The Tiger Who Came To Tea: Time-Flight

MAW Holmes@MAW_H If Doctor Who lasts for a thousand years, people are unlikely to say "This was their finest hour and a half"!

Chris@KosmicKris This tale must be viewed in context: when I was 10, Doctor Who AND Concorde in the same show was perfection!

It actually must have been quite a coup to get the co-operation of BA etc. - the equivalent of the Navy in the Sea Devils?

50dw50@50dw50 as a whiskerless youth me and my friend Colin Holmes adored this and we were still on an Earthshock high!

Chris@KosmicKris sadly, it had an advanced case of Grimwade’s Syndrome - if only we’d known more about that complaint in 1982!

MAW Holmes@MAW_H To be fair, at the time, episode one was a bit of a corker.

I miss Concorde. Never went on it, like. But I miss knowing it's around.

Chris@KosmicKris it was very small - and didn’t have first class!

Cut back to flight control man in BBC cupboard...

BA are terribly posh in this, aren't they?

Concorde fades away... oh dear! This is the *real* reason Concorde had to be decommissioned - they kept travelling back in time.

We pick up with the TARDIS crew having returned Lt. Scott and the survivors of the freighter to Earth, and the Cyber fleet dispersed following the cataclysmic events of the previous story.

So here we go... Boo hoo, Adric's dead... (pause). And now on to this week's exciting adventure!

50dw50@50dw50 "our best friend is dead.. oh well moving on..."

Chris@KosmicKris there’s your story arc, right there!

I mean, they do address it, but it's such a weak line of argument from the Doctor that you think he just doesn't want to go back for Adric, and one hissy fit from the TARDIS later and they're acting like nothing happened.

Mark Walker@Mark_Walker he's finally got rid of him, so just makes any old fluff up to not go back!

That's Heathrow Airport - quick dump Tegan too! The Doctor's on a roll with companion-ditching.

"Doctor, you've done it again!" Wah-wah-waaaahhhh.

50dw50@50dw50 jolly banter (best friend still dead).

The TARDIS relocates to just inside the terminal.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Oh look, all of these aircrew have got proper uniforms. Are you sure that you're a REAL air hostess person, Tegan?

It's only Mouth On Legs Airways that have those Primani uniforms...

"I don't know what English cricket is coming to!" What year have they landed in, again?

50dw50@50dw50 all of them for the past 35 years

The whole of Heathrow is run out of a slightly larger BBC cupboard.

Peter Cellier in a bit part as the head of security; always brilliant as a rival to Sir Humphrey in Yes, Prime Minister.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H [UNIT klaxon!]

Lovely name-drop for the Brigadier, there.

50dw50@50dw50 fans moan about Dr Who using his UNIT credentials but i think its a great idea, he should have done in more.

just one step of logic away from the psychic paper really; a perfectly functional storytelling shortcut, but one best avoided lest he just become "Doctor Who: Agent of UNIT", I suppose.

This Victor Foxtrot guy's a right awkward so and so.

Concorde is a glorified prop in some scenes, admittedly, but the stock footage is lovely.

Have to say these film sequences have been beautifully restored.

50dw50@50dw50 they were lucky with the snow, gives it a distinctive look.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Time-Flight does have its moments (for a while at least).

Steve Powner@StevePowner The first episode of Time-Flight is very good I remember enjoying the story when I saw it in 1982 Peter Davison is great

Lovely music on this from Roger Limb. I love pretty much all the soundtracks of this era. Distinctive.

Chris@KosmicKris the one decision of the JNT era that was unquestionably correct was using the Radiophonic Workshop! Adore these soundtracks.

It's a common view that Davison is one of the best actors to play the part of the Doctor and he's never less than watchable, to the extent of making bad scripts bearable but he doesn't have Tom's knack of dashing off technobabble without it sounding like a boring list.

Nifty little bit this as the Doctor flips the interior dimension so that even though the TARDIS is on its' side the control room is the right way up.

Sure enough, the Concorde starts to slip back through time...

But if they've travelled back in time, who's that on the radio?

Something's not right - the Heathrow control tower has lost them, but Captain Stapley thinks they're coming into land...

"That's why this tree doth continue to be since observed by yours faithfully, God."

Nyssa has an horrific vision...

...and by persuading them all to concentrate, the Doctor attempts to dispel the illusion.

CSO'd video footage on a film background. Urgh. Maybe an indication of how it's all not real? Being generous?

50dw50@50dw50 i love the Concorde crew, as camp as tits and really fun to watch.

Sure enough, they're not at Heathrow, or rather they are, but some 65 million years earlier than expected. Now that's efficiency.

"It's times like this I wish I still had my scarf." Davison's always a witty ad-libber, though! :-)

When Tegan sees the first Concorde, Victor Foxtrot, the gang go rushing off, against the Doctor's better judgement.

A mysterious magician chunners incantations to himself. Probably an insignificant friendly local, who just happens to be spying on them through a magic globe.

The time travellers see an intriguing building in the distance, not far from a crashed spaceship, but suddenly Nyssa's spidey-sense/satnav is telling her where to go...

The crew and passengers of Victor Foxtrot are put to work by the mysterious magician, to recover the unguarded TARDIS for him.

The crew almost slip back under the magician's spell when they "see" a fake motorway...

...while the Doctor and Tegan inspect the site of the spaceship crash.

It's the crew of the first Concorde, nicking the TARDIS! They seem a bit, y'know, hypnotised...

"The Captain wants us to try that new Indonesian restaurant he's found." Do they serve Stegosaurus steaks?

Nyssa and Stapley watch helplessly as Bilton and Scobie are whisked away by figures that form out of bubbles and then dissipate into a cloud!

As the Doctor and Tegan turn up, the magician has his abducto-cloud at full tilt...

...so just when the Doctor determines to get to the bottom of things he's grabbed by some materialising Fairy Liquid blob-men! Average day for him.

Kalid must be Nanette Newman in disguise!

Ah, actually, Kalid seems to be played by some chap called Leon Ny Taiy. Never heard of 'im.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H by this stage we were checking the Radio Times for Tony Ainley anagrams each week anyway...

The Fairy Liquid whispers sweet nothings to the Doctor.

50dw50@50dw50 At least he'll have clean ears. The bubbles are brilliant, a monster that kids can cheaply recreate! the manufacturers of Matey should have embraced the idea!

"Oh, you mean the Plasmatons?" "No, I mean those blobs of Fairy Liquid."

50dw50@50dw50 it is fabulously entertaining watching the Concorde crew trying (and failing) to keep a straight face.

They encounter a passenger from the first Time-Flight who's resisted the illusion; Prof. Hayter thinks they're in Russia, though.

Chris@KosmicKris University of Darlington indeed!

The captured crew start to succumb to Kalid's hypnotism.

Kalid may have got his hands on the TARDIS but is surprised to find he can't just open the door...

Nyssa's having a funny turn. Her voice has gone all deep & she's referring to herself as "we." Possessed by Thatcher?

Feel like I'm doing quite well with the 80s references today :-P

50dw50@50dw50 Nyssa about to become... interesting? sorry, silly idea!

It seems that an intelligence of some sort is trying to contact them, but there's something trying to stop it too...

Chris@KosmicKris sounds like the script #ziiing

MAW Holmes@MAW_H "intelligence" (chokes on his coffee)

I didn't say it was great...

MAW Holmes@MAW_H I was thinking more about the script... ;-)

I refer you to my previous answer... ;-P

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Still, you know, Clara will sort it...

As the Doctor, Stapley and Hayter leave Tegan guarding Nyssa's bubble bath, they make their way into the ancient structure...

Hayter's scepticism might start to get annoying if he doesn't rein it in a bit.

Tegan shouts at Nyssa for taking ages in her bubble bath.

The others find the passengers and crew attempting to break into a curious structure at the citadel's heart...

...but the Doctor's more interested in a secret passage, which leads him to the sinister Magician, Kalid.

Chris@KosmicKris Davison’s performance in this scene is an absolute hoot!

"You say that as if you expect a round of applause."

"Well, it'd be nice..."

On some level the Doctor does seem to know who Kalid is really.

He gives Kalid short shrift.

While Nyssa starts to give vague consideration to getting out of her psychic bath...

...Kalid lets the Doctor have a sneaky look.

Then they spy on Hayter...

...who tries to break the conditioning of the crew. "The bar will be open as soon as we're airborne."

Chris@KosmicKris Ainley is giving a proper panto turn here! Frankly, the only way to deal with this script I think!

Nyssa needs a lie down after her strenuous bubble bath.

The Plasmatons arrive to nab the Concorde crew...

...so Kalid can use them as leverage.

The Doctor turns down 50 Shadas of Grey Blobs: "I've always found domination such an unattractive prospect."

Tim@parks8472 A line that fits this incarnation so much more than the others

Nyssa's had a psychic invitation to the citadel.

Kalid starts to get fidgety as they make their way to the "inner sanctum"...

Ghost Adric! Terrifying!

"If you advance, you'll kill me!" Nyssa & Tegan don't need telling twice.

It doesn't seem to be Kalid creating the psychic projections, though he's willing them to resist Tegan and Nyssa.

And...er... Melkur? I get that that means something to Nyssa, but really shouldn't it be the Master himself she sees?

Nice to see the Terileptils get a spin.

They arrive inside the structure the passengers have thus far failed to dent.

Kalid threatens Stapley & crew with a double-headed snake hand-puppet thing unless the Doctor hands over the TARDIS key! Erm, okay, then.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Double Emu! The (other) scourge of the 70s...!

50dw50@50dw50 Emu and the Deadly Dustbins gave me nightmares as a child!

Chris@KosmicKris there’s never been much of a clamour for a return of the plasmatrons has there?

Give it time...!

Nyssa gets the urge to smash something. It's always the quiet ones.

Her interference does for the double-snake and knocks Kalid for six.

Quite a few stories could do with a Hayter to call shenanigans, but he is a bit of a bore.

Chris@KosmicKris Peter Davison nicely encapsulating the mood of the story “I don’t understand”

But what's this? Someone emerging from the snotty mess of the "dying" Kalid...?

Guess what? It was only the Master the whole time!

Wait... *why* was he dressed up as Kalid?

Jason McLaughlin@jangomac72 He recently watched the Arabian Knights cartoon on Saturday morning TV and wanted to play dress up??

Most plausible explanation yet!

Someone, somewhere, (Saward probably) should have sorted this mess out before it got off the page... The Jurassic wasteland set, the physical and washing-up Plasmatons; they're all end-of-season-no-budget rubbish.

50dw50@50dw50 he now blames JNT (surprise surprise)

Guess to be fair he was always going to be stuck with *something* that involved Concorde. It's the Jurassic setting that's the fail.

50dw50@50dw50 if they knew they had no money they should have curtailed the ambition i guess

Exactly.

50dw50@50dw50 has to be said Timeflight may be terrible but its never boring and it is great fun and far better than anything in series 20.

Nah, I'd have to say the vast majority of season 20 rises above the level of this story, even if not by much.

The Master is planning to harness whatever power's inside the sanctum to revive his TARDIS.

Seems he knackered it escaping from Castrovalva.

At this stage they're still (half) bothering to give an explanation of how he escaped death last time out.

The Doctor realizes the Master has been cannibalizing his own TARDIS to attempt to break into the 'sanctum', and this is why he needs the Doctor's.

With the Master off in pursuance of his prize, the Doctor and the Concorde crew set about rescuing Tegan and Nyssa.

Something in the sanctum starts to stir, and it isn't Tegan or Nyssa...

"Have you any idea where the sanctum is?"

"What about behind that wall?"

"Oh yeah."

"I'll say one thing, Doctor. For some of them it'll be the first day's honest work they've done in their lives." Best line so far, as Hayter totally burns the bourgeois Concorde passengers.

Stapley & Bilton sneak into the TARDIS while the Master faffs with techno bobbins.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Is that the disco hobbit?

50dw50@50dw50 The TARDIS console hardly has any buttons on it at this time, it cannot be that difficult!

"Incredible!" says Angela, in a tone of voice that suggests this sort of thing happens to her *all the time*.

With the Master diddling the TARDIS this has gone from ripping off the Faceless Ones to The Claws of Axos.

The Doctor starts to get to grips with the Master's TARDIS, much to Hayter's indifference.

Inside the sanctum, the Doctor and Hayter manage to rouse Nyssa and Tegan.

Hayter's interest is piqued by the living intelligence at the heart of the sanctum...

...but the group find that they've been sealed in.

It does seem the Master's been here before...

The "power" needs to absorb a living being as a conduit to be reborn, and it seems to have picked Nyssa.

...but at the last minute Hayter volunteers for absorption into the gestalt Xeraphin intelligence, unable to give up the chance of accessing all their knowledge.

50dw50@50dw50 the Prof does a great death scene, i remember finding it a bit disturbing as a kid

Having absorbed Hayter, the intelligence manifests itself as a ghostly Xeraphin...

...who explains how the Master is exploiting them, how they became a gestalt, and the Vardon/Kosnax war. Oh yeah, that.

And of course the good Xeraphin, Anithon, has an evil twin, Zarak. It's the psychic projections of this couple of numpties that were simultaneously aiding and repelling them earlier.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H probability a reflection of the Doctor/Master relationship, or something

Mark Walker@Mark_Walker there's always an evil twin!

The Xeraphin are a big part of the problem with this story. It's so *incredibly* hard to give a monkey's.

According to the production subtitles, Angela's never seen again after going in the Master's TARDIS. She's still in there! To this day, she's still in there! Crikey, that's the spin-off no-one saw coming. Judging by the way she's so blase about it all, she's just travelling round time for herself, serving drinks & peanuts.

It seems the evil half of the Xeraphin has the upper hand, as it answers the Master's call to the heart of his TARDIS...

"It means the Master has finally defeated me!" Pull the other one!

Typical Davison-era end of part 3: "Oh noes, villain of the week am winning!" (see also... the very next story).

Chris@KosmicKris to be fair to Peter, he managed to say that without a yawn or a wink to the camera!

They're just going to have to force their way out.

The Master shepherds the passengers aboard is TARDIS, where Angela is waiting with hot towels and outrageously priced spirits.

The world and his wife have the ability to pilot the TARDIS by this point in 80s Who.

Though Stapley and Bilton get an unexpected helping hand...

...to rescue the Doctor and his companions from the sanctum.

It seems the good Xeraphin still has some influence after all.

The Concorde crew get to be quite clever here, working out how to take off without a runway.

But they're still too thick to spot that the other Concorde seems to have no damage whatsoever, and is in fact the Master's TARDIS.

Turns out the reason the Master wants a word is that his TARDIS isn't working properly thanks to Stapley's earlier jiggery pokery.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H "I'll swap you my squibbly wobbly converter for your deus ex machina thingummy..."

Is the temporal limiter what turns the lights off when it gets to 10pm?

When the Doctor thought Nyssa nd Tegan had sabotaged the TARDIS he was ready to give a lecture, but when it turns out it was Stapley's bright idea everything's cool.

Double standards or what!

Mark Walker@Mark_Walker and a Concorde pilot was able to switch around components from a super advanced time-machine! LOL!

MAW Holmes@MAW_H "I am looking for the 'autopilot' button... which is, essentially, what my job is...

The Master takes the deal and releases the hostages.

The Master's TARDIS might not be fully operational yet, but he's almost ready to wreak havoc in the future once more...

The Doctor now has a race against time on his hands.

To run in his 'new' TARDIS the Master will have to travel back along the time contour to Heathrow in the 1980s, where he could destroy the world!

Not that anyone living in Thatcher's Britain would notice much difference.

"Doctor, how are you going to deal with the Master?"

"Sorry, I fell asleep."

"Tell the Doctor I am impatient to leave this place!" Aren't we all, mate.

The exchange is made and the clock starts ticking.

Tegan gets to be an air hostess for the one and only time.

Don't know what she did for a living after being sacked but the next time we see her after this story she's in Amsterdam. Just sayin'.

After a bumpy takeoff...

...they're on the way home.

Now the TARDIS can get get a headstart while the Concorde returns along the time contour to the present.

More great stock footage of the star of the story here as the TARDIS dematerializes...

Meanwhile, back in the BBC Cupboard, I mean Heathrow Air Traffic Control...

As the Master's TARDIS is just running in, the Doctor's arrives first...

...in time to see the Concorde land safely.

Tegan wanders off for a bit of wistful sightseeing...

...while the Doctor prepares for the Master's arrival...

...and bowls him a googly, knocking back to Xeraphas!

"He's stuck on Xeraphas?" "Yes, let's hope it's for good, or at least until his annual appearance next season."

The controller just thinks the Concorde crew are all pissed. Again.

A security snafu later and the Doctor and Nyssa are scarpering so hastily they don't realize that Tegan intended to come with them even after spending the last 6 stories whinging about wanting to go home.