, but plenty of supernatural hijinx and ultimately a story that starts off awesome and ends up disappointing.

But enough of that buzzkill, we'll get to that soon enough, I'm sure. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Serial 99: The Pirate Planet - The Key to Time Part 2

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)
Companions: Romana I, K-9


Written by: Douglas Adams
Directed by: Pennant Roberts

Background & Significance: In 1977, a young fellow named Douglas Adams was offered a gig writing Doctor Who just as his grand opus and most famous work The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy got off the ground.

Adams's first story for Doctor Who (one of three he wrote) was called many things by many people. Some called it too complicated. Others called it too expensive. Others called it too dense.

A BBC exec called it "Too funny."

And that's funny right? I mean, you hire a guy like Douglas Adams on the scene for a big sci-fi show, you're going to get funny, right? It's most odd, perhaps, because the backlash against Phillip Hinchcliffe's "violent and scary" tenure as producer on Doctor Who resulted in Doctor Who becoming more comedic.

As such, Adams was a perfect fit. So perfect, in fact, that he became story editor for the season after The Key to Time, but I guess we'll talk about that when we finally get there.

Needless to say, The Pirate Planet is indeed funny, although I'd call it silly more than anything. More than that, though, it is dense but with some very cool sci-fi ideas in it. Also, it's zany. Like really zany. I think this is the zaniest it's been so far.

But fun. I think.

So let's get to it!

Serial 98: The Ribos Operation - The Key to Time Part I

Doctor: Tom Baker (4th Doctor)
Companion: Romana I, K-9


Written by: Robert Holmes
Directed by: George Spenton-Foster


Production Note: Hey guys. For the next two weeks, we'll be looking at the season long epic The Key to Time! It's a fast paced roller coaster of a blogging time, but I figure it's better to get it over and done with so we're not languishing in the story for the next six weeks.

We'll be updating here three serials per week until it's over (that's Monday, Wednesday, Friday through next week). I'm taking the first two, the fourth, and the last, and friend of the blog Cassandra will be taking the third and the fifth. Once we're on the other side, we'll be back on a weekly schedule until the next major multi-serial storyline, but for now just sit back, relax, and read about one of the most ambitious projects in Classic Doctor Who history.

Hope you enjoy the show!

Background & Significance: As Doctor Who rounded into its sixteenth season, producer Graham Williams decided he wanted to put a stamp on his tenure by doing something no one had ever done before:

Tell a season-long story.

Sure, the first several seasons were serialized, with each story bleeding into the next, but Williams wanted something different. He wanted excitement and the construction of a multi-serial narrative seemed like just the thing to do.

It was definitely an ambitious project, one that would require tons of planning an preparation. They'd give The Doctor a goal, a quest in six parts and have each serial of the season see him obtain each of the six pieces of The Key to Time in order to stop the evil Black Guardian.

They brought in Tom Baker and made sure he'd be around for every episode (can't do a season long Doctor story if there's no Doctor) and contracted a new companion, the first incarnation of Romana, and away they set off, on the quest for the Key to Time.

Williams gave the first story in the season, "The Ribos Operation", to veteran Doctor Who writer Robert Holmes, in the hopes that he would turn in a good fast draft that they wouldn't have to spend too much time fixing. It turned out to be the second to last Robert Holmes story until Holmes returned for the legendary "Caves of Androzani."

Unfortunately, many people refer to the period after The Gothic Season and until the rise of Jonathan Nathan-Turner as a weaker time for Doctor Who, when the writing suffered, and the series saw a decline in quality. I know I talked about it a little when I talked about The Image of the Fendahl, but... Yeah... That's definitely present here.

So let's get to it!