DOCTOR WHO-THE DEADLY ASSASSIN

 

DOCTOR WHO-THE DEADLY ASSASSIN part one

 

The rolling script read by Tom (what a great, velvety voice!) is later used by STAR WARS and last used by…possibly FLASH GORDON and its two follow up serials.

 

Most fans seem to think they know Time Lord lore but it really all starts here and the stuff before it…well, needs to be filled in, mostly retroactively.  Those who complain about this being a planet of old, elderly doddering men…well, they’re right but that’s more interesting… and I’d hardly call Spandrell and Goth or even Borusa doddering or even old. But Engin’s a hoot and his doddering is funny and personable and much more interesting than any of the Time Lords we’ve already seen, not that there was anything wrong with them but…

 

…the WAR GAMES Time Lords had to be super gods with unlimited powers because the plot needed them to be and put the Doctor in his place and then stay mostly uninvolved, which they did…sort of. For all the fans who claim the Pertwee Years were like James Bond (they’re totally wrong), the few Time Lords that pop up for a the few minutes that they do in FIVE YEARS…their role was mostly like SUPERMAN’s Krypton beings…their existence was to reflect on Pertwee’s being unique on Earth and thus fulfill the Krypton role of being from another planet. NOTHING was known about the Time Lords other than the name of the planet (season 10!) and that they could regenerate (not mentioned that way until …season 11 and the very end of the Pertwee era). This built EVERYTHING we know about Time Lords and even then, it had some things we seem to forget (the guard was shot and killed here).

 

The other thing to notice is…the Master is NOT named here and…it would be nice NOT to know that this skull faced, emaciated thing WAS the Master. We’ll never have that perspective ever, if we ever did. Bringing back the Master this way was a total stroke of genius.

 

The other thing most fans miss, even those who write about this story, is that much of it resembles THE PARALLAX VIEW movie, especially the first episode.

 

And while I love Sarah and the companion role and there are those who complain that the Doctor is talking to himself…this episode and the plot moves along a lot faster without someone asking the questions all the time…that said, it also seems a tad shorter than other episodes. I have to say while I sort of miss Sarah (I’ll miss Adric a lot more and Romana bit more, too), the story works better with her gone!

 

So…the cliffhanger! It really looks like the Doctor is the one shooting the Time Lord leader!

DOCTOR WHO-THE DEADLY ASSASSIN part two

 

Well, there’s the impression that this must be a long, long time from the last time we saw the planet now known as Gallifrey and even longer after both WARGAMES, TERROR OF THE AUTONS, COLONY IN SPACE and all the others because…the Time Lords have NO idea who the Master is and the Doctor feels this is an old score the Master wants settled. He leaves his calling card about 15 minutes into the episode and so we now know it IS the Master. Runcible’s comedy relief, right, so he survived one encounter so he won’t get killed off right? Wrong. He shows up on the floor of the Panopticon with a knife in his back! The Doctor wins Spandrell over and then with Engin’s help (“Oh, get on with it!”), he enters the matrix…via being connected to it while lying down. THAT is the way in, not some door as in the awful TRIAL OF A TIME LORD.

 

The Samurai attacks the Doctor as he dangles from his scarf on a cliff tree, faced an alligator or croc, saw a WW1 man leading a horse or donkey (and this reminds us that historicals SHOULD be done on DW but aren’t and also reminds me of the start of GENESIS OF THE DALEKS!), and he even faces what seems to be a fully reconstituted Master (yes, earlier we even see the emaciated hand and I believe face of the Master) who is behind a surgeon’s mask and outfit…he almost looks like Delgado and the Master claims the Matrix is his domain now.

 

The cliffhanger is classic. The Doctor puts his foot in it and is trapped on a pseudo train track while three trains seem to rush at him. Fantastic.

 

Others might complain but this episode really moves and as pseudo companions Engin and Spandrell are rather marvelous. Killing off Runcible is a shock. There are almost no connections to the planet of old other than the actor playing Goth (is this the same character? We will never know definitely). In addition, the staser killed the President so either it was his last regeneration OR Time Lords can’t regenerate from staser blasts.

 

As the Doctor says, “Nothing will ever be the same again.”

 

But what’s happened to the Time Lords? Has the Time War affected them? Time gone on too long that they’ve forgotten the Master and seem to somewhat have forgotten the Doctor himself? Also, the Doc seems to have changed clothes for his torture scene, which is brutal and Hilell seems particularly sadistic.

 

All in all, a fast paced, interesting episode and I like it a lot. I don’t’ care that it changes things, it does so in style which is something season 12 could have, should have learned from this.

DOCTOR WHO-THE DEADLY ASSASSIN part 3

 

I hate to agree with Mary Whitehouse but this is without a doubt the most violent episode of DW. Surely there’s  been  meanness and death before, perhaps more so than here but here we see repercussions, more or less, as it’s supposed all be illusionary but…the level rises to new heights when we see more blood than we’ve ever seen before, even if it is supposed to be illusions or hallucinations. The Doctor is shot at by a bi plane (not sure why the flyer---Goth?---didn’t keep up with that but maybe it was because the brush gave the Doctor too much cover?), wounded in the leg which won’t go away, shot in the hip, gunshot out of a tree, and nearly poisoned in a lake or stream…why Goth left the bottle there is beyond me…it surely gave the Doctor a clue about the water being poisoned. For his part, the Doctor shoots a poisoned dart into Goth’s leg and a nasty infected wound is shown, Goth is also blown by a grenade trap from the Doctor and honestly the episode after some crazy stuff with the trains (they miss?) AND the Master’s eyes peering at him from a hillside and him…most horribly…stepping into the egg of some animal…which seems to scream…and he gasps horribly, too….and some huge spiders or spider in front of him coming from behind?....has become THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.  We see lots of wounds here and lots more blood than before and this has become THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. A good version but still. Most shows in the 60s, 70s, and even HART TO HART in the 80s did a version of this.

 

If that’s not enough, Goth shoots at the Doctor and blows himself up in the marsh and he’s seen on fire. The Doctor is banged about, beaten up, and for the controversial cliffhanger held underwater by Goth until he seems to be drowning…

 

Wow. A good, exciting episode. One that is smart to have it anchored by Spandrell and Engin in the “real world” protecting his real body. The Master sends a hypnotized Time Lord or guard (not sure if he’s both?) named Solan or Solin to try to kill the Doctor but Spandrell shoots him (dead?).

 

A good episode with flaws but still entertaining and for its part in the location action very refreshing.

 

Oh, and there’s a clown that laughs at the Doctor from a sort of mirror in the ground under sand! So, I’m not sure but it seems as if the Master AND Goth are both somehow in the Matrix or was it all just Goth?

DOCTOR WHO-THE DEADLY ASSASSIN part four

For some reason I like this part more than all the others, though they’re just fine, too. Engin is a fun character, an older companion of a sort. He’s the Time Lord broken down civilization personified. The Doctor stops the Master who nearly destroys Gallifrey and hundreds of other worlds and there is loss of life but I never realized that until the last viewing…it might have helped if we saw some of that or saw others in danger. As it stands, this is a fine battle between the Doctor and the Master, even if, the Rod, the Key, the Sash, etc SHOULD have been known by the Time Lords…it holds their planet together and the Doc figures it out by listening to the only female voice in the whole four episodes…on a taped record of some kind. AND no one saw that area in the old area? In any case, a fine episode that is worthy of the old Doctor vs Master stories.  I like the Doctor’s rapport with Engin and Spandrell, too, the Doctor seemingly patient with Engin to a point. When I first saw this, I thought Spandrell was killed by the Master for sure when he was shot down. Glad he was not. I wish the two characters had returned in future Gallifrey stories but then again they would have probably been killed off so I’m glad they were not.