The Trial of a Time Lord - 1-4: The Mysterious Planet

Four episodes
Aired between 6th September 1986 and 27th September 1986

Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Nicholas Mallett

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on a strange space station and the Doctor finds that it is home to a courtroom full of Gallifreyan officials.

The prosecutor known as the Valeyard explains that the Doctor is on trial for meddling in the affairs of other races too often, breaking the Time Lord's code.

The trial is overseen by members of the High Council, and led by the Inquisitor, a female Time Lord.

The Doctor accepts that he is on trial and refuses the use of his own lawyer, preferring to mount his own defence.

The Valeyard begins the prosecutions by using the Matrix to show the court the events that took place on the Planet Ravolox...

The Doctor and Perri went to Ravolox on a hunch of the Doctor's that the planet is not all that it appears to be.  Gallifreyan records show that this planet was devastated by a fireball, but in actual fact, it looks just like Earth. 

It's not long before they find evidence that it is in fact earth, with the London tube stations being overgrown by vegetation. The Doctor explores the ruins of Marble Arch station and gets separated from Perri.

Perri meets a barbarian tribe known as the Tribe of the Free, and is told by the Matriarch - Queen Katryka, that she will be used to bear children for the tribe. 

Perri is temporarily placed in Jail where she meets two unlikely mercenaries known as Sabolom Glitz, and his apprentice, Dibber. They are here to get into the underground complex near Marble Arch and destroy a robot that's running it all so they can retrieve some vital information for an undisclosed employer.

Meanwhile, the Doctor comes into contact with the residents of the underground complex. They view him as hostile and a thief, and sentence him to death via stoning.

Thanks to the workings of the L3 robot (Drathro) who has placed itself in charge above the humans and is referred to as the Immortal, the Doctor is saved from this fate and taken to Drathro for questioning. The Robot is sufficiently clever enough to work out that the Doctor can help it. It commands him to fix a black light converter that is malfunctioning and putting everyone in danger.  The Doctor agrees, but says he needs to go outside to fix it.

Drathro won't allow him to leave, so he has to come up with a plan to stun the robot long enough to run and escape. Drathro responds by sending out his L2 robot to re-capture the Doctor.

Back with Perri, Glitz and Dibber explain that the black light converter, an artefact that is being treated as a totem by the primitive tribe needs to be destroyed in order to take down the L3 robot. They come up with a plan, overpower the guards and destroy the converter. As they're on the run, they find the Doctor, but ultimately all four of them are trapped in the entrance to "Marb Station" between the L2 robot and the pursuing tribe. The tribe shoot and disable the L2 robot, and capture the gang, putting them back into prison.

The L2 robot is re-activated and goes after the Doctor. Breaking through the wall of the prison and stunning the Doctor.

 It hauls him up with cables and tries to take him back to Drathro. 

Believing the L2 to be the Immortal, the tribe attack it and destroy it, taking themselves to be free of it finally, they go off to pillage Marb Station.

Seizing their chance, Glitz and Dibber return to their ship to get bigger guns to deal with the L3 robot.

Perri, having stayed behind in the chaos, revives the Doctor and they go off to stop Katryka and the others from getting themselves killed. As they get to the complex, they're confronted by a member of the underground complex known as Merdeen. He raises a crossbow to them, but he shoots a colleague, revealing that he has helped many of the former inhabitants into the outside world to join the tribe. He always disbelieved the Immortals claims that the outside was a giant wasteland, scorched by fire.

Katryka and the tribe come unexpectedly face to face with Drathro, who electrocutes the Queen and the head warrior and scatters the rest of the tribe.

The Doctor makes it back to Drathro and explains that now the convertor is destroyed, it's going to feedback and cause an explosion that could destroy the universe. He asks Drathro to shut down in order to prevent this. Drathro however does not agree, believing that life is meaningless without him there.

Waiting outside, Perri convinces Merdeen and another inhabitant called Balazaar to help her. They're joined by Glitz and Dibber and attempt to infiltrate Drathro's domain via the rubbish chute.  Drathro activates the fans and defences in the area and nearly kills them, but Glitz and Dibber blow a hole in the wall and they escape. 

Reaching the Robot, the mercenaries lie and say that they have black light on their ship that they will give to Drathro. The L3 robot agrees to go with them, and they take the secret files they wanted as payment. 

The Mercenaries aren't bothered that the system will explode and leave the Doctor and Perri trying frantically to stop a chain reaction. This all culminates in the L3 robot overheating and damaging the secret files, but the Doctor saves the universe by containing the explosion to the complex itself.

Glitz and Dibber leave the planet, having taken solace in finding a bunch of rare minerals instead that they can sell on.

The Doctor and Perri take their leave, instructing Merdeen and Balazaar to take the people of the complex out into the wide world as it's not devastated as they believed.  When alone, the Doctor does question the reason why Earth was moved from its point in space and renamed in the archive as Ravolox.

Back in the courtroom the Doctor glibly states that he saved the universe, but the Valeyard claims that the case isn't over and more evidence is about to be presented...

Trivia

• This story sees a new take on the theme tune introduced, but the titles remained the same since the Twin Dilemma.

• As noted in the previous story, the entire run of Season 23 was re-thought from the point of view as a trial, hopefully showcasing the best things that it could offer, and mimicking the reality that the show was "on trial for it's life".

•  The opening scene of this story was one of the last model shots on film ever to take place on the show. The model was over 6ft long, and cost £8,000 to make and film.  The scene, although spectacular and stands up to this day, basically blew the budget and many corners had to be cut throughout the season to make up for it.

• Because the production team wanted to make this season a great showcase for the possibilities that it could be, Eric Saward returned to veteran writer Robert Holmes to outline this and the final story as the overall arc of the series. Holmes wasn't feeling well at this time, and the quality of the story is a reflection of that

The Review

And so we begin the final season of Colin Baker's Doctor. The start is a strong one, with the visual effects being top quality and the introduction of the story being intriguing indeed. If you look back into the seventies episodes, you will see that I've never been one to put effects above the quality of the story, but... in this case it does feel like it is an issue.  It's not so much the special effects even, it's more about the costumes and to some extent the supporting cast. The contrast between the opening and the story itself is such a stark contrast.

The robots themselves are reasonably robotic, and okay, and Sabolom Glitz is Holmes doing a re-hash of Garron and Unstoffe from The Ribos Operation, which is fine. The issue comes with their costumes, the quality of the Tribe's costumes, and let's be honest, the use of Joan Simms as Katryka.  She has been such an ingrained part of the Carry On franchise for so long that it is very difficult to see her in any serious light here, and she looks about as far away from a warrior queen as you can get.

Even Linda Bellingham is an odd choice for an Inquisitor, seeing as most people at the time were more familiar with her in the OXO cubes adverts, still I do think she manages to pull the role off with some measure of gravitas.

The logic behind all the story is somewhat lacking, as we will come to see, the Valeyard is actually shooting himself right in the foot by even presenting this as evidence, showcasing how he's done stuff to manipulate things, but as a story in it's own right, it's a halfway decent start to the series. I just wonder if they could have redeemed the god-awful Celestial Toymaker in the story that was orignally scheduled for this spot.

Rating

6 out of 10

Re-watchability Factor

5 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• An Unearthly Child

• The Enemy of the World

• Colony in Space

• Invasion of the Dinosaurs

• Robot

• The Face of Evil

The Five Doctors

One feature length episode

Aired on 23rd November 1983

Written by: Terrence Dicks
Produced by: John Nathan-Turner
Directed by: Peter Moffatt

Synopsis

Someone on Gallifrey is using a Time Scoop to pick the Doctor out of his timeline at various points in his life, including during his previous incarnations.  To assist these Doctors,  they also take various companions that each Doctor will be familiar with.

The exception to this is the Fourth Doctor and Romana who accidentally get trapped in the vortex when the mysterious figure tries to transport them with the Time Scoop.

This has a painful side effect for the Fifth Doctor, who is chilling out with Tegan and Turlough at the Eye of Orion. 

It makes him weak and he begins to fade in and out of existence.  Luckily, he's aware of why and he sets the TARDIS in motion to try and track down the source of it.

Once they land, the Doctor collapses and Tegan and Turlough are pretty powerless to do anything.  Not long after this, the First Doctor and Susan, his Granddaughter walk into the TARDIS, having just escaped from a mirrored maze where they defeated a Dalek.

Being in the area where his previous selves are presumably located, allows the fifth Doctor to recover.  Between himself and the first Doctor, they come to the realisation that they're on Gallifrey in the Death Zone.

Meanwhile, the second Doctor meets up with Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart at his reunion in UNIT. 

They're both taken by the time scoop and when the second Doctor sees a great tower in the distance, he also realises that they're in the Death Zone. He explains that it's the tower of Rassilon, where the great first Time Lord is buried. Legend has it that the Death Zone was created by ancient Time Lords when they were sadistic and compassionate. They used the zone like the Romans used the Colosseum, putting people and creatures in it for sport. The tower of Rassilon was added after as a resting place for Rassilon himself.  Although he's supposed to be the greatest of all Time Lords, rumour has it that Rassilon was crazy and a bit of a tyrant too.

The second Doctor knows that the only way out of the Death Zone is to get to the tower, and so they set off.

In the Citadel on Gallifrey, the High Council (led by Borusa) calls in the Master, employing him to track down the Doctors and bringing them out, back to the Citadel.  They give him a seal of the High Council and a transmat device. In return, the Master will be given a full set of regenerations.  The Master accepts.

On his travels, the Master meets the third Doctor, but fails to convince him that he's there to help. 

Strange laser bolts come from the sky and attack them, leading the third Doctor to believe that it was the Master.  The laser bolts hit Bessie and the Doctor and Sarah Jane are forced to carry on via foot to the tower.

After some debate with himself, the fifth Doctor takes Tegan and Susan out into the zone to go to the main entrance to the Tower of Rassilon. 

They can't take the TARDIS straight there because of a force field stopping it. On their way, they meet the Master too. The fifth Doctor is similarly distrusting, but their conversation is broken up when they're all attacked by Cybermen. 

The Doctor uses the Master's dropped transmat device and goes to the Citadel whilst Tegan and Susan make it back to the TARDIS.  The Master is captured by the Cybermen.

Once at the citadel, the Doctor realises that the Master was telling the truth.  He begins to uncover the insidious plot, implicating someone from the high council of being behind all of this.  Evidence is found to suggest that the Castelan is responsible, but he protests his innocence and he's shot and killed before he can confess.

Meanwhile, the second Doctor and the Brigadier are forced to flee from Cybermen into a series of caves beneath the tower.  They encounter a Yeti and are almost trapped when the roof falls in, but they find a way out and continue into the tower.

The third Doctor has similar troubles as he and Sarah Jane encounter a Raston Warrior Robot. 

Luckily, the robot gets distracted by a group of Cybermen that turn up and they take their chance, getting hold of some rope and javelins nearby to help them scale the mountain at the side of the tower.

They use the steel rope and hook it onto the top of the tower, zip-lining out onto the top entrance of the tower.

Tegan manages to convince the first Doctor of the necessity to go to the tower, and they get to the main entrance, unmolested.  Turlough and Susan await the force field going down so they can transport the TARDIS.

Whilst at the tower, Tegan and the Doctor find a trapped floor, something that another encounter with the Master solves - they hide as the Master tricks the Cybermen into going across and getting killed.

The second and third doctors both meet phantasms of past companions within the tower, but overcome them, knowing that it's a mind trick created by Rassilon's will.

Eventually, the First, Second and Third Doctors all meet up in the Tomb of Rassilon and begin to decipher what the old high gallifreyan inscriptions on the tomb mean. 

They drop the force field and Turlough and Susan take the TARDIS there just in time to avoid being blown up by a cyber-bomb.

Back in the citadel, the fifth Doctor uncovers a secret room and finds Borusa in there.  He is behind it all - he brought the Doctor's to the Death Zone because the Tomb of Rassilon gives people the chance to become immortal and he wanted it so that he could rule forever. 

Now the force field is down, he transmats into the tomb and takes the Doctor with him.

The spirit of Rassilon appears and asks Borusa if he really wants immortality.

The second Doctor insists that the others keep out of it and vouches for Borusa.  Rassilon smiles and turns Borusa into stone, giving him permanent immortality in the side of his casket.

The second Doctor explains that it was all in the inscriptions - "he who wins shall lose and he who loses shall win".

Rassilon agrees to send the other Doctors back as well as the companions and they all say their farewells.

Chancellor Flavia, the remaining member of the High Council turns up and praises the Doctor, appointing him the new President.  The Doctor asks her to convene other members and says he'll be right back, retreating into the TARDIS quickly. 

Tegan is disappointed but the Doctor says he's running away, just like he did the first time.

Trivia

• This celebration was conceived two years before it aired, but there was by no means a story worked on for that long.  The original script was to have been produced by Robert Holmes, the show's greatest writer.  

• Robert Holmes got on with Eric Saward, but he had no love for Nathan-Turner and his huge list of things that the story had to have shoe-horned in.  His script eventually got adapted and used as the hub for the Two Doctors, but he passed up the chance to finish this one off.

• The team therefore turned to Terrence Dicks, calling him at 3am (because he was at a convention in New Orleans) and asking him to come on-board.  

• The completion of the script came fairly late as Tom Baker kept running hot and cold as to whether he was going to be in it or not.  The publicity shots eventually used his waxwork from Madame Tusaude's when it was clear he wasn't going to be in it.  He did however suggest using the footage from Shada. 

• The Death Zone was filmed in south wales and as it looks on the screen, it was freezing

• There was so much to do and film for this project that Director Peter Moffatt had to ask John Nathan-Turner to help him out and shoot some footage.  At least part of the Cyberman vs Raston Warrior Robot scene was filmed by JNT himself.

• The Five Doctors was shown during Children in Need, starting a tradition that would run on for a number of years 

The Review

I began this very blog by stating that my earliest memories of the show were from this story and that they'd stuck with me even now.  For a look back on that, see here.

Now that I've watched the show in sequence up to this point, it has slightly diminished my love for this story, especially as it's quite upsetting to see that Borusa is the main bad guy. It by no means spoils it though, and here's the reason why. There's lots of inconsistencies and out of character moments to pick out of it, but the the difference to other low scoring stories is that a tight, coherent story wasn't ever really in John Nathan-Turner's mind at the time. 

The Five Doctors was there to give a slideshow of classic villains, doctors and companions, and in that, it absolutely gets it right.  As other sources have pointed out, the public could have gotten a series of interviews with the cast instead (as would happen ten and twenty years later). At least the Five Doctors was meant to be given something of a high-stakes adventure for us all to enjoy.

The music is pretty great, and the feel of nostalgia is also good, especially if watched in 1983 when there was little chance of going back and seeing older Doctors strut their stuff. The Raston scene is brilliant and gives a real sense of tension, even if Jon Pertwee can't stop moving and talking as he tells Sarah Jane to not move or talk.

At the end of the day, yes, there's significant faults in logic (e.g. if they can give the Master a full set of regeneration's just like that, why does Borusa need Rassilon?). That doesn't mean that this isn't a very entertaining story.  If I give the Sea Devils 10 out of 10, then The Five Doctors surely deserves it too.

Rating

10 out of 10!

Re-watchability Factor

10 out of 10!

Watch this if you liked...

• The Three Doctors

• The Two Doctors

• Day of the Doctor (Doctor Who, 50th Anniversary)

Arc of Infinity

Four episodes
Aired between 3rd January 1983 and 12th January 1983

Written by Johnny Byrne
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Ron Jones

Synopsis

This is a difficult one.  Let's see.  There's a traitor on the High Council of Time Lords who's stealing bio-data extracts from the Matrix to find a new body for Omega - the ancient time lord last seen in The Three Doctors.  Omega is trapped in an anti-matter universe and has been driven pretty much insane by the inability to interact or feel anything.

Together, the traitor and Omega hatch a plan to steer the Doctor to them and aim to use some kind of natural time-space phenomena called the Arc of Infinity to transfer his body to the Doctor's.

Seeing some of this coming, the High Council summon the Doctor's TARDIS to Gallifrey to try and figure out why the Doctor is being targeted.

As this is going on, two back-packers - Colin and Robin end up sleeping rough in a crypt in Amsterdam.

As they are there, they're confronted by a terrifying chicken like alien that zaps Colin.

Robin escapes and tries to go for help but nobody believes him.  With little option, he waits on the arrival of Colin's Cousin who was due to meet them the day after.  Colin's Cousin just happens to be Tegan.

When Tegan gets there, they end up investigating the crypt again, and Tegan sees Colin in a zombie-like state and she's captured by the Chicken creature also.  It turns out that Amsterdam falls under part of the Arc of Infinity.

Back on Gallifrey, the Doctor is met with a bit of a hostile reception.  The guard, Maxil seems to hate him, as does the rest of the High Council, including Lord President Borusa - his old mentor.

Instead of seriously looking into finding out who the traitor on the High Council is, they decide to kill the Doctor as his bio-data is planned to be used and if that happens, and the anti-matter meets matter, then the universe could be destroyed.

They march him to an execution chamber and despite Nyssa's pleas, they atomise him.  The Doctor instead of being actually atomised, is sent into the Matrix (I believe as a result of Hedin's sabotage).

Whilst in the Matrix, Omega contacts the Doctor and uses the captured Tegan as bait to force the Doctor to allow Omega to merge with his bio-data and create a body for himself.

Once this is underway, the Doctor's body is recovered by the Castillan and Nyssa.  They all rush to the high council chamber as Borusa is suspected of being the traitor, but they reveal that Hedin is really it.  Hedin dies as he gives his body energy to Omega to complete the transformation.

The Doctor and Nyssa rush to their TARDIS and head down to Amsterdam, frantically searching and running up and down streets for Omega using a handy little anti-matter detection device.  They find the crypt and find a way of overpowering and zapping Omega's chicken monster - referred to as an Ergon (sort of like a Frankenstein's monster).

They find Omega and destroy a device he was using, but it's not good enough, Omega is transformed and looks like the Doctor.

He runs off into Amsterdam. After picking up Tegan and checking on Colin, they all rush off, racing around Amsterdam to find Omega.

The reason being that the devices destruction made Omega's body unstable and he is likely to cause a huge anti-matter explosion when his body degenerates.  After a looong chase they find him and the Doctor shoots him with the Ergon's gun and sends him somewhere far away.

A short time afterwards, Tegan meets the Doctor and Nyssa and tells them she got fired from her job, so she's happy to travel with them again.  Together, they all set off in the TARDIS.

Trivia

• This is the first of the annual "trips abroad" for the production crew.  John Nathan-Turner liked the visit to France for The City of Death, so he made sure that every year, one story would be done somewhere exotic. That is, until the budgets got too tight

• Janette Fielding cut her hair between contracts as the perms she was made to wear had made her hair so brittle that it was snapping off and she was at risk of becoming bald. It was also because John Nathan-Turner wanted her to be raunchier for the Dad's at home and she rebelled

• This story also sees the return of Michael Gough to the Doctor Who universe as Councillor Hedin.  Previously, he was the signature part in The Celestial Toymaker

• This one as you might guess also stars Colin Baker as Maxil.  He supposedly was reluctant to take the part as he thought it ruled out his chance to be the Doctor in the future.  Wait a bit to see what happened with that.

The Review

The main thought I had following this story was one of confusion.  There's a lot of smoke and mirrors at work here, pure bewilderment with techno-babble and vague pseudo science.  At the core of this, there's very little story here. Some of the elements should work really well - from the political intrigue of the High Council, to the desperate bid of a madman trying to escape purgatory.  But it doesn't. In terms of Omega, it should be able to riff heavily on the previous character of Omega, but it doesn't.

There's a lot of this is off because the justification of the story is shaky.  Omega is desperate for a new body.  He's got a device that will allow him to do that.  Based on this story, why the Hell is the Doctor interfering with that.  Apart from Hedin rushing in and killing people just to sabotage stuff, there's no overwhelming reason to stop him - Omega's body is unstable BECAUSE the Doctor interferes.  So what if he turns out to be a doppleganger?  I could understand it more if it's the rest of the High Council stopping him because they don't want to give up the power.

The other big problem with it is that it's trying to do too many things at once.  It wants to be a horror - mystery with the crypt sub-plot, it's trying to have political intrigue with the high council, it's trying to be a courtroom drama.  Some of these are more successful elements than others, but it just adds to the confusion of it all.

In review, I think there's small bits of this that are interesting as a premise, but taken as a whole, there's just not enough to make this a truly good story.

Rating

4 out of 10

Re-watchability Factor

4 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Three Doctors

• The Deadly Assassin

• The Invasion of Time

• The Five Doctors

The Invasion of Time

6 Episodes
Aired between 4th February 1978 and 11th March 1978

Written by David Agnew
Produced by Graham Williams
Directed by Gerald Blake

Synopsis

The Doctor mysteriously makes an alliance with a malicious force of aliens and goes to Gallifrey.

 Once there, he demands to claim his right to the Presidency, despite objections from Cardinal Borusa.

The Doctor's claim is upheld and he is crowned, giving his mind access to the memories of past Presidents through the matrix.  The aliens and the Doctor are hoping to gain access to the Great Key of Rassilon, but it is an artefact long lost and every successive President has been given the mission to find the great key.

Through the Doctor's ruthless barking orders, Leela is banished outside the citadel of Gallifrey, and his room is decorated so that it's lead lined.

  Once inside, he finally tells Cardinal Borusa that the aliens, called Vardan's, are a race so powerful that they can travel along any wavelength and read thoughts.  He's had to shield his mind and act out his ruthless ways in order to lull them into a false sense of security.

As part of the Doctor's plan, he's filled K9 in on it, and sends the robotic dog off to blow up the machinery operating the Citadel's transduction barrier.

Leela, very confused at the Doctor's strange actions but convinced he's got good intentions, evades capture so that she can stay in the citadel and help him.  She meets Rodan, a female Time Lord who works traffic control.

Together, they are forced outside the citadel where they meet up with primitive Gallifreyan's and begin to form a fighting force to storm the citadel and rescue the Doctor.

Meanwhile, the Vardan's turn up as shiny tin foil ghosts, but are eventually convinced to materialise fully once the great key has been found and a hole in the Citadel's force field has been created.

The Vardan's it turns out are human.

Once they're fully materialised, it's a simple matter for the Doctor and K9 to use Gallifrey's technology to send them back to their home planet and stick them in a time loop.  The threat hasn't ended however, as the hole in the force field and the destroyed transduction barrier leads others to invade the planet, namely the Sontarans, led by Commander Stor.

The Doctor bluffs his way out of the panopticon and the Sontaran's give chase to him, Cardinal Borusa, Leela, the guard Captain Andred, and Rodan.

The chase takes them through the bowels of the TARDIS and the Doctor leads them off, leaving K9 and Rodan to use the Great Key of Rassilon to assemble a De-Mat Gun, a weapon of mass destruction.

Ultimately, the Doctor is forced to use the gun on the Sontarans, wiping them out and blanking his own memory in the process.

Everyone cheers now that Gallifrey is safe, and the Doctor goes to leave but Leela decides to stay with Andred, and K9 chooses her over the Doctor.  The Doctor's alright however, he simply pushes out a box from the backroom that contains K9 MII.

Trivia

• This was another story rushed into production at the last moment as David Weir who was due to write the season ending had a story idea that would require a blockbuster movie budget to realise.  A replacement was therefore written as a collaboration between Graham Williams, Antony Read and writer David Weir.  The Pseudonym David Agnew was used.

• If the relationship between Andred and Leela seems strange, it is.  Louise Jameson really wanted to leave the show, in big part because of her clashes with Tom Baker.  Graham Williams was confident he could talk her round to staying longer, so he left her fate a bit open ended in the script.  When he finally accepted that she would go, that's how they wrote her out. 

• The character of Rodan was in a way a prototype for Romana (see the next story).  For whatever reason, they decided to re-design the Time Lady, but that's alright because we get to see Mary Tamm for a full season

• The shots for the TARDIS interiors were filmed at an abandoned mental asylum.

• The Sontaran that goes flying when he jumps across the pool was a genuine trip, but they kept it in 

The Review

On the surface of it, The Invasion of Time has some pretty cool ideas.  Picture it, the Doctor has seemingly turned traitor to overcome his most powerful foe, an enemy that can be everywhere and can read your mind.  This could have been ingenious.  I feel what we get is a half hearted attempt at it.

Let's start with the Vardan's.  Even though they are human, they are one of the most powerful forces the Doctor has ever come across but yet no one has  ever heard of them.  Despite the immense potential we're told they have, they do nothing. Not one thing beyond yelling about needing discipline. They bring a battleship to Gallifrey, even though they don't need it to travel anywhere, and there's three of them.  Some invasion force.  

Once the Vardan's are gone, the Sontaran's arrive and act like they know all about the Vardans, almost like they were the little fish that lead the mighty Sontaran's to their destination.  But what the hell have the Sontaran's got that the Vardan's need, and why would they take orders from them?  Oh, and again, despite an invasion fleet turning up, only three or four Sontarans bother to come down to Gallifrey.  None of it makes sense: not the invasion fleets, not the de-mat gun, nothing.

If one thing could be taken away from this, then it's the start of Tom Baker's indulgence into comedy. Whilst there's been a quip here and there for some time, from this story on, there's a distinct realisation that Tom Baker has started to believe his own hype. Whilst some of the interactions are genuinely amusing, they get more and more and more "zany" with the effect of the viewer not being able to take the drama seriously because it's lead character doesn't.

The Invasion of Time is a barely bearable mess, with almost full episodes devoted to running through corridors.  It was a chore to watch and one that won't be watched again by me for a long, long time.

Rating

4 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

3 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Deadly Assassin

• The Invisible Enemy

• The Five Doctors

• The Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (Doctor Who, Series 7)