Yep, I’ve finally completed my rewatch of classic Doctor Who. They finished off with an excellent S26, though the final serial was sub-par.
Battlefield brings back the Brigadier out of retirement (and introduces to Doris, his sometimes mentioned but never previously appearing lady friend, now wife) when UNIT’s transport of nuclear weapons runs afoul of armored knights in the service of Morgan leFay (Jean Marsh). The Doctor and Ace’s services are required but things get more complicated when it turns out the Doctor was, or will be, Merlin.
UNIT here are much more of an international operation than they’d been portrayed in the past, something I wish the revival series had kept up. That Morgan’s forces are from another dimension puzzled me — why not use regular historical/mythic Arthurian characters? — but screenwriter Ben Aaronovitch had conceived them as more tech-oriented than the were in the finished version. Still a lot of fun with a great twist on one point of Arthurian legend. “Go, before I bring down … something … upon you!”
Ghost Light has the Doctor and Ace arrive at a strange house in the 19th century that Ace discovers has a strong relevance to her future in Perrivale. All kinds of weirdness are going on, including ape-men serving as butlers, an alien in the cellar and a scheme to assassinate Queen Victoria. It doesn’t entirely hold together but it’s engaging enough even so. “I hate bus stations — all the lost luggage, all the lost souls.”
The Curse of Fenric (as the villain is clearly inspired by the myth of Fenris, I’m baffled why they didn’t use that) has the Doctor and Ace arrive at a British codebreaking station in WW II. There are Russians, hints of an ancient evil, yet another revelation about Ace and Fenric trapped by the Doctor long ago but ready to break out. There are also the haemovores, vampires from the end of Earth — creatures of a despairing world, they’re repelled by faith in anything.
This was an excellent one though one scientist modeled on Alan Turing comes off too much the disability cliche (being in a wheelchair as a substitute for Turing’s homosexuality). “I hate bus stations — all that lost luggage, all those lost souls.”
The disappointing finish was Survival, in which the Doctor and Ace visit her boring home village of Perrivale. Only it’s not so boring because dimension-hopping Cheetah-people are attacking and kidnapping people for the hunt, the Master is trapped on their world and their world is about to explode … The Cheetah people never looked right to me, nor do I see why one of the fastest land animals would hunt from horseback. A bigger problem is that none this adds up to a coherent episode and it’s not as interesting in its incoherence as Ghost Light. Still, the final monologue adds a lot. “Somewhere the tea is getting cold.”
What next? I’m keen to catch all the “lost” serials now out on DVD or streaming. I’m debating whether I’d sooner rewatch the early years and then include them in sequence or go straight to the lost stuff. I won’t be doing either right away, so no hurry.
For bonus imagery, here’s the shirt my sister got me for my birthday. It’s like she knows me or something.
#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holder.
