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
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