Category: Doctor Who

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Classic Season 15 Doctor Who

Underworld

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Leela find themselves at the edge of a galaxy, near an enormous nebula that could wreak untold damage on the TARDIS. To avoid this, the Doctor forces his ship to materialize on a nearby spacecraft. When he announces himself to the ship’s crew, they regard Leela as a threat (and harmlessly quell her bloodlust with their pacification beam), but they regard the Doctor as a god. He has come aboard a starship crewed by the last of the Minyans, a race who the Time Lords aided and augmented – and who then destroyed themselves with the aid of their new technology, the incident that caused the Time Lords to withdraw into their non-intervention policy. Unlike Time Lords, the Minyans can regenerate thousands of times, with enough control over the process that they seem to simply become younger again when their bodies wear out, and they’ve been on this flight for thousands of years. Their quest is to find the P7E, a lost Minyan sister ship whose cargo of genetic material could revitalize the species. Their obstacle is that they can’t seem to find the P7E, until the Doctor discovers that the missing ship is now the core of a forming planetoid – and that the descendants of its crew have taken on a new form entirely, a society that the Minyan searchers can’t even recognize – a society that could kill them all before they reach their goal.

Download this episodewritten by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
directed by Norman Stewart
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: James Maxwell (Jackson), Alan Lake (Herrick), Imogen Bickford-Smith (Tala), Jonathan Newth (Orfe), Jimmy Gardner (Idmon), Norman Tipton (Idas), Godfrey James (Tarn), James Marcus (Rask), Jay Neill (Klimt), Frank Jarvis (Ankh), Richard Shaw (Lakh), Stacey Tendeter (Naia), Christine Pollon (voice of the Oracle)

Broadcast from January 7 through 28, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 15 Doctor Who

The Invasion Of Time

Doctor WhoThe Doctor returns, unbidden, to Gallifrey, claiming the Presidency of the High Council. Leela knows something is wrong, as she has witnessed his meetings with a shadowy group of aliens prior to returning to his homeworld. The Time Lords are aghast at the Doctor’s breach of their power structure, to say nothing of him bringing an alien among them. But when the aliens Leela saw earlier materialize in Gallifrey’s Capitol, all hell breaks loose – the Doctor orders many Time Lords, including his old mentor Borusa, expelled to the harsh surface of Gallifrey beyond the city domes. Leela is also thrown out, though she finds herself quite at home with the primitive nomadic tribes of homeless non-Time Lords known as the Shobogans. Leela rallies both Shobogans and exiled Time Lords to mount a resistance against the Doctor and his shady Vardan allies, but when the invasion is put down, everyone discovers that it was a ruse to allow a far more powerful enemy to slip into the heart of Gallifrey.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Anthony Read and Graham Williams
directed by Gerald Blake
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Milton Johns (Kelner), John Arnatt (Borusa), Stan McGowan (Vardan Leader), Chris Tranchell (Andred), Dennis Edwards (Gomer), Tom Kelly (Vardan), Reginald Jessup (Savar), Charles Morgan (Gold Usher), Hilary Ryan (Rodan), Max Faulkner (Nesbin), Christopher Christou (Chancellery Guard), Michael Harley (Bodyguard), Ray Callaghan (Ablif), Gai Smith (Presta), Michael Mundell (Jasko), Eric Danot (Guard), Derek Deadman (Stor), Stuart Fell (Sontaran)

Broadcast from February 4 through March 11, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 16 Doctor Who

The Ribos Operation

.Doctor WhoThe Doctor’s TARDIS is diverted to an unknown place. Upon landing, the Doctor meets the White Guardian, a being more powerful than even the Time Lords, who has chosen the Doctor to retrieve the six missing segments of the Key To Time, which will supposedly restore time and space to a more balanced state. With a new version of K9 up and running, the Doctor is keen to undertake this adventure alone, but again, the Guardian chooses a new companion for the Doctor, a Time Lady named Romanadvortrelundar.

The search for the first of the Key To Time’s six segments leads the Doctor, K9 and Romana to an unlikely place for such an item: the backwards planet Ribos. The natives are wrapped up in superstition and tradition, and they’re largely unaware that their planet is being targeted for takeover by the mad exiled warlord Graff Vynda-K. But even the Graff is being targeted on Ribos by a pair of con men who hope he’ll pay handsomely for directions which will supposedly lead him to a lost mine containing enough of the mineral jethrik to fund his operation. And when everyone’s plans are exposed, they believe the Doctor and Romana are the responsible party.

Season 16 Regular Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Mary Tamm (Romana), John Leeson (voice of K-9)

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Robert Holmes
directed by George Spenton-Foster
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Iain Cuthbertson (Garron), Nigel Plaskitt (Unstoffe), Paul Seed (Graff Vynda-K), Robert Keegan (Sholakh), Prentis Hancock (Captain), Timothy Bateson (Binro), Ann Tirard (Seeker), Cyril Luckham (White Guardian)

Broadcast from September 2 through 23, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 16 Doctor Who

The Pirate Planet

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Romana learn that the second segment of the Key to Time is on Calufrax, a planet described by the Doctor as an uninviting place. After the TARDIS inexplicably fails to land, it brings them to a world which is nothing like Calufrax – instead, it’s inhabited, prosperous (at least on first glance), and unbelievably rich. But the prosperity is a thin charade; the Captain lords over the planet with an iron fist, while repeatedly bringing his subjects new epochs of prosperity with alarming regularity. And a group of rogue telepaths called Mentiads wander the wilds of the planet, drawing the wrath of the Captain and suspicion from everyone else. The Doctor discovers that this world is hollow. And whether it is by his own hand in the name of restoring the Key to Time, or by the hand of the Captain – who isn’t as in charge of the situation as it appears – the planet Calufrax is doomed.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Douglas Adams
directed by Pennant Roberts
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Bruce Purchase (Captain), Andrew Robertson (Mr. Fibuli), Rosalind Lloyd (Nurse), David Sibley (Pralix), Bernard Finch (Mentiad), Ralph Michael (Balaton), Primi Townsend (Mula), David Warwick (Kimus), Clive Bennett (Citizen), Adam Kurkin (Guard), Vi Delmar (Queen Xanxia)

Broadcast from September 30 through October 21, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 16 Doctor Who

The Stones Of Blood

Doctor WhoThe search for the Key to Time brings the Doctor and Romana to modern-day England, very close to a stone circle being studied by Professor Amelia Rumford and her friend Vivien Fey. Romana is alarmed to see real evidence that a live animal may have been sacrificed at the stones very recently, but is told by Professor Rumford that it’s probably just the work of an overenthusiastic local group of Druid recreationists. But it’s not just would-be Druids who are moving around the circle – Professor Rumford is convinced that the stones themselves are moving. The Doctor and K-9 witness this for themselves, as an unknown force uses an apparition of the Doctor to lure Romana over the edge of a cliff. The stakes are higher now than anything that the Druid afficionados could imagine – one of the galaxy’s most feared criminals is hiding out on Earth, using the rock-like Ogri to enforce her will…and hide her identity.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by David Fisher
directed by Darrol Blake
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Susan Engel (Vivien Fay), Beatrix Lehmann (Professor Rumford), Nicholas McArdle (De Vries), Elaine Ives-Cameron (Martha), Gerald Cross (Megara voice), David McAlister (Megara voice), James Murray (Camper), Shirin Taylor (Camper), Gerald Cross (voice of the Guardian), James Muir (Druid), Ian Munroe (Druid), Margaret Pilleau (Druid), Judy Crowne (Druid), Decima Delaney (Druid), Mike Mungarvan (Druid)

Broadcast from October 28 through November 18, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 16 Doctor Who

The Androids Of Tara

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Romana arrive on the planet Tara, searching for the fourth segment of the Key to Time, but this time around the Doctor feels he’s entitled to some vacation time. Romana goes on to find the fourth segment herself while the Doctor does some fishing, but this places them both in danger. Romana encounters the conniving Count Grendel of Gracht, a duplicitous duke who aspires to Tara’s throne, and he promptly takes her prisoner, apparently believing her to be an android. The Doctor, in the meantime, is found by a small band of men loyal to Prince Reynart, the rightful heir to the throne, who is in hiding due to Grendel’s machinations. Reynart has one defense – a perfect android replica of himself – which isn’t working. The Doctor accompanies Reynart’s men and his newly repaired android to the prince’s coronation while the prince himself waits in seclusion. But it gets much more complicated than that when each side tries to outfox the other with android replicas – and Count Grendel may hold the winning piece, for he intends to replace Princess Strella, unwilling to be forced into a marriage to Prince Reynart, with her identical twin: Romana.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by David Fisher
directed by Michael Hayes
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Peter Jeffrey (Count Grendel), Neville Jason (Prince Reynart), Simon Lack (Zadek), Paul Lavers (Farrah), Lois Baxter (Madame Lamia), Declan Mulholland (Till), Martin Matthews (Kurster), Cyril Shaps (Archimandrite), Mary Tamm (Strella)

Broadcast from November 25 through December 16, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 16 Doctor Who

The Power Of Kroll

Doctor WhoArriving on the third moon of Delta Magna, the Doctor and Romana are forced to leave K-9 in the TARDIS as they explore the swampy marshes in search of the fifth segment. The Doctor runs afoul of human miners who seem to have mistaken him for the notorious gun runner Rohm Dutt, while Romana is abducted by the displaced indigenous population of Delta Magna. Dubbed the “swampies” by the employees of the human mining colony, the natives have contracted with Rohm Dutt for weapons and training, hoping to boost their fight to free themselves from servitude to the human interlopers. The swampies worship Kroll, an enormous, squid-like being measuring almost five miles across, though the miners don’t believe a word of it…until it appears. When the Doctor and Romana learn that Kroll isn’t holding the fifth segment, but is the fifth segment, to say that they have a large problem on their hands is a bit of an understatement.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Robert Holmes
directed by Norman Stewart
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Neil McCarthy (Thawn), Philip Madoc (Fenner), Grahame Mallard (Harg), Glyn Owen (Rohm Dutt), John Leeson (Dugeen), Terry Walsh (Mensch), Carl Rigg (Varlik), John Abineri (Ranquin), Frank Jarvis (Skart)

Broadcast from 23 December 1978 through 13 January 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 16 Doctor Who

The Armageddon Factor

Doctor WhoIn one of the better stories of the late 1970s, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 stumble into the middle of a fierce interplanetary nuclear war. The Atrios war effort is faltering, its population demoralized, because unknown to them, the Zeon war machine lives up to its name in the most literal way. Zeos is controlled by a computer, and there are no Zeons, just remote controlled attack ships. Somewhere in the darkness between the two planets lurks a third party, pulling the strings of both sides in the war. The hand of the Black Guardian becomes visible in moving the pieces in this game, and the Doctor is horrified to discover that he will have to take a life to complete the Key to Time.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
directed by Michael Hayes
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Lalla Ward (Princess Astra), John Woodvine (Marshal), William Squire (The Shadow), Ian Saynor (Merak), Davyd Harries (Shapp), Valentine Dyall (Black Guardian), Barry Jackson (Drax), Ian Liston (Hero), Susan Skipper (Heroine), John Cannon, Harry Fielder (Guards), Iain Armstrong (Technician), Pat Gorman (Pilot), Stephen Calcutt (Super Mute)

Broadcast from January 20 through February 24, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 17 Doctor Who

Destiny Of The Daleks

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS brings the Doctor and Romana to a desolate wasteland of a planet, one whose atmosphere is so radioactive that it can be toxic even to Time Lords without proper precautions – the post-atomic-war Skaro, home world of the Daleks. When the two are separated, Romana is trailed by a disheveled human. Convinced that he means her harm, she runs right into a barely-buried chute that deposits her underground in the waiting arms of the Daleks themselves. The Doctor meets the attractive humanoid crew of a nearby space vessel, who call themselves Movellans. At war with the spacefaring Daleks for centuries, the Movellans have followed their enemies back to Skaro to prevent them from unearthing a “secret weapon”: Davros, whose life support system was damaged but not disabled, has apparently survived in a dormant state. His more emotional, cunning strategies could give the Daleks the edge. The Movellans hope that the Doctor and Romana can give them the same edge – and worst of all, the two Time Lords aren’t exactly being given a choice about replacing the Movellans’ battle computers.

Season 17 Regular Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), David Brierly (voice of K9)

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Terry Nation
directed by Ken Grieve
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Tim Barlow (Tyssan), Peter Straker (Commander Sharrel), Suzanne Danielle (Agella), Tony Osoba (Lan), David Gooderson (Davros), Roy Skelton, David Gooderson (Dalek voices), Cy Town, Mike Mungarvan, Toby Byrne, Tony Starr (Daleks), Penny Casdagla (Jall), David Yip (Veldan)

Broadcast from September 1 through 22, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 17 Doctor Who

City of Death

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Romana are paying a visit to Paris in 1979 when they both sense an interruption in time. Dismissing it as a freak occurrence, they visit the Louvre, where the Doctor suffers a dizzy spell as the result of another time interference. The Doctor also uncovers a plot to steal the Mona Lisa, attracting the attention of two parties: a bunch of armed thugs working for the obscenely rich Count Scarlioni, and another armed – though less proficient – thug, detective Duggan, who has been trailing Scarlioni on a hunch that the Count plans to lift the painting. Scarlioni’s men kidnap the Doctor, Romana and Duggan to his mansion, where the Doctor realizes that Scarlioni is embarking on hazardous time experiments with technology that couldn’t possibly exist on 20th century Earth. As it turns out, the alien being that calls itself Count Scarlioni is well on his way to stealing the Mona Lisa, but that is merely a diversion, the tip of the iceberg in a plot to revive his extinct alien species…at the cost of erasing the human race from history itself.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by David Agnew (a.k.a. Douglas Adams & Graham Williams)
directed by Michael Hayes
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Julian Glover (Scaroth/Count Scarlioni/Captain Tancredi), Catherine Schell (Countess Scarlioni), Tom Chadbon (Duggan), David Graham (Professor Kerensky), Kevin Flood (Hermann), Peter Halliday (Soldier), Pamela Stirling (Louvre Guide), John Cleese, Eleanor Bron (Gallery visitors)

Broadcast from September 29 through October 20, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 17 Doctor Who

The Creature From The Pit

Doctor WhoThe Doctor, Romana and K9 follow an urgent distress call to the planet Chloris, whose ruler, Lady Adrasta, lords over the planet’s resources and meets any challenge with a threat of war. But the greatest threat to Adrasta’s empire is her own short-sightedness in imprisoning an ambassador from another world who only wishes to open a peaceful exchange between their two worlds. The Doctor could help to start the negotiations, but he has been consigned to the pit along with the ambassador.

Download this episodewritten by David Fisher
directed by Christopher Barry
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Myra Frances (Lady Adrasta), Eileen Way (Karela), Geoffrey Bayldon (Organon), David Telfer (Huntsman), John Bryans (Torvin), Edward Kelsey (Edu), Tim Munro (Ainu), Tommy Wright (Guard Master), Terry Walsh (Doran), Morris Barry (Tollund), Philip Denyer, Dave Redgrave (Guards)

Broadcast from October 27 through November 17, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 17 Doctor Who

Nightmare of Eden

Doctor WhoTwo spacecraft collide in hyperspace, one of them a passenger liner loaded with vacationers. The Doctor and Romana witness it all but, as they try to lend aid, they discover that something more sinister is happening: the captain of the passenger ship was, at the time of the accident, high on a potent and addictive narcotic called vraxoin. When the proper authorities arrive to investigate, they naturally point the finger of blame at the two most recent arrivals – the Doctor, Romana and K-9. But what the Doctor finds out is more disturbing than a mere drug ring. Vraxoin itself is created only from the residue left by the death of humanoid creatures called Mandrels – and someone is transporting live Mandrels undetected, intending to kill them to create more of the drug.

Download this episodewritten by Bob Baker
directed by Alan Bromly
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: David Daker (Rigg), Lewis Fiander (Tryst), Jennifer Lonsdale (Della), Geoffrey Bateman (Dymond), Barry Andrews (Stott), Stephen Jenn (Secker), Geoffrey Hinsliff (Fisk), Peter Craze (Costa), Pamela Ruddock (Computer voice), Richard Barnes, Sebastian Stride, Eden Phillips (Crewmen), Annette Peters, Lionel Sansby, Peter Roberts, Maggie Petersen (Passengers), Billy Gray (Wounded passenger), James Muir, Derek Suthern, David Korff, Jan Murzynowski, Robert Goodman (Mandrels)

Broadcast from November 24 through December 15, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 17 Doctor Who

The Horns Of Nimon – Part 1

Doctor WhoOne of the last mighty battlecruisers of the Skonnon Empire is being used to ferry a load of young slaves from the planet Aneth, until its already overworked engines are pushed past the breaking point, stalling the ship in space. By coincidence, the TARDIS is also at a dead stop in space nearby while the Doctor disassembles the time rotor for an overhaul. But a singularity in this area of space is drawing both ships together…toward their doom. Despite his reservations about repairing a slaver’s ship, the Doctor decides to err on the side of saving lives and repairs the ship – but as soon as he does, the surviving Skonnon co-pilot ditches the TARDIS and takes off with Romana still aboard.

Order this story on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Anthony Read
directed by Kenny McBain
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), David Brierly (voice of K9), Simon Gipps-Kent (Seth), Janet Ellis (Teka), Graham Crowden (Soldeed), Michael Osborne (Sorak), Malcolm Terris (Co-pilot), Bob Hornery (Pilot), Clifford Norgate (Nimon voices), John Bailey (Sezom), Robin Sherringham, Bob Appleby, Trevor St. John Hacker (Nimon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 17 Doctor Who

The Horns Of Nimon – Part 2

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and K9 find themselves in the path of a massive planetoid being pulled into the singularity, but the Doctor manages to bounce the TARDIS off of the planetoid. On Skonnos, a sycophantic leader named Soldeed begs a creature called the Nimon for more time, as Soldeed’s people continue to search for the missing slaver ship. Thanks to the Doctor’s repairs, the ship does make its way back to Skonnos, where the young slaves – and Romana – are to be handed over to the Nimon as a “tribute.” The Doctor manages to patch up the TARDIS and follow the ship to Skonnos, where he is promptly thrown into the complex of the Nimon.

Order this story on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Anthony Read
directed by Kenny McBain
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), David Brierly (voice of K9), Simon Gipps-Kent (Seth), Janet Ellis (Teka), Graham Crowden (Soldeed), Michael Osborne (Sorak), Malcolm Terris (Co-pilot), Bob Hornery (Pilot), Clifford Norgate (Nimon voices), John Bailey (Sezom), Robin Sherringham, Bob Appleby, Trevor St. John Hacker (Nimon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 17 Doctor Who

The Horns Of Nimon – Part 3

Doctor WhoWhile Seth and Teka worry about finding an exit from the maze, the Doctor and Romana are more interested in finding what is at the center of the maze, and at the heart of the Nimon’s operation. What they find there is a room full of equipment for diverting immense amounts of power to a matter transmitter. He and his friends then have to hide as the Nimon itself approaches, operating the equipment now that it has the tribute from Aneth to bring his complex up to full power. A pod appears in the transmat chamber, carrying two more Nimon, with more to come. The tributes of slaves and material from Skonnos are merely helping the Nimon’s own invasion plans, which will not benefit Skonnos in any way. Once the Nimon have left, Romana sits in the transmat pod to analyze it, and is accidentally sent to Crinoth, the Nimon’s home world.

Order this story on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Anthony Read
directed by Kenny McBain
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), David Brierly (voice of K9), Simon Gipps-Kent (Seth), Janet Ellis (Teka), Graham Crowden (Soldeed), Michael Osborne (Sorak), Malcolm Terris (Co-pilot), Bob Hornery (Pilot), Clifford Norgate (Nimon voices), John Bailey (Sezom), Robin Sherringham, Bob Appleby, Trevor St. John Hacker (Nimon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green