Winter for the Adept

Well, that didn’t last long. After listening to The Land of the Dead a couple of months back I was incredibly excited about hearing more Doctor Who audio adventures. I discovered the Big Finish audios at just the right time, having viewed well over half of the 159 stories from the original television program that ran from 1963 to 1989. I was also thrilled that I enjoyed Peter Davison’s portrayal of the Fifth Doctor far more now than when he first took on the role back in 1981. When I looked at the stories I had to choose from I decided on one that immediately followed The Land of the Dead called Winter for the Adept. Unfortunately, it was quite a disappointment.




Every now and then in Doctor Who there appears a story that doesn’t play by the rules. Sometimes these stories are brilliant (Ghost Light, Blink) and sometimes they’re absolute rubbish (Underworld, Love & Monsters). Winter for the Adept doesn’t exactly play by the rules, either, but it in this case maybe it should have. It’s not that it has any glaring flaws, but it seems much closer to uninspiring fan fiction than the work of a serious author.

The story begins with a woman reading an old diary entry and the melodramatic way in which she does so immediately evokes the mood of Jane Austen and 19th century England. Unfortunately the story is set in Switzerland in the winter of late 1963, so we’re already off to a rocky start. At least the locale of a finishing school for young women has the air of Austen about it, if indeed that is a good thing. A couple of girls find themselves stuck in the aged academy for the Christmas holiday and decide to make a break for it…in the freezing cold.

Meanwhile, the Doctor’s companion, Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), is all alone on a nearby mountainside…in the freezing cold. She’s left to carry the early part of the story on her own as the Doctor won’t arrive until the end of the first half-hour episode…when he explains why Nyssa ended up here in the first place. Nyssa isn’t very well written in this story and comes off sounding more like Tegan (the complainer) or Adric (the whiner) than her usual logical self. Of course, having nearly been frozen to death by the Doctor may certainly explain her behavior. A Lieutenant Sandoz discovers Nyssa and accompanies her to the academy where he’s surprised to hear the two girls have run off. He goes after them and it’s later revealed that Sandoz and one of the students, at least twenty years his junior, were planning on eloping.

And it just goes downhill from there. The story makes a surprising amount of left turns and none of them quite work. There’s a plotline about one of the characters being psychic, in the middle of the story we find out the school is haunted, and the final episode is inundated with aliens. The aliens, referred to as Spillagers (because they spill into different worlds and pillage them…get it?) would probably work better in a story that focused on them exclusively and not merely used them as bookends to a melodramatic ghost story.

I mentioned in my review of the previous Fifth Doctor audio story The Land of the Dead that I recognized none of the actors that were part of the supporting cast, but I was rather impressed with their work. In Winter for the Adept I found the opposite was true. I recognized many of the people involved, but I couldn’t say they were all that remarkable. The head of the school, Miss Tremayne, is played by Sally Faulkner who memorably appeared as the young photographer in the 1968 Second Doctor story The Invasion. I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t looked it up, because Tremayne is a pretty forgettable caricature. Lt. Sandoz is played by Peter Jurasik, best known for the role of Londo Mollari in Babylon 5, but he really takes a back seat in the story and seems wasted in the part. Finally, India Fisher plays one of the school girls, but you probably know her as Charley Pollard, the Eighth Doctor’s companion in over two dozen audio stories.

Only Peter Davison remains on top of his game in Winter for the Adept, but as he’s almost entirely absent from the first episode it’s a long wait for not much of a pay off. I recommend skipping this story unless you’re a big fan of the Fifth Doctor as there are so many better audio stories available. Winter for the Adept was enough to put me off of the Peter Davison stories for a while and I decided to move on to his successor Colin Baker, but that…is another story for another time.


2 Daleks (out of 5)

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler

One of the better First Doctor (William Hartnell) stories after the departure of Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill), The Time Meddler is at its best when the Doctor and the Meddling Monk (Peter Butterworth) are on screen together. Their chemistry together is impressive and Hartnell is really on his game here, perhaps spurred to such heights because he was working with an actor (again Butterwoth) of his own caliber. Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) and Steven (Peter Purves) are quite a team as well and certainly better than some of the companions to come (i.e. Dodo Chaplet).

Keep in mind, this is the first time in the history of Doctor Who when audiences discovered there was another individual flying through time and space in a TARDIS. It's impossible today to fully appreciate the importance of the cliffhanger in 'A Battle of Wits' (Episode 3) when Vicki utters those words: "The Monk's got a TARDIS!" Furthermore, how the Doctor decides to deal with the Monk is simultaneously hilarious and rather cruel, but you can't say he didn't deserve it. All in all, a fun pseudo-historical romp and an excellent way to end the second season of the original Doctor Who!

4 Daleks (out of 5)

Top 10 Most Underrated Doctor Who Stories

My last blog focused on the Top 10 Most Overrated Doctor Who Stories, so it was only a matter of time before I offered up its antithesis. Here are ten stories that are, on the whole, underappreciated by the majority of Doctor Who fans. Once again, these are based on the Outpost Gallifrey 2003 Reader Poll and all of the stories I've listed fall in the bottom third of the 159 original Doctor Who stories. The Dominators (#1 on my list) ranked 152 out of the aforementioned 159 stories while The Mysterious Planet (#10 on my list) ranked 111. In my opinion all of these stories are better than their reputations, though I won't say that all of them are classics. In fact, some of them are quite mediocre, but they're still better than the hardcore fans would lead you to believe.

1) The Dominators (Second Doctor: Patrick Troughton; Season 6; Story 044)

The Dominators has its fair share of problems, but by no means does it belong in the bottom ten of the original 159 Doctor Who stories. In fact, I find a lot to praise in this modest, formulaic tale of tyrants versus pacifists. The Dominators themselves are pretty effective as sort of Flash Gordon styled villains while their servants the diminutive Quarks are easily predecessors to droids as seen in Star Wars nearly twenty years later. The leads are at the top of their game in this story, as well. The Doctor is forced to behave like an imbecile so that the Dominators won’t see him as a threat and Troughton pulls this off with comic aplomb. Both Jamie and Zoe get a chance to shine on their own in several episodes, too. At five episodes The Dominators is slightly overlong and it’s hard to really care about the badly dressed Dulcians (whose very name is an apt pun), but this story is significantly better than its reputation.

2) The Web Planet (First Doctor: William Hartnell; Season 2; Story 013)

The Web Planet is like an imaginative but naïve child who is inevitably the subject of much bullying and ridicule. This is a well-written story that far exceeds its meager budget and is thus judged mainly on its stagy exterior. To be fair, The Web Planet does contain a great deal to laugh at and some of the costumes are terribly amusing, but for me the scope of the narrative and the committed performances of the stars make it all worthwhile. How often do we encounter a planet in Doctor Who that has more than one form of intelligent life on it? Even a hint that there are multiple cultures such as one might find on Earth? Not often enough, I say. The Web Planet, aka Vortis, offers three distinct races of sentient beings (and at least one sub-race) each with their own function in the story and that sort of thing should be applauded. The dedication of the actors here is amazing, really, because it’s their ability to take the story seriously that makes the whole thing work. There are some marvelously simple techniques used to give The Web Planet a true sense of otherworldliness, too, such as the Vaseline-on-the-lens trick when they’re on the planet’s surface. Like The Dominators, The Web Planet could stand to be an episode or two shorter, but all things considered it’s hardly the worst thing to come out of the second season and better than pretty much everything that survives from the third.

3) The Sensorites (First Doctor: William Hartnell; Season 1; Story 007)

Some consider The Sensorites to be the worst story of Doctor Who’s premiere season, but I don’t agree. Like the stories I mentioned above, I certainly don’t think it belongs in the bottom 10 percentile of all the original Doctor Who stories. Besides, the story which inspired the Ood can’t be all bad, can it? Episode one of The Sensorites is excellent stuff and the cliffhanger is chillingly convincing for a low-budget program in its infancy. The Sensorites are a well-conceived alien race, physically grotesque (from a human point of view) yet on the whole as complex and varied as human beings when it comes to personalities. It’s a true testament to the show that the first “scary-looking” alien race we encounter in Doctor Who (not counting the Daleks, because we never really see them) is not merely a collection of like-minded baddies out to destroy the Earth or conquer the universe. Instead, they’re a highly-civilized people who, like humans, consist of individuals who run the gamut when it comes to motivations and behavior. If The Sensorites has a flaw it’s the distinct lack of action necessary to fill six episodes, but despite that this cerebral story offers some wonderful moments and interesting ideas along the way.



4) The Power of Kroll (Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker; Season 16; Story 102)

Somehow The Power of Kroll is considered one of the two worst stories from Tom Baker’s seven year run as the Doctor, but here’s a list of half a dozen stories I enjoyed less: Planet of Evil, The Invisible Enemy, The Armageddon Factor, The Nightmare of Eden, The Horns of Nimon, and Meglos. I didn’t even mention Underworld, which really is Tom Baker’s worst story. I can see why people find so much to dislike in The Power of Kroll what with a bunch of guys painted green running around and, of course, Kroll himself…a giant squid/Not-So-Great Old One. I actually think Kroll looks pretty good for a television show of 1978, especially as the writer, the masterful Robert Holmes, received pressure from the script editor to feature “the largest monster ever to appear in Doctor Who." It’s a gritty story for the most part and features some fine actors like Philip Madoc (best known for his role as Solon in The Brain of Morbius) and John Leeson (the man behind the voice of K-9). The penultimate story of The Key to Time season, The Power of Kroll is judged almost entirely on its surface appearance. It’s still better than some people would have you believe and a veritable masterpiece when compared to The Armageddon Factor which ended the season.



5) The Krotons (Second Doctor: Patrick Troughton; Season 6; Story 047)

Ah, The Krotons. Usually, the kindest thing I hear said about The Krotons is “at least it’s not The Dominators.” Well, I’m here to tell you you’ve been mislead. The Krotons is actually a very enjoyable story filled with some of Patrick Troughton’s best moments as the Doctor. From his initial emergence from the TARDIS with umbrella in hand to his mirthful envy of Zoe’s superior intellect when they both find themselves subjected to the Teaching Machine, Troughton really shines all the way through. The Krotons themselves are big, ungainly crystalline beings, but they’re a refreshing change from flesh-and-blood aliens and robots that generally dominate Doctor Who. It bears mention that this was Robert Holmes first story for the show and, while it’s by no means his best contribution to the series, it certainly shows promise. The Krotons may not be as good as The Invasion or The War Games, but I prefer it to The Dominators and The Seeds of Death and I'll likely pick it up when it's released on DVD.



6) Dragonfire (Seventh Doctor: Sylvester McCoy; Season 24; Story 151)

Known as the best story of the otherwise dreadful 24th season, Dragonfire still suffers from a great deal of criticism…and most if it is reasonable. Iceworld isn’t terribly convincing (though it might have been twenty years earlier in black & white), Bonnie Langford is ready to annoy as companion Melanie Bush, and Doctor Who as a whole was in serious jeopardy of becoming a parody of itself (see the infamous literal cliffhanger at the end of episode one). Perhaps the best reason for watching Dragonfire is the introduction of Ace (Sophie Aldred), who eventually becomes my favorite companion since Leela was at the Fourth Doctor’s side almost a decade earlier. It’s interesting to see Ace here at her most unrestrained and troubled and it makes her maturity by the time of Survival (the final story of the original series) all the more apparent. Sabalom Glitz, possibly the best thing about The Trial of a Time Lord season, returns for another run-in with the Doctor and this gives the story an added layer of humor and charm, as well. While it’s no classic, Dragonfire provides a fitting departure for Mel and serves as an interesting prologue for Ace. Furthermore, at only three episodes long there’s no worry of it overstaying its welcome.



7) The Creature from the Pit (Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker; Season 17; Story 106)

I mentioned in my previous blog that City of Death was the best story from “the otherwise atrocious season 17,” so why am I now defending the story that immediately followed City of Death? It’s because some Doctor Who stories are so preposterous and ridiculous that they’re absolutely endearing and The Creature from the Pit is a perfect example of this category. This story is hilarious on a multitude of levels, both deliberate and inadvertent, and as a result it is one of my favorites. "The Creature" in question is a massive blobby being called Erato who pursues the Doctor and company around "The Pit" with what appears to be a giant green phallus. Then we have the wolfweeds, which look like a cross between tumbleweeds and testicles and function like a pack of rabid tribbles, glomming onto enemies and incapacitating them with their…um…glomminess. Myra Frances gives a deliciously over-the-top performance as the domineering Lady Adrasta while Tom Baker is at his zaniest. It’s also hard not to notice the hand of Douglas Adams at work as script editor in this story and I find The Creature from the Pit funnier than either The Pirate Planet or City of Death, stories which Adams wrote (or co-wrote) himself. Underneath all the delicious campiness, The Creature from the Pit contains an engaging plot with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing about what will happen next. All in all, a highly recommended story for when what you really want is a laugh.



8) Terminus (Fifth Doctor: Peter Davison; Season 20; Story 127)

No, you’re not hallucinating; I’m about to stand up for a Peter Davison story even his fans don’t seem to enjoy. Terminus appears in the middle of a trio of stories often referred to as The Black Guardian Trilogy, but it does little to move that story arc along, instead focusing on the Terminus ship itself and the eventual departure of Nyssa. Because she’s my favorite Fifth Doctor companion and she gets a very proper send off I’m perhaps a bit more lenient with this story than I might be otherwise. Looking at it objectively, however, I still think Terminus is an atmospheric and well-plotted story. It’s true The Garm is reminsicent of Barf from Spaceballs, but I’ve seen worse creatures in Doctor Who. The guards on Terminus wear what looks like an ancient prototype for the Power Suit from Metroid and the space pirates obviously came straight from the planet Thunderdome, but it was the 80s. And while The Black Guardian/Turlough plotline takes a backseat, it still provides an ominous backdrop to the already grim events taking place center stage. A bleak story for the Fifth Doctor is a good thing in my opinion as it sufficiently counters Peter Davison’s uninspiring take on the character and Terminus is nothing if not bleak.



9) Death to the Daleks (Third Doctor: Jon Pertwee; Season 11; Story 072)

Death to the Daleks is without a doubt my favorite from this list. Surprisingly it’s considered the worst of the Third Doctor’s three Dalek stories according to the Outpost Gallifrey 2003 Reader Poll. In my opinion, this is one of the best stories of Jon Pertwee’s final season, second only to The Time Warrior. Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen), my all-time favorite companion, is relatively new to the show at this point, but you wouldn’t know it from her rapport with the Doctor. Although she is sidelined for a great deal of the story, she has some great moments in the first episode and later on when she meets with the Exxilons. The Exxilons are a strange, diminutive race, but quite charming in their own way. Like the the Sensorites, the Exxilons are more complex than your average alien race and are extremely well used in this story, particularly Bellal, who serves as the Doctor’s pseudo-companion for much of the story. You’ve also got human soldiers, mutants and…oh, yeah…Daleks! They’re somewhat overshadowed by the Exxilons and their sentient city, but it’s nice to see the Daleks trapped in the same boat with their archenemy—the Doctor. Fine direction and solid performances make Death to the Daleks well worth a second look.



10) The Mysterious Planet (Sixth Doctor: Colin Baker; Season 23; Story 144)

Colin Baker was royally shafted on Doctor Who. He was forced to wear a patchwork quilt as a coat, stuck with a companion whose only redeeming feature was her cleavage, given the worst introductory story of any Doctor (The Twin Dilemma may be the worst Doctor Who story ever) and then cursed with a year and half hiatus between his only two seasons as the Doctor. His second and final season was a fourteen episode affair called The Trial of a Time Lord which consisted of four interlocking stories. The first of these stories was The Mysterious Planet and I personally think it is the best story of the entire season. It's clear that the Sixth Doctor and Peri have gotten closer in the time they've spent together. Peri has matured and the Doctor has mellowed somewhat in regards to her so there is little of the petty bickering that went on in the previous season. Sabalom Glitz, the mercenary and profiteer, makes his debut in this story and his repartee with his sidekick Dibber is an excellent example of Robert Holmes witty dialogue. Sadly, this was Robert Holmes final complete story for Doctor Who as he died not long afterwards. While it's hardly top shelf material, even Holmes worst stories make for better than average Doctor Who. If the remainder of The Trial of a Time Lord was as good as The Mysterious Planet, I'd have no qualms about recommending the entire season. Unfortunately, it goes downhill from here.



So, there you have it. Ten Doctor Who stories spanning a quarter of a century that aren't nearly as bad as everyone says they are. Unfortunately only three are currently available on DVD (The Web Planet, The Power of Kroll and The Mysterious Planet) and two of them really only work as part of grander, season-spanning storylines. Still, if you can track any of them down they're worth seeing. They might not be The Talons of Weng-Chiang, but each one has something to offer the receptive viewer.

Top 10 Most Overrated Doctor Who Stories

I love Doctor Who. I want to make sure everyone knows that before I get started here because this is the kind of list that would probably get me throttled at sci-fi conventions. When I began to delve deeper into this long-running television program I needed a way to separate the wheat from the chaff without having to try and track down over 750 episodes and watch them all. Naturally, I turned to websites like Outpost Gallifrey and The Doctor Who Ratings Guide to see what long-time fans had to say. For the most part they served me well, but there are a handful of stories that I feel are given far more praise than they deserve. Likewise, there are certain stories I think are far better than the majority of the fans rate them, but I'll save that for another blog.

In 2003, the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who, Outpost Gallifrey conducted a poll asking its readers to rate all 159 of the original stories (as well as Doctor Who: The Movie and various specials, none of which I'm including here). My basis for this list was this poll in addition to postive reviews and ratings I've seen elsewhere. All of the stories I mention are in the top half of the poll and I've listed them in descending order. For instance, City of Death (#1 on my list) came in 5th place out of all the original Doctor Who stories while Resurrection of the Daleks (#10 on my list) came in at a middling 77th. The other stories I mention here placed somewhere in between.


1) City of Death (Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker; Season 17; Story 105)

Tom Baker, a script by Douglas Adams, location shooting in Paris, a villain played by Julian Glover and a Pythonesque cameo by John Cleese…I must be mad to say this story isn’t genius! Well, it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely the best story of the otherwise atrocious season 17, but is it perfect? Far from it if you ask me. There are numerous holes in the plot, Lalla Ward is too cute by half as Romana, and just what kind of accent does Professor Kerensky have anyway? Russian? Romanian? Italian? Who can tell? Furthermore, Scaroth’s rubber mask with plastic eye isn’t really that convincing, so why does director Michael Hayes decide to zoom in on it fully lit? And I haven’t even mentioned the endless padding, Tom Baker and Lalla Ward running up and down the streets of Paris just so we’ll all know they're on location. Is it a good story? Absolutely. Does it deserve praise as one of the top 10 Doctor Who stories ever? Not a chance. I'm not even sure it's in my top 10 Tom Baker stories.


2) Earthshock (Fifth Doctor: Peter Davison; Season 20; Story 122)

I’ve mentioned in a previous review that I don’t really care for Peter Davison’s Doctor, but he’s not the real problem when it comes to Earthshock. Like so many Fifth Doctor stories, this one starts off strong (apart from the bickering in the TARDIS) and goes down hill from there. This is a much-loved, much-remembered story due to the involvement of the Cybermen and the death of Adric, the Doctor’s very own Wesley Crusher. I happen to think it’s a load of crap. Here the Cybermen are only different from humans in appearance, being annoyed one minute and irate the next, and are far from the emotionless beings they were in the 60s (or in the new series, come to think of it). And would someone tell me why the Cybermen need android servants? I’ll tell you why…to keep the audience from realizing Cybermen are the villains until the end of the first episode. While it does boast some nice effects and music, there are serious problems with Earthshock…and the silent epilogue for Adric at the end is definitely one of them. The realization that Adric is no longer on board the TARDIS is at least some compensation.


3) Logopolis (Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker; Season 18; Story 116)

To prove I’m not just picking on Davison, here’s another story from my favorite actor to play the role of the Doctor – Tom Baker. Of course, it’s not his fault it's a bit of a stinker. In fact, Baker is probably the best thing about Logopolis. I’m not a big fan of Anthony Ainley's Master, mainly because he seems to use an over-the-top laugh as a substitute for punctuation, but I think what really doesn’t work in Logopolis is the writing. There’s just too much going on in this story for a four-parter. We have the introduction of Tegan, the return of the Master and Nyssa, the mysterious (and while spooky, rather pointless) appearance of The Watcher and the death of the Fourth Doctor all in about an hour and a half. Speaking of the Fourth Doctor’s death…he falls off a radio telescope. That’s it, really. After facing the Daleks, Davros, Sutekh, Magnus Greel, and countless other baddies, how does the Master finally defeat the Doctor? Gravity. Apparently, the Fourth Doctor’s fatal flaw was an extremely weak grasp.


4) Revelation of the Daleks (Sixth Doctor: Colin Baker; Season 22; Story 143)

Whether you like Colin Baker or not it’s hard to deny that his tenure as the Sixth Doctor marked a nadir in the history of Doctor Who. The “other” Baker was at helm when the show went off the air for an eighteen month hiatus, right in the middle of his two seasons in the role. While it might seem that I’m being awfully forgiving of the leads, here again I cannot fault C. Baker for this shoddy story. In the one season of the original Doctor Who where stories were divided (mostly) into two 45 minute episodes, why on earth would you spend one of those episodes with the Doctor and Peri walking around aimlessly before reaching Tranquil Repose? At the end of that first episode a statue of the Sixth Doctor falls on him, but at the beginning of the second episode it turns out to have been a fake, not heavy enough to really hurt him. The Doctor says it was part of an “elaborate practical joke,” but I think the joke is on the viewers. What was the point? And don’t get me started on Alexei Sayle as the DJ, who may win top honors for the most annoying character ever to appear on television. Sure, he’s less offensive once he’s not doing his on-air persona, but that doesn’t dull the ache of what has come before, or of his weapon that shoots an “ultra sonic beam of rock and roll” to destroy the Daleks before he dies like a chump. In the end, Davros and the highly underutilized Daleks cannot save this sloppy story that many fans inexplicably consider the Sixth Doctor’s best.


5) The Mind Robber (Second Doctor: Patrick Troughton; Season 6; Story 045)

I almost feel guilty saying that The Mind Robber is overrated, especially given that so few of the Second Doctor’s stories survive today. Conceptually speaking I have to say that it’s the best story on this list, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The first episode is a surreal trip that has little to do with the actual story proper, but upon repeated viewings I found it may be the best of the five that make up The Mind Robber. After that we’re into the Land of Fiction where anything can happen – toy soldiers, mythological beasts, various literary figures appear, but they don’t do very much, really. Maybe my suspension of disbelief needs some work, because I can imagine seeing this as a child I would have fallen for it hook, line and sinker, but having watched it for the first time at the bitter age of 32 I just found it rather unconvincing. Fictional characters just seem to be thrown at the Doctor and his companions at random and by the end of the story there are quite a few unanswered questions. For example, who built the Master Brain computer the Master of the Land uses to conjure up all these literary characters? Then there’s the fact that after five episodes of general chaos, Jamie and Zoe defeat the computer simply by pressing buttons at random. While The Mind Robber is somewhat overrated by fandom, it’s maybe the most unique story within a very unique show and treasured primarily for that very reason.


6) The Five Doctors (Fifth Doctor: Peter Davison; Season 20; Story 122)

What a spectacular mess. This movie-length 20th anniversary story is essentially a Doctor Who convention on film. It’s got everything: Cybermen, Daleks, Yeti, Time Lords, the Master, a gaggle of companions and five, well, four…um…okay, three Doctors all in one massive story! I just like to pretend it doesn’t exist, really. One would think that if one of your lead actors was dead (William Hartnell) and another refused to participate (Tom Baker) that you’d just think of something else to do, right? Nah, just use a stand-in and some old film footage and work around them instead. Nothing in this convoluted waste of film makes any sense and the only real reason to watch it from an objective point of view is Patrick Troughton’s brilliant performance as the Second Doctor. Everyone else seems to be phoning it in or hamming it up. However, if you're watching just to see how past stars have aged there's nothing better than The Five Doctors.


7) Black Orchid (Fifth Doctor: Peter Davison; Season 19; Story 121)

Maybe it’s a little unfair to be picking on this inoffensive little two-part time filler, but I had such high expectations for it based on the reviews I'd read that I think it needs singling out. It all hinges on the fact that somewhere on Earth there’s a girl who looks exactly like Nyssa, companion to the Doctor and native of Traken. This sort of thing pops up a lot in Doctor Who, such as Romana looking just like Princess Strella in The Androids of Tara, but there’s not quite enough going on in this story to warrant another one of these highly unlikely coincidences. Basically, the first part of the story involves the Fifth Doctor playing an inordinate amount of cricket and Adric stuffing his face at a masquerade ball. (You know you have problems when a two part story has this much padding.) The thrilling conclusion being that someone wearing the Doctor’s mask and costume ends up killing the girl who looks just like Nyssa and for the entire second episode the Doctor has to prove he isn’t the murderer. Often touted as the best of the two-parters, I’ll take The Edge of Destruction, The Rescue or The Sontaran Experiment any day of the week. The best thing about Black Orchid is the title.


8) Carnival of Monsters (Third Doctor: Jon Pertwee; Season 10; Story 066)

Along with City of Death and The Mind Robber, Carnival of Monsters is another story that I actually enjoy, but I don’t quite think it’s worthy of its legendary status. The premise here is that the Third Doctor and his companion Jo Grant end up materializing inside an illegal device called a Miniscope. It's a machine that contains miniaturized worlds and creatures for the viewing pleasure of anyone willing to buy a ticket. Essentially, it's Jurassic Park meets Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (though obviously predating both) and while it is very entertaining, it’s one of the ugliest stories in Doctor Who. The sets look particularly dodgy, the aliens are rather unimpressive, and the costumes make the Sixth Doctor’s coat look tasteful by comparison. Carnival of Monsters is a fine example of a Doctor Who story that works despite its superficial flaws, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. All in all, it’s a great story with solid performances let down only by its unparalleled gaudiness.


9) The War Machines (First Doctor: William Hartnell; Season 3; Story 027)

As the only surviving story to feature companions Ben and Polly, I really wanted to like The War Machines. I’m also a big fan of William Hartnell’s portrayal of the Doctor, but what remains of his final season is rather disappointing stuff. Everyone points out the fact that this story is the prototype on which the earthbound Doctor Who stories were built (The Invasion, Spearhead from Space, Doctor Who and the Silurians, etc.) and that’s certainly true, but that doesn’t make it terribly enjoyable. It’s filled with too many plot holes for me to begin to mention here while the WOTAN computer and the War Machines make for fairly dull villains. Dodo Chaplet, the Doctor’s companion at the beginning of the episode, makes her exit off-screen, which is another disappointment. Perhaps the biggest gripe of all, however, is that WOTAN constantly refers to the Doctor as “Doctor Who.” It’s a petty complaint, but one that never fails to get under my skin. A forward thinking story, but a boring one.


10) Resurrection of the Daleks (Fifth Doctor: Peter Davison; Season 21; Story 134)

What a surprise, another Peter Davison story! Resurrection of the Daleks has perhaps the most perplexing tangle of plot threads ever to make its way into a Doctor Who story. It all starts off well enough (there’s that Fifth Doctor jinx again), but falls to pieces in the latter half of the story. We’ve got Davros, Daleks, renegade Daleks, doppelgangers and mercenaries all in a big Doctor Who gumbo, all vying for air time and everyone acting independently of one another. It’s too crowded and many characters exist solely for their input regarding one small aspect of the overall story and are then nonchalantly discarded. Speaking of being discarding, Resurrection of the Daleks is well-known for being one of the most violent Doctor Who stories ever aired. It contains numerous on-screen deaths and many of them are rather horrific. By the end of this story even the normally pacifistic Fifth Doctor is holding a gun to Davros’s head. While I’ve always scorned the Fifth Doctor for not being more aggressive, this seems like an immediate about face for the character as played by Davison. As with several of the stories on this list, the biggest fault lies in the script.


All in all, it's easy to poke holes in Doctor Who stories. They were incredibly cheaply and quickly made and even the best of them has something that stands out as inadequate. These days, however, that's really part of the charm of the original series. While these stories are singled out as overrated, it doesn't mean they're all bad or that you should avoid them altogether. Just don't go in with particularly high expectations and you'll likely find them rewarding in one way or another. I know I did!

Doctor Who: The Land of the Dead

The Land of the Dead (2000) is one of the first Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions. This series, now counting well over a hundred stories, features Doctors Five through Eight in their ongoing adventures through time and space. This particular story involving the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companion Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) is set in contemporary Alaska and takes place between seasons 19 and 20 of the original BBC television series.

I would be lying if I said I was a fan of Peter Davison’s Doctor. In fact, when asked to put the Doctors in order of preference (and, trust me, this is a challenge no hardcore Who fan can resist), I find that Davison is nearly always dead last on my list. That’s because he comes across as an ineffectual, namby-pamby, vanilla-flavored ninny who spends more time running about with his hands in his pockets and looking exasperated at his companions than he does in getting the job done. Say what you will about the Sixth Doctor’s garish costume, but at least when push comes to shove he’s…well, he’s willing to do either!

Nevertheless, I’m one of those Doctor Who fans who still enjoys watching all of the Doctors, if not all of their stories. I’m moderately fond of The Visitation, Mawdryn Undead, and The Caves of Androzani, but even these stories I feel I enjoy more for the sake of completion rather than true admiration. I tried to pretend it was the tacky 80s clothing or the annoying gaggle of companions that so turned me away from the Fifth Doctor’s era, but in the end I say the buck stops with the Doctor. If he doesn’t strike the right chord, then it’s all off.

Now, I’m not going to say it’s all Peter Davison’s fault. A lot of his Doctor’s laissez-faire approach is in the scripts themselves, but there is something so unassuming and apologetic in Davison’s very nature that he often comes across as dreadfully ordinary. He is strictly white-bread-with-the-crusts-cut-off Doctor material and doesn’t seem to have the gravitas for the role. His era, that of the early 80s, also sees some of the gaudiest costumes and unconvincing studio sets of the shows original run.

Thankfully, The Land of the Dead doesn’t have to deal with either of those problems. Davison has grown as an actor in the 20 years since his debut as the Doctor and a lack of visuals is vastly superior to conspicuously bad visuals. While it’s obvious that both he and Sutton (returning as my favorite Fifth Doctor companion, Nyssa) have aged, I think it actually benefits them both tremendously. They’re joined by a cast of five Brits I’ve never heard of, but most of them do a decent job. It’s always funny hearing the British do American accents, but everyone here is still more convincing than Nicola Bryant was at Peri’s American accent back in the original show…even the guy playing a Native American. Admittedly, he sometimes sounds like Tonto, but I guess some stereotyping is required considering we need to be able to tell everyone apart by voice alone.

The story here is really quite good, though to reveal too much would greatly reduce the mystique of the early episodes. It features an ancient life-form, older than the dinosaurs, awakened by an affluent eccentric through his macabre obsession of turning his home into a shrine to his dead father. The creatures themselves are really quite unique in that they do not speak and are more like a sort of supernatural raptor when we first come across them. They absorb the abilities and characteristics of whatever they eat and the Doctor and company are on the menu. It’s nice to see the Doctor (this one in particular) faced with an animalistic foe for a change. This is an adversary he can’t reason with or talk his way past. So, what does he do? Well, mostly he runs away. But it’s an understandable sort of running away that’s actually quite entertaining in a Jurassic Park sort of way.

I have to admit I was thrown off by listening to Doctor Who at first. I’m too young to remember when radio dramas were even available, let alone popular, and I found myself having to concentrate while the story played rather than let my eyes and mind wander. Towards the end I decided to listen to it in the dark and I have to say that it helped tremendously. Probably the best thing this story has going for it is its sense of atmosphere and the sound effects are fantastic; they're far more effective if you’re not trying to do too many things at once.

There’s also more to this story than just the central plot of the Doctor versus monsters. The mysterious tragedy that binds two key characters together is well explored and reaches a satisfactory conclusion. A healthy dose of Native American mythology and archaeology brings an added level of complexity to what could otherwise be a rather sterile setting. There’s even a hint of moral environmentalism thrown in for good measure. All things considered The Land of the Dead is a solid, straightforward Doctor Who story that feels far more fresh than nostalgic. More importantly, perhaps, it’s renewed my faith in the Fifth Doctor and gotten me excited about the dozens of other audio stories that remain ahead!


4 Daleks (out of 5)