KO Round 1.3

 

This round sees Season 13 up against Season 19, so quite a tough one.

Season 13 comprises Terror of the Zygons, Planet of Evil, Pyramids of Mars, The Android Invasion, The Brain of Morbius and The Seeds of Doom. 

It's Tom Baker's second series, starring alongside Lis Sladen's Sarah Jane Smith. We have the final appearances by UNIT regulars the Brigadier and Benton, as well as Harry Sullivan.

Terror of the Zygons was supposed to have concluded the previous season, making more sense of Harry's arc, but it was held back so that this season could launch earlier than usual and so beat off Space: 1999 as a potential rival. It's a near perfect story, with a fantastic creature design. The only thing that lets it down is the glove puppet Skarasen.

Planet of Evil boasts a great jungle set by Roger Murray-Leach, and a story based on Jekyll & Hyde, with a bit of Forbidden Planet (and therefore The Tempest) thrown in.

Season 13 is, it should be noted, the height of the Hinchcliffe-Holmes partnership, when the series is showing its Gothic roots, and inspiration from classic horror and Sci-Fi movies. Frankenstein and The Mummy are both referenced this year.

Two of the stories, however, owe more of a debt to The Avengers than they do to classic horror movies - The Android Invasion mirroring several Steed and Emma Peel escapades, and The Seeds of Doom being virtually a remake of another one. The latter also references The Thing From Another World in its opening two episodes.

The relationship between the Fourth Doctor and Sarah is the strongest it ever gets, especially now that Harry is out of the way. This is the Tom Baker / Lis Sladen season.

Season 19 is Peter Davison's first series. It comprises Castrolvalva, Four to Doomsday, Kinda, The Visitation, Black Orchid, Earthshock and Time-Flight.

This season saw the return of the Cybermen after a seven year absence, and companion Adric is killed in the same story - the first companion death for seventeen years.

The new Doctor gets off to a strong start this season, though some of the stories are a little weak. Castrovalva is a fairly dull affair, as is Four To Doomsday with its interminable "Recreationals".

Kinda is much better - a more adult Sci-Fi tale. The Visitation is also very good, bringing back the pseudo-historical / alien invasion story after a long absence. The Terileptil makes for a well-designed new monster - shame they weren't ever brought back.

Black Orchid is throwaway, notable only for being a purely historical story, the first since January 1967.

Earthshock is the standout story of the season - not just for bringing back the Cybermen with a fancy new design, but for daring to kill off a companion (the first since Sara Kingdom bought it back in 1966). Adric was never the most popular of companions (he's pretty badly written this entire season, after strong appearances in Baker's last two stories), so it would have been interesting if they had killed off one of the others rather than him.

With Time-Flight, they've run out of money and are attempting a story that should never have been commissioned. No amount of time or money would have saved this.

The winner - well it has to be Season 13. Even the worst story (Android) is better than some of the stronger stories in Season 19. The latter does have three good stories - especially the Cyberman one - but it just can't compete with Baker / Sladen / Hinchcliffe / Holmes at their height. Season 13 has a consistency of quality most other seasons lack.