Season 8 - Days 279 to 303

Broadcast Dates: 2nd January 1971 - 19th June 1971

Relative Dates: 27th August 2012 - 20th September 2012


It's bye bye to Liz, hello to Jo, and the debut of one of the Doctor's oldest and greatest enemies - The Master!

Terror Of The Autons

Poor Liz Shaw. She joins the small rank of companions who doesn't get a proper departure from the show. Instead we are told that she has left without us actually getting to see it in a similar manner to Dodo's departure at the end of season 3. The main difference is that I actually missed Liz and, not to be too blunt, I couldn't give a crap what happened to Dodo!

The reason for Liz being written out of the series was due to the production team feeling that as a scientist she was too brainy a companion for the Doctor to have. I'm not sure I quite agree with this and I think Liz was a great companion. So now, believing that the companion should serve the role of the audience and ask all the necessary questions to the Doctor, we get Jo Grant.

Whilst Jo Grant doesn't have the same intelligence as Liz she is still a fantastic companion who is incredibly loyal to the Doctor. Their relationship doesn't get off to the greatest of starts however as she ends up ruining one of the Doctor's experiments the very first time she meets him!

This story was also the debut of major character in the history of Doctor Who, The Master!
It's interesting to note that with a Doctor who was exiled to Earth, the series took on a sort of Sherlock Holmes feel to it. The Doctor was Sherlock, the Brigadier was Doctor Watson and all that was missing was Moriarty. The Doctor's Moriarty arrives at the start of season 8 in the form of the Master.

No one has quite cracked the character of the Master as superbly as Roger Delgado, the first Master. He's one of those villains that seems just so charming that you can't help but like him despite his evil schemes. He also has a face that fits a villain. What I always find so weird too is the fact that everyone who is ever asked about Delgado enthuse about what an absolutely lovely man he was! Now obviously I didn't expect him to be associating with Autons, Axons and Sea Devils in an attempt to take over the world but I always find it interesting that someone so nice can play such a bastard!

The Autons also return in this story. You would never have guessed that from the title would you? This time they are working with the Master and this time the Autons' plans are even more creepy. They are suffocating people in plastic chairs, setting toy dolls on people to strangle them (think they got complaints about this one!). Jo also comes off badly when she encounters one of the plastic daffodils that the Autons are distributing. In one of the more disturbing moments in the series we see Jo struggling as the daffodil fires a plastic film over her mouth and nose causing her to suffocate. Luckily the Doctor is on hand to save her.

The Mind Of Evil

This was the first time that I had ever seen this story as it was not officially out on DVD. The release of the story has been delayed due to the extensive work that has been needed on it. This was one of the stories that partly only exists in black and white so a team of experts have been working round the clock to re colourise the episodes. Now I bet that's a job that requires patience! I imagine after staring at this story for so long you'd never be able to enjoy watching it again as you'd be sick of the sight of it!

The Master is back and this time he is in the guise of Professor Keller and is using his Keller machine to remove all the negative impulses from a group of prisoners. Seems reasonable enough if a little against human rights. However strange things start happening around the machine when people start dying from fright whilst being presented with some of their worst fears being implanted in their minds by the machine. There is a nice call back to Inferno when the Doctor is presented with the image of flames and he tells Jo how he has recently seen a world destroyed in fire. Its unusual at this point in the series for events from previous stories to have an impact on later ones so its nice to see the Doctor still trying to come to terms with the horrific events at the end of Inferno.

Most of the action is centred around the prison, we get some great scenes of UNIT storming the prison in order to save the Doctor and Jo once the Master has taken over.

I must admit I can't remember all too much about this one as I've only seen it the once but I'm very much looking forward to the re colourised version coming out on DVD so I can watch it again.

The Claws Of Axos

The Master is back....again. Yes in case you hadn't worked it out yet the Master is the villain in every single story of season 8 which is...well...interesting I suppose. It's a bit of a strange choice. By the third story the anticipation of the Master's return becomes less and less.

However we also begin to realise the flaw in the Master plans. He always seems to ally himself with another alien race (here it's with the Axons) and they always end up screwing him over! You'd think he'd learn really.

The Axons spaceship is a fascinating place. A biological ship with a lot of freaky stuff going on inside and phallic looking protuberances waving around.

The Axons arrive on Earth claiming to be benevolent aliens but when you look below the surface they are actually a kind of vampire wanting to suck the Earth dry of all it's energy. This has some devastating effects on the people they touch and we get some really cool effects where we see people disintegrating before our very eyes including a poor homeless man, Pig Bin Josh. If ever there was a character crying out for his own action figure then it's Pig Bin Josh.

Speaking of characters requiring an action figure I simply couldn't not mention Bill Filer, an American intelligence agent sent to help UNIT in their search for the Master. After being kidnapped by the Axons, learning of all their plans and then escaping we get some hilarious scenes of Filer unconscious in a hospital bed whilst spouting exposition in a feverish state. "Must warn them...it's the Master....Axonite dangerous....must not distribute....must not distribute!!" Haha! Brilliant! He also has some of the best hair in the series...how can you not love this guy:

By the end of the story we are led to believe that the Doctor and the Master have allied themselves with each other in order to escape the Earth before the Axons take over. It very well played and as we still do not know the third Doctor all that well and we know of his desperation to get his TARDIS working again so that he can leave the Earth, it does seem believeable that he might just scarper! Of course he doesn't betray us all and he traps the Axons in a time loop but not before the Master escapes. I'm sure he'll be back...Probably in the very next story!

Colony In Space

This picture confuses me. Why is the Doctor about to whack a savage in the back of the head?? Seems a bit unsportly of him!

The Doctor finally gets to escape the Earth, albeit for a limited time and on a mission for the Time Lords. Jo gets her first look around the TARDIS just as the Time Lords take control and send the Doctor and Jo off to Uxarieus. The Time Lords believe that the Master has located a doomsday weapon there and therefore need the Doctor to stop him.

Soon we meet a group of Earth colonists who are struggling to survive, not aided by the fact that they are being terrorised by a giant monster. What I found quite exciting was that one of the colonists was played by a very young Helen Worth (Gail Platt from Corrie!). She's brilliant!

After investigating the monsters appeareances the Doctor soon realises that it is merely a tool being used by a mining company who wish to scare the colonists away in order to give them unlimited access to the planet.

The third party in all these affairs are the original inhabitants of the planet (the ones shown above that the Doctor is inexplicable karate chopping!). These are the guys who have created the Doomsday weapon capable of wiping out entire stars! Eat your heart out Death Star!

The stage is set for one of those stories I quite like where there are good guys and bad guys to be found on all sides and the poor Doctor is in the middle trying to broker a peace. This story is no where near as good as some of the other stories of this kind such as The Silurians but it's not bad.

Things get moving later on when, incapable of agreeing, the humans send for an ajudicator from Earth. Unfortunately when he arrives the Doctor recognises him as the Master! (again!!)

All in all a pretty good story but it's not one that I'd cry out to watch again in a hurry.

The Daemons

And so season 8 came to a close with a story I was really looking forward to watching as it had a great reputation and I had never seen it before. Luckily it was released on DVD just in time for me to watch it for my quest.

The Master is back (sigh) and this time he is masquerading as a vicar in the tiny village of Devil's End (nice name!)

There is an archilogical dig going on which the Doctor is watching on television back at UNIT HQ. Soon strange things start to happen so the Doctor dashes off to investigate.

One of the most striking images from this story was the arrival of Yates and Benton (two of the main UNIT officers that I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned yet!) via helicopter. Upon looking down at the fields they are flying over they see huge foot prints in the ground left by some mighty beast. It’s a pretty cool effect.

It’s nice to see Benton and Yates in civilian clothing and pottering around the picturesque village whilst investigating the strange goings on.

The Brigadier arrives late on the scene and is cut off from the village by a strange forcefield that surrounds the village. The scenes of objects interacting with the forcefield, such as the Brigadiers baton exploding are really well done and I remember being surprised at how effective the effects were.

To be honest I can’t remember a whole lot more about this story which is a shame, I remember being slightly disappointed which was probably due to the fact that it had been really hyped up for me as being one of the best. There are some good scenes such as Benton blowing up the church, which I believe actually led to complaints from viewers who thought the BBC had actually blown up a church when it was really just a model shot!

This needs a re-watch I think. The problem being that with watching one episode every day I never really get the chance to catch up with the older ones and by the time the quest is finished I may never want to watch another Doctor Who for the rest of my life!

 

Season 8 was over....

 

The timing between these blogs is getting longer and longer but I'm getting there. This is more painful than sitting through some of the episodes! Maybe I should write a blog about my challenge of writing a blog!