4 Episodes
Aired between 28th February 1981 and 21st March 1981
Written by Christopher H Bidmead
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Peter Grimwade
Synopsis
The Doctor and Adric are taking a tour of the TARDIS interior, noting that the ship is gradually decaying from its age when the Cloister Bell sounds. The Doctor says it's a sign of impending doom. He decides that the best thing to do is to give the TARDIS an overhaul, and fix the chameleon circuit whilst he's at it.
To do this, he takes them to a Police Box on earth in 1981, landing on top of it so that the real police box is transported inside the console room, and they can take the appropriate dimensions of the box that they'll need.
The Doctor's intent is to go to a place called Logopolis, where the scientists there will be able to use the dimensions he provides to effectively re-make the TARDIS from the ground up.
Little does the Doctor know however that the Master has done the exact same thing as him very shortly before (hinting at some form of telepathy between the Time Lords). This leads to a form of time loop where going in the doors of one TARDIS leads into the console room of the other. The Doctor and Adric go off to find the Master in this recursive labyrinth.
Meanwhile, a young lady called Tegan Jovanka struggles with her old car to get to Heathrow Airport, where she's about to start her new job as an air hostess. Her Aunty Vanessa is with her to help her along, but they get a flat tyre and are forced to pull up near the box. Trying to call for help, Tegan enters the TARDIS and gets lost in the interior.
Whilst she does so, the Master nips out and kills Aunty Vanessa with his handy Tissue Compression Eliminator. Why? I don't know.
Not being able to find the Master, the Doctor decides on a bonkers plan to flush the Master out by opening the doors whilst at the bottom of the Thames. Thankfully, the TARDIS actually materialises on a boat instead, missing target by mere feet. As they inspect what went wrong, the Doctor sees a mysterious white figure.
He speaks to him alone and comes back looking very sombre. He decides to go to Logopolis instead, taking Tegan inadvertently with them.
Once on Logopolis, they are greeted by the chief scientist known as the Monitor. He assures them that he can use a very complex form of mathematics known as block transfer computation to re-design the TARDIS as requested.
Nyssa turns up and says that a friend of the Doctor's brought her here. She's looking for her father who went missing.
It doesn't take long however for the master to begin messing things up, shrinking lots of Logopolitans, tricking Nyssa into believing he is still her father, and trying to sieze control of the planet by using a technological device to silence the Logopolitans from speaking their mathematical equations.
This backfires however, as it turns out, that the universe should have decayed and died a long time ago because it's something called a closed system (it's finite). The Logopolitans have staved off the end of the universe by using a replica of the Pharos Project on Earth to effectively open up dimensions via CVE's (see Full Circle) thereby creating more and more "space" and keeping the system open, therefore staving off entropy. Now that the Logopolitans cannot do that, the universe suddenly begins to die!
All this mayhem means that it's too late for Logopolis and the Doctor forces Adric, Nyssa and Tegan into the TARDIS which is taken by the mysterious white figure out of the known universe and time stream to keep them safe.
They watch helplessly as entire worlds and solar systems begin to blink out and die - one of them being Traken.
The Doctor meanwhile stays behind and is forced to work with the Master.
They determine that whilst the replica of the Pharos project is beyond saving, the data in its computer banks is still there, so the real Pharos project on Earth could be capable of restoring balance. He, the Master and Tegan (who jumped ship) go to Earth and try to get to the control room on the radar dish. Tegan gets left behind and finds Adric and Nyssa as they convince the white figure (they call the Watcher) to bring the TARDIS to Earth.
They look on helplessly as the Doctor and the Master get up to the dish. They setup the dish to open up more CVE's and provide stability but the Master holds him at gunpoint, sending out an ultimatum to the universe that if they don't recognise his rule, he will close the CVE. The Doctor sprints onto the gantry, trying to disconnect the cable that the Master would use to carry out his threat, but the Master re-aligns the dish tilting it.
The Doctor does disconnect the cable, but falls from the gantry in the process.
The companions race to the Doctor's side as he lies on the ground. He says that "this is the end, but the moment has been prepared for" and reaches out to the mysterious white figure who then melds with him to regenerate into the next Doctor...
Trivia
- The story was the brainchild of Christopher H Bidmead, who was going out as script editor because he'd had enough. He thought of the idea from Keeper of Traken when the Master escapes from the Melkur in his TARDIS - so it was a TARDIS within a TARDIS. The first instance of this though was of course, the Time Monster.
- The watcher was meant to be mysterious and alluded to as the possible new form of the Master. That's why he wasn't shown for the first couple of episodes. Unfortunately, the ending of the Keeper of Traken showed us everything and spoiled all the effort they went to on this
- The character of Tegan was designed by John Nathan-Turner. He created it because Australian broadcasting were talking about a co-production and he wanted to justify a jolly to Australia, so he put an Australian character in.
- When designing the character, JNT asked for the character to be called something like Tegan OR Jovanka, but that got muddled in the process and her full name became Tegan Jovanka.
- The house Tegan leaves actually belongs to one of the writers of Meglos.
- Finally, we can't end this without talking about good old Tom. This wasn't the ending he was hoping for, and he made sure everyone knew about it. His general depression about the direction the show was going, and his recent illness all took their toll on him. He was grouchy to the end, and whilst it was the end of an era, many of the crew would breathe a sigh of relief when he left
The Review
This is the end indeed. Tom Baker wanted it spectacular with high stakes, shooty lasers and big explosions. Whilst that might have been a bit over the ever tightening budget, it could have been done something like it.
Now, if you're an intellectual and into scientific theory, then you'll probably think this review is dumbing things down or assume I just didn't "get it". That's not the case. Oftentimes, we argue that Doctor Who plays it too safe and child-friendly for the audience and they can afford to do more high brow things and explain more complicated processes. I totally agree with that, but in my opinion, Logopolis does so at the expense of drama.
The scientific concept of entropy destroying the universe unless you open up other dimensions is cool (and is supposedly used by Isaac Asimov himself as the basis of a story). Having a recursive loop of TARDIS' is cool even if it's been done before, and if done right, the shrink-killing of lots of people could be terrifying. Indeed, Logopolis has arguably the highest body count of any Doctor Who story yet told, it's just that most of them are off screen and not referred to other than lights of stars blinking out.
My problem with Logopolis is that it's full of techno-babble. Whether real or made up, I don't care. It's just too dense to get any enjoyment from it, and it's sold in a way that it practically pauses for you to be impressed when someone spouts out a long and complicated theory. It's frankly impossible to relate to. The only character you can do that with is Tegan who spends all her time either decrying the usefulness of men, or crying about the fact that she's hopelessly lost and wants to go home.
To add to the misery. the Master is chaotic at best, having no real motive and just going with the flow, trying his hand at a couple of evil schemes just because. I mean, he could have been joking about the CVE, but how would he realistically enforce his rule? How would he know if they'd refuse his rule?
At least you can say that the main actors were reasonably good at their performances, but the supporting ones - especially the guards and policemen were agonisingly bad.
Rating
4 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
4 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- Planet of Fire
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