Re-running through corridors: Timelash

Two episodes (45 mins each)
Aired between 9th March 1985 and 16th March 1985

Written by Glen McCoy
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Pennant Roberts

Synopsis

On a distant planet known as Karfel, a despotic ruler called the Borad monitors his subjects via cameras and rules with an iron fist. A council of elders under him, led by a Maylin, rule in his name and keep the people in line. They insist that no mirrors are allowed in the society, that all power is periodically transferred to the Borad's power banks, and that they are waging a pointless war with a neighbouring race of snake-like aliens known as the Bandril. If subjects incur the wrath of the Borad, they are either taken to him directly and killed, or escorted by huge, blue skinned androids to a time fissure in the capitol known as the Timelash.

There, they are thrown into it, never to return.

After asking too many questions and having contacts to rebels, the current Maylin, Renis is taken before the Borad and is hit by a beam of energy that ages him until he's just a skeleton.

His daughter, Vena, and the rebel she keeps company with are both thrown in the timelash. Unknown until it's too late, Vena takes with her an amulet that helps transfer power to the Borad's systems. The new Maylin, a despicable scheming man known as Tekker, is tasked with getting it back.

On their travels, the Doctor and Perri find themselves coming into contact with the time corridor of the timelash. They see a ghostly image of Vena pass through the console room. The Doctor soon works out that the corridor goes to Karfel and says that he's been there before. He takes the TARDIS there and is met by Tekker who gives them a smarmy welcome.

The Doctor is suspicious of the amount of advancement the society has made since he was last there, and of the lack of mirrors, but plays along for the moment. He allows Perri to be shown some sights and he goes off with Tekker. It's not long before the new Maylin plays his hand and forces the Doctor to go into the Timelash with the TARDIS to retrieve the amulet. He's taken Perri hostage to make sure this happens. What Tekker doesn't know, is that Perri has managed to evade capture and has gone into the tunnels under the city where she meets the rebels who help her escape from large lizards known as Morlox.

The Doctor, forced to comply, goes in the TARDIS and calculates where Vena would have landed as she emerged from the timelash, finding it in Scotland, 1885. It turns out, she's come into contact with a young man called Herbert who is besotted with her and sees her as an angel.

The Doctor finds him most annoying, but although he tries to leave him behind, Herbert manages to stow away on the TARDIS and goes back with Vena and the Doctor to Karfel.

Once back, Tekker takes the amulet and orders the android to push them back into the Timelash.

They are forced to fight and with the help of revolting civilians, they just manage to survive and destroy the android. They block the council chamber and access to the Timelash, buying the Doctor enough time to reach into the corridor and take two Krontron crystals (of the same substance that the amulet is made of).

With these, the Doctor makes a time-ruse, allowing them to escape into the city and going after Perri. Herbert naturally goes with him.

Perri gets re-captured and tied up in the tunnels, ready to be feasted on by a Morlox. A cannister of strange gas is installed on her chest.

Tekker goes to see the Borad and blames the problems on the last remaining Councillor, who is killed by the ageing beam, thus leaving Tekker as the only one in charge after the Borad. The Doctor finds a way to their hidden lair and sees that the Borad is a hideous malformed human / morlox hybrid.

It's revealed that he used to be a scientist called Megelen, a man who was doing questionable experiments the last time the Doctor was here. The Doctor had stopped him, but he had no idea that the man had gone ahead anyway and disfigured himself for life. The Borad / Megelen now blames the Doctor for everything and says he intends to use the same gas that disfigured him on Perri.

He's also provoked the conflict with the Bandrils as he knows they will use Bendalypse Warheads, which will wipe out the humans, but leave him and the Morlox alive, thus allowing him to rebuild Karfel in his own image. Tekker is shocked at this revelation, but is simply killed by the Borad with the ageing ray.

As Herbert is freeing Perri and rescuing her from the Morlox, the Doctor reflects the ageing beam back at the Borad with the Krontron crystals and kills him.

They all rush back to the Council chamber and contact the Bandrils, trying to stop them from firing their missiles.

They refuse as they cannot trust the Karfellans, and the Doctor is forced to get in the TARDIS and fly to intercept them. Perri wants to go too, but the Doctor stubbornly refuses as he secretly knows he's going to die in the process. Herbert once again stows away, much to the annoyance of the Doctor.

Due to his brilliance, the Doctor finds a way of detonating the warheads on route and they survive. Both he and Herbert return to Karfel and are given a heroes welcome. Celebrations are short lived however as the Borad seemingly returns from the dead and takes Perri captive.

It turns out the Borad had a clone and could transfer consciousness to it. He is defeated a second time when a false wall is smashed (with a picture of the third Doctor on it) and reveals a mirror which repulses the Borad enough to be distracted.

He is thrown into the timelash and the threat is over, but the Doctor says that he'll turn up from time to time in Loch Ness.

The Doctor and Perri agree to return Herbert home, and he gives them his business card which reveals his full name - Herbert George Wells

Trivia

This story references concepts from numerous HG Wells stories including The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr Moreau

The story was originally intended to be an adventure with the Daleks as the main enemy, but Eric Saward asked for this to be cut as the writer was still a novice at this point and he felt he couldn't do them justice.

The original version of the script had the first Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Susan going to Karfel, but this was changed to the Third Doctor and Jo Grant. A sliver of it still exists, as Tekker enquires why the Doctor only has one companion with him this time.

Paul Darrow was well known as his role on Blakes 7 -Kerr Avon. Colin Baker had previously played a character in that and had been sufficiently "over the top". Paul Darrow decided to return the favour and intentionally exaggerated his part, choosing to play it as Richard the Third

At the end of the last story, it was announced that Doctor Who would be on a hiatus for a year. The official account (according to John Nathan-Turner) was that they needed the money to launch a series of shows, especially on Daytime TV and the only way to do that was to cancel a load that weren't working. Doctor Who wasn't cancelled, but rested to free up some of that money

The press had a field day with it all and mounted a save Doctor Who campaign that lasted several months. Rumours were that controller of the BBC at the time - Michael Grade - did not like the show and was intending for it not to return, but the volume of response caused them to re-think this and re-instate it a year later. More on this next season

The Review

Many a time on this journey, I have said that the premise of a story has been particularly great, but the execution has severely diminished it. Well, when it comes to Timelash, I want to say the same, except the concept of the story (finding out how HG Wells got all his ideas) would take, what, ten minutes at the most in terms of revealing a pay off, fifteen at the maximum. The problem is that this story has ninety minutes to kill, so that's over an hour of filler to find to justify the payoff for this concept, and find a meaningful way to bring the Doctor and Perri into this.

Timelash is shown in such a way as to leave the viewer feeling as that was exactly the case - that everything else was filler. Even the tidbits of "oh, that's where HG Wells got the idea for the Inivisible Man from" are pretty mundane and boring - the closest we get to "excitement" is the rescue of Perri from the Morlox. It's just a story made to annoy you - from the high-low alternating pitch of the androids voice, past the extremely hammed up Tekker, right the way to the Doctor's five minute back and forth with the annoying Herbert. Although, having said that, Herbert as a character had quite a descent comedy element to him. Is that what we really wanted though at the expense of a tense drama?

I ask myself, is this as bad as the Celestial Toymaker? Difficult to say. I would say it's on a par for the most bit, with a slight increase for the fact that at least it's got a vague annoying narrative. I'd argue that t's worse than the Twin Dilemma however, as at least in that one, the Doctor was new and unpredictable (and that isn't saying much).

Timelash has very very little to redeem itself as the cardboard villains and characters go through the motions and play out this utterly annoying story. I doubt I'll go back to it again.

Rating

3 1/2 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

2 out of 10

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