The final season of the classic run of Doctor Who begins very well with this excellent four part story.
As well as being a Doctor Who fan I also quite like the another BBC series "Merlin" and therfore this story was right up my street as Arthurian legend crashes into the Doctor Who universe, albeit it with a science fiction twist. All you need to know is that it seems that the legends of King Arthur were born from another dimension where such people actually existed. It's in this story that they return to Earth for the final battle over Excalibur.
It's also quite fun when the people from this other dimension recognise the Doctor as Merlin. The Doctor is yet to have this adventure yet and its one of the rare cases in the classic series where we have these moments of the Doctor discovering something about his future self.
As if this wasn't enough, the Brigadier is back!! Called out of retirement to assist the Doctor. He even brings the Doctor's old car, Bessie, back for one last spin. This would be the last time that we see the Brigadier in Doctor Who. He would make a brief appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures but this is his final story in the main show. It's a bit of a strange coincidence that I should be watching his final story now, just as his very first story from 1968 has been discovered after being lost for 45 years!
Ace gets quite a few fun things to do in this one too as she is given a mate, Shou Yuing, to play off. It's good to see Ace hanging out with people her own age and the scene where Morgane tries to turn Ace and Shou against each other is another highlight of the story.
We also see one of the best realised monsters in the classic series in the form of The Destroyer. The makeup is brilliant and I reckon they could easily get away with it in the new series. Unfortunately The Destroyer only really turns up in part four and doesn't really get much to do.
Also if I didn't know better I would have been getting some very uneasy feelings about the fate of the Brigadier. Every thing seems to be building up to his demise. Of particular to note is the touching scene where he says goodbye to his wife promising her that the will be back safe and sound. In fact I think it was an idea that was going around to kill him off and actually I think it would have worked. It would have been totally heartbreaking. But then if he was killed of here then we would have been denied the moment in The Wedding Of River Song when the eleventh Doctor hears of the passing of his old friend, but I'm getting way ahead of myself now!
No comments:
Post a Comment