Season 18 begins and we have a few fairly big changes going on. The show has a new producer, John Nathan Turner (who would produce the show from now until it's eventual axe after season 26) and with him we get a whole new look.
There's a new logo, a new version of the theme tune and new opening credits. The time tunnel effect is gone and instead we get a star field opening during the start of each episode, including a rather poor picture of Tom Baker. Fortunately Tom's picture won't be there for much longer as this was his final season in the show, the longest serving Doctor to date.
The Leisure Hive starts off with a tediously long tracking shot across a beach until we finally come to rest on a snoozing Doctor, complete with new costume and radically different scarf. You have to admire the nerve of them, messing with the Doctor's scarf.
Unfortunately the beach isn't the safest place for a tin dog and K9 has soon blown up having tried to chase a beach ball into the ocean. Not the cleverest thing to do! This was all part of John Nathan Turner's master plan to do away with the dog. As such K9 is not featured in the remainder of the story.
Deciding that Brighton beach isn't the nicest place to relax, the Doctor and Romana travel to the leisure hive of Argolis. The Argolian people were engaged in a terrible war that lasted all of 20 minutes but left their planet a devastated waste land and their people sterile. As such they intend to create the ultimate leisure hive as a gesture to the other people of the universe before they finally die out. I must say that wouldn't be one of my first priorities.
The Argolans are using a generator to project Tachyon images to...do something very complicated. I didn't get it. The series also had a new script editor, Christopher H Bidmead, who believed the show should use more real science and as such some of the fun has gone and I was just left scratching my head. This story would make a good drinking game though, take a shot every time the word "tachyon" is mentioned. You'll be pissed by the time you reach episode 2.
This story was pretty crap! But occasionally there were some pretty shocking twists that were played out pretty decently, my favourite one being the realisation that if the Argolans are truely sterile then how can the young character of Pengol exist. It's played out brilliantly because when the revolation comes you wonder how the hell you didn't spot it yourself!
Pengol is a "child of the generator" and intends to create an army of clones....and then it all gets boring again....
My verdict: Couple of good twists but pretty damn dull! It's a times like this that the quest can be a real struggle!
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