Season 19

Season 19 saw the introduction of new lead Peter Davison. He presented a new image of the Doctor, a Doctor who was more human, more vulnerable and more of a team player and less of the rugged individualist that the Fourth Doctor had been. I really like the Fifth Doctor. He was so pleasant and charming. It must be said that in his first season, Davison came across as rather bland and lacking in charisma. This is not entirely Davison's fault, or even the fault of the writers. John Nathan-Turner did not allow Davison or the writers much freedom to develop the character.
Davison's portrayal would improve in the next season and would reach enormous heights in Season 21.

Season 19 saw a considerably enlarged crew, with Tegan, Adric and Nyssa all on board the TARDIS. They had something of a tendency to fall out, which gave this season a slightly soap opera feel. There were two problems with this. Firstly, these characters had not been thought out well enough to come across as believable characters in a soap-style drama. Secondly, it was a children's' show so any mention of sex was out of the question. A soap opera which avoids relationships of any sexual nature is never going to work.

Adric has come to be the big hate figure of this season. He worked well with the Fourth Doctor, but thrown in with a younger Doctor and two young women and he becomes an irritation. Adric has come to be best known for his tragic death at the end of the season. Adric's tendency to go to the side of the enemy has often been pointed out. This may in part be because Adric felt more comfortable in the company of older men. as could be seen when he was with the Fourth Doctor. It has been suggested that he might have been gay, but it is not unusual for young men to enjoy the companionship of older men.

Nyssa does not come across as terribly interesting. Her nasal voice is not easy on the ear either. With an overcrowded TARDIS, the writers tended to keep Nyssa out of the action, as can be seen in Kinda and Earthshock. Tegan is definitely the strongest character in Season 19. While other fans find her too miserable, I really like Tegan. She comes across more as a real person than Sarah Jane Smith who seemed genetically engineered to be a companion. Unfortunately, with Adric and Nyssa around, we never really got much chance for Tegan to develop a strong enough relationship with the Doctor to be really interesting.

The strongest element of Season 19 is undoubtedly the sheer variety of stories. The writers offered a number of different genres- wild experimentation in Kinda, all-action sci-fi in Earthshock and period drama in Black Orchid. Not all of these stories worked out so well, but it this is a marked improvement on some previous seasons that relied on one kind of story.


Castrovalva- 7/10

It's good to have a more vulnerable Doctor, but for my money, Davison spends too long being weak and helpless to make an impressive start. This story has wonderful production values, but has a weak plot and spends just a bit too long in the TARDIS.

Four to Doomsday- 7/10

The ending is a little weak, but this is a visually impressive and genuinely enjoyable story.

Kinda- 10/10

A classic effort at taking a more experimental approach to the show. Kinda is a thoughtful and rich story with some brilliant performances.

The Visitation- 2/10

I hate this story. It's basically a poor man's Time Warrior with lots of pointless running around and getting captured.

Black Orchid- 5/10

It's nice to see the production team coming up with a classy and polished period drama, without any science fiction embellishments. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of depth to the story.

Earthshock- 9/10

The Cybermen get updated for the 80s. It's not the cleverest of stories, but it's full of action and has aged well. And those female soldiers are so cute!

Time Flight- 1/10

What was JNT thinking ending the season on this sorry excuse for a story?

Kinda

I am the Mara!

I do feel a certain irritation when the last season of Doctor Who is described as having a 'fairytale' influence. I don't dispute that there are a number of visual references to fairy tales, nevertheless I don't think any use was made in the BBC Wales' fifth season of the structure or themes of fairy tales. I can't help thinking that Steven Moffat's notion of fairy tales is a mixture of Walt Disney and modern children's literature. I think it is also fair to say that the BBC Wales series has not been bold in departing from the science fiction format. It seems to me that no matter how wobbly the concepts in the new series, both RT Davies and Steven Moffat see Doctor Who as essentially science fiction. No matter how bonkers a get-out-of-jail card like the 'Paradox Machine' might be, the suggestion is that if this was real physicists would be able to explain it given sufficent information.

The BBC Wales series has never done a story like Kinda. Kinda demonstrates the shallowness of Moffat's borrowing of 'fairy tales' by genuinely incorporating elements from folk tales, mythology and religion. Kinda really does transcend the limitations of science fiction and enters the realms of the spiritual. There are other Doctor Who stories that have delved into this territory before, but I can't ever imagine a story like this in the new series.




It is almost an understatement to say that Kinda is an intelligent story. It has such a depth of ideas and themes that it is impossible to fully appreciate in one viewing. Unlike, Ghost Light, however, it can be fully enjoyed the first time. Ghost Light is a right pain to watch the first time, because one is frantically trying to make sense of a complex plot through a mass of dialogue. Kinda on the other hand, is a beautiful and exquisite work of art. Each scene can be enjoyed even if one is still a little in the dark as to exactly what it is all about. One could have enormous fun discussing the significance of the jack-in-the-box. Even if one is not entirely comfortable with the Buddhist worldview that is conveyed in this story, one can appreciate the elegance with which it is conveyed.

The Mara is not like any other Doctor Who monster or villain. It has no obvious motivation; and even more interestingly, it does not interact with the Doctor. It seems to be as much a concept or idea as an actual being. The way it brings out hidden lusts and cravings is fascinating; it brings out Tegan's sexual prowess and Aris' desire for power. It represents the hidden and darker parts of minds. Like Fenric in Curse of Fenric, the Mara succeeds because it is a background presence in the story. The Fendahl did not quite work as an abstract entity because it was too much like a monster and Sutekh failed as a godlike being because he was essentially a villain in a mask. Of course, the rubber snake that the Mara manifests itself as in the end is hilarious, but the Kinda is such a strong serial that we can easily forget about it.




The dream sequence in which Tegan is tormented is quite scary. What is quite clever is the way this dreamworld parallels the real one, with the characters she meets echoing the Doctor, Nyssa, Adric and the metal structure mirroring the TARDIS.

Simon Rouse gives an absolutely brilliant portrayal of a man driven out of his mind. Richard Todd also gives a great and subtle performance, sharing in the madness. There seems to be a suggestion in Kinda that the military rituals with which the colonists surround themselves are a kind of childish play-acting. Unsurprisingly, Todd (Nerys Hughes), the female scientist is untouched by this, being outside the circle of boyish ritualism.




It is a little unfortunate that Nyssa is left out of this story almost entirely, her place being taken by Todd. Still, Nerys Highes does much better in her role than Sarah Sutton usually did. Full marks also have to go to Mary Morris as the wise woman and Sarah Price, an exceptionally strong performance from a child actress. Peter Davison is still in his slightly-bland phase, but he throws in some very subtle moments. His acceptance of the designation of idiot is delightful. One of the strengths of his understatement is in allowing other characters to shine. Janet Fielding does a marvellous job of portraying possession by the Mara. There is a really edgy, sexual energy to her performance in that state. I could listen to her saying 'I am the Mara!' all day. It is unfortunate that the Mara leaves her so quickly. Nevertheless, thankfully she gives us some more Mara action in Snakedance. Adric is incredibly annoying in this story. I am not one of the Adric-haters, he just did not work in a TARDIS crew with Tegan and the Fifth Doctor.




Kinda is quite daring in allowing a permanent change to a character. In this it is strikingly similar to the later story Survival. It stands in striking contrast to Star Trek stories where the most incredible, mind-shattering events would occur to the main characters, then everything would be back to normal the next week.

Todd looks a little overdressed for working on a tropical planet. She is not one of the military personnel, so you might think she could wear a more summery dress and dispense with the black stockings, especially surrounded by all those more lightly outfitted Kinda.

Kinda is the best story of Season 19 and one of the great Doctor Who classics.

Earthshock

"MORE POWER!!" (clenching my fist very tightly)

Earthshock is at heart a story built around the return of the Cybermen to the screen after a pretty long absence. It thus reflects the tendency of 80s Doctor Who to look to it's past to revitalize itself. While Earthshock attempts to recreate many of the elements of 60s Doctor Who, it dresses it all in a very 80s packaging, confidently at home in the screen culture of movies such as Terminator and Alien. Despite the miserable bickering at the beginning and the mournfulness of Adric's death, Earthshock shows a new energy and vitality that had been missing in much of season 19 (and which did was not to be seen so much again until season 21).

A lot of harsh things have been said about Eric Saward, perhaps some of them deserved. Nevertheless, in Earthshock, Eric Saward introduces his vision of Doctor Who and it's an impressive one. Lots of action, bleak design, enemies that have real menace, realistic violence and a sense of despair in a very dark cosmos. More was yet to come when Saward took over as script editor.




The story opens with a bunch of futuristic soldiers. They are mixed-sex platoon, with an about equal number of male and female soldiers. Some of the female soldiers are awfully cute. I love the fact that even as late in 80s everybody onscreen uses received pronuniciation. Being somebody who generally sounds pretty posh, I would have stood out less back then. Hence, most of the dolly soldiers speak very well. The military unit reminds me of the soldiers in Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. I can't help wondering whether, like the mixed-sex units in The Forever War, the platoon in Earthshock have mandatory confraternity. The troops are lead by Lt. Scott (James Warwick) who acts incredibly butch throughout the serial. Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood argue that though the soldiers are very similar to marines in countless American films, like Aliens, they are a new breed in Doctor Who. These soldiers reflect a new kind of gritty professionalism which had come to be the public perception of the military in the 1980s.

At the start of the first episode, the TARDIS crew are falling out with each other again. In particular, Adric is throwing tantrums and being obnoxious. Adric is not the companion-I-love-to-hate (for me that is Jo Grant), but when I watch Adric's behaviour in the first episode I understand why some fans cheered at his death. Still, it's fun to see the Fifth Doctor losing his temper.

The action get's started pretty quickly in episode one, with some very impressive, sleak androids killing several of the soldiers. I must say, showing the melted remains of those killed by the androids was pushing the boundaries of taste a bit. Towards the end of the episode, all is revealed and the Cybermen turn out to be the bad guys. I imagine thousands of young fans must have punched the air at the time.

The Cybermen have been given a new look in this story. I have mixed feelings about the new version of the Cybermen. They look reasonably impressive; the visibly human mouth is an excellent touch. However, I prefer the blank features or cloth face mask of the Sixties version. They come across as a lot more malicious. It is also very obvious that they have emotions. It is of course perfectly possible that Cybermen really do have emotions and all that talk about them being purely logical is a delusion. However, this does render dialogue about them being emotionless a bit irritating. Why does the Doctor not just point out the obvious fact that they are emotional beings? I can imagine the Fourth Doctor getting a real kick out of doing that. On the other hand, it must be said that the Sixties versions of the Cybermen (apart from in The Tenth Planet) often came across as brainless zombies. The Earthshock Cybermen are a far more intimidating on an individual level. I always crack up when I hear the Cyberleader command "More power!" and clench his fist to add emphasis! Whether they have emotion or not, they certainly have testosterone! I agree with Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood, in About Time, that the Cybermemn are time travellers are time travellers from the future. This makes sense of both their strategy and their knowledge of events in Revenge of the Cybermen.

There are an awful lot of problems with the plot of this story. I do not think, however, that they particularly detract from the power and excitement of it. Doctor Who at the best of times has always required viewers to occasionally make a leap of logic. I think it is fair to recognise plotholes, but you will find them in the best of stories. This story is so filled with action, that you are likely to miss at least half of them.

Peter Davison's performance still shows the lack of charisma that bedevils his first season and much of his second. This is unfortunate, because this story is so reminiscent of season 21, where he really came alive.



Tegan gets to do her Ripley bit, putting on a futuristic jumpsuit before going into action and blasting a Cyberman. It is rather convenient that Kyle was wearing a full set of clothes underneath her jumpsuit, though I suppose she could have borrowed one of the outfits in the TARDIS wardrobe (were there no practical outfits in there for Tegan to use?). Nyssa, as usual, does next to nothing in this story. You have to wonder why they even bothered creating this character.

The casting of renowned actress Beryl Reid to play the Captain Briggs was an odd choice, but there is something delightfully surreal about the standard sci-fi role of starship captain being held by a grumpy, bitchy old lady.



This story is by no means the best story of the Peter Davison years, but it certainly is a strong one and a memorable turning point in the history of the show.

Black Orchid

The Fifth Doctor, Adric and Nyssa attend a masked ball in Edwardian England The Doctor gets nicked and comes along quietly.

This is the only story after the black and white era to feature no science fiction elements other than the TARDIS. It is sometimes described as an 'historical' story, but it is more of a domestic drama; lacking the grand melodrama of the black and white historicals. The production team must be given a lot of credit for the courage to do something very different from the usual staples of coloured Doctor Who.

The biggest problem with this story is that not very much happens. Like a number of two-episode stories, there is barely anything of any real interest. One can imagine all kinds of sexual subtexts about the creepy relationships between the non-regular characters, but these are not really hinted at. These subtexts remain in the imagination of the viewer. We don't see enough of these characters to generate any real interest in them. One naturally wonders what the point of this story really is. It seems to be a sort of filler, with the added interest of proving that the Fifth Doctor really can play cricket, which is not a terribly interesting thing to learn. The plot is full of holes, even leaving aside the odd and unoriginal coincidence of Nyssa and Ann being indentical.

Remarkably this story has quite a hight reputation, even among fans who are not inclined to celebrate the Davison years. I suspect a good deal of this is the sentimentality of a return to the historical genre and a nostalgia for Edwardian England. Of course, on the plus side, it has the optimum production values of glorious BBC costume drama.

Peter Davison puts in a performance as the Doctor that is characteristically lacking in charisma. The way he gives himself up to the police and shows them the inside of the TARDIS seems to jar enormously with what we have seen of other Doctors.

Black Orchid gives a lot of attention to Nyssa, which is unfortunate because she is a such a bland and uninteresting character. Tegan gets some nice moments in this story, though her surprising knowlege of Edwardian botanists is out of character. Adric does very little in this story.

Castrovalva

The Doctor regenerates for the fourth time and the Master has yet another bizarre and dastardly plot (yawn).

A post-regeneration story is vitally important in that it establishes the way in which viewers perceive the new Doctor. Get it wrong and you have problems. Things went wrong with the Sixth Doctor in The Twin Dilemma. We were shown a Doctor who was acting like an homicidal maniac, who actually attempted to throttle his own companion. This coloured our perceptions of this Doctor as a violent lunatic. Things also went wrong in Time and the Rani. In his maiden story, the Seventh Doctor came across as a bumbling clown in a rushed and clumsy story. No matter how brilliant McCoy's later performances, viewers never warmed to him. Contrast this with Power of the Daleks, where the Second Doctor acted a bit oddly, but immediately rushed into action, impersonating the the Examiner on Vulcan. Or Spearhead From Space, where the Third Doctor escapes his hospital bed and steals a motorcar Mr. Toad style. Or Robot, where the Fourth Doctor combines acting like a lunatic with being a very effective advisor to UNIT.

Castrovalva unfortunately sets the viewer up with a rather poor image of the Fifth Doctor. We spend the story watching a Doctor who is weak and helpless, confused and acting really bizarre. He needs to be educated by a child and gets carried by two women in a sort of pram. He only just manages to recover at the climax. The viewer is thus set up to see the Davison Doctor as vulnerable, ineffective and generally a bit wet.

We also have a good deal of time spent in the TARDIS. Too long in my opinion. We have seen enough of the TARDIS in previous stories for it to be a fairly familiar location. The extended TARDIS scenes are just a bit boring.

Even worse, we are given one of the most bizarre and ludicrous of the Master's bizarre and ludicrous plots. There were two Master stories at the end of Season 18, did viewers really need another one? The discovery that the Portreeve is the Master in disguise is not terribly exciting either.

That is not to say there is nothing good about Castrovalva. The set design of Castrovalva is incredible, and the location work is also pretty good. John Nathan-Turner succeeded marvellously in restoring decent production values in the show. It is just unfortunate that a few of stories tend more towards style than substance. Castrovalva sadly comes into that category.