Review of The Invasion of Time (#97) DVD Release Date: 09 Jul 19 Original Air Date: 04 Feb – 11 Mar 1978 Doctors/Companions: Four, Leela, K9 Stars: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson Preceding Story: Underworld (Four, Leela, K9) Succeeding Story: The Ribos Operation (Four, Romana I, K9)
Every time I pick up one of my Classic DVDs and see that I’m in for a six-parter, especially now that I’m down to Everything Else, I cringe a little. Despite the fact that I can easily invest dozens of hours in a K-drama, somehow spending two and a half hours on Classic Who feels like an ordeal.
Usually.
When the sting sounded and the credits rolled on the first episode of The Invasion of Time, I was shocked. “That went so fast!” I thought. Then it happened again for the second episode. Maybe I was just in the right frame of mind this time, but this Invasion didn’t feel like as much of a slog as some have.
Then again, perhaps my poor memory worked in my favor. My pre-viewing notes show that I remembered precious little about the story: a trip through the TARDIS interior (including the swimming pool), Leela staying with Andred, and Sontarans on Gallifrey. I’d say that last point was a spoiler—none of these but the pool actually show up until the last two episodes—except for how prominently displayed the Sontaran is in the cover image.
Humans aren’t often good at existing in liminal mental spaces, and I’m no exception. Between times are rough. Even a hint at when to expect the transition into the next state of being can help, though, so I cling to those little details like my life depends on them.
That’s one of the reasons going to Gally every year is so important to me. Among other things, the conventions closes out with the annual “Year in Review” video, compiling clips of Doctor Who press—interviews, features, and announcements—from the prior year. It’s a quick hit that reminds me of all the exciting things that have happened and reinvigorates me for what is to come.
The most important of those upcoming attractions is unequivocally Ncuti Gatwa.
Of course, we needed to give Jodie her due as the outgoing Doctor. She has been absolutely brilliant in the role (whatever any given fan thinks of the scripts she was given), and fully deserves to be celebrated. I’ll also admit that I’m excited to see the return of Donna Noble (less so Tennant’s Doctor, but I’ve complained about that elsewhere) in the 60th anniversary bonanza.
Despite the frenzy of the lines for Jodie, this was probably the most all-around low-key Gally I’ve ever had. Never before have I had so much time completely unscheduled from con events.
For example, this year’s final day was the latest Sunday start for me ever. Since we’d scored seats for Jodie’s Saturday interview panel, I made no plans to go see her again on Sunday morning, even though (I’m told) there was still plenty of room to do so. I didn’t think there would be enough different about the panel to make it worth my while (though they did have Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred on stage with her at the end, which I might’ve enjoyed).
Instead, Kiddo and I met up with some of our friends to peruse the Art Show and wander the Dealers Room again. It was all incredibly casual. The first thing I had scheduled in any way was a brief meet-up with a friend while Kiddo and I ate food-truck lunch on the patio.
This leisurely pace continued until 2:00—absolutely unheard of for me—when our little gang convened in Program A (in the center section, only about seven rows from the front!) for the live commentary on “The Halloween Apocalypse.” Moderator Adrienne Enderle was joined on the couch by Chris Chibnall, director Jamie Magnus Stone, and actor Craige Els, who played Karvanista. I was extremely grateful that the episode was run with captions (in part because that’s how I always watch TV these days), because it made it much easier to follow both the episode and the commentary. Good banter, good details, good fun.
It has become almost a tradition at Gally for me to spend the majority of the day on Sunday camped out in Program A. This year, weirdly, that was my Saturday instead.
We had a nice slow start to the day, chilling in the Lobby for nearly four hours before programming began. Then we met up with our friends to get into the Diamond Pass line for photos with Jodie. (I have learned that for a popular guest, the lines will be ridiculous, and unless I’m willing to wait interminable hours, a TARDIS Tag (which goes for an insanely large amount of money) or a Diamond Pass (still large, but not as insanely so, amount of money) is really a necessity.) Even so, the scrum in the hallway was both large and confused. It eventually got sorted, though, and the process was relatively smooth. We got out the other end in decent time with photos we actually like.
Our first dip into Program A for the day came as we recovered from the photo op experience, sitting at the very back of the room for the end of “The Second Doctor Era” and beginning of “The Third Doctor Era” Big Finish panels. Mostly that involved Frazer Hines being very Frazer, Katy Manning being very Katy, and Jon Culshaw demonstrating what an incredible impression of the Brigadier he does.
It’s here again! The most wonderful time of the year, Gallifrey One, is back in swing. This year one of my daughters has come along, which is lending an extra special something to the experience.
We arrived Wednesday evening and crashed early. Thursday morning we slept in a lot (for us), and got up early (for the time zone). The Lobby was still filled with a slight majority of non-Gally folx, but as the morning wore on, there were more of us here.
It was a nice, slow, ramping-up day. The rest of my close Gally friends arrived (some with significant others who are now my new acquaintances), we got our badges (and Diamond Passes! I’ve learned the hard way that I don’t want to wait in a line as long as I’d have to without those), went to dinner at my traditional Thursday-night place (Aliki’s Greek Taverna is fabulous; both the food and the service are top-notch, in my book), and attended the ice cream social (I got a new folding fan!).
Friday morning rolled around, and Kiddo and I were up (local) early again. Bonnie Langford went through Starbucks as we were finishing our own coffee, which set a Gally tone for the day. She was also the first one we saw in the Dealers Room for autographs. We managed to get Bonnie, Katy Manning, and Sophie Aldred all checked off our list early in the day, and wander the Dealers Room for a casual Friday morning.
Review of Enlightenment (#127) DVD Release Date: 08 Jun 21 Original Air Date: 01 – 09 Mar 1983 Doctors/Companions: Five, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough Stars: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson Preceding Story: Terminus (Five, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough) Succeeding Story: The King’s Demons (Five, Tegan, Turlough)
I’ve occasionally heard other fans talk about how much they enjoy Enlightenment, but it’s not one that’s made much of an impression on me before (thus its fate as a member of Everything Else). Maybe I just never consider it, as part of an era I usually find a little dull.
But despite starring the Beige Doctor, and including both a baddie with a bird on his head and one of the more irritating Companions, the plot and the other Companion being awesome—that’s Tegan, one of my personal faves—make it eminently watchable.
Going in, pretty much all I remembered about Enlightenment was the race. I also knew it involved the Black Guardian and the end of Turlough’s interactions with him, but that was as much due to having pulled it out of my Black Guardian boxed set as anything. And though I didn’t write it down in my pre-viewing notes, I had at least a vague impression of Captain Wrack in my mind.
Review of The Dalek Invasion of Earth (#10) DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20 Original Air Date: 21 Nov – 26 Dec 1964 Doctors/Companions: One, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright Stars: William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill Preceding Story: Planet of Giants (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara) Succeeding Story: The Rescue (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
For once, during my rewatch for an entry in the Everything Else series, I found that the things I could spontaneously recall beforehand were both accurate and fairly important details. Although that recall was on the slow side, once I got my head in the right story space, a picture formed pretty easily: a “No Dumping” sign, cyber-ized humans, a bomb in the center of the earth [okay, that part was slightly mixed up], and Susan gets ditched.
The story opens with the TARDIS crew landing—finally!—in London. Ian and Barbara aren’t fussed about being off by a couple of years either way from their departure, but it soon becomes apparent that they’re actually 200 years in their future, in the year 2164. Worse, the world is in a post-apocalyptic state where the Daleks are the self-proclaimed “masters of Earth.”
Given that the adventure spans six episodes, it is unsurprising that our TARDIS crew of four soon gets split into two, then three, and even four groups. Each of our heroes make their own acquaintances and allies among the human resistance as they are chased, and sometimes captured, by the Daleks and their enslaved human “Robomen.”
After performing too well on an intelligence test (which serves as a reminder to the modern viewer that these episodes were first broadcast only a year into the show’s run, while it was still very much meant to be teaching history and/or science to a young audience), the Doctor is himself selected to be robotized. Luckily, our story arcs converge here and Barbara and Susan help bring the chaos that allows for a rescue.
One of the things that keeps this particular six-parter from dragging too much is the aforementioned splits and convergences of subsets of the TARDIS crew. More often than not, Ian gets to hare off by himself and do something heroic (par for the course) while the others each do their own thing. But we get more instances than usual of other party members having interesting experiences, too.
For one thing, Barbara gets to be even more badass than usual, driving some sort of tanker truck (conveniently stolen from a vehicle museum, in perfect working order) straight through a rank of Daleks. Her experiences with the Doctor serve her well in other sections of the story, too, allowing her to contribute important ideas and skills to a group or to devise her own plan of resistance to escape from Daleks and try to stop their plan.
Perhaps more obviously, though, Susan finally gets a little more screen time. Although her romance is not very well developed, writer Terry Nation at least gives it a jolly old try. He’s clearly not a romance writer, but he even takes it so far as to give Susan and David an on-screen kiss, which is vastly superior to the romantic endings some Companions have had (:cough: Leela :cough:).
And then we reach the iconic First Doctor speech. “One day, I shall come back,” he tells Susan, who he has locked out of the TARDIS to force her to stay on a ruined Earth with her new beau. “Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.”
I’ve always been kind of angry with the Doctor for treating Susan that way. But this time, somehow, it wasn’t as hard to swallow, and I’m not sure why that is the case. Perhaps this time I bought into Susan’s attachment to David more than I had before. Perhaps it’s just that I was expecting it, mulling the idea over in the back of my mind all along. Or perhaps I’ve just had that much more time to think about familial separation from both generational directions.
Whatever the case, I’ve come out the other side of this rewatch with an overall more positive impression of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. While there are still a few cringe-worthy “product of its time” moments, it’s a relatively solid story that speaks to both the continuing will to resist oppression and the mental and emotional exhaustion that come with that. It’s a good reminder that even though those in power might, like the Daleks, insist that “resistance is useless,” it is instead one of the most important—and human—experiences we can ever have.
Triskaidekaphobes may not care for the idea that I’m highlighting this as the thirteenth year of the blog, but in my household thirteen is actually one of our favorite numbers. Further, we’ve just ended the Thirteenth Doctor’s era, and I can look forward to meeting Jodie Whittaker herself at Gallifrey One next month. I’d say Year Thirteen is worth celebrating.
This year will, as I’ve hinted before, be the last for the blog. Now that I’ve finally sold some fiction (you can find my first published story here, if you’re interested; I use a pen name), I want to focus more of my time and energy on that kind of writing. There are also several other personal stressors that have ramped up recently, and I simply have less energy to dedicate to blogging.
That’s not to say this year will be lax. I hope to be able to announce my part in that project to which I alluded a couple of years ago. I’ll be reporting on my experiences at Gally as usual, with the bonus of having one of my kiddos with me to provide fresh eyes. And I will finish up my Everything Else series of reviews of the Classic adventures.
Given that there are only five of those left, the blog schedule gets a bit loose around mid-year. But here is the schedule for those final five stories:
Review of Planet of Evil (#81) DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20 Original Air Date: 27 Sep – 18 Oct 1975 Doctors/Companions: Four, Sarah Jane Smith Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen Preceding Story: Terror of the Zygons (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry, the Brigadier) Succeeding Story: Pyramids of Mars (Four, Sarah Jane)
I know there have got to be fans out there who have a particular soft spot for Planet of Evil, but as far as I’m concerned, this is a seriously forgettable story. It came around on my calendar and I thought, “Which one is that again?” And I wasn’t much the wiser after looking at the DVD cover.
As usual, I tried writing down what I remembered of the adventure before starting my re-watch, and I am chagrinned to report that (a) I could barely remember anything beyond the story involving the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith (with that recollection being entirely due to the aforementioned cover image) and (b) everything else I remembered was in error.
To make matters worse, even after watching all four episodes again, I still don’t have much of an impression of the storyline. It’s a pretty typical story of its type: some planetary exploration team has discovered something it shouldn’t have, causing members of the expedition to die before the TARDIS crew arrive and discover what’s going on and how to resolve the situation.
Doctor Who holiday specials have never been particularly high on my list of “must see TV.” Aside from them being Doctor Who, which gives them inherent watchability in my eyes, having something over-the-top fluffy (or even silly) that doesn’t necessarily fit within continuity (that is, if you eliminated one entirely, the arcs of the stories surrounding it wouldn’t really be affected) doesn’t particularly appeal to me.
As an American, I’ve not had the cultural tradition of Christmas specials designed for the whole family to sit down and watch together on Christmas Day (presumably at least in part to keep the peace for a while in the event that one’s family doesn’t even get along). At most, the TV traditions around here were watching Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer or The Year Without a Santa Claus, but those were always aired well before the holiday itself.
So imagine my surprise when I found myself feeling a bit distraught at the idea that there would be no “festive” Doctor Who episode airing this year (on either Christmas or New Year’s).
