What a glorious mess!
The tone is actually very good.
The feeling is sparse, empty, lonely. There are scene setting scenes which serve to make Gallifrey seem to be 'on the top of a high mountain' or something.
John Arnatt as Borusa and, to a lesser extent, Milton Johns as Kelner are the apparatchiks of a corrupt, useless, fossilised bureaucracy.
Hilary Ryan is good as Rodan at the start but suffers from being crowded out as the narrative gathers a crowd (of guards, Shobogans and other Time Lords) in ep4,5,6.
The actual plot is exciting and fast paced but is entirely inexplicable and unexplained. Sure the Doctor's aim is duplicitous. He's tricking the Vardans all along. And then the Sontarans seem to trick 'em both. And it all serves as a direct challenge to the viewer (whether casual or deep dive fan) which strains the credulity to the limit.
But why? There's not even a line (even "...anarchy for Gallifrey, is coming someday") which suggests why this particular strategy is ideal, better or even mildly advantageous. And that makes the story so hollow.
Whatever the lack of logic behind the strategy is, morally it's appalling considering the consequential, indiscriminate loss of life.
By the last two eps this is even worse. The plot in ep5&6 is basically Sontarans chase the good guys for this new Maguffin, the Great key.. referred to earlier in ep2 in a throwaway line but otherwise pointless and never heard of again..
In both last 2 eps there are several scenes which seem to lack basic continuity with those around them. The script is a mess with corny, boring lines and made-up maguffin-ey "fiddle about with the shields" rubbish which seems to serve no other purpose than to pad out time.
The conclusion is just bizarrely silly. Stor's 'fission' grenade which threatens to destroy an entire galaxy is one (dopey) thing but the scene before the Sontaran leader decides to give up, commit hara-kiri and take everyone and everything with him, they had just made some progress by switching off the interference inhibiting their tracker technology. So a development followed by... let's cut to a stupid confrontation. And Doctor uses a super ray gun... to destroy just one Sontaran and then (by magic?) he gets amnesia.... then Leela decides to give up trying by marrying the first guard guy she meets..... The last two eps lose this half a point and that's generous. The end of ep6 is pretty lame.
Tom's performance has changed markedly over the course of this series. He is barely recognisable since the serious dramatic Mr Grumpity of Horror of Fang Rock. He looks frustrated. As if someone is forced to tell him to 'just shutup and say the lines, Tom' on a daily basis.
Leela bows out in a ridiculous move that rivals Dodo's exit for carelessness. Any excuse to stay would have been better than romance with Andred (as played by the very gay Chris Tranchell.) How about a job offer from Rodan's boss? Or a Shobogan kidnap? Or the CIA recruit her as a security consultant? At least any of those would have a shred of credibility.
Louise Jameson is very professional actor who made a damned good fist of some atrocious writing especially in the second year. Like Elisabeth Sladen she missed out on a genre career. Unlike Elisabeth she did go on to regular roles in other big TV shows (Tenko, The Omega Factor, Bergerac, Eastenders, Doc Martin )
She has personal achievement on her resume as well. Her volunteer job as a prison visitor and her part in the reform of Les Grantham (Kiston in Resurrection of the Daleks) is little short of heroic. At Christmas 1986, an alltime record UK TV audience (30.15 million) watched Les as Den Watts in Eastenders serve divorce papers on Angie Watts. There is a movie in that guy's life too.
Anyhow.... beware the Black Guardian....beware.
ABM Rating 2.02/4.00
LJM Rating 2.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 4.70/10
No. 82 (out of 97)
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