"Our Fish Are Family!" (Part II of II)

DOCTOR WHO - WARRIORS OF THE DEEP (1984)

DOCTOR WHO - LEGEND OF THE SEA DEVILS (2022)

In WARRIORS OF THE DEEP, The Silurians and Sea Devils return to DOCTOR WHO after over a decade. Redesigns further cheapen this notorious entry: the stockier Silurians now speaking through their third eye, and the Sea Devils donning a Samurai-inspired outfit.

SIMILAR to THE WAR BETWEEN THE LAND AND THE SEA, WARRIORS OF THE DEEP is a Cold War allegory. Disastrously starting Classic DOCTOR WHO's twenty-first season, The Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) find themselves on Earth's Sea Base 4 (in "around two thousand and eighty-four.") Within it, a team led by Commander Vorshak (Tom Adams) undergo regular nuclear missile tests to ensure they are ready to combat their rival (equally unnamed) superpower. However, surviving members of a Silurian triad revive a colony of Sea Devils to use the weapons to attack the Base enemy, provoking a global catastrophe which will allow the reptiles to reclaim the world. The monsters also send an electrified sea beast - the Myrka - to infiltrate the humans, who are also housing spies Nilson (Ian McCulloch) and Solow (Ingrid Pitt).

Early in its production, Margaret Thatcher announced a snap General Election, creating sudden demand for BBC studio space. Unexpectedly losing two weeks from an already pressured schedule, many signs of this are amplified to ramshackle proportions: scenes had little or no rehearsal time, actors fluff lines because only one take could be afforded, and sets had to be constantly realigned. The Myrka costume - which resembles a pantomime horse - was completed only an hour before shooting, leaving the puppeteers high on glue, and as paint had not dried, it visibly rubbed off on surroundings. The ultimate irony was that the creature was controlled by William Perrie and John Asquith, famous for RENTAGHOST's Dobbin. The Silurians and Sea Devils fare little better, looking static and childish (taking cue from THE SEA DEVILS, actor heads are at neck level for the underwater menace, giving a wobbling and crooked appearance).

Genetically modified by Silurians from an unknown species of dinosaur, The Myrka in WARRIORS OF THE DEEP holds a particular resonance in Time Lord lore. Its attack on polystyrene bulkhead doors and electrocution of a karate-kicking Ingrid Pitt are forever burnt into the retina of long-suffering Whovians.

Written by Johnny Byrne and directed by Pennant Roberts, WARRIORS OF THE DEEP loses its nuclear tensions by becoming a monster of the week show. In hindsight it would have been better to close down the serial and regroup, as the budget and time restraints force everything to be flat and workmanlike (the "battle" scenes have the protagonists lined up like toy soldiers). Cementing its catalogue of chaos, the four-parter permanently bathes its sets in bright light, enabling the viewer to easily identify every continuity error and mishap. Under these circumstances it seems harsh for Michael Grade to use the Myrka in a clip for his guest appearance on ROOM 101, many regarding the twenty-first season opener as a key element towards the slow death and eventual cancellation of the programme.

Broadcast as a no-so swashbuckling Easter Special, modern DOCTOR WHO maligns the underwater warriors further in LEGEND OF THE SEA DEVILS. Written by Ella Road and Chris Chibnall, the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), with companions Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop), set out to find the hidden treasure of the Flor de la Mar. However, they end up at the wrong time and team up with Madam Ching (Crystal Yu), as they battle the aquatic foes for the "Keystone." It's a bloated, erratic mess, with amateurish action and endless technobabble. There are also attempts to develop the relationship between The Doctor and Yaz, which entails a series of head tilts for the latter.

LEGEND OF THE SEA DEVILS has an updated design by Ray Holman and Robert Allsop. Made shorter to compensate for Jodie Whittaker's height, Holman "included some nods to the original look, weaving netting through the costumes" and their armour. When creating the heads, Allsop took measurements from a cast for the 1980s Sea Devils. Apparently, the newer masks enabled the creatures to have "more realistic expressions."

The Chibnall Era is a clear indicator of the downgrade in writing between show-runners. Characterisation is one-dimensional, forcing actors to dig-deep for charisma (a particular issue for Gill). As a viewer we are constantly told how brilliant everyone is, which is a total disconnect with anything on screen. This penultimate episode for Chibbers is particularly hollow, further dragged down by horrible CGI (it looks like a 1990s video game) and the Sea Devils themselves, reduced to bug-eyed, rubbery imitation. Whitakker is forced to prattle on to whatever boring exposition is in place, and often oblivious to a story happening (even an energised scene is stopped in its tracks with more Doctor/Yaz emotional hankering).

"Our Fish Are Family!" (Part I of II)

THE WAR BETWEEN THE LAND AND THE SEA (2025)

This DOCTOR WHO spin-off has totally re-designed Sea Devils. A crushing disappointment, it achieves the difficult balancing act of unintentional hilarity, numbing boredom and badly timed fish jokes.

PENNED by Russell T. Davies and Pete McTighe, THE WAR BETWEEN THE LAND AND THE SEA is a five-part DOCTOR WHO companion piece that completed the BBC and Disney contractual obligation. What was built-up as a more adult series is quickly replaced by the usual Kinder-garden-level lecturing and amateur performances. Barclay Pierre-Dupont (Russell Tovey) is a low-level UNIT Transportation Clerk, estranged from partner Barbara (Ann Akinjirin) and non-binary teenage child Kirby (Cat Gannon). However, due to an HR error (!), Barclay becomes part of a UNIT task-force to engage with "Homo Aqua," a sea species led by Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Understandably, they are furious about the contamination humanity has caused to the oceans, and choose Barclay as their contact in peace talks, as he was the only person to show respect with a deceased Sea Devil.

Within minutes of the first episode airing on BBC1, viewers were complaining of major audio issues, some even relying on subtitles to follow the story (fan forums also quickly renamed the unwieldy title TWATBLAST). The programme falls into the same political trap as Davies' second WHO show-running tenure, critiques that are mere broad strokes. Pierre-Dupont is a metaphor for modern entertainment, that is, a tide of mistaken hiring, and the shoehorned diversity here is illustrated in a now twin UNIT wheelchair attack of Bingham (Ruth Madeley) and Chesney (tetraplegic George Robinson). And in a love story nobody is interested in, we get more air time between UNIT commander-in-chief Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and toy boy Colonel Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient); thankfully Ibrahim is shot dead by an equivalent of the JFK magic bullet. 

It is no surprise that Russell T. Davies writes plenty of sweating, shower and topless scenes for Gay icon Russell Tovey.

There certainly is no war in the exciting, battle-sense, nor much screen time for the sea creatures themselves. What we do get is blanket posturing about ineffectual and corrupt power structures, with the Davies-written final episode as batshit crazy as his recent WHO finales. The laborious threads that had been woven are now adrenalised into a finishing line of signal disruptors, ancient unity and an engineered virus so clever it can only affect nine out of every ten Sea Devils. Yearning for a new life with Salt, Barclay abandons humanity and develops gills, swimming away with her after an underwater ballet that reminds of the interplay between Julia Adams and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON.

It's a catalogue of moments, and these are not reinforced. For example, when all the pollutants from the sea are hurled back at us - including what's left of the Titanic - all subsequent scenes do not show any rubbish on the streets. Much simpler settings are also fumbled, such as the UNIT contamination chamber, which isn't even contained. The only way TWATBLAST can make any sense whatsoever is that it all exists in the fragmenting mind of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. In a typically bizarre coda, she asks a jogger on a beach to pick up a discarded bottle. When the man refuses - somehow oblivious to the events of the series - Kate pulls a gun on him and insists he picks up his rubbish, becoming increasingly unhinged.

"Welcome to the Members Club"

The DOCTOR WHO Extermination (2023-25)

"Never seen a TARDIS before?" Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson first appeared together in the 2023 Christmas special THE CHURCH ON RUBY ROAD. Fighting a flying ship of baby-eating goblins, the Time Lord was now in a God-fuelled meta-fantasy. Two years later, DOCTOR WHO redefined the meaning of Shitshow.

RUSSELL T. Davies' second stint as show-runner for New WHO began with three 60th Anniversary shows, and continued with two eight-episode seasons and a couple of Christmas specials. Unaffectionately known as the RTD2 phase, everything felt immediately wrong. The DEI hiring in front and behind the camera was dutifully delivered, but there was something else; we had musical numbers, breaking of the fourth wall, and literal flashbacks to the classic series. In LUX, The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and companion Belinda (Varada Sethu) climb out of a television and discuss the show with three gobsmacked fans. It brought self-awareness to new levels, creating a sense that RTD2 itself was a simulation.

Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker altered WHO DNA in a number of ways. There was the mix of fan fiction-level stories, change to lore and leveling of "The White Male Gaze," but it became impossible to discuss without being perceived as a misogynistic troll. Yet the second Davies period broke it as an IP. What is most perplexing is how gleefully destructive Russell treated his own cherished childhood favourite, especially with an alleged £80m budget boost from Disney. Equally unfathomable is how an entertainment can be bankrolled to a designated, minority target audience (as an approximation, a 2023 global survey found that only 9% of adults identify as LGBTQ+). For any franchise it is a marriage made in hell, with obvious results: stories written by unqualified individuals forever the victim, sledgehammer allegories, and falling ratings.

For the RTD2 writing pool, we had transgender author Juno Dawson, Nigerian poet Inua Ellams and bisexual television director Kate Herron in the mix. The inclusion of Dawson was particularly controversial, having written This Book is Gay, a 2014 LGBTQ+ manual for "ages 0-18."

Science fantasy/horror communities have always been particularly rabid, linking everyday happiness to beloved shows similar to sport-team worship. When a long-standing programme evolves as a specific moral, it is probably best not for the stars to tell them to "go and touch grass" if you don't like the direction (Gatwa) or "just watch it and get over it" (Gibson). It is this dismissive reaction that underpins the modern zeitgeist, that viewers should not voice any opinion unless it aligns with theirs. Even with the worst viewing figures in the shows history - albeit hindered by the streaming policy - DEI WHO rejoiced not only because the fringe were the centre of the conversation, but that unhappy fans - particularly from the classic age - were leaving their playpen.

Modern WHO acolytes' simple appeal for any disgruntled Classic followers is to just stop watching. A bold request, which would be easier if from 2005 it had been revamped to an unrecognisable degree. But it is more than nostalgia, rather a national institution with a rich history. Chibnall/RTD2 has not been about world-building, more going back to a box of toys and distorting concepts to their agenda because they can. The liberal use of actual footage from yesteryear - and general character heritage - best illustrates this double standard. For example, in ROGUE, Gatwa's instant infatuation with Jonathan Groff is fleetingly interrupted by showing him his previous incarnations. This even included Richard E. Grant's Doctor from the 2003 webcast SCREAM OF THE SHALKA.

Russell T. Davies returned "to protect [DOCTOR WHO]" from Disney. Unfortunately, his flair for emotional clout was thrown out the window, replaced by nonsensical cartoon versions of legacy characters. Russell has an increasing habit of writing himself into a corner, then pulling a deus ex machina to get out of it.

Politics have always been evident in Classic WHO: the Galactic Federation in THE CURSE OF PELADON; decrepit bureaucracy within THE DEADLY ASSASSIN; the dystopia of THE HAPPINESS PATROL et al. But Davies deals with affairs of state with all the gravitas of buzzwords, whirlwind subtexts without any time or need for reflection. It is always just an angle: the villain of THE ROBOT REVOLUTION is Incel Alan Budd (Jonny Green), a one-dimensional representation set up for ridicule. In a world gone mad, Juno Dawson's pro-Palestine THE INTERSTELLAR SONG CONTEST was paradoxically screened the same week the BBC finally sacked Gary Lineker over sharing an anti-Semitic tweet. It's all one checklist after another, superficial and non-nuanced. There is no space to discuss or educate, just to tell people to fuck off.

Filmed back-to-back, the double eight-episode runs are clearly not enough time for any endeavour to breath, let alone one which attempted to bring back past glories leading up to two finales. In the end of the first block we had "God of Death" Sutekh - who had hitched a lift on the TARDIS since PYRAMIDS OF MARS - banished by a dog whistle and leash; and the whole Whoniverse waited with baited breath for the second conclusion, where The Rani (Anita Dobson/Archie Panjabi) resurrected Omega to start a rebirth of The Time Lords. The internet went into meltdown with theories and leaks: would Gatwa regenerate into Billie Piper - with the aid of Whittaker - providing Davies with a perfect symmetry?

Two-time RuPAUL'S DRAG RACE winner Jinkx Monsoon as Maestro from THE DEVIL'S CHORD. Whovians still watched the show akin to a disastrously failing relationship: they know they should let go, but hold on in the vain hope of past glories.

And the answer was yes. DOCTOR WHO was now a gimmick, with Piper not even listed as The Doctor in the end credits ("and introducing Billie Piper" is suitably open-ended, and the regeneration on screen didn't actually finish). Was this actually Bad Wolf, kick-started by The Doctor shooting regeneration beams into the TARDIS, or Rose from the parallel dimension? Obviously affected by re-shoots due to Disney's baulking and Gatwa's itchy feet, THE REALITY WAR nonetheless was as underwhelming as the EMPIRE OF DEATH, failing to tie up many loose ends (Susan (Carole Ann Ford)?) and changing its own narrative (Belinda seemed to be another character all together, enthusiastically wanting to go on more travels, but most jarringly this career-minded individual was now a gushing parent). And Omega was reduced to a giant zombie that just has the time to eat a Rani before being dispatched back to the Under-verse.

In a July 2025 interview on the My Manchester podcast - a concern "focusing on the arts, social and charitable scene" - Davies revealed that one of his driving goals since taking the reins again was to steer the show away from what he called “very straight, very masculine, very testosterone-y” science fiction, and that DOCTOR WHO needed to "fill a space." This is so off the mark to be insulting, creating an issue that simply isn't there. The Doctor has never been macho-SF, rather a character that uses compassion and intelligence over physical force. The Time Lord's curiosities and eccentricities made him a beloved and unique creation, standing apart from the laser-blasting antics of other major franchises. It was another jaw-dropping quotation from the show-runner, particularly as it was Davies himself that shifted the dynamic in the 2005 reboot with the Tenth Doctor and Rose. So it was hypocritical to hear him talking about moving the show away from being too straight when he was the one who made The Doctor heterosexual to begin with.

"Oh, hello!" When Classic WHO stumbled towards a hiatus and cancellation in the 1980s, it suffered from an egotistical pantomime producer and camp light entertainment. RTD2 became a duplication of the earlier pause, with Billie Piper - like the show - literally hanging in the balance.

And in the same month, when you thought things couldn't get any more unhinged, Gatwa appeared on SUNDAY WITH LAURA KUENSSBERG to promote his play Born With Teeth. In a truly bizarre interview, the 32-year-old, wearing a Ballet Black promotional shirt, said that he walked away from DOCTOR WHO "because I’m getting old. My body was tired. My body, my knee. And I’ve now just started doing some ballet. So I’m making really great decisions here." He added, "[being The Doctor is] the most amazing job in the world, a job that any actor would dream of. And because it’s so good, it’s strenuous. Takes a lot out of you physically, emotionally, mentally. So, it was time." It remains to be seen how the geriatric actor gets on with his ballet adventures, a pursuit that requires stamina and flexibility whatever the level. It is also particularly strange for Gatwa to claim playing The Doctor was draining, as he was only playing himself.

Things became even more uncomfortable when Kuenssberg asked him about his withdrawal from being the UK’s Eurovision spokesperson, an appearance that formed part of a WHO crossover for Juno Dawson's episode. When Kuenssberg asked if Gatwa had pulled out due to the involvement of Israeli contestant Yuval Raphael, the actor, who has openly expressed pro-Palestine views, replied: "no, I was just very busy." It must be difficult to be such a prima donna, especially for the time it would take to read out a few jury scores. Gatwa claims he withdrew a long time before it was actually announced - which he states was "interesting." 

"Where Science and the Occult Clash!"

NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT (1973)

Here is a film starring Christopher Lee and featuring a Police investigation on a Scottish island that isn't THE WICKER MAN. The climax - where Lee is tied around the neck and arms and propelled into a bonfire by minors - mirrors Edward Woodward's demise in Robin Hardy's cult favourite, which was actually released nine months later.

AGAINST the backdrop of several Trustee murders who support an orphanage on a Scottish island, one young girl, Mary Valley (Gwyneth Strong), is taken to a London hospital after a coach crash and suffers psychological issues. Psychiatrist Dr Haynes (Keith Barron) and journalist Joan Foster (Georgia Brown) interview the girl's wayward biological mother Anna Harb (Diana Dors), a prostitute and convicted murderer. When Haynes is killed, the hospital's senior member Sir Mark Ashley (Peter Cushing) and friend Colonel Charles Bingham (Christopher Lee) take their enquiries to the orphanage, as Anna also travels to the location hoping to reunite with her child. Ashley and Bingham eventually uncover the sinister truth: personalities are being transplanted into the children.

Based on the novel by John Blackburn and directed by Peter Sasdy, NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT was the only film from independent Charlemagne, set up by Lee and former Hammer producer Anthony Nelson Keys. A commercial failure, the picture suffers from a laboured script by Brian Hayles - mostly known for his television work and creator of The Ice Warriors for DOCTOR WHO - and also wastes its outstanding cast, as no character is fully fleshed out. Cushing and Lee are almost playing themselves, and Dors is totally unhinged with her red wig. In fact the acting standout is thirteen year old Strong, and it was a shame no substantial big screen roles came her away, the actress becoming forever known as Cassandra from ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES.

Barely seen in America, NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT became THE RESURRECTION SYNDICATE, a title which unveils its premise. The picture was also released on video as THE DEVIL'S UNDEAD.

As a thematic exercise NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT is troublesome in its use of children, portraying orphans and castaways as scientific guinea pigs and exploitative commodities. Apart from Haynes, the leads are using the unfortunate youngsters for their own needs: Anna views Mary as property which has long been denied to her, Foster and Ashley see the minors as their particular professional interests, and Bingham engages in the mystery for his murdered friend but relishes the thrill of the chase. As an interesting side note, with Blackburn's novel published in 1968, a similar theme is explored in the 1971 United States offering THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN. Here, in an inversion of the thesis, a coven are kidnapping souls of children to transfer into their bodies.

Doctor In Distress

K-9 AND COMPANY - A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND (1981)

"Black magic, witchcraft, it's very romantic, but this is 1981"; Elisabeth Sladen and K-9 do their best with a Satan meets EMMERDALE setting.

PRODUCER John Nathan-Turner was in charge of DOCTOR WHO's increasingly disastrous stint through the 1980s. In Richard Marson's 2013 book The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner, it is alleged that the producer and long-term partner Gary Downie prayed on young fans well below the then gay consent age of twenty-one. But the results on screen were equally alarming, not helped by Nathan-Turner's tumultuous working relationship with script editor Eric Saward. Against a backdrop of referencing - which both limited writers and confused the casual viewer - light entertainment performers also consistently appeared rather than those from the drama department. Novelty casting was evident even in the companions, with Australian air-stewardess Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) for the large fan base Down Under, and American Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant) appealing to the vastly increasing United States market. Then there were The Doctors he signed themselves: Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy were all dissatisfied with quirky costume decisions, adding to the pantomime feel.

Nathan-Turner always hated K-9, but admitted the robot dog "had legs" because of its popularity with youngsters. The first DOCTOR WHO spinoff, K-9 AND COMPANY, was made to plug the (relatively long) broadcasting gap between Tom Baker and Davison's tenure (an unprecedented season of repeats under the banner THE FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO additionally helped). Nathan-Turner failed to lure Elisabeth Sladen back into the main programme, resulting in her "compromise" casting here. It was also intended to be a pilot for a series, but was never commissioned; fans blamed new BBC controller Alan Hart as viewing figures were strong, but in reality K-9 AND COMPANY is a talkative bore.

John Nathan-Turner regularly threatened to mould DOCTOR WHO in his own image. This included trying to abolish the sonic screwdriver and the police box appearance of the TARDIS (briefly achieved in ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN), and successfully driving out Tom Baker. 

The awkwardly titled A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND, with a running time of fifty minutes, was helmed by television veteran John Black, who was apparently labeled John Grey by the cast and crew because of his lifeless direction (another TV regular penned the laboured script - Terence Dudley). For the story, The Doctor gifts a Mark III K-9 (voiced by John Leeson) to former companion Sarah Jane Smith (Sladen). Now back to her roots as a rustic-costumed investigative journalist in the fictional English village of Moreton Harwood, Sarah Jane gains a companion of her own - her aunt's ward Brendan Richards (a wooden Ian Sears) - in a tale of the black arts. But before the underwhelming robed pagans and masked goddesses, we are subjected to one of the worst opening title sequences in television history; the theme was originally composed by record producer Ian Levine as an orchestral score, but was instead arranged directly from his electronic demonstration by Peter Howell without Levine's knowledge.

Global Warnings

DOCTOR WHO - INFERNO (1970)
DOCTOR WHO - THE CLAWS OF AXOS (1971)

The partially hunchbacked Primords of INFERNO.

THESE Third Doctor serials addressed concerns of global consumption; the first is relatively grounded, the second almost hallucinogenic. INFERNO has an experimental drilling enterprise penetrating the Earth's crust, and releasing an untapped source of energy (labelled Stahlman's Gas after it's discovering Professor (Olaf Pooley)). Dismissing health and safety the work is carried on unabated, and an oily green ooze starts to transform humans into bestial Primords (once humans come into contact with the seepage or another infected, they transform into a furry humanoid state). Accidentally transferred to a parallel universe by a partially repaired TARDIS, The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) sees a totalitarian England where the drilling is at a far more advanced state. Here the technique causes the planet's destruction, and the Time Lord escapes back to his own timeline in an attempt to warn of the disaster.

INFERNO gives a clear message against the meddling of the human race, and at the time of broadcast the UK was in the early stages of exploiting North Sea oil reserves. Although viewed by some as padding, the parallel universe gives the cast and crew an opportunity to playfully exaggerate the norm (UNIT are now the RSF - Republican Security Forces - with Brigade Leader Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney with eye patch) and Section Leader Shaw (Caroline John)). And instead of DOCTOR WHO's infamous QUATERMASS plagiarism, here we have a gritty QUATERMASS-like story, where the oil refinery location adds to the hardy feel. Unfortunately this is undermined by the appearance of the Primords.

Masking their true form, Axons first appear as psychedelic, benevolent "beautiful people" in THE CLAWS OF AXOS.

Similar to Stahlman's Gas, another discovery that is too good to be true is explored In THE CLAWS OF AXOS. Golden humanoids called Axons land their Axos ship in England, where they wish to replenish "nutrition and energy cycles." In return for our hospitality the aliens offer Axonite, a molecule which can cause animals to grow to enormous size, consequently ending world hunger. However the visitors are actually tendrilled-monsters which form a gestalt entity, who have also ensnared The Master (Roger Delgado). Striving to conquer time travel to acquire unlimited "feeding," Axos is eventually locked into a time loop by The Doctor. 

Developed under working titles such as THE FRIENDLY INVASION and THE VAMPIRE FROM SPACE, this trippy, organic adventure provides one of the most powerful races in WHO history (their manipulation of matter can even accelerate the aging process, as experienced by Jo (Katy Manning)). Initially wearing glam rock leotards and eyes made from halved ping pong balls, their red spagetti state makes for an arresting rampaging monster (a good creature is worth repeating, as a surviving Axon suit was sprayed green and used as a Krynoid in THE SEEDS OF DOOM). 

Tales from Peladon

DOCTOR WHO - THE CURSE OF PELADON (1972)
DOCTOR WHO - THE MONSTER OF PELADON (1974)

Jo, Alpha Centauri and Izlyr discuss affairs of state in the 
fondly remembered THE CURSE OF PELADON.

IN the first serial, the medieval and superstitious planet of Peladon -  led by its young king (David Troughton) - is on the verge of joining the Galactic Federation. High Priest Hepesh (Geoffrey Toone) is opposed, warning that the curse of Aggedor, the Royal Beast of Peladon, will bring doom upon such sacrilege. After the TARDIS gives The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo (Katy Manning) an ignominious entry, they are taken to the throne room where the delegates are gathered: Alpha Centauri (Stuart Fell, voiced by Ysanne Churchman), Arcturus (Murphy Grumbar, voiced by Terry Bale), together with Lord Izlyr (Alan Bennion) and Ssorg (Sonny Caldinez) of the Ice Warriors. The Doctor is mistaken for the delegate from Earth, and introduces Jo as "Princess Josephine of TARDIS," a neutral royal observer. Exploring the tunnels under the palace, The Doctor runs into Aggedor, a very real creature that can be tamed with a Venusian lullaby. After Hepesh and Arcturus are revealed as saboteurs - and Arcturus is blasted by Ssorg's sonic gun - Hepesh retreats to the tunnels and forms a rebellion.

THE CURSE OF PELADON is a diverse four-parter, mixing monsters and political intrigue with more than a passing nod to the UK being on the brink of joining the EEC after over a decade of negotiations. Playing out within the science versus progress debate, there is also an emotional core of a young monarch yearning for his bride against more pressing duties. The execution of the creatures are a mixed bag, but overall successful in creating real characters behind the masks: Alpha Centauri is a nervous, shuffling phallicesque mass that was instructed by director Lennie Mayne to sound like a gay civil servant, and Arcturus is one of the most bizarre Time Lord adversaries (an abrasive tentacled skull encased in an elaborate survival cell). Aggedor is too small to be threatening, the Royal Beast further undermined by its tepid taming, leaving the Ice Warriors to slowly go about their business as reformed characters.

Terrance Dick's Target novel of THE MONSTER OF PELADON, released in December 1980.

THE CURSE OF PELADON was broadcast during the 1972 UK Miners Strike, which led to many parts of the country undergoing scheduled power cuts. This accounted for a drop in viewers for the last two episodes, and such industrial action inspired the sequel THE MONSTER OF PELADON. Here, a power struggle is in place between Trisilicate miners (sporting Badger hairstyles) and the ruling class, with the workmen calling for improved conditions. Queen Thalira (Nina Thomas) - daughter of the late King Peladon - is sympathetic, but knows her planet is vital to supply the war effort of the Galactic Federation, who are in conflict with Galaxy 5. The Doctor (Pertwee) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) arrive at the Citadel, and an apparition of Aggedor has been causing deaths underground. It transpires that human engineer Eckersley (Donald Gee) has created the spirit with the use of a matter projector and heat ray, and is in league with renegade Ice Warriors led by Commander Azaxyr (a returning Alan Bennion), in a plot to seize Trisilicate for Galaxy 5.

Again written by Brian Hayles and helmed by Lennie Mayne, to call THE MONSTER OF PELADON a sequel is overly generous, as it is just a drawn out six-part retread with major liberties. Set fifty years after the first adventure, Alpha Centauri and the real Aggedor are still present, and it seems particularly sloppy to duplicate The Ice Warriors so centrally. But the biggest coincidence is that the mineral Trisilicate - which The Doctor explained in THE CURSE OF PELADON to be exclusive to Mars - is now in such abundance on an alien world. Even Pertwee, in his penultimate serial, seems unenthusiastic, with Sarah Jane left with nothing to do apart from share a limp monologue on women's lib with Thalira and play hostage.

The White Male Gaze

DOCTOR WHO - RESOLUTION (2019)

Jodie Whittaker is The 13th Doctor. Her introduction as the Time Lord has been lost amongst endless preaching, the show moving on from what the actress termed "stories being told through a white male gaze." 

WE live in an era of hyper-sensitivity, where everything other than political correctness is greeted with outrage. Now people need instant acknowledgement, and all things must be permitted without striving or working for it. There is no middle ground; similar to the ideological stance taken up by the STAR TREK and STAR WARS franchises, DOCTOR WHO now exists in a diversity agenda which has altered its DNA. With such a regimental leftist direction, it is no longer recognisable as DOCTOR WHO, with the adventures of Jodie Whittaker's ditzy, scrunch-faced Doctor akin to the worst fan fiction (the recently concluded series 11 has been scripted by a number of writers with little experience of any genre).

Rightly or wrongly, Steven Moffat built up the Time Lord as God; Chris Chibnall - who had previously refused the showrunner job and turned in a number of disposable episodes for the reboot -  has deflated the programme into a political ideal which cannot work cohesively. As Peter Davison stated about his tenure, three companions are too many; yet here Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yaz (Mandip Gill) are not companions but tokens of their ethnicities (even the word "companion" has been phased out, The Doctor preferring "best friends," or "Fam.") The TARDIS may well have a custard cream dispenser, and the 'sonic' is king, but a number of episodes have demonised white males. This has often been by The Doctor herself, reaching its nadir with IT TAKES YOU AWAY, where single fathers are ultimately portrayed as diabolical evil. It's all a sweeping oversimplification, of course, and the seasons most pointed entry - the dawning of civil rights tale ROSA - has a future White Supremacist illustrating Caucasians as a whole.

More Dusty Bin than "junkyard chic," Chris Chibnall's "alien psychopath" Dalek aptly scrapes the bottom of the barrel in DOCTOR WHO - RESOLUTION, which achieved the lowest audience for a festive special since the return of 2005.

In November 2018, rumours circulated that both Chibnall and Whittaker would leave after series 12. With the Christmas Day special moved to New Year's Day, it was then confirmed DOCTOR WHO would not return for over a year. A BBC source to Starburst claimed the new showrunner wasn't happy with the schedule, and Outpost Skaro reported that Chibnall would only carry on if the corporation were able to find his immediate successor. Endless puff-pieces trumpeted the passiveness of The Doctor, with an educational slant closer to the William Hartnell era, but too many social justice warriors forget that it was the introduction of The Daleks that saved the show from early cancellation. Even though Chibnall was adamant no classic monsters would return in his first set, leaks linked the New Year's Day special - RESOLUTION - to The Doctor's most famous foes (possibly because of contractual obligation from the Terry Nation estate). This was confirmed on Christmas Day, as the teaser was played for the first time with an "exterminate!" soundbyte.

What actually materialised starts as an absorbing 'Reconnaissance Dalek' tale. A metal menace scout lands on 9th century Earth, and is eventually defeated and split into three. These pieces of the Dalek in mutant state are buried across the globe by the Order of the Custodians, but the British contingent - in Yorkshire - is killed before reaching his destination. Jumping forward to two contemporary archaeologists - Lin (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mitch (Nikesh Patel) - the strange artifact is brought to life by ultraviolet light, and the squid-like alien uses Lin as a human puppet to create makeshift casing. Although more action-orientated, RESOLUTION soon lapses back into the same grating tropes; UNIT has been deactivated due to budget cuts, and Ryan's absentee father Arran (Daniel Adegboyega) is the latest 'Bad Dad' (not only does a failed bonding scene cut the story dead, Arran is inexplicably shown trying to sell an oven/microwave combo to the cafe owner, which we see more of later). With The Doctor herself a relatively minor character, the highlight is Ritchie's performance as the possessed Lin, and the creepy Kaled itself.

Web of Fear

VENOM (1971)
DOCTOR WHO - PLANET OF THE SPIDERS (1974)

Serbian actress (and later politician) Neda Arneric is the siren of VENOM, beguilingly erotic and self destructive. Elected as a member of the Democratic Party in 2000, she withdrew from public politics after the "remote voting" scandal, when her vote was registered in Serbian Parliament while on holiday in Turkey.

SPIDERS have a tradition in horror, large or small. On the silver screen, Jack Arnold directed two of the most loved during the 1950s: science goes awry and creates a giant TARANTULA!, and a household spider strikes fear into THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. Towards the end of the decade Bert I. Gordon made EARTH VS THE SPIDER, and the 1970s saw the release of two classics: Wisconsin suffered THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION, and even William Shatner had to try and prevent a small Arizona town from becoming a KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (to no avail). More recently we have endured ARACHNID, BIG ASS SPIDER!, ARACHNOPHOBIA and Arizona again was the battle zone of EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS, where a spider farm suffered a toxic waste spillage.

VENOM is an appealing curio and the directorial debut of Peter Sykes. While holidaying in a Tyrolean village, artist/photographer Paul Grenville (Simon Brent) discovers hypnotic redhead Anna (Neda Arneric) in the woods, who has a mysterious spider mark on her shoulder. Making the acquaintance of Huber (Gerard Heinz) and his seductive daughter Ellen (Sheila Allen), Grenville is introduced to tales of the "spider goddess," a legend of the area, where a female phantom kills any men who becomes sexually involved ("they say if anyone touches me, the spiders come"). Yet her visage has been purposely created to scare off locals from a Nazi plot producing nerve agents from spider venom, funded by priceless stolen paintings and led by Anna's renegade scientist father (Terence Soall).

VENOM was released on Region 2 DVD by Fabulous Films in 2015, whose product blurb is as off kilter as the production itself.

Feeling more like a Euro-thriller than British horror, VENOM stands out with its stunning Bavarian location, odd camera angles and dreamlike ambiguity (it opens with a flashback nude bathing romp tinted green, and why not?). Anyone who is already confused should definitely avoid the American edit, which was picked up by New Line and retitled LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST. Cut by over ten minutes, this includes dialogue referencing situations not included, and a general trimming of violent and erotic scenes. The full ninety minute movie includes an array of weirdness: softcore flogging, cows with flower garlands on their heads, and a climactic nod to Norman Bates. This must have caused an impression with Hammer, who assigned Sykes to direct DEMONS OF THE MIND the following year. 

On the small screen, the DOCTOR WHO serial PLANET OF THE SPIDERS explored Barry Letts' personal obsession with Zen Buddhism; it is the only occasion where a WHO producer and co-writer also directed the episodes. Since his discharge from UNIT, Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) is part of a Tibetan meditation group in rural England. While visiting, Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) and Yates stumble across resident Lupton (John Dearth) performing an incantation, which conjures up a giant spider. The Buddhist centre is actually a front to contact a powerful alien force that manifest as a large Arthropod; the spider is an emissary from the Metebelis 3 ruling council, sent to recover a blue crystal that The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) previously found there and that has now been returned to him by Jo Grant (Katy Manning) from her trip to the Amazon. The Doctor recognises Abbot K'anpo (George Cormack) as his former Time Lord guru and, at his prompting, returns to Metebelis 3, where a human colony revolt has failed. The Great One spider uses the crystal to complete a lattice which she believes will increase her mental powers to infinity.

A giant Arthropod attempts to exert telepathic control in DOCTOR WHO - PLANET OF THE SPIDERS. 

A weak six-partner to finish Pertwee's tenure, PLANET OF THE SPIDERS suffers from its grating use of the colour-separation overlay technique and an indulgent, nonsensical chase sequence. The original season climax was to be THE FINAL GAME, where The Master would sacrifice his life to save The Doctor in an act of redemption. This was abandoned due to the death of Delgado while filming in Turkey for the French/German TV mini-series LA CLOCHE TIBETAINE (however, Delgado's legacy exists on an obtuse level, as his widow Kismet provides the voice for the Queen Spider). Despite its flaws, the programme taps into the widespread fear of Arthropods, which research has suggested that may be innate to humans, and an exaggerated form of instinctive responses that helped early bipedal primates to survive.

Ancient Rhythms

DOCTOR WHO - DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS (1970)
DOCTOR WHO - THE SEA DEVILS (1972)

Due to a graphics department miscommunication, DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS is the only TV story to have DOCTOR WHO in the title. 

WITH new producer Barry Letts working with script editor Terrance Dicks to provide a more mature approach to DOCTOR WHO, these two serials, written by Malcolm Hulke, provided related monsters to explore. In a reversal of the alien invasion scenario, long-dormant cousins Silurians and Sea Devils are ancient races of Earth, and The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) a middleman trying to reach peaceful agreements between them and humanity. Both adventures are pedestrian, and suffer from jarring experimental soundtracks, but offer appealing monsters and interesting questions about morals and military might (although the rubber costumes grate with the increased ambition, as does the Silurians' Allosaurus pet).

For DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS, millions of years ago on Earth, Silurians feared their civilisation was threatened by an asteroid. The creatures built subterranean shelters around the world but the astral body settled into orbit as the Moon, so they slept on until awakened by the activities of a research base. When a rebellious young Silurian seizes power a virus that will eradicate humans from their home is released, but The Doctor finds an antidote before the disease takes hold; plans of a secondary attack fail in an attempt to destroy the Van Allen Belt - a barrier shielding Earth from solar radiation, harmful to humans but beneficial to reptiles - as The Doctor overloads the base's reactor. Retreating to their caves, The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) blows up the Silurian base; ultimately notions of co-existence between Silurians and humans are lost in bickering and scheming on both sides.

Lacking the bleak tone of DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS, THE SEA DEVILS is the archetypal Jon Pertwee adventure yarn.

The message of military condemnation is lost in THE SEA DEVILS, where UNIT is substituted by enthusiastic support from the Royal Navy (including a submarine, a hovercraft and a diving bell). Aided by the misguided Colonel Trenchard (Clive Morton), The Master (Roger Delgado) is stealing Naval equipment to build a machine to revive the amphibious Sea Devils from hibernation, while he is imprisoned on a high-security island. The first episode was transmitted at the end of a Miners' Strike, accounting for a sharp increase in viewers from episode two. Yet it was the end of episode three where one of the most iconic Time Lord moments occurred, as the Sea Devils rise from the water and advance up a beach. Like The Silurians, the titular menace is wonderfully conceived, their turtle-like head pieces worn as top hats by actors so that they towered even over Pertwee. But the real meat is the interplay between The Doctor and The Master ("he used to be a friend of mine once ... a very good friend.")

Carey Blyton's score for DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS has the Renaissance woodwind instrument Crumhorn for its creature cue. This results in a comical misrepresentation, mirroring Malcolm Clarke's controversial incidental soundscape for THE SEA DEVILS. Here Clarke used the Radiophonic Workshop's newly acquired EMS Synthi 100 to his own anarchic whim, bringing an artificiality to the action which treads a fine line between musical composition and sound effect. Letts insisted on substantial edits, while Clarke argued that his work was mood pieces that fitted both needs. At least this particular score was championed by the Manchester University Press publication Time and Relative Dissertations in Space: Critical Perspectives on DOCTOR WHO, calling it "startling in its range of obtrusive electronic timbres and relative melodic paucity."

Daleks, Daloids and Phaleks (Part II of II)

ABDUCTED BY THE DALEKS (2005)
DOCTOR LOO AND THE PHALEKS (2005)

28 years after Katy Manning's notorious spread in Girl Illustrated, the mutants from Skaro return to menace nude Earth women in ABDUCTED BY THE DALEKS. Needless to say, the BBC and the estate of Terry Nation swiftly moved to pull the plug on any legal distribution.

AS the DOCTOR WHO reboot hit television screens in 2005, these two zero-budgeted "Daleks Do Porn" abominations attempted to cash in on the return of the Time Lord. The softcore ABDUCTED BY THE DALEKS, with a story by "Billy Hartnell" and directed by "Don Scaro" - in reality London based magazine distributor Trevor Barley/Roman Nowicki - mixes Eastern European models and The Doctor's most famous foes for 55 long, erotica-free minutes. Not even a title change to ABDUCTED BY THE DALOIDS - while retaining the Dalek name on all prints - could fool the BBC from threatening legal action (there is also an unlicensed use of Pink Floyd). As for the actual plot, four women (including a Dalek agent) accidentally hit an Alien "Grey" in their car. In full party dress and high heels, they investigate in woodland famous for being a hunting ground for The Serial Skinner killer. But before long they are being taken captive by Daleks, who show a preference in interrogating their prisoners nude.

After surviving an encounter with a scared hunter and his machine gun, plus the Serial Skinner, the Dalek agent explains to the police that the metal menace wanted to impregnate their slaves. The film even makes the long passages of naked girls wandering through the forest monotonous, obliquely mirroring the Time Lord's reputation of endlessly running around corridors. Shot in different aspect ratios, there is also plenty of on-screen goofs (visible Dalek operators, the boom mike handle) and a surreal title card warning of strobe effects. Even the writhing of the starlets when strapped to a stark metallic wall is unsynchronised, though best of all is the impromptu actress switch between Lina Black and Maria Vaslova, presumably due to a no nudity clause.

In DOCTOR LOO AND THE PHALEKS, Whovians recoiling from Tom Baker talking to the phallic appendage of THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT are likely to suffer chest cramps at the sight of the Phaleks.

The hardcore DOCTOR LOO AND THE PHALEKS - also known as DOCTOR LOO AND THE FILTHY PHALEKS - was made by the short lived UK porn studio Doll Theatre. And for anyone still distraught on the casting of Jodie Whittaker as the latest Doctor, remember that Britain's leading sex actress Alicia Rhodes got their first. Dr Louise Flangebatter (Billie Piper lookalike Rhodes) travels through space in her luxury toilet Turdis ("wherever there's scum she'll flush it away"); picking up damsel in distress Quimberly Dickmore (McKenzie Lee), the pair travel with house shag-bot Kay Nine to Skrotum 4, where they encounter Emperor Minge (in a gimp mask) and Lady Sodomi with her army of oversexed Phaleks. Pretty inconsequential to the greater scheme of things, the Phaleks are painted water butts, with rubber dildo's attached to the base of their garish red casing.  

Daleks, Daloids and Phaleks (Part I of II)

DR WHO AND THE DALEKS (1965)

DALEKS - INVASION EARTH 2150 AD (1966)
DALEKMANIA (1995)

In December 1966, Dell Movie Classics published a comic strip adaptation of DR WHO AND THE DALEKS with art by Dick Giordano and Sal Trapani. This was the first appearance of any printed story related to Doctor Who in the American market. 

MADE during the rise and fall of Dalekmania, these two cinema adventures - starring Peter Cushing as a non-canon Doctor Who - are concise versions of THE DALEKS and THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH. Faithful to the BBC programmes, the lead character however is portrayed as a bespectacled Grandfather figure, a dotty human inventer rather than William Hartnell's crotchety alien. And although they are credited on-screen as AARU films because of finance from Regal International's Joe Vegoda, both films are widely accepted as Amicus releases.

Originally to be directed by Freddie Francis, DR WHO AND THE DALEKS was a financial rather than critical success. Hastily scripted by Milton Subotsky, who described the production as "a science fiction comedy," its greatest asset is its vivid 2.35:1 colour photography. This gives the previously monochrome Daleks a hierarchy of red, blue and gold, and real scope by making the most of Shepperton's expansive sound stages. DALEKS - INVASION EARTH 2150 AD is much more sombre, though both entries have a cast that dwells on relations (granddaughter Susan (Roberta Tovey) appears in the two movies, while her older sister Barbara (Jennie Linden) is in the first film, and Doctor Who's niece Louise (Jill Curzon) the second). This matinee-mentality is completed by comic relief: accident-prone Ian (Roy Castle) is Barbara's new boyfriend, and constable Tom Campbell (Bernard Cribbins) inadvertently joins the crew for the later tale.

Despite rescheduling due to Peter Cushing's virulent bout of flu, DALEKS - INVASION EARTH 2150 AD is the more rounded of the two films.

With Vegoda buoyant on the initial box office success, Subotsky was less excited about a sequel, correctly perceiving that Dalekmania was already waning. Darker and more violent in tone, DALEKS - INVASION EARTH 2150 AD had the adverse effect on its audience to the day-glo yarn set on Skaro. Despite improved critical reaction and its bigger budget (thanks in part to Sugar Puffs, where product placement can be seen throughout the feature), costs were not recouped and plans for a third picture shelved. A far superior piece, the gritty INVASION strips away the juvenile escapism to reveal characters in real peril, a world away from the Thals' golden hair and heavy eye shadow from the first movie.

Kevin Davies' hour-long DALEKMANIA documentary - which has accompanied home disc releases on numerous occasions - is a charming look at this motion picture birth and death. The framing device of a ticket taker - played by Davros himself, Michael Wisher - welcoming two excited children perfectly sets the scene for a series of interviews where the players recount fond memories of their time within the most neglected part of WHO history. Amongst the participants we have Thal Barrie Ingham - delighting that his portrayal has appeared in a comic strip - and stuntman Eddie Powell, recalling his on-set accident while being exterminated. Most touching though are Roberta Tovey's recollections of working with director Gordon Flemyng and particularly Cushing, where it is alleged the actor only agreed to make the second film if Tovey also returned.

Haunt of Fear

Nostalgia and the Rise of Hauntology

"When Bagpuss wakes up, all his friends wake up too." Bagpuss, Professor Yaffle and the Organ Mice in the fondly remembered BAGPUSS from 1974. The titular cat's description of "saggy ... and a bit loose at the seams" typifies the disjointed melancholy of the Hauntology movement.

POPULAR culture surrounds us in a whirlwind of nostalgia. Nostalgia was first described as a psychosomatic disease, rooted in the desire of soldiers to return home; this longing for the motherland is so strong that it induces a doleful, mental state. Swiss physician Johannes Hofer first used the term in 1688, and the disorder came to be associated particularly with Swiss soldiers, who were so susceptible to nostalgia when they heard a particular milking song, that its playing was punishable by death. Confusing the past and the present, and the real and the imaginary, our preference for the sights, sounds and smells of yesteryear often has its foundation in the carefree wonders of childhood. It was Immanuel Kant who stated that people who were steeped in nostalgia were triggered not so much for an actual place as for the time of youth. David Lowenthal's The Past is a Foreign Country considers that nostalgia preys on the past to construct a form of escapism; and by savouring these ruins of artificiality, author Susan Stewart condemns the condition as a "social disease," maintaining that the past is something unspoilt, utopian and unreachable.

British television in the 70s exists in what writer and radio presenter Bob Fischer describes as "cosy wrongness," a grainy and blurred netherworld that - because of its pre-digital, incomplete heritage - can be a nostalgic notion that actually extends to the early 80s Video Nasty flap of VHS degradation. BBC shows of the polyester decade - such as DOCTOR WHO, A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS, THE STONE TAPE and COUNT DRACULA - showed the corporation embracing the Gothic, but also fortolded how this portentously gloomy sub-genre would mutate into visual art Hauntology. Hauntology was coined by Jacques Derrida in his 1993 book Spectres of Marx, and taken up by critics who referenced contemporary culture's persistent recycling and incapacity to escape old forms. If nostalgia is sentimental perspective, Hauntology bleeds into our psyche like a spectre who gestures towards what is inevitably an intellectual abyss. 

Music Has the Right to Children was the debut studio album from Boards of Canada, and hailed as a seminal Hauntology work. The piece was described as a "thing of wonder" and "the aural equivalent of old super 8 movies."

Fischer has also highlighted the children's programme BAGPUSS as a prime example of 70s "vague disquiet." This strange shadow world’s mixture of scrambled memories and weird, bygone images is explored in the Hauntology concept, where the presence of being is replaced by absent or deferred parallels, a yearning for a future that never arrived. Hauntological music has been particularly tied to British culture, an alternate reality constituted from the stagnation of the postwar period. This soundscape is expertly captured by the 1998 album Music Has the Right to Children by Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada. Subsequently, musicians and artists whose formative years were in the 70s have developed their own Hauntology analogue synth brands and universes. In 2005 Jim Jupp and Julian House founded Ghost Box Records and the fictitious world of Belbury, an eerie English village straight out of John Wyndham. Similarly, writer and graphic designer Richard Littler created Scarfolk together with spoof book covers and dystopian government pamphlets that evoke the distinct Penguin Classics and Public Information Films so entrenched from the period. 

Demise of The Doctor

The Trails of DOCTOR WHO (1977 - 79)

Out with Gallifrey Gothic, in with the robot dog. DOCTOR WHO - THE INVISIBLE ENEMY mixes an alien prawn with weird science and K9.

DESPITE some post-Hinchcliffe horror flourishes, the Fifteenth Season of DOCTOR WHO is diluted by disposable stories and cut-price visual effects, broadcast under the shadow of STAR WARS then bombarding British cinemas. THE INVISIBLE ENEMY attempted to deal with the psychological by infecting The Doctor (Tom Baker) with a space-borne intelligence, but by the end of the serial the Time Lord is given K9 as a "parting gift". Others included in this season were Robert Holmes' THE SUN MAKERS, which bypassed science fantasy altogether for contemporary political parody, and UNDERWORLD features another insane computer ("Simply ... another machine with megalomania!").

For the previous two seasons, the programme had finished on strong, fan-favourite six-parters: the Krynoid menace of THE SEEDS OF DOOM, and the exploits of Magnus Greel in THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG. Unfortunately THE INVASION OF TIME failed to carry on this trend. Claiming presidency of the Time Lords, The Doctor's access to the Matrix enables him to banish the Vardans; yet it is revealed that the Sontarans have used these telepathic aliens for their own means to invade Gallifrey. Written as a late replacement by producer Graham Williams and new script editor Anthony Read - and made under a cloud of potential industrial action - THE INVASION OF TIME is overtly humourous (The Doctor even plays hopscotch in the Citadel), and the arrival of the Sontarans seems like a tacked-on act of desperation. At one point the Vardans resemble tinfoil, and the Sontarans are reduced to getting lost in the TARDIS.

The arrival of the Sontarans in DOCTOR WHO - THE INVASION OF TIME seems like an afterthought. It is also surprising that their demise is at the hands of The Doctor shooting them dead with his de-mat gun.

This tonal shift with DOCTOR WHO was in contrast to the complexities of late-70’s Britain. The Silver Jubilee of 1977 had offered a week of celebratory respite from the country’s inflation, strikes and increasingly violent picket lines. But this embodiment of Olde England seemed particularly out of context against the then bitter disputes at the Grunwick processing plant; and two months later, Lewisham saw the biggest street battle between fascists and anti-fascists since Cable Street in 1936. Even the Christmas 1977 episode of THE GOODIES resulted in their ‘Earthanasia’ skit, where world leaders came to the conclusion that the planet should just be blown up. Ending with a white flash and the sound of an explosion, the show then cuts to the revolving BBC1 globe logo, which follows suit.

1978, however, saw two examples of social politics seep into BBC programming. Terry Nation launched BLAKE'S 7, an anti-STAR TREK where the galaxy is governed by The Federation. This quasi-fascist state uses drugs in the water supply to control its population, and the presence of the beautiful but coldly calculating Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) cast a long shadow over a land heading towards its first female prime minister. The year also saw the Corporation cancel THE BLACK AND WHITE MINSTREL SHOW - on air since 1958 - as Camden Council became one of the first authorities to address discrimination in employment.

Suzanne Danielle as Movellan Agella in DOCTOR WHO - DESTINY OF THE DALEKS. Danielle also played the title role in CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE, and provided a belly dance for Christopher Lee in ARABIAN ADVENTURE.

The Sixteenth Season adapted an unprecedented format in DOCTOR WHO history. Six individual stories are linked by the over-arching 'Search for the Key to Time' plot, which explored the existence of the White and Black Guardians, a perpetual good versus evil battle that holds the cosmos in balance. In THE RIBOS OPERATION, The Doctor is aided by female Time Lord Romana (Mary Tamm), which reintroduced the troublesome dynamics experienced by Caroline John's partnership with Jon Pertwee; THE PIRATE PLANET saw Douglas Adams' trademark galactic outlandishness not only covering scientific concepts (planet propulsion, flying cars et al), but inevitably showed the beginning of the end for Baker, here talking directly to camera; and THE STONES OF BLOOD jettisons an initial witchcraft premise literally into hyperspace.

Adams became Script Editor for the Seventeenth Season, as the show returned to its familiar guise. With a newly-regenerated Romana (Lalla Ward), even the Daleks look in poor condition for DESTINY OF THE DALEKS, which actually used Skaro sound effects from their initial 1963 appearance. Terry Nation is at his most formulaic for a serial where the titular foes are searching for Davros to aid them in a stalemate with the android Movellans (this seems like a metaphor for the programme reaching out for ideas itself). The most controversial aspect however is that the Daleks, on several occasions, are referred to as robots, perhaps referencing Nation - or Adams' - idea of Dalek evolution from organic mutant to pure automaton. At least it seems more logical that the Daleks and Movellans have entered into a strategic draw because they are both robots, but Nation clouds the mystery further by suggesting that the races' battle computers have led to the situation.

Lalla Ward and Tom Baker enjoy Paris in the series' first overseas shoot for DOCTOR WHO - CITY OF DEATH. With ITV off-air, the serial attracted the highest viewing figures for the show at 16.1m.

However, before the season again descends into pantomime, CITY OF DEATH stands out at an almost cinematic level. Set mainly in 1979 Paris, Scaroth (Julian Glover) attempts to finance experiments in time travel in the hope of averting the accident that marooned him on Earth four hundred million years previously, an act which consequently began the existence of life on the planet. Aided by elegant miniature effects and excellent performances, Glover unsurprisingly brings dignity and gravitas as the last of the Jagaroths, despite his infamous oversized spaghetti/cyclops headpiece. Even the comedic turn of John Cleese and Eleanor Bron as art gallery visitors adds rather than detracts from the fun.