Doctor Who: The Visitation (Story 120) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Doctor arrives at Heathrow Airport, only it's a few centuries too early, have the TARDIS and crew materializing just as the Plague is ravaging England. As the mystery unfolds, we learn that stranded reptilian-aliens, who are also escaped convicts, are accelerating the Plague in a typical half-baked fashion. As the newly regenerated 5th Doctor, played here by young Peter Davison, joins forces with Richard Mace, an actor turned highwayman. Keeping in the classic mold of the series, there is lots of running, capture, escape and escaping again, but very little story to tie up the historical elements.
Significant story points: THE DEATH of the SONIC SCREWDRIVER
(don't worry kids, it'll be back, check out the new season one DVDs in July)
With so many companions in the TARDIS a common flaw with the first Davison season is trying to find something for everyone to do, this is partly why Nyssa ends up in the TARDIS on a superfluous tech detail. Inspite of this I am still disappointed when Michael Robbins's Richard Mace remains behind, rather than add another mouth the feed (in the dialogue sense). The costumes are awkward, but performances bridge the gap. Locations are ok here and Peter Davison is so charming on screen that this below average concept becomes a very watchable piece of Dr. Who history. Unfortunately, Davison is less charismatic on the DVD commentary, filled with pauses and no real revelations, making for a is a less than interesting extra.


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An attempt to return Tegan to Heathrow Airport fails, and the Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companions arrive in 1666 England in the darkest days of the Great Plague.DVD Features:Audio CommentaryDeleted ScenesInterviewsMusic Only TrackPhoto galleryProduction Notes

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Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday (Story 118) (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)Not good enough to get five stars, but still pretty damn good. I think Peter Davison's Doctor was even better in this one than in a lot of his other stories. Don't get me wrong. I liked Davison's Doctor, but in this one in particular, he's just great. Better than in his premiere story. I think the reason why I like him better in this one is because he reminds me of a younger and more energetic Tom Baker. Much as he did in "Kinda", "The Visitation", "Earthshock", and "The Caves of Androzani". The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver more in this one, which is a nice thing to see considering that not long from now we won't see it again until the 1996 TV movie. And when they started using it in the new series, they used it way too much.
I haven't seen this one in a while, but that's just because I watched it so much when I first got it on VHS. It is a good one. The story is great. So are all the cliffhangers in it. The special effects are reasonably good, the spaceship was nice looking - both inside and out, lots of excitement, the music was great, and so was the acting. I recommend this one to anyone who has an interest in "Doctor Who". Oh, and by the way, Nyssa collapses at the end leaving you hanging. Let me tell you why she collapsed so you won't have to see the next story, which is not yet on DVD. She was just suffering from extreme exhaustion. She'll be fine.

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In "Four to Doomsday," Peter Davison's recently regenerated Fifth Doctor is burdened by the most irritating trio of companions in the history of the show (Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan) when the Tardis materializes inside a vast starship with a multiracial crew from Earth's distant past. Downloaded into computer chips are the memories of the 3 billion survivors of the Urbankan race, and the Earth is to be their new home. Meanwhile, Monarch, a giant green frog-thing, wants to travel back to the Big Bang to meet God, who he is convinced is himself.

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Doctor Who: The King's Demons (Story 129) Review

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(More customer reviews)Watching The King's Demons again, about 25 years after my first viewing, it's
actually hard to see why the story is so derided. Though not a classic piece of
TV by any stretch, it's still a fun way to spend an hour. In fact, compared to
many Doctor Who stories of the same period, this one has aged remarkably well.
As with the previous season's trip into the past, Black Orchid, the historical
setting helps in this regard, since (as the saying goes) nothing dates like the
future. As a result, there are few if any of the fashion victims that sometimes
make "classic series" episodes hard to enjoy, and even the interior sets feel
more substantial. All of this would be trivial, though, if the story itself
didn't have merit.
The faults are, not surprisingly, fairly easy targets. The Master's plot is (as
the Doctor points out) "small-time villainy", some of the historical background
is a bit shaky, and the resolution is somewhat lacking in drama. That said, the
process of getting to that resolution is quite enjoyable, especially the build
up of a historical mystery that takes place over the course of the first
episode. Some of that sense of intrigue falls by the wayside once the Master's
involvement is revealed, but even then there are enough questions posed to keep
things lively.
Ultimately, you get the impression that this lack of substance is the sole
reason for the story's bad reputation. If so, that's a shame because there's a
lot to enjoy here. Even though the BBC's golden-age of costume drama was a few
years past at this point, they still had the ability to create convincing period
settings that looked far more impressive than you'd expect with the kind of
tight budget a two-part Doctor Who story would have had. Better yet, both the
regulars and guest stars like Gerald Flood give very strong performances.
Of particular note is Peter Davison. Like many fans of my generation, raised on
Tom Baker's widely syndicated early seasons, I really didn't appreciate
Davison's lower-key Doctor until fairly recently. In some ways, lightweight
stories like this and Black Orchid are ideal showcases for Davison, because you
can appreciate the quiet conviction he brings to the role and how much he does
to hold the viewer's interest. In that respect, this story calls to mind, the
historical stories of William Hartnell's tenure as the Doctor, where budgets
were even tighter, and that's no bad thing.


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England, March 1215. King John is visiting the castle of Sir Ranulph Fitzwilliam. The arrival of the TARDIS disturbs a medieval joust, but the Doctor and his companions are proclaimed to be friendly demons by the King, who seems strangely interested in their \'blue engine." It soon becomes clear that neither King John or his Champion, Sir Gilles Estram, are who they pretend to be. One of the Doctor\'s oldest and deadliest enemies threatens the future of democracy on Earth, and he must be stopped!

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