Serial 127: Enlightenment - The Black Guardian Trilogy Part III

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companion: Tegan, Turlough

Written by: Barbara Clegg
Directed by: Fiona Cumming

Background & Significance: With "Terminus" in the rearview mirror, the Doctor Who production team set about looking for a story that would wrap up this "Black Guardian Trilogy" that was the centerpiece of season twenty. To write it, Eric Saward brought in Barbara Clegg, whom he knew from his time working in radio. To direct, Nathan-Turner brought back returning stalwart Fiona Cumming, who had just come off directing the phenomenal "Snakedance".

For those keeping math at home, that means that this is the first, last, and only story in the history of Doctor Who (on television) to be written by a woman while also being directed by a woman. More than that, while it isn't the first story to be written-by-credited to a woman, it is the first to be actually written by a woman (Lesley Scott didn't actually do a word of work on "The Ark").

What's remarkable is that Nathan-Turner even managed to produce it. The story itself ran afoul of a labour strike (don't they always) and Nathan-Turner sacrificed what eventually became "Resurrection of the Daleks" to make it happen. Clearly this pained Nathan-Turner, who was a big proponent for The Daleks returning because, hey, ratings! But that sacrifice led to one of the true high points of the era and one of the best Classic stories, as far as I'm concerned. It's a personal favourite of mine, and as we round the corner towards the last three months of this blog, I love that I'm finally able to talk about it.

So let's get to it!

Serial 126: Terminus - The Black Guardian Trilogy Part II

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companion: Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough

Written by: Stephen Gallagher
Directed by: Mary Ridge

Editor's Note: 'allo, chaps! Matt here stepping in to intro Cassandra's discussion of "Terminus". It's a mid-week thing because we're in the middle of a linked story (the things we do!) but I will be back in a  few days to discuss the fantastic "Enlightenment" so stay tuned for that. Also, appreciate the Cassandra because she's only got one more to go. Lucky her!

Background & Significance: "Terminus" is the second in a loose trilogy of stories featuring the introduction of new companion Turlough and the return of the Black Guardian from Key to Time.  As fate would had it, this story also served as a departure for Nyssa, who was supposed to fall ill and leave in the previous season, but managed to hold on til this story when JNT decided she'd truly run her course.

Granted, for all he brought to the show, I don't really agree with all of his decisions in a producer capacity, and this is one of them.  I personally love Nyssa, but she was never given the chance to grow as a character ever.  This really hurts her departure, because it pretty much comes out of nowhere (as we'll see); and even Davison himself was against the decision, believing Nyssa to be the best and most compatible companion for his Doctor (and he is not wrong).

Written by Steven "Warrior's Gate" Gallagher, you'd think this would be a much better outing with such a story under his belt.  I mean, he's already written a "suitable" companion departure for Romana, and "Warrior's Gate" was interesting and fairly cerebral, which I like in a Doctor Who story.  Unfortunately, I don't feel he lives up to the promise with this.

"Terminus" is the only Doctor Who story directed by Mary Ridge, who had a long-standing relationship with the BBC, but her stint as director for this story was so fraught with trouble and rushed (and it really shows), it ultimately resulted in a really icy and uncomfortable relationship/falling out with JNT, so she never returned.  Which is a shame, because there is some really good stuff buried in here, but...

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

Serial 125: Mawdryn Undead - The Black Guardian Trilogy Part I

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companion: Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough

Written by: Peter Grimwade
Directed by: Peter Moffat

Background & Significance: For Doctor Who's twentieth season, producer Jonathan Nathan-Turner had the idea to bring back a bunch of The Doctor's old villains in an effort to tie every story to the legacy of the show. The kick off story ("Arc of Infinity") featured the return of the "anniversary villain" Omega and the next story ("Snakedance") featured the return of the previous season's "Mara". There were plans for The Master to return ("The King's Demons") and plans were made for the Daleks' return at the end of the season in "The Return" (which fell through and became "Resurrection of the Daleks").

But the middle of the season featured a trilogy of stories that featured The Black Guardian as something of a background running villain. It allowed the story to do new and interesting things with new and exciting villains while still retaining the "returning villain" mandate.

This is widely referred to as "The Black Guardian Trilogy". Indeed, it's even boxed and sold that way on DVD as a trilogy of 5th stories. And yet, that's not quite accurate. See, the Black Guardian (as we find out here) is just a means to an end to finish replacing Adric. It's here that we get the introduction of a new companion: Turlough. As originally conceived, Turlough was somewhat duplicitous and (for lack of better phrase) "The Evil Companion". As an idea, this was one that captured the imagination of script editor Eric Saward, who was always looking at new ways to shake things up. They would roll out this character over the course of this "Black Guardian Trilogy" and once it was all said and done they could decide whether or not they wanted to keep him around as a permanent companion.

So what I'm saying is this trilogy should be called "Vislor Turlough, or How I Learned To Stop Hating The Doctor and Join The TARDIS crew".

Written by Peter Grimwade, who was trying his hand again at writing after the disaster of "Time-Flight", focusing away from directing after having a run of phenomenal stories. Fortunately, this time around he's much more successful. It's also the return of Peter Moffat to the directing chair. But perhaps most importantly, it's the return of Nicholas Courtney as The Brigadier. Ironically, last week we talked about him in his last appearance til this one, so much like The Brigadier here, we're jumping from one story to the next with no cover over inbetween. Granted, it was SUPPOSED to be William Russell as Ian Chesterton, but he wasn't available. Nor was Ian Marter (Harry), Nathan-Turner's second choice. Which left Nick Courtney to return.

And oh what a wonderful bendy return it is.

So let's get to it!

Serial 132: Frontios

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)

Companions: Tegan, Turlough

Written by: Christopher H. Bidmead

Directed by: Ron Jones

Background & Significance: "Frontios" is the last great hurrah of the Peter Davison era before it starts slowly transitioning away from it and writing out all of the major characters in anticipation for Colin Baker. This is the last story of the season that isn't based on a main character's departure or introduction and (for some reason, quite fittingly) it brings the TARDIS crew to the very edge of civilization itself.

After this, it will be different as The Fifth Doctor is brought into his endgame.

It's interesting, then, that this story is written by Christopher H. Bidmead, a lovely fellow who oversaw both the end of Tom Baker and the beginning of Peter Davison right before the four-story upheaval that serves as the crux of the back half of season twenty-one. As an on-again, off-again fan of Bidmead's, it's an interesting case-study, especially as it's the Davison story I saved for last when I was popcorn-watching all the way through the show. It's quite different, but I'm not convinced this is a bad thing. I do think Bidmead does some really good work. It's sometimes incredibly difficult to put together, but I do find myself enjoying his stories quite a bit when all is said and done. So really, this could go either way. 

And then we have Ron Jones, who for those who don't remember, is one of those Doctor Who directors who seems to direct turkeys. I don't mind "Black Orchid", but "Time-Flight" and "Arc of Infinity" are rubbish and I positively can't stand "Vengeance on Varos" no matter what anyone says to me.

In summation, it's the last hurrah of the script editor who came before Saward, a middle story for an extremely middling-to-awful director, and the last story of the 5th Doctor/Tegan/Turlough combination in which they all remain intact as a team when the story's all said and done. To add to the madness, we have big 'ol monsters and the TARDIS at the very edge of where it can travel. In other words, it's one giant roll of the dice.

So let's get to it!

Serial 131: The Awakening

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companions: Tegan, Turlough

Writtten by: Eric Pringle
Directed by: Michael Owen Morris

Background & Significance: Believe me when I tell you it was completely unintentional that we'd burn through the three Davison two parters in such a short short span. It just happened. I don't know how, but trust me, it did. So.. yeah. Here we are, talking about the last of these two parters (and really the last two parter of the classic series) because all the Colin Baker ones don't count (okay, maybe "The Ultimate Foe" counts, but that's... a tricky topic).

The last time we talked about a Davison two parter it involved The Master and was rather odd. The time before that, Cassandra was talking about a "delightfully whimsical" historical. And this?

Well... it's the same consistently odd that the other one is.

Part of what makes these two part stories interesting is the way Classic Who writers have absolutely no idea how to flesh out a story and paint it in all its tapestryness in just two short episodes. To make things even more confusing, there's the same amount of characters as would appear in a standard four parter and the same amount of scope, but it ends up making the whole thing feel incredibly rushed or what have you. So it's a little strange to watch because it feels like they're racing through, leaving me with the sensation that it's all just a little too rushed and sloppy to be anything super amazing or memorable.

That's a shame, of course, because what we have here is probably easily the strongest of the Davison two-parters.

Eric Pringle and Michael Owen Morris are interesting to me because they're in that club of "one-offs". You know the types: the ones who come in and do one Doctor Who story and one Doctor Who story only. And then that story becomes their one, lone Doctor Who legacy, the story that will forever represent their association with the show. Normally, I equate this with the first episode because (if you think about it) it's the story the writer's been wanting to write for all his/her life. As an example, Steven Moffat's would be "The Girl in the Fireplace", which really does a good job exploring the themes and motifs Moffat would later explore in greater depth in his stories going up till today.

For Christopher Bailey the thesis story would be "Kinda", for Neil Gaiman it would be "The Doctor's Wife". And so on and so forth.

"The Awakening", though, is something of an odd, odd bird. Without spoiling the general conceit of the episode, it's a total blending of classic historical while putting on a crazy unique interesting twist on it to make it a "simple" sci-fi story. And yet, it's really not THAT simple. At the time, Pringle was originally commissioned for a four part story and when his outline revealed that he didn't have enough to make a compelling four part story they curtailed it to two parts. But Pringle's condensing led to Saward adding and rewriting making it longer to fill out the time (and yet the initial cut of the first episode way overran. So good on getting that one right, Eric Saward) so it ends up being a bit of your standard Davison era hodgepodge where it doesn't QUITE work out the way it should be.

But that's the era, I guess. Can't do anything about that.

So let's get to it!

Serial 128: The King's Demons

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companions: Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion

Writtten by: Terence Dudley
Directed by: Tony Virgo

Background & Significance: Now here's an odd one.

"The King's Demons" is one of the few two parters in Classic Who history, and it's something of a strange thing as a result. For one thing, these two parters are usually a bit of diversionary fun, but often structured strangely.

For one thing, they usually build like the first part of a four parter and then resolve and deal with complications rather quickly. In fact, there's rarely actually any sort of complication to them. They just sorta happen. Like I said, diversionary.

Terence Dudley, if you'll remember, is the fellow who did the script to "Black Orchid", which was also a two-parter. That, like this, was a bit of diversionary fun, something to intermissioncise the season between two stories--whatever was coming up supposedly being major or whatever. In this case, the plan was for "The King's Demons" to fall between the "massive" Black Guardian Trilogy and Eric Saward's revival of The Daleks in what was supposed to be called "The Return" but which turned into "Resurrection of the Daleks" a season later when it was postponed from this season (season 20) due to a labour strike (which was becoming far too common, if you ask me).

So it only makes sense that "The King's Demons" come here. I mean, The Daleks were about to come back. And now we're going to give The Doctor a cool, new, in-no-way-like-C-3PO robot companion with which he can use to fight The Daleks? Awesome. I approve.

Oh if only it were that simple.

So yes, this is the beginning of the Kamelion disaster, Kamelion being a robot so awesome he only made one other appearance in the life of the show. And rightfully so, because he totally was a botched attempt and not wonderfully realized or given that real chance to shine or whatever, but I'm sure I can talk about that as I go through it or something. Especially in part two.

Also fun to point out: it's Season 20! So we get the return of a villain. Last time we talked about this season, we talked about Omega (which was a genius callback, kids; seriously genius), but now we're at the tail end of the season and we get... Oh. We get The Master, again.

You can feel the wear and tear on the show. Producer Jonathan Nathan Turner's original plan to include The Master at least two times a season was quickly sidelined in favour of other stories that were, quite frankly, better. Also, the last time The Master showed up it was so super sucky that it makes you want to put a gun in your mouth. This is another almost famously infamous Master-is-totally useless story. Which is weird because if they had just gone straight pseudo-historical with this or maybe had the Monk (there's an idea, Captain Jonathan "Callback" Nathan-Turner) or something this would turn out a bit more interesting, but... alas, I suppose.

So let's get to it!

Serial 134: Planet of Fire

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companion: Vislor Turlough, Kamelion, Peri Brown

Written by: Peter Grimwade
Directed by: Fiona Cumming

Editor's note: Hey, guys! This week Cassandra's in to talk about "Planet of Fire" (continuing a trend of good stories while I get shafted with bad ones. BUT THAT WILL CHANGE), but I'll be back next week to talk about "Monster of Peladon". Also, don't forget to keep checking out "The Doctor's Companion" for weekly recaps of the Classic series! Until then, enjoy!
Background & Significance: I adore Peter Davison.

Apparently I haven’t yet gotten the chance to blog a Peter Davison story, but I think this is a good one to start with, since I really love this serial. I hope you’re excited.

"Planet of Fire" is significant for a number of reasons. Chief among them is that it is simultaneously a Companion departure as well as an introduction. This is Turlough's last story (and Kamelion's, but nobody cares about him), and Peri's very first. Ever wonder how she wound up with the Doctor? Well, here it is.

The decision to cast Nicola Bryant as the new companion was actually met with some surprise and a bit of controversy, especially as time went on. This being Bryant's very first television acting role, she didn't have much experience; she would be portraying American botany student Perpugilliam Brown, and as a press stunt since nobody really knew who this girl was, she feigned an accent and they let everyone believe for the longest time that she actually *was* American. Which was a big deal for this little BBC sci-fi show. (Of course, she's very much British. Maybe she was the precedent for hiring Scottish actor John Barrowman to play everyone's favorite American captain now?)

This story is also notable as the last contribution of both writer Peter Grimwade and director Fiona Cumming to Doctor Who. Which is a shame, because both are pretty great. Grimwade was an accomplished writer and director, directing Tom Baker's last story, as well as Davison favorites "Kinda" and "Earthshock". As far as writing goes, we last saw him here on the blog with "Time-Flight", but he also contributed Turlough's first story, "Mawdryn Undead". Cumming directed some of the very best of Davison: his introductory story "Castrovalva", "Snakedance", and "Enlightenment", all of which are pretty great to amazing. So I think it's fitting that these two people's last contribution to a fantastic era is this incredibly solid serial.

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

Serial 130: Warriors of the Deep

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companion: Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough


Written by: Johnny Byrne
Directed by: Pennant Roberts

A note before we start: As a precursor to my talking about this, I guess I should share a little about the new format I’m trying out this week. After the previous two week’s youtube debacles (youtube cock blocked every attempt made to post the three youtubes both Cassandra and I wanted to post, citing “possible copyright infringement”) and hours and hours of stressing and never ever getting the issues resolved and lots of hard thinking, I’ve thought it necessary to try to change up the format as we’ve had it since our inception eight months ago. Because the blog up until this point has been based around a blow-by-blow recap with three youtubes and a frak ton of screencaps, removing the youtube element really put into perspective how much I rely on the youtubes with my narration as an almost linking tool to bridge the gap.

Granted, that’s a bit harsh on my narration, I know (not saying it’s good narration, just saying it’s a harsh criticism), but the point has been made. The copyright issue last week showed me that I do rely a lot on the youtube (really, they’re the highlight if you ask me because I can talk about Doctor Who all I want but nothing’s the same as actually watching and experiencing it) and - because the copyright folk can be a mite fickle at times - relying on youtubes to help convey the story is not feasible anymore, and really, as the blog has been what with the blow-by-blow recap some parts just need to need to be youtubed.

Now, I’ve done the youtubes for this week and so far they have worked and I’ve had no problems with them, but just in case this sort of mass fail happens again, I’ve decided to try something new for this week. Hopefully it’ll be a bit more in line with what I want to talk about. With less summary, more commentary, and more of an almost one-sided conversational essay about each episode in its each and individual parts. Youtubes will still be incorporated, but hopefully it’ll be a whole lot less reliant on it.

Again, this change might not be permanent. It’s hopefully just a way to save some time and not be quite so reliant on a thing that’s out of my hands. This is an experiment and any feedback on the other side is greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy.

Background & Significance: "Warriors of the Deep" is another opportunity for Jonathan Nathan-Turner to keep his homage/bring-it-back train rolling. He'd done it with the Daleks and the Cybermen and Omega and The Master (on many, many occasions), and now it was time to bring back the classic greatnesses known as the Silurians and the Sea Devils.

Unfortunately, it's a bring-back wrought with many, many problems.

Due to extraneous circumstances, "Warriors of the Deep" was forced into production early and before anyone was even prepared to get everything together. What results is a story that's nothing short of messy and sloppy, not exactly worth a sense of pride and accomplishment you could associate with other stories.

The problems are evident. The story is a bit mad and uneven. Writer Johnny Byrne (last seen writing "Arc of Infinity") wanted to emulate the wonderfulness of "Earthshock" by telling a fast-cut and dynamic action story. Unfortunately, he overshot and overwrote or something and it was up to script editor Eric Saward to cut out something like half the script to make it fit into time. Again, the schedule was tight and he had to have it ready earlier than he should have.

Beyond even the story, the costumes (especially that of the Myrka) weren't even ready by the time the show was set to begin rehearsals. Actors were unprepared, and Pennant Roberts (whom I think of as a decidedly average director) was left trying to tie everything together. Even with a gifted director it would have been tricky, but my guess is that it proved too much for the poor Pennant Roberts.

And that's a shame, because somewhere in here there's a very good story with real characters and good thematics and good action. But alas, we are left with a rush job that shows. Ah well. Maybe next time.

So let's get to it!

Serial 133: The Resurrection of the Daleks

Doctor: Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companion: Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough

Written by: Eric Saward
Directed by: Matthew Robinson

Background & Significance: For Doctor Who's 20th Anniversary season, producer Jonathan Nathan-Turner sought to bring back old foes for The Doctor to face. We already talked about "Arc of Infinity", but what would a twentieth anniversary be without the return of The Doctor's oldest and most popular foe?

Unfortunately, while it didn't quite work out as planned, it did manage to make it in for Davison's third and final season, which I find fortunate, but I'll discuss the why I think that a bit later.

One of the most interesting things about this story, I find, is that it did have the blessing of Terry Nation while not being written by him. This is unusual, perhaps, because Terry Nation traditionally HATED Dalek stories that weren't written by him, which is sad, because "Power of the Daleks" is really stupid good.

(For the record, I recently listened to that one and god damn that one's fantastic awesome. Seriously really really fantastic awesome.)

What we have, then, is a a classic Daleks/Davros story with tons of the early 80's Star Wars sci-fi zeitgeist and such. We get the departure of Tegan (which is fortunate because I am a huge not-fan of Tegan) and a solid story starring Daleks and their interesting little plan that is interesting.

So let's get to it!

Serial 129: The Five Doctors

Doctors: Richard Hurndall (1st Doctor), Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor), Jon Pertwee (3rd Doctor), Tom Baker (4th Doctor), Peter Davison (5th Doctor)
Companions: Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough, Sarah Jane Smith, Susan Foreman, The Brigadier, Romana


Written by: Terrance Dicks
Directed by: Peter Moffatt

Background & Significance: In 1983, Doctor Who turned twenty. You know what that means. Something big. Something epic. Something legendary.

Ten year's previous, they did "The Three Doctors," a multi-Doctor crossover that didn't suck and was kinda awesome (despite the lack of Hartnell, but even then, he had one of the standout lines) and succeeded. In 1983, they decided to re-capture the magic with "The Five Doctors." They gave the script to popular and incredibly prolific Who writer Terrance Dicks. He was given the following rule: to feature The Doctor in his five incarnations and "as many monsters and companions as you could cram in there." The intentions noble, stages was set for the anniversary special to be a celebration of the show's long and varied two decade history.

Spoiler alert: And it fails. Hard.

First off, that's my own opinion, and maybe I'm a victim of my own anticipointments, but I don't think so. And for the sake of some background, here's why...

1) Tom Baker passed on it because it was "too soon". So they used archive footage from an incomplete story that was never aired, meaning he doesn't even really appear in this serial.

2) Hartnell's dead, so they decided to bring in Richard Hurndall, who kinda looks like him, and expected him to pull off Hartnell... But we'll talk more on him a bit later.

3) If you count The Master and not The Fourth Doctor, there are TEN main characters in this ninety minute story. Such character work takes a remarkably skilled writer, and, while Terrance Dicks is good, he's not that good.

4) There was a HUGE mess of scheduling conflicts going on all through this. They couldn't accomadate Frazern Hines (Jamie) to be Troughton's Companion, so everyone got kinda bumped and dumped around leading to some awkward things that don't necessarily make so much sense.

So just know all that as we delve into this. I really wanted to like this, but it ended up being overly ambitious and it ended up failing if you ask me.

One more thing before I start. This story is remarkably bouncy, with each Doctor kinda getting his own storyline, so I'm going to bounce around and just focus (for the most part) on one Doctor at a time.

Or at least, that's the plan, anyways.

But enough blather! Let's get to it!