KO Round 1.10

 

This time we have the Battle of the Bakers, as Tom's final season goes up against Colin's first.

Season 18 comprises The Leisure Hive, Meglos, Full Circle, State of Decay, Warriors' Gate, The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis. The Blu-ray box set for this season also includes the K9 Special A Girl's Best Friend.

This is the first season to be produced by John Nathan-Turner, and when you watch The Leisure Hive following The Horns of Nimon, it is very much a case of the shock of the new. New incidental music, re-arranged theme music, new titles, and a new costume for Tom Baker. The latter, with its question marks on the collar, is turned into a uniform - one of the big mistakes of the JNT era. The ditching of Dudley Simpson is another. This season contains a lot of what JNT got right, and a lot of what he got wrong. The opening few minutes of Hive is one long tracking shot across Brighton beach, passing colourful bathing tents before settling on the TARDIS. The Doctor's snores get louder as we move towards his ship. As an opening, it is both brave, and boring.

Meglos is a definite throwback to Season 17. We then get the first of two trilogies - the one set in the pocket universe of E-Space. Full Circle was written by a 17 year old and is one of the highlights of the season. The Marshmen looking like the Creature from the Black lagoon were not his idea. New companion Adric is introduced. A promising character, but badly played and he will never be properly developed. State of a Decay is a vampire story - a left-over script from Season 15 by Terrance Dicks.

Warriors' Gate looks good, but it is a triumph of style over content, as there is a lot to confuse. Romana and K9 depart.

The Keeper of Traken marks the beginning of the next trilogy, which reintroduces the Master and sets up the ending for the Fourth Doctor in Logopolis. Tom Baker's departure after seven years hangs like a pall over the whole season, often lending a funereal atmosphere.

The K9 adventure sees the return of Sarah Jane Smith. It proved to be a failed pilot for a K9 series. It is very hard to judge from this what such a series might have looked like.

Season 22 is the only full traditional-style season which Colin Baker got to appear in. 

On paper it ought to have been a classic - Cybermen, Sontarans, the Master, Daleks and Davros all making an appearance. There's also a great new alien in Sil, and a new rogue Time Lord - female this time. To cap it all, we have the return of the Second Doctor and Jamie.

That it failed was due to a number of factors - excessive violence, an unlikeable Doctor, an annoying Doctor / companion relationship, over-reliance on continuity and some shoddy production values.

The stories are Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos, The Mark of the Rani, The Two Doctors, Timelash and Revelation of the Daleks.

The Cyberman story is a sequel to Resurrection of the Daleks, and to just about every other Cyberman story. For those who like continuity references, this is the one that shows the dangers of taking them too far. Varos is one of the best Colin Baker stories with a great new villain in Sil. Unfortunately the Doctor and Peri don't turn up until halfway through the story - a real problem which besets this entire season. It's as if Script Editor Eric Saward much prefers the rest of the characters, and can't really be bothered with the TARDIS and its occupants. Mark is another historical story which would have worked better had the Rani been left as sole villain, Instead we get the Master shoe-horned in as well, and this totally unbalances the story.

The Two Doctors ought to have been a classic story, but it the direction is pedestrian, the Sontarans badly redesigned, the foreign location irrelevant, and the two Doctors are kept apart until the last few minutes. It is also overlong. Its own writer - Robert Holmes - hated it, as he had been forced to abide by one of JNT's infamous shopping lists of elements. Timelash has a two word anagram that is highly appropriate...

Revelation manages to just about save the set. It isn't perfect - it's another story where the Doctor and Peri needn't have bothered turning up. It's the best story of the Sixth Doctor era - but not the best Sixth Doctor story, if you see what I mean. That would be Varos, once Baker actually gets to be involved.

It was during The Two Doctors that the BBC attempted to cancel the show - instead placing it on temporary hiatus following popular outcry. The main reasons given were: cost, a feeling the show was well past its sell-by date, the failure of the 45 minute episode format, and the levels of violence.

I may have been knocking it, but my favourite of these two seasons is actually the Colin Baker one. It tries so hard to be liked, and you have to thank it for that, even if it fails a lot of the time. 

I find the Tom Baker one just a little bit more boring. I think I resent the changes too much as well. Saward's predecessor had a habit of sucking all the fun out of the series, so determined was he to include proper science. The irony was that he came up with some seriously stupid science of his own - like time loops that you could just talk your way out of.