Days 603 to 606 - Enlightenment

And so the Black Guardian trilogy ends with this four part adventure - Enlightenment. A story worthy of the new series for it's sheer ambition!

The story starts simply enough. The Doctor believes they have landed in the hold of an old Edwardian sailing yacht after receiving a cryptic message from the White Guardian that "the winner takes all". We soon begin to see that things are not quite as they seem as the Doctor, Turlough and Tegan come across various items that appear to be anachronistic to the time period they believe that they are in. Things soon become clear at the breathtaking cliffhanger to episode one when the view screen is revealed and instead of seeing the ocean we discover that the yacht is sailing through space along with a varying assortment of other ships, all from different periods in Earth's history, including a viking ship and a pirate ship.

This DVD came with two versions. The original as transmitted version and a special edition where new effects were used and the four episodes edited down into a feature length version. As I needed to watch one episode a day, the feature length version was clearly not an option for me. However I enjoyed this story so much that as soon as I'd finished episode four, I sat down and watched the feature length version too!

The ships are being crewed by mainly kidnapped people from Earth but the officers are from a race known as the Eternals who exist outside of time and space. Such is their omnipotence that they are astonished when the Doctor reveals himself as a Time Lord that there "can be Lords of such a small domain". They are racing their ships in order to gain the prize of Enlightenment.

The Eternals are an interesting race, they are not evil, but not necessarily nice either. They treat the crew of their ships well but never really have any regard for human life. When the viking ship is destroyed, Tegan is distraught to have witnessed so many deaths. The Eternal, Mariner, tries to reassure her that they did not die but were transported back to the home world. When Tegan enquires further however it becomes clear that he is only referring to the officers of the ships, who like him are Eternals, the human crew were killed but "they live such short lives anyway". He cannot seem to grasp why Tegan is upset.

After being tormented by the Black Guardian once again, Turlough jumps overboard into the emptiness of space in an apparent suicide attempt. It's not often that a cliffhanger comes from the attempted suicide of a companion! Fortunately he is rescued by the Buccaneer, the pirate ship, headed by the villainous Captain Wrack who is trying to destroy the other ships.

Finally as the Doctor and Turlough fly the now captured pirate ship across the finish line, Turlough is offered a glowing crystal which he is told is enlightenment. The Black Guardian appears to tell Turlough that he can take the crystal only if he completes his mission and kills the Doctor. After some soul searching, Turlough smashes the crystal into the Black Guardian who vanishes in a blaze of fire. The White Guardian then goes on to explain that "the crystal wasn't Enlightenment, Enlightenment was the choice"

Overall the Black Guardian trilogy has a fantastic start and end but with a bloody awful bit in the middle.

Days 599 to 602 - Terminus

What can I say about Terminus? Not much except I don't think I've been so bored in my life! Well...maybe as bored as I was at Warriors Gate...and The Web Planet..oh who am I kidding! Doctor Who is great, most of the time. But when it's bad, it can be really bad!! This is one of those examples I'm afraid.

I can't really tell you what happened, I was only vaguely aware that pictures were moving on the television and sound was coming out of it.

So the TARDIS merges with another ship (I think) where some people with a terrible disease are being transported to a space station called Terminus which just happens to be at the centre of the universe. Here they hope to be cured but really they are pretty much being sent there to die.

God knows, what that dog thing is in the picture above! I think he was called the Garm, maybe. But I have no idea what his function was on Terminus.

The Doctor discovers that at some point Terminus has travelled back in time and one of  it's engines exploded which was the Big Bang that created the universe and flung Terminus back into the future. Now one of the other engines looks like it will also explode which will spell the end of the universe. This at least explains why Terminus is at the exact centre of the universe as Terminus created the universe

Meanwhile Nyssa contracts the disease and starts stripping her clothes off for some reason. Tegan and Turlough spend a good chunk of the story crawling through an underfloor grating system.

Eventually things resolve themselves (skipping to the end now because I'm boring myself thinking of it all again) and Nyssa decides to stay behind to help the diseased people. Goodbye Nyssa, you deserved a much better farewell story than this utter crap!

Days 595 to 598 - Mawdryn Undead

This is the beginning of a trilogy of stories known as The Black Guardian Trilogy in which the Black Guardian returns to seek revenge against the Doctor for thwarting his plans to steal the Key to Time. This time the Black Guardian uses the help of a young alien trapped on Earth and posing as a public school boy...I'm not really sure why but this is Turlough's first appearance in the series as the new companion...a companion who is working for the Black Guardian and trying to kill the Doctor...well it's different I suppose.

The return of the Black Guardian is exciting but it's nowhere near as exciting as another return for the series. The Brigadier is back!! I love the Brigadier!

When we first meet the Brigadier (now retired and working as a school teacher), he has no memory of the Doctor or the TARDIS but does remember his days working at UNIT. It's during a conversation in his cottage, when the Doctor casually brings up his old assistant, Jo Grant, that we see the first fleeting memories sweep through the Brigadier's mind. After further mentions of both Liz Shaw and Sarah Jane Smith, we are treated to an absolutely brilliant flashback sequence where the Brigadier remembers all his times with the Doctor. This is accompanied by some fantastic music too, it gave me goosebumps!

For a series about a man who can travel in time, the classic series of Doctor Who very rarely meddles in the effects of time travel. This story is one exception as we have the Doctor trapped in 1983 without his TARDIS and Nyssa and Tegan in 1977. Here, Nyssa and Tegan meet a younger version of the Brigadier. Two Brigadiers for the price of one! It's a testament to the acting ability of Nicholas Courtney that we can sense some distinct differences between the older and younger versions of his character.

Anyway the basic plot revolves around a race of beings who have tried to replicate the Time Lords ability to regenerate by stealing technology from Gallifrey. These experiment have caused terrible mutations and left them in a state of perpetual torment, never dying. They therefore need the Doctor's help to help them to die! Sounds grizzly. Whilst all this is going on, poor Turlough is going through his own problems as he is constantly tormented by visions of the Black Guardian demanding that he kill the Doctor! Turlough is a pretty good companion. Male companions are few and far between in the series so its nice when one comes along..in fact I think you could argue that Turlough is the last male companion until Rory comes along in 2010!

This story is great from start to finish. It does lag a bit in episode 4 but I can forgive it that.

The plan for the end.."from Gallifrey to Trenzalore"

Well I am now just over two thirds of my way through "the quest" and less than a year to go until the end and as such I have been putting some thought into what I should do to celebrate the completion of the challenge.

Now bear with me because I'm trying to justify myself on something here...

I always knew that the challenge would reach it's end sometime around May 2014 when I finally ran out of episodes to watch. It turns out that this has been pretty well timed. Currently we have the 50th anniversary episode which will be broadcast on 23/11/2013 and then the Christmas special being broadcast (surprisingly!) on 25/12/2013 which will see Matt Smith bow out of the series. The next season then won't start until sometime in Autumn 2014 by which time the challenge will be over. This means that my final episode, being watched in May 2014 will be the Christmas special from this year which is actually pretty awesome as I'll be ending on a regeneration story and so it will feel like a proper end to the challenge!

As things currently stand, that would have taken me to 904 days and an end point of 14th May 2014 which is a Wednesday! I wasn't happy about this as ideally I would prefer that the challenge ended on a Saturday allowing for a celebration party with friends (yes, I have friends believe it or not!!) on the last day. With this is mind I set myself the further challenge of trying to either extend or reduce the challenge to get it to end on a Saturday WITHOUT feeling like I cheated! So this is what I did:

First of all I thought it would make sense to REDUCE the challenge length to the previous Saturday meaning I would end on Day 900 exactly! I thought this was pretty awesome. The reason I am explaining all this is so that the people who have sponsored my challenge will hopefully agree I've not cheated! To remove 4 days from my challenge was actually quite simple. First of all, an upcoming story called Resurrection Of The Daleks is included as a 4 part story on the DVD but was actually broadcast as 2 long episodes. By watching the story as broadcast then that was 2 days knocked off straight away. This next bit is the sort of "cheaty" bit...

The Sarah Jane Adventures spin off are made up of 2 part stories. Therefore for the first and last story of this series I will watch both episodes of that story on the same day, knocking the other days off. This feels a little bit like cheating but I think I can get away with it as it's the spin off rather than the main show and they are all 2 part stories.

So there we go, the last day of my challenge will be Day 900 which is Saturday 10th May 2014! Hopefully people will join me for a celebration. For those people who don't like Doctor Who (you crazy fools!) then don't worry, it will most likely be kept to a minimum. I think it would be cool if we watched the very first episode from Day 1 of my challenge followed by the final episode on Day 900. That will most likely add up to about an hour and a half of Doctor Who. Then my journey will be complete...from Gallifrey to Trenzalore.

Days 591 to 594 - Snakedance

Poor Tegan has only just rejoined the TARDIS and she is once again being possessed by the Mara! Why the hell did she want to come back??

So this is the second of the two Mara stories and I think I prefer this one to Kinda as it's just much more understandable. I think Kinda has hidden depths which would benefit from repeated viewing but Snakedance is a much more chilled out episode to watch and you don't have to think too hard.

This story also marks the first television appearance of Martin Clunes. He's brilliant in this, stealing every scene he is in.

The story is set on a planet where the Mara was defeated hundreds of years ago and the story of it has passed into legend such that it is now seen as bit of a joke. This is demonstrated by such things as people playing with toy snakes and snakes being represented as figures of fun in a "Punch and Judy" type show. Therefore when the Doctor turns up and tries to warn the local people of the Mara's imminent return, he is not taken at all seriously and is thought of as raving mad man!

Meanwhile the Doctor is trying to protect Tegan from being possessed by the Mara by making her wear what looks suspiciously like an iPod! An iPod in 1983! Of course it doesn't work and she is soon causing chaos with the familiar shape of the snake like Mara imprinted on her arm.

Can't think what more I can say about this one really, except that I really enjoyed it.

Days 587 to 590 - Arc Of Infinity

Omega is back! And he looks nothing like he did in The Three Doctor, he looks like crap! Oh well..

This is season 20. Another big year and one which see the return of this "iconic" villain who was last seen 10 years previously.

I must say I enjoyed this story more this time around than I usually do. In the past I have found the plot difficult to grasp but I think I finally understand it now. It's not even that complicated really.

Basically Omega is once again trying to emerge into our universe to escape his isolation in the universe of antimatter. To escape he is using the help of a rebel Time Lord who has given Omega access to the Doctor's bio data allowing him to merge with the Doctor's body. Knowing the danger of this anti matter creature emerging into our own universe the Time Lords will stop at nothing to prevent it, which unfortunately means the execution of the Doctor to prevent the transfer from being completed.

As well as the return of Omega, we get another return for the show, this one from not so long ago. It's Tegan! She's back! Having quit her job she accidentally stumbles back into the Doctor's world when she goes to visit her cousin in Amsterdam who unfortunately has become one of Omega's first victims. Tegan's family really do come off badly from her association with the Doctor. First her aunt is miniaturised by the Master and now her cousin has been hypnotised and is being forced to work as a slave for Omega!

As mentioned above we get some scenes filmed outside of the UK for the first time in a while, this time in Amsterdam. It's nice to see some action outside of the UK but at the same time it doesn't really seem to work as well as it did in City Of Death. The location work in Amsterdam feels a little tacked on and there doesn't seem to be any real reason as to why the story should be set there. Part four of the story is pretty much one long chase scene as the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan chase Omega through the streets of Amsterdam. The chase seems to go on for ages and it's clearly just the production team trying to make the most out of the fact that they are filming overseas.

For the first three parts of the story, the majority of the action takes place on Gallifrey where we meet some familiar Time Lords again. Borusa is back, this time played by yet another actor. This "regeneration" is acknowledged on screen but I can't help but wonder how accident prone Borusa must be to be getting through so many bodies!

The head of the Time Lord security, Commander Maxil is played by yet another familiar face, but this one is a face from the future of the show. It's Colin Baker, the sixth Doctor himself! In the scene where he captures and shoots the Doctor, I like to think it's Colin already after Peter Davison's job!

Finally I have to say my very favourite part of this story happens right at the very end as Tegan reveals the news that she is free to rejoin the Doctor on his travels. We see the Doctor give an uneasy smile which slowly slips away just as the closing credit roll. I'm sorry Doctor. The gobby Australian is back and this time it seems like she is here to stay!

Days 583 to 586 - Time-Flight

I was still reeling from the loss of my dear Adric when I began this one. Indeed Tegan asks the Doctor a question that should have occurred to me at the end of Earthshock. The Doctor has a time machine, therefore surely he can go back in time and rescue Adric from the freightor before it crashes into the Earth. The Doctor is visibly upset at being asked to do this and explains that it is impossible and there are some things the TARDIS cannot do, some time can cannot be rewritten...well either that or he's glad to see the back of the snotty little shit!

So in the latest series of Doctor Who, the eleventh Doctor tells his companion, Clara, that he once spent ages getting a gobby Australian to Heathrow airport. Well, Tegan is that gobby Australian and this is the story where she finally reaches her destination of Heathrow airport! As an air stewardess on her way to her first job she has certainly taken the scenic route to the airport!

Of course things can't be as simple as that and the Doctor arrives just in time to hear about the disappearance of a Concorde that was on it's approach to Heathrow. Recreating the exact circumastances with another Concorde, and with the TARDIS on board the Doctor discovers that they have been thrown into a time corridor which has sent them back in time to prehistoric Earth. Look out for Adric's intestines Doctor! I'm sure they must be splattered around the place somewhere!

Sitting at the heart of this time tunnel that has pulled both Concordes and the TARDIS back in time is a mysterious character who is only slightly annoying and spends the first two episodes talking gibberish and chanting. After an explosion from his machinery the character removes his mask to reveal he was the Master all the time. Now this leads me to one of my quibbles with this story. Why? Why would the Master wear a diguise and talk strangely when for pretty much all the time there is no one around to see him anyway! It makes no sense whatsoever!

Our pseudo companions for this story are the flight crew of the second Concorde headed up by the brilliant Captain Stapley. He's just brilliant the way he adapts quickly to his new surroundings and his respect for the Doctor is clear from the outset. He even manages to sort of pilot the TARDIS in one of the episodes. What a guy!

So to skip to the end of what is a pretty dull story, the Doctor traps the Master somewhere (I can't remember where and quite frankly it doesn't really matter as he's bound to escape anyway!) and gets everyone else safely back to Heathrow. As Tegan goes for a wander round, Nyssa and the Doctor depart in the TARDIS believing that Tegan now has her wish and will be glad to be eventually at Heathrow. Of couse, a woman's mind is never that simple and she arrives back in time to see the TARDIS depart revealing that she actually wanted to keep travelling in the TARDIS. Oh well, bye bye Tegan!