Review of The Awakening

By David Parkinson

Written by: Eric Pringle
Directed by: Michael Owen Morris
Starring: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Polly James and Denis Lill


Ah, the splendid countryside of 1980's Britain. Full of wildlife, little villages, and an alien creature who was part of an invasion force. Typical, eh? You go looking for your friends grandfather, and you end up having to fight a deranged Knighted man who has OCD when it comes to War games, and an alien semi- quasi alien machine creature thingy that feeds off of his deranged self.

Yes, it's about time Tegan caught up with her grandfather, so The Doctor brings her and Turlough to the village he's meant to reside in to find him. But, as it turns out, the crazy Sir George Hutchinson has decided to continue his precious war games, and they're getting a bit out of hand..

The time travellers are split up, and it's during this that the Doctor meets Will, seemingly from the 1600's, and things really kick off, as we get tales of winding tunnels, space probes and Terileptils, included as a reference as Eric Saward was planning to write another serial featuring them. He never did, but they did sort of return in The Pandorica Opens, as part of The Alliance.

The story gradually unfolds into something exquisite. There's plenty of great dialogue, and lots of great aspects, but the one thing that lets it down is The Malus.

The Malus is basically left well alone for a majority of the time, only coming out for about 15 minutes of the second episode. But, truth be told, he does conjure up a lot of psychic projections, so I guess I'll let him off with a warning.

The characters in this are great, to be fair. And they're, for the most part, utterly believable. I actually shouted at Sir George in anger for being so deranged and cruel.

You'll Love

• The Perfect acting
• The perfect dialogue

You'll Hate

• The Malus is sometimes a bit pointless
• The throwaway Psychic Projections who just run about then vanish

Rating: 4/5

Review of A Fix With Sontarans

By David Parkinson

Writer: Eric Saward
Director: Marcus Mortimer
Starring: Colin Baker, Janet Fielding, Gareth Jenkins, Jimmy Savile, Tim Raynham.


The Doctor's done many things. He's saved the universe countless times, restarted the Universe, defeated the Daleks, he's even broken the fourth wall. But, before this, he'd never presented a Jim'll Fix It medal. Well, now he has.

A Fix with Sontarans, like Death is The Only Answer, has many things wrong with it. One is Tegan, and no, I don't mean it that way. Tegan looks horrible in this, and I don't mean Janet Fielding is ugly, if that's what you think. No, it's that weird curtain hanging off of the back of her head that buggers me.

Then there's the famed Sontaran killer, whose name strikes anger in their hearts. His name? Gareth Jenkins. One of the most feared names in Sontaran legend, is the same name as someone you'd find working in a chip shop. Never mind the fact he seems to have a big ginormous case of stage fright, or the fact he's a crap actor, or the fact he's wearing a Sixth Doctor costume his gran made for him. No, it's the fact that he gets a flipping Sontaran gun for standing around looking scared. Mind you, with a man with a pedo coat and a woman with curtains on her head looming over you, even Daleks would be scared. The Sontaran marshall's name is.... Nathan. And, according to this, Jenkins' rise to victory is in 2001, when he defeats a Sontaran fleet, which would be an aircraft.....

Then there's the best bit: Sontarans getting violently and gorily killed. With green blood pouring out of their mouths, and their heads compressing, nothing is better in this script. Of course, Colin Baker backs away in repulse from the mug of the Late and Great Jimmy Savile, who enters the Tardis and asks the "Great Doctor" to award Gareth his medal. Awwww, Isn't that sweet? No, but it's better then the kid who asked for Gary Numan, then just sat there bored to death going round in circles, which you can see here.

You'll like

• The Sontaran Death scene
• Nothing but that bit

You'll hate

• The premise
• The ending
• The kid
• The Hair Curtains

Rating: 2.05/5