DOCTOR WHO-TIME-FLIGHT part 4

 

DOCTOR WHO-TIME-FLIGHT part 4

 

DOCTOR: My dear Captain, you really are the most remarkable man to pilot the Tardis, and with such precision. Perhaps you could take us to the other side of that wall.

STAPLEY: What?

BILTON: Er

DOCTOR: You have control, as they say.

 

The Doctor’s pimple under his chin vanishes after the reprise. Stapley puts his hand in his jacket. The Prof is in the Xeraphin so he pilots the TARDIS? In any case, I found I enjoyed this episode and this story more now that I learned to relax and get over Adric’s death (I haven’t; he’s just still alive in canon in FASA so…). J

 

I also found I was even enjoying Nyssa and especially Tegan. When the Doctor seemed about to give up, she snaps him back to it. She also runs after him and collides with him after he turns around. Honestly, though Davison may not like it and may think Nyssa serves his Doctor best, Tegan really is the one for this Doctor, keeping him on his toes and keeping him DOCTOR-ish.

 

The idea of the Master materializing around the aircraft is interesting and there’s even a reference to what happened in LOGOPOLIS, Tegan reminding the Doctor he remembered what happened before.

 

Davison’s rather odd too as the Doctor lays on the floor of the TARDIS with his eyes shut trying to figure out how to deal with the Master, then later, caresses the temporal limiter for some reason Davison can’t explain when Fielding asks him on the commentary. I’m not sure any of the way they get the Concord flying again is scientifically sound but it sounds right and does it matter? The Doctor also looks as if he knows the Concord is not the finest aircraft in the world.

 

Davison also states on the commentary that the Doctor is the one that holds all of these incredible, flawed adventures together and that’s why fans, who pick it apart (WOT? WHO? US?) love it and the Doctor is the anchor –the father figure Fielding suggests---that keeps all these incredible things together but if you pick it apart too much it falls apart and without a central figure of the Doctor, it wouldn’t work or be popular at all. Curiously, Fielding thinks James Kirk holds STAR TREK together as a father figure? BUT Davison suggests that takes place in the future: Doctor Who is held together in whatever setting by the Doctor, Davison counters.

 

They also talk about how the companions were not given any internal reasons to be there like Rose would be in NEW WHO. No one thought about them much at all and no one cared it seemed. At least during this time. Eric talks about how Sarah Jane, many years ago, DID have an internal reason and motivation and how she was forceful and commanding and not just cypher to ask questions, get the Doctor into trouble, get saved, or scream. This era, Fielding felt, became that.

 

In the end, the three pilots tell the Air Controller that they rescued the passengers and crew of the other ship so perhaps Angela IS among them---we just didn’t see her at all, which is odd, at the very least. Apparently the actress who plays Angela announced the Air Australia bit.

 

BTW who were the barbarians that laid waste to the Xeraphin?

 

There’s an awful lot of the word explain here and the Doctor keeps saying he will explain things later or wishes he had time to explain things…it starts to get annoying after awhile.

 

The other thing is: the editing is odd, too. Tegan, Nyssa and the Doctor arrive on the roof. The pilots are not there yet. Nyssa and the Doctor run into the TARDIS and leave Tegan on the roof and seemingly they close the door when the Master arrives. BTW the roof scenes look great as does the depth of the air port. On film, this show looks great.

 

 

On location, this show looks great. There’s a bunch of nonsense about the TARDIS in the same coordinates as the Master’s TARDIS so he can’t appear and is bounced to Xeraphin and there the aliens stand a chance (?) but how does the Doctor know they will get free of the Master? He just let the Master have them.

 

Next, the Doctor asks where Tegan is. Tegan is wandering around the airport near Air Australia or at least there is an announcement about Air Australia (which was made up as the crew didn’t want another airline to vet their script). Then, the Doctor meets the controller and the pilots and two security men on the roof and Tegan is not there. The Doctor stumbles over his talk and then retreats into the TARDIS, no one stopping him. The Doctor and Nyssa leave. Tegan returns to the roof. What? This ending is badly done, I’m afraid.

 

Tegan’s crying. Aw. So might we.

 

So the season ends on a low note. Again, I enjoyed this more than in the past and more than the first time, too. There are some laugh out loud moments, mostly unintentional.

 

And with the end of this season, DW’s best period ends. The rest? Variable quality to be honest with some great ones (uhm….THE AWAKENING, MARK OF THE RANI, CAVES OF ANDROZANI, and I love both WARRIORS OF THE DEEP and THE TWIN DILEMMA) but for the most part, DW will start to become a huge joke ---it happens slowly over time and I’m not sure where it starts but I’d say with season 20 and 21 and swings into high (low?) gear with Colin’s horrible scripts and Sly’s first HORRID season. DW was thought of as a joke in the mid 1980s and it was parodied and thought of lowly as a cheap run around show with over acting, panto presentation, bad jokes, and cardboard cut out characters and screaming girls in mini skirts with boobs sticking out, all running up and down hallways. It’s not a wrong series of thoughts either. Shows made fun of it. Fans made fun of it. Fans hid that they were fans. DW was NOT cool any longer…at all. Again, I don’t blame any actor, especially the ones playing the Doctor but…well, TIME AND THE RANI notwithstanding. I do blame the BBC, JNT, and Eric Saward for letting the scripts become so awful and for being so uninterested in the actual show itself to almost seem as if they were slaved to the show and didn’t want to be. Sure, they all did great work in seasons 18 and 19 and would do some greats again but for the most part, the show was sagging and the reason is the people involved with making it, really shouldn’t have been on it much longer but were there and forced to be there. Not a good way to run a show.