Just listened to the Big Finish story "The Black Hole" (Early Adventures 2.3) and not spoiling anything really, but there's a mention of The Analogue Wars. It's talked about in very broad terms. Tardis.wiki doesn't have an entry on it and the only reference is related to this story. Does anyone know if it's ever mentioned somewhere else in expanded media?

Or does anyone have a head canon as to what they were?

OR, [spoiler]>!did The Doctor's defeat of the Seeth in this story, make it so that The Analogue Wars would not happen 200 years in the future, since the Seeth seemed to be trying to avoid the Wars altogether. Since they were trying to avoid the Wars, did they just give up on both attempts and decide to try a different method in a yet untold story?!<

So roughly a year before the release of the TV movie I'd release a Doctor Who 1 hour special episode that serves as a send off for McCoy and Ainley which ends with the Doctor and the Master fatally wounding each other. I'll say that the Master in the story has already obtained another regeneration or a way to obtain a new body if his old one is damaged. I'd keep McGann's casting a secret and only reveal it at the end when the 7th Doctor regenerates.

For the TV movie, I think the Master was the wrong choice of villain for new viewers. You need to establish the Doctor himself before you show his arch nemesis. I'd go with an idea I once heard on Reddit, I think it was on this subreddit. Grace is an archaeologist studying the Terracotta army but it turns out they're actually Cybermen.

Either it's shown in a flashback that the Doctor had previously defeated the Cybermen in the past and sealed them away or when the Doctor and Grace learn that the statues are Cybermen they travel back in time to learn how it happened and we see that Qin Shi Huang made a deal with the Cybermen in exchange for immortality (you could have him as the Cyberleader).

To prevent it from confusing new viewers I'd take inspiration from Rose. We see the Doctor as a mysterious figure from Grace's perspective. The Doctor is pretending to be an archaeologist and at one point Grace catches him tampering with a Terracotta statue but she's shocked to see it turn into a Cyberman that almost kills her but the Doctor saves her.

If you have any further ideas for this please let me know.

If the TV movie had been successful enough I would have followed it with a miniseries with Grace as the companion and possibly a 2nd companion joining them. All the episodes except the last 2 would feature new monsters. For the penultimate episode I'd feature the Daleks and for the finale I'd feature the Master. Ideally I'd cast Christopher Lee as him.

I once heard someone say that even if the episodes were very good quality, Fox would probably cancel Doctor Who after just one or two seasons as in the 90s they didn't do the best job at scheduling sci-fi shows and probably would have put it in a low viewership timeslot. To be honest I'm okay with that for as long as the 8th Doctor gets at least one very good episode and it doesn't harm the revival.

I think,This could be a real money maker, and I’m surprised it’s only ever been done once in the main show. it might be difficult to come up with compelling scripts but that hasn’t stopped them before.

Hi Anyone & Everyone,

Does anyone have a good recommendations for Big Finish Dramas that available for free on Spotify or any other service?

I haven't listened any but would like to get into it.

Some of the stories I found and took interest in but they aren't available on Spotify such as Time Lord Victorious stories.

My fav doctors are 4th and 10th just to help a little.

I was thinking of starting off with Spare Parts with the 5th Doctor or Dalek Empire.

If you any have other places where you can listen to Big Finish let me know.

Thanks Everyone 😊

I know this type of question isn't new. I just want to come on from a different angle.

regardless of what the show did later on or what I enjoyed throughout my current first watch. just taking the classic episodes on their own.

why should anyone watch them? what is their appeal as just a show the way they were when they came out. what is it like watching these episodes. they were popular at the time so what was their draw.

I've only ever seen these episodes been talked about in relation to newer ones but never just on how they fair on their own.

Hello Everyone! My name is Leland and I am doing a research project about the Doctor Who fandom. I am a new Who fan, having just watched the most recent season with Ncuti Gatwa, but I plan on going back and making my way through previous series. My research requires that I enter into the community and interact with fellow fans, so I was hoping to get some insights online as I don’t know many Doctor Who fans that I could interview in person. Below this are some questions that I would really appreciate any and all insights you have related to them. 

• Who is your favorite Doctor, and why?
• How long have you been a fan?
• When and how did you become interested in the show?
• How has your relationship with the show changed over time?
• Do you feel like there are generational differences in how fans appreciate/talk about the show? 
• Is Dr. Who a show you keep coming back to for the sci-fi shenanigans or for the character moments between the Doctor and the companions? (or is it something else?)
• Do you feel that knowledge about all of the history and lore of the show is required to jump into newer series and fully appreciate and enjoy them?
• How were you able to become familiar with all of the lore required to understand what is happening in the newer seasons? Youtube? Reddit? Were you introduced by a fan who could help you make sense of it all?

Additionally, if anyone would be interested in a video or chat interview, please reply to this as such so I can reach out! Thank you for your responses!

Keeping it short. If the Time Lords used the chameleon arch to make the Timeless Child a Gallyfrian, would they not lose any natural regenerations they had? We see the timeline on Trenzalore where the Doctor runs out of regenerations, which would support this, meaning that the amount of regenerations granted to them afterwards is all that they have.

I see a lot of people claim that the TC undoes this, but why? It's never been implied that the Chameleon Arch lets you keep your regenerations if you become a non-Timelord, and there's more evidence to suggest the contrary. So why would the TC keep them?

There are some serious spoilers for the 11th doctor adventures from big finishing this post. I’ve probably put far too much thought into this, but I really love the idea of a dalek historian and really wish he hadn’t been finished off so thoroughly, though I suppose they can always bring him back again. If handled correctly, it could give a whole new lease of life to the Dalex especially when you consider the Nazis walked and twisted relationship with history and how they fabricated their own and used propaganda and falsified records to spread their view. It could give a really good insight into the philosophy of the Daleks, obviously they believe they’re the superior race but maybe the historian goes back in time to try and give them a more fitting origin or rewrites the timeline so that their defeats are actually victories.

In fact, my pet theory about why they have two different origin stories in the classic series is that the dalek historian rewrote time so that DavRos was not their creator, since he hates the fact that they were created by a lesser species.

Is any of the Dark Gallifrey series that came out until now worth the money?

I always wondered, it looks like the perfect height for a urinal. I'm not sure if I'd be able to resist.

No look peeing obviously, I don't wanna save the world I just want to pee/

In 2x12, Army of Ghosts, Torchwood has a void ship. In one shot, after they captured the TARDIS, it is next to a sarcophagus. Is this potentially when Sutekh exited the void and latched onto the TARDIS?

I generally prefer more character driven stories and am looking for recommendations. Curse Of Fenric is an obvious highlight of the ones I've seen so far because it's probably the most character driven.

DW's effects will always look poor and 10 years behind whats on the silver screen. That wont ever change. But I feel that some of the effects in Double C just look dreadful, even by DW standards. Like that flying acid sequence in the halloween apocolyoe looks dreadful. That Green screen looks worse than the Phantom Menence. In Ledgend of the Sea Devils there is the mario jump and the Sea Devils look worse than the 70s version. They could at least move.

Those flying Cyberman heads look ridiclous. Are they useing the same softwear they did in 05? Also in halloween there is the scene in the house in Iceland. But outside the window its so clearly a British garden and tool shed. Thats student film level stuff.

Yes RTD had that terrible scorpion monster and Moffat that MS paint cloud monster. But computer technology is meant to improve with time. Like even the cheapest indy game today has better graphics than 2006's Oblivion. Like the CGI flying dalek in Resolution looks like the flying CGI lone dalek in 2005. Which ironically means the 88 flying Dalek still looks better.

I get partical effects are as much about skill. Like there are puppets snd costumes from the 50s that look better than their equivilent today. But thats not the case with CGI. Like even Chinese CGI films today still look better than A Bug's Life cause technological progress.

Ok i guess the Piting looks fine, and the Sontaron's look good same with Karvanista. Now its possible that im just more foregiving of the previous CGI because its 20/15 years old, but if thats the case why dont it look better?

I've been getting into Big Finish and I wanted some recommendations for times they have explored and expanded villains/monsters introduced on the show.

I mean beyond the usual rotation (Daleks, Cybermen, Angels, Sontarans etc), especially if they are enemies that have only appeared on the show once. I know there's quite a few Big Finish Vashta Nerada stories which is cool. What other lesser-covered villains have audio stories out there?

• My main point of reference is NuWho monsters but I'm open to Classics too.

There are so many books to read in the world that even if the EDA novels are my very favourite take on Doctor Who, I can't read all of them. I long ago compiled fifteen EDAs that give me the overall story arc through to The Ancestor Cell, as well as being apparently great books. But five books in, I've realised I want to make it to the later Orman/Blum/Miles/Leonard books! I've upped the list to twenty-five.

But can people advise me where I can now finish the EDAs? Preferably without reading The Gallifrey Chronicles? Surely there's a more lowkey but emotionally satisfying book to finish the arcs on. So I'd love your suggestions!

Remember, suggestions are not so much "I love this book, you have to read it", and moreso what books I need to understand the story arc *and* are good. Particularly to end on.

Vampire Science
Genocide
Seeing I
The Scarlet Empress
Alien Bodies

The Taint
Revolution Man
Unnatural History
Interference - Book One
Interference - Book Two

The Taking of Planet 5
Frontier Worlds
The Shadows of Avalon
The Banquo Legacy
The Ancestor Cell

____(Books I'm adding? If they work?)____

The Burning
The Turing Test
Father Time
Earthworld
Eaters of Wasps

The Year of Intelligent Tigers
The City of the Dead
The Adventures of Henrietta Street
???
???

Or /r/Gallifrey's NSQ-MMFPBTAA:TRQTDDTOTT for short. No more suggestions of things to be added? ;)

No question is too stupid to be asked here. Example questions could include "Where can I see the Christmas Special trailer?" or "Why did we not see the POV shot of Gallifrey? Did it really come back?".

Small questions/ideas for the mods are also encouraged! (To call upon the moderators in general, mention "mods" or "moderators". To call upon a specific moderator, name them.)

Please remember that future spoilers must be tagged.

Regular Posts Schedule

• Previous No Stupid Questions
• Latest Rewatch
• Latest What's Who With You
• Latest Free Talk Friday

Hi

So I have listened to audio books for years but I mostly stick to Discworld or Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.

I had herd that the Doctor Who Big Finish stuff was good and saw that there was a lot of it on Spotify so I thought id give it ago. I'm a big fan of Doctor Who starting with the 9th Doctor (never watched the classics) but also never delved into expanded media.

I started with "The Chimes of Midnight" as I thought the setting was cool and was interested in some 8th Doctor stories (I love Night of the Doctor and its real shame we didn't get more McGann like that)

I don't know what i expected but I don't think I expected it to be as good as it was, I thought it was funny, dark, complex and overall very well written and acted. But mostly I thought to myself "this is better then a lot of the stuff in the TV Show" which i really didn't expect

I also think a few things in this story may have inspired some elements of "The Doctor's Wife". The story isn't the same but there are a lot of simular elements

Overall I was very impressed and I'm going to go out of my way to listen to Big Finish Doctor Who story's when ever i get chance.

Murray Gold wrote all the music from 2005-2017. And other than Terror of the Zygons Dudley Simpson did all the music for Hinchcliff (and Zygons was because the director had a shouting match with Simpson). But in the McCoy era music is plit between Dominic Glyeme and Keff McCulloch.

Why is that? When the show was much shorter in the late 80s so there was less to score wouldnt you need less composers? Plus isnt it easier having one person to do all music if you are the ptoducer/showrunner?

I first started buying, borrowing, or receiving Doctor Who books in 2005 after a friend at an extracurricular club showed me one that he bought. I think it was the summary of Remembrance of the Daleks with the Special Weapons Dalek that got me interested.

1. Monsters and Villains: Intro to many of the best enemies, including the Haemovores.
2. Aliens and Enemies: As above, including Sutekh.
3. Creatures and Demons: As above, including the Toymaker.
4. The Legend Continues: As above, with introductions to every TV episode including the 1996 movie.
5. Who-ology: Many pieces of trivia right down to how many times a catchphrase was used.
6. The Visual Dictionary: In-depth discussion on most things in the series, including the TARDIS interior.

There's some more too, but they're the main ones.

All of these books came out before 2013. M&V and TLC came out in 2005, TLC being an extension of an earlier book. The first 4 were all written by the same author, Justin Richards.

These days. this information is available online, but the books organise them in an easy-to-read way. Justin Richard's style is to be as positive as possible while being honest about plot holes and truly dodgy special effects. Even the episodes I now know to be bad are covered the same way as the good episodes, which meant that all episodes sounded good. So yes, The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep appeared to be as good as each other.

It also explained why my parents knew that the shop dummies were called Autons and who exactly this half-man half-Dalek called Davros was.

Meanwhile in 2018, we saw the Doctor build a new screwdriver, causing a big debate about plausibility. Back in 2007, The Visual Dictionary said that the sonic screwdriver is simple to build for a Time Lord, which is why I wasn't bothered by the Doctor building one.

Why is 2013 important? That was when we got a good glimpse of the Time War's last day. Thanks to the books, this conventional attack with ground troops, bombardments, energy weapons, etc all felt... exactly how I expected the Time War to be. These books published by the BBC for the BBC implied that the Dalek attack in The Parting Of The Ways was the same strategy that they used in the Time War. The image representing the Time War is an edited image of the Dalek fleet from that episode, next to an unedited image of the Dalek fleet from that episode attacking the Game Station.

In M&V, we learned that the Sontarans nearly beat the Time Lords

In Who-ology, In an early (?) part of the Time War, Davros led a direct attack on a Time Lord city, as shown on the illustrator's website.

One more thing. Even though M&V refers to the 2005 episodes as the 'new series', it doesn't feel that way. Since the books were mixing up old and new, reading about Platform One's visitors and the Silurians, I got the impression that there was no 'Classic Who' or 'New Who'. It is all just Doctor Who.

I love Series 6. Very much a season that has highs and lows, but it’s so much fun to rewatch

I’ve realized, though, that despite having seen it many many times, I don’t think I fully understand the timeline yet? which is funny

The events on the beach happen twice in two different ways, and the characters can kind of remember both ways right? And Amy remembered killing Kovarian in the aborted timeline, which bothered her at the end of the episode.

I’m wondering, I guess, when she got those memories in her personal timeline

Because the beach scene took place at the beginning of S6 for her, but at the END of S6 for the Doctor, so the viewer kinda gets both perspectives along the way, which makes it kinda twisty to wrap your head around lol

curious to hear the thoughts of people smarter than me haha

In my ever-growing Doctor Who video and audio collection, I've gathered over fifteen hundred individual stories, and I'm attempting to (briefly) review them all in the order in which they might have happened according to the Doctor's own personal timeline. We'll see how far I get.

Today's Story: Prisoners of the Lake, written by Justin Richards and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What is it?: This is the first story in Big Finish’s anthology The Third Doctor Adventures.

Who's Who: The story stars Tim Treloar, Katy Manning, and Richard Franklin, with Carolyn Seymour, Robbie Stevens, and John Banks.

Doctor(s) and Companion(s): The Third Doctor, Jo Grant

Recurring Characters: Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Mike Yates

Running Time: 01:48:59

One Minute Review: An archaeological excavation has uncovered an apparently ancient stone structure inexplicably located at the bottom of a British lake. When one of the archaeologists explores the airtight building, she makes contact with a mysterious speaking statue, Mike Yates' description of which piques the Doctor's interest, so he and Jo descend to the lakebed to see it for themselves. He immediately recognizes the structure as a spaceship, but before he can identify to whom it belongs, another statue emerges from the walls, determined to execute them!

There was a lot riding on the success of this—Big Finish's first full story starring their own officially recast Doctor—so it's unsurprising that the production feels a bit tentative, from its half-narrated Early Adventures-style format, as if to reassure listeners that they weren't trying to claim Tim Treloar was the "real" Third Doctor, to Justin Richards' very traditional plot. The latter at least does a good job of easing the audience into the range. The only surprising aspect of this story is that Mike Yates largely fulfills the role that would normally be played by the Brigadier, since they weren't prepared to recast him as well...yet.

The most notable guest performance comes from the magnificent Carolyn Seymour, but this audio is really all about Treloar being given the unenviable task of trying to convince fans that he can carry a story as the Third Doctor. Though his portrayal is still a bit rough around the edges at this point, he rises to the challenge, backed up by the generous support of Manning and Franklin and a score that sounds like it was lifted right out of the 1970s.

Score: 3/5

Next Time: Storm of the Horofax

I don't think it's controversial to say that Big Finish has been having a rough year. The live show was great, granted, but the website relaunch was a disaster and the stories this year... Well, they just haven't been that great. There have been a couple of highlights, but a lot of it has felt a bit safe and a bit bleh.

But, for whatever reason, I saw the new Third Doctor Adventure they released, The Quintessence, and something in me just decided to take the risk, for the hell of it. How did that turn out? Well, first, the plot.

The Doctor and Jo Jones (because this is an older Jo story, important to note that) land in a far off storm covered planet called Nethara Reach, not expecting to find anything or anyone because... Well, it's a planet covered in storms. However, they soon stumble on to a Victorian House called "Always" wherein lives a strange family, seemingly unaware that they're on an alien planet. What's happening? How did the house get there? And, if you've seen the cover, how do the Cybermen factor into this?

I'll start this by stating the perhaps controversial opinion that I don't much like the Third Doctor, he's my least favorite of the Classic Doctors. I think Jon Pertwee was great in the role and brought a lot of extremely unique charm to it, but I tend to find him a bit too manly and domineering for what I personally want from The Doctor. Adding to that issue, I think Jo is often a bit too submissive with him and doesn't provide a confident voice that could really keep him in line, in my opinion. It's why my favorite Three Companion is still Liz Shaw, because she felt like an equal who wouldn't take his shit.

This is all to explain that I typically wouldn't be drawn to a Third Doctor story like this, but also that, from my view, I feel as though the Third Doctor wasn't super apparent in this story. Granted, The Doctor has a much smaller role here, this is more of a Jo story (and I'll get to that), but I really had the impression that you could've slotted any other Doctor into this story and it wouldn't have made a difference.

That's... basically my only criticism of this story, though. The Doctor is a bit generic... That aside, this story fucking rules and, in fact, rules in a way that BF hasn't in a hot minute.

One of the issues BF has had for a few years, according to them at least, are BBC limitations regarding what they are allowed to do. Things just can't really get as fucked up as they used to. Even Goth Opera, which had a warning beforehand about its very violent content, felt pretty tame and the warning unneeded. They should have saved it for this one because, to put it bluntly: this is a nasty, sadistic, mean Cybermen story.

It takes some cues and atmosphere from other Cybermen stories (you can sense the DNA of Spare Parts and World Enough and Time in this) but it smartly enhances on the imagery and ideas of other stories and makes its own cruel ideas. Like all the best DW stories, it's always throwing some new interesting idea or creepy bit of imagery at you and plays up the medical side of the Cybermen and Cyber Conversion.

When people talk about "fun" in Doctor Who, they usually mean the more comedic or adventurous stories, whereas I think fun in Who is all about creepy monsters with some fucked up body horror. For example, the bit that got me really hyped in this story and cracking a big smile, was the description of how a Mondasian Cyberman's face actually looks like. I usually don't like the show going too deep into the conversions, cause your imagination is often scarier than what can be told, but on occasion, you get something like:

Man: "What remains of the organic tissue has been stripped raw. It will need comprehensive grafting to avoid infection."
Jo: "You mean they remove the skin?"
Man: "To take away all sensation. A few sections of the skull remain. There's a resonator placed at the rear of the mouth cavity... and the retina are floating in a synthetic protein gel."

If you want to know what my perfect, most fun DW is... It's that kind of talk.

Structurally, the story also zigs and zags in interesting places, with a lot of surprises. When The Doctor and Jo arrive at the mansion, you can instantly tell that there's something wrong and I figured "They're going to dance around the point for a few episodes, some weird things are gonna happen, etc."... Nope. The Doctor immediately points out how weird everything is, reveals happen and we quickly move on.

Having gotten used to the typical structure of a DW story, I was genuinely surprised at how quickly it moved to other aspects of the story and I was genuinely like "Do they actually have someplace to go or did I waste my money on a story that's going to quickly run thought its premise?" That was not the case at all, this has plenty of places still to go, most of them to do with Jo.

The dynamic between older Jo and Three feels different, where she feels much more confident and in charge, and it gives Katy Manning a chance to show how well she can play this adventurous Jo who's lived a full life and can jump much more easily into the situations. This story also made me realize just how underrated Katy Manning is as an actress.

Without spoiling, there are a few scenes in this story where Jo's perception of reality is tricked and the way she sells that confusion felt so real, like almost as though your grandma was dealing with dementia. I know it's a weird comparison to do, but these were fairly simple scenes and she really did elevate them just with how much emotion she brought across. She's shown how versatile she is by the sheer fact of playing Iris Wildthyme, but I feel like we forget that sometimes and this one was a real showcase for her, I thought. There's also the fact that Jo is still dealing with Cliff's death, which maybe doesn't feel as fully addressed as it could've been, but Katy sells the hell out of the scenes where she's thinking about him, so it skirts by.

Weirdly enough, a big theme of this story is death (Cybermen, after all), but I think a more interesting and relevant theme was disease. It keeps coming up in various scenes, but, at the end, all the talk is about relating Cybermen and Death, when I'd say it'd be more interesting to focus in on Cybermen and disease. I don't know if we've had the "great story" that tries to properly focus in on the idea of a society taking on the Cyber technology specifically because of how it can prevent disease. Perhaps a world trying to keep a deadly plague at bay? I think this story had a lot of very visceral imagery related to disease, so it feels like a bit of untapped potential.

Any flaws beyond that? Well, aside from The Doctor feeling a touch generic, the ending is a little too clean for the TARDIS team. It feels like it ends with them back in the TARDIS and everything is hunky dory, when I get the impression Jo, at least, would've been a lot more affected.

Ultimately, I would've truly loved this story if it was with a different Doctor or if Three had a stronger role in it, particularly since older Jo would balance him out a lot, I think, but I say this was still a great one. If you can get past that very specific issue I had with it, I could see this one being a recent favorite for a lot of people and, with the kind of year BF has been having, they sorely needed something like this.

Hard recommend, go out and get it.

Have been watching classic who from the beginning. After watching The Enemy of the World I can say that Patrick Troughton is probably the greatest actor to be Doctor who. It’s a shame so many of his episodes are lost. Also realized how much the 11th doctor took from his portrayal.

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Historical information found on Shannon O'Sullivan's Doctor Who website (relevant page here and the TARDIS Wiki (relevant page here. Primary/secondary source material can be found in the source sections of O'Sullivan's website, and rarely as inline citations on the TARDIS Wiki.

Serial Information

• Episodes: Season 22, Episodes 10-11
• Airdates: 9th - 16th March 1985
• Doctors: 6th
• Companion: Peri
• Writer: Glen McCoy
• Director: Pennant Roberts
• Producer: John Nathan-Turner
• Script Editor: Eric Saward

Review

I didn't realize dying heroically was such a strain on the nerves. – Herbert

I tend to think of Season 22 as the point at which something fundamental broke in Doctor Who. And well, I don't think there's a better case for that than Timelash.

Timelash should be a decent story. It's a fairly paint by numbers "the Doctor helps the rebels" story with a few clever little ideas. Nothing in a plot summary is going to read as particularly original – well except for the handling of one particular character, but I'll get to him later. At the same time Timelash has all the makings of a solid little Doctor Who comfort food story, and I have a lot of time for a story like that. But Timelash isn't that story. Because something broke about Doctor Who in 1985, it's actually quite bad.

In actuality, Timelash is actually as bad as it is for completely ordinary behind the scenes issues. Not even particularly dramatic ones. Writer Glen McCoy was a Doctor Who fan since the 60s, but he lacked television experience. He wanted to inject some more inventiveness into a show he felt had become a bit stale, and so submitted a story idea. The original Timelash was a Dalek story, due to McCoy's childhood memories of 60s Who. However, Script Editor Eric Saward requested that McCoy resubmit the story without the Daleks. Unfortunately Saward wasn't able to work as closely with the inexperienced writer McCoy as he probably should have, because the Script Editor was busy working on the final story of the season, Revelation of the Daleks. Eventually, Saward became concerned at what he considered subpar script, but Producer John Nathan-Turner was unwilling to commission a new story in part because they'd already paid McCoy for his early drafts, and in part because they'd already had to abandon a Season 22 story, The Space Whale, very late in development. JNT tried to salvage the story by giving it to a more experienced Director, Pennant Roberts, but Roberts was just unhappy working on what he saw as a poor story and couldn't do much to salvage it, which ultimately led to Roberts deciding to leave Doctor Who entirely.

That paragraph doesn't really represent anything extraordinary. Just a confluence of events piling on top of each other leading to a story that is, predictably, not good. And yet, it still feels like Timelash should be better. Maybe it's because there have been countless times that Doctor Who has managed to take a series of events that should have led to disaster and turned them into success. Or maybe it's because this whole season has been something of an exercise in stories that tried to push the boat out and failed (Vengeance on Varos notwithstanding) that you kind of feel like the season should at least be able to do something simpler right.

But see, for all the behind the scenes drama, it's worth pointing out that Glen McCoy wanted to present a more inventive storyline and instead delivered a paint by numbers "Doctor helps the rebels" story. What with the titular Timelash, the character of "Herbert", and some of the details around the main villain, the Borad, I can see where McCoy felt like he was doing something a lot more inventive than he actually was.

Now I've gotten pretty far into this review, and I've kind of been taking it as read that Timelash is a bad story. Which is sort of putting the cart before the horse. And, while Timelash has consistently ranked as one of the worst Doctor Who stories of all time in various fan polls (for instance, in a 200 story poll made after "Planet of the Dead" came out in 2009, it ranked #199, only ahead of The Twin Dilemma). So does it deserve its bottom of the barrel reputation?

Honestly, no. Granted this is going to be a very reserved defense but there are a few things that are working for me in Timelash. Principally the character of Herbert, who I found charming and was at the center of a fun twist that, admittedly, I guessed in advance but that was probably me remembering him from when I first saw this story. Tekker can be a fun villain. And…well honestly that's kind of it. There were a couple of marginally clever moments with time travel that I enjoyed a bit. But mostly, Timelash kind of feels like white noise. Which…isn't great. But it could be way worse.

Which doesn't mean that Timelash doesn't have some off putting quirks. Particularly of note is the Android, the biggest physical threat of the story. And yet every decision made with its design seems to be designed to make you take it less seriously. To give one piece of credit, Dean Hollingsworth was absolutely a good choice casting-wise, as he's a very large man, and his imposing physique sells the idea of the Android as dangerous. On the other hand the blue skin and hair that is definitely blond but still looks light green to me a lot of the time for some reason, make him look like a children's TV character. Which is confirmed by his odd sing-song voice. And it really doesn't help when the Android is defeated in the cliffhanger resolution by the Doctor shining a mirror in its face in a manner that comes off as bizarre and comical. It's just a weird series of choices that make something meant to be intimidating come off as goofy.

You'll notice I haven't really talked much about the plot. That's because, as indicated above, it's a pretty bog-standard "Doctor helps the rebels" story. That can be fine, but there's basically nothing about that side of things that really stands out. The rebels are, as is sadly typical by this point, very dull characters all around. But the villains aren't much better. Tekker was fun at times, but Paul Darrow, best known for playing Kerr Avon in Blake's 7, was trying to get revenge on Colin Baker for his overacting when Baker was in a Blake's 7 episode, and that can lead to some scenes with him feeling more pantomime than the more serious scenes they're intended as. And as for the Borad…

Okay, so the Borad, originally named Megelen, was a scientist on the planet Karfel (where the majority of the action takes place) who was doing some experiments on the Morlox, cave dwelling animals on the planet. One of those experiments caused him to fuse with the Morlox he was experimenting on, somehow making him more intelligent. This part of the plot was influenced by HG Wells novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau (keep that in mind for later). The Borad, in becoming a hybrid, seems to have developed some strange ideas. After taking control of the planet (how I have no idea), and broadcasting via a false face across Karfel to deliver his pronouncements, the Borad sets to work with the plan to establish himself as the dominant species on Karfel. He intends to do this by provoking a war with Karfel's ally, the Bandril, who have a weapon which will destroy all mammalian life on Karfel. The Borad, as he is part Morlox, will survive the holocaust.

The Borad just kind of doesn't work. I can see the ideas that could have made him a compelling villain, and I actually really like the design, even though it doesn't quite deserve the level of horror that people seem to have upon his face, but the end result is kind of underwhelming. He's gotten the entire planet of Karfel under his thumb, but we don't really see how. The Karfelons seem to largely worship him as a great savior, but we don't know why they put so much faith in him. His plan is bonkers, but not really in a way that's entertaining. The end result is a villain that unfortunately falls pretty flat.

And, honestly, having a lot of ideas that could work and not paying them off at all is kind of the main thing that Timelash does. We learn that the 3rd Doctor and Jo visited Karfel at one point. Does anything come of this? Not really, other than to note that the Borad forbade reference to the Doctor's prior visit (why? No idea). There's a bit of to do about the Borad forbidding mirrors, but that doesn't really come to anything, other than that bizarre cliffhanger resolution I mentioned above. Peri's botany background is referenced again as she takes special interest in the flora of the planet, but nothing is really done with that either. The story takes place on a planet with pretty extreme surveillance and police state overtones, but doesn't have anything to say about it other than to point at it and say "bad". Hell the titular timelash is actually a time corridor and it's only really used as a form of execution.

So does Timelash pay off any of its ideas? Yes, a couple actually. The more important to the resolution of the plot is a device that the Doctor makes. It allows him to create a ten second delay between his apparent self and actual self, and also absorb energy, and after ten seconds redirect it. I really do love how this thing is deployed – though there are some moments where it doesn't quite make sense. Still on the whole it's a fun little gadget, and the ten second delay actually provides some tension when it gets used to redirect energy. And yes, you should take it as a bad sign that I'm arguing one of the Doctor's gadgets is a bright spot.

But the big bright spot for this story is absolutely Herbert. Or as you know him, HG Wells. Herbert is just an absolute delight. Introduced because someone sent for execution in the timelash is redirected to Scotland in 1885 where Herbert spends his summer, from the moment he enters the story Herbert is just absolutely charming. He only ever seems to understand about 10% of what's going on, but still always wants to be included in everything. He doesn't really meaningfully contribute to the plot, but you know what? I didn't actually notice that until I sat down to write this because I enjoyed his presence so much that in my mind Timelash sort of becomes the Herbert story. And his back and forth with the Doctor was really fun. The 6th Doctor's kind of at his most irascible this story, but Herbert just calmly takes it in his stride, and it's fun to see. The bit about Herbert actually being HG Wells is an ending twist, and it kind of works. Throughout the story there are references to HG Wells stories (particularly The Island of Doctor Moreau and The Time Machine) which just makes the whole thing very satisfying.

Okay on to those rebels I've continually called dull. Mykros is probably the most generic of the lot – every "Doctor helps the rebels" story has this exact character in it. He's idealistic and angry, and naturally becomes the leader of the Karfelons – their Maylin to give the in-story title – at the end of the story. His fiancé Vena is a bit more interesting. Her father is the original Maylin until he's killed by the Borad for considering rebellion and before that she's a loyal servant of the Borad. Once that happens she naturally switches over the rebellion, and immediately gets shoved into the timelash, where she's redirected by the TARDIS and meets Herbert. The two kind of had some romantic tension going that was pretty believable, but sadly Jeanneanne Crowley's performance outside of those moments just isn't very good. Katz and Sezon are the actual resistance at the beginning of the story, though their dynamic is pretty well-worn ground as well. Katz is skeptical and suspicious, while Sezon is a bit more hopeful and willing to trust. Nothing really to talk about there.

Peri spends the entire story as a damsel in distress for one reason or another. Oh that and the Borad wants to transform her into a creature like him so that they can make babies. Because sure, another villain is lusting after Peri, why not at this point?

As for the Doctor, as mentioned above he's probably at his most irascible all season. Granted in stands out more in this story because he's interacting a lot with the good-natured Hugo and he's still being every bit as rude as he always is – at least with Peri you can see how they wind each other up because Peri can be as snarky as anyone. But then again this is also the story where the Doctor and Peri bicker the most since The Twin Dilemma. Really feels like McCoy got the directive that the 6th Doctor was more ill-tempered than previous incarnations and decided to double down on that specifically. Otherwise it's interesting to see him interacting with a planet he'd previously visited, even if nothing much is done with that other than him apparently knowing Megelen from a previous visit. And if nothing else he does get to be a bit more clever than we've seen since Colin Baker took over the part, and that's worth something.

Honestly, I don't know quite why this is seen as one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever. It's bad, absolutely, generic but not quite able to be Doctor Who comfort food. Simultaneously full of ideas and lacking in any real ambition that would be required to make them work. Most of the characters are pretty dull, which in turn leads to a dull plot. But…Herbert's here, there's a handful of good scenes, Tekker is kind of enjoyable at times and…okay I've run out of nice things to say. This isn't one of the worst stories ever. It is still really bad.

Score: 2/10

Stray Observations

• Neither Nicola Bryant nor Colin Baker liked this story. Bryant felt it was a step backwards for her character as she spent most of the story tied up. She also thought that the first TARDIS scene was her worst performance on the show. Honestly, I don't see it on that last point.
• Director Pennant Roberts didn't care for the script either, and was especially annoyed at how much time the Doctor and Peri spent bickering. As a result Eric Saward toned down some of those scenes. Roberts also didn't like the 45 minute episode format.
• As was usual for him, Pennant Roberts cast a a woman for a role originally written as a man. In this case Christine Kavanaugh as Aram, a minor rebel character seen at the beginning of the story.
• Peri mentions that the Daleks had a time corridor. We learned this in Resurrection of the Daleks but of course that was before Peri's time on the TARDIS. However the since Lytton appeared in both that story and Attack of the Cybermen, it makes sense that Peri's might have been filled in at some point, even if we never see it on screen.
• When he's explaining how he diverts power to the Borad, Renis explains that he has to put two amulets "simultaneously" into their slots. He, after placing them on top of their slots, slots them in one at a time.
• Continuing a trend this season, it's not until roughly the halfway point of episode 1 that the Doctor and Peri land on Karfel. It's particularly noticeable in this story because they weren't doing much of anything before, just riding out the temporal instabilities created by the timelash.
• Originally, the plan was that the Doctor's prior visit to Karfel would have been in his first incarnation. The painting of Jo would have been a painting of Susan. Some of this is left over, as when Tekka greets the Doctor and Peri he says "only two of you?" Maybe the Doctor and Jo let Mike tag along for a couple adventures. The character was created to be a second companion after all.
• After watching Peri running away from some Morlox screaming her head off, the Borad says "A plucky creature who knows how to take care of herself." I find this assessment…dubious.
• Peri has apparently seen photographs of Jo in the TARDIS.
• In episode 2, the Doctor uses the time shifting device that, short version, projects an image of himself 10 seconds earlier, while making the real him invisible. Meanwhile, Herbert looks through a special device that allows him to see both versions. At that point the Borat shoots him with his aging beam and the beam passes right through the image of the Doctor. And then we see Herbert looking through the device and…the Doctor hadn't left his initial spot yet, meaning he should have been aged to death by the beam.
• Speaking of the aging beam, later the Doctor uses the same crystal he used for his time shifting device to absorb and reflect back the energy of the aging beam. The Borad, dying, yells out "you tricked me!" for the Doctor to reply, "you tricked yourself". Two points. First of all, Colin Baker's performance of this line is really good. And second…no he didn't trick himself, what are you even talking about Doctor?
• The Doctor leverages his status as the Time Lord President. He became President at the end of "The Five Doctors" but of course ran away before he had to do any of the job.
• The Borad is sent to 12th Century Scotland, where the Doctor implies he will eventually become responsible for the legend of the Loch Ness monster. Of course, we've already met the Loch Ness monster in the form of the Skarasen in Terror of the Zygons. This might seem like a contradiction…but honestly I don't think it really is. Two monsters hanging out in Loch Ness being relatively elusive would probably mean they'd get conflated.
• The Doctor never explains how he survives the collision with the Bandril missile. In the original script it was explained as a result of a collision with the TARDIS' time field, a process which apparently took place over the course of several days. Eric Saward cut down the time to a few hours, and seems to have cut the explanation, with the Doctor only vaguely saying "I'll explain one day", which…you know, usually when the Doctor says something like that we either already know the answer or he does actually explain in the same story.

Next Time: The story that kills Daleks with rock and roll

So I just Finished Season 13 of Doctor Who and I must say Their is no other Character that i pity/Hate/Love like the Master. I don't know If having the Master Literally Become the Doctor Is Foreshadowing them becoming Missy or Showing that the Master is envies of the Doctor but either way it is Brilliant. It really shows That at the end of the day deep down in his soul VERY deep down he wants to change he wants to be like the Doctor but they are to Angry.They have been Driven Mad by a noise in their head they have heard for most their life. And its Crazy because every time I'm Like "They will never change" or "Just DIE ALREADY" i just think about how they are Basically doing a River Song and Already did change and Died. It is Crazy. Also sidenote FUCK THE WEEPING ANGELS.