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Classic Season 09 Doctor Who

The Mutants

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Jo are sent on a Time Lord-mandated courier mission, shrouded in secrecy, to the 30th century. His cargo is a small container keyed to the bio-readings of a single being. The TARDIS – temporarily cleared for a single flight to the destination of the Time Lords’ choice – takes them to an Imperial Earth Skybase orbiting the planet Solos, a world whose poisonous atmosphere and proud natives are the only things that have kept the Earth Empire from completely overrunning it. As it turns out, the container the Doctor has brought is intended for Ky, a Solonian national who is on the wrong side of the law, wanted dead or alive by the tyrannical Marshal of the Skybase. Not only is the Doctor fighting the Marshal’s forces from the moment he arrives, but years of the Marshal’s dictatorship have made it unlikely that the Solonians will trust an outsider either – even if the future of their entire species depends on it.

written by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
directed by Christopher Barry
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Paul Whitsun-Jones (Marshal), Geoffrey Palmer (Administrator), Christopher Coll (Stubbs), Rick James (Cotton), James Mellor (Varan), Jonathan Sherwood (Varan’s son), Garrick Hagon (Ky), George Pravda (Jaeger), John Hollis (Sondergaard), Sidney Johnson, David J. Graham (Old Men), Roy Pearce (Solos Guard), David Arlen (Guard Warrior), Damon Sanders, Martin Taylor (Guards), Peter Howell (Investigator)

Broadcast from April 8 through May 13, 1972

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 09 Doctor Who

The Time Monster

Doctor WhoThe Doctor is disturbed by a recent series of dreams whose imagery has included the destruction of the world and the laughing face of the Master. But with no concrete basis for these visions, he ignores them and accompanies Jo as UNIT’s observers to the demonstration of the new TOM-TIT device – standing for Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time. But things go wrong from the start, especially when the Doctor sees that the TOM-TIT research program is actually being run by the Master. The Master demonstrates a mere fraction of TOM-TIT’s potential by snatching soldiers and artillery from World Wars I & II and launching them at UNIT troops. But the Doctor realizes that TOM-TIT’s true power is still largely untapped. The Master plans to capture a Chronovore – a creature which lives outside of the dimension of time and feeds upon temporal energy – harness its power for his continual conquests. The Doctor pursues the Master through time and the lost continent of Atlantis to prevent the Chronovore’s incredible powers from falling into the Master’s hands…but the only way to stop that from happening may be mutual destruction for both Time Lords.

written by Robert Sloman
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Roger Delgado (The Master), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Wanda Moore (Dr. Ingram), Ian Collier (Stuart Hyde), John Wyse (Dr. Percival), Terry Walsh (Window cleaner), Neville Barber (Dr. Cook), Barry Ashton (Proctor), Donald Eccles (Krasis), Keith Dalton (Neophite), Aidan Murphy (Hippias), Marc Boyle (Kronos), George Cormack (Dalios), Gregory Powell (Knight), Simon Legree (Sergeant), Dave Carter (Officer), George Lee (Farmworker), Ingrid Pitt (Galleia), Susan Penhaligon (Lakis), Michael Walker (Miseus), Derek Murcott (Crito), Dave Prowse, Terry Walsh (Minotaur), Melville Jones (Guard), Ingrid Bower (face of Kronos)

Broadcast from May 20 through June 24, 1972

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

The Three Doctors

Doctor WhoUNIT is called in by a radio astronomer whose studies have turned up distinctly unearthly results of late, but even the Doctor can’t imagine the magnitude of the threat. Somewhere within a black hole, a gateway to an antimatter universe, a malevolent being seeks one of his own race to assume his place as the master of a doomed world – and locates a fellow Time Lord on Earth. When the Doctor realizes the nature of the threat, he sends a distress call to the Time Lords, but their power source is also being drained by the black hole, and they can spare no help – aside from sending the Doctor’s earlier incarnations into his own present. The first Doctor is trapped in a time eddy, barely able to contact his future selves, who travel into the black hole – along with Jo, the Brigadier, and Sergeant Benton – to defy the wrath of Omega…the first Time Lord himself.

Season 10 Regular Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Katy Manning (Jo Grant)

Download this episodewritten by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
directed by Lennie Mayne
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Patrick Troughton (The Doctor), William Hartnell (The Doctor), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Stephen Thorne (Omega), Graham Leaman, Tony Lang, Lincoln Wright, Richard Orme, Peter Evans (Time Lords), Clyde Pollitt (Chancellor), Roy Purcell (President), Laurie Webb (Ollis), Patricia Pryor (Mrs. Ollis), Rex Robinson (Dr. Tyler), Denys Palmer (Palmer), Alan Chuntz (Omega’s champion), Cy Town, Ricky Newby, John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar (Gell-guards)

Broadcast from December 30, 1972 through January 20, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

Carnival of Monsters

Doctor WhoInstead of arriving on the fabled blue planet, Metebelis 3, the Doctor and Jo materialize on board a ship in the Indian Ocean in what appears to be 1926. They soon discover, however, that they are in fact trapped in a “miniscope” – a transdimensional “ant farm” in which the humans are but one exhibit. The miniscope is the property of the rapscallion Vorg, a sort of cosmic carny from the planet Lurman who, with his assistant Shirna, is the first off-world visitor to the planet Inter Minor. He is not welcome there, as the local ruling class – officious, humorless bureaucrats – fail to find his portable zoo entertaining and fear that it may teem with germs and contagion. While Vorg awaits deportation and tries to rescue his “collection” (which include a few Ogrons and some nasty giant carnivorous worms called Drashigs), the Doctor finally emerges from the machine – inadvertently abetting the escape of the horrible Drashigs behind him.

Download this episodewritten by Robert Holmes
directed by Barry Letts
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Stuart Fell (Functionary), Michael Wisher (Kalik), Terence Lodge (Orum), Cheryl Hall (Shirna), Leslie Dwyer (Vorg), Tenniel Evans (Major Daly), Andrew Staines (Captain), Ian Marter (Andrews), Jenny McCracken (Claire Daly), Peter Halliday (Pletrac)

Broadcast from January 27 through February 17, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Robert Seulowitz

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

Frontier in Space

Doctor WhoAfter months of seething suspicion, Earth and Draconia are on the brink of all-out war, with small skirmishes and raids already taking place. As the TARDIS brings the Doctor and Jo into the fray, they discover that those raids are not all that they seem; the attacks are being carried out by neither Earth nor Draconia, but a third party trying to force the two worlds closer to the beginning of war. The Doctor is outraged to discover that this third party is the Master, working with a hired band of Ogron mercenaries, but the Doctor’s attempts to warn both the president of Earth and the royal house on Draconia go largely unheeded – until it is too late. The Doctor, Jo, and several skeptical humans and Draconians track the Master down, discovering that the war is only part of his plan. For the Master has enlisted the help of his deadliest allies yet: the Daleks.

written by Malcolm Hulke
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Roger Delgado (The Master), John Rees (Hardy), James Culliford (Stewart), Roy Pattison (Draconian Pilot), Peter Birrel (Draconian Prince), Vera Fusek (President), Michael Hawkins (Williams), Louis Mahoney (Newscaster), Karol Hagar (Secretary), Ray Lonn Ashton (Kemp), Lawrence Davidson (Draconian First Secretary), Timothy Craven (Guard), Luan Peters (Sheila), Caroline Hunt (Technician), Madhav Sharma (Patel), Richard Shaw (Cross), Dennis Bowen (Governor), Harold Goldblatt (Professor Dale), Laurence Harrington (Guard), Bill Wilde (Draconian Captain), Stephen Thorne, Michael Kilgarriff, Rick Lester (Ogrons), John Woodnutt (Emperor), Ian Frost (Draconian Messenger), Clifford Elkin (Earth Cruiser Captain), Bill Mitchell (Newscaster), Ramsay Williams (Brook), Stanley Price (Pilot), John Scott Martin, Cy Town, Murphy Grumbar (Daleks), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices)

Broadcast from February 24 through March 31, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

Planet of the Daleks

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS continues toward the planet Spiridon, the location of the hidden Dalek army that could overrun the entire galaxy. The injured Doctor falls into a self-induced healing coma, leaving Jo few instructions. When the TARDIS lands, Jo ventures out into the poisonous jungle on Spiridon, eventually encountering a military expedition of Thals, the Daleks’ mortal enemies from Skaro. The Thals manage to get the Doctor to safety and join him on a mission to keep the Dalek army from launching its offensive. The invisible natives of Spiridon, enslaved by the Daleks, are another hazard, along with the lethal vegetation. When the Dalek Supreme arrives to lead its army into battle, it appears that the Doctor may be too late to stop his old rivals.

written by Terry Nation
directed by David Maloney and Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Bernard Horsfall (Taron), Prentis Hancock (Vaber), Tim Preece (Codal), Roy Skelton (Wester), Jane How (Rebec), Hilary Minster (Marat), Alan Tucker (Latep), Tony Starr (Dalek Supreme), John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Cy Town (Daleks), Michael Wisher, Roy Skelton (Dalek voices)

Broadcast from April 7 through May 12, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

The Green Death

Doctor WhoProblems at a Welsh mining operation draw the attention of UNIT. The Brigadier is frustrated by the usual lack of cooperation from the mining company, Global Chemicals, but the Doctor is more interested in the rash of mysterious deaths among Global’s miners. He goes down into the mine himself to learn more about the glowing green ooze that has killed almost every miner who has touched it, and discovers a horrifying sight – giant maggots, mutated to a grotesque size by Global’s waste chemicals, are secreting the deadly substance and may even be growing hostile enough to attack humans. Despite this revelation (and the well-meaning interference of local environmental protesters), however, Global Chemicals’ chairman refuses to shut down the mines – and it soon becomes evident that someone else is in charge of the operation, someone or something whose sinister motives may include allowing the poisonous insect larvae to reach the surface and hatch into equally deadly giant insects.

Download this episodewritten by Robert Sloman
directed by Michael Briant
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Stewart Bevan (Professor Clifford Jones), Jerome Willis (Stevens), John Scott Martin (Hughes), Ben Howard (Hinks), Tony Adams (Elgin), Mostyn Evans (Dai Evans), Ray Handy (Milkman), Talfryn Thomas (Dave), Roy Evans (Bert), John Dearth (voice of BOSS), John Rolfe (Fell), Terry Walsh, Billy Horrigan, Brian Justice, Alan Chuntz (Guards), Mitzi McKenzie (Nancy), Jean Burgess (Cleaner), Roy Skelton (James), Richard Beale (Minister of Ecology)

Broadcast from May 19 through June 23, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

The Time Warrior

Doctor WhoA battle-scarred Sontaran spaceship crashes in medieval England near the castle of Irongron, a plundering pirate who intends to overrun the nearby castle belonging to Sir Edward of Wessex. Linx, the Sontaran warrior, strikes an agreement with Irongron – Linx can repair his ship in Irongron’s castle, in exchange for giving him advanced weapons which are centuries ahead of the times. But Linx finds it impossible to conduct his repairs with nothing more advanced than Irongron’s forge, so he used what’s left of his ship’s technology to abduct scientists and materials from the 20th century. U.N.I.T. is called in to investigate, and the Brigadier isolates all of the remaining scientists who are likely to vanish in one securely guarded premise. But when another scientist disappears under the Doctor’s nose, he follows the trail to Irongron’s castle, where he finds himself up against the much more powerful and warlike Linx.

written by Robert Holmes
directed by Alan Bromly
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Kevin Lindsay (Linx), David Daker (Irongron), John J. Carney (Bloodaxe), Sheila Fay (Meg), Donald Pelmear (Professor Rubeish), June Brown (Lady Eleanor), Alan Rowe (Edward of Wessex), Gordon Pitt (Eric), Jeremy Bulloch (Hal), Steve Brunswick (Sentry), Jacqueline Stanbury (Mary)

Broadcast from December 15, 1973 through January 5, 1974

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith return from their medieval adventure, but when they arrive in modern-day London, the streets are bare, the people are nowhere to be seen, and dinosaurs stalk the streets. Like everyone else, the Brigadier and UNIT have gone underground, hiding from the enormous reptiles while they try to figure out what suddenly brought them to the present day. The Doctor and Sarah soon discover that it’s the product of an illegal time experiment designed to restore Earth to simpler, less polluted, less corrupt times – and it has come about thanks to a startling betrayal by one of the Brigadier’s most trusted officers.

written by Malcolm Hulke
directed by Paddy Russell
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Noel Johnson (Charles Grover), Peter Miles (Professor Whitaker), Martin Jarvis (Butler), Pat Gorman (UNIT Corporal), James Marcus (Peasant), Ben Aris (Shears), John Caesar (Soldier), Gordon Reid (Phillips), George Bryson (Ogden), Terry Walsh (Looter), John Bennett (General Finch), Martin Taylor (Corporal Norton), Dave Carter (Duffy), Terence Wilton (Mark), Brian Badcoe (Adam), Carmen Silvera (Ruth), Colin Bell (Bryson), Timothy Craven (Robinson), Trevor Lawrence (Lodge)

Broadcast from January 12 through February 16, 1974

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

Death To The Daleks – Part 1

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS brings the Doctor and Sarah to Exxilon, but not by choice – an enormous sentient city on the planet drains so much energy from everything around it that the TARDIS is quickly rendered powerless. And the Doctor is not the only unwelcome visitor on Exxilon: an expedition of humans is there mining a substance necessary to cure a plague on Earth, though their ship is now useless. They called for backup from a relief ship, but to their horror, the ship that shows up comes down for a hard landing…and in any case, it’s not another human expedition. The ship that arrives is full of Daleks, on a mission seeking that same precious drug. As the human expedition’s weapons are useless, they and the Doctor are powerless as the Daleks line them up for extermination.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael Bryant
music by Carey Blyton and played by the London Saxophone Quartet

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Duncan Lamont (Dan Galloway), John Abineri (Richard Railton), Neil Seiler (Commander Stewart), Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton), Joy Harrison (Jill Tarrant), Mostyn Evans (High Priest), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Cy Town (Dalek), Murphy Grunbar (Dalek)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

Death To The Daleks – Part 2

Doctor WhoThe newly-arrived Dalek expedition is just as helpless as the humans; just like their ship (and everyone else’s technology), the Daleks’ exterminating weapons are also left without power. Sarah, captured by the Exxilons, is prepared as the next sacrifice to the living city, which the Exxilons worship. A combined force of humans and Daleks, along with the Doctor, is ambushed by armed Exxilons and captured; once taken back to the Exxilons’ caves, the Doctor commits a grievous offense: attacking the high priest to stop Sarah from being sacrificed. The Daleks parlay with the Exxilons for their own release and that of the humans; unknown to them, the Daleks remaining on their ship are outfitting themselves with mechanical chemical weapons – the equivalent of Earth rifles. These newly armed Daleks storm the Exxilons’ caves, establishing dominance over the primitives, and the Doctor and Sarah escape their own sacrifice/execution ceremony, finding themselves in deeper underground tunnels…and whatever the Exxilons expected to sacrifice them to still awaits them.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael Bryant
music by Carey Blyton and played by the London Saxophone Quartet

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Duncan Lamont (Dan Galloway), John Abineri (Richard Railton), Neil Seiler (Commander Stewart), Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton), Joy Harrison (Jill Tarrant), Mostyn Evans (High Priest), Arnold Yarrow (Bellal), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Cy Town (Dalek), Murphy Grunbar (Dalek)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

Death To The Daleks – Part 3

Doctor WhoAs the Doctor expects, the electronic “root” is deadly to touch. Elsewhere in the caverns, Sarah is cornered by an Exxilon…one who actually speaks English. His name is Bellal, and he means no harm; he’s a member of a small group of Exxilons who have chosen rationality over the religion based on worship of the city. Before any further introductions can be made, Sarah and Bellal have to hide from two Daleks, who then follow the Doctor further into the tunnels, where they too encounter the “root”…only to discover it’s dangerous to Daleks as well. The root is part of the city’s automated systems, and Bellal reveals that the city is the invention of the Exxilons themselves…and unless they destroy that invention, it will wipe them out. On the surface, the Daleks have subjugated the more primitive Exxilons, turning them into a slave labor force…with help from Galloway, to his crewmates’ disgust. The Doctor and Bellal go to the city to try to gain entry, finding that each successive entryway is locked, and can only be opened by solving logic puzzles…and failing any of these tests could be deadly.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael Bryant
music by Carey Blyton and played by the London Saxophone Quartet

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Duncan Lamont (Dan Galloway), Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton), Joy Harrison (Jill Tarrant), Arnold Yarrow (Bellal), Roy Heymann (Gotal), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Murphy Grumbar (Dalek), Cy Town (Dalek)

Notes: The Doctor claims he’s seen the symbols from the Exxilon city in a Peruvian temple, which means that before the fall of their civilization, they were themselves capable of interstellar travel.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

Death To The Daleks – Part 4

Doctor WhoAs the logic tests allowing passage further into the Exxilon City become more devious, the Doctor and Bellal have to be more cautious. The Daleks, on the other hand, power through the puzzles and traps with a combination of brute force and their rapidly-calculating battle computers. The Doctor and Bellal reach what appears to be the end of their journey – the city’s control room. The Doctor sets about dismantling the primary computer “brain” of the city, while the city retaliates by slowly materializing zombie-like “antibodies” to destroy the interlopers – whether they’re flesh and blood or Daleks. Sarah reaches Jill Tarrant, one of the surviving crew of the Earth ship, and begins planning to double-cross the Daleks, loading all of the needed substance aboard the Earth ship while the Daleks end up with bags of sand. When the city begins to self-destruct, the Daleks regain all of their deadly powers…but one of their human prisoners has a final trick up his sleeve.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael Bryant
music by Carey Blyton and played by the London Saxophone Quartet

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Duncan Lamont (Dan Galloway), John Abineri (Richard Railton), Neil Seiler (Commander Stewart), Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton), Joy Harrison (Jill Tarrant), Arnold Yarrow (Bellal), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Cy Town (Dalek), Murphy Grunbar (Dalek), Steven Ismay (Zombie), Terry Walsh (Zombie)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

The Monster of Peladon

Doctor WhoThe Doctor brings Sarah to the planet Peladon, a world he last visited with Jo Grant in tow. But it’s a place still plagued by trouble. Queen Thalira, the daughter of the young King that the Doctor met on his previous visit, is facing an uprising among Peladon’s mineworkers. Little does she know, there are also worse threats ahead if the miners shut off Peladon’s export of a vital mineral. Alpha Centauri is still serving as an ambassador, trying to smooth things over, but someone is working against the Queen and the miners – and the mighty best Aggedor may be unable to stop them. This time, are the Doctor’s instincts about the Ice Warriors correct?

written by Brian Hayles
directed by Lennie Mayne
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Ralph Watson (Ettis), Donald Gee (Eckersley), Gerald Taylor (Vega Nexos), Nina Thomas (Queen Thalira), Frank Gatcliffe (Ortron), Michael Crane (Blor), Stuart Fell (Alpha Centauri), Ysanne Churchman (voice of Alpha Centauri), Terry Walsh (Captain), Rex Robinson (Gebek), Graeme Eton (Preba), Nick Hobbs (Aggedor), Roy Evans (Rima), Sonny Caldinez (Sskel), Alan Bennion (Azaxyr), Max Faulkner (Miner)

Broadcast from March 23 through April 27, 1974

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

Planet of the Spiders

Doctor WhoPast events catch up with the Doctor in an unexpected way. A race of evil giant spiders on Metebelis 3 is looking for one of their planet’s perfect blue crystals to complete a crystal “web” that will broadcast the will of their leader, the Great One (not Jackie Gleason), across the entire universe. But the Doctor stole that crystal during a previous visit without realizing its significance, and his actions have drawn unwanted attention to Earth. The spiders use a monastery in the English countryside as their gateway to Earth, taking over the minds of a criminally-minded man named Lupton whose meditations have failed to turn him into a better person. In the end, the Doctor is obliged to return the crystal to prevent Earth from being overrun by the spiders – but the personal cost will be very high.

written by Robert Sloman
directed by Barry Letts
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Richard Franklin (Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), John Dearth (Lupton), Terence Lodge (Moss), Andrew Staines (Keaver), Christopher Burgess (Barnes), Carl Forgione (Land), Cyril Shaps (Professor Clegg), Kevin Lindsay (Cho-Je), John Kane (Tommy), Pat Gorman (Soldier), Chubby Oates (Policeman), Terry Walsh (Man with boat), Michael Pinder (Hopkins), Ysanne Churchman, Kismet Delgado, Maureen Morris (Spider voices), Ralph Arliss (Tuar), Geoffrey Morris (Sabor), Joanna Monro (Rega), Gareth Hunt (Arak), Jenny Laird (Neska), Walter Randall (Captain), Max Faulkner (Second Captain), Maureen Morris (Great One), George Cormack (K’anpo)

Broadcast from May 4 through June 8, 1974

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green